Idee originali

"Jai Shree Raam"

2011-11-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

Taking clues from the title you may be expecting a serious article on "Hinduism", Ram Janma Bhoomi issue or BJP & the politics involved. If so, you are in for a surprise because I am about to tell you a funny story from my childhood which even today makes me laugh each time I think about it. On a serious note, the incident also highlights the impact of television media on children's perceptions. The thought of writing this article came to my mind, when I went to my Buaa ji's place this Diwali and saw my nephews watching Cartoon Network showing animated versions of Indian mythological stories (Chhota Bhim, Krishna etc.)

I distinctly remember that every Sunday, Ramayan used to be aired on Doordarshan around at 10:00 am. My family used to stay in a small town called "Kurara" that time and we used to stay in a small two room set on the roof of a "Daal mill". On Sunday all workers of the mill will come to our house to watch Ramayana. My mom will ensure that we had taken a bath before 10:00 am. 10-15 minutes before the Ramayana, everyone will do a small "Aarti" in front of the black and white Onida TV set and then everyone will say in unison, "Jai Shree Raam". (A tangential thought comes to my mind that if Ramayana was never screened on Doordarshan, would Ram Janma Bhoomi Aandolan of BJP have got the same support from Hindu section of the Indian society?)

When Ramayana used to be aired, it would seem as life in the town had come to a standstill. The streets would become empty. I remember my mother used to tell me mythological stories before sleep. We used to make bows and arrows of plywood, Bamboos and used them as toys. I would play character of Laxman, another friend of mine will become Ram. We would go and hunt Ravan and Rakshas Sena (Demon Army) then. I was in class 4th then.

Once day, my mom and dad had to go somewhere for some work. I and my sister were left at home. We were given one rupee each. But the doors of the mill were closed from all the sides and we were locked inside. We had two big roofs (each around 7200 square feet big in area) at our disposal to play whatever game we wanted. But I desperately wanted to eat a toffee called "Swaad", which was very popular back then. It did not use to be sweet but had a different taste which would make your eyes pop out of their sockets and corrode the upper surface of your palate.

What do I do? I was locked. So I decided to use my lateral thinking or creativity whatever you term it as and decided to jump from the roof. The height of the roof must have been around 40 feet. It may sound suicidal now but I had a logic supporting my idea of jumping from the roof!!! At one side on the ground, there were many heaps of river sand. I thought, it will serve as enough cushion for me. My sister, who is one year younger to me, started crying as soon she figured out what I was about to do. She tried to hold me back but I was physically stronger than her, therefore her attempts were unsuccessful. As I reached near the edge to jump, I became terrified looking at the distance of the ground and decided to discard the idea of jumping and rather wait for my parents to return. But then this friend who used to play "Raam" came there and asked what I was planning to do. After hearing my he said that, "you say 'Jai Shree Raam' loudly before you jump and nothing will happen to you". I told him that it is not going to be helpful. He tried to convince me that Lord Rama will definitely protect me and for a moment I also believed him. And then as an obedient brother "Laxman" to my brother "Raam" (in this case my friend), I jumped from the roof shouting "Jai Shree Raam" loudly. I still remember the moments when I was in the air. I remember to have thought about Newton and his apple of enlightenment. And I also remember the pain after I had reached the ground on my back. As it turned out since it had rained two days ago, the sand had become hard. This was something I had not considered. Still sand served as a minor cushion and I had only minor injuries. I was lying there still for 5-6 minutes and then tried to get myself up. My back was aching but temptation of buying a "Swaad" had not ended yet. I went to the nearest shopkeeper bought a "Swaad". My nose was bleeding and the shopkeeper asked me to lie down. By then my parents had returned and my sister had told them the full story. They came running to the shopkeeper's house and then took me to a doctor.

There were only minor injuries and next day I was able to go to school. But everyone at school had come to know about my adventure in advance and I had become a common subject to mockery. When in my class my teacher asked about the incident, I had to twist the description of the incident by mentioning that my sister had pushed me by mistake and therefore I fell from the roof.

But today when I think about this incident, I think that for a moment I believed what my friend said, that Lord Rama will definitely protect me. Even today when someone asks me even if I have ever told lies in my life, I always remember about what I told to my teacher about my sister pushing me off the edge of the roof. Even while I was filling forms for some MBA entrance interviews, I thought about this story multiple numbers of times. It may sound funny today but watching "Ramayana" on Doordarshan had impacted me a great deal.

This Diwali, when I saw my two year old nephew watching mythological series on Cartoon Network (CN) in animated form, with Lord Krishna flying and fighting Demons(As I heard from my cousin who told me that they are crazy about these episodes), I wondered how it would impact him. In Doordarshan days, these demons were shown mostly in human form, though very big in size with magical powers. But now Demons were mostly in anthropomorphic form with faces of wolves etc. Animation has opened multiple possibilities in portrayal of mythological stories. I am sure with kids getting more access to television than ever; a more pronounced imagery the impact will be even more on children. I am not suggesting that they will do anything as silly as I did. It is also necessary to mention that I was also impacted in a very positive manner by the mythological stories. They were my first reference to relationships in a family, moral code of the society, perfection of a human and even politics. I am sure these children will also be impacted positively by it. But it will be interesting to see, how it helps to shape their perception about various things in life because I am hundred percent sure about one thing that It will definitely have a role in it. On the finishing note, I wonder if today's children will be subject to an information overload by television and if their perceptions about things will be more flexible than ours.

Technology & Human beings (i phone 4GS)

2011-10-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs died today !!! He was someone who has impacted our day to day life, even if many of us don't possess a Macbook, iphone,ipad or an ipod. When I heard the news, I felt that the world has lost someone who was a guiding force. I felt sorry as if I had lost someone very familiar. I opened Facebook and found out as expected that many of us felt the same way. I would be very happy and satisfied with my life, if on the last day of it, I know that I have created even 1/10000th of the impact that he has created on human life today.

Incidentally yesterday only Apple launched iphone 4GS. I had thought of writing this post prior to today's tragic news. I was watching the demo of i-phone yesterday and was awestruck to see the changes that this technology can bring to human life. I mean people can buy an omniscient & never forgetting assistant for themselves. Its like you have got a Genie for yourself. In last 10 years, the internet has impacted our lives drastically. Google has virtually precluded the need to remember anything. I think about the time when people with good memory, knowledge of things had a distinct advantage over others but that advantage has diminished in the past few years since information is everywhere spread on internet now.

This led me to thinking of the way in which human has changed because of its inventions. Our ancestors possessed great physical strength. They had to protect themselves from wild animals and had to hunt for food themselves. At that time people with higher physical strength were leaders of the group. Then the fire weapons were invented which obviated need for physical strength. Then Strategic & political skills, vision provided people edge over others. Simultaneously physical strength of average human also decreased. After further progress of Science and specially after invention of Computer importance of mental skills increased. People who possessed great intelligence got an edge over others. But because of the lack of physical activity various lifestyle diseases became prevalent. Then the Gyms became popular. People started going to gym to keep themselves fit.

I was wondering with the current invention of Apple and many such future enhanced versions need to remember, even calculate or applying logic will be obviated. For instance if I am working in Corporate Banking, my future phone will be capable of remembering various techniques, calculations that I do in my mind currently and it will do them for me. My life will become very comfortable. But with this kind of invention, we will hardly exercise our mind. Then some diseases like amnesia may become prevalent. On some day a concept of Mental gym will come in.
In these mental gyms you will possibly go after coming from work and solve a sudoku puzzle to keep your mind fit. Well, you may say that this is my wild imagination which to certain extent it actually is, I wouldn't agree though that it is impossible to happen in our lifetime.

Technology has impacted us greatly in past few years. But because of technological inventions if human capability to think diminishes, the technology itself will thwart its progress. What will that human be then? I mean the devices like iphone 4GS will become our need rather than luxuries that they are today !!! You can again say that this is a far fetched conclusion, I wouldn't disagree to that. But I am sure you will see some merit in my argument. I just wonder that the world may never remain the same after Apple iphone 4GS ;-)

Ambition Vs. Pleasure of Small things

2011-08-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

The city that never sleeps can challenge your basic belief system of life. The mad rush that starts with the ringing of the door by maid ends only at the night when you watch an episode of Friends or listen to some soft music. Sometimes this continues even in the dreams despite all the palliatives.

The last paragraph pretty much sums up my first few days at Mumbai. Coming from a middle class background and from a small city, I always derived pleasure from small things. Sometimes from a cup of Ginger tea, from the dim light of lantern when there is a power cut, from the deep silence at 11 pm in the night, from the noise of a Baraat, from the chants of Shlokas at the temple nearby, from the little drops of rain on the window pane. But city that never sleeps does not appreciate the concept of "Small". Here "Unlimited" is the best way to live.

Some people say that the city inspires you to achieve the maximum. And everyone in the city is after that "Maximum". Is this the basic nature of Human beings? Are we inherently ambitious? Or it is the effect of times that we live in?

In my opinion there is a Dichotomy in this aspect of life as well. Either a man can choose to be ambitious or he can decide to live peacefully. And the good thing is that he can be happy both ways. But if he is ambitious he should be aware of the fact that he is ambitious.

Because If one is ambitious, he will have big Goals for himself. And given average luck that most of us have, he has to work hard in life to achieve those goals. If he does not work hard enough to fulfill his desires, there will always be a dissonance in his life. He will be happy at the end of the day only when he knows that he is giving his 100% to achieve what he wants to achieve. ( That is similar to Concept of "Karma Yoga")

On the other hand one who has decided to live and enjoy the peaceful life, will nevertheless enjoy his life. But there will be sometimes a dissonance when the thought will come to his mind that he has not done enough. But that day if he is aware that this is the choice he made for himself, he can be very happy.

Therefore the most important thing in life is to hold yourself responsible for your choices and act according to your choices.

Well, this seems a Matrix (Morpheus) like statement !!! But this is a very comforting thought as fast as I am concerned. I guess, I have slowly slowly started loving this city that never sleeps. And may be some day I will be saying, "Mumbai, Meri Jaan" !!!

Silence of the Statues

2011-05-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

There are 12 of them, all pointing to different directions. Their bodies are covered with Black cloth. Their hands are tied. Their faces are covered too, and there is rope around their neck. They seem like they are there to be hanged. They are standing there in the scorching sun when the mercury in thermometer reads 49 degree Celsius. They seem to be silent. The crows are flying above their heads not realising that they are just statues. They all stand in a park. The surrounding road is very busy with people running in their mad rush. They don’t pay attention to these statues any more. They are invisible to them.

When I passed through them, I heard someone crying. I thought to myself, the heat must have got on to me. I asked the auto driver to stop there. I heard a definite sob. Who was it? Who was crying? Suddenly I saw them, 12 of them, standing there, breaking their silence. My auto-driver was shouting at me: ”Sahab 50 Rs.mein Idhar dhoop mein rukna nahee chalega”. I ignored the sob and came back to my place.

Later I found that these statues were built to represent the glory of our mother nation, India. The hard-earned money of the Indian taxpayer was wasted on them like water. There were multiple corruption scandles and many people made fortunes in the process. The end result was a case in the inefficient judicial system of India, which put a stay on inauguration of these statues. The motive behind the case filed was the struggle for political mileage between different parties of Indian political system. In a country where the eighth wonder of the world can become a reason for dispute, this was a complete non-issue.

In a far village, a child was waiting for his father to return. A case had been registered in the local Kotwali that a man, who had gone to the city to build the monument of Indian glory, was missing. Some of the other workers say that he had gone mad before he was missing one morning from their tent near the construction site. They say that he sometimes used to wake up in the night and start to utter random things. Some say that he talked about selling one of his kidneys to pay the fees of his child’s education. Some say he had died but sometimes he could be seen near those statues. Some others say that he had become one of the statues.

I again went again to that place the next day. I found that one of the statues was covered in blood. Onlookers said there was a man there in the morning crying. But I could still see a man standing there and pointing his fingers at me.

Later that night I had a dream, where the same man came to me and said," I don’t need any sympathies from you. You are also a part of the system. Because you ignored me when you could have made a difference!!!"

You must not necessarily follow !!!

2011-04-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

The packet of Wills Classic had just been finished. It was the World Environment Day. Those few, who cared about the environment were requested to switch off all the electric appliances and lights in their houses, between 8 to 9 pm. It was 8:30 pm. Pari and Rahul were sitting in the Balcony. Pari was playing guitar and Rahul was singing. For the month of June, It was a beautiful weather. It had rained some hours ago and mild breeze was blowing in the balcony. The smell of first showers was still in the atmosphere. The scene from balcony consisted of a park and many multi-storied buildings.

It was a pleasant break from their daily routines. For last some days, Rahul had started feeling that his life was empty. It was the same office, same friends, same bus, same piece of software code, same everything daily. His life of so full yet empty. He wanted something else. He felt that he was going nowhere.

The maid had not come that day. Pari had cooked Khichdi. Rahul and Pari(Paritosh) had become good friends in last 2 months, after Pari had come to the apartment as Rahul's new roommate. Rahul today wanted to cry. He wanted to tell Pari about his pain. But he had no words to describe the same. He himself did not know what was causing the pain.

After the session of Guitar and songs, Rahul and Pari had dinner together. It was 1:00 am and Rahul came back to his room to sleep. He had to wake up early in the morning. He tried to sleep but he could not. He got up and started thinking about what he really wanted to do. He wanted excitement in his life. He desperately needed a feeling that he was moving ahead in life. He thought about his career and then, in a flash thought of doing an MBA came to his mind. He rejected it completely at first. But then he mulled over it and decided to apply for the CAT coaching.

Ten months later, he got an offer letter from one of the premier Business Schools of the country. He was elated. He informed Pari about it. Pari was very happy. But he was also sad that he will loose a nice roommate who had become a very good friend. It was 8:30 pm. Pari asked Rahul to come along for a walk. They bought a cigarette on their way and went to the park nearby. Pari told Rahul about all the Booze parties and life style in the premier Business Schools of the country. He said, "Fod dena Dost". Rahul and Pari came to their apartment and then they had a Guitar session at the balcony.

Some days later, the day came when Rahul was leaving the apartment. Pari came to his room and wrote on his his wall with paint, "You must Follow". He said to Rahul that he would like others also to find out what they really wanted to do in their life and move ahead. Rahul told Pari that that was the lucky room of the apartment and everyone who stayed there, moved to a better place in his life. He jokingly suggested Pari that he should shift to that room. Pari said that he was happy with his life and he had all what he want. Then they bid good bye to each other.

Two years later, Rahul had completed his MBA. He went back and met Pari. He found that Pari was almost the same as before. That night they played Guitar. They went for a walk. They again smoked a cigarette together. Pari cooked Khichdi. Next day, Rahul had to go to Mumbai to join a big renowned consultancy firm. Pari was sleeping when he was leaving. There was a smile of Pari's face. Rahul did not want to wake him up. He saw a box of paint kept in the corner of the apartment.

He went to his old room and wrote two more words. Now the message read, "You must not necessarily follow". Rahul smiled and left the apartment.

The Complan Boy

2011-04-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

It had been a hectic trip before that Shared Auto ride from Konch to Ait (2 Small towns of Uttar Pradesh). The trip eased my mood a bit and my head was also aching lesser now. The sun had almost set. It was a huge plain landscape. There were fields on both the sides, which had heaps of already cut wheat crops kept stacked in them. Mild breeze was blowing and there were no other vehicles on the road. The Auto driver was playing "Sheila ki Jawani" and some remix songs which ideally were not suited to the ambiance but nevertheless, I liked the experience.

At the end of this 18 KM trip, I reached the Ait Railway station. It was one of the smallest stations that I had seen before. There were no lights on the platform. Only a small lantern was lit in the Station master's room. I went and sat on a bench and took a deep breath. I looked around and noticed that there were hardly 4-5 passengers on the platform. I was very hungry and thirsty. At first it seemed like, I would not get anything to eat or drink there. Later I saw a hawker at the end of the platform with his "Thela", containing some biscuits, Laddoos, Gulab Jamuns and Samosas. Amongst all of those previously unknown Brands, I found Britannia "Time pass" Biscuits and bought a packet of the same. I came back and went to the Station master's room and en-quired about the train timings. He did not say anything. But he switched a Button on which led to lighting of two CFLs at the station and the station was lit now, though poorly.

I looked around and saw a boy curiously looking at me. He seemed to be well fed but was wearing very dirty clothes. I had already eaten a quarter of my Britannia biscuits when he signaled to me that he was hungry and wanted something to eat. I was hungry but I decided to give the rest of my packet to the boy. As I went near him, a foul smell came from him. I gave him rest of the biscuits and quickly came back to my seat. The boy ate all the biscuits in no time at all and then he even ate from the ground whatever had fallen out of the packet while he was eating at first. I noticed that the boy was wearing his pant inside out and there was a lot of dirt on it. The boy then lied down on the platform and laughed. He started moving his body as if he was doing butterfly strokes on the platform. Then he looked at me and laughed again. I was reading something but was not able to concentrate and was noticing him.

Suddenly there was a lot of hustle-bustle on the platform and a bell was hit by the son of Station master. It was a sign that some train was reaching the station. The boy stood up and became a little curious. As the train arrived, a lot of Samosa vallahs, Chai Vallahs, Cold drink vallahs attacked the train as if this was their only chance to earn some money through out the day. I thought they deserved to sell their cold drink at more than MRP irrespective of what the law says. I looked around but could not find the boy. For a moment I thought if the boy was actually there or I had just imagined him.

Then, I located him looking at a compartment with curiosity. He seemed to be meditating. Dogs had surrounded him from all sides. He looked at the platform gate and then at the Station Master. Then he looked at me and smiled. He kept looking at me, and I felt very weird. Then the train started moving, the boy jumped and reached near the train. I thought that the boy will hurt himself. I approached him to save him but he ran faster and then Jumped in to a compartment. Standing at the gate he shouted, "I am a Complan Boy. I am a Complan boy". I looked at him, he seemed happy. I looked at the station master, He seemed happy.

I went to the Station master and asked him, who this boy was. He said nothing. He switched the lights off. Again there was only one lantern lit at the station. Only a Complan boy was missing from the platform.

B2B ( Back 2 Blogging)

2011-04-09T10:54:00.001-07:00

So here I start blogging again and I hope to be more regular from now onwards.

Since my last post, I have spent great time at XLRI Jamshedpur, memories of which will remain with me for ever. It was an immense learning experience and I also made some great friends. Last few days at the campus were very emotional, followed by an awesome trip to Goa. And then we received our degree on 26th of March, with our Convocation speaker Mr. Vineet Nayar ( Chairman and CEO of HCL Technologies, an alumnus of XLRI, Batch 1985) telling us to honestly assess ourselves and then to fly.

Then came the moment which filled the heart of now 1.21 million Indians with Joy, India won the ICC Cricket World Cup. I also went out on streets watching people hugging each other without even knowing them. The Bond, called Indianness that connects the hearts of denizens of Second most populous country of the world was on display. I also jumped, danced, laughed, shouted and hugged everyone. On our way back we found a severely injured person lying on the road in unconscious state. People were passing by completely ignoring his need for urgent medical attention. They were busy hugging each other and shouting, "Bharat Mata kee Jai". I and three of my friends stopped, admitted the person to the hospital and then came back to our place. I could not help thinking that this "Bond" called Indianness is only available in the comfort of Inaction. We can not act together on issues that matter to the nation most or even act sensibly as human being. We can sign virtual motions but when it comes to sacrifice our personal interest for a larger cause, most of us may turn a blind eye. Then I realized, that I may be thinking cynically, so I decided simply not to think, have a beer and sleep.

Days passed and more incidents took place. News papers have been filled with applaud for Charismatic leadership of Dhoni, Coach Gary Kirsten and Passion of Men in Blue. One thing that I liked the most, was from an interview of Gary Kirsten where he said that apart from planning and hard work the team Believed that they will win. they did not think about any other outcome. I am sure one of the factors of success of Team India in the recent past has been this "Belief" that they can win. We all can learn from it and apply it to our lives.

Then the news of Anna Hazare has flashed in the media. Again my email is filled with multiple mails to support the cause. BJP leaders and Baba Ramdev have been shown in the media meeting Anna. Headlines are, "Today I am also Anna". Everyone says that Corruption should end. I decided to call some of my acquaintances and asked them what they know about "Lokpal Bill". None of them knew about it. Yet they had sent me mails supporting Anna. I asked them if they made an effort to find out what the Bill is all about. They answered in negative. I thought that it is enough that they knew that the fight is against corruption. Then I received a call from one of my friends boasting about his "Miraculous" escape from a Traffic Police person at the expense of 50 rs. and then talking about Anna in the same breath, I thought that Corruption also is a Bond that Connects at least an optimistic figure of 90% of Indian population together. So even if someday, India doesnt win a world cup, terrorists don't attach Mumbai, We can remain together as Indians.

I again thought, I am being cynical. And hence I went for a walk and had Golgappas at a Kiosk on Jhansi streets. I am sure this delightful activity also connects a lot of people in our Fabulous country.

Independence Day Speech at XLRI

2010-08-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

Respected Director Fr Abraham, Dean Academics Prof. Pranabesh Ray, Dean Administration & Finance Fr C. L. George, Associate Dean of Student Affairs Fr Panka Toppo, distinguished faculty members and my dear friends, it gives me a sense of immense honor standing before you on the Independence Day of our motherland and addressing such an intelligentsia.

India today is celebrating its 64th Independence-day and we are standing here to remember the contribution made by every man and woman who stood up in the remote corners of this country and fought for freedom. It is because of their sacrifices and contribution India is what it is today!!

After every Independence-day ceremony that I have attended in last few years, few questions have invariably come to my mind? “What is the take away from this ceremony? How am I contributing to the nation? And if I am contributing, am I doing enough?”

This ceremony invariably generates a sense of pride, love for Mother Nation in all of us but how far does that sense of pride and that love go? Does it lead to any action or any particular behavior in the long run? How conscious we are about problems that our country is currently facing and do we realize our role, or assume any responsibility for ourselves in finding out solutions to those problems?

If the answer to some of the questions I raised before is Yes, then attending this ceremony today and in the coming years makes sense to me. I am raising these questions here knowing every one of us has different answers to these questions and everyone has to find it himself/herself. But I think it is necessary that we do ask this question to ourselves and find out how we are actually contributing to the nation.

I truly believe that XLRI is a unique institute in the sense that it is able to generate a sense of concern for Society & Nation in its students. And it is visible in many ways in our day to day lives. Now in command of our own destiny, we the younger generation of this nation are perhaps the most fortunate generation of Indians in last five decades. We are the greatest beneficiaries of India’s rise as an economic superpower. We have opportunities that our parents never had. We as the future of India have this great responsibility on us. We need to take care of the world around us, to make it as beautiful for others as it is for us today.

To quote our first Prime Minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, who in his speech on the Granting of Indian Independence, on August 14, 1947 said
“The future beckons to us. Where do we go and what shall be our Endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman."

I earnestly believe that this dream can be translated into reality and this is where the role we future leaders of this country come into picture. I am sure that all of us present here believe that we have it in us to achieve this dream and that India can achieve this dream. Jai Hind!!

Dynamism

2010-07-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

Some days Ago I was watching a movie. In the movie there was a scene with a large field of mustard flowers, a long road, sun shining and a lazy farmer. The Farmer woke up, looked at sun and slept again. Warm breeze was blowing through the fields. It looked as if time had stopped. There was a charm in this pause. Doing things at slow pace, relaxing and sitting back also gives a lot of pleasure in life.

If so, why do we run after so many things? What would be end state? What would make us happy? Do we stop anywhere? And if we do at that point would we be healthy, capable enough to relish that moment. Why achievements matter to us?

I thought about it. Would a static life like where I do nothing and just sit back make me happy? For how much time would I enjoy it? But am I enjoying what I am doing? I know the good thing is that I am experiencing so many new things. But do I relax enough and observe these experience and enjoy them. After all purpose of life probably is to live and nothing else. And if it is so, One should live happily.

The ideal state according to me would be being dynamic and enjoying everything that one does. And you would enjoy it only when you are able to observe yourself involved in these activities. It should be the dynamism that makes one capable of having the best possible pleasures out of life.

As it is said by Buddha, Be dynamic. Never stop. Charaiveti charaiveti.

Leading for Change

2010-07-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

Recently realized that Leading people for change is a very arduous task. Nobody likes change. I think a leader has to be very motivated, Driven and assertive if he wants to bring any change to the existing system. Making promises for a leader is also very easy but carrying out your promises is a very difficult. Because when it comes to follow your vision, you need to change the way things have been working for last so many years. Certain things I think are very important in this regard:

1- A clear vision for future has to be there. This should not get lost in Day to day activities Long term focus should not be lost.
2- A leader has to stand for what he believes.
3- A leader has to change himself first.
4- A leader should not have Ego but should be very assertive.
5- A leader has to be considerate also otherwise he can easily loose connect with others.

Learning continues@XL

2010-07-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

It seems that yesterday only fourth term had started. Last 20-25 days have passed very quickly. During these days I have been busy with a lot of day to day activities and have really not been able to focus on Long term plans. I saw a lot of ego clashes also during these days. I also learnt theories related to Latent motives, Manifested motives and now I can see all my altercations, discussions with people using this perspective. I also got a chance to learn Finance as Philosophy and similarity was striking. I had some emotional moments and found my friends standing by me whenever required. I learnt Power of Belief and some Indian Philosophies. I saw some enthusiastic people and some seasoned business men. I saw myself running behind time trying to do my best but still not being able to catch up. I thought I could be more rational but sometimes logic did not seem to work. One thing that I think I learnt and is really unique is to keep smiling with everything going around. I read Siddartha from Hermann Hesse before coming to XL in this term and that small book has been very relevant all this time :)

"Pragya if you understand it, else it is wisdom"

2010-06-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

Gita says,"Man should act and should be indifferent to the results".

With most of the things in my life I have been able to follow this philosophy. Gita however Reinforced my belief that it is a good way to approach life.

Some recent experiences made me see the paradox in this approach however.

Then I realised Gita also has an assumption of one Supreme power !!!

Can we assume that ever??

< To be Decided- 3>

2010-05-12T04:37:00.000-07:00

PS: This part is continuation of last Part 1 & 2. Please go through them once before reading this part.

Next Day Amay Called Raksha in the morning and told her he would talk to his parents about them getting married. Raksha smiled and some drops of tears fell from her eyes. Amay told Raksha that he had some work at Cannaught place in the afternoon and they would meet at Metro walk on Sunday. Raksha was feeling like hugging Amay and say "Cutoo" in his ears.

Raksha also had some work at office. She went to office and came back in afternoon. She was feeling very sleepy. She ate some Bread Jam and went to sleep. She woke up around at 8:00 pm. She thought Amay should have called her by now. She tried calling Amay but his phone was switched off. She had received some missed calls from her home but she thought she would call home later.

She went to the kitchen and put some "Khichdee" to be cooked in the Cooker. She took a bath and then put on some light music. She opened the cooker and then then switched on the TV. She thought that first she should call her home and she called home. Her Mom picked up the phone and asked with anger where she had been and why was not she picking up the call. She calmed her mom and asked, "Kya hua Mummy??" Her Mom said, "Are tumhein pata nahee Delhi mein Serial Blasts huye hain, Kahan thee tum??". She was shocked. She almost cried,"Kya?? Accha mumma abhee mai phone rakhtee hoon..aur dekhtee hoon kya hua hai.." Her Mom said, " Dekho Jyaada Baahar mat nikalna.." Raksha had disconnected the phone by then.

She tried to call Amay but he was picking up the phone. She browsed through the channels and reached Aaj Tak.

Delhi was rocked today by serial Blasts. There were Blasts at Cental park, Cannaught Place and......

The worst ran in front of her eyes. She could not move her hands. Khichdee was getting cold. But her hunger had died. She tried Amay's number again. But Phone was switched off. She called his friend Raman. But Raman's phone was busy.

What could she do?? She had a shivering feeling. She felt as if she was not able to breathe properly. But she calmed herself that it is not possible. She did not want to think about it. She tried Raman's number again.

< TO BE CONTINUED>

Aaraam Karo :)

2010-05-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

A beautiful Poem:

http://www.manaskriti.com/kaavyaalaya/aaraam_karo.stm

Hasyaras kee uttam rachna :-)

( Taken from FB post of Ankur Sir)

NOTE: The story < TO be Decided> would be completed soon. I could not continue with it because of illness for a while.

< To be Decided- 2>

2010-04-20T00:27:00.000-07:00

This post is continuation of last post.

Raksha warmed "Daal Chawal" while Amay helped her with preparing some Salad. Amay mixed some "Haldiram Mixture" in “Daal Chawal” as this was the way he liked it most. While Amay was eating Raksha was looking her. He used to eat as if nothing else mattered to him while he was eating. Raksha found it very cute. As soon as they finished their food, Raksha kissed Amay. Amay was little surprised at this, but he smiled and kissed her back.

Amay Switched on the TV while Raksha went to Kitchen. After she came back, she switched off the television and asked Amay that she wanted to talk to him. Amay sensed something in her eyes and became a little serious.

Raksha: Amay, Mom ka phone aaya tha. She was asking me that I should get married first and then continue with higher studies. Papa kee Tabiyat bhee thodee Kharaab rahtee hai aajkal.

Amay: Raksha, You know that I want to marry you too. But I cannot marry in next 2-3 years. I need to support my family.

Raksha: But I don’t understand how you marrying me is exclusive from that.

Amay: Raksha kuchh aur bhee problems hain jo mai tumhein nahee bata sakta. Tum apnee Mom ko kyon nahee samjhaatee that pahle tumhein Higher studies karnee chahiye and then marriage. This way we both will get time also.

Raksha: Amay, Maine bahut samjhaya hai unko. Par Mom nahee maantee. She asked if I already have someone whom I want to marry. What should I tell her?

Amay: Raksha, You don’t understand my position. There are some other problems in my family which I cannot tell you. Even I am afraid if I would be able to marry you or not. But what you know that I would try my best.

Raksha's eyes were wet. It looked as if she was about to cry. Amay holded her hand and told her that he would do his best for them to be together and that Raksha should give her some time. He would sort the things out. Raksha Hugged Amay .

It had become dark as Amay reached his home. He was having a slight headache. He took 2 Disprins with water and felt relieved. He called his home and talked to his Mom. He picked the novel "A Thousand splendid suns" and slept as he was reading it.

Raksha went to temple near her home, came back prepared coffee for herself. She checked some websites about GMAT preparation then slept after some time.

Both dreamt the same dream in night as they smiled in their sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED..

< To be Decided>

2010-04-16T02:48:00.000-07:00

It was third traffic Jaam she was caught in today in her way. Raksha almost cried and said to Auto Driver, "Bhaiya Mai yaheen utar rahee hoon, Aap paise lelo" and she started walking towards Keshav Nagar Metro station. Raksha had promised Amay that she would meet him there at 3:00 pm. But it was already 3:45 by her watch. She was thinking that Amay never kept her waiting. Amay had met Raksha through a social networking website. They had known each other before that also but had never talked to each other. Amay had done his graduation from IIT Madras and was working as a Business Analyst in a firm in Gurgaon. Raksha had completed her Engineering from NIT Warangal and was working with a public sector company at Delhi. Both belonged to same city howver these days both were staying at Delhi. The most loving thing Raksha found in Amay was that he cared for everyone and for her he cared the most. He was slightly Chubby and Raksha had nicknamed Amay as "Cutoo". Amay thought Raksha was very beautiful and one thing that made him fall for Raksha was that she was only girl who could understand him well. Today it was a Sunday and they had decided to go to "Delhi Haat". However it has started to rain since morning and now only in the afternoon rain had stopped. Weather was pleasant and Raksha was very happy today. She did not want to go to "Delhi Haat" rather wanted Amay to come with her to her place where she had cooked "Daal Chaawal" for him which he liked very much.

Reaching Keshav Nagar Metro Station, Raksha saw Amay. Amay smiled seeing her and she smiled back. Both grabbed each other's hand and Amay told Raksha that lets not go to "Delhi Haat" today, lets go somewhere else. Raksha smiled and said," Mere Ghar chalte hain". Amay Said,"Tumhare ghar kyon..I am very Hungry. Lets go and have something". Raksha said," Are Mai hoon naa" and she smiled. Amay suddenly understood something and smiled.

Raksha had a decent work profile but for further growth in her career she wanted to pursue MBA. Raksha was an Engineer but had also worked for CNN IBN as a part time reporter. She also had worked for many social initiatives and also with many Nationwide covered magazines during her graduation. Considering her profile Amay suggested her to write GMAT and apply for ISB and foreign B schools. Raksha however on the other hand did not want to leave Delhi as Amay was there. Amay did not want to quit his company and also had no plans for higher studies. His family was pretty much dependent on him and he wanted to support them. Raksha many times thought that she would marry Amay and they would happily stay at Delhi. But She was not sure about her parents agreeing to the marriage. Amay & Raksha had never discussed their future seriously and Raksha was not even sure what Amay thinks about it. She had however convinced herself that she would sacrifice her career ambitions if Amay agrees for marriage.

Raksha had applied for GMAT and was planning to appear next month for the same. But today she had decided she would talk to Amay about them getting married. Her parents were already receiving many proposals at her home town and she had told her parents that she wanted to pursue higher studies and hence she was not ready to marry right then.

Amay and Raksha reached Raksha's place. Raksha opened the lock still holding one hand of Amay.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Egos & Limited perspectives !!!

2010-03-12T22:47:00.000-08:00

I recently faced many situations where EGOS of various persons were involved. And I noticed one thing that people can be very silly due to their Egos. People get stuck only with a single stand because it feeds their egos. They do not want to see other side of the issue. They do not want to take a larger perspective and look at things with very limited perspectives.

In Organisational Behavior course we read about Sub-unit orientation. I thought this is because an unit in an organisation sees things from its perspective and hence misses larger perspective. But after my recent observations I think the main reason for sub-unit orientation is that people cant think beyond serving their Egos. They don't want to be defeated by accepting a different view point than that of their own. They do it even it they know what they are saying is illogical to a large extent.

If you see from Historical perspective it is the Ego of human that has driven progress of mankind to a large extent. However the same ego caused battles as big as "Mahabharata" which decimated whole civilizations. so effect of EGO is paradoxical in some sense. Some confuse EGO with Individualism which I think is a very gross mistake to do. I personally think that Individualism is key to development of any civilization but at the same time Egos if inflated can create havocs.

Well, from last some exchanges I understood that if you come across such a situation where inflated EGOs are involved, always be determined and make sure that you put your point forward. Give the person sometime to think beyond his ego and talk to him later again. There is a chance that person sees the other perspective also. This worked for me and I think can always work as an effective strategy in similar situations. :-)

busy times at XLRI

2010-03-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

#I have had very hectic last few days and many more such days are awaiting me. Have been forced to use all sorts of methods to manage my time ( prioritization/avoiding work/slogging hard etc.) Still have not been able to focus of all the things. But I foresee good times ahead.

#I have also been completely out of touch with many friends and infact have not talked to some of them in last 4-5 months.

#Learned many things about myself and others during this period. That has been the best thing in these days.

# XLRI evenings & nights have become beautiful. A tree graced me with beautiful flowers today. felt like going back to Almora. I decided to buy a good Camera.

# Made some good friends in recent days. That is another good thing.

# A Friend of mine @ IIMB writing a book. waiting eagerly for the same.

Friends for ever

2010-02-27T12:32:00.000-08:00

People do MBA for money, career goals, Intellectual stimulation and what not. But somethings those come along with all these things are friends. Its difficult to understand value of friends when they are around you. However when you know that they are about to leave you, sometimes heart says, No, Don't go away mate. You cared for me, you supported me. We shared joy and sorrow together. I never felt alone in your presence. How would I go further from here?? Time passes by and you make new friends. But it takes a lot of time and luck to find friends like old ones. People say life moves on. May be it does. but somethings can't be forgotten. A true friend stays for ever and friendship stays for ever. True friends stay for ever.

Eyes Closed

2010-02-13T11:02:00.000-08:00

It is said that Outer world is a reflection of our inner world and our eyes create this veil in front of us which prevents us from seeing the reality. I closed my eyes and my last few days rolled over in front of me. Only that images were different. these images were originally hidden behind faces of people, sound of loud speaker and smile of our gatekeeper ( Bahadur Bhaiya). But Now I could see them. These were images of Hope, images of Happiness, images of Mental Strength, images of concern for others, images of Resolve. These images were shining bright. However there were other images also those of Smugness, irresponsibility. I opened my eyes and closed them again. Now there was only one image that I saw and that was Image of Hope. That is why I kept my eyes closed for some more moments !!! I felt relaxed.

My moment & your memories

2010-02-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

You are not here but your memories definitely are
You can not be here but your memories definitely are
You will not be here but your memories definitely will be

It seems it is not you but some auxiliary verbs those troubling me here!!!

Impact of history on business

2010-02-03T03:50:00.000-08:00

Our civilization has a huge history of conflicts. These conflicts have impacted our patterns of thinking in a huge way. For instance most theories of Strategic management are driven out of wars. Some people define strategy as the bottom-line behind actions of a firm to gain competitive advantage. However with globalization in most business scenarios today, defining competition for a firm itself is a huge task. This makes it very difficult to employ strategies which are driven by competition. Therefore the new era is era of blue-ocean strategies or developmental strategies. There is also a huge discussion going on these days about Cooperative strategies. Today only companies which are able to innovate and develop new businesses are able to create huge profits. If you take a list of fortune 500 companies and consider their growth rate on the basis of revenues, you can easily see that top 10 companies are the ones who are innovating very fast. The point that I am drive forward is that our history has impacted our patterns of thinking to a very large extent. Had it not been so, the business practices could have been very different from what they today are. So in this world of differentiation, a good strategy is to start with out any frame work or preconceived plan of action. Thinking afresh will help to be succeed in business today. You can see Google has done just that !!

@XL-4 (Republic day at XLRI)

2010-01-26T03:21:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up at morning 8:30 and rushed in front of XLRI academic block for attending flag hoisting ceremony at 9:30 am. It is nice to see so many people attending this ceremony without any compulsion. There were professors, their families, students and working staff of XLRI. Today it was 61st Republic day for the country. The first song performed by Bodhitree( The official Band of XLRI) was " Aye Mere Vatan ke logon, Jaraa aankh mein bhar lo paanee, Jo shaheed huyein hai unkee, jaraa yaad karo kurbaani". The song asks us to remember all the freedom fighters of the country who donated their lives in the cause of freedom for the country. We are the young generation of our country and fortunately we have not seen any major debacle/insurgency in our country. We are MBA students and the biggest tragedies we remember are 2002 Dotcom burst or for that matter the recent economic recession. We are troubled by "Satyam Saga". We are one of the most genuine persons in the country who have worked enormously hard to make our ways to XLRI. But we have a tenderness in our approach. We have a fear against instability in our lives. Do we truly remember the sacrifice of people done by our freedom fighters. How many of us do understand the enormity of the cause that our forefathers took up or how many of us can feel even a fraction of pain that instigated them to donate their lives to freedom movement of India. I think our generation is well past that pain because if there was even a slight feeling of gratitude, respect to our freedom fighters, we the so called capable ones would have fought prevalent poverty, illiteracy, improper health care in our country. Each of us would have at least taken more responsibilities in our lives. I really believe that we have potential to become a great country but we need people who assume their all responsibilties and make it a point to fullfill them.

@XL-3 ( An assumption is mother of any Goof-up)

2010-01-24T02:44:00.000-08:00

I recently faced a situation where a small assumption led to a big trouble. It is highly disappointing when you try your best to ensure that everything goes right and still there are Goof-ups. I think one should try to learn from these mistakes and should not assume to many things in future about others/situations etc.

Other aspect of these situations is behavior of persons around you. Some people will just forget all the right things that you have done in the past and will behave in a very disrespectful manner. However some would support you on your face but would actually doubt your potential. There would be some others who would try to understand the real cause of the problem and will think rationally about your mistake and the outcomes to be drawn about you because of this mistake. I think we should try to check our own behavior if any of the persons around us is caught in any such situation.

@XL-2 ( Finance and Music go well together)

2010-01-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

Today is going to be a night out again. I have a long assignment to do. A lot of financial calculations to be done. Its 4:18 am in the morning. I am listening to "3 Idiots" song, Give me some sunshine.. and I am loving it !!! Finance and Music do go well togther.

Or may be it is effect of the lyrics of this particular song ;-)

Up to you to comment.

DCP war !!!

2010-01-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

People have many innovative ways to get fun at classes at XLRI ( learning is ofcourse fun ;-) but ppl always demand more fun). A Recent innovation is DCP war. DCP is "Desperate Class Participation". This is a common term across all B-School where teachers allocate some marks for class participation. Students however in order to get these marks will ask questions just for nothing and then it becomes Desperate Class participation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ AOL course we were told that there are 3 kinds of questions ppl ask:
1- The questions that they dont even care to ask. like "How are you" etc.
2- The questions that they seek answers for. The questions where they disagree/agree, where they seek confrontation/confirmation.
3- The questions they ask to show their knowledge. Or questions they ask to show that they are interested? (Well DCP belongs to this category)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So Next level to DCP is DCP war. Where we have made some teams in the class. For every question asked the team gets a point. And the team which asks the maximum questions wins. Now there are many ways to spice it up further. Like There are rules like if a member of a team asks a question, another member of the same team should ask a question before member of any other team asks a question. Otherwise the first team gets negative points. Then other ways are creating rythms in DCP where a moderator controls the time when a question has to be asked. And as soon as he shows a sign, a question has to be asked by a team with in 5 seconds.

Overall this is fun. And this does not even hampers learning. :-)

DISCLAIMER: Its just fiction with no reality. We are very serious about academics at XLRI.

@XL-1

2010-01-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

I will continue to post some random thoughts and observations at XLRI under this title.

Gyaan@ART of Living:

Live with Happiness not pursuit of happiness.

Random Gyaan:

1- "Our Great Grandfathers lived only as rich as our grandfathers as rate of economic growth was almost negligible at that time. Our fathers lived in more riches than our grandfathers. We will be richer than our fathers. So we are a generation of value creators for the Society"

Well a very limited thought I must say. There are many other dimensions which can be added to it. Many objections can be raised against this statement also. But if you see all that hard work that our generation is putting up must be creating some value somewhere!!!

2- Learnt through an experience that to make good friends you have to invest time with them.(Well, yes, it works in practicality for sure)

Art of Living @XL

2010-01-11T06:16:00.000-08:00

XLRI has arranged a 3 day "Art of living" program for us. Program has a great reputation across the world. Apart from other regular exercises somethings really struck me during the program. One was Sudarshan Kriya. I went to sleep during this Kriya(As a matter of fact most tormented souls of XLRI, who had barely slept in previous nights went in deep sleep). When I woke up, I woke up blank.It looked as if I had slept for hours. Before sleeping, I could feel vibrations in my head, similar to when you have drunk some glasses of Alcohol. And when I woke up I felt as I was at some other level. It was a wonderful experience. I dont remember last time when I went in such a deep sleep.

During the program we were asked to think about things that bother us. One thing that came to my mind was "Unrest" in the world. I was asked to imagine how world would look like without any wars and conflicts. I tried to imagine it and it was a wonderful sight. I loved it. There were no conflicts and humanitarian crisis like today at Iraq and Sudan. There was technological progress all around and everybody cared for everybody's gain. It is really difficult to understand basic reason for people doing things those take us away from this possibility.

Other thing was about living in Present. If we can even for a moment think just about present and nothing else, we would be smiling in that moment. So why not live every moment in itself and give you 100 percent to it rather than caring about past or future. On another level it seemed that disconnecting future and present is very difficult. But at least we should stop bothering about Past.

Overall it was a nice experience for a day. and there are 2 more days to come. I am looking forward to them :-)

New year resolution

2010-01-08T12:04:00.001-08:00

New year resolution to be regular on the blog :-)

Merry Christmas

2010-01-08T11:58:00.001-08:00

Its Christmas today and it is time to be around your loved ones. There are times when we express our love very explicitly and sometimes our love is very implicit. I think what matters the most is to have at least one person in this world whom you can tell, “God only knows what I will be without you”. Our lives have become very busy and target driven all the times. Sometimes they are professional targets and sometimes personal targets, we rarely sit back and enjoy the warmth of affection of our loved ones. We do spend time with them but our minds are at our work or even sometimes focus is only spending time with them. But human is created to have emotions by God and he wants our hearts to share love, happiness, sorrow with others and I think life is more fulfilling when we do just that. I think one can take a test to check if he is really getting the affection that he deserves in life or if he does love his loved ones wholeheartedly. The test is to watch two movies in a straight sitting, first is “Notting Hill” and other is “Love Actually”. Please repeat last 10 minutes of “Love Actually” once again. Now try to think of last time when you had the similar feeling. If you can remember at least one time in recent six months, you are just fine. Otherwise there is something that you are missing. You should start sharing your feeling with others, should open yourself. There is a lot of love waiting in the world for all of us. Have a great time ahead. Merry Christmas

PS: Post was drafted on 25th December only :-)

India in transition and new business opportunities

2009-11-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

My other blog, please have a look:

http://randomstuff4mxler.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-areas-for-business-opportunities.html

Interesting stats of class attendance

2009-11-01T00:43:00.000-07:00

The data that I am sharing is from class attendance of 60 students in last 10 days in one of the lectures.

Roll nos Average Absentees
1-12 0.7
13-24 0.8
25-36 1.1
37-48 1.6
49-60 2.6

As a trend you can clearly see that with increasing roll nos chances of persons being absent increase. And as an aberration you would see a sudden increase in 49-60 range. Well Guess what could be the reason for this behaviour??

It is that roll no 1-12 live on ground floor and 13-24 on first floor and so on. Well Aberration of 1.6-> 2.6 can be explained as it is 4th floor where lift does not work sometimes and it is the highest floor. Is the statistics not interesting??

Harsha Uvaach

2009-10-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

I came across this video of Harsha Bhogle speaking at IIM Calcutta. I spent 1 hr 26 minutes and 57 seconds watching the video. Harsha was brilliant at various points. He said that there are many things that he has learnt out of life and he wished that he had known them when he was at IIM A. some of those learnings that he mentioned are:

1- Try to achieve excellence in profession that you are in. ( Money should not be primary factor, it will come automatically with excellence)
2- Talent is not determining factor for success. In fact it is Grit of a person that determines his success. Excellent people in all fields have excellent work ethics.
3- Your approach to any problem determines your solution. Approach problems differently.
4- Don't repeat mistakes in life. One would get better by doing this as we only have a limited set of mistakes that we can commit.
5- Honesty and Ethics are very important factors to determine the height of achievements of a person.
6- If you bow down, opponents loose respect for you. You gain your respect by retaliation.
7- Take Challenges in life. If you win, you are a STAR. if you loose, its OK.
8- Communicate effectively. Its vital for your success.
9- Keep Check of your Health. Its necessary.

I think these learnings are worth imbibing. You are free to disagree.

"Ananta"

2009-10-02T06:26:00.000-07:00

Professor Bhargava can not see anything. There are small droplets of water on his specs. He is elated. He does not understand why? He feels as if he just done what he always wanted to. He has just been there where he always wanted to be. Something has grown in him which he always wanted to develop. He looks at sky and feels as if universe is welcoming him back. Where had he been? He looks around. A boy is looking at him. Professor stands up and goes near to him. Boy shouts "Papa". Professor can not recognise him. He walks away. Boy can not understand what has happened to his daddy. He shouts gain "Papa". Professor looks back. He cant remember the boy still. He thinks, "Who is this boy?".Professor asks the boy,"Who are you??" Boy is surprised. He says to himself, "Papa" and starts crying.
Its 2nd October. A big poster of Mahatma Ghandhi is looking at Both of them. Professor wants boy to calm down. He looks in to his pocket for some money so that he could buy something for the boy. He finds his purse, opnes it and he sees a picture of himself, a lady and that of the boy in his pocket. Now it is turn to be surprised. Suddently he sees a procession coming towards them with Indian flag in their hand. They are shouting "Mahatma ji ki jai ho". Professor clutches hand of boy and clears the way for that procession.

To be continued....

Nishabd-6 ( Final)

2009-06-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Rohan picks up the bag and opens it. There is a lot of mud inside it and also there is a green pollybag inside. He opens it, There are some photographs inside the pollybag. The photographs contain some pictures of mountains and most of them seem to be taken twice. There is a piece of paper also with something written on it. He can’t see pictures clearly and can’t read things written on paper either because of diminishing light. Old man has come closer. Jesse seems frightened. Rohan looks at old man now and asks with respect, “Baba, aap Aaabha ko jaante the kya?” Old man has tears in his eyes and says, “Chelee” and points out towards Jesse. He says nothing else. Jesse wants to ask more questions and get some definite answers but Rohan asks her not to do so. He seems to be very different today. He touches old man’s feet and pics bag up and starts moving toward Asgoli. Jesse is suprised but now she has partially understood that hills are capable of playing trics.

They soon reach Pradhan ji’s house. It has stopped raining now. There is a Rainbow starting from a distant hill and seems to be ending at Asgoli. Jesse is clearly amazed by the beauty but today she has other things to think about first. Pradhan ji opens gates and asks them to come in. He is surprised seeing bag of Aabha in Rohan’s hand and he can very well read something very different in Rohan today. He asks him about the bag and soon is aware about whole thing from Jesse’s dreams to Old man to Nishabd. He asks Rohan to open the pollybag . Rohan opens it and brings out some pictures. Every picture seems to be having two copies. Then there is a piece of paper too with something written on it. Rohan reads it to Jesse and Pradhan ji. It contains some directions for “Parvat Jagran” newspaper, the newspaper which Aabha was working for. The letter says to compare two similar looking photographs. And it mentions some big names from Almora districts saying that they were commiting a big crime.

Only one photograph that does not have a similar looking copy is that of Rohan. This photograph shows Rohan standing by the tree on which Nishabd is imprinted.

Rohan and Pradhan ji can not understand anything. But Jesse has understood what Aabha meant. She asks for a magnifying glass. Pradhan ji does not have it. But he immediately asks his servant to get it from science laboratory of Government Inter College nearby. While servant is away, Pradhan ji tells Rohan that Aabha was not his child. Rather he had found it on the steps of Doonagiri Temple. There was an old man there who had told him that the girl was daughter of hills. And that girl was going to be protector for hills. Pradhan ji did not have any child so he had brought girl with him to Asgoli. Now things are becoming even more clear to Jesse, because she has a clear Idea what she is going to find comparing the images.

Soon Magnifying glass is available to them and Jesse compares two pictures. She asks Rohan to have a look at them with Magnifying glass but he could not find any thing. Even Pradhan is not able to see anything peculiar. Now she explains that two pictures show difference in density of trees at any place. If they cleary try to count number of trees at any particular section of picture, one set of photographs had reduced number. Jesse was an environmental scientist, she had done a lot of research in this area and knew that this was one of the methods that could be used to cut trees without bringing it in to notice. She explained that in this method, Trees are marked in the way so that after cutting them the overall change is not noticable. This marking has to be done in a very large area and then before actually cutting the trees the trees are made dead using some chemicals so that there it looks that they fell due to some natural reason. After Uttaranchal had become a separate state and forest officers and conservationists had become more active, it was a smart move by person involved in the wood business to use this method to cut down trees. After effects could be very distastrous, as area which was affected was large could cause a lot of damage to ecology of whole hilly region. Chemicals those were used could effect environment of hills badly.

Aabha had found it and was going to send report to “Parvat Jagran”. Her report might not have reached news paper or it might actually have. Now Rohan had understood it, hills were playing trics with them because they wanted the cause of protection of their ecology to be carried forward. The old man knew it already and also knew that Rohan and Jesse were going to find it soon. Jesse and Rohan were choosen by hills because Rohan was connected to “Aabha” and Jesse was an environmental scientist. But some questions still remained unanswered: What happened to Aabha? Was she still alive? If not who killed her? Why did Jesse saw a little girl and a Masked man in the dream? Jesse had anyway decided to send this report to Professor Bhowmik so that they could collect more data and then findings could be brought in to attention at national stage and in big way. But what about Aabha? Soon there was a knock at the door. When Pradhan ji opened gate, they found old man outside. He remained outside only and said something in Kumauni, which only Pradhan ji and Rohan could understood. Old man went away soon with a smile on his face. He also gave some Gadmahals to Rohan to pass them on to Jesse. He saw Jesse and said “Chelee”. As old man is gone Rohan tells Jesse that old man was saying Aabha will be their next child. Jesse has tears in her eyes, she comes outside and looks at distant snow laden Himalayan peak and says,”Thank you”. Colours of Rainbow seem even more brightened now.

Nishabd-5

2009-05-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

Jesse wakes up Rohan and tells him about her dream. She Asks him, "Rohan tell me what is Nishabd?” He does not know what to say. He looks lost. He tells Jesse that Nishabd is a poem that he had written for Aabha.

Aabha had become silent when she had heard the poem. She hugged Rohan and said nothing. It was admission of love from her. Rohan was delighted. He lifted Aabha up in his arms. They both wanted this moment to stay for them for ever. They found one way and they both wrote Nishabd on a tree nearby. Both of them used to come to tree sometimes and used to smile together seeing Nishabd preserved by the hills as expression of its blessings for their love

Jesse jerks Rohan and asks again,"Tell me, what Nishabd means?" He said,"Nishabd means wordless, uh no, it means a state of being beyond words." He then tells Jesse about the poem that he had written. They both decide to go to the place next day. Jesse can not sleep now. She makes some tea for herself. She comes out in the gallery and sees light in a hill nearby. When she looks with attention it seems an old man is dancing there with some fire burning. She calls Rohan outside, but now there is no light and he can not see anything.

Rohan and Jesse are going to Asgoli today. They will first go to Dwarahat in a bus and then they will have to move on foot from there. She is excited but he seems silent today. It is raining heavily today. They have soon reached Dwarahat and now they will start for Asgoli as soon as rain stops. She sees a little girl playing with a doll in the tea shop. She sees Jesse and comes close to her. Jesse holds her in her lap and Rohan watches it and smiles.

Rain has stopped. They start towards Asgoli. The sky is still dark. Jesse is awestruck with the beauty of place. Deep gorges with innumerous trees. Places where there could not have been any foot prints of civilized man. She is moving slowly slowly with Rohan, who is very silent today. After moving for half an hour village Asgoli is still not in sight. But the tree where Nishabd is imprinted is nearby. Rohan has increased his speed, Jesse is excited but little afraid also. They are entering in to woods and soon they reach the place where Nishabd is written on a tree. Jesse is trying to read it. But it is very difficult to read in diminishing light. Suddenly she sees an old man moving towards them. It is the same old man who had met her in Shivalaya at Kafda earlier. Rohan also looks at old man but his eyes stop at something else. There is a bag lying there. It is Aabha's bag. Old man is saying something but he can not hear it.

Nishabd-4

2009-05-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

PS: If you have not read earlier parts of this story before, please first read them in earlier posts.

Jesse stops smiling and frees herself from embrace of Rohan. She shouts,"Who is Aabha? Tell me Rohan who is Aabha? Why is this name bugging me so much?" She is crying. Rohan has a blank face. He is almost sweating. He asks Jesse,"How do you know about Aabha?" Jesse is still crying,"Rohan, I have been having dream of a masked man who says Aabha to me, then I met an old man who said Aabha to me." She starts crying even more,"I am not any kind of glow, why is this name troubling me. I wanted to share joy of our first baby with you and wanted to surprise you and this name has ruined it. I hate Aabha, I hate Aabha". Rohan does not know what to say.

Rohan had met Aabha when he had gone on election duty to a town named "Asgoli" 4 years ago."Asgoli" is a small village with no electricity and is probably village at highest altitude in the whole Almora region. There were no roads which connected village to Dwarahat( the nearest town). Aabha was studying at Almora university and had come to her village for some days. Rohan had stayed at Pradhan Ji's house and there he met Aabha. Both liked each other very much. Aabha was also planning to work as reporter in "Parvat jaagran" newspaper. Rohan liked Aabha very much. Rohan wanted to marry Aabha. Rohan informed Pradhan Ji about his wish. Pradhan ji had read love in his daughter's eyes but before he could take any decision he wanted to inform Rohan about the truth related to Aabha. In between Aabha went to Almora for her last examination and also for some assignments at "Parvat Jaagran". She never came back. All sort of efforts were made but nobody could find Aabha. Months passed and slowly slowly everybody accepted the fact that Aabha was not going to come. They told themselves that she had died. Rohan made all efforts that he could to find out Aabha but it did not result in anything. Rohan also gave up hope after sometime.

Rohan has lived in hills since his childhood. He understands that hills are playing tricks. But why? what should he tell Jesse? He asks Jesse about the old man who had met Jesse. Jesse gives description of his appearance but Rohan has never seen an old man like that in Kafda village. He decides to tell Jesse about Aabha and tells her everything. Jesse asks Rohan explanation for her dreams but he does not have any. Rohan asks Jesse to come with her to the roof of their home from where they can see "temple of doonagiri" and says to Jesse that the goddess inside is queen of hills in that area and she will take care of everything. Jesse does not believe in anything like this but when Rohan insists she again imagines a church and bows her head with respect and prays to God to make everything better for both of them.

Sun has already set. Rohan says to Jesse that he would go to Shivalaya with her next day in the morning to find old man. Jesse feels little comfortable now and the fact that she has shared the news of being pregnant with Rohan makes her feel makes her relaxed. she smiles and comes near to Rohan who is cleaning the dishes. She hugs Rohan from his back and Rohan also turns back and smiles. Rohan keeps her hand on Jesse's stomach and kisses her on her cheek.

Today there is no masked man. It is a girl, a beautiful girl. No, masked man is there. He is chasing girl and girl is shouting,"Mummy,Mummy". Masked man slits girl's throat with a sword. Soon there is blood and a something falls away from girls hand. A horse comes running in the same direction. There is silence now. Same images are rolling again and again. there is nothing but silence now. A day has passed. Blood keeps dripping out of girls body. She is not even dead. She wants to say something. No she is saying something, but silence is killing all sounds. Girl also feels that she is not able to communicate through sound and she is now pointing out to the bag she has thrown. It is lying near a tree. Something is written on the tree. Some symbol in some language other than english. It is Hindi. Jesse is trying to read it: its na, chootee i kee maatra, Sha, aadha Ba, Da. It is Nishabd. It is Nishabd.

Jesse wakes up again, sweating...What does Nishabd mean??

To be continued...

Nishabd-3

2009-05-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

PS: Nishabd and Nishabd 2 have already been posted before. Those who have not had a look at them, please read them first.

Jesse is perplexed. Old man comes close to her and says something in Kumauni which she does not understand. But old man keeps smiling. He offers her some Gadmahal( a fruit), which she refuses. Old man says, "Chellee". She understands that it means daughter. She stops and sees affection in old man's eyes. She takes the fruits. Old man puts his hands on her forehead and says, "Aabha". She is almost petrified. Tic,Tic and She shouts,"But I am not Aabha, I am not any kind of glow". Old man looks at her calmly. Jesse sees that old man did not understand what she said. She cries again, " Mai aabha nahee hoon.". Old man now smiles and his eyes have tears. Jesse drops all the fruits and asks old man with little anger,"Aabha kaun hai?", Old man points finger to her and smiles. He starts collecting all the fruits and gives them back to Jesse. Jesse refuses to take them and walks swiftly away from Old man. When she is almost 20 meters far she looks back at Shivalaya, Old man is looking at fruits and is still smiling.

Old man knows Aabha is a dream, it is a dream. He knows hills are playing tricks again

Jesse comes back home. She sees some pieces of "Gadmahal" at her door. She thinks of throwing them but as she turns to throw them, she sees Rohan coming. She stops and puts all fruits on the floor. Rohan comes and kisses her on her cheek. She hugs Rohan and Rohan feels a difference. Rohan asks, "Jesse, Kya hua?" Jesse says nothing. She says," I love you Rohan. I love you". Rohan kisses Jesse on her forehead and says,"I love you too, Kya hua? Something is with you? What?" Jesse does not say anything. She is breathing heavily but slowly slowly is relaxing. Rohan opens the door.

Jesse goes to kitchen to warm the food and Rohan freshens up. Rohan smells,"Gohad ki daal" and is happy and starts singing in Kumauni. "Radhika tyaur Mohana, Daajoo Raadhika Tyaur Mohana". Jesse loves this song and smiles to herself in kitchen. She still does not want to tell anything to Rohan. She wants to understand it herself first. She is little afraid but she feels it adventurous to keep it to herself. Rohan comes to Kitchen and asks her why she seemed so afraid outside. She says that she had just seen a snake outside.

Jesse is hiding one more thing from Rohan. Rohan will soon come to know and she would love to see her reaction. Both have their meal and then Rohan has opened television. Jesse comes outside and plans how would she tell Rohan about her other thing. She makes a small plan. She asks the lady working in the field nearby to their house for lending her a kumauni dress. Lady laughs and tells her using hand movements that Jesse will not fit in her dress as Jesse's height is almost 6-7 inch more than that of her. Jesse drops this plan and instead she makes a different plan.

Rohan has been watching TV for an hour now, suddenly he sees Jesse in his(Rohan's) Kumauni clothes. She is wearing a white kurta, a payjama and a cap that is normally worn by Kumauni man. She is looking very beautiful. Rohan is surprised but then Jesse says that she has a good news. Before Jesse says anything, Rohan is already mad with joy. He is going to be a father. He lifts Jesse in his arms and kisses her. Rohan says, "Jess, it is going to be girl and we will name her,Aabha."

(To be contininued)

Nishabd-2

2009-05-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

PS: Please have a look at post Nishabd first. This is continuation of same story.

Jesse comes back to bed and tries to sleep. But sleep had eluded her now and she is thinking about her next day. She plans to visit the "Shivalaya", a temple, where she finds a lot of peace. She would also have to go to "Chhoi", a water source, where she would wash the clothes. She thinks about the project which she had set out for and in the course she had got greatest gift of her life, Rohan. She is now thinking again about the Maskman and the word "aaubhaa", what does it mean? She plans to ask Neeru, a student of Rohan. She could ask Rohan also but she prefers to keep it a secret as it really does not make sense to her. She thinks its a dream afterall. Only thing she wonders about is the word, "Aaubha". Where did she first hear it? Jesse keeps thinking and cuddles around Rohan, who turn towards her and she likes the warmth of hug in the chilly night. She falls asleep.
Jesse wakes up by a knock at the door. Rohan has left for School. He has made some sandwitches. She guesses that there would be some tea in the kettle also. She opens the door and its Neeru with some Maltas,fruits similar to oranges. She asks Neeru to come in. Neeru wearing red ribbon and blue Kurta and white salwaar seems to be pretty happy. She is always happy whenever she gets a chance to see "buuuutiful Jesse mam". Jesse is also happy to see her as Neeru is the only girl who understands English and is able to speak broken Engligh too. Jesse also understands Hindi but it is still not perfect. "Mam, Malta, Apne ghar se layee hoon.", "Achha, par English mein baat karo, You want to learn English or not". Jesse asks Neeru offering her tea which she always refuses, what the word "aaubha" means. Neeru says, "Oh, Aabha". She then explains to Jesse that Aabha means glow. She also exemplifies it saying, "Mam, you are very beautiful and your face has a lot of Aabha." Jesse laughs and so does Neeru. Jesse asks herself almost in monologue why a masked man with a sword would say Aaubha to her. Neeru hears it and her eyes widens. She answers, "Mam, because hills can play tricks." Jesse asks with some anger,"what trick?" Neeru smiles and says that she has to go to school. And she leaves. Jesse thinks,"crazy girl, hills and tricks". She smiles and eats sandwitch which today seems to be tastier than other days.
Jesse drops plans to go to "Chhoi". She instead would go to "Shivalaya" today. She will cook some food first. She cooks, "Gohad ki daal" and rice which are favourite of Rohan. She then opens television but could not find anything interesting. She now gets ready and is on her way to Shivalaya. Soon she crosses market of Kafda and she reaches Shivalaya. She is the lone person in Shivalaya today which happens many times as Kafda has a total population of almost 100 people only. She goes near the Shivalinga and closes her eyes. She imagine a cross in front of her and then thinks of the city church where she used to go when she was at california. But suddenly thought of maskman and sword comes to her mind and she opens her eyes. she comes out of the temple and thinks about word "Aabha". She has come out of Shivalaya and sees an old man at the gate of Shivalaya. Old man looks at her and smiles.

"Nishabd"

2009-05-03T02:20:00.000-07:00

Jesse has been dreaming a masked man, a sword and a horse since last week. Today also she got up shivering as masked man came closer and said, "aabha". What does "aaubbhaa" mean? Why is she dreaming the same dream again and again.

Rohan, her husband is sleeping beside her. They had an argument last night over Jesse giving contracaptive pills to their maid Gita. Jesse thought she had done a noble act while Rohan had said that it was dangerous for both of them if Gita's husband Santosh got to know about the pills.

Jesse left the bedroom and came to kitchen. There was no electricity in the house and that made Jesse guess that it must have been 3 am as that was the time for routine electricity cut in small hilly town of Kafda nearby Ranikhet. It was January and it was freezing cold. But Jesse wanted to come outside in the gallery. But she dropped the idea as some nights ago they had found a tiger resting outside the gate that opened at Gallery. She sat in a chair outside kitchen and put her feet on stool nearby. she then lit a candle and in the candle light she stared at her "Payal" peeping out of the green socks. What a beautiful Indian ornament she thought, she always had a dream of wearing such a thing regularly in California where she spent most of her childhood and college days.

She had come to Ranikhet two years ago on a reasearch project related to effect of non organised construction on ecology of Shaivalik series of Himalaya. It was a team of 5 people Mark, professor Bhowmik, Cristie, Jonathan and herself. Professor Bhowmik belonged to department of environmental studies of University of Shillong. Mark had contacted Mr. Bhowmik from University of California showing their interest in ecology of Shaivalik series and then after some exchanges they had decided to come down to Ranikhet as ecology of this region of Himalaya was changing continuosly after Uttaranchal had become a separate state and a lot of development projects were started by new Uttaranchal government with out much care for the environment of this beautiful Himalayan region.

She first met Rohan when their team went to visit a small school in a village called Kumalta. Children of school and even teachers had never seen a foreigner in person. And everybody seeemed to behave in very absurd manner except Rohan. He greeted the team well. Children could not stop giggling seeing the white men and some of them even had started shouting in unison,"Chimpoo", which Jesse now understands means monkey. Rohan was also a teacher of Mathematics at school and used to take some classes in social science also. He was a very handsome person and an unusual 6 feet hight for persons belonging to hilly region. He wore spectacles consisting photochromatic lenses. He took the team to a temple nearby and gave them information about villages nearby and the water sources for each village and some details about kind of animals that villagers used to have. When Rohan met Jesse, he pronounced his name, "Rohan Kafadwaal", at which Jesse couldnt stop laughing. What a funny name she said. At this Rohan smiled and explained that his name was so because he belonged to a village named "Kafda" and people at hills of Uttaranchal have a tradition of having their surnames rooted in the names of places where they live. Jesse was impressed by the manner he spoke. She noticed the well built body of this young man and also couldnt help silently appreciating a little curl on the upper lip of this young man when he smiled. Jesse now went to bedroom silently watching Rohan sleeping with a little smile on his face. Jesse couldnt help but smiled.

PS: I am planning to complete this story in many posts as I myself want to think over what should happen next, though I have some broad outline in mind. I dont know how many such small posts will complete the story but I expect comments on the parts read so far or on the direction that you anticipate for the story.

More challenges and more fun

2009-04-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

I am very impressed by Shane Warne's stints in IPL so far. He has been a tremendous leader, mentor. He brought success to Rajasthan Royals last year and this year also despite loss of some players like Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir, Royals are doing OK. What impresses me the most is the way in which he has mentored a young player Kamran Khan. He picked him from nowhere and chiseled him to become a wonderful performer in IPL. Despite a lot of cultural and lingual difference he is able to communicate well with Kamran Khan. Kamran does not understand English much and Warne does not understand Hindi, yet their association has been amazing. You must notice the body language of Kamran Khan and Warne when Warne goes to him and advises him. He puts both his hands on Kamram's cheeks and then tells him to do what he wants him to do. Other than that he has also holded team Rajasthan Royals well together and team is performing well with in the limit of the talent they have.

If you see Warne on field, you would surely notice a lot of intensity in him. His body language shows it clearly. He looks like Maximus of Gladiator. Where does he get motivation from? One may say it comes from the magnanimity of the wealth that IPL throws on individual players. I partially agree with it. But I think only money can not generate the magnitude of intensity that Warne has. There is something else in my opinion and that something is his desire to take up a challenge and then to become successful in achieving the goal. He took a poorly rated team in IPL last year, took up responsibility of both coach and captain. He set up a supporting staff for himself and chalked out good plans and then worked hard, worked very hard. And finally there he is, playing as the captain of the team defending IPL in South Africa this season.

It is something similar to entrepreneurship where one takes up a challenge then works hard and success follows. I have personally felt that the best came out of me when I had taken sole responsibility of achieving a very difficult goal on my shoulders. The amount of satisfaction I got once I had achieved the goal was amazing. And it was real fun to take up the challenge. And I think I became better person in the process.

I think one simple approach to live a fulfilling life can be, take up challenges. Make plans to achieve success. Work with perfection to achieve those goals. If you achieve them, it is amazing and if you do not, try to learn from the experience. Make better plans next time and execute them even better. But another thing that I would point out here is that in the process you will also have fun. The tougher challenge you take, the adventurous your journey can be to achieve it and higher would be the amount of fun that you have. And this is probably what motivates Warne in the IPL.

"परिधि"

2009-04-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

किलकारी लेते शिशु की मुस्कान की कहाँ परिधि है,
विद्यालय जाते बालक की आशाओं की कहाँ परिधि है,
प्रथम वेतन से मिलने वाले उल्लास की कहाँ परिधि है,
विवाह रचाते नवयुगल के उत्साह की कहाँ परिधि है

पर यदि हम ये जीवन देखें तो दिखती हर ओर फिर क्यों परिधि है,
सीमित मुस्कान है, सीमित आशाएं है, उत्साह की भी कहीं परिधि है,
कुछ कहते यही सत्य है, पर शायद यहीं असत्य की परिधि है,
सीमित करते हुए स्वयं को, मनु वंशज की यही परिधि है,

क्या निकले थे जो चन्द्र भ्रमण को वो मानव नहीं यक्ष थे,
यदि मानव थे तो क्या किसी विचित्र कला में दक्ष थे,
नहीं, पर हाँ उनकी कल्पना की कहीं कोई परिधि ना थी,
सोचो अन्यथा चन्द्र भ्रमण की कहीं कोई संभावना थी?

हे मनु वंशज तुम भी, सीमित स्वयं को मत करो,
कल्पना करो, और लक्ष्य तक पहुचे बिना मत रुको,
स्वप्न देखो महात्वकान्क्छी, और उन्हें सच कर दिखाओ,
सकल विश्व के लिए एक नया उदाहरण बन दिखाओ.

My tryst with Gita

2009-03-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

I have always been told by many people that Gita contains a wonderful philosophy which can help an individual in leading a more fulfilling life. Many people have given their interpretations of Gita. Many business schools, administrative service training academies and mentoring institutes have Gita in their curriculum. I used to ask myself what is so wonderful about it. Some days ago I had a chance to watch a video of Mahabharata (The one which was broad casted on Door Darshan) on Youtube. This video contained the part in which Arjuna shuns his Gandiva (His bow) saying that he can not kill his own relatives and Lord Krishna talks to him and conversation is the source of Gita. My interpretations for everything in that episode can not be put here in a post. I would therefore rather discuss things that he mentions about Karma Yoga in that episode. My personal opinion is that the learning can really be very helpful in today’s world. Everybody is free to agree or disagree.

My Interpretation:

There can be 4 states of any individual:

1- He does not have a goal in his life and is not working therefore: He is dead almost.
2- He does not have a goal and is still working: He should think why?
3- He has a goal and is not working: What is he waiting for? Better start now.

4- He has a goal and is working for it: (Most of us fall in this category and teachings from Gita about KarmaYoga are most relevant for persons in this category.) There can be two ways how an individual who comes in this category approaches his goals:

a) He works very hard to achieve a goal. He cares a lot about the goal. The goal become so important to him that achieving it or not achieving it becomes center of his thought process. He does not want to imagine a situation in which he fails to achieve a goal.
He becomes obsessed with success, he fears failure. He always works to avoid failure. He stops enjoying his work in the process and sometimes hates it also. If seen carefully it is not that he doesn’t like to work or the work, it’s that he doesn’t like to work with a constant fear of failure. He doesn’t like a sword hanging over him always.
It is a thing that is going to continue life long. When does he stop and live peacefully then? Where is his share of happiness then?

Gita recommends other way:

b) He works hard towards the goal but he is almost indifferent to achieving it or not. (I know it’s a difficult thing to believe, I mean if we are indifferent to a goal why would we work hard at all. But it is possible. I know some people who do it like this continuously and I have seen them happy even after tremendous work pressures, possibly this is one of the reasons why Gita is philosophy of life for many successful and happy individuals). An individual works hard because he wants perfection in the work that he is doing and that is his motivation. He improves by the virtue of his work not by the virtue of things he achieves.

As an individual grows in life, he is going to do things with higher and higher stakes for all. If he continues to care too much about his goals, when is he going to be happy? So to me what Gita says makes sense: Work with perfection and Become Indifferent to goals. Rise above them.
The things those I have put here in this post are just a part of my over all interpretations. The things in Gita are said in even bigger context. Though, I am skeptic about some of them and would like to find more about them.

Please have a look.

2009-03-11T04:08:00.000-07:00

"I am an Indian, I love India." But why should I? What is so lovable about it? It is a poor country. 22% of its population goes hungry to sleep. 35% of its population does not know how to read and write. It is rated 128 in Human development index below than most of the poorest nations of the world. It might have had a wonderful culture but today it looks culturally confused. It might have had "Unity in diversity", but some past incidents raise serious doubts about my statement. Its not the safest place of the world to be in, at least some of the recent terror attacks bolster this opinion. Then what is good about it? I think it is a wonderful place to be born in and moreover we are damn lucky that we have a birth date that is 1947+. We are a free country. We do not work under anybody's rule. We are not Sudan. We are not Iraq. We are not Pakistan. We live under our rule. I might not have had the best of the education available in the world, I might not have had best of the living conditions of the world but I have been allowed a chance to fight to become what I am today. No unfair condition has been imposed upon me that could have stopped me from fighting to become a better individual.
Was it possible under British rule? Did they not rape Indian women at their own will? Did they not plunder our villages and were they not responsible for disasters like Bengal Famine? Why is everything different today? Are British people inherently so bad that they did it to us? No, Let me make this fact very clear that they did it to us because we were slaves. Because we did not have any say in the course of the things. So what is different today? Why do our rulers not come and torture us at their will? Why are we not shot today in public meetings mercilessly as it was done in Jalian Walan Bagh. It is only because we have right to elect our leaders. It is only because we are a democratic country. It is only because we employ our rulers to rule us.
But How many of us use this right? How many of us do actually go and choose our own leaders? How many of us do actually have a say in deciding who is going to drive our country? I am happy that many of us use this right and go to vote. But are rest who do not vote still not slaves? Are they still not under somebody else's rule? Are they not giving a chance to somebody else to decide their lives? Are they not insulting all those Indian people who fought very hard for our freedom which we don’t understand the value of? Are they not making a mockery of all those Indians who died as the consequences of British rule? Are they not ignoring the fact that India was divided and remains divided as the cost of our freedom? Do they really understand that we are not Sudan because we are a functioning democracy and we have right to vote.
Decide yourself who you are? Are you a responsible citizen of India or an irresponsible slave who has very little control on his life? Choice is your. I can only give a suggestion and my suggestion is: PLEASE VOTE. DONT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.

Cover of Time magazine depicting India's Partition

2009-02-19T21:19:00.000-08:00

Click on the image to see it more clearly.

Think, why only this image!!! You will have interesting thoughts.

Valentine Day Special

2009-02-14T06:12:00.000-08:00

This poem I had written at College for Kavi Sammelan, I thought I can mention it here on our very own "HAPPY VALENTINE DAY"

Mile Dwivedi jee kal parson, Bole bhaiya Kavya Sandhya karvaanee hai,
Kuchh roj baad hee eliminations hain, koi Bumper kavita likhkar laanee hai,

Humne kaha dwivedi jee, Kavita to kavi kee baanee hai,
Vaise hee aatankavaad ka jor prachanda hai, kyon Bum(Bomb) par kavita likhvaanee hai,

Dwivedi jee bole vaah, Baat to tumharee badee pyaaree hai
par shabdon ko jara sambhaalna, Allahabad mein mahaul thoda bharee hai,

PremDivas( Valentine day) kee poorva sandhya par, Humne kavita ka sriganesha karne kee thaanee
Bhai proposal accepted to romantic, nahee to tragic kavita to hai hee ban jaanee,

Ab to Dil ka internet GOOGLE search par laga pada tha
Dasiyon baar college ke chakkar par bhee NO RESULT FOUND ka board laga tha

Kuchh din to fir hum bhaiya khoye khoye rahte the
Ghanton tak UPTRON(a place beside MNNIT) par, Jaisingh kee kursee par baithe rahte the

Fir Socha kyon naa kuchh nayee takneek apnaayee jaaye,
Bhai, Hi-Tech ka jamaana haim ORKUT par jugat lagayee jaaye,

To lage haath humne bhee, invitation accept kar hee daala,
Par haath laga kya khaak, Bhaiya Dwivedi jee ne barbaad kar daala,

Ghanto tak surfing karne par bhee, 17 kee friend list mein 17 hee ladke the
Socha chalo kuchh tips milengee, par is field mein saare kadke the

Par Vah din tha kuchh khaas, pooree huyee jab meree aas,
Mere mailbox mein bhee ek ladkee ka mail aaya,
Bhaiya Fir to humne bhee 2-3 mail kar hee daale,
Reply nahee mila to bhee apna, ghar ka, saare phone no de daale,

Man hee man hum khush ho gaye, Bhaiya ab to hum bhee flirt karenge,
Bahut din huye doosron ko dekh, Ab apbne bhee din firenge,
Chatting ke ab session honge, naye naye sensation honge,
Phone par raat to dheere dheere baat hogee, kuchh dinon mein mulaakaat hogee

Usee din raaste mein Dwivedi jee mile, bole bhaiya kavita ka kya hua,
Humne kahan Dwivedi jee, Aapne to humaaree jindagee kee kavita bana dee,
Dwivedi jee achraj se, hairaan se Humein dekhte rah gaye,
Soch rahe the shayad vo yah, ye mohit bhai abhee kya kah gaye,

Par kuchh din baad ek mitra humaare muskaate huye humaare pas aaye,
Bole bhaiya kuchh badal rahe ho, kuchh to hua hai,
Humne unhein bade garva se apnee PremGatha sunayee, to Muskaye, aur fir muskaaye,
Fir saath humaare apne computer par, Humein hamaare saare love letter dikhaye

Bole bhaiya, Hum to yoon hee majaak kar rahe the, Aapka aur apna time paas kar rahe the
Vaise humne jo ladkee ka naam rakha tha, vo bahut hee pyaara tha
Sach batao meree kasam, kya usee naam se aapko maara tha

Mai kya karta bechaara, Uskee baat par muskura raha tha
par maathe ka paseena dil kee vyatha bataa raha tha

Agle din Dwivedi jee, Humein Raaste mein Yoon hee mil gaye,
Humse Bole Bhaiya Mohit, Kavita ke kya haalchaal hain
Humne Dwivedi jee ko ghoora, kaha Dwivedi jee kavita ko barbaad kar diya aapne,
Ab Hum Chaahe local cinema haal mein Mithun kee picture dekhne jaayenge, par hum aapkee kavya sandhya mein kabhee nahee aayenge,

Hum aapkee kavya sandhya mein kabhee nahee aayenge

GPRS and Special theory of relativity

2009-02-12T05:16:00.000-08:00

While "special theory of relativity" may provide one many wild thoughts, I just happened to think about an interesting thing. We all know GPRS. GPRS is done through a packet switched communication over circuit switched networks. As circuit switched networks are inefficient, GPRS technology uses blank time slots where circuit swithched network is not being utilised. And hence more bandwidth is available to one to communicate.
I just happened to think, if someday even if we dont make a time machine ( but some how we partially make it ie. we are able to bring time dimension also in to our realms of communication) then in GPRS communication we could also use slots those are free in nights even if we wanted to communicate in day. We could use time slots of future. Then world might be fighting over these furture time slots as it fights over oil today ( Think USA and India have a Indo-US time slot division deal, By which Indian companies can buy time slots of US, there are discussions in world economic forum where IBSA is against G8 countries because these countries have very high rates for their communication time slots, or UN peace summit has communication time slots in its agenda). Imagine the amount of bandwidth one can achieve that way.
Well, Bandwidth itself is a wonderful term. It comes essentially from frequency domain representation of a signal( which if you see is in time domain only (controversial thought though, some communication engineers will not agree)), so this future usage of Badwidth will add another dimension to the Bandwidth as we say it today.
Let me explain it a bit, let us say I send 2 images to my friend, one goes in current time and one goes in future time, but even if the image will come in future time, My friend sees it now and says "Dude you look great". (It seems crazy, and that is what is).
Imagine, the speeds that we will be able to achieve, Imagine the amount of data that we could send in minutes, imagine other impacts of same thing, Hackers if peep into your system, they will devastate you in seconds. People will do many wonderful things if time machines become possible, but I am free to have my own thoughts. :-D

Mirage

2008-12-29T00:59:00.000-08:00

Having reached so far, I find you but not you,
Now Nowhere to turn to, I should end up with you and only you.

where I went wrong, I cant see it better you tell me,
Pity it is, with loss of originality, even you cant tell me.

Here I am with all my life for even a not so you of you,
Coz I have a feeling that u can still be seen only through you.

And I shall wait till that moment though temporary comes,
As for me its not time that matters, my beloved "you".

The Complete Man

2008-12-21T01:41:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I watched Raymond suiting advertisement on television which had its punch line as: "For the complete man" and used to show some nice suite clad men in a marriage, a young guy paying respect to his parents, showing love to his beautiful wife, this was what I always wanted to be. This was fantasy and at that age I did not use to think about things like what kind of professions those guys must be in or what kind of lives guys like those must be leading.
Then I grew older and reached college. There I had a chance to interact with Ankit Fadia( Hacking wizard), I read about Sabir Bhatia or Steve Jobs and my fantasy of a complete man changed a bit and now my complete man used to wear informal clothes. He was a guy who had done something different in his life and had taken a road less travelled.( I had then read poem, "The road less travelled" by Robert Frost. I loved it and do love it still). My complete man was successful in his professional life and had made his fortune himself.
Then I read "Fountain Head" by Ayn Rand,( thanks to a friend, both of us read book as a competition between us, which of course I won :-) ) and this book impacted my concept of complete man immensely. Now he was a guy who was a perfectionist, perfectly selfish and therefore altruistic ( oops I just said that). He did care only about himself and did not have expectations from anybody. I used to believe that protagonist Howard Roark is a utopian concept for Indian society but I had started behaving like Howard and his impact on me was visible to some closer ones of mine too. (I lost some good friends and people started me terming as an individualist but after all collectivists never like individualists :-) )
Then I happened to read a book "Seven Habits of highly effective people", ( I never like books of this sort, but we do sometimes like to do things which we don’t like to do), Some first chapters of the book fortified Howard Roark inside me but then came some further chapters which tried to tone him down a little. This book did not impact me much, only significant thing that I learnt was that one should try to look at other's paradigm also before one reaches to any stand (Well doing this sometimes confuses me a lot, but helps me mostly.)
But then another phase has come where I have become a little negative about all my conceptions of complete man. I term it as that reality has struck me. Aged 24 today, I sometime feel that time is slipping and I am stuck where I have been. I am no longer sure of my control on my life. I just want to float in the river called destiny. But I want to enjoy and do enjoy this floating of mine ( Ah, I remember free floating in Ganges here which I had done on a rafting trip last year, that was beautiful and so is this free floating today.)
Well last paragraph is one side of my thoughts, other side says that life is about being positive. It is your control of life and Hey who can take it away from you? It says you may not be a complete man but you are very good, you may think that you are stranded but if you see closely, you have improved during this period more than any other in your life.
Well, I guess the positive thoughts strike more chord with me than the negative ones and hence here I am doing and experiencing many things in my life that I have never done before. I might be little off the target with which I had started the article but the point that I wanted to make keeping myself at the helm was that- the negative phase that I talked about briefly comes in everybody's life someday. I have seen some people going in depression when they turn 30 because they think that they can't reach the long terms that they had set for themselves 5 years earlier because they have wasted a lot of time. But This is not what life is about, it is about Saying Yes to experiences and being bubbling with enthusiasm and to continue to improve (one must decide his own definition for term improvement though) and we must live and enjoy it to the fullest. Just live it like you have never done before and everybody thus becomes a complete man in his own respect.

Note: I was never sure I would be able to end this article on positive note :-D

My Grandfather

2008-11-19T04:56:00.000-08:00

When I was 9 years old, my grandfather died. I remember his funeral when his body was covered in Indian Flag and Commissioner of Police and a police team had come to pay their last visit to him. I was afraid to touch his body and feeling that he was dead, had not sunk in. The first memory that I have of my Grandfather is of him, teaching me Gita in Sanskrit. He was a Freedom Fighter and I used to understand that there was something special about him different from others but the true significance of him being a Freedom Fighter was never understood by me then. I remember, he was very punctual and used to get up very early in the morning, used to do a lot of Yoga. He used to Knit Yarn daily and then he used to bathe with Mud (black mud of my home town, he never bathed with a Soap). He did not believe in worship of statues and rather he would read Vedas for sometime daily in the morning. In the evening he used to do a Evening Prayer called SANDHYA by him and then he would take him night meals. He would sometime create some beautiful stories for us and we used to enjoy them a lot. As when he died, I was very young, I could never see him as a Great man rather I always saw him as my beloved grand father. But today when I think about him, I feel proud of him and proud of myself to be grand child of such a great man.
It is now only that I realize that how hard must it have been for him to leave my grand mother alone at home in a very poor condition and to go for the cause of freedom of India. How much resolve must he have had for doing this. Now I understand why he used to be so excited when I used to recite my Independence Day speech to him in Sanskrit and why he and his many friends used to give me sweets for the same. Now I understand why he used to be so delighted on Independence Day. Now I understand why he was not in favor of worshiping statues of Gods. Now I understand why he wanted to open a naturopathy Centre and give free treatment to poor. Now I understand why he used to give so much importance to healthy living and healthy thinking. Today I am able to understand that he had a lot of courage, he was very honest and truthful, he never cheated anybody and all these things were not that he followed but they were values that he used to live his life with. He wanted his country to be the best in world and preferred simplicity to the pomp. Pain of other persons was his own pain and nature was a balm for him.
If I look at myself, I feel that while he may be happy in many ways to see me as what I am, he must also be very sorry about many things. while teaching me Gita or other things he wanted me to internalize many values which I have not and if I talk of resolve, I think I am very fickle. But I think I have a goodness in me that is a quality that I bestowed from him and that’s why I feel pain for others, and am pround of my country and sometimes feel sorry for many things for which he would have had same feeling as that of mine. I have a wish in my life that I should improve myself in to somebody so that he is truly proud of me when he sees me from Great Heavens. And I continue to strive for that. And I am sure I will succeed some day. Amen.

Epic Ramayana in Few Lines

2008-10-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

When I was a small kid, my grandfather had told me a verse of Sanskrit, which summarises Ramayana in few words, today I read an Article discussing if Ramayana is just a fictional epic or it is based on some real events. This reminded me of these beautiful lines of Sanskrit, and there those lines are:

In Sanskrit:

"Aadau Raam tapovanadi gamanam, hatwa mrig kaanchanam, Vaidehi haranam, Jataayu maranam, Sugreev sambhaashanam, Baalee nirdanam, samudra tarnam, Lankaapuri daahnam, pashchaat Ravana Kumbhkarna hananam, etad Ramayanam."

In English (Translation):

In the ancient age, Rama(Raam) went to sacred forest, tried to kill a golden deer. In between Sita(Vaidehi) was kidnapped and Jatayu was killed. A meeting with Sugreeva happened and Baalee was killed. Then travell across the great See happened. and Lankapuri was burnt. Thereafter Ravana and khumbhkarna was killed. And this is Ramayana.

She my trueself

2008-10-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

" Thought she was there no more
but she still jolts me.
thought I was not defined by her any more
but she still explains a lot of me.

Thought I breath air of my own,
but still its not my true identity.
thought I don't owe any thing to her,
but I have no such feeling any more.

There she is again more than she was before,
And I do know she is the one, I truly adore."

Susceptible I

2008-09-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

I have never found myself more susceptible to new ideologies, ways of thinking and ways of doing things than I am finding these days. Some days ago I was reading a book about "Special theory of relativity" and there I read this chapter about time dilation. I was so moved by this. I was reading this in my office bus and as soon as I understood that our concept of time is not absolute, I was awestruck. I was not able to speak any sentence, I just wanted to think more and more about it. I started thinking about that basic "mosquito in a train example" ( general theory of relativity) and then tried to relate it to slowing of clock ( can be explained on the basis of special theory of relativity). Oh man, I don't remember when I got down from bus and when did I reached my flat. I was so much in to it. I had read this theory before but never was so overwhelmed.
Some days ago I completed book "Discovery of India" and as soon as it was finished,I felt a strange void. The conception of man's thought, his purpose on earth made me feel uneasy. What I am doing? What should be done? Should man seek balance in his life or should he become an individualist and an extremist. All these things had never struck me like this ever before.
Yesterday, I watched 2 movies- " Secret Window" and "In to the Wild", I was so amazed to see movie:"In to the wild". Is man a force of universe? How small are capabilities in comparison to the might that of a river? Why at all we sometime try to go against nature? Why this society? why don't we live as animals in pure coherence with nature?
I have noticed that I have too many questions these days and have very few answers. And somehow, I try to get answers for these complex questions by some rudimentary thinking. I sometimes reach somewhere and most of times I am lost in my thoughts.I know I get a lot of pleasure thinking and which drives me to keep doing so. But this sometimes disturbs me a lot, I get a little absent minded. For instance on Friday after reading after reading this theory of relativity I was nowhere. I was lost somewhere.

I believe I may not get answers for these questions of mine, but somehow this thought process helps me develop me as an Individual. I think this has something to do with my age that I am so susceptible to thinking. And more because of the fact that earlier probably my IQ was not so much that I could appreciate real beauty of all these thoughts. And that is one thing I can be happy about. Ultimately the fact is that I am too susceptible these days and don't know how many new questions will come to me? And eventually how many more dimensions will be added to my perspective further?

Uddvelan

2008-09-13T03:18:00.001-07:00

"It hits hard. And leaves no chance to do so. Demon is always there.
sometimes it pushes hard and sometimes just a gentle wipe. The sun rises.and there is always a night after..I think why? Snakes come to me,hiss and try to scare me but never bite. Anyway eventually I have no place to run" Professor is suddenly awakened from his dreams. He has been dreaming a demon since last some days and is aware of doing so. The girl on the next seat is very cautiously watching this old man.She starts crying. The professor feels helpless.What is happening to him? Sometimes he dreams a war, some times he dreams a young man bare chested with blood all around. Sometimes there is light and patterns formed as in Young's double slit experiment. "Oh..Young Double slit experiment..Oh class..Oh what is time: its 9:30..Oh Shit,Late again.Professor sees the crying girl.she is again watching him carefully but this time smiling". Professor checks his notes.They are with him. Fine!! Professor sings to himself: "stayin alive..stayin alive..ah ah ah..." the girl is relaxed now.and so is prof.
Professor is a Physics Teacher in 'Boys High School'. He is again late for class as usual.

Note: I feel as if some burden is off me. I don't know how it happened.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara: India, Unity in Diversity

2008-08-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I happened to see Doordarshan's Old song " Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" on DD Bharti. For those who don't know about this song, Here is introduction that it used to be telecasted on DD National earlier almost 3-4 times in a day and has first lines as " Mile sur mera tumhara to sur bane humaaara". Then in the song many people and prominent personalities from different part of contry are shown singing these lines and then all of them are shown to assemble at a place so as to form a symbolic Indian map. Little kids with Candles are shown, with Candles in their Hands and they Create an India. Song is just one click away at YouTube.
I remember when I was a kid, I kind of not liked it because I had to wait for my favourite serial Mahabharata for some more time because of this song. But at that age also it used to generate a sense of Indianness among me. It was my first introduction to a South Indian Language or a Marathi people singing this song in marathi language. It was the song that subconsciously made me aware of India being a diverse country and all of us being a thread to its diversity and yet being united to make this beautiful collage. I consider myself lucky to have been later in a MNNIT Allahabad, where I came in contact with people from all parts of India ( In all NITs in India we have quotas for persons from all states of India) and felt the richness of India because of this diversity. I always have seen this diversity as our unique strength.
But now that I have grown up, I have other feeling also, for this "Unity in Diversity" Tag. Sometimes I think that we(Indians) have spent only 61 years as country India. Earlier there were provinces and there was no concept of India as a nation. So if you consider this, you would realise that out of say 5000+ years we have been India only for 61 years. And precisely grew united because of urgency during freesom movement of India, which provided us a common cause. And as we all know that even for Freedom we had to become divided in India and Pakistan ( though it was because of many reasons yet the baseline was our diversity,religious in this case. And Besides we had Leadership of some great figures of Indian History like Mahatma Ghandhi, or some others, and they were the ones who helped in development of concept of nation India.
But now after 61 years, does it not look like we are falling apart? Consider these recent separatist movements for separate Kashmir,earlier for separate Khalistan, North East and in Tamilnadu. I read this Statement from Arundhati Roy some days earlier that Kashmir should be given Freedom from India. I understand, that the statement is emotional to a large extent but it has an intellectual basis also. Does it not strike you since we have no common cause like freedom struggle today, we are moving towards separation which is our natural tendency because of so much diversity? I mean we always say that India in unique because of "Unity in Diversity", but to me it looks like that this diversity alone does not let us to become united naturally.
Well, This is just a thought that I do not subscribe very well for even myself. But somehow it makes some sense. and if you think more on this point, it makes greater sense. It seems natural that we have Naxalism,Bodo terrorism or many such other problems.
But On thinking more I find out that No, we have a common Thread, a sense of being Indian, which I am ignoring if I say that separation is our natural tendency. If Abhinav wins a Gold Medal, a Tamil is as happy as a punjabi. And Its been like this since ages that people at one part of India have mourned in sufferings of people elsewhere in India. This common thread is precisely the same feeling that I used to get watching "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara". This is our common Pulse that beats loud and keeps doing so. I felt this Pulse when I was at MNNIT Allahabad,I felt this pulse when I was at IPL match at Delhi,when India won T20 World cup,when we won 3 medals at olympic, when I ate Khicdi in Pongal at Allahabad, or even when I felt pain after bombblasts at Ahmedabad. But I feel we should strive to keep this pulse beating. For Instance I am surprised to see why Doordarshan does not Telecast "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" any more. Why can't I&B ministry push other TV channels to do so. Some give economic agrument against this, but Money in one hand in counrty in other! Choice is simple. It is very imporatant that we become aware of this pulse and then try and not block it in anyways. Because Propagandas are created repeatedly which can effect our subconscious thinking, like the statement that of Arundhatui Roy. Well, at last I would say that we should enjoy this richness of Indian Diversity as this is very unique strength or ours and makes us True nation in many ways.

"Mile Sur Mera Tumhara to sur bane hamaraa"

India, My Country

2008-07-31T05:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think why at all freedom was required for India. In other words I would say I try to think about a scenario in which India does not become free in 1947. After a lot of thought I most of the times reach to a conclusion that, in order to become a world leader or a world power one elementary condition is to become free. And more so for India because arguably we were once world leader in ancient times and we were the ones who made significant inroads in field of mathematics, art, law, philosophy, Religion and other fields and it was us from whom most of these things flowed to other parts of primitive human civilization. But that again, that was only in ancient times. I also find out one more reason that is that we Indians are capable of becoming world leaders again, we are a country which deserve to be second to none.
For Instance a Ramanujam was a clerk in Madras, did not have proper food and other basic amenities of life. But when he was sent to a British university, He grew to be considered as one of the greatest mathematician of his decade. I just quote this example here because I think that Indian mind is some how capable of taking human civilizaion to steps further in many directions. And it was therefore a necessity for country India to become free to become creative and original in its ideologies and Ideas. And It was also necessary to ensure that every Indian gets proper food, clothing and basic amenities of life so that he can move ahead and innovate.
Some days earlier I saw bribery scandal being divulged in the Parliament and I was shocked. I was more ashamed because the MP's who brought money to Parliament considered it to be some kind of victory with out being even slightly thoughtful about the fact that whole world was watching at this mockery of Indian democracy. Some of them must be joking at us and some of them may even have contempt in their minds for us. That day there was a mention of Bomb Blast in Jammu Kashmir in news paper, and I was surprised to see that it was so taken for granted that no body paid attention to this. It looked as if Life of people at Jammu Kashmir holds no significance for us. No statement from Home minister, no consolations for people those died. The only news that was in lime light was this Bribery scandal.
If I summarise my feeling to some words at that moment it was not any kind of disappointment or sorrow, rather this was an acute pain. I just felt- 'oh shit'. I was feeling as if I just wanted to go somewhere where I just can't think about this.
Then came next day, Bomb blasts at Banglore, I was again deeply shocked. Next to that day I was going to watch a movie and some of my friend mentioned that its not safe. I just had an argument with him that its ridiculous to think like that. I mean, we should/have right to feel safe at least in our country. But then the same day, there were blasts at Ahmedabad, next day live bombs found at Surat. Should we really feel safe? Lets not discuss about right of feeling safe.
And then came statement from one of members of a major national party that these bomb plantings and blasts were done to divert attention from Bribery scandal. My God! what an opportunism. What has happened to us, where is that cohesive view of India where we call her our motherland and think that we can do anything for her. What about Indians being people who will give world new directions ? I thought that there would be some statement from our Prime Minister or President with an assurance. but that was not !!! It looked as if feeling of being Indian was being hit , the pride behind it is being hit from all sides. The pain became more acute.
It was only the next day when I woke up and came in balcony and saw temple bell ringing and a flag over it, I felt no, its not all bad. I was coming to office and saw people talking to each other happily, some hugging each other, I felt relaxed. I felt no, spirit of my motherland is alive and we are moving ahead. I also thought probably it is this spirit that has kept us bounded and very much alive since ages. And this thought improved my feeling of relaxation to a certain optimism and certain happiness. I felt as if my blood pressure is decreasing and took a deep breath and a sigh of relief.

Pt. Nehru watches Incredible Hulk 2008

2008-06-29T01:01:00.000-07:00

These days I am reading "Discovery of India" written by the first Prime-minister of India Mr. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Discovery of India covers every aspect of artistic, intellectual and philosophical attainment of India through ages. Through out reading the book I have been amazed to see perspective of a Prime minister towards Indian History, Hindu as a religion, Hindi as a language and also about the impact of science on the Human race.
Last Friday, I went to watch movie Incredible Hulk, a movie which is second in the Hulk series. The movie talks about a crazy scientist who makes himself a test subject for his discovery towards human immunity towards diseases and it involves gamma radiations. and This guy while an experiment becomes a subject for a miracle and turns in to a monster which grows enormously in size whenever his heart beat rises. I had also heard about a Gizmo movie Love story 2050 and that thought was also there in my mind.
On Friday after watching the movie I had a dream where I saw Pt. Nehru watching Incredible Hulk which is screened as a Science fiction movie with name "The Incredible Hulk in 2008". And he is perplexed while watching the movie. Pt. Nehru Lived in a period of history when there was a universal optimism towards technology. This was a period of time when technology was growing. Atomic Physics, communication, electronics and various branches of science had started to create their impact on Human race. On major factor was a focus on "Why" in perspective of people in general. In this period of time Human was growing capable of controlling natural factors and forces and subverting them according to his own wish. and thats why Pt. Nehru says that his period was a unique period of Human civilization where human had attained those capabilities. In my dream I saw that Mr. Nehru is awestruck to see the destruction caused by technical progress. In Movie an Army officer ( General in US army) infuses his man with some radioactive radiations so as to turn them in to weapons. and then by mistake another Monster is created who is similar in size to that of Hulk. and He starts disrupting life in New York.

Mr. Nehru in my dream is rethinking about his optimism towards technology. In brilliant universities of America, which are temple for science, all these Destructive experiments take place. The Human has reached to the extent of creating Human Weapons, genetically infusing human. The blood of hulk itself is so destructive that a sheer drop of it could lead to enormous destruction. and above all there is this cruel desire of human to conquer everything. Mr. Nehru is thinking if he should check all the technical progress in India and should campaign against it through out the world. He is thinking if it is really useful to create IIT's at all. He is thinking if actually advent of technology a boon for Human race or it is a bane. He is thinking if he should follow a path which will lead India to a country which guides world to Live with out technology and to live in Harmony with nature. Mr. Nehru with his Farsightedness is able to see that a day may come when war are fought with Atomic bombs which may exterminate Human race with all its roots. He is confused.

We are today living in a period where there is still a optimism towards technology. We foresee a lot of progress both at science and technology fronts. But somehow a pessimism towards this progress is also creeping in. I was today reading about some scientific mission of India which is touted as dream mission of ex-President of India Mr. Kalam and I was surprised to see its mention under title "Science or tigers". The article said -

"the best kept secret in India is that we are at the verge of ecodisaster to happen."

Seeing all this I also sympathize and have the similar feelings to that Mr. Nehru had in my dream. When I think about it more, I Find that in my dream it was Vice versa as Mr. Nehru was having Feelings that I have somewhere in me.

An Inconvenient Truth

2008-06-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

I was only slightly informed about Global warming. Even when I read articles about it, I never understood it to its true extent. Actually we Human beings are subconsciously so self involved that we never ever agree to existence of anything until unless it directly effects us. There have been Katrina,Tsunami but our consciousness towards these events is only limited to merely consider them as news. Only some weeks ago near the World Environment day 5th June we had Environment week at ST Microelectronics. There Movie "An Inconvenient Truth" by Mr.AlGore was Screened. The movie has won an Oscar and Mr. AlGore has won Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. I personally was deeply moved to see the movie and so were many others.
One very interesting in the movie was this frog analogy, which says that if you put a frog in to a jar of boiling water it jumps out instantly. But if you put the frog in to a jar of cold water, and then start boiling it frog never comes out . Similarly we human beings even after being alarmed to the risk of global warming never work to alleviate it, because ironically its a problem which is slower in its impacts than the pace required for us to get in to action.
I was appalled to see the factbasedness of the movie. There were graphs. And Some graphs like that of CO2 levels, Temperature levels showed that we are in trouble big time. Everywhere there were facts like that of level of shrinking Ice caps, that of Sea waves direction changes. Even more facts like the calculation based predictions which had alarmed about Katrina. But C'mon, Nobody believes all this crap. We guys are too smart and self involved to accept these facts. And Katrina Devastated America. There is a Quote in the movie which says:

"What changed in US with Hurricane Katrina was a feeling that we have entered a period of consequences."

I mean its all fact, mathematics, science behind every prediction that alarms us about global warming. I mean its like if x happens and y increased, z is bound to happen. and We know that x has happened, Y is increasing and we sit comfortably !!!

We have risked earth for our comforts and self involvement. Those who dont believe me, PLEASE WATCH MOVIE : AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Please vist website
www.climatecrisis.net

I personally tried to mail many people about it but everybody seems reluctant. I dont understand why? I think Its that frog analogy that explains it. We just don't understand that working to avert Global warming is inclusive NOT EXCLUSIVE to everything else that we do. I appeal here to you to rise to the challenge. After all we are a race which has changed earth most than anybody else, this is what is special about Human beings that we can usher changes in and have done so in the past. Who else could have sent something to moon from earth, could have done something as complex as Heart Transplantation surgery.

I just appeal to you to watch the movie "An Inconvenient truth" at least once and to take small steps to try to save energy wherever it is possible.

"The Rain"

2008-06-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

As a kid my heart used to sing. There used to be songs. Everytime It rained, the first cold drops of water, the peculiar smell coming from mud, The sound of leaves from Bunyan Tree, The hopping frongs, everything used to make the sound even rythmic. Even later at Almora this song was internalised by me even more. The distant mountains in rain looked as if they are saying, "Hey kid, Look I have watched you play many times, Now see here I Play". I always wished to stay at mountains for ever and never leave them. But then I grew, reached cities, heard creeks of vehicles, people shouting at and hating each other. My heart became afraid, It stopped singing. The sound became mum. The time passed by and now there was no song. Mind had grown over heart. It was, it is, career consciousness, a mad race, a target somewhere to achieve always, even logical problems those made the sound even feeble. Here I am, seeing the first rain of this season want to go back to time, want to feel the sound of leaves, that feeling of joy again. I want to run fast and want to listen to that "chap chap" sound again. Some where some how I have lost it. But I want to go back. And I think see I think again. I just dont want to think, I want to feel. I want to feel.

I think

2008-05-25T01:59:00.000-07:00

I think. And see patterns in things and am able to find out things those could have happened or may possibly happen. I think about thinking too. even I think that I think about thinking. It never stops. Sometimes I am lost in this. I may think about two things and even multiple things together. And when interrupted will still not be able to come out of all thinking threads together. Therefore I sometimes behave as a absent minded person. Given simple tasks I will make them too complex by thinking too much about them, trying to think about all possible dimensions, all possible consequences and factors. While bathing I may think about thermodynamics, while talking to somebody I may think about Psychology, while travelling I may think about sociology, looking at sun, I think about different planes, looking at numbers I may see patterns, looking at Europeans I may think about evolution, races , theology, number of chromosomes. And everytime in this state I feel unique pleasure, a certain happiness and I feel like humming. I am happy to be an engineer as it pays me for thinking. But I certainly strive to find better avenues where I get more time and purpose to think about various things and hopefully am able to share my ideas with others.

Multi-Dimensionsal Thinking

2008-02-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

Everybody looks at things from different angles. But they can be seen in different dimensions also. Earlier I never realised that Lateral thinking in one dimension and vertical is other. These dimesions look pretty obvious. If I consider the above two as x axis thinking and y axis thinking, then there can be a z dimesion to thinking also. I call it as shift of platform for thinking and there can be many platforms to shift to. Suppose Somebody says I think about a apple. It is Red, It's sweet and It is round. He is doing One dimensional thinking. Suppose one MBA comes and says that it can be exported to another country as it is of great Quality its another dimension of thinking in the same platform. But Somebody thinks about first person's perception of an apple and of its difference to some body else's, He is thinking at a different platform, and which you can say is in z directions. Suppose another person thinks not about quality of apple but thinks about the definition of quality itself first, he is again thinking at a different platform which I say is in 'w' direction.
Philosophers in early times used to ponder a lot about basic things for hours. This was because they used to shift between different platforms of thinking. But we as modern human being don't have this opportunity. You may have just thought that this is because any lack of time or due to our business in normal lives. But I say that this is because our thinking has been restricted to certain dimensions of thinking only. In our schools and other social institutions we are made to think only in certain fixed dimensions. And that makes those facilities of brain more dominant to others. And the effect is loss of natural creativity and ability of multidimensional thinking, as everytime we think, our thinking patteren is dominated by the way we are taught to think.
I certainly agree that there can be many things that our brain is not capable to think of. and perceptions only govern our Ideas. For example wheels were invented round because sun is round. Triangle shape was generated because Mountains are like triangles. But There can be many shapes in the world which we have no perception for and hence those are never created.
We are not able to see Time dimension, we are only able to feel it through our memory. But it does exist. I think we would have certainly been more able to discover things, had we not had so many preconceived notions. In this way Science is killing itself by imposing patterns of thinking on individual minds.
Einstein definitely was a multidimensional thinker and so can one be. One has just got to try to think with out preconceived notions. On would realise that one enjoys it . And slowly slowly some day this way one must be able to shift platforms of thinking.