My scribble

Aug 20 2008

When he takes to the water

Take your seat, hold your breath, disconnect yourself from the entire world, only to have a snapshot of those ‘golden’ moments …. Yes, you guessed it right ….. Moments of watching the legend swim!

Take a bow, Michael Phelps, The greatest ever Olympian who might even beat the water while swimming. Winning 8 gold’s is no joke after all …. Phelps it was who made it look ridiculously easy. It takes hell lot of efforts to make the performance look effortless. The guy from Baltimore has toiled all those endless clocks to beat them eventually.

The legendary performance makes not only America but the entire world proud of him! His next destination, the London games might become yet another stage for this humble superstar to shine and take the sports to another level.

Let’s wait for 2012 to watch that golden splash of water again!

Aug 15 2008

Happy growing, India

How do you identify the independence day approaching ?

1. You see children selling the tricolor on the signals

2. You undergo tardy ‘full-proof’ security checks at almost all public places in India, airports being the most ‘looked after’ places

3. You witness ‘independence day special’ on television, be it a news channel item, talent show or even a sitcom

4. You receive smses, read in newspapers about i-day special sales going on in the mall nearest to you

5. Entire roads, city skylines filled with tricolor commemorating political party-specific patriotism

6. People around you discussing, planning their holidays, scheduling sickness

Six of the most common scenes, perhaps and six is the number of decades we have completed as a free and independent nation !

India, the emblem of progress, the yet much undiscovered prowess, the habitat of energy turns 61 this midnight. As a nation, we are very young, better nascent. The growth and the potential developed have reached the height, with such wide and varied presence that may not be spanned with 2.4 billion Indian eyes. We are dealing with the most powerful nations in the world, we have made them think and introspect with our riches and reaches.

Young nation of young people is today, on the brink of another evolution, we are metamorphosing:

1. We are pragmatic when we deal with the nuclear deal, no non-sense principles

2. We don’t think we are third world, we very much belong to the first world, we now use cold war in the history books only

3. We are no more ashamed of our color or culture

4. We are global and perhaps, the most diversified nation and guess what, we are now flaunting our speckled face

5. The world is following us against terrorism

6. We are the greatest reservoir and supplier of talent to the world

There may be a few grey areas, but if someone can improve, it’s got to be India !

For that, I and you, shall make a few resolutions today:

1. I will make it a point to cast my vote every time, in any of the public body elections

2. I will work towards true women and youth empowerment through education, beginning from my home

3. I will not just watch or plan, I will act or execute the plan

4. I will be a more caring member of the society in cleanliness, discipline

5. I will be using the energy, any sort of it made available to me, frugally

Last but not the least, I will keep faith in my constitution, my government and the court

Let us all join together as a single identity and spread this singleness all over … Vande Mataram

Aug 02 2008

Blasts : A routine in India

Blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad ! We are bleeding, we are suffering !

Twice in as many days and all the states / metros in India were under surveillance, security put on high alert. We have been unfortunate to face this echelon of brutality and extremity of cowardice coming out through inhuman attacks on hospitals.

The things that annoy the most, are the predictability of patterns of these incidents as well as their smooth execution following well-thought out planning. Blasts happen, people die, ministers condemn, Police / Intelligence trace the suspects – come out with possible motives behind blasts and possible reasons behind intelligence faux pas (which is simply lethargy in reacting to alerts, caution) and acronyms like HUJI, SIMI or whatever, neighboring areas’ security gets beefed up, one week passes on while we add a page to the history books which nobody is going to afterwards ….. by the way, there are a few variables in this storyline – names of ‘Casualties’, names of ‘injured’, names of cities ….. Who cares ?

All of you who are now deriding the government/security, lamenting the lack of political will and fragile security measures – tell me honestly, Haven’t you been one of those involved in complaining about long security check queues at the airports/railway stations or even at your own offices/colleges ? Don’t you ever get irritated when security persons ask you to display your identities ? Aren’t you one of those who talk at length about custom check that takes multiple hours at the JFK while lambasting the ‘lazy and tardy’ security process at Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport ? Don’t you ever pass through cantonments or toll-booths without paying the toll ? Don’t you ever take advantage of your relatives/friends at the helm of security ?

Now, sample this – many of the waarkaris (devotees) to Pandharpur had to stand in queues for more than 24 hours, many of them had undergone security checks that lasted for nothing less than half an hour ….. all of this, after some 15 days walk barefoot and to put cherry on the cake, I would not be exaggerating if I say that all these activities were carried out with a smile, with a gratitude …. Wow, devotion is great !

Spare me for waywardness of my thoughts but I would take another focus liberty out here (I really hope it’s not diversion by any means). I have started asking myself a few questions ….. Are we degree holders really educated ? [Disclaimer : this conclusion has been drawn over possession of widespread knowledge that citizens of India staying in metros are more ‘educated’ compared to their small-town counterparts]. Do Indian degrees (I am not much aware of educational standards outside India, though I know you must consider yourself lucky to have an Indian degree) impart the education and culture they are supposed to ? We metro residents, being the most educated society in this country, are supposed to be most aware of the lot that understands we don’t have a technologically superior system in place, we don’t have good ground level laws out here for we are still a young nation. We are soft targets. Can we hereon ask ourselves and our children to care for the society and be more tolerant ?

Coming back to the original discussion, there are a few positives that have come from these blasts which show that we are learning, we are growing, albeit a bit slow ! I would like you all to know them :- 1. This fight has been unanimously identified as our fight, India’s fight against the terror 2. As usual, there has been a flow of sympathy and help towards the affected. It is heartening to see people, even the most disgruntled ones providing helping hands to the victims, volunteering in hospitals 3. People have taken initiatives and come out to lend resources towards rehabilitation of those affected (all this, without much help from governments) …. I really wonder when shall these people outnumber those who regard Independence day or Poll day as a mere holiday …..

Jun 27 2008

10 Comments

Celebrating Life

In Celebration

26^th June, one of the most important days of my life !

My brother’s, my best buddy’s Birthday today ! Join me in wishing him a fabulous life ahead …. 🙂

Expressing the pleasure …. Isn’t that very difficult ? Specially for a guy ? …. We men behave so secretively that even the closest person doesn’t understand what has happened to us. We are supposedly the stronger species, but we seem so weak when it comes to expressing …… we just can’t.

It’s good not to fake anything, but we can’t even say what we feel …. Shame !

Being a man in India is all the more difficult; you are not allowed to cry, you are not supposed to discuss what do you feel ….. your dads don’t tell you how much they love you, your mothers take pride in telling to neighbors bravery tales of you not crying even after series of injuries, your grandparents like your ‘war’ skills, your uncles advise you to give back bad treatment.

But then, why only India ? We keep hearing about men, who supposedly have stronger hearts, suffer more from heart diseases, men taking to addictions to forget their problems. Almost all over the world, male fraternity remains the same, rather, they love staying the same rigid phenomenon.

Emotions are not tied to any gender, they are god’s gift to humans, all of us, they are very natural. I object strongly, to be termed ‘metrosexuals’ for behaving so naturally ?

Look at women : ohh, they are so natural, they are so free ….. they can cry, they can say thanks, they can express love, why can’t we be the same ? At least in some possibly better ways …..

It’s so good and comfortable to just ‘speak it out’ ….. I feel so comfortable after scribbling all this.

I hate emotions; they make me fall in love with them, every time.

After all, it’s a Man’s world …. Let’s not be chauvinists, let’s not be the traditional ‘macho’ guys …. It’s never a crime putting forth what’s on mind, what’s in the heart …… let’s say ‘I care’ to those we care for, let’s say ‘I love you’ to those we love, let’s share, let’s cry our hearts out for all those reasons we have hidden from all others for all our lives

Jun 25 2008

4 Comments

Uncategorized

inflation

Inflation sucks!

As the sun is set to set, I am writing this down sitting in my cozy room almost unaffected. I couldn’t agree more with people who call me impulsive as I put this text down.

Where we go, inflation follows, be it malls, super markets, colleges, banks or even a bhaajiwali. Let me tell you am not going to write about how a particular industry is affected, how a particular index is going up or some share prices going down nor am I going deep with the famous ‘common man’ issue.

However, thinking about the children in north Karnataka who won’t be getting mid-day meals everyday hence on and the ‘cheap’ labors in Mumbai, Delhi who have to do cost-cutting on their food consumption as their wages are still to come to terms with the rising prices and the farmers who were once termed ‘driving force of India’ who are now waiting for the harvest season to arrive sooner, depresses me no end.

Why only them? Look at ‘cost effective resources’ of call centers and software co’s, are they any better ? They too have been hit hard with recession in the US. Challenge now is to find the root reason for this or else find a better way ahead. Who’s going to do that ?

Government ? And the Indian one at that ? Do we need to rush to the US for this thing too ? Or ourselves after all ?

As an Indian, Who am I ? A software engineer who wants to go to the US and lead a ‘steady and hassle-free’ life just like the other boss’ favorite who has already flown or A guy who wants to do MBA and get a fat salary here itself crying loud on ‘how to be a spirited Indian’ or A builder who wants to earn as much as possible before banks raise loan rates, before government puts a check on realty prices or A housewife who never misses any of saas-bahu soaps, ‘extra melodramatic’ singing or dancing competitions and latches on every possible opportunity to acquire information about daily happenings in the colony keeping track of some tens of neighbors or A small businessman who gets up early to catch the shows of those Gurus and babas who tell you exactly which planet caused yesterday’s loss and being in which position would it cause all the luck coming your way today or A manager in an MNC who has achieved ‘everything in life’, who can convince employees under him clean shit or A minister who is blamed left right center by opposition, who’s more concerned about nuclear deal (another point, he doesn’t know anything about it except that it has got something to do with the US) than his own constituency.

God, save me please !

Luckily I am not that thief from Firozabad who gets beaten like POWs in front of all the cameras for stealing a foot-driven rickshaw, I am not that woman who gets raped in Sonipat for marrying a guy from lower caste, I am not that newlywed girl from Vidisha who gets killed for not being able to fulfill increasing demands for dowry, I am not that call center girl from Delhi who gets raped in the cab at wee hours, I am not that teenage girl from a rich family who gets killed by someone and even the CBI fails to solve the murder mystery, I am not that farmer from Vidarbha who commits suicide due to 30K loan, I am not that Devdasi from Gulbarga who’s hands are chopped off as she wanted to study and get away, I am that good looking wannabe model from Mumbai who can do ‘anything’ for good contracts, I am not that businessman from Mumbai who has to fight his own brother for ‘success’, I am not that IT bigwig from Bangalore who needs to act benevolent to support a business decision.

God, you have already been rescuing me for so long !

God, you have given me such a happy life. I can sit at home and watch all this happening around, thanks to technology. All by your grace, I have the luxury of not doing anything about this and still lead a comfortable life. Thank god, however bad the superiors do to me, I have the right to take out my frustration on those who need me. I can use the newspapers for packing chapattis, I can relax after watching news and turn to cricket. I can complain about increased parking rates in multiplexes and earn back big bucks at my office. I can crib about my appraisal, about my manager and get away with all the sympathy.

Working for poor ? I had gone with my colleagues to some social institution, I have so many snaps to prove that. Helping the children ? I donate Re 1 per share I hold under my insurance. Saving the environment ? I had participated in green rally organized by my company. Isn’t that enough ?

After all, what can ‘I’ do ?