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India- It’s different here

2011-10-07T01:22:00.000+04:00

During my every visit to India I see many changes like new executive hotels, services on airports, amazingly faster growing mobile networks etc. Speaking of mobile networks, India has got innumerable network providers and thats good for consumers. More competitors always good for consumers as it makes service cheap. Cheap? how cheap it can get? I saw a billboard on road saying 'Uninor to Uninor - 2 paise per minute.' Impressive!!

Flip the coin to see its other side you will notice that the things which are crying out loud for extreme make over are still on far back burner like roads, electricity, drinking water and other basic necessities falling under this category. These things are part and parcel of every politician’s speech since our independence and I don’t doubt a little that it will maintain this status quo for next 5-6 decades. Right from class 1 in school I am reading that India is developing economy and seeing these things should we redefine the word ‘Developing’?

Indira Gandhi international terminal 3 at Delhi is the new talk of the town. India went gaga over it and why not it’s completing 1 year now and has world class facilities and infrastructure. During my two visits there I noticed its glam and was feeling proud about it. It’s really great feeling when you don’t see many things around to feel that way. The airport was under tight security to avert any possible mishaps around Independence Day. Then next day there was news on TV that the airport terminal T3 was in total blackout for more than 4 hours in night and backup generator also failed to work when it is supposed to. Moreover the maintenance staff was totally clueless about the reason for drama. The automatic gates were closed and the passengers inside the gate remained inside and same with people on outside. Many flights were delayed and passengers were kept stranding without any information. So this is how we call our self a developing nation.

Be it a village or metropolitan area people will throw garbage on streets. Eat mungfalli, popcorns, chiwdaa, bananas and just throw garbage around. It’s so common practice that people don’t feel anything about it at all. Forget about feeling anything they don’t even notice it as its embedded in daily life. Most prominent thing you will witness without fail is the modern art in every building staircase made from spitting Paan. It’s like a signature of being Indian – "Agar yeh nahi kia to kyaa kia?"

Advertising

2010-10-16T19:56:00.000+04:00

In the advertise freak world today no one cares about how to showcase what? Just that the advertize should be wacky tacky enough to fetch extra eyes and ears and create undue interest in people and hell lot of confusion in mind to think after all what is this adv is all about? Quite a few advertisements (TV commercials/ posters) are beyond imagination. Here I came across today with a advertisement for Guitar Strings. Dean Markley 8863 Jimi Hendrix NPS Medium Electric Guitar Strings. Here is his gimmicky poster. I don’t know what they want to convey with this poster but I will not be surprised if some Indian mythological group raising questions, starting protests, burning some effigies and enjoy day off from work. Just another day in Indian life and some work for people.

Pair of odd gloves

2010-10-09T18:29:00.003+04:00

This was incomplete story written on 01/21/2009 and I could complete it today 10/09/2010.

Something wrong with the alarm and I got up 13-15 min late. Usually who cares about 13-15 min? But morning time every minute and every second counts for me. Mine was already a tight schedule to get up and get out of house to catch train and so this was pretty late for me and I knew I have to push gas paddle now in order to get on the track. I showered in flash and skipped my breakfast, picked up my winter overcoat and was grabbing the gloves and I noticed that I just have one glove and lost other one. This was pain, I have to have gloves else my hands will just freeze to ice in this chilling Chicago winter. Good lord. I went to cupboard and luckily found another single glove which was alone as it has lost its partner last month. Being in situations like this doesn’t leave any damn option to a man other than to cover hands with gray and brown gloves. Pair of odd gloves.

I rushed to train seat and the first thing I did after keeping my bag is I removed my gloves quickly and dump them in my pockets, one each side. I don’t want many people to know about my wild taste of wearing different color gloves at same time. One must definitely think that these two must be my favorite colors and I don’t want to do any biasing between them; creepy. Some must be thinking that I am quite fashionable and trying to provoke latest fashion on the ramp, quite a nerd. So I didn’t want to have people put their thinking caps and just start imagining uncultivated thoughts in the wee hours of morning. (Yes of course 8 AM is not quite early not to call it as wee hours; especially for IT geeks). So while getting off the train I was trying to make it difficult for anyone to have sight of my both gloves at same time. It’s perfectly fine if someone sees one glove as, except he is not a normal person, he will think that I am wearing either gray pair or brown pair, or he will not think at all.

That was the first time in life I gave a thought that how casually we move our hands and now when I have small restriction, I was finding it something different as someone has tied me. I juggled with my bag kept it on my back and fixed hands in coat pocket and walked to elevator of my office.

I removed gloves and I didn’t want to think about it till end of the day. I started my daily work and ordered printer to print my worksheet for today, went to the printer and it was blinking out of paper. I fed it and let it go just to find that it ate paper inside and now was jammed. No matter what I tried, it didn’t budged. Hell!!!

I then went back to my desk and started doing customary stuff. Around 10, my colleague called for a coffee and I thought it will help. I filled my cappuccino cup and was casually walking over my desk with one eye staring at the beautiful lady sitting across boss’s cubicle also was listening to friend’s usual complaints about his wife. Out of the blue the coffee was all over me; someone came hastily and jerked me out. Now I was pissed off not because it was my favorite shirt but that lady was mockingly laughing at me. What a day!!!

I went to restroom and tried cleaning my shirt. You know what, this is one more disadvantage of drinking dark coffee; the stain won’t go so easily. I decided to be careful rest of the day and not to get involved in any activity welcoming any further trouble and my phone rang. It was call from my boss and he called me in cabin. He was asking about a job which was supposed to be done by yesterday and I was still working on that. I had no answer for him and left his cabin saying ‘I will do it today, till EOD (end of day)’… I sat late and finished the job till 7:00PM and walked out of office. Yaa that’s a hell lot of job.

Walking to train station takes me about 15 min, I walked for 5 min and suddenly it started raining. I checked for my umbrella in bag and found what, I left it at home. Now I had drench in rain. Normally I like getting drenched in rain from head to toe but not in office clothes!!! I thought this is because I was too quick for a shower in morning. I reached train station and was waiting for next train which was after an hour. I was getting bored and was dripping all over the place, thinking all about today. After a while a gal came and sat next to my seat in waiting area. She was good looking gal with dark hair. She smelled good and with her clothes and shoes I thought she maintained herself quite nicely.

“Hello”, I said.

“Hi” she said grinning at me.

“I am waiting for a train at 8:30. Are you waiting for the same train?” I asked. Questions are always good to kill time and I learned that from experience.

“Oh no I am waiting for 8:15 train; I missed my regular train today” she answered.

“I am Mike” and I extended my hand.

We shake hands when she said “I am Kim, nice to meet you”. She had lovely eyes and had lot of spirit in her.

“What do you do?” she asked

“I work in corporate office here 3 blocks across and I commute daily from suburb.”

“I also commute from suburb and I am doing my study and research in medicines at Northwestern hospital” she added.

“That’s nice, so you are doctor?” I asked.

“No, not yet. I am trying hard for that” she smiled.

“Do you have any pill on making everything as it should be and making a day as usual? A pill a day keeps trouble away?” I was waiting for her reaction.

“What?” She started laughing. “I hope it was there, need one for me, and especially today.. Oh God.. it was horrible…”. The word ‘Horrible’ sounded like it mean the same.

I was eager to hear her more and as I could see some similarity between us, at least for that day.

I said “Oh really, I bet it was not worse that mine”.

On seeing her eagerness I told all my story for day in brief right from coming to office, coffee, working late and then getting drenched in rain and now waiting for train for an hour. She listed it all with few tiny questions in between.

“Ohh.. Poor guy. It happens. Its rightly said that ‘Every dog has its day’, but at the same time it’s also correct that ‘Every day is not dog’s day…’ ” we both were laughing. I liked her humor and thought that she is great company to kill time talking all over.

“So what’s your story?” I asked.

“Oh nothing much.. just hard day. Not very uncommon for me.” She said with defiant smile.

I winked and didn’t say anything. Don’t know why but I did not feel like asking her details. Then it was a quiet moment between us and no one talked except the imaginative ticks of our watches.

She glanced at her watch and said “OK.. its time…”

She got up, picked her purse, brushed her hair with hand and smiled. “Ok bye..”

“See you when I see you” I said out of habit.

She walked few yards and I observed that she dropped something.

I got up quickly to return it to her and to my astonishment it was ‘Pair of odd gloves’.

I laughed at myself thinking within and she joined herself.

DISCLAIMER: -
Reason behind adding this disclaimer on later day are the people. My Friend contacted me talking about this story and started relating the same to his own acquaintances. He thought this story is real. I could see the raised eyebrows of my wife when she was asking about the same on phone.
So here it is.. I don't have any relations to this story; neither I have fantasy of wearing odd pair of gloves nor I ever met with any gal with same craving. The story is all FICTION and thoughts put down from a whimsical mind.

घर रेतीतले

2010-08-12T00:40:00.003+04:00

आयुष्यातल्या घटका असतात रेतीतल्या घरा सारख्या....अगदी क्षणभन्गुर...

घर सुंदर आणि मोठे झाले तर त्याचा माज नको... की घर तुटून गेले त्याचे दूख: नको....

आस्वाद घ्यायचा तर तो घर बांधण्यात गेलेल्या प्रत्तेक घडीचा....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Translation: All moments in life are like house built in sand.. very non-perpetual..

Neither be pompous if house is built very beautiful and grand nor mourn if it gets washed away…

What we need to enjoy is each moment spent in building the house..

Cool Facts

2010-07-27T19:59:00.000+04:00

I got an iPhone apps called Cool Facts and here I am sharing some of the facts I found interesting and worth my expert comments :)

I know men are unlucky in most of the cases when compared to Women but I could never ever
imagine that even nature would make unfair decision based on gender. I mean this is crazy. Unless it
means that only men go out for all the hard work and women just sit on couch watching TV soaps
where they are unlikely to get struck by lightning.

Ohh!! now I know the reason Babies are four times weaker than the pets in house.
After all its all going to pets and who am I to decide if people wants their pets healthy
than their babies.

This is for my wife. She always stops me cracking my fingers. I don't know why people in our community
believe that cracking of fingers is something evil and something bad would happen. Please enlighten me
if you are aware of this.

Ha ha ha!!! No comments. I thought its different at least in mosquitoes world.

I think this statement doesn't need anyone to shout out loud. This is 2nd best universal truth after
: 'Sun rises in east and sets in west'.

Does this give me strong enough reason why they feed dogs more than babies?

This is something which will make me proud but it will make more proud to another person: Mamata Banarjee. People are in
always look out for opportunity to take credit for things they have done nothing for. Indian Railways network originated because
Britishers strongly believed in importance of communication and then built rail system in India and now Indian government is
struggling to build and maintain good roads across country.

Thats the reason archeologist are getting hard times finding mummies. I wonder how it be after few more decades. Can they still use human bones as fuel? They will be available in abundance. hmm.. keeps me thinking of crazy ideas..

Humor – JFF *

2010-07-16T19:10:00.003+04:00

Gmail chat status message window is really a place where you can shout your heart out. That doesn’t necessarily mean you write appropriate and apt messages only. After all it’s your window and I guess it reflects your own personality. Yesterday my friend Alan has set his gmail status as: Set Status Here?? Okay...Happiest Bachelor On Planet Earth.

When I checked this I told him that I will reply his status message with my status message and I set message as: Every man should get married... After all Happiness is not the only thing in life..

Then I added another friend Jason in the chat who is about to lose his Bachelor’s degree and someone near to his heart will get her Master’s degree. The conversion went for a little while and then we dropped off. Here is the exact conversation:

You have invited Jason to this chat.

This is now a group chat. Add another person.

Jason Satarkar has joined.

Alan Nagpurkar has joined.

Jason: helo

Alan: both of our lines together makes them more humorous

Jason: good mirning

Alan: morning ya mirning

kya piya be

me: Jason: I have added my status message in reply to Alan’s status mesg

Alan: abey isako FB karo

awara pe

Jason: abe abhi utha hoo

me: i guess Jason is sandwitched in between two msgs

Alan: heheh

Sent at 8:28 AM on Thursday

Jason: hehehe

joke tha naa

Alan: juldi hi woh tere group mein aayega

me: Uthh ja Jason.. yeh joke nahi hai.. duniya ki sabse badi sacchai hai

Jason: haa yaar

me: aaj tuze bahut gyaan mila hai.. add this on FB and see how many replies u get for it

Jason: isiliye thoe aur din rehne do muje dream me

me: muze dosto ka happiness dekha nahi jata

Sent at 8:32 AM on Thursday

me: chaloo guys.. i m back to work.. have nice day ahead

keep dreaming.. it doesn't cost a penny

Jason: yep

sahi liine hai

ye daal dunga FB pe

Sent at 8:34 AM on Thursday

Jason Satarkar has left.

Alan Nagpurkar has left.

Jason Satarkar has left. Alan Nagpurkar has left and I was left alone with thoughts in my mind. Yes marriage is really indefinable in perfect terms. ‘Shadi ka laddoo. Khao to pachtao.. na khao to pachtaaoo…’. I have seen many of my friends getting married and changed a lot. Who says there is no medicine for one’s nature? I would say try marriage.

My friend told about my gmail status message to my dear wife and rest is history. It can’t get worse than your friend telling your wife about such things about you with all added Mirch Masala..

At the very end of the day I saw another friend’s gmail chat status message as: My advice to every man is to get married. If you get good wife you are lucky else you become Philosopher.

And I didn’t dare to chat further with him…

Appendix A: * JFF – Just for Fun

P.S. - Original names are replaced with dramatic names in futile effort to conceal identities of the characters.

BP stands for Big Problem

2010-06-04T18:14:00.003+04:00

When I was a small boy, I used to hear about

USA

that it’s a most developed nation and they have all cutting edge technologies and all that stuff. Most of the stories were simply unbelievable that time. One of my firm beliefs was that all Americans have robots at their homes to do all the work and they just sit on couch and order the robot to do all the jobs. How fascinating that was! (on other note: I realized later that Americans do have robots to follow their orders but they are not at their home but pretty far from the land back in China, India and other Asian countries… ). I swear to God I have not seen any robot in any American house as I have imagined by watching those silly sci-fi movies back in my childhood.

Now when my brain is getting news feeds from various sources and my obnoxious mind force me to think on some of them I feel surprised sometimes; in fact many times. The BP mega oil spill is the most recent ones grabbing my attention. BP a very big name in petroleum world and

USA

probably biggest name in our living world couldn’t do much to stop the spill even on 45^th day of the mishap, isn’t that unbelievable? More unbelievable is the fact that government didn’t took any step within first 7 days of the spill was simply slobbering over it. This has thrown hefty dust on what I had perceived in past about

America

. I know they are trying their level best but come on this is now a biggest oil spill in history of

America

and being so developed and advanced no one has answer to the crisis? Absurd what else? British Petroleum who was minting money through the oil business didn’t care much to cover up measures in such crisis situations? Where were safety measures? What went wrong so much that this oil spill has become Obama’s Katrina? I will not be surprised if he is getting nightmares seeing him floating in his white house swimming pool along with wife and kids and suddenly sees oil all around.

BP is now spending millions to mop the oil from coasts with rugs and few more millions to think the next steps after disastrous failure of their previous two attempts of Mud filling and cut and cap operations. BP is now playing it safe by not giving the estimates as to when are they expecting to block the hole. They are coming with apologizing campaigns and TV ads to general public for which they have spent around $50 million. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is crazy over the idea of building sand barricades along the coasts to prevent oil reaching on shores. This reminded me of the sand castles children build on beaches and are washed away by tides or dusted away by gusty winds. Doesn’t the same apply here? After all these sand berms are just sand walls. Scientist agree that this is not the best way to fight with oil spill but the state is going forward with public notion as people feel that’s the only way they can fight with this crisis. What about expenses on this task which is not so promising towards the goal? Yes I have a number for this too. BP is spending $360 million on building these sand walls on LA and Louisiana coasts. Hmm.. that’s way much spending on children’s sands castle.

People are angry on Obama that he is not so angry on BP for this mistake and Obama has only one sentence to say whenever he gets chance to speak in public: ‘I am furious on BP. This happened because someone has not analyzed the consequences and was not ready for it. BP is accountable for all this mess and the clean up’. Politicians are asking BP CEOs to go back to

Britain

and pollute there. Such is the public anger for BP that software companies working for BP asked the consultants not to wear T shirts with BP logos and go out in public. No one is talking about financial loss to BP due to this oil spill because the natural loss, water pollution and the severity of damage to aqua life is many folds compare to financial loss. People are staying away from Florida which is one of the hottest summer vacation destinations and guess what oil has not reached to Florida beaches as of now. People are cancelling their hotel reservations and staying away from beaches. Why? Just fear. It’s a doom time for hotel industry there in their boom season. BP has taken responsibility of the spill but what about the impacts and consequences which are indirectly due to this mishap? Fishing and hence sea food restaurants have suffered a major blow as most of the fishing areas are declared closed by government.

Lets see where does this oil spill takes us in coming days.

Woh Kagaz Ki Kashti

2010-05-20T00:45:00.001+04:00

Every time I hear this Gazal, it takes me back in time and I am sure its the same with you.

ye daulat bhii le lo, ye shoharat bhii le lo
bhale chhiin lo mujhase merii javaanii
magar mujhako lautaa do bachapan kaa saavan
vo kaagaz kii kashtii, vo baarish kaa paanii

muhalle kii sabase nishaanii puraanii
vo budhiyaa jise bachche kahate the naanii
vo naanii kii baaton mein pariyon kaa deraa
vo chahare kii jhuriryon mein sadiyon kaa pheraa
bhulaae nahiin bhuul sakataa hai koi
vo chhotii sii raaten vo lambii kahaanii

kadii dhuup mein apane ghar se nikalanaa
vo chidiyaa vo bulabul vo titalii pakadanaa
vo gudiyaa kii shaadii mein ladanaa jhagadanaa
vo jhuulon se giranaa vo gir ke sambhalanaa
vo piital ke chhallon ke pyaare se tohafe
vo tuutii hui chuudiyon kii nishaanii

kabhii ret ke unche tiilon pe jaanaa
gharaunde banaanaa banaake mitaanaa
vo maasuum chahat kii tasviir apanii
vo kvaabon khilaunon kii jaagiir apanii
na duniyaa kaa gam thaa na rishton ke bandhan
badii khuubasuurat thii vo zindagaanii

Golden Voice - Jagjit Singh

- तुम आये -

2010-04-29T18:32:00.007+04:00

- Click the Picture for Full view -

The Culprit

2010-04-28T17:52:00.001+04:00

Couple of weeks back something happened to my blog. It was all fine in Firefox but in IE (which is still market leader despite of desperate attempts by N number of browsers) it was messed up. I tried changing layout design, copying templates, staring blankly at the html code to get some distant hint but all was in vain.
Yesterday I downloaded Google Chrome and then did some analysis. Found the culprit and fixed it. When I changed the blog layout last I added a post with Title 'Face-Off' to list new features of the new layout but I guess something went wrong there and the very same post got corrupted. It was showing blank post and was blocking older posts links too. So did the clean up and here I go.

Also did some cosmetic changes to the layout again and hope I will stay with this now :)

BTW I came up to this cute video and here I am sharing with you. This cute little boy is next Atif Aslam..

Master in rare pics

2010-04-04T02:57:00.001+04:00

[Edited: Dec 6th 2012]

Visited this post after a while just to notice that the pics are not showing up. I guess I pasted them from other links and not the pics themselves. From next time I will download the pics to my picasa and then use them. I will be master of my own destiny. Lesson Learned.

You can still enjoy Little Master's rare pics here -

http://worldphotocollections.blogspot.com/2009/11/sachin-tendulkar-rare-photo-collection.html

SACH is Life

2010-02-26T08:58:00.003+04:00

To the greatest Cricketer and the wonderful person. Here are some famous quotes from not so famous personalities...

I received this as a forward from my friend and I want to share with some more people. After all SACH is Life..

@Hashim Amla

"Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it."
Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight
-----------------

@yaseer hameed

"Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job."
-----------------

"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"

- What Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin
-----------------

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives"

BBC on Sachin
-----------------

But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers would not fix the odds - or a game - until Tendulkar was out.

"Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?"

Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch.

-----------------

@Brian Charles Lara

Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal.

-----------------

@Mark Taylor

"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin"

- Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)
-----------------

@Andrew Flintoff

"I don’t bowl to Sachin, to get him out, but I bowl to impress him "
-----------------

@M. L. Jaisimha:

"The more I see of him the more confused I'm getting to which is his best knock."
-----------------

@McGrath

"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility -all make for a one-in-a-billion individual"
-----------------

@Wife Anjali

"I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play,"
-----------------

by HAYDEN - i feel is the best SACHIN QUOTE

he said

"I HAVE SEEN GOD, HE BATS AT NO.4 FOR INDIA"
-----------------
My Personal Best

"Even my father's name is Sachin Tendulkar."

Tendulkar's daughter, Sara, tells her class her father's name after the teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai
-----------------
KUMBLE :

I am fortunate that I've to bowl at him only in the nets!
-----------------
@ shahrukh

quoting Shahrukh from an interview

Que: Who do you think as most important celebrity ?

Shahrukh: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan.

Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!
-----------------

@Navjot Singh Sidhu

India me aap PrimeMinister ko ek Baar Katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin Tendulkar par Ungli nahi utha Sakte..
-----------------
@waqar younis

He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also .
-----------------

A banner once said-

' I WILL SEE GOD WHEN I DIE BUT TILL THEN I WILL SEE SACHIN '

that quiet defines Sachin-The greatest.
-----------------
Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world

-- Allan Donald
-----------------

And i remember reading in one of Allan Donald's interview. This interview was in Cricket Talk and 7-8 yrs ago.

I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.
-----------------

Peter Rebouck - aussie journalist

On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!!
-----------------
NKP Salve, former Union Minister

This was when he was accused of ball tempering

"Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It's clear discrimination."
-----------------

Andy Flower:

There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.
-----------------

------------ SACHIN : Words in Dictionary can't justice to what HE is. - Agasti

Justice? At what expense?

2010-01-18T22:40:00.003+04:00

“Kanoon ke Haath bahut lambe hote hai” but how much should we feed kanoon to get its hands on real justice? Can anyone imagine how much government spends in pending courts cases? Why do we keep stranding on terrorist cases and give time to them to either flee away from jails or to get another aircraft high-jacked by terrorist asking to release these wild terrorist in return of poor hostages? I agree that India has now ‘No negotiation pact’ for such cases but I don’t think India will never bow down if top officials or political figures are held as hostages. This reminded me ‘A Wednesday’ movie.

We are spending millions to keep these captured terrorists alive and keep them secured. Why Kasab is still alive; for justice and to dig out some more information from him? In every court hearing he is talking all bullshit. He is contradicting every statement he told in previous hearing, constantly blabbering crap. Not to mention his demands for urdu newspapers, books, mutton biryani and what not… He still believes he is in terrorist training camp or on vacations to some hill station. Today’s news in TOI made me write this article. Now he says that all of the four terrorists attacking Taj hotel were Indians and he can recognize them seeing their faces. Yes definitely he will, until next court hearing and then he will ask “Who these are? I have not seen these faces in my whole life”. What is he thinking of himself? All these statements will not make any difference in the case against him but will just pass the time of court. Why are we blaming Pakistan government for not supporting in this case when India is not strong enough to get its lines straight? When we have these many issues in our system, it’s a cake walk for Pakistan to dabble the issue left and right.

Whenever some politician or fat wallet figure is involved in any case, these cases are simply on hold for hearings and huge amount is wasted in all these for ages. These amounts can be prudently utilized to solve other basic and vital problems like food, electricity and home for Juntaa. Yes there is need for Justice but at what expense? In my view a special courts should be dedicated only for such stranded cases and efforts should be made to close these cases ASAP. Punish them whoever are guilty, catch hold of them who are out on bails with pending cases, release those innocent people who are framed and jailed. I am sure many prisoners who have done minor crimes are spending their lives behind bars waiting for court to call their name. How much and to what extent can we afford this? Just talks and no solution. This is the reason sometimes I feel old justice of shooting a terrorist/rapist in public from some of the gulf countries is most effective solution.

People are taking court for granted and advocates are filling their pockets by all the possible illegal means, keeping cases without any end results. It’s high time for Indian government to rethink its judiciary system policies and make amendments for betterment of justice and equally betterment for society. After all we are developing country and can’t be in this stage for ever if we want to step up from developing to developed nation.

Craving blankness

2010-01-15T20:51:00.001+04:00

Feeling lonely.. Kind of vast emptiness in me.. this feeling kills me. I try to get engaged in N number of activities but sometime I am helpless and simply can't get over it. Its lack of work for mind which opens many doors and mind starts roaming un-directionally. This is really crazy. I am sure it’s not only me and many people must be sailing in same boat but what one can do in these situations. Started writing on this and my subconscious mind told my conscious mind ‘Leave it man..’

Trying to console my mind.. “Chachu.. Aal iz well.. Aal iz well..”

HappYness - Highly subjective complication

2010-01-04T23:55:00.002+04:00

Are you Happy? It’s a simple, short and frequent question but with a equally convoluted and obscure answer. We are victim to this question at every decision taken (wrong or right) at each state of life (positive or negative). Libraries are filled with racks of books on happiness or subjects contiguous to it but yet it feels like the main subject in itself still remains un-discussed, inexplicable and very conceptual. Yes it is, as the foremost reason for it is because happiness is not some scientific phenomenon which you can be bonded in definition or it’s not a mathematical derivation which can be expressed in formula at the same time it’s not a software program where you can limit its scope within a flowchart and technical designs. In my true sense it’s a state of mind and varies widely with each and every thought of not only an individual mind but also with each thought of same mind.

The ‘pursuit of happyness’ is never ending never culminating. It’s forever and ever. Money and prosperity are most commonly misconceptioned measures of calculating happiness but as they say money can buy bed but can’t buy sound sleep (not over pills, grass, weed or pot ), can buy house but not home so in the same way it can buy lot of other things which encircle happiness but not happiness itself. You don’t need lot of wealth for being happy; there is no direct or exponential relation between both of these. Everyone is happy to get first job and the salary is rarely comparable to our jobs now and so are the happiness in opposite way. The amount of joy and contentment I got from my first salary was immense and I was on cloud 9. Days changed, state changed and it changed my measure of happiness. It happens with everyone and each has to get along it. I would be happy to work in USA, now hen I am in USA, I would be happy to go back and work in India, then after working there for some period; I will again change my mind. It’s a virtual happiness based on place.

During my recent trip to India I visited my village and went to my farms. The kind of happiness in a simple food we had there with OUR people can’t match with the joy I could get from expensive delicacy dishes around the world in glittering hotels. So what is that which defines happiness? I can’t think of anything exist as such. Sometimes we try to find happiness in hobbies and to some extent we get it but that’s momentarily. Happiness is always transiently and hence I think many sages went wandering paths for their whole lives in search of enduring happiness. Is that what they call as ‘Moksha’ or that’s also another state of mind which we can’t justify and explain and hence we named it as enduring happiness?

For a common person like me, small things bring big joy with them. I try to live and over enjoy that moment because I know, that moment will not last than the determined period and after that things will fall in level and won’t amuse me the same. You can either always be in pursuit of happYness or can accumulate grains of happiness from routine things we do, witness and fall victims to.

Fall of the Sovereign

2009-12-18T01:44:00.001+04:00

In recent history of 10 years BJP has seen a lot. As a popular party it had to undergo many situations mostly of Bad news type and scanty on positive side. I remember those days where BJP was all over the place and it had strong hold in Maharashtra with its allies Shivsena. There was a time when I used to love BJP and was kind of backing them up. That time I never voted for them as I wanted to but couldn’t; being still without voter card. Now that I have a voter card and I can vote still I guess I won’t vote in their favor. Why? I don’t know. You can say that I don’t believe any more in BJP as a party and their ideologies.

Mr Adwani is quitting as a leader of opposition party and Mr Rajnath Singh is following him. Don’t you think this should have been done years ago? Anyways better late than…..

I remember the slogans like ‘Mandir wahi Banayenge…’ and ‘Feel good’. I think whole ideology of the party is based on Hindutva which is not bad at all. But the twists and moldings given to the meanings of Hindutva backfired at the party name. The ‘feel good’ slogan which failed miserably and the Aam Janta of India has done few things, made sure that BJP will never feel good in near future days. The moments like Babri Majid fall, Pramod Mahajan killing, Godhra kaand committee results has blotted their linens so badly that bags and bags of Tide, aerial, surf, Rin or any detergent combined can’t wash them clean. Atal Bihari Vajpayee emerged as prime minister and nation was feeling to be in safe hands. I won’t be exaggerating if I say he was one of the most popular prime ministers India ever had. He had such an influence due to his vocalizations that ears used to get glued to hear his speech. I remember the day when he was forced to step down after being prime minister for 13 days and in my view that was the time BJP started the down fall.

Being Information and broadcasting minister, late Mr. Pramod Mahajan has done a lot for country. He gained lot of respects and won many hearts but once he left things started coming up against him as to what kind of person he was. What’s true what’s not, who knows? His younger brother Pravin Mahajan shot him over a dispute and fired 4 bullets. Pravin was sentenced life term imprisonment and recent news flashed that he was lying critical in hospital. The things which he reveled about Pramod Mahajan in his book are really astonishing and are really questionable if they are fact or just frustration out of estranged brother.

After getting 48 extensions in 17 years and spending whooping 8-10 crores rupees, finally the Liberhan report was submitted this year. It opened many closed hidden doors and opened discussions around the world. Fingers were again raised at prominent BJP leaders and this again darkened the blot. Do you think party will rise again when there are so many prejudices among themselves? BJP fighting within and Shivsena the allies of BJP are fighting with MNS?

Late Mr Lal Bahadur Shastri himself stepped down from prime minister on the grounds of India Pakistan war. Politics was not bad at that time there was still some righteousness in it. Can we somehow expect it today or I am asking for something illusionary?

New songs: Dhingana

2009-12-16T03:49:00.004+04:00

After so many days I am listening to unknown new movie songs and they sound good in fact not only good but great, so here are these. Listen from here enjoy... I know Atif Aslam has entered to many hearts right from front door. He is my favorite too. Some of his songs are also in this list.

Hamara Bajaj

2009-12-11T18:35:00.012+04:00

- Hamara Kal -

Few things are not meant for something and unknowingly they just overhaul their cause for bigger grounds. In my fair view ‘Hamara Bajaj’ is one of those few things. There was time in India where only super rich guys were able to move around in automobiles and bicycles were the most common vehicle for middle class Janta. Then was the golden time of Bajaj Scooters and it did not made entry in our houses but straight in our hearts. Even the TV commercial for Bajaj scooters used to touch us and it even does today.

Scooter was common man’s car, huge leg space, can seat 3 sometimes 4, 5 and some time whole Family used to happily fly. The front leg space was utilized to hang vegetables, grocery bags even sometimes LPG cylinders. I know when pappa got his scooter; I was so happy to ride and was cleaning it every morning before pappa’s office time.

Since engine was on one side it had an advantage with disadvantage. Plus point is that it had a small closed box space on one side to keep some more things. And minus point is the one which make scooters unique. Before hitting on kick to fire it up, it has to bend to the ground on engines side and then kick it. A very inimitable and exclusive method. (Without peeping into technical glitch; I think it has to do something with petrol flow in engine)

‘Hamara Bajaj’ marked an era of vehicles on Indian roads and surely pushed people ahead of time. Few days back TOI flashed front page news about Bajaj rolling off scooter manufacturing and this news took me back to the times.

Buland Bharat ki buland Tasveer…. Hamara Bajaj.

- Hamara Aaj -

Shades of Nature

2009-12-07T23:01:00.001+04:00

Simple thing for a person might be never understandable thing in whole life for another and to think that why doesn’t he get this simple thing creates whole situation. Yes things are same but their simplicity or complexity, any other forms and factors depends on how it is looked. Situation is barely touched by the phrase ‘Beauty lies in the eyes of be-holder’ or by the story of ‘Elephant and blind men’. You are getting frustrated over a contestant who is struggling to answer a simple question in your favorite TV shows. You almost shout answer in front of TV and get fumed why does these idiots get selected for such shows? Yes this is just a simple example.

Don’t you think there are such things and situations raised due to such things can tense relationships? You know your friend is in love with a person who for some reason is not of good conduct or behavior in your view. You tried to convince your friend to stay away from that person but he is not getting your point. Why is that two friends with very nice chemistry and matching wave lengths for so many years can’t understand this simple thing now? I don’t think there is any common rules or framework for all these situations as to justify when and why this will happen. I don’t believe there is any book explaining ‘100 ways to tackle such situations’. It’s completely abstract, inexplicable and weird(Weird: things we don’t understand and can’t talk much about). Knowingly, unknowingly everyone of us passes thru such moments at very steps of life and severity of these things vary. Some are kind of ‘Forget it…’ and some are ‘Life changing’.

How far would you go to explain a thing to your friend which he is very keen into and you know he has chosen a wrong path? Can you go till breaking a friendship? Yes. No. May be. Things get complicated when in some situations you are also not sure what’s fair and what’s not? What if you convinced someone to listen to you and after a period of time you realized that you were absolutely wrong? Can you make up for the time passed? Can you forgive yourself? Can you dare to confront the same person?

Things may not be same as they appear and even if they are still can differ in different pair of eyes.
Should I call it shades of nature?

http://www.deals2buy.com/

2009-12-07T20:28:00.002+04:00

Check this cool website..
If i have to buy something I browse this website first to find deals.

http://www.deals2buy.com/

Time has wings

2009-10-23T20:34:00.000+04:00

I know time has wings and its flutter speed varies vastly. Interestingly as it can fly forward, it can march backwards too. Time when each hour passes like seconds – Exam time. Time when each second pass like hour – on the way to India….

Yes time has wings and I believe in it utterly. When I think of my frineds and those good old school days, the time flies backward and this virtual time machine pushes me in a galore of memories. Most of the memories are still fresh in my mind and some needs to be dusted out. Last couple of months when time was in real crunch and life was so busy that there was no time to see whats the time. Coming out of cocoon of sub-consious world to nasty real consious world my clock was starting at 6 in morning and never rested till midnight. Things lined up one after another and another after another and yet another after next another and time was just flying.

Lets see how it will be from today as there is vast shift in circumstances, surrounding and many and almost all factors. No office for next 3 weeks and no driving in traffic for daily 2 hours. But another lot many things to add. I feel its like that schoolish definition of energy. Energy cannot be create nor destroyed; it can be transformed from one form to another. I think its same with time. Rightly said and defined. Just that those are the beliefs of our whimsical mind.. don’t you think so?

Now and then...

2009-10-18T21:10:00.003+04:00

As rightly said in my first blog that I am always bit hesitant and hence to start a new thing; be it a blogging, Orkut or face book (FB). Ya Twitter is yet far away I guess. I think it’s in my nature now. I registered FB around 3 years ago but never got a hang of it. After using Orkut for a considerable amount of time I took lil time to get acquainted with FB face (cover page) and when it was on my iphone, I felt it’s simpler than I made it in my mind. The ease and utility being FB in iphone was simply superb and it hardly took any time to ride or pre-conscious thoughts.
Though all the games in FB are kind of alien zone for me, I think time will come for that too. Or never? Who knows? Time will lift the fog. Right now I am fed up from the clutter on FB pages showing updates from others with Mafia war, Farmville etc. I have to shut them off.

On another note climate has changed vastly and the fall is even over before the start. It was un-usually cold for the start of winter and most leaves kissed earth without color transformation. I kind of hate that. Fall color is what I like and the transition from summer-fall-winter is simply superb (schumma-adardillee - Tamil). If I compare this climate change to Indian winter, I remember those days where we used to cuddle around the fire warming our blood in veins. Winters were like winters and now it’s really hot even in September-October too. Diwali was considered to be in winter and now it’s kind of shifting from winter to summer. Lost are those days where we used to get up early in Diwali days wrapped in sweaters and rush to bathroom for the hot water auspicious bath (Abhyang Snaan - Marathi). We had a kind of competition to get ready and have first special Diwali breakfast. That time this festival was all about new clothes, fire crackers, lot of food and school vacations. We used to get lot of homework for diwali which I used to complete in a day or two so that I have whole stretch of 15 days for enjoying without worrying about my homework and the thrashing from teacher if I couldn’t complete homework.
Joint celebration of Diwali at our old house at village was fun I am missing today. We all kids used to get our shares of crackers and everyone was hiding from each other so that no one should know where our crackers are. Gone are those golden days. Gone with time.

Now life is in fast lane. Office, cell phone meetings, email ids and cell numbers have replaced friends’ faces. Many of them lost in their own run of life, in their own small circles. Gone are the days when we used to meet at our adda every evening for the gossips and all the news and talks of the town. Few bucks saved from expenditure (or from pocket money which some of my friends used to get from their parents and I was envy about that for small span of time) were enough for the grand treat. What I feel now that the definitions of each and every thing, be it small or big, important or useless has changed. I know change is inevitable and unavoidable but sometimes I really feel that God should have given me wish that I can restrict at least 5 things from changing their form. I wonder what could have been in my list? Hmm.. hmm.. Pretty interesting…

I know I have moved from topic 1 to topic 2 and topic 3 to topic 347189 but I think it's all well as long as my heart speaks and not my mind..

My experiments with Gardening

2009-09-19T18:02:00.003+04:00

Being a multi-hobbiest animal, if someone asks me about my hobby, I have to name a few and gardening is one of them. I have no doubts that I have acquired this love from my dear mom. My mom is real passionate about plants and this green habitat, no wonder she finds time from her busy schedule for her lovely garden; she does manage watering plants even in scarce water problems in my region (Akola, Maharashtra). We don't have bore-well at home and that's really not a problem for not having water as most of the bore-wells in our colony are dead dry. We get water from our taps once in a week(and now they are talking about once in 15 days) and that's only water source for livelihood. Still out garden is green and plants are blooming.

I remember those days when we used to live in small rented house and never had a big backyard for gardening. My mom used to plant trees in whatever available container and there were trees in almost every nook and corner of our home. Near TV, in windows, on stairs, hanging from ceilings and almost every place. No wonder trees make our surrounding pleasant. I always helped mom in gardening and from there I picked this hobby. Apart from planting flowering trees, we used to plant vegetables like cauliflower, egg plant(brinjal), some beans, bitter melon, lady finger onions etc. I remember once we had around 10-15 types of cactus in our garden and most of the people will be surprised to know how beautiful flowers can bloom on cactus. They are brilliantly bright colored and very attractive. Most of them last for almost 10-15 days on plant but I remember a cactus which bloomed only once in our home and the flowers were pure white in color and bloom only for a night. Surprisingly they were so aromatic that they can easily beat jasmine which is well known for its fragrance. Now with bigger home and enough space for gardening we have fruit trees like Banana, papaya, guava, mango, custard apple etc. We even have lotus in a small tank.

Being away from home for almost for 6 years now and living as a bachelors at many places, love for plants didn't budge for me but considering different constraints at various places I couldn't do much. Still I always had at least a pot or two for my plants. Now when I moved to separate apartment with my life partner, I got a chance to have my little patio garden(8 X 5 feet). I planted daffodils and tulips in the season and now that their season is over they are replaced by marigold, zenias and some ornamental annuals. Tomatoes are dwelling nicely on my tomato trees and I am waiting for chilies to show up now. With some trips to nursery, I came to know about various varieties of tomatoes like big boy, early girl, cherry tomatoes, better boy, Amish tomatoes, plum tomatoes, Roma tomatoes etc and their maturity periods. They vary in fruit size, plant size, tastes, maturity times and these are the factors which helps to pick varieties for your garden. I choose Amish and Roma tomatoes as their plants are comparatively smaller so that I can plant them in pots and they suits close to our Indian taste buds. I learned that tomatoes plants are very rigid and hence can grow in almost any climate, place and that's the reason they are first choice for home garden. Very innovative and funny way to grow tomatoes is in topsy-turvy fashion. People grow them in hanging baskets upside down.

My garden is warm welcome to my friends in our home and for me it's a place of my own. Many times I sit in my little garden enjoying my cup of tea. Though Chicago has extreme climates but it won't stop anyone from gardening, just that we will have to bend a little to blend with city's climate.

Here are some pics of my garden, hope you like them. Keep walking, keep working...Keep your heart green.

Early morning Mural

2009-05-23T14:16:00.000+04:00

Its 4:30 AM, the time I have rarely seen with my open eyes; often enjoying in deep sleep in cozy warm blanket. Today is something different and reminded me of those days in schools where we used to go for trips and picnics. I could hardly sleep a night before the tour. It was all excitement which would bring zillions of butterflies in my stomach and I used to get up before I sleep… Since I have a little time to get ready and get started to march over the capital, Washington DC, I am scribing this one.

Its almost 12 hrs drive from here and we decided to start at 6 AM (considering the lag as we estimate since we follow Indian standard timings). Drive is through Pittsburgh and according to our plan we will have our lunch in the famous temple there. We will be crossing borders of many states. Since I am travelling with another friend and his family it will be super fun to drive along together in van. When alarm buzzed at 4:00 AM, I thought it’s a mistake and why I kept alarm at 4:00? Crazy me? It took me around 5 minutes to come alive in world of reality and I got up. So yes that’s the change from school days and my today’s life where I used to wake up before the clock… anyways, lot many things changes over time as they say ‘Nothing stays constant, but the change’ or something like that. (On another note: I think in recent history if someone has utilized the word ‘The change’ copiously is Mr. Obama.. no matter we are yet to witness it…. Is that a reason I am marching towards DC??? No way… Let everyone manage their own worries.)

Since bags were packed at night only, now I just have to freshen myself and drive to my friend’s place. Considering this warm weather we are all geared up with summer costumes and stuff and not to mention my all weather companion… my camera. It’s beautiful morning and now I am thinking what’s more pleasant; the cold breeze through my bedroom window or the chirping birds outside who woke up without any alarm? I heard this sound after years and still ear pleasing.

Whole day I will be on road. Hope to write more about this trip.
See you when I see you

Catching up

2009-05-14T07:32:00.004+04:00

As in the world where Mallika Sherawat is endorsing the milk shake brand, in IPL Delhi Daredevils topped the chart with yet another stupendofuntabulouslyfantastic (word I derived from Geeta Kapoor from Dance India Dance) performance, I finished preparing my cabbage curry and my wife is super glued to cell phone on India call, I am writing this post. Nothing to do much with all those facts as this one; I have not written in last couple of weeks. Since spring has finally sprung in my part of planet and things are looking quite bright n fresh. My recent activities include playing tennis, roaming around on weekends and especially to mention gardening. Yes I am doing some gardening in my 6X4 feet patio. Right now it is growing some perennials, 3 tomato plants (2 Roma and 1 Amish paste), six different marigold plants. Daffodils and some tulips were blooming few weeks before and since their season is over I will have to replace them by some other plants. Fortunately unlike job market my garden has vacancies. Most probably vacancies are to be filled with some chilies, spinach and mint.

Strategic hunger break: will continue this one after Dinner… she will kill me if I am not there at dining table in next 3.5 second…

OK I am back after devouring my dinner. So what I have been doing in last few weeks? I visited Chicago botanical garden in spring and it was really nice experience. We roamed a lot, clicked tons of snaps and witnessed ultimate beauty of nature. It was real feast for eyes. All sorts of plants, flowers were simply amazing. Though I think special attraction there are the bonsai trees and the 3 tropical glass houses specializing plants from different regions on globe. Arid, tropical and one more I don’t remember. After all roaming we were hungry like anything. We served ourselves and filled our plates with all foods and nature didn’t like it. It suddenly started cold breeze and followed by rain. I have never seen such a fast changeover ever. It was matter of few minutes and season changed from spring back to winter again. Finally we finished our buffet sitting in car with doors closed.

Season change was momentary and last weekend we visited Starved rock state park just 70 miles from my place. I went there for the second time only to find spring is THE best season to visit this place. The park is situated at the bank of Illinois River and its spectacular views attract tourists, nature lovers and shutterbugs from distant places. The park serves as camping ground and other attractions like horse riding, canoeing etc are available in particular seasons. We were four people and everyone was in proper mood to enjoy the weather, no one was party pooper. Again we took loads of snaps and the freshness was so crisp clear in snaps that I have already seen them thrice.

Before our botanical garden trip, we visited indoor water park in Wisconsin dells just to start off summer. It was just nice but nothing much to write about it.
I took some time to walk just nearby my place and took some snaps. Being away from HMX office for a week now, I am working from my company’s office which is quite near to home. Cutting off travel time is a major plus but sacrificing my book reading in train and downtown walks. After all life is equation of plus and minus right…?? (Philosophical .. ha ha )
Just before sharing some pics below, I have ordered new laptop for me and this time I thought to take chance with DELL. Let’s see my share of luck…

I will try to write more often.

ZakkasBhel@StarvedRock.com

Beautiful waterfall

Captured near my home. This is my current wallpaper

The Bonsai

alvidaa.......

Face for my Rupee

2009-04-21T01:15:00.004+04:00

I was always wondering why Rupee has not got his face, a symbol which is globally known just like dollar ($) or pound (£). Even the lesser value cent has its own symbol (¢) then why not we. Is there any specific prerequisite for a nation to raise certain level to have a symbol for their currency? I don’t think so and to confirm my stance, Iran, Nigeria and Hungary are in the list of countries with currency symbol. I am sure they aren’t something special.

Every time I refer rupee, I have to write as Rs. or INR and incidentally Rs. is the same for Pakistan too. So now Government of India is taking steps towards mission of assigning a symbolic character to our rupee and making it eminent across the globe. Here I find the Times of India’s poll showing all the possible possibilities and plausibilities for a future rupee symbol from their designers. We can vote for the symbol you want and also can give your own designed symbol. Who knows your symbol might get selected and you will be in the league of those who became prominent overnight. TOI will suggest these poll results along with new suggestions to Ministry of Finance to take final decision (Not sure what’s their dead-line for this project).

You can vote for these at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rupeesurvey.cms

For more info on currency symbols: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_sign

Tears

2009-04-16T00:47:00.005+04:00

“Do you write poems?” if someone asks this to me I can’t actually answer this question in a solitary word as Yes on No. It’s all about the frequency of writing poems. I started writing poems 6th or 7th grade I think; but never took it to serious level. I wrote another Marathi poem ‘Pazaay’ in my engineering 2nd year and that was published in college year book and that I would consider my first poem. Many people liked that and told me to continue with writing those. I donno. I am not like that person who can write good poem whenever he wants. I can’t force my self and that’s the reason my second poem was after almost more than seven years (yes you read it right) gap from the first one. So here it goes for you.

Poem is in Marathi so for all my non-marathi friends I will try to explain it to my level best but I am damn sure I can’t express those feelings in English. I will try to get as closer as I can.

अश्रू

होऊ दे अश्रू पुन्हा,
डोळ्यातून तुझ्या रडू दे;
ओझरता थेंब तो ओंजळीत
क्षणभर पापण्यात नडू दे...

वाटेत सुखांच्या मी,
दुखांना कुरुवाळीत गेलो;
अस्तीर त्या धूख्याना
आता तरी गळू दे...

वेडाचे भस्म माथी,
होवोनी फकीर हिंडलो;
पींड तुझ्या हाताने
झोळीत माझ्या पडू दे...

शेळ्या कोम्बळ्याची झुंज,
हर्षे पहिली मी सारी;
यातना भोगावयास माझ्या
माझे मलाच लढू दे...

उदयास सुर्य येईल,
एक दिवस तो सुजाण;
आहुती होऊनी आता
सरणावर एकटाच जळू दे...

भय कोणा नको निशेचे,
कोन्डत त्या स्मशाणात;
वेली बकूळ फुलांची
थडग्यावर माझ्या दरवळू दे...

ओझरता थेंब तो ओंजळीत, क्षणभर पापण्यात नडू दे...
ओझरता थेंब तो ओंजळीत, क्षणभर पापण्यात नडू दे...

Theme: Repent or something like that. I am a person (in poem) who has enjoyed his life as he wants. I didn’t care damn about anyone. In fact I hurt many and countless knowingly and didn’t felt anything about any one of them at all. Now I am at the end of my life. When I glance back I see what I have done in my life; all the picture is blood red. I am sure that no one can forgive me no matter what I do now and hence I am not apologizing to any one at all. I have something to say or but can’t say anything to anyone. So I am just wishing my last wish.

Poem title: Tears

Stanza 1:
Let me become tears and cry through your eyes.
But before I drop in you palms, let me rest a moment on your eyelids.

Stanza 2:
While walking on the path of happiness, I cuddled many grieves.
Let those wobbly fogs reconcile at least now.

Stanza 3:
With ashes of craziness on my forehead, I wandered like itinerant.
(Now this line is difficult to explain. In India when a person die, his relatives will give a piece of food to crows as a ritual and when crows eat that, people think that the immortal soul will get Mukti(freedom) and will RIP in heaven. That piece of food is called ‘pind’ in Marathi and the old cloth bag which beggar or nomads use for collecting food is called ‘Zoli’.)
Let the ‘Pind’ fall in my ‘zoli’ with your own hands.

Stanza 4:
I have seen lot many fights of goats or cocks (cockfighting was popular rural activity in old times for entertainment and some of the cocks will die in those fights.) and I saw them very happily.
Let me fight my self alone now to bear all these pains and aches.

Stanza 5:
There will be sunrise of sprite (fairness) one fine day.
But at least let me burn myself in crematorium unaided like an ‘Aahuti’ used in ‘Yagnya’. (‘Aahuti’ is the wood/dried twigs used in burning sacred fire or yagya which is Hindu ritual before starting any auspicious or important work. It is done in a belief of keeping all troubles away from this important task undertaken.)

Stanza 6:
Let there be no fear to anyone in that dread crematory.
Let the vine of ‘Bakuli’ bloom on my grave. (‘Bakuli’ are tiny white flowers with sweet fragrance which you can smell from a long distance)

Before I drop in you palms, let me rest a moment on your eyelids.
Before I drop in you palms, let me rest a moment on your eyelids.

Disclaimer: This poem is just an expression of my thoughts considering a virtual character. It has no relation close or distant to my life or anyone’s life or death with or without creeper of or any flowers or thorns on his or her grave. May this virtual being RIP.

Hit by Fortune

2009-04-13T22:32:00.004+04:00

In this recession time we all know what’s the real value of money and how difficult is to make money, save money. But now my time has changed. I met my fortune fairy and she granted me a wish of getting floods of money to my bank account. In all I got $500,000 + $500,000 + $1000,000 in cash, a brand new Toyota Camry 2008 model, Five star hotel Stay and free air tickets. Isn’t that amazing? I thank you all my friends for your best wishes and big thank to almighty GOD that my wishes came true finally. I am planning a grand grand party and thinking it to be so grand that it is just out of my mind (as I never had such amount with me) and I can’t think what else I can do. So I am taking help of all the scholars, experts and party organizers (so called) in this area.

Thanks again and thanks all…..

No it’s not dream but at the same time it’s not even true or even close to truth. This is about all the fake/junk/spam (you_call_them_what) mails flowing all around the globe in recent days. I received one of the following mails and 2 of them were in my father’s inbox. My father forwarded it to me thinking that it might prove the best present to his son. Something out of class, unique and magnificently fabulous. Thanks Papa.
These mails start with some real crapy story regarding lucky draw, lottery, lotto or some of the similar things and want you to think (and believe) that you are unique luckiest guy in whole billions and trillions of the human race in this earth and that’s the sole reason fortune has hit you with bang. Chappar faadke… after this short little story they asks us to send our personal details like name address details, contact details and stuff. One of them asked ‘Next of kin’ name too… so thoughtful of him after all a man cannot spend this whole lot of money in his life time and god forsake something happen to the guy hit with this fortune, there should be someone to enjoy all this luck.. Right?
Most of these mails are claiming to be from China. One is from the Beijing Olympic committee 2008, another from Toyota dealers China and another one claiming from International Monetary Fund. All of these are so happy to give me all these dollars, flight tickets, hotel stay, nice brand new car and all goodies, I am now thinking are they some of by dearest relatives. Seriously they seem to be happier than me.

Anyway go through these mails just for fun and admire them for the sincere efforts they are doing for identity thefts. Kudos to them.
I am wondering where I can complaint against these mails so that if possible they can take action and get closer to these money mongers.

Mail 1: China Cultural Center wants to give me Flight tickets, Hotel Stay and wooping $500,000.

Subject: CONGRATULATION -[Wed, 4 Mar 2009 15:53:14 +0000]
THE CHINA CULTURAL CENTER AWARD 2008
ASIA AND PACIFIC REGIONAL ANNEX
CORPORATIONS IN ASIA AND PACIFIC REGION
IN SUPPORT OF BEIJING 2008 OLYMPIC
AWARD PROVIDER OFFICE
P.O.BOX 1682 CHINA
GOVT.REF 08

ATTENTION

CONGRATULATION ONCE AGAIN iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

ITS OUR GREAT PLEASURE TO INFORM YOU OF THE RESULT OF THE CHINESE CULTURAL CENTER PRIZE AWARD 2008 PROGRAMS CONDUCTED AND FINANCED BY COMMITTEE OF MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN ASIA REGIONAL CONSTITUENCY. AND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WAS SELECTED AMONG THE COMPUTER BALLOTING SYSTEM DONE TODAY IN THE CONTROL ROOM AS TO KEEP AWARENESS OF THE CHINESE CULTURAL AWARD CENTER NEXT YEAR CELEBRATION YOU ARE ALSO TO HAVE FIVE TICKETS AND FREE FLIGHT AND HOTEL ACCOMMODATION IN THE WHOLE EVENT. AND YOU HAVE WON THE SUM OF $500.000.00 USDA.FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATE AMERICAN DOLLARS AS ALL THE BIG MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES IN ASIA HAS JOINED HANDS TO MAKE THIS EVENT A SUCCESS CONGRATULATION ONCE AGAIN AS THE BENEFICIARY WINNER OF THIS YEAR AWARD SPONSORED BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT FOR THE ON GOING OLYMPIC 2008

THE LUCKY WINNER IN THIS CATEGORY ALL PARTICIPANT WERE SELECTED RANDOMLY THROUGH A COMPUTER BALLOTING SYSTEM DRAWN TODAY FROM THE NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND E-MAIL ADDRESSES FROM CANADA, AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATE OF AMERICA,ASIA EUROPE,MIDDLE EAST AFRICA AND OCEANIA AS PART OF OUR INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION PROGRAMS WHICH IS CONDUCTED ANNUALLY. THIS LOTTERY PROMOTION IS BEING PROMOTED AND SPONSORED BY MANY CONGLOMERATE OF MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES AS PART OF THERE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

WE ANNOUNCE YOUR WINNER TODAY IN THE COMPUTER BALLOTING ROOM AS GREAT WINNER AS YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WON THE PRICE TO FILE YOUR CLAIMS AND BOOKING CONTACT YOUR ASIA ACCREDITED AND SATISFY AGENT MR. CHANG SHANG AND PROVIDE YOUR DETAILS FOR YOUR PAYMENT:
drmakaa@aim.com

FULL NAMES OF BENEFICIARY:........................
CONTACT ADDRESS:..................................
EMAIL ADDRESS:....................................
CITY/STATE:.......................................
COUNTRY:..........................................
NATIONALITY:......................................
SEX:.......................AGE:...................
MARITAL STATUS...................................
TEL NO:...........................................
NEXT OF KIN:......................................
ANNUAL INCOME:....................................
AMOUNT WON:.......................................

CLAIM AGENT EMAIL SECTION.
CONGRATULATION ONCE AGAIN !!!!!!
SINCERELY YOURS
ENGER. YANG YOUNG
AWARD COORDINATOR

Mail 2: International Monetary Fund is asking my details to send me my outstanding amount of $500,000 waiting in ICBC bank. They are also apologizing for the delay for the overdue amount.

From: "International Monetary Fund (IMF)"
To:
Date:
Subject: OVERDUE OUTSTANDING PAYMENT (IMF)

From Systems Operator Manager (IMF)

Dear beneficiary,

Your e-mail was discovered in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Central
Computer among the list of unpaid (Contractors, Inheritance next of kin
and lotto beneficiaries that was originated from America, Europe, Asia
plus Middle east and Africa) among the list of individuals and companies
that your unpaid fund of $500.000.00 has been located to the ICBC Bank Of
China.

Your unpaid fund insured with your E-mail Id has been approved already for
months,
Under the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
Therefore you are required to get intouch with the payee bank where your
fund has been insured for claim.

Below is the contact of the Telegraphic Transfer Section of the payee bank.
Get in touch with the bank immideately,with the following informations,
Your, Full Names,Age,Nationality,Occupation,Contact address,Phone,and Fax
number,including a Scan Copy of your, International Passport or Valid
identification for the claim of your Insured fund.

Telegraphic Transfer Section
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
Guangdong Provincial Branch
Guangzhou,China.
Email:icbcbank_china@126.com
Tel:+86-2085993941
Fax:+86-20-34158442

For further informations do not hesitate to contact me,by phone call of by
e-mail.

Once again, I apologize to you on behalf Of IMF(International Monetary Fund)
Your funds which according to records in the system had been long overdue
with the Bank.

Best Regards,
Fred Rogers.
systems operator(IMF)
On behalf of Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Managing Director, IMF
+44-70-2406-4520
Email:fredrgers@gmail.com

Mail 3: Prize Award notification from Toyota China.

From: mhel_claimsagent@yahoo.com
to"hrbasti@gmail.com"

cc: iagasti@gmail.com,
ikmasti@gmail.com,
imgasti@gmail.com,
jamasti@gmail.com,
jelasti@gmail.com,
jxbasti@gmail.com,
kkjasti@gmail.com,
kmaasti@gmail.com,
konasti@gmail.com,
kssasti@gmail.com,
lilasti@gmail.com,
lucasti@gmail.com,
lorasti@gmail.com,
mbcasti@gmail.com,
mchasti@gmail.com,
mhrasti@gmail.com,
merasti@gmail.com,
mclasti@gmail.com,
migasti@gmail.com

dateTue, Apr 14, 2009 at 8:26 PM
subjectPRIZE AWARD NOTIFICATION -[Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:26:23 +0000]

Toyota Car Lottery International Promotions China,
Customer Service Department
Toyota Motor Corporations, China.
28 Tanfield Road Tiaxiu lio Beijing China
PRIZE AWARD NOTIFICATION

DEAR Sir/MA

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement made today, You are among the winners of the TOYOTA CAR INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION PROGRAM Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 2,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from all part of the world as part of our electronic business Promotions Program.

As a result of your visiting various websites we are running the E-business promotions for. You/Your Company email address, attached to ticket number 719-226-1319, with serial number 902-66 drew the lucky numbers 05,12,30,11,17,43 and Bonus number 10 , Your INSURANCE Number: FLS433/ 453L /GMSA and consequently you won in the Second Category of the TOYOTA FORTUNE LOTTO DRAW.
You have therefore been approved for the payment of the sum of US$1,000, 000, 00 in cash, including a Toyota carmry 2008 model which is the winning present /amount for the Second category winners. This is from the total prize money of US$40,650,000.00 shared among the international winners in the Second category.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Please be informed that your won fund of the sum of US$1,000,000.00 is now with the payee center. Contact our agent and give them your full names so that they will re-insure your winning fund under your full names. Together with the port where your winning car should be shipped to.

To begin your claim, please call our claim agent or send email immediately to:-

Mr Michael Young
Foreign Services Manager,
Toyota Motor Corporations China,
EMAIL:mhel_claimsagent@yahoo.com
Tel/Fax:+8613725459197

1. Full Name:
2. Address:
3. Occupation:
4. Age:
5. Sex:
6. Nationality:
7. Country of Residence:
8. Telephone/Fax Number:

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch numbers and other information provided above and below in every one of your correspondences to your claiming agent.
Congratulations'' once again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program.

Sincerely,
Madam Sophia Lang
Online coordinator
www.Toyota.com.cn

Check this. Isn’t it cool?

2009-04-03T00:00:00.003+04:00

Daily I catch the train at 5:26 from Union station to come to home from office. If I start from office at 5:00 sharp, I have to rush to grab seat in train. So I don’t shut down my PC as it takes some time to close all applications and then shut it down. I know I know you are now cribbing that I waste energy everyday and go green and all that. But you know what I shut down my office pc remotely once I grab seat in train. Yes we can do that. Thanks to outlook. I send mail from my iphone to my office mail ID and my computer shuts down. Please don’t say that you don’t have iphone. You can shut down your office PC by sending mail from your gmail account once you reach home.

Here are things you need to do:

Step one: Create a batch file
- Open a notepad and paste following line into it:
c:\windows\system32\shutdown -s -f -t 00
- Save it as .bat file. Eg. Name it as Shutdown.bat. Check that you have to keep ‘All Files’ in ‘Save type as’ drop box. Your file will appear as system file (the one with executable or application file icon). It will no longer look as notepad file.

Step two: Create a rule in Outlook
- Go to your outlook Toolsà Rules and alerts à New Rule
- Start with Blank rule ‘Move messages with specific words in subject to a folder’. Define your own specific words. For eg: shutdown_agasti (Smart move: You should keep these specific words to yourself like password. Else if your friends know this they will be in high spirits to play prank or harass you by sending mails with those subject lines and your PC will be shutdown while you are working on critical issue… Hmm.. don’t give them chance..)
- Select any folder you want to move that mail. You can select ‘Deleted Items’ too. Press Next button twice to get to ‘Select Actions’ list and now select ‘start application’ option providing the application as batch file you created in step one.
- Save the rule and Apply.

Step three: Testing Remote PC shutdown application
Send mail from your gmail account with specific subject line and tyan da ddyyaaaaan…. As soon as your mail arrives in outlook, it will run the application and your PC shuts down.

Go green… be smart..
PS: I didn’t find anything yet to start my PC remotely …

Spoon feed Screenshots below:

Extinction is Forever - Tiger backs Tiger

2009-03-25T00:09:00.007+04:00

Whole country and cricket fans around the globe rejoiced when master blaster Sachin hit another test ton against New Zealand in this series. I was also looking forward for his TON and his each shot was just feast for eyes. Strange thing is today I felt more proud about when I read news about Sachin supporting Tiger conservation in India. In fact when he dedicated this hundred for tigers, he just raised his ranks in millions of hearts. He is leader, path maker, guide and friend to Indian team and there are plenty other reasons that whole Team India joined for the cause. When asked to him about this initiative he commented that this was decided by whole team before coming for this tour and hence you can see banner of ‘Extinction is Forever’ at Team India’s marquee.

You might get bit amused but I read news column ‘Earth’ in TOI which keeps me close to happenings in environment zone in India. Survey says at least 1 tiger per month is killed (or dies) and according to Wildlife Protection society of India just in 11 weeks of 2009, 17 tigers are found dead. If strict measures are not taken right away tiger extension is not far from today. For the figures the count of tigers in India at the start of this century (year 2000) was 40,000 which fall down to mere 1700 today at an alarming rate. I feel no odd if our coming generation will see another Steven Spielberg’s (or his successor’s) movie like Jurassic park where dinosaurs will be replaced by extinct tigers.

Here is tiger toll for 2009:
Mar 20: Bhadrawati, Maharashtra: Forest officials nab three persons with tiger claws and bones Mar 17: Corbett, UP: Infighting claims one tiger at Dhela Range

Mar 10: Corbett, UP: An aged 14-year-old male tiger found dead at Dhela Range

Mar 4: Kanha, MP: One tiger found dead near Daman village

Feb 26: Tadoba Andhari, Maharashtra: One tigress found dead

Feb 24: Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh: Man-eater tigress shot dead

Feb 16: Chandel, Manipur: Army seizes 16 kg tiger bones, two skulls and two paws during vehicle checks near Myanmar border.

Feb 13: Kaziranga, Assam: One tiger killed in infighting

Feb 8: Pilibhit, UP: One tiger found dead near Sharda canal

Jan 31: Kanha, MP: One tiger found dead near Auraicamp

Jan 21: Kaziranga: One tigress dead of suspected poisoning

Jan 19: Katni, MP: One fresh tiger skin seized

Jan 18: Kanha, MP: One tiger found dead

Jan 10: Kaziranga, Assam: One tiger found dead

Jan 5: Kaziranga, Assam: One tigress found dead

Jan 3: Kanha, MP: Two tiger cubs found dead

Jan 3: Kaziranga, Assam: One tiger found dead

Jan 2: Bhandara, Maharashtra: One tiger found dead

(Source: Wildlife Protection Society of India)

Rise for the cause. Support the wildlife. Help to save this forest beauty.

One less of the list

2009-03-18T00:18:00.006+04:00

Skiing was one of the things on my ‘To Do” list until last Saturday and now it has jumped to another list ‘To Do it again’. Right now it’s a list topper on the second list. We were already late planning about skiing at the end of the season and we cancelled our plans when we enquired many skiing places just to find they are closed for the season. Unwillingly we had to postpone the plan by another a year but then my phone rang.
“Are you ready for skiing?” friend on the other side asked me.
“What a joke?” I exclaimed. “Don’t tell me now, that you called me in morning and told me to get ready.”
“Ya. So what are you doing now?” he asked.
“Just got up at 11 O clock and having my tea and bread. Its weekend and I am spending as it is supposed to.” I answered.
“OK just now Kaushal called. He enquired for the skiing place and they are open. In fact these are last 2 days for this season” he told.
“How far it is? And till when it’s open?” I asked just for more info.
“Its 2 hrs drive from here and they are open till 10 PM. So get ready. We will start at 2.” He cut it short.
“OK.” I said keeping phone aside.

We started at 2:10 and drive couple of hrs on highways and local roads before we reached at skiing place. It was Alpine valley resort at the neighboring state of Wisconsin (http://www.alpinevalleyresort.com/index2.php). Checking at the packages and the equipments we finally decided on those and rented skis. When I put on those ski boots it was the same feeling as if I am waking on moon (though that’s also in my ‘To Do’ list). It was around 5-7 KG of weight and it was so stiff that I can hardly bend at my ankles. We did some initial photo shoots for our skiing portfolios and then headed towards mission impossible. After I learned some basics from my friends I achieved a milestone of being able to stand with skis on my feet. I went up with the lift and then started my first expedition of the day. After managing to come to the slope properly it was all automatic and against my will. I couldn’t control my self and the skis, no matter what tactics I was trying. I fell umpteen times with my legs twisting and curling along my body and I swear I was never before in those haphazard shapes in my life.

Getting up from the ground level was exactly the same difficult as it was easy to fall down. The first slope ride I did was almost sitting on the skis and falling at least 3-4 times till I came at the bottom of the slope. I thought of giving up but then saw a small kid doing skiing excellently with his sister and I later came to know that his sister was just 6 yrs and he was mere 4 yrs age. Shame on me. Again I went for 2nd ride and now the guy there told me some tricks to bend knees inside to slow down and those sort of things and I found that once you started skiing you will just forget all those tricks and its just a panic situation. It’s almost the same feeling when you are on roller coaster with the difference here you are doing it alone and there’s nothing to hold. I suddenly felt that there’s something wrong with earth and it has suddenly increased its gravitational pull exponentially.

Since it’s an end of the season the snow had turned into ice and when we hit against it, it was serious business. I became firm believer of the idiom ‘try and try until you succeed’ when I managed skiing the whole slope without falling at all. Difficult part now was to put sudden brakes once you are at the bottom and this part I never did correctly. If I want to apply brakes or stop I have to fall down there and there was no way. Hopefully in my next expedition I will succeed at this. Even after taking complete day rest on Sunday, I didn’t felt like coming to office on Monday so I availed a sick leave. It was wonderful experience and we enjoyed a lot with snaps and videos. Seeing at the videos now I feel like: “Yes I can do it….”

Here are some snaps to share.

On the way to Alpine valley resort

My legs tangling around me

My first milestone achieved

See I am struggling there and this kid is enjoying skiing with both hands free

We, sharing a moment

Mission Accomplished

Me by me

2009-03-08T20:11:00.003+04:00

I travel places. I travel paths.
I gather dirt, I gather warmth.

Blues of water vies with blues of the sky for the originality of the blueness and no one really win. Battle is ON since centuries and will be ON another stint of centuries to follow. Like just a passerby I passed many, like a cozy shelter I rested at many, what differs is just everything; each and everything in its own gradient, own bounds. Some more some less in tones but really it differs in everything.

Lead the things, sway with winds,
get flooded, feel empty in vastness;
and many more shades to follow,
many more grudges to swallow.

Raving my boat with the tide and resting at anon barren land with my anchor dropped loosely in a shy wait for another blow and start un-destined voyage again, leaving things behind. A gentle hiss of breeze, razing fire in woods, sails tied to the dock with those steel chains, sovereignty of the tiny weed flower in endless pasture I gather it all.

I gather it all and move along. I move along.

How do you know spring is stepping in?

2009-03-06T20:20:00.002+04:00

Though there is an official start date for spring as March 20 or March 21st almost every year, you can absolutely trace the silent foot steps of spring approaching towards you looking at your surroundings. As per the astronomy is concerned this date is considered when sun is exactly above the equator and due the fact earth is rotating around the sun this phenomenon occurs twice a year. The term is ‘Vernal Equinox’ and this equinox differs in date for southern and northern hemisphere of earth; the other date being September 22nd every year. In layman’s language we can call it a time when nights and days are almost same duration. So how do you know spring is stepping in without thinking about dates and calendars?

At home:
- Thicker blanket sheets on bed feel unwanted and thinner ones are dearer now.
- Sun peeps quite early from your bedroom glass window and tries to wake you up bit early.
- You can straight away get up happily (study differs from person to person and situation to situation) and move your window drapes and bedroom is flooded with bright warm light. Windows are open all most all the day.
- Morning tea makes you fresher than it used to and you don’t have to struggle a lot to make kids ready for school.

At office:
- Faces shine bright with more depth in daily greetings of ‘Good Morning’.
- You start your work fresh but with half of your mind wandering outside.
- Talks about spring fill your ears and vacation plans fill your calendars (Of course, keeping budgets in mind).
- Almost 99.09 % meetings start on time with discussion on ‘spring season and related things’ as ice breakers.
- You start from office on your usual time still you feel that you have reached home earlier. Day light makes its effect ultra distinctive.

On streets:
- In lunch break walk, you are crowded with more number of people around you and you sense like streets are amplified in their densities per square yards.
- You see more pairs of hands occupying cameras and people posing with their light and colorful jackets.
- Huge glass shopping windows on side walks getting redecorated, repainted, revamped and geared up to display their new spring arrivals.
- Diners are sitting in their extended corridors in open air enjoying their brunch with refreshing aroma of just brewed coffee in china pots.
- Reflections from the building facades are dazzling on your open eyes and you feel need of sun glasses.
- At late afternoons, the same diners get set for their new customers for early boozes with crispy French fries.

In train:
“Good morning. How are you?” a lady greets to another.
She smiles “Good. Thanks to the weather.”
First lady expresses like she has hit the jackpot. “You know what, I am seeing a little yellow nosed beaked birdie around my windows these mornings and it is trying to get in.”
“Oh really” with slight interest on face.
“Ya. I think the bird wants something from my house and Bunny, my elder dog keeps following and playing with it. The bird then peeps at another window and Bunny chases it.”
“Wow” says another.
“Ya. I am not sure what it exactly wants and there is really nothing but our nice little brown lamp over our dinning table. It’s oval and I think the birdie is seeing it to make its nest for the season”.
“Possible.”
“Ya. I am so exited. Bunny is also going out on the grass to play and children are moving out in our back yard. It clearly says its spring here”.
“Yes. That’s true.”
“So true and delightful.”

…………………and they get busy in their never ending talks, gossips with their wide array of subjects not necessarily correlating with each other..

Fire and Peace

2009-03-04T20:54:00.007+04:00

This winter was horrible. Actually every Chicago winter is, and in the downtown temperature figure is always deceiving to what it actually feels. Sole culprit is the wind factor. It adds to the chill so much that if weather forecast (appreciating their efforts for precision ) shows you 30 F you can actually feel it as 3 F. It’s exactly as misleading as the little * for conditions apply on you new credit card APR letter. There’s whole world of IF’s and BUTs hidden in diminishing microscopic font under the term ‘Conditions apply’.

Weather is getting better now and we are apparently approaching towards spring. I and my colleagues in office decided to go for a daily short walk after our lunch. (It really doesn’t take any extra brain to know the reason. Sitting at one place in office was growing tummies all over.) We walked near the Chicago city hall as it was just few blocks away from my office building. Chicago city hall built in 1911 is a beautiful building with exceptional pieces of sculpture along all the sides (Need more info? You can get it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Hall). Richard J. Daley Center is just adjacent to the city hall and it has big open space which always holds some kind of fair in summers. You can see a famous massive steel sculpture ‘The Picasso’, a gift to Chicago city by renowned sculptor Pablo Picasso. Few feet away I found a small iron fenced fire and many pigeons warming their bodies against the flame. It must have been feeling cozy like sauna bath, warming their bodies in this cold weather and the snap below shows that they were really enjoying it.

Chicago City Hall Pillars

Kids playing around the pigeons

Warming up

I thought it’s really an ironical situation. We consider pigeon as a symbol of peace (I am not sure whether only white pigeon is considered as a symbol of peace or any colored. Anyway I’m not talking about color distinction or racism.) and fire is considered as rage or turbulence since ages. Here I was seeing both together and it was really deceptive to the eyes. I compared this scene to the situation with Pakistan. They are shouting aloud “We are peace loving nation” but on the other hand they are doing these humiliating activities all over the globe. Recent attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore was pinnacle of this terror acts and more astounding was the statement coming from one of the Pakistan ministers that India can be suspected to be involved in this attack. Wow that was really thoughtful of you Mr. Minister. Despite of whole bunch of proofs, the long denial of the fact that the terrorists in Mumbai attack were Pakistan nationals shows how serious you are fighting against terrorism. Media has traced Kasab’s house, interviewed his parents, checked with some near ones to him, found other ID cards claiming his Pakistan residence ship and yet you are never bothering to term them as ‘Non State actors’. Few bunch of fowl heads sitting in government and misguiding people in the name of religion and jihad, what are you trying to achieve? It’s time to get in your senses at least now. It is not going to help anyone, not now and not in future.

Ringtones

2009-03-01T06:41:00.000+04:00

Few days before I found a way to make our own ringtones for iphone 3G and I could hardly wait to try them. I tried and I succeeded and now I am exploring which all songs/instrumentals will be good for this experiment. I bought my first cell phone when I got my first salary from my first job. I was working in a small firm in Pune and when I got the cheque of my first salary 8000 Rs. (minus tax and lunch expenses) ,I was the happiest person in the world. I was on cloud nine and I spent almost 2-3 days thinking what I should do with this salary. 8000 Rs. was too much for me those days but that was not the issue. The problem was the vast number of choices and ways I could spend that money. When human has lots of choices it doesn’t do well at least some times.

I made my mind to purchase cell phone for me and something for mom. In those days owning cell phone was something between necessity and luxury. I thought I can go for it now to stay in touch with friends and parents. Of course, like most chaps at my age I was under the impression that gals love guys with new gadgets and all. But let me make my point that this was not and never really top on my agenda (might be on 3rd position struggling to get on 2nd). I purchased my first cell phone Nokia 1100 (the one with torch) and also laminated it at the same time to protect my priced possession. I always kept it close to me and was waiting eagerly for it to ring every time. Then started the game of missed calls and sms. It was real fun.

Very soon I was attracted towards different ringtones. We friends used to share ringtones and having latest and different ringtones was kind of being in race. Funny ringtones like “Uncle utha lo.. aapka baj raha hai….”, some melodramatic sad song music, crying baby, barking dogs were quite popular. I personally always loved the ringtone for Malgudi days. It was instrumental of title song of R.K. Narayan’s famous serial Malgudi days. Then came A.R. Rehman’s famous Airtel tune and it got added directly in my favorite list. In India we get to hear all different types, kinds, tones and tunes and sometimes I believe that the ringtone you keep on your cell reflect your personality. My theory got firm approval when I read article in The Times of India under the same title.

Compared to US India is quite vivid and at the same time lot better in mobile communication. I know there was a time when charge for incoming call was around 8-10 Rs. Per min. Time flew since then and India has made commendable progress in telecommunication industry. Major cell phone giants like Nokia, Motorola and Sony cashed on this huge market opportunity taking no time to set their manufacturing and sales offices all over the country. Service providers like Airtel, Spice, BSNL started providing novel and lucrative offers to consumers and foreign companies like Vodafone, orange and many others joined the pursuit. It was all good for consumers. More the competition lesser the service cost says the law of market. Apple iphone and its 3G service is now big hit in metro areas irrespective of its humongous cost compared to other competitors. Cell phone has stepped up far ahead from being a necessity in India. It’s the fashion statement now, the craze, the lifeline of people. Reliance plan of cell phone connection with handset all inclusive 500 Rs. brought revolution in this sector. It was the time when milk man, cleaner, rickshaw man, watch man and every talking human was seen talking proudly with cell phone in his hand. It was emerging India, growing India, and developing India.

Answering an incoming call on cell phone in US and counting minutes in back of my mind makes me think why the hell this US cell phone industry is lagging so much.

We DESIs

2009-02-27T01:46:00.005+04:00

The word ‘DESI’ was known to me and I think that’s the reason I felt bit awkward when I heard this word in reference to Indian public in USA (obviously referred by another Desi.. oops.Did I say that?…sorry another Indian). I landed and started mingling with other companions already here and the word started sounding quite familiar to my ear, thereby dropping the level of initial awkwardness. With the passing time I came to know that ‘Desi’ is the universal set of other subsets that include ‘Indians’, ‘Bangladeshis’ and ‘Pakistanis’. Desi shop, Desi community, Desi restaurant, Desi street, Desi pub, Desi party and not to mention but Desi Girl are few very common phrases got added to my Desi dictionary. I suppose, long time back in history Desi people were considered low graded, were treated differently and were given less respect as compared to other communities . Changing times and trends brought a complete phase shift to this well established perspective and now it’s like word Desi has caught different flavor of being Brainy (at least for other foreign nationals). Apart from the IT industry (which continues to flood with Desis), other niche sectors like finance, marketing, manufacturing (whichever was spared from outsourcing to China), and politics are now showing desi heads amongst others. Some citizens, some green card holders, some ABCDs, some with EADs and better not to count ones with H1, L1, F1, R1, H4, L2 etc etc. Should I congratulate we Desis?

If I further drill down into this Desi community, I am certain that it mostly comprises of Indians and in that most are from southern part of India and in that too majority are from Andhra Pradesh. People not falling in this leg of segregation are those from Gujarat. There was (is?) a trend in AP that at least one person from each family/house must be in US. A boy (data insufficient to conclude about girls) studies well in 12th standard to get admission in a decent engineering college (a decent college is not at all a prerequisite to land in US) and competes mostly for a computers degree ( if not then followed by IT, electronics, electrical, instrumental, mechanical, civil etc…). He continues his struggle with studies to ensure a place in a good software company. I believe the term "good software company” refers to a firm that places its employee onsite earlier compare to other firms. Of course there are hell lot of ways to reach that dream destination known as “US” other than showing your talent in your company and impressing your senior. The population of people from AP in IT is so huge that it literally changed the meaning of few acronyms like SAP: Software for Andhra People or SAP: S I’m from AP, so on and so forth. Coming back to that universal set called “Desis”, we all agree that we prefer to stay in a area surrounded by desi grocery stores (like suburbs), drive mostly Honda’s and Toyota’s (civic, corolla, camry), party at home and many others. Certainly there is a peculiar and definite trend we follow and there’s absolutely nothing appalling about it.

If I go by my observation, majority of us will browse http://www.deals2buy.com/ almost everyday (ok….at least once a week) looking for deals, bargains. This site thanks people for informing them about some deals going in some store and mostly we will see Indian names getting that Thank You note (Great achievement!!!). If somebody doesn’t seem to agree then let me tell you that on my train today I saw a desi guy browsing this website on a laptop with wireless card plugged in (which I can fairly assume provided by his office/client) and this very instance inspired me to write this article. Other common websites we reach out to are http://www.greatandhra.com/, http://www.eenadu.net/, http://www.orkut.com/ for two reason one for entertainment and second to kill free time in office. Some Sports crazy desis (read as Cricket crazy) can be found refreshing their page on http://www.cricinfo.com/. It hardly matters if India or Somalia is on the fields. While others who are more worried/curious about the world around will extend their horizon to news sites like http://www.timesofindia.com/ and http://www.cnn.com/. We may share different interests but do have one thing in common and that is “Google” – next to God – that answers all our queries from H1 transfer to Oracle DB Administration. Am I sounding little rhetoric?

Go to tourist places like Niagara, statue of Liberty, Empire state building or Times Square on a long weekend and you need no expert to tell you that you will find yourself surrounded by at least 5-6 desis (you have never seen before) in a virtual circle of radius 3 feet centering you. Yes this is tried, tested and approved by me and others like me. The instance I realized this fact I decided not to explore such places on long weekend and gleefully convinced myself to waste my holiday sitting idle at home. Places like Oak Tree street in NJ or Devon Avenue and Schaumburg in Chicago, you will feel like you never left India. Ask for THE thing and you will get it with choices. Sugar cane juice, nariyal pani, Kalkatta, Banarasi, Mitha or masala pan, pani-puri, pirated DVDs (including regional languages), desi clothes like ghaaghara, chunari, dhoti and all other innumerable things which we can claim(at least till now) as purely Indian can be found with absolutely no efforts.

Having said, observed and done whatever I mentioned above sometime I and many like me wonder - In a rat race of going behind greenback and better lifestyle (apparently) do we have any idea who we are and what we are looking for.

Many thanks to Bhushan Kale for his efforts towards editing this article.

DISCLAIMER 1: No, Bhushan Kale is neither my brother nor in my close or distant relations except for the fact that we just share common last name and fall in ‘Desi’ category.

DISCLAIMER 2: The article is written in a serious attempt of jotting down my thoughts and is not at all connected to anyone living or dead, any community in or out of US and any Desi following above trend or not. Please don’t sue me :)

Frame of Reference

2009-02-24T00:37:00.004+04:00

You are sitting in a train at train station, waiting for the train to start its journey. Another train comes on a track to your right and now it blocks the view of station you were watching earlier. You get back to your newspaper and start checking what’s going in rest of the world. Then you wish, now your train should start as you have to reach office on time. You glance out of the window and you see that finally your train is in motion and the adjacent train coaches are lagging behind you. One at a time, slowly and slowly and then picking up the pace. After sometime you again see the view of station which was blocked earlier by the train. And now you stay dumb there concluding that it was never your train but it was the other train that was moving and the motion sets you the reference in your mind depicting the motion of your train. You are victim of the wrong frame of reference. Quite a proverbial case right?

Unknowingly we the people witness many small, big instances, acquaintances in real life and the duration to realize that it was all deceptive differs. This duration can be of few seconds, minutes, hours or years. Sometime you call it as your perspective or sometime you call it as your dumbness, fate or your hard luck. Not few of these cases you will be in state of mind ‘I am dumb…’ and this statement will be followed by ‘…. not to realize that, she was cheating or … that job was never good or I should have realized that I am being duped.’ I guess there will be no exception at least in human beings (I will have to consult to Veterinaries and Botanist to know if this phenomenon or feeling exist in animals and plants respectively.. GOD please at least spare them..) not to experience this case at least once in their life span of 100* years (*Conditions apply). In fact if I call it as an average of 10 instances per head count I will not be exaggerating the statistics.

I remember my Marathi subject teacher who happened to be my class teacher for 4-5 years. We were in classes 8th 9th and 10th and we used to get a topic for an essay on every Monday. We used to get a week time to come with our writings. She always provoked us to write essays and it was kind of competition in class for writing innovative essay on simple topics. It was all about your perspective, mindset against something very common, very routine. For example very simple topics like ‘An hour spent on Bus stop’, ‘My tailor’, ‘Picnic I experienced’…. etc etc.. We were actually quite grown up to write essays on such straightforward topics and we were looking for some more challenging and demanding topics to write. But the amazing thing was when teacher used to ask us to read each one’s essay aloud in class, many essays were quite different from each other. Some chaps were adding some different stories in essay turning them to some more delicate subject or cause and that was the thing teacher was always expecting from us. Try to think different, out of the box, brand new. She use to say “Tumcha Chasmaa badlaa” (Change your glasses and then see the world). It’s the master key to lead the life. Want to see whole new world just change your perspective against something and your will yourself be astonished with the end results.

Amazing theory. Imagination is what makes us different from other living organisms. I read it somewhere that human brain is so complex and powerful that it can achieve lot of things compared to what we do in our day to day life. Numbers says that we normally use just less than 10% of brain’s capability for to perform our daily tasks and hence we leave plenty room to explore the remaining 90%.

I know this theme can be discussed over and over, again and again looking at hundreds of angles, views and examples and it will get more and more elaborate as it gets, that's why THINK, IMAGINE, CO-RELATE, JUSTIFY, VISUALIZE, DECODE, DECIPHER and see the miracles happening in front of you..

Crazy for Coach

2009-02-04T21:07:00.009+04:00

In an abstract contrast with my last article on Obamagic and dooming economy, here I found something apparently not affected by the rash of economy. Observation is what I do and what I like to do regardless of place, time, state, thing, subject, interest and material. In my daily commute to office my train (Metra), along with all other things I also pay attention towards bags, totes, luggage, pouches and many more visible objects. I like to see those brand names and it reveals lot for me. I see those different styles, patterns, colors, sizes and all other attributes and they are the parameters guiding me to perceive what’s new in fashion world and where the world is heading in current time line. The bag or luggage or purse or any of those similar items (lets call it FA for Fashion Accessory) really depends principally on personal choices and then on age, utility and many more other factors. Seeing a particular FA with a particular outfit on a particular person, I mean the complete package makes my cerebellum think in creative way. My mind wanders in questions like what if she has different color bag. What if he was carrying some other FA instead of this? Will that FA suits more on this living object more than what it bears now? and blah blah blah.. it makes me think, think and think.

Recently I observed that at least 50% bags women carry in my metra car (bogie) are branded as ‘Coach’. The percentage is very likely to increase if I observe more carefully on some other unidentified bags. Coach the leading brand name in bags and fashion accessories has unique patterns in their products and some of them can be easily traced as Coach products with their designs displaying typical capital ‘C‘ quite similar in ‘Wide Latin’ font. (Normally most of the companies and organization don’t use the font which is commonly available in our Microsoft Word, some kind of branding I guess.. with an exception of ‘Papyrus’ font which I found more often. Yes seeing at some script mostly I can determine which font it is or at least closely related font). Coach has wide varieties of FA in sizes, shapes, colors and patterns but two things common to all without an immunity is their HIGH prices and the craze amongst the people. Whenever I visited shopping malls, I have never seen Coach store without customers but in fact mostly I have seen, long queues of buyers (or potential buyers) outside their glossy glass doors eagerly waiting to enter in and the store salesman trying to manage the crowd. It looks like every day is like Thanks giving sale at Coach Store. At first I thought they are giving huge discounts and hence people are cashing the opportunity but seeing the same picture quite often made me curious. One of my friends got the bag from Coach and it was $300 including tax. $300 for a bag? I thought if I buy that bag, damn I will be left with no money to keep in that.

My curiosity brought me to browse official website of Coach bags (http://www.coach.com/default.aspx) and I found prices which were quite difficult to digest (and I am still trying). The society’s live pull for such luxurious and deluxe fashion accessory is really crazy in my view. Fashion statement is really inexplicable and always has been mysterious. Found in 1941 in New York, Coach Business was inspired by a worn leather baseball glove. They found their fortune in leather and since then they grew exponentially. Looking at the company’s growth time line I can say that at each milestone they have only achieved and never loosed anything. In this stringent financial situation too the symbol is still shining bright simply because of their quality, style, comfort zones and innumerable reasons. Their craftsmen and the workforce is kind of Gem. Coach has wide range of products including bags, totes, sunglasses, jackets, business accessories, shoes, wallets, belts and several to follow the list with all pricey tags on them.
Paris is considered as mother land of fashion with all the fashion glam shows featuring from there and Milan. I wonder there must be many more brands around the globe with higher figures on price tags than that of Coach. Open your eyes widen them and always look around what world has new to offer.

Did anyone whispered that world economy is shrinking?

Anyone there with Magic Wand? (Obamagic)

2009-01-27T01:09:00.010+04:00

QUICKee:

President Barack Obama meets with labor leaders in the Blue Room, and shows that his suit is made in the U.S.A., following a signing of an Executive Order for a White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families.Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Obama took his presidential oath on 20th Jan. While millions of visitors and Obama supporters to the DC were witnessing his first oath and other billions were keenly listening to his inaugural speech on air, I was doing something slightly different. I was paying close attention to him trying to see whether he has some magic wand with him under his suit*. Though there were abundance of hopes raised with Obama and there are plenty alive even today, I was firm on day one that ‘Yes. This man can do the difference. The change. Much needed change but only if he has some kind of magic wand with him’ and that’s what I was searching for. I couldn’t find any with him then for a while I thought he must have left it at his home and I was wrong again.

The luster and glim glim of the greenback shown by US in long years of modern financial history was under deep doom and everyone was expecting anything to happen. News like job loss, cut pay stubs, the soaring lending interest rates, mails from credit card monsters are day to day affairs now. Newspapers agencies are booming with the same news making top headline every day and it has hit. The theory of 122120012 gathered more and more believers each day (http://www.december212012.com/). I watched this episode on discovery about all this and I was growing my faith in this theory each day I was witnessing. The day when almost every Indian engineer was dreaming of going to US and that was considered renowned success of life was all at the end today and to add on to the agony, gals are saying strict ‘NO’ to get married if the guy is working in US. Words like Bankruptcy, chapter 11, chapter 7, liquidation, out of business and many more bounced to the first page of dictionary from there previous alphabetic arrangement. To mend this all in line, to get shine back to dollar, to get wives to guys working in US we need a powerful magic wand. Is there any Harry Potter with such magic capabilities? Anyone there with Magic Wand?

I may sound little negative and downbeat but it isn’t crime to talk truth; not at all.

Only * you find in this article is just to provide small note: Obama’s suit manufacturer Hartmarx (unfortunately the client, I am working for has recently filled chapter 11 of bankruptcy)

….to be continued: Not sure of the article
. but definitely the dooming of shattered economy will.

Alaska

2008-12-19T20:28:00.000+04:00

Dec 19 2008, Friday, Lisle-Chicago…
Finally I got to know what is called extreme. If there is any superlative degree for this word or any other substitution with more punch will nearly do the justice. As I grow up and got to know about places like Antarctica, Alaska, South Africa and other extremities (courtesy Geography study books), I was always thrilled with ideas of visiting such places and was assuming my self to be lucky even if I get a chance to have a glance at such places in my life. Chicago was not in the list. Definitely it shouldn’t be there as it was not that renowned for its ‘not too bad’ climate. One wonder it did to me today was, it removed one place off my list or to be fair, at least made my thrilling levels down. Alaska.

Thursday, people left early from offices and those who were flying for their Christmas vacations grabbed their coats from coat racks too early. Weather forecast websites, news channels and other broadcasting mediums were all pitching in with news and weather warnings, storm announcements and travel precautions and so on. I left yesterday from the office at regular time and was thinking if I could make to office today. First thing I did after waking up, I glanced from my bedroom window to see the pile of snow made by snow blowers but it wasn’t there. Road was still carpeted with think layer of snow without any signs of snow blowers cleaning it. I took showers and came out to steal a look one again and now road was clean enough to walk to station. My house is just 5-7 min walk from Lisle Metra station and usually I enjoy that walk. Today I couldn’t see my train waiting there but instead heard announcement that all the inbound and out bound trains are running at least 20-25 min behind the schedules. Waiting for around twenty min our train showed up and I grabbed my favorite window seat. They were still announcing the train will be late further due to some grade problem. I was watching out of window with thoughts of Alaska mounting.

I couldn’t see a single inch of land left uncovered and it was milky white think blanket everywhere and it was still snowing. Rail tracks were not visible and it made impression like our train is floating on the snow. Trees looked beautiful with white snow lining on them. Approaching union station, downtown, I could see buildings standing tall all covered with snow. It was foggy allover enough to make top few floors of Sears tower invisible. The daily office ride was feeling like long journey today. It felt significant expedition between two distant cities. But I enjoyed it as I was reading Jack Reacher Novel “Killing on the floor”. As train was getting closer to station, story was becoming interesting and Jack had figured out all about counterfeiting of money. I wished train should not have stopped at least for another an hour so that I could finish the story. Finally train arrived 40 min late at union station and I was out on road walking towards my office. Its again 5-7 min walk and I have to walk around two blocks. Walking in ice slurry felt like walking in a pool of mud. It took me way back in my childhood. We kids used to celebrate rain like a festival and were very fond of playing and roaming all over the place. Playing with paper boats in water pools was sheer fun. Mom used to yell at us to get back home and I always behaved like I unheard her yelling. I would go back home after an hour of her first warning. After few days mom became smarter and she started shouting at us one hour before time, she wanted us to be at home. By the time we understood this trick, we were quite grown up to muddle in rain.

I walked to the office with my thick coat, gloves and fleece cap on. I was making way through the ice slurry and it was quite slippery on wooden planks of bridge I have to cross. It was all gum boots, over coats, winter jackets all over and vapors coming from each mouth. Everyone was smoking this fog today. I reached my place in office and it was deserted. Like other offices around, my office also made pretty much space everywhere and seats were lying vacant with rare hustling of printers. Especially where I seat, I am left alone. We five people seat in crunchy little space with hard to move chairs but today I was king of the palace.. sorry place. I started my work thinking that it will be alright while going back to home. I will keep peeping from my 22nd floor glass window to get closer feel of Alaska. Weather people told that it will be nasty till 12 PM but still by some reason if it fails to satisfy my urge, I will still think of visiting Alaska some day….

lIFe

2008-12-10T22:00:00.001+04:00

If I would have done my homework regularly…
If I would have obeyed my parents more…..
If I would have studied from better college…..
If I would have done my studies in medical, drama, journalism or anything else…
If I would have said ‘YES’ to that gal…
If that another Gal would have said ‘YES’ to me….
If I would have traveled the shorter route…
If someone would have guided me on each step..
If I would have boarded that train…
If would have spent more time with my children….
If I would have taken interest in family matters…
If I would have permitted my son to marry a gal he likes….
If I would have got some better work to do…
If I would have better no work to do at all…
If I would have not met my friend that evening in bar…
If ..
If….
If…. And some more Iffs… Random iffs, thoughtful Iffs, thoughtless Iffs, meaningful Iffs, meaningless Iffs, wild Iffs, small Iffs, big Iffs
If this.. Iff that…

Life is full of Iffs.. and why not, after all ‘LIFE’ its self has IF embedded in it..

Small things

2008-12-05T23:10:00.002+04:00

Living in Chicago for almost 2 years have done good to me in my social, practical, financial aspects. But the most significant change I liked is in my personal aspect. OK to keep it simple lets call them as small things….

With the screeching alarm saved as ‘Daily’ in my cell phone (6:40 AM), I wake up and turn that alarm off and then with 5 min warming up period (Dormant to Dominant) I push my self to bathroom just to be at bus stop at 7:30.

Small thing1: Su: My Bus driver, Su is a cheerful lady and she greets every passenger with her over whelming ‘Good Morning’ and ‘Hello’. The most exiting thing I found about her is more than her job she takes care of her passenger in knowing who get in bus from where, where to stop, she even waits for a min if someone is late and greater than that she maintains newspapers in bus for all passengers. These news papers are free newspapers which she picks from railway station and keep it in bus for passengers. Passengers go through morning news and start their routine. Some people get engaged in solving Sudoku and word puzzles. In this 10 min ride from my home to Railway station, it forms a small social circle of daily commuting passengers and bus driver. If she goes on any vacation people feel something missing from the routine and everyone greets her with smile when she is back.
The small things she does, cheer the air around and that makes difference; isn’t it?

Small thing 2: My share: Many people don’t know the fact that on most of the cold drink bottles, cans there is mark that if you return this can to recycle vendors, they will pay 5 cents for each can. The sole aim was to recycle the plastic, metal to avoid environmental harm. No one cares for that and just throw the cans, bottles in garbage cans. Once traveling in train I was listening to the conversation of a group where a guy mentioned that one of his colleagues actually collects these cans and bottles she uses and then on the way home drops at recycle vendor’s place for no money. She says I am doing my share to save my earth.

Small thing 3: Live Strong: I always liked to have some sort of band in my wrist/hand and once I saw people from Lance Armstrong cancer foundation (www.livestrong.org/) were creating social awareness by distributing yellow color band for each donor. They were also writing donor’s name on a strip of yellow paper and then making a chain of such strips. I stopped there and asked about it. I got the band by donating some money and I am wearing that band today too. Many of my friends asked me about it and how and where can they get that band by donating. Then I thought I could have asked that guy to give me some more bands and then I would have given those to my friends in return of some donations. Collecting this money I would have written a check to the foundation. This was very small thing I could have done but I missed it. Many people around us are always ready to do good just that they don’t find way easily. Next time for sure..

Small thing 4: Smiles: I consider kids smile as one of the Gods most amazing creations. Whenever I see small kids I wave at them saying Hi, Hello and they smile at me (some kids give mysterious, puzzled look). This smile fills my heart with happiness and my belief in the thought ‘Life is Beautiful!!’ just get stronger and stronger. Kids like to interact, play, learn things, know their surrounding and you can contribute for them.

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. - Phyllis Diller

Short Stories

2008-12-05T22:53:00.008+04:00

Let me confess this that I have been quite lazy these days and never looked at this blog page since ages. I am pretty sure that thousands will agree that scribbling on blog is lot better than virtaully working(soothing words for doing nothing???) in office. I have been so lazy that I wrote these stories for friend's blog but couldn't add the same on this one.

So friends and pals, guys and gals, dudes and dudettes here you go.
Disclaimer: These stories should be looked (read) just like stories and ingredients of these stories are very basic. 100% Fiction and 0.00% Reality.
If you find any resemblance of these stories or characters in these stories with any of the living or dead person or place or instance then consider yourself lucky and gift yourself a Disprin :)

TTE story #1: Khurshid Chacha
Being born and brought up in Mumbai Rohit was a soul and body of flesh with Mumbaian blood. Yes I assume being in Mumbai for a long will definitely build a slight shade to your blood. Heart pumps the blood faster to always run and catch a train or bus. It becomes so much, that even on weekend when there’s not that rush in trains, blood pushes us to run fast and grab the seat. He was a Virar boy and used to catch 7:02 fast from Virar to reach CST for his daily job. He was working as assistant in a small firm in the city. Traveling daily in same train develops special relationship with fellow passengers (Just like Hi friend in ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’). Khurshid chacha was his train mate and he also used to board from Virar. Chacha was in late fifties and were working in jewelry shop in Bhindi bazaar. He was so jovial that every day he has new jokes for his pals.
Rohit always enjoyed his humor and laugh a lot. This was some day in second week of August.

“Ticket please”, TTE came from nowhere.
“Pass” Rohit said without any movement.
TTE moved to other people and everyone said Pass. TTE didn’t check anyone’s pass.
”Ticket please”
“Pass”, chacha said seeing at face of TTE.
“Show Me”
Chacha got bit amused with his request “It’s in pant pocket and difficult to take out and show in this crowd.”
Normally TTE will excuse to such situations but day was different.
“Ok. Stand up and show pass to me”.
“Sir we are daily commuters and we have monthly pass” remarked Rohit.
“Yes I know that and hence just want to see the same”.
“Sir, leave the matter. He has Pass, we know that”.
“No. How come I will let it go? Show me the pass and I will go from here. It’s that simple”.
“What if I don’t show you?” questioned frustrated chacha in his typical voice.
“Then I will have to take to Railway police next station.”
All the people were listening to these arguments and this was kind of today’s cover story. Chacha fumingly got up and from his seat and reached his pant pocket and took the pass out.
“You know what, here I have a pass but I will not show you”.
Suddenly he tore the pass in small pieces and whirled outside the window and everyone was watching with their mouths open.
“Now do whatever you want. I don’t have pass now. Take me to the jail or dump me anywhere. Let me see how you treat elder people”.
TTE face turned white and he didn’t know how to react. Every one was seeing at TTE and he felled ashamed of annoying senior person.
“Sorry Chacha, It’s my job to check tickets and passes. Don’t get angry I will go”.
“You people don’t believe others at all”.
No one said a word till next station. Next station TTE got off the train.
“Chacha, what happened to you? Why you didn’t show him your pass? Now see you will have to buy new pass and its unnecessary waste of money”
Chacha abruptly started laughing loud as if he was waiting for someone to ask this question. Everyone was staring at chacha and he didn’t stop laughing.
“The pass I tore in bits and pieces….” again laughing and trying to control his laughter
“…was expired pass of last month and I really missed my pass on table at home”.
Everyone was astonished and chacha was still laughing loud.
“Chacha aapne to TTE ko Mamu bana diyaa”.
Every one joined chacha and laughter lasted till next station…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TTE story #2: Jump
“Ticket please” asked TTE to Manoj.
“Sir I don’t have ticket because, I came in another train and this train was standing adjacent to my train when my train stopped at Thane. I wanted to get out of train on east side so I jumped from that train to this train and was just jumping on platform and this train started. I wanted to get off at Thane but could do that”.
“I don’t believe you. You are on this train; you have to show ticket for this train”.
“I am not lying, see I have ticket for that train till Thane” Manoj flashed that ticket.
“I don’t want to see that ticket, show me ticket for this train; else pay the fine”.
Manoj was very good liar but TTE was sure that he was lying and he didn’t want to listen to him.
“I don’t have money for paying fine”
“OK. That’s not a problem. Let get off at next station to say Hi to Railway police”
“Yes Sir.” Manoj was pretty sure that this is just a warning and TTE won’t do anything. He has tricked like this many times.
Train stopped at next station and TTE came near to Manoj.
“OK let’s get off and walk with me”.
What the heck thought Manoj and started walking next to TTE. They went to small railway police office and TTE told whole story to officer.
“What’s your name?” asked officer.
“Sir, Manoj”.
“What do you do?”
“I am student of a college in Thane”.
“Is that true that you are caught ticket less?”
“No sir, I mean yes sir… but it wasn’t my fault, I told him that I jumped from another train and he does not believe me.”
“Even I don’t believe you”.
Manoj acted well and with his pity face he tried to convince the officer and again told complete story.
“You should believe to such kids and should leave them sometimes..” said officer to TTE.
“But sir…”
“If he says he jumped from other train and he is showing you ticket for that train, that’s true right?” officer cut TTE in short.
Manoj was happy and was smiling inside thinking that he fooled both TTE and officer.
“Ok Manoj, you were not in that train and accidentally got there right?”
“Yes Sir”
“OK, I believe you. So I won’t fine you for 100 rupees for ticket less traveling”.
“Thank you sir” Manoj said with glowing eyes.
“You have jumped from another train, you don’t have to pay 100 rupees but you have to pay 250 rupees…”
Manoj fainted.
“… this is the fine for crossing tracks, which is serious offence.”
There was no answer for this…
Manoj paid the fine, took receipt and was walking from there. He glanced back at officer from a distance and TTE and Officer were still smiling…

Tanhaee

2007-04-11T03:53:00.000+04:00

Ek tanhaee si khalti hai....
with the whistling sound of wind from my bedroom window i was peeping in myself for something and got a thought in mind that i am alone in crowd.. Bhid me bhi akela hoon!!!
Pata nahi kyu lekin dil me aaj kal ek alag si tanhaee khalti hai.. I am experiencing something very strange and against my nature. It seems that nature is changing my nature and i am experiencing it.. Like you are watching yourself growing up and you are alone witness for all the transitions.. Not sure if this is normal and evryone experiences it at one time or the other..but for sure this is happening to me for the first time....

It seems the path is glowing so bright that it is almost like darkness all around....

All under one Banner

2007-01-01T23:14:00.000+04:00

! - Vande Mataram - !

We all from Hindu Dnyanpeeth Convent. This snap was shot midnight in Incometax square.

I cherish those memories...

L-R : Rahul, Kamal (Babu/Babban), Tushar, Nilesh, Pawan, Me and Nitin.

We are confirmed employees!!!

2007-01-01T22:42:00.000+04:00

Grand day: 26th july 2005. We sucessfully(??) completed 1 year in Infosys. This is our batch which was posted to Mangalore.
Sitting down: Kunal and Vikram.
L-R on chairs: Sridhar, Hemlata, Anupama, Shivali, Vidyulatha, Indrani, Shahu and Me.
L-R standing: Harshal, Sumit*, Denzil, Chinmay, Amogh, Anant, Vinit, Vinay, Amol, Sairam, Ron and Tushar.

* Sumit was not there when snap was clicked and then our painter babu Kunal clicked his seperate snap and then morphed it in this snap.

Chai Pakoda

2007-01-01T22:19:00.000+04:00

! - SAP Party - !

Venue: Nalanda Resort On the border of Karnataka & Kerala. This is the first and best SAP party we enjoyed after joining Mangalore DC. When we heard that we are posted to Mangalore, all faces were sad and gloomy. But almost 30 people from our batch went there and the company we enjoyed was a real fun...
L-R: Bhanu, Shahu, Amol, Amogh Ashish, Shivali, Harshal, Agasti and Vaibhav.

Pratham tula wanditoo

2007-01-01T22:13:00.000+04:00

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!! Marathi mitra Mandal, mangalore.. We decided to do Ganesh Stapana in Mangalore. This was awesome!! All gang came together we went to buy Ganesh Murti and did all Puja. Daily aarti and Prasad. Sarvatra mangalmay!!!
I still remember the sabudana khichadi we prepared on the first day...!!!

Jog falls

2007-01-01T22:10:00.000+04:00

Nopes.. this is not in US .. this is our INDIA..

Jog Falls: The Jog in Shimoga District is the tallest water fall in India where the river Sharavati jumps from a height of 293 mts. into four beautiful cascades . The best time to visit is only during July to October.

Illinois 879 3248

2007-01-01T21:58:00.000+04:00

Mercury Sable Sedan: My first car!!! In US you must have a car and without it you are just handicapped. I was living in Aurora/Naperville/Lisle and since these are suburbs of Chicago, there is no proper public transport. I bought this car to roam around. Dream to have a Sexy sports car ....

Frozen valley!!!

2007-01-01T21:48:00.000+04:00

This was clicked from car window as I couldn't dare to walk through this shivering cold. This river was almost freezed and developed a thick layer of ice on it. You can see white lining on trees, this is snow carried away by wind and thats the reason why chicago is called 'Windy City'.

Snow white everywhere

2007-01-01T21:43:00.000+04:00

Dec 01 2006: This was the first time I saw snow in my life and that too was so heavy that I enjoyed holiday working from home. It was 12" of snow and almost schools were closed. This pic is from the colony where I live in Aurora.

Lemont Temple

2007-01-01T21:30:00.000+04:00

Half part of temple is built in red stones and will help you recollect memories of temples in India. The white snow and red-yellow stone temple was perferct contrast for this snap.

Forgot to mention one important thing. The hot pongal rice and sambaar you get here is simply mouth watering. Never miss this if you ever visit this place. Or should I say you must visit this place to devour this feast.. Yummy!!!

The Hindu temple of greater Chicago

2007-01-01T21:05:00.000+04:00

I never imagined that there will be so many temples in US. Really beautiful temples. This one is a temple with all gods and hence called Hindu temple of greater Chicago.
I asked my buddy to drop me here so that I can click some snaps and then come to temple.

This complex includes two separate temples:
The Rama Temple, which includes Sri Rama, Sita and Lakshmana; Lord Ganesha, Sri Hanuman, Lord Venkateshwara (Balaji), Mahalakshmi, Sri Krishna and Radha.

The Ganesha-Shiva-Durga Temple, which includes, Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha, Durga Devi, Lord Subrahmanya, Devi Parvathi, and Navagraha.

Aaaj mai upar, Aasma niche!!

2006-12-26T16:03:00.000+04:00

Yes we made it!!! Finally at the top of mountains. Joy of winning.

The Ranges

2006-12-26T15:59:00.000+04:00

See these outlines. Beautifully painted by mother nature....

Decision!

2006-12-26T15:53:00.000+04:00

Our 'Gypsies' were already at the top of Yettina Bhuja (meaning: Shoulder of Ox.). Me and Achalesh were easy go guys :) and stoped here. It was critical decision: To go or not to go!!

Young guns of India

2006-12-26T15:43:00.000+04:00

On the way back, it was 2nd Oct. bole to Bapu ka B'day. We were expecting our jeep to come near the same spot and pick up our dead walking bodies. But apun ka saala Bad luck hi kharab....

All the village jeeps were in nearby town and we had to stretch ourself for another 7 KM walk. These kids were coming from school after Gandhi Jayanti program... seeing these cute innocent faces was refreshing...

March from here

2006-12-26T15:37:00.000+04:00

The Journey starts. We were not knowing as how long our destination was. See the glittering faces. Till here we managed this Jeep.
(L-R) : Vinay, Achalesh, Me, Jeep Driver, Harish, Nadeem, Swapnil, Arun, Guide-Pigina and Sachin.

Cool Blues

2006-12-26T15:33:00.000+04:00

This was amazing site. Morning around 6AM on a bridge and shades of Blue everywhere.

Jaha raat wahi Basera!

2006-12-26T15:29:00.000+04:00

Started from Mangalore office at 9PM and reached this place at 2AM. This is a typical village school and we spend a night in school corridor in our sleepy bags. When got up early, was time to say Bye to this place... Truely natural!!!

On the green carpet

2006-12-26T15:21:00.000+04:00

After a 9 KM of nomadic walk to 'Yettina Bhuja' mountain trekk, I could manage this smile.

Let there be a light!

2006-12-26T15:00:00.000+04:00

Misty Christmas morning. Woke up from bed and peeped out from window, without a seconds delay i rushed to camera and picked this one....

New to Blogs

2006-08-10T12:46:00.000+04:00

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When world is out I'm in.
The sentence is true even today!!!
Till now all the creatures on the earth (some underground viz earthworms) have done with their experiments with Blogs and I set my LAB today....
Congrats me.. !! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________