Perspective .. Obstructive.. Destructive.. !!!

If you have seen the famous Bollywood movie, DEEWAR, starring Amitabh Bachchan, I am sure you would remember one of the most impact-ful scenes from this movie. The scene being, Amitabh Bachchan becoming a big gangster and his boss throwing money at him. Amitabh says - "Main aaj bhi pheke huve paise nahi leta.." He also narrates how as a kid, he polished shoes and even then he never took money which was thrown at him.. As a kid, he might have earned Chillar as his earnings but as the gangster he might have earned millions...!!!

Putting this into perspective, we notice that the value of money changes as we move up the social ladder. Recently, I was travelling to one of my relative's place in a bus. While returning, our bus stopped at a railway crossing somewhere on the highway... Suddenly, a young boy of probably 7 or 8 years sprang into the bus with a basket of Makka butta/Corn. He was trying to sell his goods in the bus. Three to Four people bought the Makka buttas from him.. Contented with his sale for the trip, the boy got down and started counting the money that he earned. He probably earned around 10 Rupees or so but he felt so happy. I could make out from the expressions on his face. It was an expression of total delight and contentment. A few days back, I got my salary along with the yearly bonus. I was looking at the salary slip, frantically calculating the tax which was cut. I got quite a lot but I was still lost in thought trying to figure out why I could not get a bit more... Although I earned lot more than 10 Rupees.. I was not happy, leave alone contented.

Does more money create more craving??? Does more money make our life unhappy??? Does more money make life too complicated??? Does more money bring with it excess baggage of image, superiority, status????

Let me confess that I am no saint and have not really relinquished worldly pleasures but then I am sure all of you must have got this thought of how much is enough to survive in this world??? The rigmarole of day-to-day life appears more and more like a vacuum cleaner sucking anything which comes in its way...!!!! Infatuation with money seems to be making us gluttonous to an enormous extent... Pardon me if I am generalizing a bit too much... I know there are many better people, unlike me, in this world who do things just for the love of it without expecting any monetary benefits... I may be one of those in the minority who just thinks about money in everything.. I may be one of those very few who seldom care about others.. I may be one of those very few who just thinks about obstructing others' progress to my advantage..!!!!!!

Being obstructive might give us short term gains... It might lull us into a comfort zone which ultimately could lead us to the path of destruction. A path devoid of remorse... a path devoid of care.. .a path devoid of empathy... a path full of gluttony... a path full of hypocrisy.. a path full of subservience towards wealth...!!!!! All of this is nothing but a perfect recipe for destruction...!!

Kabiraa Maan jaa..!!!!

कैसी तेरी खुदगर्ज़ी ना धुप चुने ना छाओं।  कैसी तेरी खुदगर्ज़ी किसी ठोर टिके ना पाओं। 

बन लिया अपना पैगम्बर, तर लिया तू सात समंदर। फिर भी सूखा मन के अंदर क्यूँ रह गया?

रे कबीरा मान जा… रे फकीरा मान जा… आजा तुझको पुकारे तेरी परछाइयाँ।  

I am sure you must have heard this famous song from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani..!!!

I am also sure that knowing me and my blogs, it is easy for you to guess that I am going to bring in Bollywood here. As an aficionado of movies, it is apparent to bring in some Bollywood link here. Recently, I was fortunate enough to watch Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. I know it released close to an year ago but i never watched it until it came on television. 

Although, the entire movie may not have been really appealing but parts of it were really thought-provoking. One such scene is this - 

We generally keep chasing things on which we don't have control and then get unhappy on not achieving it. It is the same case with everyone. Sometimes, circumstances force us to give up some things and we just keep thinking about it without focusing on our present. If we keep brooding over our past or future then our present cannot be enjoyed. I heard a fantastic line on this somewhere. It goes something like this - "Past is like an outdated cheque.... Future is like a promissory note... Present is the cash that you have... And that is what matters...!!!!"

It is not that I don't know about this or all of you don't know about this simple truth of life but it sometimes really rankles me as to how I always tend to forget this very basic tenet of life. Rather than worsening the already sickened wounds, it is better to just live the moment. Enjoy it as if it is the best day of your life. 

But then, I find solace in the fact that I am not alone in this unending race to assimilate the rays of success. I see everyone doing the same. I find everyone in the same rat race. This is very comforting. Then again, being one among the crowd makes the situation even more 'unendearing'.

Ultimately, it is a matter of just being happy come what may. Happiness and Sorrow is in our mind. If we want to be happy, we will be happy. If we want to be sad, we will end up being sad. 

It is always easier said than done but an attempt can definitely be made...!!!! Kabiraaa Maan jaa...!!!!!

Innocence of deceit

It was 8:30 AM in the morning and Raman was not yet ready. He had a very important meeting in his office to attend which was scheduled at 9:30 AM.  Despite the best of traffic conditions, it would take 45 minutes to reach office. But now that he was already late, he dreaded his boss’ reactions after reaching office. He quickly grabbed his bag and bolted towards the parking lot of his eight-storied apartment complex. Aaargh…!!! There was a power-cut. Now he had to take the staircase to go down six floors. Somehow, he reached the parking lot and saw that it was 8:35 AM. He tried starting his bike but it would not budge. He kicked and kicked the ignition rod but the bike stood there devoid of any life. Finally, gathering all his strength, he kicked one last time and the bike burst into life. He checked his watch. It was 8:40 AM.

Raman was a 33-year-old marketing professional. He was neither tall/dark nor a handsome guy but was the usual guy-next-door. He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall with very thick, curly hair. He had an equally thick moustache which was everyone’s envy.  Over the years, he had a paunch which he took great pains to hide. He would hold his breath while talking to strangers so that his paunch could contract. This was his way of hiding his paunch. Raman lived with his family in the suburbs of the pearl city, Hyderabad. He had recently bought a three bedroom flat and was getting used to riding long distances to reach his office. His office was a good 35 kilometres away from his house and he commuted on his bike every day.

Raman’s boss was an authoritarian martinet who hated late-comers. Of late, Raman had been late to office quite often owing to his long journey. Just the other day he had faced the wrath of his boss and he shuddered to think what would happen today. Moreover , there was this important meeting with a client. With these thoughts in mind, Raman sped his bike criss-crossing the traffic, avoiding the slow moving autos and the stationary buffaloes. He honked his way through the traffic.

Just as he was waiting for the signal to turn green in Kavadiguda, he saw that there was a huge commotion nearby. He heard a young boy crying for help. Curiosity got the better of him and he turned his head in the direction of the commotion to see what was happening. He saw that there was a young boy, around 11 or 12 years old, who was crying for help. There was a police constable beside him. It seemed as though the constable was beating up the boy. Humanity inside Raman wanted him to go and check the problem but the fear of his boss was not allowing him to. After a difficult 45-60 seconds, Raman’s conscience got the better of him and he parked his bike on the side of the road and went towards the boy to check.

The boy was crying and yelling that he was not a thief but the police constable was not listening at all. He was persistent that the boy was a thief. At this point Raman went to the policeman and asked him what the problem was.

The policeman replied - ‘Sir, this boy is a seasoned pickpocket. I have been searching for him since the past 2 months and I have finally caught him red-handed today.’

‘No Sir, this constable is lying. I am not a thief. I am a daily wage labourer and he is harassing me since the past 1 hour. He is hell bent on taking me to prison. He says that I am a pickpocket but trust me I have never stolen anything in life.’ , the boy said gulping tears of distress.

‘It’s all lies. I can prove that he is a thief. Look there are 800 rupees in his pocket. From where will a daily wage labourer get so much money? I am sure he has stolen it from someone. I am going to make him rot in jail.’ Saying this, the policeman slapped the boy.

The boy started crying again and pleaded that he was not a thief but the policeman was not ready to budge. He started pulling the boy’s hand. At this, Raman stopped the policeman and spoke to the boy – ‘ Look boy, I am here to help you. Tell the truth. Are you a thief? If not, from where did you get this money?’

The boy responded-  ‘Sir, these are my savings of last 2 months. I don’t have a house and there is no place where I can save this money. I have to keep it with me all the time. Otherwise, some street urchins would steal this money from me. I have saved each and every penny that came my way. ‘

‘He is lying. He stole this money. Wait, let my lathi do the talking. People like him will not listen if you talk. They only understand the language of kicks.’  The policeman now started pulling out his lathi to launch another assault on the boy.

But this time Raman was alert and he stopped the policeman and spoke to the boy – ‘You said you live on the streets then why do you need this much money. Tell me what are you up to.’

‘Sir, I want to go to school and become a big officer. But I don’t have the money to go to a school. That’s why I am saving money so that I could go to school one day to get myself good education.’

Raman was in a dilemma now. He was overwhelmed by the boy’s words. The innocence in the boy’s eyes was not allowing him to believe that the boy was a thief. The self-belief and the enterprising nature of the boy made an indelible impression on Raman. He thought that the boy must be saying the truth. He thought to himself – ‘There are so many underprivileged people meandering along on the streets with minimal food and clothes. And most of them tend to take the anti-social path but here is a boy who is making an attempt to reform himself. Here is a boy who is taking pains to get himself a good life. Here is a boy who is trying to redeem himself. Here is a boy who is fighting against all odds but the world is not allowing him to come out of the slimy confines of the murky streets. I must do something to help him. This is my chance to help someone realise his dream. I must help him. Yes, I must.’

Raman, then, spoke to the policeman – ‘Sir, I understand that you are helping the society by taking care of the thieves but I believe that this boy is not a thief. I think your job is such that you have to look at everything with suspicion. And I totally agree with your point of view but looking from the perspective of a common man, I think this boy should be given a chance. I can sense the truth in his unwavering voice and I trust him entirely. Please leave him. I know a friend of mine who runs an NGO to help educate street urchins. I will take this boy to him and help him get educated. Please leave him for me. This is my sincere request to you.’

‘Look Sir, you look like a respectable person. Why are you unnecessarily involving yourself in this matter? Why are you wasting your time saving this untrustworthy boy?’

‘Please sir please. Let him go with me. I take full responsibility of him. I will ensure that he gets good education. Please sir.’

‘I must say that you are a very stubborn person. I would never have allowed this boy to leave but since you are insisting, I am obliged to accede to your request. You can take him with you. But I must say, it is because of people like you that this world is not yet extinct. I salute you for your magnanimity.’ Saying thus, the policeman went away.

Raman was completely filled with happiness. He was feeling proud that he was now helping someone attain his goal. His heart was filled with complete happiness. He never felt so happy before.

Raman asked the boy to come with him. He then asked the boy to sit behind him on his bike and both of them rode away to Raman’s friend’s NGO. As he was riding his bike, he realised that Rs. 800 may not be sufficient for the boy. So, he wanted to give some more money to the boy. But he did not have enough cash with him. He saw an ATM nearby and stopped his bike to get some cash out of it. He took out Rs. 5,000 for the boy. Suddenly, he realised that he also had to take some money home to arrange for the monthly groceries. So, he withdrew Rs. 20,000 from his ATM. He put the money in his wallet and started going towards his friend’s NGO.

Just as he neared Paradise, the boy sitting behind asked Raman to stop the bike. Raman stopped the bike and before he could ask the boy about why he had asked him to stop, he saw that the boy jumped from the bike and started running in the opposite direction.

Raman didn’t understand what was happening. He was perplexed as to why the boy jumped so suddenly. He called out to the boy but he didn’t come back. Raman was very annoyed and disappointed. Suddenly, he remembered about his meeting and started to go to his office.

Raman reached his office well past 10 AM. He wanted to have some tea before he ventured in front of his boss. He went to his usual tea-stand to have his tea. Raman was still thinking about the boy as he drank the tea. But he still couldn’t understand why the boy ran away. Raman finished his tea and reached towards his pocket to take money from his wallet. There was no wallet to be found..!!!!!

                                              **********

Somewhere in the outskirts of Hyderabad, the boy was sitting with his uncle, enjoying a lavish lunch. His uncle patted on his back and said - ‘Well done my boy. You acted very well. Now give me 500 rupees from your catch today. I have to pay for the rent of this police uniform.’

The Sparrow

Well, first things first, this is not an article about Jack Sparrow... If you thought this would be about that character, then I am sorry.. This is about a sparrow much more endearing.. much more charming... much more desirable..!!!!

Back in the 90s, when I was reading newspaper in the mornings in our verandah, there used to be a ubiquitous and soulful sound in the background. As my house was very near to Kachiguda railway station, I heard the sound of the train chugging along. I heard the sound of the train's long and often unending horn... Agreed, this was ubiquitous but this was definitely not soulful...!!!! The sound that I am talking about is that of the chirping of birds sitting on trees outside my verandah. We had a small garden of sorts in our house. There were lots of trees in our aangan. We had a guava tree, a coconut tree, small plants which bloomed with flowers like jasmine, swastika flower, Hibiscus, Pink Rose and last but not the least - Nyctanthes arbor-tristis (known commonly as Night-flowering jasmine). There were lots of birds chirping around sitting on these trees. Crows, Pigeons, Koels, Parrots, etc.  But amongst this chirping, the one of THE SPARROW would always stay with me.

The sparrow was a lovely bird and it used to have a nest in our verandah. I can vividly remember the mother sparrow getting food for its infants. The father sparrow building the nest straw-by-straw. It was really very fascinating to note all this. We had a big ventilator in our verandah and the sparrows built their small, little nest on it. Although I never really gave a focused attention towards this bird but somehow the thoughts and memories of this bird are firmly entrenched even in my unusually fickle mind..!!!!!

Sparrow has always been viewed as a saintly and sober bird by me. I don't really know why I feel it that way but it indeed felt very calm, at peace with itself, carrying on with its work in a diligent manner. I was generally very partial towards it and whenever I had to choose between the crow and the sparrow, it was always the sparrow... !!!! Summer holidays were the best. This was the time when I had lot of time looking at the sparrow, wondering about its leisurely life, wanting to keep watching it all through my life.

If you carefully observe one of the previous paragraphs, I used the sentence The sparrow was a lovely bird. There is some essence to that sentence. These days I seldom see the sparrow. Where is it? I have not seen a sparrow for the past many years. Its disappearance is really strange. But then this should have been anticipated what with concrete jungles bestowing us everywhere with very little lung-space. Where would a sparrow find food for itself and its progeny??? There is so much of concrete around. It obviously cannot survive on brick and mortar...!!!! And alas, the sparrow has left us. It has gone to a place where it can survive, away from the din of this ultra-fast and furious metro.

In a large way, the sparrow stands as a metaphor to my childhood. A childhood which was wonderful, soothing, endearing, lovely and beautiful. Just as I don't see the sparrow anywhere, I don't see my childhood as well. It is pretty nearly extinct. My childhood too has just remained a wonderful memory. There doesn't seem to be that innocence in my eyes anymore. I don't seem to have that cherubical nature anymore. Where has all this gone?? I know this has long gone by, may be this has left me along with the sparrow. But it must be living somewhere just like the sparrow. The onus is on me to find it. I know it exists. It is just a matter of finding it. And I am sure I will find it one day. I will find my Sparrow- my childhood one day.

India or Bharat????

Over the past week, there has been clamour across the news channels about India, Bharat, etc. There were some really vociferous debates among some seemingly menacing activists, political commentators, news anchors and politicians. I thought why don't I too join this debate and put forth my views on this. Although I may not be as vociferous as they were but then let me express my views on this so-called 'debate on India and Bharat'...!!!! To take this debate forward, I need to go backward... FLASHBACK...!!!!

Once upon a time, many years ago, to be precise 29 years 5 months 5 days 6 hours and 21 minutes ago, a messiah was born in the heartland of Deccan Plateau. He was courageous, valorous, resplendent and radiating. The shine in his eyes was nothing short of ethereal. The calmness in his actions was nothing short of divine. The sharpness in his intellect was nothing short of perpetual. He was born in an year when India had just won the Cricket World Cup. 

Hang on, I was just kidding, everything mentioned in italics above is all fake...  It is just a figment of my over-worked and zealous mind... :P

Let's get the suspense out on who was born on that felicitous day. Well, I am sure you must have guessed it. Yours truly, Manish as I am known to the world, was born on this day.... :P Also, born on this day was Rinku.

Rinku had similar traits, behaviour and beliefs as Manish. Rinku had similar emotions like Manish. Rinku didn't like things which Manish didn't. Likewise Manish liked all the things that Rinku liked. There was an uncanny similarity in the way Manish and Rinku thought, envisioned and executed their plans. Well, all this is bound to be because Manish and Rinku are both the same individual. Yes, my nickname in my home is Rinku.

They call me by that name even today. In fact, many of my relatives still do not know that my real or official name is Manish. They all address me as Rinku...!!! What difference has that made to me? Even if someone addresses me as Manish or Rinku, I am still the same. I react the same way. I talk to them the same way. But why this fuss when talking about India or Bharat????? Isn't it something worth pondering over???? Or is it???

Rowdy Rathore was one of the biggest hits of 2012. It was said that this is a movie which catered to the masses. It catered to the rural belts. It catered to an audience which wants masala.  Rockstar, which released in 2011, requires a good deal of concentration and imagination to understand. Likewise, a Hollywood flick like Inception needs remarkable amount of concentration to understand what is going on. I enjoyed a Rowdy Rathore as much as a Rockstar or an Inception.

So, based on the logic of differentiating between India and Bharat, I am both an Indian as well as a Bharatiya. But my point here is - Is this sort of differentiation really needed?? Even if India was named as Hogsmeade, I would have still loved it with the same fervor and passion as I do it now.  Our country already has so many divisions based on language, caste, religion, etc. Is this sort of new differentiation really necessary?

This reminds me of a dialogue from the movie - Khatta Meetha (2010). It goes something like this -

Yahaan pe Indian kaun hai??
America mein jaao to American milenge... Germany mein jaao to German milenge...!
France mein jaao to Frenchman milenge... England mein jaao to Englishman milenge..!!
Aur India mein jaao to aapko milenge Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayali, Bengali... Indian kahaan hai..???

Well, although at first sight, this may not appear to be true but honestly I think this is true. Sometimes, I feel that if the British had not invaded India, we may have been a group of 28 different countries...!!!! I think the anger of Angrez ruling us brought out the nationalism within us.

Everyone wants this country of ours to be prosperous, happy and full of opportunities for everyone. Everyone wants this country to be the best in the world. Whatever name you may want to refer - India or Bharat - we still want our country to progress...!!!!

Just as Manish is Rinku and Rinku is Manish.... India is Bharat and Bharat is India...!!!!! And that's a fact. You may use any name you want..!!!!!

Why did the world not end on December 21st, 2012??????

22^nd December 2012

When I woke up in the morning today, I was quite relieved to know that I was still alive and kicking. The previous night, I had visions of a huge earthquake causing a great hole sucking up all the buildings on its way. I had visions of a massive wave from the Indian Ocean gulping everything - ships, houses, towers - on its way…!!!! I had visions of the Three Gorges dam bursting away and inundating the Himalayas..!!!!! I had visions of a huge meteorite striking Earth and causing massive ripples and ripping apart buildings, flyovers…!!!! I was feeling a sense of déjà vu. Why did it feel as though I have been through all this? Was it that this is my new life and I had witnessed all this in my previous life?? Why did it feel as though I was party to all this before??? Then I realized that there has to be only one answer to this question - I had to feel a sense of déjà vu because all that I described above are scenes from the Hollywood movie, 2012. :P

Although I was totally relieved to be alive, I was perplexed as to why this world did not end. There must be some reason behind this. How could the ancient seers be wrong in predicting precisely that the world would end on the 21^st December, 2012? Was it a misinterpretation on our part?? Or was there some divine intervention??? Why did the world not end on December 21^st 2012???

The questions above rankle me no end. I am pretty sure this is exactly the sort of questions that you might have in your mind. To help myself and all you folks answer these bamboozling questions, let me try to unravel the mystery…!!!!

Before we go any further, let us first understand why there has been a talk about the world ending. It is said that there is an old calendar prepared by the Mayans. It is widely believed that the Mayan calendar ends on December 21^st 2012. There is no other date after that. This made everyone think that the Mayans must have unraveled something out of the ordinary to stop their calendar at December 21^st 2012. But who are Mayans? I would like to believe that Mayans are the descendants of Maya. But who is Maya? Wait a minute… I know who Maya is. I think I heard about her when I was a kid. And in fact, I now have the proof of who Maya is. Please watch the video below to understand who Maya is. (There is no point reading further without watching the video. To understand the mystery ahead you need to watch the video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIZHkCbdLWg

Now that you have watched the video, I am sure you understand that Maya is a feeling – Ehsaas in Hindi…!!! Maya has no form or features. No one has seen Maya. If you ask me, Maya transcends the human feeling… In fact, Maya has not even entered the mind of SRK. Maya is still a Maya… :P Now now now, don't get flustered. Read on... :)

Since we have confirmation that Maya is just a feeling, the theory behind Maya having a calendar does not really have much substance. Ok, just for a minute, for the sake of argument let us assume that Maya indeed had a calendar. Those old calendars were inscribed on stones. It is a very time consuming process what with you having to chisel the stone to make those markings for dates. How much can a person keep on writing? The person who wrote on those stones must have got bored of writing the dates and must have taken a break. After taking the break, he must have forgotten to re-start the work or may be he lied to Maya that he completed the calendar but left the work mid-way by preparing the calendar until December 21st, 2012. There is a distinct possibility of this happening. :P

Let us think about some other scenarios that could have stopped the world from ending. I think even mother nature wants to see Sachin Tendulkar play. If the world had ended, Sachin's career would have ended abruptly. So, mother nature might have restrained herself from wreaking havoc on us. If this theory is correct then Sachin should keep playing on and on. I hope even my grandchildren see him bat. :P

Coming to the next theory, the world may not have ended because Mother Nature's baap - QuickGun Murugan did not give her the permission. Or may be QuickGun wanted to play cowboy cowboy for some more years....!!!!! 

The reasons quoted above are just some of them. There are many other reasons possible like mother nature might be waiting for Sallu miya to get married or Ramesh Powar to dance to the tune of Ganganam style or Lalu Prasad to become prime minister of India or Mannubhai to get his long awaited MBA...!!!!! There could be myriad such reasons which might seem unfathomable to some. 

As long as all these things don't happen, the world is not going to end. It will keep running day in and day out. That's why it is probably better for everyone to just stop worrying about all these frivolous things and enjoy every day like it is your last day...!!!!

TIMES COMES FOR EVERY DOGS...!!!!!!

I am sure most of you would be thinking that Manish has lost his senses as the title of the article doesn't really make any sense. Well, honestly speaking, I wanted to have the title of the article as 'Every Dog has its day' but I suddenly remembered about one of my old friends. This dear friend of mine was not too well versed with English and had the habit of creating his own indigenous words, sentences and sometimes, proverbs..!!!! The title here - 'Times comes for every dogs'  is one of his wonderful creations. :)

Now that you know the history behind the title, please watch the video before you proceed any further.

This is a video of a match between India and Pakistan back in 2005. It was the time when one of the greatest captains of India, Sourav Ganguly, began to have a downward trend. A few youngsters made their way through to the team in that year and one among them was Mahendra Singh Dhoni a.k.a. MSD.

It is quite ironic that this article is coming at a time when MSD finds himself in exactly the same spot as Dada was in back in 2005. Let's get back to the point of discussion here. Ashish Nehra was a fine young medium pace bowler and was relatively a senior bowler in 2005 when MSD was a newbie. You can easily see and hear in this video on how Nehra hurled choicest of abuses on MSD. My question here is - Would Nehra dare do it now if MSD drops a catch? The obvious answer is a BIG NO...!!!

Well, this shows us that every human has something called as a Golden period in his life. It is that period when everything that he or she touches turns into Gold.

But Life, like cricket, is definitely a game of glorious uncertainties. One day you might have the world at your feet and the other day the world may not even want to account your presence...!!!! There is no guarantee that a person who is on the pedestal today may not fall down and similarly, someone who is at the foot of the pedestal may not go to the top...!!!!

When you have the world at your feet and everything goes your way, it is imperative not to be too carried away because you never know when the carpet on which you are standing might be pulled away. If you are not ready for it, you will fall down and might even break your teeth...!!!!! Mind you, vice-versa also holds true...!!! You might be walking on the road today and suddenly might find the magical carpet which sends you soaring high..!!!!!! I am sure many of you must have experienced this in your life. But on a personal note, I had a steep fall when I was flying too high..!!!! But such falls are good, to some extent, because they teach you to be grounded and humane..!!!!

The fact of the matter is that definitely you will get a time when you are on top. Even the Dog, often referred, in old Hindi movies might have its day. (Remember the dialogue - Kutte main tera khoon peejaaunga.. :P)
But then you must also be ready to face any eventuality.It is all about patience and perseverance. You just need to hang in there. Times definitely comes for every dogs...!!!!!!

Some extravagantly unhappy, Some Happily subsisting..!!!

This is an old post written in May but I forgot to publish this... I never realized that it was still in draft status..!!!! Nevertheless, better late than never..!!!


It was a hot day of May.... 29th to be precise. In fact, the entire week had been unusually hot. Generally, Hyderabad becomes slightly cooler with some drizzles during this time but this year it was quite different. As a matter of fact, the entire nation reeled under an unusually hot summer. Naturally, many a news channel carried programmes showcasing the hardships of the oppressed denizens. One such piece was carried out by NDTV on the tryst of the capital's distressed citizens.

The reporter first took an interview of a family from the dingy by-lanes of Old Delhi. It was a family of modest means. The head of the family was a daily wage laborer. The family lived in a decrepit single room house. It was embellished with just a ceiling fan. In this oppressive heat, it is quite but natural to use the fan but more often than not a fan is not enough to cool our excruciatingly hot heads..!!! The reporter was inquiring about how the family beat the heat.. Well, since the family found it tough to meet both ends meet, there was no other option for them but to live in that small dingy room. But the family came up with indigenous ways to fight the heat. They drenched their bed-sheets in water and slept on them. This helped keep themselves cool.

I felt really sad and happy after watching this. Sad, because of the hardships the family had to endure. Happy because the family did not allow their deprivations to come in the way of their cheerfulness and happiness. They were happy with what they had..!!!!

Picture shifted to the next family staying in an upmarket plush colony of New Delhi... And they had a different tale to tell....!!!

The family in question had 5 air-conditioners in their house, one in each of the rooms. Apart from this, the family would hit the swimming pool both in the mornings and evenings to beat the heat... But still they were morose all through the interview. They looked so gutted as though the entire burden of this world was on them. There was not a single cheerful face in that family. I don't know if that was a bit of over-dramatization by the family, but it really irked me on ends.

This contrast of lifestyles once again brought to the fore the glaring differences between the haves and the have-nots. The differences between extravagance and subsistence. I am still nonplussed by the way life is... Someone who has all the material benefits with him is not happy whereas someone who is deprived of basics is cheerful...!!! This again shows that man's wants and desires are never-ending. The more we have the more we crave. This also inadvertently results in undue sorrow, gloom and distress..!!!!

But how would this world change. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. Even I am one of those who is never satisfied with what I have. I am desperately trying to come out of this vicious and debilitating cycle of wants and desires... BUT HOW...????????????

Duty-bound Day, Honest Hour, Mirthful minute, Sinless second..!!!!

Yesterday, I was sitting in my home doing virtually nothing when my mobile phone came alive and blurted out the message tone. It was one of my friends asking me if I was observing "EARTH HOUR". I bluntly replied that I was not. Well, I don't really observe earth hour just for that one day. I observe it every day, hour, minute and second of my life. It can be as simple as using a fan only when you need it. It can be as simple as switching off lights in your bathroom when no one is using it. It can be as simple as plugging leakages in your kitchen tap.

I really hate it when people just do lip-service and make a huge hue-and-cry about the so-called "EARTH HOUR". The celebrities have their twenty-minutes of fame by posing in front of the shutter bugs. Yes, agreed, there are some who are genuinely concerned about the environment but practically speaking, they are quite few and far between. I was amused to see the Page 3 of my newspaper today. Lots of wannabe celebrities were flashing their impeccably polished dentures holding rechargeable lamps..!!! If my basics of physics are still well-conditioned then definitely there has to be some source of power for these rechargeable lamps. From where does this power come??? Obviously, it has to be charged by plugging it. This is akin to clearing forests to plant more trees...!!!!

Let me quote you a small instance of my life when I was working with Infosys. I think it was somewhere in 2007. As most of you know, Infosys campuses are probably the best office campuses in India. There is lush greenery everywhere. The buildings are totally magnificent. Approach roads to the buildings completely spic and span. You would have to really concentrate with all your might and still you would not be able to find even a semblance of trash anywhere. That speaks volumes about the dedication and efficiency of the house-keeping team as well as the discipline of the employees. You would seldom find employees littering inside the campus. Once you are in the confines of the campus, you would feel as though you are transported to a completely different world. And I used to think all employees are really sensitive about keeping the surroundings clean.
Once on my way home, I was sitting in my office bus chatting with my friend. One of the employees, sitting in front of me, devoured a packet of Lays and without a blink of an eye just trashed the packet on the road. When my friend and I questioned her about littering the road, she gave a weak smile and said - "Chalta hai..!!" This is the sort of lip-service I am talking about. When educated individuals do such things, you cannot really blame others.

When we talk about changing the world, we should actually be talking about ourselves. The change has to come from within. First, we must try to change ourselves. The world will change consequently. What we need is not platitudes like Environment Day, Earth hour but it should all be about changing the way we live. Changing our perspective. If each and every one of us can strive to have a sinless second, a mirthful minute, an honest hour and a duty-bound day every second, minute, hour and day of our life that will go a long way in making this world a better place to live in. There would be no need of publicity gimmicks like EARTH HOUR anymore. I know it would be difficult to follow this but at least an attempt can be made. This reminds me of a dialogue from the hindi movie GHULAM -

"Leheron ke saath to koi bhi tair leta hai.. magar asli insaan wo hai jo leheron ko cheer ke aage badhta hai..!!!"

PENCHAR... PENCHAR... PENCHAR..

Teri Tirchi nazariya dil ko kar de PENCHAR.. PENCHAR... PENCHAR... PENCHAR...

When I heard this song for the first time, I did not understand the meaning of the word - Penchar. I googled the word and got myriad explanations about it from netizens. But two explanations caught my attention and both fit in here perfectly well.

The first one said that Penchar is a rustic and crude word used in Old Delhi for Puncture. When I tried fitting this word into the song, it made perfect sense...!!!

The second explanation said that singing aloud - Penchar, Penchar, Penchar multiple times would remind one of a very very commonly and routinely used expletive in the north of Vindhyas. This expletive is not so popular towards the south, but yes, with more and more songs like this, there is bound to be substantial followers and users of this expletive...!!!!!

Ever since Delhi Belly, with all its slang and expletives, was released, there have been numerous critics singing paeans about the so-called "boldness" in the movie. Using foul-mouthed dialogues seemed like path-breaking to them. No hard-feelings towards the makers of this film but it is the critics and media who seem to have enjoyed those dialogues more than anyone else.

But if you look at the Hindi movie industry, it definitely has become "bold" in the past few years. There have been movies with some crude and rather embarrassing dialogues. I remember a dialogue in Ishqiya which twisted the complete meaning and pronunciation of Sodium Sulphate.. Na2SO4.. if my chemistry is good enough. My chemistry professor is definitely bound to cringe at hearing Chh****** sulphate. It was just gross and obnoxious if I were to quote one of my friends.

Indian movie industry has been very conservative in terms of using foul language. In the olden days, it was just the Kutte Kaminey main tera khoon pee jaaoonga. Hearing this dialogue so many times in hindi movies makes me wonder if the protagonist in the movie is a human or a vampire???? If it had it's way then man's best friend would have sued the dialogue writers for using their names along with the villians... :P

I remember when I was in 3rd or 4th standard, a telugu movie, Bhadram Koduko had a few expletives in it and I was totally shocked to hear it on television...!!!!! But alas, the kids these days keep singing Bhaag DK Bose DK Bose DK Bose DK Bose DK. Although we too, in our childhood, must have used expletives but using them blatantly on screen was a big taboo... !!! Not now... Changing times????

Well, personally, if just using expletives makes a movie path-breaking then why not have it in the title itself... Or if one is a bit conservative then they can possibly take a cue from Amitabh Bachchan of Buddha.. Hoga tera baap.. They can name the movie as BEEP BEEP.. or BEEP KI BEEP..!!!!

Bottomline is that despite using the expletives in day-to-day life it still makes me cringe to hear it on-screen particularly if you are watching the movie with your family.. Using expletives or erotic scenes in the movies does not constitute boldness but baldness...!!! Baldness of thoughts and intellect..!!

A tale of two 'Manishs'

Here I come after a long long long self-imposed exile... !!! I don't know if it was lack of motivation or lack of new ideas that forced me into this hiatus... But I am back now with a new 'tale to tell'...!!!!

The title of this article is definitely bound to remind you of the novel - A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens. But trust me, this article has nothing in common with this novel..!! Or has it???

As is the case of most of my articles, let me take you back down the memory lane to the 90s when I was in my school... Precisely, let me take you to 1997 when I was in 9th standard. It was a cricket match again between the two neighbors divided by the Palk Strait - India and Sri Lanka. I am quite sure you remember those days when India was often whipped around by the Matara Marauder - Sanath Jayasuriya. It was one such match and India needed around 250 odd runs to win but as was the case almost always, as soon as Sachin got out, there was a big batting collapse and India was tottering and on the brink of yet another mammoth loss at the hands of our tiny neighbors... Two of India's all-time tallest cricketers were at the crease.. One a thin and frail individual.. Other a massive and intimidating individual... One known for his leg-cutters and the other, ahem, I am not sure if you remember his name even... No pun intended.. Well, let me take off the lid now, the two gentlemen at the crease were Venkatesh Prasad and Abey Kuruvilla...!!!! India needed around 70-80 runs to win.. The die-hard fan and the never-say-die individual named 'O-Manish' was still hopeful of an Indian victory...!!! But there was this other individual named 'P-Manish' who had predicted Indian loss the moment Lankans posted above 250 runs...!!!

This was well a precursor to the great fight that would keep on ensuing between 'O-Manish' and 'P-Manish'...!!! Let me represent these two as OM and PM respectively for ease of typing... !!!

OM always hoped for the best... PM always predicted the worse...!!!
OM always saw a silver-lining in every cloud... PM always saw spots on the moon...!!!

Let me now recount the story of OM and PM..!!!

- When I gave up cricket for the sake of education, OM saw a new opportunity in it. PM thought it was the end of the world..!!!

- When I could not make it to IIT, OM saw an opportunity in EAMCET... PM again thought it was the end of the world..!!!

- After my life's first ever interview with the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services, where I was rejected for being a bit too undiplomatic and forthright in the HR interview, OM was imagining job with a better company... whereas PM again thought it was the end of the world...!!!!

- After faltering in my first attempt to crack CAT in 2003, OM saw an opportunity in CAT 2005 where PM, as usual, thought this to be the end of the world...!!!

- After debacle in CAT 2005, 2006 and 2007, OM saw opportunity in CAT 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively.. But PM gave up any hopes of making it to IIM..!!!

- After making it to IIM and then giving up the seat, OM still saw an opportunity in software industry again.. but PM was just inconsolable...!!!!

Even today after some debacle or the other, OM finds newer avenues and opportunities whereas PM finds newer ways at self-destruction...!!!!

Well, reading this story, some might think about their own life-story albeit with different scenarios... I am quite sure each and every individual has two 'selfs' within. One OPTIMISTIC and the other PESSIMISTIC..!!!

In my case, O-Manish was always Optimistic with life... P-Manish was always Pessimistic with life...!!! But time and again, OM was always proved right. His belief in good things always brought about good results. He never let PM get over him..!!!

I feel when we are born, all of us have 50% optimism and 50% pessimism within us... It is up to us to ensure that the P-component reduces as we grow... The more the growth of O-component the lesser the influence of P-component..!!!

Now then, even as I write this article, OM says people would love it but PM says they would despise it...!!!! To this OM says - Even if people despise it, I see an opportunity to improve my writing skills..!!! And the battle continues...!!!!

SLAP STICK

July 2010

A school student commits suicide as his teacher slaps him in front of the class.
Media raises a hue and cry… Breaking news for 3-4 days…. Astounding and articulate arguments on live TV with all and sundry pitching in with their ‘expert’ comments…. Human rights activists ready to pounce..

A school student again attempts to commit suicide as his teacher reprimanded him for coming late to the class.
Media raises a hue and cry… Breaking news for 3-4 days…. Astounding and articulate arguments on live TV with all and sundry pitching in with their ‘expert’ comments…. Human rights activists ready to pounce.. And the story continues……!!!!!!

PICTURE REWIND

July 1995

A 12-year-old nondescript boy was struggling with the Chakrasana in his Yogasanas class in school…. He was not able to do it properly… He was trying hard but somehow was not able to manage it…. Suddenly, out of the blue moon emerges the PT sir… pulls the boy’s belt up and tries to lift him up in Chakrasana…. The boy, unable to bear the pain, falls down… The Sir slaps him then uses his trademark stick and bashes him on his buttocks…. Fighting tears, the boy tries again but does not succeed…. After the Sir goes away, he shares a joke with a fellow friend about how mean that Sir was…. Both have a hearty laugh and that was the end of that…!!!!!

The 12-year-old boy did not attempt to commit suicide just because his teacher beat him… Neither did his parents bother to inform ‘media’ about it…. Although there was not much choice at that time with only the good old Doordarshan being the only channel broadcasting quality news…. !!!! But nevertheless, the boy never informed such trivial things to his parents at home… He was too preoccupied with other wonderful things in life to complain about it to his parents…. Once when he did, his parents just told him that it was part and parcel of school life and one needs to just get on with it… And that’s exactly what the boy did every time he was beaten up …!!!!!

Just imagine what would have happened if this incident took place in these times… Channels would have had a field day…. Because there would have been a suicide every day in a school like the one mentioned above where students were beaten with a stick on their buttocks…. !!!! Now let me not overemphasize on the beating part in this old school… Yes, children were beaten up but only as a last resort…

I am quite sure that people of my age would have been slapped or beaten in their schools at least once… None of us ever had any qualms about it as we never allowed that slap to affect our heart… The slap on face was never assumed as a slap on our hearts…!!!!

But things are entirely different these days…. Children just don’t listen to kind words… More often than not, they tend to misuse their freedom…. And parents have to take a major share of blame for this… I have seen many a time parents coming to the rescue of their children and fighting with their neighbors although knowing that their child is at fault…!!! This somehow creates a sense of invincibility in the minds of children…. They know that they can do bad things and still get away as their parents would be there to shield them.. !!! This creates some sort of a false sense of invincibility around the child. This makes him/her feel as though no one has a right to scold him or her…!!

In every classroom, there is bound to be a section of students who are extra-sensitive and some who would be totally thick-skinned… And it is these extra-sensitive types who are more often than not overly protected by their parents…. Parents do not allow these children to be tough… They don’t allow them to get out of their shell as they keep on being extra-protective….!!! When such children are out of their comfort zone they tend to feel that the entire world is conspiring against them… They grow suspicious of the good intentions of their teachers as well… !!!

It is up to the parents to ensure that children don’t really get bothered by all the beating that happens in the school… Yes, agreed that even the teachers need to restrain themselves from resorting to such treatment… But then, there are circumstances where it is imperative to use the slap or the stick…!!!

Even the media needs to be slightly restrained when reporting such issues… It should highlight only genuine cases otherwise people are going to misuse their power… A case in point being the innumerable cases of small kids falling in the open bore-wells… It all started with PRINCE and it just went on and on….!!!!!

I am neither a proponent of the philosophy – “Spare the rod and spoil the child” nor am I totally against it.. But only thing that is needed is a bit more tactfulness and restraint because not every kid is like that nondescript kid beaten up for not doing Chakrasana properly…. Needless to say, that nondescript boy is none other than Mr. Manish…!!!

UNDERDOG UNDERWEAR...!!!!

Well.. Well.. Well… I guess most of you must be curious about the title of this article. People who are reading this article just because of the title are in for big disappointment. That’s because this article is going to stress upon the ‘Underdogs’ rather than the ‘Underwear’.. I had this dubious title just to grab your attention…. All those filthy minds who want to read about underwear can better switch on their television sets. There you can see Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan flaunting their chiseled bodies whilst brandishing Dollar Club, Amul Macho, Macroman, etc etc… Others read on….


India won the cricket World Cup in 1983… When the world cup started, no one in their wildest dreams ever gave a chance to India… But miraculously, India pulled it off… Same was the case with Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup…. And may be, who knows, Netherlands might pull off an upset over a rampaging Spain and be the new World champions in Soccer… I am sure during most of the matches people would have wanted the weaker team to win in their heart of hearts… At least I did… There is a certain sense of romanticism associated with seeing a weaker team pull it off against the stronger team… Everyone wants to see a timid David pull it off against the mighty Goliath….!!!!!


Extrapolating these examples from the sporting field into real life would bring up some interesting observations. What is it with these underdogs that fascinate everyone? What is that extra something which catches the imagination of everyone?? What is it that makes everyone root for the underdog??? Well, the answer is pretty simple. In the heart of hearts, everybody thinks that he/she is an underdog. It can be any field. Some people consider themselves to be underdogs in studies. Some consider it in the sports world. Some consider themselves underdogs as far as financial matters are concerned.. That’s the fact of life.. Some of you may not agree with me forthrightly but I am sure there will be a tiny pulse in the smallest of corners of your heart which would agree with me…!!!! This holds true particularly with us Indians… Most of us are more emotional than practical… Let’s take the example of Bollywood.. Great superstars from Bollywood have something in common… Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan… All the three have one thing common… All the three were underdogs when they entered the industry… And look at where they are right now… Not many would have as much mass appeal as these three great superstars of Bollywood… Even down south, two of the biggest superstars Chiranjeevi and Rajnikanth were underdogs when they entered the industry… Agreed that all these individuals had immense talent but the biggest asset that these five individuals had was the support and goodwill of the masses… If it was not for the fans these superstars would have been anonymous individuals… What made the masses support them? It was the strong desire to see the underdog succeed..!!!


Most of you who are Harry Potter aficionados would appreciate this scene from the second book, The Chamber of Secrets… When Harry Potter goes to meet the Principal of Hogwart’s, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, he sees the mystical phoenix, Fawkes. Before his eyes the phoenix gets burnt and dies… But in a matter of seconds, it rises again from the ashes, ready for a new life…This is exactly how we wish an underdog to be… We always wish someone completely despondent to win against all odds just like the phoenix rose from the ashes…!!!!!


But there is a flip-side to this entire romance for an underdog… What if the Goliath is us? What if it is our team??? Well… honestly in such a scenario all this romance about underdog will go out of the window… I am sure no one will support Bangladesh to win against India in cricket.. That’s the fact of the matter… We would never sympathize with the underdog if we are at the receiving end. We would like to believe in the adage – “Every dog has its day.”. But equally true is the fact that we would never want this dog to have his day against us. So, what we can understand from this whole thing is that this basically depends on the situation. Situation is what dictates terms to us and we become slave to it and change our perceptions accordingly..

Underdog is good as long as we are not the “Overdog”…!!!!!

TRAVAILS OF A TRAVELLER....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

‘Hum jo chalne lage… chalne lage hai ye raaste… ‘ – Humming this wonderful tune from Jab We Met, I embark on my rollicking journey to my office. Off late, I have been feeling more and more like Kareena Kapoor… now now now don’t get it wrong… What I mean is I feel more and more like her character Geet from Jab We Met… The reason being that in the movie she always dreamt of missing her train… And I too have been dreaming the same these days.. Only difference being that I dream of missing my BUS..!!

The most vivid memory of my day after I wake up is that of me dashing towards the overflowing road at Koti which unfortunately happens to be a Bus stop…!!! It is not surprising to find the entire road in front of the bus stop crowded with myriad people having myriad ways of ensuring that they catch their bus. Some people are waiting as though they are waiting for an impending enemy and ready to pounce on it. Some like me wait for it as though waiting for girlfriend in a park… As they say in Urdu – “Badi Nazaakat se hum intezaar karte hai…” But then this Nazaakat generally gets lost in the melee and we tend to be part of the marauding enemy more often than not…!!!!

After a Herculean effort, I board the bus. I think that my war is finished but hang-on. A new war has started now. I need to find a seat for myself. Otherwise I would just be crushed by a pummeling and intimidating crowd. But as fate would have it, I am left gasping for breath as I don’t find myself efficient enough to jump through the window or reserve my seat by throwing a handkerchief from the window…!!! Left with no other option, I stand there balancing myself on one leg and perilously hanging from the support-bar as I sense precociously closer to being trampled by a rampaging crowd…!!

Amidst this entire din, I notice two young boys, probably eight years old, trying to cling on to the bus near the foot-board. It amused me no ends when these guys were shouting chants of Jai Telangana…!!! I am pretty sure that they might not have an iota of idea about what they are shouting about but they seemed to be oblivious of it and just did things their way. This is the beauty of childhood. You do things which you like without any inhibitions… I was rudely awoken from my thoughts by an abnormally over-weight and obnoxious idiot who stepped on my foot. Ouch…!!! The fatso didn’t even bother to apologize and stomped away like an elephant trampling everything that dared come his way….!!!!

As I stand there writhing in pain, I notice a clutter of confused engineering students mugging up the program to print numbers of the Fibonacci series…!!! This brought to life the wonderful memories of my engineering life.. The time of exams… The gadbad to revise everything again… Well, I think I should write about the memories of engineering in some other article as I am pretty sure that one page won’t be sufficient to showcase the showbiz of our gang…!!!!!

Just as I feel happy about the sweet memories, the feel-good factor somehow helps me attain a seat…. And I finally assume my seat… I am almost half-way through my journey to office…. The moment I sit down a guy requests me to hold his bag… As I keep it on my lap, another guy comes out of nowhere and requests me to hold his bag as well… In a matter of a few seconds, I have three bags firmly placed on my lap…. !!!!!!

”Saar… Konchem Madhapur vaste cheppandi” - requests the guy sitting next to me. I oblige. Madhapur… This name is rarely used these days… It is now Hitec-City that is used for any place near to this village… Yes, it used to be a village some time back but not anymore…. I still remember my engineering days not long ago when we went to Durgam Cheruvu (Secret Lake) and there was absolutely no traffic…. Now we need to search for ‘Cheruvu’ in the concrete jungle… It has receded drastically over the years… Encroached by the gluttonous real-estate mafia, it is a sorry sight now….!!!!!

I am suddenly jolted as the driver slams a sudden break and the bus comes to a grinding halt… What the heck.!!!! Well, it seems like some stupid moron who in polite terms is referred to as an ‘Auto-driver’ suddenly swerved right and came in front of the bus… Nothing new for a Hyderabadi… We are used to the whims and fancies of these rulers unto themselves….!!!! A barrage of swearing followed in chaste Hyderabadi language… The bus-driver and auto-driver enquiring about each others’ mothers, sisters, etc, etc…!!!!! Finally, after the intervention of some good Samaritans, Bade babu as they say in Hindi movies, going on the road my driver decided to resume the journey…!!!!!

As the bus catches speed on the undulating roads of Jubilee Hills, I too try to catch a short nap…!!! As I wake up from my sleep, I notice that the bags on my lap no longer exist… Probably, the guys may not have thought it prudent to wake me up from my deep slumber…!!!! I glance outside and notice that we are almost nearing Madhapur… I inform the person sitting beside me that the next stop is Madhapur… He thanks me profusely and rushes towards the exit…!!!

A lot of people scramble to get down the bus at Cyber Towers … The bus is almost empty now… I feel like a king in this near-empty bus… I sit lavishly on my seat albeit for a few minutes…. I prepare to disembark from the bus as my stop Kothaguda approaches…. As I step out of the bus, a smile and a frown both appear on my face thinking about my impending journey back home later...!!!!!! Hum jo chalne lage, chalne lage hai ye raaste....!!!!!

Aman ki Asha

Aman ki asha… This caption is everywhere these days…. In the newspapers… On the billboards… On the internet…. In TV advertisements…. At first look I thought that this was a movie’s name wherein the hero is Aman and heroine is Asha….. I thought this to be one of those typical Bollywood love stories and sighed… Oh No…not again…!!!!

A couple of days back, I was watching yet another India-Sri Lanka one-day match…This was the 20th ODI between these two teams in the last 19 months…!!!! Too much of anything can be too boring….. Anyways, let’s not transgress from the main point here….
It was the last ball of 43rd over I guess and the match was on an even keel… It was the last ball of the over and suddenly, thanks to Neo Cricket, there was this advertisement…

An elderly Muslim man, standing on a small pedestal, is playing dumb-charades in the middle of the desert and is cheered on by his friends… There is one more chap with binoculars who tries to decipher the name of the movie gesticulated by the old man …. As he finally decodes the name as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, there is frenetic activity all around…. People shouting around… One of them, asking another to call the radio station…. Then the other man calling up the radio station and making his farmayish
Finally, the good old All India Radio plays a song from the aforementioned movie…. And the entire village ecstatic that their farmayish has been accepted…. !!!!

Even until this point I could not decipher what this advertisement was all about….. Then came the message…. Aman ki asha - An India – Pakistan peace initiative started by the Times of India group of India and the Jang group of Pakistan.

As a proud citizen of India, I am really very happy that something of this kind has been started… Well, this is not the first time that a joint peace initiative has been forged between these two brothers but the sheer magnitude of this exercise is what impresses me this time around…. The biggest news group of India initiating this in association with a leading news group of Pakistan has immense possibility of hope…!!!!

Right from the day I came face to face with the term called ‘Nationalism’, there has been a marked polarity in the way I treated Pakistan… Although no one told me that Pakistan is our enemy but still there was enough going around me which ensured that I hate Pakistan…. This hatred entrenched in me deeply…. Be it a cricket match or a hockey match, I found happiness in Pakistan’s defeat…. I was happier seeing Pakistan lose than India win…. This feeling gradually seeped into me and spread like gangrene all through my body… I am sure my counterpart in Pakistan would have felt exactly the same about India…. !!!!

We in India think that we are always right…. People in Pakistan think that they too are always right…. And this has slowly but steadily put in place rigidity in the stand adopted by both the countries… Yes, politics is to blame partially but then it is pretty easy to blame politics for everything bad that happens…. Before we blame politics for anything, we need to keep in mind that all these politicians were at first common people like us… All the corruption or unaccountability over decisions is somewhere or the other rooted into our system.... So, rather than blaming politics it is better to introspect on whether we are following what we preach…. !!!

I vividly remember an anecdote that I read in my childhood in a children’s magazine called Gokulam.. The story goes like this:
Before independence, there was a small boy who had this habit of eating lots of sugar…His father did not approve of it and wanted his son to shun this habit but somehow his son didn’t leave this… So, he took his son along with him when he went to meet Mahatma Gandhi and told him about his plight… Gandhiji asked the man to come to him after some days…. The man agreed and came back after some days…. Gandhiji went upto the young boy and asked him to stop eating excessive sugar as it was not good for health… The youngster agreed to it and stopped eating sugar excessively from that day onwards…. The boy’s father was surprised that Gandhiji took so much time to tell this small thing to his son…. So, he went to Gandhiji and asked him as to why he took so many days to say this small thing to his son…. At that Gandhiji said that he himself had this habit of eating sugar excessively… So, he had to first control his habit before preaching to the young boy…. !!!!!
This to me is the best example of the saying – “Practice what you preach.”

A start has to be made somewhere… Someone has to take up the initiative… Someone has to walk that extra mile… Only then can long-lasting peace be achieved… India has always accepted artists from Pakistan…. Many of them are thriving in India… They have made big name and money for themselves…. Now, it is time for Pakistan to reciprocate…. I understand that a common man of Pakistan is no different from a common man of India… He is concerned about his Roti, kapda aur makaan rather than the number of nuclear weapons his country possesses… !!!

I think time is now ripe to forget all the bickering of the past and forge an alliance of long-lasting peace and tranquility…. And this initiative Aman ki Asha is a right step in this direction…!!!

Sau rupaye ki amar kahani....!!!!!

I am here to tell you the story about ME. I have seen the ‘ups and downs’ of life. There is nothing left to be seen but a lot to be said.

I was born in a dingy little place devoid of proper lighting. The moment I was born, I was undulating in mirth and gaiety. My life seemed to be completely perfect. My body was so supple that it felt like I was a born-gymnast. My skin was glowing like radium in a dark room. My colour was so dazzling that it was as though God created me to showcase his mastery. People around me were completely and overwhelmingly besotted by my beauty. Everyone around me had just one word to describe me – Delightful. I was cynosure of all the eyes around. There was so much attention towards me that I felt like GOD. But the irony was that despite all the attention that I had they said that I was an orphan…. !!!!!!!

My joy knew no bounds when I was adopted by a magnanimous gentleman. He considered me to be so precious that he always kept me near his heart. I could feel his heartbeat as he went about his work. He was a very hard-working and busy man but still he kept really good care of me. He didn’t ever allow even a single fold on my skin. He was very very careful with the way he handled me. He ensured that I was always ‘spic-and-span’. And I was proud of it.

But life is full of glorious uncertainties. My master had to send me to one of his friend’s place. He was unhappy to let go of me but he had to do it reluctantly. His friend appeared to be a lousy man at first sight. And he really was. He never cared for me. He pierced a needle-like object into my heart for no fault of mine. It pained me a lot. He pierced the object with a lot of force and left me gasping for breath. Blood oozed out of my heart but it didn’t deter him. The pain and torture was unbearable. I was yelping in pain and pleading for help. But it all fell on deaf ears. I was later told that he did this to make me stick together with children of my age. All of us were bound together with this needle-like object. All the fellow kids were crying along with me. But the cruel and heartless man just went about his work. And I was left cursing my destiny.

The next morning seemed unusually pleasant. I was in a completely new place. This was warm and cozy. That was when I realized that my adopted father’s friend had shifted me to a new place. The owner of this place was a lovely lady in her 30s. She seemed a kind-hearted and genteel woman. This lady carefully took the needle-like object out of my heart. Then she bandaged the area. She used some elastic bandage over the wound. She put this bandage over all the other fellow kids as well. And then she took a pen and tattooed something on my skin. I felt a tingling sensation when she was tattooing on my body. After she finished I was surprised to see that she made a 100 using the pen on my skin. I couldn’t understand why she made it but then I was happy that I had a tattoo on my body. I was eager to flaunt it before my friends. But before I could flaunt it in front of my friends, her husband came and scribbled something on my skin. He used a pen to cut off the 100 and wrote something in a strange language. I could not understand what it was. My beautiful skin now became completely pathetic and dirty.

Days went by and I kept changing my house every other day. It was more like a routine every day. I was habituated now to keep changing my house. That’s possibly the reason why people hate to be an orphan. No one wanted to be with me. I had to fend for myself. But the tough weather and conditions had started taking toll on me. My skin was not as glowing as it used to be earlier. Even the suppleness of my body seemed to be on the wane. My body was beginning to get crooked up right through the middle. There were numerous holes on my heart made by the pricking of innumerable needle-like objects over the days. Now pain seemed to be an integral part of my body. In fact, my body didn’t respond to pain. It had now become a way of life.

One such day, as I was going along with my new owner I saw that there was some kind of fervour in the air. There was excitement all around. People looked very happy and were throwing colour at each other. There were lots of colours all around - Pink, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Orange. Looking at people made one feel as though one was looking at real-life replicas of rainbow. I had never seen such an environment ever before in my life. My new master too was enjoying his time out there. He too was resplendent in bright colours. He was splurging colour at everyone around. Although I was happy looking at the happiness around, I was still unable to fathom the fact as to why these people were splashing colours at each other. I asked one of my friends about it. He told me that this was an Indian festival called Holi and people celebrate it by playing with colours. I was happy to know about it and was in a trance when it happened all of a sudden. Someone came in front of my master and threw large quantity of colour on him. As he ran for cover, I bore the brunt of the entire colour. I was completely soaked in pink-coloured liquid. It was nauseating. I felt like vomiting as the colour went into my mouth. I choked for a moment. But then, gathered my breath and tried to dry myself. It took me two hours to be completely dry. I was happy that I was now dry. But oh no… What was this???? My body was completely pink. This colour stuck to me. It was not ready to leave me. I was completely pink now. My beautiful colour was all lost now. I was looking very ugly. An unbearable stench was emanating from me. I was devastated.

My pink-coloured body kept on shifting hands. I was moving from one house to other. Not many were now ready to adopt me. Many a time people shunned me. Also, the vicious attack on ‘Holi’ had left deep scars on my skin. It had begun to break up. Also, once my leg got stuck up in a zipper and it got mutilated. People didn’t want to take me as they despised my mutilated body. Then one day, a good Samaritan applied a plastic bandage on it. At least now, it appeared as though I had normal legs but the pink colour was still on. Some people didn’t notice the abnormal legs and bandage and took me over but then began cursing me as soon as they found out that I was a crippled fellow. I used to be very unhappy hearing all this about me. But then I had no other option. I had to stay on with them until some other careless person took me over.

One fine day, a person took me to a dingy little place devoid of light. This place felt eerily familiar to me. As I turned around and saw the length and breadth of the room, it became apparent that in fact this was the very room where I was born. I was happy to get back to my place of birth. I had been hoping to come to this place one more time before I die. Now I was here. There were many mutilated people like me all around me. As the man who brought me here came towards me with an object containing many sharp edges, it became seemingly apparent that my end was very near. He slowly brought the object towards me. And then, with a surgical precision he pushed me into the depths of the object. My body writhed in pain. I was shred into a million pieces and I was gone, gone forever into the depths of oblivion.

You would be curious to know as to who I am. Well….you have been listening to the story of an Indian currency note. Yes, I am the 100 rupee currency note…..!!!!!!!

Main Kaun Hoon????????????????????????

“Main kaun hoon??? Main kahaan hoon????” – This is an evergreen dialogue heard in innumerable Hindi movies just after a character regains consciousness. More often than not, the character would have met with an accident where his head gets injured and he forgets about his past… Thus, asking this evergreen question….
But you know what --- I too have asked this question many a time to myself…. Hey… hang on…before you draw any wrong conclusion… let me clarify that I never had an injury to my head … nor did I lose my memory or forget my past….!!!!! But then, why do I keep asking this question to myself???

Well, I am one of those lucky few who can understand the lyrics of songs like “Gaajuvaaka pilla memu gaajulollam kaada…” or “Dhagaala laagli kala , paani themb themb gala…. “. Not only these songs, I am one of those who can watch and understand, with equal élan, movies like Puttinti pattucheera or Maaherchi saadi…. !!!!!! I am one of those who can read Eenaadu or Dainik Lokmat with equal interest….!!!!! I am one of those who can converse fluently with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar or Vangipurapu Venkata Sai Laxman in their mother-tongue….. I am one of those who can be called a Telugu Bidda or a Marathi Manoos…. !!!!!

Yes, I am one of those who can read, write and speak Telugu and Marathi fluently… But what is the big deal…. Anyone who stays in Pune for a substantial period would learn Marathi or anyone who stays in Vishakhapatnam can learn Telugu…. But not many are lucky enough to have a mother whose mother-tongue is Marathi and a father whose mother-tongue is Telugu…. I am proud to say that I am one of those lucky few….. The best thing about being in such a family is that you get to learn more languages… You get to understand the culture of two different places… You get to associate yourself with two different regions…. You develop a strong bond of togetherness with two different set of people…. What better example to quote than the fact that one of my best friends is Marathi and the other is Telugu… !!!!!

I am sure most of the people who are like me would tend to have these feelings… Not just this Marathi-Telugu combo, but it can be anything…. I have friends who are Kannada-Marathi, Telugu-Kannada combos…!!!! Not to mention my cousins who are of the same combo as I am… !!!!! We all know that India as a whole is an amalgamation of various languages and cultures… but still we are united… What better example of national integration than to quote examples like mine… !!!! But then, a coin always has two sides…. It’s not always hunky-dory..!!!!

As a kid, I faced a huge identity crisis…. I couldn’t understand if I was a Telugu guy or a Marathi guy…. Generally, it is accepted in any society that the father’s mother-tongue would be the mother-tongue of his son or daughter…. But somehow I was not able to fathom this fact…. I spoke Telugu as well as Marathi with equal gusto in my house…. In fact, I speak Marathi more than Telugu in my house… Then how come Telugu can be considered as my mother-tongue…???? What exactly is the definition of mother-tongue??? Does it mean that the language spoken by your forefathers is your mother-tongue??? Or is it the language which you speak more in your house??? These were some of the questions I had in my mind…. Well, honestly speaking, there would be different opinions about this issue… Some might argue that consistent with my logic since most of us speak in English at our workplace, we need to consider English as our mother-tongue… Well, this would sound completely absurd… But then how do we resolve this???

I thought long and hard about this…. Then a sudden revelation came to me…. It said that this hypothesis cannot hold good in the case of English because it was never the language of choice of our ancestors…. But then I thought, why can’t I consider both Telugu and Marathi as my mother-tongue because I love both the languages equally… I love both the regions…. I love both the cultures… So, there I was with gyaan in my life…. I started feeling proud of my heritage.. of my luck as not many have this kind of privilege of having a special bond with two languages and two cultures….

Before ending this, all I wish is that I marry a Punjabi or a Bengali or someone else… so that my lineage can be even better examples of national integration… !!!!!!

Indian Paisa League????

“Korbo lorbo jeeto re… korbo lorbo re.. jeeto re…. jeeto re…”

This is probably the most popular anthem of an IPL team. When this song made its first public appearance during IPL – 1, it created a frenzy among the cricketing public accentuated more so because it belonged to the team owned by the Baadshah of Bollywood. Kolkata Knightriders had the best of people with it as far as publicity is concerned. It was probably the most popular team before IPL – 1 started.. But alas, the honeymoon ended as soon as the tournament entered its business end….!!!!

Bollywood or rather the Hindi film industry has always been a part and parcel of every Indian’s life… I won’t be surprised that some people might not know the name of the President of India but would surely know Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday. We, Indians or should I say the average Indians are obsessed by Bollywood and Cricket… There is no denying this fact…. Indian Premier League is one such medium which cashed in on the popularity of these two modes of entertainment with the stated intention of developing cricket in India. So far, so good.

India as a nation has always been docile particularly in the field of sport. Except for hockey in the pre-independence era and to some extent upto 1960, India has never dominated any sport, not even cricket. But thanks to the hard work of great entrepreneurs of India, who created wealth for themselves as well as for the country despite the system, India now stands as a vending machine of moolah for cricket. This has emboldened the mandarins of BCCI to have their say in the International Cricket Council… Although not dominating the sport with their performance, India managed to get a firm grip over the administration of cricket through sheer power of money.

Then came the big daddy of the entire cricket extravaganza…. Indian Premier League… a concept said to be the brainchild of a businessman named Lalit Modi who took the milking of this cash-cow to unbelievable heights…. IPL compelled all the international players to make a bee-line to be picked up and given lucrative contracts and yes, most of them got quite a big chunk of it as well…. No problem with it till now….. The biggest problem is with the young cricketers of the country…. IPL which started with the stated intention of developing cricket in India has somehow lost the plot…. We have young players like Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan and many more who got lucrative contracts worth thousands of dollars which most other Indians could just dream of… They have such big money so early in their career that it doesn’t bother them if they don’t play well for India… It is the performance in IPL that matters to them…. I don’t say that they shouldn’t be given money… They should be but there must be a cap on it… You just can’t let it reach the roof top…. Well, even Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, a BCCI office-bearer seems to be of the same viewpoint…. There is absolutely no commitment from these youngsters when they play for India…. India crashed out of two big tournaments in a span of two months without giving a semblance of a fight…. !!!!! If reports are to be believed, one of the senior players of Indian team too has expressed his anguish at the lack of commitment level from this new crop of players…!!!

I can’t avoid citing the example of the legend Sachin Tendulkar…. He had the world at his feet at the age of 20… He had all the money in the world at that age but still he didn’t let that money get to his head…. He has always avoided controversies whereas these youngsters seem to be basking in controversies… And then we have the bowling coach of India, Mr. Venkatesh Prasad… If I remember correctly, Sanath Jayasuriya, Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed and co. used to WALK down the pitch and hit his balls out of the ground and this fellow is preaching that India expects too much from Ishant Sharma….What a pity !!! Before Mr. Prasad took over as the bowling coach all these young fast bowlers were bowling at good pace but ever since Mr. Prasad took over their pace seems to have dropped like the SENSEX did after the Lehmann fiasco… !!! As rightly pointed out by ex-cricketer Manoj Prabhakar, Prasad looks more like a baggage handler of the team rather than the bowling coach…. !!!!!!!!

Coming to the other point of giving youngsters chance in the IPL teams, well, lesser said about it the better because I don’t see many youngsters playing in the IPL teams…. Almost all the teams have only one or two youngsters.. Rest all are either foreign players or Indians who have played international cricket…. Now what about the local talent… no one cares about them…. All that these franchisees care is to make profit…. But the ultimate loser in all this is the Indian Cricket team…. Everyone is prospering but not the team as a whole…. Same is the case with the England team…. The county system there has had a similar tale as IPL which has made the English team weaker over the years… It is high time that we don’t allow our Indian team to fall to the same depths….

Finally, it should not be about the number of hugs one gets from SRK, Preity Zinta or Shilpa Shetty…But it should be about how many matches one wins for INDIA…. !!!!!

Superb, Outstanding, Fantastic, Mind-blowing, History...!!!!!!!!!!

Four years ago on a gloomy Sunday afternoon, I was enjoying a cool drink with my friends in a food joint… We were so engrossed in our talk that I didn’t notice that a really nice song was being played in the joint…. Suddenly, I realized this and started concentrating on the song…. It was a soft romantic number…. I could identify the female singer as Shreya Ghoshal but somehow couldn’t identify who the male singer was…. I asked my friends but they too weren’t sure…. None of us were sure of the movie as well… But that tune somehow was so enchanting that I couldn’t stop crooning it even after going home….. Wah… Kya music hai… That’s what I thought….

A couple of days later, I heard the same song on television… I was sitting in the other room and by the time I went to the TV room, the advertisement had disappeared…. Oh Man…!!!! When will I get to know the details of this song… !!!! As most of you know that I am an avid follower of Hindi film music…. I took this as a challenge to find out more about this song…..But the problem was that I remembered only a part of the song… It went something like this…. “Meri nigahon mein tera chehraa rawaan hai…. Gehre hai armaan jaane jaan pagal samaa hai….” My problem got accentuated due to the fact that this was not the first line of the song… I tried googling it but with no luck…. !!!!!

The torture continued for some more days…. I could hear the song playing in my ears day-in and day-out but couldn’t make out more about it….. One day, as I was watching Saregamapa Challenge 2005 I heard the music of this song…. But somehow I missed out on seeing the name of the movie as I got a call from one of my friends around about that time…. I thought this couldn’t get worse than this…. The tune was still lingering through my ears…. It was just marvelous…. I don’t have words to describe… It was one of those refreshing songs which you hear once in a century….. From the day I heard this song, I knew that this would change the shape of Bollywood music….

A week after the incident in the food joint, I was sitting in my house and that’s when I had the privilege to make out the movie of this song…. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got to know the movie name and more so, the singer… It was a complete transformation for the singer…. I remember that music from his older movies was bent more towards Indian classical music…. The composer himself had accepted that he is inspired by Kalyanji-Anandji’s music and more often than not, you could sense the rustic feel in most of his songs…. It was a complete transformation for the music composer and also the singer….. It was outstanding the way he created a fusion of Indian and western instruments… It was just out of the world….

And thus, started my liking for this great music composer who has given so many hit songs ever since….. Some people like him… Some people hate him… But you just can’t ignore him…. I must say that I am one of those who admire him a lot…. I am a big fan of his brand of music…. I am a fan of his brand of songs…. I am a fan of his brand of lyrics… Yes, I am a big fan of the effervescent music composer and singer of the path-breaking song – “Aashiq banaaya apne….” from the movie Aashiq banaaya apne…. Hats off to Himesh Reshammiya for having entertained us with his superb music all these years…. I am a big fan of his... and seriously, he is superb, outstanding, fantastic, mind-blowing history!!!!!!!!!