How life goes

The Woman in Me!

2011-03-23T07:23:00.000-07:00

With so much disaster happening all around the world, I now strongly feel, yes 2012 it is. As though the natural calamity in Japan, where you have absolutely no control over and all you can do is put your hands together and plead Him to end this turmoil, is not enough. And as though we want to show Him, we are capable of a catastrophe ourselves, we created the Libya.

I was listening to the radio on my way to work and there was this interview with a brigadier who was a member of the crew that was bombing Libya. And when asked about it, he said
"We were able to cause the maximum damage. We were successful".
The very vision of the destruction created tumult in me. I started convincing myself, may be it is necessary, may be killing for a cause is okay.

however I couldn't take the words "maximum damage.. successful". I couldn't even chew it, let alone digest it.

I was so surprised at my own reaction to the whole situation. I felt matured, I can see the birth of a woman in me. Had this happened one or two years ago, I would have felt that this was the right thing to do. You should not tolerate any atrocities happen to you and you should be a fighter and revolt back. This is how the world works and that silence is viewed as weakness.

I know motherhood made me more vulnerable, sensitive and emotional as a person.

I started thinking about the ideologies of Gandhi and Bhagat Singh. I admire Bhagat Singh a lot. If we owe anyone for our freedom then it's for the likes of Bhagat Singh who sacrificed their life for all of us to enjoy it. I used to feel, when compared to the sacrifice made by Bhagat Singh, Gandhi hadn't done enough to enjoy all the glory he is in now.

But now with growing age and maturity, I understand Gandhi's ideology. He was so strategic and thoughtful that comes only with age and that is so contrast with young rebellious blood.
Now I feel may be young people are not the right persons to lead a nation. With your blood boiling and with your thoughts so rebellious your actions might not be as wise.

However the words "maximum damage.. successful" still puzzle me.
I said to Vijay, how can killing people is looked at as success? As usual his wise thoughts again put me into thinking.

He talked about Arjuna in Gita. Arjuna had to kill his own Guru for the cause of good.
I again felt that good cause is again perception. Something you view as a good might not be for others. Nations and borders are created by you. Can you justify your act of killing, in front of God?

I think I should read Bhagavat Gita to get some answers. I have been wanting to read it for a long time now.

My First ever Short Story - Swecha

2010-03-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

Swecha is tensed, rambling aimlessly in the room. Although her best friend Ria is trying to comfort her, it's not helping! She couldn't calm her mental turmoil. It's been 4 hours since her brother Shiva 's gone, he went out with Ria, saying that he needed her help in picking up the right plants for his garden, a hobby he started pursuing just recently. Although Ria was back almost 2 hours ago, her brother was still gone. Ria said Shiva asked her to go home and that he will be joining in a while. That is what is bothering Swecha, all through the years she was with her brother he never behaved so irresponsibly.

Though Shiva and Swecha were brought up in a very very conservative environment, both the siblings share a very strong emotional bond. Perhaps the fact that they were only one year apart also contributed to it. She knew it's getting late. She knew they already crossed the deadline their parents had set for them to be home. Although she was frustrated with her life, her brother and her best friend were the only two things that fuel her life. Both Shiva and Swecha forget themselves when they are at Ria's place. Ria's older brother Rohan, her parents, her grand father and grand mother, everything about her place is warm and refreshing, unlike her home. She always wondered how can God create such a contrast of things.

She looked at her watch and it's already 8 PM. It's 2 hours past her deadline. It was amalgamation of emotions in her mind. She was angry at her brother, at the same time worried for him. All the memories of herself and her brother started flashing in her mind.

She was 11 years old and her brother was 12. Her brother would ride her to school and help her with homework. One day few of her classmates got Holi colors to school and with the excitement of Holi around the corner, she just forgot all about her parents and played with them like a child. Shiva was terrified looking at her uniform and what their parents would say. They both went home fearing what would happen next. Luckily their parents were not home and Shiva and Swecha together used up a whole cake of detergent until the stains were all gone and how their faces were glowing when the uniform got back it's previous glory.

She laughed for a second and then suddenly she realized it's 8 30 PM already. She is praying to God that nothing should happen to her brother. She closed her eyes and went back into memories.

As children they were never let out on any picnics the school would organize. For them school is not a place for fun and you don't go there for entertainment. She remembered a lot of picnics she missed going with friends and how her brother would take her at later time. Her favorite one being the one to the exhibition, although they had to comeback home hurriedly. She loved that place, somehow she always found it fascinating when she is among crowds. She liked watching people and always used to find happiness in other people's joy. She felt the whole world was happy and she had no right to complain about her life when everyone else is enjoying it.

Swecha's parents marriage had no elders approval, they ran away from home and got married and since then they didn't have any close family. As Swecha started growing up she somehow felt her mother was never happy with her marriage and that she always repented her decision. That could be one of the reasons for their conservative upbringing. She was always annoyed by her name, 'Swecha' which meant freedom and she was not the privileged one to carry it.

As Swecha turned 16 she was accompanied by either her brother or her parents everywhere she went, even to her college. Shiva on the other hand didn't get enough freedom for himself. All this made the brother and sister bonding even stronger. Shiva had to drop her off in her college, go to his college and had to pick her up on the way back home. It's been 5 years since they have been doing this, now Swecha is 21 and Shiva is 22. Swecha is doing her MBA and Shiva his M Sc in Math.

OMG it's already 9 PM. She looked at Ria, and she can see the anxiety in Ria's face. Rohan just left to look around for Shiva.

It was her first day in MBA and Shiva just left after dropping her off at the campus. She was both excited and tensed at the same time. She always wanted to do MBA and be an entrepreneur. She asked the attender for the first years classroom and nervously stepped inside and found a seat for herself. She looked around and found both fear and excitement in her new classmates faces. As she was making herself comfortable and setting her things up, a petite girl with a nice smile on her face came to her and asked if she could sit next to her. Swecha made some room for her and started noticing this girl. She was fair with sharp features and carried a cute smile with her. She can see she had a lot of confidence in her attitude and started liking her from the very first minute.

She Said 'Hi! I am Ria'. Swecha smiled back and said 'Swecha'

'That's a very pretty and thoughtful name. It means freedom.'

'Yes. It does' said Swecha again hating her name as usual.

The professor came in and there was this introduction with all the faculty members and the professor wanted one of them to come forward and say a few words on why they have chosen this college over others. Swecha was tensed now and she was really not ready for this. Ria went ahead and started speaking! She spoke with so much clarity that alarmed Swecha. She felt amazed that Ria did so much of research on all the MBA programs offered in the city and had very clear reasons on why she had chosen this particular college. The whole faculty looked impressed. After she is done and came back to Swecha's desk, Swecha was looking at her with astonishment. She couldn't stop admiring her. Ria just smiled at her.

That is the day their friendship started and they both stayed together through thick and thin. In this whole process Swecha learned a lot from Ria. She always felt confident when Ria is around.

She would always go to Ria's house on the pretext of combine studies and Shiva would always come to drop her off. Shiva, Swecha, Ria, Rohan have all become good friends and enjoyed each other's company.

Swecha was amazed how a person can be so responsible, matured and at the same time be so humorous and fun loving, looking at Rohan. Rohan was such a support to their parents and sisters and at the same time he maintains balance in life. He never misses going out with friends and at the same time will be there around for his family. Swecha was slowly falling for him and how much she hated herself for it. She felt she was betraying her mother. All these days she used to feel bad that her mother never trusted her and had brought her up like a prisoner. But she was proving her mothers fears to be true and she hated herself for it.

It was Ria's birthday last Saturday and Swecha really felt she was the blessed one. Her dad got her a new SLR camera and also got her tickets to Andaman Cruise where she can be at peace and put her mind best at work. Ria had this hobby of photography for a long time and is even taking part time classes on the same. She sent her pictures to various competitions and won few prizes as well. This time she really wanted to participate in this national level photography competition and her family is standing by her side as a pillar. She really felt happy for Ria.

Rohan came back and was frantically shouting 'I can't find him, I can't find him'. Swecha looked at her watch and it is already 10 PM. She has to do something, but don't know what. She is saying to herself 'Think! Think! where can he be!'
'Why would he do anything like this to me?'

Ria was holding back all this while since she didn't want Swecha to get anymore nervous and tensed. But she felt it is high time for her to tell what has happened.

'Swecha! I need to tell you something! Now please don't get panicked and listen to what I am going to say. We can all think and see what we can do.'

Swecha was not expecting anything like this from Ria at this time. She was confused and looked at her with a puzzled face.

'Shiva took me out to propose to me! I was in such a shock myself! I always liked him but I never had any intentions for him. '

Swecha was listening to her with her eyes wide open.

'I didn't want to hurt him, at the same time I didn't want him to live with any false assumptions. probably I was a little rude. He was upset and asked me to leave the place. I thought he will comeback and was waiting for him as eagerly as you have been.'

'I am so sorry Swecha.'

Swecha fell down. She felt her world had come to a stand still. If only this were a dream, if only I wake up in the morning to find out everything to be normal. Swecha was broke, she was mad at her brother, how could he be so foolish? at the same time she felt sorry for him.

'Swecha, calm down, we have to put our brains at work. Just think where he can be, he must be really dejected. We have to find him soon.'

Swecha controlled herself. She realized she has to be strong, she learned a lot from Ria, now is the time for her to be a strong woman. The world has not been kind enough to her and her brother, she has to fight back.

She went to restroom, washed her face and cameback with a renewed energy to fight back. She started thinking, where can he be? where can he be? if she knew her brother well where would he go? She went back into memories to see if she can find any lead.

It was a lovely morning, the sun is shining yet you don't feel the heat, there was a nice breeze along with it as though the sun is playing hide and seek with it. Shiva usually becomes very thoughtful with nice weather like this as though someone had plucked an emotional cord inside him. On that day he wanted to visit NTR Ghat and Swecha accompanied him. Swecha still remembers how overwhelmed he was visiting the place. He was so disturbed and he had so many thoughts going on in his mind. He was annoyed that a legend like NTR had to die like any other person. He realized God created everyone the same way. You come to this world like anyone and you break the ties and leave it like anyone. It's your achievements in life that define you as a person. He was amazed by thinking that how a place that signifies death can be so full of life. He was experiencing an amalgamation of emotions and was not sure if it was making him a stronger or a weaker person.

Swecha all of a sudden cried 'NTR Ghat!'

Rohan and Ria were puzzled not understanding anything.
'We need to go there! RIGHT NOW!' said Swecha.

Rohan, Ria and Swecha all got into the car hurriedly, Swecha was praying to God all through her drive. Rohan was driving and he jumped a couple of red lights persuading himself that rules were only created to save lives. As soon as they reached the place Swecha got off the car and ran inside frantically.

She found her brother, buried his face in his palms. She ran to him, Shiva saw her and hugged her tightly.

'I was this close to death. But No! Life is a gift, God created us all for a purpose. I could not cheat Him and face Him. I know why NTR had been a legend. He was a fighter, he never gave up. '

'Swecha, all this made me a better and a stronger person! I am going to seek my purpose and give a meaning to this beautiful life God had gifted me.'

Swecha couldn't control herself. She was crying and thanking God at the same time. She was happy to find her brother back. She felt she won over life, she felt a new confidence in herself. She realized life never gives opportunities, she has to grab one.

All four of them started walking towards their car with a new approach towards life...

Changing Times

2010-02-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

Time is moving, and it is moving now, moving at a pace that it has always been moving, since it's evolution. No one would argue on that except for old people, who according to some studies, feel time's changing faster at old age ;)

Well even though time is moving at constant pace the world is not! If you measure time in terms of evolutions and break throughs then it is moving at the speed of light! An electronic item we bought yesterday will become obsolete today. Major inventions and breakthroughs in the field of science and technology happening every so often that you cannot keep track of it.

TV's and VCR ruled the modern world for quiet some time. Then came VCD promising good quality and sleek look, then DVD promising even better quality and when you think you got accustomed to DVD comes the HD Blue ray promising more real like effect. I cant even imagine what is in store for us next. Would pictures come out and act and dance in front of us? People are starving out there for 'Real Like' experiences and that is leading way to more inventions.

The web is the major advancement in the modern times and the comfort level of people has increased drastically, blending the entertainment and education all in one place. All these major advancements have become part of your life so much that life spent before them looks like caveman times and makes you wonder how you even existed without them.

All this makes me wonder if long term planning, strategic planning are all still existing in corporate world. Time has become so unpredictable that it's almost impossible for us to even think what direction you want to go in next 5 years.

To keep up with changing world you need to be very flexible and quick in reacting to the change. We see all the companies now have a twitter account, they even hire people to create tweets and respond to their followers tweets. Would they have prepared for this change in their planning earlier? I think these days it is more import to be adaptable and flexible rather than have a fool proof long-term plans.

What's this fuss about racism?

2009-11-11T08:06:00.000-08:00

We have been hearing the news on racism against Indians in Australia and various other countries. I have had some friends who shared with me their personal experiences on how they get treated in Europe and in various other countries as well. Luckily I have only been in the US and no other country. The people here are warm and definitely more welcoming.

Well, nobody supports racism, at least openly and we have every right to protest and fight if we are discriminated based on our race. Then why do I have such a heading?

Recently I came across this news about KCR civil war slogan Telangana Jago and Andhra Bago! He calls for all Telanganaites to throw Andhraites out of the region! It's a known fact that he is looking to divide our state and feast on it. The divide and rule is like a rule of thumb and will always work. I don't think it is any less than racism, if racism discriminates you based on your race, this one based on your region.

It's not just the case with Andhra, certain faction groups in Maharashtra as well disregard people migrated from other states. Well, you discriminate people in your own country and expect other countries to show you respect? I don't think we have any right to point out at other countries unless we correct our own flaws.

It all comes to divide and rule, our rulers fragment us into various classes and play on sentiments of each section and count on their votes.!

09/09/09

2009-09-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

I wake up today in the morning as any other morning, with same alarm ring, from the same bed, under the same comforter feeling nothing special about today. After I finish up my 'things' and get ready to work, I turn on the TV while packing my lunch and saw on TV 9 news as to how auspicious today is ( 09/09/09) as the number 9 is favorable for us Hindus. They said it's a lucky day and a ray of hope raises inside me.

The ray got wiped out as quickly as it came and the normal boring drive to work overtook it. The usual traffic and the usual tension to reach work on time took precedence. Then I turn on the Desi radio and there was a special program dedicated to today's date, talking about what all good things the number 9 stands for. They even said governments all over the world were inaugurating new projects as the date stands lucky. And pregnant women all over the world have lined up to have C - sections so they can give birth to their babies on this auspicious day!!!
Now the ray of hope inside me multiplies. I suddenly have the glow of a hungry person who is about to have a feast.

There is a lot of room for good things that can happen to me. I might get my GC, I might get a promotion or hike, I probably would end up with a fat wallet(So bad I don't have any lottery tickets) by the end of the day, some angel might drop in and fill my room with lots of clothes and shoes and purses and ya jewelry too ;) I know this is a little too much :)) Well who knows let's wait and see ;) ;)

Late Lateefs

2009-08-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Do you guys remember all those jokes we have on Indian Standard Time? Staying true to all that

We go to a party starting at 6, at 8
we'll be there at the movies at 6 15 for a 6 O clock show
we try to go to college for a class starting at 9 by 9 10
we try to be in the railway station for a train starting at 6 by 6 05

well the list can go on and on like an Indian TV show :P we should start taking time management classes ... we might probably end up turning late to that as well!

You might be thinking why all of a sudden I have such a realization... well the late Lateef in me, lately realized, on a late evening, as to how late a realization can be made :P

We have these Indian channels on TV and lately we started recording stuff while we are away. The DVR starts recording the program based on the time they are supposed to start and not the time they actually started. We are all fine as long as we are recording any English shows. The Indian shows are the lazy cats and the 'Prompt - on Time' DVR has tough time catching them. The 9 O clock show actually starts at 9 15 and our punctual DVR starts recording at 9 and stops by 9 30. This makes us miss almost half the show :(

On the other hand I am amazed with the American shows and how they start promply at 9 dot. Well... this shows there are a lot of areas where we lack time sense and it is so deep in our roots that we just don't realize.

BTW don't get too inspired and start attending parties on time. You are NOT EXPECTED to come early!!!!!!!

Purse purse where are you

2009-05-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Last week was a hectic week and we had been rushing around to get things done... With the little sleep I was able to catch up I wake up half asleep and half tensed that it is getting late to work. You have to watch me getting ready to work, you would think you are watching a fast forward tape! After months of calculating and recalculating I follow the effective, efficient way of doing things! Every second counts and every part of my body runs.

After getting ready, I come down, realize that the clothes were not put in the dryer and go to the laundry room, put them in dryer and come out, which surprises Vijay. He thought I was inside the room just long enough to turn on the switch :D After packing lunch and doing little this and that, I open the closet to grab the purse and run to the office. A look of sudden shock on my face from what I found there! I see no purse! I run around the whole house and search for it and still I find it no where.

Then I calmdown, and start thinking when I have last seen my purse. Was that yesterday? No, we haven't gone out anywhere yesterday. Was it day before? Yes could possibly be. Let's see where I have gone day before yesterday.

We started in the morning, done some grocery shopping, then went to grapevine mall browsed around some 5-6 stores, went to radio shack, then best buy(bought a digital frame for my mother for mother's day, and she loves it) and then to airport to pick my parents. vowwww so many places. Did I wear my purse to all these places? Then I remember taking purse to the airport, the place we have last visited on that day. I remeber wearing it in the waiting area! Then my mom says she hasen't seen me wearing any purse.

Ahhhhh I realize that with the excitement of seeing my parents coming out I left the purse on the chair and ran to them :(
And then things started hitting me, I have all my credits cards, debit cards, check book and also my EAD card and drivers license in it!!!!!!!! And it 's been two days and I haven't monitered any of my accounts!!!! Any thing could have happened by now.

And then Vijay gives a hope. Since it is in the airport nobody will touch it thinking there might be some explosives in it. We should be calling the 'Lost and Found' in the airport. I was so sure that as soon as I call them they will say 'Come take your bag Sharmila'.

I called them, they found nothing, called them the next day, nothing, the third day, fourth day nothing. Surprisingly there are no fraudulent activities also on any of my accounts. Called them the 5th day, nothing. I then lose hope and cancel all my cards and apply for replacement driverse license. Then comes a letter from the 'Lost and Found' of the airport saying that they have my purse and I can collect it any time between 9 AM to 6 PM. It first went to my old address on the license and then came to me. I have been calling them all these days, they say they have nothing and then they send me a letter saying they have it? weird. But who cares. I got my purse back. But was it worth all the trips I made to the airport and all that I had to go through to cancel my cards and apply for new license?

I don't know, but I am happy seeing my cute little red wallet I had in my purse that I loved having :) It is so chick like and I hardly used it. Thanks to the 'Lost and Found' and good to see you back little purseeee :)

Together once again

2009-05-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

It has been a very pleasant week so far and I am very much looking forward to the long weekend and all the fun in store for me. It is very nice having our parents with us, and reversing our roles giving them instructions on what to do and what not :)

I have always been the most pampered one of us three and what makes it standout as a a cactus in desert is that it was not just my parents who pampered me, but my sisters as well. It was my younger sister who used to get me ready for my school, put me on my shores, and you are not going to believe this, she even used to carry my bag and lunch box to school! I used to happily stroll with nothing to carry, and my sister on the other hand used to wrestle with 2 big bags of books.

Well, don't make your imaginations go wild and picture me as an evil child :) luckily even with so much pampering I have not turned out to be the mean spoiled brat as in moves ;) In fact I still remember it all and we sisters still share the same bonding as we used to in childhood :) (Although my sister is still famous with our circle of family for this act of hers... and I am equally infamous!. )

It is a great feeling, having our families with us this time as a grown up responsible home owner :) I don't know if I have enjoyed doing it, but it definitely is a different feeling not acting as a kid with all those who still see/pamper me as a kid!

In the name of Culture

2009-01-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

I couldn't believe what I saw the other day in news. Atrocities being done in the name of religion and culture!

The Sriram Sene activists attacking women at Mangalore pub is no different from Taliban 's acts against women for me. In the centuries of Indian History and culture where does it justify beating and attacking women.

We boast of India being the largest democracy in the World, well, don't we even have the right to live our life in our own terms? What way is this different from Taliban's treatment of women? Are we moving forward with time or going even backwards? Shame on us that we are allowing these people commit such crimes in the mask of religion. Hinduism never ever preached these ideologies.

I was so horrified when I read of Taliban s restrictions over women by Kaled Hosseni, an Afgan born writer. Women were to wear burkha all the time, they were to be accompanied by men/husband while outside, they were barred from having education, they were not allowed to work, they had separate hospitals from men with poor facilities. A lot of widowed women had to leave their children in orphanages as they were barred from working and they were not to be seen on roads alone. They were beaten with hunters if found alone.

I was so horrified that I couldn't stop thinking about these women for few days, my blood boiled with rage, I thought I wouldn't let these things happen to me ever. Now what? I see similar things in my home land? Even though our religion never taught these? If you are so much into this whatever culture(can't say it's hindu culture) then go practice it yourself, why drag people into it.

I strongly feel severe action needs to be taken against these so called Sriram activists (shame on them to do this in the name of Ram), all the Indians, men/women should come together and raise our voice against these atrocities. Please don't make our beautiful country another Afganisthan or Taliban Raj.

Shocking revelation of a victim

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mangalore_pub_victim_recounts_molestation_horror/videoshow/4034725.cms

Five Point Someone

2008-08-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

Have read this novel 'Five point Someone' that has been pending for a long long time now. Not because I didn't find time, but because in spite of my numerous efforts, I couldn't find the book in any of the libraries here. I hate it when I don't find popular books in libraries, it's like not finding Mickey mouse in Disney, or probably, I was looking for an Appu in Dinsney :D

Anyways, I finally got to read this book and it was worth all the toil. IIT and IIM have always been those dreams that keep you awake! The mere fact that the book is from an IIT IIM graduate gave me outrageous happiness. Being a person who failed to crack 'CAT', I was always fascinated in meeting people who made is as easy as cracking a nut. (You can imagine how happy I might be marrying one :))

Even though Vijay 'enlightened' me with his life at IIM, reading about it had an impact of its own. It was irresistible to even take a break! The story, the IIT life, the courses, the terminology, the GPA's everything kept me glued to the book. And the ultimate stunner is, it being true story of the author himself.

I enjoyed reading this book and it is a refreshing change from my usual wrestle with clock.

Hats off to Anil Passi

2008-08-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

I have always been greatest fan of Anil Passi for all his contributions to Oracle Apps world. Wonder how he takes out time to reach so many people and answer their queries and concerns. And the greatest part is, the response time has never been more than 30 min.

Learning new technologies is becoming a child's play with each passing day. I believe google is a big step towards this. Wonder if a day comes when we all will be slaves to it. Well, can't imagine passing a day without google. Have seen a show on TV where people were even caught of murders because of googling. Intriguing huh? Well, days before murder the murderer was googling for rifles. This kept me spell bound thinking what different ways technology can be used.

Before I go off track, what made me get back to blogging world after a long long gap is Anil Passi's apps to fusion forums. This guy is a gem, he understands the readers perspective and takes care of all the questions they might get even before they raise. Now, with this forums in place, I am confident I can take up any kind of project. Why not, Anil Passi is behind me :) I posted a question in his forms personalization post and he responds back in less than 5 min with his new forums link :) He can take apps world by tail.

I wish I could meet him once!

Sneak a Peek ;)

2008-03-11T20:41:00.001-07:00

DC's sick article on Women's day

2008-03-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

I was going through DC and suddenly realized it's woman's day! It's not uncommon for our Indian magazines and the TV channels to hype something non-Indian. They are under assumption that it makes them move along with time. The more you go away from your roots the more modern you are! Well let all these fancy 'makeovers' work on your body not your mind!

I am surely not in 'Shivsena' or any thing like that that oppose the celebrations of these '*.*'s day'. In fact I argue with many of my friends who feel it's ridiculous celebrating mother's day or any such day. They say you can not show affection on your mother only on mother's day and not care about her the rest of the days. Well it doesn't mean that you are showing affection or sending her gifts on this particular day alone, you just are creating an occasion to be expressive and show her off your love. That doesn't mean you don't care her the rest of the year, just like celebrating your birthday doesn't mean that you are unhappy about your birth the rest of 364 days. Well creating occasions is important in our busily galloping lives. Then why am I cribbing?

I came across this article in DC about women power, special one for women's day. The headline was quite intriguing 'Learn to wear pants in your relationship and live life on your own terms',,, well how can I miss some thing on women power,,, I was expecting some thing bold from women like Kiran Bedi etc etc,,, but it turned out to be a dumb article that least suits the occasion. It was on how Kareena Kapoor made her new found love, Saif, act like a love sick puppy around her,,, how Deepika Padukone juggled three eligible bacherlors - businessman Nihar Pandya, cricketer Yuvraj Singh and actor Ranbir Kapoor ruling the relationships on her terms, and how live-in relationship is the new manthra for women. These actors/actresses change their partners as we change our clothes,,, Is this what we should be remembering on Woman's day??? I know it's not Indian culture to celebrate Women's day but there is nothing wrong in picking up good from other cultures. But let's keep our identity and not go with fancy things thinking it is making us modern and sophisticated.

Did you know?

2008-01-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

History channel has been my favorite for quite some time now. I would surely prefer watching this rather than the dumb reality shows. I think the name 'History channel' is misleading as there are a lot of programs on not just history but also various other sciences. some of facts I learned by watching it.

Moon moves away from earth by 3.8cm every year. It was much closer to earth millions of years ago, infact some scientists believe that it was once attached to earth. When moon was closer to earth it had profound affect on earth. The tides were believed to be 10,000 ft tall.
There are 50 billion earth like planets in our milky way, and we don't know if earth is a unique planet or there is life in other planets too. If there is , how advanced they are?
There are various UFO sightings all around the world and some countries have recognized them officially and Brazil has official committee researching on UFO's.
12/21/2012 the doomsday
Formation of earth billions of years ago.
Prophecies of Nostradamus's. His followers believe that he even predicted the 9/11 attacks, while others counter it saying why was it not told officially before the attack.
A UFO crashed in the fields of Aurora village in Texas in 1897. It was believed that there was an alien that was killed in the crash and the locals have arranged a funeral for it and buried it. This was even before the invention of airplane.
USA has a negative proton plant, which creates negative protons, apparently negative protons can serve as fuel and a coin size of it can give a mileage of 4 billion miles(but it takes ages to create a coin size, the plant until now has produced quite minimal of it).
USA has fighter planes with laser beam technology which can detect a missile from 100 miles radius and destroy it in the air.(No bomb will ever be able to touch these grounds I guess).
The presence of black hole in our milky way.(black holes take the matter and destroy it in seconds, if a black hole ever comes near the earth, the whole earth perishes in a minute).
Flights and ships missing in Bermuda triangle, apparently there is a dragon triangle near japan, and Alaska triangle in Alaska where things disappear like Bermuda triangle.

Maury show

2008-01-23T08:23:00.000-08:00

I came across this show called Maury show on cw, never in my life have I experienced such an amalgamation of feelings in reaction to a TV show. A reality show, as real as Hillary Clinton's tears in the recent campaign:D, shows the affairs between many married/unmarried men and women. There are different DNA tests and lie detector tests to see who is father of who.

The ads go like this

'Do you want to find out the father of your child? then call the maury show'
'Do you think your boy friend is cheating on you with your mother? then call the maury show'
'Do you have a secret to be revealed to your spouse? then call the maury show'

A secret between wife and husband to be shared infront of millions of people watching? I wonder if they even know the meaning of secret. It is worser than breaking up in myspace/orkut. And when do you think the commercial break would be, at exactly the point of revealing the results.
And the DNA result shows that..........
It's like screaming at your face 'I don't give a damn about your feelings'.

I wonder how that show has celebrated it's 10 year annivarsary. Shows that there are more fools in this country than I have imagined them to be.

The small screen in this country runs on 'Gossip'. What do the reality shows like 'Big Brother', 'Crowned' etc offer? nothing but an hour of bitching. Girls fighting on silly stupid things, and when they wishper not wanting others to hear, there would be sub titles letting you know what they have been gossiping on? rather who.

Guess I can start a reality show with the surveillance cameras in various stores :) Not a bad idea, I am sure I can sell this to any channel out there.

12/21/2012 is the doomsday?

2008-01-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

You think so?

Don't know but the history channel has been repeating it over and over like a wife giving chores to husand :D

The ancient Maya civilization has predicted the last day of life on earth as dec' 21st 2012. Apparently Mayans were very advanced in knowledge of astronomy for their time. They have developed a calender which is quite precise than the one we use right now and the last day of their calender is 21/12/2012.

There are many prophecies all around the world that see the same day as doomsday. Adding fuel to the fire there is also a scientic significance for that particular day! The earth is going to change the axis of its rotation on that day which might cause severe weather changes. The north pole and the south pole are going to shift, and according to the channel Japan might completely submerge in the water, there would be severe changes all around the world.

Scary enought is n't it?

Infact research work by geologists from some universities(don't remember the name,,, guess princeton university) indicates that poles have shifted in past also, 800 million years ago. According to the research Alaska was near the equator then.

I think I believe in the doomsday,,, and that would leave me(us) with what?? 5 yrs to live?
My God! Then what am I doing here wasting time?

Happy Days

2008-01-20T17:28:00.000-08:00

'College days are the happiest days in your life'

There ended the movie 'Happy Days', but left me living in it for a long long time. The whole time I was re-living my college days. I liked the message the movie conveyed at the end the most, it said 'you haven't come here to achieve some thing,,,it's the place where you learn being capable of achieving'. How true it is!

'SIMPLY BINDAAS'-that's the name we have given to our gang. Can never forget those dances on freshers, farewel and importantly the 'SPLASH'. The good times we had teasing others being an all girl gang. Would like to mention here the guy who has been teased by the simply bindaas the most, 'Praveen'.

It was the first day for juniors and we the 'SENIORS' planned to join them in their class to know the 'gossip' about seniors :)

I and Vijay(my classmate) were the honoured ones to be a part of their class as one among them.

I go late to the class, find a place besides a guy( who couldn't have sobbed more for being on the bench there on the ill-fated day- he probably might have started believing in vastu in chosing the place he sits in whereever he goes now :))

Me: Hi I am Swathi (didn't want to reveal my true identity ofcourse)
Him: Hi I am Praveen

Me: Howz it been so far? I am a little late
Him: Nothing important until now.

After a little chit chat on this and that he says to someone opposite to him

Him: Hey I want you to meet my 'Best friend Swathi'

Best Friend???? I met him like minutes ago...'ha ha ha got you bacchaa...' was my first thought :D that was enough to tease him for his entire course in Badruka :)

It took a while for my juniors to actually realize that I am their senior and the moment it is revealed there is no looking back,,,

Had the greatest time of my life in my MBA, ofcourse in engineering too. But I liked the courses in MBA more as they are more practical and fun. We had group discussions, debates, case studies and role plays. Laghed, laughed and laughed until our stomachs exploded :) Class room had always been a two way communication rather than one. Infact n-n communication :)

I don't think ever in your life learning would be as much fun as in college. Haven't actually realized that those few years of college have given me memories to cherish for the rest of my life. Those hang outs at tourist hotel, gokul chat and can never forget the good times we had at IMAX , it surely holds a special place in my heart, although I feel a lot of times it 's the people you hang out with that make it special rather than the place.

Life had been a boring book ever after the college chapter is over. How exciting it would have been if going back were as easy as flipping the pages back.

My husband’s crazy collection of T’s

2007-07-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

Had been busy with some stuff, but I am back with a little taang twisting for my husband :D :D

The other day while I was doing laundry I suddenly felt some external powers in my house,,, I put one of Vijay’s T-shirt in the washing machine from our basket of dirty clothes… add some washing powder,,, when I was about to switch on the washing machine I see Vijay’s T shirt back in the basket… horrified was I… how did the T-shirt come back into the basket??? I suddenly notice how windy it is outside… there were weird sounds’ coming from the fire place… scared was I… I felt some body behind me… chanting some prayers I turned around… I saw the table cloth moving. Ooohhhh somebody was here just before I turned… suddenly I become all sweaty… I open the washer to see the t-shirt… to my surprise the t-shirt was there in washer too. I look into the basket, then into the washer… I go confused. Can T-shirts reproduce??? Was my first thought. How come there are two same T-shirts? Then I become little relaxed and come to senses… I take out the T-shirt from washer and then from the basket… I put them side by side… then I realize they actually are two different T- shirts. :):):) lol

When I first saw Vijay’s closet my first thought was ‘Yeh tho mera baap nikla’... I am myself crazy about clothes, and now… ‘we are made for each other’. But I have to confirm that I am not as crazy as Vijay that I would buy similar set of clothes. No wonder why they wrote in the ‘year book of IIM Calcutta’ about Vijay ‘his wardrobe is so big that it can be donated to flood hit Bangladesh twice’.

Here is the picture of Vijay’s Tshirt I was talking about… I don’t find any big noticeable differences other than colors of hangers :D :D can be sent to magazines to ‘find the differences’ column :D funniest part is that he didn’t realize they are alike until I told him. Infact he was defending himself pointing out at trivial differences.

Here goes another one

Orkut - not a safe place :(

2007-05-30T08:28:00.001-07:00

I have been noticing for quite some time now how unsafe a place orkut is. Though I have been fascinated by it in the beginning for finding my old friends, the charm is no more. The idea of knowing every thing about you on a single click is unwanted.

The sensation created by news papers/orkut about the murder of Koushambi Layek by her boy friend Manish Takur says it all. Though Orkut has nothing to do with the murder, there have been communities created saying that the guy and girl met on orkut blah blah blah, while the truth is... the boy who has a profile in orkut murdered a girl who also has a profile in orkut. well.. the orkut communities, some news papers, blogs started off with bright headlines 'Murder on orkut' to suit the fancy of the readers. All the news channels are digging her profile and are writing in bold her scraps, her testimonials. Don't you think they are called some thing like 'personal'? well as somebody in the message board said when orkut allows it, what's wrong in doing it... ya convincing enough... they are not hacking to see your messages...
The funniest part of all this is orkut users themselves creating communities saying orkut is not a safe place and guess what you find thousands of members joining the communities. well the communities(except for the school and alumni ones) have never enchanted me. They start with the names 'I love my mom', 'dancing', 'i love to eat ice cream', 'night lover' 'day lover' 'what the hell' and 'what not', and the topics inside have nothing to do with the community names.

The Indian student Minal Panchal of Virginia tech university who died in the shootout also had a orkut profile, the news papers and channels were digging every nook and corner of her profile publishing her scraps. The scraps she wrote a day before, the general 'wassup' scraps, the 'looking good in pic' scraps. What the hell..??? She is dead ... atleast let her rest in peace.

well... I am not liking the 'nothing private' part of orkut now-a-days, though it is rewarding some times (cops getting more information on Manish Thakur from his Orkut profile).

1971 Prisoners of war

2007-05-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

I have just seen the movie ‘1971’ and nothing has moved me so much ever. It is the story of 6 Prisoners of war of 1971, who make an attempt to escape from the toil. It is a fictitious annexation to the true base line of 54 Indian soldiers being captured by the Pakistan in the Bangladesh war during 1971.

The movie is no less than any Oscar winner with excellence shown in every aspect. This is a bold drift from stereotyped bollywood masala movies with item numbers where in the dancer shows her generosity in revealing her skin. The fact that 1971 didn’t run well shows how people crane their necks for such movies and dancers.

The actors though new (except Manoj Bajpai) have competed with each other making it tough for us to chose the best, their faces turning red and lips turning black in the scenes in snow show the pains they have taken in giving it a realistic appearance. The movie has raised many a voice, many a question in me. Questions about life, about hope, about countries, about borders.

The fact that nobody cared about the warriors of the nation, including the government is heart sinking. They live their life in hope, in hope to return to their country, in hope to meet their loved ones. It’s been 37 years now and still nothing is done. 37 years of hope, hope that has been their fuel for survival, hope that has been the reason for life. How hard life might be with the hope shrinking. The young warriors are no more young, they lost their youth, some might have even lost their sanity. Damayanti Tambey, the 18 months wife of one such warrior VV Tambey is still living her life hoping that her husband will return one day. She was 23 when she has last seen him, now she is 50. She lives her life hoping it to be him every time the phone rings, and every time the door bell sings. The family of the POW left no door un knocked in an attempt to find their loved ones. This is what they get for offering their sons to the mother land? The government has taken no action inspite of family members showing evidences about their existence in the Pakistan prisons.

You betray your mother land you are ‘gaddar’ what if your mother land betrays you?

My little ride in a Porsche

2007-05-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

We had a very good time last weekend playing carroms and doing some fun stuff with our friends and the most exciting part was our little ride in a Porsche. Vijay taught me Porsche is actually pronounced Porsch-uh… aahh whenever his wise tongue pours out knowledge there I would be soaking it all up with a sponge.

I and Vijay have never been those ‘fascinated to cars’ kind of guys,,, guess what? A little ride in a Porsche has changed it all.

A friend of ours, who shares the same name with Vijay (but is totally opposite to Vijay when it comes to cars), has bought a Porsche. He has not told anybody about his new car as he wants to keep it a surprise to his wife who is in India now. He was little skeptical to reveal it to us, as he couldn’t trust Vijay’s ‘keep your mouth shut’ skills coz Vijay and his wife have been close friends since college. Finally he decides to reveal it all which apparently takes place in a funny way.

This friend of ours after showing the car offers a ride, and how could we stop our already excited senses. There we start… pass on two blocks,,, can’t get on the main road as it has no registration,,, look around for cops… find it safe… then our friend shows it all… speed rises to 100 from 0 in few seconds… then comes back to 40 … takes a turn at 40… aahhh… I couldn’t help but scream… the other guys were having fun seeing me scared like a crow. After the ride was over I felt like I had a sea world roller coaster ride. There are few things in your life that you are going to cherish your whole life, guess what… I had made a memory this weekend :)

‘My daddy strongest…’

2007-04-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

Said my 5 year old nephew Rithik, ‘my daddy is very intelligent, I would become an engineer like my daddy when I grow up’. His pride for his father reminds me of my young days, it’s like I am looking at my kid self. Aahhh…makes me feel even though times have changed the human feelings and values are still intact. We are brought up in totally different environment; after all we both belong to exactly opposite sides/surfaces of the globe.

For every child his/her father is a hero… and I am no any exception. My parents have always been my role models. Learnt a lot from them growing up and am still learning. They have expertise in totally different fields… and we as children are lucky enough to learn from both of them. My mom is good at values of life, relations (relations not just micro level, but also macro level… international), decision making, exceptionally good at geography, history and also her major subject biology. Once (once here means just recently) I was looking for Netherlands in the world map and noticing it my mom not just helped me finding it but also told me that Netherlands is mostly below sea level and that they have constructed a tidal barrage to overcome the problem and that it is well known for flower gardens. So much I got when I asked for just the location?

She taught us sibling love and sharing.

My dad groomed me with my education. I still remember the time when I first started learning variables in math in 6^th grade. x, y, and z in math? To me they were just English :D gave my dad tough time learning it :)… I was known in the school for my elocutions and essays, I won many prizes too… still there at home… and who writes them for me? My dad. Patiently takes time out and I just reproduce whatever he writes…can never forget the power plant engineering subject in my 4^th year of eng. It was like French and Latin until my dad’s helped me with it… and guess what… I scored my highest in the subject.

To me my dad is the most knowledgeable person I have ever met. He has an answer for just about any thing. May it be inflation, may it be RBI role, may it be economic situation, may it be dollar rupee relation, may it be oil prices fluctuating…he has an answer for every thing. I have always had that pride for being his child. People compare me with my dad, they say I am just like him, and I feel so great about it.

I have been following him all through my life… don’t know when I crossed him over, there were few instances in past few days where we exchanged our roles, my father was learning from me… don’t know when I have grown so far… if this is what is growth, then I surely don’t want it… I can never see myself explaining things to my dad…to me he is the teacher and I am the student. I always want to be my dad’s little child tracing his foot steps.

Is being empathetic enough?

2007-04-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

India, India, India... is what in my mind right now… I am not able to get my home and my parents off my mind after my trip to ‘INDIA’. Well this is our choice and we need to accept it.

I had to have a movie fest to get out of the grief for a while. During this movie marathon, I happened to watch Adam Sandler’s ‘CLICK’. I should accept that I enjoyed watching this movie; it has a rare combination of comedy with a message. It is a story of a man who chooses career before family, though it starts as a comedy it becomes quite emotional later on, it makes every person think for a while if he is playing Adam Sandler in real life.

Adam Sandler happens to buy a ‘Universal Remote’ in ‘Beyond’ section of bed bath and beyond :)… it is a remote which can forward, rewind and pause the episodes of life. There was one particular scene where Adam Sandler was looking back at the passed episode of his life, where in his father comes to his office to invite him for a family outing. Adam Sandler was so occupied with his work that he couldn’t expend 2 seconds for his father. He straight away rejects without even looking into his dad’s face. He realizes how disrespectful he was towards his father and family later on while watching this episode of his life with the help of remote. At that instance it clicked to me, how watching ourselves as a third person helps us find our flaws.

This really is working for me, whether it is in social or in private, we find excuses for our behavior oohh it’s a long tiring day for me, my boss really pissed me off… I have a headache, really in bad mood, I should be getting that promotion, blah blah blah…when you look at yourself as a third person, you will realize what you have done, it is like watching yourself from stranger’s eyes who forms opinion on you just by watching you.

Amway- Blocking your way

2007-01-31T12:21:00.001-08:00

Well… back to writing again after a little gap. I never want to live out of this habit of writing as it is a good exercise for brain. Most of us have either a dominant left side hemisphere or right side hemisphere of brain. Well writing evens it… this particular activity of writing needs both sides of our brain… feelings are the work of right side and putting them in words is the work of left side of brain.

This time I am going to write few funny/weird experiences of ours with the Amway representatives. One day in Wal-Mart (this was some time around my first week in the US), we were standing near the shelves of some cosmetics just thinking which one to pick. Suddenly there comes a man

Man: There are so many creams in the market we juz don’t know which one to pick. (he said looking at Vijay)

Vijay: some times giving us so much choice ruins us.
Man: well I am so & so****

Vijay introduced himself and me.
Man: have you guys been living here since long?
Vijay: I am here since almost five years.
Man: Well, I am new to this place and looking around for some help. Can I have your mobile no.?

Vijay was little skeptical but he didn’t have a choice but to give his no. The man then gave a ring to Vijay’s cell from his mobile so Vijay can save his no. as well

Well, two days passed by and our life is as normal as ever. On the third day Vijay’s cell rang and it was the guy we met in Wal-Mart. He spoke little this and that and then he asked Vijay if he could come for a meeting or so… Vijay could sense some thing fishy and that he was dragging him into something. Having heard the stories about Amway people Vijay straight away asked him if he was working for Amway. The man couldn’t skip answering said yes. Vijay gave him a piece of his ire (lucky guy…. Normally he shares it with me :D) well we went till the mouth of the crater but managed not to fall ;) well pretty smart us,,, right:)

We came across many similar incidents after that, but we were smart enough not to get trapped. We learnt enough from our experiences. Whenever a stranger walks-in and tries to make conversation, we just run away from him.

A few days back Vijay and I had been to temple dressed pretty well as it was Vijay’s birthday. Vijay was busy in pradakshina and I was standing alone chanting some prayers. Suddenly a female came and stood beside me. She smiled at me and said hi.

Girl: Are you from Bombay?
Me: (Did she find me familiar? Or is she another Amway person?) ‘No’ ( I smiled back)
Girl: Then where are you from?
Me: (now she is coming… I know she is from Amway, be careful Sharmi) I am from Hyderabad (maintaining the same artificial smile)

Girl: I love your skirt, did you buy it in Hyderabad or in Dallas?
Me: (I know my skirt is beautiful, that is why I bought it) Thank you, I bought it in Dallas (same smile again)

Girl: How long have you been staying here?
Me: ( Aaahhh, now she is on track, the same usual Amway question) It's been quite a while (my smile little faded)

Girl : So do you stay near by?
Me: (Does it matter to you? I know your next question would be my phone no.) I stay in Irving. (intentionally showing sign of little ire)

Girl: There are lots of Indians there, right. We stay in Dallas.
Me: (did I ask you? Run Sharmi run before she asks for your number) ok (not showing any sign of interest)
Girl: Are you working any where?
Me: No

Vijay just finished his pradikshina, I left her without saying good bye and joined Vijay and told him about the girl. Vijay was surprised and we were both skeptical if people could do this even in temple. We became curious and while leaving Vijay told me to say her good bye and see if she asks for my phone no.

I went to her and said good bye and exchanged pleasantries. Well to our surprise she didn’t ask our phone no. I felt so bad for behaving vile. Well she might genuinely be a social person, but I behaved ill-cultured because of our fear and cynicism. Well now I learnt that I need to deal with each situation differently. One size doesn’t fit all.

Orkut mania

2006-12-21T10:12:00.000-08:00

There have been many social networking sites but nothing caught me as much as Orkut. Can’t say exactly what makes it cool or distinct from others… could be the features… could be the navigation… could be etc etc etc but it surely has changed the traditional way of discovering friends or rather mutual friends.

I don’t know exactly if this is the reason that‘s making me hook to Orkut. I have been meeting many old friends and also discovering many mutual friends. Here is how you discover mutual friends or relatives in traditional way. We have been doing this from years.

I have two different friends who belong to two different worlds to me. Actually they both are room mates in same hostel unaware that they both know me. On the day of my wedding each told to the other it’s their friend’s wedding today; they got ready and left the room. The funny part is that they didn’t discover that they both are heading towards the same venue. It was a shock to both of them when they finally ended up in the same place. When they told me the matter I was a bit shocked myself as I never suspected all these days that they could be knowing each other.

I had one more experience where in the marriage ceremony leads us to the undiscovered fact. seems like weddings are the only way to discover in those days (those days??? its just been a year of my marriage and I am referring to the days before orkut as those days :|. though orkut is launched in 2004 I started using it in 2006)And now with Orkut it’s like every thing is changed all of a sudden. I discovered many a mutual friend/relative with a single click on ‘view friends’. Some of them were like I wouldn’t be able to discover in my whole life time. I would have died without knowing.

Later I started thinking if discovering the new relation is really helpful. Probably I might not lose any thing had I not known it, but knowing it made the relation more intimate. Social relations are always good whether they are beneficial or not all the times. After all man is a social animal and has a social need, remember it? one of the needs in motivational theory :)

Indians Glorified II

2006-12-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

In my previous blog I gave few examples of Indians who won accolades world wide and how that fills me with pride. Here I have come up with yet another example.

It is an ad by Italian Telecommunication Company which has won Epica Award for best ad.

Play Video

I am very glad that an Indian leader is recognized and remembered by world even after half a century of his death. Though I am more a follower of the revolutionists like Bhagat Singh, Bose (a glance at my Orkut communities will surely reveal that), this ad has surely delighted me.

It is said that distance intensifies love, this surely has happened to me. My love towards my nation is at peaks at this point than at any stage of my life. A single article I read about my country, a single award to my nation, single achievement by any Indian … all these add fuel to fire.

Indians glorified

2006-12-05T12:39:00.000-08:00

Well… it’s almost been a month of no blogging. All the credit goes to my latest obsession with books. I have always loved reading, but from a month it has been addiction. I have completed reading a 300 pages book in one single day :)… well considering my reading speeds… it’s surely an achievement for me. Orkut is still there on my obsession list, but surely not on top now.

Even on the weekends books have become priority than hanging out. But, being a responsible wife and home maker :P :D there are certain things we can never skip. Since our lease in our current apartment is ending and we have no intention of extending it (Vijay hates the callous staff here), we were on rove in quest of apartment. I accompanied Vijay in this task reluctantly keeping the book aside. We started with an organized search looking for the ones with good reviews on the net. It was surely fun meeting so many different people on a single day. Can never forget one funny woman, who acted like a typical blond in Hollywood teen movies. Well introducing myself to Americans had always been a tough task. ‘Sharmila’ is surely not easy for them. Vijay for sure has upper hand here, he can comfortably call himself VJ. Well, yesterday’s experience with VJ is surely a shock. The American guy could identify Vijay’s name He said ‘Vijay??? As in Vijay Singh?’ for me it’s a shock… because I myself don’t know who Vijay Singh is. But to Vijay it’s not his first experience. Later on little inputs from Vijay and little research on net enlightened me.

Vijay Singh was a golfer who was number one in official world golf rankings for 32 weeks in 2004 and 2005, and also he was highest money earner in golf circuit in 2004. Though he is a Fiji national, he has his roots from India.

Well…it fills me with pride when Indians are glorified in foreign countries. This reminds me of one more incident. The world’s biggest space research centre NASA has a painting of Tipu Sultan army launching rockets on British army in a war against them. Apparently Tipu is the first person to have used rockets in the war. It is said that his rockets were much more advanced than the weapons possessed by British at that time. When the president Abdul Kalam had been to the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast, Virginia, which was a base of NASA's sounding rocket programme, he was very much delighted on finding the painting and said "The painting depicted a fact forgotten in Tipu's own country but commemorated here on the other side of the planet. I was happy to see an Indian glorified by NASA as a hero of warfare rocketry."

Enough of blogging :) time to get back to reading... Agatha Christie’s ‘Curtain’ in which Poirot dies… intriguing huhhh

Failures stepping stone to success?

2006-11-07T13:10:00.000-08:00

‘Success’ the most powerful n momentous word in English language…everybody under the sun wants to be associated with it. Success never comes alone. What not it brings with it, fame, money, and most important a bunch of people who feel haughty for being associated with you.

In our day to day life we come across hundreds of people who glorify their association with the successful people, but how many times will you ever encounter with people who stand by break downs. It is said that failures are stepping stones for success, but how many support a failure. People just mock failure, they ridicule failure.

I was reading 'Wings of Fire' and was very surprised on knowing the reaction of the media to the failure of AGNI missile (a project of DRDL under the directorship of Dr. Abdul Kalam) back in 1980's. AGNI is the most prestigious missile developed by our scientists at DRDL. It is the result of the hard work of many scientists, who have been so committed to the project that they even forgot their basic requirements like food and sleep. The work of one Mr. Nagaraj needs to be quoted here; he was so dedicated to it that he couldn’t even attend the death of his family member.

It was a challenge not just for the scientists of DRDL but also the whole nation. Till then India was importing the missiles from other countries, very few countries have the technology required to produce a missile, if it were a success, a small country like India will have an eminent place among world nations. But to every ones disappointment the first attempt of the launch had failed and the launch had been postponed. The scientists who worked on it were broken, depressed and were quite wretched.

What surprised me the most is the reaction of media to the failure. The press had interpretations of the postponement of the launch in their own way to suit the fancies of their readership. The news paper was the biggest media then with the highest reach. Here are some of the cartoons from different news papers of that time after the failure of first two launches of ‘Agni’ missile.

Cartoonist Sudhir Dar sketched a shopkeeper returning a product to the salesman saying that like ‘Agni’ it would not take off.

Hindustan Times showed a leader consoling press reporters, ‘there is no need for any alarm …it’s a purely peaceful, non violent missile.

The Hindu carried a cartoon showing a villager counting some currency notes and commenting to another, ‘yes…it’s a compensation for moving away from my hut near the test site- a few more postponements and I can build a house of my own.’

Another cartoonist designated AGNI as IDBM- Intermittently Delayed Ballistic Missile.

Another cartoonist showed one ‘Agni’ scientist explaining that the launch had failed because the press button did not make contact.

The only cartoonist who had showed some encouragement is RK Laxman, who drew a ‘Agni’ scientist telling to the press ‘nothing to be discouraged! We have postponed it again because we want to be absolutely certain’

Another world 200 miles away…

2006-11-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been a wonderful and most cherishable one till date since my first day here in the US. We had been to Broken bow, a place just 200 miles away from here… yet makes you feel that you are thousands of miles away from this materialistic world.

We rented a wooden cabin in the middle of woods, it was all very cozy inside as though we are resting in Mother Nature’s womb. A swamp of trees in fall colors, a serene lake besides a teeny mountain, a perfectly tranquil place away from the hullabaloo of the world. Infact it is not in Broken bow, Broken bow is the nearest city from this place.

Spending time there has surely enlivened our spirits and we are looking at life with more enthusiasm. Here are some of our attempts to capture the beauty.

Dealing with deals….

2006-10-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

After seeing my husband’s blog on his new hair cut, I have decided I am going to remind him of one more experience of ours with deals. These days I get to know his feelings more through his blogs…damn this internet… so why not answer/talk to him here ;) (Best way to talk to someone who sits in front of computer for almost 18 hrs a day… a mouse potato :D as he said)

Well… with the limited number of hours I surf on net, not a single day goes by without these messages/ads on my screen.

‘Congratulations!!! You have won free laptop for details click here’

‘Congratulations!!!! you have won free ipod… click here to claim’

Some times when the speakers are on it scares the hell out of me. Suddenly a voice comes from nowhere saying ‘Hello and congratulations!!!! Why??? Because you are the one lucky winner of our …..’

As though we have learnt nothing from these experiences… we are fooled yet another time. The other day we have been to pier 1 imports to buy a gift for Vijay’s friend. Since it was a house warming party we thought of giving them a flower vase. So, we were looking for nice vases and were trying different combination of vases and flowers. At a point when we are trying to reach some flowers placed a little higher, there comes a good looking sales girl.

Sales girl: are you finding everything alright?

Me: we were trying to reach those flowers for this vase (showing the vase to her).

Sales girl: those flowers??? They don’t go well with your vase. I will show some thing better. Is it for Diwali?

Shocked were we… an American not just knowing about Diwali but also knowing when it is falling is quite uncommon. Impressed with her…

Vijay: it is for a house warming party for my friend

Sales girl: well… then I guess you don’t know the colors of the walls to select a vase which will go with them. Then I will look for something which is simple and can go with any color. What is your price range?

Vijay: around 50 bucks.

She went and looked for some thing in our price range. She tried all the combinations of vases and flowers and finally came up with the best. They had this weird sale of 20% off on the highest priced item. The vase, flowers and some leaves all together amounted $47. It was all very beautiful with the leaves in fall colors. We were quite satisfied on finding something lovely in our price range. Very much impressed with sales girl we finalized the vase. Suddenly she comes up with a new offer.

Sales girl: you get a $20 gift card if you can bill more than $50.

Our faces lit up. We were very glad and complacent with what we got, still we became greedy. We were calculating… a $20 gift card!!!… that would make our beautiful vase just $30??? How could we resist our avidity???

YES!!! We screamed… couldn’t control our amusement. She comes up with some more flowers and leaves and arranges them well in the vase. I was wondering if this added any beauty to the vase. But who cares… my vase is becoming cheaper. This was fine with us until and unless the extra flowers loot the beauty of the vase.

Then we go to the counter and the bill amounts to nearly $60. We paid the bill and then she handles us the gift card. Acute disappointment on receiving it… It was a $20 off on purchase of $50 or above for the month of November. One more lesson on this deals. Or should I say one more feather in the cap ;)

Dream… and then follow

2006-10-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

‘You have to dream before your dreams can come true’- Abdul Kalam in his auto biography ‘Wings of Fire’.

I have been longing to read this book ‘wings of fire’; finally I could manage to find a book with Abdul Kalam’s signature in it. I started checking my mail daily hoping that the book would reach today. Finally the day has come, the very first sight of book after longing for so many days to read it has been a little disappointment. The book seemed to be a mere school text book, but I was delighted on finding Kalam’s signature on the first page.

After I started reading the book I couldn’t help but admire Kalam. He is a person with great knowledge not only in science but also in life. The phrases and poems of great writers on almost every page shows how deep inside him are those still existing. Some of them were from his school books. Well, there might be some significance in the appearance of book too… just like Kalam unattractive from outside and knowledgeable and inspirational from inside.

There are few common things I noticed in lives of great achievers; they follow their dreams, their happiness, their passion and love towards it is unconditional. Kalam like any other person joined in BSc math and physics after his intermediate. He later realized that it is not want he wanted. He realized his passion for flying objects, then after completion of BSc he joined in aeronautics engineering. He joined DRDO upon graduation. From there on there was no turning back. He was advancing in his career leaps and bounds. He some times even worked for 100 hrs a week. But he was never exhausted or frustrated with his work… because that is where his happiness lies. And some times you need to encounter with failures too… Kalam was no any exception… his first satellite launch, on which he worked real hard, has been a failure. But he didn’t give up. He fought and fought and at last achieved it.

This reminds me of Nagesh Kukunoor. He was born in a well educated and traditional Telugu family. He was an engineer working in US for a fat pay check. But he was not happy with it. He realized his happiness lies else where… in film making… but how would he dare do it or tell his family… films are considered occupying one secure notch above prostitution in educated families. He had battles in his mind… he felt he is selfish… he is not on world mission to serve humanity… it was his personal search for happiness. Later he could convince himself that even people who give up every thing to serve humanity might have happiness in doing it… may be their pursuit is as selfish as his. Back, he came to India in search of his happiness… films… but he was rejected… people didn’t want to learn from an NRI. At times he doubted his own skills, finally he won the battle…made his first ever film ‘Hyderabad blues’.

Well… there are many achievers who followed the suit… MF Hussain.. Sachin Tendulkar… Shekar Kammula… Kalpana Chawla…many more..the success stories of these achievers show that they just followed their interests,,, … their dreams… and they expected nothing from it, it was purely unconditional… what they pursue from it is beyond worldly… is immaterial…

Well… I am still shuffling my feet not knowing what I want… not knowing where I can find it…I dint know that penning down my thoughts would give me so much pleasure until I started writing blogs… who knows.. sooner or later I would encounter with something I am really made for…

Ad world…

2006-10-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

Ads have always been my favorite pass time; I enjoy watching them and analyzing them.

The other day I was watching this program the world's very funny ads on TV. There was this whimsical ad by Mc Donald’s which was quiet funny. It’s a Mc Donald’s ad from other country which goes like this. There was a small boy who asks his dad ‘what is sex’. The father then takes him to Mc Donalds and explains the whole of it… aha we can only hear the background music ;)… the small boy then takes out a form to fill up from his bag showing a small box after the column sex and asks his father ‘will all that fit in this small box?’ hahaha funny isn’t it??? Well I liked the message they wanted to convey though, they were showing Mc Donalds as a place where people can feel free as home and have an open conversation.

Though I am very much fascinated with ads I actually doubt if they would increase the sales directly. I am sure they would increase awareness, but do they really boost the sales… not always… that is what happened with Hutch. Do u remember the ‘You and I in the beautiful world’ ad by Hutch? they focused on something but people caught something else. Just to remind you.. it was an ad where a small puppy keeps following a boy with the song ‘You and I in the beautiful world’ in the background (very catchy song indeed). Well they wanted to show that their network follows where ever you go but ultimately something else caught the viewers more… the sales of the particular breed of the dog they were showing soared but not the Hutch. Well its quiet difficult to catch the pulse of the people.

Sometimes it’s a caption which catches people. Example santoor, from years they have been using the same dialogue… ‘College aur main’ and then a girl comes in calling mummy… they have changed many models… many directors but the concept has been same. Infact it has become so popular that we use santoor as a word to describe a younger looking girl… just like googling instead of searching.

One more ad which is in the list of my favorites is LML ad… it came long time back with Madhavan as ambassador which goes like this. School children stand outside the gate with a donation box in their hands circulating the pamphlets for donations. People just take the pamphlets and crumple the paper without even reading it and the kids end up without any donation in their box. Then comes Madhavan riding his LML trendy, he happens to notice the kids, comes to them and gives them an idea. The kids then crumpled the pamphlets and started circulating them, people when handed over the crumpled paper, became curious and opened them to read. Ultimately people started giving donations after reading them. A very good ad indeed. Played on people’s psychology, that is how people are. While the message they wanted to convey is, the vehicle is so very simple that u need not concentrate on driving, you can think while driving. Madhavan got the idea to crumple the paper while driving. In software language ‘multi tasking’, which I am very poor at. Reminds me of my chat with Kalyani the other day. While I was talking on phone with my friend Shravan, my other friend Kalyani happened to come online. Instead of typing ‘I am on phone’, I typed ‘I am on road’ as I was discussing on some roads and maps with Shravan… :))

Paparazzi…

2006-09-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

I was just wondering after watching this movie paparazzi, how in life every episode has two sides of story. This movie is all about paparazzi where a celebrity actor is been shot all the time by photographers who end up writing their own stories on him. There was this scene in the movie where a photographer intentionally annoys the actor making him lose his temper and raise his adrenaline, he reacts exactly the way photographer wanted him to. He finally beats the photographer which’s been captured with flashes of camera. Next day there would be headlines ‘Actor beats a reporter’ with tens of pictures of enraged actor.

This small incident had made me think, how we always would see only one side of story. With the photographs of enraged actor beating a reporter we no doubt conclude that it’s actors fault whatever are the circumstances leading to it. Doesn’t this whole thing sound familiar??? Pawan kalyan beating a reporter for trying to shoot Chiranjeevi’s daughter engagement with Uday kiran… they were clear about not wanting any reporters on the occasion.

All these sting operations by news channels and papers are nothing but attempts to sell… who knows… they might create situations compelling the celebrities to react pretty rugged.

All this made me think how miserable is the life of celebrity… they have no personal life. They can’t go sit on necklace road and enjoy the breeze, they can’t watch a movie with popcorn along with their girl/boy friend . This reminds me of Princess Diana… poor she had to lose her life for trying to have normal romantic moments with her love. How greedy are paparazzi, their desire to sell has cost few lives. And what a fuss news papers and TV channels have made about the kissing scene of Kareena and Shahid Kapoor. How important is holiday/vacation for a celebrity, which is why we find most of the celebrities holidaying in foreign countries.

Well... now that i can see the other side of the stories in news paper/channel, they can't deceive me in an attepmt to sell :)

Pi invented…

2006-09-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

Pi..??? 3.14159265… aaahh we always knew the value of pi… but seldom we ask ourselves who invented it… this is one of the ocean full of inventions where we are amicable with the invention but not the inventor…

Eureka.. Eureka… aahh now you know who I am going to write about… if your guess is Archimedes then you are right… this is how its been, we associate eureka more to Archimedes than pi. Pi wouldn’t be a great invention if it were invented some 5 or 600 years back. Reading a book about Archimedes made me aware of few amazing facts about Archimedes.

Archimedes was born in Greece in 287 B.C. some 2000 years back. This is a period when there was no paper or pen, a period when there were no present numbers, a period hundred’s of years before the invention of zero. The biggest number they knew was myriad, represented as word which equals to 10,000. There was no proper number system at that time. The Greeks used their alphabets as numerals; an alphabet with a small dash besides it represents a number.

I always thought that Archimedes was just into physics and invented pulleys/levers, objects floating in water, buoyancy laws etc etc. he was not just into physics,he was a mathematician, an astronomer, and a great scientist. His favorite being astronomy as his father is an astronomer too. He stated the laws of center of gravity long before Newton discovered gravity. All his inventions and discoveries were amazing considering the fact that he lived in the time before Christ. He invented pi when there were no proper measuring or drawing instruments other than a compass to draw a circle and a scale for straight lines. He fitted a circle in a 96 sided polygon and discovered that the area of circle is approximately equal to area of 96 sided polygon. That is how he computed the area of circle. There was no proper paper at that time; people learn things by writing with stick on sand. This is how he invented pi by drawing smallest 96 sided polygon outside the circle. Most of his work is lost in time and without proper evidences.

‘All great lives don’t end great’, this is what I feel and the life of Archimedes has disclosed it one more time. Archimedes lived in a small island called Syracuse. Their king Hiero had foreseen a threat to the island and asked Archimedes to build a machine which could fight the enemies. Archimedes was reluctant initially and said that he has more important things to work on and besides science is some thing constructive but not destructive for him. But the king would not listen to him, he kept on begging him and finally Archimedes made it. It was used years after the king’s death when Romans were trying to invade the island. The machines Archimedes invented were successful in throwing out the enemies. They were like canons throwing huge stones and arrows at the enemy ships when they were far off. He even used mirrors to reflect the sun rays and burn the enemy ships. The machines were so successful that the people there have started growing careless. One day when the islanders were celebrating a feast Marcellus and his army attacked the island. The islanders were running all over the streets, there were fires all around . Archimedes was at his home solving a problem unaware that the island has been occupied. General Marcellus ordered his men to bring Archimedes to him as he wanted to see the person who made others thinking dwarf. When a soldier came to Archimedes house he was solving a problem on sand with a stick, he was so intent on it that he did not hear the shouts and screaming in the city. When the soldier said that Marcellus wanted to see him, Archimedes was not ready to come. He said he is in the middle of the problem and he needs to complete it. The soldier got furious and stepped on his problem. Archimedes shouted stand off my diagram, and poked the soldier’s feet with his drawing stick. The soldier got annoyed and cutoff Archimedes head with his sword. This is how the life of a great inventor ended. Later Marcellus killed the soldier and built a tomb for Archimedes with a symbol of sphere inside a cylinder, his favorite invention which he wanted on his tomb.

Though Archimedes died, there is no end to him, even today; 2000 years after his death we still follow his laws. He is a great man who laid foundations to many further inventions.

Six Degrees of Separation

2006-08-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

The world is ever changing… so are the people… so are my interests… but the pace with which my interests keep changing or rather pace with which I get bored of things really scares my husband ;) (he is afraid I would follow the same with himJ)… juz kidding). Sometimes I am so much into books, sometimes into workouts, sometimes into puzzles, sometimes into sudoku and sometimes into blogs. Being into it doesn’t mean just noticing from outside the well, it is diving into the well. I still remember those days when I got so much obsessed with SuDoKu, I even forgot cooking and stayed the whole day solving SuDoKu (which made my husband very angry). Ofcourse each obsession doesn’t last for long… and for those of you who want to know… my latest obsession is Orkut.

Orkut is an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends. There are lots of cool features in it that makes you sit on it for hours… and I am sure this is the case with most of you. The most interesting thing is, it gives you the shortest tree and you would be surprised to see that the person with whom you have started the tree would no more exist when the shortest tree is shown.

Here comes into picture the six degrees separation. Six degrees of separation is the hypothesis that anyone on Earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances with no more than five intermediaries. Suppose take any two persons say x and y from any part of the world, according to this hypothesis there would be only 5 intermediaries between the two, that means only five links. This hypothesis was first proposed in 1929, later in 1950’s this was tried to prove mathematically but any satisfying results were not obtained. Later in 1967 this hypothesis was tried to prove again with a different approach by a psychologist. This hypothesis was proved to be correct in 80% of the cases.

Six degrees of separation was really hard to believe, I was so happy that it remained a hypothesis not a theory. But when I started to experiment with Orkut, I was shocked to notice that even when I click on any strangers profile there would be 5 or less intermediaries in 90% of the cases and with only 9 friends in my friends list. I tried going to different communities like Dairymilk, Aishwarya Rai, Dilbert and was shocked to notice that any member I pick up randomly in the community is not more than five links away from me. Five is the maximum, in 80% of the cases it is less than five. Then I got curious and picked up the communities where I have least chance to have a link like Armenian girls… to my surprise even here this hypothesis worked…then I got even more curious and enthusiastic and tried to pick up communities from remote foreign countries where I thought there would be no chance of having just five links. Now here in most of the cases there were no links at all… and if there were links existing that would surely be five or below. But then came a point in my mind, according to wikipedia there are 25,132,531 users on Orkut as of August 9, 2006; this would be less than 1% of the world population. This surely shrinks our chances of six degree separation. Well this hypothesis can be instantly proved wrong when we consider our ancestors six or more generations above us since human race has 30-32 generations of ancestry.

Well no doubt why it remained a hypothesis not a theory, but I found it interesting and true in almost 90% of the cases. May be this can be defined in a newer way and proved.

Now I know the world is really small.

Life after Death…????

2006-07-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

Some times there is a person inside you, whom you never knew is existing. Only at certain instances you get to see your inside self, only when you encounter with certain situations you would know your inside person.

It was just few days ago that I discovered a spiritual me inside a bubbly fun loving me. I happened to read a spiritual book ‘Messages from Masters’ from my husband’s collection of books. Just after reading few pages I got immensely attracted to the book. The book is about reincarnations and a person’s life after death. I never knew I would like reading such book. I consider myself a more logical person who wouldn’t believe things unless proved. And now it’s the same me who started believing in reincarnations and life after death.

Brain Weiss, a psychologist by profession, happened to receive the messages from masters while meditating; he then tuned himself to receive more messages. He gave hundreds of examples and experiences where he could make people actually see their previous life through hypnotism.

According to him each life is a learning experience for our soul. Each life is school where we graduate from after death and look for another life for more learning’s. At the end of each life our soul is supposed to tell the Masters our learnings from this life.

It is our soul which chooses our parents, it is not like we happen to be born to our parents, we choose our parents. The harder the life we choose, the more we learn from the life. According to Weiss babies do remember the past life. Infact when we think children are growing up and learning the world and language, it is then they forget about the past life and the soul gradually. According to him when we ask small kids why they chose these parents, they give very interesting answers.

He gave very interesting explanations how we carry our previous life fears to the present life. In one of the work shops Weiss conducted, he came across a woman who is very fearful of closed rooms, through hypnotism they came to know that she was an Egyptian maid in her past life who was poisoned and kept in a closed room along with her master’s tomb. Egyptians had this tradition to make the maids serve their masters even after death. If we happen to die by drowning in water in the past life, we have asthma in the present life.

None of his explanations had any proof, but they sounded logical to me. Some times I feel I believe it, some times I think I am a fool to believe it.

Beginning or end...

2006-05-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

Human brain is a clutter of ideas and thoughts. It depends on us whether we nourish it and give it a new beginning or kill it and give an end. We hear the stories of success of great scientists, entrepreneurs, leaders… and what do they start with???? Just a small idea... I have always liked the marketing punch line of idea ‘An idea can change your life’. Determination added to idea is what that builds empires.

I was going through the continental drift concept and was amazed to know that it is a small thought that created the whole theory, it is as small that you need not be great intelligent or great thinker for the idea to strike in your mind.

Let me start with the theory first which is quiet interesting, and which unveils some of the amazing facts about the world. According to this concept some 200 million years ago all the continents were joined into a super continent known as Pangaea. The map above shows the drifting of continents. Seems quiet interesting, India moved a long way to be in its presents position. It totally got detached from one piece of land moved a long way and joined the present Asia. It seems like our life time is a blink when compared to the existence of world. It took 50 years for the geologists to find evidences and to accept this theory. There are animal and plant fossils in the world showing evidences of Pangaea. This theory was first proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. I was surprised on knowing how the whole theory began…with a small thought or small observation. Alfred Wegener observed that the shapes of continents on either side of Atlantic oceans seem to fit together i.e. Africa and South America, the points A and B in the map. That is where the idea kindled that all continents might be joined, and with determination and serious studies the theory is proved.

There are millions and trillions of people who happen to see world map day in day out, but how many of us observed that the shapes of Africa and South America fit each other? Even if we have observed, how many of us started working on it or researching it. I now feel how I couldn’t observe this little thing, which surely does not need great observation power or intelligence. It is because my mind is preoccupied with many other minor things like movies, cricket, parties, dressing…Had I observed it with concentration and interest I would have found out. Most of us feel that inventions and discoveries are out of our reach, but the fact is we are ourselves confining our reach. We are not letting our thoughts cross the borders which are drawn by us subconsciously.

We all have studied about gravitational theory in school discovered by Newton. It is a small incident which made him think… an apple falling on him from the tree. Ideas come from small incidents, which need to be nourished for a new beginning. Many business empires were built by entrepreneurs who start with a small idea and further it with determination.

David Schwartz in his book ‘Magic of thinking big’ said that thousands of ideas strike human brain, which when ignored are forgotten. He advised all to carry a pencil and paper all the time and write the ideas. He said, if offered 2000 $ and a pencil paper to him, he would definitely chose a pencil and paper.

It is in our hands whether to start a new beginning or end it completely.

Thinking big...

2006-05-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

David Schwartz in his book ‘The magic of thinking big’ beautifully spoke how ‘thinking big’ would work wonders. It all depends on how you think… whether you perceive a half filled glass as half full or half empty.

People often try to give excuses for not being successful in life… the most common being not having enough brains. David Schwartz gives instances of how successful people can be even without intellectual brains. It is not because of any miracle in their lives, it is just the magic of ‘Thinking big’, instead of complaining about not having enough brains, they started thinking big. It’s all how you think rather than how much is your IQ.

Henry Ford, who had little formal education, was once asked few basic questions about history and wars. He failed to answer them but quickly said he could find a man who could answer them. He feels, the ability to know how to get information is more important than using the mind as garage for facts.

A CEO of a manufacturing firm happened to come across a quiz master who could answer when, where, what of almost everything happened in the world. When asked how much he would pay for the man, he said not more than 300$, the price of an encyclopedia. Knowing and memorizing the facts is just not enough, ‘thinking’ is what matters to be successful. Use the knowledge to create new things, to create new path. Knowledge is powerful, only when used constructively.

The world’s richest man and the founder of Microsoft opined that the Indians are the most intelligent people in the world after the Chinese. Then why is India still a developing country? Why isn’t India advanced in technology or science compared to many other countries in the world? It is because of the lack of thinking. We Indians set boundaries for ourselves and will never try to go beyond that. We study in prestigious institutes, taking over tough competition, learn few theories and finally end up in a job where we can implement these theories and feel complacent about our achievements. Everybody wants to follow a set path. We can find only few people who can explore new directions.

America imports many things from all over the world, and from India it imports ‘brains’, Brain drain has been the hottest topic in India. But we can find only few percentages of these Indians in top management or strategic management in American companies.

Our education system is designed in such a way that we give little or rather no importance to thinking. There is no scope for creativity or practical projects. We memorize things, we score marks and then we are intelligent. The parents and teachers emphasize more on what you score. The ever increasing rate of student’s suicide after the SSC or intermediate results shows the level of pressure our education system creates.

Success can be yours irrespective of whether you have intellectual brains or average brains. It is thinking that is more important. Your thoughts should be extension of your knowledge, then only we can say ‘Knowledge is powerful’. Even the great scientist Einstein couldn’t answer the question how many feet make a mile. He said he did not want to waste his time and brain in memorizing the things he could find out in 2 min by referring to a book, instead he could use the time effectively on thinking. ‘Thinking big’ really can do wonders.

I recommend everyone to read ‘The magic of thinking big’ by David Schwartz, I read only half of it till now, and already this is my favorite book.

The sweetest mom....

2006-05-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

To me the most beautiful of God’s creation is mother, and I’m sure this is not just to me, if there is anything the whole world would agree up on then this is it, in spite of religious, social and demographic differences.

I thought of writing so much about my mom but I am short of words now. My mom is my guide, my teacher, my role model. She is so loving and caring,,,, if I get hurt the first tear would be my mom’s, yet she pretends to be tough because she knows her tears would make me vulnerable. She sacrifices her pleasures for us, discovers happiness in small things of ours. She would never forget the day I started walking even after becoming older. Even the smallest of achievements of mine would make her feel conceited. She is very helpful, supportive and is a good decision maker which makes her siblings often look up to her. There are so many things to learn from her.

I love my dad too as much as my mom, for whom I'm still a kid. He is so caring, emotional and sentimental which is quiet uncommon in men. I often feel lucky for being a part of such a wonderful family.

Hollywood Bollywood

2006-05-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

I was ‘amazed, confused, surprised, perplexed and finally was feeling proud’. It was an amalgamation of feelings when I heard Bollywood song ‘Chaiya Chaiya’ being played in a Hollywood movie ‘Inside Man’. We were a couple of minutes early to the show, and when the show began with AR Rahman song I suddenly couldn’t understand, at first I felt we landed in a wrong theatre, then thought the sound is coming from some where else not a part of movie, it took few seconds for me to realize that a bollywood number is being played during the titles of the movie. Then my head rouse with pride being an Indian.

Spike Lee’s latest smash ‘Inside Man’, starring Danzel Washington is about a New York Bank robbery. There are wide range of anecdotes over the opening and closing tracks of the movie. Some felt that ‘the opening and closing musical tracks immediately attracted the attention of film critics and moviegoers alike because Lee chose an unexpected piece of Bollywood music as a curtain-raiser for his urban thriller’, some critics felt the music gave an ‘energetic edge’ to bank heist thriller, while some other critics felt that the music is totally out of the movie track, and sounded like a African or a middle east folk music which has nothing to do with plot of the movie. What ever it is, it surely is a big achievement to AR Rahman, but this simple down to earth person is not the one who is going to feel complacent, he said all this means that he has to work even harder, it is also a reminder that one must remain humble even more than ever.

While Spike Lee, who works as professor in New York University’s graduate film school, has his own version of story for choosing a bollywood song. He said during a class of musicals one of his students asked him to see some bollywood, with little or rather no knowledge of bollywood Lee asked her to name a film, She immediately said ‘Dil Se’ and gave him a DVD of the movie next day. Lee happened to like the movie and intensely got attracted to the song ‘Chaiya Chaiya’, he then thought he would play the song in his next movie. This shows the power of Rahman’s music and that one could never get away from his beats.

Rahman’s music in Hollywood movies is not new, his songs are featured in 2001 romantic hit ‘Moulin Rouge’, there are half a dozen of his songs in the movie ‘Lord of the rings’, his haunting theme music from the movie ‘Bombay’ is played for almost two minutes in Nicolas Cage starrer ‘Lord of the War’. While the whole song of ‘Chaiya Chaiya’ in the beginning and the end of ‘Inside Man’ is surely a surprise to me. The track at the end of the movie has mixing of rap to the original Sukwinder Singh number. I was singing the song aloud feeling proud for knowing the lyrics. We stayed in the theatre till the song is completely played, I found that others also are not leaving the hall, don’t know whether it is because of the song or because of the titles at the end. I was eagerly waiting for AR Rahman’s name on the screen, but got totally disappointed not finding his name any where.

Cheers to the man who made an international mark and still is simple and down to earth unlike his counterparts Anu Mallik or any other bollywood musician. When we happen to see a Hollywood or any international music or film with similarities with bollywood plot or music we think that our bollywood has pilfered it from Hollywood (even the name bollywood is a copy), but here is the man who made it other way round.

Ignorance a bliss?

2006-05-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

Four of the recent telugu movies Pokiri, Veerabadra, 10^th class, Bangaram are given ‘A’ certificate by censor board, because of the unnecessary exposure and violence, indicating that minors below the age of 18 are not eligible to watch these movies in theatres. But nobody seems to be abiding by any of the rules meant for adult movies. Neither of producers, theatre owners, censor board, police seem to be doing their duty, the reason being ignorance. Well seems like ignorance is surely a bliss in this case.

The censor board after certifying the movie did not do any of the follow ups stating that their duty ends with certification. The producers who are supposed to put ‘A’ mark on the posters displayed every where said that they are ignorant of all the rules. The theatre owners who are not supposed to allow minors into the theatres tell that they did not receive any such instructions. The police on the other hand seem to be relaxing with no complaints received on this.

These films are running in the theatres just like any other movie because of the ignorance of all parties. Seems like nobody has any responsibility towards society. Every one wants their duties to be defined and wait for the instructions or rules to set up.

Unless any of the parties act voluntarily in the issue, nothing seems to be done. The censor board can go little further of their duties to inspect weather rules of ‘A’ certificate are being followed.

This is just one example of people digging the reasons for not following the rules, there are many cases all over where people blame one another.

Learning from nature

2006-05-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

I had always been admirer of nature, I loved watching green plants, colorful flowers, mountains, roaring oceans, sun rises and sun sets. Everything about nature is beautiful yet deep inside this adorable beauty are great lessons which most of us tend to ignore.

On one sad lonely day of mine I was feeling downhearted and dejected until something caught my sight. It was so usual, so common, so often, I wondered how I couldn’t notice it all these days. It was a sight of a tree standing still even when its leaves are all fallen. I felt happy seeing the tree stalwart without giving up. I realized that I was not alone, there are hard times in everyone’s life and then said to myself that I would never give up and would wait for the spring full of new life.

It was then I found my new guide, my new teacher. The whole thing has changed my perception towards nature. I started searching for new lessons of nature. I started wondering how every thing is created so beautifully, yet meaningfully. Beauty combined with a meaning is what I started to look for.

I had always known the transformation of an ugly looking caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly by the construction of cocoon, but never tried to understand what it is telling to me, I always thought it was natural. I now know it. Instead of complaining about being you, try to bring a new you by hard work. The construction of a cocoon is not easy task, it has fear of being washed away by rain, fear of being eaten by animals, but still it overcomes the obstacles and dares to construct it with a dream of becoming a butterfly. We all have dreams and aspirations, but would do very little towards it fearing about obstacles, but nature has shown us how hardest of the dreams can come true.

I was standing on shore of an ocean, I could see far off the sky and water touching each other which was quiet impractical, then I learned not to believe my eyes without analyzing.

I loved watching rainbows when sun and rain turned up together. I now know they are the colors of unity.

Oceans being so big are of little use for us. It is small rivers or lakes which fulfills our thirst. I realized that to be helpful to others size never matters. We can always support others even with the minimum we have.

A tree teaches us how to live for others, it bears the pain of plucking the fruit to satisfy our hunger. Why not, that is where its growth lies.

Crazy crazy….

2006-04-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

The recently ended commonwealth games is more in news not because of the performance of sports stars( vewww they are just sports person in India) or the medals India won but because of the controversy about Bollywood stars eleven minutes performance. The fact that the government paid them 40 crores for their 11 minutes performance in an event which is totally related to sports raised quiet a lot voices. Had this amount been used for the development of sports, India would have won many more medals. Making it worse, these stars flew in business class unlike the economy class by the sportsmen.

Film industry is always hyped in India, but giving them more importance than sports persons in a sports event is disgusting. Sports men are never stars in India, we hardly know any one who brought these 50 medals to India in the common wealth games, such is the acquaintance of Indians in the sports. Thanks that Indian cricketers are not victims of this anonymity due to the Indians ever increasing craze for cricket and not to forget Sania mania. She has been much hyped recently and she is now a days not able to sustain her achievement, she lost all her seven encounters in the first round itself recently. This can be attributed to the hype created by media making her complacent. We Indians admire only young and glamorous sport stars, and hype them so much making them lose their form. Sania is the only sports star apart from cricket who has recognition. Why are Olympic medal winners Karanam Malleswari (bronze in weight lifting), Karni Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner (bronze in shooting), P T Usha (lost bronze in 1/100^th sec), the Indian hockey team (8 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 2 bronze), are not recognized. The Indian hockey team has the record of first biggest score of 24-1 beating USA.

It’s not confined to sports, there are many sectors whose achievements go unnoticed. People know little about the soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the country. On the other hand, there are instances where people ended their lives because of their craze for actors. On the release day of south mega star Chiranjeevi’s film ‘Indra’ a youth ended his life in a theatre for not being able to get the tickets. The police was unable to control the crowd during the first week in the theatres so they started issuing tickets in the police station. This shows how mad people are over this industry. The actors taking due advantage of this craze, campaign for political parties, endorse the brands, and also events like common wealth games charging crores of rupees. Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai who proclaim themselves as patriots should have given their performance in the common wealth games without charging money, after all it was just a 11 minutes performance representing our country.

Kannada actor Raj Kumar’s death has resulted in unrest in Bangalore. People furiously marched on the roads and destroyed buses and other public property and also fired them. I am still confused why is the public furious or rather on whom, it was just a natural death, had it been any murder then their fury is understandable. Then why destroy public property and create chaos? This shows how stupid people can act for these stars.

Film stars becoming politicians when they retire is not new Jaya prada, Shatrugan Sinha, Vijay Shanti, Sunil Dutt the list can go on… some even do both simultaneously. I don’t understand how could they do justice to two full time professions. Govinda, Mohan Babu, Kota srinivas Rao, Babu Mohan and many more… Some times it seems like films and politics are same… seeing many people in common. It is not confined to India, it is just about every where, Arnold Schwarzenegger vowing as California governor proves it.

I suggest film stars should take the route of Chiranjeevi instead of exploiting the public craze towards them. He started Chiranjeevi blood bank and Eye bank and made public aware about the services. He recites the same in the introduction of all his films, and the number of donations to this trust shows how people regard their idol.

United or divided

2006-04-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

The congress government decision to introduce reservation for OBC Categories in the premier institutions of India, thereby raising the reserved seats to 49.5 percent including the existing reservation for SC/ST is vigorous prejudice and discrimination. Enough is done by the government for the development of these castes from past 50 years. The more it executes reservation the more divided is the nation. India is a secular country which enforces reservation on the basis of caste, as weird as it sounds, reservations are violation of articles 15 and 16, which guarantee to all citizens the fundamental right to equality and equal opportunity under the state.

The premier institutes like the IIT’s and the IIM’s are prestigious worldwide because of the quality students it produces every year. It’s a pride to India that these institutes are on par or even better than the world’s top institutes like Harvard. According to the US news channel ABC, getting admission into IIT is more difficult than getting in Harvard. Only 2% of total applicants get admitted into IIT compared to the 10% in Harvard.

The already existing reservation blesses the SC/ST attend colleges with almost no fee, ultimately we tax payers are the ones who take the burden of their fee, this being a cycle.

Ratan Tata, chairman of TATA Groups criticizing this act severely said that this is nothing but division of nation and would bring no development. Tata recently crossed the borders and went hunting in Harvard campus, nearly 10 students have been recruited by Tata from Harvard campus. With 50% reservation in all premier institutes it is an accepted fact that the quality of students will come down, making more Indian companies taking the route of Tata for brightest talents.

The very purpose of introducing the reservations is achieved long back. Dr Ambedkar wanted equality for backward and scheduled castes. It was introduced in the period when these backward casts are treated like untouchables. He felt that with reservation (agreed for only 10 years initially) in education and jobs, these people will acquire some social status, which would lead for equality.Initially agreed for 10 years and got extended and still exists. Equality is achieved long back, infact more fraction of these people are exceeding. All the top government positions are occupied by the backward classes. The circumstances at the time of introduction of this reservation are not the same and there is no purpose in its existence now.

According to me, reservations shouldn’t be on the basis of caste, a real development of the society is achieved when these reservations are based on the financial positions of people. Demarcate people according to their financial status with a clear and defined demarcation line and let only one among these families enjoy this reservation that too with small %, otherwise there would be hindrance to the economic development of the country with merit students lagging behind.

I was going through population control measures taken by China and was really amazed by their strict rules and procedures followed on the size of family. China, the biggest competitor of India in the BPO sector, identified the factors for the hindrance of their development and has laid certain harsh though necessary rules. India on the other hand is trying to implement the rules which further hamper the development.

It is sad to see that no party has raised their voice against the UPA government’s decision on the reservations. This clearly shows that no politician has got courage to terminate this reservation with fear of losing votes. They are just craving for power and the service to the society is the last thing they would do or probably will never do. Sad to see all this happening under the rule of intellectual president and prime minister.

Merit is the most important in professions like medicine, nobody wants a low grade student with little knowledge on medicine to be a doctor, after all it is a profession which deals with life. May be this is the reason behind their recent protest in New Delhi. The protest ended up with a clash with police. The police used tear gas and water cannons, to disperse 400 students who tried to meet HRD minister Arjun Singh. Probably Indian students should take the route of Nepalese to make our plea heard to these deaf politicians.

Life in America

2006-04-25T12:00:00.001-07:00

In one word …It’s cool dude… no no it’s busy, no organized, no routine, no fun… AArrrgghh I am myself confused. But surely can say one thing… quiet different from India. Ahhh India… reminds me of my city… Hyderabad.

Right from the minute I landed in US I experienced this huge difference. For us in India, a city would be full of tall buildings, with little or no greenery and a glimpse of open land/ground in centre of city is almost impossible unless there is a park. The drive from airport to little Apt of our’s was quiet shocking to me. With that picture of Indian city in my mind, I was perplexed finding all flat structures without even a single building raising to two floors above the ground. And in the heart of city you can find green and empty lands, contrary to our city centers like Ameerpet or Abids, may be because of the low population density here. Down towns are the only places in all cities where we can see tall buildings. Shopping malls, Theatres with 4-5 screens, chain stores all are flat, probably I felt it more because I landed in Texas, the biggest state of US. The comforts in India are necessities in US, even a Pizza delivery boy would come in a big car to deliver a pizza.

When I am talking about US I can’t stop praising the roads here. They are so organized and simplified. Driving to other cities is as simple as pressing a button… Yes, get the directions with a finger touch on key board and simply follow them. All the freeways have numbers and all the small roads have names, and there are huge boards on the roads helping us follow the directions. I always wonder how people commute from one city to other in India.The flyovers here are awesome, you can find 5-6 flyovers, one over the other.

Nature seems to be much more beautiful here, the fall colors, the green hills are all adorable. My first experience in snow is unforgettable. I played like a kid making snow balls and hitting others. Yet to encounter the experience of Niagara FallsJ , The gambling in Casinos in Las Vegas…probably we could never get such acquaintances in India.

People here are so polite, they smile and say ‘Hi’ and wish you a nice day, even though you are complete stranger to them. Americans care for handicapped people, they have reservations every where starting from the parking place.

Rules and regulations are strictly followed on you irrespective of the power you have. Freedom of expression/speech is not just in books, the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 uncovering the facts of Bush’s presidency and his connections with the Soudi Arabian businessmen including Bin Laden, reveals the extent of freedom in expression. An Indian film can never bring forth black faces of any ruling leader, even a small coincidence of any character in the movie with a real life politician will create lots of chaos ending in ban of the film. A pepsi ad here can show a coke can and advice people ‘Don’t drink coke, drink pepsi’. Unlike our Indian Pepsi ad, where they try to imitate a coke ambassador or a coke package and advice us not to drink coke beating around the bush.

The education system here is designed so well giving little or no pressure to the kids and the official age for admission of the kids in the school would be 5. Learning is not confined to just classroom, there are many good approaches for practical learning. Kids start attending classes like swimming, soccer, skating at age of 4 or 5. Extra activities are equally encouraged.

Speech on USA advancement will never terminate, why not it is a super power country. Now let me tell you some facts about the life in US. Life here is routine, mechanical and full of tensions, you don’t know when you are going to be fired. You will neither be made a manger nor given a hike even after being eligible, because you are an Indian. Week days you work hard, and weekends are the only days where you get some time to relax or freak around. You are left with little time after your laundry, cleaning and vacuuming sessions.

My whole writing about the life in US is reminding me of my home town. Life was much more beautiful then, those relations, those family get togethers, those attachments. Those marriages of our cousins, long lasting anthyakshari , dumb charades, not to forget thambola, hiding of the jiju’s shoes… The college life, freaking around with friends, be it be necklace road or a secret lake, the pani puri bandi’s. Every thing is sweet memory.

US might be a super power nation advanced in almost all the fields than India, working here brings us overseas experience apart from $$,but India is India, Though we complain on things like under development and corruption in India, we value our tradition, culture and our sentiments which are unbeatable. There is joy being in our place with our dear ones.

Where are relationships heading to????

2006-04-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

‘Ram’ and ‘Laxman’ are two brothers who love each other and care for the feelings of other. They go to school together, have food together, and sleep together. Their parents felt proud of their kids being so attached. Soon they grew up got married and had kids, one night their father suffered a heart stroke and died. There came the issues of owning the property. Soon the good days are ended, the brothers fought with each other like enemies, and they played foul with each other. They hated to talk to each other, and this lasted for ever…. Seems like a story of your house? I am sure there are lots of brothers all over the country, other than the Ambani’s, the Bachan’s, the Mahajan’s, who can relate themselves to this story.

Hindu culture values relationships either it be mother and son or husband and wife or a brother and sister. The elder brother is considered the head of the family after the father. It’s the land where Ram and Laxman are born who stood unitedly even during the hardships. But it’s sad to see the brothers fighting for petty issues and even going to the extent of killing each other. Probably because it’s the same land where brothers like Vaali and Sugreev are born.

The recent attack of Pravin Mahajan on his elder brother Promod Mahajan on a black morning, for treating him like ‘dirt’, shows the extent to which the relations are deteriorated. Poor Mahajan is still battling for life.

The Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil’s wrangle over the ownership of the family owned business conglomerate ‘Reliance’, went public after their father’s death in 2002. They din't speak to eact other even in public meetings. With three million investors, a family feud in Reliance concerns more than the Ambanis.

The division of the Birla Empire after the death of Gansyam Das Birla, third son of the founder of Birla group Raja Baldeo Das Birla, in 1986 was due to the ownership feud. Although these disputes never went public, the division of the empire itself is the proof. The family comes together only to celebrate marriages and mourn deaths. But after years there came yet another reason for the family to stay united, the will of Priyamvadha Birla in which she bequeathed all the assets of MP Birla group- estimated over 5000 crores, to an outsider of the Birla family- R S Lodha, auditor and vice chairman of many companies of M P Birla group. This is a big shock for the family, where an outsider is coming under the family roof. The Birla’s are battling this together.

The disputes between brothers in family owned business is ubiquitous. This is just not confined to the brothers in area of business. This more often occurs in the cases where one of the brothers is celebrity and the other is anonymous. The not so popular brothers in most cases suffer from a complex resulting from inferiority. To name few, Amithab Bhachan’s negative terms with his brother Ajithabh, misunderstandings between CM Rajasekhar Reddy and his brother Vivekananda Reddy, differences between Chandrababu Naidu and Ramamurthy Naidu,In the recent attack on Mahajan, Pravin Mahajan admitted the reason being ill treatment by his brother.

The disputes in families are not bound to brothers, even the purest of the blood relations have disagreements, which sometimes end up in loss of life. There are many instances all over the world where a blood relation is ended up with ‘blood’.

Nepal heir and apparent crown prince Dipendra, murdered his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, his brother, sister, two uncles and three aunts, for not accepting his choice of wife. He then shot himself and later went into coma. He died three days after being in coma.

We read similar instances of brutal murders with in the family day in and day out in news papers. Sad to see the families, which are supposed to bind together in happiness and hardship, killing each other on petty issues.

Changing Men....

2006-04-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days when the egoistic men used to come home feeling lofty about being the sole earner of the family. World is changing at faster pace, you buy a new electronic good, by the time you come home you end up finding it obsolete. In this e-era, every thing is e-this, e-that…. Developing India is not just about technology, it is about people and culture too. Repercussion of this eera is the equal status for men and women. Man is not the only bread earner and woman is not the only home maker in a family. Working women and changing attitude of men towards these women is ubiquitous. In fact men are looking for brides who are working, independent and have self-esteem.

Men now enjoy spending time with the family, given a chance to work extra and earn extra, they are declining it not wanting to cut down the time spending with kids and family. Even the busy high class socialites take out higher fraction of time for family. In fact young fathers relish changing the nappies of their babies. They hold spoons, ladles and knifes not just for eating but also for cooking. They are helping wives in kitchen too. Wife earning more than husband is no longer an issue.

Gone are the days when few professions are only for men. Women can fly planes, join Army, police, bus conductors etc. and the good chunk of women in these professions reflects the change in men.

The responsibilities during the child’s birth are just not women’s, young couples attending pregnancy and a child birth class is not uncommon. The expectant father is allowed to discuss issues pertaining to birth and fatherhood openly and honestly, this makes them understand their responsibilities as father and a husband.

Women are locked up in houses for ages, even after so much of change in culture and attitude of people we still find women of few communities are not allowed to come out without ghoonghats. There is still so much to change. Young, modern and educated India has surely come out of it, still the illiterate and backward society has a long way to go.

I know I am here talking about a fraction or rather a section of society, but it is good to see liberated women atleast in one section. Changing times will surely bring about change in the whole society, if not swiftly, gradually. A tribute to all the men who stand under this writing, and who soon will join this suit.

Indian Law

2006-04-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

‘Slow and steady wins the race’, this if you are thinking is a proverb, then you are mistaken -this is the policy of Indian Law. No matter how many amendments are made, no matter how many new acts are implemented, but the basic policy will remain the same- ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. Only about a third of major crimes like murder and decoity are solved and less than 10% end with convictions. ‘Booming economy’ is the hot topic about India worldwide now, but unfortunately to most of the common people it makes little or no difference.

The US law on the other hand is so advanced that you can check online about a person’s criminal background. India is definitely ameliorating technologically, but there are few things which need to grow better not for the profits it is going to make but for the losses it makes when not improved, the Indian courts and law is one among them. Staying stagnated is worse.

‘Equality of law’ –everybody is given equal status and there is no discrimination on basis of cast, color, sex, power etc for Indian Law, This is what we studied or rather still studying in the books. But in reality it barely exists, there isn’t a single court in India wherein equality exists. ‘Politics, Power, Money’ these are the mantras used for unleashing irrespective of the crime you have committed. If we start speaking on this we can quote thousands of examples on this.

Sanjay Dutt is still not arrested inspite of he owning 2 AK 47’s and his connections with Abu Salem, the main accused in the Bombay blasts.

In the seven year old murder case of Jessica Lal, the accused Manu Sharma, son of Haryana mister Vinod Sharma, is acquitted, the reason being no witnesses and evidences, which is so very ridiculous as the murder took place in a bar where there was huge crowd partying. Kudos to the recent movie ‘Rang de basanti’, people have now evoked and the recent protest against flawed legal system near gate way of India proves it. In a poll conducted by NDTV 95% of people responded that they believe Manu Sharma is the murderer.

‘Two murder cases, two attempted murders and three cases of theft, case of criminal conspiracy, another of destruction of property by explosives, two cases of possession of illegal arms one case of culpable homicide’- If you think him a big criminal who is in wanted list with millions of cash price on head or a shoot at sight order, then you pressed the wrong button. He is 44-year-old Mohammed Rofique, Trinamul Congress candidate from the Garbeta East assembly constituency, West Bengal, who himself admitted all his crimes. Could you imagine any thing worse than this? He is not the only leader having so many cases pending on him, in Bihar and many other parts of West Bengal you can find a larger chunk.

US President Bush’s daughter Jenna 19 was cited for ‘alcohol possession by a minor’ as the legal drinking age was 21. Police did their duties and then only she was sent back. You could never ever imagine this to happen for our president or prime minister’s daughter.

The law and justice has become a playing ball for the powerful and influential rich families, the ultimate sufferers are the common public. I have heard of few cases where police inspectors take bribe even to register a case.

For every thing there is a tolerance level, it is high time for public to revolt against the injustice and this flawed system of law. Let us all go hand in hand and show this corrupted system our existence and the power of unity.

For my husband who feels I am not expressive

2006-04-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

To me marriage is a bond that ties a man and a woman to a lifelong commitment. But everybody is not lucky enough to reap the fruits which is not uncommon, I would proudly say I am not one among them.

Life changed a lot after marriage, some for good, others are also for good only if taken in a right way. I have experienced a transformation of myself from a college going naughty girl to a responsible woman.. yes woman, indeed its hard to take yourself as woman, this is what I meant when I told that ‘others are also for good only if taken in a right way’.

Vijay, my husband, is a blend of a fun loving kiddo enjoying cartoons, a responsible person who is focused in life having a clear picture of what he wants from life. I can’t say he is go getter kinds, but surely can become one if he wants to. He is very determined and can surely win the world if he wants to, this might sound little exaggeration but to me he surely is. His first love is his car like any other guy, he even kisses n pats his car which makes me jealous at times… was just kidding.

I don’t believe in love at first sight, to me love at first sight vanishes at second sight. At the same time I had aversion for arranged marriage, where a person marries a complete stranger without knowing his likes and dislikes. Ours is not a love marriage, neither is arranged completely. We had an opportunity to know each other well and then acceded for marriage, of course it takes a life time to know a person completely.

As I told my life changed quite a bit after marriage, and Vijay is there at every step of it. He made me think big and aim high. I realized from him how consequential are aspirations to ones life. He emboldens me at every point of time. He loves reading books and infused the same in me. He boasts my confidence and makes me feel much more capable. I am not saying he is perfect a man, there sure are darker sides of him, but I can say the brighter side overshadow them.

I am basically not an expressive person, if Vijay can understand only my words, he will not even know the half of what I wrote here and if he understands the innerside of me he surely will know much more. May be at times being expressive brings people close, that is why is the writing here.