Intentions

The Story Of My Assassins - A Great Piece of Art

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:14:00 PST

If there would have censor board existed for books, this would have gotten 'A' rating for sure. Full of violence, action, thrill, sex; yet sensible, intriguing, not vulgar, unraveling our hypocrisy, ripping the truth apart of our society, showing the true dark face of our police, judiciary system, politics and politicians. Tarun (J. Tejpal), an astute writer has put all his experience, endurance of journalism behind, in writing this book. A true and fabulous work by the master of the art.

Typical north Indian set-up of the story, started from Delhi with the main character of the book. The story goes further on telling about the life of his assassins which is set-up in western part of Uttar Pradesh, to Haryana and Delhi itself. And finally it rest-in-peace in Delhi, where police captures them and they get into the jail. The books gives the good indication of the way people think, they way they live their life, the manner in the way they talk, and also how they behave in daily life in these parts of India. A description of a building, which tells the common habit of paan eating and throwing the red color waste in every corner of the buildings, "Everything was soiled, dirty, peeling. Every corner had a chiaroscuro of blood-red paan stains. Despite their grand scale, the corridors were dark and musty and poorly lit, with the illumination from the windows and ventilators truncated by dirt and furniture.". Further it goes ahead and talk about the most selling bestseller as "I had read in the hand-stapled, one-rupee novellas of Mastram Mastana that regularly ignited onanistic mayhem in the back benches. Every boy in the Hindi belt had dirtied his hands on Mastram.".

Most of the time language is crude, used in daily life. Many a times full of abuses, slangs, lingos popular in north-India and bad words of'course which are widely used but not in living rooms . Once in every two pages you'll come across such words. But in fact, this is the way a normal life goes on in northern part of India. "She looked at me, challenging, demanding. I said, 'Salli randi!'". It goes on with"All I told her was that the investors were friends of Jai, and I had christened them Chutiya-Nandan-Pandey.".

Books take us through the rough, dark, depressing, dingy, groaned life of the Police yet it also shows us the pitiable life police-men are living. It's start with showing a sub-inspector's life who is six month away from his retirement. He says showing limited power he has "We do what those above us in the department tell us to do. And they do what those above them tell them to do. And what they tell us is not always right. But it's not our job to ask why.". As we go on with the story we also meet a bunch of police-men who shows us that they are the god in their arena i.e. lock-up. No one can challenge them there, not even God. "Nothing surprised the boy because he was an aficionado of Bangkok's cinema. But it certainly hurt. Shakaal was the first in, without taking off his Michael Jordan shorts; then Kumla Jogi, cackling and talking all the while; and finally the third man, who first brutally used his mouth. Later, he kneeled the boy on the edge of the table and simply would not stop."

The writing in the book is fierce which successfully nailed the target of weak police and malign politics of current time. It also genuinely portrayed the India society as a whole. This book is neither for faint-hearted nor for children for sure. I felt having a censor-board in place for books also after reading this book. Overall, the book is must read.

However it was good to read two great books back to back. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie followed by The Story of My Assassins by Tarun J. Tejpal. I wish the luck will not disperse me in hurry.

Enjoy the fragrance of rose before it fades

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 08:38:00 PST

The best part with we human being is, whole life we always crave for what we don't have and do not enjoy what we possess. Be it job (I can say this as an experience software labour), salary, car, home. As a matter of fact family too.

Yesterday I went to hospital for routine eye-checkup. As I was waiting for my turn doing nothing, I saw a father holding his 8-10 months old daughter in his arms, who must have recently learned to hold her head on her own; a weird (not so weird) thought came to my mind. "Did I hold my daughter when she was 8-10 months old". I was not able to remember that. Not that I've a bad memory but somehow I was not able to remember that. As I was having plethora of time waiting for my turn; an old saying in hindi "khali dimaag shaitan ka ghar" means mind can go wild if sit idle suited me perfectly well.

That was picture perfect scene; I really can't describe in words for sure (Thanks to my limited knowledge of English, I am no Salman Rushdie either). To hold an eight months old baby, who is too small for this big world, who doesn't have a name yet to tell, whose eyes are too small to look beyond his/her parents, whose demand is not much but just food, sleep and little care, whose skin is vulnerable for even softest towel, is just an out of the world felling. Believe me! It's not that I didn't hold my daughter when she 8 months but the time flies so fast that we can just wish for that moment to come again, but which is unfortunately not possible in present world. May be we've to wait for scientist to invent time machine.

We spent our childhood cribbing for heavy bags, class tests, exams, limited or no money to spend and dreaming to be adult as soon as possible. Didn't enjoyed really. We wasted our college days cribbing about the college, bad teachers, not enough books in library, slow internet speed, not having beautiful girls, distance of the college from city, not enough job opportunities etc. (really a long list) but we realize that those were our one of the best days of life only once we came out of the college. And suddenly we find ourselves on the wrong side on 30s remembering those old days. We still remember those 5 paise colorful toffee (orange in taste), 50 paise kulfi which we had to share because of limited money, stealing tiffin boxes, cycle races from school to home and wish to live those moments again.

We've parents whom we really don't care (hard to hear but that's true) and left in their world. We cried and wish them back when all of a sudden we hear the news that they are no more in this world. We've never thought of them when they were 2500 kms away living in this overly populated world (recently we crossed 7 billion mark as earth population) yet living alone. All of sudden we come to know that now no one exist to ask the health of ours over phone, no one exist to suggest to have a food on time, no one exist to scold about our generation, no one exist to complaint about the knee-pain of theirs, no one exist to scold the company for not giving us enough leave, no one exist who can gives blessing from the deep of their heart, no one exist who have hopes of we coming back (or going back!, confused) to their world.

Once, one of my friend admitted to me that how he miss his father now though he used to fight over small stuff when he was alive. He wanted to buy old RX-100 while his father opposed that. His father wanted him to find a job in Delhi (he got that but he hide) but he moved to Bangalore (for his girl-friend;she left him off-late). He himself feels that if you see all this from bird's-eye view, it all looks too trivial. I could have waited for the bike for some more time. I could have asked my girl-friend to stay in Delhi, but I didn't want to live my parents. I was blinded by my friends who were going to pubs, discs and posting their pictures in orkut and facebook. Nothing would have changed really when I used to go to pubs once a week rather than once in a month.

We all (including me) knows all this and I am pretty sure nothing is going to change even after writing/reading this. After all we are stupid human beings. There is no point in saying, "Start living the moment right away. Don't wait for something to happen, because that never happens". Running behind something he doesn't have is the basic nature of human. I am also doing it. But let's wait for a moment, relax, think what we have, appreciate it, enjoy it and then make afresh start again. Better enjoy the fragrance of the rose before it fades, how true!

Burden of 26/11 - II (Third Anniversary)

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:17:00 PDT

Once upon a time, Vasco de Gama came to India. That became history, which everyone aware of. Little more than five hundred years after the history was made; in 2008 a team of 11 people (not a cricket team or hockey team) came from western border of the India, without legal documents and permission. They preferred to take sea route rather than road because they felt it was safer. And that turned out the right decision for them.

Once they landed in Mumbai, for next 60 hours whole world watched massacre which happened in Mumbai. How the life itself cried for saving its own life. We saw how Taj Mahal palace was burning for 3 continuous days. There were many children, who were waiting for their parents to come back home, but they never saw them after that. Everyone noticed how TV channels made a mockery of, one of the worst attack happened in India. To me this was the most efficient (read worst) attack because of enormous death per person ratio which roughly was 164/11=14.9 in just 3 days. Of'course the financial casualty is lot more.

All of them were dead, but one of those 11 villains Ajmal Kasab was captured alive, but we had lost many of our security personal in return. But the story doesn't end there. The most tragic story begins there. It's going to be 3 year since that day, but Kasab is still alive, enjoying his worthless life. Not only alive, he is using Indian tax payers money. For the first year (26/11/2009) Kasab used our 30 crores. By 21st February 2011, he already eaten out 100 crores. And still he is using it. In fact he'll still use it till 31/01/2012 at least. That is the day of final hearing on his case.

It is an irony to see that the hard earned money of an Indian is wasted on Kasab who tried to violate our integrity, who took many lives of human being, made many children orphans. I know one day people will forget 26/11, people will forget Kasab but the question will remain, which other country would have been treated Kasab as the way we are treating?

Midnight's Children - Story Telling at its Best

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:10:00 PDT

1993 Man Booker prize winner, and Best of the Booker really deserved that. Perfectly crafted beads converted into a great story. And the way Salman tells the story is really marvelous. The story has its own turns, ups and downs but everything creates more interest than earlier. As soon as you start feeling comfortable with the story and start guessing the next, story turns and take you to whole new world of Saleem Sinai's (main character of the book) life.

Saleem Sinai, lead character of the book was used to narrate the story. He is one of the few children born at midnight, the midnight India got independence. "... On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact. Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came"........`"A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends; and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance...". His life started and get intermingled with India freedom and after; gives a colorful and first hand picture of India after independence.

With approximately 100 books in my shelf, I can say one of the best so far. Real thumbs up, a must read.

PS: For new readers, size of the book can be intimidating and tough to go through 400 pages but its worth the pain. This read will convert you in serious reader for sure.

Stars, Galaxy Images - by NASA

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:26:00 PDT

Picked some beautiful Imagesof stars, galaxies from NASA website. Enjoy!!!!

Life 24x7

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Sun, 15 May 2011 10:37:00 PDT

7:00 AM - Good Morning!!!!
8:00 AM - Daily morning chores
9:00 AM - Let's start to work
10: 30 AM - Tea time
1:00 PM - Lunch
3:30 PM - Tea again (to avoid sleep :) )
6:00 PM - A call with team in US
8:00 PM - Time to leave to home
9:30 PM - Dinner
11:00 PM - Go to bed.

A very common schedule of a software engineer in software industry. Where the heck is the time for family????

Start Smiling: It Pays To Be Happy At Work

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:40:00 PDT

NOTE: this article has been taken from www.forbes.com

For Jackie Donovan, director of marketing and merchandising at Fairway Market, coming to the office every morning is a joy, despite the long hours. Donovan manages 30 employees and fields approximately 600 e-mails every day. Although she's never worked harder in a role with "no typical hours," she's also never been happier. This happiness, she notes, trickles into her team's productivity and morale as well.

"There's a definite correlation between happiness and productivity on the team," says Donovan. Jessica Pryce-Jones, author of Happiness at Work and CEO of iOpener, says Donovan isn't alone in her assumptions.

"Happiness at work is closely correlated with greater performance and productivity as well as greater energy, better reviews, faster promotion, higher income, better health and increased happiness with life. So it's good for organizations and individuals, too". The research Pryce-Jones conducted with her team at iOpener showed the old adage is true: The happy worker really is the productive worker.

After building questionnaires, conducting focus groups and compiling results from 3,000 respondents in 79 countries, her findings proved that happiness has a distinct advantage over unhappiness. "What's the evidence that people who are happy at work have it all? The happiest employees are 180% more energized than their less content colleagues, 155% happier with their jobs, 150% happier with life, 108% more engaged and 50% more motivated. Most staggeringly, they are 50% more productive too."

The least happy workers reported spending 40% of their week doing what they're there to do, compared with happy workers, who reported spending 80% of their week on work-related tasks. "This means they are putting in only two days a week of real [work], while their happiest colleagues are doing four". Her results also showed the happiest employees taking 66% less sick leave than those who are least happy.

As for pay and promotion, Sonya Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, has researched happiness and how it pays off, showing positive outcomes when you're happier in the office. According to her faculty website, benefits of happiness include higher income and superior work outcomes (i.e., greater productivity and higher quality of work).

Pryce-Jones adds, "People who are at the top of organizations are significantly happier--about 20%--in all our key indicators like goal achievement, resilience, motivation and confidence". On the other hand, if you're unhappy, you'll be "less creative, less able to solve problems, and you're likely to be spreading your misery too."

Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project, refers to this as "emotional contagion" by which people can catch the happy, sad or angry moods of others. A happy employee will boost the mood of his or her colleagues so it makes sense that "happy people are good for teams." This is "particularly important when that person is engaged with customers, clients, patients or a work team."

A Happy Worker is a Productive Worker
Of course, not everyone can work within the confines of a 9-to-5 schedule, and in instances like this, a little flexibility can go a long way. For Ford employees Julie Rocco and Julie Levine, flexible arrangements like job sharing add to their happiness quotient. As managers of the Ford Explorer, "the Julies" each work from home two days a week and in the office on Wednesdays.

Rocco, the mother of a three-year-old son, says, "The job-share arrangement enables me to be 100% program manager on the days I'm at work, and 100% mommy on the days I am home." "I think that happy and fulfilled people are far more efficient and productive. They can be focused and deliver without the distractions of guilt or regret."

Such productivity is a boon for Ford, notes author Pryce-Jones. "The happiest employees focus 80% of their time at work on what they are there to do; the least happy only 40% of their time. That's a difference of more than two days a week per person, so you definitely don't want unhappy workers in your team."

Salaries Don't Buy Happiness
Job arrangements aside, a 2007 University of Chicago study revealed that the happiest occupations are not necessarily the highest-paying.

Sandra Naiman, the author of The High Achiever's Secret Codebook: The Unwritten Rules for Success at Work, points out that many of these happiest occupations, including special education teachers and actors, involve interaction with others and the majority of them provide a service.

For instance, for Elizabeth Kemp, chair of the acting department at the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University, happiness at work is all in the creativity. "One is an artist not for fame or fortune, but for love and passion. I am always in the work, whether teaching, coaching or directing."

Vinjaya Selvaraju, on-air presenter and blogger for ProjectExplorer.org, says that her collaborative work environment adds to her happiness. "Working in a collaborative environment means being able to share my ideas openly without judgment, and being able to see how my contributions help shape the outcome of the series. I wake up every morning excited to work, and go to bed every night anxious to get up and do it all over again."

Ultimately this sense of happiness will boost your magnetism and increase the recognition you receive for your work. Pryce-Jones remarks, "Who wants to work with a pessimist? Everyone is drawn to energy naturally, and that's because it's a secret indicator. People who are happiest at work have 180% more energy than their least happy colleagues." And that definitely translates into increased productivity.

My 2 cents to Management & Managers

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:15:00 PDT

Can we think of a large company with just top management and technical geeks? Not exactly. That's why middle-level management is needed. This is the most important link between everyone in the company, and companies can't afford to have this link weak. So, what makes this link strong. Any magical formula; yes/no/can't say? But there are some qualities which managers can have to be strong link.

More than just Professional Relationship: Empathy is the key. It's not always professional problems, but personal problems also due to which employee feel dejected. Listening to the problems, appropriate response, respect to personal values are some of the key behavior to posses. At least in Indian context, manager should have friendly relationship with the employees.

Do Follow Favourism: Sometime, rather all of the time favourism gets bad name among people. But I must say that managers should favour his team. He should support his team no matter what. But there is thin line favouring a team and favouring individuals within it. It should not the case where manager is discriminating among team-members.

Planning is the Key: As I mentioned in my earlier blog, planning is always one of the key to success. Planning helps one to forsee the issues earlier in the cycle, which in turn gives more time to solve them. And who doesn't know that "Time is Money"?

Journey or Destiny

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:05:00 PDT

New day, new ideas, new work, new regrets, new friends. This is my journey and journey of most of us too. Everyday I put one step ahead in believe that it will bring me near to my destiny. But where is that???? They say, God created us and everyone in this world has their own destiny. But what is that destiny? When will we reach there? No one knows, even the best mind.

As most of us do, I also believe in destiny. But what is the use of destiny, when you can't enjoy the beauty of journey. In the hurry to reach there, if we don't appreciate the process, the path, the journey, the fellow travelers then what's the point in reaching there.

In our college days, not a single day passed without cribbing about the pathetic situation of the college, remote location, not-so-good faculty and so on so forth. But now I feel that in hurry to complete 4 years from our college, we missed the best part of those days. The serenity of the place. The beauty of the the hills. The view of the snow covered mountains. Now we miss the beauty of the place and die to go back, but is in vain. We have already ignored our journey.

This also can be referred

But that's the way world works. And being the part of the system, you are bound to do it, even unknowingly. Everybody knows Graham Bell invented the telephone, but they don't know how many failures he got during his journey towards telephone. Moreover, how many of us remember Elisha Gray? Everybody is so busy in looking at the results only, and that is how we consider the person successful or not.

But I decided not to follow this blindly. I decided to change. I decided to live my journey, not destiny. Yes, God has created everybody with destiny. But he also created the path which we need to follow and enjoy that. Only then, in true sense we can reach our destiny.

I am in Love

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:31:00 PDT

Unable to think anything else,
other than you these days.
I think I am in love with you.

The cleanest of the smile,
gives me new life.
Purest of the touch,
keeps me alive.
I think I am in love with you.

Those big eyes of yours',
two worlds I got.
When you show love with them,
It means a lot.
I think I am in love with you.

Now I know,
I found the love, true love.
Yes, I am in love with you,
my little sweet baby!!!!

Who Says, Stars are Uncountable?

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:34:00 PDT

Tomorrow when child will look towards the sky, he will wonder why people from our generation said that stars are uncountable? Children will discuss among themselves that there are 55 or 73 stars. One lucky child might say, "No, I've counted 127 stars in the sky".

I remember my childhood days when we used to go for a walk after dinner, we used to count the number of stars. Even after many tries we couldn't get pass through. Now if I see, hardly I can manage to find around 40-50 stars in the sky. The bright one may be 4-5 only.

This is combined effort of nothing but a metro phenomenon. We are growing in cities and villages are shrinking. Our cities also getting filled with pollution, either it is harmful gases coming out of vehicles, factories or dirt due to some construction going.

Today, we are ignorant to very basic thing i.e. whatever we have right now, it's our duty to pass on to next generation as is if not better. The time is not so far when the poem will be:

Twinkle, twinkle, where are the stars,
How I wonder where you are?
Up above the world so high,
Nothing is there in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
I was waiting for little light,
But couldn't get all the night.

I am awake(zen story)

noreply@blogger.com (Atul XYZ) — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:25:00 PDT

I am Awake...

“It is said that when Buddha was first Enlightened he was asked,
“Are you a God?”
“No,” he replied.
“Are you a saint?”
“No.”
“Then what are you?”

And he answered, “I am awake.” “

The Great Crossing

The Buddha said:

“A man beginning a long journey sees ahead a vast body of water. There is neither boat nor bridge. To escape the dangers of his present location, he constructs a raft of grass and branches. When he reaches the other side he realizes how useful the raft was and wonders if he should hoist it on his back and carry it with him forever. Now if he did this, would he be wise? Or, having crossed to safety, should he place the raft in a high dry location for someone else to use? This is the way I have taught the Dharma, the doctrine – for crossing, not for keeping. Cast aside every proper state of mind, oh monks – much less wrong ones – and remember well to leave the raft behind.”

I'll be No More Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:49:00 PDT

Leelavati an elderly rather old and fragile lady. Lying on her bed as if just waiting for death to embrace her and take all her pain away. Without a blink, her eyes are stuck to the fan on the ceiling; perhaps to say thanks for its support and the comfort it provided throughout her life. Neither her pale face shows any expression nor her ears bothered of the annoying noise from fan. The fan too, old enough to hardly push air where leelavati is lying in the corner of the small room.

As her only son Manoj opened the door to leave for the work, she winced and said,"Take me to the bank". Manoj irritatedly replied,"Mother, these are the days we earn more due to the overtime we are getting", sighed and baffled,"Once the stadium will be constructed completely for commonwealth games, I will take you to wherever you want, but right now don't disturb me". Suddenly, from no where he lost his temper and continued,"You do not do anything other than lying there and eating. You disturb other also by your non-sense demands. But I've to go for work to earn living."

This has broken her heart. She never expected these words from her son and hardly managed to skip her tears. She wanted to say that all her life she worked hard as domestic servant only for him. She thought that he can't even imagine how it is like to grow a son without father. She could have married to someone else but didn't. But still keeping her calm she said,"It's been 7 days I am unable to even get up from the bed. I know I am going to die today". She added,"Tomorrow you have to pay money for my last rituals and unnecessary you have to suffer to get money from the bank account once I am no more".

"I will not be here tomorrow. So, to help you one last time I want to go to the bank". With these final words, she stopped staring at the fan, closed her eyes. Her breath stopped and all her pain went away with her death. She is really no more as she had already said.

Language Is a Barrier

noreply@blogger.com (Atul XYZ) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:54:00 PDT

I looked into mirror. At that moment I do not know what was I looking for but I looked straight in my eyes. I bend down and washed my face again. Just then I heard a horn blaring. Ohh I looked into my watch. I was washing my face from past one hour. May be I was washing the hopelessness, the tension, the emotions from my face, but of no use. I was all ready anyway, I went out. Mohan was waving from backseat of the car, which was already packed. So I adjusted myself inside the car, greeted everyone and we set off. I started staring out of the window, until Mohan said, "Everything alright?" "Yes. Why?" I purred under my lips. "Everyone expecting your smile. Today is your best friends' wedding.", complained Mohan. "Oh Sorry. Hi everyone. I was just lost. And everyone is looking VERY nice!" Mohan is one of my good friends and I knew he was not satisfied by my answer. He felt it but was afraid to say what I was afraid to hear.

So I immersed myself into past memories again. Today was my best friend,Monica's, wedding. We were friends since I dont even remember when. Because of her name, everyday in class I use to tease her with a famous Helen number and then we use to fight. Slowly between all those fights the feeling of friendship crept in and those fights became a part of my day and we became a part of each other's life. Both of us, has been in and out of relationships but nothing shook our friendship. It grew with time. But today she was getting married and somehow I was not feeling very good about it. May be I was over-reacting or may be I was afraid that she will not be the same Monica or may be( I felt a lump in my stomach, and believe me it is a bad sign). As I was watching out of the window, the streets looked more lonely. These were the same streets where we use to roam. I mind was trying to associate everything with her and I was hopelessly forcing my mind not to do it. In no time we reached the wedding hall, Aashirwaad wedding hall.

Everyone was happy,smiling and cuddled to people they knew. As soon as we get out of the car, mohan lead us to the bride's, I mean Monica's place. As I was getting closer and closer to the place where Monica was, I was getting more and more nervous. I tied my hands together so that no one sees them trembling. I was doing my best you see. Then I saw her. She was standing on the porch, heavy with the bridal dress. I had never imagined she can look this beautiful but I was not able to take my eyes off her. She saw us, smiled and then she spotted me(I was at the end of the trail) and her smile faded a little bit. Although she maintained a part of it. Then one by one we wished her, I was the last. I wanted to say many typical things like congratulations, best of luck blah blah blah. But at the very last moment I lost my words, I forgot everything and was just staring at her face. Then Mohan dragged me away. We stood for a group photo. Then when no one was looking I left. I went out on the road, and walked towards my home. I realized Language is a barrier when it comes to love. We both waited for each other to speak the words for the feeling that was deep inside us. If only we have read each other emotions. I sat down on a milestone on the side of the road. A tear trickled down my eyes. I should have done this earlier, may be tears will wash off the emotions from my face.

P.S. : If you have not seen a north Indian wedding, you have not seen an Indian marriage at all(this is for foreigners :).). In an Indian marriage,specially North Indian, there will be a huge number of people of every age and they will be divided in groups. Old people will be sitting a corner discussing national issues or sometimes someone's household issues too. Elderly women will only discuss household issues. Young women will either be around bride or in between boys ;). Boys will be either drinking,dancing or flirting :).

Earth Hour - Any Sense?

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:02:00 PDT

Switching off lights between 8:30 and 9:30 PM!!!! Will it make any difference? No! if you are the only one to do it. But yes, if you'd be able to convince one more person to do it and of'course you do it yourself too.

Individually it might not affect anything but think when many people like you will do the same. Actually, Earth Hour is to create awareness among the people, so they can take this forward in there daily lives. Then it will really make a difference.

There is no point in discussing global warming and similar issues here. Much has been already said about it. But believe me, it's reality and standing on our faces. Call it ignorance or logic, but even now many (rather most of us) think that this is just an hype created and nothing is happening.

But I feel it is cruel but truth. Just take an example, there was not distant past when we never used to buy water but what's the situation now? We are buying the water not only for drinking but also for our daily usage (Remember, water tanks coming in daily in the morning!!!!).

Early, the better if we realize that we gotta do something about it. Everyone has to come together and pitch in. There is no time left to ignore it anymore for anyone.

2009 - Revisit

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:29:00 PST

Today is the very last of the year 2009. It's time to say bye-bye 2009 and also a time to revisit the incidents which had huge impact in our lives. Everyone will have their own list but here I am trying to compile a list of top 5 events which made huge impact without being partial. Here it is:

1. Rise of Rahul Gandhi and Congress: 2009 will be the witness of rising of Rahul Gandhi, the Nehru-Gandhi scion and Congress as a party. The general election 2009 outcome was a pleasant surprise when congress won 207 seats and made it possible for Congress to create government at centre on it own terms. It is not small that madam Maywati see him (Rahul Gandhi) as a threat for her political career. Rahul Gandhi is picture perfect of young Bharat and he will definitely impact our lives and take our future in newer and better direction.

2. Drought: Last year sugar was 20 Rs./Kg and this year it's at 40 Rs./Kg is one of the most common statement we are listening nowadays. Not only sugar but the prices of all the food items have skyrocketed and still going up. This is the end result of the drought in most of the parts of Bharat this year. You can get the fair idea of seriousness of the situation by knowing that this was the worst drought in last 37 years.

3. Pay per second: When earlier this year TATA-DOCOMO has launched per second billing, it created a revolution in Bharatiya telecom industry. Existing players were shaken to the core. Telecom Industry in Bharat was having least billing rate in the world even without per second billing. At that time no one even thought of going it down further. But with almost 50% cut in telephone bills people in Bharat are definitely talking more. That is why we are saying "Eat less Talk more".

4. H1N1: Also known as Swine Flu in general language. This was the virus which came from Pigs. Till now there are 10K death around the globe by this virus and the toll is still growing. Though it made less impact in Bharat as compare to other countries but it had definitely impact our lives this year. There was a time when in media, every news was of Swine Flu. We literally craved for some news other than Swine Flu. People using mask (sugical mask - which was not helpful) was a very common sight in malls, multiplexes, and at every common place.

5. Roller Coaster Ride of Sensex: This is not the event in itself really, but the result of all events happened throughout the year. But it has definitely made impact on people lives so giving it place in my list. Most (read all) of the finance BigBs were negative on the share market until February, 2009 when the market took a complete U-turn and going North since then. Till February experts were skeptical of reaching to even 12K mark. They were saying that it could down upto 5000 odd level. But the fact is when everybody seems to be confident of the situation, share market always unfold some new story.

With this, it's time to bid adieu 2009 and welcome 2010. May this year our live will full of good energy and all our wishes come true. Amen.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!

Now my complaint will also be FIR

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:51:00 PST

As per today's news Union Home ministry will write to all the states to register all the complaints as FIR. Till now if you go to police station to report the theft case (which is of not much amount) at your home, they never used to write any FIR for that. Moreover, everyone knows how the India police works as far as complaints are concern.

They use to tell us to write a complaint on white paper and give it to them. That's it. No follow ups, no tracking of the record. Many people might have same story.

But not any more, police has to take all the complaints as FIR. And frivolous, incorrect and false FIRs can be rejected by the police after investigation as said by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

I really appreciate the move. Many more steps to be taken Mr. PC.

What's you take on the issue, let others also know. So, do write comments :)

What's Your Resolution - 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 08:43:00 PST

One of the most hot topics these days is about the New Year Resolution. It's always good to take a new start. And 1st January gives a great opportunity to take first step towards that change. It's like rejuvenating your mind and soul before year long run. Everybody is busy in preparing a list of do's and dont's for the year 2010. Some of the hot favourites are:
1. Lose Weight
2. Stop Smoking/Drinking
3. Better Time-Management
4. Save/Earn more Money
5. Find better Job

So, Have I made new year resolution this time? NO!!!! Because somehow I am not convinced with the theory of new year resolution or may be I've rejected it after believing and trying so hard for many years. Good to make a plan in advance but I prefer flexibility of changing my deeds according to the situation. And anyways my past history also does not suggest me to do so. Yes,I had made many plans in past. Some of them definitely got successful but most of them were lost half way through.

But I definitely think of one thing not only as new year resolution but as a daily resolution for myself to be a better Human. This is subjective and vague in nature but still I'll go with this.

So, what's your resolution for the new year. Share with us. May be it'll help others in planning.

In case you do not hear from me in 2009, Wish You Folks Very Happy New Year!!!!

Hindutva - Common Man Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:10:00 PST

Disclaimer: I am not a subject matter expert on Hinduism. I am sharing my perceptions about the same. I am sorry, if I hurt anyone's sentiments.

What is Hinduism, who is Hindu, How it like to be a follower of Hindutva? There are many such questions which come to mind every other day but do not get proper answers (I do not want to get the answer from so-called Hindu Gurus also). I've seen people who follow proper Hindu rituals but quite ignorant to the blind person on road who wants to cross the road. It's very common to see a person (including me) who calls themselves Hindu without knowing ABC of Hinduism. I've never read any book on the subject, I am ignorant to the history of the subject yet I called myself Hindu.

But still I am one level above of the mass (who never give it a thought in their whole lifespan) where I thought about it and created my own version of Hindutva based on whatever little information (Thanks to television and my Hindu background for the same) I have.

The bottom-line of Hindu religion, as per my opinion is love for all the Human Beings irrespective of their colour, looks, region, language, race. A single and only word "LOVE" is a core of the religion. Everything else is created upon it. I've my own points to reach to this conclusion, which are as follows.

Let's start with Lord Shiva. He is seen as the Supreme God. But how he looks? He has three eyes. Shiva smears his body with ashes. He is the one with matted hair. He is accompanied by Ganas (Boothaganas, or ghostly hosts, on account of their nature). Shiva wears a snake. Frankly speaking, I will not like a person who has not-so-well-behaved friends, do not take bath and use ashes on his body. Who does not have proper hair and the body defect of three eyes. But we still worship Shiva. I chant "Om namah Shivay" as soon as I see any temple/mosque/church/gurudwara. Why? It's because Hinduism says don't go with the looks of a person. Look at the inner heart. He has saved earth by holding Ganga in his hair. He drank the poison churned up from the world ocean. This is why we worship Shiva. This is what Hinduism says also.

Will you like a person with three heads (Yes, I am talking about Brahma), I really suspect so. Again the moral of the story is looks does not matter. We should love and respect every single human being.

Why we worship Krishna who used to steal butter, who was very much involved in eve-teasing. Who had affair with every girl in his village and nearby. Do you really like a person with such image in today's world? The answer is yet again, a BIG NO. But still people are mad about Lord Krishna.

The best is Ganehsa and Hanuman. Look wise they can't be put on normal Human Being's category. But still they have long-list of devotees.

Not only these there is a long list of Hindu God/Goddesses who has more than 2 hands, more than1 head and so on so forth still we worship them not because of there colour, looks, region, language, race but for their deeds. All the books (Vedas, Granthas) etc which are filled with similar stories directly points towards "LOVE" for everyone. And this is the only core of Hindutva.

Please let me know if you think same or otherwise. How you look at Hinduism or any religion for that matter.

Weird Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Atul XYZ) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:06:00 PST

There are times when you don't know what to write, but you do. As a result, this post. I had many things in my mind, but not now :). Lets talk about thoughts, weird ones. It’s weird how time flies by, how we forget others with time, how others want to forget us with time. It’s weird how close we feel with someone very far away and how far we feel when we are close to someone. Sometimes it feels like ages have passed away and sometimes it feels it just happened yesterday. It’s weird right? A person so close is just a contact in your address book, which even you don’t remember its there. Sometimes I just surf around my address book to check whether I am still holding on or I have moved ahead. Most of the time I find myself holding on. Hope is weird too, it assures you of something will happen or someone will come back. You hope, you wait, you dream, you live, and then one day you forget everything when the hope fades away. Have you loved someone, have you not? Do you miss a part of your life, or do you realize that part even exist? Are you brave enough to face the truth or will you just pretend to be brave to move on? It will not matter after sometime. But it’s okay, this is life. It moves on, so do we, so does everyone. What we can do is, to be grateful for what happened, and LEARN. At the most, we can remember as long as we can because even if we do move on or forget, what we experienced(or felt) at the very moment was real/true, even if it was for once.

Lately I realized my loneliness has slowly and steadily changed into solitude. You might ask what is the difference? But that you can realize only if you have been through these phases. I can only tell you what I have realized. So, when you are alone and you fear to be alone again, that is loneliness. As Mother Teresa said “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.”. Now what this fear can lead you to? By affect of this fear, you try very hard to avoid being on your own, so you either trap yourself in an unfulfilled relationship by pursuing a wrong person or you do other weird things too :). My Loneliness has transformed into solitude. In words of Alfred Polgar , “When everyone leaves you it’s loneliness you feel, when you leave everyone else it’s solitude.” So now I enjoy being alone.

P.S. : To readers, so when did you last surfed you address book and found a contact which was once very important to you? And is your loneliness still a loneliness or solitude?

-- Atul

The writing here is solely a fictional work of Atul Rawat.

Nonexistence of Human Being Yet Fake Egos

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:10:00 PST

Yesterday I was going through an old family photo album and saw myself in a snap with The Great Himalayas in the background. I was looking at the snap and noticed that I was looking very small in front of those peaks. And I don't know how the mind went towards the question of my existence in this world? Suddenly I started feeling very light.

The thought process reminded me the mail in which the comparison of our earth and some of the biggest stars and galaxy itself was portrayed. Our earth was looking like a tiny dot in front of the bigger stars. As compare to the size of galaxy, our earth is no-where. Take one step upwards and just think of millions of galaxies. Thinking about the vastness was like a conundrum to me. All of us know that human mind is a superpower. It can think beyond our expectations but the universe is spread beyond that.

An interesting data I want to quote here is, As a guide to the relative physical scale of the Milky Way, if it were reduced to 10m in diameter, the Solar System, including the Oort cloud, would be no more than 0.1mm in width (0.001%), source Wikipedia. People say one picture is worth of thousand word. So just watch this video and decide where we really stand?

Let's come back to the human form. If we try to see ourselves in the same scale, we would not be able to see ourselves. But the way we are living in this world and doing all types of nuisance, it looks as if we are superior to everything else. To satisfy our false ego we are fighting with each other, wasting all our resources, energy, power, time in maligning other person, country, and even race. When we are in a city, we fight for our blocks. When we talk in a state level platform we think only till our city limits. Then at next higher level, we talk about states, so called culture, languages which will not have any meaning once we are out of this world. Then at the next level we say that I am American, I am Bhartiya, I am from Africa and so on so forth. And within all this we keep fighting based on our race, caste, religion, origin.

How many of us can be so sure that our forefathers were of the same race, religion or the same caste and belong to the same place where we are living right now? Just take any history books and you'll get an fair idea that how frequently people changed (by their own wish or forcefully) their religion and places. Even then if we feel that we are so called pure blood then, I can only laugh at you.

We spend most of our lives in satisfying our fake egos rather than doing something "bigger and better". That "bigger and better" can be anything. I'll leave this to you to decide what can be the "bigger and better" means to you. I believe every living being in the universe has it's own purpose of living for which only, we take birth. And if we do not work towards that purpose, we are not only trying to make ourselves fool but also cheating to our respective GODs (or the power in which everyone believes).

Happiness is Easy : If you look around :)

noreply@blogger.com (Atul XYZ) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:18:00 PST

If you will look around, you’ll see where you can find happiness. Don’t ever look at me. I smile without any reasons and I do have a whole stack of PJ’s for which my loved ones despise me :P. So as the day began I realized it’s not too hard to squeeze happiness out of the moments. I observed and what I found was amazing.

1st Smile: The first one who smiled was me. While I was going to office I saw a girl waking up at 11 O’clock. She just opened the door and the first face she saw was of me. She smiled I smiled back. (Am I a clown? No, need to answer please.)

2nd Smile: I like watching out of window while I travel to office. I saw a kid running behind other. They were both laughing. Happiness is easy you see.

3rd Smile: A college couple holding their hands. They were both talking and smiling. The thing about being in love is you Smile even when you are alone. Isn’t it amazing?

4th Smile: I reached office and everyone was smiling. Okay now this is a professional smile but anyway we smiled.

5th Smile: I was taking a break and a half paralyzed old man asked where Dr. X and Dr. Y are? He was smiling constantly. I asked him twice what he was saying? I was lost in his smile. This is amazing again. People, who somehow are incapable, make up with things which capable people find difficult. How hard is smiling you capable people?

6th Smile: While coming back to home, I was listening songs on my mobile headphone and making weird noises which I call my singing talent. Two kids in front of start giggling and soon they were laughing, smiling and singing and of course teasing me. Yeah I am a clown, officially now. Although, I doubt they even know any word in Hindi. But the song they were singing was “Aashiq Banaya Aapne”. Himesh, there is nowhere escaping you:(.
Since the time I started my day to the end of it there were many instances where I saw and felt happiness. You see happiness is not that much difficult? Just look around and feel. Don’t think you are confused, you are just inquisitive.

-- Atul

The writing here is solely a fictional work of Atul Rawat. Any resemblance to any person living or dead or any event is purely co-incidental.

Magic Of Love - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Atul XYZ) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:13:00 PST

I was reading a quote about love and told 1 of my friend about it. She immediately stopped doing whatever she was doing and the first thing she did was to forward that quote to one she loved. That was then I thought about the Magic Of love. Is not it amazing? You hear something and the picture of someone appears before you instantly. It's very hard to explain what you feel when you are in Love. For me its impossible because I never fell in love with anyone fortunately and unfortunately. But whatever I’ve heard from people around me (like this friend of mine) I will tell you. And also about the longing which I feel sometimes.

1. 1 of my friend told me, when you are in love small things add up to one magical world. I don't know what he meant at that time because those talks really bored me at those times and above all he was a shit-head(oops). But now I realize what that fool means. He wanted to tell me that everything seems to be special when you are in love. I remembered him ordering 2 glasses of juice in mess all times, the 1 that he drinks was paid by her and vice versa. He use to find reasons to show his love and surprisingly that senseless gal use to do same. I saw him watching intently towards her room in girls hostel. Fortunately for him girls hostel was close enough to have a clear vision ;). But his reason was love. For him love has created a magical world out of small things.

2. He was weird/philosophical but 1 thing that made him common was love. He was a different species of lovers, the one sided ones. And the amazing part was he was happy. Just being in touch with her made him happy. I saw sparks flowing out of his eyes whenever he saw her, talked with her. He often told me “when you are in love, everything seems fine. World is a better place.” I use to wonder how. Now I realize how. Whenever he was angry, he reached to her and everything was fine. Whenever he was sad, he talked to her and everything was fine. Everything about world was fine because she was the part of his world. In fact she was his world I guess. Fortunately she also realized that, although after 1 boyfriend, but they are living happily. An ideal example of “Love will find its way”:).

3. He was the one whom I least suspected will fall in love. He was a looser(Although lesser than me since he at least got 1). But someone once told me “Love transforms and if its true, it does that for good.” He just sat with a girl once in class. She realized he was a looser because somehow he is not able to understand things being taught in class. And the reason was he was not from an English medium. Most of girls will never entertain such a guy. But she did. She explained her everything, sometimes more than required ;) .(You dirty minds.) And he started doing wonders. This was the first time I have seen love growing. It was not for looks, it was for two souls destined to converge into one.
Continued…

-- Atul

The writing here is solely a fictional work of Atul Rawat. Any resemblance to any person living or dead or any event is purely co-incidental.

CAT 2009 - Hard to Catch

noreply@blogger.com (Pawan B.) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:20:00 PST

CAT, One of the biggest exams in country conducted by IIMs most reputed institute for business studies. But 2009 is the different year for CAT exams. This year CAT went online. And the contract went to Prometric, renowned name in online test. And it cost whopping $40 billion to IIMs.

This year since the online system went on air, it went down. It cost several futures. Several years of preparation went in vain for many candidates. It created havoc all over the country when those systems are still not working fine even after 4 days. But who will take responsibility for that. Prometric just happily said that it happened due to virus. But is it not a responsibility of Prometric that it should have conducted thorough test of the system before opening it for students? The students who did not get the chance to give exams are still in better situation because they got new dates but what about those students who have completed all the sections of the paper but at last, system said your DI section is not completed and time remaining is just 15 minutes.

Here, I tried to find some feedback on Prometric's online test system. This link tells that the user had a problem with Prometric, but even after 2 months it did not get resolved. In another instance we can get the fair idea of the horrible experience with Prometric systems.

Every system has it's own drawback and the problems are natural to have. But when there are so many stake holders involved, many years of hard work are at stake, is it not the responsibility of respective authorities to make sure that system works fine even in the worst scenarios? They should have done many round of testing before opening it for CAT aspirants.

The Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Atul XYZ) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:53:00 PST

It was the 1st time since he proposed her, that he was holding her hands and was so close to her. As soon as they went out, it started raining heavily. So to run for a shelter,he caught her palm but did not let go even when they reached to the shelter. He felt her hands were still warm. After a minute of observing the moment, he said ” Do you know, it was raining that day too, when I first talked to you.”

“Yes I do.”

“What ? So why were you so cold towards me back then. I thought you don’t even know me. “

“I am a girl. I wanted to be sure.”

After a minute’s silence, she said “Do you know, when I saw you for the first time, I believed we will be in love someday? “

“Yes I do.”

“Huh?”

“That was why I was running around you. It was love I knew.”

They remained there for a while even when the rain stopped, staring blankly in the darkness feeling the light that was in their hearts.

- Atul

The writing here is solely a fictional work of Atul Rawat. Any resemblance to any person living or dead or any event is purely co-incidental.