Simply Govind

Book Review - Pratigya by Premchand

2026-08-20T03:38:49.027-07:00

Book 18/2026

सच्ची प्रगतिशीलता का मुखौटा और आज का समाज: क्यों आज भी प्रासंगिक है प्रेमचंद की 'प्रतिज्ञा'

स्कूल के दिनों से ही जब भी मैं प्रेमचंद, जयशंकर प्रसाद, रवींद्रनाथ टैगोर और शरतचंद्र जैसे कालजयी लेखकों को पढ़ता था, तो उनकी लेखनी और किरदारों की गहराई मेरे दिलो-दिमाग पर एक अमिट छाप छोड़ जाती थी। चाहे टैगोर का 'गोरा' हो, शरतचंद्र का कोई उपन्यास हो, या फिर प्रेमचंद का 'गोदान', 'रंगभूमि', 'कफ़न' और 'निर्मला'—इन कहानियों के पात्रों में मैंने हमेशा खुद को कहीं न कहीं जुड़ा हुआ पाया। बचपन की वह साहित्यिक रुचि समय के साथ थोड़ी पीछे छूट गई थी, लेकिन हाल ही में जब मैंने ऑडिबल (Audible) पर इन कहानियों को दोबारा सुनना शुरू किया, तो वे पुरानी यादें फिर से ताज़ा हो गईं।

इसी सिलसिले में जब मैंने प्रेमचंद के उपन्यास 'प्रतिज्ञा' को दोबारा सुना, तो मैं दंग रह गया। मुझे यह उपन्यास उनके ही एक अन्य प्रसिद्ध उपन्यास 'निर्मला' से काफी जुड़ा हुआ महसूस हुआ, जहाँ नारी जीवन की विवशताओं को बहुत गहराई से उकेरा गया है। आज जब मैं एक परिपक्व नज़रिए से 'प्रतिज्ञा' के किरदारों का विश्लेषण करता हूँ, तो मुझे अहसास होता है कि ये सिर्फ एक सदी पुराने पन्नों के चरित्र नहीं हैं; बल्कि आज भी हमारे आस-पास जीते-जागते कई लोग बिल्कुल इन्हीं किरदारों जैसे हैं। आज के तथाकथित आधुनिक समाज में भी एक अकेली महिला (चाहे वह विधवा हो, तलाकशुदा हो, या सिंगल मदर हो) का जीवन कितना कठिन है, यह बात इस उपन्यास के पात्रों को देखकर साफ समझ आती है।

'प्रतिज्ञा' के पात्रों का गहन विश्लेषण और मेरा आत्म-मूल्यांकन

१. कमलाप्रसाद: छद्म-प्रगतिशीलता का आधुनिक चेहरा

कमलाप्रसाद उपन्यास का वह नकारात्मक पात्र है जो अपनी वासना और स्वार्थ को छिपाने के लिए 'गांधर्व विवाह', 'ईश्वरीय इच्छा' और 'प्रेम की स्वतंत्रता' जैसे ऊंचे दार्शनिक तर्कों का सहारा लेता है। उसका असल मकसद एक बेसहारा महिला की लाचारी का फायदा उठाना है।

इस पात्र ने मुझे कैसे प्रभावित किया: कमलाप्रसाद के चरित्र ने मुझे यह सोचने पर मजबूर किया कि आज के दौर में हमारे आस-पास ऐसे लोगों की संख्या बहुत बढ़ गई है। आज का आधुनिक पुरुष सोशल मीडिया पर महिला सशक्तिकरण और रूढ़ियों को तोड़ने की बड़ी-बड़ी बातें आसानी से कर लेता है। लेकिन जब उसके सामने वास्तव में कोई अकेली, संकट में फंसी या भावनात्मक रूप से टूटी हुई महिला आती है, तो वह उसे सहारा देने के बहाने उसकी मजबूरी को एक 'अवसर' (Opportunity) की तरह देखने लगता है। इस पात्र को देखकर मैंने समझा कि किसी की मदद करते समय अपनी नीयत को पूरी तरह साफ़, निस्वार्थ और किसी भी गुप्त एजेंडे से मुक्त रखना ही सच्ची इंसानियत है।

२. अमृतराय: आदर्श और सच्ची सहानुभूति के प्रतीक

अमृतराय उपन्यास के नायक हैं जो एक विधुर हैं। वे समाज सुधार के लिए एक विधवा से विवाह करने की दृढ़ प्रतिज्ञा लेते हैं। वे केवल बातें नहीं करते, बल्कि रूढ़िवादी समाज और अपने करीबियों के भारी विरोध के बावजूद अपने सिद्धांतों पर अडिग रहते हैं।

इस पात्र ने मुझे कैसे प्रभावित किया: अमृतराय ने मुझे सिखाया कि समाज को बदलने के लिए सबसे पहले खुद को दांव पर लगाना पड़ता है। आज के दौर में जहाँ लोग दूसरों की मुसीबत देखकर केवल तमाशा देखते हैं, वहाँ अमृतराय जैसा चरित्र हमें सिखाता है कि किसी कमज़ोर व्यक्ति के साथ बिना किसी स्वार्थ के खड़े होना क्या होता है। उनका चरित्र मुझे एक ऐसा इंसान बनने की प्रेरणा देता है जो किसी असहाय व्यक्ति को समाज से डराने के बजाय उसे अपने पैरों पर खड़ा होने में मदद करे।

३. पूर्णा: विवशता, संघर्ष और आत्मसम्मान की आवाज़

पूर्णा एक अनाथ और बेसहारा विधवा है जो समाज की क्रूरता और कमलाप्रसाद के मानसिक शोषण का सामना करती है। तमाम अभावों और अकेलेपन के बावजूद वह अपने आत्मसम्मान को नहीं खोती और कमलाप्रसाद के प्रलोभनों को ठुकरा देती है।

इस पात्र ने मुझे कैसे प्रभावित किया: पूर्णा का चरित्र आज की उन हज़ारों विधवा, तलाकशुदा या सिंगल मदर महिलाओं का प्रतिनिधित्व करता है जो समाज के तानों और पुरुषों की विकृत नज़रों के बीच रोज़ जीती हैं। उसने मुझे यह अहसास कराया कि एक अकेली महिला कितनी मानसिक पीड़ा से गुज़रती है। जब कोई महिला संकट में होती है, तो वह बहुत भावुक और कमज़ोर होती है; ऐसे समय में उसका फायदा उठाना सबसे बड़ा पाप है। पूर्णा के संघर्ष ने मुझे सिखाया कि एक सच्चे पुरुष का कर्तव्य ऐसी महिला की गरिमा और आत्मसम्मान की रक्षा करना है, न कि उसे अपनी शर्तों पर झुकाना।

४. दाननाथ: समाज के डर से समझौते करने वाला आम आदमी

दाननाथ पहले अमृतराय का पक्का दोस्त और उनके विचारों का समर्थक होता है। लेकिन जैसे ही समाज का दबाव बढ़ता है और परिस्थितियाँ बदलती हैं, वह अपने कदम पीछे खींच लेता है और अपने मित्र का ही विरोधी बन जाता है।

इस पात्र ने मुझे कैसे प्रभावित किया: दाननाथ के चरित्र ने मुझे समाज के एक बहुत बड़े कड़वे सच से रूबरू कराया। हमारे आस-पास ऐसे बहुत से लोग हैं जो निजी बातचीत में तो बड़ी प्रगतिशील बातें करते हैं, लेकिन जब समाज के सामने स्टैंड (Stand) लेने की बात आती है, तो वे डरकर रूढ़ियों के आगे घुटने टेक देते हैं। दाननाथ ने मुझे सिखाया कि जो व्यक्ति मुश्किल समय में समाज के डर से आपका साथ छोड़ दे, वह सबसे खतरनाक होता है। यह चरित्र मुझे अपने फैसलों में दृढ़ और संकट के समय अपनों के प्रति वफ़ादार रहना सिखाता है।

५. प्रेमा और सुधा: भारतीय नारी की समझदारी और त्याग

प्रेमा और सुधा जैसी महिला पात्र उपन्यास में उस समझदारी, सहनशीलता और सेवाभाव को दर्शाती हैं जो भारतीय समाज की असली ताकत हैं। वे विपरीत परिस्थितियों में भी अपने नैतिक मूल्यों का साथ नहीं छोड़तीं।

इन पात्रों ने मुझे कैसे प्रभावित किया: इन चरित्रों ने मुझे यह समझने में मदद की कि महिलाएँ पुरुषों की तुलना में कितनी अधिक मानसिक परिपक्वता और गरिमा रखती हैं। वे पुरुषों की बनाई सामाजिक विकृतियों को सहती भी हैं और मर्यादाओं को जोड़े रखने का काम भी करती हैं। इनसे मैंने सीखा कि महिलाओं की आंतरिक शक्ति का हमेशा सम्मान किया जाना चाहिए।

आज इस उपन्यास को पढ़ना क्यों ज़रूरी है?

मेरी नज़र में, 'प्रतिज्ञा' केवल एक बीते हुए दौर की कहानी नहीं है, बल्कि यह हमारे आज के समाज का एक कड़वा आईना है। लोगों को, विशेषकर आज के युवाओं और पुरुषों को यह उपन्यास ज़रूर पढ़ना या सुनना चाहिए, ताकि वे तीन बुनियादी बातें समझ सकें:

सच्ची मदद और शोषण का अंतर: किसी मजबूर व्यक्ति को उसके कानूनी और सामाजिक अधिकारों के प्रति जागरूक करना, उसे आत्मनिर्भर बनाना सच्ची इंसानियत है। इसके विपरीत, उसकी मजबूरी का फायदा उठाकर उसे भावनात्मक रूप से अपने ऊपर निर्भर बना लेना 'कमलाप्रसाद' का पाखंड है।
सहमति और सम्मान की अहमियत: प्रेम या कोई भी रिश्ता केवल तभी पवित्र है जब उसमें सामने वाले की स्वतंत्र इच्छा, आपसी सहमति (Consent) और अटूट सम्मान हो, न कि उसकी लाचारी का फायदा उठाकर बुना गया कोई जाल।
नैतिकता का आत्म-मूल्यांकन: यह किताब हमें हर दिन खुद के भीतर झांकने पर मजबूर करती है कि जब हम किसी अकेली महिला के दोस्त या मददगार बनकर खड़े होते हैं, तो हमारी सीमाओं (Boundaries) और नीयत में कितनी ईमानदारी है।

निष्कर्ष
प्रेमचंद की प्रतिज्ञा हमें सिखाती है कि समाज तब तक आधुनिक नहीं हो सकता, जब तक हम अपनी मानसिकता को स्वार्थ और पाखंड से आज़ाद नहीं कर लेते। जब तक एक अकेली महिला बिना किसी डर, शोषण या सामाजिक लांछन के इस समाज में गरिमा के साथ सिर उठाकर नहीं जी सकती, तब तक हमारी हर प्रगतिशीलता केवल एक खोखला दिखावा है।

Govind

August 20, 2026

Mumbai

Movie not just a cinematic expression, they shape our thinking and form opinion- My review of Governor

2026-07-15T05:47:03.573-07:00

Image credit: Google. Copyright remains with the respective copyright owner.

The Illusion of History: Why the Movie ‘Governor’ is a Dangerous Mix of Fiction and Fact

Movies are no longer just a form of fictional entertainment or pure cinematic expression. Today, cinema has morphed into a powerful tool for shaping societal narratives, and that is precisely where the danger lies. When a film heavily blends historical reality with highly dramatized fiction—making the fiction look like absolute fact—it goes beyond storytelling. It begins to actively distort public opinion, rewording history for an audience that often takes the silver screen at face value.

Like many of you, I decided to watch the movie Governor for one sole reason: Manoj Bajpayee. Going in, I mistakenly assumed the plot would center around the tenure of Dr. C. Rangarajan. As it turned out, the film actually focuses on S. Venkitaramanan, the RBI Governor who served during the tumultuous 1991 economic crisis, while Rangarajan appears merely as his Deputy Governor.

Unfortunately, despite Bajpayee's presence, the movie completely crashed under the weight of its own execution. Thanks to painfully poor storytelling and perhaps the poorest, most uninspired music score of Amit Trivedi’s career, the film is a masterclass in how a bad producer and a bad director can damage an otherwise fascinating historical premise.

Beyond the technical flaws, however, lies a much deeper issue: Governor feels like a calculated piece of propaganda.

Rewriting the Architects of Liberalization

The core narrative of the film heavily implies that the monumental shift toward a liberalized Indian economy was championed and executed by the RBI Governor.

This is fundamentally false.

In real life, the boundaries of governance are clear. An RBI Governor can formulate and propose monetary policies, but those policies ultimately require government approval. Furthermore, securing large-scale funds from abroad and restructuring a nation’s economic framework is a monumental task that falls strictly under the purview of the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister’s Office.

The true architects of India's 1991 economic liberalization were Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The Reality: India’s foreign exchange reserves had plummeted to a critical low—barely enough to sustain two weeks of essential imports.
The Political Risk: It was the Rao-Singh administration that took the immense political gamble to dismantle the decades-old 'Licence Raj', devalue the rupee, and open India's doors to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

By shifting the credit entirely to a bureaucratic technocrat, the movie subtly robs the political leadership of that era of their defining historical legacy.

Sinking into Subtle Narrative Building

The director's ideological bias isn't even subtle; it slaps you in the face through forced, anachronistic symbolism.

In one sequence, the film highlights a broken, non-functional elevator inside the RBI building—a clumsy metaphor meant to represent the failure of the older system. Fast forward to the climax, and the visuals abruptly shift to sweeping shots of modern infrastructure like the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and the Vande Bharat trains. Without explicitly naming names, the movie aggressively tries to credit the current governance model for India's economic triumph, completely ignoring the linear timeline of history.

This type of narrative-setting makes complete sense once you look at the credits. The film is produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah—the mastermind behind highly polarizing films like The Kerala Story and Bastar. When a producer with that specific track record takes the wheel, a skewed historical narrative is practically bound to happen.

If there is one solitary saving grace in this film, it is Adah Sharma. Her performance here is genuinely good—markedly better, more restrained, and more mature than her work in Bastar or The Kerala Story. She possesses undeniable talent and a very promising career ahead of her, provided she gets the right opportunities under the guidance of a competent director who values art over agenda.

The Danger of the Unchecked Screen

Let me be entirely transparent with you: I am not a Congress supporter, nor am I a die-hard fan of their party. In fact, once upon a time, I used to oppose the Congress party quite strongly. However, looking back objectively at India’s political trajectory, I have come to realize that despite their undeniable flaws and instances of deep-rooted corruption, they possessed a superior grip on institutional governance and administrative stability.

When movies like Governor inject massive doses of fiction into real-world turning points, a dangerous phenomenon occurs: the general public begins to accept the cinematic lie as historical truth.

My earnest appeal to you as readers is simple: never blindly believe what is being served to you. Whether it is a two-hour feature film, a 60-second Instagram Reel, or a YouTube Short coming from any side of the political spectrum—stop and question it. The visual medium is designed to manipulate your emotions, not teach you history.

We live in an age where misinformation is packaged as entertainment. Become deeply curious, develop a habit of reading actual historical accounts, and always fact-check what you see on the screen. The truth is rarely as simple—or as one-sided—as a director wants you to believe.

What are your thoughts on how modern cinema handles historical events? Let me know your perspective in the comments below, or tell me if there is another historical drama you would like me to dissect next!

Review of the book - Four Stars of Destiny by ex Army Chief Naravane

2026-02-17T05:41:00.000-08:00

SourceL FB, the copyright of the image is with the respective owner.

I’ve read the book (a draft publicly available indeed) carefully and then thought I should write a review:

After watching all the drama in the Parliament where Rahul Gandhi displayed the book Four Stars of Destiny by former Army Chief Manoj Naravane, I became curious. Is the book really controversial? Does it attack the government? Does it expose secrets?

In today’s time, stopping a book is almost impossible anyway — PDFs circulate within hours. So the only meaningful thing is: read first, react later.

Years ago I had read The Polyester Prince, and now this. I decided to take a neutral view and see what the book actually says — not what people claim it says.

What the book actually is

This is not a political book.
This is not even a war-story book.

It is a professional soldier’s life diary mixed with leadership reflections.

Across 430+ pages, General Naravane narrates:

his childhood as a service kid moving across cities and countries
NDA and regimental life
counter-insurgency operations - Government's indecisiveness
staff postings and military bureaucracy
finally — the Army Chief years during COVID and the Ladakh standoff, OROP and how Agineer scheme was diluted.

Interestingly, the foreword and praise come from people across ideological spectrum — military officers, diplomats and even politicians — which itself shows the book is not propaganda oriented.

Does the book target Congress or BJP?

No.

And that is exactly why it is being selectively quoted.

The book does not praise Congress
The book does not glorify BJP, but yes, shows the pain that how babus treat the army. It praises government where it should and question where it is due.

it shows a third reality —
How the military and political system actually function together.

Wherever necessary, it points out friction points, not blame.

Sensitive topics discussed (without sensationalism)

The author describes situations, constraints and decision-making challenges rather than accusing individuals.

1. China and Ladakh crisis

He explains how military response is not just “attack or retreat”.
There are diplomatic layers, escalation risks and global consequences.
Political indecision, caution and signalling all coexist.

This part reads less like accusation and more like:

war in modern era is negotiation backed by force

2. Bureaucracy vs Military

One of the strongest recurring themes:

soldiers plan in hours
files move in months

He explains why procurement delays, approvals and operational restrictions happen — not because someone is anti-army, but because the system is designed around risk-avoidance.

You realise:
India’s defence challenges are administrative more than battlefield.

3. Agniveer, OROP and reforms

The book neither glorifies nor rejects reforms.

Instead it shows a typical reality:

original objective of reform
how implementation changes it as per the people incompetent to make decision and kills the soul and sole purpose of Agniveer
how military adapts anyway - and that's why India cannot become another Pakistan

Very balanced — almost managerial analysis rather than emotional reaction.

The real heart of the book — Leadership

This is where the book becomes valuable even for corporate professionals.

Throughout his career he keeps noting lessons from seniors, mistakes and situations.

Some recurring themes:

Listen to your subordinates — they know ground reality
Authority without empathy breaks units
Promotions don’t make leaders, responsibility does
Crisis exposes systems, not people
Discipline is consistency, not strictness
Luck plays a role but preparedness converts luck into opportunity

He repeatedly shows he learnt more from bad commanders than good ones.

What surprised me most

The Army Chief does not write like a hero.

He writes like an observer.

He openly narrates:

confusion
uncertainty
wrong assumptions
near-career failures
administrative frustrations

You realise senior leadership is less cinematic and more human.

So why the controversy?

Because readers search for confirmation.

If someone wants anti-government lines — they’ll find them.
If someone wants pro-government lines — they’ll find them.

But the book itself is neither.

It is actually about institutional reality, not politics.

Why you should read it

Not for war stories
Not for politics

Read it if you want to understand:

how national decisions actually get made
why systems move slowly
why leadership at top is lonely
how large organisations function under uncertainty
and how professionals think without ideological filters

In short —

This book explains India more than it explains the Army.

Final view

Four Stars of Destiny is not explosive.
It is revealing.

Not revealing secrets —
Revealing processes.

After reading it, instead of anger you mostly feel perspective.

And that is probably why people react strongly —
because it removes simple narratives.

A Rare Gem in Cinema: My Experience Watching "Unko Sweater" , the best movie I watched recently

2025-12-15T01:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, on my wife Madhavi's birthday, we decided to watch a movie with the family at R City Mall in Ghatkopar. I don't find majority of the movies worth watching in a year. Out of 350+ movies made in India and Nepal combined, hardly one or two are worth spending money in the theatre. This time, after reading comments and watching trailers on Facebook, I thought "Unko Sweater" might be different. And boy, it was!

Today when VFX, auto-tune, memes, and excessive messages are used in movies, it's not worth the time, forget about money. But "Unko Sweater" is something else. It's a beautiful story set in rural Nepal, showing the link between Nepal and Nepali-speaking states like Darjeeling and Sikkim. It touches on the role of caste in Indian and Nepali society, but in a subtle way. And the love story – pure love without any nudity or high sexual content. Just innocent, heartfelt emotions.

From the beginning to the end, the movie has a strong grip on the audience. The theatre was 70% full even on a weekday. It shows rural Nepal so beautifully – the natural beauty, misty hills, village life, excellent cinematography, and completely natural acting.

youtube.com

nepalicinematheque.substack.com

english.onlinekhabar.com

Listening to the song "Kafle" from Jhuma Limbu ji was such a rare treat – pure emotion, natural expression, no auto-tune at all. It touches the heart deeply. The songs by Sujan Chapagain stand apart, far better than majority of the auto-tune, short-lived artists and singers these days.

Acting from Miruna Magar as Phool was fantastic – lively, expressive, full of depth.

meropicture.com

riotheatre.ca

english.onlinekhabar.com

Before watching, I wasn't aware of many actresses except Bhasme Don aka Bipin Karki (real name). His role as Dharanidhar Kafle made me cry at the climax. The story of a son searching for the unknown address to deliver his father's unfinished love gift – the sweater – is so touching.

meropicture.com

instagram.com

english.onlinekhabar.com

Every piece of the movie is worth enjoying. It doesn't feel boring for even a minute. Even with the second generation changing, the influence of caste is shown fabulously, without preaching.

The production house Artmandu deserves a lot of applause. I researched about them and found their other creations like Sunakhari (a beautiful tale of simple love and selfless bonding) and Teenpatey must be equally good. They focus on authentic Nepali stories with music and emotion.

facebook.com

instagram.com

facebook.com

If you're tired of commercial masala films, go watch "Unko Sweater". It's a rare movie that restores faith in good cinema. Highly recommended for family watching too! Even if you do not understand Nepali, the movie has English subtitles, trust me, you won't need even the subtitles.

Onam: Exploring the Richness of a Special Harvest Festival

2023-08-29T01:15:00.001-07:00

Onam's Wishes friends.

I am not starting my post with Happy Onam, as every Indian festival (for that matter world festival) are joyful and happy only.

One of my friends from across the border asked me to throw some light on the Onam Festival- why it is celebrated and some photos related to this. The first name that came to my mind is, my friend Rajesh Kamath. He is a friend and Guru in Indian wisdom. He always enlightens us with the detailed of each festival, so I decided to pen down this article in my limited capacity and understanding, in Rajesh Bhau's style.

In the colorful world of Indian festivals, Onam shines as a joyful celebration that links old stories with today's world. It's not just about harvesting crops; it's a way to show how people from the past and present come together. Let's uncover the story of Onam, from a long time ago to now, and see how it's more than just a festival – it's a mirror reflecting India's culture, science, and connections.

The Story Behind Onam

Onam's story is linked to our Indian state Kerala in India (Which also connect with my many Keralite friends, specially Deepa). A long time ago, there was a very good king named Mahabali. He ruled his kingdom with fairness and kindness. But one day, he had to leave and go to a different world. However, he was allowed to come back once a year, during Onam. This special visit of King Mahabali brings happiness and good things back to the land, and that's what Onam celebrates.

Celebrating in Old Times

Onam is a big celebration in Kerala and also in Tamil Nadu. It marked the end of the rainy season and the start of harvest time. In an agrarian society, People were happy because they got lots of food from their farms. They make pretty designs with flowers on the ground called 'Pookalam,' had fun dances like Kathakali, and even had exciting boat races in the water.

Celebrating Today

Today, Onam has changed a bit, but the heart of it is still the same. The festival now happens not only in Kerala but in many places across India. It lasts ten days and is full of joy. People make those flower designs, wear traditional clothes, and enjoy delicious feasts. They remember King Mahabali's goodness and the happiness he brings.

Why Onam Matters Now

Onam teaches us important things about life. It shows how good and bad times are part of life, just like the seasons. The festival's timing, during a month called Chingam, is related to the changing weather from rainy to harvest time. The big feast they have, called Onasadya, is a reminder to eat healthy and take care of the Earth.

What Onam Says About Culture and People

Onam doesn't care about differences. It's for everyone, no matter what religion you follow. This festival reminds us that people should be kind to one another and work together. Even if we're different, we can still have fun and celebrate as one big family.

How Onam would have been celebrated in undivided India if there would have been no partition?

Imagine if India and Pakistan were still one country. Places like Pakistan, where there are also farming seasons, might celebrate Onam too. People would come together, just like in India, and enjoy the good things in life. The story of King Mahabali could have connected with the people in these areas, making them feel part of the same cultural family. A Keralite family working in metros like Karachi, Dhaka, Lahore would have invited neighbours to celebrate Onam together, sharing story of Mahabali, sharing delicious food.

Conclusion

Onam is like a special bridge that takes us from the past to today. It's more than a festival – it's a lesson in how to live well, care for our world, and be together. Every year, as we celebrate Onam, we keep this special lesson alive, honoring our roots and the meaning this festival holds in our lives.

More detail about Raja (King) Bali or Mahabali

Certainly! Mahabali, also known as Maveli, is a central figure in the story behind the Onam festival. He is a legendary king in Hindu mythology and is often portrayed as a just, generous, and benevolent ruler. His story is an essential part of Onam's significance and continues to be a source of inspiration in Indian culture.

Here are some key points about Mahabali:

1. Benevolent Rule: Mahabali was considered an exemplary king who ruled his kingdom with wisdom, fairness, and kindness. His reign was characterized by a time of great prosperity and equality among his subjects.

2. Blessed by Brahmins: Mahabali's fame and success as a ruler led him to become proud. This attracted the attention of the gods, and the god Vishnu took on the form of Vamana, a Brahmin dwarf, to test Mahabali's humility.

3. Vamana's Visit: In the legend, Vamana approaches Mahabali during a grand sacrificial ritual and asks for land measured by three of his steps. Mahabali, seeing the humble Brahmin, agrees. Suddenly, Vamana transforms into a gigantic form and takes three steps that cover the entire universe.

4. Banished to the Netherworld: As a result of his promise, Mahabali's humility is revealed, but he is pushed down to the netherworld by Vamana's final step. However, due to Mahabali's virtuous rule, Vamana grants him a boon – to visit his kingdom and people once a year during the Onam festival.

5. Symbol of Benevolence: Mahabali's story embodies values of sacrifice, humility, and devotion to dharma (righteousness). He willingly gives up his power for the well-being of his people and displays an unwavering commitment to his subjects' welfare.

6. Onam's Central Theme: The return of Mahabali during Onam is symbolic of the king's benevolence and the idea that prosperity and happiness return to the land during his visit. People decorate their homes with flower carpets, prepare elaborate feasts, and engage in various cultural activities to welcome the spirit of Mahabali.

7. Cultural Legacy: The story of Mahabali is not limited to Onam celebrations; it has been passed down through generations in the form of songs, stories, and dance forms like Kathakali. His legacy has left an indelible mark on Indian culture, reminding people of the importance of humility, fairness, and compassion.

In essence, Mahabali's story in the context of Onam celebrates the spirit of giving, humility, and the deep connection between rulers and their subjects. His legacy continues to inspire individuals to uphold these virtues and contributes to the cultural richness of the festival.

True significance of Nagpanchami

2021-08-13T06:17:00.001-07:00

I was thinking to write a 2 liners post on this but then could not resist converting this into a full blog post.

Our Indian heritage and culture are rich and our every such celebrations have some connection with nature and gratitude. For some people, this is just a celebration and events. They are not.

I remember, in my childhood, my parents and family members used to make a hand sketch of snakes and used to put st sn entrance of our home with pooja, akshaya etc during Nagpanchami.

The significance of this in a smile term is, to recognize contribution of other animals in our surrounding, respecting the diversity and inclusion.

Today morning when I woke up, I found my mother is also doing the pooja and I thought to write this article.

Above snake made by my niece Sanskruti using wheat flour

My mother doing Nagpanchami Pooja

Snakes are farmers friend. They kill days and rodents destroying the crop. Nagpanchami in a way, is a way to show gratitude to snakes and also recognizing their contribution.

While writing this post, I got an article from my friends Rajesh Kamath. He always writes an article on true significance of various Indian practices and that really enlightens and educates us.

Here is the article

The True Significance of Nag and Nag Panchami

Being an agrarian economy historically, every festival in Bhaarat has a connection to agriculture. So it is, even with Nag Panchami. Nag Panchami is observed on the Shukla Paksha (waxing moon) Panchami during the Indian calendar month of Shravan. Some of the regional names of Nag Panchami Festival are Bhratru Panchami, Bishari Puja, Naga Vardhini Panchami.

Chaaturmaas, the period of four months is the period of break from agricultural activities. Within Chaaturmaas, Shravana is one of the most auspicious months. Why?

The month of Shravana is regarded as important as it marks the arrival of the southwest monsoon in India and critical to the farmer’s fortunes, and by extension, to that of its citizens’. We celebrate the auspiciousness of Shravan by way of various festivals during the month, Nag Panchami being the first of these.On the day of Nag Panchami, the idols of snake god are bathed, and serpents are offered milk, worshipped, asking for protection and blessings in return, through the country? Instead of dreading serpents, in India they are treated with reverence. But why?

The Legend

In Indian Wisdom, there lies the concept of Vyahrti Lok (Realms above Earth) and Patala Lok (Realms Below the Earth) – a total of 14 Realms or worlds. Bhur Lok, is where we live and is the first of the Realms above the ground. Patala Lok is considered to be comprised of 7 different realms where the Naga Lok (Realm of snakes) is the lowest one. This is where the Nagas preside. Nagas are considered as one of the most powerful symbols in Indian wisdom, who co-habitate our world. This is also why Lord Vishnu is found resting on the Shesh Nag, as he sustains all the realms. They also are realms of consciousness.

Legend has it that Prince Janamejaya, son of Parikshit was enraged at his father’s death caused by the King of Snakes, Takshak. In his rage, he decided to hold a ‘Sarpa Satra’ Yagna to kill Takshak, a Yagna that went on for 12 years. However Astika Muni, who pleased Janamajeya with his great oratory skills and his knowledge, managed to get a boon from the Prince, which he finally used to stop the Yagna. This was how Takshaka was saved on the 5th day of the month of Shravana, which then began to be celebrated as Nag Panchami.

In another well known story, a deadly snake Kalia had invaded and poisoned Yamuna river and wrecked havoc for people of Brindavan. Krishna, as a child Avatar of Lord Vishnu, one day on the pretext of a ball falling down in the river ended up wrestling with Kalia and eventually defeating him and emerged dancing on the hood of the ferocious naga. The Snake thus acquired the feet impressions of the Lord. The story is called as the "Kaliya Mardan". It is also believed that seeing the footprints of Lord Krishna - the Avatar of Lord Vishnu, Garuda(the eagle) who is the natural enemy of the serpent, does not harm it. Kalia then took away all the poison from the river and Lord Krishna in return blesses him that on this day of Panchami whosoever will offer prayers to the snakes, will get expiated of any hardships in times to come.

What do the two stories signify?

The famer who tills the land automatically disrupts the peace of the serpents who reside under the land. Also during this season, when it rains and all the pits and holes are filled with water, snakes and other rodents come out of their homes. Thus there are numerous cases of snake bites and people and farmers especially and all those living near fields and grounds of dying of snake bites. _But the snakes are not equal to the rodents. The rodents destroy crops but the snakes eat them, hence making them the friends of the farmer. Besides there is no farming during rain, so snake bites to farmers are not common. This ritual of worshiping the snakes (which are most seen roaming out of their homes during this time) was created in order to create consciousness of the need for harmony with these creatures of Nature. It is an essential realization that Nags hold equal right over the land, as we do. In India, its not Man vs Wild but Man with Wild

Rituals of Nag Panchami

The Yajur Ved, Atharva Ved, Puran, Shatpath Brahman, Mahabharat. The Bhagvat Puran carries much information. There are varied rituals observed throughout India to celebrate Nag Panchami. However, the usual scene on this day is the worship of the idols or pictures of the snake god.

There are 12 that are worshipped the most during Nag Panchami-ananta, Vasuki, Padma, Shesha, Karkotaka, Kambala, Pingala, Takshaka, Kaliya, Shankhapala, Dhritarashtra, and Ashvatara. Each has its own significance for the 12 months of the year.

For farmers, digging the earth is prohibited on this day, so they don’t disturb the snakes. They instead use the day of Nag Panchami to pray to the serpent god for protection, during the course of their work. Fasts are observed by many for auspiciousness, followed by feeding the Brahmins. A reason why this fast is observed is that it releases a person from the ill effects of Sarpa Dosha (which can otherwise bring in a horde of bad vibes in a person’s life from an earlier birth). This is just the outcome of indiscriminate or inadvertent killing of snakes in an earlier life.

What are the benefits of worshipping the snakes? It is said that praying the snakes removes fears in life, and brings good health, wealth, peace, and prosperity in life. Let’s understand the true meaning of this. There is a latent energy lying at the base of the spine, called Kundalini. This Kundalini is said to be in the shape of a coiled up snake, it has tremendous power in spiritual development of the human. It is an auspicious day to meditate on the mooladhar chakra, the Chakra at the base of the spine, so as to value and venerate the Kundalini energy. Just as the womb of the mother creates the basic requirement for the growth of the embryo, the Mūlādhāra Chakra forms the basis and the starting point for our overall development. It is the foundation from which we climb the ladder of the Chakras; the root from which we receive the nourishment for our spiritual development. When this energy is harnessed in the appropriate way, it helps to achieve peace and happiness in life. Nag Panchami is also the worship of this “serpent”. So Nag Panchami, is not just about physical safety but also about promoting health.

The Nag or serpent has a wide variety of implications in Indian wisdom – some of them are Infinity, Desire (Kama), Intuitive abilities, Kundalini energy, Tamas (the destructive tendencies), Poisonous speech, Kala (death or cycle of time), Prana and Apana (the inspiration and expiration breaths).

Shubh Nag Panchami to you and your family!*🎉🎉🎉🙏🏼🙏🏼

What is Makar sankranti and what is its significance

2021-01-13T19:00:00.001-08:00

Indian festivals always have one or another significant beyond just a celebration. Whenever I need to look for the significance, my friend Rajesh Kamath is always a right source

Here is a wonderful article from him

The True significance of Makar Sankranti and connected festivals

Social media, including our own has been full of messages (and will continue for next 2 days) for Lohri, Bhogi, Pongal, Makar Sankranti. Isn’t it interesting that the whole nation seems to be celebrating something, but with different names? In fact, it gets even more fascinating that even some South Asian countries are celebrating, But what exactly are they celebrating? Let’s investigate “festivals” first…

The context of all Indian festivals

Indians are inheritors of a culture which integrated spirituality and science with great flair. India’s underlying core belief is that there is only Universal Consciousness (Brahman) and everything emanates from that One. All forms are an expression of the divine (divya), each representing and showcasing one or many aspects of the divine qualities.

Our ancient seers (rishis) taught us, at the inner core, the human life is Sat-Chit-Anand (Existence with Consciousness and Blissfulness) and each and every activity in life is meant to lead the individual to that One goal of existential realization. Our customs, our traditions our very way of life is to help the individual coexist with the family harmoniously and realize that goal in every step of the journey. Nature is not separated from the human existence. Celebratory events developed by our realized ancestors (rishis) are in synch with the cycle of nature (rita) and aimed at developing and nurturing relationships with family, friends and neighbors. Thousands of years ago, the Indian festivals (utsav) spread throughout the Indian-subcontinent and in the east as far as Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and in the west as far as America, as recorded by Mayans in South America.

Makar Sankranti

Sankranti signifies "Sacred Change" . India celebrates major cosmic changes, such as the transmigration of the sun from one zodiac sign (Rashi) as Sankranti. Of the twelve sankrantis, Makara Sankranti on January 14th/ 15th is the most significant; the sun passes through the winter solstice, from the Tropic of Cancer (Dhanu) to the Tropic of Capricorn (Makar). We witness cosmic, astronomical harmony and prayerfully honor this scientific Truth. The six months of northern movement of the sun is followed by six months of southern movement.

As the earth starts its northward part of the rotation (called Uttarayan), it brings the promise of a harvest of abundance and happiness in many parts of India. and the northern hemisphere around the world. The Harvesting season of the Rabi crop starts. Along the river Ganga in places like Ganga Sagar (where the river Ganga meets the Bay of Bengal) and Prayag/Allahabad millions of people bathe to honor the comingling of one life force (Sun) with another (water). Makar Sankranti is celebrated in myriad ways. Prayers of thanks and gratitude are offered to the Sun for a good harvest. On this day, many pray to the deity of education (Saraswati) for clarity of mind. The festival highlights the importance of withdrawing from unethical and disturbing behavior.

The Legend

As per our Puran, on this day the Sun God Surya meets his son Shani (Saturn -Lord of Capricorn) even though they are very different in nature, so this is the day for a special father-son relationship. It is the son who has the responsibility to carry forward his father’s dream and the continuity of the family. From Makara Sankranti the Gods (devatas) day will start, while southward movement of the sun (dakshinayana) is said to be the ‘night’ of devatas. Hence Uttarayana is also called as Devayana, and the dakshinayana' is called Pitrayana. As per Mahabharata, Bhishma told his purpose for finally releasing his sufferings on this day. He had a boon for death from his father so he kept lying on the bed of arrows till will.The person, who dies during the period of Uttarayana becomes free from rebirth, is the belief. Also, Bhagirath brought Ganges down to his Pitrus (ancestors) on Makara Sankranti day. This was to get salvation to his ancestors who were cursed by Sage Kapila and turned into ashes. On this day millions of people take bath in the Ganges. Makara Sankranti is also an important bathing date during Kumbh Mela and Magh Mela.

Kites are flown in many parts of the subcontinent. Kite flying while lot of fun to young at heart, conveys a deeper message that God is the Sutradhara — holding the string of man. Tensions of push and pull (of life) allow the kite to fly higher. If He lets it loose, the kite cannot fly.

Bhogi festival:

In Andhra Pradesh, Sankranti is called 'Pedda Panduga' which is the big festival. The Festival is of three days, the first day Bhogi, the second day Sankranti, the third day Kanuma. Bhogi festival comes prior to Makara Sankranthi Festival in india. The Bhogi was derived from Sanskrit word Bhog. Bhog means revelry/ enjoyment. The Legend is that on this day goddess Godadevi is married Lord Vishnu their married life is called as Bhogi.

Significance:

‘Makar’ = crocodile. Sankranti=‘change.’ The ‘Makara’ represents the material world (Samsara) and ‘Sankranti’ is a change to get away from the seizure of the material world. Makara Sankranti is basically a celebration of a cosmic event spanned with human life.Sun enters from one zodiac to another. The sun is for knowledge, spiritual light and wisdom. Makara Sakranti tells us we should turn away from the darkness we live, and let the light within us joyfully shine brighter. The Sun removes darkness and guides for the light of knowledge. People should learn to develop purity, wisdom and knowledge.

Science of Health

Making sweets like Sweet Pongal, Sesame burfee, Ariselu and Sesame Laddu is to keep Calcium & Iron levels in body as prescribed by our ancestors. Eating Sesame shall provides body heat, strength and muscularity and high on nutritional values. Sesame seeds contains more calcium than milk. Sesame contains more iron, copper, magnesium , phosphorus, zinc, protein, fiber and vitamin like B1, E. Sesamolin from sesame has the power to reduces high blood pressure and helps liver against damage. Jaggery is an excellent source of iron as compared to spinach. It is healthier when compared with sugar as it contains more vitamins and minerals (iron, potassium, magnesium and phosphorous). cough, migraine, cold, asthma, fatigue and indigestion can be cured from jaggery.

Sankranti is celebrated all over South Asia with some regional variations. It is known by different names and celebrated with different customs in different parts of the country.

In Bharat it is known by different regional names

1. Makar Sankranti : Chhattisgarh, Goa, Odisha, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, West Bengal

2. Pongal, Uzhavar Thirunal : Tamil Nadu

3. Uttarayan : Gujarat

4. Maghi : Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. A day before, people of Punjab celebrate Lohri.

5. Bhogali Bihu : Assam

6. Shishur Saenkraat : Kashmir Valley

7. Khichdi : Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar

8. Makar Sankramana : Karnataka

In other countries too the day is celebrated, but under different names and in different ways.

Wish you and your family Shubh Makar Sankrant/ Bhoghi/ Pongal!

Compiled by Rajesh Kamath

Co founder , More Than HR Global

HR case study conflict management in a team

2019-03-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

*Case study- conflict in team*
Raj has recently joined in the business development team of a service sector firm. He comes with more than a decade of experience and has successful track record. After joining, he realised that there is a incompatibility with his reporting head. Raj has his own working style so his boss.
Raj's boss wants every single movement update whereas Raj focuses on the end result I.e. the outcome. Raj also believes that his boss is very good in presentation but not in the result. For example, her boss hasn't achieved anything in terms of new account in the last fiscal year. He also cites he often hear his boss rudely behaving with the front end staff of the client or prospective client.

Raj has recently joined the organization and within this time frame he has started to think quitting the organization. Recently, during an outbound meeting, Raj was sharing his plight with another colleague with whom he was sharing the room and his boss barged into his room and picked up the fight with him. He was verbally abused.

As an HR how do you see this incident ?

Do you think you as an HR should intervene? Why?

What should be the organization's action on this?

How will this affect the productivity and growth of the organisation? Organisation is stable but want to see double growth in the current fiscal and BD plays vital role.

Any experience of such conflict you have handled and hit and misses from handling such experience?

Science behind sitting on floor in India and Indian subcontinent

2019-03-19T00:33:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

Here is an article not to miss from friend Rajesh Karmath

Read, reflect , enjoy and share

Why Should You Sit On The Floor While Eating? Its Science!

By Madhavi Kale Bodke

Sitting on the floor. - while eating is an ancient culture of many Asian countries like India, Japan, China, etc. This very simple ancient practice of sitting on the floor while eating is done with a unique asana (yoga posture of our body) which has many health benefits. Read on to know how just changing the way we sit while eating can have positive effects on both our body and mind.

1. Its Yoga!

Indian practice of sitting on the floor while eating is done in a cross legged position – an Asana called Sukhasana which is bit similar to Padmasana* This posture allows the mind to calm down and applies the pressure to the lower spine which facilitates relaxation. Our breathing slows down, muscular tension releases and blood pressure also subsides. From the perspective of the Ayurveda, all these things combine to have very positive effect on the proper digestion of the food we eat.

2. Helps to improve digestion

Cross legged position facilitates the blood flow towards the abdomen region of our body which ease the digestive process. When we eat from a plate placed on the floor, we have to naturally bend forward slightly to put the food in our mouth and go back to our starting position to swallow. This constant back and forth movement causes the muscles of our abdomen to be activated and also leads to increased secretion of stomach acids, making it much easier for our body to digest the food thoroughly. Optimal digestion of food is the key to a healthy body.

3. Controls the excessive consumption and aids in weight-loss

If the stomach is stuffed excessively then there will be no movement of the food particles. The digestive juices will be secreted beyond the requisite content and it results in acidity. We should always keep some empty space in our stomach which aids in proper digestion of the food. Sitting down will help in reducing the stomach space by nearly half i.e your upper part of the stomach gets compressed naturally. Thus you will ideally eat only half of what you would have eaten if you had used a table-chair. You will know when your are full and which is very important for weight management.

4. Makes you more flexible

When you squat or sit in this position the muscles in your lower back, pelvis, around your stomach and those of the upper and lower abdomen stretch – reducing pain and discomfort. This, in turn helps your digestive system relax and stay in a normal position. The regular stretching of these essential muscles also helps make you more flexible and healthy.

5. Aids in mindful eating

Eating food while concentrating on every aspect of the food, its smell, taste, texture and how much you are eating is very important to the whole experience of eating. Which is what sitting on the floor and eating gives you. Since your mind is calm and your body is ready to accept the nutrition by secreting the digestive juices / acid, it not only helps you focus on your food, but also helps you make better choices when you eat.

6. Improves the body posture

Sitting cross legged in itself is an Asana, meaning a posture. When we sit on the floor our posture is automatically corrected, making our back straight, lengthening our spine and pushes back our shoulders, beating all the common aches and pains that come with bad posture. Posture is very important when it comes to staying healthy. Good posture not only helps prevent injuries but it also reduces the chances of excessive strain on certain muscles and joints, which can lead to fatigue and quicker than normal wear and tear.

7. Keeps knee and hip joints healthy

Cross legged position or Sukhasana is one pose that has health benefits for your entire body. Constant bending of the knees, ankles and hip joint helps keep them flexible and free of diseases. With flexibility comes better lubrication between the joints making it much easier to sit on the floor. It helps keep your joints supple, flexible and less prone to injuries and degenerative diseases like arthritis and osteoporosis.

8. Makes heart stronger and improves circulation

When we sit on the floor, our heart gets the benefits of easy circulation of the blood, as the blood is easily pumped through the heart to all the organs needed for digestion. When we sit on the dining table and chair, the more blood flows to the legs as they are at a much lower level than the heart. Thus causing heart to work harder to maintain the blood flow. Therefore sitting on the floor leads to a healthy heart by reducing the excess pressure on it while eating.

9. It’s humbling

Sitting on the floor can give you a brand new, humble and grateful perspective on others, the world and yourself. There is a reason monks meditate on the floor and not in chairs. It is simply easier to be grounded and connected with the spiritual side of life.

True significance of Vasant Panchami , Saraswati Pooja

2019-02-10T03:16:00.001-08:00

Today's day is important and it also reminds e childhood school time Saraswati Poojan which is absent in the schools. The day signifies the importance of education.

Whenever such occasion arises, I remember one person who is ready with his post and a most suitable article showing significance of the day. He is Rajesh Karmath co founder , MTHRG Global. He is one of the most positive person I have ever met. Here is the article. Please read and share.

The True Significance of Vasant Panchami

Symbolism

Vasant Panchami is dedicated to the goddess of knowledge, arts and music, Saraswati and is marked by special prayers to Her in North India. Vasant Panchami, which is celebrated on the fifth day of the bright half of the ‘Magha’ lunar month, marks the onset of spring. *Spring brings with it new creations and this is symbolized by the divine energy of Saraswati*. But interestingly, people also worship the God, Kamadeva on this day. In Sanskrit literature, the onset of spring is associated with nature coming alive: flowers blooming, bumblebees buzzing, and animals mating. This gets symbolized by Kamadev – the divine creative energy of Nature.

Heralding the arrival of Spring, Vasant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holi, which occurs 40 days later. Vasant Panchami is one of the many festivals that have been celebrated in India for a long time as part of ‘Vasantotsav’ (“festival of spring”). The celebration in Nature thus lent itself to celebration in community…thus Vasantotsav. In both poetry and prose, writers have reserved their best for the spring season. In the ‘Ritusamhara’ , the poet Kalidasa (4th century CE) begins the sixth and last canto with a beautiful description of the onset of Vasanta,” the Sanskrit scholar Nityananda Misra says, translating the verse (6.1):“O dear, the warrior Vasanta has arrived to pierce the hearts of lovers. The blooming mango flowers are his sharp arrows and the garland (swarm) of bumblebees is his shining bowstring.” One of the earliest textual references to the ‘Vasantotsava’ celebrations is in the ‘Taittiriya Aranyaka’ (dated first millennium BCE by some historians) in which a passage (1.3.5) mentions that spring is ‘jaradaksha’, meaning “skilled in water” - that during spring, people use lot of water in creative ways and the clothes of the gods are coloured by agents like turmeric powder. These references show the association of spring season with both Holi and yellow colour.

Stories

According to popular beliefs, goddess of knowledge, art, music and science, Saraswati was born on this day and people worship her to achieve wisdom. The festival is referred to as ‘Shri Panchami’ in Sanskrit texts and historically, it was Lakshmi (also called ‘Shri’) and not Saraswati who was worshipped on this date. It is also called ‘Shri Panchami’ of the festival and Shri (Lakshmi) bestows incomparable fortune and prosperity.” So what is the significance of Yellow and its connection with bestowal of Prosperity.

Popular folklore goes that poet Kalidasa, before attaining knowledge was a simpleton who was tricked into marrying a princess who did not respect him. A dejected Kalidasa tried to commit suicide but the goddess Saraswati appeared before him and asked him to take a dip in the river. On doing what he had been asked to do, he emerged from the water an intelligent, knowledgeable and cultured person, who would eventually become a renowned poet. This renown and the patronage of the king led to his prosperity. Thus Saraswati (learning) led to Lakshmi (abundance).

Another story related to Kamadeva goes that after the god of love was turned to ashes by Lord Shiva for his misdeeds, his wife Rati went through an arduous 40 days of penance to bring her husband back. On the day of Vasant Panchami, Shiva finally relented and brought Kamadeva back to life. This signifies Nature is restored back to its beauty with the onset of Spring. Kamadeva, the god of love and desire, is worshipped along with his wife Rati on this day, celebrating this aspect of Nature.

Significance (History)

Another historically placed legend is that the observation of the festival started with the arrival of the Aryans. It is believed that the Aryans travelled through Khyber Pass and crossed the Saraswati River to reach India. When they settled in, the Saraswati River became an important source of life for them, so the celebration became a routine.

Spirituality

Goddess Saraswati is almost always shown in the colour Yellow. What is the connection with Yellow? *Yellow is the colour of the solar plexus chakra.* It is a primary color, composed from a single ray of light. Yellow is the colour of sunshine and it is the core of our being. It is at the solar plexus where the "I" shines from, where one feels the strength, will and personal power. The energy of yellow is vibrant, optimistic, and full of energy. It is the colour of youth, new beginnings, birth and re-birth. At the same time, yellow is wise and knowledgeable. Yellow connects us with knowledge and your intellect. People who are drawn to yellow are drawn to intellectual pursuits. Thus the colour yellow is the colour of Saraswati.

Science

*The True Significance of Vasant Panchami*

*Symbolism*

Vasant Panchami is dedicated to the goddess of knowledge, arts and music, Saraswati and is marked by special prayers to Her in North India. Vasant Panchami, which is celebrated on the fifth day of the bright half of the ‘Magha’ lunar month, marks the onset of spring. *Spring brings with it new creations and this is symbolized by the divine energy of Saraswati*. But interestingly, people also worship the God, Kamadeva on this day. In Sanskrit literature, the onset of spring is associated with nature coming alive: flowers blooming, bumblebees buzzing, and animals mating. *This gets symbolized by Kamadev – the divine creative energy of Nature.*

Heralding the arrival of Spring, Vasant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holi, which occurs 40 days later. Vasant Panchami is one of the many festivals that have been celebrated in India for a long time as part of ‘Vasantotsav’ (“festival of spring”). The celebration in Nature thus lent itself to celebration in community…thus Vasantotsav. In both poetry and prose, writers have reserved their best for the spring season. In the ‘Ritusamhara’ , the poet Kalidasa (4th century CE) begins the sixth and last canto with a beautiful description of the onset of Vasanta,” the Sanskrit scholar Nityananda Misra says, translating the verse (6.1):“O dear, the warrior Vasanta has arrived to pierce the hearts of lovers. The blooming mango flowers are his sharp arrows and the garland (swarm) of bumblebees is his shining bowstring.” One of the earliest textual references to the ‘Vasantotsava’ celebrations is in the ‘Taittiriya Aranyaka’ (dated first millennium BCE by some historians) in which a passage (1.3.5) mentions that spring is ‘jaradaksha’, meaning “skilled in water” - that during spring, people use lot of water in creative ways and the clothes of the gods are coloured by agents like turmeric powder. These references show the association of spring season with both Holi and yellow colour.

*Stories*

According to popular beliefs, goddess of knowledge, art, music and science, Saraswati was born on this day and people worship her to achieve wisdom. The festival is referred to as ‘Shri Panchami’ in Sanskrit texts and historically, it was Lakshmi (also called ‘Shri’) and not Saraswati who was worshipped on this date. It is also called ‘Shri Panchami’ of the festival and Shri (Lakshmi) bestows incomparable fortune and prosperity.” So what is the significance of Yellow and its connection with bestowal of Prosperity.

Popular folklore goes that poet Kalidasa, before attaining knowledge was a simpleton who was tricked into marrying a princess who did not respect him. A dejected Kalidasa tried to commit suicide but the goddess Saraswati appeared before him and asked him to take a dip in the river. On doing what he had been asked to do, he emerged from the water an intelligent, knowledgeable and cultured person, who would eventually become a renowned poet. This renown and the patronage of the king led to his prosperity. *Thus Saraswati (learning) led to Lakshmi (abundance).*

Another story related to Kamadeva goes that after the god of love was turned to ashes by Lord Shiva for his misdeeds, his wife Rati went through an arduous 40 days of penance to bring her husband back. On the day of Vasant Panchami, Shiva finally relented and brought Kamadeva back to life. This signifies Nature is restored back to its beauty with the onset of Spring. Kamadeva, the god of love and desire, is worshipped along with his wife Rati on this day, celebrating this aspect of Nature.

*Significance (History)*

Another historically placed legend is that the observation of the festival started with the arrival of the Aryans. It is believed that the Aryans travelled through Khyber Pass and crossed the Saraswati River to reach India. When they settled in, the Saraswati River became an important source of life for them, so the celebration became a routine.

*Spirituality*

Goddess Saraswati is almost always shown in the colour Yellow. What is the connection with Yellow? *Yellow is the colour of the solar plexus chakra.* It is a primary color, composed from a single ray of light. Yellow is the colour of sunshine and it is the core of our being. It is at the solar plexus where the "I" shines from, where one feels the strength, will and personal power. The energy of yellow is vibrant, optimistic, and full of energy. It is the colour of youth, new beginnings, birth and re-birth. At the same time, yellow is wise and knowledgeable. Yellow connects us with knowledge and your intellect. People who are drawn to yellow are drawn to intellectual pursuits. Thus the colour yellow is the colour of Saraswati.

*Science*

*The Solar plexus Chakra is connected with the element fire – Agni.* Unfolding the petals of solar plexus chakra, one finds that Agni burns within us, that gives us power and energy to stand for our self and to assert our self. Its also about trust and inner worth. That is the healing brilliance of yellow. On a physical level agni relates to stomach, digestive organs, middle back, pancreas, liver, and muscles. People with strong yellow energy stand tall and radiate power. Those with weak yellow energy appear collapsed in the middle, they are slouching - their back or abdominal muscles are weak. Thus Vasant season is the traditional beginning of good health, creativity and learning in humans, while enjoying the fullness of Nature and thus the celebration of Vasant Panchami. Wish you and your families a Shubh Vasant Panchami and Saraswati Puja!Unfolding the petals of solar plexus chakra, one finds that Agni burns within us, that gives us power and energy to stand for our self and to assert our self. Its also about trust and inner worth. That is the healing brilliance of yellow. On a physical level agni relates to stomach, digestive organs, middle back, pancreas, liver, and muscles. People with strong yellow energy stand tall and radiate power. Those with weak yellow energy appear collapsed in the middle, they are slouching - their back or abdominal muscles are weak.

Thus Vasant season is the traditional beginning of good health, creativity and learning in humans, while enjoying the fullness of Nature and thus the celebration of Vasant Panchami. Wish you and your families a Shubh Vasant Panchami and Saraswati Puja!*

Significance of Ganesh Chaturthi day 3

2018-09-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,
Here is an article from my friend Rajesh Kamath. Rajesh Kamath is very passionate about Indian culture and a proud Indian. When you read his such various article, you can connect this with your day to day life. He is also a co founder of More Than HR Global.

*The true significance of Ganesh Festival: Part 3: Why "elephant-headed" deity?*

_The story of Gajasura explains that the rakshasa called Gajasura was an ardent devotee of Lord Siva who underwent penance for many years to receive special boons. Siva, who is easily pleased by prayers (Bholenaath), was moved by Gajasura's devotion, and offered a boon. Gajasura asked Siva to reside in his belly, and Siva agreed. So now Siva went missing_

Meanwhile on Mount Kailash, Parvati was anxious to know the whereabouts of her husband and finally approached Lord Vishnu for help. Vishnu disguised himself in the form of a street player along with Nandi, Siva's bull carrier, and the two set out in search of Shanker (Siva). In Gajasura's kingdom, Nandi performed a dance to please the demon. In thanks, Gajasura let Siva out of his stomach, but prayed that he would be allowed to be immortal in the memories of people. To fulfill this wish, Lord Siva severed Gajasura's head and freed him from the cycle of birth and death. He carries the head along with him. On Mount Kailash, Parvati comes to know of Vishnu's victory and is very happy. She creates a doll out of the dough that she uses in her bath, and calls him Vinayak - the one who overcomes all obstacles. This boy having never seen Siva, prevents his entry into the palace. In a fit of fury Shiva beheads the boy and enters the palace. Parvati is unaware of the happenings and receives Siva with warmth, for he had returned after a long period. During the course of their conversation, Siva mentions the incident at the palace gates and tells her about severing the child's head. Parvati is shocked to hear the news and pleads with Siva to bring the child back to life for he is like a son to her. Shiva who had with him the head of Gajasura, immediately puts it on the torso of the dead child, thus bringing him back to life and blessing him with a boon that the entire world would worship him in remembrance of that day.

*Meaning?* The chopping of the head and replacing with the elephant head is the significance of the replacing your thought with the bigger one. Vinayak, the boy could not recognize the Lord and fought with his father. It is the indication of ignoring the divinity. In order to make lord Ganesha a divine one, he replaced his head with bigger and intelligent one.

The elephant is a symbol
of might and magnitude. The elephant's foot is larger than that of any other animal. The
elephant can make its way through the densest jungle. In this way, it signifies the quality of a
leader who shows the way for others. The elephant is highly intelligent. The elephant is also
known for its fidelity and gratitude. In any circumstance it will not forget its master. Even in its
last moments, if it hears the voice of its master it will open its eyes and look for him. It will
sacrifice its life for its master. These are the lessons man should learn from the elephant.
Intelligence without gratitude is valueless. Every man should be grateful to those who have helped him.

*Again, why elephant head?* For that, let us understand the brain of an elephant. The brain of the elephant is the biggest brain among all living animals in comparison with their body. The hippo- campus, the part of the brain is for a long memory, Cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that enables problem solving ability.These parts are found in the brain of an elephant which absent in most of the other animals. Elephant has post-traumatic disorder, means, he cries on something wrong happens with him or with someone associated with him. They work cooperatively to accomplish the task. It shows his concern of the society and living in co-operation. Its big ears are the symbol of listening ability - help to hear something from far. On many occasions, it uses his body language to communicate the things. Elephant creates arts by choosing different colors and elements. Elephant can recognize twelve distinct tones of music. It has sense of empathy, altruism and justice. This is the only animal who performs the burial rituals and returning to visit graves like humans. They show concern for other species as well. Elephants safeguard human from injuries. It is one of the few species who can recognize faces in the mirror. It is a conscious, intelligent and emotional being.

The trunk is the symbol of intelligence and sensitivity. Its intelligence prevents insects entering into his body. The elephant, by using the strength of his body, makes the way for other animals in the dense forest. The small eyes of an elephant makes the image of an object focused. It implies that it looks at everyone big and ignores no one. With small eyes, it can still see the objects, far off. It implies the vision. In this way, the big head of elephant is the significance of big thought, emotion, intelligence, vision, listening ability, caring for others and wisdom.

*What's more, the ventral view of the human brain is a clear representation of the Ganesh formation. This includes the spine that connects the brain which is represented as the truck of the Elephant. The Parietal Lobe, the Occipital Lobe, the Temporal lobe, the Brain stem, and the spinal cord structure combined together form an image imitation of Lord Ganesh.*

Thus, Ganesha the lord of intelligence having visual similarities to Brain, is no co incidence but how intelligence has been carefully depicted using a deity.

One year of demonetisation whether it was a success or a failure

2017-11-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

So we completed one year of demonetisation and as a general public, except bhakt nobody felt great about it. Certain promises were made and not fulfilled. Congress and BJP started putting allegation against each other. Manmohan Singh, who was silent during high level corruption also spoke as it was opposition and bhakta started action on them. Corporate cell members of BJP who were in good position also started glorifying benefits to create political divide but none of the bhakta came with any concrete figure and data. They just started imaginative argue. When I asked one of the bhakta to give me name of 10 politicians even at local level who caught with the black money, he did not give answer.

I thought to do bit research then I got an article from Quantum Mutual Fund which was with data, various reliable sources and self explanatory. A third party data is more reliable compared to what I will write.

Go through it. Happy sensible reading.

One Year of Demonetisation - Pass or Fail?

What has one year of notebandi aka demonetization done to the world's biggest democracy? The government wanted to eradicate illicit cash out of the economy by aiming at combating corruption or black money. Did that work? One year down experts from Quantum AMC pen down their views to determine if what looked like a huge success turned out to be a total failure...

Impact of Demonetisation on Equity
By Nilesh Shetty- Associate Fund Manager, Equity

The Demonetisation exercise launched by the NDA government on Nov 8, 2017, has now become a text book case of how not to execute a currency recall. Corporate India sitting on freshly expanded capacities and having faced two years of weak demand in FY15 & FY16, due to failure of monsoons and stagnating policy making under UPA 2, was finally staring at a pick-up in consumer sentiment. The feedback from consumer companies on demand in the festive season just prior to the Demonetisation exercise suggested we were on the cusp of an economic recovery driven by better monsoons and stimulus in the form of pay commission hikes and one rank one pension payouts. Demonetisation essentially was a kick in the gut to the Indian consumption cycle which deferred economic recovery by up to 18 months. Inventory cycles which were disrupted after Demonetisation have again been disrupted due to GST and have still not normalized. After one year of the exercise it looks like Raghuran Rajans original hypothesis to the government of the costs far outweighing the benefits may have been proved correct.

Take on Demonetisation and Gold
By Chirag Mehta - Sr. Fund Manager-Alternative Investments

At the stroke of demonetization a year ago, significant amount of gold was sold to purchasers scrambling to convert their currencies at hand (which were about to turn invalid) into gold. The gold rush was so strong that many jewelers sold whatever they had on showcase and were left almost empty. A couple of months later as the remonetisation gathered pace, gold buying caught momentum largely as a inventory build-up at the wholesalers and Jewellers end. Post this was the GST scare; this led to preponement of gold buying from jewelers to build in the inventory and consumers as well. This was done to take advantage of the low tax rates before the feared high rates under GST kicks in. The GST rates were not prohibitive as feared has led to demand staying relatively buoyant. India imported nearly 132 tonnes post the introduction of GST. Surprisingly, demand has not faltered despite higher buying earlier in the year. There was a view that demonestisation would significantly reduce gold purchases but that hasn't happened. Rather we are seeing significantly higher demand this year as compared to the year before demonetization. India imported about 640 tonnes in the first three quarters of this calendar year as compared to 510 tonnes in whole of 2016. Clearly, demonetization has clearly failed in many of its agendas including its impact on gold.
Source: GFMS, Thomson Reuters

One year of being De'Modi'tized
By Pankaj Pathak - Fund Manager-Fixed Income

November 8th, 2016 was a momentous day which India will never forget. PM Modi's Demonetization move was a huge shock to the system. Never before has 86% of a country's currency in circulation being withdrawn at one go.
It was thus an extremely bold move with major economic and political implications.

The immediate reaction was from its expected impact on black money. PM Modi's initial speech focused on the aspect of Black money, Fake currency, Terror financing which needed to be tackled through demonetization.
Government's own estimate (which they filed with the Supreme Court) was that close to 30% of the currency withdrawn will be deemed worthless as the holders won't be able to prove its source and hence won't be able to deposit the currency back into the banks.

But Indian entrepreneurial ingenuity 'Jugaad', which helped create the Black Money in the first place, went on an overdrive in those 50 days to help deposit 99% of the currency withdrawn back into the banking system.
The supposed outcome of lower currency in the system, the fiscal benefit of extinguished currency and higher taxes from the money deposited has not played out. The two income disclosure schemes thus far haven't borne much fruit. It also indicated the reality that 'All Cash is not Black and all Black is not held in Cash'. The government sensing the 'Jugaad' espoused the narrative of a move to a Cashless Economy.
Demonetization has indeed hastened the adoption of cashless means of transactions and has likely also spawned newer business and technologies that will further increase cashless transactions.
Currency/GDP though is inching up indicating use of cash increasing. The spurt in electronic/wallet/mobile transactions is also tapering off... though it will settle at much higher levels than earlier.

Demonetization impacted economic growth which the recorded numbers will never capture appropriately as the informal sector and the daily/casual labourer bore the brunt and the economy is still recovering from that impact.
The government though has data on the deposits made during the period and the activities in those accounts since then, which they can mine to target and claim more taxes. The overdrive against corruption and black money is also seen by the de-registering of more than 200,000 shell companies many of which could have been used to launder money during demonetization.

The Banks and the Bond markets were indeed the key initial beneficiaries but the impact of demonetization is wearing off as we complete one year.
Especially so in the bond markets, with the 10 year bond yield at around the same level as it was prior to demonetization. Bond yields did fall towards 6% but the sentiment reversed on the falling prospects of fiscal benefits and excess tax collection. The RBI too had to suck out liquidity through issuance of MSS bonds and OMO Sales which further impacted bond yields. The Slower economic growth post demonetization has impacted normal tax collection thus leaving the government to stare at a breach of the fiscal deficit target further worsening sentiment in the bond markets.

Banks another beneficiary got cheap funds with currency held with public turning into bank deposits which helped them cut lending rates faster than may have been the case. The excess liquidity in the system though has reduced and we anticipate that excess liquidity will come back to neutral by December 2017 and that currency in circulation will also inch towards the pre-demonetization mark sometime in the first half of next year.

Indian stock markets have been on an upswing post the initial down move with demonetization maybe triggering an increase in the inflows into domestic mutual funds who have out invested the foreign investor and ensured that the stock market makes new highs despite not so encouraging economic data.

Overall data points though do point to the fact that the immediate benefits of demonetization has not played out as expected and the short term economic impact cost more than outweighs the benefits. We have to wait and see if the longer term expected benefits from lower black money generation and higher cashless transaction do materialize.

De'Modi'tized:
Black Money; Fake Currency; Cashless Economy; Corruption	Pre-Demonetization	Highest and/or Lowest Level in the last 1 year depending on the data used	Current level
Currency in Circulation	Oct 2016 - 17,282 billion	8,980 (Lowest)	Oct 2017- 16,346 billion
Banking System Liquidity	Oct 2016 (-) INR 265 billion	(+) INR 5,461 billion(Highest )	Oct 2017 (+) INR 966 billion
Point of Sale Terminals for Credit/Debit cards	Oct 2016 - 1.51 million	2.88 million	Aug 2017 - 2.88 million
Cards and Digital transaction*	Oct 2016 - 407 million	855 million(Highest)	Aug 2017 - 705 million
GDP Growth	June - Sept 2016 - 7.5%	5.7%	April - June 2017 - 5.7%
CPI Inflation	Sept 2016 - 4.39	1.54(Lowest)	Sept 2017 - 3.21
10 year Bond Yield	Oct 2016 - 6.80	6.19(Lowest)	Oct 2017 - 6.86
BSE Sensex	Oct 2016 - 27,930	33,266 / 25,765	Oct 2017 - 33,213

*Number of credit card and debit transaction at POS, Mobile banking and M-wallet Transaction
(Source: Bloomberg, Reuters, RBI)
Impact of Demonetisation on Mutual Fund Industry
By Harshad Chetanwala - Head - Customer Delight

A year ago every household in India was blindsided by an unfamiliar concept: Demonetisation. The controversial event has been debated globally over the last year, and that debate will continue for years to come. Instead of getting into the debate of whether it worked for or against the economy, which only time will tell, let us delve into whether the Mutual Fund Industry benefited from Demonetisation.
Until the time Demonetisation was announced, the Mutual Fund Industry was hitting new Asset under Management (AuM) records seemingly every month, and industry observers anticipated positive growth as far as the eye could see. One could say that, along with that optimism of investors, Demonetisation actually helped the industry to attract more investments. While overall AuM has grown by 25% since November 2016, which was almost same for prior eleven months (1 Dec 2015 - 31 Oct 2016), Equity AuM grew by 36% during the same period versus growth of 19% from Dec 2015 to Oct 2016. This AuM growth is because of two things: an increase in general market levels (which propels the value of invested assets), and new inflows from investors. The table below on Mutual Fund Industry data for Pre- and Post-Demonetisation helps us understand the impact of Demonetisation on the Mutual Fund Industry.

Impact of Demonetisation on the Mutual Fund Industry

	Pre-Demonetisation	Post-Demonetisation
	31-Oct-16	30-Sep-17	% Change
Industry Total AuM (In ? Crore)	1,628,976	2,040,301	25%
Equity AuM (In ? Crore)	432,411	588,478	36%

Inflows (Rs. Crore)	1 Dec 2015 - 31 Oct 2016	1 Nov 2016 - 30 Sep 2017	% Change
Equity Funds	148,071	258,180	74%
Balanced Funds	34,057	85,965	152%
Income Funds	658,354	896,828	36%

Source: AMFI(Association of Mutual Funds in India)
From the above data it appears that during and after Demonetisation, a lot of people who had their money parked in their Bank accounts have moved to Mutual Funds. This is natural because with lower interest rates these days, keeping money sitting in a bank account would not earn very high returns. As they say 'With great power comes great responsibility'! The same can be said for those of us in the Mutual Fund Industry, 'With great inflow comes great responsibility' - the responsibility to generate sensible returns for investors who have entrusted their money with us.

While mutual fund houses work towards that, investors have to keep in mind that their investments have come in a market which is regularly hitting new highs. It is important that investors do not have a kneejerk reaction if the market hits a correction in the near future. So while the debate on the pros and cons of Demonetisation will continue in multiple forums for years to come, investors have their strategy cut out: stay invested with the right funds and enjoy the benefits down the line. From our perspective, Mutual Fund houses should continue to focus on what works best for investors and follow the investment mandate which made investors invest their money with us.

Siginficance of 9 colours in Nvaratri

2017-09-26T00:03:00.001-07:00

Hello Friends,

let me clarify first, author of this article is my friend Rajesh Kamath who is also co-founder of not for profit HR body More Than HR Global. He is a person of gem, with a mission to spread Indian philosophy and wisdom across the world and also one who focus on positive aspect of Indian philosophy, society and culture.

Here is his valuable piece of writing.

The True Significance of Devi - Part 3 [ Why 9 Colors]

People often enjoy wearing nine different colors on the nine days of Navratri, knowing the significance of these colors would make it an even greater Celebration!

Each day of Navratri represents one of the forces of Devi which manifests in a particular hue:

On the first day of Navratri, which is also known as Pratipada, the Goddess is worshipped as Shailputri, meaning the daughter of the mountains. It is in this form that the Goddess was worshipped as Lord Shiva’s consort. The colour for this day - red, depicts action and vigour. The warmth of this colour is an ideal way to gear up for this festival.

The goddess assumes the form of Brahmacharini on the second day of Navratri. In this form, she grants happiness and prosperity with spiritual grace. The blue of the peacock feather is the colour of this day. It is synonymous with with a calm yet powerful energy

Chandraghanta, or the goddess with a half moon on the forehead, represents beauty and bravery. She stands for strength to fight the demons. This happy colour Yellow represents the half moon and can light up the room and everyone’s hearts.

According to Indian mythology, the goddess assumes the form of Kushmanda on this day. It is believed that Devi Kushmanda created the universe through a bout of laughter and made it verdant with vegetation, hence the green colour

Dressed in grey, Goddess Durga manifests in the avatar of Skand Mata on day five. She is seen holding an infant Lord Karthik in her arms. The colour grey indicates the vulnerability of a mother, who can turn into a storm cloud when the need arises, to protect her child from danger.

The goddess represents the form of Katyayani on the sixth day. As the story in the scriptures go, a sage named Kata performed a penance as he wished to have the goddess in the form of his own daughter. The goddess, moved by his devotion, granted him his boon. She was born as Katyayani Devi, dressed in orange exhibiting immense courage.

This day is dedicated to the most fierce form of Goddess Durga. Dressed as Kalratri, she has anger in her eyes and is as black as the night. But the objective is peace on Earth. She is dressed in white, signifying that she will protect her devotees from harm. White embodies peace and prayer.

An epitome of beauty and grace, the Goddess Mahagauri is dressed in pink on the eighth day of the festival. She is said to destroy all the sins of time. The colour pink of the blooming Lotus denotes hope and a fresh start.

Dressed in the colour of the crisp, blue sky, the goddess assumes the form of Siddhidatri on Navami. She, in this form has supernatural healing powers. The goddess Siddhidatri is shown to be in a blissful state, just like the sky on a clear day. The colour represents a wonderment towards the beauty of nature.

There is of course, a deeper story for each of the divine forms of Devi.

This nine colours of Navratri collectively embody the spirit of a woman, who possess the grace and the valour of the goddess herself.

This Navratri, celebrate the triumph of good over evil, and ring in new beginnings, understanding the deeper significance of the festival

A good read on Supreme Court judgment on Right to privacy

2017-09-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

India is again setting the bar high for another important topic – Privacy. The data belongs to the user and not to the custodian (bank or anyone else).

In a recent judgement, a nine-judge Supreme Court Bench unanimously ruled that individual privacy is a fundamental right. The court noted that the “Right to Privacy is an integral part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty guaranteed in Article 21 of the Constitution.”

The right to privacy verdict, although primarily passed on a petition filed about the Aadhaar Card scheme, will impact every company that collects and handles user data. The judgement was primarily focused on the protection of privacy of an individual’s digital information or data. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul wrote:

“Informational privacy is a facet of the right to privacy. The dangers to privacy in an age of information can originate not only from the state but from non-state actors as well.”

In its 547-page judgment, the Supreme Court touched upon the different aspects of informational privacy – and explained how collecting data could threaten an individual’s privacy.

This Supreme Court ruling is a check: For both the government (against which the case was mainly fought) as well as the non-state actors or private companies, because it doesn’t just oppose any privacy invasive practices employed by the government, but also applies to private companies that collect user data.

Defining what is “personal and confidential”

The information must be “personal and confidential” to be protected by right to privacy. One of the points raised by the opposing counsel during the trial was that privacy was vague and ill-defined. The judges patiently tried defining what is “private” data, to carve out the scope of law.

For example, the Court pointed out that data about electricity consumption pattern of a person is NOT personal or confidential, and couldn’t be protected as “private information”. That said, the Court also cited a UK judgement that stated the storing of the biometric data indefinitely of individuals no longer suspect of criminal activities would be an invasion of privacy. Clearly, a person’s biometric data is both “personal and confidential”.

The Supreme Court used an infographic (from Bert-Jaap Koops et al., “A Typology of Privacy”) in its judgement to depict the nature of data and its classification. This is extremely rare and hence also shows how judges understood the importance of the judgement and that it would be read by people who might need simpler language and symbols to understand the implications:

Privacy in the digital world

While the court had a broader mandate and covered privacy from all aspects, they did cover digital privacy in detail. At some level they felt the real challenge to privacy is coming from this rapid transformation of processes from offline to digital. They also gave an intriguing example of a travel agent, which illustrates this point well:

“The old-fashioned travel agent has been rendered redundant by web portals which provide everything from restaurants to rest houses, airline tickets to art galleries, museum tickets to music shows. These are but a few of the reasons people access the internet each day of their lives. Yet every transaction of an individual user and every site that she visits, leaves electronic tracks generally without her knowledge. These electronic tracks contain powerful means of information which provide knowledge of the sort of person that the user is and her interests. Individually, these information silos may seem inconsequential. In aggregation, they disclose the nature of the personality: food habits, language, health, hobbies, sexual preferences, friendships, ways of dress and political affiliation. In aggregation, information provides a picture of the being: of things which matter and those that don’t, of things to be disclosed and those best hidden.”

Expressing privacy concerns about how tracking happens in the digital world, the Court hinted at the possibility of scrutinizing activities carried on by companies like reading/analyzing/tracking emails, messages, other social behaviour.

Further the court stressed upon properties of the digital world that make it difficult to detect privacy invasion and hence heighten privacy concerns:

· Non-rivalrous – simultaneous use by multiple users

· Invisible – invasions of data privacy are difficult to detect – and it travels at speed of light making it further difficult to trace any breach of privacy. Data can be accessed, stored and transmitted without notice

· Recombinant – data collected can be used, analysed and combined to create more data output which is unseen earlier

Expanding on these principles the order stated that owing to the nature of digital data, it becomes possible to combine data from social profiles and IoT devices to create information about the individual which did not exist. Secondly, while collecting the behaviour of one person it could also be possible to gather information about other individuals around him. The Court noted that these concerns are from both State and Private entities as both use Big Data to analyse data about individuals, which is a concern to privacy.

Easily one of the most tech-savvy orders ever, this Supreme Court judgement took into account various technical intricacies of the digital world and cited specific instances:

· Cookies used for tagging IP

· Browsing information to create profiles using algorithms

· Automated content analysis of emails for targeted marketing

· Online purchases like books, airlines, book taxi etc. and their history for user behaviour and doing income analysis

· Metadata and IoT – used to collect information about a person’s behaviour

It is refreshing to see such technical detail quoted in the judgement.

The court also gave details on what can be the future of digital privacy and principles of the new law. We have tried to summarize it below in a simple framework. But for any legal geeks out there we will create another article, which details out laws examined by the court and their approach to reaching to the conclusion.

A 7-point framework to guide companies’ data policies (based on the privacy case judgement)

We’ve analyzed the judgement in extensive detail and have come up with a simple 7-point framework that shows the key points that organizations need to think about when framing their data policies:

1. Personal vs Private: Every data that is personal is not necessarily private. A user’s name, for example. Because a person’s name is used in public communication, name can be considered to be non-private personal information. Also any information that is anonymized is neither personal or private and exempt from purview of the law.

2. Explicit Consent in plain words: User’s consent has to be taken explicitly and cannot be hidden inside lengthy terms of service or agreements.

3. Consent alone is insufficient: Court has also opined that in certain situations, even a consent based mechanism may not be able to protect the customer and hence encroachment of privacy shouldn’t be a preferred option.

4. Necessity: This is a simple principle which asks the question if collecting it is really necessary to invade privacy to achieve the outcome.

5. Proportionate benefit or risk: Whenever it is necessary it should be weighed against proportionate benefits and risks. Privacy should not be encroached unless there is some proportionate good possible or some bad that is preventable.

6. Right to Forget: Eventually the user should have the right to revoke access to his/her data

7. Access and Correction: The ownership of data is with the individual whose private data is collected. Therefore he has a right to access and correct the data or delete as given above.

Note: We hope this will help businesses make sound and compliant judgement around their data, but do take professional help to make sure you are fully compliant.

Few instances of impact in the financial world

The right to privacy might initiate changes in current processes and hence some of the current and emerging areas may need a relook:

Credit History under Credit Information Act

· Collection of credit data: Collection of credit data by the creditor is completely ok as it is consent-driven private data between the two parties.

· Exchange of credit data: Banks report credit data to licensed agencies. These agencies then exchange this data with other banks as requested by the bank. This might require clear exceptions made in the privacy act or a re-look into how credit reports are requested, what kind of information can be shared and what is to be hidden.

· Access and control over credit history: Currently consumers cannot easily request credit history to be forgotten or edited. Going further there would need to be an option to have greater control and access of one’s own credit history.

Pulling data of a customer from KRA by Mutual Fund and AMCs

· Collection of data: Currently the agency that collects the data and the one that stores the data are different. Clear consent and declarations hence may be needed.

· Current practice of data pull from PAN, without an appropriate consent layer may also need a relook.

Account Details

· Login-based scraping: Account username and password definitely fall into the domain of private data. And the reason in many cases is convenience, as it might be more difficult for the user to submit a copy of bank statement himself. Thus this encroachment may not meet the principle of necessity or proportionate benefit.

· Account Aggregator: The new RBI guidelines provide for a consent layer and a lot of regulation around security of such data. The data does not remain with the aggregator post-completion of the purpose and therefore the guidelines seemed to have given protection to privacy and may not be greatly affected by the judgment.

Mobile data collection during application download

Following are few of affected the categories and let’s go through them one by one:

· Malware or Security risk. The data collected to assess malware risk may not fall within privacy parameter. Specially if it can be anonymized enough to be unlinked to the individual himself. But current assessment tools and processes might need to ensure they follow this principle.

· SMS reading. This is being seen as a new innovative way to provide credit assessment. But within the new privacy regime, this may be really tricky. Let us explain: SMS reading is a clear invasion into privacy and hence would require explicit consent. But where it gets really tricky is that SMS is usually a private conversation between two parties and hence you would need consent of both the parties to read SMS. It will be interesting to see how the innovation can be enabled without being unlawful.

· Reading personal contacts to use later for collection. Like SMS reading this may also need consent of two parties and hence should be seen in the same light. (Signzy would be coming up with another article on multi-party conversations including email, sms, call etc. We will examine in detail the implications under a privacy law.)

Aadhar based KYC regime

· There are two KYC possibilities in Aadhar A) Demo Auth B) eKYC – biometric or OTP. As the Aadhar regime has a robust consent architecture in place it should hold good even in the present regime. The only concern raised by the court was on biometrics being private. Hence the nature of benefit should be proportionate as consent alone, as noted by the court may not be enough protection. Hence biometric based KYC for account opening, new SIM or other risky scenario might be acceptable. Biometric based KYC for non-risky scenarios such as event registration might need a relook.

· The other more grave change maybe the need for an alternate option. While the financial regulators in line with government view had been pushing a biometric KYC, the current law would require the financial system to provide alternatives. This is especially true for cases where there maybe no real risk or proportionate benefit of forcing biometric KYC.

Users financial transaction history

· Cross-sell. Financial data mining for targeting for another product might definitely fall under invasion of privacy. The judges have clearly defined “financial information” as private. And such targeting in no ways provides “proportionate” benefit. Hence banks will need to take explicit consent in the original account opening form, even then it’s best that such analysis and targeting is totally automated. Closer on the lines of Google’s approach where a Google employee at no point has access to your records even though you are targeted based on your personal data. This will make sure that there is no leakage or profiling and hence the principles are being adhered to. But there would need to be clear regulation to define such actions by the bank.

· AML/CFT risk assessment. This is one use case where the risk may justify privacy invasion. But we need to weigh it against the principle of necessity. Again as it stands out it might not be necessary to invade privacy. The court has enunciated how “anonymity” does provide privacy, and hence analysis of data that has been “anonymized” will not be a breach of privacy. Only when suspect transactions are found, should the bank de-anonymize the data an identify the actual account holder. (We understand this might need much more detailed explanation, rest assured we will be writing a longer post on the impact on AML/CFT processes)

Credit Risk monitoring. Unless the risk is large it might be very difficult to justify reading of transactions. The FI will have to provide the borrower a mechanism to provide consent each time such an assessment is made. This might defeat the whole purpose as someone with a risk may actually deny consent every-time. Thus it would be interesting to see how this part of the system pans out and what regulations are framed to balance risk and privacy concerns.

Banking Agents

· Collection of data. Even current regulations require Banks to ensure that agents are registered and a clear trail can be established which ensure zero data leakage. This might now fall under a clear law or regulation, further not only Banks but all financial institutions (FIs) might need to have stricter regulations for agent models.

Storage of data. The storage of data will strictly require physical or digital records to be destroyed by the agents post transaction. Unless there is explicit consent by the consumer for such storage.

Sharing of data with other parties. Many a times agents do end up sharing data with parties who at the time of consent were not in the picture. As an example if the intended Bank doesn’t give a loan, data might be shared with other parties as well. Now one will need to take clear consent to ensure that this sharing is agreed by the user.

Payments

· Aadhaar Pay. Biometric has been seen by the court as one of the core private space. And it has also opined that at times consent may not be enough as the users may not understand the risks. In this light, Aadhar Pay might not have “proportionate“ good. As while KYC carries risk to financial system and hence proportionate good, mere payments might not be an ideal scenario to invade individual privacy.

Cards based payments. Current cards eco-system relies on a “card” and PIN and no specific private data, at least from our point of view it doesn’t encroach privacy during payments. Fraud rules are also generally based on aggregated behavior and hence might also not carry any risk of privacy encroachment

Mobile wallets. Since it is based on a standalone wallet that I recharge, it has no personal data about me other than my basic KYC, phone number, email and my transaction details. Therefore, no private information is shared with wallets. But wallets would not be able to leverage on my digital footprint for credit assessment without clear consent.

Social behavioral data

Social media. Google and Facebook have recently shown interest in using customer data gathered over a period of time as credit decision tools. This data has clearly been stated to be private. Thus this too would fall under the gambit of future regulation

Application’s own data. Even if the data is not coming from a third party but reflects user behaviour on the same platform, such as Amazon, Uber etc. It will still be considered within the domain of privacy and needs to be regulated

As social behaviour data is rich and possibly being seen as an alternative to many traditional data stores it important to share another case regarding Whatsapp’s decision to share its data with Facebook (its parent company). The matterconcerns the privacy of 160 million Indian Whatsapp users. Such data has expressedly been considered to be private – and Judge’s comments left no room for imagining what their views were:

“Recently, it was pointed out that “‘Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening. […]

Uber knows our whereabouts and the places we frequent. Facebook at the least, knows who we are friends with. Alibaba knows our shopping habits. Airbnb knows where we are travelling to.

Social networks providers, search engines, e-mail service providers, messaging applications are all further examples of non-state actors that have extensive knowledge of our movements, financial transactions, conversations – both personal and professional, health, mental state, interest, travel locations, fares and shopping habits.”

These are just some of the instances that may be impacted by this judgement. We will be happy if you can share any areas we may have missed and we will add them here.

The read ahead

This is certainly a landmark judgement and in some ways can claim to be the re-birth of privacy. In a digital world it was assumed that privacy has been sacrificed at the altar of convenience. But the court has upheld an individual’s right to his privacy providing him means to protect it and hence re-introduced a principle which seemed lost in the digital world. As the next steps, it’s incumbent upon the legislature to create clear law regarding this concern. But it’s safe to assume that usage of such data would be become much more regulated than it is now.

We are hoping that this article would be useful to you and helps you make sound business decisions. We might not have been able to go into depths with a few topics, which need much more deliberation. Therefore, in the future, we would be coming up with few more articles going in depth into some of these topics. We will be happy to receive feedback and also get to know which areas would you want to see much more in-depth analysis.

The article was originally published on Signzy.

How to report stolen vehicles car bike online in India without going to police station

2017-04-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

It is a nightmare when your car, bike or any vehicle get stolen in India. You will commonly hear from people "One should never visit a doctor, a court, a police station and a lawyer in their life"

Registering FIR in India is not easy. You still need to go to police station, needs to wait hours, have to face questions from policemen like a criminal and they are always reluctant to register an FIR. They want to show their crime rate low.

However, Maharashtra government and police has made it easy to register a vehicle theft complaint registration easy. Now you can do it online.

Steps:

Visit http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/

http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/Account/Register.aspx

cell number, e-mail address, Aadhaar Card numbers and full name. While registering, the users will have to decide a password for the account. Then, a One-Time Password will be generated to user for verification.

For logging in, the users will have to use cell phone number or mail id as user ID and enter the password. A Captcha code will also have to be keyed in. After this, the person will be asked to enter information on the stolen vehicle —type of vehicle, manufacturing firm, visual description, engine or chassis number, manufacturing year, vehicle model and registration number. The users will be asked the place from where the vehicle was stolen and time or time span of theft. After filling in the complete information, the user will get a call from the concerned police station and the case will be further followed up.

That's it. It is easy.

For any query or help, please feel free to write.

Please excuse me for below bad translation as I am using google translate services. The idea is to let our other Indian fellow also understand it.

Govind

Mumbai

25th April 2017

यह एक दुःस्वप्न है जब आपकी कार, बाइक या कोई वाहन भारत में चोरी हो जाता है। आप आमतौर पर लोगों से सुनेंगे "किसी को अपने जीवन में डॉक्टर, अदालत, पुलिस थाने और वकील से कभी भी नहीं जाना चाहिए"

भारत में प्राथमिकी दर्ज करना आसान नहीं है। आपको अभी भी पुलिस स्टेशन जाना पड़ता है, उसे घंटों तक इंतजार करना पड़ता है, पुलिसकर्मियों की तरह एक आपराधिक सवाल पूछना पड़ता है और वे एफआईआर दर्ज करने के लिए हमेशा अनिच्छुक होते हैं वे अपना अपराध दर कम दिखाना चाहते हैं

हालांकि, महाराष्ट्र सरकार और पुलिस ने वाहन चोरी की शिकायत पंजीकरण को आसान बनाने के लिए आसान बना दिया है। अब आप इसे ऑनलाइन कर सकते हैं

कदम:

यात्रा http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/

निम्नलिखित लिंक पर क्लिक करके एक नया उपयोगकर्ता के रूप में पंजीकृत करें:

Http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/Account/Register.aspx

सेल नंबर, ई-मेल एड्रेस, आधार कार्ड नंबर और पूर्ण नाम। पंजीकरण करते समय, उपयोगकर्ताओं को खाता के लिए पासवर्ड तय करना होगा। उसके बाद, सत्यापन के लिए उपयोगकर्ता के लिए एक-एक बार पासवर्ड तैयार किया जाएगा।

प्रवेश करने के लिए, उपयोगकर्ताओं को सेल फोन नंबर या मेल आईडी को यूजर आईडी के रूप में इस्तेमाल करना होगा और पासवर्ड दर्ज करना होगा। एक कैप्चा कोड को भी चार्ज करना होगा। उसके बाद, व्यक्ति को वाहन के वाहन, विनिर्माण फर्म, दृश्य विवरण, इंजन या चेसिस नंबर, विनिर्माण वर्ष, वाहन मॉडल और पंजीकरण संख्या के बारे में जानकारी दर्ज करने के लिए कहा जाएगा। । उपयोगकर्ताओं को उस जगह से कहा जाएगा जहां से वाहन चोरी हो गया था और चोरी का समय या समय था। पूरी जानकारी भरने के बाद, उपयोगकर्ता को संबंधित पुलिस थाने से एक कॉल मिल जाएगी और मामले को आगे बढ़ाया जाएगा।

बस। यह आसान है।

किसी भी प्रश्न या सहायता के लिए, कृपया लिखने में संकोच न करें

गोविंद

मुंबई

25 अप्रैल 2017

ही एक दुःस्वप्न आहे जेव्हा आपली कार, दुचाकी किंवा कोणतीही वाहन भारतामध्ये चोरी होते. आपण सामान्यतः लोकांकडून ऐकू शकता "आपल्या आयुष्यात डॉक्टर, न्यायालय, पोलिस स्टेशन आणि वकील कधीही भेटू नये"

भारतामध्ये एफआयआर नोंदणी करणे सोपे नाही. आपल्याला अजूनही पोलिस स्थानकात जाणे आवश्यक आहे, तास वाट पाहणे गरजेचे आहे, गुन्हेगाराप्रमाणे पोलिसांकडून प्रश्नांचा सामना करावा लागतो आणि ते नेहमी एफआयआर नोंदविण्यास नाखूष असतात. ते त्यांचे गुन्हेगारीचे प्रमाण कमी दाखवायचे आहेत.

तथापि, महाराष्ट्र सरकार आणि पोलिसांनी वाहन चोरी तक्रारी नोंदणी सोपी करणे सोपे केले आहे. आता आपण ते ऑनलाइन करू शकता

पायऱ्या:

Http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/ ला भेट द्या

खालील दुव्यावर क्लिक करून नवीन वापरकर्त्याच्या रुपात नोंदणी करा:

Http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/Account/Register.aspx

सेल नंबर, ई-मेल ऍड्रेस, आधार कार्ड नंबर आणि संपूर्ण नाव. नोंदणी करताना, वापरकर्त्यांनी खात्यासाठी पासवर्ड ठरवावा लागेल. नंतर, सत्यापनासाठी वापरकर्त्यास एक-वेळ संकेतशब्द व्युत्पन्न केला जाईल.

लॉगिंगसाठी, वापरकर्त्यांना सेल फोन नंबर किंवा मेल आयडीचा उपयोग यूजर आयडी म्हणून करावा लागेल आणि पासवर्ड द्यावा लागेल. यानंतर कॅप्चा कोड लावावे लागतील. यानंतर चोरी झालेल्या वाहनावर वाहन, उत्पादन फर्म, व्हिज्युअली वर्णन, इंजिन किंवा चेसिस नंबर, उत्पादन वर्ष, वाहन मॉडेल आणि नोंदणी क्रमांक . वापरकर्त्यांना चोरीची ठिकाणे आणि चोरीची वेळ किंवा कालावधी जिथून ती ठिकाणे विचारले जाईल. संपूर्ण माहिती भरल्यानंतर, संबंधित पोलीस ठाण्याकडून त्याला एक कॉल मिळेल व त्यानंतर पुढील सुनावणी पुढे येईल.

बस एवढेच. हे सोपे आहे

कोणत्याही क्वेरीसाठी किंवा मदतीसाठी, कृपया मोकळ्या मनाने हा.

गोविंद

मुंबई

25 एप्रिल 2017

ನಿಮ್ಮ ಕಾರು, ಬೈಕು ಅಥವಾ ಯಾವುದೇ ವಾಹನಗಳು ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಅಪಹರಿಸಿದಾಗ ಅದು ದುಃಸ್ವಪ್ನ. "ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಒಬ್ಬರು ವೈದ್ಯರು, ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯ, ಪೊಲೀಸ್ ಠಾಣೆ ಮತ್ತು ಅವರ ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ವಕೀಲರನ್ನು ಭೇಟಿ ಮಾಡಬಾರದು"

ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಎಫ್ಐಆರ್ ದಾಖಲಿಸುವುದು ಸುಲಭವಲ್ಲ. ನೀವು ಇನ್ನೂ ಪೊಲೀಸ್ ಠಾಣೆಗೆ ಹೋಗಬೇಕು, ಗಂಟೆಗಳ ಕಾಲ ಕಾಯಬೇಕು, ಅಪರಾಧಿಯಂತಹ ಪೊಲೀಸರ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಎದುರಿಸಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಅವರು ಯಾವಾಗಲೂ ಎಫ್ಐಆರ್ ದಾಖಲಿಸಲು ಇಷ್ಟವಿರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಅವರು ತಮ್ಮ ಅಪರಾಧ ಪ್ರಮಾಣವನ್ನು ಕಡಿಮೆ ತೋರಿಸಲು ಬಯಸುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ಹೇಗಾದರೂ, ವಾಹನ ಕಳ್ಳತನ ದೂರನ್ನು ನೋಂದಣಿ ಸುಲಭ ನೋಂದಾಯಿಸಲು ಮಹಾರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಸರಕಾರ ಮತ್ತು ಪೊಲೀಸರು ಸುಲಭ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈಗ ನೀವು ಇದನ್ನು ಆನ್ಲೈನ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಡಬಹುದು.

ಕ್ರಮಗಳು:

Http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/ ಗೆ ಭೇಟಿ ನೀಡಿ

ಕೆಳಗಿನ ಲಿಂಕ್ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡುವ ಮೂಲಕ ಹೊಸ ಬಳಕೆದಾರರಾಗಿ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಮಾಡಿ:

Http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/Account/Register.aspx

ಸೆಲ್ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ, ಇ-ಮೇಲ್ ವಿಳಾಸ, ಆಧಾರ್ ಕಾರ್ಡ್ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಪೂರ್ಣ ಹೆಸರು. ನೋಂದಾಯಿಸುವಾಗ, ಬಳಕೆದಾರರು ಖಾತೆಯ ಪಾಸ್ವರ್ಡ್ ಅನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ನಂತರ, ಒಂದು ಬಾರಿ ಪಾಸ್ವರ್ಡ್ ಪರಿಶೀಲನೆಗಾಗಿ ಬಳಕೆದಾರರಿಗೆ ರಚಿಸಲಾಗುವುದು.

ಪ್ರವೇಶಿಸಲು, ಬಳಕೆದಾರರು ಬಳಕೆದಾರರ ID ಯಂತೆ ಸೆಲ್ ಫೋನ್ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಅಥವಾ ಮೇಲ್ ಐಡಿ ಅನ್ನು ಬಳಸಬೇಕು ಮತ್ತು ಗುಪ್ತಪದವನ್ನು ನಮೂದಿಸಬೇಕು. ಒಂದು ಕ್ಯಾಪ್ಚಾ ಕೋಡ್ ಸಹ ಸೈನ್ ಇನ್ ಮಾಡಬೇಕಾಗಿದೆ. ಇದರ ನಂತರ, ವಾಹನ, ಉತ್ಪಾದನಾ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆ, ದೃಶ್ಯ ವಿವರಣೆ, ಎಂಜಿನ್ ಅಥವಾ ಚಾಸಿಸ್ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ, ಉತ್ಪಾದನಾ ವರ್ಷ, ವಾಹನ ಮಾದರಿ ಮತ್ತು ನೋಂದಣಿ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆಯ ಸ್ಟೋಲನ್ ವಾಹನ-ಬಗೆಗಿನ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯನ್ನು ಪ್ರವೇಶಿಸಲು ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ಕೇಳಲಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. . ವಾಹನವನ್ನು ಕಳವು ಮಾಡಿದ ಸ್ಥಳದಿಂದ ಮತ್ತು ಕಳ್ಳತನದ ಸಮಯ ಅಥವಾ ಸಮಯದ ಸಮಯವನ್ನು ಬಳಕೆದಾರರಿಗೆ ಕೇಳಲಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ತುಂಬಿದ ನಂತರ, ಬಳಕೆದಾರರಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಪಟ್ಟ ಪೊಲೀಸ್ ಠಾಣೆಯಿಂದ ಕರೆ ದೊರೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರಕರಣವನ್ನು ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಅನುಸರಿಸಲಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.

ಅದು ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ. ಇದು ಸುಲಭ.

ಯಾವುದೇ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಅಥವಾ ಸಹಾಯಕ್ಕಾಗಿ, ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಬರೆಯಲು ಮುಕ್ತವಾಗಿರಿ.

ಗೋವಿಂದ್

ಮುಂಬೈ

25 ನೇ ಏಪ್ರಿಲ್ 2017

உங்கள் கார், பைக் அல்லது எந்த வாகனம் இந்தியாவில் திருடப்பட்டாலும் இது ஒரு கனவு. "பொதுவாக ஒரு மருத்துவர், ஒரு நீதிமன்றம், ஒரு பொலிஸ் நிலையம் மற்றும் ஒரு வக்கீல் அவர்களின் வாழ்க்கையில் ஒருவரையும் ஒருபோதும் சந்திக்கக்கூடாது"

இந்தியாவில் எஃப்.ஐ.ஆர் பதிவு செய்வது எளிதானது அல்ல. நீங்கள் இன்னமும் பொலிஸ் நிலையத்திற்குச் செல்ல வேண்டும், மணி நேரம் காத்திருக்க வேண்டும், ஒரு குற்றவாளி போலீசாரிடம் இருந்து கேள்விகளை எதிர்கொள்ள வேண்டும், மேலும் ஒரு FIR ஐ பதிவு செய்ய எப்பொழுதும் தயக்கம் காட்டுகிறீர்கள். அவர்கள் குற்றம் விகிதம் குறைந்த காட்ட வேண்டும்.

எனினும், ஒரு வாகன திருட்டு புகார் பதிவு எளிதாக பதிவு செய்ய மகாராஷ்டிரா அரசு மற்றும் போலீஸ் எளிதானது. இப்போது நீங்கள் அதை ஆன்லைனில் செய்யலாம்.

படிகள்:

Http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/ ஐப் பார்வையிடவும்

பின்வரும் இணைப்பைக் கிளிக் செய்வதன் மூலம் புதிய பயனராக பதிவு செய்யவும்:

http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/Account/Register.aspx

செல் எண், மின்னஞ்சல் முகவரி, ஆத்ஹார் அட்டை எண்கள் மற்றும் முழு பெயர். பதிவு செய்யும் போது, பயனர்கள் கணக்கில் கடவுச்சொல்லைத் தீர்மானிக்க வேண்டும். பின்னர், ஒரு நேர கடவுச்சொல் சரிபார்ப்புக்கு பயனர் உருவாக்கப்படும்.

உள்நுழைவதற்கு, பயனர்கள் பயனாளர் ஐடியாக செல்போன் எண்ணை அல்லது மின்னஞ்சல் ஐடியைப் பயன்படுத்த வேண்டும் மற்றும் கடவுச்சொல்லை உள்ளிடவும். ஒரு கேப்ட்சா குறியீடாகவும், அதன் பிறகு, வாகனத்தை, உற்பத்தி நிறுவனம், காட்சி விவரம், இயந்திரம் அல்லது சேஸ் எண், உற்பத்தி ஆண்டு, வாகன மாடல் மற்றும் பதிவு எண் . வாகனத்தை திருடப்பட்ட இடத்திலிருந்து திருட்டுத் திருட்டு நேரத்தையும் அல்லது நேரத்தையும் பயனர்கள் கேட்கும். முழு தகவல்களையும் பூர்த்தி செய்த பின்னர், சம்பந்தப்பட்ட பொலிஸ் நிலையத்திலிருந்து ஒரு அழைப்பினைப் பெறுவீர்கள், மேலும் வழக்கு தொடரும்.

அவ்வளவுதான். இது எளிதானது.

எந்தவொரு வினாவிற்கும் அல்லது உதவியைப் பெற, தயவுசெய்து எழுதுக.

கோவிந்த்

மும்பை

25 ஏப்ரல் 2017

یہ آپ کی گاڑی، موٹر سائیکل یا کسی بھی گاڑی بھارت میں چوری ہو جب ایک ڈراؤنا خواب ہے. تم عام لوگوں سے سن لیں گے "ایک ایک ڈاکٹر، ایک عدالت نے ایک پولیس سٹیشن اور ان کی زندگی میں ایک وکیل کا دورہ نہیں کرنا چاہئے"

بھارت میں ایف آئی آر درج آسان نہیں ہے. آپ اب بھی، پولیس اسٹیشن پر جانے کے لئے کی ضرورت گھنٹے انتظار کرنے کی ضرورت ہے ایک مجرم کی طرح پولیس والوں کے سوالوں کا سامنا کرنا پڑے اور وہ ہمیشہ ایک ایف آئی آر درج کرنے سے گریزاں ہیں. انہوں نے ان کے جرائم کی شرح کم دکھانا چاہتا ہوں.

تاہم، مہاراشٹر حکومت اور پولیس یہ آسان ایک گاڑی چوری کی شکایت کی رجسٹریشن آسان رجسٹر کرنے کے بنا دیا ہے. اب آپ اسے آن لائن کر سکتے ہیں.

اقدامات:

http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/ کا دورہ

لنک مندرجہ ذیل کلک کر کے ایک نئے صارف کے طور پر رجسٹر:

http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/Account/Register.aspx

سیل نمبر، ای میل ایڈریس، آدھار کارڈ نمبر اور مکمل نام. رجسٹر کرنے کے دوران، صارفین کے اکاؤنٹ کے لئے ایک پاس ورڈ کو فیصلہ کرنا پڑے گا. اس کے بعد، ایک ایک وقت پاس ورڈ کی توثیق کے لئے صارف کے لئے پیدا کیا جائے گا.

میں لاگ ان ہونے کے لئے، صارفین کو صارف کی شناخت کے طور پر سیل فون نمبر یا میل ID استعمال اور پاس ورڈ درج کرنا ہوگا. ایک کیپچا کے کوڈ بھی میں keyed کرنا پڑے گا. اس کے بعد اس شخص گاڑی، مینوفیکچرنگ فرم، بصری وضاحت، انجن یا chassis نمبر، مینوفیکچرنگ سال، گاڑی کے ماڈل اور رجسٹریشن نمبر کی چوری شدہ گاڑی کی قسم کے بارے میں معلومات درج کرنے کے لئے کہا جائے گا . صارفین کی گاڑی چوری اور چوری کے وقت یا وقت کا دورانیہ گیا جہاں سے جگہ کہا جائے گا. مکمل معلومات میں بھرنے کے بعد، صارف متعلقہ پولیس اسٹیشن سے ایک کال مل جائے گا اور کیس کو مزید اپ کی پیروی کی جائے گی.

یہی ہے. یہ آسان ہے.

کسی بھی سوال یا مدد کے لئے، لکھنے کے لئے براہ مہربانی بلا جھجھک.

گووند

ممبئی

25th اپریل 2017

यसलाई आफ्नो कार, बाइक वा कुनै पनि सवारी भारत चोरी प्राप्त गर्दा एक डरलाग्दो सपना छ। तपाईं सामान्यतः मानिसहरू सुन्न हुनेछ "एक एक डाक्टर, एक अदालत, एक प्रहरी चौकी र आफ्नो जीवन मा एक वकील कहिल्यै भ्रमण गर्नुपर्छ"

भारत FIR दर्ता सजिलो छैन। तपाईं अझै पनि एक आपराधिक जस्तै प्रहरी प्रश्न सामना गर्नुपर्ने, प्रहरी चौकी जान आवश्यक घण्टा प्रतीक्षा गर्न आवश्यक र तिनीहरूले सधैं एक FIR दर्ता गर्न हिचकिचाउने। तिनीहरूले अपराध दर कम देखाउन चाहन्छु।

तर, महाराष्ट्र सरकार र प्रहरी सजिलो एक वाहन चोरी उजुरी दर्ता सजिलो दर्ता गरेको छ। अब तपाईं यसलाई अनलाइन गर्न सक्नुहुन्छ।

चरण:

http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/ भ्रमण

क्लिक गरेर एउटा नयाँ प्रयोगकर्ता लिंक निम्न रूपमा दर्ता:

http://www.vahanchoritakrar.com/Account/Register.aspx

सेल नम्बर, ई-मेल ठेगाना, Aadhaar कार्ड संख्या र पूरा नाम। दर्ता गर्दा, प्रयोगकर्ता खाता लागि पासवर्ड निर्णय हुनेछ। त्यसपछि, एक समय पासवर्ड प्रमाणिकरण लागि प्रयोगकर्ता उत्पन्न हुनेछ।

लग इन लागि, प्रयोगकर्ताहरू प्रयोगकर्ता आईडी रूपमा सेल फोन नम्बर वा मेल आईडी प्रयोग र पासवर्ड प्रविष्ट गर्न हुनेछ। एक क्याप्चा कोड पनि keyed गर्न हुनेछ। यस पछि, व्यक्ति वाहन, विनिर्माण दृढ, दृश्य वर्णन, इन्जिन वा चेसिस नम्बर, विनिर्माण वर्ष, वाहन मोडेल र दर्ता नम्बर को चोरी वाहन -प्रकार जानकारी प्रविष्ट गर्न आग्रह गरिनेछ । प्रयोगकर्ताहरु लाई वाहन चोरी र चोरी को समय वा समय अवधि थियो जहाँ बाट स्थान आग्रह गरिने छ। पूर्ण जानकारी भर्नु पछि, प्रयोगकर्ता चिन्तित प्रहरी चौकी देखि एक कल प्राप्त हुनेछ र मामला थप अप पछि गरिनेछ।

कि यो हो। यो सजिलो छ।

कुनै पनि प्रश्न वा मद्दत लागि sampark garnu hos

गोबिन्द

मुम्बई

25 अप्रिल 2017

NDA government's decision to stop circulation of old Rs. 500 and 1000 notes and my review

2016-11-09T05:59:00.003-08:00

Since the news broke yesterday evening, it was like havoc kind of situation everywhere. People were clueless what to do. Suddenly, as usual, whatsapp and social media flooded with lot of message. I am part of various HR group, personal group, friends group and it was so irritating that wherever I had control, I had to tell people- stop it!

We had a group of people traveling from my town to Thane specially for traffic update (after failure of government machineries to control traffic , it was created to help the commuters to opt alternate route. The admin was very strict, he first warned and then started removing people. I had to warn the same thing to my school friends group. In another professional group, someone, a highly learned professional started telling those opposing or saying against it are pseudo intellectual. There was so much trash, so much garbage, unimaginable.

On facebook, one of my facebook friend expressed that this may cause inconvenience to general public then suddenly with the pseudo name "Aman Chain" started attacking him. What a sad. We found a new jokers who knows english but highly uncivilised. He said himself as a founder of a startup called sell24X7 and from Delhi. He had all bullshit statement propagated over the internet. For sometime, I felt he is being paid for it. Here is the snapshot:

He even does not have dare to reveal his real name. I doubt if he has dare to do so. Such venomous people exist in the society. He talked big about hinduism and when asked to help, he did not dare. Sad actually. Such social media "activists" exist who are basically unemployed people.

Now, here is my view about the issue:

Is the decision good?

Yes, definitely good.

the current decision of withdrawing old notes from circulation is more than the black money it is related to the supply of counterfeit notes distributed by ISI, terrorists organisation, our own countrymen due to greed. In US 1 out of every 1000 note is counterfeit and in India it is 250 out of every 10000 notes are counterfeit . To deal with it, It could not be communicated in advance and giving larger time gap would not have helped hence the immediate announcement just few hours time block is an appropriate decision.

Does it help to control Black money?

I doubt. Largest black money is with politicians from all parties and Modi cannot take risk of that. He will commit a political suicide by doing so. The black money owners are politicians, media houses, Industries , mafia and construction sectors. Although my mother is not a graduate, post graduate or something with so called qualification tag, her question in the morning was what if Modi have informed all politicians and they have taken care of all the cash they had. (and to think logically you do not need an educational qualification or a degree). I agree to her (mind it, my family is staunch BJP supporter and have voted BJP and Shivsena as an alternate option, telling this so Bhakta should not attack).

It may control black money at lower level such as small time businessmen and shopkeeper for a time being but not in a long run. Because as soon as the new note will come, the new notes will be in transaction but without accounting, without being reported as an income. *It wont hurt middle class regularly reporting true income and those with low income profile, salaries people not at all*

Option: nothing as such. Most of us salaried people do transaction through credit card, debit card, net banking etc so we need not to worry. We are allowed to withdraw 4000 per day that is more than enough.

All constructive criticism, politically not aligned and not flavoured with Bhakti are welcome. We are educated so need to apply logic rather than emotion.

Modi is a good marketeer he used his mother, wife, family and army and he won't let this opportunity to go and do maximum advertising and PR as attack on black money. Wrong or right, I don't know I leave readers to use their brain and own intellectuality to judge.

Jhallia, Ishq Kamana Okha- O fool, it is difficult to earn love, another excellent song from Coke Studio

2016-09-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

I follow Coke studio- both India and Pakistan and like many of my Indian fellow, I too prefer Pakistan Coke Studio is better than us due to several reason. First, they have revived the old poetry and songs, second the quality of the singers are much better. We still focussed on traditional playback singer whereas they brought mix of many singers across the nation.

No doubt, Rohail Hyatt's production was better ans string has done damage by bringing commercialism in the coke studio.

I had been waiting agerly for the announcement of season 9 and as soon as songs released, I just started watching and listening.

You can enjoy coke studio songs only by

1. First watching the video and see how each of them work in harmony, the chorus, their expression, the musician and the band.

2. When you searched meaning of those lines and understand the song from heart.

3. And when you listen those songs again and again.

I wanted to write review right from the episode 1, but due to many other commitment, I could not. In the episode 1, I liked aaja re more Saiyyan (and my 3+ years old daughter can sing it along, its favourite song for my entire family. I definitely have much affection for noorie and it was nice to see them back on action after a long time. I must say they are creating magic.

I will write my experience and review of those songs later.

Actually coke studio episode 2 and 3 completely disappointed me. Episode 4 was however something better. In episode 5, I came across the song Jhallia. This is the best song I felt in the episode 5 and I urge true music lover to watch this. Masooma Anwar came with a very different voice and face. There isn't much information available about her. If you do not watch the video, you may find difficult to mistaken it as a male voice.

Here is the video and its translation

I have heard Javed Bashir in Rona Chhod diya. My interpretation is he is classically well trained and bless for ear, mind and soul.

Here is the lyrics and its translation

jhalliya, Ishq Kamana Okha

O foolish one, It is difficult to earn love.

kise noon yaar banauna aukha

To make someone your true beloved is a difficult

pyaar pyaar te har koyi aakhe

Anyone can babble and talk about love

kar ke pyaar nibhauna aukha

But to fulfill love’s true pledge is a difficult task

har koi dukkhaan te hass lainda

Anyone can laugh through their tears

kise da dard wanḍaauna aukha

But to truly share in someone’s sorrows is a difficult task

gallaan naal rutbe naeen milde

Words alone can’t earn you the recognition of a true lover

te sachhe yaar naeen milde

You will have to prove yourself to please your beloved

jogi bhes waṭauna aukha

To become a jogi like Ranjha did is a difficult task

ratiyaan jagaaye ‘ishq

Love drives away your sleep

kamli banaaye ‘ishq

Love drives you beyond sanity

sooli chaṛhaaye ‘ishq more piya

Love drives you to the gallows like Mansur Hallaj

sooli chaṛhaaye ‘ishq more piya

Love drives you to the gallows like Mansur Hallaj

sab kucch luṭaaye ‘ishq

Love makes you sacrifice everything

kuchh na bachaaye ‘ishq

Love leaves you with nothing

apni manaaye ‘ishq more piya

Loves does whatever it pleases

e sachhe yaar naeen milde

You will have to prove yourself to please your beloved

jogi bhes waṭauna aukha

To become a jogi like Ranjha did is a difficult task

tera zikr meri har baat men hai

You are constantly in my thoughts

tu paas naheen par saath men hai

Even while far from me, you remain with me

main tujh se bichaṛ kar jaaoon kahaan

How could I ever part from you and leave?

tera ‘ishq to meri zaat men hai

Love for you is part of my very being

dardaan di maari jind

Life is overcome with anguish

ro ro ke haari jind

Life weeps in defeat

tarse wechaari jind labhdi piya

Life yearns for the beloved

‘ishq ch saari jind

Life becomes all about love

sajnaan ton waari jind

Life is sacrificed for the sweetheart

maare uḍaari jind labhdi piya

Life goes to any length for the beloved

gallaan naal rutbe naeen milde

Words alone can’t earn you the recognition of a true lover

te sachhe yaar naeen milde

You will have to prove yourself to please your beloved

jogi bhes waṭauna aukha

To become a jogi like Ranjha did is a difficult task

The lyrics is mixed of Punjabi and Urdu. The initial lines are from great sufi poet Baba Bulleh Shah. The original lyrics is

Jhalia Ishaq Kaman Okha

Kisy Nu Yaar Bana Okha

Pyar Pyar Te Hr Koi Ko Key

Kr Kay Pyar Nibhna Okha

Hr Koi Dukhan Ty Has Lenda

Kisy Da Dard Wandna Okha

Galan Naal Nhi Rutbay Milday

Jogi Bhees Wtana Okha

Koi Kise Di Gaal Nhi Sunda (nobody listen to others)

Lokaan Nu Samjna Okha…!!! (It is difficult to understand people)

I am sure you will enjoy this song.

Govind

Mumbai

September 14, 2016

Will Smith Quotes

2016-07-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

Good morning friends,

Social media is amazing and when we utilise it in a right way, it becomes a self development tool and it has rich content , wisdom and open many door.

I have been following Will Smith on Twitter for a while. I admire him as an actor and loved him as an actor. Whether is national security or men in the black series. His tweets are worth to read and full of wisdom. I thought to publish few of his best wisdom, quote and thought here. They are worth to read, remember, follow and thought provoking.

Here you go

"Do what makes you happy, be with who makes you smile, laugh as much as you breathe, and love as long as you live."

"Things worth having are worth waiting for."

"Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful."

"Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness."

"Love people for who they are instead of judging them for who they are not."

"The mind is everything; what you think, you become."

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."

"You are valuable and irreplaceable. If you are ever told otherwise, do not believe it."

"Do not let the shadows of your past darken the doorstep of your future. Forgive and forget."

"You are not what has happened to you. You are what you choose to become."

"Create a life that feels good on the inside, not one that just looks good on the outside."

"When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you."

"Work hard in silence; let success make the noise."

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do."

"The strongest people aren't always the people who win, but the people who don't give up when they lose"

"The only person you should strive to be better than, is the person you were yesterday."

(This is spot on. I always tell people, your competition should be with you, nobody else. So true.)

"Dream it.

Believe it.

Achieve it."

"If it is important to you, you will find a way. If it's not, you'll find an excuse."

"I'm strong because I know my weaknesses. I'm wise because I've been foolish. I laugh because I've known sadness."

"Patience is not the ability to wait, but how you act while you're waiting."

"Don't be afraid to start over. It's a brand new opportunity to rebuild what you truly want."

That's all for today. Please share your feedback. If you want to get more dose of Will Smith, follow him on Twitter at @imWillSmith

Govind

Mumbai

July 27, 2016

Dhamar book review, another Airlift in making

2016-06-20T03:54:00.000-07:00

I do not know how I got connected to Biju Verghese (author of the book Dhamar, a fiction), on facebook and he gifted me his book.

Getting a book as a gift is the most precious one. I am fond of reading books. Reading a book enhance your creativity, imagination and thinking capacity. A good author, specially fiction author is one, who connect the plot and character of the story with the reader. When he writes something connecting to real incident, he does a good research, study Socio, political and geogrpahical context of the region which is in story. I must say, Biju has done this well. The name of the characters, places, real incidents, location etc. This reminds me Lajja by Taslima Nasreen. I am not comparing anyone, just connecting styles and pieces.

What is Dhamar?

Dhamar is a novel, a fiction based on Indian government's evacuation operation in Yemen in 2015 where Minister of State General V k Singh was self present in Yemen while rescuing Indian from the war torn country. We rescued not only our people, but also helped Asian, our neighbours such as Sri Lankan, Nepalese, Bangladeshis, Pakistani, US and other countries. Pakistanis also rescued Indian, no doubt and Biju mentions it well in his book.

Dhamar is a University in Yemen

The story revolves around protagonist of the story Prakash who is working as an administrative staff in Dhamar University alongwith his two friends (Chatura, a Sri Lankan and Rahman, a Bangladeshi). I don't know why Biju chosen two very close friends from our two neighbors, two allies who are indeed our friends (not Nepal and Bhutan or Afghanistan who are our closer friends), possibly he wanted to bring diversity and philosophy of culture, I.e. Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam, the whole world is my home).

Novel is divided in several chapters and each chapter is short , goes with story in Yemen and in Flashback in India. Chapters are short so it engages readers well. The Flashback story is also well connected. Language is simple. He did not use any erotic lines just to sell the book. Like, the physical relationship is described as "sweet shop burgled" and this line is enough to give imagination to the adult author and nothing for the young audience. I found similar maturity in Resonance (searchy blog to know about this book).

The story is all about a middle class boy, a middle class family who aspire to live happy life but things change in the life. They struggle to live life with basic necessity and how so called friends try to take advantage of that. A father who loves his daughter a lot (Prabha/ Pappy), why middle class or lower middle class have to migrate middle East to make life better (same is the story of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, AP, Telangana, West Bengal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and other Asian countries). How they suffer the life over there, the circumstances which leads to opting such job far away from their families. What happens to family when such unforeseen civil war breaks whether it is Yemen or Kuwait. Plight of the labours and nurses who takes loan to study and to get job abroad when they do not want to leave when even their life is in danger. The book is good from parenting aspect also and how it illustrate how parents need to change their attitude towards children and their relationship including giving freedom to them.

The book is good, but still need few improvements like instead of using you and I, it is written as I and you. That brings an obstacle if the readers are habitual of reading it correctly I.e. you and I. The language and sentences are loosely composed and it looks like a chat transcript sometime. That should be improved with further proof reading and editing. If it is done, I am sure it will be hugely popular.

When I said another Airlift in making, I didn't mean to say this book is inspired from the movie, not at all. The book is completely original and does not resemble at all with the movie Airlift. It can definitely inspire a movie producer to make a movie based on evacuation operation and has a good material to show the world what happens to family of such people when such emergency arises.

Conclusion: you must read this boom whether you love fiction, whetheer you want to know what happened in Yemen ans what would have happened to expats and local people, whether you are a parent and even if you value good books. Its definitely not an easy task to write such a good book.

Thanks Biju. Visit Biju's and book's official page at

You can buy book online at Amazon, Snapdeal and eBay.

Here is Biju's official fb profile

https://m.facebook.com/biju.vargheese.94

And here is Dhamar official page

https://m.facebook.com/dhamarstory/

Happy reading

Govind

Mumbai

June 20, 2016

Poster girl- a marathi movie you must watch

2016-03-02T07:30:00.001-08:00

Watched Poster Girl (पोष्टर गर्ल)- a very good marathi movie. I am blessed to be able to understand Marathi as good as my mother tongue. This movie has everything, if you want to learn leadership lesson, how a girl change attitude of whole villager, how bring them back to farming, raise issue of female foeticide, courage, issue a farmer face, why people do not opt agriculture and so on. I wonder of Kalyan Shitole has written review of this movie. Actually Marathi cinema should start dubbing of Marathi movies in Hindi as well as other Indian language of they cannot remake it. At least people get relief from high Melodrama and useless south Indian action movies which does not educate us, they even do not entertain.

I have watched various Marathi movies such as Natsamrat (recently), premachi gosht, Lokmanya, Duniyadari and they all are wonderful.

Such marathi movies must be broadcasted with english subtitle so it can reach globally. They are worth to be watched with family (recent such movie was Neerja)

The artists performed well so the entire production team. You need to work from heart to produce a nice thing, a master piece. The movie has good singers so the music. For scene, definitely you do not need to go overseas location, you have good location within Maharashtra, within India.
Well done the entire team.

Things you must know about Right to Education Act

2015-10-04T03:59:00.000-07:00

Right to education Act is a buzzword now and many are wondering about it. Yes, it is a big failure due to certain reason.
RTE

Social cost benefit survey of Mumbai Metro

2015-09-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends, I need your help. We are conducting a survey on social cost benefit of Mumbai Metro. This is a very important survey and we aim to collect at least 500 samples. Please fill this survey and also share it to your employees, friends and circles.
Loading...

Vodafone announces Mobile for Good Awards 2015 - Applications now open!

2015-08-13T03:57:00.000-07:00

Mobile is not just an instrument and if used properly, it can be a change instrument.

Vodafone has come with a mobile for good awards. please read and share. Apply, if you are eligible.

Application Deadline: 15th August 2015

Key Dates and Time

22 June 2015

Online applications to 2015 M4G Awards Open!

25 June 2015

Roadshow - Vivanta By Taj – President, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai

10 am until 2.30 pm

2 July 2015

Roadshow – Hyderabad

10 am until 2.30 pm

31 July 2015

Applications close! (now extended till 15^th August)

Mid- September 2015

Announcement of shortlisted nominations for next level of selections

10 October 2015

Mobile for Good Awards 2015 - Grand Jury, New Delhi

Finalists to present in front of Jury

3 December 2015

Mobile for Good Exhibition & Main Awards Event 2015 – Eros Hotel, Nehru Place, New Delhi

Announcement of 2015 Award winners will take place here.

Mobile for Good Awards 2015 - Applications now open!

A platform to recognize and support mobile innovations addressing social issues in India

With one of the largest populations in the world and an urgent need to empower our communities, mobile technology can play a significant role in instrumenting large scale impact across the country. To encourage and celebrate the power of innovative mobile solutions that drive inclusive growth across the country, the Vodafone Foundation launched the ‘Mobile for Good Awards’ in 2011.This year, in an effort to maximise impact and support tech for good projects, the Vodafone Foundation has joined hands with the NASSCOM Foundation for the Mobile for Good initiative.

The M4G Awards 2015 has 2 categories- ‘Leading Change Maker – NPO Category’ and ‘Leading Change Maker – For profit category’ and invites applications across the 4 crucial areas of Health, Education, Women Empowerment & Inclusive Development and Agriculture. The NPO category will focus on recognising all projects by NGOs and NFPs. The For Profit category will focus on initiatives by Social enterprises and individuals. This year, a special category has been introduced for Government led mobile solutions. There will be 5 winners selected from the NGO category, each of whom will receive critical seed funding of 1.2 million each. They will also receive structured mentorship, monitoring and impact evaluation from partner institutions to build scale and capacity over a period of one year.
The 5 winners from the For Profit category will receive special recognition and an opportunity to showcase their innovation at the newly launched ‘Social Apps Marketplace’ in December. There will be one winner in the Government solution category who will receive a recognition certificate on a national platform. If you have a mobile solution impacting our community and building sustainable solutions, apply for the M4G 2015 Awards and stand to win funding/mentorship and national recognition by 15th August, 2015.
To apply for the M4G Awards 2015 and for additional information, visitwww.vodafone.in/mobileforgood. For more information, write to us atmobileforgood.india@vodafone.com.

Credit: http://www.vodafone.in/mobile-for-good/home.html and onecsr.com

Why breast feeding is important

2015-08-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

BREASTFEEDING AWARENESS

Your baby gains many benefits from breastfeeding. Breast milk is easy to digest and has antibodies that can protect your baby from bacterial and viral infections. Breast milk handling and storage is an important area of concern for working mothers. By following safe handling and storage techniques, nursing mothers and caretakers of breastfed infants can maintain the high quality of expressed breast milk and the health of the baby.

Below are some tips:

· Be sure to wash your hands before expressing or handling breast milk.

· Milk may be stored and transported in refrigeration. Freshly expressed milk is safe for infant consumption even when stored at room temperature for up to 6–8 hours. Refrigerated milk can be stored for 5 days.

· When collecting milk, be sure to store it in clean containers, such as screw cap bottles, hard plastic cups with tight caps. Avoid using ordinary plastic storage bags as these could easily leak or spill.

· Expressed milk should be stored in a clean container that can be thoroughly cleaned with hot, soapy water and seals tightly.

· If delivering breast milk to a child care provider, clearly label the container with the child's name and date.

· Do not add fresh milk to already frozen milk within a storage container. It is best not to mix the two.

· Avoid using a microwave oven to heat bottles of breast milk. Uneven heating could easily damage the milk. Excess heat can destroy the nutrient quality of the expressed milk.

· A mother who has a flexible work schedule may take regular breaks to express her milk. Milk expression by the mother as per the frequency with which the infant or child typically nurses (generally every 2-3 hours for infants less than 6 months old) helps a mother maintain her milk supply.

· A breastfeeding mother planning to be apart from her nursing infant may wish to express and store a supply of breast milk for use while she is away. Building one's supply of breast milk is most successful when begun gradually over many weeks in advance of the planned separation. Check with your doctor in such a scenario.

The World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in the month of August by the WHO.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov /breastfeeding/

Courtesy: Marsh Insurance

Inspiring stories of late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

2015-07-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

image credit: https://chaos.physik.uni-dortmund.de/~eswar/eswar-page/DRAPJKALAM_26MAR2002.jpg

I am a fan of late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. He is inspiration for millions, he is an idol for millions, he is inspiration. We, most of us know, how a boy selling a newspaper graduated in engineering and went to ISRO and got title of missile man and finally became President of India. Normally, president of India is a position meant for royal treatment to most of the useless, thrown out politicians and we know how stupid like Pratibha Patil misused the position to do a world tour, protect criminals in her family whereas Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam set many standards and examples. There are a lot to learn from him. Instead of writing many unnecessary things, I am reproducing few of the stories about him.

Story 1

here were about 70 scientists working on a very hectic project. All of them were really frustrated due to the pressure of work and the demands of their boss but everyone was loyal to him and did not think of quitting the job.

One day, one scientist came to his boss and told him - Sir, I have promised to my children that I will take them to the exhibition going on in our township. So I want to leave the office at 5 30 pm.

His boss replied "OK, You're permitted to leave the office early today"

The Scientist started working. He continued his work after lunch. As usual he got involved to such an extent that he looked at his watch when he felt he was close to completion.The time was 8.30 PM. Suddenly he remembered of the promise he had given to his children.

He looked for his boss,,He was not there. Having told him in the morning itself, he closed everything and left for home.

Deep within himself, he was feeling guilty for having disappointed his children.He reached home. Children were not there.His wife alone was sitting in the hall and reading magazines.

The situation was explosive, any talk would boomerang on him. His wife asked him "Would you like to have coffee or shall I straight away serve dinner if

you are hungry.

The man replied "If you would like to have coffee, i too will have but what about Children ??"

Wife replied "You don't know ?? Your manager came here at 5.15 PM and has taken the children to the exhibition "

What had really happened was ... The boss who granted him permission was observing him working seriously at 5.00 PM. He thought to himself, this person will not leave the work, but if he has promised his children they should enjoy the visit to exhibition. So he took the lead in taking them to exhibition

The boss does not have to do it everytime. But once it is done, loyalty is established.

That is why all the scientists at Thumba continued to work under their boss eventhough the stress was tremendous.

By the way , can you guess as who the boss was ????????

He was none other than Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Ex- President of India...!!!

_____________________________________________________________________

Story 2

life is not rocket science

Living on the island of Rameswaram while I was growing up, the sea was an important part of our lives. Its tides, the lapping of the waves, the sound of trains passing on the Pamban bridge, the birds that always circled the town and the salt in the air are sights and sounds that will always remain linked with my memories of childhood. Apart from its sheer presence around us, the sea was also a source of livelihood for our neighbours and us. Almost every household had some connection with the sea, whether as fishermen or as boat owners. My father, too, operated a ferry that took people back and forth between the islands of Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi, which is about 22 kilometres away. I still remember the time when he got the idea for this, and how we built that boat. Rameswaram has, since antiquity, been an important pilgrimage destination. Rama is believed to have stopped here and built the bridge to Lanka when he was on his way to rescue Sita. The temple of Rameswaram is dedicated to Shiva, and houses a lingam fashioned by Sita herself. Some versions of the Ramayana say that Rama, Lakshmana and Sita stopped here to pray to Shiva on their way back to Ayodhya from Lanka. People visiting our town would go to Dhanushkodi as part of their pilgrimage. A bath at SagaraSangam here is considered sacred. The sangam is the meeting place of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Dhanushkodi is now connected by road and vans take pilgrims there, but way back when I was a child, a ferry was also a good way of reaching the island. My father, looking to supplement his not very substantial income, decided to start a ferry business. He started building the boat that we needed for this, all by himself initially, right there on the seashore. Watching the boat come to life from pieces of wood and metal was perhaps my first introduction to the world of engineering. Wood was procured and Ahmed Jalalluddin, a cousin, arrived to help my father out. Every day, I would wait impatiently till I could go to the place where the boat was taking shape. Long pieces of wood were cut into the required shape, dried, smoothened and then joined together. Wood fires seasoned the wood that made up the hull and the bulkheads. Slowly the bottom, then the sides and the hull began to form in front of our eyes. Many years later, in my work, I would learn how to make rockets and missiles. Complex mathematics and scientific research would be the bedrock of those engineering marvels. But that boat coming up on a seashore, which would take pilgrims and fishermen back and forth...who is to say it was not as important or momentous in our lives then? Jalalluddin into my life. He was much older than me, yet we struck up a friendship. He recognised the inherent desire within me to learn and question, and was always there to lend a patient ear and give words of advice. He could read and write English, and spoke to me about scientists and inventions, literature and medicine. Walking with him in the streets of Rameswaram, or by the seaside, or by our boat as it took shape, my mind began to form ideas and ambitions.

The boat business was a great success. My father employed some men to operate it, and groups of pilgrims would use the service to reach Dhanushkodi. There were days when I would slip in among the crowd and sit with the crew as they steered the boat to and from Rameswaram. I heard the story of Rama and how he built the bridge to Lanka with the help of his army of monkeys; how he brought back Sita and stopped at Rameswaram again, so that they could perform penance for having killed Ravana; how Hanuman was told to bring back a

large lingam from far up north, but when he took too long, Sita would not wait and fashioned a lingam with her own hands to worship Shiva. These stories and many others washed around me in different tongues and shapes, as people from all over India used our ferry service. A little boy among so many was always welcome and there would be someone or the other willing to talk to me, share the story of his life and his reasons for making the pilgrimage. And so the years went by. My school, teachers, Ahmed Jalalluddin and others taught me so many things. But the boat and the people who sailed in it were no less important. In this way, among the waves and the sands, laughter and stories, the days flew by. Then one day, disaster struck. The Bay of Bengal is hit frequently by cyclones. The months of November and May in particular are dangerous in this regard. I still remember the night of that terrible cyclone vividly. The wind had picked up speed for days, till it became a howling gale. It screamed and whistled in our ears and pulled and hacked at the trees or anything that stood in its way. Soon, a torrential rain started. We had retreated into our houses much earlier. There was no electricity in those days, and the lamps barely managed to stay alive. In that flickering darkness, with the wind working itself into a frenzy, the sound of the rain lashing down outside, we huddled together and waited for the night to pass. My thoughts travelled again and again to the open seas. Was anyone trapped there? What was it like to be in a storm such as this without your mother’s comforting presence close by? The next morning, after the storm died down, we saw the unbelievable destruction that had been wrought all around us. Trees, houses, plantations were uprooted and devastated. The roads had disappeared under the water and debris blown in by winds that had come in at speeds of over 100 miles an hour. But the worst news of all was the one that hit us like a punch to the stomach. Our boat had been washed away. Now, when I think of that day, I realise that perhaps my father had known this would happen the night before, while we waited for the storm to pass. In his life he had already witnessed so many storms and cyclones. This was just one of them. Yet, he had tried to calm us children down and had made sure we went to sleep without infecting us with his worries. In the light of the morning, seeing his drawn face and the worries lining his eyes, I tried to gather my thoughts. In my mind I mourned our lost ferry boat fiercely. It felt as though something I had made with my own hands had been gathered up and tossed away thoughtlessly.

Yet, my father’s stoicism is what saw us through this crisis too. In time another boat came, and business resumed. Pilgrims and tourists returned. The temple and the mosque filled with worshippers and the markets bustled with men and women, buying and selling once more. Cyclones and storms struck us again and again. I even learnt to sleep through them. Many years later, in 1964, when I was no longer living in Rameswaram, a massive cyclone struck. This time, it carried away a part of the landmass of Dhanushkodi. A train that was on Pamban Bridge at the time was washed away, with many pilgrims inside. It altered the geography of the area, and Dhanushkodi became a ghost town, never really recovering its former character. Even today, remnants of buildings stand there as monuments to the 1964 cyclone. My father lost his ferry boat once more in that storm. He had to rebuild his business yet again. I could not do much to help him practically, for I was far removed from that world. But when I struggled to give shape to the satellite launch vehicle (SLV) rocket, or the Prithvi and Agni missiles, when countdowns and takeoffs were disrupted, and rain came down on our rocket launch sites situated by the sea in Thumba and Chandipur, I always remembered the look on my father’s face the day after the storm. It was an acknowledgement of the power of nature, of knowing what it means to live by the sea and make your living from it. Of knowing that there is a larger energy and force that can crush our ambitions and plans in the blink of an eye, and that the only way to survive is to face your troubles and rebuild your life. A Working Boy at Eight Every morning a large pile of newspapers, both in English and Tamil, is delivered to me. During my travels abroad I like to stay in touch with news from India, which I do by going online to read news articles and editorials in different magazines and papers. The wealth of information now available at the click of a finger amazes me. As a person closely involved with engineering and science, the march of technology should not surprise me, but when I juxtapose our lives today with what it was like 70 years ago, in a small south Indian town, the difference is startling even for me.

I was born in the year 1931. When I was about eight, World War II broke out. Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, and despite the Indian Congress’s opposition, India too, as a British colony, was involved in the war. India’s war effort saw a record number of Indian soldiers being deployed in various war zones around the world. Daily life, however, remained fairly unaffected initially, particularly for us in the southern tip of the country. As I have mentioned, Rameswaram in the 1940s was a sleepy little town that came alive with the arrival of pilgrims. The inhabitants were mostly tradespeople or small businessmen. The town was dominated by the temple, though there was a mosque and a church too. The inhabitants went about their way fairly peacefully, and other than the normal altercations that break out in any town or village, nothing much of importance happened. The only source of information about the outside world was the newspaper. The agency that distributed newspapers was run by my cousin Samsuddin. Along with Jalalluddin, he was a big influence in my early life. Though he could read and write, Samsuddin was not well travelled, nor highly educated.

Yet he had such affection for me and encouraged me in so many ways that he became a guiding light for me. These men understood my deepest thoughts and feelings before I could articulate them. To me they were adults who could reach out beyond the narrow confines of their daily lives and businesses and see the larger world. Samsuddin’s newspaper distribution agency was the only one in Rameswaram. There were about a thousand literate people in the town, and he delivered newspapers to all of them. The papers carried news about the Independence movement that was heading towards a crescendo at the time. These news items would be read and discussed with great gusto with everyone else. There would also be news from the war front, about Hitler and the Nazi army. Of course, there were many mundane matters too, like astrological references or bullion rates, which were consulted with utmost interest. The Tamil paper, Dinamani, was the most popular of all these papers. The way the papers reached Rameswaram was quite unique. They came by morning train and were kept at Rameswaram station. From there, they had to be collected and sent to all the subscribers. This was Samsuddin’s business and he managed it effortlessly. However, as World War II raged, we no longer remained isolated from the world, and it affected my life and the newspaper delivery business in a strange new way. The British government had placed a number of sanctions and rations on goods. Something like a state of emergency now prevailed in the country. Our large family felt the difficulties acutely. Food, clothes, the needs of the babies of the household, all became difficult to procure and provide for. In our family, there were five sons and daughters, as well as my father’s brothers’ families. My grandmother and mother had to stretch every resource to the utmost to keep everyone fed, clothed and in good health. As the difficulties of the war started affecting us, Samsuddin came up with a proposal that excited and delighted me tremendously. One fallout of the conditions was that the rail stop at Rameswaram station had been done away with. What would happen to our papers then? How were they to be collected and then distributed to all the people of the town who were looking forward to their daily dose of news? Samsuddin found a way out. The papers would be kept ready in large bundles. As the train chugged down the Rameswaram Dhanushkodi track, they would be flung out on to the platform. And that is where I came in. Samsuddin ordered me the enjoyable job of catching these bundles of papers being thrown from the moving train and then taking them around town for distribution! My enthusiasm knew no bounds. I was only eight, but I was going to contribute in a meaningful way to the household income! For many days I had noticed the amount of food on my mother’s and grandmother’s plates becoming lesser and lesser as they divided the portions between all of us. The children were always fed first and I don’t remember any of us ever going hungry. Obviously, the women were compromising on their nutrition for us. I agreed to Samsuddin’s orders with alacrity. However, my new job had to be fitted into my regular routine. My studies and school had to continue as before, and the delivery business had to be accommodated amidst all these other activities. Among my siblings and cousins, I had shown an early aptitude for mathematics. My father had arranged for me to take tuitions from our mathematics teacher. However, my teacher had a condition that I, along with the four other students whom he had accepted, needed to reach his home at dawn after having taken a bath. So for a year, which was the duration of the tuition, I started my day while it was still dark outside, with my mother shaking me awake. She herself would have risen before me and got my bath ready. She would then help me bathe and send me on my way to my teacher’s home. There I would study for an hour and return by 5 am. By then my father would be ready to take me to the Arabic School nearby, where I learnt the Quran Sharif.

credit: Wings of Fire/ Outlook

______________________________________________________________________-

Thats all. He will be always remembered as our president, people's president. He did not die enjoying holiday, he did not die while making money, he passed away while inspiring us.

Govind