White Tiger

Sometimes good things come to you when you expect them the least.In this context that good thing was a book: The White Tiger.
I was never very fond of reading fiction. I can read newspaper editorials as they deal with current and real issues but i can't stand some lengthy, verbose and imaginary novel.
Then out of nowhere i found this novel. A novel that's real, hard hitting and compels you to think. To think about this country, its people, its culture and more importantly its future.
It is a success story of a village boy from darkness ( we are privileged ones to be born in lighten India) who comes to Bangalore and starts his own enterprise. Between two ends of the story of this boy, lies the real truth of India. India is not we see or perceive. It may be the country growing with more than 8% annually and may boast of being the single largest and secular democracy of the world but it's not the country that is presented in the pamphlets distributed to the foreign delegates and state guests. This book gives you better insight of the plight and suffering of the less glorified and neglected areas of the country. It mentions each and every aspect of the life of less privileged; from abject poverty to discrimination based on caste ; from indentured labor to dowry; from booth rigging to malfunctioning education system or health care system.
If we don't want another partition of this country in future, we shall understand that all that glitters is not India. India is much more than it. We have to bring those left outs in main stream before the widened gap between the haves and have-nots leads to another fragmentation of country. India is not all about malls and multiplexes, it's is also about huts and slums near railway tracks. India is not all about millions of dollars made out of outsourcing business, it's about people struggling to get square meal a day.
Let's not forget hardships of those 3/4th of us while enjoying the luxuries we get because we are privileged.

Pursuit of happiness

Some days are different from normal ones and when they occur in life, we shall always stride to get full worth of it. Today was one of those for me. I had lots of fun, flying kites whole day. I never had experience of kite flying. So i was slightly hesitant about it. However, as behind every goof up a man makes, there is a woman, my wife insisted. I bought kites and thread.
we got up the terrace early in the morning, only to find that other were more quicker and eager than us. I saw whole sky covered with colorful kites of different shapes and sizes. We started our sail, wife giving 'Kanni' and i having hands on kite flying. We struggled for almost one hour before we could fly our first kite. Withing 2 minutes, somebody cut it down and we have to tie the next one.Fell on electricity wire and torn out. We lost 2 in 2 mins. This trend continued and we lost our kites one by one as BJP lost seats in parliamentary elections. After losing 8 we decided to go down and have lunch. Before that, we successfully flown two kites which came to our terrace after being cut by others.

Situation didn't get better after lunch, and we lost seven ours and 5 others in just two hours. Fifteen (all I had) were gone and i was left with thread, I came down.
So what was the fun i had, if i lost all the way? I would reply to that as,we shall be very clear on the point, that fun and happiness doesn't depend on losing or winning. If you have won, after cheating yourself or compromising your moral or doing what you never wanted to do, it will never lend you in peace or for that matter, bring happiness. It might seem correct at that time but you will regret it some day. If you keep your integrity intact and don't rob or cheat anybody and still you lose ( chance are less), then you shall take lesson from that. But i assure you, you will definitely have peace of mind and eternal happiness at your side. I had the same.

Uttarayan

Tomorrow is 'Uttarayan'. Huh? What Uttarayan? It's the day when sun shifts rising position towards North of east from current south of east.This is a natural phenomenon, days start getting bigger and nights smaller, till May 21 when we have longest day of year. This day is celebrated in different parts of country, with different namesof course. In Punjab, its Lohri, in other parts of North India, it's called Makar Sankranti and in Gujarat it's Uttarayan. As we Gujjus are very fond of food, we never let any festival to go by without having special cuisine associated with it.
With Uttarayan, Undiyo, kind a mixed vegetable but differs in types of vegetables put in and its sweet taste, is closely associated. That's why, vegetable prices ( now i know atta dal ka bhaav) have sharply gone up in view of Uttarayan. Jalebi and Basundi are other two delicious food items loved as much as Undiyo.
So what we all do whole day? Consume food? No. You won't find a single Gujju idle in house on the day. Everybody will be busy with his own kite on his terrace. Whole day it will go on, after all it's Kite flying day which will last for a week. Office attendance will be at minimum in week to come.
Looking forward to it, as i have also invested in kites, so called Manza and vegetables for delicious Undiyo!!

Science of Yoga

Day started as usual as I left for Yoga classes at 5 AM. Today was last day of my beginner’s class and I am now eligible for advance classes starting tomorrow.

I feel good and proud that I did it. From first day of this new year to this day (tenth), I regularly learned basics of Yoga. After attaining classes for ten days, I got better insight about it and discovered that it’s a pure science nothing spiritual or mythological. The Pranayaams, you perform have relation with our major systems in body and their functioning. There are reasons why a particular Assan will be beneficial for particular disease or person and take my word, its all science, no exaggeration. And being a scientist and an educated person, I am bound to be skeptic about it, but I could not find a point to debate on. Moreover, I can feel changes in my life and body, I feel light and relaxed in day, get sound sleep at night, can concentrate on my work, control my thought process and most importantly I have become more organized and disciplined. I find abundant time at my disposal to do all those things what I always wanted to do, particularly helping my wife in kitchen. And yes I did, somewhat succeed to achieve the goal, to reduce my pot belly, for which I joined the class in the first place.

Truth

Its been long since this blog been updated as i was busy with my technical blog.
In new year (2010), i would try my best to be regular and clear on my ideas.
Few days back, i read autobiography(My experiments with truth) of most impressive person in modern history of India, Mahatma Gandhi. I may not have learned anything from that book, but from bottom of my heart felt that if truth is on your side, sooner or later, success will follow you. It corrects the famous dialogue of movie "3 idiots". Now, for me, it's like "Seek excellence and keep unaltered truth on your side, success will follow you." If a meek lawyer, who could not defend his case and conceded defeat without uttering a word, for fear of public speaking, became the leader, having capability to take on colossal British Empire and defeat it, it was because he tread the path of truth.
'So nothing much has to be done', i resolved. Speak the truth and absolute truth only. It might hurt someone temporarily but will benefit both, him and me in long run. If you could not speak truth, it's better to stay mum than uttering a lie. This is my new year resolution apart from one which is to reduce my pot belly and learn Yoga (inspired by the book mentioned above).

Remember the past

Actually this post was written yesterday but due to connection failure I couldn’t post it on to blog.

Today, 28 Feb 2009, Gujarat morns the 9^th Anniversary of the ill famous riots which left nation in a shock. These were the incidents which tainted humanity. In no book of religion whether that is Geeta, Kuran or Bible, they can be justified. How one can justify killing of innocent and guiltless children, old people and women. If any body justifies those deeds must not be a human being leave alone Hindu or Muslim.

But the fact that still not divulged that a particular community was not doing the deeds against another community. I can say this with so much of the confidence because I know that a common Gujarati doesn’t keep a bottle of petrol in pocket to burn somebody’s house or a sword in hand to cut somebody’s throat. No mother will give a sword in his son’s hand and will tell him to kill people, no matter how extremist she might be. It was some insane goons who run the show and fooled people of world that entire community was with them to take so called “Revenge”. I ask them a simple question that, these terrorist blow up the whole train, how many of them thought of picking up a weapon and guard border or go across the border to kill those responsible for that, after all the believe in ‘Revenge’. If they can kill 2000 people for one coach then what about 7/26.Terrorist blew up 7 coaches, how many did they kill? None. Because they were not as gullible or blameless as people living on streets of Ahmedabad or Godhara.

For these people I have only one message

‘ki hai ladna hi to milke lado is bhook se jo bhook hum sabko khaa rahi,

hai jhagadna hi to milke jhagado is aag se ,jo aag hamare ghar jalaa rahi,

Hai khelna hi khoon se to aao phir ,

Seema desh ki tumhe bula rahi.’

People who say that they did it in the name of ‘Ram’ are maligning the name of Ram. Ram himself never attacked anybody. He gave Ravana three chances before killing him.

If someone says he is follower of Ram and kills people, he is lying. Ram lives in heart and doesn’t demand blood. He lives in prosperity and peace.

I feel pity on people who try to earn political brownie points from these things. Like an Hon’ble M.P. stated in the parliament that Army was called in Gujarat on 1 March, three days after the outbreak of riots, but in hurry he forgot that there are only 28 days in February and Army was deployed on the very next day. Please stop these kinds of things, Pseudo secularism and appeasement. If we are equal, we should be treated as equal.

No matter what were the political consequences of the events but I know we cannot fill the void which has been created in the lives of mothers who lost their sons, of sister who lost their brothers or small kids who become orphans and have to face this cruel world alone in this early in life. No compensation can do justice to them. Only thing we can do is to be more sensible and responsible in our acts so that they are not hurt any more. And pray for people whether ‘Ram’ or ‘Rahim’ who were killed in these heinous acts.

Recession??Who cares!

As we all know India's growth story is unique because grows in spite of dire state of Govt and virtually no co-operation from their side.There is a saying in our country that "India grows in nights when our govt sleeps!"This is a sentence you get the meaning of when you read this story.This is a small experience but it clarified to me how this whole economy runs by itself.How the money is getting transfered from the riches to the poor.
One day after office, i went to a barber shop.When i reached there, i saw barber was preoccupied with another customer. I decided to sit there and read Gujarati newspapers till my turn comes.
As the person just ahead of me was about to be done, there came an Inova in front of the shop.A kid not more than 10 year old came along with his maid for his hair cutting. Barber finished the person an ask that boy to sit on to the chair.I told him that i came before so i should be serviced first.He told me that it will take hardly take 10 minutes and then he will cut my hair with peace.
I decided to go by what he said.And i waited.It took exactly 10 minutes.It was time to take the money. Barber charged him Rs 75!After that i had the same cutting,and he charged me Rs 25 .The only difference between me and that kid was that i walked into the shop and he came in a car.
This thing clarified me how the flow of the money is in our country.It doesn't requires the State to collect tax from riches,invest them into policies to help the needy and the poor people.People anyway will directly take that from the source itself.If it would came through the Govt,those Rs 75 would have reached as 75 paisa to the barber.Our most popular prime minister accepted that !.This is why we are least affected by the on going recession.Money circulates in the market like this.It is taken out from the big bank balances and added into small saving schemes.Those extra Rs 50 would have triggered that barber to buy fresh fruits on that day thus increasing the earning of that vegetable vendor, who in turn will spend that money buying some sweets home in turn increasing the earning of the sweet vendor.So now with the same efforts three people have gained and their spending power has increased.Hence we fully utilize the fact that India is poor country where rich people live. We take out from riches and directly pump it into the chain without involvement of the Govt.If we can grow in nights like this,what if we start our development in days when state supports us!World leader has to be aware of India's potential.!