HOW 2 ‘ROB A COP’ !!

I had to write this post. I HAD TO, because, I had to.

Ok, now that sounds crazy and some of you might have closed the page before you read this line.

If you are still reading, then, let me assure you that, ‘you are as crazier than me’ :)

This post is inspired by a post from my fellow blogger. It was something to do with ‘Ways to get caught by ticket checker or traffic cops and pay fine’

However, in this post, I am going to explain, “How to ROB a COP, right under his nose, face, whatever.”

Before, I begin explaining the master plan, have you ever come across ‘Walking, talking DATABASE”?

No? Then read this carefully, “You could be one of them.” :)

Alright, we know a guy. In fact he was my friend’s college mate. Every time we meet him, the only thing that he is interested to know is, “Where do you work? What is your salary? What technology you are working on? Etc etc etc….”

Once this query processing is done, it’s time for statements like, “Hey this guy works there, he earns this much salary, he/she is getting married. He/she got a car. He/she is going with this girl/guy or guy/girl, respectively and irrespectively.”

Once this is done, he comes up with the most irritating part. Comparison. “So you are earning so much, but he is earning much less or I am earning quite more. Etc etc etc…

That’s why, we call them. ‘Walking talking DATABASE’. In short ‘WakTakDB’

Anyway, we don’t completely hate him, because he is such an innocent guy. His circuit is built that way. Can’t help. Moreover, he gives us information pertaining to our ex girl friends, ex boyfriends, friends who have turned foe, foes who are now friends. Aka Khabari.

If you are wondering, “How does this guy ROB a COP?” then keep wondering, because, this guy has nothing to do with my master plan. :)

So why on earth (or on my blogsite) am I writing about this guy? You will know before I finish. I promise.

I am going to narrate a tragic story. If you can figure out the master plan, then congratulations.

During our engineering days, my friends had come down to Bangalore from Manipal, to work on so called, “mini project” (wonder why they keep that name. Its funny, you know what I mean :)). So, I was doing my engineering in Bangalore, therefore I joined my friends, to give them a pleasant company to go around in Bangalore. One of the guys spoke to his relative to give the first floor to them for a month.

Unfortunately the mini project never started due to several reasons. The owner stayed in the ground floor, so he would always enquire about us. Therefore, every day morning, we get ready like we got to go to company on project work, all in formals. Go to Majestic bus station. Wait till 4pm and then come back at office time, looking tired.

At the month end, it was time to wrap up, pack and leave Bangalore to join their college. The mini project was somehow done in the last week of that month. Only one out of the many friends was left out to go in the end. I decided to go to home town along with him.

We went to his bro in laws house and got an old kinetic Honda. Drove it all the way to the room in which these guys stayed. Shifted all the beds back to the place we had taken it from. I had a huge suitcase and my friend was carrying equally heavy suitcase. We removed the front grills of this vehicle to accommodate a suitcase in front his legs. I was holding my suitcase on my lap, balancing it from one side to another.

We had to reach back to his bro in laws place to give back the vehicle and board the bus. We had 1 hr to do so.

After pushing the vehicle and dodging the heavy evening traffic we reached a place, which would be our last traffic signal before our destination. We found ourselves right behind a huge truck waiting from the traffic signal to turn green (which in fact was not visible to us because of this truck). The vehicle began to move and we followed it.

Guess, what?. Very soon, our night mare turned to be a reality. We were stuck at the junction. The truck had jumped the signal. The vehicles were honking and dodging us from all sides. We just stopped there, not knowing which way to go. All the people, crossing us from all sides, were cursing and spitting on us.

We looked like bunch of monkeys, just arrived from forest and unaware of whatever was happening in the concrete jungle. We couldn’t balance the bag anymore. One of the rider shouted,”look, your father is coming”, with a huge grin on his face. I wondered why he was so happy with our helplessness. Before I could look at what was he referring to, a huge smoked, black thing came rushing towards my head. I ducked. It landed right on my friend’s cheek who was riding the deadly kinetic Honda.

Only after, the thing came in front of our vehicle, I realized, it was none other than our famous traffic cop, whose white clothes is no more white. The first thing he did was, removed the key and took it to his base at one corner of the road. I got down and started pulling my bag towards him. My friend was balancing his bag on kinetic Honda and pushing it towards the cop along with me. Again, the traffic opened and again we got showered with curses.

1st question all traffic cops ask is, “DL?”. Please note that he doesn’t even look at your face when he is asking this question.

No answer from my friend. I went numb. I couldn’t hear anything though the noise was deafening.

2nd question, “Papers”?

I was thinking,” yeah paper’s. We were fortunate to get this vehicle till here. Do you expect papers for this?”

This is when my friend came out of the shock that he had, when 3 kilo hand had slammed his face. He said, “sir, sir. This is bro in laws bike sir. I am form manipal sir. Student sir. Please sir. We have bus to catch in 10min sir. Please sir.”

Cop.”No no. Nothing doing. Pay fine.”

My friend, with great pride.”HOW MUCH?” ( Little did my friend know that, I had just one 10rs note and some coins. My friend had none in his.)

Cop looked up. This is the first time he looked directly into his eyes. “300″

Suddenly, out of no were, tears rolled down my friends eye. I didn’t know what to do. I was in fact confused. Was he really crying because of helplessness? Was he acting to gain some sympathy? Was he feeling the pain of that slap only now?

I had no clue. I still don’t have any clue.

The cop, waited for some time and declared, disinterested. “Whatever you have got, put it in there.” He pointed at the mobile pouch he had on his bike.

I collected all he coins and the note in my pocket and slipped it in the pouch.

Hearing the noise made by coins in the pouch, our cop shouted. “Do you think I am beggar? Remove those coins idiot.”

I removed them and placed in my pocket. Little did he know that, I had removed all the money from the pouch and placed it in my pocket.

Finally, we reached our boarding point. Returned the bike. Very little money in pocket. Only enough to buy a bottle of water. We needed money after going to home town to change buses. WE didn’t have any. We didn’t know what to do and suddenly out of nowhere, a BMTC bus comes and stops very near to us. Few people got down and few got in. One of them who got down was familiar. Guess who?

Yeah right. ‘WakTakDB’

We almost fainted. Yeah baby. This is the right time, right place. Can’t be any better.

However, he was very good to us, because he was not at his best. We borrowed Rs100 and thankfully, our bus arrived within 5 min.

So, that’s the story. I don’t know if you can repeat this, but we feel proud even today, for Robbing a Robber under his nose. :)

What crap….? You must be thinking

I know, I know. I warned you..

2 LOSE & NOT 2 B LOSER !!

Some win, Some loose to win.



“Mom, What is more important in life? Losing or Winning?”


“Of course winning, son. Else, no one would respect you.”


Most of us would have got this from our parents, teachers, friends, guardians and whoever. We hear about all the people who have won. When we sit in a gathering, every one speaks about the winners. In your family circle, the winner, your cousin, your sister, brother is the most spoken about. Does that make you a loser?


Well I used to feel that way and many of you agree that you too at one point would have felt the same. However, I had a belief.


A belief that, winning is not as important as loosing. Winning is just a collection of loses which teaches you valuable lessons. Nobody talks about the amount of pain, grief a person had to overcome to hear that magic word, “winner”.


First thing that one needs to know in life is not winning. First thing one needs to know is ‘LOSING’. Losing badly. Second thing one need to understand is that, ‘you might lose, but you are not a loser”.


SRK puts it in a better way, “Sports teaches you to lose but not to become a loser”. Even before the tournament started, the fans burnt effigy’s over controversial moves. Experts criticized the owners. Deccan chargers charged over them in the first match, Royal challengers challenged their existence, Dare devils scared the hell out of them. The world poured all its filthy comments on the team, management, the players and the owner. They lost. They kept loosing. Some close encounters, some terrible loses.


People who had 1 milligram knowledge of cricket were suggesting the shots that should have been played, the ball that was not of right length.


Did that make them losers? No. They went on. Like true professionals. Picking up the remains, sweating and practicing every day hoping that someday, they would be in a better situation. That’s the trait of a true professional. Result? The last two matches. Out of nowhere, they successfully chased the highest total in IPL this year and in their next match they out played the last years IPL champions, Rajasthan royals. Now, that’s what I call loosing but not being the loser.


Similarly in life we lose. People don’t speak about you. People don’t ask about you. Let’s remember on thing, “we might have lost, but we are not losers”.


I would like to end this post with a thought from Theodore Roosevelt. This is posted in SRK’s blog (really inspiring and motivating) as well. I loved it. I simply couldn’t resist posting it her for you,


It is not the critic who counts;


Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,


Or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.


The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,


Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;


Who strives valiantly;


Who errs, who comes short again and again,


Because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;


But who does actually strive to do deeds;


Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;


Who spends himself in a worthy cause;


Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,


And who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,


So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who


neither know


Victory nor Defeat.


Note: For those of you who obviously think that I am advertising my favorite actor. It’s easier for me to say, yes I am. But not an actor, a good human being with wonderful thoughts.


God bless

R U A SHOOTING ****STAR****?

Sunrise and Sunset would always remain as one of the most beautiful things of our nature. I believe there are so many little things that happen in between these two wonderful moments, which are not as beautiful, but we just cannot forget them. The little things that happen in our day to day life.

There are days, we don’t want to remember. There are days, we want to forget. There are days, which stay with us all our life time so that we can cherish it some other day. Day’s we spent in hostel, school, and colleges are simply unforgettable. Good or bad, they just stay with us.


I remember those words of our school principal on our last day at school. “Your life is like a freshly laid concrete mixture. Put your best foot forward, because once you get an impression on this concrete, it will harden in no time and would remain with you, life long.” I guess these are words which remain with you somewhere at the back of your mind and would lead you through the testing times towards light.


I had always maintained in my heart that I am not the brightest student, nor am I gifted like my cousin who can write an exam and score well by just going through the book once. I guess I belong to that group of people whose mind works backwards. For example, we start with what we want to achieve and then work backwards to find what exactly is sufficient enough to attain these results. Most of us are always told and programmed to believe that your 10th and +2 is the most important because this part of your academic life shapes your career in a great way. So, I too was brain washed to believe the same.


That makes my life easy. If 10th and +2 is important then why should one break our head at 1st, 2nd, 3rd ,4rth,5th,6th,7th,8th,9th and +1 ? Just enjoy life and make sure you get minimum marks to get to next gradeJ. So that’s my backward theory. You folks would have got me by now. I just created this theory because I simply couldn’t answer people when I had to face this weird questions like, “How on earth could you get good marks when it mattered?” If I said, “I worked hard.” I got this rolling of eyes meaning,”Yeah sure.”


Sometimes I would just blabber something like, “the examiner was the father of my girl friend. We made a deal. I had to forget his daughter and he would help me to answer. Now, since you know that I don’t even have a micro gram of grey cell in me to pass on my own, I agreed. Oh yes, I am now heart less as well. So, stop rolling those eyes.”


Ok, I will stop all this non sense. Frankly, I just worked hard, like donkey, dog or whichever hardworking animal comes to your mind. I worked so hard that, during my+2 exams, I knew all the reactions and equations in chemistry including the page number of the text book where you could find that equation. That’s photographic memory :-). However, believe me; I lost sleep resulting in mild insomnia, so I just didn’t try this kind of studying in my engineering. I guess it’s the kind of memory that you can use for a short burst, like 100 mts race. Cool, that’s enough of blowing my own trumpetJ. The actual reason for writing this post is that, there is no real reason. Well, If you have enjoyed it till here, you may want to continue because I promise, it doesn’t get any worst


One of my cousins’ friends wanted to get her daughter into my school. So my cousin informed his wife to take my help because he quoted, “……… you can take Raj’s help because he was one of the ‘BRIGHTEST’ student in the school……”


I couldn’t stop thinking, laughing. “Yella OK, ‘BRIGHTEST’ yake?” (Everything is OK, ‘Brightest’ Why?). Doesn’t translate well in English, but sounds good in kannada when our Uppi dada gives the pose for KF.


Now, I felt I have been so successful in building and maintaining this image of brightest student in my family circle, whereas the reality was not even half brightest :-). Oh yeah, I worked hard, but I wasn’t consistent. Also, there were students in the school, who set new benchmarks every year. I just couldn’t keep up. To be honest, I had no motivation to read. I just kept in mind whatever was taught in class and vomited it in exam. It is true that, I studied in village, so I didn’t enjoy the luxury of studying in a city. However, I believed that this was good for me because my thinking was crystal clear and that’s what helped me to get those marks when it mattered.


However, my attempt to tell my relatives, that I am not the ‘BRIGHTEST’ that you think, has failed every time. I am not the brightest, but I would die trying to get what I want when it mattered. I would forget food, water, sleep to get what I really wanted. That’s how hard I need to try to reach the benchmark set by these ‘BRIGHTEST’ students


So I told my cousin. “You might have to change your plans of taking me to my school because, If it is the same watchman then he would not allow me into the campus, considering the fact that I have tricked him many times to sneak out of the campus to buy Ice cream. I was so bright that, we would play football with a stone in public bus stop after school and complain at home about frequent bus strikes. I would walk all the way to home to save the bus ticket amount and buy a candy with that, though it was just Rs1.50. The sweetest of all candies.


My brightness never escaped the teacher’s eye as well. Almost every teacher, head teacher had got me kneeled down at various locations of school. Sometimes, my juniors used to look at me and say, “hey, isn’t this the guy who was outside so and so class on his knees, and yet head held high, as if the national anthem is being played.”


I usually would come to school very early in public bus, so few of us would make a team and throw ball from one end to the other end of class and count who takes the maximum catches. Some played to impress girls, some for fun. Sometimes the girls giggled and those boys, who never joined us, would envy us. Once when we were playing this, the ball bounced of the window and hit our vice principle who was talking a walk on the veranda. She just walked off. I didn’t understand this. Usually a teacher would blast out and end our life with words. But here, she walked off and she is a vice principal.


So the owner of the ball, that’s undoubtedly me, my daring 3 friends walked to head mistress. She was angry but not very much angry considering the magnitude of the event. She asked us to go to vice principal and apologies. We followed her to the vice principal’s room like the ducks following the leader in the water, in line.


My memory jogged back and forth. Few years ago, my uncle had literally dragged me to vice principal’s room for admission interview. I didn’t answer anything right. Most of the effort to get the right answer out of my little mouth went futile. However, she gave me an admission. Little did she know that, I would be standing in front of her after few years apologizing for playing inside class.


Our vice principal listened to our broken apology statement and said, “Do not repeat again. You may leave.”


We looked at each other confirming that what we have heard is right. We never repeated the mistake again. In fact, I don’t repeat my mistakes. That’s one good quality in me. We recruited two classmates as security guards to check for anyone coming towards class. We would take turns to stand as guards. We never accidently hurt any teacher again. As I said, we don’t repeat the same mistake.


However, my BRIGHTNESS never made it to headlines, because there were brighter people in my school . So what happened in campus remained within the campus. I stayed on the boundary, never crossed it. It is fun to be on the boundary and see both the worlds. It’s exciting to be on the boundary.


I believe what happened in my academics has repeated all through my career as well. I didn’t get a placement in campus. As usual I was not the brightest. However, once outside the college, I worked double hard to do WHATEVER to get the job. Once I got a job I worked, triple hard to get what I wanted. I still do that. Because, we are not the BRIGHTEST stars who shine all the night, we are the SHOOTING stars, who shine so bright that you can’t see the other stars, but hey, we fade away, leaving you with the memory to cherish.

R U A SHOOTING ****STAR****?

2 Sing or Not 2 Sing !!

Vande Mataram !!

Bankin Chandra composed the song Vande Mataram in an inspired moment, Rabindranath sang it by setting a glorious tune to it and it was left to the genius of Shri Aurobindo to interpret the deeper meaning of the song out of which India received the philosophy of new Nationalism.



The English translation of Vande Mataram rendered by Shree Aurobindo, is considered as official and best as per Bhavan’s book, Vande Mataram by Moni Bagchee.



September 7th was the 100th anniversary of “Vande Mataram” (”Hail to the Mother (land)!”), which was used often during campaigns to free India (and pre-partition Pakistan, for that matter) from British colonial rule.



A campaign to urge schoolchildren across India to sing the song has stirred controversy, with some Muslim schools, supported by Muslim institutions, refusing to sing it on the grounds that it invokes the worship of Hindu deities, specifically Durga. Although “Vande Mataram” mostly praises India’s geography, the title can be translated to “I bow to thee, mother,” which clashes with Muslim traditions of bowing only to God.



A lot of debate has been going on and it has now become a political issue with BJP voting for making it compulsory in states where it governs. “There should be no compromising attitude on the national song,” said BJP leader LK Advani. Perhaps, this has contributed to one of the many factors for poor performance in elections.



However, despite all the concerns, leading Muslim institutes and bodies such has Darul Uloom Deoband have steered clear of the issue until today, where in it issued a fatwa to against singing Vande Maataram by Muslims.



Now, there are various questions being raised and this has fire balled into a big issue. My views:



Firstly, India is a secular country and the decision to sing the song should be left to the individual just like the national anthem. Though, the people of India should be encouraged to sing it by educating them about the right meaning to the song and the need to maintain unity in diversity. The present government has made it clear that it would not make singing this song or any song for that matter, compulsory.



The Muslim institutes need to answer one simply question. Vande Maataram, has been an integral part of India’s freedom struggle which was fought shoulder to shoulder by all religions united. Why didn’t they find the need to impose a fatwa then? Perhaps, the cause to free the nation was more important than the song itself. However, isn’t the cause more important today as well, where the world is filled with violence and religious divides, wherein we are fighting a different kind of freedom struggle?



However, all said. It is important that singing a song or not should not be equated to the patriotism of the entire community. It will only cause further confusions among the young minds. Therefore, it is very important for our politicians and religious leaders to stop giving this issue a political color and start calling a spade, a spade. If someone doesn’t want to sing, fine no problem. I have no doubt that they are as patriotic as anyone else and they love their country as much as others. Not touching the elders feet should not be considered as a sign of disrespect. If at all there is love and respect, let it be in our hearts and deeds. At the same time it is necessary to understand that the boundary separating absolute honesty and arrogance is a very thin delicate line. Each and every one of us needs to acknowledge that. Therefore, I am steering clear of the how one religion should look at God.



My fellow blogger Sai once commented, “I prefer direct communication. No hidden meanings etc. We all seem to convolute this communication and the reader is stuck on the words rather than the wisdom.” Perhaps Sai was absolutely right. There is no hidden meaning. I didn’t even know the meaning of each word of Vande Maataram until today. However, when it is sung, my heart would fill with joy and pride. Joy of being someone and being free yet responsible. Such is the tune.



Perhaps, this could be well summarized by remembering the fact that, Vande Mataram was sung by Lata Mageshkar. Vande Mataram was also sung by A.R Rahman. Now, that is what I mean by secularism and respecting the soul of the song instead of being hung up on words.

” Honey, I HATE DIAMONDS !!! “

“Honey, I hate diamonds !!” It was woman’s voice. I was sure about that.

At least, this is what I heard in the dark movie theatre just before the movie was on its way to end. I couldn’t believe my ears but I definitely had to.‘Blood Diamond’. Whoever has watched this movie may have partially understood what I am talking about right now. I always wondered why diamonds are women’s best friend. I really couldn’t get a satisfying answer from women. Perhaps, I believe it’s a big coup. It reminds me of the story of an elephant which was tied to chain when it was young and when it grew up, even though it was tied to a rope, it never tried to escape. It was made to believe that it could never escape. Similarly, all of us, while we are growing up are fed with some thoughts, which we follow without questioning. I guess, ‘The way to girl’s heart is through diamond and gold’; ‘Diamonds are her best friends’ are one of those thoughts. This is passed on from generations to generations. The biggest lie.

The truth is that, “The world’s trade in diamonds is a cartelized, multi-billion dollar industry that has damaging human rights, environmental and legal repercussions that have worldwide impact and effect. The issues have so far eluded a legal solution and are an example of the limits of international law. “– according to an American University in Washington DC.

Have you ever pondered on, how this precious rock or metal on your body makes it way?The government makes more out of mining these rocks than vegetation, so thereby they devastate the land by digging and disturbing the entire eco system.


After mining for long time, the area is abandoned, unsuitable to do anything on this land.

Water gets collected in these areas leading to severe health hazards.

The large group of people who inhabited these places has lost their way of living. So what do they do? They are forced to be miners. Now, if you think they earn a lot, think again because you are so wrong.

Many third world countries have seen serious human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. Around 50,000 plus people have been killed and over million people have been displaced till date. The human rights violations related to diamond mining and trading is unimaginable. Slavery, Child labor, Sexual slavery, massive genocide to remove people who can’t work on these mines or people who protest.

United Nation had tried interfering in diamond trading since long time with little success. The diamond companies claim that they have taken adequate measures to counter these ill effects and they are clean. However, the truth is far from reality.Can we understand the simple fact that, the prices can be controlled by regulating the supply? Large safe and secure storage areas are created to store all these diamonds so that the demand is million times more than the supply, thereby increasing the cost of this rock to millions of dollar.

I believe Africa is one of the richest continents in this world, considering the natural recourses available. They are self adequate. But just look what the world has given them? They have been exploited and allowed to kill themselves. Every other day, there is a rebel group coming up conquering the village, killing the people and forcing them into mining. The money is used to buy arms to topple the existing government. The world just sits and watches.

There are many NGO’s working in this part of the world. However, this is just not enough. If the world wants them to really develop then, they got to teach them to fish. Don’t give them fish and ask them to dig diamonds for you.The worth of one precious diamond could surely be around 13 million. This 13 million if it was used in the right way, it could save the entire town in Africa. But no, everyone wants to be the part of this major coup. So the money goes into the big pockets of diamond trader. They do tell the world that, a part of this money is used for good things in Africa, but that part of money starts with a decimal point followed by n number of zeroes and a number. This is nothing.

 

I don’t want to judge people here nor do I want to make a request. However, there is one thing that I want to say,

“The rock that shines’s on your finger or neck, could easily be the collection of glitter’s lost from millions of people’s eye.”

I could only imagine the smile on this lucky guy’s face (at least for that moment). The smile of pride, looking into her eye. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it.

It’s time to start, “THINKING”. “THINKING FAR & DEEP”

“NOW”

The SPEAKER is not allowed to SPEAK !!!

Enough is just not enough, when it comes to Indian politicians and their far from gentlemanly behavior in the temple of our parliament. This is not the first of its kind.



1997, our own politicians, leaders gave a new meaning to ‘sharing the mic’. As millions saw in televised replays, legislators opposed to the Hindu nationalists staged a melee on the floor of the state assembly, throwing punches at political opponents, hurling chairs, ripping out microphones and throwing them at the podium. Several legislators were led away bleeding. The events were termed as simply ''a brutalization of democracy,''. These were the worst example yet of the growing violence in Indian politics as the speaker of the house watched helplessly.


This time, it was the Speaker himself at the receiving end of this goondaism. A day after unruly MLAs created ruckus in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, there was chaos in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday. In scenes similar to what happened in the assembly in 1997, MLAs threw paper balls at the Governor, stood on chairs and tables and shouted slogans. However, in AP, the minister just didn’t bulge from their location, stalling the entire proceeding; thereby forcing the speaker to call in marshal’s to take them out of house. Funny, because it took almost 7 marshal to lift each MLA. Guess, where your tax is going.


Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the chief architects of India's freedom and a moving force behind its Constitution, placed the office of the Speaker in India in the proper context when he said:


The Speaker represents the House. He represents the dignity of the House, the freedom of the House and because the House represents the nation, in a particular way, the Speaker becomes a symbol of nation's freedom and liberty. Therefore, it is right that, that should be an honored position, a free position and should be occupied always by men of outstanding ability and impartiality.


This would explain why this office still remains one of the most crucial ones in the life of every Lok Sabha.


Usually, a member belonging to the ruling party is elected the Speaker. A healthy convention, however, has evolved over the years whereby the ruling party nominates its candidate after informal consultations with the Leaders of other Parties and Groups in the House. This convention ensures that once elected, the Speaker enjoys the respect of all sections of the House.


However, when things get hotter, the politicians cry foul and give little respect to the house. Doesn’t this show a bad example of leadership. Of course yes. Let me tell you how.


Just like a speaker is elected by the house member’s, we elect our leaders to lead us. But when these leaders turn out to be no good, we go on strike and go rampaging like herds of elephants, burning everything on our way. Isn’t this the destruction of our own property? Of course, when the leader itself is showing us the way, then what can the people do, but follow the leader.


I hope our leaders stop all this non sense, behave sensibly and lead us by example. Unfortunately we have elected few groups of thugs. What could be done when all the candidates standing for election are thugs. All that can be done is elect the lesser thug and hope for the best. Well, better than not voting at all.


Anyway, I think violence and politics go hand in hand. I can recall my college day’s wherein there were violence during the college election and often, some or the other guy would find himself in hospital bed.


All, that I want to tell these politicians is that, your follower’s, and the younger generation is watching you. Please don’t set a bad example.


On the other hand, I see a major flaw in the way the speaker is elected. Article 93 of the Indian constitution talks about the Speaker of the Parliament. The office of the Speaker is one of the great responsibilities. The Speaker is the Chief Officer of the Lok Sabha, he presides over its sitting and controls its working. He upholds the dignity and privileges of the House. It is expected that once elected he must rise above party interests. This is necessary to maintain impartiality. The Constitution of India contains certain provisions for maintaining independence and impartiality of the Speaker. His salary is charged on the Consolidated Fund of India and is not subject to annual vote by Parliament. He cannot be removed from his office except by a resolution passed by a special majority.


But the high tradition of this office and the honor and dignity with which this office is looked upon in England has not been maintained in India. So, the question is, “Who rule’s the God?” However, this could be a vicious circle, leading to nowhere.


So what is needed, is the sense of respect for the house and the person addressing the house rather than the “who rule’s the ruler” philosophy.


Please for the sake of the young mind's.

"What they see is what you do. Lets behave before we speak"

MY NEED’s & My WANT’s !!

Well, I haven’t written a single post this year. Perhaps this year didn’t start on a good note. The bad luck and news which had haunted me all through the last few months of 2008 had continued to 2009. On a positive note, probably this is a sign of something good to come my way. So I am bent but not broken. Oh not yet. There were worse day’s.

Anyway, I was just getting all worked up because all that I touched or thought was turning to rusted metal, forget gold, silver and bronze. Well, most of these things were not actually in my control, so that added to my frustration. Also, we melancholy perfectionist idiots build very high standards for ourselves and would get very upset and troubled if we don’t achieve it. Troubled to an extent that you curse your life and make yourself feel like worth less. However that’s a strategy subconsciously adapted by us to get back and fight every time we fail. As I said, our style of fighting is to bend back to such an extent that you would fall flat on your face trying to take a jab at us.


I have a good/bad habit of maintaining a diary. I don’t update it every day. Just when I am bored and feel like I need to note down few important things that I come across. I do read it sometimes and reflect upon the incidents and try to laugh, learn or unlearn. It’s my way of connecting the dots looking backwards.


Few days ago, I opened this diary to read. Something interesting caught my eyes. I know, I had written this, but every time I read it feels like something new to me. Like I am reading it for the first time. Anyway, I don’t want to just paste whatever I had written on Jan 1 2009, but I will narrate the incident which had happened a day before New Year.


I was at my home town that day. It was my grandmother’s first death anniversary; therefore all my relatives had come down from various part of the country. My grandmother had 11 children ( entire cricket team without bench strength) therefore, when I say relatives, you might get a little idea about the numbers. I had made a family tree after returning from home town and the total comes up to 82.


So with all these people on board, you can imagine the state of house during the functions of any kind at my hometown. Though my granny’s house is huge, it seems to be small when all these people come together. Al l the younger cousin’s running around, smaller once screaming at the height of their voice with the vicious aim to bring down the roof, cousin’s of my age playing cricket, football whatever in the court yard, uncles sitting on the porch playing cards and warning us every minute about ball thrashing into one of their cars parked, aunties chatting in the hall, it looks just a little less than a railway stations and a little more than a fish market.


Well, I was tired of playing cricket and came into the hall and joined my aunts, to catch up with all the gossips going around the family and outside family. I don’t know if this sound’s girlish but I love to simply sit in a corner and listen to all the people just coming up such interesting topics. It just fascinates me. Surely it’s interesting as well. On the contrary my uncle’s are all serious talks and I feel lost because sometimes I feel that I got two worlds. The world inside me is very childish and it is like 10 years old and the world outside me is all serious running on 40 years old. So when I am with uncle’s I talk like 40 and when I am with aunts and cousins I talk like 10.


Therefore, I would rather sit next to some ladies, listen to them chatting rather than sit next to uncles and listen to how share market is falling, how it could be got back on track, when to start farming, my son/daughter is in US, he/she got a very good CET ranking and all the strategic gimmicks. Well I would have enjoyed it few years ago but now I know life a little bit better and I can learn all these things myself.


So, as I said, I was enjoying the discussion. My grandmother had 6 daughters. They were discussing about their days when they got married.


One of my aunt said, “On the day of Saku’s ( one of my aunt) wedding, she went straight to her father in law and poured the water on his feet to wash it (it’s a tradition wherein the bride washes her husband’s feet, however my aunt went straight to father in law to wash his feet instead of washing her husband’s feet). Someone pulled her and re directed her towards her husband.”


My eldest uncle had come home, scolded her for doing this.


I asked my aunt why she had done something like that.


She said, “I was ignorant. I hadn’t seen any wedding before. My wedding is the first wedding I had witnessed.”


I was surprised and a little shocked because today’s generation would attend at least a dozen wedding’s before their own. (and yet they wouldn’t know to which figure do they need to insert the ring. But that’s another story).


My aunt continued, “It was tough day’s. We didn’t have money. Having 2 square meals everyday was a big deal. Your grandmother worked very hard. Without any support from your grandfather, she had alone developed from almost zero assets to what you see today. So we had only two good dresses which could be worn on special occasions. So on a given day, only two of the six sister’s could go out for a wedding. Therefore, we took turns wearing the dress and attending any functions. I was unfortunate because I couldn’t attend any wedding before my wedding. Therefore, I didn’t know whose feet to wash on the day of wedding.”


Just then my teenage cousin comes running in complaining about his new jeans which is a little light colored and therefore he wants a new one.


I looked at my cousin and then I looked at my aunt’s. We all knew what was going on each other’s mind at that particular moment. Today’s generation has all the comforts and yet its complaining about things they don’t have.


I read this diary entry, and thought about myself. About what I had and what I don’t have. The truth is, what I have is more than what I don’t have. The year didn’t look that bad anymore. I had found the inspiration not from books, not from great leaders but from a small incident in my family.


In fact, I don’t have to look far away to find role models. My dearest uncle is my role model.(that’s another post). My family doesn’t stop inspiring me every time I am with them. I am sure most of you would relate to whatever I have said. Many of you have a great family. What else do we need?


I am thankful for having more than what I NEED.


I don’t crib much about what I WANT.

“When you put your NEED’s before your WANT’s, you will find peace.”