Random Ramblings

PJ -> Why is telecom industry booming in India ? Reason--> People here love to have and flaunt connections ___ "Jugaad is the 57th art " - SS Shinde at his satirical best "Disgusting! This is the only thing I hate about our country... greased palms shaking hands with lack of integrity" - A comment on one of the posts in my blog https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28026042&postID=4721678402376407155 __ Connections - Many of us around the world love to flaunt it. Most of us wouldn't mind using it. We Indians love to flaunt it and often consider it as a essential tool to accomplish tasks of varying magnitude. Many of us work in day in and day out in order to earn connections. 'Networking' - a tool often used in achieving something is a milder form of connection, for the latter is the holy grail that makes you do with impunity what the lesser mortals think is sinful. There are often sons and daughers of powerful officials, bhais and bhateejas

Some glimpses of one of the best landscapes in the country. Why long for Alps when our own old, enigmatic yet beautiful Himalayas provide such magnificent and picturesque sceneries!! Have a look. Enjoy. Location - Garhwal Region, Himalayas which lie in the state of Uttrakhand.

3 runs required of 1 ball, the scorecard said. It was the final of a small cricket tournament in the locality. Lots were at stake for 14 year old Sonu, as he was popularly called. His performance in the tournament could be best described as mediocre. He had never been above average in studies, extra curricular activities and even sports. No one ever praised him for he hardly did anything praiseworthy. Not even little encouragement came his way. He always wondered what was his fault. After all, he was not that bad either. But that was the way it always was. He never desired much. But like all, he wished to be admired, praised, be like others who were so much liked. Today was the day to prove his worth; to make the world sit and take notice of him. One good hit over the boundary rope and he would be a instant hero. A hero in eyes of his friends, teachers, all uncles and aunts and most importantly his parents, who were somehow never satisfied with his performance. The bowler came all ch

The 7 year old girl walked from school to her home. This was the first time she was walking alone on that route. On any other day, her mother would have gone to pick her up from school, but not that day. She was not aware that schools were declaring holiday an hour and a half earlier due to trouble in the town owing to some agitations and protests. Only few parents could be intimated about this. A friend’s mother accompanied her to the lane leading to her apartment, from where it was just a minute’s walk. But that day, for some unknown reason she decided to roam about a bit and take the longer route. It is not always that she gets to roam about, and no one would know about it. After all she wouldn’t tell her mamma about that. The road was almost deserted. It was usually the case around the noon time in this part of the country. She walked ahead leisurely, singing and dancing all along as if she owned the road. But this was short lived. In couple of minutes, the scene changed.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/may/27khan.htm Above is the link of an interview of Mansoor Khan - The man behind movies like Qayamat se Qayamat Tak and Jo Jeeta Wahi sikandar. His life went in following sequence - Son of a successful film producer --> IITian (... and dropped out) --> Went to USA for further studies (... and dropped out) --> Made few successful movies --> Settled as a farmer at Coonoor, far from the maddening crowd, to appear only once in a blue moon There is nothing special about this interview, but it is about a person who did the thing best seen in proverbs, philosophical monologues and books like The Alchemist - " Follow your heart", something which very few of us end up doing! Prima facie, it may look like fickle mindedness and a person being uncertain about things ... but ultimately he is in the exclusive club of ones who followed their heart!

(Warning -- Blasphemous content ahead. Read at your own risk!) __ “I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time” – Friedrich Nietzsche HE looked down the heavens, and had a hearty laugh. The long serpentine queue was moving slowly. With his divine brain HE calculated that mean queue length was nearly 600 and mean service time was 150 per hour. That meant people waited an average of four hours just to have a look at his statue, be awestruck for few moments, seek blessings and ultimately offered gifts in cash and kind. The PR agents in form of the priests in the temple collected them ostensibly for benefit of masses. The PR agents used various kinds of tactics and strategies to up the number of visitors; most important being the fear appeal which is often used by advertising agencies, in which the ill effects of not worshipping the deity for him possessing extraordinary supernatural powers was propagated. The marketing channel to improve the numb

Dark clouds were looming at the horizon. In few minutes they would have traveled few miles in westward direction and came closer. This is not usually the scene at noon in the hottest month of the year. Dark clouds meant something ominous. Probably sign of an impending storm or maybe a cyclone approaching. Sea is a capricious lady. Bay of Bengal was no different. It was infamous for cyclones, and Orissa was often at the receiving end of nature’s fury. Ramdas was few miles into the sea. So were his brethrens of the fishermen community. There were around a hundred boats in the sea that day. No one anticipated the storm. So no one even thought of staying back at the shore and miss out on their livelihood of the day. Ramdas was alone in his boat. He owned the boat. His son helped him with his job. They managed to get enough as to earn a square meal a day. They had a good rapport with others of fishing community. But of late that relationship was breaking down. No reasons for that. Nor wa

The Toyota Qualis and the Chvrolet Tavera stopped after a long journey. It was almost 9 in the night and it was pitch-dark. Night times in a forest are always pitch-dark. Adding to that it was a good `thirteen days since the last full moon day. Adding to this, the cloudy weather made visibility close to zero. Later in the night the forest would be engulfed in a fog making it nearly impossible to see. The only noise audible was that of silence, few random insects and that of a train going at a distance. After a long journey they all were quite weary and all they wanted was some rest so that the next day morning they can head for tiger and rhino spotting among many other species of flora and fauna in the wildlife sanctuary. Right now it was time for some parathas, maggi and booze. All fifteen of them headed for the cottage which they had booked, sat near the fire place relishing food, chit chatting about college life, universe and everything. But chit chatting wasn’t what they came

Has there been some thing that you are worried about lately, something that might not seem too important that has been troubling you? ... Or that the very thought of it makes you shiver, tremble with fear or puts in the fear of god within you? Well ... I am facing one such thing of late. Somehow I have developed a fear of the fans, especially in cases where fans are a relatively lesser height, usually which I can touch easily with my palms or even elbows ... and even the ones that I can barely even touch by my fingers. This has not been without a reaon though. Recently I went to a relatives place where there was this combination of a fan being at lesser height and me being quite tall. After taking a bath (yeah ... I do take a bath ... in summers at least!) I switched on the fan, and raised my hands to wear a T-shirt. And suddenly I found something hitting my left thumb, hitting it really hard. Before the signal was sent to my brain so that I could realize what was happening, I put my h

Often, I have seen and observed human beings who think in similar way, who act in similar way given a similar situation situation. They have similar values and beliefs, and deviations adherence to these norms or questioning them seems unthinkable. It is as if giving 10 such people same set of stimulus and getting exactly the same output from all 10 of them. Not only it does exist ... it is often actually encouraged, and at times forced upon. For instance I have seen kids who are forced to become right handed just because it seems odd to be a left handed in a world full of right handed people. Even if this means labored eating and writing using by using right hand. Or almost every other unsuspecting 2-year old kid expected to recite millions of things millions of times before the guests. Often you are expected, and at times forced to have same set of interests so that you fit into the society. For instance you must like similar hindi film music, you must like and appreciate dance and