Being 'Mr. X'

To understand what I am going through right now, imagine you are in my place... Imagine a life where you have always hated some specific type of people... let's call them 'X'... The more X's you meet, the more you hate them...

To be clear - X's here is not for any community/caste/religion/gender or any such group... X here represents 'a person having some peculiar and annoying habit or behaviour'. Let's call this habit/behaviour - 'Xness'.

That said, I will move on with the post.

So, imagine you hate X's and the more you meet them, the more you hate them...

Now... you have always wondered, what an X would feel when he finds out he is such an X? How do these X's feel about themselves? How do they sleep at night? Etc. etc...

And after having so much hatred for X's, what if, one day you realize that you, yourself, are an X... Then with time, you realize that you are not just an ordinary X, but you are such a big X, that if the X's community found out about you, they would make you their King...

So Mr. King X... What how do you feel now? Can you change that, can you not change that... Time will tell... but one thing is sure... You are going to have the answers of some your previous questions (underlined above)...

How would you feel then? Would you want to to change yourself? Or would you, with time, start to empathize with these Xs?

P.S. Sorry to those people whom I have hurt by being such an X... Sorry is not enough, but what's done is done...  I am working to improve myself...

P.S. again... Please don't wander you thought... The Xness for me is the habit of people to force their opinions upon others... But it can be anything for anybody...

Are we really free???

I am watching videos on you tube, and this thought comes to mind...

Are we really free??? Can we do whatever we want? By that I mean, if I think something needs to be done, and its morally right, can I really do it???

Obviously, one can argue that who's stopping me? I can do whatever I want... But this system of ours... I feel it puts invisible bonds on us, which take away our freedom to what we morally judge to be the right action.

I fact I compare it to all the people in the world bound to each other by chains and being dragged on a path... Invisible forces pushing and pulling them... Though at their hearts, they might want to wander on different paths, but for that they will have to break the chains. And breaking the chains will mean they longer belong to the group. This is group represents the general society that we belong to. And it is the fear of not belonging to this group, that we don't break the chains. The chains are in fact very weak, but our fear is what makes them strong enough to keep us bound.

All we need to do is to give it a jerk and they will break away... and we will be free... But no one dares...

As a result, we spend the whole of our beautiful life the way we don't want to spend it.

Now let me make a bit more clear what I am talking about. When I say we are bounded by the system, I am referring to this society and it's rule and regulations. These rules sometimes do keep us from going the wrong way, but sometimes they also keep us from going on what might have been the right way. In fact, these rules of the society keep us on a general agreed path... The society as a whole decided that a certain way is correct and everyone follows it.

But what if we are wrong??? Can we do anything about it??? Most of don't even realise that they are not doing what they might have liked to do...

For example, when we are very young, we cant think for ourselves and hence our parents do what's best for us. They send us to schools which is probably the best action.

But what if, when I grow up and am old enough to know what's right and wrong for me.. What if I don't want to go to school anymore. I think that's a waste of my time? One might yes, a lot of people drop out, but what of a lot many who don't dare to do such a thing.


Another example, I complete my education and get a high paying job and a secure life. I have a family of my own and a lot of dependents. Now, I realise the job is not what I want to do for my whole life. Can I leave it and suddenly start doing whatever I want? Nobody is stopping me, but can I really do that. Invisible bonds...

Another example... Hopefully the last...

A corrupt politician is raping the country. He is enjoying at the expense of the society. Almost, each one in the society knows he should be shot down. Still, a major portion of that same society keeps protecting him from anyone who wants to take action against him. Rest of the society keeps playing the role of silent audience. If the rebel wins, this society will laud him and forget him. If the corrupt politician wins, this society will keep say nothing can be done, just adjust with it while the corrupt people scale new heights of corruption.

Like in India, we had an anti-corruption campaign a few months back. I was in Delhi at that time and wanted to join. But I didn't, reason: I had to study and get good grades... WTF???

Now when I think of it, it seems so foolish... I feel ashamed.. But when I was actually in that situation, this same reason didn't feel so foolish. It felt the right thing to do, concentrate on your studies, you have responsibilities.

By giving everybody some or the other responsibilities, this society has managed to keep everyone bounded by that invisible chain. Want to part of the society and live a secured life? Keep fulfilling your responsibilities and don't use your brain too much.

I guess, I have dragged on too long... I should stop here...

Was I wrong?

Something happened in today's communication class... I did something, got a feedback totally unexpected, and I dont know if I was wrong or just didn't put my point properly...

Its was oral communication's class. Prof had given us a topic for group discussion:
"Mercy killing: Should it be legalised?"

Now my general knowledge is very poor, pathetic shall be a better word... I know what mercy killing means, but that's all... No knowledge of any cases, any news on that... Nothing...

So I thought better to keep quiet initially, listen to what others are saying and give opinion accordingly. As the discussion progressed, I found that most were against mercy killing. They were putting some points in favour, but still opposing it... Either they genuinely believed it to be a bad thing or were hesitating to favour it for fear of getting stares from rest...

But from the points put forward ny others, I realised that atleast in some cases mercy killing did make sense... The case here is of the patients in vegetative state...

Sure such a person has life remaining in him, there are chances that he may awake one day... But what are the chances?
See I am not saying here that such a person has no right to live...

But we all know the resources we have are scarce. Especially in India, where a lot of people die for lack of basic medical necessities, what sense does it make to take the resources from ten people, who have a lot more chance of survival, and use those resources to save one person who has hardly any chance to live???

Now one of my fellow group mate argued that what about the value of life? What about the people who care for that one person?

Agreed that there are people for whom that one person is family and they have hopes he will live. But don't the people who are denied the resources have families?

Also, as far as I know, mercy killing is asked by the person or his family itself. The person must be going through a lot of pain to ask for death. In case of family asking for mercy killing, they must be asking for it only after realising that even if the patient lives, it would be a life full of pain and agony.

Now talking about the value of life? I just pointed out that most of the people present in the class eat non-vegetarian food, even the one who put that point... Did they ever thought of the value of life when an animal was killed just because these people "who value life so much" wanted to satisfy their taste buds? How do they react when they read the news of some people being killed in a bomb blast? Most of the time the reaction is:
"Oh God, what has happened to mankind?" and turn the page to read other news. Not one more thought...

Is this caring for the value of life?

Now please understand that I am not saying that there's no value to the life of the person who is in vegetative state...

But I am saying that it makes much more sense to sacrifice the life of a person who is having much less chances to survive to save a few people who have much more chances of survival...


Now this might not be the way I talked in the discussion, courtesy to a lot of counter arguements and angry stares. And hence, there is a probability that whatever I said may have made a very different sense. So my batch-mates might be right in criticising my stance.

But now that I have written everything the way I wanted and you have read it... I ask you, am I wrong?

The Greedy Indian Customer

I just went to buy a pair of floaters...

Why? Coz I dont have one...

Why do I need them if I have a pair of cool looking slippers? Well the management of my college thought it was a bad idea to wear slippers in the academic building... I agree...

Now, there are 3 showrooms just outside my college gate... (Oh yes, I joined a college a month ago, that story some other time...) So the three showrooms: Bata, Puma, Nike...

Puma and Nike products are way out of my budget but both had a discount board showing 70% and 50% off. So i thought why not take a look, maybe I can find a good buy with a little extension of budget...

I went to Puma first... Looked at the price range, looked at the discount, calculated the price I will have to pay, gave a frown, came out...
Looked towards left, Nike 50% off... Bigger frown, waste of time... Looked towards right... Bata 50% off... Right it is then...

I went inside the showroom... Took a look around, there were two gorgeous girls of my college standing there, looking to buy something of course... Shall I go and talk to them? Naah... Waste of time... (Believe me I thought that...)

Took another look around, looking for what things I needed... Realised that I will be needing almost all the items on the display in 2-3 months... but that all could wait... For now, just buy a pair of floaters and take an exit...

Fine just the floaters then... Went to that stall...
No offer here... Fine...

What qualities do I need in the floaters?

Good Looking, Durable, Comfortable...

And what is my budget? Below Rs. 200-250...

Can you believe it?
I am looking for a pair of floaters in a branded product showroom in Delhi... They should be good looking, not weird coloured, comfortable, and durable...
And I want all that in just Rs. 250...

Now one may say, getting a good pair of floaters in Rs. 250 is not a big thing... In fact my myself am using a pair of local made slippers which I bought for Rs. 160 in Nagpur and I am using them for more than a year now...
But come-on yaar, this is Delhi I am talking about and that too in a brand showroom...

And above all, I want to use them for atleast 2 yrs... How greedy I am... I even thought I am mad...

But no, I am no mad... I got one... I just now have to see whether I can use them for two years...

Individualism vs Socialism

Man is growing more individualistic today. By this I mean today an individual is given more priority than the society, unlike in the past, when the society was given more priority than the individuals. The order of preference earlier was society-family-individual, while today it is more like invidual-family-society.

Let's take an example from Indian culture.

Earlier marriage used to happen at a relatively younger age (I am not talking about child marriage here, but younger age as compared to today's, say 16-18 yrs old), and the girl used to come and live with the boy's family.
Now, at this age, one is still developing his individual personality and thus, the girl could adapt herself more to a new house, new people, new lifestyle, new environment etc.

In contrast, today's urban population get married at a very late age, mostly after 25 yrs age. Now at this stage, a person has developed his own personality. Thus when a girl marries and goes to her husband's house, she has trouble adapting to the new environment. Now, if its a nuclear family, the couple living alone, then its less difficult, as before marriage, the couple gets ample time to check compatibility with each other.
But what if the family is a joint one? Now there maybe 6-7 members or even more. True, it's unfair to ask the girl to change herself to fit in the group, but its totally ridiculous if the girl expects the whole family members to change according to her.

And this is what happens in most cases... A couple gets married at a very late age, girl moves to boy's family, finds it difficult to adjust, tries to change other, clashes happen, result: divorce or the couple moves out and live separately.

Now the argument for late marriages are mostly like career, not ready yet etc. etc. All these are give more importance to the individual person and do not consider the impacts on the future family.

Some clarifications:
These are just my views.
I am by no means promoting child marriages or even marriages at an earlier age.
I am not against the female population.
I am just trying to analyse the impacts of individual behaviour on the society.

Abra ka dabra...

Well this post has nothing to do with magic, its just that i m feelings sleepy and wasn't able to think of any suitable title... Well again my sleepiness has nothing to do with me not able to think a title... I just said that coz as i said i m sleepy...

Ok... Enough i think... To the topic now...

Today i realised that love is not just blind, it is also foolish... To be more specific, a guy in love becomes blind and a gal in love becomes foolish... and before any of the female human beings reading this start screaming and throwing things at me, let me tell u anybody's accepting or denying this thing does not change the truth....

I have noted this in those of my friends who are committed:

When they are with their soul-mates, their level of jokes suddenly drops in logic and sense... N when i thought for reasons, i realized that the reason for this is that their female partners laugh at almost anything they say or do... (the basis for my thinking of women in love as foolish)

While the more sane people (read the guy's friends) are pulling their hairs off, the gals are laughing and encouraging the guy... Now, as the guy can only see his gal laughing and not the state of his saner friends... (the basis for my thinking he's blind... or partial blind u might say...)

The result... He thinks he is a very funny guy (which he is not)... He thinks whatever he thinks, speaks or does is super duper ultra funny... (which obviously is not....)

The result... his level of jokes drops.. n his friends suffer to the point that they want to commit suicide or kill the guy...


P.S. All my friends who are committed: Yes, i was referring to you in my blog... And no, this is not a coincidence that the incident seems familiar...

Trying to define greatness...

I was trying to think, "what makes a man great?"

Is it talent? One gets talent from nature, so what is one's greatness in that?

Now everybody has got talent. It's just that in some, it gets nourished and flourishes, while in some unfortunate, it gets suppressed and hence, sort of dies away. But if one's talent has been nourished properly, the credit should go to his guardian. Then what is one's greatness in that?

Then I thought of all the great people we know of... Why do we call them great? There must be something common in them which may define there greatness...

Then I realised that indeed there was one thing common in them: They worked and their purpose of work was a good one... and that may be what made them great...

They used their talent and for a good purpose...

Having talent is not in our capacity... Nourishing it is not in our capacity... but choosing what to do with whatever we have got and actually doing it is definitely in our capacity... What makes us great is how we utilise that capacity...

In the epic Mahabharat, there were many skilled archers... Arjun, Bhishm, Karna, Dronacharya, Ashwathama... but Arjun is called a greatest of them because it was him, who put his talent to the right purpose...

Now Mahabharata may be just a story, but why would that mean it cannot be a good example...

Castes and Marriage

First thing, I personally do not believe in the caste system and secondly, I have not written this blog because I am having any thoughts of marriage. It's just that I recalled a conversation I had with a dear friend, which made me think and hence, write...
A few days ago, I was having a casual chat with a friend; and the topic of castes and marriage came up. I realized that she was too much concerned about castes, and I reacted, "Why do you girls give so much importance to the caste of the guy you are thinking about?"
Then she explained, "Yaar, it's very easy for you guys to say this, because you don't have to go and live with the girl's family, but a girl has to. She has to adjust with the people, the new house, the new environment i.e. the new lifestyle. The more different it is from her's, the more difficult it will be for her."
Now, there are somethings that are right infront of your eyes for years, but you never know that they exist. The difference in lifestyle of various people around me, was one such thing for me.
And now that someone pointed that for me, I saw it. I understood the significance of the term 'diversity' in the phrase, 'Unity in Diversity'. There was indeed a lot of diversity among the people around me. The environment in everybody's home is different, the type of food eaten is different, the way weekends are celebrated is different, etc etc.
Obviously, this diversity is decreasing as the generation is advancing, but it still exists. And it is significant enough, that if I am asked to live according to someone else's lifestyle for more that a week, it will drive me mad.
And this difference is greater if the castes are different. Please note that the difference here is not negative or positive, its just a difference of style and anyone will get mad if he is asked to live life in someone else's style.
So now I understand how difficult it must be for a girl to adjust to the new surroundings. Thats why probably, our elders insist on intra-caste marriages, cause they had gone through all this, and obviously want to make the path easier for us...
P.S. : I do not have any personal opinions on importance of castes in marriage, I was just trying to find the logic behind elders insistence on intra-caste marriages.

Where's the justice?

I have been invisible for a long time, trying to ignore my commitment to blog, under the pretext of being busy. But something i read today just cant be ignored under any pretext.

Remember the age old movies of 60s or 70s... The theme being that of a rich, powerful Thakur raping an innocent girl from a poor family. The family so poor and weak compared to Thakur that they cant even get justice for their poor girl. Harassed by the society (the society is equally at fault, because instead of punishing the Thakur, it harasses the poor girl), the poor girl commits suicide. Her father/mother/brother/some relative keeps fighting to get justice for her for like ages. Years go by, the Thakur becomes old. Then some hero/heroine enters, mobilises the media and wheels of system, and thus helps get the poor relative justice for the poor girl, who's long dead. The movies ends in a happy note, claiming that none can escape justice.

Well, I always thought that this was a story of Old India, that nothing of this sort happens today, that India has come a long way and everyone gets justice...

But then, I read about the Richika Girhotra's case in today's news that made me realise how even today, India is like the one depicted in those movies...

A girl, Ruchika, was molested by a DGP, Rathore, in Haryana. The court ruled its decision by announcing punishment to the DGP and the girl got her justice. Looks fine, doesn't it?

Here are some facts:
1. The molestation happened 19 years ago.
2. The poor girl committed suicide 3 years later, obviously frustrated at not getting justice and probably being harassed by our society which is no less than a culprit by any means.
3. The punishment that the DGP got after these years is a 6 months jail and fine of Rs. 1000/-.

Now please someone tell me, from what angle is this a justice? A mere 6 months of jail and a pittance of fine... against the life of a the poor girl...

And what punishment to those, whose duty it was to deliver the justice on time? Nothing... If the DGP molested the girl, the people responsible for the delay actually killed her. Reports are that the DGP himself used his position to cover the matter as far as possible. He harassed the family and the related people for 19 years. Shouldn't there be some inquiry into this matter?

I think no... because if this simple delivery of justice took 19 years, no one can guess how long the inquiry into the complicated matter would take...

As a writer to this article, i am supposed to give some probable solution or recommendation to improve the system. But sorry, i just cant think of any... If any of u do, please post it....

I know this is a little far fetched, but if we can come up to any conclusions, any solid solution, we can mail it to our government and hope for the best. That's the least we can do...

Mis-management

Sorry friends, I have not been able to post anything from quite a long time. Actually i would say i was a victim of mismanagement.

My office timings had been increased, and including commuting time, I spent almost 13 hrs daily, that 6 days a week made almost 78 hrs a week.

The management of my company had decided to extend the work time so that the engineers can spend more time on the site. According to them, this will help increase the project speed and hence meet the project deadline.

Now why i call this a mismanagement is that the management of this company which hardly comes to the job area, has, i think, not looked into the real problem for the delay.

The reason the delays are occurring is not lack of engineers on site, but lack of labours. So if they dont increase the workers, what the hell is going to happen by making engineers to stay more (i m not saying work more, coz the work is hardly of 5 hrs a day).

In fact the engineers are in excess. Can u imagine what is the ratio of engineers to workers (the term engineers here include managers, engineers, contractors, supervisors.... infact all those who dont do the work but monitor the work...)

Once i went for a safety meeting of an area. All the people related to that area were present. Mechanical team, civil team, electrical team, safety team, contractors and of course the most important workers. The crowd consisted of around 40 people and only 5-6 of the where workers.

That means 7-8 engineers per worker.... that means, 1 person works and rest (mis) guide him. What happens most of the time is the workers sit idle because the so called guides keep fighting amongst themselves on the way to do the work... and of course the blame game...

Infact I have found that most of the work is carried out during after hours, when only engineers and 2-3 contractors are present on the whole site. It seems that less engineers cause less disturbance to the workers and more efficient work.

That means, if the engineers time is increased, the project may decrease instead of increasing....

Now, whose going to explain the management this???

Alma Mater

Once while I was in school, I was going through someone's year book. I came upon a term, 'alma mater'... Someone had refered to his college as alma mater...

It was a new term for me. So I looked up into dictionary and found out that alma mater in latin means nourishing mother...

I laughed... Who can call his school or college as his alma mater.

Then, I went to my college, NIT Hamirpur. I not just spent my 4 years there, but I lived them. I enjoyed them. And now I know why that person had called his college his 'alma mater'....

Monetize your ideas...

I learned a very important lesson yesterday... Monetizing....

Monetizing in simple terms is how to make money.... Either u have an idea or a specific skill or any object; n u have to make money from it...

A very popular example for this would be google. Before google, there were a lot of search engines, but searches were done as free services. Then google came and it taught the world that money can be made simply from conducting searches.

Monetizing is one of the most impostant skill one should have, if he wants to be a successful entrepreneur. Enterprise needs money to survive, like humans need food and water. A lot of people have ideas, very good one infact. The world is full of intelligent people, but very few know how to monetize them.

Let me give another example of excellent monetizing. An IIM grad started a firm in ahmedabad. They went from house to house and collected left over food. The food was then distributed to poor people at the price of Rs.1 per person. What an idea to do social service and save waste at the same time, one would think.... But the firm is not just doing social work, it is also making money in the process. Now one would think, how much can one earn by collecting one-one rupee.

The firm's been doing this work from 4 years. Can u imagine what was the turnover of the firm for this year? It ran into crores.... Who would have thought that!!!

Surely monetizing is a very important thing. Atleast for me, it's the first thing in my to do list.

Its raining... Its raining...

It was 5.55 pm yesterday. I was in my bus, back from office. It was about to reach my stop. My building is about half km from the stop.

I looked outside the window. It was raining heavily. As one of my friends would say, it was raining cats and dogs. But still i felt very pleasant by looking at the pouring water, flooded streets... My heart longed to be outside and get wet like everything else outside.

I had a raincoat with me and no bag. I checked my pockets: mobile, headphones, wallet, keys, handkerchief. I put the mobile, headphones n wallet in the raincoat pocket, n folded it nicely to ensure no water can get inside and waited.

The bus reached my stop, people hurried to wear their raincoats. I calmly got down with the folded raincoat in my hand, and felt the cold showers... What a soothing experience... Stood there until i was drenched to the skin. People were looking curiously... A man getting wet in the rain, with a raincoat in his hand... I smiled... Rain makes me happy...

I remembered i had very little money with me. Went to an atm, took out what i would need for the next week. Then i went for a food-shopping... Sitting by the window and eating something hot, is one the best thing one can do when it's raining... I bought a variety of stuff: manchurian, dhokla, chocolates (they are not hot, but who cares... I love them...) I also bought some stuff i would need for cooking my dinner...

Having got everything i would need, I walked towards my building. The streets were almost empty. When i reached, our chowkidar looked at me, then looked at my raincoat and gave me a puzzled look. I just smiled, he understood...

I reached my floor, that is the top one, opened the door, threw all the stuff, took off my shoes, then came out and locked the door. Then i ran to the terrace and felt the showers again...
Ohooooo..... Cold water and cool breeze....

Did i mentioned, there's the Tapi river flowing about 3 kms from my building and that the sea coast is just about 10 km from where i was standing... Though none of them are visible from my terrace due the massive concrete jungle, but it sure cant stop the breeze...

Cool breeze keep flowing through out the day. Add to that the rain showers n it becomes a deadly combination... Lovely deadly i mean... I wanted to dance and jump, but the neighbouring aunty was already staring at me as if i was nuts. If i would have danced, that would. So i just stood there enjoying the rains for about half an hour. Came back to my apartment, dried myself and wrote this blog....

P.S. If you are thinking of trying this yourself, make sure you take a bath afterwards, to avoid any itching after-effects. Also keep yourself warm to avoid cold... I didn't and now that i have caught cold, i think i should have...

The Hence's, the Because's & the Inspite of's

So here i m... In my company's bus again... Arguing with a fool...
Yes, i remember the saying, 'don't argue with a fool. He brings you down to his level and beats you with his experience.' but probably i m fool too.

So when we were discussing a very complicated matter (something i think only fools can discuss, as did we..), i came up with three groups of people who work in this company- the hence's, the because's and the inspite of's.

The hence's are the people about who can be described as 'They are fools, hence they are in this company.' I think that sentence says all that i want to say.

The because's are the people who were not fools when they joined the company, but over the valuable time they spent in the company, the hence's influenced them and converted them into fools. So about because's, we can say, 'They are fools because they are in this company.'

Now the last come the 'inspite of's.' These are the ones who were not fools when they joined the company and are not fools even today. I m not talking about those who are newcomers and hence not influenced enough yet, they will take time to chose a group. But i m talking of those who have spent years in this company and yet have retained their wisdom. I have found just 2-3 of them, but all of them at very powerful positions. How they managed to stay wise is a mystery i have to solve... But they are the ones we can describe as, 'They are not fools inspite of being in this company'.

About me, i have not decided yet which category i want to be in... The because's or the inspite of's....

P.S. I think everyone is born with enough potential and a choice: Be a part of the crowd and become a 'Because' OR fight his way out of the crowd and become an 'Inspite of'.

Feeling like a bird in an iron cage

I always get frustrated when i have to get up in the morning to go to the office. The frustration is even more when the office day comes after a holiday. This frustration then exaggerate when my boss asks me to stay overtime. At that time, my temper rises so much that i turn into a volcano, about to erupt.

I always thought this happened coz i hate my offc so much. But now here i m, sitting by the window of my offc bus. I look outside the window. It's raining. I want to go outside and dance in the rain, i want to jump in the muddy puddles, i want to go to my terrace n shout at the world. Its sound crazy, but i still want to do it. But then i feel some imaginery cage has bound me to my seat. I cant dance in the rain coz i have to go to the offc. I cant do what i want coz i have to do to what my boss wants me to do. I feel like a slave obeying his master for the fear of lashes. I wait for that 5 pm in the clock, so that i could get out of this cage, atleast for a few hours.

I can be free then. I can fly in the open sky as a free bird does.

Why did I miss the bus yesterday?

So I as said in the topic, I missed my bus yesterday... Actually I missed it day before yesterday, but that wouldn't have sounded right in the topic...

Anyways, this is what happened...

At 10 am, I was told that some items needed in my project were ready at the yard and I was to deliver them to the contractor. The task took 20 mins. I just had to arrange a vehicle, get the papers ready and bring the items.

I asked the engg at the yard to get my papers ready and check the items, got permission for the vehicle from transport office. Now only thing remained was to go and get the items. Even then I couldn't do it until 5:10 in the evening and so missed the bus. Why?

1. I couldn't leave the site, so had to asked my subordinate to get the items. But he couldn't reach the driver on his cell neither did he tell me about this untill a 2 pm.

2. The driver had switched off his mobile.

3. Drivers of other vehicles were also unreachable. They all must be planning for a strike.

4. After making some 1024 calls, I found out at 4.15 pm that the driver (along with vehicle) was with my colleague. He needed it for 15 mins.

Great, now i had 40 min.. Can easily catch the bus...

5. The colleague didn't free the vehile after he had finished. Coz that lazy fellow didn't want to walk 100 m n asked the driver to take the longer route to offc.

6. Some idiot truck driver had parked his vehicle in the middle of the road. It took 10 min to find the truck driver and hence the vehicle to reach me.

Finally got the vehicle at 4:40... 30 mins left... Could be done...

7. When i reached the yard, it turned out that the papers weren't ready. A bit of running could do it in 10 min, I thought, can still catch the bus.

8. Now the big thing... The parts were not ready... WTF....

So I'll miss the bus, i thought. Somehow i got them done n returned by 5.15 pm.

But hold on, there was one bus left. It too got late probably. So I can handover the vehicle to the contractor n make a run...

9. The contractor wasn't there in his offc n neither were his men. Finally i unloaded the vehicle n while doing it, saw my last bus leave.....

Customer is equal to God

I was reading this article, 'Dont buy racism' by Jug Suraiya published in TOI.

The author says that the main reason for the increasing racist attacks on Indians is the envy that those people feel towards us due to their perception of us being in a better position in this time of recession. He also suggest that to tackle these attacks, we can exploit this perception of theirs and boycott their goods and sevices.

Now, let us leave the author's suggested reason for some other discussion and get on to the solution that he gave.

To tackle Australian Goondagiri with Indian Gandhigiri...

The whole world today is hit by recession. The pre-recession consumers (i.e. those from the developed world) are drowned in debts and can no longer afford to contribute to the demand. Thus the demand to keep these industries alive has to come from emerging economies. The consumer market in India is second only to China. Though china has registered the highest growth, its economy has been hit badly due to the countries export-orientedness. That makes the Indian market the biggest hope of these countries for their survival.
The countries are looking upon our vast and wealthy middle class and its increasingly brand-concious attitude.

Thus if we were to boycott any specific countries goods scarred , imagine the losses that country would bear. That would seriously threaten their economies and compel their govt to take action against attacks on Indians.

For this to happen, we have to stand united in our efforts. Our govt cannot get involved in this and ban their products. That step would severe our diplomatic ties with them. We just have to encourage everyone to boycott their goods.

It would also show that Gandhi's principles are still alive in our country and we are still that same nation that fought the British tyranny without picking any arms. Remember, fighting with peaceful methods takes a lot of strength and self-control.

We are the customers they desperatly need. Its time to show them the power we hold.

As Gandhiji once said, 'Grahak devta saman hota hai.' Translated, it means, Customer is equal to God.

Where the hell is my country?

Currently, I am reading this novel, Namesake. It’s about a Bengali family settled in America, the problems they face, the Bengali’s they meet etc. The novel’s good but what troubles me is that it’s a Bengali family not an Indian family and the people they meet over there are Bengalis and not Indians. Even as far as I remember, there’s no mention of India in the novel, until what I have read….

I am not pointing this out at the author or the Bengalis, but at the tragedy that our country (if it really exists) faces.

Whenever someone introduces himself to you, the state always finds its place (I am not saying that the state is given more priority than the country, coz the country is given no priority at all). This point can be defended by saying that you need not mention you are Indian, when in India. But then what abroad? Aren’t there we suppose to introduce ourselves as Indians and not as Punjabis or Bengalis or Marathis???


There are a few guys in my company who think of me as their friend, a very good friend in fact, even though I haven’t spoken much with them. And this is just because we come from the same state. Whenever we are sitting in a group, they start conversing with me in Marathi and neglect others present who don’t know Marathi. As if this is not enough, they view others who are not from our state as being someone of inferior species.

Though I hate them for this attitude, I have to accept that this is through no fault of their own. They have been taught like this right from their birth. This is no fault of their parents either, coz they too have been taught the same thing. “You r Mr. X and You are a Marathi”. (Not an Indian, but a Marathi.. Damn It…..)

This is not the case just with Marathis, but with every state, every region in India. Even the education system is filled with this stuff, maybe not intentionally.

Thus it has happened that states have become more than a region of the country that we live in, and sometimes even replace our country.

India was formed as a Union of States. 60 years have passed and it’s still a Union of States. Not a country, but a bunch of states fighting among themselves for every silly issue possible.

Hence, I think sometimes…. Where the hell is my country??? Does it exist anywhere except in the nationality column in one’s passport???

the wall clock rule...

A few weeks earlier, I was attending this class. The instructor was giving us topics for extempore... one minute to think, one minute to talk. It was my turn, he gave me this topic... the wall clock...

I started thinking what I can say about this wall clock that would mean something and not just give information that everyone knew. I wanted to say something different, something out of the box.

I looked at the wall clock hanging above the blackboard… “There's nothing different, it’s just a wall clock, idiot...” I said to myself....

I looked at my instructor. He was looking into his watch, the minute was passing away. I looked at other students, everyone with a fancy watch on their hands…

n then it clicked me... the wall clock has a rule...

Imagine.... 50 people standing on the road, everyone with a wrist watch on his hand, everyone following their own time, everyone acting independent of other…
But then, these same 50 people when sit in a classroom, with a wall clock hanging above the blackboard... they have to follow this one wall clock. It shows the same time to each of them... thus keeping everyone under the same rule, judging everyone on the same parameter.... It doesn't care about the sex, religion or age of the person. It just shows you the time, same time for everyone…
Thus everybody's actions get linked and the class acts as a team and they make progress.

This is the wall clock rule... Everybody has to be treated equally, and has to work as a team… That’s the only way progress can be made....
Maybe our political leaders take a note of this...

p.s. What happened at the extempore? Let’s leave that topic for a while.....