Take the lead!

‘Hey people, let’s hang out someplace nice, say Juhu Beach’.

The response to this depends a lot on who’s asking the question, doesn’t it? Read on..

This post isn’t about personal bias, but it’s about how effectively some people can take the lead. These are the people who have mastered the art of persuasion. They are the ones who by one way or another refuse to take no for an answer and manage to get people to agree with the plan. This works even in situations where you thought ‘no’ to be a definite answer. Convincing comes so naturally to them.

I’ve never been good in this department, but have always observed the modus operandi of people who are good at convincing right from school times to college. They work in myriad ways, but the end result is the same. Being a good persuader and eventually a leader requires a lot of groundwork; it’s not an overnight process. There are many phases to it, first one being recognition. Unless you have recognition in the place where you want to influence your ideas, nobody’s going to listen to you. So, basic communication with everyone is a must here.

Next step would be activeness. One has to be very much active around the place where he or she has to aspire to be a leader. You can’t expect to come to college on time, leave right when the college is over and hope that one fine day when you plan a trek, many people from your class will come and join you. You can’t expect to hit the target right the very first time you try.

Bonding together with people who like to take the initiative is the next step. You gotta be amongst the planners of the group. It’s again necessary that you be involved in the plans these initiators make, then only can you expect them to join in your plans. Another vital aspect is building a bubble of trust around you. You can become a good persuader only if people trust you. This trust comes from small things like living up to the tasks that you took up, confining to yourself the personal stuff your friends tell you about their lives, helping your friends when they are in need, consoling them in their grief.

Getting the plan together gets a lot of patience. You have to listen to the tantrums of lot of people around, you have to clear everyone’s doubts, be ready to spend a lot of money on phone calls, sending reminders again and again and most importantly, not giving up despite the obstacles. Many a time, it also warrants to make big last minute changes to suit maximum number of people involved, keeping your own comforts aside for the sake of others.

It’s the satisfaction of a successful venture keeps you going through all this trouble. The joy of being together is more pleasing than relishing the happy times alone.

The thing I feel about leadership is that you don’t always have to be a leader, but you have to step up when nobody’s there to take the initiative. When few people are working towards a plan, we needn’t demonstrate our planning skill. After all, if everyone needn’t be cooking delicious food, sometimes we need to look forward to tasting those delicious dishes too!

À la carte

I like cooking. I’m not saying I’m great at cooking or whatever, but I like cooking. They say, in life, you should do what you like doing. I heard them and joined a 4 year professional cooking course at a reputed institution. As my course is coming to a conclusion, I wanna say, liking something is one thing and obtaining a degree in what you like is a completely different thing. I also want to elaborate on my journey in the cooking institute.

I expected to cook many delicious dishes in the process. But they hardly ever tested my cooking skills. All they kept asking were the recipes of famous dishes, that too more than a decade older. Now, you could not make up fancy versions of these recipes. You have to write the version which your instructor cares about!

Sometimes, we had the task of making some of these delicacies ourselves. We made them with great effort in the beginning. But our instructors never really tasted the food we prepared. They just saw the outer decoration of the dishes and the aroma and judged us on that. Smart people that we are, we did things differently the next time. No one cared about the contents of the dishes, but we always, always decorated with the best of the toppings from then on! Another rule, all the preparations taste the same as all of them are prepared with the same gravy.

If you like the food in a restaurant, you complement the restaurant manager for that. Something similar happens with us. If our dishes are exceptional, the credit is taken away by our instructors who portray it as their own work. It’s cheating, but as a trainee, you have little to complain.

Now when external examiners from other institutes came to test us, they mostly asked us about the dishes we didn’t make or study. Being a chef in a restaurant, they expect us to know the current wholesale and retail price of soyabean. Despite this system, some of my colleagues do manage to get all answers right.

A good cook has to cook whatever that comes his way in the syllabus, even if he is nauseated about some of the things in it. It’s about completing the task, whether it suits you or whether you like it is a different story. You are not the one who decides the menu.

Every semester the menu changes, the specials change, but the approach remains the same. We have adapted to the system really well. Make everything and try to add the spices. Don’t forget to add the pinch of salt otherwise the food will lose its taste.

It will be a different story henceforth when we join a restaurant as a chef. Practical life teaches you a lot doesn’t it. Degrees do not actually imply what we have accomplished. It just tells that we are familiar with the field.

Replace cooking by any other profession in the post and it’ll work fine.

Powertoni

If money is the thing that drives the world crazy, I think power is not too far behind. So many people directly and indirectly crave for power. Now, ‘power’ here is not ‘power in the political sense’. By ‘Power’, I see at it as an ability to make things work as you want them to work. No-one can deny their love for power!

Why are the ‘Reasons to Hate your boss’ type e-mails so often sent and enjoyed by people? Most people tend to dislike the people who issue authority over them. So many stories you might’ve heard about two great friends, one gets promoted and the friendship no longer remains the same. I’m not saying this is always the case, but most people do like to have equal or higher power than their peers.

There are various ways of showcasing power. Take the simple example of viva. Why do many of our internal profs like to screw us up in our viva. The simple reason is they want to signal that they have the power to make or break your life (Hardly do they know stupid vivas don’t constitute our life!), so you better suck up to them to get good marks. It’s a way to say that you execute your freedom to bunk lectures, I’ll execute my power to screw you!

Police in India are very measly paid, live in uncomely living conditions. Still, so many students give the police force exam every year. The applicants are never excited about the money or living conditions, but mostly in the powers the police officers can exercise.

One of the benefits of having many friends and contacts is the ‘power to get things done’ that comes along with it. Let’s take a simple example, apart from a handful of friends that call you regularly, remember the ones who call you less frequently. Recollect the last 10 such people who called you. I bet most of them would’ve called to ask some favor from you. (Unless you are a hot girl who is remembered by almost everyone you ever met!)

While shopping, even if we aren’t going to buy most things we see, we all like to have the power to buy them. College elections also see the play of power games, so many students resort to unfair means for the love of power, to be the most influential person in the college. Luckily our batch didn’t have such students for GS and CS posts.

Another example of power is when you alone have the expertise. I remember my father telling me about the early days of ball pens. The technique to prepare the ink which didn’t flow freely and dry up was known to a very few people. These people were so much in demand that big companies were ready to pay a fortune to hire them. Power of capturing the market was important to these companies.

One more thing you must have observed that previously, the name of inventors of new theories and products were made famous. Like the Aeroplane, the TV, steam engine and so on. Now-a-days, you see so many products, but hardly ever come across the names of the people who were involved in the discovery. That’s because discoveries and advances in many fields are held secret by companies so that they aren’t copied by anyone. They want to have the power to manufacture those products all by themselves. No-one can replicate a MAC Thin Air book!

I can go on and on, but I shouldn’t be using my power to bore people by writing long posts.

Acceptance is Bliss!

Watching the sunset at Juhu beach is such a pretty sight. But today was different for him. He was finding difficult to find happiness is anything.

All alone in the crowd, he was wondering how things went wrong. Never in the last 10 years of his life had he finished outside the top 3 in his school. Now he had to see 60% marks, that too due to very bad fever during exam time.

All around him today, he could just see happy faces; faces of all his friends who scored 80’s and 90’s discussing about the best colleges in the city. He could see his friends trying to sympathize with him but they couldn’t avoid the hint of pride they possessed due to scoring more marks than their regular topper.

He had lots of questions. Why did God punish me for no fault of mine? Don’t I deserve to be in a good college after all this effort? If at all I had to fall sick, why the boards, why not some stupid unit test?

There’s one thing about defeat and most of the people in the world. After a failure, firstly people try to find who’s to blame. If no answer, they check whether they themselves are to blamed, if both answers are no, they find defeat very difficult to digest. I feel it that way and dunno how many of you agree about it.

One more thing about defeat, you just need a moment to get over it, a moment of ‘acceptance’. He had found it! He accepted reality and things appeared to be different suddenly.

He now smiled at the 60% marks, they were his own after all. He now knew that he would be happier with securing admission is a low profile college rather than the frustrated students who get their name printed in the newspaper saying 90% and still no admission. He felt that somewhere God must have a faith in him that he’ll be at his best and have a bright future despite going to a mediocre college. He was also thankful to face defeat so early in his life. This will make him a stronger person to cope up with problems that may surface in the future. People so often face defeat at the most important stage of their career that they can’t cope up with it, commit suicide and do other such stupid things. He was happy that he came out of depression so early. Such a powerful thing acceptance of reality is!

He now knows that happiness doesn’t come in a box wrapped with gelatin paper saying congrats! Happiness is much more than that. He knows now, who his true friends are and the other ones who are there for their selfish needs. Victory would have been sweeter, but for a change he was savoring defeat.

He now knows there are times in life when you have to pay a price even if you haven’t done a mistake. Everything isn’t fair always. After the storm, you have to start collecting the shattered pieces and start living. Crying over the lost things is just a waste of time.

Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections!!!!

Title credit goes to Yugandhar, I couldn't find any other well suited.

True Lies

In friendship, sometimes there are times when you are confused whether to speak out the bitter truth or to conceal it. Things are worse when it comes to your best friend. You know he or she is going wrong yet telling the truth might make things worse. Like the times when your friend asks you how’s the dress he’s wearing. The dress combi might be bizarre, but saying that directly might not seem proper. Ok the dress thing is a small issue, but when it comes to important issues, the problem becomes more complicated.

If you do not point out your friend’s mistakes and someday he himself realizes them, he’ll feel really bad about you. Why didn’t you confess the truth earlier? What kinda friend are you? On the other hand, if you are frank enough to tell the mistake, the other person might not take it the right way. People sometimes find it difficult to believe that they are wrong. Being too straightforward might actually come in the way of a beautiful friendship. Also, we have to be very careful in the way we confess out the truth so that it doesn’t appear to be hurting.

You need both types of friends. Some to praise you during your difficult times (You know your life’s a mess, still there’s someone thinking you are better off) and some people to scold you for your smallest mistakes. I’m glad I have both variants of friends. It’s difficult to say which ones are more right.

But there’s one thing. Being frank at truthful at such times requires guts. It requires accepting the risk of being misunderstood. It requires saying the harsh reality knowing that it might jeopardize your friendship. It requires overcoming the temptation of avoiding the topic instead of telling the truth.

I think I’d be glad if my friends be truthful to me, even if the truth is harsh. False praise and admiration will make me happy for the moment, but will do more harm than good in the long run.

Despite this view, sometimes I choose not to spill out the harsh truth. It’s the fear of losing good friends that keeps me holding….

In pursuit of tomorrow

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this day, a day called ‘Tomorrow’.

On one side, it gives us Hope. Hope that what is pending today, might be completed tomorrow. It gives us a brand new day to work upon. A day to start a new task, follow a new regime, pursue a new dream. In case of a hectic day, tomorrow will be the day when we’ll dance our troubles away.

On the other side, the day sometimes is an ‘illusion’. I have to start studying tomorrow, so many mornings came and went, this ‘tomorrow‘ never really arrived. It allows us to procrastinate. It allows us to be lazy today. It’s a nice way of avoiding things, even if temporary.

We all travel through both sides of the road I guess. It’s difficult to say which side is right and which is wrong. Rather, there’s no right or wrong.

But, in this journey, you should not forget about the auspicious day called ‘Today’. I see many people around working hard just for their tomorrows, right from their childhood till retirement. They never really enjoy their present. Yes, dreams and ambitions should be big, you should sacrifice some joy today for a better future, but don’t do this all your life. Don’t live your life with the tension of ‘things to do’ list. You might move from one success to another, without really savoring it.

Enjoying your today so much that you leave all most of your work for tomorrow is also not the right thing. By this, although you are living today to the fullest, you are making tomorrow a horrible day. Plus, someone else might fill in your shoes, and you won’t be required for tomorrow. The opportunity that knocked today might not wait till tomorrow.

Balance is the key I guess. Working for a better tomorrow is essential, but freaking out about the troubles that you may face tomorrow isn’t a wise thing. Relishing today is important and so is cherishing tomorrow.

Engineering reloaded

Few days back, a friend of mine studying in class 12th asked me if I could come along with her to a seminar cum counseling session called as ‘An insight into engineering’ given by a famous coaching class that trains for both, the CET as well as engineering subjects. I know that such seminars are all about publicity, another of those time wasting exercises, but I had nothing better to do, so I agreed to attend it with her.

Some guy in his thirties in a loud and clear voice started explaining ‘what is engineering about?’; Something which I couldn’t figure out after three years of engineering. Then he spoke of how important is the first year and if you don’t figure out how to get around things in the first year, how the rest of the years will be difficult for you. 'First year is the foundation for everything, here’s where you get the basics right' he added.

Basics what, being friends with the person who writes assignments, being a regular at the Xerox place, finding someone to make your ED drawings and all, I wondered. Then he started talking about individual branches of engg and here’s when I started dozing off. After almost an hour gone, I looked around to see students still paying attention with the same enthusiasm. How fast your attention span can reduce after getting admit to an Engg college is what I was thinking about!

After the seminar, there was the counseling session. Seriously bored by then, I decided to have some fun. Students in group of 3 were counseled by the volunteers of the coaching class. I pretended to be a class 12 student along with my friend. At first, I preferred listening to the questions my friend was asking such as 'Is engineering difficult?' 'Which colleges are the best for engg?' and more such questions. He mentioned my college name as one of the best ones. I felt happy for a moment. He also said, "First year is the most difficult, but don't worry, if you join our classes, you will have done the syllabus a month before the exam leaving ample time for revision".Then he asked me whether I have any questions.

I was kinda waiting for this. I asked him what distinguishes a good engg college from an average engg college. He answered ‘ Good engg colleges have good professors who give wonderful insight into the subject and they have good research facilities, good labs and other infrastructure.’ Those exact words he said. A picture of my profs flashed for a minute in my mind. Period.

Next question I shot was, ‘How good is the interface of an engg college with the industry?’
He answered, “Every year, most colleges arrange Industrial visits (IV s) to get student interaction with the industry; they are quite good for budding engineers”. I can’t remember how I controlled my laughter then. Man, people can lie!

Then I bombarded another question, ‘If I enter Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, which companies will offer me in college placements?’
He answered, “There are the telecom companies like Vodafone, Airtel, Idea and also internet providers like Hathway, MTNL etc. who come for placements. You can also get into good core electronic companies such as Siemens, Falcon, Samsung, Sony etc. through good colleges like a, b, c, d.” one of those colleges was mine. He also said that some people also end up with software or financial jobs. Unless the word ‘some’ meant ‘almost everyone’, it didn’t reflect the truth. When I asked him about the course of Electronics and Telecom Engineering, the answer he gave me could very well have been termed as something even no professor of this subject in any college, has done in his lifetime.

A few more questions and I was wondering which of his answers was the most hilarious one. He was like an in-form batsmen hitting sixers all over the ground. For a while it made me wonder whether I was studying the same thing this guy is talking about. If I were to do it all over again, would I do things differently? Nah, I love my life and love the journey that has been so far. I would change nothing about it, not even a single thing!

A 'Drama' tic post

I adore going to the drama theatre. It is a more pleasing experience for me than seeing a movie. A bit weird it might seem, but very true. I’ve seen a plethora of live dramas, and can still watch many more at the price higher than a movie ticket.

It gives me a very different feeling to that of a movie. It’s like someone is giving in his 100% performance, not once, not twice, but every time he performs. No matter what his mood that day is, or whatever the problems in his daily life are, he has to the same for every show. Going behind the set in a flash, changing costume and coming back as a different character altogether in less than half a minute. Making mistakes would ruin the reputation of the show and thus his future earnings too.

Plus, the attitude in India towards drama isn’t very positive, both as a career option and as a viewer base. The salaries earned by the actors are much less than what TV actors get without possessing half the talent. Fewer people are present to view the drama and lot of this amount goes into the hall rent, building up the sets and the people working behind the scenes that actors have to bear with an amount which is much smaller than they deserve. The cost of a drama show is almost equivalent to a movie ticket in India. So sad, but true. Despite that, most viewers are people long beyond their youth.

Cost of watching a drama in England is around 35 to 50 pounds. This is more expensive than watching a live premier league game; certainly more expensive than watching a movie. Still people of all ages turn up there to see a drama there, with the same enthusiasm of seeing a movie. TV serial actors over there aspire to be associated with a good drama someday. Here in India, such a step would be considered as a step backwards. We care so much about publicity, don’t we? Whose gonna watch a drama, millions would rather be watching me on a TV show or for that matter even a commercial.

Neways, coming back to my love for drama; I’ve seen my cousin directing a play in her college. It was amazing to see how much of hardwork they went through before the final product. It was a play based on communal riots which won the ‘Purshottam Award’ for the best college drama that year. It’s considered to be the most auspicious college level drama award in Maharashtra. The energy and enthusiasm you see in it, makes you wanna do only one thing, stand up and applaud.
Apart from these, it was also great to see many college dramas at Malhar a few years back. Some of the plays in our college Quadrangle on weekends are also good. I also remember watching a pantomime contest in Pune a while ago. Even without speech, they conveyed such beautiful messages and such nicely did they depict emotions that brought tears in my eyes. Just like the Charlie Chaplin movies. Last year, on one of the college days, we had prepared a 10 minutes skit by the four batches of our class. It proved to be such a fun task and everyone was so happy at the end of the day. We’ll never forget that day.

Lastly, language is not that important, as long as the emotions and actions are conveyed to the viewer. I’ve watched a lot of Marathi plays, a few Gujarati plays, English plays and one Korean play too; and have been able to decipher most of those. According to me, what the play conveys is more important that what language is used. One Gujarati play on Shri Krishna had such a mellifluous sound of flute playing in the songs that completely mesmerized me without understanding a word.

We say many a times to our friends, “Chalo, let’s go to a movie”. Hoping that someday we would say “Let’s go for a drama” too…

A bit too much

Listening to a lecture once in a while is ok,
sitting on the last bench and asking doubts is a bit too much.

Showing concern is ok sometimes;
dictating terms is a bit too much.

Working on your project is ok,
but lying that you haven’t even started is a bit too much.

Cribbing on your blog is ok sometimes,
but using the thesaurus for every third word is a bit too much.

Losing is ok sometimes;
not accepting defeat is a bit too much.

Taking advice from the ones who can help is ok,
but forgetting them as soon as the job is done is a bit too much.

Cursing someone is ok,
but cursing him behind his back is a bit too much.

Calling your friends on their birthday is ok,
but forgetting to wish them happy birthday is a bit too much.

Sharing secrets with someone is ok,
but disclosing someone’s secrets to another is a bit too much.

Four minutes of added time is ok,
but Oven scoring in the sixth minute is a bit too much.

Turning up at a stupid movie once in a while is unavoidable,
but recommending the same movie to your friends is a bit too much.

Lying once in a while is ok,
but lying to your best friend is a bit too much.

Making a mistake is ok;
making that mistake again is a bit too much.

Helping someone out of courtesy is ok,
but expecting something back in return is a bit too much.

Writing a boring blog is ok sometimes;
asking people to read it and comment is a bit too much.

Praying to god for a good result is ok,
but not studying for it is a bit too much.

Wasting time sometimes is ok;
but complaining about lack of time after that is a bit too much.

I guess writing anything above this would be a bit too much.

Are numbers really important?

What is more important, the final results or the process? This question has popped up in my mind several times and I’ve had a different answer every time. Sometimes there’s this feeling that numbers are all important, no matter how you get them. Adapt to the system, follow the norms, get the results, job done.

Then there are other times where the numbers really don’t matter. At those times you really don’t give a damn for the marks and just concentrate on learning. You just enjoy the process so much that results are secondary.

I’ve been on both sides of the road. Can’t say which one is right or wrong; at various times in life, you have to choose one of them timely. If you say marks don’t really matter, all that I care for is knowing stuff, and then you may have to risk missing on a good college, a good friend circle and lot many things. The world will never believe you that you are intelligent; you’ll have to come up with the numbers to show them that. Plus what’s the harm if you know some tricks to get marks without actually knowing the stuff

On the other hand, sometimes I feel like running away from the rigid doctrines of exams. Solve this problem exactly this way, it will fetch you full marks. Don’t use your creativity. This is the crap I can’t handle sometimes. I don’t care that I get a mediocre score. Working on a real microcontroller excites me than calculating stupid memory map tables. In the long term, I feel some scores will just be another set of numbers. There’s no point pressing hard for such marks when they are of little use.

The recent GRE test was a wonderful experience for me. At first I was really vexed by the process. Hardly did I remember the words that I studied the previous day. I hated it, I almost quit the conquest! But with some inspiration and convincing from friends, started it all over again. This time it was different. I was actually enjoying the process of learning. I enjoyed that I was reading the daily newspaper in different manner now. Actually caring to understand the meanings of the words that I once ignored.

No longer did I feel the urge to curse the words, not even the yellow cards which carried them. I kinda liked them. I told to myself, whatever happens in the actual exam, I’ve actually gained a lot from this process. Even if I falter, not everything will be lost. That’s when the tension disappeared. I got a decent score but I think even if I had scored any higher or lower, I wouldn’t really have been more joyous or unhappy. For this time I surely knew, numbers were not all that mattered…..

Of Blackouts and Plunders

Warning! Long post ahead!!

Yesterday night, there was a blackout in our area. It brought to my mind my childhood memories; those were the times when blackouts were quite frequent. They were associated primarily with all the children hitting the streets and playing games. Something which came by as complement was robbery and many interesting tales of robbery. But this post is all about the one incident that I’d never forget all my life.

I was studying for my History paper next day. Boredom was taking toll as the clock neared midnight. Someone felt pity for me I guess. The next moment all the lights faded and cursing the text, I ran out towards the street, relieved. My other friends had similar relieved expressions on their face. Studying was out of question, so we thought playing something would freshen us before the exam next day. Dog and the bone was the game we chose.

It’s so true that sport makes you release all your troubles, be it temporary, so what! Nobody cared what time it really was and no-one wanted the blackout to end. Meanwhile, my friend saw something strange. “Dude, someone’s trying to break through into Ishan’s(name changed) house” he whispered into my ears. Earlier that day, after playing cricket Ishan had told us that he is going to Ahmedabad in the evening with his family and will not return until next fortnight.

It was a moment of horror, but we knew that we shouldn’t panic. We needed to do something wise. What to do? Call the police or call all the colony residents or maybe fight with the thief ourselves and be superheroes of the colony for next few days. Lots of options flooded our mind, not knowing what exactly to do. Finally four of us friends decided that we’d hunt him down ourselves. Childhood plans, immature as most of them are!

Now suddenly all four, although a bit frightened, were resolute on doing the task without any help. Three of us took a stump each and the fourth one with a wooden stick. We had to avoid doing something stupid; we had to have a plan. If anything went wrong, it could well go down to our lives.

We examined everything. There was the window near the kitchen left open by the thief; we decided to get in through it. One of us had a doubt as to why would the thief leave the window open. The others just shut him down by saying that he probably needed fresh air.

Taking care of three things was essential. Firstly we had to avoid making noise otherwise it would alert the thief and he would attack us with anything he has, probably a knife, could be anything. Secondly, he had a torch and we didn’t b’coz again the thief would be alarmed if we used the torch. Thirdly, we had to track his exact position before getting in.

Thinking about all possibilities, we saw the position of the thief from the window and made a plan of attack. The thief was on the mattress eating cucumber. This was assumable since if he came out with his loot and try to elope, people on the streets would come to know and probably attack him together. So now was really not the time for him to get out. Now was the time to eat cucumber.

Boldly we stepped inside the house without making slightest of the sounds. One of us who carried the stick cautiously approached towards the thief from behind the cupboards and dining table. We followed him with our stumps. As he was about 2 feet near, he hit the thief severely on the knee. Next moment the robber went speechless and numb. Till the other three of us join, he realized he had to do something, that too quickly!

He started running away from us and shouted, calm down, I’m Ishan’s uncle, what the hell are you doing? We froze there, thinking how foolish our act was.

In the meantime, two other stupid things happened. Firstly, someone called the cops. Secondly, someone called up Ishan’s Ahmedabad place at 1.30 saying there was a robber in their house. Next worst thing due was the history paper, which was due in 5 hours.

It's all about the bike !

I pass by my school every day. A lot has changed since the time I left. Changed for the better I guess. But this one change really saddens me. It's the barricade of cycles, which is missing from the picture.

I remember the days when I rode to school on a bicycle. Not many of my friends used this mode of transportation for school, but it was a joy ride in the morning. Some 20-30 cycles were aligned outside our school compound. Now there are none!

I still cherish the long bicycle races with colony friends, travelling from Cinemax to Aarey Colony and then New Zealand Hostel. All this for a small treat, the loser would pay for all the Vada Pavs. After that, riding down the slopes of New Zealand hostel at very high speeds with the wind rushing into our faces. As I write this I really want to go there now. Sometimes we would race to Aksa beach through a narrow road, fast moving vehicles, putting ourselves into trouble, getting outta trouble. The narrow bruises, the minor accidents, the high speed skids, still so fresh.

The picture today is sad, really sad. The only people I see riding the bicycle are doodhwala, pav-wala, anda-wala and restaurant delivery guys or small children till the age of 10. It is a pity that cycle drivers are seen as people who cannot afford a bike or a car. Cycle racing enthusiasts are also very rare. The sport is dying in India, rather cycling is dying in India. Also cycling is something just for guys here I guess. It’s been more than 2 years since I’ve seen a girl ride a cycle, which was my sister btw. Why don’t you apply ‘Why Should Boys have all the fun?’ funda to this case too! This also reminds me, where are all the Hero cycles, Hercules top gear, Lady Bird advertisements that were running on TV channels few years back?

Few days back, I happened to visit the local cycle shop. The guy at the counter recognized me and asked where all my friends are. He says his business has gone down drastically and the only selling bikes are small kiddy bicycles. That’s when I think, it’s people like me who have left cycling are the reason for which this guy is losing grip in his business. I still recollect the sad the day I sold my bicycle. I left cycling in 11^th standard because no-one of my age was driving the cycle anymore. I cared too much about what people would think and that my friends would laugh at me. I regret my decision now; regret the reasons why I took the decision.

The society’s outlook towards cycling is not encouraging, but I feel I shouldn’t have cared. Riding to Tembu dam 8 kms near my hometown on a bike was one of the most entertaining aspect of our college group's trip last year. So was the ride on the streets of Berlin dedicated exclusively for cycles. I am certainly going to buy a cycle once I get my job and drive it, not caring about anyone saying anything. I’ll also try to complete 100 km a day ride near Karjat in the next vacation, hopefully with friends.

B’coz it is all about about the bike....

Feeling Guilty

Few months ago, I came across a funny article in Air France’s In-flight magazine. Although my knowledge about French is minuscule, somehow I managed to decode most part of it, partly with the help of friends with better French. I don’t remember whole of it, but here’s the English version of whatever little I recollect. Take it with a pinch of salt. These are not my views, but I agree to most of them.

God, I really feel guilty. For a lot of things I’ve done in life.

I’ve been a Businessman all this time, somewhat different than the regular ones. Long time ago, I started a business, with no capital. With a very small workspace and no work experience at all, started something which would help me earn thousands in minutes. A business which has no fixed retirement age, no educational qualification restrictions, no selling of door to door goods, no publicity via phone calls.

A bit about my clientele. They are from all walks of life, all professions. The rich and also the poor, people from the metros as well as from the village. Something more interesting, even if I change my base, my business will be unaffected in terms of numbers. Recession has sunken me, oh no, but in fact, in a small way it has helped me. I believe that I’ve lived a life which is every budding successful entrepreneur’s dream. You’re probably wondering, am I doing something illegal, something anti-social. No I’m not. I was an astrologer.

Failing in the 11^th grade for the second time, my life was a mess, until I saw a small paper ad about this business. They have coaching classes for everything back there in India, and there was a coaching class for this too. One course of a year’s duration did me more good than 15 years of school education. One thing was also certain, I had no death until people stop caring about how their future would be.

I was trained for every situation. Each individual horoscope has a good part and a bad part attached to it. Adapting to every client, I had to come up with different stuff. Not that I had to tell false interpretations, but I had to come up with partial truth. Explaining which stars and planets are in the wrong position ( People come to me only when something’s wrong or the want something in life, not when everything’s good) that you’ve landed up in a mess. Next thing, point to a time in future where all of the stars get in the favorable positions. Give the client a ray of hope. Lastly, tell them that this science is not 100% foolproof, but in most cases it turns to be quite right. Don’t worry; people still will keep coming to you, and if not previous clients, new ones. As people kept worrying about their future, I was side by side securing my future through their money!

Going back to the first line, about me feeling guilty, let me straighten it out a bit. I feel guilty for plentiful reasons. For breaking the hearts of several couples who couldn’t marry because their horoscopes didn’t match. For changing people’s names and making them believe this would bring them fortune. I feel bad for the people who had to reject perfectly wonderful apartments just because the entrance was facing a particular direction. I feel terrible making people buy expensive rings that would brighten their future. For making people perform ridiculously expensive rituals at home to supposedly bring peace and prosperity.

I feel more terrible for doing something without actually knowing the basics. Doing something which I had no idea where it came from and how it developed. Later when I studied more deeply, I got to know this was more of a statistical science rather than pure science. Its foundation lies from the study of people over the years with reference to position of stars and planets. It’s based upon the observation that people born on similar planet positions share similar fortune. It’s a collection of observations of scholars for over a long period of time written in form of scripts. To add more, different set of Astronomy scholars have different ways of inferring from the horoscope. It’s by no way foolproof.

I am still amused as to how there can be the same set of fortune for a beggar born on the same date and time when a successful businessman was born. My belief also says that you have more command over your life than some planets and stars which are a million miles away. One more thing, even if I tell you everything correctly about your future, how’s it going to benefit you? If something it is going to happen, it’ll happen anyways, knowing about it wouldn’t help you change it!

Lots of questions I still ponder in my mind while sitting on this comfortable fully reclining chair in my Bungalow on the Paris - Nice road. I happily retired a couple of years ago, but the business back in India is still strong thanks to my disciples in India. I see the cyclists running from my window for the second most prestigious Bike race in France. Life’s good, but somewhere in the corner of my heart, I feel something wrong.

I’m guilty.

Surpriseee...

A couple of days ago, few of my college friends came to my house for a surprise visit. I was quite overjoyed seeing them and felt very nice. Overjoyed because it has been really a while someone came by without a reason, or without wanting something from me. It wasn’t my birthday too! That’s when I realized how good it feels when you call someone or visit someone without actually wanting something from them. I’m thankful to have such great friends.

This friendship day, I had no real plans. It was kinda getting boring going through dull GRE wordlists. To my surprise Anand came to my home around the evening after a day full of Linux course in college. It’s so nice to meet a friend than to send stupid forwarded messages to everyone. It’s the element of surprise that doubled the fun.

We had a crazy Idea. Anand said ‘Let’s go around and surprise more people.’ We had no plan as to who all we’ll surprise and how many places to cover, but hoped to cover maximum people. We hit the road on the bike at 6.30 pm towards Malad. With the crystal maze that Malad roads form, we had difficulty in finding our friend’s place. Finally at one point, I gave up hunting for the building and called him. He said, “Turn around, I’m right behind you”. Wish we could’ve looked around before calling. Still it was something that he didn’t expect to have happened. He offered a Cadbury as friendship day sharing which we shared till our last friend’s house. We had to cover many places so decided that nowhere we will have any food. We’ll come for that some other day.

Next halt, kandivali friend. Here we couldn’t resist eating delicious pakodas and Basundi. This time too, he caught us when we were entering his building. No surprise again, but he was really happy seeing us come. Here on, we got the map to our next friend’s house. The Mr. Gre was busy studying with last pack of flash cards and was literally shocked seeing us come. Finally, we had surprised someone completely. After a cup of tea and Lonavala chikki, we left his house. It was getting darker and we decided this would be our last destination.

On the way back, we thought we’d change plan a bit. Visit one more friend and surprise him. We had lots of options to think upon and would’ve liked to go visit many more people, but time just didn’t permit us to do that. Just then our friend from Powai called in to say he had prepared cookies and cake to bring to college the next day. That’s when we decided, ‘let’s go surprise him’. Kandivli to Powai was hell of a journey. All possible things that can happen on a bike happened. We were almost hit by a rick, almost caught by a cop, lost our way at Saki Naka and went all the way till Ghatkopar. After more than an hour of roaming around, finally reached the republic of Powai.

Now there was some more element of fun. We didn’t have his address or any details of where he lived. Just recollected random facts about what he’d told us about his apartment during college time. With some help from the locals and a lot of common sense, we finally reached a building which we figured out he might be staying at. The watchman asked us the room number where he stayed and here too, luckily we dialed the right number and reached his place. A day full of surprises as it was! Happy that we could surprise one more friend and shared the last bite of Cadbury.

It was such a nice day. Would’ve liked to visit many more friends. Hopefully, that’ll happen sometime soon. I’ll remember this friendship day for long. Something different than the regular...

Blog-O-Sphere

Just a few days ago, a fellow blogger was talking to me. He said ‘I don’t think our Blogs are going to survive after we complete our BE’. I had no reply, to some extend he was true! But I never really wanted him to be true. Blogging has been such a great fun all this while.

Now as for the Blogs going dead thing, I feel if someone has started a blog for love of writing, it’ll never die. If you’ve started on the grounds that nowadays everyone has a blog, so it’s kinda cool to have my own blog, then sooner someday the writing passion will vanish. Amitabh has one, Aamir has one, Shobha De has one, so it’ll be cool for me to have one. Naah, doesn’t work for too long. There’s a wave of seasoned bloggers who have joined Blogger for the fame of it, sooner someday they'll cease to write.

Blogosphere has given me great posts to read. Got to know people and their views better. Hear what they want to talk about. Wonderful and healthy (Should I use this..) debates between people, so many great stories, some wonderful poems and much more. More importantly it has been an effective medium to express what I want to say, or in general what I feel about things.

Sometimes I've wandered across some unknown blogs which had some pretty good writings too. A few regular bloggers having about 500+ followers and update daily to some bloggers who have total of 3 posts in a complete year. I find famous blogs mostly boring. If you’re updating your blog too often, you can’t maintain quality throughout. Often people who update once a month sometimes come up with such great blogs that they seem totally worth the wait.

Some more kind of bloggers. Commercial bloggers, with loads of advertisements, tons of pop-ups and very large loading time, I never read those blogs until absolutely essential. When a hobby becomes a business, it loses its charm. Never will I even think of putting advertisements on blog which give me a penny for every visitor to the site. One more trend has started, publicity of institutes through blogs. Mainly coaching classes or the people who help with students completing their projects and stuff. Why pay for a website when you can do the same thing for free through a blog.

Finally, the last type of bloggers, the underground bloggers. There are few people I know who do not wish to publicize their blogs, so do not wish to be listed on the blogroll. These are the ones mostly writing controversial, unbiased, confidential stuff. I like reading them because they are so close to reality. No faking, no fancy language, just pure feelings about what they feel. I’m thankful to those bloggers too for wonderful posts.

Just the one things I noticed about many blogs which I’ve read. People crib a lot about anything and everything below the sun. Many posts are about complains and what’s wrong with the world rather than what’s good. Maybe that should change a bit. Few years down the line, maybe we'll be busy, maybe we won't have time reading each other's post, the comments may reduce….but we'll continue to blog.

Schengen Staaten

Warning – Long post….

Actually I wanted to shorten this one so that readers are not bored. But then I realized that I am writing more for myself rather than the reader, more so to cherish every moment I enjoyed. Still I am very much indebted to the few people left on earth reading this blog to actually take the pains reading this. So screw it, this one’s big.

The view from the window presented a magnificent sight. As the fading orange ball sets lower in the sky, the clouds turn glorious shades of pink and purple. Then an amber colour line formed on the horizon. A glance at the watch showed 11.30 pm. Wonderful sight of Helsinki city beneath and Orange and Amber colour light spread on it. Beautiful Scandinavian country with the Baltic sea. Thank you very much Lufthansa, you made a wonderful sight on my dreamlist come right in front of my eyes, in a very beautiful way.

Coming up next were 6 different countries with 6 different languages and 5 different currencies and with no plan or Hotel booking either. The route of Helsinki - Tallinn – Riga – Jurmala – Vilnius – Warszawa – Berlin – Frankfurt. It may not have the fame that western Europe has but still I liked it better than the west. We travelled by almost all modes of transport in Europe. Be it the cruise, ship, plane, bus, tram, train, trolley bus, metro, taxi, car, bicycle everything.

Cruise in Europe is a terrific experience. Helsinki to Tallinn by superfast 2 hour cruise is an amazing journey. I always wanted to experience it once and this time got the chance. Watching 20 to 30 Seagull’s on the ship deck is a splendid sight. A wonderful bird, but so many of them were in Sight that we almost lost interest in clicking photos after a while. Bird watching is like that you see, rarity has value!!

I’ve heard about Gothic, Teutonic, Byzantine Architecture from the game Age of Empires. It was very nice to actually see them. The Teutonic Knights whom the British called the best cavalry in the world made a graceful sight. Especially Vilnius city is very classic. Half the city has Old Gothic architecture and the other half has Renaissance, Baroque style buildings. This difference presented a pretty view.

The Geographical centre of Europe is located at 19 kms from Vilnius. It is a beautiful park called as Europa Parka with over 200 great works of art from over 100 International Artists. A must see place.

Festival time shows you a very vibrant side of any city. We were very lucky to be in Tallinn for the National Song festival. A parade with 26000 music performers went around the Tallinn city main street singing local songs and moving towards their National Stadium in a very organized manner, parading. Such a wonderful sight, I can never forget rest of my life. More than a lakh people gathered around the National stadium to see them perform. All over the city, big screens and television were telecasting it. Amazing is the only word that describes it.

People had warned us not to visit these Baltic countries terming them unsafe. I do not regret not listening to them at all. Like us, they have had to fight for their independence too. Infact some of these countries have gained Independence not just once but twice. The Baltic nations, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, took part in a memorable protest against Soviet rule on August 23, 1989, which helped pave the way toward their renewed independence.

The “Baltic Way” was one of the longest human chains in history, organized by leaders in each of the countries as an act of protest. Roughly two million people from the Baltic countries formed a massive human chain that spanned 430 miles through all three nations. They held hands and carried signs during the peaceful protest. Going through the same route by bus, it took me six hours and also a small tear in the corner of my eyes. How proud each one of these two million people feel knowing they were the ones who had given their country Independence.

Interaction with locals was another good experience that came with the tour. Two Swiss couples who were on their vacation met me in a Polish train. They were college buddies and meeting up after 10 years of college, all doctors, but very down to earth. One guitarist and one vocalist and I joined them. Singing Bryan Adams, Green Day, Linkin Park, Bon Jovi, Backstreet Boys, Oasis and other great song in a European train that too out loud was great. They also sung some famous German songs and made me sing some famous Hindi songs in my pathetic voice. It just felt like friends from my college and me were going together in a train. They asked me a lot of things about India and told a lot about their European and African experiences. Got to know many things in Polish language from a Polish student over there enroute to Berlin. Her experience in a winter which was fierce as the temperature went upto -40 degrees were thrilling and fearful.

Sight of Indian Peacock in Warszawa was great. Here around five peacocks move around freely in the garden nearby the famous Palace on water. I’ve never seen such a free peacock anywhere in India. So many people looking around when it was showing it’s beautiful feathers in the gentle rain. What a pretty sight. I was actually very lucky to click an Image of the Peacock fly. A very rare sight and a beautiful photo!

Riding a bike (or the bicycle as we call it) was also a Great adventure. Riding a bike once in Europe is what I feel a must do thing. There are special lanes for bikes and no cars can ply on it without paying a hefty fine. Even the bicycles follow lane discipline. There are different signals for trams, cars, pedestrians and bikes. 25 kilometer journey from city centre to Berlin wall and back with a Mercedes Bike was cool. On my way, standing on the signal with a map, I saw some Korean students also with same map headed in the same direction. I spoke to them a few Korean words that I recollected from my previous journey back there and they were so happy hearing that. We all rode together to the wall.

Berlin wall was all I knew about Berlin. Actually a very small portion of this wall remains which was brought down in 1989. The eastern side is covered in graffiti that did not exist while the Wall was guarded by the armed soldiers of East Germany. Nearby are remains of Nazi Concentration Camps. A place were Hitler tortured the Jews. There actually they have set up a live demo show in the dark basements of these camps using men dressed in skeleton structures coming from all around threatening us. They also show a movie with special effects like vibration under your legs and other spine chilling effects to showing how the Jews were tortured. Very painful to even see it, what must have it been to experience it? Many people walked out after seeing half the movie.

I’ll end this post on a very positive note I thought. There can’t be anything more positive than the sight I saw at the Berlin main square. Preparations for the Paralympics games was going on there and in a very different way. Disabled people who were to participate in the Paralympics were made to play against people from the crowd that had gathered to see them. There was blind football where blind people were playing against blindfolded people. Them the basketball match where people from audience were playing on wheelchairs against their Paralympics team. Then there were other games such as Table Tennis, Running , Judo etc. Such a nice way to prepare them I felt. Maybe India should introduce such a thing and people will participate for such a good cause. I played 10 minutes of blinded football there. Felt so nice after that. Maybe I’ve contributed in whatever small way I could to help them. Amen.