How much do we own?

"
As Alexander wandered around north-west India around the fourth-century BC, he queried a group of Jain monks on why they were not paying him much attention. He got the following reply:

King Alexander, every man can possess only so much of the earth's surface as this we are standing on. You are but human like the rest of us, save that you are always busy and up to no good, travelling so many miles from your home, a nuisance to yourself and to others!... You will soon be dead, and you will own just as much of the earth as will suffice to bury you.

"
I had read this in Prasanna blog long time ago, but this thing has struck on me. This kind of keeps giving me a warning bell, whenever I get angry at someone or I hold a grudge against someone. Because just things in life come and go, people come and go, relationships keep changing, cities keep changing, and what would just remain finally is some photographs, some mails, some gifts, some moments struck in memory. And most always or not, in retrospect, when I think of the above quote, I regret all the grudges/quarrels that I have had, all the times my self esteem has prevented me from telling sorry or making up, and all the times when I just did not care.

Running the Marathon..

It all started with Alice mail to participate in Marathon, he literally forced me to register for this. I had the option of 10K run and 5.7K run, and always as ambitious as I am, I chose 10K run.

Later some people told us that you could raise money for some NGO running for the marathon and then started this mad rush to run for NGO post. It was good hectic last week, to get NGOpost registered, to set up payment gateway and then to get the Tshirts designed and printed. It reminded of the time we used to do nightouts in college preparing for those cultural festivals.

Finally came the Sunday, I was able to run 10 kms in about 1 hour and 13 minutes, it was not bad. Though later in the evening legs had become very soar. I have never run so much before, but cheering and people running around you can made a lot of difference. There were so many people, army people, old ladies, some families standing outside their apartments cheering and urging you to go. It is funny that for something as physical dumb as running should be controlled by your mind and how the surroundings can make you feel.

So it was good fun and the event was wonderfully organized, but the only thing that bothered me was the picture on the right. There was loads of plastic litter'ed everywhere. Though it is true that they cleared most of roads of this, because I did not find any traces of them when I was driving later in the day. But I still wonder if all this can be recycled. Why use plastic when we can avoid it.

I also contributed three bottles to this, could not help it, it was so hot. But next time I think I am going to carry my own bottle.

(Picture: courtesy Murali)

Random thoughts..

My blog had kind of gone in hibernating mode, and these are just some random thoughts.

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 Actually these days I have been spending lot of time writing for this one magazine called Sattva. You can take a peek at this, it is not a masala magazine, it is a NGO magazine. It is a monthly magazine and every month  we do a focus on different topics, like education, health, alternate sexuality and so on. March edition was on Human rights. 

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Yesterday I was having an argument with my friend regarding buying a house in Bangalore. I am totally against it. My argument being, "Why to pay EMI for next 25 years of life, for something that I am not going to carry along with me. I mean think about it, all those small, no sunlight entering, kind of houses in one of the massive residential apartments, (they always give me identity crisis),  and when you die you cant take it along with you anyways. It may sound selfish, because my parents spend greater part of life trying to build a house, but it was different in those times.  And getting a beautiful house in the place you belong is different from buying this lunch box kind of houses in Bangalore. Home town houses are something nice and they are something that maybe people in future will cherish. Hence I find this mad rush for securing this ever expensive houses in bangalore not very meaningful. Sometimes I just feel that we get caught in all this web of buying a house, buying a car and before we know life has already gone by."

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My cousin in hyderabad is in ninth now, so this year that school finish their ninth class syllabus in feb and have started giving them rigorous tenth class education. I really find it so absurd that such big schools would think in this way, and put so much pressure on this poor kids as if tenth class is one massive exam and their entire life depends on this one thing. I think they did not see Taare Zameen Par, or even if they saw it, they just wept during the movie and came back and forgot all about it. Wonder if movies make any difference?

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The other day I was talking to one of the Maths teacher, in Ananya. Ananya is the school for underprivileged kids, and the school gives them basic education to prepare them for Open Schooling tenth class Exam. And he was explaining me that most of children there struggle with Maths, not with basic maths, but things like trigonometry and algebra. Not being from any regular school they find it very difficult to grasp these subjects. This could also be because they dont find much relevance of this in their daily lives. And then we were arguing if kids really needed to understand all these, and then if you think about it you hardly use it in day to day life. Further most of this kids dont plan to become engineer or doctors, they just want to get some basic education (like Home Science) and get some decent job and support their families. 

Also read this beautiful article called "A mathematician's Lament" related to above.  Swarna forwarded this to me and I absolutely loved it.

 

Have we become hollow?

There is a small church next to my house, a very small church. Most of the evenings when I reach home there are always car parked right in front of my gate because of which I cant park my bike inside. Worst still are days when i have to go out urgently and there are always car right in front of gate. I have to go in the church and ask whose car is it and get them to move it.

I have had frequent conversations with this people and I try explaining them, how much difficulty they are causing for me and other people. They dont even listen, sometimes even accusing look because I end up spoiling their prayer time. To me it goes out of mind, why would someone want to pray when you dont care a bit about fellow people. Worst still it is not that the church does not have parking, but it is in the side lane, and it means little more time and little more time in taking out. But yups no one wants to do that.

Even when I went to Tirupati, I got the same feeling, people were pushing, fighting, shouting. No one cares if there is a old person or sick person and lets give him/her right of way first. Everyone just wants to get that one certificate of "darshan" which apparently supposedly would do whatever to your life. Makes me feel that we are just blinded by outward things, and dont even stop to think or introspect.


Recently I met this girl, she was from srilanka. Had come down to do a project for three months. She just leaving this week for once and all, with the determination that she is not going to come back to India again. She says because people are rude, people dont follow lane discipline, people dont care. Maybe she got a raw deal here, but in many ways she is right, and I did not have any answers to give her.

Impatience

The other day I was sitting at Hong Kong airport with one of my friends and as soon as the boarding announcement was made, he was practially running to get in to the plane, as if they are going to close of the gates or if he was not going to get the place to sit. I asked him, "Hey, chill what is the hurry?" He said, "No I wont get place to keep my baggage in the overhead compartment"

All my life I have done so many of flight trips, and I have not encountered a situation where the people asked you to throw out the baggage, because there was no space, there is always been space. Worst case might be that there is no space above your seat and then air hostess would come running to your aid and I would say that it is a plesant situation rather than an unpleasant one.

Sometimes I wonder why are we so engrossed with fear of losing something and hence rushing, rushing. Tensing ourselves to reach office early because else might lose the favourite parking spot, getting up as soon as the plane comes to halt and rushing to exit first just to save couple of minutes, getting up before the end titles of movies so that you are first to get out of cinema parking, getting impatient at the auto in front because of which missed the green signal by couple of feet and many more.

Why are we always running to secure the future, study hard to get in to good college then take a job, after two years of job, start looking to buy the house, find and buy one, which would would take half of salary practially till retirement, buy a car, scooter, or whatever, and then when you are left with 10% of your salary that save for education for the kids.

Please dont use that grashopper kind of story on me, and tell me what happened to grashopper who did not think of winter, but I do think that we are all to obsessed with securing and double securing future.

Earlier whenever i used to drive down to office I used to keep thinking about the mails that I will have to reply, the things that I will do in office and so on.. and day never used to turn out like that. Now I have conciously stopped doing that, I want to notice and see things, and I realized that the world is not going to come to end if I dont reach couple of minutes ealier to office.

Happy new year.
--
Goli

Cant find time...

I was trying to talk to this friend of mine recently, and for a long time I had been trying to meet him. And he was always like, I cant leave office before seven or eight there is loads of work. This has been going on for a month now.

Not that I blame him, probably he is one of the most reliable employee of his company, and also I am not dying to meet him so I care less. But it keep wondering how we get so engrossed in our job that we start neglecting everything. We all want to go out and meet friends, we all appreciate people who have got time to do all kinds of other activities, and we wish that there was less work. But when some call comes,"Lets do this stuff", we always have, "nahin yaar bahut kaam hai",

I still remember once when I was talking to one friend, (not the same friend of first paragraph) and there was something every important, but I had so much work. And she only told me "Goli, tum nahin rahoge office mein to tumhara office bandh to nahin hoga na", and I still remember that, because this is so true. Working in MNCs and all, I know practically I hardly any value to the company, if I am sick, they will find hundred other alternatives to work, if I cease to exists, I am sure company will exist. But I guess for my family I mean much more, friends mean much more, bdays and marriage anniversaries (recently this has been added,since more and more friends getting married) mean more.

These days I just have a easy attitude to work, I know it is going to happen, I know that next day i am going to put little more effort and finish the work, and over time I have realized that it has nothing to do with your work and how your boss is or which kind of job you are, I think it is just the mindset.

I hope my boss is not reading this.. :)

have a great Deepawali.. :)

Minister Jam

There have been so many times, where I have been caught stranded in the middle of the road in the traffic jam, waiting for some ministers to cross. I kind of call them "minister Jams".

But I was wondering if there is any rule which says that ministers should be given the first preferences on the road or it is just power that they use for their comfort. I do understand that ministers time is more important than my time so in a way giving some preference to him might be justified, but I always wonder the fate of those ambulances which get caught in this so called Minister Jam.

I distinctly remember that sometime back when I had done the interview of traffic policeman, he had pointed out the pain and the tension they have to undergo when ministers come. Not only they have to hear all the grumblings of people, but a single mistake is like great sin.

So thinking if there are any such rules, of clearing roads for politicians, or whatever? Tried to Google, but I dont know right terms to search for this, it gives all kinds of hits. Does anyone have any idea?

Things dont change much..

"Do you want to come to the bar/disc?" asked my friend

It was 9:30PM, and I had just reached US couple of hours back, and I was supposed to be to be jet Lagged... and my eyes were already closing.

"Abey chal yaar, will show you US" he added.

And you know, I have never learnt to say No to anything..

Ten minutes later we were driving, to go to some place called Santana Square. And we entered the place called Rosie, after the big guy at the door made sure by looking at my driving license if I was above 21.

This place reminded me very much of Spin in Bangalore, crowded with all kinds of people, Music was pulling me in to plunge inside and just dance, but I was little skeptical, to venture in to that sea of people, I thought it was a bad idea to come there, wanted to go and sleep. I was standing in corner, absently looking at people, clothes, shoes, and then nothing in particular.

And out of nowhere appeared this two girls, I would not say girls, or ok maybe girls, some 30'ish types, (one of them had a great smile), and they came and were like "hi how are you?", and thats it. And next thirty minutes turned out to be my best time in US till now. I started dancing, then dancing and kept on going. And had probably Don Williams seen me he would have been happy, because as he says in one of his songs..."Dance like nobody is watching" It was Hip hop... so trying all those, ya, yo kind of dance, with all kinds of stupid gestures, and smiling and laughing all the way to glory.

It is not a great thing, and you might think what this stupid gibberish is all about. But when I was just driving back home in the car, I somehow felt very good about the whole thing, I felt very happy. Images of dim lit dance floor, couple of girls, whom probably am never going to meet again in my life, I shouting them in the ears about India, and they shouting back in my ears about their stuff about US, talking and smiling about various things, doing a big cheers with glasses in hand. These images I am going to carry back home.

More than that I started realizing that poeple are more or less same everywhere, a little smile and little bit of Ye Ye... gets things started. I thought that I had become very pessimistic about US, and started hating this place out of pre conceived notions. But I guess it has got more to do with your attitude then with the place. I can make it bleak, or I can make it happening. There are always people waiting to be touched and waiting to be talked to.

And I honestly that enthu and smiles of those two girls I have been carrying since, to my sales conference and to the first two days. Probably I could not have had a better first day at US :).

Lots more to write, about this trip, about divorces, tequilas, starbucks coffee, Karoke night, and hotel receptionist... but will do. Now to sleep.

The US dream...

As soon as I enter IIT, my dream was to head out of this country and go to US. All the fourth year students were doing the same, desperately trying to get to write SOPs, talking all the time about US. The mess tables were filled with stories about adventures and mis(s)-adventures of all desi babus in the US. Everything you heard looked great, US was great, India looked backward.

But I dont know somewhere down the line, as I finally reached my final year that urge completely died down, I did not want to go to US, and I think it was mostly because I did not want to stay away from my family, and I wanted to try myself at job first. But then bangy life since day one has been so happening that never really thought of going off to US.

But anyways, this new marketing job and I was all set to go to US for couple of weeks. So all this thoughts crossed my mind again, and yups I was set and excited to see this new country.

Nothing to write about flight and all, it was as normal and mundane as it is always, with the fake smiles of air hostesses (I really think that thier job is difficult), and small small packets of jam, sugar, and pepper really amuse me. They are much like used to have when we used to play Ghar Ghar as kids, just that they were not as elaborately packed as this ones.

Reach San Jose and there was this friend of mine who picked me up from Airport. And I was so impressed with the roads and all. And trust me he has such a lovely house, ample parking space, and a park and a golf course. I went inside and it had all the facilities, kitchen, hot water and everything. And it was so peaceful, I could sit there and read a book, could just go and heat something in micro wave and eat. All the technolgy for everything, life is as comfortable as it can ever get. I was wondering why dont I think of spending some part of my life in US. this place was fantastic...

But half and hour there, and I started missing something, I did not feel good about it, I was missing noise, and I was missing people on streets, and I was looking for some face to talk to, and it was not there. There was this whole feeling of loniliness that was creeping inside me. Nothing was looking interesting anymore. I did not want to call because I was on international roaming and further was sure most of the India was sleeping. So then I did what I could do best, open the lappy, connected to net, and was on Google Talk, and as always there were always couple of people to talk to :)

More later...
Laptop discharging and no power adapter and eyes full of sleep..

Delhi police website...

Recently I have found this story about Delhi Police lifting the complete website from Singapore, floating in Blogosphere.

So the story is that the Delhi Police website... which is called...
http://www.delhipolice.nic.in/

NDTV claims that the full website has been lifted up from the Singapore police website.

And early in morning I get a mail like this....

Subject: Dark side of Delhi police (Part of the mail below)
"
In 21st century, when Nations are using Internet as boom, Delhi Police cant
even get a simple website

Some of the “HOT” quotes from Delhi Police website. (followed by some mistakes on the website, which I find no necessity of putting them down here)


Read the complete striptease of website (and link pointing to NDTV article)

"

First I really dont understand what is the big deal if they copied website from Singapore police website. How does it matter? I guess everyone would agree that making websites is not the core competency of Delhi Police, they just want a place holder and fastest way to make things work. So they did the easiest thing to do. I think it is smart thing to do.

I am sure that there will be mistakes and they are going to sort them out. But I really appreciate Delhi Police initiative.


But more importantly than all this, I really don't understand why people take so much fun in criticizing and tearing apart things. I mean some of the comments on the NDTV article and the tone of the above mail for example are so bad.

It is like finding mistakes and letting someone down. I am not saying that you should not criticize, but I guess there is something like constructive criticism, "I think you it is really good, but I guess if you improve on this you will really make it brilliant ". And I really believe that even in most shabbiest of the efforts you will always find, something good to cheer, if you try to look with that attitude.

There are things that can make you feel good and there are things which can completely demoralize you. And I guess we all should make this choice carefully.

The mail early morning really put me off, and I really hate getting those kind of mockery filled, letting down emails.


PS: Actually I did look at the website and I think it is cool.... and should serve its purpose. And am also sure they are going to set all the small things all right.

Smiling cockroaches...

Have you ever seen a smiling cockroach... or for the matter of fact an irritated, or angry or happy or sad or any kind of emotional cockroach. Have you ever bothered to figure out? I wonder if they exhibit any such emotions.. why this questions popped up because I was just looking at the way, everyone at my home takes extreme pleasure in crushing this poor insects under the chappals, and whatsoever that they find, not that I am a big cockroach fan and that I would love to keep them as pets, I dont like them that much because they are ugly, especially their colour, I wish that they were more colourful or atleast have some other colour other that stupid orage'ish brown. But I was wondering if cockroaches instead of running around here and there like idiots, could do something with their antennas to amuse people, I guess then people would not be so harsh to them. Imagine as soon as we switched on the light they would, instead of running around, would do something cute, as if saying "Why did you switch on light, we dont like it", by moving their antenna in some way or walking in someother manner, or doing something different rather than running away blindly. I guess they could stir our emotions too, and then we would not be shovering chappals over them.

I was just wondering, why we feel sorry when we see dogs getting killed and chickens and goats getting killed for food, I guess that is only because they have learnt to do some actions which sort of stir our emotions and we start feeling sorry for them. Like dog wagging their tails and goats with always that so called sorry looking and innocent face. But most of times when we see the cockroach have only one thread running in our head, find something before it vanishes and satakk... missed... another satakkk.., gone and then we feel happy and think that we have accomplished something.

Hold on... please dont label me as cockroach activist. Dont start forming images that when you come to my home you will see cockroaches sitting and having a merry time on my bed and in my bookshelf. It is not like that. Whenever I see one of them, depeding on my mood and availability of appropriate weapon, I too do also do the same. And as such I am now staying in a newly constructed house which as of yet remains as one of the unconquered territory by these species.

But it is just that yesterday, at a friend's place, the death of one of this fellows with a chappal triggered this chain of thoughts.

Anyways, have a good week ahead :D