Life of PI

Finally I broke the ice of curiosity before melting completely and watched the well appreciated movie ‘Life of PI’. The scenes were magical. I would have given three and half stars on five as it is hardly a movie. It is actually a 3D presentation with emotions! Still I am feeling that those animals, fishes and birds are in front of my eyes. Though it is a visual treat, it taught me a lot and pushed my brain to think.

When I saw the story of PI, a common boy fighting with numerous problems and struggling on the way between life and death, I felt that it’s a story of everyone. Half of the number of people in this world born in middle class families where they bring up under the roof of religious mother and ambitious father. Then also we get into the religious flow forcefully. When we try to think beyond the square, we are stopped by our beloved parents. They don’t speak wrong but they think about our safe future. But we always plan a risky and adventurous future to scale heights. And finally ‘life of PI’ phase comes when we become young. Most of us pass the test and thank god instead of thanking our parents for the values they taught us.

Everyone can find PI within us. You can fight and live or choose to die in your sleep. Nature does not support us always. We get the opportunities to know the wild behaviour of our creator, the nature. Sometimes we have to swim against the flow. We have to move on as there is no one to be blamed. We get stable as time passes and again we start to think bigger and brighter. It is always a risky business but there is always a hope! If you get succeed to find PI in your soul, then your story will always be unbelievable at the end!

Feel the Light!

Today the festival of diyas begins with shouting crackers. This is one of the very happy and pleasant days in Indians’ life. I have heard many stories behind this festival of lights called Diwali. Today the lord Ram, one of the kings of Aryans, had returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravan, the king of Lanka, in an epic war of our history. Hence all the people of Ayodhya had celebrated the day by lightning diyas and crackers. This festival is full of sweets and snacks. We used to get twenty days holidays when we were in school. My mother used to make various types of laddus and so many Diwali special dishes. It added 2-3 pounds to my weight every year. Everyone electrifies with the shopping fever. I used to play all day with my friends. We used to make a clay fort and burst it with crackers on day one. This is how the children celebrate this festival.

As I brought up in Mumbai, I always get to see celebrities’ way of Diwali celebration through newspapers. They throw lavish parties and celebrate the day with one and all biggies in the city. Few days ago I came to know that there is a very different and special trend of Diwali celebration in Bollywood. They play cards with endless flow of money on the table. There are many tables in the Bollywood hosted by every powerful family. MP’s and MLA’s celebrate their Diwali with their so called followers. They don’t miss single chance to make it a publicity stunt. Every TV channel and daily soap celebrates Diwali in their show and gives a chance to viewers to watch ideal and colourful Diwali. We are unknown to the way of business class’s way of Diwali celebrations.

I can surely say that everyone from people below poverty line to Mukesh Ambani celebrate Diwali. Farmers take loans to buy new cloths for their children and sweets. Some people just get to watch others celebrating. Sounds of crackers tell them a bitter truth every time. They do a lot of extra efforts to see that happiness on their children’s face. The people in darkness expect the festival to enlighten their lives. It is a fact that there is always darkness below the lamp. Hence here I want to tell those people to feel the light. One day you will make it to see it!

Happy Diwali!

India Against(?) Corruption

From last few weeks Indian media is very busy in newly found business called sting operations. Every news channel is finding a ‘bakra’ (target) and making his each and every action public. I doubt if they are getting contracts from rival political parties. It all started with Arvind Kejriwal, Julian Assange of India. IAC took a lion’s entry in politics by blaming congress and BJP high commission directly. When I was watching a sting operation on BJP president I wondered how many people in India use the same techniques to grow their business. But I should admit that it was a smart technique to convert the black money into white.

This ‘India Against Corruption’ wave was formed by Anna Hazare last year. Many people came on the grounds to protest against corruption in government of India. Many Indians really think that their condition would be better if all the black money in Swiss bank comes to India. Do you really think this insect of corruption will die after ministers stop to do scams and lokpal bill gets passed? Removing corruption is nothing but a revolution. There was a very good advertisement by ‘Jago re’ campaign some years ago saying first you should stop to pay the bribes. Corruption is like a habit whether it’s at low scale or high. When you don’t want to follow the traffic rules, you just pay to traffic police and can easily run away. When you asked for some hundreds of rupees at the time of passport verification, you don’t bother to give it not to spoil your foreign dreams. If you are not getting an appointment or your work is being delayed purposively in government offices then just pay some 10-20 bucks to peon. This small scale corruption is like a catalyst to fasten the process. There are chains in government offices from minister, HOD to clerks at two ends who get their dividend regularly.

And when Anna Hazare or Ramdev baba calls a protest both the receiver and donor in small scale corruption come on the grounds to yell against the big fishes called ministers. According to me, these sparks have no capability to turn into fire. After few days everyone realize that if this corruption ends then who will buy costly toys or sweets to our children. And hence Hazare was failed to attract the crowd at Mumbai. There is just one hope that there will be a revolution in our thinking process. But it will take time. I am not up to any solution. But I can feel the warm air and it will bring us the change one day!

Unity in Diversity

‘India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters’! I have chanted this line every day in school; I hated to call all the girls my sisters though. I always get surprised when I travel in a bus or train and watch people having contrast nature and different religion or community, speaking different languages share same environment under a roof called India. When foreigners come to visit India, they must be returning with a question in mind that “was it really one country?”! And everyone get their answer when they watch every state presenting itself on 15^th August and 26^th January.

But various incidents over the years disturb me and force me to think that are we really bound together? Sometimes Karnataka denies water to Tamilnadu and TN denies sharing electricity with other states at the same time. Once Punjab tried to get separated but we successfully stopped them. Now that hidden ghost is showing its head again. North-east people don’t understand why they are living in India and rest of the India don’t bother to understand north-east people. Kashmir is creating their own options and we are not letting them to choose any. Telangana wants to part their ways from Andhra Pradesh. And if government of India allow them then there will be a long queue asking to divide states. Some people are simply sending away people from other states because of their peers’ nature.

Then also we show togetherness in many incidents. We celebrate our festivals together. Here I have my own point of view on this. The smell of Indian soil fills the love for our country. Every small part of India has its own features. And hence many of us travel hundreds of miles in vacations just to taste the beauty of India. We cheer for Indian cricket team forgetting the differences within us. Our neighbor countries which certainly plan attacks on us help to unite us. We exchange our food and enjoy the variety every day. We share our art forms like dance, plays and songs. We stand together and protest against wrong decisions taken by our government. We make patriotic songs and films and send them to Oscars to show them our unity. Hence I want to shout and tell the entire world that ‘We are one’! 

She Was The One! : A Short Story

“Four”, I yelled out as I smashed the ball beyond boundary. We were playing at Bombay Gymkhana we were not allowed though. It was like my second home. I used to play all day at gymkhana. My twelve more friends used to accompany me all the time. I was around six then as I didn’t know my actual birthdate. We used to celebrate our birthday on 14^th of November every year. After all we were none other than so called orphans born somewhere and brought up at ‘Aarushi’ orphan house. There were many at ‘Aarushi’ who really cared for us. I used to ask Shilpa di, the chairperson of ‘Aarushi’, that where I came from and she used to ignore me by telling other stories. But one day she told me that she found me in unconscious state on one of the roads at ‘Dharavi’. In future when I learnt to operate computer and I just googled what Dharavi was and got shocked and froze on the chair.

So I was growing in a far better surrounding with twelve more children like me. Everyone had his own story to be in ‘Aarushi’. We were enrolled in nearby BMC School. So we were living a normal life on weekdays and were treated as different especially on Sundays. Because most of the couples used to find their time on Sundays to visit ‘Aarushi’ and get a son or a daughter. I used to get bored and feared at the same time of such sessions, I wanted a mother and father like other children though. Those couple never took effort to think before commenting on us loudly. At the age of six I had known every small defect in my body. But Shilpa di had told us that those sessions were only for our better future and I had believed her with my eyes closed.

On one Sunday morning I finished a match with breathless half century and a victory for our team. Then I went to Sundar chacha’s shop to have lemon juice. We used to go there for refreshments. But we never stole a penny for that. Shilpa di was our sponsor. Sundar chacha was a nice man. Many times he had offered us some chocolates. But that Sunday morning one lady offered us chocolates. My friends refused to take but I convinced them to accept her gift and Sundar chacha also said to do so. I had seen her many times at that shop. She used to come with her baby boy. I got more information about her when I asked to Sundar chacha. She was a qualified working woman living nearby. She was a nice lady and unlucky at the same time as her husband lost his life in an accident in very unfortunate way. I left the shop with sympathy for her.

On one another Sunday morning when I was getting ready for the ‘session’ one of our caretakers came to my room and informed me there was no ‘session’ that day. As I was about to jump he threw a shock bomb towards me. I was ordered to pack my bag because some Mrs Joshi had adopted me. I started crying and my friends came and joined me one by one. I never had thought to leave ‘Aarushi’. It was more than my actual parents. But I knew that Shilpa di would never give me in wrong hands. So I went to office room to meet my new mother ‘Mrs Joshi’. My head got shaken when I saw her because she was none other than that chocolate lady from Sundar chacha’s shop. Shilpa di congratulated me and introduced me to my new mother and brother. She was shilpa di’s school friend. Then I prepared my mind and left ‘Aarushi’ with teary farewell.

Today there was a passing out parade at NDA. It was around fifteen years ago when I left the orphan house. I got everything which every child deserves. My background taught me a lesson to serve for others and hence I chose an option to serve for our nation. My chest filled with confidence when I saw my mother in parents’ stand during parade. Today what I am is just because of her. I saw my other mates getting the stars on their shoulders by their parents after the convocation ceremony. And she was there waiting for me. My brother was watching me proudly. I handed her my stars without wasting a second. When she was pinning the stars on my shoulder we both got tears. And my heart spoke out loudly, ‘She was the one’!

War.Peace.Love

What do you think that what we have started first to experience? War, peace or love. This question is as tough as to decide who came first among a hen and an egg. If you read the international history, one can find number of wars and then lots of peace programs followed by them. Generally we think about peace only after noticing the economic and social losses we receive as a return gift in war independent of final result. Peace is nothing but a mutual understanding not to hurt anyone. This feeling of not hurting with an outline of caring is called as love in our language.

Either you can love or hate. There is no other such feeling in this world to bind everyone together. Love and hatred are two sides of a coin. Love never comes alone. When a patriot loves his country he starts hating enemy countries at the same time. Our parents teach us to make good friends and we learn to hate bad people. Our surrounding teaches us to differentiate good and bad and makes us mature. But no one teaches us to transform bad into good. Bad remains bad and sometimes it becomes worst. And our hatred transforms into a war one day. One of the popular US writers Bill Watterson once quoted “How come we play war and not peace?” “Too few role models.”

Nature had started this life with peace and it will end with peace one day if we don’t stop to follow war.peace.love! These days we are enjoying the love phase. We are sharing our creativity and technology on the international table. Nuclear deals and smartphones have a same birth rate. No Nostradamus is able to imagine our future. The government of USA is busy in destroying the monsters from past and making few for its own safety. China is running in its own race. Besides these peaceful activities the remaining world in between these two countries is sharing love and increasing cosmopolitan families. And our Indian ‘aam junta’ (common people) is hoping for the best and planning for the worst! 

The Diamond Rings: A Short Story

Last year I learnt a lesson of my life. It was a very happening year for me. I got the promotion news with New Year wishes and also a shock at the same time as they decided to transfer me to the head office at Bangalore. It is a replica of heaven for Indian coders. Their actual heaven is somewhere in U.S.A. But it wasn’t an excuse for a Mumbai lover to leave his place. I accepted the promotion after having some words and a promise to get back here in two years. I packed my parents’ bags also as this promotion would become a punishment for me!

I remember that day, a beautiful and work free ‘Bangalore Sunday morning’ in march, when we had gone to a prominent jewellery showroom in Bangalore to buy a worthy and wealthy gift for my mother. After all it was my mother’s birthday. There were many good looking girls came with their parents and my mother was showing me each one of them and embarrassing me each time. One girl, hardly 25, of them caught my eyes. She was naturally beautiful and looking mature at the same time. She was arguing with fiery words with a manager of that jewellery shop. My mother gave me an eye signal not to look at her. But I was interested to know the topic of argument as we headed towards the counter for a bill. I interrupted in that argument spontaneously; my unintentional and unnecessary act deeply surprised my parents.

That girl had received a diamond ring through a courier from that shop without a name of well-wisher. I sensed one more victim of e-shopping. But she got a same ring on the same day last year. I convinced her not to argue with the manager as he was an innocent in that matter. She thanked me when we were leaving the shop. My mother did not forget to take her phone number by speaking some ‘meethi baatein’. I got bored of my parents’ ‘find a girl and marry’ mission, I also wanted her contact number though. I controlled myself and contacted her after three ‘long’ days and asked her if she was able to find out the mystery behind those diamond rings. I talked with her some more time and ended with inviting her for a coffee. So I went to meet her again on our ‘coffee date’. I was surprised when she came as she was refusing in the beginning. She had worn an Indian outfit and forced me to feel love at first sight. Later we discussed on many topics, from her job to popular places in Bangalore to hang out. We met several times for a coffee or dinner after that day. But every time I sensed some stress behind her friendly and loving nature. Her strained smile did upset me few times and requested me to share her burden. I was feeling a growing closeness in our friendship.

Surprisingly one day she took me to her home when we had met for a lunch on one another Sunday afternoon. She had cooked food by her own and I was getting excited to taste it. But who knew that what was there in my dish. As we got into the house I found a little gorgeous and beautiful three year old girl playing with her toys. I got introduced to her daughter when I was feeling a jerk in my head. It was almost a year when I had met her first time but I never tried to know her personally. I was scared to ask about her husband. She chose to be silent. We had lunch and that afternoon ended with playing with her daughter. Her sudden move might be a signal for me to keep distance. I wanted some time to think on it. After that we talked on phone few times and it assured me that at least I hadn’t lost her as a friend.

On one fresh morning in the month of March I was sitting on chair thinking about her. And my mother was busy in searching new jewellery designs. Suddenly a thought came to my mind and I reached to ‘that’ jewellery shop. I was sure that she was going to get one more diamond ring this year. I requested deeply to manager to tell the truth. After some emotional punches that manager spoke out finally. Her husband was a military officer. He went for a secret mission with slender chance of returning. Before going he made a deal for those rings to send her one every year on their marriage anniversary. I asked him curiously about how much rings he had bought exactly and the number was unbelievable. I left the shop with a smile of satisfaction on my face as I learnt the true meaning of relationship!

The ‘Unforgettable’ Sunday: A Short Story!

It was first Sunday of June 2009. I had just completed a hectic year in TATA Motors after finishing my engineering. But I was enjoying my ‘not enough’ big salary. The people who believe in lavish spending have every weekend colourful and full of fun. So on one of those weekends I had decided to go for a movie with my girlfriend, friends and their girlfriends. We were four couples hanging out together from months. But tragedy happened a day before. I broke up. It was my third split (only) after school. Then also I went for movie because there was a rule that the weekend should not be spoiled at any cause.

We, a group of seven, reached to Raghuleela mall at Kandivali, a western suburb of Mumbai. We checked the movie list and decided by voting to go for ‘The Proposal’ for which my all friends voted yes except me. It was a romantic flick starring extra hot Sandra Bullock. We were waiting outside as our friend went to take tickets. That time I saw a girl (actually a woman) waving hand at me. First I looked back to search who was that lucky guy. But it was for me only. I froze at that place. My friends gave me a dirty look as if that lady was behind my break-up. She was coming towards me and still I stood there expressionless. She introduced herself. Her name was Vidya. I racked that section of my brain which is meant to store people, but it transmitted no reply. I recalled the names of all my friends and friends of my two (oh now three) exes. But there was no Vidya (Because all of my friends had modern names!). Then our introduction ceremony got over. We waited fifteen minutes to say her bye though we were getting late. But she never stopped talking. She was probably in early thirties. She had very astonishing figure. Definitely she had maintained it well. I thought of an option to hang out with her but that was impossible. After all I was only twenty three that time. Finally we went to box office again to buy her a ticket!

She sat next to me. That movie was nice. We were chatting in between the movie. She got a good humour. We had planned to go to Hard Rock Café to have some drinks and to enjoy some dance. But she asked me for a peaceful place somewhere. So my friends went to HRC and we headed towards Haji Ali rocks. We searched a comfortable rock to sit. Then I opened beer cans which we bought on the way. It was a most enjoyable weekend evening for me. We talked on every possible topic. She was the only woman I met when I really tasted the feeling of love. She felt safe with me. Then we had dinner at some stalls on the street. The street food in Mumbai is very tasty and popular, unhygienic though (but we don’t care). And then we were walking on the footpaths of Marine Drive when clock was showing the ending of our weekend. Suddenly a BMW passed nearby and Vidya called out loudly ‘Karim Chacha’. Surprisingly that BMW stopped and she got in it in such a hurry like I was going to kidnap her. And I froze second time that day with the same strange feeling.

Today it is a first Saturday of August, 2012. I was having my regular tea in morning with newspaper in one hand. And suddenly a report on front page got my attention. It was showing Vidya’s photo. Her real name was Sudha. Then why she lied to me! I read it further and got shocked on every line written in it. She was a wife of the owner of one of the most popular five star hotels in Mumbai. And she was suffering from severe psychological disorder from last five years. She was missing from the day we met. They just found her yesterday. I remember that Sunday very well. How can I forget that day! I never felt for a single moment that she was mentally imbalanced. I tried many times but could never find Vidya or Karim Chacha with BMW in Mumbai. What was she doing for three years then? She might have spent them with guys like me. If this is her way to live her life then what’s the imbalance in that. And a thought flashed into my mind. Tomorrow it is one another Sunday of my life. I headed quickly towards my phone to dial a number.

“Hello, Leelavati Mental Care?” 

A novel for less than a note!

Everyone loves to read novels. Dan Brown’s novels are like delicious food and Sidney’s novels provide mysteries behind the recipe of that food. There was a time when there were very less number of English authors in India and reading hungry people used to go in libraries to search these novels. There was an equal priority and popularity for novels in Indian regional languages. Then the era of Harry Potter came and we Indian also pulled in the flow of reading English novels. The novels were very costly though until Mr Chetan Bhagat was born as an author.

What a business strategy it was. It proved the skills of IIMA graduates. Mr Bhagat published his first novel ‘Five point someone’ at only 95 rupees. And it was really a nice story. Then it was followed by ‘Three Mistakes of My Life’ and ‘Two States’. Both novels were good compared to Indian level. But don’t compare with Kiran Desai’s novels or any other such high quality authors. Their books meant for Man Booker (LoL). I was really impressed by Mr Bhagat those days as now also I have given one paragraph to him.

That time no one thought that there would be an overflow of such 70 to 100 rupees books. Many IITians started to write suddenly. Mr Bhagat’s competitors like Ravinder Singh came into the market. I have read his 2-3 novels but they were only some random stories. There are some funny titles also. ‘Missed IIT, Kissed Russia’ and many more. When you start to read Harry Potter or Sidney Sheldon’s novels, you will hate these Indian novels. These authors take all the cares of readers. They provide all the spicy ingredients in their novels which convert into a Bollywood movie afterword. The motto of writing this post is not to criticise such emerging Indian authors and also I haven’t got money to publicise them. Just I want to tell them that we readers also have some ‘Taste’.

To all Indian low price novel authors: Nowadays readers have the potential to pay extra bucks, you people just write some worth buying. One day your names will be on our tongue then!

Looking forward to LONDON OLYMPICS

There is burning excitement all over the world and everyone is eagerly waiting for London Olympics! We all can definitely get to see the glory of London and the remarkable presence of Will-Kat. Everyone is curious about Michael Phelps’s and Usain Bolt’s medal count. But for me this excitation is oscillating with the mixed news coming this week about London Olympics.

First bad news I got that Nadal is not going to play this Olympics. What a worst news this is! It is like gold medal fades its colour. After that we Indians got good news that Goldman Sachs predicted 5 medals for India with two gold. It is quite good news though below our expectations. We are expecting some more fruits after looking hardworking Indian sportsmen. I am more excited for Abhinav (Indian shooter) and Vijender (Indian boxer) than Phelps or Bolt. Because Phelps and Bolt will definitely make it. But we need lot of support to make it a history. And today I came to read in a newspaper that Lord Sebastian Coe, the head of the London Games organising committee, is in an unenviable position. The wet English summer has been wetter, sparking fears of waterlogging at a few venues.  There were renewed security concerns following news of a shortage of personnel, which led to Britain calling back 3,500 troops from Afghanistan for the Games. There are project delays, traffic snarls, cab drivers’ strike and cost overruns. All this and more led the British tabloid The Sun to run a screaming headline, “OOPS”, creatively using the Olympic rings to spell out the word.

This bad news gets me back to Common Wealth Games 2010 hosted by India last year. It was a very successful event with very successful scam. I don’t want get into the details of scam but it was really shameful and we can’t take it sportily. We dealt with everything from leaking roofs to collapsing bridges en route to Commonwealth games. It was a mistake than pride to host that event. But we could know sportsmen from all the parts of India.

And now we have built a bridge of hopes for those sportsmen to succeed and make us pride. I know that London Olympics will be a bang and will create new sky touching records. So with these mixed emotions and fingers crossed finally I am looking forward to London Olympics!

All Indian participants: Go guys, once India was full of gold mines, so win it and take it back with pride! 

Reopening!

The first thing comes to your mind after reading this title that is schools. The whole world is always excited about school reopening. Children get curious about their new teachers and new books. And parents get little bit tensed because responsibility increases with growing moppets. But I am bit older for this. Here I am talking about my college reopening!

After enjoying long vacations, now that moment has come to leave my house.  Now I will go again to my secret hostel world. Where no one is bothered whether you eat, take bath, sleep or not. Where you will get some good friends and some unknowns.  But you won’t get the feeling which you get at home. My mother is working day and night to pack bags and to make some eatables for me. This affection and love stops me to leave.

Reopening means a new start! It gives you opportunity to do better, to live better.  This day will make me senior from junior.  Though there are many positive things then also we feel hollow at heart.  But we can’t stop sun from rising. Hence friends I will say only one thing…

Face the present, enjoy it…Then our future will be always bright!