Silsilay : The road less travelled

As an a chief auditor, my job required me travel across many parts of India.As an unmarried youth in the early thirties, I was enjoying my profession thoroughly with the perks that came along way. It was just the perfect bachelor life, that one could always dream of. It was much before the babudom decided to move forward, still maintaining a highly socialitarian approach towards the development of the nation. Those were the days of the Amabassador and Fiats, when Bajaj Chetak, was still a luxury. The country was still reeling under the loss to England in the semi finals of the Reliance World Cup Cup 1987. Yea, Sachin was still to make his debut after 2 years to the fearsome duo of Imran Khan and Wasim Akram. I was appaled by the conservative economy we were stagnating in, took least bit interested in matters pertaining to socio-cultural impact. Despite the fact that my family was actively involved social work, both my parents still working for the cause of education for the underprivileged, I was sure the blacksheep of the family, keeping myself at quite a distance from their activities. Somehow I could never really associate the idea of progress at the grass root level,perhaps I just didn't want to be acquainted by the truth. My parents scorned at my high handedness and my ability to remain aloof amidst it all. It was around the spring of 1988, me had landed up in Kolkatta, you sure guessed it right, the end of the fiscal year! After finishing some routine work we decided to transcend down to Park Street for some scrumptous Chinese cuisine. After finishing lunch, as we were leaving the restaurant did I notice some beggars suddenly being surrounded. I guessed there would have been some foreigners, being crowded for some easy alms. Just as I was about to board my car, did a hand touch me, with great tender and care, politely asked me to help her lift the beggar(who happened to be a leper) into the van. As I turned around, did I feel eternity for a while, before coming back to senses, as I was helping her without any disdain whatsoever, I had been touched by an angel...no, it was God. Once they were put onto the van, Mother Teresa turned around and said, "Thank you child, you made a difference to someone's life today". I was left speechless, numbed by my own ignorance at the fact that a parisian lady from a foreign land had to teach me one of the first lessons of my life, compassion within my own land....... 

Pune Diaries : 11th August 2007

Hi, the very fact that my 3rd mail is after more than 3 weeks is testimony to the fact that I'm busy studyin? Whopppppies!! Studyin??? Busy wid wat...8.00-6.30 college 7.00-8.30 German and studyin for change at times. Naaa all part of this gr8 world we livin in. My world is suddenly very packed wid ...well assignments presentations book reviews....n even movie 

appreciations.....Sounds excitin yea ser is as good as my techno presenatation of Red Tacton last week Dunt temme uall aint aware of Red Tacton. Human Area Networking. Data transfer with our body as the medium....Sounds gibberish dats precisely wat my classmates thought at first wen I registered my topic.....But then as they say the rest is history.........check out red tacton at gooogle.com ...... data transmission thru thin file of electrons in our body at speeds upto 10Mbps.......believe u me its gonna replace Bluetooth n Infrared in 2yrs. My presentation ws real good as in had loadsa fun handling questions as they were taken aback that we can actually get to do somethin so excitin......My book review well wudnt be too much of a suprise me dint get netime to prepare so decided to go for the safest one.....Fountainhead......holy bible of objectivism.....N my movie appreciation well thats somethin I simply love my choice for the 

week goin to 'Notting Hill ' written by Richard Curtis of Four weddings and a funeral fame it revolves round the life of Anna Scott (Julia Roberts),renowned Hollywood actress who accidentally meets William Thacker the suave Brit livin the northern district of London...Amazin chemistry b/w both n to add to the same gr8 songs rangin frm "When You say nothing at 

all"-Ronan Keating to "She-Elvis Costello" and then my latest venture my German classes they r fun to be....Its gr8 to learn a new language especially wen its a foreign one as u do hope that u wud be able to make use of it in the nearfuture.....German gt some real strange rules like masculine n feminine for objects which is unheard of in english ...... so wats the catch me needs to learn up all of dem ..........elseways its fun to make frds whether u consider that to be uar roomates or my german classmates ........ Suprisingly out of the 7 of us 6 of us are learning a language rangin frm deutsche to french to mandarin!!! Globalisin our place in the actual sense of the word.......What is also amazin is how quickly we get attached to ppl at times n seems like we hve known each other for a very long time....Same goes for me wid my roommates Karan n Feroze ..... real kewl fellas both in the their first years of bca /bba. Karan aka Gujju is plannin to move out since he is left wid no privacy in his room as it becumes the hall for us....This made me kinda sentu" but den me learnin to deal wid these things which till yestd seemed so alien to me......N how can I forgt bout my studiesss .... well it seems ppl want us to know perhaps everythin under the sun in this span of 2yrs actually 1.5yr considerin the fact that we wud end up our last 6 months in the project work for some company.....Evenins to get tirin at times especiallly the one like dis weekened when I'm not goin to bbay (Note:I did'nt say borin) So we get down to our pictionary n monolpoly or dumbsharades or antaksharis but then offlate its been tough to catch up wid all of these. We might be heading for some non veg cuisine down at FC Road 2nite......Pune as a city has its own charm nt excited me much but then ppl especially students all over the world come down to study here (They call it the Oxford of the East!). No wonder there is some difference that has been enveloped b/w the original inhabitants and the students coming down from outside. For some person belongin to the old school of thought it mite seem to be a place that has seriously lost it. Well this can just go n on but then me needa take a halt nw gt my midterm exams nearin so if poss do pass on a word of recommendation to God for the kid from bbay supposedly sloggin out in pune!

Till den Chyus!

There ain't no sunshine when she's gone

Well not really, I ain't recuperating from any break up. Its the whole world that is recovering from perhaps the greatest break up ever. Never before have we witnessed a meltdown of this proportion. Just the other day, I had gone to watch Delhi 6. The movie was well, definitely had greater expectations from the makers of RDB, but the point is it was around 11am in the morning, Sunday morning. For some strange reason as we entered the mall, I had this eerie feeling of it being closed down, since there was hardly anyone around. Sunday morning, and a mall is empty, can there be anything more startling? More than 30% of the shops out there had been closed and the ones operating were on their way out,with little or no enthusiasm amongst the people. It has been said that the depression of 1929 lasted for 729 days, this one is yet to complete a year. The consequences have been nothing short of catastrophic. Millions across the globe have been left shell shocked. It comes as no suprise that the bubble burst has finally taken place, however the last time it happened, during the early part of this century, things had just been hit.  Since then the market boomed and today it has boomeranged back to sanity. I was living in a hostel down in Pune, every second day, I was encountered with a fellow hostelite with the sulleness, yea the dude had just lost his job. There were some who took it on their stride, sadly some are still trying to come in terms with the same. All the great placement records at the premier institutions across the globe have gone for a toss. Some of my friends under the cloud, have suggested this is perhaps the best time to go for further education. Their take, the situation in 2 years would be back to normalcy, and jobs will be back. Its the greatest challenge that Obama is faced with, we sure need to give him time. Till then, as  Charles Boudlair said, "Let us go somewhere, anywhere, far from this wretched place we are living in......."

Thanks....

The past one year has taught me a lot about life like every other year. However for the very first time, I've had to aquaint myself with times which were unknown to most of us earlier. Recession, terrorism, Obama, all of this has certainly affected millions around the globe. But what has further reinforced my belief in life, love and beyond has been the coexistence of my family in the most difficult times. Perhaps I would have never realized what they mean to me, had I not met a few people outside my inner most circle. A family is not defined by its reunions alone, but its ability to wade through trying times. As someone said, its important to have people by your side atleast when the chips are down. I sure have had the privilege to be part of one family, which is nothing less than the Dekh Bhai Dekh gang. Most of my life I have had them for granted, never got much of a chance to acknowledge them but your support has been highly appreciated, something I'm indebted for the resta my life......