Category: Misc

He was just back from his Germany trip and like any 21 year old he was happy as hell for the all cost paid trip  !

Its was his  project on low cost water purifier .It  was selected by UN for sponsorship and that how shanty went to Germany.I was happy for the progress he made .Felt contented for hours of lecture i used to give shanty on his engg project and studies .

“Dada , Germany is awesome” ,  I felt very proud  when shanty told me this .

it reminded of his similar statement , “Dada , Wake up … we need to start the class” !

Giving tuition  wasn’t really a fun thing to do while in 9th class  .

But it was nice feeling to be able to earn 200 bucks at that age .  That’s exactly how much I was paid for teaching my 2 pupils .  Maths , language and DI that’s what i would teach . Call it mini version of CAT .We had to pass that exam for qualifying to govt scholarship . My having stood in  merit  for that in 4th class made me an obvious candidate for giving guidance to juniors in town.

Shantanu   wasn’t actually a junior seeking advise from me . He was a bright student in his class , his father knew it . It was him who convinced me to give tuition to shanty .

And what a class it was …….. a 15 year old kid teaching two 8 year olds 🙂 . Not that i  was a bad teacher but there would be times where the age factor would show up . At times they would quarrel with me over the punishment I gave . Other times there would be them .. my 2 students standing near my bed at 7 am and trying to wake me up for the class to begin ! Of course Iwould  start with the subject even without brushing my teeth .

And it showed ….. shantunu got the merit too . I was glad and so was his father . I was already possessive over shantanu by then and i would debate with his dad on why Shantanu should stay in town  and not join Navoday school .

Mr patahk passed away the month after . And Novoday which was an option became necessity for Shantanu .

– –

Yassen was a man of fine taste . Lean body , sharp features , jet back hairs and an overwhelming sense of humor added to his charm  . I would often loose sense of time when he would open his pitara of stories …  Stories of common man , at times stories from Islamic legends and most often it would be caricature and mimicry of people around us . He loved to mock  unpolished ,cocky ways of vidharbhian villagers .

It used to go on for hours and that was our first introduction to startling mix of  oratory and stand up comedy . I now realize how deftly   he did mix facts with imagery , Shakespearean quotes and shades of his secular sufi Islamic philosophy . Its this last specialty that made  me at home at his house in India of babri masjid/1992 . What used to attract us  most were times when , he engrossed in his   wizardry would forget our ages and go “adult” in his language . That was fun ,although some of my “good boy” friends used to find that  irritating , i used to adore him for that frankness . Except may be the frequent clearing of through he would do .

We used to advise him many cures for that . From gulping cumin seed drink to Benedryl to homeopathy , he tried them all and almost become an expert in it . Occasionally he too would express sadness over it .

It was his dream to do a public show of his comedy story telling . He wanted to enthrall all of the town and villageers around …  in that one show he would do . It was quite uncommon for an English teacher in Urdu school . But that was yaseen ,he was the most proficient and fluent person in English in my town n around and my English teacher .

Funny thing is I learnt more  Urdu at his home than English .  Not that I would understood Ghalib and Amir khusro at that age but my progress had already happened to being literate in Urdu and do poems in it . “I want you to elect Urdu instead of Marathi in your board exams , I want to prove it to the world that its not language of Muslims but every Indian ” , he used to tell me often. Aleef , Be , Te … i went ..

It inspired me ! I had nearly convinced my parents for that and was looking forward to get in to 9th class to see that dream fulfill the year next .

And what a decision that was , my first big decision in life then .. It thrilled me as i left my town for my long summer vacation at  my relatives in UP . ……… It was like doing something big or it felt like that in that age .

I would practice urdu every day there and was elated when i could demonstrate me reading all the signboard in amina bazar of lucknow . So much fun it was being in a diff sate and having diff skill … Urdu !!

Back home Raza sir was diagnosed throat cancer . People tried their best  ..but  He succumb to it  immediately …

i could never fulfill his dream of passing 10th with urdu elective…….. while the legacy of poetry continues ..

………… Shanty is doing his final year Engineering now . Lean body , sharp features , jet back hairs and an cute sense of humor adds to his charm ….

Life goes on .. and so does the story of a student .. death and success..

A month is quite a long time to get feel of a country . Especially when one is roaming around in pubs , attending new year at opera theater in Sydney and relishing Sydney festival at Hyde park . Not to mention the countless walks on the

street and activities alike .

Australia is a country which surely makes you feel fresh or may be its the commonwealth connection that , being an Indian makes me comfortable . And thats something which really contrast with the year long flood of news of attack on indians in Australia i am used to hear about .

Hearing all that on shore is quite a diff experience . It wasn’t yesterday when an indian was burnt alive in Melbourne that this issue struck my mind . Neither was it the countless precautions that my dear ones gave me before leaving for Australia . In fact being in pune , at the heart of sena movement and being a Marathi , i happen to see the other side of this threat .

It was the drive from the cab i took on 2nd January, from Sussex street to north Sydney  . As he started reassuring me on the attack in Australia , my first reaction was to see outside the cab window to make sure that he is not leading me in any wrong road . I smiled the next moment when i realized where this precaution  came from . And started actually listening to him .

He spoke a very common manly English which made me follow his accent easily 🙂 … along the 10 min drive he elaborated how this is a non racial country and how its some goons actually attacking Indians which is what is a stray incident  happening in  parammatta . I smiled with a neutral gaze and said him bye . Somehow , by this time the spark in Sydney air had made me aware of this fact , unconsciously though .

It was …the lady , today at the signal . Some 70 plus she must be . Dressed in a pink gown as she approached us at north Sydney station , she reminded me of my mother .

“Are you Indian?”,  she asked shreekant , my college who was unaware of what had happened in Melbourne yesterday .

“I wanted to tell you that this is not a racial country . Indians are welcomed here …”

“we are worried about what is happening these days in here” …. she spoke very earnestly … catching hear breath in the chilly Sydney summer .. and i listened very attentively … something inside told me that this is not going to be formality’s sake – talk …

“We discuss these things daily at our meetings and feel sad that such things are happening in our country ” she said looking at me , finally …..  Looking into my eyes actually .Her wrinkles shrinking in the pain , the pain that a sincere person feels … I noticed them .. actually i remember them still … while the though of the whole thing being “masala fried” by media flashed in my mind …

“Yeah , its concerning ” , my manager said , dry as i had expected him to be … i wanted to say something better to that lady and i started thing what to …

“I am  sorry for what is happening in Australia these days and what happened yesterday”

oh , i missed my heart beat , like i missed it on every “Jai Hind” scream after 15th august anthem prayer in my school days . There was  nothing apart from “thanks and good night” that i could say .

routine words to say , i felt … and realized that i was touched , startled and shocked at the same time .

Was it her compassion … or was it the sincerity in her eyes … or was it the thought that in India we would not have seen an Indian say sorry to a foreigner for something like this … was i ashamed or angry by the time this thought touched my conscience … or may be it was realization of what it means to be a citizen …. I don’t know  .

But a citizen saying sorry for something happening in her country to complete stranger …… it has shaken me …

I sit silent at my chair tonight , trying to figure out what exactly i felt today .. oh the racism in Australia … haven’t smelled the trace of it yet   …. or may be there is THE truth in the attack that are happening …

I doubt whether i would be able to intellectually analyze it today … … the “I am sorry” is too strong ..

and for some reason unknown … i remembered Gandhi … and how i felt when i saw that move for the first time …

thoughts …people… emotions …nationalism

wrapped in a web of all this .

From Racist ? Australia ,

Me .

RDB , Rang de Basanti a 2006 production is a fine a movie by cinematic standards . I adore the director Rakesh Mehra from days of movie Aks and RBD is most probably his finest work and finest work of the team involved it . In fact it is

land mark film for most of the Actors involved in it .

And its is also a landmark film for The Indian youth. That should be considered biggest success of the director and the movie . Recent 26/11 protests or the Jessica Lal case bear the testimony of this . The fervency  with which images of public participation of these 2 cases were circulated bears the testimony of this claim .This is where RDB gets elevated from the status of a super hit movie to a cult movie . Its like every Indian youth had this movie on his hard disk !!

RDB in a way introduced patriotism to current generation . Or may be this generation was always patriotic and RDB  gave them the manner to express it in . We might differ on the precise shade of the impact RDB caused on the masses but it is undeniable that RDB  made patriotism relevant to Gen-X ..Y and Z of India .

A story of few free spirited friends ( all north Indian !! ) whose belief on society , justice and patriotism gets shaken and altered with death of their friend . That’s the shortest way to express  the plotline . And if you agreed to how I described the plot of RBD you just agreed with me J .

Showing intellectually dysfunctional characters is the main characteristic on Hindi movies . A phenomenon  I could do PHD over 🙂 . Oh yes such thing does add hell of a drama to the plot   .

But we are not talking of any movie . RDB was for the first time the mobile generation in India actually spoke patriotism . Its was like RDB made it relevant to  them . All of sudden . RDB kind of laid out the structure of practical or may be unpractical nationalism .

I have no doubt that none will get shot for a national cause like its shown in RDB  . For in peacetime the citizen are know to be more practical and patriotic .

Moreover if there is indeed a person shown as care free as any one shown in the movie . Chances are in real life even he wouldn’t do something so scarifying ! . Nopes its not about someone’s love for nation  but its about the belief system . It can get shattered  and altered with one event , I have no doubt about that . But a complete change of value system and most importantly a sudden intellectualism .That’s something too short and too sweet for the process of problem solving . Whether it’s a character in the movie or the audience its not that realistic to happen that all of sudden anyone can come up with solution of problems at feeling of pain. With that RDB give us a pop shot of everything people (mis)understood RDB with .

Standing for a cause for a common man is a tough exercise . Its outright dumb to believe that a person struggling with life  doesn’t stand for a something as  grand as environment or nationalism .Its just that in normal circumstances people find how much they are going to ignore and how much they would fight against . Call it  practical Activism . It takes unusual circumstances or unusual conviction for a long time period for common man to turn crusaders  .Its here and how a complete change of character can happen.

We need to clearly differentiate between the process of doing an Act , Making a decision and Solving a problem . The thing that is common to these 3 is taking  a stand .But these 3 differ a lot in their genesis .

Doing an action at spur of the moment is sum total of the feeling that go on in ones mind .They may or may not effectively solve the problems . And while we do need to own these acts these are not what we call as decision .

Taking a decision is , on the same lines , is sum total of the thought you have . Conscious , unconscious and circumstantial . We are always making some decision in life .Times when there is plenty of time available the process of decision taking is felt and that is why we call it decision making .Even other wise when we make fast decisions the foundation is always there in our minds . But the short time that we do it in makes it feel like Gut feeling or sense of direction as we call it . What differentiates decision making  from doing an act is the occurrence of thinking .Right or Wrong we always think while we make a decision .

Problem solving as contrasted to above to is act of decision making done with reasoning out everything . The emphasis is not on reasoning out , that we do even in making decisions . The main differentiator is reasoning everything that one can think of about the problem .This is a detailed and conscious process and the time taken depends on how much one is clear about the topic at hand.Its this detailed and not necessarily lengthy process that can bring about a change in character . Such process can be triggered in one moment but its complete only when all the known details are covered . Else it cant be called a change of character .

RDB mixes acts with decisions made with problems solved . Its actually a revenge story colored in shades of nationalism .

I have no problem with the movie , its great . But a cult status it has, RDB at max gave people a way for token nationalism .A false sense of problem solving  for anything you feel you wish to stand for by just doing some act  .

Something that doesn’t make sense to me.

Its a fine book , a modern classic , no doubt about it .

I loved reading this book and finished it in one sitting … at night .

It  was am overwhelming feeling , reading this book .  Paulo Coehlo ,  the author has created a mesmerizing combination of hope , wisdom,adventure and destiny in his book “The Alchemist”.  Its this combination and his simple style of writing that makes The Alchemist a compelling book and most often its with this book people realize what is meant by “Un Put Down-able”!

But the main reason why The Alchemist has become a record holder book for world wider circulation is because its fires your personal  imagination , its raises your hope , it makes your belief in destiny firm …..and its makes you believe in personal dreams almost unshakable and make you dream more !

“When you really want something to happen , the whole universe conspires to make it true .”

That’s the quote from this book which best captures the story and the spirit of it .

I love that quote ! …………….what a  magic it has.

This personal magic belief has been around with human being since may be we started thinking . Our mythology , history books are full of heroes and characters that possessed  and believed in the personal magic . Even in our modern day variety if living most of us have a magic belief .Like my magic belief is that i will change a bit of readers thoughts with this blog 🙂 .

A charm , a trick , a coincidence , an illusion or even superstition whatever you call it  . May be human  being love magic as a phenomenon . Or may be we love the escape from reality it offers  .And who knows may be there is indeed a magic that exist with everyone’s belief .

In fact if you are fan of this book , its precisely what it says .Read the quote again …

“When you really want something to happen , the whole universe conspires to make it true .”

The alchemist encourages you to want something to happen and voila  there is ….this whole universe that is with you . It acts like you buddy and does everything possible to make you successful . And what a bliss it is ! …to have the whole universe help us to get what we want .But did you ever think whether such a facility makes sense ?

No no , I am not saying that with such a conspiring universe even the Bad guyz stand to benefit .What if some one wants the Armageddon to happen ?. Nopes that’s not what bothers me . I would rather believe that this conspiring universe has got some sense and it helps only the good guyz .

But how about differentiating between the good guys and the deserving ones ? .

This is where The Alchemist gets my goat . It shifts the responsibility of hard work and so on ….from the dreamer to the universe . Even if we one has to believe in God or such a magic existing ,  the problem is that the book says that this magic is free and automatic ……….And that to me is dangerous .

Its not that everyone realizes how a book or anything around us affects us . So subtle are the influences on human mind that one can live a lifetime without realizing where did he/she acquired a particular thought from .The alchemist is a pretty poisonous book for such an effect . And in case you are thinking that people are pretty aware of what thoughts they choose , what influence they allow to affect their minds … think again . Or ask your psychiatrist friend 🙂 .There is no limit to how far from reality we can allow ourselves to go . The alchemist , I feel , put this mechanism to test . It rather uses it to the extreme  .

Its not the first time a book or literature for that matter , is depicting a rosy , destiny filled dreamy world to the masses . What differentiates The alchemist from other is that it ends up altering the fundamental  belief system that we posses . And it does it in a populist language and manner . A trick too lethal and compelling that people often won’t  even care to cross examine the new belief that has been seeded into them.

Now i have nothing against Paulo Coelho , I think that the book is worthy …. I even have no issues with destity-ism that it preaches .In fact every one has the right to escape from reality … the right to dream …dream big ..want more …and work for it .

What i am against is  …

……….someone believing that their dreams has to come true just because They are dreaming it …

………….“When you really want something to happen , the whole universe conspires to make it true “

Why should the universe do it at the birth of a dream , Mr Coehlo ?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

ps : I recommend you to read the book . Its a pleasure read .Just beware of how it might affect and ignite you.

And by the way I profess treating Book with at-most respect  .The title was just to make you take a stand 🙂

Remember is a rather mechanical word . For it doesn’t best express the pleasure that come  with it . The pleasure of remembering things , more sweet than bitter .

The act of deriving pleasure is central to human beings . Its a temptation so hard to resist that we even revisit past (events) to get more out of them .This act of pleasure visit to past is one of the most common reason that drives most of what we do .May be we are often unconscious of it .

I used to wonder at at Office farewell emails and speeches how pleasantly people talked about the past . Even while knowing that it was not all that hunky dory , i remained silent . After all every one deserves the benefit of selective memory , moreover i have nothing against someone being so positive about the past 🙂 .

I would brush such things off as routine behavioral thing . But what amazed me that such things stay on and that was little of a shocker .

We all reminisce our childhood . Our achievement , quarrels , relationships , our firsts 🙂 and so on .And why not?… these are the very personal memories that give us the presence we have . And that is  absolute pleasure to do .

But that still doesn’t answer why we reminisce ?        ……….. actually why we reminisce so much ,so often ?

This is something that goes completely against our crib of life being hectic , it kind of also contradicts our repeated claims of  enjoying the life.

…….even more notably why the older the memory the more pleasurable it is ?

The whole process of reminisce and recollecting old … very old,,, memories have magical quality in them. It can completely alter the mood we are in and can even inspire us to extraordinary things.

…………….may be the answer lies in the quality .

….may be its purity of the experience …….simplicity of things around us ………. our innocence !

The older the memories are the better these aspects of that memory are …..

………….Its something clearly that we miss in out present life …. that makes us remember the past .

Ah .. its our yearning for pure , uncomplicated and innocent life !!

……….Ever wondered whether children reminisce ? …

Don’t try to answer it ….

its obvious why the don’t  …actually … why they don’t have to ….

On 15 the August   India celebrates its  independence day .

This line almost feels like opening sentence from of a school time essay and deservedly so .It was probably only in that age of innocence this day used to thrill  almost every kid.

For most of the non school going Indians this day means just little more than a holiday .And to many it might mean just another holiday. A saving grace could be those scanty blood donation camps or likes that people arrange today . Give or take few good citizen who are engaged in socio-national work through out the year and on whom media runs stories on this day , without fail .

This is not to say that all those Mahnedra Kapoor and Lata Mangeshkar songs played on 15th august don’t feel good .They do  ,but  the day doesn’t  .In fact  such a response is more of an extension of the childhood conditioning than an individuals sensitivity .

If you every felt angry that so many Indians only sit at home on this day doing nothing for the nation or watching TV  .Or felt that 15th August has lost its  relevance .The  fact is that  the day might have never had any relevance to Indian masses !

Its not that Indians are less patriotic than citizen of other countries .But we just don’t know what it means to celebrate a day  ..

A day devoted to celebration of the national Independence or the republic formation is a nationalist concept .  .Its more of a westerns concept so to say .The day celebration concept , be it I-day or R-day is aimed at remembrance of  the core values that the day is supposed to represent .Its is designed to focus mass attention to these values every year .And to further strengthen them.Its for this reason the celebration happens .

And this is precisely the place Indians find it out of place !

Its such kind of public display of nationalism that is unknown to Indian masses.Patriotism or to be more precise Nationalism is  an emotion a little too unknown to Indian mind set .We cant wear out national flag as a dress but we can die to be able to wear  it .

Now India is a celebration freak nation . We can and do celebrate anything under the sun .And i love it for that  .If you have beginning to notice the contradiction… hang on .The thread that runs common in Indian celebration is  the key here  .

All of our celebrations are ritualistic in nature .They revolve around specific rules and only the details are left to Individual choice . Imagine the Diwali , the Eid or the marriage and you know what I mean. The word is Ceremony ! Ours is a ceremony culture .

An event like I-day calls for a free spirited nation and the masses that are vocal about their individualism . And we are exactly not that . We are shy about our individualism and conservative about the free spirit ( pun  intended 🙂 ) .

Say tomorrow we form a colorful and detailed set of activities that an Indian is supposed to do in 15h August . Acts that are nationalist in nature but are  as ritualistic as a pooja .Something that can be of a shape of a tradition .Then on you might just see  a nation buzzing with activity on days like 15th August .

For  philosophical nature we have, we as a country don’t know how to enjoy themselves  . But we as the people  are busy  in a grand and ongoing celebration called life !.Its here our Independence has to be made relevant than forcing it to be wished as a Happy day  .

Note : Please click on the links at the end of this post in case you are not able to see the screen shots .

News channels  were abuzz with launch of Bhuvan an geographical imaging service from Indian Space Research Organizations (ISRO http://www.isro.org ) .

At present its a web based interface that offers geographical images that we are used to see on Google maps .

But Bhuvan is much more than what Google map offers in terms of service and significance .

The main punch in Bhuvan is its Indianess .It isn’t a news per se , India had launch satellites with remote sensing satellites under aegis of ISRO for quite some time now . And Bhuvan as a gesture of capability demonstration is very important for Indians .

However its Indianess doesn’t stop here .

It offers zoom in facility till 10 meters .

It has comes in multiple mode/variations that can display soil types , monsoon coverage apart from state,district boundaries , national highways and the most needed navigation information .

In fact Bhuvan goes further than this and allows in line graphical overlays for town planners and more .

Of couser it hides sensitive information like Gate Way of India in Mumbai and rightly so ,being a Govt of India  enterprise   .

One has to go to site http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/index.html and register himself there to use Bhuvan .The present implementation mandates us to download and Active X component and its hoped that Bhuvan assumes collaborative features like Google Earth soon ( features like people tagging places on the map ). I alos hope that ISRO offers its as a service for other sites to embed Bhuvan widget in their pages and the wish list goes on .

Its worth a look guyz .And yes …

While registering at Bhuvan website today , I was asked about my name , password and the default information.

One of the column was “Purpose for Browsing Bhuvan” … National Pride ! I replied .

Hats Off  ISRO , Bhuvan Rocks !!! .

Here are some Screen Shots .

This screen shot shows India as a country zoomed in onto Bhuvan main page .One can add multiple layers like national , state ,district boundaries on it ( see the menu on  the left of the screen shot ) .

This Screen shot shows status of monsoon/ rain in India .It also has facility to select years and month for the display selection .

Bhuvan has the proverbial city navigation feature .However ISRO block sensitive places like Gate Way of India etc. I have captured Colaba ,marine drive area of Mumabi city ( for easy identification 🙂 ) . Of course this can be zoomed to greater extent than this But but but , its not collaborative yet  , so you will fine names for only those places which ISRO has mapped .Hope a commercial open version of Bhuvan is launched soon .

The screen shot is the best one . It shows how best Bhuvan captures geographical details like soli and tarrian . What you see here is place close to my native 🙂 . Its a place called Lonar in Maharashtra . And the circle you see is a crater made by Meteoric collusion from Jurassic Age ( No kidding )

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NMEzhTVgeP1sltypmEDWDg?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnh29yk6azDDw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JOtY-9_8nxdIjAOWiUs56g?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnh29yk6azDDw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/utJIw8xYuTguu7Xi2ofHGA?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnh29yk6azDDw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zdMGL6jjUN6isRbfnpK0Pg?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnh29yk6azDDw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/GBSxmkSJs7VuDo2kFkGl0Q?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnh29yk6azDDw&feat=directlink