... and I wonder again...

Do i love him with all my 'mind'?
Yes


Do i love him with all my 'heart'?
YES


Do i love him with all my 'soul'?
YEP


Do i love him with all my 'physical self' ;-) ? 
YEAH


and do you think the same is true from his side?? 
yes :)


Oye lucky, te tainu fikar kaisii!!

... and I wonder

Is it all worth it?

When we choose to fulfill our wishes, trampling below our feet the wishes of our near-n-dear ones... Is it really worth it?

An inter-caste, inter-cultural wedding..... happiness about getting married lost in the midst of family tensions... I know ideally that should not be the case; but can we ignore the ground situation and choose to forget about the ecosystem we live in....? And even if we make our decisions... is it really for the best? Not sure....

To all those who wish to marry against parents' wishes.... its harder than you think, much much much harder, not just for you but for them..... the hardest part is watching them go through the the hard stuff.....It might worth it, but there is a good chance that it might not be.... its hard on your partner too... So, if you have slightest iota of doubt whether he is mature enough to take this....think again.

Wish I was never writing this.... sometimes, I wish I should have taken back my step.

Karma musings....

I believe all spheres of one's life are closely tied together with one common factor - the woman herself ("the man himself"; I sometimes like to choose 'woman' instead of man as a gender neutral noun - slightly eccentric but heck its my blog!)... Lets not digress... I was saying that I believe all spheres of one's life are closely tied together one common factor - the woman herself. Whether one is confident, responsible, sincere, detail driven etc... and most important the underlying philosphy "what drives you?".
If I have to categorize my philosphy in life, its very 'karma'-centric. It draws its inspiration from Geeta's "Do your best and leave the rest to the Lord", Ayn Rand's "objectivism", Kiplings "If", Jagdish's "Sach hum nahi...", Bachchan's "Madhushaala", .... and numerous other literary works.....

This reminds me how I have lost touch with the language I loved and admired so much - Hindi... the last post on my Hindi blog is dated Oct 2007. There was a time when I was so intrigued by the language that I wanted to take that up for further studies (of course joining Investment Banking was never a part of the plan, I didn't even knew that something like that existed).There was a time when I got 96% marks in Hindi in CBSE board - and I say that here to remind myself that there was a streak in me that I did not polish properly thereafter. I should do something about it - though I have thought about it many times - but the efforts havent been, I admit, half-hearted........


_______________

The above was an unfinished blog post from I don't know when.... I am publishing it now (in its unfinished form) with this small foot note saying that I am attempting to revive my Hindi literary capabilites... You can find the proof at http://shabdaurabhivyakti.blogspot.com/... well, I know I am still not there, considering where I was as a 12-14 yr old teenager... but I am trying... :)

Lets worship Shakti this Navratri

Hindu religion is beautiful in the way its fluid. There are no 'tenets' as such. No single deity can claim supremacy. All the forms lead to a single source, God and 'his' Shakti,..... God himself is no 'being' but an entirety of what 'was', 'is' and 'can be'... So,in a transcendental sense, its nothing but energy... So, in fact God and Shakti are not two different entities... its the same. The terms would have come about probably because we humans feel a need to classify 'living' entities as 'male' and 'female'...

Oh! I am digressing from the title!!!!

We consider Navaratri as an auspicious period, or at least a 'good' period. We worship the Goddess and pay reverence to her... But do we understand her? She is Shakti.

While offering Poojas this Navratri, lets invoke the Shakti.

Shakti, for me, signifies two things: 'Female' part of our universe, 'Energy'.

- 'Shakti', the energy within us... doesn't really matter whether one is a male or a female. Lets realize and utilize the energy within us. Lets realize our potential. Potential as a human, potential as a citizen, potential as a child, potential as a sister, potential as a friend and so on.... Do we realize how much can we do... achieve... offer... to this world... and to ourselves...

- 'Shakti', the female ... A famous quote goes as follows...

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Lets respect women through our words, actions and habits.... If you are a women reading this, it goes for you too... Lets not underestimate our sisters, mothers, daughters. Lets treat them as equals - equal as family members, equal as citizens, equal as human beings....

Lets give them equal opportunities, lets not assume them to be a 'weaker' sex... Shakti means Power, how can it be weaker?....

A society that worships 'Shakti, the female power' kills its daughters in the womb.... considers its daughters a 'burden'... considers wives to be 'nagging decorative home pieces'... considers women to be sex objects/ child bearing machines.... somewhere we all are aware of this paradox...

Let us supplement our prayer offerings with our thoughts and actions this festival season... Lets us pay our reverence to Shakti - ours and the universe's.

Is it the PMS?

Is it the PMS thats driving me to tears this rainy morning.

For the starters, two things:

1. I love rains, I consider a cloudy day a 'bright' day. Rain in no ways means gloom to me... I love love love rains. If in doubt, go back to my 2007 blogs.

2. I have always maintained that I don't suffer from PMS. There might be some physical warnings but no emotional effects of anything like a PMS on me....

First, I got so damn emotional while listening to 'tu iss tarah se meri zindagi'.. in fact I even read the lyrics on one of the blogs, and then i mailed 'A' the lyrics and told him 'I love this song'. He being quite sentimentally-handicapped hasn't bothered to reply.

Then I was watching/ listening to the song 'do naina aur ek kahani'... and tup-tup-tup... here it comes (thank God, nobody else is in office today to watch me in this state)...

and now 'likhne waale ne... asan hun tur jaana'.... [btw, its an awesome song which I think only a girl or may be a father (amongst males) would understand]

Deep down I am a pathetically sentimental person; I love her but I am slightly scared of her too... I mean she can cry about almost anything under the sun... and at times she gets too sentimental to handle and goes off into her own world... and then she expects others to understand what she is thinking about... and she might feel sad that nobody can understand 'that' part of her..... and also she might get too touchy and melancholic at such times....

But, I love her too... because she represents the intrinsic part of me; and also because her 'sentiments' can yield to best of creations (poems/ sketches/ blog posts etc etc) :D

So, I guess its not the PMS, its just the same old sensitive child-woman sitting within...

Need suggestion

If you have been reading my blog for sometime.... you would know that there is an important character that has entered my blog... my boyfriend (people choose to call him my fiance too, coz technically we are engaged).

His intials are same as mine i.e. A.

So, I started calling him A2, but thats so uncool... So, I am in the process of finding a good blog name for him..... I can obv use his second name to form an acronym but thats not exciting too...

Ummm.... May be I can call him He-A and call myself She-A...... :O

But He-A sounds like He-man..... (btw how silly the word He-man is!!, perfect example of what we used to call redundancy in C++)...

May be I can call him Mr.A and call myself Ms.A.... but I do think there ought to be better choices!!!! :|

Morning Good Morning mail

On a group mail....

A2 : Good morning all

K: (another friend on the group mail): Morning all!!

Me: Lovely, cloudy morning today!

K: Pray that you don't end up spending hours on the road by evening.

Me: I am an optimist... :D

I hope it rains and rains hard...!! roads should be clogged throughout the evening... and then it will get too late to travel with the cabbie driver.... so somebody will be forced to drive down from their Gurgaon office to mine (20 kms), and safely drop me to my house (35kms)...

K: thats the spirit! A2, u r damn lucky ;)

Down-on-the-knees-begging

He: BTW, you are coming to drop your laptop and my stuff today evening, aren't you?

SHE: why should I!? do your own stuff

HE: Depends on you. Take your call.

ME: No!!!! you got to loosen up and give something hon! coz 'A1' is no kind and loving girlfriend! She’s one of the _b****_ ones! She demands favours! and presents... or may be down-on-the-knees-begging. Nothing comes free....

PS: For anonymity purposes, I have decided that his blog-name be A2. Cause' me is A1

champa, money plants, palms and the rest...

“Wow, look at the grass stains on my skin. I say, if you knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.” - Calvin and Hobbes

Well, thats what has been happening to me for the past few months. Though I am very happy about the fact that I am getting married this November. But to talk about the present - Its getting a little dull...

Anyways, I shall sort that out soon.

Meanwhile, I realise, some people are really cruel to plants:

Somebody broke one hand of my 8 ft Y-shaped Champa (Plumeria) tree. If I find that ba*****, I shall break his arm and make him realise how it feels. And if I dont gather enough cruelty to do that, I shall atleast wrench his hair out of his scalp.... hair can re-grow, so thats less cruel, although that f**** didnt realise how he has wrecked my carefully nurtured 9 year old potted baby!!! @#$#$%$%

Another irritating incident, while I was watering my plants early in the morning... one auntyji comes and says "Beta, zara pooja ke liye phool de dena"... I stared at her and gave her few small marigolds.

She gave me a disappointed look and continued "Woh waale de do", pointing at the giant ones.

... "Excuse me!! Thats emotional blackmail in the name of God. First, auntyJI if you would like to offer flowers to God then you have two options: Buy flowers or grow them on your own! Why should my garden contribute to your offering.... and daily at least 50 people cross this lane towards that temple, what if each one of them starts doing the same! Also, these are MY flowers, if they are to be offered to God, I, NOT YOU , shall be the offerer!!! Go, take a walk."................ Well, that was what I said to myself; To her, I politely offered few more tiny marigolds, and a STARE . Stay off from my garden Lady!

Then there was this incident when somebody stole almost all of my gigantic dahlias... and in the process destroyed the plants too.... It was really painful, I cried inconsolably then.

People do speak about their pets, but seldom about their plants. I am an avid gardener, specially considering the limited space that I have. One has to really water them, care for them, specially in the scorching Delhi summers and frosting winters. Poor beings, they can neither use an AC nor a rajaai :( ... They really really suffer.

That brings me to another thought. I feel so helpless on seeing the money plant leaves turn charcoal black (as if somebody has put a candle under it!) due to sun; and a similar helplessness on seeing the palms turn yellow due to fog. How would a farmer feel??.... for me, all said and done, its a hobby/ passion. But for them its their livelihood. I at least have tap water to help them survive through (though not all survive :( ) the peak summers, but what about a poor farmer who put in all his money in buying the seeds, but couldn't make them sprout.... Aah Painful.

To all those reading this blog, I urge you to be more sympathetic towards plants. These are speechless children, they can't describe their feelings, but they do feel.... they really do

Is the BJP justified in sacking Jaswant Singh from the party?

It was a shocker, at least for me. Probably because I had tuned into the Karan Thapar show few days back. I was actually quite impressed how Jaswant Singh was managing to put his views forward without passing judgements about the people involved (i.e. Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru and the rest). Karan Thapar, true to his style, was trying to evoke strong statements from Jaswant but failed. Of what I heard on the show it seemed to be a very objective book.

There are ample reasons why I feel the sacking was unjustifiable...

Talking about Jinnah in a positive light is not a blasphemy to the Indian state or State leaders. Whether or not one agrees to Jaswant's view is a second stance. How many of the 'leaders' involved in the decision would have actually read the book? I do not think Jaswant made any negative comments about the Indian leaders (Patel & Gandhi; Obviously BJP wouldn't mind negative comments about Nehru). I am sure Mr Rajnath Singh would not have cared to read the book.

Secondly, this seemed like a 'mob-decision' from the BJP - wherein few unworthy-to-be-leaders people who just managed to have some voice, out-shouted the others.

Who is representing the BJP in this issue? - The familiar faces for whom BJP supporters vouched (Jaitley, Shourie, Sinha, Swaraj) have all been sidelined. The dignified educated leaders of BJP have been sidelined by the likes of Rajnath Singh (?? Did we even consider him a national level leader two year back!?). So, who has taken the decision on behalf of BJP???

Jaswant Singh was one of the founding members of BJP. And the party who has prided itself for its democratic procedures (Vis-a-vis the family monarchy of the Congress) choose to expel one of the its founding fathers (a greatly dignified man, an able statesmen, a respected leader, ex-external affairs minister, ex-finance minister) in such a rude manner - sans proper discussions, sans 'democratic' procedures, without even a show cause notice...

Thirdly, and most painfully, the question that comes to my mind is "Who is ousting whom??"

People who represented the BJP itself are being ousted(/sidelined/politically-assassinated/ expelled) right-left-and-centre... be it Swaraj, Jaitley, Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Naidu... or even the Grand old man himself, Mr Advani!... so what is BJP without these people? A party of low-rung, sham leaders like Rajnath, Mishra! I mean they are as good as the BSP/ SP 'leaders'...

Though I agree that Jaswant should have resisted his urge to talk about Jinnah till he takes a political sanyas (because at such a senior level, its difficult for a party to disown his views)... but in any case the 'expulsion' is unjustifiable. At the most, he could have been warned.... He is no tom-dick-and harry, he might not be a mass-leader but he was a key BJP man. He was the most important non-RSS BJP leader. He was a senior diplomat who effectively handled strained Indo-US relations in the aftermath of the 1998 Nuclear tests. Even Strobe Talbott could not resist praising Jaswant in his book 'Engaging India' . Jaswant was even honoured with an Outstanding parliamentarian award in 2001.... All this to be expelled by some little regional champ with big voice...

Its with a deep sigh that BJP supporters like me would look at this incident - It seems one more nail in BJP's coffin.... well it just seems a matter of time till....

Or may be they will re-rise like a Phoenix...

You have to see this one!!!!

The internet

I thought the last one would be the last for the day but alas!

Appended: "Part 0: If you were to look at your life from outside...... What advice would you give yourself.."

Just thought I should more light on the intent and context of this question... "If you were to look at your life from outside...... What advice would you give yourself.."

The intent is that if someone doesn't know me completely i.e. he/she has a 5 minute (/10 minute/few weeks) discussion with me - how will he/she perceive me as a person? what will he/she advice me?

Also, the second perspective, if I was an acquaintance (/colleague/ boss/ peon/ subordinate etc) of myself, what advice would I give to myself..?

just for an example "Oh! she is sincere, but I wish she was more driven", "she is nice but gets moody"

Now, this might or might not match with my understanding of myself... but yet it might be true. And in cases where I would think that its not true, it will give me an opportunity to see why an outsider will perceive otherwise....

Then there can be so many other perspectives too... what if I was a book-writer...? I might say "Well, your life was exciting till point A, but you lost control after point B"

if I was my door plant "You take a lot of care of me, but its sporadic....

Part 1: If you were to look at your life from outside...... What advice would you give yourself..

1. Dear A, you should be monitor yourself for traces of pride and arrogance. While pride is good to an extent, if it goes unchecked it might turn into "arrogance"

A speaks: Am I arrogant?

Frankly, I am not really sure; most probably you are a borderline case.

PS: 'A' is me :)

Part 0: If you were to look at your life from outside...... What advice would you give yourself..

I intended to post this few weeks back...

Its a question for myself, and I think it is one of the questions I would like to ask myself every now and then...

Without wasting any more time or words on introduction, I would bring up the question directly:

"Part 0: If you were to look at your life from outside...... What advice would you give yourself.."

:| :( :) :D

Bloody Mayawati!

Bloody, my arrogant boss!!

Idiot driver!

Callous Delhi!

Wonderful rain!

Beautiful life!

Best-est mom!!

My darling 'A'!

Freakest, loveliest, bestest me :)

GANG

The thing that I have always missed is having a big gang. Really, its so much fun to have a big gang, people whom you can party with, freak around with. I always had few close friends, but I have always wished to have a BIG ENTHU GANG (not that I not treasure my close buddies!). I have had big gangs for smaller intervals but not for extended periods of time.

The naysayers frustrate me. "Ready for a movie" "No", "Lets meet up this week", "Oh!" and so on... Naysayers are neutralised in a big gang...

I am a party thingy and I need a gang.... and this is inspite of the fact that I am getting married this november! I NEED A GANG to freak out with.

I know what you would be saying Krishna! Here comes another demand/ wish from her....!

GREEDY ME!

Dear diary

There was a time when I used to write my diary. Infact I started writing when I was 7 or 8 year old! and was more or less consistent. I left it during the last few years during my Bachelors. When I moved to Bangalore for my masters, I started writing again... That was the first time I wrote about love... and then things happened. I destroyed that beautiful piece of my life... It was both good and bad in a way. Good because it really really helped me get over with stuff (remember the scene in Jab-we-met where Kareena asks Shahid to tear off the girl's snap and flush it off!). Bad because somewhere I lost a part of me...

Well, now I am wondering should I start writing again? Hmm.... good question....

Thoughts unwinded

.... Mayawati erecting her own statues all over U.P.... heights of self-obsession... leave alone the thought about public money
.... job: well right now my only motivation is my salary... and probably the name... dont like the thing i am currently working on... i want to enjoy it but not happening right now. probably i should keep patience... and also i dont have an immediate alternative.... on an optimistic note, "to hell with it".... take your bucks and enjoy! well but...
... Hollowness meter: We are all hollow from within - the % of hollowness varies... we preach something, practice something else... We might think that we are practice what we preach but one deep look will give you an idea... we don't always keep pur promises... we expect something from the world, but refuse to give the world the same... I call all this being "hollow"... not 100% hollow... % would vary from person to person
... everybody has problems, has issues, has strengths, has weaknesses, has aspirations, has dreams, has respect...
... Women need no reservations... neither for the parliament seats, nor for jobs... the fact that women don't have proportionate jobs/ seats/ representation is because they don't deserve it.... I don't say that they don't have the potential, just that they do not have the will.... Till we earn it, we need not have it!
.... I find Rajdeep Sardesai very attractive... Karan thapar is good, udayan is good too... but Rajdeep makes me drool... (not always but often ;) )
.... Salsa is fun... salsa is hot... salsa is sensuous... i miss my bangalore salsa instructor
.... Indians are very very much racist - and there is no need for debate on facts.

Rantings.... readers please ignore

Ah! about an year ago my boss told me that "we are in a people's business"... True, so if I as an individual is not valued, I should not and must not stay...

If somebody wants to negate your existence and knowledge level what do you? give a shit to them...

Loyalty, sincerity, knowledge, skills, work... is worth a dime... any f****r can come and zero down your efforts

If people are treated like shit, they will give you a shit...

Two amazing quotes about children

Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it. ~Harold

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body. - Elizabeth stone

I have always loved kids, but my two amazing little nieces have increased my insights...

How should we judge people?

How should we judge people? I have more or less been non-judgemental about people - but is that really the right thing to do?
A person makes decisions depending upon the ecosystem one lives in; and this ecosystem includes the people whom he/she is close to... this ecosystem not only includes the concerned person's belief system but also the interactions of other people in the ecosystem; so in a way a person's ecosystem is also affected by other people's belief systems. So, one should probably not ignore the role of other person's belief systems... and how do you get to know other people's belief systems - without judging them... probably here, we can differentiate between judging and being judgemental. But nonetheless, there arises a need for 'judging'.
There is a great deal of difference in what one preaches and what one practises... its true for 99.9999% of the human race. So, how do you judge a person? By his talks or by his actions? The easy answer is ofcourse actions, but then the results for 'judging on basis of actions' come long after they are needed! i.e. generally, in real life, one needs to place the trust on a person's talks (/walks/ mannerisms etc) before we can really get a chance to judge his actions.
I am not really sure how good or bad I am at judging people... I wish I knew... and even if I knew that I was bad, that wouldn't have really helped the decision-making...
Its probably a very important quality to pick up... and how do I pick it up?... back to where I started from "How should we judge people?"

phool aur kaantein

.... somewhere in the midst of a a 11 pm 'good night' conversation...
He: haan haan.... humne bheje phool, aur mile humein kaatein
She: shukr karo nahi mile tumhe chaantein!!
Two voice signals of weird laughter rang through the sound cosmos...
.
.
.
He: would that mean one-liner go on your blog?
She: Why should i tell you?
(PS: readers be reminded that he doesnt get to read my blog.... i like it that way)

19th

11.00 AM
....Tnnn tnnanann tnnnn...

She: Hello

He: Hello.... (a meek voice...) ek gadbad ho gayi hai....

She: (curious) kya hua?

He: courier aapke neighbours ko deliver ho gaya hai?

She: (taken aback) which courier? Did you send something again?
(Now, normally girls would be happy to receive couriers from their fiances but living with your parents alters the situation...)

He: ya...

She: What? Was it a packed thing or ... or flowers again?

He: ummm (scared for his life) the second one...

She: (furious) Flowers!? so, they have reached the neighbours now! With your name there? and mine too? and some love message!!?
(The situation is that we are engaged but my family decided not to make the announcement public till the marriage date is confirmed.... Now, the situation is that this info would spread like a wildfire, as it does in middle-class Delhi neighbourhoods. I give a damn to the neighbours, but my parents don't! and that was my worry.... neighbours telling my dad that "your daughter has a bf"... imagine!)

He: Yes... I gave them specific instructions to deliver it only at the specified address but...

She: They never do! and you know they never do!! It has happened before also!!... why did you do this yaar... why do you do such things..... everything is going fine, why this ruckus...

He: (silent)

She: I know its so nice of you to send me flowers but how can you do such things w.o. thinking about their consequences.
(I said to myself: "One day I tell him to be more romantic, the very next day he will send me the flowers! what an easy way to show romanticism!!! uuuurrrgghhh")

He: hmmm

She: dgsdfgdfghsdgf egsdeghsdgf

He: hmm

She: gsdfg ergsdf hrdgb edrgd gesgr
.
.
.
.



15 mins of discussions later....
She: can you pls ask that guy to collect it back from the neighbours saying that its a wrong packet...

He: ummm... ok...


1 hour and 30 calls later
He: he will collect it back

She: thnku!!! :)



10 mins later
She: the packet has been delivered by the neighbour to my mom. The courier boy was informed about this by the neighbour when he reached there to collect it. mom came back early from the office.....:(

He: oh :( :(



8.30 PM
I reach home and find a huge bouquet of roses on the table. After a lot of details and reasoning with my parents.... i was spared their fury.... I flick the mini-card from the bouquet. It says "Happy anniversary, to my financial wizard GF - love AM"

It was my turn to go "Ohh!" .... It was 19th May - we got engaged on 19 feb - It was our first quarter engagement anniversary....

I smiled to myself.... blushing at his sweetness and love... and my head hung low for not realising this since morning ( he doesnt expect me to remember dates, but this was a bit stretched, poor he! )... while I was shouting at his stupidity, i had forgotten about the flowers... :(

wonderful life..! :)

Why girls must work?

- Unless and until you are working (whether for money or for an NGO), you would never realise the value of money - and the value of time.

- As your interactions with the outside work get minimized - your 'learning' would cease. When your 'learning' ceases, your personality ceases to grow. When your personality ceases to grow, your discussions/ thoughts/ mind, ceases to grow. And when that happens you become a boring person - a boring wife makes a boring home. And you know what boring homes lead to...

- When you work, you understand so many variations of human life, "why people act the way they do", "what drives people" etc.

- If you are just sitting at home and not doing anything, people would start taking you for granted - and mostly rightly so...

- Because each human being should try to find his/ her highest potential - one would never get to know your potential till you work. If you are just sitting at home and not doing anything you are wasting your qualifications, wasting your potential - and soon you will have none...

- more often than not, a housewife starts living her life purely through the various tv protagonists- isnt that a second hand life?

- Being financially independent would hold you in a good stead, improve your persona, your mind...

Marriage and blogging

Well, first of all congrats to me for reaching my 101st post (yes, the last one was my 100th!!)...

Is marriage detrimental to the hobby called 'blogging'? So, many blogs that I used to enthusiastically follow, have died a sudden death after the authors got married.
Even worse is when people have painfully deleted or made their blogs 'private'...
So, coming back to the question, is marriage detrimental to the hobby called 'blogging'? One argument can be that blogging is a sand-bag for loners, so once a person is married, they dont need unknown audiences over the web; they have just earned the right to torture one single person with all their monologues...
Another reason can be that they no longer want to share their lives.... they don't have much that can be 'shared' anymore ;)...
Whats your take dear readers??

If - by Rudyard Kipling

Yes its a classic... and most deservingly so....

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Experience of a first time voter :)

Got up at 6.30 AM (Yes, I had a 10 AM meeting so had to rush..). Took bath. Prodded my dad to show me the way to the polling booth. Walked in. Confirmed the name of 'my candidate' (I believe in voting for 'Party', specially during Lok Sabha elections). Like a child being admitted to a new school, I was looking around for directions. From the slip counter - to the name list one- to the Madras ink one... and finally I go there press the button. Yippee!! I have voted!!

I am in my mid-20s but never got a chance to vote, there was an year's delay in getting the election I-card, then my name was missing from the rolls of the next elections, then moved to Bangalore for a 4 year stint... this year, at last I voted....

By the way, I think we should have some kind of postal ballot system; at least for students who are away from their home towns, people who have just shifted to a new place (they should have the right to vote atleast for their old constituency till they get a new one).
If I try to look around, 95% of my friends in Bangalore are not from Bangalore - so their votes are lost - another about 75% of my friends in Mumbai are not from Mumbai - their votes are lost too...
Think about the students in IITs, RECs, IIMs etc... this is the cream of the nation. But they cant vote... quoting an example, if a student happens to do her engineering and masters in another city, and happens to work there for 2 years after that.... a good 4+2+2 years of her voting go in vain.... No surprise, political parties don't care about the 'educated' youth....

#$%$%^ recession!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm.... so my gut instinct tells me I should float my resume again. Bloody recession!! just hate it!

The 40-over carnival

Colourful jerseys, weird coloured (golden! silver!) helmets. Film stars with designer glasses. Fancy names - kings, superkings, knights. One brand on the sleeve, another one of the helmet, and yet another one on the chest. Toned sexy models dancing enthusiastically at every instance the ball crosses the white rope - irrespective of whether the shot was a shot-or-misshot.

Well, lets not deny its an exciting format - and hence a huge marketing opportunity but such an overly stretched schedule doesnt help the cause of the other formats of the game. The senior players who never got time to play Ranji matches are suddenly going all out to prove themselves for the club teammates.... life is always a mixed bag. So, lets crib some and enjoy the rest :D

For better or for worse?

Singlehood. Independence. Fun. Friends. Love. Romance. High. Marriage. Couple. Family. Responsibilities. Compromises. Changes. Adjustments. Busy. Trapped. Lost. Different.

Is marriage a progression from a fun-filled life to a sad one? If the answer is a definite yes, why get married? Perhaps girls marry for stability and security; and guys?? Why should they get married. In fact why should even girls get married!! Why!! So many of my friends and cousins have got married recently. Each says life is 'different' after marriage (and they say it with a sad 'gone are those days' kind of tone)... My question is if marriage worsens one's life... why get married? I am about to get get married (Thank you Lord!) in a couple of months and when I see all these married people around me trapped under the burden of the societal pressures and norms... I get a little scared and ask myself time and again: "Are all marriages like this? Should I expect the same from my marriage too?".... All rational decisions are made towards betterment of one's current state; I am marrying by choice.... I am looking forward to my married life... no doubt there will be difficulties and changes but overall I hope our (me n ofcourse my A) marriage makes us happier. If it does not, probably we would have done some definite damage to our lives by getting married.

The reason I would not vote for Congress

First, let me discuss things that I would do if I were to become PM
1. Uniform civil code.
2. Abolishing reservation of all kinds/ forms.
3. Urgent focus on Terrorism and Naxalism.

------

Now, lets come to the title of the blog... Why I would not vote for Congress

1. They are the biggest perpetrators of the divide-and-rule policy in this country... probably they inherited this from the British era. Be it V.P.Singh or Arjun Singh, there will always be somebody in the Congress to carry on the brigade of reservations. No doubt smaller regional parties do it too, but their impact is the same, 'small, regional'.

All the while that they chant about secularism, they would never dare to talk about uniform civil code in this 'secular' country. If they really care to bring the vast muslim majority into the mainstream, they need to bring them to a common modern day civil code. But No! Congress's self-interest favours the muslim voter to remain poor/ illiterate/ backward - So, they could not care less about social progression/ modernisation of the muslim society.

Just as the British, Congress's divide-and-rule is apparently for the benefit of the weaker classes.
I am sure if Congress comes to power they would enact the reservation bill and would never talk about bringing a uniform civil code in this country. Thats why I would not vote for Congress


2. I have not an iota of doubt in saying that Congress is ultra-soft on terrorism.
- Taliban is knocking at the door and 'honourable' Mrs. Gandhi says communalism is a greater enemy of the country than 'terrorism'. Does she even realise the magnitude of the danger India is facing from terrorism.

- Be it Mr. Antulay's remarks on the death of Hemant Karkare or the 'enquiry' into the Jamia Nagar shootout.... The Congress govt. has time and again insulted India's real heroes! (How could you doubt the integrity of your own special anti-terrorist squad's operations?? that too w.o. any legitimate indicators/ proofs??!! makes me gasp in horror!)

Here, I am sure that Congress would continue to be soft on terror.


I know we are short of good alternatives, but just wanted to put forward my views on why am I striking off Congress from the list......

Since past year or so, I have started hating Congress....

18 till I die!

I was hopping n' jumping around the house yesterday when a thought crossed my mind and I asked myself "How old do you feel 'A'?. The prompt answer was 20->>> no, 19->>> no, I feel 18... yes I still feel 18.

Of course there have been times when I have rumbled about crossing the mid 20s mark.... The thought that it was a good 7-8 years back when I crossed that '18' mark made me sad. I used to roll my eyes in disbelief - "8 years since 18! Gosh!"
But (giving a break to modesty) let me admit that today I feel happy to say - "8 years since 18, but I still feel 18! WOW!"

Probably this is the question we should ask ourselves every birthday - "So, how old do I feel?"

PS: While 90% of this achievement is solely because of me, let me thank another person for this.... My Mr. A**... Love is the best anti-ageing cream!

Mr.M.K.Gandhi

Well, to begin with let me admit that I have not been a big fan of Mr. Gandhi (Not that I did'nt respect him, just that it was a 'borrowed' sense of respect i.e. not coming from within). Then what brings me to this subject? Well, I was in Ahmedabad for work purpose; I visited the Sabarmati Ashram there, despite taunts from my boss explaining the heaps of pending work I had in hand. I thought he was just panicking as the work wasn't that much. So, coming back to the topic of Sabarmati Ashram. Once in the Ashram, I (once again) was deeply moved by the history of our independence movement and finally ended up purchasing "My experiments with truth" (for just 100 bucks, I guess this was a subsidised price though).
I am still just about half way through this book... but Mr. M.K.Gandhi has already transformed into a Mahatama for me. Well, he is still not my ideal, as I do not believe in a lot of things that he preached... but yet he has risen to the level of a Mahatama for me.
I was expecting his autobiography to be a drab; but quite surprisingly I am finding it very interesting. Primarily because he has been brutually honest with the book - It reveals a lot of unknown facets of the man India hails as 'Father of the nation'. And reveals the world (not just India) during that century through the eyes of an Indian.
Also, I think he is a good story teller (though I am reading the English version)... He doesn't dwell on a particular topic for too long. It moves quickly from his personal life to social issues and back.
... More about the book (and why I disagree with Gandhiji) later once I finish reading this! For now, I will leave you with the images of Gandhiji's hut and room at the Ashram...

'Divisive' politics

I have been hearing a lot of political parties using the word 'secular' to gang up against a particular one - apparently they always are looking to present an 'anti-communal' front. (nothing new, we have been hearing that for a long time...) . They say B** is a 'divisive' party.

My question is: Is being 'anti-communal' enough? Communalism divides our population into broadly 80:13:2:5 sections. Which is bad, but in my view not as bad as the other kind of division i.e. the caste.

Casteism divides our society hundreds of n1: n2: n3: n4...... sections... but guess what!!: nobody terms these parties based on 'caste ideologies' divisive!! In my view these parties are much much more divisive then the 'commual' one! We should be anti-divisive and not just anti-communal.
One good thing that this 'communal' party has done (in my view) is that it has not divided people into thousands of caste-based sections: Gujjars, Jats, OBCs, Scs, STs, Brahmins, poor brahmins,
rajputs etc... which in my view is great because I think casteism is the worse enemy of country.
If we can't unite the 80% first, how can we dream of uniting 100%?
What we need to understand is that a division is a division. So, if asking votes on grounds of
religion is bad, why do we not consider voting on grounds of caste as bad, if not worse?? So,
media doesn't make a hue and cry when the likes of Mayawati act as a 'messiah' of the so-called
backward castes; on the other hand Advani is criticized hoarsely for talking about 'Hindu
Rashtra'.
Going back 60 years, the country's politics was still dominated by religion, but not so much by castes. Haven't we actually regressed??
The best way to unite people is to erase the divisions, not harp on them day in and day out! But thats what the political forces and the media (alike) have been doing - So, its ok to say that xxx is a Gujjar leader, yyy is an OBC leader, zzz is a Rajput leader... but saying Mr.A is a Hindu leader in - Oh! he is a communal politician!! Agreed, but what about the other leaders being divisive. Religion-based parties should have no place in a secular country; but, you know what, the same should go for caste-based parties.

The British used 'divide and rule' and partitioned our country; these numerous political parties are partitioning our parliament on the basis of caste!!! x% seats for such a such caste. y% jobs for such a such caste... and so on!

A division is a division is a division.

PS: There is a strange way that the word 'communal' is used in the Indian context but shall discuss that later sometime...

News News News!!

Well, the News is that I recently got a piece of jewellery as gift... though that in itself doesn't make it worthy for news, there is a little addendum to that: that jewellery is supposed to be worn on a particular finger of my left hand.... Ahem ahem, yes you got it right... I got engaged on Feb 20th :)
It was a small family gathering of about 40 people (well, those aren't many considering there were two families). A bit of cultural confusion for my family and ME TOO!... But I guess thats what inter-caste, 'inter-region' (I am dilli (/UP) ki kudi and he is a Bengali boy) marriages are made of...
Would regret the fact that I was well 'not in control' - I was nervous, 'not my own self', confused, embarassed. And then I was waiting for him to drop in and take the charge, but he was probably in the same level of shock as I was... well, inspite of being my super-hero, he is humane too!!
So, the ceremony somehow was mixed, I enjoyed parts of it and few other parts..umm... but I am very happy with the end-result!!!

ideas cookin'

I have got lots of topics to write about: terrorism, psedo-secularism, morality, recession, personal updates, job, love etc.... but none too thought provoking as of now. So, I shall let those be baked properly till I can serve those here....

till then keep visiting!