Happy Diwali

This was my 7th Diwali away from home, since year 2000. This was it was a long weekend too. And it was so different from others. It turned out to be another weekend at Powai flat. Most of my time was spent on Internet as usual and rest went sleeping and watching TV. However the time was little different, Saturday being Diwali. However, you can imagine that how much excitement this festival of life can bring to ones life, who spent the eve eating Maggie noodles. It was the most lonely weekend as well with 4 out of 6 flatmates away home. Diwali evening I took a walk till the tea shop in Hiranandani. The celebrations were at peak, with crackers bursting in full swing, and each seemed to be targeted on me. I soon took rescue in an ice-cream parlour. After having a cup of roasted almonds, I decided to put an end to my walk and headed back home. Each bomb was exploding right next to my year, so I made sure no window was left open in the flat.

Yesterday, Ekka, Gurpreet and myself watched the DON remake. A good movie, I would say, but definitely not better than the original one. We took the usual bus and walk route back home after the movie, making sure we each had a cup of coffee at the junction outside Pizza Hut.

Today, I received another e-mail from my younger brother, Nisu, who has recently learnt e-mailing. Nothing was clear from his mail, and morning I will have to call him up to clear out things.

Quotes

1. Life is a test, and I didn't take very good notes.
2. You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
3. Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

Don't Hang Afzal, Blow him up

Terrorists on December 13, 2001 attacked the Parliament of India resulting in a 45-minute gun battle in which 9 policemen and parliament staffer were killed. There were no protests in the Kashmir valley against this incident in which 9 Indians on duty were killed fighting the radical fanatics spreading terror in the name of Islam. Didn't they have a family, a wife, a mother or a son/daughter. Haven't their lives changed for ever? Why so much hue and cry over hanging of Afzal Guru? Where had the conscience of people gone at that time? Let these perpetrators of terror have one more martyr in this so called Holy War.

The accused is trying to be a true martyr, with no appeal for mercy coming from him. Instead he is taking this route via his wife and mother, to appeal the President for pardon. It's should either be a YES or NO. He has either committed the crime or not at all. And if the court of law has upheld his conviction, then no mercy should be shown towards such people. People who don't value life and take the path of such gross violence to express their views have no right to exist. Instead of hanging such people, they should be blown, tied to a bomb. They should know what such a death is, when you see your own body tearing apart into pieces. Let this be a tribute to those who laid their lives for the call of duty, defending the highiest symbol of Indian democracy.

Jai Hind.

Sharpen your Axe

Something that I came across

Once upon a time, there was a very strong woodcutter. He asked for a job from a timber merchant, and he got it. The pay was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.

The first day, the woodcutter brought down 18 trees. The Boss was very much impressed and said, "Congratulations keep it up!" Very motivated by the words of the boss, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he only could bring down 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he only could bring down 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing down less and less trees.

"I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought to himself. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what! was going on. "When was the last time you sharpened your Axe?" the boss asked. "Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my Axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees.

The moral of the story:

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don't take time to sharpen the axe. In today's world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay sharp? There is nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to care for others, taking time to read, etc. We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don't take time to sharpen the axe, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

So start from today, think about the ways by which you could do your job more effectively and add a lot of value to it. Hope this story has given you some insight to life. May you be happy always. "To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others, use your heart." And above all sharpen your Axe.

Lalu is our Ronald Reagan?

P.S. : Go through the linked article to this post before.

Is Lalu being critisized or praised here? What I can infer is that Lalu is being credited for the current state of Indian Railways.

Now, before I get into further details let me tell you about myself. I am a Bihari, working as an IT professional in a Software & Telecom firm in Mumbai. Studied in Bihar till my 10+2 and finally graduated as an engineer from Bangalore.

Coming to the point, for past one month media has worked enough, highlighting the managerial skill's of Lalu and over-hyping his lecture at IIMA. Has everyone forgotten what he did with Bihar during 15 yrs of his rule? Are IIM's headed towards becoming "Charwaha Vidyalaya's" of Bihar. E-ticket and I-ticket services were good initiatives from Indian railways. But I don't know what makes you hold Lalu responsible for that? This had started much before Lalu took over. Secondly, what percentage of the population primarily coming from UP and Bihar has knowledge and means and access to do such bookings. Lalu was a strong opponent of IT industry entering Bihar giving his own nonsense reasons. And his son-in-laws are IT professionals !!!! He has marvelled the art of fooling illiterate and ignorant mass. And in 15 years the mindset of people has so transformed that people never think of a proper route to getting things done, under table routes are the most preferred ones and easy ones for them.

Next, before he took over, Indian railways had an option of paying the entire fair in a single ticket, in case the passenger had to change trains in between source and destination. Hence the journey was very much subsidised. This is now abolished. So the fare now almost doubles up in case the journey involves multiple trains. And the worst affected are the students and labour class, both of which have to look outside the state Bihar for their future, because of the glorious 15 yrs of Lalu's rule. Common man is burdened again. What do you have to say about this? Lalu is doing nothing but glorifying himself with big paper ads at the cost of Indian Railways.

The part of Bihar(Bhagalpur) to which I belong, still has a single railway track, where trains arriving 2-3 hours late are considered to be arriving on time. And if it rains a little more than normal, operations get shut down for days. Not because of water logging on tracks, but due to aged and worn out lines and ill maintenance, the tracks get washed away or the land elow it. A railway overbridge took 4 yrs to complete which should otherwise have taken a couple of months. And what do you have to say about the frequent dacoities in the trains? Common man has nothing to do with container trains, dedicated container line and sort. He will be happy if he completes his journey on time and safely. For me development of railways is trains running on time, laying of new and better tracks, safety, improved amenities rather than announcing more and more trains every budget, with already chocking platforms and infrastructure.

It would be much appreciated if press stopped glorifying this person, which he was never worth and neither is. Hope you will take my views in good spirit. I view Indian railways as a great asset to this nation and appreciate the work force involved in maintaining this highy complex and gigantic network and not these ministers who just come and go.