Thursday, October 28, 2004

Insane Politicians...

After a hectic day, I was watching TV yesterday (Surfing is more apt as I don’t like to watch a particular channel for more than 15 min. and generally this duration is less than 4 minutes!!). This headline flashed on screen “Temple is certain at Ayodhaya: L K Advani” and with this a little smile flashed on my lips too. I owe that smile to the total bankruptcy of ideas that BJP is facing these days. Its in total shambles now. The strong bastion of BJP is getting blasted day by day. They are yet to accept the defeat of Lok Sabha and more recently in some assembly elections including Maharashtra. And this “making of temple” is the same issue which they conveniently scrapped from their Common Minimum Programme when they were in power!!!

Just an year ago, even in my wildest of dreams I would not have imagined this party going in this direction. I mean, we have come a long way after that black incident of Babri Masjid demolition. Its 15 years damn it! Ask the common men what he need? Temple at Ayodhaya or food to eat? Temple at Kashi or better place to live & good education for his children? Probably the intellects in BJP are still moaning the loss of Power… moaning to an extent that they have gone insane!! Who would like to see the blood bath again that happened just after the demolition of Babri Masjid? I am not trying to dig something from the past but am amused to see the lanes on which such learned and experienced men in this party are thinking.

I tried to jotted down what went wrong with this party (let me share this with u..even I was an ardent supporter of BJP just a few months ago but their recent attitude towards literally everything turned me off)

1. Sidelining of A B Vajpayee: Only BJP could have come up with such idea. They failed to understand that it was this man because of whom 23 parties were ready to give support to them for full 5 years ( He resigned before that to go for early elections) He was probably the only acceptable face of BJP to the entire nation. A man with vast experience, clean image and total hold on the party. The day BJP decided to sideline him their progress curve took the downward path.

2. Infighting among 2nd line: Strong second line…Something which BJP boasted (rightly so) for so long time is now the genesis of this crisis. Venkaiah Naidu, Promod Mahajan, Uma Bharti, Arun Jaitely, Sushma Swaraj..the list is endless…The problem is..nobody is second among them. All have realized that after sidelining A B Vajpayee and with ageing Advani in command , its their best chance to make it big. They are ready to press their legs hard on the accelerator to do the transition from second line to the front. In the process, they are not even hesitating to run on to each other..the only sufferer is the party…

3. Strong influence of hardliners: As evident from yesterday’s statement of Advani, they are still under the influence of hardliners. Although party is now 25 years old, its still in the strong claws of RSS. Unless and until they freed themselves from their jaws and develop their own ideology, revival will be a distant dream.

I know I am drifting from the topic here but still want to write this to all parties.

To all parties: Although we have progressed a lot in the field of Nuclear technology, Space research, IT, and all, a lot of hardwork is still required. On one hand , if we have millionaires in Mumbai, on the other, we have starving children in Kalahandi (Orissa). We are still facing the basic problems of Food, Shelter, Electricity, Water, Roads, Education & Proper health facilities. Its high time. India is on the verge of making it big..to make its presence felt to the world. Its high time that the parties should work together diluting their differences to make India a force to reckon with…I know I am expecting too much from our politicians!!

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Escape from Routine!!

Lot of things happened during the last two three days…and so I have shrugged off the“monotonous life” tag for some time.

It was a traditional day of sorts in office on 21st and on the occasion of Dussehra all ladies were asked to wear sari and guys were supposed to wear Kurta. Now this activity was totally optional but thanks to some dear colleagues of mine ,it was made a sort of compulsory thing for me and that REQUEST from the office authorities became an ORDER for me!!!Now the problem was..i didn’t have any Kurta. And although one of my friend offered to lend me one..there was another glitch. The dimensions of my body generally does not allow me to fit into anybody’s clothing. But as my friends were hell bent on making me a clown..i bowed to their wishes.And on 21st , I was wearing Kurta with my Jeans…(am not sure whether I was wearing Kurta ot kurta was wearing me!!)

During the last four days, I had two long drive and one long-long drive!!Actually on first two occasions we were driving withing the city and yesterday we pushed ourselves to Lonavala..It was not at all planned and after having lunch at a restaurant, we thought of driving somewhere and ended up at Lonavala. There we saw sun set point…Yes only sun set point and not the actual sunset as we were pretty late to reach there and sun was already below the horizon..!! Then again it was a nice drive back to Mumbai ..All in all a nice day.

Now I am having plans to go to Pune..and yes..there is no chance of derailment of this plan as I am scheduled to leave for Pune in next 1 hour…Although I have been statying in Mumbai for the past 15 months ..i was not privileged enough to visit Pune..I just hope it will be fun…

Two topics are doing rounds in my mind these days…
1. Dual faces of Mumbai..
2. Importance of Gadgets in Life these days!!
Would like to write a little about them sometime…

PS:
1. Still praising the B & W beauty of Photographs..
2. Still planning to see Vaastushashtra…
3. Still listening to Veer Zaara…
4. Still having Waiting – 13 Status for my journey…
5. Still all my clothes are screaming for a wash!!!

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Slice of life!!

Looking at the date , I just realized that I m regularly irregular in writing my blogs. Average is about once a week. Why So? Because the days are not happening enough to put up something here..don’t wanna write eat, worked, slept kind of stuff here…

Life is getting monotonous again (I realize this fact after every 7-8 days).Just to break the monotony, a few days back I decided to come to office early..no no..not to do the office stuff…but to spend some time sitting at my comp.,sipping coffee, all alone..some how I enjoy working at the hours when nobody’s there in office (only I know how badly I want the concept of flexible timings in office)I hate crowd (except when there is a party).Now this “early morning office” adventure is also becoming a routine…will have to device some new ways to break it again…I wonder how badly one requires variations and changes in life…This reminds me of the famous line “CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT PHENOMENA IN LIFE!!”

My plans are again back to the old track...they are derailing again…I have put my swimming plan in cold bag for some time (and I really don’t have any idea why?) and dropped the idea of watching Bride & Prejudice after some rave (!!) reviews from my friends…

Had a hair cut this Sunday.I m looking like a freashly reared sheep now.

Leaving for my native place for diwali…Booked my tickets well in advance..atleast one and a half month back..still managed to get waiting – 16 only…Current status is showing as W-13. I am praying that it is just a software bug which is showing W-13 and actually its coach S-13!! (Hunch is…this waiting will not clear…why these things happen to me only??)

Had a lovely Sunday…a quite dinner then a long drive..then desserts…

PS:
1. Waiting for Vaastushashtra
2. Planning to go to a book fair..
3. Playing Musafir hoon yaaron on guitar (RD & Gulzar..the best u can get…)
4. Looking forward to Friday holiday…
5. Veerappan is dead!!

Cheers…

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Hyderabad Visit

My Success ratio of executing my week end plans is now 100% if I take into account last two weekends. This weekend I had a trip to Hyderabad and I must tell u I am impressed by the parts I saw. Mainly Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills , Hi-Tech City & all. Living in Mumbai, Hyderabad seemed all the more spacious. Less population,less vehicles and less pollution and if we compare these terms with Mumbai we can easily replace “Less” with “Negligible”!! Met my old friends there..had a blast for 30 hrs. That blast included a 3 hour long adventure in swimming pool & that too in late evening.So now paying the price and struggling with bad throat. Yesterday I was barely managing to speak. Took the pill at 8:30 PM.Then waited for my body to respond to it.Then waited for some more time. It didn’t. Cursed that medicine a lot.Probably hurt the tablet’s ego in that process. So am feeling better now.

“Alchemist” encountered a hurdle as I went to Hyderabad. Resumed it yesterday. Coehlo has presented complexities of life in the simplest of ways. That’s the beauty of that book. Millions of books are available where complex philosophy of life is discussed and described in literally un interpretable way. I think that’s the easiest thing to do. Difficult is to put the complex things on a platter. That is what exactly done by Coehlo.

Swimming plans are set aside by me atleast for some time. I want to give my bad throat a fair chance to recover…

PS:
1. Listening to Veer Zaara & Swades these days.
2. Planning to watch Bride & Prejudice this week end.
3. Struggling with Bad throat
4. Viewing Hyderabad snaps in B & W. Wonder why people go for coloured when there is so much beauty in black & White snaps!!!

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Dissatisfied World

I came across this article today..so just thought of sharing with you all...

We live in a dissatisfied world ! !

Tell you why. . .

Because we love to compare....

Go around the world and discover that people aren't happy with their bodies . . . .

Filipinos want to be fair-complexioned like Westerners and so buy bleaching stuff.
Westerners want to own bronzed bodies like ours and so purchase tanning lotions.
Those with moles have them removed, while those who don't strategically implant beauty spots.
Some people want to shed a few pounds to look like Ally McBeal, while others want to gain some
fat to look like Drew Barrymore.

When are we ever going to stop and simply be happy with how we look?

We live in a sick world, I tell you. And that sickness is comparisonitis.

Take a look at wealth.....

When we drive our old car, it really suits us fine. We feel blessed in fact when the rain
pours outside and we feel snug and cozy on its faded upholstered seats.

But the moment we see our own office mate (or neighbor, or buddy, or cousin, or brother)
drive his sleek, luxurious new car we automatically feel like third-class children of God.

Next time we drive our bumpy, noisy, rusted, dilapidated car, (notice how all the defects
come out all of a sudden?), we feel deprived, dispossessed.

Listen carefully.

Bill Gates total assets are worth $60 billion, that's more than the GNP of some small countries.

Tiger Woods earns $80 million simply by smiling on TV in a Nike shirt.

And the stars of the sitcom Friends are paid $750,000 per episode!

The point? No matter how hard you work, there'll still be some people who will be richer than you
are. And there'll be some people who will be more beautiful, have more appeal and have more problems.

Try it for once. Stop looking around. Don't compare!

Don't compare her nose with your nose.
Don't compare his wife with your wife.
Don't compare his salary with your salary.
Don't compare her kid's report card with your kid's report card.

Stop comparing and Start living! And you'll be happier with your life, I guarantee.

This is crucial:
The most difficult thing in the world is to be who you are not.
Pretending and trying to be someone else is the official pastime of the human race.

And the easiest thing in the world is to be yourself. Be happy. Live!

There must be a reason why God made you tall or short or fat or thin or bumpy all over.

Love who you are! Be happy, it's not that difficult!


The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Sleeper Buses!!!

Somethings are misleading.Especially when u are asking for the services and when u take the advertisements too seriously.
SLEEPER BUSES..Tell me what u can derive from this word? Hey? Did I hear “Buses in which u can sleep peacefully” Well that was what I thought and am sorry to say that you are as horribly wrong as I was.The last thing that u can do in these buses is to catch a nap. Infact, catching a sleep for few minutes, let alone few hours, is more difficult than to interpret the mysterious expressions of Monalisa!! I had this mind boggling experience during my journey to Mumbai from Indore. My last sentence clearly suggest that this time my plans did not crash & I finally enjoyed my weekend if u exclude my to and fro trips..

First my return trip:
Indore to Mumbai: I had to attend office on Monday morning straight after the 16 Hours long journey. Keeping this in mind, I opted for the so called Sleeper Bus. Cushioning & all was too good..even better than the poster of the bus that was showed to me by the receptionist along with her charming smile…(This is what I call “Perfect Advertisement”)Perfect Cushions were good enough to entice me to sleep & the Indian roads were hell bent on keeping me awake.And if your berth no. is 21 even God cannot help u..
Yes…Rear wheels were right below this one. They ensured that when I reached office unshaven, untidy and totally sleepy, I was no more than a 62 KG pulp,beaten and grinded like anything…

Onward Journey:
Mumbai to Indore: From Mumbai to Indore was no better. Covered the Journey of 16 Hours in exactly 21 Hours. Thanks to the bus which started 3 hours off the schedule & to add to my misery, there were 3 traffic jams & the bus broke down once…

In between these two heavenly journeys spent 25 pleasing hours at Indore..
This weekend again am going out of station..This time destination is Hyderabad..And I am damn sure that this time there will be no traffic jams (Going by train this time..our good ol' sleeper coaches!!)

Have a nice day..

PS:
1.Reading "Alchemist" by Paul Coelho.
2.Haven't touched guitar for the last 4 days..
3.Listening to a lot of music on my new SONY music system..
4.Planning to join swimming classes..another adventure..(another plan!!)
5.Looking fwd to this weekend..!!