Childhood memories

Well .. here I am .. back to blogging. Hopefully its a beginning to many more to come. You know how difficult it is to restart, so I decided to do some cheating. This post is actually a comment to one of the earlier posts of paccashana. Coming back to the topic of this post, the six childhood experiences that come to my mind ....

1. We had a "chakki" in one of the shops in our building. I along with my friends used to do lot of masti with the "chakki-wala". I used to love the smell of "atta" and used to venture into the "chakki" and play with the "atta" when the "chakki-wala" was busy. As soon as he sees me, he used to chase me out and i would run at a top speed. He had a small kid and i used to bully him a lot.

2. One game which i really used to like is hide-and-seek. The building used to have low boundaries and we used to run from one building to another. Sometimes the "gurkha" of those buildings used to chase us. I used to sometimes fall and hurt myself while running and get caught at times. We used to play all kind of rustic games - lagori, dabba express, viti-danda, marbles (my dad used to hate it) and some others (i can't recollect the names now)

3. I think this is something i will never forget .. my dad used to teach me cycling. i had one particular session, which turned really bad. i had a bad fall, with the entire skin over my knees peeling off. it was bleeding profusely and i got the scare of my life and i told daddy that i will never touch a cycle again. God knows how he convinced me later on and i eventually learnt cycling.

4. I still remember the winter mornings on Sundays which used to be really lazy and used to curl up to dad under the blanket and the warm and cozy feeling that i used to get is still fresh in my mind.

5. There used to be a vada-pav stall outside our school. I used to love its aroma and used to save some money to grab a bite every few days. On other days, i used to roam around the place, after school, to be able to sniff the smell.

6. I still miss the experience of playing cricket on the streets, hitting those huge sixes, cheating, fighting and breaking window-panes. Once a window-pane is broken the street used to wear a deserted look and then everyone used to slowly come out and play again ... haha ... it was so damn crazy.

The nemesis of Kasab

I had talked about this in my earlier post and sadly I feel the need to reiterate again, the unreasonableness, the hopelessness of running the trial of Kasab.

After the carnage that he left behind and the innumerable proofs that we have of not only his involvement but also the larger role played by the country of his origin, where is the need for a legal proceeding? So much of time, effort and money is being wasted for nothing. Yes, every accused should be given a fair trial but shouldn't we see if a person deserves it?

Kasab is currently doing what any accused would do under such circumstances - lie .. left, right and center. Why are we even asking him? My blood boils when I hear news items like "Kasab demands non vegetarian, spicy food in jail". The guy has the audacity to "demand"? The front pages of newspapers scream the bullshitting that he does on a daily basis.

When we don't have an iota of doubt of whether an accused has performed a crime of the severity and magnitude as the 26/11 one, when the accused doesn't have a shred of remorse for his crime, that accused does not deserve a trial. Its an insult to all those who were massacred on that day (and of course their relatives) and particularly to those who laid their lives fighting (my heart goes out to Mr. Ombale - hope his sacrifice does not go in vain).

We, the citizens of India, whose money is being wasted for this stupidity, should come together and protest and demand an immediate closure of the case and hang Kasab without wasting any more time. Let us come together once again and take out a morcha and call for an action.

2012 - Biggest horror movie!

For all the good reviews and adulation that this movie has received, I must admit, I myself felt pretty terrified after watching it! After all, the subject matter was, our dear old planet - Earth and if, God forbid, anything untoward happens to it, we don't have anywhere else to go .. not in our Solar system. I happened to watch a pirated version of this movie, in a video coach bus traveling from Mangalore to Mumbai. So, you see, in spite of being so scared, it was not possible for me to escape from the venue.

Thank God, I could lay my hands over a FAQ from NASA in their site. Please go through the column and heave a sigh of relief! (in case you are amongst those who were left petrified by this movie)

Looks like we have time but, needless to say, we need to take care of our planet Earth. The melting glaciers, untimely rains, receding forests, increasing pollution, frequent natural calamities, extreme climates, etc. is not a good sign and surely can't be harmless.. what say? After all, its our responsibility to hand over a safe and beautiful environment to our future generation to stay in. Please make sure you contribute in your own way and that includes, not adding to the damage!

Save our environment!

The FAQ of Marriage

The topic of the season seems to be - Marriage, what with a lot of posts being written around this subject, left, right and center. Add to that, I attended a couple of weddings last weekend and then .. what do you expect? ... I write a post on the subject too! Just for the record, I am happily married and survived the so called "Seven-year-itch" and reasonably confident of tackling more such itches in future.

I just read a post in one of the blogs that I follow, an FAQ on "Satsang", I got an idea of writing an FAQ on Marriage as well!

Q. Whether to marry or not?
A. My sincere opinion is ... Pleeeez do or else you would be missing something in Life. Nothing is certain in Life, so is the kind of partner that you will get. Its a gamble but believe me, worth playing.

Q. Love or Arranged Marriage?
A. I admit, I can't give you a straight answer. I would rather give you my view point.
In Love Marriage, there is this huge expectation that a couple has with each other (don't they make huge promises - about "chaand-taare" and stuff?), which will always be difficult to satisfy and sooner or later, reality comes crashing down. So it is very important for the couples to be sensible before taking the plunge. In Arranged Marriage, normally the "innocent" couple, to begin with, hardly know each other. So what expectation can they possibly have from each other. They build their love castle from scratch. I don't blame you if you think, I am a little biased towards arranged marriage.

Q. When to marry?
A. Its better if the couple is not too young but are matured enough for a serious relationship, but for god sake, don't wait till you are 30+. I think 26 is a very good age for a guy (sorry .. can't say about the girl .. they mature so early in life!)

Q. When to have kids?
A. Preferably, a couple should work on building a strong foundation whereby they develop a good bonding, a good understanding with each other and then proceed to have kids, as having kids is a job of great responsibility and once you have one (or two or more!), you will have little time to work on your relationship. So guess, after two romantic years, one may think about having kids.

Q. How to avoid fights? How to have a loving relationship?
A. Forget it ... you can't avoid fights. Fights and arguments are a part of married life. The spice of married life.
I believe, it just doesn't matter, whether its an arranged marriage or a love marriage. After the initial euphoria and once the novelty wears off, what really comes into play is the understanding that the couple has between themselves and what is it that they give top priority to - their ego or a loving relationship. While I don't claim to be very understanding, but when I give importance to Love for my family, everything else falls into place.

Stay Happily Married for Life!!

My Hong Kong diary

I am just back from an official tour to Hong Kong (well its been almost a month now!) .. a second one but a little different. Firstly, this was the first time I noted down my experiences in a dairy and second, I happened to visit Hong Kong at a time when, probably it was at its happiest mood - the Chinese New Year, reminding me of the festive atmosphere in India at the time of Diwali/Dasehra except that crackers are not allowed here. All the places in Hong Kong were decorated with festoons, lanterns, special plants and elaborate decorations at various places. Also, I was fortunate enough to visit Hong Kong during a warmer interval in an otherwise rather cold weather, with temperature dropping as low as 8 degrees!

I was treated, a couple of times, to some genuine chinese cuisine (nowhere close to the chinese stuff that you get in India!) in a chinese joint. I had a chance to try my chopsticks skills too (could'nt carry on for too long and had to resort to the good old fork & spoon). I was fortunate enough to have the company of some very kind people who contributed to making my visit a memorable one. They enlightened me on some of the various customs/traditions/beliefs that they follow during the Chinese New Year ..

1. All the office colleagues of a particular department/section along with the head, go for a meal together on the last day of the year. More often then not its a treat from the head.

2. It is believed that if you leave some left-over in your last meal of the year, you have assured yourself of a square meal in the new year ... almost like the concept of carry-forward brought-forward!

3. People who are not married are supposed to gift the married ones some money and that too in brand new notes. Some organisations actually arrange for new notes.

4. People buy some sweets and keep in their house to give it to people who visit their houses during the new year.

The Chinese stay connected to their roots and in the Chinese culture, family takes precedence over friends and anything else and nowhere is it more apparent than in the Chinese New Year.

My visit was different this time also because I did a lot of shopping (I did not buy a single thing on my last visit!). There was the Night Market, Temple Street, Ladies Market, Toy Shop, Flower Market which was part of the Annual Fair (they have it around the Chinese New Year time). I used to shop, laden with the laptop at my back, for hours together on those long streets and get really exhausted at the end of it all. But I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and guess it was really worth the trouble.

Of course there were other aspects for which Hong Kong is well-known - the convenient and safe infrastructure, the wonderful lights that lit the city in the night ... all of which left me gaping for more. Before long, it was time for me to go, taking along some wonderful memories.

BMC's New Advisor

I was really amused to see a news item the other day where Ms. Pamela Anderson is giving some free advice to our BMC. The advice is about how to deal with the dog menace.

While Ms. Pamela's experience with dogs would be limited to those concerning some well-trained pet hounds, she finds herself qualified enough to give an opinion on the topic.

I wonder if she had to ever walk alone in the night, in that skimpy outfit of hers, through a road full of stray dogs. Has any of her kids been bitten or worse, killed by a ferocious hound. Whether the road dogs have kept her awake with their incessant, meaningless barking.

We have been talking about sterilisation but I keep seeing stray puppies every now and then and I don't find them cute anymore. Obviously, nothing is being done or if something is indeed being done, it's not working. I really fear the safety of the kids (whether mine or other's). I want to walk and ride around without the fear of being followed and then bitten (I almost fell off my bike on one occasion).

This menace has to come to an end and if it requires some tough measures then so be it. The stray dogs will get freedom from their futile lives and hopefully get a more meaningful rebirth - maybe some of them as pets of Ms. Pamela!

What has the Mumbai terror attack done?

The Mumbai terror attack was unprecedented in many ways then one. While it has instilled fear and apprehension in the minds of every Indian - we Mumbaites in particular - it has managed to precipitate a few positive developments (I know its a difficult to imagine that something positive can come of it) which just refused to happen earlier on:

1. It has woken up the Elite from their slumber to come out in the open and speak out against the inefficient state machinery and the facade that the politicians have turned out to be.

2. For the first time, the ever-so-busy people of Mumbai took out their precious time to come together and raise the voice of angry protest against the politicians asking for a strong action, sloganeering "Enough is Enough"

3. It made the ineffective Mr. Shivraj Patil and Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh resign, something which we have not been able to achieve inspite of the innumerable instances in the past that suggested that they weren't doing their jobs well. They were sticking to their chairs as if it were part of their anatomy.

4. We have managed to corner Pak this time with some coercive diplomacy, thanks to the strong evidences that we have in our hands, of the involvement of Pakistani nationals, and of certain elements from Pakistan having puppeteered this attack.

5. The pressure is also on our government to deliver this time, to improve the internal security infrastructure and preclude such occurences in future. There are talks of NSG hubs being formed in important metros now.

6. It has made MNS look foolish, belittling their pet topic which their leader had amplified & blown out of proportion to serve their political motives. While earlier, I used to see everyone talking about it everywhere - in the bus, train - nobody is even thinking about the issue now. Poor Raj has to work all over again to resurrect the matter.

7. NSGs have overtaken SRK in the popularity chart, as they have become the youth icon for everyone to emulate. Substance, for once, has taken precedence over form.

8. I believe, the terror attack has brought about a change in our outlook towards life. It has revealed the harsh reality that life can come to an end without a second's notice. We involve ourselves with petty, meaningless matters in life rather than doing something worthwhile, making the most of the limited time that we have in this planet.