True Love

The trees looked greener. The roads were tempting. And the song was playing... Main tenu samjhawan ki, Na tere bina lagda jee...!

The moment was romantic. I remembered SRK from DDLJ. I had a big crush on him. And I detested Varun Dhawan in Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya. Maybe I have grown older and mature. Maybe more sensible? I wonder why any decent girl like Alia would fall for such a vagabond?

...But at this moment I was in love!

Yesterday's movie scenes played through my mind. Urmila Kanitkar & Adinath Kothare had been to a lovely village in the movie Anvatt. As a wanderlust, I traveled to that village in my mind trying to breathe in the cool air, trying to hear the wind speak, soaking in the greenery and getting drenched in the rains.

I saw black and blue and brown raincoats. Colorful umbrellas. Some preferred to get wet. Some closed their eyes and drove their vehicles! Some covered their back sacks with "Big Bazaar" plastic bags.

My phone beeped and I read a Whatsapp forward. It was a tip on parenting. I thought of my kids. Would they be feeling too cold? Both refused to wear jackets today. I thought of the way they welcome me back home in the evenings. Two pairs of happy eyes. The tight hugs...

...Life is beautiful... And I am so much in love!

The song changed its rhythm and I felt like dancing... Dil mein hai armaan jitne, saare jagaake naach... Tan mein badan mein jaise aag lagaake naach...!

The clouds had formed a lovely pattern in the sky. If I had to paint those clouds, I would have to use the colors alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, cadmium orange, payne's gray, burnt sienna... And even if I thought I have painted an original, I would have actually copied from the masterpiece made by God.

...I felt creative... I felt love!

Tiny drops of water were falling on the ground. I was wondering what power these drops of rain had. They could change my mood, make me feel alive. Life never felt so beautiful and the song that followed felt apt.
Yeh saajish hai boondon ki... Koi khwahish hai chup chup si... dekho na...!

A car speeding by suddenly splashed water all over my wind shield and I was jolted. It took a while for the wipers to clear the water. I looked around - I was in the midst of Hinjewadi traffic. I smiled to myself. Yes, I was smiling in the midst of the Hinjewadi traffic!

...I was feeling so happy, so peaceful. It seemed like life was full of love!

I love the monsoons. And it got to be true love. Why else would a 75 min drive to office on a crowded Monday morning be so beautiful?!

Ajivali Devrai

Ajivali is a beautiful green rustic village about 50 km from Pune. Devrai means sacred forest dedicated to the local deities or tree spirits. The forest in Ajivali is dedicated to Goddess Waghjai.

I went to Ajivali Devrai with a group of around 15 people, the monsoon trail organized by Western Routes. We started at 7am from Chandni Chowk and reached the Ajivali village by 8.30am. Ajivali is in Maval. The drive is very scenic. Coupled with lovely songs played by Shruti, my 5 year old son cuddling and enjoying the cool breeze, made the drive feel heavenly! About 1 km from the village the road was very bad. Actually there was no road, it was a mud path and our car was skidding! Thanks to the driving skills of Aditya (and me praying out loud to all Gods) we reached the village and parked our car.

Jayesh from Western Routes had carried our breakfast and tea. After a quick round of introductions, we started on one of the most wonderful monsoon trails I have ever been to!

Ajivali is a less explored spot around Pune and hence was not crowded and was clean. The walk to the forest is a gradual climb up the hill. The path is muddy and I suggest that you must wear floaters (no shoes, no socks).

Cool waterfalls, refreshing shades of green, a nice group of friends with the lovely background of brown mountains and gray clouds made me realize the power of nature - what an AC room, cushion chairs and warm beds cant do to a drained soul. I felt energized to keep me going for a couple of weeks! I envied the villagers who stayed in their huts there. And I felt guilty how we plunder this heaven to get materialistic pleasures that don't last long!

After about 30-45 mins we reached the devrai. It is a dense forest of trees growing 60 - 70 feet tall which form a canopy over the forest and makes it feel enchanted! There is a decent temple in the forest but again you realize that nature wins over the man-made temple. You will like everything other than the temple :) They say that you must not take away anything from the forest or the Goddess will get enraged and cause some calamity. Put your science in this belief and it does make sense!

We found a lot of littler, plastic bags, plates in the forest at some cozy picnic spots. I wondered - people left their littler but took away a part of the clean and natural forest. Fear if you believe in God, Think if you believe in science - And carry your litter back with you!

Bhimashankar

I had been to a weekend trip to Bhimashankar with The Western Routes. A very well organised and refreshing trip it was!

We left at 6.30 am from Pune, had breakfast en route and reached Bhimashankar Temple around 10.30 am. The Temple is not so grand. There weren't many people that day and yet it was crowded and congested inside. After taking darshan we started our walk into the Bhimashankar jungle. It is a beautiful forest! The main attraction of the forest is the giant squirrels. We were unfortunate to spot any! They say the best time to spot them is between 7 to 9am or 4 to 6pm. We spent around 2 hours at the forest and then reached our hotel, Blue Mormon, at 2.30pm to have a lovely and much needed lunch!

We checked into our rooms. The rooms are decent and clean. There is a Lake in the resort where we enjoyed swimming!

We were a group of 17 people. We enjoyed the evening playing dumb sheras. Then we had dinner and went for a night trail. The night walk seemed scary initially. But once I had passed the scary phase, I realised it was beautiful! We sat on the ground in the dark looking up at the sky- which was clear. Thousands of tiny stars twinkled and took us into a peaceful, dreamy world!

We got up the next day and after a lovely breakfast we went for a trek to the Nagphani point. The day was cloudy. And though we hoped it would rain, it didn't! It didn't rain a single drop through out our trip! Yes, June end and the monsoons have refused to visit this part of the world, not even at a place like Bhimashankar!  Coming back to the trek... It is not a hard trek. Most of it is a walk along the slopes. Not too much of rock climbing. It didn't take us too long to teach the top. The view from the top was breath taking!

Though we did not hurry and enjoyed all points on way, we reached down by 11.30am. So we went back to the resort for another dip in the lake! We had lunch and left Bhimashankar at 3pm. Were back home by 7.30 pm with 1 leisure break on way at hotel Purohit.

The trip can also be done in 1 day. You should start from Pune at 6am. Go directly to the Temple parking and do the Nagphani trek. You should be done by 12.30. Go to Blue Mormon resort, have lunch, relax, swim in the lake.  Leave the resort at 3.30pm and then do the jungle walk. Leave Bhimashankar by 6.30pm to reach back home at a decent time.

Do note that the parking near the Temple is a big chaos. For the trek and jungle walk, you need to park near the Temple. Tip - Park your vehicle as far from the Temple as possible else you may spend too much time trying to get out of the parking lot!

My UK Trip

I had been to London on a 2.5 week vacation. I planned the trip just with my 2 kids aged 5yrs and 2yrs. Though most people were amazed at how I managed the 2 kids on this trip, I was more amazed at how wonderful this vacation treated me! :)

Here is a brief of my travel (itinerary) in London & UK.

Day 1:
We took a train to Victoria station. Walked around to see the Buckingham Palace, Green Park and Hyde Park. The highlight of the day was kids chasing the pigeons at the Hyde Park! It was a very rainy day, but we enjoyed thoroughly. There is a small rose garden in the Hyde Park - I found it very romantic.

Rose Garden, Hyde Park

Day 2:
We went to the Kensington Palace. There is a Princess Diana memorial kids play park in the Kensington Garden. The Kensington Garden has too many bold squirrels running around! It was another wonderful day, despite the intermittent rains!

Princess Diana Memorial Children's Play Park

Day 3:
We started from East Croydon, took a train to London Bridge. Walked the bridge and went near the Southbank. It was the beginning of a bright and sunny day with the wonderful view of the Tower of London on one side and London Bridge at the other side! Then we took an underground tube to Canary Wharf. Canary Wharf is more developed with huge buildings around. From there we took a DLR to Greenwich. We made a mistake - we should have got down at Cutty Sark instead of Greenwich. Greenwich isn't as beautiful a village, but I saw too many kids and prams there! :)
We saw the GMT line, Royal Observatory and then took a cruise to London Bridge. If I ever decide to stay in London, I decided where I will live - there were some beautiful houses along the River Thames looking down across a breathtaking view! :) We then walked up to London Eye and saw the London from the top!

Thames River and Big Ben, from London Eye

Day 4:
Morning was spent lazing around. Then we went to Reading at my friend's house. Evening we strolled around the Reading downtown and did some quick shopping there.

Day 5:
We went to Oxford. I loved it! I think I can spend few weeks just staying at Oxford. Or better still - I wish I can come here to study! :) In the evening, Sonali treated me with scone and tea - a typical British tea-time snacks. It was yummy! Oxford now ranks at number 1 in my list of "best places". (Sydney ranks at 2 and New York at 3)

Scone and Tea

Day 6:
We had a lovely walk along the river at Reading. The best part of the day was feeding the ducks! And then a fight broke amongst the ducks and one hungry and bully duck beat the rest and ran towards us - he wanted to practically eat all the bread out of our hands! He scared the hell out of us & we ran away!

Ducks and Swans at the river in Reading

Day 7:
We had pre booked our tickets to the Chessington World of Adventures. It is a themed park with some rides and zoo and sea life. My 5yr old kid enjoyed a lot while my brother got thoroughly bored! We visited on a Monday hoping it wont be crowded but were surprised to see so many people even on a Monday. Each ride had a queue with around 30mins of waiting time! My feedback for this place is 3 out of 5 stars. If you really want to see the place, plan a 2 day trip. If 1 day trip, try to reach as early as possible.

Sea Life at Chessington World of Adventures

Day 8:
After a lovely but tiring week, its but necessary to spend time at home doing nothing and just relaxing! Hey - "nothing" is not really apt on vacation. My brother bought a remote controlled helicopter and we enjoyed flying it today!

Day 9:
We took a take a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. We started at 5am in the morning! That day was a terrible rainy day, and considering our day had started very early morning, we just went out for a short stroll around the hotel which was located at the City Center.

Scott Monument, Edinburgh

Day 10:
Our plan was to take a bus tour to the Scottish Highlands. But kids below 3 yrs are not allowed on the bus. We had not carried our driving license so could not hire a car either. So we toured Edinburgh in double decker buses to realize Edinburgh is a beautiful city!

Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh

Day 11:
We went to Gorgie Farm in the city, did some shopping on Princess Street and took a late evening train back to London. The day was sunny and warm, so in 3 days we got to see 3 types of weather - rainy, cloudy and sunny!

Gorgie City Farm, Edinburgh

Day 12:
It was a Saturday and we lazed at home chatting with my cousin in East Croydon. We went out in the evening, had dinner at Pizza Express and saw London by night. Piccadelli Circus area was crazy on Saturday mid night - it was heavily crowded and all people were in celebration mood! Wonder when the partying in London ends on a Saturday night!

Trafalgar Square

Day 14:
We went to Wimbledon town with a college friend and his family. Wimbledon is a very sophisticated city. In the evening I went to Wembley to meet another cousin over dinner and stayed at her house.

Wimbledon

Day 15:
Bag packing time! We had to fly back the next day!

How I Lost It!

During my first pregnancy, I put on 20 kgs! But I managed to lose all of it within first 4 months.
During my second pregnancy, I put on 18 kgs. And lost all of it within first 6 months.
And when my younger kid was 18 months, I lost another 5 kgs within 2 months.

So much of loss resulted in gaining lot of admiration from people around me. Till some days ago, I enjoyed all the compliments I got but shrugged them off and did not let them get into my head. Until a friend, 15 years older than me who looks as much young and much fitter, mentioned that I need to write about how I managed to lose so much weight. She said, it will help others who are trying to get back to their pre-pregnancy & pre-marriage weight!

They say breast feeding infants burns lot of calories. It does. Both my sons were on TBF for 5+ months. And while you feed them, they get healthier and you get fitter. 3 months of TBF will just suffice you and your kid. Its how much beyond 3 months that you can feed will help you lose weight. I really urge all those out there to TBF for upto 6 months. The older generation at home may confuse you saying that the milk is not sufficient for the kids. If you also feel so, then improve your diet!

When my older kid was 3 months old it was February and the weather had started getting hotter. I went swimming for a month. Elder people disliked this activity of mine - a "new born mother" should stay inside and stay warm, they said. But you know your body better than anyone. If you are putting on weight, it just means you are getting more than you deserve! Yes you must eat well and remain healthy for your kid - but dont overdo those old advices.

When my younger kid was 2.5 months, I participated in Ganapati dance. We practiced for 1 month. It was a 30 min cardio daily. Again, there were critics in my colony who felt I was crazy to dance when my baby was not even 3 months. But then, don't so many women go to work when their kids are 3 months?

With my experiences I strongly believe one must indulge in some moderate physical activity soon after pregnancy. It helped me realise how inflexible my body had become and also helped me relax, get refreshed and I gradually felt fitter!

Upto a year after pregnancy I did not control my diet. I ate lot of food. Infact I ate too much, but it all got consumed! Read on to know how...

Choose Healthier Alternatives.
Thankfully, I have never been a foodie. Not that I can eat anything. But I do possess sufficient self control to say "No" to unhealthy food. How? This has to be worked upon. Try to figure out a pattern about when you crave that chocolate cake or that pizza! Its usually when you are bored, depressed, stressed or tired. Your body will give you a signal before you actually reach that stage - if you can catch that signal - awesome! But if you suddenly start craving for such foods, you can implement creative solution - prepare a quick, healthier version of your craving. Eg - Eat jaggery, ghee & roti instead of other sweets. Or prepare a spicy or tangy veg dish at home which will satisfy your craving.

Regular Cooking
To choose healthier alternatives you always need to have them available. But how can you manage to cook it all? Don't you get bored of the same daal-rice-roti cooking everyday? There is a solution for this. Define a PROCESS for all the redundant but necessary cooking tasks. In my case, I have a maid who cooks. My mother-in-law helps too. (Well, there can be another blog on how to like mother-in-law's help! :D ) So we always have daal-rice-roti-veg-salad on the menu.

Busy Mother Role
Welcome to the new busy role and bye bye to the time for exercise! "No time" is the common excuse for not exercising. I believe its not an excuse but a fact. But... isn't being a busy mother an exercise in itself?! Run around the kids, play with them. Walk, run, bend, jump while you do your job at home. Combine exercise with your work - that's the key to exercising when you are busy!




With all this I came back to pre-pregnancy weight & fitness. Next challenge was getting back to pre-marriage weight and fitness. This was the most challenging part for me. What worked for me was a diet as below for 2 months!
Breakfast - 2 mugs of rice water. (Cook 2 tbl spoon rice in 4 mugs water till it becomes 2 mugs)
Lunch - It was a sumptuous affair with no limit. Skipped only rice.
Snacks - Easy to digest snacks. Roasted items. Eg - Shira, upma, chiwda, wheat flakes, jowar flakes. Any quantity. Eat before 7pm.
Skip dinner.

Lastly - To look fresh, younger and for a glowing skin, nothing can replace a 15 min workout everyday. I am still struggling to find this time, but whenever I can, I go and run!

Change

The Japanese have a term called “kaizen,” which means continual improvement. It is a never ending quest to do better. And you do better by changing. Standing still allows your competitors to get ahead of you.

The change that you wish to bring in will involve making others accept and adapt to the change: thus Change Management is not just a management topic, it is also a psychological study. Infact entire "Management" has a psychological aspect to it.

Being good at Technology + Psychology + Management can make you a good manager.

Coming back to my main topic, while reading about "Change Management" I came across a formula:

Change + Personal history (nurture) + Social situation (environment) = Attitude + Response

When you introduce change, each employee's personal history and social situation at work will produce a different attitude towards that change. You cannot see or measure attitudes, but what you can see and measure is the response towards that change.

Facebook

15 Jan 2014

Today morning while I rushed to Faasos' to pick up a quick wrap, I overheard 2 young girls discussing FB updates over their morning breakfast. On way to office, I saw so many people dig into their mobiles, surfing FB. I came to office and saw a colleague busy editing a picture which he said he wanted to post as his profile pic on FB. I realized, yet again, FB has touched each of our lives and it has become an important engagement activity!

Facebook has over 900 million active users. Now that's quite huge: If Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest in the world, after China and India! A quick glance at FB stock shows that it is being traded today at $57.74 which is 3.27% up than yesterday.

That's great news. But ever wondered how FB is making money?
A quick google search - and I learnt that FB's major revenue is from its ads! The ads that show up on your website make money for FB! FB's 2013 Q3 revenue increased by 60% with strong ad sales.
A smaller part of FB revenue comes from its other payments like games (made by Zynga) and FB takes 30% revenue from it and from FB gift shop and FB credits.

But gradually the internet world is shifting from PC to mobile. More than 50% of Facebook users access FB through their mobile. If you notice, since a couple of months some sponsored ads have started appearing on your mobile app. These are much less than the ads you see on your web page, but FB is gradually coming up with different monetization strategies for mobile users.

The money-making model that Facebook adopts is called "Advertising Based Revenue Model". There are 2 types of advertisements: Direct and Contextual. Direct ads provide more revenue - there are fixed places for the ads (like hoardings you see on the road, or like the "sponsored ads" that FB shows in the form of "suggested pages"). Contextual ads are those that come up depending on the user's profile: user's search history, the pages he likes, the posts he read, his friend connections - all this is analyzed programatically and ads relevant to the users come up for him. A third party is involved in the contextual ads - which makes profit margins less in these type of ads.

Another big giant that gets its revenue from ads is Google. Wordstream, an internet marketing software site, analyzed that Google ads are 10 times more likely to be hit by users than FB ads. Which means, FB still lags behind Google, in generating revenue. Advertisers would prefer selling their ads to a site which promises better sales for them. Hence, companies that are based on ad-based revenue model need to keep coming up with innovative strategies to stay in the competitive market. Whether Facebook will come up with better ad-maketing strategies to overtake Google, or will it fall behind? Time will tell :)

Memories

My future is bright
My present is neat
Yet I often travel to the past
Which was both sour and sweet!

Its not that I regret
Its not that I am very sad...
But when I think of yesterday, I wonder
What if a little more wisdom then I had!

When I look behind, I feel
So much I have grown, So much I have learnt...
I also look back and see
Part of me that was lost, that was burnt!

I look at the future
And I can see my life at its best...
And when I turn around, I see
Those wilted flowers which were once put to test!

I am so happy today when
I sit with friends and giggle...
But I also remember the time when
I sat with friends and giggled!

No matter what I do today
My mind travels back to those times of happiness and worries...
No matter how much I try
My past comes back to me in the form of Memories!

The Bridge Across Forever, by Richard Bach

The book is an autobiography of Richard Bach's quest for his perfect soul mate, finding her and growing with her.

The book starts with Richard looking for his perfect soul mate. He meets many women, but finds it difficult to know who can be the woman he is looking for. He meets an actress Leslie Parrish, and gradually grows fond of her company. He realizes pretty late that Leslie is his woman. But he does not believe in marrying her since he feels his freedom may get curbed by marriage. It takes almost 4 years of staying together with her, that he is ready to get married to her!

The book gives an insight to how a human mind functions, gets confused, analyzes and finally reaches a conclusion; a conclusion which may seem obvious, but the the mind must go through these phases to be assured what it wants!

How to identify if one has met the soul mate that he has always longed for? If you ask SRK, he would say, "Dil ki ghanti bhajegi!" :) That will happen in Bollywood. In reality its difficult to know. Richard had almost considered Leslie as his sister, before he realized that he loved her differently! :)

Will your soul mate share all your hobbies, will like what you like, would dislike what you dislike? Well, no. In case of Richard and Leslie they both were different. Leslie loved music and was scared of even sitting in an airplane. And airplanes were Richard's first love! He was a dud when it came to music.

So what is it that really holds two people together in a relationship? It is the growth of the two in a relationship that actually binds the love between the two! While Richard taught Leslie to fly an airplane, Leslie taught Richard to understand and appreciate music. The differences between the two were shared such that both of them grew with each other. Thats what made them happy together.

I liked a number of ideas and thoughts that Richard wrote. The best was the concept of Richard talking to the Richard of the past and of the future! Dont you ever feel like going back in time and correcting some of the decisions of your past? Dont you ever wonder how you would be in future? Richard feels it too. And he puts down this thought so well...
When Richard went to his house with his wife, Leslie, he remembered how, as a child, he stood near the door dreaming about the lady he would love... And he spoke to that Richard! In this context, I loved this line: "I shouted wordlessly to him over 2 decades ago" :)

Dan Brown: Has he lost with The Lost Symbol?

My Answer is "No"!!
The next book will decide if he has run out of ideas or he still has many :)

Having so many best sellers against Dan Brown's name, one tends to read "The Lost Symbol" with huge expectations and a pre-defined perception about what the book may contain. The climax is what most people dislike. But I liked it.

This book is so much different from his other books. The best part of this book is, the way he has highlighted the American History. It is said, America does'nt have a history. And yet he wrote over 700 pages a story about the American history!

The plot is a simple one. Not too many symbols to investigate. So the book lacks the, "Oh I never thought about it" factor. Yes, we have thought about it now, since his last few books have been telling us so much about symbols.

The book contains a lot of interesting information. It talks about Noetic Science, the almost-death experiences, about how different religions are based on common principles and a lot of other information.

Overall, the book is an interesting read.

Five Point Someone

I read this book a month ago. Yes, I know I have been too late to read this book! But the point is, I finally read it. I read it after watching the lovely movie "3 idiots". And the book did not seem so much appealing! That's because, the book has been modified so well into a lovely movie with a lovely plot that the book seemed very dull. Ryan Oberoi's character in the book has been positively transformed into Rancho (Aamir Khan) in 3 idiots. That was the best change in the book. Overall, the movie was a lot better than the book.

I have also read "The 3 mistakes of my life" and "2 states". I liked the former and loved the latter! "The 3 mistakes of my life" is a simple narrative kind of a book. "2 states" is a very cute love story.

I don't plan to read "1 night at the call center" since I have already watched the movie! :)

The box-culture

I liked this thought from Richard Bach's book, "The Bridge Across Forever".

"Here's how the people live here, in big house-shaped boxes to keep off 'rain' and 'snow', holes cut in the sides so they can see out. They move around in smaller boxes, painted different colors, with whleels on the corners. They need this box-culture because each person thinks of herself and himself as locked in a box called 'body', arms and legs, fingers to move pencils and tools, languages because they've forgotten how to communicate, eyes because they've forgotten how to see. Odd little planet..."

Something to ponder, right? :)

Peepli

A review on the movie...

Presenting to you Peepli [Live]

Cast:
Media... Chaotic
Police... Lazy
Politicians... Political
Secretariats... Diplomatic
Farmers... Illiterate
Public... Speculators

Written by:
Destiny

Produced by:
Public

Story in brief:
What is happening in the background is a puppet show. The puppets have no idea what they are doing. The puppet controllers are just playing games. While the puppet show is depicting one story, and we are busy watching the various interpretations of it, the real story lies hidden behind.

Moral:
Jo hota hai, who nahi hota hai. Aur jo nahi hota hai who hota hai. Confused? That’s what our life is all about - confusion. You don’t know what is happening. And if you want to know the real story or if you know the real story, you need lots of guts to fight against the current to get across your point. And if you don’t have those guts, then you too are a part of the movie, you are the Rakesh and Sandeep. The only role missing in the movie is that of the person having enough guts: and we don’t have anyone like that in reality as well.

Want to know where you fit into, in the real story of this crazy world? Watch the movie and you will be able to figure it out. And while the movie touches you and you talk about it with your friends, I am sure you wont stop planning about where you would buy your next house! (Watch the movie to know what I am talking about). Yes you would say, whats in YOU buying a house? Nothing. The movie did not answer those questions. How to make a difference? Its not easy. Then what? Then just shrug it off and move on. Like everyone <else> did in the movie...

From a kid's eye

Some of my friends & me were discussing about "nature". So here is what I wrote on the fly - The nature as I see from my child's eye. A simple poem, but I hope it brings out the point!

A crow. A pigeon. Any bird in the sky.
Curiously observe how they fly.
If you've forgotten how they flap their wings
Just look again from a kid's eye!

A little doggie runs down the lane
He sniffs & he puffs & he runs away.
A barking dog too, can bring much joy
Just look at the nature from a kid's eye!

A little cockroach, a tiny insect
Little ants, red & black.
Just pick up a spider & do not cry!
Look at the worm from a kid's eye!

The wind blows, the leaves hustle.
You tidy your room, but the water glass topples.
Dont clean; on the floor let it lie.
Observe how the water flows, from a kid's eye!

Simple things around, worth marvel & wonder
If you have not noticed for ages together...
Listen to me, give this a try,
Just stop once and look around from a kid's eye!

Congress returning back to power...

Did the Congress return to power in Maharashtra because of its strong track record as an able administrator? Or simply because it is the lesser evil?

No party is doing any great work. It is just the politics that help any party get the votes. BJP-Shiv sena failed in their political approach. Congress has been smart enough to get desired votes. They could "show" that they were making positive growth. So they won.

To be a leader, you must be able to do one of the 3 C's: convince, corrupt or confuse! :)

Doing good work is a matter of perception... Whether Congress really did good work can be judged from either of the 2 facts:
1) 145 seats out of 288 won by Congress: 50% of the people believed in the work done by Congress
2) 143 seats out of 288 not won by Congress: 50% of the people did not believe in their work!

A Big Mail. From Little Israel.

My first experience of traveling abroad. The post was written on 21 June 2005, just one day after I landed in Israel.

I am mailing you from Israel, Haifa. :-)

When I left Pune for Mumbai, on 18th June evening, I felt Pune is going to miss me a lot. Yes, that is because, when I was ready to leave Pune, it started pouring. The entire Pune was crying... I was leaving for Israel, for a short training at the Haifa development center of Amdocs, followed by some assignment at Haifa. There were 8 others on the same flight with me to Tel Aviv, the working capital of Israel. 6 of them were going stay at Tel Aviv, and 3 of us were going to Haifa.

We left Mumbai at 2:40am by the “Royal Jordanian” flight. It was a 5.5 hrs flight to Amman, the capital of Jordan. We arrived Amman at 5.30am (Amman Time) and were taken to a hotel “Alia”. Jordan is an Arabic country. We saw a number of Arabs wearing their traditional dresses. The females were covered from head to toe. Many men too had their heads covered by those typical caps or that scarf tied with a rope-like cloth on their foreheads. In general, all the men were smart. Even the people like the door keepers or the security guys, had a dashing personality. There was something in the way they carried themselves. We felt, it was because of the compulsory military training that all undergo. And the females were fair and good looking too. However, the people were somewhat rude. The place was very conservative.

After a 12-hr halt at Amman we took a 45min flight to Tel Aviv. This flight flew quite low & we could see the land below change from a desert & a less inhabited ground at Jordan to a greener, more developed land, as we reached Israel.

Our first glance of Israel was the top-view, from the aeroplane which flew from the north of Israel towards Tel Aviv. We could see from above that the country was very well developed and it looked like a planned country. And when we reached the Tel Aviv airport, we were amazed at its size, grandeur and the architecture.

We took a cab from Tel Aviv to Haifa. It was for the first time that I saw a Mercedes Benz taxi, sat in one for the first time! The driver drove at a speed of 120km/hr, and we did not feel it. We were looking outside at the lovely buildings, some very well-known & big companies, the lovely roads, and the beautiful scenery around. It was 8pm, and yet there was a lot of natural light outside. I felt myself falling in love with the country! :-)

Haifa is located at the north of Israel, along the coast. It is located along the slopes of Mount Carmel; and on its west is the Mediterranean sea.
Our rooms were booked at one of the best hotels in Israel- Dan Panorama Haifa. It is a 5-star hotel. At the reception, we were given “cards” to our rooms. Yes, the hotel does not have keys. We get something that looks like a credit card. We have to swipe in, to open the room. When I entered the room, and opened the curtains, I was spell bound by what I saw outside. My room overlooked the Haifa city, that was lit with different colors of light, and there outside, I could see the Haifa bay. I saw little boats in the water, they too were lit with lights. I was mesmerized by the beautiful picture that I saw outside!

But as I was exploring the extravagant hotel room, a wave of sadness took over me. I felt lonely for some time. Santosh, Praveen & myself talked for sometime, and we all were feeling this. We felt that everything around was so beautiful, but there was no one close to share it with... I thought, something as simple as a sweet dish can be so beautiful when you have someone to share it with. And something as wonderful as what is happening to me can still be painful!!

Our breakfast at the hotel again, was grand. We took a cab for Amdocs office. It is 20mins drive from our hotel. We noticed that there were only cars on the road. No bikes. And not many people walked.

Amdocs office at Haifa is a small sweet place. Here, you will not see cubicles. You will see little rooms- and inside each, there are 1-3 people, depending upon your seniority. The office is a triangular maze, and there are about 40 such rooms. The people are very friendly. We at once were made so comfortable, that we forgot yesterday’s depression! We also met 3 other Indian guys from DVCI. From tomorrow we would be commuting to office with them in the same cab.

Lunch was good. There was a lot of variety in salads. A lot of variety in meat (which I did not eat). All the non veggies, however complained that the meat was not properly cooked- it tasted raw. There were a number of sweets. Varieties of bread. Soups. And so much to choose from! Our afternoon walk was circling around a mall opposite Amdocs, named “Cosmos”.

Today we have not been given much work. But we can see loads of it coming our way! :-( Overall, Israel is a beautiful, technically very developed & clean country. And the people here are very good & friendly!

Now and Then

When I was a kid, I argued with my parents. I felt that they were always extra careful in some activities, which irritated me. They cared too much for me. Most favorite instruction from them was: "Dont stay out very late, come home before dark..!" They failed to understand that the world was changing. As I grew up, I began to ignore them. If we cannot stay out late after office to catch up with friends, then when can we?! "Dont eat too much outside, its bad for your health.." But isnt it fun? There is such a lot of variety to explore & eat! Life is about having fun, about adventure; and they failed to understand this. I felt they had some very old-fashioned ideas. They kept talking about how the world was during their young times, and how it was changing for the worse. "I have to face this changing world", I thought, "and I cannot live with a set of traditional rules". I never understood why parents made such a fuss about all this. I just kept going with the "current trend". And thought its important to keep pace with the changing times.

Gradually, my role got upgraded to a "mother". Now I have a son and I care too much about him. I feel, this world is changing for the worse! He is barely a year old, and I need to protect him from this new epidemic - swine flu. Its so sad, that the children cannot go out and enjoy their time playing around - this was not the case during our times! I imagine about the future of my son. He will have to go out in this world full of pollution - I can imagine myself instructing him to be careful when he will go out. There is so much competition outside, and his life will be so full of tension! This should not impact his health, so I will to cook good and healthy food for him and make him exercise regularly.
And with all such thoughts in my mind, I wonder if he will listen to me, if he will try to understand my point!!

Ye Re Ye Re Pavasa...

... Rusalas ka?
Majhyashi gatti foo kelis ka?!!

I still wear a sun-coat when I come to office. My rain-coat is lying in the dicky, unused... :(
When will I sit in the office, completely drenched inspite of wearing the raincoat, in the A/C, shivering, and probably, cursing the rain??!!!!

Lehman's crisis: Learning

An interesting article by Yogesh Chhabria.

LATELY, I have been thinking a lot about the Lehman crisis. Spending money that they didn't have and going beyond their means is one of the main reasons for their situation today. In fact that is the cause for the current economic crisis in the US.

When I see all this happening, I can only remember the good old days. Then, karz was bad. People looked down upon those who took loans. Parents would not give their daughter's hand in marriage to a man with loans.

But of course, the times have changed now. Everyone I know has a loan. The buzz word is EMI (equated monthly installment). Today, you can buy everything on EMI - a house, a television, an i-Pod. In fact I know of someone who just bought a fancy BMW 3 series on EMI, instead of buying a cheaper car outright with cash. I mostly prefer to take public transport, but then I am an old man with old thoughts!

Anyway, coming back to what caused the crisis. Imagine having Rs 2 lakh in your bank account, no regular income, yet buying a house worth Rs 65 lakh, in the hope of selling it for a higher price. Even if the price of the house fell by just 5 per cent (that is Rs 3 lakh), you will go bankrupt.

This is what Lehman Brothers did; with around USD 20 billion they went and bought assets worth over USD 600 billion. Isn't it suicidal and simply foolish?

I am sure things would have been different, had I been the head of Lehman brothers. But who wants an old conservative man like me to head a complex financial institution.

But there are a few lessons that we can learn:

1.Live a balanced life and avoid overspending.

2.Don't buy things we don't need.

3.Don't buy Branded good's.

4.Don't buy excess Food, Cloths, Cosmetics, Footwear, electronics and Fashion accuracies........just think before you buy.

Tip: World still has a lot of growth ahead and the future holds immense opportunities for us. Let us make the most of it and save and invest it wisely instead of wasting our precious little on things we don't need.

5.Try to balance life with work (No one is happy to work in their profession).

6. Don't stress out your self, after work try to do some extra activities like swimming, yoga, walking, running where you can divert your mind from stress.

A thumb rule: Health is more important than money.

7.Try to understand each other (Wife and Husband) in financial matter's and help each other.

Tip: As soon as you get your monthly salary, set aside a fixed amount, usually 35 per cent, for insurance, savings and investments. You can then spend the rest.

8. Not all loans are bad. Loans that are 'need based' (home loans, education loans) can always find a place in your finances against those that are largely 'want based' (Credit cards, personal loans, car loans).

9. Borrow only if repayment is financially comfortable.

A thumb rule: Keep EMIs within 35 to 45 per cent of your monthly income

In that respect, there is one American who I really respect - WARREN BUFFET. He has lived in the same ordinary house for over three decades, drives his own medium sized car and leads an extremely regular 'middle class' life. If that's all it takes for the richest person on earth to be happy, why do all of us need to take extra stress just so that we can get things which aren't even essential?

Lost

I feel I have lost my heart...
And yet I can hear it beat loud!
Like the sun which I know is there,
But hidden behind the cloud!

The sun is lost... And so is my heart...
And the weather seems so gay!
The tiny drops fall on the ground,
Washing all sorrows away!

My heart is lost... And so is the sun...
And my life seems so gay!
The cool breeze brushes my cheeks,
Taking my mind, miles away!

But soon the clouds will disappear
And the sun will burn again.
From dreamland to the world of reality
I will have to run again!