Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Politics bunkum

Jaago re Jaago re advertisements have come across as some kind of awakening. Or is really!! I am not against voting. What I am against is where are the bloody leaders? All of the them are bloody corrupt. Jaago re asks us to vote, but who is good leader. All of the so called good leaders and ducking for cover with all those chapals and shoes thrown at them. All the leaders should take up ducking classes before they join politics. But I feel, the citizens should get target practice. Not even one hit the actual leader.

Who is a leader? A role model, to whom people look up to lead them. I can never see a guy or women who can inspire me to join politics. As I don't find a leader who can inspire me, I am not interested in politics. Simple as it goes. Thats the usual feeling of people not taking up politics, the younger generation I mean. Why do many of them want to learn cricket? Because they want to be like Sachin himself or may be a Shane Warne. Can someone think of themselves as a say Advani or Laloo Prasad.

Good leaders are a rarity. Everyday in the morning, with the daily news papers I get these party bunkum which says this is our leader vote for him. I would have never seen his face anywhere. What has he done, God knows!!! These leaders spend so much time and money during elections but they are not even seen after that.

The arc of life revolves around looking for a leader and being like him someday in the future. That is how life has been going on for so many decades. World would have never come to this place without good leaders. There were good leaders. Today, it is difficult to stick to a party to vote for.

But as today's generations are ready to vote, we should bring something to politics which can change the future generation. If today no one is interested in politics; then tomorrow who will be the leader for people of next generation. We have to think on this. I saw an interview of Priyanka gandhi on NDTV. Barka popped lot of tough questions, like "will you forgive Nalini?" (If you remember the lady who killed her father Rajiv Gandhi). "Inspite of your grand mother and your father being killed, why are you in politics? Don't you feel afraid for your mother and brother?"

I admire the tenacity of the Gandhi family to still persist with politics. They could have easily done something other than joining politics. Priyanka takes her kids to her meetings or public addressing functions, so that her kids who are just 8 and 9, get the hang of meeting so many people. She says, she does not want to see her kids at 15 and 16 suddenly see so many people being around her or her family.

She also spoke about Varun her cousin in a different party now. Last but not the least about Rahul Gandhi. The youth congress leader for now. I have heard some of his addressing; he seems impressive. Has the new dawn of politics of what Maniratnam has imagined in the movie Yuva come through? Difficult to say at this moment. But if I would have to vote, I would go for Rahul Gandhi, as he does exhibit something which is very young in this whole over aged and over sized pocket scheme of things. By this I am not saying he is very good. He seems quiet good. But it is the future and the coming years that will decide if he is a leader in the making.

Check out this video

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Cycling to office!!

I am used to bicycles since I was a kid at my home town. I used to ride it school for almost 5 years. So getting back to those days is comparatively tough especially in a different city and different traffic conditions and after so many years. I did have it in mind as the traffic on our roads are showing no restrain. I made my mind up and bought this bicycle. I wanted something that will be good for the Mumbai rains. Seeing many cycles portraying rusted outfit on the side of the building's parking lot, I opted for a full aluminum one.

It sure did shoot the cost of the cycle upwards and made it beyond buying proposition, more difficult on my financial pocket, especially in the troubled times of credit crunch and falling economy. I was totally hellbent towards improving my health and also creating an atmosphere wherein, I take this traffic hell pot out of the equation.

Cycling is fun, when you are not obese and a little fit when it comes to demanding slopes. I found out that the roads of Mumbai are built on hills. They are so steep to climb. My cycling gears helped climb even the very steep slopes with ease. As it is made of aluminum; it is very light in weight. With wider tires and nice feeling breaks, it does feel a little comfortable compared to normal bicycles.

Having a good road sense and also gauging the speed of your cycle is very important when you are riding on these roads. Learning the cycling gears have also given me something interesting to work on while riding. I shopped a bit for the helmet and gloves. I got it from Hypercity mall Malad. Traveling to work on a cycle does take your energy a little bit early in the morning. But these are just initial days. After some days, you will feel better and energized.

The best compliment I got was, when I was riding up the slope trying to figure out which gears to click on, one guy on the bike waved his hand and gave me a thumbs up. He said very good or well done something like that. So when a complete stranger says something nice to you, it does encourage you more. Check out the snap. The dog in the snap is not mine. A boy came out in the morning to take his dog on a stroll. I told him that I will hold the strings of his dog and asked him to take a picture. It has come out cool!! :) :)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

What a F*** up?

I seldom use the "F" letter word. Yeah okay not very often. Seeing today's literature fiction books using such words very freely, I have come to terms with it. I was looking for an USB cable. The mobile which I have today is my 5th mobile. As we think about the past, we will understand how the mobile revolution has changed today's modern age. Camera mobiles phones, digital photography, transfer it to your PC in a jiffy and share it on your orkut or facebook profile.

It has also some major drawbacks. Coming back to the USB cable, I had to look beneath the cables that my mom had put in a box. All the cables, adapters extension chords, USB extension chords and what not. The technology has also brought about such a amazing conundrum of cables. To get the correct chord is like striking a correct chord in million musical notes.


I was looking, looking and looking to find the cable but in vein. I could never imagine such a thing 5 years ago. My dad has a mobile, my brother and my mom. All the cables go in. The old mobiles also say their last say by showing up every now and then. We are living in a world of crowded cables I should say. Searching for a cable in so many cables is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Total complete f*** up.

It is not just the cables which have grown and filled our homes like creepers, but also today's traffic. I know it is totally two different things all together. But I had to include it in this blog because, the number of vehicles and the number of people who can own a vehicle has increased tremendously in the past 5 years. Everytime there is an advt for a small car, I feel oh gross another one million of those!!


On the first day of bookings for Tata Nano, 65000 bookings were made. They say at the end of one month it would have already had more than 5 million. Where will you put all these cars, where is the bloody space. The traffic is very alarming today. With the metro work going on, Andheri-Kurla road (a road in mumbai) finds itself traffic jamed and buttered. You got to manufacture a way through the traffic. By the time metro comes up, the traffic would have increased multifold. I was the on-looker and god bless not driving my bike in this traffic. God bless!! To betray this traffic, I got a cool cycle. I will not care about the signals now. I will not care about the traffic police. And not about the traffic, as I will just cut through like a hot knife on butter. Next blog with snaps of my bicycle!! :) :)

The Story of India

Yeah the title is quiet tempting I should say. But I tell you it is no history. I really am not good at history, especially Indian history. It is that much more complicated to understand the dynasties. It is very very fascinating for a curious person, because he will get that much more catalyst and impetus as he is thrown into the world of Indian mythology collaborated with Indian myths and history. I was really blown away when I saw a documentary by Micheal Wood about "The Story of India".

Being a historian and working with BBC, Micheal has found out lot of fascinating links between the history of India, to the history of the world. When he illustrates each and every links in his documentary, it quiet clearly shows, how good this guy in mastering the data he has collected. I first saw one of his shows in BBC prime time, when I was in Israel. From then on, I have been following this guy. I even picked up some of his documentary DVDs from Landmark. Starting from the harappa and mohenjo daro times, the aryans, the Kushans, the Gupta dynasty and the roots of Buddha has portrayed in his documentary like they were happening today.

The camera work in his docmentaries I should say spell binding. I never thought that India was so beautiful. He has started the story from a temple down south in my native town "Madurai" Tamil Nadu. The "Meenakshi Amman" temple built there still stands today. It is the biggest temple in the whole of India. I have got lost many a times in this temple in my childhood days when I had been there with my parents. Most of the temple is very much preserved even today.

This temple has inspired even Micheal woods to write a book about his South Indian trip named as "The smile of Murugan-A South India Journey", which I am planning to read as my next book. The way he goes about in explaining each and every aspect is commanding. A great documentary and a must see for all of them who are curious about Indian history. Not to forget, he is also made lot of other documentaries like the "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1997)"; "In Search of Myths and Heroes (2005)". I also found this wikipedia link about him. Check it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wood_(historian)



I tell you guys, this guy is far far better than anyone whom you would have come across. It illustrates to me the significance of Indian History. When my school teachers tired to pour their efforts and teach me its significance, I never got it. When a guy from England does the same thing, in a rather artistic way, I am spellbound. But it is the same India then and now. :) :)

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Workaholic women

Karōshi in Japanese means 'death from overwork'; attributed to sudden occupational death. Some of the sudden deaths that happened to business executive due to their over exertion, were closely studied, as there were no serious illness related prior to the death. This shows how dedicated the Japanese were in their job. No wonder they are a developed country now, inspite of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their after effects.

Workaholic is a word that has been coined for people who are addicted to work. People who find work most challenging and intriguing compared to other things in life. They work for laurels, better pay or may be just to impress their immediate bosses. Sometimes, they don't really want to work, but the work pressure gets to them. They are made to stretch a lot. Considering the current work force of women, I am not surprised at all. Women work as hard as a men do.

But the way she thinks and the way she works are different. What happens when she is put under the scanner of stress? Are they workaholic? How do they handle stress? Is it similar to what men do? How does she handle pressure at work and also stay calm at the same time? How does she relax? I did run a survey sort of thing. I got lot of answers for the above questions. It is always good to get the answers from the horse's mouth. Isn't it? :) :)


I was of the opinion that most of the women start drinking or smoking because of some kind of pressure some where. But this can be just one of the reasons for girls to catch up drinking and smoking. I don't want to get into the topic of how they catch up these habits or addictions. It seems most of women drink or smoke by choice, that is what I got from the survey. Because they just want to, they do. It is not because of work and pressure that they fall on alcohol to get away from their problems.

The reason for women and men both then remains the same to catch on these habits, as they think they can feel heaven at the cost of their liver and other vital organs. They might not know the importance of it now as the damage repairing capacity of youth brings them back to present. But even a drink a month or two can damage vital organs in the long run. They just don't care a shit about all these crap. But some day down the line they will. Women especially who are pregnant, should not consume alcohol and smoke, because that will affect the growing child inside her.

I consider, you might not agree, a girl drinking is a complete turn off. It certainly is to many guys. Well its her choice, but I would rather exclude her out of my "would be and could be" list. Coming back to the topic after this detour, workaholism is fast catching. The women have caught up all the qualities that men have. Workaholism is no exception. In today's demanding world, working overtime is not considered extra. It is expected that you give your extra bit. The health hazards with respect to over-exertion are multifarious.



Starting from eye inflammation to knee joint pain is very much evident. The major hazards are neck pain and prolonged backache. In women, back aches are very much a part of their life now. Most of the young women catch this. The most important is sleep deprivation. As work takes lot of their time, they cannot enjoy the life they used to enjoy before this job. Their social life is affected. Hence they are awake for a long time to catch up with things they do and sleep just 4-5 hours. As per the article and logic I read on today's paper, more you are awake more calories you munch. This invariably results in increase in weight. The metabolism rate of women are less as compared to men unless they are very athletic or dance regularly. Women can become fat very easily eating normal food. But extra calories results in many running to aerobic classes or thinking about gymn or some pondering on pills, yoga what not.

Work has become something which has many side effects, rather than being something that we do on the side along with other activities. I urge all women to take care of their body and mind and stay as beautiful as they are in their teens. Handle work in such a way that it does not affect other activities. So better body is better mind which in turn has the side effect of better and beautiful women. :) :)

(Pictures taken from google search)

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Milkman learns mathematics

Many people are very good at day to day mathematics, especially if they are in constant touch with addition and subtraction. They are very fast in calculating in their mind. When we learn maths in our senior KG and 1st standard, we are taught to add two numbers by keeping one number in the mind and one on the finger and then just add up.

Like you add 5+6, we are taught, 5 in the mind and six on the fingers. After five, six, seven, blah blah eleven. Bang there is the answer. Sounds funny now, but that is how we learn. As days go by we master addition and subtraction. But the trouble comes when we are adding fractions. Which is kind of tricky to calculate in mind.

Something similar used to happen to the guy who sells milk early in the morning near my house. He sells lot of half a litre packets. So he has to always check the money in 3 and half litres or like 5 and half litres. So the half here and there used to create problems to his less educated brain. I have to say, these guys can suprise you with their math. They are very quick in calculating when it is whole numbers. Some guys are very good at fractions too.

Usually at my house, we take 3 half litre packets per day. Each half litre packet cost Rs. 8/- . Hence we take one and half litre per day of milk. Some day if there are guests or may be some festival we buy more packets. He writes it on his diary and my mom also marks it in her record and we pay him monthly.

Once he was home and brought his whole list which he maintains to calculate. He used to see it litre wise and calculate money according to that. It took him lot of time to finish calculation and come to an amount due that month every time. His calculation seemed very cumbersome. My mom calculates number of packets. As she says, "When there is fractions I cannot calculate fast and I get confused". So the number of packets can never be a fraction. :) :)



She told him how to calculate packet wise. For the milk guy it was a total paradigm shift, he suddenly started to calculate faster than he thought he could. Delighted he took the amount for that month and left happily. We live on the ground floor. As it is 3 storey building, he used to collect money on the same day in the start of every month after he has collected from us. Once he collected money due for that current month and went up to collect money from other flats. He came back in just 15 mins. Suprised my mom asked him, that was very fast. He gave a shy smile back which showed lot of gratitude and thankfulness. Indeed common sense and simple techniques work wonders.

Some days back I had given a booklet for xerox. The xerox guy told me some amount and each copy cost 75 paise. This is again odd for calculation. I started to count the number of pages. He stopped me and showed me the page numbers in the booklet. I was taken aback by my common-sense quotient. I have a lot to learn from these people. And I thought my math was good after I scored 100 in one of the exams in my school days. :) :)
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