Yet Again...

Some where in Bangalore:
Hey Dude look whats happening in Mumbai...
What really can happen... Raj Thackrey must have done something again... now I do not even want to listen of this stupid crap...
No Yaar... No Raj Thackrey...
Than what?? Do not tell me any stupid Filmy or "sensational" story, aired on Aaj tak or for that matter any news channel... they all are rubbish.. you know..
Uff!! Arrey... there is an attack at seven places in mumbai... including The Taj and The Oberoi...
So what... whats new???

Some where in Hyderabad:
What happened yesterday in Mumbai.. is still on..
Haan Yaar.. Its pretty amazing.. but who really cares...
No... No.. actually you are right... we have got used to this...
Exactly... It does not really matter now... it happened 1 month back... a month before that and.. every year 4 times.. since last 15 years...
I am 25... and we have seen/heard/listen terrorists attack since our childhood... I have got immune to this stuff... pretty ordinary... (smiling..)
Chal.. lets work.. I have to finish this stuff this week.. otherwise Alan will kill me...

Some where in Delhi:
Son.. avoid going to any public places this weekend... Its been 2 days and Gun battle is still on in mumbai... Delhi is not safe either...
Smiles... Smiles.... :)
What Abhay... why are you smiling... Listen to what I say... No Movies.. no malls.. no restaurants this weekends....
Arrey Mom... It is always safe to roam around when something like this has happened somewhere....
I did not get you...
Mom... its simple logic... Police is on high alert and all the security measures are taken only after such an attack... and after 1 week... you, me, police and everone forgets something as bad as this had happened.... Just wait till Saturday... it will be chill....

Some where in Baneras:
We should elect BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections... all other parties have only made muslims an apple of there eyes... and look what they have done...
Arrey... why are you blaming muslims...
Why not?? These muslims have made our lives hell... they want to make there religion the numero uno.. and they are so radical in there intent...
C'mon man... do not start this crap once again... you cant blame all muslims..
why not after all.. they all are same...
Then that means.. we are also terrorists... aren't we...
Why.. why we...
Do not forget.. the latest Malegaon incidence...
Yes.. thats one of... and its still under trial... no complete evidence...
Okay.. and what about Gujrat?? What about Babri Masjid... we are not Saint either..
We did in retaliation... while they have there own ugly agends...
Thats what most stupid indians think...
Stupid????
Yes Stupid... you do not think that.. no common man.. be it Hindu or Muslim will go and fight... without provocation... there is no agenda of a common hindu or muslim behind attacks.. if there is an agenda of anyone... than it is of politicians... leaders and separatists....
Hah!!!... lets leave this discussion.

Some where in Mumbai:
Oh my god!!! what mayhem...
Ah!! Kill them... Kill them...
Yes Kill these Fidayeens....
I did not mean Kill fiadayeens... I meant kill the policticians...!!! Kill the leaders.. each and everyone of them....
Hey c'mon.. atleast make some sense... and calm down..
I am making sense my friend... you think.. terrorists are our problem.. no!!!.. they are not... our problem is our government.. be the state or center.. be the present or past... our problem is our opposition.... our problem.. lies in the very root of our democracy.. our problem is in our constitution...
Oh.. dude... think before you say...
We should be proud of our democracy... our constitution... and most of all being an Indian...
Yeah!! I am proud of this system which rotten till its roots... these political leaders who are nothing but hyppocratical machines of non sense... I am proud of this society which is suffering from indifference...
Ok Ok .... lets listen to what Rajdeep has to say... you please be quiet...

I am sure.. the reader of this blog if an Indian must have related to all of the above excerpts from not so "imanginative" conversations.
This is what we all are talking about in the previous 3-4 days.. since the mumbai was attacked...
Make no mistake... I am not trying to be conclusive here... but here I have just tried to put some of the Indian emotions here: Amazement, Indifference, Fear, Anger and Frustation.
Yes.. we have seen all these emotions and some more extreme reactions in last few days... What we have not really seen is the real self introspect....
We have seen is expectations but not real self inspection...
Please Please Please do that... do not put all the blames on politicians... we have to blame ourselves also (in fact mostly ourselves)... I know it is not pleasing... but.. introspect... and think why... why and How??

Nations.... Whats the need?

Yup, so just one question... Why do we need a nation?

Just to make it clear here before proceeding further that I just love my country, I am proud of it, and I feel every bit of it when some disaster happens in my motherland.

Nation is to feel proud about, nation is to die for, nation is to live for.... true, atleast thats how all of us have been brought up....

What is nation? Lets start with our very own country... India, my motherland and my identity [:)].

India is from Kashmir in north to Kanyakumari in south, Rajasthan, Gujrat in west to seven sisters in the east. This India today... some 65 years back it was much more*, todays Pakistan was also India, so what happened and why it happened so that we have 2 nations and not one.
Consider the people(consider leaders, fighters and common man as well) of partition era, who would have loved India as what India was and not what India is, or just the loyalties were just with the name - INDIA? And what about the people who were in that part of the country which is now in Pakistan, how did the loayalties shift? They just started to love the name PAKISTAN, or they actually loved there land, there country? or they loved the fact its primrarily a Islamic country.
Can't we see the obvious? Loyalties are with our own personal interest. Can't we see that 2 nations means 2 governments, 2 rulers, double the number of politicians, double the number of issues, double the number of problems (most of them created for our own personal interest.)

We can move even further before, when probably India was never a single country. When we had more then 300 princely states, people of each state consider it, its own motherland, they would love it the way we do to India, they used die for it, just the way soldiers do today. With 300 nations, there were 300 more Kings, there were 300 more wars, 300 more problems, 300 more tussle for power and 300 times more common man use to suffer.

Implication of the above examples mean that, nations make more trouble then any good.

Almost all of us follow some religion, almost all of us believe in some heavenly existence, thats not from this world but somewhere up in the sky. Then why do we for get that when we see earth from the sky its just in one piece? God did not created any nation, its man made, made for its own personal self interest. If we believe in god probably we should never believe in any notion called a nation, its just simply against *GOD*.

Yes we need nations for the sportimg events like Olympics, the Football and the cricket world cup. But then even here if we see, the sporting structure that does not involve any nation are also successful, Lawn Tennis is an individual game, English Premier league and now IPL are the great examples of how, people do not need a loyalty to the country to associate one's self with a prticular team or player.

The point I am trying to make is: Why can not we all see the bigger picture? The bigger picture is physical and not political.
Consider this if we are a one big *NATION*, we will never have wars, we will never have people die just for the sake of showing superemacy to other nations, thats because we would be one. We will have ample space to live, ample water to drink and ample electricity to generate.

It simply means a whole lot better world.

Think over it.....

Ud...
p.s: even after thinking, I still love my country, but... probably change, made for good is always acceptable. [:)]

Speech that I liked....

This was given by Chetan Bhagat for some college students:

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.

But it isn't the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday?

They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you.

But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be.

Disappointment's cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release.

Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result – at least I was learning how to write scripts , having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.

Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you.

In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty darn lucky by Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, you eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.

Keep the Spark

A look into the word called Time

So this is the new year or being the 25th day, not so new year but still comparatively its new.
Year... hmm... year... Year that starts from 1st January and ends on 31st December, having 365 days and 366 onve in 4 Years. Well I was just thinking, god created the sun, the moon, the earth, the mars, the jupiter and the other stars and there planets. How much time the god must have taken to create this universe. A Second? A minute? An hour? A day? A month? An year?.... year which year? We meant 365 day year with each day having 24 hours and some minutes?
So do we believe that God only belongs to the earth? Or should we quantify the duration as time at some other planet, some other sun, some other galaxy as well.
Some say the Universe was created by God in 6 days, Some might be saying in a flash, some something else. Which 6 days are we talking about? Of Which year? Of what length, 24 hrs?, but the earth was not revolving then, then which day?
My question is how can we quantify the time when there was no sun and no planet. Our quantification is based on Sun and earth revolving around and rotating on its axis. When there was no sun, no planet was not there time?
As I can think of time was always there, may be each day was new year then, or may be it still is somewhere.
To a mortal like me it seems time is eternal, you can just capture it anywhere it is here, it was there and it will be there, does not matter that there was a notion on god, is a notion of god or will be notion of god.
Time is even there where there is no time, no space or only space and nothing else. God must be having some sense of timing as everything happens on time, no early no before. Everything is evolving everything, sometimes I feel even god is evolving with time. It is hard to express in words to a person having a limited intellect as I have, its just the feeling that you have to feel it to believe it. But if the god is evolving with time, time is still the same time, it is not changing, even if we find elderly people saying "Samay Badal Gaya hai"(The time has changed), there has been no change in time its just that everything has evolved with time.

I remain perplexed with this entity, it has always fascinated me do not know till when.
Oh I forgot, this being earlier time of the year...... So Happy New Year.