SM Krishna Meets Qureshi !!!

Recently Indian external affair minister SM Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Mr Qureshi met in a parking lot both waiting for their cars. Thanks to aman ki asha, they started talking..

Krishna said.. Hey buddy ?? how r u ?? what’s happening.. ??

Q said – hi Krishna.. well nothing much.. just water water every where.. not a drop to drink.. water in Punjab, water in Baluchistan and water in Lahore..

You say, how it is going ???

Krish- Same here buddy.. water in delhi, water in Bangalore, water in Odissa.. nothing different.. Did you see, how we shifted the blame of the commonwealth mess on the monsoon ??

Q - Yeh you are right.. god has written the fate of both the countries with the same ink.. For example.. you also have ample corrupts officials.. and for us.. each one is better than the other.. Leave others.. our president himself is known as 10 percent.. J

Krishna quickly said – Ha.. we are ahead of you here also.. we charge more.. let the enquiry happen for common wealth games… then only Kalmadi’s actual percentage will come out..

Anyways.. see we hosted common wealth and before even starting, bridges fell, roofs came down.. (giggle ) but we are fine.. not worried at all.. because we have one thing which even US do not have.. Jugad technology.. and as u may know India’s biggest star has said once.. that like our movies, in our lives also, everything comes to place in the end.. and if they do not.. picture is still not over… (mmmmm .... shahrukh style.. )

But I want to thank you for one thing… for not sending any terrorists to common wealth.. I know they are very much interested in shotput events... ;-)

Q – oh sir.. what r u saying.. we don't send them anywhere anymore… we ourselves have cut down our infra budget and increased the z level security of our ministers.. no body can trust them..

Kris – ya true.. anyways.. hey man what happened when we offered you 90 crores Rs as flood relief.. ?? you seems to be choosy begger.. ha ???

You know in dubai there was a begger.. he won a prize of 10 crore Rs.. when Media asked him what he will do now, he said… nothing.. I will buy a house a big car, get married to a beautiful film actress.. and when they asked no, what will you do for a living now.. he said.. nothing.. till now I begged on feet.. now I will beg in the car…

Q – so what.. u also have beggars who beg in cars.. no ??? your politians.. ????

Krish – hmmm.. true… but they have upgraded now to helicopters.. begging in cars are only for the reality show contestants.. I am very poor.. I have a small bunglow at juhu.. I want another on chowpati.. to see me in the next round, please vote me.. my code is .. Ha ha ha..

And u know we have a totally different class of beggars also.. just because taking bribe is a crime and begging is not, many of our politicians and officials do not take bribe.. instead they beg for help .. saar, I need 200 bricks and 20 bags of cement for my son’s study room.. please saar.. what? Your approval ?? next week.. sure saar.. it’s done… :-D

But Qureshi, trust me.. u know who is the biggest beggar in the world ?? You country..

Baba.. please give few dollars to the UNO.. we will take it from them..(laugh..)

Q – what can I do sir.. u don’t know the people in my country.. they can wear your clothes, they can eat your bread but they won’t take help from you..

Krish – aah... that’s fine. U think we really wanted to help ??? :-D

Actually we were celebrating the joy of giving week that time.. and anyways.. it is a fashion these days to help people… earlier Gandhi and Vinobha bhave lived with the poor to understand their need .. but now it is a fashion to help.. trophy wives of rich men start NGOs, clubs etc to help the poor.. once a month they call for meeting at the farm house.. discuss their sarees and jewelry, have light snacks, set the agenda for the next month’s meeting and go home.

There are very few really genuine helpers… like bill gates.. but in this world, if one man stands to do something .. 5 stand to stop him.. recently, in delhi a club has been chartered to stop Bill Gates from giving away his wealth in charity.. they say that if he does that, many more father, specially in India may follow his footsteps.. and if that happens what will happen to the millions of spoiled and totally useless sons in India.. where they would go, what they would do ??? after wasting the entire youth in driving big cars on the pavements, their fathers are their only hope..

Q- very true Krishna ji.. both our nations are handcuffed with poverty, corruption, illiteracy and lack of infrastructure.. on top of that there are rains and terrorism… still you managed to become the 3^rd powerful nation in the world… congrats on that..

Krishna – Thanks Qureshi.. I give you a inside information.. we have our most corrupt official in US govt also.. that’s why our name has appeared in that list… :-D

But you are right that we are gagged with all these problems.. but I can see the mother of all problems right now.. it looks like about to rain.. and we are standing in Delhi, so I suggest you head to your hotel fast.. because if you get washed away in some drain.. you country will blame us for that also...

Disclaimer- The original idea of both of them meeting at a parking lot and discussing flood and flood relief is taken from a Hindi news paper article. The rest of it was my few cents added to it..

Your XBOX Kinect Guide

What is this ?
Inspite of having google, answer.com, yahoo answers and thousands of such discussion forums for getting responses for all our technical queries, you must be thinking what is so different in this blog. Friends, in this blog I would like to share my 1st hand experience of buying, setting up and playing my new XBOX 360 S with Kinect. I am trying to put across things as easy as possible and trying to avoid all alien-feeling-techi-lingo.

What is Kinect ?

This info is for the real beginners. Others please don't get offended, if u know this already.
XBOX is a gaming console which plays game DVDs and you can play video games using remote controls (called controllers). Kinect is an accessory to be attached with XBOX console. Kinect consists of few sensors (not going into tech details) which can see your body movements so that you can play a game without remote but just be your body movements like hand for TT, Boxing and Legs for Football.

Sony has a similar thing for their game console and it is called Move.

First Thing First !!
So, if you were thinking of buying a gaming console for a long time and couldn't buy one because of budget constrainsts, I can't help you much because it is a bitter truth that this will cost you a fortune. In such cases you can go for sony PS2 which is just 6k INR but remember, it will be phased out soon and no new games will be launched for PS2.

Now if you want to buy a console and confused between Sony PS3 and Microsoft XBOX here is the comparision -

XBOX 360 + Kinect
Motion Sensing games - ( Plus)

NO Remote for Motion Games - ( Plus )

Response time of hand motions - V Good

Current Motion games - Boxing, TT, Volleyball, Bowling, Dancing, Fitness, adventures etc

All major/popular games (controller based) - Yes

Some popular games are exclusive for XBOX and some are exclusive for PS3.

Media Support - upto DVD

**Region Lock for Movies - yes

**Region Lock for Games - yes

XBOX 250 GB price(console + Kinect + 2 remotes) 35000

XBOX 4 GB price (console + Kinect + 2 remotes) 26000

Sony PS3 + Move

Motion Sensing games - ( Plus)

Remote for Motion Games - ( Minus )

Response time of hand motions - Awesome ( Plus)

Current Motion games - Boxing, TT, Volleyball, Bowling, Dancing, Fitness, adventures etc

All major/popular games (controller based) - Yes

Some popular games are exclusive for XBOX and some are exclusive for PS3.

Media Support - up to Blue Ray DVD

**Region Lock for Movies - yes

**Region Lock for Games - No ( confirm before buying )

Sony PS3 320 GB price (console + Move + 2 Remotes + 2 Move Remotes) 29000/-

** What is region Lock ?

People who were thinking of getting their XBOX from US should get disappointed here.

Region Lock means certain hardware is locked to work in certain region only. XBOX is one of them. So how does an end user is afected by this ?

Simple -

1. XBOX bought in US(NTSC supported) will not work in Indian TVs (PAL supported)

(not going in much details. PAL and NTSC are 2 types of tranmissions for TVs. India has PAL and US has NTSC)

2. If you TV does support both PAL and NTSC, XBOX bought from US will work.

3. XBOX bought in US will not play game DVD bought in INDIA. same NTSC-PAL theory.

4. XBOX bought in US will not play Movie DVDs bought in INDIA. and Vice Versa

BUT !!! India and UK both have same PAL system. So XBOX bought from UK will work in INDIA. Games DVDs bought in UK will work in console bought in India. and vice-versa. (I am not taking any guarantee for this)

Why I choose XBOX over PS3 ??

Apart from the comparision shown above, there are simple personal reasons-

1. I and people like me, are casual gamers. We cannot simple hooked up to a game for hours. Our need is a casual game and entertainment with our family. And Remote games a a real deal breakers when you have your wife, kids, parents etc at home. I bought Kinect because my father, my wife, even my Mother and my 2 year old daughter can play on it.

2. XBOX 4 GB is cheaper than XBOX 250 GB and as I said we are casual gamers. We may not indulge in downloading use less game demos, movie trailers from net, avatar and other useless technological waste. So 4 GB XBOX will be a good deal and anyways you can buy a 16 GB pen drive and connect it to your XBOX via USB. It will cost you just 1000-14000 INR..

Setting it up !!

Ok.. so I have convinced you and you have bought a console finally. What's next.. Well I am not copy-pasting the entire user manual here but I would like to give some suggestions.

1. Setup your console with the help of the manuals inside.

2. Please READ everything thoroughly and DO NOT press YES without reading everything on your TV screen.

3. I formatted my 250 GB hard disk by mistake when I tried connecting it to the console. Reason - I did not read the instructions properly.

4. Similarly, I played around with the Kinect Senser manually, tried to adjust it angle by turning and twisting it and later came to know that it is fitted with a motor which does all this. SO, DO NOT TRY TO ADJUST THE KINECT SENSOR MANUALLY...

Congratulations !! you are ready to play your Kinect now.. after this everything will be a cake walk as you simply have to follow the instructions on your TV screen.

My personal experience !!

1. Place the console in a horizontal positon to avoid the chances of tipping it over.

2. Place Kinect Sensor on TV for best results. It should be near the edge so that it's vision is not blocked. But when you are not playing you should move it back to avoid free fall. You see a white soft padding attached with the Kinect Sensor Base. Remove it. It is just a packing material. It will hamper with Kinect Sensor's Movement.

3. Be patient with the Kinect. Some times it takes time to start and configure. And if you move Kinect Sensor every time after switching off the console, the Sensor will surely adjust the angles when it will be started next time.

4. When Kinect Sensor adjusts for the 1st time after you switch on the console, make sure no body else is standing with you. It will make sensor takes more time.

5. You cannot play pirated games on your console. It will simply not play.

There are techniques(small softwares) which can play Pirated game DVD on the console but it will void your warranty and you will be banned from XBOX LIVE*

XBOX LIVE* is for connecting your console to internet for playing online and buying/downloading games etc.

6. If you feel new games are too expensive then, instead of looking for pirated games, try pre-owned games.

6.1 Try Landmark. They sell pre-owned games. Price ranges from 700 to 1400 per DVD. Minus point is, obviously, the games are old.. i.e. released in 2005 to 2007.. but for the 1st timer on consoles, even they will give you awesome fun.. (this is only for NON-Kinect Games..)

6.2 Try National Market in Bangalore or any Gray market in your city. You will find 2nd hand game DVDs there and wil be cheaper by 50% than landmark. But try at your own risk. Don't buy pirated or scratched DVD.

6.3 Buying from UK/Europe.. if any of your friend is travelling back from UK you can ask him to bring some games. pre-owned games selling in Landmark for price of 1200 INR can be found there in 7-10 GBP.. which will be 500 to 700 INR..

6.4 Sharing among friends... best options.. :-)

7. There is an option to save the entire game on the hard disk of your console. But you cannot simply borrow a DVD from your friend, save it on you console, return the DVD back and play. Saving game on drive gives you an option to play the game from drive, just to avoid wear and tear of your DVD. However, You Have to Put the DVD in the console to play the game from the hard drive.

I will contribute some more to this blog as and when I unfold new secrets of Kinect.. till then Happy Gaming..

Bangalore Auto Menace !!!

FYI Bangaloreans.

You are in a hurry to catch the train. You pack all your stuff and frantically run out in the hope of catching an auto. You come out and see 5 autos standing at the corner. You thank God and ask them - "Majestic chaloge kya??” The Answer is "Rs 200 hoga!!”. "Kya?? It just cost Rs 100 till Majestic". "Bahut rush hai sir!!". You move on to the next auto, to try your luck and surprisingly, you have the same conversation "Bahut rush hai sir!!". Finally you give up and bargain the price to Rs 170 and hope you don't miss your train.

Sounds more than familiar??

You stand on the road and keep on asking the passing autos for a ride to your destination - if it's not your day, the autos will not even bother to stop; if you're a bit lucky they might actually slow down to hear your destination's name and think for a second( i always wonder if they are calculating their net profit) and then speed away. However if you are more lucky, the auto guy might actually quote you an exorbitant price and then speed away. But if it's your extremely lucky hour of the day, you might end up getting an auto which is ready to take you to the destination at meter price.

In my six years of existence in Bengaluru, these experiences have been really instrumental in teaching me great virtues - Patience and Tolerance. But at what price??? exorbitant rates, extremely rude behavior and what not ......
After years of feeling used, i set out to find the answer for this misery - was there no government system that could bring these auto guys to justice? As a citizen, how can i express my concern?

This search took me to the Koramangala RTO office (BDA complex) and to my surprise i found that there did exist a government system which i believe 99.99% of Bengaluru is unaware of !!
The System
Note the vehicle number (KA-XX-YY-ZZZZ) and email the details to transcom@kar.nic.in. Based on the prefix XX (for example KA-01), complaint will be sent to one of the ten RTO offices in Bangalore and adjacent taluk areas.
Alternatively, one can also call these offices at the number given below based on the vehicle number prefix and directly lodge a complaint.

Vehicle Prefix (KA-XX) Bangalore location Phone number

KA-01 Koramangala 080-25533525
KA-02 Rajajinagar 080-23324104
KA-03 Indiranagar 080-25254310
KA-04 Yeshwantpur 080-23376039
KA-05 Jayanagar 080-26630989
KA-41 Gyanabharthi 080-28602833
KA-50 Yelahanka 080-28561366
KA-51 Electronic City 080-25735522
KA-52 NeelaMangala 08234-285598
KA-53 KR Puram 080-25617951
Once the complaint is received at the corresponding office, a notice is issued to the address of the vehicle’s registered owner, requiring him/her to turn up at the RTO office within 7 working days. Every RTO has about 10 IMV’s (Inspector of Motor Vehicles) who seize the vehicles which don’t report to the RTO.

The penalty levied from the auto-waalas is rs.100 under section 200.

The various offences among others for which one can lodge a complaint

Refusal to come to destination (Any destination!!!)
Demanding excess fare
Using rough language
Cheat the public, for e.g. taking longer routes.
Faulty Meter
There is also a helpline number - 080-22353785 available Monday – Saturday from 10:00 am - 5:30 pm on which one can call to lodge complaints.

The numbers speak for itself
I was shocked when I found that the Koramangala RTO office received only 5 complaints a month. With over 1,00,000 autos plying on Bangalore roads, shouldn’t it be like 5 complaints a minute?
So, will our impatience always have to take a backseat? Can something be done to improve/compliment the system to make it more effective? Will we get a better platform to raise our voices democratically?

Speech # 7 Toastmasters Club

Here is my 7th Speech in crystal talk toastmasters club of Motorola Bangalore.

Arrival – Part 4

I got few warnings about Chicago airport that it is a very (very very… ) big airport and cannot be taken lightly if you have a connecting flight. I estimated its vastness from my aerial view and soon realized that it was an underestimation. There were activities to make it worse. Immigration check was one of them. I almost ran for that entire 1 and a half hour except those 10 minutes I spent in a train which took me from international terminal to the domestic one. I was very ready to experience all three classes in my one way journey and hence gladly accepted the cattle class this time and started waiting anxiously for my final destination.
No, the plane did not crash and I am not writing this sitting in Heaven or Hell.. I am talking about Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

DFW was altogether a different beauty from the top of the world, huge and scenic. Sun was almost at his perish and by the time I collected my luggage it was dark. I quickly spotted a public phone, experimented with calling card and after a couple of hits and misses I got the caller tune. My wife answered and the voice did the same to me what smoke does to an addict. After utilizing a full quota of 15 minutes a day on my calling card, I headed to the exit in search of a cab.

The moment I stepped out I realized had I been here a month before, I would have seen the coldest nights of my life. Chilling breeze hit my face and I felt like having 100s of needles piercing my face. I ran to the taxi stand and jumped into one. It took 20 minutes to reach the hotel. Radisson, as they call it, was no where similar to any hotels in India. No boundary walls and no gate keeper with big moustache on the gate. I quickly completed the check-in procedure and took an overview of the lobby. There I spotted the place where I was going to spend all my evenings. The Cassidys. An in-house night club of Radisson. (wink.. )

Soul was hungry so was the stomach. I was feeling that I had only a day or 2 in this hotel and so I should be better hurry up to catch all the hospitality it was about to offer me. After taking a long and lazy hot bubble bath, it was time for some food. Not to my surprise, when I stepped in the restaurant and took up the menu, I was not able to visualize a single item in that. Somehow I zeroed on one and started waiting for it. In the mean time, the music started growing inside the Cassidys. I got up to take a quick view of the place. Now that was surprising. Cowboy hats, check-shirt clad men in their 50s cluttered the club. A maintaining ratio of women was decorating the club, both in the terms of number and age. But their enthusiasm was strikingly different from the people of my land. Feet on the dance floor, drinks on the tables and country songs in the air were enough to get me interested in this place. I asked a waitress to bring my food here so that I may not miss a moment. As the evening turned into night, younger guests started entering and competing with the veterans.

I gave company to my food and drinks throughout till they played the last song and then I walked up to my room. Welcome to Texas.

Frankfurt – Part 3

It was a cold day at Frankfurt. I desperately wanted to update my parents and wife that I was fine and safe. Although, there was no climate catastrophe, no terror warning or a war in Europe, still unlimited access to communication makes all of us addicted to status updates. It was 3 hours for my connecting flight to Chicago so I became a little relaxed and started searching for public telephones. But again, thanks to unlimited access to communications, everybody has a mobile phone these days which is why public phones are getting harder to be spotted.

To be on safer side, I decided to go the departure gate first and make sure that the information I have is correct and then explore the airport.
I was desperate to go the business lounge again.. : - ).
It looked like a self-managed, strangely disorganized, cluttered and yet amazing airport. It was easy to spot people of all walks of life finding their own space of comfort in that area. Blacks, whites, Asians, kids, olds, youth, rich and poor. There was a girl looking for a power socket to charge her mobile phone. Huge shops were lined up in one section. A plenty of Indian were there who were behaving exceptionally well as compared to black and white kids and young boys and girls.

There were automated moving walkways in the vast lobby which was a thoughtful innovation for old people. However some kids made it into a giant rollercoaster and were trying every possible to and fro travel across that walkway. Soon an old man, in his 50s, wearing roller skates, joined the game of coupling himself with the moving hand rest of the walkway and started rolling besides it.

My destination was near i.e. my departure gate# 65 and the business lounge nearby. It was morning time and breakfast was ready in the lounge. I headed straight to usual section of milk and cereals and suddenly stopped by some unknown force. A really humble idea came in my mind that now if I am on a 1 month journey, why not giving a try to new tastes. I looked at the counters and observed people and finally decided to go with a tuna sandwich. Fishes are always my biggest subject of disinterest when it comes to food. But I gave them another chance to impress me and after having that, I can say, I really can’t express the warmth, tenderness and exotic taste of that sandwich, in words.

Economy in west is in bad shapes. This was proved by the fact that the unlike Namma Bengaluru, Frankfurt airport was charging for wireless internet. : - ) Now that I couldn’t find a phone, I was uncomfortably hyper to talk/communicate to Suman. And what could be better than an email? Thankfully the lounge had few desktop computers, without any charge, which gave me a chance to send a couple of one liners across the continents. After spending some time, it headed back to the lounge and started acting like a busy-frequent-flier-executive. Took a drink for myself, grabbed a news paper and found a spot facing the runway. Exactly when I was about to start my performance of a business man who can make smart decisions based on a financial newspaper, I came to know that the newspaper was a German one. Almost grinning on myself, I got myself another drink.

12:30 was time for the boarding and I was enjoying my last 45 minutes in the lounge when I heard some foreign language announcements containing a word which caught my attention.
Dies ist ein Ankündigung für mr ebbyshaik, wenden Sie sich bitte an der Pforte 65.
It repeated itself in English.
This is an announcement for Mr Abhishek, please contact at the gate 65.

In negative anticipations I ran towards gate 65 and upon reaching, announced my identity. The lady at the counter took me 5 steps away from the counter and those 5 steps were really very heavy on my feet. Thousands of thoughts about passport, visa, tickets, security and what not, started running in my mind. Once she started speaking, my blood pressure started coming to normal. There was a hardware problem, as she said it, with my seat in the plain. The control buttons were not working and hence she offered me to take another plane i.e. FRA-Denver and Denver to DFW. After regaining my normalcy, I started thinking about pros and cons of my could-be-decision. I never travelled for such a long time in an aircraft so I was not able to imagine the level of discomfort I would get.

Without thinking much I opted for my original option and left everything else to my fate. On my extra grateful behavior, the ground staff also came to a different level. One lady escorted me to the craft. Called the technical support guys for the last attempt to make the seat working and guess what, it worked. Till today I suspect that they tried to trick me because they wanted to give that seat to some influential guest. : - )

Then again, started a gala time of eating, drinking, sleeping, stretching and enjoying the plain which ended in 9 long hours.

In-Flight – Part 2

Why I love window seat?
A. I flew for the first time when I was 22.
B. I am a fan of Bill Gates.
C. I don’t know.
D. I think, in case of an emergency I would safely jump out.

The right answer is C.
Yeah, I don’t why but in spite of having numerable instances of disturbing people on the aisle seat for washrooms and regretting of not having an aisle seat in case of Kingfisher airlines, I love to be seated on a window seat.

That day was no exception. My travel agent took my request seriously and arranged a window seat for me. My fellow colleague who recently came from US told me that LH air hostesses do not talk to the people who do not drink. So, with the clear intentions of getting a good customer service, I decided to say yes whenever anybody would ask me for a drink in the next 9 hours.
Interestingly, I had already set my biological clock before even reaching to the other part of the world. It was 3:30 AM and I was wide awake, experimenting with all the luxuries I was expected to use to their fullest. In those 9 hours, I watched a movie, Red Cliff. Revised a movie called Kaminey, slept, had touch-ups with the colon-dipped tissues, had food and explored the washrooms. In total, it was a nice experience to stretch and have a nice flight.

I opened the window panes after 7 hours, in the anticipation of having a look of firangi asmaan. Instead I got a very strange view of white clouds down there. They looked like snow on the vast planes but I knew that we were nowhere close to the land because there were still 2 more hours to reach Frankfurt. Yahan ke toh baadal bhi paraye hein... reminded me of a dialogue from DDLJ ... yahan ke toh kabutar bhi paraye hein.
(bad joke ?? skip this.. oh you have already read it.. :-D another bad joke.. )

Very soon my wait ended and I started seeing some land. Bright and colorful. Full of white color. Endless panorama view of snow and snow. Upon reaching closer to the city, the colors started changing. Streets, trees, cars, highways and mushroom-looking-unorganized-country-houses started cropping out of the snow, showing off.

After desperately waiting for 9 hours, the aircraft took a plunge. The snow region was left way back. Frankfurt was cloudy but snowless. The aircraft, with arms wide open, threw herself upon the dark, tall and handsome runway which cuddled us in himself with love.
I took my 1st step on a foreign land.

Departure – Part 1

After all possible checks, cross checks and double checks on my tickets, passport, luggage and clothes I started waiting anxiously for my cab to come and take me to the airport. While everybody in the house was wide awake, thrilled about my travel and interested in me talking to them, I was waiting for a call/SMS confirmation from my cab.
Finally I called up and got the confirmation that the cab would be there on time.

While on one hand I was really excited about my 4 weeks escapade from my usual life and ghar-grahasti, I was sub-consciously started feeling that how much I would miss my daughter in the coming days. That natural bond between an animal and its offspring was growing stronger inside me after every passing minute. So I took a strong step and asked Suman to put Nicku on sleep.

Then started the final hour which we all spent in chit-chatting with each other. At 11:45 sharp the cab guy called me and told me that he was outside..
all my bags are packed, I am ready to go… my taxi is waiting… already I am so.. … I am leaving on a …

Instantly upon climbing in the cab I dumped all my anxiousness and started enjoying the ride. In Bangalore, you cannot have such a beautiful ride at any other hour of the day. No traffic, no noise.. cool breeze and myself. It took just 20 minutes to reach Hebbal Flyover after that the long stretch of new airport road was waiting for me. But within minutes my driver started taking big volumes of air in his lungs.. which we sometime call yawning. With my natural instinct of survival I immediately stopped thinking about the blondes of USA and started concentrating on the driver.

That led to another disaster when I asked him how cab companies make money and why his company charge 900 bucks for an airport ride where Meru asks for 600. That night I got the most valuable business knowledge of my life in terms of logistics, govt policies, petrol prices, local companies, global companies, car insurance and what not. My patience ran out and I started praying to both Indian and American gods that my driver should shut up. However nobody listened to my prays and I reached the airport with the over dosage of the business conditions in India.

I was only 3 hours early for my flight and that was the reason, I believed that I am doomed and I will not get a seat. My heart was running and so was I. As I was flying with the business class, the lady at the check-in counter gave me a business lounge entry pass which I immediately forgot to use once I entered the waiting area where I saw the biggest inventory of alcohol I have had ever seen in my entire life. It was a you-name-it-we-have-it scenario. The only problem was that I did not even know so many names.

After gaining some valuable information(read Names and Prices :-)) of some very expensive alcohols, I headed to the other areas which comprised of shops, restaurant and bars. Showing off my ignorance once again, I thought that was the business lounge because it was stunningly clean, bright and exuberant. After spending an hour playing X-BOX and enquiring digital cameras in that area I finally asked a guy if that was the business lounge and he routed me to the right place. Upon entering I realized the value of the last hour which I wasted.

For the next one hour I experimented with different types of alcohols and airport’s free internet to tell the entire world what a gala time I was having.
Thanks to twitter and Facebook.

After some, I don’t know how much, time the LCD screens flickered and Now Boarding appeared in front of LH 755. With all the un-explainable anxiety and thrill, I walked towards my aircraft.

Curious Case of a Happy Pet

There is an advertisement on air these days, of a very popular washing powder, in which a young boy tries to bring smile on the face of his teacher, Rosy miss.
This ad on one hand shows the little effort of that kid while on the other hand show one aspect of love and emotion which not everybody can understand or I must say appreciate. That is the bond between a pet and its owner. Remember how sad was Rosy miss?

But the hint of what this article contains is – anybody noticed the big house and huge garden in that adv ?? The significance of the size will be explained shortly.

Fellow toastmasters and my dear friends, in reality, not everyone is like Rosy Miss. A couple of years back, I had a neighbor. A young and enthusiastic boy in his early 20s. He bought a golden brown Labrador puppy. Its name was Tintin. I used to envy that boy so much because I couldn’t have such a cute dog.

That boy had a helper for washing his car. To my surprise I saw that guy only walking Tintin, giving him bath and taking care of him. While it is not a crime to have a helper for your dog but it is surprising to see that a boy who is staying alone is not enjoying his pet's company.

Anyways... soon, my envy turned into disgust when I came to know that that boy used to tie Tintin in one corner of his house, for the whole day, when he used to go to office. As I myself had been a pet owner in the past, I felt the pain and loneliness Tintin must have had been through. I heard Tintin crying and howling for the whole day many times. Tintin used to get tied to a low partition, about 4 feet high, in the hall of the house. One day Tintin jumped the partition, couldn’t reach the surface on the other side and hanged to death.

Just because we love animals doesn’t mean that we are eligible to have one.



There are 2 kinds of animal lovers in this world. One who really love animals and two who think that they love animals. People of the 1st category do a lot of research and introspect before adopting a pet. They generally have some hands-on also on owning a pet. Even if they do not have pets, they show their love by feeding and caring stray and abandoned animals. People like Rosy miss fall in that category. While my not-a-pet-lover neighbor falls in the 2nd category who think that they love animals.

Now the question arises, how will we come to know if we can take care of a pet or not without actually adopting one? To answer this, we must be honest to ourselves and ask ourselves a question. Can we afford it? Can we afford to not only buy but maintain. What about its food expenses, medication, vaccination toys etc?

2nd factor which we should consider is what pet to adopt. We must think will that animal be able to adjust with us? Do you know, demand for a pet owl surged dramatically in the US when the 1st movie of Harry potter series was released. Owl is a wild animal. It cannot go well with human. It cannot play with us like dogs do. So we must not go for chameleons, snakes, tortoise etc.

Recently, the pedigree puppy of Paris Hilton has become a huge craze world wide and people think they can also carry it in a hand bag? We need to grow up, don’t we?
Paris Hilton’s puppy is of a very fragile breed and really really expensive to maintain. Not everybody can afford it.

Ok, now phase 1 is over where we have seen if we can afford to buy or not. Here comes the phase 2. In this phase we must cross check will the animal we are planning to bring, go well with our home, surrounding and locality. For example, big dogs must be adopted by people who have big houses, with high walls and big play area. The aggressive breeds like German shepherd can be very unpredictable in their behavior because homely upbringing makes them humble while their natural instinct makes them dangerous. Owner must watch and warn people and kids coming close to it. But the reverse is true at home. At home, let your pet free. Let him play around, explore the surroundings and socialize with neighbors. Studies show that dogs who always stay in confined places are dangerous. At home we really don't need a hunting dog so we must teach them some socializing.

If you have small house or you are putting up in an apartment, it is better to have small pets like parrots, cats and pedigree puppies. It is important to give toys to your pet. Toys not only keep them busy but actually push their mental growth. After all animals also need their neurons to be connected.

And now a very very important factor. Their physical requirements. Animals are also a form of life on earth. They also have hormones running up and down in their bodies. Understand those needs and try to find a suitable partner for your pet. You don’t have to bring one more pet in your house because luckily they feel the need only a couple of times a year. So do not hesitate. Talk to your vet who can actually act as a middle man for finding a potential partner for your pet. You can go online also these days. Social networking sites are very effective tools for this.

And last but not the least. Time !! Give time to your pet. Pets are like kids. They need love, attention and time. Loneliness leads to frustration which may result in violent behavior. Walking your dog twice a day, for at least an hour, is far more important than buying an expensive vodaphone pug and taking him to the best clinic in the town.

Friends, there are people, and we could be one of them, who think that they love animals but they never realize what it takes to own a pet. They never realize that pets are not toys. They are not show pieces. Animals are also living beings.
A mute yet and an expressive form of Nature’s gift which has a right to live not only with dignity but also with happiness.

Euthanasia

A deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering.

Euthanasia or as it is more commonly known as Mercy Killing.

Euthanasia has come alive suddenly when the Apex Court has rejected the plea of a writer, Pinki Virani, to grant mercy killing to Aruna Shanbaug.

Aruna Shanbaug, a 61 year old former nurse who cannot even participate in the debate going over euthanasia because she is lying in a hospital, with her brain as dead as the bodies lying in the mortuary of the same hospital.

Leaving Aruna Shanbaug here for a moment I would like to throw some light on euthanasia. There are 4 categories in which we can put this concept.

Voluntary euthanasia: in which one asks for death if he feels his illness is not curable.

Involuntary euthanasia: In this category someone else decides for euthanasia on behalf of the patient because the patient may not be in the state to decide.

Passive euthanasia: it is called so because in such cases doctors discontinue the life support system.

Active euthanasia: In this type medical assistant inject lethal substance in patient’s body.

Let’s come back to Aruna Shanbaug who is waiting and do not even know that she is waiting. Waiting for justice ??? No !!! She got the bookmarked-justice when her assaulter got a jail term for 6 years for attempt to murder and robbery, only.

No she is not waiting for justice. My friends, she is waiting for something nobody waits for. A dignified and peaceful end of her 36 years long agony.




You coin the term Mercy Killing… and immediately world divides into 2 groups and hit the road in protest of each other. Showing placards for it, writing volumes against it and giving their own view of right and wrong.. life and death.. crime and sin..

When we talk about crime and sin, we know there are some actions which are restricted by law and hence they are crime. The ones which are restricted by religion are sins.
However there are cases, like the case of Aruna Shanbaug, where the line dividing the two goes blur.

I do not want to provide partial information to make a biased environment. So I will try to question both of the ideologies. 1st the mindset of the people who appose euthanasia.

The argument given by the people, who oppose mercy killing, is that, we are not god and we have no right to take anyone’s life. Aruna is a victim of an unfortunate event and thus we, as a society, have a greater responsibility towards caring her. We should not count the years but have a bigger picture of value of life. If we legalize it, we may set an example which can later be abused in the country like India where rules and laws can be flouted and manipulated.
The point is how we can define the quality of life. There are millions of people in this world who are differently able and have a right to live with dignity and freedom. Tomorrow a rowdy may rob and kill a visually disabled person and if caught, can escape with an excuse of mercy killing. Or a son may send his parents to the gates of heaven just to avoid the burden of taking care of them.

Even in the rarest case, as of Aruna’s, if you can argue that she cannot even appreciate the care society is showing to her, let us remind you that there is something above the physical existence of brain and that is the soul. Just think of how disgusted her soul will feel when she will see that the same society who gave her those scars is today running away from her. Therefore we must not forget that the existence of the human race on this planet is a result of 2 postulates: a. Staying Together and b. Protecting the weak.

After reading this do you feel that the argument was correct and the society should continue taking care of people like Aruna Shanbaug ???

If you answer is yes, that means you feel that she should continue living like a specimen for medical examples.
The other group asked us to respect the value of life. Can we call this a life?
Aruna Shanbaug simply exists. She doesn’t live.

Her case cannot be simply compared with any other case of sick or disabled person.
She is not on life support system. Her lungs and heart are working fine. But she is brain dead. She cannot feel anything. She cannot feel hunger. Even if the hospital staff simply stops feeding her, she will leave this world without a single pulse of pain reaching her mind.

Doctors say that there is no hope for her recovery. And even if someday a spark happens in her dead brain and she comes to life, what she will confront with ??? The traumatizing memories of the brutal assault ?? The realization that she spent 36 years like a artifact in a museum ???

Sometime back we discussed the trauma; her soul will go through when we will not care for her anymore. But isn’t it more practical to think about her body which is physically present in front of us? After the death we cremate the body with so much respect. Shouldn’t we show some respect to her body which is being kept alive artificially?

Even if we assume that there is a medically denied concept of soul, I want to say today – Her soul must be crying to get out of this world and go to heaven where it should have gone long ago. I must say that in this case, it would be a real mercy on her to either let her die without food or she should be given active euthanasia.

So that was my reply to the moral and ethical conflicts involved here.

Let me touch upon some legal aspect here. We generally forget that processes are for people and not the other way round. We are simply struggling to come out of the illusion of a process which says ending any life is a criminal offense.
After defining a super set called Life, we defined subsets and called one of them as Murder. But ending a life is justified in some cases. So to allow those cases, we defined one more subset and put a list of acceptable forms of murder in that. For example, war and death sentences.

Ending a life is a crime or not is clearly defined and documented in cases of war and death sentences. Shooting at enemy in a war is not crime. But killing innocent people during a war is a war crime. Penal courts granting death sentence to someone is not a crime but sentences granted by naxalites comes under offence.
Whatever can be used can be abused also. A surgeon can use a knife for saving a life as well as taking a life.

Friends I am not saying here that anybody who comes and says I am terminally ill, I want a peaceful exit, should be granted. We must have proper safeguards. There can be laws which enable people to write some kind of a will that if something incurable happens to them and they are not able to take the decisions, some assigned person should take such decision on their behalf. Laws can be strengthened to protect people from being abused by euthanasia.


The essence of my argument is, if we can brainstorm and standardize few forms of ending a life like sentences and war, why can’t we pen down some clauses for the rarest of rare case of Aruna Shanbaug and give her an opportunity to leave this world. It’s high time, that Indian Penal Court should be upgraded for the inclusion of new laws considering Euthanasia a rare-legal practice.

Holi-Day In A Hostel

Hottest in the hot and coldest in the cold is the place we call Rajasthan. On the north-eastern border of colorful and vibrant aapno Rajasthan, is situated a small town called Alwar, famous for 2 things-
1. Delicious Milk Cake of Baba Thakur Das and
2. Dry and sleepy Sariska Tiger Reserve Park which can be renamed now as Sariska Reserve Park because there are no tigers left.
All the ferocious tigers have been relocated to a place which is just 20 km away from the main city.

As I stepped out on a cleaner than expected platform # 1 at Alwar junction, I saw many food vendors selling Alwar’s famous milk cake. I wondered if the milk cake has also been relocated.
Stalls names were misspelled at some places, even when they are written in Hindi; still they were convincingly informing me that they were not collaborated with the famous baba thakur das in any sense.
Well, I needed a cab to go to the place where the tigers were. And that day there was a special show also because that day there was the festival of colors which we all know as Holi.

Soon I realized that I won’t be able to get a cab there and I tried my chance to get a place on a local public transport which looked like as if DNA of a small piglet has been mutated by a nuclear reaction and he has transformed into a giant swine. They call it a tempo.

I want to tell one more quality of Alwar without which describing Alwar is a crime.
In winters, Alwar becomes an invisible city. Covered with heavy fog, city looks like not even waking up till, sometimes, 11 o clock in the morning. People riding scooter can feel the tiny crystal of ice piercing deep in the face and melting beneath the skin.

Thank fully that day it was 7th march, the time of the year when the chilling winter comes to its end and the harsh sun still far away from kissing the earth.

I reached my destination which was Matsya Industrial Area. It looked more like an agricultural land. It was green and serene place, stretched in all 10 directions. There were a couple of boards saying the addresses of the factories situated there. Pepsi, Bindra Stone Crushers etc. Around 500 meters ahead, surrounded by the lush green mustard crop, I was able to see a large building. It looked like a flower mushroom grown in a grass field. That was the place where my tigers were.

Imperial Institute of Engineering and Technology. My elder brother Nikki, and 4 more tigers like him were studying there. Jitu, Chhota, Jimmy and Nana.


I was standing in front of the main gate of the hostel building and the college campus was on my right. My eyes were swinging left and right for the girl’s hostel as I was imagining fitness freak girls jogging around. Later I came to know that the girl’s hostel is inside the college campus for their extra safety. My brother took me inside the hostel and all my dreams of actually coming across a karan johar style filmi hostel started jumping out of my mind. Where are the studs going out with basket ball? Where is that pony-tail loverboy with his guitar ??
It’s 8 o clock now, it’s holi today.. still no activity.. no noise, no dhol, no fights nothing..

As I walked with my brother in the lobby, I heard some chuckles and laughters in the next room.
I knew them, they were my brother’s friends. I met them before. Jitu bhaiya was trying to unfold some paper chits and trying to pull out small balls out of them. Nana was holding a manual grinder made of stone. They had 3 big tea campers filled with thandai, a drink made up of milk, dry fruits and other flavoring stuffs. They were grinding the small balls with small amount of thandai, and mixing the entire stuff in the campers.
Those small balls were bhang, a common local drug which is extremely popular in north India during Holi.

That day Holi happened in 4 phases. In 1st phase 1st year students were called in and asked to carry those campers to the seniors in their rooms, wake them up and offer them the thandai. I was pleasantly surprised by this humble gesture of my brother and his frends to serve their frends. Within minutes the whole hostel was wide awake and started fighting for every drop of thandai.. There were smart people too who made their own smart arrangements before hand.

The other boys of the lobby, Goli, Pogo and their gang had the plan to start the holi with Dadu. A old looking bald guy whose actual name was rastogi but got this name Dadu thanks to his appearance. Dadu shamelessly refused to offer a cigarette last night to Pogo aka Portho Gonguly.. so today was the revenge day. Dadu was pulled out of his room like draupadi was pulled by Dushasana. In a blink of an eye Dadu was painted in Eastman color, in a blink of the second eye Dadu’s t-shirt was torn and before Dadu could’ve expressed his anger on local t-shirt’s cheap stiching, his jocky vest screamed and was torn down into pieces.

I was horrified by the sheer thought of level of fight which was about to start. Colorful Dadu was fuming, trying to be a lion by parting his lips and showing his multi-colored dental makeover to the crowd and watching everyone with an eye of a tiger. Colorful dadu’s eyes met with Pogo’s and the hard core enemies moved closer to each other, joined their hands, added the power and attacked Goli.

Yes, they joined together and attacked Goli who was still colorless.
Goli was shouting and accusing Pogo of betraying him but all efforts in vain and the very next second when the crowd spared him he looked like an insect coming out of an asian paint canister. Then started the massacre of color, water, torn baniyans, screams and shouts. Within half an hour all 200 boys of the hostel were half naked and not a single body was in the condition to be identified.

Phase 2 started without any formal inauguration. Some body picked the wet piece of torn t-shirt and turned it into a speedy projectile traveling parallel to the ground. And when the missile hit the naked target, there were 2 sounds. 1st was of wet cloth hitting the flesh and 2nd came straight from the vocal chords of the target. The target instantly started jumping in all directions to ease out the pain somehow. For the next 15 minutes, hostel witnessed the gruesome war between two on-the-spot formed tribal groups fighting with their future weapons; Wet clothes and wet clothes.

Phase 3 started when an opportunist dhol wala appeared outside the hostel boundary and started beating the dhol in the hope of getting some Holi bakshish. That caught the attention of the tigers and everyone ran outside to call him in. Boys called him inside the hostel compound and started dancing with the Dhol. One boy pulled the water pipe lying there in the garden, turned on the tap and held the pipe vertical like an umbrella. Gushing water from the pipe jumped high in the air and came down splashing on the tribal group dancing on bhandara beats of the dhol.

After enough dancing, phase 4 started with a simulated wedding procession. The most humble and polite boy of 1st year was made a groom and everyone else surrounded him. Following the Indian wedding tradition of groom’s friends and relatives going to the bride’s place for wedding, the procession started its march towards the girls hostel.
Lead by the dhol wala and the groom and followed by the naked tribal-looking baraatis, this procession was stopping after every 2 minutes for a dance session. People were coming in the center in round robin fashion to contribute. As the procession was leaving hostel main gate and heading towards college campus where the girls hostel was situated, the security guards got busy on their walky talkys. They conveyed the msg to the guards of the girls hostel that some 200 odd crazy-half-naked boys are coming towards the girls hostel. Please do the needful.

When we reached the girls hostel, we saw that the main gate of the hostel was locked with heavy metal chain. There were big windows in the lobby of the girls hostel where all the girls accumulated to see the Dulha. I came to know that this was the annual ritual on holi and that’s why the girls were already expecting the boys with the procession. Windows were covered with metal nets and hence reduced the visibility to a disappointing low. The only information which was coming out of those windows was that the girls also were painted black and blue from head to toe. We were not able to make out if they were also donning the tribal outfit or not.

It was 11:30 by that time and it was time to relax. All of us sat their only. Some started their efforts to get rid of the color using the taps near by.
Few started regaining their energy using stamina sticks which were carefully wrapped in polyethene to protect them from water. They used to call them cigarettes.

By 12:00, few men from boys hostel’s mess came to deliver the food in the girl’s hostel. That was the indication for us too, to wrap this up and head back for food. The rare event of getting good food on a special occasion was itself a celebration for the boys.

I am a holi lover and enjoy holi every year but I cannot forget my once in a life time experience of My Holi-Day in a Hostel.

Project# 3 at Crystal-Talk Toastmasters Club

Myth of an Evil
Disclaimer: The views are taken from the original article published in Times of India. This speech was delivered within Motorola office premises in Bangalore, India. But Motorola is not responsible for any remark made by the speaker.

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" A King, who disregards an enemy and does not protect himself, indeed faces disappointment and would be removed from his position. "

Those were the words uttered by Kumbhakarana to Ravana before going to the battle with Sri Ram, mentioned in chapter 63, Yuddha Kanda, The Ramayana.

Good evening friends. A very happy Diwali to all of you in advance and I hope Dussera was prosperous of all of us.

Today we are exactly in the center of 2 historic dates. The first we celebrate as the triumph of good over evil and the 2nd which is an anniversary of our beloved prince Rama’s home coming. On Dussera, in every part of the country, fierce effigies of Ravana, his son Meghnad and his obese brother Kumbhkarana were ceremonially burnt.

Ravana was a fearless yet extremely educated and laureate Brahmin. The only sin he committed in his lifetime was to abduct a defenseless woman and lusted after her. Although he had his own set of justified reasons to wage war on Ram-
1. Killing of his subordinates Khara and Dushana by Rama and Laxmana.
2. Attack on 14000 of his men in janasthana and most importantly
3. Humiliation of his sister Suparnakha by Laxmana.

But Ravana violated the accepted protocol of war by abducting Sita. Had Ravana chosen to take on Rama upfront in a battle, he would not have been held guilty of adharma.

Now when this is well known that Ravana was not a rakshasa, let us try to understand what rakshasa is and how bad was the rakshasa race. Ramayana has the illustrations that when Hanuman arrived in Lanka to find Sita, he was delighted by its sight. The highways of Lanka were broad and decorated with flowers. The city was crowded with lofty mansions. The houses were spotlessly whites and were built in the shapes of Padma, that is lotus and Swastika. In some houses people were chanting shloks and mantras from ved and puran.

The demonization of Rakshasas as uncivilized barbarians was actually a perfect example of the fact that the victorious writes the history. I am not saying that Rama told the world that how bad the rakshasas were but it was us, the common men, who were overwhelmed by the victory of their king and comfortably took thousands of years to make up stories for our kids.

An extremely difficult-to-read biography of Ravana written with over usage of Sanskrit by Acharya Chatursen, actually throws light on the so called demons of today, who were nothing but simple casts like Brahmin, Baniya and Thakur of today’s times. Yes my friends, Rakshasa, Daitya, Danava, Naag, Gandharva and Devta were nothing but people of different regions, casts and tribal groups.

Let’s discuss about 2 of the most acclaimed characters of the epic who never got their deserving laud, kumbhakarana and Meghnad.
The legends says that Kumbhakarana was a harmless prince who got a curse from Brahma to sleep for 6 months just to save population of vegetation and animals from his insatiable hunger. Ramayana itself tells the wisdom of Kumbhakarana when he told Ravana that he will have to soon reap the consequences of stealing someone’s wife.
Even Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana had a very highlighted and enlightened speech kumbhakaran gave to Ravana before played his role in the war.
Was he an evil ?? Torn between his intellect and his sense of loyalty, he chose the latter. It’s the dilemma anyone can face and may go the Kumbhakarana’s way. Was he wrong??? Should he have gone the Vibhishana’s way to betray his brother???

Then comes the most respected fighter of Lanka, the Meghnad. Popularly known as Indrajit for whom there was no choice. To him, loyalty was paramount. His dialogue with Vibhishana mentions, “Pride in Birth, Friendship and Brotherhood do not govern your conduct?? A stranger will always be a stranger where your own people will always be yours. He who abandons his own country is doomed to perish.”

Inspite of Meghnad bearing the brunt of his father’s sin, his name became immortal. There are countless individuals named after him as Indrajit. Vibhishana’s name died with him. The man honored by Rama himself has become a name from treachery.

It is the leader not a soldier who is right and wrong. Still every year we gloat over the killing of Kumbhakaran and Meghnad. I wish to conclude with this open question we should ask ourselves.

Shouldn’t they be excused now??

Project# 2 at Crystal-Talk Toastmasters Club

Cross Examination of a discriminator
Disclaimer: The view are taken from the original blog written by me@ http://jainy-speaks.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-baby-boy.html .
This speech was delivered within Motorola office premises in Bangalore, India. But Motorola is not responsible for any remark made by the speaker.
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23rd July 2007.. Orissa Police found 30 polythene bags stuffed with female fetuses. Killed even before they could have opened their eyes.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the ugly world.

Recently I celebrated end of my 1st year as a father. It is a baby girl, born in an expensive hospital made for upper middle class and upper class people. When the nurse came out of operation theatre she sheepishly said, it’s a girl. With all her hopes of getting a hefty tip crash landed.

In 2002, I was in my 3rd year of engineering. A friend of mine came back from her house after his elder bro became a father and his parents didn’t allow him to take sweets with him because it was a girl and not a boy.
That was scene 1 in a Metro city like Delhi.
Scene 2. 2001. A small town in Rajasthan. A woman asked the nurse after gaining consciousness, is it a boy or is it a girl? The nurse replied that she got a kaani chhori.. girl with disability in one eye..
That lady got a boy and the nurse said that just to avoid the blame of having a buri nazar on the boy.

Centuries are taking their turns but one thing which is seriously consistent in the Indian Society is still the wish for a boy in the family. There is change in the society but the questions are why the change is taking so much time and why the change is not reaching to every portion of the society.

Now, can we assume that the young generation has already upgraded from such mentality and so society will be changed in the next 15 years?

Scene 3: One of my cousins advised me to give tender coconut’s flower to my pregnant wife to eat so that she can give birth to a boy.
Surprisingly my cousin is a doctor and gender of a fetus is decided at the time of conception which cannot be changed later.

Let me narrow down the topic by discussing one question, its possible answers and my counterviews on those answers.

The question is: What is so good about baby boys and why people prefer a boy over a girl??

Anwer#1. Boy will carry the family name. A girl will be married and go.
Answer# 2. Boy will be a bread winner for the family and will take care of the aged parents.
Answer# 3. Marriage is a costly affair for girl's parents.

Now let me counter these answers by my points.
Counterview for Answer#1.
How many of you know the name of your grandfather's father??
What’s this fuss about our family name?
We are middle class people and not the nawabs and zamindaars of 1800 times who boast of their bloodline. In this modern world what we do is what matters. Could Chelsea Clinton outvote Obama in 2008 US Elections just because her father is a former president?

If people are worried about who will enjoy their assets after their death then they should simply think if their legacy can be forwarded to their sons the same can be gifted to their daughters also.

Now coming to the question of whose name should be given to the children. My question is: Is it really important ???

How many of us know/remember Rajeev Gandhi's father's name?? Or Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grand father's name? Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are still flaunting the blood line of Nehru and Indira Gandhi and not Feroz Gandhi.. Priyanka is still Gandhi and not Vadhera, practically.


Counter view #2. Boys will take care of the parents. With the increasing number of young boys and girls moving out of their hometowns to metro cities and abroad, the only thing they can do to their parents is sending money. And with the growing foresight for the retirement options and investments for safe future, everybody is moving towards a state when money will not be a favor to take from children, any more.

So if your son is not with you and you don’t need money also from him, how does that matter if he is son and not daughter?

There are examples of children settled in US, keep sending money and visiting only when any of their parent dies.

On the other hand there are examples of daughters taking care of their parents. So clearly, as marriage is seen a bond between two families and not only between to people, it is a time to realize that if a woman can take care of her ailing parent in laws then similar duty is of a man also to take care of his in laws.

Counter view #3. Wedding is a costly affair for girl’s parents.
Until and unless we make our girls independent, educated and smart, we will continue to be haunted by the wedding expenses and dowry ghost. An eligible groom can be bartered against a deserving bride. The problem is more specific to smaller cities and towns where lesser girls take education for profession and financial independence and are primarily seen as a liability that must get married and go.

I want to conclude with 2 requests:
1. Let the chanda kocchars and indira nooyis of future see this world.
2. Don’t just feel happy that you are educated and you don’t discriminate. Someone else in your vicinity must be doing this. Be proactive, keep your eyes open, spread the word and take the pledge that we all have to root out this evil from this world.

Ice Breaker at Toastmasters

Yesterday I presented my first ever "toastmasters speech".. which was by rules, the introductory speech and I spoke about myself only..

I am very happy to become the very first speaker of our club - Crystal-Talk. I am even happier of the fact that people like my speech very much and i got huge applause when I finished it.. it was a great feeling..

Here is the script of my first speech.. I will always regret that I missed to record my first speech. Anyways..

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Good evening fellow toastmasters. I am back.. I am really very sorry that I will not be able to break any ice today because the block of ice I brought with me has melted.. 
Thanks to the AC in our office..

awe.. it was a bad joke..
Friends, I am Abhishek Jain… I am a simple boy inspired by a simple yet very well known fact that - The only thing that doesn’t change in this world is the tendency to change.

The 1st change happened to me some 29 years ago when I was comfortably enjoying my life in the heaven and suddenly one day God told me that I have been relocated to the Earth. I welcomed that change and soon arrived in a lower middle class family of 1980’s of India where my grandmother was a school employee, my father was a clerk in a bank and my mother was a house wife. We all were living in a similarly lower middle class locality where every 2nd person was aspiring to be an auto driver or a bus conductor.

When it comes to vision and outlook, my family was no exception. One of the school teachers of my father pushed him to take up commerce in high school and study at least up to MCom because he knew that my father was good in studies but not good in choosing what to study. In some part of India, unknown to my family, NRN and Nandan Nilekani were founding Infosys. At that time my father was escaping his promotion exams just to avoid getting transferred from Ajmer. Thankfully that was the only time when he misunderstood the importance of the balance of professional and personal priorities.

His acceptance of the fact that changes are necessary for one’s growth was the deciding factor of my life. Then he got promoted, moved out of that locality, saw places, made new friends and finally we arrived at Jaipur where I saw, spent and lived my formative years. Almost 80 % of my current personality traits were developed in Kendriya Vidyalaya of Jaipur where I spent 8 years. Along with the highly qualified teachers and awesome infrastructure, my school gave me something which became an integral part of my school and college life and that was the Stage.

I started with my 1st stage appearance at the age of 10. I forgot to say ‘thanks’ when my speech finished and judges thought that I did not complete my speech. However they didn’t realize that this boy has found his passion. After that there was no extra curricular activity left in my school in which I didn’t participate. The list of my prizes and awards is not very long however the list of my participations varies from speeches and debates to drawing and painting, music to sports and not to forget the theatre. I tried my hand in everything which comes on way. I had formal training in Guitar and I can play 4 different musical instruments. I played sports also and that too at inter collegiate levels. I didn’t have the formal coaching in any sport but I can safely tell that I have completed beginner’s level in almost every sport that was accessible. Let’s not talk about ice hockey and golf please. 

In my engineering days, I expanded my portfolio of non-studies related activities even more and I found that managing events are much more difficult than simply participating in them. Then started the era of marking presence in almost every possible back stage activity. Be it arranging accommodation for participants of university level sports tournaments, deciding the field plan for the college fest or choreographing the fashion show. From working on grass root level as a volunteer to leading the school house and college community as president, I have experienced every horizontal and vertical of big processes.

My interest in various fields may have restricted myself from being an expert in any one particular hobby. But it was beneficial in many ways. It was not actually like leaving one thing in between and jumping to another. It was always about learning across functional areas and making me more available to different yet related fields. The knowledge of many things makes me capable of estimating the complexity of managing all of them together. In simpler words Tendulkar may be the best batsman of the world but when it comes to perform as a captain Ganguly was proved far better than him.

Why ?? Any one ??? It’s a one word answer.. Leadership qualities..

I realized how important one’s leadership qualities are for success.. and that too in the corporate world when I started my career. I observed the way an organization works and how different verticals work together for the common goal of profit and growth. I noticed that a leader is someone who can make these verticals work together. Even an individual can not achieve his personal goals by concentrating in one particular direction. He must act as a leader in managing all of his activities in order to finish his task.

This fact inspires me to keep fuelling my desires to do and learn newer things, take up newer roles and opportunities as they come. I never limit myself only to the work assigned to me. I observe the surroundings and notice the opportunities where I can learn and contribute. I believe this characteristic will leverage my career to the level I want it to reach.

The boy of that lower middle class family, standing today in front of you fine people, comfortably discloses that he wants to go through the various aspects of project management on his way to the senior leadership roles where he can propel his organization to its next level of success. Be it directly related to profession or personal character, the key to success is constant evolution.

Revival of a Frustrated Winner..

On the same lines of my last post, Confession of an Aggressive Loser, which was composed under the grey, pessimistic shadows of an ailing tree... here comes today.. myself again.. writing something but don't know exactly what to write...

Though I am feeling like a winner at the end of this week, after winning a small performance award at office and much bigger than that, a win at my residential area.. It was a fight over the garbage dumping menace. The corner of the street were my house is, in Koramangala 8th Block, was becoming a garbage dumping ground. see pictures.



My house is on one of the 3 street which are surrounding a park. The fourth side of the park, is connecting to small basti kind of colony whose residents are the prime accuse of dumping garbage. Directly those poor people cannot be blamed because BMP Garbage Collectors are not doing there job properly.. they are coming to the big houses near the park but not going to this small basti, regularly..

I have shifted in this house in Feb 09 and it's been 4 months now.. every day in the morning when I used to start for my office, I used to think of starting a movement the coming Saturday. And every Saturday I used to think, it's too difficult, no one will understand me, I don't know the local language, I will look like a fool if I go to every house of the locality.. and similar hazaar thoughts used to come in my mind.

Eventually, my mother came to see us and she started complaining about the unbearable smell which comes straight in the house. Finally one Saturday, 4 o clock I decided to start.. I was not sure what to do but I just rushed out of my house. I started from the house which is the closest to the dirty place.

That day I covered around 20 houses, talked to each of them, explained how bad it is going, asked them if they throw it there, pleaded them to not to do it.. In this course of action, I came to know that it is those basti people who are the major contributors here.. In this activity I made friend with a local boy also. Next Monday myself and that boy, Shekhar, went inside that basti, talked to people.. we managed to get one BMP garbage collector man also with us. That 1 hour exercise was an eye opener. There are only 3 streets in that basti, and about 10-15 plots on each streets.. that comes out to 70-90 plots.. but surprisingly, every plot had 3 story houses and each floor was occupied by 2-3 families. By our estimation there are at least 250 families in that small basti. Reaching out to every house hold was impossible for us. (could be possible for Mahatma Gandhi, but was not for us)..

Then started the mission of educating people about this. We spent many days, standing at that corner, in the morning for 1 hour, asking people to not to do this..
But nothing we could do as in mostly all houses cleaning etc happens at around 7-8 in the morning and the garbage collector comes at 11 o clock and as I told, they don't go the basti at all. We fought with people, requested them, pleaded them too.. finally, we made big notices, took the printouts, laminated them ourselves using plastic sheets and tapes.. and put them on the tree at the garbage site...
But all of our efforts were in vein as people were not interested in our efforts at all.

The main reason for this was actually a practical problem we face in every society of this world. If it is not affecting me why should I bother? The same happened with us. That garbage was a problem for 3 houses which are nearest of it. Why others should bother... By god's grace we did not loose hopes. Mailed BMP officials regularly, continued putting up new notices in various languages, continued pushing garbage collector women to go in that basti... Finally we got one support. The house owner of the house, which is just opposite to the site and which is the most affected because of this problem, came to the rescue.

He got the place clean by calling some majdoors and parked his car at that place. This reveals yet another feature of human nature. If the place was dirty, people assumed that other are making it dirty so why should not us. Secondly, when the place get cleaned up, 80% of the people stopped spoiling it. I don't know if they have started keeping at home OR started throwing it in front of other's houses. But one thing is for sure, people hesitate in messing up a clean place.

Still, 3-4 plastic bag carrying garbage arrives at this place by the time I come home in the evening, which we are trying to find out who is doing this. At least now it would be easy to go harsh on them since the place looks cleaner.



It's feels so good if you do some good.. now I am logging off, happily and going straight to facebook to grab a username... it's starting in another 7 minutes..


I got the username abhishek.jain.. now u can meet me at http://facebook.com/abhishek.jain

Confession of an Aggressive Looser

If Everything is Coming Your Way, You Must be in the Wrong Lane.

I have heard this long back and have been laughing on such loosers who can't do anything right in their lives untill I met a new me. Myself, an aggressive, self- proclaimed-famous-and-lovable personality.

Gone were the days when friends used to say it on face that you are foolishly aggresive. Or you are stupid, non-decisive, totally not-an-efficient-leader.. don't preach us, we don't want to listen to you.. keep you old fashioned ideas with you only. This is a stage of my life when no one is actually a friend. Everyone is a collegue to everyone else. We don't bother to give feedback to each other and probably this is the only reason why I took so long to realise that I am not the one any more, I used to me once.

I was a people's friend, once upon a time. People used to like me, they used to feel good in my company. There is something which has changed in the last 5-6 years. Actually the props of the life has changed. The basic theme has changed. You are with many but still you are alone. You have to identify your strengths and weeknesses by yourself only. No one will ever come to tell you that you are good in this, do this and don't do that. I have become an aggressive fool who is desperate for the similar fame and fan-following but who is no more capable of earning the same respect.

I was loud, energetic, bold and aggressive before also but with the time I have mixed up the unintelligent behaviour of not analyzing situations and taking things for granted. I stopped thinking that if people are not criticising you doesn't mean that they praise you. Only when they praise you, they praise you. It is most likely that people around me finds me irritating and do not like my company but just some courtesy stops them to tell me this. So being a looser I am loosing the status of respected and well-known-person in my social circle.

On the other hand, the aggression in me is contantly provoking me to win the same respect and honour by yelling at people I don't like. By slapping a not-so-polite feedback on someone in front of several others. By assuming and expressing that my way is correct and someone who is not doing it my way is such a shameless, wastefull, looser of one of it's kind.

It's high time I should recollect my thoughts and change myself to suit my surroundings better.

We need Anjali Waghmare

well said..
No doubt Kasab should be hanged. There is no question about it. But the questions are:
1. What is the procedure followed in India for punishment of criminals??
2. Are we really a civil society, एक सभ्य समाज, who knows the difference between a Killer Dog and his Trainer ??

Answer 1.
I am damn sure that Anjali Waghmare is not going to plea for mercy for Kasab. I am not sure that if she will cross examine any of the evidence against Kasab. But I am damn-damn sure, that because of her, the trial will start on time and it will be in the history of India that in such a difficult times also, we maintained our law and order. If we really feel that there is nothing to discuss in Kasab's case then there will be no difference between us and them. They feel that India should be punished so they took law in their hands. We think that they should be punished but we follow the procedure. They did not allow CST passengers to speak that it was Bush and not they who blew up Iraq but we will allow them to speak. This kind of respect for the court and judiciary system is one of the reasons why today India is far ahead of Pakistan which is witnessing mockery of law since 1970.

Answer 2.
What is the definition of a civil society??? Can we say SWAT valley is a civil society where a girl was flogged just because she didn’t follow what Taliban asked to do?? What if Moninder Singh Pandher was given to the society for the judgment and punishment when they found that dozens of minor girls were raped and killed in his Noida House?? The shattered and shaken society would have cut him in to pieces or burnt him alive. But that would be a mistake because investigation revealed that though he was a loose character-ed guy, he didn’t kill anyone. Take another hypothetical example. There is a man in the neighboring colony who is training German Shepherd dogs and sending them to our colony for biting people. We capture one dog and without knowing the details about the trainer we killed him. The next day few more dogs will come in. And this will go on and on. I took Pandher’s example to prove that how important are the court and the system. When the trial will run the whole world would come to know about the methods, the preparations they did, the motives and the strategies. I took dog’s example to prove that we have an advantage here that Kasab is not a dog, he can speak. And when he will speak in the court the whole world would listen. He was a mere pawn of Taliban but now he is a weapon in our war against terrorism. Here an advocate comes handy because the high level talks and negotiations between the countries take lots of legalities and procedures. The information from Kasab will be useful if there will be an advocate. The recording and documentation of the trial will become a landmark in our fight against the evil motives of Pakistan.

Our goal is to dismantle the terror infrastructure in Af-Pak region for which we can go either ways. 1. The-Bush-way which says bomb the city in which a criminal is hiding as he did in Iraq and left thousands of orphans to become terrorists.
2. The lawful way of forcing the neighboring nation to act hard on terror and help it in establishing peace and democracy so that it can come in the mainstream.

I will go with option 2.
I strongly believe that the step taken by Anjali Waghmare is correct. And if we think that our constituency and judicial system should be changed for such exceptional case, we all are free to do that. Shiv Sena can go to the Court and file a PIL against the system of providing advocate to a terrorist. Daring a woman like this is no softer crime than flogging a girl.

Why are we so Sentimental ????

Why are we so Sentimental ????

Statue of Charlie Chaplin would hurt the sentiments of Hindus. This was small news when I opened up the newspaper yesterday and this was the front page headline today. I wonder what kind of mentality these guys are sporting. Is a common middle class Indian so sentimental that his sentiments would hurt by even looking at or passing by a statue???
I seriously recommend an advisor to anyone who is willing to make such public comment. A really intelligent and literate public-statement-advisor who can cover up, few if not all, proofs of paanchvi-fail mentality of such stupid people.

If today Chaplin’s statue hurts Hindu’s sentiments, tomorrow Amitabh Bachchan’s statue would hurt Muslim’s sentiment. Shahrukh Khan’s wax statue would have been hurting Madam Tussaud’s sentiments there. I am sure folks of such fundamentalists groups did not read the newspaper on 23rd Feb 09 because Mozart of Madras was everywhere in the paper that day. They must have issued a notice to their newspaper vendor for dropping the paper in their house premises with an un-Hindu person, receiving un-Hindu awards in an un-Hindu land of America. They must have washed their homes with the Holy Ganga Jal and held Sunder-Kaanda ka Paath for 7 days after this truly un-Hindu activity.

Long live APJ Abdul Kalam, SRK, Aamir Khan, Zaakir Hussein, Ghulaam Ali Khan, Gulzaar, AR Rehman and all those non-Hindus who are worshipped in India, obviously by their own set of intelligent followers. Still, whoever has come in this world has to go one day. I really wonder sometime, after his death, will APJ Abdul Kalam ever be able to get the respect and recognition similar to Gandhi or Ambedkar in the present India ????
Almost every Indian city today have Mahatma Gandhi Road, Gandhi bazaar, Ambedkar Circle etc. I really wonder if Anil Kumble were Aamir Kamaal, would there be a Aamir Kamaal Circle on MG Road, Bangalore???
Will there ever be any APJ Abdul Kalam Road ??? What if there were a temple already existing on that road and govt plans to rename the road as APJ Abdul Kalam road ?? Sentiments will hurt… Where were these sentiments when he was making a missile which he also knew could be used against the people he is sharing religion. Why no Hindu group stood at that time that we don’t want a non-Hindu doing a Hindu nation this kind of favor ??? Why are we do sentimental ???

What if few citizens of Udupi had plans to erect a statue of Mother Teresa in the same place Chaplin’s statue is proposed. In this context there are similarities between Chaplin and Mother Teresa. Both didn’t do any favor to Karnataka. Both are non-Hindu. Well I think, here my ignorant heart is assuming that Hindu Groups would not protest against Mother Teresa’s statue. I guess I am wrong. They will protest that too. Why are we so sentimental ????

This is Sunday morning here in Bangalore. Crisp sunlight is peeping through the window, nice fresh air is running like a kid from kitchen to dining hall to the balcony outside. What a quite and serene morning it is. There is a small church right behind my house in Koramangala, 8th Block. Sweet, melodious voices of kids singing is coming straight into my house. They are singing ‘Yes Jesus loves me’. I am logging off. My sentiments are hurt.

If we really think that our sentiments hurts in every 2nd step and in every 2nd breath we take, it’s time for us to be less of a sentimental fool. Why are we so sentimental ????

Reply to Mangalore Goons

We should also reply back to those the Goons of Mangalore.
Simple protest will not work. Taking hording and banners in hands and going out on streets will not help.
We should do something which they don’t want us to do.

Let’s celebrate this coming 14th Feb as Don’t Preach Day.
Let’s all go to the pubs, discos, bars, coffee shops, restaurants, parks, gardens on that day. Both type of parents, the one who feels that their sons and daughters can go to these places and the one who do not want their sons and daughters to go to these places, can join in for that particular day. Owners of such places should welcome people. They can have some offers also on that day. They may offer half price for people coming in with their parents.

We should come up and do whatever they want us not to do. 60 years back Gandhi ji did the same and they called it Satyagraha. If there would be thousands of people decided to celebrate their freedom, Mutthi Bhar goons won’t be able to dare touching anyone of them.

Specially parents should come over, join and tell these idiots that it is them(the parents) who will decide how their kids should live their lives in this country and not some sadak-chhaap gundas.

It is not the question, if it’s ok for women to drink or not, at all.
The question is who will decide this. If Ashok Gehlot did not have the ‘Pub Hatao’ agenda pre-elections, how can he come now and tell that he is against boys and gals going to pubs and shopping malls ???
It is upto the people of this country who are 18 years and above, to decide how they want to live their lives. If the goons of Mangalore are above 18 and they feel there should not be any pubs in India, there are methods to do that. Go to Supreme court and file a PIL and fight a case. OR if they personally feel that they should not go to pubs, don’t go and spread the awareness about the ill effects of it.

Just like 15 Aug is our independence day, 14th Feb should be our “True Independence Day”.

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Muthalik’s Statement: Love should be celebrated everyday. There is no need of 1 particular day for love.
I just want to know if we should stop celebrating Diwali, Ram Navami, Janmashtami, Durga Puja and Maha Shivratri too ??? Faith should be in our lives. We should pray every day, we should go to the temple every day. What is the need of these festivals then?? Faith in the God should also be showed everyday.

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What is Indian and what is not.
Tube Top and short skirt are part of ancient Indian culture. You can see the designer statues on the gate of our old temples. You will find the womanly figures standing in welcoming gesture, wearing knee length skirt-looking-dhoti and tube top type choli and offering some lotus flowers from their hands.

Pant and shirts were never part of Indian culture. So according to Muthalik, the 5 lacs software professionals of Bangalore should start going to offices wearing dhoti-kurta(for men) and Saaree(for women). But remember, next time you guys arrive at some pub to beat people, please wear dhoti-kurta and not-so-Indian Pants and Shirts.

You go to any picnic spot in outskirts of a city, you will find many people (boys and men) parking their cars a little distant from the road, in the bushes and having a drink there. Recently I have been to Makedatu, near Bangalore. After crossing the river you will find few places where you can sit under the tree and have lunch. You will find lots of empty beer cans and whisky bottles. I had the same experience of another picnic spot of Bangalore, Nandi Hills. In another experience in Nagarhole, I saw people taking a bath under a waterfall and throwing plastic bottles and shampoo pouches in the water. Now this kind of spoiling of natural resources is something which is non Indian.

Writing religious songs, called Bhajans, on the tune of Hindi Movie songs like Hamma Hamma, chhaiya chhaiya etc is something which is non-Indian.

Selling Raksha Kawach on Teleshopping by claiming that your dismal business earnings, bad grades in schools and troubled marriage will be corrected with this Kawach’s use, is something which is Non-Indian.

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When time changes for men it is acceptable for everyone. They call is need or majboori also. Young boys study in other cities, after that they start jobs etc. Stay away from family, renting out places with friends etc.. every such thing leads to something different from what they used to do in their old days back in their home town. And this is not new. This is not something which has started after IT became a hot cake. I can’t claim for other communities but for Gujratis, Marwaris, Punjabis and Malyalis this is happening from ages when they went out for business and jobs. And now this is happening for women especially from the last 10-15 years these men have a problem.