Neoriz Musings

MOVING TO MY OWN DOMAIN (rishikdhar.com)

2009-10-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I am proud to announce that I have bought my own domain and hosting space for the website.

I have MOVED my blogs to my website and would be writing my future posts on those blogs only.

For the sake of convenience and avoiding duplication, I won't be updating my blogspot blogs from now, so to stay tuned, please bookmark my new blog locations mentioned below.

However, for the sake of backward compatibility, I am not going to delete these blogs and they continue to exist on the internet.

Hope to see you on my new blog:

http://neoriz-musings.rishikdhar.com/

See you there!
Rishik

Column: Benedict who is basically Charu Lochan!

2009-08-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

Those of you have been regular readers or have at least read the last few posts would know that a few weeks back my wife and I had an animal encounter. A stray cat that opted for a career switch and took up the offer of becoming our pet for a day. And as much as it was a disappointment that the cat went away the next day, it was a relief too that I would not have to be responsible for any mess it created in the neighborhood. However, that was not to be, as our masquerading Puss-In-Boots had returned after exploring other options in the neighborhood for a couple of days.

It was quite a surprise when I opened the door in the morning two days later to find the cat waiting outside. I could see it was hungry and hesitant to ask for food, probably because it was feeling embarrassed for having rudely rejected our offer the day before. For me, it was a time to display my graciousness by offering food and shelter to this cat who apparently needed food more than shelter as we realized later. Rashmi was filled with joy and excitement; she was already planning to set up a litter-box in the balcony, despite the "No-Pets" policy at our apartment complex. However, as we have spent time with this grey-blue feline, we have understood the independent nature of their species a little better. And also we have seen how they like to keep their ablutions a private affair, especially if they haven't been trained by humans. Don't tell on us, but we haven't been cleaning up after our cat. If we can call it our cat.

Yes! This right here is Benedict, who is basically Charu Lochan, our adopted but not legally so cat. As you can see, he likes to sleep with his eyes open and fist drawn, giving out a Bond like aura. As if you could hear him muttering in his sleep,"...the name is Bond, James Bond!"

It is hard to imagine that a cat could have the intelligence of a 2 year old. You sometimes get to see that happening in some remote corner of this world on a YouTube video with 434,345 views and 12,234 comments. And you are not sure if the video is doctored or real. But to have such an experience first hand is quite a unique experience. I don't think I could be as excited about my own kid learning to walk and talk, that is when I have one, as I am to see a non-human display such vital signs of intelligence that we humans have so arrogantly assumed to be our species' patent. What I am referring to his this cat's ability to acknowledge basic commands like, "Stop clawing the carpet, now!" Of course that is not how I say it, in fact it just comes out like a big "Noooooooooooooo!", which automatically conveys the message. And you can see the cat retreat from whatever it is doing at that time. I know, it is not as marvelous as it sounds, but still to have someone listen to your command and obey, especially when it doesn't even have to comply to the intra-species obligation of understanding the commands. That is intelligence!!!

I have picked up a few things in last three weeks like how to tease the cat into having a fit of excitement in which all it wants to do is claw and bite. Of course playfully! And before PETA comes after me, let me make it clear, I am not causing any psychological or physical harm to the cat. By the way, I had a narrow escape the other day; I almost had my hand bitten, of course because of my own fault. The cat was excited and clawing the claw-mat I was teasing it with. And I tried to pet it, in an attempt to calm it down when it expressed its displeasure. Thanks to Caesar Milan, from whose videos I have learned how excitement can be eased into "calm-submission".

However, Benedict aka Charu Lochan is a gentleman and very chauvinistic in its approach. He is a cool cat and the only thing that makes his hair stand up straight is traveling in the car. We have tried twice to take it for a ride, without success. We have already given up on that for now, until we can build more trust with him and it has realized that a red Eagle Vision is not a monster waiting to gobble it up.

As I am writing this post, he is curled up next to me on a small red foot mat at the entrance of our kitchen. That is its favorite spot, because that is where he can see my wife and I for most part of the day. And I am begining to feel that this post is turning into a boring ramble so I am going to call it quits for now. I have lost track of what I originally had in mind as I have written this post over a span of 10 hours, with three breaks in between.

So, until next time, adios! And stay tuned to learn more about the adventures of Benedict.

Rememberance: Mr. Nagarjuna Ganju - An Exemplary Life!

2009-08-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

In profound grief I drank my cup of tea last evening. Rashmi told me that Mr. Nagarjuna Ganju had passed away. It was an instant shock. A sense of bereavement encompassed me and my wife as we sat there in silence, interrupted by her occasional muttering and intermittent sorrowful sobs.

In that moment of numbness, my mind posed a question. Who is Mr. Nagarjuna Ganju? or Who was Mr. Nagarjuna Ganju? I couldn't retrieve the memory of a face related to that name. Yet, I knew I had known this person for a long time. I had heard his name directly or in an indirect reference somewhere or the other; quite often. How was it possible that I was feeling a sense of loss for a person whom I had apparently never met in person? And while I was trying not to pose an insensitive question to her, my wife relieved me of my dilemma and guilt. All she had to say was "KPJobs".

Mr. Ganjoo's was the name that I had always read of in the emails that were exchanged over the Yahoo groups. Kashmiri Interchange, KPJobs, AIKS and what not? Slowly, my head was flooded with all the memories of mails that I had read either from or about Mr. Ganju. I could recall the initiatives and activities towards which he had contributed. And then came the realization. That that chapter had come to an end.

Those regular emails that originated from the Inbox of Mr.Ganju and went out to so many needy young and old Kashmiri Pandit community members on a regular basis, informing them about a job here or an admission there, would no longer be there. A fellow community member, whom we had learned to trust, love and respect (despite our egregious social behavior) was no longer going to be available with his valuable advice and counsel. That an unsung hero, who showed us new ways of salvaging ourselves, had departed. Oh God! What a loss? It takes a lot of good luck to have people like Nag Ji live and share their lives with us. And our luck had run out.

Let me ask this again. Who was Mr. Nagarjuna Ganju? And what my mind tells me is that he was an example of noble life. A binding force for a perpetually multi-polar community. He was the hope that our identity as a society couldn't disappear, until there were people like him. He was a constant that people like me, who have not experienced Kashmir but have observed the volatility of being Kashmiri Pandit, can hang on to.

It has been such a painful experience learning about that fateful accident that took Mr. Ganju away from his family and from all of us. A wrongful death is very hard to condole in itself and there is no compensation for the loss that we have incurred as a community. I personally feel very much in debt of Mr. Ganju for his kindness and unconditional love. My wife and I could do nothing much except sulk about our helplessness.

Alas! In death, there is nothing one can do except for offering a prayer. And we pray that "May your journey hereafter be that of bliss and harmony." Our hearts go out to Mrs. Ganju and kids, who will now have to learn to live with the void that you have left behind, dear Nag ji.

In the end, the only thing I hope for is that may Nag Ji's life inspire us to be like him and follow the path of kindness.

Rashmi and I are going to miss you badly, Nag ji!

Column: Marley and Me - Pet Catharsis

2009-08-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

It wasn't a very bright day yesterday. Especially because my wife and I were not looking eye-to-eye for some difference of opinion on a matter of principle. No! This is not a post about what we were fighting about or how we resolved it. So take it easy.

As the day ended, I decided to burn all the negative energy in the gym and spent an hour on cardio. It felt very refreshing and I could once again admire the beauty of life. Apparently, my wife chose to take the cue from my workout session and went for a long walk herself, only to return with what I can call the best animal experience I have had until today. She had found a stray cat and decided to lead it to our home, as it appeared to be famished. It turned out that she was correct in her evaluation, the cat was able to gobble up 100 ml of milk and a large potato fry followed by some 20 gm of minced lamb and felt all happy and gay afterward.

Now, I don't call it the best experience just because I had found a fellow gobbler in another specie (for those who don't know, I can eat a substantial amount of food in one sitting), it was because the cat appeared to be not that much of a stray. The nicely groomed fur, friendly nature and good manners were quite an evidence that the cat had probably lost its way on one of its adventurous prowls. It responded quite well to commands meant to keep it in discipline, at the same time it was happy to be around us and be naughty.

The best part was my wife and I were instantly able to forget the difference of opinion we were observing for last 24 hours and had our attention completely focused on this cute little meddler.

For the first time I realized what a therapeutic effect a pet can bring about. I have never been in favor of having pets, primarily because for most part of my life I have been scared of dogs and secondarily, I don't like to be committed to taking care of something that can't survive on its own. However, yesterday I realized the message conveyed in the movie Marley & Me that a life can be enriched by having a pet around. I believe one can achieve catharsis by owning a pet that doesn't mind to play by the rules set by you. Also, it gets your mind off the stress you observe in your personal and/or professional life and subsequently enables you to focus on brighter things in life.

The cat, however, decided not to stay with us, as it was too impatient to sit back and sleep easy for the night. And since our apartment complex has a "No Pets" policy, we decided to leave the cat outside our apartment so that it was free to chose its way. The good thing is that the cat had finished all the food and water we had left outside for it; the bad thing is it was no longer there when my wife went to check on it this morning.

In a strange way that it happened, I believe the cat was a cosmic intervention in our lives, especially mine (my wife loves pets and has had them since childhood) to let us know what we need to fill our lives with constant love and companionship; a friendly pet.

Even when the two intelligent human beings with the most advanced communication skills and capable brains can't make the sense out of each other, an intellectually less capable pet can go a long way to bring some sense, in its mute and playful ways.

Column: Lacking Depth of Knowledge!

2009-08-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

There are two things I am trying to achieve from this post, first I am trying to drop all pretense and write about myself, my life and things that matter to me, the way they matter to me. Second, I want to be able to spill my guts more often than like once in a millennium.

I was recently, heck today, told that I lack depth in my understanding of certain things. It was being implied that I only have the partial knowledge of "How?" and no clue of "Why?".

Well, I was pissed as I usually get when I am told that I lack anything, even if it is something as natural as absence of fully functional mammary glands. I mean even though I am the male of my species, and was not designed to have them, you better not tell me that. I am more likely to get offended for your pointing it out than appreciating the fact that you can distinguish between the males and females of my species.

Anyway, as pissed as I was, I also felt a deeper sense of relief for being told that. No matter, how angry I am right now and how much I hate the guts of a roadkill, I know it from inside that whatever it was that was pointed out, was true. In all senses of the word. However, the rationalization that my mind draws to compensate for the feeling of humiliation, inadequacy and incompetence is: "damn the circumstances in which I grew up." As if I was born to a farmer living off his two acres of land near the Line of Control separating Pakistan Occupied Kashmir from India owned Kashmir.

The relief that I felt for was - I feel it more burdensome to have people believe that I am greater than I am. But then, making it clear that I am not greater than I am, I feel very bad that I am not. You see! That is the paradox. I mean I want to be great. And I want people to think I am great. However, I know I am not great. Though I can imitate greatness by keeping the pretense, I get tired of keeping the pretense eventually. And then people automatically realize that I am not great. So, it is better not to pretend to be great. And then when you are not great and nobody thinks you great, you end up being ordinary. And it is very hard to be ordinary when you want to be great and you are not great.

The biggest fear in my mind is to have to accept a defeat and then never be able to draw enough strength to fight back. That is the reason I keep telling myself that it's not me, it's them. How convenient and rejuvenating such a feeling is, when you are assured of the fact that whatever wrong there is in this world, it is with the others.

I am brooding right now with the realization that I lack something but at the same time I am telling them to "Go to hell..., I will continue as it is." The only thing I lack is advertisements.

NEED MONEY - 2 LACS

2009-06-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

If you are going to read it out of curiosity, let me warn you, you might end up lighter by a few grands.

I am raising funds for a community member, 31 yrs Male, who has been diagnosed with Leukemia. He is married and has just started his married life, unfortunately this critical medical condition has rendered him defenseless against the brutalities of life.

The economy is poor, the new jobs are scarce, we are all saving for the rainy day but one amongst us may not be fortunate enough to see another day if we do not squeeze in some little bucks and pass it on to him.

Read more about it at Abhishek Sinha, battling the cancer, with a smile...

Please show your generosity, by either donating directly (at the link above) or through my campaign at: Medical Relief Fund

Let us preserve our humaneness.

Thanks!

Con Gress

2009-05-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

There are words that explain themselves.; you don't have to refer to a dictionary to find out the root of the word, or origin or synonyms or correct spellings etc. For instance the word FCUK. (I know it is misspelled and I am not trying to infringe the copyrights of a Fashion brand that used this scrambled form of the original word that we are so familiar with as it's fashion statement.) The F word has multiple connotations, most of them considered a profanity but many forms of this word can be used to express quite genuine feelings, like Osho explained in one of his seminars, of course he doesn't strike me as the actual mind behind the lecture, so whoever wrote it hats-off to you. And with that I will stop being vague in my references.

Unfortunately, there are words that are quite subtle in their meaning and far too complicated in the conntations they bear. One such word that has haunted the great Republic of India is the word called Congress. Once Indian National Congress, later Congress-I and now UDP. One of the everlasting ailments of our nation is this word and its derivatives.

Congress. Let's look at what the word means in general and what it has come to mean for our country.

In general Congress means a body of individuals (representatives of various sections of society) that come together for the common good and progress of all mutually dependent and/or co-habitating societies of a Nation.

In India though, Congress is not a single word, something that most of us have failed to realize even 60 years after it was formulated and inspite of all the evolution or devolution it has gone through. Congress in India actually is a concatenation of two root words,

Con: Against or opposing something, and
Gress: The flow or movement representing activity.

When we combine the two words what we get is a force that opposes the growth and development acitivities of the nation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me persent to you, the Congress as the United Democratic Party of India that is going to take control of the Nation once more, while we watch like idiots, surprised at how they managed to win with such a landslide mandate.

I have my theories, but I don't want to impose them on any one, I am just going to put down some random facts, you are open to interpret them as you please:

No transparency means greater control. Be it the Nuclear Deal, Stand on Kashmir, Support to politically volatile neighbours (viz. Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Tibet), Trade Relations, Commerce practices, you name it and you got it. All of them under the table. No one really knows what is happening, until months or years later, some wacko journalist blows his trumpet for having identified the real nuance of all the cryptic regulations that government enforced without the knowledge of the commonfolk and starts explaining how it will all be in favor of the Nation. No reason. No evidence. No facts. Just plain interpretation, on the editorial pages of the national Newspapers or News channels.

Create volatility and confusion. Bombay Terrorist attack (six months later, we are still not sure what really happened or who was responsible), Stock Market Crash (strange that government didn't get as much as even visibly perturbed on such a phenomenal rise and fall of the market. Why?)

Divide - Divide - Divide (Rule will follow automatically). I don't even see a single State, City, Community, Segment or Group of people that doesn't have alternative views on things that are common to all of us. In fact, even the neighbourhood milkman thinks that he and his needs are different from another mikman, even when both belong to the same village in Bihar, or Andhra Pradesh (it doesn't matter), and feels that he and his buffalos are far superior in terms of the milk they produce and therefore deserve better returns as compared to others. So, when you create such different opinions in people, they tend to forget that it is the strategic placement of Super Markets in the neighbourhood that is driving them out of business rather than their business rivals. Now all you gotta do is, tell milkman A that his milk is better and you will support and promot his domestic dairy over his rivals, you tell the same to milkman B and simultaneously, you give the permit and financial support to a low price super market to start selling milk that is produced by one of the government own bodies, at 1/4th the price of what is available at the nearest dairy. Finally, when the milkmen and the mall owners are trying to fight to keep their business alive, you go to them separately and tell them that you can help them in their business and ensure that the other businesses (the competitor) will be put down once you get the reigns. You can rest assured that 2 out of 3 parties that you were responsible in creating a divide in, will be favoring you in the forthcoming elections. How hard is that to do? And while these three parties were busy fighting to survive the competition, you can easily ignore mending the roads, fixing the water supplies, providing municipal services and make them appear as non-issues while the greater cause of being in business occupied the minds of everyone.

Suffocate Talent, Suppress Innovators and Small Industries. The business class people who are capable of removing the dependence of common man on governement should be completely disabled. That keeps them from bringing education, life support and progression to smaller and non-privileged sections of society. If they have no problems, they will start looking at who is ruling better, rather than who offers them bread and butter for free (not free actually, it is payed for the tax payer who benignly keeps giving away a big chunk of his earnings to be splandered amongst the governments servents, and their plans to keep the poor poor.) Now if they start dwelling on such issues, they will not be able to value the importance of a free meal once every 5 years.

This is where I am ending my first part, I am not done yet, just taking a break and giving you time to breathe... will continue from where I leave...

Obama comes hard on outsourcing. Would rescission add to the recession?

2009-02-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

Photo: ForeClosureDeals

What might have come as a great shock to the millions of BPO employees in India, may not necessarily be something bad for them and the nation in the long run. Barack Obama proposes a rescission on the tax cuts to the companies that have been outsourcing their work to India. This might lead to a further dampning of spirits and the Indian economy, adding to the recession's force. However, I would like to argue that this might not be true if we look at the bigger picture.

What it means in the immediate effect is that only those companies that are serious in outsourcing the work to India, where they can't do with their local staff, will continue sending work to India. That in turn implies that the employees working with well established BPOs will be more secure in their jobs and the trend of small time BPOs opening around the country will diminish leading to a better quality of service and better employment terms for the BPO workers that have been working 16 hours a day and 24x7, for peanuts.

There is an indirect effect of BPO culture: kids dropping out of schools and colleges to make quick buck. This is adding to growing population of the non-graduate youth, with lot of spending power but no direction and unrealistic expectations. The non-serious attitude and carelessness towards the responsibilities that come as a part of adult life is growing at a phenomenal speed and we can see a great deterioration in our school level education . Last decade of BPO has stolen from the nation a potential segment of doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects, artists and even innovators, because they have all been sucked into the abysmal hole of BPO.

The self-esteem of BPO employees is always exposed to a great deal of damange by the virtue of the nature of their jobs. A lack of self-worth and diminishing desire to excel as an individual is the psychological impact that most of the BPO employees receive after working in a stressful and non-appreciative environment for long. More so because they are young and of influencable age. This might lead to a generation of psychologically challenged individuals. And thus our nation will be fighting with another pandemic.

Finally, it is time to think of India as a producer. We need to focus on production more than services. We need the intellectual strength to innovate and create things that the world can consume. We need to fire up our economy with the manufacturing industry. We need all these people running after BPO jobs to help build a nation strong and capable. For example, we have not tallest-towers-in-the-world or high-speed-jets to talk about, we have no state-of-the-art museums, exhibition centers or convention centers, we have no space-age transportation, our online governance is primitive and we hardly emploe control-systems in our civil strucutres. The medical services are still backward and non-proactive. So on and so forth. We need Architects, Designers, Doctors, Scientists, Policy Makers, Beaurocrats, and Engineers for accomplishing this, not BPO employees who try to pacify some remotely placed american who can't switch on his TV or start his computer.

I would say, Mr. Obama might just have nudged us into the right direction by declaring a recission of the tax cuts. All we need to do is look at the brighter side.

R.M-C.S.S.I

2009-02-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

Reactionary, Media Crazy, Senasationalist Society of India! That is what the title of this post stands for.

This is what defines us as the modern, awakened, enabled and active population of India. We only know how to react to things, be it the Pubgoing Girls' Molestation, Pink Chaddi or Pink Condom.

Courtesy: The Hurst Review (Blog)

Somebody makes a movie and we protest.
Somebody makes a cold-drink and we protest.
Somebody opens a car manufacturing unit and we protest.
Somobody gets an admission to a school and we protest.
Somebody doesn't and still we protest.
Somebody makes a painting and we protest.
Somebody wins a medal and we protest.
Somebody fails by an inch and we protest.
If one buys a cheap car, we protest for the lack of infrastructure.
If one buys an expensive imported car, we protest for sales duty.
If you are a Hindu, you protest against Muslim.
If you are Muslim, you protest against Hindu.

All this for what? For creating sensation and to be featured on a TV show.
Ten forums, twenty debates and thousand public reactions later, what are you supposed to do?
Pick another thing to protest about!
There is either no soul left in this country, or the soul is so inertia-trodden that it simply can't raise its head above the ground.
When will it be enough? I am still looking for a solution...will be right back with it.

Barack Obama: New President and New Precedent

2009-01-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

Courtesy: Obama Magazine
From the childhood of an ordinary boy to the ultimate career achievement of inhabiting White House with family, has the change really arrived? In America? In the whole world?

I can't help but recall Shakespeare at this moment:

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

Which one is true for Obama, only time can tell. But one thing is for sure that he holds a great promise for the much needed change that America, along with the rest of the world, has been seeking for some time now. Especially since the economic crisis struck the worldwide commerce.

There are a few things, however, for which I feel like congratulating the Americans. They have shown that they might be late in realizing the need of the hour, but they do know how to stand together and make change possible in spite of their varied opinions. US is not just the best example of fully functional decomracy (even though it is also a capitalist society), they also mean business when it comes to showing the world how flexible they are in their opinions when it is for common good.

Courtesy: PublicRoutes.com

A tussle between the two never-befores in US politics - a woman on one side, with long and illustrious political career and an African-American rookie (relatively speaking) who had hardly arrived at the national stage when he found himself nominated for Presidency by his party, ended up in revitalizing the party and the country as a whole, contrary to what many had predicted as the political death for Democrats in US, when the campaigns began two years ago.

An African-American President in US is an indication that Americans have come a long way from believing that the world was just the United States to accepting that there are other countries and races who have contributed equally in development of human species. Such fast pace social progress is something that one doesn't witness that often.

On the hand, looking at the practical problems at hand, it feels that Obama might have bitten more than he can chew. The kind of change he has promised might take longer than his term of four years. And the growing expectation of the modern world might force Obama to make errors in judgement and end up defeating the whole idea of change he has advocated so far. It is indeed a tight-rope walk ahead for Barack Hussein Obama and the Democrats, but his confident smile and carefully chosen cabinet might hold the key to the success.

Let's wait and watch!

Do we need religiously homogeneous Nations around the world? - II

2009-01-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

Our country is and has been the largest working democracy in the world for last 60 years. That is quite a feat to achieve. What has made that possible? Very few people can claim to know the answer to that. I am surely not the one of those. However, I can attempt to put forth a theory.

What makes a sour relationship (between father and son, husband and wife, two siblings, or two business partners) last for decades; something that we witness quite often in our country. The answer is quite simple, interdependence. Only those relationships can last for decades in spite of constant bitterness that have some value on both ends that is of mutual benefit for the two participants. A rich father might be a boon for a jobless yet obedient son. A high salaried husband with a pot-belly might consider himself lucky to have a stunningly beautiful wife even if she lacks the home making abilities. Likewise, the Republic of India has been living in one such interdependent relationship, between believers and non-believers, haves and have-nots, industrialists and workers, politicians and citizens and there are millions of more such micro-relationships that form the bigger relationship between the nation and the nationals.

Now that I have drawn such a profound yet incomprehensible analogy, I can leave it open to interpretation of my readers (as an attempt to claim greatness for being abstract) or start explaining each and every word (in condescension), either way there is a relationship that is being exploited by one party more than the other. Without much-a-do I should inform you that this post is not as concrete as its prequel. I am not going to point fingers to this and that and start criticizing and/or praising things that are good or bad with our Nation.

This post is a step in the process of waking-up the monster; the monster that is India. A thinking India. A perceptive India. A wise and vigorous India. The politicians of this nation are like a viruses that renders the entire body of their host nonfunctional yet healthy enough to support their (viruses) growth. They have been living in our nervous system, hampering our ability to come together as a mass of thinking, feeling, reciprocating individuals that share pride in building their nation rather than crying over its slow and steady death.

The party that has ruled our country for the longest time has done nothing but carried forward the same system of divide and rule that British had employed to rule the world. This country has see division based on Region, Religion, Caste, Economic Status, Geography, Natural Resources, Language and Development. All parties that emerged afterward unfortunately learned the same tricks and found out newer ingenious ways of dividing the country. The first division was based on religion; Hindu-Muslim disparity lead to geographic division of this country into three parts, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

After that economic and caste based divide was deployed, using reservation as the key for making one section of people stand apart from the rest and therefore causing unrest in the Nation. A country that has just come out of imperialist oppression is bound to have a larger section of society not doing well economically. Especially with our National leaders making people believe that living for themselves was the most selfish and lowly way of life, tricking them into giving up all their belongings as a sign of solidarity, what was left in this country was pure and unadulterated poverty. This was used to divide people in economic sections: High Class, Middle Class and Lower Class. Thus began the economic divide and consternation between the classes. Even today when we read movie reviews, the critics don't forget to remind you whether the movie is for the classes or the masses. The divide has been so deeply ingrained in our genes, our existence that we keep reinforcing it without conscious knowledge.

Regional breakup started in late 90s, and is fast becoming a political trend for all the parties, newbies or experienced, to gain vote banks. Ironically, our naive nation of 1 billion fails to understand once again, that they are considered nothing but vote banks by the politicians. Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh are some unforgettable gifts our brilliant politicians have given us in last 60 years. And now Kashmir, Telangana and some of the North-Eastern states are already ptiching in for an independent status. I am sure that we will soon be a country with 1200 states, and we will need special permissions to travel from one state to another, whether it is tourism, education, job or property we are seeking. Be assured that poeple who are dividing us in order to rule are simply inept in ruling. They wil just divide, divide and divide us further until nothing is left to rule.

Coming back to the interdependence that I had talked about in the begining, as the cause for a sour relationship to survive tests of time. Now what exactly was I trying to state and how is all this rambling in between related to that. The answer is simple. Our nation lives on Hope. Pure and unadulterated hope that things will be better tomorrow and that somebody will do something to make things better. Like Gandhi and Nehru once promised, like Indira and Rajiv tried to demonstrate (and failed, uh! that we don't like to remember, do we?) and like Vajpayee tried to establish but was too old to take it all the way to the finish line. We are a nation with hope but no plan of action. No alternatives of our own. No second choice. No plan B.

We don't need a religiously homogeneous state to become a developed and progressive Nation. We don't need an icon who sways us off our feet on false promises. We don't need somebody to say that things will be alright. What we need is faith in ourselves and desire to be accountable for our Nation's future. We need to ask questions, sound and intelligent questions, and shouldn't rest until we find our answers. We need to challenge the unknown territories and explore possibilities for moving ahead. We need to stop believing in humans that want to be our Gods. We need to be our own Gods and grant wishes to ourselves. We should promise each other and ourselves that we will not sit down and rest until we have changed the destiny of this nation with our own hands. We will work hard and work without appreciation or reward if that is what it takes to build a developed nation. We will focus on issues that affect the future of our children. We will establish a safe and secure country, where every crime and criminal is brought to justice. We will be honest in our efforts and stand guard to the pride of our nation. We will not just die for our country, but die hard to make it shine, like it used to once.

My fellows country men, for once stop asking "What the country, or the politicians, or the parents, or the neighbours can do for you?" Ask, "what you can do for all of them?"

Do we want religiously homogeneous Nations around the world?

2009-01-05T01:32:00.000-08:00

I just now read my post that I have written as a dialogue with myself, and I am so disturbed to realize that there is an unequivocal communal streak in the tone of my voice in that post. I am sure I was very angry while writing that stuff, but I am surprised that I could have been so angered as to lose the perspective I have maintained for most of my life. Thanks to our politicians and their vile, to have created again a situation in our country that made people of two major religious persuasions to be at each others' necks with the loggerheads. I had almost fallen prey to this malicious political propaganda. Thank God that I didn't get carried away!

I am a secular! Yes. I don't mind living with a mix of people, following different sets of religious persuasions and living by their own standards, practices and customs.

However, what I am extremely against is the disregard towards a Nation's policies and laws. The lack of respect towards the integrity of a country, in the current age of cut throat professional (economic) competition, by the citizens of that country. I recently visited Malaysia and Singapore, both of which regard themselves as Muslim countries. The infrastructure, civic sense and development in these two countries are amazing, given the fact that they are both at least 10 years younger than India (in terms of attaining political independence.)

Now, how can I say that it is a certain religion that comes in the way of development of a Society or a Nation as a whole. That is certainly not the case! These two countries are not only with the largest Muslim proportions in South East Asia, even the cultural and social system (based on whatever I could observe as a tourist) is not as communal or racial as I would have expected it to be (having lived most of my life in India and having been taught to look at the other religious practices only from the corner of my eye, as if they were ready to convert or kill me if I dared to look at them wholeheartedly or if I looked at them and decided to be indifferent.) With more than 70%, 80% or 90% people belonging to the same religion that the whole world is criticizing for encouraging world wide terrorism, these two Nations have come a long way in terms of growth and development. And I heard the natives say more than once (of course I had provoked such a reaction) "We are not racial!", as an indication that they didn't subscribe to the much promoted Jihad that militant groups like LeT and Taliban are endorsing.

Masjid on the way to Mutiara Burau Bay Resort

So, what makes people in these countries focus and work towards the growth and development aspects of their Nation. Why would they not spit all over the road as symbol of freedom in a democratic country? You can often hear the cabbies say, "It's a free country." What makes them so proud of it and honor the traffic regulations, lane driving and cleanliness requirements of the city life.

Why can't we, the Indians, have equally clean roads, and by-lanes that don't stink of urine and human faeces? Why can't we follow the lane discipline or honor a pedestrians' right to cross the road, without the fear of being run over? Why can't we expect our children to walk through the market unattended and return home safe and sound?

It is not that there is no crime in these two countries, of course there is. I recall hearing the Crime Prevention Beureau commercials, requesting the citizens to be attentive and fight crime by following security guidelines. However, a normal family in such countries spends more time planning a picnic to the tourists spots than worrying about the queue for public facilities at the tourist spots that are either hardly usable or way too outnumbered.

A village house in Langkawi
One might say that it is because the people (the majority being that of Muslims) of these two countries don't feel any threats to their religion and hence have no insecurities. And only because they are safe and secure, they tend to focus more towards the development of the Nation.

I have major objections to such frog-in-the-well mentality. Indian sub-continent has nations that are mostly homogeneous in terms of religious mix of people. Yet, they haven't managed to follow the growth path as phenomenally as Malaysia and Singapore have. Tourism is widely popular means of earning a living in these two countries and citizens take all the care in maintaining the cleanliness, infrastructure, public transport and other lifelines of a country rather than mutilating them by over use or misuse.

Why then is it so hard for a Nation that so proudly carries a heritage of more than 5 millenniums?

To be continued...

Take The Pledge, Be The Force of The Nation

2009-01-03T02:02:00.000-08:00

Fellow Indians, this is a time when the Nation needs to understand that we are entering an age where Global Terrorism becoming the most viable (highly paid) career option for a certain set of people (mostly mislead or ill-treated by their governments and without jobs that offer a decent living) and this is a fact that was shared (though not officially) by a friend, who is working as Anti-Terrorism analyst and has worked closely at some of the worlds renowned ground zeroes.

As per the analysts, "terrorism is an industry that does not seem to be headed for a recession any time soon."

We today are a nation of largest youth population and the per capita income and spending power (translated as the ability to influence the general trend of the nation) of the middle income group (which constitutes the largest part of the population) has grown considerably in last ten years, yet we are not able to ensure that our Nation is secure enough for our children and their future.

Here are some things that come to my mind, and I am sure more and more Indians today would concur with me on the following, so why not make them into a practice that can't be ignored by the generations to come, and bring a socio-political change in this country.

Vote Responsibly.
Be Accountable for you Actions and encourage accountability in your personal and professional circles.
Respect the Nation's need to follow the Laws and Practice Civic Sense (for instance Jaywalking is a crime, learn to appreciate and accept it, even though it looks so unrelated to the moment, it is all about being a responsible citizen)
Discourage Bribery and any other bypasses around the law.
Get Active, take a walk rather than a siesta.
Pamper your kids but don't turn them into outlaws, make them socially responsible right from the start of their education.
Don't be an activist who wants somebody to do something about the problems you are facing, you should be the one to solve your problems, just let others know how they can help.
Take terrorist threats seriously and understand that tomorrow it could be you lying around the corner in a pool of blood. However, don't start distrusting your neighbors without a reason. Be alert but not an alarmist.
Maturity is knowing how to make the best out of the worst of situations.
Nothing is permanent, don't be complacent.

Feel freed to add more to these points and circulate them among your friends and family. We can't simply sit and watch our Nation go to dogs.

I am putting my security and future in your hands, please don't let me down.

God Bless India!

KPBuzz: Creating a worldwide buzz about Kashmiri Pandits

2008-11-26T02:12:00.000-08:00

A group of Kashmir Pandit youth inaugurated their venture in Hyderabad and Jammu this month. They call their company KPBuzz : Creating a worldwide buzz about Kashmiri Pandits.

The passion was running high on 8th Nov 2008 at KPBuzz launch. The signature product of the company is a Kashmiri Pandit T-Shirt that carries a very intense message on it, shown below. The idea of launching a company like that might sound crazy, since the market for such products if very limited, but the group believes they have nothing to loose. They are willing to learn from their mistakes, however this business is more about the passion and love for their homeland.

KPBuzz team strongly believes in delivering quality products at nominal prices to whoever is interested in buying their merchandise. The first product, the Kashmiri Pandit T-Shirt, is an idea that the members of the group have fancied for nearly 3 years now. They were waiting for the right time to come and realized that after the Amarnath Yatra Issue and the nearing elections in the state, it was even more important to convey to the whole nation and the world that Kashmiri Pandits are no longer going to be the silent victims. The T-Shirt dawns a powerful statement questioning the world about a very important right that the KPs have been denied. The Human Rights!

The message reads as follows:

Kashmiri Pandit

Kashmir is my home, not just a Paradise
5000 years of history, wiped-off by Genocide
In my own Country I refuse to live in Exile
I want back my Identity, My Home,
My Human Rights!

The hope is that the world will awaken to the plight of KPs sooner than later and KPBuzz is definitely going to be one such medium of mass awareness.

If you want to see the product details or get your own Tee; Place An Order Now!

Xtremely Drug Resitant - TB

2008-10-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the link: http://xdrtb.org/

Congratulations India! First Individual Olympic Gold!

2008-08-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

Abhinav Bindra, with an unassuming smile and utter disregard to the pressure around him, has brought to our Nation what many have failed to do. An Olympic Gold.

This is a moment that one needs to revel in. At last one of our boys/girls have managed to strike Gold at Olympics.

Congratulations, Abhinav Bindra and your family.

Congratulations India.

What a proud moment!

...or we will cross the border!

2008-08-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

That is the threat the Kashmiri Separatist Leaders (as media puts them, I wonder whether this effort of sugar coating the way the ex-terrorists are being addressed is an attempt to be politically correct or they fear that the minorities will stop watching their channel, or worse yet, because they are being threatened for their lives) are carrying now. They are all of a sudden worried about the economic disruption of Kashmir and the financial deprivation the current bandh is allegedly causing to the Fruit growers of Kashmir. So, what they propose to do is walk through Muzaffrabad, into the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), crossing the Line of Control (LoC) to sell the fruits. LOL!!!

What is that supposed to mean? The first thing that comes to the minds of these bloody militants is that they will take their commerce to Pakistan. Well they are the "Separatist Leaders" and since they make the peasants of Kashmir believe that they can expect a warm welcome and that their fruits are going to feed the inhabitants of the most sacred land of muslims, they are doing the right thing. However, our government that should have been infuriated by this anti-national sentiments being flaunted by these ex-militants and their senseless herds, have actually taken to an appeasement policy. Union Home Minister, Mr. Shivraj Patil announced vociferously and repititvely, that Govt. of India will buy all the fruit from these growers in order to show how much they are cared for and wanted in our country.

I couldn't but laugh on hearing this. What are we? A bloody Eunuchs' Republic of India???

Imagine the growling tummies of Pakis who are yet to know it means to eat a home grown fruit. A produce that is not imported at exhorbitant prices, but bought at the local rates. And luckily for them our thankless citizens of Kashmir the peasants who take the subsidies from Eunuchs' Republic of India, and dream about Pakistan like a ten year old with starry eyed dreams about a heaven that is on the other side of the fence, are willing to oblige over their own graves.

What are we doing, I wonder, as the citizens of this country, that will sooner than later nothing more than the backyard of a Terrorist Republic of Pakistan?

This is where they dump their waste (in the waters of India), experiment with the IEDs (blasts in different cities in different ways), pump the fake currency bills (that we carry in our pockets believing it was our hard earned money), come for gaining celebrity status (in reality shows, movies and music albums) and rubbish us in the game of cricket. I am sure, if you are Paki reading this post, you must be bloating with pride. Don't forget to write a thank you note to Uncle Manmohan. By the way, your Mush has done more for you being a dictator than Dr. Manmohan Singh will do in his lifetime for anyone, including himself (with the exception of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.) Here is the latest from their intimate relationship.

By the way if you are an Indian reading this post, it is time to wake up and grab hold of the reality. This is not what we work our goddamn asses off for, fueling the economy of a country run by senseless egotists and spineless politicians who have no grip on reality be it in their personal lives or public.

We can't allow anyone to take our Govt. to ransom for such petty issues. What the likes of these Yasin Malliks and Mirwaiz Umar Farooqs are doing. They are not who decide the future of this country or Kashmir. Please wake up now and help others in your vicinity to wake up too. Time is running out...

Read more on Kashmiri Pandits' and on their plight at:
http://www.rootsinkashmir.org/
http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/

Play for India at Olympics

2008-08-07T04:31:00.001-07:00

There is an interesting game on Facebook that I am playing. You need to predict Beijing 2008 Olympic winners and win points for your country. The country with the maximum points wins. The more people from your country, the more the chances of that country winning. I am playing for India.

Join me! See: myPicks Beijing 2008: India Fans Page

A Dialogue: J&K Burning? India Burning! Hindus Burning.

2008-08-05T04:35:00.000-07:00

me: What does it take to belong to a Nation?

Me: Apparently, for Hindus it will take their extinction.

me: Why???

Me: For a simple reason, Muslims who used to be a minority once but have been labeled so for forever, need more attention and more pampering by the Government of India (aka Congress and any other political party that wants to rule India.)

me: Why?

Me: Muslims will vote for anybody who lets them live like uncivilized, uneducated, uncultured and unencumbered society that only fears a God, who only knows how to punish people. These Muslims (and my heart breaks to say because so many of them have been my friends) are the same old Hindus that converted when the Moughals came to rule the country, hoping that they will get all they wanted. And what they want they don't even know it today.

me: Why?

Me: These were bunch of people, and biologically speaking the genes that they were constituted of, with opportunistic streak. These were the human beings who never knew what they wanted at the first place so they converted to another religion and realized that the new religion couldn't tell them either, so they started disturbing the peace of others because they didn't know what to do with a life in which the only sacred thing to do was kill in the name of religion and it was indeed rewarding to know that you get 72 fairies to do once you reach heaven.

me: Why?

Me: It takes a lot of self-respect and responsibility to become the citizen of a Nation and they never had it in them. No matter which part of world they lived in, they simply could't belong to it. So what do they do? They start cribbing about pastures on the other side of the fence, since they are always greener.

me: Why?

Me: I don't know.

It started with Kashmir. Kashmir burnt and then went cold. So they burnt Bombay, which burnt and went cold. Then they burnt Godhra, which burnt and then went cold. So they realize to keep a fire burning you need to have endless fuel. So they start burning the whole country. Starting fires at multiple places one by one. And what will happen once the great Nation has burnt to Ashes, nothing. It will be another Nation.

me: Why?

Me: They don't know what to do with a life that is so full of fear of their Allah that the only thing they are allowed to do in their religion without any fear is praying to God 5 times a day and forcing non-Muslims to practice Islam. They live in this country, they eat the food grown here, they wear the clothes manufactured here, they enjoy the infrastructure and freedom of a prospering Nation and still try to burn it, because it is haram, to sit peacfully.

me: Why?

Me: Why, what?

me: Why the Fuck don't we do something about it?

Me: Simply because we are a nation of dumb citizens, dumb politicians and opportunistic "Minorities". I mean is it a joke or what? 50% of anything is reserved for people who can't manage to deserve anything in their lives and don't even call themselves Hindus with pride.

Me: Dr. Manmohan Singh, who gripes about no one respecting him in the parliament house, can't walk a few steps without hold Sonia Gandhi's palloo. And has the balls to tell the Nation that he will sign the Nuclear Deal no matter what and gets away with it.

Me: L K Advani, dreams about PM's office and forgets that it takes conscious effort in terms of maintaining a consitency in one's outlook about the world before one can convince a Nation of 1 billion what is right and wrong for them.

Me: Sonia Gandhi revels in her powerful position and secure future of her children, so what does she care who the fuck rules the country and what becomes of Kahmiri or Kashmiri Hindus, or Hindus in general.

Me: And our junta simply cares about who is the King of Bollywood? I mean that's all that matters when your neighbourhood is on fire, your streets are flooded with mayhem and there is no future for you or your children.

me: And I the gullible continues to say Jai Hind.

Me: I wonder for how long though, before they ban it since it may hurt the sentiments of certain minorities...

Kashmiri Pandit Youth - Roots In Kashmir

2008-07-03T03:06:00.000-07:00

It was the first time I dared to stand in front of State Head's office and express my disgust towards the corrupt political system that has grown from strength to strength in last so many decades.

Kashmir, my homeland, an integral part of Indian that could never be, has been burning for us Kashmiri Pandits, for last two decades. All of those who fled were better of in their professional lives but lost all the sense of belonging with the place they originate from.

Corrupt politics and irresponsible citizens are both responsible for the status quo in Kashmir. RIK, an initiative by Kashmir Pandits, especially the youth, has been growing in its effort and influence since its inception in year 2006. I proclaimed allegiance to it almost instantly when I heard of it but joined the efforts a few months later, in December 2006, by holding a silent protest at Indira Park, Hyderabad, the officially designate place for any protests by citizens.

On 20th of June, 2008, we came together to express our solidarity with Wandhama Massacre victims who have not received justice even after ten years. Here are some of the snapshots from the local newspapers that cared to give us some print real-estate.

Junior is here for real!

2008-03-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Transgender man gets pregnant

Read the news here
Thomas Beatie, a transgender man of Oregon, gets pregnant by artificial insemination. He has decided to carry his child as he has said, "Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire." (Photo: xinhuanet.com)

What more could you ask for, in the name of miracle or stupidity? We are heading for disaster in terms of maintaining equilibrium.

I simply don't know how to react to this news. And pray to God that this be just another one of those image morphing tricks and nothing more...

Amen!

Islamic Investment Opportunity - No Kidding!

2008-03-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well the word Islam or Islamic never ceases to cause a sway of interests in the ordinary mortals like me. And just when you try to ignore propagandist remarks leading to separatist views for the denizens of this world, there comes a blow, right in your nose. I was scrambling through the market news, looking for a trace of the silver lining to this unfathomable dark cloud shrouding the Indian market, when I came across this link:

Can you beat it? Now there are guidelines on how you can invest in a Share Market if you are a practicing Muslim. Anything in the name of Islam! This is where I feel the whole Islamic view of condemning all that is haram begins to sound like a farcical thought. The link above is from the site MoneyControl.com. For all the readers that practice Islam, here is the link to the site http://iio.moneycontrol.com/

And there is nothing wrong in investing in the Share Market if you really now how to make a quick buck out of it. The share market functions on pure probabilities and speculations and doesn't offer any concessions to any religious sentiments observed by the investors. It could prove to be equally brutal or rewarding to a Hindu, Christian, Buddhist or a Muslim investor so there is no point in creating boundaries between human beings by setting up guidelines (that are baseless and futile) for a certain sect of people.

Take these for instance, borrowed from the site linked above,

	Exclude companies if Total Debt divided by Trailing 12-Month Average Market Capitalization is greater than or equal to 33%.
	Exclude companies if the sum of Cash and Interest Bearing Securities divided by Trailing 12-Month Average Market Capitalization is greater than or equal to 33%.
	Exclude companies if Accounts Receivables divided by Total Assets is greater than or equal to 45%.

Is this is a joke really? Whether you practice Islam or not, why would you want to invest in a company that has Total Debt divided by Trailing 12-Month Average Market Capitalization greater than or equal to 33% anyway.

It gets more interesting when we read through the Principles ofShari'ah investment. Here they are http://iio.moneycontrol.com/principles.php .

For an educated mind this is the biggest farces ever created in the name of religion. To all of you who believe that Shari'ah investment is in anyway more Islamic than regular investment then what you need is a splash of cold water on your face, because you are not only confused about the share market, you don't even understand your belief system well.

A lesson to learn: A smart ass attempt on marketing ignoring the socio-cultural sensitivities can lead to a great disruption and segregation in society and this is an example of that.

Ask this kid about monsters!

2007-07-07T09:46:00.001-07:00

These kids just don't stop to amuse me.

The Landlord -Will Farrel

2007-06-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

I have found it recently what video entertainment can really bring into your life. A completely new dimension to humour. You guys will love it, please don't forget to put on your head phones.
Asbolutely hilarious, this!

The Landlord

Ha ha ha

2007-06-23T00:00:00.001-07:00

I just don't want to say anything about this post, just watch with earphones and knock yourself out.

Dekoh Released !

2007-04-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.dekoh.net/index.jsp

इस्को देखो और दिखाओ !

A product that my company "Pramati Technologies" has developed for the Internet Users community. It's an open source networking tool which allows you to share content on your desktop with you friends without you having to upload any data on to the internet.

It's a cool app, check it out and I will write more about it soon....

Colors of Life

2007-03-07T01:29:00.000-08:00

Beautiful colors, these! These are colors of life.
होली के दिन दिल मिल जाते हैं, रंगों में रंग घुल जाते हैं...

Indians celebrated Holi, the festival of colors, on 4th of March. Though some of them decided to play it a day earlier, leading to a great conflict about the actual date of Holi; except for this confusion, the festival was celebrated with the same old traditional enthusiasm it used to be when we were kids.

I can still remember my childhood days, when it was almost impossible to get a good night sleep on the eve of holi, for, the anticipation of next morning wouldn't let the sleep settle on you. We used to get up early in the mornings, around six and wait for the sun to shine in its full glory because that is when all the parents would allow the kids to come out on the streets, to smother each other in the vibrant colors of गुलाल (Gulal). The best part of playing holi was to be able to hurl water filled baloons on strangers without fearing adverse repercussions. We would hide on the terraces, our young bodies restless with volatile energy to aim the next passer by on the street with the precision of a sniper, because the kid with the highest hits would be treated as superior sharp-shooter by the rest. And the best part of celebrating Holi in Jaipur (where my family lives and I too used to live as a kid, since my dad was transferred there on the job) was the sweets. गुजिया (Gujia) and घेवर (Ghevar) were my favorite and it would be safe to assume that almost every other kid loved गुजिया as much as I did, for, that was the only sweet that would completely disappear within the moments of being brought to the fore.

As we grew older the attraction of holi also grew new dimensions for us. Early teens can be quite a yielding age for an average imaginative mind. The idea of smearing one's face with all the dirty dark colors and turning up at a friend's home and making him try to identify you hidden under the layers of unyielding colors can be quite an enjoyable experience if you are thirteen and believe that all the ideas that occur to you are ingenious and unique in the entire history of mankind. One of the other things that is included on one's agenda is to grab hold of an unsuspecting nerdy friend and drown him (not literally) in a tank filled with colored broth and treat him to the nasty and unfriendly-to-the-skin colors so that it takes him ten days to get the colors off his skin and a month to get them off his clothes.

The next stage of life is the late teens, when you are more interested in playing holi with a different section of your society: the opposite sex! Almost any and every person, from opposite gender, around you can give you an adrenalin rush with a mere thought of your hands running over their skin (or vice-versa), under the guise of playing holi. If you are lucky, these could be some of the most tantalizing moments your life that will play an essential part in the process of your growing up.

Next stage of holi in one's life is that of utter disgust! The early years of youth, for that is the time when you despise every single act of insignificance as a hurdle in your way to personal glory. You are more focused on serious things in life, like becoming independent, having a lifestyle, establishing yourself as a brand, earning laurels for your efforts and pocketing appreciation from your superiors and contemporaries alike and some good career deals to push you to a far more socially respectable stature.

Living a few years completely engrossed in achieving your goals in life, you tend to realize that you are missing out on fun. This is the time when you feel the need of having some close friends or one closer-than-the-rest friend in your life to share some memorable moments and/or do some romantic things with. This is when Holi meets us in an altogether different stage of life. The idea of playing holi sounds romantic and refreshing. Rubbing gulal on your partners face with the same zeal as used to be there in your childhood days, but only with a gentler movement of your hands, feeling your partner at same time letting them feel you through the colors of holi, colors of love and colors of life.

Holi is a festival that can refresh your spirit, whether or not you believe in its religious significance or spiritual importance. Holi is a festival that rejuvenates life which might otherwise be a batch of mundane chores that we have to do whether or not we like them. And as we all know Holi marks the advent of Spring too, in the cycle of four seasons, so in a way Holi is a symbolic game of colors, designed by our ancestors, to remind us the transitional nature of life and how important it is to enjoy every moment of it.

Happy Holi to you...

To Have And To Hold

2007-01-03T22:59:00.000-08:00

Dusk is consuming the space around,
Silence heard and not a sound,
In the trees, in the grass, and in the sky,
The last signs of life, lie.

Outlines take a stronger define,
Just the silhouettes,and the lines.
Trails of a day, oblivious movements,
Rest, Contemplation and Reassurance.

Waiting eyes, a peaceful smile,
Restless glance spans the miles.
No promises, no expectations,
Just faith and determination.

She holds the light to my arrival,
And I pray for my survival.
Just to be with her one last time,
Hold her close to me, she's mine.

A need, she doesn't deny,
Yet doesn't crave for my,
Embrace, that would mean I am there,
And says "As long as I am in her heart,
She doesn't care."

Touch of her skin I do crave,
But there isn't much you can do,
From the grave.
I wish, I was there.

In Search of Wit...

2006-12-15T05:36:00.000-08:00

Why does one turn skeptical? The general belief has it that people who can't achieve something turn against it and console themselves by negating the need of that thing:

GB Shaw said:

"Those who can, Do; Those who can't, Teach."

Not very far from reality. You give it your best shot and you fail. Either because it is a conspiracy against you (so you would like to believe) or your best was not good enough. And then comes the time to find someone to put the blame on. For, things that don't have a conscience, eventually become the poor victims of our critique. And to what objective, just to prove that they are not worth all the efforts invested in them.

The fun however is to have wit. A sense of humor, in order to detach yourself from the evaluation of a situation. You can't do it doesn't mean that no one else should ever try it either. Or that you should yourself never try it again. I tried my hand at a semi-porn fantasy somewhere in this blog and it was appreciated by a handful, though dismissed straightaway by most of my friends who believe I should invest my time in something more meaningful rather than wasting my talent in this apparently useless art of eroticism.

Alexander Pope says in his "Essay on Criticism",

In the search of wit these(poets) lose their common sense,
And then turn critics in their own defense.

Something that should be avoided as far as possible. Because the actual realization of your efforts is in analyzing why you went wrong, rather than dwelling upon self pity and effacement. You can turn on something as easily as cleaning you bowels when the pressure is great but the real test of character is in holding it back, hanging in there.

So the cowardly remarks like "There is whole world lying in front of you, forget about it." should be pro-actively discouraged and you should stick to your gun. You never know when you might fire that perfect shot. It's worth spending the whole life in trying to reach that perfect shot. No one and nothing is more important than that perfect shot of yours that is still there in your head and hasn't transcended into the physical world yet.

Roots In Kashmir

2006-12-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Please join hands with us:

Be Creative - Be Alive!

2006-09-21T03:28:00.000-07:00

This article was published in my company magazine as an Editor's Note in the March edition. So kindly ignore the references made to Pramati (which is my company).

Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Alva Edison

I must say opportunity is just a point of view. Some people are able to see it and some are not.

Welcome all of you to this second edition of Plugin. And thanks for such an overwhelming response! (That was sarcasm for all you naive ones.) It is surprising that we did not receive even a handful of entries in spite of all the promises made by you guys. And it was very disheartening. A magazine that was supposed to be published monthly had to be reduced to a bi-monthly volume.

Many thanks to the selected few who did contribute and encouraged us to bring out another edition of this magazine. In this space of last issue I shared with you an example of how important creativity is in our lives. This time I would like to take it a little further.

What defines creativity? Creativity is not like an exotic pet that only a few can afford in their lives. It is a medium of expression that everybody has an access to but very few care to venture into.

Who can be creative? Well there is usually a wrong notion stating that people who have nothing meaningful to do can devote time to creating some vague work of art. I strongly condemn this notion. I believe, people who are passionate about life only can be creative. Any form of art has the ability to let a person explore his/her inner feelings, values, emotions etc.

How to be creative? To be creative you just need to have conviction. And challenge everybody else's conviction, in your mind. Say, you could draw a scenary and paint an ocean yellow. Just because you want to see a yellow ocean. At such a situation, you tend to think how the other's will take your creation. Which kills your creativity. If you want your ocean yellow, just paint it yellow. It is as simple as that.

Why be creative? Because there is no other way to justify your existence. Just think, what do you do in your daily life, that the rest of the world doesn't do. If you could count something that nobody else does in this world, you existence is justified. If not, then NOW is the right time to start.

If you care to share, the world is waiting to listen to you.

My Book Of Questions - 3

2006-06-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Conflicts:

The biggest battle of all is the one we fight with our own conscience and yet we are moved the most by the trivial conflicts outside of us. Like: Whether to go for that tempting bachelor's party for the third time in the week or not? Whether to ask that calipygian colleague out for a coffee? Whether to tell your parents that you may not be able to visit them this summer since you are camping out with your gang-of-bikers?

An insurmountable challenge is to debate on a dilemma within yourself, with the full knowledge of both the sides of the argument. Whether to be honest or resort to dishonesty when under threat? Whether to stand firm and true to your principles or to compromise with a few to get around a situation? Whether to keep your word or break it if it seems an easy way out of your problems?

These battles are never ending. And the decisions we take make us what we become.

Why then do we care about the external conflicts so much?

Can't we simply focus on our internal conflicts and let the external ones settle out on their own?

Kashmir Dichotomy!

2006-06-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

Why is it such a big problem for Indian Government to resolve the Kashmir Issue? Or for that matter, for anyone who is concerned with the cause, viz. Kashmiri pundits, Kashmir Muslims and Pakistan. The answer is the dichotomy in the approach to solve the problem.

One side of the picture, which is visible to the world, is the rightful ownership of the geographical paradise, which is Kashmir. Graced with the natural beauty, enhanced by the climatic ambiance and abundance of natural resources, makes it a great place to live and work in. Any human being in his right mind would want to inhabit such a serene and enthrallingly romantic place. And owing to its breathtaking scenery and historic heritage, it becomes a hot tourist spot as well, translating into accretion of foreign currency. Therefore, making it a lucrative job to govern the valley, for any administrative body. Anybody who rules Kashmir will no doubt be generating a huge revenue through tourism.

Also, it doesn't take an economist of the caliber of Amartya Sen, to figure out that any eco-friendly industry (apart from tourism) will be an ideal way to rejuvenate the sinking lifestyle of the inhabitants of Kashmir. The first and foremost example being the IT industry. There is a tremendous shortage of high-earning jobs in the valley of Kashmir, and the moment a Software Technology Park opens up in Srinagar or around it, in no time the focus of the wayward youth of Kashmir will be diverted towards the avenues of wealth generation instead of focusing on violent entanglements which are brought about by sheer idleness of mind.

The point is, if it sounds so simple, then why hasn't this solution been implemented so far? Why would the Government of India not take the needed steps towards these apparently easy way to the betterment of the state of affairs in the valley. This question now brings us to understanding the other side of the picture.

What could be the reason, that no government in last 60 years has been effective in finding a solution for the Kashmir problem? Why not take the route of industrialization, modernization of the valley if it can bring this perpetual problem to an end?

Based on the Indian political scenario, the only thing that comes to mind is that maybe the people who are ruling the country are not qualified enough or are deprived of the common sense, to look at the straightforward and amicable solutions. I would say, people who are in fact ruling a huge nation of diverse demographics, can't be so dumb as not to know what can bring this absolutely unproductive turmoil in the Valley of Kashmir to an end.

The dichotomy as I suggested in the very first paragraph of this article, is the need of the politicians to have some soft issues to arouse the nation's sympathies and achieve electoral victory. If there is a complete social harmony and no communal or extremist violence in the country, and if we focus on technological advancements and economic growth of our country, it render our politicians incapable of these petty thefts, by which they fill their Swiss banks accounts. Those in power, no matter how they got their, want to take the opportunity ensure a financial stability for their next ten generations to come. And they believe they can't achieve all that if they really work for the betterment of the country.

The politicians of our country, generally suffering from myopic vision, have consistently failed to see the long term benefits of engaging in healthy practices of managing the resources of our country, which can bring us at par with the countries like US and UK and can in turn improve their (politicians') standard of life too. Instead they have spent their lifetimes manipulating the major portion of our population, that is still illiterate, into believing that they are the only hope for the underprivileged. They have been twisting and bending the laws and constitution of our country to their own benefits such as burying their criminal past under the complicated intricacies of the law and generating new opportunities to commit more crimes. And they have consistently been acquiring wealth as if there was no tomorrow.And we, the citizens of India are to be blamed for giving such parasites the responsibility to run our country.

We need to understand that, for them Kashmir is not about the sentiments of the people who are the integral part of the history and geography of the Valley, it's not about bringing a status-quo, it's not even about providing a better platform for the citizens of this country to flourish on; it is just a matter of keeping some burning issues alive (like Gujarat, North-East, Reservations etc.) to keep their votebanks. So that they can get reelected to the same position and continue conning the certain segments of the people of our country as well as the whole world that we are abreast with the developed nations, and the credit goes to our most able leaders, when internally we all know that we are rotting because of the inadequate administration and governance.

The icing on the cake is the fact that now even some Kashmiri pundits have joined the rat race to gain political control over the Valley and are demanding a separate state, which they claim is the right solution to the problem. Kashmiri pundits, who are not even 10% of the population of the Valley claim themselves as representing the entire state and being capable of governing it independently. This is a stark indication of the politicization of a sensitive issue of reinstating harmony in a disturbed state. And as long as the unreasonable greed of these corrupted human beings is not satiated, we will never be able to achieve a good solution to this problem.

In my view, the only good solution to the problem is the end of political propaganda, which has been carried on, on the expense of innocent Kashmiris, who could never understand that they were always being used for a cause that had nothing to do with the improvement of their lives. And a more vigilant involvement on our part, in exercising our rights of choosing the right people to lead our country.

My Book Of Questions - 2

2006-06-11T02:06:00.000-07:00

Compromise:

We have to live with so many compromises that it sometimes make me wonder how much of compromise are we really capable of? I look around and see so many imperfections, so many voids left to be filled with something meanigful and yet nothing arrives to fill in that gap of absolute absurdity. And most of the times it fills me with anger, because there is nothing I can do, or probably nothing that I want to do about it. Yet I feel that someone should do something about it. And that in turn adds to my frustration.

Why is it that so many things in our lives are left wanton?

What is it that drives us in spite of knowing that most of the things that we worry about may never really happen?

My Book of Questions -1

2006-06-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

Relationship:

Being lonely really teaches you how to be in touch with yourself, so much so that you almost lose contact with the world outside you. You exist and that existence is so loud that you can’t hear anything else but yourself. There are merits and demerits of being aware of yourself, or in other words being self-conscious. You have to learn to accept yourself as you are because there is no way you can break up with yourself. It’s not like a relationship with a physically separated entity that you can snap out of when you don’t see any benefits of continuing it. It is a hard and naked truth that you have to live with. And there is no estrangement possible; no matter how hard you try. You are completely exposed to the weaknesses of your person and still you are not able to break up. I think that is the most difficult relationship to maintain. The one with yourself!

Why then is it so easy to breakup with another person you are in relationship with, just because he/she does not fit all your requirements?

Is it fair to expect high from a relationship? Is it fair to want things that you may not be able to compensate for?

The Pledge

2006-05-23T01:40:00.000-07:00

In my schooling days, we had a pledge that used to be imposed on us by our worthy educators, and we (although not to question our patriotism) always loathed the morning half an hour of assembly which was meant to be a mass communion; praising our Forefathers, Gods, Leaders of our country and all that exists apart from them. At that time it did not make much sense as to why we were put through this meaningless routine, day after day, each day for bloody 12 huge years of our lives.

I am sorry but I don't remember a word of that pledge!

But today, the way our Nation is going the days are not far when following will be the pledge of the Nation and kids will love to say it every morning religiously:

"India is my country, that is until I appear for my GRE and GMAT. Indians are my brothers and sisters and I am quite uncomforable with the fact that one day I would have to marry one of my own sisters.

I love my country, because I know that when you love something you should let it go....and all that blah blah...

I try very hard to feel proud of its rich and varied heritage that historians say there was until Moughals followed by Britishers followed by Politicians screwed it up.

I shall always strive to be worthy of it but I guess there is only 5% probability that I will ever attain that worthiness cause there are already 25% OBC candidates who are worthy of it, and another 20% SC candidates followed by 5% ST and another 35% Handicapped, Sports Person, Terrorist affected, Minority Community and under poverty line candidates who are worthy of it.

I shall give respect to my parents if they respect my boundaries and don't push me to be what they want me to be; to the teachers if they can make me understand why they have been teaching the same syllabii for last 30 years; and elders if they don't come in my way, and treat everyone with courtesy if I have time for that.

To my country and my people, I pledge my soul but not as long as it resides in my body.

In their wellbeing and prosperity alone, lies my happiness but I have learnt to find ways to keep myself happy otherwise also.

Jai Hind"

Life Unexplained

2006-01-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

Blasted by the Nature's wit,

I am aghast'ed,

Flabbergasted,

Exhausted.

Overwhelmed by my own existence.

With a panic and sustained persistence,

I try to analyze,

Prioritize,

Optimize.

Never asked for a silver spoon,

Didn't care for curse or boon.

The rituals of life,

I kept performing,

Reforming,

Deforming.

Licking up my own wounds,

To the music of life did I always swoon,

Making way where there wasn't any

Gave my love when 'had no penny,

I kept striving,

Driving,

Surviving.

Torn down by disappointments,

Never found a road, with lesser bends,

Making mends,

Following Trends,

On the path of life,

I did Mature,

Endure,

Secure.

Experimented with love and lust.

With broken heart and dying trust,

I moved ahead with a greater thrust,

Never accepting defeat, in this contest,

They asked me to lay down,

And I Protest,

Transgressed,

My Conquest.

But when I peek into my past

No memories are left that will last,

I am standing alone in my history galore,

And the waves of memory,

Never reach the shore,

Life tends to be meaningless,

Such a whore!

And I think, And I think, And I think,

Not a blink,

And I sink,And I Sink, And I Sink.

Fantasies of a Lazy Ass

2006-01-22T00:33:00.000-08:00

How many times has it happened I can't even remember. Saturday morning arrives and I am lying in my bed oblivion to the constant, indefatigable movement of the hands of my wall clock. It strikes 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 and so on...without any visible effect on me. And yet it doesn't give up. I am lying there, half asleep half faking it, in a make believe Eutopia of my own, where I will never have to wake up to the lonely walls of my bedroom and would instead be greeted by the flower gralands studded blondes, wearing see-through scarfs as a substitute for skirts and thick wavy hair blobs acting as the natural bikini tops, covering there cute little bosoms waiting to be nibbled by my...."TTTTTTRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGGGG!"

Good Morning, Hyderabad! It is 6:30 am, headlines for the moment. 82nd Pleanry Session of Congress begins today...blah blah. India vz. Pakistan second test match to be started today at Faislabad..blah blah. And here goes nothing.

It is 6:30, I have a cricket match to play. Before that, I have to reach there on time. Before that I have to call up my friend who is going to pick me up on his way to the ground. Before that I have to wake up completely and get freshened and make myself presentable...Umm! Aactually just ready-for-cricket kinda presentable...you see. Well, you won't be taken seriously committed to the game if you appear in a half asleep state and that is the last thing I want, to be taken lightly. I don't know why but I hate it when people take me lightly, I guess that is some psychological condition, like self-obsession or something, but I don't care.

And the day starts with a 5 hour physical exertion...Don't ask me the result of the match because it is not about the match I am writing. It's about me. And I was happy to have spent those hours with some really committed guys trying to satiate their desires of playing for India in the National Cricket team. Well, they could have made it, almost, if they had not chosen to be in the IT industry. But that is again irrelevant. I come home after 5 hours of run-for-your-life madness on the cricket ground and there it starts again, my fantasy. This milky white skinned babe, wearing the scarf and her hair covering her supple breasts, only that this time it is a brunette well I don't mind actually, asks me to take off my t-shirt and lie on my belly, as she is here to massage my back and relieve me off my fatigue.

I was gleaming with pleasure; sometimes the anticipation of an event is more pleasurable than the actual occurance of the event itself. I took my t-shirt off with a masquiline jerk and yet complying with the sensuality of the moment (at the same time ignoring that deplorable tyre of fat which I proudly call my waist and the gynacomastic chest which would have put any woman to shame in a different world), made my movements in a more dignified and subtle manner. Looking in the eyes of that beautiful sculpture of a woman whose eyes had promised me more than just massage. And then all of a sudden she jerks her hair back in a motion more graceful than the amble of a cheetah. And approaches me with lustful eyes and her hand is about to rest on my shoulder, as I can breath her fragrance. That soft milky cushion of her palm touches my shoulder blade and suddenly....BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR....BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...

Damn !!! The house maid, all charged up to finish the cleaning in yet another record time and full of impatience as it is noontime and yet she has to ring the bell 5 times before I answer the door. And that concludes my massage session for the day. I am all up and ready to take a quick shower and get ready for the rest of the day when I realize that I could actually realize a part of my dream. The sparkle in my eye, on that thought, was brighter than a million dollar diamond. And in five minutes I was in the reclining chair of this barber shop around the corner, having my bones crunched by the massager. He was doing his best to make sure he earned a tip today, and I with my eyes closed was enjoying the climax of my encounter with my dream masseuse, ocassionaly interrupted by the jerks and sounds of nitrogen pops in the different joints of my body.

Finally, I realized the power of imaginative thinking...

One must always speak one's heart!

2005-11-20T06:07:00.000-08:00

Is that really a good idea? I often ask myself, and immediately get a reply,"Get real, dude!"

Well, many times I have to stop myself from uttering that swear word as a retaliation to some unwanted stimulus. And every time I manage to do that, I cause my guts to come boiling to my mouth and then go back down to where they belong, in the process setting everything on fire inside. I tell you, it's not that nice really! $*&#$@. The involuntary exposure of your palate to the acrid bile juices can be pyschologically disorienting.

However, there are those soft moments when you can't also afford to unleash the beast within. As the chinese proverb appropriately says,"Patience in a moment of anger can save you a 100 years of misery." which is in fact very accurate. Some years back such a fit of rage had nearly cost me my neck (metaphorically speaking; literally it was my job). Yet, there are times, when you gotta let it out. Otherwise, it can wreck you.

Now the question is how to decide when it should stay within and when it should come out?

Over the past four years, I have undergone one helluva of catharsis. And it was a one multilayered, multidimensional and multifaceted catharsis. I transformed from an enthusiastic young boy to a grave adult; from a "bursting-with-enthusiasm" engineer to a seasoned professional; from a romantic to a skeptic; from a dreamer to a doer; from a thinker to a philosopher; and to sum it all up from sublime to ridiculous. Well, why I say that is because as long as you are the part of the Universe and you don't question your existence, you can live happily with what you are. But when you start questioning your existence, it is a whole new ball game.

Whenever there is a challenge, there is a conflict and whenever there is a conflict you are affected. So, it is quite natural to be overwhelmed by strong emotions and that is usually when the conflict is multiplied because now you are not only bothered about the original conflict but also by the conflict of how you should react. And the most important factor in deciding how you should react is, what is your position in this situation. What role are you playing int he conflict? Are you the source of the conflict or are you the victim? Or worse yet, are you a mere audience?

Cantankerous Clatter - 2

2005-11-07T04:45:00.000-08:00

After I wrote the Part-I, I thought I would very soon write the Part-II and my plan was to explain the obvious contradiction in my post that I was on one hand criticizing the use of bombastic words and on the other hand using them myself. The idea was to gerenate the curiosity and then explain that we actually don't need bombastic words to explain something, irrespective of how complex that something might be.

However, immediately after writing that post, I had to go through a job change, a painful relocation and heart-wrenching farewells...blah blah blah... So finally I could never bring myself upto writing the second part as I had intended.

But yeah I am planning to be more regular now onwards...so let's see how it goes.

Cantankerous Clatter - 1

2005-09-06T02:54:00.000-07:00

Cantankerous Clatter!

What in hell does that mean!!!!!!!

Well, nothing really, it is just a combination of some less commonly used words. If we were to translate it, it would mean, an obstructive and distractive noise, which can lead to irritation and restlessness.

But why use such phrases or words?

In today's world of pretenses we generally measure competence by one's ability to project onself as someone much greater and much more capable than the reality. And that is why our existence has become a multi-layered existence. The simplicity of human life no longer exists, it gets more and more complicated by the day. And we are losing the fundamental value of our existence.

I have recently taken up writing very seriously and I am maintaining a blog (http://neoriz-musings.blogspot.com/). Since, I started writing my own blog (i.e. without anyone editing it) I got more and more anxious to know who my peers were, the contemporary writers who existed in the blog-world, and what all did they write about? I was more curious to measure (actually judge) the calibre of these writers in comparison with mine. And then to my dismay (but eventually to my pleasure because it helped me ideftify my areas of improvement) I realized that I stood no where when it came to ingenuinity,to faithful reproduction of thoughts on paper (or e-paper if you are a perfection freak!) It is an art from which I was completely unaware.
As I rummaged through the tons and tons of blogs on the net I realized that there is so much of talent around the world and so much for me to learn. But then suddenly I started coming across a different breed of writers,who had a fantabulous vocab and a bombastic style of writing but no content. And that is what made me think about the existence of intellectual anomalies in the world. The ones who are in fact the Cantankerous Clatter of this world.

I call them intellectual anomalies, because these people who write in good language and with a brilliant style are indeed intellectuals, for without intellect they couldn't have written in such a good manner and wouldn't have acquired such a remarkable style. But they are anomalies too, because what they focus on is not the art of writing but the art of presentation. In my opinion the art of writing has an important basis, which is the gravity of the subject that is being written about.

Well, with this thought I would like to come to a more general extrapolation of this fortuitous epidemic that is spreading around the world. Today's world is that of street smarts, in fact they have come to inherit it. In any sphere of life you throw a glance at, you see hustlers everywhere. If you are capable of getting things done, you are a hero. You are an achiever. And nobody cares, how well established your thought or design is. What counts is an action that may bring some fruit, in short term or long. That's why we see so many people making it to the top echelons today. Being successful is no longer a dream these days, it's walk-your-way-through-to reality. The only thing you have to take care of is to step on the right stones and keep moving ahead. But are we in fact moving ahead?

Many people refute the prophecies that claim self-annihilation of human race as inevitable. And the reason they give is that human beings are gaining more knowledge therefore more intellegence therefore more senstivity therefore a better perception and finally a common goal. So when the goals are common the chances self destruction are very few. If you minutely observe this statement you will surely see the inherent contradiction. For human beings, the common goal has always ensured an increase in competition and not collaboration (unless it is forced). So there is your pattern. The proof that we are indeed moving towards the point of irreversible degeneration.

And why so? Because we are no more the followers of fundamentals. We don't like to question ourselves anymore as to "Why do we want to do what we want to do?" What we do care to ask is, "What we want?" and "How to get it?" Because these two questions are good enough to keep us busy for the rest of our lives, to keep our pockets loaded and to let us buy that dream home or that luxury car. Like these brilliant but superficial writers that you will find in the blog-world. All they know or care is to write a blog. Some do it for public attentions, some for proving profeciency of language and some for apparently no reason at all. They just do it. But nobody cares to think why should they write in the first place.

If there is no fundamental purpose for them to write, they shouldn't write. But they will. And nobody can stop them. Again, Cantankerous Clatter!

What makes me worry is the sudden spread of this lack of fundmental motives in people from all segments of society. Even the real intellectuals are not left unaffected by it.

To be continued...

You merely have to write!

2005-08-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

I met, not long ago, a young man
who aspired to become a novelist.

Knowing that I was in the profession,
he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition.

I did my best to explain.

'The first thing,'I said,
'is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen.

After that you merely have to write.'

-Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

Free thinking is Freedom of Thinking!

2005-08-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

All you have to do is to think.

Not because of something.
Not based on something.
Not about something.
Not for something.

Just think!

That is the Freedom of Thinking.

That is Free Thinking.

This Some Funny Psycho Test Site!!!

2005-08-11T02:41:00.000-07:00

Der Resistance
Achtung! You are 7% brainwashworthy, 36% antitolerant, and 57% blindly patriotic

Welcome to the Resistance (Der Widerstand)! You believe in freedom, justice, equality, and your country, and you can't be converted to the the dark side.

Breakdown: Your Blind Patriotism levels are borderline unhealthy, but you show such a love of people from everywhere and a natural resistance to brainwashing, you would probably focus your energy to fight Fuehrer with furor, so to speak.

Conclusion: Born and raised in Germany in the early 1930's, you would have taken up ARMS against the oppressors. Or even your friends' oppressors. Congratulations!

Less than 5% of all test takers earn a spot in Der Resistance!

My trust is not your right, but a privilege!

2005-08-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

In the relationships these days, there is an ongoing debate on the element of "Trust".

"You don't trust me, how can you love me." Commonly heard statement these days...
The root lies in the freedom of execution of one's will. When we declare our independence in this world, we break away from the notions that are passed on to us as heritage.

But, I would try to argue that this is an illogical conclusion drawn on a fallacious premise, because Trust and Love are not interdependent.

I have come to accept myself as a possessive person when it comes to relationships, and it is not out of regret but out of pride. Because I consider controlled possessiveness an outcome of passionate attachment with somebody or something.

Today's generation is complete contradiction to what it was 10 years back. Therefore, the definition of a man-woman relationship also becomes susceptible to change. However, I am not going to discuss on the new identity of our generation.

My focus lies on the commonly (ab)used term in relationships today: TRUST.

Well one of my girlfriends used to feel offended by my possessiveness because whenever I confronted her, she told me that I have a habit of overreacting and that " I don't 'TRUST' her..." so, "...how can I love her."

But what she didn't realize was that my lack of trust (was not my lack of feelings for her) but was a temporary insecurity induced by her actions. Isn't it true that Actions do indeed speak louder than words! The reason for my being insecure was that I was hoping for a long term relationship and not a fling. Some of you might argue that had I trusted her I would have seen her acitons as acts of innocense. But to such people I would like to say, "Get real!" Because Trust in any relation has to be built by both the parties. And a lot of committment and effort is required by both sides to make that relationship based on trust to last long.

For instance, let's take a relationship which is considered a sacred bond of love and mutual trust; that of parent and child. Although, the latter is born of the former, the trust between both the parties grows or diminshes based on their experience with each other over the time.

When you hear a mother say, "I know that my son/daughter can never be wrong." It is based on the past experience. If a child has been a docile and emotionally moderate through the childhood, he is trusted more as he grows up to become an adult. However, a child who has thrown enough tantrums and is temperamental over small things never gains enough trust of his/her parents even as an adult because of the parents' past experience with the child. Yet, we all know that parents love their children irrespective of what they are. Similarly, the kids who have experienced physical, mental or emotional abuse by their parents never tend to forgive them for it and thus can never trust them when in need. Nevertheless, a child always respects and adores his/her parents. And this true in most of the cases, let's not get into the exceptions. So we see that trust and love are not interdependent, even in the most basic and primordial relationship.

Similarly, in a man woman relationship, both the parties need to work on building the trust in each other. I am sure you have been nagged by your partners and you have not liked certain characteristic of your significant other some time or the other, but the fact that you are still together is a proof enough that you are being loved by them.

Remember, don't allow Trust to become the other person's responsibility. People who use this trap on their loved one's (a lot) are most of the times up to something. If you hear from your partner or think for your partner, "You don't trust me. How can you love me?", often that means, you/your partner are/is not happy in the relationship and want(s) to move out permanently or may be need(s) a break to think it over.

Well, this state doesn't always signify that the person who is complaining about the trust is actually interested in somebody else or plainly not intrerested in you anymore, but I can tell you for sure that if it continues for long, he/she will certainly grow out of the relationship.

So, trust is not a baseline for love as is commonly believed. Trust is a baseline for feeling secure. Trust is a prerequisite for taking your relationship a step further but not for starting one because trust comes with time. You can fall in love with someon with or without trusting them. Because love is an emotional need, however, security is a physical and social need.

Hence whenever you are being pushed, remember to stand up for yourself, and say "My trust in is not your right, but a privilege!" And it (the privilege) holds good only until both the persons are committed to keeping that trust intact. However, it is also your responsibility to not to interpret your partner's actions incorrectly or doubt them excessively. When you don't understand your partner's actions all you need to do is ask for an explanation with an open mind. And remember, asking for an explanation does not show a lack of trust. It is an indication that if the situation is not understood comprehensively and dealt with by both the parties, it could lead to decline in the mutual trust.

Remember, being curious and jealous in limits doesn't make you an obssessive paranoid but a loving and caring partner. So don't hesitate to confront your partner, coz if they are for real, they will never hide anything (significant) from you.

One more thing I would like to tell you, sometimes one needs to filter out the facts and doctor them based on the sensitivity of the situation, so to save yourself from extra burden and agony, stop being overly suspicious. Afterall what is the fun in living if you don't have challenges to keep you occupied. And the challenge here is to anticipate your partner's move without being nosy about it. And like for all other things in life, if you give it some time your relationship can shine through without your feeling the need to think about the mutual trust or the lack of it.

To reiterate, trust is a mutual agreement and it takes two to build it or destroy it.

Don't take life too seriously.

Gibberish: For Whatever It Is Worth

2005-07-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

HERE I am writting another poem,
Cause I am a poet, or at least I think I am.
Or what the hell, even if I am not?
I can write what I please,
And call it a special plot.
Outgrowth of my unnatural Imagination or Sycophancy,
For whatever it is worth.

HERE I am singing a song,
Of my eternal experiences of some five years and a score ,
Playing on the harp.What's wrong and right?
To love and be wise, exceeds man's might.
Let's inflate the eternal love affair of our lives,
With The solitude of destinies.
Or The platitude.
And throw away our plight.
May be I am wrong...may be,right!
For whatever it is worth.

HERE I am making art out of naught.
And calling it my style.
Poets maketh nay Metre, Metre maketh them.
Bolstering the fog of pretense,
Clouding the world with deceit.
Perhaps not by design,
By accident,
But let's stop it here and die.
For whatever it is worth.

She Is Pregnant

2005-07-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

The fear of impregnation,
That anticipation of hue and cry.
For the feeblness of her existence,
Had no precedence of that accord.

The slowly rising infatuation,
Devil's outcry.
The unpreparedness of her demeanure,
And lack of hope to live it through.

Left me so wanting to seed her with ecstasy,
But I dare not use the ploy,
It is unnecessary to reiterate it,
As she is pregnant,
Pregnant with joy.

Objectivism is the way of life!

2005-06-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

The world portrayed by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged can be real!

I come across people like Jim Taggart and Hank Rearden very often in my life. And I think that it is the same world around us that is slightly exaggerated in Atlas Shrugged only to highlight the significance of the point the author is trying to make, in an otherwise mundanely unobserving world.

I think, we all contain some fragments of one character or the other from Atlas Shrugged. It may be hard to accept since sometimes it may make us realize some of our negative traits, but actually we are all governed by the same basic rules defined by Ms. Rand.

Objectivism is the most puritanical way to life.

Riding the "BRAND" Wagon.

2005-06-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

I have always maintained that I am my own brand. It's me who defines myself and not the brands that I wear, or use in any other consumer sense. For example, does my wearing Armani make me a better me, than my wearing a local Tailor-made suit, that has a fabric of my choice and body fit that highlights(or hides) the parts my physique in an appropriate manner?
Likewise, do I gain a social status if I shop at Shopper's Stop instead of some local readymade garment shop where I get better variety and my taste.

Why is the current generation so crazy after brands, irrespective of the quality of service and customization provided by them.

I fear, this brand dependence is going to make our younger generations slaves of these brand mongers. And eventually loose their true identity, and the concept of individualism.

Neoriz.
"Victory of Mind over Matter." Will newer generations ever achieve it?

To Love A Woman!

2005-06-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

Excerpt:

If you tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It's no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing.But if you tell an ugly woman that she is beautiful, you offer her the great homage of corrupting the concept of beauty. To love a woman for her virtues is meaningless. She's earned it, it's a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. To love her for her vices is to defile all virtue for her sake -- and that is a real tribute of love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your invaluable self-esteem.

Ayn Rand in "Atlas Shrugged", through the character of Lillian.

Musings:

This is a profound statement offered by the character of Lillian, who is an unloved and unattended wife of Hank Rearden, the Steel Giant. She is devoid of all the love and attention she expects from her husband to satisfy her vanities. At least in the context of the book it appears to be a cry for acknowledgement from a remorseful wife.

However, the underlying concept of loving your woman (I am talking from the perspective of a man since I belong to this gender and thus am not offering a generalized or biased view in any sense of the word whatsoever) is essentially the act of creating a mystical world of fairy tale where your beloved is the central character and the entire world revolves around her. This is not to say that you should call an ugly woman beautiful, no sir! A woman (of substance that is) will take anything but a dishonest flattery. Because a woman knows herself the best, inside out. So to tell a woman how she looks like or what she wants is like teaching water how to flow. But if you do fall in love with a woman (without caring about her physical appearance) what you must do is make her believe what it is that you really fell for. And show her her true beauty. Even if it means showing water how to flow. You have to understand one thing, a woman's true nature is to blend into the true nature of her surroundings. She is more mutable than a man, and not in necessarily in a negative sense. A higher mutability is also a sign of higher adaptability (professionally, personally and psychologically).

I have digressed from the main course of discussion (without regrets of course because it was meant to be.) So, here the character of Lillian is suffering from insecurity and neglect but she deserves it by all means. She tries to use the status of her husband as an instrument for her social progression, but is not willing to appreciate the fact that her husband has put his mind, body and soul into his work and thus has reached a social status that can afford the extravagant lifestyle of his family.

This woman expects a lot but is not willing to understand her husband and his ambitions. So in such case a woman is not worthy of your love or affection. But most of the times, a woman who really loves you (although she may not understand you) is willing to learn about you and she may happily spend her life trying to be the best woman for you, but for that what is required of you is to give her a position that you have given no one else. The position to influence your decisions, the position to interrupt you at any given time and the position to speak for you when you are not there to speak for yourself. Of course, a real woman of substance is one, who appreciates the importance being placed at such a positions and executes her rights and privileges in a just and sensible manner.

If you find such a woman (which is highly hypothetical) and she may not be the most beautiful woman in the world, and she may not know how too make herself look sexy for you and she may not know how to understand your language without words, the only way you can love her is by loving her for her vices, for defiling the concept of virtues and vices. By corrupting the idea of beauty and by sacrificing your self esteem and conscientiousness.

To love a woman is to forget everything else.

Birth and Death of an Idea!

2005-06-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

Humans are the most efficient super computers with excellent cognition skills. This is as much a curse as it is a blessing. Our minds are capable of generating brilliant ideas and at the same time we can think of all the adverse conditions that may prove to be stumbling blocks in the pursuit of those ideas. And many big ideas have been scrapped because of the fear of failure.

I would like to debate for the point of view that these over-cautious tenedencies in human beings are the most unwanted attributes and once we learn to conquer these traits, we may be able to achieve more than we can currently dream of.

I have been gifted with an above average imagination and since childhood I have had plenty of ideas. Unfortunately, most of my ideas were laughed upon, ending up in discouragement and self imposed humiliation. It was not until recently, (about 5 years back) when I realized that my ideas are my brainchildren and thus don't need anybody's approval or disapproval. That is when I started keeping my ideas to myself and stopped sharing them with anybody. The reason for my conduct was that I thought I would implement my ideas myself and then the significance of those ideas would be acknowledged by this world.

Over the years of struggle and experimentation, I have now come to realize that not all of us who can dream, are capable of accomplishing their dreams by themselves, even when they give their hundred percent. And the reason for that is, we can not be an expert on everything. We have to depend on the social structure in order to fulfil our dreams. And thus whether we want it or not, we have to depend on others up to some extent to accomplish what we set out for.

Now, the most important thing that needs to be taken care of, is how to share or express your dreams in order to be taken seriously, in order to gerenate faith in people whose assistance you will require, in order to be heard and understood exactly as you intend to.

There are a few practices that you need to imbibe so that you become effective in pursuing your goals. Following are some points that you must focus on before moving ahead towards realizing your dreams.

Take time to think and re-think on your ideas. Haste makes waste.
Try to put them down on paper, to the very minutest detail level that you can think of.
Focus and Identify the "must-haves" and keep aside the "nice-to-haves" when you begin.
Identify contingencies as early as possible, because that will allow you to think about a holistic mitigation plans.
Never let your enthusiasm be bogged down by the skepticism, of others or your own.
Don't confine on your ideas by the resources you have. It will be practical to slice your entire idea in to small phases or modules ( if there is a shortage of resources) but never slash an idea because of a current unavailability of resources. Tomorrow when you have more resources you can work on the next phase or module, but if you cut down today, tomorrow you will regret it.
Don't be scared to think radically. People who think like others have never made a difference and they never will. Be original.
Don't fight for your idea, fight for your beliefs. Because it is your belief that will give you strength and inspiration, not your ideas per se.
Never set a limit to what you can achieve, only set a time limit for every achievement.
Don't give up. Because you will never know how close or far you were from your goal.
Don't let others define for you what you can achieve.
Listen to others' point of views only as if you were reading a newspaper, to retain what makes sense to you and to ignore what doesn't.
Have the strength to break all the rules, including the ones mentioned above.

I believe if these basic guidelines are kept in mind one can become self-reliant and can understand the importance of his/her own ideas. I have seen many great people go down with their brilliant ideas, just because they couldn't follow their hearts and stand up for their beliefs. I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to put in words, what makes the brilliant ideas be born and die without ever being noticed.

Don't let your ideas die prematurely.

Wishing you good luck.

Regards,

Neoriz,

"Victory of Mind over Matter."