http://restlessprincess.wordpress.com

Hey People....I have officially moved to wordpress...just some stray posts on this blog...most of which are also there on the new one....
You can find me at....
http://restlessprincess.wordpress.com/

Wall E

Finally saw the movie! It was one of those very hyped movies for me and a lot of people told me how wonderful it was…and I guess in this case….expectations reduced joy!
It was very cute….but an entire movie without any major dialogues to watch at home is a little difficult! Whenever I am watching a movie at home I have a tendency to multitask…which was not possible with this movie has you had to concentrate and watch it as there was not much being said!
I personally am not so much of a fan of science fiction movies and books…and WallE was exactly that…fiction on what the earth would be like thousands of years from now…we would have destroyed it so much and there would be so much waste accumulated on earth that there would be no place for human’s to stay. Humans would then go an occupy the space and live in space ships. Humans would become fat and lazy as all the work would be automated and done by robos! And plants would didapper from earth and earth would not be able to sustain life!
Well the human race is getting fat and lazy and technology is doing a lot of our work….we are producing a lot of waste which is a problem and the trees are diminishing from earth…So I guess it was not so far from the truth…
There was another track in the movie….about WallE (a robo) falling in love with Eva..while it was kind of a cute concept…I could not really relate to it..
Over all the message of the movie was….save the earth…recycle waste…and plant trees…

The Land of Five Rivers

This was a book of 19 short stories selected and translated by Khuswant Singh.
The stories were around Punjab/Pakistan /Independence. They were nice to read because of the Indian context and I could somewhere relate to them as I have heard my grandparents version on the partition.

Overall, I think the stories lost their charm in translation. The couplets and the phrases which would have been oh so powerful in Punjabi/Urdu became very drab in English.

Many of the stories did not have a punch/twist in the end which is so typical of a short story by a Jefferay Archer type of an author. ….Some just end with a “and life goes on!” type of scenarios and you are left thinking what did I read this story for!!?

In fact one of the stories in the book “The night of the Full Moon” written by Kartar Singh Duggal, was used in the movie “Dus Kahaniya” and it was my favorite story in the movie. It was somehow better portrayed in the movie than in the book…again I think it has been lost in translation.

Overall a nice easy quick read…despite all its flaws….it was one of those books I picked up and actually finished it in about a week.. I have not been reaching the end of too many books I pick up lately so I guess that speaks for itself!

Wordpress Sucks!

I am trying for the last 15 mins to put up my post on my new blog in wordpress http://restlessprincess.wordpress.com/.....but I am simply unable to open it!!!

And it is not the wordpress service that is down...cuase I can view other blogs on wordpress....just Reflections of a Restless Princess is just refusing to open up and that is making me very restless indeed!!!

I wanted to put up a post before 12 in the night to ensure that I have a post credited for today….but looks like it is not happening! :-(
So I though I will just come to blogger and crib about wordpress!
Ciao…going to try it once again!

I Have Moved!

Hey People I have finally moved....to http://restlessprincess.wordpress.com/

Not to comfortable with wordpress and I am still trying to get the hang of it.
I may continue to post on both sites for sometime...and eventually move completely to wordpress.

So people do check out my new wordpress page…update your links if you have linked this one and tell me if I should move on continue to stay here!

Hope to hear from you’ll and see you on http://restlessprincess.wordpress.com/

Cheers!

Law of Karma and Non Vegetarianism

Read an interesting line on this topic in an unlikely source.."India Unbound” by Gurcharan Das (I am just on chapter 3 in this book and there are 20 more chapter to go…so in case I continue to read the book chances are many more posts would be inspired by the book!)

The author writes very well….It is almost like he is talking to you…the English is simple and you can picture the scenes that he is describing without any effort and I think that is what makes a writer great...

His father was a very spiritual man and as a child he used to tell them that one inherited the karma of the animal that one ate and therefore one regressed into the reincarnation cycle of births and death. The goal of ones life was to break free from this cycle and achieve unity with the Absolute. It did not make sense to eat meat and add to one’s karmic burdens.

Now I am not propagating Vegetarianism here…although I am by and large a vegetarian myself…I taste non-vegetarian exotic dishes occasionally… the most exotic non veg dish I have tasted is Szechwan Frog legs in Singapore and it was quite nice. Only once have I ventured to eat a complete chicken burger and I could feel the little chicken jumping in my stomach, maybe it was psychological…maybe it was just to heavy to digest..but that was the end of my ‘eating-eating’ non veg …but I am still open to tasting because I believe in trying out almost everything new that comes my way!

Now there is a significant difference between eating and tasting…and I know what it is for myself but it is difficult to explain…so everything I tell my friends I am a vegetarian…I get sniggers with sarcastic smiles and some ya rite it you say so type of comments…So not I call myself a “pseudo vegetarian” with a tag line of I taste non veg but don’t eat it!

Those are my culinary preferences..now back to the funda that made me want to write this post!
“One inherited the karma of the animal that one eats and so It did not make sense to eat meat and add to one’s karmic burdens”

I think it is interesting though….and it does make some sense…you are killing an animal to eat..and you are preventing him from completing his life and fulfilling the karma that he had come to complete…since you are digesting and assimilating (inheriting) the body and preventing it from completing its cycle….you might as well inherit the Karma also!

The counter argument to this can be..maybe it is the karma/fate of the animal that he was to be killed and become food for someone to eat. It is the animals karmic debt that had to be paid off by being eaten!

I don’t know the answers…the complexities of the “Law Of Karma” are many…the only thing that I am absolutely sure of is that the Law of Karma exsits!

PS- I have written another post few months back on the. The Law Of... Karma. Check it out!

Use Blogging as a Lifeline and not a Deadline!

I was tired and not in a mood to write now…but I have been writing regularly(read everyday) for the last few days so I did not want to have a break in the posts.

It is not that I did not have anything to write, My days are quite interesting, I manage to meet interesting people.. have some interesting conversations....read some interesting books..and I
always have an opinion and a though on everything that happened in the course of the day! So if I sit back and think about the day I would always have atleast 3 things I can write about! I normally write about one…and so I have a back log which if it is very interesting, It comes in one of the subsequent days as a post…..if not if just falls through the cracks.

So bottom line...there is always something to write about ..only if you think!

I was just being lazy and did not feel like writing so I asked a friend I was chatting with if I could skip today and he said…ya you can and this is what he told me as advice..,,

“Use blogging as a lifeline..not as a deadline!”

And that is when I decided…this is what I am going to write on just now!

So what is better?

1. Have a deadline and write a post on regular intervals? (The regular is defined by yourself can be every week/every month/every day)

Or

2. To use it as a “Lifeline” and write whenever inspiration strikes you? And write only when you truly truly feel about something?

Well as usual everything has its pros and cons…

In my current state of mind I would be a propagator of make blogging a deadline…and decide for yourself (you have a choice) the interval you want to write a post and stick to it.

What would be the advantages of having a deadline?

1. It is a small thing but it inculcates disciple within yourself when you keep a promise that you have made to yourself (I wish I could sustain this for other things like exercising/praying/meditating etc!) Osho says..start with small easy things and build up/excersie you will power and this will help you when you need determination for difficut pursits in life )
2. Someone who comes to your blog expecting an update (at an interval specified by you) is disappointed to see the same old post
3. Writing every post is an experience and a learning. It helps to structure your thoughts and you learn something about yourself in the process
4. People say that if you have a deadline the quality of your post may not be very good…well that may be true…but there is no guarantee that even if you write when inspiration strikes you that you will come up with a master piece! Also even if you write a post which is not the best because you have a deadline...chances are that it will give you practice to structure your thoughts and put them down and when inspiration does strike…you would have had enough practice!

So all you blogger out there….I agree in principal to the fact that you should write only when you are inspired…but I would also say…keep an internal deadline for yourself…and write at least something before that deadline…

Bottom Line : Don’t wait for inspiration to strike before you start writing..just start writing and inspiration will strike you while you are writing!

Happy Blogging...! Hope to see regular post from many more people!

PS : I may be going on a vacation next week..so may not be able to put a post everyday unless I manage to put advance posts to be published at regular intervals!

Visitor from Pakistan!

I had my first visitor from Pakistan today (on my blog not home...!) and this is what they were looking for

“In VADA PAV make some more improvements"

They reached my post on Beggars… because it had the word ‘Vada Pav’ on it! I am sure she would have been disappointed cause it did not give any inputs on how to make better vada pav’s!. (Gender biases so I am assuming it was a she who came looking for how to make Vada Pav’s better!)

So what do I know about my visitor from Pakistan
1. She/He is from Karachi
2. Uses Cyber Internet Services (pvt.) Ltd as the Internet Service Provider
3. Uses the Firefox 3.0 Browser and Windows XP operating system
4. I have the IP address (but I think I should not put it up)
5. This is the first time this visitor came to my site!

6. They reached my page from a search string in google.pk

All this from the Stat Counter that I have put up on my site!
It gives me a whole lot of info..so who are the people coming to read this blog…?

Looks like they are from the following countires!

1. India
2. United States
3. Romania
4. United Kingdom
5. Canada
6. Europe
7. Sweden
8. United Arab Emirates
9. Oman
10. Japan
11. Hong Kong
12. Pakistan

India and US obviously topping the list, but the surprise element here is Romania! Some one from Bucharest using the Firefox 2.0 browser has come numerous times on this blog!
My friend form Romania …do write a comment…It would be nice to read!

And for all you bloggers who don’t have a stat counter on their site yet….go on an put one…just click on http://statcounter.com/! It is good fun to see the statistics and you know what…it is really really easy to do…if I can do it..anybody can!

For all the people who have reached this blog by hook or by crook…..do leave a comment…especially if you have come from some exotic location like Romania/Sweeden/Japan!

Cheers!

A Session on Rural Healthcare

Went for an interesting discussion organized by Tata Memorial Hospital in their Khargar Campus on “Technology with Poverty related Health Problems in Rural India” ..

Beautiful place…very much out of the way…but very beautiful…

I met some interesting people… was a nice crowrd with all scientists, researchers…IIT professors..oncologits…basically a very highly intellectual crowd talking about rural healthcare!

I learnt some interesting things….but too tired to write about it now…..

Met and spoke to Dr Abhay Bang…very interesting man….with an interesting story….he is someone who has done a lot of good work in the field of rural healthcare…he and his wife have even been profiled in the Time Magazine..Read the article…worth reading!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1124299,00.html

Good Night!

“India Unbound” - Gurcharan Das

I just started reading it a book called “India Unbound” by Gurcharan Das It is suppose to be about India’s journey from Independence to the Global Information age.

Reading books of this genre on our economic liberalization or the Information Reveolution (The world is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman) makes me feel like I have lived though history…It is like world changing events have happened around me and I have been a part and parcel of it! (Don’t know if I am able to communicate…but the feeling is like I am reading ‘history’ which I have lived through and can relate with.)

A good part about the “The World is Flat” and “India Unbound” (although I have just strated reading the book ) is the style of writing and since they are both written by journalists/authors and not hard core economists, they are very easy to read…

I always feel…I read something nice and then I forgot about it! And the best way to remember is to write about it and talk about it! By doing that you not only remember it longer for yourself but also sharing it with others!

So here is something interesting I read today in India Unbound!

Six things that went wrong with India’s economy
1. Took up an inward looking import substituting path rather than an outward looking export promoting route thus denying it self the prosperity that came with post war trade.

2. It set up a massive, inefficient and monopolistic public sector to which it denied the autonomy of working.

3. It over regulated private enterprises with the worst control in the world. This was popularly know as the “License Raj”.

4. It discouraged foreign capital and denied itself the benefits of technology and world class competition.
My ex boss was someone who brought one of the 4 big consulting firms to India and set up their operations here. He used to tell me stories on how they used to do road shows in the US and Europe in the 80’s and the entire talk would be around how to work around the ‘license’ requirements.

5. Pampered organized labor(Unions) to the point where we have extremely low productivity.

6. Ignored education especially of the girls.

There is an old idea in economics which says that If the rich and the poor countries are linked by trade their standard of living would converge in the end. Well this makes sense logically…because the standard of living depends on productivity and productivity depends on technology and when the rich and poor countries are linked, the poor countires can simply adopt the technological innovations without having to reinvent the wheel and grow much faster and eventually catch up!

Since it is so logical….then why has this not happened so far??

Two Harvard scholars did Jeffery Scachs and Andrew Warner did a study and concluded that only 13/87 third world counties were open to world trade between 1970 to 1990 and they grow 6 times faster!

India was part of the group which was closed to trade…the Singapore and Hongkongs of the world were in the group that were open to world trade…and the results are for the world to see.

Post 1991…India has changed…someone coined it as our “Economic Freedom”. I think we should celebrate the day 1991 as much as we celebrate 15th august 1947! But the irony is I don’t even know if there is a particular date that we can coin. I think maybe the ‘day’ that the economic reforms were announced should be celebrated as our “Economic Independence Day”
I personally think we are doing very well in the first 5 pointes mentioned here….but still have a long way to go on the education front…

The students who are educated and have degrees are very often not employable.Our Education system leaves so much room for improvement.
Someone in a toast masters meeting had given a speech called “Operation Black Board”. She called it “Operation Blackboard” so that it sounds like an urgent military operation which it should be. A very nice analogy in her speech was that our education system is like filling a pot with information till it is full what we need is an education system which is like lighting a lamp in the darkness.

We need to train students to think analyze apply and enjoy studying… I will do something in this area someday!

Policeman!

I had to get to a meeting and was standing at the station trying to get a cab and since it was a short distance the cabs were not to happy to go. Suddenly a policeman came to my rescue and said… in marati..“kothe jaye cha aahe..?” “Where do you want to go?” and I told him my destination
He very sweetly (unlike a policeman) asked the cab who refused to go..the reason he was not willing to go. The cabbie had some explanation and the policeman let him go without giving him a hard time and then he ensured he got me another cab!

Well here was a policeman…who came to help out of the blue without being asked and was not even rude and unreasonable to the poor cab driver!

I have wanted to write about policemen for a very long time….and this small incident finally inspired me to actually do so…

I think our poor police men have a very thankless job…especially the traffic police…they stand all day in the hot sun or the rain with those yellow raincoats in the middle of the chaotic traffic and every time we see them….inevitably we curse them…and think… oh the chaos is because the signal is not working and the police is directing the traffic manually! Or we think “ Ah he is standing there to make some money”

Well there are some policemen who would be wicked…and actually put on the signal on a turning which is normally a free turn just to make a quick buck!

But overall kudos to the traffic police force…I think they have a very tough and strenuous job…and if they do want a bribe from us once in a while when they catch us doing something wrong…what the hell…they deserve it!

A Wednesday..

Brilliant movie..! Short Crisp fast paced and with a very interesting twist which makes the movie special!
Almost everyone who had seen the movie told me it was brilliant…and I had very high expectations of the movie…'expectations normally reduce joy' and a movie that is praised by so many people can be disappointing ..but 'A Wednesday' was an exception!
I will not want to say anything about the movie in terms of the story etc, because it would spoil the fun.
I some how don’t even remember seeing promo’s of the movie….the first time I heard of the movie was on Rajiv Masand’s review on CNN…!
Bottom line…must watch…Kudos to the team who made the movie…the story..the twist…the editing..the background sound track …the acting…all is brilliant…!

Beggars…

Should we be giving money/food to beggars? Is it a good thing to do or is it encouraging a wrong practice?

There are a set of people who are absolutely against begging and on the other side there are people who feel the need to give something to every beggar who asks!

I have personally been on both ends of the spectrum and I am currently somewhere in between….not sure which side is right…( WTF! Looks like here is another that I am confused about!!)

This is something I have been thinking about for a very long time, but what instigated me to write about it today is something that happened with us today when we went to eat Dosas(Indian Pan cakes) at a Thele wala(road side cart seller) close to home.

Any place in Bombay which has Thele Walas selling food always has a group of regular beggars around. This ‘Khao Gali’ (Food Street) also had their set of beggars and a group decided to target us with their sad faces and very smart dialogues!

So a group of three kids…two girls of about 7-8 years with a 6-7 month baby were all around our car while we were eating inside. The girls had runny noses and were teary eyed. The baby was stark naked and was crying as if on cue.
“Didi…app log itna kha rahe hai…hume bhi kuch de do”(“You’ll are eating so much..please give us something to eat also”) and may more such learned sad dialogues which although I knew were learned they still touched me somewhere..

So I told the kids…come with me…tell me what you want to eat! Everybody else in the car was like…stop it don’t encourage them etc etc…but I was like come on..they want to eat…what have I got to loose!

The kids realized…here is one more “bakara” for the day and they were like we want to eat vada pav…which we get near the temple ahead. I was like there is a sandwich wala here…come I will buy you sandwich…and the kids were like..no the sandwich is spicy..so please give us money!

In the meanwhile there were 5 other little boys and girls who realize there is a potential ‘bakara’ here and came an surrounded the car and everyone wanted money for vada pav!

The others in the car fired me and told me to get the hell into the car and get out of there! But since I promised the child I will give here something…I gave her a Rs 5 coin. The kiddo got into a negotiation with me on how and why I should give her 10 bucks!

It was honestly a little irritating but yet quite cute….the kids were all out to make a “bakara” out of me…I realize it…but yet I feel bad and play along sometimes….It is really so sad that people have to live in such pitiable conditions…We are so fortunate to have everything that we do!

So what should we do..? Give alms to beggars...or avoid...? I am sure everyone in India atleast would have asked themselves this question and come up with come rationale either ways…here is my though process…

Why give the beggars?
· We are fortunate and are definitely are in a better position then them today.
· We could very easily have been in their shoes had we not been born in the family that we were. If they were fortunate enough to be born in conducive circumstances like ours, they may have done much better than us
· Begging can be hard work…they are out there in the sun/rain cold all day, walking the streets. I am sure it must be very difficult.
· If you give…chances are you will accumulate good karma and get someone’s good wishes and chances are you will get much more in return

Why we should not give Beggars?
· It encourages begging and they do not use their time to do productive work. They are like parasites in the economy.
· It is an organized racket and they do it for a living. Check out this interesting article I came across.(Millionaire Beggars in India’s Financial Capital)
· They give the city and county a bad name especially when they hound foreigners


Well overall looks like the points supporting our giving beggars are more than points against giving beggars.

What we can do is take care of the following things while giving alms to beggars
· Give food instead of money- there was a time I would keep small biscuit packets in my car to give it away to beggars who would come and ask at signals.
· Avoid giving alms to able grown up beggars

PS-I came across this very nice article on beggars in different cultures http://www.roadjunky.com/article/958/beggars-karma-india-japan-iran

May Those Who Help The Most Win!

Came accross this intersting contest by Google called Project 10100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") ...I think it is a brilliant concept...! It is a is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible!

I only wish I had a nice idea to put in! I dont...atleast not as of now...maybe I will think of something my 20th... Check out this link

http://www.project10tothe100.com/how_it_works.html

Here's how to join in.
1. Send google your idea by October 20th.Simply fill out the submission form giving us the gist of your idea. You can supplement your proposal with a 30-second video.

2. Voting on ideas begins on January 27th.Google will post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas. (Now I personally feel that is a long time they are going to take to short list the ideas!...But I am really looking forward to see this list!)

3.Google will help bring these ideas to life.They are committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible. So remember, money may provide a jumpstart, but the idea is the thing.

Good luck, and may those who help the most win.

And If by any chance any of you'll get to know of the project from this post and go on an participate....do leave a comment for me and let me know!

All the best!

Teach India – Week 8

If anyone is by any chance actually following my posts you would notice I have skipped “Teach India -Week 7”. This is cause I missed the session as I was tied up with something else...however it was not a teaching session that I missed but a quiz session for the kids so I am not feeling too bad.
I had an interesting session this week and finally got time to talk to other volunteers and made some friends! The sad part is that we would have our next session after a month and a half!! :-(

Overall the program by Kotak Foundation to teach English individually to children is a very nice but I am not sure if it is very effective and the main reason for it is lack of continuity. The program would have been much more effective if we had maintained continuity of talking/teaching them each week.

I don’t know how effective it has been but I have sure had fun and so have the kids!

So what was the session like this week…??

I had three hours of teaching and each hour was different and a new challenges

Session 1

I decided I would make the kids do a play in English. This would be fun and they would learn to talk.
Mom got me some fairy tale books and I decided to use them and make my kids do a play on one of the stories.
We used “The Three Little Pigs” story and had some fun with it. We read the story for sometime, then did the play in Marathi and then did the English version of it. It worked well but not as well as I would have liked it to cause the English levels of the kids was way too below par and it was difficult for them to do it. Also my this batch has 4 girls who are by and large quite shy and reserved.
Overall an interesting session. To end the session we actually went to an empty classroom and enacted the play where no one was looking so the girls did not get to conscious and shy!

Session 2
This batch is always very enthusiastic. This time also I had a big group of about 10 kids who wanted to sit with me and the Kotak volunteers came and picked up all the kids who normally do not sit with and made them go and stand and then allocated them to other volunteers! I finally had my regular group of 5 kids in this session! One of the volunteers asks me… “what do you do!? The kids seem to love you!” :-) ( I was obviously quite flattered with her questions!)

Anyways I finally started the session again….with the idea of reading a story and doing a play. So I handed overall the books I had to the kids and told them to decide which story they wanted to read and enact and they choose a Noddybook called “ Bumpy Dog decides to help”

We started…..and the session was going well….we were reading and relating the words and sentences to things in day to day life and saying different versions of the same sentence. Overall the kids seem quite involved and interested.

Suddenly one of the girls says…"Teacher Maaja nahi aa raha…bore ho raha hai” . I was quite taken aback! I though the session was going well and I am normally good at reading the body language of the kids so I wondering how I was so off the mark this time!

I asked the other 4 kids…if they were getting bored and luckily they said no …but I still had a child here who said this was booring! So I had to do something about it…so I asked the kids if we could change the book and let to girl who was getting bored star reading the new story. They hesitantly agreed…

And suddenly this girl started crying!!! I was like oh my god! What is happening here! What did I do!!
All the other kids were looking at each other and looking at me….I kept asking her what happned…with no response. Then one of the kids told me she has lost her Mamaji recently and so she is very upset with that. Now I at least knew the reason…but did not have any clue on what was the best thing to do!

Then One of the kotak volunteers saw her crying and suggested I take her for a walk and talk to her alone and see if she wants to open up..we went out sat on the school steps…spoke for a few minutes, she wiped her tears and said lets go back and sit with the rest of the children.

We did a few more sentences and this girl started crying again. She so wanted to put on a brave font and act happy and not cry but the poor kid was feeling so sad

This is when I told the kids my funda of what I do when I am sad…I told them it is absolutely ok to cry…I do it…everyone does it …it makes you feel better but after you have finished crying you have to smile and act happy and you will automatically feel happy!

After this I decided to take them to and empty classroom and show them how this funda works and to put it in practice

I taught them the song “If you are happy and you know it clap your hands” we sang we danced, we clapped we jumped we hugged, snapped our fingers…and we laughed!

We basically had a nice time….we played “ringa-ringa roses” :-) Musical chairs..basically English was out of the window for this session…but we had a blast and the girl was smiling at the end of it and that is what matters!!

I was exhausted…but the kids were all full of energy and could go on jumping some more…luckily the time was up and they had to go home!

Session 3
I was exhausted and my voice was hoarse singing the songs on the top of my voice and dancing!

2/5 kids came in for this session.
I started with my story books and these girls also choose a book to read. We were 10 mins into the session and then the kotak volunteer came and said since we have less students and more volunteers we would all get into a common circle and play something together.
I was quite glad…I had half a mind to put my kids in the circle and let them handle the session and disappear! So I told them go sit in the circle…this didi will tell you what to do and I took a back seat..
Everyone was getting into a circle…there was confusion on what game we should play…what should we do…..Lots of idea's were thrown around and then someone came up with an idea….let us play a story telling game…..

I though it was the most sensible idea among the others that were floating around…

And somehow from being in the fringes deciding to disappear….i was there in the center…trying to conduct the story telling game with evey person in the circle telling one sentence to take the story forward!

Well eventually we played the “story telling game” the "describe me game” and “the introduce yourself” game with about 30 students and volanteers who were present there!

I think it worked out well…Could it have been better?…yes…could have done better if we were planned…everything that we did was extempore…

I personally quite enjoyed it….I think I love my place in the center of an audience where I have to do something to involve the audience and ensure they have fun! I should really consider something on these lines as profession…I am sure I will excel at it! (Actually I hope other had as much fun as I did…I hope they did)

Pont to Ponder : “Fun & Games” and “People” are two important themes in my life. I need to find a vocation which helps me to merge the two…

Lucky Me!

I really really wanted something….and I did not get it….:-(

I always like to believe that I am a very lucky person and I get everything I really want and if I don’t get something I think I want….I tell myself…"hey may be not getting was for the best…I just don’t see how yet!!”

This seems to be becoming a pattern with me lately and If I have to believe the statements above….I guess maybe I have just been wanting the wrong things!!

So am I loosing my lucky touch? Nah! I am only touching the wrong things!

I am a firm believer that if you “act” happy you will automatically start “feeling” happy and start “believing” you are happy and then you don’t have to “act” any more!

Replace happy with any other feeling and it holds true….Try it!

Reasons for Not Writing & Upcoming Posts!

Hey People…Sorry I have not written so long...there are many reasons to it…some of them being

1) Been Very Very Busy
2) Been slightly lazy about writing since I am considering moving to another blog
3) Not had the time/inclination/drive to actually start a new blog….so I am somewhere inbetween “na yaha ke na waha ke” types

Well I have lots to write about…
1) Teach India Week 8
2) Review of the Book “Earning the laundry stripes”
3) GSE Interviews

4) Breaking rules ( Was just chatting with someone about this...I think I will write about it some day to get clarity!)

So people keep looking at this spot (or another spot if I get over my laziness and make a new one) for these posts and other posts coming soon..

(I know this may be classified as one of my boring posts….but what the hell its 1.30 in the night and it is a working day tomorrow…I am allowed to be short and booring!)
Ciao!

My Horoscope- Week of 22nd September

New ideas and horizons beckon to you on Monday, thanks to the entry of the illuminating Sun in your sector of philosophy and spirituality. Of course, anyone who knows you is aware that you love to be unpredictable. The only consistent quality you have is your inconsistency. You'll have a lot of fun exploring your new pursuits, and you'll learn a lot, too. On Saturday your emotions take you on a very wild ride as the Moon opposes your ruler, erratic Uranus, in moody Pisces. You'll overreact to events, so count to ten before you emote.

Well I can already feel myself overreacting and getting overtly pissed! So friends...forgive me its the planets doing the trick!

Choices…

I have always felt I need to have the freedom to choose….But I have come to realize that choices stress me out….they spoil the fun of the moment…This weekend was a great example…

Had a hectic week with a lot of clashing interesting things to do and I had to choose! As usual I want to be everywhere and do everything….but it is not humanly possible

So I made the best selections and had a great weekend….But sitting here at the end of the day I can think of all the things I missed…would it have been a better option??

What Did I Miss??
· Teach India – Children’s Quiz Session
· Badminton
· Toastmasters Contest
· Sunday Dinner with friends

Well Well….looking at this list….looks like a whole lot of things I missed….but that was not the case…there is a lot I managed to do!

What Did I Do?
· Rotary Session
· Dinner and Dancing with friends
· Zadenki – Buddhist discussion meet
· B-Plan discussion session
· Pooja and Dinner and cousins place

Overall I did have a wonderful weekend.…but would it have been better if I did not have soo many choices? Maybe...I would have been more satisfied!

The week starting tomorrow…I am not going to have much of a choice…I will have to get up early morning and go to work…do I like that? Not really…I would love to have a choice!

Choices..cant live with them…cant live without them!

Expectations Reduce Joy

“Expectations Reduce Joy" This wise piece of advice was quoted by my younger but smarter bother….

I think it is soo true….

If you don’t expect something from someone…there are good chances that you wont get disappointed and feel let down….!

So what should you do?

Don’t expect anything ?? Keep a safe distance? Don’t trust anyone?

But If you have no expectations from someone….I guess you cant call them a friend…they are then they are then only acquaintances…..

Theoretically the right approach would be to keep faith and have expectations…..trust people….and if they don’t meet your expectations…..don’t bother…continue to keep the faith..

Only wish what you know theoretically and what you do practically was easy to integrate!

Restless Princess..

Someone at work coined a name from me today… “Restless Princess“

The princess part was just so it sounds nice and rhymes

Restless is the key word here….

To explore further I asked him…so tell me why do you say I am restless? And he said…overall your “Demeanor is very restless!”

Now I don’t think it was compliment ….chances are it was definitely not…but who cares! I take it as a compliment! Focus on the princess part! (Whenever in doubt always take it positively and say Thank you!)

Do I agree with the nick name….?
Yes I do…..
I am very restless….I constantly want to do something….something new…something different….any idea…any plan…I am always game…I always want activity…..It is quite crazy….There are times I get irritated with myself and want to calm down.

But do I wnt to change? No

Can I be calm and composed? Yes I can….
Do I want to be like that ? No I don’t…cause it makes me feel sad..
I like to be happy.…(act happy at least even if I am not feeling it!) I like to be enthu..…lively….energetic…
The negative scale of all of it would be hyperactive…restless…over enthu…and ya I guess I do get there sometime…maybe many a times…!

I think any ‘trait’ in excess would have a negative connotation and it is a balance that needs to be maintained in anything!

The good part is I think I realize it most of the times that I have tipped to the negative side of being energetic but the bad part is that even when I realize I have crossed over to the negative side of the scale I cannot come back to balance immediately!

Good night for now from the “Restless Princess” for now maybe that would be the new name for my blog…( I think it is quite cute!)
Better Ideas anyone for a new blog name??

Considering moving out of Blogger

I plan to move out of blogger…at least from the current site..Since I intent to continue to blog so I am considering moving to wordpress as the publisher.Now the question is why do I want to move?

1) Just for the kicks!

2) Wordpress is suppose to be better. Easier to use, better features etc etc

3) Wordpress has an import functionality so I can easily move from blogger to wordpress

4) I can access wordpress from work..blogger is blocked!

5) To have an interesting name to my site…having your name like I currently have is very boring
So people….give me idea’s…what should be the name of my new blog???

Some idea's
# aplihs...
# Princess of clouds...
Better brighter idea's please!

The Buddha in your Mirror

I like to read philosophical books…but normally I never read it end to end(Dr Brain Weiss is books are an exception) but a friend of mine give me this book “The Buddha in Your Mirror” written by Woody Hochswender, Greg Martin &Ted Morino, three authors from USA and I really liked it. It spoke about happiness, relationships, death among other things. I quite like the take on relationships work and happiness…

Some key take aways:-
# The only thing common in all your relationships is you!
# The relationships we have formed are a reflection of our own state of life
The key to transforming relationships lies in the process of transforming ourselves
· People do not respond well to constant criticism people love to be appreciation and praise and they will try very hard to get them!
· If we want people to do more…we need to appreciate the good they are already doing
· It is not what we do for a living but how we do it and whether we feel useful and find meaning in our work
· In real estate there are three important things…location location location! In finding happiness there are three important things attitude attitude attitude!
· The most important thing in finding satisfaction at work is becoming indispensible wherever you are!
· The best way to find the best job is to become the best employee!

Overall a wonderful book….and really easy to read with a whole lot of anecdotes and stories. Read more about the book and the autor at http://www.middlewaypress.com/reading_groups/BYM-guide.pdf

Happy Reading!

Why Blog...??

Today I finish a month of putting a blog post everyday!

I started August 14th and somehow it happened that I had something to write continuously for a week and then I decided let me keep up trend and write everyday till the end of the month. I managed to reach the milestone and then I decided…let me set another goal for myself…one post everyday till the end of the month and I have achieved it today!

It got me thinking…what motivates me to blog? What do I achieve?

Just keeping milestones to achieve does not motivate me normally for a sustainable time (I have tried it earlier with other things I have wanted to do on a regular basis like exercise/pray/meditate etc and it has never worked!)

Secret: I have managed to put a blog everyday for the last one month cause there is something wrong with the posting time on blogger…even if I would publish a post after 1:30 in the night it would still show the previous date! Eg a post published at 1:30 on 14th Sept Sunday night would show up as 14th September and not Monday 15th Sept! I don’t know what time zone it follows but I am not complaining!

But Why Blog....??

1) Satisfaction of having a produced a concrete out put

2) A decent number of hits on my page everyday. The last month I have had an average of 32 unique visitors a day out of which 15 are first time visitors and 17 are returning vistors! (I don’t know if this is good from a general blogger perspective but I am quite happy with it!)

3) Comments from so many unknown people on the blog are very encouraging (My brother says…people read your blog cause you are a girl and not cause you write well or anything..like all the friend requests girls get on orkut! He has never taken the trouble to come and read my blog so I choose to ignore his wise cracks!)

4) Discussion on my blog : People I meet often tell me…Ah..you have written this on your blog…or oh I read this post of yours etc..! A recent example that comes to my mind ..today I was at a Buddhism meeting in the morning the speaker very casually referred to my blog and Analysis Pralysis post! The other day I met one of my clients who I have been taking to phone for quite sometime but was meeting him for the first time and he was like I have read you blog! I was quite taken aback!

5) Clarity of thinking : Writing has helped me to think better. Many times when I sit to write I have no idea what I intend to write but wile I am there in front of the laptop thoughts get formed and something interesting comes out. There are other times, when I sit to write with a concept, but as I am writing I realize that what I end up writing is very different from the concept I started from!

6) Change of Perspective : Now I look at everything and think…can I write about this on my blog!?

7) Learnt New Things : There are so many new things I learnt once I started blogging…like putting a stat counter….putting advts…etc etc etc!

8) Making Money?! : I have managed to put google advts on the site…it is not making me too much money($5.40 over a month!)…and google apparently pays only once you make 100 dollars..so that is a long long way to go!

Disadvantages of Blogging

Mom says I have become very non social….and don’t come home and talk…and talk more to the comp than people at home…

Bro says I have lost it….he asked me how a movie that I watched was…and I was like I have put a review on the blog check it out!

Overall…quite stressfull at times to have to come and sit on the comp again after a whole day of work!

Bottom Line :

I like to blog…I intend to continue to do so…maybe have a revised target of having one post every two days instead of one post everyday.. so I can strike balance!

What say people/readers/friends!?

Teach India : Week 6

Finally had a good session with the kids after a 4 week break!

I had almost forgotten what it is like to go there and go there and teach….1 month is a very long time!I was honestly quite lazy to go on a Saturday afternoon and I so wanted o sleep but I pulled myself up cause I had committed I would be there and went for the session and it was totally worth it.

I had a total of 15 kids today over various sessions!! It was good fun..

I reached late for my first session (was plain lazy and a lil disappointed with the last time’s session).One of my kiddo’s spotted me and I pulled him out of the session he was in and took him for a walk. We went to the school library and I spotted the child craft books and world books!! So we picked up a book on activities and sat and read it and saw the pictures. The session went off well. This child had come to the library numerous times earlier but had never bothered to look at those books.
I was quite unprepared for this session and I though cool I found my activity for the day…I will bring all the kids to the library and help them to explore the place and make friends with the books…But oh-ho… suddenly I see the Librarian getting up and closing the window and he informs me “Saturday the library closes half day”. There goes my impromto ‘planned’ activity out of the closed window! Now what!? So I asked the Librarian If I could borrow one of the child craft books…surprisingly he agreed! I picked up a Child Craft book “Celebrations” and we had many discussions on different celebrations around the world!

My second session with the kids was pretty good…I had two of my old children and three new ones! We went for a walk in the school…we learnt new words…we played the ‘shopping’ role play…In the middle of the session one of the new kids was being called away by one of the Kotak staff for something and she refused to go! She went with him only after he assured her that she could come back and continue the session!! This was by and large my best session of the day!

The third session started off wonderfully…I was sitting and waiting for my kiddos to come…my 4 bacchus came with a whole lot of their other friends!! So it was me and almost 20 kids around me ...each of them saying “teacher humko aapke saat baitna hai!!” Telling me shiyari’s doing full TP! What a chaos! But honestly I quite liked it…who does not like to be popular..!! Finally the Kotak Staff had to intervene and assign the kids to the other volunteers and I was left with my original set of 4! After all the excitement…the session was a big popat!...It was quite drab…after all no matter what you do…the energy levels with 20 kids vis a vis 4 kids would be different…and I was not really prepared!
We did a whole lot of activities…but the kids with another volunteer seemed to be having more fun! The official session ended…and I again had all the kids surrounding me again…and we had a shiyari session with me trying to recollect some old ones I knew as a kid!
Here is a new one I learnt from the kidoo’s today

“Dus aur Dus Jodo to Bees banta hai”
“Dus aur Dus Jodo to Bees banta hai”
“Hoot Aur Hoot Jodo to Kiss banta hai”

Giggles..giggles...giggles from all the kiddos..and then it was time for this batch to go!

The last session was also interesting….I had 5 new girls who were coming for the first time. I was no longer nervous like I was in my first day of teaching and the session was smooth and fun!
I think I quite love teaching…It is extremely challenging to keep kids engaged…and it is soo easy to make out when they are bored! I hope we have a session next week…it would be nice to have some continuity!!

Alfredos : Juhu

Was a looong week… an exhausting day…and a fun Friday evening. It was a friends b’day so the jingbang went to Alfredo’s for dinner.
Had a really nice time there as usual ..…but I was wondering what is so nice about the place…
It is loud…..too loud for a dinner place…too soft for a lounge….so loud that you can bearly hear people
Cramped up…..the seats are so close together that there is bearly any place for the waiters to walk around…and people really have to squeeze in to get into their seats….
Seats are like dinner table chairs….I was really missing the comfy sofa’s that some other places have…
Food was not bad…the lazania(don’t know how to spell it) was great…Pizza was so so…cheese corn balls were great…Nacho’s were different(not the good different)..the pasta was ok types..
So what is so great about the place…?? I don’t know…maybe the brand…and the ‘cool’ factor…
By the end of an hour….we just wanted to pay and get out and go to a place where we could actually hear what people were talking and we did!

We went to the beach…. :-) the sea is so beautiful by the night!! I am so glad Alfredo was loud and cramped up!!

Time to go to sleep and dream about the beach and the moonlight reflecting on the waves! GN!

Entrepreneurship Forums..

In line with yesterday's post…here are some entrepreneurship forums I accidently came across…is it a sign?? Is it fate's way of telling me to move on??

(Read http://lipak.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/the-language-of-signs/)

..As usual I really don’t know!!

Check it out…and tell me if you have heard of them!

Young Leaders Forum - http://www.imcyew.org/
The Young Leader's Forum (formely YEW) was setup by the Indian Merchant Chambers in 2001. Our mission is to create a platform for young Indian leaders to build network, grow and realize their own potential. Through cutting-edge events, forums, site visits and workshops (10 every year) the forum aspires to empower provide opportunities and expose young Indians to a cross section of leadership issues. The YLF will be the youth platform most known for identifying and empowering leaders

TiE Mumbai - http://tiemumbai.org/
TiE Mumbai is part of a global network of entrepreneurs which mentors, supports and facilitates the growth of new enterprises. TiE Mumbai was seeded in October 1999, and formally launched on December 7th, 1999. Today, TiE Mumbai is a multi-faceted organization and is an active TiE chapter dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship leading to wealth and job creation.

Entrepreneurship….

I dream to start something on my own someday but I don’t know if I will really ever get down to doing it.
So many people who are working and have this ‘loose’ dream that they want to become entrepreneurs…Some manage to go out there and take off …others always keep talking about it.
I have a feeling that I belong to the second category…..but I really really want to move to the first and actually take the step just quit my job and do something on my own.

But I don’t have the guts…and I really don’t know why! It is not that I have major responsibilities in life or in dire need of money and cannot take the risk. I don’t know what is holding me back.

I don’t know what comes first….
· Quit your job and then think of what to do to fill your time and make money
· First have plan and then say good bye to work

I would say ideally feel have a plan and then say good bye!

But while I am still working..…life is comfortable…..I almost like the routine..…I like going to work…I like most people at work(my boss can be a pain many a times..but overall he is not too bad..infact he is quite nice when he is not screaming!)…and I like the paycheck that goes into my account….it is overall comfortable…..so I don’t really really have the need to rock the boat!

So life goes on….I don’t know if I am doing anything significant and meaningful at work…but I am sure I must be learning something cause there is so much I don’t know.....

Overall….I really don’t know where I am going with work and what do I want to achieve…

What I know for sure is that ultimately I most definitely want to quit a 9 to 9 job …

It would be nice to do something on my own..I want to have my own clinic/chain of physiotherapy/ wellness centers where I can employ people so I don’t have to be there all the time and simultaneously I want to become a corporate trainer/teacher..(?!) wherein I take periodic sessions for adult groups….maybe become a part time RJ…and a part time Yoga Teacher!
‘Part Time’ is a very important word for me….I love variety… It would be so wonderful to be able to play multiple roles at the same time…be a corporate trainer some days a month….a yoga teacher in the evenings….and an RJ on sundays …. run your own wellness centers and make enough money in the process!

My current job…I really don’t know if it is taking me where I want to go….maybe it is…I am not too sure...because I don’t know the path to get where I want to go….

There are certain themes that are important to me….
· Learn/do something new and different...have a variety
· Have fun!
· Meet People..
· Have some flexibility

And as I write this I realize…my current job provides me with all these things at least by and large most of the times…It may or may not be directly taking me towards my end goal…..or I may just be right on track..

An anology that comes to mind to explain the situation: I think I want to go to Delhi(own clinic/Trainer/Yoga Teacher/ RJ) and have Chole Bature (part time work/variety/multiple role)…I am sitting in a train(my current job) and having Alu Poori(learning something new/having fun/meeting people etc)…hopefully the train is going towards Delhi(my own clinic etc)…even it is does not….I anyways don’t know which train goes there!
So bottom line no point in jumping off the train as of now… if I do I will end up missing the Alu Poori that I am currently getting and be stranded…as I do not knowing which train to catch to get to Delhi! And you never know…this train may just be on the right track and take me to Delhi…well even if it does not and reaches Bangalore…I may just like Bangalore better!!

Bottom Line : "Enjoy the Journey"…

Stat Counter…

Discovered something new today on “stat counter” thanks to a friend at work who is also a fellow blogger.
We were discussing blogs as usual at work in between our attempts to do work and he was showing off the wonderful statistics that wordpress has to offer. I was really quite fascinated and had half a mind of shifting from blogger to wordpress so I would also get to know some more details on the people who have visited my blog etc.

I use the “stat counter” to see the number of hits that I get on my blog…(If it is a decent number it keeps me motivated to continue writing!).

All these days I have been looking at the default page which gave the summary on the page loads/new visitors and returning visitors and I suddenly realized there is so much more stat counter has to offer! So duh of me not to realize there was a whole menu to choose from and get interesting statistics on your blog!

The stat counter which is a free counter gives you over 23 other options to choose from and I was restricted to only the summary! How Duh!

Here are some of the interesting things stat counter has to offer..

1. Summary : Well well….they only thing I would see all these days!
2. Came From: An interesting statistic…It tells you how people reached your site…I realized people I don’t even know have referred me on their blog!
3. Keyword Analysis : This is a cool statistic to see…it analysis the key words people have put on google to get to my blog. I did not even realize that my blog was available for google search!
4. Recent Keyword Activity: This is a continuation of the previous one…..what was very interesting was that 8/20 google searches that landed on my blog were to do with my ear wax post!
5. Recent Came From: This gives details on the recent visitors on your blog. Where they came from, what browser, OS etc they use, their city, IP address and even how long they stayed on the site etc etc! Quite Informative
6. Exit Link Activity : Gives details on How many times your links to other websites are being clicked by your visitors….definitly interesting to know!
7. Downloads: This was a surprise….did not realize people download stuff from the site!
8. Download Activity : Gives stats related to downloads...a revelation!
9. Visit Length : This gives the amount of time someone spent on your site.. :-) good to know..some people have spent over 30 mins here!

10. Recent Visitor Map: This one is super cool..it gives a world map and the peole who have visited you form various sites as dots on the map
11. Country/State/City/ISP : This one is my favorite….it show you the people who have visited your blog by country city state etc! Among other countries I have had visitors from Tanzania..! I wish everyone who came to the blog left a post!

Mistakes....

Everyone makes mistakes….and I make plenty!


Type of Mistakes

1) Known: You know it maybe ‘wrong’….but you still do it…..these are the “greys” in life. I believe that life is not all black and white…and there are a lot of things which are grey!
2) Unknown: It is a genuine slip…and you realize it once it is done. This is actul mistake! It just happens and you realize…oh my god!
3) Blind : You don’t even realize you have made a mistake, but others around you get hurt and upset. Being a PS I am sure I do many of these..!


I made a mistake today and was very upset about it….not a very big deal….but I was still quite upset with myself…It was one of those mistakes which was somewhere in between the known and unknown…..Your intentions are right….but you still don’t say/do the right things at the right time…and you immediately realize…oh oh… Looks like I said the wrong thing or I did not say the right thing…and feel so stupid!

And then what do you do…?? How do you make amends?

Is realizing and repenting enough….?? Is having the correct intentions good enough??

I really don’t know….

I remember someone from my Buddhist practice group once told me that …realizing and repenting in not enough and you need to make amends…

She had read this somewhere and remembered a chana wala in the lane she use to flick chana’s from as a kid for the kicks, she actually went back to the shocked chana wala’s son who was still selling chana’s in the same lane and paid him 50 bucks!

I don’t know if it is a good idea….but it sure made me feel better…made me feel a little in control..

I though I could actually do something to amend a mistake….may be not directly cause words once said cannot be taken back...but indirectly!

Karjat Calling…

Well the trek worked out finally and it was rocking!!!
After much debate on time/place/mode of transport 11 of us set out to go to Saguna Baug and then we moved on to a waterfall….had a wonderful time!

I am up since 5 in the morning thius extremely exhausted now to write any more….so just check out the snaps…
And if you want to read more..Check out my friends blog….. http://lipak.wordpress.com/

Update:10th September

Sorry need to pull out the snaps...

Update :14th September

Another friend wrote about the trip...check it out!

http://dhiirajp.blogspot.com/2008/09/saguna-baug-and-waterfalls.html

Coordinators Hat…

The last trek we went to Lonavala was wonderful and we wanted to go for another trip before it stops raining and we believe that the more the merrier…

So all of us decided to call “other” friends…and make a biiiig group….and we did….we are 11 of us in the last count I took…

From the last two days I have been trying to coordinate the whole thing and it has been such a pain!!!…

No consensus on place!
No consensus on time!
No consensus on mode of transport!
No consensus on anything!!

I have an Hyderabad group and we called ourselves the “Junglee Musafir”…and one of my friends Ria would always wear this hat of the coordinator….and now I understand why she would be so frustrated by the end of it!

But end of the every trip she would plan….we would have a ball of a time…..lets us see if this trip tomorrow works out…

The Week That Was : 30th Aug to 5th Sep!

Well end of the week…don’t know what to write….so I guess I can put one of those posts on the week that was….

Saturday : 30th August
Celebrated Saturday and slept all morning! Finished the book “Earning the Laundry Stripes”...Went for the Teach India session only to be disappointed as no kids turned up and then went to play Badminton in the evening….did not get to play too much…but that is my fault I went really late but I jogged in the ground so it was overall a good trip to the club!

Sunday : 31th August

Slept all morning and watched TV...all ‘intelligent’ boring stuff like the news et all….cause I got into trouble for not knowing enough on current affairs on Friday…(long story! may write more latter..)
Evening met some friends…and went for a movie…but that was a fiasco….we we found a nice chai place at New Bombay called “Masala Chai”…and chilled out….chatting…played truth and dare …(All truth no dare!) Over all was fun…I had gone with a group of people I did not know too well….so the fiasco at the movie hall(Read Fame Raghuleela Fiasco!) was almost a good think as we all got to know each other better!

Monday:1st September
Normal day at work…..Highlight of the day…I came home and went for an half an hour jog at 9.30 in the night and worked up some sweat!

Tuesday : 2nd September
Work as usual…and then went and watched Rock On for the night show....already post a post on this!

Wednesday: 3rd September
Ganpati Bapa Moriya! Had a whole lot of people coming home was good fun!

Thusday: 4th September
Took a day off from work for Ganpati Visarjan

Friday 5th September
Normal day at work…went out for dinner with some office friends and did the general crib routine..and the talks on what we dream to do! Overall a fun evening!

Well so overall an nice week….with two holidays in the middle of the week and a lot of action!

Ganpati Visarjan…

Visarjan done….I feel like writing on of those school time essays which end with “we were tired but happy!” but chill that is not what I am going to do.

From the time we have started keeping Ganpati at home almost 11 years back, the visarjan has always been at Juhu Beach…

For all those of you’ll who have never seen Ganpati immersion at the beach it is a site worth seeing…it is beautiful…the sea is enormous with and the Ganpati idols are majestic.. The beach is vast with people dotting every available inch….it is very windy and you can feel the salted humid wind hitting your skin…there are people huddled at regular intervals on the sand around their ganpati idol doing the pooja and trying to keep the flame burning despite the breeze…you can hear the aarti at different stages…synchronized claps…jingle of the pooja bells…all interspersed with roar of the waves and the sound of the wind in the background…

We would do our pooja at home…walk down the garden steps…reach the beach…huddle….do the final pooja…carry the ganpati to a certain distance out into the sea and then get one of the many boys around to take it further into the water..and stand in the sea with the sand disappearing from under the feet and watch...

Somehow we would always go in the night and I can so clearly remember the moon shining on to the sea waves and getting reflected back…we would see the boy carrying your ganpati walking into the darkness of the sea …and then he would turn around and there was just enough moonlight for us to catch a last glimpse of our ganpati….

It was a very private and spiritual moment out there on a crowded beach…..

It was very special but it is now that I have actually realized the real value of it…as this year was different…

Since we have moved away from the sea front; we went to a Talav (Pond) near home to do the Ganpati Visarjan…it was a very different experience….. It was brightly lit…lot of noise….not too much wind so our Diya was burning brightly without us having to huddle to keep the wind away……As for the moon…earth was too brightly lit by halogen lights for me to notice the moon if it was there…

We put the Ganpati Moorti on a wall in the corner…did the pooja…. There was a narrow gate guarded by Policemen to go down the talav and only one person was allowed to go down the steps that to upto a certain point and not into the water….my brother managed to go past the gate…We were not allowed to go down the steps….and were craning our necks from across the grill to catch a last glimpse of our Ganpati with the policewomen trying to shoo us off and whistling into our ears….One of the volunteer boys carried the ganpati into the pond….and tak…its over……

I am not even sure I spotted my Ganpati going down…We are asking each other…"Ho Gaya kya..?” And then someone says…"Nahi hua…..hua hota to Sam(my bro) would have come up by now” and then we realized that visarjan ho gaya…and Sam came back from another gate which was the exit gate from the pond…!

So it was done…..quick….Well organized….well coordinated and managed by the police and the volunteers…..but so mechanical that somehow the sprit was lost..

Done…One more year of Ganesh Chaturti is over…. As usual I always feel it gets over very quickly….the house feels so empty after visarjan…everyone who gets Ganpati at home/colony will know exactly what I mean…

Overall been a wonderful two days…

Ganpati Bapa Morya!

We brought Ganpati Bapa home today! Was a nice day....had lots of people coming home!

My old friends from Juhu....new friends from SGI....new friends made at Badminton court all came home for ganpati darshan.....and many for the first time!!

Neighbors Relatives Friends..... I love people visiting!!

I guess i just love being with people...

Not in a mood to write much...so will sign off and go read......brush....pray....maybe do a Tarro Card reading ....and go to sleep!

Rock On Rocks!

Finally saw “Rock On”…and it Rocks! I am not a rock music fan per se….and cant really directly relate to being a part of a band etc….but the movie is great and the music is good…..It is one of those movies you come out smiling….:-) and feeling good…
Farhan Aktar looks hot……Arjun Rampal….looks like a looser…….well that is his character in the film so he looks that part! Good acting by everyone….Prachi Desai was also not too bad….but I somehow did not like her hair style in the movie.....they could have done better with it!
Purab’s character could have been better defined….there is not much about his family or relationships or anything….looks like the did not have time so they cut out his track…
Watched the late night show….but did not sleep through the movie….so basically it was entertaining enough!
Tired now….going to sleep…..go watch the movie! And “Don’t download the songs Buy the CD” (This comes on screen before the end titles start exactly at a point when you are thinking to yourself…ah lets go home and get the songs!)

Personality Plus Classification!

Florence Littauer classifies people into four personality types. I had attended a workshop on this a few months back and then I found a book written by her a few weeks back and it revived my interest. It is quite an accurate classification and now every time I look at someone ...I think..ah he is a PC/PS...or a PM/PP...or eh....this was a typical PS statement..If nothing else it is fun to bucket people in different categories....and tell someone...you are a PC...and have them look at you in confusion! (This by the way would be a typical PS statement!)
Check out this link and do the test for yourself..and do remember to tell me the results!

http://www.oneishy.com/personality/personality_test.php

By the way…..I am a PS/PC….read on an you’ll know what that means!

Popular Sanguine (PS) : The Extrovert The Talker The Optimist
Appealing personality
Talkative, Storyteller
Life of the Party
Good sense of humor
Memory for color
Physically holds on to listener
Emotional and demonstrative
Enthusiastic and expressive
Cheerful and bubbling over
Curious
Good on stage
Wide-eyed and innocent
Lives in the present
Changeable disposition
Sincere at heart
Always a child

Poweful Choleric (PC) : The Extrovert The Doer The Optimist

Born leader
Dynamic and active
Compulsive need for change
Must correct wrongs
Strong-willed and decisive
Unemotional
Not easily discouraged
Independent and self sufficient
Exudes confidence
Can run anything

Perfect Melancholy (PM) :The Introvert The Watcher The Pessimist
Makes friends cautiously
Content to stay in background
Avoids causing attention
Faithful and devoted
Will listen to complaints
Can solve other's problems
Deep concern for other people
Moved to tears with compassion
Seeks ideal mate
Easy to get along with
Pleasant and enjoyable
Inoffensive
Good listener
Dry sense of humor
Enjoys watching people
Has many friends
Has compassion and concern

Peaceful Phlegmatic (PP) :The Introvert The Thinker The Pessimist

Easy to get along with
Pleasant and enjoyable
Inoffensive
Good listener
Dry sense of humor
Enjoys watching people
Has many friends
Has compassion and concern

Fame Raghuleela Fiasco!

We were all excited about watching Rock On since the reviews were so great. We made a group of about 5 of us forced some of the hesitant ones booked tickets online at the Vashi Fame Raghuleela. There were a lot of seats to choose from so my friend booking tickets choose seats furthest away from the screen and paid online.We reached well on time, picked up our tickets and walked into the cinema hall to find that we have been given front row seats!

The front row seats in the Fame Raghuleela are pathetic… I have seen a lot of movies on the front row but I have never seen such badly placed seats. I don’t know if there is a law on the mandatory minimum distance for the seating to start from the first row….but these seats were literally into the screen.If there is no law and regulatory agencies certifying theatres they should really have some norms on the minimum distance of the first row from the screen. The theater owners would keep on adding rows upto the screen to made money!

Well the girls in the group, were all eager to see “Rock On” with all the hot dudes on screen so adjusting as women are, we were ready to see the movie sitting on the first row….but the boys were indignant on being given the wrong seats despite booking well in advance.

So we too stormed out of the all in support of the boys and demanded for a refund.

We Spoke to the booking staff…they directed us to some other staff and then to the so called “manager” ..let us call him “Mr Rajesh C” who was suppose to be the unit head and he was extremely rude and unreasonable and started blaming us about being wrong and a loud argument ensued with him pointing figers at us and telling us how wrong we were and there are so many people who book tickets online and this has never happned!!

So much for customer service. We were already irritated and his attitude infuriated us!

All we were demanding was give us a credit note so we could watch some other movie. Mr Rajesh had some brilliant ideas. He wanted us to come back for a movie on any weekday Monday to Friday between 8am to 6pm! He looked at us as potential customers to fill his off peak hour slot!

After much loud heated discussion for almost half an hour…. Mr Rajesh finally agreed to give us a credit note which said you can redeem this for 5 tickets @ Rs 150 anytime.


We were royally pissed about our movie plans being screwed up and we walked out of the theatre in a huff with the credit note…but not wanting to look at the face of Fame Raghuleela again.

As we stepped out and met some college kids who wanted to buy 12 tickets for a movie on a Monday morning and someone form our group had a brilliant idea to give our credit note to them take our money and get out of the place so we don’t have to come back.We thought it would be a simple enough logical transaction…we had a credit note for 5 tickets @ Rs 150, so that would make a total of 750 and the kiddos wanted to buy 12 tickets @ Rs 70 each which totaled to Rs 840. So we though we would pay the difference of 90 bucks take our money and walk out and never have to come back again.

But lo behold…. Logical! (whats that!)

The credit note which was made 10 minutes back was examined in detail by the booking agents on the counter. They went into their back office area to find Mr Rajesh….but he had disappeared…must have been taking a rest break….after all fighting with customers who have come to have a good time at the movies can be very strenuous. So the credit note written on the back of the ticket was examined by three other people and finally after almost about 15 minutes , Mr Rajesh arrived and we heaved a sigh of relief…now we can finally finish our transaction and move on an rescue what was left of our evening out.

But lo behold...Wait..!! That was not to be…at least not so soon!

Mr Rajesh did not see the logic of the transaction required!!! (How duh!)

He said we could get 5 tickets in lieu of the credit note and not the amount!! And since the kiddos were buying morning show tickets which were cheaper tickets, they could take 5 tickets on the credit note and we would have to forfeit the rest of the amount!!If we were pissed earlier…now we got mighty pissed now!!!! The logic of 5 tickets in lieu of the credit not obviously did not hold true for tickets that were priced higher than what we had bought!!

We demanded to speak to his manager……we could not believe he was actually the person in charge there he was stupid! His boss…lets call him Mr John..was based out of Pune…we demanded to speak to him cause this man was acting ridiculous!

Our Hero called up his boss and explained the situation...I spoke to Mr Manager’s Manger…Mr John….not much use….he gave me some bullshit about the number of tickets matter….I told him that at this point of time I am an irritated customer…and this would effect not only me but 50 other friends of ours…but Mr Manager’s Manager…said he can’t do much…..

I passed the phone to my friend…who told him… "Ok thank you very much for your customer service…please remember to buy the mid-day tomorrow to check out the coverage” (Or something to that effect!) and we once again walked out.

We apologized to the college kiddo’s and told them to go ahead and buy their own tickets and these idiots don’t seem to want to see logic.

We were hanging around near the booking counter, contemplating what to do next and trying to find a group who wanted to buy 5 tickets from the counter for 150 bucks and make them use our credit note and get out of there and never come back!

Suddenly we see Mr Rajesh….coming running out to the booking counters and calling us inside! He was in a mood of a compromise…he did not want to loose us as customers…He was attempting to give us sales talk…and coming up with some stupid options…We told him…..If you don’t want to loose us as cutomers…refund our money….we are so mighty pissed now that nothing else will work….but Mr Rajesh….was unable to gauge our mood and persisted with the sales talk…” No Sir….(suddenly we were respected again!) if refund the money…you wont come back…unless we had to should at him and tell him cut the crap and give us the money back if you want to save face…get your booking counter to use the credit not in lieu of the next 5 tickets they sell…

I think it finally something struck him……(I think it was a return call from his boss)…and he came out an gave us our money back…not without saying… but it was actually your fault..and we are making a major exception your you!! Who makes people like time managers in a customer centric role!

We walked out of the place finally after almost two hours and a lot of argument…..with our evening all ruined…And I looked at Mr Rajesh’s card which had the Fame tag line printed on the back “Fame…Makes my day!” and we all laughed…..how ironical….

Bottom line: Honestly I don’t know who was at fault….but the way it was handled was pathetic…it was a case of horrible customer service.
Bottom line 2 : We missed the movie but ended up going to a new coffee shop had a nice time!

Teach India : Week 5 - A Disappointment…:-(

I went all enthused for the Teach India session today after two weeks of holidays (Rakhee /Janamastmi Saturdays) only to be disappointed.
There was some program going on in school and barely any children turned up. So today there were more volunteers than students!!
Since I did not have any students for my session, I decided to make use of my time and see how the others were teaching be a silent spectator and get some ideas. I did get some idea’s from other people and I also realized that I was doing a decent job with the kids!

Some idea’s I picked from other which I plan to use with my kiddo’s next week…

1. Play the shopping game- A role play in which one of them is the shopkeeper and the other a customer. This works well especially if you have girl students.
2. Read the news paper with the kids … One of the volunteers was reading the news paper his kids...I this can be used effectivly to make conversation if it is made into a game!
3. Use activity books like find the word in the maze, easy crosswords etc
4. Read out a story to the kids.

Being a silent spectator is not my natural style I was quite bored and came back home in an hour and slept!

Exhausted…..

Been a hectic week…. I am sooo exhausted. Looks like I am getting old. But I managed to put a blog post everyday…not bad na…..

The week that was in very brief…

Late Friday night…preparing for “ I object your honor” and dinner at good old Mac Donnalds!
Early morning last Saturday for “I object your Honor” and late night…dinner at Basalico!
Early Sunday morning….Lonavala
Early Monday morning…Review meeting at work…
Late night at work on Tuesday…don’t even remember why
Very Early Wednesday Morning…reached office by 7.30am
Very late night on Thursday….. extempore meeting on general strategy fart….reached home by 11.30 pm
Long Friday evening…..drove to Juhu from Vikroli for a Rotary Interview..ready to crash to bed...

Plan to CELEBRATE Saturday and sleep all morning…..Thank God for weekends!!! Have a nice weekend!! Good night...

Dilemma and Confusion!

I am going to be tell you a small story…it is “inspired” from none other then our very own bollywood…and how many of you’ll have watched “Bunty Aur Bubby”….well my story also has two thieves and a policeman….and ofcourse me…!

But since the story is only inspired and not copied…the similarity ends there!

I am gonna talk about…..this man and a women who haunted me for many days and nights….made me think 24/7 ….have puts me through a lot of pain…..god its almost torture….I hate it….but they are still there….this thing…I mean people don’t only bothers me….but also all my close friends….through me..
And you know what…its me who nurtured them….made them grow …

Here’s introducing to you the “thieves” or the bad guys in my story…today…..the monsters who are build in my head… who possesses me when they come….who may with a new disguise every time….and maybe with a different name….but I know the soul is the same….and I think its my fault they come….

u know what I am sure he must be possessing you guys to many a times…and when I introduce him….i am sure some of you will recognize him….


Ladies and Gentlemen here is presenting to you…the bad guys of today’s story…

“Ms Dilemma De-Cruz”

And her Chinese friend

Mr CON – FU –SION

Recognize them..?

Many of you would be familiar with the Chinese guy by the Indian pronunciation of his name confusion and Ms D-Cruz by his first name “Dilemma”

Yes ladies and gentlemen its these are the two things Dilemma and Confusion who rule and ruin my life! And I am fighting a loosing battle to get back some control!

They are born when there are options to choose from…and the .if all options are equally good or Bad….these demons have a field day…

I am a confused soul…..I don’t know what I want out of life…..and I can be very fickle minded….

I have trouble decisions…be it small ones like which topic to speak on…for toastmasters there is soo much to talk on…or big decisions as to which guy I should get married to..(not that there are too many options there to choose form! But still!)….

I’ll share something that happened with me quite recently….

May 29th 2006…I am about to get a release form my ongoing project…I get a call from one of the big bosses saying Singapore is your next assignment….30th May 2006…I get a call from another not so big boss saying Mumbai is an option and then the torture began…I was suffering….and so were all my close friends and any guesses who was the culprit….well not the bosses in TCS that comes latter … it was none other then me myself and my two ghosts …of confusion and dilemma…


I could not decide….weather I want to go to Singapore for an onsite assignment or try for a transfer back home to Mumbai…..both great options…one my first onsite opportunity....short one but still…the other the option to go back home…..something I always wanted to…

I did all the methods from the DAR session I attended in this very room…and spoke to all my friends and seniors…and as expected….came to contradicting conclusions…..would give “Go” higher priority and the other gave “Don’t Go” Higher priority…..people said..onsite opportunity…difficult to get in TCS now grab it…others said…go back home…once you go onsite and come back you will be stuck in hyderbad for a long time to come….what to do I do…confusion and dilemma prevailed strong…as both the options were good in their own way….

So what did I do …thought contemplated and agonized…..but took no action…

and then finally I could take it anymore and complained to the police force to take some action and chase dilemma and confusion away..

There came the policeman “ Mr Dession Demello”…but alas…Mr Decision was too week due to lack of exercise as he has not been called to action too often and every time and could not do much……

Ultimately after almost 2 months of agony…fate intervened to help Mr Decision Demello and removed the options….options were akin to air….for the monsters of my story and thus they died a natural death…and Mr Decision finally overcame the confusion and Dilemma and I was off to singapore and back now standing here and telling you this story!

All worked out well at the end….But at what cost…? Was the mental torture and the uncertainty and the repeated discussions…worth the trouble…maybe not… if only my policeman Mr Decision had been stronger….the demons of confusion and dilemma would not have played on my mind and ruined soo many days of my life…


Ok so what am I going to do about it….? Help Mr Decision to be come stronger…so that next time when confusion and dilemma raise their ugly head…The Police Decision can chop their heads off at the first stage and let peace prevail….

And how am I going to make Mr Desicison stronger….what do u think…well by ensuring he goes to the Gym and exercises ofcouse…


Osho says…take small decisions and stick to them….it helps to strengthen your decisions making capabilities and train you to take bigger decisions and stick to them…

So my excersise are on…!

What I do now is take small decisions and stick to them…like…I will brush my teeth every night before sleeping…or I will have only fruits for lunch for a week…and I will go to the Gym 3 times a week for the next two weeks….

I am hoping my Police Mr Decision becomes stronger…

And when it comes to the next difficult decision of in my life… maybe who I should get married to or which is the next project I should shift to… I fare better then what I did previously…

Just like excising your body…..excising your mind is an ongoing journey…. And as I stand here talking to you the journey continues!

This was a speech I had given long back at a Toastmasters meeting in Hyderabad...I plan to use this as my Project 3 speech at the Mumbai TCS club sometime.

Early Morning Workshop...

The TCS Toastmasters club organized a two hour Humorous speech workshop starting 7.30 in the morning!!! Crazy is’nt it…who starts a session so early…I guess they they may have though it was a humorous way to begin!

The previous evening on my way back from work…I was contemplating of I should take the trouble to go for the workshop or no…I called up a friend from the club to check who all are coming…and he was like…..”I don’t know…. I am not coming…I think just the organizers and the speaker would be there!”

And I though to myself…chuck it…why take the trouble to get up at 6 in the morning and reach work so early..So I called up the organizers to do some general talk and tell him that I am not planning to come…but he seemed quite enthu and gave me a picture that the workshop would be really good and lot of people have registered etc. So I decided I would get over my laziness and actually try and go for the workshop…and I did!

I generally love workshops….especially if there are the personality development….soft skills types for a number of reasons…
1) Get to meet new people
2) I would like to be a trainer someday….so it is a fun to see different people handle the participants
3) End up learning something new

So since I am an “enthu cutlet” (a slag used by unenthusiastic people of this world for people like me!), I actually reached office at 7.30 for a completely optional session for which the utility was also under dark clouds of suspicion!

I reached office in record time…..15 kms….15 minutes drive end to end! As I pulled into the parking lot….I saw a red color Zen..and then another car and a then a few more! I was pleasantly surprised…Looks like the trainer and the two organizers have arrived with a few of their friends…Thank God I am not going to be all alone!

I stepped into office at 7.30…walked up the stairs to get to my work area…and OH MY GOD….there was a crowd at the reception with two perplexed harried security gourds trying to get entry passes for all those people and wondering what hit them early in the morning...
There were almost 30 people for the session. It may not be a large number by itself, but for someone who was expecting 3 people early morning…it was a shock!

The session per se was not bad! A gentleman called Ajit Kamath who was a corporate trainer was the coach and conductor for the session. The basic objective was to empathize on the importance of non verbal communication to create humor.

It was a normal interactive workshop with group activities.
The key take aways were
1) Weave a story
2) Be descriptive and make the audience travel with you
3) Let the body language be natural
4) Prepare but sound spontaneous

Theoretically I understand everything…..…practically I understand nothing!!

I have signed up to participate in a Humorous speech contest at the club level….I really don’t know what to! Attempting to be humorous can be extremely tricky…especially if you tell your audience…you are going to be humorous!

The bottom line: “Humor is serious business!”