My Contemplation

Happy Children’s Day to all my friends, all colleagues, all below my age, all above my age and those who feel that they are still a child and have lot to learn, lot to do in their life. November 14th of every year, the day is celebrated as a children's day after the birthday of the first prime minister of independent India, Pandit Jwaharlal Nehru, to honor children of India. 

It is known that Pandit Jwaharlal Nehru, after Independence of India, had worked rigorously and passionately for the better education and welfare of children and for the youth of India. Under his regime, he committed in his five years plan that every child in India would get free and compulsory primary education.  He also brought a scheme to distribute free meals and milk to school children in India. 

Children are the future of tomorrow, the young India. However, today in India what children learns is competition, discrimination, corruption and earning money (oops, earning more and more money – reality shows and media has supported the perception more strongly). A poor child cannot attain school as their parents cannot afford the fees or the donation. Private schools are given more importance, where merit is the second priority and donation is first for admission.  School teacher who plays major role in nurturing youth of India, are interested in earning more money out of this profession and most of them have started with private tuition. They teach more in tuition as compared to that in school. Everyone right from the trusty, management to the teachers have changed their perception of this Nobel profession called “Teaching” and have transformed teaching as a pure business, a revenue & profit generating machine. 

Not only schools, trusty, managements, teachers and Government are responsible for this situation. Parents are equally responsible for the same. Parents compare schools on the basis of their facilities (just as we do for hotels, cinemas and homes, etc.) and all want their child to study in the best school where he can learn everything. This leads the schools and management to improve the quality of facilities rather than education.  Thus more money is invested by Government and investors in providing facilities than the salary of School teachers. This leads to poor quality of teaching but better quality of infrastructure.  No parents want their child to become a teacher, because there is no money in it. Teaching is a Nobel profession and should be considered the same. Government should encourage people to select teaching as their career by creating more opportunities in this profession. 

Children are getting smarter and clever with technology upgradation, but hardly few of them are learning basic characteristics of humanity. Competition is necessary, but is it the right time for them to know what competition is, how to compete with the another child sitting next to him, when they are just a kid and they don’t even know what is the importance of getting marks in exams. Is it necessary to discriminate children on the basis of their status of parent’s income, on basis of their looks and basis of their family status? Appreciating someone who is doing better is necessary, but that appreciation should not lead to discrimination among others. A kid when he is born, he is pure by thoughts and heart. We feed them with thoughts, liking and disliking. Thus, when we feed them we have to be careful.

A child in India is discriminated right from the first step of his learning – The School. Can’t donation be the second priority for getting admissions? Better infrastructure in schools and better quality of education is needed, but not at the cost of other children loosing opportunities of attending schools.

I wish, we all together someday can help Government and create a better environment for our children, to help them feed what actually they need rather than showing them importance of materialistic things.

Happy Children’s Day!!!

Today, 15 Aug 2010, is India’s 64th Independence Day. Sixty three years ago, the same fine date, 15 Aug 1947, was the most important day for the people, of the people and by the people of India and even after 64 years we celebrate this day in the memories of people who fought for us, in the memories of our country who struggled in the past, in the hope of our people growing along with our country. I don’t have much to say on this Independence Day, except to share one fictional story which I guess is very much real.

Few young friends as per their usual Saturday evening schedule, had a gathering on 14th August 2010 at a Dhabha (a small road side restaurant) called “Singh Da Dhabha.” After hell lots of work had to be done in the entire week in office and home, every Saturday they all come to meet each other and share their thoughts and get relaxed. This Saturday, a day before Independence Day, again they met at 8.30 p.m, they all gestured each other and formed a circular group making them comfortable on the plastic chair. They started of well with their usual talks and after some one and half hour, Rahul asked the question and the story begins:

Rahul asked “Hey guys, what is the plan of tomorrow, it’s the Independence Day, a holiday? F#$%king holiday got wasted as Independence Day had to come on Sunday. I am worried, this time I won’t be able to participate in any of our Sunday’s party as I have loads of work; have to take my mom to hospital for regular check up and after that I wanna take a deep rest as this week was very hectic, I hardly slept this week due to the assignments.” Rahul was a Commerce graduate and was working in some Finance company as accountant and simultaneously pursuing Part Time MBA.

Trisha, (married girl at the age of 23, now 25) replied “These Sundays as so boring. I am fed up with my in-laws; they have made my life hell. I don’t understand why my husband doesn’t support me when he knows that what they are asking is foolishness. They want money so I am working 6 days a week and that too from 8 to 8 and now they also want me to take care of household work. How is it possible? Forget it, I am out of any plans , no chance my hubby will be interested in outing tomorrow as he knows I will be stuck up in those 4 walls with hell lots of household work. He will never want me to hand over any work to the lazy housemaid (who for sure won’t do it) or his parents, I mean our parents.”

To that Aziz started laughing and said “Poor Trisha, your husband seems to be very cooperative, why you don’t talk to him and try to explain your condition.” Trisha replied and this time anger on her face “Do you think I am a fool that I am waiting for your expert guidelines. I have tried it many times, but no output, he is mama’s boy. Forget it, what are your plans on Independence Day?” Aziz voice was low this time "Nothing specific, I can’t even meet Shreya (his Hindu girl friend, he was Muslim); my parents warned me not to devise any kind of plan to meet up Shrey. They said people will feel I am planning any conspiracy to blast the police inspector’s house or kidnap his daughter (Shreya was PI’s daughter). It’s even risky for We Muslims to loiter around any public or gov. property on Independence Day.” Aziz father was a Member of Parliament and famous politician among Muslim’s community.

“Man, for me all days are same. I can’t compromise on my workout and so I have to get up early in morning or else my dad will kill me. I don’t want to be a sports man, but as per my dad I have to. One more busy Sunday, nothing new though its Independence Day” – Aman said. Aman was a son of unsuccessful Sports Man. To cheer him up a bit, Rahul said “Man at least you will get a chance to meet up some babes at your sports club. Enjoy with them, the Independence, what else?” All started laughing.

Suddenly, they felt an appearance of beggar irritating them and asking for some food and they all stopped laughing. “Please give me something so that I can feed my child.” – Beggar started his usual begging job as he felt the group has given him some attention. Aman and Trisha both gave him some money and showed him the way to move ahead.

Beggar started walking and showing two one rupee coins to his son murmured “See dear son, there is hardly any difference between Independence Day and Normal Day for us but Independence Day is very important for us. On normal day, we beg and they pay us, on Independence Day we find out for Indian Flags lying on ground and sell them and they again pay us. Thus on Independence Day, Indian Flags give us the independence from begging, so be proud to be a part of this country.”

Here, all of them continued the discussion ignoring the beggar. All of the sudden their attention shifted to Ravi who throughout the discussion was busy doing something on his mobile. “Hey Ravi, whats up? What are you up to? We have been observing you; you are completely in your mobile since we are here, new girl friend or what?” asked Rahul. After blushing for few seconds Ravi replied “No Man, Just updating my status on Facebook; wishing Independence Day and updating people that we are here to plan out Independence Days’ schedule and its all done.”

He continued talking now looking out of his mobile screen “Well, I am free for any plans. Thank God my boss has spared me at least on Independence Day. I would be the happiest person in the country to have Independence Day on Sunday. My boss is busy with some event related to Independence Day and so I got one Sunday where I can relax.” Suddenly his phone started ringing, he looked into the mobile screen “What the F#$%, my boss is going to screw me up for 100 years, we talked of him and devil is here.” He shouted showing screen of phone to everyone. All started laughing and Ravi went away from the group so that his boss is audible to him clearly.

The Old man, somewhere in 80s, sitting beside this group was hearing their discussion throughout. He took a support of his son (owner of “Singh Da Dhabha”) and got up. He asked his son to help him to take near to the group of those young chaps. He went there and stated clapping. All were amazed and so was his son to see such an Old man coming to them and clapping for them for no reason. They all were confused, what could be the possible reasons, what have they done that he is clapping.

After clapping for one minute he uttered “All of you, the young Indian chaps, the future of India started the discussion with the question: What are the plans on Independence Day? And what have you discussed is your personal problems. None of you mentioned any thing about our India. None of you thought of sitting for two minutes and thinking about the country, none of you thought or discussed about flag hosting and singing the national anthem at least once.” The Old Man continued and this time raising his voice “Do you even know that the restaurant you regularly visit is named in the memories of the legendary Bhagat Singh – Singh Da Dhabha.” The old man went away after saying this and all the young chaps were dumb.

They had two options after listening to the Old Man. They could have either continued discussing the same what they were discussing few seconds ago and ignore the Old Man or would have started thinking about our country and at least would have thought something where they can contribute for better India.

What option will you choose?

Happy Independence Day!!

Every year, the first Sunday of August is celebrated as Friendship day. The tradition of celebrating Friendship day by giving an honor, respect and love to friends started in US in 1935. Gradually, it gained popularity and was adopted in many countries including India. Friends come together on this very special day and wish each other by exchanging the gifts, cards, friendship band, etc. Friendship band being very popular in India. People spend their most of time with their friends and express their love for each other.

Human being is a social creature and importance of friends in their life can never be neglected. Life without friends means an isolated and obscured life.

Friends become the solution when you are in a problem.
They become the smile when you are sorrow.
They become the mentor when you are depressed.
They become the way that helps you reach your destiny.
They share their pocket money when you want to gift your girlfriend
They give you their support when you breakup with the same girlfriend.
They are the one who walks to you, when everyone else are walking away from you.
They are the one who believes in you when you stop believing yourself
They are the one listen to what you don't say
They are the one who knows all about you, but still likes you.
They are the one with whom you can share all your thoughts, you can be what you are and you can say what you want to.
They are the one who will be there for you when they should have been anywhere else
They let you know that you are not alone on the road of life.
They hold your hand to assure you that there is someone whom you can call and ask for anything, anytime.
They fight with you, they love you, they laugh on you and even cry for you.

They are friends, the siblings God forgot to give us and so send a gift in the name of friendship.

Friends plays one of the very important part in our life; they are life one soul, one mind in two bodies. Never miss an opportunity to show the appreciation to friends for their love and care. This August 1, 2010 gives you one more opportunity to appreciate your friendship. Don't wait for next August, you never know it can be too late.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my friends for being with me and helping me whenever I needed them. Having you all in my life is priceless. I cannot ask anything better than this.

Compared to friendship, gold is dirt.
Happy Friendship Day

Ever wondered why terrorism was born? Why people are willing to kill each other without knowing who the person is and why he/she should be killed? Why children who should have "A bat and ball" and "Books" in their hands have arms and ammunition? Why a human gets violent, when his actual foundation is on humanity? Have you ever tried to find out the answers to these questions? No, because those who are blessed with everything don't have a time to think about it and those who don't have anything & are combating for their basic needs have no regrets to kill people for their survival, even that is a part of the human nature- survival of fittest. 

The theory of survival of fittest came into existence with a message that whosoever will be fit and able to adapt to the changes in an environment will survive and whosoever will try to be stubborn and deny to accept the situation will have lesser chances to survive. But for the modern world, the world of Power, the word "fittest" has become the synonym of power. If you have power you can survive, if you don't you cannot. If you have power you can do whatever you want. You can kill the people, you can attack the religious place of minorities or majorities in the name of false claims that it belongs to majority or minority respectively (depends on situation), you can force people to fight for their religious pride even though they don't respect themselves, you can take bribe in order to get the work done though you gets basic wage for the same, you can make any girl to sleep with you to provide her with what she deserved anyways, you can ask the sharecropper to provide you double the share though they cannot provide even a single penny, you can blasts a parts of countries in the name of JEHAD. You can do whatever you want if you have a power. 

People in the power (could be political leader, a producer of film, a terrorist, a business man, a landowner, etc.) do whatever they can in order to suck the maximum out of the people who are under them.  This is what leads to the fight for injustice. Now is this the terrorism? No may be Yes, may be God knows. The bomb blast that took place in 1993 Mumbai were majorly planted by Indians, though they were trained & supported by other countries. Naxalites started their rebellion movement with a motto to fight against injustice done by landlords. Rakesh Mehra has shown in the movie Rang De Basanti that 5 youngsters kills the politician as according to them the politician killed their friend. Now is this a fight for injustice or terrorism? 

Fight for injustice should be there but not at the cost of the life of civilians. Fight for injustice can be in "The Mahatma Gandhi's" way or "Bhagat Singh's" way. Both were right but today's generation don't like Mahatma Gandhi's way they believe in Bhagat Singh's way. And they misses a very important fact of the Bhagat Singh's movement of fight against injustice. He never killed or never wanted to kill any innocent people/civilians. His fight was against Britishers and only Britishers, the culprits of injustice. 

The terrorism starts when fight for injustice starts killing civilians and innocent people. When the power troubles the weak to the point that it becomes out of their tolerance. The naxalites were not terrorist but now they are killing innocent people and that too in huge numbers and so they are no more than terrorists. Muslims are getting lured to fight for Jehad but they even don't know what Jehad is and they kill innocent lives, that leads to terrorism. Fighting for injustice is not wrong, but it can be done with words and talk. Use of arms and ammunition is expected but against the people who are the culprit for injustice and not against individual/civilians who has nothing to do with them. Simply killing people and blowing off the part of countries, no way justify the fight for injustice. In turn they are giving the birth to more and more terrorists. The fight to get the power, to show the power and to make the negative us of power is terrorism.

So, its up to the people of this world to decide, whether they want to fight for injustice or want to get involved in Terrorism. One saying written by Mahatma Gandhi that very well applies to today's world. 

Going to Expressway

Have you ever traveled from Ahmedabad to Baroda (Vadodra, as it is pronounced). If not, you at least must have heard or read that there is an expressway connecting both these cities. The name itself signifies its purpose, expressway - Dhooooooooooooooooom. Expressway have made traveling very fast and you can reach from Mumbai to Pune in 1 to 1.5  hour and similarly from Ahemdabad to Baroda in 55 minutes. If you read name of express way in Gujarati, they write it as "Durgati Marg." I never felt it as durgati marg till the day, but yes after my last visit I have experienced why it is called durgati marg. Anyways, the point is that as we all are aware that Ahmedabad to Baroda is only a 55 minutes run, at the max one can take 3 hours, right? Wrong. My last drive from Ahmedabad to Baroda was among the longest journey I ever had on road, even though I have driven from Surat to Pune many times. Can you guess what time I took to reach Baroda from Ahmedabad while driving a car? I am sure, you will have to make a wild guess. It took us 12 long hours to reach Baroda from Ahmedabad and there we spent a whole night on expressway - one of the most memorable night of my life.

We went to hospital on S.G. Highway to meet one of our relative. At 9.00 P.M. we left from the room in hospital and went to cafeteria to have dinner. We were told that cafeteria have one of the best foods but my luck was not along with me. I saw a menu and asked my cousin "what will you have?" He was being formal and replied "whatever you like". So I ordered Pav Bhaji and he ordered some Masala Dosa. The cafeteria was full and again unfortunately nothing interesting was there to kill time, except our talks. I have read and heard that good hospitals usually have beautiful and sexy nurses and female doctors, but as my luck I could not see any of them in Cafeteria. Possibly our timing was wrong. In last second sentence I had to specify "female" ahead of doctors because now a days government has created trouble for straight people like me, by approving "GAYS" relationship. 

I waited for almost 20 minutes for my order and still there was no sign of our token number on sign board.

I went to the waiter and asked "Pizzas are delivered free if they are not provided within 20 minutes. Does it applies to this cafeteria as well?"

To its reply he told "Definitely not sir, it is because the Pizza costs 3 times more than what you have ordered here, and that is the reason why you are here and not in Pizza hut few meters away from here." I was dumb and had no answer; that was the first time I realized why people call Ahmedavadi's as stingy (chingus). In surat, people prefer more costly hotels and restaurants and SURTIS give no chance to anyone to insult themselves in the matter of money. This was the first time I felt insulted and I immediately went to my table trying to avoid any eye contact with that person; at least he was right, up to some extent.

5 minutes passed and our token number was there up on sign board, I heaved a sigh. 

"Thank God, he managed to give us today" my dad said. 

All were starring at me and expecting to go and take the order. I was worried to face him again. I asked my cousin to take the order. He immediately took and went to the counter to get our order. 

My dad sensed something wrong from my gestures and asked "What happened, something wrong with order?" Immediately I looked away from him as if I was finding something and replied "No, nothing just wanted to wash my hands" and moved towards the wash room before any further questions are fired on that topic. 

I was waiting eagerly for Pav Bhaji as I don't even remember when I had Pav Bhaji last time. To my surprise my cousin came back only with two dish both with Dosa and one coke bottle. "Pav Bhaji will take few more minutes" said my cousin. 

This time I got agitated and went to him with red face full of anger as if I was going to bang his counter. I saw a waiter carrying single Pav in a dish and that made me control my temper as that was a sign that my Bhaji will be next. He pressed my token number and stylishly placed a dish on counter in front of me; not to forget he had a smile of success on his face. 

"Where is Bhaji?" I asked audible only to him and other people standing in close proximity.  

He winked and shockingly asked "Bhaji?" As if I ordered only Pav for my dinner. He looked at my face and felt some sense of mistake and started to review an order receipt. 

I also didn't want to give him another chance of insulting me and so checked the Pav Bhaji order in an order receipt and bash that on counter with confidence, saying or rather shouting "Am I going to have a single Pav without Bhaji?" Almost everyone turned back to have a look. My cousin came running to me over the counter. 

He immediately took the receipt and went inside. He returned back with expression of a looser and replied politely "Sorry Sir, but Bhaji is not available, I request you to order something else in same range." Now it was my chance to insult him, it was a time to take a revenge and I felt shouting on him saying that would again take another half an hour and I will be screwed up for one more hour in this cafeteria where there is nothing much of interest. But looking to his pitiable face and people around staring at us, I asked him for Uttapam without creating any more scenes. I wonder why I cannot shout on people, that is a bad quality in me. Finally, he managed to serve us food by 10.00 P.M. and we finished our dinner at 10.30 P.M. Almost one and half hour passed and there were no girls in cafeteria, I kept wondering where those sexy and beautiful nurses and doctors have gone, why this happens only to me.

It was now time for us to rush to Vadodra as early as possible, it was already too late to drive on highways. I kept cursing the person for delivering us food so late; I had no option it was after all the question of my self-esteem or my EGO. We hopped in the car and started our journey with a hope of reaching Vadodra in two hours max, i.e. at 12.30 A.M. 

My fortune was very upset with me, we had not even traveled 2 kms and car suddenly started vibrating or pulling on one side. It was very unnatural, I was tensed and so I reduced the speed but there was no improvement, vibration was growing and so was tension. I changed the gear and still there was no improvement in vibration. I was confused, I had to know what is happening before anyone else sitting in the car finds out and adds more to agitation. I was on my toe and was driving almost 20 km/hr on Sarkhej - Gandhinagar Highway (S.G. Highway, part of Ahmedabad), even a cycle would have overtaken us. 

My mom asked "what happened" and I felt as if they have started feeling vibrations. I ignored her and continued driving. I was sweating and had know idea what to do, stop the car and tell them something unusual is happening and try to find out or continue driving in this situation and wait for something worst to happen. Suddenly, the vibrations increased to the level which was unbearable and uncontrollable. 

I was almost wet now due to sweating, I cursed the leather seat covers applied by my maternal uncle on the car I was driving. I felt as if something is wrong with wheel, I peeped out of the window to find out and tried to check`the wheel which was rotating at 10 km/hr but vibrating at some unmeasurable frequency. 

I forced myself more to peep out of the window, while holding the steering straight and found that the front wheel was punctured. It was 10.50 P.M and the wheel of our car was punctured on S.G. highway, no mechanic no service station, where to go? what to do? As usual I cursed my fortune and everyone from their end were suggesting various ways to get out of this problem.

Story continues in next post, keep reading ....................

Today is my birthday and I got calls from all my friends and relatives. Feels great to hear from all of them. With few of them I am in a regular touch, while few of them meets & talks occasionally and for remaining its birthday to birthday. I thank all of them to remember me, to care for me and be with me for these many years. I wish my relationship with all of them cherish in the coming future and every year it gets more and more strong. 

I was wondering on this birthday, how I used to celebrate my birthdays few years back; with cakes friends, parents, sister and someone special ;). Of course the cake, friends, parents and my sister are special, but you know, it is always special to have "Someone Special" wishing you on your birthday. Long night calls that starts from 11.45 and lasts till 2 or sometime even 4.00. Sitting with friends late night and talking about our future, laughing on past and planning of next day party. Cutting cake with family and giving the first slice to Mom, second to Dad and third one to sister. Getting gifts, actually more proper word: demanding gifts from family and friends. Next day party with friends and emptying of pockets and if at all something is left out, no wonders supper takes it away. In return receiving unmeasurable gifts from all of them : Wishes and Blessings. Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional - If this is true, I wish I could still be there in School or College and enjoy those beautiful days of my life.

How good it would have been if everything would be like movies, press one button and you go back or forth to few years, again you press button and you are back to original life. On this very special day I would press button that would take me back to my college days. Saala senti ho raha hu (I am getting emotional now). I am not supposed to write when I am emotional, otherwise people will find my blog boring and start yawning while reading. So instead of being sentimental fool, I would end this post with some good note that will force you to come and read this post again and again in future (at least when you are about to wish someone on their birthday). 

I will write how you can wish birthday with some beautiful quotes, so whenever you have birthday of someone special you can visit my blog, read it and wish your someone special and impress her/him with beautiful quotes. 

Getting funny on growing age:

Praying and blessing: 

Relatives & close friends:

Warm expression: 

Ahh, one of the most confusing  and common questions one can ever have. Of course, answering this common question is not so very common; in fact it’s very difficult. I hope you have read my last post on “We are just friends,” because that will give you an idea how important it is to answer this question. If you have read my last post and have come here to find the answer of this question, let’s try to find out  first if the other person is in love with you and next we will find out if you are in love.

It is always easy for a girl to judge a guy whether he is in love with her, but it is very difficult for any guy on the earth to find the same about a girl. In spite of this, the guys have to always take chances and propose a girl; because as per the trend girl never proposes. No worries, lets see into how to find “if HE is in love with you?”

A man in love is not someone you need to spend a lot of time guessing; men are not as complicated as women.

A man in love will always do things that will clearly reveal that he cares for you. Caring for you can be anything wearing the clothes that you like, getting anything that you like from any corner of the world (of course if it is in his reach), spending more time with your family, calling u to ask whether you reached home safely even though you are not late at home, taking care of your need even before you can give a thought on it, etc. So observe him, if this is the case you are lucky girl, he is in love with you.

A man in love will always be engaged with you. If he is busy buzzing on mobile or reading messages or looking out here and there in your presence then there is a trouble. When he will be sitting with you, you will be the entire world for him. He will smile when you will smile.

Feel his touch; it will be tender and gentle. He will touch your face, your hair, your arm and hold your hand softly until you will feel the warmth. If he holds your hand in public you can be assure about his love for you; very few guys have guts to hold a hand of girlfriend in public.

Last but not the least, listen to your heart. If he does love you, you may have already stopped reading this by now. You don't need anyone to tell you what you know yourself.

And please, it is not always necessary that always a guy should propose a girl, even you can lead sometimes; this will give you what you may loose if not done.

Now it’s time for guys to find out “if She is in love with you?”

Girls are usually coy, modest and very sweet, so it is really challenging to find out if she loves you or not. If you are trying out to figure out from their gestures, that will be tricky one, so don’t try it.

She will never confess first, so she may give you a hint by saying you few words like “I like you, you are so sweet”, “You take care of me even more than my parents”, “You are such a nice guy, I like you a lot”, “You are the best person I had in my life”, “You are really trustworthy” etc. this is the first hint. But still at this point you need to put some more efforts to confirm it. So observe her behavior for the next points.

Now this is the point where you can get a second confirmation from her. You meet any of her friends and if she is jealous, you definitely have a chance. Try to praise some other girls (but praise genuinely, don’t praise where you know that your girl dominates compared to others in that point) and see the reaction, if she is jealous or angry; you have a chance. But if she reacts as if you are trying to fool her,  you are in trouble. However silly could be the point, if the girl is in love with you she will never tolerate you praising others.

The third confirmation, she will care for you in almost everything, the way you move, the way you drive your bike, the way you talk to your parents, the way you react to people. The most important when you are sick or stuck up in some (physical) problem, if she provides you an extra care and take care of your minor details,  you don’t need to wait for anything, she loves you a lot.

Forth confirmation, if she introduces you to her family and share everything about her family, you are done. A girl will never take a chance to introduce you to her family or reveal her family problems to you if she doesn’t trust you.

Last but not the least; again same applies to you. Listen to your heart. You don't need anyone to tell you what you know yourself.

Now that you have figured out whether she/he is in love with you or not, let’s now try to get the answer from yourself. The tough part starts now. I got a beautiful message that gives “12 ways to know that you love someone”. I know some of you must have read that message and I am sure just like me you also believe that these 12 ways actually works. So let’s go for it, they are as follows……

• Twelve: If you talk with him/her late at night and when you go to bed you still think of him/her.
• Eleven: If you walk really slowly when you are with him/her.
• Ten: If you don’t enjoy or feel good when he/she is far.
• Nine: If you smile when you hear his/her voice.
• Eight: When you look at him/her, if you don’t see any other people around him/her.
• Six: If he/she is everything you want to think and talk about.
• Five: If you realize that you smile every time you look at him/her.
• Four: If you would do anything to see him/her.
• Three: While you have been reading this, if there was a person in your mind all the time.
• Two: You have been so involved thinking of that person that you didn’t notice that number seven is missing.
• One: You will now to go back to check for number seven and now you are silently laughing to yourself and thinking about him/her.

If you got the answer, what are you waiting for, why don’t you just go and propose her/him. I hope you have  the best love life and you get married to the person whom you love, very few are fortunate to have it.

Well, well you must have given a good thought about the post after reading its title, as this generation is very much used to it. You ask to any girl or guy in relationship (excluding officially engaged) and they will reveal only one thing and that is "We are just friends." Actually, they will be blushing on one side (if you observe their face closely) and revealing their so called friendship - "No, no, yaar we are just friends, kya tu bhi."

This is a very serious problem with our generation; I keep on wondering what could be the probable reason for not revealing their relationship. Well there could be many reasons but most of time I feel its insecurity. Insecurity of loosing each other, insecurity of taking responsibility, insecurity of getting into relationship or commitment. 

I have been hearing this from many people, actors (of course, I don't know any of them personally, its all from media), sports stars (after IPL 3 at least cricketer deserve "STARS" tag and in India cricket is the another name of sports), my friends, friends of friends, and sometimes even I am not an exception. Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor, Anuskha Sharma and Shahid Kapoor, Yuvraj Singh and Deepika, Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar, Tom and Alice, Raj and Simran, etc all are going on through same phase. Well don't get so confused, the last two couples are imaginary or dummy names substituting the entire young generation of India. Also, I am not sure about the above mentioned celebrities' relationship because they might be speaking truth, who knows? But yes, this has definitely given an option for our generation to support their so called friendship - the relation full of insecurities.

These insecurities are there because neither a girl nor a guy is ready to confess that they are in love with each other. Some do this because they are practical enough and think that there is no future with the other; some because of their ego - let the other one confess, why should I; some people are worried  about loosing other; while some never realize that they are in love and so keep on saying or believing that they are just friends. There would be only 10% of cases where an ego could be the reason, because ego will not allow their friendship to grow to such level. Same applies to the category of people who are practical. While 30% of people fall in category where they don't confess as they are worried about loosing them. And whopping 50% of people fall in category where they don't confess because they themselves are not very much sure about their relationship. I might be wrong about the figures for the last two categories but this is as per the experience of mine and people around me.

But one thing is for sure, if you know that you are in love and you don't confess, you will regret for your whole life. So don't wait for anything, not even for the right time; just go and confess to the person immediately, the right time is "NOW". Confessing your love is not a crime and it will be far more relaxing than worrying about the after effects.

Well for all those who are into confusion, I would like to share few facts that will help them to know if they are in love. I hope  it will help them to come out of their confusion; however, even after reading those facts they cannot make their decision then only GOD can help them. 

All the best to all those who know that they are in love and are about to confess their love. However, those who are still confused and want to know if they are in love or not, read my next post.... : )

Few days back, I was listening to Radio City 91.1 when the RJ asked to SMS a dream of the life that can never come true and the best one gets a prize. I started to ponder over my dreams immediately to recall one of the dreams I ever had and which by any means cannot be true. At one point of time I thought that almost every dream I had till now are eligible for that; but I had to select one of the best dream so I kept mulling over for few minutes and finally I could come up with one dream which I think best suits for the prize.

While all this happened I was on a bike riding back to my home from office. So fortunately, I didn't message my dream to Radio City and lost the opportunity to win a prize. Now you must be thinking what is so fortunate about this. Some might be even thinking that by doing so I saved money on SMS. Of course, I did save money by not sending a SMS, but I find this fortunate because I got an opportunity to bore you people by writing my new post on this, lol.....

Well, coming back to the dream, I dreamt about the India, India free from poverty, I dreamt of a day when I don't find any single person sleeping on footpath in India. By the time I reached my home, I thought this would have definitely won me a prize as this is the dream which I think can never come true. This is because rich are getting richer while poor are getting more miserable in our country. At one end where the figures of illiteracy and unemployment is getting better and better year on year due to privatization, the quality of government schools and their teacher's earning on other end is degrading day by day. The donations that private schools demand is out of rich of middle class, how can a poor father afford it for his child? The only option left for him is to admit his child to government schools.

To make poor rich, they and their children needs an employment. To get an employment, 90% of children needs education, and it should be a quality education. To get an quality education, we need government schools to improve their teaching quality. This can be done by hiring quality teachers and implementing various facilities that private schools are providing and which are necessary. Government is earning huge, part of which should faithfully be used to provide facilities in government schools. People are heedlessly donating money for some religious purpose in temples, if they can donate to government schools that might make a difference. The wage and earning of teachers should  be raised so that there can be quality teachers there to provide an quality education. The retired people can contribute in providing free coaching to the students of government schools. Once started, I am sure there can be many things that can be done to make governments schools better.

Oh God, its so very much difficult, isn't? That is why I thought this dream deserves the prize. Indeed it is going to be difficult, if we think so. Well I know, there are some people who will be claiming that even if above suggestions are implemented, nothing is gonna change. I also know there will be some better suggestions which can eventually make a difference, but nobody is going to neither suggest it nor implement it. We all will think, discuss, write a blog (just like me), laugh or sometime even mourn, curse government or society and finally get be back to our life in the same society  with a zero outcome. It will be difficult if we do so. If the youth of India feels that whatever I am saying is true and feel that we together can make difference, lets join our hands and try to make some difference. Lets take a oath, when we will be in position where we will be able to donate some money, we will first donate it for better government schools. When ever we fill we can  provide some good coaching we will provide it to the students of government schools for free. That is all I want to say from my side, if you people have some suggestions and ideas please share and we together can implement it.

The war between two FMCG giant, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Procter & Gamble (P&G), continues and has taken a very aggressive move when HUL directly attacked P&G by promoting its best selling detergent "RIN" along with P&G's product "Tide" in same commercial ad.

We have seen many such competitive ads for different products like tooth paste, cold drink, electronic products, however none of them were direct. This ad has aggressively disparaged "Tide" as a brand to make HUL's "Rin" detergent look more prominent. There were many ads where indirect reference to competitors products were made, either by making the name of competitor's product look blurred or showing a dummy product that looks very much similar to competitors and sometimes even making some funny comments about competitor's advertisements. However this is the first time in Indian commercial advertisement segment where competitor product's name as well as the product is belittled to show the strength of own product. 

"Tide" was usually marketed by P&G with their USP as making use of the superior technology which make the clothes more white/bright as compared to the other detergents. However, HUL attacked "Tide" showing "Rin" as better product in ad by comparing the brightness/whiteness of two shirts. The one where "Rin" was used is shown brighter than one where "Tide" is used.

P&G had filed a suit claiming Rs 100 crore in damages from HUL alleging that they had made an advertisement showing their product 'Rin' had more whitening power than 'Tide'. P&G's counsels submitted before the court that such claims were unsubstantiated and had no scientific basis. They also claimed that such an advertisement was made with malafide intent. The matter would come up for hearing again after six weeks. 

I am not sure about the repercussion but will have to admire the guts of HUL. However, I personally feel this is not the right way to market the products. Improve your quality, promote ethically and it will automatically stand out in the competition.   

What do you think, is it the right way of marketing? How will this commercial ad create an impact on both these brands? Will people stop buying "Tide", will they stop buying "Rin" or there will be no major change in buying behavior of consumers?

"Say Cheese" is what people say when they are about to click a photo. Photographers usually instruct their objects to say cheese to make them smile. When people say "Cheese" their face appear into the shape that is similar to a smile.The simple reason why everyone want people to smile when they are clicked is that everyone on this earth looks good when they smile.

Smile on the face can be of two forms; one is natural smile and another is artificial. One can have natural smile when someone is jubilant, joyous, ecstatic, felicitous, elated, gleeful. Alright, I know its getting too complicated so in simple words, you can have natural smile when you are happy. An artificial smile appears on your face when you are sad but you have to smile or you have to smile when actually you don't want to. However, an artificial smile never make your face look beautiful, in fact it gives you a strange horrible look and sometimes even make you look like an alien.

The bottom line is we should stop pretending to be happy and start finding out the reason for not being  happy. If we cannot be happy at least we should stop pretending to be, that make us look ugly. Now that we live in the age of globalization, a competitive world surrounded by practical people we have no option left with us but to pretend to be happy. Because we always compare ourself with others and we always want to be like someone. In this race, we always forget to celebrate our present. There are many things in your present for which you can smile and cheer, there are many people who feel good when you smile, there are many things/people trying to bring a smile on your face; smile for them, smile for yourself. At this note, can you even remember when you smiled last time? Anyways lets not get into that because I know, if we can pretend to be happy we can even claim that we are always happy and can proudly bring an artificial smile on our face.

I read a book Please, Mom! It's my Life written by Dr. Jaideep Singh Chadha and let me tell you it is a must read book for every teenager and adult who thinks that they know everything. This is because we may know everything in the world but we don't know how to be happy. Have you ever thought any thing positive about Donkey? Now that I have raised this question, you will start thinking and I can bet some of you are still finding the answer. The fact is till now many of us have never thought on it and this is because we are always surrounded by so many negative thoughts in our life that we never had a time to think any thing positive about our life and our surroundings. This book will reveal such small things which we loose by grieving on what our eyes could not see. To support the above fact, there is a very famous idiom which we studied in our school days but we never implemented it - "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush." We always desire of what others have and always miss out to cheer for what we have. 

I observed many people and could narrate one example that clearly differentiates materialistic/artificial happiness and actual happiness. When you get a message about your salary deposited in your account for the first time, you obviously get a smile on your face and then you get busy with your work; again after some time when you come across the same message or you recall the amount in your salary account, can you get the same smile on your face again? No, because it is a materialistic smile that occurs only once. However, every time when you remember - the help you provided to any human being in need, to any of your friend; an elapsed time with your friends; first time when you proposed a girl/boy; your first love; a first lust-less kiss; the joy that you had when you were with your near or dear ones and such simple and splendiferous occasions in your life, you will always smile and this is the happiness which we always miss out to cheer in our present.

So forget the past, stop thinking about the future and celebrate the present. Remember, you look very ugly or  even horrible when you pretend to smile or pretend to be happy, you look fair enough when you don't smile but also don't pretend to and you look good, bonnie, clean and honest when you are happy and when you smile.

"Save our Tigers" is a campaign recently launched by "Aircel" an upcoming mobile operator in India. Aircel has partnered with WWF-India to save our tigers. Its sad that someone has to make us realize our responsibilities - a responsibility to be a human being.

There are just 1411 tigers left and now that Aircel has launched a campaign to save our tigers I guess this will make a huge difference. Many celebrities and sports stars are promoting this campaign and has supported the move of Aircel. I am roaring for them and even you can join the roar to support the tigers; our national animal need our support. To support them please visit and join the roar: Save our Tigers by Aircel.

I am supporting them because I am a human being and I very well know my responsibilities. We all know we are human being and hurting, killing or destroying is not our activity. Why do we get involved in these kind of stuffs?

A human being is the most powerful creature in this world and we as a human being are utilizing this power to destroy the world. Today its our national animal, yesterday it were trees & forest, tomorrow it will be something else and someday it could be ourself. We need to understand the basic, we need to understand the difference between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, we need to maintain peace in this world. For saving tiger we don't have to do any extraordinary thing, we just have to be a human being. Our existence is because of this world and we need to save this world and every creature that belongs to this world. No other creature expect human being has this understanding. So what we have to do is to understand our responsibilities and follow them.

Today, we see everything from commercial angle. We only think about our profits, our increments, our gadgets, our lifestyle and all that funnels to our commercial world. The usage of bones of wild tigers for traditional oriental medicine along with the international trade of tiger skins continues to be the main reason for poaching tigers of India. Approximately 121 tigers were killed in 1995, 81 in 1999, 72 in 2001 and on an average 35 tigers are killed every year since 2005.

I don't have the data on number of human beings killed every year but I am sure the number would be worst. I hope, wish and pray that a day never comes in future when someone has to run a campaign "Save Human Beings."

One more holiday is what the corporate India is thinking on this republic day. Many must have applied for a leave on Monday so that they can enjoy a long weekend. Sat - Tuesday. This is true with almost all Indians (even I am not an exception) and for almost all the holidays or festivals in our country. Few years back I used to ask question why do we celebrate Republic day, I used to get some shocking response from people. I observed that majority never knew the answer. The reason is that during our childhood we mugged up the reason to write it in a history paper but never gave a thought on it or understood it. For those who don't know the importance of Republic day here is brief history why we celebrate 26th January as Republic day every year.

After Independence, we decided to govern ourselves. We prepared a constitution - Law determining the fundamental political principles of a government, a document which shows how the people of country will be governed. This constitution was approved on 26th November 1949 and came into force on January 26, 1950. With this India became a "Sovereign Democratic Republic."

Sovereign means "not controlled by outside forces, autonomous (controlled by the people)."

Democratic means "representing to or adapted for the benefit of the people at large (for the people)."

Republic means "a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them (power of the people)."

The constitution says people of India shall be the real rulers of their country, and each citizen shall have right to "Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity". There will be no King or Queen to rule the people.

And we started to govern ourselves.

So all those who still feels that this is a mere holiday for them, think about it again. Understand what it means and try to fight for your right - Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

For this Republic Day I tried to write a verse, but I am very bad at words and writing poems. This is my first attempt so please accept my apology for not able to make it up to the mark. As I am proud of being an Indian I thought of writing something on it and would like to publish it on my blog.

I am proud to be an Indian

                                                                             - by Bhuvan

Chetan Bhagat one of the famous young author of 4 bestselling novels - "Five point someone", "One night at call center", "Three mistakes of my life" and recently published "2 states the story of my marriage" is in the middle of controversy after the release of bollywood movie 3 Idiots starring Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor & Bomen Irani directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

The movie 3 idiots is loosely based on novel Five point someone by Chetan Bhagat. If I go one year back when the star cast of movie went to IIM Bangalore to shoot for this movie since then I am hearing that this movie is based on the novel Five point someone by Chetan Bhagat. Five point someone was the biggest hit among the bestselling novels and majority of Indian crowd was really excited about the movie 3 Idiots as they had a impression of being based on the novel which they liked a lot. However today Chetan Bhagat is in middle of controversy as it is claimed by the crew of movie that Chetan Bhagat is trying to gain the publicity as movie is a big hit.

My view is that Chetan Bhagat is himself a big celebrity and he does not need any kind of publicity. His writing is enough to make him notable. His novels and articles written in TOI reveals his talent and is followed & respected by many young Indians. He has nothing to gain by getting into such kind of controversy. In fact he don't need any publicity; my personal belief is that more people in India know about Chetan Bhagat as a famous author than people who know Rajkumar Hirani as director. I found this example in my office itself - one of my colleague was aware that 3 Idiots is based on some novel by Chetan Bhagat but he was not knowing anything about Rajkumar Hirani even though he was hardcore follower of bollywood movies.

The coming year 2010 is really going to be strange for me. The reason that at start itself I got many surprises. We had a Christmas party this year in our office (this was probably the first time that I had a Christmas Party, 1st strange surprise) and we played a game in which I got a gift (an iron manufactured by Bajaj, I was really lucky to get that, 2nd strange surprise) and a message - "All your sorrows will vanish" (3rd strange message). I hope if I have any sorrows it get vanished this year. My luck never favored me in getting such gifts earlier, so indeed it was strange for me.

On 31st eve we had a another party in our office which was actually a party for all bevdaas. We had Whiskey and Vodka along with Fanta and Thums-up to welcome a new year 2010. All those who preferred hard drinks started their drink with small peck of Whiskey and later switched to their own choice of drinks i.e. few continued with pure (only) whiskey while some tried it with cold drink and other tried vodka. All non - alcoholic drinkers started with Fanta and Thums-up. I too was among non-alcoholic drinkers and had never tried alcohol in my life and reason was that I never felt the need of it. I was born & brought up in Gujarat (which is known as dry state) but I did my college in Pune where drinking alcohol is permissible. However I never touched alcohol during my two years of college in Pune (for some it must be very boring, but thats how I am). I used to go out with my friends many times and every time they offered me a drink but I never felt the need of having it and I used to accompany them by drinking cold drinks.

But don't know what was wrong with me on this 31st eve in my office when few of them offered me Vodka and I could not resist (the 4th strange shock). I tried to convince them and waited for cold drinks as it was out of my reach but I could hardly succeed in resisting myself. All my friends would be wondering why I could not resist as I used to during my college years. They will be shocked because I had never listened to them during college years on this matter, how could I get convinced by few corporate colleagues and friends. People usually gets more mature and strong as they grow up but for me it was completely different. People tend to start all these in college but I surpassing all of them started in corporate life.

But later when I gave a thought on it I came to know the actual reason for it. Let me clarify I just had a 30ml of Vodka and that too with a full glass of Fanta and so I was not going to fuddle. At the time when I agreed to have a small peck of Vodka, few old talks and promises with my friends were running in my mind. One of my friend promised me that one the day when I will start drinking he will stop drinking. Also I had a talk with another friend and she told me that unless you don't taste it you will never realize the fun or pleasure of drinking and this conversation started because at that time I was trying to help her to get rid of smoking habit. But I could hardly argue them as I had never tried alcohol and they always used to pitch in the discussion with this point. So when all these thoughts were running in my mind, one more thought leaped out of the queue and got the highest priority in my thinking process and it was: what am I going to loose or gain if I will have a small peck of Vodka. I was not going to loose anything but yes I can at least prove my point to her that there is no such extraordinary pleasure of having an alcohol and that I was true that there is no need of having it or help my  another friend to follow his promise and ask him to stop drinking.

I know my this move is not going to make any change in their life, but now at least I can strongly argue with them when any such point is raised. They will surely argue that drinking 30ml of Vodka with full of Fanta is not called drinking, but let me clarify that now I am not going to drink any more, this was my first and the last drink. Now its their turn to keep their promise, I have done my part.

I know no one will believe that only for this reason I boozed so I would like to clarify that among all those thoughts hovering in my mind one thought was in favor of tasting it "At least once in my life I should taste and feel it to know what it is?" And probably because so many different thoughts, few for my friends and few on getting an opportunity to taste it, I think I could not resist. The fact is I enjoyed the party, I enjoyed the stay of people when all were drinking and I enjoyed drinking as well (but yes it tastes like hell and I still hate boozing). Also nothing among these (fun, pleasure, people around me) would have changed if instead of Vodka + Fanta I would have had Fanta alone, the fun and the pleasure would still be the same and sometimes I even regret for that. With such as start of new year I can at least make sure that this year is really going to be strange for me.