My Contemplation

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.

6^th December, a date that will be always remembered as a most distressing date in the history of India for years to come. However the last 6^th December, 2009, made this date as one of the most remarkable date for few of us – SCIT Systems 2007-09. This was the most memorable day for all of us as majority of our class mate (SCIT- systems 07-09 batch) were together for the whole day after a long period of time. This memory will truly be cherished down the line. We had convocation on the same day but hardly 4 or 5 students from our class went on the venue to attend the ceremony. Its not that we were not excited about our MBA degree, but we were more thrilled to catch our friends after such a long time and more important we were seeking the opportunity to remember those good old hostel days and being together. Nostalgic you see!!!

It’s always great to be with friends… no doubt…nor can anyone debate over this…and dare not.

We were all meeting after 7 months and the best trait was none had changed; one by one everyone was taken into consideration (scapegoat) very well and their good and bad memories were brought back live before everyone. The whole day we were laughing at those, who were been selected as the center of discussion, enjoying and making fun of each other (making sure that no one takes it personally) being in limits, without hurting others sentiments.

Sharp at 10.30 in morning, Dinap (we call him “Tao” as he is known for giving advice for free) first time raised the question: “What’s the plan?” Since than every half an hour this question was raised as we always used to get diverted to our talks and used to get engrossed to our memories of blunders done during the college days…

Few to recall here:

Rohi known for his rapport with Admin (Very cool - I mean “very Sh__t_l”) used to get many of our lectures and exams postponed/cancelled…by his sweet/flirting behavior…which would suffice Rohi to sweep off her feet…hahahaha (being a CR his name should be the first one)

Subu’s lungi, his funny jokes and the most important, his creation (meaning “R_chn_”)

Mayank’s Full moon story (meaning P__n_m). Chai wala…Mak Chai was amazing. I badly miss your tea.

Venky’s Lemon Tree brownie (I am still looking out the opportunity to eat a brownie at Lemon Tree, Venky!!!)

Ingle’s chicken parts (Rahul, ye kunsa part hai?) and admiring him for watching “Radio”

Mohsin’s Thunderbird modified to Unicorn…may b Luna in few years

Rahul Singh’s “Subh__” Undergarments (Rahul Sir don’t get angry it’s just a fun)

Mayank and Manu – the tale of never ending Friendship and LOVE

Samuel’s hits (most of them were recent ones and the best one was “Spot jogging”) and his marriage. If Samuel gets married, then only we guys are eligible for marriage, this is the oath taken by System 07-09 Boys…not mentioning Girls…bcos u never know about them…

Yogesh finally got his degree correctly though his marksheets were never correct. Commonly known as “blockale” he was blocked in Convocation as well.

Samudra’s BevDas (Bevda and Devdas) Devdas bcos he lost his love -”Sharif”

My BI’s relation (more importantly with BI Ma’am); thank God they didn’t recalled “DCS”…and Fragrance (Kh_s___)

We also recalled one of the Samuel’s greatest hit of millennium and we ended up laughing boisterously:  “About IS audit objective paper where Ingle asked Samuel answer for question 1 gesturing his index finger, for which Samuel looked up.”

In between all those hilarious conversation after raising the same question for almost 20 times (I know 20 times is exaggeration), somehow by 4.00 pm we could manage to decide that we will go to “Toons” – all thanks to Sharif.

For me it was difficult to reach Toons as I had to catch the bus to return back to my place. But Tao as usual known for his experience, suggested me an excellent plan that can help me attain the fun at Toons and catch the bus on time. However to fulfill the plan Mohsin’s Thunderbird aka Unicorn had to suffer.

All said and done (this is the most used saying during the presentation in our class), we reached Toons and there we saw Mayank in cool Brown Leather Jacket making a statement for the girls out there – Beware the men are back…… Though it was looking bit funny out there but Mak that jackets suits you.  Hey guys I wonder I saw similar Jacket with Manu as well, I guess it could be MP’s style statement or something fishy between them he he he.

After the permission was granted we all set in and tried to order some drinks. Me and Yogesh were new to such place so were planning what to drink? All bevda’s ordered Beer and to the surprise Samudra was not among them. Subu and other few who don’t drink ordered Red bull the energy drink, I am sure they could have banged the table after having a sip. Me and Yogesh hardly aware of any such drinks were still struggling to decide the drink and finally an initiative taking skills started pumping (I recalled many things from this word, Rohi) out of me and asked me to order some drink called “KHUS SODA”. Yogesh has always been a good follower and so he also joined me with Khus Soda. Aiweeeeeeeee…….. it was so…………pathetic. I request Toons to stop selling it or people to never order it if you go to Toons. Venky again an exception to the list…call him “Foreigner” or “CEO”…had his own drink (Breezer). You know “Unche log Unchi pasand.”

Looking at two huge Jug full of beers Samudra could not resist any more and he finally had a peck, which was very much obvious. But something was wrong with him; he went to washroom thrice that too at interval of 5 minutes. Either he must have seen a hot babe somewhere near the washroom or his natural call was activated (Aage vala nahi peeche vala.. stop thinking weird).

Rohi and Abhishek were trying to replace Subu’s glass of Red bull with beer but they hardly succeeded. Subu is street smart no one can bit him except his best friend … Guess who???????? – The answer is “FUNNY V_j_y.” He was also one of the topics of our discussion but he not being a part of SCIT - Systems family; let’s not get into it.

All together it was a great fun meeting friends after such a long time. But all good things have to end and so was this get together. Finally having drinks and dinner at Toons we departed. Subu, Rohi, Venky, Abhishek and Samuel went back to Mumbai; Ingle, Mak, Tao, Samudra, Manu & Rahul Singh back to their house in Pune itself. Mohsin unfortunately was tied up with me so had to drive fast his bike to drop me at my bus stop. Apologies to Mohsin…his thunderbird had to suffer…a scratch or couple of scratches bcos of me.

I hope we always get an opportunity to meet atleast once a year. This post was possible because of the efforts from two people, one is me and other is Venky. He has helped me a lot (in fact contributed equally) in writing this post. Thanks dude. So we both are equally responsible for whatever we have written, if any of you feel it’s personal and think we should remove it, go ahead and let us know, but we are not sure whether we will remove it or not? he he he he. This is not to hurt anyone’s sentiments but to cherish those memories in the years to come. Also I request all those who all were part of this memorable day to contribute to this post either by posting their comments or reminding anything missed out here so that I & Venky can further add them to this post.

SCIT Systems Rocks!!!!!!!

- by Bhuvan and Venky

Everyone in India celebrates 30,000 milestone reached by Sachin Tendulkar and we all Indians are proud of Sachin Tendulkar being Indian. We all cheers when A. R. Rahman wins Oscar, when Yuvraaj hits 6 sixes in a row, when people like Rabindranath Tagore, Subrahmanyan, Venkartraman shares Nobel prize. We all, no matter which religion we follow, in which state we are located - Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP, AP, Delhi, we all celebrate the victory of India.

At one end we want to develop India globally, we are fond of globalization and want people to know more about India. We want to go abroad and make a mark on the globe and tell everyone that we are from India. Globalization has given India a great growth potential and India is certainly growing (are we?). Whatever the case but globalization has created tremendous opportunity for Indians and we are enjoying the consequences of globalization.

But if we look on the other side of the coin, then a question always beeps in my mind that do we really deserve globalization. We Indians are very double minded or two faced people. We want to be a part of other countries, state and city but we don't want others to be part of ours. We want to go US, Europe, Australia and other states and cities of India and settle there, make a mark, grow and simultaneously make India proud. But we don't want people from other State, City of India to migrate in our City or State. When some one from one state of India migrates to another for better opportunity people there don't like it, but when any one from later state moves to any other state in India or out of the country, they celebrate the success. We are not happy with nationalization how can we be happy with globalization?

People are now fighting with near and dear ones, with whom they leaved for years together. They say people staying next to them for more than 20 years, with whom they would have shared food many times, does not belong to their religion or their tribe. People now want separate state for each tribe, each religion and each language and don't want people from other tribe or religion to be the part of it. If we cannot be happy with people around us because they belong to different tribe or religion, do we deserve to be happy with globalization?

In many states and city of India people are reluctant to national language and if they heard other speaking national language instead of local language they are looked upon with humiliation. We are not ready for national language do we deserve to be a part of global language? No offense against using local language but if someone does not know the local language, can't we help him by speaking in national language (if we can do the same thing in global language why can't we do the same with national language)?

Several people in India are not allowed to visit various places in their own villages including temple or where religious ceremony is taking place. Dalits face untouchability mostly at religious places as untouchability is centered around the religion and purity. In some areas of India Dalits do have good lifestyle but in few regions its still a harsh reality. We cannot unite regionally how can we expect to unite globally?

Do you think we Indians deserve globalization?

First we need to unite regionally and nationally believe in INDIA first and only after that I think we deserve to think about globalization. If we celebrate India in all prospects by uniting in same way as we celebrated India in every Cricket Match and when some Indian wins a Nobel Prize then India will truly deserve to be one of the best country on the Globe and we being Indians will deserve to be part of globalization.

I have heard people saying that if your prayer is pure you will always get whatever you ask from the God. Since we are part of a creature on this earth called humans, we are very selfish and we pray most of the time for us and that too when we want something from the God. But do we always get what we pray for? If I look at my past I had never got whatever I prayed for. But life has given me enough to enjoy my life at fullest.

I am physically and mentally fit though cannot be sure about the later one; I have my own house, though it was bought by my parents but its mine. I have everything that a human being should have to enjoy their life. But still I am seeking for something in my life. I always regret that I didn't get what I wanted in my life. But I hardly remember to cheer for what I am having.

But this time I want something from the God and I want it anyhow either by hook or by crook. And I am not even trying to be selfish this time. This time I am asking something from the God for someone else. There is one of my very good friend and she is facing lot of troubles in her life. In fact few days ago I added some more problems to the existing and I apologized for that. This is my personal matter though I am revealing it in my blog and the only reason is that I want it to be very pure. I have nothing to hide and no issue in praying for her in front of this world. Before you start making any thoughts or conclusion let me tell you she is my very good friend and only friend, nothing else.

She is married and a mother of a very beautiful girl. Looking at her and hearing troubles she has faced in her life any one will pray for her and I can bet for that. Then why can't the God hear her. Due to the her problematic life, she has started thinking negative in everything. She is even addicted to one of the bad habit. She always say, once problems in her life will be resolved she will quit the addiction. I want her life to be good, obviously it cannot be completely free of troubles and problems but it can obviously be better than what it is at present. When she smile she looks very beautiful, believe me her smile can make any one's life however she is not ready to believe this, she thinks her smile is not that good and I am just overreacting. I want to get her smile back and wish that she gets all the happiness she deserves.

You must be wondering why I am so much worried about her if she is just my friend. May be because that is how I am - I always care for people around me and also this is the first time I have met someone who has suffered so much that too because of other's fault. I don't know why I want her life to be better, its not going to make any difference in my life except I will be one of the lucky person to see my good friend smiling and I think that is what is defined to be a selfless prayer or request. My friendship with her might be strange for the society and may be for her as well but since I don't have any wrong intention for her I think whatever I am doing is correct.

So this time I am praying to the God for her happiness and I wish that my prayer this time will be heard very soon. If any of you are reading this blog and feel whatever I am doing is right, you can pray to the God to help me in getting what I want.

Friendship and Love, two most complicated relationship between a guy and a girl. If someone ask to define love or define friendship what would be your answer? If we follow the dictionary, Friendship is defined as "The state of being friends". So now what is the definition of "Friend"? The answer is - "A person you know well and regard with affection and trust". Very interesting, keep this in your memory for some time, in particular the use of word "affection" and now lets see how love is defined. Love - "Have a great affection or liking for" as a verb and "A strong positive emotion of regard and affection" as a noun.

Now can any enlightened person in the entire world through some light and of course enlighten us on the difference between love and friendship. I bet if there is any?

In my recent conversation with one of my friend, she told that a guy and a girl can never be good friends. Same statement was said by one of my old friend few years back, and I strongly argued them on it. I am bit stubborn, at least on some points; and so in end either the discussion stopped or I won, just kidding.

Sometimes if I give a thought, in fact a deep thought on it, I feel they are right. If a guy and a girl gets close, they can never be friends any more. Though they get close claiming to be the best friends but they can never continue doing so for their entire life. And if they do so, there must be some reason behind it, like either a girl  or a guy get married to someone else or must be in love with someone else, or they both get departed by getting relocated to new place, or by any means they don't stay close to each other.

This is what I believe from the experience of others, but then why every time I try to oppose people claiming this fact. This is because deep in my heart I always feel that a guy and a girl can be friends forever. A friend is one with whom you can share everything in your life, but you never own her/him because you can never be sure whether he/she will stay with you for your entire life, you can never claim that he/she will follow you for lifetime or vice-a-versa. But you usually own your love. This do clarify the difference between a friend and a love. (This is my own belief, I apologize if my this statement has hurt any one emotionally). But when a guy and a girl are close friends what makes them feel like friends or like they are in love?

I think answer to this question lies in ourself, when we approach a girl or a guy for the first time, we are very much sure for what we are approaching for and even when some circumstances make people meet, the  following consequences are always well planned with some thoughts in our mind. So we are always very much sure of the kind of relation we are expecting. But if the other person does not have the same feeling, they both mostly gets departed or they both try to be good friends. Focus on my last sentence, I have used "try to be good friends", because they control on their thoughts, emotions and try to be good friends, won't that affect the relationship that they had earlier, I think it won't.

People say first step to love is friendship, but if you are a friend to a married guy or girl, or both of them are married, or any one of them is deeply in love with some one else, then there should be no chance of ending your close friendship in love. No matter how close a guy and a girl are, feelings should be limited according to circumstances. The young generation usually don't understand the importance of relationship and tend to fall in love with people who are married or in love with some other (even though there is years of gap in their age) leading to an extra marital affairs. We being the youth of India should realize the importance of people and their relation to be happy and let other people, who are related to us, stay happy. Every relationship between a guy and a girl cannot end in love, they have to get hold at some important intermediate state called "best friends".