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: