Progressing the right way!

If we look around, we will see that things are getting bigger, faster and better. Bigger buildings, better shopping complexes, faster cars, more advanced gadgets and so on. This seems obvious as the advancements in technology were bound to bring these changes.

But hold on for a moment and think it this way. Bigger and better things invariably are consuming more and more resources. Human brain has no limits but this planet has. In the mad rat race for big homes, faster SUVs, we have forgotten that this race is killing our planet.Almost every new product launched creates more demand for energy and resources which we don't have.

Our companies are delivering what the customers are demanding. And our demand is seriously skewed. Why don't we see Ipad or Android kind of discovery in the field of solar energy? This is certainly because all the attention has been shifted towards the market demand. All powerful brains are working to serve this irrational demand.

Science and technology is progressing but in the wrong direction. We need cheap products which can work with lesser energy . We need frugal inventions which can serve the purpose with almost no energy.


There are websites which will let us know the best of gadgets but hardly any website will let us know the most energy efficient gadgets. Clearly there is no demand for it. We don't understand the gravity of situation.


So much can be done in this field. Programmes can be written which need less computing power. Buildings can be constructed which produce everything that they consume; from food to electricity.. Bicycles can be designed that generate electricity.


Not that the above things are not getting done. But these inventions are few and far away from teh market forces and hence unaffordable.


Market forces will have to align themselves sooner or later. The sooner the better!

हिंदी !!!!

Hindi .. our National language … one of the distinct symbols and identity of we the Indians and our Nation India… India or Hindustan as it is called in Hindi sometimes … I am saying sometimes coz I know many of you will be arguing that it is Bharat and not Hindustan but still when you go about listing the names of our great nation, Hindustan will most definitely figure in that elusive catalogue… Hindustan derived from Hindi or it’s the other way round, don’t know or whether they have any such kind of relationship? Again not sure, not very good in history, but they seems to be connected in some way or other. What I am trying to emphasize here is the importance or significance of our mother tongue in our lives. How proud are we of the fact that we belong to this great Hindi speaking Hindustan..? Do we feel ashamed or chagrined in any way when we find ourselves as the only Hindi speaking guy in midst of so called modern high society “cool” people who thinks themselves to be the descendants of queen Victoria .. Well I don’t … on the contrary I feel proud that I am speaking in the dialect of the country I belong to and of which I am a proud citizen. By this I don’t mean that I am against English or for the fact any language. Every language is beautiful and I m not trying to compare or juxtapose two languages here. What I m trying to analyse is this growing obsession of conversing only in English or at least bringing in that touch or English flavour in every sentence … like “U Know “ … I know what ?? mystery I haven’t been able to solve till date .. but even then whenever somebody tell me … u know na … I nod along, coz I know something which I am not aware of but definite the other person knows that I know, and as they say its better to keep quiet and let the other person be in that state of confusion and dilemma that u r clueless than to open your mouth and remove all delusion … so yes I know..

Jokes apart, seriously why today’s society have created that kind of a stigma, where a person who cant converse properly in English is looked down as if he is some kind of an untouchable, and by society I don’t mean only the younger generation but I have seen this thing even among the grown ups… Surprising … I am writing this but I know I have also done this at least once which I can recall but there the reason was different, as I wanted something against that guy and only weapon which I managed to get hold onto at that time was his English and seriously I don’t feel proud of that. I never gave any serious thought to this Hindi English debate but a few days back I was mocking a friend of mine, as she was finding it a bit difficult to translate some very tough Hindi words to either common Hindi or even English. At that time it was only for fun and pulling her leg and I don’t know whether she even gave a second thought to all this but it surely forced me to think… to think about the state of our mother tongue in her own land. I am no master or pundit of Hindi language and even I am writing this post in English. But I consider my Hindi quite better than many out there, at least I don’t pretend that I don’t know Hindi.. yes I don’t know whether you will agree with me or not but I have seen people who would be knowing Hindi but will still pretend to be ignorant as if accepting that you know something that is said or written in Hindi will make you any less of a man or woman and I have seen this tendency to be a notch higher in girls… for me it is a proud feeling if I can converse in proper Hindi which by the way is not the Hindi we speak in day today life… Today’s Hindi is coarse Hindi , “ Abransh Roop” as we say in Hindi.. see I know Hindi ;) … By all this I m not demeaning English or its importance in today’s world by any sort of way… Agreed that English is the global language and in order to progress and interact with the outside world we have no other choice but to be good and fluent in English, but all this doesn’t mean we can’t be good in Hindi … Its brilliant that you know a foreign language and not only know it but you are also even better than the people who invented that … great ..congratulation … but how good are you in something which belong to you right from the start? They say if a country is not English speaking one then its progress in today’s world is almost impossible… but if that is true to some extend than in today’s world only we also have the examples of China and Japan … they have forced the world to learn their language and not the other way around.

Promoting children to learn English is terrific but to do that at the cost of Hindi, your identity, I am not in favour of that at all. Now a days English is compulsory in all the schools right from lower KG to 12^th standard and Hindi is not taught even till 10^th. I say you make English compulsory, no issues with that but make Hindi also mandatory. Today if I ask you to write a single sentence just one sentence in Hindi, I m pretty sure many of you wouldn’t be able to put your hand up and say yes I can do that, even I don’t think I will be able to do that either and I feel ashamed of that. If I ask you to narrate ABC, you would do it without even bothering to breathe twice but if I ask to enumerate “ ka, kha ,gh “ Hindi syllabary , I can bet no one would be able to even tell me first 6 alphabets correctly. Shameful, isn’t it?

Ruination of Hindi is really a matter of grave concern… atleast I think so… I feel that even for my regional languages, kumaoni and Garhwali .. as nobody from my generation knows it … forget about speaking, I can’t even understand it properly and surely it will succumb to premature end with my generation. I don’t want Hindi going down the same lane. Forget about English, it is facing stiff resistance within its own country with her own sister languages… down in the south people are still not ready to accept Hindi as their national language… even here in Maharashtra I see common language of conversation is predominantly Marathi… which is not bad but at least in public places or sign boards along with Marathi and English, message should also be stated in Hindi.. In buses I see slogans and messages written in Marathi and English but not in Hindi… what the hell is that… we are worried about foreigners who won’t be able to understand Marathi but what about Hindi speaking population of your own country?? Who will translate your noble thoughts for them ?? I think this National Tag is somewhat cursed.. anything you attach it with is destined to be doomed… you see the plight of Hockey, our National game.. tiger .. our national animal ..on verge of extinction ..similarly Hindi on road to ruin..

Now a days India is becoming a land of agitations, movements, hunger strikes etc etc as janta is becoming aware of their rights and “birthrights” … so why not bring a revolution for upliftment of our National language, or are we too ashamed to call ourselves Hindi Bhashi ( hindi speaking for those who cant understand it) … Feel proud of what you are rather then trying to ape someone .. feel proud to stand up and say yes I am an Indian .. true Hindustani coz :

Sare jahan se aacha Hindustan hummara…

HINDI HAIN HUM WATAN HAI.. HINDUSTAN HUMMARA…..!!!!

Cheers

RJ

Love – A Leap of Faith

What is Love? Does that sound absurd and vague? Or May be not? Many will define Love as friendship by saying that “Love has its first step of friendship and the last one too”, A famous Dialog from Sharukh Khan’s movie.
Un-doubtly, Love means trust, a bond between two souls which cannot be seen but is felt. It involves those emotions which one can never express. Love may mean a companion who stood by you at times of a difficulty and celebrates even the miniscule happiness.
However, Love for me meant the increase in heart beat by just thinking of her, a choke in throat, a desire to talk to her, eagerness to see her, Day Dreaming about her and what not ?
How amazing it is that a simple, candid girl suddenly looks like a queen of your heart, abduct your brain, kills you million times with her innocent, piercing but mesmerizing and compassionate eyes. Her one smile brings the cacophonic shores to the euphonic and tranquilizing silence. Her lustrous hairs can make the peacock to dance insanely in brightest of the sun. The merriment and stupendous face coerced many to look at her spontaneously just like a rainbow after year of rain.
But what actually Love means? Squandering your innocuous nights on phone? The love and infatuation are bipartite, two ends of river having a perceptible difference of thread. The parent of phone calls, shopping etc is care that brings the onus of that girl, faith and trust of that girl. The Love that makes you do these things also prompts you to take the world, face anything and everything.
Discerning love is just like a Bermuda triangle, a sea where one gets to the shore by drowning in it. A hurricane, which takes everything from you and leaves you impecunious. Many shrewd, deft people can’t decipher the conundrums of love. The acumen of love is in love.
Love is in air. One can’t script Love , it is a flower which blossoms even after its death.

Just like that!

Today, I got a chance to interact a bunch of people running around the bangalore belonging to different kinds of industries. Most of them talked about their precious initial industrial years after they broke out of their respective college cages. Well, This was not the first time I was in such a gathering. But, The theme was quite different this time. All persons are allowed only to share their worst of all situations they had in last few years of their corporate life. As everyone was unknown to the other one in the hall, So each of them started opening up him/herself easily and triggered off his/her worst of all incidents without any care...

First category of personals I met today were the persons who felt asleep very long time ago and still continuing the same in every aspect of their lives! but the point is that they were seemed Happy and satisfied but cant inject any kind of motivation. I mean they were the most chilled out persons I figured out.They don't have intention to care where they are heading. All they want is to live in present,enjoy it the most, spent some of the salary they acquire every month and save/invest the rest of it & keep walking along their peers.

Second kind of people there I could differentiate, were the persons who got awaken in their lives few time ago after a happening of some kind of heart moving incident or toxic relationships or financial crisis or a failure in an entrance exam or an immediate family responsibility etc.. And they are still being awake and moving or rather running like hell in their lives to beat the time ahead!! They don't care much about the materialistic enjoyment but their every next short time success ladder celebration is the only time they enjoy in their lives. Rest of the time,they are only left seen working hard fourteen hours a day to get just that extra mile of success,travelling around to solve several purposes of their respective organization they were working for, trapped in ruined personal relationships or so... But, Here the plus point is.. these people were seemed motivated, spreading energy around all the time but actually not Happy and Satisfied with their lives!!

Now, the real myth began when I met the third style of personals behaving quite differently from above two described genres. Well actually.. the above two categories I realized.. were the two most common kind of personals which people think.. exist in this world.. but let me make you think otherwise!  Because.. Here was the twist as the third trend which I found is relatively far more commonly found situation occurring with most of the people there than the two mentioned above was..

The scenario of those persons  who know where they want to go in their lives, have a clear picture of their goals(landing mark!), luckily carry tremendous variety of support of resources(financially,intellectually etc..), feel a sense of responsibility in themselves too,   interestingly got a visionary road map as well!, :) Overall..
Those were the persons who got their eyes wide open, wanting to respond to every scenario affecting them individually or collectively.., and are not actually sleeping in their lives, BUT .. They are just not leaving the bed !!!

Continued............

Its a bird ..its a plane ..no its a DREAM...!!!

Aeroplanes, helicopters, jets, Air Force …. What’s special in all these words? Don’t know about you but they surely gets me excited. I think I m not alone when I say that once I wanted to be a fighter pilot. This is a dream which every young boy grows up with. We all used to run to roof tops or outside just in the hope to get a glimpse of that flying metal bird, an ultimate feat of engineering. Ever thought why there is such level of excitement with anything related to flying? Why every young boy is goaded by that desire of one day donning that impeccable Air Force uniform? What I think of as a reasonable explanation is the desire to have something which you don’t have or explore the territory you haven’t ventured into yet, and that desire, I think is strongest when you are young. You always want that elusive toy which daily mocks you from that road side gift shop. But why so much fascination for planes and flying , clueless. Maybe flying high away from everyone signifies freedom and who doesn’t want freedom from one’s daily routine and this sopor. Soaring high away from everyone, away from all worries, to break free of all inhibitions as if in a dream… wow.. really want to experience that at least once, and that’s why I wanna give a shot at sky diving, to feel that rush and that cool wind on my face.. Coming back to planes and the fascination which they brings along, well we all have been on planes and first plane ride is always special. Though I don’t remember my first but I am pretty sure that I was excited as anything. To sit on the back of that metal bird and to view the world from up there through that small window was really some view and that adrenaline rush when it starts its run down that runway or when it gallops while landing, its like a roller coaster but way too expansive… But that thrill and excitement slowly but surely is dying out and now the condition is such that I no more like travelling by air. The only thing that I like about air travel is the beginning and the climax of the journey, when plane takes off and when it touch down… why so … well so many reasons … to name a few … once you are up there you don’t feel anything … not even the high speed you are travelling at… you can’t see anything out of the window coz you are so high up there that nothing apart from blue sky or white clouds are visible.. though that view is also terrific but you don’t feel it coz you are confined in that metallic body.. secondly when they say it's an airbus then they are not kidding and are 100% correct while calling it that. It really is a bus as the seats in the economy class are so very congested that even Volvo buses are far better when it comes to comfort and ease and to top it all even the air hostesses are not good these days :P … the only advantage and major plus point in favor of air travel is time saving factor. But if I am on a trip and time is not a constraint for me then I’ll prefer travel by train rather than flying overhead. For me the best part of any trip or excursion is the journey and the travelling you do to reach your destination. The places you pass through and scenic beauty you witness, you can’t experience all that from up there in that 2-3 hours of flight. You live through a journey and all that is an integral part of any trip.

But say whatever, fascination with those flying object still remains as such. Still by no effort of mine, my eyes on their own accord start searching that great blue canopy wherever I hear a plane flying by and it is a must in case of a jet. As human nature is I still haven’t had the experience to feel the thrust of a jet, so obviously I still feel that child like curiosity to watch that flying destroyer soar up in the sky and leave that white trail behind. I was really fascinated when I saw sukhoi fighter jets stationed at Pune airport. Though I was a little disappointed as they were nothing like I imagined, and were very tiny… but the sound they made once brought to life was something I never experienced before, such reverberating sound that even glasses of Pune airport were shaking and once when I was returning from Delhi, two sukhoi landed right after my flight and there was that boom again. Mind you even commercial flights make quite a lot of noise, after all they are also AIRBUS but even that was just a squeak in front of those roaring engines and as they touched down their parachutes fluttered from their back and I was glued to my window with both hands and nose pressed hard against the glass trying desperately to have a last glimpse of those smart machines. So my love affair with those Identified Flying Objects continues. I hope that one day I’ll get that opportunity to appreciate their beauty and power from close range and they live up to my expectations and this relation doesn’t have the sour ending like the one I had with their other cousin.

Cheers

RJ

9.15 Hours !!!

Another hectic hectic day in office… you must be wondering that I am a very dedicated, hard worker who religiously devote 15-16 hr each day towards my work. Looking at my past record even I expected myself to be one of those workaholics for whom work is worship. But as you know life is full of surprises and it was a pleasant surprise for many including me to see myself this detached from all this work and pressure which it brings along. By this I don’t mean that I am some kind of a lazy slacker. No not at all, even today I still find it impossible to just leave my work for tomorrow & more often than not, I complete my work well within the stipulated time which according to company standards is 9.15 but for me it never exceeds more than a few hours. So naturally I find it mighty hard to sit there in front on that 15” screen and stare at it all day long. Now what is the difference between old me and this new avatar, well today I don’t take much tension or any sort of work related undue pressure which I used to. What’s the reason for this change in me… well I don’t know but my best guess is that I don’t feel much connected to the work I am doing. That feeling of my work, my responsibility is just not there. I do it coz it has been assigned to me and I am expected to do it. But to do it with full earnestness and total commitment, it’s just not there.

In the first sentence when I wrote hectic hectic day, what did I mean by that? Did I really slogged for the entire day, I mean 9.15 hrs and returned home like a broken tree about to fall and the only thing which could have brought a smile on my face was my bed? Well yes for the second part and a strong no for the first. Yes I was terribly tired and it really was an effort trying to keep my eyes open but I am not telling you about my situation or condition in the evening but it was like that all throughout the day. Now I guess you know why it was a strong no for the first half of that sentence. My day was hectic not because I had loads to do but it was such because I had nothing much to do. But still as the law states," sit there to complete your working hours." Really I want to meet that great soul who introduced this beautiful and most thought out amazing concept of working hours. I don’t understand which is more important, completion of work or completion of working hours? If work is there then seriously I won’t mind sitting there for even 12 hours, but when I have completed my day’s job and nothing is left for me in the office other than wasting time, then please let me go home… it really makes no sense to just sit there, chat with someone or in my case do this blogging and all. Sitting idle even puts my brain in sleep mode and once it enters that state only a good night sleep can revive it. So what does that means…it means that even after returning home I am inept for anything. All in all complete waste of entire day. So today also was one of those hectic days. Though I was kind of dopey from the morning only but office environment and all this made things even worse. Literally I was swinging in my chair all day long and it was a great effort on my part to go through the entire day without falling from my chair.

So now hectic has a new definition in my thesaurus and laziness is fast becoming my new girlfriend. But ambition which is turning in to a fierce enemy is challenging me to get up and show my mettle which I am pretty sure I will one day but as of now I have just one line for my enemy – “Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.”

Cheers

RJ

Life – a Jewel or a Stone

Well, life takes us through many roads, many terrains. And in the uphill path of difficulties we have some subtle moments which we cherish, which we want to live. And definitely we have some which we want to forget, remove from the deepest imagined part of our heart.

How these memories are created? Something’s are implied, some understood and some must be comprehended. When I say implied, I mean that they are left to you by you, a gift by nature to you, a lone creature walking aloof in the merriment lap of picturesque dreams.

Then comes the understood part in which a second person is involved and then comes the third party.

Everybody has two qualities, the one which takes them to the pinnacle of success and the other which bring them down to the abyss of ignominy. Well I never get hold of what does life means?

What are its terms and conditions. How we categorize it ? Rather how do we live life? You may do million things right but one wrong thing will leave you with stigma that will be with you, haunt you, scare you, humiliate you and most importantly traumatize you the whole life. What is left behind is a mundane feeling.

A stone, strong, sharp, durable but not beautiful, not lovable, not maneuvering.

The impeccability of life cannot be questioned. Things may not fall in place but things have a perspicuous way. There is water where there is heat.

A pearl is found deep in sea, cocooned in a shell. It is upto you to make it a stone or a jewel; make it a pearl or a shell, make it a life or hell

A Decade of Living Dangerously

We Indians get used to everything very quickly. Either it is Bus, train, government or even life. Whether it is 9/11 or 11/9 it doesn’t really matters to us. We have faced a lot of terrorism either it is Punjab or Kashmir. From Gujrat to Bengal and from Mumbai to Kashmir, we have seen fire alarming our nation’s integrity and sovereignty. The time is ringing the bell, illuminating the red light about the paranoid mindset that has taken millions of lives, thousands of families are destroyed and hundreds bamboozled about what has left for them in life.

They are striking the country at their will. In this age where we can track where we are going, age of i5 and i7 Processors, we have malign CCTV cameras. After that doomed day, US made sure that such deplorable events don’t occur in future.

We have been hearing about NIA, government assurance that “ENOUGH” is being done. Well axiomatically, that enough was never adequate to bring the perpetrators to justice. The count of blasts and the frequency is so high that computer’s integer datatype may not be able to hold it. It is so tranquilizing that how the US not only launched a massive counter attack within weeks but also stopped any kind of hoodlum conducive to terrorism.

Many will think that a rogue, aspiring to go US, working for US how the hell he can comment on anything. And fortuitously, they are right as well. But, I have lived 23 years of my life in india and I am looking for the answers to questions which are unanswerable.

Money - A sine qua non ?

Money is what all matters. Don’t know about you but I have heard many people repeat this line religiously as if they are enchanting a mantra which is a source of richer and happier life. Materialistic, really this single word can entirely define today’s society. Why so much emphasis is given to “vitamin M” is really bewildering. OK agreed it is almost impossible to sustain life in today’s environment without a proper and regular dose of this vitamin but to link your happiness, peace of mind and everything else with money is not only baffling but sad as well. On my way to office there is a big hoarding displaying a message which literally sums up how things should be. It says – “ How much you earn should not decide how much you smile”. Great line. Every day I read it twice and every time it surely brings a smile to my face. How rightly though most probably unknowingly the painter of that hoarding summed up the true fact of today’s materialistic life on that huge canvas. There is a mad race for gaining more and more and this more is also relative. When I see around me and I mean literally around me, I am surrounded by all sorts of people, coming from different sections of society and even different geographies but each and every one of them is driven by the same urge and i.e. finding some way to earn more. One of them has switched 2 jobs in the span of 2 years and now he is thinking of switching again and the only reason being money. Two others are completely devoted towards act of kowtowing to the boss, so no prizes for guessing their motive behind that. I am writing all this but even I am a MBA aspirant and mostly people go for MBA to have a shot at lucrative managerial jobs with hefty pay packages, but my motive is not that. I on the other hand wants to go for it so that I can get rid of this rat race. I see it as the last hurdle of my academic race after crossing which I will seriously stop running. You can say I am pursuing this PG degree because of social obligations. Today PG degree has become kind of a necessity and I don’t want anyone to look down or point finger at me in the future. Later on I don’t want to look back and regret anything. But once that is done I want to give up everything and pursue my real dream and embark upon my journey of that ultimate treasure.

Enough of me and my aspirations… lets get back to the main point of discussion.. this insatiable carving for more. Striving for betterment or excellence is not bad, but this race should not be money centric. Why one needs money, to have better standard of living, to rise in the society and most importantly to have mental peace and happiness, but is money the only criteria for attaining all these? Don’t know about others but mental peace and money, I don’t think goes hand in hand. If you have sufficient amount that you can not only sustain life but live quite comfortably then that urge for more of money will in most likely hood bring mental trauma than mental peace. Happiness is the state of mind which one achieves when he is at peace with himself. Desirelessness…. Enjoying what you have rather than envying what others possess. There are many such things which you can find in many books which talks about enlightenment, that elusive state of mind and soul which every one desires but doesn’t know how to pursue it or in which direction to move. Even I don’t know and I could be the one who is totally lost. Even I really don’t know what I am writing at this very moment or why I am writing but it is just that it feels good. One thing which I think is in my favor though is the fact that ,I know that I am lost :P … and because of that realization I know that I have to find my way out of this and at least I am trying to discover that path of eternal peace … … Desirelessness … that way to peace …. Which many of us just laugh at today, are really one should strive for… how to get that, again don’t know but my best guess is books. Books are really your best friends .. Nobody will remain with you forever but books will guide you whenever you turn to them.. But good books are also hard to find… there are few which really serves their purpose….

Time is a river ..and books are boats .. Many volumes start down that stream, only to be wreaked and lost beyond recall. Only a few, a very few, endure the testing of times and live to bless the ages following…. So finding such priceless treasure is the main deal which will guide you as a true friend and as a teacher on that treacherous path and help you realize, that Nothing is hidden that will not be made known, nothing is secret that will not come to light…….

RJ