The Puppets That We Are

Are we really self made? Are we solely responsible for all the actions that we take? Are we really steering our life the way we want? I guess not.

Sometimes I wonder if all these happenings around scripted well in advance? Are we just dancing to some unknown tunes? Essentially we are all part of this huge puppet show, with each puppet having its own script, gleefully trying to don a new role everyday, comedian one day, a super hero or perhaps a tragic hero the next.

Life on the fast lane

No, I didn't mean to blog anything on motor sports. Not being a great follower of either formula-1 or MotoGP, I'll stick to the those aspects of life, which are integral to us, yet takes a little bit of effort in identifying them.

Yes, we are on a fast lane heading nowhere. Yet there is a sense of hurriedness so much so that, we hardly take notice of the niceties surrounding us. It's like someone heading somewhere, ignoring the scenic beauty on the way.

The Political Tamasha

The political scenes of Karnataka for the last two months would even embarrass the best of the sas-bahu soaps. Such has been the change of stands(if any?) by both JDS and BJP that, it was an excellent opportunity for the bookies to look beyond cricket, soccer. The Will-they-Won't-they game has been finally brought to an end by dissolving the assembly.

Anybody who knew Deve Gowda, was sure enough of power transfer not being done smoothly. But the way Gowda and his sons have handled the whole saga is well beyond the expectations of even the best Gowda-Knower's. When Gowda did a U turn, assuring BJP about the power transfer unconditionally, he might have tried bringing down the sympathy wave that BJP was about to ride on, by projecting them to power hungry, with fake ideologies. He has succeeded in that to an extent, as people wouldn't probably sympathize with them as much this time as it is their foolishness this time.

As it stands, Congress seems to be having a slight advantage by steering itself away from all this mess. They were right in not entertaining the Gowda's offer to form the coalition for the second time. By this, Gowda has exposed himself to the core. It will be one hell of a poll for JDS to face.

Being made to watch all this dirty linen being washed in public at such level, both democracy and it's citizens are being made mockery off. The whole idea of allowing the coalition formation is prone to such horse-trading. There is huge loophole in the way the constitution of India/Election commission operates.

Consider a voter who had voted BJP only because it didn't have a Gowda or it isn't a JDS. By allowing such coalitions, he is being disrespected of his choice and that's enough a motivation for him not to turn up for the voting next time around. If there are any parties with coalition interests, they must be forced to have just single candidature at each of the constituencies they are contesting from. Thus, enabling the voter to know his fate pretty much in advance. Inconclusive results can be reduced by lowering the criteria of 2/3rd of seats. Unless some measures are taken towards these, such exploitations will continue by the likes of Gowda's.

Jab They Met.....

Jab We Met is a feel-good movie. It moves everyone with the find-yourself-in-it-kinda scenes. It all starts with a heart broken Shahid starting his no-where-to-go journey and happens to meet Kareena heading towards Bhatinda (If there were to be a Kareena in every Bhatinda express, the train would be full of heart broken's :-). And Shahid wonders at Kareena and gets to change his outlook towards his own life.

Kareena steals the show with a performance that would compel one to call her to be the soul of this whole act. She has perfectly come across as a pretty, jovial, live-for-the-day, follow-your-heart and never-to-forget-museum-piece. Shahid has done enough to justice his role. Director Imtiaz Ali presents the story with both fast pace and humor and manages to keep it light hearted through out, almost. Ali could have done himself a favour by not prolonging the second half that further, it could have been wrapped much earlier. But he does succeed in not boring the audience with that prolonged portion.

The movie is blessed with catchy one liners and a different kinda music. Its a definite WATCH.

When the heart skips a beat....

Feb 19, 2007 - Friends Geeta and Mohan were stepping into their 2nd year of togetherness. We were all set to have a Dinner party, I got to hear over the phone about Ayya's (that's how I address my father) illness. I panicked, as I heard it to be a mild heart attack. It was shocking, as Ayya had always done well with his health, agile and active. My parents accompanied by my cousins were heading to Bangalore that night. It was a very difficult night to pass through, all sorts of thoughts crossing my mind, being unsure of what has happened fuelled my scares, felt guilty or rather helpless at being unavailabe at this crucial time. That night was crawling...

Next morning, I caught up with ayya at the Narayana Hrudayalaya. It felt better. He was composed and looked normal, extremely opposite to how Mom was. Mom has always been over-anxious. Vishanna (Dr. Vishwanath, my cousin) felt Ayya is safe as he had crossed those crucial initial hours after the attack. There was a long day ahead of us, deciding our next course of actions. Ayya underwent a set of cardiovascular tests, angiogram reports were asking for his surgery at the earliest. Doctors suggested about 10 days of wait so that his heart tissues could strengthen. Things started to settle, the feeling started to sink in and we were in preparation and anticipation of the surgery.

Feb 23, 2007 - That was a Black Friday, a day that would haunt me for ever. After attending to my anxious Mom's call about Ayya being taken down to the CCU(Coronary Care Unit) due to fever and chills, I started early from the office. I found Mom and Shubhakka worried there. I rushed into the CCU to have a look of Ayya, I got devastated. He was literally on life support system. His Pulse rate was in the range of 150's and the Blood Pressure well below 80/60. Those were scary scenes, which I couldn't convey to my Mom and Akka either. He was being administered a high dosage of medicines to stabilize both his heart rate and BP. On strong insistence from Mom, I decided to take her inside the CCU. Mom was shattered, right then a sad demise of a fellow Muslim patient added to her scare. She was on the floors. By then I had realized the magnitude of the issue, and promptly called up Vishanna for support. We had a night to pass by, a crucial one. Deciding to take it all by myself I sent both Amma and Akka home with some false-at-that-time but optimistic assurances. I was alone. Shilpa, Smita, Geeta, Mohan came to help me pass through that dreadful night. I don't remember praying that hard for anything before that. There were Lot's of prayers, phone calls to the CCU to check on the Ayya's reading all through the night. With sun shine, it started to get better. Two more days at the CCU, and Ayya was out of danger for then.

March 7th was decided to be the surgery day. The big day was nearing. Doctors, Surgeon were up against a not-so-easy task. The anxiety was building. By God's grace, Ayya was successfully operated by Dr. Sanjay Dhaded. The surgery went smoother than ever expected. Our prayers were heard. Four days Post Surgery, Ayya was in the ICU. It was quite a feeling when I spoke to him for the first time after his consciousness returned. To be able to recover from those Black Friday's lows was truly exhilarating. As my doctor cousin puts it "It was quite a miracle!".
March 22nd, Ayya was discharged from the hospital. Ayya has always had a great zeal in what ever he does. We were in for a rehabilitation period, with lot of care required towards what Ayya does, eats, sleeps etc.

Last week, ayya met up with his heart surgeon at Narayana Hrudayalaya for his 6 months follow-up. His LVEF (Left ventricular Ejection Fraction - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LVEF) was 50%, from a mere 34% pre-surgery. I believe its his zeal for life and will power which helped him fight this battle of life and emerge triumphant.

A New Begining and a Lesson

T20 is (definitely) here to stay. I couldn't resist but add the word "definitely" after I heard my anti-cricket mate say it was refreshing after she was forced to watch it. With my own purist reservations, I started to watch the Indo-Pak encounter. What a match it turned out to be? This is what all it takes to make any version of any game popular, a nail biting thriller.

T20 is believed to be heavily loaded in batsmen favour, with the rules tailor made for batsmen. But this match could well be a lesson in how to balance the favour between both the batters and bowlers. Under the overcast conditions, with a damp pitch good disciplined seam bowling was required. And Mohammad Asif just produced that. He was well supported by Gul and the awkward actioned Tanvir. It's never easy to set a target with no benchmarks available handy, but Utthappa and Dhoni managed to get India to 141, a not so compeitative total.

Indian seamers started off well. Both RP and Sreesanth swung the ball admirably and they were backed by the best fielding by an Indain side in a long while. Coming from the fielding-blues of English summer, this side has reemphasised the importance of youth in the shorter versions of the game. And the Paki Batsmen's over defensive approach combined with good spells from Irfan and Harbhajan. A late burst from Misbah-Ul-Haq and Arafat tilted the game towards Pakistan by the last over. But Indians held their nerve with fielders bought in and tied the match.

It wasn't over, there was Bowl-Out to follow for the first time in the T20 history to decide who would carry 2 points forward to the next round. During Bowl-Out, five nominated bowlers from each side have a GO at the stumps (with no batsmen to defend them), similar to penalty shootouts for Hockey, Football, the Side with the more hits gets home. In that kiddish affair, pakistanis unbeleively missed all three times while their counterparts managed it every single time to take home two points forward. Another typical Indo-Pak match.

Its only fitting that this thriller had less than 300 runs produced in it. Let the bowlers not die a thousand deaths for the sake of entertainment, that's brutal. Not only would that discourage youngsters taking to the role of a bowler, but also devalues their roles. No team game should belittle any of it's own facet for their needs to be an opportunity and challenge for everybody in it to be lived up to. The administration can take care of the bowlers by not producing belters all the time, may be relaxing/adding a couple of rules against the batsmen. Only then will this game do well in the very long run.

The Hilarious Sarabhai's

Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai has to be one of the best Indian comedy show. But what makes it elevated to an all new level are it's amazingly witty script and fine performances by all the lead actors. The Sarabhai's make one hell of family, where you find a father relish teasing his poet son, the mother-in-law who never misses an opportunity to have a GO at her untidy daughter-in-law and many more.

Sarabhai's are one of those sophisticated, high-class Mumbai families, living in a very posh apartment. Indravadan Sarabhai, the Father is a jolly fun loving fellow, who lit crackers under the chairs at his own marriage to have fun at the expense of his scared guests. Maya Sarabhai, a synonym for sophistication, who believes in doing everything with class, so much so that she renamed her daughter-in-law from Manisha to Monisha to help it not sound middle-class. Sahil Sarabhai, the first son to Sarabhai's is a cosmetic surgeon by profession, never-say-no-to-anyone-for-anything by nature. Rosesh Sarabhai, another son who is a perfect Momma's boy and a poet, theater artiste, whose roles could be that of Wind, with him making the noise of the wind in the entire play. Monisha Sarabhai, is a middle class Punjabi girl and Sahil's love turned wife, who doesn't mind feeding expired cookies too. Sonya, is the only daughter to Sarabhai's and is deeply into tarots, she is always called for to find the missing. Dushyant is Sonya's husband and a BIG time Gadget Freak, who demonstrates their working using humans, mostly his mother-in-law.

With a family as diverse and mad as this, one is in for a roller-coaster. It's being replayed on Star-One everyday at 21.30 Hrs. A Must Watch!!

A Moonlight Trek to SkandaGiri

Inspired by an email forward, there was a group of enthusiastic trekkers planning for a moonlight trek to SkandaGiri, close to Nandi Hills. Luckily, I was invited to fill the vacancy left by some other fellow trekker. I'm glad that I made it for it will remain to be one of the most memorable treks for me.

The day Urrrr, rather night began with a visit to Durga's home. There were pakodas to prompt the taste buds, Deepak's hilarious PJ's to tickle the funny bone and a 3 year old Kachwi (is that what a female tortoise called?) to amaze with it's texture and relaxed motions. It was a great beginning to an exciting night ahead.

Apparently, the 2 hour drive from B'lore had its share of enquiries and difficulties. But none were to trouble my sleep, as I had an irresistible nap due to the early-rise that I had in the day.

At 3.30 AM, we were at the base of the monstrous SkandaGiri under very little but moon light to daunt us of the task ahead. The Greenery of SkandaGiri, was fresh from the monsoon. The rocks were misty, a little wet at some places, with the limited visibility (Thanks to our torch) one were to be a little careful.

The entire trek till the summit was chilly and foggy. As we were half the way through, we felt to be among clouds, our winter coverings seemed less. We made it to the summit at 5.45 AM hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun rise, but the foggy weather spoiled our hopes.

There was enough jubilation among us after reaching the summit, for it was one of its own kind. The view did get a little clear along the time. That top-view ridiculed all the happenings at the bottom, life at the bottom appeared to be silly. There were quite a few camera flashes before we settled down at a less chillier hiding to have our breakfast. Again there were delicious pakodas and more.

We began climbing down around 9.00 AM, relaxed and in no hurry. There were more flashes and more eatings before we finally made it to the base. It was more riskier to climb down as there were quite a few slippery rocks. It was only on our way down, did we realise that "Gosh!, is this what we trekked in the dark, Kudos!!".

We, the indisciplined

How long does it take to get past a criss-cross junction in Bangalore during no-so-peak traffic hours? The answer depends on...Does the junction have any traffic cop deployed?

Yes, without cop, there is usually a dead lock at junctions like these. Vehicles rushing in to the junction from all the four ways, with no one having the patience or common sense to let one set of travellers cross before another, its Chaos. There could be vehicles of length of about hundreds of meters stuck helpless. No one is able to move an inch!

Why is it so? Do we always need a cop to get us desciplined? This in a way highlights the lack of consideration among the public. We Indians are usually great family (wo)men, we care for our families, respect our collueges etc. But if only we could extend some of this consdiration towards the other fellow citizen, we will have a better place to live in. Be it by not honking the bikes unnessecerily or by making a way to the other vehicle at the crisscross like above.

A Recall

Its hard to term it "Diary" as I wrote occassionally. It started to motivate myself during my engineering days to do better at my exams. It didnt take long to spill over to my other interests, be it traveling or my love. I wrote a few poems as well.
Today, I got some time to go over my past. I went through my past writings. some of them brought a lost-smile-of-a-kind and some a wry, Some made me say, "Gosh, was that me! how uncool?!" and some made me pat on my back for the introspection skills I had.

a poem of mine from those pages....

Everytime I look into your eyes,
I feel that I'm precarious
coz those deep ocules make me
worried if I get lost?

Everytime I feel your breath,
there is a deep shiver down my spine
But the fragrance that you leave
may not vanish even after my demise

Everytime I hear you talk,
Its my heart that listens
And now I believe that you are the one,
who can turn my trudge joyous

Older times better?

Why do we always refer to the older times as better? Does it only get worse by the day?
Or have we stopped relishing those small-little things that mattered so much to us not too long ago?

Then: There was this popular wednesday night TV show called chitrahaar, for which we would wait for the whole week. And the show was always houseful ;-)
Now: There are hundreds of music channels airing all genre of music videos 365/24/7. But does it match Chitrahaar? Naahh....

Then: Back in early 90's a phone call was a luxury. Every moment on-phone felt special and personal.
Now: Call me after half-an-hour, I'm in a meeting!! OR Sorry I'm not interested in your credit cards!!

Then: School friends write a shared letter. Every nook and corner of it had a message.
Now: We rarely get to meet :-(

Then: A new stamp on the mail received is missing from my collection, Hurrah! I've a new one.
Now: Mail = e-mail.

On a philosophical note

We as a nation have a hard-to-follow beliefs and customs embed into our lives reluctantly. This is not to look down hinduism as a religion, but to empathise on our inability to cope with the growing times.
Hinduism can be seen as a rich collection of vedas, yogic practices and the idealogy of its own. Never did it endorse Sati(the immolation of the widow on her husband's funeral pyre), dont-touch-them, sex descrimination etc. There is been a constant manipulation of hindu practices to suit one's wishes.
Being grown in an orthodox hindu family, I had many such strong beliefs cultivated since childhood. Thankfully they have just confined to my childhood. But there are vivid memories of these practices and the restrictions they enforced. To me, dharma is about living the right way, it's logical and evolving.

Jelly Beans...

India has beaten England in one of the enthralling cricket (verbal too) encounters of the recent past. Its a saddening fact though that, Jelly beans have hogged the lime light more so than the cricket.
Cricket hasn't been a gentlemen's game for a long enough time now. Its time now that, it is not referred to be so. The cricket at the highest level is always attached with intensity, toughness. Its no more a game between just the bat the ball. These days cricketers try hard to score over there opposition before even a ball is bowled, through the media. Various players feature their blogs on daily's, talk to the media persons etc. The OZ took these practices to the next level, called mental disintegration. And the rest of the pack were to follow what Steve Waugh's men did.
Now the sides from subcontinent are not lagging behind anymore. They give it back to their counterparts like never before. Be it Sreesanth, Malinga, Akthar, they have it in them. Particulary Sreesanth (Indian version of Andre Nel) is quite a bizarre character indian cricket has never seen before. He is very excitable, young, talented but lacks control and focus on the field. It's time now for Sree to have a long and hard look at his approach of cricket, assess himself, figure out is this what he aims to be. He has a bright future if only he learns to balance his on-field antiques and performances.
Last test, poms took a step ahead in mental disintegration by spreading jelly beans on the pitch as though to welcome the new batsman Zaheer Khan. A quick look back in to the English cricket history reveals that jelly beans were rubbed against the cricket ball to maintain the shine unfairly. Was that to tease the new man saying "Hey, a couple of jelly beans you used last day have fell down". That would have been a nice little banter. But joke too long spoils it. The jelly beans kept reappearing on the pitch, even after Zaheer cleared them off. And the rest turned out be tabloid-fodder for the days to come.
Poms lost the match and the criticism followed for their behaviour. Wonder, what if poms had managed to win the test. Wonder what if Zaheer had overlooked those tiny jelly beans on the pitch and a delivery bounced awkward landing on it? Isn't it outside the cricketing law to get a foreign object into the pitch? What if Dinesh Karthik welcomes Anderson with pan masala over the pitch at Chepauk, would he be let off the hook too? I wonder not!

Beat the Street

With most of the global emerging market indices soaring to their alltime highs, every tom, dick and harry wants to take home his share of moolah. But its not every ones cup of tea either. It takes a bit of discipline, paitence and rationale to be a good investor. Investor is the one with no hurry to withdraw his investment from the stock he believes in. Traders form a very different bunch than investors. I wouldn't talk of them as I've a poor trading record.

The most complex thing in life is to keep anything simple! Similarly, success in stock market can be ensured by the following simple rules of investment. They are simple yet difficult to practice.

1. Have time on your side - Starting to invest early is always better. Give a fair length of time to the stock believed in. Let the power of compounding take over.
2. Logical picking of the stocks - Enter the stocks that you understand and comfortable with. Rumour mills are not enough to pick any stock, do your own research. This is not always easier to ignore your favourite analyst's recommondations, but always be convinced about the pickings. A lot of investors sit around to debate, whether a stock is going up, instead of checking the company and it's fundamentals. Importanty, stand by the stock as long as the fundamentals are in tact.
3. Invest in mutual funds - For those with no time to hand pick their stocks or no appetite to test their wits against the market, mutual funds are an excellent way to stay invested. If one has hand-picked stocks and performing below the market's then mutual fund could be a better option.
4. Don't try too hard to time the market - Have time on your side instead of timing the market. The indices are very unpredictible and bitchy.
5. Diversified portfolio - No investment in stock market comes with a assured returns. They are inherently risky. Good investors minimize the impact of failure by investing in more number of stocks and/or sectors. A failure or two will impact much lesser in a diversified portfolio. Off late Sensex has had a burst of sectorial rallies, always leaving the diversfied portfolio something to cheer about.

Beyond 1's and 0's

Manier times I have wondered myself being other than what I'm. Now that calls for an intriguing argument over what I've described myself in my blogger, orkut profiles (I am what I am). We'll keep it for another rainy day.
But then, what else I could have been, had I not been what I am today? It's often asked but seldom answered. Because, we as individuals tend to slip into our comfort-zones unknowingly. We start believing that, we are meant to be what we are. And thats when an introspection looms large over me. During both the job changes that I've had, the introspection had taken over. Now I'm at a similar phase but not quite the same yet. But I intend to curb my instincts(if any) hoping to have a fair run with my current job.
Well, I was off the topic yet again!! My what-I-could-have-been is a very short list in deed, But my what-I-couldn't-have-been is mighty long. Anything thats in my shorter list, is what I think I can do fair justice to. Sure, I'm yet to explore many more horizons to be having any list of those sorts.
With due respects to my limited dexterity, had I been a workman (be it plumber, carpenter, builder, etc) it would only be mess. My workshop days during my engineering know it better. Cook, Ummnn...perhaps yes, if only there were no dishes other than sandwitches and boiled eggs ;) To sum it, I'm a little too weak to take up anything that expects a little bit of dexterity.
Now, what-I-cud-have-been. Businessman - Yes, the acumen, alertness, interest-to-own something have always been there. Oops, I'm alreay running out of thoughts. May be a Teacher,doctor as well.
Now there is this, I-would-love-to-be list. A marathon runner, sportsman (preferebally, a footballer - they get best of the babes ;) ) TV-host, CEO of the most innovative company, a yogi, Stock market analyst, (Friends say, I'm quite there ;)) & the list goes on......... It apparenty has that-I-cant-be? No hang on, lateral careers have been the talk of the town off late. Who knows, I might just manage to be on-of-these in the future ahead.

Till then, I've a job on hand to be lived upto. Back to work.....

Date with Hypothyroid.

Back in may this year, my body developed an unusual affinity for idleness, mind began to follow the suit. The office hours were lethargic than ever before ;) The eyes appeared to be in search of more n more sleep, senses on a vacation, body like a disobedient servant, reflexes that challenge jersey cattle, speech thats unclear, I weighed more than before, I felt 10 years older. Period.

All that in a course of month's time. My own reluctance to believe that there could be something wrong with my health, kept me away from the doctor for a while. But finally, hypothyroid had it's way. I was at the doors of Sagar Appolo, anxious.

The doc was an elderly gentleman, in his early sixties. He seemed a little too determined to prove, that young engineers aren't done a great favour by the so-called-easy-bucks they make. My body was tested against all the available sanity measures. And one test case failed gleefuly as though to prove my Hypothyroidism and fuelled my doc's argument.

It did get me a little low before I could digest my limitation. Luckily, Hypothyroidism isn't threat posing enough. Thanks to the Medical Science. Now I rely on my prescription to supply me that elusive harmone on a daily dose. Now I've developed a concious care for my health. Cheers to Hypothyoroid ;)