6 years later… from Da Vinci Code – I am back into the world of fictions. Da Vinci Code has inspired me to go beyond sci fictions! Just bought Angels n Demons, State of Fear and Seizure. Completed Angels n Demons within 10 hours flat. I was glued to it – nothing stopped me from moving my eyes away from the book! Although I saw the moview before reading it, it was awesome!! Just so addictive that I want to go to Rome now once again! So stuck to it, that I was reading it even while having water or going to the loo

School days books would include Enid Blyton series and Nancy Drew! I think I’ve read all of them till 1999. In college – that would be merely 2 years,  came Sidney Sheldon, Michael Crichton and Robin Cook. Again read all of them! Would love Crichton’s work on science. Sci fiction was an addiction suddenly. Robin Cook’s Coma and Fever are mind boggling!

After this era, I was stuck with my studies, however was exposed to this brilliant book “Many Masters, Many Lives” by Dr Brian Weiss. So profoundly influenced, I bought the entire series of his work – 5 of them till date I think. I suddenly wanted to read only these themes, but nothing caught my attention. All this was also couple with gender books – like Men / Women ones – very cute and hilarious books. I’m dead sure, my approach towards guys have changed drastically after 3 book doses!

In the meanwhile, I graduated to reading a bit of management style books – it all started with The Goal – whoa- my entire management costing subject seemed to be taking place in a story. Loved it! here began my quest for reading such books – but was too young and unexposed to what good books were there in the stores. I laid my hands on some book at Infosys library – I don’t remember the name but it was of a great guy who worked in either Coke or Pepsi and then was a founder member of Mac. I managed to read the book half way – pretty interesting, but never getting me hooked to it.

Yet, I bought “Six Sigma” by the toyota team I’ve no idea why I got this though. Till date I’ve barely read th first 30 pages. And I got it 4 years back! Amidst this , I borrowed a book on Reiki from my bro-in-law. Read plenty of it, but it didn’t make too much sense eventually. Requires meditation and clear mind – both i’m terrible at!

My next conquest was The Undercover Economist – bought since the last 3 years and finally completed in the last week in 2 days! Brilliant book – Completely Must read! The next was We Are Like That Only (my first indian authored book) – and I was only rolling with laughter reflecting on myself. A cool book on marketing in India. Some books just catch attention by their titles!

And now, I realised I’m bored with the management bla bla bla! Need a change – to refresh the aging mind (lol) So went on a shopping spree and got confused I didn’t know new books, new authors So went back to my age old authors and got Angels and Demons, State of Fear and Seizure. Oh of course, to not let me feel guilty about reading fiction as a business woman, I even got The World is Flat (hoping for some good)! In one week, I’m shoked I made through 3 big books! I got swollen eyes from being so glued to Angels n Demons Nevertheless, it was fun – a great change from my existing choice. Now I ran a search, and discovered 3 more – I plan to get them – hoping they’ll rock too – The Shack, The Medici Dagger and The First Apostle. I pray they’re available in the stores By the way, I just saw online that in mid September Dan Brown is back with Robert Langdon with the release of The Lost Symbol! Really looking forward to it. Imagine it took him 6 years to write a book!!!! Wow… that’s a lot of research

Sports – the generic name of which in India is “cricket”. So as we know BCCI is the richest sports association in the world. Our cricketers are the most wanted in the world of glamour – probably more famous than Gandhiji, Amithabh Bacchan and the likes. For cricket is the only thing that north, south, east and west of India shares in common when it comes to fan following and “madness” which I term it as insensicle. Afterall, Indian team seems to always let you down. Then why so much craze?

Now here’s another world – a dark shunned world. My friend (an avid football player and fan) was in Bhubaneshwar and as a part of his educational project, visited the slum area of the city. His first reaction was that slum dwellers of Mumbai and Pune are filthy rich and have an amazing standard of living. The dwellers in Bhubaneshwar live in mud huts which get washed off with every rainfall. And Orissa has a great flood record! Besides, he came across an orphanage in the slum wherein he met this girl – no hear the twist to the story – the girl was representing Indian football under 14 girls team! Whoa.. when I heard this, I barely felt I could understand what he was saying. On enquiring, the girl said she has visited a number of countries for playing. She even added further that her family refused to support her cause of her passion to play football. What bad luck – first be a girl, and next football! She was abandoned in an slum orpahange!

Do I need to say more? This is the state of our sports. Is this why we have a sports minister at the Centre? We don’t need one – he anyways hasn’t brought much change. I’ve heard ( don’t know in true facts) that China is training 100o of its people in every sport. And here – we throw our trained people into the drains. Good bye good rubbish! Why is it so difficult to move away from male dominated cricket? It wasn’t even an Indian sport that we’re so hung on it. The Brits came, we resented them, threw them out, but still kept all the things they imposed on us. I’m not against cricket, but why not other sports – each one equally challenging and amazing? Why do we just need to make BCCI more rich and promote our cricketers who are already doing awesome in their own bit? Why IPL (half of India’s GDP can account for IPL if we could keep a track of all the money that flows in it legally / illegaly) and not donation and right channelisation of these resources into other development? I’m sure other sports like tennis has already done,  can do good to our country and people.

Are you hearing Mr Sports Minister? Or are you too busy in counting your money? Even the Brits play more games though they introduced us to cricket!

Presto! I’m back to my blogging days! It inevitably happens that I blog the most during some exam time and when I’m free, no thoughts pass by. BUt this time around, I’m sure to hit the floor, or let’s say blogs
Happy reading

I have no idea how I came across this, but it sounds pretty interesting. I don’t even know if we should be trusting this piece of information. But there’s gallore of information online describing how the Mayan calendar gets “over” on 21st December 2012! And then there is another ton of infomation on how Lord Kalki would be descending in 2012 to save the world from “kali yuga” which would mark the start of the “golden era”. Personally, I know Hindu vedic calandar is very accurate and believable. But, from all that I have read online, Mayan calculations are equally fabulous.

Point is, how on earth were these ancient civilisations so accurate and could do some many complex astronomical calculations by themselves. Even after the advent of computers and numerous technologies, we have not been as astonishing as our ancient civilisations. Its really worth a read online about both these factors… A different world to look at – something beyond our routine.

So if 2012 is the doomsday or the golden era – lets connect with ourselves – we’ve got too little time Its time for some self realisation and reach a spiritual plane!

Aundh – my area where I moved in 20 years back – an area which was marked by serenity, loneliness and virtually not more than a few 100 residents. As a child, I was barely moving out of my society except for school and some classes. Never remember going out at night and seeing any more than our own car on the streets! Such a beautiful area marked by peace!

Come 21st century and snarling traffic! Infact, it wasn’t so bad till 2 years back. The entire area is extremely well developed with departmental stores, big brands retail outlets, eating joints, IT, gyms, banks, etc. Yet the roads quality and quantity remain the same as 20 years back, much to our dismissal

Its become impossible to walk either on the streets in the evening owing to the heavy traffic. The cars, bikes and buses are all snarling at you. I decided to walk till Anand Park cos I didn’t really want to get stressed in the traffic – god save us! There was absolutely no place to walk. There are no footpath either – and where there is one, huge ancient trees block the path. I was literally walking with the bikes on the road. Anyways, I was faster on footh that the cyclists too!

Worst still, people don’t care – they won’t obey any kind of traffic rules. I wonder why we have any traffic rule in the first place. Save some soul’s energy! Everyone is in a hurry – as if their lives would end if they waited for 5 minutes more. They make situation worse by going on the wrong side of the road and then expecting to reach their destination even faster. Sometimes I wish I had a stone gun fixed to my car – whoever does something stupid, should be shot with one stone Serves them right!

When would the PMC wake up? Or better still, they should scrap all kinds of octroi and RTO taxes for providing so much inconvenience to citizens.

With plenty of motivation and being forced by my friends I took a plunge into correcting my vision! With a number of -6.0 and cylinderical of -0.75 in both eyes, I went to New World iCare on FC Road. The clinic also known as Zy Vision, has a good doctor, but he sits there only twice a week My father was uncofortable with the idea of doing a suregry where the doctor wouldn’t be around the next day for emergency. The assistants (they’re not doctors) were a little weird (IMO)!!!

Anyways, I ran a general search online (I’m a Google addict) and my friends call me an internet freak to find anything and everything online! I really didn’t find anything online though My cousin had showed to Dr Sangeeta Wagh a few months earlier and I decided to call and ask if she does Lasik ( I was pretty sure I wouldn’t do PRK even if god forced me to) Got an appointment a week later, only adding to my restlessness. So on the fruitful day of appointment, she took all my measurements, cornea thickness, etc and is the sweetest doctor I’ve come across (considering the chain of diseases I’ve gone through) And my father was also convinced with her. She asked me to do Topography test back at Zy Vision. The test lasted for 5 mins … .and I prepared for it as though it’s gonna take me 2 hours! The topography like dr explained gives them a view of the backside of the cornea ( i think so) All I could make out was green, blue and yellow colour look of both my eyes

The day of the surgery was the funniest! I went in the morning to give my topography test report and had planned to go to the office. There was however no one in the clinic to even show the report to. We waited for and hour and half and then the assisstant doctor came. She took my readings and asked me to come after a few days with a prior appt. Just then, doctor came and said I can do the surgery. There was a lot of thinking as to when to do it because she does it only on a saturday with prior appt (we were there on saturday) and the next 2 weeks she was busy. I was so dismayed And then suddenly she asked if I would like to do it today in some time itself! I was more than happy! Never been so courageous though. Dad wasn’t at all liking the fact of doing a surgery within 30 mins and I was so motivated that doctor agreed to do it finally!

The surgery was at Zy Vision and hell, it took my 30 mins to get parking and almost near FC main gate! There were 4 patients ahead of me, and each of them took like 5 – 10  mins. Even a hair cut would take longer! And then my turn – was pretty nervous and anxious. And my doctor came so free and smiling and asking me to relax. She clipped open one eye, poured some liquid in the eye. It felt strange that I couldn’t blink my eye – in routine I rarely blink till my eyes turn dry but here I just wanted to shut my eyes close. The operation lights were glaring – that was irritating too! Next she cleaned the eye, and started moving an object on the cornea. That object was meant to keep the eye stable so it doesn’t move. I knew there would be sudden blindness – and yeah, that’s what happened! Then I could feel a knife cutting my cornea – whoa – I was well prepared cos I read up a lot online about each and every second that one goes through during the surgery. Again, I could see those deadly glaring lights helplessly! She asked me to concentrate on some green light up. Suddenly, it smelt like hair burning. Of course I couldn’t see the laser beam, but I could see everything clearly there itself! The cornea was flipped back and the ugly annoying object removed and presto! I could see! She then helped the cornea stick back nicely. The whole procedure repeated for the 2nd eye. And for some reason, I found it pretty painful – enough to bear it though!

Once done, she asked me to open my eyes – those lights were still on, just not helping me I asked her to either make them dim or switch them off! And the world felt awesome!! With just 6-7 mins of suregery, I could see everything now without spectacles! I was simply extremely excited about the whole thing – like a magic!

I was kept in the recovery room for a few moments – put a million other eye drops! And it did pinch a little – my nose was simply flowing like a river!  Came home, had lunch and took the sleeping pill which she prescribed. Slept like a log for 4 hours and everything was smoooth. No pain, no irritation, nothing. Just an amazing world to see!

I started writing this blog on March 26th, and completing it today. A complete hassle free day – no lenses, no dust botheration, no more tired eyes! Infact it took ages to realise that I can see the watch as soon as I get up

Love my natural vision and ofcourse my doctor too!

5th December – Radio Mirchi organised a peace march against terrorism and in honour of Mr Kamte who passed away during the terror attacks.

As a common man, I couldn’t reach out to those who were attacked, I couldn’t help those who were killed brutally by the terrorists, but I am happy I could be a part of the peace march in honour of all those who laid their lives for India. I am satisfied that as an Indian, I could be a part of a rally for a good cause, a rally that promotes peace.

With thousands of Puneites participating in the march, we could feel the Indians in us, we could feel how everyone was deeply moved and terrorised by the brutal attacks. All our aim was one – we Indians, we salute our brave leaders, we Indians grieve over those killed, we Indians vow to fight back terrorism. The anger, anguish and patriotism could be well observed from young primary school children to the elderly couples.  It The terror attacks have only served the purpose of uniting us, served to fail the politicians and terrorists attempt to divide us Indians, and has made us much stronger. We will fight back, we will not be quite. During the march, it felt like pre independence era – may bee even those days they would march down singing praises of India. I really felt we were in the  1940’s… just that we need a true leader for our country.

I was there – 5th December – the peace march in Pune – because I’m a proud Indian.

Bharat Maata ki Jai! Vande Mataram!

Hum sab ek hai!

No blame games, no pointing fingers at anyone. This blog is devoted to each and every Indian – to love our country – to love every person sitting out here – to live peacefully. This blog is to reach out to every Indian to fight for strincter security systems and leave excessive peaceful attitude behind.

At this hour of the saddest moments in world’s history, let us come together and pray for all those who have gone through the trauma for nearly 50 hours. For our armed forces, they have always been there to let Indians live without a scratch… for those brave hearts, who risked their lives and families for others… for those people who have battled for their lives…

Let us salute each and every Indian true hero and brave heart, let us stand by for our country – we’re one, we’re indians!

I actually don’t know whom to blame in particular, so I thought I’ll put in a more generalised name – the entire finance ministry, though I would like to add the Reserve Bank of India too in the list! Of course this is another blog on our politicians, about me cursing corruption and how our economy is sinking deep in the ocean of manipulated pessimistic recession!

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy – hundreds and thousands of Indians are wondering why should America or even just Lehman Brothers,  B & B, WaMu, Wachovia et al cut such a deep wound in the Indian economy? None of these had much to do with India and vice versa too.

Blame it on our Finance Minister or rather the entire chunk of these ministries working in harmony towards corruption. I’m not claiming that the non – ministries MPs are any better! 13.50% – thats our proud- to- boast- about- interest rate; I think this should really find some place in history books for our future gen to know what visionaries our harvard educated FM and RBI governor are. The 12% inflation still never dropped by 1bps ! Now thats shining India Inc growing to touch the sky Proud of you India Inc.

So before our ministers could battle against the inflation, a deep recession wiped the entire face of humanity. Suddenly, post Diwali, the new year began with 60-90% reduction in production and sales. So bad is the state that thousands of people are losing jobs – not just in big corporations, but tiny scale industries are also laying off workers. Companies are slashing salaries by 30% across the board. There is so much fear and so much liquidity crunch in the economy. And not to forget the media – creating another wave of panic to sell their news!

So what’s going wrong? INTEREST RATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing else – interest rate and only interest rate. Respected Deepak Parekh – HDFC Bank CEO (I really admire him as a visionary) has so clearly attacked the media and moresoever the government for its lack of vision and action. But ofcourse our government is only thinking of winnig the elections next year – so why would it reduce the interest rate ( I don’t think reducing by 50 bps is of any significance)? Inflation would rise again apparantly and then the “aam admi” would suffer and not vote our dear Congress back again. Hell, please do not make PC Chidambaram our FM once again! Our country cannot take his dirty load – we need an Obama change now

What is spectacular in our country is the amount of subsidies the oil companies are given – at the cost of the tax payer. Guess what? We pay custom duty, excise duty, VAT and in Maharashtra even Octroi to buy petrol / diesel at such high costs. Then besides this, we get the worst quality fuel in the world at the highest price per litre. And then, from the taxpayer’s money, the subsidies are given to ensure oil companies don’t suffer losses. SO at RS 54 a lt petrol, oil companies are still making losses!! So a bit of my income tax also goes to the oil giants! Hilarious…. if only they stopped using oil companies like “baap ki daulat”

Coming back to the present, government’s aims to curb inflation has created a panic in the country. WIth our population of 1.2 bn, we really don’t need an America to survive. We just need our government to act quickly on real economic policies, and not on political policies. Obsession to curb inflation has cause loss of employment to so many people – not that our unemployment rates are the lowest in the world either!

PC Chidambaram, may be he’s a real learned man – but he’s been cursed and cursed by India Inc – first for his corruption and the corruption he’s bred in the CBDT & CBIDT and second for his erratic and irrational taxation policies – the most famous FBT! Ridiculous – picture this – if you travel to the income tax dept to file your return, you have to pay 10% tax on the conveyance bill…. sounds very logical – does Harvard teach this? Or if you are on a business travel / visit – 15% tax on the bill. Wow – he’s definitely promoting business – I think Harvard must be ashamed of him by now! Man, when we’re paying income tax, why FBT on poor innocent sincere tax payer? It’s almost illegal to do business in India. Who the hell pays tax on business expense? Further, he’s bred in corruption in the departments – a company with marginal profits of 20 lacs a year is sent a scrutiny letter to bring before the officer all the documents which are already presented at the time of filing return. In my own experience, I have seen ITO asking more detail version of the expenses – from whom, name, address, purpose – now do we have to justify why we bought a broom and soap and computer as well?

OK, this was just income tax, then there is Indirect tax dept - people who would make sure you just don’t do business – just earn money for them – and help them make merry while you slog. Then there is the sales tax dept – I think one of the most peaceful – yet full of norms and regualtions. The list just goes on…. with a million registration dept and bla bla bla dept. So much for doing business.

Effectively, I would like to suggest an Einstien plan – the government should pay corporates for all the government work corporates have to do. I;m sure salary costs and other bla bla bla costs would reduce so much that we would see almost 100% jump in profits. Now, wasn’t that a true harvard educated plan?

I just had a discussion with my friends – I was generally saying diwali start on Friday, 24th October. And they were saying that it starts on Sunday, 26th on Dhanteras and goes upto Bhau Beej / Bahi Dooj for 5 days. 

Diwali starts on Ekadashi – Rama Ekadashi – the 11th day by fasting and praying to Lord Visnhnu and Krishna. The importance of this Ekadasi was narrated to Yudhishtira by Lord Krishna and is recorded in the Brahmavaivarta Purana.  It is most auspicious, for it at once eradicates the greatest sins and awards one the passage to the spiritual abode. 

After Ekadashi is Baras ( 12th day) - On this day cow and calf is worshipped. Since it is believed that cow is symbol of God, Diwali is begun by worshipping cow and calf. It is also called Vaag baras - the day to worship Goddess Amba and Saraswati. Vaag means Speech. The day teaches us to control our tongue and not to speak malice; and, if at all we have hurt feelings of others through our terrible tongue, this is the day to pray Goddess to pardon us.

Then starts the 5 days of Diwali – which we all know so well - 

Dhanteras (13th day) – This day marks the beginning of Diwali. The mercantile community start their business and Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi is prayed with much pomp and joy. There are two legends that go with Dhanteras. of course, non of our festivals are celebrated without any legends!

Choti Diwali, or Chaudas (14th day) is to celebrate the death of demon Naraksura by Lord Krishna. It marks the end of evil and the beginning of joy and laughter. It is said that after defeating Lord Indra, demon King Narakasur snatched away the magnificent earrings of Aditi, the Mother Goddess and imprisoned 16,000 daughters of the Gods and saints in his harem. To free the people from the evil deeds of Narakasur, Lord Krishna killed the demon a before Choti Diwali and liberated the women besides recovering the precious earrings of Goddess Aditi. To celebrate Narakasur-Vadh, Lord Krishna smeared his forehead with the demon’s blood and returned home in the wee hours of Narakachaturdashi day. Elated with Krishna’s victory, womenfolk massaged scented oil on the Lord’s body and gave him a special bath to wash away the demon’s blood. From then on began the custom of taking a bath before sunrise on the Narak Chaturdasi day.

Lakshmi Puja – (15th day) – We all know it right? Goddess of Wealth as she is known, houses are cleaned and everyone are adorned with new garments. We all pray Goddess Lakshmi and God Ganesha for prosperity, wealth and happiness. This day, though being an New moon day, is considered as auspicious, and why not? Families reunion, loads of sweets, colourful rangoli and the pretty diya burning away through the night. The diyas – the most beautiful part of diwali and the hindu tradition, burn away all ignorance and darkness, giving way to light and prosperity! It is on this day that Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after his 14 years of exile – and the people of Ayodhya welcomed their loved king by lighting rows of diyas all over the city, hence deepawali!

Next day has many names and legends – Goverdhan Puja, Annakoot and Padwa -Goverdhan Puja and Annakoot are both legends of Lord Krishna. In temples, Lord Krishna is offered bhog – food in massive quantities which is then distributed to the devotees and the poor. Annakoot literally means “hill of food”!

The last day – celebrated as Bhai Dooj – which cherishes the affectionate relationship between brothers and sisters. Sisters do tilak to their brothers and wish for their long life. The brothers (just like rakshabandhan) promise to protect their sisters Bhai nahi protect karega toh kaun karega? There are legends as to why Bhai Dooj – which is interesting to read. 

And that’s our Diwali – a beautiful festival which overlooks the rich and poor, castes and religions. A great festival which teaches us to love and to spread love. Lets pray for a happy and prosperous Diwali for years to come!

Information taken from : http://www.tokenz.com/choti-diwali.html