Terrorism is not the right word !!!

India is probably the second country in the list of "most number of terrorist attacks". Despite using the word "Terrorist", I wonder most times is it right to use this word.

My logic behind this - the people who plan/conduct these attacks get immense pleasure out of the terror they create amongst common man. This is what they seek to achieve and so when we use words like "Terrorism" and "Terrorist" we concede our fear about them. This should not be the case, we will play with them mentally. Let them not seek any mental pleasure as well...

I think it is high-time our media/newspapers/common man start referring to them as "Sadists" in English and "Buuzdils" in Hindi. 

Cut to a situation when everyone refers to Ajmal Kasab as "Sadist Ajmal Kasab" or "Buzdil Ajmal Kasab"...

Books and Learnings

I have always maintained that there is a lot to learn from every person. For me, one way to peep into someone's personality is by the books he/she reads and refers.

I have read a lot of books till date and almost all of them have been referred ones. Thanks to all my friends I have read on varied subjects. All of them teaching something or the other. The key lies in successfully fathooming and implementing the learnings. Some of the key things that I liked and would like to remember always and practice (from the few books I read recently) are:

1) "For uncertain future has yet to come, with all variety of future; and him only to whom divinity has guaranteed continued happinnes until the end we may call happy" - Solon (Great Greek legislator) to King Croesus (considered to be the richest of his time) on Croesus asking Solon that why wasn't he impressed with his richness when the whole world was gaping. Source - Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

2) Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you; rest all is commentary Source - Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. So profound yet so lucid. I would certainly like to follow this.

3) Winning is not always through a bloody battle; you can collaborate and still win. Alexander The Great and his father Philip followed this philosophy in their quest to conquer the whole world. Source - Alexander The Great's Art of Strategy - Partha Bose

There are many more learnings... I shall put them one by one.. as I read and implement them. Till that time.. all the best and happy reading :)

CAN MUMBAI

BE SHANGHAI??????????

Click on the image to see more clearly

Life in Mumbai - A Race against time !!!!!

Life in Mumbai

A normal day for an average Mumbai-ite starts with worrying about the fact that would he/she get a decent inch space to park his/her foot aboard the heavily-packed local train (if at all the pic above is any depiction of the fact)

Life in Mumbai is very mechanical and sometimes you realise as if you are on a conveyor belt and things are just moving by... pre-programed.

I think to myself... "Hey am bored to go to office today.... I better stay back at home" but you know most of the time the venue of the occurance of this thought is the jam-packed morning local train... so you can imagine... the thought it useless...

It is a race against time here in Mumbai and the one who can conquer this to me is the real genius... I wonder when to people get time to think... new ideas... new concepts... new businesses... but nonetheless....Mumbai has given a lot to everyone... Thank you Mumbai for whatever you gave us... its our time to repay....

PS: am back from a long long lay-off.... hope to be more frequent from here on....

Off-track Blog... Corporate Misnomer :(

CL, PL and SL.... these are 3 types of leaves u can avail once you join the corporate world...
but it is a double-edged sword.... why???
Well, you take a leave and the first question the entire world asks is "Koi interview hai kya?"..
I am seriously sick of answering to all these questions and it pains me a lot.....
I hope no one else goes thru this trauma.........
thts it........

Indiaaaa.... Ahaaaa

"Saare Jahan Se Accha Hindoostaa hamara hamara...."
I always felt great hearing these words... but the article below made me love it even more....

Delhi Metro Rail catches attention of US business school students

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) appears to have caught the imagination of students from American business schools, who are using their study trips to India to take management tips from the hi-tech rail network.
As many as 36 students from the Wharton School under the University of Pennsylvania visited the Delhi Metro last week.
Their discussions centred on the techniques used by DMRC to construct the world-class rail system in a congested city like Delhi two years and nine months ahead of schedule, and that too within budgeted cost, a Metro spokesman said today.
Students from Wharton School and Harvard University had also met Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad last week to take management tips from him.
The DMRC informed the students about the management philosophy of the Metro -- "time is money".
Over the next few days, students from the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business will also visit Delhi Metro.
In the past, teams from the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, the Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Management, the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force had visited the Metro.

Not to forget the famous "Mumbai's Dabbawallahs"

BUT, one thing that pains me a lot, try to catch what it is-

1. Holy Cow
2. No Full Stops in India
3. Himalaya
4. Five Past Midnight in Bhopal

Well one thing common in all the titles above is that - All of them are written by foreigners.... are we so blind that we need someone else to tell us more about our mother nation??????

I end this msg with this comment from a Indian Film jurist about the movie RDB and its Oscar nominations, she said "Why do we need a gori mem to come all the way from abroad and make these Indian boys to act like our great superheros of yesteryears, cant they do it on there own". This she feels is the reason for the downfall at Oscar...........

26th January 2007

We have very few occasions which prompts a normal person like me to something special: 31st Dec is meant to be resolution time, 26th Jan and 15th Aug suddenly bring up this "sense of belonging" to our beloved nation....
So I thought amidst these emotions let me do something worthwhile.... I signed up as a volunteer with Greenpeace. They have this wonderful idea of handing over a "Welcome Kit" which has seeds of a plant. I sowed those seeds, hoping it helps human beings reduce the horrible prowess of the omnipresent pollutants.

START A REVOLUTION TO SAVE THE PLANET.
PLANT A TREE TODAY.

Well said Greenpeace....

By the way I joined Greepeace to work for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims.

Cheers..... Long Live India !!!!!

Toxic Clouds, Blocking our minds

Imagine yourself in Bhopal on the midnight of December 2nd 1984 :

• Overpopulated bastee just next to the deadly MIC gas tanks at Union Carbide
• A marriage function in the bastee which usually faced tragedies, but was elated that night
• A marriage in a railway colony in Old Bhopal
• A poetic gathering at the Spice Square in Bhopal (assembly of hundreds of poets and poetry lovers)
• Event of Ishtema that day (the only day when entire India convulged into Bhopal)

Imagine a plight of all these people when the fumes of the world's deadliest gas might have caught them - Completely unaware (of what was coming and what the gas actually is). Common fallout withing seconds of sniffing the gas:

Vomiting, defecation, urination, suffocation and exhaustion of oxygen......

Read on to know who were the villians and heros of this barbaric event in the entire history of India.

Five Past Midnight in Bhopal - Dominique Lapierre & Javier Moro - a must read please. Read and ask your friends to read. Be informed and inform !!!!

Pestering Eyeballs !!!!!!

"Yahan faltu khada rehna mana hai"...

Saw this placard in a CD shop outside a very busy suburban railway station somewhere in Mumbai...... at first look I found it very funny... I saw it...walked past it... thought... and then came back to click an image.....

I wondered what made the shop-owner put up this placard in his shop. I classify buying roadside CDs (MP3) as "Impulse Buying" and doesnt the so-called "Window Shopping" aid in strengthening a buying decision????

He must have surely faced a tough time with on-lookers or may be he has a roaring business and doesnt like these on-lookers block the way of prospective customers... nonetheless kudos to the courage... "Caveat Emptor"?????... hey buyer (prospective buyer/onlooker)... r u really the king????

Indian Post - My Ignorance

One of the biggest monoliths India has to its credit: Indian Postal Services - satisfying the communications need of millions of Indians in India and abroad. Founded in 1764 with more than 600,000 employees and 154,000 offices it has revolutionized the way we communicate.

But the million dollar question here is – has our new generation turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to what the post office has been doing for over 2 centuries???

Still very bureaucratic and “rule-book”ized Indian Post does not generally appeal to the new generation who is more inclined to communicate of the Internet, thanks to Google, Yahoo, MSN and the likes.

Let us take my own example and see if anyone else has faced this or something like this before. I wanted to send a Money Order to Devasthan in Goa, I asked for 2 forms and the babu across the glass counter handed over the forms and said “8 ana” and I conveniently handed over Rs. 10, thinking he said “8 Rupiaya”. Damn !!!! I cursed myself, am I so ignorant that I overlooked the fact that a money order form cant be as exorbitantly priced, after all it is for the masses.

I am still cursing myself for my ignorance or apathy, I would like to know if there others of my generation (by the way I am 25) who would have perceived the same or do I need to be a bit more closer to the reality???