I am called a pillar

Over the many thousands of years, people have used me as a support structure to the many buildings they built for shelter.





In the accompanying picture, I am part of a temple, called the "Thousand Pillar Temple" in Warangal. Like one would guess from the name of the temple, we pillars started as a group of thousand way back in the 12th century. Some of us have stood the test of time and stayed this long to talk to you while some of us succumbed. It's been a thousand years since I was carved out of a shapeless rock into the beautiful pillar that I am now, with decorative patterns and intricate designs, thanks to the hands of the sculptor. I have become a thing of beauty which everybody admires than having stayed as an old rock which one would dismiss as a non-existent entity. What wonders beauty can bring !!

Having stayed for this long is an accomplishment in itself. I hear the pyramids have stayed for longer and I wish I would outlast them. But to be honest, I have seen enough to my heart's content in these thousand years. From the happy princes and princesses riding on horse tops one day to the luxury car driving 21st century man, the transformation has been exciting, beautiful and beyond any imagination.

I am particularly amazed at this one piece called the digital camera that people have come to use to take pictures. I remember in good old days, the royal artist would spend a week to get a reasonably close picture of us pillars, still prone to some mistakes, but this thing called the camera takes these impeccable pictures which are the exact replicas of us and I stand to wonder how intelligent man has become.

But I cannot hide my disappointment at the fact that ever since this device was created, people do not look at us for long. They come, take a look, capture us in their cameras, go back without even taking a second look!! With all the thousand years of observation behind me, let me tell you that the thing you call 'life' has become very fast-paced now. People never have time to take a second look.

With my long-earned wisdom, I can say one thing - Take a good second look and a third look too if you can. Because the next time you want to see one of us, we might have perished.

-------- == ---------

An attempt to remind the world about the things of beauty around us on the occasion of a similar temple completing 1000 years in 2010. Quoting Keats - 'a thing of beauty is joy forever' !!

Writing style inspired/copied from 'My name is Red' by Orhan Pamuk :-)

bonne année!

The New Year has set in and a recap of last year is in order. Only two things come to my mind from 2009.

The first, through a short story..

Scene from class - IV A. The teacher was giving out the marks of the just finished Quarterly exams. She calls up Tinku and hands over his answer paper. The marks on the paper say 30/100. Poor guy, he fell 10 marks short of passing the exam. The teacher was about to start the usual "Work hard, Study well" lecture when Tinku turns to his classmates and says..

"Friends, you have seen how good a person I am, how tasty my lunch box is, how I gave you the best chocolates on my birthday. Now is the time to show some loyalty. Please send an SMS to the teacher asking to pass me by giving an extra 10 marks. Your voting matters! Please type PASS TINKU and SMS it to the teacher's number"

And the teacher immediately knew where the other 30 marks of Tinku went, happy about one positive thing though, Tinku's understanding of the democratic system. If people so demand, anything is possible :)

That was the first thing - Reality TV shows and how many of them!

And today, a friend and I were watching a news channel and pop comes a scroll bar in the bottom in shining red with the tag BREAKING NEWS and it is followed by "Today is the 4th of January, 2010, the birthday of Isaac Newton". I agree Newton is a great guy and his birthday is special, but what is so "break"-ing about his birthday? I am sure it comes every year, doesn't it?
The best I could relate Newton and breaking is the apple 'breaking' away from the tree and falling down, if you can call it that.

That was the second thing - News channels and how many of them!

Happy New Year to one and all. Let the good things stay the same, and if they don't, there is always the next year :)

Where is the library?

For once, it was refreshing to see the news channels focus on kids keeping aside the usual news about politics, crime and sensationalism, kids being the only form of purity left untouched by these three things. It was Childrens day, the 14th of November.

As is my habit, for a moment, I just went back to good old childhood days and started comparing what I used to do back then, and what kids of today do. A lot has changed for kids from those days. To begin with, the kid I meet downstairs on my way out of my home can actually tell the difference between a Prado Land Cruiser and a Range Rover while, back then when I was his age, a car just meant a Maruti, nothing else. And one wouldn't even want to go down the path of Chacha Chowdhury vs. Playstation, let's leave it there.

Coming back, on most November 14ths, I would spend time preparing a speech on Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister who loved children and whose birthday has now come to be celebrated as Childrens day in his fond memory. A good reason, a great choice, a perfect thing to do - Dedicate a day for children, the future of the world.

In the process of preparing the day's speech, I would rush to the library and.. Wait.. "library", doesn't the word just sound familiar? Isn't that the place where there used to be piles of books, a strict librarian who would warn you at even the slightest murmur? Isn't that the place where 'pin-drop-silence' was maintained in its perfect sense, where even a turn of a page would be heard by every person in the room.

But where is it now? Do today's kids even know what a library is? With the advent of internet and the comforts it has brought with it, the books, the knowledge and the research is just a click away and nobody has to do as much as step out of their house for any information they want, leave alone going to the community library and getting a membership there, the strict librarian again dictating his terms while accepting you in :)

So where is the library now? Is it Wikipedia? Gutenberg? Or the one across the street where the older people are headed during the evenings?

Another year, another Independence day

While on my way to office today, I read a board which said "Freedom turns 62". A thought struck me immediately - doesn't that mean that Freedom already retired? I mean, in the literal sense, the whole generation which was born around the time of independence has retired from all kinds of government and private service by now. Of course, except the political service and a few others :)

Well, that's in a way a welcome change, because from now on a whole new generation will be leading India in all spheres of activities, generations which do not have one leg still stuck in the British Raj days and one leg moving towards the 'modern' world. That will mean no looking back and thinking "Ah! we did a great job" and basking in old glories of a successful movement. I don't mean to forget the past but sometimes, its good to shed some old baggage, look forward to fresh ideas from the newer generations while banking on the excellent platform the earlier generations so far have built.

Good luck India, on the eve of another Independence day tomorrow. Let the Thiranga fly high!!

Talking about a recent idea from the 'fresh ideas from new generations' pool, I have one suggestion. It’s a great idea to 'walk and talk' but be sure you walk aside the road, not across when you talk. Avoids a lot of trouble, I can assure all :-)

Save The World...

So they say today is World Environment Day. Good!

But I am confused. "Environment Day" - Isn't the phrase just ironic? It has been my understanding that environment ( or nature or big bang or small bang whatever that is) created "day" for us just like it created night, air, water, fire etc etc.

Environment creates day for us and now, we create a Day for the Environment - June 5th. Nice, ironical though.

Of course, it is us who are the reason for this irony. Because without our greedy consumption of natural resources, one would never have to worry about the depletion, the climate changes and the least about making movies about global warming and such like and the very need to have a day in calendar wouldn't have arisen. A day, to remind people that we never 'give back' to the environment what we have been draining from it all along.

When I think about this, the environment day and the awareness about saving it, it reminds me of the Indian Independence struggle. Imagine the Environment as India and the whole Mankind as the British. Just like the British ruled India and decided what to do with India against the Indians' choice, Mankind rules the Environment using it the way we want, paying no heed to what the environment wants and draining out every good thing that is there and never bothering to refill.

At least the Indians had a voice, in the form of the leaders, but here, environment can't even resist loudly and the resistance is too small for many of us to even hear it. If you put your ear out carefully and listen, the trees/air/sea/earth around you are crying out to be saved from the people, just like we Indians did for independence. And for once, lets hear the cry and do what we can.

If you think this is like any another "Day" [read Fathers/Mothers/Friendship/Valentine's] and decide to go buy a card and give it someone on this occasion, you are mistaken. Because the very idea of this day is not to give cards.. Card -> Paper -> Cutting Trees -> Kills environment. So no cards please. And if you are thinking of calling your friend and wishing him "Happy Environment Day", you are not allowed to that too. First, there's nothing "happy" about it. Second the cellular waves, the sound.. all of them cause pollution which again is bad to the Environment.

So think twice before wishing someone about today. The best you can do is go plant a tree, avoid plastic, slow down on using your mobile phones, give your vehicle rest some times, and if possible, reduce your power consumption. Not just today, but everyday. It will do good for you, me, the environment and we will be saved in more than one way.

Save the environment. Save the world. We do not want tsunamis, earthquakes, melting Himalayas, rising Indian Oceans and people like me writing about it.

I Write

What would my autobiography be called?

That's the question I have been asking myself these days.

I think the title of an autobiography is what makes it interesting. It is obvious that the readers know a thing or two about the person in question already as, in all probability, he/she is/was a famous person. So the only thing that lures one into reading a book written about someone is an intriguing title.

It should be both - a phrase that catches the attention of the reader, and also a phrase that perfectly represents the life story of the person. I am not sure many people have come up with such titles. Most of the times it would be "Autobiography of.. " or "The story of.." which makes it bland and normal. Or in other cases, it will be a perfect phrase that catches the attention but does not match the content.

Coming back to the thought of mine, if I were ever to write one, it would be anyone's guess to think that it would be named "Questions without Answers", but no. Being an optimist, I would like to think that I would've found the answers to most of the questions before I start writing down my story, if ever I would. I would like it to be something along "Answers to Questions without Answers" not "Questions without Answers", or would it be too long? I don't know. :-)

I came up with one in the title of the post, but am not sure if someone had already used it up.

I thought its not worth wasting the weekend thinking about something that I might not even do, so I let it go but the thought found its place finally on this blog.

So titles are welcome. No royalty will be paid though ;-)

Return of the IPL and Simplicity

Refraining myself from watching IPL was tough. It was South Africa and the matches were in odd times - the 4.30 pm ones, so I thought I should try not watching the matches. It worked for a while because the Deccan Chargers won the first four and as long as they won I didn't have a problem not watching the game. I am sure many would agree, cricket and sentiments always go together. Such is the love of the game that you do want to believe in irrational sentiments too, just because you want your team to win.

But it was time and again proved that cricket is addictive, and IPL even more. Day by day the matches got better and the results interesting. With different combinations resulting in different semi-finalists, my interest in the other matches also grew and I watched KKR hit badly and Delhi, as always, was good to watch.

Finally DC won. Peace ensued. :-)

Amidst all this, the post is not a three line summary of the IPL. Another thing I wanted to write about was about the blog, its simplicity and the English language. Repeatedly, I get a comment that the blog is simple (and nice). Lets talk simple first. Nice, we all know, it is. :-)

I agree this blog is no Midnight's Children and I wanted it that way (or rather I can't write the other way). I don’t want you to run for the dictionary every time you start reading the blog.

Another reason the blog is simple is that most of us from small non-hindi speaking towns know the difficulties associated with mastering the vocabulary of three languages - the native, the national and the international, all before you are 10 years of age and being able to read, write and speak proficiently in all of them. Its no easy task and in the process you tend to learn the LCD [Least Common Denominator] vocabulary of the three languages to be able to express yourself clearly and most important of all, pass all the exams :-)

I am sure you all remember the days when we used to by-heart the meanings of English words closing the meaning side in the book with the palm and finally learning them after hundreds of repetitions.

Besides, the vocabulary is so confusing. Lets see. Think "pummel" and "plummet". How close they look. You might remember the two meanings associated with the two words but again fail to realize which meaning was which word's. That's just the beginning :-)

Over all, reasons are many .. my writing habit was primitive (ended by the time I passed school), vocabulary limited (the non-GRE types), and the blog is for a broader reader base (I want even kids to read this blog :-)).. hence the simplicity.

Isn't simple beautiful?

Godavari and beyond...

A couple of pictures from the recent trip to Godavari, Papikondalu and beyond..

And yet another year has gone by and the diamond hasn't lost its shine.. Happy birthday !!

I Vote...

The first phase of the elections is over and I have voted for the first time. It was a short process thanks to the elaborate arrangements by the respective authorities, it took just 20 minutes to reach the polling booth and come back. In spite of that, the city registered the lowest voting percentage in the whole state, bad news!

The most common excuse we hear from urban, educated voters is either "Whom should we vote for, they are all the same" or "I want to an option in the ballot which says - I don't want to vote for any of the candidates here". But if you think about it, politicians or politics in India are not as worse as we think. Within 60 years of independence we are already marching well ahead in terms of development and giving tough competition to countries which were always independent. Most of the credit for this goes to the Government, which in turn is made up of the very politicians and politics we are talking about. I don’t disagree with the fact that there is corruption, and vote-bank politics but then, it is not ALL bad.

I hope most of us voted, and voted sensibly to elect the next Government which will decide the future of the biggest democracy in the world in what I presume will be one of the toughest periods of the 21st century, considering the global recession and continuing international problems.

On a parting note, it was disheartening to see the flow of money, liquor and gifts in AP to lure people to vote, but I wish to believe that whoever distributed them grossly underestimated the power of vote by assuming they can 'buy' it. Hope they will learn their lesson soon.

Everything New ...

అందరికీ విరోధి నామ సంవత్సర ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు.

One more thing made easy now i.e., posting in native languages with Gmail/Blogger now supporting Indian languages. And what better way to start posting in telugu than to wish all the telugu readers, in fact everybody out there, a very happy Ugadi - the telugu new year.

Hope the new bring brings great success and happiness to everybody.

Someday, I wish to write a whole post in telugu :-) Hope it comes soon... !

Dust your books today..

Many of us have the habit of forgetting the books we read. Of course, some books are difficult to forget in that they leave a lasting impression on us, a few of them life-changing. But the others, its easy to forget. This tends to happen with fiction for me. These books have a thrilling plot, I read the book, appreciate the story and then forget it.


A couple of years later my hands fall on the same book, I start reading it again afresh, forgetting the fact that I had already read it. Half way into the plot I suddenly realize that the characters are familiar, the plot is as expected and I had already guessed the villain, only to realize that I am reading the book for the second time.

Might have happened with some of you too.

Reading books is a good habit. And it is a lifelong habit. We never know when we will pick the next book. It may be tomorrow, next month or next year. Being a very non-regular reader myself and having started reading quite a few years ago, and with a not-so-great memory, I always wanted a tool which would help me keep a list of books I have read, write reviews for myself and be able to rate and review them personally.

So I found this tool.. http://shelfari.com thanks to a friend who forwarded me the invite. It now stands towards the bottom right of the blog, showing the books that are currently on my 'reading shelf'. The interface is really cool with the shelf look. If you are looking for a similar tool to organize your dis-organized reading habit, I sugget this might be the one.

I hope I am not the last one to realize such a tool exists ;-) Rather, I wasn't actively looking for a tool until one came my way.

Life at 25..

A score and five years have gone by. Lots of things learnt. And at 25, life is more about knowing where to go, but to go or not to go is the bigger question.

Slowly, with time, I guess, the answers will be evident.

Wishing the great legends born on the same day their bicentennial birthday wishes on the way out, I quote Robert Frost here..

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep.

.. signing off to see where the woods have brought me after the journey thus far.

More is less..

Most of us remember that we ran out of toothpaste only when we wake up in the morning and go to brush. This is one of the many woes I face, staying alone. But the very first one that hits me early in the morning at least for five days before I go buy a toothpaste. So after snoozing three reminders and squeezing the old toothpaste to its maximum elastic limit, I went ahead to buy a toothpaste.

Now that Hyderabad is a metropolitan city, we have these super-stores on every corner and I found a nearby one for my toothpaste shopping. Now the sad part is I am not good at remembering the minute details of the toothpaste I use and only know the brand. But here in this super-store there was one big stack with toothpastes of different varieties belonging to the same brand. One said it would give white, shining teeth. One said it made the teeth stronger. One had salt in it, one had iodine, one had sodium, magnesium all the elements that we studied in Class X Chemistry. So which one do I pick? Like any basic customer of a product like toothpaste, I would want a good one which serves the basic purpose and in addition is a bit tasty. I wouldn't want to taste something bitter early in the morning, would I. So how do I pick one that caters to my needs without having enough technical knowledge about such a simple daily use product.

So, should I go to a dentist first and find out my dental health status and its requirements and then go shopping? I didn't know. I picked the one which was the brightest in color and came back thinking.

Obviously this post is not to tell my toothpaste woes but the whole incident got me thinking. When in the business of selling a product, is diversifying the product a good thing? By diversifying a product we are essentially customizing our product to different user-bases. But doesn't it affect the sales of the product if the user-base is not really aware of what specificity they are looking for in a product. Wouldn't everybody want bright, shining teeth which are strong and have enough sodium and magnesium in them - the all in one variety? Again something an MBA might be able to answer I guess. May be there are some products which are better off diversified than some which offer a simple straight solution applicable to all the users.

Remember how many kinds of salt packets were there 10 years back? And now? Salt is more about other elements like Na, Mg, Al, Si than just NaCl now.

Do(n't) Kiss The World !

So I read these two books and that's when I started to pen down this one. The first being Chetan Bhagat's "The Three Mistakes of My Life" and the other being Subroto Bagchi's "Go Kiss The World". It is very ironic that I read these two books one after the other. One being the story of a loser in life who introspects as to what went wrong in his life and the other book about a winner who gives us success-mantras taking an example of his own life.

I found it very odd, to read about how a person succeeded and the reasons behind his success and how another person lost and what were the reasons for his failure, both in a very short period of time. One books keeps inspiring and the other shows what can happen if things don't go the way planned. The result? I found there is no formula for success in life. Everything depends on whether you "can" transform your circumstances into opportunities to do something big or just treat them as they are and live with it.

After reading "The Three Mistakes of My Life", the immediate question one would ask oneself is "What were the big mistakes that I did in life?" I did ask myself too. But at 24 years of age, with no big failures to worry about, do I think I have made any mistakes at all? No. But how do we even know we did a mistake? Don't we only know it when we planned something and failed to implement it? What if we haven't planned anything? Then we wouldn't do any mistakes, would we? When you do not plan anything in life and just follow destiny to where it takes you, the result is, you neither repent for anything you did nor you have anything to boast about.

So, do successful people follow destiny or have a dream and work hard to realize it? Did Gandhi or Nehru or Sachin have such a dream OR were they in the right place at the right time (meaning luck) with the right talent?

What did I take back from the books?

From the first, I sure did learn one thing - "what not to do".

But from the second? I am not really sure. Reading a success story is very inspiring. But all I can take back from any such book is "Work hard and hope for the best". Because no two persons end up at the same destination though they take the same path. That is the beauty of life. You take the example of a highly successful person and follow the same route, you might end up as something else. It is impossible to tell someone "What to do". It changes from person to person and from situation to situation.

So do we go and kiss the world or just wait for the world to kiss us :-) ??

On a different note, Abhinav Bindra made India proud by winning the first gold medal. Congratulations to him!! This reminds me of my post back in 2004 during the Athens Olympics. I have been writing for over four years now. Good or bad.

Dis-appointed ...

What happened at the recent confidence vote in the Indian parliament was really a shattering blow to the belief of the people who still think "democracy and independence" are the best things that happened to India in the last century. It is a shame that corruption has reached such high proportions in the country.

Some great person said "Democracy means a government of the people, for the people and by the people." A great definition, I agree Mr. Lincoln, but sorry, that definition does not hold true now. I would rather put it as "Democracy means a government of the money, for the money and by the money". After all, it is democracy. People (or is it money?) have the right to change the "definition" as well. Isn't it? And so they did.

And WE are completely responsible for letting such a thing happen, for electing such people and for letting corruption creep in to every level of the government. God save us!

July 31, 2008 - the last day for filing Income tax returns for the year 2007. And like every responsible tax paying citizen of the country, I filed my returns too. But for what purpose? After witnessing the incident in the parliament a few days earlier, I would have little doubt that the tax I paid would end up as "bribe" to some person rather than being used to light a bulb in some remote village or to build a dam saving lives of dying farmers. Not much of a use for the country, is it?

So, what do we do? I wouldn't wait for a Gandhi to come and fight against our current ruler - "corruption". Even if a Gandhi came, I don't think today's people have enough time to go with him and march for the country. The least we could do is spend some time to find the right person to represent us and vote for a better leader who believes in the welfare of the country in the true sense.

I know, I had asked everybody "to vote" in an earlier post of mine, but this time I am asking to vote "responsibly" lest we should mis-appoint our leaders and be disappointed at the end.

Lets Hope..

Guess this is the worst year for the blog with just three posts so far and it is already past half the year. Whatever is happening to all the unwritten words...

Dear readers, I haven't yet given up :-) This is just a bad year for the blog and I hope it wouldn't stay that way. We all know that the world is a place for the optimists. Hope drives the world. If not for hope, we would not be doing what we are now doing. A thin ray of hope that things will get better. A hope that more and more posts will be written. A hope, that more and more readers will throng the blog. A hope that all the hopes come true. That hope is still alive and I will keep writing.

But.. what if.. what if it doesn't get any better? In fact, what if it gets worse? What if, like the rising inflation, like the unending political drama, like the soaring petrol prices, things just get worse and worse? Would you still believe in "hope"? If all you go through is a rough fate, a forte of problems and a never-getting-better future, will you start believing that it is better not to hope or to hope no better?

Well, that is not my state, thankfully. That is the precise outline of the latest book I read, "A thousand splendid suns", my second book of Khaled Hosseini. Impressed by the first book, I picked up this one and liked the way the author showed what 'endurance' actually meant, taking us through the life of a woman in Afghanistan.

Yeh taara, woh taara..

Posts with questions have become rare and the blog has become dull. Readers have deserted the blog and blogger.com is complaining.. (well, not really). But as we all know one cannot force oneself to write. It just has to happen. A topic should click and thoughts should flow in words. I may have free online space but I may not write every week. Just like.. you can pay the Deccan chargers, but you can't guarantee they will win. No offence for or against. More on IPL later..

After watching Taar Zameen Par and the little kid having extra ordinary talent and all that, I guess all of us would have spent a day or two, going back to childhood days, thinking what we were really good at, but once into the realm of competitive exams, forgot our true passions and have now ended up before 20 inch LCD monitors, coding in Java and giving (only) the carpals some exercise.

Guys, my suggestion is - don't think too much about "that talent you had". My personal experience says there wasn't one really. Because if there was one, we would already be pursuing that, rather than doing what all the million students in your batch are now doing. The truth is, yes, there were taare on zameen, but there were pedh, paththar and not to forget, phool also on zameen.. The movie was just about taare, and let’s wait for movies about the rest (of us) :)

But there are exceptions, I agree. Some of those talents you had, were not in demand back then and you ended up in the rat race. Like that old friend of yours, who used to hit every ball outside the park and later couldn't make it to the cricket team because he did not have a 'strong defensive shot'. Kya kare, the requirements were lot different back then. But I am sure, you would have found him already in one of the IPL teams - he has become a King or a super king or an Indian or a knight rider now.. I am sure. And is now a taara.

Well, who knows, we might as well get a chance some day when 'that' talent we had becomes the need of the hour, courtesy innovative ideas like the IPL. IPL ... Everyone talks about it these days, about the players, the money, the owners(or what do you call the SRK likes). I am a fan too. I like the cricket, the energy, the tense games. But who do I support? There is nothing Deccan about the chargers and neither is anything Indianish about the Indians. In games I understood little about, I would always support the stronger one (like Federer or Tiger Woods) and feel happy that the one I supported has won. But this one, it is getting too fuzzy. I guess it’s because of the nature of the game and the way things can turn upside down any moment.

Whatever it is, we get to see great matches, and the love of the game has increased like ever as every match passes by. Thanks to IPL.

And there is a thing or two to learn from the IPL matches. About how players from otherwise rival teams come together crossing geographical, lingual and racial borders and fight for one common goal - to win. I really appreciate the passion these players have for the game, and for victory. It just supersedes everything else...the love for the game.

So..coming back to our original topic.. what was I good at as a kid :-? ??????!!! Let me think, find some answers and go find out if there is any search going on now for those kinds of 'talent's ..

A Bounce and a Boomerang

After a leap, it was a bounce and a boomerang and I am back in Hyderabad after a second trip to pardes, making it a sequel.. pardes - 2.

pardes-2 was definitely not going to be all skyscrapers and roadside bagels and donuts. I wanted it to be different so I dont get bored seeing the same old tall buildings, Central park and the times square. A good thing was that this time I got a chance to wander away from New York regularly, and see most of New Jersey, thanks to two good friends. I could see open skies in the night, sometimes with stars and sometimes with brighter stars flying (from the Newark airport), which was a rarity in Manhattan with all the buildings obstructing the view.

Princeton - the place of the great Albert Einstein, Bridgewater - temples always happen to visit me more in the US :-), Cape May - a beach, a military war tanker and a trail in the deserted wild life park (wrong season to go there I should say) were all covered.

But the best part of the stay was a trip away from the Northeast of US to the west, to Las Vegas and to the Grand Canyon. Definitely two places that are a "must see" for everyone in the US and two places that would go right on top to my list of favorite places after Taj Mahal.

Las Vegas - keeping aside its fame for gambling, winning and losing money and other things, it is one incredible man-made wonder. The casinos, the themes, the lights, the fountains, the shows, the grandeur of the huge chandeliers, the Roman sculptures, the artificial skies and rivers they created, all make us think about one thing. How creative is the human brain? I was pretty amazed at the way the casinos were built with unique themes and the implementation was so close to real that we would actually wonder if we were really in Paris, New York, Venice or in Rio. Hats off. One great place to see what man can do. The city is wonderland. Its a world in itself,
an artificial one though.

Grand Canyon - While Las Vegas was an artificial wonder which shows man's dominance and his ability to re-create anything, Grand Canyon is the exact opposite. One of the top most natural wonders in the world, this one is so huge, one would not able to even think of capturing its beauty in a mere photograph. One's own eyes will fall short to see this Grand Canyon in a single glance, the name "Grand" not being an exaggeration of any order. Completely natural, unaffected by the commercial world, this place was a real beauty. Nature is more powerful than we can ever imagine. One would definitely feel inferior at the sight of this masterpiece created by
Nature herself. And the IMAX show said the Canyon never needed humans but we humans needed it for shelter, vegetation and the like.

How true. Nature is so independent, and powerful. On the other hand, we are dependent on nature for everything. Will there be a day when we become really independent? Or are we already independent because we are part of the nature, one of its many creations? Too complicated.

Remarkable experience. One day in the middle of an artificial world created for human entertainment called Vegas and the next day in the middle of a magnum opus created by Mother Nature with no human involvement whatsoever.

So, the boomerang went from Hyderabad, around New York, Las Vegas, and is back to Hyderabad making the farthest point visited away from home 36°10′30″N 115°08′11″W. Lets see if it comes full circle around the globe one day.

And as the habit goes... In remembrance of the day great people were born, here's wishing you a happy birthday.

A Leap

..once in four years and that day becomes a special day, in a special month.

12 X 2 = 24. That’s how the equation goes this time. It was 12/2 all this while and suddenly the / became a X this year and the writer turned 24 years old and yeah, the two great people turned 199 :)

And what was it like this year? Yes, every year its special. Every year its in a new place with new people, at least since the past 3 years and the saga continued this time too, with me back in the BigApple and the city welcoming the day with snow, much to my delight.

I know its been really long since a post came out on the blog. Well, this post is not going to be all about me, so lets get back.

If you pass the Times Square everyday on your way to office, you are bound to see a lot of interesting things happening. This one day I witnessed a big group of people with a flag in their hand, cheering a parade. I took a couple of snaps not knowing what it was and when I checked to see what it was, I got to know that it was about a country becoming independent. Well, that’s how I got to witness a historical event :) and in February.

And the month also marked my second trip to the Lady Liberty.

February, definitely, is an interesting month. It has fewer days than all other months and once in four year it gets this special treatment. In this fast-paced life, everybody wants an extra minute, an extra hour, an extra day in life and so, for all these people, February gives this extra day every four years to people who always felt.. "if only I had an extra day in life, I would ... blog" (yeah, that’s me) but honestly, it could be THE extra day that people need to do what they wanted if only they had one more day. Wouldn't it be easier if this day was declared a holiday? What would you do with that extra day?

And the month brought me back my reading habits somehow. I figured I would make a log the books I read, on my blog and I would have a count of the books I read and can use it to check and make sure I don’t read the same book twice ;)

So, here's a good one-liner from the book "The Kiterunner" by Khaled Hosseini.
"Zendagi migzara" translating to "Life goes on...".

February or March, birthday or not.. "Life goes on...." Very true.

'Demo'-crazy

A rich star kid gets married. It wouldn't affect a single person on earth other than the family. Yet, the news channels show the whole saga day and night for two weeks. We don't like it. We do not complain.

The price of onions goes up by a couple of rupees. It affects the whole nation. Yet, no channel reports it. Nobody cares.

We do not like paying fine while speeding on a "Speed Limit 20KMPH" marked free highway. It doesn't make sense. We do not complain.

We say its a free nation. But people cannot express what they feel. It feels so wrong. We do not complain.

We do not like the policies of the Government. We do not have a choice till 5 years.

Why?
Because only a limited set of people take decisions and the rest of us have to accept. And why is that happening? Lets see.

In a democratic country, ruled by a Government for the people, by the people and to the people, how many of us actually exercise the power of Vote?

If our voting percentage is a meager 50-60% and a political party requires 60% majority to form the Government, that would mean that only 36% of the total population 'actually' approve of the Government. The rest, which, unfortunately is the majority, disapprove. Isn't it ironic that a party disapproved by the majority of the people forms the Government and rules the country for five years creating policies for the nation. And that is happening because "we" - the "we" who do not complain/care haven't voted.

And how easy is it for a powerful political party to capture 35% of the votes? A little money and some power can do the magic for them. But if they had to get the 60% to vote for them, they would have to do some real good to the country. As the old saying goes, we cant fool all the people all the time. Automatically, that would mean better policies and a better nation. Isn't it?

So, the next time somebody tells us its polling day in our place, lets not sleep late and enjoy the holiday. Lets go, vote, and make a difference.
Otherwise be prepared to SMS your guess about the chance of a movie star marrying a cricket player and we will all spend our day cribbing about it and never complaining. Its not the fault of the channels. Just that the feedback and the TRP ratings suggest they go in that direction. So if you want it to be changed, better give them your feedback.

Issued in public interest. No offence meant.