2009 in random bits and pieces..

Deciding to never work for a corporate.. starting choco mishtham on 14 feb (we sold love).. getting into students council..council work.. breakfast with b****r ;) hehe.. summer internship@Lucknow..random places in UP..a random mumbai trip.. finishing summers in 1month and getting 1.5months off.. induction week..speeches and more.. getting 96 applications for Samaritans!!.. Samaritans work rocking again with junior team.. MDI one of the most socially active B-School across country.. random masti with shuttle28 gang..a random morning breakfast at Hyatt..coffee outings at cafe 24..adventure packed night outs :).. every outing was super fun.. choco mishtham where work became fun.. celebrating diwali in Hospital ;).. SHVAS.. trip to haridwar rishikesh.. classes,assignment,padhai which i never paid any attention to at MDI.. MBA could not corrupt my mind ;) hehe.. bhai ki shaadi.. amazing time for family.. non stop masti with MDI friends throughout the year..one crazy birthday celebration.. late night bhasad.. chai at jhajhi/arcus..night discussions at lakshaya rooftop.. water fights on birthdays at kshitij.. random outings on MG road.. movies and more movies.. DISCOVER LIFE.. changing system.. enlightening minds.. Sairam blessings throughout the year.. for a change spending lot more time with family.. amazing family support.. getting covered on national television.. first just a sneak at CNN IBN and then a complete Choco Mishtham coverage on Economic Times Now channel.. Taking my first session with graduate students.. an absolutely rocking year

Well if 2009 was rocking, I just have the feeling that 2010 would be even better :)

A great grand new year to all :) :)

A tribute to a modern cricket legend 'MSD'

I don't remember whether the jingle was made by Red FM or Radio mirchi, but here it goes:

'Dhoni ke lambe lambe baal, Dhoni ki mast mast chaal,

O Dhoni.. O Dhoni'

When he got the first break in Indian Cricket team, i remember media covering him as the kind of wicketkeeper that Dada (Saurav Ganguly..need i mention this) wanted. A person who can bat and also keep a bit. MSD's first story struck you with a bit of sympathy for the young lad, who had made it to the team by playing on rough fields in Jharkhand.

He came to the team and struck big time. Here we had another Sehwag in the making. In his own way of playing shots, some called it the 'Jharu pull' the way he swept the ball out of the park. And this guy could do it consistently. The 183 against Sri Lanka made sure that his style wasn't fluke. So did Indian Cricket get another Sehwag? Nope , even better.

This guy randomly made cricket captain for T-20 which neither Indian Team had domestically played, nor I guess the selectors ever took that version seriously. But surprise surprise!! after a long long time we won a cricket world cup. MSD who led India like a manner not seen in a long long time, created reasons for an entire nation to sing, dance, shout at the last misbah shot and dance when we held the cup. The nation had got a hero.

Now doubts emerged. When will this guy fail? He has been continuously doing well. Nobody succeeds for this long a time in Indian Cricket scenario. He was looked at with critical eyes full of envy by everyone around him. He was made captain of both ODI and eventually Test side of India. And again, this guy has not learnt to fail!! The Indian ODI side which could not win finals or a tournament for 8-10 times in a row, started winning. Yes, world cup was a big big disappointing event. But as I write this post Indian cricket team is creating History to become the No. 1 cricket team in Test ranking. And this has been from an effort of 18 months of playing in India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. Places where India was known to lose always. Many historical records broke in this process and even today one will be created.

Noteworthy points :

1) While he captained the side he had four former captains playing with him (sachin, dada, kumble and dravid) all of who had made name in cricket when this guy never even learnt to pick up a bat. But this guy led with great humility earning respect and love of one and all.

2) He was blunt. He knew how to answer back. Be it any opposition captain or even critical media, he could answer them all in their face. But while accepting success and failures, he humbly managed both.

3) He is the brand ambassador of the street smartness of India. The way he plays, the methods he employs in captaining the side. Its not conventional wisdom, its just the street smartness and his gut feel that makes him so successful.

4) And yes we did not get another Sehwag. MSD could actually mold his game so well as per situations. Changing his conventional style didn't earn him many fans but earned him amazing consistency. If you look at his records. Both in ODI and test they are just awesome. I hardly remember him getting out early in any important game for quite some long time now.

And as i write this, India have just become the no.1 side in test cricket.

In Prof. MKS style, I would say 'MSD I salute you' :) :)

the tortoise story!

once upon a time there was a small tortoise

living in his safe shell

world outside was dark

he was comfortable in his cozy shell

people came and kicked him

well world is like that

they try to kick those who think are safer than they themselves are

they want ever1 to be in as bad a situation as they are in

but this little tortoise

moved ahead slowly

he used to go to a school

there used be many teachers

he hated them all

he liked reading only stories

he developed a liking for language

all else seemed much of time waste

he was confident that one day in a class of rabbits he would be seen

but he was bullied

daily

poor he

the best friend of his was his pen

so he worte down things

random as it went

one day a fairy came

it was a teacher

but not like any other

this teacher was different

she had a spark in her eyes

he knew she wouldnt kill him for not doing his homework

he could somehow find comfort in her words

and found trust in her things

she didn't bully him like others

she saw his written stuff

called up his parents and said

this child may not be a genious

but this tortoise is really special

u must take great care of him

to tortoise the teacher meant the world to him

bcoz no1 else had ever shown that trust before

he felt his shell was shining now

some rabbits were noticing

then a terribe thing happend

the teacher left the school

things went back to normal again

rabbits were back to racing and bullyinf

but this time there was something different about this tortiose

it was the fact that he knew he was special

he never raced against the rabbits

one reason was that honestly he was scared of losing badly to them

secondly he had never won a race himself

so wasnt all that confident

things and life moved on

this tortoise kept racing ahead

racing against himself

kept racing

he could see himself changing

now he was half rabbit half tortoise

from outside he was fast and effective

but inside that same sweet tortoise

5 years went by like a wind

he never talked to any of the rabbits before

he did eventually found one rabbit of his school

his first crush.. but only to know that she was getting married next week

didnt bother him much though

now that he had seen a lot of world

but when he contacted the other rabbits

he was shocked

they were shocked

at what he had become

he was very different

miles miles ahead

nobody could imagine him where he is now

because he wasnt racing with them

he was racing against himself

they kept pulling each other down

he kept pushing himself above

and finally he realized there was no race at all

no competition

he was the race

he was the competition

:)

PS: Thank you Ruby Christopher mam :)

Rains!!

Well it was just a drizzle half an hour ago.. But a totally unexpected one and I just loved it.. The fragrance in the atmosphere after the rains is amazing..

Rains have a special place in my life.. I can recall different emotions at different times in my life when it rained:

Cozy warm feeling : As a child I used to get cold very easily and whenever it rained I would get sick and would lay on my bed watching the rains outside in my comfy quilt with the amazing warm tea that mom used to make for me

Crazy footballer feeling: The day before the class 12th boards results were declared, I along with other society friends played crazy football in society ground(more of a mud pool) and when we came back home we were so drenched by mud, my mom almost disowned me :)

Feeling of true love: Graduation days.. My first date in the lanes of North Campus. I knew the rains weren't a coincident. It was love! an amazing feeling....

Craving for pakodas feeling: This is common in all rains but I remember devouring amazing pyaaz ke pakode with my family at our outing to Bharmore in Himachal and it rained and snowed..

Kullar waali chai feeling: During my office days at Hewitt, I used to instigate the urge to go down from the 6th floor and drink the roadside kullar waali chai..and when it rained the whole work floor could be seen at the kullar waali chai stall..

Shuttle 28 gang bhasad feeling: This one is really special.. I along with my gang called Shuttle28 playing badminton while there is standing water in badminton court and its continuously raining and the whole society watching us go crazy playing badminton..

Despair and frustration feeling: When starting the first paathshala of our NGO in rohini slum areas..we had to quit the place because the place where we went to teach got filled with water and the drainage assured that the water stayed there for one month..

Go out and get wet feeling: This is one feeling that stays every time it rains.. whether be with friends or even sitting alone in my room like I was half an hour ago..

One feeling that I get whenever it rains is to just go out and get wet :) :)

I am just waiting for the next rains to happen!

To live truly (random thoughts)

What is the laughter that doesn't cause pain in the stomach..

What is the hand that didn't even try to become the midas touch..

What is the heart that didn't even try to fall in love and get hurt and fall in love again..

What is the eye that got so busy looking around that it didn't have the time to dream..

What is the dream that didn't even have the power to kill your sleep..

What is a life that didn't even made an attempt to be called great..

What is the soul which never tried to question its existence..

What is a person who compromised for something less than the best..

What is a life that let circumstances script its story..

Live your dreams truly!!

Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani.. ;)

This one goes out to you captain and my mochi sweetie..

This post is dedicated to the fundoo couple both of whom have been my bestest friends :)

Captain(our himu, yes difficult to believe that this most confused, lost and %$%#* guy in the world is a pilot) and mochi (ritu the sweetheart, the queen of bakar, she has the undisputed title for continuous non stop bakar that any girl can do)

Hello party people, I am not sud ;) but still will read out for you :)

Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani ke chapter no 15 ke page no 3 ke upar ka pehle incident:

Captain gets locked up in his own house till 11:00am in the morning and gives us a panic call to bring keys of his house from his sister and mother(Yes they do occasionally lock him up :))

In the meanwhile out mochi arrives in Delhi for a day visit to attend sister's engagement ceremony.

After we free Captain from his own house, he leaves for dwarka (he would not admit easily but one of his priorities is to surprise mochi and ask her to come outside her house to meet him). But in the meantime our mochi decides to give her own little surprise and has arrived near Captain's house to give him a surprise. Poor mochi calls me up and asks where is Himu?

I could not help but burst out laughing that both of them are near each others place and think of surprising each other at the same instant :)

Well truly this is just one of the crazy incidents of this ajab prem ki gajab kahani :)

All of us had the most amazing time when we were together in Delhi.. miss you all..

When emergency was imposed second time by Indira!!

Well well!! after a gap of three months (a crazy writer's block) I am back again.

But I would give the credit for making me write again to Indira Gandhi :)

Yes the lady(the only man in her cabinet) made me write again.

It has been a crazy week in media. With 25th anniversary of Indira Gandhi (date of birth or death anniversary..well i don't really care) Indira Gandhi is all over media. When you open the morning newspaper she has a full page tribute on every alternate page till 8 pages!!!! with some or the other ministry paying her tribute.

Then when I see the news channels on television, all across the channels I see images of Indira and talk shows based upon her. As my friend Amit says ,''They must have shown Rahul Gandhi pays his respect with flowers at her grave at least a million times''

It looks like a PR exercise for Indira Gandhi. She must have made a TRP record this week.

But here the audience is forced and the media purchased.

In the earlier emergency the media was silenced and in this second emergency put on media for the past one week all they have been saying with their purchased voices is 'Indira'

And my friend Himanshu asks me,''was this kind of attention even given to Mahatma Gandhi himself?''

Then I tell him,'' Of course he wasn't a part of the Gandhi family ;)''

Well Indira, you have irritated me to such an extent that you finally made me write :)

This piece is my tribute to 'Indira' ;)

Celebrating Independence

Quoting Prof. Tarun Chaturvedi, ''As nations progress, the generations increasingly become dumb''

Yet again at 15th August we celebrate our independence. We celebrate our independence and we celebrate our ignorance.The independence that someone else earned and we inherited.

Each generation has to earn its own independence. We shouldn't go to war like our independence Heroes because WE JUST CAN'T. We have become too realistic, too practical. Its true that Everyone wants a Bhagat Singh but nobody wants Bhagat Singh to be from their own home.

Quoting Piyush Mishra from the movie Gulal:

''o re bismil kash aate aaj tum hindustaan,

dekhte ki mulq saara yeh tashan mein til mein hai..

aaj ka launda yeh kehta hum to bismil thak gaye,

apni aazaadi to bhaiya laundiya ke dil mein hai..

aaj ke jalson mein bislmil ek goonga ga raha,

aur behron ka woh rela naachta mehfil mein hai..

haath ki khaadi banane ka zamana lad gaya,

aaj to chaddi bhi silti englison ki mill mein hai..

dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qaatil mein hai,

waqt aane pe bata denge tujhe e aasman,

hum abhi se kya bataein kya humare dil mein hai..

sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab humare dil mein hai..

sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab humare dil mein hai..''

This blog is not a criticism because the author (me) himself belongs to this generation; but we have seen in the past that if targeted in the right manner through powerful expressions like Rang De Basanti, this generation still can prove that it has got that spark left..

The critical thing for us is not to get too involved in our own everyday lives so that world outside becomes just an illusion to us. We have to accept that our country is everyday living in a war both external and internal. There is external terrorism hitting us at places where we are most vulnerable and there is internal civil war in form of Alpha, Bodo, Naxals which has or is reaching most parts of the country. Try surving in a Naxal area once you get a job posting there. We must wake up to this reality.

It may sound faff to management students, but still whatever we do in our lives, we need to look at the bigger picture. The most important thing for any living being is independence, more important than roti, kapda,makaan..

As we cherish our independence lets work to restore and recreating it..Lets keep the spirit of independence high and lets work to earn our independence..Someone else won't do it for us again..

Imagine these lines being said by someone at the time he was being hanged:

Quoting Asfak Ullah Khan:

''Buzdilon ko hi maut se darte dekha,

Garche sau bar unhe roz hi marte dekha..

Maut se veer ko humne nahi darte dekha,

Taktha-e-maut pe bhi khel hi karte dekha''

Happy Independence

Jai Hind

The Chocolicious story....

Decades ago (well exactly a decade and a half ago...) when I was a small child, a young innocent kid in this giant world, I had many dreams. I wanted to have a treasure vault like uncle scrooge in duck tales, I wanted to jump from trees like mowgli and I wanted to ride on the flying carpet of alladin. And when my friends asked me that if I get a magic lamp what I would wish from the genie, I used to reply that I want a room which is full of chocolates and then you can create as much chocolate as you want. Chocolates were my indulgance, my first love.

And if dreams could come true, this was the one that did a few decades (a decade and a half) later. Thus chocolicious was a result of that small kid, his dreams and his love for chocolatesJ. And well sitting a few days back at our workshop in Delhi with chocolates all around and the option of creating as much as I want, the child inside me gasped ‘‘wow’’..

Was it Barney behind the 'Friendship Day'?

Barney Stinson welcomes a bro to his gang by proclaiming,''Welcome to our fraternity, of non paternity'' as he gives the world a new day to celebrate named as 'Not a father day'..

It makes me wonder how these days originate when we celebrate any '' _ _ _ _ day ''..

Watching the party at my college yesterday night made me wonder, how can someone decide a day for celebration of friendship??

Sure a friendship day doesn't harm..Archies makes a fortune out of celebrations like these..And well even my chocolates got sold because of this celebration so i won't really complain ;)

But what bothers me is the superficiality of our existence that is getting created by the great marketing masterminds.. We need a day to show love, friendship, respect for our mother,father etc etc.. Friendship is the lifeblood for me..My mom at times tells me that the reason I come home is to only meet my friends :) ..

And well recently if i have to miss quizzes to roam around and create bhasad with a friend in gurgaon, i don't regret it..

With the kind of friends I have, everyday is a crazy new experience, everyday is a celebration, everyday is a reason for joy and everyday we need no reason to create Bhasad :)

And i really hope and pray that it stays this way because i don't want to get so trapped in the cycle of a zombie existence that i would need Archies to tell me which day to celebrate friendship, which day to kiss, which day to hug, which day to love, which day to show respect to my parents etc etc..

I DECIDE to celebrate friendship on each and every day i exist :)

Hey Friends, Love you all :)

The 3:30am drive!

Woosh!! thats the way first year went by at MDI. Now in second year things are a little different. We no longer have weekends (we have classes scheduled on each day of the week). But luckily my subject selection allows me an off day on thursday, and on this one i went home. Even few minutes spent with my shuttle28 gang of friends at home rejuvinates my mind completely.

So i decided to come back to MDI at night by first dropping dad to domestic airport at 3:30am and then driving back to MDI campus. For those who haven't checked out the new revamped domestic airport in Delhi, do check it out. Its just fab :)

So here i was driving on gurgaon highway at 3:30am in the morning with my car radio playing soothing music. I just realised that i was driving too fast and reached my campus road at 4:00 am. Well as the campus gates only open at 5:00am i didn't want to wait for an hour on any empty gurgaon road. So i went to one place where i knew i would find people and food and an awesome cup of tea. I went to cyber park, where i used to work about a year back in Hewitt Associates. That place is always alive with people of 8 different companies taking breaks at the road side dhabas and tea stalls outside the main building. I took a cup of tea and sat there in front of the main building admiring the archietecture of that one like i always do whenever i see it. My mind began to churn out thoughts.

One year back i was working at this place. Well i used to get back home at 9:00 in the night almost always but now-a-days almost all of my ex-collegues stay up late in the night and many times till the morning. I just realized that after another year many of my friends would be living a similar life, roaming like zombies at the death hour in the graveyard called the corporate. Well i have different plans for myself.

As i took another cup of tea just sitting there i thought of how each day at MDI teaches you something. Its just that we ignore the learnings most of the times. One year has taught me a lot, it has led to emergence of different traits in me. I have seen the best and worst of the same people. It is an altogether different world out there inside the campus. Sometimes I just feel that life is a lot less complicated outside the campus. But anyways i won't complain. its been a very interesting journey, both past one year and this 3:30am drive.

I decide to come back to campus and as still am not feeling sleepy, i sit down to write this blog post about my 3:30am drive..

Jai Hind

The Racist Within!!

Watching on T.V. and reading in newspapers about the racism in Australia makes everyone's blood boil. Thousands of parents are anxious about their children living in the Oz. They don't know who will be the next Indian on the hit-list of Racist attacks. Its a grim situation.

But this has been the reality that always existed below the glamour of foriegn travel, stay or study. Its just out in the open now. Such incidents have always been there and almost everyone who is an NRI would have known and prepared for the racist incident happening with them at some point of time or other.

As we see the country united in action against the racists, it makes me wonder when we are pointing a finger outside, there are four others which are pointing at us. Don't we need to tackle the racist within to tackle the racists outside?

Yes, the racist within has also lived for decades but the difference is that we don't recoganize it in the open. We as people have been showing this racism in some form or other. Whether it be calling being late as Indian Standard Time, or calling all Indians corrupt when being at trouble at some goverment office, or when being at a traffic jam saying that Indians don't have a driving sense, or simply watching garbage on streets and saying that Indians don't have a sense of cleanliness etc etc etc.. and we keep saying all this and say that ''Yeh to India  hai yahan kuch nahi badal sakta''.. We take great pride in saying that, '' Mera beta to videsh se padh ke aaya hai, wahan woh 3 saal raha tha'' and when someone talks of Indian education and the great Nalandas and Takshashilas that India has created we say that ''come on, get a life dude''

Yes, not all of the above is unreasonable on our part, but to think about it we are creating a culture of racism within. When parents make such derogatory statements in front of young kids, the kids develop a similar mindset.

I want all of us to ask ourselves that until we gain that self respect, how can we expect others to respect our race? If we look at Germany, they take such pride in their race and identity which propels them to work hard and do the best in whatever they do to show to the world how great Germans are. And the kind of progress that they have made by the drive they get from the feeling of nationalism in the past fifty years after being a completely broken country and economy in debt makes the world take notice and respect them.

I remember fighting with a student in my IMS group discussion class who could said , ''what has B****Y India given me?, i will take my first flight to US when i clear GMAT'', as the instructor told me to calm down but i walked out of the GD saying I care a damn about the GD and the same for the people who don't care a damn for my country.

I would end this post by refreshing our memories to the amazing prayer that we all used to sing in school days, ' humko mann ki shakti dena mann vijay karein, doosron ki jai se pehle khud ki jai karein'

Jai Hind

Nagraj, Dhruv, Doga, Parmanu.. You are the best :)

My Hindi teacher always tried to tell us that all of must read a lot of Hindi and try to appreciate Hindi Literature. To be honest I never really read anything in Hindi apart from my textbooks. For me the appreciation of Hindi literature in my schooling days came from my passion for Hindi comics :)

Batman, Superman, He-Man were never great enough to be my heroes :) It was always Nagraj,Dhruv,Doga,Parmanu, bankelal etc etc. who caught my imagination and got me hooked to the comic books. I would get very excited for any new addition of the comics that would hit the stands and I even had a pact with my local book shop that I should be the first customer to get the latest collection. Be it any normal day, day before exams, a day when we were loaded with homework, I always used to find my small secret place in my home when I used to open up the comics and for hours get lost into the magical world.

I often used to get scolding for doing this, but I always felt proud that for my superheroes I can take this small amount of beatings. If they can fight such supervillians, i could atleast do this much :)

Every situation I faced in my childhood, i used to think that if my superhero was here what would he do? they were with me through thick and thin (overloaded homeworks and bullying friends). They were an essential part of my childhood.

In school, we used to talk about the latest stories. How Dhruv can be so flexible that he could dogde bullets? how Doga has such an amazing network that he could reach to any part of town through the sewer lines?

Whenever our school teacher used to ask which student has created mischief, we used to murmer in the back benches that ask Nagraj, he has his snakes all over the city, and they can give him every detail :)

I still remember I had saved money for two months for something special. raj comics came up with its range of stickers and posters. I used all my savings and bought stickers and posters out of them :) I pasted them all over. I pasted them on the small wooden almirah i owned at home. I pasted them all around my room, all over my notebooks, over my water bottle, over my bag. Then one fine day looking at my notebook my english teacher asked me, what kind of stickers are these. I looked at her with a feeling of disgust. What was she an alien!!!!! SHE DID NOT KNOW SUPER COMMANDO DHRUV!! what dis-respect!! Since that day she became my least favourite teacher(ofcourse super heroes teach you not to hate any1, so she became my least favourite)

When I look at children these days going crazy about harry potter and spiderman and what not!! I still feel my superheroes can beat these modern day characters any day. 

Nagraj, Dhruv, Doga,Parmaanu..... You still are my superheroes and will always be :) 

And for all the fans who want to refresh their memories, now in the age of internet, you can get e-comics @ http://www.rajcomics.com/joomla/

Jai Hind

Lets Go for It :) The shuttle28 gang rocks :)

Shuttle28, The ''lets go for it'' theory: 

Anything crazy enough to generate an ''of course not'' response from majority of people will get a response of ''lets go for it'' from the shuttle28 gang members :)

 The day didn't really start for me. It was extension of the last night and all the previous sleepless nights that I had. No, it wasn't love that kept me awake these days. It was my final exams at the end of first year at MDI.

 Finally the first year had ended. Time runs crazy at times :) i mean things had just started to settle in so nicely when the first year ended and this time I was feeling sad about going home leaving campus and friends, adding to that was the physical turmoil of sleepless nights and packing your entire stuff out of MDI. 

 My two awesome friends’ amit and rohit (part of shuttle28) had come to help me get my stuff back to home. In early morning, in a state of trance, i kept my luggage in the car. The next thing i needed the most was sleep, a deep long sleep.

 But i had promised my friends that i would sponsor their breakfast. Then thinking of breakfast options we discussed from tea stalls to dhabas, Amit suggested we should have breakfast at Hyatt Hotel. Well it was a crazy idea, but that is what defines shuttle28. I did not even brush in the morning, in a state of trance; i thought the idea was crazy enough. So I said ok lets go for it.

And minutes later we were having breakfast in Hyatt :) we were shabbily dressed and were not even shaven whereas everyone around was suited up :) but we had fun and my awesome friends decided to share the bill.

 We reached home after that, just to continue our travelling to a friend's village in Bahadurgarh after half an hour. That day of course i didn't get any other opportunity to sleep as well. ''Lets go for it'' and we travelled to bahadurgarh, Haryana listening to music and having fun.

We explored the village a little, as our friend Rohit showed his childhood home, school talking of his memories. Then while returning we did a contradiction from our morning act. There were 4 of us and we sat and ate the famous roadside pakodas of bahadurgarh. We ate one whole KG pakodas ;) From hyatt in morning to roadside pakodas.

 Then again I got an opportunity to show my face for a few minutes at home in the evening (these days i get a feeling that i would be kicked out and disowned by my family any day) and again we shuttle28 gang members were back in our society basement playing out cult sport, of course Badminton (shuttle word comes from here). Then again after playing badminton we got into a friend's car and played crazily senti songs of 80s and 90s and roaming around in streets shouting and singing. Finally the day came to an end. 

 To think of it, it was a crazy day. But it was fun. Thats what defines us. Our cool gang 'shuttle28'.

Jai Hind

Land of slumdog millionaires !!

I tribute this piece of my writing to a post that my friend had written in his blog (http://rahulbhandarizz.blogspot.com/2009/03/indian-media-goes-hysterical.html)..

my friend you truly inspired me to write this blog :)

My friend says, ''Even the NGO's have vouched that they have never seen maiming of children for begging.
Have you ever seen a blind child begging????? ''

 Well friend, I have heard similar comments that what has been shown in the movie is not the true picture of India and its about glamorizing poverty and making money out of it.

 All that I do at such comments is just smile :) We have a habit in living in ignorance and when someone tries to show us the mirror or the truth we refrain from accepting it. Do we really want the world to ignore our poverty as we do?? 

If the NGOs haven't seen what has been shown in the movie about the poverty and kids, one these are the NGOs which are like most of the millions NGOs (yes NGOs in India are in millions) that don’t work and second they are afraid, ignorant and too sophisticated people to face the truth. But there have been numerous police and law cases where kids have been blinded and their hands and feet are broken so that they can beg effectively.

 And my friend this is no movie but a dark reality that we fail to see. It does not exist in our veil of ignorance. I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN A KID WHO WAS WILLING TO COMMIT SUICIDE FOR A LOSS OF Rs. 40.

 And till the time we shun this truth and not recognize this reality and work towards improving the conditions, movies like slum dog millionaire will time and again come to shock us.

 My friend also said, ''. The movie has only served the purpose of giving west another opportunity to look down on India, especially when they themselves are reeling under recession an India is growing healthy!!!!''

 Well friend, this reminds me of the BJP election slogan of shining India. To be honest yes we may be developing at a better GDP growth rate [statistics are like miniskirts, what they reveal is important but what they hide is vital :) ], but to be honest the process by which GDP growth rates gets calculated is highly flawed, far from reality and irrelevant to a large extent!!

The healthy country that we are growing in is dying in a civil war (Naxals,alpha,bodo etc etc). Everyday a war is going on within our country. Hundreds of people are dying which don’t make it to daily newspapers. And this is currently happening in 15 states in India!!!! And the no. is increasing everyday!! This is more dangerous than our situation with our neighbors like Pakistan and China!! When are we supposed to wake up to this reality!!

 Then some movie will come on this situation and we will again decline the reality and say that the movie is a baseless fiction..

 And my friend also says, ''Now the west says, yes the image has indeed changed to "Slum Dog millionaires", who get this by god-damned luck rather than hard work.''

 Well friend as we all can remember the fact that when KBC was started we had a whole nation going crazy on telephone lines to get to the show and try their luck :) Its ok to use a bit of luck to get rich :) 

The animal that works the hardest is the donkey :) 

 And finally about the movie, i saw it, really liked it. I think it is a good movie. 

What I felt it was a movie that shows the young spirit of India. The young people who dream and believe that they can become millionaires even if they journey begins from slums. Dhirubhai taught us how to rise from the dust to become a millionaire many years ago, Danny boyle just gave the process a name :)

 And all of us are proud of the movie and most of all A.R.Rehman for winning the oscar. Slumdog did give him a platform for the world to listen to his music. I feel Rehamn has created even better music before, if we had more movies like slumdog, i am sure oscar would go to our Rehman each year and his house would get full of these trophies :)

 JAI HO

JAI HIND