"2009 ..2009 ..you bloody bastard .. you are all set to kill me but mind it, I have been a fighter throughout my life and I would continue to present a fierce resistace."

Well , well , well .. I am not joking, 2009 has been the worst year of my entire life of 26 years.Every month has come up with a serious killer issue . I can write separately about every month and still I won't be able to jot down my thoughts. It has been and still is proving to be a year that demands patience.

To add to the list of ups and downs, I have fractured my left leg . I have broken one bone of my left leg and cracked the other.That bloody incident happened on July 11 2009. I will post my every emotion later but here are one line emotions(NOT EDITED) that I managed to capture on my mobile phone in the first 10 days.



July 11 : "Accident .. max hospital ...fortis.. pain"

July 12 :"my leg doesn't move ..more pain "

July 13 " No pain .. full anasthesia but once anasthesia fades away ..."
surgery time : 11am-1pm

July 14 : day after surgery "it hurts like hell .. no respite"

July 15 : " discharge date .. bloody physiotherapy "

July 17 : "extreme pain .. my leg is swelled up .. it's 4am and i am still waiting for pain to subside so that I may sleep ..ice packs don't always help"

July 20 :"plain dressing dirty blood comes out physio suggests exercise despite of pain when this ordeal would end the night was extremely heavy i woke up at 4am due to pain and heaviness in my leg was awake till 515 dont remember when i slept"

Change is definitely good !!!

Yes, change has hit me... last fortnight , my work life took an unexpected turn when I was moved from the Analog group to the mixed signal group.To be on the frank side, I was extremely angry and confused at the transition because I was the only one to be moved out from the group.The usual things happened , the mangagement trying to explain me with their usual recession fundas and other stuff but I had no option; I had to accept and accept with a heavy heat.

At the end of 15 days , I am extremely happy at the turn of things. I am extremely relaxed now ; be it physically and menatlly. All of a sudden my pain of cervical spondilytis has vanished , almost magically.For the last one year the pain in my neck was almost unbearable with the medicines proving worthless and ineffective.Everybody including myself was perplexed , why this pain is taking so longer to subside .The doctor kept on asking me if I had any mental troubles ; I kept on declining because I never accepted that my hectic and sometimes inhuman worklife has some effect on me.Now, I have the results ; the pain that haunted me for long , putting a full stop to all my plans has sympathized with me.No more pain killers, no more sleeping pills ...yeah , I have reasons to be happy.

Another thing that has changed significantly is my involvement in extra curriculars. For long , people had accused me of having no interests in life be it movies , music or any games or sports .I can agree if they say sports but please don't comment on anything else.I need time for everything buddy ; time for myself but if I am constantly forced to come to office for 7 days a week working 8-10 hours a day , it is impossible to pursue a hobbby.May be you are thinking that I complain a lot , putting a blame on other people but ... anyways lets change the topic ; this is a debatable topic and will open up may grey areas of work ethics :)

Now the things have changed !!! I have started pursuing things that I have been thing for long ....French is the first thing , writing is second and the list continues .... I will keep u updated on the twists and turns in my life but now it's time to stop writing and go back to work !! [:)] ...

Finally , I am coming back to life !

Trek to Dzongri....

"Every dark cloud has a silver lining.". I can' t remember when I first read this idiom . It was lying in some dark corner of my brain , unexperienced and unused but this year , recession provided me the necessary impetus to unravel the mystery of this idiom.

As the dark clouds of Recession loomed over the economy and everybody was fighting to survive in the storm of jobcuts , I got a much needed "forced" break for a week to rejuvenate myself.I wasn't able to classify these leaves as a boon or a bane as it was a week of LEAVE without PAY .

Due to some undisclosed reasons , I decided to take these leaves as a boon and travel to some unexplored parts of North-east India where I could find some new culture to see , some new food to eat and obviously some new places to visit.

I got the company of Mithlesh , Raghav and Gaurav on this adventure trip and our group of "four wise men" departed to explore Sikkim. We decided to trek to Goecha La but once again the dark clouds, this time that of weather loomed over us and curtailed our 7 day trek to 4 and restricted us to Dzongri only.

Oh ! Oh! Oh! hold on... the clouds had a silver lining too....For long I had dreaded to trek in snow but this time I trekked for hours in snow. God !! that was fantastic...Can you feel it?....white balls of snow falling from sky...the temperature dipping....the trek geting lost in snow.....the WHITE vegetation welcoming us.....no traces of any human for iles.....the low levels of oxygen making us uncomfortable....if I had to survive I had to go to base of Dzongri ....the meeting place of man and nature.......I told myself once agin ....Come on buddy....just do it...you can't quit after coming so far...and then the fat man decided to trudge ahead in snow.....silently admiring the beauty of nature.....

It snowed and snowed and snowed. It was the toughest and the longest night of my entire life. With the invisible sun setting at barely 3 in the afternoon , the bad weather forced us to pack ourselves in our sleeping bags hoping to see one another the next morning. The relentless icy winds threatened to blow our trekkers hut. Mithlesh's frustation was evident when he woke up at 11 in the night and almost
screamed " Abhi 11 hi baje hain , subah kab hogi".

But "subah hui mamu " but sincerely , I haven't seen such a muggy morning in my entire life. It started to snow again at 8 in the so called morning. Once again , I ran out of luck when I needed it the most ;the view of the snow clad peaks were obstructed by snowfall ; I could literally see the mighty peaks bidding us adieu from behind the clouds and snow. Unfortunately, the weather had won the game.

I have no regrets to come back from Dzongri because i lived some of the finest moments of my entire life.Probably , i am looking forward to forced leave in second quarter.

The language that is called French

Yes, after aeons I have started learning french. For a long time , I was thinking of learning French but given the hectic nature of my job or probably my time mismanagement, I couldn't pursue it. Recession, yes recession ,came as a saviour. The work load decreased and my working days reduced from six-seven to 5 days a week and there was no requirement of slogging till 7 or eight in evening. Yes and yes , I was alive yet again.I heard life calling me.....

I enrolled myself at the Alliance Francaise de Delhi last month (march 2009) for pursuing A1 level course in French. Initially, I was very sckeptical about the Institue as the method of communication and teaching is French with no English allowed there .The teachers would reply in French even if you question in English but being the the most authentic and popular place for learning french, I decided to go ahead with it.

The first two weeks were quite eventful.For the first time in my life, I empathized with nursery children who start learning English.I can now confess that it is a difficult task to learn a new language. As one has poor vocabulary in beginning,it is almost impossible to decipher what is being asked. The only answers that one has are oui madame ( yes mam ) and non madame ( no mam ).To compound one's problems , French has masculine and feminine form of adjectives as well as articles , so the problems of using correct verbs with correct gender of adjectives and articles is a bit tricky , atleast for beginners .As a result , funny instances arise in classes.
Ha ha ha ....but don't laugh on anybody as you may land in same position the next time but honestly it feels great to be in nursey again; to relive your life.

Almost five weeks have passed ( in which I bunked two weeks for a trek) and I can say that I am not absolutely zero in French now , I can atleast figure out the parts of speech in French. Yeah....it's better to understand the sentence than to reproduce sounds like monkeys. I have a test on 10May for A1 level ...lets see what happens ....

The country it is...

The recent events in sports are annoying me. It's not that I am not pleased at the recent successes that India had in this cricket series with Australia , I am concerned about the OTHER sports that are also played at some corner in India. A few of them are really struggling to survive and the remaining, if any , are surrounded with controversies.

At the top of this list lies, the controversy surrounding Sania Mirza. She is one of the most talented female tennis players that India has ever produced but I don't know why she is always mired in some so-called offensive acts against the community or against the country. Right from her entry into tennis, the fundamentalists have had a problem with her, be it her clothes, or her one liner T-shirts or any vague thing that one can think of but this time the offence is quite different -- disrespect to national flag, an offence that is punishable under Indian law. Well, i have seen the photograph and I really have sympathy with Sania. I would salute the photographer who found such a nice pose. Anybody could have fallen victim to such a cheeky act of photography.These kind of acts can demoralize any person, leave alone Sania Mirza.
Now , if she says that she is shattered and feeling down , i can understand it.

Some days back, Tiger Woods had made a comment that he plays for himself and his family and not for his fans or sponsors or media . In light of the events that are happening with Sania Mirza, I think he was quite right. Fans can sometimes make life intolerable with too much attention. Well, the only thing I can say that it is not possible and necesary to please and respect everybody,whosoever it is.Lets hope the issue ends amicably.

Another thing that caught my eye was the calling off of the National Camp for Thomas and Uber Cup due to unavailability of shuttlecocks. I can't help myself laughing at this. A national Camp for preparation called off due to lack of the most basic infrastructure. I can't recall a single instance when the National camp for cricket was cancelled due to lack of bats or balls.This is absurd.I don't know which side was the culprit---the Badminton Authority of India (BAI) or the Sports Authority of India , though both are blaming each other , but this is shameful. Don't even think of a medal in next Olympics. Actually, it's the state of every sport in India other than cricket and i think Badminton was lucky enough to reach the headlines of newspapers.

Well , this is what India is ....a land with hoards of talents who are looking just for the basic infrastructure to build up.Who knows, when it will happen , if it happens to happen.... :)

Complacency is a curse...........

One of the best forwards I have ever had..............Read on

" Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.It knows it must run faster
than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It
doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you
better start running."
- Thomas L. Friedman in "The World is Flat"

Very Inspiring Email, …...

The Japanese have a great liking for fresh fish. But the waters close to
Japan have not held many fish for decades. So, to feed the Japanese
population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The
farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring back the fish.
The longer it took them to bring back the fish, the staler they grew. The
fish were not fresh and the Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their
boats.They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste
the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the
taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So, fishing
companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them
in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little hashing around, the fish stopped
moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese
could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for
days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively
tasteof fresh fish, not sluggish fish. The fishing industry faced an
impending crisis! But today, it has got over that crisis and has emerged as one of the most important trades in that country! How did Japanese fishing
companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to
Japan?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put
the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The
shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively
state.The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. And they
survive and arrive in a healthy state! They command a higher price and
are most sought-after. The challenge they face keeps them fresh!

Humans are no different. L. Ron Hubbard observed in the early 1950's:
"Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging
environment.

" George Bernard Shaw said: "Satisfaction is death!"

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you
enjoy a challenge. If you are steadily conquering challenges, you are happy.
You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new
solutions. You have fun. You are alive! Instead of avoiding challenges,
jump into them. Catch these challenges by their horns and vanquish them.
Enjoy the game. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not
give up. Failing makes you tired. Instead, reorganize. Find more
determination, more knowledge, more help. Don't create success and revel
in it in a state of inertia. You have resources, skills and abilities to
make a difference........................Yeah!!!!!!!!!!.........

And the Bharat Ratna goes to.........

Come Republic Day and all eyes are focused on the award ceremony, the Padma awards and the most coveted Bharat Ratna. It has been seven years in a row that nobody has been conferred this prestigious award.
Why is the question ? This question has been haunting the mind of every individual who keeps an eye on the Indian polity. Has there been no man of achievement in India in the last decade or the government is looking for a superman.It is pretty difficult to decide.

I am also thinking that is it necessary to give this award every year?
If YES, then to whom and what should be the method and criterion of selection and if NO then let's abolish this award. There is no point in keeping everyone guessing and more importantly , as these blank years are passing the bar for selection is rising automatically. I am desperate to know who breaks the lull in this decade.He must be a real HERO.

Anyways,let me try my level best to answer these questions.To decide it,first have a look at the names of the past recipients of this award. Dr. Radhakrishnan , CV Raman , JawaharLal Nehru , Indira Gandhi, APJ Abdul Kalam, Pt. Ravi Shankar , Lata Mangeshkar, Satyajit Ray, BR Ambedkar, Amartya Sen , Satyajit Ray and the list goes on.....Wow....that list is something. These people have one thing in common. They are the role models for the current Indian generation. Each of them has not only done something extraordinary in their field but also has worked for the development of the people. They look to be the kind of people to which Bharat Mata can come personally and embrace them . She can definitely say ...Son, it could have been millions of places where you could have been born in this universe but I am proud to have you.You are my Ratna...You are the Bharat Ratna.

Is it the definition of Bharat Ratna ? A person who stands out from the crowd and on whom the Bharat Mata can be proud of ?

Wait for a moment, I have figured out something else. Most of these people have either been involved in the Indian Freedom Struggle or were the FIRST in their fields.

A Chinese proverb aptly says "May you live in interesting times".
Here,interesting times represent difficult situations. This proverb can be used as a blessing as well as a curse ; for interesting times may either ruin you or it can bring the best out of you. For these people,it got the best out of them.

The question for eligibility becomes even more difficult when I consider that this award has also been conferred to Nelson Mandela , a non Indian but a propounder of Gandhian Principles.Now, I am confused.Is an Indian actually required for Bharat Ratna or propounding Indian principles in world is required for Bharat Ratna?
Let's not delve into this aspect of the problem for the sake of simplicity. :)


I feel the criterion , whatsoever it may be, has to change for this current scientific world. The work is now more technology oriented then setting up and exploring the basic things.At the time of Independence we had several Brave Hearts who needed recognition but now we have used up our pool of awardees and probably that's why we are now facing this dearth of heros. I feel this award should now be given once in a decade. This will not only preserve the quality of the award but also give enough time to the heros to mature and show their skills.Most importantly, it will keep all the controversies at bay.


One request....please don't make it the FilmFare award that has to be given every year irrespective of preposterous theme of Indian films , films whose ever declining standards is now changing the definition of a good movie in the minds of people.

Another thing that comes in my mind is how should a Bharat Ratna be chosen. Mind it!!!! the award is Bharat Ratna not the Indian Idol ( as it literally translates to).I have no problem with SMS and Junta polling, the only problem is that only the urban population participates in SMS polling . The rural people are only the spectators, so it won't help. Bharat Ratna is different in this regard that the chosen one is the Ratna of the majority and not of the minority.

The current system is also fine with the states sending nominations to the Centre and a committee evaluating the candidate on the basis of his service done to the country.No problem at all.Let's ensure one thing: the choice must be unanimous , no simple majority is allowed here.

As an ordinary Indian, I am deparately waiting for the chosen one . My ears are eager to listen...."And he Government of India has decided to confer the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna to........".