NaBloPoMo - Day 9

Todays topic is - "Japanese lore suggests that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. What would your wish be, and what would you be willing to do 1,000 times to get it?"
Well, my wish would be permanent peace for India with its neighbours - Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal and Srilanka. Though we have peacefull relations with Burma, Srilanka, Nepal, Afghanistan and even China to certain extent and the only visible dispute is with Pakistan. But i believe, that with peace prevailing in all other countries as in India, there is less chance of terrorism brewing and growing into a global menace. I know, i a beng selfish, with my India centric wish, but I dont want to think too big, wishing for Peace in the entire world, though that would be the final goal for any one who wish Humanity to succeed.
What would i do 1000 times, to get this wish come true, i would cook ( Yes being a chef, cant think of anyhing else) for 1000 people for free in 1000 different places - cities, towns and villages across India's border, provided i get enough sponsor for the same........

NaBloPoMo - Day 8

You've just been given a million dollars. You are not allowed to keep it or give it to anyone you know personally. What do you do with it and why?
This is the prompt for today.......
I would give 50% of the money to a charity, which helps poor and downtrodden in developing countries, not only with food and water, but also with education and skills for them to sustain.......It will be a humongous task to select a good charity, with so many good ones being there....
With the rest ofthe 50%, will buy a house in London, a house in Chennai, a farmhouse with acres of land in Pollachi, will buy me a nice camera with good lens, will go on a world tour with my family and if theres anything left, will put it in savings for further future plans......

NaBloPoMo - Day 6

Even today theres no topic prompt from NaBloPoMo......
I saw a hindi movie today and thgought will write about it. The movie i saw was "Rajneeti", meaning politics. I dont follow bollywood much, but did saw the movie's promotional trailers and thought that its based on Rajiv, sonia gandhi n congress.......what a fool i was, i was thrilled to see the way the director interpreted the epic Mahabharat and that too made it relevent to current political scenario of India. I have seen Prakash Jhas other movie - Apharan and loved his screenplay and came to know that his other movie Mrityudand is also good one, which am yet to see. In Rajneeti, with so many characters, the script is balanced in such a way that everyone got equal parts to play, like in chess board, even removal of one could spoil the entire game sequence......very strong characters and theres no hero or villain, as everyone playes into the politic's greed of power and do anything to attain it - the same like Mahabharat characters with Krishna and shaguni playing dirty politics n tactics on both sides, with just leaving the end with a positive note.
The way the script revolves around 2 brothers and their families, one dying and the other becoming physically challenged and both the siblings ( second generation) fighting for power, with lots of twists and truns, both opponents winning every alternate round, and keeps your finger crossed till the end.......Overall, a well thought of, well executed script and screenplay and wonderful performance from everyone who played their parts to the best of their abilities.......WATCHABLE

NaBloPoMo - Day 5

Unfortunately there is no topic given at NaBloPoMo for today, but dont want to discontinue my "post a day" for the month of june. Am going to write about my day today....
Well i woke up in the morning at around 10, had a cup of tea and some shortbread, enjoying the sun in the garden. Then switched on my comp, watched news, checked email, checked my facebook a/c, etc., At around 11.30 headed to my TOEIC learning and reading skills test ( As this is one of the qualification on point based system for workpermit holders like me in UK to switch jobs), the test stated at 13.00hrs and finished at 15.00hrs and headed straight to work after that(which i was late by an hour). Usually i am the one, who arrives early, but unfortunately me being late, everything in the kitchen (Yes thats my workplace) was in a mess. By the time we all got2gether and put the days delivery in its place n sat for lunch it was 4pm. Then did some admin work and by the time it was service time. The service was pretty slow, with less reservations, so was a bit boring. Slowly at around 9pm it started picking up with more n more orders and all went smoothly. at around 11pm, cleared , cleaned d kitchen, had dinner and came back home. The moment i stepped into the house, it started pouring like cats n dogs....now sitting in front of my computer and writing this post....will have a drink or two with colleagues and probably a movie online before i hit the sack....
Hope i didnt bored you all with my monotonous routine of life......Have fun and thanks for dropping by.....cheers

NaBloPo|Mo - Day 4

The very first thing that pops into my mind, when i think of my Father is - A LOVING AND CARING PERSON, who never cease to work hard to keep all in the family happy.......My dad started working at an early age of 16, after the demise of my grandfather. Being eldest of 7 children, hestarted working by putting up stall in the streets of bangalore, slowly getting employment in restaurants in chennai, then in a small town called arcot. He worked his way up to the position fo manager and in 1985, with the help of his brothers, opened his own restaurant in a small Industrial area of ranipet - sipcot. But, unfortunately, like anyother Indian father, he had very less time to family, as he was always at work, because of which me and my brother were more close to my mom than my dad. And moreover, we were a bit scared of him too......When he is in good mood, then its full of joy and happiness all around and he seldom gets angry, but when he does so, we are terrified. Any oppurtunity of holiday, he always used to take us to visit some place or the other, with every year summer holidays, we used to go for some 3/5 day tour, thereby we have covered almost all of tamilnadu (unfortunately, i dont remember many of those places, as i was too small to remember then). Now he took retirement from his work and closed his restaurant, after much compulsion by me and my brother. Now he is enjoying his retirement, though he havent stopped work compleely,a s he still goes to help out my uncles for few days in a month......Love you dad!!!!!

NaBloPo|Mo - Day 3

Todays topic is FREEDOM......
Its quite difficult to define freedom, in current world scenario, as people take it for granted, that freedom is only related to them......Thats a sad state of affair....
To me, FREEDOM means, something i could do what i wished to do, without anyones infuence or interference, but at the same time not disturbing any one else's life...........dont you think this is a bit difficult for anyone to achieve than said........I think you can still enjoy your freedom with a bit of diplomacy.....In hindi theres a saying - "KUCH PAANA HAI THO KUCH KHONA PADEGA", which means, to get some, you lose some.....And its individuals choice to decide on what one needs to win against loosing some (????) and this will differ from person to person........ITS GIVE AND TAKEPOLICY and am a firm believer of it!!!!!!!Cheers

NaBloPo|Mo - Day 2

Todays topic is - "What's your favorite poem? (And if you don't have one, why?)"
Poem and me......I never had interest in poems and seriously i dont know why....All the poems, that i have read are from school as part of curriculum, and was compelled to do so,as, if i dont learn them, there was no scope for passing or scoring marks.........I dont have a favourite poem perse, but love poems that have a strong meaning. Unfortunately all the poems i like are of Tamil, especially the ones that i studied in school. Off all, i would say "THIRUKKURAL", by ancient poet Thiruvalluvar, my favourite. As it contains 133 chapters covering all aspects of life - from creation, god, love, anger, greed, sadness. truth, etc., and each chapter with ten poems of 2 line each. All these poes are are of 2 lines,with very strong and logical meaning and message. Though the actual era of this poet and the time of this poem is undecided, it covers all asects of life, which is still relevant to our times......

NaBloMoPO - Day 1

This is my first attempt with NaBloPoMO......I was influenced by a freind, whos blog i follow everyday, though i started blogging 2 years ago, wasnt a regular blogger and used to write about social issues and news that affected me......lets see how much i keep up with this....
To all my freinds, who dont know wahts NaBloPoMO - it stands for National Blog Posting Month, wherein any blogger who signsup, got to post something everyday regularly for the month. I decided to join and this month, the theme is NOW......wherein we get to write about topics given for everyday of the month and for today, 1st June is - " When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up???
When i was little, i didnt really thought of what i wanted to become when i growup.....as this is a common question asked in most of the Indian household, I always used to say, that will decide whe thetime comes ( thats whe am in the final years of high school). But, internally, i was hoping to become a national Badminton player, winning tournaments for the country and earning fame.....Badminton used to be my passion during my childhood. It all started when i was 10, whe we moved from Arcot, a small town near Chennai, India, to Sipcot and the house we rented was bang opposite a badminton club. One evening, when me and my brother went to have a look at whats happening, inside and started watching the seniors play......the das went by and the owner of the club invited us to play for free (no subscription at all...). Our parents bought us the badminton racket and me and my brother started playing.....beng amateur players, we were allowed to play only in teh early evenings or late evening when the club is about to close and not in the peak hours, which was dominated by the paying seniors. Me and my brother will play early evening, watch the seniors play in the peak hour and play again late evenings....slowly couple of seniors took interest in training us, and we improved our game so well that wewere allowed to play in the peak hours with the seniors....slowly we started bringin in more kids of our age in the neighbourhood to play and we did even conducted a tournament.....It all ended when i was in high school and played in the interschool state championships, representing my school, winning district, inter district and finally loosing in Inter division level....the next level would have been state level and if i have gonethrough, might have put in more time and effort into the sport. Unfortunate and in majority Indian families, sports are not considered to be a worthy profession to pursue, so i decided to enter Hospitality industry. So did catering, worked in hotels and now a Chef here in London.......the good news is, after years of neglect, i started playing here in London and guess what my game is still good, though i play now only for fun and not the zeal and vigour that i used to play with passion, when i was a kid.......

Ode to National Highways Department!!!!

The other day, I wrote about road safety and how trucks and lorries, ignore the basic road safety measures of tail lights or light reflective stickers during night travel…….yesterday I travelled from ranipet to vellore and today I went to sholingur and back, both small towns and was totally amazed at the commendable work done by the Highways department….These small roads connecting two rural towns, was so well maintained with all the road safety measures in place – like, good road, proper sign boards, etc.,

But the best part was about the light reflectors on the stones planted on road sides and also on the trees on either side of the road. It looks so beautiful in the night, as they glow reflecting the head lights. The beauty is, all these light reflecting stickers (on trees) and on d road borders are of STAR shape, so it looks lovely in a pitch dark road with all these glowing stars on the sides, giving an effect as if you are riding in space……

I have travelled many times in these roads since my childhood and last I travelled these routs were 2 years back when I was on vacation, so I could make out the huge difference the highways department have achieved, from what it was before….

Hope they put such measures into action all across India and maintain it well….

Kalyugs spiritual leaders!!!!!

Paramahamsa Nithyananda………what a great guru, spiritual leader, enlightened human being, who shares his wisdom and knowledge to his disciples for the benefit of the human kind!!!! All went into drain after Sun TV exposed his affairs with one of his women disciple (An actress) on National TV couple of days back….This is what occupied all the regional news channels in Tamilnadu and Karnataka, with Nithyananda absconding, his angry disciples and some of the party members ransacking all the Ashram branches, burning his effigies, posters and pictures…..all expected, knowing the southern states politics.
My dad was introduced by one of my friend to this organisation and was very much mesmerised with Nithyananda’s speeches, Sat sanghs, Yoga sessions….each one costing him Rs. 1000/day and in whole he have spent 8K so far and was about to visit his main ashram near Bangalore next month. Though being a good orator and got immense knowledge on spirituality, Nithyananda lost the trust of thousands of his disciples. I have heard from freind of my friends that, he charges 1K for shaking hands, 5K for hugging and taking picture with him, 25K for self realisation course in Bangalore for IT professionals.
I have no problem, if 2 adults get sexually involved with mutual consent, as it’s their personal affair, but people like Nithyananda, who claims himself to be “Paramahamsa”, Have a social responsibility to LEAD BY EXAMPLE. Unfortunately, nowadays, this rule doesn’t apply to many of the self proclaimed spiritual leaders in the country. Just 2 decades ago we had “Premananda”, again a self proclaimed Guru, who raped his women disciples and got imprisoned for 40 years, found guilty of rape and murder. 5/6 years ago, it was Sankaracharya of Kanchi Mutt, who was charged with planning the murder of one of his dissident follower and the case is still on, with probably few more years before judgement. Last decade we had, the self proclaimed Kalki Bhagwan, who got a huge ashram near Chennai, was framed with charges of drug peddling, rape and hypnotising his women disciples to take sanyas… Though all these incidents were well covered in the headlines by media, people tend to have selective amnesia, that they blindly fall for the tactics employed by such people….I don’t know, whether it is mainly due to the change in culture in the Indian society, that we no more live under one family umbrella, that we don’t have any one to share our feelings and seek guidance, that we fall prey to such cunning criminals….or is it that our life have become so materialistic and the fast city life, that have resulted in making us so vulnerable internally, that we easily fall to the words uttered by such persons, though we have heard the very same words from our ancient scriptures and history. I don’t know, when this thing is going to stop, when the people are going to stop blindly believing in such criminals, that they allow themselves to be manipulated………
I believe there is a big political nexus, without whose support and guidance, such people couldn’t have grown in such short period of time. And I think this is what shields them for so long from the eyes of law enforcement agencies……the best example could be “The Golden Temple” in Sripuram, near Vellore in Tamilnadu. The self proclaimed God, claims himself to be d incarnation of Goddess Durga, built a temple for goddess Durga, with full external gold covering. The saddest part is, this self proclaimed god person was schoolmate of my cousin in Vellore. This temple was opened just 2/3 years back, and within months of its opening, new approach roads were laid, special bus routes were approved, special buses were run on regular basis from Bangalore and Chennai….And because of all this, now this temple has become as popular as Thirupati Balaji temple. All this wouldn’t have been possible without Some Political party’s support……..

Road safety!!!????

I was astonished and amazed at how much rules are followed by the enforcing officials and the general public, when it comes to road safety, especially with regards to vehicles. I landed in Chennai airport in the early hours of Saturday, my dad came to receive me with a friend. So we got all my bags in to the car and headed to Ranipet, my hometown, 120 kms from Chennai on Chennai-Mumbai NH4 and that’s when this shock struck me……it was 0300hrs and pitch dark and the highway was filled with mostly trucks transporting goods from Chennai port to Bangalore and other parts of the country. Of all the trucks that we passed or overtook, 9 out of 10 didn’t had the tail lights ON (either its not working or its not there at all……) and the worst part is, they don’t even have any light reflecting stickers……I was thinking aloud – “Where is road safety???” Its one of the utmost necessary and a must in any vehicle, especially in a vehicle like trucks, which are known for serving logistics to so many industries by transporting goods throughout the country, day and night.

Where were all the law enforcement agencies??? what are they doing??? Starting from the Truck owner, whose responsible for having Tail lights in place for the safety of his drivers and other road users….

RTO, which officials are supposed to check all the safety aspects in a vehicle before authorising it for road usage…..Traffic cops and the highway patrol crew, whose job is to ensure that all the highway users are adhering to the traffic rules, have all the safety measures in place with respect to their vehicles and drivers, etc.,

No wonder, there is so many deaths in India due to Road accidents……India is growing as a country with no value for human life…..Such a sad state of affair…….

My driving lessons!!!!!

I started my driving class here in Ranipet from a friend of friend, who is a licensed driving instructor. He was bemused with my idea of just learning driving in 10 days with no applying of license here in India. My plan was to learn driving as much as possible over here, so that when I get back to London and start taking classes there, I could save at least 20 hours there and the money……But now, when I think of it, I laugh at myself…..

The first day I started my class here, the instructor just explained me about the gear, clutch, brake, accelerator, indicator and that’s it….i started driving right away in a busy highway in Maruti Omni – for those of you who don’t know this vehicle, when you sit in the drivers street, just after the steering wheel, it’s the road….there is no bonnet or engine in the front and that’s why most of the driving instructors choose this vehicle, as one can clearly and easily see the road…And, funnily, I am learning the old generation vehicle, with clutch and I think its good in one way, as it will be easy when I get back learning in London on automatic vehicles….

My first driving experience was funny….i had no problems with starting the vehicle, gettin on with first gear and then second, third, etc., But couldn’t get a hang of my vehicles alignment on the road, that my instructor was steering the vehicle and me, pissed off with him steering, held on to the steering wheel that he literally requested me to hold the steering wheel loose, so that he could guide me to handle it…….i was nervous too, you see and had nothing else other than the steering wheel to hold on to….

Learning here is so easy, as there are no lessons on looking for road signs, nothing on road safety and rules yet…..its all about driving, driving and driving without getting your vehicle hit by other vehicle….First 2 days were horrible, with my instructor steering the vehicle for almost 70% of the drive. Today was much better, I somehow got a hang of it and he just helped me some 20% of steering the wheel, with just verbal guidance to go left and right….i feel proud, that some how I managed to get it to certain extent, though I got a long way to go now.

My request with the instructor was to concentrate his usual 30 day training into 10 days, so that I could learn fully. Unfortunately, he have all his slots so full that, he just filling me into gaps here and there, 10 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the evening and so on. He have promised me that he will spend couple of hours with me alone on coming Saturday and Sunday as a special case…..hope he fulfils it and I get to make most of it, as the funniest part is, in his one hour slot, he got 5-6 students and each one get to drive 3 kilometres, taking turns, for 25 days. So far I got 2 turns every day and hopefully this weekend get more individual attention and teaching…….Hope this works out as I planned and am keeping my fingers crossed!!!!!

Lets make a difference!!!!

I am upgrading my system, so was going through all the files and pictures and copying them to upload in my new system, thats when i came across this message, which i mailed to many on my contact list. Thought its worth to post it here......so here it goes.....

Unfortunately it is sad state of affair in our country that our patriotism rises when any Indian sports team defeats Pakistani team or we feel patriotic watching our glitterati performing as Jawans saving us from enemies in our movies.....We felt patriotic when we won Kargil war with so many lives lost......but what we did after that????do we feel patriotic in peace time and think about those People in our defense who put their life at risk defending our lives......am doubtful......and am know that I am 90% right......i feel embarrassed, that am not among the exceptional 10% who feels patriotism in their everyday life....Neither our government or the Private sector think about them or help them financially, as all they do is go after Popularity!!!!Our economy is flourishing with the current IT boom, which wouldn’t have been possible if stability of peace is not maintained by our defense forces. So i think we all are directly/indirectly liable to these people in our defense forces.
When India won T20 World cup recently, so many of our state governments announced cash prizes, gifted houses to the players....all these for a win in sport, just because, it is so popular and it spins lot of money in media.......but we think about our fellow citizens only something like kargil happens and people die....not when they are alive and still defending the safety and stability of all our lives.....
What are we going to do, to change this.........No, am not asking you to part with a % of your income/savings and donate it to any trust or organisation which supports defense personnel....its upto you, if you want to, Please go ahead and do it!!!
All i ask of you is to " make a difference" by a small gesture......A small gesture - when you see a person from our defense force, SHAKE HIS HAND & THANK HIM/HER, for defending our lives. This will not solve his financial problems, but will definitely motivate him and make him feel proud of what he is doing......
At least one in ten people reading this mail, start making this gesture, we all would be part of a great movement in "Making a difference" in these peoples lives, who put their life at risk defending ours.....
Its all upto us now........to make d difference!

Cheers

Rogue Cyclist!!!!!

Most of my posts in this blog are kind of on social issues and its always me spitting out my frustrations and thoughts on various things happening in the world....But this one is different, as its about me.....Yes Iam a rogue cyclist......
Its been more than 2 years since i started cycling to n fro work, here in London. Though i have years of cycling experience back home in Ranipet, where i used to cycle 8 kms one way from home to school, everyday for almost 7 years, driving in London was difficult....When i first started, i was bit scared, as everyone obeys all traffic rules and theres road discipline and that scared the hell out of me. So like everyone else, i did followed all the rules and was a good cyclist.SLOWLY IT ALL CHANGED..... when am waiting in thebsignal with other motorist, other cyclists just jump d signal and go on, it first irritated me and on days when i was late for work, it was frustrating and i used to fight within whether to jump d signal like other cyclists or be d disciplined cyclist that iam.......slowly the frustration took over and i think since i am so used to the place, the signals in d daily route and lack of fear, made me become a rogue cyclist, that i started jumping signals.....
People say its dangerous....especially in a disciplined traffic environment, motorists are so used to everyone obeying rules, just follow the rules and watch the signals, so when its green they just speed ( though within d limit).....But, dont u all worry, i dont jump signals that are on road intersections....am not all that crazy, its just d pedestrian crossing signals that i jump, that too when there r no pedestrians waiting to cross d road ( still a good citizen u see....). Its not just the jumping of signals that make me a rogue cyclist....u see sometimes when theres a traffic jam, everyone wait one behind the other, following the lane discipline, but here comes me, i just go thru any gap, so that i could be the first to start after the signal or obstruction gets cleared.....sometimes, it reminds me of Chennai traffic, when i used to drive my TVS 50 during college days( my freinds used to call it CBZ.....lol)...
But am still good, as i believe that Pedestrians are the kings of the roads, so always give them their well deserved right when i cycle.....
I love cycling, as its a greener means of transport, it saves me money (almost 100 pound/month), it keeps me fit and healthy. Since, i am an experienced cyclist now, started taking part in charity biking events.....took part in London bikeathon for d past 2 years (26 miles - first year, 52 miles- last year) and looking forward to my participation in London to Paris in 24 hours on bike ( its a team event and just found a partner whos interested in doing it, so hopefully i register before my trip to India later this week).......looking forward to more cycling in India and hope i dont meet with an accident there.....