Meri-Kahani-Meri-Zubani

Health Bulletin - 1

2011-08-05T13:40:00.002+05:30

PEHLA SUKH NIROGI KAYA

DOOSRA SUKH GHAR MEIN HO MAYA

TEESRA SUKH KULWANTI NARI

CHAUTHA SUKH PUTRA AGYAKARI

I know we care about first sukh less than the other ones but in long run we have to think about it. Good thing is that our body is quite adaptive and that's why we keep ignoring it but we must not forget that it has its own limit as well. You live in an environment where everything is polluted, poisonous. For water you have got RO system, for air you pull up window glasses. What protection you have against polluted food? The best protection is to eat 'Organic Food' but chances are that you might not have one authentic organic food seller in the vicinity. So the next best solution is to eat at least season vegetables. And here is the list of seasonal vegetables :

For Summer :
The typical Indian summer vegetable is soft-skinned, soft-fleshed and moisture-filled, and perfectly suited for hot climates. A thumb rule is that all vegetables that grow on creepers can be classified as summer vegetables.

Ghia, Lauki, Doodhi (Bottle Gourd)
Karela (Bitter Gourd)
Tori (Ridged Gourd)
Petha (Ash Gourd)
Parmal (Wax Gourd)
Kaddu, Sitafal (Pumpkin)
Tinda (Baby Squash)
Bhindi (Ladyfinger)
Choulai Saag (Amaranth Greens)
For Winter :
Phool Gobhi (Cauliflower)
Patta Gobhi (Cabbage)
Gaajar (Carrot)
Leafy vegetables - Palak, Sarson, Methi
Matar (Peas)
Shimla Mirch (Capsicum)
Beans

Please do verify with your mom or grandmom this list. I am 99% confident on this list.

Thanks,
Aapke Swasthya ke liye chintit

Newton's third law with flexibility!!

2009-04-29T20:58:00.006+05:30

Assume that you are on death bed, what is that you are going to miss badly. That's YOU. That's what you really want to do in your life. For 90% people, who are not living their dream right now, this is a bitter truth. So if we know what we are going to miss, then why miss? :D I feel that being born as human is a boon or a curse depending on what you did in your last birth. :-) If that is the case, then your last life would have been dependent on last to last birth and so on. So when did you have choice? I am a strong believer of that there is someone up/down there who monitors this universe. And I'd say that HE/SHE just monitors, does not enforce anything. May be SHE does sometime but not always for sure.
Think of a closed box where you have balls of different colors/sizes/weights in it and somebody has shaken it vigorously. These balls will collide to each other. These balls follow newton's third law that for every action there is a reaction. Only choice these balls have is that they can control their speed, direction. And now imagine this box as universe and us as those balls, that someone is nobody but the source of unimaginable power, sometime we refer it as GOD. And that flexibility of controlling your emotions and actions can be taken as speed and direction of the balls. Only thing we must understand that when we say that these balls are colliding with each other in that box, they do that forever, it's not limited to one life. So chances are when you are trying to control your speed and direction, reactions of the balls pending from your past life will come chasing you. But that's the beauty of this extraordinary model, that while you do not have control on your collisions in the past lives and reactions of other balls, you can control your karmas. And that presents opportunity to make your current life better and future ones greater. Enticing!! :D
I'll tell you one story from greatest fiction (as modern people call it) 'Mahabharata'. Bhishm pitamah asked Shri Krishna while laying on bed of arrows that as far as he remembered from his past eight lives, he had not done a single wrong thing, then why he was in this condition. And to that Shri Krishna replied that 20 births ago Bhishma had thrown one snake in thorns.
Think about the impact!! :-)

Make your vote count!! Seriously!!

2009-04-05T01:39:00.004+05:30

It's 2 o'clock in the night. I am not able to sleep. I've been suffering from some undiagnosable disease for last three weeks. It feels feverish, fatigue. Must be some water born disease. Now I am thinking about the office work. This is strange. Because the people who know me can easily believe that I might be ill (because that's how I've been throughout my life, my wife calls me 'defective piece' :-)) but thinking about the office work. It's a shock even for me. Now my mind has started wandering from my illness and office work. It reminds me my three pleasant years in US. Probably three years in a stretch when I was not ill, when I did not worry about office work.
Now when I just start differentiating between life in US and here, I suddenly realize that it's not just because of me alone, I am in pain in India. It's also because of those 60 years of democracy. It's also because of the situation we are in. Why we don't get safe water even in sealed bislery bottle? How many people are still below poverty line? There are thousand such questions and in most answers you would find that you can't control that. We elect 545 people among us to decide our fate. These are the people who are answerable to these questions. So in turn we are answerable to those questions.
There is only one action item from all of your questions - Make your vote count.
So that tomorrow when you buy sealed bislery bottle, you get safe water. So that tomorrow when you go out of your home, your loved ones are not anxious whether they will see you alive again in the evening. So that when you do your next transaction with government officer, he/she is not looking for bribe. So that you can give that safe and healthy environment to your loved ones, which they deserve.
It's my earnest request to all to vote this election and ever. No matter you have to take leave and fly back to your home town, believe me it's not going to be costlier than what you will pay if you don't vote.

P.S. - It's been 11 years since I'm eligible for voting and I've not voted yet. But this time I would make sure I go and vote on 7th May. This is the election date in Rajasthan. My voter card is ready. Happy voting.

Jab biwi late ghar aati hai...

2008-12-10T21:49:00.003+05:30

Jab biwi late ghar aati hai...
Aaloo methi ki mehnat wali sabzi banani aa jaati hai...
Purane se bhi purane doston ki yaad aa jaati hai...
Orkut par activity badh jaati hai...
Maggi ki sale badh jaati hai...

Jab biwi late ghar aati hai...
Eggs ki nayi nayi dish banani aa jaati hai...
Mummy bahut ghabraati hai...
Sympathy ki badi badi nayi laher aati hai...
TV se dosti badh jaati hai...

Jab biwi late ghar aati hai...
Even biwi ki yaad aane lag jaati hai... :D
Jab biwi late ghar aati hai...

Movies of my choice

2008-09-28T13:26:00.007+05:30

First Jaipur, then Bangalore, then Ahemdabad, tried but failed in Surat, then Delhi, then encounter in Jamia and then allegation of Jamia residents saying it's false encounter, then Shaheed Inspector Mohan Chandra Sharma and then Jamia VC supporting it's alleged terrorists and then Mehrauli, probably the closest to the place where I live. And at the same time release of 'A Wednesday' and 'Mumbai Meri Jaan'. Sometimes I feel if producers of these movies already knew about these planned blasts. Such a perfect timing.
Well, it's not about the blasts. Since I feel that I don't know the complete picture. It reminds me a poster of Archies galary - Less knowledge less confusion, more knowledge more confusion. I keep putting myself in shoes of KK Menon and Nasirudin Shah interchangeably. But I guess two messages are clear - one which is delivered by Paresh Rawal - new generation has to do something different, this chain needs to be broken, somebody has to stop pushing. Another one - which is delivered by Nasirudin Shah - when determined if a common man can execute things, why can't our police.
'A Wednesday' is well written, well scripted thriller. Though some of the characters are little hard to believe. For example character of Jim Shergil is little exaggerated. Why do you like a movie? I believe that if you can relate yourself to some of the characters of the movie, you like it. If you see something in movie, which you want to do or you would like somebody else to do, you're gonna love that movie. After watching 'A Wednesday' you would crave to be Nasiruddin Shah. At least I did and I guess that's why I liked this movie. Names attached to this movie are bigger than movie itself but still script keeps them within movie. Movie is very thought provoking. The role of media in our society is again under scrutiny in this movie, it has been handled more properly in 'Mumbai Meri Jaan(MMJ)'. 'A Wednesday' has little suspense too, so I am not gonna tell story here. But it's a must watch movie. Hollywood might have made 100 movies like it, but it's among the first from Bollywood. Since I am new to movie review, below link shares my view about the movie. Review - 'A Wednesday'.

MMJ is a heavy movie. There is already so much sadness around us so I had stopped watching heavy movies. I watch only Govindian movies. :D But this movie is different. It's about how 5 different individuals react to one incident. It's a movie about how a successful software professional, a successful news reporter, a corrupt(successful in corruption) policeman, an unemployed but vigilant young man, a common poor man reacts to aftermath of 7/11 blasts of Mumbai. Movie's characters look so real. Again, the media. Reminds me of a dialogue from Spiderman - Great power comes with greater responsibility. The media has become such a powerful thing in the world. And TRP has become more significant than GDP for these camouflaged patriot. I have stopped watching news channels. This movie displays all those reasons, because of which at least I have stopped watching new channels. I am not sure from where these journalists are being trained. I guess rather than an institutional training, it's basic human behavioral skills which they desperately need. Questions like 'how are you feeling' to the rape victims, terror victims. They must be feeling amazing, because they have hit the rock bottom of their life. Life can go upwards only from here. The worst is over. Apart from media, this movie touches our general feeling about police department and then gives benefit of doubt too. I sincerely hope that Indian common man is not thinking like KK Menon. Though I was shocked when my Mom shared the same feeling. I always thought that my Mom is a liberal woman.
Another good movie I have seen in recent times is 'Aamir'. Go, watch these movies and then we'll discuss.

y = sin(x)

2008-07-21T11:20:00.009+05:30

It's been long time, since I wrote last blog. So I just guess I've lost the touch. May be. Was thinking of writing for a while, but then.. Just thought of analysing what has happened around. Some good things, real good things. Some bad things, terrible things. It's been almost two years in India now. ???? I mean after Infosys sponsored long US vacations. I am on vacation right now too. It's probably the way you look at your life, off course there are circumstances in your life, when you do not have any control over things. But largely your life depends on your capabilities to deal in crunch situation. It's about enjoying short moments of happiness in between those cruel circumstances. I believe that everybody's life is sine wave. Life is not only about enjoying maximas of this wave, but also to remain calm in those minimas. It's about breaking those minimas again in small curve of minimas and maximas. Because if you look back in your past, you would feel that in almost all minimas you could have panicked less and enjoyed more. You have always believed that there is a dawn after dark night. You knew it then also, but somehow you could not gather courage and patience to pass that night more calmly. You can probably face similar situation more bravely now. Is it because you are more prepared now, since you had similar experience in the past, you know what's going to happen next, so you can plan better. But then probably there are million folks around who already had similar situation. In the past also you could use their experience and plan better. You would argue that things can change suddenly and your planning can go for toss. Yes, but that could have happened in the past and it can happen this time too. So why do you feel more confident now? In an exam you have papers of previous years, you'll have them anyways no matter you are giving that exam first time, second time, nth time. There is always a chance of getting new questions in this paper which did not appear in the previous years. What matters is, your preparation. The belief that after each minima, there is a maxima waiting for you. And how do you validate that belief. Just look back in your past and you would know.

We believe that if we know what's going to happen in future, we can plan it better. And now you know that your life is nothing but sinusoidal curve.
So you just need two things.
1. More patience to pass this dark night
2. Ability to identify small small maximas in the downward curve.

Hakuna Matata!!! :D

Culture of NCR - PLAGUE!!!

2008-02-22T14:07:00.015+05:30

Every country, state, city has a culture and so does our NCR. A culture can not be good or bad, it's probably the perception which can make it bad or good. People see 'new' things, because till this point they had seen things differently or they used to see the same thing differently and that's why it's 'new' thing for them. So before I tell you what I see, let me tell you what I have seen so far. I was born and brought up in Rajasthan. Studied in holy Kashi (Benares), started career in Chennai, stayed in US for some time, came back to Pune and stayed there for a while. This is my story till I was 28. Going by Indian life expectancy which is around 60-61, I have lived almost half of that. Some people get never matured, but in normal circumstances I think by 28 you are almost there. This is just to emphasize that story written below is from an 'almost mature' person. I do believe in perfection and I think it's a continuous journey.

So for me NCR is new thing, again, because I had not seen this kind of thing before. Good or bad, you decide. In Anthropology we define culture as - the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another. So what do you see. I'll provide you some snapshots- A young mother is busy chatting with another young mother and their children are crying near by and their 'aaya' (American Baby Sitter) trying to calm them down 'hopelessly'. An elevator comes down, young mother is still busy looking in elevator glass, wondering whether today she would look more beautiful than Ash, and there he is, future of India, sitting sadly with eyes full of tears in lap of his new MAA(read aaya). Another baby is crying in an aisle of a big garment store (Yes, 'aaya' is there holding his hand), her mother has two Levi's jeans on her shoulder and now getting mesmerized while looking at new autumn collection of designer skirts. I just wonder how poor new middle class Indian families are who can afford mid segment cars but can't afford a condom. So what are 'the ways of living..', we are transmitting to new generation and how? One way I feel happy that this newborn kid is not getting values, culture of this young Indian mother, but I don't think that passing values of this new Bangladeshi MAA is a happy situation either. I am kinda lost here...

In NCR, everybody has a tag, a price tag. You own a cycle rikshaw, you run a small shop, you work on daily basis, you have probably come either from Bihar, MP, UP, Rajasthan so you don't have a union too. You don't have a support line. Sorry friend, your price is ZERO. If you are walking on feet and you do not get out of the way as soon enough as the person in car is anticipating, you might get killed. It's a real story, happened 6-7months back in NCR. Story 1.Story 2.Story 3.

You are coming out of car, how big that car is, what are you wearing, based on that your price tag would be calculated dynamically and you'll be behaved on that tag. If person thinks that your tag is costlier than his, you'll be well behaved otherwise brace yourself for worst behaviour you would have ever imagined. There is no concept of human to human interaction in NCR. Tags interact with tags in NCR. Everybody is KING here and NCR is their kingdom. Out of three persons you interact, two of them would make you believe that they have contacts in PMO. And if they want, they can bring ManMohan right now, right there. Sometimes I wonder, how many copies of ManMohan are roaming around in NCR. I thought human cloning is still not legal. Well, if I talk about legality in NCR, I can write pages which probably even GOOGLE won't be able to support hosting.

CIVIC sense!! What the hell is that!! People have so many lame excuses for not following tiny basic rules of daily life. Be it standing in a queue, parking, driving on road, waiting for elevators, entering in elevators, stopping at red light, list is endless. You name it and they do it.

You would have thought(like me) that at least IT-world is untouched with that, not in NCR. Though , it would be little exaggerated to say that I am yet to meet a thoroughly professional person in IT here but it's TRUE. Or probably we can give benefit of doubt, that this might be the case with my company only. But unfortunately my friends in other NCR companies share the same opinion. Girls do not know what to wear at professional place. Boys do not know how to behave in professional environment. And they are not recently passed out from college. They have probably 3-4 years experience and might have worked in 3-4 companies already too. But I guess irony is that in NCR, people are part of company not an organization. And probably higher management was always behaving like as they own this company not realizing that they are also employees and they are interacting with other colleagues only not with 'bandhua mazdoor'.

IMIM

2007-11-01T15:39:00.000+05:30

I am not 'Men are from Mars Women are from Venus' famed Dr. Gray, but psychology is my favorite topic though I have not had any formal education on this.I am a married guy like most of the Inexperienced Married Indian Males (I'MwhatI'M) are, who did not have girl friends to explore male-female relationship and are married to a 'girl' for lifetime without having any experience of 'handle with care' :D IMIMs like me might have a few acquaintances with female colleagues at work but certainly were not lucky enough to have that enigmatic experience beforehand.

How do people react to something new? "Har cheez life mein ek baar to pahli baar hi hoti hai na, maamu". When you made a friend first time, you did not know how to behave. This was something new for you? So far you had been interacting with your parents/relatives only. So this was new experience for you. You made a few mistakes, you corrected them, you made more new friends. You became master of that. Now you can make good friends with no or almost no mistakes and can keep them for years too. Chances are that the friends you tried to make in the very beginning with 'less expertise' are no longer your friends or they are not very good friends of yours. Reason is that with less expertise you will make more mistakes and chances of losing them are higher. Or it might happen that since you were in continuous process of making new friends, you learned a lot and then you applied that experience to improve your relationship with initial friends and now those folks are your best friends. But you have to admit, 'that experience' helps a lot. So is this the only way? I don't think that's the best way as far as marriages are concerned. Americans tried it a lot, but failed miserably. So what should IMIM do???

Upbringing of IMIM is like that - They were born in a family, they grew a little, then they started making male friends (MF), they craved for female friends, then they made more male friends, they tried to learn(could not master) how to impress/treat a girl, then they made more male friends and still they are making more male friends. Period :D
Characteristic of IMIM - They are loving, caring.And they are very very 'friendly'. That's the only thing they had been practising so far :D Are they lacking something?? The most important ingredient for any relationship 'RESPECT'. Huh, what is that. IMIMs do respect their parents, their elders and a few teachers. What else is there to respect. Male Friends and wife??? They don't have to deal their MFs with 'respect'. I mean they do know in their mind that MF1 is very intelligent or MF2 has great sense of humour or MF3 is good candidate for new Axe ad but they would have never told this to any of their MFs. Instead they would have always made fun of this unique characteristic of their MFs. But those MFs can always sense 'that respecting' feeling of IMIMs. Is it the root cause of that enigmatic experience IMIMs are currently having???

Lets see how it starts. A typical arrange marriage is, where you get to see 15-20 bio-data,you get to meet minimum 3-4 'title of bio-data' and among them 'out of respect' for one or more of her things you decide to get married with one girl and become IMIM. If you have chosen to marry a particular girl, in most of the cases you have done so because you feel she is the suitable match for you and you really appreciate/respect her 'characteristics', rest of the cases are the ones, where you had a failed affair and you just want to get over with it ASAP :D Lets not compare but see some similarities between becoming IMIM and making a new friend. You interact with a few males and in some of them you see what you really appreciate/respect and you make them your friend.

When you love someone, when you care for someone, when you are friendly with someone, don't you respect that someone? Is it possible to love someone without having any admiration/respect for someone's characteristics. It can be for anything, but it can't be for everything. You might admire somebody's beauty, someone else's sense of humour or someone else's intelligence. There has to be something you like in that person before you start loving that person. But you will never find everything in that single person (that is the only reason we have 'Panchali' in our history). But because of that you don't stop loving that some one. We love our spouse, friends, family for what they are. And that's the way it must be. IMIMs don't expect their spouse to be perfect in every thing. Perfection does not exist in real world, it exists in ideal world and so far we have been living in real world only. Then how can a spouse assume that she is perfect in every thing. And she would need 'respect' for 'everything'. How is it possible in the real world? You can love her because you know that you yourself are an imperfect human being and you have chosen to overlook her imperfections (the way she has chosen to overlook yours). You care for her, because you love her. You are friendly with her.Ha Ha Ha. That's only thing you have expertise on, you IMIM fool :D Ask for Respect, and you go blank. How can you show respect for something which you actually don't respect or put in more politically correct words 'you have less respect'. Most of the times you are making faces like the guy(IMIM) buying clothes with his spouse, in this ad. Click here to see video.

You can argue with me. It's all grey, it's the way you look at it. I would agree to that but that to a certain extent. Obviously it's because of the way 'you look at it', you love this person but this can not be applicable for everything in that person. Lets keep on arguing :D

Yours Truly,

An IMIM

Lets make it better place to live!!!

2007-09-26T16:07:00.000+05:30

The Way world sees us.

There so many things happening in India. Economy is running at good pace. Media is unearthing thousand scandals daily. Spending power of one group has been increasing rapidly for quite sometime now. Crime rate is emulating economy growth rate of Equatorial Guinea. India Shining??? or India buzzing!!!. So being an Indian citizen what are your responsibilities to take India buzzing to India shining. Lets just discuss what you feel are the three things, which if you can make them happen in this country, can make this nation stand with developed countries.I am listing down three points which are most important in my opinion. All these three things are interlinked in a way that if they go hand in hand, only then they would be able to make any impact.

1. Population control

2. Education and Awareness

3. Making use of Information Technology

Population Control - If you want to make changes, then you first need to know what is there to change. India has a population of approximately 1.136 billion people (estimate for September 1, 2007 based on interpolating on estimates by Census Bureau of India for March 1 of 2007 and 2008), comprising approximately one-sixth of the world's population.Few other things to note - Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 16% of the world's population. 31.8% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age. As per the 2001 census, 72.22% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 2000 towns and cities. Although 80.5% of the people are Hindus, India is also home to the second-largest Muslim population in the world 13.4% in after Indonesia. India also contains the majority of the world's Zoroastrians, Sikhs and Jains. Other religious groups include Christians (2.3%), Buddhists (1.05%), Jews and Bahá'ís. Important thing is that we have limited resource in India and for that matter we have limited resources on this planet too. There can't be a single thing which will make this happen. I believe we have to approach it more systematically. Education and awareness is one tool and another one is incentive.

Let me explain it with more data.

1. Youth literacy rate in Hindus is 75.5 and in Muslim it is 60. Youth literacy rate is for the age group 15-24 years.

2. The 50-year multiple was 3.69 x for Muslim population as compared to 2.75 x for non-Muslims as a whole. This significant difference in multiple represents a 0.60% difference in average annual compound growth rate of 2.64% versus 2.04%.

It can be clearly seen that wherever we have low rate of literacy, population is increasing more rapidly there. Until unless people understand, what harm they are doing to their own and their country, they would not be willing to control population. Awareness is important, huge population of India do not have knowledge/access of/to contraceptive techniques. Another thing which I feel can work is incentive. I guess it's already there in very loose form in govt. service but not implemented well and monitored well. When it comes to monitoring, I believe making use of information technology works best,we'll discuss it in short while. I believe we can introduce incentive/reward program in day today life of common man. More facilities, more discounts for those who have less children(1 or 2). More penalties, costlier life for those who do not care about country. We have to think in detail what are the various institutions/processes where we can implement them easily with less degree of corruption.

Education and Awareness - The National Literacy Mission defines literacy as acquiring the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's day-to-day life. The achievement of functional literacy implies:
1. Self-reliance in 3 R's (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic)

2. Becoming aware of the causes of deprivation and moving towards amelioration of their condition by participating in the process of development

3. Acquiring skills to improve their economic status and general well being Imbibing values of national integration, conservation of environment, women's equality, observance of small family norms, etc.

Adult literacy rate in India is 61.3 while youth literacy rate is 73.3. In China Adult literacy rate is 90.9 while youth literacy rate is 98.9. No wonder China seems to have taken control of their population growth. If we can make people literate (as defined by NLM) then they should be able take stock of their condition and understand what is good for them. They would have more access to information and thus would have more options for improvement. Govt. has already launched so many programs to accomplish this huge task but there are two basic problems with them. They are not accompanied with awareness programs, opening a school does not guarantee that people will come to study there. There has to be some motivational/awareness programs associated with them. Another big problem is monitoring. We have only numbers there. That is due to our age old problem - corruption. Almost everybody in this country is corrupt (I know that's not true but lets assume it) but does everybody like it. I believe nobody wants corruption when they are at receiving end. So given a chance nobody would like corruption, because whatever he/she is earning through corruption that money is again going in corruption wherever he/she is at receiving end. Idea is to have a transparent system where information is readily available to everyone. And I am 100% sure with improved access to information, people will have more opportunities to stop corruption.

Making use of Information Technology - Let me again remind you about some astronomical numbers we deal with in our country. 1,129,866,154 individuals, 3,287,590,000,000 meter square area, 550,000 villages and more than 2000 town and cities. Now imagine if you have to just get the information about the children who are reaching age of 5 this year, so that you can calculate how many new schools are required to accommodate them or how much capacity of existing schools need to be increased. I can bet you won't be able to get that done in a week. If we really want to progress we have to become data savvy, there is no other way. After 60 years of independence we don't have comprehensive idea of what we are. Everything is extrapolated, guestimated. Having that information with authority is one thing and having that information (though somewhat restricted) is another thing. You might not have a school in your village but in official papers a school might be running for probably last 15 years. As you would have realized that these days media has made public system and politicians more responsible just by making our citizens more aware of what's happening around. I believe by making effective and extensive use of information technology we can help making this system more responsible. And here is an example - how information technology can help you fighting against corruption. Click here.

Ideas expressed above are subject to debate and that's my only motive.

How can you contribute?

I believe we all keep searching for that 'Mental Satisfaction' and we also know that easiest way to get that is to help someone needy. But we always don't have enough time to find out needy and then to help them. Fortunately there are people who have established NGOs to help us. There are paid jobs also available in NGOs. Very first thing you have to do is to take help of google and find out if there is any NGO working nearby and then it's upto you how you can help to make this place a better place to live. I found one good site for NGO listing but nobody beats google.

For my US friends: There are two (authentic) sites using them you can donate, 1 is Asha, 2nd is Cry. Click on them if you want to donate or do something with them.

Aftermath Of Getting Married!!! :D

2007-06-13T14:20:00.000+05:30

Whenever I used to see a married couple, I used to think "'Are they happy?','Was this a right decision?','Is this a good match?','Do we really need to get married?','What will you lose if you don't get married?','What will you gain if you get married?' and so many other questions for which I never got answer.And I kept wondering until I got married :D

Now looking back I don't think getting married was a big deal, though some may have other opinion about that..Your deal starts after you get married :) There are things which wedding can not ruin, for everything else your spouse is there :D

Your wife's day starts and you are not supposed to be in bed if your wife is already awake - Rule # 1. Did you prepare lunch box for her? Why ain't you taking milk in your breakfast? Your new Mom is shouting at you :D Go, see your doctor and get your vitamin D level examined. That's the only way to get exception approval for not having milk in your breakfast.

Relax!!! You are in office now. Now you can boss around on your juniors. You can show them your ego which you have not taken out from your inner pocket of trouser since last evening you had reached home. You are in a meeting and your phone vibrates. You cancel the call, it again vibrates. You let it vibrate. 'How dare you?', this is what you are going to hear when you bring your mobile closer to your ear. No matter what you are doing, you should always pick HER call - Rule # 2. After 10 mins of humiliation this is the message - You have to leave office early because she has to go to beauty parlour today. Beware, in no circumstances you should reach late to pick her up. Don't even mention that you gave lift to female colleague on the way because then you have to tell her the series of events starting from her birth till the point when she deliberately asked for lift. You also have to tell the exact conversation happened between you and that vamp who used all her agression in seducing you before and after she sat beside you in your car :D To share is good, but hiding is even better - Rule # 3.

Finally!! You are home. Despite yesderday's warnings you switch on your TV. Did you think that TV can work as stress buster? Oh Man!! I pity you. 'If you wanted to watch TV after coming home then why did you get married?' I am still analysing the logic behind this question. You can buy plasma TV, you can have Tata Sky but right to switch on TV can not be bought - Rule # 4.

She has gone in kitchen now and you think that this is the good time to switch on TV and watch some ESPN - Start sports. Men are men but women are mother of them. Next torpedo hits you 'Am I your maid?','Come here and help me in cooking food!'. You see tears coming out of Kevin Peterson's eyes when he sees another supporter leaving drawing room. Well, after 45 minutes you are back in drawing room and I believe you are happy to be there. But not for so long. 'Why are you watching this boring thing?','If you just wanted to watch TV after coming home then why did you get married?'. You try to concentrate on food. 'Howz food?' 'You never appreciate any thing'. You try to convince her hopelessly that food is good and you have just started eating it and you were about to say that. But you are too late. By this time even she is convinced that food is not good but you dare not to agree to that. :D Wife made food is always delicious and you should start appreciating that even before you eat - Rule # 5.

Well, your food is done. Now you have to, have to talk to her. She has been noticing it for quite a few days probably since wedding that you do not do 'gup shup' with her. 'Gup Shup'!!. Squeeze me!!! I am not your daari. Daari is western UP word for female friend. Men don't do gup shup. They do interesting conversations. Which you believe you do sometimes but she does not. She needs daily dose of 'Gup Shup' which she used to have when she was staying with her female friends. Read newspaper, read comics, read cheap filmy magazines, do eavesdropping but at the end of day you should have some 'Gup Shup' topic with you - Rule # 6.

Above random notes are inspired from real life events ;) If you have experienced similar things or you have something to say regarding these events or similar events please put in comments. Those who have objections to these findings can send me e-mail @ anupam.cera@gmail.com. I would love to have 1 on 1 interactions with those folks :D

Mumma's boy ;)

2006-12-21T11:09:00.000+05:30

Two weeks back I was traveling in Air-Deccan (Bombay – Jaipur). For those who don’t know Air-Deccan does not give you seat number, this is called ‘free seating arrangement’ or some Deccanized term, I forgot. Well, the point is you can sit anywhere you want, you can keep empty seats for your friends or in anticipation of some beautiful dream girl. Being courteous in nature I would always be among the last group who takes bus to aircraft so I have to keep asking people whether they are anticipating any mermaid for that seat in the aircraft or they have lost hope, would curse their luck and would let me sit there. So that day too after a few iterations I got a seat next to a middle aged person. His mother was also sitting next to him. Did not sound like that it was first trip for him but for his mother probably it was. A few minutes passed and a middle aged woman with her 10 year kid entered. She saw him and asked him with little frustration, why don’t we all three (excluding your mummy off course) sit together and the person replied calmly it’s ok, I am sitting here. You can sit with the kid.5 minutes passed. Kid appeared and asked her father to sit with her and her mummy. This person will not move. Another half an hour passed, we are in air now. Kid appeared again ‘Dad, why don’t you sit with us, we have not even given that seat to anybody else’. But nothing happened.

I guess you know him, rite. He is ‘Mumms’s boy’. :)

I believe this term is widely used among fairer sex. Now there are numerous occasions which we can discuss here where final outcome would be that men are Mumma’s boys. No, I am not opposing it. I would simply say that men are Mumma’s boys the way women are Daddy’s babies.

Lets have another look on above incident. Isn’t it an expected behaviour? What would have happened, if father of middle aged women had been traveling with her? Could she leave her dad alone and sit with her husband and kid? I was discussing this with my friend’s wife. Her concern is that in any debate/discussion where parents are also involved he would not support her, no matter how ‘wrong’ his parents are he won’t speak against them. But first lets see what is ‘wrong’ and what is ‘right’. I believe that there is nothing ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ in this world except a few universal bad things like rape etc. Actually I could not think of any other bad thing which can not be justified. Lets assume that there are a few things for which everybody admits that they are wrong. Other than that it’s just perception. It’s the way we look at things. Why ‘daddy’s babies’ is not a popular term because in existing social structure generally girl’s parents stop interfering in their girl’s decisions once she gets married. But boy’s parents are always there to confront any decision boy and girl are taking for their lives. Here ‘their lives’ have wider scope since no matter how independently boy’s parents live, boy’s decisions are bound to impact them in small or big way, in short term or long term, so ‘their lives’ mean lives of boy, girl and boy’s parents.

Our parents started learning things approx 25 years earlier than us and that too in different environment. Before things started changing (obviously things started changing when we were born) they had already built some perception about certain things, they had learnt a few things in their own way. I believe that’s what we call ‘Generation Gap’.

Now lets talk about Indian culture. What Vedas have taught us is that "Every man takes birth in this world to discharge three kinds of debt. The first is the debt to God. The second is the debt to the Rishis (sages). The third is the debt to one's parents. One's body is derived from the flesh and blood of the mother. How much sacrifice is involved in giving birth to a child and rearing him with continuous care and love is beyond description. The food you eat, the clothes you wear, the life you lead are all the gift of your parents. It is one's primary duty to please one's parents. Only thus is the debt to the parents discharged. Nor is that all. The debt to the parents has to be repaid by acting properly and rendering service to society."

Now if we combine both things ‘Generation Gap’ and ‘Debt to one’s parents’ I believe any sensible man would not argue with his parents. Because he knows that first thing – he does not want to offend his parents, secondly there is no point in arguing with them since they have different perceptions. They come from different age but they bring richer experience too. The places where he can succeed are :
- After a long discussion his parents come and say that though they don’t fully agree to it (and believe me they don’t in almost every thing) but their happiness is in his happiness.
- He himself strongly believes that whatever he is doing is right and good for everybody.

I guess girls who have ‘Mumma’s boy’ playing in their aangan are the lucky ones ;) because they are more mature and sensible than those who are not boys of their mummas. I believe, everybody would agree that those who can’t manage their existing relationships well, can’t manage their new relationships too. But one thing is sure, we have to keep drawing a line in every transaction we do. I am not saying that we always have to do what our parents are saying or vice versa. Do it with your wisdom, with your friend’s advice, with guidance of your parents, with intention to bring smile on your loved ones face. Enjoy the compliment of ‘Mumma’s boy’ because when somebody says it to you, what she means to say is that you are sensible, mature and trying hard to repay debt of your parents.

I HATE GIRLS!!!

2006-09-16T20:55:00.000+05:30

Who can forget this naughty dialogue from DDLJ but I am here for serious discussion..No, it has nothing to do with throw ball scandal and for that matter it should have nothing to do with any recent incidences..but if you are making a statement in public there should be some backing behind that..otherwise people will call you what my Mom calls me 'Junooni' :) And nobody on this planet knows you better than your mother, but we'll discuss that some other time..
Well, it's about where you draw line, but isn't it true in any relationship..we are not here to blame each other..boys are good, girls are bad, or boys are bad and girls are good..no,they are just different..so you have to behave with them differently..but it's just little tough when it comes to girls..I guess it's tough for them too, don't know for sure.. I guess, again, it'll come to how we interpret things and how they interpret..there are so many books already written on this topic, I have started writing mine now..Imagine a cheerful group having fun..and here comes that embarrassing situation where thin line between decency and indecency, courteous/discourteous, respect/disrespect is broken..we are not talking about the situation where everybody is unanimous on what has happened..we are talking about a situation where one part of group thinks that it was ok what had happened and rest of group thinks otherwise.. NO, It's not that simple..because those people who are thinking that it was ok, they all are not boys, there are a few girls also with them.. I guess we have to more clearly define the situation..lets say..line was broken by boy, and it might have caused embarrassment to girl..and then she retaliates..so this time it would cause embarrassment for boy..score even..simple..had it been that simple I would not have started writing this blog first place..because there are a few things missing here..first embarrassment(trigger) was unintentional, so then can that girl be sporty enough to take it sportingly..because from boy's angle they had been doing good so far and there were instances where boy took things very sportingly..or probably boy does not know that he too has already been forgiven many times before it.. no, we don't want to go there, because then we'll be discussing individual limits.. everything is relative..we all are funny, sporty, intelligent, crazy, fool, naughty, responsible.. but we are like cough syrup..each individual has X% intelligence, Y% craziness and so on..so come back... and before we proceed further, let me also tell you we are talking about public embarrassments..and, key is..how do we treat them..they are different for sure..you can't treat them as you do boys.. because if we just remove all the girls from that happy-go-lucky group, in most of the cases either first boy will stop talking to the other boy or they both will talk out their differences later and everything would be fine again..But in case with girls..boy’s problems..first man's ego will come into picture, then even if boy wants to apologize for his act, first he is not convinced that he has done anything wrong, secondly he is not sure whether his apology will be accepted or not, thirdly he is too vulnerable to have any more embarrassments(private/public) while pursuing this..so he is in this messy uneasy situation..where he is hurt, he wants to resolve it but can't do it..easiest solution is to ignore her, but you belong to same group and you'll meet her many times again..and then why this 'sporty rule' is applicable to girls only..you can also take this public embarrassment sportingly..rite..but I guess we are forgetting one thing, if somebody takes embarrassment sportingly, then afterwards there has to be some conversation on that incident.. because we are not talking about love here..love is blind,but friendship, we work on it..we work on relationship.. in friendship we keep finding things where your friend is not comfortable, and you promise him/her not to repeat those things..so how about boy taking this whole thing sportingly and talk it out later with that girl..but I believe we have already talked about 'boy's problems' in starting conversation again..both can talk again but it would not be same as it was before until unless they both talk it out..only advantage, boy is having, is that trigger was unintentional and girl missed the chance of taking that sportingly..hmm..then what is the solution..I leave that to you.. :)
For girls who are reading this blog, please replace 'boy' with 'girl', 'he' with 'she', 'him' with 'her' and read it again..I believe they also feel the same, after all, we all are human'eat'arian :D And yea, I don't hate girls, I love them, I love all of them :) but wasn't this title catchy ;)

Indian Mythology and current world!!!

2006-08-16T10:19:00.000+05:30

I know we have heard a lot about 'Dev' and 'Asur'..'Menka', 'Urvashi' and 'Manushya' too..Do you really believe in all that crap..do you think thousand years ago there was someplace called 'Swarga(Heaven)' or do we still have that place somewhere now also, where Indra (King of Devta) is always sipping costly scotch, watching apsaras dancing in his cabin and eating raajbhog, rasmalai.. Or there were some gigantic, cruel, horrific 'Asurs' who always envied Indra..Or there was an ocean of milk which was churned by Devas and Asuras together for one thousand years and then it produced 'amrita' (Nectar of immortality)..ha ha ha..you're kidding me.. And there were always confused weak manushya who did not know what to do, always wanted to go Swarga alive or after death.. Do you really believe there was another superhero 'Manu' who was better sailor than sindbad and who anchored his boat to the top of the himalayas and we all are offsprings of Manu, so we all are siblings, rite..ha.. 'Bharat Mera desh hai, Samast bhartiya mere bhai bahin hain' India is my country and all Indians are my siblings.. :D
Hey kiddos, but we are from the generation where if we don't ask questions, our hearts stop pumping, harmone levels go below zero.. So I decided to look around.. I tried to imagine that, after thousands of years when we would be myths, how our X raise to power 1000 generation would see us.. Would not they say that there was Swarga where Devas used to go to pubs, bars, night clubs..drink costly wines, scotch, whiskey, vodka and dance with babes..where everybody had cars, luxary facilities in their home and workplace..people used to hardly work..I guess that's how you define Swarga.. I believe in ancient age also there was some place on this planet only where we Indians saw similar kind of happennings and named it Swarga.. But interesting thing is that in that ancient age and in current world too, role of Manushya is played by Indians only.. :D In that time too Manushya used to put enormous effort to get permission for entering in Swarga and a very few brilliants used to get that chance..now also, it takes almost 8 to 12 months minimum and then you have to be lucky too.. But now things have diluted a little, if you are "Gujju" or "Gult" processes are little easier for you..If you can't come through 'Engineer' status they will get you in 'Waiter' status :D In "Puraanas" there is a story where Trishanku was not allowed to enter Swarga and then due to some reasons could not return to Earth also.. I hope all of you have seen "The Terminal".. I don't know how lethal 'Anu-Malik' virus is.. But I seriously doubt whether there was some person called 'Victor Navorski', I guess Steven Speilberg got hit by Anu-Malik virus and started copying story from our pure Puraanaas..
In that age also there were some manusya who used to say "Janani janmabhumishcha swargadapi gareeyasi": Mother and Motherland are higher than Heaven itself. Guess, who all are saying that today..one who don't have any relatives in Gujju or Gulti or do not have software jobs..Somebody told me this one liner - Virginity is not spirituality, it's lack of oppotunity :D
And talk about Asura, and you can't forget to mention 'Osama Chacha', 'Saddam Baba', 'Mullah Omar uncle'.. And they match all criteria of being Asura, according to our Puraanas, Asuras were very intelligent, powerful, they just did not use their asset in right direction.. And though did not want to mention here but in Puraanas also, mighty Devas were always afraid of Asuras and you know current situation very well :D
Samudra Manthan..he he.. do you know the latest quarter's revenue of Exxon..hmm, I guess it's around 100 Billion $..got smell of Amrita.. :D Probably our Puraanas covered one such oil plant in their books but we know there are many Samudra Manthans happening simultaneously and Devas and Asuras are fighting daily for that ..
According to the Indian calendar, the universe is going through Kali Yug at this time. The time left for the first Pralay (annihilation) is about two point three five billion years. This number is close to the number that corresponds to the expansion of Sun and the loss of solar light to a significant level based on modern theories of activity of Sun. It will cause major extinction of Earth and therefore life on Earth.Check this link for more details..
What happened in Manu's times was Jal Pralay, it does not have specific time but the symptoms are same which we are seeing today..it's hot everywhere and then it rains for years and it's water everywhere..global warming is just the starting point for all this to happen..May be this time Manu's name would be Michel or Makatuka :D
Ok, this time you are gonna believe me..does not the name 'Menka' sound like 'Monica'.. remember a jewish family of surname 'Lewinsky' :D

A B C D E F G

2006-08-16T10:05:00.000+05:30

A B C D E F G..So you already know what I am going to write..I mean it's pretty simple..if you have come to this point,if you have access to internet..no matter your country is ultra developed or still rupturing since 1947..if you were able to read till this point,then you know what A B C D E F G means..rite..guess what..I am going to surprise you..This is probably misconception of girls but then we keep seeing this happening at each nukkad..I know some of you MCPs won't agree to that.. MCP is what generally girls call me.. Male Chauvinist P** :D let me share one true story with you..I was Module Leader of 4-5 persons..everytime I assign some work to one female collegue (I would give her 7, and mind you 7 is good), I would be completing that work next day..It happened twice or thrice..she would come up with some excuses..And I always thought about indian women's social status, deprivation from the benefits of education, their daily struggle, other social problems and all intellectual things which my white matter could come up with.. yea, I do not have gray matter in my brain..News like this would force me to think that it's ok to do her work also sometimes..One day it was very simple task and she did not complete it..And then I asked 'why', and she replied with dewy-eyed innocence "You should be happy, you are doing my work".. I was simply shocked, I made sure that she got bad ratings in appraisal cycle..but now I wonder whether I really did good in my nursery class..because she always knew A B C D E F G and I did not..but this time it backfired in front of MCP :D still wondering what A B C D E F G means.. it means A Boy Can Do Everything For a Girl :D

Urmya Vs Artemis!!

2006-08-09T09:50:00.000+05:30

I believe by now you would have become familiar with Urmya.. :D She is the wall between us.. And mind you she is mightier than 'Dravid the wall'.. :) She won't let us meet frequently... Now only Artemis can help me..lets see..

Anything rubbish!!

2006-08-08T04:38:00.000+05:30

Yea, we'll discuss today what we call rubbish.. what is rubbish.. if we go by definition then worthless, unwanted things are rubbish.. and the definition itself challenges the very existence of this word.. It's like.. Impossible itself says I'm possible.. tan tanannnn.. :D think about 5 minutes and tell me one thing on this planet which is worthless, rubbish and yes please don't come up with my name only.. :) And yea, don't consider yourself also rubbish.. you are far valuable than you think.. be little innovative, give it a try.. I know after thinking too hard also you are coming up with either my name or your name only.. :D ok, lets try.. lets assume that there really are a few things on this planet, which are worthless.. by now you would have started thinking that this blog itself is rubbish.. :D but lets keep that thought to ourselves only and look outside for rubbish.. lets say.. a broken box of tin.. so you want me to lock this choice.. confirm..ok, locked it.. now look at it again.. this is perfectly recyclable thing.. Americans use enough steel and tin cans to make a steel pipe running from Los Angeles to New York AND BACK AGAIN!.. for more information on recycling click here.. ok, lets try another one.. a piece of stone.. no, that would be easy because you know that can be used in building construction..decomposed food..no, that's fertilizer..dust..think again..because this link can remove all dust from your eyes.. :D If you have more examples we can discuss them in detail..because my mission is to make everybody aware that there is nothing called rubbish on this planet.. everything including you is valuable.. :D Now I know that if you want to give comments on my blog you have to first create account here.. Thanks Shekh's Chili :) I am giving you simpler option, write me scrap on 'Orkut: The World Of Chirkuts'.. :D There are days in our life when we think that we are nothing but rubbish.. nobody loves us.. nobody needs us.. If for one night this blog could ward you off from those rubbish thoughts, I would think that my half an hour did not go waste.. because we just proved that nothing is rubbish on this planet :D

Hello World!! :)

2006-08-07T05:35:00.000+05:30

Did not know where to start.. Since writing on the web, just thought it would make sense to relive first experience of displaying something on the computer screen hence titled 'Hello World' :) This was the first program I wrote when I did computer course in 'C' language in my second year of graduation.. I never knew what I wanted to be, what I wanted to do and I still don't.. :) So for creating better opportunities in career I started doing computer courses.. I did 'C', 'C++' and 'Java' .. last one was amazing.. I did this in summer vacation of 3rd year.. And we used to do the same thing which happens in every computer course institute.. mine was Computech, Jaipur.. hope somebody from computer course insti will read it in future.. In practical sessions 3-4 of us would surround one computer and would watch 'most wanted thing' for hours.. And when I came back to college it was much hyped.. 'Bansal has got Java certificate, now his job is sure, what would happen to us' .. this is normal scene of 4th year in any college.. everybody's afraid that he/she would be the only one who would not get job in his/her batch and keeps telling others that they would get job.. probably this helps in boosting everybody's morale.. atleast it helped mine.. :) And those 4 years in BHU made me what I am today.. I love more 'Cera' as my last name than 'Bansal'.. :) Signing off for now.. We'll meet again if 'Urmya' allowed me to do so.. ;)