72 Hours of Horror, 195 lives and still counting..

It has been the most dreadful 72 hours of my life. No, I wasn't an eye witness to the event but I was glued to my television set uninterrupted. As I watched the event unfold, I was initially shocked and later numbed by the gory news that came in every passing minute. Today, 3 days later, the crisis has ended, thanks to the sacrifice of the brave men who have laid down their lives in the line of duty. It is because of them, I am able to write this blog sitting at the confines of my home. What else, can I do as an ordinary citizen? My heart burns out seeing the way our soldiers brave it out. Being an Indian first and then a Mumbaikar, I have known the city in and out. We have witnessed many terrorist attacks, but this time around it was different. Yet, there was no letting down as the politicians continued their divisive political histrionics over the event. There is anger and frustration over the way innocent lives were lost . To me, I never felt so helpless before. Sitting at home and watching the news pour in all the major news channels, I could only pray for them. I hope and I hope that atleast this time around some concrete actions are taken to secure the lives of the innocent countrymen. Enough of verbal rhetoric, and enough of the symbolic resilience. Its time for accountability and commitment from everyone. My prayers to all those who helped save the lives of the people. They are the real heroes.

The City Under Siege

9/11, 7/26, 11/26....No we are not talking of any mathematical series. Those are the most bloodiest days in the history of mankind with the last one being the watershed and waterloo for our system. A brazen, dastardly, almost unthinkable terrorist attack, carried out by the perpetrators, on CST, Leopold Cafe, TAJ , Cama Hospital, Trident, Oberoi and Nariman House. It all started with the firing at CST on 26th November night around 9:30. Couple of heavily armed terrorists barged their way across to CST and opened fire indiscriminately. As the situation worsened, news poured in of attacks at Cama hospital, TAJ and Oberoi. Within an hour all these major centres were under the control of the terrorists. Armed with advanced ammunition, enough to sustain for a week, they lay siege on the hotels. The location turned out into a battle zone within minutes. NSG Commandos were called in to handle the situation. As the number of reported deaths increased, the world turned its eyes on India. The country lost one of its very best officers in the line of duty. With NSG, RAF, CRPF and MARCOS in, it took almost 2 days , 195 lives and trauma, that would last quite a long, to clean up the terrorists. The city and the country had to pay a very dear price. Be it the foreign nationals or the common man on the streets, no one was spared. In 25 years of my life, after the riots in 93, I have never seen the city held back for so long. All major news channels including NDTV and IBN covered the crisis for an unending 72 hours. Clearly, the city wants to send out a message. It wants to do away with the resilience, which it had been carrying with it. I just pray and hope, instead of fighting amongst ourselves, our so called real politicians of the soil, show some real conviction and dignity to protect the very people who have made India what it is today. News channels are quick to term this as the 9/11 of India. But the question is, will we be able to call a terrorist a terrorist in stead of worrying over the votebank politics? India today is not because of any polical party, it is a self sustaining economy and what drives it today is the sheer will and determination of the people. I won't harp on what is right or what is wrong, who is responsible or what could have been done. For me, as an ordinary citizen, I never felt so helpless ever before in my life, seeing bodies being brought out one after the other. Tears have stopped dropping but the anger is just building. I hope at least this time around, our honourable leaders put aside their differences and unite to prove that they deserve the very post they are holding.

Inflationary Wows & Woes.....

These days the only news that seems to grab almost half the entire screen of all major National News Channels , in the form of Breaking News , is that we are reeling under the ominous slope of the inflation Index . With the index soaring week after week and all the efforts put in to contain it going for a toss, it is high time we do some time travel and find out the exact reason for the unnerving phenomenon for most households. Why is that even after all the measures taken in the form of imposing duties to control exports and reducing or shedding off import duties we are still unable to contain it ? Even the fiscal measures have not shown any tangible results as of now. Maybe in the forseeable future it might show signs of frutition , but it might not be significant enough for our banks haven't touched upon the repo and the reverse repo rates. Looking at the way the crude is behaving we can do little from our side to contain the losses. Where have we slipped or what is it that we are not following here ? To admit frankly I am a simpleton when it comes to economics and statistics. I am definitely not a good commentator on our economic policies and nor am I judging any one's decision. From a common man's perspective I feel that somewhere we are to be blamed for what's happenning .With changing times we have had more money coming into our hands .Which means the purchasing power per capita is rising with times. Looking at the way the Gen Next is throwing of money at each and everything the others have sooner or later started following suit. People have gone in for more of spending and less of saving . This means we have more money chasing goods . Inflation indeed !! Today we can't do with 3 ACs and still complain . Earlier we used to adjust with things. Has someone ever thought that if we were to live more judiciously , understanding the value of things we probably would have spent money where it is actually required . Splurging the extra money is what is kindling this inflationary tendencies. We clearly ought to contain our spendings and learn to save things rather than getting extra and wasting things . This would solve most of our problems. With many billionaries created every passing minute our nation is unshackling all its limitations and raring to grow . Such things are common with a developing nation .With time , this knowledge and rationality would definitely creep into our minds . Maybe this is a learning phase for our nation. With this learning we surely would go a long way in scaling out our economic superpower status.

Extracting the essence of Life

A Bonfire of Vanities . Thats what Life is . Peering into its never ending abyss , we can only derive more out of it . That might be the reason why many a philosophers , saints and scholars gave life the sobriquet " Infinity " . Seems impossible and sounds too preposterous. Our limited life is full of limitless possibilities and events . Rationality would speak otherwise and so would science , but Life is something beyond the realms of our shunted and stultified rationality. William Blake had rightly described Life when he penned down “Auguries of Innocence.” He says

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”

Each event in our lives is multifaceted in itself , throwing endless possibilities for us to grab onto. It is only the human eye which takes only what it wants . We have become so engrossed with our latitudes that we hardly bother to look beyond the periphery of our existence. Life is a strand of infinite events . Happiness and Sadness add vibrance to it , resulting in a beautiful fabric that is invaluable and can't be replicated . Few days back, while standing at a bus stop and hurling invectives at the lack of proficiency of our governance , something caught my attention and gave me a reason to smile . The sight of two little puppies canoodling each other rekindled my thought and set me thinking about looking beyond the periphery. I am no philosopher but as far as I am concerned I would definitely try to beautify the fabric of my life . Spend the life is "Pursuit of Happyness " . There are always opportunities hidden even during the darkest hours . Most of us give up on our pursuit and fight just before we reach our goal. We just need that extra zeal in us to cover the last lap . Rather than getting entangled in the deadly maze we should persist and persevere towards reaching our goal . Life may not be always about Winning but it is definitely about Having that insatiable tendency to Win .

Life @ One Quarters

Here it goes , I find almost the entire gmail list online at 12 in the night . Why would it not be . Most of my classmates are abroad . Almost 80 percent of my friends are in US the rest in some corners of the world and the ones like me still here . The craze for getting there just hasn't subsided . My friends in office are crazy for the onsite opportunity and waiting to send snaps to their loved ones once they land there . My inbox gets flooded with mails from my college friends regarding their get together in Down Town Manhattan or New York City . I quitely glance through their locations on orkut and come back to my senses . I at times feel that I am not as others for I had enough onsite opportunities but I didnt take them, even dropped my MS plans after receiving admits . Something crazy is going on with me for sure . Standing and having covered a quarter , I find that am yet to cover many miles . The very thought of being abroad and living a luxurious life seems quite fanciful but they too come with a premonition . So for now my dream is still on the horizon and I hope to realise it and make it big in the days to come . Earning is no big deal but dreaming and making dreams possible is . Even though the grass is greener on the other side I prefer cultivating my own crops and reaping the rewards later .After all Its my Life !!

The Sunday Morning @ Matunga

The unusual cool Sunday Morning . Thats what I refer to Sunday Mornings as . Unusual because it is the only morning I feel fresh enough . Quite unlike the other mornings when I have to kick myself to get off my bed for office , Sunday provides that extra zinx to wake up early . My Sunday is usually spent visiting the temple at Matunga and having my breakfast at Manis ..

Well to be honest enough having that divine darshan of Lord Guruvayoorapan and others does make my day . Just being there at the temple and spending some time in that atmosphere makes me remind of Guruvayoor in Kerala . A place I make sure I visit whenever I visit Kerala .Listening to the sound of nadaswaram makes for an eternal bliss that keeps ringing throught the day .

The amazing breakfast at Mani's is the second important thing .The typical keralite breakfast is a welcome break from the flakes and sandwiches I have on the other days . How can I not mention about the flowery sidewalks of matunga where you get to see flowers of all kinds most of them being made into a garland for someone's wedding . With a slight chill in the early morning air and the mild warmth of the sunrays , I take the darshan and have my sumptuous breakfast thereafter. It makes my Sunday.

Beating Inflation

The belief has been belied . There is no more decoupling left in our economy or should I say that our economy never actually decoupled . Adding on to that our inflation worries is gripping the pockets of every Indian. How do we deal with such a scenario where our gdp growth is slowing down , liquidity in the system is in excess , markets are performing horribly and inflation has almost deflated our wallets ?

Firstly , our markets are yet to decouple or shall I say that we are not that our markets are not economically independent . The sub-prime has almost left the FIIs moribund . The FII investments in our market has decreased drastically over the last quarter. To add to this domestic HNIs and Retail investors are cutting down their losses . Our markets are totally directionless. We are infact one of the worst performing markets today . Why is it so ? There was already a bubble building up in our markets and now we can say that the stocks are really coming down to their proper valuation .Lesson : We need to be a smart investor rather than a speculative investors .

Is the government policy in easing supply side constraints justified ? Maybe in long term but it might but not in the short term. The problem actually stemmed from America converting one third of their maize produce to ethanol , Ukraine stopping wheat exports and almost no wheat coming out of Australia . Thus the local hoarding at national level s has led to surging inflation in almost all teh developing countries . The first step to curbing inflation would be to stop national hoardings .

Secondly , if RBI tries to suck out excess liquidity the repo rates would go up which inturn would affect PLRs ..something which our FM doesn't want . With such a starking scenario , we have to come up with a sensible mix of monetary policies , governmental policies and increased investment in agriculture and related areas . Our markets need not worry as our fundamentals are still looking good and we have nothing to worry as long as we grow at 7.5% + steadily .

So lets all look forward to a bright resurgent India.......

Reflexions....

How often do we introspect ? Ever felt like comparing yourself with anyone else and finding out if the rationale behind seeking the ever elusive happiness is infact uncalled for . It occured to me and yes it occured strongly . An experience I wouldn't forget , maybe a normal situation but it left a huge impact on me . Saturdays as usual was spent in reading books . This time around I was reading " Maximum City" by Suketu Mehta . The book had me enthralled to the hilt . Even for a split second it didn't allow me to take off my concentration . What should I say , maybe the writer's ingenuity or the plot's charm. After reading almost 100 odd pages I put down the book and thought of catching off with some DVDs. I then scooted and got the bus to station . All through my journey I kept thinking of the various problems and how to handle them at times even wondering why god was so unkind to me ,not allowing me even a iota of what I have asked for . It was almost late night when I was returning by the same bus . The cool winds which had swept the city over the weekends had me gasping for some warmth. All of a sudden the seat adjoining to me was occupied by someone. I turned back to find that a small boy , shabbily dressed was shivering with cold . He was having something wrapped in his hands. I just kept noticing the boy as he began to open the wrapped thing in his hand.I noticed the sparkle he had in his eyes when he was opening it. It had boiled nuts in it . I said to myself , " This boy is so happy with the little he gets . To him it means the greatest source of enjoyment " . That led me to introspect and the answers which I got were just Reflexions. Reflection of my emotions .....

Realising Happyness ....

When was the last time I was happy ? I pondered a lot over this , introspected at times but didn't get an answer. Why do I and for that matter most of us crave for happiness ? After some introspection ,the answer I arrived at surprised me .Happiness is not something that would come to us . It is we who have to approach it . Life is an amazing sequence of yin and yang . We have to look at the brighter side of life to have the bliss . I usually remain upset over the plethora of difficulties which most of us have to go through , many a times holding my fate or so called destiny responsible for the quagmire my life is in . But I never found a way out because I always thought another better situation might be a solution to the problem at hand. But I was wrong . Life is no doubt a challenge which we have to tackle differently . Predictability is the worst thing in life . Treat life the way it treats us . Always find positives in worst of situations.Last night in a business conclave our prime minister " Mr Manmohan singh "was asked how he defines the challenges in life .The reply was " Grace under Pressure " . Those words gave me an all out answer to my question .

Why am I so dumb .....

The phone buzzed "18 till I die....." Tired of snoozing the alarm again and again I switched it off and dozed off not realising that it was almost 8 in the morning . Bang ..was what I heard next . Amidst the culinary chaos in the morning someone had dropped a large aluminium vessel . The noisy dim atlast broke my sleep . Totally unaware of the fact that my office timing was almost up , I got hooked on to the newspaper. "CAT results to be out today ...." . "Uff not again ..." I just analysed , how my paper went on that horrible day, in my mind . "Don't u need to go to office today , it's getting late and by the way you would be getting ur results today , isn't it ?" my dad asked . I sort of told to myself , " If I dont make it this time then my future's doomed " . I got ready for office in time and left for the day .The time of the day arrived . It was 1500 hrs . My heart beat almost stopped for a few minutes. I quickely grabbed my cell and keyed in my registration number. 97.5 it blinked ........I said to myself " Fucking score... am screwed .... " A moment later my phone rang and then on a fusillade of questions , consolations and keep up the fight words pounded upon me as if am witnessings a rain of piercing words. I was really tired fielding questions from everyone and congratulating my friends on their stupendous performances .

That night I had a real analysis of myself . In the course of introspection I said to myself " Why am I so dumb.....Couldnt crack CAT again ...." I knew had I added 15+2 = 17 and had drwan the inverted tree properly I would have made it but all I could do then was 15+2 =16 and draw wrong branches on the inverted tree ..........Silly me .

Life is really sucking now a days for me . Why am I being screwed so badly . Have I lost some of my grey matter and are my synaptic intertwinings getting unwinded ?? I couldnt answer any of these . The only thing I knew was am not going to give up. Thats the only thing left in me my self confidence .Beaten but not yet lost ...........The game is still not over ..

A great personality , Paulo Coelho , if am not mistaken this time , has said something for not so great person like me , " When you really want something all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it "..

Do We still need miracles ??

Theism has long dominated our minds. Having taken birth in this land of variegated religious beliefs we have had plethora of miraculous instances to shape our thoughts. Our history is replete with examples of our checkered past mired in various religious battles. The dawning of the industrial age has subsided much of the blind religious faiths in the world , setting on a new practical and iconoclastic mindset .The sad part is still there exist enough of it to keep the smolders burning.

The controversy regarding Makarajyothi is one such issue at hand.For ages devotees have been thronging the temple to get a divine darshan of Lord Ayappa and feel the divine presence at the sanctum sanctorium. No one knows the truth behind Makarajyothi except for what our ancestors and forefathers have been saying us about the Gods showering their blessings. For centuries this divine Jyothi has been the reason for attracting ever increasing number of devotees .There have been many who have delved into finding out the reason behind this miracle. Many have come up with their own version into how the entire event is a state sponsored histrionics. Whatever it is my point is simple. Do we need miracles to keep our beliefs intact ? Isn't the faith in Lord Ayappa enough for us to sustain and increase this belief . Would be stop having faith if miracles no longer happen ? It is not easy to fend off such questions at this point in time . We don't want devotees to have their beliefs based on blind faith. Faith arises out of belief and not miracles . It is better we understand this as soon as possible so that we don’t keep our posterity wondering about this rebus.

Halla Bol......

It made my day .That is what comes to my mind after watching another rocking movie from the genre called thematic movies .From the plethora of movies that our industry throws out every year , it's sad but at least a pleasing fact that we get to see movie of the genre of Rang De Basanti and Halla Bol.

Ever wondered why such movies are always a hit with our audience here. We being emotional people, attach ourselves to the every vestigial Indianess present anywhere in the movie .While we see our on screen protagonists proudly and dutifully do wonders with their histrionics we get involved in them to such an extent that we see ourselves in the position and have pride in it. But how many of us play even a small act If this were to happen in our real life.

I know we are mired in red taped quagmire and bureaucratic despotism , still the answer to the above question , apart from a few voices ,would be a loud zero. What makes us so hypocritical when it comes to fighting crimes? Or is it that we prefer our patriotism to remain on screen and not bother to get it into our daily lives .All of us want to have a comfortable life with our wife , kids , money and family . We all like to hear the sensex soar each day and like to see our wealth multiply. Reading mere headlines on the business journals should not be and cannot be the sole feel good factor for us. We stand for ourselves when we raise voices against injustice just as what happened to cases like Jessica Lal , Nitish katara and our very own Manjunath .Aren't those fighting for their justice like us . Then why do they take this trouble to augment this mass movement.

The answer is very simple and it is within us. It is because they still preserve their values and patriotism. If we don’t fight for justice we don’t have any right to call ourselves patriotic .When an on field verbal fusillade in Australia results into a issue of national pride why isn't the daily casteism borne issues not dealt with in our country .In our race to superpowerdom we have somehow learnt this wrong lesson to improve our facade but forgotten to purify the decay inside. Its time for us to imbibe and accept this .We will have issues coming our ways but unless we unite and fight against it we would be confined just to our theatre seats and magazine covers .Real life heroes don’t want for anyone to say Action, they simply ACT.