Indrakanti karthikeya

A courage called Dr.Swamy

2012-02-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

When discussing about politics, heroism etc my father talks of only two names:

1. George Fernandes

2. Subramaniam Swamy.

First time I heard of Dr. Swamy was during Vajpayee's rule and he made some remark which sounded trivial to me. In the next election he failed to get the deposit as well. I thought he is just another politician trying to find some space in the news channels and papers. But today he looks to me as an icon and inspiration. Very few people have impressed me so much that I tend to idolize them and I confess that only Dr.Swamy could do that in the recent past. He is not Dr. Kalam, not a Steve Waugh and definitely not my Guruji, but still I'm so impressed with him. The way he is fighting the corruption is worth a big applause. He dont have any followers to burn the effigies of his detractors nor he has any strong family legacy to protect his interests or any Hazare model core team to devise strategies as well as plan of actions. With his sheer will power he became night mare to the corrupt political class. I dont hesitate a moment to place Dr. Swamy along side Anna Hazare. Both are 70+ years aged but more energetic than any 20 year old guy these days..

Dr. Swamy is a lawyer by profession and holds degree from Harvard. He was also a visiting prof at the same place. Of course once the Congress led government came to power his professorship has come to an abrupt end. But that did not stop him from rising the ante against the menace of corruption. He had written as many as five letters to PMO for granting permission to interrogate A.Raja for the financial discrepancies in the allocation of 2G spectrum. As always, the PM rejected the plea only to increase the commitment of the anti graft crusader. Then he moved the supreme court of India to give permission for en-quiring the role of A.Raja and the whole scandal has come out. When the numbers related to 2G scam came out people were puzzled to see such a wealth was looted and thus the name "Mother of all scams" has come. It was as much as one lakh and seventy six thousand crores. I dont even know how many zeros will come in that number.

This is one side of the coin, on the other side he has written volumes and volumes of content claiming that Sonia Gandhi is a KGB agent and she had trapped Rajiv for getting power foot hold in India. Of course this argument cannot be overruled as Sonia's father was on the payroll of KGB since WWII. It takes immense courage to say such a thing and even more courage to move the court with only self belief as the weapon. Now after so many years after Dr. Swamy's claim one of the ex KGB spokes person accepted that they paid to a powerful Indian family in return to "friendly" behavior. I really hope that Dr. Swamy would succeed in getting Sonia Gandhi behind the bars. EOD, no once can escape the principle of Karma which the eternal truth.

If you take a look at Dr. Swamy's life you will realize the 2G episode is only the tip of the ice berg called "courage". He openly supported Israel in an era where Indian premiers were busy boot licking their Arab counter parts so as to garner as many muslim votes as possible. In a country where empathizing Hindu sentiments is treated as jingoistic he has always claimed that sentiments of Hindus should be treated on par with the sentiments of religions. Also, in his writings he has claimed that all the people of this country has Hindu Ancestry and non-Hindus should graciously accept it and move on. Apart from these his heroics during the tyrannical rule of Indira Gandhi is just amazing. His role in igniting the anti congress sentiment in overseas Indian communities is worth a praise.

What is the reason behind this courage??
In 1969, Dr.Swamy met chief seer in the kanchi Sankara math, Swamy Chandrasekhara Saraswati and in the first instance Dr. Swamy realized that he he has found his master whom he is searching. Since then, he became a disciple of the Kanchi math. In his own words Dr. Swamy considers his Guru as the one who impacted him to the maximum extent. Being into spiritual path he is a staunch believer of Karma principle and there by dont expect any returns for his services towards this country. This is something that I'm observing very keenly. people in the spiritual path are just unstoppable. They are neither afraid of society nor anyone else.

Criticism about Dr. Swamy:
He is mostly called as the Hindu fundamentalist, Hindu maniac etc etc, yes in this unfortunate country if you empathize with feelings of Hindus these are things you get in return. But people conveniently forget a fact; Dr. Swamy has married a Parsie. He married a parsi, his brother-in-law is a Jew and he has a muslim son in law, yet people call him "communal"; what a pity!!

Here is a video which depicts Dr. Swamy thrashing the ever arrogant and rude Karan Thapar:

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,
-Karthik

A miracle called 2011!!!

2012-01-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

Before going into the details, let me publish a mail which my friend had sent me few days ago:

From: rajkumar
Date: 2011/12/31
Subject: 2011 Target
To: karthik indrakanti , jeevani anantapur , @@@@@@ , మంచుపల్లకీ, @@@@@@, banthi

పోయిన ఏడాది కాత్రీకు ఈ విష్యాలతో మైల్ పంపాడు. ఎవరు ఎంతవరకూ రీచయ్యారో చూద్దాం అని చెక్ చేశా... ఈ కాత్రీక్ మామూలోడు కాదని తెలిసింది. ఈ మైల్ గుర్తుకు రావటం అన్నీ వెరిఫై చేసుకోటం చాలా హ్యాపీగా అనిపించింది నాకు.

థాంకుల్ కార్తీకూ..

కార్తీక్ః

1. పెళ్ళి చేసుకోవాలి---> కున్నాడు

2. అపార్ట్మెంట్ బుక్ చెయ్యాలి. -- > చేసేశేడు

3. చిత్రమాలిక లో ప్రతీ వార కనీసం 5 వ్యాసాలు ఉండేటట్టు చూడాలి -> నేను లెక్కపెట్ట లేదు గానీ... బతిమాలో, బుజ్జగించో, తిట్టో, కొట్టో చాలామంది చేత రాయించేశాడు.

4. నాన్ వెజిటేరియనిజం కు వ్యతిరేకంగా ఒక కార్యక్రమం చెయ్యాలి -> ఈ ఉద్యమం ఎంత వరకూ వచ్చిందో తెలీదు (మంచు గారు వద్దని సలహా ఇచ్చేరు) గానీ... పోస్ట్ వేసి నాన్ వెజ్జీలని బజ్జీలు వేసినట్టొ వేయించేశాడూ

5. ఒక జర్నల్ పేపర్ పుబ్లిష్ చెయ్యాలి.. --> నాకు తెల్వది.

6. ఆఫీస్ లో ఒకరికి SAS నేర్పించాలి.. --> చేసే ఉంటాడు.

7. కనీసం ఒక పది మందైనా యోగా చేసేటట్టు చెయ్యాలి.. --> నా చేత చేయిద్దాం అని చాలా ట్రై చేశాడు. ఆ పదిమంది లోకి నేను వెళ్ళలేదు. హిహిహి

8. టాప్ రేటింగ్ తెచ్చుకోవాలి -> తెచ్చుకునే ఉంటాడూ

9. కనీసం ఒక రెండు లక్షలు సేవ్ చెయ్యాలి -> రెండేటీ ఇరవై చేసి ఉంటావ్.. (కట్నం కితనా?)

ఇవి బేస్ గా పెట్టుకుని ప్రతీ నెలకు ఒక ప్లాన్ వేసుకోవాలి..

This is the list of goals that I had set for myself in the starting of the year 2011 and my friend already stated about some of them.. Almighty have blessed me with everything that I had asked for.. Even smallest of my wishes were fulfilled with utmost care.. I just dont know how to thank His grace towards me..

I asked for booking a house and He granted the finishing as well as registration.. I asked for teaching SAS to one person and He gave a chance to train three people regarding the same..

The year started in the ashram as I was part of the winter break and then slowly joined the work life.. The month of January was full of Sadhana and Seva as I regularly attended the group sadhana every morning.. Later in the month I had gone to Chennai for attending Naadavaibhavam.. that experience is something which I will cherish till the end of my natural existence.. It was so deep and profound that many of my negative thoughts were cleansed.. It happened so effortlessly that I was in a state of disbelief about my ownself.. Dont ask me why and how, just believe that music has that power and when blessed souls sing never miss the opportunity.. Also, in the same month I managed to visit Tirumala and see Lord Venkateswara for third time in my life.. Despite the presence of several thousands of devotees and rumors about some nonsense, the temple premises gives a serene and satisfied feeling. All I can do is thank those sages who were responsible for such a great positive energy in that place..

The months of Feb and March I was very busy as my sweet sister Nani's wedding got planned and the engagement happened on 18th Mar. It was on this day that I got the relation and my parents had an initial discussion with my future in laws.. I think it was sometime in 2008 or 2009 I told my sister that I will marry only after her wedding, may be thats why God arranged it this way.. Come April I was busy in ofc and my ashram activities and could not do anything much.. Come April I have paid my first installment for "Phoenix's Nest" and it consisted some money from Shushmakka.. I had taken it because I want something from her hand and when a well-wisher like her give me something it cant be anything but success.. In the month of May i went to Hyd to meet some of my blog friends, wow that was so nice that we just enjoyed ourselves.. we went to necklace road and eat street; Finally my craving to walk on the necklace road is fulfilled :))

In the month of June I met my future wife and just before that I have organized a DSN course for Anandji.. that was rather the most satisfying seva that I did so far.. just feel so blessed to get that opportunity.. Once my marriage got fixed I couldnt get much time to continue full length seva but whenever possible I'm doing whatever I can.. Hope He will give me more opportunities to contribute..

After that in the month of Aug, i have finished the bank formalities and completed the registration.. Since then my expenses have increased abnormally, some money I pay for EMI and also I have to manage for my wedding expenses.. only by the end of the year I got some breathing space on a financial front..somehow I managed everything. May be thats what people called grace and believe me this year of 2011 is an year of grace for me..

My Wedding:

Finally, on 13th, Nov 2011 I got married and entered into the next phase of my life.. Some years ago, I had a list of people whose presence is mandatory at the time of my wedding. The list contains people like Ravi, Gayathri, Balu and another person who deserted me. Now, Ravi is still in US and I dont know whats happening in Gayathri's life.. Hope everything is fine with her; Balu had some last minute issue so he couldnt attend; and let me not talk about the last of the list.. But still my wedding happened; because life goes on.. May be priorities of the people changed with time but my respect towards them didnt alter a bit!

After the wedding we went to Kashmir and that was also too good.. Will write about it in detail little later..

Though none of old pals came to my wedding a bunch of bloggers around 15 of them have come.. that is something i will cherish all through my life.. When saw them at my wedding I recalled a old saying "I value a friend who had a slot for me in his calendar but I cherish a friend who dont care his calendar for me".. Some of them have crossed districts, some of them have crossed states to reach that place of wedding, thanks to all of you buddies.. Karthik is indebted to you!!

And for 2012, I am yet to write a detailed goal list for this ( will finish it in few days from now) but I pray God only one thing:

Give me a mind which thinks only positive things;

Give me a mouth which talks only positive things;

Give me a heart strong enough to surpass all the negative thoughts/things around and spread positive energy..

Last but not the least here is the Video of Gurupaduka Stotram which I watch/listen almost everyday.. I find it very soothing

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

I Talked with a Mother!!

2011-12-07T09:15:00.001-08:00

Today at 17:41hrs I called on Adilakshmi garu.. It is the first time that I called her since the double jolts rocked her life.. To my surprise, she recognized me when I told her that I'm karthik and I'm a blogger..

Here is a mother whose dreams called daughter were smashed by the "developing" society and whose support called husband turned into a pot of ash.. All in all, cruel destiny robbed two of her priced possessions within a span of two months.. Even after all these things she asks me "How am I doing?", Take a bow mother!!!

When I mumbled her the same question she responded "I was doing very good before six months and you know after that, now I'm in this orphanage" Five minutes into the discussion she started crying and ten minutes later my eyes were shedding tears.. I'm sure about the reason of her tears but dont know why I was crying.. Nonetheless, I continued telling her that she has a lot of admirers like me and she should regroup her courage and start working towards her goal.. I tried to remind that her job is not over and she needs to get back the way Arjuna came to Kurukshetra after the death of Abhimanyu..

I dont want to ask about her suicide attempt but during the course she told me that it was just impossible for the couple to stand the loss of their daughter.. Day in-day out they kept crying and finally succumbed to that vikalpa mindset.. I think at this point people like me should have talked to them and atleast given them a feeling of belongingness.. Today, when I talked with her she is confident of her return albeit some rest; Had me or someone else talked with more often after Geeta's demise may be we could have saved Lenin Babu garu.. of course this cruel life dont have provision for these ifs and buts.. It just bludgeons people into its course.. Regarding Geeta, she told me that its by seeing the rich friends/relatives on side and parents troubles on other side the teenage mind couldnt take the insult or let down and took the sad step.. I just cant imagine the pain a heart would go through to enforce death on itself.. Other than selfless love, what crime did the parents do to deserve such a harsh punishment.. I never understand!!

One interesting thing she told me was, she always prayed the God to chose her as His weapon in this dharmayuddha and sometimes the weapons get hurt.. My be thats why the Godess Jogulamba(Alampur) came into her dream and told her that She had taken Geeta along with Her.. May be thats the Divine way of strengthening the weapon!!

From my side, I can neither solve her problems nor console her; All I can do is the "Om Namah Shivaya" chanting for her; Starting today I pledge to do the panchakshari chanting for 21 days with a sankalpa that she would get enough strength to pass though this horrible stage of her life..

Om Namah Shivaya!!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

I'm busy because .....................

2011-11-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen!

As always, my life is eventful as ever; Anyways let me announce the big news of this year:

With the eternal grace of the God and the infinite affection of my well wishers I'm entering into the next stage of my life.. from being nurtured to have to nurture.. from person to family.. from boy to man..

I'm sure the journey is scheduled to go through many of those unknown shores with only one life line called "faith". There are many definitions for this word "faith" but my favorite one is " He knows what is right!!".. I had/have faith in Him and He is taking care of everything..

Its dramatic yet so subtle;

Its emotional yet so relaxed;

Its exciting yet so tranquil;

b/n I successfully crossed almost 4.5 years of bachelor life and thats WOW.. I'm feeling so happy about my life and want to thank everybody for contributing so much to me.. I'm happy because I made most of my life in these years.. I have under went every possible emotion and thats really a gr8 enriching experience.. I dont know the reason but I'm feeling so full and emotional for the last couple of days.. Even when I went to Tirupati yday, I was thinking about many of those who strangely came into my life and contributed to me.. who are treating me like their family members.. and also few people who left me as they found junk in me, thanks to them. Because, that gave me an opportunity to overcome a lot of negative emotions inside me.. More importantly they taught me few lessons in patience by testing it till the last inch; I respect whatever their choice is!! Just wanted to paste this quote:

"When people walk away from you, let them go. Your destiny is never tied to anybody who leaves you, and it doesn't mean that they are bad people. It just means that their part in your story is over."

yes, every moment is a part of bigger journey where only some people have their roles to play and at some point or the other everybody have to leave the stage.. some voluntary and some by force..so be it!!

p.s: there will not be any posts in this blog till Dec 1st week.

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

What can hatred do???

2011-10-05T00:50:00.000-07:00

Just now i went through this aticle in dawn and was horrified.. its time human beings learn some lessons out of this numbers. Hatred, b.n countries or b/n religions starts at the individual level.. unfortunately certain communities and individuals who claim to be religious breeds that and the result is what you see now.. starting from Palestine to Kashmir, failure to win over hatred is the root cause of all this!!Because of these individuals who want to prove their superiority over others all of the comunities have to bear the brunt.. A religion as simple as Islam is perceived as a menace, because at a community level Islam was projected as intolerant faith.. thanks to Arab world who successfully attributed that brand to the religion. I personally feel that Islam is the most politicized religion on this planet.. and as expected hatred is the part and parcel of politics.. God Save this planet!!!

list of religious violence in pakistan.

1997
12 members of a Shia family were killed during a Majlis. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) leader Malik Ishaq was arrested but was released later due to lack of evidence.
The same year, Malik Ishaq was alleged to have bombed the Iranian culture centre in Multan. Eight people were killed. 1n 2006, Ishaq was released due to lack of evidence.
28 October, 2001
A Protestant Church was attacked in Bahawalpur, Punjab. The incident left16 dead, all Christians except one, and 6 injured.

26 February, 2002
At least 11 Shia worshipers were killed by indiscriminate firing by a group of masked gunmen at the Shah-i-Najaf Mosque in Rawalpindi.
17 March, 2002
Yet another attack on a Protestant church with in a span of six months left five persons, including a US diplomat’s wife and daughter, dead and 40 others injured.
7 May 2002
Noted religious scholar Prof Dr Ghulam Murtaza Malik, his driver and a policeman were shot dead by two gunmen in Iqbal Town, Lahore.
9 August, 2002
Four people were killed after terrorists attacked a Church located in the premises of the Taxila Christian Hospital, in Taxila, northern Punjab.
25 September, 2002
Gunmen stormed the offices of a Christian welfare organisation in Karachi, tied seven office workers to their chairs before shooting each in the head at close range.
25 December, 2002
An attack on the Presbyterian Church in Daska, near Sialkot left three young girls dead.

8 June, 2003
11 Pakistani police trainees were shot dead in what is believed to have been a sectarian attack on Sariab Road, Quetta, as they all belonged to Hazara Shi’a branch of Islam. Another nine were reported wounded.[27]
June 8, 2003
12 Shia Hazara police cadets were gun downed in Quetta. LJ claimed responsibility of the attack.
4 July, 2003
At least 47 people were killed and 150 injured in an attack on an Imambargah in Quetta.

28 February, 2004
An apparent suicide bomber was killed and three worshipers were injured in an attack on Imambargah in Satellite Town, Rawalpindi.

March 2, 2004
42 persons were killed and more than 100 wounded when a procession of the Shia Muslims was attacked in Liaquat Bazaar in Quetta.
7 May, 2004
A suicide bomber attacked an Imambargah in Karachi, killing at least 15 worshipers. More than 100 people were also injured, 25 of them critically in the attack.
14 May, 2004
Six members of Shia family were killed in Lahore.
30 May, 2004
A senior Deobandi religious scholar and head of Islamic religious school Jamia Binoria, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, was gunned down in his car while leaving his home in Karachi.
31 May, 2004
A suicide bomber blew up the Imambarghah Ali Raza mosque in Karachi in the middle of evening prayers, killing 16 worshipers and injuring 35. Two people were killed in riots over the mosque attack and Shamzai’s assassination.
8 August, 2004
Eight people were killed and over 40 others injured when two bombs exploded in quick succession near the Jamia Binoria Madressah, Karachi.
21 September, 2004
Three members of Shia family were gunned down in Dera Ismail Khan. It was alleged Sipah-e-Sahaba members were involved in the killings.
1 October, 2004
A suicide bombing left 25 people dead and dozen injured at an Imambargah in Sialkot.
7 October, 2004
A bomb blast left 40 people dead and wounded over 100 during a Sunni (Deobandi) rally to commemorate Maulana Azam Tariq, assassinated leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, in Multan.

10 October, 2004
A suicide bombing at an Imambargah in Lahore killed four people and left eight others injured.
8 January, 2005
At least 10 people have been killed in sectarian violence in the northern Pakistani city of Gilgit.
19 March, 2005
At least 35 people were killed and many injured when a Sipah-e-Sahaba terrorist exploded himself at the shrine of Pir Rakhel Shah in remote village of Fatehpur in Jhal Magsi District, Balochistan. The dead included Shia and Deobandi devotees.
27 May, 2005
20 people were slaughtered and 82 wounded due to a suicide bombing at the annual Shia Muslims congregation at the shrine of Bari Imam in Islamabad.
31 May, 2005
Six bodies were recovered from a KFC outlet set ablaze by an angry mob after an attack on a Shia mosque in Karachi. It was retaliation to the suicide attack on the Shia mosque in central Karachi where five people were killed and about 20 others wounded.
7 October, 2005
Eight members of the Ahmadiyya faith were killed inside a place of worship in Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab, Pakistan.
11 April, 2006
Over 50 people, including Sunni (Barelvi) scholars, were killed in a bomb explosion at a religious gathering on 12 Rabi-ul-Awal in Nishtar Park, Karachi.
20 February, 2009
At least 28 people were killed and more than 65 injured when a suicide bomber attacked a funeral procession in Dera Ismail Khan.
April 5, 2009
A suicide bomber detonated outside the entrance of an Imambargah in Chakwal, in Punjab province. 24 people were killed in the attack.

August 1, 2009
Seven Christians were burned alive in Gojra, Punjab. Known as the Gojra riots, the attack saw the Christian community leave town, fearing for their lives.
December 28, 2009
40 Shias were killed in an apparent suicide bombing in Karachi. The bomber attacked a Shia procession which was held to mark Ashura.
28 May 2010
86 people were killed and more than 120 were injured in nearly simultaneous attacks against two places of worship of the minority Ahmadiya community. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attacks.
September 1, 2010
In Lahore at least 35 Shias were killed and 160 unknown people injured during a procession.
September 3, 2010
Attack on a rally in Quetta killed around 53 people during another procession calling for solidarity with Palestinians.
The same day an attack on an Ahmedi place of worship left one dead in Mardan.
December 9, 2010
A mortar attack killed nine people, including women and children in Hangu.
Abu Mansoor, ‘commander’ of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi Al Almi of Hangu, Kohat and Orakzai and Kurram Agencies, and claimed the responsibility for the blast.
December 13, 2010
A school bus was attacked in Peshawar as Shias marked Ashura. A boy was killed and 5 others were hurt. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the blast.
January 25, 2011
Two suicide blasts targeted Shia processions in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore as well as the major southern port city of Karachi. Fifteen people were killed in the attacks.

6 May, 2011
Six members of the Hazara Shia community were gunned down in Quetta, the responsibility of which was taken by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ).
18 May, 2011
7 Shias were gunned down in Quetta, once again LJ claimed responsibility.

September 20, 2011
Gunmen shot dead 29 Pakistani Shia pilgrims travelling to Iran. In a brutal assault, gunmen ordered pilgrims off their bus, lined them up and assassinated them in a hail of gunfire in Mastung.

Here Comes Phoenixs' Nest!!!

2011-08-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

With the eternal grace of the God and the infinite love of my well wishers I had bought an apartment in Electronic City, Bangalore. On Saturday the 6th of Aug, 2011 I had finished the registration formalities as well. This happens to be the first property that I bought for myself. Though I am a staunch believer of the concept "Everything belongs to me and Nothing is permanent", I am very pleased with this development because my parents were very happy.. My father called up few of his college friends and told them that next time they visit Bangalore they can come to our place. Making parents happy is a major motivating factor of my life. And many times thats the easiest part because my mom will be very happy whenever I go back home ;)

Apart from that there is a long saga behind this and fittingly God has chosen this date for the registration process. Because exactly two years ago from August 2009 I started living alone. Though my roomie had moved to his brother's place a fortnight before that, officially I started living alone from August, which effectively means two years of "Home Alone" and thats WOW!!!

In this two years I did many things that I'm proud of and have made some giant leaps both in professional as well as personal life. More importantly, started realizing the divine grace which is covering me all along. There were some minor miracles and some major ones which have actually changed the course of my life. I had learnt the Sudarshana kriya and padma sadhana by virtue of which my energy levels climbed newer heights. Also, with the regular spiritual practices I went through a lot of emotional cleansing which eventually helped me to cross the barriers like hatred and anger. Though I cant declare myself as a saint or something I clearly have 95% of control over my anger. From 2010 Ugadi to 2011 Ugadi I got angry only once and that also because of some rogue's nasty remarks about a friend of mine. One other thing I started believing completely is the "SECRET: The Theory of Attraction". I should write a separate post about Why I believe secret and what made me believe?? that will be some interesting revelations and startling confessions.

And yes, coming to the name of the house, I coined it as "Phoenixs' Nest" because this marks my growth in life both material as well as spiritual. Only I know what it takes to pass through an year as dark as 2008 and I think the only bright spot in the 366 days of that calendar was my convocation. Having said that passing through such a time cemented my commitment towards the ethics which were the foundations for my life and also increased my faith in the Divine. If something is "impossible" its "Him possible". If at all I had learnt anything from my life it is the fact that I can be happy irrespective of any happening around me. EOD, Life is the expression of happiness not the Pursuit of happiness!!

Last but not the least, I would like to thank all my teachers and my Guruji who made me worth a livelihood and who are responsible for the life I'm leading now. Few weeks back I saw someone's (forgot the person) Gtalk status msg which goes like "Amazing Family, Ultimate Guru, Lovely friends, Blessed Me" This stands 100% true for my life.. I dont know how to thank them.. words are just insufficient!!

One Last Time!!!

2011-07-31T22:30:00.000-07:00

Awesome article!!

2011-06-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

just now went through an article in DAWN news paper.. this is rather the best media group from Pakistan.. though there is a lot of stuff against india in general and hindus in particular, some columnists write great articles. one such is this written by Adnan Rehmat.. you can find the full article here..

few paragraphs are just amazing.. i wish some of those hot headed Pakistani policy makers heed this..

"If 9/11 (New York) was the moment America and 27/11 (Mumbai) that India changed forever, 2/5 (Abbottabad) could be Pakistan’s crossroads of opportunity to likewise choose the path of being a state that protects its own people by fighting terrorism unconditionally. Sovereignty is not about nurturing dubious proxies to fight your wars but to fight against the instinct to do so. The real violation of sovereignty is the imbalance in receiving foreign aid flows in-country and then not accounting for it. It is the civil-military imbalance within Pakistan that has distorted the nature of civil society and crippled the economy, thus opening up the space for non-state actors and terrorists to appropriate the sovereignty by propelling the country into a suicidal conflict with America and India instead of forces like al Qaeda and Taliban that espouse violence and extremism."

another one:

"The only way to protect Pakistan against threats, perceived and unperceived, is to build trust, peace, trade and interdependence with India, Afghanistan and Iran and key global allies like America and Europe that have deep interest in the region’s stability. Safety and protection will not come from the military’s policy of paranoia to serve in ‘national interest’ which forces the unwilling country to weaken or leverage regional and international players by internal and external state and non-state provocations."

this paragraph is true not only for pakistan but for all the remaining countries in subcontinent.. its high time that the countries in these subcontinental neighbours understand that poverty, illetaracy and religious fanaticism are bigger problems than other countries.. lets go for a quick stat! whole of subcontinent amounts to around 130 crores of population.. and the average literacy rate is less than 30% which effectively means you have 100crores of uneducated junta here.. what bigger problem does the governements needs to unite against?? In order to fight the likes of Saron and Nazgul an understanding between Theodens and Gondar proved to be decisive :-)

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Hindu Corruption Vs Muslim Corruption!!!

2011-06-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well! Well! Well!

Baba Ramdev's property will now go through the scanner.. within a week's gap the red carpet welcome from the government translated into IT raids and ED scannings.. thats India for you!! Few hours are good enough to change friends to foes and vice versa!!

Now coming to the present situation, a lot is being said and discussed about Ramdev's identity as a yoga guru, his 200 odd companies, 1100 cr trust and the scottish island.. but none of these fails to explain why he cant fight against corruption?? on sunday night I watched a discussion hosted by Burkha Dutt and one of the gentlmen took a serious objection about the people in Ramlila grounds shouting slogans "Vandemataram" and "Bharathmata ki jai" (I forgot the name of the person).. But he conviniently ignored the fact that no section of Indian Penal Code prevents its citizens from shouting "Vandemataram".. in fact it is the battle cry of Indian Freedom Struggle.. For suppose, lets assume Baba Ramdev is making money by illegal means and Government know it.. In such scenario why was the government so keen in pacifying him and sent four cabinet ministers to virtually lick Baba's feet.. so funny!!

Apart from this, my basic doubt: where did the Hindu religion come from when Baba Ramdev starts a fast?? how is yoga limited to Hindu religion alone?? what Baba Ramdev teaches is breathing exercises which are common to every human irrespective of their religion.. If the Royal family of Bahrain practices pranayama and thousands of people in Iraq & Afghanistan practices Sudarshana Kriya(another breathing exercise) why are people still strangling things like yoga and meditation with their stupidity.. when can the human beings rise above this?? some people say yoga gurus earning money is taboo and they should teach it for free.. OK! My question: In the human history show me one thing that was given free and was respected.. "NOTHING" It is in fact human tendency that anything free of cost is mediocre or not so important.. and I'm convinced that yoga and meditation lost their value because in olden days there was no financial element to learn them..

just now I went through an article written by Sagarika Ghosh and it stands as naked manifestation of Hindu hatred that is existing in our media.. I'm just pasting some of the lines which conviniently surpassed the everest of retardness.. here you go:

"Notwithstanding the BJP's crushing electoral defeats, culturally Hindu nationalist consolidation is gathering tremendous momentum, much of which feeds into the anti-corruption campaigns. The Ram Janmabhoomi movement, in a new urbane sophisticated avatar, is back."

How on the earth the anti corruption movement and the Ram janmabhoomi are related??? On the day of Baba Ramdev's fast there were chirstian and muslim religious leaders who are endorsing Baba Ramdev's fast but that was conviniently ignored by the media.. because giving a communal colour would help them becoming more SECULAR!! How sad?

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

jai ho Baba Ramdev

2011-06-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

Baba Ramdev's complete speech!! this is another historic moment.. way to go Ramdevji..

All those people who have come from far in this heat, under adverse conditions, without caring for their comforts are doing everything for their nation…today when there's no time for our own family, at this time a 'sanyasi' has decided to end corruption and to change things today…I am thankful that you all have come in thousands. I can understand your determination and emotions and from tomorrow, the "bhrashtachar mitao satyagraha" which will start, will also comprise women and children. I am thankful to you all. The primary cause is to change an established order. I asked little children what they will do…and they said they would fast to bring back black money. They said, "Even we will fight against corruption with you'. I can see even a one-year-old in the audience. My words fall short… I am so touched.

I agree there are some good leaders, businessmen but the corrupt politicians… have lakhs and crores of rupees that they have gained from the people's hard earned money. So they are people who have eventually become strong. They are not of good character…these corrupt people have gained strength through so much money. Today America is a superpower, UK, Germany and France are superpowers…but we forget that all these countries are in crores of debt. What does this mean? This is actional tax. They have gained this money by exploiting poor countries like India. All the corrupt people in India who have not been faithful to 'Bharat Mata' will not want black money to come back. Now, when there's an anti-corruption movement in the country, even people like Maulana ji, Rizwiji are here to lend their support…this is not a political or business agenda and nor do we have any underground agenda. Our agenda is to get black money back. We have to end corruption. And inspired by this idea, we are all asking for our rights by adopting an enthusiastic yet peaceful means of protest.

If black money is brought back in this country, no one will go hungry, no one will be without a livelihood. Our currency will be stronger than the dollar or pound. I want to see that day soon… the currency should stand at $1=Rs 50. I want to see an India like that. When we bring back black money, this will be possible. Our country's pride will rise. A country that was known for its good values is now the leading country when it comes to corruption and poverty, lack of education, population density, hunger and poverty…this is of deep anguish to me. The same country that was the pinnacle of discipline and knowledge of science and maths, geography, …the country that taught others to live has now become a country of vice. We will restore its lost glory. There will be hope and trust and we will strive for a better India.

Corruption will and that will be a step forward. This is not a small thing or small endeavour. Our children will not need to go abroad and study and our children who go there will not suffer murders and disrespect (possible allusion to racism). "Yogya bhi sikhayenge, desh bhi bachayenge, kala dhan layenge, aur Hindustan ko takatvar banayenge." Aren't there at least 400 people in this country like Hasan Ali? Aren't there at least 250 people like A Raja? This is not even a Hindu-Muslim issue…this stems from a demonic tendency in human beings. Corruption has permeated everywhere.

We have asked the government to make a Public Service Delivery Guarantee Act whereby every individual's work that involves going to a government servant is completed within a month or else a fine up to Rs 250-500 is imposed upon the government servant. If the government official in question repeatedly does this, he should be made to resign.

The corrupt should be punished and black money be recovered from them. They should be punished with life imprisonment or death sentence.

So brothers and sisters, I have 3 demands from the government-

1. The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 should be amended. I am the son of a farmer and I know the pain of agricultural land-owners. No one should take away even an inch of the farmer's land from him without his permission. The Baba you love I was also into agriculture before becoming a yogi. A peon earns 15k but a farmer after working day and night gets suicide…death. Government policies should be pro-farmers.

2. In the education sector, there should be no injustice. In India, a majority of the people are not given access to English. In medical and engineering exams, questions should be in regional languages so that people of the lower strata emerge with flying colours.

3. The PM should be directly elected by the people.

Our protest is not political in nature….neither do we want to outdo or oust anyone. The government has conceded to some of our demands.. the talks with the government seem to be along positive lines. Our motive is to end corruption and change the present situation of the country.

I am deeply grateful to all of you. We are doing all this for our country…we are merely repaying some of what we owe to our motherland. This is our duty. This protest will include people of all rungs. If political parties wish to join the endeavour, they are most welcome to because they will be fighting for the truth.

If we can spend 25 to 50 lakhs to recover crores of rupees then this is worth it. The pandals constructed and fans running for this cause are out of the hard earned money of people not through black money or the black money in Swiss banks. Ninety-nine of our campaign comprises the "aam junta". This campaign is not promoted by Coca Cola or Pepsi or any other MNC. People of all caste and creed are present here. This "satyagraha" is for truth.

All my brothers from the print media… (not clear) who have given a coverage of 2-4 full pages about this campaign or highlighted the names of those who have coveted black money through unfair means is appreciated. And I also want to thank the electronic media for covering this event. A huge round of applause for the media.

02233081122 is the number. When I asked people to show their support for the campaign through miss calls, more than 55 lakh miss calls have already been registered and by tomorrow, more than 1 crore miss calls will be registered. We have already made a world record. These miss calls will help to further awaken the masses. "This is not a yogya leela but a rashtra leela. Ram leela ke maidan mein, bhrashtachar ke raavan ka vaddh hoha."

Many asked me, "Baba, how many will join this protest in this heat?" I said, "Those will come who love their motherland. No one can stop them. Not the sun and not the heat." Those who will not be able to come, can in their hearts support this movement. If you get lemon with water, I will get only water. This time we will write history.

Devendra Sharma- We are thankful to him. He has been agitating for farmers' rights since a long time. Also, we want to thank Haryana Lokyukta- Justice Shri Pritam Pal who is part of our campaign and Dr. Kulbir Shikara who keeps me updated on policy decisions and all other intellectuals who are present here today…also Jaideepji and Rakeshji.

We all share a common motherland. All those people who want justice will say we want to eliminate justice and recover black money.

The crucial work of character-building is our continuous agenda which is already in progress in villages. Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christians have all united for this cause. Some people have started their fast today itself.

"Hum Dilli Dilli jayenge..apna Hind banayenge, yogi banke rehna hai, fauji banke rehna hai, har dard dilon mein sehna hai."

Veggie..Veggie..Veggie!!!

2011-05-30T23:26:00.000-07:00

In the last 2 weeks I had fierce arguments on three occasions about being a vegetarian.. some people are sad that I dont eat meat/egg, some people are angry that I dont like meat/egg and some people pity me because I cant survive outside India.. Anyway, their opinions are not the object of this post.. If things go this way I have to allocate one chapter of my autobiography for this and should name it as "Being Veggie" :)

Since childhood I didnt eat nonveg because I just cant bear the smell of the meat/egg.. when I became very weak due to some fever my parents tried feeding egg so that I could gain some strength quickly but I just could not take that into my system.. They tried for one week and all through the week I vomited the whole content.. I was only six/seven when this happened.. After that I never tried meat/egg because I was often going to the temple as a priest (along with my cousins) and eating meat/egg looked like blasphemous.. Then came an age in my life when people started abusing me for the caste that I belong to.. making fun of me based on the caste.. satirical jokes insulting brahmins and many more.. this has only resulted in strengthening my will power to remain vegeterian.. then came the age of my B.Tech/hostel life where in people around me are sane enough to understand that my food habits are none of their business.. At the same time even I never bothered to worry so much about it.. because EOD food is very personal an issue.. any unwanted remarks might inadvertently cause pain to others.. After coming to Bangalore, one of my roomie was a meat eater but he never insisted on cooking it in the house because he witnessed me once vomiting due to the smell of a cooked chicken.. who want to witness such a scene during meal time?? :P

In the last one and half years, since I did my Art of Living course I went through a lot of content about this veggie vs Non-veggie thing.. After all the study what I realized is that being veggie is the need of the hour.. it has got nothing to do with the caste/religion/country/culture.. we did know that dinosaurs reached their grave only because after a certain point they couldnt find anything more to eat.. if humans continue to rely on meat for the food sooner than later human being will be extinct.. take my word for this.. just google about it and you will find n number of sites, articles explaining how non veggies are damaging this planet.. it is not out of intention that they are spoiling this planet but because of their ignorance.. because of lack of awareness.. Right now human beings formed a body for climate control, pollution control etc but if the non-veggies count increases, sooner than later there will be a body in the umbrella of UNO to counter non-veg eating.. I know my statement appears few miles away from sanity but I have every reason to believe so.. As of today Non vegeterianism is the second biggest cause of global warming.. only after industrial pollution..
OK, let me not bore you with all this stuff but please check your ecological footprint and check whether you are contributing to the planet or exploiting it. here is where you can do that http://myfootprint.org/en/visitor_information/ this site is run by a group whose integrity is beyond doubt..
though people say I'm depriving myself of some new taste in life I feel proud that I'm part of the solution not part of the problem..And I have very bad thoughts about egg and carbonated drinks so I'm not writing it here.. because if I write about them here, all the women folk who read it will stop talking to me.. Already there are quite a few who scold me as a part of their weekly prayers :) and I dont want to increase that count..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu
-Karthik

My interaction with SECRET!!!

2011-05-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

I dont know how many around have heard about this "Theory of Attraction" popularly known as the Secret.. According to this theory the more you think about something the more you attract it into your life.. either wanting something or not wanting something, what ever your mind ponders about will manifest in reality.. It has been almost three years since I first heard this theory and as usual didnt believe it at the first go.. Everything I listen to should undergo a scanner called "My Logical Reasoning".. Because I dont believe anything beyond my Logical reasoning; GOD is the only exception.. however, after a series of dramatic instances which left me as a loser plagued with pain and insomnia I started giving this theory a try.. At that point of time I have tried quite a bunch of methods to grant myself a sound sleep.. Sound sleep was a rare occasion those days.. (Even my worst enemies dont deserve such a life).. people like Shushmakka, Ravi etc can vouch for all those things that I went through!!

one day I have accidentally downloaded a guided meditation based on this theory of attraction and tried that for few days.. At the first attempt itself I realized that its taking me into deep silence that I am longing for.. Also, guided meditations are something which I like because of their simplicity.. After that I was practicing that meditation till date and almost all problems that I was encountering faded away.. My quality of sleep increased by many leaps.. It increased my awareness about my own thoughts which helped me to surpass negative instincts like anger and hatred.. After sometime of practicing this meditation I got the opportunity of doing YES+ course of Art Of Living.. As the Law of Attraction say "World will come for your rescue", Shushmakka came to know about the course into which she pushed me and rest is two years of celebrating my life.. YES! Life itself is a celebration.. you dont need any other super human reason..

From Ugadi 2010 to Ugadi 2011, I got angry only once.. this never implies I didnt do anything new or risky.. Along with few friends we ventured a new company which was a big failure.. My sister got operated two times in a span of 40days.. at that time I practically lived in a hospital for a few days.. Above all, a dear friend of mine was at the verge of suicide which eventually ended on a positive note.. despite all these things nothing could hamper my smile and it seems nothing can!

I am very clear about two things: 1. All my needs are taken care of.. 2. Me worrying about anything will only end up in more worries.. and that is what the secret is all about!!

b/n its a long time I wrote about Shushmakka, she is the strongest lady I can ever imagine and a perpetual source of strength for a feeble like me.. In short "MY SISTER STRONGEST".. here is an old post of this blog explaining one of our adventures.. Both of us are thoroughly convinced that this bond is existing for many carnations..

And about Ravi, Ravi means Ravi Shankar Duvvuru.. A True Saikorean and a great fighter.. Together we share quite a lot of cherish-able memories.. He is always the first person to wish me on my birthday..

Zindagi Rocks!!!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

My Birthday :)

2011-05-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

YES!! I turned 28 yesterday, getting too old??? dont know, may be people around me might be knowing better than me :)

Anyway, this birthday is special.. hehehe, everyday of my life looks special in some way or the other :).. but this day was special for the theme called "SWATHI".. my mail box is full of photos, cartoons and jokes about Swathi :) I was continuously laughing yesterday.. apart from that many of my old friends and colleagues from Symphony called me. Also, almost all the friends from blogosphere sent their wishes.. out of all, the card which Rajkumar carried will stand out because of its gigantic size.. just now i measured its length and its little more than 2ft :) and similar to last year this year also Andy's card reached me a day before itself.. thanks a zillion guys.. I will cook your favorite tomato pulusu when you visit my house next time.. this is a promise :) I know how much you like it..

here is a mail and photo that I liked very much.. the mail is prepared by sowmya and the photo by manchupallaki..

firstly the photo by manchu garu:

here goes the mail from Sowmya :D

కాత్రీకు కి పుట్టినరోజు జేజేలు!

మేడం పూలబొకేతో రెడీ

నీకోసం ఎదురు చూపులు

ఏంటి ఇంకా రాలేదు?....బుంగమూతి...అలిగింది నీ మీద

పాపం స్వాతిని అలా ఒంటరిగా వదిలేసి ఎక్కడ పార్టీ చేసుకుంటున్నావ్ కాత్రీక్?....త్వరగా వచ్చేయ్!

Once Again thanks a lot for all your wishes, I'm still in the hangover of the wishes..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

Happy Birthday Amma!!

2011-05-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's birthday.. For me "amma" does not mean something but mean everything.. she means a whole of world to me. When ever I go across the word called commitment my mom is the first person that I recall.. If we have a own house, if me and my sisters got good education, its only because of my mother.. I still remember insults from my relatives that she is making the girls to study in the same level of school that I study.. Though I didnt see the reason then but now if I look back it was a revolutionary decision from her.. she didnt give any gold/jewels for us but she definitely gave the courage to stand by what we believe and gave us a strong ethical base.. I found these couple of photos very much suiting what I want to say today!!

Satvik Dharna!!!

2011-04-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

Anna Hazare!!!

whole of this country is echoing this name..

"A country starved of heros finds one in him" writes a blogger..

A 72 year old grand pa taking it to the street is something unusal.. a lot is being said about him both in the national as well as in the international media.. even a news paper like dawn which is always busy belittling Indians have given so much of coverage to him.. After Sachin's double hundred in 2009 this is the first time an Indian has been mentioned in a positive note in that news paper..

well coming to the grand pa, I'm not going to write about his profile and the different issues that he has fought.. but I definitely want to use this post as a memoir of that day when I participated in that dharna.. it is the first time that I attended a political rally/dharna etc.. belive me that was minor miracle to say the least..

there were around five to six thousand people among whom 95% people were aged less than 30 and many of them have directly from their work places carrying their laptops.. even I carried mine :)

through media I came to know that the meeting is going to start at 6PM that day so I started from the office by 4:30 and reached Mysore bank by 5:30 and now I dont know the place exactly nor I know how to reach that place.. so I was asking people around suddenly I observed a group of people were standing on the pavement keeping placards which says "FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION" I was more than happy at that site and gladly joined that group.. The moment I went there people heartily greeted me and hugged me as if they know me for many years.. then they told me that the venue freedom park is near by and they are guiding people towards it.. As I happened to be the tallest they asked me to hold the placard and stand on the bike.. As I stood on the bike I screamed with my heart out "BHARATH MATA KI JAI".. Hailing from a priests family I know many sacred chantings but satisfaction of this screaming is all together different.. And even great thing was people responding with the same energy or even more!! By seeing the banner in my hand people were getting from the buses and joining us.. It was a gr8 feeling that so many people were there along with me..

By the time we reached freedom park my sister and her team from whitefield have already arrived.. so we just went and collected the candles.. soon the dharna started.. the group started moving forward after some time and all through this time people were shouting "Bharath Mata Ki Jai" "Corruption Down Down" etc etc.. Another thing surprised me was people responding to songs like "Saare Jahan Se Achcha", "Hum Honge Kamyaab" etc.. I was with a strong belief that this generation is insensitive to such songs and few of those who consider those songs seriously were tagged as "Old Fashioned" "Boring" people..

Anyway, once the dharna started for the next 2hrs or more I was shouting the slogans.. I didnt stop, because if I dont do that my conscious will not forgive me.. if a 72 year old is fasting for my country, cant a 27 yr old support him?? At the fag end of the dharna we had speeches by some of the people who were in hunger strike.. one of the guys said something so phenomenal.. it goes like "I'm not doing this strike for myself ; I'm doing this for my kids" YES he's hit the bull's eye!! if the situation continues this way we cant imagine our next generations having a safe and secure life..

Many in my office, many of my friends said its just waste of time and nothing can be done in this way.. may be they are true.. there is no gaurantee that this dharna will be effective, finally it might prove to be a waste.. but i'm not someone to accept defeat so easily.. there might be a million reasons why I should fail but my lack of effort should not be one of among them.. give 100%.. LIVE LIFE KING SIZE

Down the line if I look back into my life these are the days that I'm gonna cherish.. people who participated are immensely talented and equally committed.. who knows? this might be a day when I fought along the future Premier of India..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

Two Stories!!

2011-03-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

Today I went across a couple of stories which were funny as well as thought provoking. one from Panchatantra Tales and the other from Arabian Nights.. I thought to keep them down in my blog so that I can read them in future..

Lion & Sheep:

Long long ago, in a jungle, there lived a lioness. when it was about to deliver a cub it went on to hunting. In the middle of the jungle, the lioness delivers a cub and passes away. Now this little cub wanders around and ends up along with some sheep. With time passing on, this cub eats with sheep, plays with the sheep and finally behaves exactly as sheep. After some time, another lion comes to hunt the sheep and it realizes that the cub is running away from it. So this lion goes to the cub and asks the reason for its fear. Cub innocently replies that, but for running it will be eaten by the lion. Then the lion takes the cub to the pond and shows the image proving that both look alike and asks it to be a lion and not sheep..

The great moral to take from this story is that, each of us are like that cub who looks everything according to the surroundings and undermine its true potential. Its high time that we realize the immense potential we are blessed with and use it to contribute to the society.. why living the life of a sheep when you are a lion?? LIVE LIFE KING SIZE!!!

Sheik & Donkey(my favorite):

Once there was a sheik traveling along with his old donkey. They reach a unused, waterless well and by chance, the donkey slips down into the well.. the Sheik understands that the donkey cannot be taken out and any effort to pull it up is mere waste.. so he then decides to fill the well with the sand and bury the donkey inside and starts shoveling sand into the well. When ever he throws some sand into the well, the donkey shakes its body so that all the sand is on the floor and stands on that sand which is thrown into the well.. with repeated such attempts, the donkey finally comes out of the well. :)

The moral here is plain and simple: People around you will throw a lot of mud on you. Dont allow it to remain on your head and rise above it. Sky is the only limit!!!

(My sister told both the stories)

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

I Salute!!

2011-03-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

Nearly eight decades ago something very unusual happened.. three young men who are around 25 happily sacrificed their life just to make this world understand that there is something in this planet which is superior to human selfishness.. seeing the courage and valor of those three men even Mt. Everest would come on to its knees and bow.. Talking about courage, people remember Hercules, Achilles, Hector etc.. but for me these three people are the epitome of courage and selflessness..

I salute BHAGAT SINGH, SUKHDEV ,RAJGURU.

but the worst part is the way Indian society have forgotten the spirit with which they lived and their sacrifices are conveniently ignored.. Today if someone talks about contributing to the society he/she will be treated as an eccentric who dont know "worldly traits". Corruption, exploitation is the common thread connecting all the sections of the society. only last week I witnessed a doctor demanding a bribe of INR 1100 from an 80 year old lady and even worst part is that his salary happens to be more than 70K/month.. This is true depiction of how much we degraded as a society..Every section of society is plagued by this.. I personally have seen very few people who match to the ethical standards that I maintain.. I myself is a mediocre when compared some people around and people call me "old fashioned" "not upto present day" etc etc.. it seems selfishness is the order of present day..

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Humble Request

2011-03-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

the quake & Tsunami have caused a real damage to Japan.. seems the death toll is in thousands and the financial damage may amount to Billions of dollars.. As individuals there is hardly anything that we can do at this stage.. but instead of pouring some pity on them please pray for them.. because, right now if something can be done it can be done only by the Almighty.. Pray that enough strength should be given to people who are fighting the evil stroke.. pray that all humans would realize the need of living as one family and show solidarity to Japan..

We should stand by Japan.. WE SHOULD!!!

Madras Trip!!!

2011-02-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

Wow..

thats the only word which I comes to my mind when I think about my Naada Vaibhavam trip.. I'm not going to write about the Naada Vaibhavam again but just trying to relive the whole of trip through this post..
It has been one week since I came back to Bangalore but still all the events are very much afresh.. all the bonds which were made in that trip seem to be very strong.. may be thats the greatness of belonging!!

Firstly, let me give a brief introduction about the team.. the team consists of 45 crazy, weird and cranky people(i'm one of them :))..

A teenager who spends 90% of his day either on facebook or thinking about facebook..
A girl who completed engg. but looks like a high school child.. (I bet she eats only once a week!)

A Doctor who looks everything in terms of scientists and enzymes.
A Kannadiga who claims to have known only English movies(but cant recognize few latest movies though :))
A couple of ice cool organizers who seems to have lost the nerve of anger sometime in their early teens.. and also who are courteous enough to take us to the great Egmore Museum :)
A stylish photographer who roams whole of Madras with a powerless camera( you are right! this is me :()
Many people who dont know their names, yeah! they sat in seats booked on someone else's name.

This is only a sample of people and others are evenly crazy..

the journey began at 6:30Am and we were eagerly awaiting the friends who are going to board the at cantt. because they have the break fast bags :P once they came in dynamic people like Aditi, Anusha etc prepared nice break fast for us and lazy bums like me shamelessly had stomach full of it..Once we finished break fast we went to even more important thing called "playing".. as its a big team we resorted to "Dumb Charades".. and as always we had many fights on "you opened your lip", "you have shown the alphabets" etc etc and once we got tired of fights/arguments/discussions we did gurupuja chanting..

Gurupuja chanting is a sacred mantras to express our gratitude to all the masters of past/present/future.. it is not confined to one religion/sect/country..

by the time we had finished gurupuja chanting/Om Namah Shivaya/kriya, we had come to senses and want to plan the two days we have in Madras.. Now, here is the best is the part, none of the organizers know much about Chennai but still we have decided to see certain places.. so we called the local don sorry local teacher called "KK".. KK means the one and only "Karpagavalli" (My teacher).. after talking to her we were even more confused and that confusion prevailed untill we got down in Chennai Central Station.. once we got down we have to deal with the immediate problem called "Hunger".. some argued we should go out and eat; some countered we should eat and go out. After few rounds of round platform conferences we decided to have our lunch in Station itself and go out.. believe me, the food was below par given the name of Saravana Bhavan and even sad thing is the way they tried to exploit the passengers.. I lost respect about the Saravana Bhavan with this experience..

After lunch we went to Egmore Museum, thanks to the local volunteer Appu who guided us well to that place and Man, let me not talk about the Auto wallahs of Chennai.. Horrible fails miserably to describe them.. In the museum though many folks didnt liked it. I felt glad for two reasons:
1. Shakuntala: A great painting of Raja Ravi Varma
2. There is a proper rest room :)

After that we went straight away to our Tiruvanmayur( venue of satsang) by bus and feel sad about guys like Jaideep as they had to stand all the 1.5 hrs of journey.. the satsang was super cool as usual and we met Guruji also over there..

After the satsang the real drama started, all of us want to go to beach, eat in a famous, busy restaurant, catch the local bus on time and yet dont want to walk fast :) I recalled that the wedding baarat would have been much faster than us.. finally, some went to beach ,some had food in good restaurant and some could catch the bus on time.. personally I played in water then went to my stay which is called the "Chennai Youth Ashram".. the reason being its a big 4BHK house and around 7-8 people officially stay in it.. and unofficially the count varies b/n 15-25..

Next day I went to beach again to see the sunrise.. for me sunrise is the best source of motivation..and at sea its like icing the cake..it was so touching that I just sat on my knees and stored all the moments carefully in my memory.. that was wow!! I had tears in my eyes as the only sentence I could remember was the poem of Sastry garu which goes like "గుటకపడని అగ్గి ఉండ సాగరాలనీదుకుంటు తూరుపింట తేలుతుందిరా!!" If I look back, I cherish more of such small incidents/moments than the so called bigger achievements..

Without having any break fast, me and four others from youth ashram went to IIT Madras as there was a function we had to attend.. After that we went to KK's house for lunch.. God, that happens to be one of the best food I ever had.. I dont know when was the last time I honked the way i did it then.. May be thats because of the affection with which the food was prepared.. Thanks a million to KK & Aunty!!

about KK's house, its a typical old modeled south Indian house.. fA veranda to start with, followed by a hall which leads into a place to store groceries on one side and place for God's idols on the other side.. and finally the kitchen.. the bath rooms were outside the main house as the source of water was a well..for a moment I went back to my childhood where we used to have a similar house in our village..

In the evening we had the big thing called Naada Vaibhavam.. I'm not writing anything about it as my earlier post was about it in detail..

After that I reached to youth ashram and next day attended Mahakriya.. As it happened to be Pravin's bday we went to the Kapaleswara Temple at Mylapur.. I liked that temple a lot.. rich in architechture and have a big pond infront of it.. only me,pravin and ramana went there as others preferred to have lunch by then..

After lunch, we gave the token gifts which we bought for KK,Prasanna, Vinod and Suman.. though no amount of thanks would suffice their priceless efforts for this tour, that gifts are all we could find :(

then the return journey started, this is even more exciting.. we played 20 quetsions, Dumb Charades and some slept at this time.. later we had one of the best satsangs I ever attended.. whole of the train was rocked by the satsang.. people were looking at us as if we are aliens.. someone was saying "all are around 25 but see what they are singing".. Lolz..

Let me write down names of all the people attended.. ( as far as I remember)
1. two people named Anusha
2. two people named Anitha
3. Anjana
4. Akash
5. Ananth
6. Aditi
oh God, how many "A" starting names
7. Shailendra

8. Jaideep

9. Rohit

10. Rohan

11. Vinod

12. Manshi

13. Udaya

14. Ramana

15. Yashasvini

16. Prithvi

17. Suman

18. Pravin

19. Jaideep

20. Swathi

21. Mahesh

22. Sahana

23. Srikanth

24. Sudarshan

25. Gopal

26. Karthik (Me)

sorry, seems I missed a lot of names.. Anyways, thanks everybody for coming and making the trip wonderful.. Lets have a sankalapa that we will make more of such trips.. It was so nice so nice that I felt bad when I got down at KR Puram.. wish it would extend a little more, I only wish!!

Above all, Thanks to Guruji for choosing us into this path. I know we are blessed and my faith increased further more with this..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Naada Vaibhavam!!!

2011-02-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

"Miracle", "8th Wonder", "Fantabulous", "Amazing"

All the above words combined will not suffice to explain the feeling with which I'm writing this post..

A day of Bliss,

A day of Eternal joy

A day of Completeness

A day of Music

Finally, A day of Divinity

Ladies and Gentlemen, thats "Naada Vaibhavam"

For some experiences we wait for weeks, for some experiences we wait for months. Believe me, for this experience I have waited for few carnations..Some experiences are better unexplained, it is one such.. thats the least I can say about it..

the thought of 5000 musicians is always exciting(in the end we had 5700+).. but the grace took me into such a state that I'm unaware of my emotions.. All I remember is the tears in my eyes when they started singing the Annamacharya Keertana.. Dont know what had actually happened to me but I felt so full and complete as if I'm at the top of the world.. Yes, I'm sure "I WAS AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD"

here is the list of the songs which were sung that day:

1. Manasa Sancharare: My mom say its a Telugu song, someone say its not, whatever it may be it was just unbelievable

2. Song written by Syama Sastry: Its a Tamil song and I dont know the lyrics..

3. Nagumomu kanare: Telugu song written Tyagaraaja Swamy

4. Mrundangam by two musicians: What is this exercise called?? someone told Dhanuratam or something but I dont remember properly..

5. Krishnam Vande

6. Durga Song by Chitra amma

7. One Purandhara Das Keertana

8. Muddu gare Yashoda: Annamayya keertana

9. Raghupati Raghava Rajaram

yes! I did miss one song as the total was ten songs but forgive me guys.. A person at the top of the world is prone to forget few things :P

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

(My next post will be about our tour and few interesting points regarding the slow walkers brigade :))

This Week!!!

2011-01-23T09:33:00.000-08:00

Phew.. what a week this has been??

I'm going mad to say the least..atleast for three reasons i'm shell shocked.. I just dont know how to react and in my typical way i'm laughing at life..the week started with some good things like initiation of a new project etc but later on it was the news of a demise that started the trouble.. then the news of the great scandal that happened in Telugu blogs.. I have a very good group of friends and few foes who want to hurt me.. I must confess that the latest scandal had completely shattered me and now my friends are making awesome fun of what has happened.. well life is so crazy!!

then for the past few days i'm not feeling well mentally.. I couldnt sleep properly for the last few days and deep in my heart i've a feeling that someone close to me is suffering.. I just dont know who it is!! Since yday i have people and enquiring about their well being..ofcourse i'm pretending this as my new year call to them..and today while i'm into my after lunch siesta i've received a text about someone's suicidal tendency.. the messeage went like "rojuku okka time lo anna chachchi povalani anipistondi. em cheyyalo artham kavadam ledu" the person was pretty close to me and i just cant afford to ignore.. then as usual i called some people and sent SOS messages then there seems to be sme positive result as i didnt get any -ve msg..

but God why did you bless me with such situations?? I still remember how me and another friend ran like crazy on bangalore roads a couple of years ago and that memory was still afresh in my mind.. even that was a case of suicide.. though we could avert any worst happening I must confess thats a close shave.. I would have never forgiven myself had i failed to do what i did then.. losing someone as close would mean another "Doom's Call" (yeah, the Doom's call happened on 8th June 2008)

I just dont know what all is happening and I cant understand many things.. All I can do is to submit everything to the divine and trying to be dispassionate..

Om namah Sivaya

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Demotivating!!!

2011-01-17T06:38:00.000-08:00

why is the news about death so demotivating?? hardly an hour ago, i heard about the death of a girl who i through the virtual world.. I never happen to conversed with her directly apart from a couple of "Hi" "Thanks". But still its paining a lot..I'm actually falling short of words.. dont know what to write.. The thought of her family is scaring me, I remember that she lost her father only months ago and now this jolt. I dont know whether she had any siblings or not but I feel for her mother.. Couple of hours ago I was just telling another friend that mother is the biggest gift any human can have and the heart of the mother is the greatest ever.. In such a scenario, imagine the plight of the mother losing a child at an age of 23-24.. just heart breaking.. I myself is feeeling so bad that didnt feel like having dinner then think of that mother..OMG!!!

I dont know what i'm writing makes sense or not but all I pray is for the departed soul and for the mother to get enough strength to overcome this phase..

May God keep the departed soul in his lap..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu..

-Karthik

Holy Grail Obtained!!!

2011-01-08T22:52:00.000-08:00

It was no less than a holy grail when Andrew Strauss & Co. mauled the Aussies to a 3-1 defeat in Sydney this week. SCG which happens to be the venue for many a great battle,today it witnessed a new history written.. A history of self belief, a history of hard work and discipline, more importantly its a history of commitment and dedication.. the present English team dont have any legends of modern day, KP happens to be their only super star and he was also out of sorts before their urn defending has begun.. but the team is studded with street smart players who knew their game very well..the Australian shores are always a nightmare for the visiting teams but this team gave a message that they are no ordinary team.. The top order filled with Straussy, Cooky and Trott is at the moment the best top order you have.. Unless something goes seriously wrong, Trott is going to be the next Dravid around.. He has the temperament to play long innings, he has a solid technique and more importantly he has the hunger for runs.. which makes him the best No.3 batsmen at the moment..

And, what can be said about Alistair Cook??? he stands as the epitome of the attitude and vigor which the English men carried this summer.. his kolkata like partnership with Trott ensured that Aussies are to have similar fate as in that series.. Actually, thats the turning point of the series.. when Hussey-Haddin record partnership gave Aussies the edge, everybody thought its going to be one way again, the Aussie way! But Cook & Trott were unbelievable and made the Aussie bowlers look like school kids.. the steaming bouncers or the teasing length deliveries failed to pursue them into a false shot..they were in complete control of the game as they know their game better than any bowler.. Though they got a couple of reprieves from butter fingered Aussie fielders, overall that partnership was the key in the whole series..

About the bowlers, Jimmy Anderson has redeemed himself after a forgettable Australian tour couple of years ago.. He proved how good a bowler he has turned out to be in the last couple of years.. his line and length were accurate leaving the pitch to do the rest.. though the Aussie openers arent any great players nonetheless they are AUSSIES, arguably the best race of cricket fighters.. Also, he has to get Ponting out in the opposition back yard.. As everybody know Ponting is the best No.3 batsmen in the last decade.. He is the main pillar in many of the big wins Aussie team has won.. For me, the astonishing thing was the respect Greame Swann got from Aussie batsmen.. Swann is not a big turner of the ball but nonetheless a very shrewd and smart competitor.. Despite these things he dont deserve the respect the Aussies have payed him.. Before the series I thought he would be the bowler the Aussies would go after but Swann ensured that he is worth his salt even in the Aussie shores..

Apart from the players, big chunk of credit should go to the English Cricket Board which has ensured that the Englishmen reach Aussie soil a month before the start of the first test and have enough match practice.. Unlike their Indian Counter parts, the English board members have kept game ahead of their financial benefits.. Congrats to them!!

Well, what does this Ashes result mean to the cricketing world?? it means a whole new world. Because going forward no touring team will be afraid of the Aussie soil, the booing crowds and the skeptical umpires. They all will be confident (if not assured) that they can emerge victorious provided they play competitive cricket.. Overall this happens to be the best Ashes I have everseen.. thanks to the Englishmen for lighting it up!!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

wow 2010..

2011-01-04T08:42:00.000-08:00

wow!! what an year it was, just amazing to say the least..

an year of complete joy and ecstasy,

of course, after an year as horrible as 2008 any year should be great but still 2010 was awesome!!

the year started off with my koorg trip which I had to cut in the middle and came back because of my aunt's demise. she was one of the very few relatives whose house I wish to visit, with her demise I lost that option as well :( on the professional front I had my appraisal discussion which cleared me that its time to look for a change in job.. and on 26th Jan I have finally prepared my resume and informed many friends/well wishers..

come Feb, I have cleared the interview in HP and on the other side SMS was bought over by Genpact.. what a time to make a job change.. It cant get any better!! but the HR of SMS caused enough trouble delaying the new offer letter giving me few nervous moments as my HP offer letter will be based on that numbers and on the personal front I had gone to Kurnool after a gap of 6 years.. for my eyes it looks really good, donno why I like that town.. on 31st March I got relieved from SMS paving way to join HP.. on 1st April I became Mama once again as my family is blessed with my niece, her presence mean a whole new world to us.. thats definitely a moment we longed for!!!

In the month of May, my parents along with my sister and niece have come to Bangalore to escape from the blazing Kadapa summer. As I said many times, we have two seasons in Kadapa, 1.summer and 2. extreme summer.. however their presence gave a lot of confidence to me and my fear that my parents cant accustom to bangalore is proved wrong.. In June, the important thing to happen was starting the work in HP and getting involved in few of the activities going on. On the financial side, the month of June was a night mare to me, I had more than 50K unplanned expenses and I payed my a card bill of 20K for 3 months.. Gosh that was crazy spending.. In the blog world, I became more active along with my friends' group called prapisasa. people liked me, hated me abused me but EOD I'M WHAT I'M.. I stick to what I believe in and stand by it through my heart and soul.. on the other side, in the month of May I attended Satsang by Rishiji which is one of dreams in the last year or so and also attended quite afew satsangs followed by Ashtavakra gita. Though most of the content went well above my head, I still liked those for the stories of mulla Naseeruddin and tenali Ramakrishna.. Along side Shushmakka completed her much awaited TTC, way to go!!

Akin to the first half of the year, the second year is also quite eventful.. I attended the summer magic and remained in silence for 3 days which made my friends to file a FIR that I'm missing :) glad to know that some one is caring for me!! after that on the day of Durgashtami I was in a meditative state for almost 6hrs all through the time of pooja, wow! what a day that was!! Following that I started chitramaalika which is a film based website. Then in November, I had learnt a new tool for my professional purposes and that was so cool that I want to prepare a similar one on my own.. will write more details as and when I have smething to share.. On the other side, India have defeated Australia in two back to back test matches and is involved in a fierce duel on the safari soil while Pommies are making merry in the Aussie back yard.

As they say, save the best for the last, many special things happened in Dec.. I went to my dream tour of bhadrachalam/papikondalu (thx to blossom era blogger) and then followed it up with the winter break, six days of stay in ashram is quite superb.. about the bhadrachalam trip I liked the temple more than anything else.. I saw the ornaments for making which Ramadasu was jailed five centuries ago.. It was an honour to watch them.. Also, Gayathri is blessed with a baby girl on 19th Dec, that was icing the cake for that month..

Overall, best things of the year are:

1. Attending the financial literacy workshop

2. Trips of Koorg and Bhadrachalam

3. My cutest niece

4. job change

5. summer magic and winter break

6. Rishiji satsang

7. Gayathri mailing me on my Bday despite her bad health..

8. Shushmakka completing TTC..

and I'm sure 2011 have much more fun, joy & seva awaiting me..

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

congrats to the maestro!!

2010-12-19T06:19:00.000-08:00

great achievement sachin.. the game of cricket is indebted to you.. its not the kohinoors which makes India proud but people like you, with your passion for the game and the attitude of a warrior made you the best cricketer ever born on this planet..

jai ho sachin,

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

karthik

2010 in pics

2010-12-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Happy Birthday

2010-12-05T16:55:00.000-08:00

It happens to be a birthday of two people who are (were?) pretty close to my heart.. though people find it so easy to break the bonds I still respect the time I spent with them and so its my duty to wish them a very very happy birthday.. Incidentally, I have in mind quite a great future for both of them and I always promised my support.. Now that they are no more keen to maintain any relation with me, I wish God would give them all they need..

From my side I don’t have any regrets for anything which I did or which I didn’t. if I’m placed in such situations again, I will behave the same way I did earlier.. because that’s the way this creature called KARTHIK is built..

All I have to say is, if at all there is a God, one day people will realize what they did!!!

Happy Birthday once again..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

2 Yrs of 26/11

2010-11-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

Death of hyd cricket!!!

2010-11-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

the most feared has come alive.. the worst couldnt be averted..eventually its DEATH!!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Hyderabad cricket has touched a new low this week..With a team total of 21 and an innings which couldnt last even for 2hrs, a nude picture of Hyderabad cricket is thrown out.. the HCA website boasts of names like Abbas Ali Baig,ML Jaisimha, VVS Lakshman not to mention the traitor Azharuddin but presently it stands as a pale shadow of its past.. if Brian Lara is the last king of Caribbean, VVS Lakshman is the last man who can make it big into the international scene..

the question everybody ask is "who is to be blamed??" - "players" is the obvious answer but how abt the coach, supporting staff, selection committee?? had one of these wings performed their duty we would not have seen this day..the HCA elections have proved to be more corrupt than the normal MP/MLAelections.. normal biryani/liquor is replaced by costly boutiques like flats, cars etc but the corrupt mentality remained common.. so you ended up with people like Arjun Yadav in the playing XI and people like Ambati Rayudu warming the bench.. HCA had not only dropped to a new low but also killed the careers of people like Ambati Rayudu. Had Rayudu played for any other local team he would have already got a chance to the national team but today he has to go to Mumbai to have match practice and play for the local clubs.. what a pity?? He is facing this whole punishment for his sole blunder called "Playing for Hyderabad"..

Rayudu was one case who came out but who knows how many such have been buried beneath the carpet.. Because HCA is keen to earn money by giving the Uppal stadium for VIP marriages and other functions, players are not allowed to practice if a VIP function is present on a given day.. thats the state of affairs of a Ranji Trophy team in this country.. In such a scenario what else you expect from that team.. the big bosses of HCA are so shameless that exit of the team from the elite group didnt bother them.. Fans in the stands are cheering the wickets of Hyderabad, even then the selectors refused to accept the fact that things are not as per the order and the result is what we see today!!

I fail to see any ray of hope for Hyd. cricket and so feels sorry about the fans, guys- my deep condolences to you all..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

P.S.: Though I dont correlate myself with Hyd. some how I felt sad that such a legacy has been forgotten and great days are only a myth that has passed through..

Financial Planning tips for bachelors!!!

2010-10-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well well well...

Before I jump into the topic let me draw your attention to our perception about money.. Here I'm putting some of the common ideas we have about "money"..

1. Someone is "Filthy rich", "Stinkingly rich"..

2. Being rich implies being corrupt..

3. To become rich one needs to comprimise ethics/morals..

4. Those who are rich dont know what is humility.

and the list goes on..

All these ideas are put into our head either by our parents/elders or by movies we watch.. our hero with a strong character can never hail from a rich household.. He should study in governement schools, drink tap water to fill his stomach, then grows up working hard only to impress the dumbest of girls called "Heroin"..

Having grown up watching such movies its no wonder we have negative perception about having huge bank balances or even thinking about them.. we are afraid to say that we aspire to earn big money.. because we know people will call us "money minded".. Let me clarify something, a huge bank balance never implies corrupt money or unethical earnings.. there are ways to earn money which are legal,ethical and moral.. its only our myopic mindset that we dont realise them..

I know you are too bored reading all the above crap.. now let me give you some gyan, which, (if implemented) will give you some real benefits.. I am going to explain two methods of financial planning which I learnt from some really amazing people who implemented these and are amazingly rich (not filthy rich :))

Method 1:

Divide your total earnings into three groups as follows:

1. Current Expenses- about 30%- 40% of your income can be kept in this group.. meaning which you have to lead your life within this money.. I know, I sound very kanjus but remember the saying "Dont cry for the shoes, be glad that you have the legs to wear".. and within your limit you can go for shameless spending like 1MBPS internet speed, 1BHK seperate house 50K laptop, Nike shoes etc..

2. Donation: A minimum of 10% earnings SHOULD be given to the society. Always remember the primary purpose of this life is to contribute to this planet.. 'Men come, Men Die; Names remain forever' For generations Tata family spends 2/3 of their income to the society.. do you want any other reason for their wealth???

3. Remaining 50%-60% can be grouped as investments.. I dont think sensex is related to sexual abuse or explicit adult content.. so go on.. practice investing small amounts and learn how the market works.. if you think you are too busy to do this.. then go for Mutual funds which are relatively less risky.. and one time investment is always a risk.. so invest periodically. Saying which I mean that invest some amount every month/quarter.. My personal advice is, for 50% go for a bank RD or something like that which is completely risk free and with the remaining amount play with investing options..

the ultimate target of this method is to see that after 10 years 70% of your income is from non-salaried source..

Method 2:

Firstly list out all the expenses that you might end up with in the next 10-15 years. The list goes like:

1. Buying a car

2. Parents medical expenses

3. Kids education (if you are already married or planning to get married in the future)

4. Buying a house/plot in the outskirts of the city..(yep plan for the worst)

5. Travelling all across the globe..

etc etc..

now, every month invest some amount of money for every group mentioned above.. for eg. we invested a substantial sum for my niece's education.. (she is only 7months old now).. if you keep 100 bucks today good chance(if not 100%) that you get something mroe than that.. An uncle of mine envisioned that his sons should go abroad for studies and for a typical APSRTC clerk its a myth but he worked hard planned for a horizon of 10 years and now both his sons are green card holders.. so nothing is too big to achieve. And important of all dont lose hope when you get a loss.. its only the darkness before the dawn..

And finally, people never become rich by money, they become by attitude.. Recently I went across a mind blowing statement by an elderly friend of mine named Pappu Sreenivasa Rao and he wrote in his blog "One need not be our best friend to help. Normal friendship is good enough and if you can think a little big humanity is sufficient!!" Believe me, I was shell shocked by that statement.. hats off Pappu sir sorry Pappu uncle ;)

P.S: This article is like a cripple teaching athletics. Because, on 29th April 2008, My bank balance was Rs 000 ;)

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

I need 36 hours!

2010-10-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

YES!

I really need 36 hours per day.. life is so eventful and the world is full of amazing people how can I compromise with just 24 hours.. I just cant!!

For the last few weeks i'm so choked that I could not find space to write a post in pramaadavanam and finally copy/pasted some crap. Not only this, there are quite a few things which I want to do but I'm not doing and miss them dearly.. let me chalk out what are the things that I'm really longing to do but could not do as much as I like:

1. Playing with my nephew. yeah, I wish to spend at least one day per week with him but off late could not do so .. He is a first quality brat (as I was in my childhood) who uses my branded jeans as a toilet paper and smartly maneuvers the situation with his chubby smile making me ignore remaining things.

2. Doing yoga for two hours. I seriously miss padma sadhana, the ultimate energy booster. nothing more is needed to make one "citius, altius,fortius" :)

3. Reading the novels of Kommuri Sambasiva Rao. I never imagined such a brilliance in 1960s.. and many of his books are atleast 30 years ahead of their time. My fav. one is "Chavu Tappite Chaalu", the first detective fiction in telugu literature.

4. Calling good old pals like Balu, Ramu, Gayathri etc. All I hope is I dont get a question "who are you" when I call them next time. There are quite a few happenings in their lives but its a long time since I lost track of them.. God forgive me!

5. Watching a telugu movie. The last telugu movie I saw in theatre was "Magadheera" some 1.5 years ago and after that I never went to a telugu film. For this, the problem is to get a company as well as to get correct time.. Though people scold telugu movies big time I still wish to watch them because I'M A GULT!

6. Cleaning my house and making it cockroach free zone.. I dont have any hope of this happening in the near futue :(

7. Completing the series of "Forgotten Heros" in my English blog.

As per my standards, its a criminal mistake to miss so many important things in my life.. nonetheless I hope to find a solution to this problem.. and one solution can be having 36 hours a day ;)

End of the day, whats the point of living a life if its not KING SIZE?

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu..

-Karthik

Mandir,Masjid aur Natak!!

2010-09-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

Again the ghost of Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhbhumi has come alive with the Allahabad HC due to deliver the verdict next week.. week before the verdict, the court asked the relevant parties to settle the issue with consensus.. Before worrying about the request of the court lets go back to basics and make an effort to understand this problem..Let me jot down the arguments of two parties in this regard:

Hindu View:
Shri Ram was born in Ayodhya and there was a temple on his name. This temple has been raised to dust by Babar and a mosque was built in that place. That Mosque was "inadvertently"demolished in 1992 and now we need to rebuild the temple.

Muslim View:
The Masjid present there was destroyed by Hindu groups and we need to rebuild it.

A small stat, this karma bhumi is rather the only country in this planet where there are more prayer halls than the number of schools and hospitals.

Firstly I must confess that both the parties have a right to cry foul because their respective prayer halls are demolished by the opposite groups. However its not sufficient to look at them just at the heat of the moment and an effort needs to be made to understand something about the respective religions they are representing(true! they claim to "represent" religions).

Firstly lets look at the Hindu view, Temple demolished some hundreds of years ago so we try to get it back.. now my question is "can you find a village/town in this country where there is no Ram temple?" you just CANT!

Despite so many temples present across the country we crave for another.. isnt it a matter of shame? Hindu religion is the one which taught the world the power of spirituality long before others realized there is some thing called spirit.. and today on the name of such a sacred religion we have these kind of law and order problems..

Now, lets go for the Muslim view, our masjid destroyed so we want to rebuild it. The masjid in focus is anyway not used since 1945 so what would you do with that? another important thing here is Islam dont call for a prayer hall or something to do namaj.. you can just turn to the side of Mecca and can do the prayer. That is the simplicity and humbleness which Islam advocates.(I didnt count on AlQaedas and LeT because calling such savage as muslims is an insult to whole religion)

As in case of any issue the problem is with the mindsets of both sides.. you cant clap with one hand and you cant make a big controversy with one side being adamant. Same is the case here and we should blame both the sides.

What went wrong?

As always the issue has been cloned into a matter of self respect for both the parties and everyone wants their voice to be preferred over the other. In a similar case the Somnath temple was built by replacing the existing masjid over there.. why couldnt we repeat what we did few decades ago? this is another case of how intolerance and arrogance is growing in our society. Plz do mind that i'm not supportig any group nor opposing any! if a hindu and muslim can live for generations as neighbours why cant a hindu God and a muslim God stay in the same way??
the need of the hour is not installing Ram in Ayodhya or rebuilding a masjid, but it is to install the spirit of Ram in each one of us.. Lord Ram is so great a human that he was eventually potrayed as God. He was someone who always performed his dharma (duty) in the best possible way.. he was a perfect son, an adorable husband, a gem of an administrator and a humble human being.. now tell me, how many of the religion saviours have these qualities? atleast one of them, I doubt!
And the rebuilding of masjid demand is evenly ridiculous, it is clearly evident from the ASI report that the disputed structure cant be a masjid.. it has no qualities to coin it as a masjid. Another point to note is that this masjid is not used for the last six decades.. so why cant it be given away?? Apart from superflous egos I dont see any rational stopping it..

Overall, utterly disappointed by the approach of Sangh Parivar in this issue.. want to know why? then wait.. my next post will be definitely on my association,understanding and perception of Sangh..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

Modernism at its best!!!

2010-08-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

WHERE ARE WE GOING?

YES, I'M ASKING THIS, "WHERE ARE WE GOING?"

I'm writing this with immense pain from the deep layers of my heart and with the helplessness of a orphan...Before concluding that i'm mad or insane just see the pic..

From the so called "civilized societies", we learnt to celebrate mothers day, fathers day, valentines day etc etc. there is nothing called husbands day or wifes day because in that societies no affection exists between husband-wife and that relation is meant only for fun. That fun is nothing but two bags of shit and bones rubbing each other with the expectation that they will attain "enjoyment" after sometime.. My doubt is why should someone be loved only one day of an year? why not through out? However, We never learn from them activities like "Students Against Drunken Driving", dignity of labour etc.. but we are damn good at these so called "Traits of Modernism"

And then, one bastard makes nude paintings claiming them as "modern art" and the so called intellectuals go on supporting him lacking the common sense that even hindus are also humans and they also have certain feelings in them. Any opposition on to such things is called "Hindu Talibanism".. good word to use because if at there is any word which the whole of the world hates it is "Talibans". so portray them as demons and keep mocking their sentiments.. I wonder what would that bastard say if his daughter/wife/mother's pic is morphed into a nude pic.

Now, here is the height of all this Modernism. Blendors pride have used Shiva Linga for their advertisement hording. this is present right in the main road of secunderabad.. Is this what our education taught us? Are hindu beliefs so weak in this kharma bhumi? How dare someone use the Lord's pic in that hording and how did the authorities allow it? isnt there any regulatory body to look after these things? In the first place do we need regulatory bodies in these common sense related things? what if tomorrow some one buy a hording and keep a morphed nude pic of a celebrity or a politician?

As some telugu blogger was saying chandrababu envisioned "Svarnaandhra", YSR wanted "Haritaandhra" and now we finally turned into "Alchohol Andhra".. and in such a horrible state what else can happen other than this? politicians are busy with their own earnings and some day there might be a day where alchohol is served in schools as a evening snacks..

Overall, this will remain as a new low touched by us as a society and I'm afraid how far we will go in this way.. I believe the only solution is change in social conditions starting from the individuals. Education system badly needed a overhaul wherein values like compassion, mutual respect and dignity are taught with no less sincerity than Newton's laws..

and finally, I'm NOT apologizing for my verbatim because I believe the relevant parties deserved them.

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Brainstorming, gyan, blah blah blah

2010-08-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

Sometime back there scheduled a brainstorming session of the team I belong and as expected the purpose of this session is to improve team performance along with some corporate gyan. Till date I never witnessed any useful outcome of such sessions and this time thought of doing some serious preparation before the session.. As a policy of going from the basics I have decided to know what is this brainstorming funda.. when I went to google regarding this I found a blog where there are some 25 brainstorming methods are mentioned. you can find the link here.

After going through all of them I was surprised to see that many of those techniques are the ones which I follow involuntarily.. Not only me but many people might be using the same may be we are not aware of it.. let me put some of them which I generally use..

Gap filling: Plain and straight.. answer very simple questions like "what we want?" , "where we stand?" etc and the thread of solution can be found.

Mind Map: Another powerful tool which I used to implement in my engineering days (no wonder I made most out of those four years). keep the goal in the centre and start breaking it into pieces.. similar to a decision tree.. this technique effectively gives the clarity regarding the problem at hand and a problem clearly defined is half solved.

Iconic Figures: This is again something which I use the most. Simply behaving as if it was my icon.. Many times in my life that I averted serious arguments and time wasting conversations just with a thought that "what would Abdul Kalam do in this scene?" " What would Narayana Murthy do?" and when I'm in ethical dilemma, the only icon who guides me is Lord Rama.. A man of unassailable integrity and 100% dedication to the dharma.. he is the example of the saying "Dharmo Rakhsati Rakshitaha"..

SWOT Analysis: The famous "Strength","Weaknesses","Opportunities" and "Threats" framework which enhances your decision making power.

Meditation: True, there are many times when I sat in padmaasan and focussed on a problem closing my eyes.. and after sometime I really found the solution for the problem.. My Btech project related logic striked me when I was travelling and was thinking about that problem.Believe me guys, subconscious mind will never guide mislead you..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu..

-Karthik

Crisis in Pakistan

2010-08-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

Following is the mail I got from UNICEF:

Dear Karthik,

The images from Pakistan are gut-wrenching.

Devastating floods last weekend ravaged homes and crops. 1,400 are already confirmed dead. More than 1 million children are in desperate need of emergency assistance.

UNICEF has mobilized all available resources in the region – distributing hygiene kits and high-energy protein biscuits, repairing tube wells, and setting up medical camps. But with many areas still inaccessible, the needs will only grow in the coming days.

Please donate now and help support relief efforts in Pakistan.

With gratitude,

Caryl M. Stern

President & CEO

U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Dear Karthik,

The news from Pakistan continues to develop by the hour. As more information becomes available, we will share details with you. Visit FieldNotes for the latest images and updates from our field staff there.

In other news, UNICEF is working to end the practice of child marriage. Marriage often marks the end of a girl’s education and the beginning of increased health risks, largely due to complications from early pregnancy.

In Senegal, UNICEF has worked for years to open a dialog on social and health issues with community leaders. Thanks to these efforts, more than 4,000 communities in Senegal have declared their abandonment of child marriage.

Thank you for all you do.

Alisa Aydin

so junta, plz do donate something to those unfortunate people in Pakistan.. I know how much we are suffering due to pakistan but that should not win over the human being within us..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu..

-Karthik

Friendship Day 2010

2010-08-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Today, until now I received 12 text messages and almost same number of mails containing some nice touchy(?) quotes followed by "Happy Friendship Day" so was giving a little thought about this concept called "FRIENDSHIP"..

In the meanwhile I remembered a quotation I read somewhere which goes like:

"You should trust people, because if you are right then you will get a friend, otherwise you will learn a life worthy lesson. Either ways you should trust people"

Two people whom I believed as my friends for years have taught me unforgettable lessons (once in 2005 and the worst in 2008)..The problem here is that the lesson which you learn is sometimes so painful that it makes you feel living one foot away from hell. It is because of this phase that people never trust again lol.. So the big question remaining: "Is friendship needed? If yes, why?"

let me do some brainstorming..

who are the best friends I have?

Do I have any?

Are there anyone who care a damn about me?

As they say there is a selfishness behind every human relation.. so what is my friends' selfishness behind being with me? (prior to that let me confess that I'm clear about my selfishness ;) )..

What is the selfishness can I guess behind all those ISD calls made only to make me feel better?

what selfishness can I see when someone introduces me as her younger brother?

what selfishness can I imagine when someone daily calls me only to ensure that I'm not crying?

what selfishness can I dream when someone gives me a nice hug and says "Here I'm Bro! no more worries"?

what selfishness can I think when someone say "your next hyd trip is going to be in my house"?

what selfishness can I think when someone feeds me as if I'm his first son?

I really donno!!!

but all I want to say is I'm indebted to each one of you just for being with me.. you mean a whole world to me..If Karthik appears to be strong it is only because of the strength you people gave!

If at all I made any earnings in this 26 yrs of life its only only my friends..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu!

-Karthik

Forgotten Heros: Aravinda Desilva

2010-07-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

"ARAVINDA DESILVA"

If at all you remember this name I'm sure you would have started following cricket prior to 1996.. The first time I saw this batsman called "Desilva" was way back in 1994 when SriLanka met West Indies in the Hero Cup in India..(yeah! Hero cup! remember Kumble 12/6?). In that match Windies conveniently won over the Lankans who were then carrying a minnow tag. Though the result of the match was not surprising one batsman particularly caught my attention not for for his shots but for a peculiar reason of breaking his bat into two pieces. In the series further Desilva was the major contributor with the bat for his side and many times was the only contributor.. I consider Desilva as the Abhimanyu of Srilanka who was all alone in the enemy lines fighting hard without giving it up.. thats when I started respecting first and admiring later!
He was not as stylish as Lara or a Sachin. however, he is tough, rigid and always tried to attack bowlers.. He was the one of those players who made Sri Lankans believe that they can make it big at the international arena.. His test highest of 267 was against Kiwis at Basin Reserve way back in 1991. It was in this phase from early 1990s to 1996 that Sri Lankan team went through painful defeats learning the "Art of Winning" and finally they declared their arrival as a strong team in 1996 permanently shedding the tag of minnows. In this process of building a winning team out of nowhere Aravinda's contribution was enormous and unforgettable.. he is their first stalwart who went after opposition bowlers.. He is the man who taught the young bunch to go after the bowlers.. thats precisely the reason why Jayasuriya calls him as his all time favourite player.
Aravinda made his debut against England at Lord's in 1984 and played cricket till 2003 world cup which means a career spanning 19 years.. In any sport playing at international level for such long tenure demands an exceptional commitment coupled with very high degree of passion. It is with this passion for cricket that he has hung around the Sri Lankan cricket and now serving as an administrator..

Finding an aggressive captain like Arjuna Ranatunga was a certain boost for an attacking player like Aravinda.

The 1996 worldcup:
If at all there is a list of golden moments for the Emarald's Isle, the 1996 world cup would definitely have a place in them. No one considered them as a potential candidates for the world cup.. Whole world was euphoric about the Indian chances of world cup, South African strategies and the Aussi jauggernuts but in the end it was Sri Lanka who emerged triumphant... Aravinda played a big big role in this achievement.. starting from his quick fire century against Kenya to the unbeaten ton in the final he was just unstoppable! In both semis as well as the finals it was Aravinda who took the game away from the opposition but I fail to understand why Jayasuriya is credited as the fire of the world cup instead of Aravinda.. All the champions are co‌ined so because they deliver in the big moments, they come to party at the critical junctures, they handle the "big" pressure in their own way.. Now lets see Aravinda's performance in 1996 WC final: 3 wickets, 2 catches and 107*.. can you expect anything more from him? and that too two of the wickets are Mark Taylor, Ricky Ponting and the catch is of leading edge of Steve Waugh's bat..
On a personal front also Aravinda was never in any controversies.. I remember Sachin mentioning Aravinda's cordial help to the Indian players in the need of the hour.. Aravinda's last test was in 2002 where in he made a double century and took a wicket with the last ball of his career.. can there be a farewell better than this? one can find his whole career stats here
Aravinda made his debut against England at Lord's in 1984 and played cricket till 2003 world cup which means a career spanning 19 years.. In any sport playing at international level for such long tenure demands an exceptional commitment coupled with very high degree of passion. It is with this passion for cricket that he has hung around the Sri Lankan cricket and now serving as an administrator..

Overall, I salute Aravinda for his services to the beautiful game of CRICKET..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavatu

-Karthik

3yrs @ Bgl: contd

2010-07-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post that the last one year had been very eventful and evenly exciting. one reason why it is so exciting is that I started living alone and for the first two months I neither had a computer nor a TV. Given the kind of "modern lifestyles" we have it sounds little weird to lead such a life. However, in those two months I never felt I was missing something. And regarding staying alone, people ask me "Dont you get bored?" I reply "bore! how does it look like?".. I sound little arrogant but I have rationale behind it. My sister gifted me a book and there is a question in that which goes like "If you get bored being with you, how boring you should be to others?".. How true!!

And in the month of August I happen to do the YES+ course of "Art of Living Foundation". After this, time ran so quickly that I didnt even realize how fast it was! Regular practice of the "Sudarshan Kriya" increased my energy level to a new high and I feel like I'm going back to engineering days.. As I always say my engineering days witnessed my best performance as a human. Having said that I have no hesitation in claiming that my complete potential is yet to be unleashed. In the latter part of 2009 I had a tough time in the office because I could not solve the problem at hand. But even this failed to make me suffer because by that time I have crossed the barrier called suffering. So I had a bindaas time during the new year as I went home and enjoyed with my two month old nephew.

Meanwhile some thing amazing happened in my blog life! By an unbelievable coincidence I have met a group of creative mavericks and there started a group called "prapisasa". We started as a group of 4 and already reached 20. By far, in the history of telugu blogs we enjoy undisputed popularity with all the records in our bag. we have completed 100 posts with a whopping 17000+ comments.. thats what creativity can attract!! Do join us if you want to have unparalleled and healthy comedy. I should write a seperate post if I have to write about the creativity of our group. Though we started as to mock a Mr. Stupid of telugu blogs we soon became best of friends and are enjoying a lot.. people from different backgrounds, different professions, different geographic locations and yet ready to stand by each other. Sounds strange but thats whats happening! We share a profound bonding and aspire to do something good for the society apart from our funny stories/songs/poems. Lets see how it would go!

On the professional front, early this year I planned a job shift and with divine grace I cleared the first company which I had attempted. At the same time SMS(my earlier organization) was sold out to Genpact which proved my job shift decision to be correct. In April I joined HP and so far didnt do much of the work apart from taking a couple of transitional activities. I'm looking forward to do much in this space!!

In April our family is blessed with a baby girl and thats again a fantastic development in my life.. and because of that my parents finally came and stayed along with me for a month.

Overall this one year of "STAYING ALONE" had been quite eventful on all fronts.. As always ZINDAGI ROCKS!!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu..

-Karthik

3yrs of Bangalore life

2010-07-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

by last week i have completed 3yrs of my bangalore life.. another amazing episode of my life with many great people adding a lot of value to me and made my stay a dream..

first year of my Bangalore life was with my 3 other friends and it was only a logical extension of my hostel life.. the only thorn in the flesh was that some people whom I trusted as my friends let me down with their behavior but then its only human to make mistakes.. on the other side there were people who gave me lift and ended up as my family members..life rocks!!! the specialty of this period was staying as neighbors to burial ground. I wonder how agitated the ghosts would be for having been victimized by our stay.. we had an excellent house owner who would be boozing at 9am everyday. I never understood whether he starts afresh in the morning or could not complete the one started last night.. however he gave us complete license to make as much noise as possible until and unless other neighbors complain.. and about my roomies, all are unique in their own way! one staunch believer of anything traditional, another who claims to have understood Osho's teachings (admittedly Osho never has a place in my popularity list) and the maverick Alchoholic sharp stupid.. yep!! all the words refers to same person.. isnt the combination great?

the second was with my Kanpur senior who used to completely take care of me.. we used his carom board for bothering neighbors, computer for my resume, TV for watching IPL and him for making fun ;) after his marriage when I said him time is running real fast he says we actually spent gud time in our bachelorhood so we feel like that.. everybody used to get surprised to see our combination because its not often to find a gult hanging out with a bihari.. and we had an amazing cook whose knowledge was to fry the dal and then boil it in the cooker.. b/n i had my bike as well, nothing helped me as much as bike did.. i love it.. its a pretty simple one with no circus looks still very efficient and suits a pollution weary being like me.. the rides me and my roomie used to take from koramangala to KR puram at 10PM in the night were awesome and really miss them..

these are all on the personal side, on the professional side also life was evenly eventful and amazing.. as I'm positioned in a gr8 team.. i had the opportunity to learn a lot of things and learn them quickly.. all the SAS,stats and many other blah blah blah came into my life in this period..

and regarding my last one year life I think its better to write a separate post about such a great time..

An Editorial from Dawn

2010-07-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

Dawn is one of the international newspaper which i read everyday (WSJ,telegraph being others). Despite some of the anti India/hindu articles many articles deal with the problems faced by Pakistan.. I particularly like the articles of NFP.. Now, this article is something where the real roots of terrorism are touched.. As of today 8/10 thinks terrorism is caused by Islam/muslims.. and thats what makes this article even more interesting.. please go through it:

US Congressman Howard Berman’s argument is simple enough. Addressing a meeting of US physicians of Pakistani descent, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee stated the obvious on Sunday when he said that democracy cannot prosper if civilian governments do not enjoy complete administrative control over the armed forces.

He pointed to President Barack Obama’s recent decision to change his top commander in Afghanistan, and seemed to suggest that a similar move would not be viable in Pakistan. Mr Berman may be right on this count, nor can it be denied that the democratic process in Pakistan has been repeatedly derailed by military dictators. The Congressman’s comments, incidentally, came a day before the 33rd anniversary of Gen Ziaul Haq’s coup against the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a move that many believe could not have taken place without the tacit support of the US. That was a defining moment in the country’s history and we are suffering from its fallout to this day. Would Pakistan in the 21st century be wracked by militancy and terrorism if the US hadn’t supported Gen Zia and pumped millions into the Afghan ‘jihad’?

The point here is that America has long been hand in glove with military dictators and varied despots, not just in Pakistan but across the globe. In Central and South America it has even engineered coups to oust democratically elected administrations. Bloodbaths followed but that did not deter the US from throwing its full weight behind regimes that were answerable to no one but Washington. US foreign policy inflicted grievous harm on countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Chile and Nicaragua in the Americas and Indonesia and the Philippines in the east. Then there was the generous support for the likes of Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran and of course every single Pakistani dictator dating back to Gen Ayub Khan. A lot of this had to do with the exigencies of the Cold War. But the fact remains that the US itself has derailed democracy throughout the world.

In our case America’s response to military coups has followed a strikingly similar pattern: initial condemnation or criticism, then endorsement and finally whole-hearted support for the junta in question. Mr Berman is no doubt sincere when he says that the US wants to strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan. But what guarantee do Pakistanis have that the self-styled champion of democracy will not play the same old game if the tide somehow turns? Can the US confirm in no uncertain terms that it will never support a Pakistani dictator again irrespective of circumstances?

the original can be found here
.

Again, the old Biblical fable stands true : "A man with a sword will be killed by the same sword".

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

Jai Ho Ratan Tata!!!

2010-07-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

A. The Tata Gesture

All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed.

Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed

The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the “Pav- Bha ji” vendor and the pan shop owners.

During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent by money order.

A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help.

The thoughts and anxieties going on people’s mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided.

Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility.

Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person’s responsibility to act as a “single window” clearance for any help that the person required.

Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner – either through injury or getting killed – were affected.

The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks.

Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what they wanted him to do.

In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.

Whatg is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months.

A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her.

New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts.

Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror.

This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the 3 days that were most horrible.

The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85 lacs [One lakh rupees tranlates to approx 2200 US $ ] in addition to the following benefits:

a. Full last salary for life for the family and dependents;

b. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents – anywhere in the world.

c. Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life.

d. All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount.

e. Counselor for life for each person

B. Epilogue

How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the way they did?

The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behaviour. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs

It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way Tata culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organization has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority

The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.

He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.

When the HR function hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to Ratan – he said – do you think we are doing enough?

The whole approach was that the organisation would spend several hundred crore in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the employees who gave their life?

This is not covered by any news channels

some slokas and their meanings

2010-06-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

finally i have opened my dash board and started writing something!!

today i'm so eager to write about this because the slokas
which i'm going to mention here are so close to my heart that I cant afford to overlook them. here I go:

APAVITRAH PAVITRO VA SARVA VASTHAN GATOPI VA

YAH SMARET PUNDARI-KAKSHAM    SA BAHYA-BHYANTARAH SHUCHIH

Meaning:

whether I'm pure or impure, whatever state of mind/body I am right now

 by chanting your divine name I will become pure.

Generally this sloka is chanted at the starting of any puja/ritual.

 For me this will say two things: how simple were our rituals and praying practices

and the second how much they are polluted by today..

next slokam:

మాణిక్య వీణా ముఫలాలయంతీం
మదాలసాం మంజుల వాగ్విలాసాం
మహేంద్ర నీలద్యుతి కోమలాంగీం
మాతంగకన్యాం మనసా స్మరామి

చతుర్భుజే చంద్రకళావతంసే
కుచోన్నతే కుంకుమరాగశోణే
పుండ్రేక్షు పాశాంకుశ పుష్పబాణహస్తే
నమస్తే! జగదేకమాతః జగదేకమాతః ...ఆ...

this poem (popularly known as shyamala dandakam) is something

which my mother claims to have taught me and  I forgot as i grew up..

so learning this slokam eventually joined my "things to do" list

but i never took it so seriously to learn it

but after listening the slokam sung by Ghantasala garu,

i have no option but to learn!

you can find the video{not good audi0 though :( }  here!

it completely consists of praying Mother shakti.

I love each and every sound of this poem!

and I need not mention that it has been written by mahakavi kalidasa..

one of the greatest poet this country has ever seen

the poem starts with saying the mother as the one holding maanikya veena

then its being said that she was very subtle and gentle followed

 by the claim that she is the daughter of saint Matangaa.

 In the second para, she is being called as the one with four hands

and as beautiful as moon. After that,

there was a mention of the things she carry in her hands..

 what a fantastic description, really awesome!!

next to come is about the slokas ofsri adi sankaracharya.

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik

MAY: The Month of moments

2010-05-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

Wow...

what a month it has been!! simply amazing things happened in a span of this 31 days.. many things which I felt were impossible came true both in a positive way and also in a negative way.. overall a dream is going on in my life..

In the first week my parents, sister and my newly born, yet to be named niece came to bangalore. I always thought my house would not be sufficient if my parents come here but I just dont know how it happened but it was more than enough.. in the three weeks of time when they were here at no point of time that we felt like a conjusted house.. It is in this three weeks time that my sister got operated once again.. its her second operation in a span of 40 days.. however it gave me a chance to realise my potential as I had to stay in the hospital as well as attend the office.. somehow at no point of time I felt tiresome.. may be thats what they call "GRACE"

In the second week Guruji's birthday was there and we celebrated it well.. I personally took responsibility for few of the plants and now committed to the well being of those plants. I dont consider this as an act of philanthropy or something because EOD Bangalore belongs to me NAMMA BENGALURU. In this week there a happened a great satsang by Rishiji.. this was at whitefiled organised by AOL whitefield.. and boyyy.. that was just unbelievable, the flow of energy i experienced there was just amazing.. I felt like going mad that day.. Kudos to team AOL WhiteField.

And then came by birthday.. the best birthday of mine till date.. all through the day my mobile was busy either with the calls or with messages.. the best part being my old friends calling me after some years.. that was always a gr8 feeling and as always ravi was the first caller at 0000hrs.. that day I had cut the cake which my mother personally went and purchased.. thats something really special for me.. because my mom hradly know any shop in here.. Divine preparation was so great that my sister completed her TTC and became an art of living teacher that day itself.. thats icing the cake for me..

The last week was also good as I actively started working in the new job.. however this week was marred by a couple of untoward incidents one is the gun shot at ashram.. ashram is such a serene place with so much of divine energy and yet such a thing happened!! i'm completely puzzled.. I reached ashram a little later than the incident and surprisingly everything was perfect and as usual.. in fact no one knew that such a thing happened untill Guruji announced to us at 8:45PM..

the other happened was me losing my sweet mobile.. I belive my maid has taken it away.. however now I lost 8K one.. its not about the money but it subconciously makes me to look at the maid/servants through a filter called "DOUBT".. I will try my best to be aware and not fall into such mind traps..

On the financial front May is the month where I took a real beating.. Barring my sister's wedding I never spent so much of money in a ftile way.. I almost spent 50K for all unexpected and untimely happenings..

Overall, I learnt a lot and hope to implement them in future..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu..

-Karthik

PS: As I lost my mobile I request junta to mail me their contact numbers..

Power of Forgiving..

2010-05-15T02:07:00.000-07:00

Kathy, a girl, became physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually ill by justifying her hatred towards her father. Her father reportedly abandoned the family - Kathy, her mother & six other children. While at home, he physically abused everyone and they were all terrified of him. None of them knew when he would lose his temper and turn violent.
…..
Kathy was affected by chronic state of anger which caused lots of imbalances in her own life more than anyone else's. She would lash out at those nearby with only the slightest provocation like her father. Her actions cost Kathy heavily, ending up with strained, unhappy relationships and changing job after job.
…..
Hatred and bitterness percolated to her physical levels and she suffered from headaches, stomach problems and eventually developed arthritis. By her twenty-fifth birthday Kathy looked middle aged. She would re-live the miseries of her past each day and cry out that 'he was a terrible person'.
….
She knew she would be better off if only she could learn to forgive her father, but she just couldn't do it, nor did she wanted anyone else to forgive him.
...
Kathy started the process of forgiveness. Lead by her inner guidance and persistent effort, tried to soften her emotions and change her thought patterns. Slowly she came to understand how her father could have acted so violently, she began to feel pity for him, then compassion and then love.
…
A person can move forward with a renewed sense of peace when there is no longer the burden of withheld forgiveness. When Kathy learned to forgive her father, she began to forgive and love herself. Her life transformed into a better one and her physical problems cleared up.
…
" Sharvam shiva-shakthimayam "

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Happy B'day Guruji

2010-05-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

It is today that beloved Guruji came to this planet.. just a quick wishes for him before moving to the tree plantation drive today and a pledge my side to strive for his vision of violence free society... his message is very simple "Productive at work, Peaceful at heart"

Jai Guru Dev

-Karthik

Death: Not Sufficient

2010-05-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

Finally some sort of justice has been done for the murder machine which threw doom on 200 innocent people and sent waves of panic across billions of people in the world. 26/11 created different responses across the world. Many in India were worried because it once again reminded them the bitter fact that their safety is compromised. Many in Pakistan were worried that this might tempt the United States to adopt a stick approach in their diplomacy replacing the existing carrot approach. The FBI & Co. is afraid that the next generation terrorists might use 26/11 as a model for the future attacks.. On a whole the impact of 26/11 on the world in general and on sub continent in particular is quite significant.

Given such an important happening we have a criminal captured and we took some 17 months to finalize the punishment on that blood monger. Thats Indian judiciary for you.. now, my doubt in this whole saga is "Is death sentence sufficient??" the obvious response that would pop up is "what else can you do? thats the maximum".. In my perception death to him is a obvious response but I cannot support the "hanging till death" funda.. He would have been made to run in a open ground and ask the people particularly the kith and kin of the victims to throw stones so as to kill him. I am saying this with the hope that it will reduce the pain of the victims a little.. I completely share their pain and grief so I have no hesitation to go to any extent for consoling them. My suggestion sounds very rude and beastly in nature but it is the "jab we met" funda where kareena kapoor goes on to scold the person who dumped her and claims that she feels better after doing that.. Personally I dont believe in scolding/cursing someone for any reason but here the case is no ordinary.

Another punishment which I would suggest is to burn him alive.. this one suits the case more because given the belief system of the terrorist groups involved "Burning is the worst kind of death" so that would actually hit them where it hurts the most. I remeber using Nasam bombs in "Operation Vijay" because that would kill the enemy by burning and burning to death is the worst form of death for them. My whole point is to show the world that we would not tolerate anyone who harms us.

Though I have given a couple of suggestions the chances of Kasab getting hanged look a little dim, because the Congress govt. might add him into the list of people applied for president's courtesy plea. This will turn him into another Afzal Guru. and the story continues..Yesterday I saw a debate in a television where in one lawyer says that Kasab is already getting punished. According to her being in jail is a punishment enough for the crime he committed. He was treated as a political prisoner and he got access to newspapers also.. I got a doubt that the Indian tax payer spent some 4-5 lakhs a day for that man and some 30% population lies below the poverty line.. so who is getting punished now? the tax payer or Kasab?

Sarvejana Sukhniobhavantu

-Karthik

Grace works!!!

2010-04-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday 17th April,2010. I was tired and having sound sleep in the afternoon when suddenly my mother woke me up saying that some one is calling me over the mobile. when I pick the call realized that the call was intended to know whether I am still there as one piece or not! Yes, that afternoon I was supposed to be there at chinnaswamy and collect the ticket from Gate 13. The explosive was set up at gate 12. No wonder many of my friends called me up to know whether I am fine or not. Because I was so excited about the match that I told to almost everybody I know that I'm going for one of the best matches of IPL. In fact, I booked the ticket almost a month ago and was all set for the match.. but because of some last minute happenings I was needed at my native place and so I got to travel.. from my side I made all possible efforts from to postpone my journey and attend the match. However destiny has something else for me! so I travelled sitting in the last row seat of the bus and in return got saved.. This is the second time that I missed a terror attack.. Back in 2008 when the blast happened near my bus stop also I narrowly missed it taking the bus only an hour earlier..

On the other hand I gave my ticket to a friend and he informed that he was near the stadium at 2PM.. So I was feeling very anxious about his safety.. Had anything happened to him I would have never forgiven myself.. but God has again come for our rescue.. this time in a more dramatic fashion.. My friend happened to go to a official meeting and landed near the stadium along with his laptop.. by virtue of which he was sent back by the security and the blast actually happened when he was returning back.. in the end everything ended well.. all is well ends well.. I need not get hurt to create problems.. but the news that I'm near the stadium would have kept my family into tension..

After this incident, my belief that "HE is taking care of me" has bolstered.. It is because of eternal grace and endless affection of my wellwishers that I'm what I'm today..

Thank you everybody..

sarvejana sukhnibhavantu..

-Karthik

Condolences

2010-04-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

I came to know that Arindam, a well-wisher of mine has lost his beloved mother last night. My deep condolences to the kith and kin. I pray to the almighty to give them enough strength to pass through this tough time.

May God keep the departed soul in his lap..

Sarvejana sukhinobhavantu..

-Karthik

Confessions of a Campus Grad-1

2010-04-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

SMS-read in as the erstwhile Symphony Marketing Solutions now Genpact-SMS

It was on 16th July, 2007 that I started my corporate career with a so called desi company serving the business needs of American firms.. Much to our joy first few months consisted of solid entertainment sessions which corporate jargon coins as training sessions.. As they say, dessert is the most delicious of the menu and so our training sessions acted as the dessert for our student life..

At the end of the training sessions I came to know that I'm going to join a team lead by a person called "Sreekanth Menon" and the manager of the whole R&D unit is "Arindam". Best thing about Arindam is he recognizes talent very soon. (coz its he WHO selected me in the campus ;) :P).

By virtue of being a 100% gult (who eats curd rice with extra curd) I searched for my gult brothers in the team. Seeing two gult names I patted myself thinking that gults are going to be the majority over there :) :) :)

Anyways, when I first met this so called Menon, he was busy chatting in google talk and somehow found time to introduce me to the rest of the team.. where in I recognized one more face who visited campus but did not bother to remember his name. Had I known this person as my future boss I would have memorized his name and also ensured better food during the campus. Rest of the team was even more interesting with no two people having similar profiles. First thing that struck me was the unity with which whole of the team used to go for coffee to the ground floor and they do that every day..

Slowly but steadily I started working going through a never ending chain of materials and did a good number of experiments in SAS.. only I know how many files I created with names test.sas,test1.sas,tt.sas,tt1.sas and the list goes on!! Incidentally the first project I started working was the similarity project for which I defined the problem in my own way and started working in a weird way.. however as a typical IRI tradition that was kept on hold and a new project was started which I call "Manus tool". This, unarguably is the most challenging project I did so far.. phew!! dimag kharab hogaya tha!

Soon the analytics wing of SSC is segmented as SMS and we moved the new building on the ring road. Here started the real fun for the people as I started sitting along with the remaining team. people like Chethan, Pandeyji made a prototype hell out of me but the bigger culprit was Nirav the predator who is always on hunt for bakras and many a time that hunt used to end with me as the prey.

By Feb 2008 I became a full time member of the MSciE Team, and the problems I am dealing were matching with the uniqueness of my clients.. absolutely no similarties between the problems as well as among the members of the client team. As time progressed things became very interesting with mails of different colors and not all of them are memorable..

For the first few months I relied on Sreekanth for almost everything.. doubts in ppts to project expectation but later it was Pandeyji who suffered big time.. I dont think I will irritate anyone the way I irritated him.. but thik hein, after all I'm his first subordinate and I think I'm entitled that privilege. Apart from these, the ones who I generally bug are the mainframe Mozarts. Both Annayya and Madhu did help me big time solving all the crappy errors mainframe threw at me..

By the mid of 2008, I started taking calls with the client all alone and this was quite a boost for me because I know my batch mates who are not even allowed write their own mails to the clients.. Considering them I was on cloud 9 for the team's modus operandi. In the mean time Abhisek joined the team and till then our team happens to be the only team which had no Genpact alamnus. However, this statistic doesnt carry weight as whole of SMS became a Genpact subsidiary now.

Later it was all amazing fun with me, Abhisek, sumita settling in our grooves and work life never seemed to be much different from my campus.. By Jan 2009 Kashyap joined us. Even he was a tailor made suite for the kind of crazy team he is into! Many many cherishable moments in just two and half years of time.. but if I have to name the best moments with my team it will be Madhu's bachelor's party.. though a shirt of mine got spoilt it was like a picnic night for us.. laughing screaming shouting... what not that we didnt do on that day?

On a whole the best thing about my SMS work life is the team I worked with.. Starting from Arindam, all the people are really fun loving and truly professional. and because of these guys that my work life looked as a logical continuation of my campus life!!

Thanks a million to everyone of the team!!

will be continued in the next post as well..

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

KFC, McD special for you!!

2010-03-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

I express my sincere gratitude to my friend Amritesh for sharing this with me!

Dedicated to all the fans of KFC and McD..

Foie Gras

Foie Gras Foie Gras means "Fat Liver"
It's very very luxury menu that originates from France But this dish comes from FORCE FEEDING a goose to make them develope FATTY LIVER DISEASE.

Let's see the source of this wonderful dish

The geese are forced to eat.. even if it does not desire to

The metal pipe pass through the throat to stomach ...even if it does not want to eat anything
To make the liver bigger and fatter

Cages are very small and they force the geese to stay in one position to avoid using energy, thus converting all food into fat.

How sad their eyes show up Their legs were bloated from long standing everyday. No need to sleep because they will be caught to eat again

Although they try to defend themselves But it is useless

How sad this life is..

They are forced to eat until they are dead or their bodies cant stand with this
You see... the food is over its mouth

The left who survive have crapped to be inflamed asses...blood easily come up with the shit

Not only mouth hurt, throat hurt , all time stomach ache from the food , Fat to bloated legs , no sleep , no excercise But also no free movement for life to see the sky or river

This your Healthy Liver like those Chicken

To get the beautiful and white liver that becomes unusually big like this
As Liver-canned from aboard

STOP THE DAILY TORTURE AND CRUELTY TO THE POOR ANIMAL. STOP TAKING THIS DISH OR PRODUCT NOW.
STOP THE DEMAND AND THE SUPPLY WILL END.

15th March

2010-03-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

15th March...

If at all I like a day in a calender, if at all I wait for the arrival of a day it is this day 15th March!!

There are few very strong reasons for me liking this day.. one is that 32 years ago it was on this day that my parents got married and "my family" started.. that alone is one of the biggest event of my life and adding to that there is one more important thing which makes me to sit on cloud 9. let me recall what actually happened.. believe me I remember every moment of that day...

Five years ago, 15th March,2005..

Time 9AM: I am sitting in the veranda h of my house trying to take my thoughts away from something.. my mother is shouting from the inside saying "Dont feel tensed.. whatever has to happen will happen".. I was just nodding my head...

Time 10AM: I sat just beside the phone awaiting phone calls.. but the phone didnt ring.. I'm not sure whether me calling will get reply or not.. becasue most of my friends have gone to college. I didnt go because I want that first hand experience only for me!

Time 11AM: Now I got my Instrumentation and Control Engineering book and trying to read it! For me its one of the most boring things I have ever read but still I am reading it.. After a while I started reading as if I am chanting some mantras..but the phone is not ringing even now!!

Time 12Noon: No ringing of the phone even now!!! I'm saying to myself "Chalo Bangalore..Tension nahi lene kaa"..

and at 12:20PM finally the phone rings... as expected ravi called me on however even he dont have the news i was waiting for and I knew that..

within minutes I starting peddling my favourite vehicle and reached a placed called Bharat Institute of Technology Systems..Yeah! I spelled it right, dont think too much about it. its just a cyber cafe which we regularly visit!

the environment over there was anxious people were talking different things.. that guy got that this person was disqualified etc etc and once i reached there people asked me about my position. My reply was that I am not aware as I didnt move out of my house.. then ravi started looking for my result and praveen started dialing the chennai number.. however I was standing idle waiting which one would give me the result soon and even nervous question was what will be the news?

After a few minutes ravi started screaming something which I could not understand in the first go however from his face I could make out that something was good.. once I reached the computer I saw it was "AIR: 51 and 97.13%"

that figure made me forget all my effort which I have taken in the last four years.. true!! the GATE rank was the first step of making my dream a reality... it was in 2001 that I have taken a sankalpa to get through GATE with a good percentile.. and it became a reality on 15th March 2005!!

thats why I long to cross this day every year, I wait to meet this day everyday ;) ;)

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu!!

-Karthik

Tussi GOD Ho!!

2010-02-24T07:08:00.000-08:00

Stupendous!

Fantastic!

Magnificent!

Fantabulous!

Wow!!

.......

I can keep on writing adjectives but I'm not sure whether I am able to convey my feeling completely.. at times words doesnt suffice to give the complete feeling and this is one such happening.. a sense of utter happiness and amazement coupled with disbelief..

Couple of hours ago, the first double century of ODI cricket has been scored by SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR.. what an innings it has been!! 226 minutes..147 balls 25 fours and 3 sixes...

absolutely amazing.. he remained there for all the 50 overs and made the miracle happen!! who else deserve it better than him? two decades of international cricket and still rearing to go!! many people who came into lime light after him faded away before him but his hunger for runs is not quenched...

this particular innings of 200 is special because this has been made against an opposition which consists of the best bowler in the world.. True! the proteas didnt bowl that badly either, some of the yorkers bowled by Rolef Vander Merve and Kallis are master pieces.. yet there is a 200 against Sachin Tendulkar's name..

thats Sachin at his best!! today world has seen what he is capable of.. But this 200 hasnt come to him so easily.. there is a Chennai 1999 and there are traitors like Azhar and Mongia.. and he has to pass through all those things.. I still remember how disappointed he was after that devastating match against Pakistan. In fact he didnt even come to collect the Man of the Match award.

there are many people who showered their praise on Sachin but my favorite one is the one given by Mathew Hayden " I have seen God, He bats at No.4 for India" YES he is GOD.. no doubt about it..

Jai Ho Sachin

this is my 100th post in this blog.. thanx for all the viewers of my blog..

-Karthik

Achyutam Keshavam!!

2010-02-18T09:20:00.000-08:00

Blessed are the ones who sang this song..

Blessed are the ones who composed this song.. and

Blessed are the ones who listen this song..

Radhe Shyam

Sunny Days: Sunil Gavaskar

2010-02-14T21:04:00.000-08:00

Sunny Days is part of the Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus printed by Rupa & Co..

Name: The Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus

Author: Sunil Manohar Gavaskar

Publisher: Rupa & Co.

First Printed: 1999

As the book is a Omnibus it didnt contain any formal "foreword" and the first chapter starts just after the contents.. As expected from a biography the book is arranged in the chronological order of the events happened in Snnyr's life.. However, the first chapter starts with the most weird incident happened just after Sunny's birth.. because of a serious goof up by the hospital authorities, Sunny was taken by fisher-woman. Sunny just exclaims what would he be doing had he remained with that fisher woman!

The first four chapters contains about the details of Sunny's stint with his school as well as college teams and the keenness of school boys towards their club teams and Ranji trophy.. Regarding the inter university tournament, Sunny hasnt got any hesitation in expressing his disgust towards the treatment received by the players of the club teams when they tour outside their native places.. It shows the other side of becoming a cricketer as the fact that young cricketers are made to sleep on floor without proper mattress or a blankets.. Hope things have changed by now. While illustrating his debut in Ranji Trophy Sunny recollected the booing of the crowd after his five ball duck against Mysore.. Sunny took that booing as the result of propaganda that Sunny was in the team because of his uncle Madhav Mantri who was then a member of the selection panel. However, with the century against Rajasthan in his second match people realised that Sunny chose his bat to answer all the propaganda! In the same note he explained his tour to Sri Lanka as a member of the Indian Universities team.

Starting from the fifth chapter named as the "Caribbean Journey", the next four chapters contains Sunny's experiences in the 1970-71 Carribbean tour which is Sunny's first tour as the member of the Indian team. It was in this tour that Sunny declared his arrival to the world. With an aggregate of 774 runs at a startling average of more than 100 it was Sunny's way of saying "Ram Ram Saib" to the cricket world.. Dedicating four chapters to one series of his career shows what that series means for the individual. In the starting of the ninth chapter Sunny proudly presents the calypso which has been prepared on his name!

"It was Gavaskar

The real master

Just like a wall

We couldn't out Gavaskar at all

Not at all

You know the West Indies couldn't out Gavaskar at all."

Then there was a mention about India's first triumph on English soil which happened just after the Caribbean victory. As expected Sunny was pleased to make a note of this..After these glorious days he mentioned his OZ trip as part of the Rest of the World team and made quite a few remarks about his interaction with greats of that era.. there was a mention of many incidents in this chapter but the best of them was regarding Ackerman, I dont wast to write my view about it but rather want to present it un altered. Here you go:

Tony Greig and Ackerman had flown in from Soth Africa, and were received at Adelaide airport by Gary Sobers and an elderly looking gentleman. Gary mumbled an introduction and Greig and Ackerman, both tired from the long journey sleepily mumbled 'hello' and sat down for a cup of coffee. While waiting to go to the hotel Ackerman asked the gentleman to hold his overnight bag while he went to the toilet to freshen himself up. When he returned, he made some polite conversation and then asked the gentleman if he was connected to the Australian Cricket. The gentleman replied in affirmative. Ackerman asked him if he had played cricket, to which the reply was again a yes. Since Ackerman had caught the gentleman's name properly, he asked him "What did you say your name was?" The answer was "DON BRADMAN!"

Not only the above mentioned one there are several interesting incidents which Sunny narrated. These all things will definitely help the readers understand the cordial relations existing in the cricketing community. Also, few of the unpleasant events were also mentioned in the book. The most unfortunate one was the verbal spat between Bishen Singh Bedi and Ajit Wadekar at some one's house in England. In Sunny's words this has did a lot of damage to the team spirit of the touring Indian team..Apart from these, Sunny took a dig at the English media as well as the English Cricket more than often. Sunny gladly expressed his love towards Trinidad where he averages more than 100. As a mumbaikar Sunny has done justice to his native by dedicating a whole chapter to Bombay and the passion of the Bombay players. Just to remind, staring from late 1950 Bombay have won 14 straight ranji trophies..No wonder Indian cricket was ruled by Bombay cricket in 70s and 80s.

Overall, the book never makes you feel bored and was a pleasure to read!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Next to come: My Country, My Life-L.K. Advani.

My INDIA..My Country

2010-01-26T09:53:00.000-08:00

On the eve of the Republic Day i just thought to give a fresh look at the age old miracles of this "karma bhumi"...

Filthy Fourth Estate

2010-01-24T02:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had been to a friend's place and was watching some news channels.. every few minutes I observe some opinions or some updates keep breaking on the screen. Of course now every news in this country is a "breaking news" I  never really understood what they mean by "breaking"! did the news came out after breaking something? I really dont know!!

"15 Mumbai students committing suicides in 15 days"
what prompted those 15 kids to put an abrupt end to their lives?

as of today this question remains unanswered!!

why is the media running away from probing this?? I have not seen any of the so called "investigative journalist team" making a move in this direction. End of the day this topic also has the potential to increase their TRP because the biggest selling formula in today's media is "Negative sells" but still nothing happened in this direction. If media can make merry about the Arushi case why cant they repeat the same now..The simple reason which I could see is the IPL -Pak controversy!

Majority of the opinions or updates in the TV channels are regarding the IPL-Pakistani player controversy.. once Ramiz Raja says something, later Ajay Jadeja says something else.. and media is too busy to care about other happenings in the country.. I have seen an article in Today's Times of India written by Bobbili Vijay Kumar in the sports column advocating a theory that "Govt is not happy about moving of IPL-2009 out of India and Its the congress's way of settling score with Lalit modi" who cares if a conspiracy is present or not?? these buggers just want some material to fill in their columns and wrote what ever sounds appealing. of course they do ensure that an emotional drama is present in their columns because EOD the mantra is "negative sells"

Expecting unbiased news is too much from today's media as most of the channels/news groups have political affiliations.. Its a fact that the two of the  biggest news groups in states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu are under the constant surveillance of their political masters.. And I refrain to talk about channels like TV9 in Andhra Pradesh because I dont like to use profane language in my blog and its a Herculean task to talk about these people without using profane language!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

2009...

2009-12-29T07:44:00.000-08:00

wow!!
how fast!!
another year passed..
'2009', a time when many unexpected things happened to me as a person, to the state from which i hail and to my country. let me give a fresh look to what has happened.

the month of January started with me working over the weekend regarding the similarity project, i still remember that i was late to the new year carom championship at my home. Then i had my appraisal discussion on the 13th Jan. It was in the last week of Jan that I spent some time in Hyderabad. i think this is the first time that i spent more than 2 days in hyd. The month of Feb started with the worst news that there is no salary hike this year (worst news of the year). I didnt heed the significance of that decision when i first heard of it. but soon i realized how critical it is!! on the professional front i took on my nemesis for the nth time hoping to make something out of it. As usual it turned out to be another horrible experience where in me as person and we as team were placed in a precarious position. Soon we worked as a team and it really took quite some time to come out of it. On the personal side nothing really was happening and the only productive thing was I started to write my telugu blog more often than before. At that time that's the only refreshing hobby i have!
the months of April and May were marked by function which i didnt attend and the IPL. Firstly, IPL was a treat to watch as I had the luxury of LCD 32" monitor. As an ardent RCB fan i'm disturbed to see my team losing but thats the way it is! the team which i like the least have won the trophy. There might a match fixing scandal behind this as many matches gave dubious results. EOD it was intended for fun and it served the purpose. Apart from this there were the elections and the loss of BJP at the center and TDP at the state had hurt me. Still, I continue supporting the non-congress parties. On the personal front, I could NOT attend some important functions which I'm supposed to attend. Of which, skipping Gayathri's wedding was very much an upset for me. Month of June started with me going to the boiling Lucknow where the two days i spent has reminded me my childhood days in kadapa. phew!! it was nastily hot. the month of July will be reminded for the accident which me and my sister had as well as the mistakes which i made German perfumerie project. Overall the German perfumerie project will remain as something in which i made maximum mistakes, I cant do that many mistakes and that kind of mistakes again. July and August were eventful as I have started living alone, my dear friend Ramu has got married and Krishna (my ex roomie) is blessed with twins. In september , we have started the investigation of SER results in Spain and Holland which was quite value adding in terms of investigating a result.. The month of October will is very memorable as we celebrated a special diwali with Advaith entering my family. He is the first kid in the house only after me..and the Almighty chose Diwali to gift us.. After Diwali Ravi got married which is again a very happy moment in this year. So October passed as a month of special bonanzas!!
then in Nov we thought of the discounters project but opted to start my nemesis again, this time for France. It is proved to be a big challenge till now as things are very different from country to country and similarities/asimilarities are very hard to understand. overall this would be a good experience. On the other side I went to Bokaro to attend my roomie's wedding and eventually passed by Kolkata. My childhood saying of "I went to Calcutta" came true after some 20 years!!
Regarding my personal finances, this year is a reasonably better one than 2008 as most of the times my bank balance was a 4-5 digit figure and it was even a six digit figure for few days (thanks to citibank). Though i took some tough calls, it was a good year..
Overall, though its not a great year on the professional front, I didnt feel that void as i kept myself busy and involved in other things. on the personal front its a fantastic year as my sister's family is back from US , I got a nephew, many of my friends got married.
The best moment of this year is the satisfaction i got after calling my friends asking blood for a poor mother. I called five people and none of them denied my request, in fact they didnt ask me to whom i was asking for!! I'm blessed to have such people as my friends..
The biggest lesson of this year is that salary is a very significant component in motivating oneself to go that extra mile.. I realised the difficulty in motivating myself to give my 100%!! Anyways I evolved as a better,tougher human being ..
2007- I got Job
2008-I got a brother in law
2009-I got a nephew
2010-??
let time take the onus of filling that blank...

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

pics of 2009

2009-12-26T07:53:00.001-08:00

Black Day!!! nothing to write

2009-12-10T19:39:00.001-08:00

God sees truth but waits...

2009-12-05T03:57:00.000-08:00

This is a story which i read as part of my english syllabus. Today i found it as i was searching for some other thing. the Russian original was written by Leo Tolstoy. I found it at this link. After the story i remember my teacher telling us "its not human's job to punish others"... how true!!!

In the town of Vladimir lived a young merchant named Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov. He had two shops and a house of his own.

Aksionov was a handsome, fair-haired, curly-headed fellow, full of fun, and very fond of singing. When quite a young man he had been given to drink, and was riotous when he had had too much; but after he married he gave up drinking, except now and then.

One summer Aksionov was going to the Nizhny Fair, and as he bade good-bye to his family, his wife said to him, "Ivan Dmitrich, do not start to-day; I have had a bad dream about you."

Aksionov laughed, and said, "You are afraid that when I get to the fair I shall go on a spree."

His wife replied: "I do not know what I am afraid of; all I know is that I had a bad dream. I dreamt you returned from the town, and when you took off your cap I saw that your hair was quite grey."

Aksionov laughed. "That's a lucky sign," said he. "See if I don't sell out all my goods, and bring you some presents from the fair."

So he said good-bye to his family, and drove away.

When he had travelled half-way, he met a merchant whom he knew, and they put up at the same inn for the night. They had some tea together, and then went to bed in adjoining rooms.

It was not Aksionov's habit to sleep late, and, wishing to travel while it was still cool, he aroused his driver before dawn, and told him to put in the horses.

Then he made his way across to the landlord of the inn (who lived in a cottage at the back), paid his bill, and continued his journey.

When he had gone about twenty-five miles, he stopped for the horses to be fed. Aksionov rested awhile in the passage of the inn, then he stepped out into the porch, and, ordering a samovar to be heated, got out his guitar and began to play.

Suddenly a troika drove up with tinkling bells and an official alighted, followed by two soldiers. He came to Aksionov and began to question him, asking him who he was and whence he came. Aksionov answered him fully, and said, "Won't you have some tea with me?" But the official went on cross-questioning him and asking him. "Where did you spend last night? Were you alone, or with a fellow-merchant? Did you see the other merchant this morning? Why did you leave the inn before dawn?"

Aksionov wondered why he was asked all these questions, but he described all that had happened, and then added, "Why do you cross-question me as if I were a thief or a robber? I am travelling on business of my own, and there is no need to question me."

Then the official, calling the soldiers, said, "I am the police-officer of this district, and I question you because the merchant with whom you spent last night has been found with his throat cut. We must search your things."

They entered the house. The soldiers and the police-officer unstrapped Aksionov's luggage and searched it. Suddenly the officer drew a knife out of a bag, crying, "Whose knife is this?"

Aksionov looked, and seeing a blood-stained knife taken from his bag, he was frightened.

"How is it there is blood on this knife?"

Aksionov tried to answer, but could hardly utter a word, and only stammered: "I--don't know--not mine." Then the police-officer said: "This morning the merchant was found in bed with his throat cut. You are the only person who could have done it. The house was locked from inside, and no one else was there. Here is this blood-stained knife in your bag and your face and manner betray you! Tell me how you killed him, and how much money you stole?"

Aksionov swore he had not done it; that he had not seen the merchant after they had had tea together; that he had no money except eight thousand rubles of his own, and that the knife was not his. But his voice was broken, his face pale, and he trembled with fear as though he went guilty.

The police-officer ordered the soldiers to bind Aksionov and to put him in the cart. As they tied his feet together and flung him into the cart, Aksionov crossed himself and wept. His money and goods were taken from him, and he was sent to the nearest town and imprisoned there. Enquiries as to his character were made in Vladimir. The merchants and other inhabitants of that town said that in former days he used to drink and waste his time, but that he was a good man. Then the trial came on: he was charged with murdering a merchant from Ryazan, and robbing him of twenty thousand rubles.

His wife was in despair, and did not know what to believe. Her children were all quite small; one was a baby at her breast. Taking them all with her, she went to the town where her husband was in jail. At first she was not allowed to see him; but after much begging, she obtained permission from the officials, and was taken to him. When she saw her husband in prison-dress and in chains, shut up with thieves and criminals, she fell down, and did not come to her senses for a long time. Then she drew her children to her, and sat down near him. She told him of things at home, and asked about what had happened to him. He told her all, and she asked, "What can we do now?"

"We must petition the Czar not to let an innocent man perish."

His wife told him that she had sent a petition to the Czar, but it had not been accepted.

Aksionov did not reply, but only looked downcast.

Then his wife said, "It was not for nothing I dreamt your hair had turned grey. You remember? You should not have started that day." And passing her fingers through his hair, she said: "Vanya dearest, tell your wife the truth; was it not you who did it?"

"So you, too, suspect me!" said Aksionov, and, hiding his face in his hands, he began to weep. Then a soldier came to say that the wife and children must go away; and Aksionov said good-bye to his family for the last time.

When they were gone, Aksionov recalled what had been said, and when he remembered that his wife also had suspected him, he said to himself, "It seems that only God can know the truth; it is to Him alone we must appeal, and from Him alone expect mercy."

And Aksionov wrote no more petitions; gave up all hope, and only prayed to God.

Aksionov was condemned to be flogged and sent to the mines. So he was flogged with a knot, and when the wounds made by the knot were healed, he was driven to Siberia with other convicts.

For twenty-six years Aksionov lived as a convict in Siberia. His hair turned white as snow, and his beard grew long, thin, and grey. All his mirth went; he stooped; he walked slowly, spoke little, and never laughed, but he often prayed.

In prison Aksionov learnt to make boots, and earned a little money, with which he bought The Lives of the Saints. He read this book when there was light enough in the prison; and on Sundays in the prison-church he read the lessons and sang in the choir; for his voice was still good.

The prison authorities liked Aksionov for his meekness, and his fellow-prisoners respected him: they called him "Grandfather," and "The Saint." When they wanted to petition the prison authorities about anything, they always made Aksionov their spokesman, and when there were quarrels among the prisoners they came to him to put things right, and to judge the matter.

No news reached Aksionov from his home, and he did not even know if his wife and children were still alive.

One day a fresh gang of convicts came to the prison. In the evening the old prisoners collected round the new ones and asked them what towns or villages they came from, and what they were sentenced for. Among the rest Aksionov sat down near the newcomers, and listened with downcast air to what was said.

One of the new convicts, a tall, strong man of sixty, with a closely-cropped grey beard, was telling the others what be had been arrested for.

"Well, friends," he said, "I only took a horse that was tied to a sledge, and I was arrested and accused of stealing. I said I had only taken it to get home quicker, and had then let it go; besides, the driver was a personal friend of mine. So I said, 'It's all right.' 'No,' said they, 'you stole it.' But how or where I stole it they could not say. I once really did something wrong, and ought by rights to have come here long ago, but that time I was not found out. Now I have been sent here for nothing at all... Eh, but it's lies I'm telling you; I've been to Siberia before, but I did not stay long."

"Where are you from?" asked some one.

"From Vladimir. My family are of that town. My name is Makar, and they also call me Semyonich."

Aksionov raised his head and said: "Tell me, Semyonich, do you know anything of the merchants Aksionov of Vladimir? Are they still alive?"

"Know them? Of course I do. The Aksionovs are rich, though their father is in Siberia: a sinner like ourselves, it seems! As for you, Gran'dad, how did you come here?"

Aksionov did not like to speak of his misfortune. He only sighed, and said, "For my sins I have been in prison these twenty-six years."

"What sins?" asked Makar Semyonich.

But Aksionov only said, "Well, well--I must have deserved it!" He would have said no more, but his companions told the newcomers how Aksionov came to be in Siberia; how some one had killed a merchant, and had put the knife among Aksionov's things, and Aksionov had been unjustly condemned.

When Makar Semyonich heard this, he looked at Aksionov, slapped his own knee, and exclaimed, "Well, this is wonderful! Really wonderful! But how old you've grown, Gran'dad!"

The others asked him why he was so surprised, and where he had seen Aksionov before; but Makar Semyonich did not reply. He only said: "It's wonderful that we should meet here, lads!"

These words made Aksionov wonder whether this man knew who had killed the merchant; so he said, "Perhaps, Semyonich, you have heard of that affair, or maybe you've seen me before?"

"How could I help hearing? The world's full of rumours. But it's a long time ago, and I've forgotten what I heard."

"Perhaps you heard who killed the merchant?" asked Aksionov.

Makar Semyonich laughed, and replied: "It must have been him in whose bag the knife was found! If some one else hid the knife there, 'He's not a thief till he's caught,' as the saying is. How could any one put a knife into your bag while it was under your head? It would surely have woke you up."

When Aksionov heard these words, he felt sure this was the man who had killed the merchant. He rose and went away. All that night Aksionov lay awake. He felt terribly unhappy, and all sorts of images rose in his mind. There was the image of his wife as she was when he parted from her to go to the fair. He saw her as if she were present; her face and her eyes rose before him; he heard her speak and laugh. Then he saw his children, quite little, as they: were at that time: one with a little cloak on, another at his mother's breast. And then he remembered himself as he used to be-young and merry. He remembered how he sat playing the guitar in the porch of the inn where he was arrested, and how free from care he had been. He saw, in his mind, the place where he was flogged, the executioner, and the people standing around; the chains, the convicts, all the twenty-six years of his prison life, and his premature old age. The thought of it all made him so wretched that he was ready to kill himself.

"And it's all that villain's doing!" thought Aksionov. And his anger was so great against Makar Semyonich that he longed for vengeance, even if he himself should perish for it. He kept repeating prayers all night, but could get no peace. During the day he did not go near Makar Semyonich, nor even look at him.

A fortnight passed in this way. Aksionov could not sleep at night, and was so miserable that he did not know what to do.

One night as he was walking about the prison he noticed some earth that came rolling out from under one of the shelves on which the prisoners slept. He stopped to see what it was. Suddenly Makar Semyonich crept out from under the shelf, and looked up at Aksionov with frightened face. Aksionov tried to pass without looking at him, but Makar seized his hand and told him that he had dug a hole under the wall, getting rid of the earth by putting it into his high-boots, and emptying it out every day on the road when the prisoners were driven to their work.

"Just you keep quiet, old man, and you shall get out too. If you blab, they'll flog the life out of me, but I will kill you first."

Aksionov trembled with anger as he looked at his enemy. He drew his hand away, saying, "I have no wish to escape, and you have no need to kill me; you killed me long ago! As to telling of you--I may do so or not, as God shall direct."

Next day, when the convicts were led out to work, the convoy soldiers noticed that one or other of the prisoners emptied some earth out of his boots. The prison was searched and the tunnel found. The Governor came and questioned all the prisoners to find out who had dug the hole. They all denied any knowledge of it. Those who knew would not betray Makar Semyonich, knowing he would be flogged almost to death. At last the Governor turned to Aksionov whom he knew to be a just man, and said:

"You are a truthful old man; tell me, before God, who dug the hole?"

Makar Semyonich stood as if he were quite unconcerned, looking at the Governor and not so much as glancing at Aksionov. Aksionov's lips and hands trembled, and for a long time he could not utter a word. He thought, "Why should I screen him who ruined my life? Let him pay for what I have suffered. But if I tell, they will probably flog the life out of him, and maybe I suspect him wrongly. And, after all, what good would it be to me?"

"Well, old man," repeated the Governor, "tell me the truth: who has been digging under the wall?"

Aksionov glanced at Makar Semyonich, and said, "I cannot say, your honour. It is not God's will that I should tell! Do what you like with me; I am your hands."

However much the Governor! tried, Aksionov would say no more, and so the matter had to be left.

That night, when Aksionov was lying on his bed and just beginning to doze, some one came quietly and sat down on his bed. He peered through the darkness and recognised Makar.

"What more do you want of me?" asked Aksionov. "Why have you come here?"

Makar Semyonich was silent. So Aksionov sat up and said, "What do you want? Go away, or I will call the guard!"

Makar Semyonich bent close over Aksionov, and whispered, "Ivan Dmitrich, forgive me!"

"What for?" asked Aksionov.

"It was I who killed the merchant and hid the knife among your things. I meant to kill you too, but I heard a noise outside, so I hid the knife in your bag and escaped out of the window."

Aksionov was silent, and did not know what to say. Makar Semyonich slid off the bed-shelf and knelt upon the ground. "Ivan Dmitrich," said he, "forgive me! For the love of God, forgive me! I will confess that it was I who killed the merchant, and you will be released and can go to your home."

"It is easy for you to talk," said Aksionov, "but I have suffered for you these twenty-six years. Where could I go to now?... My wife is dead, and my children have forgotten me. I have nowhere to go..."

Makar Semyonich did not rise, but beat his head on the floor. "Ivan Dmitrich, forgive me!" he cried. "When they flogged me with the knot it was not so hard to bear as it is to see you now ... yet you had pity on me, and did not tell. For Christ's sake forgive me, wretch that I am!" And he began to sob.

When Aksionov heard him sobbing he, too, began to weep. "God will forgive you!" said he. "Maybe I am a hundred times worse than you." And at these words his heart grew light, and the longing for home left him. He no longer had any desire to leave the prison, but only hoped for his last hour to come.

In spite of what Aksionov had said, Makar Semyonich confessed, his guilt. But when the order for his release came, Aksionov was already dead.

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

YEAR After 26/11

2009-11-28T10:15:00.000-08:00

an year passed so quickly that people could not believe how it passed!! It all started in the late hours of 26th Nov, 2008. Busy lives of mumbaikars were disturbed by audacious attacks of the enemies who invaded their lives with the only idea of shattering them. Hours turned into days and finally the NSG could clean all the mess clearing the rodents out of the way. Few days passed and the mumbaikar is back to his normal busy life running for local trains, munching vadapav in the trains and finally reaching the destinations just in time!! Whole of the world saluted the stoical nature of the mumbaikar. Bollywood responded that mumbaikars are tough enough to go through the pain, the home minister says what happened was a small incident given the size of mumbai and the whole country shared the pain. But one question people conviniently ignore is "Is the mumbaikar stoical by choice?" a big NO is the answer. the mumbaikar is stoical or pretends to be stoical because he has no other option. He is stoical because he dont want to see the starving deaths of his kids, he dont want to get laid off for the not coming to office. It is because of this compulsion that the mumbaikar is stoical. Similar thing happened when floods damaged Mumbai sometime in 2005-06. poeple compared the floods with katrina hurricane and said mumbaikars are back to work than the Americans, so mumbaikars are great! Mumbaikars are not great for going back to work so soon,
they are great for their commitment to their families as going out mean endangering their own life, they are great for bearing the pain, they are great for silently accepting the failure of the state as their own failure, they are definitely great for living such a life,
they are great because they are "MUMBAIKARS"
SALAAM MUMBAI
LONGLIVE MUMBIKARS
INDIA IS PROUD OF YOU!!!

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

You shall reap What you sow!!

2009-10-31T07:34:00.000-07:00

SO here we are! In the middle of a war waged between two enemies, both of whom are dangerous to our survival. On one end we have a government machinery which is keen to destabilize us and on the other, a radical Islamic blood mongers who pledged to target us once they are done with the present case. Is it a situation of concern or joy or anything else? where do we stand now??? In this post I just try to answer this questions with what ever understanding I got by following national/international politics and events for the last 15 years.

the present war happening in pakistan can possibly have three conclusions:
1. Taliban winning the war.
2. A compromise between Pakistani Government and Taliban
3. Pakistani Govt. winning the war.

1. Taliban winning the war.
If this happens then we will not have any danger immediately because Big Cop America will directly attack Pakistan and there will be a direct war between America and Taliban. We might have to give provide some support in terms of logistics. The nuke dimension attached makes the whole thing into a worst nightmare to think of. Given the kind of contacts ISI and Pakistan army has with Taliban, one could rule this possibility out at their own peril. If at all America wins the war with Taliban, even then we are not safe because America is much worse a neigbhour to have than Pakistan. Also, the whole scene will potrayed as another Crusade and God knows how the religious leaders in India will react to that scenario. As everybody knows, Religion is superior to country for many Indian muslims.

2. A compromise
people who are following the news might not opt to consider this but I certainly feel this as a strong possibility. Because, after a certain stage Taliban and Pak Govt will think "enough is enough" and will apply sharia in whole of the country, which would make Talibans more than happy! I am considering this option because there is not much of opposition to Talibans in Pak media and common people. Many leaders of the PPP and PML are talking in favour of Talibans just to gain their support and get control over some geography. The Pakistani media is more concerned about the debates between PML and PPP than the fight with Taliban. The sense of emergency is missing in this regard. you can find an article in DAWN which supports my idea. So if this happens then India will have a real tough time and a direct nuclear war with Pakistan is eventual. So junta be prepared to face anything. This holy land is called as "karma bhumi" and we should perform our karma of protecting this till our last breath.

3. Pakistan Govt wins.
This possibility seems very bleak still it is possible as America can rope in some of its NATO friends who can be handy considering whole of the Af-Pak region as one case. Where does that leave us??? America's influence in the subcontinent will increase by leaps and America will do its best so as to use India as the next strong consumer base.

Overall, this war going on in our troubled nation once again teaches us a fact: "You shall reap What you sow!!" I am astonished to see communities/countries/civilizations could not defy the law of karma,

yes "karmanye vadhikaraste maa faleshu kadachana"

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Joke of 21st century

2009-10-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here is the joke of 21st Century:

"BARACK OBAMA IS AWARDED WITH THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE"

Yes!! Its true. Obama got the prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

Now lets go back to basics and see what is the intention behind Nobel Peace prize. According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

I very much appreciate Obama's road map for recalling the American army from Iraq by 2012 but at the same time nothing much has been done in that direction.

Below is Obama's election manifesto and lets recall the actions Obama took in the directions mentioned.

1.Secure loose nuclear materials from terrorists
Culprits like Abdul Khadir Khan are free and rogue states like Pakistan are trading nuke arms. No improvement.

2.Barack Obama will pursue tough, direct diplomacy without preconditions to end the threat from Iran
Iran is very much the same old adamant Jew hating nation as before and despite some dialogue no improvement is seen. Iran's premier still denies to recognize Israel and Israel talks of attack on Tehran every other day.
No improvement.

3.Renew American diplomacy
This statement itself is ambiguous. If history has taught the world anything it is that American Govt never bothered about others and what mattered to them is their OWN interests. This scenario has not changed as America could hardly do anything in controlling Pakistan's spending in anti India propaganda.

4.Encourage political accommodation in Iraq
Did anyone heard about the president/prime minister of Iraq after Saddam's demise? Atleast I didnt. I read two news paper every day and could not find any news about the Iraqi leadership. Pentagon is more active than the Iraqi officials.
No improvement.

I personally feel its a shame to Nobel committee. Even Adolf Hitler,Joesph Stalin and Benito Mussolini also got nominated for Nobel peace prize. So waht would committe do if Obama proves to be the Hitler of 21st century or a Stalin of new millennium?
The stature of Obama will raise much higher level if he humbly rejects the peace prize but as my colleague was saying if he wants to "enjoy" the prize then it will back fire.

On a whole it seems that Obama got award for endorsing muslims. if that is true in India there are many politicians who praise muslims before the elections. So each one of the should get Nobel peace prize. May be Nobel committee would go bankrupt giving prizes to so many people :) :)
So my request to International media is to enough coverage to all these "would be Nobel Peace Laureates"
If talking about Gandhi and Luther king is the condition for Nobel peace prize in that case many Indians should get it at once. There are many politicians who do all the bandhs and strikes in Gandhian, peaceful ways.

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

things mentioned in italics are collected from Wikipedia and ibnlive.

one more time!!!

2009-08-28T05:13:00.000-07:00

this is another song which i listen quite frequently. I like it a lot, just thought this should be in my blog.

Oh baby baby, oh baby baby

Oh baby baby, how was I supposed to know
That something wasnt right here
Oh baby baby, I shouldnt have let you go
And now youre out of sight, yeah
Show me how you want it to be
Tell me baby cuz I need to know now, oh because

Chorus
My loneliness is killin me (and I)
I must confess I still believe (still believe)
When Im not with you I lose my mind
Give me a sign, hit me baby one more time!

Oh baby baby, the reason I breathe is you
Boy youve got me blinded
Oh pretty baby, theres nothin that I wouldnt do
Thats not the way I planned it

Show me how you want it to be
Tell me baby cuz I need to know now, oh because

Chorus

Oh baby baby, how was I supposed to know
Oh pretty baby, I shouldnt have let you go
I must confess that my loneliness
Is killin me now
Dont you know I still believe
That you will be here
And give me a sign, hit me baby one more time

Chorus

I must confess (my loneliness) that my loneliness
(is killing me) is killing me now
(I must confess) dont you (I still believe) know I still believe
That you will be here (I lose my mind)
And give me a sign...
Hit me baby one more time!

sarve jana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

No computer but have friends!!

2009-08-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

its almost four weeks since i dont have a computer with me. When I thought of this kind of life i was apprehensive how i am going to cross this time. but now i am asking myself do i need a computer? i think its not an urgency that i need one. my best friends are always with me and i know i can count on them always. Fortunately they are not humans to dump me out in the need of the hour, they are some of the greatest characters created by the most renowned of authors in the literature. the first among the list is my dearest sherlock. He is virtually a flatmate of mine as the door of my bedroom carries a notice "221B, Baker Street". So he stays along with him and dear watson who narrates all those wonderful stories with clear description. Many a time i get immersed so much that I comfortably skip my food. I feel as if I have participated in all the dangerous rubbers with Doctor Moriarity. Ofcourse my dear friend ensures that I am always safe.

Next one who I am proud of is the little Belgian with an egg shaped head. Agatha Christie christened him as "Hercule Poirot". He tags the weirdest of mysteries as very simple ones with the condition that one should use little grey cells present in the head. I really admire the conviction he carries for the qualities called "order" and "method".All his novels are very much exciting me and "The Murder on the Orient Express" is something I rate as the best detective novel I ever read. thanx a lot Agatha, I owe you a lot!!

Then comes the LA attorney who along with his dynamic lady secretary mesmerizes me with his logical deductions and psychological reasoning. Here is "Perry Mason". This man is as agile as a rattle snake and as swift as a tiger. He has the courage to claim that he specialises in murder cases(source:velvet claws).And I cannot forget the sleepless nights of Paul Drake who caters all the needs of Mr. Mason. Thanx to the adroitness of Lt. Tragg and big headness of Sgt. Holcomb.

with all these people staying along, why should one worry that I am alone? In every sense they are much better than human beings. They cant make a stupid out me nor they can attach some tag like "junk" or "nasty" to me. So ZINDAGI rocks!!!

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

its official now!!

2009-08-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

In this journey called life, from today i will be travelling all ALONE!!
writing in the blog just to remember the occasion. I dont think its a coincidence that it happened to be the "friendship day" ZINDAGI rocks!!!

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-karthik

Back on bike!!!

2009-07-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

After the recent injuries etc etc, I'M BACK!! and completely fit. Incidents/accidents can only push me back but cant stop me.

Fear no darkness!
Arise! Arise, Riders of Theoden!
Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered!
A sword day... a red day... ere the sun rises!
Ride now!... Ride now!... Ride!
Ride to ruin and the world's ending!
Death! Death! Death!

says Rohan in "The return of the King" as they move towards the enormous Orc army to support their fellow humans.

"My body is broken. You have to let me go. I go to my fathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed."--This is what the same king say after the war.

Stand by your fellow humans, support those who belong to you. This dharma is the only path of glory. Sometimes dharma means obidience to commitment, sometimes it means isolaton, sometimes it might mean death, sometimes it might be more painful than death but ultimately its the down payment for the glory you want to achieve!!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Thank you ALL!!

2009-07-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

On this holy Day of Guru Purnima, I take the opportunity to thank each and every Guru of mine who added inseparable value to my life. Its my privilege to have met you in my life and I am always indebted to the contribution you made to me. The list of people starts with my aunt who enrolled me into the world of education and goes on to my thesis guide in Masters. I am nothing without your contributions. I cherish every moment spent with you and stick to the same ethics and morals which you stood for. I bow my head and swear that I will do my best so as to contribute towards the society.

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

All in the name of LIFE

2009-06-30T05:56:00.000-07:00

What Karthik used to do earlier à

What he is used to wear earlier à

Things have changed now. Let us check out how he is doing these days

All the contents of this post are contributed by Annayya aka Vivek Dangeti. All Rights and patents for the same are reserved with him alone.

ANNAYYA ROCKS...

sarvejana sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Value

2009-06-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a Rupee 500 note. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this Rupee 500 note?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this note to one of you but first let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the note up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth Rupee 500/-. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are special. Don't ever forget it!

Never let yesterday's disappointments overshadow tomorrow's dreams.

Many times we face set backs, but that never reduces our value. when I read the above story I remembered the advice of Geoff Boycott to Sachin. when Sachin was facing problems in his batting Boycott, in his typical Yorkshire english told "Cheer up, form is temperory but Class is permanent".

As long as we believe in our capability there is nothing that can stop us. There might be an ocean of problems but none of them have the courage to stand before a tiny smile. Off late that what I learnt for myself. Come what may, just carry a gud big smile. As my sister rightly said nothing in this world is worth my smile :)

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik