Hi Faisal...

I just want to draw your attention to ARYESDEE's review on Smoking... how about ROTD for him? Any highlighting of the Anti-smoking and Anti-drinking campaign will be a value addition. A lot of us have written on smoking - self included. I sure all of us will agree with me! MS can also influence people... it already does in terms of purchasing. MS is also a social site now... ROTD for a social cause will be a great idea.

Secondly, I want to re-iterate my request: pull off cigarettes from the gifts list. It is simply not done!

It may sound like a little thing... but it is amazing how simple things like this add up. Let us not ignore the power of simple thing.  Let MS also suppport ANTI-SMOKING and ANTI-DRINKING in every way. We owe it to our society!

My opinion is my own... I dont want to enforce it. But I also want my opinion to be heard... which is why I am writing this

I hope this is taken in the right spirit.

Yours Sincerely,

Vishal V. Kale

Ai Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahaan...
Zaraa Hat Ke Zaraa Bach Ke Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan!

Perfect lines, and perfect song on the INDECIPHERABLE mystery that is Mumbai - Bombay - What Have You!

It so happened that my boss that for some reason {Wonder what? Cant have been my performance} decided to pack me off to Mumbai. 3 days in the best city in India.

Isnt my first visit - and on each visit, the mystery of this city only deepens!

Just consider

Flight time Mumbai - Raipur: 90 minutes.
Airport - Home: 20 minutes

Flight time Raipur - Mumbai: 90 minutes.
Airport - Hotel: 120 minutes!!!! {What the heck????}

I stayed in that - for want of a better name - city 2.5 days and was travelling for half a day out of that. Previous visit, I stayed 2 days, travelled to-and-fro for 1 day out of that. In college, visited 1 day: travelled ALL of it. Got to spend precisely 60 minutes at the fair!!!!

Yes, the hotel was enjoyable - the best in luxury, in fact. It was the redeeming point of the visit, apart from the very rewarding proffessional side.

BUT, I still cant understand what makes people go and LIVE there? The people have no time! In any other city {OR state for that matter} friends can meet - or family - easily. Not so in the indecipherable Mumbai - the - great. Couldn't meet anyone there - I did have a couple of free hours.

Sample this: Baroda: Friend came from Ahmedabad to meet me in the 1-day stay I had. Bhopal: brother came to hotel and dragged me home for dinner. Was back in time for the evening party. Even New Delhi: visited 2 sisters 14 kms apart and still got my train back. Chennai: found time to visit my old home at St thomas mount - and returned in time for my interview. Total time: 2 hours. Places on 2 opposite sides of Chennai. Pune: visited Deccan Gym - Kothrud - Cant and back to hotel in time for evening get-together. And so on and so forth...

Try it in Mumbai. Just try it!

What makes you mumbaiyaas so gung-ho about that place? Would love to know! Especially when I get home sooner from Rajanndgaon to Raipur {2 cities 75 kms apart} than it takes most of you to get home in Mumbai!

 

You are welcome to enlighten me!

Received in the mail today... good one!

PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN
 

Q. Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard (hp) ?
A. Rajiv Gupta

Q. Who is the creator of Pentium chip?
A. Vinod Dahm

Q. Who is the third richest man on the world?
A. According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is Azim Premji

Q. Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?
A. Arun Netravalli

Q. Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?
A. Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.

Q. We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the whites and the natives.
There are 3..22 millions of Indians in USA ( 1.5% of population). YET,
38% of doctors in USA are Indians.
12% scientists in USA are Indians.
36% of NASA scientists are Indians.
34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.
28% of IBM employees are Indians.
17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.
13% of XEROX employees are! Indians.

Some of the following facts may be known to you. These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.
1. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.
2. India invented the Number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
3. The world's first University was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4 th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
4. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.
5. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.
6. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.
7. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
8. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now k! nown as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6 th Century which is long before the European mathematicians.
9. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India . Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11 th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 10 53.
10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.
11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
13. Chess was invented in India
14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India .
15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley ( Indus Valley Civilisation).
16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

Quotes about India
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.
Albert Einstein. 

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition.
Mark Twain.
If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India
French scholar Romain Rolland.
India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.
Hu Shih
(former Chinese ambassador to USA )

ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS.
BUT, if we don't see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an evershining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow.
I hope you enjoyed it and work towards the welfare of INDIA

Say proudly, I AM AN INDIAN.

THE BALKANISATION OF INDIA

 

Surprised? Shocked perhaps? Think I am off my rocker? That I have gone stark raving mad?

 

I hope I am wrong…

 

Balkanisation means the process of subdivision of a geographical region into {usually hostile} nation-states, and owes its origin in the subdivision of the Balkan Peninsula during the Balkan  wars.

 

There are those who might think this does not apply to The Sovereign Secular Democratic Republic of India. I sincerely do hope so!

 

BUT…

 

Recen
t events belie that hope, namely the events in Maharashtra with the emergence of a strong Marathi backlash along sectarian and linguistic lines. It is very well known what is going on in Maharashtra with the Raj vs Bihar – UP imbroglio.

 

But, disturbingly, this is not the only signal. There are other problem spots that are not getting as much media attention, viz. Assam, Chhattisgarh, & Nagaland. And, one can never forget our biggest mistake, Kashmir! While the Assamese – Naga – Chhattisgarhia issue is a naxal problem, Maharashtra is the first overtly linguistic backlash in this country.

 

And that is why it needs to be taken very seriously. Why? Simply because we are a nation of a multitude of linguistic barriers. The south is already at odds over the Hindi issue, and no one there will agree to Hindi. Gujarat – the oh-so-silent Gujarat – well, just visit there once. Please do. And when you are there, try and count the number of Hindi signages. You wont find many, I can tell you that. Ditto in the South. Ditto in the east.

 

How long before the same cry is taken up by other states? Once this cancer spreads, keep in mind that Gujarat, Bengal, Assam, Kashmir, Punjab, Taml Nadu will all go up in the same cry – and you have yourself a major problem.

 

I am a Maharashtrian – a pure bred Maharashtrian at that. I can empathise with what is happening there. I can also fully understand the southern anti-hindi-language brigade.

While the issue in Maharsthra is not language, but the divide is along ligusitic lines - Maharashtra is for Maharshtrians. THAT I am totally against! While I do not condone it, I also accept that just crushing the uprising China-style will not do. Not now, not in a democratic nation!


Unless the core issues are dealt with, we can only hope for more such problems in other areas as well. This is not a doomsday fantasy – remember that with the passage of time, problem spots have increased. First it was only Punjab  and Kashmir. Now, Assam, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram are all facing Naxal threats in a major way. The south is already alienated from the north on the language front, and now Maharashtra looks set to join in!

How long before Gujarat and Bengal also join in, taking a cue from Maharashtra? The south is already solidly anti - hindi language - and it is a single step from anti-hindi-language to anti - north Indian! Think about this…. Just think.

 

This post is not to analyse the problem, or to suggest a solution. My only objective is to get you to think very seriously – or we might find a repeat of Yugoslavia, Russia, Balkan Peninsula {Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia – Herzegovina, Albania, Greece…}

 

We are unique in the annals of world history. IN THE ENTIRE ANNALS OF WORLD POLITICS, THERE IS NOT A SINGLE NATION TO EQUAL THE INDIAN EXPERIMENT!

 

Let us all keep it that way!

 

I am saying this because I care…

 

 

 

 

 

 

I care. I hope you do too!

 

Comments welcome

This post is dedicated to the memory of my late father Lt. Col. Dr. Vilas Kale MD - a man who has been my guiding spirit and my dear Mom Mrs. Nandini Kale...

Thanks Ratnakar... my regular chats with you have reminded me of my Dad n Mom's teachings to me!

I usually have nice chats with Ratnakar over google talk. Yesterday, while discussing a point, I brought up the topic of The Bhagwad Gita . Ratna mentioned he had written on it on MS - and I did look it up. Fab review, Ratnakar. I too have read The Gita - but cant review it. Dont have enough knowledge or perspicacity for that. I appreciate your write - up - more so as your write-up enabled me to make the connection between what my Daddy used to say to me and the teachings of the Gita. I thank you for that, friend!

Dharma and Karma - two faces of the same coins. Both are facets of our life. I dont profess to understand much about either - but I do know one thing. They do lead to internal peace - even in the most trying of situations in life.

As I understand, Dharma leads with what a Human is suppposed to do in a situation, the path he is supposed to take. It determines what your duty is in each situation - wheraeas Karma deals with the actual actions that you undertake.

I have found that this is actually a very practical concept - and is very much applicable in our day-to-day life. I have, with some success, tried to apply it. I haven't always succeeded in it. In fact, I have failed more often than succeeded. BUT, whenever I have succeeded in my endeavour - it has given me great happiness, a clarity of thought and peace of mind.

This I have noted in both situations that are adverse to me as well as favourable to me. I have tried to follow the path of duty these past couple of years, and have found increasing peace of mind with self. Some situations have lead to a either a grevious or a small loss to me in financial terms or social terms, has even lead to my ostracization. Then again, other times I have been rewarded with stunning pleasures, hapiness and success.

Why is it that I am at peace even in an adverse situation? This is a question that has been bothering me off and on. I found a glimmering of an answer to this question. I was earlier was not able to crystallize it into conscious thought - but Ratna reveiw has managed to do that.

It has occurred to me that in situations when I have enjoyed success that is greater than my rightful share - I am extremely tense and worried. This has lead me to put in better efforts subsequently. The results may or may not have come - but the genuiness of the effort has been appreciated!

Similarly, in an adversity, if I know that I have put in my best - then I am at peace simply because I know that I have tried to the best of my ability, and can do no more...

The biggest difficulty is in knowing when you have actually put in your best, for each time you fail there will be a tendency to blame everyone but yourself. I too am pray to it. But every now and then, I have been true to myself - and at that time I have found peace of mind!

I cant put it any better than this. Comments more than welcome!

Mall Mania Ebbs, retail outlets give way to offices...
The Economic Times, 26th March 2008 Page 1 {Brands and Business}

Run of the mall losing speed
THe Economic Times, 26th March 2008 Page 4 {Business of Brands}

Malls and Mega-marts are the in-thing nowadays, with every city major expansion in these category of outlets. Every marketing pundit worth his name has been predicting the demise of the Mom-n-Pop outlets within exty-ex number of years...

Today, it seems that a few malls are actually closing down. These are not the first to do so... these are the first to have been noticed and highlighted in the media. I personally know of a mega mart in Indore that has closed doors. Secondly, in all my visits to various and sundry malls - I have seen shopping activity in only a few shops in each. The rest of the footfalls are just people out to have a good time, and spend very little. Most of the dough is spent on eateries and movies!

Is the whole mall stuff just a passing fad? Can we emulate the western model?

What are the views of MSians regarding this? Please put in a comment...

1) Insurance:
In plain vanilla terms, it means that if you {earning member} die, what protection will your family have? Keep in mind that loose cash and negotiable instruments will be needed to meet emergency cash needs, major capital expenditure as well as to soften the impact of Inflation. Since you will not be there, the savings will stop growing- and your family will be dependent on those. What about a monthly regular assured income?
Each policy comes with a SUM ASSURED / DEATH BENEFIT {if it is has death benefit. We are talking about insurance plans, or with death-benefit pension plans}. Tot up the sum total of all your policies. Some plans give the added benefit of Sum Assured + Death Benefit. In such cases, take SA+DB
If you die, that is the sum your family gets. In the case of your death, that can then be invested in various monthly schemes to give an annuity. Calculate it @ 7.5 - 8% on the total benefit your family receives. If it is equals your current as well as expected monthly Household expense levels, then you are adequately insured. I include expected since expenses will rise with time due to education, medical expenses as well as inflation

2) Health Plans:
There are 2 categories: one is the simple plans that cater to normal illnesses, and then there are special plans. In the first category,  you will have options that re-imburse your small hospitalisation expenses that might happen in normal life.
In the special categories, you have firstly plans that cater to specific illnesses that have the potential to wipe out your entire bank balance, like Heart Attacks, strokes etc. Secondly, you have plans for diabetics
There are also plans that bridge these two - they offer simple hospitalisation as well as a high SA option, which means all types of illnesses are covered. That is the best option if you dont have any cover for yourself
NOTE: While choosing a health plan, make it a point to check on the claim process and the documentation required for claims. You might find yourself in a situation of spending from your own pocket despite having health insurance otherwise. This is so because in some cases the claim procedure is very detailed in terms of number of beds, type of hospital etc etc. In general, the simpler the procedure, the better. While you may end up paying a bit more in premiums, in the long run it is worth it
As a general rule, the earlier you take a plan, the lesser the premium. So go in for one as early in your career as possible.
Even if you are covered under an orgnisational plan, have a backup personal plan. Reason: you could be in trouble when you change jobs. For example, you join Co. A as a completely healthy person, and leave with a history of Heart Attack. You then join Co. B: BUT the Co. B's insurance scheme will not apply to your Heart Condition. All expenses arising out of your Heart-related ailments will hav to be borne by you! Reason: No insurance plan covers existing illnesses, as insurance is for the probability of illness and not for the certainty of illness!

I wonder...

I wonder at all the experiences life throws at us during each day, their meaning and their utilty!

I wonder at the truck that misses me by the proverbial whisker and wonder why???

I wonder at the chance stop at a thela to sample a mongodi which turns out to be a treat! The standing around the thela and chatting leading to unbounded reminsces...

I wonder at the daily rising of the sun, and it meaning?

I wonder at the swings of my mood... its jumping from bad to ok to good although nothing has changed in the environment...

I wonder at the troughs that life throws in my way, and how a crest follows each trough!

I wonder at the crests in the wave of life, and am amazed at how the crest would not have been there had the trough not been present....

I wonder how each success is built upon a failure...

I wonder why my face lights with joy on seeing my family after a few days gap - even though we had parted the earlier occasion with a monumental fight?

I wonder what my son will be like when he grows... and will he remember me and his mother...

I wonder at the glow of the tube-light, the whirr of the fan, the hum of the washer, the image of the TV, the sound of the Music System... 

I wonder at my own efforts to get through life...

I wonder at where will life lead us... then I remember a sight I will never ever forget - my father's ashes being immersed in front of the Rajendra  Prasad Ghat...

I wonder why is it that my wish is that my own ashes be immersed there, at that exact spot... when I know that dad's traces will have been obliterated...

I wonder at the green of the leaves, the colours of the flowers, the blue of the sky, and...

I wonder where else in this universe will this be???? And why here?????

I wonder at the purpose of this experience of life, of how joy and sorrow are intermingled and inseperable, of how both are ephemeral in their very nature, of how life itself is a euphemism for a passing stage...

And then I wonder, I wonder, I wonder...



I wonder why is it that a man is always caught when he tells a lie, and why a woman...
well, lets just restrict ourselves to the male of the species!

{just though to close on a light note}

Comments more than welcome