The Small Voice

Today is Independence Day for India. Right since childhood, this was a special day for me and I often wondered how great and powerful India would have been if not time and again ravaged by foreign mercenaries.  I read “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain roughly at the same time I got introduced to the concept of Time Travel. The two themes were too exotic for me and I loved to imagine all sorts of adventures I could get into, if only I could get my hands on a working time machine. One of my favorite daydreams were how I would visit ancient India and warned and prepare them of the impending attacks of the Mughals, the Nadir Shahs, the Mahmud of Ghazni and later the Europeans who would in due course of time attack and plunder the wealth and land of India and become a hero. I naively imagined that I, a kid, would walk upto the great Kings of the past, like Ashoka, Harsha. Chandragupta Maurya etc and advice them to build up their armies, put st...

The Independence Day is drawing near. Pretty soon the usual media crescendo will build up with patriotic songs, discount sales, movies, TV soaps & programs on “ our brave Jawans” etc. I frankly admit that all this does give me a nice warm & proud feeling about this great country of ours. But before we get all sappy and emotional on the marketing overdrive, I ask myself, am I satisfied and happy with the state of my nation today? Some recent (and not so recent) events shake one up : Brutally high inflation High prices of even essentials like pulses, onion, milk, vegetables making them disappear from the common man’s plate Cruel jokes like one can eat full lunch with “Re 1”, “inflation is good”, "theek hai" etc. becoming daily occurances The sacking & transfers of non-pliant IAS/IPS officers like Durga Shakti, Khemka Continued manipulation of agencies like the CBI etc leading to complete loss of faith and credibility in the eyes of an Indian citize...

Date: 21 June, 2013: D-day arrives. 6 AM: Woke up, but was still groggy. Jumped up to silent the jarring alarm, and promptly plonked back to sweet and warm bed. Almost landed on the wife who growled menacingly at me.  Best  (read safe)   to keep a lady in good humor in her ninth month. She is happy and I am healthy. I slink away. 6.15 AM: Alarm blares again. This time, i have no excuses. Get up to get ready for the big day ahead. 7.30 AM: Reach Fortis Hospital, Vashi with wifey and my dad in tow. We get her admitted. The endgame begins. 10 AM: I am shooed out of room as the nurse prepares the patient i.e. Wifey. Try out the bland "kanda pohey" in Fortis cafeteria. Karisma Kapoor in "judwa" movie playing in the cafeteria helps me gulp down the miserable breakfast. 11.02 AM: Preparations over. Wife is on medications now to induce the baby. The attendant Aunty-ji in adjoining bed is a bit too assertive. Giving me instructions ad nauseum. Howev...

I am currently reading Five great myths of career building (Macmillan India), wrtitten by Mr Sanjiv R Bhamre: Click HERE is the Google Books URL. The book is indeed very interesting & helpful, and I would strongly recommend this book. However, I would also like to add a feedback to the author (with due humility) what I felt could improve the readability of the work. "Dear Mr Bhamre,  I find this book of yours very insightful and well-thought out.  Your writing too, is lucid and the examples are easily relate-able & interesting. However, here is my humble suggestion to you:  Please try to re-arrange your book in such a manner that it becomes easier to discern, what ARE the myths that you are advising against and what are your REAL insights/advice that you wish the reader should follow.  Often, as one thread ends and the counter arguement begins, it becomes confusing and the message is sometimes lost. Thanks for your pati...

These are some of the interesting (mostly) fiction books that I got a chance to read through the year 2012 (and some in 2011, as well). I have excluded some titles which I don’t think would be relevant, like text books etc. The book list given here are mostly titles that you can just pick and read (or AVOID reading) as the case may be. You don’t usually require any significant/specific background to read these. Some of the titles like the Godfather, etc. I keep re-reading, as I always find some nuance missed earlier or just because they are too awesome to enjoy just once. 1.        The Godfather – Mario Puzo Awesome-ness at the best!!  Personally, I am pretty naïve and always a bit of a greenhorn in interpersonal relations. So I always like something from which I can learn a few things. From this book, you can learn a LOT. For instance, the Godfather is portrayed as a fair and polite man to his friends and family and a ruthless man to his ene...

Anger, revulsion and sadness well up deep inside as one reads the news reports of the Boston Marathon site bomb blasts. They shake you from the inside. So many innocents killed and maimed, why and for what fault of theirs? Still, President’s Obama’s message was strong & definite, and I am sure the US administration will find the guilty and PUNISH them appropriately ASAP. Dear brothers & sisters of US, we the people of India, are with you as in this grief. You may note that we too have a long history of being regularly exposed to similar gruesome acts of terror during the course of our daily lives.  However, much unlike your administration, which cares and will fight back for you, sadly the case is very different here in India. Here in India, the wanton terrorist strikes are just opportunities by politicians to give high TRP interviews on prime time TV and do NOTHING. Unlike the US, our political class hardly ever bothers, unless the dead count is in minim...

A very dear and old friend asked me yesterday, “How are you doing?” And almost as a nervous response, I smiled and replied “Great!” But aren’t we sometimes not so sure of that smile? As we were growing up, we had stars in our eyes and a spring in our step. The world was a fantastic & mysterious place. The biggest drudgery was homework, and the biggest worries of then, seem so trivial today. But, assuming you are on the wrong side of thirty like me, things have changed a bit. Days pass, as if in a blur. You are running but still sleep-walking through the day. All your waking energies focused on making ends meet after the EMI payment, driving through the dense traffic, meeting deadlines at home and office, the demands of boss as well as wife & children. You hardly have any time for yourself. When you hit the bed at night, most days, you are too tired to even talk to your wife, for more than a few minutes. But some days, when the sleep doesn’t come and the r...