The Distributed Role Models

In those days dad was posted at beautiful sleepy town of Thakurganj , in Bihar , i was in class 5.The town had modest population count of around 2000-3000.The town had admirable culture of playing cricket and other sports activities. There was one humble guy there , i am sure everyone knew him by name , at least for we children he was a cult figure , a man of respect , dignity and unmatched calmness . We could associate the word gentleman with him. He was rightfully admired Mr. cool of the town . He did extract genuine respect from people around him . Presently what he must be doing? My one vague guess is, he must be teaching underprivileged children ( He had got job of Government School teacher in primary school ). Those pictures are still vivid in my mind.

The name of the person mentioned above is Mr. Rajaram Mahto. He was role model for all children of Thakurganj. This was for his passion for cricket in general and mainly for other attributes associated with him as mentioned above. He was the captain of the cricket team of the cricket crazy town.What inspired everyone was the way he handled with smile the leg pulling sessions with his friends in public ( It was fun to watch the same , just imagine 20-30 people targeting one with unique antics) . The elan with which he used to walk, the way he talked , the signature style of his riding the bicycle ( too slow for youngster ). One Routine activity of Mr Rajaram needs a mention here. He used to pass from road near our house , on his bicycle , on way to school where he taught . The road had quit steep slope. Instead of allowing the bicycle to reach maximum speed Mr. Rajaram used to apply breaks to maintain his unusual signature speed of a tortoise.Sometimes , people who inspire you can make you smile with their awkwardness .

It's almost impossible to find a complete person call him a role model. I used to appreciate some people over the years only to become critic of them .Down the line, i have realized, its very much natural. As our thoughts broaden and views are molded , opinion change is quite expected . At the same time its very much easy to find role models in bits and pieces who keep on inspiring you everyday. Here are some instances...

1: I haven't tried selling anything till now , but i know how difficult the proposition is , when you try to sell your goods to complete strangers. The Marketing skill of the vegetable vendors is appreciable. Specially the enthusiasm with which they sell their vegetables. Special mention to the not so fortunate vendors who get corner location in the vegetable market/mandi.

2: Hard work is not personified better than the farmers. Luckily i got opportunity to see farmland and dreams associated with same with close quarters. The pleasure of hard work becomes obvious when the reaping season comes. The Moral is , as you sow , so you reap.This actually happens.

3: The perseverance is exemplified by the blacksmith. Burning coal can melt the iron which can be given shape one wishes to. One has to see this to believe , thanks to 1st year engineering workshop , i did actually see iron melt.

4: The impeccability with which the housemaid does everyday cleaning activity is remarkable. Monotonous work requires a lot of will power and appreciable expertise.

5: The security guard at office who greets you without fail : " Good morning!!" . You learn this lesson of human relations ( HR ) , everyday ; obviously with a smile.

These bits and pieces combine to give a wholesome effect, and its heartening to know how people can teach you without saying a word.The distributed role models, You do think about them and gratitude comes automatically. One is indebted to so many souls....knowingly and unknowingly. I wish i could tell Mr. Rajaram he had such effect on at least one soul..that's me.

Moments in the Sun of Summer

This year, here in Delhi, rise of temperature has been delayed by sometime . The weather these days reminds me of the summer vacation of yesteryears ; Sadly, i am not eligible for the same .Surrounded by monotonicity of grown up life , with mad rush and pursuit of catching dreams one has to move forward.Children are at mischievous best during the summer vacations. With ample time to kill , they do find unusual ways to amusing/entertaining themselves and do end up enjoying in the set up created by themselves. Summer afternoons are agonizingly long , there has to be a lot of planning to make the hours count. We used to wonder why we can't have our summer vacations as in books and movies i.e. visiting relatives , discovering hill stations etc. Years later , as i try to recall , it was not so boring either. There were so many memorable moments which can be vividly captured in words. Some moments are generic and most can be specifically associated to the summer season...Here it goes....

1: Door bells were a rarity in those days. Everyone was hugely fascinated by the door bells in particular and all bells/whistles/sounds in general. There was curious way to show this fascination . We used to run away after ringing the door bell of someone's house. It was kind of open invitation when we knew uncle X and family is not at home i.e. on vacation.

2: Electricity meter was equipment of huge interest. checking count of electricity meter was everyone's favorite activity. To be specific, the excitement of noticing the red point in the rotating circle was reason to get elated.

3: Telephone , as they said , was wonder of science. Not sure of the working of the same , we used to believe that we can listen to the talk going on the phone by bringing the ear close to the telephone wire. We were sure of one thing we won't get electric shock by telephone wires. This listening activity was tried , we never got to listen any voice on phone. I had to wait for many more years to get chance to listen human voice on phone. Then the mechanism was quite obvious , but still it felt great listening to human voice on phone , it was dad's voice on the other side.

4: Everyone had strange stories to tell. Take this example: Rupee 1 coin becomes magnet if kept on the rails over which the railways train passes. No wonder Alice in wonderland was very believable story for us, So were Donald duck , jungle book , Aladdin etc. My love for cartoons and animation had germinated in those days , that has continued till this date. Recently i watched "the toy Story" part 1,2,3 , i realized, i might had enjoyed this movie more as a child.

5: Movies were big talking point. Checking for pictures of actors and actresses at any location i.e. stickers , auto rickshaw and obviously spending a lot of time in front of cinema hall posters were fun activities. The location of our school which was not far from a movie hall did act as a catalyst. Some lucky friends used to describe the world inside the cinema hall .Extensive discussion of the actors and their style was on every-day's agenda of childhood friends meetings. Emulating actors was one of the better moments. Even we used to simulate fight sequences with sound effects produced from mouth ex. a typical dishum!! with fist movement. we were believers of Dara Singh's super human capabilities . we actually believed that he can not sit on a chair as any chair will break if Mr. Dara Singh sits on that.

6: Thanks to Ramayana and Mahabharata TV Serials , children were inclined heavily towards archery. Everyone had their own bamboo made arrow and sow. One of my misadventures was when i aimed correctly at the honey bees hive. My face was swollen for many days due to Honey bee stings.My fanfare with bow and arrow continued for some more years.

7: Some TV serials were indispensable .example : Alif Laila . Discussing missed/watched episodes of "alif Laila" was a must do activity. There were some privileged friends who had power back-up at their homes. They religiously watched all "important" episodes , so that we did not miss the continuity by listening to the story ( in case there was power cut/other unavoidable circumstances).

8: I was very fond of gardening . I used to grow flowers in in front/back yard of the house. ( was lucky to have the space for the same ). Sunflowers actually change direction and synchronize their faces with the sun.For us it was nothing less than a wonder. Similarly there were other flowers which used to bloom at particular time of the day/night.Growing flower was some sort of competition then , there was healthy competition as all friends were some sort of gardeners.As i recollect , Marigold was the flower which did require least care.


9: Another specific event during summer vacation was cricket match with teams from neighborhood localities. We used to contribute money for the match , half of investment was for the chewing gum to be used for the match. Usually chewing gum was at stake for the game i.e. winning team used to get chewing from opposite team with a lot of handshakes and hugs. This explains the investment of the other half of the contributed amount. Everyone claimed to posses special cricketing knowledge. The height was when we used to believe in stories of kapil hitting six in Lords and the ball did fall in Eden gardens!!.

10: Evening walks were concluded only when mosquitoes were swarming over the head. Friend having maximum number of mosquitoes over the head was termed as Mosquito king. This was followed by game of transferring the king's crown .As none of us wanted to have that crown over our head, the activity was associated with a lot of noise and running.

11: Summer is season of mangoes. we used to explore all the mango trees in and around the locality. Eating the unripe mango ( Kaeri , as it is called ) with salt is literally mouth watering . I wanted to own a mango tree , when i said this to mom , she said it takes 5 years for a mango seed to become a tree. I sown the mango seed. Looked after my would-be-mango-tree-with-mangoes for three years . Sadly,dad was transferred from the place , so we had to relocate . However,i did get the information later on that the small plant actually did become a big mango tree and people were actually eating fruit from the same. Sometimes to souls which love each other have to separate for ever. But i am happy as i know the dream of having a mango tree was fruitful.

12: Summer is the season of the he power cuts ( At least it is felt most in summer season ). I used to wonder why they cut power so frequently in summer. Dad used to explain, "there is extra load due to heavy usage in summer season". He used to earnestly make statement , " India is a poor country and we don't have enough power". Power cuts also lead to common point of discussion with everyone cursing the bleak power scenario. Power cut led people to come out of houses to get some relief and socialize at the same time. Strangely , we find good things even in sufferings.

Its great to trace back and locate the hobbies which we don't write in our resumes, they surely shape our lives. Moments of innocence , of great learnings , of curiosity , awe , anxiety ; a lot of things happen in the journey called life.The beginning , sometimes can be traced easily and sometimes with difficulty. May be we learn many things from time spent with books , at the same time, time spent away from books are not less important , specially during summer vacations. Summer is not that bad season if the vacation word is associated with the same.

p.s : Moments mentioned above did take place at various places in Bihar where peak summer season is May-June.

Somes Names and friends

There are situations when we subtlety try to make some moments understood by others. One situation is characterized by these questions e.g. How was one supposed to make new friends? What words one had to say? Was there any well defined ritual? I did try to find these questions and would be answers in childhood days. One of the innocuous activity then was touch of forefingers followed by a handshake . Not to forget the excitement that followed . I am still not sure how swami made friends in "Swami and friends-By R.K Narayan " . But they can be taken to be ideal friends , at least for me it was the definition . Another open question , how was one supposed to end the friendship? , yes there was easy way for this ( because it was part of friendship ) . The ritual was to touch little fingers of the forelimb and exchange unfriendly stare.

How was one supposed to identify the best friend? Again answer to this was abstract rather than absolute. May be you knew someone is best friend when you had to separate , not to meet again. An interesting activity , regarding best friend , i got to know from dear mother. She said for them it Was easy and mandatory to find your best friend ( everyone had one best friend ) . They used to call each other with same name because they were best friends. I always knew there was "engine Mausi". My Mom referred to her best friend as "Engine" . I did understand the full scenario when i actually heard "engine Mausi" calling my mom as "Engine". Its amazingly sweet , even now they refer to each other with the same word i.e. engine ( How they found this word for each other is another story ).

A corollary to above scenario is situations when you call some friends with unique names .This name is used by only you and not others in general .Some unique names become so popular and everyone in friend circle will use the same for person under consideration. We do end up giving really unique names to some friends , i remember, i nicknamed one friend "NDTV" because he always had unending "news" to share. His name was later modified to more sober "ND". It's creativity at best when you can nickname people around you without fear of hurting them . You can only gesticulate wildly on hearing those weird names , sometimes you are at receiving end :)

Next question comes , how often we get chance to nickname friends? Some friends are there only for few hours. You suddenly realize what if you had known him/her for better? There is unknown conspiracy to send some people to meet you only for few days and some only for hours , serendipitous. There is realization of the truth , you can't save many good things for tomorrow.

As i look for concluding words , in few days i shall have to shift to new city . Present acquaintances will become part of memory lanes. Some moments will be part of the sweet memories for sure....The Smiling face of newspaperwala when he came with monthly bill , the ever helpful kirana store bhaiyaji who knew what i shall ask for , the repetitive question from the house Maid on weekends , " Bhaiya aaj chutti hai kya?" , the waiter at restaurant who knew i did learn to eat sambhar-rice at his place , the Paan shop i did visit only to buy the match stick box of rupee one , the chicken Centre guy who did give apologetic smile when his stock did end. These Small but beautiful moments define life.

Talking about the nickname replication activity , it is strangely cute occurrence when you call someone special as "baby" and as return you are called as "baby" by the same person . Obviously, the person in question will be more than friend for you i.e. THE ONE for you.

The sly company of people who care : Some Lines

Recently i did finish reading many books. One of them has been "The Sly company of people who care. " Thanks to lazy me , i have not updated my blog for quite sometime.Here are some lines from the book which made me read them again and again.

1: Water is essential truth of guyana. One's encounters with it were so frequent that one felt little amphibious.

This is how we feel in rainy season.

2: The way diamond wink at you , no gal could wink at you like so.

If et al any girl winks at you :)

3: You can take something for a diamond , but never a diamond for something else.

We may make mistake of assuming some bad person to be good , but good persons can not be taken to be as bad or something else.

4: When horror is of such a scale , it begins to feel like fantasy and fantasy is easier to digest.

All seems good when we imagine the worst scenario possible.

5: Though there was no watch on it , I Sprang up as if to show i was running late.

Beautifully described in this line , how we pretend to do small things.

6: Often he would point out someone and start a story about them.

There many people we find who have so many stories to tell.

7: Everywhere individuals were looking interested in each other.

This situation is so weird , when it seems everyone has someone to listen their stories.

8: Everything which can be glorious is worthwhile.

All it matters is to give second thought to something which can be glorious.

9: She was prepared to tackle the world because the world to her was not absurd.

Life becomes easy if we start to accept that everything is not so absurd .

10: I walked and walked , I walked out of fear of stopping.

We do many things just for the sake of doing.

11: Whatever done in darkness , soon comes to light.

Nicely written , and easily signifies, the inevitability of the wrong doings.

12: I wished there was girl equivalent of the man . I could walk with , slower and closer than they , laugh sweeter than they.

13: I knew her like quick addiction.

Some people become so special in small time, weird but true.

Retail in india : Where we are going?

" Oho Dipika ji...Lijiye aapka sab saaman taiyaar " . This immortal line from that Nirma Ad when the lady visits neighborhood grocery shop. Government of India has taken decision to allow 51% FDI in Indian retail market . No wonder , big debate has been going on , amidst protests and statements from some important and some not so important people. Everyone has own opinion, some can be easily termed as hypocrites who are opposing their own statements they made other day ; some are stupid at best saying they will burn foreign shops if opened . What about the people who will be actually affected? Some will gain out of this decision. Moving away from technicalities and the raging debate , i would like to look into the world where we interact with the traditional Kirana shop and how things may and may not be same again .

The immediate question comes into mind is , what things will not be same?

1: The natural smile of the attendant at kirana shop will be replaced by the artificial smile of the attendants in super malls.

2: You will not be asking new year calendar when you shop on the new year eve.

3: How you can ask for that extra chili for free at the mall after buying weekly vegetable stock? Asking for some stuffs which are given without measurement i.e. ginger for rupee 1 Or mixture of spices for rupee 5 .

4: Can the statement : " you save rupees xyz , if you buy this. " , replace the original form of bargain?

5: You will not be treated like god for being first customer/last customer.

6: What about returning things you bought which is not defective , but somehow you want to return that? Just try returning goods you bought from the super market store and we know how nasty and crazy things can get.

Having said this , buying all things under one roof can be good and bad idea as well. People can defend saying , " I don't have time to look for different options". Next question comes , we are running after what? The joy of buying vegetables confirming the market price by asking from 2-3 shops seems best market practice. They say FDI will improve the infrastructure and supply chain . Can we not understand nuances of supply chain management by knowing how we distribute news papers daily or how the the milk supply chain works on daily basis? But at the same time can there be no alternative path where we can improve the infrastructure without forcing closure of our neighborhood kirana shop or for that matter roadside vendors?

Before closing , i would like to mention here one recent event. Here it goes..

I decided to buy a sari for my mom and to make matters worse , i had to gift this as a surprise . So , i could not ask for valuable inputs from mom i.e. which color , which design etc . Somehow , i could not outsource this work on time and i had to perform this activity. What to do? which shop ? which design? at what time? Of what price? . I knew , i had to explain to mom , this-is-the-best-buy-after-elaborate-bargaining . I started devising algorithm and used delay-and-wait technique. I zeroed on to the tried and tested formula , be the last customer.This happened by constraint , rather than by choice , weird office timing and lazy me contributing to the resultant scenario . I reached the shop at around 10pm . They were almost drawing the shutters down. Did give the specification in some vague words i.e. color , medium price range , it's for Mom etc etc. The difficult part of action point was still with me , choose the best one and then look for bargain!. I did implement the screening procedure , though i was not sure of the criteria, May be it was first view and randomization . After first round short listing , it came to take final decision and bargain price. Thankfully , the shopkeeper agreed to good bargain ; at least it seemed to me , price was reduced by 200 from marked price. So deal was done and it came to completing formalities i.e. Paying the money ,take receipt , packaging. Wait! the situation had to become more win-win , at least it seemed to me . The shopkeeper offered 50 rupee less price than the agreed price , just because i was last customer. The Being-Last-customer situation had worked without me insisting on the same. Technically , i had completed the shopping part and was about to leave. Suddenly , it occurred to me , Man! something is missing!. After slight stress on my memory cells , i got the reason; Mom usually asks for complementary handkerchief at the end of shopping for sari activity . I placed one gentle query before the shopkeeper asking to put one handkerchief with the sari. He obliged with a natural smile. Mom was more than happy when she found that "extra" handkerchief . She knew , what must have happened.

May be , we love to shop in big place i.e. shopping mall, but memories are created in small places. I wish both foreign retail shops and Local kirana stores thrive together, I will see how things turn up.If foreign retail shops are dreams for many including me , local kirana shops form sweet memories. When dreams and memories shake hands , we are not sure which is better.

p.s : As i type these words , the song , "let it be : from movie desi Boyz " is playing on my pnone. My favourite for the moment.

Above Average : Some lines

I did complete this book : "Above average By Amitabha Bagchi " . Here are some lines which i noted down while reading it. My thoughts on the same have been added after each line.

Here it goes....

1: " Some lied brazenly like Kartik , others went about it more subtly. Some lied just to others, some to themselves as well."

This did remind all moments when i lied to me and tried to fool myself knowing i what i was doing.

2: " The averageness that i was ashamed of showing became my most intimate friend."
The averageness is scary , we try to hide it from outside , but from inside we become friends with averageness.

3: " I pooh-poohed the board exams because everyone in the school did."
This did remind me my class 11th days when everyone was crazy about IIT. Most made into IIT as well. I was fashion to solve

physics questions in maths class and Maths question in physics calss. The path was obviously difficult one , but everyone was walking on it ,together.

4: " We always ate rice for lunch and rotis for dinner . I thought to ask why."

My mom still wonders how i ate just roti in the lunch and just rice in the dinner. Something become so common in homes we notice , but we don't ask the reason.

5: " The evening was reserved for going to people's houses and eating sweets and then waiting at home for people to come to eat your sweets. It was only after this was done that the proceedings turned whole heartedly pyrotechnic. " .

This does remind me the diwali celebration in my family. With all efforts made to appease goddess laxmi.

6: " When abhilasha emerged from the prayer room , platter laden with diyas in hand , wearing a heavy silk sari , it was like a life insurance ad , an Asian paints hoarding come to life. "
I would call this a cute of a line. Its surprisingly happy moment to see b'ful girls in sari.

7: " Shit man, whispered Ghontu. 'Antakshari! These people are such locals!'."
This did remind me all antarakshari sessions , most importantly when we 5-6 friends trying to win the moment against one guy

very good at singing. He used to sing 4-5 lines of the song, we used to revert back with one liners. Not so sophisticated game , but yes, we enjoyed.

8: " Either I was to get into a management school or i was to go abroad to study or I was to take the civil services exam. It was a crossroads where to my mind , the first arrow pointed to money , the second to the pursuit to knowledge and third to power."

I did not understand what problem different career choices can throw until i had to face the same. Its uphill task to choose the correct option without knowing if any choice provided is good enough.

9:" Its a rule one of them said . If you have a partner , the two of you are entitled to play . If you don't , you have no rights . There are carom room rules. "

This brings back to me the sweet memories of carom room and wonderful friends i did made at carom boards. Yes, getting correct partner added to the fun , specially if you did involve in sleding and played scary shots to overpower opponents.

10: " you could stay but you would inevitably become the only one left behind , lonely and dissatisfied."

The side effect of walking on unknown path. One should be prepared to face the loneliness and set backs.

11: " TK's nickname is an abbreviation of tension Kumar,nothing to do with real name . Every batch in every hostel is

supposed to have a tension kumar , it is a designation , rather than a nickname. "

This happens everywhere , tensions-loadus-fratus are in every college , every dept and of course in every college hostel. So many souls depend of them for their academic progress.

12: " why climb a mountain? ...because it is there. " :
challenges do inspire people. I have seen people toiling hard at difficult things with full dedication without thinking about reason for doing the same. Passion they said.

13: " Strongest and the deepest bonds we form in our lives are with people who know how to hurt us in the most devastating ways." :
Ironical line , but very true in most situations.

14: " He was ranked in the bottom ten of the class , a badge he wore with pride. " :
Its not difficult to find guys who did not give a damn to the GPAs.

15: " I had no real passion for anything i studied , although some of it interested me and i was competent at all of it." :

simple confession is hard to make , we do many good things which may not be core area of interest.

16: " For me and my friends , SPICMACAY was an organization you joined if you wanted to meet girls.The common perception was that you went to SPICMACAY concerts for same reason you joined SPICMACAY : for the women. And to make such public display of frustration was not allowed. ".

Days are not far away when i was in this group when talking to girls without any reason was considered derogatory and act of desperation . It was not a secret , everyone wanted nice gals around them , but they refrained from showing it. Once my pen refill has exhausted , to make matters worse , that b'ful asked if i had extra pen . Since that day ,i carried two pens , but that questions never came again i.e " Do you have extra pen ?" .

17: " You don't have to be a doctor or an engineer , just do something you like. I used to worry that i'll never find something that i like . It was scary . "

No other words, its really scary , i don't know what i like.

18:" In the past whenever i wrote something, i would always daydream that i had a girlfriend whom i could read. " :
There can be no other better person to review what you write . For brief period i had this privilege , other times you have to be your editor.

19: " I pass people coming from work. They seem to be serving a sentence. confinement in isolation. "

Its good time pass to see frustrated people head back home from office ?( obviously when you are not one of them )

20: " A half solved crossword torn out of times of India lying on his lap. " :
I had seen this live many times. Many guys had this strange habit of cutting the crossword part from reading room news papers.

21: " There were people to poison you , to push you down . But when were you down there were others who would help you up, who would heal you with touch. " :
It very easy to find good , bad and ugly , and the situation worsens when bad people conceal themselves as good one.

22: " loneliness is a disease whose symptoms grow worse at night."
How many times this happens , its 3 o'clock in the morning and you are unable to sleep.It great to have 3am friends.long live all those 3 am friendships.

23: " I don't even know what i want to do, I just do what everyone else does. "

We are helplessly guided by our surrounding , 'can't help situation' .

24: " We aren't what we do or what we achieve or what we become , we are and we always will be what we want."

Very true , but its so dynamic , we keep on wanting one more thing or the other.

India Unbound : A side view

Recently, i did finish reading the book India Unbound by Gurcharan Das. A blog entry on the same was expected as an after effect. The optimism shown in the book is one of the better points , all of us should show similar pragmatic optimism in daily routine. By the time i realized , i was deeply engrossed reading each chapter with utmost concentration . I wish i can read everything with that level of dedication and concentration. It was heartening to read the facts that how Nehru's idealism failed to get implemented ,how we created difficulty in our own growth story and we failed to eradicate poverty in time. By the time we took measures to remove those obstacles , 40+ years had passed since independence and many countries have moved ahead of us.

Without going into other aspects of the discussions beautifully raised in the book , i would like to come to the topic which i want to elaborate here. Obviously , these are my thoughts and as i fondly say , subject to evolve in future. In the book there were so many references of middle class values. Some values are so apparent and some are hidden , you have to really explore to discover that. The topic is difficult to handle as i can already feel . The source of values are multiple as i try to trace the origin. Some are family values which can qualify to be middle class values.

1: Earn the right to have/haven't : I remember once i had asked dad , " why we can't have that thing called a-car ". Dad's gentle reply was , " only eligible people get that , for that you have to study very hard and get that " . Then i didn't know what people become by studying very hard. He said ," study hard , you will become someone good for sure and you will get 'that-thing' for sure ". This certainly qualifies as middle class value and the motivation is kept alive by always working for the goal and good things do come in between.

2: Austere lifestyle : Extra things should be minimized . Have only those things which you require. When i visit home, i am reminded of austere lifestyle which should be the guiding force. Family members still wonder , how that plate of vegetable served in a normal restaurant can cost 200 rupees per plate. I don't think mom-dad will agree to eat food served which come with such price tag. At the same time , Somehow they think new generation has right to eat that food , the bottom line remains "Earn the right ".

3: Calculate your resources : I failed to explain to dad on the topic , why people use credit cards? His question was, anyway the money has to be paid , so what's usability. I tried to come up with those cash-back and use-now-pay-later argument. But still, that was unconvincing explanation . he said , "may be that is useful ,but i don't understand". Spending after calculating the available resources has been one main family teaching which has been repeated to me time and again . This sub topic will remain incomplete if i don't quote John Abraham . He once said , " I am from the family where 1 rupee is valued as 100 paisa" .This explains the importance of the value. Now i know ,in all middle class families this value is taught everyday.

4: Hard work : Border road Organization's Motto : Shramena Sarvam Sadhyam ( Sanskrit words which means .... with hard work everything is possible ) . I was introduced to this fact in my family , though no one pointed this specifically . I remember my maternal grandma used to extract cream everyday from milk . The process requires a lot of patience and one has to believe the fact that milk contains cream and that can be extracted . That cream was later converted into ghee . With this small reference ,i knew with hard work we can do beautiful things. Other similar instances from my maternal grandma's activities are also mentionable i.e one can scan through 100 kg of rice in one go , looking for presence of small stone pieces or foreign particles not belonging to rice "community" , we can separate two pulses from each other ,last but not the least, one can wake up at "4am" in the morning. Only requirement is belief, supplemented by hard work and sense of urgency. Of course ,later on with experience as we become good at things we do routinely.

5: Learn good things from others : Washing cloths , cleaning utensils , cooking. I did not know these things until i did know i need to perform that activity.I thought ," What is the solution ? isn't it simple?". How mom used to do this task?It's wonderful to know , that you know things from others , in their style. As i wash cloths , i know i'm using mom's algorithm. When i keep a backup plan , i know mom does the same way. When i leave earlier than usual to catch a train , that is dad's way. The arrogance , which i show sometimes ,is from my elder brother. In addition many attributes of mine have come to me from my friends , but that will be other topic of discussion. As middle class we do take help from others and learn from them as well. This can qualify as middle class value.

6: Ignore and adjust :This has been another keyword which i try to work on. I still remember the day when i had to go away from family to carry on with life from boarding school . Mantra given to me was , you need to adjust with different people.
The end result has been , as most of the times i was reserved and was cautious with the fact that how much words i use with whom . I did manage to get good friends in the process.On broader side, we can not be friends with everyone, but this doesn't
mean we should have enemies. Sometimes we have to compromise for mutual good. This is evident in international arena as well ex. India and china are not friends for sure ,with due respect to "Hindi-chini-bhai-bhai" slogan , but our trade volume is
certainly very high.

The quest to understand middle class values is life long . There is always scope to improve on all values identified and one can always discover new ones.

Before closing : India Unbound is certainly one of better books i have read . Reading the book was simply fascinating and great learning experience as well . I can happily say , I am better person after reading this book. The concepts and ideas
described in the book will define me in future and will be guiding force for me.