Learn and unlearn

Life offers many teachings. We learn multiple good things while unlearning unwanted things. This process of learning/unlearning is lifelong process. As it happens quite often I am in mood of preaching. So here go some words from the preacher in me.

To begin with below things could be added to learn activity.

1: Empathy : One has to interact with large number of people in modern world. So one has to understand what others think and feel.This becomes prerequisite for understanding new problems , decision making , conflict resolution , successful negotiation . Consideration of empathy can induce long lasting peace, happiness, harmony, fraternity. In present times of conflicts , wars , intolerance empathy in way ahead.

2: Stand for others : We should stand for others rights , help them , empower them . This is required for larger good of the society and world. In era of interdependence it is critical to help others when they are stuck up. Helping others should be done in good faith e.g. without seeking any specific return for oneself. Civilization has progressed with collective effort . This is requirement in present era as well as we face new challenges and concerns.

3: Love and care : Spread love and care for people around you. This can be done by keeping all channels of communication open. Acknowledge dignity and existence of others. Power of little smile , act of love and care is immense which is underestimated. Excuse of fast paced life laced with stress takes us away from social life. Idea is to remain close with people around you while you walk your chosen path.

4: Hobbies : Everyone has own way of maximizing happiness . Having multiple hobbies is one way of doing this. Not doing anything is not an option , so choose what you love to do . Try multiple things till you find something according to your wish. As a motivating factor hobbies help in remaining healthy , increases creative potential , lets you make friends and provide wholesomeness to life. Go ahead with dance , music , painting , reading , exercise , games . Options are galore , find what you love. It's never too late.

Below things may be added to unlearn tasks.

1: Prejudices : This reflects in form of negative attitude towards people , places . Removing prejudices can be done by application of logic , reason ,seeking facts , rational scientific outlook . Constant vigil can minimize prejudices which we might have developed.

2: Stereotypes : Generally this goes with prejudices which we may have generated. This shows in way be eat , talk , walk , wear, think , believe , act. Stereotypes can limit our potential. Narrow outlook towards people around us and ourselves is harmful for progressive outlook towards life.

3: Ego : This is basis of negative personality and fuels other negative things e.g conflict , hatred , violence etc. Solution lies in being humble and have long term perspective rather than short term show of muscle and power. Ego can be easily controlled by having good sense of humor. 

4: Comfort zone : With mundane life activities a sense of inertia develops. This limits the possible progress . Change can be painful but nothing is as painful as being in situation/place you do not belong. Way forward in this case is to seek challenges, enhance capabilities, rest but not too long , choose freedom over comforting chains , broaden the outlook and expectation from life. Rise and shine,  which is not possible by remaining in comfort zone.

The list can certainly get longer for learn/unlearn. May be those can be added in later blog posts.

Goal of human life is to be good human being while maximizing happiness. Let good things get attached with you while leaving bad ones. Let the process begin and continue...

From the Cook in Me

My tryst with cooking has been fairly old affair. Starting with simple tea i did try new things and experimented with the ingredients and the process of cooking . I had fair count of finger cuts , burns , spilled milks etc to make the story full of exciting moments.

Cooking certainly tests multiple things as human being . To be one good cook one should carry fair amount of patience , ability to learn from mistakes , innovate , experiment , be careful , good observer , learn from others etc. Honest effort and love one adds shows in the end result. Cooking is one way to show how much you love yourself and people around you. Here goes some of the learnings from my cooking experience .

1: Time : As a cook one has to develop sense of timing for adding ingredients. Order of ingredients matter as well . End result can be drastically different based on the timing and order of adding ingredients. One example can be taken of oil. As general rule oil should be added to the frying pan when the pan is moderately hot. Further let oil get hot before adding other things e.g onion , spices etc.

2: Chemical reaction : Cooked food get flavor and color due to chemical reaction which take place. Ensure that you understand the ingredients and what you expect from resultant product. One example can be taken for smoke point of oil. All oils have smoking point above which smoke starts coming. At smoke point trans-fat is created. This should be avoided during cooking i.e. Cook at low flame or choose the oil as per cooking needs having smoking point in mind.

3: Salt : Cliché statement is applicable in case of salt e.g. add as per your taste. Oil helps salt in uniform spread e.g. inside of vegetables. So add salt after initial around one minutes of frying in oil when the vegetable starts turning reddish. Considering health needs less salt should be part of meals.

4: Onion : This is part of gravy base of innumerable vegetable dishes. Try onions chopped in different sizes to add variety to your preparation. Onions of small sizes added as whole can be good experimental proposition as well. Same can be said for using baby onions.

5: Khichdi : This has been one of my favorite dishes . Saviors for the times when you are too tired or too lazy to do much manual intensive tasks. Add rice , pulses , vegetables , spices and salts into pressure cooker and boil everything for 3-4 whistles . Give takda to the preparation using cumin seeds and oil. Certainly an activity of optimal returns for minimum effort.

6: Washing Utensils : You can not be good cook without good at taking up clean up act e.g washing utensils , cooking area etc. This is important for hygiene and aesthetics as well . How to proceed with washing utensils? I think act of patience comes into play here. Let your favorite song play in your mind and proceed with the task. Clean utensils present happy picture and is motivating factor to accomplish the task of cooking wonderful dishes. Use minimum utensils for cooking to avoid dealing with mountain of them for cleaning.

7: Buying vegetables : Always go for the fresh and seasonal vegetables . Out of season vegetables are excessively costly and lack taste and nutrition value as well. Here again choose the desi varieties which may not look great but they are far ahead in taste compared to the hybrid ones . e.g. desi tomatoes have more water content. One side comment can be made to carry your own bag while buying vegetables. One weird fashion has crept in recent times to use plastic bags . That is bad for environmental reasons. So discard plastic as far as possible.

Cooking and related activities can add good value to one's personality . Healthy mind lives in healthy body and being a good cook is a step in that direction . I have introduced myself into this world , i shall continue with the process and try to become better as time passes. Bye folks

p.s : In due course I shall share some of my recipes. 

Repository of smiles

Knew someone who is repository of smile ,
Chirpy while talking , always brimming with energy ,
Admired the words even when repeated ,
I learn , apply , improve and feel privileged to know one.

Sometimes I can speak non-stop without inhibition,
Some words which make some sense, others without much sense ,
Time played spoilsport as it moved fast,
Not before multiple precious moments got created.

As i reflect back , want to extend wishes ,
Wish for you all love and care ,
Reach new heights , explore new frontiers ,
Dream big , add colors to your dreams ,
To repeat , spread happiness as you always do.

Worries and concerns for you will continue ,
Don't skip meals , eat healthy and on time ,
Take care of health , be emotionally strong ,
Take work less seriously , add other attributes ,
Be regular with exercises and walks , pick books to be read .

Journey of life is full of happy surprises ,
Surprised that introvert in me can find special people as I walked ,
Some lines meet only to separate ,
In helplessness happiness could be found ,
Special bonds will get older and better with time ,
And I knew someone who is repository of smiles :-)

 p.s : I shall try to be regular with blog entries.

The Manchurian Nights

History of Manchurian dishes in India can be as old as Indo-China relations i.e. 2500 years old . We may have not-so-nice feeling about Chinese people but we do a lot of business with them , 73 billion $ to be specific and we love their food for sure. Chow mein and noodles are ruling many homes in India and some Chinese restaurants are doing business like never before example : Yo! China has become a brand in no time . Like all foreign things we did successfully Indianize many Chinese dishes according to our style . We eat butter Naan with veg Manchurian as if both were made for each other . Chinese Samosa is another nice fusion . Anyways , this article has nothing to do with intricacies of Chinese dishes or Manchurian dishes for that matter . It's about Mr. Darsha , evolved version of Adarsha , as he is fondly called , a genius of a brain and a wonderful friend.

The thoughts take me back to college days when special dishes were served on Wednesdays and Sundays . Nothing was special about the servings , worse then normal days one can safely add . These were the days when eateries inside/outside the college campus used to do more business than usual days . Menu was not extensive as one may wish to but there was enough to keep us involved. Me and Mr. Darsha were regular at the OC-restaurant in our college campus on the nights when 'special' dishes were served in hostel. Looking back , it may be said we did not want more in the menu as our order was uniformly same e.g. Veg Manchurian and chapati . On some occasions Chicken-Dehati-Chapati combination was gentle deviation as well . Manchurian was cost effective way to fill up stomach and call it special dinner session . By the time one realizes some friendship bonds get created having long term proportions . Extra time taken to get our order served used to provide ample time to explore different facets of friendship . After all , world seems a better place when you wait for your food at dinner table and you have people over the table who have innumerable stories to tell . Some stories which get repeated , but they are equally enjoyable . Even when Manchurian was there on table we had to wait for more time for Chapati to arrive , invariably this used to be extended wait . Onion peels were used to compensate for some time during chapati-wait-session . We hardly complained when we used to get colored hand after Manchurian dinners, thanks to adulterated tomato sauce . Extra chili usage ensured that we asked for sugar and sauf ( fennel seeds ) after paying the bill amount and walked away leisurely .

Most important thing which makes Mr. Darsha special is the genius inside him. When you spend time with people having special talent you try to expect same level from everyone around you in due course , which is difficult if not impossible . By watching Mr. Darsha's style of work One could secretly appreciate with awe the genius at work . I used to give the B'day bills , and other similar bills , to Mr. Darsha to ensure the sum calculation was fine . By doing this i wanted to see human calculator at work , without paper and pen , in-air-calculation . By Second semester Mr. Darsha had become a known and important figure at my home . We used to travel together during holidays during almost all vacations . In return journey separate package of Sattu-paratha-Aam-ka-Aachar was packed for Mr. Darsha . While i was mostly silent creature in those days , even now i am mostly silent creature , but in front of Mr. Darsha i was able to speak for considerable amount of time . In Mr. Darsha we had very good teacher and it was not unusual to find so many people running towards his room during exam time . I used to collect doubts and move towards his room as part of two-hours-before-exam preparation . Not to forget the frustration sessions when all of us used to get worried at the same time about career e.g. life after college . Then it was difficult to understand the confusion was to continue long after moving out of college.

Marriage make the changing times look evident .Recently Mr Darsha got engaged , a girl has "agreed" to marry him . Suddenly things we used to talk as part of  fun talks is becoming a reality . It's so nice when we can see the happiness in the voice of friends . When close friends start moving towards marriage world you realize inevitability of change. All the best to Mr. Darsha for married life ahead . I shall patiently wait to see his great exploits in future which will be many in number for sure.

Concluding with Manchurian talks .Its difficult to give words to all special moments which passed . May be manchurian nights count above others.  Even now i order Manchurian dishes , sometimes without looking at the Menu and price. This happens not because i am some sort of fan of Manchurian dishes, but because i want to get the flavor of the Nights which passed......The Manchurian Nights i call them.

P.S : I did come across a moment which got added to my all time favorite moments list. A sweet friend , sweeter than 'hunny-bunny' Idea's jingle , queried about The Big bang theory during the chit-chat over evening snacks table . While introducing Penny's role i said , ' she is highly dumb type character '. To which the sweet friend interjected saying , 'just like me?' . I wish i could pause the time for that moment and save the same , if only i could . Effortless innocence and sublime facial expression made that moment special.

On other side

"Graha is dancing over your head...Soon it will be taken care of" , Loose translation of hindi line ," Tumhare Sar par grah naach raha hai.....Jaldi hi utar jaayega " . This sweet little warning from mom/dad reverberates in my ear drums when i think of word "graha" from yesteryears when they were angry due to my idiosyncrasies. The meaning of the warning was very much implicit , " Behave yourself or you know the consequences" . Those were the days when one was learning the good/bad of the world . family values were being injected which were to define me in the future to come i.e when i was to take decisions based on those values. But there is small price one had to pay while being typecasted as good/bad. What about being in the other territory? Can i know , always , what is bad without getting a feel from other side. In short , difficulty of being good can not be ignored for ever. Without much effort one used to venture into other side just for sake of curiosity and sometimes out of power of rebel inside . What were some of the joys of being on wrong side ? Here it goes....

1: I remember i took out rupee 20 from dad's pocket bypassing chain of command . I had breached my discretionary powers only to be caught while availing the gains of misappropriated hot money. The amount of money, in class two days , was enough to raise alarm among the self proclaimed security agents ( Seniors ) . The money was confiscated immediately and rest is another small story i.e  After returning home i was handed unceremoniously to mom for further action. This was first memorable instance from being on wrong side moment.

2: The child grew , he reported honestly all his movements to concerned authorities e.g. mom , dad , brother , sister etc . However on some occasions he used to trespass to mango/Guava/palm orchids . Sugarcane field was another noted attraction . Being chased by the Garden watchman was experience worth having ; James bond type feeling!!

3: Watching movies in Cinema hall was a no no in our family . Entertainment expenses were minimized for financial reasons . Later on i did get chance to watch late night shows . It feels strangely good when you walk home at 1 am in night on deserted road. Specially when you have crazy friends with you who try to scare each other with ghost noises. We used to warn each other that police will catch us for walking at this time on road . Somehow that never happened.

4: We knew that 11 pm is the time for college campus main gate to close . Most of us had not been on other side of the gate after 11 pm . We had heart stories of daredevilry and caught-by-patrolling-guards stories of more accomplished college friends who were regularly on wrong side of the gate on most nights. The moment came in later half of stay in college . When gate keepers don't allow you to enter from main gate and one has to take forbidden route through jungle , you can't help but appreciates  the joy of being on wrong side.

5: Quite a few train journeys i did take when i had no reserved tickets . With over crowded general compartment , the attraction was to get into sleeper class . At least i will get space to stand . Sight of TTE was scary moment , but the ready made answer was , " Sir student!!! " . Sometimes they used to smile and move and on other times was asked to move to general compartment . Times change, the joy of being on wrong side become part of sweet memories .

Bottom line remains , there is no harm in crossing the line to be on other side to know the pros and cons . May be you will realize that it's not wrong by any standards . Life is about looking at various shades of grey. At the same time one should not hurt someone in the process . Retract to your territory in time . Enjoy the dance of graha over your head until it is "taken care of" :)

p.s : Graha is associated to Astrology.

p.p.s : There are other memories of Being-on-wrong side. Hopefully words will be found in due course.

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.

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.

Our Ladakh trip

We know some days will be memorable ,
We yearn to enjoy that by planning,
Actual form is unknown till the end,
Finally, we did start the journey.

Those jokes and familiar mimicry ,
We decided , Do it this way , don't eat that way,
Man! don't conspire and switch on the light ,
I have to finish that innocuous article.

Why he did not join , will that buddy will come later on?
The journey is long and some days are gone,
We reached Delhi , managed the first halt,
Did board the bus which took us to manali.

Picked up few mineral water bottles,
Did appreciate rivers and apples,
After breakfast, we set off to leh ,
Man wait!, we have to complete the para-gliding in solang valley,
ok, no problem, lets divert to that location ,
Get that camera ready , for which you were charging the battery ,
Click few snaps in the rope way .

We had to cross rohtang Pass to see mountains in the sky,
Don't know why people can't resist hi-tea,
Sun has set , it's time to sleep,
lets arrange the dinner and exchange bed time stories.

Its morning , wake up friends!
I need that liquid soap you have kept,
Lets go to river side and check temperature,
Is that a crow watching the snow?

Saying Hi to passersby , appreciating the hard work they do every day,
Now i know BRO works for better future ,
Mountains got bigger , roads became narrower,
Our driver said , see this 22 cuts,
Road with 22 bends , bottom to top.

We searched, where is the end ?
we read, this is second highest motorable road,
As we moved , waited a Long stretch of flat road,
At this height? its impossible!

Night fell , leh welcomed us ,
We wondered , such location exists in india ,
Surrounded by snow clad mountains ,
Foreigners available in quite a number.

Lets sleep and make tomorrow's plan ,
Someone said river rafting , enjoy next evening ,
Other interjected, shopping is a must ,
Indus is so friendly , water flowed so steadily.

By now ,all knew what exhaustion means ,
bhai log ...lets eat and sleep ,
Pangong Lake is too far away , lets postpone it to next day,
The day was hectic , How can the lake's water be so blue?,
Please Explain the optics , click on the pics.

The Journey reversed , guess what? we are tourists,
People talked of important things ,
What makes us better , what makes us wrong,
At 4 am , all ran for cover, Sleep was too tough to overcome.

Time moved , we did retreat to normalcy ,
Back to work , quest to catch the dreams,
Here faces are strange ,
Everyone is busy with something insane,

Concluding is not easy work,
We eat words and mold situations,
Some you can express , most can only be felt,
In the end memories do stay, the best days become history.

P.S : The first question struck in the midst of our leh trip was...Do we have to go through so much effort to feel the magic?Time to get slightly philosophical, all things, if possible, should be earned with hard work to appreciate the feeling of triumph

5 Minutes : Past and Present

How many times we yearn for that 5 mins of sleep in many forms . The form can be extra-supplementary-complementary-out Ofplace-important-necessary-not to forget-customary . Who can not claim to be fan of extra 5 minutes of early morning sleep .
This is signified by spoken/unspoken words , " it's too early , i should sleep more , at least.....for 5 minutes".

Clock turns back by quite sometime ,to class "two" days to be precise.I remember one small chapter, titled "5 minutes" ( paanch mitute in hindi , if i remember correctly ) .The protagonist of the story , Gopi , used to delay all activities by at least 5 minutes. Then, i was able to correlate my reluctance to do things on time with Gopi's act . Then , i knew few nuances of time wasting techniques.Later, as years passed , i did realize these are signs of "laziness";one has to struggle all the time to fight laziness.

Now coming to the actual agenda , can the phenomena of sleep optimization ( increasing by 5 mins ) may come under purview of fight-against-laziness? Unfortunately , answer can not be found in any available text . Most accepted answer can be , it depends from situation to situation . Taking example , if innocuous 5 minute duration gets elevated to 5 hours , it can easily be termed as brazen breach of 5-minutes-acceptance-protocol .Going for a case study , i remember one friend in school days , he used to regularly breach the mentioned acceptance protocol and this observation was known to all friends ( Boarding school it was ) . He tried to fight this embarrassment by authorizing and appointing few trusted friends to perform damage control if he was found extending the agreed time limit of 5 minute sleeping protocol . Various annexes were added to make-him-wake-up activity effective i.e usage of water , stick , football free kick etc etc ( depending on the demand of situation ) . Level three ( Red ) situation was identified if next day we had to write some exam . Level one ( Green ) situation involved usage of water in different quantities at regular interval. Aftermath of water-usage-activity was hilarious situation. Another mention of a friend who used to have big alarm clock , with snooze at each 5 minutes. Everyone used to wake up due to his alarm clock , but not him . Many times we had to face what-to-do situation , when the alarm clock locked(
security reasons) in his suitcase used to start alarming , with him not in vicinity . Everyone had to go away from the happening-location to avoid that irritating alarm clock's persistent noise.

At personal level , i have to earn the right to get that 5 minutes extra( this due to that me V/S myself fight )I did read somewhere , " nothing is worse than getting something without effort" . The right can be earned by performing some activities i.e reading 50 pages of particular book . Its similar to earning carbon credit rating in Kyoto protocol ( oops! out of context comparison ). As i look back and i get surprised with the fact that i used to wake up at was 4:30 am in my class 10th days. Things have changed but one thing has remained common , i adored 5 minute package then, as well as Now.

This piece of text will remain incomplete without mention of souls who successfully utilize their 5 minute package in bus/train/auto/class/office etc etc . One thing is clear 5 minute package has huge fan base and all love it . I am already inclined towards 5 minute package as i near completion of this blog entry.

p.s : 5 min package was coined by me in combination with the college friend of mine...aytas we called him, he has been great fan of 5 min package .

Perception change....in progress

Recently the results of "A day in india" contest organised by TOI was declared. Many deserving entries got admired and got awards as well . So many not so famous people have special talent in fields like photography ,cartoon sketching, videography is a great thing . Things become interesting when the theme is to see india from different angles , after all, all of us claim to know our country the best . I still wonder how Britishers ruled this country without becoming part of it , an achievement for sure because all invaders who came here got assimilated and became part of india. There are people who claim to have solution to problems as complex as corruption , its easy to enjoy lighter side of corruption with reference to our country.Knowing india is like knowing multiple faces of the entity....i have gone through introductory chapters if i consider India as whole book.

As i look back and try to know how did i know that live in india? The answers are vague , may be those school national anthem sessions .May be those Information displayed on doordarshan , specially that population clock of india and who can forget that "mile sur mera tumhara" song which almost became another national anthem in those days . Modern version of the same song easily failed to give any competition to original version. My days spent in train journeys have helped me a lot in my quest to know india .I can't say as of now that i have discovered all faces of india , but i saw people of all states in india in trains . Most touching part of train journey is how people resent entry of new persons at a station and when they say bye to each other at further stations its complete deviation from earlier situation , some bonds are created . Special mention to nice faces and i cursed each time for not possessing telepathic powers.

As i write about train journey one special activity that defines one special moment is when the train crosses a bridge.If its a long bridge , people get ample time to show their fear/devotion to river goddesses . Talking about the activity , people throw coins into the river , some say its required to appease the river goddess as we are crossing her without taking permission . As a child i used to ask dad for coins and enjoyed this whenever i got chance to perform this activity . In one of those train journeys i remember one not so good comment by a fellow passenger targeted towards a lady who did perform the act of dropping the coin into the river. He said , " its a waste of money " . Friend of mine could not digest that caustic remark and retorted , if this is waste of money , so are all forms of worshipping of god. As i recall this incident i was a believer and worshipped god everyday , at least once in a day to be specific. Things have changed over the years, i don't know when non believer in me did born.But this coin tossing into the river while crossing the river bridge remains one of the sweets activities admired by me.

One recent experience which signified how thought process changes with time ,this is all but weird observation . I was going home this April , by train , one person prepared and got the logistics ready for the coin tossing activity . The weird observation struck me , Man! this money is going out of circulation . The repercussions can be immense to our economy . RBI has to replenish this money by infusing liquidity . This is not healthy for our economy , specially if its developing economy like india and Inflation can create havoc for the poor people at the expense of some innocent person throwing the money out of economy.Clearly this is like blowing things out of proportion .This abrupt observation ends here , i know this is perception change in progress :)

Before closing , even if i can not do things on my own and enjoy special activities like the coin tossing activity into the river ,I can always watch others doing this and enjoy. One of my favourite lines these days ,"irony is not bad in all instances".

Stay connected : delayed call

Other day i got "reason" to call one friend . It was his birthday .I looked back and wondered , last time i had talked to aytas( his nickname ) was last year on same day . How i missed other "reasons" to call him? The answer is unknown ......days just fly past us and we are mere spectators . Many times, 'reasons' also go unnoticed i.e holi, diwali , new year to name a few. Another questions comes to the fore . Why we need reasons to do as innocuous thing as asking how-you-are-doing? Other day another friend of mine called me .....this time without reasons.Its so nice feeling when you know people not around you,physically,actually do care for you and they are just a call away . They are ready with their suggestions ,information , help in any form . You may be helping one friend sitting far away with resizing his passport size photograph for submitting his job form. At other time you may say your friend in other city,"I'm coming to your place to stay for one night as i have exam next day. Other friends call and say , " Hey man! , plan a visit to this part of the world". India , if not world, has become our playground , a la that vodafone jingle. I remember days when i was not allowed to go away from mom's sight for evening game session . All my friends used to visit space in front of my house for games session in evenings . Whenever they tried to persuade my dear mom to allow me to go to main ground, that was denied with professional precision , which is possessed by all moms i think.

Coming back to what goes on during those delayed calls.The typical long lost talks start with , what else? What are you doing these days? Did you hear about so and so ? he got into IIM ...that guy went to US ....that guy got so and so package in that job. The talks moves to more elaborate area , the days when "particular" type of movie was watched for the first time and that too in group. The not-so-serious talks get intermingled with serious ones when future concerns are discussed. Some personal problems are shared . The talk turns lighter, kya ree! koi nayi ladki mili? no man! tumko lagta hai aisa ho sakta hai and we thank indian society for having concept of arranged marriage otherwise guys like us might never find a life partner. This talks is elaborated with , what happened to the gal you used to talk in hours officially recognised by owls , watchmen , lovers etc? And the typical reply ..aisa kuch nahi tha? The topic changes inadvertently when talk about genius guys,who are too good to act simple even in simplest scenario. Questions like , " which lap-top should be bought? ...is answered as MACPro le lo " and the desire to buy new laptop dies automatically . Why all good things are so costly?

There are friends who have more faith in your talent than on their own? They will keep on motivating you when it may seem things are not so nice. This scenario becomes tricky , a failure will mean letting that person down. Not long ago we were growing together ....now everyone it seems has chosen own path . People around me these days have different dreams , days are gone when everyone around me had same dream , same passion . We understood each others words just because the words were not heard , but evolved, as we fondly said in those days. Before closing few lines from jug suraiya : TOI-18th June

" when will at last i'll finish college? get a job , find someone i might want to spend the rest of my life with....will it ever happen? ..... With future already becoming past as we look at it ...for us who are no longer young time seems to accelerate at scary speed."

Lunch times : Now and then

Its some moments past 1pm and i got some innocuous message on office communicator displaying "lunch" .The reply to this has got monotonous over the months i.e 5min/2min/lets go and sometimes rare modifications. Sometimes i perform the ritual of asking others to gather for lunch with similar responses mentioned query i.e lunch?. In other words this is reminder i.e this is lunch hour and fear factor associated is join the group otherwise one has to eat alone .At time people move to otherwise deserted place in office i.e cafeteria.Lunch hour is the the time for social interaction with some typical smiles flowing around and typical social interaction stuffed with rudimentary questions "how are you ? " " all is well? " etc etc .This is
the time when one listens to particular tribe who are otherwise so busy and they carry their work all the time on their head/shoulders/brain ( if its there ) .Not to forget gossip mongers who don't fail to comment on their managers and olleagues .One should not forget souls want to share from miniature "dabbas" that they carry religiously from home to office. I wonder how one can cook that small quantity and to carry that and at the end offer that to 10 people(assumption).I don't khow if they are best at resource phenomena. Not to forget souls who survive on juice and they sip juice as if that has arrived from out of this world on their service .In between this sometimes chit-chat subject becomes "Cafeteria food is bad" and not so good caterer.Caterer in my behave as if they are here on charity mission feeding hungry people/Who don't have access to home made food...charitable catering. Another tribe is who eat "fasting" food , its a misnomer..how can one eat in fasting?...but in India we do many weird things on the name of god...khuda ke liye. Its not difficult to find people who are on dieting and on special diet . They say," i eat highly customized food ", calorie count is in fashion.Clearly ,we care more for our health if the fashion trend supports that.

Enough of office talk...to refresh the mood i'll trace back to lunch timing in college days. Lunch time there was like another typical session to discuss " how bad the food is?". Different pros and cons of this topic were discussed at length.Eating roti "just_out_of_tawa" was a must do event. Anything cold was strict no no.As i look back hostel food was not that bad , at least multiple times better then the diet i eat these days. some dishes were "so special" or trademark of our hostel mess to be precise.Those french fries can easily beat much revered french fries of McDonald's and other places i have visited.

Coming to important question, what was my answer to "with whom i'll have lunch ? " The answer is it was highly dynamic...with anyone present there in hostel mess. All tables were equally likely .....side effect of having so many friends . It can be said there were several layers of friends between close friends and distant friends. Interestingly as i remember close friends were not my lunch time friends.I would like to add dinner time to previously mentioned phenomena. As i talk about dinner/lunch time friends i can't forget to mention other tribe of friends. Sports complex friends,pizza friends, Table tennis friends, watching TV friends,pizza friends,watching movies friends, cricket friends,bakwas talk friends,frustration session friends , study friends ,jhaduu friends( somehow my room was jhadu/broom room.....people cared periodically to clean their room i.e monthly/bi-monthly) ...gosh!! so many divisions ...but why i'm counting that? Wasn't it effortless?

How things change so quickly . Being formal has become the rule. I see everyday one of my fav lines personified in many souls working in office environment ...the line being , "we are prisoners of own identity , living in prison of our own creation ".
The fear is can i save myself from being typical prisoner....i'll have to look for answer in future. 5 years down the line ,what i'll be doing? Will i ping colleagues for one typical lunch session and have typical lunch time talks.Its scary ...it would be interesting to see what happens...which path to choose...so much of confusion and that is magnifying the fear.Before closing , getting company while having lunch/dinner is privilege , if no is around , silently ,i arrange for the sweet debate , me v/s myself moments i call it .

Scary selfishness

Mike Tyson : 14th July 2010 : " The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. Just a whole bunch of gifts to myself and people who didn't necessarily deserve it. Now I'm 44, and I realize that my whole life is just a f--king waste. 'Greatest man on the planet'? I wasn't half the man I thought I was. So if there's a big plan now, it's just to give-it's selflessness, caring for the people who deserve it. Because I think I'm a pig. I have this uncanny ability to look at myself in the mirror and say, 'This is a pig. You are a f--king piece of sh-t."

Selfishness can make one feel really bad. At least we can help others when they ask for your help. No wonder that this line is one of my favourite , " At the end of the day it doesn't matter how much you get from others , but , how much you are able to give" .As i write his i remember some unknown faces whom i helped. That illiterate man at ATM machine who didn't know how to use that ATM machine , that old lady who held my hand while crossing the road , the man who asked me how to fill form to deposit money at bank , the guy whose ticket was not confirmed and i made him sleep on my berth , that junior in school who walked up to me to me to ask how to write speech . Through the list is not uncountable , but still they make me smile each time i remember those moments.

Help offered to friends is obviously not mentioned in the list . At times whole day and more was devoted to solve the problems which created problem for them. Even if the problem was not of any significant magnitude i.e some mathematics problem.I'm getting guilty feeling( i should not mention about help offered/given ). A generous "thank-you" was not acceptable . Somehow,i never got comfortable with this word if i added that person in my friend list.With time i have started accepting this "thank-you" formality with a awkward "welcome".Coming to the recent event when i told one friend to write on chat window " calling you " rather then " can i call you?" . Its highly not-good-feeling to give permission to anyone calling me. Reason is simple , helping is at very high priority for me. The feeling that comes on seeing smiling face is the reward which is unique in its kind.sometimes,one can only imagine that smile because that person is not in front of you.But this hardly reduces feel-good -feeling.The sense of "i am of some use to other " is really special one.

Before closing,i'm happy to help unconditionally and someday i don't want to call myself "a pig".The work is on :)

Pav-bhaji : attacked!!

It happened when human civilization was too busy to notice this. May be they were too busy thinking about space program or were busy making/creating/solving problems for themselves too keep their otherwise vacant life filled with some nuisance they said " work ".

Coming back to the incident three members of a particular species ( oops!! they were humans ) tried to intrude into " belongings" of their fellow human . What followed was complete mayhem . Many explanations were sought and past references were provided to justify this attack . The fellow human tried to control the situation with all possible ability. Alas! inevitable had to occur . This was evident from the nature of the attack .

The intruders claimed they deserved to " eat " that thing for which they had made the attack. ( Definition of "eat" : part of the process to extract energy from external substance ) . Why they made this attack? .....isn't this obvious? what powerful creatures want?...ans is simple..." more power ". This instinct led to the occurrence of this event which changed the course of human thinking ...how far humans can get when it comes to get more power.

A case study made into this resulted into shocking findings . The substance under consideration was called " pav-bhaji" This was famous substance made form other substances as ingredients for the purpose of getting energy . Don't know why the then humans used to do this when there were so many sources of energy from energy might had been extracted . yes they called this process " cooking " as if this was technologically smart thing .

Everything can be justified in simple line . Humans used to do many things to amuse themselves. " humanity is over-rated " .....this thory is again vindicated with the mentioned event.

WORK : it's like this

With reference to CDC ( centre for disease control ) notification regarding the spread of virus Weekly-Overload-Recreational Killer (WORK) here is some elaboration of the same .As pointed out in the official document the mentioned virus may come un-noticed or at times with prior notice. Those are real fools who fall in trap of the virus ( with notice or without ) . Some easy-to-do precaution may easily keep this virus away as all it needs is simple-common-proper-sense . For those who are still confused some suggestions are ....

1: stay away from boss's sight at critical scenario ( comes with experience ) .( definition of Critical scenario is beyond the scope of this document )

2: Show as if you are already down with the virus affect .

3: "Sick" leave will work when peers are already facing the wrath of WORK .

4: Always remember this " fortune favors brave " .

If one is not sure when one has come under influence of this virus here are some symptoms.

1: Late stay at the place of occurrence err office ( regularly )

2: Mind thinks only about virus , 24/7 i-think-of-you types .

3: Joyful opportunity keep every-time simple (JOKES ) scenario becomes complex every-time .

4: facial muscle become no-reaction-muscles and don't comply with smile and laugh requirement of the same . .

What about cure?

Prevention is best defense in this case . But still if one is down with the syndrome regular dozes of Work isolating neutralizer extract ( WINE ) and Bothersome employer Elimination Rebooter ( BEERS ) under guidance of DOC ( dangerous obsessed culprits ) can minimize the effect if not remove the same . If virus is not sufficient GF and many times someone called “wife” optimize the affect of this disaster when one is not available for religious activity of " shopping " and " movies " on time . If not cured person starts living happily under influence of the virus accepting it as gift of god forgetting god has created many other things but WORK is man-made .

Choice is ours whether to stay away from this virus or make bad impression for future generations to come ; they will just say " how crude our forefathers/foremothers were ". Isn't this simple and clear?

NO means what?

It seems i have become regular at my blog after some gap. i don't know how long i shall be regular but for now i have so many thoughts in my mind and some of them are spilling on this space .

This blog entry is about the scenario when we say something but mean something else . At times we are at receiving end of the scenario when one has to decode what is said . This may be in the form of some situational jokes when only few can understand what is said .It's so easy to fall on wrong side of the complete scenario which leads to mis-communication .

Starting with the much used word " NO " , responsible for confusion , sometimes light and something demanding . How many times we say "no" when we actually mean yes . This may be to hide something Or it can be just to gain more attention or for that matter this may be just a way of extending the actual ans which is yes. who hasn't enjoyed getting pampered on saying no no no during childhood . It was always difficult to say no to the lines " beta ye kha lo " , " school ka time ho gaya jago " , " it's time to sleep " , " it's not the time to watch TV " , " drink this glass of milk ". Nothing can equate the joy of eating after saying no to eating invitation at home. This is just because we feel important . Not to forget many times one actually means NO when one says it . One should not try to make this no as yes , this can only complicate the matters .Another tricky situation arises when one is at receiving end i.e : we have to explore what actually is said . If it is said no and the meaning is "yes" one has to be really fast to act and get situation under control .I almost always interpret that the said no actually means yes and end up making awkward situation for myself . It seems i should make myself more comfortable with the word no to be able to handle it meaningfully .

Before closing , indirect way of saying is an art so is understanding what is actually said . Everyone is learnng to be better at this art. This is always good till it leads to confusion .

House-Maid : A work in porgress

After long random search and with the help of a-lot of contacts in use we found maid for our apartment(4 people live there ) .The found ( rare-species) has agreed to do the "charity work" ( cooking ) at our apartment given the scenario she likes the provided ambiance and if she gets time to do that ( she works as if she is doing real charity ) . Finding roti-kapda-makan is really tiresome work . No wonder people kill whole of their life doing this monotonous and predictable/uncertain activity . This is Clearly a conspiracy by unknown superpower who wants to make the mortals ignorant about their existence by keeping them busy.

Reverting back to the topic , finding a maid was never an issue in my home-sweet-home as mom says housework is overrated . Everything related with housework seems so streamlined and natural for her . Take this : Haw she is able to make really round roti of same geometry? makes me wonder. No wonder they say ...cooking is art . In short mom can't allow anyone in her domain of which she is expert .she is more of a coach these days making bhabhi and sis do the " small " work of following the instructions .

Getting work done by maid aka bai is really tough work in itself. Listening to her demands and arranging the logistics before she does the actual execution is demanding work. She really needs everything to be perfect and all things available according to her needs . Not at all easy to persuade her to work according to our needs ex: making her know how much and of what taste one eats is difficult If she thinks one should eat it and she will cook that . It can be said she is pre-configured with all the rare attributes all maids have which they unleash one by one . On 3rd day itself she went on "privileged" leave due to unavoidable circumstances arising out of her pre-occupations .My heart sinks on seeing the way she wastes LPG , all due to the fact that arranging LPG is not child's work for sure . Slowly and steadily she is showing her real House-maid avatar and arranging the circumstances to make her work comfortably seem so huge . What options one has when it comes to doing things for "food " .

Time to repeat the formidable line " one can love or hate maids , ignore them at your own peril " .In my present condition i will say with confidence , " Housework is not over-rated ".Maids know this exploit this to their advantage . It's only on seeing expert we realize it's so easy .....but experts can't be everywhere that's why GOD created "bai's" and armoured them with n number of demands that they create.



p.s : This blog entry is dedicated to dear-mom who is really an expert in cooking and it's really fun to ask mom to help me with her recipes on phone.

Slavery rocks....agreed?

Strange may it seem , mentioned title is /was motto of our friend circle . This was coined by yours truely , and marketting ( yes , i call that this ) of same was also done by me . No points for guessing ,this was everyone's favourite ' word ' in our friend circle.

This quote ( slavery rocks! ) has been derived from one of my favourite lines , " we are prisoners of our own identity living in prison of own creation". Appropriate addition came as we try to do things according to rules of surrounding .The point is, we want to live in prison , if there are no constraints we create our own stupid ways of living life . The stupidity is personified by small/ big things we do .....doing things in particular way / doing things according to accepted rules Ex . Wearing cloths of particular brand , eating particular food at particular location /time , watching movies of our choice on particular days ( yes , we call that our favourite / part of routine) . This should not be confused with 'typecasting ' which was once defined on my blog . Others are responsible for our actions in that case .

As we are slaves of own self,by default we are slaves of the system . Here the keyword "rocks " comes into picture. We end up doing things which system expects from us with perfection . In our college it was making notes ,diagrams , graphs , assignment etc on time with all possible dedication . In real life it can be doing things without thinking i.e "is this what i am supposed to do? " ( this on serious note ). Some other acts things which requires slavery are income tax , electricity bills , fone bills , cable bills , newspaper bill ( omg! how many bills one has to foot to live on this planet). On top of that doing daily shopping requires real slaves ( even if we have one-stop super markets to make things easy ). Life is not easy , only best slaves can make a cut. We call this competition? ...don't know why .

Real tricky situation it is . Searching for balance is only option . One very good idea can be follow the best slaves , let them decide what is best and follow that algorithm blindly .error....error paradigm shift , yes! following someone is not slavery , one can always stop following one slave to follow the other , so freedom written everywhere . But nothing is better then being own follower ( slave ), but arn't other important thing are to be done in life? This question is as confusing as ever . Let the question remain 'unsolvable ' .
For now , slavery rocks for sure , but dream of feeling full freedom will always be there .

p.s : hey friends , how you are performing as your own slave . Plz share the same.

p.p.s : again random thoughts from memory lanes . I am afraid this makes any sense :)