Karma..

After having decided to visit a local book store to purchase some study books I set off for the market. At the door, Guttu gave a sad look to remind me that his dog food was over. I gave a peck on his forehead and promised him his fav pedigree. With the cycle, scooter and car conveying options clipped off the only one left was bus. It was early evening and monsoon had just hit Goa.  Battling the wind and rain with my umbrella, I reached the bus stop.

I boarded the bus half drenched and my cellphone set abuzz. It was Azhar on the line asking about my whereabouts. Due to problem in the network I told him I ll ring up once I reach the market.

As I was purchasing the books my cellphone rung again. It was Azhar and he informed me that he was around the area where I was. So we decided to meet up for sometime. I was craving for chicken shawarma for the past two days. We eat at The Roosters at Colva coupled with some BR ice-cream and head back home.

As soon as I enter the house, Guttu jumps onto me and sniffs the two bags that I was holding. He was waiting for his food all the while. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to get it. The bags that I was holding had my books and sharwarma parcel for Saurabh. Mom came out from the kitchen and gave me a good stick for not getting the Guttus food.

But fortunately for Guttu, there is a pet shop just a km away. It was drizzling a bit and breeze was chilling. As I was jogging off to the store, I noticed cute dog on the road side. It was soaked in rain. I continued my jog to the store, purchased the dog food and started to jog back home.

I noticed the dog again. The dog was sitting in the very same place in the rains getting wet and shivering. I crossed on to the other side of the road and tried to get near it. It started running away. I quickly opened one of the tin food cans, emptied half of its contents on the paper bag and pushed it towards the dog. The dog came closer and started eating the food hurriedly. I petted twice on its forehead and it responded by wagging its tail.

I remembered, Guttu was at home waiting for his dinner. I jogged back home as fast as I could. As I entered, mom told me she mixed some of the chicken pieces from the shawarma in rice for Guttu. Guttu had already eaten his dinner by the time I was home.

At first I was mad at mom for making me get the dog food in the night midst the rains. I came to my room and set back.
I looked back at the entire events and thought may be this whole thing happened only so that the dog on the road side could for once taste and eat tin food. May be it was destined to eat that share. A share that may help it to beat the cold for a day. It was all in his fate, just written somewhere that a person will come and give it some food. Its all Karma I thought, you do good and someday the good will find its way back to you.

(PS. Ignore the grammatical errors and typos and use of slangs. I do not own the copyrights for the image used here. It is clicked by Saurabh Naik.)

Getting Started…

This is first of the many posts that shall follow.. Random, mad, a little cranky thoughts..

Been off this platform for more than a year..

Haven’t been reading and traveling as much as I did before.. But the journey that I look forward for holds a lot of promise…

In the last 6 months, a lot of things have changed.. Or may be my perception about them has…

The road since then has been getting narrower…footsteps tend to fumble over loose gravel..

You need a clear mind and a firm grip to balance and take you forward.. One wrong foot and you are all out.

Back to level 1 with 1 life less.

Only thing that has remained the same is the determination and the force to achieve.

Technically, A push or pull is called force..

But this one has been only pushing me to limits. Making me dream. Making me believe, that the dawn tomorrow will be better than this dark night.

And at this moment if one were to ask me…What is it that is driving you? … I would say it is THIS force!

It has always been there… And I hope it does forever.

Liked this one. :)

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On Hindutva and Hinduism

After the 3 month election saga, I have finally managed to crop in some time for my daily reading. Though I had been reading a bit of Haruki Murakami before this, I thought I ll branch off to an Indian writer for the interim.

Just last week I visited my brother in Mumbai where we were roaming around looking out for books. One notable book that I got my hands on was “AS I SEE IT, LK Advani’s Blog Posts“. As an impulsive buyer the first thought was to buy a copy of it there itself, of course after skimming through a couple of pages of the book.

But then I purchased the book on Flipkart.

Why I am particularly mentioning the post name as “On Hindutva and Hinduism” is because the ideas about Hinduism that Shri. L.K. Advaniji has mentioned and quoted a few editors of some dailies in his book, is the same that I posses. I believe it was some 2 years back that me and my friend Spiffer had a discussion on Hinduism. I recollect we saying that Hinduism is more of a set of rules / practices rather than a religion. Having said this, there are no defined rules that one has to practice. There are deviations / subsets to these rules and one may practice how they suit him the best.

Following are some excerpts from one of Advaniji’s posts where he quotes Fareed Zakaria.

Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International, has recently written a book “The Post American World” in which he has repeatedly emphasized that Hinduism is not a religion in the ‘Abrahamic’ sense of the word. Zakaria writes:

“Every sect and sub-sect of Hinduism worships its own God, Goddess, or holy creature. Every family forges its own distinct version of Hinduism. You can pay your respects to some beliefs, and not to others. You can be a vegetarian or eat meat. You can pray or not pray. None of these choices determines whether you are a Hindu. There is no heresy or apostasy, because there is no core set of beliefs, no doctrine, and no commandments.”

Zakaria argues that it is this non-doctrinaire character that gives Hinduism its absorptive and assimilative power. I hold that it is this Hindu ethos that accounts for the success of both democracy as well as secularism in India.

He also goes further and quotes the Supreme Court’s decision that  “Hindutva is a way of life or state of mind and cannot be understood as religious Hindu fundamentalism”…and that  Hindutva and Indian secularism are practically synonyms.

To view the entire blog post of Advaniji on the above subject Click Here.

The book is really an awesome read. There are myriad important things in the book which deserve special mention and I will make it a point to list out a few in the next posts that I write.

Poll Monitoring System (PMS)

First of all “Happy Holi” to all my friends.

 Today as I sit on my chair in my office, on a holiday, its a different feeling altogether. This office had lost the touch of weekly one day off. As some might be resting (much needed), some playing with colors, some still conducting elections(in their dreams ) I take this time to thank all the people I came across during this wonderful journey.

 To say that PMS was a SUCCESS and end it there would be really an understatement. Having seen the efforts put in by each and every employee, the staff on duty from officials to drivers and peons, the most important SECTOR OFFICERS, contributing directly/indirectly to this project has made it a success.

 The Development Team: Every single person involved in writing even a single line of code / helping the developers / offering alternatives deserves a pat on their back. Guys, you rocked! The software went through many revisions through the course of the last 3 months and the development team responded with timely solutions. Special Mention: Sangeeta Shirodkar, Mayur Pednekar, Amey Bandodkar.

 Training Team: The herculean effort that has gone in training the officials, selecting the best possible, training the average performers and motivating the entire group as a whole was never going to be easy. Especially when you train 2500+ officials. Goa Electronics Ltd along with PMS Master Trainers took up the responsibility of this task and results are for everyone to see. Special Mention: Jyoti Navelkar, Azharuddin Khan.

 Logistics Team: Maintenance of 1800 laptops along with Fingerprint devices, Mouse, Web Cameras, Extension Cords, USB Dongles was tough. Lessons were learnt from experience gained during trial run and implemented for elections. Special Mention: Hari Naik, Pravin Halankar, Prachi Naik, Priya, Manoo Gharse.

 Running through the Implementation of PMS on 2nd and 3rd March 2012. I can say each and every AC Head, Taluka Head and the Hardware Engineer had to literally sweat it out to ensure smooth functioning of Poll Monitoring System. These 2 days and 2 days prior no one cared about their breakfast, lunch and dinner. One could sense the real team effort. Goal was One. Taluka level as a team to achieve success.

 Goa Electronics Ltd along with PMS Sector Officers rocked the Goa State Assembly Elections!! Great Work people and Best of Luck for future!

I wish to mention each and everyone separately.. But the list is just too big. Though I will mention a few.

Assembly Constituency Heads.

Pernem – Dominick Da Costa

Mandrem – Hari Naik

Bicholim – Gayatri Tirodkar

Maem – Ujwala Kalekar

Sanquelim – Shruti Kamat

Tivim – Chetan Hoble

Mapusa – Andrea Nunes

Siolim – Suvidha Kandolkar

Saligao – Sneha Kalangutkar

Calangute – Varina De Sa

Porvorim – Prachi Naik

Aldona – Rashmi Gondlekar

Panaji – Shama Shirgaonkar

Taleigao – Almira Cabral

St. Cruz – Dipti Parekh

St. Andre – Candida Alphonso

Cumbharjua – Sharon Pais

Priol – Apurva Sardesai

Ponda – Sanim Shaikh

Shiroda – Pritesh Chari

Marcaim – Jensi Nadar

Mormugao – Ravish Tople

Dabolim – Rinki Parab

Vasco Da Gama – Sumedh Surlekar

Cortalim – Roma Sansgiri

Nuvem – Mosam Vaideikar

Curtorim – Amey Bandodkar

Fatorda – Sruti Chopdekar

Margao – Neha Kudchadkar

Benaulim – Dilesh Khandeparkar

Navelim – Joycee Gomes

Cuncolim – Akshaya Chari

Velim – Ashton Fernandes

Quepem – Sajid Pathan

Curchorem – Gurvinder Singh Bariana

Sanvordem – Girish Sawant

Sanguem – Sandesh Malik

Canacona – Rohan Nirlikar

In addition to these, I thank all the Hardware Engineers of Goa Electronics Limited and THE VERY IMPORTANT PMS SECTOR OFFICERS.

Guys, words fall short to express the selfless hard work you all put in that contributed to the success of this project.

A very very special thanks to our Sr. Software Developer Mr. Anant Yende, Managing Director Shri. B. S. Borkar, The Asst. Returning Officers & Returning Officers of the respective areas, The Sector Magistrates, The Land Survey Department, National Informatics Centre (NIC) and last but not the least The Nodal Officer for PMS Shri. R. Mihir Vardhan for their overall guidance and support!

People.

As people walk into your life, at times you know in a flash that they are going to strike a chord with you in some cardinal way. They enter your life for a reason. To teach you to love, hate, to help you figure out who you really want to achieve in life, to give you company when you have no one. These people could be anyone. Your benchmate at college, colleague at work, your soulmate, a stranger you co-incidently happened to meet.

Some stay, some depart. Some leave scars while some leave pleasant memories.Then there are a few who make you dance while some would awaken us to a new understanding by passing on some wisdom.

Everyone here is scripting their own journey. But without meeting certain people this journey would be incomplete. Not in the sense that all of these people would complete you but rather some of the most important lessons in life would never be learnt without them.

At first you might feel that the things that happens to you are the cruelest that can happen to anyone. But if you contemplate you would know that you might have never realised your true potential, your weakness, your self without the people who leave a scar on you. After all life is not like a semester paper with a truck load of questions fired at you at once but like small daily assignments that you learn upon as you progress.

And yes, finally, there is one who makes star gazing ever so wonderful and you wish you could hug him/her the first thing in the morning. If someone hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious when you open your heart. Probably these are the ones that teach you the most important experiences in life.

And finally I would like to add that this is your life, do what yo really want to do. Quit things you dislike or atleast make an attempt to. If you start doing the things that you love then you will most definately find your love on the same road waiting for you.

P.S. I am no evangelist and do not intend to be one.

Just a Wish…

Summer jaunt to Mumbai.

To put it up in a few & simple words. The plan was simple. Meet up with Pearl. Thats it. Had been a year since I had met my buddy last. The initial talks and rough schedules were chalked in late March and the ticket booked early April. With the return back to Goa (Mode & Day) not finalized I boarded the Mandovi Express.

The journey saw me reaching the end of Jack London’s “White Fang” (almost, 2 chaps left) and staring out of the windowpane time and time again. It would have been an ordinary journey hadnt a person so special to me made the efforts to meet me. It felt so special.

From then on the entire trip was good. At times I did feel like a messenger spreading love across two states. Met Shailesh at Dadar. One of the most amiable people I have come across till date.

My first travel through a Mumbai Local. I got my self a 2nd class ticket only to see human hands clinging on to the handles in the train and their bodies dangling out. The hands were many and the handles few. People jostling their way in and out of the local train. I took a good look at my self. One body, One DSLR, One shoulder bag and one trolley bag.Just enough merchandize to get myself kicked out of the 2nd class, I thought. I had to purchase a 1st class ticket so that the train could accomodate my luggage. I reached my cousin’s place at Jogeshwari where i put up for that night and the one to follow.

I woke up the next day with my cell ringing. It was Shailesh calling. If I reached back Goa as the way I wanted to is only because of him. He booked my return ticket to Goa by rail. Thats like “my favorite mode of transport”. Had to collect the train ticket from him from CST so traveled till there with Neha. Met Shailesh at the station and he showed us around. Thanks bro for everything. Went THROUGH the Fashion Street and had a slpendid Butterscotch Falooda at Badshah’s.

Had really nice conversations Neha and Nishita. Got to know my cousins better.

The next day, the schedule wa fixed. Roam around Andheri and lunch with Pearl and dinner with her friends along. I still remember the time you first told me about them. Only wish tupi was around.Would have had a blast of a time. Met up with pearl at Infiniti Mall where she totally failed to recognise me. :@ :@ And then she was like “Oh! My God!! “

Yeay! Finally two buddies together and lots to talk about but didnt know where to start. hehe. She spots the DSLR in his hand and its all over. Click Click Click Click! From noon till midnight. We did a little shopping and went separate ways only to meet up again for dinner the same late evening. It was fun, like crazy fun being with Bunkim, Abhishek and Sonel (and ofcourse Pearl). “Aadha hi laya kya??” is still very fresh in my head.. LOL.. By the way dear, thanks for the Easter egg. Switched from one restuarant to the other to have a proper dinner. Finally had something very decent at Pop Tate’s. After dinner we went our separate ways and the following day early morning I departed to Goa.

Carried back a million memories, zipped and forever etched into my heart. 22-23-24-25 — April — 2011

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“Look at you. You’re young. And you’re scared. Why are you so scared? Stop being paralyzed. Stop swallowing your words. Stop caring what other people think. Wear what you want. Say what you want. Listen to the music you want to listen to. Play it loud as fuck and dance to it. Go out for a drive at midnight and forget that you have school the next day. Stop waiting for Friday. Live now. Do it now. Take risks. Tell secrets. This life is yours. When are you going to realize that you can do whatever you want?”

Found it here

Just…

Having just the kind of feeling as a traveller would have at the sight of water in a desert.. No no, I haven’t been traveling or touring places nor intend to do so in the coming few weeks.

I have somehow managed to abstain myself from a machine that is so close to my heart. As a matter of fact, it is supposed to be close to my eyes and hands too. It aids in making me stand on my feet (not literally). It grips me when I am working on my code  so in a way, keeps my brain active too. And since I have to go to my office to do all this, it keeps me healthy by means of regular small walks before and after office hours.  Sometimes attending meetings where active exchange of ideas take place, it helps me to know the level at which the top officials think or have to.

With all this presently being in the passive state, I realized how important this one machine is in my life.

This whole thing kind of recoiled me. A transition. Back to writing letters, reading newspapers more than the news from the internet, back to jogging early morning and late evenings to keep those bones fine. Routine has changed its form. But nonetheless it is a routine again. Its like a substitute for the things which happened at the rate of clicks, sub-consciously, without any extra efforts.

Ah yes, I completed reading Ayn Rand‘s legendary classic – The Fountainhead. It is a profound book.

Some of the quotes from the same

“It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there’s someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.”

“Kill reverence and you’ve killed the hero in man.”

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received–hatred. The great creators–the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors–stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The first airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.”

“I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.”