Of Trains,Buses,Cabs and phew a train

Wow,

It has been almost two years, Since the last time i wrote a post. Lots of things have changed which has contributed to this, i moved out to Ahmedabad from Chennai 18 months back and have been living on my own, which is giving me truck loads of learning.   

Ahmedabad's proximity to Bombay has often tempted to me make the overnight journey and enjoy the sinful desire known as Bombay City. A city which still fascinates me every time for its ability to contort people and then yet show a straight line. The city has too many memories etched with me, There have always been great incidents/stories every time i have had to leave Bombay. The first one 12 years back was when i reached the station ahead of time for the train but my parents could not come due to traffic to the one last year where i realized people in Govandi forget traffic rules after 10 PM  and ensured i ran into the station with 3 mins to spare and boarded a moving train.  

This time it was even more interesting, I had gone to Bombay for performing the essential rituals of Yajur Upakarma over the Weekend((9th,10th and 11th August), I like to put myself through a period of abstinence leading up to these three days, essentially trying to cleanse body, mind and soul. The three days of Upkarama where extremely fruitful and under the guidance of learned individuals i was elated that i could do it properly. The third day which was Monday i had taken off from work and planned to finish the rituals in morning and board a train in the afternoon so that i could reach Ahmedabad by Night and with a proper sleep i could be fresh for work on Tuesday. 

Things were all going as per plan and my Train was at 1.40 PM from Bombay Central and i was in New Bombay. I planned and left from Nerul station by  boarding the 11.30 am slow local hoping to get down at Sandhurst road by 12.30 and from there take a Taxi to Bombay Central. Things were going as per plan when suddenly my intuition stuck that something is not going right and Viola, the train stopped just before the Mankhurd Station for 5 mins and then later reached Mankhurd station where there was an announcement that because of a power cable cut all trains were stopped. There was my reality check and i came out hoping to catch a taxi, None of the taxi drivers were ready to come and then to compound the misery the clouds opened up and it started pouring. It was 12.15 and i still did not know what to do, By God's grace i spotted an NMMT bus going to Dadar which was caught in traffic at that junction, i sprinted like if there were 3 rabid dogs behind me and did not bother about the rain  my hope was reaching Dadar quickly and from there taking a taxi to Bombay Central. I was then praying to all the god's (Do note in Hindu Mythology there are 330 Million Gods :D) who could help me in reaching quickly, i was hoping for no traffic delay at Chembur and then at the dreaded Sion Junction, Thankfully it was clear and i reached Dadar by 12.45, this gave me reassurance as it takes only 20 mins from Dadar to Bombay Central and in 5 mins i found a Taxi and things were are all going as per plan till we got on the Flyover Near Grant road which was 3 Km Long flyover when suddenly the driver from the nearby taxi yelled at my driver saying that the rear right tyre was punctured. 

Boom suddenly the fear came back, i asked if he could drive till the end of the flyover from where i can get an alternate taxi, he reassured that he could change it in a jiffy and thus he took the tools and started working on the car and i had the ominous job of Indicating people that it was a stationary vehicle and they needed to take the nearby lane (Please note vehicles were cruising at 60-70 Km/Hr in that stretch) with the prayers i got my invigoration's, i did my work and was unscathed for the 10 mins in which the tyre was changed. The time was then 1.20 Pm and i was racing against the clock. I asked him to drive quickly and he raced through the lanes of Byculla streaming past bulls and goats and reached the station at 1.34 Pm i quickly gave the money and ran towards the platform just to realize that my seating compartment where i had a seat was the first from the locomotive meaning i had to cover at least another 1500 meters to check if my name was there on the list and then board the train. I ran like never before and reached the compartment and checked my name, i looked at the watch and it was 1.39. I quickly boarded the train and as i sat down it chugged and started on its way, I took a sip of juice to quench my thirst and reduce my tension, there was an immense happiness in catching and a chuckle remembering the experience.      

Amongst all the chaos there were frantic calls coming from Work and Home which i answered showing little insight of the stress.

P.S: I believe it was divine intervention which helped me catch the train. When i was stuck in Mankhurd in the downpour, i was standing outside a shop and they had a fairly large Sai Baba statue. I prayed to Sai for help and he surely did help me. 

Cheers 

Arvind !!

Kabuliwala

When we talk about school life there is always choke in mentioning about anything related to What was taught, and for a major part it was not the content but the delivery of the content which has created these bad memories.

Now Why am i referring to these ideas randomly ? In this week's KBC there was a reference to a story which kindles up the deep lying fears and emotions within me every time i read it. It is the famous "Kabuliwalla" written by Rabindranath Tagore. The synopsis of the story is it talks about an honest man whose single drive to live in life is his daughter and for her future he comes to an alien land to make a living by selling items in the streets of Calcutta.. He befriends a girl who is of his Daughter's age who begins to admire him as her father is not able to spend time with her. In an effort to gain some money to go back home to his daughter he gets angry with a rude customer and stabs him. He accepts his guilt in court, Once he completes his sentence he sees the world has changed and the little girl is ready to be married and with the gracious money given by the girl's father he starts back to his homeland hoping his daughter would remember him.

  I get choked every time i read read it. This story talks about two unadulterated pure things in the world

1) The innocence of a child

2) The Worth of Life for everyone

The second one is the most critical thing for us in life where we always should see if we can think of the consequences and act on it than on blind rages which hurt everyone around us

Ascendency to Presidency

It has been a while since i visited my blog to jot down my musings, Gone are those days of College ka Chokra and suddenly the Aam aadmi effect has kicked in with Job and Monetary responsibilities which has shadowed my time towards Blog but i hope to be regular fro now.

A major part of my day involves commuting and this gives the time to go through yesterday's updates in today's newspaper which does help in time go by, the whole scenario of India has changed in the past 18 to 24 months, Petrol Price, Multiple Scams,rising inflation to which i was indifferent suddenly start to pinch and i wonder about the future. But as always the country before it can grip itself and look at the problem  objectively to solve it media will throw a spanner into the works and create another story to cover it and the perfect one has been the presidential election

The fact of the matter is that the president almost has an autonomous role to do whatever he wants to the country which is why we had legends like Dr.Prasad, Radhakrishnan and Abdul Kalam to absolute Duds like Zail singh and later Pratibha Patil who have never taken the spot light to highlight issues. The recent row over who should be the new president is quite amusing, It is on the front pages of all major news paper ! I question why ? What can the public do with regard to that go and support Ram Jethmalani on his candidature ? An incident in which the public has no say is flashed wide and loud to masquerade our falling ratings and investment levels, Clashes over Agriculture and Food Minister (Do we need two separate ministers at the first place ? Job evaluation should be done ;) ) amongst others. The whole question of who needs to be a president can easily be decided by the seniormost people in the houses and decided than asking Allies nominating People representing various communities and then putting personal favors (mamata Backing Manmohan so that Pranab Becomes PM) makes it feel colloquial and worthless. How many of them also want to be the president ? Possibly none do you want to represent this sad situation now

Let there be a president who decides in Five years he can keep the treasury stacked up (Government's and personal) and be a Light bearer

Cheers 

Arvind  !!

"Steve Jobs" The Doubters mind

There Will be few people who would want to stand Toe to Toe against Steve Jobs If it came down to Marketing their products. Jobs was a master at getting attention and convince the fickle Minded American customer to switch regularly. Personally I have a lot of Respect for Jobs as a man who fought against adversities and troubles throughout his life. His Journey to the top is a sheer representation of his Grit which has also landed him in trouble. But once he got to the Top he never looked back or looked at the world. He looked to go forward but not help others get along. He was a great marketeer but not a great leader. I found a great article on DNA by Neeraj Thakur which captures many of my Thoughts

“ What makes you great to the world, so much so that you become the ‘greatest’ of your times? Is greatness the title for those who become successful in their respective fields? Or is it that everyone who appears on TV has the chance of attaining greatness? Steve Jobs, who died fighting pancreatic cancer, being showered with so much love and respect raises this question.

While any celebrity has a right to an obituary, posthumous encomiums by way of comparison with other greats should not happen just because of the bankruptcy of a particular age in producing truly great individuals.

What defines Steve Jobs? The fact that he could make people go crazy about his company’s products?

If marketing is what makes you great, then our Indian politicians are the greatest, because they market themselves so well that even after their failures in one term after another, we keep voting them back to power. If making a new product is what makes you great, then there are many new products being invented everywhere in the world. Yes, the claim to launching the first personal computer goes to Jobs, but he was not behind its invention; he was the chief of the company that invented it. Any man heading the company that has a product to sell can do what he did.

To those who think he revolutionised cell phones, the fact is he just re-packaged his products by mixing up what was already out there in the form of already available gadgets/software like Blackberry, Palm, Windows, etc. A man becomes truly great for humankind and his passing away deserves mass mourning only if he has done something to better the lives of his fellow beings, overcoming personal greed and lust for power.

While all of us take our newborn kids to have ‘Do boond zindagi ki’, to save our kids from the life-crippling polio virus, very few would know why those life drops come for free. There are many other diseases, medication for which does not come even at a reasonable cost, forget having it free.

The man who invented the polio vaccine, Jonas Edward Salk, decided not to patent his invention. After seven years of rigorous research, when he had the chance to become a billionaire, much like Jobs did, he refused to do so. When someone asked him ‘Who owns the patent of the vaccine, he replied, ‘Can anyone patent the sun?’ In civilisation’s history of one individual bettering the lives of fellow humans, can Jobs stand anywhere close to Salk?

Jobs did not even eradicate poverty with the immense wealth he accumulated by selling his so-called great products, invented by scientists who worked in his company. Instead, he rather stopped all philanthropist activity by Apple in 1997, saying philanthropy can ‘wait until we are profitable.’ Today, Apple is one of the world’s most valued companies (sitting on $40 billion cash) and ironically, it is perhaps the only one in its category that has no philanthropic contribution worth talking about.

I don’t own any Apple product, and most Apple aficionados would accuse me of commenting on something that I don’t use. I am not commenting on the products he sold; I am commenting on the tears that are being unjustifiably shed on the death of a rich man. I am not taking anything away from Jobs as an entrepreneur, and the fact is that he was an inspiration for his company. But I find it difficult to accept the belittling of the very notion of greatness by bestowing it on those who worked for themselves and promoted the noxious idea that ‘profit motivates humans’, a theory that would have never given us the polio vaccine.”

There Have been past accusations against apple that there are Underage Labours Working in the Factory In China. Which he merely acknowledged as a problem but never took steps to resolve it, At a time when companies where getting the Flack for not giving jobs to Americans, Jobs escaped the Perview Blame Roulette because people where so magnetized to his products.

Steve Jobs was the True Capitalist leader and thanks to his company we are connected across the world and his charisma captured audience across the world regardless of Age groups.

Cheers !!

Arvind

Soaking up the small pleasures of Life

We are at our pinnacle when we feel we have got a mountain of our back and have the feeling of being on top of the world by accomplishing something which is considered worthy by the world. But often we miss out on cherishing some of the small joys which we encounter daily and which makes a huge difference in the way look at the next day.

If we were able to understand a small joy joy of crossing a kid across the road or offering food to a hungry man/woman who blesses you. These small things we overlook on what could they matter to us and we get engrossed on a major work but if we give a minute's attention and enjoy that it would make a world of difference to what is happening around us

Cheers !!

Arvind

Magnanimous, Inspiring

I have always had the phase where i wondered if i got the best out of life, there were things which appealed to me but out of my reach and those desires which were unfulfilled and i grew bitter about life during that phase till something cheered me up.

I came across this video today about Dewey Bozella and for a man whom life has truly been harsh, it was amazing to see that he was not bitter about it. He fought for his Innocence and i felt i should share this with everyone.

While receiving the award he said a quote by Cus D'Amato "The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters."

You can never keep a good man Down.

Cheers !!

Arvind

Growing Social Media

The following article appeared in Economic times on 09/05/2011


"KOLKATA: Indians are increasingly depending on social media for job change . The latest findings of Ma Foi Randstad Workmonitor 2011 - Wave 1 reveal that 82% of Indian employees are confident in using social media in order to find a relevant job.

Statistically, 90% of Indians have individual accounts on facebook , twitter, etc of which 81% use it for professional purposes. Employees with higher income brackets are the largest users of social media websites.

"Social media has become a potent tool for both employers and employees and as a low cost - high return option, recruiting through Social Media will soon become a key differentiator in the current global recruitment market." says E Balaji, MD & CEO of Ma Foi Randstad.

Cities like Mumbai and Delhi has an alarming rate of 85% and 83% employees respectively, who are confident in using social networking sites in order to find a job.

The survey also says that employees of Bangalore and Mumbai are given maximum access to websites by employers at 97% and 96% respectively.

Though globally the social media activity is pretty low, the Indian workforce is much more active using social media, with 79% of the workforce who have updated their social medial profiles in the last month itself."


A quite a revealing survey which has proved out how technology has become essential in helping people to find out new openings and the fulcrum will be to find out how many companies have successfully leveraged it.

The case of employees is mentioned here i believe might be in the mid to junior level who have an avid interest in electronic media unlike the senior folks have not displayed a penchant for updating their linkedin and facebook profiles.

But it reinforces a fact to all the companies about the "f" word which is "Facebook" on how much they are losing if they are not on facebook

Cheers !!
Arvind