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Long Live Democracy!!

I always fight with my friends who curse India and support China or any other country. One of my friends always tells me about China's progress and how it achieved all this with its government system. I always contradict pointing out China's Human rights condition. I always say, though China has growth, people are suffering. He talks about how India is “bakwas” country and how government is so corrupt. Discussion invariably turns towards usual mode, me asking question, "Why do not you do something for your country. Why do not you join communist party or any other party and really work for country. Why curse India sitting in USA?” I usually get upperhand with such statements. I always have felt, only cursing will not help. Are we doing enough ourselves? The other day he stunned me with the question, "How your democracy has helped you? What are you doing with your democracy?" I could not answer.

Really, I could not. Do I really use the democracy correctly and does that usage help me. What is the point in having false beliefs, I must get them ratified. My company also has democracy and all channels for conveying grievances. Do I use them properly and do they work? Most of the times, I do not use them and when I use, they do not help me. Channels, processes or you name anything are overridden by managers, powers. Be it any form of governance, what works is power. You have power; you have much better chances of bending the situation you want. Long live democracy!! :)

Iceman Does it !

It's Final ! It's Kimi All Over. Who could have ever imagined this? Though practically possible, it was the rarest chance for him. But he did it. He is the new Formula 1 Wold Champion. What a fantastic season ! What a race to end it. Amazing, truly amazing.

It was one of the most fought and thrilling season where championship is decided in the last race and the margin between champion and runner up is just one point. I was always in favour of rookie Lewis Hamilton. He had a very brilliant season and he truly deserved to win. But few mistakes, may be tough luck costed him the championship.

The Brazil race started with a fantastic Ferrari strategy. Massa coming from the pole, blocking Lewis and Kimi taking over. No chance for Lewis to take control as Alonso also passes him and suddenly Lewis was at 4th place. It was all in first 30 seconds. It really is the best ever start I have seen. On the fourth corner of the first lap, in the anxiety of retaining position, Lewis could not control his car and went off the track. Lewis was now down to 8th position. All hopes were not vanished till his car slowed down dramatically. He lost 11 places only to find him at 18th position. But the guy fought back, only to reach 7th position. Had he taken over one car, he would have been world champion. But that was not his fate.

On the other hand, what a performance from Kimi. He started a race with bang. After Massa's pitstop, he recorded the fastest lap of the race and increased distance between him and Mass. Then took the pit stop and came ahead of Massa out of pits to retain his lead. Truly fantastic racing. He started this season with win and he ended it with win. There was lot of criticism about his dismal performance in mid of the season and critics even doubted Ferrari's choice as successor of Michael Schumaker. Now, he has proved. He is a true successor.

It truly was a fantastic season. Every single race was eventful and there were lot of "Off the track" events for which this season will be remembered. Finally Ferrari came out as both, constructors as well as Drivers champion. Next year, it will be again a hard fought race. It starts in March, 2008. Till then Happy Racing ! Enjoy !

We Are The Champions ! We Are The World!

My first experience of live gaming. It was absolutely fantastic. And the way match turned it was even more joyous to celebrate Indian Victory.

When 20-20 match was announced in Mumbai we started hunting for tickets. Ofcourse there was lot of excitement after India's 20-20 world championship win. One of my friend from office was successful in grabbing the tickets and it was sure that we are going to be live spectators in the stadium. Everyone was excited about it.

Since mobiles were not allowed, we started coordinating and yesterday as per plan we met at predetermined places. Then the parade started. We expected a long queue at the gate but unexpectedly met only few people in queue. Perhaps we were too early. After security checking at lots of points we entered the stadium and a big grin settled on everybody's face. We were finally in. We searched for place which can offer us the best view and finally after half an hours hunting settled down for a place.

It was only 4:30 by then and stadium was relatively empty. As time passed crowd pulled in and stadium started reaching to its limits. All vendors were doing best of their businesses by selling colas, burgers, sandwiches and ofcourse Indian flags. Few people were painting tricolor. We also joined the bandwagon and grabbed the tricolor on our faces and big flag for cheering Team India. Music was playing all over and crowd was enjoying every bit with the cheerleaders in the new format of cricket. Teams came for net practice around 6:00 and entire stadium went gung-ho. This is the points where innovative slogans started originating. Few of them I can quote but for few of them this is not the place :) We could take closer look at our superstars, Dhoni, Yuvi, Uthappa, Gambhir, Pathan, Shree, Bhajji, Brett Lee, Ponting and ofcourse Symonds. It was standing ovation all the time for our heroes whenever they passed our side of stadium.

Australia won the toss and selected to bat. Finally at 7:15, teams were on field and RP was ready to deliver his first ball. Amidst deafening applause he delivered first ball. Crowd was enjoying every bit. On subsequent balls Gilly reached fences and crowd went into a bit nervousness. Next RP delivery, aimed at Gilly's stumps, went pass through his pads and did its job. Entire stadium was at its feet, enjoying, dancing. Slogans reached the crescendo. Then crowd never sat. Occasionally slogans like "Baith Jao" went into air but were never listened by anybody. For 4 hours atleast our part of stadium was watching match standing.

It is altogether different feeling when you view the match in stadium. Camera's manipulate and you see a much bigger picture through every angle. But here, you get so up, close and personal with every single moment that you cannot compare with TV live feed. Australian Innings finally ended finally at 166 in 10 overs and we needed 167 to win. Even during interval nobody moved from his/her place because of the sheer suspicion whether one will get his/her seat back. Perhaps tickets sold were more than capacity and there were lot of people banging on the closed doors for entry.

After short duration Indian openers were on the field. Innings started with Brett lee bowling and in few balls fire crackers started all over. An exception ofcourse was Sehwag's wicket. But that apart, it was India all over. Slogans again peaked and crowd sang and danced on the music, on the beats of cheerleaders. Few Aussies, especially Symonds faced heat when he was fielding at boundary line. But nothing went obscenly wrong. On one of the occasions camera swung to special gusts Deepika, Shahrukh and then captured Dhoni smiling. Another cheerful uproar in the stadium.

Finally Dhoni, Yuvi did the honours and grabbed match for us. Firecrackers went bursting on adjacent terraces. Everyone was very happy. It was a "Paisa Vasool" match and Indian tigers did not disappoint. People started leaving as soon as India won the match but we waited for presentation. We got the close looks of our heroes when they went riding Gautam's car. We left happily storing those memories forever. It was really an awesome day, something which cannot be forgotten, a real memorable one.

A Day After...

Just visited Thane Station.. For blood donation at the camp setup there. Camp is closed, as the requirement for the blood is currently fulfilled. Good to hear that. Mumbaikars came heavily to donate blood. Again the much avowed Mumbaikars' spirit showed its strength.

Thane station is showing no signs of the tragedy. Ofcourse, it was not the station which was bombed but still there is nothing wrong if anybody expects the smell of tragedy in the air. Interestingly, you may find situation different. It looked like any other day in mumbai. typical hustle-bustle, train announcements, people trying to board the trains. As if nothing has happened. This is not the first time mumbai is bahaving this way. Infact, mumbai behaves the same way everytime. Everytime terrorists strike, we condemn the attack strongly, ordinary mumabikars come forward to help victims & then nect morning everything starts afresh.

But nobody asks any questions. Nobody gets on the road, nobody stops his/her own life. Mumbai only halts when politicians force 'Bandhs'. They will not come forward for agitations, protests, to ask questions. They will only get angry, curse the government & other agencies & next day they will return to their routine. And why should I blame them, I am one of them too, isn't it?

But should not this stop somewhere? Last night 28 cars were in & around sonia gandhi for security. What about our security? What about common man? Shall we keep suffering? Or should we come forward & launch protests, demand action in some sofisticated way? What do you say people?

One More Time...

How many times more? How many times Mumbai should suffer? And why only Mumbai? I am asking, how many times more should India suffer? Truly, do not we have answers to these questions?

One more time bombs rocked Mumbai yesterday. It was horrifying. 7 blasts took place in just 11 minutes across various stations of suburban Mumbai. Till now 175 people are dead & 400+ are fighting with their lives in hospitals across Mumbai. Luckily none of the persons whom I know got caught into it. But what about the people who lost their lives? What about their families?

The sheer magnitude & the way they are carried out indicate the kind of planning went behind it. And if it was such a well planned activity it must have taken good amount of time. What were our intelligence services, police & lots of other so called agencies doing all this time? Were they sleeping. Seizure of explosive material across Maharashtra in last couple of months provided indications & intentions of anti-social elements. Still we slept on the information. And now.. now we see what has happened.

News agencies started covering the entire trauma immediately. But some news channels started sensationalizing the issue. They want to rip benefits to their image through this tragedy. Speaking about 'Mumbai Spirit', 'How Mumbaikars helping each other', 'How many politicians are flying to Mumbai?' they went far ahead. Politicians as usual started politicizing the issue. See BJP leaders, 4 blasts have occurred, 3 are yet unknown & they have already fired their guns at UPA government. More over, they started immediately to reach Mumbai. Now, police will be busy providing security to these VVIP people. These people will come, visit places as if they are on sight seeing, visit hospitals & keep on providing bites to news agencies. That is what they are meant for, isn't it?

And what about so called 'Mumbai Spirit' these news agencies are talking about? is it an odd gesture to help involved people. Mumbaikars are doing the same. Had it happened in any other city, people there would have behaved the same way, isn't it? People have already reached offices today. And frankly speaking Mumbaikars do not have any other option.

I truly salute Mumbaikars’ Spirit. I do not want to undermine the courage people have shown. But, how many more times will we keep on surviving under this heading? How many more times will we keep sidelining the real issue under this & various other headings? Why cannot we find solutions? Is it really hard to answer? Or we do not want to?

ग्रेस..


घर थकलेले सन्यासी…..

घर थकलेले सन्यासी, हळू हळू भिंतही खचते
आईच्या डोळयामधले नक्षत्र मला आठवते

ती नव्हती संध्या मधुरा, रखरखते ऊनच होते
ढग ओढून संध्येवाणी, आभाळ घसरले होते

पक्षांची घरटी होती, ते झाड तोडले कोणी
एकेक ओंजळी मागे, असतेच झर्‍याचे पाणी

मी भीऊन अंधाराला, अडगळीत लपूनी जाई
ये हलके हलके मागे, त्या दरीतली वनराई


ती गेली तेव्हा…..

ती गेली तेव्हा रिमझिम, पाऊस निनादत होता
मेघांत अडकली किरणे, हा सूर्य सोडवित होता

ती आई होती म्हणूनी, घनव्याकूळ मी ही रडलो
त्यावेळी वारा सावध, पाचोळा उडवित होता

अंगणात गमले मजला, संपले बालपण माझे
खिडकीवर धुरकट तेव्हा, कंदील एकटा होता



वार्‍याने हलते रान…..

वार्‍याने हलते रान, तुझे सुनसान हृदय गहिवरले
गाईचे डोळे करुण उभे की, सांज निळाईतले

डोळयात शीण, हातात वीण, देहात फुलांच्या वेगी
अंधार चुकावा म्हणून, निघे बैरागी

वाळूत पाय, सजतेस काय, लाटांध समुद्रकाठी
चरणात हरवला गंध, तुझ्या की ओठी

शून्यात गरगरे झाड, तशी ओढाळ, दिव्यांची नगरी
वक्षात तिथीचा चांद, तुझा की वैरी

Being Grown Up?

“What is meant by being adult?” This is the question that is lingering in my mind these days. What do we mean when I say, “I am adult, and I am grown up”, to be in the real world, to fight with all the things & prove you? Has anyone thought about it? & if anyone ever has, has anyone find out the answer? If so, please tell me.

Where do we lose innocence we carry for years & then suddenly give it up under the name of ‘Maturity’? Does being mature mean being introvert? Stopping to share, stopping to laugh, stopping to seek friendship, stopping to see at any relation innocently & even stopping to cry? Are all these the symptoms of being matured?
I knew my friends for last so many years & they are among the best I am talking about. They stop talking, showing the signs of maturity. At least they call themselves of being mature, thinking that in this whole real world nobody needs anybody, everybody has its own life, and if others do not bother then why should I bother? I am confused. Is this what is meant by being grown up?

I never wanted to get there so fast. I knew we will eventually go away and everybody will start his/her own life with better half. We will not meet often still we should not go apart. At least that is what I expect. These people are the ones whom I will rely; I will talk to during the sad & merry moments. But now if they think that being grown up means going away from each other & wearing masks, Hiding emotions from near & dear ones, where will I go?

Want to quote few lines from rockband 'U2' song 'City of Blinding Lights',

Don't look before you laugh,Look ugly in a photograph
Flash bulbs purple irises,The camera can't see
I've seen you walk unafraid,I've seen you in the clothes you made
Can you see the beauty inside of me?
What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?

I suffer from these questions, do you? & if we do, what do we do to resolve or we blindly go & mix up with this world, real world as it is being called?

'Raj' Karan

Postas karan aahe te 'Raj' karan,

Yesterday after a long time, I could see some stirring up inside me because of any political activity. Once I was avid follower of politics knowing in & out news for all the parties etc. I was excited about BJP coming to power & Vajpayee being Prime minister. But later on it all diminished. This politics which is being done only for the sake of corruption & individual profits has let me down all these years. Though Sonia did well in parliament elections, still there was nothing which could take me to the previous excitement.
But yesterday I could sense that excitement on the road. I could not attend the rally & I was not even intending too. But I was keen to know about what Raj will speak. What will be his vision? Will he again push the same things which his uncle is pushing for years or will there be some makeshift difference in attitude & approach?
I was pretty sure that he will be serving Maharashtra as it is his base & he cannot go beyond that, still I was keen to know the vision for Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). He did well in yesterday' rally. Spoke about lots of things, about developments in Maharashtra & what way he want to take it forward, albeit in his own 'Thakri' style.
He is a young leader. After a long time you can see a lot of youth following to somebody in this country, mind you, I am saying in this country. There is nobody from any party which can gather such a crowd only with his name (Except Rahul Gandhi, but I doubt what he has in him except surname Gandhi at this stage).
Political screen surely stirred up because of Raj's rally yesterday. The question is, will he able to turn this up in some really good work? Turning rally into votes in far thing to achieve but can he utilize this energy in really good manner? Because of him can Maharashtra really prosper? Let's hope so & wish him luck.

College Days

Hi All,

I am writing after very long time. Perhaps, not perhaps, but surely, this will be my first serious post as such.

I entered Willingdon College, Sangli in June 1997 after passing my 10th exam with flying colours. Those day were fantastic. I opted for computer as vocational course as i always wanted to be engineer, possibly computer engineer & as i moved ahead through my junior college days i got to be more confirmed about my decison. Those days were realy fun-filled. in the 11th standard we used to play a lot, majorly 2 games, cricket & table tennis. We had a gymkhana in our college where we used to play table tennis from morning till 1:00 PM when finally "Gajya" used to come to close the doors. Disappointed we used to get out of the room 7 then usually started going in search of beloved bat & bowl. then starts the battle of cricket. We used to play till we drop & then finallly after exhausting "Samosa Pav" at Nilesh would typically end the day.
I do not remember doing anything in that year except than occassionally attending some classes. Yeah, there were two girls from our batch, do i need to mention the names or should i just point out the black sunny. :) I know many would understand the hint.

You remember TP's Physics classes? Where this black sunny was evident & got noticed first. Morning physics classes were like the breakfast. We used to start our day with the same. The TP starts with TP, u certainly can say so.

What else did we do? i doubt we did anything gr8 except for such things. But, that year was really amazing. That was the most tension free year i ever had & given the chance i really would love to go back. what about you friends?