Sharing leads to Exploring.

The Innocent Guy!

2010-01-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

It was a Saturday and we spent the entire day like an ideal weekend day. By the evening, we decided to go for a movie… checked online tickets for the same but unfortunately, there was massive traffic on the website so we had to rush to the Multiplex quickly. My husband decided to go for parking and I ran to the Box-office to buy our tickets. Reaching there, I just thought to check my wallet first whether I have the ample amount or not. My luck was again unfavorable to me as I was falling short by just 100 bucks and my turn to buy tickets till then had come. I decided to pay through my card but the executive told me that unfortunately, their swipe machine was out of order. I felt like kicking the wall.
Anyways, the ATM center was not much far away so I just decided to withdraw the money first. I was fourth in the row. Before me, was a girl standing who was showing off her stylish curly hair and her COAL eyes (obviously, it was the effect of heavy eyeliner and mascara). And before her was standing a normally dressed guy. By the time of this “people” observation, the first guy in the line went up to the machine and had withdrawn his amount. Then the normally-dressed guy went inside and closed the door. He kept on playing with Machine and didn’t come out for 2-3 minutes. I was so impatient that I just wanted to go up to him and shout what on earth is taking him so much time to withdraw the money. Just after my thought, he came out with an innocent smile and asked the stylish girl ‘ paisa nikal nahi raha hai’. She answered in ‘SORRY’ as if she didn’t understand Hindi. He again said innocently ‘ hamare card se paisa kaise niklega madam, zara dekh lijiye’. She got the opportunity… she went up and started looking at the problem. She took out her card and swiped it. Showed him the entire procedure and went away with her money. The innocent guy’s expressions were the proof that he could not understand a single bit yet he was smiling. An instant thought came to my mind “How selfish!”
Now was my turn to get in. I went inside. I gave him the serious look. He understood and went to the corner. This gesture of him made the effect on me and I asked him ‘kya hua? Paisa nahi nikal raha aapka?’. He smiled and nodded in a NO. I withdrew my money and asked him to swipe the card. He said, ‘Madam! Pichli baar ye card machine ke andar chala gaya tha aur is baar andar kidhar se daale samjh nahi aa raha’. I smiled and said, ‘ye machine alag hai, isme card sirf swipe karna hai.’ He didn’t understand “Swipe” and tried to repeat it which sounded “sabipe”. Anyways, I tried to translate Swipe in Hindi but couldn’t get the correct word (time was also running out).. So just said “card ko isme se chalana padta hai”. He smiled..
I asked him to feed the password and amount and completed the rest of the process for him. After this, we came out and he gave me a thankful expression. I didn’t smile at him but told him, “do tarah ki machine hoti hai, ek mein card ko andar daalna padta hai aur dusre mein sirf chalane se kaam ho jaata hai”. He smiled and said, “ Ji! Hum dheere-dheere seekh lenge”. He bid a NAMASTE to me and I just nodded my head for the same. He went away and I lined up myself in the queue. Just a thought came to my mind that things which we are grown up with, which we can’t live without are still very complex for others to use.

Tom & Jerry- The real characters

2009-11-08T03:52:00.000-08:00

If I ask a question in a public forum... Who are Tom & Jerry??
All hands will raise up and there would be a unanimous voice... Our most loved cartoon characters. But how about if I talk about our real lives???
Confused??
Oh Yes! If you think deeply.. You’ll realize that all of us across this globe are sometimes Tom and sometimes Jerry in our lives. If I take a small example, a college-going boy would be a Jerry mouse in front of his parents at home and the moment he reaches to the college his talks are all about his daring and smart personality which all college gals fall for.
Why don't I take my own example... At work, I am the Tom Cat and my sub-ordinates are the Jerry Mouse. But in the day end when I have to submit the work report I, automatically, become the Jerry mouse and my so called Kind Boss becomes the Tom Cat (ready to eat up his juniors). Ironical. Isn't it??
But that's how life is... sometimes daring and sometimes scaring but always full of adventure and humor. Even though you dislike the Tom/Jerry in your life and always cook up plans to screw him up, his absence makes your life dull… Am I right ??
So always be involved in this wonderful game of life and never miss the cartoon on TV either. :)

Wake Up!

2009-10-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

Traffic is a problem which is increasing day by day and along with it is increasing problem of pollution which actually seems to be at no end. What I have always observed is that people (read: well-educated people) while waiting on a red light or in a jam don’t turn off their fuel and this habit is going to give serious and disastrous results in the future. Problem of traffic can not be solved overnight neither can the problem of pollution be but we can always take initiative to reduce them. My main concern is with the pollution crisis.

I really feel bad to see that even after constantly growing initiatives taken by govt and media, people do not seem to be aware and remain reluctant. Why cant we ourselves take a step forward for this. Whenever I m standing on a red light or stuck in a jam my first step is to turn off my fuel even if I have to wait for 15-20seconds.
All the humans on this earth must open their eyes, their minds and get aware asap. If we are stopped on a Red Light for more than 60 seconds we should turn off the fuel. People who are having self-start two-wheelers or the four-wheelers and are in third or fourth row of the Jam can easily do this. And even if 50% of us start practicing it, I am sure we will be able to reduce the repetition of some daily problems like:
Increasing pollution
Increasing fuel prices
Increasing hazards of Global Warming

Wake up people!

Same Dish- Different Garnish

2009-09-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

Imtiaz Ali has directed three movies so far-- Socha Na Tha, Jab We Met and the most recent one Love Aajkal. I have seen all the three movies of him, and after a normal observation I found an alike factor among them. If I compare all the six main characters of the three movies who are--

Viren & Aditi- Socha Na Tha

Aditya & Geet- Jab We Met

Jai & Meera- Love Aajkal

I found these similarities....... All these characters understand each other, they bank on each other for small things, a bit much cuddly-cuddly with each other. In short, they are just perfect for each other. The very moment when the viewer realizes this and starts feeling cozy within self, the twist in the story happens. One out of the two in each of the couple takes an immature decision and part the ways with the other in the first-half.

In the second-half, again a twist happens.... They realize their mistake of choosing the wrong love and go back to their true love. Another common factor among the three movies is that they all have a Punjabi Tadka. In short, we ate the same dish with different garnising three times.

Cum'on Imtiaz! We look upto you for great love-stories . Don't disappoint us by showing same story again n again.

Well, this is my observation. Comments on this are most welcome.

Instant coffee....Instant Food.... to Instant Relationships

2009-06-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

Today's world has rightly reached to the juncture where everything is being done "fatafat". Youngsters do not want themselves to be involved in lifelong relationships, be it friendship, romance or anything. The relationship between parents and children has also reached a crunch where both do not wish to interact. Marital relationships fail to survive due to lack of understanding. The whole concept of relationships has undergone transformation. People have become selfish and have started thinking just about themselves. "I, me and myself" have become the most important words in life. Let this not happen anymore.........Let the spirit of sharing prevail among all of us rather than "give & take". And the more we give, the more we get, be it love, care, peace or knowledge.

How to Vote??

2009-05-07T00:57:00.000-07:00

The election fever is on… every politician is campaigning in his/her own way and pleading the public to vote. In fact, from last several years they have started asking to the public figures from the entertainment and sports industry to join hands and beg votes for their election party. Advertisements on radio/television get start airing from 5-6 months before the elections. These days, a guy called RAJ asks people to wake up and vote (Jaago Re campaign), so are doing the bollywood people. All of them are asking the Indian mass to come forward and vote on the day of election. But I have certain queries regarding the voting system of our country.
If a person is not in the town where he is eligible to vote, what is the alternative for him to vote? I would take my own family’s example…….. I am eligible to vote in Bhopal since my voter registration has been done from there. Similarly, my husband has his registration from Hardwar. But we have made our family in Gurgaon now, so we can’t move to Bhopal and Hardwar for voting. Isn’t there any alternative wherein we can get to vote in Gurgaon??? I guess, the answer is NO.
Why isn’t this flexibility allowed to us that even if we are not in the city where we have been registered for voting, we can go and vote in the city we are at present? If today I want to vote, I need to go through an altogether new and lengthy process and get a fresh voter card for me to vote.
In this scenario, a question arises in my mind…. Why we, the new generation people who are pretty tech-savvy people, can’t be given the right to issue voter card through internet, SMS etc. Government has introduced computers and internet into all the sectors now. We can pay our telephone/electricity/water bills online now. We can book our railway/air tickets online now. Everything is done online these days not just in the private sector, but in govt. sector too. Then why can’t the govt. introduce a new act of online registration for voting????
We get hell lot of calls for new insurance scheme, new postpaid plan etc from the private companies…. Why can’t Electoral Commission take such initiative to call up every citizen and ask whether they are eligible to vote, if yes, then which city they are in and where are they going to vote?
I believe that most of the educated people who have the sense of voting the right candidate are from the middle-class educated background. And to be precise, middle class people are mostly the people who keep migrating from one place to another due to their job. To take a small example, if a town has a population of 1000 people (according to the count held for the last elections) out of which 700 are majors and are eligible to vote but out of this 700, 300 have shifted to other places due to their jobs. Out of these 300, 250 are not able to register themselves for new voter card. Reason can be any like date of issuance expired, unawareness etc. it means there is a loss of 250 votes out of the gross of 700. It means, 250 VOTES are not utilized. This is just a rough idea. Just imagine how many votes go wasted just because of these kind of reasons.
Isn’t this a big loss???? Who’s responsible for this big loss then??? Is it We, the people. Or those who intentionally don’t make the required changes done? On what basis, are they appealing then… VOTE FOR US!!!!

I love to Goooooogle!!!

2009-04-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

If I ask a question: Which is the most essential thing for one to continue to exist?

A good number of the answers would be- Oxygen, parents, money, love, a terrorism-free society and blah blah…. Come over from these wooly answers guys.

Well, what is the most essential thing for me to keep on in this world is… GOOGLE.
Oh yes! I’m naturally inquisitive – I’ve always liked finding things out and therefore Google has become my closest friend now. It helps me out anytime when I am puzzled up with something. Google is the first word which comes to my mind whenever I need assistance.

The best thing about Google is its simplicity. When you open the web page of Google, you’ll see that the home screen is designed very simple with blue, black and white being the base colors. The second best thing about Google is that the search results are clearly separated from advertising. Moreover, you may have never seen an ad flashing on Google. That's because Google does not allow ads to be displayed on the results pages unless they're relevant to the results page on which they're shown. Unlike other websites, Google doesn’t entertain the pop-up windows of advertisements which at times are annoying to the user.

So all in all, its accuracy, and comprehensible nature makes it the “world’s best search engine” and a friend which one can always bank on.

The Two Cities of My Life-- Part II

2009-04-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

Well, Gurgaon is the second city of my life as I have started a new inning of my life (after my marriage) in this city. The first time when I was on my way to my new home in Gurgaon, I was quite reluctant and little nostalgic about leaving Bhopal. But once we crossed the Delhi-Gurgaon toll, I could not just shut my wide-open eyes. Reason was the glam-sham of this metropolitan city. Beautiful, huge buildings and all of them unlike in terms of architecture.

Gurgaon, as I know, has got drastically developed a decade back and is now known as the Industrial HUB of northern India. Many MNCs have set up their corporate offices in Gurgaon and therefore, this city is very commercial now. People from across India have shifted here and contributed in transforming this normal town into a cosmopolitan city.

As heard from one of my old friend, GE Capital was the first company to open their first BPO office in Gurgaon in 2007 and now GENPACT (after becoming a separate identity) is headquartered in Gurgaon followed by many other outsourcing co.s and behind all this development of Gurgaon, DLF Group has played a major role. DLF Square Tower, Signature Tower, DLF Trinity Towers are some of the high-rise as well as the most spectacular buildings in Gurgaon. Most of the IT parks in Gurgaon have also been constructed by DLF where employees from all over the India are at work.

Mostly, the people of Delhi/NCR who have their offices in Gurgaon travel (on road) on their own vehicle which leads to a road congestion everyday. This traffic problem has become a part of daily routine for the Gurgaonites. To come out of this predicament, the Delhi Metro Corp has decided to start a new line which will connect Gurgaon to Delhi. By 2010, it is estimated that, the Metro will be connected to Gurgaon and therefore, commuting for the entire Delhi/NCR people will get much easier.

Now coming to the main attraction of this place….. Apparently, the main attraction of Gurgaon is its MALLS. When I was new to the city, I used to call it a MALLAMALL city and actually this term is very precise. Gurgaon is considered as the unofficial MALL capital of India because of its extremely beautiful and resplendent malls. On a guessing note, there are 15-20 malls at present and numerous malls are in the pipeline. Some of the major malls where footfalls get into are AMBIENCE MALL, SAHARA MALL, MGF METROPOLITAN MALL, DLF STAR MALL, GURGAON CENTRAL, GOLD SOUK. Out of which, Ambience Mall is the biggest Mall of India so far. Shopping in Ambience Mall is an event in itself as it would require a complete day once you visit there. To outshine the Ambience Mall, DLF is coming up with a new mall which is supposedly being constructed in a huge area of 4 acres.

If the things keep going right, I assume that Gurgaon will be counted amongst the most developed and most amazing cities of the world within a decade.

The two cities of my life-- Part 1

2009-03-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

Bhopal is the city where I have spent the most beautiful and the most important eight years of my life. I had settled in Bhopal when I was 16, and to be honest, I fell in love with this beautiful city. Bhopal is a part of the central India and capital of Madhya Pradesh. Popularly, it is known as the City of Lakes as it has about thirteen lakes including one of the biggest man-made Lake, UPPER LAKE, constructed during the aura of the King “Bhoj”. The local people call it BADA TALAAB also. No doubt, it has a unique beauty but the reason for which I admire it is its significance to the city. It is solving the major problem of drinking water in Bhopal.

Due to less monsoon in 2008, the city may face a WATER PROBLEM in 2009. Therefore, the entire Bhopal geared up and got united for the major cause of SHRAM DAAN. People from every corner of the city gathered and participated voluntarily for desilting the Upper Lake. This activity lasted for approximately a month.

Apart from this example of the awareness of the mass, the Culture of Bhopal also has a momentous in itself. You can see the true color of the nation in this city as the people from all the religion live here with an intimate bonding of love and respect for each other. Be it Marathi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Malayalee, Telugu, Himachali, Oriya or any other, people from all over India have got settled in Bhopal.

Moreover, Bhopali shayars and their shayris have their own presence. The famous Urdu Shayar and ghazal writer Mr. Bashir Badr has his roots in Bhopal. The other feature of the bhopali culture is its dialect. The dialect of old city is entirely different from that of the new city. In fact, the old city dialect is very unique in itself. Who can forget the character of SURMA BHOPALI in the most successful movie of the Indian cinema-- SHOLAY. The character depicted the shades of the culture of old city bhopali guys and the role was played by the very famous comedian JAGDEEP.

How can I forget to write about my most favorite things of Bhopal which are really really close to my heart and my soul. The most happening things of Bhopal like:

The packed roads and crowd of Jahangirabad,
Hang outs at 10 no./Bittan Market,
The famous ZARDOZI work of old city,
Shopping in New Market,
Ice-cream of Top n Town,
Theatre at Bharat Bhavan/Ravindra Bhavan,
The first ISO 9000:2001 certified “Habibganj” railway station,
Spectacular places like Lake View, Upper Lake, Van Vihar, Bhadbhada Dam, Kaliasot dam, Kolar Dam, Manuabhan ki Tekri and so many to count.

That’s it for Bhopal. Will post for the 2^nd city of my life soon.