Against the world ... Against the way ...

"Its in my genes", said the boy as the measuring tape around his waist read 37". So when he said 'genes', that goes back to the days when his forefathers were famous for having a huge pot belly. At that time, the bulge along the equatorial line of the brahmins were a symbol of prosperity and respect. But time changes and so does the ongoing beliefs. The thing that failed to change is the 'gene' that this boy has in him. No matter how hard he tries but the bulge keeps coming back. Let us rewind a few years. This boy was a very thin chap as a kid. But as he started to grow he started gaining extra pounds and at the age of 17 he weighted over a quintal (Yeah! You read that right). It was a real embarrassment when he was named 'the quintal kid'. So he planned to lose. He started off with regular visits to a gymnasium and within a few months he was delighted as the hard work started paying off. At 21 he had lost over 30 kilos and he thought to himself "This would do" ;). But soon the 'genes' revolted and as he entered the physically dormant phase of 'concentrate on your career', the 'genes' executed an outburst of anger. The needle on the weighing machine started ticking again while the jeans and trousers started undergoing 'material strength test' when they were clipped across his belly.
Now, the boy has two options --
1. He could revisit the gymnasium
2. He could keep a check on his diet
But both the options has a negative.
After witnessing the Anna Hazare hunger strike, the boy is sure that no mass revolt should be neglected and nothing should be done to suppress the revolt. So if the boy goes for the gym,it would be against the revolt of millions of genes and that would be highly against the rules of this world. Again, according to his mother, dieting (over emphasized form of keeping a check on meals) is not the answer to obesity. It is not the way. Here stands the confused boy, scratching his head, trying to find the answer... Which way would it be ? .... Against the world or Against the way ??

Oh GOD .. and the industry ... Part 1:

It has been some one and a half hour that I’ve been standing in the queue. It was moving at snail’s pace. Suddenly a pilgrim takes a seat on the ground and starts rocking a kid. Whoa !! Haven’t I noticed that the queue is not moving anymore. For the past 15 minutes I haven’t moved an inch. I hear someone call to me, “Water.. Sir.. WATER”. I stare shocked. Well let me first describe the setup I was into, because that would help one understand why a single call kept me staring. Here I am, standing in a long queue where every single person is ready to pay in cash or kind to advance his/her turn to take at peep at Lord Venkateshwara at Tirupati Devasthanam. One can easily deduce that this long queue is not anything new just by looking at the 2 miles long caged path resembling a python’s chamber in a zoo. The queue was moving past the edge of the famous lake where this (spider)man with a bottle in his hand climbed down from nowhere. What he said next came as the second blow, “aanly twenty rupees sir”. Be it this bottle of water or a pack of mango drink, here in this holy place one needs to shell out an additional 66.6% over the printed Rs. 12. Well, its just not this!! Tirupati Temple is situated at Tirumala on top of a hill and as one plans to get there, it comes as a realization that the entire township not only at Tirumala but also at the footstep of the hill with over 12 laks resident is based on a single industry that is pilgrimage. Starting from the transportation, the restaurants and lodgings, the numerous vendors, the banks and whatever a person can think of is supported directly or indirectly by Lord Venkateshwara. Lost in my thoughts I was standing in the queue when a cry of relief brought me back. “Govinda.. Govinda “ ….. The other name for lord Venkateshwara. Most of the people in the cage were already frowning and we still had to move over a mile. I walked on and with me walked the bald man with his bald son sitting on his shoulder, the bald lady along with her bald hubby, the bald boys and the bald girls (NOTE: Bald girls don’t look good at all). Many devotees get their head tonsured on their way to Tirupati. The total hair collected everyday is over a ton. And this hair when sold to international buyers adds a sum of over 6 million USD to the temple’s treasury.

Oh GOD .. and the industry ... Part 2:

After another 2 hours I am sitting in a big hall with numerous chairs and an iron gate . In short , it again makes us the monkey in the cage. Here in this hall are seated over 120 pilgrims and the entire building houses over 30 such halls. Exhausted pilgrims continue to buy the fluids being served. I kept seated and continued to think about the industry. 30 halls … 120 pilgrims in one … that makes it 3600 pilgrims every 30 minutes and over 50000 people in the entire darshan time a day. Well this could have easily passed through my subconscious had the temple authority not charged 300 INR from every single soul out there. So in that way, this part of the pilgrimage adds 150 lakhs INR to the treasury every day. If we consider the entire year, it amounts to 122 million USD per year. This is just a part of the 75000 pilgrims who visit the temple every day. The others who could not afford 300 INR for a visit either pay a sum of 50 INR or if it is for free, one is required to stand in the queue for around 35 hours. The number of pilgrims and the waiting time shoots up during the occasions. Other activities out here include the sale of Laddus . On an average every person affords 4 laddus for 100 INR. That adds another 6 million USD to the revenue of this place. Other than this people love to donate in here. A golden Hundi at the gate of the main temple fills up the treasury with a maximum of 2.5 crore INR a day. The Iron gate screeches. Everybody starts to rush out. Scattered all over are the empty bottles, tetra packs and the coffee cups. Whoa !! The people who vendor the edible stuffs out here can easily make a fortune. I rush along with the crowd. At long the only thing visible to me are three long queues coming from three different directions to merge into one. There is no way I could pass this with an absent mind. The god helps all. In here he helps over 12 lakh people residing over 450 square kilometre of area. And with a revenue higher than many of the small and medium scale enterprises Tirupati Devasthanam is the richest and the most visited place of worship in the world. So god will help me push my way along and get a glimpse of the holy Lord Venkateshwara. Gear up and cheer “Govinda … Govinda “

'SO' some anger ... 'Show'CIETY

“Education cess (@ 2%) … Rs. 18.34 “ …. This quotation is from my monthly electric bill. And I am proud enough to serve the poor children of this country…. INDIA. But when I woke up today a different emotion filled my heart and soul considering the same quotation as above. It was the newspaper that played the culprit.

It has been a week that India lifted the ICC Cricket World Cup after 28 years. It has been a week that we all bled blue. We cried together as Team India roared with the trophy. All Indians followed the single religion – Cricket. Not a day after this event had occurred, every minister around were up on their toes to show their honor and gratitude to the Indian Cricket Team. So we came to know that BCCI will be presenting the glorious squad with a prize money of 1 crore INR each, the Delhi government INR 2 crore, Punjab INR 1 crore, Uttarakhand a house in Mussourie and land for a cricket academy and the railways says that they can travel AC-I Class free for life. Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam of Tamil Nadu has already violated the Model Code of Conduct and has decided to pay the Indian cricket team and Ashwin a prize money of INR 3 crore and INR 1 crore respectively.

Now, the question that is on every Indian’s mind is, “Where is the money coming from?”. Well our journalists have the answer. These special prizes are generally awarded from a fund that has an allocation of INR 2.4 Cr this year. So the extra money is being drawn from either the education or development fund. Yes, you read it right. The education cess that we pay is being used as the prize money for the champions. But why should one be angry? These men have served the nation and we should honour them.

In a country where we are still fighting against illiteracy and child labour, where projects are being stalled for the non availability of funds, a country where the roadways are the greatest challenge to our intra SAARC trade (Courtesy: SAARC Yearly report ), where over fifty percent of our agricultural production goes to waste due to improper storage and improper marketing chain, development fund is being used as prize money for sportsmen. But why should one be angry? The cricketers are poor fellas. For an example MS Dhoni with an annual income of INR 300 Crore is one of the highest tax payers of the country.

With a literacy rate of 74.04% (as in 2011) , with 41.6% of the total Indian population under the poverty line, with a rural population of 72.2% (as per Census 2001), with our major rivers polluted as hell due to shortage of fund in the river cleanup programmes across the country, a country with an yearly loan in the world bank touching up to 9.3 billion USD in 2010, the ministers are ready to show off their honour and gratitude to the Team India. But why should one be angry? According to the cricketers, these prizes never turn to reality. Remember 2007, when India won the ICC T20 World Cup, every player in the squad were allotted INR 10 laks. But according to the cricketers, they never received more than fifty percent of the prize money. So, hello ministers, where is the extra money going ?

P.S.: Im not against Team India. They deserve honour, they deserve privilege. But one does not require to be a rocket scientist to realize that hardly any cricketer would board a train to travel from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. One can easily make out where the extra money goes. (Ill keep mum on this). If we want to honour them, lets honour them in real sense. Lets present Bharat Ratna to the best of the bests, and some other honorary medal to others. Lets not give them some truckload of cash in a country that is already cripple and struggling to keep itself upright.

The Noble Game

I was twenty, she was the same,
We started this noble game,
Suddenly our hearts felt so lame,
And we didn't knew who to blame.
Do we ever wonder what is love ?
Its as white as snow, as pure as dove,
Everything around seems beautiful,
Someone who hasn't been is love is surely a fool.

There were people who used to whine,
Yet we said, "You are mine,
Stay with me, everything will be fine",
Love was our weapon, love was our wine.
Do we ever wonder what is love?
Its the spice of life, it is the clove,
Every challenge seems so easy now,
We are bound together in a tow.

External disturbances soon passed away,
We started living under each others' sway,
But happy days weren't here to stay,
Our love was slowly turning gray.
Do we ever wonder what is love?
Its not an incarnation of what our dreams had wove,
It creeps like a worm through our stupid mind,
It makes us lose our sane, its leaves us blind.

Descended upon us the darkest night,
Not a single thing felt alright,
We always indulged in a fight,
Yet we wished to hold on tight.
Do we ever wonder what is love?
Its a burden that we pushed and hove,
Everything around is agony,
Love is fake, love is phony.


Post Script: What is Love ?
Love is pleasure, Love is pain,
Love makes you cry like a child again,
Love makes you discover the 'mature you',
Love is false and Love is true.
Love is wicked, Love is wise,
Love makes you strong, Love demoralize,
Love is wild and Love is tame,
Love is THE NOBLE GAME.

The BEE School

Do you hear the buzz? Of course you do. We all do. Everyone around, whatever event you might be attending you get to hear the buzz. The buzz of the bee ……….. school. The buzz had been going around for more than a decade now but it was never this loud. Be it for approaching the appropriate age [Remember Om mangalam ;) ], or the excess of marketing, Ive been in the buzz for around 3 years now. A B-School or a Business School attracts members from each and every discipline of academics. So if one goes for a survey in a B-School he or she may find a great variety of students. To name a few, the person from a commerce background who aspires for a higher degree and MBA is the best he can afford, the economics graduate who wishes to go ahead and understand the economics of the country from a better viewpoint, the engineering kid who wants to take a better stand among the gross, the CA …… wait ….. rewind that !!

Whatever reasons Ive mentioned till now are secondary. The notion that draws people towards these B-Schools is …. MBA is a degree that one can cash out to get rich. Well, there was a time when this was actually true. You come across someone who has some distant relative with an MBA degree, and you get to hear that he/she is earning in lakhs. But with the approval and rise of some hundreds of B-Schools every year, the notion holds no good. One may even find an MBA working in an insurance firm selling insurance. We live in a world where we get what we wish for but we are hardly ready to take up the trouble to achieve. So just like in every winter some thousands and thousands of bees come out of the forests to the warmer parts of the locality, every summer some thousands of MBA graduates come out of the BEE schools to venture into the corporate world. Some survive, others get killed. ((AAaahh ! How much I like to smash those stupid bees ! ))

So, why do people still opt to get into the BEE schools? Because if you are among the hardworking honey bees, if you have made your way into the best and the largest hive around, if you know how to work in the team, and if you know how to venture into the fields (corporate) , what you get is the best golden crystalline A grade honey that not only has the power to heal, but is also a treasure, something that can actually make one rich. So this is where the notion turns into reality. Go ahead, choose your BEE School, and buzz along ;)

Belongings .....

Have we ever wondered, how with every passing day some of our treasured belongings become worthless ?

Just a few days back as I got over with the season of Group Discussions and Personal Interviews, my entire family started pushing me towards getting m…….. ……… y closet and room cleaned up. Its been a few years that Ive been through this ritual, so I started by pulling out everything that I came across. So here’s a list of things I CAME ACROSS:

1. Here was the blue printed, specially tailored shirt that used to be my favourite 2 years back. It was amazing to notice how the equity of this piece of fabric has deteriorated.

2. I came across the remote controlled miniature of the BMW over which I had a fight with my brother [Im guilty of violating the Brocode]. Now, it was not worth that space in my closet.

3. Next was waiting for me the Atlas and the Pocket Dictionary which I carefully saved from my sister because I was in love with those stuffs. Now, it was absolutely fine for me to share these stuffs with anyone around.

4. I was almost done with the ‘most precious things’ when I came across the magic knife which my father bought me at a fair. It was the exact same as I had left it. The black short bakelite handle with a shiny blunt extension that slips into the handle as one applies pressure. I was quite amazed that this little thing mattered the same to me. I stored it again. I looked back at the knife … I smiled.

5. I started collecting the scraps and bits when suddenly something drew my attention. It was a small white plastic box wrapped in a tissue. It was a ‘pan masala’ box from some marriage ceremony that I had stored because it appealed to me. As I opened this I found that it was filled with phosphorus alum. It was me and my sister who during a play filled it with the amorphous material and thereafter I felt that it was precious. Yes it was precious. How come after so many years that I remember every single thing that led to the creation of this memento. I stored it.

6. I was about to throw away some crushed bits of papers when I found a crushed handmade card hidden inside the pile. I pulled it out and opened it. “Happy Birthday Bhai. U have turned 9” said my 10 and a half years old sis. And it wasn’t precious to me because it was handmade. Because it was delicate and perishable. Because it was not so good to look at. Because it was the best my 10 years old sis could have created. Because it saved the smile when my sis thought that I would be happy when I receive this. So I had threw it to the darkest corner of my closet. Worthless is not something I would term this as. It is priceless now.

Isn't it amazing how with every passing day some of our treasured belongings become priceless ?

There were a lot of other things I found in the process. Ill come back to those later.

Remember Rock 'n Rolla .....

"You see that pack of Virginia killing sticks on the end of the piano?

All you need to know about life is retained within those four walls.

You will notice that one of your personalities is seduced by the illusions of grandeur.

A gold packet of king size with a regal insignia.

An attractive implication toward glamor and wealth.

A subtle suggestion that cigarettes are indeed your royal and loyal friends.

And that, Pete, is a lie.

Your other personality is trying to draw your attention to the flip side of the discussion.

Written in boring, bold, black and white, is the statement...

...that these neat little soldiers of death, are, in fact, trying to kill you.

And that, Pete, is the truth.

Oh, beauty is a beguiling call to death and I'm addicted to the sweet pitch of its siren.

That that starts sweet ends bitter.

And that which starts bitter ends sweet.

That is why you and I love the drugs..."