Needs planning (can do), Time (have loads) and money ( umm! 🙂 have to get all of it )
and all of this while I am trying to find out, how I am going to manage
ab kya karenge bhaiyya
ab kahan jayenge bhaiyya!!!
thank you Vaishali for pointing that out!
There are so many memories that have been associated with her that I would not even know where to start and end…
This September is a special month for me! a lot of things happened including Chai ki Dukaan celebrating 5 years, some things and thoughts moving at the personal front, and my EMIs for the car getting over! now I can start saving for the Enfield I have been eyeing for a while! 😛
Speaking of cars, this weekend I drove the largest SUV I have been in, so far! A Toyota Sequoia. It was a 4.6 litre, 32 Valve V8 engine which produces a mind boggling 310 bhp@ 5400 rpm! The pictures below should tell you something about the size too!
Its good that at times, some not so nice things that happen to you, clear the vision so much!
I am glad that looking at things from a different perspective is something that I can manage often!
It started with reading an email of some wealth comparisons between India and Pakistan…
Mukesh Ambani’s phenomenal wealth and the fact that he can buy all the companies listed on the Karanchi stock exchange and still would have a few billions left… about the aircraft he gifted his wife and the details of his 60 storey apartment complex, the details of which were doing rounds of the internet sometime back! It also talked about Sabeer Bhatia, and Sun Microsystems etc and how many Indians make it to the silicon valley
so good head to head comparisons of what India’s wealth is about and what Pakistan’s wealth is about… needless to say India is rich, both in financial terms and people terms!!!
Makes you proud right? good!
And then I was talking to Deepak and Pritam about the disjoint value system in the US and how kids are raised here! some interesting discussions at that time too! About how Diwali is, and about how Holi is… about how there is something called Life that you can celebrate in India, and how even in a state fair you will feel disconnected with the thousands of people who surround you in the US! About how US is a bit different from Europe in terms of community and systems (mostly emotional and personal)
And the day ended with watching “We Were Soldiers” based off of the Ia Drang Valley Battle in 1965 in the Vietnam War! I have been watching a few American war movies lately, and while these movies try to glorify almost everything they should about USA, there is a lot that you get to realise if you want to connect the dots!
America and its soldiers have been in war (their own or adopted) for years… continuously! and almost every family in the USA would either know or be related to a active defense (I don’t think “defense” is a valid term here… “offense” is more like it) person, or a war veteran! They have all the reason to be bloody proud of their people…and that simply translates into being proud of the country! The people give a lot to the country, and the country gives it back to them, and the cycle continues! I am not saying bottlenecks do not exist here, or the leadership has always been good! I am not saying that its perfect the way it works either! I am saying that behind all the value system that I was talking about in the second part of this post, there is a much strong value system that connects almost every person to this “COUNTRY”. and that makes all the bloody difference!
Back to India now… where I know of more bottlenecks than smooth flows of this pride… where praise of the country is limited to speeches, and some long lost books… where the independence is said to be the work of one man called the Gandhi, and people ignore people like Lala Lajpat Rai, Azad, Bhagat Singh, Bose with ease… where leaders like Mayawati ask the central government for a Rs.2000 grant to solve the power situation UP and spend Rs. 500 crore on statues (BITCH)… where leaders like Mamta Banerjee lead people to throw TATA out of West Bengal when it would have put WB on the World Map… where the youth craves for ipods and latest gadgets when just about 50 kms off the highway kids still have to walk 5 kms to the nearest school… where we lead the world in the number of terrorist groups operating in the country (27 out of the 34 groups which the Ministry of Home Affairs labels as Terrorist Organization under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, are home grown groups! another record actually) where we tend to forget the mumbai blasts, or the attack the Parliament, or the Delhi Diwali blasts, or 26/11 for the latest news on something more commercially viable and move on….
where we claim to be proud of the country, but when it will come to identifying what you have done for this country, you might just be short of words and things!!!
Don’t get me wrong!
I am proud of India and its growth, and I feel bad about not knowing crap about its history and how its growing in leaps and bounds! I just feel helpless at times! and extremely sad about how this country might just collapse one day :'( and none of us might not be able to do anything about it!!!
Before I end this post, I just want to remind myself that I am going to do whatever I can! Period!
And if you have a comment on this post, I would appreciate if you do something about it too, in addition of just voicing your opinion!
I should stop now! have a good day everyone!
Ever loved someone very much and wondered why they don’t seem to care?
Ever whispered something to someone, and wondered why they don’t seem to hear?
Well my friend,
you did not realize,
that love is like a pesticide….
Think about it… how does pesticide work?
You have to have the right amount of dose sprinkled all over for it to be effective…
Concentrate it too much, it would not work
Dilute it too much, it would not work either
Overuse it, and pests would get used to it, and develop immunity, it would not work
Under-use it, its not effective enough, umm, it would not work!!!
My take on it…
Sprinkle it, but know how much is too much!
and then I saw a few rain drops
the roads took a turn to something green
I rolled down the window
and the raindrops reached the ground after they kissed me
the air was flowing and brushing against my smiling face
Lets call it romance!
Shall we!
and I am glad!!!
Heartfelt thanks!!!!
I just finished watching the 20 year old 6th seed Del Potro kick Nadal’s ass big time, in the semi-finals of US Open!
what a match!!!
Del Potro beat Nadal 6-2 6-2 6-2
Nadal is an amazing athlete, and Del Potro made him run like a kid today!!! and had an answer to EVERYTHING that Nadal has in his kitty!!!
I am looking forward to a Del Potro – Federer final!
update…
and Federer wins the other semi in straight sets! Excellent fight from Djokovic, but Federer got the better of him!!! loved the last but one point!
Now looking forward to “the” Del Potro – Federer final… He has lost at the hands of Federer before, but after what he has done to Nadal today, I hope he continues with a similar game and gives Federer a tough game to win!
The Pontiac Vibe I was driving! 
Our challenges were divided into jungle challenges and maha jungle challenges with a different point system… my team started with 3 points less than the other team because we had answered some quiz questions incorrectly…
Some of the games that we participated in were
1. Jungle Fashion show…
oh… my team’s name was Mattar Paneer with Miller Lite and our slogan was
Khao Piyo Mast Jiyo
Dhoom Machao Jeet ke Jao
and back to the games now..
2. Getting water from the wild
3. Collecting 3 live animals
4. Karela Eating
5. Mushrooms eating
6. Banana eating (with the peel)
7. Shrimps eating
8. Raw Eggs (breaking and having them)
And then a maha jungle challenge… my team was supposed to make a Ravan, and the other team was to put up a 10 seater tent! What you see below is the Ravan that we made!
There were loads of ball games as well which we enjoyed thoroughly… I also managed to sneak out for a small walk and some photography during a break!
And we also had a huge bonfire! The sky was absolutely clear that night and it was full of stars! The only time I have seen a better sky was when we had camped at Pangong Tso in Ladakh!
We slept around 2 am and got up early too! I had Gaurav’s phone with me, and I set an alarm for 8 am and woke up when the phone rang as well! I did wake some of the other guys up in my room asking them to come for a walk outside!
About hour an hour later I realized that I had woken up because of the 6 am alarm on Gaurav’s phone and not the 8 am one that I had set! 😛
The next day was a light one in terms of games, but we did play a few… including one where we had finish 30 golgappas! I participated in that one, and WON 😀
The breakfast was some lovely Poha and Chai …
Overall, this was one of the very few trips with such a large group that I have been in, and needless to say, I enjoyed it thoroughly!!!! One of the important things being, that team won, even though we started with 3 points less 🙂 It was the last game which turned out to be a deciding game as well! thrilling competition!
And all of us heading back to our homes happily 🙂
Will write about the other two trips soon…
1. The 3 day weekend in Canada
2. The 1600 mile roadtrip
Its exactly the same as Bajaj Priya scooter… inch by inch, switch by switch, curve by curve! someone please tell me that Bajaj picked up this design legally and did not steal it! I would be very disappointed if they did steal it!
I checked the Bajaj official website too, it talks about introduction of Bajaj Super, Chetak and Classic, but does not mention Priya anywhere! Was this a Bajaj model at all? or am I wrong? I remember using this scooter when I was doing mu PG. My batch-mate Gaurav used to have this model and it had a bajaj tag on it!