Enter the matrix

Courage is a rare gift bestowed only on few lucky among us. Courage does not mean absence of fear but the heart to stand on our ground in spite of it. We admire those who have it and make them our leaders. Mrs Benazir Bhutto was one of the few courageous people around who stood in the face of adverse situation and gave her life fighting for what she believed in. After she returned from exile she was attached the first day killing hundreds of people in her rally. It never deterred her resolve and she knew she may have to give her life for the people of her country. The cowardly attack on her has shown the world that terrorists are no humans and they are hell bent in undermining the world and its values as we know it. But they are fighting a lost war..they may kill people but not their ideas and their courage. Though she was a leader of a hostile country and I may not personally like her ideologies but she was brave and she had the fighting spirit. She died a painful death for her peo...

We as living beings share one thing common among us all...'Need'. From the tiniest of the bacteria to the gigantic whales all are driven by need. Life is driven by this ever present need. Need to feed oneself, need to procreate and need to enjoy the small luxuries life gives us all. We humans being with a much developed consciousness and response system have more needs and complex socio economic systems give rise to very diverse taste and requirements. Need we can easily conclude lead to all forms of pursuits and emotions . Last day I got into argument for saying that all our emotions including love arise due to one or the other need. However I agree once love blossomed it grow larger than the need itself and may last longer than the need and sometimes even a lifetime. This attribute of love make it so great. Well by love I don't mean only the romantic love but all forms of love all living beings exhibit with each other or even with inanimate things. For example our q...

It was cold very cold but not icy. I could feel the chill down to my spine but not my spine. I could walk even run but had no control of my legs. I could not feel them perhaps they were not there. I had to reach somewhere but I could not think of a place that I want to go. I tried remembering where I was coming from or to a place I could go back to but it was all blank. There was just this misty chill all around. I watched someone crossing me and I wanted to call him . I cried louder than I could ever have but could not speak out. But suddenly I could feel lots of shadows around and perhaps I was not alone. But where was everybody going and why was it so dark. Dark ...is it dark? Where are my eyes? Oh I wanted to see and touch my eyes but I don't know where to look for my hands and suddenly I realize I could not feel my body. Oh my body where was it..I wanted to stop to catch a breath but I could barely breath. Oh! I was not breathing just this sense of motion within this eternal...

D iwali vacation this time was different. For the first time in more than quarter of century I was not celebrating it with family but was traveling with a friend to his village in Maharastra heartland. I am not much of a fan of mumbai's fast life so any break from it is always great. We caught a train from Mumbai CST to his native town and reached there in about 5 hours. Village life is no alien to me and freah air and green surroundings bring a sense of calmness everytime I visit countryside. I will just put some pics and let them do all the talking here. I enjooooyed every bit of my stay there. Be it the spooky broken roads near the cremation ground, 6 hour electricity cut, out of the world food, fresh fruits, clean air and plentiful of sleep. Perhaps visit to villages is like visit back in time to reflect on our roots and to gather strength to live the present.

I wrote about the world champion Australian team after their world cup victory in One day internationals. But today I am glad and thrilled to write about the Indian team and their world cup adventures which ended in such a high note that it has brought a sense of jubilation to millions here in India. When the tournament started nobody gave this young team any chance. Without the might of big names it was just thought of as a time pass event. Timepass it was but boy what it turned out to be and you can't write better scripts than this. Final was set out between the two arch rivals India and Pakistan both from the subcontinent and on its way the Indian team defeated the mighty Australians and the strong South Africans. The final game was well fought by both the teams and the victory finally blessing the fighters in blue. It was the fight between the equals and lots of skill, character and a bit of fortune helped us winning the World cup. Personally it has been the best news that ...

This post of mine is to present summary of the great book I just read. It is the 'The Black Swan' by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The book deals with the impact of the highly improbable. I am presenting here the contents which I could grasp and I must clarify that the greatness of the concepts have been limited by my dim intellect. 1) The predictions and history - The author points out that we as human always try and make sense of the events after it has happened even though the event may be a black swan or a highly improbable event. Before the discovery of Australia people were convinced that all swans are white but discovery of a single black swan destroyed the inference of several thousand initial white swan sightings and thus these highly improbable events actually shape our history. 2) Scalable and the Non scalable - The activities and knowledge domains in our world can be categorized into scalable and non scalable elements. The author calls them Medocristan and Extremistan...

When I was young I thought money was everything but when I grew up I realize it was true - Well I am not behind this great thought but somehow it strikes you. It speaks of a naked truth which we all know but hesitate to acknowledge. We all love wealth, lets be true to ourselves if you are getting it you will not say no to it. I know money is not the start and end of everything but it makes us get up daily and get our ass to work. We change jobs, work harder, do double shifts, update skill sets, pray to the almighty, invest in stocks to have more and more of the ever elusive wealth. Well I understand that all the work we do may not be for money but still we have to work for it. Money is so important that we require it even before our birth and will need it to perform our last rights. You spend your childhood mugging up books writing exams , working hard to get into a good college to land a good job which pays a fat pay check or get you ass nailed doing a business and running af...

The monsoon is here and it seems it has plentiful to shower on to we fellow mumbaikars. We are blessed no doubt but perhaps we are not ready to accept so much of this divine showers. The century old drainage system is collapsing under this heavy rain, old buildings are crumbling, railway tracks are gutted and what we have is knee deep water everywhere. The media is on the streets showing how useless is the civil administration and how in spite of great riches that this city produces it is worse than a medieval township. Authorities are saying that media and public are expecting too much and too soon. They are blaming everyone expect themselves for the plight of the common people. I guess common people have lost their faith in them and have started accepting this also a way of life. This city has seen lots of bad days with bomb blasts, roits, and floods and has survived them all. People are now use to water filled homes and blame no one except god for it. This however shows we as a nati...

Yesterday, it was real hard at work. Everything was going wrong and it seems almost everyone in the world is after me. With this tension over my head I could seldom sleep. I guess my insomniac existence brought the philosopher out of me. I just happen to ask god why I have been chosen for such a hard life. I just thought of complaining of things I don't have and how all my problems are giant behemoths waiting to trample me to pulp and extract life out of my meaningless existence. At that very moment I could hear someone talking to me and showing me the numerous things I have and should be happy about. It began to dawn on me that I should be thankful for so many wonderful things I have been blessed with. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a great family supporting and liberal parents, great friends, healthy body, stable mind (well almost), freedom of speech, free society and free market, unlimited carrier opportunities, patience to meditate, great school life and even better c...

It was so one sided that it seems that the mortals are up against the might of the gods. The recently concluded cricket worldcup emphasized that there is only one winner and the rest doesn't matter. It has been three world cups now and it does not seem that Australians can be defeated. They are ruling the world cricket with their sheer power. They have played against every team and came out victorious every time. The recent flip in their form just before the world cup was the calm before the storm. They stormed into the cup and defeated every opponent ruthlessly. They outplayed every team in every possible way. Before the cup the cricket lovers were hoping that the other cricketing nations will be able to put up some fight against the champions but it was like a walk in the park for them. Well its their age now and they will continue to dominate tills its time. The Romans dominance never lasted and so will theirs but till then they are the god of our times...

Cities have spread far and wide signifying the might and zenith of human civilization. Cities have always been regarded as the hallmark of great cultures. They are the engines of growth. They bring together countless souls to a common platform creating an efficient system producing goods and services to improve the quality of life. Ironically the cities don't have the quality of life they themselves work for. Cities though have millions living in them but are strikingly individualistic. The life in a city is about being the fastest, the sharpest and the smartest of all. It is always moving and never gives you chance to see life as it passes. Living in cities is just about doing jobs to fuel the ever growing human need and everyone is just a small nut in this big machine and before we know the life we have been living it is almost gone. Small towns do offer some hope where life is still about being happy, it’s about celebrating life with family and friends the pace is slow enough t...

Well I am just in time to write about the International women's day. It 11'0 clock here and still an hour left for the celebrations. I am not very proud of my general knowledge but I have not celebrated International men's day so far. Infact back in old town of ours we use to celebrate just the children's day which is to mark the occasion called childhood. It was not until my grad school that I heard about this day. The day was never special for any of the women I have met infact they themselves were not aware of it. Well I guess they may not be that feminist or their cortex must be as dull as mine. However with the media boom here in this country every damn channel was fighting for their bread and butter and thus they started jumping on any thing they could starting from the valentine's day to rose day and god knows what. I however personally feel that celebrating women's day is not all that bad as women hood is something worth celebrating. Can we man als...

My old pal from school is one of the greatest dating geniuses known to mankind. He often tells me that Dating is like doing a business. It can get boring, embarrassing and outright humiliating but you have to make sure you always follow your client's ass. You have to convince your client that whatever you are selling is suiting the needs and is a value for his money. He preached following all the marketing principles we use doing a business including maintaining a profit loss account. He however warned to not to do it as a job else it will take us to our doom. I never took him seriously till he got ditched by his latest sweetheart and had to take therapy lessons from a psychologist. Once I casually told him that all his principles of carrying out this dating game is bull and he should now start taking relationships seriously. I was shocked to hear that he was just taking the therapy to make his girlfriend guilty and thus giving himself an outside chance of getting her back. It w...

The last evening was unusual. The air was thick with stench coming out of decaying shapeless entities. It was making me nervous and I was having difficulty holding it to myself. I was about to go for my evening walk that suddenly this gentleman appeared from no where. He headed straight for me and almost got me by surprise. He introduced himself with a warm smile. He was young energetic and looked very bright. Sudden appearance of this man made me comfortable than what I was before his arrival. But before I could put up any query regarding the meeting I was dragged into. He just started with telling me that he wanted to thank me for all that I have done for him. He told me how my timely help, care and dedication towards him made him feel thankful of me. Before I could speak he continued that over the years I have groomed him and have feed him and have nursed him. His survival and well being was directly linked to the work I have been doing for him. He told me that he longer does any ...

2006 is now the part of history and today on the very first day of the new year it is time to take stock. 2006 began with promise and was quite a bit of fun for the first two months. It will be a special year for me as I move out of the country and travelled half the globe for the first time. The trip to toronto was awesome and was quite an experience. The wind chills of -20 degrees, the burgers at taco bell, the indian thali at the agra resturant and the visit to the grand Niagra all were an expereince of a lifetime. The third month was exactly the opposite. It was one of the testing times of my life. It took me next six months to recover from the shocks. This year was quite testing financially and drained my resources quite a bit. This year gave a new direction to our business and had its unpleasent moments. New members were added to the family and some left us. All in all it was an unique expereince and hopefully this year will be unique too. Best wishes to me for the coming ye...