For just ONE EXTRA BEDROOM

This is another forward that i got. I tried to relate to this, I couldn't. But, nevertheless if all that is written has even an iota of truth then the life of this guy really sucked big time. I'm glad that i'm not making the same mistake as the guy mentioned in the post.

WRITTEN BY AN INDIAN SOFTWARE ENGINEER…

A Bitter Reality

As the dream of most parents I had acquired a degree in
Software Engineering and joined a company based in USA , the
land of braves and opportunity. When I arrived in the USA , it
was as if a dream had come true.

Here at last I was in the place where I want to be. I decided I
would be staying in this country for about Five years in which
time I would have earned enough money to settle down in India .

My father was a government employee and after his retirement,
the only asset he could acquire was a decent one bedroom flat.

I wanted to do some thing more than him. I started feeling
homesick and lonely as the time passed. I used to call home and
speak to my parents every week using cheap international phone
cards. Two years passed, two years of Burgers at McDonald's and
pizzas and discos and 2 years watching the foreign exchange
rate getting happy whenever the Rupee value went down.

Finally I decided to get married. Told my parents that I have
only 10 days of holidays and everything must be done within
these 10 days. I got my ticket booked in the cheapest flight.
Was jubilant and was actually enjoying hopping for gifts for
all my friends back home. If I miss anyone then there will be
talks. After reaching home I spent home one week going through
all the photographs of girls and as the time was getting
shorter I was forced to select one candidate.

In-laws told me, to my surprise, that I would have to get
married in 2-3 days, as I will not get anymore holidays. After
the marriage, it was time to return to USA , after giving some
money to my parents and telling the neighbors to look after
them, we returned to USA .

My wife enjoyed this country for about two months and then she
started feeling lonely. The frequency of calling India
increased to twice in a week sometimes 3 times a week. Our
savings started diminishing.

After two more years we started to
have kids. Two lovely kids, a boy and a girl, were gifted to us
by the almighty. Every time I spoke to my parents, they asked
me to come to Indiaso that they can see their grand-children.

Every year I decide to go to India … But part work part
monetary conditions prevented it. Years went by and visiting
Indiawas a distant dream. Then suddenly one day I got a
message that my parents were seriously sick. I tried but I
couldn't get any holidays and thus could not go to India ... The
next message I got was my parents had passed away and as there
was no one to do the last rights the society members had done
whatever they could. I was depressed. My parents had passed
away without seeing their grand children.

After couple more years passed away, much to my children's
dislike and my wife's joy we returned to India to settle down.
I started to look for a suitable property, but to my dismay my
savings were short and the property prices had gone up during
all these years. I had to return to the USA ...

My wife refused to come back with me and my children refused to
stay in India ... My 2 children and I returned to USA after
promising my wife I would be back for good after two years.

Time passed by, my daughter decided to get married to an
American and my son was happy living in USA ... I decided that
had enough and wound-up every thing and returned to India ... I
had just enough money to buy a decent 02 bedroom flat in a
well-developed locality.

Now I am 60 years old and the only time I go out of the flat is
for the routine visit to the nearby temple. My faithful wife
has also left me and gone to the holy abode.

Sometimes

I wondered was it worth all this?

My father, even after staying in India ,

Had a house to his name and I too have
the same nothing more.

I lost my parents and children for just ONE EXTRA BEDROOM.

Looking out from the window I see a lot of children dancing.
This damned cable TV has spoiled our new generation and these
children are losing their values and culture because of it. I
get occasional cards from my children asking I am alright. Well
at least they remember me.

Now perhaps after I die it will be the neighbors again who will
be performing my last rights, God Bless them.

But the question
still
remains 'was all this worth it?'

I am still searching for an answer.................!!!

START THINKING

IS IT JUST FOR ONE EXTRA BEDROOM???

LIFE IS BEYOND THIS …..DON’T JUST LEAVE YOUR LIFE ……..
START LIVING IT …….
LIVE ITAS YOU WANT IT TO BE …….

T20 World Cup India Team

India’s team for upcoming T20 World Cup was announced today. There were no big surprises in the team.


Team - MS Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, R P Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan.

Men Vs Women

I don’t want to sound as a misogynist. And this is certainly not meant to be disparaging. The intent here is a quick chuckle and a quick laugh there.

I found this courtesy google, when it added it automatically to my signature and that was when I noticed it. So, it is here for the keeps.

Now, this one was damn funny (have no clue who the author is):

"Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more."

– James Thurber

So much for Bail outs- one for me please

With bail-outs being the flavor of the season. It doesn't matter where they are - US or India or Middle East. They are just there.

Can i request one for myself, please :D

An idea for nagging Bosses

Should definitely be able to help the sales guys at least.

Lead India Pledge

This is the Lead India Pledge as started by Times of India. This is for benefit of my previous post.

Elections India 2009

Did you become a part of the largest democratic election in the world – the general elections for the 15^th Lok Sabha in India? It is estimated that a whooping 714 million people would exercise their power to vote in this election.

Yes, I did, I did. I voted and I’m elated, delighted, exhilarated, happy, etc etc.

I have a feeling that can’t be described in words.

During my last visit to Lucknow, my home town, I’d registered myself as a voter. I’d got myself photographed, my thumb prints, signatures recorded, etc. In a nutshell I did all that I could to get myself registered as a voter at my home town.

I was carefully seeing all the advertisements and the sentiments on the blogging circle about voting. The Jaagore series: http://www.jaagore.com, and the Time of India initiative: http://www.lead.timesofindia.com, in print, radio and television proved to be very, uhmm, if nothing else than informative. Apart from these there were several other campaigns that also caught the imagination of the tech or rather the net-savvy young and urban Indians. Some of the mentionable few were No Criminals: http://www.nocriminals.org/, Vote Report India: http://votereport.in/.

If all of the above was good and motivating, there came, without warning, the perfect anti-thesis – the print, radio and television ads of political parties. As if this in itself was not enough, there came a flurry of constant nagging phone calls and sms’es exhorting the voters to vote for a particular party or a candidate. This was despite one sending the touted DNC (Do Not Call) registry.

Initially, I was looking forward to voting. But, in between all this overselling, my decision started to vacillate. I was divided and torn whether to cast my vote or to turn chicken and wait for another 5 years (hopefully). And as if by chance I got an alibi, just what I was looking for to not vote – a friends marriage at a distant location almost simultaneous to elections at my home town and then some work at Delhi for me. Such was my schedule that there was no way that I could have made it to Lucknow on 30^th March ’09 to vote. Just what the doctored ordered.

I consider it a really fortunate turn of events that I reached my home town just in time for casting my vote at the Lucknow constituency as a part of the India Elections ’09. I can attribute this to a friend’s marriage. More about the same on Trip to Ranchi –I, II…

This post is all about my exploits as a voter.

When I woke up on 30^th April’09 at my hometown, the first question that my parents put forth was whether I’d like to cast my vote. They said that they’d be leaving pretty soon. So, if I wanted to vote, I’d better freshen up in a jiffy and tag along. I looked at the sun outside and the lazy demon inside me won the day. I refused to vote, citing migraine and was dismissed by parents as a gone case. They left to vote and were back in about 3-4 hours and were brandishing the blue ink-mark on their fingers.

They were short of teasing me, that I’d been a chicken and that at the young age of 27 I didn’t vote and them; soon to be septuagenarian’s managed to cast their vote.

I’ll summarize what happened next. I dragged my lazy ass out. The crux is that I did mange to stand in the long queue and await my turn as a voter. I stood in the sun for greater part of the second half of the day when the mercury was reading above 43 ^C. But, again it was my fault. I could have accompanied my parents and cast my vote when it would have still been morning.

But, nonetheless it was a good experience. I was excited while I was casting my vote.I saw the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for the first time. They were pretty simple. The name of the contestant and the party symbol were there next to a button. All that one was supposed to do was to remember either the name of the contestant or the symbol of the party and press the button next to the one of your choice. The moment a button is pressed a loud sound will emanate from some where close by and the officials will tell you that you’ve successfully cast your vote.

All said and then, I must laud the efforts of the Election Commission of India. The entire thing was very well organized and managed. Kudos to them for completing this gargantuan task with amazing organization.

Lastly, I hope that I was part of the greater good – to vote to bring a difference to Indian Politics. I hope that I and all the informed people who voted have been able to do some good and may we see some change in the otherwise hopeless Indian political landscape in the 15^th Lok Sabha elections. Amen!

Friends

I’ve always thought of myself as a fighter, or rather a striver to be more precise. I’ve always put in a lot of hard work to achieve things. In the 27 years that I’ve been here I’ve learnt and benefited from my association with everyone.

My closest friend ever has been my knight in shinning armor. He taught and showed me that a person’s inner turmoil or difficult & seemingly unsolvable equations of life must never be allowed to be the cause of a frown on one’s face. I’ve tried to live like this for a long time now. Trying not to allow that frown to caress my forehead. I’ve been successful and then unsuccessful. But, I’ve tried nevertheless. And, feel proud to say that I’ve given it my best shot.

Off lately (the last couple of months) I’ve been under tremendous pressure on more fronts than I could possibly imagine and handle. And, needless to say that I’m trying my best to come to terms with them all and emerge victorious. Sounds gallant, ehh!! Lols!! But this is not what I want to achieve by writing this.

A rather strange but not entirely unforeseen turn of events has made me stop, look back, ponder, analyze. I’ve asked the rhetorical question only too often to myself “Am I doing something wrong here?”

A popular saying goes something like this ‘it is at times like these that the true potential of an individual comes to the fore’. When you are trying really hard, how often have you asked yourself, if for once you can go out unshackle yourself and shout from the rooftop, that ‘Here I am’, come and get me for all I care? But, then you don’t unshackle because so many people depend on you, so many people have hopes from you, so many people hold you in high regard. And you continue your battle or you “Live to die another day’.

At times like these when you can’t share things with your parents as you know they’ll never understand, you think of banking on your friends.

‘Friends’ in today’s world is an unsolvable conundrum, a paradox of sorts.

People who call me friends and whom I call friends are numbered. I’ve always lent my best possible ear to them. I’ve always thought of myself as a good listener, always trying to empathize with the ones that I like or would want to like [:p]. I know more secrets of people than they can possibly imagine. I’ve heard them rant and rave about nothing and everything; in essence I do this ‘cause I like them and truly feel for them.

I consider myself a man of few words when it comes to talking about me. I rarely give vent to my feelings, unless ofcourse when I’m too drugged. On one such occasion I chose to talk about the problems in my life that I’m struggling to counter and that too after a constant nagging by someone. And post that I was called a ‘sympathy-seeker’. This one day I was shocked and actually pondered over the events of the day to see if I’m indeed a ‘sympathy-seeker’ and the one to be blamed or has the ‘friend’ in picture misunderstood.

In the end I’ve realized that it was my fault, and I’m the one who needs to stand corrected. Aye aye Sir!

But just when I was closing the chapter, I did a peek-a-boo at the life of some close friends of mine. And what did I find? Surprise! Surprise! I found that almost all of them were struggling with vicissitudes of life. A close friend of mine broke up with a long time girlfriend and he didn’t even tell his friends. Instead he chose to write about it on a blog. Another close friend instead of talking about his love life wrote about it; again on his blog.

I found similar stories emerging out of closets of friends; in droves when I delved. It was then that I realized that the talk of the world in 21^st century as connected is all crap. It is not instruments/gadgets that can bring one to be truly connected. It is genuine caring and being there for friends for even the most simple and naïve of things that will make on truly connected with friends. I’ve realized this and will work towards being more connected in the near future.

So friends, watch out for me! :-)

Words

I was sitting in my room this summer and was cleaning my closet. It was then that i laid my eyes on this hardbound pamphlet with the title 'Words'. It immediately caught my attention and i quickly recalled that it was given to me by one of my elder cousins who is a big shot in a pharma giant in India.

I don't know what to call it, prose, poetry or just a couple of lines here and there sewn together. Whaterver it may be called i care the least, but all that i know is that this makes for a great read and gets you up and thinking in a jiffy. So here it is:

"A careless word may kindle strife,
A cruel word may wreck a life,

A bitter word may hate instill;
A brutal word may smite and kill.
A gracious word may smooth the way;
A joyous word may light the day.
A timely word may lessen stress;
A loving word may heal and bless."

And here is another one I found on the net that fits the bill nicely:

"We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation."

-- Florence Scovel Shinn Artist, Teacher and Author