Every one, every where is talking about candidature of NaMo (Narendra Modi) as next PM of India. I though let me give my 2 cents [as if my opinion matters :)].
As I have always maintained (read my earlier blog here), good governance is not just about being non-corrupt or patriot. It's about capabilities.... about being smart and innovative in handling both - politics and development.
A couple of examples of good but not-so-capable persons:
- Nehru: I truly believe that Nehru was someone who had good intentions for the country but was pathetic when it came to capabilities and vision.
- Manmohan Singh - Definitely has good intentions for the country and is non-corrupt. He is even capable for development work. Where he fails miserably is at handling the party politics. He is just not capable enough to handle it smartly such that the party (read Gandhi's) allows him to work for development of the country.
Now some positive examples:
Lal Bahadur Shastri: After the death of Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri became India's PM. He died after just 18 months of becoming PM. During these 18 months, despite having to face a war against China, he brought Green Revolution in the country. Before his rule, India was heavily dependent on US/UN aid for food. He laid the foundation for India becoming self-reliant for food in very short period of time. He also attempted for de-licenseraj... some thing India could achive only in 1992.
PV Narsimha Rao: I would not bet high on his capability for development work but he had really smart brain to handle party politics. He partially made up for his in-capabilities for development by bringing in people like MM Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Chidambaram, AN Verma. It required shrewd political skills of PVN Rao to pass the reforms through parliament. Remember, reforms meant cutting the powers of all the MPs by introducing de-licenseraj and hence taking away their opportunities in making money (black money, of course). To get these ministers approve the reforms meant convincing them to cut their own wings. It took hell lot of smartness to achieve this. How Rao went about achieving this is a whole new topic... may be in some other blog in future.
Narendra Modi: Now, coming to the 'title topic' of NaMo (Narendra Modi). He symbolizes a perfect combination of the capabilities I have emphasized upon. The capability to handle both - politics and development. He comes up with really innovative ideas. (Example, Solar energy through Narmada Canals - http://youtu.be/NJ6kUjIv83E. Also read his other speeches on development ideas).
I am not saying that he is the only capable politician for development. After all, we still have MM singh, Ahluwalia, Chidambaram etc in the government who, I feel are, really capable for development work. The problem is they are not smart enough to handle party politics to do this development work. In fact, I feel they are investing all their energy in handling only the politics. Handling politics diplomatically is certainly important and is absolutely essential but the issue is they are investing all of their energy only for politics. Development has been pushed somewhere in the backyard. Are they handling politics well?.... it is a debatable topic!
NaMo has handled both quite effectively. Remember, it is not just inter-party politics that they need to handle. Intra-party politics is equally important. He has been smart enough in projecting himself as the PM candidate without he himself speaking. He has very aggressively focused on development work because of which others have started projecting him as PM candidate and other PM candidates in BJP are also compelled to praise him!
However, he has to win 2012 Gujarat elections. It doesn't look like he would lose it but if at all he looses, doors of PM candidature will close for him, at least for 2014 election.
In my personal opinion, best PM candidate for NDA would be Nitish Kumar who has good image for development and doesn't share non-secular image with NaMo. But obviously NDA's PM will be coming from BJP so he is out of question.
For NaMo to be PM in 2014 following things are important (in order of their complexities):
- He has to win 2012 Gujarat elections
- No unfavorable results in the communal violence case against him in Trial court till 2014.
- Image makeover to a secular leader.
Regards,
Sarang
Got this question from one of my friend who normally asks me about stock market and investments [and I follow his excellent photography]. Thought I would post my reply here in blog!
Question:
Sarang,
Again same question for you..... any large caps worth buying now? Market is crashing... right time to buy? Should I invest 50% of my target investment?
Right now I have: Coal India, RIL, SBI, Infosys
My Answer:
I would say hold on... don't buy anything right now.
IT is absolute NO NO.... SBI, Coal India and RIL are good. Some more are - HDFC Bank, L&T, ONGC, Airtel, BHEL.
If you want to buy, put max 10-15% right now amongst these large-caps. (strictly not more than that)
None of these stocks might go up in next few months but these largecaps may not fall too much from here (relatively, that is) So buy slowly if you want to.
Best time to start buying would be once market goes below 15000 and I think it would go.
I am mentally prepared for 12000 within next year or two - It can be in two months or two years, can't say but by 2015 we shall once see 12000 level, in my opinion. (may be, very aggressive opinion)
Best bet right now is Gold ETF. Buy "Benchmark GoldETF" [GoldETF is same as stock. It would go up down based on gold prices.]
Declaimer [:)] I am aggressively buying gold. I've sold about 15-20% of my stocks in last 2-3 months. I was expecting this fall. [I have been expecting this fall since 2009 :)] and am putting that money in gold. I have invested more than 40% of my money in gold right now. [started buying a year ago - so I am in about 30% profit :)]
My expectation is that gold will reach 35k-40k in next 2-3 years... by 2015 I mean.
(I sold all my IT stocks in rally after 2008 recession and haven't bought any IT stocks since then as fundamentals of US economy has only degraded since then with all the stimulus and all.)
Cheers,
Sarang
Age - 1 year!
Almost 2 years and exactly 1 year has passed respectively since I added the posts to my blog "
Age - 7 weeks" and "
Age-15 mins".
True... we are living in quite a fast paced world. The last year seems to have passed by in a flash and at the same time it feels a lot has happened during last one year - Daksh's birth, he started rolling over, started eating with spoon, started standing on four legs, started sitting up, started eating solid food, started crawling, started standing with support, started walking (and running), spoke his first word.....
There would hardly be anything else where you would truly enjoy a hectic life and wakeful nights! :)
Happy-Happy,
Sarang
પ્રેમમાં ખેંચાણ છે - ‘મરીઝ’
‘મરીઝ’.... Galib of Gujarati-Gazals.... The depth in the meaning of his gazals is just awesome... sometimes I wonder how is it possible to scribe emotions so gracefully in just few lines.
પ્રેમમાં ખેંચાણ છે, આવી ગઈ શ્રધ્ધા મને,
એ હવે કહેવાને આવે છે કે ભૂલી જા મને.
કૈંક ખામી આપણા આ પ્રેમનાં બંધનમાં છે,
છૂટવા માટે હજી દેખાય છે રસ્તા મને.
હું તને જોતે તો દુનિયાને પછી જોતે નહિ,
તું મને જોતે તો જોતી થઈ જતે દુનિયા મને.
થાય ટીકા આપની એ પણ મને ગમતું નથી,
હો પ્રશંસા આપની તો થાય છે ઈર્ષા મને.
હાથમાં આવી ગયું’તું એમનું આખું જીવન,
હું હતો ગાફિલ, નહીં દેખાયા એ મોકા મને.
આ સતત અવગણના એની મહેરબાની છે, ‘મરીઝ’,
ધીમે ધીમે એ કરી દેવાના બેપરવા મને.
Age - 15 mins :)
I wrote a post with title "
Age 7 weeks" about 7 months back and this time it's "Age - 15 mins". That post was about the age of the fetus and this one is about the age of my baby boy :)
After kind of an 'action packed' day, suddenly we heard the sweet voice of 'cry'. Probably this is the only moment when one would be eager to hear 'the cry'.
I was not allowed in the labor room (males were not allowed!) but, we were not even expecting the baby to born at the time when it did.
Docs had given time of about 10pm for the delivery. At 7pm, when docs took Dimple in labor room for checkup, we didn't expect that in about 40 mins time we'd here the baby's voice :)
In the midst of little bit serious environment, there were a few funny incidents. I can't describe all of those here in writing but one - [Rest, I'd talk about when we meet in person :)]
My mom was in labor room and she told us about this one -
After the baby was born, first question Dimple asked the doc was - "Is he tall?" :))
Doc laughed and said normally ppl ask if the baby is fair or not... this was rare question he heard :) [And BTW, doc has experience of more than 30 yrs. So I'm sure this would be really rare ques. :)]
As the answer to the question, doc hanged the baby by his legs and told Dimple - "Have a look yourself... he is tall indeed." :)
I have put the snaps of my baby in my orkut and facebook profiles.... Snaps of Age 15 mins and Age 1 hr :)
Happy-Happy, Very-Happy,
Sarang
Blog - Finance & Economy
If one thing I can consider as the 'gain' for me of the global meltdown, it certainly is that my interest in the field of finance and economy got converted into passion!
I started thinking about in and out of ruppe/dollars!
Got interested into understanding the fundamentals of economics.
I was thinking of starting a blog on finance fot somtime.... and this time I thought of going for Wordpress.
Following are couple of blogs on economy and realestate....
Finance: http://toplinebottomline.wordpress.com/
Pune Real estate: http://puneestate.wordpress.com/
Luv Olweiz,
Sarang
Age - 7 weeks
I was looking at the monitor.
My wife asked me 'Do you see anything?' I said, "Yes."
She asked, "What?" I said, "Don't know.... can't understand anything!' :)
Probably the doctor understood what we were talking. He turned the monitor so that my wife could also see it. And then he started explaining it.... Amongst all the medical jargons, one that drew attention was the fetus. The doctor pointed to the fetus... a small dot on the monitor.
Then he zoomed it and I could see it pulsating! The doctor increased the volume and we could hear the sound of the pulsating dot.... the heart-beat of the 7-weeks old fetus along with seeing cardiogram on the screen!
It was an experience.... especially as I was not expecting to see heart in the sonography of 7 week's pregnancy. Learnt later that heart develops withing 3 to 4 weeks itself!!! :)
Happy-Happy,
Sarang.
India's poor government - due to politicians?
Hope of a changeI was expecting some +ve surprises in this 2009 LokSabha elections in india.
During last 4 years we have seen many awareness campaigns to bring more and more voters out for voting.
If Pune's voting percentage is anything to go by, I certainly have got surprise albeit negetive one.
(Actual) Percentage Of VotingIn pune, the voting percentage was about 40%, lowest in last few elections.
Going by no of voters, Pune has about 18L registeres voters and out of that, about 7.5L voters turned up for voting.
Now that might be 40% of the registered voters but certainly even less of the total population.
According to WikiPedia, Pune's population is about 50L. Out of this, I presume there should be at least 35L people eligible for voting (age > 18 yrs).
So, going by the total eligible voters, hardly 20% people voted.
At all India level, this number may go upto about 25% but then, is it enough for a successfull democracy?
To aggrevate the problem, most of the educated population of the country is on the other side of the fence. They fall into the 75% category.
If we want to consider all these points - we are doing pretty well with respect to the kind of irresponsible population we have!
Do Indian people really deserve democracy? I feel 'No'!
No voice of educated people - They simply don't vote!During this 2009 elections, one of the parties came out with the menifesto saying they will do away with english and computers if they come to power!
Most of my friends and colleagues, most of the news channels and most of the people I did chit chat with about this topic, critisized this move of that party.
But I certainly don't think anything wrong in the move by the party!
Not that I support the content of the menifesto, but then the simple question is what drove that party to come out with such a menifesto?
They did so because they feel it will win them votes! They feel voters would like it!!!
Who is to be blamed then? Certainly the voters... the people of India!
The party very well knows that educated people will critisize this menifesto but anyways they are not going to come out and vote!
There is no value of the 'voice of educated people' in India as the voice doesn't get converted into votes!
No options - who to vote for? - Here's the answer....Most of the persons (infact everyone!) who doesn't vote will give only one
excuse - "Who to vote for? There are no good candidates."Well, I agree that not many of the politicians are good but then people of India need to accept that for the moment, choice is between
'Bad' and
'Worse' - not between
'Good' and
'Bad'. We need to choose the 'Bad Candidate'.
For example, if you have to choose between two
bad candidates and education is the parameter, choose std-5 pass candidate over std-3 pass. Slowly the parties will realise that to win votes, we need to field educated people and believe me... they will!
Polical-Parties will do anything to win votes! Well, in turn it means, we can make the parties do anything if they want to win our votes - provided the vote exists!
Politicians don't perform their duties properly - really?The common complaint people have for politicians is that they don't perform their duties properly.
Now let's compare - Their duty is to run such a mamoth country. Accept it or not, it is relatively tough duty to perform.
I said relatively tough.... I meant, relative to the duty we have -
duty to vote. Do we perform our duty - NO!
(In today's scenario voting is no more just a right... IT IS A DUTY!)
Turn around - how?Go by simple calculatio I gave above. Hardly 25% of the Indian population votes.
If all educated people come out for vote, they will easily negate teh effect of these 25% people.
They can completely turn around the result.
Politics is a voter driven IndustryIn corporate world, we daily use this statement "It is a customer driven industry".
On similar lines, "Politics is a voter driven Industry."
Electronic companies noticed that a music player like iPod sells big time and all companies came out with their versions of iPods..... If a political party realises that an educated candidate sells (gets elected) big time, all will come out with educated candidates!
The likes of Meera Sanyal need to get elected.... that too, WITH A BANG. Parties need to realise that educated people do exist in India!
To summarize - Is India's poor government due to poor politicians?
No - It is due to the not-so-responsible people of India.
Common sense is uncommon
Well…. To start with, it is
common sense to define the meaning of ‘common sense’ before I start speaking more on this topic :)
According to me, ‘Common sense’ is the simplest of the solutions to the problems we face.
Do we really always take simplest approaches to our problems?
I think ‘No’.
We normally get bogged down by our inhibitions, our prejudices and may be our intelligence which keeps us away from the common sense.
It certainly makes common-sense to have a look at some examples –
First example –
On more occasions than not, our common sense gets overpowered by what others have to say. Let’s take an example of ‘marketing’…. How marketing makes us avoid our common sense.
I will talk about two of the toothpaste products prevalent in market – Colgate and Babool J
If you have to choose one toothpaste out of the two, it is common sense to try out both and decide which one suits you the best. Or to go one step further, to check ingredients and decide which one we should choose.
But if I ask everyone suiting here which one you will choose, more than 2/3rd persons will name Colgate even without trying the other one.
Simple reason being Colgate has been marketed so well for so long, it has created a node in our minds…. We call it ‘Brand’. Even without checking merits of the other products, simply driven by the branding, we will choose Colgate.
A clear example of avoiding ‘Common sense’ due to the marketing and branding done by the product company.
Another example –
We all know the cold war between US and Russia for ‘command in space’.
As we know, there is no gravity in space and hence our normal ballpoint pen doesn’t work in space. The ink inside ballpoint pen needs gravity to flow down. And hence, in absence of gravity, it doesn’t work.
US spent multi million dollars to develop a pen that can work in space, even when there is no gravity.
And Russia’s solution – They used pencil.
A clear example of ‘common sense’ being avoided (by US) due to ‘intelligence’…. by technical evolution!
Sometimes, it is important to rest all the complexities and think straight to arrive at the solutions…. Solutions by our ‘common sense’.
Where would I be after 5 years
I had discussion about this topic with my wife as this was given to her for free-speech, essays etc during her training. I wrote this from her point of view. Proffessional aspect is the only one where I may have difference, apart from that it is pretty much same for me as well :)
Where would I be after 5 years
Well.... to start with, life not always goes exactly according to our plans but then planning certainly gives a definite direction to our life.
The planning starts with ours dreams and aspirations.
I would like to talk about some of the points I can think of immediately for next 5 years of my life.
There are different aspects where I would describe myself 5 years down the line:
One being Professional life -
As I have just joined this job, I would like to grow in my professional life to the best of my potential by giving my best to the organization. I visualize myself as an efficient leader in terms of execution and planning as well in terms of knowledge.
Talking from personal point of view -
I visualize continuation of my happy family life may be with addition of one member in the family :)
Apart from these two major parts of life, I would like to have travelled some of the locations I want to travel - few of them being Kerala, London and Swiss.
On hobbies front, I would like to take up professional coaching in painting - something I have been thinking quite sometime now.
Well... as I said, these are my thoughts about my life after 5 years and I feel the aspirations are pretty much down to earth and possible.
I would like to conclude my speech/writeup on the optimistic note that the world will still be good enough place for a peaceful life if not better. I hope I would be living in a much greener world where terrorism will be a word used only in history books and not in the day to day news.
Thanks you....
How's that :)
Election 2009 - Congress menifesto
General Elections are around the corner and this is definitely a point of debate for ppl.
I will put down my personal preferences for the election -
For me, it is very clear that there are only two parties in India. I strongly believe in voting only for either BJP or Congress. That will spare the country from hung assembly and only a stable government can do something good for the country.
As such, no party (of the two mentioned) is GOOD but then, "
The choice is between BAD and WORSE, not between GOOD and BAD. We have no option but to choose BAD."
I will put down my analysis for both the parties -
BJP (NDA):Purely looking at the development of Gujarat ever since
NaMo has taken up the CM Job, I will vote for him without any doubts in the state elections.
But when it comes to center, I get a bit suspicious about voting BJP.
One major reason being I have serious doubts about unity within BJP. Whether they will be able to sustain the government for 5 years is a question. They seem to be having so many internal issues that it is a bit doubtful if they will be able to manage NDA, especially in absence of A.B.Vajpayee. I belive that Vajpayee's strong image was one factor which made other parties feel that they will have to hang around to be in power.
Congress (UPA):I personally have good enough respect for some of the persons in teh cabinet. Especially Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram.
Also, I feel that UPA hasn't been all that bad in last 5 years. At least, there is nothing that UPA didn't do and NDA would have done had NDA been in power.
But certainly UPA has done one things, which would have been avoided had NDA been in power.
The reservation fiasco -
UPA's decision to push reservations in IITs and other Elite institutes was totally wrong decision.
I read their menifesto in today's TOI and again I found these points!
Two of the points in Congress menifesto were "Reservation in Pvt sector" and "Reservation for muslims in education and jobs."This is rediculous - I am not completely against reservation but there should be a limit. We should gradually reduce reservations. New reservations - be it any cast or community - should be out of question.
Until I read the menifesto in today's TOI, my vote was in favour of UPA.
But now I am very positively thinking about NDA. Just to reduce chance of such a reservation.
Luv Olweiz.
Life Analysis
I was going through some of the old posts on my blog today and found this life analysis that I did 2 years back (Mar '06).
Tried it again todya and got this result.... not bad :)
Life has improved in almost all the sections! :)
The Old one is here -(http://sarang333.blogspot.com/2006/03/life-analysis.html)
Scotland trip
Will write more about the trip later [Not that you will be interested in reading :))] For now, link to some of the snaps of the trip.....
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarang.anajwala/ScotlandMyCam?authkey=XPmeo8uADvs
Luv Olweiz,
Sarang
Back to UK
Had to fly down to uk urgently. Was told abt it only before two days I had to fly.
Just a short term trip this time.... Will return to india in 1st/2nd week of April.
Many of my friends here [Nirmal, Sunil - to name a few :)], took a little longer to recognize me.... bcoz of my hairfcut! :)
They had seen me last with that long hair so may be, they could not digest my Gentleman-look(?) with short hair :)
Some appreciated & some criticized my act of coming back to human-society [:))] but I certainly do miss my long hair.... At times, I shed some tears by looking at some of those snaps....
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarang.anajwala/LongHair?authkey=whk5zsMsFfYLuv Olweiz,
Sarang.
For last 3-4 weeks I have been in this state of 'Main aur Meri tanhai....'
I have been spending most of my free time at home, in solitude.
Had even stopped watching movies in threatre. Before a month i was used to watch 2-3 movies a week whereas i watched hardly 2-3 movies during last whole month!!!
[BTW, today i saw back to back 3 movies in theatre!!! :))]
Well.... No specific reason as such.... May be just a little mood-swing!
Or may be bcoz again I am feeling that urge for reading/writing tech blogs. During all these days, I have been reading a lot, as I was used to do - before I came down to uk.
Wrote a few posts on my tech blog, wrote a few posts on my personal blog - including the short story and travelogue of Swiss-Trip.
As my time of returning back to india is coming closer, I guess it's good to go back to tech blogs. Going back to bglr will mean again going back to that dynamic tech environment!
The environment here has been relatively passive. Obviously, I am longing to go back and hopefully the wait is not gon'na be long now..... :)
[The story might look a bit over-matured writing for my age. Got the idea about the story from one of Jhumpa Lahiri story (A temporary matter, Interpreters of the maladies) and one of Naseer Ismaili (Gujarati Writer) story. This is not at all a copy of those stories[not even inspired by :)]. Just the concept was taken, may be, under the influence of those stories. Needless to say, It's purely a work of fiction.]
The Appointment
Mahek was talking to someone on phone and was writing something on a piece of paper. She was in hurry to leave for office. She went in the room to take her purse, said bye to you and rushed for the office. Having stayed back late last night, you were going to leave a little late for office today. After sometime you noticed that she forgot that piece of paper near that phone only. You could read, “Dr. Shah – 5.00pm”
You wondered why Mahek has taken an appointment with the doctor. For last whole week you have been too busy with your work and hence you could hardly spend any time with her during these days. This was not happening for the first time though. You both are in software industry for almost a decade now. A tight schedule around project deadlines is part of your lives and both of you have developed enough understanding to cope with this lifestyle.
You called Mahek on her cell and she disconnected the call, which meant she was busy in some meeting. You left for the office. It is 11o’clock in the morning and your car is sailing smoothly on the road - You are using the accelerator more than the break unlike everyday when you leave at 8 in the morning.
You reached office, checked your mails and the mail from your onsite counterpart about successful deployment of the system ensured that you will not have much work today except routine meetings in the afternoon.
Just before lunch time, you got a note from Mahek informing she won’t be joining you for lunch as she was going to be busy in a meeting. She also informed that she might come home late today. You didn’t get a chance to talk to her and hence could not ask her about her appointment with doctor. You thought it will be better to talk to her in the evening.
You reached home at about 6 in the evening, made tea for yourself and came out in the drawing room. You started searching for the TV remote and your eyes fell on the photograph of Mahek, on the same cute smile you fell in love with, which as usual, prompted a smile on your face. You switched on the television and first thing you saw was Nida Fazli, your favourite poet, reciting his gazals. You started watching this program and there came one of your favourite gazals; something, that took you about 5 years back in your life.
* * * * * * *
That day when you went to Ashi’s desk, she was explaining some technical stuff to her friend. You listened to Ashi for a few minutes and then interrupted by reciting this poetry of Nida Fazli,
कभी कभी युं भी हमने, अपने जी को बेहलाया है;
जीन बातों को खुद नहीं समजे, औरों को समजाया है.
It was immediately followed by a chuckle from Ashi’s friend, Mahek and that sweet smile caught your attention that day.
“What’s so funny about it?” roared Ashi at Mahek. Ashi frowned at you and before you could talk to her, she locked her computer and got up from her seat to leave. “Hey Ashi, Wait.” you said. “We will miss our bus, Bye…. Will see you tomorrow.” She left and you laughed out. This was routine reaction of Ashi whenever you teased her.
Next day, at lunch time you asked Ashi, “Hey, who was that girl? The one who was with you yesterday?” “Hmm…. Why you are asking?” she asked with her devilish grin. “Nothing serious…. Just found her cute, you know!” you replied. She laughed and said, “So??? Are you expecting me to help you flirt with her?” “Hello ma’m!!! I just asked who she is!” – You argued back. She laughed again and said, “I know you very well, Mister” She paused for a while then said, “She is Mahek, my roommate. But sad news for you – last night she left for a two-week training.”
After this day, quite a few times Mahek became a topic of light hearted discussion between you and Ashi. Many a times Ashi tried to pull your leg. It was before a couple of days Mahek was going to come back from training. You got a mail from Ashi saying “Hey Ishaan, Forgot to tell you at lunch time. It’s Mahek’s birthday today.” You mailed Mahek wishing her for her birthday. Mahek replied saying, “Thanks for the wishes Ishaan. Ashi informed you, is it?” You forwarded Ashi’s mail to her, in reply to her question.
By that weekend Mahek was back from training and Ashi had planned a trekking trip for the weekend. You were least interested in going but as usual, Ashi dragged you into it. It was group of 5 people in trekking including you, Ashi and Mahek. You and Mahek were walking together and rest of the persons were walking ahead of you two.
“So…. How was your birthday? Party-sharty?” You asked Mahek. “Nothing big, a small treat to friends – that’s it.” She replied. “Actually I was wondering why Ashi mailed you about my birthday. We hadn’t even met properly before.” She looked at you with a grin, expecting an answer from you. You laughed and said, “Well…. You want me to tell the truth or is it ok if I lie?” She laughed back and said, “Let’s see…. First tell me what you will say if you want to lie?” “Hmmm…. I will say, you know, Ashi is mad. You never know what she will do” you replied and she laughed out.
Both of you walked for sometime without talking. Then suddenly she stopped, looked at you and asked, “And what’s the truth?” You looked back at her, smiled and started walking again. Again, both of you walked for sometime without a single word being spoken. You said, “The day you left for training, I asked Ashi about you.” “About me? What did you ask?” She asked. “Nothing much. As I saw you with Ashi the day before, I asked who are you and all.” You replied. She asked back, “So?” You were sort of dumbfound, “So nothing…. May be that’s why she mailed me about your birthday. And as far as I know Ashi, she would have told you all this – everything I asked her about you and all - right?” It was her turn to get jumbled now but before she had to answer, Ashi came to her rescue. Ashi shouted, “Come on guys, you two are too slow. We are waiting here for both of you.”
That was beginning of a new relationship between you and Mahek. After about two years of courtship, you and Mahek got married.
* * * * * * *
It was already 7.00pm. You again remembered Dr. Shah, the appointment at 5.00pm. You got up, took that piece of paper again, read the same words again, “Dr. Shah – 5.00pm” You flipped the paper and noticed that it was visiting card of Dr. Shah, the gynaecologist and obstetrician.
After that you went to your bedroom and on Mahek’s drawer you saw a couple of books on childbirth and pregnancy. You were pleasantly surprised, “Is Mahek pregnant? But then why didn’t she tell me?” You picked the books in your hand and something fell down from the books. It looked like a cover. You picked it up and opened it. It was a greeting card. Next day is going to be your wedding anniversary. Now everything is getting cleared up in your mind. Mahek is planning to give you a surprise on your anniversary. It’s been 3 years you and Mahek have been married. You both have been waiting for the ‘good news’. Before some months you had taken the fertility test, something that Mahek doesn’t know, and the reports were normal. You could never gather courage to ask Mahek to go for the test just out of the fear that you might end up hurting her.
You decided not to mention anything to Mahek about her appointment with the doctor. You decided that you will let her give you the news. It was good that your anniversary was on Saturday and both of you will be having whole day to spend with each other. Unlike everyday, you woke up before Mahek today. You prepared tea for both of you. It took 3 efforts for you to cook ‘good’ breakfast. Not that you never cooked before or that your first two efforts were bad, but today you wanted everything to be ‘the best’. You yourself were feeling that you are behaving in a childlike manner. When you went to your bedroom with tea and breakfast to wake Mahek up, she was surprised to see this sudden change in your behaviour – positively, of course. She replied to your ‘Good morning’ with ‘Happy wedding anniversary’. Huh…. You smiled and thought - Even this time you missed out on being first to wish anniversary.
You were mentally prepared for her to break the news. You were anticipating it any time. You decided to prepare lunch today. Unlike other weekends when Mahek was used to prepare lunch and you were used to help her; today you were preparing lunch and Mahek was helping you. It’s just that ‘the helper’ was playing more important role in this case and may be that was the reason that the food was good enough to eat.
In the evening, you both went out for dinner. You had already planned for a beautiful evening together. This was not very unusual for Mahek. It was something you did every year…. rather on every possible occasion but she could feel a difference in your behaviour this time.
On the other hand, you were getting impatient. You both reached home at about 11.30pm and just when she started planning to go to sleep, you couldn’t hold back any longer. You asked her, “Mahek, you went to see the doctor yesterday?” “Yes” she replied. You waited for sometime expecting her to say more. “Is everything all right?” “Yeah everything ok” she replied. She took a book in her hand and started reading it as if she was trying to avoid the topic.
The situation was becoming highly frustrating for you. You snatched the book from her hand, she looked at you and you raised your eyebrows as if you are waiting for her to elaborate. “Ok ok, it’s just that I didn’t want to inform you so early.” You thought the long wait is finally over. “I took an appointment with Dr Shah for Ashi. As Shishir is out of town, she wanted me to go with her. She is pregnant and she wanted to inform this to Shishir first, once he comes back next week. After that she was planning to inform this to everyone.”
“But what about those books in your drawer? Those are not yours?” you asked. “Ohh that. They are also for Ashi.” She laughed a little and said further, “Why would I need those books? I am not….” Her voice trailed. Suddenly she stopped and looked at you Ishaan. She could clearly see your face agap with utter disappointment. Now she realised what was exactly going on in your mind and now she could relate this whole discussion with your today’s behaviour. There was a silence in the room for what seemed like an eternity. You both drifted off to sleep; rather you both tried to pretend to be asleep. Turmoil was going on in your minds. It was almost an unbearable feeling for Mahek.
But there is one thing you are not aware of Ishaan, that just like you, Mahek had taken ‘the tests’ a few months back and the reports were normal for her as well.
One more thing you both are not aware of is that you are hardly a few days away from the long awaited ‘good news’. The ‘life’ has already taken shape and it’s not going to be long before it announces itself. It is just a matter of time before both of you come across one of the happiest days of your lives....
....Link to My first Short Story - The Diary[Of course, Comments most welcome :)]Written By,Sarang Anajwala.
It's 1.45am.... not at all feeling sleepy and nothing else to do. Was getting extremely bored and suddenly felt like writing one....
So here it is -
मीलें हैं युं आज, बाद बर्सों की जुदाई के;
है लब्ज फ़ीर भी दबे दबे, ईन अश्कों की पर्छाई में.
- Sarang
[लब्ज - words]
[अश्क - tears]
Well..... This was gonna be my first leave at work in last 8 months - and I am sure I made best out'ta it!It was a 3 day trip to Switzerland.
I hope this travelogue will help you plan your itinerary, especially if you are planning a similar - 3/4 day trip.
[For others... I think, this will be a bit boring :)]
Click here to see some of the snaps of the trip....
Day 1:Left from UK by easyJet flight @7.35am GMT. Reached Geneva @ about 10.30am Swiss-time (9.30am GMT)Geneva:Bought a "4-day Swiss Youth Pass" from Geneva airport. You can use any train or bus in whole of Swiss for 4 days using this pass. (It comes to around CHF 190 if you are below 26) (At some places you have to buy tickets but you get discount if you have this swiss pass - one such place is Jungfrau)Went to Geneva main station from Geneva airport by train.I had two bags with me - one, my laptp bag and second, bag with my cloths and all. I forgot my bag of cloths in the this train during this journey from airport to main station. Remembered after about 15 mins but it was too late! What a start of the trip....!!! :-)I contacted infomration desk at railway station and they informed me how to report lost baggage via internet. (Haven't found it yet)At Geneva, we went to UN Office which is about 15 mins from station. (Tram no. 13 or 15 from station)Geneva to Interlaken:At about 12.30pm, We took train from Geneva to Montreux.We reached Montreux @ 1.39pm and at 1.45pm, took Golden Pass Line from Montreux to Zweisimmen. It was about 2 hr journey.From Zweisimmen, we took Golden Pass Panoramic train to Interlaken.The whole path from Montreux to Zweisimmen to Intelaken Ost is a scenic journey, especially lush-green landscapes and natural beauty.Day 2: Interlaken:
We had our first night stay at FunnyFarm, Interlaken. (Booked through www.HostelWorld.com)A decent hotel for about £25 per double-room.We reached 'Interlaken Ost' at about 5pm. Spent some time at Co-Op (dept. store) near railway station. Especially I was interested in buying some sweater or some warm cloths as I lost my thermal wears in my bag. But could not find anything useful.Hotel was about 15 mins walk from station. Had our dinner at McDonalds and slept at about 8pm. I was feeling very sleepy as I slept hardly 2 hrs previous night. Moreover, we had to leave early morning next day.In winter, it is must to start your day early as it gets dark by 4pm.Interlaken - Jungfraujoch:We took 7.20am train to the peak Jungfraujoch, the top most point of Alps and also the whole of Europe. And while going up, we took the route Interlaken-Lauterbrunnen-Wengen-Kleine Scheidegg-Jungfrau and on return took another route Jungfrau-Kleine Scheidegg-Grindelwald-Interlaken.Jungfrau was simply awesome but we heard that there was another peak called Schilthorn which is much better than Jungfrau(!!!). However, we couldn't go there as it was closed at that time.If you are planning a trip to this place and if Schilthorn is open, I would suggest you to take the route Interlaken-Kleine Scheidegg-Grindelwald-Jungfrau to go up.You need to go to Murren to go to Schilthorn; so while coming back, you can take Jungfrau-Kleine Scheidegg-Wengen-Lauterbrunnen route. From Lauterbrunnen you can go to Murren and from Murren (via cablecar) you can go to Schilthorn. And can come back via Schilthorn-Murren-Lauterbrunnen-Interlaken route.It's about 2.30 hr scenic journey from Interlaken to Jungfrau. Also you will end up spending some 3 hrs or more on the top. So overall, Jungfrau is about 8 to 9 hr journey. If you plan Schilthorn, it should be additional 3-4 hrs I guess..... But it's all worth! :)Also, you need to buy a ticket for the journey from Interlaken to Jungfrau(or Schilthorn or any other peak there). It's some CHF 80 ticket (after 50% discount on your swiss-pass) which covers trains to all the peaks from Interlaken.And yeah, Do not miss Ice palace at Jungfrau :)Lucern:We left Interlaken at about 3.30pm/4pm and travelled to Lucern, again by Golden Pass train. It's about 1 hr scenic journey.Lucern was like a posh city. (I found it even better than Zurich.) We had our booking at Hotel Alpha - again, booked through HostelWorld.com. This was relatively better hotel for almost same rate as funny-farm.That day we had Foundue - a Swiss item - in Dinner. Off different types of Fondues, we had Cheese Fondue and chocolate Fondue (dessert foundue). I guess being in Swiss, foundue is a must have. Not that it was extra-ordinary in taste (it was good, for a change), but I liked the ambience of the restaurant, the way foundue is served and the way it is eaten.Day 3:Lucern - Mt. Pilatus:Next day (Monday) morning, we left at about 8am, knowing that Cablecar to Pilatus starts only at 8.30amFrom Lucern railway station, we went to Kriens by local bus (about 10 mins). Kriens is the stop in Lucern from where Cablecar for Mt Pilatus starts.The cablecar from Kriens to Frakmuntegg takes about 30 mins and from another cablecar Frakmuntegg to Pilatus-Kulm takes about 5 mins.There is one more route to reach Pilatus-Kulm, via Alpnachstad. You can go to Alpnachstad via lake-cruise and from there to Pilatus-Kulm via cablecar; but again, at that time this route was closed.We spent about 3 hours on Pilatus-Kulm and came back via same route.Again, tickets for the cablecar, which came about CHF 40 (after 50% discount on Swiss-pass), are not totaly covered in Swiss-pass.We came back to Lucern at about 1pm and headed for Zurich but I think you can plan to stay some more time in Lucern. Mt Titlis is said to be better than Pilatus but, that too, was closed at the time we went. (However, we didn't have enough time to cover two peaks at Lucern.) If you have enough time, there is one more peak in Lucern called Mt Rigi that you can visit.Zurich:It's about 2 hr journey from Lucern to Zurich. We reached Zurich at about 3.30pm and roamed around for a couple of hours for shopping.We had flight at 7.30pm from Zurich to London.
...And that was the end of a great trip but I am certain that I will not let go any opportunity to visit this place again.Luv olweiz,Sarang.
Today, I was chatting with a friend and she asked me meaning of my name.
This is not first time someone asked me this and as there is a list of meanings, I thought I can blog it down.
It was during my training time in Infosys (during my first 2 months @ Infosys)....
One day I received a mail with subject '
Hi Sarangs'.
It was mail from one of the Sarangs in Infosys. He searched all Sarangs' mail addresses from directory and sent mail to all of us asking for the meaning of the word 'Sarang'.
I don't have that mail handy right now but some of the meanings that we shared in that mail-conversation are,
1. Sarang is one of the 1000 names of Lord Vishnu
2. Honey-bee
3. Deer
4. A courageous person - someone with brave heart
5. A raaga of Indian Classical music (generally sung in the evening, not sure though)
6. A peacock (Sanskrit)
7. In Malaysian, it means 'nest'
8. In Korean language, it means 'Love'
Declaimer: All meanings are correct to the best of my knowledge. :)
I was going through some of my old mails for some information and found this mail....
The 'Bid Adieu' mail I wrote to all my friends on my last day in chennai (when I was xferred from chennai to bglr)
Hi Friends,
So, at last this day has arrived….. My last day in Chennai DC. :(
Sooner or later, this had to, isn't it?? It won’t at all be possible for me to forget the wonderful time I had here in Chennai for it was a pleasure for me to be with people like you. I'll take this opportunity to wish you good luck and prosperity in whatever you do, wherever you go.
Nostalgia…is a very good thing to happen in our lives…..it'll stay with us in our minds forever till we live.
For me there are some very precious memories of Chennai that I’ll cherish through out my life…… Especially, as I came to Chennai with really “worse then hell” view of Chennai and I’m leaving with one of the best memories of my life.
Will never forget these tamil lines....
Tamil teryade, (The first Tamil line I leant… and of course, most important one too)
[= I dont know Tamil]
Vanakkam, [= Namaskar]
Ena da, [= How are you?]
Unna, rand, moon, naal, ancho, aar, ezu, ett, umbhod, Patta. [= one two three....]
UnnaUnna(11), UnaRand(12), UnnaMoon(13)…… Noor.(100)
Rombh rombh Nalla payya [Me :)] [= Very very good boy]
Rombh Rombh Ketta Ponnu [= Very very bad girl :)]
Rombh Rombh Toonka vardha. [= I am feeling very sleepy]
:)
Finally, its time to bid adieu to all of you. May God shower his blessings on you with all the luck in the world and make you very successful in your future endeavors. Looking forward to meet you people whenever I get the smallest of opportunities.
Thank you so much for giving me a wonderful time in Chennai….. Bye..Bye..
Luv Olweiz,
Sarang Anajwala
"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."
Something more I wrote about my chennai-memories....
An old one... this time in hindi.
इक मौज उठी है साहील पे, उन साजों के तरन्नुम से;
जुम्बीश् सी जगी है इस दील में, उन होथों के तबस्सुम से.
- Sarang :)
[tarannum - tune]
[tabassum - smile]
[jumbish - movement]
Back to thoda sa 'Ashiq Mijaaz'..... :)
सोचा ना था हुस्न उन्का, कुछ इस कदर ज़ुल्म ढायेगा,
तीश्नगी बनके, मेरे तसव्वुर को यु सतायेगा.
- Sarang [:)]
[तीश्नगी - thirst, longing]
[तसव्वुर - imagination]
How's that?
Surat - on the banks of river Tapi....... 'In' the river Tapi!!!
A blog of my friend has portrayed the condition of Surat with some justice -
http://mukund.targetit.net/index.php?entry=entry060811-142934I got all the information over the phone from my parents. As he mentioned, only idea (of my mom) was working. Hutch and Airtel mobiles of all my relatives were impotent.
When I talked to my mom on phone I realised how severe the situation was/is.
Surprisingly, the media was busy showing 3 hour reviews (twice a day) of movie - Kabhi alvida.....
There was no water in the area where my home is located (bhatar road) but many of my relatives are going through tough times..... very tough times.
So far I was used to consider Modi's government to be an efficient government. He has done gud work in last few years but has failed miserably this time. At the same time Keshubhai Patel [his educational qualification as per my knowledge is std. 4 (pass or failed not sure)] is busy blaming modi and praising himself for visiting a couple of effected areas of the city.
I do not expect government to be GOD but at least they can be humans!
I hope the SMC is efficient enough in its post-flood actions.
As per what I read in Gujarat samachar, already 85 deadbodies are found... of course this is an official number!
Check out some of the snaps of this flood....
http://www.actkid.com/2006/08/11/snaps-of-flood-in-surat/These snaps are ofrom the areas where the water-level was NOT too high.
Rander, adajan (areas on the banks of the river) are affected the most but no snaps available for these areas...!!!
Today only got this link to WikiMapia from a friend.
Tried searching different homes where I have stayed so far -
1. Surat - My home - 'HARSHARANG' bungalow. (
http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=21167845&x=72815554&z=18&l=19&m=a)
2. Chennai - Chandra Flats, Adyar. (
http://wikimapia.org/#y=12996822&x=80259601&z=18&l=0&m=a)
3. Bangalore - Could find only SLV hotel/Ragigudda temple in the map.
Somehow I feel nostalgic about chennai the most, amongst all the cities I have lived in so far (except my hometown of course)!
I have stayed in quite a handful of cities during last 3 years but the memory of chennai is a bit special!
All those names - Sollinganallur, Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur, Besant nagar, Vannandurai bus stop, Nungambakkam and many more.......... All looked so strange when I first went to this city. It was all together a different experience of life.
That exteremely hot n humid atmosphere, scarcity of water, shortage of hotels that provide quality north indian food and at the same time all those beautiful beaches (especially the Elliot/Besantnagar beach near my home), Tharwad Keralite restaurant & its "mor-curry", that 50 member strong first project - FTTP, all the friends I made there, start of my cooking extravaganza, Weekends at Sathyam theatre, Punnu da Dhaba near Infy, The tea-group (me, Abhi, Bobby, SL, Neema), Daily nightouts in that second project - continuously for more than 6 months, all those pretty-pretty delhite gurls [:)] and many more!!!
There are so many special moments of those days.
I was just trying out WikiMapia & found the home where I used to stay in chennai and that triggerred the thought of writing this blog!
That 1 year of my life will always remain close to my heart!
- Sarang.
I am watching 'The Unfaithful' right now.
One perticular scene gave me thought of writing this blog.
Had I been in India, I would have thought that I would write this blog whenever I will be sitting on net. The beauty of being here in UK(equipped with a handy lappy and broadband connection) is that whenever I get a thought of writing a blog; I just sit back, log into my lappy, open '
Flock' and start scribbling.
Anyways.... back to the main topic -
Apart from the scenes in the movie that a 'Normal human being' would like; I liked few more things. To name a few........
Olivier Martinez's hair style,
Sensual looks of Diane Lane, The conversation between betwen Richard Gere and Olivier Martinez (there's only one!), Richard Gere's acting - especially right after he kills Olivier Martinez.
As I mentioned, one of the scenes of the movie tempted me to write this blog.... it was none of the above.
In one scene, Erik Per Sullivan (Gere and Lane's 9/10 yr old son in the movie) wakes up at night as he pees in his pants!!!
Well..... Erik peeing in his pants was no way important to the story. Even if he'd have not peed in his pants; the movie would have been Hit. It's just that the scene reminded me of my childhood! When I was a kid, I was used to....... :-))
I thought it's Gud enuf a memory to blog-down....... :-))
- Sarang.
Blogged with
Flock
How 'HowStuffWorks.com' works???
I have been knowing this site for long time....
If I can remember properly during my college days I had fair enough interest in participating at paper presentations contests. During those days, this site was a great help.
After that, I sort of lost touch with this site. Many a times I came across this site but was not used to use it as regularly as in those college days.
Just a few days back I added RSS feed of this site in my Google Home page and now I am again checking it regularly.... well, almost!
As my first interest in today's tech world is Web2.0, I tried browsing through this site for Web2.0 content.
I found one interesting article saying 'How MySpace Works?'
I am just wondering how does this site collect all the content. This is a Web1.0 site - as in, users do not contribute in providing this information. (As per my knowledge - I might be wrong!)
Well..... but then i thought why should I make assumptions... let me find it out here only!!!
I searched for "How HowStuffWorks works", to my surprise for no results!!!
Now doesn't it sound weird that the site that provides information about soooo many 'stuffs' doesn't provide info about itself!
Anyways, I found out through some investigation (?) that they have authors to provide all the information. But still, I had to use my mind for this! I would have luved if the information was readily available on this site! (Demanding customer I am!)
All said and done - All in All, It's a great site.
- Sarang.
technorati tags:Site
Blogged with Flock
Well, Well.... after a long time!!! :)
Na jaane kyu soonapan hai, jaha.N ke iss anjuman me;
Zindagi kuchh yu, mukhtasar hai; waqt ke sust daaman me.[anjuman=assembly/meeting of a group]
[mukhtasar=abbreviated]
Wait, wait guys.... it's as usual.... just a shayari, nothing serious.
Don't think too much over it - like why i wrote, what it means n all....
There r things I luv to do without any reason.... Will do it just because at a vague moment I will feel like doing it!!!
Poetry is just one of those things. I don't push myself to write one.
If you put me in a poetry competition, I may fail miserably - but then DO I CARE???
Not at all.....!!!
I surely think that this one doesn't look gud enuf... you can definitely make it better if you find some more suitable words!!!
Luv Olweiz,
Sarang.
Over to UK
It was under process for long time - my UK trip.
After many changes in plans -from 1st april to 24th March, from 24th Mar to back to 1st April, from 1st April to 8th April, from 8th to 15th April.
Finally I flew on 12th April.
During the weekend, We - me n my roomies - went to London. (I am living abt 100 miles from London).
The snap in my previous post is of my Visit to Madam Tussaud's wax museum in London.
Check out my snaps of the London Trip....-Sarang.
Gratefulness is a stupid emotion
Read this article in last week's TOI.... Ram Glopal Verma's(Bollywood film director - My fav.) words....
Times Of India writes: On Antara Mali
Antara said she had decided to move away from the Factory. I don't know what she meant. She was never under a contract to act in or make a specified number of films with me. She was free to go anywhere.
On trusting new talent.
As I've said before, I don't expect them to be grateful to me. I'm not a grateful person myself. Gratefulness is a stupid emotion. I've too much happening in my life and career to bother about these things.
Read full article on TOI....- Sarang.
Life Analysis
Analyse ur life!!! :-)
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