Shantaram

Long back I read a book Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts . It follows the life of a convict escaped from Australia living in the slums of Mumbai. Living there he sets up a free clinic. He also joins to Mumbai mafia , gets involved into smuggling , drugs etc. He also forges passports. He works in Movies . He helps agents get find actors. He also joins the Mujahudeens in Afghanistan .
He has a mentor Khader Bhai . The conversations between the two is food for thought . The philosophy behind this story is great. The descriptions of characters and pace of this semi autobiography is really good. It gives peek into Mumbai, life in the slums and mafia there.

All in all , the characters described and their stories are surreal. Worth a read to find out different ways of life people lead.

Butter Chicken in Ludhiana

I just finished reading Butter Chicken in Ludhiana by Pankaj Mishra.
The author narrates his journey throughout small towns in India , from North to the South. It really gives a picture of how things in small town India has changed over the years.It also gives an idea of how attitude of people has changed . He travels from states of Bihar , UP to Rajashtan . He moves to the South close to Bangalore . Along this long journey he narrates some really good stories related cultural clashes, generation gaps and politics.
A must read for anyone interested to know about India

Bond with the Best !

A lot of things have happened in the past couple of months.

I finished my Engineering and now am working at Nevis Networks , Pune .
I recently got engaged to the love of my life , Leena which my family think was forced on to them as I am too young (just 22 you see) . The smiling faces in the album will surely not reflect this sentiment.

I now realize that , not being close to Parents has a lot of downsides. Firstly , they will never really know whether to trust their children in whatever decisions they make.
There is fear and doubt in their hearts when we take radical decisions on whether it will be right or wrong.For them this fear is rightly justified . The other side has another story altogether.
The kids think that , 'why can't the parents trust their decisions ? What are they scared of ?'

And What follows is an perfect recipe for disaster . Every one is right in their own position.
The problem is not even that . It is but obvious that everyone is going to have a view where he/she expects the other to be more compromising unless of course you are a saint.
The problem lies in the fact none of the sides are even bothered to understand what the other side is trying put forth. Especially when all have big Egos and big expectations .

So coming back to the main idea. Parents and Children all should realize that , living in an Indian Society , all their destinies are bound by the parent-child relation .
Strengthening it of utmost importance. A lot of us misunderstand this concept of strengthening this bond. Just by giving into all the wishes of any one be it a child giving into his parent wishes or vice versa will not strengthen it.
The key to strengthening a relationship is communication ( a lot of it) , understanding what the other is saying and showing confidence.

Eg . I wanted to go to Leh for a vacation with a group of friends. Instant reaction from my parents was no !!!. Without consideration or regard the answer NO !!. Why ?? Obviously I had to bully my way through ( as I always have done) . Every action has a reaction with equal if not more magnitude. Especially I am bound to be pissed , when my parents give examples of how this guy is not going or that guy listens . When the approach itself starts out to be negative , the results are bound to be negative .Then I am blamed to have used techniques of emotional blackmailing and all.This is a typical example of many that has severed our bond.

Fear and Doubt is going to be there in everyone's mind . But by showing obsessive-compulsive behavior , Are We getting anywhere?

Children should work more positively towards reducing this fear and doubt . While Parents should be willing to see other side and not be stubborn.

Communication is the key!!
Also the communication that takes place should be devoid of contempt , spite or ego . This is the most important thing .

The Parents should realize that in Today's World , Kids are more independent ( moneywise and otherwise) than ever and may never come back if they overly strict. Also by giving into their wishes all the time will only make them egocentric .

The Children should realize that , when they are going to be stuck in a soup the Parents surely are going to be there to bail them out.

We cannot have a World where all Ideas match , especially across generations (its more tough , believe me!!) .Thats Leads to Generation Gaps .
But we can surely bridge these Gaps by acting more understandingly and giving our egos a little break :) !!

Anti Reservation, Rang De Basanti, and Gandhi*, The Tipping Point, and the whole hoopla………

How come all these words go into a single sentence? Well let’s see.

Many News Channels are drawing parallel the scenes of the Anti Reservation (live and Media) which we see daily and from the block buster movie Rang De Basanti. We read it everywhere that Rang De Basanti has motivated the students. What influence movies have on kids these days (and we were thinking not to ban smoking in cinema, ;)).

My point is that, it is not RDB that created this mass hysteria all of a sudden, like Mahatma Gandhi did once.

All that Gandhi and RDB did is, become a catalyst. These protests are not against Reservation. They are against the Indian Government, their State government and even the local governance (Be it any political party) or any democratic organization. The so called democratic organizations do nothing or very little for the countries development and sometimes things which will hamper our growth.

Slowly it’s a builds up. How much will we tolerate this non-governance? How long will we keep quite?

Ultimately until when will the average middle class, who is concerned more about his family tolerate the nonsensical attitude of the government. ?

There has to be a limit, a Tipping Point (A good book by Malcom Gladwell, read it). Beyond this tipping point things are totally different as opposed to what was before it. Before the Tipping Point we tolerated to Government, did not bother about anything (or at least so it seemed). Once the Tipping Point is reached, we change completely .We come out on the streets, start protesting.

The Tipping Point was the tyrannical British Rule in 1920.

The Increase in the Reservation Quota was that Tipping Point in 2006.

That’s why the protests started in Delhi first and much later in Chennai. Obviously people are more dissatisfied in the Capital.

Now obviously when the Tipping Point was reached, we need to given direction. We are not like some of the parties, where we pickup stones, bricks etc and start breaking anything and everything in our way.

This is where RDB or Gandhi came into the picture and fix the jigsaw puzzle. They gave us the direction. They have given us the right path, where we can vent our dissatisfaction and the agitation within us. Both showed us the ill consequences of violence.

What is the path?

Peaceful protests!! .

This is quite Anti of what we expect. But come on we are students, regular people coming from regular families. What can we do? We are not some kind of superheroes.

So spreading the message, motivating people to get involved, organizing peaceful protests makes us none other than superheroes.

We needed another Gandhi for the Gen Next. What better medium than the cinema to give us one. We all know that Average Indian’s G K about Hindi Cinemas is more than about the country. Hats off to those guys who came up with RDB and also to the guy with the original idea, none other than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

RDB and Gandhi have brought out this heroism in us, which we never knew existed. And these heroic acts are going to make India a great Nation some day.

entrepreneurial India

Entrepreneurship in India



Indian Stock Markets are rising. IT and ITES (BPOs d’oh) are bringing money into India. Foreign Institutes are investing heavily. Is it a sign that our economy is on the rise? Is it a sign that we are going to catch China one day?

Firstly, the main question to ask is, whether India is self employed or not?
We have our Nation’s youth working BPOs which provide services to citizens of foreign nationals. We change our names from sameer to Sam, worse we even change our accent, so that those dumb witted Americans can understand we are saying. Not only do we work at odd hours but also have suffered racial abuse more often than not.
People say fine, if the money is good we should be able to tolerate all such nonsense.
Moving on to the IT industry. Very few Companies actually are setting up research labs in India. Most of the companies again are just expanding into India to hire cheap labour (read: so called software professionals).
Labour sounds so demeaning doesn’t it??
Well, we are not quite the architects. We just do, what we are told!!
The design part is done by the Main Office in US; we are just required as masons who follow the plan.
Most of the people, I have met quite frankly don’t even care. They are just happy to work in those “posh” offices and carry a payload back home(which is at least twice /thrice more than what they would have earned , had they continued pursuing their actual career read: mechanical, civil etc).

Obviously, being slaves cannot be that bad can it?? It took 150 years, a half naked guy and a dozen of revolutionaries to awaken people and realize the need of freedom.
Now we have lost that “awakening”. We only see it in movies. Watching movies like “Rang de Basanti” is not an awakening!!!

Enough of lecturing one will say. What is the worse that can happen?
We already have seen it. Any guesses?
What was the main agenda when Dubya visited India? Nuclear Deal right.
We want nuclear sanctions to be removed. Who the fuck is US, to decide whether we can generate nuclear power or not? Tomorrow, if we don’t cooperate with the US on anything, instantly the US Congress may ban all BPOs. Then what will we do?
Once the BPOs go, so does the “posh” offices, so does those “swanky” cars and then we will see which direction the economy goes.


The need of the hour is to empower ourselves. We need to go from being the slaves to being the master.
We need to create an entrepreneurial India. India claim to fame is that, we produce world class software developers. We don’t need these guys to go and work in the back offices of Microsoft to prove that. What we need is to make these guys entrepreneurs.
Look at countries like China, South Korea and Taiwan. They are leaders in the semiconductor industry. In the magazine I read, it stated the “if you throw a brick and it hits somebody in S.Korea that person is bound to be manager of his own firm”. People there say, government did not support them; they were self motivated and competition among themselves made them rise.
E.g. look at Hyundai, it started only 10 years back and now has a market worldwide. Other examples are Samsung, LG etc.
Even Tatas and Ambanis don’t have a global market. The work done by Mittal and Narayan Murthi is very commendable. Where are we lacking .We are smart, hard working and have all that it takes. We need to wake up before India becomes a puppet to US. Although the government is asleep, and it may never wake. It is time to take to India’s destiny into our hands.
Look at the marvadis , they are so good at doing business, may be even better than MBA guys . They should stop their kirana stores and start thinking big . I am sure they will succeed.
IIT have already started something known as “incubators”. Here IITians are provided support (finance, technical as well as infrastructure) within the IIT campus itself . Once the company starts taking shape, they move out of IIT and pay IIT back. I loved the concept a lot.
According to a report, in the next 20 years India is the country that is going to have the maximum population within the range of 20-40 years. We should take advantage of the situation.

The future is bright for India ………entrepreneurial India

WISE and not so WISE

I just finished reading WISE and other WISE by Sudha Murthy . It is just a bunch of simple stories written by the aforementioned during her travel through various parts of India .

Some of the stories tell us that people are the lower end of the society have a right attitude towards life than people who are the upper end !!
Why is this so ? But it is very true . I know people who have come from the worst situations , struggled a lot and have achieved great things than people whose condition was not all that bad and suprisingly still the same .
What do some people have that others lack?
The most important thing which i would say is positive approach towards life !!
Dont get me wrong u have to be a realist , but with a positive attitude .
I , myself was a victim of this negativism until i was shone the light !
Being positive not only helps u but the others who work for . It brings a whole new energy in you .
Once you taste success , u will never want to quit (atleast in my case) . We keep on trying more and more to maintain what we have and to achieve more .
Once , we start trying ofcourse we will make mistakes .
As I see it , there are two phases to mistakes in life :
1> Realising that we ought to change
2> Then actually changing .

Some people like never realise or never want to realise that they are wrong why ?
Egotistical attidude ofcourse !!
It really kills !
Even after realising that we are doing something wrong , people find it difficult to change !
Ofcourse it is a one day's job !
It takes time , a lot of time ! It is a struggle and there is lot of pain but at the end believe me it is worth it !
What i have learnt is that the ONLY THING PERMANENT IN LIFE IS CHANGE ! If we dont change explicitly we are changing implicitly .
The former is under control , while the latter is the devil .

People always say life is unfair . Ofcourse it is unfair , it is in our hands to make it fair !!
And only we can make it fair !
There is no blame .

Life itself teaches a us lot of lessons from which we can learn . This learning is based on experience which no self help book , no study book etc which teach .

Last but not the least one of the most important leasons in life :- Believe in yourself .

Ayodhya .......?

Well , another Bomb blast in India . This time it occurs at the place where the whole nation (BJP , Advani , RSS etc) is fighting to build temple Of the Great Lord Ram.

BJP blames the Cong . Cong blames the Mulayam Singh Govt and it goes on . What they forget to appreciate is that the CRPF(hope i am right) actually managed to avert the attack .

A great round of applausble !! They suceeded in kiling all the terrorists .

Where is their momemt of glory ! snatched by the constant bickering between BJP , Cong etc.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was right when he said that BJP was playing cheap politics.
The politicians go on to hog the limelight .
All the BJP leaders want to go the Ayodhya . Why do they want to do that ,now ??
Are they going to help in the investigation ? NO ,by far .
They just disrupt the investigation process . How ?? When they arrive , special security has to be given to them . The Human Resource wasted in providing security , were actually solving the case !!!!

A point to note : Kudos to the people of Ayodhya for acting very calmly and not causing any sort of chaos .


Then BJP goes on to call a nationwide strike . Has the BJP ever realised( when in power or not)
how much loss the Nation suffers just due to one day's strike ?
Even just shutting down Mumbai for half a day will cause the nation to lose something in crores .

What does going strike do ?
Not only does it weaken the economy but it also weakens the strength in the people giving terrorist outfits more encouragement .
Take the London Blasts for example. The people were shakened but nobody went on strike .
The next day all of them went to work with more strength and devotion , showcasing that they are not weak , not beaten but more encouraged .


Shouldn' t the BJP take a leaf of their book !!
We should work with twice the zeal , twice the motivation and twice the determination.

The Whole IT-India Fiasco

We , all hear about the India is going to be a leader in IT and Stuff . Its economy is going to shine and things like .!!! Lets get some things straight !!
India is leading in BPO or ITES ( IT enabled services) . Here US /UK companies are outsourcing their businesses .
Considering from Comp/IT/Software Engineers what does this mean ???
Nothing , They mostly need people in testing and related areas .
Its like while building a structure , they are the architects and u r the masons .
We max get to give color of our choice to the room...or select type of windows .
Mostly test the strength and structure of the building.

Well Not much of R&D , involved is it now ???

When it comes to using our brains , scope is limited !!!!


But there are still some companies that r into R&D but very less.....

So related people should open their eyes ..... US needs labors and we r providing them.

When it comes to Economy , yes India is fourth after US , China And Japan in GDP
India is shining but not everywhere !!!

Our gap between cities and villages are growing . We have a lot of potential but are not harnessing it .
If the village-city , rich -poor gap starts reducing and awareness starts growing only then is there a way for India to rise on its own and not because somebody needs Cheap Labor .

Firstly education system needs a major change .
Private Engg colleges charge 30,000 to 40000/- Rps p.a Who can afford that ? Not That the quality is very good !!!!

How can an average Indian Afford so much fees ??
We need a socialistic approach towards education not Capitalistic !!
Nowadays Educational Institutes are just behind earning money and thats it !!
We have wrong attitudes at wrong places !!
Let me tell u that reservations is not an answer ..it just worsens the problem .
How do will solve the problem ?
Colleges say Govt Subsidy/ Funds are insufficient . Govt says
That they r now focusing on primary education in villages . "Babudom" rules and all the money goes into their pockets .
They use this money to pay for their childrens' education who r going to these same colleges by giving donations !!!

What a viscious circle it is, isnt it ?
How do Break the circle ???
I believe we the new generation have the potential .
Remember "Swades" . If all such engineers could help building a dam ( solve some problem voluntarily ) , we could achieve something . It may not be to a very great extent but eventually it could lead to something great .