In 2006....

I Wish for

a little more peace
a little more friendship
no natural calamities
no man made calamities
more empathy
less apathy
two square meals for every hungry mouth
two less worry lines on your forehead

a smile on your face when you retire to bed

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

What Kind of Rocker are You?

You Are an Emo Rocker!

Expressive and deep, lyrics are really your thing. That doesn't mean you don't rock out... You just rock out with meaning. For you, rock is more about connecting than grandstanding.

What Kind of RoCker are yOu

Dance

Dance - a form of expression, a stress buster, a group activity.
I have often observed in college parties, office parties and other places people and their dance. I can classify people in the following categories-

1) Enthusiastic dancers - These people are just waiting for the music to start. They start moving their feet (two left or right) at the start of the party and continue till the end of the party. If it were not for these dancers, the party would have never kicked off. Here again there are the first movers and the non-first movers. The non-first movers are equally enthusiastic about dancing but do not want to hit the dance floor first. As soon as there is some crowd in the dance floor, they make their move.
2) Good Movers - These dance enthusiastically and well and are the life of the dance party. They might just intimidate the not so good dancers with their cool moves.
3) Not so good movers - They really don’t know the 'Right steps' but are pretty enthusiastic bring life to the party and dance throughout.
4) Wannabe pulled dancers - There are a group of people who do want to dance. They are standing in their place and tapping their feet, but are either too shy to go to the dance floor or need a bit of cajoling and persuasion by the others to hit the dance floor.
5) Stiff feet - They stand far away from the dance floor hoping never to be pulled to the dance floor

So which group do you belong to?

When People become Strangers

Why is it that so often in our city when a person is murdered in his house; the next door neighbours come to know about it three days later, that too because of the stench of death.
Are we moving towards total isolation?

In today's age of Chat, SMS and virtual gaming, we are losing touch with people in 'real time'.
Chat sure expresses everything but slowly but surely people are going to find real time communication difficult. Surveys have proved that people are increasingly becoming better at non face-to-face communication and avoiding real meetings.
Have you see the offices today? People are there much beyond their working hours. Yes many are really working but many are sitting in office, as they have nothing to do going back to their homes. They surf; they chat they read. Should they not be meeting real people?

People are increasingly using SMS to break up a relation!!!?? How can a relation..something so Real so full of emotions be broken by a text message. Are we scared of facing reality?

Kids are supposed to be playing outside in playgrounds and parks not sitting in front of a PC. Yes it does improve hand eye coordination, it improves logic but this is of no use at the cost of a healthy childhood.

One theory suggests that increased use of the Internet leads to loneliness. Today we are using the Internet so much that it can lead to psychological disorders.

It is said Man is a social animal. I hope we do not get into the trap of too much of technology that this statement becomes irrelevant.

Run

I ran and ran and ran...Maybe these are too many 'rans' for a 4.5 km marathon. But for someone like me who does not really have the habit of running nor any strict fitness regime, so many 'rans' do qualify.
It was organized by the Rotary club in aid of cancer patients. It was for a good cause and I wanted to see if I was upto a run like this.
I am glad I did something for a good cause and am happy that I was able to complete the race. I was huffing and puffing within 200 m of the race and I thought I will never make it. But with a combination of running and brisk walking, I managed to cross the finish line.

HIGHLIGHTS
There was a lot of participation for a good cause on a SUNDAY morning
There were many participants in the Under 18 category.
Many elders (over 45) had participated and most of them completed the race.
It was pretty well organized.
I completed the race :)

True Story

Me : Typing username in the application developed by my company. The username I am typing is 'xxxxx' .

Colleague: Wow! How did you encrypt your username ??!!

Smile :-)

Q. What do you call a mallu kid who sticks his nose into other people's business?

A. Pokemon!!!!!

A mail sent by Dean IIT Madras

Dear Friends,

Here is a personal experience, as well as a moment of national pride, which I want to share with you. Hope you find it worth the time you put in reading it :"In the middle of 1965 India-Pakistan war, US govt - then a close friend of Pakistan - threatened India with stopping food-aid (remember"PL-480"?).

For a food deficient India this threat was serious and humiliating. So much so that in the middle of war, Prime Minister (Late) Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Ram Leela Grounds in Delhi and appealed to each Indian to observe one-meal-fast every week to answer the American threat. As a school boy, I joined those millions who responded to Shastriji's call. I continued the fast even when the war was over and India became self sufficient in food. Hurt deep by the national humiliation suffered at the hands of the US govt, I had vowed to stop my weekly fast only when India starts giving aid to USA. It took just 40 years. Last week THE day arrived. When Indian ambassador in Washington DC handed over a cheque of US$ 50 million to the US govt, two plane loads of food, medical aid and other relief materials were waiting to fly to the USA. Time to break the fast? With no bad feeling about the USA, and good wishes for the Katrina victims, this humble Indian feels proud of the distance India has covered in 40 years. Let's celebrate a New India!"

iRoNiC

Ganesh Chaturthi celebrated ardently by all communities
Increasing demand for community based housing colonies

Page 3 parties till wee hours of the morning
People going back to their homes in far flung suburbs after a hard day's work late in the night

People eating and wasting food in squeaky clean 5 * restaurants
Children searching for food in garbage bins

Affluent families having one car for each member
Commuters fighting for every inch of space in local trains

Flooded roads during the rains
Long queues made daily by people to get water.

People extending a hand to strangers in adversity
People watching and just walking away from accidents and crimes

India Unbound

I was not very fond of reading books with economy and/or history as the subject. But this book has opened my mind to that genre of books as well...

India Unbound - Gurcharan Das

It is an interesting mix of his personal life, the country's economic, Social and Political Environment from his boyhood days till he became the chairman of P&G
The book is interspersed with little anecdotes like his meeting with Galbraith, his grandfather's view of the British Raj leaving India, Nehru's charisma, the lady in the village who had an innovative way of using his company's product.
He has given a vivid account of the liberalization process and the people involved in it.
There is also a narrative on the current economic progress of the country and his opinion of the current and future economic environment of the country. He has also written about the IT boom in India and compares it to the Industrial Revolution in Europe.

This book definitely qualifies as a 'Must Read'. Once you have finished the book, you can and would want to glance through the book once in a while.

My result. Check out your Matrix Persona!!



You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Skewed Ratio

India is happening now. The Sensex is soaring..reaching new heights. India is the hot destination be it investments, tourism or Business Outsourcing. Our music, movies, art and culture are being embraced worldwide.Our economy is doing well. People have much more disposable income in their hands. Indians are spending a lot of money.

So is India really shining? I do not think so...Unless the women are treated on par with men in the society, the society has a lot of catching up to do before we can say India shines.India has a dismal sex ratio. The more appalling fact here is that the sex ratio has gone down from 972 to 1000 in 1901 to 941 in 1961 to 933 in 2001. It is sad that this downward trend is taking place in light of all the development and progress in the country.

Recently a movie depicted society with scarcity of women. Some might write off the movie saying it is too unbelievable. But that could be a possibility if we do not stop girl infanticide and foeticideMind you, this does not happen only in the rural areas. It is as rampant among the 'Educated' urbanites.The government has come up with a lot of initiatives in terms of women and girl child development programmes. Many corporate groups have also initiated programmes to elevate the status of the girl child and for empowerment of rural women. But unless there is an awakening among the general public, these programmes will not have the desired effect.
Is education the answer? I am not very sure. Female foeticde is rampant in the metros all over the country. Obviously these people have some level of education. How much can you educate people?? People have to realize from within that she is not a 'curse'. They have to realize that it is a crime to indulge in such cruel activities. There has to be an integrated social awakening to the fact that injustice is meted out to the girl child and that it has to be stopped.
We should change our mindset towards women.

Next time, let us not frown at the birth of a girl in our family (near or far).
Let all the parents give the girl children the same love and affection and take care of her needs just as they would take care of the son.
Let us encourage her to get an education and seek financial independence.
Let us not treat the girl as a burden that has to be passed on in marriage for dowry and marriage expenses.
When a girl is getting married into our family, let us not expect nor accept gifts in cash and kind. These things are definitely not rocket science and can be carried out by all.
But I guess human greed and evil in the garb of tradition ingrained in the society for a long time thwarts the awakening.

Sania Mirza

SANIA MIRZA - the name is everywhere..she is the topic of discussion. It is nice to know that a sports person who is not a cricketer and a lady is grabbing all the attention from the media in our country.
But she is not getting attention from them for her game of tennis alone.
She is getting attention from the media for her T-shirts (!!), nose ring her not so long skirts and the opinion that her 'Looks' are suited for Bollywood. The more news going around about Sania, the more I realize that these things are given more coverage than her forehand and backhand.

I think we should give her a break. She is 18..and will dress up as normal 18 year olds would.
She cannot be expected to be in sweatshirts and track pants all the time just coz she is a sportsperson.
She cannot be blamed that she looks attractive. Who said good players should be ugly??
Corporate are blamed for giving sponsorship/advertisements ONLY to cricketers. Now that Sania is getting advertisements, the media has concluded that she gets the advertisements because she looks attractive and not because she is a sportsperson. Sportspersons have a short career. They have to make the best use of it as long as they give their game top priority.

I am sure if Sania were a male tennis player, such things would have never come in the picture.
When people talk about male tennis players, most of the discussion is on their tennis, and not on their looks or shorts! Let us allow her to concentrate on her game and do the same from our part.

Hi!

I am Vidya put up in Mumbai working in the IT industry and enthusiastic about sports like volleyball, tennis, cricket, athletics.
I love travelling, getting to know people, reading, adventure sports, rock music
I am content in taking each moment of life as it comes rather than thinking and/or planning of the future.
I believe in Live and Let Live

First Blog

Finally I have created my own blog. Have been reading quite a few blogs over the last 3-4 months.I want to write professionally some day..maybe this blog is a start.