Half Lion: How PV Narsimaha Rao transformed India

I remember pout face of PV Narasimaha Rao during my growing up years. For us, at interiors of Punjab, life was usual during 1991-1996, but little did I know that I myself reaped benefits of 1991 reforms when I got a job even before I completed my studies. I confirm the huge gap between the life before and post liberalization ( may be not immediate post reforms ) and am a witness to how middle class has expanded over the years and how many families moved from lower middle class to higher middle class with their kids earning the salaries, their parents could only dream of. Hard work was always there, but India was lacking opportunities and 1991 reforms provided exactly that. A perfect example of goveranance, where government enables the economy to grow, but doesn't the keep the tight control. I am and should be thankful to PVN Rao for what he did during his era as prime minister.

I had always heard about 1991 or PVN Rao/MM Singh refoms, but I wasn't aware that how these reforms were brought in with sheer will power, intent and vision. Political atmosphere wasn't conducive, as it almost never is, but champions do navigate through the challenges and don't just wait for the right moments. PVN Rao had his own mouse moments as explained in the book and he was, no doubt, power hungry and more dedicated to Congress, probably, than the nation. He was no messiah. Messiahs hadly survive in Indian politics.

I admire the man more for his positives than criticize him for his negatives. He could have just survived 5 years with temporary solutions and rolled back reforms when economy was in better shape, but he decided to stick to his reforms and thus changing the Indian politics forever. It was good to know more about Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, India's nuclear programme and many other important milestones in India's modern history through this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who was born in 80s or 90s for sure as they would be able to relate to many of the events that happened during their childhood, but they couldn't appreciate the significance of those at that time. I am happy that I read this book. I learnt a lot and carry with myself a lot of lessons about leadership, conviction and divine intervention.

I am also sad to know how PVN Rao was treated during his last days, not even receiving a respectful and deserving departure/funeral. Sonia Gandhi could be resentful to him as he had tried to rise above the Gandhi family in Congress, but other Congress leaders should have shown a spine. Full respect for MM singh for standing with PVN Rao even when no Congress leader wanted to associate himself with Rao. History will treat Rao generously and it is high time, Congress should also appreciate their former leader.

Anywhere But Home: Adventures in Endurance

I just finished reading this book 'Anywhere But Home: Adventures in Endurance' by Anu Vaidyanathan. This has been an easy, pleasant and a very casual read. It was really refreshing to know that an Indian woman can go to such great heights in an endurance sport. Being a very amatuer runner myself, I am a bit exposed to endurance sports. So, it really surprised me that Anu took so many international travels, just to run/swim/bike in another country, not to mention hassle of carrying her bike along. I have been wondering about the financial implications of this hobby as well. I would never take my hobby sports to such an extreme level, but then that's why I am reading the book and Anu is the one being celebrated in the book. I would recommend this book if you are looking for a motivation to go many steps further in your endurance sports journey. I am impressed, but I may not try ironman myself. I don't think I am such a strong-willed person.

Though I enjoyed reading the book, I was looking for some tips or tried/tested ways that help you survive or prepare for ultraraces. During the whole journey, I kept looking at information that I could use during my runs, but I don't remember any such take-aways. With such a grueling schedule, back-2-back races, I was also expecting a chapter about Anu nursing an injury and then overcoming that (which never came).Probably she was injured sometime, but it is not mentioned in the book. I am not sure how she prepared her body for such extreme ends and what diets helped her. She also didn't follow proper sleep schedule and still aced these marathons. Iron-lady in true sense.  So, don't read this book if you expect to learn some insights about how ultra-athletes champion the ultraraces.

I was inclined to leave this book mid-way, but somehow pushed through it, which I don't regret.

Starting this journey to write about the books I read. Thanks Anu Vaidyanathan for being the first.

Ghar Wapsi....

I can't believe its close to seven years now since i last wrote anything on my blog. In fact, i had completely forgotten about it. I was searching on Google to read something on travel when it suddenly struck me that dude, even i had a blog place. I had written some posts as well and at that time, i was quite proud that i am writing something. I believe it goes a long way to make you feel good about yourself. At least, it makes me feel good.

Going through my blogs that i had written in 2008, i see i was quite a confused soul. I think i am much sorted now Or may be tired Or may be more content Or just lazy..

Life has been beautiful in these last 7-8 years. Looking at first post (almost 8 years ago), i see I accomplished many things I wanted to do.

This post is just to remind myself of the joy of writing. 2015 is calling & I promise myself to write frequently next year. I am going to maintain this blog like a diary where i write my thoughts/perspective about things happening around.

So, its definitely a 'Ghar Wapsi' for me. ( Not to be confused with some outfits' infamous Ghar Wapsi  converions)....

Cafeteria

One day in cafeteria while sipping a cup of coffee, I wondered about the three most exciting things in cafeteria: Samosa, TV and carom board.
Samosa – Soft corner for samosas and delivered results have always strengthened my belief that “One samosa a day keeps the code bugs away”. Samosas are loved by everyone. So, it supports the most valuable core value ‘Respect for the individual’.
TV – Cricket matches and TV has helped Accenture to inculcate the three most important core values in its employees, ‘Best People’,’ integrity’ and ‘ One global network’.
Carom Board – Employees polish their skills by carom board games and efficiently deliver the critical core value ‘Client value Creation’. ‘Stewardship’ automatically comes into picture when they take the ownership of completing two games in ten minutes.

Hmmm...

Hmm..Its the end of financial year for me and I am feeling a lot of things as the things have just appraised me for what they have felt for me during last year. Their silent hard feelings have just kept my mind boggling and I am back at my space to feel that I also owe some space in this big world. Yess..its my space, my world,my letters, my sentences and everything but do I have a say in all this??..neah..Again I am convinced with these sweet lullabies that moon is mine..No, this is not my space…strange??.Do you have any space that belong to you only??..neah..not possible…No human being has his own space.i feel that only ghosts have their own space. Yess..They do have…Although grass is always greener on the other side..But I am convinced that ghosts have say in whatever they do…Obviously they will have..after all they are become ghosts to say their say only..

My latest aspiration these days is that I want to become a GHOST..infact a nice wala ghost..i have already thought about lot of things to do as a nice ghost.
Things are there but only priorities need to set…that’s the most important part..
I will do that soon but one thing I am pretty sure of is that I wanna be a GHOST.
So, here I request God ( or the concerned person ) to click the ghost checkbox for me….jaldii.i desperately need this…

Excursion Unleashed....

It was an active (strange??) Saturday morning on 7th April, 2007. I woke up from bed as if I was waiting for the day. In spite of sleeping late on night before, I was quick to raise my head on 7:30 in the morning and instantly the day before promise came to my mind.” Mohan is supposed to call by this time; he must have forgotten”. By that time I was crouching down with my cell searching for Mohan’s name in last dialed entries. “Hey man Mohan, where are you?” Then, suddenly a screeching noise crossed my head.”ohh….Shuckss…Mohan is in bus”. Then, thought of doing my daily morning chores without any dilly-dallying. “Don Theme playing somewhere…ohh…it’s my phone ringing…Mohan is calling”. Mohan intimated that he is at Majestic and will reach at desired pick up place within 45 minutes. (I was supposed to pick up Mohan from Dairy circle and then proceed to BNP while meeting other mates in the way…That was the plan).” Thank God, Mohan called and I still have more than half an hour…Enough time to get ready for a bachelor. I proceeded at comfort pace and left my place at right time to pick Mohan and leave for BNP for the voluntarily planned jaunt by Roche people.
Now, we should meet our fellows
First call to Nitin: Guy is sleeping and saying I will be ready to go within half an hour.
Second call to Parul: Girl is saying”Tum log itni jaldi pahunch gaye”. I guess we were on the agreed time. Anyway I got to know by that time that we have done a mistake by complying with agreed time and need to think something to pass time.
Then some calls exchanged and it was confirmed that we have not followed Indian traditional rituals by coming on time.
Fabmall, my old rented house etc passed our time well and we did not feel like bored. Mood was pretty bright and we left for the BNP.
It was nice to drive bike on empty roads and weather seemed pleasant for the picnic.
It was half an hour drive and we reached BNP, stood in front of main entrance for at least one hour while waiting for big guns ( Menka rocked) to arrive.
Long wait, Auto wala menace, rising crowd, new persons in our group and new faces around made our morning and at last we took tickets for ‘Grand Safari’.
Plan executed well and we entered the main entrance. Our food got transferred to paper bags from plastic/polythene bags as an effort to preserve wild life effectively. I liked the step taken.
No long queues, not many people, guys in full zeal and we entered ‘Grand Safari’. Like good guys, everyone had taken the back seat available and group was sitting together to see ‘Shers’ (lion).
Firstly, safari entered the ‘Deer zone’ and guys were already into belly laugh.
“joke pe joke, comment pe comment” it was like everyone is in full form. Although there were some new guys in group, but everyone was so mixed up like they have known each other from many years. This first round gave me the ‘college trip’ feeling and I was looking forward to great memorable trip.

Our ‘Grand safari’ then entered bear zone though a perfect gate locking system. Those dirty fellows (bears) were an excitement to see. Bears seem pretty frustrated with heat around and ear-tearing clamour happening in our bus. It was not only the bears who were frustrated with spoiled noise-making north Indian guys; it was also our beloved dude yanky uncle who was abusing us within from last 25 minutes. We left ‘bear safari’ to enter ‘Sher Safari’ and then the ‘BEST’ part of trip happened.

Guys were screaming like anything. Everyone was in full joyous mood. Full party mood. Some joke, we laughed so loud and then then then, lava flowing inside uncle at 2000 ‘C reached its threshold level, lava start flowing from Uncle s stomach to lungs to throat to uncle s mouth and then volcano erupted and we heard a real roar from Uncle s heart “HE HE HE….KABSE TUMHARA HE HE SUN RAHA HOON..KAAN PAKK GAYE HAIN”. (Guess that was nature s conspiracy to show us real Shers ‘HUMAN BEINGS’). Uncle screamed with full his effort and we were able to hear that this volcano has really gone through lot of heat. Everyone stopped laughing. Silence prevailed. Sensing that, two chickes with Uncle grab the opportunity and tried to show ‘naari-power’. I interrupted then and situation came to truce. Safari driver did not want to lose the chance to prove his presence and started shouting in kannada and warned us to leave midway with lions if we don’t maintain decorum. ‘Thank God’ many of us did not understand his language and were able to continue with same enthusiasm.
Huh!!...After ‘Real Sher’ it was the turn of jungle kings to entertain us. We went bit deep inside and we were able to see calm, healthy lions. I have been to many Zoos, but never saw such healthy lions. One lion was sitting very close to the pathway and we got to see a real close up. That lion really reminds me of the huge lions pictured in “Kaal’. I still used to see that close up pic of his. On the way, we got many sights of other calm, healthy lions and lionesses doing ‘kitty party’. It was a treat to watch those horrified kings. But somehow it gave me a bitter feeling while seeing those jungle kings so unhappy in artificial forest. Today, they may not be jungle kings but they will always remain ‘Jungle king’ from heart.

Remaining part-----Next time----Stay Tuned

Fears....

Monday, February 19..
Today it was a very lazy morning.i got up at 7:15 and i was the first person to get up today in my flat.Surprising for every thing of my flat as they are not much used to see me getting up first....Strange for me.Then without any dilly dallying and faster morning chores i mad eit to shuttle for office on time.Still feeling lazy..( i swear i took bath properly)..Shuttle was on time and i was quick to get in and lay in seat and started listening to my MP3 player.Today i was not able to enjoy FM though they were playin good numbers..still feeling bit giddiness.....n i was sleepin...did not know when we reached Accenture.Mehta woke me up and i was sittin startled with bleary eyes and sayin to myself " haiiiiiiinnnnn,, office aa bhi gaya....Shuckess......"

i was feeling today is not gonna be a good day for me ( Although nothing bad happened to me whole day). Then i reached my workstation without washing my face. Gadhia was standing there with his lopsided smile..."Soya uth k seedha offfice aa gaya kya"..Hmm.......i need to wash my face....i did it eventually....

Reached cafeteria as my morning perfunctory chore and just glanced at the TV."Ohh my God....i can't beleive this".One more train blast and that too near panipat.Usually i come to delhi through this route......Quickly ruffled my hair and get near to TV to see what actually happened.64 people died( actually this count will be much more) ....Sigh of releif..ohh it s not intercity or bathinda express....Still that fear remained inside........What ar ethese guys up to..Terrorism will eat India yar...Condition is constantly going out of control...Acc to some prophet, Terrorism is gonna be a much bigger problem for india and this i snot unbeleivable.Recent encroachments to mysore,bangalore,Delhi etc are not ignorable.Although i can do nothing regarding this..Usually dont think much about this..But somehow, some fear always arise in my heart when i hear of any successful/unsuccessful terrorist attack..May God bless India with more wonderful people and terrorists/jehadis with some sense of humanity...

As i am sharing my on the spot rising fears, would like to mention this pathetic thing also.Everyone knows about sucking traffic in bangy.Whenever i stuck at any big traffic jam or long standing red light, i just turn my face all sides to look other people."Ohh my God... So many people and all in hurry".That moment one thought always comes to my mind that one day vehicles will be too much in bang and all will be on road and everyone will be in a traffic jam and That will be a DEADLOCK for bang.No 1 will b able to move.Everyone will wait for next person to move and no 1 will be able to move.Then Govt will take some action to unscrew deadlock and all vehicle riders hav to spend there night on Road only.Hahaha.i know its a weird thought but beleive me this is very much possible.

many more are there.Dont know i should write those here or not.Right now, m feeling i should not...Some time in future......definitely........