Tuesday, December 13, 2011

What do we want, Lokpal or a Corruption free Society?

“Ek Adna sa Jan-lokpal Bill, kaise badal payega is janta ka dil?
Aam Janta ke dil mein hi basti hai be-imani. Kuch badalna hai to lao ek aisa kanoon; Rahim aur Kabeer ke dohe ho jiska majmoon.
Aam janta ki aaj yahi hai pareshani, sari acchi baato ko kahte hain Kitabi aur bemani”


Anna is coming to Bangalore this 17th and I am facing a very difficult question now; “Am I a Sadist to be so unenthusiastic about Anna’s Cause?”

If Anna’s Cause is to bring a Strong and effective Jan Lokpal bill, unfortunately it makes no sense to me.

I believe that we don’t need a Lokpal bill; what we need is more people like Anna and his team. A lokpal bill will not get us a “corruption-free society” . Society is made of People like you and me and corruption is inside the heads of people.
Constitution has already embodied and empowered a system which can fight all evil including corruption. Legislature to make laws, administration to enforce them and Judges to execute or penalize any failures. Inspite of a comprehensive constitution and robust system with distributed responsibility from top to bottom, we were not able to keep the machinery clean. Why? I would say because of “People”. By definition the system coming out from the pages of constitution was flawless; the only outside element which spoiled this picture perfect was, “People” like ourselves.

What Anna’s team is proposing is like a three in one, all powerful Lokpal to clean the system with a Magic wand. Here is my doubt, after you forced the government to make a very strong Lokpal, “where will you find the people to bear this huge responsibility?” Once again it will boil down to the same thing, “lack of quality people”. If we can constitute a parliament of honest and upright people like Anna and his team, we won’t need a Lokpal at all. A clean parliament will lead to a clean system.

If you really believe in Anna’s ultimate cause, which is,“A Corruption-free Society” request him and his team to get into the system. Clean it from within!

My “precious” vote will not go to a corrupt Congress/BJP/XYZ; I Vote for Anna and his likes!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Oh such a Creamy, ‘Cake’y birthday it was :D

Heylo all, Thank you so much for wishing me a happy birthday. Your wishes came true; Oh I had such a Happy Birthday! I don’t remember after how many years, I was excited like a child on this birthday!
Reason of excitement? Cakes! Only this time in a different way 

As a kid I was always excited about grabbing a bigger piece of cake if it was a friend’s birthday, and hopeful about having left over cake for next day if it was my or my brother’s birthday. Now so many years later I am still excited about cakes, but now it is about baking them!
I remember my brother telling my Mom once, “mummy, ye jab naukari karegi to apna saara paisa bakery mein kharch kar degi…”
Oh what a prophecy my brother made! :)

Since about year and a half now, after my mom got me this microwave oven with ‘Convection’, I am going crazy by the day for baking! I am just so excited when I have to try something new someday!

I took full advantage of my birthday this time, when I made sure that they don’t get cake from outside so that my first cake with icing gets due attention :D
I read and brainstormed to decide on the two cakes I wanted to bake. One day before my birthday, I told Prabudh (my behtar half) about my bakery wish list, thinking he would get me all that:
1) Kitchen Weighing Scale
2) Measuring Cups
3) Baking Tin with removable Base
4) Bigger cake tins
5) And a stock of bakery ingredients :)

Well, Perhaps i was too late. He got me t-shirts and Perfume :). Anyway, I gifted some of the things in my wish list to myself :)

Plan was to make two cakes; One for my friends at office and another for an evening with my family. Since I have been baking cakes for more than a year now, this time what excited me more was, the idea of icing both the cakes. I planned to make a Vanila cake with Cocoa butter icing for office and Fresh Cream Cake for the evening.

I started my day with jam packed thoughts on the cakes I was about to make. Went on to finish the Chocolate cake for office first…. Ok ok may not look like a cake from a sophisticated bakery but this was the first time I did it…So I was on top of the world anyway!!



Next was a bigger challenge; A Fresh cream cake had been on my mind since I first had a fresh cream pineapple cake at my school friends’ birthday party. That was like yeeears ago :). This was a sure shot challenge because I had tried to whip cream twice earlier in smaller quantity and had been disappointed :(. This time I had to whip the full One litre pack of Amul to ice a cake…
Below is what I could make!



It may not have been perfect and professional but I must confess, I was elated, flying, In a bliss, enchanted, mesmerized, and of course ‘Happy!’ on my Birth-day! Thank you once again everyone…you really must have wished from your heart :)

Overall I had cut three cakes, You have heard enough about two of them! :D
Third one was from my friends at office…yummy and beautiful! These days my first thought when I look at a cake is, not about eating it; it is, “I wish I could make such a cake!”
Wish me luck people…your wishes come true. Perhaps some day I will bake all those lovely things on my own.

My birthday is not over yet, I got a Grill Sandwich maker from my Bhaiya-Bhabhi…and I must tell you that it was among the top few items on my non-baking Wish list! I already made my first Grill Sandwich this morning :)
I don't know when did become so fond of Cooking/Baking. It gives me this huge 'Creative' Satisfaction. That said, I really had a wonderful day! Thank you!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Go back to school

I feel like going back to school; studying all over again from class 7th or 8th. Live every moment and make the most of my school life. I wish I could go back to studying all those subjects I hated, only, this time with a fresh perspective; perspective which I have today.

I think I will love to know what happened in the 1857 mutiny and who started the world wars and why? What’s so cool about the ‘Cold’ War. It would be so good to read how the electrical and electronic equipments of my house actually work. That way I will at least treat them nicely…
I hated History, despised Chemistry and never understood why I should be studying Geography/Civics. I had all those feelings but I don’t any more. I now wonder, why couldn’t I realize the beauty of these subjects then?

I was an average student but a curious one nonetheless. I could never study for marks; I did that for happiness. Even at that age…all I cared about was which subject I liked. Yeah, I liked some islands among my text books 

So what’s different today? Why do I want to go back? At least for an average student like me what could have made a difference?
I think, the answer is, a teacher, mentor or counselor, who could show me a glimpse of future. Who, being an experienced person put the education in right perspective for me. Who would not encourage me to work hard on (mug up and recite) my subjects for marks, instead tell me what did people do in life with knowledge of these subjects. What can I achieve in life, if I work harder to tame this subject? And I am not talking about working hard because if I got a certain score, I would get admission into BITS pilani on marks basis. I wanted a teacher who could tell me that there is a sea of opportunities and I can be good at my subjects just to learn, go ahead and make a good life with all this knowledge.

One good life is equal to one step towards building a harmonious society.

I was not a very different person in terms of the capacity, curiosity, aptitude or retention power but I did not have the perspective. So I needed a teacher who could not just tell me when the train would overtake the horse but tell me what fun it is to know this.

Great people are perhaps born. People who do not depend on teachers to polish their skills and yet we could ‘make’ some more better quality people with help of better quality teachers.

Have you ever felt like this?

Then tell me, if teachers could make so much of difference to society, why are teachers not paid accordingly? Do not tell me about professors who get 60-70 thousands a month. Because by the time we reach the age of learning from a professor, we are too old to mend our ways and learn new things. We are opinionated and have already chosen our life paths (more often than not).

If you ever felt like this, do think about making that difference. Let me know when you do…
There is a school in my dreams; I would love to talk to you about that 

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Say What?

Some times i wonder, if i am private person.
Hey stop that smirk....Did you mean, people who are 'Private'; do not blog?

Well, I think (sometimes) before i speak and leave some things unsaid...but that doesn't make me Introvert, right?

And yet this is almost a month and I did not find a thing to say. No Blogs since the day 1!

I just started writing today under this pressure. I have been thinking, may be i forgot how to express myself...may be i don't feel the need to express any more! Either of which is not good for life. Life is about movement, inspiration, optimism and all those positive things. Then what is wrong with me?

Perhaps I am too content with life or may be I am just stuck up in the monotony. This monotony called 'Comfort Zone'. Sleep, Eat, Go to office and perish. Simple!

I failed to find any other explanation to the stagnancy that I am exhibiting.
Trying to find out, Why I don't do things that I absolutely love to do (when some times I do them)
1) Writing
2) Long Walks, Exercise, Yoga
3) Prayer/Meditation
4) Being in touch with people

What do you think? These are no ambitions, these are the simplest of things one can do/does in life. But not me! Gosh, why (not) me?

Is this a problem of prioritizing in life? Or just plain harsh truth, "I was born lazy!"
I am mostly doing something, and yet I don't do anything magnificent in life. I am no CEO, not even a Manager or for that matter a Supervisor. I am just busy, Beat that! ;-)

"Busy without business", was once said about me. Look how famous the phrase is now :D

Thank you people, for For now i have posted an old write-up in the desperation of not being able to post all this time.

But some time soon, i intend to write about Prioritizing in Life...

take care!

An old one..."For all the amazing Story Tellers"

This is for all the amazing story-tellers who once did or now wander the globe.

Recently I finished reading the last book of Harry Potter series by one such tremendous story teller ‘J.K.Rowling’.

I almost love or hate her characters as if they were real and at the same time I admire as well as dread the author who gave birth to them. All those characters are coming out of her mind and I know whom to love and who to despise but if all of them, the angelic and saintly as well as the devilish and ghostly characters lived within the author once, how, would I know what to feel about the author herself!!

Love, hate, respect or just be in an awe of the world of magic she created on paper; a fiction which seems as real as anything that I have seen with my eyes. (Although I must say some of the credit also goes to the people behind the Potter movies!)

I am an ordinary person who knows how to love/hate, how to be generous/mean, how to be friendly/arrogant; I only understand my own grief/happiness, dream/procrastination, hope/disillusionment…and all of them are a part of the (dis-) proportionate mixture that makes me an individual. I see things and people only as they are and, I am not at all good at even understanding them as much as I understand myself. I know the world around me to some extent but creating a new world out of my imagination; a hypothetical world described to the minutest of details…

People who do this…I wonder if they too lead an ordinary life, I wonder if they were also like me…EVER! Nevertheless, how much ever I wonder about their lives, I dread knowing the truth…I am fine as long as I can just enjoy the fruits of their skill.

I am still in process of unraveling the mystery of Life and the Force called God…but yes, I have often thought that God is perhaps…Virtue/Goodness/Power personified. So it’s only next to god that I admire people who are ‘Genius’; a Skill-Personified!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Lets synch up :)

Saying when there is no one to listen; and listening when there is no one to talk...is not madness.
Only a state of mind...called blogging.

Blog; a perfect remedy for the much required synch up between the one's who spoke without audience and one's who want to be 'quiet' in someone's company!

Thank you for listening...oops reading! :)
Hope you are enjoying your time out!