Laws of Favour

Favour (Favor), as defined in dictionary, is any act or deed in which help is provided without expectation or reciept of anything in return. Going by this definition, I haven't done any favor to anybody in my life because I always got something in return (sometimes more than what I've done to others in return).

On the other hand, I have many people in my life who went out of their way to help me out in my bad times just to see me happy. I feel very humbled and obliged by the very thought of these people though I seldom express that in person. I try to do everything in my capacity for their benefit though I don't mean to balance or repay their timely support.

In this post, I'm trying to sum up how people ought to behave when they take or do favors to others. This is a the simple analysis of day to day situations I saw in the world around me.

LAWS OF FAVOUR

When you take favors from others:

1. Never measure the value of the favor you took. Don't calculate how much time, effort or money did the other person spend to help you. What all matters is that the person gave you a helping hand when you needed it badly regardless of how big or small the favor was. The noble intention which led the person to help you is divine and you should remember that forever.
2. Never neutralize the favor taken. Don't assume that the favor somebody did for you is cancelled just because you do something else for him later. Its your basic responsibility and duty to support those who helped you earlier. That doesn't undermine the help you have taken because today you may be in the position to help him just because of the favor you've taken earlier. So no balance sheets in favors. Its not barter trade.
3. Never live in hypothesis and assumptions. Don't ever feel that if this person didn't help you, somebody else would have done that. Whatever were the alternatives, you took somebody's help at that point and that's it.
4. Acknowledge the favor taken in public. Some people tend to thank the person who helped in private but never acknowledge the reason for his well-being in public domain. Not that the other person needs any publicity, but it shows your respect and humility in accepting the help taken in public. It only elevates both, the helper and the receiver.
5. Success is not proportional to one's talent. All talented people don't get successful if they are not supported by a lot of people. Identify those people and show gratitude for whatever they have contributed to your success and well-being, regardless of what you do to them.

When you do favors to others:

1. Never expect anything in return for the favor you do. If you expect them to do something in return, its not wrong, but your favor turns into investment. In that case you should not expect the respect and gratitude which you otherwise receive.
2. Understand the thin line between duty and favor. If doing something is your official or moral duty, don't name it as "favor". If you are being paid money, products, services, effort or any kind of contribution as per the predefined arrangement, its not a favor anymore. Some people who claim to be "serving" customers are ludicrous as what is "service" when they are being paid for their duty. Its strictly business.
3. Don't ask / expect the beneficiaries to remember the favor and behave in their benefit forever. Though it's the responsibility of the beneficiary to behave in such way, the person who helped should not really exploit the situation. Again respect is at stake.
4. Just because you helped somebody, don't get under the feeling that you are omnipotent. Even the most powerful might need favors from weaker people. Humility defines the person, not conceit.

These laws of favor if followed, will elevate the relationship, mutual respect and admiration between those who helped and those who received favors.

I support Baba Ramdev !

The first time, I've seriously taken Baba Ramdev was when he convened a series of rallies against corruption an year or so back where Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal etc came to show their solidarity. So I've known Ramdev as the pioneer in the current anti-corruption movement much before Anna Hazare took to streets.

With regard to Ramdev's on-going fast against black-money, I know black money can't be brought to India in a day. But is protesting against black money something wrong especially when Govt already has a list of people who hid black money in Swiss bank but says it's not going to release those names ? I supported Anna Hazare though I know Lokpal bill has loopholes just because it has more good points than bad. Same is the case here. I will support Baba Ramdev's stint against black money and corruption because its not against national interest.

The whole country and diaspora erupted to support Anna Hazare and Govt had its foot in mouth almost immdiately, but the sentiment is not seen now in Ramdev's case. Any reason ??

The main reason is that Ramdev wears Saffron, which is associated with Hinduism. BJP and RSS seen as Hindu organizations support him. Yes, these are the very reasons which the congress government, national media and "secularists" say. So that means, anybody associating or demonstrating Hinduism is a social outcast. Can any congress leader or anybody who claims to be secular have balls to slam any Muslim or Christian leader who takes up similar movement ? Nobody thinks twice because Ramdev is a Hindu and that too he wears saffron and that too he is openly supported by RSS. So bashing him will only appease the whole country including Hindus who are against "hindu nationalism"

An idiot by name Digvijay Singh of congress says that Hemant Karkare was not killed by Kasab, but by Hindu terrorists. He slams USA for not respecting Osama Bin Laden "ji" (as he addressed) in his last rites. He takes on Ramdev or anybody who is even remotely associated with Hindus because doing that will supposedly fetch Muslim votes. This is tacitly supported by Madam. The pack of fools thus insulting Muslims' intelligence and integrity on a wholesale basis treating them as a bunch of vote bank who can sway by their stupid tantrums without realizing that they are expanding the rift between communities.

The great Shahrukh Khan doesn't support Ramdev becuase the latter has political ambitions. So what ? Is having political ambition a bigger crime than publicly supporting a friend involved in scam of crores of rupees. SRK says Ramdev should do what he is supposed to do. Then why the f*** is he getting involved in IPL and cricket ? What does Salman Khan who is embroiled in his own set of crimes know about the on-going movement to make unwarranted remarks ?

Does the country take it kindly If lets say any muslim leader is criticized like this ? Reporters were being shot at, cartoonists are being harassed to death if a religious figure is criticized in other parts of the world. But anybody can take on representatives because Hindus are spineless morons who have been taking every crap and shit since centuries.

By the way those who slam RSS and VHP never give any reason for their bitterness. If the reason is Babri Masjid demolition, aren't congress leaders guilty for their holocaust against Sikhs. Aren't Sikhs minorities ? Aren't discrimination and crimes against Sikhs religious and fundamental crimes? So if RSS is anti-minority, isn't congress anti-minority ? Aren't Sonia, Rahul and co products of the same dynasty who made millions of Sikhs flee the country, guilty of oppression ? Isn't this bloody hypocrisy ?

Media and Govt cries when Sadhvi Rithambara of RSS shares the stage with Baba Ramdev. Are they selectively blind not to see Moulvi Rizvi and other eminent representatives of Christians, Jains on the stage ? How come nobody says that the stage is hijacked by Muslim league or Jain groups ??

Yellow journalists like Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose, Rajdeep Sardesai who play a proxy game in favour of congress have already started their trials to sabotage the movement.

If I'm a bit intelligent and have some logic left behind my mind, I would continue supporting every anti-corruption wave without falling prey to the collective propaganda of the government which has been a safe haven for scamsters, terrorists, corrupted, criminals and media which supports the pack of criminals in power just in their own interest.

Disclaimer: Before anybody jumps to conclusions, I'm not a fan of Ramdev; I have never tried yoga in my life, I'm not a member or sympathizer of any right wing groups. I know a lot of readers will see me as a Hindu hardliner because am defending my identity. When somebody makes a movie called "My Name is Khan" defending his community from typecasting, I can do that in my own medium and capacity and this is my medium. Those who don't feel proud of their identity, religion, way of life is like a dead wood and I'm not one for sure. Your stance is your choice !

Money...Honey !!!

"Dhanam moolam idam jagath" - A sanskrit phrase which means money is the root cause for everything in the world. That's true in sense that money can buy comforts, luxuries, power, prestige, respect and even happiness to some extent. And hence everybody wants money, but the question is HOW MUCH DO THEY NEED ?

I know there is no answer for this question as nobody will have an upper limit set that they just need that much money for being happy. That's human nature. But one has to understand that the significance of money varies from time to time, phase to phase and there will be various factors that will have to take backseat or frontseat vis-a-vis money at different stages of life.

A simplest example: Freshers out of college usually consider three parameters to select their jobs. Parameters being: salary, branded company, job profile. Lucrative pay package and comfort some job-offers provide will be so tempting that the job profile will take the backseat initially. But only after 5 years of working can one realize that they have sufficient money but they didn't learn much to grow further and it would be too late to start a fresh career. I've witnessed many people who are in such situation today.

I also know a lot of people who compromised their everything to get richer. They slogged like donkeys throughout their lives to earn a fortune to provide comfort to their kids. Those kids when grew older didn't realize the importance of hard earned money because they never saw any hardship. They just felt that their parents followed their duty. Alas !

Technology boom brought in the salary revolution and all IT employees became richer overnight, without realizing what they lost in the bargain. Agreed that the money paid to them is significantly more, but they were still paid peanuts in comparison to fortunes those IT companies made thanks to it's employees' bonded labor. On the darker side, workers lost a significant portion of their family life. So while they gained in financial aspect, they lost on relationships and that beautiful time they could have spent with their families and friends.

Entrepreneurs, self-employed, businessmen's case is unique. The more effort they put in, the more money they earn (usually). So their mindset has changed in such a way that the time they spend with their loved ones made them feel guilty as they would have earned more money during those hours. So the bottom line happened to be earning money and materialistic happiness elicited out of that. How about human relations and peace of mind ?

As per statistics, life expectancy has been constantly declining, people are not being as strong as those in previous generations. This generation which is intelligent enough to counter futuristic issues like global warming is not able to comprehend emotional cooling that's seeping in unsuspiciously. Earning money became the biggest goal and everything else lost in the due process is extremely oversighted.

A lower middle class guy wants to slog to fall under upper middle class so that he can drive a car, live in a decent apartment. An upper middle class guy wants to get into elite class to enjoy club memberships, drive a luxury car, own multiple investments. A rich guy wants to earn more to establish contacts and relationships with the powerful who's who in the city. Powerful who's who want to earn more to expand their empire and rule the country's economy. Those kings of corporate world who rule the country earn more to retain their power. SO, IS THERE ANY LIMIT FOR EARNING ? No, absolutely not !

For something which has no end, people are compromising on relationships, few even stoop down to the level of cheating others, breaking hearts, losing loved ones, judging others based on economic status.

Money is an addiction, an unending quagmire, an oasis which converts one's heart into another brain. Theory of evolution says that ape got rid of its tail as it stopped using it. Now the man is the process of getting rid of his heart and hence relationships, emotions, love.

Holding a child's hand, hugging a loved one, shedding a tear for somebody we care for, extending a helping hand, sharing others' griefs, spreading love - don't need money and those who can do all these are richer than the richest.

Money is not everything, honey. Its never too late to realize that !

Harsh Criticism - Symptoms & Cure

Did you ever face people who without any reason criticize and pass unnecessary comments about you, your tastes, your loved ones, your favorite cuisines, actors, movies, genres, cities, habits etc ? I'm sure you did as this is a chronic disease we see in many people in our day to day lives. Common symptoms I noticed in all such souls is either superior complex (coupled with fear of others' superiority) or inferiority complex (coupled with inability to accept their inferiority) which makes them behave in a particular way.

It takes grace, dignity and decency to be polite to others regardless of how close others are and what you feel about them. But being harsh or acidic towards others just needs some sense of mental dysfunction, complex and bad childhood.

Earlier, I wrote an article about so called straight forward people who don't know the difference between being straight forward and being harsh (Read: I'm not straightbackward).

All those who are harsh towards others have the same justification "I don't want to keep anything in my heart and hence am outspoken". This is the most ridiculous justification or argument I ever heard. They don't understand that its not being straight forward but being just plain rude and stupid especially if the opposite person doesn't appreciate the kind of harsh comments. Those who feel being outspoken relieves them from mental tension should understand that while they relieve themselves, they are straining relationship with others who are on the receiving end. That's mere immaturity or childishness and definitely not child-likeness.

Sometimes this kind of immature behavior can be rubbished as their naivete but there are people who belong to a worse category. Those who desperately search for situations to be harsh. These bunch of jokers are incorrigible critics who don't mince a word to be harsh with their acerbic words. Its their inferiority complex and their constant need to make others look inferior to mask their own inabilities. These kind of people are never seen when the whole world appreciates your work or success :)

Every person is made in a different way and has varied interests. This is a basic truth which goes over the head of most self centered nigglers. They follow something and don't think twice before finding fault with or laugh at others who don't follow them, which at times is funny :)

Another category are the talented lot who believe that the rest of the world is bestowed upon at their service. Intelligentsia feel intelligence is the yardstick for respect; those who know a bit of singing or acting or dancing or fighting or blah blah blah take their own skill as a yardstick to respect others and start judging everybody around even if their skill does no good to anybody including themselves. Anybody's success or skill is not their favor to the humanity, but for themselves. Success is beautiful and respected only when coupled with grace and humility, not pomposity, judgement or conceit.

Bottom Line: Spreading hatred is very easy and being harsh to others for whatever reason is the gateway to promote hatred. Empathy is a simple lock for this gateway. Just put yourself in others' shoes before passing any judgement or comments about others, especially if you don't need to.

Limit the criticism to constructive criticism if you want others to improve but if you are unnecessarily harsh to anybody, there will be only two consequences:

• Either you lose relationships (if the other person is sensitive)
• Or you lose respect (if the other person doesn't take your harshness to heart).

Once you follow this kind of Gandhigiri of maintaining restraint in harsh criticism and start being nice, you'd feel you belong to a superior breed of people, much above the pack of nasty organisms !

What My Dad Taught Me !

After writing posts about my mom and my wife, the last part of the trilogy is obviously about my dad and what could be a better day than my parents' wedding anniversary (May 16th).  I seldom express anything to my dad and thought this is the best medium to let him know what he means to me and what he taught me :)

Again it would be foolish if I start writing how much my dad loves me or cares for me. But this is definitely a moment to acknowledgement what he taught me by example. The three biggest lessons of life I learnt observing my dad are:

(1) Developing an identity and being ourselves regardless of our background
(2) Doing and enjoying whatever we like regardless of what others think
(3) Being soft-spoken, amiable and chivalrous even if others consider that as our weakness.

If I happen to project any of the above-mentioned characteristics, its just because I'm heavily influenced by my dad's style.

My dad's childhood and adolescence was in stark contrast to my mom's. He was born into an affluent family of landlords and my grandfather has been sarpanch of his village for 3 decades. With the kind of lifestyle he spent his childhood and adolescence, anybody would expect my dad to be a spoilt kid, but that didn't matter to him as he grew up to realize that he wanted to be a self made man.

He never liked his identity to be a son of somebody. He was the only son of the family (from previous few generations including his) who came out of the political ambiance to find himself a decent job by his own credentials to sustain himself out of any family influence and since that day never did he demand / command / question / enjoy even a penny from his ancestral property. It takes a lion heart to be a man of values and supreme self confidence to shift gears from a affluent life with 10 servants around to a struggler who went around to do odd jobs, starve and make his own mark in the world. And my dad, indeed has a lion heart.

He got married when he was 22 and I was born by the time he turned 23. I was strictly raised amidst middle class values and from the time I remember, I was made to understand the importance of hardwork, self sufficiency, simplicity and I hardly knew the kind of background my father came from until I was some 6 years old and visited the home village near Ghanpur of Warangal Dist.

Whenever I visited the village, I was royally pampered and almost spoilt by the whole village till I was some 12 years old. I remember people there addressing me as "Chinna Panthulu". That was sprawling yesteryear modeled house built in the midst of an acre of land, a big cow barn, an area for grandfather's daily political meetings, a ration warehouse, a dhobi ghat in the backyard, huge garden for vegetables and villages of farmland. But my parents took utmost care so that I don't get carried away by that lifestyle and grandeur and here I'm :)

Coming back to my parents' early married years: Those were the days when ladies of homes were confined to kitchens and there was no concept called chivalry among men. Men who asked their wives' opinion in social matters or those who helped their wives in kitchen were considered meek and henpecked. Infact thats the stupidity even the current generation follows sometimes. But my dad showed the world how important it is to see wife as equal and how joyful life would be if wife is made a best friend.

He never wanted a macho or masculine image which he might've bestowed with had he not allowed my mom to present her views. He never stopped or restricted my mom in speaking her mind and doing her heart. He never thought twice to help my mom in kitchen before guests or relatives. Chauvinists and pessimists were crying foul but my dad was and has been chivalrous till date. He was never a "Tiger" or "Anaconda" as fathers depicted in movies or narrated by my friends. I feel so proud of him :)

My dad realized that my mom had the potential to make it big in professional and social circles as he stood as a pillar of support by rekindling her education, encouraged her to pursue her career, did whatever he could and my mom stood upto his expectations and turned up to be his support in spinning money for the family. That's marriage for them - beautifully complementing and supplementing each other :)

My dad always did what he wanted, never cared about others. But never did he get an image of an arrogant, stubborn or irritating person because of his social behavior which I try very hard to emulate but fail miserably. He is the most soft spoken person as known to all his friends, confidants, acquaintances and relatives. I seldom saw him in anger or frustration. Others would not have seen him ever in any kind of negative emotions like anger, frustration, scheming, jealous, loudness etc. My dad has been a saintly figure even for those who have some problems with me or my mom :) So he taught me without preaching that we should be ourselves without being harsh to others. These seeds were sown since my childhood.

His patience is infectious, his composure is soothing, his simplicity is inspiring, his independence is brutal, his conviction is ruthless, his attitude is impeccable, his influence in enormous, his love is impalpable, his support is unflinching. He is my dad, he is my hero.

Mom & Dad, happy anniversary to you and love you both :) ..

PS: Those who wonder why did I write only about dad on my parents' anniversary, please browse through an older post a week ago where I wrote about my mom (My Mom - My Friend)

With this ended the series of my family related personal posts for this season. Some other topic very soon :)

Marital Bliss - Celebration of Life !

On May 11, my wife and I would be a happily married couple for the past 4 years and an year and a half of courtship before that. This post is not about our love story as I've narrated that umpteen number of times and most of my blog-readers know that by-heart :)

I proposed her within a week of knowing her. Some people called it infatuation, others named it hastiness. But after 25 years of being in single status and not proposing to any girl, I felt she was the girl who could make me feel complete. A week of conversation made me realize that I could go upto any extent to make her my life-partner and I did. Since then the love has been exponentially growing and hence just saying I love her doesn't sum up all the respect, admiration, bonding, affection, love I have towards her.

Every guy will have a wishlist as what he wants to see in his wife and everybody's wishlist will have few common qualities: beauty, friendship, understanding. But I'm lucky to get more in my wifey.

She may not be the most beautiful girl I ever know, but she is the most graceful, attractive and the cutest. The way she carries herself sweeps me off the feet till date. It is usually said that infatuation evaporates soon and love remains forever. But after 4 years of marriage, I still feel the infatuation and I wish it remains forever too. Till date, I so love to impress her, grab her attention, I still feel ecstatic when she holds my hand, feel secure when she smiles, groom myself to look good with her.

Men say they hang around with friends to beat the stress of family life. But for me, its other way round. I wish to hang around with my wife, narrate her my experiences, long to listen to her, talk about everything under the sun. We share tastes in terms of cuisines, hang out spots, genres of movies, music, hobbies like travelling, photography, shopping. She has been my best friend and will always be.

Understanding is a very vague term, but if I have to define that I would define it as something which I have with my wife. That describes everything. We never had to use words, gestures or even expressions to make each other understand and comfortable. We know and complement each other's thought process, reactions, interests and decisions. This makes us feel and behave like bf-gf rather than orthodox wife and husband. Everybody who have seen us together will vouch for that.

OK, a quick question here. Did you ever see a person who NEVER argues or complains ? If no, its high time to meet my wife. If you think I'm lucky to find somebody like this as a wife, then I can't agree more. If you don't believe when I say I'm yet to get into an argument with her, all I can do is to smile helplessly and if I see anybody having a fight with her, I would like to congratulate them for being the most miserable and nastiest of living organisms alive :D

She always says that she never enters into a verbal duel or mind games because she knows she can't win but I'm in the process of making her realize how divine that quality is :) But the flip-side is that she has been the victim of my tantrums and temperaments which am sure she got used to by now :-|

She is my stabilizing factor. Whenever arrogance creeps into my head, I just realize how down-to-earth she was with her kind of knowledge and success stories in her kitty. It immediately brings me down to the ground. Whenever some tension troubles me, I just talk to her and her way of taking things easy makes me realize I was over-reacting. 

Everybody likes to feel important and my wife has all the time in the world and all ears for me. She is the only person who enjoys listening to me whatever I say. I can be myself as she never judges me, never minds placing me above her, always takes pride in my achievements and accomplishments. The kind of importance she gives to me often raises my confidence levels.

She pampers me, she understands me, she stabilizes me, she loves me, she cares for me, she serves me, she is proud of me and SHE IS MINE !

Ammadu, life has been a celebration since you arrived into my life. Love !

My Mom - My Friend

I know mothers' day is around the corner. Though we don't need any particular day to love our mother, dedicating a day to celebrate and acknowledge how important she is doesn't harm because we don't do that everyday. This post is not to show how much I love my mom or vice-versa because it would be foolish of me to do that for the simple reason that mother-son relationship and love is beyond expressions, beyond words in general and for me in particular.

My mom was 16 when she was just out of the depression of her father's untimely demise which struck her big-time. Once a bright student and a career oriented person, she could not cope with up the depression, pressure, lack of exposure, direction, sponsorship and ended up being a 10th fail student before she got married at 16. When I was born, she was 17 years old. Yes, you read it right.

She started a new life with new ambition and that was to provide me a life which she always wanted and dreamt for herself. But she was naive enough to ward off all kinds of hardships and humiliations she faced. At 17, with no much social sense, contacts, street smartness, education, support, knowledge, legacy she had to face a mammoth task of fighting against all odds and raising me to make her dreams come true. So her second life literally started with my birth. So it would be apt to say that me and my mom grew together :)

In another two years, my sister was born and at 19, my mom was a mother of two. Then she realized she had to grow beyond her capabilities and constraints to understand what was right for us. The lady who was matriculation failed before marriage, with her iron will, took up education along with us. In the next fifteen years of continuous education, attending colleges, courses she completed her BA, CLSc, BLSc, typewriting lower, higher and took a part-time vocation of tutoring 10 school students upto their 10th class. This was to improve her own knowledge which she missed during her education, to develop her communication and add up few quick bucks. Later, nothing stopped her from grabbing a job as a librarian at Osmania University Engineering college and thus started her career at 31 and she didn't look back since then.

Now when I meet kids of next generation, I feel left out and unmatched to their body language, exposure and acumen. But my mom was always ahead of her next generation. Lot of people would be surprised to know that my mom taught me how to use a computer. She knew MS Office well before I knew how to switch on the computer. She created her email id well before I knew what was internet. Even today she explains nuances of using internet which I didn't know earlier. We started watching cricket since 1987 world cup and since then she has been a cricket maniac more than me.

In recent movies like Taare Zameen Par or 3 Idiots, it was shown that parents should not direct children in their education, but I'm glad my mom did that for me. She was more informed, knowledgeable and dynamic enough to research and direct me in the way which was beneficial for me. She researched every college I applied for including intermediate, engineering, MBA and even US universities I applied for MS. Everything worked out only to my benefit. The only thing I couldn't agree to her direction was when she wanted me to pursue IAS seriously. I felt I'm not intellectually and morally made to get into that direction but my mom had supreme confidence in my general knowledge and aptitude :)

My mom's contribution to my professional success has been matchless and am sure nobody else would have been luckier than me. But what I learnt from her just by observing her has been much more. So her impact on my personal life, social presence and behavior has been immense and those who know both of us can vouch for that :)

Her social presence is immaculate and I didn't see anybody in my life who could steal the show or limelight in her presence. Period ! We all are used to the kind of insecurity she imparts on her peers, colleagues and we are equally habituated to awe my friends and my sister's friends express when they meet my mom. Neither me nor my sister inherited her charm, wit and that unique quality of being a cynosure in social circles.

Her confidence has been supreme and we never witnessed any moment when she was afraid of anybody in her whole life. Her "care a damn" attitude is something I emulate sub-consciously. She never taught me to be a fighter, but just showed me what it is all about and I went on to follow her and here I'm.

Unlike orthodox mothers, my mom was always supportive of love marriages and she was more than happy when I introduced my wife (then gf) to her. Rather my mom was relieved as she didn't have to accompany me in rating girls whom we stare at in malls or public places :D...She was such a friend that I stopped calling her amma and addressed her with her petname, Bujji for past many years :)

She went out of her way to make her daughter-in-law comfortable as she was wary of apprehensions a girl comes with when she enters her husband's house. The only person whom I'm afraid of in this world is my mom and the only person who is not afraid of my mom is my wife because of the comfort level they share and the pampering she receives from my mom :D

Thanks to her early marriage, she's done with her responsibilities as my sister's marriage and my marriage happened by the time my mom turned 44. She became a grand mother at 46. Now she is busy pursuing her hobbies like reading, traveling. She traveled more than me. She saw every place in US which I saw and most places in Canada and more than what I have seen in India. Last month my parents have been to North India trip which they planned and executed meticulously. As always, she didn't depend on her children to research, book hotels and packages through web and discover new places and am so proud of her :) This is something I want to emulate again :D

So my mom is not only about the motherly love but also about being a lifetime friend who grew with me, who molded an attitude for herself which I couldn't resist but follow. She has been my lifeline, my happiness has been directly proportional to her happiness and well being. Some people tried to tease me that am momma's boy without realizing that I take pride in being my momma's boy :)

Bujji, I know telling you that I love you is an understatement, but can't resist as there is no better phrase coined yet. Love you not just for being for me, but for being in me. Happy Mother's Day. As always, miss being with you !

PS: Festive season is soon going to start in my household

May 11 - My marriage anniversary
May 14 - My sister's marriage anniversary
May 16 - My parents' marriage anniversary

All set for varothsavalu :) and am looking forward to sharing more posts about my family in coming blog-posts. Get ready for the assault :D

"Sathya Sai Baba"- The Most Successful Man (?) Ever Born

Preface: I personally don't believe Sathya Sai Baba or any mythological / historical person is/was God. In this article, I've used the term "God" to refer those religious / mythological / historical figures.

Follow or not, believe or not, agree or not, Sathya Sai Baba remains one of the most influential and successful persons (???) ever born on this planet.

People who have some opinion on Sathya Sai Baba can be broadly categorized as:

• Those who believe in God and believe that Sathya Sai Baba is a God.
• Those who believe in God but don't believe that Sathya Sai Baba is a God.
• Those who don't believe in God and hence don't believe that Sathya Sai Baba is a God.

Those who believe in him quote innumerable anecdotes, fables and stories to prove his divinity. Those against him and rationalists show equal number of scientific reasonings, youtube links of his tricks, research studies to refute all his Godly powers. This tussle between believers and rationalists, faith and common sense, proof of divinity and trickery will never end in an agreement. The debate is here to stay.

But I'm amused at those second category of people who generally believe in the existence of God but deny that Sathya Sai Baba is a God.

If one believes in avatars like Rama, Krishna, Sai Baba or believes in messengers of God like Jesus, Mohammed whats stopping them from believing in Sathya Sai Baba ? 

All the above mentioned great figures lived on this planet at some point in the history. People who revere them today do that because their fathers and forefathers asked them to do so. Forefathers got the legacy of belief from their ancestors and so on. Generations passed in that faith, belief and hence nobody asks the question as to why belief in somebody.

Rama is treated as God because one Valmiki wrote great things about him in Ramayana, the epic which influenced generations of mankind to be good. Krishna is treated as a God because Veda Vyas wrote great things about him in Mahabharata, the epic and Bhagavad Gita the holy scripture for Hindus.

Shirdi Sai Baba is treated as kaliyuga daivam because his followers and devotees have passed on the faith to next generations through books, stories about his miracles, his love and passion towards humankind.

Jesus is revered as an incarnation of the God the son, the messenger and healer, Mohammed is treated as a messenger of God; This is because of the transfer of faith from person to person and generation to generation. As per historical and religious studies, all these revered souls who are today regarded with utmost belief and respect have done great favor to the humankind by upholding righteousness, preaching good, justice, love. 

But no devout Hindu or Muslim or Christian or any follower of a religion has ever seen or questioned or suspected the existence or miracles of God. Everybody follows a faith just because they were raised in such atmosphere or belief and faith. So if they can believe in the God recommended by others, why can't they believe in Sathya Sai Baba and his miracles blindly ?

Ain't believing in God, but suspecting Sathya Sai Baba tantamout to hypocrisy and double standards ?

If nobody has an iota of doubt about Lord Rama's turning a rock into an woman or Lord Krishna's demonstrating vishwaroopam, Shirdi Sai Baba's lighting lamps with water, Jesus' resurrection after crucification, Mohammed's revelations - Why is Sathya Sai Baba alone put under scanner to prove his divinity ? When he proclaims that he is an avatar or Shirdi Sai Baba, why can't they just accept it like they have been doing with other Gods without getting into logic, sense, rationality, reasoning ? Why this partiality towards Gods, huh :)

Coming back to my first sentence, Sathya Sai Baba is great for reasons known to many.

When he proclaimed he was a God, people instantly believed him, flocked to obtain his darshan and never gave a damn about any kind of disbelief as if they were waiting for his arrival. Now his follower base ranges from 6 million to 100 million. Who else can pull this off so successfully notwithstanding any hullabaloo from atheists, rationalists who bang their heads with proofs in their hands ?

His miracles are amateur and bland compared to those of PC Sorcors, David Copperfields; his oratory skills are below average, his teachings are not remarkably new or different from those of other saints or gurus, his knowledge in philosophy or religion was never demonstrated; he was a philanthropist but no other philanthropist is ever called "God" due to their social work. Yet, he has the confidence to declare that he is beyond all investigation, reason, comprehension, scrutiny or senses. Whoa !!! Who else can show-off such confidence.

I think twice to claim I'm good at what I'm good at but this man (???) could claim so much and nobody had a gut to take him off his pedestal from last 8 decades. Amazing and astonishing.

His trust worth officially some  4,00,00,00,00,000 (yes that's 40 thousand crore) is exempted from all taxes, records, transparency; his VIP devotee list would be longer than this blog-post itself; heads of nations, most powerful industrialists, richest and most successful people form a beeline to get his blessings. Astonishing

Despite building a wealthy empire, he was good enough as a philanthropist to share a part to people who believed in him. Though he didn't preach anything distinguishably new, he never incited his followers for his personal interests. May he RIP.

If he is indeed God, he is eternal beyond description for having spread the message of love to millions of his devotees and healing them all out of their distresses. If he was a fake, he is even greater for scripting and creating an aura for himself which brutally fooled millions of common, rich, powerful people for 8 decades.

Either ways, he lived a life Kingsize..err...Godsize !

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Trivia (silly stuff which you can skip) :D

1. I wrote my EAMCET exam in Sathya Sai school in DD Colony, Hyderabad. Invigilators used to say "Sai Ram" before they speak anything and everybody thought my friend Sai Ram was cheating in the exam. But he got disqualified despite the name and exam center :-S
2. I always feel AR Rahman looks so much like Sathya Sai Baba minus saffron robes and that hairdo :D

Fans & Fanaticism - Movies & Politics

Some people take pride in claiming themselves to be "fans" of a certain politician or a movie star. The term fan is not seen as a negative connotation but as most people don't realize, it is derived from the word "Fanatic". For all practical purposes words like fanatic and fanaticism are taken in a negative sense which mean excessive, out-of-limits and prejudiced liking of somebody regardless of logic, merit and sense.

Politicians, movie stars and celebs generally suffer from an incorrigible disease called nepotism which they display by transferring their public image to their children or relatives. Politicians make their son / daughter / spouse as their successors as if political power given by voters is their private property. Useless and worthless heir apparents take on the mantle and plunge into the field of politics directly becoming an MLA or an MP. Sometimes even worse, they dream of becoming prime minister / chief minister just because they were born in a particular family.

We can't blame only the parent or the child who does this. Everybody wants to see their children or loved ones in a powerful and successful position. Rather its their so called "FANS" who should be blamed for this unfortunate situation. Without their knowledge, these bigots are rotting the society by accepting and helping worthless, ineligible, selfish successors to adorn the throne just because of their partisan favoritism.

Indira Gandhi became PM just because her father was an ex-PM. Rajiv Gandhi, who didn't know basic demographics about India, became PM out of the blue because of his lineage. Then the power automatically passed on to Sonia Gandhi and now to Rahul Gandhi. Its not limited to one political party. TDP, DMK, Shivsena, BJD, TRS, JD, SP, NC, now YSR Congress and every other party runs family show, thanks to naive fans and cadre. All these so called dynasties were established by able leaders. And his fans (and their generations) have automatically ended up becoming devotees of not only their idol but also his next few generations. So illogical !!!

If there is another angle for this senseless fanaticism, that's "CASTE". We are in a society where exit polls and opinion polls forecast the winner based on number of voters belonging to the candidate's community. Shame. Political parties field candidates based on caste dynamics and voters flock like herd of sheep to blindly vote for their "representative" without realizing what kind of benefit they reap just by seeing a person of their community winning. Weird and sad.

Today we have political parties unofficially affiliated to castes and religions. A Hindu party, a Muslim party, a Dalit party, a Yadav party, a Kamma party, a Kapu / Reddy party, a Brahmin party, a Velama party, a Gowda party, an OBC party, an Atheist party and so on. But the interesting part is that no such caste affiliated party has done remarkable service to the caste they represent. Its senseless fans and their bigotry which propels these polarization of the society, which is dangerous to the very secular fabric of the country.

Thus fans who get blind-folded by their prejudiced and uncritical devotion to their caste and favorite dynasty rot the society by disallowing worthy and sensible leaders.

Movie and entertainment industry is another area where fans give undue and inappropriate worth to people who belong to a certain lineage or a certain caste.

Bollywood, Tollywood, Sandalwood or take any wood, 90% of current lead actors are sons of yesteryear actors. Same is the case with directors, music directors, villains and even vamps. Again, we can't blame those successful stars for passing on the mantle to their children, but how can a movie goer so easily like or blindly worship somebody appearing on screen just because he is a brother or son of some icon. I can never understand this kind of devotion.

I don't really know if caste forms an important factor of liking a movie star in other parts of the country, but Andhra Pradesh suffers from this unfortunate tendency. And the worst part is that fans of those caste based icons spread venom against actors of other castes and this phenomenon has created a polarization which is directly transported to politics too as every caste based matinee idol is associated with some political party (due to fans pressure, they say), again unfortunately.

Younger generation stars of these idols become a massive election rally crowd pullers or are given a honorary title even before their first movie is released. And yeah, fans, fans associations, youth associations clamor at the very sight of their favorite hero irrespective of whether the piece of art is worth a clap or not.

Politics and Movies - These two fields are rotten big-time by self proclaimed fans who are nothing but a confused lot who get carried away by unwarranted bias for caste, lineage and such irrelevant affiliations. May they all get well soon !

Whom to choose between Parents and Life Partner ?

Marriage is THE most important event in anybody's life. It builds new relationships, changes lifestyle, brings more responsibility, matures you as a person. But some people inadvertently fall into a predicament of either compromising on their existing family relations and values to start a new phase of life or uphold old relations and end up not respecting the new relation it deserves.

Parent children relationship in Indian society is much different to that of other parts of the world. Parents don't wait for kids to get self sufficient and move out, they don't expect kids to work part-time to make their own living. From the time they give birth to their children, parents care, love, suffer, protect, pray for the well being of their children regardless of how old their kids are and regardless of the necessity to do so.

For a boy or a girl, parents will be everything; but with marriage, the dynamics tend to change. Attraction, liking towards that new important person of the life, a feeling of sharing the rest of the life, discovering new things about that person will drive a strong affinity which will make life partner as important as parents or siblings. Thats quite natural for everybody.

But just think from parents' point of view. They would be put in a situation to share the love, attention, affection from their child they were habituated to from past 25 years with a new person who came into their child's life some days or months ago. Parents will be mentally prepared, they know thats life, but still their heart always doesn't agree with their mind; it causes loneliness. Its just not fair.

Youth has to understand that parents need more attention and a feeling of possession in that phase. A boy has to assure his parents that he hasn't gone away from the family, but has brought another child for their parents. No guy neglects his parents deliberately, but proper care should be taken to ensure that his parents whole heartedly accept the girl as a daughter-in-law and not just as a wife to their son. It needs a lot of words and lot more actions.

The way of life should not be drastically different post marriage; Thats the first thing to make his parents feel "yes, he hasn't changed". He has to spend as much time with parents as he did before, do the same things, be the same. Thats very important. He has to help his wife in her trials to build confidence in his parents even at the cost of his own ignominy, thats worthy.

At the same time, the boy has to make his in-laws realize that he didn't separate their daughter from them. They have given their daughter away to an unknown family and would obviously be very apprehensive and nervous. Some words of love, some acts of togetherness will make them happy and content about their decision to get their daughter married to him. Treat them like your family. They need that love and care from their son-in-law to overcome the feeling that their daughter is away. After all, they are a family too.

Girl's role is equally important. When a girl enters a new family, she has three choices

• Be a wife to her husband and start changing him to make her dreams about married life come true.
• Try her best to show love to the family and treat her in-laws like the way she treats her own parents
• Try her best to show love to the family and treat her in-laws like the way her husband treats his parents.

Agreed that every girl enters a married life with lot of dreams and aspirations, but the day she decides to change or manipulate her husband to her tunes is the day when happiness in their lives starts waning. However loving her husband could be, no boy enjoys the feeling that he is being taken away from his parents.

The other two choices sound very close, but are different. Girl has freedom with parents, her parents can forgive if she hurts them or behaves stupidly. But for in-laws, the factor of forgiveness and taking it easy doesn't arise all the time. Its nobody's mistake, thats life in simple terms.

So a girl has to try treating her in-laws like her husband treats them or may be better than that. Initial months or a couple of years of such relationship will develop that mutual love, admiration and affection and parents tend to accept daughter-in-law as their daughter and not just their son's girl. That day, girl can not only tune her husband but also her whole family (including in-laws) to make her dreams come true as no in-law would not like to listen to the girl who came from other place to take care of them more than their son.

A girl always feels responsible for her parents too. So if a boy takes care of her parents, that reflects in a girl's behavior towards his parents. Thats a successful marriage. Happiness starts exactly there. And thats a lifetime of happiness.

Now comes the interesting part. How to behave with your life partner after the wedding.

Boy always speaks volumes about his parents to his fiancée, which is very common. Girl patiently listens to everything and says she loves to get into the family and loves the joint family. Even this is equally common :D

After marriage, the boy wants to show their parents that he is not a changed person, and thats really important as per the previous discussion in this article. At the same time, its also important for him to understand that a girl leaves her parents, siblings, old ways of life just to be with him. She arrives into a new family with lot of fears, apprehensions as she doesn't know behavior, attitude, tantrums, temperaments of the new family. This is a great sacrifice which she makes out of love and trust. She deserves a lot of respect and love just for that fact.

Dragging her into his world always works against the relationship. A girl who comes would be the youngest in the family in terms of age, maturity. She may or may not know how things work in his family. She may not know what irritates his parents or what are their ways of life. She may need to face ire of her in-laws. Sometimes she may get dejected, disappointed and would not even have her parents and siblings around to share. She comes into the family with aspirations and dreams and soon gets depressed and drags herself into a viscous web of negativity.

So a guy has to ease his wife into her new life by taking care of her, making his parents understand her habits, not forcing her to do anything which she doesn't like, not restricting her to talk or move freely with her parents, siblings, friends, not making negative remarks about her past life, making her feel free in the new atmosphere, doing things she likes, showering her with love and attention she expects. In short, a boy has to treat his wife as a princess, which would not be a herculean task (and especially if they got married recently) :)...she deserves it !

Girl floats in day dreams from the time the marriage is fixed. She starts weaving a wonderland with her husband and herself as protagonists. But she has to realize that her would be in-laws are important characters in her fiancé's life. She can't live a happy life by dragging him out of his family. A girl is brought up with the thought that she has to leave her parents after marriage. But boys aren't. So boys are not mentally prepared for any kind of transition and if something happens in that direction, they will be heart-broken (except if he is insanely selfish and ungrateful). So girl has to understand this predicament.

A girl also has to realize that her in-laws initially tend to get possessive about their son and hence expecting them to be super nice is only unfair to them. The quicker the girl makes her in-laws realize that she is not here to separate their son from them, the merrier her life would be. The moment she gets cosy and friendly with her in-laws, she can find her husband in her kitty in no time. It may take some time, but definitely happens. Thats the secret, not many girls know.

There will be lot of negative influencers like male chauvinists, ultra feminists, pseudo intellectuals, so called experienced bigots who try to brainwash youth as how to keep wife / husband / in-laws in "control". Beware, thats a slow poison. Heeding to those irresponsible pieces of advice will only turn the prospect of a happy family into a war zone.

A successful marriage need not be an arranged marriage or a love marriage. But it needs a union of two matured, understanding, loving people who can bring two families together instead of ripping apart their spouses away from their respective parents.

So the question in title, whom to choose between parents or life partner ?

Simple answer: You have to choose if parents and life partner are on opposite sides. Do you need to, if they are on the same side ?

So what can you do to get them on the same side ? Whatever on Earth it takes, its worth.

PS: After my marriage, my parents have gone out of their way to share their love to my wife and my wife bypassed me to become their daughter and she treats / calls them Amma and Nanna. So all of them are on the same side and pushed me on to the other side. They never cared and I don't complain either. Touchwood :)

How to be Bad ???

Life is all about actions and reactions and the kind of image, good or bad is created only by the way we act and react to situations and people. If we react favorably to others, goody good image will be condescended upon us or else we will be bad :) So the choice is between being good to others by reacting favorably to whatever others say or being bad to others by reacting according to our convictions. Since I'm not good by any means, I'm here to explain how to be bad :D

A decade ago, I read a book titled "Meeru Manchi Ammai Kaadu" written by eminent writer Yandamuri Veerendranath. It means "You are not a good girl" with a tagline which roughly translates to "But you are a girl with a good attitude". That's a must read not only for every girl, but for every boy too because that teaches how to mould a stable attitude without getting blindly carried away by others' opinions or directions.

World is full of people with perceptions and the bad part is that everybody perceives a situation in a different way. Everybody reacts differently, thinks differently, behaves differently and the definitions of success, happiness, failure vary from person to person. A solution for a problem would not be the same for everybody and everybody will be busy convincing others that their points of view are right :D This is the very reason for arguments, fights and negotiations

Just understand that like all others around you, you too are a person with an identity. You have tastes, thoughts, wisdom, experience, feelings which can guide you to behave in a certain way. Taking a piece of advice from others is always helpful, but the power of deciding what is correct and what is not FOR YOU lies only with you as you are the best judge of your sensibilities and senses.

If you continually live for others, follow their directions, appease and try to impress them, you will cease to live your beautiful life and end up being a pet. Even if you try to appease one person or set of persons, there would be somebody to find faults with you for sure. So never give much importance to what others think about you.

If you talk more, you will be called a chatterbox and boring, if you are composed, you will be called moody and boring :D; if you are dynamic, you are called childish, if you get vocal, you are argumentative and irritating; if you present your knowledge, people say you show-off, if you don't listen to others' advice, you will be seen as immature, if you don't agree with others' point of view, you will be called adamant and resistant. This goes on and on and on and on and...............

And this is not because others don't like you because even beloved ones don't see eye to eye on lot of things we do. Its just because of the difference in perception as I mentioned earlier. Now if we take the element of negativity like jealousy, greed, conspiracy, ignorance, anger, frustration etc, these opinions and images will transform from bad to worse and worst :D

So there is nothing called being good to the world all the time as sometime or somewhere everybody becomes bad in others' eyes. So NO BIG DEAL.

It all boils down to building convictions, developing decision making power and sticking to ideals we believe in. Its just being brutally honest to ourselves and not flowing in the tide of opinions, advices, expert comments :D

But there is a flipside too. You can lead a successful and happy life only if your convictions and decisions are correct for your way of life. Confused conviction is in common terms called as foolishness. So the conviction should be backed by knowledge, experience, wisdom, contingency plan, analytical thought, restraint, resilience, ability to cope up from setbacks, capability to bounce off harsh remarks. Without any of these qualities, having a strong attitude works against you.

There is one more highly confused and abused concept about "Attitude". Showing attitude is generally associated with being rude to others, displaying unnecessary arrogance, being judgemental about others. This is a quality of confused and immature.

People with strong attitude don't give a lot of importance to others' way of life, forget being rude and judgemental. Building attitude is all about assimilating knowledge through observation, study, experience from as many corners and possible and deciding what is right and what is wrong. Its not about being desperate to prove if others are right or wrong or if other should be respected, dominated or humiliated. Don't be bad due to what you do to others, just be bad due to what you do to yourself :)

BAD is the new GOOD. Good is not that good after all. Its BAD. So BE BAD

PS: Now after reading this whole article, its for you to decide if this makes sense to you or not as building your attitude starts right here. If you blindly follow what I wrote here without thinking twice, you are contradicting yourself :D

Music Masti Zindabad !!!

I have never come across any person with their head on shoulders who doesn't like music. If there is anything that can be declared as a universal hobby, thats listening to music, hands down.

Till I was 10, I didn't have any particular favorites and was randomly enjoying all songs played in radio. Those days, my mom was a Ghantasala fanatic and I always tried to decipher why she likes his songs so much. I was not a huge fan of him or any old Telugu songs.

The first time I seriously liked a song and yearned to listen repeatedly was SPB's "Ye Divilo Virisina Paarijathamo" which is a cult classic; and the first song I tried to (unsuccessfully) croon was "Vedam la Ghoshinche Godavari" :). I rate these two timeless songs as two of my first and also all-time favorite Telugu songs.

But if there is any album which took my feet off the ground and made me crazy about music and songs, it was "Aashiqui". The songs in that movie made me feel that Kumar Sanu and Nadeem Shravan were born only to make me realize that listening to music is the best thing to happen on earth. It won't be exaggerating if I say I listen to these songs atleast once a week even today. Yes, I've been listening to these songs continuously for last 21 years. That was the impact Aashiqui had on me. And I remember Aashiqui audio cassette was the first cassette I bought with my pocket money and thats my valued possession till date.

From then, I became a devotee of all Nadeem Shravan songs in general and their songs sung by Kumar Sanu in particular. Their albums that released between 1990 and 1995 are my die hard favorites which I saved in cassettes, then in CD's, then Mobile phone and now in iPhone. Those songs make me nostalgic and take me back to those adolescent years when I related these melodies with love, emotion, romance. My wife always says I got struck in 90's and she never understands why I get so crazy with those songs :)

Nadeem Shravan - Kumar Sanu albums which I can never forget: Aashiqui, Dil Hai ki Maanta Nahi, Saajan, Phool aur Kaante, Sadak, Dil Ka kya Kasoor, Sapne Saajan Ke, Jaan Tere Naam, Deewana, Hum Hai Raahi Pyaar Ke, Rang, Sainik, Dilwale, Salaami. Albums which were released post 1995 missed that touch and I somehow could not believe it was the same Nadeem Shravan of previous years.

AR Rahman: If anybody doesn't like ARR's music, there is something seriously wrong with them. Lot of critics flay his music as westernized which lacks melody. But I'm a bigger fan of his slow melodies rather than his fast beats. Melodies of his earliest movies like Roja, Padmavyuham (Vishwa Vidhatha in Hindi), Duet literally were breath of fresh air for me who was immersed in Kumar Sanu fever. I liked Rahman as a music director who made slow melodies in the era of nonsensical nuisance from his other contemporaries.

Maniratnam brought the best in him with Bombay, Dil Se whereas Shankar elicited fast beats from Rahman which are equally hysterical. The list goes on and on if I write my favorite Rahman albums. But for me Roja, Bharatheeyudu, Bombay, Prema Desam, Premikula Roju, Vishwa Vidhatha, Dil Se, Vande Mataram, Doli Sajaake Rakhna, Sakhi, Thakshak, Swades, YMC stand out. His music is the slowest poison and the irreparable addiction. Period !

I somehow feel his latest obsession with sufi music and fusion has diluted his awe inspiring music and I'm not his big fan of most of his recent works.

Kishore Kumar: If God exists, that must be Kishore Kumar. He triggered a tsunami in me when I discovered the genius in him, albeit very late. That happened during my engineering when I accidentally listened to some of his songs and without my own knowledge, I immersed myself in a whirlpool of Kishoreda mania. I so abused myself for having wasted my earlier years without listening to this person who is a vocal magician. The best thing is he didn't learn or intended to learn classical music. It came naturally to him.

"O mere dil ke chain", "Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si", "Mere Mehboob Qayamat Hogi", "Tere Bina Zindagi se Koi", "Chookar mere man ko", "Diye Jalte Hain", "Agar Tum na Hote", "Chalte Chalte", "Kuch tho Log Kahenge", "Mera Jeevan Kora Kagaz", "Mere Sapno ki Rani", "Raat Khali ek Quab", "Pyar Maanga Hai".....I can go on and on till I mention all 250 Kishore's songs which I have handpicked from various sources.

He is the only singer who can bring life to happy, sad, emotional, romantic moods with equal elan. Salute to him and RD Burman who gave him so many memories. Mukesh, Mohd Rafi, Manna Day, Mahendra Kapoor are more classical, but not as versatile as Kishore Kumar.

Lata Mangeshkar, aptly called as Nightingale of India, is a voice of Indian women. Her voice made heroines look good. Enough said ! Alka Yagnik and Shreya Ghoshal have heavenly voices who are taking Lata's legacy forward.

Ilayaraja is another late realization for me. I didn't know why was I so stupid to bypass the haunting melodies created by the one and only Maestro. Ilayaraja's music is the care of address for vocal melody. Instruments only enhanced his songs. Abhinandana is one of my all-time Telugu albums. There is no other album which is more versatile, more melodious and more heart-wrenching in the history of Telugu music..and I don't think any other album can surpass this in future as well. Abhinandana has been, is and will be the best.

1983-89 formed the golden era of Telugu music with Seethakoka Chiluka, Abhilasha, Saagara Sangamam, Sitaara, Anweshana, Swarna Kamalam, Geethanjali. Ilayaraaja's music was the perfect sync for K.Vishwanath's eternal classics.

Many older songs I liked in Telugu were coincidentally composed by KV Mahadevan: Muthyala Muggu ( my mom sings the title song better than anybody. I love the song), Sirivennela, Sruthilayalu are other feathers in his cap.

Fast forward to Indipop era, I so much liked Bally Sagoo's Bhangra Rap ( I didn't know what rap was at that time). Laung Gawacha, Gor Nal Ishq, Nain tere Jeha Hor Disda play in my iPhone very often :D. Liked Lucky Ali's Sifar and other albums, Adnan Sami's series of hits. Gagjit singh's ghazals are my tranquilizers :)

Speaking about singers, I somehow like almost all singers. Sonu Nigam's melodious ghazalized songs (especially in Papa Kehte Hai, Sangharsh), Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Shaukhat Ali Khan's sufi-ish songs, Devisri Prasad's beats, KK's high pitch renditions - can never get over them.

Though a lot of people don't appreciate, I am a big fan of Himesh Reshammiya and his kind of high pitch nasals too. I never felt those to be annoying.

English music is something I could not immerse completely into. May be due to my inability to comprehend lyrics in my childhood and that carried forward till late teens and by then I missed the chord to get rapt. But among the popular styles, I prefer Hip-Hop, Rap, R&B to traditional Rock, Jazz or Country. Though I love some rock songs like Final Countdown, Battle Without Honor & Humanity and also love guitar and drums, I could not relate much to rock or heavy metal music. And I feel jazz is way too boring for my liking; I don't even wanna talk about Opera. Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Akon, Dr.Dre, JLo are rapper/ musicians I heard and enjoyed.

People can disagree about the kind of music they like, but nobody can disagree with the fact that music is the ultimate sedative, addiction, time-pass, company, friend, filler and hobby one can ever have. So

MUSIC....MASTI....ZINDABAD

Historic Opportunity to India !!!

In the last few posts, I've been writing about cricket, movies, relationships, past memories and took a long hiatus from writing about any social issues or current affairs. But I felt its time I have to get back to one such important topic especially because this is the right time to do so, taking into consideration the revolution started by Anna Hazare.

Previously I have written about how corruption started in India and why is it impossible to stop corruption in the country (India - History of Corruption). I tried to analyze how goons, police, politicians, bureaucrats, media, judiciary, corporate world are helping each other in building an empire of corruption in India. But I guess, its time to take back few words with a tinge of optimism. Yes, I think "Its not impossible to fight corruption in India".

Lokpal Bill is a bill, if passed, will give special rights to a committee to investigate and prosecute any minister, people's representative (including chief minister or prime minister) or any politician or public servant. This bill has been suppressed by the Government for the past 42 years due to obvious reasons.

In the article about corruption in India, I explained that corruption starts at political / legislative level and people at that level influence executive, judiciary, media and corporate. The only problem till now is that politicians don't have a check and even if they are on the dock, they get away with weak judiciary which works as hand in glove most of the times.

India scores very high in human resources, natural resources, abundant talent, global powerhouses in industrial growth, academics and many other fields. India has people-power to work and tasks to be accomplished to develop the country. These people and tasks should be linked in a proper way to convert the country from developing to developed country; which is obstructed in a big way by the lawmakers and lawbreakers together.

The term politics is divine. Politicians are supposed to be those noble beings who strive for the development of the society with given funds without any selfish motives. But the post independent India has been witnessing a kind of politicians who pulled the very word politics in a wrong shadow. Raja, Kalmadi etc are only tip of the iceberg.

All we need is a body or a committee which is independent and which can take the legislation and executive by horns and can act as a judiciary with an iron fist. Current vigilance department, CBI, CID, anti corruption bureau are not efficient enough as they are often interrupted by politicians in various ways. Lokayukta and other Ombudsmen act in their capacities, their power is limited. We need a system to scavenge the society from these insects who are directly and indirectly responsible for India still being the developing country for the last 7 decades. Lokpal is the SOLUTION to check corrupt pests from the society.

The world is witnessing a strange phenomenon of drastic awareness. Jasmine revolution started in Tunisia. Then it took the whole of middle east by storm and first casualty was Hosni Mubarak, the dictator of Egypt. Today Libya, tomorrow Yemen, Brunei etc...May be India is on the list. India needs a campaign or a revolution to liberate itself from the clutches of democratic autocrats. The campaign has started as is snowballing into a war against corruption. Anna Hazare started it, a revolution in its inception, to establish Lokpal bill in its entirety and begin a crusade against corruption.

I first heard about Anna Hazare and likeminded people like Baba Amte back in early 1990's, thanks to sunday eenadu booklet. I was so impressed with Anna who could do so much to develop a village and make it a model village. These are the kind of people we need as our leaders. Not those who want to make money or a living out of politics.

Anna Hazare has been in social work since long time. He was involved in development of a model village and showed the world that politics is not all about exploitation. He showed the difference to the world and then started a revolution to change the whole country. Though he was in active politics, he was never into votebank or electoral politics. He is not affiliated to any political party or any associated groups. 

He is clear about his agenda. He is not afraid of getting mudslinged and branded as anti-establishment. He has taken the mighty Government of India without any kind of ill motives of prosperity. He doesn't boast about his past accomplishment. He knows he personally is not getting benefited even if his demands are accepted. He doesn't indulge in rhetoric, he is not charismatic, but has now become a face of common Indian.

This is a war against corruption, which India needs to win badly. This is the greatest opportunity, Indian masses can ask for to get rid of the corruption bogey. I know my individual support doesn't really make a lot of difference to this great campaign / revolution / war, but as they say, drops combine to become an ocean and am proud to be a drop in the ocean called Anti Corruption Wave. Are you ?

World Cup Victory - Not Just About Cricket

For the last 36 hours, the whole nation has been in a state of ecstasy and thats not going to die down anytime in the near future. So is my case. I'm in the victory hangover and have no intentions of coming out of that. When I saw news channels, I understood how the whole nation of 1.2 billion and diaspora of 30 millions NRIs throughout the world are in a rage of uncontrollable and insane joy and happiness. Now a quick question. Do you remember any other day on which the whole country was so elated with genuine, selfless and heartfelt pride ???

I know you can't remember, so can't I. I guess the previous such occasion was when India attained its freedom in 1947. Its neither an exaggeration nor a literary rhetoric. A victory in a tournament has swayed 1/4th of the world's population in such a way that many of them can easily say thats the happiest day in their lives. Nobody minded being a Gachibowli Diwakar or an Anupam Kher of Darr :) Wearing an Indian team jersey or holding an Indian flag was being considered to be a privilege. Tears of joy, chants of Indiaaaaaa India were omnipresent. All this for a simple win ?? No..

This win has brought a kind of pride in every Indian (including those NRIs who don't really like associating themselves with India). This win has put Indians on a pedestal where others can't reach. This win has asserted domination over other playing nations and ex-champions. This win has bolstered the patriotism that gets generated whenever a team of 11 guys enters the field with INDIA written on their jerseys. This win has upheld the belief of millions who prayed, followed rituals, sentiments for a cause which will no way benefit them. This win has brought every Indian together irrespective of religion, region, intellect, language, status or other barriers especially when everything else in political and other lines was going bad. This win has created a euphoria of national integration. This win has proved a point that INDIA IS THE BEST. So, its not just about a win in cricket.

Like we see morons opposing or criticizing every celebration of a positive vibe, there were few (like Ramgopal Varma) who either want to make some stupid impression by being "different" or don't know how to take pride in such things. But as I said, they are MORONS and matter ends there :)

Coming to my story of enjoyment, it had no bounds. I was closely following most of the matches in the tournament in general and matches India played in particular. Difference in time zones made me go to bed early and wake up by 4 or 5 am, which I would not have done otherwise even if my career or anything else was at stake. So that explains everything.

The last few days since quarterfinals were like festival or a household function which pulled me into this high spirits, sleepless nights, obsession and anticipation. Matches against Australia and Pakistan made me go weak in knees and the finals almost took my breath away. I hardly sat at once place and in the later stages of the match, I hardly sat at all. Cheering went berserk, screamed at the top of my voice till it went mute, brandished my fist till it pained. My white neighbors too cheered for India to show their solidarity, but most of them don't know that Canada too played in the tournament :D. I want to return their favor by wishing Canada to reach finals in the next world cup (only to get defeated by India in the finals). I know that wouldn't happen and my white friends can wait for their lifetime :)

Facebook cheering multiplied the excitement and made me feel like cheering with all my loved ones in a single place. My family (mom, wife, sister, mardal, bava) joined me in this e-cheering along with all my loved cousins and friends. Simply enjoyed it. Those who missed this Facebook cheering part missed a lot.

Coming to the match itself; like the whole country, I too felt so happy for Sachin. He deserves this and the better thing is the whole team were united, charged and motivated to gift these winning moments to the immortal stalwart. The tears which stayed in my eyes after winning, rolled down seeing Yuvi, Dhoni, Sachin, Bhajji cry. I didn't mind crying for this reason. If I remember, the last time I broke into tears was some 14 years back when I got EAMCET results :D

I'm so happy for captain cool as he needed that knock badly. After teaching India how to make winning a habit by getting T20 championship, ICC test ranking - 1, ICC ODI ranking - 2 (now 1:) under his leadership, and after proving what he is made of on and behind wickets, he still needed to make some runs to prove his mettle. Critics who have seen bad phases of demigods like Gavaskar and Tendulkar didn't realize the age old cliche that form is temporary but class is permanent. 11 members can play but captain is a joining thread and if anybody deserves the credit for world cup victory, its him for his team selection, field placement, order shuffling and above all his leadership and driving the unity and momentum, period ! Gary Kirsten's services were priceless too.

Sachin and Sehwag with their intimidating starts,Yuvi with his purple patch, Zak with his deadly missiles, Gambhir, Kohli and Raina with electric fielding and dependable middle order consolidation, Ashwin, Nehra, Munaf, Bhajji who proved that bowling is not India's weakness, taught the world what wonders can teamwork do. Sreesanth, Piyush, Yousuf can be forgiven in this utopia :).

Going back to my post match revelry, I was never so dotty is an understatement :) I violated all traffic rules, jumped signals, honked like crazy for no reason, hopped with joy, jumped with ecstasy, hugged some 100 people, screamed at every Indian looking guy, distributed sweets (bought at Sri Lankan store), shouted at my loudest voice before TV cameras. To keep it short, I was WILD.

I so wanted to write this post in the blog since yesterday but I was too busy with celebrations. Lot of my friends and cousins reminded me repeatedly to document the day in blog which I felt very sweet and humbling. Guys, this is for you. I was so surprised to see that my previous article Bleed Blue - De Ghumake gathered a whopping 263 views in 3 days, more than that of any of my previous articles. I'm sure a lot of them might have thought that article was about World Cup Victory. This post is also for them all :)

Till yesterday my Hawaii recount article was the most viewed article of the blog which had to bow to the cricket maniac world of readers :)

To conclude, just wanted to keep you informed that Bleed Blue became Bled Blue; De Ghumaake became Diya Ghumake; and I'm Loving It :))

Bleed Blue - De Ghumake

I would be crazy if I didn't write a post about Indian cricket team's dream run in ICC World Cup 2011 after the spectacular win against Pakistan. Before even I write something, I would like to scream aloud once...

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..India defeated Pak in WC Semifinal...OMG...I've been in this hangover for the last 10 hours; could not and don't want to get normal anymore in the near future..atleast till the team lifts the big cup on Saturday.

It would not be an exaggeration if I say that Indian cricket brings the nation together than anything else. Celebrations after Indian victory eclipsed Diwali, Holi, Id, Christmas put together; emotions charged up, people went berserk, patriotism crept in from nowhere and the very name "INDIA" brought goosebumps.

During Ind Vs Pak match, I screamed so much that my voice went mute for some time, my wife went berserk and danced like anything for fall of every Pakistani wicket, my mom wore her lucky mascot saree and chanted vishnu sahasranamam before and after the match, dad's frenzy had no limits, my sister came out of office to be on phone with me to listen to the live commentary for a couple of hours, friends in Facebook, celebs on twitter had a post and comment riot. Never did I experience this kind of delirium and mania.

Bleed blue is an apt campaign as everybody's veins and cells sport blue blood.

1983 was a distant history and nobody from the current generations have seen that. We are sick of finding solace and pride in Kapil Dev's 28 old year glory. This is the right time. NOW is the time for the team to bring that glory back and pamper the 1.2 billion maniacs for the unconditional love and support they have been rendering.

On paper, technically and practically, this team has everything to get to the pedestal and bring the cup home. Sachin "God" Tendulkar doesn't need to prove why is he the only person in this world who is called the God. He has been proving himself over and over again. But this is his last world cup and possibly his last big tournament. An era is soon going to end. He has seen every situation from the last 20 years and is immune to all kinds of bowling attacks. He has the capability, temperament, technique and love of billion plus people on this planet to deliver good result.

Otherwise too, the batting squad is formidable and its a proven fact too. Sehwag, the most intimidating batsman in the contemporary cricket world, Yuvraj, the soon-to-be-man of the series, ably supported by Gambhir, the sheet anchor, Raina, Kohli, both agile fielders and dependable batsmen.

Bowling, though not starstudded, is working fine with Zak at the helm with Yuvraj as surprise package, supported well by Bhajji, Munaf, Nehra (his last over against SA can be forgiven after his performance against Pak). Fielding has been reasonably good.

Dhoni's batting form has been the cause of concern. But in a team full of superstar batsmen, his failure in batting can be tolerated because of two reasons: His wicket keeping has been immaculate and his captaincy is working. A leader should always be a master strategist with his every decision, player selection, field placements, bowler rotations affecting the outcome. A captain should be a driving force for coherent team where players support each other and stand by each other. Thats exactly happening here.

Captain cool has been maintaining his dignity and calm in every situation, never getting into ugly and embarrassing situations, not engaging in rhetoric like Ponting or Afridi. He has proved himself as a better captain than most of the captains Indian team ever had, including Sachin Tendulkar (series of bad tournaments during his captaincy coupled with his own decline in form) and Rahul Dravid (2007 World Cup - India's worst performance after 1979 world cup). Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni are the kind of captains who build teams and get things done and co-incidentally all three took the team to the finals of World Cup, irrespective of their individual knocks or what critics say. Captain's efficiency is not directly proportionate to the runs he puts on the score board or his individual brilliance.

Coming to the imminent opponent, Srilanka could be a good team but they lost against Pakistan, didn't play against Aussies, defeated Netherlands, Kenya, Canada (all minnows) and NZ before getting into QFs.

Now Indian team has a band of batsmen who can deliver, pack of bowlers who started raising up to the situation, an inspiring coach in Gary Kirsten, an able leader and strategist in Dhoni, immense confidence after victories against Australia and Pakistan, first world cup final at home (Mumbai), blessings and love of 1.2 billion Indians - There is no reason, why Indian cricket team can't be CHAMPIONS 2011.


In Ind vs Pak match, history repeated as India again defeated Pakistan in WC. In Ind vs SL match, history is again going to be repeated (remember Ramayana ??? India defeated Lanka)


Think Blue, Act Blue, Bleed Blue


Jutaa Hosla, Badal Faisla, 
Khel Jamale, Kasam Uthale, 
Bajake Chutki Dhool Chata de.........


DE GHUMAKE !!!!!!