Dealing with DEATH - Steve Jobs way !

Steve Jobs' death shook the entire world with a rude jolt. 10,000 mourning messages per second in twitter explains how much he is adored by digirati, gadget freaks, movie buffs, music lovers, mactards and residents of virtual world. Despite countless articles about his innovation, gadgets, his contribution to the world is still under-rated, because he was a freaking brain behind a concept called GUI computer (computer with monitor and mouse) without which our lives would have been diagonally, ruthlessly and helplessly different. 

As somebody said innovating atleast one among Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad would have made anybody a legend. This man created all and hence can't be considered anything lesser than God ! A man behind alltime hit animation movies like Toystory, Finding Nemo, Cars has contributed immensely to the entertainment industry. Can you remember anybody else like him who single handedly influenced, indulged, changed lives of millions (er..billions), may be just Thomas Alva Edison or Albert Einstein. But this blog-post is not about his technological advancements, business acumen or marketing genius.

I think Steve was a bigger philosopher than anything else. He understood and explained life and death with incredible ease by setting an example. Born out of wedlock, adopted by somebody else, he slept on floor, walked miles to have a free meal - his life has been a long fight and he always won, except for the last time. A college dropout turning from rags to riches could only be a good fictional story, but for Steve. By 30, he was a head of a company which made him a multi-millionaire, something very few people can ever imagine, forget achieving.

But the real fighter in him emerged when he was fired from the very company he built. How many of us could get back from ashes to build another company and achieve a status and success to make same people who fired him begging him to come back. That needs real kickass conviction, belief, talent, guts and attitude. Not that he was always successful, but he knew how to come out of those failures unscathed to achieve bigger heights. Only REAL HEROES can do that. That's lesson of life, he taught the world by example.

Rejoining Apple was only the best thing to happen to the techie world. Still he lived, worked by his own terms which only Rajanikant could do in his films. He never dressed in a typical corporate style (atleast I never saw him in suits, blazers, tie, clean shaven look - which is being followed by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg too). His focus was concentrated only on innovation and excellence, success just followed that making Apple richer than US Government (it's not a joke :p). He implemented what our favorite 3 Idiots proclaimed. That's some real heroism !

Now the tougher part: Death; When he was diagnosed with Cancer in 2004, he was given a deadline of 3-6 months before death. A billionaire, an icon for millions, "the" most successful innovator of the generation, a real life fighter-winner, a hero, a conquerer - became vulnerable to a disease at 50. How would we react if we were in his position ?

At Stanford's commencement speech at 2005 (an youtube video gone viral), he expressed satisfaction that his cancer was cured and confessed that he wanted to live more, atleast for few more decades (today, it was so difficult for me to stop dropping a tear or two when I saw this part of the video). He spoke at length about death, utilizing time sensibly before we see the deathbed. He didn't sound like a technocrat or a celeb innovator. He was just human, hellbent on turning everything in his favor, even death !

Most of his quotes are being forwarded, presented on web for the last 2 days, but my most favorite one was when he asked if we would continue doing the same work if it was the last day in our life ? It knocked me off my feet. As a person who witnessed death from such close quarters, he subtly but effectively presented the importance of time and life, which we take for granted. He didn't take life for granted both before or after his diagnosis. 

Eventually he had to come to terms that countdown to his death has begun; he famously said that he felt everyday was his last day as if he was waiting for his death. He also happened to read his own obituary accidentally published by some over-enthusiastic publisher when Steve was still alive. He planned his farewell dinners (:O). How strong should one's heart be to handle the looming death, languishing health, obituary messages, succession plans and invitations for farewell dinners? But even then, he chose what to do, whom to meet, how to spend his last few days (!) Mind-blowing. I saw this temperament in Gitanjali movie, nowhere else.

His birth, life, success, failure, death - none was ordinary. But he managed everything extraordinarily. Though we are talking about him because of his success stories, his life and death are motivational stories in itself, notwithstanding his professional success. I repeat, he is the best philosopher and a story-teller I've known who showed the world how to live and how to die - with an example that only legends can set.

May be, I should not get so melodramatic or sentimental about a public figure, but I genuinely feel the loss of this enigmatic, charismatic epic called STEVEN PAUL JOBS !

“I want to put a dent in the universe.” – Steve Jobs

A Tale of Five Cities

Warangal, Hyderabad, Kurnool, Bangalore & Toronto - for me, these names bring in a wave of memories, emotions, associations, love, nostalgia and a sense of belonging. These cities complete "Me". My association with these places in a nutshell:

Warangal: A person can go anywhere in the world but can't disown his birthplace. Warangal is intertwined with my life in a big way. That's the place where my roots lie; my parents were born and brought up there; I was born there; every anecdote I hear from my family since my childhood is invariably linked to the city. whenever I see my passport, it reminds me where I belong to; whenever news channels report anything about Warangal, a reflex action occurs regardless of how stupid or useless that news bite is; whenever anybody says good words about the city, an amusing happiness seeps in.

Ironically, I can literally count the number of days I lived in Warangal because I was just born there but was completely brought up in Hyderabad. In my childhood, 8 out of 10 families (5 paternal, 5 maternal) among my extended family lived in Warangal thus making it the only holiday spot or a getaway for me and my sister.

All my childhood summer vacation memories, bonding with cousins, train journeys, first hand experience of a rural milieu (my paternal grandparents lived in a village near Warangal city), witnessing my grandfather addressing village conflicts in his daily darbar, experiencing out-of-the-world respect from the entire village, being addressed "chinna panthulu" - these memories are injected deeply in blood and soul -to remain for life :)

Though my extended family moved to Hyderabad, there are many more relatives in Warangal. My parents and close relatives say there is our relatives' house in every street of the city at an average. When I visited Warangal to distribute wedding invitation cards, we visited around 40 households in a day; a Facebook group solely for my cousins (and a chain of their cousins) most of who belong to Warangal is 700+ strong :) This explains my social ties with the city :)

Hyderabad: If you ask my wife as what am I passionate and obsessive about, she replies "Hyderabad" without any hesitation. As said, once a Hyderabadi, always a Hyderabadi ! I'm a Hyderabadi by choice, chance and conviction. I think, behave, live like a pakka Hyderabadi so much that my orkut profile name says "Chandu Hyderabadi". Yes, I can replace my last name with Hyderabad. May be that's called IDENTITY.

The environment during childhood shapes a person but Hyderabad has been shaping up my attitude, behavior since the time I could remember (and earlier too). If I have to write about my love, experiences and association with Hyderabad, I should simply start writing my autobiography ;)

I wear my Hyderabadiness on my sleeves and the city runs in my blood. Enough said !

Kurnool: It often happens that we learn more about life when we are out of our comfort zone. Kurnool happened to me like a training center for life. 17 years of indulgence, whims and fancies were abruptly put to a pause when I moved to this city for my engineering (b'cos 4600 was too big a rank in EAMCET 1997 to bag admission in a good engineering college in Hyd). So initial few months were a unique blend of unlimited and unchecked freedom and emotional roller-coaster ride.

Being away from family was much more difficult than I was prepared for; I was missing friends, Hyderabad, love and affection while the entire world turned upside down to me. For the first time, I realized the need to take care of myself and build an attitude. There was nobody to guide, console, rectify. This environment gave me a golden opportunity of self realization which helped me get rid of my kiddish ways to give way to a more extrovert, practical and aggressive approach.

I don't know how my life would have been if I did my B.Tech in Hyderabad, but my stint in Kurnool has helped me mature in a big way. I slowly fell in love with the city, relished the exposure to a different milieu, culture, slang, attitude, ways of life. Four years in a place will automatically create some soft corner in the heart and I'm no exception. Now I take pride in my association with Kurnool and as in the case of Warangal, my reflex action works here too :) (Read: Remembering College Days)

Bangalore: Never in my life did I think, Bangalore would be one of the important places in my life. That was one of many other cities till I was 25, when my life swayed uncontrollably with advent of my girlfriend (now wife) in my life. When I proposed to her for the first time, she was working in Seoul, Korea and for the next 2 years she traveled between Bangalore and Seoul for every three months. So I had a chance to meet her once in three months. In those breaks, we made sure she traveled to Hyderabad and I went to Bangalore to spend as much time with each other as possible.

That phase is associated with so many sweet memories when Bangalore (and Hyderabad) witnessed our sweet nothings, blossoming love and romance. Bangalore was (is) so much like Hyderabad in terms of lifestyle and it didn't take time for me to relate myself with the city.

I got engaged, married in Bangalore and that made the city even more special :)

Toronto: If Warangal is my janmabhoomi, Hyderabad is my karmabhoomi, Toronto happens to be my dharmabhoomi (if this suits the rhyme :$). Toronto made an unimaginable, unfathomable difference to my life standards, lifestyle, career, image and what not.

Toronto is my first destination out of India. After studying, working and fooling around in India for 27 years, I got my first opportunity to expand my horizons in terms of career, knowledge and exposure. While I haven't done significantly more than what I did in India, returns were manifold. I'm blessed with opportunities, success, luck, good wishes, respect in such a way that today I feel I'm living a dream.

Toronto has bestowed me confidence and attitude that will drive my life in a different gear till the very end !

These five cities make my tale and hence I wrote this Tale of five cities !

Turning Point in Telangana Movement

This drama of separate Telangana or United AP has been a topic of intense and vitriolic debate for past many years in general and last 2 years in particular. But there is a stark difference in agitation before and after 2009.

Before 2009, there were some vocal Telangana separatists who went hammers and tongs, but at the same time there were equal number of people in Telangana (if not more) who were pro-united who didn't endorse separate statehood despite acknowledging and realizing problems Telangana has been facing. The very reason was they thought separate statehood would only benefit politicians and scamsters but will not serve common man in any way. And its 100% right.

But the day Chidambaram made the statement that Telangana statehood process will be initiated, the entire dynamics changed and the change was due to the flagrant expression of resentment by Seemandhra masses towards Telangana movement. Seemandhra agitation which started after that announcement openly questioned the rationale behind Telangana movement and started a campaign claiming Hyderabad was developed by them and hence can't yield the city to Telangana (the movement was actually for control over Hyderabad but ironically called Samaikhyandhra - though nobody from seemandhra wants to be united with Telangana districts (except Hyd)).

Though Telangana and Seemandhra protestors criticized each other after that announcement, there was a fundamental difference. Telangana protestors were abused only because they were fighting for separation of a state, nothing else. But Telangana protestors had more reasons

1. Seemandhra protestors were against their main objective of achieving Telangana statehood.
2. They have been facing issues with seemandhra people in terms of culture, economy, development, imbalances. 
3. Govt of India almost granted them their state but was wrested by a counter-movement by Seemandhra protestors thus arm-twisting the government
4. They had to bear new claims from Seemandhra protestors that they have developed Hyderabad and without their contribution, Telangana would be an under-developed, dark-age place.
5. They were dubbed as mindless thugs who were playing in the hands of politicians and nobody knows why they needed Telangana

These reasons obviously didn't go well with Telangana separatists, but also posed a grave identity and cultural threat to even those moderate Telanganites who resisted separate statehood movement. No Telanganite (regardless of his/her support to the separatist movement) could take a comment that their existence is solely because of somebody else. This was a major turning point for the entire Telangana movement which catapulted huge number of masses behind the movement and this difference can be easily measured with the kind of protests, strikes, bandhs going on today.

Till 2009 the issue was only development and exploitation, but since then it has become a true sentimental, emotional, egoistic and identity crisis related situation.

Contrary to the popular notion that Telangana protesters don't know the rationale behind their protests, a lot of them do know and yes, there are a hell lot of reasons. I have mentioned the most notable reasons in my previous blogpost in early 2010 (Read:My Take on Telangana Issue) in which I tried to present views of both Telangana protestors and Telangana pro-united people.

But there are still protesters and agitators who don't really know these developmental reasons for what they are protesting. They simply can't get along with Andhra people. That's because everyone of them has faced some kind of discrimination from Andhra people in their own Telangana land. This is something which a lot of people who live in Andhra and Rayalaseema don't know or can't relate with. Though Telangana people don't like Andhra slang, they never went to Andhra area and ridiculed them. While we can't generalize, that happened a lot in Telangana.

Whenever any Telangana slang or terms were used, their Andhra counterparts either laughed or "corrected" implying theirs is a correct way of speech. That happened with me too. My telugu teacher referred to Telanganites as "Telangana Vedavalu" with a pinch of agony that those "vedavalu" were adulterating the language. That might be correct but that's what these "vedavalu" were brought up around and they have been using in their own area. Their way of speech has been ridiculed in movies, literature and that's the baggage they have been carrying throughout their lives. Every person who is on streets today protesting for Telangana has faced this sometime. So they don't just need any economic, social, political reasons. Their identity has been subject to ridicule and discrimination in their own land and that's enough. Period !

The most important reason for the huge influx of Telangana protesters post 2009 is due to the claims that Hyderabad or even worse Telangana flourished only because of favors done by their Seemandhra cousins. A city with 400 years of history which was made a combined capital of AP only because of its rich infrastructure, wealth and resources and Telangana which is blessed with resources providing electricity, coal reserves for entire south India, which is blessed with affluent resources like almost 70% of Godavari, Krishna waters, an area which was the richest area in India before merging with Andhra - needed no "contribution" from any one region. (Read: Who Developed Hyderabad ?)

Telangana and Andhra were never together in the history, but were unified with a rider that they can part ways if they can't get along (Gentlemen's agreement) - which is now unfortunately not discussed. Ironically fore-fathers of same "united AP" protesters once protested for a separate state from Madras state because of the very identity crisis but cry foul if others implement the same logic.

Yes, politicians were reasons for this mess going on to an extent. But politicians can't drag students, housewives, trade unions, government employees to come to streets, commit suicides (600 since 2009 as claimed), lose their salaries, disrupt their own life, risk the brand of their city if they don't have that angst and distress in their belly.

I know that separate Telangana will not cure all issues faced by the region, but even independence from British didn't cure all issues India is facing now !

Handling Admiration !

However stupid or moronic a person could be, he will have admirers for sure. However practical or disinterested the person could be, he will get affected by admiration and respect he receives, period !

Our social behavior depends on how seriously we take admiration shown by others, how emotionally we connect with our admirers and how grounded we can be despite positive attention. This makes a hell lot of difference in public perception and self confidence too. So handling admiration is as important, if not more than handling criticism (handling criticism will be addressed in my next blog post).

Admiration - taken seriously:

Admiration or liking is often unilateral or one dimensioned. Except immediate family members and close loved ones, nobody likes us for whatever we are. So if others express their admiration, its only because they like certain talent, behavior or physicality in us. Such admiration should be wholeheartedly thanked, appreciated but can't be construed as unconditional love because if those admirers are exposed to us as a package, their admiration may (!) turn into resentment :) The best way to handle such situations is to enhance, develop, project traits or talents which are admired without letting the success affect our behavior in other areas.

Perfect example for this is political entry of Chiranjeevi. People flocked to his movies because they liked him onscreen. But he took the popularity way too seriously and rest is history ;) Most of the celebrities undergo this syndrome and unintentionally become susceptible to their ego and over-confidence.

Some people may genuinely like us but that can be due to misinterpretation or false projection. Virtual world including internet, facebook, twitter, instant messengers made easy for people to selectively and subconsciously present themselves to the world and there is ample scope for online buddies to misinterpret what is said, written, shown or projected. Any admiration based on such misinterpretation is always short-lived.

(BTW, there is a popular joke gone viral that nobody is as good looking as their facebook display picture and as ugly as their drivers license. LOL. Don't know about others, but that's apt in my case :P)

Time changes. So do opinions and tastes. Those who like us today may not really have the same feeling tomorrow. So unless and until the admiration is consistent, it can't be taken to head. Some people say good things out of courtesy which doesn't mean we should go overboard and start imagining ourselves to be on the top of the world. And not to mention, there will always be people who admire us with a preset agenda / hypocrisy. So always take flamboyant praises and lavish paeans with a pinch of salt before succumbing.

Connecting with admirers:

The first thing to do is not to take anybody for granted just because they expressed their liking towards us. Their liking or admiration can be temporary but the respect we can earn by reciprocating love by some genuine affection by smile, hug and other gestures will be permanent.

World is brutal and finding people who like us is not always easy. We may or may not always get close to those we like, but we always have an option of becoming friends and build relationship with those who like us. No two ways about it. We can't choose blood relations, but we can definitely choose friends, soulmates, 3-am-buddies and whats better than building up such relationships with those who like us. huh ?

But another aspect of connecting with our admirers is to project ourselves as a complete package so that they can decide if they can really tolerate us or not ;) And invariably we will see a lot of them drifting away which is healthy because we can understand whom to take seriously and whom not to.

I posted this status on FB few days back "Life is long enough to meet people who genuinely like us. Experiencing love from them is boon ! World is big enough to find people whom we genuinely like. Expressing love towards them is bliss !" and I meant every word. Just that we should identify who like us and whom we can like. Its not easy, but its worth !

Letting go of people who don't share positive feelings anymore is equally important. As mentioned earlier, times do change and subsequently people do change; circumstances and situations change. We may have to face days when somebody who admired us the most drift away; we should be large hearted to let go because they may have a lot of reasons to revisit their opinion and in that case cringing to retain the "impression" or opinion is futile and meaningless. Don't take it too personally. If some go away, new people come into your life (remember: life is long enough and world is big enough)

Being Grounded:

The direct and immediate consequence of being admired is steep rise in confidence levels in a positive way and ego in a negative way.

Whenever somebody expresses their admiration, try to think about all our negative traits and then analyse if that person can like us despite knowing those traits or not. This exercise will invariably keep us grounded even in case of the most mellifluous and liberal praises. Arrogance would give way to channelizing and streamlining the admiration into building confidence and maturity.

Though I don't receive a lot of admiration myself, all those who consistently liked me ended up being my favorites too and I treasure them and the bonding I share with those special people;

Slaves to Accent !

Just imagine yourself mispronouncing any english word or a white guy's name or speaking english in a desi accent; what would be the impression bestowed upon you ? You would be unanimously seen as a yokel.

Now imagine an english guy pronouncing your (desi) name or any hindi or telugu or Indian word. or even worse your fellow desi mispronouncing or "trying to" mispronounce desi names and words; now what would be the impression conferred upon him ? A westernized, modern, stylish etc.

I don't disrespect English language. Infact I love the language; my whole life, like most of my peers', revolves around english and most often I think in english. I know the importance of the language in contemporary communication, presentation and I completely subscribe to the idea of enhancing english skills out of love and necessity of the language. But does that mean that all those who are good at english are intelligent and all those who can't are mindless creatures ?

Mani Shankar Iyer, Indian cabinet minister recently ridiculed his cabinet colleague Ajay Maken that the letter written by him (Maken) contains complex english words and hence the letter could not have been written by him as he studied in so and so college (!!!). This is heights of snobbery and psecudo-elitism. English speaking or pronunciation is never a yardstick for intelligence or success. Did Anna Hazare speak sophisticated english to capture the imagination of India ?

Blood boils when some telugu anchors of Gemini TV, Maa TV shows talk telugu in "accent". I don't really understand the influence under which they were brought up, but even if they were completely westernized (which I don't think so anyway), nobody in India gets a firangi accent even if they talked in English at home, period ! But these chicks try to emulate that accent while speaking vernacular languages. That's BULLSHIT and stooping down to the shoes of English masters !

Pronunciation, grammatical accuracy, phonetics make the language sound good, not accent. Accent or slang is something which is developed by social influence especially during childhood. And Indian residents never had/have such society. Celebrated Indian english scholars and authors like JL Nehru too didn't have that. Accent needs a mixture of idioms and slang to sound authentic.

Among NRI's the perceptive discrimination is striking. For immigrants, its a vogue to "sound" like localites and since they can't bleach their skin, they try doing that with their tongue. But the hidden truth that can be applied to most of these neo-firangs is that they desperately want to conceal their inferiority complex of being an "Indian English" speaker.

Heights of inferiority complex: Some NRI parents never let their children learn their mother tongue and take pride in telling their relatives and friends back home that their kids are completely angrez and don't know their mother tongue. Pity on them !

The fact that most new immigrants don't realize is that white guy's accent is not uniform. In US alone there are almost ten accents and people of one region often find difficulty understanding others'. There is a brooklyn accent, south accent etc. Canadian accent is different, British accent is so much different. All these people take digs at each other's accent and we guys try to copy them, but we don't know whom we are copying among so many tribes :D

Italian-english is well acknowledged, east-european english too has its flavor. Unless and until italians or east europeans were born in US, they don't really change their accent or way of speech. Indian- english is unique too and is well acknowledged. There are certain words only Indian english speakers use, for example: doing the needful etc. But that's perfectly fine boss, every dialect has its flavor ! Nobody is a shakespeare !

English is important, but so are other languages. So when a white guy pronounces my name as "Shraawt" or "Churot" (yes, they even wrote this, once) instead of "Sharath", I don't really take offence because I know they are not made to pronounce Indian words, that's how they were raised in their society and that's perfectly normal. I would be confused and puzzled if he addresses me like my Indian friends. We should also share the same equation. We are not made to speak english (or hindi or telugu) in westerner's accent and that's normal and hence any artificiality only reflects desperation. I just agree that our pronunciation and phonetics should be right so that others can follow our speech, nothing else !

I've been an NRI for last 5 years and I didn't get a bit of accent and neither will I in another 50 years. Because that's something I can't get and don't want to get either. But I take pride in the fact that my english is better than 90% of those who try to ridicule desi accent-ed english and also many indigenious english speakers. I take EQUAL pride in my knowledge of my mother tongue (telugu), it's grammatical nuances like sandhulu, samasalu, chandassu, alankaralu and also in my conversance with my national language (hindi). I'm not ROOTLESS !

From Boyhood to Manhood

When I was in my teens and early 20's. I thought anybody who crossed 25 was an oldie and now am 31 but I feel this is my prime-time :) Amidst all hectic schedules, hullabaloo and struggle for existence thingy, I found some time to ruminate over gradual transition and development of "me", my thought process, values and attitude towards life. This post is just a reflection of what I understood as my transition from boyhood to manhood.

At my current phase, I can clearly and unambiguously categorize my post teenage years as 19-23, 24-28, 29- present, as my opinion about world and myself witnessed a paradigm shift with age.

19-23 for me was, like in anybody's case, wild, volatile and unstable phase. I was a boy subconsciously trying to behave like a man. With newly found freedom, exposure to the world, situations demanding and teasing my decision making prowess - that was an age which forced me to defy all rules and norms of society; ironically that was the age when I didn't know much but aimed at taking over the world. It was sheer ambition and rage of fire in the belly.

Superficial knowledge and limited exposure combined with unlimited arrogance is a lethal combo but that combo conferred upon me this attitude which some people refer to as devil-may-care-attitude. The obvious set of traits like carelessness, negligence, headweight, irreverence, idiosyncrasy crept into my head. Though I don't like this kind of attitude in others, I unknowingly fell into the same bracket at that age. When I see kids of that age group behave similarly, I see my old self in them :)

With age comes knowledge and a tinge of knowledge was bestowed upon me in the next phase i.e., 24-28. This is usually an age of revelation and confusion and I see people belonging to this age group consider their younger lot as confused and ignorant while they themselves fall in those traits :) and that's quite normal; I was no exception.

I was expected to be more mature, responsible and take decisions which shape my life forever. Diplomacy, machiavellianism, chutzpah took the place of innocent arrogance. I thought I could manipulate anything in the world and impress anybody with my smartass attitude; Always tried to impress everybody around with whatever I could, tried to take undue credit for every damn thing that happened around me, resisted any kind of value addition or pieces of advice from elders and more experienced. That's where confusion started, but the other side of the coin is that transition in mindset was initiated.

24-28 is also an age where people get settled in terms of life partner and career. These are the biggest factors that could / can affect any damn person to get back on the right track and understand what "life" is. Anybody who has not settled in either of these will remain confused for sure and if it doesn't happen till late 20's, the situation will become psychologically and socially worse and the worst thing is they never realize the effects.

Life before marriage is like a flight on runway. Until it takes off, flight can't be considered operational. Marriage makes a person more responsible, wise and stable in every way possible. Balancing life, balancing feelings and respect towards parents, life partner, understanding their insecurities and providing the much needed support to loved ones will throw any person into altogether a different world. But this transition doesn't happen in a day. It takes months and years to completely get into the idea and understand technicalities. It only comes with experience and once you are a pro in this, life seems to be totally under control. This happened to me and I feel so much lucky that my parents and my wife made this transition smoother than what it would have been for most of the people. Read: Whom to choose between parents and life partner

24-28 is also the phase when we tend to understand the difference between a job and a career, money and job satisfaction, vulnerability and stability, importance to professional and personal lives and a lot more. The kind of exposure and situations around will make a person more mature and thoughtful. Again, I'm no exception.

In this way my 24-28 helped me, exposed me to lot more situations, pulled me out of my boyhood and kept me in a staging or transition stage before I could become a man. It was a confusing stage as I had to come out of the shell created in my early phase and understand the reality of the world.

29 - present for me is a golden age, perse. As mentioned earlier anybody above 25 was an oldie for me but I believe I got my senses and controls back only after 28 :) By then I knew what the world was, faced many dire situations, knew how to handle stress, pressure, could handle any kind of offensive. I am now mentally and emotionally stronger.

With age also comes wisdom and I believe am much wiser now. I again broke the shackles of manipulative attitude and understood how important it is to be loved and respected. Human values, principles, social responsibility have become vivid. Everything in life is as clear as crystal.

The difference in attitude was that in early 20's I didn't care what others thought about me, in mid 20's I tried to impress others with smartass knowledge and kickass attitude but now I realize that we just need to be ourselves and be expressive and people will automatically love you. Life has mellowed down and eccentricity has given way to thoughtfulness.

This is also a phase where for the first time, I got close to a lot of people who are either much elder to me or younger to me. This gave me a 360 degree view of how life is perceived by people of all ages at the same time. I could see how people 10-15 years elder to me defied all rules of age and are living a life of their comfort. They never took their age seriously and behaved the way their heart wanted. They now do everything which a 22 year old guy can do (except flirting and courting though :p). And guys and girls younger to me showed me how world is getting faster and ruthless. I see teenagers and young adults with awe and feel good when they share their knowledge, ideas, treat me with respect which I never did in their age :) I know the times are changing and it has encouraged me to keep up to the world.

Most of my hobbies, travel, extreme sports happened in this age. I started interacting with more people now than I did in my mid 20's. I'm getting more compliments and appreciation for what I do; I'm garnering more respect when I'm not trying hard. I am clear as how to deal with negativity and worthless people (Read: Dealing with Negativity), deal with failure (Read: Dealing with Failure), how to be happy (Read: Rules to be Happy). My family life has been blissful (touchwood) with the only concern that my parents are not with me (which will be addressed very soon though). My parents, wife, sister, brother in law, parents in law, sister in law love me unconditionally. My word is well respected among all my family members and they all know I love them and care for them. 

This phase of age witnessed my complete settlement in career. I have no insecurities or qualms about making money. I'm in a stage where I have gained knowledge, experience and right attitude to sustain myself; I'm more than satisfied with my work, I'm happy with the kind of educational background I have and the way I'm putting it to use as well. Am the happiest when more than 200 people approach me and say I'm in someway responsible for their career. Bliss !

So I'm wiser, more intelligent, more enterprising, happier, richer, respected, more secure than I ever was. In short I'm happy with how my life is going on and can definitely say that this is the best phase of my life compared to younger days. This is the reason I don't miss being a teenager or younger.  I know I'm a MAN now, not a boy anymore and I'M LOVING IT. I believe my life in coming years will change further and am all game to take it into my stride.

How to deal with FAILURE !

Depression, disappointment, fear of failure, worry, tension, nervousness, anxiety....all these negative emotions are results of a simple fact that we always want our life to go according to our plans, decisions and simply rate our success or failure based on whether we could do what we planned or not.

If you study yourself or the people around you, you will realize this. Somebody would be sad because they lost money (which they did not expect), some others would be dejected in life because they could not marry their loved ones (again against their expectations), some would be disappointed because their boss took away the credit deserved by these poor souls (they expected the credit and recognition), they went unnoticed (when they tried hard to impress somebody), their plans got delayed (career, marriage, childbirth - which they expected to happen in certain time frame) or take any instance of disappointment, the underlying point is THEY EXPECTED SOMETHING WHICH DID NOT HAPPEN; and they hence came to the conclusion that they failed in something or they were incapable. So the basic definition of success and happiness have been completely misunderstood

SOLUTION: Just ask yourself, if something didn't happen accordingly, what is the worst that can happen ?

• Money: If you lost money or incurred huge losses, what will happen ? Your lifestyle will be affected a bit, but whats the worst to happen ? You will come to streets. Nothing more can happen due to lack of money. If you come to streets, then what ? You will have to start everything from scratch, can't you ? You can, because you are not 75 yrs old, you have an entire life ahead of you and you can build your life again with whatever knowledge, talent you have. May be if you invest 5-10 more years, you will again settle in the life and can spend some 30-40 more years after that. Can't you do that? This is a worst case scenario which usually wouldn't happen. If there is a solution even for the worst case, why are you so petrified of petty losses. Loss of hundreds, thousands or even millions is not a big deal, if you are made of will of steel. Read: How important is Money ?
• Relationships: Do whatever you can to save a relationship, but if it is not working whats the worst to happen? You will lose the relationship, rapport, love and affection. That's bad but will our life end with that ? Definitely not. The pain will linger for maybe days, months or years in some cases. But life is much longer, unpredictable. Even if you take 5 years to heal from a bad relationship, that's perfectly OK. You will have 50 more years during which you will find people who will love you or care for you better than those you lost. Read: How to cope up with bad relationships
• Humiliation: If you lose respect or importance or get humiliated before the whole world, then what ? Do you think the world around you is obsessed about you to keep thinking about you and how insulted you were ? They would remember your humiliation only when they see you the next time and tend to forget after you meet them 3-4 times. Even if they changed their opinion on you. SO WHAT ? In the lifetime to come, you will meet many more people, situations, circumstances where you would be appreciated and loved too. MOVE ON. Read: How not to care others' opinion on us !
• Career: Do your best to succeed in your education and career. But what if you couldn't make it big. The world is so big and enterprising that people of every background and success levels have ample scope to live happily. Happiness is not directly proportional to educational qualifications, kind of job you are doing. The richest, most powerful, most educated people have their own set of insecurities, problems to deal with which you are not aware of. Read: How to make an entrepreneurial career !
• Marriage: Most of the cases, the people subject to late marriages or childbirths are more worried about social pressure than about the reason itself. Do you know anybody in your vicinity who didn't get married for life (unless planned for celibacy or bachelorhood) ? NOBODY. Everybody will definitely get married and make babies whatsoever at some point of time. Sometimes it gets delayed by days, months or years but IT WILL HAPPEN with very few exceptions. Even if you fall under those exceptions, just come to terms with the reality and realize that the society will raise that topic once or twice, not every time you face them. You will have many more ways to compensate the issue, if any.
• Death: You may have to face trauma before death and the duration of trauma depends of the kind of death. BUT the duration will definitely not be a lifetime. The maximum can be a couple of years. When you are expected to live some 80 years at an average, why worry much about those inevitable 2 years especially when you don't know when will that occur. So when it happens, you will not have a choice but to face the situation, so don't even acknowledge this factor and as Facebook status messages say "learn like you will live forever and live like you will die tomorrow". 78 remaining years are fun-filled.
• Others: Now if you are ready for worst case scenarios in terms of money, love, career, marriage, kids, respect and even death. is there anything else that can worry you ??? :)

Just take a chill pill and live your life king (queen) size. Read: Rules to be Happy !

Now that we discussed about dealing with supposed "failures", lets have a sneak peak at the lsome success stories:

Do you think Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook aiming to become a billionaire ? Do you think Columbus discovered USA expecting it would be a superpower today ? Did Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Anna Hazare etc start their agitations expecting nationwide support ? You can take thousand more examples of inventions, discoveries, corporate powerhouses, success stories; most of them were unexpected "MERE ACCIDENTS". So success is very overrated. Overconfidence, arrogance, conceit are bad byproducts of overrating the concept of success.

Thomas Edison had to face hundreds of failures before he could invent a working model of electric bulb. When asked if he is disappointed with so many failures, he said, each time he failed, he understood the way to avoid in his next attempt. In this way he avoided 99 wrong ways to reach the right way by implementing rule of omissions. So realize failures are very important for us to know what not to do, keep us grounded, make us tougher. But failure is often underrated. Depression, disappointment, nervousness are bad byproducts of underrating and overemphasizing failure.

In this context, I would use a quote shared by one of my cousins:

"Do you remember the things you were worried about an year ago? How did they work out? Didn't you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn't most of them turn out all right after all?

No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be a better tomorrow. Don’t be too long crying over anything. Things you’re crying about right now maybe things you’ll be grateful for late...:)"

Bottom line: Success is overrated; failure is underrated and overemphasized. So after every failure ask yourself  "so, whats the worst that can happen ? don't I have age enough to start everything again ? can't I deal with that ?"

US Economy Crisis: Effects on common people in US, India, Canada

United States of America has long been considered as the most developed, advanced country, which is partly true but the country's prosperity we see in terms of infrastructure, roads, buildings, research & development etc or the kind of prosperity projected in Hollywood movies comes with a heavy...infact very heavy baggage which can be an unbearable burden to not only US but also many other countries of the world, and its a 100% truth when I say almost every person in 3/4th of the world would be affected in some way or other due to the current economic crisis in US; and most of the cases, its pure mayhem and bloodbath.

Most of the commoners who are not really conversant with economics, political situation, stock markets don't take this situation seriously until they face the heat themselves (which is now, very much impending). This post is written with an intention to inform beginners and laymen as what this US crisis may mean to them.

First things first: US is not as rich as it projects itself or as people perceive.Yearly revenue of US is around $2.5 trillion dollars and expenditure is around $4 trillion dollars. It means every year the deficit comes to around $1.5 trillion dollars and the current total unpaid debt is in the tune of $15 trillion dollars which is expected to go up gradually.

Another problem is that US' liquidity (cash amounts which can be used) is relatively very low and if US is forced to pay debts in large amounts, there is no way for US but to make a default or skip payments.

So three solutions for US to deal with this situation (if they ever want to deal with this problem) are:

1. Dramatically reduce expenditure
2. Skip payments - especially money owed to other countries
3. Raise more money from public

All three are dangerous and hence as I said 3/4th of the population in the world will get affected in some way or other. Lets see why.

Reducing Expenditure:

It means a lot. All infrastructure projects, research activities, development activities should be brought to a pause if not a grinding halt. So the development will have to undergo a huge hibernation for sure. This may save some quick money for the government, but will result in huge negative effects. If US wants to cut costs, it will have to stop supporting a lot of industries, companies and hence a dramatic number of US residents can safely assume that they will be FIRED from their jobs.

If we think only US residents will get affected, go and to read this. US is a major trading partner with many nations of the world (including India, Canada - two countries which I represent). So if US pauses its development activities, it will invariably mean that it reduces its businesses with trading partners and hence other countries will loose a lot of income and hence industries will plunge into unprecedented losses.

The worst calamity from Indian perspective would be the software industry once again. Software industry is India is thriving only because its clients are in US. If US puts sanctions against its own companies, there is no way Indian software industry can be saved. Similarly all industries, businesses, companies, corporations which are directly dependent on US will have to take a nosedive. The same applies to Canada as Canada-US are not only major trading partners but also have free-trade agreements which will again take a bow. 

Bottom line: Loss in businesses which is directly proportional to huge cost cutting and hence loss of jobs.

Once software industry and all industries in India, Canada etc which are dependent on US fall badly, obviously, the purchasing power of people working in those industries will be reduced drastically and hence other businesses which are thriving because of such high spenders will take a blow. So its a cascading effect which can fall on almost every business and hence on most of the common people. So be ready for this ill-effect

Skipping Payments:



A bad idea but this can save US a lot of jobs and losses. But whose bills can US default is a million dollar question (or may be trillion dollars ;)). As mentioned earlier US is low on liquidity and all its developments are happening just because other countries are investing on US Government bonds and securities. China and Japan have invested around trillion dollars each in US because they could not find any other safe havens to park their wealth. Now no prizes for guessing who is in panic mode :)

As recent news articles scream, a credit agency Standard & Poor's has identified that US "may" default payments as its under heavy debt. US' credit rating has been downgraded from AAA to AA+ which shocked the entire world in general but China and Japan in particular. Now US and China are like two blind people guiding each other. If US defaults payments, China will suffer a lot and its imminent that Chinese economy will plummet bigtime. If China decides to take off its investments from US before US makes any bad decision, then it will cause a mayhem in US, the reason: Once China takes out its investments, other countries will follow but US doesn't have enough money to pay everybody. Then US treasury will be forced to turn its board and act like a fraud bank which cheats its account holders.

Also once China or any other country starts pulling off investments, the market frenzy will lower the value of those assets. Thus China, Japan and even Russia to an extent are playing with a double edged sword. The frustration could be easily seen when leaders of these countries lambasted US saying its a 'Parasite' :)

Raising more money from public:

This is the easiest for the Government of US to do so. But it means hell to US residents for sure. Higher (almost double) taxes, home mortgage prices, interest rates on car loans, personal lines, credit cards, more expensive products, services, cost of living. So more money to shell out to Government and less money for their own lifestyle. More corporate taxes will mean more expenditure on companies which will be transferred to employees through more income taxes, less benefits and most of the cases, loss of jobs. This opportunity can be exploited by some companies to get rid of employees though they don't need to.

So absolute scarcity of money among individuals, businesses, corporations means another RECESSION. Recent recession (2008-2009) caused some 20 million US residents to lose jobs and this time it will be worse because of the debt bogey, low confidence, international pressure. Recession also means ill cascading effecs on other countries like India (as mentioned earlier).

So truly US has become a parasite or white elephant on the whole world who went crazy with investments and over dependence on US. US has exploited the situation and has now held the world for ransom.

Worldwide Bloodbath

Now coming to stock investors, portfolio managers, mutual funders etc, they should get ready for the worst. Just a downgrading of S&P credit rating on US has triggered a massive plummet in almost all Asian markets, but Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee showed his bravado by saying India is ready to face any situation. But that's a silly assurance because US economy crisis can have a devastating effect on all major economies of the world.

Before explaining why, I just want to inform beginners that the value of any stock will decrease if more and more investors start selling and obviously the value will increase if a lot of investors start flocking to buy that stock. Now with US losing its credibility, major corporate or sovereign investors throughout the world will get more alert and would want to sell of their investments in safer markets just to neutralize losses incurred in US.

So once a major investor pulls its / his investments in other countries like India, it will trigger a panic reaction among other investors who will follow to do the same and hence all foreign investment corporations will start a selling spree thus reducing the value of their stocks (as explained above). Now when global investors show this no-confidence, immediately local investing companies and retail investors of that particular country will also follow the path and the entire market will be surrounded by those who want to sell their holdings which will trigger a massive dip in all stock exchanges across the world. Bombay Stock Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange are no exemptions to this trends.

The only way to avoid this situation to happen is to hope that investors don't succumb to brouhaha and don't undergo knee jerk reaction which might cascade into destabilization of economies.

A word to investors

Those who already invested their money in stock markets should refrain from selling at this point. Selling will cause a negative effect on the market and also the current value of the holding will definitely be not as good as what it was and hence investors will have to incur losses. Just forget about investments for a while until the market stabilizes again. This might even take a couple of years. But nobody with head over shoulders should attempt to sell off their shares in such bearish markets.

If recession occurs, its a bad phase for a lot of people, but not for those who want to invest their money in shares, real estate, bullion etc. The costs, prices and rates of almost all shares, houses, assets etc will hit rock bottom and there is no better time to invest than this. One of the ways to end recession is to invest money in such situations.

PS: The author is an MBA in finance and a close observer of global economic and political developments. That's ME :)

Caste Based Reservations - A Social Stigma

The word reservations brings out extreme emotions among both supporters and opposers of caste based reservation in India. Anything which gives hint of opposition to reservations attracts ire of pro-reservation groups just like what we are witnessing in the case of forthcoming movie "Aarakshan" which supposedly discusses reservation. The bottom line is that if a section of people are given some privileges over others, obviously those who are subject to these privileges never want to loose them and those who don't receive any special treatment naturally show their resentment, regardless of any social inequalities, under-representation, blah blah blah as mentioned in the constitution.

Those who are against reservations fume with the very thought and express their resentment on Dr BR Ambedkar, who was the champion of caste based reservation system in India. I belong to a socially forward community (that's what they say so) and hence was subject to discrimination caused by caste based reservations as I was judged to be somebody who commit atrocities against weaker sections and hence don't need or deserve any privileges today.

So naturally I hated reservations which made me go green with envy over less deserving, less intelligent, less worthy classmates of mine gaining an envious admission in an elite college despite being richer and socially well settled than me, just because of his birth in a so called "weaker section" (I remember that guy committing atrocities against people of my community - against all theories, books and manuscripts supporting reservation). I argued with everybody who supported reservations but with age, maturity, constructive debates, access to information came wisdom enough to understand the reason for this unavoidable thing called reservation.

Speaking about history, untouchability, atrocities on weaker sections were (are still in some places) rampant throughout India during last many centuries. Dalits were traditionally involved in "non-ritual" activities like butchering, scavenging, cleaning due to which they were kept away from temples, water bodies so as not to "pollute" the society. But this inhuman untouchability stayed beyond generations and other sections of Hinduism like brahmins (known for mental ability), kshyatriyas (known for political power), vyshyas (known for economic power), shudras (known for hardword) treated dalits in the same light regardless of occupation.

Dr Ambedkar happens to be one of the brightest scholars India has ever seen but had to fight the entire system to claim what he deserved because he belongs to dalit community. After the struggles he had to face, he wanted a system which could support people of his background as not everybody could fight like him. Infact the revolution he brought about was as powerful and great as independence struggle itself and no wonder he is considered a God by those who avail reservations today.

He identified the problem in the society and hence offered a solution. But neither he nor his generation expected that the solution will create many more problems because of the nature of judgement of who "weaker sections are in the current era"

Dr. Ambedkar, a scholar himself, knew the problem reservations could cause. He understood that the quality of education and service would dramatically diminish if caste was made a criteria instead of merit and hence proposed a initial cap of reservations for 5 years to uplift a generation of downtrodden and oppressed sections. He argued that merit doesn't make any sense until all sections are put in a same level. Completely agreed. But equating social backwardness only with caste background was a historic blunder which every Indian with head over his shoulders will and should acknowledge.

Just like dalits are traditionally oppressed, brahmins are traditionally poor. Kshyatriyas are no longer kings or noblemen after disintegration of princely states in independent India. Vysyas are not the only community doing businesses and shudras are not limited to their sub-caste based vocations anymore. Under these circumstances what should be the criteria to decide who are sufferers and who need support from the Government ?

Brahmins who are known to be oppressors are facing anti-brahminsm movement in states like Tamil Nadu, they are operating sulabh shauchalay (toilet facilities and scavenging - which formed reasons for aboloshing dalits from society). Recently, a person who was favored to be the next Karnataka CM was rubbished by media by saying "being a brahmin is his disadvantage". Same way with other sections of Hindus too. Kshyatriyas are not given any noble status in the society just because their forefathers were rulers, vyshyas are not given additional subsidies and licenses because they belong to so and so community. KR Narayanan, Mayawati etc - eminent dalits are glaring examples to the abolishment of caste paradigm in India today. I so wish to give another example as A.Raja's name (yes, the same 2G scam guy) who now claims that he is framed only because he is a dalit and belongs to oppressed class. Now who are oppressors and who are sufferers ?? Who should get reservation and why ??

Coming back to Ambedkar's vision, 5 year cap for reservation was a valid reform taking into consideration the social strata then. It means a downtrodden family which avails reservation for one generation or two, three, four or even five generations should be settled socially, economically (as that's the goal of reservation). But how many sensible people will agree that reservations for the same family for many more generations to come on a permanent basis necessary ?? If the family is not uplifted even after 6 decades of reservations and pampering, isn't there something seriously going wrong ?? If they are uplifted, isn't there a need to relax reservation to that family ?? Is Government doing anything to know who is uplifted, who is not, who is downtrodden, who is suffering, who needs support, who is under privileged ?

Another senseless argument to provide these blanket reservations on caste basis is to create opportunities to under represented classes. Means some education, job, political position, government offices should have representation from all castes. BUT why do we need representation from all castes ? What has caste to do with the kind of education or job ? Who can be sure that by providing opportunity to only certain communities, every community is represented fairly ? The whole circus called reservations is only to abolish this social stigma called caste system, but on the contrary the same caste system is now exploited to the most to decide percentages, divide society and create polarization - thanks to vote-bank politics.

Parties which openly embrace backward sections, dalits, minorities etc are bound to get votes and that's democracy in India. If a stupid politician abuses Hindus, all muslims will vote for him, if an idiot massacres Muslims, Hindus will vote for him, if somebody abuses brahmins, all so called "oppressed classes" will vote for him. Exit polls, opinion polls decide who wins a constituency by calculating how many people of a certain caste vote there. Under these circumstances, its not a surprise if politicians extend and expand reservations for years, decades, generations, centuries etc based on caste regardless of measuring the success, metrics, need or not. That's the travesty, India is going through currently. Dr. Ambedkar didn't expect this when he proposed reservations.

For a moment, lets assume every caste is equally represented in social offices, education, jobs, politics etc. So what ? How is this beneficial to the country, society, prosperity ? Those who deserve opportunities, those who can change the face of prosperity of the nation, if not given an opportunity will move to some other country, other opportunity and invest their knowledge in developing their new abode. Brain drain, that is. If such intelligentsia (both forward and backward castes) given proper financial and economic support, would have changed the face of India in the last 6 decades of independence.

Indian media shamelessly goes hammers and tongs when a Sir Naipaul, Venky get nobel prizes. Those eminent intelligentsia never acknowledge they are Indians, but we kiss their as**s because India is not made to utilize genuine indigenous merit and glitterati. This can be easily comprehended when one visits government offices, government hospitals etc, where representation from all "castes" reflects diminishing standards of service. But who cares !!!

Even after all this drama, if the weaker sections are genuinely uplifted or not is another story. After SC quota comes another fight as who deserves more reservation - madigas or malas etc. Even shockingly, there are certain castes which want to put themselves strongly under scheduled castes instead of backward castes to avail more reservations. Read: Gujjars of Rajasthan who erupted in a protest few years back for this reason. It means the downtrodden people love to be downtrodden forever and even those who are put under a higher caste wants to demote themselves to a downtrodden and oppressed community. And somebody told me that reservations was all about uplifting communities and providing them a platform of equality so that they can live with same "dignity" like other forward castes do.

I always wonder if all oppressed, backward and weaker sections are willing to forgo their reservations in exchange to all dignified life standards, rights, social status, aggression and superiority that brahmins, vyshyas or kshatriyas enjoy. Any answers ??

Extreme Sports - Experiences to remember

I'm an extreme sport freak and the very thought of such outdoor activities gives me adrenalin rush. I'm attempting to narrate few extreme sport experiences I had. Incidentally all my attempts in such outdoor activities started after I got married and my wife accompanied me in almost every sport :)

BTW, the below mentioned outdoor activities generically fall under extreme sports category in contrast with other sports, but none of these are as extreme as the name suggests :D

Rock Climbing:

My tryst with some kind of extreme sports was rock climbing (though not exactly as extreme). It was at Runway 9 where I shed my inhibitions to try this. It was a very exciting experience thanks to my confidence in the guy who wrapped all ropes and buckles around me. This was the only sport available near Hyderabad then apart from Go Karting (also at Runway 9).

River Crossing:

A real extreme sport. After wedding, we went to Manali (yes, as a part of honeymoon). Beas river originates near Manali and is one of the roughest rivers in India. The rocky terrain, huge rapids, deafening sound intimidates anybody. For a non-swimmer like me, crossing that river holding a rope was definitely an adventure. When I crossed half the river, the trainer guy lowered the rope and my feet touched the flowing river water which was dangerously cold (quite understandably - the temperature was -3 celsius and the water came from Himalayas). This was my first adventure sport in true terms.

Skiing:

Rohtang Pass is a mountain pass near Manali famous for blizzards and avalanches. We went there to enjoy the scenic beauty but couldn't resist wearing the ski gear and blades. That's incidentally the first time, I saw and touched snow. Skiing looks so easy in movies, but the technique to apply brakes to those thin, long blades on slippery snow was definitely not a child play. We tried for 2 hours before we could ski for 200 ms.

Second attempt of skiing was during last winter when our cousin traveled from NYC. That's at Blue Mountains, 2 hours from Toronto . We chose the beginners area to ski. The shoes given to us were heavier than us and walking with those on made us feel like astronauts :)

Once we were ready with skiing blades, we were taken uphill by the movator and we were supposed to ski downwards. All three of us (Hema, Karthik and myself) were ready to ski and I just thought to have a small drill before going for a long ski and hence started skiing and to my utter surprise and shock, the steep mountain took my downwards with unbelievable speed. I skied faster than a vehicle and when i tried to apply the brake by moving my ski blades in an angle, that didn't seem to work; my speed accelerated and I was sure an accident was in store. If I continued further, I would've definitely run into other people (including children) and injure them as well. So I prepared myself for the worst and jumped off the blades to start rolling on the steep mountain of snow.

I had my blades fixed to my feet, but I stumbled and rolled over the snow for almost 300 ms. Luckily nobody came in my way and I didn't hurt myself too. After I stood on my feet, the best scene to see my wife and cousin too struggling very hard to control their blades, hahahaha. Later I learnt the trick and then helped the other two as well. An hour of skiing later on the ground level was fun though. That was an excellent memory :)

Paragliding:

At Solang Valley near foothills of Himalayas, near Manali. First of a kind experience flying in open air with a parachute was breathtaking. The launch was all comfortable, but tension started only when I was about to land because I didn't know whether to run as soon as I land (just like getting down from a running bus) or stand still. I landed under that confusion and suffered a minute bruise. That was a memory to reckon with :)

Motorboating:

Not an extreme sport, per se. My sister and brother-in-law arrived from US for the first time after marriage and we decided to go for a one day picnic. All of us were saturated with Niagara and hence planned to go to Thousand Islands, a water sport area 3 hours away from Toronto.

We wanted to have some adventure and so rented a motor boat to drive on St.Lawrence river. The river is one of the longest, widest and fast flowing rivers which we didn't know earlier. The boat owner gave us a 5 min orientation explaining all controls and gave us the key. Only after we started did we realize that the river is too big and wide (double the width of Godavari at Bhadrchalam - Papikondalu area).

All four of us took turns to steer the driving wheel and all was well until jetskis around drove fast enough to create turbulence in the waters. Remember, my sister and I can't swim and incidentally my wife raised the gas, turned the steering frantically and that\s when I prepared myself for the worst to happen. Later we parked the boat at one of the islands (among 1000 islands), spent some time on the island, and drove back to destination unharmed. 4 hour motor-boating on the river was very exciting, scary and memorable.

Canoeing:

Canoeing is something which looks pretty normal, but the first experience was tiring and confusing. My friend and I started rowing from opposite ends of the canoe and we took a cool 30 mins to crack the technique before we set off the odyssey on french river, Ontario. Trouble began when somebody told us that there was a waterfall nearby which could be our final destination if we didn't row it to the shore properly. One hour of canoeing then was more than watching 10 horror and gory movies.

But later when we tried it at Southampton beach, that was pretty cool. I became a pro by then :)

Kayaking:

Fairly simple, but equally dangerous because one of our friends who came with us for camping capsized the kayak, abandoned it and swam safely to the shore. But what should I do (I can't swim) was the question I had on my mind for that 30 mins when I kayaked alone on Lake Huron.

Rafting:

Rafting on grand river with cousins Preetham and Saroja was rather cool, secure and enjoyable experience. We never came across any kind of dangerous or adventurous situation except that it was physically exhausting.

Gliding:

Again with Preetham and Saroja near African Safari, Hamilton, Canada. We were made to sit along with a pilot in a gliding plane which was towed by another plane with a rope. Once we were in the sky, the towing plane withdrew the rope leaving the glider plane to fly for some time before landing safely. It was not a very adventurous trip, but sitting on a front seat and flying in a glider plane was a good experience.

Tubing:

One of the most dangerous and on the edge experience I ever had. We went to Elora gorge where grand river flows. Tubing was a very enjoyable sport as recommended by many. Its all about floating on a tube (something like a tube in truck tyre). We were given life jackets and tubes and were directed to reach the river. To my surprise there was nobody at the river to push, help, guide, instruct, protect or teach. We were left to our destiny. When we reached the river, there were some 15 people, waiting to see if anybody tubes but nobody even remotely attempting to do it themselves.

My wife and I took the tubes to shores, sat in the tubes but didn't know how to kick-off. Before I could realize what was happening, my wife pushed my tube into the flowing waters. Taken aback I started flowing along the river and in some distance saw rapids and a slope. I held my breath, left my life to the mercy of life jacket and was prepared to fell off the tube for sure. But I saved myself by holding the tube tightly. There were 3 such rapids which I survived before getting down in shallow waters very far away.

That was enough for me and hence started walking back along the shore with the tube in my hand when suddenly a small girl was screaming for help. She fell off her tube and was flowing along with rough waters. I raised the hero in me and gave her a helping hand and was about to pull her. But destiny planned something else for me :)

The rough water pulled me and we both started flowing in the river. I had a life jacket and hence was floating but the river was fast enough to push me even before I could control or hold something. After this drama of rolling and flowing in the river, some good samaritan saved me and that gal :D.

I saw my wife tubing slowly after somebody else pushed her to give her the necessary kick-off. I don't think I will tube again :D

Canopy Walk:

We celebrated our second wedding anniversary at a forest resort called Haliburton Wildlife Reserve, a dense forest and an abode for wolves and bears. The adventure was to walk on a canopy, a narrow (1 foot) hanging bridge built between tree-tops in the dense forest amidst flowing river. We were given a lot of gear to put around our waist and were made to walk on that canopy for half a kilometer. Breathtaking visuals, adrenalin rush made the experience worth our time.

Jetskiing:

This is one sport which took my breath away, which made me skip heartbeats. Jetski, a waterbike is easy to operate but the first and only time I did that was in pacific ocean where waves almost submerged me. Jetski works well only when we raise the speed to max levels. If we jetski in lower speeds, waves of water will oscillate the jetski and there is a danger of capsizing.

Being a non-swimmer I could not dare to accelerate the bike and hence pacific waves troubled me a lot (and I had my wife sitting behind me). At one point, I stopped the jetski in mid waters and the situation became even more dangerous. But if I raised speeds, I was sure I will fall down into the ocean. Under this predicament, I raised the gas and made sure the jetski didn't capsize or submerge.

Now I want to do this in some lake or river where waves are not so intimidating.

Parasailing:

Not different from paragliding, except it being on the ocean. Once we were released into the sky, the view of Hawaii was awesome. Cool and enjoyable time spent on parasailing, but nothing adventurous or extreme about this.

Snorkeling:

If I have to choose an activity which I enjoyed the most, its snorkeling. We have done this at the best place in the planet, Hanauma Bay, Hawaii. Turquoise clear waters, abundant fish and corals, scenic beauty, its paradise in short. I enjoyed it more because this was the first place where I got an experience of swimming.

We were given snorkel gear (fins, eye gear, snorkels) and were asked to get into the ocean. Initially I was apprehensive and hence took my wife's support but once I caught the rhythm, there was no stopping. I swam across into deep waters too to see beautiful colorful fish. That was a lifetime experience for me.

Future Checklist:

Bungee Jumping: My longtime aim has been Bungee Jumping. I recently found a place called Great Canadian Bungee, 4 hours away from Toronto. Now there is no way I can stop myself from doing this. This summer, am bungee-ing :)

Sky Diving: Another extreme sport which can be done near Toronto. This summer..mostly yes !

Scuba Diving: Scuba or deep sea diving is very similar to snorkeling but at deeper seas with additional gear to breathe. This summer or next summer depending upon the places we visit.

Hang Gliding: Similar to paragliding. Will plan for it soon.

Snowmobiling: Coming winter, snowmobiling will be waiting for me. Pakka !

Will post another article, once am done with these sports :))

My Misadventures Part - 2,3: Homeless @ Anantapur; Kitchener

Preface: This is the second part of my misadventure saga which I started in My Misadventures Part - 1: Mumbai Masala

Misadventure 2: Anantapur, AP, India

It was 2001, the year I completed my bachelors from GPREC, Kurnool which is affiliated to SK University, Anantapur. Everybody was planning to go to Anantapur to obtain B.Tech certificate in May, 2001 but I couldn't join my friends due to prior commitments and hence planned to go in June. Since the planned day to go there was saturday, I forced my friend, a Kurnool localite to accompany me with a promise that we would return by saturday night.

All went well as planned. We reached the university (outskirts of Anantapur) at 9 am on saturday and started certification formalities which went on till 2 pm. We were asked by the staff to wait for some time till the controller of exams signs my certificate. We went to university cafetaria, had lunch and returned in 40 mins and started waiting for a call. 3:30 pm, 4: pm, 4:30 pm, 4:45 pm - nobody called despite my reminding the attendant every 10 minutes. I got worried because the next day was sunday and I would had to waste 2 more days in an alien city where I don't know anybody.

At 5 pm, I raised my voice against the kind of delay and brought this to the notice of a higher official who promptly followed up to see why was there a delay. Shock of the day -  The controller of exams who was supposed to sign the certificate left for the day earlier ( 2:30 pm) due to his personal reasons. My mind blocked, tongue tied, blood boiled, fist closed, frustration mounted...didn't know what to do :X

Anantapur to Kurnool was a 3 hour journey in APSRTC bus and traveling back and forth for a day sounded very boring and tiresome. Then the only option was to stay in Anantapur for entire sunday and come back on monday morning to SKU to get that stupid sign before I could take my certificate and travel back to Hyderabad.

I felt guilty to have brought my friend along with me and hence asked him to go back to Kurnool which he did after some dillydallying. I promised him that I would spend the remaining time somehow as its only one day. What I didn't know was that interval between saturday evening and monday morning would be a hell for me :)

Reason: There was some political rally or meet scheduled on sunday and people from all over rayalaseema districts were supposed to converge in the town and literally take Anantapur by storm. Hence all hotels, lodgings, rooms were booked well in advance.

As soon as my friend left for Kurnool, my eyes accidentally glanced through a local newspaper edition which bragged about the never before never after rally to be scheduled next day. Then I slipped away from the bus stand, approached the nearest lodging, asked if he has an AC room to hire for a day. I still remember his surprised expression when he said "ipudu yaada untai abbi roomsu, entha lekka ichinakoodka dorkaaavu" - means you can't find a room now even if you pay more. I tried my luck at few more hotels but in vain. Its already 7 pm. Squeezed myself into a C grade roadside food-joint, waited for 2 hours to get a table and chair. Somehow had my dinner.

The only place I knew in the town was Bus Station. Went there, tried to find some place to sit and spent time till 12 midnight, but it was getting too congested and packed. I felt I couldn't spend the whole night sitting in one position. Then I got to know that railway station is a stone-throw away. I took my bag, started walking to railway station through a narrow road. Amidst curious passers-by, I reached the rlwy station, purchased a platform ticket, went to second class waiting lounge, found a comfortable chair and slipped into slumber.

Just when I was about to get into a deep sleep, somebody patted me on my shoulder. Yes, that's a ticket collector. He asked me why was I in the lounge. I told I was waiting to receive my friend who was arriving from Vizag (thanks to railway platform announcements, I knew that a train from Vizag was supposed to come at 2 am). TC guy said ok and stayed back in that lounge. 2 am train arrived, TC was staring at me suggesting to leave then. I came out of the lounge, mingled among passengers, went out only to return after 20 mins to take another platform ticket which would be valid for 2 more hours. I also took care to know the next train arriving at 4 am. But it was a Tom and Jerry game between the TC and me for the whole night :(

Finally, it was dawn. Freshened up in waiting lounge and left the railway station for a looooong day to go. By then the town was buzzing with activity thanks to the political meet. Again my destination by default was the bus station :D..went there, ate some breakfast at the bus-stand joint, bought times of india newspaper, filmfare, sportstar and swathi magazines because those were supposed to be my company for the whole day.

Thankfully the previous day, Nepal king and royal family were massacred by their eccentric prince and newspaper had enough fodder for me. I spent till noon somehow and by that time, the newspaper and magazines were borrowed by people of all corners of the bus stand and I never bothered to get those back. A series of forced conversations with co-bus standers started who had all sorts of questions for me like "babu, chala sepati nundi choosthunna, ikkade unnav, em bus ekkali nuvvu ?", "babu, nuvvu edo badha lo unnav, naaku cheppu, badha thagguthadi" :O

Fed up of this unwanted attention and concern, I decided to make a move and see whats around. Humidity was crazy and temperature was boiling. I luckily found some internet center where I planned to spend some 2 hours. But to my horror, the computer there was infested with all XXX pop-ups and videos saved all over the desktop. Adding to my woes, all cubicles were closed and occupied by college going couples busy in their own world. I was the odd man out there and was looked upon as a disturbing agent :-| ..after spending half an hour and not even able to check my email, I shelled out some Rs 30 and thanked myself :)

2 pm, terrible heat, crazy population, nobody to talk, nothing to eat, nowhere to spend time, nothing to do, interfering and intruding co-passengers in bus stand - I wanted to vent the frustration which I did by shouting aloud in a public washroom until others who entered there saw me with disbelief and contempt :-|

At 6 pm, I checked all theaters around and found one movie which was worth watching "priyamaina neeku". I had to wait for 1 hour for a ticket for a movie released more than 3 months back only to find some place to stay for the next 3 hours. How pathetic. Was out by 10 pm, didn't dare to cool my heals for 2 more hours for dinner, rather lived on fruits etc and made my way for my night destination - railway station again :(

I thought that's the worst day I've seen until 2007- when another dreadful situation happened in Canada. Continued below

Misadventure 3: Kitchener, ON, Canada

I arrived to Canada in Aug 2007 and wanted to apply for permanent residence which supposedly needed IELTS score too. I booked for an exam slot in Toronto in Feb 2008 which got canceled due to snow storm and was rescheduled at a town called Kitchener which is some 100 kms from Toronto. It was severe winter. I spoke to a friend of mine who lived in Kitchener and he said I could stay at his place for that one day. I also asked other locals who said I could find some hotels around railway station.

Exam was on Saturday morning at University of Waterloo and I booked a Via rail from Toronto to Kitchener the previous evening so as to reach Kitchener at 8 pm (I didn't have car or G2 license then). After reaching Kitchener railway station, I called that friend who never answered. A slight disturbance kind of feeling crept in.

Then I came out of the station, walked around for a couple of kilometers on one direction. Found no trace of a hotel or any kind of temporary accomodation. I thought I was searching in the wrong direction. Then I caught hold of a pizza store, had pizza and asked the incharge if I could get an address of the nearest hotel, he said he didn't know any (weird !). Its already 10 pm, there was no activity, no buzz, only few stores far from one another and mostly auto repair centers, industrial equipment shops, small factories and  garages. I thought it was a safe bet to spend the night in that VIA rail station (thanks to my earlier experience in Anantapur). Everything went on fine till 11 pm. At 11 pm came an announcement that the station will be closed as the last train just departed. And the temperature outside was -15 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit), fresh from the snow-storm of earlier day.

I didn't know about dial services or any other ways of obtaining help in such situations as that was my first winter and never did I face such situation. Also it was 11 pm and was too late to call anybody in Toronto which was 2 hours away. Then I came to terms that's going to be a tough night for me.


11 pm, shivering chill factor, hills of snow all over, hostile ambiance, nobody to talk or direct to. I went back to the pizza store which was open till 12 pm. Once they displayed their closed board, I walked out in pursuit of some hotel. I walked for 4 kms (around 2.5 miles) on 4 sides of the railway station and all I found were industrial workshops, production machinery etc. That was depressing. I was panting in cold and couldn't afford to stay or sit anywhere on the road due to safety issues. I returned to the closed railway station and decided to spend the remaining night in the premises (a bench at the railway tracks). there was no provision to sleep on the bench as it was divided by arm rests (as seen in the adjacent picture - taken recently as a memory of that day :D). So I had to sit along in the open air only to get panicked by hoots of goods trains which pass by occasionally. After 3 am, it became exceedingly cold and hostile. I could not withstand the wind chill which could as well murder me if I stayed there for long.

I went to the main entrance area where I found an arch with a semi-covered pillar / wall (as seen in the pic). I chose that area as that wall could block cold winds blowing all over. So I sat there till 6 am. There was a public telephone in the vicinity and every now and then, people came to use that. If they saw me, they would have got panicked thinking I was some anti-social element and hence I had to hide myself..huh :)

At 6 am, I woke up from my sitting slumber with an expression of triumph as I knew the railway station would be opened at 6 am. I took my bag, reached the main door and saw opening timings as 6 am on every day, but 8:30 am on saturdays. Another 2.5 hours. That was so dejecting. I literally counted seconds till 8:30 when I rushed even before the station master realized that she opened the door. After freshening up, I asked her timings of train to Toronto. She calmly said "9 pm tonight".Kevvvvvvv...I was ready for another adventure that day.

Took a cab, reached the exam center, finished the exam and luckily found few Toronto bound guys who sympathized with my last night plight and offered to drop me to Toronto. Finally I reach home unscathed.

PS: After getting reasonably good score in IELTS and submitting it along with immigration application, I was told I didn't need that because I already crossed eligibility points without IELTS :-|

My Misadventures Part - 1: Mumbai Masala

My friend uploaded a pic in his Facebook wall which reminded me of few misadventures I faced. A funny account of rather not so pleasant days :)

Misadventure 1: Mumbai Masala

Year 2000: When I was in my final B.Tech in Kurnool, I happened to go to friend's house to chill. I knew he had GRE exam the next day and I thought I could share my two cents for his preparation. It was 2 pm. I just asked him to show his hall-ticket which he did. What I saw was "Exam time: 9 am, Location: Some exam center, Mumbai" kevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv... Yes, it was Mumbai indeed, which he didn't notice.

Flashback: During the application process, he filled his first preference as Kurnool, second as Hyderabad and third as Mumbai and submitted the application well in advance; overlooked the location on hall-ticket assuming that he would anyway get Kurnool as the exam center. Yeeeehahahahahaah :D

Flashpresent: Kurnool didn't have direct buses / trains to Mumbai. Options were to go to Hyd (4 hours away) and catch Mumbai bound train and reach exam center in Mumbai by 9 am next day - which was close to impossible as all trains from Hyd to Mumbai start before 6 pm. The other alternative was to catch a bus to Adoni (a border town between AP and karnataka) which is 2 hours away from Kurnool and catch Chennai - Mumbai express which stops at Adoni for a minute at around 4:15 pm.

There started a pakka project plan :). Aunty wanted me to accompany him and I joined the adventure. 2:15 pm was the time and if we caught a bus right then, we would reach Adoni at 4:15 pm and could catch the train which could drop us at Mumbai exactly at 8 am from where we had to search the exam center (neither of us knew Mumbai). So all we could do was to hope that the train to Mumbai was late at Adoni but reached early to Mumbai :)

We started at 2:20 pm, caught the bus from Kurnool bus station at 2:40 pm. Expected time of arrival at Adoni was 4:40 pm. We sat in the first row reserved for ladies (thankfully there were no many ladies to occupy all reserved seats). While the bus driver was taking his own sweet little time at every stop, we started getting friendly with him only to describe our situation after sometime. He was sweet enough to raise the speed above normal acceptable speed. Every minute was precious for us. Every green traffic signal was like a boon. After sometime the expected time of arrival became 4:20 pm when suddenly traffic jam struck us like a bolt of lightning. 10 mins wasted. The driver almost stood on the accelerator for us and finally we reached the place at 4:30 pm. But he dropped us at Adoni bus station and we didn't know how far was the railway station. Luckily an auto guy came to our rescue and we saw God in him :). he dropped at railway station in 10 mins and the by the time we reached there with a certain mad optimism, it was 4:40 and YES..train was late by half an hour :))

We took general compartment tickets and waited for the train. General compartment was so packed that we had to hang on the footboards till Mumbai :D..crazy...we sneaked into a reserved compartment and were walking all along the train for an hour before we found a couple of empty seats (seats to be occupied by passengers in later stops). Then my friend took out his GRE Barron's to study :X...LOL

Couple of hours later, passengers arrived and kicked us away. We again started roaming all over the train careful enough not to get caught by the TC but the moment came and he caught us. We had to shell out Rs.200 (yes, corruption) to stay back in those compartments. No place to sleep or atleast lie down until 4 in the morning. Upon arrival of Pune, we could not control ourselves; we laid down our bedsheets on the walkway and slipped into a extended power-nap until somebody kicked inadvertently at 7 am (when the train arrived into the outskirts of Mumbai).

Then we stood in the queue to brush our teeth and after that found some place to squeeze ourselves only to be subjects of 100 questions by a curious co-passenger. It was tougher than GRE though. Finally we stepped our feet in Mumbai nagari at 8:15 am. Exam was at 9 am, some 1 hour away from Dadar railway station and we didn't know a bit about the city.

We asked the questionnaire guy of the train as how to go to Andheri and he asked us to follow him which we did. He directed us to a local train and we reached Andheri in some 30 mins. 8:45 am. There we took a bus to the destination and produced a Rs 100 note for 2 tickets to Saki Naka. He said he didn't have change and kicked us out of the bus. Huh..then we took an auto rickshaw after some serious bargaining and reached the exam center by 9:10 (yes thats for GRE, a clock-racing exam).

My friend entered the center and then I got some time to think about food. I roamed around, saw the area, stared at pretty girls around, had some stupidest breakfast on the roadside which was the only place available in the walking distance, tried by best to read hindi numbers on local buses, tried to decipher marathi spoken by by-passers, went to police-station (that was the only place in the vicinity with some seating area). By then, my friend completed his exam, got a decent score for the hardships we faced.

Then the siteseeing bug bit us. We wanted to see Gateway of India, Juhu beach - only places we knew in Mumbai. We asked people around us for directions, started our discovery and reached Gateway of India after 2 hours of hardwork, had some lunch, took polaroid pics (saw that pic on my friend's FB wall today), and started for Juhu beach which is again a 2 hour journey from there. After spending an hour or so, an hour long journey to reach Dadar station to go back to Kurnool (Adoni). By the time we reached the train, general compartment was again packed. Ishtory shtarted againnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...imagine how we spent next 15 hours :-|

PS: That guy never applied for US universities despite all the circus. Soon after, he appeared for GATE, got M.Tech admission in a good university and came to US on work visa much later :)

Coming soon in next parts:

Misadventure 2: How I spent 3 days and 2 nights on Anantapur streets, bus station, railway station without an accommodation.
Misadventure 3: How I spent a whole night outdoors in Canadian snowing winter at -15 celsius (5 Fahrenheit)