Ganpati Bappa Morya (Year 2009)

Ganpati Bappa Morya...Pudhachya Warshi Lavkar Ya!!!!

Salute to our heroes…………..

Here is my salute to all those people from Maharashtra Police, Army, Navy, BMC Fire fighting department and NSG commandos, who fought the war against terrorists in Mumbai. That was not only attack on India, but attack on our country.

I have no words to say for those who sacrificed their lives for our safety and freedom of common people like us. We are grateful to you and always will be.

Hats of to all of you!

JAI HIND!

Shambhu Raje……

Recently I have started reading ‘Sambhaji’ written by Vishwas Patil. I am amused to know that Rajan (Shambhu Raje) fought the battle of Swarajya with mighty Aurangajeb for almost 9 years. Not that I was not aware of this. I have read Shriman Yogi n number of times. But story of Shriman Yogi ends with death of Shivaji Maharaj. His son was a gem.

Needless to say that I am impressed by the stories of Shambu Raje and the way he had fought the battle for 9 years……..Rajan....Mujara………….

Amol

Bengalaru..revisited

Last week, I happened to visit Bengalaru for some work. I was visiting this place after so many years. But somewhere in my mind, I could still recollect some of the beautiful snaps of this city few years back. As they say it was city of Gardens earlier.

I landed in Bengalaru. First thought which came in my mind at that point of time, was like….have I landed in Los Angeles??? The all new airport is awesome man…..and definitely at par with international standards….boom …boom…boom….I was impressed and started my journey to my apartment in a cab. We stepped out of the domestic terminals and I was again impressed to see the motorway connecting to the city. It has 6 lanes( of course including both the sides) flooded with lights. The distance from Airport to city is approximately 30 Kms. I was impressed again. Slowly, slowly…we went ahead in dense traffic area. The number of cars in this city made me to think it as the city of cars and gardens. It took one and half hour to reach the apartment. I don’t see any problems as such with the traffic as it is at par with all the metro cities around the globe.

However, the traffic is much more disciplined and always moving on without much of noise and also without drivers blowing horns all the time. The city has still maintained its identity with respect to gardens. You can see at least couple of gardens in each locality. Now, that is a healthy sign…isn’t it?

The MG road is reshaping up because of the Metro project. The weather is good as usual. People are good and polite at least with whom I interacted.

Overall, I think that Bengalaru has very good infrastructure (roads, fly overs, metro coming up, road and air connectivity to other main cities including Pune etc.). The weather is good and also the people. As they say it all comes in a package. No wonder that why most of the companies across the globe selected Bengalaru to start their India operations.

Cheers,
Amol

Monsoon is approaching………………..

Well, the IPL entertainment is over now…..and the mother of all entertainment is about to start for next few months…..you guessed it right….yes, I am talking about Monsoon…which covers the entire India by making an entry from the Indian ocean.

I am sure that few of you would take exception on the word I have used earlier i.e. ‘Entertainment’ for the monsoon. But hey relax….I am just coming out from the hangover of IPL entertainment so I am still in that mode….you see…

But hang on….if you look at the romantic side of the monsoon…..isn’t it mother of all entertainment? Okay, let me ask you one question….when you think about monsoon, what are the thoughts which come to your mind? First rain……first drive in the rain with her….drinking ginger tea after eating mouthwatering bhajis (pakodas)……that romantic walk in the rain with your partner in the clouds at Mahabaleshwar……just freaking out with your friends at Lonavala…..dancing like a kid in the rain with your kids….what not….this list can go on and on…isn’t it? Of course few would also want to add things like: getting wet everyday while going to office on your bike…..no outdoor activities without getting wet….no cricket…flood water every where….traffic jams….and so on… So, this list can also go on…..But at this moment I want to concentrate only on the positive side….or rather romantic side of it…

Years after years we keep on hearing predictions on rainfall…..arrival dates of the monsoon…etc. If you have grown up in rural areas of Maharashtra (just like me), you could see the expressions/excitement on the farmer’s face and of course not to forget their fight to complete the farm landing tasks in time before the rain god starts pouring….The farmers actually predict the percentage of the rainfalls based on their experience. They observe lot of things around before the rainy season. These could be various parameters starting from the behavior of birds, cows, buffalos and other animals….colurs in the sky….wind and so on…Now, we have developed lot of methods/techniques to actually predict the rainfall using the systems….if you are from coastal side then you also know that even fishers (kolis) use their own parameters to judge the behavior of the sea based on monsoon…..

So, from where this monsoon comes and how does it cover whole India? Isn’t interesting or rather a phenomenon? Yes, it is. I don’t want to go into much details as I am not the right person to comment on it….as far as we are concerned, monsoon starts from the Indian Ocean. It is again classified into two streams as south-west summer monsoon (our monsoon) and North-east monsoon.

South-west Summer Monsoon: Typically, it is expected to hit western coast of India in the first week of June only. Again, there are two streams or rather branches as they call of South-west monsoon. The first one is Arabian Sea branch and second is Bay of Bengal branch. In case you get confused then allow me to tell you that Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are the regions of India Ocean on the west side and east side of India respectively. Btw, did you know that Indian Ocean covers about 20% of the water on the earth and yes of course warm water……Any ways, the Arabian sea branch hits our Kerla typically by 1st June then it continues its journey towards northern India. Bay of Beangal Branch of south-west monsoon flows over Bay of Bengal heading to North East.

This is the latest satellite photo indicating the current state of monsoon waiting to hit the west coast.


North-east monsoon: This is the journey back to the Indian ocean from where it started…..Isn’t it? Typically a southern state like Tamilnadu receives north-east monsoon rainfall usually in September or so.

Well, now that you are aware of the types/branches of the monsoon and the kind of entertainment it provides to us…..don’t forget to enjoy this monsoon…..It comes to meet us once in the year ….i don’t know since when…probably few million years ago???

Enjoy with care….

Cheers,
Amol

Can you be an Indian living outside India Permanently?

If you ask this question to anybody, answer you get will be “Yes, definitely. Why not?” But have you ever thought over this seriously?
As a matter of fact, I have been thinking over this since last few years. With increasing usages of words like: migration, duel citizen, global village etc. in our conversation, sometimes you feel uncomfortable. I have met quite a few people outside India. These people have been living outside India since last 10-20 years and almost settled in their respective countries. Trust me, in 99% of the cases, these people are still thinking about time spent in their own motherland. It is true that these people are earning a lot (as compared to what they might have earned here) in dollars/euros/pounds/yens etc. They are leading a lavish lifestyle which they used to dream. They own posh bungalows, cars, speedboats and what not. Their dreams have come true but somewhere deep in their mind they are missing their own people. And this I am telling you after having serious chats with those people. These people want to travel to India as much time as possible. They want to spend lot of time with their people here. Sure, they crib about current affairs, politics, infrastructure and hell lot of other problems in our country. They want their children to be raised as Indians with flavor of Indian culture. They are sometimes or rather most of the times worried about their children. These people will try to celebrate festivals in order to teach their children their roots. But how much it can help?
There can be lot of debates on this. Someone might point to lack of opportunities and fierce competition here. It is true up to some extent. But is that only reason to stay away and keep on shrinking?
Sure, there are going to be some exceptional cases as well. And, I am not talking about exceptional cases. I am talking about average cases. I am not saying that you should not go abroad and earn money. If you get the opportunity they you should. But it will be better if you decide your own roadmap down the line and then act accordingly. It will be more difficult for you if you get confused. So think over this. Sooner or later this question is going to haunt you so better be prepared.
As they say, ‘Home is where your heart is.”. So if your heart is here and your home is outside India, then I doubt whether you will get eternal happiness. And yes, if your home and heart both are with you, then one need not worry about these things. It means your case is also exceptional.
Ultimately, everyone wants to stop his/her journey where it began. And life takes it own course. A bird can fly as much high as it can in the sky, but eventually it has to return to its nest where it belongs.

Cheers,
Amol.