Mera Bharat Mahan

‘I am proud of my country’. Well, I agree that this line has become a cliché and has been so widely abused that it has lost its true meaning in contemporary time. So if you utter this line to anyone, you draw a blank face with a degree of cynicism starting to crease in and you get a feeling that you have said the stupidest thing in the world. And I do not blame that person even by a cent since the state of affairs in our country is such that anyone with an iota of brain would find it difficult to find one good thing to be proud about. You name it and we are almost the leader in that area – Corruption (we are ranked 74^th which is even below the nascent democracy Bhutan in the latest corruption perception index as released by Transparency International), Poverty and illiteracy (the less said the better), Unemployment (7.2% in 2007 which is almost double that of China’s 4% for the same year), Terrorism (India tops the country with maximum number of casualties killed in terrorism related violence beating even the likes of Iraq and Afghanistan) and so on. So what really made me or rather spurred me to open the post with that cliché? Read on to uncover the billion dollar question!

I have brought this up in many of my discussions with my peers/close friends and have found it to be one BIG positive about the country I take pride in calling mine and that to put in one word is – Democracy. In my opinion, this is one thing which we as countryman have taken so much for granted that it goes unnoticed completely. Let me relate a real life scenario which will support my conviction – It so happened that the head of the country is out on an international trip and the government he heads suddenly looses majority in the parliament due to the pullout of a few alliance parties. This situation is akin to emergency/coup kind of emergency where in the head of a state is ousted by anti-party elements. A situation of this kind would have involved nation’s military/army interference to keep the situation in control. But look at what happened in this country – the PM continued his trip uninterrupted with absolutely peaceful law and order situation in the country (actually it’s so stable inherently that no one even thought of it as a law and order issue, the Sensex climbing by 500 points on the same day just to give an idea as to how healthy the system works). The political maneuverings have started in the background but strictly within the democratic boundaries as set by the constitution so to speak. This kind of situation is unthinkable in any other political setup but democracy. In other words, the system is so unshakeable that even when a government loses the right to govern, there is absolutely no anarchy, no lawlessness, no threat of instability. Hats off to this seemingly ‘Business as Usual’ system called Democracy.

Let me relate here an interesting anecdote which I still remember so distinctly. A few years back, I had the opportunity of interacting with my company’s top management and one of them was from the US and had come down to India for some strategic team meeting. In one such conversation with him about a specific key project, I was trying to explain him the challenges faced in managing people/employees when we were trying to introduce a new technology enterprise wise. He interrupted me saying we need not worry about employee’s sentiments (resistance) and just go ahead with implementing the new technology without bothering about them. I tried to convince him again but to no avail. I then took a different route which worked like a magic. I told him, in fact let me quote the exact terms which I threw upon him – ‘Hey Mike, here is the problem (in typical American accent). India is a BIG democracy and people out here are so used to the system that nothing can move until they will it. So we got to take our employees in confidence before implementing the new system’. And believe me, he got the message instantly though he was very subtle in his consent and kept referring back to that term ‘Democracy’ in a sarcastic way in his subsequent conversations (that’s their way of looking at the rest of the world).

So the bottom line is – People rule in our country in every sense. So even though one would find many flaws in the system, the basic structure which supports it is indeed a marvel in itself. Long live Democracy, Long live India.

Jai Hind

Liebhaberei

Apologies for using a non English term as the title of this post. That term in German means 'Hobby' and this post of mine is dedicated to it from every angle to put it that way. Dictionary defines ‘Hobby’ (seems this term was the nickname for a small horse named Robert!! Yes, I am still figuring it out.) as any activity which keeps you interested, engaged and busy for a finite amount of time and provides a healthy diversion from your otherwise routine and ‘Groundhog day’ kind of life. I still remember during my school days that there used to be an essay writing section in English paper and ‘My Favourite Hobby’ used to be a sure shot topic to write about. Usually I used to write stamp collection (philatelist) and coin collection (numismatist) as my favourite hobbies and surprisingly, I used to find that every other pupil in the class too wrote about same hobbies. I wonder if there were any other hobbies to pursue during those days!!

As I grew up, I realized there are many more interesting things which one can pursue to keep oneself occupied with. In fact Hobby in a way can have therapeutic effect on you if pursued with passion and vigor. So here I am jotting down another essay about things I would like to do or I am pursuing to keep me interested, engaged and occupied at least for a while (Geminis have a very short attention span, so any hobby can’t keep me hooked up for more than 600 seconds at a stretch!!). One more thing – I now believe hobbies change with age and time. Things which I used to like say at the age of 10 (be it stamp collection) don’t interest me anymore. Probably, it’s like upgrading your hobbies as you get acquainted more with the world though a few of them can still be traced back to your genes. Let’s see if I can discover a few of them in this post –

1. During my childhood days, I had an innate liking for toy guns. I was simply crazy for them what with dad bringing in a new one each time he used to go out on an office deputation. I had a huge collection of them. One such was really cool (I still have it though it doesn’t function anymore) – it was manufactured by Leo toys company and the model was based on real model of a semi automatic gun used by Russians during that time. To explain its functioning in core jargon, when the trigger is pulled, only the hammer and firing pin move, striking and firing the cartridge. The bolt then recoils far enough rearward to extract and load a new cartridge from the magazine into the firearm's chamber, ready to fire again once the trigger is pulled. More simpler ones like the one I used to get during Diwali time was also a special attraction for me and I used to wait for the entire year to get a new pistol gun during the festival time. Somehow the passion for this firearm faded with time, but I still cherish to possess a real one one day though I know it may not be worth it somehow.
2. This one is not really a hobby as by its definition – this activity doesn’t keep me occupied. On the contrary, it unshackles me up from all the hustle bustle of life (I know I am getting philosophical here). I am talking about a simple activity I find extremely engaging – that of enjoying solitude. Mind you, I said solitude and not being lonely. There is a difference and that difference is like the difference between being childlike versus childish (go figure if you haven’t yet). There is indeed bliss in solitude and if you know how to enjoy it, I would say you would never find yourself lonely even when you are alone (I know I am indulging in terminological inexactitude here but the description of this ‘hobby’ warrants it to some extent). Some may say this is like meditation. But to me, meditation sounds more technical in nature whereas solitude is simply being you, being in your own company and enjoying it for no specific reason. As they say, you tire yourself in pursuit of happiness. So just stop pursuing that eternal goal of being ‘perfectly happy’, take a break from your chore and just relax in nothing. This activity once mastered can then be exercised even while you are doing a passive task like watching the idiot box. Though the best ambience I would prefer to enjoy solitude is a peaceful environment with some soothing music being played in the background (of course on your home theatre). A cool breeze adds to the effect for sure.
3. It’s funny sometime to see that things you never realized could interest you suddenly start appealing you and you take an instant affinity for it. Photography is one such thing which I never took very seriously (probably for the lack of the right instrument I would say). But with the advent of digicams in the market in last decade or so, I find myself completely smitten by it and have started taking it seriously in terms of my understanding and exposure to it. As you explore it and get familiar with finer details, you realize photography is so much more than just pressing the button on your cam. I have started enjoying it thoroughly and intend to pursue it with more vigor and rigor. I started out in this world with my first cam which was analogous in technology and its film role had to be manually advanced after each photograph. The technology has come a long way today what with the advanced digicams offering almost all the possible features which one would like to see in a professional level camera. Though I am too happy and proud with my Canon S3IS which I currently own, I do intend to go the SLR way in near future, the only constraint being of course the state of my finances. But a lack of hifidelity instrument is no excuse for not pursuing this hobby in all its earnest. I have started organizing some of the best pics I have on Flickr but I am not satisfied with that site’s performance. Probably I would shift to some other photo blog site or may be have a domain of my own where I can host them.
4. This one is not really a hobby, it’s more of a fascination (you may call it ‘fascinobby’) which has kept me amused for a good part of my life (and many others I am sure as you would see that now). The fascination I am referring to here is about what we call as the Universe and the mysteries surrounding it which we still haven’t comprehended completely. Actually, we can’t even quantify as to how much we really know about our habitat, the small iota of space we claim to occupy and call ours in the Universe. When we say that the universe is boundary less, what exactly we mean here is something that intrigues me to no end. I mean come-on how big the space can be and if we don’t attach any boundaries to it, then where exactly it would lead us to. In other words, where exactly would the journey end if I were to embark on a space odyssey and continue travelling in one direction for forever (assuming I have the necessary means for this hypothetical travel).The other aspect of the universe that has puzzled me is our understanding of it, our perception of it. Think about it – we perceive everything with 5 sensory organs given to us by the god (see we can’t even seem to describe basic attributes of a human body without mention of the ‘Divine’ and we are trying to decipher universe here in a scientific way… hahaha !). Anyways, what it means is – whatever we perceive around us is basically a summation of 5 distinct sensory signals received via the 5 sensory channels or organs we have with us (of course interpreted and processed further by a beautiful apparatus called brain with which we think we think!!). So the underlying question here is – who has told us there are or rather there could be only 5 sensory perceptions any living specie can have? The god (again !!) may have an inventory of hundreds or even thousands of sensory organs and decided to give us only 5 of them! Imagine if we were not given the sense of smell, we would have till date through eons happily accepted the fact that the world is odourless or probably there wouldn’t have been a word defined as a ‘smell’ or an ‘odour’ at all in our dictionaries. All these to me mean that our perception of the universe is limited to what we perceive through the prism of 5 sensory probes we are blessed with. One less or one more (and mind you, this is our perception of perceiving that we have finite sensory organs if you know what I mean) and we just don’t have any idea what it would be like – probably we may not even exist as living beings (our definition of being alive) as we perceive it now or the universe after all may not be infinite at all (Infinite may be easily comprehensible in that other world)!! Who knows?? In fact, to put it in yet another interesting way – we just don’t know (neither we would ever in all likelihood) what is absolute reality about the universe versus our interpretation of it.
5. A few of the other activities which has kept me hooked up lately and which I would not hesitate classify as ‘hobby’ by its definition are as listed below –
1. Blogging – started my affair with it with Chiku’s arrival. As stated somewhere in one of my entries, wanted to leave a kind of foot trail in terms of my thoughts/opinions for the progeny. Would like to continue with it as long as I can.
2. Hacking – Would like to pursue with it with some more seriousness (probably sometime later in my life) but with no negative intentions.
3. Acquiring new gadgets/gizmos – well, this is only limited by the state of my finances and I would try to coincide/align its pursuit more with Chiku’s growing years so that I keep myself paced up with him in the field of technology marvels.
4. Reading is another activity I would like to dedicate more time as I grey my hairs. Somewhere I read that the amount of information a regular guy would have had in his entire lifetime around the 17^th century is available to us in just one day through various media channels. So in other words, we are given the opportunity of living multiple lives (thousands of them actually) when compared with that old guy from 17^th century (old as of now I mean).
5. Politics is another of my hobby/passion I am extremely attached with. Be it international politics or national drama (politics in our country is nothing less than drama and can give a run for money to the ‘Saas-Bahu’ dramas any day), I find myself glued to the news channels 24x7 given favourable circumstances (marriage has made them hostile you see).
6. Philosophy – I do have a flair for this ‘boring’ subject as perceived so by many and find myself inclined towards it quite often. It’s an extremely elaborate topic and I would just stop here with its mention and keep it for another post at a later point of time.
7. Music, food, sleeping, TV, movies are some other pastime activities I would like to call out here (this phrase is so oft used in my company meetings, I hate it now!) but can’t keep me engaged for more than a few units of time (characteristics of Geminis).

All the above ones are healthy hobbies I am/would pursue as life goes along. However, there are a few more which can’t be included here and define a slightly darker side of my persona. But then who is living a ‘white’ life anyways?