2009 -> 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

Wow! another year passed by so quickly. Sometimes I feel, were there really 365 days in 2009 ?! If so, how come I feel that it passed so quickly.

Nevertheless, the year 2009 takes a very important role in my life. A lot of things happened in 2009. Some good and some bad making it a cocktail filled with emotions and feelings. Yet, 2009 will sure be a memorable year of my/our life. I guess you know why :P

Looking back in time for a moment I thought "What have I learnt in 2009 ?". Fortunately, there are a few to list down.

- Picked up a good habit of reading novels and read some really good books.

- Brought a change in myself in various things like behaviour, way of talking, control over my short temper etc.

- Met a lot of new people who taught me so many new things in life.

- Ventured into the world of share market with the help of my room mate

Unfortunately, 2009 filled my basket with some bad memories too.

- Had some stupid and meaningless fights with few of my close friends and spoiled my relationship with them. Hope 2010 brings us close again.

- Came back from US and had a tough time in Mumbai to adjust to the new environment after 3 yrs of my stint there.

- Totally lost interest in work. IT industry is no longer challenging and interesting.

Lastly, it feels so good to update my blog today. It was on the same day exactly an year ago that I started blogging. So happy birthday to my blog.

Bidding adieu and thanking 2009, I welcome 2010 hoping that it would fill another year of my/our life with happiness and joy.

Books, books and books

Reading Novels - something that I always hated until recently. Even though I am quite interested in knowing about things around me, gaining knowledge about various things, I always hated reading novels. For one reason that my vocab was so bad that i hardly understood the stuff in those tomes. Nevertheless, I thought I'd give it a shot. Started off with small ones so as to gain some interest. And I am happy that it is going at a good pace. I am happy that atleast now I've realized what I've been missing all these days.

So here is a small list of books that I have successfully completed until now. I will keep this list updated from time to time and also see to it that the number keeps growing. One important thing that I would like to say is that all these books that I mentioned below are must reads. Each of them is a master piece in itself.

1. Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat

2. One night at the call center - Chetan Bhagat

3. Nothing Lasts Forever - Sidney Sheldon

4. The Alchemist - Paul Coelho

5. Kite Runner - Khalied Hussain

6. The Color of Water - James McBride

7. Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

8. Three Mistakes - Chetan Bhagat

9. Angels & Demons - Dan Brown

10. Oh Shit, Not again - Mandar

11. An Inscrutable American - Anurag Mathur

12. Keep off the grass - Karan Bajaj

13. Two States - Chetan Bhagat

Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

What do I say about a book that has been the Number 1 New York Time's best sellers. I guess everyone who is reading this blog already know about this book. But still, let me share some of the things that I felt about this book.

I tried reading this book about 3 years back when one of my TCS-ILP mates told me that its a fantastic book. But back then I had an eerie feeling on such kind of heavy tomes. So after reading the first few pages I left it.

An year after that I opened the book again and gave it a shot. This time I read the first few chapters, not just pages. Though I found it quite interesting, for some reason I gave it up again.

Finally, the third time, I made it a point that I'll finish this book at any cost. And yes, I did it.

After finishing the book I understood that I made a big mistake the two times I left the book without finishing it.

OMG! this book is mind blowing. What an amazing writer Dan Brown is.

The idea of using a character called Robert Langdon and his profession as Symbologist (I haven't even heard about such a profession until I read this book) and the way Dan explains about every small thing in religions (especially about Christianity) through him is just superb.

Starting with a detailed description of the famous Louvre museum in Paris and continuing the same way to reveal the secret behind the smile of Monalisa, decoding the hidden secrets of Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings with an interesting way of using ancient mathematical logic like Fibonacci Series, the universal constant Phi and so on Dan Brown brought out the most thrilling and mystery story.

His facts about religion and the significance of various symbols of Christianity that reveal the secrets of the religion (not sure whether they are true or not) made the story more and more interesting.

Every single chapter in this book is just awesome.

I am quite eager to share more of my opinions on the subject of this book (Christianity)

but I guess I will take it in my next blog when I start reading this book again.

Mumbai makes me nostalgic

On one side all that I mentioned in my previous blog makes me sad. On the other side those same things make me nostalgic when I think about the days that I spent in Mumbai 3 years back (before I left for US). Those mid night walks on the roads of Borivali, the yummy road side pav bhaji near the station, the hot vada pavs at the chat wala, the tasty tea of the chai wala under the tree on Kulupwadi marg, the dosa wala at the gate of Raheja park, the window side shopping at Inorbit mall (ofcourse the actual reason was to gape at the beautiful girls who come there), those funny visits to band stand to stare at the couples making love, trying to guess what they are actually doing and hoping that some day we will also achieve the same (I mean to say that some day we will also get a girl friend) and ofcourse all those hindi movies which we never used to

miss.

Well, those days have gone now. Even though everyone says it is the most happening place in India, Mumbai has become dreary now. Life seems to be mundane these days. May be because I've become alone now. Everyone has moved on. And I am yet to find out where I am supposed to move, what is my next target, am I heading in the right direction. I just hope that some change would occur in my life too and would answers all these questions and make my life as enjoyable as it was before.

Back to Mumbai Nagariya

Mumbai - a place to make your dreams come true, a city that never sleeps, the financial capital of India, the fashion face of India, the busiest city of India....the list is endless. There is so much to say about this place. One can go on and on talking about this place but you'll never get bored.

After a long stint of 2 yrs and 9 months in US I came back to the same place where I started my career, Mumbai. It was a bit tough to adapt myself to the sudden change. But finally with little struggle I settled down. I thought India might have changed a lot by now, given the recent economic growth and development that it made according to those colourful business magazines. But to my surprise I still find everything to be the same as they were back in 2005. The same muddy roads on which you can hardly find any space to place your foot whenever there is a slightest possible rain. The same local stations where your hands stick to your nose trying to close your nostrils as tight as possible to avoid a projectile vomiting. The same auto rickshaws whose drivers feel as if they are racing in formula 1 with Micheal Schumacher, with a least concern to the pedestrians and other vehicles on the road. The same local trains where you never have to struggle yourself to either board or unboard it (All you have to do is stand near the door and the rest is taken care by the public around you). And last but not the least, the people who keep running non-stop as if the world is going to end in the next minute and least bothered about what is going on with the rest of the world except themselves.

Made me feel sad.

So, let me end this blog narrating a funny incident that I encountered shortly after I came to Mumbai.

On the 3rd day after I came back to Mumbai I was standing near Andheri Station searching for an internet cafe. Not knowing how to cross the station to go on to the East side, I thought I'd ask the Policeman who was standing near the station.

Me: Sir, station ke east side jaane ke liye overbridge kahan pe hain ?

Policeman: Yeh hain na, yeh bridge pe chale jao (showing me the over bridge that is right on top of the station)

Me: Sir, yeh bridge lene ke liye mujhe platform ticket khareedna padega. Bina ticket ke kaise jaa sakta hoon ? (For all those who haven't been to Mumbai atleast once, there will be 2 overbridges at every local station. One right on top of the station to change platforms and another one at the far end of the station for normal public to cross the station)

Policeman: Arey kuch nahin hoga, "koi nahin pakdega", chale jao.

Here is an Indian cop who tells you that there is nothing wrong in crossing the station without a platform ticket. For a minute, I was just staring at the policeman trying to understand what he just told me.

And then I told myself...Welcome back to India.

Finally, after searching for some more time I found the pedestrian over bridge at the far end of the station and walked all the way to that bridge.

No wonder why India is still called a "developing" country.

Back to Blogspot...

After a long gap I have decided to make a comeback to my blog. Well, ofcourse there were a lot of reasons for this long gap, laziness being at the top of the list. Yet, I will try my best not to bring those back. And for all those friends who asked me to continue blogging - Yes guys, this time I will try to keep it going.

The Color of Water - James McBride

Its been a while I read this book. But it still remains as one of my favorites. Such an interesting book it is. Its a story of a black son of a white jewish mother who is in search of his identity. Reading through the pages of this book you will understand how a mother can sacrifice her entire life for her children. Being a white mother of black children how she has to confront the racial discrimination in the society. She goes out of her way, suffering and struggling in every moment of her life to make her children reach great heights. This book is written in a peculiar yet an interesting way. The author writes one chapter describing his mother and siblings. And in the subsequent chapter he writes in his mother's tone about her own childhood life. The chapters in the book keep toggling between the author's story and his mother's story. Mostly about the struggles in their life to overcome the difficulties at various stages of life. The author gives an insight about the living style of orthodox jewish families and also the racist acts of the white American people against blacks and vice-versa. Its so hard to believe that the American society is still divided into two parts, Blacks & Whites, even after emerging itself as a Super Power in every field. Its so hard to believe how much the color of your skin matters in every step of your life. Again, a wonderful book to read if you want to know what a mother is and how she can sacrifice her own life for her children, if you want to know how racial discrimination still persists in America.

http://www.jamesmcbride.com/

Slumdog Millionaire

Saw this movie on the same day I started blogging. An amazing movie by Danny Boyle. A movie that clearly shows what real India is and how people survive in the slums of India. Ever imagined a boy from a slum becoming a millionaire by participating in a show called "Who wants to be a millionaire ?" ? A stunning performance by Dev Patel who plays the role of Jamal Malik, the boy who wins a million rupees in the show. The movie shows how simple things that we ignore in our day to day life play a very important role in the long run. Jamal remembers every single incident that happened in his life. Coincidentally, the questions that he encounters in the show relate themselves to all those incidents and help him answer all the questions.

Every day we ignore hundreds of things that happen around us treating them as petty things. But there is something underlying in each of those things. It is very important that we disinter the underlying essence of such things. It may not fetch us million dollars or million rupees like Jamal. But surely, some day they will fetch something even more worth than that. 

One of the things that really hurt me in this movie was knowing how people make money in India by transforming innocent kids into beggars. They even resolve to cripple them or blind them so that the kids can earn more by begging in that state. 

Here are some links to know more about this movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumdog_Millionaire

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/

My First Blog

Its 31st of Dec, 2008 and the time now is 11:30 PM. I am sitting alone in my apartment with my mind running across various things that have happened in my life. For the first time in my life I am celebrating the New Year all alone. At first, I was depressed by looking at my loneliness. Slowly I understood that its a good opportunity to think about my life and then give it a new start. Thought about all those things that I should have done and things that I shouldn't have done in my life. Well, I cannot change the latter but I am sure I can try for the former. Ideally speaking I should have made a list of all those things that I want to do in this new year. But, as usual, the laziness in me started waking up slowly and stopped me from doing that. Fortunately somewhere in a corner of my mind that list got auto saved. One of the things in that list is what I am doing currently i.e., "Blogging". The fact that I am a complete novice to the world of blogging gave me some initial jerks and always resulted in a halt. But this time I thought I will surely give it a shot. After all, as Paulo Coelho mentioned in his book "The Alchemist", the secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. As planned, I will try to put in this blog every thought that I get in my mind about anything that I read, hear and see around me.

Happy New Year 2009