My rants, raves and random thoughts

Teach to Learn

2009-11-03T13:46:00.016-05:00

One of our friends - Vishy had asked on facebook "What do you tell 400 graduating engineers at NIT Surathkal?" and some of the responses were:

"Get Real. Be open to new ideas, fields and skills.. never know where you will find your true passion"

"1. Tell them about importance of written down Goals and how it helps them achieve what they want in life..

2. Tell them there will be reasons to chase money but spiritual / value development will make the difference between the best and the rest."

"Tell them that they can no longer be taught, but they should never stop to learn."

The last one caught my attention and I started to ponder few things: How do you really teach someone how to learn and apply their learnings. I sometimes catch myself telling Avi 'Think Avi.. pay attention and think' and Thank God he didn't yet, but I wonder what I will say if he asks ''what do you mean by think?'

Also, another thing I wonder is how do you teach someone to have clarity of thought and be able to judge right vs. wrong. As I mentioned earlier, kids do have lot more influences in their day than just us parents and since we cannot be with them everytime they are making a decision - big or small, is there anyway we can instil in them the smarts to figure out what is right vs. wrong. A rule of thumb that Mom told me when I was young(er) was that if I am about to do something that I am not comfortable sharing and feel I should hide it from my parents/family, then its most probably wrong.

I think some of this decision making and deciphering skills are intuitive to humans just like breathing or eating or sleeping and as parents we need to constantly reinforce by setting an example than just preaching and lecturing. Perhaps, sometimes letting them fail or fall a bit so they understand the consequences is another effective way to teach a lesson that they will never forget.

Are there some other tips that other parents use to teach their kids right vs. wrong, good vs. evil?

My Mom and Dad

2009-11-01T21:36:00.018-05:00

Like so many things in life - Hindsight is 20/20 and similarly, I am able to see more clearly the strong bond that Mom and Dad shared after Mom's passing. I felt like writing this post commemorating the wonderful relationship they built. As I notice the current generation youngsters talking about 'finding' soul mates and such, it makes me wonder how our previous generation and in particular my parents got married first and then grew to become soul mates. There must be a definite something... perhaps a strong conviction and belief in the institute of marriage that makes them work hard on that relationship that makes them become soul mates.

Mom and Dad like many others in their generation were married very young and theirs was also an 'arranged' marriage. It seems like once they got married, they never had a question in their mind and just took the promise 'till death do us apart' to their heart and lived it day in and day out. Mom and Dad - externally were poles apart...She was the effervescent, expressive, talkative, naive, emotional kind of a person and he the rock, very balanced, restrained and reticent kind of a person. But, what I know of them is this couple that complemented each other - she was the voice of the house and the implementer of the rules, while he the rules maker, she was the fun mom who would let us have fun while still reminding us of our limits, while he the strict disciplinarian, she was the talking, walking center piece that weaved our family's relations with the extended family and world and Dad would follow her lead in these aspects. Like any other couple, we saw them argue, work things out and you could see their different personalities emerge once in a while, but it was their union that emerged even stronger and they were always a team.

There were things that they just did for each other and only they did.. for example, Mom was the one who would pack for Daddy for every single trip of his, she would be the one who took out his clothes each and every day. Dad would never have his lunch or dinner without mom and he would wait for her however late it got. Throughout mom's health issues and trials, Dad was the eternal optimist and never lost hope. It was his optimism that rubbed off on her as she fought the longest battle of her life.

With Dad's eternal optimism and strength in accepting life's realities and mom's 'never die' attitude and zest for life, they made a perfect pair and the best team together that tackled life and its curve balls with utmost dignity. As they say, "Marriages are made in heaven" and I am sure theirs was too. Although, it may seem like mom and dad were not made for each other at the outset, they sure 'Became for each other' and Daddy even now shows us what it means to be true 'Soul mates'.

Dil Bole Hadippa...My cricketing days

2009-10-07T21:02:00.014-04:00

There... Rani's movie (Dil Bole Hadippa) released after a long gap and ofcourse we had to go see it. It was a fun movie.. a typical Yash Raj movie.. that is beautiful, colorful, Indian and a perfect friday night movie with the family. As a bonus, I was able to recollect and relive my childhood cricketing days yet again. Some of you may know and others will know now after reading this.. I played lot of cricket growing up. It started pretty innocently when I started playing cricket with my neighborhood kids in Ammasandra and slowly it became more than just another game to play. We formed a team and I was thrilled to be selected as the 12th (wo)man :). To this day, I am not sure if I was more excited about the uniform and hat I got to wear or about the chance to actually play on the team.
Oh well, it was quite a proud moment, since I was not only the youngest member(was 7.5 I think while others were 11 and up) but also the only girl member. To confess, I don't think I was selected based on my world class batting, but more for the world class bat (or seemed that way compared to the plastic ones others had) that I had. Nevertheless, I didn't take my position on the team for granted, I used to wake up everyday at 6 to 'practice'. I don't remember what exactly I used to practice, but sure remember that the games wouldn't start until I reached the grounds... coz I had the bat remember !! I was given very special treatment during these practice sessions... like having a batsman to bat on my behalf while I stand next to him and just run when needed.. very funny coz I was actually the runner for my own batting because I was too scared to face the fast bowlers. I was allowed to not field because I used to fall asleep at the position (being so early in the mornings and all).

I remember the "Big match" we had with our counterparts in the factory area (we were the mining area). I woke up early, wore my uniform and of course the hat and took the bus to reach the grounds which was opposite our family friends'(Shinghal Uncle) house. So, mom made sure that uncle and aunty would watch over me and feed me food, snacks, etc. Our team got to bat first and I actually faced the ball this time and did actually make contact once and got out on the second ball. This was achievement enough for me since I actually got to face a fast bowler without wetting my pants. Then, in the afternoon, I was very excited to be fielding and imagined myself saving all these runs, 4's, etc. But, not sure what happened.. must have been my nap time...I was too tired to stay awake or something like that and was taken to uncle's house for my nap. I was still thrilled because our team didn't lose miserably and put up a decent fight and I got to contribute to this team instead of just being a reserve.
I used to observe Daddy listen intently to the commentary on our radio at home and also the little pocket radio he used to take to office and as I used to imitate him in everything to be like him, I used to force myself to listen and follow the commentary. I still distinctly remember the days when Dad and I used to lie down on the bed with the little radio on the pillow between us, Dad following the commentary and me pretending to and bugging Daddy every 5 mins for the score. For the record, Sunil Gavaskar was my first cricket idol. I continued playing regularly with the boys and just like Veera in the movie, dreamt about playing for India and then Daddy told me about the women's team and Shanta Rangaswamy, the then captain of the Indian Women's Cricket team.. and then I went onto dream about playing on the Indian Women's team for many more years until ofcourse my dreams changed path and shape :)

Quotable Quotes - Commemorating Mommy

2009-09-09T13:23:00.014-04:00

“Smrityanjali” is our way to commemorate our Mother, Mrs. Gullapalli Sarala Devi who was a supporting wife, caring daughter, loving sister, loyal friend and as our mother was lot more to us than words can express. Most of us remember her for her effervescent spirit, child-like innocence, undying passion for giving and her knack of playing with words that are just right for any occasion or mood. Our mommy was never afraid of death… she was just not done living her life and we think this book compiled from her own collection is one way to keep her alive in all our hearts. - Anita, Vasantha

Mommy had this wonderful habit of collecting interesting literary pieces -- be it books or quotations or interesting writeups on any subject. Not only did she collect them, but she used to quote them at the most appropriate time or ocassion. She liked immensely to spread the little nuggets she collected to all those around her. After she passed away, we found many books filled with her collections and we felt getting this book published and passed on to our friends and family was a meaningful way to commemorate her. I am adding it to my blog here to make it available to my online readers as well.

Smrityanjali (in pdf format)

Some of my favorites from her collection are:

How Chapatis can be good for SEO too?

2009-08-26T09:10:00.022-04:00

Yes, you read it right.. making chapatis and more precisely, writing about 'making chapatis' can be very good for the SEO ranking of your website. Here is how I learned about it.. purely serendipity. I started this blog about 2 years back now. It was purely intended to be my own journal and I didn't plan to do anything special to attract traffic or followers as such. Slowly, some of my friends started enjoying my posts and ended up being regular visitors. So, sometime early this year, I started getting emails from random people and also strangers commenting about some post or the other. I got curious and enabled google analytics to learn more about the traffic pattern to my blog. I noticed that the traffic was very sporadic and also inconsistent. On days that I posted something, it would generally peak and this is most likely because I mention it to someone or share it on facebook or something like that. But, the point is this traffic was mostly driven by me personally or by people who accidentally bump into my blog somehow or the other.
This was pretty much the pattern until sometime in April of this year.
In April, I wrote a post about 'How to make soft chapatis'. I noticed after this point, traffic to my blog has been consistently increasing and also pretty consistent day to day.
See what I mean (this is my vists and pageviews graph from the Google analytics dashboard)

This got me curious and I started doing bit more analysis using the Google Analytics reports (which are awesome by the way and easy to use).
Few things that I learned upon analyzing:
- Useful Content: Well, however narcissistic you are, the first obvious principle is that you need to have something useful on your website. Your website needs to have content or tools that people find useful, fun or worth their time. As I said earlier, my blog was started and intended to be just my journal and so it was mostly relevant or useful only to people I knew. Slowly some of my posts were appealing to broader audience.. like when I wrote some movie reviews (Gandhi, My Father, Taare Zameen Par or Jodha Akbar, etc) or when I wrote about corruption in India and recent terror attacks in Mumbai and this is when I started getting some comments/messages from even total strangers since what I wrote probably sparked them in one way or the other. So, the bottom line is that if your website is deemed useful to the viewers in one way or the other, then they will come to your site. Now, assuming you have all the goodies that people are looking for on your website, how do you make it easier for them to find your site.. this is where SEO comes into play as one of the many marketing techniques.
- Evergreen Content: If your website is not something that is updated/refreshed daily with something relevant then having ever green content on the site is key to consistent traffic. News sites fall under the category of having daily content and so as long as they are a trusted news source with loyal users, they can have some consistent baseline traffic. Ofcourse, there are challenges to keep this loyalty given the increasing competition etc, but that is a different topic. So, for sites that are not refreshed daily, evergreen content is the Key.. By this I mean, content that is always relevant. So, it turns out 'How to make soft chapatis' is an evergreen question that people ask again and again and so this piece became evergreen on my blog. See what I mean: Here are the top posts with most traffic on my blog:

Notice: How the top pages all have titles that are very generic and pretty much 'evergeen' in nature.
- Title: Title of the article is another important factor that search engines use to rank relevancy. Apparently, I used the most appropriate title for the post and it had all the search keywords that users normally use right in the title which made it rank high in relevancy by the search engine. The title I used is 'How to make soft chapatis - 34,101st recipe for beginners'. I myself typed in 'how to make soft chapatis' in the google search bar when I wanted to get some recipes. Notice when I earlier wrote about movies, my titles were not good at all (SEO wise). For example, when I wrote about the movie 'Gandhi, my Father', my title was 'Father of the Nation...Mahatma'. It didn't say anything about the movie nor did it have good search keywords that people will use when they are searching for either that movie's reviews or even about Gandhi. See what I mean, here are the top keywords driving traffic to my blog as of this morning:

- Relevant content - Obviously, if one uses 'chapati' in the title, but writes just about their menu for the day and chapati happens to one of the items on the menu, then I bet that piece of content would not have ranked high when people are searching for 'chapati recipes'. So, it helped that I was true to the title and gave a real recipe for making chapatis and used all the appropriate words in describing the recipe that both people and smart search engines associate with recipes. On the contrary, going back to my example about my earlier post about the movie "Gandhi, my father" - my title and content were not exactly tied well together. The title doesn't indicate that it is in fact a post about this movie.
- Keywords in URL - This is another aspect of the content that search engines weigh in and it so happens blogger is really good at generating URLs with the right keywords from the title of the post. I cannot take credit for this, but this must have certainly helped.
I know the science of driving SEO rankings is not something simple with a one size fits all prescription. Lot of website developers whose bread and butter depends on driving page views to their site spend months and months analyzing user behavior, brand association to keywords people use, traffic trends by days/times, common keywords used by users while looking for their site and come up with various strategies with content, metadata, URL structures, page layouts, etc to get as many clicks to their website as possible, but this little analysis on my blog helped me understand and appreciate all those principles and techniques a little better.
There may be few other reasons for this traffic pattern on my blog, but this is the position I have today which I am kinda proud of:

My new blog

2009-08-13T14:09:00.004-04:00

Announcing the launch of my new blog.... which is 'Project Management is NOT for dummies' It may sound narcissistic, but hopefully as I write more and more about the various nuances of project management, I will be able to convince you all as to why 'Effective Project Management' is not just something that you can learn from books, but more a personality that you need to build..

The curtain raises and always falls...

2009-06-26T11:47:00.009-04:00

As I was reading, watching and pondering over the recent news about Michael Jackson's death and all the related stories mushrooming all over about his life, what he was and what he was not, what he had and what he had not, one thing that jumped at me was - how in birth and death, we are all exactly the same... its just the time in between that is 'to each their own'. If you compare this to a movie, imagine if every single movie started the same way and ended the same way, but with a different plot in between.. how interesting or rather how boring would that be...and would we want to still keep going and watching those movies. But, here is where comes the genius of our Creator... it seems like He has an unlimited supply of screenplays up his sleeve and although He brings us all into this being the same way and takes us away in the same way, he makes the period in-between so interesting and totally action packed and a nail-biting suspense thriller right until the very end.
Something I read recently also stayed with me... its about the purity in a child's smile/joy. When we are born, we are so pure, devoid of any expectations from the world, from each other and can accept anything and everything just for what it is. This purity gives us the ability to feel the pure love, sheer happiness without too much analysis and reasoning. As we grow older and older and our reasoning power develops, it also takes away our ability to accept things just as is.. we start to analyze and over-analyze each interaction, situation, start to plan and over-plan our days, our life and slowly lose the ability to just live in the moment and experience the moment.
Ok.. I think I am getting confusing now...just recollect the last time you saw a smile or joy on a child's face.. it is so pure, children just feel the love when you give them a little hug or a little smile or even a little lollipop and experience it whole heartedly... now lets say we did the same to another 'grown up' person, the first thing they start to think is 'why did this person be nice to me? Does he/she want something from me? How should I react? I don't want to look dumb or silly... lemme just ignore for now... so on and so forth' and in the process completely miss enjoying/feeling that smile or love. Imagine.. if only we could preserve the child like purity through out life and experience life for what it is....
Anyway, so as the curtain of our life is lifted, we all start off the same way...as a little baby with so much purity. Then, as the movie starts reeling, our lives transform from one to the other just as the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, there are also so many expectations built, impressions made, there are so many bonds made, so many bonds broken, there are so many emotions experienced, so many of so many things happen in between making us constantly thinking or planning for 'what next'... and then suddenly..poof....He decides.. 'Time is up'... and the curtain comes down. The curtain raising and the curtain closing are the constant and everything in between... is what we call Life... a Live Movie where characters are all real and not fictitious, but not representing any other person living or dead.. each character is absolutely unique...

So, what exactly am I trying to convey: NOTHING. Don't read too much into it.. its just me expressing my conundrum of thoughts, confusions and musings... that's all

Just learning to live with it

2009-06-01T14:13:00.006-04:00

Ani and I started talking, planning for Mom’s 1yr anniversary and I cannot really believe it’s almost a year since her passing. I remember rushing to Hyd on July 13th, 2008 as the doctors thought she was ‘critical’. The next 3 weeks felt like being caught in the worst tornado of our lifetime as we saw mommy slowly but surely slipping away. She was becoming more and more 'distant' and I think that was God’s way of preparing Mom and us for what was coming or rather going.
The days, weeks and the months following that have been somewhat of a roller coaster ride as we try to slip back into our lives. I remember people trying to console us saying ‘Only time can heal this pain’.. I really don’t think this pain can be healed and this is called 'healing'.. its just getting used to living with this pain. There have been days when I cannot shake her off my head, there have been times when I am missing her most and thats when I most definitely feel her presence and hear her voice in my head as though trying to tell me that she has not gone away, but is still part of our lives. There are also times when I feel she is putting in a word to God on our behalf and taking care of matters for us from up there.
I know we have our lives to go on and in addition to the memories of the past, we still have lot more memories to build upon in our lives, kids, etc but there is this part of me that just cannot feel the same again.. I cannot pin point what it is, but there is something that is lost.. its probably the secure feeling of having mom to run to with anything and everything, its probably the craving for her hug, its probably her sympathetic ear that listened attentively to anything small or big and her reassurance that things will be ‘just fine’. There is no cure to this pain.. am just learning to live with it.

Doctors, Practitioners and all

2009-05-20T09:26:00.011-04:00

I have been dealing with a few doctors lately for some minor issues (Thank God.. they were just minor annoyances and not more than that). First for the disclaimers: I have the highest regard for the medical profession and think it’s a true Gift to be able to be in that field that can have real life impact every single day. I am also surrounded by a family of doctors and I dare not offend any of them :)

Anyway, interestingly, I came across these definitions for Doctor, Practitioners and they made me ponder:

Physician/Doctor: A physician, medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, or medical doctor practices medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment ofdisease and injury

Practioner:
An individual who supplies health care services, ie, physician, psychologist, nurse practitioner.
Someone who practices a learned profession.

I think (don’t mean to simplify) the art and science of proper diagnosis involves processing of a massive flowchart with the answers we give to doctors’ questions and/or the symptoms we describe, helping the doctor traverse the flowchart. In the simple cases, this following through the chart will lead to a fairly solid conclusive diagnosis and that leads to a fairly sure shot treatment. Now, as things get a bit more complex or tricky which I assume they often do, the flow through the chart may not lead to a conclusive diagnosis and this is when you can differentiate a good/experienced doctor vs. a not so great one The good ones look beyond the flowchart and use other data points such as their own experience from seeing other patients and other characteristics of the patient itself and generally from these can come up with a good game plan on how to proceed, but the not so good ones end up looking for guidance from the textbooks and end up ‘practicing’ his profession and not playing the real game. (Pun intended).

So, what does one do if they are caught in these practice games?.. well.. lets hope they play well so we get out of the game altogether. If not, what works for me is to get a second opinion and that’s usually from one of the doctors in the family or rather mostly from my bro (who I think is the best doctor in the whole world) and decide if its time to switch doctors or stick to the practice game.

Disclaimer again: This post is not intended to offend Doctors or the Medical profession.. it is just a post reminiscing my recent experiences.

Imagine That

2009-05-06T17:17:00.013-04:00

Ever since I became a parent, I sometimes feel the need to be more in control of our lives. I want to be able to give my children the best possible life, protect them from anything that can cause them pain or sadness and do whatever it takes to see them have a long happy fruitful life, full of love, laughter and dreams coming true.

I know there are a lot of things in our control on how we shape our life, future, how we have the choice of making the best out of every situation.
But, when I read about all the crime, illnesses, hardships that people face around the world, it feels like there is a lot that is not exactly in our control and people like me who believe in God or some superior power above us believe that whatever is happening is according to His grand scheme and believe He has this whole thing figured out and has a rhyme and reason for every single occurrence of good, bad and the ugly,

Some people say God created ‘Evil’ so we can appreciate the ‘Good’, God created Darkness so we can appreciate the Light, God created Sickness so we can appreciate Health. But, how can I teach my kids to be honest when we see honesty is not always rewarded and the path of honesty is more often a tough one with lots of obstacles; How can I teach my kids the value of hard work , sincerity and perseverance when they and us see lots of examples of people who cheat, ‘play the politics’ or indulge in some other form of corruption and yet make it to the top accolades; How can I teach my kids to be socially responsible and help others irrespective of color, caste, religion when we see people killing each other in the name of religion, color or some other petty reason and yet get away with little to no punishment;

I am not saying we should all give up on teaching and showing our kids Good vs. Bad. I just wonder if we really need to see all this Bad to be able to appreciate the Good
Imagine a world where there is nothing bad.. can’t we all just live happily and go through the circle of life in a more predictable manner....The same God who created all this could have chosen to not create this much of the Bad.. isn’t it? Sorry, God with all due respect to your powers and greatness.. I just don’t get it.. do we really need to see this much of chaos…..obviously I don't know a lot of stuff about God, Evolution and all that. But, I have the power to dream and imagine and I will continue to dream and imagine a world where everything is just ‘Good’ and ‘Beautiful’ and everybody is just 'Happy'...

Getting the most bang for each day

2009-04-23T09:07:00.005-04:00

We have all heard, read about 'living in the moment', 'getting the most out of life', 'find your passion before the grim reaper arrives', etc. But, here is a different twist to that....read on
Now, if you think our average lifespan is about 70yrs ( Current World Average is 70 as per wikipedia and there are variations by gender, race, etc and all that is besides the point anyway)
This translates to ~25,500 days in all. That sounds like a lot of days.
Now, the first 6-7 years which translates to ~2500 days we are mostly happy and have pretty good time in general.
Its from about 7 years old or so that we start experiencing moods and seem to somewhat understand/experience different emotions and start to form our own outlook towards life. (Disclaimer: I am sure this definitely varies from individual to individual and I am no expert in the area of how the human brain develops through the years and this is just purely from my observation of my boys)
So, its really about 63 years translated to ~23000 days that we have to play with and can choose to do whatever we want with these days.
Now, let's say we use this comparison: What if we are given a total of $23,000 for our entire life and we are asked to live our life with it. For most of us, the natural instinct would be to try and maximize what we can get from these 23 thousand dollars.. we will do all kinds of research and bargain hunting to get the most 'bang for our buck'. We will try to invest in it to stretch that pool and so on..
What if we view our days the same way too and try to get the most 'bang for each day'.. find our passion, do something each day that will make you truly happy, invest in it so you can stretch your days and stretch the quality of those days..

How to make soft chapatis - the 34,101st recipe for beginners

2009-04-17T16:20:00.009-04:00

So.. about 3 weeks ago I started my quest in the land of chapati making. Why.. you may wonder, well.. coming from a rice eating state of AP, chapatis and rotis were not a regular item on the menu in our house, but lately I have realized the health effects this may have and wanted to replace rice with the healthier option of Whole Wheat Chapatis. So...I decided to have me-made chapatis for dinner everyday. My memories of my previous attempts which ended in crispy or sometimes hard leather like chapatis did scare me a bit, but this time I was determined to put in more effort and give it my 100% for at least 2 weeks before giving it all up again. I even thought of another option of developing a taste for crispy chapatis viewing them just like the mexican hard tacos, but that idea didn't go too far and I had no option but to learn making soft chapatis.
So, my first step was to go to Google and type: 'How to make soft chapathis?' I was prompted by the spell-checker and learnt that the correct spelling is 'Chapati' and not 'Chapathi'. Really...I am still not too sure, but Google says it, so it must be correct :-)
Anyway, my google search resulted in about 34,100 results and after reading a few, I realized there are some very elaborate recipes which pretty much nullify the health effects of going with whole wheat chapatis by adding butter to the dough or some such thing. Then there are other recipes that are just way too complicated for me to follow with a number of different ingredients that need to be precisely measured, kneaded, etc. Finally, I found a set of "least common denominator" instructions that most of the recipes included and I decided to go with those. Now, its been about 17 days since I started and I have been able to consistently make soft chapatis that stay soft for 24 hrs and beyond. This post is my attempt at not just becoming the 34,101st result, but to help a beginner chapati maker like myself with some simple/easy tips that he/she can master in a short amount of time.

So, here you go (pay special attention to the ones in italics):
1. I used the Laxmi Brand Whole Wheat Flour (nothing added)
2. Take 2 cupts of the flour, 1/2 teaspoon of Norton salt
3. Some Hot Water
4. Some milk * - Definitely makes a difference. Without this, I didn't get them as soft
5. 2 teaspoons of oil
6. Knead the flour into dough * - in the end, the dough should not be sticking to your hands. If it does, add more flour and it should be almost like chewing gum. Knead at least for 15mins
7. Keep the dough aside for at least 30 mins with a little damp wash cloth covered on it. What worked even better is when I made the dough in large quantity and stored it in the Fridge overnight. The chapatis came out even softer next day onwards
8. When you are ready to make chapatis, put the tawa on the stove and let it heat up
9. Make balls - You will need to try couple of times before fixing on a size that works for you
10. Roll into chapati - not too thick or too thin
11. Wait for tawa to be fully hot * - this is very important and made a difference.
12. Put the rolled chapati on the tawa
13. Wait couple of minutes and you will notice very small bumps and then turn to other side * - if this takes longer because the tawa is not hot enough in step 11, the chapati ends up being more harder and crispy like papad
14. On this side, use a damp cloth or paper towel and press around, while the chapati puffs
15. After all the chapati has puffed, turn to other side and repeat step 14
16. You can store in a hot box/casserole now as is or apply just little oil and store * - Oil didn't make much difference to the softness, but does a bit to the taste and feel

That's it.. Now, if I have ready dough in the fridge, about 5-6 chapatis which is what we need for one meal in our house takes about 20mins or less. Now, I am motivated to keep this going hoping I can always find 20mins before dinner to make yummy me-made whole wheat chapatis.
Whether I have mastered it or not, only time will tell, but I am pretty confident that if I keep doing what I am doing now, I will get soft chapatis in the end.
Hope these instructions will prove useful to someone who doesn't want to go with the other time-tested options of buying them from a store or someone else.
I know it has been just few days and so I cannot consider myself an expert. Please drop me a line if you have tried these tips and the result has been different or if you think I was just plain lucky in getting them soft.

Being a woman...

2009-04-16T08:51:00.007-04:00

Our upanishads said this already:

Karyeshu dasi, Karneshu mantri,
Roopeshu Lakshmi, kshameshu dharitri,
Bhojeshu matha, Shayaneshu vaishya,
Shatkarma nari, Kuladharma pathni.

The following is more real and is very well expressed and it definitely deserves a spot in my blogland. I received this in email this morning and it certainly jump-started my day and made me feel somewhat special and proud.

Here is a girl, who is as much educated as you are;
Who is earning almost as much as you do;
One, who has dreams and aspirations just as you have because she is as human as you are;

One, who has never entered the kitchen in her life just like you or your
sister haven't, as she was busy in studies and competing in a system
that gives no special concession to girls for their culinary achievements

One, who has lived and loved her parents & brothers & sisters, almost as
much as you do for 20-25 years of her life;

One, who has bravely agreed to leave behind all that, her home, people who love her, to adopt your home, your family, your ways and even your family name

One, who is somehow expected to be a master-chef from day #1, while you sleep oblivious to her predicament in her new circumstances, environment and that kitchen

One, who is expected to make the coffee, first thing in the morning and cook
food at the end of the day, even if she is as tired as you are, maybe more,
and yet never ever expected to complain; to be a servant, a cook, a mother,
a wife, even if she doesn't want to; and is learning just like you are as
to what you want from her; and is clumsy and sloppy at times and knows that you won't like it if she is too demanding, or if she learns faster than you;

One, who has her own set of friends, and that includes boys and even men at her workplace too, those, who she knows from school days and yet is willing to put all that on the back-burners to avoid your irrational jealousy, unnecessary competition and your inherent insecurities;

Yes, she can drink and dance just as well as you can, but won't, simply
Because you won't like it, even though you say otherwise
One, who can be late from work once in a while when deadlines, just like yours, are to be met;
One, who is doing her level best and wants to make this most important relationship in her entire life a grand success, if you just help her some and trust her;

One, who just wants one thing from you, as you are the only one she knows in your entire house – your unstinted support, your sensitivities and most
importantly - your understanding, or love, if you may call it.

Please appreciate "HER"

Live your life.. find your passion before the grim reaper comes

2009-04-02T14:42:00.007-04:00

Randy Pausch became a celebrity when he delivered his Last Lecture on Sept 18th, 2007. His lecture and his life touched me like it did millions around the world. One of the quotes and slides he used in his lecture 'Tigger or Eeyore' sticks with me and I think of it many many times when I am trying to cheer myself up.

"It is not about how to achieve your dreams; it's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the Karma will do its thing and the dreams will come to you"

I recently came across another video of him addressing the CMU graduates and I think, as always his message about living life to the fullest and finding your passion before the grim reaper arrives seems like common sense but, it is impactful and thought provoking.

He talks about not chasing after money or 'things' since those never fill you up.. its finding your passion and chasing it that matters. Living the life where people around you love you and respect you for what you are is the ultimate honor. Great speech... nice message.. emotional ending...so here it is.

Me, me and myself

2009-04-01T16:46:00.006-04:00

There is this thing going on on Facebook where people put in 25 Random things about themselves and then tag a bunch of people. People who get tagged have to now say the 25 Random things about themselves, tag others and it goes on....I was tagged recently and that got me get into introspective mode a bit and here is my list... take it for what it is... with a grain of salt and lots of sense of humor please :-)
1. I am cusp of leo and virgo and I think that’s part reason for my split personality. People close to me say I have more of leo qualities in me.

2. When working in groups, I like to work on team dynamics, mentoring people and creating environments that bring the best out of people.

3. I take my commitments very seriously however small or hard they are.. once I commit, I don’t go back on it easily. My pet peeve is when people don’t live up to their commitments and the one that ticks me off most is about timeliness

4. I am a hands-on mom also, which I am really proud of ( I need to let go of the guilt that I am a working mom).

5. I am a very emotional person especially about family. I can cry upon a drop of a hat

6. I was always a tomboy, in my thinking, dressing etc. I hated to be dressed like a girl when I was growing up and even now I am most comfortable with my comfy pair of jeans and a good shirt or nice shalwar kameez... don't like saris at all.

7. Mom was my first best friend even before I knew what friendship was about.. I knew she always brought out the best in me and did not judge me for anything whatsoever. My sister is almost like second mom to me now.. and thanks Mommy for giving her

8. I was very close to my mom (I still am in a way) and I miss her terribly and want to keep her spirit alive by doing the things she liked to do…which was ‘Giving’

9. I never really "knew" my sister growing up.. we did nothing together during the day since I was busy playing outside while she was busy in front of the mirror or with her books but, I remember holding onto her hand real tight while sleeping at night

10. I met my husband, Chandu on a Badminton court.. we were mixed doubles partners and he even hit hard once that my nose bled.. now why did I end up marrying him??? long story for another time

11. I value honesty and integrity a lot and that’s what made me fall in love with Chandu. He got on my list of Best friends and I have really high expectations of him (you know that Chandu, don’t you?)

12. I love logic in most of the aspects in life and I really appreciate logical explanation for anything not understood by me. I am also superstitious about somethings and do follow them more ‘just in case’.. do you see a pattern of the 'cuspiness' here?

13. I am an orange belt in karate and would like to pursue that more someday as a hobby along with Badminton

14. Growing up, I wanted to be the First Woman Air Chief Marshall, Prime Minister of India, Indian Cricket Team Captain, Basketball Player, IAS Officer and am really not sure how I ended up being a Program Manager here in Dow Jones

15. I like to exercise more for the feeling afterwards. I am yet to find my favorite activity that I will not get bored with after few months.

16. I love to read, watch movies and have intellectual discussions with people. I also love listening to music and I like to be heard through my blog.

17. I am passionate about giving something back to the society and strongly believe in 'Being the change I want to see in the world' and hope to take this up more seriously soon.

18. I hate conflicts and in a conflict situation, I usually just try to change/mend myself somehow to get over it. The hardest lesson I learnt is that I cannot please everyone.

19. I am usually very hard on myself and have high expectations of myself and think somehow I can do a lot of things including solving World Hunger if I put in the right attitude and effort

20. I am not comfortable behind the wheel and not sure what induced this fear.. perhaps being caught by Daddy one morning racing on my bicycle with an autorickshaw in Hyderabad..contributed to it

21. I totally enjoy my morning cuppa without any interruptions. Like to have it before the boys in the home get up.

22. I thrive on planning, lists and being prepared. Excel is one of my favorite tools

23. My sister’s biggest enemy was my best friend while growing up ( all my friends were boys while growing up and I would only play cricket, jungle, war games, bicycle racing with them)

24. I look forward to seeing my boys as compassionate people, caring husbands and most importantly happy in whatever they choose to do and of course as handsome dudes(as my sister puts it)

25. A lot of my family and friends don’t know my real name. I am most popularly known by my pet name - Mickey

26. My nose influences by taste buds. If I don't like the smell of something I will either just not eat it or am damn sure will not like the taste

To all the teachers out there...

2009-03-13T10:57:00.019-04:00

"Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshwara
Guru Sakshath Parambrahma Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha"

Meaning: The teacher is creator Brahma; he is preserver Vishnu; he is also the destroyer Siva and he is the source of the Absolute. I offer all my efforts to that great teacher.

Last night Chandu showed me some pictures of some old students of Mavayya (FIL) felicitating their teachers from High School and it reminded me how for most of us even as years pass by and we move far and away finding our nook and corner in this wide world, our childhood teachers form a special place in our memory bank.
The Sanskrit word of teacher – Guru, means someone who guides us in all walks of our life and leads us from darkness to light and leads us in our journey towards the discovery of ourselves and God. I think having the experience of such a Guru in our lives and truly experiencing that spiritual journey is a longer deeper subject that I will not attempt to delve into. In the most simplistic form, my Gurus have been my parents and my teachers in school (from Ammasandra to NJ). Ofcourse, one could argue that we all learn many things from many other people during our normal interactions and that is absolutely true but, again it’s the parents and some of my teachers that I truly think of as "Gurus" since their teachings have been a constant guiding factor for me.

"Matru Devo Bhava, Pitru Devo Bhava, Acharya Devo Bhava, Atithi Devo Bhava"

Meaning: Revere your mother, father, preceptor and guest as God

This sloka from the Upanishads is simple yet so profound. Mom and Dad have been a major influence in my life and have been my first Gurus who have taught me things that I would not have learnt from schools or books.. they have taught me mostly by just leading their life day in and day out showing us the values and ethics they believe in. My teachers have added another dimension altogether by helping me realize my potential and pushing me to get better and better. I remember being that kid in school who would regularly take a special flower or a fruit for the teacher trying to gain his/her attention. I am sure I am not the first one to feel this way about teachers and lot of people (kids and adults alike) do feel the urge to somehow ‘please’ their teachers and sometimes this is what pushes them to put in additional effort into their homework or the project. It is but natural since they are the first set of people after our own parents who genuinely care about our well-being and feel proud by our accomplishments and success. Their sense of accomplishment is somehow tied to how well their students do in life much like the way parents feel about their children. Sometimes I think they are in some ways better judges of our strengths and weaknesses and can guide us better since they are not as ‘attached’ to their students as parents are to their children. My earlier post about the movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’ describes how sometimes the teacher sees something that the parents may not. I remember the time when my teacher in the 9th grade told me what was missing from my speech for the annual debate competition about ‘Gandhi vs. Godse’. At first, I felt disappointed to hear this since everyone at home thought it was just ‘great’ but, then it just pushed me to add that missing punch to the speech and that was what helped me and my team win the trophy.
Teaching is such a noble profession. All the teachers out there…please be proud of what you do since its your efforts that are behind all the success stories, noble prizes, careers and lives in general. I am thankful to all my teachers and others who teach me something or the other and help me realize my strengths and shortcomings and made me what I am today and help shape what I will be tomorrow. I hope someday I will be able to make you all proud.

Being a Fly on the Wall...can we afford it?

2009-03-02T09:40:00.014-05:00

I was watching some Indian TV channels yesterday and was surprised to see so many ad campaigns by the political parties and realized.. elections were round the corner. It made me think how unaware and un-interested we are.. especially this generation (the 20s, 30s and 40s). I know my grandparents were somewhat involved, they had seen the Freedom Fight and participated or contributed to it one way or the other, our parents were busy building their lives in the Free India and saw the formative years of India as a free nation and then just learned their way to live and let live in India as it grew from being just a dot on the world map to a 3rd world country to one of the leading economies of the world (twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and fourth largest in purchasing power according to Wikipedia) Our generation had the advantage of being exposed to good education, lot of us were fortunate enough to come to the west and be exposed to even wider range of cultures and be able to build our careers in the first and second world countries. Having seen this and exposed to the 'world', I think we are in general more aware and have the potential to do lot more but, when it comes to putting it to some good use in our own home country, we are so far away. We can talk in our parties and pubs for hours together about how India is so backward and how much we like the western way of life and how corruption is rampant in India, why there is no value for merit and what we crave about the western way of life, etc. Yet, when it comes to atleast paying attention and being aware of whats happening and doing our bit, we are mostly just flies on the wall of whichever community we reside in. I think as a generation we have lot more potential to make a difference and 'Be the change we want to see in the society'.
To start with, lets all become more aware and put in more effort to
1) Register to vote ,
2) Find out more about the candidates in your constituency and lastly
3) Take the time to vote on the day and more importantly you can even cast your protest vote if you don't like any of the candidates.
I know the election process is plagued with a lot of cheap tactics to attract the masses and a valuable vote that decides the future (atleast for 4-5 yrs) can be bought for as little as Rs. 100 and one bottle of cheap liquor. If we can come together to spread awareness about why this is not how we build our country's future, that will also go a long way. I know we cannot change the entire system in one election but, there is a lot can be done in one election and by not doing anything you are not helping the situation at all... so, at least do your bit and pass on the word.. a change can be made one step at a time.

How much can I influence

2009-02-26T16:26:00.010-05:00

The other day Avi asked me some questions about some scenes in Star Wars and it got me thinking about all the different influencers he has in his life right now. I am starting to realize that these years now (ages 6 to 20 or so) are probably the most formative ones for him in terms of building his character. I also realized that this is also the time when his time spent with us (chandu and me) is going down and down. If you think about it in a purely mathematical fashion, here is how the 24 hrs in a day break down to:

1. Wake up and get ready to school – 1 hr (7 to 8)
2. School time – 8 hrs (8 – 4)
3. Homework, relax, activities, family time – 5 hrs (4 to 9)
4. Sleep – 10 hrs (9 to 7)

Now, if you add some activities, school projects into number 3, those 5 hrs are cutdown even further. Just for fun, I googled 'Parental Influence on kids' and found the above graph which is somewhat true I think but, not all that motivating for parents like us. There are research studies being done and have some conflicting reports… saying parental influence is very strong vs. not much. I wonder what the ideal graph would look like where we have all the right percentage of influences from the right sources.
Anyway, I like to believe that it can be as strong as we can make it to be. Many a time when I am faced with a tough situation, I think about how Mommy or Daddy would react to it and somehow carve my reaction from it. I don’t think they built this influence by spending hours and hours with us during our growing up years and I think its more from their actions that they gained our trust and respect… its “Teaching By Example”

Pray.. why do I do it

2009-02-26T14:48:00.013-05:00

I have heard the term ‘God fearing’ a lot and wonder if ‘God’ is someone we should fear. I think it may be related to the fact that most ‘God fearing’ people think God is the supreme lawmaker and actions that are wrong in ‘His’ eyes are bad and He has a way to punish us for those wrong actions. I am not entirely sure about ‘Him’ punishing us but, I think having this belief is good to instill some integrity and moral values. I think it’s the ‘unknowns’ that I fear mostly and since I don’t know what God has in store for me (I know there can be lot of debates here about how our destiny is in our hands and not in God's hands but, I believe in some supreme power or fate that has a hand), it turns out sometimes I fear him too. All that said, when I read this below passage (from the Bible) on a friend’s blog it reminded me of why I pray.

Jeremiah 29:11-14 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity.

Like most other people, I sometimes tend to remember God lot more and reach out to him lot more when I am going through some tough times and need His helping hand… there are also times when I used to start doubting him and wondered if I should even bother praying. I think as I have grown in age and seen quite a bit of ups and downs in life, the latter part is not happening much or rather not happening at all. This is because I believe prayer gives me hope and strength to remain positive even in the most trying times.
I think what I seek in my prayers is peace and confidence and like to go to bed assured that there is God whose agenda is definitely to take care of me and give me the power and strength to live this life that he has given me.
It doesn’t matter what religion one practices and who one refers to as ‘God’, just that strength and confidence one gets from this belief is enough to live this life.

When your team is not with you

2009-02-12T09:49:00.004-05:00

To start off, this post is going to be stating the obvious all the way....Everyone knows that when your team is not really with you, it can cause some havoc and in some extreme cases...lead to major coup that topple governments, etc.
Anyway, here is a personal experience..during one of our Thursday night Badminton games, Chandu and I got separated and ended up playing against each other. My initial thought was that it would be easy since I know his strengths and thought I could read his moves and take his shots. Well, in reality the opposite happened...somehow I was completely thrown off balance and I couldn't really handle him as an opponent. We have been playing as Doubles partners for many years now and think we have a fairly good chemistry on the court. But, somehow playing against him was a whole different shuttle game. I started thinking about it a bit and realized that it is in fact true that when your team is against you, they can become a strong opponent more because you are not prepared to play 'against' them. This is very true in any team dynamic...the folks on the team who are not working with/for the team can be hard to manage and can bring the whole team down. So, as a leader, building high performing teams means pick the best players with strengths that complement each other and also keep monitoring and weed off the players that are playing against the team. Its not always true that the people against the team are bad or malicious... its just that they belong to another team.

Being on the front page of a newspaper...does that make me famous?

2009-01-26T17:32:00.008-05:00

Ok.. Ladies and Gentlemen....I was featured on the front page of a newspaper and yes it is a real newspaper with a substantial circulation and yes I was on Page One of that newspaper on January 16th, 2009.
What did I do you may wonder to get here: Well, I was in the right place at the right time. Did you hear this before? I sure bet you did :)
Click here to see what I mean.
Our local newspaper - West Windsor Marketplace featured an article on Yoga and the Integral Yoga Institute at Princeton was mentioned in it. I am taking classes there and one saturday they took some pictures while we were in class. One of the pictures that they chose to publish has me in it.
I remember Avinash asking me few months ago about 'being famous' and if jumping from a tall tree that nobody jumped from before can make him famous. I had to explain to this then 6 year old the difference between being famous vs. being dumb and being cool vs. being smart and few others and that conversation was a long one but, I think/hope he will not try such stunts just to be 'famous'.
Now, if I tell him that his Mommy was featured in the front page of a newspaper and that's usually reserved for pretty famous people, will that be viewed as 'twisting the truth'... maybe a little bit?

Project in a Petri Dish...leave the bacteria alone

2009-01-26T17:06:00.013-05:00

I just heard this Project/People Management tip using the Petri Dish analogy (yes... this is pretty intriguing...read on). So, imagine a project to be a Petri dish and the different bacteria you want to grow in it to be different people/teams within the project. Apparently, biologically it is proven that the same bacteria can grow/behave differently in different petri dishes. Now, it looks like the same rule applies to people as well... the same person/team can end up behaving differently on different projects...since the circumstances, surroundings are all different. Now, a Project Manager like me who is unaware of this fact, can get frustrated that the bacteria in this petri dish is acting differently from how it did in the last petri dish and hence straying away from the 'project plan'. But, remember.. even the most seasoned biologist cannot control the bacteria in the petri dish.
This is in line with my belief that Project Management Methodology is not an exact science and has to be trimmed and customized based on the context of each project. To add to it, the experiences from the past can guide you in picking the right processes and recognizing the patterns and themes that are emerging but, the actual handling of the situations/issues before they become showstoppers is as much art as it is science. But, even with that there is only so much one can do in creating the right environment and then its the bacteria that decides how it wants to grow..
I feel so much better now... a seasoned biologist cannot do it... so who am I to control this bacteria that have a life of their own...

Blast from the past... connecting the dots

2008-12-31T10:35:00.019-05:00

So, as I was doing some social networking on the web this past week, I accidentally landed on this site called 'Batchmates.com'. It is pretty neat and is a community based website with a slightly different twist than facebook or linkedin. One thing I liked about it was that it had my childhood schools listed with people registered in those networks. I have been trying to get back in touch with my childhood school friends who I seemed to have lost touch in the recent past without even realizing when and how. Anyway, my heart started racing and I registered myself and got into 'St. Francis Girls High School' network and within a few minutes got connected with one of my classmates from back then !!! This was so exciting and we immediately got on chatting, exchanging contact info, trying to summarize the last 20yrs of our lives on IM and it felt like I was being transported in the fastest space shuttle to my past and all the memories kept coming and coming and I didn't know where to stop. After this initial gush, I slowed down and started to savor the memories and in an attempt to connect the dots, recollected the most impactful memories/experiences I have of those times. Here are some in no particular order:
Being myself: I joined this school in my fourth grade. We moved from Ammasandra and it was a big move for all of us especially because Ammasandra was a small place where our family was generally well known and had a celebrity status of some sort. Anita and I were pretty popular in school and life as a 9 year old was just perfect. Here we are in Hyderabad... a large city, nobody really recognizes us and I had no friends and suddenly in this big school, large class with no friends of my own. I remember the initial few weeks being such a struggle to make myself go to school. I noticed that in this school, there was a class leader and each group (Pink, Yellow, Blue and Green) had a Group leader and the most coveted 'First in Class' position. All of these people had little badges on their uniform to display their status. My first instinct was that I need to get those as soon as possible to establish myself and prove that I am 'smart'. Getting the the 'First in class' was not that difficult. As I wrote, Mom just instilled this behavior of putting in my best effort all through my childhood and that helped a lot. But, this was not enough to become 'popular' and make friends. Coincidentally, this was also the time when Mommy just came back from her first trip to the US and brought some cool stuff like Mickey mouse shaped sharpeners and erasers, pencils with erasers in the end (never seen in India by then), magnetic pencil boxes, etc. I tried to attract people by flashing these goodies. Again, that only went so far.. people were attracted to come see and use them but, they were not enough to make friends. As few months passed by and I started just being myself and blending in with the group, playing their games, eating their snacks, sharing their stories and fears..somewhere during those times they just started feeling comfortable making me their friend and it was just so easy after that and I started looking forward to going to school each day. I learnt that the best way to build long lasting relationships is by just being myself and let people who like the 'real' me come to me
Never underestimate your opponent: I moved from grade to grade pretty smoothly and I was now in the 9th grade and it was time for school elections to choose the Student leaders(sort of like student cabinet and president positions). I thought I was most definitely going to be the 'SPL' (School Pupil Leader a.k.a President) and took the whole selection process somewhat for granted. It was only as we were getting closer to the results, I realized that 'S' infact had much better chances and eventually she went on to become the SPL and I became the captain of the Yellow House (St. Cecilia's group). This was my first 'defeat' so to speak and it shattered my world. After the initial disappointment, I remember spending a lot of time evaluating and assessing the situation and realized she was a better choice and from then on I learnt never to take my opponents for granted and to be more realistic about my own strengths and weaknesses. Now, looking back I am proud that even after this personal disappointment, I ended up being an excellent captain and a great support for S and a true team player to make our tenure a productive and memorable one.
A leader doesn't have to be best in everything: As I was growing up from grade to grade, I always wanted to be an 'All rounder' and not only try my hand in different activities (Sports, Dramatics, Quizes, Debates, etc) but, also wanted to be the best in everything. I used to work towards winning the 'first prize' in any competition I participated in. It was only after a few instances and lot of talking with Mommy that I came to terms with the fact that it was ok not to be best in everything. For one, I cannot act to save my life and came to accept this fact after a few embarrassing trials. As the captain of the Yellow house, I had to pick the teams to participate in various competitions and after some trials back and forth with my vice-captain, I realized as a leader my strength lies in my team. I need to be able to assemble a team that is the 'best as a team' and no single person needs to and can be the best in every thing that the team needs to accomplish. So, we spent the time in picking the best actor from our group, the best sports girls, best quiz whizkid, etc and this helped us win the 'Best All Round Performance' trophy for our group end of the year.
Oh my oh my.... I am what I am but, its all these moments in life that make me what I am today..

What next?

2008-12-22T10:40:00.010-05:00

Ever since, I started spreading the word and doing my bit to make Dec 18th - Non-Corruption Day a success, I was pondering over how to define success for a grassroots campaign such as this one. It became very obvious that we cannot measure and show quantifiable results for something like this unless we measure a number of different data points and social perceptions over a period of time. That said, its also obvious that saying "No" to Corruption for one day is not enough.. its like a drop in the ocean... albeit a very important first drop. We need many such drops to make the ocean full.
As I was reaching out to my contacts in the media and politics to help with spreading the word about corruption, I was told that U.N had declared Dec 9th as International Anti-Corruption Day. I did some googling again and realized that a lot of the political parties in India held meetings on this day to show that they supported this day. But, what was surprising is that none of them seem to have done anything to spread the awareness among the public and the common man was pretty oblivious about this and went about their day just like any other day. It made me realize the importance of social awareness and grass roots movements like ours to help tackle this deep rooted issue. We cannot expect the President, Prime Minister or a political party to do much without the support of the people. The United Nations has this convention against corruption tackling corruption at a policy level and providing some support to the countries at a macro level but, we need to work at a micro level too to be able to see some positive change in our lifetime.
So, for all those who participated on Dec 18th, feel very proud for taking this first very important step and leading by example. Please don't stop here and lets continue this day after day. Lets join hands in being the change we want to see in this world !!

Wake up call.. Enuf is Enuf

2008-12-01T08:57:00.024-05:00

I heard in some advertisement -- "India, the land for all seasons. India, the land for all reasons." This sums it all - the land for all reasons. A country rich in cultural and spiritual wealth is once again shaken up inside out by just a handful of sickos. I know we Indians are probably more resilient than anyone else but, that strength to bounce back and resume our lives again seems to be acting against us since we have gotten used to just get up and get back into our day to day lives/struggles until we are punched again in the face.
I can very well imagine Lataji's famous 'Ae mere watan ki logon' being played in every nook and corner and people coming together to light candles and pray for those who lost their lives during the Mumbai terrorist attacks. All this is well and good and probably therapeutic in some way, but let's not stop here and let's think beyond the immediate acts of consolation and support and think about what we can do to prevent this from happening again. If what the media is conveying is true, this time it seems like there is a lot of anger and frustration from the general indian public directed towards the failed political system. Well, again this is fine but, why can't we just stop and think for a while as to what led us to be in the state we are in right now.. how much of this is self-made by each of us and what can we do to change that and help steer India in the right direction. Remember what Gandhi said:
Be the change you want to see in the world
I think one of the most contributing factors is the deep rooted corruption in India that pretty much runs through every walk of life. I was reading what one of the terrorist caught had to say and it strikes me that these guys had such an easy time getting to wherever they needed to. When I read this, I could almost feel the mockery in his voice showing us how easy it is to get by our security and rules.. there was a lapse in the security and procedures after they got into the country by killing few coast guards. Its a huge systemic issue that has been cascading for years and years and often one doesn't even realize where the 'System' ends and where the 'Parallel System' begins. I googled about it and was sad to find this which shows India being in the bottom half of the world in terms of political transparency. This is a problem that is not easy to tackle but, its entirely in our hands to combat. It needs a social grass roots level involvement and commitment to take things in our own hands. Just think about this, if each of us can cut down and eventually stop being part of this 'parallel system', we can eventually eradicate this disease from our society. We just need the resolve and determination to be the masters of our own destiny.
So, how about this as a first step: Lets pick a day, and just for that day - Say no to corruption and lets not be involved in any act of corruption starting from the bribes we indulge in just to get a better berth in train, bribing the traffic police who stops to check the license, etc. I want to pick the day to be December 18th, 2008 to do this.
Why December 18th?: Its Mom's Birthday and so in her honor I want to be part of a positive change and also its enough time to spread the word using all our online and offline networks and build up the scale so we can actually make an impact albeit for just one day. Its atleast one step in the right direction before we make leaps ahead.
So, here it is December 18th, 2008 - National Non-Corruption Day.. Lets do it