Grammar

Recently, I came across a very good site for learning grammar from basics.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/grammar/

I am working on my basics to make less mistakes. This site is really helpful.

Diwali for Americans

Here at client location, there was Diwali celebration. Pav-bhaji, Samosa, Frooti, deserts(kheer and gulab-jamun) and most importantly diwali slide show.

Every body was asking, What is Diwali? Why is it celebrated?
Everyone was trying to explain in his own way..
Some said it is festival of light and celebration. Others replied it as Hindu new year. Some tried to explain Rama-Ravana story, with it's importance equivalent to Christmas. Also we burn fire-crackers, wear new clothes, wish everyone good luck and pray to God for well-being.
So they were comparing it with Easter, Christmas and 4th of July.

One Indian colleague said it is an Indian version of Halloween. I was surprised by his comment. It is not Halloween at all. And being a representative of your country, your culture, one should not make this kind of remark. Its our duty to explain the correct thing.

And it is my sincere advice to all Indians in other countries, to make their true effort to explain your culture. Thanks!!

Decision making

Sometimes people think that the person who takes time in making decisions is not good enough to make decisions.


He/she takes time to make important decision of his life. One has to analyse all the pros and cons of that decision before choosing a particular path. Its not a game of blind in teen patti.

I admire one of my friend on his decision making ability. He takes time in making decision but once he closes on a thing, he puts his best foot forward. And, that how one should be.

Ego

Every person is egoistic. Each person has different ego material i.e. position in some office, money, beauty, power (physical or because of some post person is holding), degree from better college, belonging to a particular city, state or country etc..


Some call it as pride, I too agree there should be pride for ones stuff. But, when ones pride controls persons mind, it becomes ego.

I also had ego or maybe still have.. but I neglect on the basic ground that its a human nature to be egoistic.. One can always lose his/her ego, if he/she meets a person better than him/her.

I was lot of times overpowered by better people in various things in life. But, at the end of the day I learnt a lot from those guys. There ego may have retained. But I lost mine. (There is happiness on this loss)

Wage Slaves

I came up with the term one day while working. WAGE SLAVES.

Slave is defined as "a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. "

And in the case of Software Engg., we are running after money(Wages) and we are like bond servant to the monthly income or Wage we get.

Nearly all software engg. are ready to do anything for a paycheck increase or promotion or better benefits at workplace. In other words, ready to come out of existing bond (but to get into another bond).

Simplicity of life

What do you do when you are thirsty? What a silly question!! Drink water.

When you are very thirsty, few drops of water gives us utmost pleasure, at least I feel like I got heaven. Similarly, when hungry, first few bite of food satisfies hunger and rest all is for taste.

When our basic need is simple water and food, then we run here and there to get junk food and aerated drinks.

We get pleasure with basic stuff, then why run here and there.

Be happy with simplicity of life!!!

Friendship vs Money

There are 2 incidents which I want to share..

One of my friend's friend(say X) sold an item to my friend(say Y). These two guys were good friends. "X" bought that item from a dealer for INR 50 and sold to him for INR 75. And told him that I am selling for cheap and I am not taking any commission from you. Here this guy put money over friendship..

Another incident..
I sold my bike to my friend(R) and he later sold that bike after a month to another person for a higher price. I was unaware of the sale. And he gave me difference of the amount minus some investment he made on bike. I was not expecting that and that small amount doesn't make any difference to me or to him. But this was friendship over money..

Nothing to be said and done.

See how small things do make a difference.

Marriage

It sounds funny for an American that people still have arranged marriages and stay rest of the life with a person with whom you met only for a few hours.

My colleague was telling me a funny incident about a couple. Here it goes...
A guy was on an assignment in US and went home(read India) to get married. He came back after marriage and his wife came after 3 months. When he went to pick her up on airport, she refused to identify him. (LOL). She said,"You are not my husband". When the guy insisted, lady insisted to show up his ID to prove.(haaaa haaaa). Then she agreed..


Moral of the story,"see the face of your husband/wife properly during marriage." ;)

Home Sweet Home

We run all our life to search happiness and we also say that we are enjoying our life.

But I am confused about the following fact : what about enjoyment of our parents? Are they supposed to live alone? Shouldn't they be taken care of? Don't they want to spend quality time with their children?

We talk to them. We care for them. But what about living with them.

They do not want to leave the city they are living now. They have spent their whole life over there. Their friends, relatives are all there. They do not want to leave them all.

And we do not want to go to the city presently where we are living in. We have career, growth and future in this place. Are we ready to leave all?

Then how come we come to a common place or should we live apart? Should they compromise again? Should we move towards them?

I have made my decision, I will go back to them. I will leave everything over here. I am desperately waiting for my assignment to get over to go back home, HOME SWEET HOME

Sky diving

Basically its called Tandem Diving. An experienced sky diver and you are tied together and dive. You have to maintain your bode in arc shape while diving for minimum air pressure.

Cut all this crap... and as another sky diver told my friend remember 3 things:
1. Breathe,
2. Keep your eyes open and
3. Enjoy

Its real fun, you get all the details of diving beforehand and when you board a plane(you don't need a boarding pass) pose for a decent pic, if you have hired a cameraman. Cameraman also jumps with you and takes your pic and records everything.

Coming to main thing: Jump from 14000 feet above the ground level...WOW... what an experience.... and you free fall under the impact of gravity(g=9.8m/s2) at a speed of 120 miles/hr. Its real fascinating. I was numb for 3-4 secs initially and didn't knew whats going on.. Ya but later I was enjoying it... I just reached to 6000 feet in less than a minute. And then we opened parachute and with sudden force we went up and since we slowed down in air, I could watch the view clearly now.. the view was awesome and then we were moving in air.. It was damn good... and then finally landed safe n sound and in single piece.

Its a life time experience. I really enjoyed it. I loved it. And will try to do it one more time.

Choice

It dates back to February 2007. I was in preparation mode for my XLRI - BM interview, which was scheduled after a month. I have worked hard for this day, since last 2 years. I wanted to put my best foot forward, but on the other hand I was scared of not making it.

On 10th February(Saturday), I got a call from my manager that I have a long term (more than 6 months) opportunity (ya its called an opportunity) to US on a project. And I have to decide now and tell him whether I am ready to travel next week. I was out of my mind. I have interview next month. If I go, I will lose what I was working hard for last few years. On the other side I saw $$$ if I travel to US and save money, by which I can do MBA in any other university and finance myself. I asked for an hour time to decide. I called my few friends and my parents for their advice. Everyone nearly said the same thing which I was thinking, go to US, enjoy and earn and do MBA later. And my scare of failing in the interview, helped me in making my decision.
I called my manager and confirmed that I am ready to travel.

I still do not know, whether its a right decision I made!!!! But whatever its my choice!!

Love and Fighting

Love and fighting do not g0 hand in hand. As per many people, if you love someone you will not fight with him/her. But I have a separate view on this, you fight more with the person you love most. It is because of this love for the other person, that you think that you have right to fight.

Take example of two good friends, they like each other a lot. Also, they fight over very small small things. They share there stuff, but sometimes they fight over who is going to use it first. But when one person gets ill, its the other person who steps up and take care of other person as a good nurse. What will you call those small fights as? Its the love between those two person.

Ya but whatever it be, the intensity of fight should be controlled. You should not start throwing things on other people. :)

Niagara Falls

Date 25th May 2007(Friday) - My trip started on a good note, when I got a ride to airport from a colleague. I slept well on airplane and reached Columbus in Ohio state. From there went straight to my friends place(hallu), had dinner cooked by Priyanka (bhabi) and chatted about Warangal days.

Date 26th May 2007(Saturday) - Woke up early(@ 8am, its early for a weekend). Rented a Vibe(its a car, how can I rent a actual vibe) and started our journey towards Niagara falls. Its a 6 hr journey, which has to be completed in breaks, else our driver(hallu) and navigator(me) would have died on the way. So our first stop was Cleavland Downtown. It took 2.5 hrs and we were damn hungry by then and after grabbing some junk food we started our(basically Priyanka's) foto session. Cleavland has a beautiful downtown just next to sea shore. After initial foto session we went to sea shore and found that ship museum was closed. So we started our journey again and lost after way as we took a wrong turn. But with the help from a guy at Gas Station, we were back on our way after 45 min's. Also there was another issue, being a long weekend every inn was full. After lot of trying we found an inn and slept peacefully after a tiring day.

Date 27th May 2007(Sunday) - Again started our journey, went to quiet sea shore and sang a few filmy songs(Not the kind in movies dancing and singing with music). And again started moving towards the falls. We had to cross Buffalo city (I thought only we keep odd names for cities, but its same in US also) to reach Niagara falls. We straight went to our inn(Inn on the river), but here also we dint got the room because rooms were booked from 3pm and presently cleaning was going on. So we started towards Niagara and had lunch at a below average costly Indian restaurant(International Punjabi Dhaba).

After that we reached Cave of the winds. You have to take an elevator ride down 80 meters and walk along the base of the falls on a series of wooden stairs and decks. Over there the feel and experience of the power of Niagara Falls cant be expressed in the words. You will get wet irrespective of the fact that you wear raincoat or not. Since we went there in evening we could see the effect of lights on the falls which were focused from Canadian side.

After that we saw fireworks, it was good. One after the other all those crackers lighted the cloudy sky with stars with shortest life of few seconds. After that we watched the falls from the goat island with the laser lights. It was beautiful.

Surprise of the day was we met 2 college people at Niagara. One was senior and another is girl from our batch. World is a small place.

Date 28th May 2007(Monday) - Day started with Maid of the mist(http://www.maidofthemist.com/) boat ride. Its a half an hour ride and it takes you near to the falls but you cant see anything over there because of the mist. Its called so because of an old myth that in the mist, there lives a lady. This story I came to know in a small movie on Niagara falls which we saw over there.

After that we left Niagara to reach Columbus on time. With very few stops and following traffic rules(except for speed limit) we reached back in 5.5 hrs(excluding stoppage time). Then slept well but late to wake up early next morning to catch my flight.

Date 29th May 2007(Tuesday) - Got up early next morning to catch my flight @ 6am and reached Houston.

Daaru

Do jaam...
Khushi ke naam,
Pyar ke naam,
Zindagi ke naam,

Do jaam...
Barbadi ke naam,
Tutey huey dil ke naam,
Mauut ke naam,

Do jaam...
ahinsa ke naam,
shaanti ke naam...

Do jaam...
mere naam.... :)

As I Walk..

As I walk,
I see poeple running,
I see children playing,
I see cars screeching...

As I walk,
I see shabby beggars,
I see dust in the air,
I see gutters overflowing..

As I walk,
I see worried people,
I see worried parents,
I see worried bachelors..

As I walk,
I wish to see happy faces,
I wish to see smiling people,
I wish to see beautiful scenery..

As I walk.....

Hindi Movies

I love watching hindi movies. I have watched four hindi movies in a day (out of which 3 were in theatre). There are variety of movies I like to watch, ranging from comedy, romantic, children movies to one with social cause or with a message(and even few without a message)

One of my favourite movie is "Tum Bin".It is a romantic sentimental film, which can bring tears to people eyes. This movie has got fantastic songs and superb dialogues. One of my favourite line is "Jaanta hoon aapko sahaarey ki zaroorat nahi hai mai tou sirf saath deiney aaya hoon.... "

On the other hand there are crap movies like "Home Delivery". I was not able to bear even first 30 minutes of the movie and was out of the theatre. I really appreciate patience of my two friends, who were able to watch it till end. And they were only two in the houseful show till the end.

Talking about hindi movies and if you do not mention about hindi songs, its like tight slap on the face of hindi cinema. Whatever situation you think of there is a song on it, from child birth to person's marriage to his/her death. Its really amazing!! The heart touching lyrics bring you out of bad mood into the cheerful world.

I salute the people in the entertainment industry for all their work!!

Confidence and Over-Confidence

There is very less difference between confidence and over-confidence. I am usually a confident person. (many times confident of my failure also). But, there were times, when I was over-confident about my success and those are the times where I have failed most. Sometimes I lost hope, while other times pulled up myself and made use of situation and was back into race.

Recently, I went for driving test. (It's simpler in my homeland. No test. Nothing) As usual I was confident, that I will pass. And just before the test, I had a test drive with the Driving school guy and I was good. So my confidence level boosted and crossed the limit and went into over-confidence zone. Then comes blunder. I started well in the actual test and thought its just simple because of my over-confidence, but just then I made a mistake and I was FAILED in the test. Here comes the lesson , ' Do not cross the limits and be confident not over-confident'. Now I have to take test again...

Wish me luck for the test next week...

Aggression

I was recently told by my friend that I am aggressive in general and have strong opinion about each and everything. I was taken back by his statement, not that I felt bad or something, but to know that I am aggressive.

This takes me back to my childhood days, when I never asked for anything, nor did I cribbed. I was labelled as a simple good boy, who never says No and agrees with everything what others say. Some of these traits are true today also; but, now I do have strong opinion about many things which I feel are not correct. Give me a logic to make me believe that my thought process is going in wrong direction and I will readily accept your viewpoint.

But from where has this aggression come in me?
1. Hereditary
2. Friends
3. College
4. My job
5. Tough situations which I faced on planet earth(This takes care of each and everything else)

I have faced a lot of tough situations till date, where I have to take a decision which doesnot please all,which obviously I wouldn't like to share on this forum. But all this taught me good lessons and made me strong to handle more situations in future.

Like to end this with one of the statements which I like, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"

HUF

Hindu Undivided Family(HUF) - Indian concept for Hindu families which stay together, means parents, sons their wives and children and even next generation.

I have been brought up in same kind of family. Since childhood, I was told a wonderful rule of life: respect elders, listen to their advice and love younger, try to forgive their mistakes.

But now in India people are moving towards nuclear families , which has its own +ves and -ves. Now people want more independence, no restrictions and so called "total freedom". This is good in some respect, but on the other hand separates people living under one roof.

Just stopping this post here to keep thought process going..........

Following Traffic Rules

It might look like a weird article to all reading this, but it's a very important to follow Traffic Rules.
In Hyderabad,I used to see either blood or broken glasses everyday on road, signifying a major accident that took place a few mins/hours ago. Many a times I was a witness to these accidents. Few common reasons:
1. Breaking Signal.
2. Suddenly turning right/left without giving indicator.
3. Driving fast to beat the signal or other driver who just overtook.
4. No seat belts in car.
5. No helmet for 2-wheelers.
6. Talking on mobile while driving.

Recently my uncle was injured in an accident while trying to save a lady on road. He got a head injury, reason being he was not wearing a helmet. Later he was in hospital for a month. By the grace of God, he is back home and recovering.

Request to all fellow Indians, do follow traffic rules. Your life is important to you as well as to your family. Also take care of other people on road.