Wasting food

We all are highly educated and as a consequence have lucrative pay cheques too. Some are still getting educated. But does that education or money make us any better? I think no. It drags us more towards the abyss. And the more we stare at the abyss, the abyss stares us back, the golden words utters by the great philosopher, Nietchze. We always deny the easy jobs taking them for granted and concentrate more on other crucial things like getting good job, travelling, maintaining a good relationship etc, but alas! we forget common sense on petty things, like saving water,electricity, food, keeping our surroundings and ours neighbours surroundings clean.Which I call as the easy jobs.That doesnt mean to sweep their outdoors daily but not throwing any of our garbage in their arena. These petty things have become more of an concern in the present world. All the environmentalists are talking about it and they say it right. 

My concern here is for wastage of food. Roti, Kapda aur Makan is the basic necessity of any human being and these days, these basic necessities are being exploited as the problem is of surplus for some and still a basic necessity for numerous. The whole onus of working was to earn bread and butter. Now if we have the money to add other dishes to the basic bread and butter, would that mean we would buy in surplus and waste them? Do you find it easy to throw away food? I guess its very easy for many people. They over cook and over eat and the left overs are thrown. Few friends of mine don't like to eat the left overs of previous day,even when preserved in refrigerators. I know they are being health concious at the cost of throwing money.The whole act of throwing food seems so much emotionless to them. I just cant see that happen infront of my eyes. I just warn my friends  not bothering  about the consequences, but the dog's tail cannot be straightened. Few statistics from the website of UN about food wastage can be read here

As an individual, an ''educated individual'' it is my responsibility to tell people around me not to throw the food in a polite way as many times as possible. I take this issue very personally. A person who doesn't have respect for food doesn't have respect for anything, that is my understanding. Well there is a problem of throwing away food, you tend to eat less and keep your weight under control.But eating less is of no harm either. If we are hungry we need not fill upto the brim, we can keep some gap by eating less preceded by cooking less. Seriously we humans should not be so lame enough to waste food around us.I can only tell someone what to do, but ultimately the realization should come from within.This is a problem of responsibility and our education has given the direction to choose our responsibilities, if not then our education should be in the thrash. 

Making our own choices

Society surely most of the times plays a silent role, dictating terms in our life. In most of the cases I find parents encouraging their kids to do whatever they want to in their life, but when it comes to marriage, the conservative lot, restrict their kids from going for an intercaste marriage, even in this present generation. Because society is the impetus which is the reason behind their thoughts. I feel the situation similar to asking a person to wear the clothes of their childhood when they are complete grown ups. But all parents don’t fall in this category. All parents want to see their kids happy and with some resistance and with lot of talking few of them agree for the marriage, which is agreeing to the choices of their kids. So my question here is for the parents who don’t agree especially in this marriage scenario, what is the correct age or when it is the correct time for kids to make choices for themselves?

When we are growing, almost all major choices of schooling, clothes,food, etc is decided by the parents. Again our career choices are too in their hands. Ofcourse the scenario is changing presently. Now for the choice of partner the choice is again with them. Again after marriage,kids, living with parents etc is again in their hand. So I really don’t know what and when does an individual decide something for themselves. The kid’s choices are always belittled because they don’t have enough experience in life. But in this case, if a couple has given a good thought, ie acted more from their minds then their hearts, then what is the problem to accept. The rational couple will surely think through all the pros and cons of being together. Couples who think and act, their relation never fails if it is an arranged or love marriage. Few couples just act with instinct marry and then all their life regret. Mind should play a major role. And if parents and the couple decide it together, imagine the bliss in the relation. The parents who agreed for their choices later, when they realize, feel very happy about their decision. I know parents are worried about their's kids well being, but if they talk and rationalize things, then it gets easier, albeit removing the umbrella of society and focusing on individual choices. 

On Children by Khalil Gibran

After many days, I am posting. I was busy reading few important books and travelling. On my reading saga, I came across this poem by Khalil Gibran, on children. Few days back, I had a discussion with my friend on poets and my stand was for the ones who are exceptional in their ideas and simple in their web of words and surely Khalil Gibran is one of them. I like the language used by him, which is very simple to understand and easy to interpret. This poem surely is for every parent and every individual who would one day be a parent. Such simple words and so difficult to implement. May be this poem was written very long back, but in the present world and time this has to be taken seriously.

The poem ...

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, 

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, 

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, 

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, 

and He bends you with His might 

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, 

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Desiderata

Desiderata, in Latin means '' desired things''. It is a 1927 prose poem written by Max Ehrmann. Few days back I stumbled across this and could not resist from sharing it. The approach in life, so neatly penned.

''Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.''

Versatile blogger award

I thank Nilu A for passing on to me this award. This is the second award from her. She had awarded me with ABC award earlier. I thank you with all my heart.

Rules of the Versatile Blogger Award:-

1. Link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Pass the award to fifteen bloggers who you think deserve it. 

4. Contact the people you’ve picked.

More 7 Facts About Me:-  

1) I like to learn about everything, be it anything. It gets difficult sometimes, but I cant stop to learn.

2) I believe in Karma. Have experienced it too.

3) I am close to my friends than to my parents

4) I never and ever give up. If I think to do something I will do that by hook or crook. 

5) I am an atheist.

6) I am hardworking. 

7) I bite my nails.

The Nominees for these wonderful Awards are:-

• Rahila of Tales of curiosity

• Brendan of Brandy,whiskey and all that.

• Namrota of Coffee beans

• Deepa of Random Photography

• Jiggyasa of shrimaan shrimati.

• Wisdom times  wisdomtimes

• Sakshi of  Between Write and Wrong

• Maniparna of Scattered Thoughts

• Athenas take of athenas take

• Steve of A christian view

• Raj of elixir of knowledge

• Farzana of farzana aliasgarmukhtiar

• Anshu of those unsolved conundrums

• Visala of telugu post

• Pravin of Valuable Insights

Plato and Platypus walk into a bar

Inorder to understand any thing while reading, imagining it is very important which is the crux behind any read. In our nursery and primary levels books were more picturesque helping us to visualize but as we grew older and jumped to higher classes, the books were filled with texts and very few pictures and animations.With a lot of reading we make our brain visualize the content. When we study about academics, images or examples or real life examples substantiate our understanding. Or sometimes good discussion with peers or colleagues imbibes the learning deeper into our brain. But sometimes, the complexity of the subject restricts us to visualize further and that is when we are at a juncture either trying hard to understand or hate that subject. For example subjects like science, religion, philosophy, psychology, etc it is so very important to substantiate our learning with some images or case studies or stories etc. More often we rather prefer discussing and upon getting interested we pick a good book to read but unfortunately find the language with twists and turns which disappoints us. I blame the book not the reader.

When I started reading philosophy, I  enjoyed reading it and was baffled by the ideas which were all the time in front of my eyes but I was blind to them. Before I read a lot of books on this topic, I took help of the internet and friends. Most of the books I read were somewhat complicated and made reading difficult to me. May be the subject is so deep that it requires such writings. Recently I found the book, Plato and Platypus walk into a bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. It is an introduction to philosophy and that too in a comical way. The authors made fun of almost all philosophical concept and ideas like metaphysics, epistemology,ethics,philosophy of language,feminism, fuzziness, logic etc. They didnt even spare the philosophers. Each case was very well explained by few jokes which made the read hilarious. This surely makes the understanding of the concept easy. This book is enough to understand the complexities of philosophy easily. As an example,

 "A guy comes home from a business trip and finds his wife in bed, a nervous look on her face. He opens the closet to hang up his coat, and finds his best friend standing there, naked. Stunned, he says, "Lenny, what are you doing here?" Lenny shrugs and says, "Everybody's got to be someplace." In this gag, Lenny is giving a Hegelian answer to an existential question. The question is about the existential circumstances in the here-and-now, but the answer is from a grand, universal vantage point, what the latter-day Hegelian Bette Midler called “seeing the world from a distance."

The book starts with a dialogue between Tasso and Dimitri, and their conculsion is the start of a philosophical concept which is well explained by hilarious illustrations.The book continues to entertain and simultaneously educate the reader with its gags on philosophy with the same intensity from its first to last page. If you are looking for an introduction to philosophy or want to have a feel of it or if you want to understand something complex easily then this book is for you. This book can also be picked by any avid reader as it falls more in the humor genre than to philosophy. This book wont disappoint the reader at all at any instant and would surely entice the reader to walk in the labyrinths of philosophy. 

Buddhist Monastery - Jeerang, Odisha

Odisha is full of historical places, unfortunately they are not well preserved and maintained due to sheer lack of interest by the government and by the people too. I found the Buddhist monastery to be very clean and well maintained, may be it was built only in 2006, or may be that is how the monks want it to be.You can see around many Tibetans/ Burmese,Bhutanese here.  Jeerang being away from the city, on a hilly terrain, poses challenges to people who visit. Lately the roads are better and somewhat easier for travelling. It is 100km from Berhampur, a town bordering AP and Odisha. On the way we can visit  Taptapani ( extinct volcano, now turned into sulfur springs). To my surprise, the Dalai Lama had visited this place too. On the day of my visit, I could see many foreign tourists. I never knew it was such importance. If you are in and around of Odisha or are planning a trip here, then it is a must see place. Some snaps of Jeerang.

Main entrance to the monastery 

After entering, the temple building, inside of it is Buddha

Statue of Buddha

Another view of inside the temple 

Prayer drums

Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

Do you really know who Tesla was? When I asked this question to most of my friends who are in the field of science, their answers were rather disappointing. People either knew a lot about him or knew nothing. Obviously the type of person he is, you can’t resist to just take him away from your mind. The non science graduates didn’t have to ever read about him in their course. But I am sure you would have got an opportunity to read about this great man either online, from friends, novels, movies, documentaries etc. Or at least you would have heard distant whispers about him. I don’t know how much does this person make anyone curious but he surely made a huge impact on me. He was a man who was ridiculed initially and later praised for his ideas. Failing most of the times but he never lost his focus. His life epitomizes selflessness, humbleness, hard work and lastly genius.

I accidently happen to read the book, Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century by Sean Patrick.  This book has three chapters. The first chapter arrives meticulously at the definition of a ‘’genius’’ by comparing IQs and the ability to excel. It states that, there is nothing called as ‘’God’s gift’’, it is just the amount of constructive hours you put in your work. More than anything, what differentiates the genius and people with all traits to be a genius is their ‘’imagination’’. Their ability to imagine and actually see their ideas in their imagination. Ideas and knowledge is waste if there is no imagination. The author lays focus on imagination and in the second chapter talks about the genius, Nikola Tesla. He briskly runs through his major inventions and focuses on the ‘’ war of currents’’ between Tesla and Edison. The author also slightly gives an idea of the feud between the giants, Edison and Tesla. Personally I felt that to make money and to achieve fame we should have good marketing strategies, which Edison had. Actually in one of the passages, Tesla talks about his idea of an AC motor, whose design has been laid in his mind. When everyone rejects his idea, he waits patiently and gets a potential investor. After building the model, he just says that, ‘’ this is as I had imagined’’.  The author gives a brief introduction of his life and failures. He also talks about his patent fight for discovering radio waves against Guglielmo Marconi. After Tesla’s death, he was declared as the ‘’ real father of radio’’.  Tesla even rejects his noble prize which was supposed to be shared with Edison. Just by reading this brief introduction, you would know that, he is so humble, selfless and down to earth. In one instance when the Westinghouse company was bankrupt, and was supposed to pay 1million dollars as royalty to Tesla, he simply says that, ‘’ when no one had faith in my ideas, you were the one who showed confidence in me. You are my friend and you helped me a lot. Now I shall tear apart the papers and you no need to give me any royalty,’’ His idea was just to help the mankind and not money minting. He died penniless and alone. Such a tragic death to the genius. The third chapter talks about creativity. Creativity is not an innate quality but it is something which you gain by imagination and the most creative persons have good imaginations and the best imagination leads the path to be a genius. Say Picasso, Michelangelo and the list is endless.

This book is excellent read for people who want to know about Tesla in brief. Actually I would recommend this book for school kids, for its simple and easy language. Generally a large volume doesn’t motivate the kids, but this short one would surely do.  But if you are looking to read about Tesla’s biography, then this is the wrong book. Wikipedia offers much more information.

If you dont know this man, know him soon. He will inspire you in every possible way. Lastly, thank you Tesla for lightning our world with your ideas and selflessness. 

Anniversary of my blog

So finally today I celebrated another anniversary of blogging . I started as a non serious blogger in 2010 and had a lean time of blogging for 2 years and then on Nov 4th 2012, I started to blog with seriousness. Today is my first anniversary of dedicated blogging. Back then, I had just one follower and it was only me, but now, I have 25 and also my page views increased drastically and so as the posts. I also got one Leibster, ABC and versatile blogger award. Thanks to my fellow bloggers for awarding me. 

I had a fruitful experience reading fellow blogger's posts. People have so many talents, some are good at story telling, poetry, painting, photography , opinions etc. It surely motivated me. It taught me many things and also has changed my perspective. I think, it was the right decision to join indiblogger. I seriously dont regret the decision.  I thank all of them, and I wish to develop my content and blog much productively. 

Guide of my love

My friend is a avid prose writer but never tried her hands on poetry. And her first poem was excellent. I am posting it here, with her permission.

saying I love you would,
belittle my love for you,
you have been my wing man,
helped me picking up from pieces,
putting them together.

you gave me a panoramic view of love,
helped me capture the rainbow of life,
drying my tears into pearls of affection,
shimmering your sparkle on me,
teaching me unconditional love.

the warmth of your love,
touches me gently every moment,
despite the distance,
holding my hand and mending my heart,
giving me the hope in you.

the love in you shines
through the sparkle in your eyes,
like the diamond on my ring,
making you the apple of my eye,
and the guiding light of our love! 

Fountain pen

I thought to write this post with my new fountain pen, welcoming it back to my life

Miracles Play - II

I happened to see the work of supernatural early this year and had shared my experiences in the post miracles play, which can be read here.Being a non believer and a strong follower of the book ‘GOD delusion’’ by Richard Dawkins, it is very hard for me to believe in miracles and supernatural. My inhibitions and doubts are well explained in this book. I don’t know what to make out of them when I see miracles happening to my friends. The miracles are well explained in the book but may be it is beyond my mind's gasp to hold on to the theories and the practical experience simultaneously. Personally I haven’t experienced any miracles in my life till date. Do I have to think them as an obvious scientific happening or the work of some supernatural God?

One of my close friends grandma who was 92 years old fell ill and was in ICU for few days. She was very fine until few days back but her sudden illness was quiet surprising to all. She liked her a lot and like every child, she was much attached to her grandma. Upon knowing the news my friend was very upset, which was obvious. When my friend called me to tell the news, she just mentioned to me the bad omen, she had in her dreams for few days before she was admitted. I did not know what to make of that. But one day the old lady had stopped breathing and was put in ventilator. My poor friend was so much confident about the old lady coming back to life again and felt very strong of that feeling that she would come back again, maybe for a short time. This type of feeling is inexplicable and best can be felt and explained to self.  My friend is a hardcore theist and a lover of GOD and there is a hardly any day passing without praying to the Gods. The next day, she called me again and said that her grandma has started breathing and ‘’Miracles do happen’’. Unfortunately she had to depart within few hours. I am really sorry for her loss. But the connect, I am trying to make here is, her dreams few days back before the old lady getting admitted, then she stopped breathing and again she started.  All this time, she had terrible faith on GOD and hoped for a miracle to happen and it did happen atleast for a less time.  What is the connect of the thoughts which were coming true? Was it just a coincidence ?  I guess I have to wait even more. 

Cyclone Philian

We can’t avoid natural disasters, can we? Unable to do anything, knowing and able to judge the havoc which can be caused, we just sit protected in our rooms. But what about the poor people, who don’t have good strong houses? I saw two natural disasters in my life of 27yrs and both were cyclones. One in the year 1999, when cyclone had hit the coastal belt of Orissa. The speed was around 120 to 140 kmph. It lasted for an hour and killed so many people, rendered many homeless. Actually it was a surprise for the people. They didn’t expect it be such huge and the worst thing was they didn’t have the idea of what a cyclone is and what it can do. They just thought it is going to be raining all night and the wind will travel faster. The cyclone hit around 11pm and the next morning, all the electric poles, big trees, small houses had fallen. We didn’t have electricity for about a month. Thank god we were not attached to many electronic goods during that time.Each one helping the needy. Faith in humanity was restored.

Again a cyclone nick named as Pilian hit Orissa in the mid of October. This time, IMD had predicted its intensity and timing perfectly. I don’t know if they got lucky or the lesson of 1999 had taught them well. They evacuated nearly 200000 people to safer places. The speed this time was expected to be 200 to 240 kmph and was expected to be huge. It was compared to the bigger cyclones which had caused havoc in other parts of the world. That is the reason; deaths were very low this time. It was near to 100. In terms of havoc, electric poles were twisted, bent and had fallen. Huge trees which were very old fell, few big trees fell on nearby houses and shops. But the bigger problem was the third party people, who hiked the prices of vegetables and other groceries, as everyone was hoarding it for 2-3 days. The potatoes price increased from 10rs in the morning to 40rs by 5pm.There were long queues at petrol bunks, and if we wanted to buy from any other vendor, it was 10rs extra. After the cyclone, the people who made lot of money were the ones renting generators, they charged about 1000rs per hour and the generators from small to big, all were in demand and ran 24 by 7 at some or the other house. The funniest and money minting business was mobile charging. I guess reliance opened a stall for charging mobiles and chaged 20rs per hour. Each extension board was connected to many other extensions. Shows us how we were dependent on mobile phones. Thanks to Bsnl for taking the lines underground, unlike last time, we atleast had landline connectivity this time. But I had my fun, as I wanted to experience the cyclone and have a feel of the energy it had. Went to my terrace and stood on that wall and was sure not to drift and would have fallen in a safer location. The intensity of the wind was tremendous so as the shunting from my mother. Anyways the havoc has ended and I don’t wish to see any natural disaster again in my life!!! Very few snaps the next morning. 

Few trees inclined due to the winds 

Many trees had fallen across the city on cables and houses

the bent and twisted electric pole. 

Few fallen trees 

Khandagiri & Udaigiri.

I had visited Khandagiri and Udaigiri in my school days.Its located in Bhubhaneswar, Orissa. It is partly natural and artificial caves with historical and religious importance.Back then it looked clean and good. But when I visited few days back it was very dirty and badly managed. I dont know when  people will learn to preserve their historical importances. Few snaps of that place. 

Macro photography - few samples

I have a wide angle lens 18-55mm and  macro photography is difficult with this lens. But I thought close up pictures can be taken with this lens . These are some trials. I need to try more and explore the range of my lens. 

Fort and chain - Pencil Sketch

On a boring Saturday, I drew this very very simple drawing and thanks to me for drawing. I wanted to draw it on a coarse paper but didnt have one, so added the effect of blurred paper. I could see my weak areas clearly. Well I hope my next try gets them implemented. 

Legs - A pencil sketch

Few days back, I had posted my childhood sketches. They were my 13 years old memories and was aspiring to start sketching again. So finally I gave my first attempt today. 

Gopalpur on Sea

Few pics of the gopalpur beach in Orissa, a popular destination for some relaxation.

Failure management

I want a know of a person, who has not faced any major failure in their life. I am sure, I will find none. But out of all the people, few take good failure management policies to overcome their problems and few just cant handle the failures and spoil their mind and health. But these failure management tips are not available in any text book and is the most talked topic since ages.It is really hard to have a strategy for failure management. Every person in the world has a different failure, and even if generalized or categorized, the broader categories have  many sub categories with so many variations, that it is really impossible to have a formula for it. When every person upto some extent decides and proceeds with his own way of living, and accordingly failures confront him, and hence he has to devise tailor made strategies to face the failure too. But during their grapple with failures few weapons are common to face a confident fight.I feel there are two most important weapons to

Good friends. They are the most important part of our life and sometimes with good effort they become our life.They are the ones, who guide us to good and bad paths. During times of failures having friends really helps us a lot. They are the people who listen to our problems. Even if they don't say anything, mere listening with full patience makes us feel better and their one line, '' everything will be fine'' makes us happy and confident. Friends can be of any form, friends, parents, relatives, cousins etc. But it is really important to distinguish friends from close friends. Of course we only share our feelings with people who come in our inner circle. In everyone's life, we get an opportunity to choose good friends, but we identify them at the wrong time. That is our weakness. I would say, with friendship all other factors of failure management are related. For example, how far can you be motivated without friends by reading motivating books, quotes, etc. If you have friends, most of the time they motivate and it helps a lot. They are just like our counsellors.

Prioritizing problems. We face so many problems simultaneously. I have been facing multiple failures in my personal and professional front. It is like pulling both sunken ships to the shore all by myself. Its hard and the hardest part is to prioritize.Everything seems so important and seeking urgent attention. How could you do that? This cannot be taught in a book, it can be learnt from experiences of others and knowledge of one self and the urgent thing seeking attention. For example a situation might arise in life, where in we have to choose between money for emergency expenditures at family and in another hand reaching the goal, which would need time and money too. In such cases its wise to give importance to the immediate problem and if we are determined and have the energy we would go ahead later. My biggest learning was to  prioritize, facing one problem at a time and keeping in mind about the other. It makes me stay in focus and sometimes, I solve the problem not in focus rather the one is. All that matters to me is solving my problems.

Motivation and never give up attitude is something which we have to carry with us where ever we go and whatever we do in our life. This is the only medicine which keeps us pumping and making us run towards our goal. But it is not always easy to remain motivated. After watching Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, the morning joggers crowd accrued drastically. People in large numbers came to the stadium and it was very difficult to even walk. But after 3 days of rain and 2 days of sunny weather, the ground was empty. Its hard to have motivation for long time. Sportsmen generally get this motivation from their coaches, other people get it from their teachers, mentors and friends in my earlier category. And most of the time, reading the biography of greats and their quotes surely helps, at least makes us think about them.

The Trip

This post for the contest by yatra.com for happy travellers . here 

It was the year 2010, when I and Sneha were married in a typical Indian arranged marriage, much to the happiness of our families. It always takes a longer time to acquaint yourselves to a new person in life and being in an arranged marriage, we are no different, given that we hardly spoke to each other before the wedding. I am a travel enthusiast and Sneha is a good listener, which is what most of our conversations are framed around – travel! She listens to all my stories with childish enthusiasm and enjoys the photographs that I had taken during my trips and was inquisitive about the details. I wondered many times that it was only with these stories that I was developing a rapport with her, but I was happy that we were getting closer.

One day, I was searching the home office for some of my papers but had no luck. And I thought that maybe Sneha has mistakenly put them in one of her drawers and went to look for them. It seemed like an intrusion into a personal space, because I had never touched any of her personal belongings without her knowledge. While disturbing the neatly folded clothes my eyes came across her wedding sari, which for a moment took me back to memories of my wedding. Reaching for it, I realized that it was wrapping something. Unfolding it, I found a diary and was surprised to find it hidden. I never read anyone’s diary but curiosity led me into it. Nonchalantly I kept the clothes back tucked the diary at my back covering it with my shirt and went to the bathroom locking myself in. It was a nice shock to know that my wife is a poet, she has written wonderful romances with a very deep understanding, that talked about everything about love and to her own expectations to get a likeminded partner in life. After skimming through few pages, there was a page titled bucket list, she had dreamt of travelling a lot, enlisting many places in India and abroad. Now it was clear on why she was so curious and eager for my travel stories. I was happy my curiosity took me deeper in to my wife’s heart.

From that moment I was determined to surprise her with a breath-taking travel experience on our anniversary so it would be our first trip together after marriage. I searched for different packages online and got a cheaper deal with an excellent itinerary at yatra.com. I went to their office and opted for a personalized tour. Sneha’s signature was easy to forge, given that it was just alphabets with no labyrinths and submitted her photo from my wallet’s album. All the documentation work was done in a jiffy with the help of their representative. After few days, I got a call from yatra.com informing me that the Visa is ready and I am all set to go. I was so happy that everything had worked according to the plan and that day when I returned home, I asked her to pack her clothes and get ready in less than two hours. She was amazed at me hurrying and was bewildered on the emergency and asked me several times about it but I just said her to get ready and will know all. The same night we reached Delhi and all the way I could see a mixture of both surprise and confusion on her face. We then reached T3 done with our immigration and it was then near the boarding gate she saw ‘Venice’ on the screen. All she could say was “Really?”, with an excitement veiled face and I could see this was the best thing that I could have done for her.

We checked in our hotel in Venice in the evening and took rest. Next day we started our tour to Venice seeing the exquisite monuments, the crowd around and cherishing the history. My wife looking radiant and her sari was feeling the breeze of Venice and I knew that moment that I actually love my wife and she was all I could ask. I had this sudden gut feeling, like the Gods chose a perfect wife for me. Venice was a blessing. Building castles in the air. Floating like a breeze fleeting by. I knew this was the perfect vacation for her. Too many shots on a holiday, I just felt like I needed to wind up. Embrace her a little. Venice was indeed the place to be at that moment. Filled with delicacies and eyebrow rising moments that left us wishing for more. That day was the perfect day in my life. The beautiful city we walking together, then we took a gondola, had the most delicious Italian food but she made dishes better than a renowned chef. I was so proud of her. I will never forget that moment when she embraced me in a tight hug and screamed at the world that there was no moment perfect than what she had at that time. We visited the nearby islands the next day and had a walking tour of the city. We took a late night train to Pisa and next morning it was the most memorable day of my life. It was a perfect sunrise, the rays striking an amazing rainbow at our window and the leaning tower playing hide and seek. I didn’t want to leave the sight of her. We went to the piazza dei miracoli and it was the major attraction. The same day we took a train to ROME.

I guess it is true that goodbyes are harder than hallos. As our vacation was coming to an end, the twinkle in my wife’s eyes said it all. As much as it was sad to leave ROME, we had thrived in pleasure and the memories we shared kept us closer than before. My wife, always budding with appreciation could no longer resist the urge to ask how I had decided a vacation in ROME. Well I found that a little awkward but thank the stars for my charm. I simply whisked her away to a candle lit dinner setting assuring her of even more surprises. As the day to leave finally dawned, we had marvellous views of some of Rome's most famous jewels including St Peters, Castel Sant'Angelo,Trevi fountain, coliseum and the Janiculum (Gianicolo) hill. There’s a belief that when you and a special someone get to visit the Trevi fountain and toss a coin into the fountain, you might be guaranteed a return trip to ROME. Though we didn’t do that, I knew that this wasn’t our last goodbye...All hail ROME! And thanks to Yatra for creating a special time in our lives!!

Quitting

Every human being, in their lifetime atleast once comes across a situation in  which they had bet all their stakes of  will and dreams but simultaneously to achieve that  they have also been falling harder every time and positively never giving up. This situation creates a dilemma in their minds  and seeking motivation and support, they pull themselves apart, unaware of the damage being imposed on the mind and body.They stretch more and more and some day come to this juncture of indecisiveness. It is just like pulling a rubber band, until the force is in its elastic region, there is no harm to the rubber, but when it reaches its plastic region it deforms and more force takes the rubber to its fracture limit and it  finally breaks. It is a very difficult juncture in life knowing when to quit. There are so many quotes, asking us to never give up, not to quit as we might be close to the goal, which are true but personally I feel, giving importance to self and knowledge of capability of individual's mind is the most important thing which has to be considered to know when to quit.

Recently, while seeing the pages in stumble upon, I came across a story of the frog. It is said that frog is the only animal, which is like the human being, able to adjust to its changing  surroundings. If you put frog in a vessel of water it will stay in it. The moment you start heating it, it will adjust its body temperature to the surroundings. When the temperatures tends to touch the boiling point of water, the frog gets unstable and finally dies. It could not then jump from the utensil, as it had no energy left. The lesson from this,written there was, you should know when to quit. If the frog had quit from the vessel before hand, it would have been safe. So you should quit when the time is correct. But my question is, how would have the frog known when to quit? May be the frog was expecting that, the increase in water is momentary and would reduce soon. If the frog had well judged its mental capabilities and strengths, there would have come a stage, at which, the frog was unable to handle the rise and then would have jumped out. The frog was just battling a lost hope. 

This type of situation can arise in a relation between partner or friends, in studies, getting a job, clearing coveted exams, and achieving what you aspire for. On the way, if you have people in your life, who soothe you, talk to you, listen to you, then the tumultuous journey becomes slightly easy. Sometimes we are so much shut to the reality, that we need a slap or a thudding awakening from our loved ones to see the reality and decide wisely. These people are just like medicine for our wounds, curing us faster and making us prepared to walk ahead boldly. But if there are people in your life, they can be friends, parents or lovers, I would say, people whom you love, not understanding you, imposing other restrictions, your journey is bound to be violent. But for them can we quit early? I think we should think to quit, because they are showing the reality in a way which we dont like. It is not something which we had planned.So what about our dreams and aspirations? It all depends on knowing self to strike a balance between our goals and quitting. 

My souvenirs

When I was a child, I liked social science projects a lot. We were asked to place stickers of places or temples or buildings etc which we like and talk about them. It was social science which created an interest in me for historical buildings and to see different places all over the world. Luckily I am travelling the world now and as I travel, I collect souvenirs too as a token of memory. Here are few of my souvenirs, not all and there are many  more to come this year. 

From Left

1) Mug from cinque terre, Italy
2) The bapistry,cathedral and leaning tower from Pisa
3) Leaning tower from Pisa
4) Ekeko from Peru
5) Lamborghini GT 350 from Lamborghini museum, Italy
6) King Ramesses from Egyptian museum, Turin,
7) Key chain of Ankh, from Turin ( didnt have money to buy the Ankh, so a keychain)
8) Excalibur from medieval  city, Turin
9) Feather pen from Turin
10) Parliament in glass, Budapest. 

Made in Japan

In today's global economy, this book is a must-read for anyone looking for an insight into Eastern management philosophy. Akio Morita needs no introduction. A legend in his lifetime, he founded Sony, one of the most powerful and respected multinational corporations in the world.

This book is an autobiography of Akio Morita and it goes hand in hand with the story of growth and expansion of Sony as well as post World War II Japan. This is a story of young Japanese who dreamt of a great company and went on to establish one with his exceptional vision and intuitive ability. Many of us know the anecdote of how Sony's marketing team was not convinced of the viability of the idea of a device, which can play music when you play Golf and ignoring them Akio asked his Engineers to go ahead. Yes, we know that device by the name of Walkman.

The book starts with the Post World War II Japan, wounded psychologically and physically by the one of the biggest tragedies mankind has ever faced. The problems of rehabilitation, unemployment and recession, then reconstruction, the weakening of 'Zaibatsu' (the family owned Conglomerates) and strengthening of democratic style of management in companies, which helped many more Japanese corporations to come up, is explained beautifully.

Akio talks of the Japanese society and culture. The conservative and strong family-oriented culture reminds of the common Asian heritage we share with Japanese Society. This is really appreciable that such society can grow so advanced scientifically and technologically that it has not only challenged the countries traditionally considered powerhouse of industrial revolution but also taken a lead in many industries.

This book talks of the initial days of Sony in US market, initial problems and numerous complicated lawsuits it had to face. Then, finally being successful in creating a strong brand "Sony" in the US market.

This book tells of Akio as a person and family man. He proves that to have a successful career, you do not need to sacrifice family life. He says at one place that he thought of Sony as one of the children he has to raise. He comes across as a diehard believer in simple living and high thinking. He wittingly tells the difference between a rich man and a wealthy man to a European lady who refers him a better jeweler's shop for his wife. Akio believed in deep-rooted Japanese philosophy of "mottainai", which emphasizes on being skilled and efficient in using resources economically. It is wonderful to know how Japan is so successful despite being a nation with little natural resources. May be that is the reason for inventing smallest and at the same time powerful devices.

This book is a door to understanding Japanese management philosophy and work ethics. Akio in his lifetime made sure that he gets chance to address each new batch of fresh recruits into Sony on the company philosophy and tell what is expected out of them. He created a company culture of `employment for life-time' which he believed helps getting total loyalty of employees.

Akio was from the generation of Japanese entrepreneurs who not only created value and wealth for his company but was able to make `MADE IN JAPAN' brand famous across the world. and this book tells how he did.

My childhood sketches

Since few days, I have been thinking to restart my pencil sketching, which I had left  for more than 13 years. I gave importance to other things than sketching and  hence never could grow with it. I used to like sketching and painting a lot. So in order to start my sketching from scratch, I was searching for my drawing books, pencils and other tools but luckily  found these sketches. It was a good moment to cherish and these left me laughing for sometime. The drawings are so funny and even though, I didnt sketch anything vital, but still counted myself in the league of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo . The funniest were the quotes and signature  LOL.

Flawless

Sometimes I think about the geniuses the world has left behind for the future generations. The people with vast knowledge in their subject had unselfishly passed on their knowledge to the world for greater good. I am not into technology.I feel it has made mankind very lazy and the illusion of escalating us to two steps ahead in reality has dragged us one step down. I should not talk about technology being an engineering graduate from one of the elite colleges of the country and choosing to do so. But my concern is  about the style and path which we choose for living, a happy living.Way back, in around 400 BC, we were introduced to the great man Socrates. A man who gave us the idea to design our path of life. He was the first man to enlighten mankind and showed us an altogether different paths to salvation. His disciple Plato, had written all the teachings and preaching of Socrates in the form of a dialogue. One of his theories, the famous one,'' Allegory of the cave'' when I read about it, I was moved and confused. When I started to wallow in the depth of the thoughts, I was frightened. What if whatever happening is a lie or a dream? This thought occurred to me once when I was a child because there were some instances when I could not differentiate between a the real and dream world. Even now rarely I feel that. I was around ten years old I guess and I told my friend about my thought and he didn't understand what I was talking about. I asked another of my friend, he told me that I have become mad, and just told me that if we are awake we cannot dream. But when I read about this deeper, I could see its uses all around me.The super blockbuster hit movie '' the matrix'' is based on this philosophy mainly and also uses other philosophical ideas too. I was just wondering how could it attain so high rating and got listed to top 250 IMDb movies for some gimmicks. But I realized there was more to it.The high rating is for the soul of the movie. If ''philosophy of matrix'' is entered in Google so many texts appear explaining in detail about many philosophical ideas which are related to  in the movie.

An example, I can think about is in the caste system in India. Earlier people always remained cordoned  in the ambit of caste. They were not allowed to change any rules like, changing religion or marrying other caste people. They were in a shell and that shell meant the world to them. Just like the frog in the well saying. In a detail analysis and thought of the theory, it is said that, the longer you are in the cave, it becomes difficult to accept the reality. Our ancestors have been so long in the caste feelings and rituals that they don't wish  to come out of it. In few orthodox families, the daily practices are never to be changed. they think and believe it is the best thing and till their last breath they follow those routines. Old people don't want to leave their villages and they want to live and die in their ancestral homes. When a child has to leave home for the sake of study or work, they find it really difficult to cope up with situation outside but they cope up with time. Because they have been taken out of their shell earlier. There are so many many examples which fit this theory.

The point of my rambling is simple.I am just wondering how could few people, in fact great people back in 400 BC postulate things which are still valid now? The philosophies of Socrates, Plato, Epicurus and many others, their postulates and theories are flawless and impeccable. Their analysis would have been surely on people of Greece which also comprised Italy. But researching on a small sample people and generalizing it to the world unknown about other population and their behavior.Socrates tells that, the best philosophical advice is given by people who are working and are not much educated.So if that logic is true,  may be in some other parts of the world, people were already following those principles. So many years have passed and changes in Evolution too but  the basic nature of human being has been the same and which is the only reason these ideas are flawless. Same goes with few of the religions like Buddhism which are a path to life than a religion. With time many emotional factors were added to the human beings, and slowly other philosophers like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche came into light but the basics of philosophy by the first teachers is so subtle and important that we cant neglect the ideas.

Third eye

The wait kills, but what we get after the long wait thrills. Many a times we wait for something to get for which we had been craving since long time.The wait may be either for  love or any other materialistic object. And once we get it, It is the moment of  bliss.

I am inclined to any creative thing easily and hence photography is one of them. The inclination was from my childhood I suppose.My father was into photography. We had a Yashica camera and he was really interested in taking pictures.In our library we still have few photography books which were bought in 1980s by my dad to explore photography. But due to some problems and priorities he gave up. I guess it was my source of inspiration.But once I was going through a photography magazine and some articles on it as a part of my random reading,I saw some pictures which were raw, directly from the camera and I was amazed by them.They were really beautiful and it was around four years back I thought of owning a camera and capturing similar pictures.But I had to wait a long time. There were many instances I could have bought, but had other priorities and hence got delayed.Now I finally own an entry level dslr Nikon D5100, which I had purchased recently.  Finally I own it. I am now all ready to venture my hobby through my third eye. 

My Third Eye 

View from my terrace, One of the trial picture of my camera.

View from my terrace