Ran.... and still runnning....

So finally the day has arrived... practice has concluded and I am going to run my first half-marathon. Mumbai Marathon 2012 came with a big challenge and I took it by enrolling myself in the 21K version. I have been practicing twice in a week for last couple of months and ran 10K in any single session. As much I was targeting to finish the race, I wanted to finish withing 2 hrs 30 minutes. In the practice session I have been taking 70-80 minutes for 10K. So I wanted to give my best and much better than I had been giving in the practice session.

At the same time so many things are going in personal life that have also aggravated my breathing problem. For last one month, every day I have been feel so vulnerable personally that its only Mumbai Marathon that is the passion nowadays. There has been an emotional roller-coster ride in last one month and every morning I wake up, it has been only the time I am running and working out could make me feel little strong.

On the D-day, I wake up at 4 AM, get ready, pick up my running gear, Redcross Cap and TCS T-shirt with SRCC logo, and go to Railway station to board a train to the Marathon Holding Area. As I reach at Ticket Counter, I feel overwhelmed when Ticket Issuer doesn't take money and wishes me best for my run. It was a lovely feeling. As I get down train and moving towards the Holding area, I see few of the TV Actors (Raghu &; Rajiv from MTV Roadies) taking tea-sips. I walk and see the spirit of runners everywhere. Everybody seems to be so excited as I am and doing the stretching.

At 5:40, run starts and I start the journey of my life. Today I want to achieve something I have never done and I want to complete the race respectfully. Cold breezes from the sea start touching our body as we reach the 'Bandra-Worli Sea Link', such a lovely experience. When does anybody get opportunity to run here on this link? I have completed 10 K now, feet are tired, but brains are excited. As I reach 15 K, an uphill comes, I want to have a sip of water but I don't want to break the momentum as long as possible. Somehow uphill passes and I am on flat road. Now, feet are about to give up, brains are still excited, eyes are burning, body is sweating and I am at 19K. Now I have utmost need of rejuvenating myself, so instead of water, I pick up a 'Red bull' drink on the way. A refreshing area with cold moist breezes comes on the way and passing through it is so rejuvenating.

Till this time, I have no energy left; I might fall anytime if I lose control on my brains even for a minute. I set a target that I would continue till 20K mark and probably will walk for few seconds before finish line. As, now I reach there, I don't want to stop I want to finish without even stopping anywhere in complete run. But this doesn't work, my show-laces have loosened up and I have to stop to tie them at least. Ultimately I stop at 21K Mark, ties the laces, walks for a minute, before my desire to touch the finish line at the earliest makes me running. I sprint now. Applauds at the side-ways are over-whelming and wonderful. I am not able to breath, but I feel like a start as I reach the finish line.

Now when I am at home, my body is crying out loud for sleep, but I can't. My caves are swollen, my things are paining, my fingers and toes are burnt, but a feeling of accomplishing this has been able to overpower everything.

Eve-teasing at work-place? What is the solution?

Recently, I was having a conversation with one of my colleagues, a small-town girl, who doesn’t want to hurt anybody, who wants to do her own work and who doesn’t want people to think that she is arrogant just because she is beautiful. She wants to stay away from lime-light. But these are few things she hasn’t got in this society. After joining corporate world, she thought, probably she will meet more mature and professional people but unfortunately that has remained illusion for her. Although, I have heard such incidents many times, but this time I was hearing it from first person point of view.

In India, a land of suppressed feelings and low female-to-male ratio, it has been a challenge for administration at all levels to curtail the incidents of eve-teasing. Where, in places like Mumbai, girls are ready to take head-on with those road-side Romeos, a small-town girl is still scared of confronting her teasers. At many occasions, it’s even more difficult for a girl to work in an office because she finds many of her colleagues are not professionals but are X-ray machines who always try to scan her from multiple angles. She feels intimidated of confronting them. She doesn’t want to complain to HR because she understands that may end-up ruining the career of that person and she herself may become the villain in her own organization.

In corporate world, where we think that we provide a safe and relaxed environment for female employees, it is even easier for those who get involved in such teasing. This is because, in most of the offices, contact details of all employees are so easily available that no romeo needs to make any effort in getting a contact number or email address of a girl. In fact, with the excuse of some unnecessary work, these guys keep interrupting their female colleagues through online messaging software. These guys either are not aware or do not understand the gravity of the potential issue that could cost them dearly. They might not be aware about the incident, when a person who could have been the CEO of India’s second largest IT organization had to resign on similar charges.

This problem is so much imbibed in our society that to find a one solution of this is almost impossible. But as managers, at whatever level we are, we are required to ensure that we are approachable but professional with all of our colleagues. We should ensure that we ourselves do not get involved in any such activity because that would be detrimental to the project activities, organization’s culture and confidence of our female colleagues in their managers and organization in whole.

We, ourselves, should avoid calling our sub-ordinates (especially person from opposite sex) after office hours unless there is some urgent official work that requires her intervention. We should not initiate and ask any of our female colleagues for lunch/dinner out of office because she might not be able to say no but she might not like that as well and still she has to do because you are her senior. We should also avoid asking them any personal question unless she initiates the conversation because those questions might make her uncomfortable. We should only show our business towards what is required at work. You might not have any wrong intention but it’s your responsibility that you don’t give wrong impression as well.

In short, it is our highest responsibility that we walk and ensure all of our sub-ordinates are walking this thin line of professionalism very carefully. Any wrong step may ruin your image, confidence of your employees in you and the organization’s culture. We should strive to provide a safe and professional environment to all of our colleagues. It’s not only HR’s job.

Where is corruption?

"My father paid bribe for my birth certificate .I repaid the dues by bribing to get his death certificate. Is this the Independence that our forefathers sacrificed their everything for?", this is the statement I just encountered in the readers' section of an Indian newspaper.

Corruption is not there only in the government, or in the bureaucracy but its there in the blood and that blood flows in the veins of each & every Indian. There are so many occasions when we ourselves not a victim of corruption but a part of corruption. Some of them are:

- Organizing an event or party but paying the bills without any taxes

- Not getting Income Tax Refund, paid the bribe to IT officer to expedite the process

- Could not buy Train ticket because of Crowd on the counter, so paid the money to Ticket collector just to save the fines

- Planning to get the Passport, paid the bribe for police verification, to speed up the process

and many more...

So in short, corruption is not something which we can blame on others, it is in our culture, in our roots and in our veins.

Habitat For Humanity... Built and Donated two homes

I was leading the team to lay down the lawn. It was one of the unique experiences of my life.

During the time when I was working on these homes, I realized one thing that whatever is luxury in India that is a necessity in USA. We hardly have lawns at our homes in India but in USA, that we take for granted that it is a necessity. This is the difference between two largest democracies of world, one of which is a developed economy while other is still developing.

A family that got one of two homes. I could see the the happiness and satisfaction on the faces of 29 year old Mother and her 5 kids.

An Evening in Paris....Longest Journey

So I have come back from vacation. As great was the time in India, as difficult was the journey back from India to US. This time two elders, parents of my colleague in US, were also accompanying me on the journey. It was the first time when they were boarding a plan, leave going out of country aside. I had the big responsibility on my shoulders to ensure they get the best flight travel experience possible. We had a mid-journey stop at Frankfurt. Because of bad weather, in Europe, things didn’t go as planned. We were already running late and Pilot was hovering over Frankfurt seeking a possibility of landing. After an hour, and total of 12 hours since flight took off from IGI Airport Delhi, Pilot decide to fly to Paris.

That day I got to know that, according to Vienna convention, it was not possible for our flight to continue in the air beyond 14 hours. Per Vienna convention, same crew can’t continue in a flight beyond 14 hours and need 10 hour of break before resuming the service. As we landed on Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport in Paris, it was very certain that we were in a big trouble. Air India didn’t have any active office in Paris and there was not a remote possibility that we could fly any time sooner than in the evening that day because Frankfurt crew could not be transferred to Paris immediately.

But worst was yet to come. It was first time for me in the Paris and so was for 70% of my co-flyers. We had a cultural shock at Paris airport. We were taken to the Transit Area, no-man’s land, a place where you don’t even have water, rest-rooms, forget food. Air-India had collaboration with Air France. To my further surprise, there was no crew-member who could speak English. This was the first time I realize how important to learn foreign languages in this globalized world. All Americans and Europeans were allowed to enter the main airport. All people with Diplomat Visa were also allowed to roam around the city, and there we were, mostly Indians, struggling to get couple of water bottles. It was a tough situation to be in. We had many infants who, by now, needed more stuff than what was present there.

After 2 hour or so, when I got to know that we would not be traveling to Chicago before the evening following day, it just blew my mind. It was almost impossible for us to stay in transit area for two days. I went to Air France personnel and insisted on getting somebody who could speak English. After much time she got me a guy who could speak English, although in a strong french accent. I requested him to get me the Flight Manager of Air India. I’d got to know that even though Air India may not have a crew station in a country it must have a Flight Manager at all the major airports. After much persistence, One French lady who was wearing the Air India ID card came. I tried to get first hand information about when we would be flying to Chicago, on which she replied 6 PM the next day. This was the confirmation of more troubles that are on our ways for next 30+ hours. She quickly went away.

In the mean time, we had persuaded our French hosts to arrange few water bottles, sandwiches and milk for infants. However, unfortunately for me, there were very limited number of vegetarian sandwiches and they were off the self as they came. Although neither I nor my two dependents could get anything but water, now, I wanted to pursue Transit Visa for all of us who were there. It was again a big struggle to get to Air-India manager. She politely told me that it was not possible for her to arrange the Transit Visa for all of us, and it must have to be followed with Indian Embassy in Paris and French Government. Somehow I was able to convince her that at least we should get Visas for mothers with infants and old people above 50 years of age. She came back after one hour telling us that it is not possible to get any Visa. I requested her to connect me to Indian Embassy.

The official, in embassy, I spoke to was very polite to me. I offered to send her the pictures of the situation where infants were crying and people were struggling to get even water. She told me that she would do whatever she cold. By this time it was almost 12 hours since I was in transit area without anything in my stomach. First good news came when we got the information that we will be getting Visas for families that have infants at least. It was consoling up to some extent. Till now, my body was crying out loud for fuel and I, along with 2 co-passengers, had started pursuing the possibility of food. It was embassy and Air India Management that came to our rescue and we were given food voucher and escorted to airport shopping area and then back to the transit area. Here, once again I waited till the end to ensure each one of us gets food first. My bad luck continued and by the time I reached there, there was no vegetarian pack was available there. I came back with a Cheese cube and a water bottle.

While this was happening, I, along with few fellow passengers, was still trying to convince authorities to grant all passengers the Transit Visa. Good news came at 3 AM when we were told that all of us would be getting group visas and hotel accommodation in three groups. From the Visa authorities’ perspective, this group was like an atom, smallest indivisible entity. We needed to ensure that all in one group clear the immigration together while leaving the airport and while entering the airport next day. Any person left to do so, might get into all new legal formalities. People chose me the leader of one of the groups I was part of. Now I not only had the responsibility of 2 people who were accompanying me from Delhi, but also of 38 people in my group who were not strangers any more. We reached hotel at 4 AM.

As I had estimated that it would take approx 4 hours to complete the check-in and immigration formalities of so approx 150 passengers, we left the hotel around 12 noon next day. I conveyed the same to other group leaders in other hotels. We gathered at the airport at 1. However, there was no proper management to start the formalities for our flight. It was at 3 PM when we got the check-in started. Most of us were Indians and many of us couldn’t speak English or even Hindi, leave French aside. I and two more youngsters who could speak two other Indian languages, Tamil and Telgu, volunteered to mediate between the passengers and airline crew for Check-in formalities. Ultimately we completed all Check-in formalities by 7 PM. One crew member expressed his gratitude by telling me that it was impossible to get this done without having us as mediators. All of them thanked 3 of us for the support we provided.

So by this time our flight has already got delayed by 60 minutes. In another 1 hour, we completed all the immigration formalities as well and took off to Chicago. We reached Chicago at 4 AM and our flight to Atlanta was at 8:30, so our wait continued was much of the struggle was over. It took almost three days to reach Atlanta from Delhi.

This was one of those experiences that would live with me throughout my life.

First hand account from Mumbai

This is the mail, I got from one of my friends who was there, with her friend, in Cafe Leopard at the time Mumbai Massacre. When they were trying to save themselves from the blind gunshots, they found themselves in Hotel Taj. Here they tell what happened there, & how they could survive & manage to return back to their home.

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(from Dara, a young architect on vacation, and a former roommate of my girlfriend as well as Bassam)

mumbai: my story and how i survived.

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Today at 5:50am

Thanks to all of those who wrote me notes and posted on my wall. i just wanted to take a moment to pay respects to those who lost their lives to save us. I am praying for the hotel staff, police, and other reinforcements that were brought into Mumbai that deadly night that should have never occurred.

The horrific acts that happened in Mumbai was a life altering experience for me and something that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Around 9:40 pm I went to the night market with my friend John.

As the store were closing we were excited to take a drink in the famous cafe, Leopolds- A small cafe that opens up completely to the street. After finishing a tall glass of watermelon juice there was a huge boom that hit an aquarium in the back of the room.

Everyone turned around simply think 'what was that?' but not expecting anything serious. The next thing I knew consecutive shots rang non-stop across the room. John threw me to the floor screaming "GET DOWN!" My purse was in the seat next to me, but I didn't even think for a second about it. I was bent over trying to run out. John pushed me to the floor again. I believed he saved my life. I still don't understand how I made it out when I later read there were two gunmen walking in with large guns. There was glass in my hands, the skin on my knees were rubbed off from hitting the floor- yet I couldn't feel the pain. My heart and adrenaline were so high I was just thinking "this IS NOT really happening to me". I never thought in a million years that I would ever be involved in a situation such as the ones I had read in the news. All I remember that night is running as fast as I could because I was convinced they would bomb the café. As I picked myself up off the glass shards on the floor I bolted down the road, my left hand dripping in blood. My shoes fell off, but I didn't care, I just kept running. John was right behind me, as he got closer he took my hand and said 'Don't ever let go of my hand'. I remember my way back to the hotel we had checked in at 9 hours before- The Taj Palace. It was only 3-4 minutes before we got to the hotel. John stopped and said "No! the Taj will be a target for sure!" but there we were, his pants splattered with someone else's blood, my hand dripping in my own. We had no other place to go. We didn't know the city yet, and we needed help. For it felt like the most secure place since we only had

half a second to make a move.

I walked through a line of cab drivers who stood there in confusion on the bullets they had heard just down the streets. All the doormen and guests turned to stare at john and I who came storming in with blood on our hands. The guests dressed in the fine evening wear stood at the glass lobby entrance, staring out in curiosity about the gun shots.They sounded like a string of fireworks going off. They were shocked when they saw us pace in. The Taj staff was continuously wonderful. The minute I entered the lobby, a man sat quickly took us to the couches in the lobby, sat me down and had someone run to grab a towel.

As soon he came back to wipe my leg, the all too familiar sound of gun shots came back into the lobby. I was so terrified I never even turned around to look at them, b ut was later told that they were men dressed in black with large guns shooting everyone in site. All I knew is that as soon as I heard those shots again I dove for the closed double doors on my right side. The men who were helping me did too. It was just an instinct we all just ran as fast as we could to the doors- I didn't even know where they led to. This all happened in literally seconds. It was a restaurant. There were still guests dining at the table with looks of confusion. We dashed through the restaurant looking for any door to run through-quite certain that somebody would follow us. We ran straight into the Kitchen. Stopped at the dead end. There was one exit door in the back that somebody had locked. I didn't have time for tears. I was set on survival.

The hotel staff was amazing!-especially one man in particular named Javed. He told everyone to stay calm, we were safe, the doors were locked. We didn't believe him. We knew they had guns and could burst in at any moment if they wanted to. There was an Indian girl next to me who was crying hysterically because she had separated from her friend and mother in the lobby. There was a Muslim women on the floor praying for her life. John and I, both Christian, knelt down beside her and repeated the Lord's prayer over and over again. The Hindu women with us were also praying. There in the kitchen three separate religions prayed for the same thing. Asking God to spare our lives. Although the room was filled with chefs, hotel staff, guests of different nationalities, different social classes, different religious backgrounds- absolutely NOTHING separated us that night. We were all the same. We were all holding one and others arms saying "it is going to be okay, the police will be here soon." The hotel staff was on the phone calling for reinforcement. Meanwhile, Javed came back with a first aid kit and continued to dress John and mine's wounds. As he was cleaning them the hotel staff came back to tell us that it would be safer if we came back into the restaurant because they had blocked the doors. We were scared if it was safe or not, but proceeded to the restaurant because we did not want to be in the kitchen alone. There was a large grand piano pushed against the doors and furniture piled up on top of it.

The rest of the story is written by John: ....30 others were already in there, and after our entry, they barricaded the doors with a grand piano. What followed, for us, was eight hours of entrapment, while guns, bombs and most terrifyingly an ever louder fire raged outside.

I am amazed at how lucid we were throughout the ordeal. Our bodies provide us with incredible clarity in a crisis. I kept thinking of Winston Churchill's quote, "When you're going through hell… keep going". Still, we were terrified. Stupidly, I persuaded Dara not to call her par ents. Thinking of my own mother, I thought she might have a heart attack if she knew what was happening. I wish I hadn't done this. Everyone else was on their cell phone.

The people in our room made the scene feel like a movie set: covered Islamic women, a hard focused German businessman, a tender hearted French, obnoxious hipsters, lithe and immaculately dressed blonde Russian girls, Indians, Muslims, Christians. Everyone of all religions were praying together that night on the floor of that restaurant.

Our first evacuation attempt, around 3 or 4 am, ended in more gunfire, and the few who had ventured out of the room, raced back in. Miraculously, we were evacuated around 7am.

It wasn't until I learned the news of what had happened, until I digested my own relief that I began to cry. I read about the deaths of the chief of police, the chief of counter-terrorism, the burned wife and children of the hotel manager, and I began to weep. I thought of the incredible and admirable bravery, presence and commitment of the Taj staff. And I thought of all these people, big and small, that had given so much to save us. I still cry when I think of it.

The journey home to was another adventure. We didn't know if it the attack was a one off event or the start of war, and we hurried to exit the country. Terrified, we waited 25 minutes to be let into the US embassy, while they checked their computers for our reco rds. Even though we had called three times to report we were coming and they had our names. It would have been a good tip for them to actually pre-print the identification of all of the Americans who had called in to state their names. As cars drove by the street in front of the embassy, I felt like I was sitting on top of a bull's eye. The guards did not speak English. The reception was staffed by an Indian, who would not come to the gate. We crouched behind a concrete piling, and I scanned the horizon for potential terrorists. When we were finally let in, an Indian woman told me I would need to pay $200 to get an emergency passport.. How did they know if we even had money? Dara lost her money, credit cards and even shoes in the attack at Leopold's. Luckily I had one credit card in my pocket.

Despite having only one other couple in their office, we waited two and a half hours for emergency passports. We were hoping to leave before sunset. We appreciated the fact that the embassy was working around the clock, and they explained that we waited almost three hours because they were busy answering the phones, but I felt that they were more helpful on the phone telling us to "stay calm" then actually helping us in person when we actually really needed it.

Before we arrived to the US embassy, the Taj staff at the evacuation center had taken photos on a digital camera and printed six passport sized pho tos for us. The embassy said the photos were not acceptable – they were not professionally taken. They told me that because they had no camera man, and I would need to go back into Mumbai to find a photo center. Everything in the city was closed. I was flabbergasted. The British embassy had sent emissaries to the evacuation center, the Spanish had arranged military transport for evacuation, and here, wearing ripped and bloody clothes, the US embassy was telling me I couldn't have an emergency passport because the quality of my photographs were not professionally taken. We screamed at them, and they acquiesced. I was further surprised to lean that we had to obtain a new visa from the Indian government to leave the country. The only place to obtain this was the South Mumbai police headquarters, which had also been attacked. The US embassy tried and failed to waive this rule. We had to go..

Remarkably, heroically, the driver the Taj hotel had provided us, Jabraj, had patiently waited for us during the 2+ hour delay at the US embassy. The embassy was kind enough to lend us one of our staff to help us find the Indian visa office, and so an extremely brave Indian woman nicknamed 'Nicky' went along. As we drove back into Colaba, the streets filled with police and army personnel. We found the visa office, and pulled in, but had to back up the car, as they were hauling out a dead body. When we got into the police station,20it was amazing how quick the Indians acting in getting our paper work done in less than five minutes!

Eventually we made it out of the country. I have seen in the press criticism of the hotel, of the Indian government and of their police, but I cannot sing their praises loudly enough. Their courage is inspiring. We mourn the horrendous loss of life. For those of us who survived, how will we ever repay this debt?

I am praying for guidance on what to do now, on how I can help. I am praying for the families of the deceased, and I am praying for the leaders of India. Violence cannot be defeated with violence, and an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

If anyone has any information on how we can help India please contact me and others around the world to pitch in. Additionally, I hope that this news will allow our government gain insight from the situation- even if it is as simple as having a Polaroid camera on site or training techniques to better prepare US embassies around the world for the future.

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Drama is over....What next?

After a long struggle, & loosing some 195 people which includes 3 senior officers of police, a Major of NSG & several other police-men, the catastrophic drama is over. First time Mr. Home Minister did something good for the country & that is by putting down his papers.

People are anguished, deserted & angry on the failure of the government & its policies on terrorism. Postmortem has been started by Media Channels. Government is again blaming Pakistan for this & as usual Pakistan is saying when they themselves are victim of terrorism, why Indian Government is blaming them for this incident.

Things are being discussed but nothing is coming out. Leave common man, Government itself doesn't seem to be focused. Politicians are trying to blame others, for their mistakes; Government is confused, don't know what to do; & common man is feeling debilitated & enervated because of these continuous acts of terrorism. Taj has estimated the total loss to INR. 5 billions which doesn't include the hit on the brand India. India is not being perceived as safe country. Governments of different countries are asking their citizens for deferring the plans of traveling India, If any.

And in all this, I am feeling afflicted & tormented because I am seeing Brand India is being tarnished, my country is being perceived as unsafe country & the government is not able to understand how to handle this situation.

Spirit becomes Excuse

Every time heard about these incidents, I feel so helpless as nothing is in our hand while dealing with the bastards who had been attacking the sovereignty of the largest Democracy. In last couple of months, almost all the big cities of India have gone through several terrorist attacks & I don't know who is to blame. But If somebody asks me the same question then my question would be "Not at least Terrorists" , the simple reason is because they are terrorists & you can't expect anything good from them for the humanity. They are properly brain-washed by few radical group of people. If not they, then who should be blamed, simple answer comes to my mind is our soft attitude towards terrorism by the politicians & the government.

We have a Prime Minister, who just doesn't know what to do in these kind of crisis, who is a great economist, good bureaucrat or you can also say great scholar but sadly not a deserving candidate for Prime-minister's office. I don't know what goes in the Prime-minister office but at least it gives the impression that even that novice Gandhi Scion has more powers then Mr. Prime-minister. Then comes our Mr. Home-minster, first question arises when the people of his own constituency didn't find him capable of representing him in the parliament political party, how could our oldest political party choose him for the portfolio of home ministry & only Her Highness can give the answer. Next great personality who knocks on the doors of my mind is Mr Chief Minister, Mumbai. And you know what, I feel, he doesn't have any control on any activity happening in his state which has been proved very well in last couple of months. Besides these 'Three Stooges', there are few for whom militancy means one community only. They try to certify that anybody from their community can not be a terrorist even if prime suspects of any heinous crime are from his community.

Anyway, here I want to emphasize on the latest one in the list of terror acts of world history. The attack on Mumbai is very different from other terrorist activities in last few years. Here, innocent people were captivated without any reason, no use of big explosive was done though it was planned if terrorists had survived a little more. The only incident in India I can relate with this incident is the Plane Hijack in December 1999 though in that incident, people were made hostages with the demand of acquittal of three militants which were in Indian jails which didn't happen this time. They came with the solo motto of killing as many people as possible wanting nothing in return.

In these kind of situations, its very difficult to save the people because at one side security forces have to eliminate all the militants ensuring that no innocent give the life. At this time, the united courage of the hostages could be very supportive in handling the situation and rescuing maximum no. of people.

In 1999, Rupin Katyal was the one who protested a bit though it was a failed effort & cost him his life but when similar effort (a united effort) was made in the United 93 flight, which was allegedly targeted to Capitol Building OR White house, by the passengers of that flight, they saved the the capital of their nation & proved the patriotism.

In the Taj-Oberoi incident we lost more then 150 innocent people till now & death toll is still increasing intermittently. If even 50 people there could have the spirit of 'DO & Die' and protest against those terrorist in a united form, so many lives could be saved.

Here, what I think, are few possible steps which could help India in becoming a Safe country:

1. At least one young Man from each family should be sponsored for a compulsory Army Training for 1-2 years. If I get a chance now, I'll be the first one in accepting this challenge.

2. Second Police Force should be paid well. In USA, a police-man is being paid a salary more then a Software Engineer, but in India, a Police man with a service of 10 years is being paid half salary then a Software Engineer with 2 years of service.

3. Third, if history repeats itself and anyone of us finds him/herself in the hostages, don't just pray for your life,go ahead & motivate fellow people who could help you in fighting with those terrorists. If nobody agrees then fight alone, because you don't know if you'll remain to fight the terrorism after that.

Today I may not know anything but what I know is if I find myself any of the situations like United 93(Plane crashed after attack on twin towers), IA 814(Kandhar Plane Hijack) Or Taj Hotel, I'll not just come out without fighting.

Localized in a Globalized world

Yesterday I was reading an article on Rediff.com which was talking about the large population of Indian Americans who are more inclined towards Mr. Obama in coming Presidential election. In the same article I came across a society [SAALT(South Asian Americans Leading Together)] which fights for the Americans who are natives of South Asia & are victim of Hate Crimes by Native Americans.

Here I was seeing how difficult situations many Asians have gone through while staying in United States. There was a guy who was shot by few people & caught paralysis. Now his life has bound to a Wheel-chair, he can't work or I should say he is nothing but a dependent creature in this independent world. There was another old person who was beaten by few boys who were saying that this person should leave their country & go back to his home country.

There were many such instances when South Asian people were at the receiving end of Hate Crimes but my intention on writing this topic is not to emphasize what is happening with Indians in America but what I want to ask how we talk about free trade market, equal opportunities across the globe for any body of any ethnicity when we, ourselves, can't let our fellow Indians to work in our state. This is nothing but hypocrisy that we are lobbying in United States for allowing our people to work there by favoring Off-shoring but, a big BUT, we can't save the livelihood of our own citizens in our own country.

Today, I don't know what makes our fellow Indians to say that India is a greatest country in the world. We crib about our culture being ruined by western influence, but, frankly we don't have any culture if we can't respect the freedom of individuals, no Country is great if its people can't come together & fight against sinisters.

When a foreigner comes & replace a local worker in any job, a feeling of resentment is inevitable, but the kind of drama is going in India makes me feel ashamed that even after few thousands year of Indian history, we are still divided on the basis of cast & state.

The Only question I am asking here is why can't we called Indians only rather then Hindu, Muslim OR Bihari, Maharastrian.

Power is slipping......

This was a good discussion on Globalization, hearing views of different people in different countries & there apprehensions on the same. We were having dinner in a good restaurant of Atlanta Suburb. Our Client was treating us for the great work we had been doing for last couple of months. We were 5 people, two big managers of Client & two small developers-cum-designers-cum-analysts & one middle level manager from Vendor. Demographically one is Iranian, one is native from Czechoslovakia but a patriot of America & three Indians.

Between three glasses of Red wine & two Classic Martinis of Vodka, many social topics like food, wines, culture, profession & many things were being discussed. We talked about Iran, its home affairs & international affairs, its strained relationship with United states & how people live & think there & what we got to know that things which are in media are just contributing in making a bad impression about a country which otherwise a simple country of normal people.

As we're discussing these issue, topics like economy, cause of its depression & prospective consequences of the same were on the dinner table. It was first time when I realized how worried our fellow Americans are for the future of their children in a world where two different countries would have taken the tag of superpowers. There were not blind who couldn't see the Chinese domination in the manufacturing sector for making goods for the consumers in United states. They were also seeing how India is getting ready to capture the service sector & how Indians are few of the most competitive people in the world along with Chinese. The new thing what I got to know was people in America are worried up to this level that they are planning to teach their another foreign language other then French, Spanish & that is Mandarin. They should be very happy that they don't need to teach & learn Hindi cause even many Indians don't require Hindi at their work & English is the contact language.

At the time of so called recession which is not American only but Global, Anxiousness prevails even more that whats future has for their next generation. In whole discussion my only point was that in this global scenario, nothing in the world, can survive on itself. All markets are penetrated so much by other imported products that it becomes a little bit difficult to imagine that they would be able to work without one another.

IT & India....

Just now I was reading a story on rediff.com titled as "How IT changed the lives of rural youth". It is so true that IT & India are compliment to each other & in current scenario, either can't survive without other. I personally know many people who could change their & their family's life just because of the Information Technology. The erstwhile considered bane of India, its population, came out as a boon. People, who had never thought that their kids will go anywhere outside their village, are seeing their lives flourishing across the shores in cities like Amsterdam, Chicago, Shanghai, London & NYC. People who could never afford to buy a bicycle for their kids are now traveling in luxury cars like BMW & Mercs bought by their kids who earn green bucks.

And the wonderful thing is this is not the story of one or two guys who worked hard, studied under the lamp-post & had a meal in a day, this is the story of N no. of people who devoted & sacrificed all of the pleasure of their lives to make their children capable enough to earn this kind of life.

This is nothing but the start of a journey which is going to change the life of a big part of Indian population. I bow to the people who worked hard to make India an IT superpower.

Expectations...

"Keep your expectations low"; "Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst"; "Don't expect anything from others", these are the few statements we generally hear in our life and every-time I feel cheated or depressed or disappointed then I start thinking about these facts of our life.

These things teach me one more thing & that is "Never feel deserted if something goes wrong & never go overjoyed if something goes right". It makes me advise others that though celebration should be appropriate but should not go beyond a limit & similarly we should not over-criticize ourselves for a failure.
Connecting to this, is our latest visit to the historical city of Washington DC. Actually this trip started with New York & because we had enough time to include an extra place in our tourism plan we chose Washington because of its proximity to New York. As much we liked New York, Washington disappointed us. After seeing New York, we had the similar expectations from Washington too. The life & the crowd, what we had in New York, were found missing in Washington. We did find Washington boring not because it is so but because we expected something which is not its nature. We tried to compare two different kind of cities, we tried to compare Times Square with Jefferson Memorial. We might have found it interesting if we had gone there without any expectation.
So Now I am just thinking, is it just our hopes & expectations which make outcomes of few events bad & disappointing while of other seems to be great?

Life was difficult without you.....

It was so difficult to live without you. Since I had stepped my feet on the most coveted land of the world, I had been missing you. Such a great companion who never expected anything from me, you were so low maintenance. You were always there for me whenever I needed you. I just love you. But......
Today I am not missing you that much as I used to be, because I have found a new one. A dusky one but so sleek so smooth & soft that I call it my black beauty. But still you will remain my first love because you came first. I learnt, whatever I know, from you.
All the chords I know, all the scales I know, whatever songs I can play on you, I learnt from nowhere but from you. It was a relationship of almost 1 year when I had to leave you at my home where, I don't know, how you would be feeling, how my Mom & others would be taking care of you. I pray you would be fine & will give me the same sound when I come back.
Now listen about my newly found black beauty. After lots of search & much struggle one day I met it on the internet, it was so lovely that I couldn't resist to make it mine. And within 1 week it was with me. I unbuttoned it & just held it in my hands, it was lovely, it was pretty & as I connected it to my little Amp, it did sound even better.
Hope the Love I've grown up with you, will continue to flourish with it.

Rise in Love or Fall in Love

"I have fallen in love with her", yesterday one of my friends was telling me pointing to one of her friends. He is not the type of guy who, I believe, had ever been in these things. He did well in his academics & then in his career too. His colleagues used to think that he was a diligent guy, all of his bosses were impressed by his sincerity, attitude & performance. He has been giving good results & always rising since his first day in the corporate culture.
That is what the point of my thinking that a person, who had never fallen in his life, was saying that he had fallen & that’s in LOVE. As much I've heard & understand from others' experiences that love brings happiness in life, it makes you a better person, it gives you a confidence you need and so on. Then how can anybody fall in love. All those characteristics of love I know do not ally with this at least.
In my opinion, if you have started liking somebody and, you think, not just you want to live but you can't live without him/her, then you are in love. And when you are in love, you don't fall in love but you rise in love.

So what is your take on that? Have you fallen in love :-)?

Lead India..II

Two simple alphabets...D...O, place them side by side however & they form a word powerful enough to turn mass of people into a nation.......
Do
The last time we decided to Do or Die it changed the map of the world.
Today we reached to a stage where the eyes of the world are on us again.
So what are we going to do?
How are we going to change a land of philosophers into a land of Doers?
Are we going to keep thinking about what we should be doing or do something about what we are thinking?
Are we going to simply shrug our shoulders & blame our infrastructure & our bureaucracy or are we going to roll-up our sleeves, get up & actually do something about it?

The truth is this.... thinking may happen from an arm chair but doing must happen from your feet.
Thinking may be a great way of getting things started but doing is the only way to get things done.
And let’s face it, you never really caught in a traffic jam, you are the traffic Jam.

Today we are in 60th year of independence, 60 full years, more then a half a century but we are still happy being called an Emerging Economy, a Potential Superpower or a Sleeping Tiger. This must change.
& it’s only possible when some of us dare to be the change

Let’s stop basking about a glorious future & day dreaming about a great future.

Let’s start by dominating today & domination………

……..DOmination starts with DO.

- Excerpts from Lead India TV Ad.

Lead India..... - I

Scene:

Police-man is sleeping in his official vehicle.

It’s raining. Kids are playing in the street. One tree has fallen down may be because of strong winds or heavy rain. Unfortunately, tree is in middle of the road & has jammed the traffic. Everyone is blaming local authorities for not clearing the obstacle in their way because of which they are not able to move towards opportunities lying ahead in their way.

One Gentleman : Isliye tax bharte hein kyaa (Frustrated person is shouting why the hell do they pay taxes). But I don't think there is anybody noticing him except one policeman who just shows him a stick & ask him to go away.

PA of a local politician : Sir aapke liye us paar car ka intezaam kiya hai (Sir we have managed a car for you other side of the broken tree). But I don't think this person even deserve to have a cycle on public expenses.

One Girl : I just hate this country (Must be coming from somewhere where there is no problem). But I think she should first hate herself that she is saying these words.

Either everybody is cursing somebody for this thing, or they are just not bothered enough to see what is happening there. People are just somehow managing to pass this obstacle in their own way.
Kids are playing

In this turmoil, we see a kid, must be coming back from his school, seeing everything, noticing his fellow countrymen, suddenly realizes that there is nobody who is thinking of removing this log of wood from the road so everybody could move forward. He gets down from his school bus & starts walking towards that obstruction lying down in his way to his home.

Still he is not noticeable.

Few People are still cursing somebody who is not there to reply them.
Few are just not worried about anything because they are not compelled to care about that.
Now that little boy comes closer to the tree, drops his bag, & starts pushing the tree. Not to surprise, it is not even quivering a little bit. He is still trying but of no effect. Now people start noticing him but they are not even thinking of helping him. Everybody is cursing the mess but nobody is bothered enough to help this kid in clearing this mess. Suddenly some street kids join him. Then few people join him, few more & after sometime its sizable number of people who could push that tree out of the road.

This was one of the videos for promotion of Lead India initiative from Times group.

I don't know why but I was so much moved by this clip that it brought tears in my eyes. I was not thinking what those people were doing, I was thinking if I have done anything which could bring me a closer to this daring boy. Answer was affirmative but few times. That means I still need to work hard with honesty & sincerity for getting more 'Yes' then the 'No' when answering this question.

Today I am asking myself this question. What about you?

If you wish you can see this video on YouTube

"Missing you...."

My Guitar Club is Missing me, I miss my college buddies; you may be missing her, she may be too; My family is missing me & I miss them too. There are so many people you may be missing but How does it feel when somebody says "missing you / Tumhaari yaad aa rahi hai"? Obviously great, at least I feel great. Whenever somebody says that s/he is missing your presence either because of some special occasion or just without any reason, you feel lucky because at least there is somebody who cares for you, who needs you with him/her, who thinks your presence could make those moments of their life even more cheerful which are not more then some happy moments now.

But is it really easy to express to somebody that you are missing her/him? Definitely it is not that easy as it may sound. It has been more then 10 years since my high school, I have never told my family that I am missing them. Was it because I didn't miss them? No, I miss them most but now I feel I can't say that to them because it will show that I am not strong enough, which is not admissible to me.

In the same manner there are many people who are missing you, who need you in their life but never told you this ever. But, believe me, you should not do the same. Always express it if you are missing somebody or otherwise you may loose that person because s/he doesn't know if you really need her/him in your life.

So..Go....Grab the moment & Express what you need to say.

Across the Shores.....

We talk a lot about it, we work on it but probably we just don't understand it. What I am saying here may have come out from my own perception only but this is the meaning I get from Onshore-Offshore Model.

It is the concept almost every person, who works in Indian IT industry or who gets some work after developed world bangalored few of the jobs to this third world country, would be aware about . Frankly saying, Indian IT industry is surviving on this concept upto a large extent as still Indian IT industry does not has domestic market for IT & IT enabled services that are being provided by plethora of shops across the country. The erstwhile curse, its population, of India turned up as a boon for the Indian business, whose big part now comes from IT.

By the way here we are not discussing about Indian IT industry because much has already been said about that at many places, in many forums, we want to talk a little about its Onshore-Offshore Model, in which one team which needs to work on one project gets divided into two parts. Out of these two teams, One comes to Client Location & other works from their native location to make the processes cost effective.

However easy it may sound, its a tedious task to manage the expectations, egos & productivity of these two teams to achieve a common goal. As somebody gave a comment in my previous entry that "its half of the world which is suffering from Ego issues which are also the root cause of most of the altercations....", Managing Egos is a most daunting task of this model. Now there are two type of compositions of an Onshore team:

1>

Few members of Offshore team who had been working on the same project for some time, recognized by their supervisors & Clients, get the chance to represent the team in front of clients / customers. OR

2>

Some people with required number of experience who got selected by business managers come to work as an interface between company & client.

First scenario is still quiet manageable, however, managing these two different teams that are working for same project to achieve common goals, becomes more complicated in second case. Few reasons what I could elicit from my understanding & experience in this model are:

a>

In First scenario, where a person who came to Onshore is well versed with the problems because s/he may already have faced those problems at Offshore & in most of the cases s/he would be having a good & cordial relationship with her/his team.

But In second scenario, People who come to become the interface, are very new people for the team members who had been working on that project for a considerable duration of time. This low level of comfort between these teams creates many issues. Among them & the biggest, I understand, is Ego-clashes between counterparts.

b>

Another problem these teams face generally is lack of understanding about each other's work between counterparts which becomes even worse in second scenario.

c>

Third, & however not so important reason, from my point of view, is Day-Time difference which creates many hurdles in the proper communication between both teams.

There are many problems, nevertheless, as each problem has some solution these do as well. From my understanding we should follow few things especially if we are in second scenario:

I>

Existing Team Members should be more accommodating towards changes because change is the only constant thing in life. They should respect & try to understand the new members who are at Onshore.

II>

New members should be patient enough & should work to prove themselves that they really deserve a ever-longing position like the one they got.

III>

Leaders of teams across the shores should communicate regularly to eliminate the communication gap from the first day itself. This should come as a initiative from the one who is senior in the project.

IV>

The leader, no matter which side of shore he is, should not be over-enthusiastic & knowingly or unknowingly should not try to become a leader of old team which is already being led by somebody.

V>

At least for first few days senior people of project should work together to create a better understanding between themselves only after that other team members should be involved. Till that time they should be led in the usual manner as they were being.

In short, if we could manage only two things, Ego & Changes, we would not find any difficulty with this fundamental & coveted model of Indian IT.

EGO....My Biggest Enemy

"The “I” or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought." this is the way in which Dictionary.com defines Ego.

I have lost many people I wanted to be with & I don't know thats because of me, my ego or because of the other person. I am shy of talking to others because I am afraid of being ridiculed. Though its not up to the extent that I could term it Catagelophobia, but I have definitely suffered a lot from it. People say I am confident, people say I am very active but nobody knows how much effort I make to overcome this fear. But when it comes to personal relationships this fear is still invincible for me.

I don't know why its today that I am thinking about it, may be because today I am realizing that its a long way I need to go to exterminate this ego from my inner self, otherwise I'll find myself alone in this world in the crowd of billions.

Hope...The Spinal Cord of The Life

Hope is the only thing which remains there till you die because once you loose hope you are not alive any more. Sometimes you know the truth but you choose not to believe it because you gotta hope that things will turn up in the way you want. But there are many times when you face something which makes you realize that you are not practical towards the life & expecting something to happen which is next to impossible.

When you like someone you like everything about her/him, you like everything linked to her & everything having a least similarity with her. Today I like all natives of one particular state, I like all people who got anything matches with her, because that reminds me about her & that make me smile. We know we are poles apart but what make me feel good that opposite poles attract each other though on the contrary what we forget every time that though opposite poles attract each other they never meet.

Its not that I am not trying, but when anybody asks me about anybody I like the most, its only one face which comes to my mind.

Its almost everyday that my colleagues ask me about my girl-friend, a person I love & every time I am not sure what to say. I can't tell that there is someone I have a big crush on but we are not more then friends any more.......

....& I don't see any other in my life so close at least in near future.

An alien missing many things.....

"An alien authorized to work"....thats the manner in which USA government defines a foreigner on Working Visa. Its more then 10 days for me that I am in states. With mixed feelings I can't say whether I like to be here or not. When I do the analysis then few things favor that I should like this place then few other things made me sad.

There are few great things I like about US like....

Before I came here, somebody told me that US people are best people in the world & I think that person was not wrong up to extent. We, in Mumbai, just claim to be friendly but these are the people who are more friendly then us.

They care for others.

Apart from People, life is comfortable over here. they have got a standard of living here which is not there in India. Infrastructure, roads etc.

You can afford luxury over here, which is a property of few millionaires in a city like Mumbai.

The TCS -Equifax group I got is really good. people are very helpful & empathetic.

But on the same time there are few things I am really struggling to cope up with:

Struggling to make an impression on fellow Co-workers. Though my American manager is projecting me as a technology expert, I don't think I have been able to impress my Fellow Indian Co-workers till now.

Other thing, I am really struggling in getting a Mobile Connection, which is just too difficult without SSN.

But above all, I am just missing someone so much that out of 24 hrs, 12 hrs, this person is on my mind. Though we were not talking or meeting frequently when I was in Mumbai, I am missing her too much here.....more then what I expected when I was coming here.