Whatever...

  The photo has no real significance to the subject being discussed :-) Off late, I have seen a lot of my friends venting their anguish against politicians. Many of them expected the politicians to behave more responsibly, discipline the public on dos & don'ts of COVID precautions, get national priorities right and basically change the society to which they belong and are elected representatives. I think this bunch has wrong expectations from the wrong group of people. Here is why - A politician's entire existence is centred around election victory. Winning an election is their Key Performance Indicator (KPI). A consistently losing politician who is not making any effort to come to power, is not even a politician. Acceptance from society, popularity and majoritarian view are the fundamental characteristics of a politician. They have to operate within the limits of these fundamentals to maintain their existence. Isn't that why we always refer to successful politicians a...

These days, I often take an Uber cab to commute to/from work. On one such trip last week, I received some of the most precious insights on work ethics. I thought about them over the weekend and decided to internalize them in my personal & work life. So I thought of sharing them here for the reader's benefit. Since I do not have the driver's consent to share his name etc., let us just call him Mr. Uber. It was 9:35 PM when I booked my Uber. It is sometimes tough to get a cab at this time since many people are in transit and probably the number of cabs is also lesser during night. I was lucky to be assigned a cab quickly, which seemed to be travelling in opposite direction. Half expecting a cancellation, I called the driver and he said he will be there in 2 minutes. As soon as I entered the car, he asked if I was going back home. Now, I won't go into word for word dialogues, but some lines stuck with me, which I am sharing along with how I intend to apply them for mysel...

Goa lost a dear son on the evening of 17th March 2019.  The electronic, print & social media are bursting with messages and memories of Mr. Parrikar. He was indeed a visionary man, hard working and an astute statesman. As I follow images & video feeds of people of Goa gathering to pay homage to this great man, A lot of thoughts flood my mind as well. My personal experiences, limited public & private interactions with him and how Goa changed around me while he was at the helm. Though I feel like sharing those with you all, I begin feel as if they are just stories. Just like snippets from Ramayana or Mahabharata. But I want to remember the real crux of the series of stories that people will be narrating today or in the years to come. In my mind, every departed should should be immortalised through their ideology. Days will pass and time will play it's part. But every person who remembers their bhai, Manohar, Sir, Parrikar today should make it a point to immortalise...

There is no end to this debate. I have been a faithful android user from 2010 to 2015. I started with using a sleek HTC handset that I bought on Vijaya Dashmi . Every 2 years I have had to change my android phone as the older one could not support a new update or became unusably slow as more apps were installed. Till I moved to an iPhone towards end of 2015.  3 years gone and I am still in favour of the Apple phone I am using - an iPhone 6 plus 16 GB that iPaid a whopping fifty thousand rupees for. It is stable, secure & consistent performer. It has supported all iOS upgrades that Apple has released so far. It is a great business phone because of it's reliability.  But not all is hunky dory after 3 years. With an ever increasing mobile focus from various applications, high definition content and digital media, the 16 GB internal storage is insufficient. I need to backup videos and photographs twice every month. On a 7 day vacation, I invariably run out of space for...

It has been a while that I have not paid personal attention to our Ford Figo. This vehicle has run 80 thousand kilo meters and served us well for close to 8 years. I recently had changed the front tyres on it from Yokohama Earth 1 to Apollo (cannot remember the brand) stock size. The rubber cost me about Rs.9000. And then I spent some more on rubber this weekend. But today I decided to play attention to the broken rubber on front wiper. The picture on the left shows what had become of it. This was also causing damage to the windscreen. There are probably some scratches there which will need 3M care. I remember changing these just last year with the Authorised Ford service station in Hyderabad. But, I really don't know the life of the wiper rubber, so cannot complain.  I guess this is mostly the result of lot of heat making the rubber brittle and running the wipers without water. The later happens a lot in case of Ford Figo because of it's unconventional placement of wiper...

रात्रीचा १ वाजला आहे . डोळे झोपाळले आहेत , पण मन झोपू देत नाही . एक साधा सोपा सिनेमा एवढं करू शकतो? अर्ध्या तासा पूर्वी 'कील्ला' हा सिनेमा पहिला.  एखादी गोष्ट , नव्हे भावना किंवा संवेदना म्हणू कमीत कमी शब्दात कशी सांगावी याचा उत्तम उदाहरण म्हणजे किल्ला हा सिनेमा. पावसाळी ओला चिंब आणि हिरवा कोकण, १९९० च्या आसपासच साधं सोपं राहणीमान, मोबाईल / इंटरनेट च्या विळख्यात न सापडलेलं 'बाल'पण हे सगळंच खूप नॉस्टॅल्जिक वाटत. गोष्ट सांगता नाही येत, पण भावते नक्की. दिग्दर्शक स्वतःच DoP असल्यामुळे प्रत्येक फ्रेम ने डोळे दिपून जातात. मराठीतला संतोष सिवन आहे हा अविनाश अरुण. बदल , त्याच्याशी जुळवून घेण्याची माणसाची धडपड, आई मुलाचे नाते हे सगळं एका पौगंडावस्थेतील मुलाच्या दृष्टिकोनातून दाखवलं गेलंय . मला या फिल्मने जाग ठेवण्याचे मुख्य कारण म्हणजे, माझ्या आणि माझ्या कुटुंबाचा आयुष्यात मागच्या एका वर्षात झालेले बदल मला एक वेगळा connect देऊन गेले. जुलै २०१७ मध्ये आम्ही हैदराबाद हुन नोएडा ला आलो. मी नोकरी बदलली आणि त्यामुळे घरही बदलावे लागले. ८ वर्षं हैद्राबादला राहिल्यावर, तिथून उत्तर भारता...

What defines you?  Your job? Career? But that is a 20th century invention. People did not have 'careers' before that and still lived happy life! Your kids? Spouse? Parents? Family? They are important! But does your happiness define what they think of you? That is difficult to control. Are you always going to try and please them to maintain an 'image'? Your friends? What kind of friends? Those who like you? love you? speak their minds or dont speak at all? Who will back you up even if you have done something wrong?  Neighbours? Colleagues? They are integral to your life but you will keep changing. What do they mean then? Your hobbies? Would you do them if no one appreciated you for them? What defines you is  - how you would treat others if you had nothing to do with them - what you would do if no one was looking - would you do something if it did not pay you

1000 Kilograms of Goa by Rohan Govenkar My rating: 4 of 5 stars This brilliantly written book is a good movie plot. The Author, Rohan Govekar, being a Goan lad himself, lends authenticity to some of the facts about Goa. If you are a Goan yourself, his narration takes you through some of the well known landscape and portrays a few typical Goan characters quite realistically. The only part I would say could have been completely done away with, is the protagonist's philanthropic redemption of his ill-gotten wealth towards the end of the book. It comes across as a little too self indulgent and guilt ridden. Having said that, awesome first book! View all my reviews

Long long time ago, the human race was just evolving, and was learning how to cope up with health, hygiene and disease. I don’t know what ‘era’ or ‘age’ it was. Monolithic, bronze, stone or some yuga like dwaparyuga , tretayuga …etc. But it was an era when diseases spread fast, even simple ones like lose motion ! And people died of these little diseases. This was way before humans knew the benefits of personal hygiene or fresh cooking. I am talking about like really old times. But we were evolving. There was this one guy who took bath everyday (probably because he liked it). Lets call him the ‘clean guy’. He even had bath multiple times a day. He had learnt the art of cooking over fire. He knew how to make fire, and how to use it to roast or cook. So he cooked everyday in his cave. And he had bath before cooking, after cooking, before going out, after coming back to his cave…all the time! Now, other people who did not know how to cook, would hunt animals or get fruits and vegeta...

I have been living in a city for more than 10 years now. Before that, I have lived in a village in Goa, India. The total population of my village was less than five thousand. Whereas, since 2004, I have lived in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune & now Hyderabad. Being raised in a village, I have always had difficulty liking a city. In fact, the first time I visited a house on 14th Floor in Mumbai, I got a very weird feeling. It is a perspective I had never had in my village! Since then, I have tried to blend in, albeit forcefully. Over the last decade, having lived across cities, with all the constraints of a family man, I have zeroed in on 3 main issues that stare us in the face. And these issues have remediation (if not to resolve, at least ease it) at individual level. We need not wait for the government to do anything. I have already started doing my bit. This post is only for setting the context on each of these issues. I will dedicate another post individually to how I am trying...

Yes! Having settled the matter there, let us move forward with some rant since this is a blog... There are a lot of religious places that are banning women from entering. This includes temples, mosques and not sure if also a few churches. In retaliation, women and feminists are going all crazy calling it their fundamental right, challenging the diktat in court etc. I have a different view point on this and may sound crazy to a few, but since you are reading till now, go on further... Practicing your religion is your fundamental right, not going to a specific building. So just chuck it and practice your religion somewhere else. Just like if you want to gulp a few drinks but are not allowed in a specific bar because of dress code, you don't go to the judiciary or stage a protest!!?? You just go to the theka, get some daaru home and get high.  Why do you desperately want to go to a place that does not want you? Would you visit a jewellery shop or saari shop if they ill treat...

10/10/2010 was the exact date we purchased the Ford Figo Titanium 1.4 Diesel variant. Since I like to keep my vehicles in stock condition, it has not undergone any modification so far, except for non-stock tyres that came in at 50,000 Kms. I shifted from MRF to Yokohama with no upsizing. This post is intended to share the ownership experience over the last 5 years. After 5 years, this is what I still love about the car - It is spacious - one of the largest boot space in it's category. It can conveniently fit in a week's luggage (or even a month's) for a family of four. Also, the legroom is ample. With a 6 footer like me in driver's seat, 5 foot 10 inch adult can be comfortable in the rear seat even on long journeys. The cabin also feels quite spacious because of ample use of glass (and also because I have not used tint on them) Solid build quality - Even after 5 years, the interiors look like new. The plastics are still shiny and every button on the console has a ...

I was away for an year and had not received any property tax notice. So  was not sure how to pay the property tax at all since there was no base document with amount etc. So, I went to the GHMC office in Serilingampally and met a person in Revenue department. The process is quite straight forward. All you need is the TPIN of your house. You can get this from your old notices or receipts of property tax (even if the notice is not in your name). You simply have to give them the TPIN and they will tell you the amount with penalty, if any. Pay it by cash or by cheque and your receipt is handed over to you then and there. Easy! Apparently, this can also be done at any e-Seva counter. But, I have not tried it yet.

Liberalization, represented by Pepsico, entered our lives with this slogan in 1998. And since then it has held and grown it's roots through our existence. Everybody who was yet to take up a job in the 90's is today possessed with the 'need' for more. Mind it, it's not wanting more of everything but needing it! Today the careers we all are into are mostly driven by this need for more. More speed in cars, computers and phones, more return on investment, more homes to live, more luxury, more health care and what not. If you take a ratio of everything that is more today to what the same parameter was 20 years ago, the result will almost be infinity! But does all of this come for free? How come all of us are inclined to believe that this 'infinite' amount of 'progress' has come with no cost at all. In fact most of these things have become cheaper than they were 20 years ago. Isn't that hard to believe and against the order of nature? In my opinion,...

A couple of years ago I wrote this piece about how to work from home. From the stats and comments I received, it looked like a pretty famous topic close to many people's heart. However, after having worked from home for 2 years (and also having worked from office before that), I believe today that working from home ALL THE TIME is not such a good idea.  I am not denying the benefits of WFH entirely. You get to babysit when needed, spend time with parents if required, run errands etc. But, this cannot be the norm! The days you decide to work from your home should be an exception which should be generously allowed by your employer. Like, an acquaintance who worked from home for 6 months to look after her bed ridden mother. Or, like another friend who could work from home while her husband got transferred from city to city. But what changed my mind? Here it is - Networking: one of the main advantages of going to an office facility is when you come face to face with people wh...

I have been working for 11 years now. The first 2 years I spent in a bank. Doing trade finance operations. I used computer like a took back then. I used it to do my job faster and better. Circa 2006, I moved into I.T. Consulting because it was 'the place to be'.  Since then, my life has changed a lot. From being a people person who liked to go out and meet people, I have become a laptop & smart phone person. Having spent close to a decade in IT, I have started believing that a person can achieve a lot and 'get things done'  through just a laptop and a data connection. Well, guess what, I AM WRONG! This feeling has been fuelled further by all the on line utilities like paying bills, bank transactions, shopping, ticket booking and what not. You can even get entertained (or so you think) in front of the laptop! You almost feel like you can live your entire life in front of the laptop and not regret it at all. I don't mean to blame my job entirely for it, si...

A common thread that has come across on social media with the BBC documentary of the Nirbhaya rape case convict, the #IndiasDaughter hash-tag and the ensuing debate is that, as a nation, we need to change our mentality. We need a change in education, change in society, change in the way we raise our kids. Well, I am all game! Now, I am a father of two daughters. They are very young, the sum of their ages being about 4 years. But I am already petrified at the thought of them growing in this society. The child abuse, rape, pedophile, kidnapping and all sort of news I have heard, are scaring me and dictating my decisions. They dictate where I want to live, my career choices, the friends I make, just about everything! So, if there is someone who wants a real change, it's me! No doubt! So, here is the tricky part. Do I have to change something? If yes, then what? I am all in for freedom to my daughters. I want them to grow up like free birds and I will ensure to the best of my abilit...

When I read  this post on Facebook, I began thinking if I really needed to be told this and in this manner! Are men so insensitive that they can't see their wife tired? Do men of my generation who have access to Internet, don't know how demanding is it to be a mother? I felt offended for being typecast. So, I decided to respond... Dear Breastfeeding Wife, First of all, it's OUR baby, not MY baby. Stop referring to the baby like a strange object that has entered our relationship. Didn't we speak at length about this? Didn't we both know raising a baby would be demanding, both for you and me? I didn't do it to you by force!!! Coming to the part of breastfeeding the baby. I know it's demanding. I can SEE that you are tired from all the chores and the breastfeeding. I don't have an iota of doubt that it's taking a toll on you. If it was practical, I would have left you to only nursing the baby and do all the chores myself. But it is not! Which is...

Dear kids, Hope you are having a good time! Since you believe in Santa, fairies, knights and all the mythical characters that are righteous, I am sure you live with eternal optimism (though you don't have a clue what that word means) through all the thick and thin.The stories you have heard of obedience, selflessness, honesty and all the other right virtues are probably shaping you into an ideal person. But this is not going to last! You will soon turn into an adult, which is a far worse version of yourself. Your parents will teach you to lie. All the kids will help each other in becoming adult humans with egos (I can't really describe to you what an 'ego' is, but is it what makes us adults, other than a moustache) bigger than the largest playground you have seen. We all adults wish that our kids remain kids, but we haven't so neither will our kids remain! The purpose of this letter is to bust some myths about adults or grown ups, whatever you call us. I will go ...

I have spent last few weeks trying to make choices between health, children's education, career choices, safe & secure environment for kids, time with parents and most importantly - money. People who have witnessed my dilemma have told me I am too emotional, not ambitious enough, 'wasting my talent' and what not! At the same time, I have also seen people of my age and caliber make the same choices with ease. So, I got thinking. What is it that helps them make these decisions? After a lot of deliberation, I think it is money. I have grown up in a household that places minimal emphasis on money. My father once told me that money will help me survive but it's my passion that will help me have a life. So, money has been no more than a tool! In fact so much was my self gratification that I even looked down upon people as 'money-minded'. My definition of such people was - people who would make decisions purely based on monetary gain. While, I made my decisio...