All new borns look cute whether they belong to humans or animals. It makes me sometimes wonder as to why the same babies when they grow up more often than not don't look so cute.

Now at my place there is a female cat which gave birth to 3 kittens. The kittens are so pretty. The place is outside near our staircase. They cuddle one another, play mischievously and the best part is when they climb the stairs. You should see the look in their eyes which is full of innocence. The kittens have now started taking baby steps. Whenever we try to approach the kitten, their mom who is always around gives a worried look.

The not so good thing is the mess they leave around just like human babies :(

Ideally the month of June in India is the time when the monsoons should have begun. It's now July and so far we have received scanty rainfall and the same situation prevails all over India however its worse in Northern India.

I am a bit worried as scanty rainfall means less water flowing into the river(s) and conversely less water in the reservoirs/dams. The end result is less water flowing from the dams to the common people. So how will people survive without drinking water. The affluent ones can afford a water tanker however what about people in general. There is a report which states that in the future wars will be fought over water. Scenes of people sparring over water in a town in Madhya Pradesh even leading to the death of a person means that the reality is much closer at our door step than we think.

Our crops are dependent on rainfall and lesser rains would mean that the crop acreage would shrink. Lesser crops implies lesser food grains in the market creating a demand supply gap. Now that as we know leads to rise in the food prices. The food inflation is quite high in India unlike the western countries. I recently bought half kilo gram of Tur Dal (Pulses) from the nearby grocery store and the price of Rs.48 shocked me. Now Dal is one of the essential items for an average Indian. The price of Dal is just one of the symptoms of a larger malaise.

The problem is how do we get out of this vicious cycle. To begin with, we are too much dependent on rain. We don't have water conservation efforts replicated on a national scale. Instead of having a long term approach towards solving the water woes, our short-sighted approach sees us every year literally at the mercy of a good monsoon. One of the side effects of deficiency in monsoons is the shortage in power generation. Adding fuel to the fire of transmission and distribution (popularly known as T&D) losses in the power sector apart from pilferage of power is the free distribution of power to farmers. A truant monsoon can lead to lower generation of power from the hydel projects. At this pace, how do you jump start the economy towards a double digit growth. We say that India is a rising power however when even the basic needs are not met, our dreams will be just that... a mirage.

(Image Source: http://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mycen.com.my/sightings_pics/rain_clouds.jpg)

Yesterday was a sad day for me. Michael Jackson or more popularly know as MJ, the king of pop is no more. During my growing up years, my first exposure to western music was through MJ. His music videos, hit tracks like Beat It, Black and White, the dancing talent all made him a powerhouse of talent. I guess its the same with millions of his fans worldwide. He was a cult icon. Although, the last few years his career may have been overshadowed by his personal affairs he still was someone who was adored by his fans. Starting his career at the age of six years when most people are still grasping the nitty gritties of life he was someone special.

It also begs some questions. I sometimes wonder why do people who have such amazing talent have a meteoric rise and then their fall is equally steep. Michael, we will miss you :(


Today I watched the movie "New York" starring John Abraham (Sam aka Sameer Sheikh), Katrina Kaif (Maya), Neil Nitin Mukesh (Omar) and Irrfan Khan (Roshan).

The story is about 3 friends and how their friendship is torn apart afer the 9/11 attacks. Of course it has a romantic angle as well.

9/11 attacks was a tragic day in our history and the subsequent events made things worse especially for ethnic minorities. This theme forms the background for the movie. The revelation in the movie is Katrina Kaif. She does finally learn how to emote apart from looking drop dead gorgeous :) . Of course it's not completely a flawless performance. Some of such scenes are when Maya confesses her love to Sam. It looked very superficial. The scenes I liked were the ones involving Omar and Roshan. Their humour against the serious story line not only gives comic relief but also brings an intense chemistry between the characters. The scene which nearly brought me to tears was when Sam is in detention and undergoes torture right from being stripped naked in a caged prison to being peed on by the cops. It was just too chilling and horrifying.

The characters which stand out strongly are Roshan who is an FBI officer (played brilliantly by Irrfan Khan) and Omar who comes to the United States to pursue his studies. Cinematography is good and captures the whole essence of New York. Music by Pritam as usual is good fare. My favourite is the slow song "Tum Ne Jo Haan kahan main wo sunta rahan" apart from "Hain Junoon". Kabir Khan who had earlier directed Kabul Express does extract some good peformances from his lead actors. The movie seems a sincere effort. You can see it in the climax when despite the tragedy, there is a ray of hope. I don't want to play spoil sport by revealing too much :)

(Image Source: http://www.topnews.in/light/files/michael-jackson.jpg)
(Image Source: http://movie.webindia123.com/movie/asp/movie.asp?m_id=348&movie=New+York&display=wallpaper)

We see a lot of movies made on cops. In India especially Bollywood/Tollywood movies, the majority of them portray cops in a negative light, of course there are small exceptions.

We had an altercation with our neighbour and I visited the Police Station to lodge a complaint. It was the worst experience and I believe that one should have guts of steel to visit a police station in India. There were people sitting on the floor and then a senior cop comes out. He starts shouting at the people crouched on the floor and starts hitting them with his shoes. The Sub Inspector of Police whom I went to meet seemed to fly into a rage at the drop of a hat. In the span ranging from a few minutes to hours there were people dropping in with all sorts of horror stories. It seems it was too much for the SI and he was losing his cool.

This cop walks out and starts beating up a man with a bamboo stick right in front of everyone. I felt sick in my stomach. What else can I say except that it was a nauseating experience. I met this guy who had lost his passport and wanted the cops signature for getting his duplicate passport issued. He has been visiting the Police Station for the past 4 days and was supposed to travel to UK in a weeks time. I asked him about his experience dealing with the cops. He pointed at one of the constables and told me that he is the worst guy he has dealt with. This cop was asking him money for getting a duplicate passport issued. I felt sorry for the guy.

There was this lady who visited the Police Station to complain against her drunken husband who was subjecting her to physical and verbal abuse. The lady asked me whether it was okay to file charges against her husband. I told her that if she kept quiet, things are only going to get worse. She was apprehensive that her husband would be released after a few days in detention and then torture her even more.

She was from a poor family and the police it seems were not willing to register her complaint. She was sobbing along with her mother. I felt the pain of the lady.

Overall the impression which Indians have about Indians cops seems more or less correct. Reality bites and in India it bites hard.
(Image Source: http://media.photobucket.com/image/cops/TRAVi3SO_702/643_oh_no_its_the_cops-1.jpg?o=14)

The scorching summer sun has made life miserable with temperatures hovering around 40+ degrees especially in cities like Hyderabad. Coupled with power cuts it keeps getting worse. On the lighter side, I go to work daily but with the crazy summer going to office has become a compulsion coz that's where you can enjoy the comfort of an air conditioned environment without paying the attendant electricity bills :)

(Image source: http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/blog/sun_main.jpg)
The election results were announced on 16th May and personally I am disappointed with the results. I am not sure where my vote went and literally puzzled at the voting trends of the people. I am not insulting their intelligence here but not sure whether they voted with their head or heart. The one saving grace is that the Left parties will no longer be a part of the government and remote controlling every decision of the government.

The world's largest electoral democracy as we know, went to the polls today. 1st phase polling was held today and I was more than enthusiastic casting my vote. The last time I cast my vote was in 1998 when we had a paper ballot system.

This time the excitement was all the more palpable as I was curious to know about the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). We may not be a perfect democracy looking at the way money and liquor has been used to woo the voters. However seeing the indelible mark on my finger I am proud of the fact that when we compare ourselves to our neighbours we are much better off atleast in having a say in electing our representatives.

The EVM is a simple machine which records our vote at the press of a button in a jiffy. People will miss the excitement of putting a stamp on the ballot paper but things change. Technology has played a large role in reducing wastage of time, efficient reuse of resources and faster declaration of results. The EVM is one such device which is also user friendly.

Holding such a mammoth election exercise is no small feat. The credit truly must go to the Election Commission of India which has a come a long way from being a silent spectator to becoming the people's watchdog.
(Image source: http://www.bel-india.com/BELWebsite/images/EVM.jpg)

Beleaguered, tainted, fraud-hit...these are some of the words which were used to describe Satyam (my employer). Satyam scam as Prannoy Roy of NDTV rightly put it was actually a Raju scam. Satyam is a great company. Truth they say has a ring to it. Nothing is farther from truth.

As an employee of the company I am relieved that we have finally found a new owner in Tech Mahindra. I admire Anand Mahindra (Chairman of the Mahindra group) for turning around the company when it was in the dumps a few years back. Launching the Scorpio was a calculated risk which not only restored the company's brand image but also made an impact on the export market.

Taking over of Satyam is just the beginning. The tough challenge lies ahead. There is one positive thing about the whole process. That even though Satyam fraud was a blot on India's corporate image, the redeeming feature has been that the government hasn't nationalized the company and allowed the market forces to dictate the agenda. It did supersede the board but that was quite understandable and the need of the hour.
(Image source:http://ceoworld.biz/ceo/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/satyam-logo.jpg)

I turned a year older yesterday. When I look back at the years gone by, it's been one hell of a roller coaster journey. Of course there have been moments of pain and moments of ecstasy.

I am not sure what's in store for this year however it will be my endeavour to achieve the best possible result. I celebrated my birthday by distributing toffees to my colleagues and then cutting a cake once I reached home. It was a double delight for me as I also received my Business Management Program certification although it was only of 2 months duration :)

How does one feel when their eyes feast on the lush green grass. For the past 2 days I worked hard to recreate a mini garden just in front of my house. I have this satisfaction that whatever I visualized has come true. It did burn a hole in my pocket but in the end it was worth it.

We engaged some labourers to to excavate the earth which was littered with concrete and replace it with freshly dug out red mud. The carpet grass was then laid on the mud and wow it's just looking awesome. There was some cute plants planted in between the grass. Our neighbours can just look and stare :)
(Image Source: http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM107Lab/Lab5/Soil/green_grass.jpg)

What's it about hair that makes people go nuts. Today when I was commuting by bus I saw a lady with scanty hair on her head. She was obviously losing hair very fast. Her forehead was bare and clearly visible. I wondered as to what was going through her mind when people were staring at her.


One of the worst nightmares which everyone has when it comes to their appearance is about their crowning glory. We all love people who have beautiful hair and empathize with those who don't. Katrina Kaif, Sushmitha Sen, Priyanka Chopra, Shahrukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty are some of the celebrities who come to mind when one thinks of beautiful hair. Hritik Roshan in one of his candid interviews has stated that his worst fear was of losing hear. Well we know why...here is a clue...Papa Rakesh Roshan :) So it's all in the genes did one say.

People fear the worst when they start losing hair. Even I am sometimes apprehensive about my hair but touchwood so far except for the slight hair loss near my temple there hasn't been any serious concern. Hang on...Bald is in too. Look at Vin Diesel. So people needn't despair :)
(Image Source: http://www.hairfinder.com/)

Over the past 4 weeks, I have been hitting the gym quite frequently. It's been more than a year since I left gymming. Ever since I have come back home, the growing sign of prosperity has been my paunch. Thanks to mom's pampering, I have gained a good amount of fat especially in the abdomen area.

I was alarmed when I looked at my paunch and decided to take action. It's been a lot of hardwork but the results have begun to show. My waistline has started to trim down and my stamina has increased. I also feel a bit lighter and energetic. There is a spring in my stride. Now my effort is to maintain the consistency so that I get a lean and mean body. My favorite is the cardio where I burn upto 240 calories and then the workout for the abs. The weight training part takes care of the muscles.
(Image source: http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/pure/_flash/images/gym.jpg)

Yes we can...

Today it's history in the making. The United States of America will be getting its 44th president, the one with an unusual name Barack Hussein Obama and the first black president.

I am writing this even as I am glued to the television watching Obama's presidential inauguration.


Presidents come and go but they rarely influence the thinking of people outside America. This time around there is an excitement in the air and I can literally feel it. When Clinton became POTUS (President of the United States) he was very popular but his election was seen by many especially outside the U.S as just a change which ushered in a popular man at the helm .

(Image source: http://www.dmiblog.com/archives/barack_obama.jpg)

George Bush during his eight years tenure might not have made many friends but yes, there was no dearth of enemies :) As an Indian though, I feel that we may have lost a good friend in the white house but yes who knows about the future.

I have keenly followed Obama's journey from the time he won primaries of the democratic party to finally winning the party nomination. He may be inexperienced when compared to his peers but he showed that "Change is indeed possible". His slogan "Yes we can" and strong oratorical skills resonated across the american people and the world. The message of change saw many an experienced veteran like Hillary Clinton, John Mc Cain and other opponents who saw Obama as a novice bite the dust. The tide has turned and how.

What has particularly impressed me is that Obama charted a different path by taking into his cabinet those people who didn't have any good things to say about him particularly during the intense and bruising primaries. Hillary Clinton, his bitter critic and opponent is the Secretary of State designate. He has retained Robert Gates as the defence secretary. His other appointments has been equally impressive. His "Cabinet of Rivals" approach is refreshing. Sure there were questions asked as to what change does one bring by nominating same old faces in their cabinet. But then Obama also recognised the fact that people like Hillary can be an invaluable asset with their impressive credentials. His choice of Vice-President elect Biden for his foreign policy experience was spot on. Contrast that to Sarah Palin.

The only thing to watch out is once the excitement dies down, will Obama who has enormous expectations from the people live upto it? This is a question only time can tell. But for now we can only say that "Change has indeed come to America"

Stealing is a crime. What I did today, definitely can be termed stealing. I was looking for this vaccum catcher which one can stick on the glass. The first time I went to the supermarket looking for it, I couldn't purchase it as it didn't have a bar-code. Now I desperately needed it for the small teddy bear I had purchased.

Cut to today, I had made my mind to somehow steal the catcher. Except for a minor hiccup I did succeed. Even though it was a small damaged vaccum catcher, my conscience was wracked with guilt. As I tried to pocket it, I warily looked at the overhead cameras and then when I assumed I was safe headed towards the checkout counter. I could only take a deep breath after coming out of the super market. But it's definitely not a good idea. I still can't believe that I did such a thing but I realized that everyone does have an inner conscience, the one which we had read in our Moral Science text books at school.

The last week has been quite dramatic. My employer seems to be in trouble and it has come as a shock not only to me but also thousands of employees. These are challenging times and we are in the midst of a recesssion.

Well never expected such a thing to happen but it's always better to be prepared. Moving on to another topic. Slumdog Millionaire is one movie I am very eager to watch. I am hoping and praying that I get to watch it first day, first show.

Bye bye 2008 and welcome 2009. I am not sure what to look forward to in the New Year. However what I do wish is that our cities and the world should be relatively peaceful and safer. On the personal front, I do have a wishlist. Things which didn't happen last year I am hoping will work out this year :)

Two small girls are searching for something in their house when they stumble on a vintage old coin. Excited by the find they take a stroll outside the street and sight a vendor selling a coloured ice candy. Unable to resist the temptation the girls give the old coin to the vendor. The vendor thinks that it's a worthless coin and returns it to the girls.

The girls are disappointed and sit alongside the pavement. A boy approaches them and gets to know the problem. He takes the coin from the girls and rides his bicycle to the nearest antique shop. He gets some money in exchange for the old coin from the antique vendor. He gifts the coloured ice candy to the two girls. The girls are pleasantly surprised and one can sense their gratitude to the boy through their expressive eyes. This is an ad for Tata Capital. It's a very touching ad which sends a message in a subtle way.

The last couple of days my dinner has been taken care of. I attended a wedding on friday night and a family outing on Saturday night which was sponsored by my sister's employer Google. I have been gorging on food and seen my waistline expand.

And today there is one more wedding I have to attend. Last night was truly knocking. There was fun and frolic at Jal Vihar a hangout at the necklace road near Hussainsagar lake. After a long time I grooved to the music and shook my leg :) The only sore point was the stench pervading the air obviously from the lake. It's sad that lake which was one of the main attractions of the twin cities has turned to a dumping ground for industrial effluents. People too have played a part by littering the waste.

(Image source: Yahoo news)

My favourite channel now-a-days is NDTV and CNN-IBN closely following the news on Mumbai terror attacks. The sight of slain NSG Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's mother caressing and kissing her son oblivious to the attention of people nearby was poignant and touching.

The small baby which lost its jewish parents and was rescued by a nanny or a family of five which lost its sole bread winner makes you wonder what's it that the terrorists have gained by wreaking such mayhem whatever their cause. No matter which religion they belong to...killing, maiming or slaughtering innocents is definitely not on. I have not seen heaven or hell however if the terrorists were sure their acts would become a pathway to heaven, no it isn't...they deserve to burn in hell.

I am back afer a long hiatus. The last blog I published was in October. Today I completed 1 year with my current organization. I believe that is a milestone considering my track record :)

The events of the last few weeks has been quite tragic. There was the terror attacks apart from the deepening global recession. In these times of job cuts, one must count their blessings if people still hold on to their jobs forget about the promotions :(

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi also popularly referred to as Mahatma Gandhi is someone I used to hate as a kid. I held him responsible for the partition of the country. Now after having grown up as an adult I do realize that I was wrong. I still disagree with some of his views however I think he was the greatest man who walked on the face of the earth.


When you read the everyday newspaper's which are filled with stories of deaths, deaths and more deaths we wish if Mahatma was there with us. We have become intolerant to criticism, fly into a rage at the drop of a hat and being self centered has become the hallmark of everyday life.

Youth nowadays earn more money than their previous generation however somewhere deep down there is a feeling of restlessness. Gandhi may not be here but atleast we can make this world a better place by being civil to each other and resolving our disputes peacefully.

One of my all time favorites since childhood is the elephant headed god. Yes I am talking about Ganesha also more popularly referred to as Vinayaka. There is an inherent charm in him. I have a small one on my car's dashboard. I remember as a kid, the first time I was actively involved in collecting funds for setting up the ganesh pandal in our neighbourhood. It was fun.


Many years have passed by since then. Today is the immersion day for the ganesh idols and that makes me think whether immersing idols made of plaster of paris, tons of steel and paint in the water bodies, lakes or seas is the right thing to do. It's an ecological disaster as the plaster of paris pollutes the lake/sea-bed killing the marine life and gradually leads to the destruction of lakes.


I understand the religious fervour and devotion with which people revere Ganesha however they should ask themselves whether they are doing the right thing. I am sure even Ganesha wouldn't approve of it. Instead people can opt for the the clay based ganesha idols which are eco-friendly. I hope when the festival comes around next year, people will warm up to the idea and be sensitive towards our environment.