(Rural) India

Todays post is on something I had in my mind since I was doing my MBA. During the days when I was collecting material for this, I realized the real pain of our country - the Real India - Rural India.
The slides here do try to stress on some figures of Rural India and then it seemed how can this be true. The more time I spent on getting information, the more I felt that we are the small number of lucky ones who were born in the city and have hardly lived in the Rural areas of India. Some of our professors used to tell us that Rural India is difficult and its not what we read in any books, the truth is that we may somehow never experience that for ourselves. Again its not something thats to be experienced - but its something thats to be learned and done something about. If we cant help that, the least we can do is stop bragging about few silly things and issues and just for once realize the fact that how fortunate we are than the majority of others who live there and those who will never experience our lives.

Anyways, the presentation was made for IT enterpreneurship lecture, where the topic for me was to find out ways how IT can help Rural India. I have tried to collect material from various sources to see the condition that Rural India is in today and to highlight some projects which are undertaken in hope to help the population there. Just thought of sharing it here.

News 24/7.. or is it 0/7

Times have really changed or we...

Suddenly monkey became racist... to the extent, the news papers of two countries started writing essays and biographies for weeks together on someone being called MAAKI. I remember the times when we used to call someone monkey in school... and sometimes i also hear it from the people who prefer to use these words on me from time to time and I take it as if its a compliment.

Next, I was more shocked when some state banned a film and came out on streets for a lyrics in the song which said "mochi ban gaya sonar". I think people have way too much free time and no real news. It was not just the political figures who would rather spend the day solving peoples problems, but would instigate the population to come out on the streets and voice their anger over something so trivial, our media is the best when they show it as BREAKING NEWS. The previous breaking news according to me was the train blasts in mumbai. But we have news such as a boy slapped a girl or a housewive sent his husband to jail or a horse dying on the race field as all being breaking news.

Recently Shreeshant went to the land of Oz for match and BCCI warned him of controlling his expressions. I heard the news so far. But then the very ol news channel concluded - ruled and passed the judgment on BCCI as being guilty of committing the horrendous crime. The channel even had the background music being played while giving the news to create the sensation - as if we watching a thriller movie and not news. They accused BCCI of spoiling players morale and stealing his fighting weapon and we are all doomed cause of that. Cant they jsut Report news or is that old fashioned now.

The last of the lot coming from our own city on the issue of north Indian spoiling the ethnic values of Mumbai. Yeah and we do call our city the Melting Pot.. irony isn't it? I don't even want to write and give it importance, its simply just &##$###.

Just cause someone thought the news reporter worthy to be given a mic and camera to speak, he/she can say whatever conclusion they derive from the news??? Is this news reporting anymore? Who should teach them what is reporting? Are they even remotely qualified to pass judgment as to what is right and what is wrong for the nation. I remember when news used to be a 30 minutes feature on our DD at 9 and we all used to hear news Reporting. What we now have in our country is at least 15 different 24/7 news channels but not even one Reporting news.

free intenet from airtel

hey guys..
am at the new mumbai airport terminal and for the first time, i tried to check the Wi-Fi access here my friends were talking about here. I tried it to believe it, its a real treat. I was in complete surprise, when I found multiple ineternet access points on network detection.

I saw something marked Free Internet Airtel and voila. I was in. It then asks us to enter our phone number on which we get our access credentials. Initially I felt, thats the catch, now this wont work. I was not sure of getting the credentials over SMS so soon. But again to my surprise, as soon as i entered my phone number on the site, I got the return SMS in micro seconds giving me the user id and password to login. I entered the credentials as supplied and voila. Writing the post through it, think its good enough. I think not many international airports can boast of these facilities that we have here. Loving it here.......:)

Happy New 2008 !!

Happy New Year… Happy New 2008 to all.

When I look back, 2007 was a year of high hopes and low achievement. Truly, I don’t mind saying it, but I am proud because it ended in the best way it could. I did not plan for the evening, but it still ended on a very high note, being one of my best memories. So thanks for the wonderful evening and the company cause I am sure I wouldn’t have been happier any place else.

I have a feeling that this New Year will be special. Special cause it’s been a while since its been my way and going by the Sine Curve of Life philosophy the turn towards my goodness is now due. Having said this, I generally don’t believe that one date or a start of the year can change what we have sown in the past. So the effects of what’s been done will hound and no new 1^st of Jan will change all that, but since the world is busy hoping that this new year will bring me joy and happiness, I too am hoping it will.

Personally, I am not even sure if the dates that we calculate are accurate. There is a big history how we have calculated date and time since ages and there is a huge debate that makes me believe that possibly this is not even 2008 we living in. Hence I know that nothing is going to change, but what is more important is to have Hope. It is interesting to know that when you have hope, things do change. And this is no magic or miracle that it does, but when we wish for something, there are invisible waves that get out in this universe. When these waves accumulate, there is some kind of positive energy in this world (the undiscovered energy) that makes it happen. Some believe that’s what we do when we pray. I believe in having faith in one and never to give up hope. If the hypothesis about the so called invisible positive energy is true then praying or having hope should both result in the same thing.

Avoiding the religious debate on the start of the New Year, let’s hope this New Year brings everything that we all hoped for.

Happy Hoping!!!

Taare Zameen Par

This has been really long... long time after I have written something. It may have to do something with my laziness, but you know its procrastination.
Been busy, been lazy, been tired, been angry and been worried. That makes up all my reasons for not writing regularly. If you think of anything else, do add that in my behalf.

Been a long month, and if I now look back, I think the only thing that made me happy about it was watching Taare Zammen Par. I had first thought I wont watch it, but then when Friday night, I did not get tickets for Welcome, I decided to watch this. Tears shed and 2 and half hours later I was filled with pride for having seen this. There are very few movies that touch your soul and this is one of them. The message from the movie is very clear and apt. Earlier I had thought its a movie for children, but frankly its meant for adults. Everyone at sometime or the other will relate to this movie. Its cause its so natural and so very common.
This is the kind of movie that makes you think and ask questions. It stays with you for a long time.
"If you want to grow horses, why give birth to a child" This sentence says it all and it has the same effect on everyone who has lost all sense in this mad race. I saw many people not smiling, but thinking after they came out of the theater and thats where this movie will succeed. Of course the movie is entertaining in many aspects but it brings about a very strong subject and a very well said message. I dont want to write about the acting and the direction since its something my words cannot describe and give it due credit. What I can only tell is, if you havent seen it, or if you dont like movies.. or if its been like ages you seen one, You got to see this one.

Airport or Railway Station !!!!

If you ever been to Bangalore Airport on Friday evening, you would have asked the same question. "Is this an Airport or a Railway Station!!!"

Never even on a railway station will you find the amount of crowd and the queue to start your journey. Last week I reached two hours before my scheduled flight time.. and I had thought I will have to find ways to kill time. Was in for a huge surprise when I had to queue up for 90 minutes for the security checkup. No doubt the flight was delayed but the scene at the airport that Friday evening was shocking. It was chaos all around and nothing seemed to make sense as to why is there such a huge queue. There must easily be around 200 hundred people in front of my queue alone and there were like 4 such queues lined up for the security check.

I was shocked and so I asked the KF attendant as to what is wrong today. She replied graciously that this is normal ever friday. I was more shocked since just 3 weeks back I was at Bangalore Airport on friday and all the security check took was 15 minutes max. Anyways, everyone in the queue was complaining and shocked but as you would expect from our AAI (Airport Authorities of India) they were least bothered. The airlines couldn't help cause this was AAI matter and they anyways were having a tough time managing the angry crowd.

Even after having my check done, which individually considered, took the same amount of time as it always does, I couldn't understand why was there such a huge queue. It was like entire Bangalore was flying out at that exact moment. From where did all these flights come from.

The AAI security staff were coolly and calmly doing their check as if they have no clue whats going on outside. Obviously they didn't care.

The respective Flight attendants were seen fighting with the security guards to let some of them in since the flight is waiting just for them to get in. All that made no effect to them. Its as if the AAI just didn't get it. You don't take a flight so that u have to reach 3 hours in advance and stand in a queue that takes 2 hours for a security check. Somehow all that made no sense to AAI. The guards were doing their job, but the Airport management was definitely sleeping.

Om Prakash Makhija - Bests flim

Well.. I havent waited longer for this day when I get to watch these two mega buster movies... Om Shanti Om (OSO) and Sawariya (SAW). I will though admit I got dragged into the hype by everyone else around me.. and not cause of the media flashing the posters twice every ninety seconds.





Anyways, when my friend (Manmohan Desai fan) did advance booking on Wednesday, I was glad that I will watch OSO atleast this weekend. Next day I saw the trailer for the first time.. and I called him. I just asked... "Tell me you got middle seats." Now we normally watch films between 6th and 10th row.. in Eternity.. that makes almost in the middle of the entire auditorium. And we had got exactly that.. I knew it but still had to ask... :)

Anyways, I went to office on Thursday, had to go last minute for some conf calls. After that we were just chatting. It was around one in the afternoon when I was chatting and suddenly i realize everyone wanted to go to Sawariya instead of OSO. I felt, maybe I got on the wrong side of the hype. Not wanting to miss any of this, I decided to call up people. In no time, the gang was ready for SAW as well. My friend logged on the Cinemax (the fastest login I seen) and I gave him my CC.. and we got tickets booked for Saturday for SAW. Ofcourse we got the same seats.. and then I gave a double pat on my back... Now I got both. I proudly logged on to chat telling everyone I am going to see both, thats when one of my friend says shes watching both the first day... DAMN!!!! This wasnt the end, katz calls me at 4:30 from Noida giving a detailed review of SAW... and how she liked Ranbir... but the movie sucked. Now, I wanted to be the first to watch.. damn it. I give reviews.. i dont take em. Anyways.. things happen.. one has to move on. I read a blog of someone who described three pages on Life and Moving on... (think I went there through another blog I read). Anyways... I had to move on..and i did. If she reads this... this is moving on girl!!

The last challenge was to ensure that all the late comers in my gang actually came on time. Tough as it stands.. i announced the ticket timings being 15 mins earlier than actuals. Phew... some ppl... Now enough on the logistics... we finally saw OSO yesterday.

The only thing we all had to say was.. wished we seen OSO on both the days... watching SAW after OSO will be a huge disappointment. I have put my short reiview on flixter app on facebook..

"This is what i call a classic tribute to old bollywood era. Very nicely done.. the spoofs were amazing... and SRK rocked. Farah Khan has done brilliantly in making this no-logic-only-fun drama... and made it in style. Deepika is gorgeous.. The OSO ti...(read more)tle song has the entire filmcity stars in it..a treat to watch..but looses the track of the film since its too long. Its a tribute to the Manmohan Desai era..a full entertainer. A great entertainer and you will appreciate it only if u have seen many films of 70s era.. the Manmohan Desai clad. If u havent, you may find things strange and will say the story did not make sense...SRK over acted.. and puff!!! The spoofs were great.. the best actually.."

Worth it!! totally.

Am gonna watch SAW today.. but frankly.. not that enthu at all....