Monthly Archives: September 2014

Open Letter to Rajdeep Sardesai!

Rajdeep3

Dear Rajdeep Sardesai,

I thought the elections are over. I happened to watch your Headlines Today reporting from Madison Square.

Were you in your mind to ask a question that only 30% of the people have voted for Mr. Modi.  I thought India always had a first past the post system ever since we got independence. You guys are talking as if this is the first time elections are being held. Get over it. Get over it. The elections are over and Mr. Narendra Modi is THE Prime Minister of India.

By the way what was th
e agenda to ask questions on will one man be able to change things, Are you a moron, if you know history, one M K Gandhi was a single man who went against the British, so much for one man able to do it.

Then what was the ‘did you buy the ticket and for how much’, where were you thinking you were standing in remote corners of the villages where they have to be paid. Nor were you ignorant of the Modi Wave that was evident in NRI’s backing Modi. Btw what were you trying to convey!

And what was that about class? Boss, you have no business about it, and why do you have to rein in Modi everytime you have an opinion. So can I take it that after watching your first fistful in that video that everyone in your family is a moron and take your family name!

For an Editor who ran CNN IBN to use those cuss words was the last refuge of the redemption. And you think you can get away with it and still go around the world playing victim. Probably you didn’t see the video evidence coming.

Boss times have changed. If you ask me if you wanted publicity for your books there were better ways to do it. This was sad and how low could you have got and brought shame on the journos. You don’t get physical whatever provocation that’s how you guys talk about everyone else!

You can give me enough reason for the first hand fistful, sorry then you are not the one on the high pedestal you claim to be, especially for someone who spoke on moral compass.

Where is your moral compass boss, you left it at home when you went to USA! Now between us tell me what did you gain on all this.

That aside I am sure you were lucky those people weren’t actually bullies, for what you did.

Come back home, think of retirement, life is beautiful, you have already wrecked enough damage to journalism. Think of Cash for Votes Scam and you want us to read the book. A whole govt and a 5 year govt went on after that boss! Do you even understand the gravity of what you did. Integrity is not so easy! If it was what was practiced you would have hung every congress minister or you would not have said Assam had logistic issues when it came to coverage.

Or go back and think about saying the number of dead makes the news bigger, how big a buffonery were you holding everyday for the past decade.

Anyways lets see what is in store when you come back!

Blogsters – Round 2 – Game of Blogs!

BlogAdda’s newest initiative is to #CelebrateBlogging with a series of contests, starting with one called a Game of Blogs. Teams of bloggers take turns creating a round robin story of sorts that they post to their individual blogs.

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It would have made for a perfect picture. He thought.

He was watching Rhea and Jennifer play in the park. He was also thinking how she would react on his presence.

‘It could have been’ those words weighed on him adding a ‘What if’ to his world of probabilities.

If only they didn’t take those roads and now that they have traveled so far, can they start again.

Those days would have made Rhea’s life much better, as a child she was deprived of things that a normal child would have yearned for, instead was caught in the middle of the ego bashing trouble of the parents. For a moment he just wondered how he would feel if he were in Rhea’s shoes. A gleaming kid is all he was seeing, an innocent carefree approach to little friends and school much later days.

Shekhar in a moment of realisation thought about how the parents make the world look just awesome or fearsome as they portrayed it for their children.

And one nagging question he has always been asked, was all that worth the effort that they took to fight and did they ever think what Rhea wanted. May be that was a question unasked.

Moments lost forever, and the thought of losing them at will was the worst infliction of pain on each other.

Rhea meanwhile was playing with a ball with her friends around. She was carefree young girl, and her face would not show the depth of her longings or the sadness anytime.

Life was always playing it fair and it was upto us to take charge, he thought.

That one thought was lingering on to him, what if they were back again as a family and the memories would be there in front of him. Those early days of courtship and the days when they got married, the time they spent to gether.  Those days of their career, the day when Rhea was born. All those images flashed in a moment.

He was living the past, when suddenly a ball hit him on the head. A young five year old boy came near him and said ‘Sorry uncle’ and ran towards taking the ball which was lying infront of him.

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Part of #CelebrateBlogging! #BlogAdda #Gameofblogs

The life’s senseless humour!

I am back with my post today, in between shocking revelations of a dear friends’s sudden demise and coming to terms with it, the last post yesterday was not justified in real terms. I just wanted to do it for the sake of it, after a bit of travel and the news sinking in, it was just unbelievable what had happened.

Whenever he has been around, it was being live wire and full of josh! Jokes, mimicking and time goes on and hearty laughs unbound, expressions of a free heart that goes on and on.

The news has left everyone stunned and life has played on one of the worst jokes on us.

Dear Suresh Etta, you will be missed and memories will linger on forever.

 

 

 

Thats 30/30 today….

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A round of applause to all of you and yes to me too. We have successfullsy come to the 30/30 day blogging marathon though it was not named so.

Some of the best learning have taken place during this 30 day period, foremost being that self discipline can be taught to oneself only thing that we need to realise how important we have done so.

I also got to know a lot of people who are into your timelines the best wiried and how they match the existing nano tales.

In some ways we all need to be realistic and look at whats in store for us and how it can transform our day to day lives and make for interesting read!

Thanks again to all those who were reading otherwise this exercise would have been a just an assigmbe stay

 

Road less travelled!

woods

This is a very nice idea to think about especially when we see so many people going for the sameness in everything we do. A little bit of being offtrack I believe will be interesting in the sense that we will be different and doing what we want to do.

The call of your heart versus the stability of the mind in terms of looking at it practically will be a very important decision that you will have to take. Quite often we negate the call of the heart because its is not supported by logic and sometimes never by analysis.

The strength of your taking the road less taken is proportional to your being breathing that idea and living that idea. It should not be fashionable but be really worth it and we should be doing what we want to do in real terms.

These days becoming a writer or a cricketer has become the craze, simple because we get avenues ready and open to barge in. But the idea cannot be just a publishing author but be a phenomenon. Or be the cricketer every club should like to hire for IPL.

One more way to take the road less taken is to answer the question if we enjoy what we do, if not then we need to seek answers to that and finally get to identify if that was the calling of our life. Give wings to the dreams but again as you do so stand on your feet because you need to take that shot to fly in the sky.

You should be happy if you try this early in life, that’s when there isn’t any pressure for you to work for others. Not that you cannot find your calling later in the days but the time to execute would be a little less though it need not matter much.

While you are at it, I mean trying to find your calling, I have realized that we need to work our best to rise upto it and its a challenge much more than what we thought when we quit working for others.

It would have been easy sometimes working for others but when you work for yourself, there isn’t anyone overseeing you nor holding a performance appraisal for you, its all you and yourself actually. Get to that strength and stature as you decide to work your way to achieving your dreams.

Cheers! One post a day 29/30

Guru Vargam Samarpan: A celebration of Teachers!

Momento

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was an evening with a difference, principals, teachers and management of schools had gathered to celebrate the wonderful work of theirs –  the profession of teaching on the 14th of September at COINDIA Hall.

Thanks to Boddhi Academic Consulting a new outfit into end to end academic consulting in association with The Renes Summit, the event Guru Vargam Samarpan had the teachers being celebrated and how they were inspiring a generation. It had a great line up prolifica academics and mentors who shared their ideas on education and how we need to change the education for the future.

Smt. N Srividya, the Principal of Meridian International a CBSE school from Tiruchengode in her Guest Speaker’s speech spoke on ‘I am unique’ a very down to earth approach to being a teacher and as a head of the institution how they can inspire the teachers and students to excel and get ahead in life.

She led the audience through her journey of teaching and expressed her delight at how she is still in touch with her students and still have a say in their life. This she said was a teacher’s greatest asset and she was proud of the same. Apart from her academic credentials, she is a grand daughter of Subramania Bharathiar.

In his address as a Guest of Honour  Shri. H G Jeya Harish, the Senior Principal of Sri Ranganathar Schools took us on a different path, dissecting without any reservation on  what ails the present system in a nice presentation.

He called upon teachers and principals to make the school a joyous place of learning and that could change the way the student will look up to studying and also his interests in the subject will also increase rather than he getting disinterested as it is happening today. He also stressed the need for value based education and also how the system should be able to make the students inquisitive and also make the teachers raise to the level.

It was the time for the Chief Guest of the day to inspire next. Shri N C  Nandhagopalan, the Secretary of PSG Schools and PSG College of Arts and Sciences in his address emphasized the need for understanding the Indian culture and also have pride as citizens of this country. He also outlined how Indians are making a big impact the world over and how they are regarded as equals because of their hardwork and sincerity.

He dwelt on the need to appreciate Literature and languages and also the need to teach English especially the grammar that will help the students in future be communicative. He also stressed the need to read so that teachers can continue to teach since teaching is a process of learning.

As a part of the celebration 12 teachers from various institutions were awarded with Best Teacher Award for 2014 and  three Principals were awarded the Eduprenuership Award.

Earlier Ms. Reni Auxilia, CEO & Founder of The Renes, and Principal Consultant, Boddhi Academic Consulting welcomed the gathering. Mr. Mahesh Thulasi, CEO & Lead Consultant of Boddhi Academic Consulting proposed the vote of thanks.

One post a day 28/30

Picture clicked while presenting a Momento to Smt N Srividya, Principal, Meridian INternational, Tiruchengode. Mahesh Thulasi is on the right

Ambassador and the car!

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Yesterday while driving near the Race course, I saw a Ford Figo with a board of Central Income Tax Commissioner or whatever in the red board that you are so used to being seen as a sign of those powerful Central Bureaucrat.

But I wasnt amused. the car was so tiny that it fails to evoke the respect forget the fear which would come out later. The charm of a white Ambassador cannot be equaled by any car for sure, its is a sad ending for the car that they will no longer be producing them anytime from now.  But the loss is not just ornamental, its a culture that we will soon see vanishing.

The Ambassador or the amby as it was called was a sign of prosperity those days and people have told me that they had waited anywhere between 8 months and 2 years to own one. I remember only a doctor owning a car in our new locality and that was a white Ambassador some 30 years ago.

The Ambassador was a delight to watch in a convoy and every politician worth his name would have had this car for sure. It gives you the smell of power especially if you happen to have a car with a red beacon on top.

This was the national car if you call it, imagine the Rajpath morning on an Independence day or the Republic Day, the convoy of white red beacon lit ambys make for such a great sight. It was also touted to be one of the safest cars around. If you have any doubt, you should check with Chandrababu Naidu, the present chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, whose car escaped a land mine explosion and he was unhurt too some years ago.

These days no one talks high of bucket seats, those were standard in Ambys.

Some of the trivia on Amby include it being exported to Japan and UK for being a taxi. On the other hand it won hands down in the clash of Indian and world taxis in a shoot out video for Top Gear programme in BBC.

I believe Rajinikanth the superstar and Mammooty the malayalam star use Amby as their regular car. The car which was a part of heritage and history will no longer be around after few years, but the memories it evokes could quite be an emotional one. It was a part of growing up for me.

Big cars, no redesign for over 50 years and ruled the roost as a taxi on some metros and then some cities, now will see them as a nostalgic piece on road.

We will be seeing them on movies in the future if someone is making them in retro, where we can see the collector getting down from a white Ambassador car. Then it will be travelling back in time!

(By the way the title was one I had used earlier and I liked it and so I thought will go with the same.)

One post a day! 27/30

I want healthy kids – a practical guide by Alia Almoayed a Book Review

978-81-216-1876-2

Publisher Life Positive Publications
Publication Year 2014
ISBN-13 9788121618762
ISBN-10 8121618762
Language English
Binding Paperback
Number of Pages 310 Pages

A beautifully written book on how to raise healthy kids in a very lucid and simple style that will make you go to the book again and again.

The author draws from her experience as a nutritional expert and more so as a mom, probably that makes it all more interesting. This book also has contributions from experts from different places related to nutrition and child upbringing.

This is a step by step process if you ask me on how to care for kids and how to make them eat healthy foods. You will realize how important food habits could make up for the future health of the kids in terms of their learning potential, immunity energy levels etc.

I would suggest this to everyone across ages, especially if you are a parent you will feel inspired by knowing things about kids and how you could make it happen and it would be a wonderful way to bond too!

In case you work with teachers or in direct association with kids, then again you would benefit hugely with the inputs given here in this book. Its  a very practical way as the title suggests.

Then there are food ideas you would love. There are kids expert section with loads of scientific info in case you are looking for some references.

This is a very nice work with a great intent and also very practical in every sense of it.  Very nicely presented and you could actually open a page and you would be really gratified reading it and more so implementing the same would be a breeze.

As the author suggests in her note this is for kids – essentially a 2 years to 13 years bracketed in terms of a guide, but its a whole some presentation if you read it which can easily be extendable to the whole family without much ado.

I also loved the presentation format for a change and the narratives with different usage of fonts and makes for a easy reading and focuses on ease for the reader.

All in all a great book and you would thank me for sure. And for all those who care for a healthy generation in literal sense this is a nice recommendation.

Thanks Yawar and Life Positive for sending me this book and sorry for this delayed review due to some circumstances beyond!

Senthilkumar

One post a day 26/30

To err is human and to forgive is divine…

Open bible with man and cross

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most wonderful thing about being human is you can expressly forgive and that is a choice that you could take. I think no other animal is bound to think in its entirety before actually really wokring and doing.

I remember the stance of Portia in the courtroom where she asks Shylock for mercy and he says he wants the flesh only. These are the lines from Merchant of Venice!

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath.
It is twice blessed.
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

In today’s world we know how tough it is to forgive since people are taking things too far that we cant be better human beings.

But on the other hand, the truth is that  when you have revenge as an idea, then it becomes  a tough thing on you as well as the young. The most interesting part is that if  you forgive and forget that makes you live longer than usual. Physical attributes apart, imagine how it could affect you mentally.

It is akin the poison tree which keeps growing with the thoughts thinking that the enemy is under threat. But it grows on you rather gives us a sudden jerk up in life.

Forgiveness is a trait that is very highly needed in today’s world. If you can forgive you would have the best of things come back to you!

One post a day 25/30 belated update!

Blogsters – Submission #celebrateblogging – Game of Blogs

Blogsters – Submission #celebrateblogging

Read the previous chapter here: http://ponderingtwo.blogspot.in/2014/09/game-of-blogs_22.html#.VBlziPmSz-g

Chapter 7

ACP Sanjay Arora was not his usual self. A little extra thoughtful, is what his colleagues would say if they could see him now. Maybe he had some personal issues to handle—or maybe he was just exercising his mind by going over old cases.

Sanjay had a reputation to keep, one that went beyond the confines of his khakhi shirt. His was a family built on tradition, and his work had taken him to more places than he could ever imagine.

A doting dad, a loving husband, and the cynosure of quite a few of his senior officers, Sanjay did a clean balancing act of his professional and personal lives. He knew where to draw a line, which was unpoliceman-like behavior, if you asked his friends.

As he sat in deep thought, the phone rang, shattering the silence.

He picked up the phone and held it to his ear, then took a pen and started fidgeting with it as he listened to the person on the other end.

Sanjay listened intently, and replaced the receiver without uttering a single word. It was a call from one of his seniors.

This morning, they’d gotten news of the kidnapping of a child. Looking at the available information, it seemed like an open and shut case of parents not in tandem, and looked as if it was the handiwork of either of them.

There were several similar cases that Sanjay had been tracking since last year. Many times these were dirty tricks resorted to by the parents and also helped in a way by the relatives.

Sanjay sometimes thought that, bad enough that these people behaved irresponsibly, but worse was that they acted as if the police force were also happily lazing around without much work to do. There was an acute resource crunch and Sanjay knew the police was doing its best without much ado. It was always they who had to bear the brunt of the politicians, the media, the people at large and then these frivolous complaints to add to it all.

This case was becoming an important one, the custody of the kid was always going to be a court decision, but what was at stake is also very important.

All the characters were really looking to get off their responsibilities. He would have to get to them to ensure the safe release of the child. And he would do it, come what may. After all, this isn’t the first time he’s doing something like this.

But time and circumstances had different plans for him, and he would be surprised to know that.

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Read the next part of the story here: http://reigningwanderer.blogspot.in/2014/09/game-of-blogs-cyrus-lawyerround-1.html

Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.

Onepostday 24/30