My Life, My Experience, My Learning - An Open Book!

It was Wednesday, 12 th February 2020. It was also Sankashti Chathurthi, a highly auspicious day in the Hindu calendar dedicated to Lord Ganesha – the one who provides we beings with boundless energy to overcome any obstacles, be it personal or professional. It was also the day when YVR Rao uncle left us all for heavenly abode. Lord Ganesha – in you we entrust YVR Rao uncle and am sure you will look after him very well! A sense of disbelief and shock took over our household, when we got to know of his ill-health in the first week of February. It seemed an uphill task for uncle, but he had fought and overcome adversity previously as well. Deep down in my heart, I believed that he would fight through again and come out a victor. I have never seen anybody fight adversity like uncle: Cheerful and Smiling, as though treating adversity with contempt! The sight of him @ Apollo was inspiring – he was fighting it out, recognized all of us, spoke a few words but was not willing to gi...

Phew, time flies and you are already seventy, With a curious mind, smile, energy and temper of Twenty 😊 ! You are the most generous, most gracious, Yet the most tempestuous, most impetuous 😊 ! You have the most curious mind, Yet the most indifferent mind 😊 ! You treat everyone the same, With abundance of love n anger all at the same time 😊 ! You have the cleanest & noblest of hearts filled with good intention, Yet you would allow yourself piercing words for damage infliction 😊 ! Your nervous energy keeps the house going, You make us run and at times we all take hiding to avoid your beating 😊 ! Your desire for cleanliness, orderliness and predictability is commendable, Your neglect for your own inner n outer health is reprehensible 😊 ! With time, age and experience, you are bogged down by inertia and negativity, Now is the time to break free and embrace positivity 😊 ! Eldest of 8 siblings, responsibility was your compani...

Abey Saale (Euphoria) to Amma, please hodibeda (Mercy Petition) – 120 minutes of madness, a life lesson learnt! Circa – 1988, Gora Colony (Near Kevadia) After spending a brief while at the Kevadia camp site, we had moved to our new abode – an independent home @ Gora Colony. Brexit happened in 1947, but we still had enough remnants of the imperial past. Gora Colony was apparently used to house British officers’ way back and had ever since retained the same name. Guess the country was less nationalist then 😊! Kevadia Camp Site and Gora Colony were connected by a bridge on the River Narmada. It was a sight to see Narmada in full spate during the monsoons. The connectivity with Kevadia would be lost owing to the dangerous water levels along the bridge. We all would walk down from Gora Colony which was at an elevation to the bridge to just catch a glimpse of the gorgeous Narmada. My love and admiration for flowing water started with Narmada. Maybe for the first time I saw a ...

Circa – 1987, Gujarat Spinning Mills Limited Public School (GSLPS), Rajpipla, Gujarat As family: Amma, Appa and I had recently moved to Kevadia, Gujarat from Kudremukh, Karnataka. Appa had chosen to expand his horizons beyond Govt Sector companies that he had served successfully till now. The project in hand to be associated was alluring – Sardar Sarovar Dam and financially rewarding for those times. It was a huge transition for the entire family, the enormity of that only dawns upon me today. But such were those simpler times, you just packed and moved on to the next destination. Life was possibly simpler, or the people kept it simple. Kevadia Colony was no Kudremukh by any stretch of imagination then. We moved in during the summer and the extreme heat of the summer surely had me perspiring like never before 😊 . I had not broken a sweat in Kudremukh and here I was bathed in it profusely 😊 . Obviously, Kevadia Colony was still a camp site and Kudremukh back then ...

Failure is often looked down upon and admonished. We from a young age are asked to pursue success without being guided on how to handle or overcome failures when we face them. We are all told that we must stay away from failure. For failure symbolizes being inferior instilling deep sense of fear in many of us. What we are not told is, Failure is a certainty, just like death is! We will fail more often than we succeed. For the fear of failure or death, would we stop trying or living? Absolutely no way! We fail many a times in our personal and professional lives only to get up the next day to fight it out. Sometimes the battles are within and sometimes they are outside. Yours truly, from a very young age has failed more often than he has tasted success in his personal and professional life. I have tried running away/hiding/confining myself at the sight or thought of failure. No way, this helped in allaying the fear of failure. The realization that would dawn upon me every time...

Last 2 months or so have seen an increase in protests in the Kashmir Valley, specifically Srinagar. It has certainly triggered a few thoughts in me, which i have tried to articulate in this post. Trouble limited to the valley - If the people of J&K are fed up of Indian Administration, then why are the protests limited to the valley? Why are we not witnessing the same levels of unrest in Jammu and Ladhak? I am no where hinting that successive Indian governments and local civilian governments have handled the situations with good measure of certainity. Rather, its been shoddy and inhumane. Agenda of the seperatists (APHC) - Mr. Syed Shah Geelani wants merger with Pakistan and Mr. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq wants independence and ensure that state of J&K remains autonomous - neither india nor pakistan's territory. Am curious to know if Mr. Geelani / Mirwaiz saab, just want independence/self-rule for the kashmir valley or the entire state of J&K from India's rule? If its the ...

The last 2 weeks have been amazing for Spain. First it was the triumph at the Euro-2008, which had the whole country in ruptures. The icing on the cake happened 2 days ago, when Rafael"King of Clay" Nadal conquered Roger "King of Grass" Federer in an amazing final at the greatest tennis tournament of all - The Wimbledon. The single aspect that brings these 2 victories on the same plane is that each was achieved after a gap of 4 decades. I can understand the gap in Tennis, but the gap in the football arena just baffles me till date. Spain had previously won the Euro in 1964 on home turf. They then reached the finals in 1984 where they were done in by the current UEFA head - Michel Platini. Spain always had a talented outfil representing them at the World Cup or Euro, but somehow just could not pull it off. The fact that Spain's La-Liga is technically the best league in the world makes this lack of success all the more baffling. Spain is home to the illustrios Rea...