To each his Own!

We listen, view or experience something new
There’s an emotion that we all go through

While the emotion is extremely personal
Our mind plays tricks to share what’s internal

We may like / dislike and are fully entitled for that feeling
May recommend accordingly to our friends or go about squealing

Our recommendation may stand a chance
Of influencing their take or stance

But to force our thoughts and emotions
In not so moderate proportions

Arm-twisting our expression into acceptance
Is death of independence and more like a sentence

Subtle or full-blown, “To each his own”
Before picking the stone, let’s just mind our tone

Stop This Madness

दिलों में दरार

नफरत कि दीवार

मन में क्लेश; बढ़ता हुआ द्वेश

बटवारे कि उपज – एक से बने दो देश

ईंट का जवाब पत्थर

हालात हुए बद से बत्तर

डर और आतंक से माहौल बेहाल

चैन और सुकून का खौफनाक इंतकाल

मोम के मोर्चे और आपसी चर्चे

घिनौनि जातिय राजनीति के पर्छे

सुरक्षा एवं सेना के बजट में इज़ाफा

बम बन्दूक और मौत के सौदागरों का मुनाफ़ा

हर मुश्किल होता है हल

उपाय है सीधा और सरल

भुला दें अगर बीता हुआ कल

मुस्कुराएंगे हमारी नस्लें और आनेवाला कल

Let's put our heads together for "A Better Tomorrow"

Do you guys remember the boards we frequently saw during our commute in Mumbai that read, “Work in Progress - Inconvenience Regretted. Bear with us for a Better Tomorrow”.

The time taken to reach from Point A to Point B in 2004 was X hrs.

The time taken to travel the same distance in 2006 was X + 50% hrs. 

After all, we were “bearing” with the authorities for a better tomorrow.

In 2009 it was 2X hrs. Considering the number of cars that got added to the roads in those years.

After a whopping 10 – 12 years, all the projects were completed and now it finally takes the same bloody X hrs it originally took in 2004. We live in an illusion that we saved half the time.

In reality, we are still struggling to find the “Better Tomorrow” after all the bearing? Add to that the fact that we have an expanded city where people criss-cross from “Western” to “Central” and to “Harbour” to “South Mumbai (SoBo)”.

It’s just amazing how it all still functions. 

What gives me the jitters is the time it will take to travel the same distance 5 years from now.

With the newly added infrastructure, the people who use public transport like Trains and Metro, save a little time but comfort is grossly elusive and they still secretly possess the desire to buy their own vehicle some day and eventually spill out on the already clogged arteries of the city.

What are the basics that each one of us is striving for in today’s modern gadget driven society?

Time, Health, Environment and a Robust Economy.

Unfortunately, neither of them can be bought off the shelves in a supermarket nor can it be ordered online. But it's possible and in a fairly quick turnaround. (Refer "The Idea" below).

The above comes with a change in one’s and society’s lifestyle. In an attempt to achieve this, we've seen many cities toy with ideas like:

1)      Dedicated lane for Public Transport (BRTS).

2)      Heavy penalizing for people using private cars (Singapore).

3)      Speed lanes for car-pool vehicles (North America)

4)      Work From Home concepts etc. (North America and Europe)

Each of the above has its merits and demerits.

We've also learnt that there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

With today’s thrust on technology and with clogged cities, hurting fuel costs and tolls (adding salt to injury), is it time we look at an alternate model?

Obviously this is an idea and needs thorough study and analysis. But it does look promising to me and should be evaluated by the specialists.

With the evolving technology, it’s NOT impossible to create the below model. We just need a little thought and a lot of commitment from the Corporates and Authorities. That’s too much to ask for, but let’s get the ball rolling.

The Idea:

Create work hubs every 5 kms with standard set of amenities and facilities . They can be offered in different tiers based on the businesses that would be using it. It’d be ideal if it were simply STANDARD, but I’m sure there are enough snobs who would ask for specials.

If I live in Zone 1 of a city, I should be able to go in to any of the closest hubs within 5 kms, log in to my office system with all the necessary technological security, work and get out.

Let’s give this a little more clarity. Today, we have these corporate parks and malls in different shapes and sizes. Quite a few of them are unoccupied and are turning into ghost towns anyway. Instead, why not create a standard Corporate Park with a certain number of ecologically viable and permissible floors with some basic features made available. Security at the Gates. A common Food Court, Parking for visiting Dignitaries (if applicable). I-Cards with Turnstile gates to ensure there is no intrusion. Connectivity with world-class speed. Ports for people to plug in their own devices (laptops / tablets). Special rooms that can be hired by anyone for specific meetings (depending on number of participants).

A gym for the users who would want to use them.

By doing all of the above,

1)      We don’t clog the roads

2)      We save a lot of fuel and we may as well walk or bicycle to work

3)      We save a lot of time and heartburn

4)      Stress on the infrastructure is reduced dramatically

5)      Environment is spared with all the reduced carbon footprint

A Zone 2, 3 and 4 user can log into their respective zonal hubs (within the 5 kms radius).

With video calling, and a host of other facilities, it’s possible to have face to face meetings as well.

Any job profile that necessitates to physically travel should be allowed and they could do it easily without the crowd. 

We can then probably dream of having a lane dedicated for emergency vehicles.

Today, that’s a fairly neglected area of concern. Not to forget the pedestrians' right to walk.

The Project authorities need not worry about lost means of income. If one is a visionary, it is easy to see that all the families who NOW have time and a little bit of extra income at their disposal would want to SPEND on family time. The income will still exist (in fact swell) but just from different sources.

Let’s put our heads together to make this dream come true. It doesn't have to be this model. If this model sparks another path-breaking idea, I'd be happier.

It’s my desperate plea on behalf of our future generations to please look beyond and help each other “Live” instead of merely “co-exist.”

Don't Fall in Line

Don't Fall in Line

Worship the Gods

Who fought the odds

Glorify the tales

That left a trail

Narrate and venerate characters primary or secondary

If their actions and deeds are extra-ordinary

Be it a Noble King, a shepherd or a mercenary

Through passage of time, they remain legendary

Respect and admire who went against the flow

Results mattered, time irrelevant fast or slow

Courage, Conviction and Confidence in tow

Revere those who braved the snow

Celebrate who laid the foundation and the building blocks

Owe our TODAY to those who “thought” and “did” out of the box

Yet we struggle to simply conform

And lead a life that’s lukewarm

Intolerant to change

Behaviour indeed strange

Society and judiciary dictate rules

Obedience and compliance are taught in schools

Labelled a rebel or an outcast

Ignoring all lessons from the past

A matter of choice to rave, rant or whine

No matter what, just Don’t fall in line

A "Question" of "Direction"

We seem to be seeking something all the time. The answers are all around us in plain sight. Are we asking the right questions? That’s the real question. Isn't it?

What’s the first thing we say when someone asks us to introduce ourselves? We start with “My name is blah blah. I’m this and I’m that” etc.

I looked at this in a slightly different dimension and noticed something eerily intriguing.

We believe that “I” in I’m stands for identity and/or individuality.

Identity and Individuality usually comes with excess baggage of Ego and Emotions.

If we drop the baggage, we realize it’s just an imagination.

With a little introspection, it’s clear that "I'm" is a mere projection of our

1)      Imagination of how we like others to see us &

2)      Memories of past actions and achievements.

Now, have we ever been introduced to the real us? How would we introduce us to ourselves?

In all probability it would be in the “third” person.

That’s when we realize maybe, just maybe, we are different from our Mind and Body. They are nothing but our carrier in this journey. We mistook it to be us and are in a continuous conflict to control these to achieve the superficial goal of “presenting” ourselves to the world instead of just being.

I’ll leave you with an interesting snippet and thought I learnt from one of the eminent “Gurus”.

A noble man was travelling and looking for a certain address. He stops by a simpleton who seemed to be a local and asked, “Sir, how far is this place from here?” To which, the simpleton replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “Roughly about 40,070 kms”. (The circumference of earth is about 40,075 kms).

Notwithstanding the astonishment and shock on the noble man’s face, the simpleton continued, “But if you turn around Sir, it’s just 5 kms”.

Are WE looking in the right direction?

Information Pollution

I have one, you have one, our neighbours have one and our relatives have one too.

What is it? Nah, it’s not an “Opinion”. It’s a NAME.

We all have the freedom to______, nah not express, but to remain silent and THINK.

Mass technology combined with the above two misunderstandings have created chaos around us.

Chaos by the way is pronounced as “kay aus” and not “chaa os”. #Justsaying coz that seems to be the “TREND”.

“I shall speak because I have a mouth” is amplified by the number of social media apps one has access to. “I shall think because I have a brain” can neither be amplified nor be shown-off easily.

Welcome to the age where we need a “Dummy’s Guide book” for forwarding crap on these media.

I still receive “Urgent” Blood requests that are 10 years old.

We have a barrage of research results that differ by the dozen. The one you receive in the morning says don’t eat fruits on an empty stomach and don’t drink water in a certain way; One that warns us of the ills of walking after dinner. Then you receive another message in the evening that is exactly the opposite. Well, I’ve wasted my precious minutes going through these; I’m now morally obliged to follow one of them. It’s OUR choice as they say. The real question is which one to believe?

The one who wrote OR forwarded it to us did their job. They informed us. Mind you, the article you read in a magazine was researched on the internet that was written by some lazy ass after reading a few assorted international newspapers, which in turn was also researched by their local websites. It’s a vicious cycle.

There were qualified journalists and TV reporters and there were qualified critics.

We were taught that we had a pre-historic era; A time when our ancestors did not document events. They just lived, did their thing and perished. Some genius decided to change that, least realizing it would some day snowball into an overwhelming amount of information, that mankind cannot digest.

I guess we don’t realize the dangers of this evil. My wife coined this term and ever since she mentioned the term, it’s been haunting me. 

More than the Global Warming or Cleaning of Ganges, we MUST be worried about 

“Information Pollution”.

Today, the source of any information is dubious and unreliable.

Do we really believe what we read or consume?

It’s random data that is being force-fed to us in the guise of information.

The blind forwarding of fake death messages or someone’s illness just makes me throw up.

Some weird warnings of the Ebola virus having entered a certain city and claiming it’s first victim etc. Our friends believe this and forward it to us assuming it’s better to be safe than sorry – not realizing the damage their act is doing. And our kids are growing up in “THIS” environment.

There’s enough pollution around. Let information not be one of them. After all, Information is KNOWLEDGE. Any risk to knowledge can be catastrophic.

Can sanity be restored? Can Information Pollution be reversed?

The answer is certainly a “YES”.

Yet again, this is something you and me have to do something about.

There’s a simple solution. “Trust BUT VERIFY”.

Myth of "The Common Man"

Disclaimer: This article may push you to believe you're uncommon. Please don't try anything stupid after reading this. I'm not responsible for your actions.

“Common Man”, like Superman and Batman is a figment of someone’s imagination.

We are all statistics like the neon green digits pouring down against a dark background (pun intended) in The Matrix trilogy.
You and I will fall in at least three of the categories if not more. Interestingly no one is spared from this. Not even the dead or the new-borns. As a matter of fact, even the ones in the womb are not spared. Everyone’s a part of some god-forsaken list.

Earlier in the days, the right way of addressing a crowd would be “Ladies and Gentlemen” or at least that’s what they made us believe in.
The mysticism of the “Common Man” would still be alive in that environment.
Today we’re mostly addressed as “Tweeps or trolls” and that’s supposed to be cool. If you believe otherwise, you don’t belong. Don’t worry that you got bumped off the “cool” list. You automatically fall into some other group. You’re still NOT common. While you’re not alone, you’re not as BIG or common as you would want to imagine.

One social activist who really believed in the phenomenon of “Fast” has demonstrated it to us in the recent past. He created a political party believing the legend/myth and has further created groups of believers and non-believers. He vanished as “fast” as he came into the limelight.
We misunderstood what “Fast” really meant, didn’t we?

Wonder why we crib about our age-old caste system? Or wait a minute; we still love it, just feel the need to rename it and make it more in-sync with TIME. And we like to believe and blame the Brits for bringing in the “Divide and Rule” policy. How ignorant can we get?

Sample this.
You’re a follower, a fan or a troll. You are either too gullible to be impressed by anything and everything OR you’re an unreasonable critic who is bordering on cynicism.
You’re either on the social media OR you’re missing the big picture.
You’re a soldier, jihadi, a victim or a hapless bystander waiting your turn.
You’re either conducting the sting operation or being a “Bakra” yourself.
You either “like”, “comment” or “Share”.
You’re either a native or an immigrant (further divided into legal and illegal).
You’re either a nation that demands answers or you’re the one who’s being questioned.

If you still believe, you don’t fall into any of the above categories, clearly – you’re NOT common.

So, it’s time for one of the Studios to take this opportunity to cash in on.
Once we have all our Black Money back, who do we spend it on?
C’mon we still have the 500 crore club to be created.

Disclaimer: The above article is written with the intent of humour and to showcase the irony of life; definitely not with the intent to offend any group, major or minor.

PS: Afterthought – Maybe such disclaimers are the only ones that are really common these days.