Day 12

30th April, 2011

Start of the weekend. Though there is no such concept of weekend here, but being from IT industry I always wait for the weekends. I planned to see a lot of movies during this 3 months and read a lot of books too. But the schedule here is really a bit hectic. So I thought of taking this weekend off again. But could not do so.

I tested the network connectivity of the lab which I could not do yesterday. All was in mess! Tried clearing them all and by 3 I was able to complete it.

Then made a document about what had happened in Grampari in past few months. Jayashree Aunty helped a lot in that. We had to circulate it among the friends of MRA google group.

The day ended with a visit to market. It was great loitering around doing nothing there. Panchgani is a cool place :P

-SD

Day 11

29th April, 2011

Yesterday Shashikant cleaned the lab room. So the day almost went in setting up the computers and their network. But could not test it due to power cut. Could not even finalize the stabilizer thing. But the experience was really great of setting up the lab. arranging the tables, connecting the cords , assembling the PCs, all felt like I was doing it for my own office. Never had such an experience.

The evenings recently have been busy with the paddle tennis sessions. Would upload the pics soon.

Shared my life story with rest of the people in the story sharing session. Felt good. :)

-SD

Day 10

28th April, 2011

The day was about Stabilizers - Voltage Stabilizers.

We have a lab of 5 computers. We at grampari are starting up with some computer related courses for rural kids. But the lab was not in a good condition. The flooring was really dusty. So we planned to clean it up. So we shifted the computers back to a hall and asked Sashikanth to clean the room. We have also asked the sewing class students to prepare cloth covers for the computers.

There are large voltage fluctuations in the connection we have at grampari. We called the maharashtra board for checking and clearing it out. They have given an estimate quite larger than Grampari can afford at the moment. So we decided to go for Voltage stabilizers. I learnt through some calculations that we needed 2 KVA stabilizer for 5 computers. Now there are 2 type of stabilizers. Relay based and servo motor based. The research is still on. Would be finalizing them by tomorrow.

Later in the night we had a story telling session cum ice cream party at Jayashree Aunty's place. Along with the ice cream, their stories too were amazing. Thanks for that :)

-SD

Day 9

27th April, 2011

Miracle happened today! I woke up at 6 and went for a jog! People who know me, would definitely term it as a miracle. At 7, I went for quiet time session - Something compulsory for all AP residents and which I had been avoiding for days. In this session you sort of keep quiet for some 30 odd mins and then share what ever thoughts you had during that

quiet time. It seems to help you out for the rest of the day and give directions on how to go ahead. Then we(grampari team) went to Panchputhavadi.

It is a village near Abhepuri in Satara district. We went there to discuss the plan for constructing some water shedding techniques and some water conserving tanks. Jared and Jayashree Aunty discussed on the things to be completed and decided on the time lines. I was really surprised to see that from the 20 men in the meeting, there were just 2 of them with black hair! Rest all were with grey hair. Thats roughly 10 %. Taking that as a sample, we find that there are very less young people from th

e working age in that village. I talked to a couple of people there about there family. His whole family was in Mumbai. It was only his mother and him living there in the village. He too came only because the mill he worked for was shut down. His son works in Mumbai in a shop as a sales man. I also met another person - Mr Ashok. He too worked in a mill in Navsari, Gujarat. It was shut down and hence he came back to village and started farming. Thanks to the Mill owners for shutting them down, we got some farmers back working on the land. But now seems a bigger problem. Monsoons are irregular here. Soil fertility is decreasing gradually. And young

generation of farmers is totally missing from the villages. God forbid, but what if the situation worsens! If soil fertility falls further and no farmers to work - how would we get our food! May be I should buy a farm as soon as I start earning.

While returning, we went to a temple in dhomya village and had our lunch on the bank of river Krishna.

Villages are deprived of their basic needs. How come we expect them to get modernized!

Day 5, 6, 7,8

23, 24, 25, 26 April 2011

After such a wonderful week, I planned to take a long weekend :). But then on Saturday I had a meeting with Sidharth and rest of the team regarding APConnect.in . A wonderful concept for connecting Asia plateau and its people around the world. And on Sunday morning Sid and Rhea were taking a session on the 'Circle of Concern(CoC) and Circle of influence(CoI)'. Circle of concern consists of the point for which we are concerned about but cannot do anything about it. Circle of Influence consists of the points where we are concerned about and we can also do something about it. CoI is a subset of CoC. We should focus our energy on CoI. It would automatically help in expanding the CoI.

After the session, I started for Pune. A wonderful ride on my bullet. The picture above.

After completing my work, I came back on today morning. Today was quiet light day. Discussed things with Grampari team about various aspects. And then a wonderful tennis game, followed with multi faith prayer and a dinner of bhel puri, pani puri, aloo tikki and sheera.

A lot of work to be done in very less time. Tomorrow going to a village with grampari team. Lets see how it goes.

-SD

Day 4

22nd April, 2011

Now this is what I call a day! well, I am still struggling to get up early. But I have reached a decent 7 AM time. Plan to get up at 5 30. well, this is the time people normally get up here. :-O.

Morning was in the grampari, looking at various things around and understanding how they work. In the noon, I went in a session on Integrity and Leadership. It was Conducted by Sidharth and Rhea. A wonderful session which threw light on 'What is Integrity' and how do we maintain it. Integrity is Wholesomeness or completeness of a person, system of an organization, for that matter any entity. A small flaw in the system or component breaks the completeness of the whole system and reduces its productivity. For a person, integrity means the completeness of his words.

If one wants to maintain the integrity of one's word, then one must keep their word. Once a commitment is done, then it should be obeyed. If one is not able to keep his or her word, the integrity is damaged. Then one needs to honor one's word. Honoring means cleaning the mess that has been created by not keeping the word. This would restore the integrity back - probably higher. This rule follows in the word you give to yourself too.

The next session was by Mr Dilip Kulkarni. It was on 'Environmental crisis and our responsibility'. We have 2 kind of environments today. One is Natural environment and the other is Man-made environment. Depletion of the natural env by the man-made env started in 1965 with the invention of steam engine. Before that man definitely used the resources, but in a limited manner. After 1965, man had been consuming the natural resources at a very rapid rate.World today measures the growth in terms of GDP. Growth in GDP shows progress of the country. Every one is in the race of attaining higher production. If we plot a graph, it would always be pointing upwards. Which is totally opposite to Nature. Nature is cyclic. Everything happens in a cycle. This is one of the very fundamental difference between the natural environment and the manmade environment. He then explained some more differences too.

• Nature has a policy of 'give and take' All the living organisms take a few things and give a few things out. Like trees take Carbon dioxide and give away oxygen while mammals give away carbon dioxide and take oxygen. Thus things remain in a balance. While the man-made environment has a policy of 'only take'. We just take everything that the nature has. Dont give anything back which is useful. Everything that we give back is harmful to nature. eg. plastic that we throw. Trees that we cut and a lot more.
• Nature believes in Equal status for all the species. distributes the resources equally among all. While Humans consider themselves as the king of the earth. They believe in homo centrism - They are the center of the earth. Everything happens for and due to them.
• Nature is full of diversity. Diversity can be compared to the bottom of the pyramid on which natural environment sustains. It has a lot of species and various organisms. The consumption patterns of theses organisms make the nature balance itself. On the other hand, humans believe in monocity. We have been responsible killing a lot of species. As a matter of fact, we had 30000 species of paddy in India. Today there are less than 300 remaining. Rest have died.
• Nature has a wonderful property of limiting itself. More important than the phenomena of growth is the phenomena of limiting the growth. The trees grow. But then after a certain height attained, it stops itself. Human body grows. But after an age, the cells know to stop growing. I dont know who instructs them. And those cells which believe in uncontrolled growth are termed as cancerous cells. They are considered harmful cells. Humans believe in unlimited growth. We keep on consuming things and making more and more powerful machines - consuming a lot of energy. It has to stop somewhere.

Our environment is facing some hard problems these days. Some very prominent problems and the basic prolems are listed below.

1. Depletion of resources
2. Pollution
3. Loss of biodiversity

Linear growth that we believe in, is really not possible at all. Even economics believes in the law of marginal utility. Similar is the case with our environment. It has a limit. It has to be cyclic. And if we disturb the cycle, then nature would definitely take some hard steps. The fundamental policy in the definition of growth is wrong. GDP being a measure of growth is totally wrong. For example take a road accident. When a road accident happens, a lot of income is generated in the economy. The doctors, the hospitals would get revenue. the pharmacists would make money for medicines that are consumed. The mechanic would gete to earn for car repairs. The sparepart manufacturers would earn. Thus creating more wealth in the economy. But then is it good to have more accidents?

Here are some solutions that can be thought of for solving these problems.

1. Change in the development policy. As discussed, we need to change the measures of growth.
2. Change in the lifestyle. This is something we can do at an individual level.

Follow 4 Rs:

• Refuse - refuse the things that you do not want. Concentrate on your needs than your wants. Consume less.
• Reduce - If you can not refuse it, reduce the consumption.
• Reuse - Reuse the things that are reusable. use them till their lifetime. Every resource is important.
• Recycle - though recycle is not completely environmental friendly, but still it is helpful. Recycle the waste created.

The above Rs would help in reducing the ecological foot print and thus help us in conserving the environment.

-SD

Day 3

21st April, 2011

I met 2 more wonderful people today. Well, I was already acquainted with them yesterday, but I really MET them today. I am talking about Mr Saikat Nag and Mr Dange. These are the people who run the Grampari at the ground level. Grampari has various livelihood programs like sewing, knitting, english speaking and computers. They Mr Nag and Mr Dange handle it mostly. I discussed with Mr Nag about my internship and what I plan to do. He is an MBA and a professor of marketing. Mr Dange is a Master of Social Welfare and is serving at grampari since 1 year.

Mr Nag, being a professor himself, helped me out in understanding my work here and how should I proceed for it. How should I define my generic objectives and the specific objectives. He also helped me in understanding the scope of my work. I would share it soon.

I also met some kids coming from various villages to learn computers. And let me tell you, 3 of them - Shweta from 8th std, Ritesh from 2nd and Pryadna from 4th - they all spoke real good english! I was astonished, surprised yet happy to learn that.

In the evening I attended some sessions on leadership. It was a part of corporate leadership program going on here. I met a lot of people from Kirloskar and Siemens group. They shared their stories in the informal meetings. It was really nice to hear them.

-SD

Day 2

20th April, 2011

There was a workshop in grampari for farmers in and around panchghani. The work shop was on Zero Budget Natural farming. The workshop was taken by Mr Subhas Palekar. He is a farmer by profession and is involved in spreading awareness of Natural farming and disadvantages of chemical and organic farming. The subject covered was very new for me. I do not know a word in farming. But I could easily understand the economics behind the agriculture that was going. He is a believer of Gandhian philosophy and says that Green Revolution is a pseudo revolution. Instead, it is a tool for exploiting the rural economy. He also explained how the MNCs are trying to destroy the rural economy through selling the concept of chemical farming. Chemical farming is a very dangerous technique. He said that it is also partly responsible for the increase in the number of AIDS cases and Cancers patients. The chemicals used in it are responsible for decreasing the immunity. There are also some carcinogens present in the chemical fertilizers. I never knew that there is a train called 'Cancer Train' running between Bhatinda and Bikaner.

Then Mr Palekar moved to Natural farming. Natural farming is the technique in which the help of nature is taken in growing the crops. How does the jungle grow! does the tree in the jungle need any artificial fertilizers of waters to grow? no! It grows on its own. Taking this thought further, he explained how natural waste can be turned into good fertilizers and can be utillized to the best. Zero-Budget says that the farmer should grow everything ranging from seed to the crop. In this way, he would not have to borrow for buying the seeds and the fertilizers and would save a lot of money. Further explanation can be found here on his website.

During the workshop, I interacted with a lot of farmers, had lunch with them and talked about their villages and their life. I was surprised to see many farmers speaking in fluent english! There was a farmer Mr Ashok Vandre from Abhepuri village of Satara district. He explained me how he and his 2 brothers are handling the farms in the village and their business in Mumbai. He also asked me to visit his village and see how they are developing it and wanted me to report it on a website for them. In the next week I am planning to visit Abhepuri.

All in all, a wonderful day again and a lot of learning about agriculture economy!

- SD

Day 1

I thought of keeping a track of the days spent here. So that it helps me out in the final version of my report. And in addition to that, it would help me in examining and understanding the time spent here. Though it is the 4th day, here it starts with the first day. Best of luck Saurabh :)

Day 1:

After a wonderful journey on my bullet, enjoying the meadows n the mountains, I reached yesterday on 18th around 6 pm to Panchghani. I got my room and got to know my room partner - Tamim - from Kabul. The next day, I met a lot of people. I met Dr Jayashree Rao who would be my mentor during this program. I met Mr Shah, who is professionally an architect and provides his services to MRA voluntarily. I also met Mr Jared and Mrs Sowmya.

I was introduced to what Grampari did by Jared. The morning was spent in that. Then I was introduced to some of the other interns here. I spent the evening with them having ice-cream in Panchghani. For dinner, Jared invited me to accompany him to a social visit to a village called Ambeghar. We had Mr and Mrs Poonawala from Pune and Samual from Canada accompanying us. The Road to ambeghar was amazing. I had wonderful time chatting with Jared, Sam and Poonawalas. Jared and Sam knew a lot of things about India. Now see the irony- I was sitting with 2 foreigners - one canadian and other american - who knew more than me about my country!

We were visiting Mr Prahlad Yadav, a farmer and a friend of Jared. I was amazed to hear Mr Yadav conversing in English with us. We received a warm welcome from Mr Yadav's family. It was a typical maharashtrian village and a typical village home surrounded with his farms. I learnt a few things about farming and water conservation. Jared is working in this areas since last 15 years and is a graduate of geology. Quality of the soil can be observed through the patterns of it. Soil with larger lumps has more microorganisms and hence is more fruitful. I also learnt a way to increase the underground water level (sand filling method). Then we had a wonderful dinner and returned.

What a day! a lot of new people and a lot of new experiences.

- SD

Grampari

We have a summer internship program in the course. I chose of not opting the normal corporate internship and came to grampari. It is in Panchghani. Grampari is an NGO working for development of rural population. This is my third day in here and I must say it is a wonderful place to be. I have always lived in a city and rarely got a chance to live in a village. And this is that long awaited chance.

The mornings are very similar to what we read in the stories during GOD (Good Old Days). The music of birds and the subtle sun rays waking you up for the wonderful day ahead. The nights are dark and quiet with only the stars twinkling in the sky and moon showering its milky rays on the earth. The sound of silence and the music of wind trying to sing a lullaby for you - that is how it seems. The sleep too is a satisfying one here. No honking of vehicles, no buzzing of machines and no noise of the electric machines. And hence it feels so fresh in the morning as if I slept for 20 hours.

I am really looking forward to a lot of things here. Hope it goes good.

Thanks,

SD

Vaishali

We reached there around 3:30 pm in the college bus as a part of our SSR activities in SCIT. I knew that they were 'positive'. Somewhere deep in my heart, I feared. What if I get infected. No doubt, I have seen those ads on the TV. But some how my rational mind stopped logical thinking and started doubting thoses commercials. What if they were wrong? what if I get a cut somewhere and my blood comes in contact with that virus? I need too be careful! Coz this is uncurable. Once you are positive, your life is ruined! With such thoughts running in my mind, we entered Manavya. Kids of age ranging from 4 to 17 started looking at us with lot of questions. Their care-taker (A medical practitioner and a full time care taker of manavya) called them into their classroom. After a long time, I saw the photograph of chacha Nehru on the wall of a class room or for that matter anywhere. The walls were covered with a lot of hand made posters on their subjects. On right, was a poster stating some chemical elements and their signs. Besides that poster was a painting of a tree with some names of students on the leaves. On top left corner of other wall was a beautiful poster with names and capital of the union territories. Small blue colored benches aligned in two columns placed in the room slowly started filling as I entered it. I went and sat on the second bench still having those thoughts in my mind. Suddenly Vikas - a 4-5 year old kid in his white shirt comes and tapping on my shoulder gestures me to get up. I stood up. He pulled me out of the bench, went inside, pulled me back to the seat and started talking to me. I still wasn't able to believe that I was surrounded by a bunch of 'positive' kids. Vikas easily pulled me into conversation with him and within a few moments I succmbed to his lovely smile and those kiddish mischiefs. He called his friends - sangram, Jitu and a few more and they all started talking about lot many things. Suddenly a heavy thought came to my mind, which normally I would not think. I said to my self - Jo hona ho vo ho.. I would not be prejudiced to these kids. If people like you ( here me) start aloofing them from rest of us then what would the rest of world do to them!

The rest of the time we spent with those kids I totally forgot that they were 'positive'. We really had a wonderful time. Enjoying the songs and dances those kids performed, visited there dorms, talked to the care takers, saw the greeting cards made by them and a lot more. While those singing and dancing sessions were going on, one small girl -Vaishalli- came to me and asked to have a photograph of hers in one of those cams. I helped her out in taking the picture. But I didnt knew that this small act of mine would make a large impact on her heart. I asked her to dance. She was shy. So I took her to the so-called podium and started dancing and singing with her. She was so happy and in few moments she forgot about her shyness and was dancing ful-fledged with me. After that session she held my hand and pulled me to one of the cupboards near the wall to show some of the cards she had made. Of course the work she and her friends had done was beyond words but on top of that was the excitement she had in showing me the artifacts. She searched through the bunch of cards and took out those ones which she had made. With a sparkle in her eyes she would start explaining me something in marathi, which I never understood literally, but nodded as if I was understanding. And deep inside, I was actually understanding what she was trying to say. now thats a mistry how I did that! Suddenly she got one of her favorite cards and gave it to me saying - dada, ye aap k liye. Aap le jao. It was not the card which embazzled me, but it was her attitude which awestruk me. That 10 year old kid who had not done anything worng to the world, was being punished by the fate of being HIV positive; struggling each and every second with the bacteria and the virus and other infections - which one might turn fatel; does not know who her parents were and what her Date of birth was and life had taken away so much from her - was offering me a gift! I still feel the goosebumps by this thought itself. She, insipite of her battle with her 'positive'-ness, and from whom society has taken away everything, was giving a gift - a priceless and beutiful gift as she had amazingly made with her hands using some waste- to some one whom she had known not more than an hour! I don't know what lesson I should draw from this. Was she an example of God? Is she a saint or something? or she is just that fearless kid for whom relations are more important than anything else in this world? She was holding my hand and with that happiness and excitement she was pulling me around the whole campus to show the smallest details where she had done some or the other thing. I don't really understand how I suddenly meant so much to her. Dude! what else is love?

During those conversations, I asked her about her date of birth and her parents. She didn't knew any of them. It was when I asked the care taker I came to know that these kids originally belonged to the red light area in Pune and it was the child welfare comunity (CWC) which brought them here. The organization - Manavya- was founded by Vijayatai Lawate in 1991 after she came to know about these kids being thrown away by their parents. The stories of how she had brought this institute to this level, are again too awful. Around one hour later, we started gathering in the bus and Kranti was headcounting in the bus. All of a sudden there were calls for me. Some one screamed from out of the bus, "Saurabh, some kid is calling you out there." I rushed out of the bus to see what happened and who was calling. In that corner of the building it was Vaishalli standing there. I went to her and asked what was it. She held my hand, pushed me nearer and said, 'dada, mera budday 20 april ko hai. Aap aana. Aao ge na?'

I said yes, I hugged her. She hugged me back and said bye.

I don't know what all happened there and I was actually in a confused state all the time. My head and heart were fighting with each other but my actions said that my heart is powerful. I don't want to say about how we - the people, or the so called society - should behave and should not behave. But I just want to ask one thing. If those kids can give out the most precious thing - love - to the society which has betrayed them, then why can't we give the same to them.

Is it that hard?

Thanks,

SD

Photo courtesy : Indranil Das

Some More pics on my FB account

Convenience and corruption

Legalize corruption! :D Sounds funny...

Is there a solution for corruption? Can it be curbed completely? These are the questions rhetorically vivering in the discussions on social gatherings of middle class. Every other person has one or the other example of how he or she came out of a situation through corruption. Getting a reservation in a train to Mumbai in a jampacked train is not a big deal today given that your pocket is heavier than TTEs demand. Black money from the tax heavens has been in the news for quite a while now. Recently TOI gave an amazing article showing how the whole system works. Person A from India gives cash in INR to Person B. Person B give a havala to Person C in other country. Person C supplies cash to Person D in that country. And this system had been running quite smoothly. According to that article, in Delhi itself the volume of transactions is around 300 billions! That is approximately 7 % of the total GDP of our country. And more than the total volumes of most of the banks. And note that it is just Delhi. What if rest of India is added. Look at the efficiency of the system - Money transferred in 24 hours! Moreover that money is not been accounted anywhere in the economy. Rather it is disguised in some form, which form - is still a question mark. Why do people like you and me go to such a local foreign exchanger? Why do a common man go to a unauthorized RTO agent for getting the licence? The answer is convinience. If I had the time to stand in the queue at the RTO office for 4 hours, I would have not gone to that agent. If tickets are available easily, I would not go to that local chaiwala to ask for an agent. A common man enters this vicious cycle of corruption just for 1 reason - convinience. What if this convinience is made available to the common man legally? Then Indian Railways turn into profit!

Well that was an example. Lalu prasad made tatkal chargeable by 150 Rs and kept certain conditions of non-cancellation and end-to-end fare and that turns railways to profit. of course there were other factors too but this factor not only helped the profits but also helped in reduction of the un-authorized ticket sellers. Similar thing happened with the passports. Tatkaal passports are been offered legally at a premium price in 1/3rd of the time. Similar thing can happen with the local foreign exchangers too. Legalize them. This would be ek teer se do nishaan. It would help in reducing the corruption and secondly it would reduce the black money transactions on the other hand. Convinience leeds to corruption. So let us provide the convenience to customers legally. This would of course not completely curb the corruption but it would definitely help in reducing it. What do you say?

What is Classical?

Our economics professor in my college (www.SCIT.edu) is just awesome! Azahar Khan is his name. Fundamentals - pretty clear. Wanna Argue with him? get data on your finger tips and then come. He has got census 2001 on his finger tips. Believes in islam and is proud of that. Some key points of learning from his lectures.

Underdeveloped are those nations where people worship icons. Make your own identity and place in there.

Buying should be objective.

Loan should not be taken unless you have 70% of the loan amount in hand(liquid or non liquid)

Last but not the least - Definition of 'classical' - Beyond which, nothing exists.

More to come today!

Jay Bharat,

SD

Inflation and relation

I had been thinking of writing about this since long. But I always got an excuse to of not writing it. But today I have promised myself to post it. So I need to atleast keep the promise to myself.

Almost 2 months ago I visited Mumbai. Papa works there in Mumbai. So I keep on visiting quite often, but this happened to be a special trip. Dad and me gel well together. We are more like buddies! But then there always this generation gap. We try hard to accept each other's views and mostly suceed too. But some times I need to succumb to his points. On a lighter side, he calls it his veto power in the family. But I am happy to have a father like him. And deep inside it feels glad to have some one to use his veto power because he is the one who knows the world better and he would not harm his family under what ever circumstances.

Coming back to the trip almost two months ago. It was a bright sunday and we were free to do nothing. There was a mall nearby in Goregaon, Mumbai. Its called Oberoi mall. I hadn't seen it then. So we planned to go there and have lunch in the food court. We took our bullet and reached the mall. It was enormous and huge from inside. We reached the food court on the top floor and saw the series of shops offerring from dosas to pastas and cholapuri to pani puri. Not to forget the kailaas parbat and the naturals for the desserts. It seemed similar to the typical 'khau-gully' (eat-street) of a town but a sophosticated khau-gully with sophosticated menu cards and pretending-to-be-hygenic staff with overpriced food. We ordered nothing but the ice-creams from naturals. Well, though we went for lunch but didn't feel to order anything. We took our cups of ice creams and sat on a table nearby. We had a full length look of the food court. And the ice cream was awesome. On the table, while having the small morsol of his ice-cream, pa said 'I some how do not feel comfortable in such malls, I don't know why. I feel a bit awkward here.' That triggered a once-in-a-decade conversation between us. I believed, I knew the reason of him being not comfortable.

Papa lived in Gonda before coming to Ahmedabad. He was born in the town of Devalia in Saurashtra Region of Gujarat. And then his dad took him there to Gonda, in UP. He had done his schooling from there and his graduation from Lucknow. My grand father had a very brutal accident when my father was just in his teens. That accident lead to the bed-rest for 9-10 months and that bed-rest devastated the economical condition of the family. My grand mother had enormous courage and she did not keep any stone unturned to meet the two ends. The family had a very tough time. Then my father came here and started working. My chacha too came here and gradually whole family came to Ahmedabad and things got better. So I thought that might be the reson. I, believing that I knew the reason, explained it to him . And I turned to be totally worng. He said that he is not comfortable because he sees a lot of wastage of resources happening there. Electricity, food and space are being wasted. In India, for that matter there is a derth of resources and these people are wasting it here. Six panipuris costing 20 rupees! What do I pay for - the original cost of panipuri plus the cost of AC + lightings + decorations + rent of the mall + the label of being hygenic! Why should we pay for it! And that too when it is available at quite a cheaper rate in near vicinity.

Probably, after understanding the backgound of my dad, you too might think in the similar lines of my thoughts. But then giving a second thought and understanding what my economics' professor teaches, this sounds very true. A person like me, would have easily given out that money for the panipuri or that cholepuri. I would have not thought about the availablilty in the near vicinity at a very cheaper rate. Its not that he cannot afford, but he has seen the value of money going down. In good old days, salaries were in hundreds and cars were in thousands. Milk was available in single digit per litre and ghee in less than 20 Rs per KG. And I have not.

The point here is that the buying should be objective. Buy only if required. Pay premium only for the utiility - may be place utility or time utility. Higher price doesnot mean higher quality. And quality is just a perception of mind. - Gandhijee said it - There are enough resources here to satusfy man's need, but not his greed. My dad explained the same thing and my economics prof preached the same thing. He went a step forward. He says, a country with large chunk of population below poverty line and still Common wealth games is being hosted, where cricket is a religion and buying is non objective, cannot become a developed nation easily.

Well, I understood what they said. Did you?

Chay garam...

Sweet Memories

he he

sweet memories

Sweet memories :)

3 traits theory

My first theory

Exams are going on. Final exams for the first semester. And all of us here are working hard(well almost near to hard) to increase our CGPA. 6 papers happened till now. And I am not satisfied with even one paper. Marketing, Organizational Behaviour, Principles of management, Financial accounting or what ever you take, I have done them horrible. Though I wont fail- thanks to CGPA system - but I am not satisfied with my performace. During the course of studies, I learnt many theories - maslow, herzberg, theory X, Y, theory of firm, Ansoff, BCG and a hell lot. I then thought of creating my own theory.

Its been almost four years that I have received any success. Yes this is a long time. The last success I received was when I cleared Satyam and TCS. way back in 2006. And then have been facing a series of failures. The SF ratio (Success to failure ratio, thanks to finance) is too low. Way low than the industry standards. 2 in 8 years is 0.25 per year. Time for a revolution now. I thought a lot. What is going wrong? AM I dumd? Am I a retard? well, no. am none of it. Do I lack in confidence? No. Or else I would have done this study quite ahead in time. In fact I suffer from COC symdrome (Continuously Over Confident). So whats happening dude! Something is worng. And I don't know what.

I lack in certain traits. And probably every person who is a failure or on path to failure surely lacks in these traits, if not all then atleast 60% of it.

Thses traits are:

1.Timeliness

2.Sense of urgency

3.Consistency

Timeliness: Not to be on time, or taking it positively, following IST is in our bloods. So please do not expect any Indian to arrive right at the stroke of the hour. Its the degree of time lapse that matters. How much late you are - is the correct question. I am trying hard to over come this problem. plus-minus(rather only plus) 5 minutes is my target. Time is definitely not money. Other wise I would have been the poorest human. But still time is important. So that doesn't mean you keep on buying watches around! Well, I would phrase it the other way.

There are 2 aspects of timeliness. one - being at right place at the right time and other being investing the time in a fruitful manner. I know it all boils down to 'Time is Money', but it feels good to deny some theory and discover a new one though it finally is all the same. Let us see the first point - Being at a place at the right time. Now 'right' time is defined by how late or early can you afford to be. This varies widely with the place you are going to go. You just cannot expect me to be right on time for a party. Right at 6 pm on the dance floor - sounds weired. But if I would have been the host, I would be there at 6:30 atleast - though alone waiting for my friends. Now if it was an interview with the dream company, I would be 30 minutes before the schedule. Now where does this timliness habbit come into me when it was the interview! It's the level of importance we give to the person or place. So if 'being on time' is proportional to 'importance' stands true then it implies that keeping your girl wait lessens her importance to you. The more you make her wait, the less important she is. (Girls, it is the same for you too. ) Now step yourself into the waiting position and your dear one is making you wait - implying that you are less important to her. Hurts? So be on time. Be it a movie, interview, friends, date, parents, relatives, boss, conference, lecture, train, flight or your words - make it a habbit of being on time. It really helps. This actually is very important to me. And I write this to read it iteratively to have a 'Be On Time' habbit.

The Other point is investing the time in fruitful manner. This fruitfulness is subjective in nature. Its meaning may vary from person to person. For some, it may be money, for others it may be knowledge and for some others it may be family. We ourselves need to think what is important to me. Is the activity I am doing in anyway relate to my set target? Is it a step forward in achieving that goal? Or Is it making some one happy, Is it making some money? Such questions may help you in understanding if the time you are investing is going to be fruitful. Take care of the time and time would take your care.

Sense of urgency: Laziness is a desease. And I am a victim of it. I have a habbit of keeping things under the carpet unless it becomes too critical or my father scolds me to do that. waiting for some one else to do it for you would not help. It is your task and you have to do it. No way out! So better do it fast so that one item lessens from the to do list and you can think of other things. Have a sense of urgency in doing things. The world is full of competetitors. If you dont complete the job at hand, some one else would do it and take the next opportunity. So you need to have a sense of urgency in grabbiing the opportunities and completinng the tasks. This is very much required in the times where the world is getting flatter and individuals are competing from across the globe. Complete the job at hand at the earliest, you will feel the satisfaction.

Consistency: Any habbit or rules are of no use if not practiced consistently. Going to gym on one day and working out for 5 hours does not help. Walking 20 mins for weeks along would help in reducing the weight. Being on time only for the interview does not help. Every one would be on time for an interview. But being on time at a social gathering every time, values you. Understand the importance of consistency.

These three things are very important for you. Try to get them in place and that would definitely help you in achieving results. But how do you mesure the results? Have you defined your success parameters? You say that you have been successful very few times in last 8 years. How did you measure that? Clearing satyam or TCS is a success parameter for you. for some other, it may not be a parameter. For him, planting 2 trees may be one of the parameters. These parameters change. You need to understand you own priorities and decide you own parameters. For defining them, you need to understand your own goals, your mission and your values. Our life is similar to an organization. An organization would not be successful if it does not have a clear vision, mission and values. same is the case for an individual. So understand your priorities, define your goals, set the targets and go for it with the 3 traits discussed above.

Home Sweet Home

This is the Sunset as seen from my room. I miss this a lot.

Night View fromo my window.

Mom n Gags making food for me. Cooking Mathiya(A gujrati Dish)

And me Hopping from one place to other :)


This is my home and people I love the most on earth. Dad isnt home yet. Would post later with his pics.

Till then, Adios.

Saurabh