Javed Akhtar

I was searching for a particular lyrics, without remembering the album. Good world, we've search engines.

Javed Akhtar is an amazing gifted poet of our times with some powerful yet amazing vocabulary. Here is what I remembered and searched...

Mohabbat palkon pe kitne haseen Khwab sajate hai...
Phoolon se mahekte khwab,
Sitaron se mahekte khwab,
Shabnam se baraste khwab,
phir kabhie yun bhi hota hai,
ki palko ki daliyon se
Khwabo ke saare parinde uudh jaate hai...

Here is a nice review of the same.

Phase 2.0

I'm a software engineer, who dwells in the Internet. I find myself to be in the "Phase 2.0" of my life, like Web 2.0 ;)

This thought ever since, percolates deep with a question by my friend, " how is life now ? ". I replied " its new and its good ".

To classify, I can think of three words - Impact, Planning and Ownership, which defines this stage.

Impact
My actions now has a direct impact on not only me, but beyond me. It gives a _new_ sense of responsibility. Its _good_ as its about time :), kidding, its _good_ because its time to get much more organized and to see things farther enough and not be short-sighted.

Planning
A good plan is to think through the impact ( of my actions ), take calculated risks ( if need be ) and to plan well. Impact shouldn't surprise me and neither I've the option to say 'oops'. This is _new_ and its _good_ as its equally the next phase of my planning skills. Plan well, to execute and exceed well.

Ownership
Life is a sinusoidal wave - so, clear directions are required by all the entities for it to stay on the course. New responsibilities needs clear ownership to plan well, lead, take the impact and come out successful. This type of ownership is _new_ and its _good_ as I see it as an expectation to deliver much more, while having my feet on the ground, but planning to reach the stars.

Needless to say, " life is beautiful ".

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei

"I think that is the most important lesson you learn in life, that you have to be ready to make a compromise. You do not compromise your principles, but you have to be ready to compromise. You have to understand that you cannot get your way 100 percent. Life is too complicated. You are not an island, and you work in a social setting, and you need to understand that you work always -- at the family level, at the society level -- to work out the compromise that is perceived to be fair. You don't get 100 percent of what you want, but at least you will get the basic minimum that you require."

"Whatever we do in life, whether privately or publicly, we need to have a compass. We need to be sure that what we do is not only good for us, but good for the people at large. That's ethics. That's morality. I think we need to always know that our work is not just good for us in the short term, but it's morally correct."

"My children grew up in six countries. They were born in Geneva. They went to grammar school in New York. They went to high school in Vienna. They went to college in London. They went to graduate schools in the U.S., and now they are working both in London. So for them, they are absolutely color-blind. They are absolutely religious-blind. They are absolutely ethnic-blind. For them, home is the world. For them, every human being is just one member of that large human family you have."

"People forget the positive aspect of nuclear (energy) because what they see in the media all the time is the negative aspects of nuclear, is the agency role as a watch dog, as it is called. They forget that we still get 16 percent of the world's electricity from nuclear energy. They forget that we need nuclear energy, at least for the next 50 years, because we only have nuclear energy and fossil fuel: gas and coal. And gas and coal have their own problems -- climate change -- and nuclear, of course, has the risk of a severe accident. But we need both. We need to weigh the costs and benefits. We need to understand the benefits outweigh the cost."

"I went to Nigeria recently, and I compare that with the U.S. In the U.S., every American has 16,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. That is enough, obviously, to empower your refrigerators, your air-conditioning, your iPods, everything you need. In Nigeria, they have 70 kilowatt hours per year. That translates into an 8-watt light bulb."

"We cannot erect walls between the north and the south, between the rich and the poor. We need to make sure that we have an equitable world, where every human being has the right to live a decent life, the right to live a life free from fear, the right to be able to send his kids to have education, the right to have Social Security in their old age. If you do that, I think the insecurities we feel -- the extremists that we are seeing -- will drop absolutely dramatically."

"We need to understand that, before deciding to go to war, that we have exhausted every other possibility of reaching our differences through peaceful means."

"I think I have come to realize that it's not really poverty that drives people bananas. It's really a sense of injustice. There's a lot of poor people around the world, but when you repress the right of people to speak, when people fear that they are not being justly treated -- and you see a lot of that in the Middle East, you see a lot of that in the Muslim world -- I think people are getting it both ways. They are getting it from their government when they feel that they are repressed by their government -- they are not allowed to have the right to live in freedom and dignity -- and they are getting it from the outside world when they feel that the outside world is not fairly treating them. They wake up in the morning, and they see people dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the Palestinian territories. The sense of injustice, the sense of humiliation is very much there."

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei / Interview

Bangalore

After all the trips back and forth were over, I was to travel to Bangalore, the silicon valley of India. It was my 3rd trip, but I have vague memories of my last 2 trips, decade back.

Either way, it was special on several fronts. To start with I was going to meet a person, with whom I've been chatting for a long time. All the but the face was missing in that image developed, with suspense around. Next, I was going to going to stay at my best friends place. It was a long pending invitation and wish.

En-route, I took train from Chennai to Bangalore, after a very long time. It nostalgic. While I've spent years of man-hours in Indian Railways, it was very different to take a 6 hour trip. Walking thro' the crowd in the even-buzzing Central Station brought back all the memories of different trips and mainly running and catching the train. I thought, Central Station for one is one of those places, which is part of almost everybody's( in Chennai at least ) life, but less thought about. Given that, it has seen me from my childhood to till date, was an amazing feeling.

Knocking the door of my friend, early of next morning and opening was my friends long wish - fulfilled :) Weather was wonderful, compared to Chennai and even Delhi. Being in a friends place, where we all got almost nothing to do and to push the day slowly, was a completely different feeling. More so, for my parents.

We all were pampered by the wonderful hospitality of AsHa and I was trying to grapple from where I have to come to what ! As the mysterious feeling of 'something to happen', was sinking in, rest of the plan was going on.

Went to few places around. Did lot of shopping and as the events unfolded - I found my significant other!

The feeling was almost like an action movie, where in the character is being thrown or made run at mach speed, comes to a total stop with a whooshing sound and is looking back to see its all moving without any gravitational force.

Subsequent meetings and conversations were all sinking in me slowly but steadily while reminding me that there has been a change in my life and that's what is in front of me. Tuk, tuk, tuk - wake up, wake up.

When I realized that I have to return back to Chennai, I still wasn't in-sync with my surroundings, was lagging behind. While I was part of several other meetings and conversations and even while travelling back to Chennai, one lingering thought was about this part of me being in a new place, with a different feeling all together. There is no better way to describe it, as I still can't, now.

Then as now, I started to wonder about the phrase "Life is beautiful".

New Delhi

Trip to Delhi was exciting. So much had to be planned, ahead of time for my stay and travel. Given that it was my first trip to the capital. All, for few hours of, but important - visit to the US Embassy for my VISA.

Surprisingly, flight to Delhi thro' Indian Airlines was punctual. Reached late in the night. First thing that caught my attention was the lack of dust and smog in the roads around the Airport. Flying from Chennai, it looked almost like Chennai with out dust.

Delhi in my opinion is coming along really well with the CNG conversion.

Equally interesting was to find someone selling tender coconuts in the middle of the night. All my years, I've had tender coconut during the peak summer. Strange choice, that too in the middle of an highway.

In the morning, I took a long walk around Karol Bagh. So many cramped shops, mostly closed as it early 11AM by their standards. Some areas were too shady that I decided to cut short my zeal to check out the locality.

Talking in Hindi, after a very long time, was quiet an experience. While I was able to understand things really fast, communicating back had a 2-3 second lag. Faster processing of the grammar took the time, but it was nice to realize that I did talk grammatically correct, that too with ease :)

Just when I thought I had a nice trip and that I'd be flying back, the infamous Indian punctuality struck and struck hard. With 3 hours to spare, I thought I was early to the airport and thinking about how to kill time. But only after I came to the counter and checked in, I was told that my flight has been delayed by 90 minutes. Thank you very much.

I as other passengers promptly finished the rest of the travelling procedures. Flight scheduled for 10PM local time, had no announcements or arrangements, even after 10PM !!! While my blood was boiling, I could clearly sense the frustration and panic in so many others.

Finally the disgraceful staff of Go Air came along and lied flat to the face. In an hurry, they dumped all the passengers onto the plane, but only after me and others screaming for their delay. On the way I was wondering, about their customer service and in general 'the lack of time sense' among Indians.

In this aspect, I'm really ashamed of being an Indian. Indians have heard this so much that they now advocate it ! This is possible only in India. It has been repeated and followed so much, that the rough skin is refusing to get the reality in. Sickening it is. What we've failed to realize is we don't have the right to steal others' time. Wake up India, don't gloat in your history and rest on your wrong principle's, fix your basics.

After all said and done, reached home in wee hours and I was trying to erase the last 8 hours of my airport-experience and think good about others. But it was hard. Reality struck!

Chennai

Every time I go to Chennai, I'm just amazed at the changes. It seems to a fast world.

People shop a lot, spend money a lot as they're able to afford and cars have become so common like bicycle of the 80's and 90's

2 things struck the most - Driving habits in India and Cell-phone usage.

What is with people, who just don't get driving ?! Lanes have a purpose, signals too for sure. Its has become an habit to drive in the middle of a lane. Idea being that they'd want a clear view of the traffic ahead, as they expect others to stick to the lane. It surely is an habit, as even when there was no traffic, they drive in the middle of the lane. This is madness.

Next most disgusting attitude is the honks. Its an itching hand that tends to hold the horn, instead of the wheel and drive. An horn can't move a car or vanish the traffic. Understand that idiot !

Traffic is clear, a driver drives fast, but he equally honks more, as in the back of his fickle mind, he is only concerned about somebody popping in from somewhere and not focus on his control. Please save the city. Noise-pollution is serious!

I was even advised to honk as I drove a 2-wheeler, just to be safe!

India in most of the places have come a long way from Red, Green, Yellow signal to even indicate as how much of time it'd take to turn to each of these. Its time-ticker. Its really good to have it, when you driving toward a signal.

But what's depressing is the worst habit to even run over that. People are accelerating right when its 5..4..3.. - come on people. Don't abuse the system!

Cell-phones are embedded in an Indian's life. Whether it be for sending and receiving SMS on cricket-scores or utility-bills or listening to the FM-radio. But what people have forgotten or unaware, is the fact that there is a 'vibrate' option.

Wherever I went, I saw the boards explicitly warning about turning the cell-phone off. Temples in particular. Shouldn't it be a conscious feeling that we got to preserve the environment, while we advance much on the communication side.

Think Indians - you don't have the right to disturb others!

One common yet disturbing attitude is the 'dodging' attitude - oh they do it, how does it matter if I do it too. That's really bad. Somebody got to stop and look back and say no.

Just because 1000 other do something, it doesn't make it right - realize that. Think and lead your life.

Out of the box comes...

I finally have time now to write something. What a run its been ?! So many events and so many things to write :)

Looking back, I'm just amazed as how slow it was before and all of a sudden things pickup and even before I know, I was running in mach speed. Nevertheless, its been great.

Great to be back.