Bombay, the city of dreams!!

It was another cold night in the winters of 2008-09. I had been waiting for another b school result to come out, though this time I was expecting to get through to the next stage. Never mind, it was one of the best institutes of the country. But the motivating factor for me was that the next round of activities were to be held in Bombay... oops Mumbai.. Sorry Mr. Thackeray.

One of the netizen then posted on a forum that the results were out. This sent shiver down my spine making it even worse for me. Although I managed to get a passport for Bombay, but the chances of conversion were almost negligible. Next thing was to a call a friend in Ajmer and plan our visit together. He is as crazy about the city as I am.

I had been there with family when the city was called Bombay but what I remember of is just Chowpatty Beach and bus tour from Bombay to Goa. I booked the tickets next day keeping enough time to explore the city’s best places. This was the fourth time I was travelling on plane, still I wasn’t accustomed to air journey; one, for it drops us to our destination in just about 2 hours, two, we can’t just stretch our arms and legs on plane the way we can in trains. In a way, I don’t want to get accustomed to it. The first timer Rishab enjoyed the flight though.

The hot weather was very welcoming since Delhi had not seen the sun rays since days. Thanks to a local friend, we didn’t have to look for a place to spend our nights, and that too in the heart of city. We did not want to waste any moment of stay, so we boycotted our lunch, packed some necessary things and took the local to CST. Earlier, I was quite apprehensive about the local trains as Delhites are considered to be not habitual to the congestion of this sort on trains. But, it’s not as if only Mumbains have to face this. We can easily relate the Bombay local train rush to that in Delhi buses in office hours. Believe me, it’s my personal experience.

On reaching CST the first thing we did was get a map of Bombay and marked the major destinations we had to explore in coming days. Then started our pad-yatra from Dalal Street to fashion Street. Starting from the BSE, we reached the Gateway of India and The famous Taj that reminded of the recent attack here, still fresh in our minds. Any Indian would have a tear or two in their eyes on seeing the bullet marks on the gateway or the cordoned off area which gives the best view of the Indian ocean, where the film shooting used to take place. The pad-yatra resumed in search of the Leopold Cafe in Colaba, where we had ice cream shakes.


Not knowing where to go, as it was dark by now, we headed towards Fashion Street. On our way, we crossed the University of Mumbai, the Church gate Station where we saw a wave of people coming from nowhere as if they are a mob going to kill us for being northerners. Later we realized it was office hour crowd heading back their home from Churchgate, the CP of Bombay. The map we had indicated that we were not far away from the famous Marine Drive. So, at 8-30 in the evening we were there sitting at pavement and enjoying this awesome view of the sea, the rocks and the Bombay crowd, the thing which I never did in Delhi at 8-30 in the evening. This is why I like Bombay so much.

All this on the very first day, or should I say just in “An Evening in Bombay”. We headed to our hotel at 11 at night, another first. The dinner constituted of a couple of Vada pav from a food joint in a city that never sleeps, at least I didn’t see it dull any time. The second day was not as exciting as first, the big reason being last evening’s pad-yatra. The day began with a visit to Siddhivinayak temple followed by Haji Ali Dargah in the afternoon. Time spent at Carter road in the evening was amongst the best. I had never seen imagined places like marine drive, Carter road, Worli Seaface in my life time; wish they were here in Delhi, or I was there in Bombay.

The dinner at Only Parathas, recommended my foodie brother, made me forget about my interview the next day. After finishing off with interview in a quick time, I wandered around the college area to feel the college life of Bombay, and that too didn’t disappoint me. Evening at Juhu Beach reminded me of my childhood journey when I along with my brother and other kids made dome shaped structures of sand with straw on top. The sunset view was amazing. The only thing that troubled was we didn’t have a place to keep our shoes, so we had to miss out our bath in the sea.(Below is the pic of my friend Rishab with shoes in hand at Juhu Beach in Mar'09). As we went on to give our verdict on Gol Gappe Vs Pani Puri competition, we found there was actually no competition at all. “Gol Gappe” is the clear winner. When I thought the day was over, my brother came from Pune with different plans. At midnight we had to accompany him for the dinner and spending some quality time at the Worli Seaface.


Next morning was our journey back to home, this time via train. But before that was another surprise tour waiting for us. Nikki, my local friend, made our trip much more valuable by taking us to her college, one of the best Girl’s colleges in Bombay. Way back to station a quick stop at Gaylord’s (that reminds me how I and Rishab had laughed over the name at that time) gave us an opportunity to have a pastry of any flavour we wanted and yes, Keventers at CP was way behind this British era bakery.

Dasvidaniya Bombay!

Nehru-Gandhi exploited India

On the eve of Gandhi Jayanti, I am delighted to uncover a controversial story of Nehru-Gandhi parivar, though I can’t commit on the sources, since the Government of India does not like Indian public to be aware of anything controversial that happens. They want us to pay homage to Gandhi in the morning, have lunch with friends and then enjoy the latest flick in CP in the evening and shake our legs at a pub in Gurgaon by the night. And, the GenX does not disappoint them either.


Meanwhile, continuing with my story, recently I got an email raising questions on Indira Gandhi’s personal life. Papa Nehru was busy in his politics and his wife, Kamala Nehru being unwell, left Indira alone in London (Yea, yea.. at that time too politicians used to send their kids abroad to enjoy their time). She fell in love with Feroze and married him. What we know is that Feroze was a Parsi, what we don’t know is that Feroze’s full name was Feroze (Ghandy) Khan. His father was a Muslim married to a Muslim Persian whose surname was Ghandy. Indira converted to Islam after marriage and this upset papa Nehru. The father of our nation then advised Feroze to change his surname to Gandhi (a passport to enter politics) and the whole issue was resolved.

Well, if this was not enough for Indira Gandhi, the tensions escalated between her and Feroze, and like many in history he too died a controversial death. I don’t know if I am allowed to publish rest of the story here, citing a recent case in which a person is courting trouble in USA for writing against Bush. If anyone is interested to read on the full the story, leave your email ids in the comments section.

The full story exposes Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv, her so called son Sanjay, Papa Nehru again. For those who don’t know, Lal Bahadur Sastriji was also born on 2nd October and he too died a controversial death at the hands of Indira Gandhi. Happy Shastri Jayanti!!

Whose Kashmir is it anyway??

There is a very famous saying on Kashmir by Jahangir. “If there is a Paradise on Earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.” And it is evident that wars are fought for money, resources and the most beautiful things. Wasn’t that the reason for the Europeans to come here in India?

I will move onto the year 1947 from here when at the time of partition, the princely states were free to join India or Pakistan or remain independent. While most of the princely states acceded to India or Pakistan; states of Kashmir, Junagadh & Hyderabad were a cause of trouble since all of them wanted to remain independent. Although the states were free to choose, Mountbatten- the architect of partition took the position that only states that shared common border with Pakistan should accede to it, but it was just an advisory. Both Hyderabad and Junagadh had Muslims as their rulers, none of them sharing its borders with Pakistan.

The state of Hyderabad was included in Indian Union through an operation carried out by Indian army in September 1948. The state of Junagadh though chose to accede to Pakistan. The riots broke out in the state which comprised of 80% Hindu population. The Nawab of Junagadh escaped to Pakistan emptying the state treasury of cash and securities. On various requests made by the Dewan (who comes next to Nawab), the Pakistani Government did not intervene to control the riots which forced the Dewan to accede to India and take control of the situation, which India accepted.

At the same time, another similar game was being played in Kashmir. Kashmir had 77% Muslim population and most people believed it would accede to Pakistan owing to the fact that it shared its borders with Pakistan. However, the prince of Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh wanted Kashmir to remain an independent state. It is believed that after Raja Hari Singh decided against acceding to Pakistan, The Pakistani government “unofficially” sent in its tribals to take over Kashmir, as it did in Kargil war. The raja wanted an intervention from Indian government but India could not do anything, keeping its words on “agreement of non-intervention”. There was no direct proof of involvement of Government of Pakistan.


When the situation went out of hands, the Raja acceded to India and Kashmir was now officially a part of Indian Union. But till the time Indian troops made their way into Kashmir, the tribals from Pakistan had taken control of almost one-third Kashmir. The situation would have been worse had the tribals not stopped over for looting. The Raja’s accession to India allowed Pakistan to officially come into the scene and its troops taking control of the occupied area. The UN at that point of time asked for ceasefire and a plebiscite had to be taken in the absence of Indian & Pakistani troops, which never happened.

So, what now? India, Pakistan & the whole world knows there can’t be any solution to this issue. Even after our grandchildren would have died, both countries would keep fighting over this little paradise on earth. Kashmiris still want their own independent state, which too seems impossible. But Pakistan has made much progress than India by taking advantage of the emotions of Kahmiris, by naming their part of Kashmir as “Azad Kashmir” and controlling the state the same way Sonia Gandhi has been decision maker here in India. We still have not come to the conclusion, whose Kashmir is it anyway???

Is the Recession really dying down?

Every day I read in newspaper about the latest status of recession as if its a hurricane whose future motives can be predicted. But, I am not here to put my views on the current financial situation.

While India is facing drought like situation with most of the states having around 30% deficit in rainfall this year & still unsure of the status of recession, we should not expect our MPs and MoS to stay at 5 star hotels since the formation of the government more than 100 days back. Neither can we expect the pilots of Air India (eying for a 15,000 crore bailout) to take their nap in another 5 star hotel. Seems the people concerned have taken the reports of recession dying down seriously.


Minister of External Affairs Mr. SM Krishna had been staying at ITC Maurya and Minister of State Mr. Tharoor at The Taj till the Finance Minister Mr. Mukherjee asked them to move to a government accommodation. As expected both the ministers excused that owing to the renovation being done at their official residences they had to stay in hotel suite.

They also said that the bills for their stay are being borne by them personally and not by the tax payer’s money. Well, how do we, the tax payers will ever be able to know about that? And, I don’t think the renovation being done at their official residence is also being borne by them personally. A renovation had been done at Somnath Chatterjee’s residence as well- An elevator in a two floor residence (unconfirmed sources). An RTI application will be of no use as the expected reply would be “details can’t be disclosed as laid down under Section XXX of the RTI Act” as was replied to an RTI applicant who demanded Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death related documents to be made public.

Meanwhile, coming back to the point, I don’t think Ministers like Tharoor and Krishna do understand the importance of money as much as I and you do. Tharoor, who has spent most of his life not staying in India, can he really sustain in the Indian politics for long? (Tharoor was born in London and had been staying outside India since his post graduation till he was offered ticket by Congress). He was recently found twittering in his office (seems he is out of work within a month), which you would complain to as the same is banned at your work place.

Someone is “investing” the money in statues in UP, another is opting for “No. 1 Haryana” ads in electronic media ahead of assembly elections. Guys, when would they realise that we can’t believe everything written in newspapers. We are still in recession. Go ahead with your irrelevant expenditure once the MBA institutes again mention “100% Placement” in their prospectus.

Lastly, if any of you want to criticise or appreciate my posts or blog as a whole, please make full use of comments section underneath. I will take everything in a positive manner. As I end this post I overhear news on a news channel titled “India best place for jobs”. Don’t know how do they come to those conclusions?

Pics!!

I am in no mood to write down something today so I thought of uploading quite a few of my fav pics!!














Jai Hind!!

Traffic Jam in my lane

Today, I am down with fever, running nose & body ache as I start writing my next blog. I was almost sure about an hour back that my next blog would cover the upcoming Assembly Elections in Haryana until a scene happened in my lane at 10:15 in the night. As me and my mother (my father is usually asleep by this time) went into our balcony to introspect what the matter was about, as always there already were a number of spectators watching the commotion.

The argument was between two of my neighbours, actually tenants of my neighbours, who were fighting over a place to park their car. Tenant A used to park his car right in front of his house while Tenant B a little away from his place. What happened today was another car was parked in front of Tenant B’s car space and he parked his car at Tenant A’s car space. So, Tenant A asked B to get his car parked at some other place and this is where the arguments began.

I could not stop myself from just being a spectator and I knew Tenant A was a good guy, so I intervened to my Mother’s surprise, who later scolded me. When I went into the battle field, there was A and his father & B and his wife. I asked A to somehow park his car anywhere today and leave the rest for tomorrow, but he was not in a mood to relent. In a matter of time both parties started explaining their side of stories to me as if I was a judge, and even if I was a judge, I wonder whether they would honour my decision.

As the arguments began to get more and more heated, I tried to explain both the parties that fighting would just mean time waste for both of them, and if A wants, I park my car elsewhere and he can park his car in front of my house. But, it was now a matter of self esteem and not over parking of car. Then B said something which turned around the whole story and I had to take a side. B said “In his span of 3 years stay in Switzerland, he never ever faced this situation and it is here only that the problem exists, and he had to do whatever he does (Survival of the fittest theory)”.

I was quick to say “If you are having so much problem here in India then why don’t you go back and stay forever in Switzerland”, to which A said “Good point”. And I came to my place asking A that there is no point talking to B. Now, as I re look into the matter, A and B both were fighting and the one who parked his car was having a sound sleep at his place. In the meantime, B said that the one who parked his car in B’s place was reluctant to remove his car.

Now, why (for God's sake) did I write all this? How does it affect you in any way?

Well, this is going to be a problem in every society where there is a middle income group growing each passing day and buying 4 wheelers. In a city like Gurgaon, where lot of people come in search of work is exploding with such examples. In some cases the Resident’s Welfare Association (RWA) take care of this, but there are place like ours where RWAs are ineffective.

I know this more of a case study. I will appreciate your inputs. And yes, I am planning to apologise B for my outrageous act (after all I am no one to suggest whether a person should stay In India or leave for a foreign nation) but maintain my stand that he should not have parked his car A’s place.

The truth behind Lockerbie Bombing

Hi everyone! So, here I am again to put in my inputs on BREAKING news on all news channels across the world. But before I go on, I would plead Mr. SRK to try not to bring a bad name to my country anymore. See this video to know more. If he does not like being frisked, I suggest him avoiding USA rather than calling media and saying “Its not a big deal”.

The news I am talking about is doing the rounds all over since a week but Indian newspapers will bring it up today only. The story goes back to December 1988, when a plane crashed mid air on its way to US from England killing 270 people. It is considered to be the worst ever terrorist activity on England’s soil till date in which the prime targets were 189 American citizens.

The mishap took place in the skies of a small town called Lockerbie in Scotland, hence the name Lockerbie Bombing. The accusation for the bombing fell upon a Libyan intelligence officer named Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, former station manager for Libyan Arab Airlines. While the later was found not guilty and acquitted, Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001.

Now, what actually seemed to happen was this. US of A, taking its responsibility as the Big Brother of the weaker nations, was trying to establish its base in Libya in 70s and 80s owing to its oil reserves. The Libyans didn’t relent and had to face a series of military confrontations which led to killings of hundreds of innocent Libyans. As the investigations began after the crash, the Libya was considered to have played a major role in it. So, US and UN as always put sanctions on Libya and isolated it from the rest of the world.

Libya, unlike Cuba, had to relent this time and in 2003 accepted its role in the bombing. This brought the two nations, USA and Libya close and enough opportunity for US to exploits Libya’s oil resources.

Suffering from terminal prostate cancer, with less than three months to live, Megrahi was freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Government on 20 August 2009. But, many people in Britain believe that he is innocent as lately a main witness while dying admitted that he lied in the court and that he was offered money to do so. Another very important witness testified against Megrahi which too seems to be a distorted statement.

There seem to be only three scenarios in this:

· USA, in its yearn for Libya’s oil resources, plotted the bombing

· Some terrorist organisation of Libya is to be blamed to carry out the attack as a mode of revenge against brutalities by US Military

· Third party terrorist outfit carrying out the bombing, again to take the revenge against USA

In any of these scenarios, two things are firm and clear, Megrahi has been made a scapegoat and the other is that USA, for the sake of power and glory, has been doing inhuman activities all over and creating many more terrorists as days pass.

As expected, the Indian media too published the one sided story.

Though the deductions are on my own, I have referred to this link for the details.

Shubho bidai as they say in Bengali.

Welcome to my World !!

वंदे मातरम्!!

Hi Guys! This is my very first blog and I am quite nervous as I write these words.

First of all, I would like to thank Tambi, the follower of my blog since the time I didn’t even start blogging. The credit of my blogging initiative goes to my brother who inspired me to take it on to improve my writing skills.

Now, coming back to the topic, I assure you that my blogs would be interesting enough to be read without a break because I am here to criticise, to appreciate, to advice & to raise the voice through the art of words.

I am here to speak my mind out and write which we can’t even think of doing in our daily life. I know I am going to hurt a lot of people’s sentiments, but I will write will be truth and not before I invest my time to research on the topic.

People who already know me would have understood by now what I am talking about and for the rest of you, it won’t take much time to know that. I don’t know when exactly will be writing my first real experience of life, but when it comes, I promise I will live upto the faith you guys have in me.

I am here to ease out my frustration on everything wrong that has been going around, be it corruption, inequality or exploitation. I will raising my voice against the concerned authorities, the media hype, economic issues, America’s brutality, Korea's arsenal, Kashmir’s truth, Gandhi’s lies and so on in my blogs.

I will fight for my country’s welfare, though many say its a waste of time, but what I want is to make an effort instead of being a mere spectator. I will speak out my words for I want to ease my anger from my heart, as no longer can I tolerate all this happening around me. So, why do I choose blogging as a medium for this? That’s because its just a start, and I will fine tune all my mistakes in this first step in order to excel in future.

To end my first blog, I would thank my motherland India for whatever I learned here. I would be thankful to you guys if you give the feedback on a regular basis either here or mail your feedback.

Sayonara till my next blog!!