Mera Mumbai mahan!

We were always told that Mumbai or Bombay is the place which was the show piece of India to the rest of the world. The necklace of India which is the Financial capital of India was in a helpless state the other day last week. We can always blame it on someone. God for instance is an easy way out. But for those more than 800 innocent lives lost that day, and for millions of Mumbaikars who had to brave the rains and the consequent flooding, it must have been traumatic, to say the least.

If similar rains had happened elsewhere in any other city in India, I am sure the result would have been just the same. The infrastructure in almost all the metros in India is woefully lacking in every conceivable way. We have the best cars in the world but do not have the roads for them to drive in. We have the best hotels but do not still have the uninterrupted drinking water supply for most residential areas in the cities. People still store water in containers waiting for the next time rationed supply by the Municipal corporations. As long as we do not have the basics sorted, all this rhetoric being the 10th largest economy in the world, will not do anything to alleviate the suffering People living in the Metros and elsewhere in India, have to go through every day.

The first hand account of Vir Sanghvi in Hindustan Times is worth reading. We always have to have some disaster in which hundreds of people lose lives, before people decide to act. There has to be a Tsunami in which more that 2 lacs of people perish, before we decide to have a Tsunami warning system in place. Hopefully the Powers that be take note of what happened in Mumbai and try to improve the infrastructure in Mumbai and elsewhere in the country before God decides to act!

Taj Mahal, the Crown of India. No more?

According to the UP Waqf board this is the property of the Waqf board and not ASI(Archeological Survey of India), which has been managing this one of the wonders of modern world since 1920s. I was shocked and many more must have been equally so, to hear this. I hope this is settled in the High Court as soon as possible by giving it the prominence this case needs.

I feel that Muslim League of India must be commended for what they said. They said that "Taj Mahal is National property" and rightly so. It is a pity that people stoop to any levels for the sake of money and litigate anything. If this is allowed to continue, tomorrow someone mightl claim the Red Fort and Rashtrapathi Bhavan. The Government should bring out legislation such that at least national monuments can not be touched by any litigants.

Will someone read this???

There are very few people like Salman Rushdie, the Indian born British Author, who has the courage of his convictions. Inspite of the fatwas to kill him, has been a modern and moderate face of Islam. The article on the state of affairs in India and Pakistan is well written. But the problem is will someone higher up at the helm in India read and take action. I doubt. The political compulsions are much more important than these minor irritants. In India there is an outcry, only when there are hundreds of people that are affected. This is the sad state of affairs in the World's supposedly largest democracy.

Breeding grounds for terror

Another interesting article by Tavleen Singh about the terrorism.

The Politicians need to be thinking more about the humanity at large, rather than thinking about being politically correct. The impediments in the development of India is controlling the ever growing population and lack of better education in rural areas, apart from lack of basics like drinking water in rural places. They can not talk about population because we are a democracy and do not want to antagonize the vote banks. They do not want to provide education because they do not gain by educating the voters. Not one of these politicians talk about this. It is all about religious and regional politics. They either want to further divide the states in the name of injustice or divide the public on the basis of religion and caste. Their interest is to win the votes and thereby capture power and who has the time to look into the real problems.

Solution to a problem

Thomas Friedman has written an interesting article in NY Times. I think there can be solutions to this problem of terrorism if we want it. There can never be a world without problems, like there can never be a Human being without worries. But at least there can be some sanity in the society.

"When I do good, I feel good and when I do bad, I feel bad."

The terrorists have struck again, this time in London. There are reports that as of now at least 40 people are dead and 700 injured with the count likely to go up. This is shows how helpless and ineffective we are in curbing these attacks. We might have the best of security and intelligence but they can bring everything to a standstill with a couple of serial attacks. Indira Gandhi was supposed be one of the best protected Leaders of her times. Yet she was assassinated by her own body guards. Ronald Reagan, while he was the President of USA, with all the best security, was attacked and almost killed by a crazy guy so that he could catch the attention of the Film Star he loved. All the Counter Terrorism experts have been saying time and again that it is when and where the next strike will be but not whether there will be. Day before yesterday, it was Madrid. Yesterday, it was in Ayodhya. Today it was London. Tomorrow, we do not know, where. But probably the Terrorists know where. They have all the World to hide and attack. The Society does not know how to prevent this. It is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

All this mayhem in the name of Religion. Religion has always evoked stronger and baser instincts in human beings. The vested interests all over the world exploit this to the maximum. These Terrorists will go to any extent to prove that they are right. This is amply demonstrated by the suicide bombings that go on everyday in Iraq and Palestine. They think and believe that they are making the extreme sacrifice of their lives for the sake of their religion. Basically this shows an intolerance for others' point of view. My way is the right way and what others do is wrong. Can this change? I doubt whether this ever will happen. There are so many laws made by our society, yet there are so many willing to break them. The hope for an egalitarian society where everyone can live in peace is just a myth. This terrorism has been happening since ages in one form or another throughout history and will continue to be a thorn in our future & beyond.

If only they read and believed what Abraham Lincoln thought "When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion." We can only hope and in hope alone lies our future for a better tomorrow.

Happiness is a state of mind.

We all want to be happy. We want to be successful. We want to make lots of money. We want to become famous. We want to be powerful. We want to achieve. All this and more, so that we can ultimately be happy.

So when someone achieves a record of sorts, the natural inclination for ordinary mortals is to be happy. But not Takeru Kobayashi, the new Hot Dog champion, by eating 49 hot dogs in 12 minutes. He was not happy because he fell short of his personal best of 53.5 hot dogs and buns achieved last year.

Humans always crave for what we do not have and forget about that we already have. Perhaps that is what spurs all this growth. We can not be content with what we have. In this case he is the current Champion. He holds the record for most number of hot dogs. It is just that he missed his personal best this time. Can he ever be happy? I don't know. Even if he is able to eat 55 next time, he might still be unhappy because his target was 60 hot dogs. May be. May be not.

Celebration of American Independence, on this 4th July, 2005.

I wanted to post one of my favorite photographs, taken more than two years back on our trip to Las Vegas and San Diego. Vishal(on the right) and his cousin Avinash standing below the fluttering American Flag.

Are we so gullible?

Last week we received mail redirected from our old address from Loteria Primitiva purported to have been mailed from Spain. It informs us that we had somehow been associated with a ticket number we had never purchased, and won about $600000/. The letter states that we need to contact some person( Name given) who is the Foreign service Manager of Santa Lucia Security Company S.A. The telephone and fax numbers are given so that we can get in touch for the processing and remittance of the prize money! It also states that this claim has to be made before the 15th August 2005 and failure to do so will make them to transfer the money to the MINISTERIO DE ECONOMIA Y HACIENDA as unclaimed. There is a caveat that we need to fill in a form detailing all the Bank info into which this money should go and we need to pay "a little payment" (Every beneficial who is not Europe or Spanish citizen) for immediate transfer of the fund. Just all this hoopla to make it look authentic.

This is not the first time that I have received this. I guess this is the third time so far, once in an email. I do understand that these guys whoever are doing this, are Scamsters out to take money from gullible people. It is so unbelievable that there are so many people who will fall for these traps. There must be people who believe this and must have been contacting them for their claim. Otherwise why would these people take the pains of doing all this. I do not know.

Greed is the factor which guides the lives of so many of us human beings that we do not think whether it is plausible to get money out of thin air. This has happened to people all over the world from time immemorial. People out to get rich quick, do anything to achieve their goals and there are always people to support their cause due to their greed and blind ignorance.

It is all in the attitude.

Aruna left on vacation for India yesterday. She was fully busy with the last minute shopping for the visit, till she boarded the plane.

There was this incident the other day at Ross dress for less. She went there to return some of the items that she did not want to take. Among the items was a hand bag which she did not want. She had the receipt for the same and was only bought a couple of days before. At this moment the Store Manager steps in and says he can't issue the refund as the bag was not carrying the Ross tag. She tried to explain to him that the bag was without the tag when she bought it. But the Manager said they do not have any other item in the store which matches this bag. At times when such a thing happens the Associate is supposed to put another tag on the item at the time of billing. Normally when we shop, we buy in good faith thinking that they would take care of these things. But sometimes when there is a problem like this, the Store Manager is supposed to handle such issues with the care as, sales is their primary goal and it earns them their bread and butter. Customer is supposed to be the most important visitor to their premises.

This is where attitude is so vital for the success of any Organization or Individual for that matter. The Store Manager could have seen the problem and should have taken care of the refund immediately. I am sure any other Manager in his place, with the right attitude, would have done this. But not this person. He was so rude and condescending in his behavior. Aruna, in her anger, lost all her cool and said to him to keep the bag and sell it to someone else and make money on that. In her anger she told the other customers waiting, that these people were cheating. She left the store vowing not to return to a Ross store again. While she was leaving the Store Manager said "Madam, Please do not come back to the Store". All this while not even bothering to give the bag back to her. All this reeks of meanness of this person. When such a thing happens it is so difficult to get back on track and be calm. You want some kind of justice when you feel that you have been denied what is rightfully yours. It is not money that is important because it is only a medium with which we trade and becomes meaningless after a point in your life. Money gives you some of the comforts that we enjoy in life but the true happiness and contentment in life is priceless and has not value in terms of money.

She went online to the Ross website and sent a mail to the Customer service detailing as to what happened at this Ross Store. The Zonal Manager of this Store called the next day over phone and apologized to Aruna about what happened. He said that he will make sure that the refund is given immediately. Today I was asked to go to the Store to collect the refund. I went to the Store and was attended to by one Lady Store Manager and she was apologetic about this whole issue. She asked me to convey to my wife that she shop at Ross again. I said I would. I called in the Zonal Manager afterwards to appreciate and thank him for what he did and what it meant to us.

Any Organization is a collection of individuals. There are few bad apples here and there. But I believe people in general are nice, courteous and warm. We should not generalize others into the same basket which is nothing but stereotyping. In this incident because there was someone higher up with the right attitude, this issue was resolved promptly. But if the Store Manager was in the Zonal Manager's place, imagine what could have happened. Nothing. One of my friends, said the other day that for any Country to succeed, you should have the right leader at the helm. I believe that this is true and can make or mar a country or an Organization. We have a saying in Sanskrit and I quote "Yatha Raja thatha Praja" which means the "Public of a Kingdom will be like their King". Ultimately I believe it is all in the attitude.