Americans in New Orleans in need of help!!!

I can not imagine that what is happening now in New Orleans could have happened that too in the Worlds most richest,powerful and best country. It was not as if no body knew that this was going to happen. The Cable TV was covering the Katrina from the begining and they all said it was going to be a category 5 storm to hit New Orleans. They all said it was going to be the worst. The officials gave the people enough time to get out. Now after 5-6 days we hear from the officials that they did not expect this. Are they trying to save their jobs? Whose job is at peril now? Is there is any accountability in this country? The President says that the Relief efforts are unacceptable. The Mayor blames the Washington for the poor response. The blame game has already begun.

This was a natural disaster made worse by Man's inadequate response. We have the best army in the world and we help every other country at their moment of need. Why are we not able to help. FEMA is supposed to be spearheading relief efforts. I request everyone who reads this blog to contribute either to any of the Charitable Organizations in whatever way they could. Probably no one at the helm understood the magnitude of this crisis and that is the saddest part. I think it is the human way of waking up after the event. For some of the people the relief might have been too late in the day but for at least the remaining people who are still alive it may just be in time! We always have to make new mistakes and learn from them. Some of those mistakes might just be too expensive in terms of lives lost.

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.

Why is it only a Boy and not a Girl!

These days wherever you go shopping, you come across kids busy in their own world with the Gameboy, while their parents are shopping around merrily. I was wondering this Gameboy being such a hit, it has had so many sequels starting with Gameboy color, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy SP. Why is it no one at Nintendo thought of a Gamegirl for girls? Girls would defenitely love to own such a gadget, instead of having to buy Gameboy instead. It will be a nice flavor for the girls. I hope some Marketing guy higher up at this gaming company would get this thought.

Everything happens for your good

I have always believed that, whatever happens in my life, happens for a reason and ultimately, for my good. Probably you can also call it the Karma or Destiny. This was the Philosophy which guided me (still does) and which I thought was the best way to encounter various hurdles big and small all through. Whenever something bad(which by my definition not the way I wanted to happen) occurred, I used to comfort myself in this thought. It used to give me the courage and confidence to carry on without being heart broken. I always considered myself mentally strong.

One day I had to face something which everyone in their life faces and that which tests one's mental and physical strengths to the fullest. Death. We see, read, hear about death everyday of our lives. But we can not understand the intensity of it till it happens to our closest. Death of someone, whom we love and are so close, that we would never want to face. My Dad died suddenly, after he was taken to the hospital( after complaining of chest pain), due to a massive heart attack. This was something I always dreaded would happen and did not want to face it. I was so attached to him and loved him. He would always treat me like a friend. After the initial shock I went back to the comfort of my philosophy, " Everything happens for your good". Then I thought how could this be good? You can not call the death of your near and dear as something good. How can this philosophy be right? I was questioning the basis and was trying to reason out. My Father was an outgoing, dynamic Personality, always active. He always used to tell me that he wanted his death to be quick and did not want to be bed ridden. He wished to die by having a heart attack. May be God or whoever this Supernatural Power beyond our realm, heard his wishes and granted his wish! He never believed in God, though. He did not want me do the rituals that are done to our deceased. In one of my conversations with a Doctor friend of my Father, I came to know that even if he had survived the massive heart attack, he would have been a living vegetable. Then it struck me! Yes, it was not for my good that my Dad died. It was in his interest that he was better off dead than living a life of hell. We all think about ourselves and our lives so much that we do not think about even our closest. It is our pain, our happiness, our health, and our life. At that moment I felt that death was as natural as life itself. We need to let them go. A time will come in the future when it is our turn to do so. This is what I believe in and have always believed. There are always times when my philosophy is put to test. I do not know whether I will continue to stick to my beliefs or whether I will be able to. At least I think this has helped me in my life to come out of difficult phases unscathed and with a sane head. I believe this will also help others.

Vishal's work

Vishal did this for his art class at School recently.

Reaching out to the Unknown

Aruna and I went to the Walmart day before yesterday for some shopping (obviously, why would we go to Walmart otherwise. Not to meet someone.No!) We were almost at the end of our shopping. She had picked up the items she wanted. Suddenly in the aisle we come across a nice Indian couple. Looking at our cart he commented about the cutting board Aruna had picked up, saying how beautiful it was. I could sense that he was trying to strike a conversation with us. An earlier similar experience at Kmart made me sceptical and suspicious about this couple. But still I tried to control my thoughts and wanted to give them the benefit of doubt. (In legal parlance you are not guilty till proven otherwise.) He asked me where from I was. I told him that I was from Hyderabad. Immediately he said he knows Telugu and tried to talk to me in my supposed Mother tongue. He assumed that I was a Telugu guy and would endear him to me by talking to me in my native language. After exchanging the pleasantries and finding out about each others' professions. (All this while we were blocking the aisle from other shoppers, which was inconvenient to them and we had to apologize for the same to give way) All this in a span of 5 minutes! Then she started talking about her business where she does not have to work and enjoy her free time. I knew where this was going. I was thinking " Now he is going to invite us for a meeting with them". He said he has some business opportunity where we can enjoy our life and make money on the side in our spare time. He went on to say we can meet sometime to discuss further about this business. I said " We are not interested in this business" and " We do not have the spare time to do some other business as was have a 13 year old son". Then they said they have many people in their group doing this business with more than one child with most of them going to private Schools, which have more homework than kids attending public schools. We had to politely say no again to convince them that we were not interested in their proposal. Then we parted ways. I do not know how many people would have gone through this experience.

I guess many would have had a similar experience. From what I know this is an MLM(Multi Level Marketing) business. They have to constantly bring in new people into their business, so that they can go up the ladder. I do not know how others feel but I beleive that this is not the way to approach someone with a business proposal. I do understand that it becomes difficult for them to find new people after a while. After exhausting all the friends, acquaintances and relatives into this business, they have no where to go but to look for new and aggressive marketing approaches like this. My grouse about this business is about this concept of turning your friends and relatives and their friends and relatives into business opportunities. You can do business with your friends but you do not make friendships with the sole intention of turning it into one more opportunity for your benefit. They say that this is all done in your spare time. But your whole life becomes your spare time because of this business. Every Function and every casual meet becomes a chance to do something towards your goal of making it to the top of the ladder.

But the truth of the matter is that this attitude puts off people easily. At least it puts me off. We always have to be wary of strangers, lest they bring in their business proposal at the drop of a hat. I believe it is downright rude to talk to strangers about a business proposal. We make our friendships based on the acquaintances. We do not get into businesses with someone we don't even know where they live. I guess for them it does not matter as long as it reaches them their targets. I believe that these people are brainwashed that these marketing techniques work like magic. May be it does with many! I was told that failure is the stepping stone for success. But the problem is that I do not like to be their stepping stone for their success!!!!!!