Banyan Tree..

Infrastructure is quite the fastest growing sector in India and even most parts of the globe.. And for a developing country like India it is the need of the hour. But unfortunately this growth is coming at some cost, the cost of felling of trees.
Pune has been very famous for it Banyan Trees, which are all over the city especially on the side of the highways giving them a scenic view..
The Municipal Corporation of Pune counts and number the trees in entire city and makes sure that the count is well maintained. But now, because of the new wide roads and other infrastructural demands.. the city and its surrounding lost a lot of these green lives. The effect of this might not be faced instantaneously but we know how badly we are heading to a catastrophe due to environmental problems. Banyan tree are one of the largest manufacturer of oxygen and are the only home for birds like owl and hornbill. Further our culture attaches a lost of relevance to this tree and worship them at quite a number of occasions.
So, the National Highway Authority, the Airport Authorities and all other organisations which are in development spree must ensure that they compromise for the each tree that they shed..

Is ZAPAK Doing it Rite??

Now a days advertising has become very important for all companies and they are coming up with new and innovtive ways to attract people. But did you all check the ad for zapakmail.com??
Not sure how many of you felt the same way.. but I feel that the ad offends the Indian postal service and its glory of being one of the biggest chains in the world.
The mascot of zapakmail is a man dressed like a postman, travelling on a rocket with an emergency light at front.
While the postal services are spending crores to modernise and make its service more efficient this campaign by Anil Ambani's venture Zapak is trying to bring in a disgrace to its slow delivery process.
While entering into e-mail services Zapak should try to compete with the other players in the market and prove its efficiency in comparison with them, not Indian postal services which quite efficient and reliable for its mail and other services.

This is for blogstreet.com !!!

MAYA-wati starts glittering b4 her state does..

Mayawati is bringing in lot of hope and goodwill amongst all people of Uttar Pradesh. But while she was busy was the election campaign and as the leader of opposition, she simultaneously increased her assets by 400 %. While filling a nomination for Lok Sabha elections in 2004, she declared her assets at a little over Rs 11 crore. And now according to TOI’s latest report, she declared her current assets to exceed Rs. 52..5 crore..
But then the boom is real estate is a crime factor behind this.. She invested at some prime properties in Delhi – one at Sardar Patel Marg is worth Rs 18 crores (though the real estate agents quote a much higher rate).. Commercial properties – 2 at Connaught Place worth 3.3 crores and 1 at Okhla worth Rs 15.5 crores.
But at the same time she added jewellery and diamonds worth ove Rs 70 lakh and money in banks and other financial institutes have grown from Rs 9 crore to around Rs 13 crore.
Now she is getting busy to pay a penalty and settle the I-T demand.
Before I end listen to this interesting fact: she doesn’t own a car, agricultural or non-agricultural land.

Be careful while preaching HR Skills

Days back I was reading “The Week” (June 10 th edition).. The cover story of this magazine said “Paid to Play” and it dealt with how the HR department in various companies both public and private are now trying innovative techniques for recruiting and retaining the best people in their organisation. Few examples that were highlighted include Continuous Computing which allows all its employees to take a 45-minutes post lunch nap called power-nap; Microsoft GTSC in Bangalore has set up a hi-tech gaming room, christened the X-box, for its employees; and the list went on with lot of creative techniques being implemented to keep people energetic, motivated and thus more efficient.
I still remember the workshop conducted by Wipro Technologies for the fresher recruits, to motivate them to join the company, give them a good feel about the company and a little insight to corporate life. One of their HR department executive Rajesh Venkadri was at our campus for the 2-day workshop called Synergy. There were number of activities (even a few games) which involved lot of fun and folic and each one of us were in our top spirits.
But at this moment I recollect a very disturbing incident that happened and now regretting for not bringing into light then. Mr. Venkatadri just folded a 100 rupee note very badly and then even took it into his mouth and spit it on the floor, and the with in flash of a second a classmate of mine happily picked it up and won all praises from the HR man. According to him, a 100 rupee note is a hundred rupee note and it not a matter of shame to do anything to get it. Basically it was just an extension of the heated argument we had on the fact that not all jobs are treated alike and rag-pickers and maids are looked very lowly.
But he didn’t realise the offence he performed in the process. It is an offence to fold an Indian currency note more than once or trying to spoil it in any form.

Hope this comes to his notice soon and I request people reading this article it practice and preach people to respect our currency notes and do not spoil them.

VOTE FOR TAJ!! (Reloaded)

Is the young generation becoming less patriotic??
Well it’s a matter of shame that being a young Indian I am myself doubting my peers.. This doubt came into my mind see the fact that Taj Mahal is far away in the race to be among the Seven Wonders of the World. Even smaller nations with smaller populations are ahead in the race. I am really not able to find valid reason why many aren’t voting. It’s definitely not that we are not aware of the voting systems because our media is very active and really sells on such information. And we have quite a big cluck of our population using the internet and mobile phones and spending a lot of time on them..
Then what is the reason..?? Are we so busy that we can’t find few seconds to vote? Is it a national pride that we have one of the Seven Wonders of the World in our country? Won’t it be a big boost to our tourism sector which is trying out its best to fight out the Malaysia and South East Asian countries? And increase in tourism does benefit the government and thus everyone in the country someway or the other.

So I request every one to get awaken again and let to the maximum we can to get Taj Mahal in the new list of Wonders..

RTI

Remember last year, we had an aam admi’s protest that brought in the Right to Information Act. I was dying to see the results of it.. cause even I believed it to be a very good move to fight corruption in our country. And guess what found.. this shocking news in today’s India Express, Railway ministry paid for the case study done by IIM-A. The case study in the year 2006 talked about the remarkable change in the turnover of the railways. An amount of 4 lakh rupees plus and all the service charges, expenses of professors, computer usage and overheads of at IIM-A.
The author of the study, an IIM-A professor was also provided rail travel (complimentary passes)/air travel, accommodation (rest house), local hospitality, data covering and analysis support. This entire truth was out because of an application filled by The Sunday Express under the Right to Information Act.
It took two months for them to finish a 26-page report, with a 45 page annexure praising the “style of the minister”, his “non-interference” in dealing with the Railways Board, his “direct approach” while communicating with zonal General Managers, “caring attitude towards staff and unions”, his image building through the media. And even his ability to identify the “right people as reflected by the coice of his choice of his OSD Sudhir Kumar”.
After the report was complete, IIM-A rolled out the red carpet for Lalu on September 18 when he visited the campus, with new tag to his name “management guru”.
Things didn’t end here; Lalu then met delegates from Harvard Business School, Wharton University, American Defense Institute, U.S. Financial Services Industrial Study Group, MIT’s Sloan business school who visited Indian Railways to hear the “turnaround story”.
So now its upto you to interpret this piece of news as u wish..

Homosexuality in small towns.

The Indian metros have long been considered the mecca for homosexual activities, with a few other cities like Nagpur, Hyderabad, etc. being constantly considered. The media hype and the amount of information overload (with the internet and websites like orkut playing a major role) has changed the scenario a lot now. Even small cities like Allahabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Patna, to name a few have recently seen a surge in the amount of queer activities. What is astoundingly noticeable is the fact that almost all towns have ‘gay meeting points’ which are just a google away! A number of NGOs are doing some work, mainly to make the ‘communities’ aware of the protection they need to have against STDs. While sexuality is a very complicated issue it is incredible how the number of people who have ‘come out of the closet’ has considerably increased over a few years in India.
I tried to find out more on this issue on the backdrop of a ‘gay marriage’ between two girls hailing from Harrayana. Journalism can be a very complex experience and I experienced it first hand in my first stint with ‘true journalism’. Getting a chance to interview a person who flaunts his sexuality openly over the internet was much tougher than I had imagined. I contacted a few people through orkut.com but it was a futile attempt. (I wanted an interview for my podcast as well but it could never happen!). Having set my mind on the story I went the illegal way. I created a fake orkut account and joined a few communities which openly expose the lack of securities and the slackness in the implementation of the ‘norms’ of google.com and its associated sites. As I browsed through the various communities and their members, a few facts were evident:

• Getting ‘hooked up’ is very simple on the internet.


• Nudity and obscenity is the order of the day.


• For many it is just a medium to escape the monotony of their lives.


• Pornography is not restricted to the business aspect; many sex chats (C-2-C, as they are called) show the individual and non-economic angle.


• For quite a few fame hungry men and women, violating the norms of the society is the easiest option and internet provides them a private audience with secret admirers.


• The serge in the queer behavior may be just a lack of opportunity with the opposite sex (even over the internet) and the strange restrictions that the Indian society imposes on such individuals (especially belonging to small towns).


• There are however, a number of fascinated first timers who may have been ‘inspired’ by the MTV and other outlets of metro-culture. (If a big football star is Gay, it’s so ‘cool’).

Like always, I don’t wish to leave you with an overwhelming opinion that may obstruct your free flowing thought process. I just had my side of the story to tell you and encourage you to voice your opinions here and have a fruitful discussion.

PS: I’ve deleted the fake profile I had created on orkut.com!!!

COOPERATIVES: A PERFECT MACHINE TO BRING ABOUT ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT

It is very rare that solutions to problems of overblown proportions exist and be perfect in all respects. The idea of cooperatives is one such solution. For a country like India which is moving up in all frontiers and fast emerging a power to be reckoned in the world, there’s a need to make the foundations stronger than ever. This nation building is possible only when all sections of the country are economically strong and socially secure.

The basic principles on which a cooperative system works advocate empowerment through responsibility, power and profit sharing. This form of a set-up does a two fold job. First, it makes sure that the collaborating parties share the profit thus bringing about an atmosphere of economic independence. Secondly, it improves the managerial skills of the whole society involved in it and hence they get a social elation based on their acquired confidence.

We all know how small fishes of the sea team up together to scare away the big predators underwater. Think of a cooperative as a similar setup. While the isolated people would have to face tough times and may wilt and perish, the joint effort of such small seemingly powerless islands would make a giant landmass which would not only float and be self-sustaining but may be able to encourage other organizations as subsidiaries to thrive on its support.

Some may argue that even a cooperative setup may turn out to be a private-profit-maker for a few who would exploit it. This is in fact the sorry story of some unsuccessful attempts. What we need to realize is that such failure would exist only when long term gains of a cooperative are not properly communicated to the people. They need to understand that trust is a very important building block of any cooperative organization.

India has a very long history of cooperatives. A large number of success-stories of our nation communicate to us the power of cooperatives. One must question why the cooperative system has more often than not worked wonders for our nation. The answer is simple; a cooperative helps in harnessing the versatility and potency of the cottage industries. With more than 70% of Indian population living in villages with little or no access to the development that our nation now boasts of, it is logical to think that instead of thrusting the big profit ravenous industries into the villages the underprivileged would be far better off if cooperative industries were able to grow amidst them.

The “India Rural Infrastructure Report” has pointed out that providing telecom connectivity alone to this 70% of India would require funds to the tune of more than Rs. 92,690 crores. Add to this an additional Rs.55, 243 crores for power supply, Rs.5, 892 crores for roads and transport and Rs.4, 488 crores for water and sanitation. As is evident from these numbers, the fact that infrastructure in villages is largely owned by the government faces a funds constraint. Now, consider the fact that 9/10th of village households do not own telephone and 50% of the households do not have power connections. Imagining fully developed rural areas and hence a developed India is impossible without solving this desperate situation; dearth of funds and huge requirements pose a problem that seems hopeless. The only viable solution can be envisaged through the installation of proper cooperatives involving the occupational activities of the region. Right now every 4th poor person on this planet is an Indian. If this scenario has to change we would need to empower each and every individual by heralding a cooperative revolution across the borders of the nation.

I wish to illustrate a simple example which can act as a prototype for an ideal cooperative. The “Yashasvini micro health insurance scheme” which is an initiative taken up in Karnataka, has ensured health care surgery in good hospitals to 20 million farmers in the state. This includes expensive heart surgeries as well. All this is made available to the farmers at an astonishingly low cost of Rs.5 a month! This proves beyond doubt the power that a cooperative system can yield and the far-reaching effects that it may have.

Sparrows and eagles

I can still remember my early school days (in St. Joseph’s College, Allahabad). As much as us, the eagles perched on top of the tall school buildings used to wait for the lunch break. Our mothers’ kitchens served the hungry eagles during the day. We saw the amazing creature making magnificent calculated dives to pick up the litter that we created on the play ground. Coming back to home was not just bicycling through the heavy traffic that has made an exponential rise; it was coming back to the sound of sparrows that always found a safe nestling place in my garden. The mother sparrow’s relentless efforts to feed the yelling babies were both music to ears and a nature lover’s paradise.
Things have changed drastically in the recent times. I went to my old school only to find that like my old teachers the eagles have also taken retirement. The only difference is that unlike the teachers my old friends have not been replaced by their new offspring. I had never imagined that the eagles which outnumbered the students of my school would one day become endangered. The monsters to be blamed for wiping out the existence of these wonderful creatures are pollution, unabated urbanization and unobstructed cutting of trees on the pretext of development. This is ironical for a city like Allahabad which is called a ‘dead city’ considering the slow pace of development here.
My father had put up a small bird house for the sparrows a year back which is yet to find inhabitants. Like other big cities the sparrow song has evaded our ears for some years now!
There is a need to take up the cause of environment preservation (resurrection now) in a big way. We have harmed our planet to such an extent now that individual resolutions may not be enough. A strong political will has become the need of the hour. Governments around the world need to take into consideration the fact that economy of the future world would depend on how well we manage our ecosystem. There are very few examples of a political success which had the environment angle to their campaign and policies. The convincing win of congress in the Goa assembly elections is a clear indication that when it comes to choosing a government we still vote without taking into account the past atrocities that were committed on the environment around us.

NOT JUST A GAME PERHAPS !

Cricket is not just a game! I know, quite a cliché. There have been a lot of incidents recently which made me say that. The furor created over the suicide of a young aspiring cricketer, Subhash Dixit, has made many critics and people associated with the game think beyond the money and fame involved in the game. Selectors making huge profits over the selection process are not a secret anymore! Selection of an Indian coach turned out nothing but BCCI hoopla without any results as yet.
There is something with this game, especially in India. I don’t wish to comment on the viability of the claim that ‘we love cricket because cricket is in our blood’, I would just wish to bring to you a small incident that happened today.

PJ: ‘Hey lets go to civil lines guys. We’ll chase around some *%&$# …’

Vinay: ‘Ya lets go. We’ll ask Anuj and Sam as well’

Sam: ‘I’m fine with it. Let’s get our engines kicking!’

Anuj: ‘Sure, let’s go. Haven’t had any funs in a while’

So, all four of us set out on our bikes to have some fun. Meanwhile, Anuj gets a call.

Anuj (on the phone): ‘Ok. I’ll be there in a moment.’

PJ: ‘Hey what happened?’

Anuj: ‘Yaar I’m sorry. Can’t come with you guys. Have a cricket match.’

Vinay: ‘But your match was tomorrow na?’

Anuj: ‘Ya my match is tomorrow guys. I’m umpiring on today’s match!’

We tried to convince him but he was adamant. In the end he evaded our questions and queries and we remained silent. How anyone can miss loads of fun in the company of friends just because he has to umpire in a cricket match! I’m still clueless.

"KANOON KE GAAL PAR TAMACHA" !!!

Imagine this: You are riding a bike on a busy road along with 2 other friends. Yes, I mean all 3 of you on the same bike! The person driving the very sturdy Pulsar 150cc is good at his job and maneuvering even in the heavy traffic is quite simple for him. Nevertheless, it is illegal and an inconspicuous police jeep parked at the corner of the road is not spotted and they get caught. All papers come in handy and there’s no problem with anything else, an Rs.45 challan is all that would have to be paid. Fair enough, they say, not a bad deal, after all they did break a law.
The police team inspecting the lawbreakers has forgotten the challan receipt book in the ‘thana’ and they’ll have to move to that place which is some 1 kilometer from there. But, how do they go there? I mean, 3 of them cannot ride on a single bike now can they! This doubt is raised in front of the police inspector and he suggests that they can take the inside road where there wont be more checks and reach the police station where after getting the receipt they can go back.
Now imagine this: The same 3 friends ride the same bike, now moving towards the police station. They reach the place faster than the police and decide to take some cold drink at the nearby shop! In due course of time the police jeep comes back and they go inside the ‘thana’, get their job done and move out of the police station again doing the same for which they were caught in the first place. But, now they have the much honored receipt so for a few days they can manage with 3 people on one bike!
Yes you have guessed it right; one of them was me (with my friends Vinay and Sam). May God be with us!!!

Defining SUCCESS

Today was my first working day at National Insurance Academy, Pune. So we had an inaugural session this morning with the CEO of AON Global Insurance Services Pvt Ltd as the Chief Guest. The proceedings started with a very interesting presentation by our director, Dr. K.C. Mishra. He spoke and presented a video of top CEO speaking on success.
Well I remember discussing the topic quite a number of times with my friends and we found it tough to coin a definition for the word “success”.
So, this video was courtesy Wharton, where the same question was toasted in front of few CEO for their views.
Many CEO came in with their definitions and each tried to justify their point.
Most of them tried to relate it to the economic status and monetary gains that one makes in his lifetime. Some called it achieving something desired, planned, or attempted. Some said it is meeting all the goals that you set for yourself or fulfilment of all your dreams and desires. But all had one thing in common to say, success is a relative quality.
But then the best definition among all the 10 corporates who answered was from the youngest one. He said success is directly comparable to happiness in life, if a person is happy it implies he is successful. Now it upto the person; what sort of happiness he looks forward to! For example if he is able to satisfy his wife and children at home, it implies he is a successful family man.
Isn’t it well said?? It is for a person to realise whether he is happy with what he has done, no matter how much effort he has put in to achieve it compared to others, he is successful.
While I was about to conclude it as the definition of the day, our director put forward his! He simply said, Success is not a goal, it’s a journey.
It just sums it all.. All other definitions were case sensitive (so, they even contradict the word definition) but the one liner from our director tends to be the complete definition.
If you are happy or achieved success, it just pushes you to crave for more success. The journey is just endless. People need to realise this and climb the ladder of their life. For a 3 year old though learning all the alphabets will be a tough ask, but then he learns things and greater things, so he just keeps raising the bar for himself(though more often by force) and progresses on the path of academic success. And then so in all other fields.. till the end of his life.
This definition is so universal that it can even be used in the case of companies and organisations. Many companies are called (and more often call themselves) successful, but there again it’s a dynamic process. If you are the current leader in a particular industry, you have to ensure that you continue to remain to same. There is always has a potential threat from of other players in the same industry or the new payers coming in. The growth of the company should always be going up, adding on more products and more consumers.
And even the term relativity is explained better here. There isn’t anything like absolute successful with which one has to compare himself. It’s just relative to your past successes, the circumstances and some other factors. Now, it is for a person to make the best out of a situation; his decision makes him the man he would be in future. So, once he is successful in achieving it, he looks for greater task and pushes for more success.
So, people every one on this planet is successful and should be happy for it, and keep looking for opportunities for taking up bigger tasks and doing them successfully.

CRAZY DAY !!!

We (3 friends and I) set out to go on a biking tour to a near by temple and a picnic spot of sorts (some 70kms from the city) this Sunday. The place is called ‘Sitamarhi’ and is believed to be the place where ‘sita’ descended into the earth. There is of course a lot of dispute over the whole issue. Leaving the set of people who believe that the whole issue is a faux, there are those who believe that the actual place is somewhere in Bihar. Considering the fact that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are more or less the same place (politically, intellectually, infra wise, religious sentiments, beliefs, etc.) it has never been a much debated issue like the ‘Babri masjid’!



We set out early in the morning on our bikes (both Pulsar 150cc) and as always the road was fun. Had photo shoots; the regular road side ‘chai dhaba’; an occasional ‘good face’ to watch for; a few buffalos; broken roads; smooth highway; speeding trucks (TATA and Ashok Leyland !!!), in all the road as usual. We did flaunt our disobedience and stupidity at the same time by not wearing our helmets, but God was with us!
The temple is some 10 km inside a village along the highway and riding in the village is a big challenge, occasional cattle and small kids crossing the road just in front of you; I need not mention that the road is in shambles.
We reached the place by 10 in the morning and after some soul searching in the temple had our breakfast. The place has got some good facilities for the visitors, now that the place is such a big attraction for people looking for some escape from the daily monotony and Allahabad doesn’t have a lot of good hang out places so this is heaven for us.
Then followed a round of discussions, jokes, walk in the huge temple compound, and what not! Then it was time for lunch. We hogged on some fine rotis, dal makhani, paneer butter masala, kadhai paneer and sprite! If you are a non-vegetarian then this place will not cater to your taste buds. Then another round of jokes, photos, roaming around till it was time to get back. This time the weather was not too polite to us and riding a bike in the blazing heat is not the best of experiences. Nevertheless, honking we rode our bikes to get back home and the lord of rain did finally bless our courage and we had to ride in the sun only for about 40 minutes.
Tired, I sunk into my bed and slept for a few hours. Now comes the sad part. When I woke up I had a nauseating feeling and a slight pain in my stomach. After minutes of uneasiness I finally threw up. Must have been due to the stuff I ate during my day. Then late in the night my dad took me to a nearby nursing home (and ya it was ‘Father’s day’ yesterday!!!) where a male nurse jabbed two injections into my veins. I’m still weak while writing this blog but a lot better than yesterday. But, what a crazy day!
The only pitiful thing now is that I have to restrict the things that I’m eating and eating ‘khichadi’ with lime is just not palatable.

Be careful while preaching HR Skills

Days back I was reading “The Week” (June 10 th edition).. The cover story of this magazine said “Paid to Play” and it dealt with how the HR department in various companies both public and private are now trying innovative techniques for recruiting and retaining the best people in their organisation. Few examples that were highlighted include Continuous Computing which allows all its employees to take a 45-minutes post lunch nap called power-nap; Microsoft GTSC in Bangalore has set up a hi-tech gaming room, christened the X-box, for its employees; and the list went on with lot of creative techniques being implemented to keep people energetic, motivated and thus more efficient.
I still remember the workshop conducted by Wipro Technologies for the fresher recruits, to motivate them to join the company, give them a good feel about the company and a little insight to corporate life. One of their HR department executive Rajesh Venkadri was at our campus for the 2-day workshop called Synergy. There were number of activities (even a few games) which involved lot of fun and folic and each one of us were in our top spirits.
But at this moment I recollect a very disturbing incident that happened and now regretting for not bringing into light then. Mr. Venkatadri just folded a 100 rupee note very badly and then even took it into his mouth and spit it on the floor, and the with in flash of a second a classmate of mine happily picked it up and won all praises from the HR man. According to him, a 100 rupee note is a hundred rupee note and it not a matter of shame to do anything to get it. Basically it was just an extension of the heated argument we had on the fact that not all jobs are treated alike and rag-pickers and maids are looked very lowly.
But he didn’t realise the offence he performed in the process. It is an offence to fold an Indian currency note more than once or trying to spoil it in any form.

Hope this comes to his notice soon and I request people reading this article it practice and preach people to respect our currency notes and do not spoil them.

SELECTION - a tuff task

While the companies in the West are looking into India as the best option for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), few Indian organisations like BCCI and Congress-NCP-Left are regretting for not Outsourcing the job of finding a coach and candidate for the President respectively.
This might be for the first time in the history of Indian politics that such a long list of potential candidates were discussed and it took the longest time for them to satisfy all parties. Recently they zeroed in on one name, surprisingly a female candidate Prathibha Patil. Now she might turn on to become the 1st women President of India.. But hold on, here I have a doubt, How should we address her in Hindi (caused President is generally called Rastra’pati’)? I don’t think we can convert the gender and call her Rastrapatni.. it will be interesting to know the right answer.. will it be Rastramata, Shrimati Rastrapati..?? I can’t wait to find it out…
The situation is even worse for the BCCI, it is in its worst period ever. It started its search for an appropriate man to coach the Indian cricket team since shameful 1st round exit from the World Cup under the guidance of Greg Chappel. Few weeks ago it looked almost certain that Dav Watmore will sign the dotted line, but many differences erupted in the selection panel and after a long process Graham Ford was selected for the job. But as some put it, this decision might have been taken in Rahu kaal, as Ford declined the offer and decided to continue his tenure with English cricket county, Kent. Now with an abroad series week ahead, former cricketer Chandu Borde has been allotted the job temporarily.
Well I really hope BCCI comes out of this bad patch very soon and even our politicians improve in selection process. And I don’t want to see the job portals and newspapers carrying ads for people to apply for the posts of coach of Indian cricket team or the President of India. And it would be even worse if we have a reality show calling on the people to sms and vote for their choice.

ABOUT ME ...

Well, this post may seem to you a bit (or a lot) odd! The fact is that I was listening to a few things that I recorded in the last semester at college, a few friendly interviews; a friend of mine said in one interview that its hard to define "myself" ... "I like people to judge me and form opinions about me based on that ... ".
But, I've noticed on Orkut that there's almost no one who is able to say such a thing and refrain from leaving the 'about me' section blank !!!
Here's a random pick from orkut ... Someone's profile's 'about me' for you. (I don't know the person and my appologies for using it here without your permission, hope I don't have to run to my lawyers for this!!!)
"WELL!! Really....now,this is slightly difficult.But,honestly speaking,i am more or less a regular sort of a person but definitely with my own bag of idiosyncracies…usually I am friendly and amiable,but occasionally unpredictable...a little naïve and slightly confused about the world at large.
My “good-girl” appearance will lead you to think that I’m a very sweet-tempered,docile,obedient girl-next-door but that’s true only to a certain extent...because this impression eclipses a certain part of myself which is obstinate,and occasionally unreasonable and unpredictable.believe me,it leads people to form various kinds of opinions about me which are inevitably conflicting.close ones can form an accurate idea about me,though.and usually,I’m very quiet,but i have my moments of enthusiasm when i can talk people's heads off.
I can’t stand superficiality or artificiality of any kind and attach immense value to simplicity and honesty.
And before I forget....a bit of a crackpot,I love scribbling rubbish on paper....usually the products of my daydreaming...hehehe "

VOTE FOR TAJ !

I voted for TAJ MAHAL just now! I know it is quite late but better than never right!! And what a time to vote; in a couple of days the Presidential voting is going to take place. I don't wish to thrust my opinion on you but just had this thought in my head, should I vote for TAJ just because I'm an Indian? Is it not the voting for 7 wonders of the world? Well, I voted for TAJ! I'm sure you have already done that, or may do it after reading this blog ...
The website says, "This immense mausoleum was built on the orders of Shah Jahan, the fifth Muslim Mogul emperor, to honor the memory of his beloved late wife. Built out of white marble and standing in formally laid-out walled gardens, the Taj Mahal is regarded as the most perfect jewel of Muslim art in India. The emperor was consequently jailed and, it is said, could then only see the Taj Mahal out of his small cell window". And I read an email some time back which talked about Taj being Tejo Mahal build before the Mughal period! I'm sure most of you got that mail as well and read it, forwarded it. Like before, I don't want to comment on this one as well. I voted for TAJ just now and I'd be happy to see it making the list of the final 7 !!!