Fairy tales existence

  Cinderella is a classic fairy tale every girl is fascinated about, the shoes, the clothes and the beautiful pictures are like filligree to the story. The story has been adapted in so many films, cartoons and documentaries that it just reinstates the belief in how pure and childlike love is. In that glance with your prince there is exchange of so many unpsoken words, the burning feeling in your cheeks, the involuntary dance on your favourite tune the body does and the invisible tiara on your head. Any girl who fantasizes about life is not familiar with this feeling.


A feeling such as this exists in these times is often debatable for people not in love. But, for those of you who have been in love  will completely understand that ecstatic moment and feel like reliving/ experiencing it every now and then. For such in trance people, a day wouldn't pass without them talking, they will carry information about each other or about each other's life probably faster than any form of news can travel. Telepathy is just a word for many in this world but for them, that is a reality so close that they no longer are surprised when it happens but smile and feel being special. So pure and benign is their love that mere silence could solve the biggest of the big problems between them.


Believe in love it will happen someday, when it does embrace it and do not let your fears overpower it ! If you do not encounter a feeling such as this :-) life is long! love yourself and your life. Glance at life just like you do with your prince and you will be surprised as to how much it has to tell you !

Vacation Lessons

Everybody needs a vacation once in a year. Vacation is like a rejuvenating spree, provided we do things we like and go to places we like. What if a vacation involves things you must do and the whole schedule for it is decided by somebody else!!!

     Every year my family makes sure that we visit a new place for our vacation. And this would either start with visiting temples or end with visiting one. Sometimes it’s just about temples. With such a kind of vacation rule in  my family, my mother once had planned to visit goa by road ( at least this is what I was  told  initially  ) I was all excited and jumping with joy that this time there are no temple visits and it  was going to pure fun. Nothing to do with  getting up at the oddest of odd hours in the morning, taking shower in ice cold water, dressing up to be in the temple before sunrise and standing  in those long  never ending queues. As I was painting pictures of a temple free vacation in my mind   where it was about being lazy, good food and tourist places, my mother killed my excitement by saying "we would be going to gokarna, sringeri, and other pilgrimage places nearby to goa and then if we had time left we might go to goa. These words drained my enthusiasm and I was no longer interested in the trip, but as a part of the family I had no other option but to go.

  So we started the road trip and our first destination was Gokarna. A beach town which was famous for lord shiva’s temple. As most of us know lord shiva is worshipped in the form of a cylindrical structure called “lingam “. Here too he was worshipped in the lingam form. But the interesting part here was the lingam is inside a small man made stone groove, which means you cannot see the lingam but just touch and feel it. And the public there believes that this is god. They perform rituals  so religiously  and  with such energy that if you attend an offering you will be taken to a whole new state of mind, with all the singing and lights around. The whole place is filled with happiness all chanting the name of god. When I attended such an offering I was mesmerized by the unity the crowd portrayed. And thats when I concluded that visiting temples was not as bad as I thought.

            Several times I had travelled with family to godly places situated at various corners in India  sometimes hardiwar/rishikesh which was tricked as mussoorie to me or Palakkad, Kerala being clubbed with the famous Guruvayoor temple and many more. But as I grew up  I started to look at these visits differently instead of sulking about a vacation like that I paid  attention and got  involved in what I was doing and where I travelled. Getting to know about so many gods and their temples and visiting them made me curious about mythology. Hence I started exploring by either asking my mother or reading about them.

          Over a period of time I looked forward to travel with mom to such places because she used to tell me all about the it before hand. It was like I had a guide to every place I travelled. Having visited so many holy places there were numerous things I had noticed by then, the architecture of the temples which was 1000s of years old interested me for its pure grandeur. The history about the origin of every famous temple contributed to my knowledge and instilled amazement within me. The lights with which the temples would be lit up during night was far better than any man made light shows in the world. The peace these holy places have, displayed the power to wipe out all the disturbances in the mind of a person. The discipline and punctuality followed by the holy men and caretakers at these places made me make good habits a part of my life with ease. The hundreds of people who come to visit such places far away from their home just to feel the inner peace which I felt made me believe in this invisible power even more.

          The whole concept of god and some power made absolute sense to me. I deciphered this whole experience as a way to charge myself for the life ahead just as how our cell phones needs to be  charged every night so as to be useful to us the  next day. Because a person who is creative and looks forward to achieve goals either long or short needs to be charged up and going. Even if we are positive all the time and try to be the same every day, there are times when we fall in those empty spaces. Once in such a place one needs something or somebody to put your hopes on and come back on track. For me it’s the belief in the power that a holy place has. I just visit a great holy place and the ambience charges me up and I feel I am ready the next moment. Today I believe these vacations that I had when I was young have actually made my life a vacation. Every person to be extremely happy needs a passion or hobby or any other kind of belief apart from what they do regularly like for most of us being here today and being associated with toastmasters. These passions and beliefs are the trump cards in one’s life and reflect the happier side of us, the go getter side of us. And we should nurture these passions and beliefs and help it grow. Because sometimes the solutions to the problems we have, show up while we do something we love.

An unwanted holiday has helped me form my connection with this world through spirituality.  So maybe all of us should welcome any unwanted happenings in life and see how it turns out for oneself . If lucky you might learn the lesson about how to live life !

A day which changes the rest to be followed .

           A pleasant morning as always she gets up early blinks at the morning sky with cuteness of a baby charming the dawn to show itself up a little later, so she could live her dreams for a few more moments. The nature gives in to her innocence and looks at her with a heavy sigh until she is done with creating her lovely world which she hopes it to be a reality some day. It  then  lets out its love for her through the warmth of its lovely golden rays of light which caresses her slowly and brings her to reality.
             She looks at her bedside clock and winks at the sky for loving her so much and quickly gets ready for her workout which she does religiously. The day was a simple one with no great things lined up for her, she never did anything very special but whatever she had planned for her she did it just for her and nobody else. All dressed up and set to make herself feel very good she sets out on a crowded road with people rushing to office in the loneliness of their big cars or on the difficulty of an  unsafe bike. Every time she saw a person with a worried look on their face she quickly checked the tag around their neck and thought what will happen to the pretty world which is turning into a machine making factory where just money and survival matters. She chose to ignore these complicated thoughts because she knows it is too big for her small brain which just wants everybody to stay happy.

            She too works for a machine making factory but wants to redo her life as soon as possible trying to find solace and happiness for the  moment. Walking down the road filled with busy people caught in deep conversations over a lifeless object  pressed to their ear she sees a man just like her looking around people for some answers. The man looks into her eyes and she instantly realizes some invisible link has been created. She simply followed the man and with apt attention saw him do things. He settled down at a coffee shop with a book which  she  figured out was Ayn Rand's Fountain Head. She chuckled to herself with a mysterious laugh thinking 'what  in the book interests this man which is full of crazy people doing crazy stuff'. He goes through the book like he has read it already once, just reading his favorite pages. She looks at him for a meaning as to why she was here. She cant help but observe his crisp white shirt and blue jeans, those tender fingers being run through pages,  all this while she could hear her heart beat very loud. She was obstinate to figure out why this man was speaking to her with his eyes and ignored  the possibility that this might change few things for her forever.

               She sat there looking at her watch and cherishing her melted ice cream, deep in thoughts. Her phone rings destructing her thoughts about the white shirt man, looks at the phone and silently gets back to sheepishly looking into his eyes for answers. The phone rings for the second time she ignores it again and gets back to her job,  mean time the waiter is puzzled as to why she would not answer her phone when she is all free. She was not free she was swept in by an unknown trance .
               Third time  it rings she cuts the call this time and shows up a feeling of irritation and looks back at the fountainhead guy. Lets out a big gasp as he is missing from his place and looses speech when she finds him right next to her .

 " Hello, Its a very pleasant day isn't it ? How are you doing ?" comes a chivalrous voice .
" Uhm, Im doing good " said a voice deep inside from her. She thanked the voice because she was all numb and looked pale .

" I was thinking if you wanted to borrow my book, I assumed you would want to read it " he said.
" No thank you. I have read it and never want to read it again, those crazy characters kind off disturb me and make no sense to me " She says .

With a huge smirk on his face he says " Will you join me over for a cup off coffee, I would love to know why you think the people in the book are crazy "

Her phone rings again, this time she needs to take it. She was ignoring this call for very long.

" Baby where are you ?" comes a voice .
" I am right here and will be there in a moment " she answers back and hangs up .

Collects her belongings, looks at him for the last time trying to feel the invisible connection, turns on her heel, calls for a  taxi and disappears  .

STPI

Software Technology Parks in India (STPI) which was  the future banyan tree for India's economic growth since 1992 has been scissored  off  in the plant stage before is grew into its usual self. The Budget 2011 is the reason .
In 1992 when India was in dire states with no foreign currency and  covenanted its gold to London to borrow foreign currency for its daily payments, It basked on the ongoing IT sector and introduced the smart STPI scheme which provided the IT industries with a 10 year Tax holiday( It means Foreign  IT companies can put up business in India for a small % of tax). This scheme acted in favor  of our economic growth and made us grow from Rs 2.75 crore then to a Rs 3,00,000 crore now without having to shell any amount. But now our new budget does not allow any Tax incentives for STPI.

    Thirty years back China too ran out of foreign currency. Then they introduced tax incentives on their strength "Manufacturing". Today the world can see Made in China label on many goods ranging from toys to electronic to anything you name. Its manufacturing sector has a turn over of around 2,500 billion dollars. In spite of  this massive growth it continues with its tax incentives. Soon China can extract extortionate prices for its goods because no other country can respond as quickly as China.Why does not India get ideas from China be it their ban in the Olympics games and a comeback to no.4 position or this case of becoming world no.1 in manufacturing. Especially when India is going on so strong in this sector .  

  So why did budget 2011 take this decision when India could have grown on this?
The larger IT companies have been turning into real estate grabbers taking advantage of the SEZ scheme. SMEs have been neglected as they do not have any support. As the larger companies had access to ministers and could easily make decisions in their favor.

These large IT companies found in easier to have their own SEZ and save taxes. Hence they wanted this scheme out and relayed totally on the acquired land.

NASSCOM works in the interest of large IT companies, it is not really concerned about the Small and Medium Enterprises.

Probably  these reasons has fueled the India against Corruption movement too.

  What Happens next to India ? 3 - 4 years from now the IT sector will continue to rise because of the speed at which it is prospering but in future India might loose to China and Philippines (already No.1 in BPO sector).
If this happens the prominent growth of India might get amputated. All the SMEs will withdraw from India this will certainly  result in job losses forget about creating new ones. Is India ready to take up such a challenge ? This decision is right or not, only time can tell but we can surely tell that growth cannot be expected at the rate at which it was earlier . 

My Life

At age 5:
       The glass of milk stares vindictively down to me. I wanted to get rid of it, but how do I do it right under my mothers nose ? My sister always gets to know when her glass gets refilled. The sink or the potted plants gave away the secrets everytime. Nobody pitied me I had to gulp it down.

Life taught me "There was no escape from Milk or Mother "

At age 10:
  " I want that toy now " I shouted at the top of my voice and left no stone unturned in showing the tricks and tantrums I could to get that toy. All the while my mother looked at me with those sharp eyes saying nothing.
I realized after a while when my throat parched that I had enough toys and was being unreasonable.

Life taught me "Unreasonable wants are never meant to be fulfilled "

At age 15 :
 I was a teen and had a rush of thoughts in my head. My friends made a movie plan and I wanted to go. But, I was skeptical about my parents letting me go. So, I whispered to my friend on phone  " Don't tell your parents about the movie I am not telling mine either ". " No "comes the spurt reply from the other end of the line and then "I never hide anything from my parents and I think so should you ".
 I did accordingly and my parents even dropped us to the theater and bought us tickets too.

Life taught me " Good Friends are like god sent and reasonable wants are always fulfilled"

At age 21:
    I was almost done with my  Engineering and wanted to pursue the Masters from USA (Due to the  mass phenomenon). My Father sat down for weeks to explain me that this is not what u have to do right now, you need to have a plan for everything. I dropped the idea and stayed back and then  Oracle came my way. I am more than happy because MBA is what I was born to do and time made me realize it.

Life taught me " To always listen and respect experienced people "


          I have a long way to go and wish to write about every mile stone I reach in life. I am sure many's life is more or less the same with different examples where in life teaches them how it has to be treated .