Some one Licks!!!Welcome to Politics...

If I ask you “What would you do if you get 50 Crores?”

Would you do charity?
Would you start your business?
Would you buy a home?
Would you buy a car? AND...List goes on and on....
Well it does not matter what you would do with the money unless it is your hard earned money.

It takes a lifetime for most of the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) to earn and save 1 Crore however it is absolutely normal to have few Crores easily and for  our dear “Politicians”.
Politics is one of the most preferred topics during group discussion and every person has their own view about politics.

What really compelled me to write about politics is few numbers about black money around politics and its impact on Indian economy.
“Now the numbers which I am using is through one of the articles and I don’t know how far it is true?”However it is a universal truth that Politicians do have hell lot of black money in their kitty.

Apparently, India has more money in Swiss banks than all the other countries combined.
 Black money in Swiss banks — Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:

Top five

INDIA	$1,456 billion
Russia	$ 470 billion
UK	$390 billion
Ukraine	$100 billion
China	$ 96 billion

The second best Russia has 4 times lesser deposit. US is not even there in the counting in top five!!

This amount is about 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt. With this amount 45 Crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying us. Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.

The big question is “Can We Get the Money Back”?
We have read so many cases, hundreds of scams and amounts are whooping:-Hundreds of Crores. The cases will go and go like some TV show for 400 odd episodes but the bottom line is we cannot recover the money.

We all know that along with your performance in your work you need to be qualified.
CEO /VP/Managing Directors are expected to be IIT Graduates with a MBA degree from A grade university.

To be a clerk or a to get a low grade government job an individual atleast needs to clear 10^th grade and unfortunately to become a politician there is no requirement for qualification, experience etc.

Being an Optimist is Important:

I am absolutely not discarding the great work which few politicians have done or neither I am ungrateful to the work which government does for us.
There are innumerable facilities which the government strive for with the constraints of population and diversified states and people which we have across India.

We still need to think positive and look at our responsibilities which I am sure will take us long way:-

Vote in all the elections.
Research on the candidates before casting your valuable votes.
Follow basic things like ask for a bill when you buy anything.
Don’t throw garbage wherever you feel like.
Pay taxes.
Don’t pay bribes to get out of the situation provided you follow the basic rules.

Ultimate Vision:

India’s corporate culture is booming, we have revolutionary systematic approach when it comes to managing an organization.
It would be a dream come true if we have the same approach when it comes to politics and managing our country.

Imagine a well qualified CEO for our state. A transparent monetary transaction system which gives us a clear idea of whether our country/state is in profit or loss (I am sure we want it to be in profit).

Promote the deserving politicians based on their performance which can be quantified.
Instead of bribes give bonuses every six months for the good work our government employees like police etc do.

The above are just my observations and views and at the end of the day I am and always be proud to be an Indian J

Marriage –A Compromise for Women

When we ask people in general “What is Marriage according to you?”

You would get some typical answers like:-

·         Marriage is an institution.

·         Marriage  unites two families together

·         Marriage means commitment

Or some might even have some typical filmy answers like:

·         Shaadi to pyaar karne walo ki jeet hai.

·         Shaadi do dilo ke Milan ki kahani hai

I am not here to discuss if Love marriage is better than Arrange marriage or neither am I going to discuss about successful or unsuccessful marriages.
Frankly any of the above does not bother me at all!!!

What I would like to talk about is-----What does Marriage mean to a Woman???
The answer is NOTHING MORE THAN A BIG BIG BIG COMPROMISE...

Guys have a big problem if they are asked to adjust even for a day and here we are talking about someone who is going to adjust for the entire life.
Do we even care if a woman leaves her family with whom she must have spent more than two decades?
It’s absolutely normal for us isn’t it? As shameless we are, we would always thrust these things upon old traditions...
I am not saying to change things around, All I am asking is do we consider the amount of support women require after marriage.

They leave their parents, brothers, sisters, their house and what they get in return is tremendous pressure of proving herself as a good wife, a good daughter in law etc etc etc-Ridiculous!!!

The most important thing that really triggers me is the tradition of taking Dowry.
Imagine this-Someone puts their heart and soul in earning the money over a period of many years and they have to give it away just because a so called eligible bachelor is marrying his daughter.

As good as a Thief snatching the entire lives earning as soon as you walk out of the bank.

There has been so much spoken about women empowerment, 50% reservation for women and on the other hand what we do is give Lakhs of Rupees as a token of appreciation to marry our daughters/sisters...

I have seen guys earning 15 Thousand Rupees and demanding 15 Lakhs in dowry.
According to me all they should get is 15 tight slaps on the back side with a 15 year imprisonment.
It so much proves the incapability of that person and a family who does not have confidence in their son.

I always wonder -Can a mother in law become a mother for her daughter in law?
In my opinion it’s a big NO.There are two aspects to it firstly a mother in law cannot replace a mother and secondly a mother would have different set of expectations from a daughter and a daughter in law....

A mother would hate her mother in law however she would expect her daughter in law to obey and respect her to the core-Funny isn’t it???

I am not sure how many people and what age group will ever read this but the least I would expect is to give some amount of consideration to women who sacrifice everything because of our society’s tradition...

Let’s not consider them like a helping hand in the kitchen or someone who is bound to keep everyone happy.

 Every woman has equal rights to wake up late, take the luxury of dreaming about their career, and enjoy their lives like they did before marriage.

I hope in this male dominated world the next time you see a woman the least you can do is give them their due respect...   

Friendship...What is it really?

This is one topic on which there are hundreds of films made, we talk about it all the time and we try and understand our friends and friendship throughout our lives.

I met one of my old friends yesterday after a long time and that made me think what is friendship all about?

Does friendship mean just having a good time with each other, partying with each other, going on adventurous trips together, commenting on each other’s Facebook status and updates?

Most of us would have answered “No” and probably think it is beyond all the above.

Do we need to meet each other regularly or every day to be good friends? I would say it’s a big “Yes”.
Don’t believe me!!! Just think about your closest friends- They are always someone who either stay in the same vicinity or someone who you meet every day like your school/college mate or your office colleague.

Are friends really a phone call away? Well it depends –Some fortunate people do have friends who are always there for them and some would have hundreds of reason not to meet unless they know it is a happy occasion!!!

Well I do not have anything against friendship but I feel most of us try and have friends either because it’s a trend to have a lot of friends around or we have not got an opportunity to find out who would be with us during our tough times.
Friends will always be selfless when they meet you and most importantly would accept you with our short comings. You might be away for years but that does not make any difference to them if you have not called them.

Many of us do not realize that we would always find our best friends within our family.
I am sure we all would agree that whatever the situation is we will have someone from our family who would be there for you always.
Doesn’t it make more sense to invest time and money to groom friendship with your Mom, Dad or your wife/husband rather than spending time with someone who might not be with you when you really need a friend?

I have seen hundreds of incidents when friends have disappointed me and similarly there probably would have been hundreds of incidents when I could not keep up to my friends expectations.
Through all the experiences you eventually know who you can really call a FRIEND...

I have been fortunate to have few friends who would be there through my ups and downs and I will go out of my way to make sure that I am there when they need me.

For me there are two things which you need to have a long lasting friendship:

·         Don’t expect anything from a friend while doing something for him/her

• Be honest even if he/she does not like it.

Down South from My Mouth...

So here it is... Another amateur blogger trying his hands on writing. I was just thinking what really drived me to start writing a blog? I obviously do not have a huge range of high profile sophisticated words in my vocabulary which might project me like an intellectual writer or neither do I have any writing experience. So why am I writing a blog? Well it boils down to one thing which is ...few of my experiences which I would like to share and a point of view which I can share. So to set the expectations right!!! You’ll would be looking at simple and short stories which I hope few people reading it can relate to.

I have spent around 23 years of my life in Mumbai and I must say I have been a typical Mumbaikar who really loves his Vadapav, beaches, monsoon, friends, late nights and the list goes on and on....

However it’s when I went to Bangalore around 4 years ago which gave me experiences which I could never have got in Mumbai. So here I am writing about my south experience!!!

The Stay:-

My start in Bangalore was similar to a typical Bollywood story with a strange city waiting for me and it started in a similar fashion with the taxi fellow charging five times of what he would normally charge, people speaking a language which I never paid attention to when I was in Mumbai.
I had a lot of expectations from the city considering that I was joining Accenture and I was really looking forward to the life in Bangalore.

I started off by staying in a Service Apartment for a month then shifted to a PG for a month and to my rescue I had a couple of my team members who were looking for a roommate for a 2 BHK apartment to which I readily agreed to.
I guess that was one of the best things which happened to me in Bangalore.
We did share some moments which I am sure none of us will forget for a really long time.
This was the time when I really experienced “the “ bachelor life. It is absolutely strange when you stay in a city where you do not know any one and your room mates become your family.

I will always remember our so called drinking sessions which went on for hours. Watching various seasons of “Friends” till wee hours in the morning, Playing counter strike, celebrating each other’s birthday, Having Maggi and evening Tea at the bakery and the so many other things which I can frankly talk about for hours.
I guess you are always surrounded with friends and ...there are friends who you can count on at any given point of time. I was fortunate to have quite a few of the latter in Bangalore.

IT Hub of India:-

Professionally I think Bangalore is one of the best places to be in and is for sure land of opportunities. With the number of MNC’s choosing Bangalore as preferred location it definitely looks like it will be ahead of all the other states in India. You really feel amazed with the number of IT Park already and coming up in Bangalore.

It is a city which gives a boost to your career...

Bangalore as a City: I was all set to enjoy Bangalore’s climate that I had heard about.
First time in my life I had to wear a sweater at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
So in a nutshell the climate in Bangalore is just awesome. It moderately rains for most part of the year and you never feel tired walking even in the afternoon. The city is definitely clean and green.

Right from Mountains, lakes, waterfalls, beaches...you name it and you will find it in and around Bangalore.

Few places you have to visit in Bangalore is Nandi Hills---Especially early in the morning to see the sun rise and if you are a bike lover there are lots of bike races which take place here.
LalBaugh:-If you love flowers and nature this is the right place to be.
Spread over 200 acres it is a beautiful garden and they have flower shows on 26^th Jan and 15^th august which are spectacular.
If you want to enjoy the mountain and tea estates you can go to Ooty, Kodaikanal, Coorg and there are some wonderful waterfalls near Bangalore.
Pondicherry is a must visit which allows you to sink in with a feeling of being in French colonies and enjoy beaches, water sports and ofcourse seafood.

I always felt that Bangalore should be a little friendlier and deserves a better night life.

I still remember our struggle to find food after 11 and surviving on Maggi, Biscuits which was fun too...

Language –Is it so important ?

It is very obvious that we have different languages in different states etc etc etc...
Inspite of such wonderful people and work culture Bangalore still prefers dividing people as per the language people speak. I did manage 4years in Bangalore with few basic words in Kannada but I still feel that it will be a great place to be if there is no anti Hindi mind set.

4 years... and a lifetime memory:

I obviously cannot write everything about South and since I have spent 4 years in Bangalore I have restricted my writing to the above.

4 years in Bangalore has given me so many experiences, learnings and friends that the mere mention of Bangalore does bring in an array of memories in front of me which will be with me forever.

I am sure the word “Bangalore” will always bring a smile on my face J