Crazy, Insane, Idiotic I would say!
I read this article yesterday in "Pune Mirror" - a supplement with Times of India. And I am sure you will beat your head on the keyboard after reading this. Here it Goes:

The antics of Govinda on the sets of Loot and Lucky 2 are now famous. Now one more of his strange behaviour on the sets of Kumar Mangat's Money Hai To Honey Hai.
"Govinda was feeling low on a particular day while shooting for the film in Mauritius. That's when he called his astrologer in Mumbai to know more about his state of mine. The astrologer suggested that since there was Rahu kaal on him that particular day, he will have to shoot some sequeneces with a hen and the Rahu kaal will vanish for good from his life."
Knowing how superstitious Govinda can be, he somehow came up with a suggestion to use a hen in the sequence. The production house had to arrange for a henbecause of which the shooting was stalled for a couple of hours. However the poor hen got tired soon as the astrologer had asked Govinda to shoot with the hen for the entire day.
The poor hen was so exhausted that it died on the sets. But the astrologer insisted Govinda to shoot with the hen till 7 PM. So the actor decided to shoot with the dead hen till 7 PM and stopped shooting only at 7 PM. However, everyone on the sets was wondering where to fit this sequence as it is not a part of the script.

So Mr. Govinda, what are you upto? Don't you have your own sense of judgement?
I laughed out loud realizing the fact that when you feel low, the most approachable person to you is your astrologer . You are a member of Parliament and don't visit the constituency for months. You already hold a repo of always coming late on the sets and on top of that you do such crap things further wasting time on reaching the sets.
The little fame that you have has got into your head I guess.

Today I took a different bus to office than I usually catch (via a shorter route that I never knew). Actually, this is something that has occupied my mind since this morning. Let me start with a small analysis.

Everything has its pros and cons. I am talking about the distance of the commute between house and office. Those who stay near to office (around 8-12 kms) definitely save their time spending less time in the company bus as compared to those who live farther. But they have another set of problems to face:

1. Not all buses stop for them. Reason: The buses are packed by the time they reach their place.
2. If any of the buses stop to pick them, they don't get a seat to park themselves.

I don't know the policies of other companies, but in Infosys, Wipro ... buses (especially here in Pune), this is a common scene. Usually female employees opt to stay nearer to the office. So, they are the ones who face the above mentioned problems. They keep waving hands at the buses and the buses flagging their "NO VACANT SEATS" board, pass by. Eventually, they do spend ample time waiting on the road to get into a bus.

Anyways, this is not something I am going to discuss here.

See, we can't help in case of problem one. We can only ask the transport department of our organizations to increase the number of buses - which I tried, but they have an explanation: they have tried (and even succeeded) to cover each and every route of the city, they have counted the number of employees (having bus passes) at each location and manage the timings and routes accordingly, which, on their part sounds quite logical. Actually they have around 12 extra buses running in the city at any given point of time than the exact number of buses required to carry the employees from different parts of the city. I don't have any complaints after that. So, problem one is inevitable.

But in case we face problem two. I am sitting in the bus running to office. Girl employees rush into the bus at one of the stops. Some of them manage to grab a seat but one or two of the lot don't get a seat. I feel I should get up and give the seat to her and I did exactly that. I got up and gave my seat to her. She is happy and I am also happy - anyways its just 15-20 minutes distance. I can manage standing :) Now, at a stop further, some more girls get into the bus. I feel helpless at this point of time. I had only one seat and that's gone. I can't ask others to get up and donate their seats. I know one thing, I have observed this: There are people who want to help but don't have the courage to help. They don't feel like saying,"Excuse me, can you please sit here?" Sometimes they do act, but act late. So, there are good people but they don't let their benignity come out. Something similar happened in the bus today. A girl was standing near to a guy who was sitting with his earphones on (must be listening to radio on his phone). I was looking, standing. After around 10 minutes, he finally did it. He put off his ear plugs and kindly asked her to settle while getting up from his seat. The situation was a bit funny as well as outlandish because he didn't do it instantly. It took him 10 minutes to show that gesture. But I was even happier when I saw another guy sitting besides our hero also got up along with him vacating seat for another lady. I don't know if it was mutual or a follow up.

I didn't know any one in the bus when I got inside. But now I very well know these two boys who showed a little courage for a good cause. Good deed actually. And I am sure they enjoyed what they did and next time they will act real fast :)

Such little nice deeds are a great source of happiness. Believe me, it gives a very nice and pleasant feeling. A feeling of satisfaction, pride.

1. Always get up when you see an old person (respect silver hair) or a physically challenged person standing (Be a gentleman, please!)
2. If not the above, the least you can do is offer a help in holding their bags while you are sitting.

Do try it out! A responsible and wise citizen will get down from the bus when you get down. Remember the Lead India song: "तुम चलो तो हिंदुस्तान चले..."

Since childhood, we have read so much about the great Mahatma Gandhi even as a part of our textbooks and school curriculum - His stories on non-violence, truthfulness, documentaries and movies on Gandhi. He has been one of the most influential personalities of all time at least in INDIA.

I was surfing the net when I came across this interview of TIME with Gopal Godse (brother of the infamous Nathuram Godse - assassin of Gandhi) on Mahatma Gandhi's policies, hypocricies and tactics. The interview was published on Feb 14, 2000. I don't know to what extent he was true. Read yourself and find.

Here it is: "His Principle of Peace Was Bogus"
And, here is another one with Rediff: "Gandhi used to systematically fool people, So, we killed him"

Neither am I a hard core Gandhi fan nor am I finding myself able to hate him much (may be because I have always heard myriad good and nice things about the great man) and I also understand that these guys killed him, so they must have had some grudges against him, still the above articles left me thinking.

Afterall every coin has two sides.

This is around 2 months old picture of mine. I was going back from Infy after a 7 hr continuous stretch of table tennis.
I play a lot and I love it. I can give my heart out to it. I have grown up playing all kinds of games and sports and I can assure that there is no better feeling than the titillating pain, fatigue that you feel when you lie down flat on the ground after playing for a long stretch drenched in sweat.
Awsome...

कुछ दिन पहले मैंने तस्लीम भाई के ब्लॉग पर यह पंक्तियाँ पढीं जो दिल को भीतर तक छू गयीं ।
मुझे ये पंक्तियाँ इतनी उपयुक्त और वास्तविक लगीं की मैं इन्हें यहाँ लिखने से अपने आप को रोक नहीं पाया । और जब से मैंने इन पंक्तियों को पढ़ा है, मैं इन्हें १५-२० बार पढ़ चुका हूँ, और हर बार ये मुझे उतनी ही सच्ची, उतनी ही ताज़ी और उतनी ही दर्दनाक लगती हैं ।

बोये जाते हैं बेटे
और उग आती हैं बेटियाँ ।
खाद पानी बेटों में
और लहलहाती हैं बेटियाँ ।
एवरेस्ट की ऊंचाइयों तक, ठेले जाते हैं बेटे
और चढ जाती हैं बेटियाँ ।
कई तरह गिरते हैं बेटे
और संभाल लेती हैं बेटियाँ ।
सुख के स्वप्न दिखाते बेटे
जीवन का यथार्थ बेटियाँ ।
जीवन तो बेटों का है
और मारी जाती हैं बेटियाँ ।

उपर्युक्त पंक्तियाँ समाज की एक ऐसी बुरी तस्वीर दिखाती हैं जो जन साधारण को सोचने पर मजबूर कर देती हैं ।
सही बोलूँ तो ये पंक्तियाँ पढ़ते ही मुझे ख़याल आया २००३ की चंद्र प्रकाश द्विवेदी द्वारा निर्देशित फ़िल्म "पिंजर" के उस गाने का, जिसके बोल हैं: "चरखा चलाती माँ"। इस गाने में भी कुछ इसी प्रकार का ज़िक्र किया गया है:

"बेटों को देती है महल अटरिया,
बेटियों को देती परदेस रे ।
जग में जनम क्यों लेती है बेटी,
आई रे जुदाई वाली रात रे ।"

मुझे इस फ़िल्म की हर बात पसंद है । निर्देशन, लेखन, छायांकन, कलाकार, गीत, संगीत, सब कुछ ...

No, the CSF here is not "Central Security Force" or "Critical Success Factor" or "Connected Services Framework". It's something new. Actually I happened to have my first encounter with this new CSF this morning. Here it goes:
I have been doing early morning workouts (jogs, exercises etc.) since I was four or five - that makes around 20 years now. Getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning is quite a routine.
But, today something unusual happened. This had never happened with me till date.

I was carrying out with my normal morning exercises. 5:20 AM. I was doing pilates - bent backwards and stretched myself backwards as much as I can. Similar to what appears in the image to the left here. But I was standing.
I remained in the position for about 10 seconds and then I sprang back to my normal standing position. I did it at once, with a jerk. Blunder! Now, I could't see anything, I couldn't stand, I didn't have any control over my body, felt powerless and helpless. I just sat on the stairs of the stadium and then collapsed. I fainted. I regained conciousness after maybe 5-6 seconds or so. Though I got up and continued with my next set of exercises, but I knew something went wrong, couldn't push this idea out of my head. You see, I was consciously unconscious - I knew I am unconscious. Went back to the room and told papa about this with a worried face. Papa being a doctor, so cool.
(Hello! I fainted and he is kewl?)
Replied, "Nothing to worry. You just shouldn't have got back with a speed. You should have done it a bit slowly and smoothly."
"No Papa, that's not the concern. Why did it happen?"
"It happened because of CSF - Cerebral Spinal Fluid. It is a fluid in our head around the brain. When you leaned backwards, it got collected towards that portion of head. It takes sometime for the fluid to float around. So, when you got back up from the stretched back, you didn't give time to the fluid to be back to normal - you collapsed."
"Are you sure, there is nothing to worry? (I am really worried actually) "
"Nah re! but just keep this in mind for future."

I recalled "Hmmm... That's why he never allowed me to spring back while doing this earlier."

Since morning, I am "Googled up" about this. Got a lot of information. If someone wants to learn more, Here it is:
CSF - Cerebrospinal fluid (Wiki) OR CSF - Answers

So next time if something similar happens to you, don't worry, just try to get your CSF to normal position :)

Till then ... Keep exercising!
But a thumb rule while doing any exercise: "Never do anything with a jerk. No sudden or abrupt movements. Each and every action should be smooth - even breathing."

I am new to Pune city. As a daily routine, I catch a bus from my company to my place and I don't know much about the areas I cross on the way. The normal timings are: I get on to the bus at 6 PM and get off at around 7:30. What happened yesterday is - A road construction had just begun in "Kondhwa" area. We were almost in the middle of the route when we diverted from the normal route from this junction where the traffic policeman was guiding the traffic away from Kondhwa. We were on a completely new route now. And in the last 2 months, I had never seen so much traffic and such a big traffic jam in Pune. The roads are wide enough, clean enough and the traffic is decent. But now I was in a completely different Pune. Our bus started circling the city. After struggling for around one hour on a completely novel route, we entered the city via one of the holes (entrant road). I was feeling good that at least we are into the main city now but I was oblivious as to which part of the city I was in. Still I was constantly looking out of the window and noting down the areas I was crossing. Then it striked me, "What if the bus is very close to my place?" The thought was enough to bring a grin on my face. It was 8 PM when the bus stopped at one of the red lights. I don't know, but my sixth sense made me to get down from the bus. And here I am, I don't know where? I asked a couple on scooter - "Which way to take to go to AFMC". The response - "Sorry, we are new to this place". Oh! like me? And I started moving intutively in one of the directions. Phone rings. Some unknown number. I received, "Hello". A girl voice on the other side.

Girl: Hello, I am calling from Idea customer care. May I speak to Mr. Praveen Rathee.
PR: Yes, I am speaking.

Girl: Hello Sir, I wanted to confirm your phone number. Is it 99******44?
PR (Surprised at the question, What kind of question is this, didn't she just dial the same?): I hope you dialled this number. So, that's right.

Girl: Thank you sir.
(A small pause - about 2 seconds)
Girl: Sir, may I have two minutes of your precious time?
I thought, "Of course, my time is helluva precious at this moment. I am somewhere in the middle of a road and don't know which way to go.".
PR: Yes, tell me?

Girl: Sir, I wanted to take you through the...
PR (interrupting, realizing that it is something that is going to take long): Actually, I am lost in the city (I am laughing).

Girl (amazed voice): Lost in the city?
PR: Yes, I am new to this city and right now I am somewhere struggling to find my way back home.

Girl (a feeling of guilt): Oh! I am sorry sir. May I call you sometime later?
PR: Sure, you can call me tomorrow morning. (tiny pause) Wait a second... Hello... You there?

Girl: Yes sir.
PR: Can you please guide me through my way? (I didn't wait for her response) See I have just crossed this area ... (thinking very hard) ... "Bibwewadi" and my bus was going towards "Kondhwa"; I got down and now I am standing on a red light. And I have to go to AFMC. Can you please let me know which way to take?

(All this time I continued walking)

Girl: Sir, can you please tell me any landmark around you? Just to know which red light you are on.
PR: Actually I am walking. And there is this "GREEN Hotel" to my right and "Electric Substation" to the left.

Girl: Sir, I guess you are close to AFMC. Can't you see any signboard nearby? It would be easier.
(I am walking faster now taking long strides... Brisk walk)
PR: No. Right now I can't see any signboard.

Girl: If the "Electric Substation" is to your left, you just keep walking straight on this road. You are already into the cantonment area.
PR (gazing far ahead through the dark, getting on toes): Mmmm... I can see a board. Can you please hold on for a sec? I am getting closer to that.

Girl: Sure Sir.
(Pause... And to my extreme happiness, The board read: "पुणे छावनी - Pune Cantonment")
PR: You are right, I am in the military area. But are you sure I have to keep walking straight.

Girl: Sir, you just don't leave this road and you'll get AFMC to your left.
(I am running now and a few steps ahead I see a colony - Netaji Nagar)
PR: Thank you madam. I am in front of Netaji Nagar and I very well know the way from here. Thanks a lot.

Girl: Welcome sir. (Laughs) I hope you really know the route now.
PR: Yes. I do. I have been to this place some time back.

Girl: OK sir. Take care. Bye.
PR: Yeah. Thanks again. BBye.

I knew that region because Papa took me through this area around a month ago as a part of morning walk. I just couldn't figure it out because it was dark. It was 15 minutes of walk. I was home at 8:15 PM. Took bath, had dinner, brushed my teeth and slept. No post dinner walk as I had enough a lttle while ago :)
Today morning when I asked other passengers, what time did they reach? I found that I was the earliest, most of them entered their respective houses after 8:45. I was feeling proud of my decision of getting down the bus (I deserved a pat on the back). I was even happier that I got down at the nearest possible point to AFMC. Great timing! I didn't have to do any auto, or any bus, public transport etc. :) We can call it LUCK.
The mistake I made was I didn't ask my bus driver before getting down.
But that was fun. Idea cellular service providers guiding their customers through Pune roads. What an Idea!

As per the records/beliefs, there are 330 million Gods/Goddesses (deities) in Hindu Religion and surprisingly enough, I am pretty very much sure that I don't believe in even a single of these.

I have had many arguments with many of my friends on this topic and I am happy that none has ever convinced me enough that I change my belief. Everytime I enter into a discussion on this subject, I am taken through some COMMON questions and I believe I had answers of all those(though I believe some of these indeed very silly):

Q: How do you justify your existence?

PR: That is purely a biological phenomenon. Do you want me to explain?

Q: Then where did the first person come from?

PR: It is said that "Apes are our ancestors". Thats again biological. They gradually adapted themselves to the atmospheric changes like temperature and the availability of food. And got transformed to the so called humans.

Q: OK, lets come to the first living being?

PR: So, you are now getting into the "Theory of Evolution". Life arose spontaneously out of the inert chemicals of Earth some 4 billion years ago. Its all about atoms, cells, energy and forces.

Q: And what about before creation of universe?

PR: Do you think God existed before that too? By the way, here I think that where did this GOD come from? Who was the first God, if there are so many?

Q: There is something that makes the world go round. What's that?

PR: That's again scientific. The forces - and can you believe, the weakest force - gravitational force.

Q: There is a supreme power that governs the motion of all the things in universe. That's God.

PR: No dear, again the forces. As per my latest knowledge, its the "Dark Energy" that is responsible for the exponential expansion of universe.

Q: What is your inner self?

PR: Physically my inner self is bones, blood, tissues, cells and a mechanism that keeps me going. And emotionally its my character, my traits, my attitude. Another point, I don't believe in "SOUL", "SPIRIT" etc. :) Ofcourse, my conscience is my guide but that again constitutes my thoughts, my ideas and my moral and ethical sense (which I get from my parents and the environment I am brought up in).

Now, I want to ask a question: Who/What is God and why should I believe in him/her/it? I got varying answers from all but none of those was a concrete one. As per Wiki, "There is no universally accepted definition of God and since God is neither an entity in the universe nor a mathematical object, it is not obvious what kinds of arguments/proofs are relevant to God's existence".

I was going through the excerpts of Salman Rushdie's book - "His fictitious beloved" and found a wonderful answer for the believers of the deity, God. The following conversation between emperor Akbar and his genius minister Birbal gives me another reason to strengthen my belief (disbelief actually):

‘If you were an atheist, Birbal,’ the emperor challenged his first minister, ‘what would you say to the true believers of all the great religions of the world?’ Birbal was a devout Brahmin from Trivikrampur, but he answered unhesitatingly, ‘I would say to them that in my opinion they were all atheists as well; I merely believe in one god less than each of them.’
‘How so?’ the emperor asked. ‘All true believers have good reasons for disbelieving in every god except their own,’ said Birbal, ‘and so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.’

Hats off to this innate genius. I am a Birbal fan you see and have always admired his quick and witty responses. I have been reading "Birbal tales" since childhood and have enjoyed them a lot. After the serious and a touching (for some) talk on God, let me take you through another Birbal wit from the same book:

"A great linguist was waiting at Akbar’s court, a visitor from a distant Western land: a Jesuit priest who could converse and dispute fluently in dozens of languages. He challenged the emperor to discover his native language. While the emperor was pondering the riddle, his first minister circled the priest and all of a sudden kicked him violently in the backside.
The priest let out a series of oaths—not in Portuguese, but in Italian. ‘You observe, Jahanpanah,’ said Birbal, ‘that when it’s time to unleash a few insults, a man will always choose his mother tongue.’"

He he .. the guy was brilliant, I must say.

After saying all this, I still confess that I do remember (pray to) god at times - hard times, may be when I find myself helpless amidst tough situations. And I consider this very silly and superstitious of myself and surely this again is the impact of the surroundings where I live, the people around me and the environment that I am brought up in.

Another confession here: Though I don't believe in God, I actually enjoy visiting churches, temples, mosques, synagogues and gurudwaras very much. And sadly enough, I try to avoid temples from this list because I find them really noisy. I feel utter peace at churches, mosques. Needless to say, temples are far too ornate and noisy with so many bells around. I went Vaishno Devi a few years back and all the way in that gallery there are bells hanging from the ceiling. And people keep striking them like insane. The sound hammers the ears. Not at all harmonious. Still I feel, at least there is something that keeps these people occupied and there is someone they fear. Though people fear GOD, I find their GOD incapable to mend their ways. They keep worshipping and carry on with their vicious and inhuman acts. No divine force is able to stop them. Oh GOD, please bring them on track. Sorry to seek help from God again :)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are completely my personal views, not to raise any controversy or start any argument ;)

The basic idea is: I don't think we need to be religious to be good human beings and responsible citizens . Thers is no connection at all.