Living Diagonally In My Parallel World!

Recently I saw a movie titled Evdhase Aabhal. The movie is very simple in its narration. It captures the storms in the small universe of a child. Its the story of an 11 year old boy – Bunty – and his divorced parents. Both the parents are working successfully in their professions. Bunty is played by Rutwik Nadkarni while the parents are Pratiksha Lonkar and Ashok Shinde. The movie starts with the parents being granted divorce and Pratiksha gets the custody of Bunty. She later marries and Bunty tries to adjust with this new family but fails miserably. He then goes to his father. His “new” mother takes a liking to him and sympathizes with him. He is just beginning to get used to this new family but then his father shifts him to a boarding school. Full marks to the director Bipin Nadkarni and his team for bringing out the angst and mental trauma of a child who is made to chose between the two persons he loves, needs and knows. It is agonising to watch Bunty's predicament as he ...

I g ot this in a forwarded email. आभाळमाया - असं असतं का प्रेम? एका डॉक्‍टरांकडे एक ८०-८५ वर्षांचे म्हातारे गृहस्थ आपल्या जखमेचे टाके काढून घ्यायला गेले. सकाळी ८.३० चा सुमार. ते डॉक्‍टरांना म्हणाले, थोडं लवकर होईल का काम? मला ९ वाजता एकीकडे जायचंय. डॉक्‍टरांसमोर त्या क्षणी काहीच काम नव्हतं. त्यांनी जखम तपासली, सामानाची जमवाजमव केली आणि टाके काढायची तयारी केली. दरम्यान, ते त्या गृहस्थाशी गप्पा मारत होते. "आजोबा, ९ वाजता दुसऱ्या डॉक्‍टरांची अपॉइंटमेंट आहे का?'' "नाही! मला ९ वाजता माझ्या बायकोबरोबर नाश्‍ता करायला दुसऱ्या हॉस्पिटलमध्ये जायचंय.'' "हॉस्पिटलमध्ये? आजारी आहेत का त्या?'' "हो! गेली पाच वर्षे हॉस्पिटलमध्येच आहे ती.'' "अच्छा! आणि तुम्ही वेळेवर गेला नाहीत, तर वाट पाहतील ना त्या? काळजीही करतील...?'' "नाही डॉक्‍टर. तिला "अल्झायमर्स' झालाय. ती गेली पाच वर्षे कोणालाच ओळखत नाही.'' आजोबा शांतपणे म्हणाले. डॉक्‍टर चकित होऊन म्हणाले, "आणि तरीही तुम्ही रोज त्यांच्याबरोबर नाश्‍ता करायला इतक्‍या वेळेवर ...

गंम्मत आहे .... १२ – १२ तास वीज गायब तरी बिल मात्रं भरमसाठ भेसळीचे महाग पेट्रोल घ्यायचे, शिवाय PUC पण द्यायचे! रस्त्यावर वाहतुकीची बोंब तरीही रोड tax द्यायचा परिसर अस्वच्छ तरीही property tax द्यायचा गंम्मत आहे .... पैशासाठी भिकारीण मुलाला चौकात नाचवते पैशासाठी उच्चभ्रू आई मुलाला राखीच्या शो मधे भाड्याने देते खाजगीत पापं करणारे पांढरे शुभ्र कपडे घालतात आणि जगाला नैतीकतेचे पाठ देतात गंम्मत आहे .... चंद्र ही भासावा स्वस्त असा भाव सोन्याचा होई एक किलोच्या भावात अर्धा किलो साखर येई राजकारण्यांना निवडणूकीच्या धांदलीत वेळ नाही तरीही देशातील जनतेला दिवाळीची घाई

All the major political parties have published their manifestos to lure the voter in the Assembly elections in Maharashtra. I have some questions to ask these politico’s. Since there is no way that I would get access to them I am raising these stupid questions (in italics) here on my blog. The main question is why haven’t they taken steps when they were in power? Congress-NCP • The manifesto mentions a masterplan for ‘Vision Mumbai’ to develop the metropolis as an international financial hub within five years. – Dear rulers what have you done in the past 10 years for the betterment of Mumbai and its citizens? • Extension of Pune-Mumbai Expressway up to Sion, completion of Mumbai-Nashik Expressway – Is there an action plan for the maintenance of these highways? What is the time period for completion? How long would toll be charged on these highways? • Establishing crisis management group for Mumbai city are the other key proposals. – What has been done since the attack on Mumbai? Have y...

Today I want to share the unpleasant experience I had with Airtel digital TV. I am a happy broadband customer, the technology Airtel offers for DTH is good and so is the advertising. These factors made me to go for Airtel’s DTH service inspite of having Tata Sky dish installed for my building. Saturday 26 th September 2009 5pm. I paid Rs.4850 for the installation and one years rent for the entire package. Saturday 26 th September 2009 5.30 pm Called up the customer care on 1800 102 8080 and fixed the time for installation of the equipment next day at 10am on Sunday 27 th September 2009. Now the fun started. Sunday 27 th September 2009 11.30 am Waited till 11.30am for the installation guy. But neither did he come nor did he or Airtel have the courtesy of calling me to inform that he wasn’t available. I called the customer care yet again. The customer care guy admitted that he did not have any updates but requested me to wait for till 1pm. Sunday 2...

(My view of the problem). Sugar prices have risen very high in the recent past. The share prices of some sugar companies are trading at all time highs. So what must have caused sugar to taste bitter? The government has admitted that there is a shortfall of 5-million-tonnes this year between India’s sugar demand and supply. So the wise men in the government debated on the pro’s and con’s of importing sugar. Then, the government asked STC, MMTC and PEC to import white sugar. But then importing sugar at international prices and selling them nationally at low prices didn’t make sense. Prices kept rising. In the meantime the sugar time bomb was ticking. The festival season is approaching followed by elections in Maharashtra. The commodity futures trading in sugar was banned in May with the intention of curbing high prices, so no one had a clue how high the prices would rise. The prices continued their upward journey. The next action from the government was to issue warning to “hoarders”. Th...

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A superb gazal that brings out the angst and helplessness of a person in love. The lyrics are by Ahmed Faraaz and sung by Mehdi Hasan. I had heard this gazal long time ago .... maybe 1982 in a program (was it Gaan Manjiri at 12.30pm) on Vividh Bharti. I could not understand a word of it then. Later I heard Lata's version and another one by Asha. This song can be heard HERE and seen HERE I have tried to convey the meaning in my limited knowledge of Urdu (using the Urdu to English dictionary from HERE !) Like other Indian languages in Urdu too, a word may have more than one meaning. The meaning depends on the way the word is used in a sentence. रंजिश - anguish or distress मरासिम - agreement or relationship गिरिया - crying or weeping or tears भरम - consideration or regard पिन्दार - ego or pride or arrogance महरूम - deprived फहम - understanding or intellect रंजीश ही सही दिल हि दुखाने के लिए आ आ फिर से मुझे छोड के जाने के लिये आ Be it in anguish or to torment my heart Return even if i...

Everyday I travel through the Simla office chowk and go past Sacheti hospital. In order to increase the average speed of traffic and to make it manageable, Pune police are conducting an experiment. The triangle Simla office chowk –> Sancheti Hospital –> Modern Café chowk –> Simla office chowk is now made one way. Now the traffic flows as follows: Simla Office chowk --> Traffic from University road, Shivajinagar station and Revenue colony converges at Simla Office chowk. The traffic from Revenue colony either goes straight to Shivajinagar station or turns left towards University road or takes a right turn towards Sancheti hospital. Traffic from Shivajinagar station takes a left turn to proceed towards Sancheti hospital. On the road opposite Lok Mangal (Bank of Maharashtra building) we have a situation where some motorists travel from Revenue Colony and proceed in the direction of COEP through Sancheti chowk or going straight past Sancheti hospital towards the Courts. For doi...

Got this in email today! परेशान थी चम्पू की wife Non happenning थी जो उसकी life चम्पू को न मिलता था आराम ओफ़िस मे करता काम ही काम चम्पूके boss भी थे बडे cool Promotion को हर बार जाते थे भूल पर भूलते नही थे वो deadline काम तो करवाते थे रोज़ till nine चम्पू भी बनना चाहता था the best इसलिये तो वो नही कर्ता था रेस्ट दिन रात कर्ता था वो boss की गुलामी Promotion की उम्मीद मे देता सलामी दिन गुज़रे और फ़िर गुज़रे साल बूरा होता गया चम्पूका हाल चम्पूको अब कुछ याद न रहता था गलतीसे बिवीको बहन्जी कह्ता था आखीर एक दिन चम्पूको समझ आया और छोड दी उसने promotion की मोह माया Boss से बोला, ” तुम क्यो सताते हो? Promotion के लड्डू से बुदधू बनाते हो? Promotion दो वरना चला जाऊन्गा Increment देने पर भी वापस न आऊन्गा ” Boss हसके बोला, ” नही कोई बात अभी और भी Champu’s है मेरे पास ये दूनिया चम्पूओसे भरी है सबको बस आगे बढने की पडी है तुम न करोगे काम तो किसी और से कराऊन्गा तुम्हारी तरह एक और चम्पू बनाऊन्गा! ”

Some Flaws in the basic planning of infrastructure If there was an award for the worst citizen, Punekars (including me) would win hands down. We do not have civic sense. We throw garbage on the road, we believe that celebrations have to be noisy, we don’t bother to understand if our celebrations are disturbing others, we also believe that all celebrations have to be in the public arena and in general we are never satisfied with anything. Add to this the infrastructure woes. Everyday I have to travel across the city and noticed that there are some very basic mistakes in the planning done. Here are some: Bremen chowk near Aundh to University circle – At the starting of this road near Bremen chowk the road is narrow. What this means is that when a motorist starts from Bremen chowk he is on a three lane road at the traffic signal. As soon as the chowk is crossed, there is PMPL bus stop. Due to this the road is narrowed down to two lanes and Punekars being what they are immediately change ...

I got this funny story in the mailbox today. It is not really funny but though provoking. It speaks a lot about the way we are taking risks and living on credit. It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea . It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one. The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower. The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit. The hooker runs to the hot...

An excellent monologue from Madhav Apte who is anguished by the corruption and decrease in human values. माती त्यावर शेणाने सारवून त्यावर रांगोळी काढायची. चित्र असं होतं. मग तिथे डांबर टाकून सूरू झाले हे सर्व. हव्यास ... हव्यास जडला सर्वांना अधिक जास्तीचा हव्यास. आंगण वावर पूरेना. मग नोकरी धंदे सूरू झाले. नोकरीत पगार पूरेना धंद्यात नफ़ा पूरेना. मग तो मिळवणं सूरू झालं. पगारवाढीसाठी संप .... दमदाट्या .... मोर्चे. नफ़ा वाढवण्यासाठी खोटेपणा, चिरिमिरी, चोरी ... शेवाळं वाढतच गेलं. दलदलीत फसत गेलं सालं. छान लिहायचो चित्र काढायचो पण मग पैसे हवेत. स्थिरता म्हणून बॅंकेत. B.Com पर्यन्त एवढा शिकलो एवढं वाचलं, पण पुढे काय तर Ledger भरा परिपत्रके लिहा. जेवढा न्हायलो आधी तेवढाच कोरडा होत गेलो. थेंब सुद्धा उरला नाही ओलाव्याचा दाखवायला सुद्धा. एका रेशेत उभे रहा, एका रेषेत लिहा, एका दमात पदवी मिळवा, एका वर्षात कायम व्हा एका इच्छेसाठी लग्न करा आणि ती दुहेरी करण्यासाठी मूलं जन्माला घाला. एकेक करून अनेक गोष्टी करा आणि एकदा मरा. म्हणजे एकाकडून एकीकडे एकटं यायचं एकटं जायचं आणि मधे हा साला जीवघेणा प्रवास....

This year I was following the Finance Ministers budget speech. I thought I understood some of it! Many newspapers have hailed the budget as a good one. I may be wrong at this point of time but I think the FM did not deliver as expected. I am just putting to ink my thoughts based on my experience (however limited it may be). I was hoping for changes in the personal tax slabs and that the limit for home loan benefit would be increased. But he disappointed me. He has also proposed to abolish the Fringe benefit tax. While this is good for companies its bad for the individual tax payer as the onus now rests on the individual. The FM has increased the allocation to infrastructure projects by almost a fourth. This is excellent but what is very worrying is that the fiscal deficit will be increased in a planned way to 6.8%. This is too dangerous. He has planned to reduce it to 4% in three years. Lets hope he is successful. After so many years I think we cannot trust politicians to keep their wo...

Who owns India? The Indira Gandhi family? Why do people in politics have to stoop to the lowest level when it comes to pleasing their political masters? Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi do not need such populist things. Indira was a master leader and politician. Jawaharlal was the first prime minister. This in itself is a great deed. But each time the Congress party comes to power it starts naming everything after Indira or Rajiv or Nehru. Have a look at this list- Central Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana; Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission; Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme for the Children of Working Mothers, Department of Women & Child Development; Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana; Indira Awas Yojana Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme; Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission Jawaharlal Nehru Rojgar Yojna Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojna; Indira Gandhi Canal Project, Funded by World Bank Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojana State schemes Rajiv Gand...

Today if anyone wants to travel on the Bandra Worli sea link by bus the toll is a hefty Rs.5000 per bus per month. If some arrangement is made by the government to enable BEST buses to travel without toll would it motivate more people to use public transport in Mumbai? If PMP launches a scheme like pay Rs.5 and travel for 3 hours or pay Rs.15 and travel for 18 hours. Add to it an increased number of buses - Would that motivate people to start using public transport?

The top 10 Oil producing countries (Source: Energy Information Administration, USA) Saudi Arabia The world's largest oil producer and exporter Saudi Arabia contributes 20,687 thousand barrels of oil per day to the world's oil basket. Being the largest producer it exports about 8,525 thousand barrels per day. The nation is also the world's 10th largest consumer of oil with consuming about 2,139 thousand barrels per day. Russia With 9,677 thousand barrels of oil produced per day the world's 2nd largest producer Russia is also the world's 4th biggest consumer of oil consuming about 2,811 thousand barrels of oil per day. Russia exports 6,866 thousand barrels of oil per day as the world's 2nd largest net exporter. USA The US produces about 8,330 thousand barrels of oil per day. It also is the world's top oil consumer and importer with the consumption of 20,687 thousand barrels of oil per day and imports accounting around 12,357 thousand barrels of oil per day. Ir...

Once upon a time .......

> पंडित जवाहरलाल नेहरू ( ऑगस्ट १५ , १९४७ - मे २७ , १९६४ ) कॉँग्रेस > गुलजारी लाल नंदा ( मे २७ , १९६४ - जुन ९ , १९६४ ) कॉँग्रेस > लाल बहादूर शास्त्री ( जून ९ , १९६४ - जानेवारी ११ , १९६६ ) कॉँग्रेस > गुलजारी लाल नंदा ( जानेवारी ११ , १९६६ - जानेवारी २४ , १९६६ ) कॉँग्रेस > इंदिरा गांधी ( जानेवारी २४ , १९६६ - ...