Opportunities Unlimited for Little Masters...

The kind of money, entertainment, and lessons generated by the merger or standalone of bollywood, cricket and Industrialist, both national and international, is by itself a great proof that medical, engineeing, business, finance or economics are no more the choicest subject students like to study. There are more profitable subjects like cricketonomics, sports or arts like acting, dancing, singing, quizzing….

Today Sachin Tendulkar is not the only Little Master of India. It was a matter of great pride to see Poornasree (Chippy), a little nightingale, who has not even reached her teens, winning a diamond necklace worth Rs. Five Lakhs. How happy her mother Sreekala cheechi and family would be!! Long cherished dream come true, and door of opportunity opened. Samba like dance performed by youngsters, threw a ray of hope that may be one day, Indians too may perform gymnastic. There are so many unknown/Unpopular talents brought to light...

Events like IPL, fearing which even many movie releases has been postponed, ICL, Reality shows, indeed is a platform, most welcome, in a country which has a population of one billion and only one cricket team till now, and few highly paid talents. There are so many young talents that need to be discovered. Realty shows have taken some interest away of people from the Sas bahu serials, which often tend to corrupt the minds, at times, the competition especially the elimination tend to sadden the minds of the participants, creating fights. But it was well managed in the latest Little Master, which was mind blowing. TV is no more doordarshan, you have cartoon-animation, geography-travell, history, sports, pogos, whole lot of newspapers and channels, opening up opportunities for Journalist.

With people like Sania Mirza, Vishwanathan Anand, Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa, Narain Kartikeyan, who are not far behind their counterparts in cricket, though it is true that right now, no other sport can match the popularity of cricket in India. Other sports like football, golf, tennis, etc. have a future, but it is a long way from now. Hope to have IPL like support, coordination and encouragement in other sports and game activity.

Will we see a decentralized sports (not only cricket) activity in India with a decentralized public attention to match, pooling in all the states? Will we ever top the medal list in Olympics?

Sectors of the economy like travel and tourism, insurance,medical, engineering, finance, small vendors and hawkers, stadiums and yes indeed public relations and management opportunities have creeped in all these areas.

Every coin has two sides. Too much of anything is bad. Opportunities unlimited with negative ideas too…..Want to fulfil ambition and cannot, be a fake swami, there is increase in religious faith among people, Crime and therefore law makers and controllers have increased. Negative ideas would never bring overall prosperity but hatred unrest and commotion. Also one cannot fool all the people at all the times. Can a father who is a dental doctor (Rajesh Talwar) kill his own daughter (Arushi Talwar)? What would a mother ( Nupur Talwar) undergo? Incredible, Unbelivable!!

Owners, money involved and the winners of the reality shows and the ongoing hit IPL, or the death have proved that it is not always Plutocracy, or fame that wins, we cannot and should not underestimate any one (Shane Warne/Rajasthan Royals). Opportunity do not come knocking at your door always, and if it is there one need to use it. First and foremost we need to have life to leave, and also needed is peace… Be positive..Well begun is not always half done, and all is well that ends well. Self Control is very important. Uncertainty is certain.

Can we follow TATAS and say TATA to bad times?

Have you seen :
Forbes Billionaires List!!! For 2006 and 2007….Indians in the top 100!!
And Forbes Brand List!!!! Where are the Indians gone??

After Independence our Industrialists were given a monopolistic market to operate upon, which created fraudulent rupee billionaires!! In the second phase post liberalization, loss making PSUs (Public Sector Units) have been sold in totality at a fraction of the price they should have commanded in the market, for the bribes from the industrialist, causing a few dollar billionaires. Then comes the last phase: Having virtually run out of ways to get more bribes in a privatized world, numerous global billionaires have been created out of existing industrialists through SEZ act, and similar activity. For example to hide one move behind the other, government have signed Smart City Project in Kakkanad, Kerala, increasing the price of the land in and around, after which there is no much further development at that site but, there is selling of HMT to private industrialists!!

Land: basically is needed for three things: Shelter/Residence, food/agriculture and business. Since agriculture is very uncertain, and the output per hectare is self-sufficient only for handful of people, to help a wider section, indeed industries need to be actually developed. Right now the increase in prices in only imaginary, anticipating industrial growth. But if the industrial development is at the cost of agriculture.

Handful of companies are becoming abnormally wealthy by amassing land and natural resources, at throwaway prices. There are thousands of poor farmers and families, who are getting displaced not only from their homes but from their sole source of livelihood. With these acquisitions, rise in the prices around, is so unbalanced to the compensation paid to them that they cannot afford to buy a pin drop of place for what they get.

You find Reliance outlets everywhere; there is no petrol, in the petrol pumps. They have the land.

Economies like China, Japan, Germany, France, create brands, have technological know hows, investing in massive R&D, losing out in competition, fighting back again and finally creating wealth. We too have our wealth creators like Kiran Majumdar, Azim Premji, Narayan Murthi, Kumaramangalma Birtal, and indeed Ratan TATA!!!!

TATAS: here is one group which now produces from the most exotic high-end cars, to the ones for the lower section of the middle class, from heavy commercial vehicles to mini truck, from coffee, tea to salt to steel, insurance and mutual funds, from high end software services to telecommunications and sky, from retailing of apparels (Westside and Trent) to jewellery (Tanishq), from the most exotic hotels (Ritz Carlton, Peirre and Taj) to budget hotels like Ginger, from broadband to providing of financial services like insurance and mutual fund, from production of electricity to production of lubricants, from online interactive education to production of composite materials and construction equipments, from Direct To Home (DTH) service to industrial automation and air conditioning, from the most exotic watches to the publishing of books, from oil exploration to strategic consultancy and from solar power to agro-chemicals. The Tatas have been doing much in the last few years with respect to acquisition. Today, post acquisition of Jaguar & land Rover, Corus and a few others in the recent past, the Tatas is a $60 billion plus entity. Nor look back from the step kept forward by Jamshadji Tata. Indeed a journey of thousand miles begin with a single step.

 

Diversification like that of TATAS is the need of the hour.. If each of the TATA companies uses the products of the other, then TATAS already have a huge market to cater to.

And I guess this is the case, unlike Reliance, where there is already a rift, don’t know if this is the reason, why the two brothers are in the Forbes Billionaires list!! The rift for core competency is clearly evident. And they don’t use each others goods…you find, airtel connection in Reliance outlet…is it smartness or drama or fight!!

What is important to realize is that in case of problems on the external front, one can easily sustain during the lean period if each of the element of that captive economy is viable and contributing like that of TATAS.

Billionaires!!! Inflating land cost…and nothing to eat……was the trend so far..lets see how helpful though really not productive, is the waiver of loans of the farmers, in the present budget, is really going to work and help.

That the Indian economy is yet to be opened properly is vindicated by the fact that a stronger rupee is increasingly becoming a major cause of concern for the government and the exporters, at a time, when India ideally should be celebrating the strengthening rupee as a sign of a growing and potent economy.

Can we follow TATAS and say TATA to bad times?? True the time right now in India is not very bad, but it is salary rise for the rich, price rise for the poor!!! Present growth is beneficial only for those whose salaries have grown more in proportion to the price rise!! Donation seats and education for the rich, and illiteracy or bare minimum education for the poor. It further leaves the middle class where they where. That unfortunately is the story of India……or say anywhere in the world today?

Tough time never last, but touch people do. United we stand and divided we fall. We can fool some people for sometime, but not all the people at all the time. In the I alone world, let us have the we culture…Be self sufficient!!

To make the BRIC (Goldman Sachs's most famous Global Economic Paper(Brazil, Russia, India, China) ), the bricks of the BRIC will have to be first of all put in the right place, or else the 'I' would just collapse like a pack of cards.

3rd March - Birth Anniversary of Jamshedji Tata

Fanaa….Destroyed in love…

Zooni Ali Beg (Kajol), a blind Kashmiri girl, meets Rehan Quadri (Aamir Khan), a local tour guide and an incorrigible flirt. Her friends warn her against this good for nothing roadside Romeo, but she chooses to ignore them. It is now her time to discover life and love. Is this really the right choice?

Rehan is fascinated by Zooni and wants her to see life as it should be seen, in its many colours. He promises her that the time spent with him will be the most precious in all her life. And it indeed was….Zooni sees Delhi, life and love like she never has before, because of Rehan. She gets her eyesight back. But believes that Rehan is no more, after the bomb blasts in Delhi. He was infact the mastermind, and after completing his mission, moves forward to achieve his greater goal.

Eight year later, Rehan as an intruder, army man trying to save himself reach Zoonis house in Kashmir, where he meets his son. He was confused on seeing them, but since she was blink then, couldn’t recognize him, at the first instance. What Zooni doesn’t know is that Rehan has another side of his life that he has kept from her. Something that can not only change her life, but can also destroys it. He becomes the cause of her only support and strength, her father Rishi Kapoor. Finally like mother India, she shoots him…Thus they were destroyed in love…

Choices…to choose between right or wrong, is simple, but what defines ones life is the decision between the greater of 2 goods or the lesser of 2 evils.

This is the advice that Zooni receives from her father just as she is about to venture out into the world on her own for the very first time. Little does she know that these very words will shape her life.

Directed by Kunal Kohli and produced by Aditya Chopra, this is a film which some could not digest, but has left a lasting impression on many. There is the Fanaa Shayari!

“Tere Dil Mein Meri Saanson Ko Panaah Mil Jaaye, Tere Ishq Mein Meri Jaan Fanaa Ho Jaaye.”

"Humse door jaoge kaise, dil se hume bhoolaoge kaise, hum wo khushboo hai jo saanso me baste hain, Khudkee saanso ko rok paaoge kaise"

"Baithee hain hoton ko seekar..........pachchhtaaengee aap, Ishq jaag uthtaa hain aksar aisee khamoshi ke baaad"

"Phool Hoon Gulab kaa Chameli ka matt samazna, aashiq hoon aapka, apnee Saheli ka matt samazna"

"Naa shahar dekho naa biyaban dekho, Naa shahar dekho naa biyaban dekho.., Khuda ka eklauta namonishan dekho , buss aankh uthao aur Rehan dekho"

"Insaan kee khwaaish kee koi intehaan nahi, Insaan kee khwaaish kee koi intehaan nahi, Do gajj jameen chahiye .... do gajj kafann ke baad"

"Dard se aankhen chaar kar lenge, hum bhi intehaan dedenge, teri dosti kee khaatir aye dost, hum dushmano se bhi pyaar kar lenge"

"Kaash main oon kaa gola hota, Kaash main oon kaa gola hota aur .... Unkee ungliyon me liptaa hota ....Kaash wo mera sweater banakar garmiyon me bhi pahne rahtee........"


Bekhudee kee jindagi hum jiya nahi karte,
Jaam doosron se chheen kar hum piya nahi karte,
Unko mohabbathain to aakar ijkaar kare,
Peechha hum bhi kisika kiyanahi karte...


paani sey pyaas na bujhi toh maikhaane ki taraf chal nikalaa
socha shikaayat karoon teri khuda sey
pur khuda bhi tera aashik nikalaa

bhool kar agar humse koi bhool hui ho
toh usey bhool samajhkar bhoolaa denaa
lekin bhoolaana sirf bhool ko
ghalati sey bhi hamein naa bhoolaa denaa


rone de aaj humko aankhein sujaane dey
baahon main leley aur khudko bheeg jaane de
hai jo seeney main kaid dariyaa woh chhoot jaayegaa
hai itnaa dard ke tera daaman bheeg jaayega

adhoori saans thi, dhadkan adhoori thi, adhoorey hum
magar abb chaand hai poora falak pe
aur abb poorey hain hum

aisaa lagaa khuda ne rakh diyaa hamaare dil pey haath
liyaa naam hamaara unho ney kuchh aisi adaa key saath

aag sooraj main hotii hai
chalanaa zameen ko padtaa hai
mohabbat nigaahein kartii hain
tadapnaa dil ko padtaa hai

Jaan usey do jo apnaa dil tumhein dey
Lekin apnaa guroor sirf uspey kurbaan karo
Jo tumhaarey pyaar main fanaa ho jaaye

awaz jaisey toofaan sey pehle baadalon ki garaj
mahek jaisey pehli baarish ke baad mitti ki aah
ehsaas jaisey fakir key bhes main shehzaadaa

Think Big… Leave a Legacy….

TAJ-Mahal- Shajahans Legacy....And the price paid for it is cruel death from the hands of his own son, Aurangazeb.

"Yeh manushya janam paaya hai to kuchh karke yahan se jaana chhahiye, kuchh kar ke dikhana chhahiye."

Jesus, Mohamed or Krishna….
Newton, Edison or Einstein
Mother Theresa, Rajneesh, Amruthanthamai
Ashoka, Akbar or Gandhiji
Tata, Birla, Reliance.


Where and how did they get that idea!!! Indeed, an idea can change life…not only your, but also of those around you.

They were somebody who were much ahead of their time, Genius minds, who stood against most influential people of there respective field, great visionary and very intellectual persons who exceled in their respective field throughout their life. Against all odds, they succeeded.

Desire Dream Do
Vision Mission Action

"Growth has no limit. Only when you dream it you can do it."

"Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one's monopoly"

"Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment deeper. And our efforts greater."

"If you work with determination and with perfection, success will follow."

"Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties, and convert adversities into opportunities."

" Relationship and Trust. This is the foundation of our growth"

Nothing big can ever be achieved without a certain soft, delicate, sensitive, understanding human touch in all one's deeds and words. And also needed is money, influence and power.
One need to read about what is happening around the world, listen carefully and ponder about the pros and cons.
Go with an open mind. Keep your eyes open. Demand to see everything, look into everything, and learn everything.
Most important: make friends. We need to keep our relations and have friends everywhere, if we have to grow big.
One must be ready to pass through hell, the fire of envy and opposition, criticism and attacks.
Mahatma, a lot has been written about him, even before, and there is his autobiography, My experiments with truth. Mohandas Gandhi and Dhirubhai Ambani were the two most famous scions of the Modh Bania, a Hindu commercial caste based in the arid Saurashtra(Gujarat) peninsula. But when Mahatma died, Ambani was just 16.

"Begin earning some money," his mother nagged. That angered Dhirubhai. "Phadia, phadia su karo chho," he snapped at her, "paisa no to dhanglo karees." (Why do you keep screaming for money? I'll make heaps of money one day.)Just after Dhirubhai was through his annual matriculation examination and even before the result was out, at 16, he was Off to Aden and when Indians there had to choose between Britan and India, he choose India, and from then on began his great idea… He began as a big joint family, and dreamed, and did what Tatas and Birlas took decades to do.

Just across the road from where Dhirubhai lived in Mumbai, there was a young man of about the same age as he whose thoughts ran the same way. He also was facing a similar wholesalers' blockade as Dhirubhai. He was then living on Peddar Road and his name was Rajneesh, Acharya Rajneesh, the Osho of the later years. His predicament was no different from Dhirubhai's. Books wholesaler had stonewalled him as cloth wholesalers had Dhirubhai. Rajneesh also was loading his newly printed books in the boot of his baby Austin car and going about the city piling them at the books retailer counters on similar terms as Dhirubhai was offering to the retail cloth merchants.

Then why the offsprings cannot keep up the spirit. Why do they quarrel?

It is said that Philosophers in the earlier century were more respected, successful and honoured than the scientists, though both are parallels in the histoy. No wonder unremarkable mark has been left by people like:
Jesus, Mohamed or Krishna….
Newton, Edison or Einstein

What is done need not be concrete things, it can be abstract..but one need to do....and doing comes from thinking, ....and just thinking can lead you no where, so belive and do.....What? An idea can change life.......

Belive in yourself and in the strength you have to shape your destiny, for nothing is impossible for a willing heart.....

Why do things go wrong, how do things go wrong?

Sree-Bajjis, row, says that their barks are louder than their beats. Well for the sake of money, though not brothers, now in the scene two, they say, they are like brothers. Their acts have proved that Australians where not fully at fault, when they accused Sree-Bajji.
Only if there is something Ugly, we can truly distinguish and appreciate beauty. Every cloud has a silver lining, and this indeed is a mark on the Well organized, marketed, and commercialized IPL.

Why soon after death of Dheerubhai Ambani, the great fight between Mukesh and Anil?

Is all this drama, joke, ignorance or smartness….

Why do things go wrong, how do things go wrong? Agreed to some extend, we ourselves are responsible, but not always. As often written, whatever has to go wrong will go wrong, and nobody can stop an idea whose time has come. Or is this wrong or right?

There could be disagreement, and hence fights, because of many reasons like:
1. Preconceived notion.
2. Each of us being in our own well – Famous story as said by Vivekananda in Chicago - ‘Putta kenateela thavala’
3. Difference in attitude and temperament. Ideologies and interests clash and reconcile or cancel each other.
4. Ego.
5. As the couplet in janapana: ‘Sattukal Kandu shikshichu chulumbol, shatruvey polley krindhikunu chillar.’ When a good person punishes for some mistake, some consider them to be enemy, and the desire for revenge.
6. Money
7. Frustration, not doing our duty, running away from responsibility-Failures and Fights.
8. Idle mind is devils work shop.

Why this fight between India-Pakistan, we were one once, and now this .... petty quaralles, and the D-I-Ls are so expert in brainwashing the sons against her in-laws? Why those once very close, then about to beat, and have a fight, and was separated by those around, cannot come together? Why cant a person who keep saying about their kids Maman often, think that her husband is mama of some people and think what he had done for them when they where in such situations?

Anger is only one letter short of danger. United we stand divided we fall, some do not want to see people united, and therefore, they create reasons that others fight, and stand and laugh behind them. As is said, when two fight, it is the third person who is benefited. Cant you think of the means to end fights rather than adding fuel to fire?? Dont people realise that when they are pointing a fingure at others, other three are towards themselves?? What right do they have to criticise others, when they themselves are not perfect?? Nobody, is perfect in this world..

It is said that womens ego are the most destructive force, great epics like Ramayana and Mahabaratha are a proof of it. Women are like water and fire, very much essential for life, without which life itself is not possible, but if uncontrolled, can create havoc like flood, Tsuanami or destructive fire. So they are not the only ones to be blamed.

To the questions in our life we are the only answer, to the problems in our life we are the only solution. Then why do we quarrel and What is the solution for this?

Amchi Mumbai……

Let the proclaimed Sarkar not hear a malayali tell this, else it would be another reason for him to create commotion and be in news, for he is willing to accept Rajanikant as Mumbai wala and not Amithab. Isnt it all an outcome of the linguistic division of states…Even the name has been changed from Bombay to Mumbai…

In the railway stations there the crowd is akin to Pooram everyday. And the cost of living there!!! Incredible!!! Some beggers earn Rs.3,000/- per day. Most of the billionaires in India live here, Industrialists, filmstars and sports stars, this being the commercial capital of India, and therefore, now even in news as often, being the 7th richest/Costliest city, where billionaires live. Here you indeed find, Unity in diversity. Dhalal Street and Dharavi. Bollywood and Business. City Streets, Mals, and country roads, poverty, and wealth. Also lot of underwold activities, takes place here. Though Cricketers say, we don’t go to shooting places, it is the filmstars who come to watch cricket, there are nexuses between Bollywood, and BCCI, which has further strengthened with the IPCL. If for Americans New York is the city that never sleeps, Mumbai is India’s New York.

As Salma Rushdie puts it:
Bombay was central, had been so from the moment of its creation, the bastard child of a Portuguese-English wedding, and yet the most Indian of Indian cities. In Bombay, all Indians met and merged. Also they met what was not Indian. It is an ocean of stories.
What was beautiful in Bombay was that it belonged to nobody, and to all. You could see the everyday live and let live miracle thronging its overcrowded streets. Words like it being of Maharashtrain’s alone are not easily digestible. On the way to Bombay the rivers of blood were usually diluted, other rivers poured into them, so that by the time they reached the city’s streets the disfigurations were relatively slight.

But the 1992, series of Bomb blasts, is indeed the masterplans of those who hated India, those who sought to ruin it, wanted to ruin Mumbai. Again there was issues nearly 15 years later, in 2006.

If you are a real Mumbaikar and away from Mumbai, you get sentimental
1. Even if you hear words like Kalyan,Chembur; Dadar;Andheri and Bandra.
2. Mumbai - the only city where people no matter what language, religion and caste, express frustration by saying 'chyayla'.
3. The only place where even bus conductor motivates us "chalo aage badho"
4. For Mumbaikars - Burger bole toh bakwaas, vada pav bole toh zakhaas.
Mumbai - A city where people come to make their career and end up making their life.
5. You never say angry. You say "dimaag ki maa behen ek ho gayi he"
6. Some words we use often - ghanta, waat lagayi, aai shapath, item, pandu, faadu, iski maa ka, bhai party, bantai, kat le, jhol, le bhari, ek number bhai.
7. In India we drive on the left of the road. In Mumbai we drive on what is left on the road.18. In Mumbai matter word has more social reference than scientific (matter ho gaya bhai)
8. While giving directions you say right/left maaro aur yaahan pe ek bridge Girega
9. No salsa, hiphop, moon walk, B'boying or jazz can beat our visarjan dance.
10. No starbucks flavored coffee can beat of our own cutting chai/ coffee.
11. We dont understand "humko and tumko". We prefer "tereko and mereko"

What India, you should go and see Mumbai…My grandmother said first after returning from Mumbai, soon after marriage. Grandfater was in military and posted in Colaba when they had got married. There is yet another story narrated by my Muttachan, that comes to my mind on seeing the Taj,
Once when Tata, had been to a good hotel, they read a boad ‘No entry for dogs, and Indians’, the incident made him feel bad, and he was so determined that he started this hotel. I am not sure if the story is right or wrong.


It is said that Mumbai or Mauth sey Koye nahi lauttha. There are many people who on landing to Mumbai set a time frame to retun back to their home town but can never do that, whether it be Sharuk Khan, for whom Delhi is the place for Dil walas, or be it Jayan Chettan, whose plan was to return by 2000, but there is no chance he would return in next 20 years. But my father belived:
‘Happy the man, whose wish and care,
Few paternal acres bound,
Content to breath his own air,
On his own ground’
And hence returned to Gods own country.

The Moor's Last Sigh

'The Moor's Last Sigh' by Salman Rushdie is the tale of the fall from grace of the da Gama - Zogoiby family, Set in the Indian city of Bombay (or "Mumbai") and Cochin (or "Kochi').
The plot traces four generations of the narrator Moraes Zogoiby 's family and the ultimate effects upon the narrator. The first part of the book is about the first two generations, in Fort Cochin, the Da Gamas. His mother married Abraham Zogoiby, and it was his parents who moved to Mumbai. Abraham Zogoiby was a great businessman, whose business ends with him. He had all the underground and great links, having left his mother for Aurora Da Gama, and is belived to have a link in her death on Ganapathi eve too. Who is Moors father is also a mystery.
Moraes, who is called "Moor" throughout the book, is an exceptional character, who’s physical body ages twice as fast as a normal person's does and also has a deformed hand. Moor leads an interesting life, especially in his relationships with women, including his mother Aurora, who is a famous national painter. When he was green, his beloved Uma told him in fondness, ‘Oh, you Moor, you strange black man, always so full of theses, never a church door to nail them to’, which is the beginning of the tale. Also he has three sisters, Jimmy Cash (Christina) Minnie (Inamorata), and Mynah (Philomina). Finally, after the strange deaths of his mother, Uma, siblings, and to free himself from the undeworld Mumbai , the riot and commotion in Mumbai, he moves to Spain, meets the lesbians, who take him to his childhood tuitor and mothers long time mate, Vasco, where he learns, more bitter truth, and finally Aoi, and Vasco meets their death.
Vasco Mirand’s view on Mrs. Gandhi returning to power, with Sanjay on her right, was that there is no finaly morality, but only Relativity. The Indian Variation upon the theme of Einstein’s General Theory was given thus:
‘Everything is for relative. Not only light bends, but everything. For relative we can bend a point, bend the truth, bend employment criteria, bend the law. D equals mc squared, where D is for Dynasty, m is for mass of relatives, and c of course is for corruption, which is the only constant in the universe- because in India even speed of light is dependent on load shedding and vagaries of power supply.
There is the all knowing, all powerful, Uma, who at the same time, move around with Moor, his father and brother in law. Uma is well versed in every subject. I remembered Sowmya, my one time hostel mate…on reading about her. There was a good amount of secrecy behind her. For her Moor said ‘ I will not die for you, my Uma, but I will live for you. However harsh that life may be.’
And yes, much is being nailed down. Colours, for example, to the mast. But after a not-so-long (though gaudily colourful) life Moor is fresh out of theses. Life itself being crucifixion enough.
The novel is populated with a heterogenous spread of characters: an old Portuguese family descended from the explorer Vasco Da Gama; the Jewish clan of the Zogoiby’s who trace a clandestine history with the last Moorish king of Grenada, Boabdil; a jealous Christian priest Olivier D’Aeth (controversially pronounced All Over Death); the Muslim gangster ‘Scar’ controlling the Bombay underworld; a Hindu fundamentalist Raman Fielding, also known as mainduck after the signature-frog accompanying his cartoons. Interestingly, Fielding as a character cuts across both the fictive and real worlds, with many pointing out that the character is a thinly disguised caricature of the Hindu nationalist leader Bal Thakeray who, like Fielding, started out as a cartoonist with the English daily The Free Press Journal before going on to establish himself as a Hindutva stalwart in Mumbai.

Blind Faith

A fragile, delicately wrought parable on the limitations of vision and the dark side of love……. A fiction novel by Sagarika Ghose. That is ‘Blind Faith’.

Somewhat akin to God of small things, which I took a year to complete, but could complete this within a day.

When Mia, acutely depressed by the suicide of her father, and compelled by her mother, who is to remarry and move to US, meets Karna, a young Indian guru who seems to have walked straight out of her fathers painting of the Kimbh Mela, she feels compelled to follow him all the way from London to India. At the same time she meets the suave corporate, Vik. She feels that marrying Vik, will help her reach Karna.

In India, Mia hears of Indi, Viks accomplished, inordinately attractive mother, and IAS officer who is now blind, and in Goa, but is not able to meet her. Within a year she is chasing a duplicitous love, she travels to the Kumbh, to the heart of her fathers paintings, where life, she learns allows another perspective….a stunningly beautiful account of lifes distorted perceptions: of reason that blinds, of hate that liberates and of love that strangles.

It says that Families are nothing but traps, they weaken you.

Anger when it comes, is not just a noisy tantrum. Anger focuses the mind, quietness the soul, sharpens the intelligence. Anger bides its time, anger is polite, anger is well-behaved because anger grows into a conviction, a belief and then it starts to find ways to express itself in the most efficient manner.

Revenge need not be impetuous. It can become fanciful and imaginative, reflecting the twists and turns of the growing up years. Revenge is not just a silly bout of crying, revenge plots silently and becomes a reason for survival.

Today thing were changing. Fortunes were being built from mud. A young graduate might set up a computer centre in a mustard field and begin a lucrative outsourcing business to an Ameircan firm headquartered in Memphis. Today’s cooks are tomorrows motel owners in Dubai, and day after’s international tycoons. Fathers may push carts of fresh fruit down the street but they’ll do their damnedest to make sure son is happy.

The absorption of unnatural circumstances is achieved easily by the depressed imagination.

Indi’s story in the parallel, which had shades that of Indira Gandhis, and Mia – Maneka, According to Indi, this mother thing is a terrible trap. Mother is a category without change, without dynamism, without democracy. Everything else can change , the world can change, but mother cannot change. Just mother. Mother Mary, Mother Earth. Pavithra Ashramas motto, Pure love of the mother women!!
When a mother gives birth, she doesn’t know into which undiscovered county her child will lead her.

Perhaps giving birth is indeed dealing out a certain kind of death, perhaps the act of creation carries within it the act of destruction. And only a mother knows this secret.
Middleclass indulges themselves in flabby, comfort seeking ways, as contrasted with the higher principle of pleasure which came from adventures that are close to death. Death was an ideal, while comfort was mediocre and centered around money. The rich and sheltered, need to feel the misery of the poor and unloved.

‘A heightened sense of persecution, the feeling of a cunifromly hostile environment, a focus on coincidences and schemes, is another dangerous sign that the mind is breaking up into delusion and that the patient might require drugs simply to slow down the rate of thought.’

The ability, attitude and the actions, of a rich son Vik, who was brought up with all luxurious, with lots of chocolates, to keep his mouth shut, as you throw a ball far away to keep a dog away when it is disturbing you, and his early death leaving behing two women, mother Indi, and wife Mia…..

Men and women are not they same, and they cannot be, it is difficult to phantom, each other…The female ego is the most destructive force….and Personal liberty is seen as the basis for community improvement….