Now this is what I call 'marketing...'!!!

Needed to upgrade my car's music system. Walked into the shop & indicated what I needed done. While speaking to the gentlemen at the sales counter, the owner of the shop walks upto me and says he will personally look into the matter. He tells me it would take about 30 minutes to do. I agree expecting him to tell one of the many engineers around to do the needful.

Instead much to my suprise he rolls up his sleeves and does the work himself. ! Cutting / drilling / rewiring / tuning / installation, completing the work in a jiffy, making it a point to explain to me what he was doing all the while.

He then shakes my hand, tells me the work is complete and to contact him anytime if there is any problem and walks away to next customer .....

I havent seen this happen for a long time, where the owner of a fairly large shop, employing several people comes forward and does the work for you himself. It kinda makes you feel special & important, makes you want to come back to the same shop the next time plus recommend this shop and & its services to others.....

Now this is what I call 'marketing...'!!!

We always remember our childhood days

For most of us our childhood days in school are the happiest days of our lives.

We live next to a school. Peering over the balcony I can see the school playground and this morning I saw this grown man playing with the children. He looked like on of the parents of a child in that school .. My God! he had decided to play with the children & he was having so much fun .. running around, arms and legs swaying all over the place, a huge SMILE (all while he looked dressed up ready for work !!!).. he ran from one end of the basket ball court to the other... played with one group of children , rushed to another group, played with them, then rushed to another.. children giving up Hi5s everywhere he went .... yes I am sure he was reliving his childhood... today that man I am sure is going to go to sleep with a huge smile on his face...

Teacher O' Teacher - In dedication to the struggling Child

I had written this quite sometime ago when my lil one was having a hard time in school... with God's grace, a dedicated principal & headmistress and some very caring teachers she settled down..


Teacher O' Teacher
------------------

You stride into class, on the first day of school,
Looking so tall, keeping your cool.

What the year has in store for us, we all secretly fear,
Teacher O' Teacher, You are always so dear.


We feel our parents have left us high and dry,
Perhaps Teacher O' Teacher that is why we cry.


Soon the sun will shine, we know the school has clay,
Teacher O' Teacher, hold our hands and say "Lets us Play".


As you try so hard to teach us, a needle in hay,
We seem not to listen through out the day,
We stumble & tumble making mistakes all the way,
Teacher O' Teacher,that bear hug could just save the day.


Of course we want to study and do well.
We surely know that all does not come from a wishing well.
Our efforts may seem too careless to tell,
Perhaps Teacher O' Teacher we were just unwell.


Our writing is a scrawl, our spellings taking a fall.
Our craft too ugly for the classroom wall.
Always too slow, who is going to wait,
Teacher O' Teacher perhaps it is our drawings that are just great.


Mental Math Mayhem, our English a dare,
And with EVS, we just do not seem to care
Becoming a doctor, engineer an impossible task,
Teacher O' Teacher, don't forget we are just learning to eat fast.


Our school always to us so dear,
Hoping our weakness will always be cleared
That constant attention we always seemed to demand in kind
Teacher O' Teacher we just did not want to be left behind


A little push, a little encouragement and a little love,
The good marks we would get without a shove,
It is only later we realize your efforts were not in vain,
Teacher O' Teacher we did not mean to be such a pain.


As we grow up and the years go by,
We will do what we have been taught without a cry.
Our duty to assist the weak, to guide the strong, to be always true,
How much we do, Teacher O' Teacher, depends on you.

A little sensitivity for the grieving families of our brave hearts?!

As & when time permits I follow the news. However yesterday was different, I was really upset after hearing about the massacre of our CRPF Jawans so was keen to get an update on it.

I usually follow NDTV (have been a big fan of Prannoy Roy since the days of 'The World this Week') and also Ms. Barkha for a long time.

As they progressed into the discussion I was shocked by the total insensitivity being displayed by the TV channel and the direction the discussion was taking.

The whole discussion seemed to revolve around the operation being 'messed up'. So why this reaction from me... doesn't the public need to know the facts . ?

Bear with me for a while & imagine yourself sitting with the families who are grieving the loss of their father/son/brother and are watching this channel. For them an ultimate sacrifice has been made by a family member for our country. So lets see how this channel covers this supreme sacrifice...

As the discussion begins headlines are blasted indicating how the Army claims they never trained this battalion ... At least I felt it was a blame game being played out on National TV as well as an acceptance that these brave lads were not trained!.

Once again I imagined myself sitting with the families who are grieving the loss of their father/son/brother watching this channel. For them an ultimate sacrifice has been made by a family member for our country & the TV Channel is trying to tell us via National TV "Yes , we are real sorry but you know he was not well trained so this happened ..!!!"

Could you not have just indicated that these young brave hearts fought hard & died valiantly for this country and efforts were on to ensure their sacrifice was not in vain. ?

NEXT a prolonged discussion follows as to how this was perhaps a messed/flawed operation. Discussion how mistakes might have been made & it goes on & on & on ...

Once again I imagined myself sitting with the families who are grieving the loss of their father/son/brother watching this channel and all that the channel wants to discuss on National TV that their deaths were because of mistakes & flaws!

Could you not have just indicated that these young brave hearts fought hard & died valiantly for this country and efforts were on to ensure their sacrifice was not in vain. ?


We live a life of security because of our Jawans. We can sit & tweet away in the comfort of our homes & offices because our Jawans. Our children & our parents can move around freely because of our Jawans so is it too much to expect sensitivity towards the grieving families of our brave hearts.

If there were mistakes , let the probe take care of it. If they were not trained, let the probe take care of it. This is not your business!

If you really want to discuss it... quiz the politicians more, quiz the top brass more, reassure the nation that the media will not let these sacrifices go in vain!

DONT GO WASHING DIRTY LINEN IN PUBLIC & TRY TO GET THE UGLY OUT for RATINGS!!!

Media !! This is the JAWAN you are talking about and not some celebrity actor, artist,sportman or cricketer .......

WAKE UP & KNOW THE DIFFERENCE !!!

What if the 'Mahatma' were alive ? Would he be effective ?

What if the 'Mahatma' were alive today ? Would he be effective ? are questions, I have asked myself several times when I see my great country India in such a big mess. Would he have been able to single handedly counter the scourge of Terrorism & Corruption that is eating the life out of our country today?

I had the privilege of asking the same questions to his great grand son "Tushar Gandhi", to which his reply was "He definitely would not have been sitting around doing nothing & whatever he chose to do, he would have persevered irrespective of the opposition"

When I compare the situations when Mahatma Gandhi was alive and today, it looks like some circumstances have not changed much... perhaps just the players.

1) Pre Independence days innocent Indians were getting killed by the British, today they are getting killed by terrorists & Naxals.

2) Earlier our national wealth was being sucked by the British now its the Indian Politician.

3) Earlier loyalty of certain selfish Indian citizens/rajas/princes could be bought by money given by the British to do deeds against the common citizen & the laws could be bent, today the same happens, individuals are ready to be corrupted with the lure of money given by us & the so called elected representatives of the Republic of India.

So has much changed at least in this context ? No not really .. we are surrounded by similar circumstances as those before 1948. Certainly a man like the Mahatma would not change (perhaps his wisdom would have increased over the years).

So if the man has not changed and the circumstance have not changed, it would be real safe to say 'Mahatma Gandhi' would still be VERY 'effective' even in today's circumstances.

1) There would be people wanting to kill him (Before it was the British today it would be the terrorists/naxals/corrupt politicians...)

2) There were people wanting to buy him & hence stop him (Before it was the British, today it would be our corrupt politicians)

BUT we must ALSO not forget there would be LAKHS who would follow him & protect him with their lives too... & he would STILL have been able to create a mass movement against the mess in our country & forced a change that we so desperately need.

His detractors might still label him as the person behind partition but that is a matter of perception, circumstance & subjectivity but can anyone today give me the name of a single Leader who would have as much as mass appeal as Mahatma Gandhi ?

Can anyone deny the fact that he was capable of moving our nation single handedly in a direction that no one even now can even dream of.? Today even our top leaders have to pay people to attend their meetings so that it looks like a mammoth rally. ...

So YES!!!, a person like Mahatma Gandhi would be relevant even in this day & age. His methods effective and he would move the masses and force the change we so desperately need..

Jai Hind !

German Bakery Blast, Pune ... MNIK is more important

Last night we residents saw the scourge of terrorism extend its tentacles to our dear City of Pune. A bomb blast at German Bakery, Koregaon Park - 9-10 dead, scores injured...

What really disgusts me is that we as a people , our government , our opposition seem to concentrate on issues that really don't matter and should be addressed only when we really had nothing else to do.

A prime example of this was the recent charade between a movie star and a political party about a release of some movie ...!! What a waste of time and money ... the entire government machinery focused on whether a movie releases or , 11000 + security personal deployed to allow people to go for a movie ... scores of security personal to protect the actor & the politician ....

while ***a common man walking on the road gets blown apart due to a terror attack **** . Don't we have a priorities wrong ... ?

Scores of police to secure a multiplex and protect celebrities going for a movie

***while the common man looses a leg & livelihood as he walks by German Bakery and a Bomb explodes **** don't our priorities seem a little warped ??

Barricades across roads, 24 hour security, intelligence officials working day an night to ensure foreign nationals and their houses of worship are kept safe...

*** while the Indian Common Man lies in critical condition in some hospital because we could not protect him ..****** does this sound fair ? Should'nt we take care of our own first and then worry about the foreigners ?

It is time we really did a re-think of what our priorities really should be.

Should'nt we protect the common citizen of India instead of wasting time & money protecting some film star, some politician who doesn't really care about his electorate or some foreigner whose loyalty is his home land & not us ?

Mr. Politician ... Leave our brave hearts out of all this..

Today in India, it is very difficult not to become a cynic just about everything. We do have the positives but at times the negatives seem to outweigh everything. The unfortunate part is that most of the time, the negativity always seems to radiate from something that is connected either directly or indirectly to our dear politician.

Our politicians seem to have no boundaries of what or who to use for their own mileage. Now it is the turn of the brave hearts who protected us (some of them gave up their lives to protect us) during the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai who have become a part of their political games.

Our brave hearts from the security forces live & die for our country and its citizens. To them, thwarting an terrorist attack on Indian soil does not depend on caste or religion. Their ferocity and courage to protect us is un paralleled and is never biased on regional lines .... they are our modern day "knights in shining armour" & nationalists to the core. There are an inspiration to us.

So Mr. Politician , leave them alone , do not include their names & honorable deeds in your twisted political manoeuvrings. What you are doing is wrong , very very wrong. We in India have such few people left to look up to ... keep away from them. What they do for us and this country is sacred and should be treated as such.

Using references of their brave deeds for political means is undignified, unpatriotic & unwanted.!

LEAVE OUR BRAVE HEARTS OUT OF ALL THIS !

Another Suicide , another life wasted ...

In the last couple of weeks I keep on hearing about how young children both school going as well as those going to college are committing suicide. One didn't do well in an examination so she committed suicide, another was fined Rs. 150 & did not know how to face the parents so he committed suicide, another could not participate in some reality show so committed suicide, another faced criticism in front of an audience so attempted to commit suicide and so on.....

HORRIFIED & SAD .... yes .. SURPRISED ... no !!!

Why do these children take these drastic steps, why does it seem that is so easy for them to go over the edge ...

Well... we are to blame for this ... the fault lies both with us as parents as well as the teachers especially at school level. We tend to forget that children are what we make them both at home and at school, we as parents & their teachers have brought them up, we as parents & their teachers have have taught them what they know, they have picked up everything from us & the teacher so lets not pick on the child as being weak.

If they have become strong and confident it is because of the parents and the teachers and the same goes if they are weak & insecure ... the responsibility is still ours.

We have suceeded in bringing up a child to be well versed with ABC & 123 but we on the way we forgot to teach them on to be strong, confident & good human beings.

When we look at bringing up a child today, it revolves around school & what happens in school. We seem to always stress on the ABCs & 123s. Everything is about getting it right both at home and at school and all is performance related. Naturally as the years go by the pressure increases, the expectation increases, performance level increases and soon the child is running at break neck speed ... but have we ever paused to think is the child mentally prepared to run at this speed .. ???

We really need to rethink what we are trying to achieve. I think in the early years we should teaching them more about life & the things that are beautiful, kind and happy. We should teach them what this great big world has to offer in terms of the soul. We need to teach them how to enjoy life with the smallest of blessings. We need to continuously build and monitor their self confidence and esteem ...... all this will never be seen on a report card but the child sure needs these paragraphs to graduate in the story of life.

Sure life is tough and competitive but what is the use of all this ABC & 123 if the child cannot handle oneself and the pressures of life ? What is the use of all this ABC and 123 if the child has no confidence and self esteem .....

What is the use of a top ranking report card when the child has committed suicide ?

Let us teach our children how to live life with its ups & downs first and then worry about the ABCs & 123s otherwise we are just going to see an increase in this very unfortunate trend of children taking their own lives. Today it might have happened to someone else's child but when was the last time you took the time to look the child's report card on life .....

Why are we so afraid ?

Recently an elderly gentleman asked me "Why don't you speak up when you see certain government officials or politicians who are supposed to serve this land and its people behave obnoxiously ? Why do you as a citizen allow them to be openly corrupt and break the rules of this land ? Why are you so afraid to speak up and bring these disgusting people to book ?

Well, to tell you the truth I don't speak out openly about it as "I AM SCARED !!" . I rather mind my own business, don't really say anything about it since it does not concern me and go home in the evening to the security of my middle class home & family... & even if it does concern me , I rather placate these politicians / government officials than antagonize them ... I have a wife & child that I want to go back to. I don't want my secure middle class life ripped apart.

Can these certain obnoxious government officials or politicians really mess you up if you chose to antagonize or question them ?? OF COURSE THEY CAN & THEY DO !

The government official / politicians are always in league with one another. They could for example frame / concoct charges against you for evasion of tax.... Sure in the end you will be proved innocent but you might have gone & spent your life saving, your time, ruined your business and family life running to court everyday to prove your innocence. They could do this with any department of the government .. the corrupt politician / government official has a long reach in all aspects of land, revenue, tax & legal .. there are people like them in all our departments.

We must also not forget their sycophant followers / chamchas that will take it as their honourable duty to make you pay for antagonizing their beloved politician / government official as their livelihood depends on the degree to which they will stoop to serve their masters. Pay back could be in the form of mental & physical harassment perhaps even getting beaten up and being sent to hospital.

So tell me shouldn't we be scared ? Wouldn't we rather want to just mind our own business , do our work and in the evening go back to our secure homes & families ?

Pathetic perhaps ! .. realistic DEFINITELY !!

The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes .....

Saw this video .. was inspired .. she spoke sense

http://media.causes.com/510213?p_id=84998284

Sachin got out !!! Boo hoo !!

I am not an ardent fan of cricket. Watch the matches now and then but not really obessed about it. It is entertaining when the teams are evenly matched and you could have an enjoyable evening watch a one day match.

Currently the Australian cricket team is touring the country. In the last match, Sachin Tendulkar who probably is the best cricketer we have, got out on the basis of an incorrect umpiring decision ... my GOD what a ruckus there was about it .. the fans got agitated, the media screamed MURDER , there were countless TV discussions on it .. "not fair .. not fair... disaster.." they all shouted .... 'suspend the umpire' they demanded ... how could this happen to Sachin ... sacrilege ..

C'mom this is just a game, there are good umpiring decisions and they some decisions which are bad. All cricketers go thru this , it is part and parcel of the game. .... he is great player, he will make those runs again sometime .. what is the big deal !!!!

Everything evens out .. it called Karma.

Relax.. what is the big deal... this is a sport , a game, don't we have more important things to discuss, cover, yell & scream about ?

Hey about the farmers in Maharashtra committing suicide .. let scream about that ...!!!!

Crackers.. YES, who cares about the Sick & the Elderly

Diwali has come and gone. A huge celebration for us here in India. It is family time, we clean our homes, light lamps, put up decorations, making of sweets & burst crackers, have religious ceremonies ... yes, it is festival time , a time to celebrate for all.

Unfortunately this year for Diwali , I was in hospital as my wife had undergone an operation and was in the process of recuperation. Yes a hospital where there are sick people , some critical, some recovering, some being admitted , some in pain but hey that is what a hospital is about.

On the ground floor of the hospital there is a restaurant whose owner and employees decided to burst crackers in the middle of the night .. mind you this is the hospital building itself. So lets celebrate Diwali .. burst crackers in front of the hospital. Of course the owner had a big white car and wore a white attire so it had to be some politician or some affiliation to a political party (yes, our dear politicians, our elected representatives). Hey we have a right to celebrate Diwali ... especially in front of a hospital. Lets forget the 100 odd patients who need rest , we must celebrate our festival.

A hospital is a silence zone ......but wait .. sorry this does not apply during the festivals, obviously patients of a hospital are not important and the bursting of crackers takes precedence.. who cares about the sick... this is a time of celebration isn't it !? Why should we bother , we must celebrate, shouldn't we ?

Of course you must be out of your mind object, you would be accused of not respecting the religious sentiments of people, you would incur the wrath of the "connected" citizens and probably get thrashed in the bargain .. oh how accommodating & caring we have become...

The above incident at this particular hospital want the only case, it was reported all over the city.... celebration time we call it !

For heaven's sake, something is wrong with us. !!??!!

Where has our compassion gone ? Has our civic sense flowed into our sewers and more importantly have we forgotten basic decency ... at least leave the sick alone !!!!!

Dadsee ... you were indeed a religious man ...

It been about 3 months since my dear father - in - law Jerome Rodrigues passed away. He was really not well for the last year or so and had suffered a lot. I am so sure he is now in a happier place perhaps sitting on a beach (he loved Goa) in his shorts sipping a nice chilled beer (he loved his little drink) solving his sudoku or doing his crossword puzzle. We miss him..

Anyway the real point of this thought entry was his attitude towards religion. He was a devout Catholic, went to Church & attended Mass very regularly , prayed regularly and literally knew every word of the Bible but not once in my entire association with him did I ever hear him 'spout' or 'preach' religion.

I am a Zoroastrian who has married into a Catholic family but being of a different religion never came up in a discussion with him at any point of time. It was not only the spoken word but also in his actions towards me.

He spoke about values, honesty, family, not to encourage corruption but never really initiated a discussion about one's religion, Christianity or Zoroastrianism, their differences and whether one was better than the other. Sure we could discuss particulars about a certain religion but his general outlook never included the differentiation of people based on religion.

This I think defines being religious.. here was a man so deeply into his religion, have so much faith in his religion, living by the principals as defined by his religion but never imposing it on anyone else. He considered it his own personal belief and it did not go beyond that. Live and let live always seemed to be his advice.

We don't see this too often do we ... ? Someone so orthodox & conservative yet restricting the views & beliefs to oneself and not forcefully imposing it on others.... I think he truly understood what religion stands for and I wish there were more like him. The world would be such a peaceful place.

Dadsee, if I had a glass in my hand I would say "I miss you but Cheers to you ! & let the good times rock."