Wednesday 30 May 2012

Mixed feelings......

Hot hot summer is here.  Still at least a month more.  Though I'm loaded with work, but still feel I'm having lots of free time.  I guess summer makes me lazy and all those things that I had planned to do in this summer months, when I don't have to travel for work, didn't happen.  Just because I got lazy. ;)  But this summer has been kind of mixed.  Full of mixed feelings.  

Few goodbye's, new people, better friendship with old contacts, meeting old friends after almost more than a decade, some of the sourness in friendship getting cleared, negativity making way for more positive thoughts, some old messy situations still stagnant and some exciting future plans in the making.  Wow when I go through each of this I feel how can my life be boring ?  

Many times I wonder, why not live life in the present ?  But somehow I kind of like to lie down lazy like a hippopotamus and get lost in my future dreams. ;)  Sounds funny. But yes I like.  Though I always try to cut down on day dreaming, but some thoughts are so good that I can't help getting lost in them... ;)  I've always many times felt that such dreams for me never lead to reality.  Reality comes always opposite to my such thoughts.  

Now I'm just waiting for this summer days to end.  Lots of new things may happen or may not.  But some are bound to happen and I'm very much looking forward to them. Lastly I must say it feels great to be honest.  Like Raju Rastogi says in 3 IDIOTS ;) .  It has certainly not been easy, but now that it is there I wanna keep it and enjoy.  

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Women empowerment in India.....

Since last few days I am getting bumped into messages, newspaper articles and some other stuff all related to women empowerment in India.  Its been a big topic of discussion and action since decades in India.  Having missed the last Sunday show of Satyamev Jayate, I thought of seeing it on yahoo yesterday night.  And it too turned out to be on women empowerment, not totally but in a way yes.  The show was all about empowering women who had been victims of dowry and financial mess their family had been put into because of the heavy expenses they had borne in their daughter's marriage.

I've always been a believer that everything has its pro's and con's.  Like the 2 sides of a coin.  

Today I was reading a newspaper article, wherein the topic was about women accusing men of RAPE in a relationship gone sour and filing a police complaint against them.  Its true that many men lure women with false promises of marrying them and than getting into a relationship.  Its in a way a kind of cheating which is absolutely not tolerable.  During the course of their relationship they had consensual sex.  But once the woman comes to know that the man is making excuses to marry her and all this time he was making false promises, the woman goes to the police and files a complain of rape.  The newspaper article states a lawyer's argument that in such cases wherein both persons, the man and the woman are adults and since sex happened with the consent of both it cannot be termed as rape, but instead the case happens to be of cheating and fraud.  The article also states that the number of such cases in recent times have gone up drastically.  Many times a relationship gone sour, turns out to be like a nightmare for the man, for the woman in the relationship who doesn't want to leave the man, just files a rape complain with the police against the man, gets him arrested and he has to spend 15 days in judicial custody before being granted bail.

Over the years in India, many laws have been made to empower women in India.  The atrocities, humiliation and problems they have faced and are still facing definitely need to be taken care of by we the people of India and the govt.  The laws that have been formed after independence to empower women, and making women aware of them surely has helped a lot in making their lives better.  But, but many times the same laws are used in the wrong way and its very much possible that a genuine guy gets into trouble.  The laws are not to fight someone, they are there to protect people.  

Over the years it seems like the major part of our social structure is lacking maturity.  Seems like our age old conservative social structure is finally taking its toll on the young generation.  Marriages and relationships are such important part of any society, that if they are not handled with maturity the society is gonna come crashing down.  So many questions are coming up in my mind when it comes to understanding the social structure in our country right now.
  • Why have we today reached a stage where both men and women are not able to understand the intricacies of relationships ?  
  • Why are parents not bringing up their sons and daughters in such a way that when they grow up they are mature enough to respect the opposite sex ?  
  • Why are daughters not brought up in such a way that when they grow up they are confident enough to take care of their financial and emotional needs ?
  • Why is that in most families a woman is not allowed to work so that they can have their own money and if they do why they are still not given respect ?
  • And if woman in a family works to earn money for the family, why can't the man in the house take care of the kids and the house and help the woman ?
  • Why teenagers are stopped from dating and especially the girls are almost kind of banned from socializing with boys ?
  • Why aren't boys taught at home to respect girls ?
  • Why today, boys and girls if a relationship gone sour consider that the life gets finished if their relationship comes to an end ?
Laws to empower women is surely a way to protect them and they should be there.  But that's not the solution to the problem we are facing.  Laws that empower women in India are now a days always used in false ways by women to fight innocent or genuine men.  So I still feel that its more on to our society, parents and elders to change the mind set of the new generation.  But first for that our conservative society and parents will have to change their shallow mind set.  And then only I feel India will have a society where in laws to empower women will be there, but there won't be instances or cases to use them much.  :)


Wednesday 16 May 2012

Gym, Swimming or both.... ;)

After almost 6 months of laziness and gaining back those few kilos out of those that I had lost, I started my workouts at Vala's.  But soon a friend gave me the info of a club where I can join and start swimming once again.  The fees were pretty OK.  And I would have my friend's company too.  But the only problem was the timing.  The only option I have is the evening batch.  So once I leave my office at around 19:15 hours I have to go home and rush straight to the pool.  Office to home takes 25 min. and from home to the pool would take like another 20 min.  And a margin of another 15 min. will take the time to 20:15.  Which will leave just 45 min. exactly.  

And then come back and cook and eat.  So once I leave office no breather for at least 2 hours.  And with a lazy bum that I have I'm still undecided whether to join or not.  Still working out at the gym. but wanna swim too.  My friend's being really pushing me to join it.  So lets see will I pretty soon will be able to kick my laziness away or not.... ;)

Sunday 13 May 2012

Is it easy to embrace change ?

CHANGE, a scary word for some ?  May be.  But also for some its exciting.  As they say nothing remains same forever.  People change and also things around us.  Change as they say is inevitable.  In the last few years I've been getting hammered with the thoughts of having to face some big time changes if not drastic. And everything around me might change.  When you are living a pretty constant, comfortable and easy life, suddenly if something tends to change that, is it easy to accept it ?

The comforts and ease in life over the years, when gets boring and unacceptable, is it that simple to leave it and embrace changes which may or may not work ?  Its good to have some changes in life after living through a period of monotonous life.  Things that you want to change if happen, its pretty exciting and gives you that little bit extra push to keep carrying on.  But what if while trying to make that few changes may result in lots of things getting changed.  And above all the uncertainty of when this change may happen and how they will happen can really drain you out.

Its pretty amazing how some people just keep wanting to have changes in order to live life to the fullest.  The thrill that they find attached to changes is what makes them going in life.  And its also with pretty ease they just embrace it and keep going.  And at the other side there are people who just can't get along with the changes that keep coming in their lives.  They so very much love the comfort of a constant life and feel relaxed with it that even the thought of some changes might scare them.

But still changes are going to happen.  Like it or not.  And we will have to adapt it and move on with life.  At some point of time things have to and will change for the better.  When and how we just have to keep waiting. 

Monday 7 May 2012

Sunday television was about Female Foeticide

This Sunday some how I managed to wake up early than I usually do.  After having breakfast with my German CS guest, I dropped him to the BRTS bus stop and came back home.  As usual was feeling Sunday lazy, so switched on the idiot box and also logged into Facebook.  The idiot box starts with SONY channel and a very interesting series on crimes, 'Crime Patrol' was running.  And the first news feed that I got on Facebook was of Ranjana's status saying 'Aamir khan desperately trying to be Oprah Winfry on National Television...'

I was kind of eagerly waiting to watch the first episode of this new series as from the promotional trailers it was quite obvious that the series will be taking on some social causes.  Before I switched the channel to Star Plus to watch Aamir Khan's new series 'Satyamev Jayate', I was keenly watching Crime Patrol's episode on female foeticide. This episode was based on the some Dr. Shastri and the crimes that he committed by using ultra sound on determining the sex of the foetus and in turn abortion of female foetus which is totally against law.

Even the first episode of Aamir Khan's show had focused on female foeticide.  I wasn't able to watch the entire episode, but saw the last few minutes of it and it was clear that the efforts made are really serious and its one more step in India, by the media to create social awareness towards hundred's of issues that are currently hindering India's social development.  

Soon there were few friends updating their FB status and it was mostly related to Aamir Khan's show.  And few internet sites too started putting up their reviews with lot of people expressing their views towards the show.  Since 1990 when the government started economic reforms to open up India's economy to the world this country has seen rapid economic development.  Though it is plagued by some bureaucratic bottlenecks and huge corruption scandals, but still one cannot deny the vast economic development that has happened in the last 2 decades.  But as one would expect that with better economy, the social scenario of a country should improve, that didn't happen in India.  The progress of social development didn't keep pace with the economic development.

The shallow and conservative mindset of we Indians has still not opened up.  People are still stuck up with age old stupid and shameful thoughts, belief's, rituals and acts. Its not that there haven't been any efforts made to change and better the social belief and social structure and mindset of people.  There have been laws enacted, NGO's working towards social betterment and media also doing their bit.  The progress is also there but not fast enough.  India's lethargic judicial system has been one of the major hurdles in bringing many social criminals to justice.  

With states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and even parts of Gujarat where people still want to have a male child first, abortion of female foetus is widely prevalent.  Forget the rural people, even well educated rich families in urban India too have this pathetic mindset where the daughter - in - law is forced to abort the female foetus against her wish.  Efforts have been made to make people educate and try to change their thoughts and laws are made to punish the doctors who resort to sex determination of foetus and abortion of female foetus.  But I suppose in a country where idiot box rules the night time in majority of families, this new effort by the media group and Aamir Khan is surely commendable.  

No matter how much money they'll make but their efforts will surely create social awareness across the country and I'm quite hopeful that it will bring results.  But than it hurts to see we Indians criticizing him for making money.  We compare the show to Oprah Winfrey's show and he trying to be the Oprah Winfrey of Indian television. Come on guys give me a break.  Why this fuss ?  Why we are always trying to pull down someone who goes on to do something good for the society ?  We the people of this country for decades have remained just spectators towards so many social issues. We keep on babbling about things but never did we stood up and did something for such social issues.  So why not for once stop criticizing and support not just Aamir Khan but all those who are standing up to fight the social issues of India.  Why not ignore the fact that this guys might earn some bucks and try to see that their efforts with our support might bring the much needed social development in the country and change people's mindset for once and for all.  


Update : After effects of this show.

*   Satyamev Jayate mums should have gone on a ‘sex strike’
http://www.firstpost.com/living/satyamev-jayate-mums-should-have-gone-on-a-sex-strike-302172.html

Sunday 6 May 2012

A new theory - Suggestion from a friend

This Saturday I had to attend the couchsurfing meeting for which I had posted an event when the week began.  But by Saturday, I was too low on enthusiasm to go for it.  Don't know why.  While at the office  that evening I was having a chat with my friend Weronika and we were kind of talking on how we are going to spend the weekend.  I told her about the CS meeting and how I was not willing to attend it.

So on this she told me about her recent experiences that she had and she had concluded that "if you are not feeling like going to some place or doing something, than you should go for it.  Mostly something might turn out or happen and you'll have a great time."

So I took her word and decided that I'll give it a try and see whether this new theory of her's really works or not.  Last few CS meetings were really fun and attended by quite a few CS'ers and old CS friends too.  But this time I was kind of knowing that not many would attend it.  But still I had to go.  I reached there like 20 min. late and in total we were five CS'ers, out of which one came late.  He some how always prefers to arrive at least 45 min. late. The meeting turned out to be just a short one.  While at the meeting I got a call from my friend that couple of friends have gathered to hangout for some drinks and I was invited.  

This CS meeting was attended by a German CS'er who was working in Baroda and had come to Ahmedabad just to attend this CS meeting and explore some parts of Ahmedabad.  But his main purpose was the meeting.  While he was looking for a host, as he wanted to stay for one more day and had no one to host, I agreed to host him for one night.  And then he also joined me to my friend's place for some drinks and to hang out.  And than all the fun started...  

There were few old friends and some new people whom I met.  I spend some few hours there and had some fun jokes and nice conversations with friends.  In all Saturday night went great, much better than  I had expected.  And I text'd Weronika that her new theory worked, at least for this time..... ;)  I guess her belief in her new experience would grow strong with this.... ;)  For me I'm gonna still experiment with her theory more and see how good it works... ;) 

Till than Ciao..... ;)

Wednesday 2 May 2012

ANGEL from up above.....

Starring into YOUR blue eyes, when we first met,
I knew then you were heaven sent. 

You had no idea that from the start,
Those tender feelings, I'd found in my heart.

One of a kind, 
Love that LASTS a lifetime 

Still, your smile, takes my breath away, 
Wanting, needing, to hold you, so much to say. 

Like the moon, stars and morning sunrise, 
so much beauty, so much grace. 

Together, forever, I long to be with you,
Can you see, YOU'RE very precious and sweet. 


The only one for me. 

Your gentle words, your tender touch, 
life meaning so much, 

Wrapped tightly in each others arms I wish to be. 
With you, I feel so free. 

A vow to you I take, forever, 
you'll have my love. 

All I ever dreamed of, an ANGEL from up above.

Today's BATHROOM thought.....

I always wondered that why I get confusing and wondering thoughts while I'm showering.... ;)  Anyways again today during those 10 min. of shower my mind went through the 2 complex human beings that has been created and are living on earth.  'Man' and 'Woman'.... ;)  And then their relationships.  How men are and how women are ?  And how they are together ?  

So different but yet many times the thoughts, habits, likes and dislikes and so very similar.  I've learned that 2 opposites always attracts.  So than why a man and a woman look out to for someone similar to themselves... ? And than on the other side there are men and women who thought don't have anything in common, yet together they are like a house on fire... :)  So does the law of attraction really work between a man and a woman or its just a myth... ?  Never understood this.  There is this book I have, called 'Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus'.  I have read I guess just 10 pages of it, but in general you tend to agree that majority of men and women are just like as it is mentioned in the book.  But then on the other side I feel how can we generalize the whole thing bout men and women that is mentioned in this book.  After all, all men and all women they are not the same.

If it was like that, than to all the problems between a man and a woman there would have been a common solution. Might have been that a book with common solutions must have been published and every couple would find the solution to their problem in that book.  And than, all problems solved.... ;)  I think with time the definition of relationships has been changing or say evolving ?  And may be in future too it'll keep on changing.  Blessed are those couples who have met the right partner in their life and I guess the way to be together remains with them only.  As every relationship is different than the other.  Still if we go from country to country, region to region still many times counselors come across common problems.  So why this is all like this...?  Ahhhhhh so confusing.... ;)  So I guess one has to dig in more...