Saturday 30 June 2012

Half of 2012 gets over with 'Hectic June' ... ;)

Today half of 2012 gets over.  Feels like so much has happened but yet its been so little.  The month of June passed in the wink of an eye.  But I'm glad it went off much better than expected.  My work travels were just great.  With the fears that the poor state of Indian economy would create a liquidity crunch, but the first quarter of 2012 - 2013 went fantastic.  And now the next 3 months I guess will be fun.  Travels, festivities, new responsibilities and much clear mind.  Only bad thing, that I'm gonna end the half with a lower back ache.  Don't know what caused it and I'm confused whether its a stiff back or something more serious.  I guess my horoscope comes true here that my whole life I'm gonna have back and stomach problems...  Hope this ones not very serious.

And from next month the new season of cricket will start too.... ;)  After a new found interest in soccer watching the Euro 2012, now its time to get back to watch and follow what I love the most in sports - Cricket.  With the T - 20 world cup coming up, its going to be a great feast to watch it.  So now looking forward to July - August - September.  Hope its going to be just great with the next month starting with a visit to the doc.... ;)


Wednesday 13 June 2012

Finally my travels will start once again ... ;)

That's it.  I've had enough of sitting in my office and working my ass off in this summer months.  Its been already almost 3 months and I haven't been on my work travels and will be almost 7 months that I've take a break from work.  So finally I'll start with my work travels from tomorrow.

So it'll be Surat - Diamond city that I call it, from where my work travels will start. Looking forward to meet up with my childhood school buddy Mrinal and those egoistic customers whose ego's i'll have to pamper.  And yes over the last 7 - 8 years I've kind of mastered how to pamper your most important customer's ego... ;)  And believe me it always works.  If you are at fault or not but if you know what your customer's character and attitude is like, you can always get what you want out of him.  Like the saying we have in Gujarati, 'Gaal joine tamacho maray' - means 'See the cheek and accordingly slap'.... ;)  

And then Rajkot to follow and then the Southern part of Gujarat.  I hope the rains will start and set it.  As it'll be an enjoyable trip to south gujarat, being able to drive 1200 kms.  And hopefully will end the work travel with a trip to Kutch.  

Finally it'll be the time to take a moderate break from work and head to Mumbai and Goa.  Tickets are booked but I'm really glad that finally after 2 years of not being able to travel to Goa, this time I'll make it.  First time during the rainy season.  And as they say Goa is at its scenic best during monsoon.  No touristic crowds and peaceful beaches.  Only thing that I'm going to miss are the beach shacks.  

So the next 45 days I think gonna be great..... :)

Friday 8 June 2012

Religion

What's Religion ?  You'll call me a dumb ass or a stupid person to have put this question ?  But no, after almost 34 years on this earth still today I have not been able to understand religion.  

  • Where did this thing come from ? 
  • Who started this different religions and why ?  
  • In the name of religion why human beings in this world are divided ?  
  • Do we follow our religion religiously ?
  • How important is religion to us ?
  • Is religion bigger than humans ?
So many questions but I have still today never been able to get a justifiable answer.  I live in a country which is the most diversified country in the world in terms of religion, language, culture, physical appearance, geography and so many other things.  All religion's as I've heard preaches its followers to live with love and peace.  Many say practicing one's religion leads to GOD.  But in today's world we forget to respect and co - exist with fellow humans and other creatures who are GOD's creations itself and still claim to be religious.

I guess to understand religion first one needs to believe in GOD.  Unless one has the faith in this supreme power one cannot understand or follow his own religion.  I have wondered many times that how human beings used to live when this thing called religion didn't exist.  And then some human being (as they say the messenger from GOD himself in the form of human) descended on earth from time to time and led people to believe in the principles that were the need of that period of time, which lead to the formation of one religion after another.  I might be wrong here as this are just my own thoughts.  But that's what I think right now.  So religions were formed and then I suppose as every religion had their own form of GOD, they might have wanted to build some buildings where believers and followers of that religion could come and pray.  So temples, churches, mosques, gurudwara's and others were built. How sad it is that millions live without a house and still thousands of religious buildings are built.  People donate millions to build such buildings where there name and family name is engraved, but very very few actually donate or try to provide shelter to homeless.  Is this what religion tells us to do ?

And I suppose the most recent religion that has come into existence is the BAHAI faith which built their own building, The Bahai house of worship - popularly known as The Lotus Temple.  When a new religion or faith was founded by some messenger of GOD, people who believed in its ideology started to follow it and spreading it.  History has witnessed, that many wars have been fought when the religious leaders of one religion / faith got aggressive and forcefully tried to spread their religion.  So a faith that was founded to bring peace and love and bring people together did just the opposite.

Since ancient years powerful and religious leaders have used religion to manipulate people's mind, brain wash them and use religion for their own selfish means.  And still today the same is happening.  So instead of giving importance and following GOD why we follow any particular religion ?  After all GOD never told humans that do this ritual or that one to please me.  Offer that sacrifice or donate this much money to make me happy or seek my blessings.  I suppose the messenger's of GOD that took birth on earth came with one mission and that was to remove human suffering's.  To teach us to co-exist and take care of each other.  To support the weak and spread love and peace everywhere around us.  So why in today's world people differentiate between GOD's creation and still call themselves religious ?  They go on preaching what is a SIN and what is a HOLY deed.  But with every religious leader the thoughts of sin and holy deeds change.

One more thing that hugely keeps me wondering is after one religion / faith was founded, someone from within went on to create a sub - faith in it.  The main religion largely remains same but they have their own followers.  Even lot of their rituals tend to differ.  So how to believe that religion is all about GOD and following the principles of a particular religion is considered as living a holy and pious life ?  It logically forces me to still believe that religion was created by we human.  For me after all, it comes to our own logical thinking.  When a person thought what is right for him, he started following it and believing that religion.

Also with time the definition of sins and holy deeds have changed.  Religion as of now seems to be that of convenience.  What we can follow easily we follow and things that are not convenient enough are just left out.  So as we humans have evolved and our life style has evolved over decades, it seems like ways of following one's religion has also evolved.  In such times if a person claims to be religious and preaches the principles of his religion how to believe in him ?

My knowledge of the principles of my religion itself is limited.  So its out of question that I might know even a little bit about other religions.  But still for me logically following the ideology of any religion is confusing.  For me its all about following the principles of humanity.  Though honestly its difficult to follow but I want to try my best to do what I can, with a hope that one day religion is not used to manipulate and it helps in the betterment of human beings.

P.S. :  Please feel free to put your views or suggestions.  I've just mentioned what I feel and think.  And I'm not an Atheist.  :)