Thoughts on Moving On

Time moves and people move with it. Be it from one crush to another, one city to another, one job to another, one hair style to another or for that matter from one waist size to another...... We are moving on....

I was born in Kuwait and spent most of my life there. I had great friends in school back then....... Is it me or does everyone else remember those days as the best of our lives? The times when we used to day dream in a group, irritate teachers in a group, go to tuitions in a group, study in a group, go to church in a group and do what not in a group?

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, my Parents were forced to leave everything they had. Everything they owned suddenly became worthless. I was 6 yrs old then. I lost touch with my classmates and it had happened so early in my life that I don't remember who were my classmates back then. Chances are that I might have met them sometime later without realizing that he/she was my classmate in Kinder garden or 1st Standard. Who knows?

Do you remember how it felt on the day you saw your school friends for one last time..... The day you had to move on and start studying elsewhere??? Wasn't that the most weird feeling? We all promised to stay in touch, but Alas!!!!!! Things don't work out the way we want them to. At best we lose touch........ and at worst........ the friendship loses its significance exponentially. It has happened to me and Im sure it has happened to many of you. Wasn't there a friend you thought you'd be friends with forever and now although u know his/her whereabouts... U just cant be bothered?

Same goes for work colleagues..... I had great ones in London..... We laughed, danced, partied, drank, ate together....... at times when we were too drunk to go home.... we slept in the office together!!!!! And then one day came when I had to decide if I wanted to do more in my life. The decision I took came at a price. I would be far away from some of the best friends I ever made. I could no longer hang around with them anymore, could no longer talk to them as often and could not see them as often. On the last day of work, I nearly had tears in my eyes. It was too much to digest, but hey...... we all have to make those tough decisions.... for me it was a matter of survival in my field of choice..... I had to move on.....

Now, I could be in touch with any one of them. But something has changed. I'm not attached to them as much as I used to be..... I feel bad..... but then.... now i know what has happened... any guesses???

When I left London for Bangalore.... I was lucky to have 2 of my very close friends in Bangalore who could accommodate me. Us along with few of their college mates had some of the greatest times in Bangalore. We lived together, visited places together, head-banged to 'Freebird' together, sang rock songs in pubs together, had lots of 'daaru parties' together and did so many other things together. Now again the time has come for us all to move on. Soon we will be at different places and God alone knows if we will ever be as close as we are now again.

I wrote this blog cause I wanted all my friends whom I have lost touch with and who were once close to me to know..... I haven't forgotten you guys... your friendship is still highly valued..... As the world is round, We will meet again.... until then..... Keep moving :)

Thoughts on Oz Racial attacks

So there is a huge cry about Indians being targeted and mindlessly attacked in some of the biggest cities in Australia.... These attacks apparently are 'Racially' motivated...

Racially!! Really? India is crying about Racially motivated attacks???

Sounds bit weird to me because this comes from a country where fairness creams are probably the highest selling cosmetic. If you are too lazy to use those, we even have bath soaps to make your skin 'fair'. If you think this has nothing to do with racism, never mind.... just ignore I mentioned it...

After the black-white division, we have the caste division. God alone knows how many of these we have. Needless to say, many! Why are they even there I will never know... maybe the people belonging to these caste's want to be called lower/backward classes because apparently they have a 27% quota in IIM's. We even had this female leader of some party who tried to take advantage of her caste and claimed the new PM of India should be an untouchable... But for the sake of an argument, lets just say this is not the case. Maybe all of them don't like to be called untouchables or SC's anymore... but then who is still discriminating them because of their caste?

I don't really want to bring the topic of Religion here, but I feel that it fits in well here. Indians follow a variety of Religion's and you can still find a lot of conflicts between them. People belonging to the majority attacking the minority just to show their supremacy (because one of the names of our country is a derived from the religions name) and the minority attacking/trying to convert few people belonging to the majority just to show their ego.

One way or another, we discriminate against each other in India. Racism is a subset of Discrimination. Unless we solve our problems first, we can't point fingers at others.

Indian government was fast to react and say ...'Hey they are Indian's, you should protect them from these attack's'. WTF??????????

Did this shameless government protect us when terrorists blew up bombs and shot dead scores of people in INDIA??? After they caught these people, did the government do anything noteworthy about it???? Did they teach anyone a lesson???

As critical as the guys in Oz may be, they didn't die. Its horrible of me to say that, I know. I don't mean to say that they didn't die, so its okay. An attack on another human is not forgivable and I hope they get well soon without any long term disability. But when so many Indians were killed in India and the government didn't do anything about it, its not very fair to ask some other government to take care of our citizens in their country.

Thoughts on Jenson Button

Good things will happen... its just a matter of time..

It was just a few years ago when Jenson Button, a young english driver constantly stood in the podium after races. Alas, he was always second or third, never the first.

At this time many Formula 1 guru's admired his clean driving style and compared it with the rougher driving style of Fernando Alonso. Many people thought Jenson was better. But his admirers/fans had to keep shut when Alonso won 2 championships in a row and Button struggled to be on points in many races.

I don't know what kept Jenson going. He had started races after races without a single win. His first win came after more than a 100 race starts. And that win was soon forgotten because the following year, in came the young and fast Lewis Hamilton. In his first 10 race starts, Lewis recorded 2 wins and a number of podiums. He was in points after all the 10 race completions. 

I would imagine Jenson had it very hard then. Being shadowed by a younger driver who already had managed to achieve 4 race wins his first year in Formula 1. To make matters worse for him, his team kept changing hands, continued to make un-reliable cars and God knows what. 

But things changed this year. Jenson is now the leader of the pack and is way ahead in points than the past few World Champs. Yes, he has a superior car now, but he has earned this reward. 

Many people would have just quit the sport, but Jenson didn't. After years of hardwork and determination, he has finally made it there. 

Work hard now, Things will be better one day.

Thoughts on My Grand Father

I have never lived with my grand parents, maybe a little during my vacations during school days. Because of this I never knew them well. All I knew about them came from my parents.

I remember when I was small and came to India, don't know when, but at that time the only language I could speak was English. Talking to people was a tough as most of the people in the villages could not speak English

My Grandfather was not one of them. My grandfather could read, write and speak good English. Hell, his vocabulary at one time was better than mine. All thanks to the British rule. My mom used to tell me stories about my grandfather. He had worked for Brits in Bombay, then he bought a taxi and then another. Having two taxis in Bombay at that time was a big thing apparently. Probably still is.

He used to travel once a year, every year to Mangalore which probably explains the one year gap between most of my mom's siblings. My mom used to tell me they used to wait for their father to come because he used to get lot of gifts for them and for other children in the village. In short, My mom and her siblings had a good and comfortable upbringing. All because of my Grand Father.

Sometime back in January, I decided to go to Mangalore. My uncle was

turning 50 on Feb 1 and there was a big celebration planned. I did not want to miss this. Normally I would have travelled back to Bangalore on 1st Feb as it was a Sunday, but something made me take 2 days leave from work and extend my stay. During one of those days I visited my Grandfather in his village.

He looked the same, Healthier infact. He could walk, talk, laugh and still could tell stories about him and his brother. He told me to be careful when taking reverse in my new car as that is always tricky. The following day I went back to Mangalore. When saying good bye, I could see the reason I felt like taking leave in my Grandfathers eyes. I knew it and so did he. We both would never meet again. It was the same picture drawn on my other grandfathers eyes when I met him 12 yrs ago. He died a year later.

My mothers father passed away on 1st April 11PM IST.

You will always be missed grandpa. Bailoor will never be the same :)