Obama’s visit to India opens a new chapter in the relation between the two nations. The Americans have stopped seeing India through the narrow prism of Pakistan. I believe this is the most important message Americans are giving rather than the grandiloquent statements the President of US is making. But have we stopped seeing ourselves as a big brother of one of the most rogue nation in the world? Has the Indian media and civil society realised the truth that India has much better things to worry than Pakistan. I guess not. The proclivity of our country to be tied down to issues of the South Asia is making us miss the wider opportunity awaiting us in the Asia Pacific region. To emerge as the undisputed leader of democratic free states among the giants like South Korea, Japan and Australia. India would be genuinely seen as the savior militarily and in the long term economically by these countries and we should be ready to make the maximum out of these resource rich and technologically superior countries. Are we ready for that?
Then there is China. How many of us really know about the most significant neighbour of ours? Recently I saw a photo in India Today wherein Mr Hu Jintao’s photo was wrongly named as that of Mr Wen Jiabao's. This clearly shows how poor is our knowledge about the 2nd largest economic power in the world.
The idea of Pakistan dominates every policy discourses we have. Even the youth of our country is too much inclined to read about Pakistan rather than Chinese as was evidenced in the innumerable Pak related questions put forth to Obama during his visit to a college. I wonder how much we know about China. Its fast expanding universities, hard working people and all pervading state owned enterprises, about Alibaba, Baidu and numerous other Chinese companies. If we really aspire to dominate the world stage in future, a collective awareness (we should not mind if it develops to paranoia, similar to the one Americans had towards Soviets) on China should be created.
Today a news channel was showing the comments made by Obama in Parliament. A significant one being his support(I wonder whether this is concrete) for India’s permanent membership in UN security Council. I was shocked to see the channel immediately showing Pakistan’s reaction to it. I wondered what impact Pakistan’s opinion might have in India’s fortune in UN. And no one cared what voices in China had to say whose nod is vital for India’s inclusion.
Only when Indians consciously banish the demon of Pakistan out of our mind we can get a clear sight of our challenges ahead. The perpetual competition we will have to fight out for every gram of resource required to drive our growth engine with China, the demise of Dalai Lama which will consolidate Chinese influence in Tibet(the only leverage India has in China) and Chinese growing clout in South Asia and more importantly East Asia and Africa.
The final point takes me to the next topic of our preoccupation with South Asia. The alarm bells are rung every time a Chinese company starts an infrastructure project in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Nepal. But the same vigil is lacking for China’s massive investment in Africa and Latin America which has the some of the most resource rich countries in the world. Have you wondered what would have happened if Americans remained in their continent and never forayed into Middle East or the Brits ensconced themselves in Europe. The wealth that created today’s Britain came from Asia and Australia. Africa is 21st century’s Asia. Ungoverned and backward, Africa presents great opportunity. If we make genuine efforts(not simply oil explorations by ONGC Videsh)to understand Africa and seduce it to our clout with perks like admissions for Africans in Indian Universities we can slowly develop an African mind tilted towards India.
But instead, we are still locked in the petty South Asian politics to be specific Pakistan centric Foreign policy. Our citizens continue to show abject ignorance towards our relations with African or Latin American countries, manifested in the air time a visiting dignitary from those regions generate. But even when a delegation of parliamentarians (the weakest class there) from Pakistan visit India, the newspapers stand up and take note of it.
Hope the next time when Mr Hu Visits India we call him Mr Hu and not Mr Wen or worst Mr Jiabao or Mr Jintao(Chinese write family names first and most people miss this point).

Now I understand how pointless it is to say, 'Let your soul rest in Peace'. The soul without a body would be the wind in desert which touches no trees,
which has no physical manifestations, which is body-less. Adorning peace to the end is just a mythical solace.I am sure it was an end and not peace. I tell
myself, she got released from the protracted suffering. But I know it was an end, final, unfair. Unfair to a bird which just started to fly, who can no more
see the world. Weaving words to dress up death is hard. So I stop.

Sometimes articulation is a burden.... Something which you have to do, but you cannot do full justice to. I am trying in vain. The feeling is an incredible heaviness to my life. It is not a cliched 'meaning of life', but something that transcends Meaning and Destiny. I have always found my path laden with thorns and suddenly those thorns are not painful. Maybe it is the view of the path which I didnt care to see till now. Maybe the view just got better. Maybe it is the beauty of the pain.A strange enigmatic comfort derived from the agonizing ordeals you are subjected to. Suddenly the journey has become more beautiful than the hope of destination. Yes I know that all the good things has an end attached to it, but so do I know there is nothing as foolish as the word predestined. I am inspired to act more than ever before. I am inspired to change opinions and prejudices. I am inspired to make myself better. I am inspired to laugh and cry for the real things in life. This for You. For your graciousness. For your endurance with the eternal pain called Me. For suffering my whims and still making me smile. No matter how short this phase is, this is The Spring.

Someone to whom you would dedicate a whole chapter in the story of your life....
For them you wont even be a sentence.....
The ones you blissfully forget..
For them you would be the story
But what I am thinking is about the story....
Will I have one???
Or will it be just another column in the inner pages of a newspaper....

Barney- You could have atleast bought her breakfast........

Marshall- Please stop that missile barter, you would never know when she would pounce on you from behind the sofa.


Ted- As usual confused.... If ever he was Morpheus and was convinced she was the one.
If ever he had the red pill
If ever she had taken it.

If Hundred Nights could weave a Glowing Sunshine.
If Hundred Stabs could initiate a hug.
If Hundred Years of Summer could turn into an Eternal Spring
If Hundred Wars could bring Peace forever
If Hundred Mirages could lead to one Oasis
If Hundred Falls could teach me to Walk
If Hundred Mistakes could inspire a daring Discovery
If Hundred Misfortune could bring one Serendipity
If Hundred Lies masquerade an Epiphany
I am ready to endure it all for You,
For You are the Hope in me, the end of the Tunnel, the Manna.......

It suddenly started to rain in the morning. I haven’t seen it in the last 4 months. It was so special. The beautiful smell of rain can sprout life even to the most morbid creations of this world. She blushed at me like a little child who pretends not to know you when you meet her after a long time. The world has been magnanimous to me for some time.

A friend in Chennai was something I didn’t expect given the character I am. Sandesh, Supriya , Shruthi , Shrutha and Santhosh( strange that all starts with S) have all been there for me during the most gruelling period of training. The academy life was wonderful because we were made to work more than others. As batch representatives we were asked to work as late as 12 at times. Initially we were all pissed off being asked to stay back. Then after sometime we all started enjoying it. Our solidarity was fuelled because we along with Sandesh were tagged as the unethical 4, for our outspoken nature.

Back in Bangalore things are looking even better. H1N1 has saved Malaysia for the time being with Vishal’s travel plans being postponed. I heard Ranees still calls out Varkey Varkey in his sleep. Hope his stone in stomach and heart be cured as early as possible. The former by medicine and the latter by a beautiful girl. Hari’s company in which incidentally I was also placed has reinstated the old salary. It is always heartening to see him doing well. Lakshman and I met at Guruvayoor last week, where he sold me the RS 5000 plan. This month also the book bill crossed Rs 2000, thus making me really sceptic about the plan. Aiswarya(I am mentioning her name for the first time in the blog) makes sure I am in the right track morally and academically every time we talk. She is pretty excited about joining the corporate world. Wishing her a fantastic banking career ahead. Let God give her the heath and imagination to empty the bourse of all the big shots into the coffins of her Japanese employer.

Vinu and Appu as always are doing well. We are planning a trip to Auroville, Pondichery next month.

So on Wednesday when I was travelling to Kerala, I felt more or less satisfied. Rain was watching me behind the clouds playing a hide and seeks game. When I reached Trivandrum, responsibility of setting Vishu Kani was given to me. After decorating I started missing Gauri. Yesterday was her first day in school. Asha is upset about not having her Ezhuthiniruthu in Mookambika. Hope the Gods in US will take care of her.

Yesterday I went to Kallar and Ponmudi alone. The trip was adventurous as there was no one to watch my back. I bribed the gate keeper and caught a glimpse of morning sun from the hill top. I truly missed my school friends when I trekked through the thick jungle of Kallar. Meenmutti had not dried up in the summer heat and poured into my heart the memories of the trip I took when I was 14. Still the rain was elusive. Last two days I listened to a lot of Hindustani music and it was soothing and exhilarating. I have decided to learn more about these songs which had the image of funeral songs in my mind.

Every desert will get its rain even after decades of waiting. It is the ultimate symbol of human persistence. But rain never discloses its whims. She likes to keep her secrets to herself. She doesn’t want to look obvious and predictable. The enigma of rain itself is its greatest beauty. It comes and goes when she likes fooling the army of sky watchers. The water that is the purest of all, the one that is vanguard of life is actually Mother itself as it can bring life even to the most parched corners of the earth. I saw her in full vigour today. I asked her to never to leave me again. She smiled and said, every time you truly yearn for me, I will manifest before you in the form of the very life I give you. In the evening I received another gift from her, a rainbow.

Amidst the crowd of normal people, charming ones, it is tough for a mad man like me. I go to pantry alone, not to be caught by sanity, but the coffee maker's rationale strikes me. It gives coffee when I ask coffee. It pours the right amount of milk. Right temperature. Why I cant give that warmth to the people who love me. Why I want to be mad. Why I love an asylum's aroma to a garden's fragrance? Why I love being alone in a crowd, though I like company? Why do I set guidelines for havoc. Why I fall from a cliff in every dream and wake up alone. Why do I forget the injustices done to me and masochistically repeat mistakes, Why do I love to be abused and love to play the victim.

Lesson1:

As Ted Mosby says nothing good happens after 2 am. For me it is like nothing good happens after you are drunk. Please keep the mobile phone at a distance or get ready for the impending catastrophe.

Lesson2:

Never read a Hindu newspaper when you are in a crowded bus. People may misconstrue, that you are too smart or intelligent.

Lesson3:

This is what your parents would have said when you were young. Never take sweets or other delicacies from strangers. Should have remembered what amma told when I was 5.

Lesson4:

Never tell your CAT score to anyone. People may brand you with that to such an extent that you would feel like jumping from 5th floor.

Lesson5:

Never discuss philosophy with someone whom you don't know, even if you are too good in it. Satre, Nietzsche, Russel whoever you know or have read wont help. As the saying goes 'never argue with idiots as they may drag you down to their level and then beat you with their experience'

I was reading Malcom Gladwell's Blink, which is about the the power of intuition and first impressions. I have heard somewhere that a woman decides whether she would sleep with a guy within 40 seconds of meeting him. On the whole the book truly reassures me that true love is like I believed, love at first sight, something which is created when you know virtually nothing about the person. When days proceeds our intuition is vindicated by our experience with her.

Love is not which is something that should be proved, it should be felt the moment you see your soul mate, every relationship other than that is mere business.

For the first time I am finding some sense in the war mongering of the Yadavs from the cow belt.Their insanity for the first time is for something good, something that may save our country. Do you want a puppet to represent you or a true leader. Indian women will not be empowered by giving them representation in parliament. If anyone wants the evidence of how bad this can get, go see your nearest panchayats where women reservation is already in place, where women are mere puppets in policy making, mostly wives of local leaders. Exceptions might be there, but this is mostly the case. India was one of the earliest countries to have a women ruler. The men of this country are not that chauvinistic like the Americans to stall the ascend of a truly powerful woman leader, but we don't want puppets in the temple of Indian democracy. Voice your opposition, stop this bill.

Why all the friends I know tell me about dumb ways in which guys ask them out... Is it a bit strange to tell all this in detail to me.. reverse phsychology I presume.....

SO here is what is happening for the past 5 months

1) Started working 15hrs a day in office.
2) Met craziest people alive( I thought I was the craziest)
3) Fought with a friend, made up, fought again, made up, fought with other friends for making up.
4) Made my friend start taking booze, thus confirming my seat in hell. Hoping to make hell worse.
5) Loving Chennai, but still hates Tamil.
6) Still Haven sent a single penny home.
7) Read the most preposterous story on a friend's blog. God somebody teach women History...
Now for the most important thing.... I think I have become a more boring person..which you can easily understand from the crap written above.

So wish me luck to stay sober...
Wish me luck to make people's life hell
Wish me luck to give God some work of setting things right( I told u good lord, if u screw me, all I can do is screw your creations includin myself).
Wish me luck to show the world that you are happy, because if there is something boring and sad, that is me...................