Tamdi (above Roha -near Murud) is waiting for your Visit

The Rough & Tough – Roha is waiting for your visit

The young generation – the bikers, the mountaineers, the trekkers – here is your chance.

I invite all of you to my Farm at Tamdi above Roha town. It is basic, it is for the Rough and Tough. What better place to spend – sports and games during the day; nice barbeque under the night sky.

Come ONE! Come ALL.

Roha in Raigad district (100 Km from Mumbai) is calling you!!! 

The Five Indias

Kanti Bajpai’s article in the TOI of March 2, 2013 – “A Nation of Five Indias” captures present day India very aptly. He categorizes India into 5 time zones of world history.


In the following paras I have tried to capture the 5 of them.

People in the two mountainous border frontiers and the forests of central India still live in the 16th century. Their pace of life, nature of existence (being totally dependent on the climate), their relationships with each other and the Government and the technologies used are all that was found in India 500 years back.

Then we have the rural predominantly agricultural India spread across its geography. They represent life as what it was 100 years ago. Here ordinary people are ignorant about today’s world. We do have new seeds and tractors and consumer goods – but those are with the rich feudalistic farmers. The terrible thing is that tight control is exerted on ordinary people by local landlords and upper castes. It resembles Europe of the dark and middle ages.

Second and third tier cities bring up the third India. The scenario here is what it was 50-60 years ago. (OMG – it is talking of times when I was born). The influential local elite do possess the necessities and to some extent the luxuries of life. Extensive travel within the country made possible by (marginal) economic surpluses is noticeable. Early to mid 19th century Europe (sans the TV and the cell-phone) they say was something like this.

The fourth category represents the first tier towns and big metros. These are nowhere near the metros of the developed world but the structure and speed of life even amongst the slum-dwellers here have got something contemporary in them. The power of community and clan is missing. There is unchained freedom for many especially the rich and the middle classes.

The final group of people lives in a globalized time zone on real time basis. They are connected to the world events, travel in and out of the country as and when required.

The five Indian worlds do interact with each other. But they are alien to each other. Mr Bajpai finally asks how can politicians representing these 5 worlds agree on anything? And how can they govern?

My conclusion is that this is not an Indian phenomenon only. Every country in the world including the western world has some of these situations prevailing within them in varying degrees.

Deep Focus - TOI, Nov 4, 2012

Today's deep focus is on
1. Malala's attempt for de-Talibanization - how effective that would be
2. The attempt being made to connect 2.5 lakh gram panachayats thru the net
3.A story to portray that Namo's good is not good enough
4.And an interview on the Mussorie Writers festival

While there has been a furore the world over, people closer to the ground at Swat valley in Taliban Pakistan are not very enthusiastic about the impact of little Malala's deeds. The Pakistan army is not very keen to suppress the Talibans in Pakistan. Quite a few of them run away to Afganistan and continue with their hit and run tactics from there. President Zardari feels his country is too weak to face any backlash. Rather than becoming entirely pessimistic, I feel instances like Malala's, hundreds of them, will finally change the scenario there.And it will take hundreds of years. LDL (bad cholestrol) count will diminish and HDL (good cholestrol) will increase. Someday, sometime, Afganistan would get back to the glorious days of Kanishka. Attached picture is of Mingora town in Swat Valley - an erstwhile tourist place.

Sam Pitroda still rules. His Rs 30000 crore project on strengthening broadband internet connectivity across 2.5 lakh gram panchayats will connect the whole of RURAL India. The country will reap the benefit of on-line current live 'Information'. The farmer may get a better price (unless the middleman invents another devious method) and so on and so forth.Already the nation has got a 4 million rural mobile phone users. Connectivity would be a great boon. Ofcourse, the thugs will be using the new-found tool to the hilt, but at the end it will not be restricted to them only. Everyone will benefit, whatever be his/her area of operation.

Namo is Narendra Modi - was not aware of that. Today's article has everything negative about his results. Gujarat has been shown as the worst of the performers amongst the top 20 states. Namo Narendra Modi. Take it positively. Years of hard work has taken Gujarat to the current statistics. So another 20 years of continuous harder work will catapult the state to the front line amongst the top 20 states. For sustenance, my view is that it has to be broad-based. Concentration of wealth in a few hands will be nothing new. That is the story everywhere.

Mussorie wriers festival was a congregation of writers from the hills and some from abroad. Writers move the world. It will be a long time when the sale of books in India goes somewhere near to that in the US. But atleast these literary festivals bring some cheer to the writers and creates that incremental awareness towards the arts. If it results in a little extra royalty income for the writer then why not? Let's have such functions in all the towns of India, big and small.  Jai Ho!!

First Look / Deep Focus - Oct 28, 2012

TOI has the following 3 in today's FL/DF page.
1. Shobha De coming out with a novel on the contemporary politician
2. How some of the IAS officers have got the gall to face the machinery of the contemporary politician
3. The dangers from the international mafia - to the Gujarati diamond merchant at Antwerp



Shobha De has been pretty active with her writings on contemporary India and has shown strong likes and dislikes. She has been pretty aggressive on some of the well-knowns in the India scenario. So no wonder she decided to come out with the omni-potent Indian politician whom we Indians only have made all - powerful. Would love to read the novel to find out Amrita's (daughter in law of Sethji) actions and how the same could be replicated.

We know of  IAS officers who do not bulk under pressure from the contemporary politician and pay the price for same if not with life but with 26 postings in 26 years etc. India works becoz of these Babus. We have quite a number of them. Most of them operate at tandem with the Governmemt machinery and are part of the same. Once in a while some of them are singled out for disproprtionate assets etc. Sometimes their children also hog the limelight for the wrong reasons. Only a handful of them stand up to say 'No, Minister' and face the commensurate punishment.

I had cleared the IAS prelims twice but did not turn up for the finals. I shudder to think facing the wrath of the minister.

I am not sure whether the contemporary politician is aware of the existence of one layer of people who are actually above them. I am talking of the international mafia. They work seamlessly across boundaries. I understand the Goa Government is trying to fight them. There are parlors in every locality. Good luck - Goa government. International mafia is all-pervading. They are now striking at the few Gujarati families still operating their diamond cutting business from Antwerp in Belgium. If required they will shift base to Dubai. May be they will be saved then as they will be operating from the den. No issues - after all if you can't beat someone, join him.

Where To.....

 One question that keeps haunting me is where to.

Mankind where to?

The erudite will rightfully tell me - Man - go and do your work. The Almighty will take care of the rest. Very right. No questions asked. Still I thought I'll ask where to? Where are we destined?

Two conflicting thought processes keep coming to my mind - the good that is happening and the not so good that is also happening almost simultaneously.

The world today is reaping the harvest of scientific innovations. The poor and the rich are talking on mobile phones and are well-connected at their respective levels. Improved medication has enhanced the life-span all over. I understand hundreds of NGOs all over the world are working to mitigate the sufferings of the millions.

On the other hand the thought of the Ganges and the Yamuna being totally polluted and going dry in due course is nerve-racking. We are so helpless to keep mother nature intact. Global warming is giving us enough warnings of the shape of things to come - that substantial parts of the world will submerge under water. Most likely then also the seven sages will take a boat ride to safety and a new world will start from them.

So the best way is to keep going by doing what is allotted to you. There is no choice. what else can you do?

The process of  keeping doing the work allotted to me is also fraught with issues. City life is becoming complex by the day. Pressure of population and pollution are making life unbearable. Villages have other issues of gigantic proportions. Soon the money earned will be spent on food and housing only as the increased demand out-manouvres the limited supplies. Now I understand why many people in the advanced nations of Western Europe prefer not to have families.

Being an ever-optimist I am sure mankind will find out solutions to its issues. As long as the Sun is shining and the earth keeps rotating and revolving- mother nature will not fail us. But at the end it should not be that we fail ourselves and mother nature as well. Fighting amongst people has been an eternal phenomenon. Greed for controlling the resources nationally within the country and internationally amongst the countries is nothing new. So as long as mankind is there we'll have strifes. But strifes at what cost? Is anyone bothered?

So !!! Thinking about where to leads me to nowhere! Better that I keep doing what is allotted to me. Only Time will tell.

Glory to the Almighty!! You save us.

 

Wikipedia - the common best friend of ours

As I look at it, one item which commands taking up the position of ‘the common best friend’ for the maximum people on this globe is the Wikipedia. I am sure most of you agree to what I am saying. What an outcome of the information explosion!

Today morning I just googled All India Radio and in a second I knew its total history – which friend of yours can enlighten you so much so quickly and so completely?

Wikipedia – ZINDABAD. I am now determined to make some contribution to it.

Here is the next set of new items learnt (from my excel sheet).

Umlesh Yadav of the Rashtriya Parivartan Dal(only 2 members - DP YADAV and Umlesh, his wife) may have earned the dubious distinction of being the first legislator to be disqualified for failing to account for money spent on advertisements passed as news items


Stealth Blackhawk mh60 helicopters used in the attack on Bin Laden.

Juba - capital of South Sudan, youngest country

India shares land boders with 7 , maritime with 7, Total with 11 (land only 4, MARITIME ONLY 4, Land+maritime 3)

 Afghanistan(L)

 Bangladesh

 Bhutan (L)

 Burma

 China (L)

 Indonesia (M)

 Maldives (M)

 Nepal (L)

 Pakistan

 Sri Lanka (M)

 Thailand""(M)

There are 27 nakshatras (some consider 28 -including Abhijit). Each covers 13.20 degrees and each has 4 padas. 9 padas are covered in one rashi


Hanuman is also known as Arbiter and Maharudra and had 28 trancendental opulences

Aum is known as Udhgita

Nandi and Mahakala are the 2 door keepers of Shiva

Nandi cursed Ravana that Lanka will be burnt down by a Vanara

Hanuman carried Dronagiri mountain

According to legend, Hanuman is one of the four people to have heard the Bhagwad Gita from Krishna and seen the Vishvarupa form, the other three being Arjuna, Sanjaya and Barbarika son of Ghatotkacha

In Hinduism both Ganesha and Hanuman have a red complexion like Sindoor and both of them possess the eight supernatural powers (ashtamahasiddhis)[23] Further, like Ganesha, Hanuman is also the deity, who can give one access to Ashta Siddhis and also Nava Nidhhis (Nidhhi means comfort, wealth, power, prestige, etc), a boon given by Janaki to him.[24]

Further, there is also a belief that one of the faces of Panchamukhi Hanuman is that of Vinayaka


The tallest Hanuman statue is the Veera Abhaya Anjaneya Hanuman Swami, standing 135 feet tall at Paritala 240 km from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, installed in 2003

An 85-foot (26 m) Karya Siddhi Hanuman murthi was installed at Carapichaima-Trinidad and Tobago, by Avadhoota Dattapeetham Pontiff Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda. It is the tallest in the Western hemisphere and second tallest in the world

Hanuman is married to Suvarchala Surya's daughter. Hanuman is a baramchari even though he is married.

Panchmukhi Hanuman- Varaha(north), Nara Simha(South), Gaduda(West), Hayagreeva(up), his own (east)

wives - Rama-Sita, Lakshman-Urmila, Bharta- Mandavi, Shatrughan- Srutakirti

Verses in the Ramayana are written in a 32-syllable meter called anustubh

The Bala Kanda describes the birth of Rama, his childhood and marriage to Sita.[27] The Ayodhya Kanda describes the preparations for Rama's coronation and his exile into the forest.[27] The third part, Aranya Kanda, describes the forest life of Rama and the kidnapping of Sita by the demon king Ravana.[27] The fourth book, Kishkindha Kanda, describes the meeting of Hanuman with Rama, the destruction of the vanara king Vali and the coronation of his younger brother Sugriva to the throne of the kingdom of Kishkindha.[27] The fifth book is Sundara Kanda, which narrates the heroism of Hanuman, his flight to Lanka and meeting with Sita.[27] The sixth book, Yuddha Kanda, describes the battle between Rama's and Ravana's armies.[27] The last book, Uttara Kanda, describes the birth of Lava and Kusha to Sita, their coronation to the throne of Ayodhya, and Rama's final departure from the world.[27]

Father Kamil Bulke, author of Ramakatha, has identified over 300 variants of Ramayana.[56]


Some Capitals:
kazakh- Almaty, kirghistan - Bishkek, tajikistan- Dushanbe, Turkmenistan - Asgabad, uzbek- Tashkent

Estonia-tallinn;Latvia-Riga;Lithuania-Vilinius; Belarus-Minsk; Ukraine - kiev; Moldova- kisnau

Slovenia-Llubliana;Croatia-Zagreb;Montenegro-Podorica;Macedonia-Skopje;Bosnia/Herzegovina-Sarajevo;Serbia-Belgrade; Kosovo - pristina

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (Aligarh MU) had said that hindus and muslims are the two eyes of mother India and harming each other wud harm her beauty

Steve Jobbs - visited Neem Karoli Baba at kainchi. But the Baba died before he could meet him. Jobbs had 342 patents. Set up Apple, Pixar, Next.


Good Day.

the Rs 5 crore question

Now that September is over, I could watch KBC.  The more I saw, the more I felt that how much I don't know. The sad part is I have even forgotten the parts which I thought I knew. I have decided to revive myself. And the tool - the simplest of the simple - To read the daily paper.
The second part is "Googling" for any item which comes to the mind and keeping an excel file of the same. I have already 125 lines. I want to put them up over here. You are welcome to refresh your memories. Here I go.

Akash - name of tablet for use by everybody; developed by Rajasthan IIT ; COST 2250. For students 1125


B,C, D- name given to new satellite systems like the earth discovered

Pillei/Pillaikar - name of Ganesha in Tamil

tomas transtromer of Sweeden wins nobel prize in literature

Michael Nobbs - Australia is the current Hockey India coach.

S Sreejesh saved 2 penalties to give India 4-2 win in Inaugural Asian championship at Ordos(China)

Rajapal(captain), Danish mujtaba, Yuvraj Valmiki and Sarvanjit scored for India. Gurwinder Chandi missed

Liberians Leymah Gbowee, president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman win Nobel Peace prize

Ralph Steinman, nobel winner for medicine 2011, died 3 days before announcement

Duncan Fletcher of Zimb to coach Indian cricket team for 2 yrs. Has never played a test match.

Vikas Gowda (discus throw), Mayookha Johny (triple jump), Tintu Luka (800m), Babubhai Panocha and Gurmeet Singh (both 20km walk),Krishna Poonia(Discuss) getting ready for London Olympics.

Robert Baan (Holland) appointed TD by AIFF for 2 years.

India competed at the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. The sole athlete representing India was Jeremy Bujakowski, who competed in the Men's Downhill event in Alpine Skiing


On August 11, 2008, Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle shooting event. In doing so, he won the first ever individual gold medal for India, and the first medal in any event for India at the Beijing Games. The previous highest individual achievements for India were two silver medals won by Norman Pritchard, an Englishman born in India representing Great Britain, at the 1900 Paris Olympics and one silver medal won by the 2008 flagbearer Rajyavardhan Rathore at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Sushil Kumar won the second ever wrestling medal for India, the first being the bronze earned by Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Vijender Kumar won a bronze medal in the middleweight boxing category, having lost in the semifinals. This was India's first-ever Olympic medal in boxing.

'A shot at history'- autobiography by Abhinav Bindra with Rohit Brijnath.

Ian Wilmut, the scientist behind the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep

Woo-Suk Hwang, a professor of Seoul National University sucessfuly cloned the first dog SNUppy, (Afghan hound and a Labrador Retriever)


more to follow......