The Icon is dead. Its Strange how one feels the loss of someone who is a stranger; but whose works have been a great influence in our formative years. In the Early eighties, The rhythm of Jackson was the moving force in Music. Millions have grew up hearing his music including me. I personally struggled to understand what he was trying to sing but the sheer power of his performance would sweep my feet away. Undoubtedly he was one of the pioneers of Modern day music and more importantly a spectacular dancer. His Music videos were path breaking and spell binding to say the least. His ” Black or White” or the ” thriller” videos remain a benchmark even today.But the ironic thing is that even though his songs reflect deep pain and concern for Humanity; his personal life was one swell experiment with pain. Even though he was Ridden by controversies and drug abuse, he continued to pour out his life into his music. Songs like ” Man in the Mirror” reflect his deep love for the Human race and the need to change. It was almost like the God and the devil were residing within him. He was torn apart as an individual, but his focus always lay on his work. His comeback tour will never happen and fittingly so. I am sure he would have been a patch of his old self and thats the reason life snuffed him out. Such is the stuff of genius. They don’t come often, but when they do, they leave a mark which is indelible.

Michael Jackson will always remain alive through his Pulsating Music, Meaningful Lyrics and his persona that he carried throughout his life. God Bless!!!!!!!!!

I have been watching very closely th events unfolding after the terrible tragedy at Mumbai. I am stunned by the way the Government are making a fiasco about it. This is the problem with our system. We quickly forget the main issue facing us and start concentrating on which minister should be thrown out and who should be made responsible for events like this. We will never be a true and mature democracy as long we keep mud flinging like this. I cannot recall The USA blaming anybody after the 9/11 attacks. The whole nation, Friend and foe united in fighting terror and showcased what a true democracy is. When are we ever going to react maturely to tragedies like this. To me, what happened in Mumbai is a collective responsibility of the nation. Each and every one of us.Only when the fact sinks deep into us, will we starting actingly differently.

Whether we believe that it was failure of the intelligence agencies or the failure of the men in authority to act upon information, The fact remains that we are grossly insensitive nation. Probably because of the battering we took prior to independence under various foreign countries, we have become a numb nation. And once again we are beginning to display that complete apathy and the inability to learn and deal with calamities. The only true heroes of this country are those brave men who stormed the building and weeded out the terrorists. Those young men who may not speak english, may not be so called “educated” - are the ones who are true Indians.We are more safe in their hands than our Government.They may not get any credit in this country except a few congratulaions from the mouths of politicians. Will they be recognized on the roads when they walk past us?

I salute those brave gentlemen who accordingto me are more Indian then any one of us can aspire to be. And to conclude, Its time we wake up and learn as a nation, as a Government to mature. Each one of us should take our nation seriously and have the fierce pride that we are Indians - a country which is one of the Oldest civilizations in the world; and contributed so much to society. We should show the world how a democracy should be not otherwise.

God bless!!!!

The ” Mumbai Terror” is according to me is the last nail in the coffin as far as our patience goes. We have had enough of this. Shobha De speaking on NDTV got it spot on when she said that the Political Ssytem is currently incapable to handle this terror attacks. Our borders are so insecure that it is pretty easy for anybody to do this. When I travel abroad, I am asked by the immigration as to the purpose of my visit. In the case of the slightest doubt on the indentity of the person entering the country they are taken for further enquiries. But When I enter India, The officials barely look at my face and mechanically stamp my passport. The innocent lives lost over the last three days is a testimony to the fact that we have failed as a nation to protect our people. Since 9/11 in the USA , there has hardly been any attact. That is a way a true democracy works. One needs to learn the lessons quickly. If we need to survive as a nation giving true freedom to our citizens , we have to act tough. This is my first cut reaction. I will write more tomorrow. I am to emotional right now……

Barrack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United states of America. What a momentous journey it has been for this African-American. A campaign that began two years ago with just a dream in the eyes of Obama, has today become a reality.Amidst so much of criticism, mistrust and and no precedence whatsoever, This brave man fought his way into the hearts of the American people. His victory today will reverberate in History as a day when America has really found its true freedom. Martin Luther king’s celebrated speech ” I have a dream…..” has now found a voice in Barrack Obama. He is inheriting an America that is in shambles financially. An economic conditon the overshadows the Great depression of the 1930’s. He has got a lot of work to do to restore confidence and trust in his people. But hearing Obama speak today after his election, One gets the feeling that America has found a right man for the job. His poise, dignity and sheer confidence was admirable. After John Kennedy, America is again going to taste the leadership of a youthful President. Cheers!!!!!!!!.

I picked up this book by Aravind Adiga in the Singapore airport last week and finished it in five hours flat. Having just won the Booker prize, the book had a lot of expectations to deliver. I have read a lot of books that have won this prestigious prize in the past and I must confess that from a purely literary angle “The white tiger” pales in comparison. But there is something about this book that holds one’s attention till the end. Its a work of pure fiction, but somewhere down the line Adiga branches into Non-fiction. I completed this book in the flight when everyone around me were fast asleep and I pondered sometime over the subject matter of the book. I took me a while to realise that Adiga has potrayed an image of India which to the Urban crowd no longer exists. The glamour and gloss of IT industry has given the world a make believe image that India has come out of the clutches of fedualism, but the reality reamains that more than majority of the population still grapples with slavery, casteism, poverty and illiteracy.The book shows the slow metamorphosis of the protaganist Balram Halwai from an innocent village boy to a cunning, scheming urban citizen, who has lost all sense of intregrity and steeps himself in every form of debauchery. Adiga minces no words when he describes the activities of Balram and that is the poignant part of the tale. There are some stunning sentences in the book which shakes ones of the reverie that we have been living in.

Read it. It may prove to be an eye opener.

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!

I have been living out of hotels for some time now. And when I am in Delhi, I choose to stay at our guest house in CR Park. I remember the first time I came here . The address that was given to me was a place called “Park regency” and I assumed that it would be a Hotel. But when I landed here, I realized that this was a Guest house which NIIT has been patronizing for the last fifteen years. I was greeted by an Old man who requested me to sit down as he pulled up a huge ledger and made me fill in the details with meticulous care. Little did I realize then that that was the beginning of an Intense bond between him ,me and the Guest house. Since then I have stayed here many times; some short stays ; some long ones.

What is striking about this place is the sheer homeliness of it. The rooms are cosy without being ostentatious. There are couple of young boys that look after House keeping in an unintruding manner and above all, Uncleji (The old man I was referring to in the earlier paragraph, whom we all call affectionately call ” Uncleji”) whose concern for his guests is legendary in the annals of NIIT. Almost all the “Who is Who” in NIIT have basked under the affectionate care of Uncleji. Whenever I find time , I sit and talk to him , when he would recount the people who have stayed here and the fond memories that were left behind. To me , personally , I would consider this place to be my lucky mascot.

I am writing this article from the guest house. I am flying to Singapore tomorrow. I want to wind this article with an incident that happened a couple of days ago that has subtly changed my life. I was casually talking to Uncleji about how my body was not in the best of conditions and I dont exercise because of various reasons. Uncle ji promptly went inside his room and bought a Hindustan times supplement and gave it to me and said ” read this”. For some strange reason, I took the book into my room and read the article that he was referrring to. It was an interview with five of the top doctors in India and their attitude to exercises. When I finished reading it at one stretch, Something snapped with in me. Here were the busiest of doctors taking time out to refresh their bodies in Minds and I keep giving excuses. For the last two days, I have started going out for morning walks and I will continue this practice. Although I knew earlier that there cannot be any excuses for not exercising, the way uncleji pointed out this fact to me is something that has left me a changed man.

Cheers Uncleji!!!.

Colin Wilson - a renowned author wrote a book many, many years ago called ” The Outsider”. It was considered a cult book those days. Its a slim volume that talks about characters in Literature who were depicted as misfits in society. Not in terms of being harmful or malicious. But they could not live by the rules of it. They were driven by different impulses which dont conform to the norms of society. Characters from the novels of Dostovesky, Albert Camus, etc were culled out by Colin Wilson to illustrate his point. I dont this book in many book stores these days. But if you can lay your hands on it. Its worth a read.

Incidentally, Colin Wilson became an authority on Serial Killers (people who keeping killing as a habit motivated by an idea which they think is right) - The Ultimate misfits in society and went on to author several seminal volumes of the Pyschology of violence on what prompts people to cross the line between so called Sanity and insanity. Its a disturbing read, no doubt, but certainly worth a read in these turbulent times when unnecessary violence is taking a lot of innocence lives.

Try to read some of his books. Cheers!!!

Well, I have not been wrirting a lot these days. The reason being that I have been travelling much and thats leaves very little time for anything else. Of late, I have been thinking and observing that life is best lived when one is not unduely worried about living. There was a time in the recent past when I used to be jittery about everything. Tickets not arriving in time, Hotels not booked, etc. I used to raise a hue and cry about it. But of late, I have mellowed down. Life gives us what we need in due time. I dont really wory about anything anymore. let me recount an incident.

I moved out of Australia on Sunday. I was sitting in a restaurant at 10. A.M eating Breakfast and I had to go to the airport by 1.00 P.M. I had not booked my taxi and I didnt know the number to call. Eearlier times, I would have panicked and get hussled. But somehow this time, I did not. I was confident that I would see a Taxi sitting in the restaurant with the number displayed on it. Till about 11.30 A.M , i didnt see any, but I still didnt ruffled. I decide to pay and walk out when a cab stopped just in front of the retaurant showing on the part with the Telephone number displayed on it. And it stood there for five minutes with no passenger getting into it. Now, one would call it coincidence. I would also have treated it the same way. But this is just an Illustration of whats been happening for some time with me.

Every moment in life is to be accepted as it is. No Judgement, No profiling. Just be with it and the way will unfold itself. Thats the mystery here.

I was recently reading about the ” The Great wave of Kanagawa” , a wood print by one of the finest japanese artists in the early eightteenth century - Hokusai. Just search google and have a look at the painting. A first look at it may not reveal anything, but keep you eyes on the Wave and its surroundings; one would notice that Hokusai has tried to put more into a Wave than we can see. Physicists today talk of the Fractal Theory, where every end is a new beginning - totally unpredictable. A butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause a Tsunami in the Carribean. Thats the essence of the Fractal theory or otherwise known as “Chaos Theory”. If you look the way the ends of the wave have been drawn by Hokusai, you would observe that at each ending the wave splits into smaller waves drawing a new trajectory for themselves. Science has observed that this is the way our genes mutate, our universe functions. The stunning beauty of it all lies in the fact that though the ripple effect is chaoatic, but there is a order and balance at every moment. There is harmony at every step. As a famous Poet wrote a long time ago ” In balance with this life, this death”.

Kamal hasan had recently brought this idea out in his film ” Dasavatharam”, where he traces a sequence of events thats span the globe beginning with a forced immersion of an Idol of God, which resurfaces eight centuries later averting a calamity that would have destroyed mankind.

Religions in its true form have always spoken about the interconnection of of the Universe. The Ying and the Yang. ” Not even a blade of grass moves without the will of God”. Thats the true meaning of destiny. The chaos and the order of life. Living in the moment means - merge into the order of the moment and embrace the chaos that is to follow. That way Life is a depiction of the “Great Wave” .

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been living in Sydney for the last two months. Gosh! I never realised that it has been two months since I came here. Time does fly fast. Visting a foreign country and living there for a length of time are two different things altogether. It has taken me some time to actually feel at home here. What stuck me most is the orderliness of day to day life. So used are we to chaos, that it takes a while for one to get used to this system. The public transport , the availability of information regarding everything and the right use of technology makes it so convenient and hassle free for citizens to go about their work. I live in a road called “Fontenoy”. it is a beautiful residential area. Thick woods and abundant greenery on either sides of the road makes it look ethereal in the early mornings when the sun rises to paint the skies orange. Its winter out here as well. There is a nip in the air and a mild wind that sort of accentuates the icy pinch. Its a pleasure to walk. I have probably not walked so much in my entire life as I have done these last two months. The clean roads and well defined pedestrian pathways make it very pleasant to walk.

More later