On The Roads Of Pune
By Neeraj ShindePune, India
http://shindeneeraj.blogspot.com/
"There is absolutely no traffic sense on the road and I really wonder that there are so few accidents!" exclaimed Dennis when I asked him about his experiences in India. Our discussion gradually turned towards the informal side after a 30 minutes long presentation. He hailed from France and it was his first trip to India. Dennis seemed to be amazed with what all he had came accross during his visit here. He had loads of questions but, it was the Pune traffic that kept us far off from the remaining topics. "I've been travelling in the cabs here for almost two days and it is not less than a roller-coaster ride for me. Had it been France then I would have seen a hundered accidents by now." Dennis said. It seemed hard for him to contain the excitement. Did that mean that the city of Pune is full of skillful drivers? Nonetheless, I really found it hard to explain him how skillful the drivers and motorists in Pune really are! But, it is certainly not something the citizens of this city should be proud of. Skillful is a sarcastic word. Especially, when the city has been claiming itself as a knowledge hub for years, a lack of basic civic sense has been ruining the charisma of the place. I am very disappointed to see a complete lack of traffic sense among our citizens. More disappointing is the fact that they are the learned ones who are the rule violators. I have been travelling from Nagar Road to Hinjewadi for the past couple of days and have been finding it real difficult to drive following all the traffic rules. It is indeed shocking to know that most of them are IT professionals.
Here goes the lights yellow and there comes a pool of motorists fighting for every inch ahead to sneak out of the junction. The horns blow harder, and the one with a larger decibel level wins the way. The one who stops is assumed to be a stupid or rather unskillful. The light goes red. The smartest among them all notices a very few vehicles moving across the junction from the other end and heads hastily towards the other end. Certainly, he is never alone and is supported by a troop of followers. The RTO Cop enjoys this scene on the left. If he wishes, he grabs a couple of them and drags them aside. Grabs away his license, checks for the PUC certificate and other documents. If everything is in place, he still finds up some flaws and confiscates your document. The motorists pleads to get his license back. Some of them do not bother paying the fine. For a majority of them, the cop decides the bribe amount. Without any trace, money shifts the pockets. Crime for a crime - a good justice that is.
Is breaking rules now a part of our lives? How far does this sound good? I am not sure what to expect out of the local authorities but there is definitely a lot we can do at individual levels. Some minutes early or some years early, you decide.
Indians Are Coming Hard
By Neeraj Shinde
Pune, India
http://shindeneeraj.blogspot.com/
With the United States President Barack Obama emphasising on the need for the Americans
to concentrate more on a quality education system and a more career-focused lifestyle, it is quite evident that things have started getting hard upon the kids of the rich dads. A straight remark over their Indian and Chinese counterparts and over the need for american kids to put in more efforts only states an increasing levels of competition in the near future. Given that the economic crisis continuing its affect on the job scenario, organizations have already adopted new strategies which include reduction in operating costs and resource optimizations. Talent is sought as always but preferances for a cheaper talent are on a rise due to this strategy. I condemn the recent attacks over the Indian students in most part of the world that is gaining increasing attention of the media. It is a mere outrage of the regionalistic ideology unlike what is shown on the televisions and other media reports. Racism has got nothing to do with the student attacks. All I believe is that it is just another side-effect of the ongoing recession.
An average Indian kid grows with a due attention from his parents and the dream to excel is bestowed within him naturally. I am an Indian and I do remember the way I was brought up by my parents. The love towards mathematics and science was a obvious result of profound dreaming and sometimes threat of being left behind. The passion towards studies and desire to excel is a natural result of parental attention. That has been a story of an average Indian kid since long. Apparently, an average american kid is born with a silver spoon in his mouth and grows up watching television and playing video games. On the other hand their Indian counterparts still keep dreaming of buying such technological gizmos and work harder towards getting those accomplished. They spend more time in classrooms and parents are more bothered about their kid's performances. America had consistently been the richest country for more than a hundred years which is primarily because they have had a strong education system. This has given rise to technological advances and a kind of lifestyle for an average US citizen that was never before so full of ease. There is a constant desire to improvize every thing being done no matter how small. The results are apparent and the products hence built are innovative. Is this really affecting the american kids! If it is then this is a high time for americans to take corrective action cos' Indians and other Asians are coming and they are coming hard. It is evident that most prosperous countries are the most recession-hit ones whereas the slowdown of this kind is certainly a stream of opportunities for all those nations who have been settled for mediocrity for ages.
Pune, India
http://shindeneeraj.blogspot.com/
With the United States President Barack Obama emphasising on the need for the Americans
to concentrate more on a quality education system and a more career-focused lifestyle, it is quite evident that things have started getting hard upon the kids of the rich dads. A straight remark over their Indian and Chinese counterparts and over the need for american kids to put in more efforts only states an increasing levels of competition in the near future. Given that the economic crisis continuing its affect on the job scenario, organizations have already adopted new strategies which include reduction in operating costs and resource optimizations. Talent is sought as always but preferances for a cheaper talent are on a rise due to this strategy. I condemn the recent attacks over the Indian students in most part of the world that is gaining increasing attention of the media. It is a mere outrage of the regionalistic ideology unlike what is shown on the televisions and other media reports. Racism has got nothing to do with the student attacks. All I believe is that it is just another side-effect of the ongoing recession. An average Indian kid grows with a due attention from his parents and the dream to excel is bestowed within him naturally. I am an Indian and I do remember the way I was brought up by my parents. The love towards mathematics and science was a obvious result of profound dreaming and sometimes threat of being left behind. The passion towards studies and desire to excel is a natural result of parental attention. That has been a story of an average Indian kid since long. Apparently, an average american kid is born with a silver spoon in his mouth and grows up watching television and playing video games. On the other hand their Indian counterparts still keep dreaming of buying such technological gizmos and work harder towards getting those accomplished. They spend more time in classrooms and parents are more bothered about their kid's performances. America had consistently been the richest country for more than a hundred years which is primarily because they have had a strong education system. This has given rise to technological advances and a kind of lifestyle for an average US citizen that was never before so full of ease. There is a constant desire to improvize every thing being done no matter how small. The results are apparent and the products hence built are innovative. Is this really affecting the american kids! If it is then this is a high time for americans to take corrective action cos' Indians and other Asians are coming and they are coming hard. It is evident that most prosperous countries are the most recession-hit ones whereas the slowdown of this kind is certainly a stream of opportunities for all those nations who have been settled for mediocrity for ages.
No matter how tall a nation grows and how prosperous your lifestyle becomes, talent remains the driving force behind all. Despite unbeatable technological advances, the smartest of the smart systems fail to perform. India is a pool of talent and there has been a significant numbers of brain drains in the recent times. The reason why India is still a developing nation lies in the fact that a majority of its topmost talent works for the advancement of the so called developed countries. America still remains the major importer of Asian brains and a sizable outsourcer of its work. Importantly, Indians have been handling important parts of their businesses for many years. A good business does not discriminate among talents. All it does is respect the best of them irrespective of the nationality and the color of the skin. India will continue producing some best brains in the world and would form the basis for building a smarter planet. Every kid is born to excel but the only thing that make our kids different than those in the US or Australia is that we are born with a desire to excel by need. They are well aware of the deficiencies of not having something unlike the rich ones for whom prosperity comes obvious with life. We are not stealing anyone's job it is just that we are sincere enough towards our dreams and goals. Try not beating us physically but try beating our talent.
What Marriage Is All About...
By Neeraj ShindePune, India
http://shindeneeraj.blogspot.com/
Spinsterhood and bachelorhood is probably the age when you are neither a girl nor a woman, neither a boy nor a man in the complete sense. On the contrary, this is a time in the lifetime when real important decisions are made including the one with whom you are gonna settle down for the rest of your life. People give mixed reactions about marriage, a majority of them think it as a surrender of liberty, a sudden addition to their responsiblities and a surrender of the personal space. A many of the lone ones often think of the opposite sex a majority of time yet confused enough to take some candid decisions. I say, such minds are still in the state of evolution and their confusion is very much linked to their state of being single or rather to the pros of being single - that they have been enjoying since years. Nonetheless, this is not the only reason why people fear getting married; financial stability and finding the partner of preferance also adds to them. Often individuals are found in a dilemma and get haunted by the uncertainties of the decisions they would be making. Will I be getting a better option than this one!, will I be happy with him or her!, Is it the right time!, Should I wait for a year or some - Believe me if you are phobic to questions of this sort, then believe me Marriage should not be on your mind. Or just making it simple, it is not the right time yet. In almost any given scenario, trust forms the basis of a successful relationship and once it has been realized, love is the by-product. For the ones who have objections to this statement, I do not really want to enter into a debate. People with a converse belief may please continue believing so - I am fine as long as your belief keeps you remain happy with your relationships. But I strongly believe that love is a feeling that keeps on getting stronger when two souls stay together. Under no circumstances, it is born at first sight and neither in the subsequent meets. Nonetheless, infatuations do and a majority of them term it as love. It is just that you have met a partner of preferances whom you like and adore. Certainly, it takes lot more than this to get into this bondage.
It's far smoother to sail in the boat at times of ease and happiness. It's only during the not so easy conditions when relationships grow stronger. There's probably no better time than the times of pain, misery and sadness when you need a real quality companion. Although it is never too hard to find one during the good times - in fact you could find plenty of them. It's not that best friends cannot support you during your times of pain. Its just that you need a special support to rely upon - the one before whom you could relentlessly speak your heart, the one who could not only understand you but also the inner-self of you, your soul. This is the feeling that would fetch you something which all unmarried ones are longing for. And this is what being happy means to me. The world keep on finding ways towards happiness, but the ones who realize this would agree to the fact that there really aren't any ways towards being happy - its just that happiness itself is the way towards leading a good life. Every phase of life do has its own charm in the very own way as being single. Days go by and so do years of your life leaving behind your experiences with it. Being single would definitely fetch you a feeling of gratitude towards your current state of life just as being a child did to you a few years back. Time comes when you feel like living for others and find satisfaction in sharing and sacrifice. That is the essence of true love.
Marriage is all about sharing and caring for each other. If you are not ready to share and if you are not ready to care for others better stay away from this - for time being or probably, until you are ready. It is an amalgam of egoistic ideas, unexpected disputes, differences of opinions and interests. In a true sense, there is a lot of human factor associated to it which at times could be a hurdle to the strongest of the strong relationships. The greatness lies with the one who is ready to agree upon something that is kinda not preferable. People who love, do care for their mate and over a period of time would not agree upon something his partner dislikes. But the most important part is that they hardly build any expectations and if they do, its not really affection. Although you try being perfect all the time, it is ideally difficult to evade clashes. They might sound cumbersome but in fact they are the vital part of the relationship. As long as they are kept within a room, they form a crucial component for building a successful marriage. Nevertheless, it is all about what you give to your partner rather than what you expect out. Definitely, its not so easy to refer oneself as a 'better' half. At the end of the day, its undeniably true that the feeling to be owned by someone, cared and loved is incomparable to anything else in this world.
It's been 6 months for our marriage today and its not really 6 months older, rather 6 months stronger.
A Slice Of Hell
By Neeraj Shinde
Pune, India
http://shindeneeraj.blogspot.com/
Pune, India
http://shindeneeraj.blogspot.com/
I woke up wide awake as something hit my forehead just to realize it was a tender foot of a naked baby who was carried by her father back to his seat after a short visit to the adjacent toilet. 
I noticed the people on the floor shrinking their legs and crouching their bodies to avoid the water droplets that were still drippiling down the baby's tiny butt. Beside my right shoe was the wrinkled face of an old lady who was fast asleep amidst the crowded train compartment that almost lacked even a single square inch of empty space. Over my left was a man wearing a muddy, sweaty, filthy shirt that was constantly stinking worse than the jute sack on which we was sitting upon. I remember that smell - could be of the rotten bodies of dead mice soaked in piss. Just next to him was the body of a young boy resting his head peacefully on his sleeping mother's lap who was hardly concerned of her saree that had already left her shoulders and was already wandering somewhere beneath the lower seat. It was hard to believe that this innocent face was that of the same little rascal who was abusing the man on the opposite seat - fighting over the seat. I moved a little over the right trying to push the person with whom I shared the window seat. No attempt could have accomodated my left butt on the small space I had managed to grab in this general train compartment.
I noticed the people on the floor shrinking their legs and crouching their bodies to avoid the water droplets that were still drippiling down the baby's tiny butt. Beside my right shoe was the wrinkled face of an old lady who was fast asleep amidst the crowded train compartment that almost lacked even a single square inch of empty space. Over my left was a man wearing a muddy, sweaty, filthy shirt that was constantly stinking worse than the jute sack on which we was sitting upon. I remember that smell - could be of the rotten bodies of dead mice soaked in piss. Just next to him was the body of a young boy resting his head peacefully on his sleeping mother's lap who was hardly concerned of her saree that had already left her shoulders and was already wandering somewhere beneath the lower seat. It was hard to believe that this innocent face was that of the same little rascal who was abusing the man on the opposite seat - fighting over the seat. I moved a little over the right trying to push the person with whom I shared the window seat. No attempt could have accomodated my left butt on the small space I had managed to grab in this general train compartment. Atop sat two ladies who continously kept speaking on various topics - the make of their mangalsutras, the pickle receipes, the other lady on the bottom seat whom they commonly hated cos' she did not participate in their conversation, their common interests and matters of their common hate, Their talk was endless and so seemed my journey. I picked out my mobile phone and read the time - 01:14 AM. I could notice the motion of the train lowering down and gradually halting down. I lowered down my back finding out a way in between the legs of a young man who almost blocked my sight out of the window. I could see a few lights approaching and a few ones a little farther. And then the railway platform speeding down and down until it came to a complete rest. It wasn't hard to find the name of the railway station since the sign-board straight away faced me from the window. There were people all around, few climbing the upper berths, some on the lower, a few sitting along the gangway and some sleepy ones lying on the floor like dead bodies. The train had halted and most of the crowed kept sleeping. I stood up and checked up my bones, stretched them a little that soothened my body-ache.
A stream of hawkers entered the comparment as I sat back - now on my left butt. It was midnight yet I could see most of the crowd waking up from sleep. Probably the smell of the Sandwitches, Omlettes, Wada-Pav and Idli-Sambaar brought them back from their sleeps. I could gradually feel the odour of all these eatables dominating the stink of the compartment. The young boy who was sleeping on her mother's lap woke up suddenly. He stood up which woke up her mother from sleep too. Soon to find that he stepped up on the hand of the old lady that gave rise to an exchange of a few bitter words between her and the boy's mother. The boy was hungry I thought, as I saw him buying a couple of Wada-Pav from the hawker who was anxiously waiting for customers amidst the sleeping ones.
Five minutes gone and the journey resumed with the irritating stink coming back in place. With some polythene wrappers lying on the floor, some spilled up down the floor - compeling the ones lying down to change their sleeping positions, some awfully ugly yawns and some really stinky, bad, unknown farts it all began again. The old lady went back to sleep. By this time, the young boy had already gulped the two Indian-Burgers he had bought and now was resting his head back on his mother's lap. The man on the sack rested in the same position. The two ladies over the top who talked like old buddies were now found quareling. Another father making his way out through the people on the floor with another naked baby who had allegedly spoiled his father's clothes with some ample innocent shit.
Places go by, time passes by, things keep on repeating and people keep on hoping - to reach their destinations. That's probably the only thing that keep us alive and going in the hell.
When Nature Calls...
By Neeraj ShindePune, India
http://shindeneeraj.blogspot.com/
And now the crew had no choice than waking up the two-twenty-eight handsome headcount of guests onboard that were peacefully sleeping in the midst of the night. The lights were turned on and the announcement begun. This was not a wakeup call. It was the call of the destiny. A few of the on-boarders were already wide awake due to the last tremor of the thunderstorm that shook the Air France Jet. It was possibly a lightening that had embraced the air-plane so passionately that it could dissolve it within itself at any coming moment. One of the steward started the announcement - "Air France feels sorry for making this untimely announcement but we are in a state of a huge emergency... Our aircraft has been caught in the midst of a turbulent weather. Guests are requested not to panic. Please fasten your seat belts and remain seated until further instructions. Guests are requested not to panic... I repeat, Please do not Panikk..... " The announcement was interrupted by an electric spark that started in the front and within no time propagated till the tail. That looked like an electric failure or probably an unexpected short circuit. The motion came down to 300 kmph and then further lower and then the path looked far from linear. Then it was dark, pitch dark, cries, yells and no sense of direction. Uncertainty haunted the minds. The jet was huge and it started to feel like a dark room caught in an earthquake. The flight attendent who a moments back appealed to remain calm was now visible screaming in the lightening that just occured. The cabin crew had lost their contact with the ground as the air traffic signals seemed far from reality. Some wise chaps took off their seat belts and struggled to fetch their seat cushions. They were now able to feel the pull of the gravity and the weightlessness due to it as they realized that the jet was crumbling down towards the untrespassed waters of the Atlantic ocean. The fear of the death gathered on every face.
The plane felt a spontaneous tilt towards the left and the people over the right were thrown on the left causing a torque that gave it a full round spin. None of them had a grasp over the situation. It felt like a black box filled with marbles that had unpredictable motion. And then a couple of spins more. And then one more as the plane was accelerating towards the gravity. The cries of panic now turned into that of pain - some seriously wonded, a few fractures and possibly some heart attacks causing deaths even before the plane could hit the ocean. Each one of them belonged to different backgrounds - a few businessmen, some artists, some techies, some old, some teens, a few kids, may be a newborn and even unborn. They all had one thing in common, innocence and the fact that they all were going to die. The same death.
In all this chaos, none found time to notice when the engines gave up without which the Airbus A330 was no better than a broken arrow racing towards the earth. None of them realized when the aircraft was a mere couple of seconds away from the surface of the Atlantic. The winds gave up the control of the machine and the water took it over. The aerial chaos ended with a huge splash that went almost unheard between the waves of the mightly ocean. The jerk almost shook their senses and the chilled water made every part of their bodies numb. A few strong rushed up towards the doors trying to make it out of the enclosure. A few of them found their way out through a vent that was resulted after a central part of the aircraft was dismantled after the collision. Their success however was short-lived as a huge wave further drenched them into the depths of the ocean - caught in the middle of nowhere, unable to differentiate between the surface and the ocean floor. Every attempt to swim proved futile. Although, a few kept trying, trying in vain with no ray of hope in the darkness that ruled the oceanic storm in the center of wilderness. The chaos ended as soon as these dignified men and women got transformed into corpses - all 228 of them. Some got consumed by predators and a few got dissolved into pieces - food for the smaller ones.
Somewhere distant from here there are noble souls hoping for some divine intervention, rescue teams toiling hard to get some news, some debris. There are a numerous mothers and wives waiting for their sons and husbands who have almost lost hopes of their survival. A few merely hoping to get the dead bodies of their dear ones - the least they could expect is their dignified burials.
Tragedies do happen - even when you are not bothered of them, least expect them. Your riches won't help and neither would you yourself. I felt sad about this incident and that's what a human can do!
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