Dear God, my exams starts tomorrow..Are you listening?. Here is the deal-Need your presence in exchange.
I am sorry -
1.For all the mistakes i have done till now.
2.For not remembering you when i didn't need you
3.For professing that you don't exist just to be cool
4.For staring at the comely girls who come and visit you
5.For dropping 1 rs in the hundi and praying for 1,00,000
6.For ringing the bell too hard at the temple
Wont let that happen again!. I promise.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
CWG, Delhi, 2010
The customary baton relay for the Delhi games commences today. The baton is set to travel all over the world(70 countries, 1,90,000) starting from the forecourt of Buckingham palace, London. DD, the father-hen of broadcasting in India when it comes to national sporting events will be providing live feeds on the Internet. The link to the live feed- www.cwgdelhi2010.org/batonrelay2010. I hope the games village get completed before the baton arrives in Delhi. Better part of the stadiums meant for hosting the various events are still under-construction and most of them behind schedule. My friend from Delhi told me that the site for the Valendrome is being used as a dump yard!. Will be a big embarrassment if we fail to deliver on infrastructure. The games are a dress rehearsal for our Olympic bid hopefully by 2024. If that seems far away, dig this, Beijing(Olympiad-2008) was ready for the games even before Athens(Olympiad-2004). The president of the Olympic committee had to be flown in to Beijing to make them understand that they were causing an embarrassment to the chaps at Athens.
The world is watching and we better deliver. If we want Usain Bolt to participate( Suresh Kamadi, the organizing committee head for the CWG-Delhi is quite confident of Bolt's participation at the games), we better provide him a track to run!.
The world is watching and we better deliver. If we want Usain Bolt to participate( Suresh Kamadi, the organizing committee head for the CWG-Delhi is quite confident of Bolt's participation at the games), we better provide him a track to run!.
Verity Rise- Now what does that mean?
Think he intends to convey that he serves variety rice(for the uninitiated that includes-sambar rice, lemon rise, Bisebelabath). And he goes on to say that he serves both pure veg and non-veg. I saw a board the other day which said- "Free home delivery, No Parcel service"..Wonder whom do these chaps consult before making their presence felt.
The Great Divide-An open letter to all
Let me tell you guys a story. A story which hit me hard and asked me to question my convictions.
My maid visits my house every other day to clean the mess which i accumulate in her absence. She is arguably the most hard-working individual i have met in a long time. For the last two weeks, she didn't turn up for work. She had informed me that her daughter was down with fever and that it wouldn't take her not more than a day or two to get back to work.
Yesterday vengat, my roommate,(this happened while i was in Chennai) met me on Google talk and said that our maid had returned . I was relieved. I was about to write something in praise of our maid and how we were blessed to have her when vengat wrote back- Ashwin, her 12 year old daughter is no more. I was stunned in despair. I went numb for five minutes.
This is what came to my mind in those five minutes-
Last week i was down with a bad stomach and i cribbed about not having the luxury of home food even though i ended up spending quite an sum day after day to satiate my hunger.Even for a muscle pull, i refused to do anything but to see the doctor my friend recommended.
This is not only the case with me but its the same with each one of you. We are too accustomed to luxury that we have taken things for granted.
Picture this, my maid thought a life threatening disease was nothing but a simple fever. She didn't have the wherewithal to take her daughter to a private hospital neither could the govt hospital treat her daughter properly. She probably wouldn't have heard the word insurance and i don't blame her for that- How do you expect her to pay a premium for something which might be beneficial for her in the future, a asset which doesn't give her daily returns.
At minute 6 i decided, i will let this happen again. We should not let this happen again.
Regards,
Ashwin Balachandran
My maid visits my house every other day to clean the mess which i accumulate in her absence. She is arguably the most hard-working individual i have met in a long time. For the last two weeks, she didn't turn up for work. She had informed me that her daughter was down with fever and that it wouldn't take her not more than a day or two to get back to work.
Yesterday vengat, my roommate,(this happened while i was in Chennai) met me on Google talk and said that our maid had returned . I was relieved. I was about to write something in praise of our maid and how we were blessed to have her when vengat wrote back- Ashwin, her 12 year old daughter is no more. I was stunned in despair. I went numb for five minutes.
This is what came to my mind in those five minutes-
Last week i was down with a bad stomach and i cribbed about not having the luxury of home food even though i ended up spending quite an sum day after day to satiate my hunger.Even for a muscle pull, i refused to do anything but to see the doctor my friend recommended.
This is not only the case with me but its the same with each one of you. We are too accustomed to luxury that we have taken things for granted.
Picture this, my maid thought a life threatening disease was nothing but a simple fever. She didn't have the wherewithal to take her daughter to a private hospital neither could the govt hospital treat her daughter properly. She probably wouldn't have heard the word insurance and i don't blame her for that- How do you expect her to pay a premium for something which might be beneficial for her in the future, a asset which doesn't give her daily returns.
At minute 6 i decided, i will let this happen again. We should not let this happen again.
Regards,
Ashwin Balachandran
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
And the award for the best caveat goes to--
Came across this warning in a net cafe i visited recently..As lucid as it can get!
Wonder where God is during exams
Like most of me fellow earthlings, i get overtly devotional during exams. Its that time of the year when the visits to the temple are directly proportional to the marks i pray for. Little do i know that God had left the building when i was whiling away prime time which was meant for studies. A quote which comes to mind every time i seek god- " He who seeks god at the eleventh hour dies at nine". God are you listening, its not even 8 on my watch. So please if you can hear me, do help me out this time around.
And they say the system is screwed up
A lot of my relatives have made America their home. Most of them left for pursuing their higher studies and decided to chase the American dream and I am sure they succeeded in doing the same. My brother left for the US in 2007 and completed his MS from Arizona. He often says that life in the US is more relaxed and citizen friendly than what we have India. This constant ranting/comparison made me wonder- Is India that backward or are we just exaggerating its cons. While doing so, I encountered an incident which affirmed my belief that, we the people are the perpetrators of the so called screwed-up system. Here is what happened.
On diwali day, I was returning back home after visiting my grandparents. My Uncle, who is an ardent fan of the “Americanized” way doing things, was the man behind the wheels. We had to make a U-turn to enter into the lane which leads to a temple (the destination) and there were two ways making the turn, one of which was not the right way to do it(the designated u-turn was 100 m ahead). Nonchalantly my Uncle asked me to check whether the cop who usually stands to apprehend the wrong-doer was present or not. I was dumb-struck by his question. Here is a man who would drive down 10,000 km to do things the right way if he were in America, asking me to abet him violate a simple road rule, which if done in the right way would set him back by 0.000000001 litres of petrol and a nanosecond in terms of the time taken .
Are we a bunch of hypocrite? or are we a bunch of hypocrites!!
We never
1. Follow simple rules
2. Go out and exercise our franchise on the polling date
3. Refuse to point fingers/pass the buck.
We, the people, to a great extent are responsible for the muck we are in. So lets stop blaming and start acting.
On diwali day, I was returning back home after visiting my grandparents. My Uncle, who is an ardent fan of the “Americanized” way doing things, was the man behind the wheels. We had to make a U-turn to enter into the lane which leads to a temple (the destination) and there were two ways making the turn, one of which was not the right way to do it(the designated u-turn was 100 m ahead). Nonchalantly my Uncle asked me to check whether the cop who usually stands to apprehend the wrong-doer was present or not. I was dumb-struck by his question. Here is a man who would drive down 10,000 km to do things the right way if he were in America, asking me to abet him violate a simple road rule, which if done in the right way would set him back by 0.000000001 litres of petrol and a nanosecond in terms of the time taken .
Are we a bunch of hypocrite? or are we a bunch of hypocrites!!
We never
1. Follow simple rules
2. Go out and exercise our franchise on the polling date
3. Refuse to point fingers/pass the buck.
We, the people, to a great extent are responsible for the muck we are in. So lets stop blaming and start acting.
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