Young Forever..

Let’s dance in style, let’s dance for a while

Heaven can wait, we are only watching skies

Hoping for the best, but expecting worst

Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or live forever

We don’t have the power but we never say never

Sitting in a sand pit, life’s a short trip

The music for a sad man

Forever young, I wanna be forever young

Do you really want to live forever , forever and ever?

Forever young, I wanna be forever young

Do you really want to live forever , forever and ever?

Who doesn’t want to live forever young? Watching this video on VH1 sung by Jay-z feat Mr.Hudson made me think to live forever young. The young blood flowing through your veins in the age of 20 is more gushing and takes along with itself all the joys and sorrows with it. The blood gets roughed up easily with the thick walls of our veins and flows vibrantly. The blood flowing at the age of 40 has thick dirt on its wall and roughing up against the thick walls causes more pain than in the age of 20.

The craziness, the energy, the enthusiasm, the will to try new things is experienced by all of us only at young age. Once this golden period is gone with the wind, the routing bore schedule of adulthood starts which takes away the desire to try new things. Being young gives you freedom to try new things which your elders have never tried.

Failure at a very young age can pinch you more than the teacher who used to take it in school. You will 

stumble along an untraded path many a time but that is a learning curve for you. Failures make you wonder about all the hardships you have taken and still you are a ground zero. Digesting a failure and coming across a new idea is more palatable at young age. But after we go in adulthood, is it possible?

Responsibilities grow as the age progresses. We don’t have time to think about ourselves. We are cared what the world is doing and try to follow the world.

Running down the street of your neighbourhood at a very young age with joy overflowing over a small reason to make you happy arouses curiosity among neighbours. Try this now. Neighbours will be ready to dial 102 to take you to mental asylum.

Life changes so quickly in a matter of years.

Live it!  

   

     

Trek to Tunga fort

They call it ‘tunga ’, ‘tung’, ‘tungi’ killa causing confusion between us and the locals between us and the locals but i have to say that I had an awesome experience while trekking the Tunga fort.

Traveling by ‘Indaryani’ express train and tasting the immortal Karjat’s ‘Vada-pav’ is a must do on a trekkers list while going from Mumbai to Lonavala. They taste really good in the rainy season. Get down at Lonavala and catch the state transport bus to Bhambarde. The bus takes you through cloud kissed roads with a deep valley on one side. The mist makes you feel as if you are on a plane to Heaven. On the way you will INS ‘Shivaji’ and a Tata dam. Get down at a tiny chowk named as Ghusalkhamb and take a left turn to start the trek.

Walk the 7 kilometers paved village road to Tungvadi. Always, keep trying to get a lift from vehicles going on the way. Though the vehicles are few you must always try your luck. On the way you will see sylvan surroundings and you can easily pass the time by admiring the nature around you. Just before the start of Tungvadi you will see Tunga Killa. A tapering mountain facing south, you will have to take a left turn from the road. Landmark for turning left is Maruti’s(Hanuman’s) mandir. The trekking path starts from here.

The way to the top is of medium difficulty and first time trekkers should avoid this trek. First time goers have ample option like the neighbouring Lohagad fort. The path is steep at some places and you reach the first door of the fort. The fort has a peculiar characteristic that it has lots of banana trees on it. A second Ganapati temple awaits you after you cross the second door of the fort. You will still have to climb a little further to reach the pinnacle of the fort. Time taken to reach pinnacle is roughly one hour and forty five minutes. The view from the fort is breath-taking. On one side you have the Pawana dam while on the other side you can see Sahyadri range facing the Konkan. The hide and seek of the mist continues all the day. At one point you can see only one side with the twin forts of Lohagad and Visapur starring at you. Tikona fort is also clearly visible down to the south. We got a rare chance when the mist in both the sides cleared and we took many pictures from our digital cameras. The view can never be forgotten!

We started to descend after having a small lunch that we had carried. Don’t expect stalls around this fort selling snacks. This fort is devoid of picnickers and is quiet place unlike Lohagad. The descend took one hour and the tedious walk began towards Ghusalkamb. After being denied a ride by a truck driver from the base of the fort and after covering three-fourth way, we got a ride at a back of a lorry truck. Climbing at the back of lorry was a gruel some task but I managed it with a few bruises on my thigh. The lorry driver drove it like an F1 car and we got a perfect view of the mountains. The cold air, bucking to avoid get hit by branches of trees was really thrilling experience that you would expect at the end of trek. We got down at Lonavala after paying the driver 50INR for a ride of three. Paisa-vasool!

One of the few treks that I will cherish throughout my life.

My dear Mosquitoes

My dear Mosquitoes,
        
                                  They mark up their presence by buzzing around your ear at every part of the world. Their female counterparts are omnipotent. I wish they had the good genes of their male conterparts. The genetic mutation in the female mosqui ( Ya i call them mosqui) has caused a great harm to human mankind, not even sparing Alexander to poor engineering students like me. They are biting me as I sit on the table typing this post.

                                  Ronald Ross, who discovered that Malaria is spread by mosquis( you should thank me for increasing your general knowledge) is the only great achievement that mankind has done in the last century. All the drugs and insecticides have done a great harm to environment than to mosquis. It's like mosquis wait for a new drug to be tested on them and declare themselves as drug resistant ( they might be holding olympics like events to find the toughest one to survive against the  most potent drugs that scientists create :P)

                                  Falciparum , Vivax are familiar to all tropical people. It strikes us slowly not even sparing the golden spoon fed one. The mosqius are now making their presence fell even during day. Some speices feed exclusively during day, naming them would make this post capable of publishing it in 'Nature'. The buzzing really irritates you if you are sleeping after a long tiring work. The buzzing acts like a natural alarm, you will not need digital ones if yuo sleep without mosqui nets. By buzzing around your ear, they whisper you the future, your break-ups and calamities in your life.

                                  Ever had the feeling of killing mosquis with your hand and getting it soaked it in your own blood or even others. Yuck!! is your first reaction and you go to basin to wash it. Sparing a mosqui is like inviting death! He may seek revenge by infecting you plasmodiun blood.Whenever you partially kill a mosqui, he flies like a mad man hitting the blades of the fan and ultimately dying a cruel death.

                                   Playing any outdoor games like football, cricket will tend to form mosqui towers hovering like vultures above your head. Wish we had competitions for the highest mosqui towers in our childhood. Childhood reminds me of a dear friend of mine applying castor oil to his cranium to avoid mosqui towers. The problem solved na! Only he can answer whether it was effective way to ward them off.
 
                                    The male counterparts are the blessed ones. The feed on plant juice. Yummy juice, they should be teasing the females. I think the mosqui community might have a blood balnk of their own. It might be useful for the weaker females and the male counterparts would buy pure blood as a valentine gift to impress the females. The blood may be tagged acording to the haemoglobin content and one ml blood might cost 10 ml of fresh juice( All hypotical assumptions)

                                      Wish we have Versailles like agreement with mosquis but Versailles ultimately led to world war 2. Peace prevaling between us is impossible as I just killed a mosqui and so are you killing them. The toll count of mosquis killed by me is 76,54,757.One thing is sure, they will get extinct when we get extinct.

                                                                                                                      Regards,
                                                                                                                      The mosqui killer.
                          

The world without religions

The world without religions........
It would have been more peaceful than the present condition. Just for a second close your eyes and let your mind ponder for a minute about all the aspects that the world would have reaped without religions.
No wars in the name of religion, no communal riots over petty issues, no discrimination, no human genocides in name of religion and lots more....

But why do we have a religion? Many people relate it to spirituality. If you are religious then you are spiritual. I laugh at such things and don't argue with that person. As far as I know, ancient people worshiped nature and that's well fine with me. But slowly it shifted towards non-existent mythological characters which were just heard but not seen. People started believing in legends as we find some kind of calm and peace in mind when we hear the victory of good over evil and we start believing in  them blindingly about the so called super powers the person possesses and we start considering him God. This belief forms the base of every religion. It's fine till here. It's obvious that we start believing in someone in time of despair. Now here part-2.

The world has many religions. Here starts exploitation in the name of religion. People start telling and preaching each other how my religion is greater than others and do the job of pouring oil in the fire. This ignites the mind of the person who is hearing this and he too spreads the word to others.  These preachers become silent spectators when the fire takes a violent face. Why do they do this? Simple reason- personal gain and greed. They feel delighted when someone's else blood is spilling at their own expense. They see their aim getting full filled and these leads to mistrust among different people in the world. We are held at ransom due to greediness of few people in this world.

In my opinion the world would have been a better place without such elements but they come with religion. Just like buy 2 soap bars and get one free!  Just for a moment what all wrong deeds we have done in the name of religion from since religion came into existence. Atheist groups advocate all these facts and advocate many campaigns like why to fear over your deeds with religion.

Though issues go well past the discussions about the need of religion in the present world. I have seen in today's world that the belief in one's own religion is getting stronger day by day compounding more problems than ever instead of solving them. One day will come when we will realize our mistakes that we have done in the name of religion but by that time it will be too late.....

(This post just expresses only one point of view) 

Perceptions about Marathwada

PARBHANI- The place where I was born. Recently had a short visit to my birthplace after a long gap of 10 years. I have been visiting Marathwada for the past 20 years and here are some general observation about the life and people living out there.

For all those non-Maharashtraians, Marathwada occupies the center space in the map of  Maharashtra comprising of Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Osmanabad and Latur districts.

My general perceptions about Marathwada are :

1.Very less or no industrial development in the area except Aurangabad, Latur and Nanded.  Aurangabad, Latur and Nanded have some what development but not that promising.

2.People are employed largely in agricultural sector and towns and cities employ public sector. Very few people employed with private sector.

3.Only one railway line passes through the region limiting the development. The railway line is not electrified and the passenger trains are subjected to delays over crossing due to single track thus wasting time, money and energy. Common man depends on railways and hence they are in poor state. It really frustrates me when the train stops for crossing at a rural station.

4.Life is too slow there. People tend to do work slowly as they have ample of time.

5.Road development is okay.

6.Agriculture development needs to be accelerated. The profit should reach the small farmers. Shortage of rainfall makes matters worse.

7.Water is scare here. Only one dam, Jayakwadi, near Paithan has benefited the area since independence. Rest all dams lay dried up creating huge shortage of drinking water. Canals lay dried up the whole year and water is released only for drinking purposes and not for agricultural purposes. Situation turns volatile in summers.

8. Water conservation should be promoted here at large scale here. Ground water resources are here so depleted that even a 250 ft. deep bore-well gets dried up here.

9.Social development is poor. The poor remain poor here.

10.This region is giving Chief-Ministers to Maharashtra for the past 15 years successively. Still no development?Politicians here gobble up all money and purchase huge tracts of land.

11.Young people have to work outside Marathwada in private sector. Money invested here by people here is earned from outside this area which spurts development in housing sector.

12. No or very little forest cover here. Agricultural sector has grabbed up all land here.

Still may points remain to be discussed. The views expressed are purely mine and if sentiments hurt by this post are deeply regretted.

Why Should I vote?

For the past one year , I have been asking my friends to get their name registered on electoral voter id list and since April,2009, most of my friends have registered for voting barring a few. All of them took active part in discussions before the voting day and I got to know many issues and the problems causing them via the heated arguments ensued between my friends and their idea behind voting instead of siting idle on voting day. Before lambasting others for not voting, here are some of the drawbacks that Indian democracy has and the mindset of a common Indian while he decides to vote.

Since I began reading newspapers seriously instead of just using it to make rocket planes, it took a long time for me to realize that India is very dynamic and complex country. Here any thing is possible so is Indian democracy. I am here deliberately differentiating between democracy and Indian democracy. In India people are greedy and this applies to all. You can't live as Mahatma Gandhi in todays world is a fact that everyone knows. All people exhibit some kind of anxiety, tension and they face numerous other problems in today's world. No one lives like a king with all his servants tending him day and night. People in India are concerned here more about money than health and that's a fact. I am stressing here that greediness and the course of greediness on which money is earned in India on name of democracy is more painful than any other aspect of India. Changing attitude of Indian people is one thing many people have tried but given complex nature of surroundings in which we have grown and the circumstances due to which people are obligated to behave is very hard to understand.

Today's media does a great job of portraying the drawbacks of our democracy. If a dog bites man it is no story but if a man bites dogs it is breaking headlines' Why? Because the media is also after earning money.The attitude like ' chalta  hai', ' Khud bhi khoa aur dusro ko bhi khilao' is inscibed on the minds of people due to surroundings. For the past few years I have tried to stop people from littering on local trains but on the next journey it starts again with the attitude ' apna kay jata hai, railway apne ko janawar(animals) ki tarah leke jati hai, mera kya jata hai ki kuch kachra failane se gandigi badhegi!' '
People tend to forget the drawbacks of this kind of attitude. As I had already mentioned, this type of problems are neglected when people have problems related to their money.

Money is the root cause of all the evils in our society. In India, getting into politics is the easiest way to earn cheap money. After all in India we have dynasties of families running our country since independence. They are elected in spite of their mistakes in past as people have something stamped on their brain that it brings stability in our country but what about the development? These families are sure that they will get elected whatever the problems the common man faces. This happened during the Maharashta state  assembly elections!The party that has inflicted lots of problems to common people like power crisis, increasing tax but still they get elected! Isn't that ironical? But this is called Indian Democracy. Here anything is possible, even proving a dead man is alive!

Now coming to people who abstain from voting and enjoy the voting day as a holiday writing posts about not  voting giving justifications about it.

Let's start with unavailability of lays potato chips in our locality. If a brand X gives me 1 rupee commission for one packet of potato chips sold while the brand Y gives me 50 paise commission per packet which would I prefer displaying it in my shop? It should be understood about the dynamics of money when the shopkeeper keeps a product for selling in his shop.

Let's turn towards the old watchman guarding our buildings. They charge a monthly 2500 bucks while an able bodied watchman cost 7000 bucks to hire. If this proposal comes in the annual AGM meeting of society, 90% of members object to it as it involves increasing the monthly service charges which in turn affect the monthly budget of our household. And people generally compromise on security in turn of money being saved. Also good people think that old watchmen are saved from depending on their not so able sons who generally would have thrown them from their own house! Here also the circumstances of recruiting old watchmen is complex and should have been understood.

From the above cases, I would like to present before you a complex analogy of things on which our country is running. Those who don't understand the this simple analogies simply migrate to a developed nation and this is called Brain drain. A Somalian would like to live in India but an Indian would prefer living in Canada than in India. Why? Many reasons beyond the scope of this post.

Is dictatorship or communism better than democracy? If you want taste of it go to China and write about human rights violation on your blog. Next day you will not be heard by anyone. Is this better than a democratic country where you at least get to express your views. Friends we are still in better position than our counterparts.

The main idea of me writing this post after such long time is that instead of complaining about the present situation in our country why can't you do a small job of voting as a dutiful citizen of India. At least, you have taken part in this painful democratic process. Many flaws are there in our system but you can't complain about it every time. If you can't adjust, I can say only one thing, things will be very difficult for you in future.

Fading Light

Sitting near the window seat
the cold wind was lashing my face.
The train was guzzling fuel like a hungry monster
to help us reach on time
We were going away from the city,
I could see the industrial area lights fading

The yellow Victorian era lights
Causing the horizon to look like classic yellow
The yellow shade was visible
for a good 60 miles
and slowly it faded appearing like a single point.

At that moment I looked up
the country side sky was full of stars
Memories of sleeping on terrace resurfaced on my mind
then, I would stare infinitely at the stars

It was long time back
now I don't see the dark nights
The Industrial and city lights have become  an integral part of my life
that I rarely see a moonless dark night.

Life has become so cruel towards us
we miss the dark sky full of stars
Though we don't know the names of countless stars
we still enjoy seeing them endlessly

The wind was still lashing my face
within a few minutes,
I could see another yellow horizon awaiting us,
Another cruel city awaiting us
The stars were slowly disappearing
And the city lights took control of my life.

( P.S-this is the first ever poem written by a guy like me)