The Joy of Monsoon.

It is 7.00AM, there I am in the cosy warm bed comfortably sleeping, and it is almost time to wake up and face the day; just waiting for the alarm to go off triggering the activites of the day to commence.

The alarm goes off and you in almost slow motion get up; stretch out your arms and legs, twist and turn and with very lazy and sleepy eyes unwillingly get out of your bed. You go to your rooms window and open'em wide and then in the same gloomy and sleepy mood continue on. This is how typically the day starts.

Now we cut to the monsoon season....

You go through the same old routine of the waking up process...until the point you open up the window. Here when you open up the window you are blasted with sudden gust of cool breeze with ice cold water droplets hitting your face...the heavenly smell of mud and water..it changes everything. You are filled with Joy and the rain fills you with positive emotions. You get the goosebumps and you see the day in an all new light.

When the time to leave home comes you gear up wearing the rain gear "windsheater" as they are called and go for the mission impossible that is to successfully get an autorickshaw to go to your destination. There you are on the road all wet only below the knees thanks to the "windsheater". Then after mission impossible you sit in the auto and only pray that none of the roads are water clogged and if they are you pray that the auto does not stop in the middle of the road.

Thunder and heavy rains all around you; and I have the music in my ears..... perfect. Inspite of the chaos the rains makes you stay happy and feel positive. Something about the rains is just right.

Ah... you go up to a typical chai stall and sip on cutting chai in the heaviest of rain...and mark my words it feels like you are having the most tastiest tea in the whole world, coupled with a very hot and delicious "road side thela ka wada pav" you are in heaven and the feeling inside you is overflowing with joy and happiness.

It is during this monsoon season that people are happiest and they interact and discuss how the BMC has not done their job...discuss how Marine drive...Gateway and worli sea face is the place to be.

There you are sitting very close to the sea face watching the waves hit the wall with ferocious force and the thunder making the loudest of noice...within all this there you are just in the middle of this enjoying every second and wishing this never ends.

I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain; What a wonderful feeling, I'm happy again.
So this is the Joy I feel during rain...'cause it wipes out sortsa' pain  ...yeee haw!

Phase of Life at AIM (Part 2 out of 4 - Realisation)

"Oh God..Please give me the Strength, Fitness, Confidence, Stamina, Motivation and extremely important blessings to successfully complete the journey that I am about to undertake" these are the exact words I said to myself praying to God just before karate classes were about to start.

There we were in black uniforms and a white belt standing in formation and our sir leading from the front telling us all about the history of our beautiful form of martial art. 

..............................

OUR SIR, OUR GURU, OUR IDOL, OUR ROLE MODEL, OUR OWN : SIR JAGDISH BRAMTA

Oodles and oodles of passion, mixed with tons of talent, coupled with unlimited resource of knowledge, filled with pints and pints of humor and goodness, having the spice of discipline, temperament and drive, and garnished with a fantastic personality is what the recipe of Sir Jagdish Bramta is all about. 

Sir, it is because of him that I have developed the self confidence, the strength, the motivation and the belief in oneself with never say die attitude. This has helped in my life tremendously. 

..................

As months went by,we rose from White belt to Yellow belt to Green II, Green I, Orange II. How can I not mention our belt grading examinations, our camps.


Camps are the most memorable part of my AIM life and at each and every camp, I became more independent, more mature, more stable. 


Early  mornings, when it is freezing cold-- having bath with cold water, then getting ready for early morning training in which I distinctively remember actual steam used to come of us after training, then waking up everybody and telling them to be ready, breakfast in which plain milk and glucose biscuits were served, then getting ready for training again.....after the first day the body aches itself to death due to lactic acid in the muscles...certain students start to remember their parents... gossiping amongst students about how he wishes the camp could get over soon and he would get freedom.... CAMPS were the most interesting part of AIM.


The exam day ..a day where emotions are completely mixed.... the nervousness of belt grading examination...the joy of leaving for home the same day.... hope to get promoted to another level of belt..... fear of going wrong..very wrong....seeing Sir in the red uniform even more scary.... at times you even forget the warm ups!! 


For me personally 4th advanced Kata ... to this day I cannot say that I remember all the moves.


But this phase of life at AIM made me realise the importance of this wonderful ART, made me realise the importance of Jagdish Sir, made me realise the importance of having the most wonderful friends who could make things so much more comfortable......


This second phase of life at AIM was exactly this.... IT MADE ME REALISE...... 


Then something that I could not have ever imagined happened...it was unbelievable..... that I say would form the next part of life at AIM.........that I say would be the best phase of life at AIM.......


(To be continued......)

Phase of Life at AIM (Part 1 out of 4 - Initial Struggle)

It was my first day at Hansraj Morarji Public School in the 5th Std; I remember just before recess this person enters our class and starts explaining about a Karate class which is going to be held after school; the positives of remaining fit, active,strong was explained and after about 15-20 minutes everyone is given a form to be shown to the parents. On reaching home that day I give the form to my mom and I forget about it and merrily go down to play; of course after explaining to my mom that I was not interested in joining any kind of class.

The next day after school I see my mom at the gate; she gives me a smile that I will never forget to this day and says to me 'I am about to change your life sonu; 10 years down the line you will thank me for doing this; of course today you are going to cry and curse me might I add!' Confused I start following my mom and she takes me to the school gymnasium, and to my extreme horror I see the karate classes being held there!

Before I continue....

My life, I was soft, I was protected, I followed my mom everywhere like her shadow, basically I was a "bacchha" , 'kaccha limbu' of sorts.

Ok I can continue now....

My mom without asking me enrolls me into the karate classes, and I cry like a baby!! The first day in my uniform White shirt and brown shorts I start doing the warm ups being shown by a senior ahead... punches are demonstrated... blocks are shown .... after 2 hours, the class finally end ...and after almost getting dehydrated due to litres and litres of tears flowing out my eyes and nose... I don't talk to my mom for the whole day...I throw away the 'Eclaires' she gives to cheer me up...and I cuddle up to my dad asking for freedom!

That very day my parents explain to me why learning Karate would help me...the next day I finally decide that I would continue and give it a try...

And my phase of life at AIM begins.......

(to be continued......)

**** I am writing my experience just to share how Jagdish Sir and AIM friends and family have helped me tremendously; and have played a major role in shaping up to what I am today****

IPL the IPL ------ (I Personally Like the Indian Premier League)

IPL the IPL (I Personally like the Indian Premier League)  2008--Novel, Good-------2009-->controversial, better----- 2010---> excellent, exposed. A wise person once said that if people start criticizing you; you are on a path to success. Sounds so true when compared to the resounding success of the Indian Premier League. Mr.Lalit Modi envisioned, shaped and moulded the new format of cricket in a smart way by combining Glamour,Business, Passion and garnishing it with pure unadulterated Power. Introduce IPL the format which gripped many many people, gave a chance to see a new combination of players playing for respective states of India, hence seeing 'micro patriotism' for their states. I have been following the IPL since the very first year and I have become a fan of the same. 3 hours of pure entertainment, millions tune into watching the game and quarreling with friends about who would win and why 'my team' is the best because of this particular player.

But IPL 3 which I feel is the best season amongst all; we get to hear in each and every news channel debating about the black money balloon, betting racket, irregularities in setting up franchises, a certain Minister favoring his girl friend, and also the commissioner more hungry for power and hugely inflated egos. Debates (more like high volume kids fighting to make points) on news channels asking why Lalit Modi is the biggest fraud, why the government fails to do anything about it, how players have stopped playing for their country and started making money, how attending late night parties etc. is affecting their performances. Yeah like they are robots who are expected not have lives and keep blowing sixes all the way and expected to win all the time.

The crux of the matter is that the IPL has managed to create the global brand, managed to grip millions and managed to give fresh entertainment to everyone. IPL has managed to bring a smile on marketeers face since it provides an excellent platform to establish a brand. IPL has also participated in many social causes and helped create awareness, raise money for the same. IPL has a done a lot of good and yeah in the process made loads and loads of money; nothing wrong about that actually. IPL has also and it happens to be the important of all ; shown quality cricket, exposed some brilliant and quality talent.

Yes irregularities exist and they must be investigated and things should be cleaned out, but that does not mean that the format and the idea of IPL should be corrupted and tainted. I am sure like me there will be million other people who would like to see the IPL reach newer and better heights, want the IPL to expose newer and better talent across the country, want better cricket being displayed by competitive franchises, want IPL to compete with other leagues of the world. IPL is a beautiful concept and it should continue because "IPL the IPL!!"

Right To Education Act

The other day I was watching a discussion on a certain news channel where Mr.Kapil Sibal was addressing the concerns on the Right to education act.

Before witnessing the discussion my opinion about the act was that it is a wonderful act which is a big step forward in a progressive yet orthodox (quite an oxymoron) country like India. But my judgement was based on certain generic assumptions and excitement of the right step taken forward.

During the course of the discussion on the show there were certain very true concerns and statistics that I came to know about. 220 million go to school, but a staggering 202 million do not go on to college level education every year. Out of the total schools in India 93% are government schools and the rest are private and majority of students going on to college level education come out from private schools. There are a total of 55 lakh teachers in India still there is a gap of 5 lakh teachers vacancy that need to be filled. The teacher student ratio in India stands 1:30 seems far fetched but true and if I am not mistaken the total figure for the implementation stands at 175,000 cr.

What do these statistics mean, it throws light on very real ground level problems. How will the ground level implementation happen, how will the act be deemed successful and how would we define this success. The question does not lie with the government alone but it lies with us.

The government particularly Mr.Sibal has done his major part of the job of implementing the wonderful initiative as a fundamental right, now in order to make use of this we do not have to look at them for more added support, it is us the society to shun the bias, shun the elitist thinking, shun the ego. and do the right thing come out in full support of the act and its successful implementation. Contribute, share, let us make sure that this is truly successfully implemented.

Concerns like quality of education provided by the teachers, methodology adopted by teachers and many more concerns like these are going to be addressed by the government. Concerns like the funding problems, concerns of parents protesting in schools silently to discourage under privileged children to be admitted to high profile schools, wide spread setting up of schools across the country with the proper infra structure should be the collective responsibility of the society at large.

In conclusion the possibility of this act being successful seems real. Because it is very well understood that we cannot afford not to make this possible and that is the bottom line.

"Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions." -- William Allin

HATRED

I hate you...you hate me..... Why did you say this...... I am not going to let this happen.....I will kill you....I will destroy you...I am powerful...bomb blasts.... power plays... HATRED is engulfing all around!!

What is happening, why is it always the common who wants to live a peaceful life targeted. The evil of hatred in the minds of the a few individuals who think are working towards a cause, trying to "save" a religion, a country, a belief are knowingly destroying what is supposed to be saved above everything else and that is HUMANITY!

These so called 'powerful' psychopaths think what they say is above all else and mindless followers of these psychopaths...do what they are told like freakin zombies.

But what are we supposed to do something about it....or the maximum that we can do is update are twitter and facebook accounts...when some such evil happens and keep checking our accounts to see how many comments have come on our update. Is this what we are supposed to do!!!!

Or do we have to be more aware...more mature.... more liberal....more aggressive...more attentive....more HUMANE. you have to be the judge of that!!!

Things need to move fast very fast.... since the evil of HATRED is moving and spreading fast.... !

The real power is in our hands.... stand together for what is right for what is Humane.

One fine morning in the winter days of December 2009 in Mumbai, when I was on my way to office I witnessed a very interesting thing. As I was reading the morning newspaper in the auto rickshaw at one point in time just as I happen to look up to see where have I reached; I saw many people from inside their cars waving and blowing kisses to someone standing on the road with a sign in his hand. I got curious and looked through two people fighting over lane changing, beyond the black smoke being released by tempo trucks, the heat generated by big SUV's, just after the window rolled up again after another shower of red muck on the road and beyond the group of beggars and eunuchs fresh after harassing another person.....beyond all this I see in the distance a person in white, with a innocent smile on his face, emanating from him waves of positive aura holding the sign "Sahi Karam karna hi asli dharam hai" (Doing right is the real religion which should be followed)

I keep my news paper back in the bag and start to introspect, what did I just witness. Beyond the utter wrong things happening in and around us there is always a hope; that things may change. It is amazing how just to see that person with the sign in his hand, I had to see through so much of chaos. Then another thought hit me, whether the person is wasting his time and energy by standing in the middle of the road and trying to change the unchangeable, trying to do the "undoable", trying to unfortunately tell people what in spite of they knowing what is wrong and right , do what they want to do.

Then another thought engulfed me, after seeing that person what I also saw were the people waving and blowing kisses to him, Had the process of changing those select few started?..... had he successfully broken the barrier and had made people think for a second atleast....

As these thoughts were playing in my mind, I see I reach my office, and then get involved in the day of the life in a big city, but what I also must mention that something was different....something had changed.... he made me think about various things.....

Something which has to be mentioned is that you do not necessarily need a person with a sign in the middle of the road to tell you what you already know.....be the change.... things will be better.

This is one thing which I wanted to share about the day I was on my way to office..................