Tid Bit from My Diary

How can one describe the culture in a big and diverse nation like India? Today we have grown to understand our unity in diversity while the astounding truth is that we have united without any fragment losing its individuality. Our culture is our way of life and we have learnt countless way to live, woven by a single thread which is the pride of being Indian.  The fabric of India cannot be described any better than the words of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore— “Hethay arjo hetha anarjo hethay drabir chin Shak hoon dal pathan mogol ek dehe holo leen Paschime aji khuliyache dar setha hote sobe ani uphar Dibe aur nibe milabe milibe, jabena fire Eai bharater mahamanaber sagar tire” I will not go in to the length of translating the texts but in gist our place is the confluence of all culture. Aryans, non Aryans, Dravidian, Chinese, Shaks, Huns, Mughols to name a few have all contributed in developing our culture, our belief, our tradition, our values, our way of life and above a...

This is the 100th post of my blog and dedicated to the Indian Woman. Why should Indian woman change their surname after marriage? They are one of the most educated people in this universe and stand shoulder to shoulder with the men folk. Their contribution in our society is immeasurable and so is their dominance. Most of us were taught in our school and colleges by women and we still fondly remember them with respect and sometime with fear.  In brief they are smart, capable, respected and in charge. So changing their surname is their decision similar to visual symbols of marriage, like saree, mang, bindi, mangal sutra and the likes which some might consider as adornment. But like a celebrity once said, India is so vast and so diverse that whatever we say about India is true but incidentally the opposite is also true. So on one side there is equal opportunity for all and all genders or more appropriately equality exist among equals and on the other side a vast majority o...

This post is designed to make the ace construction manager look like a super hero, a character that is larger than life and well deservedly so. Getting skyscrapers, high risers of even a 30 storied building for that matter is not a child’s play. Anyone who had tried playing with block during childhood will know what I mean. If you are still not convinced, try your hand making a sand castle on your next trip to the beach. The construction industry is very diverse and could easily challenge the nature with its variety.    One has to be brave, assertive and at the same time demonstrate agility in approach to survive in this industry. Unlike the designers, who are primarily dreamers, the construction teams deal with harsh reality and transforms ideas into built forms. There is no gate pass to the top for the timid or the weak. But that for the top, not all who fall on the line are smart, most of them are as clumsy as they come. A complex construction project has the ...

This Post has Won "WOW Badge" from Blogadda http://forum.blogadda.com/discussion/852/wow-a-goddess I believe that our society is still matriarch in its structure. There is at least one woman who motivate, inspire of dictate us at various point in life. In the chronological sequence we get introduced to them within the family. We see the dominance of Grandmother give way to our mother followed by sisters, wife and finally our daughters.   Even today how many men leaving aside the rogue ones, the ones defined by the dictionary meaning of   a   dishonest,   knavish   person;   scoundrel can dare to disobey their mother. This love and respect for mother has been glorified in our movies in all Indian languages. There are instances, not very old when the mother had intervened and brought some kind of resolution when the two famous Mumbai bothers fought for the family billions. This power of the mother probably has inspired our ances...

We all are running the rat race having plunged ourselves into this knowingly or unknowingly.  At times we get the urge to excel more, while for some it’s a matter of sheer sustenance. No matter who pushed us in, this generates a lot of stress. This stress is a stealthy killer. There could be uncountable sources of stress but it all end up by us committing ourselves to unrealistic schedules or imposed with unachievable targets that we accept. This weighs down on our shoulder and makes our life miserable and deprives us of the finer things in life. We are not able to sleep like babies any longer. The management gurus will tell us that at its core lies “Time Management”. Our ability to manage our time is the key to lead a stress free in our day to day life under normal circumstances.  Time, interestingly is a great leveller. Rich & poor, weak & powerful, the oppressed & the oppressors, all have the same number of hours in a day as they have the same number o...

The last festive season, we embarked on a mission inspired by a lady in a far away country. It was beginning of December of 2014 and the time when most of the places in the world are in a festive mood, some more than others. We were on a train and we saw a lady, from a couple of generation before us, having a glass of wine and writing the Xmas and New Year cards. I thought why not try revive the old traditions of sending cards for the festive seasons to some of our friends and relatives. That way we will give a chance for the postman to shake their legs a bit. . Cards and letter are fast getting extinct and by now and I do not see anyone campaigning to save the post box.  My last “partner in post” has also given up about two years back and got baptised to the internet. When I started to receive response to my letters through emails, I did not know how to react. It took the experience out of getting informed though I got the response almost instantly. I had no idea if I want...

The other day I came across a promotional bus, while driving down the road. But I managed to take a picture with my phone camera taking advantage of the traffic congestion. I am of the habit of clicking an odd photographs while waiting at the signals if something fancies my taste. But this time, I was not sure if this sentence reads correct. It would have been quite normal, had they written " Paint your life with reading". But they chose not to and I am sure that they did it in purpose. Interestingly the sentence makes perfect meaning when we break it. Paint your life Whit Reading In other words paint your life with a little bit of reading. It did send me out reading, even if that was a dictionary!

Bengal is the land of 6 seasons unlike other parts of the world with only four. Spring is the last season in the Bengali calendar and the most pleasant time of the year when the winter is on the way out while summer is yet to set in. Be it east or west, spring has inspired the poets generations after generations and they have generously adored it with prose and poems. Festivals bring people together and the more inclusive a festival is the more popular it is. There is no better time to celebrate than when the climate is good or rather the spring is in the year. Holi, the festival of colors beats all other hands down in its variety, rendering and inclusiveness. It is simply breathtaking and comparable only to the festival of lights. But this nice weather that we love so much is also conducive to the growth of micro organisms and spread of diseases. In the earlier days these colors were made out of various natural elements were believed ...

                                          Photo courtesy: AFP These days one is seldom adequately shielded from news intrusion into the daily life. First it comes through the phone, which is smarter than its user and quite efficiently manages all the apps and news sites. If you ignore those during the day, these are repeated on the Ipad alibi their secret relation over the cloud relation. The next front off course the good old idiot box for those who have access to its remote control. Till recently the confusion for me was to determine who was the idiot in this relationship of beauty and the beholder. With the advent of the smart TV, I have somewhat reached a resolution with a great deal of reluctance. And if you managed to escape all of these, the morning newspaper compensate for the great loss. Earlier in the week I was made aware that a white elephant has been found in My...

A famous tomb stone screams out to all willing to listen, that he was neither born nor died but visited the planet earth from one date to the other. This, if at all anything, spells out one fundamental truth about our existence. We are mere visitors to this planet and  there are only few circumstances that we control .  Despite our presumed progress in science, we are not sure where we came from and where we are going and if there is a life after death or the reason behind this illusion, we call our mortal existence. However, while we stay here, we try to believe that we are permanent and should have everything that we set our eyes upon. We have to control the lives and wish of every living creatures around us including the fellow human beings and other beautiful body & souls’. We wish to dictate what they ought to do and what not to do, what to wear and what not to wear, where to go and where not to go, whom to befriend and whom not to  and the list doesn't st...