the inner voice

I happened to be in Landmark - the bookstore at Gurgaon, this Friday. To my surprise I met Subroto Bagchi, present there to launch his book by the name "Go Kiss The World - Life Lessons for Young Professional". It was truly a well spent hour. He read out the excerpts from his book wherein he took us through his journey of life. It was journey in time, struggle his family had to go through, rural Orissa, his experiences with Aziz Premji and finally where he is - Gardener, author and father. Its great experience to hear the author reading his own book. He started with the story of a lady who was working in Taj, where he was put up in Delhi, who happened to be from his state. Here she was from a small town, working in Taj at Delhi and tomorrow could be working in Taj's newest acquired property in NY. He said, its the professionals who are defining history and there was never such a time. We also got an opportunity to interact with him and ask questions. On time management, h...

This has been one of my favorite nos. I have been humming this for years now. It has been a hot favorite with all singers, notably qawwals and these days the reality show contestants. Some of the known names who have lent their voice to this - Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida Parveen, Madam Noor Jehan, Wadali Brothers, Reshma, Sabri Brothers, Jagjit Singh, Runa Laila, Lata Mangeshkar, bands like Junoon and this list endlessly goes on. Many college bands have attempted this giving a rock flavour. That, one song could be so popular amongst so many, I wondered, what this song is all about, what's its true meaning. This and last week I spent looking for all the versions and answers to my questions. What a fascinating and satisfying journey it has been. This song is in the honor of Sufi mystic 'Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar'. Every word of his name has a meaning - he was known as Hazrat ( prophet of GOD ), Lal ( he wore red robes or mothers fondly call their kids as Lal ), Shahb...

A lot depends on what kind of facilities are available where you are. As a kid and upto class 12, I had both. Sainik School Balachadi had a huge campus. We had many football, hockey, basketball, volleyball and cricket grounds. I used to play all of them except for Cricket. I enjoyed watching it but never could ball or bat well. Invariably ended up fielding and started losing interest. The outdoor sports, mostly being team sports, were solid fun. Other activities included a morning routine of 3km and 7km runs around two famous temples. Overall,I think Sainik Schools do a good job of creating a culture of physical fitness. From a sports/physical fitness perspective, probably my engineering years were the worst. Did nothing. First one and a half years into my job, I stayed at Tata townships. Good part of living at Townships is extremely affordable sports facilities. At Jamshedpur, I learned to play billiards and snooker. I had a choice between this and golf and don't know why I went f...

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

I finished reading Simon Singh's 'Fermat's Enigma' and had earlier read his 'Fermats Last Theorem ( FLT )'. I am yet to come across a problem which a ten year old can understand, appears deceptively simple and yet has been one of the toughest problems in mathematics and and took over 300 years to prove. Simon obviously makes it an interesting read, a racy thriller so to say. This is going to be a long one. I want to talk about certain things in detail, which I liked, though I will keep it simple. Let me start with, what is FLT and why its called so ? We all know whats Pythagoras Theorem. One of the most fundamental theorems which everyone has to learn irrespective of which stream they study. Its says for a right angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals sum of the square of the two other sides. Mathematically presented x^2 + y^2 = z^2 where The above equation in a general form would look like x^n + y^n = z^n [ has no whole no. solutions for n>2 ] F...

This week while Anu and kids were away in Surat, I got some time to visit my old love. Obviously I am talking about Classical and Sufi renditions and other Urdu and Punjabi ( more Sufiyana ) poetry which is sublime and sensuous to your soul. Its like Spa to destress the soul and soothe it. This led me to various new blogs which have cropped up. Couple of them very neatly presented and arranged. One feels happy that the new generation is still interested and in some way connected. How long will it continue who knows ? Anyway for this post, I want to concentrate on one person who has left an indelible imprint on me - Amrita Pritam ( and her connection with Waris Shah). Amrita Pritam - What a towering name in Punjabi Literature on both sides ( India and Pakistan ). This beautiful face changed the face of Punjabi literature with her revolutionary thinking and writings. She defied the traditional image of women. The fertile soil of the land of five rivers provided the richness to her geniou...

Einstein once commented philosophically on relativity - "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours that's relativity." The essence of the quote is that time is different for different people, its not constant, as we generally think. I experienced this, in a sad ( for me ) way, while I went to interview students fom Delhi School of Economics for Summer Internship at our company. This was my first at the Campus. As I entered the Campus, a distinct feeling hit me and blew my mind apart into pieces. Young boys and girls, casual atmosphere, casual togs, not bothered about the interview, joking, loud music, who cares attitude..... the whole ecosystem is different. And we were like two overdressed dolts wanting to interview them. You never feel this way in the office or in the condominium one stays, wherein there is some kinda formal approach to everything you and your peers do. I ...