Creativity

Well, I have a bunch of pretty creative friends and where else do you see the creativity apart from Gtalk status messages and Twitter updates...

Last week when Sachin Tendulkar was busy scoring runs for his amazing knock of 200*, people were busy putting up some really creative status messages...

Check out a few of them

Ankit Govil: GAWWWDDD

Rajesh Bhasin: God's last name is not Dammit !.... looks like its Tendulkar

Nimit Mehra: God is sachin not the other way round!

RT @vvkchandra: God wanted to play cricket. Sachin was born!!!

Kartik Chaturvedi: In real.....terms only god can bat better than the maestro himself....!
 
Kazi: Sachin -> The Rajnikanth of the modern world. There is nothing he cant do

Abhay Murarka: Rajnikanth is the sachin of film industry, not the other way round - a friend

Abhay Murarka RT: @virajturakhia: RT @VascoZ Sachin Tendulkar - Reducing the number of atheists in India since 1989


VishrutShukla : A spl award shld be given to Amla for saving Dhoni's boundary in the 49th ovr. W/o Amla we wld hav had a 199* and a dead captain ;)

Pranav Jawale RT @delhidreams: Boss to me: "it is perfectly acceptable that u watched d last 15 overs. now please get back to work."

Abhinav Pophali took a break from office to witness the miracle!!

Nita Chandrasekhar: And just when u start thinking there are no records left to be broken, he breaks one more! Hail Sachin!!


Manu Vats: Sachin 10dulkar not nly brings smile on millions of faces bt also solves various problems like reducing traffic on roads , keep ur boss hppy,saves ur phone bill.....He is a true genius nd an inspiration 4 me nd all.


Kushal Agarwal: Moksha mil gaya aaj :) Sachinnnn :')

About Sachin, I need not say anything. Period.

The Spirit of Living

I recently came across an article in Hindustan Times about two blind men who run a shop in North Campus area in New Delhi...

Intrigued, I read further...

The shop called ‘Andhein Ki Dukaan’ (Blind person’s shop) is run by two visually impaired men, Pradeep and Umesh. The shop stands next to the Hostel For College Going Blind Students (Louise Braille Bhawan), Kingsway Camp and the shop has been selling snacks such as chips, biscuits and eggs and soft drinks since 1995.

It is very hard to even imagine two visually impaired men running a shop, even harder to believe that these men can now distinguish different products and money by touch alone. But Pradeep and Umesh can now distinguish a bottle of one cola brand from another; a fake note from the original..

I am sure that when Pradeep and Umesh must have thought of opening a shop, people would have mocked them, telling them that it will impossible, people would steal from them and they would be unsuccessful...It has been 15 years since that point and by God's grace, they have managed to survive and manage well.

These two men have shown that nothing is impossible if a person is willing to try...and it is this spirit of living that I salute..




P.S: I had blogged about another visually impaired man whom I used to meet on my way to office. Check out that post here...

P.P.S :Check out this news article in HT here...

Save our tigers

Aircel “Save Our Tiger” is the latest campaign where it intends to draw attention towards dwindling numbers of tigers across the planet and bring forward the seriousness of losing tigers from our planet.

Tiger, the national animal of India, has been on key target of poachers and in 2009 alone India lost 86 tigers. From around 40,000 at the turn of the last century, there are just 1411 tigers left in India. The national animal is on the verge of extinction and if serious efforts are not undertaken Tigers will only reside in our history books.

In the international market, a tiger fetches at least $10,000, but broken into body parts, the value can soar to $50,000. Every bit of a tiger is in demand—the brain as cure to pimples and laziness, its whiskers for toothaches, the nose and eyes for epilepsy and malaria, the humerus bone for ulcers, rheumatism and typhoid.

The Penalty...
If an offence is committed against the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, there is a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment or a fine which may extend to Rs. 25,000 or both.

For an offence against a Schedule I or Schedule II (part 2) animal, or for an offence committed within a sanctuary or natural park, there is a mandatory prison term of three years, which may extend to seven years. There is also a mandatory fine of at least Rs. 10,000. For a subsequent offence, the mandatory prison remains same, while the mandatory fine is at least Rs.25, 000.

For an offence committed inside the core area of a Tiger Reserve, there is a mandatory prison term of three years, extendable to seven years and a fine of Rs. 50,000 extendable to Rs. 2 lakhs. In case of a subsequent conviction, there is an imprisonment of at least seven years and a fine of Rs. 5 lakhs which may extend to Rs. 50 lakhs.

Despite these penalties, the laws are difficult to enforce and to date, in spite of hundreds of cases, only 16 people have ever been convicted of killing a tiger.
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If a person can earn upto $50K, would they even care for a fine of Rs. 25k or a jail term (bailable) and the bribe amount which would amount to nothing, but guarantee a safe passage for poachers??


What can you do?

There are various credible organizations working towards the conservations of Tigers in India. You can support them by donating the amount of your choice. Head over here to make a donation.

If you have a blog similar to this, you can write about the urgent importance that is required in this regard. If you have a social networking profile, update your statuses’ (or the likes..) to show your concern (every bit of word helps spread the message).

If you see or know any one in your village hurting Tigers, be it for any reason, educate them and if possible bring them to the law.

And finally, if your want to show your concern on tigers virtually, head over here to make
a mark.


Its time we raise awareness and force the government take steps to increase the guards and
forest rangers to reduce the ease through which poachers helped by local villagers can get to a tiger. Until we can't stop that..we can't stop the killing of wild animals- not just tigers..

Chetan Bhagat @ Symbiosis

This isn't the entire speech that Chetan Bhagat gave @ Symbiosis Pune. This is just a summary of the speech.

"
Dont just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up?

It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices........." :)

"

"Don't be serious, be sincere.!!"

The entire speech is available here.

This year

Check out the my facebook status cloud for this year :) . Check out the app here

Wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous new year . The beginning of a new decade. hope it brings lots of cheers to your life :)
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Waise..khush hai zamana aaj pehli taarik hai :D

Weekend :)

Weekend-> 2 trips to Office,2 visits to GIP and 2 rides in the metro and trip to CP.

or

Weekend -> Catching up with friends at the Airport, Railway station and spending time with my cousin brother who is in town for college vacations.



And who says weekends are for relaxing???


During the first weekend, we had to go to the office for some online training on Saturday. Fortunately or unfortunately the thing refused to work. So we were @ Noida and we had nothing to do. So we spent the morning playing pool and TT. But then we realized that we couldn't do this the whole day, so while some people went home, others still playing Pool and TT, we decided to head to GIP (The Great India Place). Spend the entire afternoon doing nothing in particular...strolled about in the mall, went to a pet shop where Ruchika and Divya couldn't have enough of the cute puppies they had there and Manu couldn't wait to get out...and spend time @ CCD.

(At the pet shop)

(All of us At McD: From L to R-> Ruchika, Me, Mohsin, Manu and Divyanka)

We then headed back to office but the online thingy still wasn't working so we decided to head home...BUT my destination was Meet's place where we had decided to spend the weekend :)

Meet was still busy at office (I am now not very sure whether he works at BHEL or not...in office at 6:30 PM on Saturday :0 ) so Vishal and I sat in the park and talked and talked :)

When Meet returned, there was still some time before dinner, so we decided to head back to GIP (2nd trip in within a space of few hours..) but this time we took the Metro, and the station is just outside Meet's place...and it was a change from the overcrowded stuffy buses...

After we came back, Vishal picked up his guitar and we sang a lot of songs (in a bad out of tune voice...but who cares :P ). We talked and sang and finally slept at 3.

Next morning, I was the first to wake up at 10. We did not have any specific plan for the day, so we started off from CP ( kyonki..in the 4-5 months he has been in Delhi, Meet hasn't gone anywhere in Delhi...)

Going to CP involved another ride in the Metro, but this time it was pretty crowded...and Rajiv Chowk seems to be a underground city altogether...so much crowd, so many shops and all..

We roamed about in Palika, inner circle, had Chole bhature from a street vendor.

We then headed to the central park and we were actually Embarrassed (note the capital E) with all the public display of affection all around...

This weekend was equally good. Spent an entire afternoon with Shreya who was on the way to Lucknow...having 'Ghar ka khana' at Delhi Airport.

Today I had gone to the railway station where Atish and Ankur were coming from Goa. It was also Atish's birthday today, so it made the trip all the more special. It was great to catch up with them, couldn't spend time with them because both of them had to go in different directions...Looking forward to spending more time with them on 3rd when they head back to Goa.

And tomorrow, I have to go to my aunt's place to meet my cousin who finished first 6 months at Med School... :)

Positives in the midst of Chaos

The past week, I finally started working and hence spend a lot of my time commuting between Delhi and Noida. In the midst of the all the traffic jams and the lack of traffic rules in UP, I keep observing a lot of things (as I have nothing better to do :|). Some positive scenes that I saw and can recollect.

-> The visually challenged man who leads an independent life, commutes to work daily by public transport and does not feel in anyway inferior to anybody else. I don't know why but looking at him lead an independent life makes me feel great. I had earlier written about him in detail. Check out the entire post on this topic here.

-> Good to see policeman standing at bus stops forcing buses to stop in a single queue and in the leftmost lanes (at least during times of peak traffic), thus ensuring smooth flow of traffic at least around bus stops.

->The DTC bus that goes from Delhi to Noida and back is generally quite full and there is not enough space to even stand. Although there are a few seats reserved for ladies/senior citizens/physically handicapped people. However they do fall short. A very heartening scene to see a some guys getting up from their seat (not reserved for ladies..) to offer their seats to some lady.

->The Delhi-Noida ticket use to cost Rs. 17/-. Then the UP Government increased it to Rs 27 and told Delhi Government to increase their tickets to the same amount or else close th route. Bluelines have already been phased out on this route (A positive step, while this is not what the point I wanted to make...). The DTC conductor now gives a Rs. 29 ticket as 4 separate tickets of Rs.15+Rs.10+Rs.2+Rs.2. And then the conductor tears off the 4 tickets to indicate the bus stop of boarding and getting off...and takes a very long time to process each request. People spend most of their journey waiting for the conductor to give them the ticket. Today I caught a bus from UP Roadways and observed how they have smartly embraced technology. The conductor carries a hand held printer, takes the money, enters the code for bus stops and gives a printout of the ticket. Impressive!


And you might think that I have written only about road, traffic and stuff related to it...I reiterate I take at least 2 hours everyday commuting :(