अतीथी देवो भव

When foreigners come to India, they must find it's face very photogenic. The things they always carry are - a camera, a book titled India or discovering India or something like that and a backpack. They always wear shorts and t-shirts. Wherever they go, people welcome them। (one reason for that is the dollars these guys carry and second is the pre-independence mentality)। Local people suddenly realize the old Indian philosophy of " अतीथी देवो भव (guest is like god)" foreigners take photos of these "good" people and their villages and crowd and of everything else they can't find in their home country. Finally these guys become happy, drop a few dollar bills and go home.
See any village or city, this is the case. And in a place where guests are like gods, their own people are treated like dogs. this place is filled with examples, I don't need to tell u that.

Oh these dogs

Today, I accept that i've a fear of all these canine animals especially dogs because they are in so large numbers, and i don't get to see a lion everyday. Now in this city, every time I go out, it becomes a nightmare. People here have a bad habit (or requirement) of having a dog in there home. Sometimes these dogs are literally Bull dog, huge really huge. And people often leave them on road. Oh god, can't tell you, how fast my heart beeps at seeing one such dog. The owners come to rescue only when the person (me) has lost half his life and is almost white.
Please, don't leave your pets open and save half-lives of people like me.

This is about Bangalore

I was worried before coming to Bangalore. I am from a small town, and coming to  a metro was a big leep for me. And with that, this metro is in South India, and different language seemed another problem. But now I must say that I feel no different being in Bangalore. While my flight to bangalore started decending, i was amazed to see the view beneath. All I could see was coconut trees and fields. The concrete jungle was absent from view. It was later that I came to know that airport is far away from city and sounds of planes are not going to disturb me at night.

From the moment I landed, to now, I rarely needed to speek English (though I do use it sometimes, so that person I'm talking to feels comfortable). Almost all persons I meet know Hindi, and some shop owners can even crack a joke in Hindi. That is very comforting. 

Bangalore always has cloulds over it, and so near that I imagine they must touch the top of some of tollest building here. Bangalore, is truly the city of gardens as it is called. Normally you can't see houses as they are hidden behind trees and you feel like you are walkiing in a forest. When I see from the roof, these clouds on sky and trees on ground, with birds flying, is all I can see. It make me feel more like my home, that small town. 

In Bangalore you can't say afternoon or night. Just morning and evening are applicable. It really doesn't matter when you get up, at 6am or at 10am, you'll always find same cloudy weather. And in nights, when I go out and look to the sky, The clouds are still there and are brightly lit by the lights of city. It's amazing to watch and probably I won't ever need a torch on your roof.

Really, It's always amazing to live here.

What's wrong with us

It has been about 1 month for me in this company. Till now company has been very generous and I and my friends have been given almost no work. As if we are extra assets, company doesn't know where to dump us, and is spending really lot of money on us ( and we even got our first salary). and for me, I know, there won't be much work for next one or two months, if there is any. Now that's something that should make any "working" person happy. But I know there's something wrong with us. Personally I'm tired of roaming around and going out every weekend. And now even chatting all day on gtalk seems to be boring. And believe me, all 10 of us will be the most active reader on Times of India website, because when we're not chatting, we open news paper and keep staring. 

I can't really predict, but if this continues in same fashion, after some days, we'll be begging for work. If our bosses have planned all this, then they must be damn good strategist. I hope that we don't loose our patience here. Wish us good luck.

a Taliban face for Hindus as Vedas are turning into quran slowly.

My remarks might seem to aggressive but there is some views i would like you to read before you turn to next page or before you send a threatening email to me. You might have heard of Sri Ram Sene group active in Manglore. It was in news in past month for thrashing girls in a pub, abducting a girl and a boy, just because this girl was talking to this Muslim boy and finally for publically humiliating two girls and a boy in which case one girl committed suicide. That's a kind of moral policing which probably nobody wants but nobody can't do anything. We, the common people, can't do anything because we are not united, or police will take action against us if we do. Politicians won't do anything because, hey, why would they want to ruin their vote bank? Police won't do because "unke paas oopar se order nahi hai!"
Well, forget who does what. I guess you can easily extrapolate the activities of Sene and see that finally what you get is a Hindu Taliban ruling over us, the common Indian chickens. "Aurat ghar main hi achchhi lagti hai" (women's place is home) ....Well, that's what Sri Ram Sene wants and that was the philosophy of Taliban and actually still is in many countries, Saudi Arab being top at list.

Taliban treated women like this because of the misinterpretation of Quran. Quran is certainly very old and the language used in it is difficult or words are obsolete. Because of this, many verses in Quran are ambiguous and are left for a individual's ability to interpret them. And That's why Muslim countries differ so much in their laws towards freedom of women.

While attending saraswati puja in my college, i was listening to a young pundit who was chanting mantras very fast and even forgot a few lines in between. Every time he missed a line, he would repeat the complete mantra, clearly showing that he had a hard time remembering them. I wondered he even knew what those mantras mean. And if he didn't how would any one else know, after all sanskrit language is something none except pundits is supposed to understand.
Whole indian culture, perfect ways of living, traditions, is written in 4 Vedas and 18 Purans. But unfortunately, these great books are written in Sanskrit, which as said above is obsolete. It was never a language of common man. Only elite group in our society was taught Sanskrit. That elite group consisted of Brahmins and Rajas. Now as I see, it is rare to come across a person knowing Sanskrit. I met only three such persons in my life who were my Sanskrit Teachers. And from that two knew Sanskrit just good enough to teach us from prescribed textbooks.
So without the knowledge of Sanskrit, who is going to interpret Vedas in their correct sense. Who will be able to read the part where Nari ( woman) is compared with Devi (goddess). I guess nobody. That's why groups like Sri Ram Sene are interpreting Vedas in their self-suiting manners.
All I say, let us HINDU not become a synonym of TALIBAN. Do not forget the original sense of Hindus religion and of Vedas. Do something.

What is rarely found

(This post is in line with the previous post, but these two incident needed independent mentioning, so i put them into separate posts.)

"I haven't seen a man of integrity" probably this is a dialogue of movie ' the fountainhead'. It's true that we rarely meet with such persons and I'm glad to know a few. And yesterday i met with one more. That was not a man but a child, about 7 or 8 years old. We finished our drinks and leaving the restaurant. That boy came to us asking us to buy balloons. We were three final year students of engineering college, who by chance didn't play with balloons any more. But seeing that boy, we felt a kind of sympathy and gave him a note of 10 bucks and told him to go. But he didn't. He kept on insisting that we keep the balloons. Even as we said that we don't need balloons, he gave us balloons and went away, leaving us amazed. We caught him and after some effort, we successfully gave him balloons back. 

That kid didn't know the meaning of these heavy words like integrity as we do. It is something taught to him at home or at school ( if he ever had any chance of attending one) to not to take anything just for free, without giving anything back, without proper price. I know that kid has a good atmosphere at home however poor he might be. 

I hope to meet more people like this in my life, and grow up to be one.  

Money, how big it is.

In India, almost everyone is after money. Doctor, engineer, advocate, daily-wage-labour, auto-drivers, everyone. Even a engineer earning 50000 would hesitate before giving away 10 bucks. And that seems natural as it's a lot of hardwork to make money, and also money means power in this country. But somehow we keep finding exceptions everywhere and here also it's same.

Yesterday I was at Ranchi for some shopping with two of my friends -Rahul and Pankaj. Rahul had to get is laptop repaired so he left us. On his way, he hired a riksha for 12bucks. When he reached destination, he found out that neither him nor the riksha-wala had Rs2 change. Than riksha-wala said "bhaiya, leave that. it's fine.", (of couse he said all in Hindi not in English) and he left. Now Here is a person who workes hard for 12 bucks and leaves a big fraction of his earning (16.7% to be precise)  as if it doesn't matter. Now it's good to see that people can understand other's problems. And I hope that those two rupees saved would be given to someone else in the need. That's what in Hollywood they have called 'Pay it Forward'.