Jai Ho!
That's what we all Indians are saying. I feel human spirit to be very unique. There was 26/11 when the nation united to mourn and condemn the Mumbai attacks and just within 3 months the country is once again united to celebrate Mumbai! A.R. Rahman is what everybody is talking about. I always felt that him to be similar to Sachin Tendulkar. Both of them keep away from media, maintain a low profile, never react by talking but only by delivering at what they are the best. Will the so-called fundamentalists now realise that India is a country which lauds its people irrespective of any caste, creed or religion. And also will our neighbours understand now that they should just stop all "other" activities and concentrate on progress of the nation? India and Pakistan were created on the same day. But today India is known for its IT, for its space program, for its peace, for its harmony and now for its Oscars too! What is Pakistan known for? The best memory is probably that once it was a part of India.
In short, what matters is - being focussed on what you are best at, keep the creative mind busy and ignore other things that provoke you. India did the same with IT, with education and IITs, with automobiles, with space and now with Bollywood. Jai Ho!
p.s.
For those who do not know it, Dharavi, a home to 1 million people, generates an estimated turnover of more than 650 million USD per year! See these links for more info! http://www.dharavi.org/B._Introduction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharavi
Those who wish to go for a "slum-tour" there is a service that starts from 10USD and goes up to 135 USD - http://www.realitytoursandtravel.com/slumtours.html
Jai Ho!!
Atul Bivalkar
2 Comments
When you travel to Singapore, Malaysia and other countries in South-East Asia, you find a common "Asian" characteristic between them and us -Indians. We keep on harping as to how Buddhism, Sanskrit, Hinduism, Indian cuisine have a deep impact on the entire region. Thats what we take pride in. But we conviniently ignore the other progress and development that these small countries have made. Just consider the example of India and Singapore. Both were Bristish colonies. Both were ruled by Britishers for more than 150 years. Both were poor countries then. But today if we see, Singapore is one of the few developed nations in Asia and India still carries the tricky tag "developing" country. Just some time back I finished watching a movie on "HBO" which had a story-line related to "spirits and ghosts". I was wondering if all this fiction can every be real!! I discarded the thought after some time however later on a train of thoughts started in my mind. Most of the things in the world were considered to be "un-real" and imaginary till such time that they were proved to be real. Look at hindu mythology which talks of the ancient sages being able to see events that were happening far away from where they were located. That was mythology till the television was invented. Now all of us have that "live telecast" power that Sanjay had while narrating Mahabharata live to Dhrutarashtra. The thought of television gave me a clue. There are television transmission waves all around us when we are sitting in our living rooms but can we see or hear anything unless we switch on the TV? Do these waves bother us when the TV is tuned off? Do you get your cell-phone, radio and TV transmissions mixed up when you are watching your favourite TV soap? Can you see a lot of pictures and sound being transmitted through the air even though we know that there are thousands of TV and radio channels transmitting? All this is not a mystery for us as we all have learnt that these waves are at a different "frequencies" and unless you have a device that "catches" or "matches" this frequency, nothing can be seen or heard. Simple, isn't it? The Hindu ancient scripts mention the Sanskrit word "Maya" which literally means illusion! |
Atul BivalkarI am a Mechanical Engineer with a passion for travel, reading and music. Forts in India, different religious philosophies, history in general are topics close to my heart. Categories
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