Love

Feeling particularly drained after office that day, Seema retrieved her old books and Oxford English dictionary gifted to her in Class VII by her father, to soothe her taxed mind.

As she opened the dictionary, out tumbled a most-touching love note written to her during school-days for the first time in her life, by Avinash, who now was the leader of a prominent new political party of the state.

She had lost touch with him and was smiling due to the train of happy thoughts in reminiscence, when the doorbell rang.

Book Review: Being Indian- Pavan K.Varma

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We are Indian. Still, have we ever tried to analyze those fundamental traits which make us so?  Those compelling characteristics of our society and life as Indians, which refuse to leave us even in the farthest foreign lands? Pavan K.Varma, a seasoned Indian diplomat, gives an insightful and delightful analysis through his book ‘Being Indian’, on what makes Indians operate within and outside the chaotic democracy of a billion plus people, and why the 21^st century will be India’s, precisely due to those very same fundamental characteristics of Indians ingrained in their DNA.

This fantastic read consists of 213 pages, excluding Notes (consisting of an elaborate list of books/articles by established authors, leaders, administrators etc. referred for writing each chapter), Copyright Acknowledgements and Index. It is divided into six chapters starting with ‘Introduction’ where he tries to separate the reality from the image of India. He highlights what questions the book seeks to answer, methodology followed and basic traits of Indians such as retaining hope even in the toughest circumstances and resilience that comes due to continuous exposure to adversity, to name a few. Then through the next chapters i.e. ‘Power’, ‘Wealth’, ‘Technology’, ‘Pan-Indianness’, the author goes on to unpeel layer-by-layer the Indian psyche and how they tick and succeed. Finally in the ‘Epilogue’ the author suggests what needs to be done to unleash the potential of Indians so that the 21^stcentury certainly and much faster, becomes India’s.

Book Review: THE WHITE TIGER – Aravind Adiga

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Aravind Adiga won the Booker Prize in 2008 for writing the book ‘The White Tiger‘. I was always curious to know what was in it, and how this first-time fiction won the prestigious award. Once I started reading the book, I discovered it was un-putdownable! Written in an angry rustic tone with a lot of dark humour and satire, the author convincingly tells the tale of ‘The White Tiger’, an entrepreneur in the IT hub of Bangalore in a most unimaginably creative manner- the entrepreneur speaks in the first person and narrates his story in letters written every night addressed to none other than- Wen Jiabao- the then Premier of China! The interesting title, ‘The White Tiger‘, literally means that rare ‘creature born once in a generation‘-a name given to the street-smart protagonist when he answered all questions rightly, posed to him, by the school inspector in a remote village of Bihar.

Everyone loves a Winner!

Everyone loves a winner. Looking at the rear view mirror of life, I myself find that I was the cynosure of all eyes when I came joint first in Xth CBSE Board Exams in Odisha (2001) and also when I was Pepsi Change the Game Contest winner and got to witness India's historic Cricket World Cup win (2011) from the stadiums starting from Dhaka to history creation at Mumbai!
     

Source: Amrita Sabat's Samsung Wave2 Phone!

My Social App to encourage more Indians to vote in General Elections 2014!

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How to urge more people to vote in General Elections 2014? I have thought of an idea for a special social App for encouraging people to vote. 

Currently people do not go out to vote because:
a) They do not have details of the candidates and are too lazy to find out and hence and also otherwise assume that ‘sab chor hain’(all are thieves) and do not step out to vote.
b) People are confused about the process- how to Apply for voter ID, where to go for voting, how to use EVM, what is NOTA etc. So, they ignore the process altogether.
c) People have to travel long distance to physically go and vote in their constituency.