total timepass...

Ask yourself a few questions today  Do you feel your mind is always whirring, always running? Jumping from one to the next to-do? Planning the day ahead without pausing enough for the moment now? Even when you are ‘relaxing’? Do you feel you are always running to deadlines, whether at work, or even in personal life? Even when you may not have to?  Do you sometimes feel guilty when you have free time, and you don’t do something ‘productive’ with it?  Do you feel a pressure to always multi-task? To listen to a book or podcast while running? To read something while in the tube? To do something on your laptop while watching tv? To check your phone while having a conversation with a friend?  Do you find it tough to sit and focus on one task for too long, without your mind wandering somewhere else? Do you find yourself unable to just read a book or exercise, without getting distracted with something else, especially your phone?  Do you find it difficult to stay away f...

Art is such a personal topic, but somehow it takes us long to realise that. I always felt I didn't have an eye to appreciate it, to identify great art. And it took me many years to figure out that there is no absolute thing as good or bad art. Good art is just what in your own view appeals to you. For me, that is what speaks to me, what I connect with. Something that makes me stop and turn back for a few moments, to admire it. It doesn't matter whether it is 'considered' to be good art in the world or not. If it works for me, it is. For me. Of course there is a correlation between the two. Often enough, what is considered good art in the world will appeal to you. But not always, and it doesn't matter. You don't need to be constrained by what the world thinks. And this knowledge gave me freedom. To appreciate. To like or dislike art. As I felt it. Once armed with this realisation, I started forming my own opinions. And stopped being bothered with whether I wa...

I recently attended two Indian singer's musical concerts in London - Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh's. This was my second time attending musical concerts (first was Jagjit Singh) because I always assumed that if you are not musically inclined, you might find them boring. And I am happy to have been proven wrong:). For a start, they were Bollywood singers, so the fact that I have grown up singing these songs ensured that I didn't get bored:). If you relate to Bollywood and its movies and music et al, there is no way you will not totally enjoy such concerts. The loud cheers and electric energy that went up in the crowd everytime a popular song was sung is testimony to that. Given my experience this time, I am looking forward to attending many more such concerts in the future. I also realised a couple of things, the first of which was that your experience can be widely different based on a lot of things, other than the quality of the singers. I will share some of the di...

The day I read this article was a day of deep brooding for me. This is a life I or people around me can never even understand - not being able to feed your cattle, not having water for yourself, not having food for your family, not being able to work and earn, losing your land and crops, and in the end having to give up your life. All this is beyond our comprehension - for the 10% middle class in India who lead a " relatively " comfortable life. This article is not about the story of this farmer (and of so many farmers and other poor people of my country). There is nothing I can say about him. Its sad. Its deplorable that such events happen almost everyday in India. And I don’t know what the governments have done in the last 68 years to change this. None of them have focussed on our villages enough and therefore we are where we are. But my article is not about that. It is about what happened that day after I read this article and how it has changed my perspective on my...

Uber has changed a lot of lives. It's brought in convenience, affordability, familiarity and feeling of safety in a new country, and a lot more to all of us. But then its not all positives for it, which you might already know from articles that have been coming in the media for quite some time now. Recently, I rode in an Uber which was being driven by someone who owned his own cab company earlier! He was an immigrant in London and had built a successful business for years. And then Uber killed it! After Uber, there are only two cab options left for commuters in London. Either the black cabs, or Ubers. And so the mini-cabs which used to provide conveninence and affordability are no more. The opportunity for small-time businesses that it provided to many is not there anymore. As per the driver, Uber currently offers the cheapest prices which are constantly falling. And this cut is always taken from the driver's share, never from Uber's. And once the small players are wi...

Recently on Facebook, I read one of those 'You know you are from xyz if...' articles. It was about belonging to the Indian middle class of the 80s and the 90s. One of the statements stuck in my mind -'You know you belong to the Indian middle class if you still save plastic bags for future use'. And the surprising part is, even though I have been out of India for so long, I can still never throw away plastic bags from a trip to the grocery store. They are stored away for future use, always! So I definitely am still middle class:). But reading that article made me think about a lot of other things I do which are very alien to the western world I live in. I always always switch off extra lights in the house, only the one in my room is the one on. I save wrapping paper for future use:). And so on.. All this is middle class too, right? We all grew up in the times of Doordarshan where social ads dominated TV time and talked about conserving energy and water. I remember...

There is one aspect of the Indian political and social systems which affects me everytime I read about it. Its how we forget our soldiers all the time. They are just there in the background, we remember them when there is a war, like the Kargil war but then they are forgotten and ignored again till the next time they are needed. Being from the defence background, it pains me more but even otherwise I think as a country its always important to remember those people who were willing to put down their life for as selfless a cause as their motherland... Related to this topic, there are a lot of articles being written currently, remembering the forgotten soldiers of the First World War. The thousands of Indian soldiers who fought miles away in foreign lands for a country which was their ruler. They did not fight for our country, but they fought as our countrymen. And we should remember them for their bravery and selfless acts, shouldn't we? One of the articles on these soldiers ...

The NHS is one of those coffee table topics discussed quite often in the UK. The theme is generally the same - frustration with how inefficient it is, and horror stories that everyone shares on how their experience has been. Till now, I had not had to interact with them, so for a long time I did not hold any view. But now that I have crossed 30, and need to reach out to them more, my view about them has become very consistent with what I had heard till now! To be honest, I think that if its an emergency or a life-threatening situation, their services are still efficient and quick (apparently), but if you are just a little sick, they are terrible. And there are multiple levels of inefficiencies in their processes. The ones I have experienced myself is at the GP level. I think either it was my bad luck with the GP I registered with, or maybe its the norm, but my experience was quite bad. For one, they make it impossible to even meet the doctor! They make you do all kinds of jumps be...

In recent time, criticism for Apple has started to dominate the news a lot more than appreciation. And maybe justifiably so, Apple has started to lag Google/Samsung products. But one thing even Apple critics will accept, their products are way way ahead of Microsoft, which is still used by the majority in the world. The fact that it took Bill Gates an entire day to setup his own built software is testimony to that! I wonder if this news article is true or not, but its definitely believable!

I know its not right to compare India with a Scandinavian country, they are way ahead from even the rest of the world, that comparing them with India is just not fair. Still it does increase the irony.. My question is this (la Arnab style), what would India have been if like in Norway, a huge oil reserve had been found in India. Am sure the result would NEVER have been this . In 25 years, the sovereign fund has (notionally) made every Norwegian a millionaire. If this had happened in India, what would have been the result in 25 years? The mind runs wild, The Gandhis could become multi-multi billionaires The Mulayam/Laloo Yadavs could become billionaires Amma, Maya could become billionaires A Raja could be a billionaire ........... The options are infinite, except every Indian becoming a (notional) lakhpati even! That is the one option we all know is not realistically an option. How sad is that?

For a sports illiterate like me, my knowledge about players in sports other than cricket is very limited. I know a couple of famous ones; Ussain Bolt, Phelps, Tiger Woods, Messi, Lance Armstrong... The list is not long. And of those, the only one about which I know more than their name and game they play is Lance Armstrong. I read his book, one of the rare biographies I have read and was very impressed and motivated. Maybe because have not read about people coming out of cancer and achieving as much as he did in one of the most physically challenging sports, it felt really unreal and great. His book was inspiring at many levels and I took each of his words to be true. Including his tirade against people who 'wrongfully' accused him of doping. It had to be true, how could a person going through such tough times do something as wrong as that? And then it all came crashing! I don't know why, but I felt personally let down when the truth about him came out. I had read his...

The Iron Lady is no more. And parts of UK are celebrating her death! Other than being a very sad thing to do, it makes you wonder about her, what kind of a person was she; how extraordinary would she be (not necessarily good or bad) that her death brings out such kind of emotions in some people. Hearing about it led me to research her views, her actions and her decisions, to understand how can people either hate her so much or not hate her (I still haven't found people who love her yet, but think its the same as don't hate!). And so I realised how split the country is when it comes to her. On the one side, there will be a ceremonial funeral for her (something rarely accorded to politicians) and on the other side, there are street parties on her death. Just goes to show what an extraordinary woman she was! And as I learnt more about her, I realised what she stands for, is taking decisions, and bold ones at that. They might not necessarily have been all correct (this can ...

This post is posted in the category of 'News'. Well, it should be, it has become a matter of such national importance, that it hogs enough limelight in the news regularly anyways. "Why is Aishwarya so fat still ?!!" The first time I saw such a headline, I was almost outraged. How and why would anyone even think about somebody else's weight? But I chose to forget about it, assuming it was just one person's random views.  But soon enough I figured out I was wrong, but so wrong?? I had just not expected that. Aishwarya's weight has become a national obsession. And I just cannot understand it! To be honest, I am not an Aishwarya fan. I think she is beautiful but she is quite a terrible actress and given the big movies she gets, its quite a waste to see what she does to those movies. That being said, I still cannot understand why the media writes about her weight. For one, its none of their business. Its her life, she might chose to be fat or slim, its...

What is right and what is wrong? And what comes in the grey? Doesn't too much come in the grey region?? These questions confuse the mind time and again.. while reading a book or seeing a television serial or a movie or any other such portrayal of life: where life's events and decisions are shown.. There are so many situations in these portrayals, when you wonder what you would do in the same place and you do not get a clear answer.. And makes you fear that if you can't decide even when not faced with the situation, what would you do when faced with it in real life? These questions came up again while watching the grand epics of epics, Mahabharat. What a story it is, with layers after layers of characterisations.. a multitude of characters all interlinked together in a complex maze.. decisions taken by people leading to unexpected consequences generations later.. Such an interesting study on karma and characters it is. What would you say about Bheeshma, a pe...

With the football World Cup dominating most conversations nowadays, a not so regular football watcher like me also ends up being aware of what's happening and interested in the titbits of what is happening in South Africa... A name which people like me also can recognise is Maradona, what may be the only player whose name people like us knew. Its nice to see him in action now, even if on the sidelines of the field rather than on it!! Here is a nice article on what he is upto in South Africa:)

After the recent attack by the Naxals on civilians, I was eagerly waiting for the comments of the Naxal supporters of our country on the incident. Would they condemn it? Or would they in some warbled way, still support it?? And the answer is here . Arundhati Roy blames the security forces for exposing the civilians to the Naxal threat by using the same public transport as the civilians use!! Well said Ms. Roy, the security forces should not do that at all. They should travel in transport filled 100% with security people, to give the Naxalites the most efficient targets to blow up. Yes, that is what they should do...!!

Here are some beautiful photos of the Kabul of today on the BBC site. Is heartening to see that there is positiveness around... Beautiful photos, especially the first one.. Isn't it, or at least wasn't it a beautiful city once? If you've been following the events in the country, am sure the photos will touch your heart somewhere... and hats off to the human spirit.. taking birth again after what all they have gone through in the past decades....

India is a land of festivals, we've all known that since ages. But the realization that these festivals are celebrated differently in different regions of the country is a completely separate discovery, as I did in my recent stay at Mumbai. Some interesting aspects of this, would like to share with you all.. Janamashtami During Janamashtami, the matkis setup everywhere in the city make for interesting viewing. Somehow I had never ever seen Janamashtami being celebrated before, so it was a new discovery for me anyways...Groups of matki-phods traverse the city in trucks, breaking matkis and pocketing the prize money. The earlier you start, the more matkis you can break and the more you earn:). Also during the day, the unconquered matkis are lowered as the day progresses so that breaking it becomes more achievable. The speed with which the matkis are broken is surprising too, you blink and the matki would be gone. Just as a warning, during the day, be careful of th...

IPL is over.. phew.. !! Though obviously the aftermath isn't yet:). Once the Shoaib-Sania daily updates finished, started the Modi saga, giving enough work to the Indian media.. This latest saga will continue to give us many more 'manu-ranjan ka baap' moments for sometime.. but we still need to wait and watch for the end to this.. Anyways, this article is more about the IPL stadium experience again. Most of the earlier IPL league matches that I saw were in Braborne stadium (of which I have already written before in detail ). They were fun to watch and so I kept going again and again to see those matches. Saw the IPL final in the DY Patil Stadium however and it was a different experience. Not sure if I would want to go there often though! The stadium is beautiful! Very well constructed: its huge and there are no columns blocking your view at any location. Any seat you sit on, you get a complete view of the ground (and this was quite different from Braborne). The sound a...

Read this article on the Samba spy case sometime back and was shocked! Did not know what to say or think.. Justice is delayed and denied often in our country, but for something as serious as spying? And of course, one person falsely implicating 50 other army officers and for 35 years!! It just does not sound right.. feels very sad... Of course, we don't know the genuineness of this claim and there may be more to the story than what meets the eye. Still, its quite a big shocker.... And if its true, is terrible.. Falsely implicating possibly innocent army officers of being spies; of them having served rigorous sentences; of the ignominy they and their families would have suffered for years; and of the damage to the image of the army... Can we ever set it right?