An eventful night that was!

We all know that a true Indians identity is witnessed by his love for Movies, Politics, and Cricket. And here I am, a true Indian. This time, I will tell you a story that's about Cricket.

Me and my friends always wanted to be a part of this World Cup, 2011. Unfortunately, Hyderabad was not on the venue list, and the next nearest option was Nagpur. As they say, life is not easy on this planet; after continuous efforts for a month there was no ray of hope left. None of our contacts worked. No tickets available, all sold out. That's what we got on every chat, sms and call we made. Yes, we were disappointed and had convinced our self that luck shall favor us another time.

11-March-2011, 11:50pm: Me telling a friend the saga of our failed attempts to get tickets for the match on our very own gtalk, simultaneously cribbing to another a friend on the useless network of people I have, over the phone.

12-March-2011, 12:20am: My friend calls me back with a question; "what if we get the tickets now? should we go?" I say, "WHAT!!! Tickets!!! Now??? to Nagpur!!!" He hung up, promising to call me back in a couple of minutes.

12-March-2011, 12:25am: Another friend logs onto makemytrip.com trying his best to make this trip possible. Once again Mr. Luck was too busy to knock our doors. No connecting flights available, leaving us with just one option! A drive that was just 490 kms long.

12-March-2011, 12:30am: The phone rings... and... yes! We got 4 tickets for the Nagpur match! and WTF, confirmed! For the second time in my life, I said to myself, ‘God exists’! (the story of the first time will come to you on another blog, some other time)

12-March-2011, 1:00am: 4 friends, 4 different houses, the exact same scene. We knock on our parents' bedroom doors, give them the news of the confirmed tickets to the match, plead them to give us permission to drive to Nagpur. 

12 -March-2011, 3:00am: After 2 freaking hours of persuasion, parents agree!

12-March-2011, 3:45am: 4 friends, 1 car, and a hell of a match ahead of us! World Cup 2011, here we come!

What an eventful night that was! Guys, a car drive from Hyd to Nagpur is just awesome – you all must try sometime.

P.S. We witnessed Sachin’s 99th century, and the only match India lost in the world cup, lol.

Be the change you want to see

During my childhood days, I had come across this story where a woman in a village happens to involve herself in some non-social activity and the entire village was punishing her by throwing stones at her. A Swamiji was passing by that place, observed this act and stops the restless crowd from doing-so by just asking one question – if there is anyone in the crowd who have never done any wrong is allowed to throw a stone at her. And what next not even a single stone, in fact all the faces were down with guilt.

I just hope that corrupts are not fighting for anti-corruption bill to be passed. Even we the citizens of this country who are shouting our lungs out on the Facebook or in various rallies happening across the country; make sure that you are completely clean before pointing out a finger on anyone else. Just do a self analysis and make sure that you have never cheated, you have never bribed, you have never taken undue advantages etc… or else you are not different from the village crowd throwing stones at the woman.

It is always good to raise voice and fight against the wrongs but there is a right way to do everything. Entire country is fighting for anti-corruption bill to be passed – Is this the way? This is how we pass bills in our country? Are we not influencing the working of democratically elected administration?  Let us not forget this is not Gandhi fighting against the British. There is no enemy. It is our government; we have put them there and even removed them every five year if they were not fit to be there.

As learned, sensible and responsible citizens of this country we should understand that to influence the process of law making is not a great thing to do in the long term. Today, it is corruption tomorrow there will be few more major agendas, for each and every problem people will stop using courts and we will witness such protests in every lane of our country, I feel this is very harmful for the country. Somewhere in the due course we have forgotten that as a country our strength lies in our ability to maintain democracy over 60 years while all other independent countries around the same time failed.

As a responsible citizen of this country we should take the right measures to reform. Let’s not follow the herd’s mentality. I will end this write-up by quoting Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

P.S.

On a lighter note:

My entire Facebook page is over flowing with Ana Hazzare’s Facebook supporters. Everyone has become a Paper Tiger and is protesting – god knows protest is against what. Very few of us will actually leave their air conditioned lives and get down on the roads to protest, rest all are enjoying being a “Paper Tiger”. So here is my contribution as well, Anna even I am with you.

F_______K

Today’s TOI: Facebook net worth valued around $50 billion; Total number of active users above 500 million. What is this company up to! Such a phenomenal growth in so less time. Rest of the statistics is also simply miraculous, but why do people spend so much time on Facebook?

After a lot of thinking I came up with a weird conclusion, but I am kind of sure that, this is one of the strong reasons for people end up being on facebook. There are so many formulas to make money but there is no formula to fame. Facebook give us that small platform with an unimaginable reach; you can self publish yourself in whatever way you want. Isn’t it true that we all want to see our self on Page 3, someday? We all want to be famous. Facebook gives us this freedom at a very low cost, a parallel example I can give is our television, cheapest way of entertainment – you can view entire globe sitting in your drawing room.

Facebook has totally lived up to its name, I assume, that 50% of its users login daily just to see new picture updates. They are interested in knowing what is happening in others life. Flip side is 80% of the facebook projection is not 100% true. Anyways, who cares about it, its all so much of fun?

Online social networking era started by MySpace and Orkut, and now being carried forward by Facebook. Difference Facebook has made is today Dad & Mom, Uncle & Aunt, teachers are your friends. You come to know about your close friend’s real status on FB status update. The medium is so interactive and fast that most of the bloggers have moved to FB as they get instant attention to their one-liners and breaking write-ups. People who use to spend hours reading books after work are now busy reading others status and comments. I recently, read an online article - A 20year old employee in Canada lost sick leave benefits from her insurer because her Facebook page showed “cheerful” photos while she was on paid sick leave for depression. Wow! What a practical usage of FB.

And it all started with - In 2003, Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg created Facemash, where he placed photos of undergraduates side by side so viewers could rank which one was “hotter.” Today, it has changed the way people live; in-fact it’s a life style, it is oxygen for millions of people. I’m afraid we will live our lives through Facebook, for Facebook & with Facebook.

Last but not the least Mark Zuckerberg has become world's youngest billionaire (net worth $1.5 billion) and we an integral part of the 500 million active users. 

And I thought my problems were bigger…

Whenever I get time I try my best not to miss this television show called “Lift Karade”.

This show is anchored by Karan Johar the famous director/ producer of Hindi Films and the show is produced in association of Yash Raj Films and Sony Television.

Lift Karade has a very simple format but an amazing concept. Like any other reality shows these days, the participants compete against each other to prove that they are the number one fan of the invited celebrity of the week. I thought that is the reason the show is called lift karade, as a common man you get a chance to meet your role model. There is another element of this show that they also help an individual who is in serious need of financial help. I think that is the prime reason the show is called lift karade.

How?

These participants have to do some real time selling and earn money; the participant who earns the maximum will get a chance to meet their role model. The money they earn is multiplied hundreds of times and is given to this particular needy.

This week story was on Swarna Kaur, an 80 years old lady (mother and a grand mother) from a very small village in Punjab. Trust me friends after watching the entire show reel on Swarna Kaur the first thing I did, thanked god for whatever I am blessed with. My problems seemed like a micro-organism front of hers.

Her family consists of three members, her son and two grand children. Son is in his 40’s but is mentally unstable and is nothing more than just any other still object lying in her house. A major road accident was the reason for his condition. His wife left him and the two children couple of years back as she didn’t wanted to mess up her life with such a man. Swarna has two more sons but they also chose not to help her out and the brother and always kept themselves away from this family. Swarna’s house hold condition is miserable; there is hardly anything to eat and no money for other necessities.

Although, at this stage of life Swarna is helpless but she has not lost hopes and is doing whatever possible to bring up the two grand children and also take care of mentally unstable son. Swarana is illiterate and not even a skilled laborer so getting some monthly paying job is out of the question. I was in tears when I watched the way she manages to get some food for the family. She cleans and collects cow-dung from every house in the village and in return the villagers just give the family some food to eat and at times some money. I was shocked to know that someone in this world was still dependent on this type of batter system, which was taught to me in my 4th grade at school under a topic called obsolete civil systems of the society.

We get so irritated and frustrated when there is a power-cut at home or stuck in middle of a traffic jam or bad day at work or an argument with a colleague or a delay in salary and we end up saying things like life sucks etc etc. Guys, just for a heck of it try to be without food for just 2 days and you will definitely realize how difficult it is. Think about people like Swarna, who are actually handicap in managing their one time daily meal and also at times the entire family sleeps without food. I am sure our biggest of the problems are tiny front of such actual problems. Let us all appreciate and thank god for whatever we are blessed with.

As they say, no matter how good or bad the time is; it definitely changes one day.

Swarna must have never thought in her wildest dreams that someone sitting thousands of kilometers away from her at Mumbai has come up with such a concept which will change her life forever. Truly, this show 100% stands up to its name “Lift Karade”. She received an amount of rupees eleven lakh from this show. Plus a lakh more, personally donated by the legendary actor Dharmendra (celebrity of the week).

Learning - no matter whatever downs we are going through in our lives, we must never lose hopes and keep fighting because no matter how good or bad the time is; it definitely changes one day.