Why I travel?

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page – SAINT AUGUSTINE

Few days back my friend asked me. ‘You are always on the move. Why you travel so much?’

And I was like ‘ ------------ ‘

This is a question my parents ask me regularly. ‘Why can’t you sit at home and relax, the world is a terrible place. If something happens to you, then?’

To this I always replied ‘I can’t. And if something is bound to happen then it will happen while sitting at home also.’

But this time when a friend of mine asked this, I was forced to think about it. Why? Why am I doing this?

The world is a big place. There are around 250 countries in the world and average Human life is 60 years, half of which I have already spent and only visited 12 countries; less than one percent. India has 29 states & 7 Union Territories and I have visited only 13; less than forty percent. Is it too much? Naaaaa, it’s too less, my aim is to make it hundred percent for India and for the world, if not all then at least the all the popular tourist spots in the world.

The GOD has given us such a beautiful world, there are so many people of different cultures and languages, variety of food to taste, enormous landscapes one over the other in beauty and I pity that we are not able to see it all. Scientists are trying to go out in the universe to find new planets, new moons with life and I at least can go out of my city, my comfort zone to find life which is different from mine, which is more exciting, which is more beautiful.

Enough of philosophy. The point is, I can’t sit at home on weekends. I can’t sit in front of the idiot box watching daily soups or news or movies. Instead of watching games on TV it’s better to go out and play. Instead of watching travel documentaries it’s better to go out and take those experiences first-hand. And secondly, I love travelling, specially riding my Bullet. I only need a company to go anywhere, as travelling alone is boring for me. Thirdly, I love living different lives, not in a sense of split personality or something but as in different cultural living, diverse home stays, unalike dresses, variety of foods etc. So, whenever I travel I try to mingle with the locals and try to taste their local food, live in their shelters instead of expensive hotels. And lastly, I am really a boring person, I get bored easily, so I keep on trying new things, keep moving, keep me entertained with new persons and places. Is that the reason of my travelling? Hmmmm…. I am not sure. 

So, let’s do one thing. Let’s go on another trip and find out….. Are you in?

Gujarat Development Model

I am neither an economist nor a businessman, whatever I am going to write here is the vision of a common man. A common man, who wants to see development, who wants to see a developed INDIA.

Last week, I got a chance to visit Gujrat. I had never been to the state before; the media hype and the much talked about Gujarat Model made me think that Gujarat must have got transformed to Singapore or Dubai in last fifteen years of ‘Modi rule’ (not BJP only Modi as it is said).

It was a short trip to Surat, an industrial city, a textile hub and a home to diamond merchants. I knew, there won’t be anything for wonderers or tourists like me. But I had a full day to explore the city and needed to kill time. As I stepped out of the railway station, the site was in no way different from the other railway stations in the country. Litter and dirt all around, Pan-Gutka peek marks on the corners and pillars, electricity poles with uncountable number of wires dangling in and out, plenty of beggars and an under construction bridge just in front of the station worsened the scene.

Mad traffic rush (even worse than Delhi), the Auto rickshaw drivers were really crazy (they almost had an auto stand in the middle of a ‘chowk’). I found it exaggerating when the ‘auto wala’ (while urging me to hire him) told me “saheb aap chal nahi paoge koi Gaadi pair pe chadha jayega” but in no time I realized his words were true. No traffic signals on the busy ‘chowk’ and the people were not bothered by the traffic marshal present there to manage traffic; everybody was trying to jump ahead of each other.  I asked my auto-driver to take care and drive calmly but as always my request was put down calmly ‘yahan aise hi chalta hai sahab’. The traffic-noise was at its peak. Within half an hour of my presence in Gujarat, my dreams of seeing a developed state were fumed like a missed fire-cracker.

I got a little respite on entering my hotel. It was well furnished and the attendants were warm and friendly people. Before arriving I researched a lot to find some tourist spots but couldn’t find anything interesting besides ‘Dumas beach’, but that was too knocked down by the hotel staff and other locals. But going against all odds I hired a taxi and went for dumas beach about thirty kms from my hotel. I thought it will serve two purposes, I can explore the beach and while I reach there I will get to see the city sitting in comfortable chauffer driven A.C. car in this hot and humid weather.

About the Dumas beach; what can I say? This picture says a thousand words. It was as dirty as it could. And beach? What’s that? Either these guys don’t know what a beach is or the so called development has converted this once a beach to whatever it looks like now.

One notable thing in the city was the quantity and quality of bridges. There were so many of them and were in good condition, which somewhat eased out the traffic movement. And there were some more under-construction; but the pity was, no safety standards were under process during construction, same haphazard traffic diversions and iron roads and other construction material spread all around the roads. But in markets and residential areas there was less dirt on the roads and in the air, which might be because of high humidity levels.

In the evening I moved out to book my bus tickets for Lonavala. And sadly the bus terminal was in same state of mess which I need not to explain and the state transport busses were in worse condition than the DTC buses. However, there were plenty of private transport options available and I choose one to travel to Lonavala.

I wanted to experiment with street food of Gujarat, but the same un-hygienic conditions of stalls and rehri-valas forced me to change my mind and I opted for a Restaurant suggested by my taxi driver.

The few things I loved were, the Gujarati’s by nature are quite close to Punjabi’s. Bit arrogant, bit proudy but good by heart; they are very warm and welcoming, they love food and drinks. Yes, drinks…. What?  Dry state? What’s that? Everything is available, you will just have to pay some extra bucks.

P.S.     I am not against Modi, I believe at present he is the best option that we have for Indian Prime Ministerial seat. I know I am bit critical in writing but that’s what I saw with my own open eyes. For me, development is much beyond Industrial or Business set-ups,  development is good living standards, quality food, safe & comfortable transportation system, advanced free medical facilities (at least for the poor if not all), police of the people (we badly need Police reforms).

ooppsss Moment on a Foreign Land

'Next time when you look at these posters on road-side, your lips will surely arc upwards into a naughty smile'

 

I parked my car on the road-side near MGF Mall. I don't do it regularly, most of the times I use parking lot of the malls, but that day being a Sunday the parking's were full. So, I parked the car and was moving towards MGF Mall, to get a trouser from Shoppers Stop which I left there a day before for alteration.

Busy on my phone, I was moving fast with my head down.

'Excuse me' A soft voice approached me from behind. A middle-aged man, may be about forty or forty five called me with soft words. From his accent and looks I guessed he belongs to somewhere from middle-east. And there are lot many people who visit Gurgaon for their medical needs, specially to Medanta Medi-city hospital. He might also be one of those.

'Yes please' I turned towards him attentively. Eager to help him in a foreign land, It's really needed, I can tell that from my own experiences.

'err... What is err... this?' He asked even more politely in his broken English. And I looked towards his hand movement.

'It's an advertisement for a PG' I replied on seeing the colored posters pasted on the concrete electric pole.

 

'err... And what is that?'

'Paying Guest' I thought he must have not understood the short form so I elaborated it. But he seems even more confused on my reply.

'Paying guest, If you want to get a room on rent' I told him what a Paying Guest facility means.

'But this err..' He didn't have words to ask, so again he pointed his finger towards the posters.

'Ohhhh, this PG is for girls only. You have to look for some other place for you' I explained him on seeing the 'FOR GIRLS' mark on the poster.

'NO NO NO...' And he shied away.

I asked him what happened, if I can help him in anyway.

'err... That's not err... what I thought' He gave that naughty smile and I was looking at him and then at the advertisement. It took me few seconds to get what he meant and I was like 'Oh Shit....'

I never looked at those advertisements in that way. But now, when I looked at it from his perspective; Those flashy bright color posters marked with mobile numbers and 'GIRLS' in bold letters can imply that only to the foreigners.

After getting his point of interest I explained that poor-fellow that its not legal in India but still you can get it. And you have to either visit GB Road in Delhi or on a safer side you can get that in some of the night clubs here in Gurgaon.

He moved ahead with a thanking nod and a shy smile on his face and I kept standing there staring at those flashy advertisements. 

 

2014 Elections - The Countdown Begins

NaMo NaMo NaMo…. AAP AAP AAP…. Rahul Rahul Rahul…. From last few days during our lunch or Tea Break or Daru party whenever we start a group chat it involuntarily shifts to Politics. Whether a person have ever voted or not, whether he knows the P of politics or not, but he will definitely give his verdict on Next month’s LS elections.

There are NaMo Fans, who don’t want to hear anything against him. Doesn’t matter if they have never been to Gujarat, they never checked the development status of different states, they never checked the secular status of their favorite leader but they definitely want to see him as the next Prime minister of India by just believing on the media hype and the FaceBook presence.

There are people who love Congress for whatever reasons they may have, their secularism funda, countries development in last ten years of UPA government. Those people don’t want to discuss CoalGate, 2G, CWG; they believe corruption is a part of development. They have a valid point, in our country almost everybody is corrupt; everybody is playing its part in making this country the most corrupt country in the world and one day surely they will succeed.

And not to forget, the new kid on the block, the only honest party (as they call themselves). People were crazy for them before the Delhi elections, but the disaster we had in Delhi after just 49 days. People had dreams and hopes on them, they expected a lot from them but it was just a soap bubble.

My dear voters, one person can’t change the country No Modi, No Kejriwal, No Rahul. Don’t vote for the Prime Ministerial Candidate and also not on the name of an individual or on the name of the party. Vote for an honest and hardworking person doesn’t matter to which party he belongs to, doesn’t matter his party gets the majority or not, doesn’t matter he makes a government or sits in opposition. The only thing that matter is the number of honest persons in the parliament. As their number grew, so will the true democracy. We had seen it, as they say Manmohan Singh is honest but can’t do anything because his party men are all corrupt. Same will happen to the development man NaMo and to the only honest man Kejriwal, if rest of the team will not be good. So flush out the criminals, the corrupts, the opportunists (party jumpers); vote for the loyalty, vote for patriotism, vote for integrity, vote to fill the parliament with honest people.

Gandhi v/s Hitler

They call him Mahatma, they call him Father of the nation; but I deny.

They call him Cruel, they call him a monster; but I deny.

Why??? Read on...

Hitler’s political birth was on 9^th Nov 1918 when he was re-born as a leader of the masses in a process to unite the German empire and to save it from being torn into pieces when French tried to establish a new estate Rhenada by separating Rhineland from the German Republic. On the other hand our so called Mahatma has divided its own country into pieces, with his own hands.

While Hitler wanted and eventually fought for the union of Catholic German-Austria; Gandhi begged a dominion status for India, which would retain the Monarch of the Britain as the constitutional head of state of India. It was Bhagat Singh who asked for sampoorn swaraj (Total Independence); Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawahar Lal Nehru got influenced and incorporated it in Congress’s agenda, which was strongly objected by Gandhi; but eventually with the growing popularity of Bhagat Singh and Swaraj movement Gandhi has to say yes for Total Independence.

to be continued...

Book Review - I Love the way you Love me

‘I Love the way you love me', debut novel by Lovely Goyal, a tale about teenage romance and its consequences ;)

Lovely Goyal, is a good friend of mine. His name suits him and his love story is like his name only. This is the first book I finished reading within twenty four hours.

It’s a light love story the layers of the characters and the story do not make the book heavy or pseudo intellectual. On the contrary, the language is simple and it starts flowing after the first few pages.

Harshit, the main character of the book; everyone can easily connect to him. As all of us has been through this age and whatever has happens with this character in the book has happened to me and you also. Parent’s pressure for studies, Entrance exams, your first crush ‘that cute girl in your class’ and those nerves of excitement when you fall in love for the first time. What Harshit has done with his IIT-JEE, I had done with my GATE examL; and the whole plot set-up is in my city Patiala so for me it was so easy to correlate with every scene and place of the story.

Lovishka, I loved this name. Moreover, I loved the tender age sweetness of the character. One more character I don’t want to miss here is ‘Sahiba’. Tell me one thing - who didn’t had that bitchy girl in his life ;)

I am totally in love with the book, may be it’s because of Patiala or because of the similarity of the events with my life or may be because Lovely is a lovely friend of mine. But I will say, it’s an easy read, well-planned, nicely narrated, good-paced piece of work which would go down well with the teen-agers of any gender.

INDIA Shinning

This post is not about AAP victory in Delhi or BJP’s victorious run in other state elections. Perhaps it’s about the changing mind set of Indian youth, which I believe is the only mainstay of shining India; neither the Aam Aadmi party nor Narendra Modi. In last twenty four hours I witnessed two such young Indians.

 Today morning, while coming to office, I stopped at traffic signal. Knock at the pillion window glass cut short my revelry of thoughts about my book promotions and marketing strategies. ‘Lift up to Iffcco chowk’ that’s what that young boy about sixteen has asked. And those eight minutes of chit-chat forced me to write this post, which was pending since yesterday’s meeting with another shining youth which I will explain later.

‘Going to College?’ As of my habit I began conversation.

‘No, Job’ too short answer by him. But then he understood my quizzical gaze and went on explaining.

‘My pre-boards has just finished, so I am working as a sales person to earn some pocket money’

I was happily surprised with his answer so quizzed him more. He was regularly working as a salesperson in MGF mall; after school on working days and full day on weekends.

‘My school is teaching only subjects but I am learning the real lessons of life in my job, by mingling with this actual world of work and money’ His inspiring answer to one of my questions. I genuinely admired his hard-work. He stepped out on Ifcco chowk but his thoughts and talks traveled with me till my office.

Yesterday also I met a shinning young Indian when I & Neiha took an auto-rickshaw from sector fourteen to my home. I asked him, if he knows the way to South city-1.

‘I know every place in and around Gurgaon as this is my native place’ and then he continued talking. He told us that he was not good in studies so there were routine arguments between him and his father. And once after fighting with his father he went out and took auto-rickshaw on rent to earn some money for him-self. That day and today, he didn’t look back. Today he owned five autos; four he rented out and one he drive himself, whenever he gets time. He completed his part-time graduation last year and is working with Electricity Board. We were so engrossed in talks that even after reaching our home we waited for long minutes & heard him complete and then went in to our house.

I know there must be many more such people in India, but encountering them on daily basis definitely improves our moral towards life. INDIA keep shinning, keep growing. Cheers to shinning youth…