… but what they don’t realise is that in order to make it to school, we need to feed our children first.
Empty stomachs don’t make it conducive for children to stay in school for hours and study. Hunger is a bigger evil than illiteracy, as far as I can see. It in fact drives many parents to take their kids out of school, so that they can help earn daily wages, which in turn help feed the family.
This thought hit me, in a very big way, this morning when I was heading in to work. I saw a little girl all set to go to school, but crying very hard as she was hungry. The only thing the mother/father had to offer her was ONE (1) biscuit. One. Biscuit.
I wish along with free education, the Govt. could use our tax money to ensure that they have a good breakfast and lunch too. They may be doing it, but it needs to be done better.
It broke my heart. There has to be a way, a better solution, something we can do.. I definitely intend to do something for these children.
They say “Padega India Tabhi to Badega India” but I think before that we need to chant “Khayega India Tabhi to Padega India“.
After a really long time had an easy Sunday morning. No pressure to arrive at anywhere early in the morning, no one to meet, nothing to do on the laptop.
Woke up, played some nice music including “Easy like Sunday morning”.
I am now waiting for my car to be cleaned by our usual cleaner, post which I’ll head out to Forum Mall. Have a movie planned [Green Lantern] for 2:30PM with some colleagues, so will have lunch with them, watch the movie and head back home.
The evening will be spent on Dad’s taxes, along with some nice coffee and a book [currently reading "Seven years in Tibet"].
I’ve been trying to follow Robin Sharma’s advice (don’t read him, but do hear about his advice) on waking up early, in order to have more time to do various things.
Though not entirely successful, as I am unable to wake at 5am, 6am is a start. I hope to try this for a week, after which I’ll shift my gym slot to the morning, to allow for a free evening.
This should hold me in good stead when Ninaad is back, so that I can spend time with him and Shruti.
On Saturday, April 2nd, 2011, India lifted the cricket world cup after 28 years!
My reaction:
My conclusion:
We kicked Sri Lanka’s ass, but they gave an awesome fight making it worthy of a final world cup match. There was enough tension in the air, and the match could have swung either way till almost the end.
The unsung heroes of the game were Jayawardane and Gambhir. Dhoni came along much later in the game and took all the credit, but had it not been for Gambhir, we would be biting dust right about now.
All in all, an awesome game! Shruti, Shabbir, Pawan, Shenaz and I were together when history was made. Un-forget-able!
A very interesting short film on boy-meets-girl, love and bicycles:
Reminds me of the time when I learned how to cycle without supporting wheels. Ritesh (Ratan’s son in Dubai) simply instilled confidence in me, told me to sit on the bike and push it twice with one foot and then simply pedal. He seemed so confident that I had no fear when I tried it myself. It just worked!! Those were the days.
So today was fun as well. I hadn’t yet gotten out of my Hogenakkal mode (see earlier post) when I got a blast from the past. Hitesh Uchil called me up, stating he’s in town and is free to meet. Now I hadn’t met him in at least 5 years and so was fairly keen on it.
I called up Vishal and got him to join in, and so he arrived home at around 17:00. Hitesh called around 18:15 letting us know he’d arrived at Forum mall and that we should head out.
We reached there by 18:30 and settled into a nice long chat at Cafe Coffee Day opposite Forum Mall. It was good catching up after years. Vishal was, infact, meeting Hitesh after to 12 years! The conversation ranged around old friends, school teachers and general news from Dubai.
Around 19:30 we moved on to Satyas for some snacks, and then from there onto McDonalds for dinner. Had a burger, and then headed back home after dropping off Hitesh and Vishal at their respective rides.
All in all, a good day. Hopefully Vishal will send me a photo to upload on here.
Yesterday some old friends (24 years and counting) and I decided to head out on a road trip to Hogenakkal Falls near Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu.
Shabbir, Shenaz, Vishal and I left early in the morning at 06:30 and came back at 20:00. It was a lot of fun, and I missed Shruti a lot throughout.
There were many funny incidents, many jokes were made, stories shared, and some booing as well.
Some incidents / jokes worth mentioning (may not make sense to all, but you can always ask me for context):
Vishal: I saw this Chinese iPhone the other day, for only 5k man! Shabbir: You mean you saw a Ch(a)i-phone?
Peals of laughter.
Me [on seeing an actual chicken cross the road]: Why did the chicken cross the road? Vishal: So that it could end up in Chicken Soup for the Soul? (what???)
Crazy laughter ensued.
Shabbir and Me teaming up to throw half a ton of river sand onto Vishal, and him having to bathe for an hour with 4 rounds of shampoo to get it all out.
The puncture that had as take a detour and spend 2 extra hours on our way to Hogennakal. Shabbir and I worked on it, while Vishal chilled out in the heat (lazy bugger).
But there was no kaam bigade action in this story. It was all pure awesomeness.
The weekend essentially consisted of a lot of meets between us. I shouldn’t miss out mentioning Shenaz (Shabbir’s wife) and Shruti and our baby (who were missing but always on my mind).
Matches were seen, good food was had and general merriment was made. Quite a memorable weekend given that we were all spending quality time with each other (together) after years.. possibly the first time after 1997 (when Shabbir moved to India to live in Pune).
I’m looking forward to many more weekends of fun, relaxation and good memories.
Ever since Shruti & I made plans to go to Malaysia in February, I’m unable to put down this urge to just be there, then-and-there in the here-and-now.
There was a line in Jonathan Livingson Seagull that comes to mind:
“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” he said, “you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived . . . . “
I guess I want to arrive as well, in Malaysia. Only that the quote above isn’t about reaching a destination, but about having the right attitude to learn something new.
The reason I am itching so badly for a holiday is because this would be my first real break from work after April 2008 (~ 2.5 years).
I did learn (well, relearnt actually) something too, in the here-and-now, something that has always been out there for all of us to know and work with:
Good things come to those who wait.
So if I wait long enough, I’ll have arrived in Malaysia!
I guess I must focus on the here-and-now, and ensure that all tasks (personal ?& professional) prior to my Malaysia sojourn are completed on time.
The other thing I realise, is that sometimes shorter (and more frequent) breaks are better than longer (and less frequent) ones. I need to make this a goal, and act on it frequently. Maybe a calendar reminder to take a week off, every 6 months?
It seems to be in the nature of the beast, to always have something out of balance. If there is balance, then all is not good in the world. That is just how the world works I guess.
I still believe in the quote from the Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”. I guess the most important bit is in asking for exactly what you want, no more and no less.
