Waiting for Tomorrow !!

The humble Sun is all set,
And the nasty Moon rises.
Stars and cloud
Are slowly filling the
Empty black skies.
Satiated Vultures have
Long fallen asleep.
But the groping bats are
Still staring deep.

My loyal dog,
Has decided
Not to bark tonight.
And the ravenous hyenas
Have surmised,
To have mercy
On my plight.
All this while,
The politic owl
Has been waiting
Anxiously
For the sacrimony
To begin !

No longer can I contain
My anger, disdain.
So, I close my eyes
As the Sun rise.
Sometimes I attempt
To recollect, regain
About yesterday
But its all futile, in-vain.

And then, I succumb
Yet again.
To my paralyzed life.
Slowly, falling deep asleep.
Waiting for a better tomorrow
All over again !

Jugaad Inc. !!

Hai kya koi Jugaad ?

Arrey yaar tum to bade jugaadu nikaley !

Are daro mat, mere pass bahut jugaad hai !!

Jugaad is everywhere, on Wikis, Harvard Business, Wall Street Journals and ofcourse in the hearts and souls of every Indian. What exactly is Jugaad - a solution to overcome a problem, somehow, anyhow, in the fastest possible manner, by spending least amount of time and energy ! Sounds some heavenly insane stuff, isn't it !

Is Jugaad our biggest asset or the liability ? Have we reached so far because of jugaad or we havent reached where could have because of jugaad. Is jugaad a solution or a full blown problem in itself...

The Birth of Jugaad -due to lack of time or resources or both or due to lack of understanding of the situation at hand, sometimes due to simple arrogance and sometimes out of innocence We the Indians have developed the concept of Jugad (ad-hoc arrangement). We dont want to face the problems today or at least now or we don't want to think about the solution because it might be too expensive today or we might have to work bit hard to resolve the real issue, so in order to save time, money, energy, resources 'today' we think of Jugaad.

The Jugaad usually delivers immediate results, makes the person who carried out the Jugaad a real cool dood in front of his rest of the fellow men, everybody appreciates him/her for presence of mind and for solving the problem instantly without much kharcha (expenditure)  and sardard (headache i.e. hardwork). Slowly the Jugaadu ( the ad-hoc problem solver) becomes the talk of the town and every kid in the town, wants to be like him.

Over a period of time, several centers of Jugaad crops up in every town. Sadhu-baba (holy man) becomes the main Jugaad (back door entry in this case) to the highest court of law. A seemingly innocent Panwala, Chaiwala, popular Bhaiya ji, a not so popular defeated politician, bus-conductor a TC/TT in the great Indian train becomes synonymous to Jugaad. From your first to last ritual the Pandits will recommend some jugaad for everything depending on your convenience and budget. Likewise from getting a birth certificate to import machinery without paying duties, the Babus are well verse of the jugaad to get things done. Looking at the current heads (2 Ps) of our democratically elected government, one can realize how high one can reach with Jugaad and bit of luck, even sky is within reach !

Foreign media, several renown business journals etc have openly endorsed the great India Jugaad. No matter what the government in the center wants us to believe, but the facts are we are world's largest democracy but we are not most successful one, we may become top 3 economy by 2025, but I dont think even by 2100 (yes, you read is correctly, 88 years from hence) we will be in top 30 nations in the world on the basis of Per capita GDP. We tend to believe that we are super kool in mathematics, accounting and economics but our koolness is mostly confined to calculating aXb or tallying the accounts the fastest, unfortunately not much beyond that. We are no doubt one of the most hardworking people in the world, but certainly not the most creative of the lot. We are great at cooking the books of a company to raise money form the market but we are yet to create companies which can change the rules of the market. 

Lets talk about world's most innovative companies, most rapidly growing companies, most respected universities in the field of arts, science, technology or business and we are almost sure of not finding any Indian entity. The reason is simple, we are still searching for the appropriate Jugaaad to make it and to break it into the league :) !

If not for the business Jugaad of Outsourcing, how else could American and European corporations would have made so much more money despite recession ! The value proposition in this Outsourcing jugaad is so much that it managed to survive 2 decades, thankfully.

I tend to believe that God has not created this Earth and its all some great cosmological accident, a.k.a the Big Bang after which it all began. But then I wonder if not for God, how else this massive, beautiful country of ours has survived all these years. Now that's what I call the ultimate Jugaad, Bhagwaan Bharose !!

Bhaktjan - Hey Prabhu is baar kuch jugaad lagwa de, agli baar se dhyaan rakhoonga !

Bhagwan - Oh no, Not Again !!

Water - the Ultimate Elixir of Life

Billions of years ago life as we know it today, began its journey in the rarest compound of this universe thankfully found in abundance in our planet. What began as a single cellular, simple life form, has evolved into  the most complex piece of machinery and art, we call it the human body.  As we all know it, 80% of the body is made of the transparent, odorless, neutral fluid from where the life evolved, i.e. Water ! The more the complex the machinery, the more the complex will be its maintenance and slowly we transformed from living a nomadic life to a civilized full blown city life, with added complications almost every decade, the wear and tears became complex and the breakdown (partial or total) frequency increased exponentially. Though the human body including brain has stopped evolving for more than 10000 years now, but everything else created by we the humans evolved phenomenally during this period.

Pharmaceutical industry is valued at close to $700 Billion per year. The premise of the industry lies in investing in R&D and filing patents for theydrugs discovered, invented in the process. No doubt, the industry has saved several lives in past 100 years. And in lieu, it has made enormous money for its shareholders and owners. Somehow, the modern pharamceutical/ medicine industry has not invested much time and resources to discover the potential benefits of omnipresent Water. The reason is simple, it cant be patented, its comparatively much easily available and most importantly it belongs to the state and the people to a very large extent. 

Thanks to our 21st century increasingly sedentary life style, our body is under attack of toxins, harmful chemicals, pollution, free radicals and saturated fats. The traditional pharmaceutical and not so traditional wellness companies knows it. The highest selling Drug in the world is Lipitor used for treatment of Cholesterol, with annual sales of $14B. Other popular drugs are for treating Hypertension, Gastro-Intestinal disorders, Headaches, Fever, Migraine, Hypertension etc. Source (Wikipedia)

Water the forgotten Elixir of Life, the ultimate panacea, can solve most of the problems almost at zero cost ! Sounds too trivial to be true ! Perhaps we are getting used to complex lifestyle and solutions for problems which can be solved easily otherwise !

Coincidentally I tried water treatment for headaches and mild fevers caused by heat strokes, excessive stress, excessive physical activity etc and it worked. Somehow I tend to catch cold easily then most of the people around me, sometimes due to allergy and sometimes due to unknown, unidentifiable reasons. In recent past, I started drinking warm water 3-4 times a day, whenever I encountered a sneeze attack and so far I have been reasonably successful in combating the sneeze force ! I have experienced that sore throats, congested nose and cough can be easily tackled by gargling with hot water and salt. 

Drinking enough Water is the most simple solution to treat high blood pressure and lower cholesterol to a great extent. This website is a great resource to find out what all can be treated by simply drinking water. Water not only helps in hydrating our body, but it helps in flushing the harmful toxins out of the body, eases transportation of vitamins and minerals. So the women and all those beauty conscious men will be glad to know that drinking water can reduce acne, improves texture of the skin and provides a overall state of well being and alertness in the body. One glass of warm water with half lime/lemon early in the morning can do wonders to anybody of any age, shape or size.

As per this research medically supervised water only fasting treats Hypertension and lower blood pressure. Without doubt, water is THE solution to treat constipation and dehydration which in turn can cause headaches and several other unwarranted diseases.

This blog has several simple suggestions about the benefits of water. I was surprised to know that by increasing the water intake, even Depression can be cured much more easily.

A very simple variant of water which can help fight several diseases easily and effectively is Alkaline Water. The normal water we drink is usually neutral and its very easy to make it slightly Alkaline. Most of the food we eat is Acidic in nature and hence disturbs the pH of the body, which in turn has several repercussions such as inflammation, heart burns, gastric problems, liver and kidney related disorders. I found this website an excellent source of information on Alkaline water and the overall Alkaline way of life.  

Ayurveda has always put a great emphasis on the role of water. Water is one of the Five main elements. Drinking water stored in Cooper vessels improves the immunity of the body. Ayurveda recommends not to drink too of much water during or immediately after the meals. Chilled water, soda water or cold drinks consumed along with food can negatively affect the digestion process ultimately leading to weight gain, increase in cholesterol levels. As per Ayurveda and ancient Japanese, Chinese medicines, drinking luke warm water after food, enhances the digestion process and body is easily able to retain the vitamins and minerals from the food. I was never a fridge water drinker. I just love the smell of water stored in the earthen pot, Mataki as we call it. The water stored in Mataki not only tastes great, but quenches the thirst more effectively without any side effects.  

As we wake up every morning, the world becomes more complex then it was yesterday. However the solution to all the problems need not be complex as we usually tend to believe or are made to believe. Drinking Water can not only improve our health, but emotions and psychology to a great extent in a positive manner.

If you do your own research and small experiments, I'm sure you will discover several benefits of drinking water in various forms. Do share your Water Experiences...

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Disclaimer - I am not a medical expert and the views expressed are based on my personal experiences, discussions with some doctors and internet research. I have tried to provide url of the websites which I found were providing balanced views, without any hidden agenda. I am not associated with any/all of these websites and in no ways responsible for the views and suggestions provided on these external websites/ blogs.

Image Source - Mouserunner, Photovaco

Slog Addicted !

Working hard is the simplest solution to achieve our goals and dreams. Though it is not the simplest thing to do !

The day we enter school, we are told to work hard. And so we do as we are told, not because we like doing all those things but perhaps because that's what people around us value and appreciate. We dont give up not because we don't want to, but because that's what They want us to do all our lives ! Slowly 

Some really far sighted, bright and intelligent person has once said - results dont matter, just keep trying ! And so in our hope against hope we keep trying so hard that we even forget what we wanted to achieve in the first place. In order to get there first, we run hard with our heads bent down, facing the ground. And so unconsciously we completely loose sight of the ultimate goal worth living and dying for. We get so engrossed in daily chores that we tend to make them our goal, e.g. servicing of the vehicle, working overtime so as to buy the latest gadget, saving today so as to own an apartment tomorrow, buying deeply discounted deals online etc.

Slowly as strive to prove ourselves to rest of us, we slog even harder, at least harder then our nearest neighbor and closet kin. In the process we loose precious time and limited energy, completely forgetting to look at goals, dreams and life beyond hard work. We put more efforts, pump iron, sweat blood, toil relentlessly and think rarely. Steadily we keep drifting away from our path, path to happiness, which can not only help us to fulfill our necessities but also can lead us to what we are really worthy of, what we sometimes secretly hoped for but never imagined.

Reckless slogging makes us selfish and that's what happened to India of today. Whatever growth we have achieved from 1990s to till date according to me should be attributed to this unique quality of we the mango men and women. We kept out heads down, toiled hard for decades to reach a level where we are today. A lot of we the hardworking, slogging Indians have managed to cross the income line, but in the process we became increasingly indifferent and detached from each other. We incessantly slogged day and night to maximize the pleasure and protect the interest of our 'immediate family', leaving us with no time to think cohesively as a society or a country.

While transitioning from hard working to slogging, we tend to loose our thinking abilities, am talking about plain vanilla thinking ability, not that jargonized 'Out of the Box' thinking. Because thinking requires time, moments of solace, retrospection and introspection which we can no longer afford. Sometimes we slog in order to run away from the present, to avoid confronting the problems today. We know if we do that our family will not expect anything from us, when we are back home, we know we will fall asleep, not because we are satisfied with the day went by, but because that's the most easiest thing to do on this planet !

Most of us never had any option except to keep slogging harder, so as to survive, to get rid of our ugly present or to achieve a rosy future. Unintentionally, our slogging skills become our biggest handicap. 

I think, sometimes its very important to take a pause, to give up at least for the time being and take a breath.    By loosing an argument, a match or a task we don't become a loser, but by not accepting that fact and  slogging heedlessly we definitely become one.

So are you Slog Addict ? And what are you doing about it ?

No Bollywood for Middle Aged Women !

There's an old saying - art is reflection of the society! 99% of Bollywood movies are certainly an exception. Interestingly the India film industry aka Bollywood has two clearly defined categories - Stars and Actors ! Stars are evergreen, media friendly, people savy stalwarts, usually adept in marketing and PR activities.  Ironically very few women have been able to achieve stardom in past 100 odd years of India cinema. 

Until late 1970s, heroines, as we usually prefer calling them, had a well defined role, character and attributes. In addition, mothers and sometimes sisters too were important part of the Bollywood stories those days! The divas of 50s, 60s and 70s gracefully retired as they hit mid 30s, though most of them were married in the same fraternity,i.e. no dearth of opportunity.  Why only the women/ the heroines take a sabbatical to raise their kids and then they slowly move into obscurity forever? Why women from these wealthy and seemingly liberal entertainment industry powerhouses only become the scapegoats of the double standards? Some might say that the choice was theirs, but how free, how unbiased that decision was !

Those days going to a theater was not considered a good manner, so women rarely went to theaters. According to my guesstimate more then 90% of the Directors, Producers, writers and the technical staff was and is male. So there were genuine reasons for not casting middle aged women those days, i.e. no market for women oriented movies, very few women representatives to hoist the flag !

Cut to 2012 and the situation is still the same. Unfortunately not even young, educated, outward thinking, highly smart, international competition winner and even talented heroines are not able to demand, command good script, well written characters except those of confused love birds. The superstar actresses of 90s and early 00's are already forgotten. The mothers and sisters are no longer relevant in the mindless movies made for weekend multiplex audiences. What a wastage of talent ! 

I think the reason for current state of affairs lies in a box, infact two boxes. The one box is what you are currently using. A significant % Women in 40s and 50s in India currently are not yet Online. So they are not able to voice their opinion, voice their demands unlike their teen kids. This box has done one more thing. Because the teens and the young kids are constantly in touch with their friends and the rest of the world, so they dont miss the middle aged women anymore in personal and virtual lives and even movies. 

The other black box, is our good old, earlier known as Idiot Box. The Indian Television Industry has been filling this vacuum for past 15 years. It has preserved and reserved the Prime Time for Indian women and served them quiet adeptly. Infact the Television has provided good opportunity to showcase talent to several middle aged hero and heroines who were good actors but couldn't achieve stardom in Bollywood.

However I am slightly perplexed here. What happened on the Television screen was the cause or the effect of what happened on the Silver Screen ! Perhaps the reason lies in our expectations. We the viewers always expected our heroines to be beautiful, young, elegant and sexy. We are/were not interested in their acting and so couldn't accept their growing wrinkled face or disproportionate vital statistics ! 

Let me know what you think...