Got Fire at home, dont call Fireman if you haven't paid your service fee.

Having read an article from TIME which speaks about an incident in Tennessee State, USA I was thinking if it further extends the various moral conflicts the country is already struggling with. The article is about a burning house being left unattended by Fire Officials because the owner didn't paid the annual fire-protection fee of $75 and the three puppies trapped were left to die.

The owner claims to have forgotten to pay the fire protection tax amidst multiple tax payments for current year but I am sure that this issue can be argued well from either side which is clearly demonstrated in the comments section of the article. I wont go to those details and you can have your read of the article here . My attempt here is to express my stand on it.

I hold an opinion that the fire personals should have put-off the fire and charged the Owner 10 times the fee of $75. Any reason to let the house burn and the poor puppies die does not hold good on moral ground. Though what already happened will send a stronger message for those who sponge on others but then if corporal is the way, why teach humility?. There needs to be changes in the law to imbibe such basic facilities as part of one tax and not hundred different taxes where the chances of forgetting is higher than in former.

The ability to forget, sponge on others, go cheap are all human tendencies and majority will fall under this category whose moral ethics comes in second rank to personal/family needs. In solving such cases, political and bureaucratic champions are bound to emerge but rarity is the norm. The willingness for the capitalist to go beyond prescribed duties and act on human grounds will be difficult to digest. In lot of sense capitalism work because it pays for how much you work thereby respecting meritocracy. One problem with Capitalist is people loose focus from quality of life to abundance and there is as a mad rush all the time (God Knows for what.)

Hinduism preaches that it is OK to desire and work for it but craving for more leads to anger and downfall of human life. I support this view and the recent economic meltdown made it more concrete. Buddha has prescribed life of middle path, i.e. anything in moderation. Well I am still grappling with his teaching to imbibe in myself but in few attempts till now, it has worked well. Once I asked my friend Tom L. who is in late Fifties and has definitely seen more world than me, "What is important in Life?. Is it Money or Working for your Passion?" . He responded, "Amit, we need to have a balance.". That answers all.

What's your take on BALANCE? :) Do let us know.

Thank you and Have a Nice day.

Economics Calling :P

For past few days I got interested in understanding economics of China considering both India  (my  home country) and China started at same point and at present it is way ahead of India in terms of attention the world is giving it at least.

 

Sometime back I read an article where in its comments section  someone wrote "If ever there was any competition between India and China, it is no more and China is sure winner". This comment was the trigger point for me to start my exploration. Moreover, I hold an opinion that if you build your masonry by ill treating your laborers, it is only going to crumble down sooner than when you have made your progress with a little bit of socialist approach. A pure communist or capitalist attitude only hurts in long run and create moral conflicts(nor do I say that pure socialist approach would work as I have read about it wrt my own country and how ineffective it is). My stand on China Economics is as good as new born baby's view on God and  my journey has just begun.

Why pay 94 when I can have better at 6

Today I went for my irregular Saturday BIAL trip. Initially I thought of giving up the idea and doing something else like running but then I thought cycling will be less painful :P.

So I started at 8:10 am empty stomach but soon realized that I am gasping for air as my wind-pipe is all frozen and I need to have something hot. I stopped en-route and had tea in a roadside tea-stall and resumed my ride. This time I was using sports-tracker app on my Nokia S60 cell to measure my efficiency. I took 1 hr to reach my destination. After reaching there I decided to execute my plan of having capachino and to my surprise I paid 94 bucks which led me thinking. Half way to drinking my coffee I realized that too much of it is only going to dehydrate me and hence left the rest and asked for "normal-water" to CCD guy. He said "We serve only bottled water" which again left me cursing them in mind. I went to adjacent shop Just-Booster and asked for water. Very reluctantly I got a small cup of water which I thanked him and drank it earnestly. I started my ride back home but within meters I felt that I need more water and inquired the parking-lot guy about normal drinking water. You may find me miser by not shelling out money for a bottled water but I don't want to encourage myself with that as I feel normal water is good enough.

He asked me to go to the canteen and gave me directions. Initially I thought he is sending me back to CCD but as the target came closer, I had a eureka moment. I saw one clean and hygienic restaurant of shanti-sagar type. I was too happy to see something like this in an International Airport but was quizzed with why is this place in a secluded location and reasoned that the government doesn't want the international travelers to know about how less-costly are basic food here in India. Anyways, forget all these rant of mine. I had my water and also garma-garam Idli. It was amazingly good. I then started off back to home ride and with all pride I have to say that I took 15 minutes lesser than what I took earlier. Coming back home I had hot water bath and had payasam and some sleep :).

For few, who are eager to know where the place is, it is just behind the "Pay & Use Toilet" at BIAL. Dont worry, it may sound dirty but take my word, it is very clean and Hygenic. Ask for Parking-Cafe at BIAL to some ground staff and you should get it easily. As said, why pay 94 when I can have better at 6 :)

Happy Reading.
-Amit

EMI

The title of this post is inspired by a Bollywood movie sharing same name. I happen to be neglecting to watch this flick for quite some time just because the print was not of good. quality But, today I decided to go for it as pass time during my dinner.



The movie revolves around the life of people in debt with home loans, personnel loans and credit card loans. It shows how much pain and embarrassment loan recovery agent inflict upon defaulters. It staged how a husband and wife plan to divorce due to unbearable pressure of monthly EMIs. In one case, a father takes 10 lakhs to fund his son's foreign MBA studies where the son later drops out in the middle of the course only to see one day how his dad is humiliated by these recovery goons.

Truly, lives of several people is loosing peace because of the desires to have more than what one's means allow due to peers pressure or uncontrolled desires. Also, after watching the movie I felt a sense of relief and calmness thinking that "Good that I did not pursued my MS else I would have ended up taking more than 8 lakhs loan and my entire family's life and peace would have been now mortgaged.

Today, again I have made up my mind not to pursue any plan if its cost is more than 3 lakh loan but rather be satisfied with low risk pursuit so that the welfare of my family is taken care with peace. God I wish all families who are seething under the pain of loan to get out of it and live at peace.
AMEN !!

I am Critical Mass

I was already a mass when I was born but today I became a part of critical mass of my country who has got some responsibility to shoulder (Thoda Gyada ho gaya). Today (28th March 2009) will be considered as my first baby step to add force to already rolling ball of "SAVE EARTH" of moving to alternative mode of transport which is pollution free and keeps your waistline slim. Well I am talking about bicycle as an alternate option which I have been religiously adhering to for past 3 months by commuting to my work which is close to 5 KM (3.1 miles) from my house. Thanks to Bala who motivated me to take this up.

So what is special about today?

Ahha... Today was Critical Mass day in Bangalore. By Critical Mass Day I mean, it is a day which is celebrated every last Saturday of the month where a group of amateur or veteran cyclist, cycle in city and create awareness about bicycle riding as feasible option. It was my maiden tour as I have been missing the earlier ones because of silly reasons which I don't want to remember and make fool of myself.

This time, we met in Cubbon Park where the total count reached 74 cyclist including few women and a cute looking baby girl on her kid-cycle with supported back wheel and a young boy of close to 8 yrs old on a regular bike. It was a great mix of personalities. I was lucky enough to locate my two office colleagues Mathew (the Veteran) and Manu (the Sports maniac) among the mass. Also I started exchanging hands with other people and there was not an iota of discomfort.



Ek baat kehna toh mein bhool hee gaya (I forgot one detail to mention)

We also had Sharada from Arghyam who did a great job by helping us know the quality of water we consume at home by arranging a set of sceinticfic kits and also gave all of us a Biological H2S Strip test kit as gratis. He took great effort and all the people who got water samples ( I got it too from my landlady) has their water tested. Great Service to nation Sharada. God Bless you !!

How can I forget Prashant Mohanty. The man who all time was cracking PJ's and howling at his best voice not to forget he is among the founders so the rest abt him we can discuss in private :).

We began our journey close to 4:30 pm. towards North Bangalore (I felt so good. It was towards my house). Some placards and posters and media attention made it a paparazzi stuff. We headed towards Sainki Tank and then further ahead towards Malleswaram. In the midst we has few stops where we waited for few who strayed from the flock. The quizzed and smiling faces of onlookers was good enough proof that we are making an impression in their mind and a question "What am I waiting for?" to ponder over.

We had our first bike salute (you hold your bike upright) near a temple. The pujaris too came out to bless the good cause and the by-passers thumped Up.

It was coming to an end. We reached a quite location to catch up with air and water. There was an introduction session and I hardly remember 10 names. I am sorry about it but my memory capacity is already full. I have been long planning to get a PHD (Portable Hard Disk). Then what followed was some serious discussion (culprit : Prashant) where he discussed about sharing responsibilities of coming critical mass and more personnel commitment from all of us by means of taking care of blog and coming with self made posters. We all agreed unanimously like primary school kids :)

Finally people started leaving in groups in the direction of their homes. With Sriram, Prashant, Igy and others we planned to eat Idli and have Tea. I was dying to eat something as I didnt had anything since morning. Somehow I missed :P. (The one with "V" is me)

On my return journey my front break wire got torn and I was driving more cautiously back home only to dash on my bed and find myself again starving at 9:45 p.m. Well I did celebrated Earth Day.. No lights between 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m (except my punkah was fanning , :P).

On a pleasent note : I feel blessed to meet you all and making good friends and also kudos to organizers.

Note : To know more about Critical Mass Bangalore click here

Happy Riding,
Amit

Gulabi Gang

Hopping through world wide web, I came across an article about an all-women group called "Gulabi Gang" in a village of Uttar Pradesh. This gang does not support any political party but finds it way out through demanding the rights of people in the villages.

An article with a short video elaborating over their initiative can be found here : Click Here

Happy reading,
Amit