Timeline – A Broader View

Well...so here it is…the boundaries of TIME. Recently, I happened to study some TIME definitions in Hindu Upanishads.

‘Yug’ is a Hindi word and is used as measurement of time in Hindu religion.
There are four ‘Yug’ defined viz:
1. Krit Yug = 432000 x 4 = ‘A ‘ years
2. Treta Yug = 432000 x 3 = ‘B’ years
3. Dwapar Yug = 432000 x 2 = ‘C’ years
4. Kali Yug (Ongoing) = 432000 x 1 = ‘D’ years

A + B + C + D = 4320000 years = 1 Maha Yug
And such 71 Maha Yug = 1 Manvantar

Between 2 Manvantar’s there is a gap of years equivalent to those in ‘Krit Yug’ i.e. 432000 x 4 = 1728000 years. ‘Jal Pralay’ (which means total destruction on earth where in the whole earth is covered under water) happens in this period.

1 Kalp = 14 Manvantar’s + 14 gap years equivalent to ‘Krit Yug’
= 4294080000 + 25920000
= 4320000000 years = 1000 Maha Yug

These 1000 Mahayug years or 1 Kalp is nothing but 1 day for God Bramha. And after having this day, there is night which is equally long.

Life span of God Bramha:
God Bramha life-span is 100 years (having the days as described above).
100 Bramha Years = 1 Maha Kalp

Pundits believe that this is 1st day of 51st year of God Bramha’s life.

Ganpati Bappa Morya!

श्री गणेशाय नमः

वक्रतुंड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ
निर्विघ्नं कुरुमेदेव सर्व कार्येशु सर्वदा

My warm wishes to Ganapati devotees all over the world on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. It is this time of the year when i miss Pune badly. The processions of 5 Manache ganpati (first in honor) viz Kasba, Tamdi Jogeshwari, Guruji Talim, Tulshibaug & Kesriwada are worth watching and the two that follow in the end are the most popular ganesh mandals viz. Mandai & Dagdusheth Halwai. Thousands of devotees flood onto the Laxmi road area in Pune city to watch these culturally rich processions while millions of devotees glue to their television's for watching the live proceedings. Siddhivinayak temple in Dadar is also one of the most popular Ganpati temple in India. Thousands of devotees in mumbai come to this temple to offer their true prayers throughout the year.

Ganpati is certainly one of the most revered deity in India. His presence is truly felt in the world where Indians are gaining popularity globally due their knowledge in different areas. One of his name is Buddhipriya which also means 'Fond of Intelligence'. He is the lord of intelligence and hence is widely popular amongst students fraternity all over india. Students pray to him to seek intelligence to overcome the academic challenges and to succeed in this highly competitive world.

Ganpati Bappa Morya!

Pandit - not a Pundit actually!

Belief that Nation i.e. motherland is of highest importance can be traced in Traditional Indian Scriptures. National security & geographic borders should never be compromised to any level. After redrawing borders couple of times, India still struggles to maintain peace with the bordering nations like China & (so-called) Pakistan (which is actually a integral part of Bharat), Who's to be held responsible for this instability?

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru? His Prime-ministerial aspirations led to India-Pakistan split to which then national leaders like (so-called Mahatma) M.K.Gandhi did not bother to object. Moreover, borders of our great nation were redrawn again while signing Simla agreement. The so-called Line of Control (which is considered as new virtual border between India & Pakistan by International Community) was formed then. India is still paying price of these mistakes in terms of its soldiers lives and money spent on defense against Pakistan funded terrorists groups in Kashmir. People like Nehru pose a big threat to our country as they fail to think in national interest while given the opportunity to lead the nation. His political aspirations and selfish interests popped up at the crucial time, when unifying the newly independent nation in every sense was need of the hour. Instead of unifying the nation, it was divided into two based on religion. Lets be responsible as Indian citizens to identify true leaders who shaped up our country constructively.

"Sometimes there are democratically elected or semi-democratically elected leaders who do things which create grave problems for their countries," Russian Ambassador to UN Vitaly Churkin recently quoted these statements in UN security Council in midst of heated argument with his American counterpart over Georgia tussle. I guess our Pandit truly qualifies for these statements.

Also read, 'Son of Devaki' - thought provoking article by Tarun Vijay

Educated Bhartiya's lack political awareness...degrade in schooling?

Education system is Bharat has fared well so far to maintain the mix of modern teaching techniques with the old effective learning methods which were followed back in ancient times. However, it could have done even better by covering even more wide range of subjects in schools. While new subjects like Computer science have been included proactively for primary schools, subjects like political science & Moral science are not given much importance. This is the root cause of the fact that even educated Indians lack sense of responsibility towards Indian politics and society. As majority of the Indian ministers are uneducated, their decisions fail miserably on political & moral grounds, both which should be an pre-requisite for holding any position in Government job or ministry. While individual benefits are driving careers in corporate world, the scenario is not much different in Government jobs. In fact earnings (though illegal) of many minsters have outpaced some renowned corporate houses in the industry. Moreover, as more and more political parties continue to promote castism/regionalism, the national political instability has rose to a new high. Our nation can progress only if it is politically stable and this can only be done by spreading the awareness of political science from childhood.

I consider the above factors as degrade in schooling as compared to the learning syllabus & methodologies followed in ancient Bharat. In ancient India, Rishi (sages) ashrams were the schools where students were taught wide range of subjects which also included Spiritual advancement, Political science, Moral science etc. Effects of these subjects being excluded from school syllabus are quite evident. Youngsters are having tough time in dealing with stress levels in routine life, morality is striving to find its existence in the society etc. Although it is altogether a different fact that education is still a distant goal for many people in Bharat and around 30% voters are not even aware of what voting is all about.
And here's the outcome...Indian Parliament members

My Favourite Quotes

• "What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do." - John Ruskin
• "Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so." - Belva Davis
• "What you get by reaching your destination is not nearly as important as what you will become by reaching your destination." - Zig Ziglar
• "It's time to start living the life you've imagined" - Henry James
• "We first make our habits, and then our habits make us."- John Dryden
• "And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln
• If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes - Warren Buffet
• Strength does not come from winning.Your struggles develop your strength. When you go aethrough hardship and decide not to surrender, that is strength." - Arnold Schwarzenegger
• For some reason, people take their cues from price action rather than from values. What doesn't work is when you start doing things that you don't understand or because they worked last week for somebody else. The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it's going up - Warren Buffet
• Liberate self to rise above sexuality. For the real matter is Soul which is common in both sex. - Self
• To invest in a human being and give the best in him an opportunity to flower is one of the most fruitful investments a public trust can ever make - Dinshah K Malegamvala
• Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self - Cyril Connolly
• The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood
• The mind is everything. What you think you become
• Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment
• An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind
• It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell
• I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done
• In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves
• Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people

Mixed feelings as Biplab-san ascends to Swades

In an hour from now, he'll deliver the farewell speech (may be in japanese) to the testing team in Sony Ericsson,Japan.

Biplab-san has been one of the strong pillars of L&T testing team in SEMC. His professionalism and ability to pace up the activities consistently is the base of L&T Infotech's success in rolling out SEMC products like K610i & W890i. Negative attitude of people around him never affected his productivity towards the organization thus being very loyal to the employer. He's balanced, open minded and always open to new ideas.

We had come together to Japan (i.e. on the same day :)) and what an experience it has been since then. I'll surely miss him for my remaining days in Nippon. I have spent more time with him than my family in last 2.5 years. I really cherish the time i spent with him ...especially in the recent past, when me along with Idi & Biplab used to dine together in different restaurants (actually Idi & Biplab's choice of restaurants was restricted due to my vegetarian diet). Those were some unforgettable moments.

@ Biplab-san -- Doumo Arigato Gozaimashita! Wish you all the best for your future endeavours! Qualitatively you classify to be a true leader..it is just matter of building strong skillset to lead a ethical giant organization someday and how sure i am to know that the same is your purpose of returning back to india .. Otsukaresama desu!

Totally out of my mind during 2nd annual vacation in Bharat

Background:
Indian consultants in Sony Ericsson, Japan were entitled to one annual vacation of 2-3 weeks. Ofcourse, I was one of them. I'm working on this assignment since last 27 months. After having a ACL reconstruction surgery during first annual vacation, i was really looking forward to the second. After all, it had been 2 long years away being from my friends and family. My vacation was sanctioned from 8th march to 28th march. All i knew was that i am supposed to take flight back to Narita on 29th.

As usual, vacation period just passed away like a Shinkansen and it was midnight i.e. 00:00 of 29th march. I was hanging out with Rutu (a close friend in Pune) and just about to return home for packing stuff. I had already received 2 calls from my father for the same. Again it was so kind of rutu to have considered to drop me at my place in his Chevrolet. We were just riding towards the final corner to my house when i thought of confirming the flight timings on internet. As usual, the internet connection at my place was down. So finally, we stopped at a internet cafe near my place (on Paud road).

As i was tracking the flight schedules of all flights from mumbai-narita, suddenly it struck my mind that i had a booking for flight which was supposed to reach Narita at 17.10 on 29th itself. So i traced back its connecting flight from mumbai and it turned out to be complete disaster. My flight was to take-off just 15 minutes later i.e.00:30 29th march from Mumbai international airport. Needless to say, i had missed the flight as i was busy checking this schedule in the internet cafe in Pune. It was my false assumption that i had booking for 11:30 flight (also heading for Narita which i took while returning to Narita in my previous vacations). And then suddenly i came to know that i din't even have the travel ticket..not even e-ticket. Though i was sure that i had booking for the flight on 29th. I had hit the Panic button again.

I informed Rutu about the same. He couldnt resist laughing at that moment. We google'd 'Singapore airlines helpline' and found the numbers for mumbai office. Our effort went in vain as we got an autoanswering machine message in return upon calling the same saying that their staff would be available for help only from 9.15-17.30.I thought for a moment and evaluated the whole situation. Ticket re-booking via LnT office would have taken another 5-6 days. Though it would have put me in tough position after reaching onsite, i was momentarily more than happy to spend one more week in india with my family and friends. I returned home and updated parents with the latest updates. I enjoyed that moment shamelessly as i could see some unique reactions on my father's face..though they lasted only for few seconds. Then followed the questions which i had expected then. 'What are you going to do now?'

I decided to move on... reach mumbai airport at 9.15 AM ...calling helpline of singapore airlines for rescheduling the tickets. So it was Me, and my parents waiting in the parking area of Mumbai International airport at 09:15 AM on 29th. I gave a call to SIA helpline at 09:15 sharp.

It was answered by a woman (sounded like a 25yr old gal). I told her my name and asked her to check my booking details. In return, she confirmed that i had booking for 00:30 flight. I asked her about re-scheduling. She said that all the flights were full and there was no chance that i would get booking re-scheduled for 29th. It was then i told her that i was not carrying the ticket and that i dint have one. She was shocked and suggested to contact the travel agency that booked my ticket. So that they can arrange a copy of the ticket for me. It was not a good suggestion as 29th was a saturday i.e. weekly off for LnT travel dept. Also, an untold fact was revealed to me, of which i was unaware of till then. The fact that airport security does not allow the passengers to come in the airport if the passenger fails to show the air-ticket at the entrance. I was in deeper trouble now. I requested the booking id and ticket number to the helpline agent. Having the same written on my public telephone bill, i rushed to the airport security gates with my luggage. Meanhwile my parents unaware of these updates were waiting anxiously in the airport parking area.

Upon reaching the entrance of the airport gates, security guard requested to show the ticket. I told him the flight number for which i had the booking (which had left 10 hrs back). He checked rhe passenger list names who had booking for that flight and confirmed that my name was listed. I told him that my rescheduling has been confirmed (had to lie) and i have pick the latest boarding pass from the Singapore airlines counter. In return, he argued to show the ticket atleast to let me in. He referrred my case to the airport security head. Finally i was allowed to enter the airport with a security guard. I rushed to the SIA counter and told them the whole story. I was asked to wait for 10 minutes and then i had boarding passes for the flight to Narita at 11:40 AM...i.e. just 1 hr later. By this time, my parents had already come to the airport entrance. They were surprised to see me holding the new boarding passes.