21.. post number 2!!!!

I was just going through my blog, my earlier posts. I haven't been blogging much since this year. :(

I started blogging last year and till my 25th or so post no one even visited my blog, i never had much motivation. The first person to appreciate my blogging was Sajeesh Etta i guess, cause at that point of time only we were into the groove of blogging. Then came Divya, Soumya Chechi, Indu Chechi etc etc. And i learnt that business idea of blogging, you get readers only when you read and respond to others. That was how i got people to read my blog. Sandy was the first person to join my followers list. Today i feel like thanking all of them for helping me into this world which has no limits. Thanks All.. :)

Now back to the post.

So how is my life ka story?? :).I hope i just didn't bug you'll.

The most beautiful thing about Kalpetta(Wayanad) is always its natural beauty and the serene atmosphere. It had an identity of its own. Kalpetta(Wayanad) is the place where most number of tribals lived, since there were loads of coffee estates these land lords got the tribals to work for them in the estates and hence it was a place where the rich always got richer but the poor never really had any identity. Living in those places always teaches us a lot in life.

During my holidays Pappa used to take me to one of his Colleagues house and i used to stay there with her daughters. They took care of me and Rakesh then. We always had fun there, their compound used to be rich with a lot of trees and fruits and all. There were cocoa trees, orange etc. People had time for one another, that was when you get real care and love. I learnt all that then, only when we don't expect anything we get to give that unconditional love and care. People out there were this kind. :)

This was a beautiful moment in our life, this again happened at Kalpetta. I guess it was summer then and mummy was like its too hot in the house and wish i could get a table fan in the kitchen. Pappa somehow heard it, he silently went out and bought one and came back,gave it to mummy. This happened some 15 years ago and then buying a table fan itself might have been a big deal. I remember how surprised mummy was, not juts mummy even myself and Rakesh were surprised as well. I learnt what giving a surprise is like then and since then i have tried giving those odd surprises to my close buddies and parents. That was when i learnt that even those little things in life make a lot of difference, at the end of the day they make our day.

Pappa used to be very good at buying toys for us. Every time he saw something different he would buy it. Myself and Rakesh got our first battery train, that jeep which could perform stunts and the 2nd battery train when we were at Kalpetta. I was never much keen on toys but Rakesh loved them. He even got that bike which when dragged back for sometime and left would travel forward. Everything was amusing and funny. At that age the best things these toys could do would be to make us think. Rakesh used to think over their mechanisms a little too much that he ended up trying to open them and then examine their internal mechanisms so closely, they would stop working soon cause of excessive examination.

This incident at Kalpetta was the funniest of all i guess. Again the fun is when Rakesh is involved in it. We had an uncle who was a chain smoker and lived in the same lane as ours. One day Rakesh was at his house and uncle got a call or something. So he kept his lighted cigarette in the hall and went to attend the call. Rakesh took the cigarette and started smoking. It took sometime for uncle to come back and by then the cigarette, Rakesh and another pack of Beedi(another tobacco product) were missing. Rakesh came home and he was smoking, even mummy was not home. Uncle came home and caught him hehe. Since then all of us were very careful when he was around. Myself and Rakesh also tried smoking when we were at Kalpetta i guess. Just to know the feel of it. :)

We used to travel regularly from Kalpetta to Gudalur. We would go in our scooter. 4 of us in the scooter. It was just some 60 km journey. Rakesh would sit in front, followed by Pappa the rider myself and mummy would be the pillion riders. Pappa rides pretty fast every time, but he is careful. Mummy used to be afraid of speed but now she is used to it as well. Every time we reached the road leading to Gudalur we would make fun of mummy singing a song which i can't remember now. The content of the song said that the roads are really bad, i mean really really bad. We made fun of her since she hailed from the place with bad roads. Little did i know that not just Gudalur roads but 90% of Indian roads are like that. Now they have improved the roads though.

It was time for yet another transfer for Pappa and we had to leave the beautiful place. I have never been to Kalpetta since then. I really miss that beautiful place. Every time i go to Gudalur(mummy's hometown) i wish i could go to Kalpetta but never could i make it. Now am old enough to go there alone. probably next time around when i go there i could visit Kalpetta. The main reason for my not visiting Kalpetta is that these days i visit Gudalur for only 2 to 3 days and my grandma wants me to spend time with her these days. We kept a get together for all our closed ones in Kalpetta before we bid bye to Kalpetta.

Our next destination was Palakkad, Nemmara. My Pappa's place. He hailed from Nemmara. He wanted to get a transfer to Nemmara since his parents were getting older and he wanted to take care of them.Mummy always said, its difficult to get a son like Pappa, he sets an example for me and Rakesh on how to take care of our parents. He has sacrificed so much to be with his parents and look after them. Pappa got a transfer to Kollengode, known for its old palaces. It was some 10 km from Nemmara. Myself and Rakesh joined in a school called Gangothri. It was walkable then. We had to walk some 20 mins everyday but if someone asks me to walk till there now i wont do it. Over the years that lazy goose in me has been growing as much as i did. We stayed at Nemmara itself and Pappa would go to bank everyday in his scooter.

Nemmara was a completely different place compared to Kalpetta. More happening surroundings, more close allies, more temples, less scenic beauty except for the green paddy fields which could be found everywhere. The buses which go at lightning speed in the main road, the christmas carol and most importantly the Nemmara Vela(an amazing festival). I believe everyone must see Nemmara Vela before they die, it is something no one can really miss. We did like Nemmara but there were reasons why we even disliked Nemmara. It had 2 theaters as well. School was nice, lot smaller than the one i studied at Kalpetta but except for that i never really tried comparing both schools since i knew it would only make me disappointed.

My friends at Gangothri were Sarath, Deepak(i met him 4 days back as well), Justin, Govind, Nimmy, i cant get too many names. :(. Justin and Govind joined one year later my arrival. Deepak, me and Sarath had been there since the beginning. Nimmy used to be my class mate as well as auto mate. We went together in the same auto. And she was even my first crush in 2nd standard. Didn't i tell you?? I am among the genetically modified species who lost their innocence very early in life. I was friends with my seniors as well Vinayan and Prasad. One good thing is that even when i meet any of them i can recognize them and i still remember them, and even they can recognize and remember me. I meet Sarath, Vinayan and Prasad almost every year. I haven't met Govind since he left school when i was in 4th. I have met Justin some 3 years back i guess, he was drunk then :(, but still he recognized and remembered me very well. :).

I am getting more names now. Jayan, Sreeju, Govindan Kutty, Sapna, Anjali, Brinda, Sreedevi, Ratheesh, Bhuvaneswari, Girish I seem to be remembering most of the girls names hehe. Jayan used to be bad in studies, last time i met his mom she was asking me about my where abouts, that was when i was in 11th or 12th i guess. I have met him couple of times 2 years back as well when i went for Nemmara Vela. Sreeju is Prasad's cousin, i meet him as well at times when i go there. Govindan Kutty was my school mate at Gangothri and later on became my first friend at Gurukulam as well when i came back from my Trivandrum expedition and joined Gurukulam. I have no contact with Sapna all that i can remember is that her dad used to work abroad and he used to bring all those curious scales, pencils and erasers from in there. I don't know much about Anjali, Brinda, Sreedevi and the rest. I am sure they wouldn't even be thinking about me and would be busy with their life, they won't know how it feels when we dwell into the past, do they? hehe :)

The last time i met Nimmy was at Guruvayur temple, i heard she shifted over to Guruvayur. I met her some couple of years or even more since she left Gangothri, even i left that school to join Chinmaya that year. I went to Guruvayur for my uncles son's naming function i guess and i saw her at a distance but since i was on the queue to the shrine i couldn't go talk to her. We smiled at each other. :). I spotted her in orkut as well but now she has no activity online i guess. Last thing i heard of her was through Deepak, he said her dad expired. :(. I meet Deepak regularly, he had been to my house in Chennai quite a few times as well. He is a very nice guy and a good friend. He is doing his Marine Engineering now.

Will continue in the next post.. :)

Dear Pranab Mukherji.. :)

As we all know tomorrow is the day of Budget, it is definitely going to play an important role since the recession and its after effects have taken a toll on most of the Indians set aside the world economy. Its no more gonna be Mr. Chidambaram delivering the budget and am really happy about it. We got a better human being in Pranab Mukherji and he will be delivering the much awaited budget. As an ordinary Indian I do expect quite a lot from this budget and in this blog i would discuss about it.

I have been tracking the budget over the last few years and it has not been that great or never really made an ordinary Indian happy. I always appreciated the increase in taxes over the alcoholic beverages and tobacco products and i would always appreciate it, i hope at least that can make many of the regular smokers and drinkers in the community to put an end to their smoking and drinking habits. I am sure the class of people who have lost their jobs in the near future would definitely have a second thought over continuing their smoking habits by this. Yeah, if you are thinking why this guy is talking bout cigarettes and liquor when we have more serious issues, i am an Indian who believes that we can get real quality citizens only if these habits of our people stop. In a populous country as ours the quality of its citizens is more important than anything else.

Secondly, the security of a common man. What can the financial minister do for security? Is this your question. It is the same with me, I expect the financial minister to allocate more and better budget for the INTERNAL security of my nation. I am among the Indians who believe that India is not secure anymore. I want to see the police equipped with better weapons, up gradation of the police stations and effective classes for the police men on how to talk to the public. Especially for the ones who think that being a police gives them the license to do anything they want, i pity the ones who have lost their lives cause of the misinterpretation acts of our Policemen. But the more important step would be to form a set of trusty people who can monitor the usage of these funds in the best possible way, I really appreciated the move to constitute Mr. Nilekani as the Chairman of the council for allocating Unique Identification Cards for every Indian. So the government must do something like that even for the effective use of money. Am sure even though it means usage of more man power, am sure it is worth it.

Now the plight of Indians who live in the villages and towns. For me India is really the villages and towns. Those people out there form my nation for me, am annoyed why is it that these leaders never look at that community, the community which struggle hard in their fields to get us our food to eat, the people who stand under the red hot sun working for every single Indians survival. Those people out there who are deprived of every basic right to his living, no good education it sounds as of the politicians want those poor ones to keep struggling all their life. I want the finance minister to allocate extra money for their development in all aspects. They must get better education, better facilities from the government not just the normal ration that every Indian enjoys, they must have more preference in the premier institutes of the country. There are no FIITJEE or TIME or IMS to train them get into the IIT's and IIM's and that needs to be understood by our government. There needs to be better health facilities for them. Unless the rural India develops there can't be any significant improvement in our country, India is still a third world country if not for the Urban India and that face needs to change significantly.

I would like to see the finance minister taking more steps to encourage our scientists to foster the development of indigenously built fighter jets and submarines. India is far behind China in both these categories and significantly behind Pakistan in the development of Submarines are concerned. If India can develop both these indigenously then we would be far ahead in the military perspective and that can even generate a lot of foreign currency as well. The other reason would be that at present we are spending a lot of money in acquiring military equipments from other countries and that can be reduced a great deal. I know that the development of such machines is not really easy but with some motivation Indians can make it, its lot easier than developing space vehicles i guess. Then comes the radar systems for which India still depends very much on Israel, if a small country like Israel can be so good in it, why not the giant India?? Which is definitely considered to have the best of brains in the world set aside you and me. ;)

I want Mr. Mukherji to do something about the volatile markets, i mean they need a far push and that can trigger more investment in them unlike over the recent past which has seen a significant decline in the flow of foreign investment. I would want the finance minister to allocate some resources for promoting the awareness among every Indian regarding the stock market and investing in it. I want to discuss this topic with further detail and hence i wouldn't ponder much with the stocks and trading in here. But i feel an awareness is very much necessary since only around 5% of Indians are presently investing. We should know that the more we invest in Indian stocks the more are we fostering the development of our country. Our markets would no more be controlled by the big guns from other countries.

I do wanna discuss few more issues in here but its time up for me to leave. Let me see how big a smile i get when i listen to the budget tomorrow, am afraid i might even miss it cause of my friends marriage. But still having seen the railway budget which was good enough i expect a little more from Pranabji. Please don't disappoint, I want a better India and its not just a single I, there are a billion of those. :)

Jai Hind!!