Were you really there?

You were always around,

But were you really there?

 

You took me to the play area,

But you were busy talking to someone.

 

You were out for a team dinner,

But you were focused on the live football broadcast.

 

You went to meet your ageing parents,

But you were busy with your phone while they sat in the same room.

 

You were attending a religious service,

But your thoughts drifted toward the impending celebrations.

 

I know you are not doing this on purpose,

And you yourself regret your actions when you realize…

 

You were always around,

But were you really there?

Legal versus Illegal

A number of Shops destroyed,

Hundreds of People left unemployed,

Thousands of Families impacted.

 

During all these years, were all these shops and extensions really illegal?

If yes, then was accepting bribes and filling to your hearts content with freebies legal?

Administration’s actions how much ever justifiable are certainly laughable.

 

Its so sad and depressing to see these ruins almost everywhere,

Moreover as we citizens patronized these shops and paid them their fair fare,

We did not even know that something about these shops was illegal (isn’t that the administration’s job?),

What we did know was that they worked hard to support their family, which is definitely legal.

Context: Anti-encroachment drive conducted at Dhanori

Diwali in 2020

What a year we all have witnessed,

And the fact is that it’s still not finished.

Many have personally borne the brunt of the virus,

Be it the rich or the poor, the virus has not shown any bias.

 

Hopefully, the virus is controlled and eliminated sooner than later,

And we can breathe freely without a mask as intended by our creator.

There’s so much negativity and darkness all around,

That even festivities are impacted in the current background.

 

Diwali seems such an apt festival at this point of time,

When we are all waiting eagerly for some brightness in our life.

I wish that Diwali can bring peace, joy, and good health to all people,

And after this current pandemic ends, we no longer have a sequel.

Hope: The Elixir of Life

Dreams are shattered,

Plans are battered,

Life has come to a standstill,

Feels like everything is going downhill.

Most amongst us are still alive,

We must hence continue to strive,

Slowly but surely, we will overcome this strife,

Until then let’s make HOPE the elixir of life.

Prayer

A family of four,
Split by events galore!
Trouble them, no more!
Show them the shore.

A year worth dismiss.
Feels like an abyss!
What test is this?
Please give them bliss.

Stay safe

Life, all of a sudden, has now come to a standstill,

A few of us wonder what is going to be God’s will.

It’s in each one’s best interest now to maintain social distance,

Coz this is something that will ultimately decide our existence.

Hopefully, a vaccine becomes available at the earliest possible time,

And we can live our lives outdoors without feeling it’s a crime.

I just hope that the spread of the virus is contained somehow,

Till then remember that each one of us is not safe for now.  

बस कर सेड्रिक

वो भी क्या दिन थे,
जब वह मेरे बस में थी.
साथ में सफ़र कटता गया,
वक़्त युही गुज्ज्जरथा गया.
अंत में फिर वह दिन अहह ही गया,
जब वह दूससरे कंपनी के कैब में चली गयी.
Bus Car सेड्रिक :P

Happy Women's Day!

To every mother, sister, and wife…………..

You are the reason why I exist,

Into your loving arms I was first kissed.

What would I be without you I wonder,

Thank you for everything in my life, my mother.

You were always like a second mom to me,

Always caring, confident, and hardworking was she.

Here’s me wishing the best of everything in life to her,

Thank you for everything in my life, my sister.

You gave up many things to be my life partner,

No words would be enough to simply thank her.

Wishing us many years of togetherness in this walk of life.

Thank you for everything in my life, my wife.

Face your worries

What are you running away from my friend?

Is the fear of the unknown too difficult for you to comprehend?

Facing all your worries with open arms is something life recommends,

Lessons learnt because of this will definitely give you high dividends.

Running away from anything is never a solution,

It would only lead to despair and mental confusion.

Face every challenge by thinking that you are on an excursion,

Overcoming such hurdles in life will give you much needed motivation.

Start afresh

Leaves have become dry,

They had their time under the sun.

Everyone has to finally say good bye,

No matter how much in life they had fun.

Why can’t we just be thankful for being blessed?

Why do we get arrogant when we feel we are superior to some?

Have empathy towards others rather than just being self-obsessed.

Being rude to others is something one must try to overcome.

Live in a way that you will be missed when you are not around,

Will this not be better than being continuously frowned upon?

So, start afresh from this moment and don’t be a letdown,

Try to be someone whom people can always count on.

Thank you and Goodbye

Some people come into our lives and have an immediate impact for the good. This might be the case both in our personal and professional lives. One such person is Neeta Seth.

She had joined Avaya, Pune as an Editor around eight years back. She was an experienced editor and was in her mid-50s when she joined. She was the first professional editor with whom I got a chance to work with. Since she was a few years younger to my mom, I always treated her with the same respect.

Despite her age, she was able to get along with the much younger team very quickly. We as humans are usually resistant to changes in our lives. However, she adapted to all the new editing software tools very fast and became quite proficient at that. During her tenure at Avaya, she was instrumental in making writers follow a few editorial practices.

Many of us who worked and still work at Avaya will always be indebted to her for where we are today as professional writers. Her continuous feedback, sessions, and guidance have been very helpful.

I chatted with her on Friday to check if she is available during the Diwali week as I wanted her to review a few topics. After her confirmation, I assigned these topics to her on Friday. 

She passed away on Monday evening. However, we got the news about her demise only on Tuesday afternoon. In fact, I assigned more topics to her after her demise and before we got the sad news. That's how unexpected the news of her passing away was to us.

A person who seemed so hale and hearty until a few days back passed away suddenly. Life is so unpredictable.

Thanks for being the “Editor” in our lives. We will miss you Neeta. RIP.

Why reserve, when you don’t deserve

We are witnessing protests that are no longer silent,

In every sense now, mobs are getting too violent.

Destroying public property seems to be the norm,

When will they understand this is such a frightful form.

Why do you destroy, when you cannot create?

Does it give you a feeling of being great?

Don’t you have any fear of the law of the land?

If that’s true, then why should someone even evaluate your demand?

There is a lawful process in life for everything,

If there is merit in your demands, I am sure you will get something.

But don’t end up destroying something, which you cannot reverse,
That we the rest end up saying, why reserve, when you don’t deserve.

Stop judging

Standing in front of the mirror,

What can you see?

A reflection of yourself,

Or faults of others you perceive.

When we ignore the countless imperfections of ourselves,

Who are we to judge others?

If there is anything to be improved,

Is it not our whole outlook towards others?

Finding faults in others is easy,

Correcting others without their approval is uncool,

Don’t you yourself feel uneasy?

When others tell that you are behaving like a fool.

Life is short my dear friends,

Complaining in the long run won’t pay dividends.

Hence, if you really want to change something,

Then do work on your shortcomings and stop judging.

Life!!!

Human life is like the waves in an ocean,

Always in continuous motion.

Ups and downs are a part of existence,

Even if there is continuous resistance.

How you want to live your life is up to you,

But don’t live like you just don’t have a clue,

Remember, every single day is a blessing and you can start anew.

Hence, put in all your efforts, in the pursuit of a life-changing breakthrough.

Trapped in a cave

A football group in Thailand of 12 boys and their coach,
Decided to go on an adventure and to a cave they approached.
Weather was good and they were excited about the day ahead,
Little did they know that they could be trapped inside for dead.

The arrival of monsoon was imminent around this time of the year,
When the group entered the cave, little did they have to fear.
It started pouring heavily once they had covered a significant distance inside,
Flooding of the cave started and there was no way back against the tide.

A search and rescue team was then set in place,
Domestic and international members then started their trace.
Entering the cave had become risky for this rescue team,
It was 10 days now and people feared the worst for this football team.

Finally, a team of rescuers found this entire group inside,
Resting on a huge rock starving and sitting side by side.
It helped that they were part of a football team,
Standing for each other is something they learnt it seemed.

Waiting with hope that someone will come and rescue them,
With the coach alongside them who prevented any possible mayhem.
The rescuers managed to deliver food, provide oxygen, and treat them for minor injuries,
However, with no way out still, there is still a long way to the end of their misery.

It’s already been a little more than 15 days now,
The rescue team is still evaluating, we should rescue them how.
Saying a silent prayer for their rescue is the least I can do,
I just hope that within the next couple of days there is a breakthrough.


Read more:

• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44748924
• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44695232

Trapped in thoughts

Working in a confined building the entire day,
Trying to save for a future getaway.
Forgetting that the simple things in life, which make us happy, don’t cost much,
Living every single day, like we don’t have a choice, in strife and cursing our luck.

Walking on the sand barefoot,
Sending waves is the ocean that kiss my foot.
Liking the feeling of my legs slowly but steadily getting wet,
Loving these simple things in life, which I don’t want to forget.

The train journey

A short story written during my train journey on the Pune Mumbai route

A family of three. A son probably of 5 years. Son sitting on mother’s lap. Father standing throughout the journey. Mother and son wearing nice footwear. Father’s footwear is worn-out and reflects life’s struggles. My assumption is that only seat was booked instead of 2 if not 3. 

A vendor comes and sells some drawing books. Son sees a picture of doraemon and wants it. Mother and father talk in signs about the cost. Mother scans through the books and after much deliberation purchases a set of 3 for 50. Son is happy. An extra train ticket would have cost 120. Inspite of their struggles parents do their best to give the best to their son. 

Story of countless lower middle class people.

Perspective on Technology

I have been working with Avaya for more than 5 years now. Avaya as we all know deals in enterprise communications. By using the technology provided by Avaya, enterprises are able to reduce costs that would be normally incurred for telecommunications, especially when executives travel frequently for meetings, conferences, etc. Basically by using products developed by Avaya, companies benefit in the long run.

However, what about the technology that’s involved in our personal lives? How beneficial is it? Do we see any changes in the way we have been communicating in the past decade? I just wanted to share a few of my thoughts on the same.

Mom, can I play outside?
When I grew up, I used to go to school from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. I used to wait for the evening so that I could go outside the house and play with all my friends. We used to play different outdoor games from cricket to football, hockey to ludo, etc. Basically, step outside the house and play literally any game under the sun with friends.

However, today I see that most kids want to play games on their computers, tablets, and mobile phones. The games that kids play are mostly with virtual characters. Kids just don’t know what it is to step outside the house and play in the open.

Before we point a finger at kids, how about our behavior as adults? Are we also in a similar trap? Possibly we are busy with our mobile devices, even when a family member is waiting to communicate.

Going the mobile way
When I was in my early teenage years, I recollect that in the area where I stayed there were about 15-18 families. However, there were just 2-3 families that had landline phones. The remaining families used to go to the public telephone booths to make calls.

Earlier, when a family member stepped out of the house, we had no means of communication until they got back home.

In the mid-90s, the era of mobile phones arrived. In the beginning, hardly one family member had a mobile phone as even incoming calls were chargeable. Gradually with time as the costs reduced, almost everyone in the family started having mobile phones. Hence, very few families have landline phones now.

It’s so easy to communicate now. Dial a number and speak. But, do we really speak?

Am I chatting with you only?
With the advent of IM and Facebook, most people communicate using offline and online messages. It’s easy to chat without worrying about the emotions that are involved when you actually communicate over the phone or in person.

In fact, a person might take a different persona and interact with you. The person you think you are interacting with might actually not be the same person. Technology is easily misused nowadays. The end result unfortunately in some instances is blackmail, deceit, etc.

I for one yearn to hear the voice of the opposite person rather than using the IM medium. Unfortunately, not many of my friends share the same view. The result is that even though I would like to call and speak to my friends at least once in 2 weeks, I for sure will never get a return call. For my friends, it’s like we are anyways chatting on and off using IM, what’s there to speak about now? :)

We have 100s of virtual friends on our Facebook list. It’s so easy to friend and unfriend. However, how many friends do we really have who will stand by us when we really need their support and help?  

Forget friends, do you know who your neighbor is?

Love thy neighbor as yourself
With globalization, family members are present in different parts of the world. IM works cheaper than calling every day. So usually a mix of IM and calls help us to stay in touch with our near and dear ones.

Technology helps us communicate with folks who are away from us at a distance of 1000 miles and more. But, the sad part is, forget about interacting with neighbors, in today’s times, we hardly know who our neighbors are.  We are too preoccupied with our virtual world to even know what our neighbors do for a living.

Closing statement
If you read a few of the above scenarios, you would have realized that a mix of technology and physical interaction definitely helps. Unfortunately, most of us have allowed technology to rule us rather than the other way around.

The end result is broken marriages, unhappy relationships, lack of trust, etc. Don’t get me wrong; these issues can happen in the absence of technology too. However, most research data indicates that instances of these issues occur more in today’s times.

I keep hearing that excess of anything in life is not good. Similarly, I feel that technology is very good if used in moderation.

What do you think?

Life is a journey..Enjoy the ride

It’s been just over a week since the Malin tragedy near Pune,

Almost 160 people lost their lives in a landslide,

The rescue and relief operations were really challenging as I witnessed on television,

However, I did not know just a week since then I would witness a landslide in person.

What a day we had until then,

A day when 13 of us from office decided to go on a trek to Sinhagad fort in Pune,

The journey with colleagues along with the scenery on the way was so amazing,

For selecting such a location for the trek, for our colleague we were all praising.

The trek was not difficult,

However, the time taken was long and hence was hectic,

Some folks decided to give up and cut the journey short.

However, after a little over 2 hours of steep climbing we finally reached the fort,

Reaching there we felt we were in paradise,
We just forgot all our tiredness and were enjoying nature in all its glory,
The cool breeze and the beautiful scenery from up above was not something we witnessed every day,
After an hour and more we finally decided to go away.

Just as we almost reached the exit of the fort,
What we witnessed just took us all by shock,
6-7 huge boulders along with mud just decided to give away,
From a height of about 100 feet and at a distance of 25 feet from us they came crashing all the way.

For the next 10 minutes no one moved an inch,
As we were still left in shock and did not know if more landslides would follow,
After that all groups at the exit of the fort decided to move out slowly one by one,
Our hearts then were probably beating for each other as one.

We had witnessed 2 different sides of nature just within a few hours,
We decided it was better to take a vehicle down for the return journey,
However, we saw more landslides had occurred on the way,
A few of us were silently praying, while some shared jokes to lighten the mood and keep fear away.

We safely reached down and were really relieved a lot,
Had a good meal and then decided to rest before leaving for the day,
Wish we could reflect just on the happy moments that we shared on this trip,
However, memories of witnessing a landslide are not something I can easily skip.

(Had accidentally deleted this post from August 2014)

Today's times

We always keep talking about how proud we are to be part of our culture. However, what values are we leaving for the future generation? If you pick up the paper or watch the news, the only thing you can read about is violence, rapes, thefts, murder, religious intolerance, fanaticism, corruption, what one should eat and not, etc. The list simply goes on.

I am sure most of us would not want to see any of these things in our society. However, the fact is none of these issues seem to be on the downward trail.  

Some of us might think and say we are many times better than our neighboring countries or countries with much bigger issues of religious extremism. However, that’s no excuse for us to start getting tolerant of the issues that we see in today’s society.

We have a central government with absolute majority, which came into power on the promise of development. If they desire, they can bring most issues under control if not eliminate them. The initial signs are not encouraging. Only time will tell how they perform and take our country forward or two steps back.

                                                                      - From an unhappy reader and viewer of today