BLACKY BOY - We Will Always Miss You

                       December 1995 to May 14, 2009

You were and will always be a family member to all of us. We hope that you are in heaven right now. You have always loved us unconditionally. Every time you saw us, you waved your tail and expressed your affection towards us. You came to us as a one-week-old puppy and left us as a 13 1/2 year old. Your leaving us has created a vast emptiness in the home that can never be filled. You are an inseparable part of our family. Every part of the house reminds us of you. Everything we do, we remember you. Every time, I come back home from office, I remember you coming towards me waving your tail in affection and trying to play with me.

Forever you will remain in our hearts. One of the things that stands out about you is the fact that you have never even hurt a cat. We have had so many cats in our house, and you have never hurt them, although sometimes you have chased them away just to show them who's the boss. I still remember the image of you and one of our cats having lunch together from the same plate. You were generous enough to share your food with a cat. No one can beat this. You have actually set an example for us human beings. If you can share your dinner with a cat, supposed to be your arch enemy, can we humans be kind enough to share some of our food with other unfortunate stray animals on the streets.

Cricketers Attacked in Pakistan

Terrorists are gaining strength. The ISI and Army of Pakistan are still not waking up to the fact that they are riding a blood-thirsty tiger and they cannot control it beyond a point.  In my opinion, this attack was not to say that they do not like the cricketers from Sri Lanka, but to emphasize the fact that they can strike at will. This attack has happened in spite of that fact that Pakistani establishment provided adequate security to the cricketers.

I sincerely hope that people of Pakistan force the authorities to wake up and wipe out the Taliban and the likes before the terrorists wipe out Pakistan.

First Black President of USA

The day has finally come when a Black President leads the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America. He is the 44th President of USA.  It is a great victory for those who have really suffered the ugly side of racism in USA until the late 1930s and 40s. He definitely seems to be a charismatic leader and the world hopes  that he can bring about a change in the sentiments of the American people and turn things around.  The largest market in the world has got a new Positive President whose mantra is "Yes We Can".  We all hope that he can deliver what he has promised.

We wish him all the best in succeeding in his mission and get the world economy on track once again.

Terrorism and India's Reaction

Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attacks have again brought out our inability to deal with an enemy that is obviously working hard on his strengths.  We all know for sure that terrorists have nothing to lose.  When someone is ready to die, no law can be a deterrent.  Laws come into picture only when you catch these terrorists alive, which happens only once in a blue moon.  What is most required is our defense establishments to increase surveillance and plugging the gaps in our porous borders.

What happened on 26/11 was nothing less than a grim reminder of what we lack with respect to our defense shield. How can 10 men cross over into our country from Mumbai, and that too through the Gateway of India.  How can three levels of security be breached by terrorists, especially when our forces had intelligence reports of a possible attack.

Corruption is rampant in every part of our life, and our security forces have also been a victim of the same.  It is an open secret now that the bullet-proof vests that were worn by the top cops of Mumbai on that fateful day was of substandard quality.  The fact that the bullets fired by the terrorists could penetrate the so-called bullet-proof vests shows how much we compromise on things.  Of course, there is nothing new about how much we compromise on our national security.  During the Chinese aggression in 1962, our brave soldiers at the Chinese border realized the substandard quality of the guns that were handed to them to guard the national borders.  Most of the guns did not work in extreme weather conditions.  This is how much we care about our soldier who is guarding our borders.  Of course, we are definitely much better of today with respect to the guns at the border.

On the one hand the terrorists and gangsters have upgraded themselves to AK series and M series of automatic machine guns, and on the other hand, our government expects our policemen to counter them with 303 rifles, a technology which the west discarded after World War II.  Remember this was the same rifle the British used during World War I.  Our politicians want "Z Level Security" for themselves.  Of course, for 75% of them it is more of a status symbol than a security need.  However, the security they provide to the general public is policemen with .303 rifles.  During 26/11, at the CST, the CCTV video clearly showed the constable trying to fire at the terrorist, but the gun did not work.  He had no other choice but to throw the gun away and run for cover.

Even after all this has happened, some of our politicians still shamelessly demand high security for no rhyme or reason.

For almost a decade our defense forces have been screaming at the top of their lungs that they need to upgrade their weapons system.  Our fighter jets are dying (and killing our precious pilots along the way), our submarines and ships are dying, yet our politicians do not feel it is high priority.  One might say that some of our ships still have a decade of life more in them; however, what we need to remember is that defense deal is not like buying a TV and getting a home delivery the next day. It takes almost a decade for delivery of the consignment after the order is placed.  If we order today, we will get the delivery after 10 years.

I am proud to be an Indian and I love my country a lot. It pains me a lot that our politicians are so selfish in their motives.  For them their party and power is paramount and everything else comes later.

In hopes of a safe future, I pray to God that in the New Year, they all wake up to the fact that there would be no power without a safe country and happy citizens.

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009.

Positive Thinking

It all started after the day we saw a video named The Secret, a video talking primarily about thinking about the right things.  When I say the right things, I do not mean morally right, but what I mean is thinking only of things that we want to happen and those that give us pleasure, and not think of the opposite.  If we analyze, we would realize that most of our thoughts are not what we want but they are what we do not want to happen.  In the morning, most of us are thinking "I do not want to be late", "My boss will kill me if I .....", and so on.  If you look at these closely, these are not things which we want, but what we do not want.  What really happens is somehow you end up late to office or you somehow end up making your boss angry at you. I am not saying that this is bound to happen but it happens most of the time.  I am sure you will agree with me.  There are days where you wake up and are feeling great about everything and somehow end up having a good day.

I don't know how many of you are aware of Murphy's Law.  The Murphy's law, in a nutshell, states that "If something can go wrong, it will."  Also "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way".

All along, I have been a great believer of the Murphy's Law, and believe me it worked perfectly for me.  After watching The Secret, I realized that I was focusing on the negative rather than the positive.  Could be one of the reasons why I have not enjoyed my life in the last few years, in spite of career and financial growth.  After watching The Secret, I started forcing myself to think positive no matter what and now (after two weeks) I somehow look at things in the positive sense.  Just to give an example, when we were discussing about some business strategies, one of my colleagues quoted someone as, "Differentiate yourself or die".  It somehow just came on to my lips and I said "Differentiate yourself and thrive".  This might look like boasting but believe me it was spontaneous and I stated this just a couple of seconds after my colleague stated his statement .

In keeping with the essence of The Secret, I have decided to only think of what I want to happen. Everybody wants only positives to happen in their life, so just focus on those.  The fact is Negative thoughts come easy and Positive thoughts need to be forced until they become a habit.  Eight Olympic Gold Medals did not come easy to Michael Phelps, right? It would have been so easy for him to give up swimming when all his friends were having fun at the pool table with their girlfriends on their side and a beer in their hands.

I believe in The Secret, and you also will after you watch the video.  TRUST ME.