Bye 2012- The year at a glance

Personally 2012 has been quite a journey for me. Presenting some of my favorite clicks of the year.....

Sun rises on the Bay of Bengal in Puri

Howrah Bridge, Kolkata

Old standing proudly with the New

Diwali-The festival of Lights

The courtyard of the centuries old Senbari of Baghbazar

Khasa Kothi, the HQ of Dept of Tourism, Rajasthan

The sun sets on the Aravalis-2012

A spider spinning its web on Lake Fatehsagar, Udaipur

What Future beholds?

As 2012 becomes a thing of the past, I am right now in a very pensive mood recollecting what occurred during the year and what beholds us all, the members of Blue Caramel, in the new year 2013.
Year 2012, to say the least, has been a year filled with challenges and at the outset promised much more than it has actually delivered in the end. Following my STEP theory, the analysis can be elucidated in the following paragraphs.

1) Socially- The malaise that India has faced in the societal frame work for time immemorial sees no ending and on the contrary forces seem to be at work to widen the divide between social groups. Vicious online and   campaigns on the cell phone were instrumental in creating an alienation of the people of the North-East this year. Rumor mongers had a field day this year, when thousands of people from all over the country migrated back to their own homelands in the North East after they were threatened through social media for so called murders of Muslims in their states. It virtually led to a collapse in governance and a mass exodus.
Rapes and honor killings went on unabated this year. But the most horrific was the rape, mutilation and murder of the "Brave Heart" of Delhi, a 23 year old paramedic who fought death for 13 days before finally succumbing to her injuries in a hospital in Singapore. The incident ignited a mass movement of the youth who wanted better governance and swift justice. The small spark thus ignited could turn into an inferno in the new year, if lessons are not learnt and remedial actions not taken.

2) Technological- Though technological advancement is an area is a field which India can boast of, 2012 saw a complete technological failure, when the wanna be "Super Power" had to go literary "Power"less for two continuous days, when the Power grids of the country collapsed. This unprecedented gaffe led to a lot of mockery of India in the international arena.

3) Economic- The Indian economy has had to withstand a lot of pressure in 2012 because of the world wide recession. Companies like the Kingfisher Airlines are on the verge of bankruptcy because of financial mismanagement and obstinacy. But on the other hand many have also recorded impressive growth showcasing the resilience of the Indian economy. But the divide between the economic "haves" and "have nots", unfortunately has widened resulting in the making of ticking time bombs of discontentment that just wait to explode, anytime.

4) Political- Political stagnancy and polity paralysis has been the hallmark of the year 2012 for India. Though the degree of it was higher when the year  started and has gradually become better as the year went by, on the whole, political parties cutting across the political spectrum, have given the feeling to the public that they have taken the masses for a ride. Less of constructive deliberations in the parliament and more of rhetoric outside, more of corruption, more of nepotism, has made the word "Politician" more dirty this year.   

So, what future beholds?? I for sure am not an astrologer, so I am not in a position to enumerate what the future holds?? I on the contrary believe that let future be future and lets not try to predict it. As the protagonist played by Ben Affleck in the movie "Paycheck" realizes if you know the future then you loose hope as it then becomes a certainty and if you loose hope then you loose life itself.

But going by the happenings that have surrounded us in 2012, in all probability it would not be very unwise, if it is concluded that 2013 promises to be a much better, happier and prosperous year than 2012 was. But then did not 2012 begun the same way with lots of promise??

The Doomsday!

So, the impending Doomsday is nigh! 21st December 2012 is the deemed date on which the Earth will encounter a cataclysmic event of catastrophic proportions as per the Mayan Calendar. The Mayas are an indigenous native Indian tribe that has inhabited the Americas from time immemorial. They are noted for their highly developed language, art & architecture, mathematical skills and scientific astronomical prowess.

Though the Mayan calendar does not explicitly state the "End of the World" on the due date, the readings of the calendar has been interpreted and misinterpreted by many astrologers and students of astrology & sciences over the years and thus we are on the threshold of "Doomsday".

Whether the world actually ends on 21-12-2012  is a question of lesser importance? The actual question is are millions of people all over the world not encountering "Doomsday" in their lives, each day, everyday. Have values, principles and ethics not fallen to the nadir?? If no, then how do you explain happenings that we encounter daily, locally, nationally or internationally???

In my home town of Udaipur, a nineteen year student was brutally stabbed and killed by a group of other students over a petty skirmish that started over entry into a cultural programme. A precious young life lost in a moment of stupid madness.
In New Delhi, the capital of my country- India, a 23 year paramedical student and her friend were first heinously assaulted and then the girl brutally raped in a moving bus by a group of young men. The ordeal did not end there as the duo was then thrown off the moving bus. The valiant "fighter" continues to battle for her life in a hospital in the capital.
In Newtown, Connecticut, USA, the 20 year old son of a teacher burst into a school and fired indiscriminately on the small students and the teachers. The result 28 deaths including 20 children.

These are just three examples of happenings from the current environment that have been making "News" and are just the tip of the proverbial "Iceberg". People in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen and Syria to name a few, are they not encountering "Doomsday" everyday? In India, the tribals of Bastar, Kalahandi, and other backward areas are they not encountering Doomsday viz a viz their fight with hunger and poverty, everyday?? Are we as a society not facing Doomsday each day in every sphere of life, be it social with its belittling of relations and values, political with its hail of corruption & nepotism and economical with increasing frequent price hikes???

Facing "Doomsday" everyday has probably made us all resilient to the the prophesied "21-12-2012-End of the World" which even if it occurs is beyond our control. But past the prophecy date, we should definitely think hard and try to analyse and do everything that is needful individually as well as a society in the form of actions that are well with in our control; simple things like respecting our elders and heeding their advise or even abiding by traffic rules....

For all members of Blue Caramel, the message is when the going is good,  we should all strive to make it count because when hardships are there, positivity, resilience and the like all said and done, the reality is Reality Bites.  

Mahendra Singh Dhoni-The full circle

The last month of 2012 is in full swing and so have been the activities both within as well outside the Blue Caramel world. Udaipur, for a change, has beaten Jodhpur, Jaipur as well as Mumbai into the proverbial "Pulp". Mehul and Heena have both worked in tandem and seem to be forming a formidable team.
Speaking of teams brings me to the remarkable change of fortunes of Team India, India's men's cricket team under the captaincy of 'Captain Cool" Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni or MSD or Mahi as he is often fondly called burst into the Indian cricket team as a flamboyant wicketkeeper and a destructive batsman. His rise has been phenomenal and in fact after he was given the captaincy of the Indian cricket team, the team went on to become T20 world champions, ODI world champions and also the number one Test team. He was referred to as the captain with the "Midas" touch. This amazing run was not exclusive to the National cricket team but also percolated to successes in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) where he captained the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to unprecedented glory.

From this seemingly invincible position, 2012 has seen the rapid fall of Dhoni's fortune and along with it Team India's. So, what have been the reasons?
The first thing that comes to mind is maybe it is just a transitional phase that every great cricketing team goes through when some of its established players retire. Team India has seen some of its stalwarts retire in the last few years and Gary Kirsten, the coach too left the team. Ganguly, Kumble, Dravid, Laxman have all retired and probably the best of Tendulkar is behind him  But then didn't India win the ODI and the T20 world cups without them?

So, what could be the reason?? There have been talks of Ego clashes and disunity among the team members. But probably the main reason has been failure on part of the team to plan for its future course of action. When you are the number one, you have to run as fast as you can just to remain the number one and this is where Team India has miserably failed.

Dhoni's main drawback has been that he along with the BCCI has failed to plan for the future and  when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. This is something that all members of Blue Caramel at all the offices, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur or Mumbai have to bear in mind. Today is very precious and we need to plan today and if we don't plan today then future would definitely come and kick us in our , you know where, and see to it that we repent having failed to plan when it was required.

A Bird in Hand!

Life's amazing journey has many different things on offer for a person. But one of the most precious things that it gives us all, is experience, the lessons that life teaches us through the highs and lows it makes us undergo. As the month of November comes to an end, I could not but agree more with the idiom "A Bird In Hand Is Better Than Two In The Bush". 

I recollect hearing a story about a person who had a hen which laid golden eggs. This oft heard childhood story, a part of Aesop's Fables, goes that the man gradually became rich selling the golden eggs that the hen laid. Then he became ambitious or in other words plain greedy. He was not happy with what he was having. He started expecting more from life than it was giving him at that point of time. Maybe he wanted newer experiences, maybe he wanted to emulate his richer peers, ignoring the others from whom he was in fact much better off, maybe there was family pressure or maybe he thought of enjoying life in the faster lane. Whatever might be the reason, suddenly the thought of two birds in the bush started to look more lucrative for him.

This illusion made his present miserable because he constantly thought of things that he perceived would accrue to him in the future. He got into a tangle, a tangle in which he looked forward towards the bright perceived future and looked down upon his 'miserable' present. With such cobwebs of the mind, the day was not far when he took a decision, a decision which to him seemed a perfectly logical decision. He decided to kill the golden egg laying hen in the hope that he would get all the eggs that the hen had to offer at one go. He swiftly and without remorse killed the hen.. only to find that in the hope of getting rich quickly in the near future, he had completely destroyed his beautiful present.

Even from first hand experiences that we all encounter in our day to day life, all of us (members of Blue Caramel not excluded) don't seem to follow the idiom of "A bird in hand is better that two in the bush" and try running after things which we don't have. This is not to say that being fully contented with life is the way out, this in fact leads to our degeneration. What I am trying to emphasize is that in the hope of a better future we should not ruin our present by our actions, just like what the man in the Golden Hen case did....

  

Where there is a will there is a way!

There was an interesting article in the local language paper this morning and it was about Jorma Ollila, the former Chairman and CEO of Nokia Corporation, the Finnish Multinational mobile telephone and telecommunication behemoth. In it, Ollila quotes an incident from the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics which involved his fellow Finn, the athlete Lasse Viren.

Lasse Artturi Viren was a long distance runner in the mold of the "Flying Finns" of the early 20th century like Kolehmainen and Nurmi. After disastrous performances in the events leading up to the Munich Olympics, Viren was not expected to make any mark in his pet 10,000 metres race. But Viren had other ideas. Just prior to the Olympics, he embarked on a brutal regimen of physical endurance and "willed" to bring in laurels for himself and his country.

The race began and as luck would have it, Viren took a nasty fall in the 12th lap and lost out on 20 to 30 metres from the leaders of the race. But he did not loose hope and with supreme effort was able to bridge this gap in less than 150 metres. The rest as they say is history. Not only Lasse Viren won the gold medal, he also created a new world record, which still stands.

Similarly, Jorma Ollila with his dedication, focus and will power was able to channelize the varied interests of Nokia, from spheres as diversified as logging, paper, electricity and rubber products to mobile phones and telecommunications, in his single minded pursuit to make Nokia Corporation, the best in whatever it does. He consolidated the operations of Nokia in 1992 when it was decided that Nokia would only concentrate on Telecommunications and mobile telephones and the rest again is history.

As the penultimate month of the year 2012 draws to an end, all members of Blue Caramel in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Mumbai should grasp the fact that "Where there is a will, there is a way". The way would automatically unfold when one has the will to succeed. As, the quote goes "Nothing is lost till hope is lost and everything is lost when hope is lost", so hoping for a terrific closing from all the locations in a month that has been very kind to us. God Speed!!   

Oysters, Pearls and Life's Lesson@Lake Chilika

Having just returned from a most memorable journey to the East Indian state of Odisha, I could not help but  post today's post on a very remarkable experience in the backwaters of Lake Chilika, (misspelt as lake Chilka by most).

The largest lagoon in the Indian subcontinent and the second largest in the world, Chilika sustains more than 130 villages with a population in excess of 1.5 lacs villagers along its shores. The fast disappearing dolphins are a highlight of the boat ride on Lake Chilika, but for me the live demonstration of the extraction of pearls and moonstones from mollusks, shells, mussels and oysters on the Red Crab island was the icing on the cake. In the following snaps the entire process of the extraction is illustrated.

Shells

Mussel

Hammer it open

Out comes the gem

Handful of gems

The genesis of a pearl is very unique. Unlike others, pearl is an organic matter derived from living beings- Mollusks and oysters. Sand and other impurities nestle within the body of the mollusks and oysters and over a period of time get converted into Pearls, which the world considers priceless.

For all the members of Blue Caramel Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Mumbai, there is a great lesson to be learnt, which is even if we have impurities in ourselves in the form of doubts, negativeness, jealousy or the like, if we are focused enough and have the desire to excel, then the time will not be far when these impurities will become subordinate to our work ethic and we will become priceless like pearls, pearls of the professional sphere.  

Sufi, Obama,Puri and Diwali

The first week of the penultimate month of the year has been dominated by four things in the Blue Caramel universe as well outside it. Discussions have made headway for Blue Caramel to partner International Sufi Festival India for the next festival, Barack Hussein Obama got re-elected as the American president, I would be leaving for my tryst with Lord Jagannath in Puri and Diwali, the festival of lights would be celebrated in a week's time.

After the success of the International Sufi Festival India, Ajmer in its first two editions, in which Blue Caramel and mydestination.com were associates, talks are on to take this relationship to a new level. Sufism has always been associated with mysticism and has been popular all over the world, the ISFI festival envisages to propagate this very essence along with the teachings of the great Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti.
In today's world, when materialism is at its most ugly, Sufism preaches that you can draw closer to God through personal deeds that are selfless. It propagates the theory of Unity in Diversity and universal brotherhood.

"Four more years", became the most retweeted tweet in twitter's history. This tweet by the incumbent US president Barack Hussein Obama capped the amazing race for American presidency. The "Dead heat" as was prophesied by many, turned out to be dead meat for his Republican rival Mitt Romney and Obama after his Change of 2008 has ushered in "Forward" of 2012. The rise of Obama, the first non-white president in the history of the United States and his re-election re-emphasizes the fact that there is no substitute for dedication and hard work and also one needs to be always connected to the grass roots to be able to have a formidable base.

The holy city of Puri in Odisha (formerly Orissa) is the abode of Lord Jagannath. It is here that the famous "Rath Yatra" or the Chariot festival takes place every year. After prolonged procrastination, finally this year it seems that my tryst with the almighty will finally take place.

In my absence, the festival of lights-Diwali would be celebrated. I am taking this opportunity to wish everyone within the Blue Caramel family and also everyone else a very Happy Diwali and a very prosperous year ahead!!!!!   
   

October in photos- Birth, Religion and Evolution!

As the month of October draws to an end, I thought of putting in the highlights of the month through some photographs that I had taken during the month that had a distinct religious flavor this year.

Banga Samaj Puja-Udaipur

The family puja at Bindu Bhawan-Udaipur

Bengali Laxmi Puja at Bindu Bhawan-Udaipur

Pigeon Eggs

Baby Pigeons

The month culminated in an event that we all at Blue Caramel can  learn a  lot from. It so happened that a pigeon laid two eggs in a flower pot that unfortunately had some saplings of green chilly. My initial urge was to put the eggs onto some other place but I refrained from doing that as I saw the pigeon couple putting in all their efforts to safe keep the eggs. Braving the chilly winds at night and also the blazing sun during the day, the mother pigeon kept on with the work of keeping the eggs warm with dedication. And lo voila, over a period of time, the eggs hatched into 2 baby pigeons, who are now a joy to watch. The moral of the incident is if you are loyal to your goal and work with dedication towards it, then no power on earth can stop you from succeeding in getting your desired result.

Lord Ram, Ravana and Dusshera!

Yesterday, Dusshera was celebrated with all its gaiety and religious fervor all over India. The great Indian epic Ramayana and mythology states that it was the day on which Lord Rama, the prince of Ayodhya vanquished his mighty adversary King Ravana of Lanka who had kidnapped his wife Sita in a bid to marry her. The Ramayana and the festival of Dusshera has a number of things to learn from, for all of us. The top 5 in my opinion are:

1) A Commitment is a commitment- In Ramayana, Lord Rama, without bating an eyelid agrees to go on banishment for 14 years as his father King Dasharatha had promised his wife Queen Kaikayi to fulfill any demands she made as a boon. Lord Rama knowing the importance of commitments and their fulfillment saved his father from disgrace by gladly owning up the seemingly difficult demand that Kaikayi made. A commitment is a commitment and commitments are NOT to be Broken.

2) One for all and all for one- In a team or a family, the famous lines of Alexandre Dumas in his classic "The Three Musketeers" have utmost importance. One for all and all for one, re-emphasizes the fact that when the going gets tough, the members who are together so that everyone strives to achieve more also share each others burden and the worst of situations become that much bearable. So, during Lord Rama's banishment not only his wife Sita went along with him, even his brother Laxman also came along. Bharat, the son of Kaikayi, who forced Rama for the banishment too renounced his throne and acted as a guardian of the throne in absence of his brother, Rama.

3) Do good to others and build good relationships coz networking helps- When Sita was kidnapped by Ravana and taken to far off Lanka, Rama and Laxman instead of becoming helpless and clueless started  their pursuit to bring back Sita with full earnest. In their quest, they were helped by an assorted force of monkeys, bears and even birds. These creatures helped Rama as he had helped them in various forms previously like in the case when he helped the monkey king Sugreev to regain back his kingdom from his evil brother Bali. In today's world, the importance of networking is paramount. Ekla Cholo Re is good but you need to have the backing of others to succeed.

4) Withstand pressure and you would be a sure winner- Ravana used various pressure tactics on Sita so as to force her to marry him but she withstood all the pressures. When the monkey god Hanuman went to Lanka as an emissary of Lord Rama, he was captured by Ravana and was put under immense duress. His tail was even set on fire. Inspite of such pressures, Hanuman did not loose heart and infact turned the tables on Ravana and burnt down his golden city with the same blazing tail that Ravana had set on fire.

5) You are doomed when your ego gets the better of you- Everyone of us has an ego and everyone of us likes the ego to be massaged. But the problem is when the ego gets the better of us and we become oblivious to the obvious. Ravana was actually a very learned man and in fact was from the elitest of the Brahamanas. He was a multi faceted personality very good in arts, literature, administration and warfare. He could have been a very good human being but ended up being a monster as his ego became his master and he took everything and everyone else as granted. Hence, it is fact that doom starts when your ego gets the better of you.

For all us at Blue Caramel trying to follow these qualities to the proverbial "T" would go a long way in becoming a better professional and more importantly a better human being.