The Half Yearly Review!

So, today is the last day of the first half of 2013. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly have taken place in the first half of 2013 both within the Blue Caramel universe as well out of it.

In Blue Caramel offices at Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur as well as Mumbai, there has been nothing much to write home about but newer projects have been envisaged and executed in these last 6 months. The tie-ups with Udaipur Dopahar, Chetak Shopping and the progress of the travel handbook were some "Goods" from the first half of 2013.

In the wake of natural disasters such as the Uttarakhand Monsoon Mayhem, unearthing of more scams, the falling Indian rupee, the economy in the doldrums, the Indian cricket team being crowned the ICC Champion Trophy champion in its last edition, was probably the sole bright spot in the first 6 months of 2013.

The second half of 2013 promises much action with the unfolding of the ambitious WEB 2.0 by MyDestination.com. The launch of the monthly events of Udaipur Dopahar, the full launch of the travel handbook and taking our tie-up with Chetak Shopping to a completely new level in on the anvil.

The assembly elections in states like Rajasthan seem to be the big news from the political arena, upheavals withstanding, that will dominate the second half of the year.

The second phase of 2013, in a nut shell, promises much more than what the first half has delivered, which actually has been quite a forgetful phase for all of us.   

The Champions-Top 5 Failure to Success Stories!

In a movie of the Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan, "Baazigar" the main protagonist states that the person who wins after being defeated is actually the Champion. The cases in which people have been successful at the very first attempt, have been very few and far between. More often than none, people have been unsuccessful and gaining experience out of the 'unsuccess', have become success stories themselves.
Following is a list of 5 unsuccessful stories that transformed into grand successes-

1) Walt Disney- As a child I was more often than none on a diet of Walt Disney cartoons & animation movies and hence it was a real shocker for me to find out that not only Walt Disney was fired from his job citing that he lacked imagination, his first venture also went bankrupt. He persisted in what he believed and was able to create the empire that Walt Disney is today.

2) Albert Einstein- This genius was thought to be mentally handicapped by his teachers as he could not speak till he was four years and was hardly able to read till he was seven. That Einstein's brain has been preserved to study the reason for his immense intellect is a testimony to the scientific acumen of the man.

3) JK Rowling- Divorced, raising a single child, fired from her job as a secretary, not really the perfect recipe for the making of the Harry Potter blockbuster series. But Rowling was not only able to stem the tide but also take into her stride, the many rejections that her Harry Potter script faced at the hands of the many publishing houses where she went.

4) Mamata Banerjee- This diminutive first woman chief minister of the east Indian state of West Bengal was termed as a mad woman, rabble rouser with nuisance value by her many political opponents. She literally rose from the ashes to become one of the most powerful politicians in India today.

5) Team India- The Indian cricket team lost all their matches when they visited England, last year. This included a drubbing in a 4 match test series as well as losses in the ODI and T20 matches. This time, the Indian cricket team went to England with a vengeance. They did not loose a single match during the tour and the successful campaign culminated into India being crowned the Champions of the ICC Champions Trophy involving 8 cricketing nations. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose head the critics wanted before the start of the tour, has emerged stronger after this impressive performance. In fact, MSD became the first captain in the world to have won all types of International championships- T20, World Cup and now Champions Trophy besides leading team India to the number one position among the test playing nations.

What all members of Blue Caramel need to understand is that problems and failures are momentary and continuous. But beyond each failure, there lies the sweet taste of success for which we have to persevere. Thus Failure is the mother of Success!    
   

Nature's fury-Kedarnath, Rudraprayag and the destruction of the hills

In a previous post, I had written about nature's fury. A premonition or just a coincidence, the first two weeks of June has been witness to large scale destruction in the hills of Uttarakhand state of North India due to cloud bursts and resulting flash floods. Thousands of people were affected and property worth crores were destroyed in the wake of Mother Nature's ire.

The most affected places have been the Hindu pilgrimage centres of Rudraprayag and Kedarnath. Coincidentally, Rudra, as per ancient Hindu texts, is famed to be the Lord of Storms and the storm and early monsoon rains that lashed these places not only destroyed these places and affected its inhabitants but also cause panic, misery and fatalities among the lacs of devotees who had thronged these places.

Nearly, two weeks after the disaster struck, it is again the same menace that has been dogging the country for long. The politicians are squabbling to get maximum credit during this crisis as thousands still remain unaccounted for, presumably buried under the debris or washed away by the waters or even still waiting for help to arrive. The administration is on crutches and the unscrupulous businessmen, be it road side food/water vendors or high flying aviation companies, charging their pound of flesh from the people affected by the deluge.

The only people who seem to be actually carrying on their duty selflessly during this, are the personnel from the Indian armed forces. These people have been tirelessly carrying out rescue sorties, braving inhospitable weather and terrain in search of survivors and providing relief to them. As always, these silent warriors have again given their countrymen reasons to feel proud, in these distressing times.   

Ascent of Narendra Modi and while LK Advani steals the thunder!

The Goa convention of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) ended on 9th June amid high drama. The so called 'party with a difference' came out of the convention as a 'party with differences'. Narendra Modi, the chief minister and BJP strongman from Gujarat was made the chairman of the 2014 election strategy committee of BJP and he emerged as as a strong prime ministerial candidate. Many in the party rejoiced and many looked gloomy.

NaMo, Rajnath Singh, Advani

What ever said and done, love him or hate him, you cannot ignore Narendra Modi and his elevation brought fore the dissensions that simmered beneath the surface of the BJP. Though there were many a dissident murmurs and also large scale absenteeism at the National Executive conclave, real action began when the 85 year old BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani, as a protest to what he called divergent path that new BJP leadership had taken from the original ideology of BJP, resigned from all posts of BJP. Whether he perceived the GOA convention as a Go Out Advani convention or he really still thinks of himself as a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, one could not fathom out.

Narendra Modi / Nitesh Kumar

But what it did was, it stole Narendra Bhai Modi's thunder and stirred a hornet's nest. Janta Dal (United), a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of which BJP is the largest political party threatened to pull out of the 17 year old coalition alliance. Its leader, the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar seen as a messiah of the minorities, who also has bigger political ambitions and who is a known Narendra Modi opponent wants an immediate political divorce from the NDA, a move which might help him score a few political points over BJP and more importantly the Congress, among the minorities and enhance and consolidate the minority vote bank. Every political party is seeking to derive the maximum political mileage from the seeming commotion that has erupted on the Indian political scene.

I am in the process of writing an article on Maharana Pratap for mydestination.com/rajasthan and the political scene during that period in Rajputana was so similar with commotion reigning supreme as present day. But the difference was the emergence of a strong personality like Maharana Pratap which helped the state of Mewar in the longer run, as it reinforced the image and prestige of the state. Would anyone like him emerge from today's political hotch potch? Anybody's guess. Till then keep enjoying the theater of the absurd!!