The Chinese Incursion!

The week has been dominated by the news of numerous Chinese incursions into Indian territory in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector in Ladakh. The Chinese army penetrated 10 kms inside Indian territory and sent up camps and tents there. There were even reports of violation of Indian airspace by Chinese helicopters. India has once fought a very fateful war with the Chinese in 1962 and should have been better prepared but alas but not surprisingly, the situation seems to be the same. A case of history repeating itself!

George Washington once said the best way to ensure peace is to be prepared for war which in a nut shell means that one should always Be Prepared. If one is well prepared then the enemy would also think twice before indulging in any mis-adventure. In case of the present Indian government which has been fire-fighting on all fronts especially facing the wrath of the common as well as the opposition on its involvement in unprecedented number of scams of magnanimous proportions and mismanagement, devising a deterrent for the enemies of the state seems to have been the last priority; not that the previous regimes were any better.

Preparedness defense wise, the lesser said the better, so I will just concentrate on a socio-economic issue. The Indian side of the porous Indo-China border is still under developed and the villagers lead a life of unimaginable hardships in the inhospitable terrains. The Chinese side is a stark contrast. Tarred roads have been developed and the villages have become prosperous, thus creating a big divide which the common folks on the Indian side must definitely envy, alienating them more from mainland India.

If the decision makers of the country had thought a little about the country instead of only filling in their own coffers, then things would have been so much different, because by failing to plan, we have planned to fail. All members of Blue Caramel should always keep this in mind that it is always immaculate planning followed by quick execution which will reap dividends for us both personally  as well as professionally.

Happiness!!

Bhutan is a landlocked country in South Asia and a unique one at that. When all other countries measure their prosperity through indexes like GDP, this kingdom has an index which measures Happiness.
The Gross Domestic Happiness of Bhutan focuses on the general quality of life that the citizens live in this hilly country at the foothills of the Himalayas.

The infrastructure in the country is nothing to write home about and the citizens are deprived of many modern day amenities which we take for granted but still Bhutan has one of the highest number of happy citizens. The Bhutanese are hardworking, religious, close knit and peace loving. There are also one of the most contented lot of people on Earth. So, where does that lead us to??

In our day to day life, we continuously seek options to make our lives more and more comfortable. Today, we have a plethora of gizmos to choose fro and a range of things to indulge in but in this mad rush for a better future (materialistically) we are getting entangled in a present which is tension filled and making our and our close ones' life unhappy.


So, what needs to be done?? Probably trying to lead a simple life with the right mix of quality time both professional as well as personal, enjoying life's little joys like a walk with the loved ones and not getting too unduly perturbed about what others are doing or saying might be a start.
Easier said than done? Definitely but then getting Happiness in today's time is not Easy.....   

The Best Place to Live!

I had a very interesting discussion with a colleague about the best places to live in Rajasthan. While I told her that in my opinion it was Udaipur, she insisted that it was Jaipur. The idiom that there is no place like home did not hold good in this case as both of us call Udaipur our home. Then what makes us have divergent views on the same things?? In this case, as I thought more and analysed our discussion, it became quite clear to me that the "Best" has more to do with perceptions rather than the actual. Every place has its pros and cons but what actually is the differentiating factor?

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

 My colleague spent her time in Jaipur when she was in the city pursuing her studies for two years. She lived in a hostel and then in a PG accommodation, had to cope up with a meager flow of pocket money and travel great distances in heavy traffic. It gives ample indication that her life's comfort level took a turn for the worse when she moved from Udaipur to Jaipur. But she still considers Jaipur as the best place to live. Why?

City Palace, Udaipur

It was a time when she had no responsibilities. It was a time for carefree indulgences. It was time full of fun. It was a time in life when after leading a life of comforts  at home in Udaipur which she perceived as full of illogical "social restrictions", she encountered new found total freedom in a city which did not offer her the comforts that she had at home nor the sereneness and daintiness that her hometown offered. But her perceived freedom albeit without comforts easily outweighed her comfort filled life at home without perceived freedom.

So, all members of Blue Caramel, it must be remembered that our perceived discomfortness is more a creation of the mind than actual. True winners are those who conquer the mind over matter and it all boils down to perceptions. The Best Place is always the place you are in at a given point of time, all you need to do is to see the positives that you encounter and acknowledge them.

Easter

Today is Easter Sunday. But this Sunday which began on the wrong note when I was bitten by my neighbor's dog is indeed ending on a somber note as a very close friend of my father's suddenly died today. While in a deep reverie, I was just wondering about the resurrection of Jesus, the reason Easter is celebrated the world over, I could not but find symbolic similarities between Jesus's crucification and his resurrection.

What this incident as well as teachings of all other major religious scriptures from round the world teach us is that we should always follow the path of righteousness. Even if we face troubles while following this path,  we should consider them to be just temporary stumbling blocks that will lead us to be better persons.

We should always strive for attaining what we really believe in because only when we are totally convinced about something then only can we really look forward to it and go all out trying to attain it, like there is no tomorrow left. 

March through Mother Nature's lenses

Some of the gems that Mother Nature bestowed on us in the month of March.

A moment of divinity under a tree at the ancient Shrinath Temple, Ghasiyar

The beautiful World Peace Park, Mount Abu

The Setting Sun, Mount Abu

A painting of a Cowherd playing with a cow.

Practice what you preach!

From time immemorial, the easiest freely available thing in the world, would probably be Advise. Everybody seems to relish giving advise to everybody. The flow of advise is all pervasive. It is not partial to any caste, creed, sex, religion or any other demographic characteristics. It is free and abundant. 

I sincerely don't have any major aversion to people giving advises but then the advises should be such which the preachers of them too should be following. Examples of not practicing what one is preaching is galore in our day to day life. In the international arena, countries that are at the forefront of wars in certain part of world double up as messengers of peace in another. A country which expects other countries not to interfere in its internal matters, in turn shamelessly tries to intervene in the internal matters of another sovereign country citing its national political compulsions. At the national level, politicians that clamor the most for tough anti-corruption laws, anti-rape laws and the like, are usually the ones who try to dilute tough legislation at the time of enacting of the law. Regional Satraps who show themselves as the messiahs of the poor are usually the ones who exploit them the most. While a politician might be apt at giving great speeches about the development of the nation, the matter of fact is, he seldom sees beyond his own vote bank and his local level politics.

Even in our immediate surroundings, we routinely encounter people in our homes, social gatherings and offices, who preach great things but are just the opposite in their own lives. If religious saints preach about the benefits of austerity then they have no business in flaunting the riches that they have acquired in the name of religion. If an elder preaches about the benefits of leading a disciplined life, then he has no business in indulging in excesses be it related to food, drink or liefestyle. Similarly, if a person in a top position in a company expects others to subordinate their own self interests to the greater interest of the company, then he has no business to have expectations that his own self interests would be served by others in the company.

Chanakya's Gems of Life!

More than half of the month of March is gone and I am posting my first post of the month. The reasons are more health related than anything else. My allergy to pollen grains is back with a vengeance and I have been reeling "under the weather". Shinod and Himanshu are back from their shoots in Jodhpur where Santosh has been, at most, steady. The Oriental Palace Resort virtual shoot and video has been quite a hit. Kudos to Shinod for the same. We have made some progress in propagating Udaipur Dopahar's popularity in Udaipur. A tie-up with a leading bank for event based activities neared a climax but the actual inking of the agreement is still pending.

During the course of the aforesaid activities, I came in  touch with a doctor in Udaipur from whom I got hold of a very interesting book by the name of Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi. This book recollects incidents from the times of Maurya Emperor Chandra Gupta Maurya and that of his able adviser the wily Brahmin, Vishnu Gupta aka Kautilya popularly known as Chanakya.

In the following lines, I am quoting 10 gems that I encountered while reading the book credited to Chanakya but inspired from other sources.

1) Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead - Benjamin Franklin
2)I am a great believer of luck and find the harder I work the more I have of it- Thomas Jefferson
3) A hungry man is more interested in 4 sandwiches than 4 freedoms- Henry Cabot Lodge Jr
4) If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable- Louise D Brandeis
5) I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians- Charles de Gaulle.
6) Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed- Mao Tse Tung
7) The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese-Jon Hammond
8) Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but get you nowhere-Dorothy Galyean
9)  Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side-Claude McDonald
10) When choosing between 2 evils, always choose the one you haven't tried yet- Mae West.