Dilemma - Desi or Foreign

A post after a long long time,

When I set out on this trip, I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve, Apart from the stuff I get paid to do, I wanted to set out and quite exhaustively chart out my future in terms of things that I want to do, stuff I should continue to do and stuff I should give up albeit how much I love doing it.

One of the major considerations was to think about moving out of India. Every time I travel outside India, to a place like Singapore, KL, or the middle east I'm left pondering about what I'm doing in India. With major opportunities beckoning I still made a decision to stay in India.

But India has lately started draining me, big time. It seems to me that I have to do things that is beyond the law and way above my conscience if I have to survive in the big bad world. Another big factor that is draining me is the people and how they put themselves and their misplaced ego's above all other.

Today I write this post sitting in a hotel room in Bangkok just before I leave to the airport to return to India, I have a sinking feeling, and its hurting to be like that. I'm someone who always believed that one day if I woke up and needed motivation to continue to go to work, then it was time for me to quit. Today India is giving me that feeling.

My freedom seems to have gone, I seem to have to fight for something that is my right, and most times bribe to get it. Maybe cultures effect human behavior, Is our culture really based on jealousy and back stabbing? Is our culture really based on the frogs in the well? Why can't people put personal issues and work together for greater good? Why can't people stop thinking about themselves at the cost of many others? Why do all Of us choose I?

Deep down I don't want to get out of the country and city I love, and I hope against all odds I don't.. But this time I might have to put others before me.

I hope to post more often now... again hope is all I have..

Friends

Who are Friends?..Who are my friends??.. Who are my real friends??..

Recession

Need I say More

Colaba and me.......

I know there are people writing about terrorism and everything that happened in Mumbai everywhere, and I would not be any exception. Some of the writing I see came right from the heart of these authors, I believe they had a connection to the place we saw so gruesomely ravaged in Mumbai.

I had a connection too...my sundays in Mumbai was reserved for colaba, something that i would look forward to from the start of the week, it was as if i was going through the motions so that i could achieve my only goal of getting to colaba on sunday.

A sunday morning train from Andheri to town, the only time i would take trains to travel in the city followed by an english breakfast in Mondys ( for the uninitiated Cafe mondegar), Then wandering around Appolo Bunder and the gateway of India, sometimes taking a ferry to one of the nearby island attractions. I always used to be back in time for stea and beer at Cafe Leopold or Iranian spread at picadillys. Its not the food or the place that is special, but its the cherished times that makes that place special.

When I figured that I was going to leave Mumbai to move back to Bangalore, The stroll down Colaba causeway on that sunday was heartbreaking, My life was going to change and the Causeway in so many ways reflected and stood testimony to the life I had lived before that, when I took a taxi that day from the Juice shop opposite Leo's, I cried because I was leaving the real me behind.

Cheers to spirit of waking up every morning, jumping into a new challenge and conquering it every minute, mostly because no one has a choice in mumbai... but the most spectacular thing about this great city and its people is that everyone does it as if they love and adore what they are doing.

Every city grows on you, Mumbai had grown inside me......

GODS OWN COUNTRY, DOGS OWN CM....

V S Achuthanandan has managed to grab a lot of airtime in national news channels across India, Thanks to his insensitive comments about Maj. Sandeep Unnikrishnan and his family. While it has been a year of disgraceful comments by the octogenarian chief minister, I decided to explore another interesting article about VS.

The above cartoon — a monkey and two cats — appears on page 40 of the Kerala State Board Class V mathematics textbook.  

The Kerala Chief Minister is famous for his mannerisms. While he speaks, the Chief Minister spreads his hands to both sides in a peculiar way. Many cartoonists and mimicry artists have made this style famous. Now the VS style has found way into the State’s textbooks too.  In addition to its gestures, the monkey’s face too resembles Achuthanandan, people point out. They say one cannot miss the similarities between the monkey cartoon and the usual Achuthanandan caricatures appearing in newspapers.

See the Irony, Wonder how the cats got there and not the dogs.  

I hope Keralites have had a wave of sense flow into their heads, See my language connected brethren, this happens when you elect a chief minister who made a name for himself in state politics by planting, strategising and executing bomb throwing sessions on the by lanes of Kannur with a dubious honour of having studied till the 4th Std.  

GODS OWN COUNTRY, DOGS OWN CM....

Media Houses -

I'm not very sure how correct this information is, but food for thought .....

Who owns the media in India?

Recent Gujarat election have witnessed unaccountable money paid to media persons of  both, print and electronic by Saudi Arabia to discredit Modi and the Hindutva forces, which Media did very faithfully without success.

There are several major publishing groups in India, the  most prominent among them being the Times of India Group, the Indian Express Group, the Hindustan Times Group, The Hindu group, the Anandabazar PatrikaGroup, the Eenadu Group, the Malayalam Manorama Group, the Mathrubhumi group, the Sahara group, theBhaskar group, and the Dainik Jagran group.

 Let us see the ownership of different media agencies.

 NDTV: 

A very popular TV news media is funded by Gospels of Charity in Spain Supports Communism. Recently it has developed a soft corner towards Pakistan because Pakistan President has allowed only this channel to be aired in  Pakistan. Indian CEO Prannoy Roy is co-brother of Prakash  Karat, General Secretary of the Communist party of India. His wife and Brinda Karat are sisters.

India Today which used to be the only national weekly which supported BJP is now bought by NDTV, Since then the tone has changed20drastically and turned into Hindu bashing.

CNN-IBN:

This is 100 percent funded by Southern Baptist Church with its branches in all over the world with HQ in US. The Church annually allocates $800 million for promotion of its channel. Its Indian head isRajdeep Sardesai and his wife Sagarika Ghosh. Times group lis Times Of India, Mid-Day, Nav-Bharth Times, Stardust, Femina, Vijay Times, Vijaya Karnataka, Times now (24- hours news channel) and Times Group is owned by Bennet & Coleman. 'World Christian Council¢ does 80 percent of the Funding, and an Englishman and an Italian equally share balance 20 percent. The Italian Robertio Mindo is a close relative of Sonia Gandhi.

Star TV:

It is run by an Australian, who is supported by St. Peters Pontifical Church Melbourne.

Hindustan Times:

Owned by Birla Group, but hands have changed since Shobana Bhartiya took over. Presently it is working in Collaboration with Times Group.

The Hindu:

English daily, started over 125 years has been recently taken over by Joshua Society, Berne , Switzerland . N. Ram's wife is a Swiss national.

Indian Express:

Divided into two groups. The Indian Express and new Indian Express (southern edition) ACTS Christian Ministri es have major stake in the Indian Express and latter

 is still with the Indian counterpart.

Eeenadu:

Still to date controlled by an Indian named Ramoji Rao. Ramoji Rao is connected with film industry and owns a huge studio in Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Jyothi:

The Muslim party of Hyderabad known as MIM  along with a Congress Minister has purchased this Telugu daily very recently.

The Statesman:

It is controlled by Communist Party of India.

Kairali TV:

It is controlled by Communist party of India (Marxist)

Mathrubhoomi:

Leaders of Muslim League and Communist leaders have major investment. 

Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle:

Is owned by a Saudi Arabian Company with its chief Editor M.J. Akbar. Gujarat riots which took place in 2002 where Hindus were burnt alive,

Rajdeep Sardesai and Bharkha Dutt working for NDTV at that time got around 5 Million Dollars from Saudi Arabia to cover only Muslim victims, which they did very faithfully. Not a single Hindu family was interviewed or shown on TV who's  near and dear ones had been burnt alive, it is reported. Tarun Tejpal of  Tehelka.com regularly gets blankcheques from Arab countries to target BJP and Hindus only, it is said.

I would not believe all of it, looks like a congress bashing article, but there can not be smoke without fire..... 

Chennai - Stole my heart through my stomach...

My dad always says, Take anything people give you with love.. It can not cause harm.. and as an example he cites my mother... he says nothing she gives , even if it is stale food can give you a bad stomach b'coz it come with Love and lotz of it.

This has stayed with me all my life... through my travels, through my time in other cities and every time those words are acted out to perfection in front of my own eyes.

I've lived in Mumbai, There people feed you.. coz they have to .. coz they need the money.....My thoughts go back to my time in Chennai.... I was scared to go..coz i had heard so much about it... about the heat... about the people.... but now... I love tat place...

If the saying ' the way to a man heart is through his stomach is true' : Chennai definitely took the high road into my heart..

I stayed at my friends place for my first few months in Chennai..... the aunty who came in every nite to make sambar ( different flavors I have to say : Each one incredibly tasty and unique) , Rasam and rice….. Left a taste in my mouth tat still sends a smile on my face… It din’t take long for me to understand her love… she used to religiously turn up every morning and evening to make tea and breakfast and dinner for us… she needed the money too… but she did it coz she loved us…. I met my friend recently and when I enquired about the lady.. he told me that she had cried when they had decided to move houses..

Archana my colleague at work…. My god the Thakkali saadam (tomato rice) her mum and a lot of times she used to make…all of us at work loved it…… I used to enjoy the binge…. Thankz lady if u ever read this..

Even the Rs.20 meals at Ambika woodlands at Alwarpet, I have to confess I used to wait for Saturday afternoons to have lunch there…. And to do just tat I had to lie my way out of a lot of meetings on Saturday afternoons… Anyway Who would have meetings on Saturday afternoons…Get a life…. I want to eat Ambika Woodlands…

Every little food I eat in Chennai has left itz mark on me… from archana’s( not my colleague, the place in nungambakkam)..nd archana’s thakkali saadam… to cascade’s Chinese fare.. to the meals at ambika woodlands… I loved it all…. And all during tat time I had Ghosh babu for company,,,

I miss tat life……. I want it back….