CHASING THE ELUSIVE : FAME

Every one wants to become famous. Every one is chasing fame. A very few become famous and the rest keep cursing their luck.

But is it really about luck ?

Let's name few people who achieved fame.

1. Dr. Amartya Sen

2. Warren Buffet

3. Leonardo De Caprio

4. Tom Cruise

5. Shah Rukh Khan

6. Clive Lloyd 

7. Rahul Dravid

8. Roger Federer

9. Usain Bolt

10. Richard Attenborough

One thing which is common among all of them is specific skill set.

So rather dwelling on luck factor, it would be pertinent if a person pursues the path of cultivating skill set which is uncommon. Subsequently he must search for a forum where he can demonstrate his skills which if are uncommon enough, can take him under limelight. From there on he should capitalize upon and one thing will lead to another thing and ultimately he will become cynosure of all eyes.

The Excursionist

The serenity of mountains and calmness of sea can't be juxtaposed. The life has gone by dealing with an ambiguity of which of these two is better and is still striving to figure out which one is better.

Oh God, this ambiguity is precious... It persuades me to explore both of them repeatedly, only to discover new experiences and panoramas. I want to spend my entire life experiencing     every bit of this ambiguity. Just let this enigma last till my last breath. I want to take it along with me when I leave this beautiful world.

5 DECEMBER 2012 : The best day of my life

First interview is always special. One is completely oblivious of the entire process and by the virtue of this very fact, one rigorously prepares for it and tries various maneuverings so as to ensure that he emerges successful at the end. We all have been through this and have experienced every bit of it. Following is the narration of first ever interview that I faced and emerged successful.

DECEMBER 2012

The weather had started getting colder. The 5th semester was heading towards its last phase. This time university scheduled our practicals before theory exams, a case of aberration since theory exams had always preceded practicals throughout the course. This move of the university that apparently looked  peculiar to the students was in fact a fairly right step in my opinion. Anyway, it was the third day of  first week of  December when we were intimated by a representative of placement office about  pool campus drive of UES-23 ( UES - UNIVERSITY ENTRY SCHEME ) to be conducted by Indian Army on 5th December, 2012. This bombshell news was notified to applicants of my branch and to me particularly in the computer lab at a time when I was fumbling with Design & Analysis of Algorithm's book whose viva, I was supposed to give in following 5 minutes ! Just after the information regarding scheduled campus drive was notified I along with my friends got into intense baat-cheet (discussion) regarding the evaluation process, attire, etiquette and blah-blah... For a minute or so I literally forgot about the dreaded viva that was supposed to occur anytime now. Anyway, I had a good viva as it was not that vicious as I anticipated.

5 DECEMBER 2012

The big day had arrived. Nah...Nah... No dignitary was coming from Downing Street. But today was as big to me as 26 January is to Republic of India. I had filled the form of UES-23 in September, in the same year and since then till  December I was constantly doing little preparation for the same. I had interacted with Dean Academics and he had given me a clear message to exploit every opportunity that comes as placement prospects were looking shabby and he had also given enough indication of no resourceful organization coming to campus and future campus drives culminating with just  TCS and other small Noida based IT companies. Alarmed by his response I had started preparing for UES-23 despite the fact that  I was not unprecedentedly crazy of  Defense Services, although I have always found them dynamic and appealing from my childhood days as My maternal uncle has been working in 510 Army Base, Meerut Cantt and  my mother is herself a native of Meerut Cantt, means I had been to cantonment numerous times since childhood and had a huge exposure and influence of cantonment lifestyle.

Earlier, I had done a rigorous preparation for the evaluation process. The scale of preparation was so dramatic  that sometimes  I had to coax my classmates to execute mass bunk after lunch so that I could gather some of the illuminated minds along with my close friends for a group discussion on burning topics. I had also prompted my class peers for open discussions on burning financial topics during Engineering & Managerial Economics lectures in which I got full support from both classmates and Lec. Mrinal Verma. I had also raked critical topics during the classes of  Human Values & Professional Ethics  and had also delivered one lecturatte. So overall, I had done a reasonable preparation and now everything came down to converting preparation into performance, today.

MORNING

Keeping in mind the nature of evaluation procedure and moreover the fact that entire procedure was being officiated by Army Officers I dressed in one of  the most exemplary attire. Wearing silky green neck tie over a dark sky blue shirt and laden with official blue coat, I was experiencing the essence of my own physical appearance for the first time ever in my life. Needless to say, unlike always, every eyeball in the college was transfixed upon me when I reached there.

Anyway, Additional Directorate General of Recruiting New Delhi had shortlisted my college for conducting pool campus drive in Ghaziabad as maximum numbers of applicants (259) were from my institute. The evaluation procedure consisting of Group Discussion and Personality Assessment Test (Personal Interview) was to be held twice; on 5th Dec for home candidates  & on 6th Dec for the outsiders. 

Our Soft Skills Trainer Mrs Pooja Rohtagi directed all the candidates to the auditorium in administrative building. The atmosphere was very formal. The entire  Training & Placement office (TPO) was also gathered over there. Much before the arrival of Army Officers our TPO representatives started the procedure by distributing the application forms to the candidates that we had submitted earlier. I didn't received my  application form .After some inquiry and searching  I got my form. Some chap had kept two application forms with him. Hey dude, only single candidature is allowed.

As we were going through our forms suddenly Komal Mehrotra, a TPO representative, asked a question -

" Who is the chief of Indian Army ? "

The entire auditorium echoed - "General Bikram Singh"

Mr. Mehrotra mocked - " That's it ?"

The auditorium went clueless. Without wasting a second I stood up and replied with sheer authority - " General Bikram Singh PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM is the Chief of Army Staff. He succeeded General V.K Singh who retired on 31st May,2012". 

Quite impressed with my authoritative tone and attire, soft skill trainer Mrs Puja Rohtagi   replied - "You are already looking like an Army officer !". I acknowledged her and sat down.

Very soon three Army Officers sauntered into the auditorium and occupied the stage. One was Colonel while other two were Lieutenant Colonel.One of the Lt Col assumed podium and gave a briefing. He told us about the structure of the organization, 1 year ante-date seniority in service, salary, perks and allowances,  rank promotion, prospects of higher studies in abroad and overall life.He also categorically stated that India Army is not a career avenue but a way of life. At last we were showed a video augmented with a heart thumping background music, depicting , life in Indian Army full of honour, adventure,valor, resourcefulness. Boy, it was a brilliant video and sadly I haven't been able to find this video on the internet.

The evaluation procedure got underway. Around 14 groups were formed with each group consisting of 15 candidates. I was allotted the last group. Group discussions were conducted at tandem in  Director's office room in administrative building itself. The turn of my group came in the very last, eventually. I created a chance and managed to enter into the room first. The chairs were arranged in semi-circular fashion and all the three officers were sitting across the desk kept at some distance. I stood in the front of middle seat owing to its strategic nature. As all the candidates got in Colonel asked us to take the respective seat. He casually asked us on what topic we shall have a discussion (in manner of saying). I ( in light mood ) deliberated with the entire group, arrived at a consensus and came with a topic - Relevance of FDI. He sarcastically replied us of surely  having a discussion afterwards. Then  finally he gave us the topic of Group discussion - Concept of Corruption and Judicial Accountability. Unleashing an assertive tone I initiated the discussion and put forth pertinent points. Quite soon as I expected everyone started shouting and the discussion turned into a fish market ( "Bloody MTV Roadies Brats" I tell you ).I realized that my group was going nowhere and going with a probability of entire group getting rejected I intervened and asked the candidates to put forth their points one by one and luckily discussion came back on track. Suddenly the unprecedented happened. My cellphone rang during the discussion . Bloody shit, I forgot to switch off the phone ! Everybody was staring at me. I instantly switched off my phone and got back to the discussion. I spoke 3 to 4 times and raised really good points. The discussion went for around 15 minutes after which we asked to leave the room. Before leaving the room I tendered sincere apology to the officers . Thanks to the generosity of  Lt Col he didn't took it as a offense and replied - "No problem. These small things don't bother us." I left the room and came back to the auditorium. A volunteer came to auditorium and informed us that the announcement of  names of candidates shortlisted  for the Personality Assessment Test will be done after lunch. " Very well .... Let's go to cafeteria ". I murmured.

NOON

I went to the cafeteria to have a lunch. My friends have had their lunch some time back as their GD had finished earlier. I was alone in the cafeteria having egg-rice while my peers went back to the auditorium. I was in middle of my lunch when one of my friend called me over the cellphone and told me that officers have done the evaluation and are announcing the names of candidates shortlisted for the interview. Alarmed by the information I gulped 3-4 spoons of meal quickly, left the rest and rushed to the auditorium.I had hardly reached the first floor when I saw crowd of rejected candidates coming back. Damn, I couldn't hear the results. One of the gentleman in the crowd told me that I have made through. Still, I rushed to the auditorium where I caught hold of my friend who told me that just 14 candidates have been short-listed and I am one of them. He went on further and told me that the name of last shortlisted candidate (which was me) was announced with great deal of drama. Unable to control my curiosity, I demanded more explanation from him when he told me that after announcing the names of 13 candidates Lt Col took a bit more amount of time by getting rest of the candidates to their nerves.Lt Col played with the nerves of the candidates by hallowing -

" And  . . . the last one is . . . . . . "

Every candidate apart from 13 had their heart in the mouth. Each of them were anxious and were praying to almighty to get their own name spell out. 

 " . . . the last one is . . . . . SIDDHARTH YADAV ! " .

Pheww. The candidates apart from those 13 shook their heads in disbelief. I wonder they all  would had been be thinking about who the hell is Siddharth. My dear mate, a creature who is running fiercely towards the administrative building and is en-route to auditorium as you  listen to the result is Siddharth. 

EVENING

So 14 candidates were shortlisted for the personal interview. I was given serial number 14 i.e the last one. Interviews started at around 15:20 hours and were officiated by the interview board consisting of all the three officers and were held in Director's office room only. The interviews went on at tandem.My turn came at  around 17:00 hours. A bell rang to convey that my turn has come. I entered the room and spotted a chair placed some 3 metres away from the table. The Colonel was  sitting on the left ,  Lt Colonel who gave briefing in the morning was sitting at the center along with my application form in his hand and another Lt Colonel wearing specks ( his name was Sukhwinder Chahal which I came to know later) was sitting at the right  and was having a sort of score-sheet containing rows and columns with  rows being filled with unique fields. " So the right guy will do my evaluation." I told myself internally .

I greeted the officer sitting in the middle politely and he directed me to take the seat. Then started the interview. Firstly he asked me a customary question of giving the introduction.Then he came to educational and family background and inquired every bit about it.I gave the answers in totality with great clarity. Before he could ask anything else the guy (with specks) who was doing the evaluation suddenly asked me - 

Lt Col Sukhwinder Chahal  : " Who is Xi Jinping ? "

Me : Sir he is the newly elected president of People's Republic of China. He has been preceded by  ... a ...Wen Jiabao   or . . . Hu Jintao may be. I am not sure who is the President between these two.

Lt Col Sukhwinder Chahal  : (while writing on the scoresheet) ...Hmmm . . . OKAY.

Meanwhile the guy sitting at the centre continued. He came to the  most critical question. He interrogated me - "Why do you want to join Indian Army and not any other profession ?" I had fabricated a realistic answer during my preparation and gave the answer in totality as it is. The interview went on. Boy, I was enjoying every bit of it. The next question was about my hobbies. I told them I like reading, blogging, outing & photography. Leave the entire world aside, they decided to take me on  blogging. Again, center guy asked me to tell something about last article that I wrote.I articulated everything about my then last article "Luck in Favour".  

Here Colonel who was silent till now swung into action asked me about blog's URL. I told him. He opened it instantly on his mobile started scrolling it to find out what all I have written. He also briefly asked questions about foreign direct investment, food security regarding which I had jotted down in my blog. I answered him perfectly. Close to 20 minutes had been elapsed by now. Finally Lt Col Sukhwinder Chahal asked me to go. Interview was over, now it was turn for final results.


The result was declared around 17:30 hrs. We, all the 14 candidates were waiting outside. Lt Col (with specks) who did the evaluation came out of the room and announced the name of  7 candidates who were recommended for the Service Selection Board. While he was announcing the result I observed his olive green uniform and noticed that his name was Sukhwinder Chahal. He spelled out the names of  7 candidates in the serial order and finally finished the day by spelling out the name of 14th candidate...

 
. . . .and  Siddharth Yadav . . . . . .

Lt Col. Sukhwinder Chahal

The process was over. I went berserk. I had finally succeeded. The adrenaline was getting into my head. I was ecstatic. I was feeling exhilarated. I wanted to run all throughout the college. I wanted to scream in jubilation after clearing  first  interview  of  my life. And I did !     I came running slowly outside the administrative building in the lawn in front of cafeteria. My face, elated and exuding the confidence, captured the attention of every one out there.Before anybody could understand what has happened to this guy laden with official blue coat, I loosened my neck tie a bit and took a giant leap in the air with the fist pointing towards the sky and roared in jubilation, loud enough to unease anybody standing near applied sciences & humanities department 100 meters far from me. 


Thereafter I had one Pepsi. I also informed my parents about the just-achieved success who were, then , en-route to Meerut to attend a wedding . I was also suppose to go to Meerut, they were to pick me from the college itself as it is situated at the Meerut Road, to be a part of wedding party but couldn't go for obvious reason. So what . . .? I straightaway headed to Bikanerwala restaurent, Ambedkar Road, Ghaziabad and celebrated like hell. Oh God.....I want to live 5 December, 2012 again and again. Below is the status that I posted on facebook to share my emotions with my friends.

You certainly must be thinking what is so special about this interview. Well, in 2010 I gave many engineering entrance exams after rigorous preparation. I am a creative person and engineering is not my forte but still I prepared with full gusto but only to get disappointed. Though I cleared some entrance exams but those were never enough to fulfill the aspirations of my parents who were swayed by faulty societal notions of seeing there son becoming only engineer. 

This interview turned out to be a inflection point in my life and transformed my perspective. This interview enabled me to attend Service Selection Board (SSB) Allahabad  which helped me immensely to explore different aspects of my personality. There is hardly any avenue in India where you will get a chance to introspect yourself, know about your hidden traits, strengths and weaknesses. SSB helped me to figure out what career avenues (along with armed forces) are most suitable for me and I reckon this is the most critical thing for any individual. 

Thank You Sukhwinder Chahal Sir. Thank You very much.

Wish you a happy 2014 ending. 

( You may find this article over-rated but I believe all those things that happen to be the FIRST ONE'S are just priceless. )

India is Modi, Modi is India . . . ?

As I sit down to write this Republic of India has got Shri Narendra D. Modi as its 15th premier. The people of the country gave a resounding mandate to Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) by choosing BJP as its electoral choice. The country this time witnessed what I call as watershed elections where people transcended above the casteist  notions and voted with a resolve to weed out menace of corruption and propel economic growth. Thanks to Anna Hazare's anti-corruption campaign in 2011 and emergence of Aam Aadmi Party both of which spread the electoral awareness across the length and breadth of country, 66% of the population poured into the voting booths to exercise their electoral franchise. High turnaround can also be attributed to desperate youth that constituted reasonable chunk of voters and voted for CHANGE both social and economic.

No need to tell expectations of people from Modi government are immense. In fact quantum of expectations from Narendra Modi is much more greater than the expectations people  had with Sachin Tendulkar when he was invariably under the scanner for his 100th century. People have literally gone crazy of Narendra Modi. The truncated phrase 'Namo'  reverberated in the ears of electorate during the election campaign. Now Narendra Modi being elected as a prime minister, his government will be in direct confrontation with number of challenges including revival of economic growth, policy paralysis and rampant corruption. BJP was screaming hoarse about Congress of its inability to propel growth when latter was in power. Now power being transfeered to BJP, it would be interesting to see whether BJP is a case of relevance or superficiality. If BJP proves itself to be a case of relevance then Shri Narendra Modi will surely get a second chance in 2019 to serve the nation. However in the opposite case, with greatest of respect I would like to remind BJP's brass -

" Janta Tumhe Maaf Nahi Karegi . . . ! "

Why he cannot have food ?

14 June 2013 | Friday
17:00 Hrs | B1, Shalimar Express

Today was my birthday and I was going to Jammu. I had completed 22 years of my life at 16:49  today and exactly at this time I was sitting in Shalimar Express that was passing from near the City Hospital & Nursing home, Ashok Nagar (residential area in Ghaziabad) where I was born in 1991. Incidentally, 2013 is  exactly similar to 1991 calender wise. I was supposed  to reach Jammu next morning as it was quite a long distance. My maternal relatives  boarded the train at Meerut Cantt. I was hoping for an eventful journey. First event unfolded in the bogie itself. I came across the most prettiest girl I have ever seen in my life and I would like to confess that I was charmed by her girlish behaviour  and shy smile. Looking so exquisite in black colour top & light brown hued cargo pant and hairs left opened looking so immaculate, she was a kind of girl whom I would like to take to meet my parents. Anyway I haven't written this article to tell you this. It was the next event that prompted me to write this article.

20:05 Hrs | Platform No. 5, Saharanpur Jn

It had been three & half hours approximately since I boarded the train at Ghaziabad Jn. The train had reached Saharanpur Jn and my body got sort of immobile due to sitting in the cool AC bogie for 3 hours. As the train reached at Saharanpur Jn I got out of the bogie and moved my eyeballs to locate any book stall. Fortunately I saw a large bookstall near my bogie only. Magazine and Music (MM) is something without which I cannot sustain. I purchased one recent India Today magazine whose cover page was highlighting the title" Untold story of Mahatma Gandhi and Madhuben" as well as background photo of both of them. I paid fifty rupees to the bookstall owner and he had  just returned me the balance fifteen rupees when suddenly somebody from behind pulled the corner of my shirt. I turned back to check who it was. There was a boy approximately 14 years old wearing cloths laden with dirt and foul smell who was asking me to give him some money so that he can buy some food as he was extremely  hungry. "This is the state  of poor people in India", I muttered. I gave him ten rupees & also asked him about his family . He told me his family is being look after by his father who is a labour.

Pluralistic and contemporary India characterized by rich and poor. Really embarrassing.

Meanwhile, I came back  to my berth. Notwithstanding the level of  mercury was high outside,  it was soothingly cold and comfortable inside. I opened the flap of the  magazine  plastic  cover and took it out to read. I flipped the pages arbitrarily and stopped at one page where there was a news printed that  actor Abir Goswami has died due to cardiac  arrest which somewhat saddened me. I was watching the movie Lakshya for quite some time repeatedly (since last 6 months as I had cleared UES-23 and was recommended to appear in SSB where if succeeded I will land in IMA, Dehradun ) . Anyway, commiserations for sad demise of Abir. Meanwhile the dinner arrived. My mother handed me the thali laden with chapattis, daal, mixed subzi, curd and ice-cream. Every item tasted awful except ice-cream. Indian Railways should really do something to address this basic problem of insipid meal let aside the modernization of whole railway network. Since the meal was flavorless I only ate partially and left the rest. 

I came to wash-basin to wash my hands. After washing the hands I came to the door,  wiping off my hands with  handkerchief. The train had just started to move. I was looking in the direction  of train's movement when suddenly I heard the sound of somebody crying from behind. I turned my head and saw the copious tears in eyes of that kid whom I met just 5 minutes ago. I loudly asked him the reason why he was crying when he told me someone had ferociously slapped him when he had stepped into the following bogie B2  for a beg. Train was speeding up. I spoke loudly to pacify him and told him to take admission in some government school where he can seek free education. The train had started gaining the speed by now and platform was left behind after another half a minute. Train  had  acquired  considerable speed  by  now  and was switching from one track to the another. Rattling noise of railway tracks was all that I could hear and  reflection of lights from  sodium lamps off the railway track was all that I could see. I closed the door and came inside the chamber. I didn't anticipated this kind of eventful journey.

Is it poverty which inhibits these marginalized and downtrodden people  from getting access to education or is it due to lack of education that poverty is prevailing in the Indian society ? 

A tough question indeed. Since this is a profoundly a matter of serious concern  now the question  arises how to address this concern. Is formulation of some legislation and its subsequent enactment is sufficient ? Is there any assurance regarding the enacted legislation being implemented at the grass root level. Well until this inconsistency persists the duo poverty-illiteracy will continue to co-exist and along with them its implications. Here the word implication is very deep and ranges from illiteracy, hunger, unemployment, malnutrition,  insanitation to  poor standard of living. There are number of schemes and programmes initiated by the Union Government to tackle all these menaces and when the things appear to fall in place the notorious corruption enters into the picture and corrodes the semantics of welfare schemes that were conceived after much deliberation. Embezzlement of public funds by the corrupt politicians  has always been the recurrent theme in the public welfare programmes. A holistic and integrated approach which would put forth public interest as supreme is need of the hour to address this menace particularly. Not to forget in the country like India  where burgeoning population has been the root cause of all the problems  nothing will materialize until this is controlled. For this to happen there is an utter need for creating awareness among the masses and this is not a new phrase that I am writing here but for some reason this burgeoning  population is reluctant to become stagnant let alone dip.   

Education System : It's comprehensive overhaul is need of the hour

The lack of professionalism in the education system of India since last seven years is profoundly a matter of serious concern.The drawbacks witnessed by our education system especially in the last  half decade are immense. Salient  fields  such  as engineering and medical have failed miserably and their performance has been completely lacklustre. We have infrastructure to fill up thousands of  students but the sophisticated and intellectual faculties who have the deep element of professionalism are missing terribly. Pick any educational institution and there would be fewest ones who have the capability to synergize theoretical knowledge with practical orientation. Has teaching really become a nine hours job ? The question surely needs to be answered.

The quality of good workmanship in the educationists of today has vanished. Most of them are only busy in completing the prescribed syllabus by the board no matter if the students are able to grasp the concept properly. Endeavors are half-hearted. Interaction between the teacher and student is reducing due to the widening of communication gap. It is a fact that student will not understand everything taught in the class but teachers are applying half-hearted effort to help students to comprehend the subjects. Such kind of loose attitude only aggravates the misery of the students.The direct consequence is that student put  the core fundamentals of the subject aside and lay emphasis upon the coverage of the whole syllabus through rattafication and ultimately the only implication that surfaces is disappearance of practicality.

The purpose of the education is to discover the talent of an individual and nurture it in an optimal manner. Moulding has to be prevented which we mostly observe in our system. Practicality and relevance are the key elements that has to be ensured. Educationist's should instill some kind of energy in the system by connecting class theory with real-life examples.Personality, moral and ethical lessons needs to be introduced. A comprehen- sive overhaul of the system is the need of the hour.

 Prepare a student to how to face life not exams !      

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpc-jGZkbAk

Luck in Favour !

    If you are a luck oriented person, I guarantee you will never succeed.The basic truth is that luck  favours only those people who are hardworking, who put all their focus on the sheer hardwork and never think about what part their fate would play.

I have came across so many peoples in my life who are dependent on the luck.They often told me the following things when I asked them how they are going to deal with/achieve their goal -

1)  I will try .
2)  I will see if these particular method works or not.
3)  I have nothing to loose.
4)  I would try for experience.
5)  Anyway, I haven't tried enough but I will see if there is something.

If any individual thinks in this manner then he all set to face the failure because in this sort of mind framework he lacks self - confidence, focus and determination. In this situation how can the fate play the fair game ?

Individuals dependent upon the fate does not taste success rather they experience heart breaking failures. Success  comes to those who possess sound mentality and 'never-die' attitude.  Only these kind of people succeed in achieving the elusive. There are only few peoples who have the capability to  pursue their aim right till the end, they never give up before they actually realize their dream and ultimately they are only ones who taste the success. .

There is only one way to get rid of fatalism is to accept your responsibilities and rather than believing upon the fate, obey the principle of Cause and Result.Try to ascertain the cause of mistake that led to your downfall and work upon it sincerely & wholeheartedly. Any kind of goal  that you perceive in your life doesn't comes only on the account of liking, thinking and waiting. It is only realized when you evince commitment, consistency, smart thinking and proper planning.

Luck will favour only if there is nice tuning between preparation & the availed opportunity. Without sincere efforts and  absolute preparation, LUCK FAVOUR is damn impossible. Prayers will be accepted  if enormous courage and sheer commitment has been shown by the person  towards his goal . So don't waste your time while being sitting and waiting for the good-luck to happen,  rather strive hard to make your endeavours pure enough so as to date with the resounding success.  

 Have only one quote regarding your aim - " It is mine and I will have it ! "

Date with Terrorism

Saturday,13 September 2008

Serial Blasts in New Delhi

18:45 hrs

I was at the FIITJEE, New Delhi. Chemistry class  of Chemical Kinetics was going on and Pramod Sir was teaching about the  mechanism of radioactivity in the class.He was telling about the nuclear fission process when suddenly the cellphone of my friend Ankit Johri rang.He was reluctant to take the call but  accepted it however . I was looking at the Pramod Sir who was writing at the blackboard about the theory of nuclear fission . Suddenly Ankit remarked- "Barahkhamba Road,Connaught Place , Karol Bagh aur Greater Kailash mein serial bomb blast hue hain.".I promptly responded "Kya ? " .He replied "Haan , Papa ne abhi phone par bataya.Kuch aur bomb India Gate aur Regal Cinema ke bahar difuse kiye gaye hain.". I completely went shocked  and trembling. I recalled my father had went to the guest house at Khel Gaon ,Hauz Khas for a meeting with the officials.A thought swaying my brain,I instantly picked out my cellphone from my pocket and dialled my father's cellphone.But what is this.A computer voice on the other side sounded- " This number is temporarily out of service.Please try later."I tried again,it sounded the same.Upto now Ankit has had spread the news about the serial bomb blast in the whole class which created an intense speculation.Pramod Sir went outside probably to inform the other faculties about the blast.Class was set in abeyance. 'Bomb Kinetics' had shown its chemical effect.

I was fumbling with my mobile phone.I was not able to establish connection with my father's cellphone.Even after 'numerous' repeated attempts I was unable to make a connection with my father. Suddenly Ankit voiced in hectic tone most probably to himself-"Abe yaar mummy ka mobile phone  nahi lag raha.Temporary out of  service bata raha hai".I instantly voiced to him"Haan mere papa ka mobile phone bhi nahi lag raha !" . Suddenly Keshav my classmate sitting on the front seat shouted in a loud voice- "Saare mobile networks crash kar gaye hain blast ki wajah se." 

19:00 hrs
Pramod Sir stormed into the classroom along with the centre head academics.Head told us that he has got message that DTC bus service on our route has been drawn to abeyance  because of the serial blasts. All the students can return to their home because you won't probably see any bus commuting after half an hour or so. Class are suspended for today.I hurriedly pumped my study packages and  registers into the bag ,came outside the  coaching institute building and hurried to the bus stop.After waiting for 20 minutes at the bus stop DTC bus of  Shivaji Stadium-ALT Ghaziabad route finally arrived though but heavily overcrowded.After lots of hustle and tustle I managed to get into the bus carrier.There were so much poeples inside the bus that I almost got crushed .Somehow I got to reach the conductor and asked him to give the ticket upto Kavi Nagar Ghaziabad.But he declined to give the ticket and replied-"Aaj gaadi sirf  Anand Vihar ISBT tak hi jaegi".I responded "Kya ?".He replied "Haan".I voiced in a sad tone to myself rather than to him"Abe yaar".

I got off outside the Anand Vihar ISBT and walked to a bus stop at Pacific Mall, Ghaziabad.Pacific Mall is situated at the Delhi-Uttar Pradeh border.There was a bizarre scene at the bus stop.There was not just an overcrowd one may assert,but a scene that could be seen at a refugee camp.There was hundreds of thousands of  people and I was so much perplexed over the thought that how would I be able to reach the home now.Misfortune was bestowed upon me when the private bus arrived after 45 minutes and spoilt commuters got into it before it halted and bus got completely filled before it actually stopped.After it stopped everyone rushed towards the bus as if there is none after that.There was so much overcrowd at the entrance gate of the bus.Ladies were screaming badly and the little kids were crying because of wild hustle and tussle in the heavy over crowd.I preferred not to board the carrier after seeing so much heavy overcrowd. Suddenly I saw silver coloured Santro Xing with my car  number..."Oh.. it's mine! It's Papa in the car !"I exclaimed and felt so much zealous and relaxed after seeing him.I ran towards the car and got inside it  impetuously.I kept tuned to the different radio channels in the car's stereo to get the updates of the blasts.Radiocity,Big 92.7 FM, Red FM, Radio One, Radio Mirchi and All India Radio all were shouting of high alert declared in the national capital .Helpline numbers were being circulated through radio.Various inferences were being figured out from the terrorist activity.Listening all the stuff on the radio I reached home around 10:15 P.M.

IPL - The breeding ground of NONSENSE ?

Indian Premier League or DLF IPL rather as they call  it  is  a brilliant  idea  which has  caught the imagination of everyone and greatly benefited the cricketers is sinking into the morass of shame and scandal.An innovative venture which enormously helped India to lift the World Cup after 28 long years has found itself  mired  in  sleaze and corruption because  of   the    nonsensicality   of  celebrities , indiscipline of players and governing council's weak regulatory framework. Financial irregularities have become a recurrent theme and cricket is hardly any primary activity in the gigantic showbiz.IPL is turning out to be next SHARJAH where sordid saga of betting market is clouding.There is a strict need to preserve the sanctity of the sport NOT by terminating the league but rather introducing strict surveillance, transparency , control and keeping people of unknown means out of the cricket circle.  

Foreign Direct Investment - A Nonsensicality ?

17:45 hrs
Today I went to Gandhi Nagar market to check out newly arrived stuff at Duke, Koutons and Daisley  Collections.There is a big hype associated with these brands  because they feature top clothing  retail not only in India but all around the globe . Because of the eminent  quality of products that these stores offer they impose high price rate on all products associated with them .Though I am completely  moderate still I prefer to purchase my wears from these high - profilic outlets because the quality of cloth is optimum and the conceptualization of design is truly artistic and genuine.I guarantee, you buy any garment from any of these retail stores and wear it even after a half a decade or so it would still relish on you and give you a classic look.The design outlook of garments manufactured by these foreign outlets is so much alluring and unique which is also the main reason for high price index of the garments.

The optimum quality of the garments produced by these outlets can be attributed to the highly mechanized machinery that these firms employ for the manufacturing.These are foreign firms and apply foreign concept in their production.They have established themselves in India on account of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) .Foreign traders avail the opportunity of buisnesss transaction in our nation through this process. Raising its level by the Central Government tends to alleviate the mood of the foreign investors but at the same time causes depression to DESI organizations.At every instance  whenever the  Central Government has signaled the raise   in FDI , severe protests has been conducted all over the nation by the DESI associations.They have always expressed dismay and anguish over this move of the Central Government which has ultimately generated a deep conflict between both of them.

But is this anguish is really justifiable...? The government who is working for the concerns of its citizens possess what kind of strategy in its mind...? Can it really justify its cause...?

Actually there is NO PROBLEM in the concept of FDI.The Government has just failed to counter the hysteria created by a select few trader's associations.I present you a bigger picture which I have comprehensively analyzed and it would remove every element of doubt  in your mind regarding the role of FDI in various fields.Here I am exploring all the myths which gives false impression about FDI.

MYTH  Kirana Stores will be wiped out.
REALITY  Kirana stores have beaten back competition from Indian-owned organized retailers by improving their own standards,Their unique buisness models,offering sales on credit and free home delivery will keep them on buisness.

MYTH  Farmers will not have any bargaining power with large retailers.
REALITY  Farmers have no bargaining power at government regulated mandis.Improvements in the supply chain that follow FDI in retail will give farmers access to more markets,increasing their bargaining power.

MYTH  Supermarkets will lead to an increase in prices because they will limit                    competition.       
REALITY  Prices,particularly of agricultural produce,will see fall because intermediaries in the supply chain will be cut out.

MYTH  Small and medium enterprises will suffer as foreign retailers will source overseas.                                        
REALITY  The Government has imposed a condition requiring 30 percent of procurement from local SME's.The experience will help Indian SME's in finding markets abroad.

MYTH  Millions of job will be lost in unorganized sector.
REALITY  Millions of jobs will be created in the organized sector offering people better working conditions.Since kirana stores will survive,additional employment will be created.

Foreign Direct Investment  increases efficiency,provides wide range of choices and enhances growth in socio - economic field.The associations that are protesting the FDI  are expressing concern only for kirana store owners.No one seems concerned about the benefits that farmers will get if their produce is purchased directly by big retailers.I agree that kirana store owners in the immediate vicinity of big retailer has suffered a loss in revenue but that is for a short term only,the long term impact is negligible.The deep penetration of FDI concept into our nation would enable unorganized sector turn into organized one and thus ensuring  qualitative change in employment , better facilities for the employees and ultimately rise in the national economy.