Year 2011 fading away...

The year 2011 has been slipping away from my hands before I can sit.. ponder and think what is happening. Maddening.. lots of travel.. new house.. new place.. new life into our lives.. lots of new stuff.

Its already November and I just vaguely remember it as just yesterday that we landed in Munich.. Living life fast forward mode..

Come to think of it.. many things have happened in 2011 - economy has just gone from bad to worse.. greeks are down in dumps.. US economy not AAA+ anymore?.. Japan earthquakes.. Chinese increasing dominance.. Osama dead!! (living nicely in Pakistan?).. Gaddafi dead (whatever is happening to dictators).. lots more bad guys killed (US now have every reason to rejoice.. except, their economy is slowly coming to a rumbling halt... too bad for all of us).. overall depressing economy..

If I could give one sentence to define 2011 it will be 'start of tough times ahead'.. ever heard of 20 year economic cycles (we could be entering into the down curve now).

Personally this has been the most different year I have had till now.. away from India (Started off in Germany).. lots of learning (I have just been going through a crash course in Sales.. I fancy, that I am not a bad student).. traveled over 20,000 Kms (believe me.. 'I' drove all those kms: add multiple flight journeys.. and.. I am sure that I have crossed a 100,000 Kms travel this year) : It has been a learning experience.. as I said (sorry for the repetition), but this has been a crash course in sales.. learning German (not bad at a short conversation.. but next year I need to get that skill right up!)..

Baby.. we had our first baby.. thank god I have a understanding wife, we have been able to get super along in this.. lots of stuff have changed... someday I will write how it feels...

World has changed.. or rather am I wearing a fresh pair of glasses which makes me think the world is looking different?

Well, how does it matter. I AM ON HIGHWAY, AND I LOVE DRIVING.

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Anna Hazare - What it means for us

A few days back, me and my cousin Ravi were arguing about Anna Hazare. Don't know why we picked the topic, but anways.. we ended up talking about him. May be.. it was the newspaper we were reading which made us talk about it. May be.. it was the TV which made us think about him.. but neways we took a vague liking to re-discuss this much discussed oft spoken man.

Was this guy only standing up to get one bill passed (Lokpal bill)? Was he trying to fight an endemic thing (corruption).. was he just wasting all our time.. or was he making a drama to create some name for himself? Why was there so much fuss about him? may be lack of other news? could be half crazed people who wanted to come in the media and get some mileage...

So many questions. So much confusion around this whole topic. I failed to make sense. So did Ravi. Somehow I wanted to argue 'for' this guy and Ravi (for sake of argument) was 'against' this guy.

Ravi mentioned that there is already a Lokayukta.. he has enough and more powers to curb corruption.. why this new bill? What was the use of all the natak in public.. may be it is un-democratic for one individual to hold up the parliament.. maybe the one lakh people who did gather in Ramlila maiden would stand for anyone who talks in populist terms.. Also to quote an oft quoted story - 2 people who were riding a scooter towards Ramlila maiden were caught by police for driving without a helmet. Coolly, the driver gives the policeman a 100 rupee note and moves ahead. Is this not corruption? Are we not all part of it. Why do we need corruption to go away..? May be its always been in our psyche.. may be we have it in our DNA... for 1000's of years.. before British.. before the Mughals.. we were a highly class oriented society where corruption and scandals were very much part of the Indian system.. why all this fuss now.. people bunking offices or colleges in guise of Anna Hazare and leaving home to have a nice early break.. is this not corruption of the mind as well? So on and on and on went the argument..

At one point may be I felt.. may be all this is so true. May be its timepass.. May be.. this too shall pass....

But in a slight corner of my heart I felt that maybe all of us.. irrespective of nationality / color / race or age are corrupt. It is a constant fight against human nature to take the easy road when faced with tough situations.. better to give the policeman 100 bucks than roam around police stations.. better get out of the situation and then, we can think of corruption. May be.. I will wait for all the 1 billion people to become white before I too shall become white. Maybe.. I will continue to 'want to be good' but.. be ok with slight temptations to be 'ungood' just for a little while...

None of us are white. None of us are black. We all fall in shades of grey. Some lighter. Some darker. It is our constant fight to be seen on the lighter shade of this color and confirm to the maxim - purer than thou.. this is what this guy is trying to stand up for. He is today talking about something small (Jan Lokpal).. but eventually he is trying to stand against the bad side of human nature.. he is standing to make the society a little bit more lighter.. he wants to say that all of us want to be good.. but cannot be for various reasons... maybe some day.. we will become good. Maybe our billion deities some day would provide us with divine powers to resist evil. Sooner than later. 'Hope' as they say, still burns bright in our hearts.

Something struck me when I was reading a book lazily on Sunday afternoon.. one of those books which you have in your closet (you buy it for the sake of that jazzy name.. but which you will never read). I happened to pick it up more out of curiosity. Chanakya Neethi was the name. In this, Chanakya narrates a story of how he was able to bring down a big Kingdom run by a king named Dananand. There was a time when Chanakya had honed his pupil Chandragupta for years and had finally managed to muster enough power to attack the king. Many a times Chandragupta attacked Dananand.. many a times he was beaten.. fair and square. After getting defeated more than a dozen times.. finally Chanakya gets dejected and is ready to leave the city; he is walking on the road when he gets attracted to a fight between a mother and daughter in a hut. He hears the mother loudly scolding her daughter - 'you are acting like that fool - chanakya.. would anyone turn the roti on a burning pan holding the middle?? you should always hold it from the ends, if you hold it in the middle you will always get burnt.. the humble roti is turned on the pan when one holds it from the end..'. this caught Chanakya's attention. He was fighting a losing battle trying to attack Dananand head-on. He soon changes tactics to fight Dananand. He starts attacking him from the fringes.. he asks his pupil Chandragupta to win over the fringe villages and towns.. not fight him directly but.. slowly win all the unimportant towns around the capital. Within a few years, Chandragupta wins over Dananand.

The success mantra - ' fight from the fringes.. fight the small battles first'.

Sorry for diverging... so coming back, maybe the fight for Corruption will take a long time to culminate. It is the small battles like this (Jan Lokpal) which people like Anna Hazare has started that will find a way.. Maybe its now starting in the fringes (fringes in all our minds..).. someday it could become so big that 'we' become strong enough to eliminate that nagging element of corruption. Maybe someday.. billion prayers will be answered. Maybe our billion deities finally relent to the fervent prayers..

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Homesick?

Came to India for a 3 week vacation. This is the last week. Somehow I don't know how quickly the time went by... was just wondering if somehow one could get hold of a pause/fast-fwd button... that simply give us the choice of pressing any as the time warrants as the clock ticks...

Well, many things have happened since the last time I posted on my blog... important among the ones - became a dad, relocated to Germany. Both have given me immense pleasure - maybe I will share more during some future blog post. Not now though..

After traveling to different countries I was thinking that maybe I do not fall under the category that is usually susceptible to an oft used term - 'home-sickness'. Maybe, I thought that its more an academic term than one which can be experienced. Somehow I must admit that I did miss being away from home - its maybe the traffic.. maybe the people.. maybe the mundane-ness.. maybe this maybe that.. I was just wondering today when I met Rajesh (a close relative of mine) and we started discussing things about Europe and everything un-Indian about it.

I think, I feel the best when I can seamlessly merge with people around me. Maybe being an Indian outside India doesn't provide that luxury. Well, that could just be it...

Anyways.. back to Germany this weekend. Back to work. But.., it just feels nice to be writing again after a long time. Maybe I should write more often!

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Taken by surprise- dividend yielding stocks..

It was after a long time that I was closely monitoring my bank statements.. was surprised to see that there was a steady flow of money (small but decently big to get me interested offcourse..)..

Well, after doing some deciphering, realized that these are some dividend money trickling in.
The beauty of this money is - its tax free in India!

Well.. I am sorry if I am sounding a lil stupid.. but believe me, had never thought that dividends are tax free.. and could get significant.

I guess - its certainly one of the things I will give close attention from now on!
Afterall, now I can show my wife that it's a lil more than phantom cash afterall :-)

Ciao till next time...Harsha