FAST AND FURIOUS COFFINS!!!!

Hello everyone! Its been a long time since I have written a blog post (5 years!!!... wow!!!). A lot of things have happened since then. Lots of experiences, pleasant and unpleasant have made and shaped our lives to sculpt us into who we are today!! 

For me, I have had luck on my side to travel and see different cultures, habitats and of course food, to open new avenues in my thought process in ways that I had no access to earlier. So, what made me get back to writing. Well, I suppose, it is the only way to connect to people (apart from music), to get my thoughts out, for everyone to appreciate (or not!). 

This brings me to my present topic - Fast and Furious Coffins. I'm sure, most of us would have seen the Paul Walker tribute movie Furious 7 by now and cried out their hearts, but that movie triggered something on my way back home. Paul Walker died in a car crash, which is tragic, but, so many of us die everyday due to car crash in this country. Yet, we hear none of those stories on TV or print media. All we hear is incessant amount of 5 star stinking rubbish (except Arnab as no one wants the nation to get angry and ask for answers) about presstitutes and AAP rift! 

We do have bigger issues as a developing nation.So, here through my blog posts, I have decided to generate awareness about these issues, hoping, that someday, things will get better and we Indians would slowly come to terms with liking each other.

The subject of driver's safety is a touchy topic. Around the world, the subject of safety is very important, complex and a far reaching subject. It is top of the mind for every person buying a car, and rightly so. However, in India things doesn't seem to be the same way and the auto manufacturers driven by their profit mentality seem to care only about sales figures compared to road safety. So ,who is responsible for us? This answer though very simple, presents a complex scenario. As drivers, we are of course responsible, but in a country where money is not in abundance and everyone wants a vehicle, we should not the trusted. Hence, it comes down mostly to policy formation, which is our only hope of saving a little more Indian lives on roads.

  Representational Image of a Crash Test

So getting down to the issue of safe driving experience, there are few points we should keep in mind: 

1. There is only one good type of crash. It is the one that, God forbid, does not happen. But, if you want that to be a reality, you want to ensure your car delivers best braking performance, best visibility, best lighting at night, good suspension and good driver comfort.
2. Ethical blindness should be replaced by Corporate Social Responsibility. Ethical blindness makes good people do bad stuff which is what is happening in India. For e.g, a comment made by a certain someone from the Auto industry "Addition of airbags and ABS will hike the cost, thus lowering the sales". Well, what do I even respond to this thinking? May be you guys can help me out!!
3. There is a belief, that accidents happen due to bad drivers. However, not all accidents happen due to bad drivers. Hence, it becomes very important, to have certain things mandatory for our drivers.
4. Driving is a responsibility. This is something we should start believing. The road we drive on is not our own. It belongs to everyone. Hence, we should be mindful of our surroundings and take extra precautions not to cut corners. Hey, we all know, better late than never!!!

Well, the above points bring me to the legislation part which I feel should include the following points:

1. Mandatory ABS, airbags for all vehicles.
2. Occupant protection standards in case of Interior Impact
3. Crash test standards on the lines of EURO NCAP (possibly stricter, so as to set a benchmark above all)
4. Child/Baby passenger safety requirements and seating arrangement awareness with advertisements and print ads. I feel, people will at least be more responsive to this ad than the smoking one which is just a waste of money!!!!
5. Tyre specifications, in line with tyre change awareness. Also, advisory should be issued for Vehicle manufacturers to introduce on-board tyre pressure monitoring systems to reduce chances of blowouts and other safety issues that happen due to tyre pressure. 
6. Structure specifications with body metal thickness minimum specifications. 
7. Material specifications for general build of the automobile.
8. Safety belt reminder (audio+visual) to be made mandatory for all cars which should continue even if the vehicle is moving.

The above points will at least make our drivers a little safer on roads than they are at present. I believe it is about time or else it will be too late. Lets make Indian lives most precious on the planet :) 

JAI HIND!!!

Need to think...

The last few days everyone of us must have seen or read about the Jinnah Jinn. What made Jaswant Singh call Jinnah a secularist while calling Sardar Patel as a hypocrite. Its very disturbing to see these things. We as a nation have still a long way to realize our feelings for our country. We have a habit of cursing our country, loathing it, comparing it to developed countries and above all embracing their cultures while totally looking down upon our country's rich culture, tradition and values. It has in fact become kind of a HIP to be Westernized or as we more commonly know it "Yo".
But we forget one thing, that our democracy is new and our civilization is one of the oldest in the world. Thousands of people from different lands have migrated from different places and settled in our country from times immemorial, and I dont think there is any problem of being adjusted to that place.
In these times when all the western nations act like a cry baby for losing their jobs to Indians, it is very amusing to see that these very people who propagate a competitive society can talk about someone taking over their jobs. This accusation is not only hilarious but its totally outrageous.
Leaving them apart,I'm very saddened when our own people do not support us. For e.g look at how the SRK grilling episode was captured by the News channels all day long. I was hoping the entire 2 days that some news channel would atleast have the courtesy to interview a US official, diplomat or anyone related, but alas, I was to be disappointed once again by the channels who just kept asking questions to Shahrukh Khan and some other good for nothing individuals like Amar Singh and Salman Khan. Even our own people didn't stand by him.
We rarely see an Australian or an English newspaper carrying a report against their own cricketers. But in India, Dhoni does an ad and the channels say that cricket is their side business. Such a bigot these channels have become.
Its high time that we as citizens of our country hold our country in high esteem. After all a nation is made by its citizens and not vice versa. Our country holds its head high because of its citizens only and its esteem is lowered just because of its people. So, I think it is our utmost duty that instead of slandering our Freedom Fighters for cheap publicity, we give them their due respect. We must unite under one banner "India", and yes there are problems in our country but which country doesn't have its own share of woes. This is our home, so its our duty to clean up the mess.
Its high time that we must again ask ourselves the same age old question which John F Kennedy told his countrymen once "Ask not what the country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country"

If only... we could live twice...

This independence day has been the most depressing independence day in my life ever. I got the news of the death of two of my friends just the day before. And because of that I also hurt a good friend of mine in the progress. This event has not only led me to think not only about the fragility of the human frame but also the sudden emptiness which the sudden disappearance of a person can have in our life.
People say that during the last minute of one's life, we can see the full flashback of our life, we then realize who are closest to us and who we love the most. This is so amazing as the last minute is just a minute for each one of us but a lifetime for the dying person.
This also brings my attention to the fact that the God above not only has the powers to give us but also to take away from us. He makes us realize from time to time what we have and what we have lost. We don't realize the importance of a person until he/she is gone from our lives.
Thus it is very important for us to live our lives as best as we can. The beautiful gift of Life has been given to us to enjoy only once. There are so many things that we want to say to people but we don't due to many reasons. I feel that we should always say what we feel because we may never get a chance to meet that person again....

Kargil victory... A decade of victory...

One Life!!!!!.....

One life. Why so serious? This catch line of the latest advertisement for Honda Jazz, leaves me smiling each time I read it. Amidst our daily routine, this campaign comes as a breath of fresh air that reminds us of something invaluable: life is not serious. We make it so.

The people behind the campaign must be wise souls. I reckon they’ve all had a glimpse into the truth. Or they were inspired by American author Elbert Hubbard, who once said, “Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.”

The truth is that seriousness is ugly, gloomy, and boring. And life is beautiful, happy, and exciting. Life is the antithesis of seriousness.

Human beings are the only species I guess who get the right to choose happiness and sadness for themselves. Have we ever seen any other animals so serious??.. One of my friends in college once said to me "If a person wants to be happy, he/she can be happy all the time regardless of the surrounding". I couldn't agree less during the time when he told me this. But eventually I realized the full meaning inside the sentence. Life is not about living 60 years or so and then dying. Its about enjoying each and every moment of your stay in this world.

From him I learned that the fairy tale endings "and they lived happily ever after", is not only limited to stories. It can be applied to our lives also. But it needs to come from within us. The sole aim of our life is to be happy. Happiness can be found in anything we want. For e.g we can find happiness in our child's laugh, father's happiness, friend's raise and so on..... It lies on us to find the source. The rest just remain grim all their lives trying to find their purpose in life when in fact all along the purpose screams out loudly at their face.

Bad phase comes in everyone's life. Even our best of friends may desert us during our lowest times. But that shouldn't be a deterrent. We should learn our lesson and move on. A person starts to be happy when he learns the art of letting go. The more he lets go of the things or people which bring him sorrow, the more he becomes happy.

Thus it is upon us to be happy or to be not. The choice lies on us and as I have always believed "We can be the best, the secret lies within us"... I hope everyone of us finds their happiness so that just like in fairy tales we can all live happily ever after... :)

What is Friendship??

So once again we are all celebrating the friendship day. I must say I'm quite laid back and careless when it comes to these type of days such as the brother's day, mother's day, father's day etc. and the list goes on.
So coming to friendship, its a very weird thing and in no means any amount of words can ever suffice this relationship. This is one of the most peculiar of relationships which unlike all others we have the freedom to choose who we become friends with.
I've been blessed with many in my life. One who is my mom, my dad, my bro and many others who I'm not related by blood but still we are bros. The most funny thing about friendship is that how its definition changes as we grow up.

The basic definition of a friend according to Websters dictionary is:

1. A person you know well and regard with affection and trust; "he was my best friend at the university".
2. An associate who provides assistance; "he's a good ally in fight"; "they were friends of the workers".
3. A person with whom you are acquainted; "I have trouble remembering the names of all my acquaintances"; "we are friends of the family".
4. A person who backs a politician or a team etc.; "all their supporters came out for the game"; "they are friends of the library".
5. A member of the Religious Society of Friends founded by George Fox (the Friends have never called themselves Quakers).

But in our lives the definition of a friend keeps on changing with us. As kids the definition is very simple: Someone you play with.

And as a teenager it gets a bit more complex - A soul you can trust. A heart that accepts you. A person you care for. A fist that will fight for you. Two feet that will stand beside you when things get hairy.

But as an adult we dilute our definition of the word friend. It becomes flexible to include acquaintances. People who we simply share interests but may not care for in the least.

Maybe this is a good thing. We grow tolerant. Our hearts less exclusive. Maybe its the acknowledgment that life is a whole lot easier if we lay down our walls and be cool with one another.

Maybe its an acknowledgment that we had it right when we were children - simply now a friend is someone you share a drink with and maybe a joke.

I'd like to believe that, but...

there's a part in me which still believes in the teenager definition of a friend. For me a friend is someone whom you can always forgive and vice verse. You can share even the smallest of details of your life with ease. Perhaps there requires to be an invisible thread which can bind us together for our lives and I'm very lucky to have found many such friends.

But even though I've found many amazing people, there were times when I've been deceived by people who were once my very good friends. They changed and the reason they gave was that they couldn't forgive anyone (even though they were the ones who made the mistakes and I went to say sorry because its never bad to bow a little in front of a person you love or care about) but they seem to have forgotten that forgiveness is the virtue of the brave. Even though our life demands us to throw them out of lives and move on, still the good times spent will always be remembered and cherished upon. May be good sense will prevail upon those people someday....

But in spite of all the downturns, friendship is definitely worth enjoying something, and as popularly said that like every rose has a thorn we must take these people as a lesson and make ourselves a better and a more learned human being, after all thats what we strive to become each day, right?.. the best..!!! .. ;)

Perseverance and sports...

Going through the newspaper today I found a very interesting article. Schumi returning back to F1 till Massa fully recovered and was fit enough to drive the Ferrari again. This particular bit of news generated both excitement and curiosity in me (as always.. I'm still a curious kid... ;))
At 40 Michael Schumacher will be the oldest person to race in the highest level of car racing in the present era. Though he still has to go through the fitness tests, I'm sure he'll come out of them with flying colors. But through all of this I began to wonder about perseverance and sports.
Everyone of us must have seen someone who has overcome all odds to defy things which are not possible in a normal course of life. Let us take the example of Tom Watson, who recently reached the playoffs of the Pga tour. At 59 years of age he was the oldest man to reach the finals of the tour. Though he had won 5 british PGA tours in 70s, reaching the finals of the same british open in 2009 about 3 decades later leaves us with awe and respect of the man.
Another example can be given in this respect. Basketball seldom has athletes who persevere through life changing beatings, but one man in particular, Alonzo Mourning, went through retirement which was caused by a failed kidney. Despite the injury, and a life changing kidney transplant, Mourning came back to basketball, and has since won a championship ring.
But the question now arises "What makes these men achieve the impossible?" Because at the end of the line lies greatness, and to get there, they need to persevere through the painful times and constantly train and take beatings. Although greatness lies at the end of the string, many end up on a tangent, and find themselves fatally injured and removed from the sport.
Coming to one of my favorite sportsperson of all time Lance Armstrong. His story of fighting the deadly cancer and survive it to win a record 7 consecutive Tour de France titles is known to all of us. Before Schumacher he was the one who returned to cycling tracks again and believe it or not he made podium finish. Thus, perseverance and sports have had steady relationship. A combination of these two qualities in a person leads to greatness which encompasses not only sports but every field of life and we all remember only those persons who are greats...... :)