Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Shoulder

How many times have we leaned on a Friends shoulder while talking. Carefree…without asking him or her.

How many times have we used a friends shoulder to fire our gun….and s/he never minds.

Whenever we felt like crying our friend’s shoulder is always available.

Important work to be done the friend never shies from the responsibility, or complains about the burden.

And last but not the least….It is that very shoulder which carries you to the cemetery in the end……

Friends….They are my shoulders :)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Indian Ail Lines

Invest and keep in Airlines on the sharemarket. In future it is going to be the most important and most used mode of transport in India.

This was a piece of advice given to me by a Stock Market Investor around 7 years back. But the current situation with most of the Airlines makes me wonder if the future of Airlines is good in India.

India is one of the fastest growing economies. Air travel is now acceptable to even a common person as train travel. One hardly finds seats empty in Airlines. Then what is it that Ails our airlines in India?

Why are there problems with Air India, Kingfisher, Jet…you name it. All are in problems?

Some blame it on Government policies. Some blame it on compulsion to fly non profitable segments. Some blame the airlines for diverting funds.

For me the issue is too complex to understand. Government says privatization will help the ailing National Airline. On the other hand Private players are in a soup. So will privatization of Air India help, when private airlines like Kingfisher and Jet are asking for help from Government? All seem to be flying around in circles.

In all this the people who suffer are just not passengers, but also the staff, who have not been receiving their salaries on time. Irrespective of the huge amounts they receive, it is obvious that their expenses will be as per their income. And now that the income has reduced or stopped, they are facing hardships.

It has become a bad Ailment for our Airlines, with no clear policy … hopefully time will heal…till then grin and bear….

P.S There is no typo or mistake in the title of the blog….

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Missed the Bus?

Happy to see that young Akhilesh Yadav is going to be the new CM of UP. He is one good example of not missing the bus.

Seriously, I am not much into politics, but even a layman can understand that the Political Bus never waits for anybody. L K Advani gave up his chance(for whatever reasons) to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and has till date not been able to catch the bus again. Age and the changing political scenario is going to make it very difficult for him. Even if his party does manage to pull up a miracle in the next Elections, there are many PM candidates in the wing, and he might find it difficult to stake his claim.

At state level, Raj Thackeray himself proposed the name of his cousin Uddhav, who till then was not interested in  politics. He missed the bus, and today has formed his own party. He might be doing good in terms of politics, but if he had the bench strength of Shiv Sena, it would have been a different ball game altogether.

The biggest loss in missing the bus currently I feel is Rahul Gandhi. If now his party loses the next Elections in 2014(if there are no mid-term elections), he will lose the chance to become the PM for the next 5 years. A very Important bus to miss, considering his age now.

The game is simple….climb the bus when you have the chance, dont think that there are many buses behind…hit the iron when it is hot……

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Sachins Ton…Century of Centuries

I found it quite interesting, lately one of my old blogs, Sachin’s tons a jinx??? I dont think so….. ,written in April 2011 has suddenly generated a lot of interest and jumped in my most read blogs of all time to be in the top five.

Not surprising since people love Sachin. I personally feel that this interest is more because of his current predicament of not being able to score is 100th100 or Century of Centuries.

Again social networking sites(yes currently a place to speak your mind out) are very harsh on him. Jokes, Criticism, are the order of the day.

But spare of a moment for the Guy. Scoring 99 centuries is also not an easy task. And if he is not able to score his 100th one, one must also note that even the other team mates had a bad performance in the Australia tour or the tour before that.

Some say Age factor……might be, but at least he is trying, some say he should retire…sorry boss you are not the right person to judge that. Criticism from an ex cricketer…boss aapka jawab nahin, how could you forget that you had delayed your retirement for that elusive wicket for the records

Let him be, let him enjoy his game, it is not that a person who has scored 99 centuries, should score a century in every match. His century will come, the Century of Centuries, and he will reach a Pinnacle which no cricketer has been able to reach, and will be able to reach for a long time to come…but there is a Day for that….lets support him even otherwise….

The Smartphone – A pain in the neck

Here I am sitting and typing this with a collar belt around my neck. Bad pain since past 2 weeks. Doctor attributes it to my work hazards, I personally attribute it to my smartphone usage. Social Networking, messaging, scheduler on the phone, notes on the phone, ebooks on the phone, birthday lists on the phone, send and receive emails, for everything my head is bent staring at the screen.

While being driven around in my car, on the way to the office, on the way to my clients, on the way to my home, my head is bent, staring at my phone, doing something, and if its not any of the above, then playing a game.

Doctor says neckache is the most common complaint he gets from most of the younger generation(happy to hear that he still considers me as one of the younger generation).

Come to think of it, you see a group of youngsters around, half of them have their phones out and eyes on the screen. Exchanging music, exchanging snaps, etc etc

Even their interactions, though together in a group, is more on their phone messengers, private joke about the discussion going on…

Our life is now controlled by smartphones, gone are the days when we would know the telephone numbers of our friends in our head, gone are the days when birthdays were remembered mentally…for everything you have a smartphone, who needs to remember. You need not put up sticky notes on the office board, just type it into your smart phone…

Need dictionary, its available on the phone, need to search anything..use the phone browser, any app you need is available.

But then its affecting my health atleast for sure…a pain in the neck. Right now…I am not able to bend my head to see it…because of the belt around my neck….but still ..holding it in line of my eyes and doing my work…addiction..Sigh!!