Yet another Year goes past

An eventful year is coming to an end. 2008 was an eventful year not only in my life but for the country itself. As India Today put it, the terrorist became the news maker of the year pipping Manmohan and Chandrayan Madhavan Nair.
2008 saw the worst financial crisis in my life time and the stock markets caved in. Fortunes reversed and every one started talking about the doom. However, we plunged in head on and started our new spacious office for retail broking services with great pomp and show. Not satisfied with that we also started another spacious office for wealth management services and yet another one for System Integration and Systems sales. Many wondered why we chose such times of distress to expand. Someone more intelligent than me has once said that times of distress is the time to invest. We did the same. Let us see how we fare by next year this time.
As far as I am concerned on a personal basis, I had a hectic year 2008. Peak of the Project with the expansion programs, frequent travels and chicken pox to boot! When I turn back, I am glad to note that I did manage to stick to my new year resolutions to a large extent. (May be old age is catching up with me.) I was able to control myself better, not reacting to provocations, tried to express myself more and found that the gesture is reciprocated. I did say I Love You more often to Usha and Kuttu. Kuttu, less, because he was upset with me most of the time for not getting him the Oakley, the PSP 2, Subaru car, new comp etc... His list is really endless.
Next year??? I plan a dangerous journey into the unknowns deviating from the well known path I have followed for the past 15 years. It is giving me some jitters, but I have decided to take a risk of a detour through an unknown path because life is getting boring.
Let us see where the road takes me...

SHOOTING DOGS

I just finished seeing a movie called "Shooting Dogs". It shook me so much so that I won\t be able to sleep this night. Can such senseless violence exist in this world? Can the world community turn the blind eye towards such crimes? This world where world powers spend billions of Dollars to fight wars in other countries for the flimsiest of reasons turn its back on such genocide? Unf...believable! I have no words to describe it. Please see it yourself.
You can get more info here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/releases/shootingdogs.shtml and here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420901/
http://www.shootingdogsfilm.blogspot.com/
or download the torrent here : http://www.mininova.org/tor/1083939

Please do watch, but be careful not to watch in the presence of children or violence sensitive persons.
Ajith

Shooting Dogs



BBC Films and UK Film Council present a CrossDay Production
April 6th 1994: a bloody genocide in central Africa gets underway.

In just one hundred spring days, a million Rwandan Tutsis were massacred by their fellow Hutu countrymen and a small African country was turned into a charnel house. The barbarity was beyond imagination. But not beyond prevention. The UN was there, watching. Watching but not acting.

And at the heart of it all a British priest and his young acolyte were forced to confront the depths of their faith, the limits of their courage and, ultimately, to make a choice. To remain with their people or to run away.

Starring:
John Hurt, Hugh Dancy, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Dominique Horwitz
Director:
Michael Caton Jones
Screenplay:
David Wolstencroft
Producers:
David Belton, Pippa Cross, Jens Meurer
Executive Producers:
David M Thompson, Paul Trijbits, Ruth Caleb, Karsten Stoeter, Richard Alwyn
UK Distributor:
Metrodome

Website:
www.shootingdogsfilm.blogspot.com/

UK Release Date:
31st March 2006
CREDITS NOT CONTRACTUAL

Loss of a good friend

On 2nd December morning I checked for messages in my Asus and found one from Daniele. His message said " Massimo died this Friday. Aless would appreciate if you would inform our friends". I could not believe it.

Massimo and Alessandra are from Verbania, a village at the north west border of Italy. They are friends of Daniele and Valeria. Hearing a lot of praise for Kerala from Daniele, they decided to go and see for themselves in 2005. I was in Kerala after Libya and arranged for a 15 days trip for them in Kerala. They did not want to go to all the fancy places frequented by tourists, but wanted to see the real Kerala and interact with common people of Kerala. They arrived on 31st December in Kerala. The next 15 days, we (me, Charlie and Dr. Abraham taking turns) took them to new year celebration in Meridien, a hindu marriage, 4 temple festivals, Elephant farm, large veggie market, 2 church festivals, Wayanad, Kuttanad, Fort Cochin, Periyaar and finally, we said Arrividerci during a dinner in Brunton Boat Yard. They thoroughly enjoyed the trip and vowed to come back for their marriage in Kerala. Since then, I had been to Italy in May 2006 and visited them in Verbania. They have just bought an old house and was renovating it. They were also preparing for their first child. Lorenzo was born on 9th January 2008 and they were happily living in their new house.

They were a very adorable young couple. Massimo was into long distance running, cycling and swimming and was lean and healthy. Alessandra, being a pharmacist was also very conscious of health and was lean and healthy. When they came to Kerala they were friends of Daniele and Valeria. When they left they were our friends and friends of Kerala. During their stay in Kerala, they interacted with villagers, ate local food, used even local dress and stayed in homes. They were thoroughly taken in by Kerala and its people. They left after making a lot of friends.

Daniele called me later and explained the circumstances. Massimo attended his office as usual on Friday 28th November and during lunch break he went out to give swimming lessons. He came back to office and collapsed. None of us who have met Massimo could believe it. How could this happen to a person who runs 8-10 km in a stretch and swims regularly? He doesn't smoke or drink much. Unbelievable. Poor Aless and Lorenzo. I called her, but didn't know what to say. Such a lovely family, everything was looking bright and shining and suddenly.... But who said life is fair?

We can only pray for his soul and join Aless and Lorenzo in their grief.

THE BEST EMAIL OF THIS YEAR

Again, this is not my creation. I got this mail from a friend saying this is voted as the best mail of the year. May be yes, May be not. However, this sure carries an excellent message and therefore I am putting it up here. Apologies to the originator.


VOTED THE BEST EMAIL OF THIS YEAR


If you think you are unhappy, look at them



If you think your salary is low, how about her?



If you think you don't have many friends...



When you feel like giving up, think of this man



If you think you suffer in life, do you suffer as much as he does?



If you complain about your transport system, how about them?



If your society is unfair to you, how about her?



Enjoy life how it is and as it comes

Things are worse for others and is a lot better for us


There are many things in your life that will catch your eye but only a few will catch your heart....pursue those...

Thanneer! Thanneer!!! The cry for Water

No, this is not a photo by me.
But this is another foto that impressed me a lot.
This is from the book "The Blue Water Run", an initiative by the Blue Water Planet Foundation which supports the cry for clean drinking water by 1.1 billion people all over the world.

Joke of the Year!!!

I thought I heard it all. Until I heard the news at 9 this evening on Manorama. There was this discussion about the resolution passed by Kerala assembly and how the opposition made a row. Mr. Aanathalavattom Anandan (what a name!) said "you think only Dr. Man Mohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are patriotic? Dr. Man Mohan was a US / world bank servant and that is why he is acting like their servant". I could not stop laughing! Are they so retarded that they realised this after 4 years of propping up the holy ass of Dr. Man Mohan singh???
Selling government land, appropriating government land, collecting black money, increasing power charge, bus charge, power cut, increasing the fees in gov. & private professional colleges... the left is looking more congress than the Indian National Congress!!!
Well, I could write volumes... If only I could find the time...

 

The Holy War

On an earlier occasion I wrote that I pity those human beings who believe in the power of God, but still think they need to help the God.
Recently, I came across the movie "Fitna".
Now first I have to swear that I do not hold any one's religion / caste / color or nationality against anyone and will be ready to fight for the right of each human being to be respected as one regardless of the above criteria.
I must also state that in the history of all religions, there was a time when someone thought it fit to spread the religion by force whether it was Christian /Hindu or other.
However, the pictures depicted by this particular movie is so shocking that any reasonably civilised person would want to condemn it. Then how come these few people get the support? I believe rather than support, what they get is a silent submission from the majority of good people simply because they are mortally afraid of the few and the destruction they can cause.
I believe all religions are established on good principles and meant to deliver good. Therefore, even while condemning the violence as depicted in "Fitna" and "Submission" (the first movie in this genre - its director was assassinated), I am not ready to fault the religion as the root cause. It is the misinterpretation of the religion and the destructive power of a few supported by vested interests that causes such violence. Therefore the cure is certainly not to accuse the religion and cause many more to join the violent cause, but encourage the better elemnets in that religion to join the mainstream. In many countries they already do. A vast majority of educated Muslims in India or even in pakistan are not fanatic. I even have friends who do not even attend the mosques.
Let us not give more followers to the terrorists by accusing the religion as evil. Let us realise that there are a few black sheep in a good religion and encourage others to denounce the terrorists.
Love thy neighbour!

Contradictions

Ayn Rand wrote: If you see contradictions, check your premises.
1. We need to stop rising prices. So we stop exports of rice. Some one points out that the Non resident Mallus will die of hunger, farmers in Kerala will not get good prices if they cannot export! We do not have enough rice production in Kerala. We depend on TN and AP. So how do we export???
2. Rising prices: We remove import duties for vegetable oils. So, coconut farmers will commit suicide. What next? Let us start agitation!
3. Rise farmers cannot harvest the ripe fields due to absence of farm workers, unions not allowing the harvesting machines. We allow the paddy fields go to hell and then what our politicians do? Fight TV wars! How could we ever increase production without the workers and not using machinery???
4. When one party commissions a toll bridge, the other party blocks the road. Now when the pther party come to power and they declare that no more bridges without toll!
6. You call a nation wide bandh and make crores of Rupees loss of production when the fuel price is increased marginally, then impose additional state levies to increase the prices further!
7. You accuse the others of selling public land and when you get the chance you do the same in larger scale!
8. You call the others Mafia and then take crores in black money as contribution.
9. YOU KILL HUMAN BEINGS AS IF THEY ARE LIFELESS OBJECTS AND CELEBRATE WHEN YOUR OWN KILLERS GET BAIL OR GET FREED BY SOME LOOP HOLES IN THE LAW. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TERRORISTS AND OUR POLITICIANS? THERE IS A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE. A TERRORIST IS READY TO DIE IN BATTLE, BUT IN POLITICS, THEY HAVE THE CADRES TO DIE FOR THEM!
Dear Ms. Ayn Rand, I am tired of checking my premises, but contradictions abound....
Will I ever find a ray of hope somewhere???

Dreams - Process of selection?

Last few days I was getting sleepy early and going to to bed between 8 -9. May be thats why I was not sleeping deeply and having so many dreams. Very often, I remember part of the dreams in the morning. and then I started seeing a pattern. Most of the dreams were related to something I have heard, seen or done during the previous day. I started wondering. Is this a process of the brain where it rewinds all the events of the day during the sleep and selects the significant ones and transfers from RAM to Hard Disc for future use??? Probably a wild thought, but it appeared to me it is a likely scenario :)
Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you. I was saying I love you more often to Usha and Nikhil and to a few other too (Don't tell Usha!). And, yes, I got upset only a few times during the past 15 days - around 15 times:)

New Year Resolution

Well, I have never tried this before.... Then why now? Last year brought about a change in me which lead me to do something unorthodox like this.

In 2005 I was fully at Trichur, at home trying to kick start Neostar. And trying to guide my son through his crucial later years of teenage period. It was not easy. In 2006, Tecnimont again required my services and since many of the people I respect and love asked me to return, I had to return to my profession. To be honest, Kuttu and Usha got tired of having me around in the house too. It was again tough in 2006, setting up the Site systems etc...

However, in 2007, I did get some free time especially during summer and after. I spent a lot of time on studying the equity markets and the economy in general. However, more importantly, I had time to reflect on my inner self and my behavior in general to others and especially towards my family.

I found that towards friends and colleagues and others, I was rather well behaved and I am perceived in general as a good guy. I also found that I can reason with most people and manage to cool even some hot heads.

But, I thought I found a flaw when it came to my approach to people close to me. Probably, I am assuming that they could understand me without me having to explain every small details. I am assuming that they are like me - disciplined, well organized, punctual, judicious in spending money etc.... May be I have become a discipline freak after spending so many years in a controlled atmosphere. Because our projects are all fast track and we often work 66 - 75 hours a week at work. Because everything is provided for by the Company. You don't even have to make a cup of tea.
My office is generally well organized. Everything has its place and every one always must know where things are and I get upset if something is out of place which is not very usual. Well, may be the habit has become a part of my personality now and I expect the same at home too!!!

Also, I found that I had a communication problem. While I am open and direct with outsiders and never keep anything for later, I am shy in expressing my feelings at home. As Usha often accuses me, may be I am acting the boss at home? I decided that I must make a conscious effort to change me. How can I advise Nikhil and other youngsters,if I don't practice what I say? I did change a lot. I do not get provoked easily now (though it is difficult to become a sheep overnight!), I try to reason with and make them understand my view patiently rather than just throwing in the towel and walking off. More importantly, I try to tell them I Love You more often than before (which was never, now once in 6 months!). I did not do it before because I did not believe in just words. I believed that my actions speak louder than words. When Usha complains about it, I used to say, look, when I go to a shopping mall, wherever in the world I am, I always look for things I could buy you and Kuttu. I always think of what will make you happy. I always do things that make you happy. I always shield you from all outside pressures and take it upon me alone. Is it necessary that I keep telling you I Love You? And she always said, yes, sometimes words have more value than materials. I never believed her, but now I start to think that may be she is right. I always complement people I meet about something or other and they always get pleased about it. But I thought I don't need to do it at home.

But, I think I was wrong. All human beings love to hear it said.

So, my first ever New Year resolution is: I will tell Usha and Kuttu that I love them as frequently as possible. In fact after writing this I will call them and tell them. Why delay? Wait a second. Let me do it now.

The second resolution is try never to loose patience. It is not necessary that every one are in the same wave length. Take time, try to explain, never loose patience. Even Kuttu understands things when it is explained to him with love and patience!

Third: Never judge people. Especially your own. I have always believed that all human beings are generally good natured. Some may be acting strange due to different perspective. Just because they think different does not make them any less good. Accept them for what they are. Who knows? While you think yourself as perfect, somebody looking from outside might be able to see so many flaws in you! As I used to tell my son quite often, worry about things you can change because things you can't change will not change even if you worry. Similarly, don't expect the world to change for you, but try to change yourself to suit the world!

And finally, be firm on my main principle in life. Try to do whatever you can for others, while never expecting anything ever in return. And follow the KISS - Keep it simple and straight.

I will tell you, my diary, what happened to these resolutions next year!