My First Blog

What can be more dangerous to a society than the fact that many of its youngster are committing suicide. The reasons are many. Every day when I turn the newspaper I invariably come across at least one story of suicide. The age ranges from 15 to 80. While I was growing up I only used to read about the suicides due to financial pressure. People who could not settle their debts, who could not earn a living for their family would end up committing suicides. Farmer suicide is one of the most important topic which should be addressed today according to me. A country which had 80% of income coming from agriculture a few decades back should not be facing farming suicides in such large numbers. But what concerns me more is the suicide among youngster today. I believe the problems have grown multifold today. There is a lot pressure when it comes to education, lifestyle, career, family life etc. Most of it can be contributed to the pressure we put on us fearing about what others would t

Fantasy is a word which we associate with stories narrated to kids normally. Ranging from Cinderella story to super heroes there are so many stories told today. It’s there everywhere. In movies, in TV and in comic books. The things which excite me the most is not the stories but the excitement it brings to children. I love the expressions on my son’s face when he sees or listens to these stories. He would never want it to stop. His joy when the hero defeats the bad guys, his surprise looks when he looks at magical moments are memories which I would cherish till the end of my life. The most interesting part is when they start building a story of their own. Nothing more gives me happiness than to listen to my son’s creative stories. The excitement in which he tells his story is unparalleled. Thanks to the #colgatemagicalstories pack which brought out again the story creator from my son’s world. There were two good things in the pack to begin with. Firstly there was this ex

I am a great fan of AR Rahman since I heard him first in Roja. It swept me off the floor. I was used to hearing Ilayaraja and this guy was a big surprise for me. Not that I was the only one following Ilayaraja. Well the whole of south India was only listening to him till then. Roja, Kadalan, Gentleman, Thiruda Thiruda one after another. Rahman was taking the Indian music industry by storm. No wonder he was nicknamed Musical Storm in Tamil Nadu.Such was his craze. Copies of his album would get sold in record time in Music World. There were be hundreds waiting for the new copies. Though I have heard many memorable album of his the one closest to my heart is Yuva. Yuva means youth. So was the music of the film. It was so youthful and full of energy. Each and every song was different and peppy. "Dhakka Laga Bukka" is a beautiful song. It is kind of an enthusiastic song encouraging the youth of the nation to move ahead and bring the revolution. The music is fast an

I am part of a generation that has seen the growth of IT industry. Especially in India, I saw it grow at an enormous pace in the last 20 years. Though IT industry started cropping earlier than that it was around the year 1995 when I saw a majority of my generation moving towards IT from the core Finance and Mechanical Industry. I remember the focus was more on getting a Computer Science group in your higher education. The focus on Biology or Commerce had taken a back seat. Most of the parents would force their child to study well to secure a place in Computer Science Group. Unfortunately, I believe the crux was not to excel in the subject matter but to get a better earning opportunity. Even in engineering the focus started slowly moving from mechanical to computer science. Any which ways IT did grow at a great pace in the country. From an agriculture based economy today India has become an emerging IT industry. Though agriculture and manufacturing industry still holds a f

Drinking - I mean consumption of Alcohol. This is the biggest social issues today in India. Most of the crimes and accidents today happen due to the consumption of Alcohol. Why are we not able to handle this issue effectively? There are various reasons. Here are my thoughts on the social impact this habit is bringing to our society. The first and foremost is the abuse of females at home. There are millions of cases in rural and in some case urban society where a drunk husband beats up his wife. In most cases, they beat up their wife to steal money for consuming alcohol. Currently there is an active campaign happening in Tamil Nadu for ban on liquor and especially on the government licensed Liquor shops. This comes from the outbreak of many poor family housewives who complain that most of their incomes goes in drinking.  Some people cause nuisance in public after drinking as most of these shops are on the main streets. So why is government not able to apply a ban on th

How can South Indian music be complete without the mention of Musical Maestro Ilayaraja. The man is the most known musician across South India. He made the people across the nation to look towards South Indian music when most of the people were only listening to RD Burman and Kishore Kumar. Ilayaraja started as a street musician. He used to play harmonium along his elder brother who used to write, compose and sing revolutionary songs. Once when he was accidentally asked to play in a stage he got great applause. This was the day he claims diverted him from studies to music. He then started pursuing music chance in Tamil Film Industry. When his first film released his music was an instant hit. He never looked backed after that. He became such a phenomenon that almost every other film in one stage had his music. People used to come to theatres only to listen to his music. One more important aspect of Ilayaraja’s music is his back ground score. It is so mesmerizing that i

I had been to Mahabaleshwar a few years back. Every time I think about this place it always brings a smile to my face. It was such a pleasant experience. The place as well as the journey navigating from Pune to Mahabaleshwar was a pleasure. It is approximately five hours from Pune and most of the time is through various ghat sections. The winters are beautiful here. I started my journey on a pleasant Saturday morning. I took a Cab and our family where on our way to Mahabaleshwar. We started very early so that we could spend more time in Mahabaleshwar and also to avoid the traffic. Once we crossed the Katraj tunnel the ghat section started. We stopped for half an hour for our breakfast. A typical Maharashtrian breakfast. We had some Poha, Vada Pav and Chaai. We were then all set for Mahabaleshwar. We directly reached the top most point. As expected it was very heavily crowded. But the beauty of the place overshadowed everything. We walked across the viewpoints. We saw the

AR Rahman. The name makes every Indian Proud. The man who brought Oscars to India. The man who made the whole world respect Indian Music. The man who took Indian Music to an all different level. The man who gave Indian Music the place it deserves. I am not saying he is the only man who made us proud but was surely a person instrumental in getting it to the right stage through the right process. He was one music director from Tamil Nadu who was able to successfully transition to an All Indian Music Director. His initial Tamil Albums started being translated to Hindi and were great hits. Then came his original Hindi Score “Rangeela” after which he never looked back. He was one director who was accepted across the nation. He became so famous that some of his work was adapted by even Hollywood films. Such was the impact of this musician. He inspired so many young people to compose music. The variety he brought to the stage was absolutely unbelievable. The freshness of his mus

Music is an eternal feeling. It brings people together. There could be a lot of differences in the world. But there is one common truth which everyone accepts which is music. People can be divided by religion, caste and language. But they can be united with the help of music because music has no language. So there are no barriers to it. A person from United States is amazed listening to Carnatic Music. I am from India and one issue every Indian or for that matter the whole world is aware of is the border issues with Pakistan. As an Indian we all know that there is no personal hatred against any person in Pakistan. There is a deep understanding that it was once a part of India before partition. It is because of some age old political issues and some self-centered people that still there are issues among these countries. Though cricket has been used to bring people together, it still does not solve the purpose. Every match is seen as a war by some people. I have heard peopl

Music is a gift to mankind from nature. It can heal your soul in seconds. Even after a tiring stressful day if you listen to some divine music for few minutes you will get energized. Such is the magic of music. In Indian culture, music is a part of life. If you analyze deeply music is there in every aspect of life. The early morning sounds of the bird, the silent sound of the breeze is also a form of music which nature gives. The Hindu goddess Saraswathi is depicted to be holding the Veena which is a symbol of music. The great saint Narada holds a Tambura. The supreme lord Krishna is seen holding a flute. Even Lord Shiva is depicted with a Damru. This shows the importance of music in our life. Music has many forms. In India Classical Music prevails a lot. In South India Carnatic Music is practiced a lot. Nowadays there are lot of youngsters practicing Western Music like Rock, Pop etc. There are a lot of instruments like Veena, Tabla, Mrudangam, Violin, Piano, Sitar, Gat

Shimla is a one of the most beautiful places I have seen in India. The serene beauty of the place is beyond imagination. It’s located in the Norther part of India. It’s the capital city of the state Himachal Pradesh. It is one of the top rated hill stations in India. Tourism flourishes throughout the year in this place. It has so many things that can thrill anyone right from a nature lover to an adventure lover. It has got great snow clad mountain views, thick forest trails, great apples, river rafting, high altitude plains, beautiful temples etc. I started my trip to Shimla from Chandigarh in the state transport bus. It took a few hours to reach Shimla bus stand. From there my Hotel as just a walking distance. It was not a big hotel but a pretty decent one. The rooms were neatly maintained. We rested for a few hours in the room and then took a warm bath before venturing out. We had booked a taxi for a day tour. He first took as to a temple. It was an Idumbi Temple, mothe

Social Media - WOW want an impact it has today. People discuss everything with everyone around the world. A small event happening in one small corner of the world can catch the attention of the entire world within hours. It could range from a petty road fight to a huge social issue. Within hours thousands of people are casting their opinion. It has grown to an extent that even elections are getting decided now based on social media campaigning. In our previous National elections, the honorable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi used social media effectively for his campaigning. It is believed that his campaigning started well before a year before the elections. Such is the impact of Social Media. Facebook, YouTube videos, Blogs are increasingly becoming very important today. I recently came across a post in Facebook where one person had posted about his missing father in Mumbai local train station. Within hours his father was located by a Facebook user. This is one of the b