naughty guy

today is Raksha Bandhan. I stayed at home throughout the day working. anyway, as a Bengali, this festival is not something I look forward to considering my cousins are in Kolkata and importance is laid upon Bhai Doojh far more than this one as a celebration. the cute little episode that I want to share takes us back many years when I was probably in my second or third standard. this day was special not because of the relationships (I was dumb, yuck! that sucks...) but the lovely rakhis on the wrist instead. there were times when I wouldn’t have one and dada (my elder brother) would have many on his wrist(s). I used to envy him.

I recalled this funny experience today during the day out of nowhere and a naughty smile crossed my lips. now, I know how lucky I was then. wish I had the head to use the opportunity as a weapon to woo many… kash!

Allowing them to bloom

Socio-business-environmental approach

Hotels use lots of flowers। At a few ITC hotels, instead of throwing these flowers on a daily basis, they are passed on to an NGO it has tied up with। The NGO after collecting it from the hotels, drop them at the doorsteps of people with multiple disabilities with their capabilities restricted to separating petals from the stem of the plant part the whole day। These petals so separated are collected and sent to concern authorities for extraction of organic colours from it, which are sold to the textile industry.

In this way, not only wastes (wilting flowers) are converted into environment friendly colours but in the process pass on the benefits to the people with multi functional disabilities. This is being practiced at ITC Maurya and Sheraton Hotel in New Delhi as pilot project. This initiative is earning the differently abled people Rs 1800 a month, which is also giving them a dignified reason to live on. The project has also been taken up by India Habitat Centre and a few more hotels for the good of the society.

Flying away to glory

Want to give my imaginations a string of positively so that the aims and dreams match with each other to rise up to reality. At the occasion of our 61st Independence Day, Bishwajit asked me to write about our fascination with kites during childhood. We didn’t grow up together but the fascination hasn’t remain untouched to our upbringing; simply saying, to the entire generation before me, which I know about. Life offered simplicity and we as small kids accepted them unflinchingly. So did our parents.

Coming back to what my dear friend said, I think, he consciously took up this topic knowing that I am left with no more interest in indulging to get up on the terrace and take kites to the sky. The topic of kites rose two days back while we were discussing the plan for the long weekend. But today, when the kite flying day is over I somehow feel, he issued me a warrant to come out of shackles of negativity and let myself free… as many of my friends, acquaintances feel that I adopt and welcome negativity more often than positives that life has to offer to me.

Could be. And kite is the way I should be like. It has always provided us with a fascinating occupation and have been cheered equally by young and old. The free will of kites, even though they are controlled, tells us a lot. It is not about me only. I feel the will to be like them is more about choosing the right direction where everyone else should be moving towards.

At this point, a kite couldn’t have been a better metaphor for our democracy and independence, together. Let our course be of that of “free will” yet with a string of “discipline” attached to it so that we remain in a flock.

I hereon will try to free me, my will… with strings attached. I hereon will seek answers… to the questions sometimes I never raise.

Regaining lost conscience

Not so long ago there was a feeling that China’s oppression on Tibet is not a fair one. Now, I find us here. Rejoicing China’s coming of age and taking the retribution to the developed countries with developing brigade like ours are happy about her painstaking walk over. Suddenly, everything seems to be rosy, eye lit, comprehensive; Tibetians, for that matter, forgotten at once.

Three months back, the scenario in India was different. And world over. Pictures of protest marking Tibet’s resurgence to take on the big brother head on came in the open. I remember the call of a Buddhist lama at the McLeodganj’s nerve centre. He was polite, calm yet with a certain degree of anguish that was demanding a vent. He (and me, and thousands more) had just completed a joint prayer for peace at the very political base of the exiled Tibet Government in India. He started pointing towards a series of photographs (kept on display at one of the small rooms within the Monastery) of the crimes committed on the innocent peace loving civilians in Lhasa and further in Tibet by the Chinese headship. These photographs are sent here and elsewhere, whosoever has taken to give a dimension of what Tibet nationals wants world to know i.e. that is what they are suffering from but peacefully, he said.

The lama, in his unique calm, explained the conscience one should stick to in adversity. What is this conscience? He said: nothing but the one that offers peace to self and showers happiness on others. The conversation stretched over to many other aspects where he talked about the true essence of Buddhism whereby one should not return the hatred on the same platter. Return nothing but sweetness.

While coming out of the monastery, a bunch of friends as a group walked through a narrow lane of McLeodganj. What we witnessed was something we never expected to. A tall Indian guy on a bike showering adjectives from his illicit vocabulary on a passing by lama who for sure didn’t do anything but had a slight hesitation on selecting his track that confused the biker. Playing oblivion to the filth, the monk passed by and carried on with his journey. His silence taught me a lot what words would never have been able to.

While the other day Musharraf quoted: "Kashmir is in our (Pakistan) blood". Why this bloodbath then? You have been responsible for many. We know it and so do you. The ongoing crisis in J&K is something none is happy about. News reports attribute it to ISI and then, there is anger within the Kashmir brigade. A popular face in the J&K politics, while reasoning military action necessary to stop civilian conflict justified, displays his anger through expressions because he is on air, visually. What his anguish tells many who are suffering and directly affected by the political clampdown? How people are going to read that anger on his face as? He could have been calm to explain his reasoning is the only request one could ask for.

The residents (that’s the word I use) are placed vis-à-vis rest of the country and the divide in between yawns further and further. Where to settle this unrest? Answers are hard to come by as political voices carrying on creating the theorems of winning Jammu & Kashmir. Our very conscience to find an answer is lost. Hopefully, we will regain it as has been, time and again, since centuries. Still, there is hope as I read the lines of Rabindranath Tagore:

Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high…

I hope, we will all have a reason tomorrow to celebrate our 61st year of being an independent nation that always finds itself in a dichotomy to overcome.

Tale of 5000 omelettes a day

Many believe that the art of omelette making is as fascinating one as the final product tastes. I completely agree and would take it a step further; it is thrilling as well. Well, where is the scope of thrill in it? Believe me, I used to think likewise but this fact has been implanted on me after my visit to one of the best airlines catering facility i.e. of Singapore Airlines owned SATS. Though it has tied up with many hotel chains in India and abroad for supplying food to its crafts and others but preparation of food (especially omelettes) at its own facility in Singapore is a delight to watch.

Never ever in my dreams could I have thought that “food is an art” where technology too has a great role to play to. The amalgamation of mechanical and human elements in the making of a food delight from egg surpasses imaginations of any kind. According to SATS, it prepares 5000 omelettes everyday to serve different airlines, which touch down at Singapore.

Suddenly, omelette making seemed like an ancient craft still accomplished by a sensible bunch of people on this planet. And the saddest part is that I happen to be a mere spectator and restricted to participate in it. Enjoy this video where simplicity meets sophistication. Omelette preparation couldn’t have been a better example of that.