Divinity

Today is the eve before arrival of Ganesha. This blog completes now 6 years of its existence in terms of Indian calendar. Lord of wisdom is about to visit us today as we bring idols home. Next 10 days will be filled with fun and celebration. Everything around you seems auspicious.  Festive air is all around and we hope to celebrate this festival correctly, peacefully and without any obstacles.

That makes me wonder sometimes at the transformation i have seen in myself from being atheist to agnostic and now a conformist. When you are young, you have some false sense of romanticism, incorrect sense of know it all arrogance, some immature ideas and false self belief. Nothing teaches you like life. Life has been a roller coaster ride and I assume it’s the same for all only gradients and routes vary. Having seen highs and lows, one gets a very serene outlook to take it all phlegmatically.

Nowadays there is an unnecessary controversy over divinity of Shri Saibaba.
Reading the news around this issue and the advent of Ganeshostav, have led me to pen few thoughts about my own journey towards piety. I was never a religious kind. In fact in my house we had overdose of god, rituals, and traditions with only my father being sort of neutral to all. He used to debate the norms but also was not anti. My young blood drew me to be a believer in self than destiny or God. I was further enamored by objectivism by Ayn Rand. Stay in the hostel at Kharagpur also added to the bravado.

Then I began my journey to express myself as an entrepreneur. Journey was interesting and I enjoyed every moment of it be it in India or abroad. It was Nov 2004. I was going through lowest patch of self belief, doubt, betrayal, and setback all combining to an extent of taking toll on health. As a part of business contract initiated, stalled and stuck up in all kinds of controversy, I was called to Shirdi by the managing committee to review the project that was stuck up. As I went there i realized that the entire board was bent upon scrapping the project which we had done half way and with money stuck. The committee conveyed the same and asked me to collect the letter to that effect in the evening alongwith an undertaking to return the advance money received. It was a calamity. I was thinking on legal road ahead knowing that i had very little chance to fight the huge public trust. I was totally shattered. I had no appetite to eat snacks offered in the waiting room of the board meeting. Before that i had visited Shirdi but never had chance of Darshan due to time limit or maybe once we got entry into small vip section which i am not recollecting even today. I went out for small walk in temple premise. I was feeling like zombie. I sat on a public bench. As i sat for few minutes, i was tapped on shoulder by a very old man asking for directions. I had to no answer to help him with that. I said i was new to the premises.  He asked if it was the first time i am coming here. I had no mood to continue conversation so just wanted to politely avoid him. But the guy sat near me and offered me his food. I declined. He ased why I was so disturbed. He then said one sentence which still reverberates around:

‘Whatever your problems, go and speak to the one whoever is at the heart of my problem. God will bless you.’

I walked away. But that made me think anew line of strategy. I realized that it was the CEO who was the most proactive about scrapping the project. I decided to speak to him. I went to his office. I waited for few more people to complete their work. He asked me why i was there as my letter was not ready and asked me to wait for an hour. I asked him as decided that why was he scrapping the project. Instead of that we can change all the credits mentioning his (CEO) name everywhere in the project which will remain as permanent almanac in trust history. Somehow i don’t know what inspired this argument which was like by the CEO and then he reversed the process, re-initiated work, increased scope and all was well within next 4 months with final completion in March. Immediately after the completion, got a good success over a life turning deal which materialized in next 6 months.

Maybe that old man said something abstract but I was in no mood to meet CEO but for his advice. Who was he? Was it a divine intervention or random event of things? Events like these makes one agnostic. But the after effects in my case turned me into conformist. So weak is the human mind. Or is it strong? We as human beings are very helpless in most of the matters which really matter. But then what about rationalism? Is god a superstition or its faith tonic which keeps body going? These issues have been attempted by all religions, rationalists, meta-physicist, philosophers, scientists, all and sundry. I have no new dimension to add except maybe that the concept of god and divinity is very personal one. No one has any right to criticize others neither disrespect others. My experience is all i wanted to share. In public life no religion should deny existence of other faiths and plurality. But the public nature of religion is cause of conflict since centuries. That’s what i like about my religion. And about the rituals, personally these days i feel sense of enjoyment in those but then its again my personal view and so long as one does everything with right spirit without bothering others i am ok with them.

In line with above, i will narrate an old incidence which i experienced in past in my next post.

Meanwhile as I say that divinity and god is a personal idea. Let’s celebrate the deity all together. Welcome Bappa

20 years of Objectivism

In Asaami Asaami, PL has made one statement through the protagonist DB Joshi that no one needs to do anything special to keep this world going. (Ref; He wonders how his Benson Johnson company runs without anyone doing any significant work). In fact this fictional statement is exactly opposite to the entire life and philosophy of PL in person.  This statement can be interpreted as totally sarcastic. Sarcasm of PL is inherited from his role model P G Wodehouse who while being totally elitist in his approach as he depicted castle and lords of Victorian England. But then he was the most scathing critic of that class. In same note PL has been branded to be Middle class icon. Though PL is not ultra critical on this wrongfully maligned community but nevertheless has some master strokes of self deprecating humour. Going back to topic of world surviving on hard work of few, no one in literature has described it as strongly as Ayn Rand and her objectivism philosophy. Her thoughts have had a great impact on me personally. I do not totally agree with Ayn Rand on every aspect and I sense a lot of immaturity in her writing (though I don’t claim to be arm chair philosopher or great reviewer and it’s my personal observation as I stand nobody in comparison to stature of Ayn Rand) and black and white portrayal of characters which in real life which you cannot. As I complete 20 years of my first reading of Fountainhead, especially since its Durga Pooja time, some very fond memories rush back.

Flash back to the Durga pooja vacations in 1993. We in the IIT system, had two major vacations: between semesters in Dec and long 3 months in summer after completion of the  year. Kharagpur was an exception where we had three vacations. We had a week long break in Navaratri time when whole Bengal celebrated Pooja shutdown. I think everything remains same after 20 years. So we the gang of students from Mumbai, Pune and far off places had a chance to go home only then unlike local Kolkata and nearby crowds who could go home on weekends. Our first journey in ‘92 Poojas was an adventure when Geetanjali exp got derailed.  But as we entered second year the journey got bit monotonous as it was of 36 hours. One really needed a good book to kill time especially during the journey back to KGP. Journey to home always was more exciting. Added to that, we had 3 hrs halt at Kalyan as there was no direct train to Kolkata then. Coming to ’93, I experienced personal emotional event when someone exited from life, an event typical for that age. Those were gloomy days. And end semester exams were close. But still then you needed a book to read, and there was one black covered book lying in house maybe bought by my uncle. I had no interest to read that but it was very late to go to buy a book. So just took a chance and packed it. And then it changed my life.

Next 20 odd days which I took to read the book changed a lot of things at that impressionable age. What a set of characters and what a narration!! The central character of Howard Roark, the author unsupported character of incomprehensible Domnic Francon, great character of media baron Gail Wynand and slimy one of Elsworth Toohey. But what scared then most was to be someone like the character of Peter Keating. As in IIT system we were mostly all blue eyed Keatings who had to get into world for lack of real engineering skills or interest except for very few who wanted to.  Suddenly there was new purpose and seriousness to learn basics and do something good. Keating is the one who thrives on others excellence or hard work to survive and take credit and gain worldly returns. Thus i firmly believe, contrary to the imaginary D B Joshi, that it takes few good hardworking men to keep system running. Imagine honest IAS/IPS officers taking on system. Imagine well meaning employees in corrupt governance systems. Imagine few key PMs and techies managing whole project amidst loads of good for nothing and pampered project teams involving QAs, BA s, TLs, MLs and so on. Every organization has those. These people are driven by sense of ownership, excellence and achievement and not by external drivers. Search around you in your work place, you will find them whichever might be your domain etc.  But then do all get recognition, some do. Most of these ‘first handers’ as defined by Ayn Rand go unsung. As an example we all know architect of so called Param but not the real creative minds. We all know NR N but not the other key people at the start of Infosys. If anyone has seen movies like ‘The pirates of silicon valley’ or ‘social network’, fact still gets underlined. Not that all these people were not ‘first handers’, but apart from that you need some special skill sets to get recognized and make it big as beautifully explained by Malcomn Gladwell in Outliers. And mostly world has tendency to worship false heroes. But those driven by objectivism don’t care and they march on.

Twenty years of gone by. Professional and person life has given very great experiences but was always helped by Objectivism.

But then in life one faces many ‘Keatings’, one sees many ‘Roarks’ who toil hard for lack of credit and fair returns except their own self actualization. In fact, motivated by Ayn Rand i have also tried to be ‘Gail Wynand’ the mass motivator. I was in same boat of Howard Roark’s many a times, betrayed by ‘Keatings’ and the master scheme of world. But my objectivism was driven by slightly unfashionable motivation and was slightly intangible in form of the nature of work which I liked in those years. And I had to pay price for that. But ultimately objectivism is what mattered and triumphed in the end as per my own standards and not to be judged by anyone. That is the biggest learning I have got from books of objectivism. And it acts like strength during moments of doubt.

Then read every other book of Ayn Rand. Atlas shrugged is a kind of strike by people who really drive the things against the exploiters who in name of altruism manipulate the excellence. Ayn Rand lived in the time of communism vs capitalism. Also read ‘we the people’, and many non fictions as well.

This really was an inspired writing based on philosophy, politics and world situation then. Hats off to the great Ayn Rand.

Wish to continue objectivism which is now more matured with my own age, next decade and beyond.

13 jo tera hain

New Year is week old. Winters have set in. Normally this is a very cheerful time of the year. New resolutions are fresh and yet to be broken. Health is high on agenda.  But as they say 13 number is unlucky so has been its start.

The 16^th December Delhi gang rape issue is burning.  Case has started and lone witness has raised some serious issues for government, police and aam janata. Some insensitive and some misconstrued remarks have added fuel to this sensitive issue. Pak has killed two Indian soldiers and shown true colours.  Train fares have been hiked and a large hike in diesel and LPG is due after a minor rise. Market outlook and job stats are poor. Marathi literary fest is filled with controversies as usual. Pune DP plan which serves builder interest has been passed. India has lost series against Pak. Davis cup turmoil still continues.

Nothing has gone right and there is gloom all over. Government seems to have lost all it’s connect with people. Opposition keep hitting self goals.  There is no hope, darkness is everywhere.

But we need to move ahead. We need to make difference. We must believe in ourselves. Lot of sms were floating that ‘yeh saal tera hain’ ie this year is yours (Pun intended with hindi number 13 and word ‘yours’).  Yes we should believe in this. We can make difference.

We can remove evils around. We can make difference in society. We can be more vigil and help each other out in trying situations. We can demand stronger laws. We can make us listen through new media. We can control politicians to do their tasks properly. We can conquer our shortcomings. We can try something new. We can improve the things. Lets start with self then the surrounding, city, country and world. Let us care about environment as well. Let us help those in need.

Wish you a very happy new year 13 which is yours. Ring in the new....

New lessons in life

Every moment in life teaches you something. This knowledge is sometimes mistaken wrongly as experience. Experience is something you observe and feel. Lesson is something you use for future reference. Each moment gives you experience as well as teaches you new lesson. I used to strongly recommend hostel experience for each individual. Hostel life makes you independnat, gives you new perspective about life, undertsand diversity of opinions, thought proceses, capabilities. All the while your parents and families shield you from these useful experiences and lessons as well when they cocoon you in good intentions of proetcting you from big bad world.
Just as i feel hostel life is must, so is hospitalization.
Surprised, though there is saying in marathi that you wish such calamity should not befall even on your enemy, this hospitalization experience teaches you a lot.
lessons in brief:
1. Take nothing for granted in life : any silly thing can affect your health. you abuse body and body answers for sure. so hence forth follow best practices as much as possible while sitting, reading, working. esp for those in IT like me.
2. Hospitalization puts near ones in total disarray. more the people around you this chaos and load is divided. Thus value your near ones and dont take them from granted.3. Health insurance is comforting. insurance is must.
4. Some people comeout when they hear abt your plight and help you. these people surprise you . These people can be termed as near ones. while some whom you expect to help you keep distance.
5. you are bombarded with advice from all and sundry. Though sometimes irritable, it shows concern. But when you visit someone in hospital you should take care to not irritate someone. some people become emotional and irrational. so avoid being that.
6. it teaches you how to behave when someone else is hospitalized.
7. Doctors can be confusing and two opinions sometimes contradict. But second opinion is must. Decision is yours....
8. Music is only saviour to kill time. you can read but esp those with my plight, music was only saviour.
9. Sleep is only releif from pain.
10. Food can be entertainment.
You are welcome to add more points.

Rejuvenation

Time to change calendars, planners, diaries. Time to make resolutions and break it. Time to get into the most non happening part of year from Jan-apr till summer vacations for kids. In student life this was exam time; a crunch time. Winter turns into spring and then into hot summer. Only festivity on horizon is Holi. All parties stacked up in last quarter of the year are over and back to work now.

This is the time one can make it count. Human mind has a great weakness to find excuses and get adapted to situation. I think thats the main problem all us face. We are so comfortable in the day to day existence, routine, job that we lose focus on doing something new, solving problems that we really have to. Instead we dwelve upon day to day actions , fighting todays fire and do that repeatedly. These mundane problems occupy 80% of our time. And we find excuses to do avoid doing something new. Lack of ability to take calculated risks and sheer laziness are two elephants in the room.
Here is my idea of approaching this.
List out things troubling you most. The things you consider as main problems hampering your happiness.
Find solutions to each of those
Try to spend 80% of your time on solving those.
Thats half way towars happiness is to solve all your worries, botherations, problems.
Work towards solving them diligently. Never lose focus as these are real problems. They may take great efforts, hrs, days to resolve but never say quit till that problem is eleminated from your list.
Make small plans, fine tune them, change plans if need be, you might feel that by doing this you have aggrevated your problem, in that case reverse the plan. Dont feel sad about temporary setbacks. Be happy and focussed. One day this list will be erased.
Having solve your problems, now you need to unwind , remove your hackles. Try thinking what is my wishlist now that i have removed my problems. what i want to do with my life at this stage. List them. Plan as to how you will accomplish them. Dont be averse to taking risk to achieve them as in worst situation it may not work out but you will be one step ahead in your quest now that you know one way not to do it.
Take review and change plans. Be creative and think various possibilities to achieve your goals. Never stop till you realize.
In both above actions, one thing is important that you have to put in hard work. Hard work never kills anybody. You have to be persistent and you have to believe in your selves. In both above plans one thing is very important to keep your near ones a part of process. They will value this.
Bit heavy ? Yes but time to be serious and rejuvenate your existence....

Celebration of Hope and zeroth law of nature.

Nights are dark. Clouds of Corruption, inflation, terrorism, recession looming everywhere. But we humans have came across every challenge.
Thats the spirit of Diwali: Triumph of good over evil. Light over darkness.
Diwali is celebration of Hope.

Life is fast and furiuous. Only thing constant in life is change. The Indian team which could not win a single game in english summer, is invincible here back home. Remember 07 world cup when we failed to qualify. The next cup was ours. Gaddafi who ruled libiya was found dead in gutters. No one beyond those interested in Maharashtra politics knew about Anna Hazare. we in pune who suffered due to load shedding in 04-05, have gone back to those days after enjoying zero load shedding for 2-3 yrs, sensex has gone shambles. Those in IT benefitted by Microsoft, have to look forward to oracles, apples, googles for innovating.

There are few things which are also constant apart from change: price rise and terrorism. Petrol costing 50 rs same time last yr is now 72. as we celebrated much hyped 9/11, we ended up getting 11/7,26/11, 13/2,13/7, 5/9,list never ends.

Nevertheless there is a hope this things can be changed by some astute policy making and leadrship. In 2008 we survived because of that as due to solid fundamentals in our system based on Indian values. This time we lack that leadership and indian values have been discounted. Thus we need to believe that we can change the things. And we need to trust zeroth law that change is constant. Be it individually, for family, neighbourhood, state, country or for the world.

so lets celebrate human spirit, hope and change. Time for diwali clebrations. Celebrations have changed over the years but spirit is same. Time to be with friends , family, eat, enjoy, travel, celebrate...

wishing you a very happy diwali

Bikhare Sabhi Baari Baari..

Year 2011 started on bad note with Panditji 's demise. This year had its more than normal share for losing stalwarts. Shammi, Pataudi , srinivas khale and now Gazal Maestro Jagjit singh just to count few.
Jagjit singh had special bond for me. I had met him at KGP during SF. Heard him live thrice. His gazals were the ones which i can sing reasonablly (as per comments by others maybe just as a consolation for my attempt). The voice the depth , the honesty in voice, stress upon lyrics, simplicity of music, all combined to make him legend. I was in state of shock for two days. His gazals are on in a loop till now.
Popular and not so popular yet beautiful ones.
Only evitability in life is death. another inevitable thing about this world is change. so his death will cause change in this world and that inevitable as well. Remembering a poem in marathi: Jan pal bhar mhantil haay haay. meaning people will mourn for two minues on our death and move on. Life always move on
Point is why will people remember you for. Then is publicity important that people will remember only if you are popular. There are many unsung heros who have led meaningful lives yet we dont regret a bit about their death. Is life unfair say for eg to a jawan or young officer on border who is killed due to dirty valley politics?
So is life only about recogintion from others ? or self belief and pleasure will make your life more meaningful. and i have not even touched money issue here. Money give you many pleasures thats sure. But is happiness only about money?
Huh many confusions. Idea is to stay happy, help others, do meaningful things important for you and others, live in today, stress for excellence. Life today as if there is no tomorrow. Make your mark today.. Kal ho no ho

Message to Dhoni: Need to take blows when you are down

All and sundry experts and cricket analysts have spared no stone to hit at Indian tea, after england disasters at London and Nottingham. These were the same critics who were singing praises for indian team and its capt dhoni in april for WC win.
The 11 (14) players were treated like gods thereafter and folklores were created of every event...
Purely on cricketing sense one can analyse that main reasons in order of their problems
Absence of Zaheer and sehwag ; Two outright winners and holding prowess of Gautam Gambhir.
Dhonis fatigued captaincy: No inspired moves
Lack of fielding sharpness
Inadequacy of new players to support if not substitute the ageing and great middle order.
No century partnerships except one in first innings of second test where india actually got leads
Reason i am making this list is because i dont treat this english team as great at all. It might be good but batting has many problems which a fully fit indian team could have exploited by dhoni's captainship brilliance. Bowling is at the most sharp and steady and never destroying like aus in 90s and wi in 80s. I firmly believe that there is no clear no 1 team today. Eng/India/SA form a trinity and we will see no1 spot changing hands series after series for next few years.
So what do you make out of remaining series. with sehwag, zaheer, gambhir back, we can expect more fight. A win here will restore parity and its not impossobile though very difficult. even if we lose the series a win is necessary. You remember what durban win did to indian teams aura and respectability. The armchair eng/aus/sa critics also were made to take note of. same happended at perth after monkey gate. This time this sound bit difficult but thats waht champions are meant to bounce back. remeber how aussies bounced back in 2004 in india after debacles of 98 and 01. so a series loss is by no means end of world. But it gives chance to retrospect and learn. If we do not do that then doomsday is not far ahead.
But for next 10 days , we need to take full on the blows from all and sundry including our own past cricketers who are paid to echo public sentiments.
same inlife when you are down you need to take and absorb blows. Importance is to believe in your abilities and rise.... Then its your turn to give it back. Hope we rise from this situation. we have to....

Time flies

I remember that evening in march 07 when all plans of world cup went awry. India played 2 matches, we had partied on both days with friends around. I remember the agony fans faced and the jokes , postings etc .That time facebook/twitter had not caught on like today, but those savvy people used to forward mails... Now its 2011 . Month to go for another world cup. Four years have zoomed past, sachin has gone from struggling mode to different level another. we have seen worst recession of our professional lives (though end is not yet near esp in US and europe). We have seen UPA1 and UPA2 . Thankfully left parties have been shown door. UPA2 fumbles on all fronts. we have seen terror in 2008 bomb blasts in five cities, 26/11, pune, varanasi. we have seen dirty politics in coloring terror from ruling party. we have seen inflation. we have seen obama, we have seen pak blown away, we have seen MJ's death, we have seen spain winning soccer WC, we have seen some classics at wimbledon, we have seen IPL, we have seen indian team playing very good cricket.. coming back to where i started
anyways lots of things happen in four years. It seems just like yesterday. We are so busy in our lives that days pass, weekends are spent, quarters zoom past with varied numbers, academic years end, you turn older....
so whats new in this, we all know . why lament, live in a moment... i can hear all those cliche advises and know it all cynics who migh scorn at this posting to be non issue. why i thought, i should share this. Its just the fear, at this rate we will soon go past our whole life span. I am sure most of us feel that way but for few really balanced and yogic people.
Other day few friends from school (including some old flames from school days) met, all of us have cross wrong side of 30s with families etc taking priority. someone shared school snaps, 25-30 yrs ago. That seems different age. College days at Kharagpur seem another era,... thats a paradox as we cant track time at all on one hand and feel those early stages to be years gone on other hand.
anyways no one can stop time and there is no point in complaining as my know it all freinds can advise.
But point i am making is the scary feeling of running out of time in hand.... Is this mid life crisis? Time to follow your heart....

Curious Case of Virender Sehwag

I am a total fan of Sehwag. I would pay anything to watch him play. More than Cricket, More i like his philosophy: Plain, simple, honest, positive. There is no fear of failure as failure is acceptable part of life as per his philosophy. He will on some day get out trying hyper ambitious shot. But most of the days he will send it for cleaners.

Aby baby in a hit film had said " Duniya mein do tarah ke log... ". There are two kinds of people: as per obama catch mantra: Those who think they can and those who think they cannot. and that though makes the final difference.

The only way he thinks is positive. If he thinks he can hit he does. More often than not, it succeeds. People have criticized that he throws away wicket loosely and does not have technique. What better technique you can have if you can hit like what he does. And about throwing away wicket , its shows for lack of fear of failure.
Even in life we need to do away with lot of mental baggage, remove negativity and stop being afraid of failures: Sehwag shows the way. Fear of failure comes with lack of confidence in ones ability and efforts. Back your strenghts, think positively: Think every ball as potential boundary ball : be it a bouncer (recession) or be it a half volley (boom time). Every ball can be hit. You will get beaten one ball or might even be out. But dont stop playing your shots....
Dont just block the ball. Purpose of life is to score runs , and while doing that is that you remain notout. If you dont score, better be out as blocking will not lead you anywhere. Score will remain same and there will be one ball which will take you out just as people who are comfortably enconsced in their jobs get fired during recession as an example.

When everyone struggles in srilanka on difficult Dambulla pitch, he ends up scoring centuries. I hope we remember similar story on greener Newzealand wickets in 2002-3.
and at galle against ajantha mendis in 2008, and his pace setting 83 while chasing 380 against england in chennai, and his almost 3 triple centuries: One matchwinning (multan), One match saving (chennai) and one game changing (brabourne), his great hundreds in Australia.

He has been earlier branded as flat track bully. But if you study his major succeses have come against toughest opposition on taoughest conditions as mentioned above.
He has score everywhere in planet. infact his stats against bangladesh and zimababwe are most average. Thats a curios point. He lacks motivation when there is no challenge. He is someone who takes opposition by his horns.
Thats why he terrorizes bowlers just like Viv richards used to do. Sometimes he gets under skin as what he got to srilankans and suraj randiv...

People have tried short balls, bouncres, wide of off side balls to trap him. He has comeup with answers everytime. He has habit of making to landmarks with big hits. sometimes he has perished as well. Thats another facet of sehwag philosophy: Discard that is common place do something big...

Another curious aspect is his average performance in limited overs. He is the most suitable guy for limited overs but its opposite. Reason for that is any contraint or restraint is painful for such souls. Field restrictions, runrates , wickets etc make him play some unnatural shots. Solution is simple and he seems to have worked out in recent series: Play naturally street smart cricket And thats a good sign with ICC world cup coming. India has great chance if he continues like this.

If you ask me, that who is the player whom you like most to watch, my answer would have been SRT in 90s but in new millenium it is Sehwag. Ands its not balsphemy with due respects to SRT, most will agree.

fevicol ad

During the cricket series, an ad released by Fevicol made me very pensive. Theme of ad is that a small girl sticks moustache for a play assumingly using fevicol and that cannot be removed throughout her life and even after that. The creaters had expected humor as tone. For me it was much deeper than that. Glancing across various stages of life in 5 to 6 seconds is what makes one pensive and closer to realities of life. having celebrated another birthday, it made me feel further pensive. Time is running out. It stops for no one. someone had uploaded a very old photo of mine from kgp hostel days during a party. having taken a look at that snap, this ad made me look at yesterdays snaps at one party. 17 years have passed. so many things have changed for good and for bad. But later i realized that what matters is journey how well you have enjoyed it. and what have you acheived. Thats what make difference. and your time is not up....

Power of 9

9-9-09, fancy date is approaching. China had fancy of 8, so they launched Olympics at 8:08 pm on 8-8-08. For me its 9 which fascinate me somehow. I dont believe in Numerology (with that my lucky sign should be 6th being born on that date).
9 has various meanings for me: 1 short of best. 10/10. Our CPA was based on scale of 10. we judge many things on this scale. 10/10 is superhuman or lucky (with divine intervention). That last mark lost is reality of human limitation. I feel its the best we get. Even top rankers in IIT are called 9 pointers. Its human to err. Idea is to minimize error and that has a limit. anything above is matter of chance or superhuman accuracy. sometimes in maths i used to get cent percent as maths is only objective subject rest all subjects have subjectivity. Does that mean if things are objective then you can score 100% in life. whenever there is subjectivity we are bound to lose atleast a mark? another philosophical question but yes very relevant. so in scheme of things which are to be judged subjectively (so is life a matter of subjective judgement) perfect 10 is impossible. Even perfect characters have blemishes: be it mythalogical or historical. No one can be 100% perfect. people do get close to perfection with tremendous hard work. But one has to be realistic about limit of 9 or you can call curse of 9 for all.
Leave aside philosophical value of 9, i have sentimental factor attached to every yer ending with 9. it marked paradigm shift in 89, it marked a complete status change professionally and personally in 99, what does 2009 has done, will it stand to test will be known in these few months starting with 9th month. my father celebrated landmark b'day in 09. he got married in 69, I did a feat in 79 (childrens year) which was noted by A B Vajpayee who was foreign minister in Janata govt .
Wish you a very happy 9-9-09. a near perfect date.