Diwali: Down the memory lane

Diwali brings about a special ambience, happiness, peace, camaraderie within each of us. We are sure that readers of Cityblog are excited about upcoming Diwali festival. In special theme of Now and Then where we look upon what are the key points we remember Diwali thoughout our memories since childhood.
History and Mythology: Diwali marks the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom of Ayodhya after defeating (the demon king) Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, in the epic Ramayana. It also celebrates the slaying of the demon king Narakasura by Lord Krishna. Both signify the victory of good over evil. Sociologically it was the time to celebrate four months of toil of farming and celebrating agricultural success. Historically Diwali has been celebrated all over India in various formats. Here in Pune it is spread over six days. There are historical references of celebration during Shivaji era as well as in peshwa era. In famine ridden old days of bristish empire, people needed occasions to celebrate and most importantly eat well. Faral items were made only during diwali in the entire year. Now we can eat Chakli, ladoos anytime. New clothes were bought only once a year in diwali Pre independence days saw emergence of cultural social agenda in form of Diwali magazines. Post independence crackers got prominence as well as cultural programs like music shows drama. In post liberalization era, cracker menace was identified and also a phenomenon called Diwali Pahat gained popularity.
Let us now highlight each phenomenon unique in its association with Diwali Memoirs for atleast pst 3 generations and current one.
Holidays: One semester is over and schools break after a Diwali party, for Diwali vacations of 3weeks to allow students enjoy diwali as well travel. Some schools give homework which is spoilsport. But that does not dampen spirit of chidren and parents
Nature: Rains normally subside (last two years being exception), Nature takes its own course. There is typical aroma of seasonal flowers and air. Mornings and evenings are chillier with day moderate. I am sure most people associate that aroma of nature with Diwali.
Faral aroma: Another aroma paves way thorugh kitchens all over Pune, is smell of faral items mostly fried. Chivda, ladoo, chakli , karanji etc. Chakli being king of farals as its success defines total faral to be good or average. We kids used to love tasting samples freshly made braving few scolds from parents/grandparents/aunts
Killa and akashkandil; Once we had vacations, we used to plan structure of our clay fort. It used to be a mixture of modern city scape with old shivaji era forts. In one shot you can have four wheelers plying on road where shivaji and his soldiers used to be placed atop the fort and lord Shankar in cave with tiger. Clay idols were really attractive. Getting clay is becoming a task in concrete jungle. Its also time to make/buy an akashkandil or light to be hung from balconies/window. Some people do extensive lighting. That creates ambience.
Vasubaras: That’s the first day of diwali. Only part of celebration is puja of cow and her calf organized by some local politico. But it marks the beginning of festivities.
Dhanteras: Its lady’s Diwali. That’s also mark puja of dhan (money) and dhannya (grains): symbols of wellbeing.
First Cracker of morning: then comes the thirds day of narak chaturdashi. There used to be a competition where someone who lights first cracker of morning say at 4 am is winner. Nowa days cracker menace is identified rightfully so this tradition needs some bypass but idea is to maybe write the first rangoli or something.
Rangoli is drawn in every household on everyday. Creatively inclined are popular in Diwali
Abhyngsnan: You can associate Utne (multani soil), Fragrant Oil and Moti soap with this. All men folk are massaged and idea is to take bath before first rays of sun else you will get into narak (hell) .This was some threat for young ones .
Sarasbaug: After abhyangsnan, idea is to go the dev darshan or a temple. Sarasbaug was is immensely popular for its ambience. Everybody decked up in new clothes, a good sight seeing.
Faral with friends: On return, most families have traditional get-togethers to have joint faral where the faral quality was put to test. It also used to be marked with jointly viewing special programs on TV or some Marathi play VCD. I remember PL ‘s Varyyavarchi Varat on DD. Gone are those days.
Diwali Ank: getting to sleep in afternoon is must after early rise. Best way is to relax and read diwali special magazines. Good literary stuff.
Laxmi Pooja and Haldikunku: This is the fourth day . This is when goddess laxmi pooja is done. We can remember a lot of fire crackers in eighties and nineties where there used to be competition to light biggest cracker. Great noise pollution and decibel levels were really high. All lights were lighted up and ladies used to have haldikunku.
Diwali Pahat/cultural programs: Post liberalization era identified need of people to be involved in culture, music and drama. Thus a line up of programs was held and there was enthusiastic response for such shows. Nowadays these shows are held abroad also.
Deepotsav: Mjor temples, gardens are now lit up with earthen lamps in formation. It’s a sight to watch.
Padwa: This is fifth day. Here there is big lunch with a sweet dish. This also is time for husband to gift his wife. First diwali after marriage is very important and son in law gets gifts.
Bhaubij: This is sixth and last day. Now its sisters time to be gifted from brother.
Travel Plans: Diwali vacations had a window for those who could travel to faraway destinations like north /south or near destinations like Konkan/Mahabaleshwar. Also was opportunity to go to relative’s house outside town.
Cricket: Time to play and watch cricket as this new cricket season starts in Oct.
Charity: Some people do real good work to donate faral, colthes etc for needy. This angle of celebration has caught up.

There are some post diwali rituals like Dev Diwali or Tushi marriage which are not so wide spread. But Diwali season and vacations end with bright Tripuri Pournima leaving behind great memories and leave us longing for next Diwali. Wish you very happy diwali and prosperous new year.

If gods were cricketers

Indian cricket team is ruling roost esp with current victory snatched from a defeat at Mohali. With VVS Laxman as hero.I read a cartoon where people demanded temple of Laxman to be undisputed in backdrop of Ram Temple issue. Thats led me to a train of thoughts. pls note i do not want to create any religious controversy nor i intend to insult gods. If Gods in heaven form a cricket team whose T shirt will they wear?

In India there is cliche. Criket is our religion and players are Gods. But here its reverse.

Lord Ganesha: He is opener. He is attacking. He removes all obstacles. He is master of arts. All evil fear him. So he has be Sehwag

Lort Kartik; Brother of ganesha, equally capable. But remains not so prominent; he is gambhir

Now comes trinity in the middle order: Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh

He is creator, he created world , with whom everything starting, he cannot be created nor be destroyed. He remains on and on and on.. He is Tendulkar

He is saviour of world. He faces most trickiest solutions. he ends up winner in every incarnation. He is maryada purshottam, he is dravid

He is destructor, powerful , iconoclast, listens only to his own guts, he is ganguly

Where is Laxman: He is shesha. Accompanying vishnu in every incarnation. Remains sidelined. equally capable. creates great partnerships with vishnu (Kolkata, adelaide).

Now comes the king indra, dhoni; Leader on basis of his team of gods. Lucky, simple, has his own strengths like vajra.

we all know powers of nature. so they bowl out opposition
Suryadev: Bhajji with hot attitude and scorches opposition with spin
Varundev: Zaheer destructive yet productive
Vayudev: Ishant with pace and lightness. His putra Saved Laxman using sanjeevani booti like in mohali.
Agnidev: Shreeshant with fiery attidute and dance.

Yamdev: silent death : kumble with knack to kill opposition and yet be friendly. yam has most important role to maintain balance of life and death.

last pair of ashwini kr can be our spin twins ozha and mishra. they were twins. they were doctors. Here our pair doctors spin.

i think i have most gods covered . i know there are 33 crores of gods but search vedas or refer to any mythological serial list ends here. if experts know more, pls suggest.

oh kamdev i forgot; that has to be yuvraj....

thanks team india for all winning moments

Ayodhya Verdict : A monumental Opportunity

Last week whole India waited with baited breath for Ayodhya Verdict. Finally it came as a big suprise for many. For once law went beyond the irrelevant minor technicalities and delivered a solution, which seems to be only way out of this mess created by interested parties (say politicians , leaders cross the spectrum starting from Babar himself, followed by bristishers, congress and BJP).
Following the verdict, i could not wait to analyze reactions to the verdict from all parties involved, armchair philosophers and usual suspect crowd. and i was totally disappointed. No politician in country has guts to stand out of crowd and make sense to public. let me explain
firstly issue like Ayodhya cannot be solved using normal civil court procedures. Its matter of coexistance and tolerance. If No one party can remain victor or loser, Then only the solution can evolve. I have heard from wakf board claiming that land belonged to them and events in 1949 and 1992 created dispute. This stand has certain limitations as its virtully beyond court to reaffirm what happenend in 15th century or for that matter to go and ascertain birth place of almighty. The issue has to be solved with a view beyond the myopic and convenient positions taken by so called secular parties and media.
It has been historically witnessed that victors always went on stamping the humiliation on losers. babar was no saint, he was a plain invader. That is a fact. So majority community could get attracted to sentiments aroused by sangh parivar to this basis that they wanted to be part in restoring their pride. That does not though justify sangh Parivars thought process which denies existance and rights of 20% of population. That also is myopic version of saffornization. you need to coexist with 20% population. Minorities also should feel themselves to be part of mainstream and stop feeling alienated or pampered out of political equations. In fact this factorial politics played by Congress and other opportunists has resulted in the poverty and misery of Muslim population. They should see themselves equal and take benefit of modern education, economical opportunities in India (to which whole world is attracted to) and assert their rights rather than always look to create arbic indentity always as outsider and the feeling of being victimized.
So Court which was the last establishment to solve this. It sincerely tried to resolve matters by giving out of box solution. Leaders and politicians etc failed conveniently as it was in their interest to let the confict remain unresolved.
Court has tried sincerely, went with its limitations and delivered a super verdict which paves way for coexistance and conciliation. Each party should now accept others existance as per directive and once for all resolve this tricky issue. I know we are not done yet. SC might over turn this and that will be a disaster. I sincerly hope matter does not go the SC which by all means will. I really pray equally to Ram and Rahim to give sense to all parties and let us live peacefully. Its a golden opportunity.
But i had fun watching reactions from so called secular faces criticizing court. Had the decision been reverse they would have claimed court to be untouchble and any criticism would have been sacrelage. Even some media stawarts were busy explaining how decision is wrong etc etc. Media always has taken convenient position . worst were snakes like Samajwadis who went beserk. There is no reason for Muslims to feel dissapointed as they should understand that it has given them rights as well. Coexistance and tolerance are key words here. And There is no reason for Hindus to feel jubiliated as again here coexistance and tolerance is key. No one has lost and no one has gained. Perfect balance and sanity is restore. I hope SC does not tumble this applecart. cannot afford to go back to 92/93.....

Dramatic Moments

This is Ganpati time. After many years, i had an opportunity to be involved in drama during Ganesh festival. Thanks to rejuvinated spirit in my society, which celebrated public festival after 6 yrs of its inception. Drama with kids aged 6-8 was another challenge. So had to write script and work on practice sessions with those kids. Kids were so enthused abt it as they used to assemble for 4-5 mins earlier to 930 practice time and used to ring bell at sharp 9 30. They performed well including my daughter who later attempted to write her own drama. Everybody enjoyed it.

Drama is so fun. Mostly i have done one act plays expect for few productions at KGP. It all started at my high school, where kale sir (Shri Pramod kale, who wrote and directed kahe kabira and many more performances, and an active sudarshan rangmanch member) spotted talent in me. I was a non entity till say 5-6th. Jaagar Prasang Natya was a real best opportunity where we had to do extenpore drama. Thats a different challenge. We did some good plays for school gathering written by Kale sir/Tapasvi sir. I remember performing in front of Nilu phule and sriram lagoo. Then came a group play called Kavle where we won a competition. It was a ballet. We had great time practising it. We also participated in rajya Natya in mumbai.
The concept of writing script (hand written) from the Book. Remembering dialogues. Reactions, timing , positioning etc. Endless practices, tea shops, snacks, late night cycling, opportunity to interact with opposite gender, rangeet talim, final show, some blunders and timely recoveries, prompting. the process is real fun. The next day after performance was sad, as we felt loss of purpose of life.

Then came my opportunity to have tryst with purshottam karandak in college. It was different experience all together. though we did not do well as it was well foreseen.(It was sacrificial entry as other play from college was the main entry). Those practices in college campus, selection process (I had a friend whom people used to call as my godfather. he provided helpful jack.) Those snacks at 3 am. We had passouts and alumnii helping us. A great learning curve.

In kharagpur, with my background, i took interest in Hindi Drama. I had a senior from Pune who was also active in drama circles. He was genious. We did few sanjay pawar translations. In my first year (ours was the first batch to have separate fresher's hostel). I directed a hindi drama. I got best direction award. Since then directing took frontseat than acting. Spring fest was great event . we had plays from calcutta colleges. I volunteered as organizer there. For all 4 years i was involved in that. I became drama secretary and organized 3 competitions. Those organizational skill, right from booking auditorium, getting makeupman, budgeting, slotting, property really helped in professional life. I had an intersting senior called Rehan Khan from Lucknow. He ate, drank and breathed drama. We had very little female population. So all girls had opportunity to participate in drama at some event or other. Thus we were the most envied population on campus. We also performed at Ghatshila (near jamshedpur). we did picnics for drama teams. We did freshers play : Moruchi maushi hindi version. People had gala time. I performed in bengali translated plays by badal sarkar. I translated elkunchwar play Holi, directed and acted in it. we won a prize. Tried to understand bengali drama as well. Badal sircar, Mohan rakesh, tendulkar form trinity. In my final year, I was drama society governor.
After that saw many plays but never had that chance to perform again throughout my professional life. Attempted (successfully) to write a play. Also tried staging it but for lack of team. But its never late. Will surely try to be involved in stage, and also new media. lets hope this tryst during ganesha starts that track.

Coming back to where we started, very early in my life, we used to have ganpati festival at my wada. We did some kids plays. We used to watch seniors perform. It used to be an event which we used to look forward to from months together. We also performed for Dynandeep a TV program on social causes. That was a different era.

Time has flown by. Life has come whole circle. So let me live some more dramatic moments ahead. Thats a prayer to Ganesha, master of 64 arts.....

Good Old Times

Every philosophy talks about living in present. That seems to be only way of maximizing potential of achievements. Past is history. Future is unknown.
But i feel, what we treasure most is memories. especially the good ones. I am sure we are all selective about memories. How many of us would like to ponder over say sad memories or the tough times faced by each one of us. Human mind conveniently tries to mask them. that brings me to the topic of some of the very best memories of my life. School days. Reason, a gettogether where i met some classmates after 21 years. Three idiots met after 10 yrs out of college. Here we attempted to rewrite the script by rewinding 20 years. (sure not a remake of "bees saal baad").

School days were the most carefree days of our lives. Only purpose of going to school for me was recess and PT periods. Cricket, football, volleyball, hand ball, appa rappi, hand cricket, list of sports goes on.. They were seasonal. Primary school days were the most formative days. I still remember impact i had for every langauge class, maths funda, composition etc. But in secondary, the scholastics took back seat atleast till 9th. Exams were the only spoilers. Vacations were the high points. Extra curricular really started in secondary where the setup became more democratic. In primary , access to activities was controlled by teachers. Thus backbenchers like me never had chance. With advent of interest in Quizes, Drama, etc, extra curricular activities added a lot of confidence. My head master was another inspiration, such dedicated teachers are very hard to find. At home, no one pressurized me to study. And i compare what i am doing to my daughter. These are different times but still we all parents should have sanity and reflect upon our own school days. Ofcourse, we had many self motivated colleagues who used to be toppers and use to generate an awe. In my daughter's class , i find such characters. They say , your child is an opportunity for you to revisit your childhood. and thats whats happening with me as a parent.
Coming back to school memories, I remember those bus journeys, cycle journies, some crazy events. Fights with girls. (so silly of us as we realized that in later life)
In fact in our gettogether, we had girls (now ladies) outnumbering gents. Welcome change... Those interhouse competitions, social service camps, trips. Many more memories.
Its a tough choice for me to judge between hostel life in kgp and school days to be the 'best days of my life' (summers of 80-89 or summers of 91-96 as i can say)
Kgp life was different. i have an earlier blog titled Rocking memories here if you want to read abt that kgp life.
Professional life also has some great moments. But also were challenges. In both these phases (kgp and school), there were hardly any low points. Thats why if i had a time machine, i would definitely go back then. Buts its hard to chose if i had only one option to revisit....

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.

June

June had been hectic on work front. Schools have reopened. Rains had their entry in Pune. But has taken some respite as usual. No picnics till rains reappear, though had a small drive to hadshi a beautiful place in Maval. it will be matter of concern if this dry spell continues. Food prices are already up. if rains continue to desist then we are having an issue. Fuel prices have increased. Not so good time to live in.... but for football.
Its that time after four years when world stops. For us, we have to lose out on sleep due to late night matches. Everyone talks about demi gods like Maradona, Baggio, Ronaldo, Zidanne, Beckham, Rooney, Messi...... Pubs, restaurants are all abuzz with action. No other sport carries that mass appeal. maybe because its very simple. Man with a ball to kick. Thats it...
For me memories go back to days in 82 when paola rossi's headers caught imagination. Then it was Maradona's world cup that led into addiction. I remember in recesss time we used to discard cricket to play football for that month. 90 was boring WC. 94 I was in Kharagpur , i was doing project in vacation.Whole hostel was empty but for 3-5 mtechs and bhains (nick name of a wingie)with me. WC in bengal is a crazy experience. Everyone in market talks about it.
Final match was played on second day of sem when everyone was there. It was fun....There wer 6 of us supporting Italy against atleast 80 odd brazil supporters. Italy has been team of my choice due to their style of defense and counter attack. But this time i am supporting argentina...
98 I was in Mumbai . i used to share flat with some likeminded people at andheri. Mumbai rains was the memory alongside. and water logging was often. so soccer was only source of entertainment. 02 i had opportunity to see it live in Korea. My client had booked tickest for all office. we took a bus. It was some tempo. De hamaniguk was the chant. Ads of Korea team fighting were all around. Some fun and dream come true for me. When Korea lost yesterday, my client gave me a call and i had to console him. 06 was good WC with some good matches. I enjoyed at my club.... Now we are here in 10, almost half way. But clear pattern emerging of south american teams doing well... lets see if argentina goes all the way.
Another June highlight is memory of PL. I remember 10 years back, it was on 12th June he passed away. I felt a huge loss and attended his funeral, went to his home. PL has been a great inspiration. Even now after hectic day, i listen to haritatya, or asami in my drive back. And i am unwound... Simply a great person apart from being a great writer, orator, singer, musician,actor, social activist.... and so on..... A person who lived life and enjoyed every bit of it. He is a light and role model to demonstarte how one should live his life. .... He is know for humour but i feel he gives serious dimensions to make us think , guide us as to how one should live. But for that one should study his life, literature, drama, history etc.... There is a criticism that he dwelved upon only middle class values and was not all inclusive. To answer that, i feel though the medium he chose was based on middle class experiences but issues addressed were global. Also human values in each of his character are much deeper than his humour. salute to a great man...
last aspect of june is start of wimbledon, waiting for semis and finals...
And most importantly waiting for Rains so we can have picnics, treks and whole countryside turing into heaven....

Remembering Rajiv

'Yeh Bharat Desh hain , Humme ise ikkisvi sadi mein le jaana hain'. (This is India and we have to take it in 21st century) How many times in my formative years i had heard this. I used to do a reasonabaly well mimikri in my school repeating these lines, tone, accent. 21st century has completed its first decade , and we really are in it. For a middle class boy then aspirtaions were to grow into someone of repute, money and knowledge. And i hold Rajiv Gandhi one of the enabler of dreams of many people like myself. Though someone may attribute the growth of Indian IT to JRD/FC Kohli or someone may attribute liberalization window, someone may define it as windfall of Y2k. For me reasons of clear. Alongwith me , i have few noted economists agreeing to this.
1. Penetration of telecom with STD/ISD
2. Mid 80s construction boom leading to urbanization of cities like Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
3. (Though done not with honest intent) Creation of policy to encourage private educational institutes creating pool of engineers much needed to promote IT.
4. Focus on technology and many schemes encouraging govt funding for initiatives like STPI
I can dwelve upon each of above and impact of those policies on IT , but thats beyong point. Its about remembering a leader whom i liked genuinely.
Maybe then i was young but today its very hard to find any politician whom you can like. In current spectrum after retirement of A B Vajpayee and to an extent Thakaray, i personally dont feel worth of affection. (I am clear about word affection; It does not mean i support policies or the politics). Leaders like Indira Gandhi, Rajeev Gandhi, Vajpayee, Thakray, are liked by people. They have charishma. People look upto them to stand out and be with them in thick and thin.
They have humane face. Their politics or policies can be cricitisised but not their personna.
Thats what is missing today : a politician with personna. Rajiv Gandhi was much more than that. Though into politics by accident (calamity), he literally blazed onto scene. His speeches, youthy, energy was infectious. We never had so presentable, eloquent and dynamic PM.
That was the time when we like to be involved in National affairs. Reason being advent of DD with its high quality serials (though it was only option). We really felt together as a nation. Remember those national networks or run for countries (which we participated).
Politics declined with advent of characters like VP singh, Devilal etc .... People could not realte to them as person.Only respite was honest characters like Vajpayee and Manmohan singh.
I still remember that night on 21st May . That was the day i got to know about one of my greatest academic achievements. But as news poursed in (by means of one of my neighbours reading a board in local square), i was shocked. I felt my academic achievement is worthless as there is no one in country whom you can prove your capabilty. Those were the teen ages ;inexplicable not understanding that noone and nobody is indespensible and life goes on and on with or without anybody. Strange emotions that time. Today i can laugh over them equipped with lifes experiences, sarcasm /indifference/hate for politics and leadership. Maybe elders then could have felt that time also. But honestly i dont see today's teenager carrying same emotions for politicians (atleast not those i know of).
Rajiv was naive in politics and had to pay ultimate price for it. he also was tainted and back stabbed by those close. He also played a role of constructive opposition once down from PM post in 89 for almost and and half year.
Coming back to point i started that Indian IT has enabled many people to lead a life their parents would not even have imagined them to live. Entire middle class could aspire to get equipped with skills they can demonstrate on global scale and be part of mean world of Business which was restricted to few in old economy. In my community its rare to have someone who does not have immidiate kin in US /UK or western world. In fact those who stay back out of choice have to face a stand out situation. And for me ,one of the enabler was Rajiv Gandhi. Point to be noted by all my peers in IT industry.