If Gandhi were to be alive, maybe he would have addressed the nation this way. This is a pure work of fiction and is the author’s view of Gandhi and India.

My dear countrymen,

I traveled my country from North to South and East to West, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Gujarat to Assam. For sure, I cannot walk the entire breadth and length of this country today, as most roads do not have a footpath. So a common man like me will have to encroach into the rupturing roads, with the blaze of horns screeching in my ears. I saw that the import licenses has helped my country boom and make it classy with BMWs, Mercedes and all the big names in the car industry. But the smoke the government buses produce blinds my eye and blocks my breathing. Can’t we have good air filters in all the government owned vehicles, my friends? Some roads were tarred, some mud roads, and yet other places, no roads at all. Is it so difficult to lay out tarred roads and help ease the commute of our dear countrymen? I see people throwing litter, spitting on the roads, and treating public way like trash bins. Would you do this at home, may I ask?

As I walked past Bombay, you call it Mumbai now, I saw some very tall buildings. A real tall one, someone showed me was Mukesh Ambanis house. I thought he must be having a big family. But no, there are only four people in his house. Wow! He must have a lot of money I thought. I walked some more and reached the shack centre or slums of Mumbai. And I wondered how much of a dent would it make in Mukesh Ambani’s purse, if he and the many others like him, build strong and lasting houses for these people. When he doesn’t do that then how can he claim his love for the country?

I was passing by a village when thirst beat the energy out of me. I stopped at a hut and asked for water. The lady handed me a glass of muddy water which she had drawn from a well located kilometers away from her house. It pained me deeply to see people, children, did not have access to clean drinking water, the most basic thing a country can provide to its people. Her children never went to school, and on the other hand my country boasts about IITs and IIMs. Basic education is the biggest gift we can give to our children, propagators of the current generation.

I picked up the newspaper and read about Anna Hazare fasting to end corruption. What has become of the people who have the authority to make India the best country in the world. People hungry for money, people hungry for power, ignoring the basic needs of the human population of the country. These people fail to realize that power is in the growth and well-being of the common man. Power is felt when you have provided drinking water, food, shelter, education and security to every citizen of India. That is the ultimate power. I see that the rich are becoming richer, the poor are becoming poorer. It is so difficult in this demanding environment for the poor man to rise up one level so that he can provide three square meals, education, shelter and safety to his family.

Sixty six years since the British left us, and hundreds of people had the power to do anything in this country, build it, govern it, and make it the best country in the world. We left behind a clean canvas to paint with vivid colors and make it bright and beautiful. But now, I see a torn canvas, bruised with rust at the edges, The shades are grey with intermittent peaks of brightness. India has grown, but in what directions? It is never too late to start a revolution. A silent promise that I will make this a better place. A silent oath to transform India from the grey shades to brightness.
With Prayers,
Gandhi.

My blog tells me I last wrote something in December last year. Almost three months now. What have I been doing? Didn’t I have any thoughts about writing? I did, many thoughts crossed my mind. But all these thoughts came rushing in, when I had the least access to a pen or my alphabet keys. Can I rewind those thoughts? A person like me – No way!.. Yikes!
Now that I have some time to spare, free from the daily chores of life, here is something that I have been pondering on for a few days.
How do you understand yourself? This is the just the first question. Here come the rest.. How do you know who you really are… what you want out of life… what are your highs and lows… the list goes on…
There are some people who have this sixth sense power of deep diving into oneself and construct a perfect frame of the person they are. It works like a input-process-output diagram that we normally use in the project management world. Given a situation, they can precisely say how they will react, what the outcome will be. Such people usually have a strong mind.
Now the other category of people, who have no idea who they are, what they want, what they value… rather the ‘confused’ strata. They act on impulse and on the spur of the moment. They let people around them shape their everydays. No two actions may be alike. Today they may react in one way to a situation and tomorrow another. Fickle-minded is another apt word. They may have reasons for their actions, but acting on impulse may overshadow their honest intention.
The mind – the umbilical cord between the body and life. The central control tower, which directs every thought, action, word. A stable mind is the key to a good life. Strong for the former category of people and weakest for the latter. A ripple in the still waters of the mind causes emotions – all of them – the smile, the frown and everything in between, above and beyond.

Dec 17, 2010

I pick up my suitcase, this time a big one, and make a journey again. This time from the east coast of America to the west coast. From Indiana to Arizona. From home to home. I am travelling not on a vacation, but still on a vacation. Vacation from stress. But working remotely. I will have to support the testing effort that is going on in my project. But that is not a load, when compared to the 2 weeks of time off from daily stress. I don’t have to wake up at 7 am to get the kids ready. Don’t have to drop Nitin to school, needn’t worry about cleaning the house or the laundry. It’s a time to rethink, and reinvent the me, gradually getting lost in the daily chores of life.
I am boarding the US Airways flight 639 to Phoenix. My sons sitting beside me and mother behind me. My younger brat is flapping his hands, like a bird just as the airplane wheels away to take off to the skies. He thinks his flapping made the airplane fly. Such innocence! Where are all these people going? Everyone has a story, and there are so many stories to tell.
I open my book – Danielle Steel – Family Ties. It is after many months that a book has landed in my hands. 3 hrs 45 minutes of flying time and 220 pages read. I am impressed with myself.


Dec 20, 2010
The book is over, and now I am at a different destination. Tucson. 2 days with friends at Phoenix was good. Nitin had an awesome time with his friend Diya, he was seeing after 3 years.
Kids at his age adapt so easily to new environments. It is us adults who carry this fear of change. Why do we have to move from one place to the other like nomads. Just when you have made your friends, unpacked everything and start to form bonds, it is time to leave again in search of a new destination. Wish life was still at one place.

Dec 23, 2010
I am moving again tomorrow morning to Phoenix. Another move.  Back home at Carmel, it is snowing and snowing and snowing. My backyard must be full of snow, 3 inches maybe. The Christmas tree full of lights is twinkling. There are lights adorning the trees outside my house. It must be beautiful. Am I missing home? Yes and no. Maybe. The mind always runs behind things that are not at hand. Silly mind.
Well this Christmas, is to be spent at a friend’s place. All the gifts wrapped will be placed under the tree on the night of the 24th. Like how my son told me the other day ‘There is no Santa Amma’. I asked him, then who brings the presents, he pointed his little finger at me and said ‘you’. My 6 year old understands that. My Nitin, who I often feel thinks beyond his age at times; in understanding the circumstances.
Then there’s the little brat – his new dialogue ‘it’s just not my lucky day today’.
Once a year you should take a vacation with friends close to your heart, more on the fun side. The people in this world with whom I would take such a vacation would be my dear buddies, Chichu and Renju. The threesome, oh what fun! There is absolutely no moment to frown.
There is fun all around when there are minimum expectations from you and you don’t have to worry about pleasing everyone. Why can’t everyone just take life as simple as possible, instead of complicating it with emotions and feelings and heavy words? Just sway along with the wind. Life will take its course. When there are expectations that you should behave in a certain way, and then you bring in tweaks to the ‘you’. When you bring in the tweaks, ‘you’ is in imbalance. When ‘you’ is in imbalance, the mind wavers. Then one has no idea what one is thinking or doing. If I get a magic wand and am granted three wishes, one of them would be to take away expectations one has from others around.


May the balance be with you. 🙂