Apperances can be deceiving - Never underestimate anyone

Dear Readers,

It is great to see you again!!! Once again thank you all so much for your overwhelming support in making this blog a huge success.

Today I want to discuss about not underestimating any person. Let us  discuss some common scenarios where this might happen.

We might see house keeping people and think that she might be an uneducated or under qualified person. We might do the same when we see waiters in restaurants or cab drivers. My dear friends, what we are actually seeing is only the out worldly appearance mostly deermined by a person's clothing. The house keeping staff person may have been from a very good family. However, we do not know the circumstances in which she might have taken up this job. Maybe she might be funding her education or feeding a family or might be taking care of her sick mother.

In India, everyone knows that superstar Akshay Kumar was a waiter in his struggling days. And, who can forget that superstar Rajnikant was a bus conductor?

Once the great Shayar (Poet) Mirza Ghalib was invited to a party by a Nawab (noble man). He wore a very fine robe to the party. When dinner started everyone noticed that the great Shayar was spilling food on his dress. The amused Nawab asked him what was the matter and why he was behaving so strangely. The Shayar replied in his poetic fashion that he had turned up at the Nawab's place a little while ago. However, he was wearing very ordinary clothes at that time. Seeing his ordinary appearance, the servants had chased him away. So, he decided to turn back in fancy clothes. So, this time the same servants treated him with proper hospitality and extended him great courtesy. So, he said to the Nawab that this was the reason why he was feeding his dres. As his apperance was the reason why he was receiving such a warm hospitality. The Nawab regretted the incident and seeked his forgiveness. The great Shayar forgave him.

So, the message my dear friends is that we should not be too hasty to judge a person by his apperance alone. We should treat everyone with compassion, love and show them respect. It is just like Eminem has quoted that he does not care whether a person is short, tall, fat, beautiful or ugly. If you show me respect then I will give you respect.

Hope you liked this article. If so, kindly drop in your feedback.

Have a great weekend,

With lots of Love,
Gunjan.

A Philosophy from Shrimad Bhagvat Geeta

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome back!!! Today I want to discuss a philosphical ideology.

This philosophy is from Shrimad Bhagvat Geeta, the holy book from Hinduism. It is a preaching by Lord Krishna imparted to Arjuna on the battle field of Kurukshethra to prepare him to fight in the battle against his cousins.

This divine philosophy has several self illuminating preachings. A very well known preaching is "Karam Karo par phal ki iccha nahi" which literally translated means "Do your duty but don't expect fruits of your labor".

How can we relate this philosophy to our daily lives ? I can think of a few scenarios.

In our modern society we pressurize our kids to study hard so that they can be class toppers. Does anyone read for the joy of it anymore? You might think what is this idiot saying where is there any joy in reading ?

When we take a liking to a subject we experience joy. If a kid is good at crafts then she can continue to learn crafts. If someone is good at music then she can continue to study music. Similarly, we can find kids who are intersted in pure sciences. When we do what we like rather than imposed we experience joy and there is no greater feeling than inner peace and satisfaction.

Another, common scenario is at work place. If I work hard then I will get promotion. Althought, there is nothing wrong with having ambition. The real problem is when an expectation fails despite all our efforts. The feeling of being miserable can destroy a person. It makes him angry, jealous, frustrated and cheated. In short, he becomes depressed.

I would say that do not worry about human made designations like Director, CEO and VP which only ruin you by increasing your Ego. Try to become illuminated individuals. Become someone like Swami Vivekananda, Mother Teresa (I personally prefer Mother over Saint), Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Amelia Earhart, Leonardo Da Vinci or Martin Luther King. You would once again have self doubt. How can I be like these great people ?

But, my dear friends remember that God has made all of us all equal and we are all his children. Remember, Paulo Coelho's philosophy that when a person wants to achieve something the whole universe conspires to help him achieve it.

So, stop running after materialistic things and take one step towards God. Rest is assured that God will take you in his arms.

Jai Shree Krishna,

Your loving brother,
Gunjan.

Team bonding over long walks

Dear Readers,

Great to see you again!! Thanks for your overwhelming support and encouragement.

Today, I will be discussing on how I made some great friends at my work place. I work in the IT sector. As such we work under tight deadlines and constant stress. There is very little time to get to know the people we are working with.

I am an avid walker. I like to walk for about half an hour everyday after lunch. Since, my company did not have a very big campus I used to walk for about two kilometers around the office area every day after lunch.

One of my colleague joined me in my daily routine. We would talk about lots of stuff during our walks. We used to discuss politics, sports, religion, tv shows, movies, music and any other topic barring work. This was our time to relax and get to know each other. One by one my other team mates also started joining in our walks. Slowly, we had a group of about eight people.

We all came to know lots of things about each other. We came to know that one of us was a very good guitarist. One of the guys was a bike lover. One of the guys was an avid book reader. One of us was a great chess player and so on. We used to share each other's life stories, joys and sorrows.

As a result of our walks, we became very close to each other and there was a tremendous bonding in our group. This bonding also started helping us in our work. As we could approach anyone in our group for help without hesitation. Also, it helped to create a light and lively workplace atmosphere. We started smiling and feeling happy. Our stress was relieved and everyday we would look forward to our walks.

In my opinion, it is very important to have a social and friendly workplace where everyone can be approached freely. Hierarchical workplaces generally do not thrive very well. We are social beings and as such establishing good relations with our colleagues is very important to our as well as the company's success.

Hope you all liked this article. If so, kindly leave out your comments or suggestions.

See all soon again,

With Love,
Gunjan.

A simple lesson from my childhood

Dear Readers,

Hope you all are having a great day. It is great to see you again.

Today, I want to share with you all a simple lesson that I learnt in my childhood.

Lesson 1 - Work hard for success

I was in kindergarten and my class teacher Miss Shantha gave us a very tough assignment. That day we had to write the numbers from one to ten. Only the kids who would complete this herculean feat could get access to the play area.

I threw a long glance at the play area. My favorite red truck and Gi Joe figure was lying there. I was very bad at Maths. And, I could not even understand numbers till my first class. So, this task was like Mission Impossible for me.

But, I had a great level of determination and decided that somehow I would get to that play area. So, I took a look around and saw that one of my friends was writing the numbers very quickly and confidently. I decided to copy the assignment from him. I drew the numbers and soon we were done with the ardous task. We kept our assignment on the teacher's desk and ran to the play area.

I was feeling so ecstatic. We started playing a military game. We had barely started punching our Gi Joes against the Cobras when my techer called out my friend's name. My name was called next.

She pulled us by the ears and told that all the numbers were wrong :-) I was shocked and miserable. She made us write the assignment ten times and we did not get to play anything for the rest of the day.

That day I learnt an important lesson in life. We can achieve success only through hard work and there are no shortcuts in life. We should always develop our own potential rather than blindly follow other people.

Hope you all liked this small lesson. I would feel obliged if you drop in your comments.

With Love,
Gunjan.

How a news paper delivery boy became a top class Yahoo executive

Dear Readers,

Welcome back !! Hope you had a great day.

I am dedicating this article to my High school friend Harsha. He has been a source of constant inspiration to me. We studied together in Vidya Vardhaka high school in Bangalore from eighth to tenth class.

Our school is a semi government aided school. This is one of the most prestigious and well known school in North Bangalore. This is one of the schools where you can get admission purely on the basis of merit. There are no management seats.

Students in Bangalore have board exams in seventh class. Students above ninety percent marks push their luck to get into this school. So, the competition is very tough. In short, our class was full of the meritorious students all across Bangalore. And, you will be surprised to know that my fees for entire three years of high school was less than ten thousand rupees (roughly two hundred dollars).

Harsha was a brilliant guy with a very neat hand writing. He was the epitome of hard work. He used to work as a news paper delivery boy in the morning. And, in the evening after finishing school he used to work in his dad's small shop. He used to study at night.

I remember once we had internal exams and I was telling him how I had studied till one thirty last night. He casually replied that he normally studies till two thirty every night. After that I never dared to boast anything about studies in front of him :-)

After completing high school, Harsha went on to study Science in a very well known college and went to get a free computer science seat in R V College which is the No 1 ranked college in Karnataka.

He went on to become one of the toppers of VTU university. He was one among the only three candidates to be selected by Yahoo for Internship in 2008. You will remember that 2008 was the worst hit recession year. And, he was the only candidate offered job finally from his college.

He worked successfully with Yahoo before moving on to work with ecommerce giant Flipkart. He has also worked with LinkedIn. And, is currently based in a top company in California.

His exemplary success story proves that nothing is impossible. We can achieve all our dreams provided we are ready to make some great sacrifices and put in a great deal of hard work. As they say, there is no substitute for hard work.

I wish you all the good luck in your pursuits for success and happiness.

With Love,
Gunjan.

Three simple ways I use to relax

Dear Readers,

Welcome back !!!! Hope you are having a great weekend.

Let me share some of my hobbies which help me to relax. Since, I am in IT sector I work under constant pressure and hectic schedule. There are lot of tight deadlines. So, I try to find ways to help me relax and release stress.

Let me share some of my hobbies and simple things that I do to relax myself. Since, I am in IT sector I work under constant pressure and hectic schedule. There are lot of tight deadlines. So, I try to find ways to help me relax and release stress.

1. Playing Guitar: It was always my childhood dream to learn how to play guitar. As a kid, we never had the financial means to buy a Guitar or pay the fees needed to learn it. So, I could not realize my dream until I started working. 
One of my colleague used to play Guitar very well. He encouraged me and helped me to buy my first Guitar. Now, I have started learning Guitar and I am able to few of my favorite songs. Whenever I am very stressed I play Guitar to release my tension.

2. Watching Movies: I am a big movie buff. I mostly watch Bollywood (Hindi) and Hollywood (English) movies. I like to watch comedies, romances, thrillers, action, sci-fi and drama movies. I do not watch Ghost movies or movies with extreme violence. I try to watch movies which teach me something new or at the least hep me to relax.

3. Listening to Music: I like to listen to any good music. I travel at least for two to three hours every day. As my office is quite far from my home. So, I use my journey time listening to good songs. I like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Jagjit Singh, Sukhvinder Singh, Kailash Kher, Arijit SIngh among many other Hindi Singers. I like English singers like Katy Perry, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Micheal Jackson, Akon, Rihanna. I also listen to world music and like singers like Rahet Fatek Ali Khan. My favorite composer is A.R. Rahman.

Hope you all have some nice ways to relax too. In today's busy and hectic life it is very important to cultivate some hobbies to release your stress. Try to use your free time to nurture some good and useful habits. It could be anything simple. But, the important thing is that you should love it and enjoy doing it.

Take Care and See you soon,

With Love,
Gunjan.

How I overcame 3 of my biggest fears in Life

Dear Reader,

It's good to see you again !!! Hope you had a great day.

Let's discuss about our fears and how to face them. I'll tell you what I was afraid of and how I overcame these fears.

Fear 1 - Dogs

As a kid, I was once playing with my friend who had a couple of big dogs. The dogs were usually tied to a chain. But, somehow that day they broke loose and came to the place in the house where we were playing. Suddenly, and without warning the dogs jumped on me and started tearing my clothes and scratching me with their paws. I was very afraid and somehow my friend's elder sister managed to pull the dogs away. Form that day onward, I was very afraid of dogs. My fear continued till I was a teenager.

There are lot of stray dogs near my place. One day while I was returning home late at night, I was surrounded by 6-7 dogs and they started snarling at me. I became quite nervous. But, I decided that day that I would not given into to my fear. So, I stood my ground and started talking and pacifying the dogs. After a while, the dogs left quietly.

One more day when I was driving my bike I was chased by few dogs. So, I just stopped my bike and stood there for a while. Again, the dogs just left.

With time, my fear of dogs has reduced considerably.

Fear 2 - Heights
I once fractured my hand as a kid after falling from a height. I have also got few stitches on my head after falling from a height while dusting a window. After these incidents, I developed Vertigo or the fear of heights. My head starts swirling when I am at a height.
During my college days, we went out to a Amusement Park called Wonderla in Bangalore. There were lot of scary and thrilling rides. But, there was one particular ride where people are rotated 360 degrees and tossed down from great rides. I decided that this ride would be a good opportunity to see if I was capable of overcoming my fear. I took the ride first time. As the ride went up, my throat became dry and I shut my eyes tightly. As the ride swung me at full speed my heartbeat stopped completely and I thought I had committed a very big mistake. After a while, the ride twisted my seat and hung me in air for a good 5 seconds while I was upside down from a height of about 50 feet. I thought I would die of heart failure. But, after about two minutes the ride was over and I was miraculously still alive :-) I decide to take the ride again. Believe it or not, I took the ride a total of four times back to back. Next, I went to giant wheel which was operating on the 13th floor of the building.
After some years I did para sailing in Goa. And, today I participated in a high rope adventure. Now, I am no longer afraid of heights.

Fear 3 - Maths
I never understood numbers clearly. I did not even know how to write numbers till I was five or six years old. I always used to take my mom's help to solve Maths in Primary school. Sometimes, I used to mug up the solutions. I got a big reality check when I was in my 10th class of my High School. I was a good student with the exception of Maths. During my mid terms, I got only forty eight marks out of one hundred. I was very upset. I discussed the matter with my mom and she said if I wanted admission in any good college I should focus on my subject and technique is solving problems. So, that day I decided I would learn maths and not mug it up. I started solving old question papers. I used to solve one or two papers every day. I used to actually put a timer clock for three hours duration and pretend that I was actually writing a real exam. Gradually, my speed improved and I solved almost all the previous years papers. I used to work extra hard by staying up all night if needed so I could also get time to study my other subjects as well. In the final exam, I started solving the problems quite easily. When the results were announced, I had scored ninety seven out of one hundred marks in Maths.

Conclusion
Never be afraid to face your fears. The first step is to recognize them. And, the second step is to develop a strategy to resolve them. You may feel at first that it is very difficult or even impossible to do this. How could this guy know what I feel ? But trust me dear friend that the fear is always in your mind. Once you train the brain to feel otherwise, you feel the difference.
As the Batman, who faces the fear of Bats and overcomes it. It is now your turn. Go ahead and prove to yourselves that you can do anything without fear.

With Love,
Gunjan.

Why do Sikhs wear turban?

Dear Reader,

Welcome back!!!

I am a Sikh. As you probably already know Sikhs wear a unique turban and also never shed hairs throughout life.

Let me explain the history behind this. The Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak Dev Ji. It is a religion which is based on very simple principles of peace, love and harmony. There are no complicated rituals. It is a religion which denounces all false practices and rituals, there is no Caste system and all people are to be treated equally as they are made by God. Even to this day people from all walks of life are welcome in a Sikh temple which is called as Gurudwara which translated means The house of the Guru.
There is a common kitchen where all people sit together and eat food together which we call as Guru Ka Langar or the Guru's kitchen. The ragee Priests sing beautiful hymns from the holy book Guru Granth Sahib ji.

There are total 10 Gurus in Sikhism in physical form. We consider our Holy book as our eleventh and final Guru. The Sikhism religion is based on very peace loving principles. However, our Gurus have taught us that we should stand up to fight any form of injustice. We should not turn away our faces when we see something wrong. We should courageously defend the weak no matter how badly the odds are stacked against us. As such Sikhs are the among the bravest people in the world. Anyone, in need can without hesitation approach any Sikh and be assured that the Sikh will help the person even without regard for his or her own life.

When Sikhism was spreading in India, Mughals were ruling it. Some of the Mughals were tolerant towards other religions. But, a very barbaric Mughal ruler called Aurangzeb started committing lot of attrocities on Indian people. He used to force people to convert to Islam. Those who opposed were very brutally murdered in open public view. Some people were burnt slowly on hot ovens. Some people were cut into pieces. He also imposed a tax on people who did not follow Islam.

The Hindus in India got fed up with these cruelty and wanted to put and end to this. So, the Kashmiri pandits approached the ninth Sikh guru Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur ji. The Guru was moved by the plight of the Hindu Brahmins and decided to help them. He said that only the sacrifice of a great man could save the nation. His son, a nine year old boy who would eventually become the tenth Guru overheard this conversation. He bowed down to his father with reverence and said that the greatest person was right before his eyes.
So, our ninth Guru headed to confront Aurangzeb in Delhi. It was not for a battle. He only wanted to reason with Aurangzeb. However, Aurangzeb treacherously imprisoned the Guru and threatned him to convert to Islam. He started torturing the Guru and murdered his followers very brutally in front of him to shake his faith. But, the Guru was a noble and great soul not to be moved by these barbaric acts. Eventually, Aurangzeb beheaded the great Guru.

When news of this act reached his son he asked the person who had brought the Guru's head if no Sikh had dared to confront Aurangzeb. So, the follower replied that though many Sikhs were in crowd nobody had courage to confront the Mughals.

That very moment, the nine year old Guru Gobind Singh ji decided that he would give such a unique identity to the Sikhs such that they are not able to hide themselves even in a crowd of thousands of people. He gathered the people on the holy festival of Baisakhi and baptized five of the bravest men to be the first five Sikhs and gave them the name of Singh meaning Lion. He said each Sikh should have the courage of a Lion. Each Sikh should be equal to an army of 1.25 lakh Mughals. The great Guru fought bravely for the nation and sacrificed all his 4 sons for the holy cause. The sacrifice of the Sikhs still insipires the nation.

The Sikhs form the front line of the Indian army. The tales of the Sikh heroes are popular across the world.

Recently, some ignorant people have started abusing turbaned Sikhs. They do not even know the difference between Sikh and another turbaned person. Also, my message to such people is that irrespective of religion all people are God's children and should be treated with love and respect.

With Love,
Gunjan

It Happened to Me - How I lost my passport and found it back

Dear Reader,

Welcome back!

This incident happened to me about a couple years back. I was travelling to Atlanta from India. It was a long flight and I had a change over at Frankfurt. It took me almost 22 hours to reach Atlanta from Bangalore. It was Friday evening around 3 pm when I reached Atlanta.

After completing the Visa formalities, I took a cab from the Taxi stand. I was helped in by the driver. He was a middle aged man with a round face and a nice smile. He had a heavy English accent and seemed from the middle east. He helped me keep all my luggage in and started the cab.

My destination was the Hyatt Hotel in Cobb county which was a good 30 miles away. It was the month of October and it was quite cool and a nice breeze was blowing outside. Atlanta is a very beautiful city. It has a very good green cover. The roads are surrounded by big trees on both sides. Atlanta is just 4 hours drive away from Florida and it gets heavy rains throughout the year.

As we were headed to the hotel, I picked up conversation with the driver. I checked which place he was from. He answered that he was from Lebanon. He said he was staying in Atlanta since last 5 years with his wife and two kids. I asked where he was headed and he said he would be going home to Stone Mountain after he dropped me.

We chatted for a while and after sometime he noticed that there were two or three hotel Hyatts in the same area and he was not sure which one was the right one. Luckily, I had taken down the address of the hotel before leaving Bangalore. I gave him the address. Unfortunately, the address of the hotel was not showing up in his GPS. So, I gave him the hotel number so he could check with them,since I had just landed I did not have US Sim card.

He called up the hotel and they guided him. Apparently, the hotel website was outdated and the Pin code mentioned there was incorrect. After about 1 hour of our journey from the airport, we spotted a Hyatt hotel from a little distance. The driver was still not very sure and he said he will drive down to the hotel.

On reaching the drive way, I asked the driver to wait in the car and I would go and check at the reception. The receptionist, greeted me and confirmed the hotel booking. I came out to the drive. By then, the driver had pulled over to the side and taken out my luggage. He got his card machine and asked me to enter the amount. The bill was around 75$ and I paid him. Just as I paid my payment, the driver looked like he was in a bit of hurry and without any further notice jumped in his car and started off. I needed the car's number for my company's bill expense reimbursement. So, I noted the number on the back of his car in my phone.

It took me about 5 seconds to realize that although he had taken out my two suitcases, my laptop bag was still inside the car. By the time I realized this. the driver had sped off. I looked on in utter shock.

I headed straight to the reception and explained them what had happened. They asked what were the contents of the bag. I told them it had my company ID card, my passport, an I-Pad, a Laptop and other company documents. It pretty much had everything that was extremely important to me. This was the one bag which I simple could not lose.

After all the long travel, I was expecting to freshen up in the hotel room, have dinner and just sleep. And, here I was dealing with a utterly harrowing experience. I told myself that I had to remain calm and gathered my wits back.

I started recalling the chain of events which had led to this situation. I remembered that the cab driver had called the hotel. So, I requested them to check their call logs so that we could get his number and call him back. I requested them to check all the call that were made to them in the last half an hour. The receptionist checked the call logs and told me that none of the numbers on the logs were from the cab driver. I asked them to double check. That is when they realized that there were two landline phones. One of them did not have the caller log. So, this option was out of the window.

I went outside to the drive way and saw that there was a camera outside. Immediately, I went to the hotel manager and asked him to check the video tape. We went inside the video control room  and checked the video footage. It showed a yellow cab. But, when we tried to zoom on the car's registration on the side of the car near the doors it got blurred. It seemed that the video camera's zoom was of a very low resolution and was not very useful in this case.

Although, we could not locate the taxi's registration number, I was happy that we could spot the taxi's company. It was a Yellow cab. I remembered the number which I had noted and gave it to the hotel manager.The hotel Manager immediately called the Yellow cab service and alerted them. The Taxi company issued a wireless message to all it's drivers informing them of a laptop bag and to return it to the Hyatt hotel in Cobb County. But, they told me that they could not locate a car with the number I had given them in their system.

The Manager said it would take some time and was very kind to me. He gave me the hotel room keys and asked me to freshen up. He said he will inform me in case he gets back some information. I thanked him and went to my room. I was still very tense. I washed my face, placed my luggage and using the hotel internet informed my family that I had reached Atlanta safely. I dared not to tell them of what had happened. My parents both are heart patients and I did not want to scare them.

After waiting for about half an hour, I felt something was wrong and decided to go and check with the reception again. The hotel manager said he had not yet heard back from the Taxi service and he called them up again. The Taxi service just issues another notice to it's drivers. This time I remembered that the cab driver was heading to Stone Mountain. So, they issued this message to all drivers who were heading to Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is a good hour and half's drive away from the hotel. So, the cab driver must still be on his way there.

By this time it was almost 6.30 pm in the evening. Some of my other colleagues who were also staying in the hotel were just returning. I told them about what had happened. They told me that Monday was Columbus day and most of them were going on vacation during the long weekend. One of them gave me their phone so I could make any calls.

This is when I became really nervous. Since, if I was not able to get my bag back by today there would be a long weekend in between and it may become very difficult to get back the bag after that. Since, it was possible that someone might just sneak it in from the cab.

Suddenly, I remembered that I had paid the driver using my card. So, I would have got an email alert. Sure enough when I checked my mail it had a receipt from the driver asking for feedback :-)

I noted the name on the receipt and called the Taxi service. Unfortunately they told me that they track the driver's by their names. I was very disappointed and started becoming very tense.

I called up my senior manager in Atlanta and explained him everything. He asked me to call the Police without further delays. So, I called 911 immediately. By this time it was almost 8 pm. I had not ate or slept very well in the flight and now I was starting to feel faint.

I waited for the cops to come in the hotel lobby. After about thirty minutes, a police car pulled over and two cops came out. I went straight ahead and greeted them. I explained them why I had called them and gave them all the relevant information. They went back to  their car and after some discussion came back. They told me that they had found the driver and called him. They asked me to speak with the driver. I talked to the driver and he was looking very nervous. He said he did not know if any laptop bag. When I talked to him little sternly, he accepted that he had the bag in his car. After a little more discussion, he agreed to come and return it on the same night.

The cops informed me that in Atlanta, the taxis have different numbers on the number plate than the numbers on their doors. The taxi services could not locate this car because they only track the four digit number on the doors. Also, the name which I had got in my mail was not the correct spelling of the cab driver. Few of the alphabets were mangled.

I thanked the cops with all my heart. They gave me their phone number just in case the cab driver did not turn up. The driver came down after another two hours. By this time it was almost 11 pm in the night. I thanked him and paid him a good tip and got all my stuff back.

Even today, this incident reminds me to be extra careful with my luggage especially when it contains something as precious as my Passport. I thank God and all the people who came to my help.

With Love,
Gunjan.

My beautiful city Bangalore (Bengaluru)

Dear Reader,

Welcome back ! I want to share with you the experience of my staying in my city Bangalore (now called as Bengaluru).

I am born and brought up in this beautiful city. Bangalore is known as the Garden City, City of Lakes, The Pensioner's paradise, The Pub City and by many more names fondly by the people who stay here. But, the most common name is Silicon City of India.

The first thing you will notice here is the pleasant weather. The weather is always cool never too hot nor too cold at any time of the year. This is because the city is at a good level above the sea and has a hilly terrain. And, it rains quite a lot here which keeps the mercury levels always in check.

My house is located on beautiful slopes. So, the rain water never stays in one place and flows down freely. There are trees and greenery everywhere. The smell of exotic flowers fills the air. Beautiful birds like Cuckoos, Parrots, Pigeons and Tailor birds chirp all through the day. And, at night Owls and Bats give us company. It is as though we were living in a forest area.

At a small distance from my house we have the usual city buzz. There are malls and shops everywhere. There are schools and colleges everywhere. In fact, you will find an engineering college in almost all the places here. There are some world class medical and law colleges as well.

We have some world class medical treatment centers and Bangalore is fast becoming a medical tourism hub. But, most of all Bangalore is home for IT (Information Technology) Industry. Almost in every street and corner of Bangalore there is a IT company. There has been a huge IT boom in the city since the last two decades.

The rapid growth of the city has made it somewhat congested. We see huge traffic jams quite often. And, there are numerous Apartments being constructed everywhere. The city's growth has promoted other business sectors like Real estate, Hotels, Restaurants, Apparels, Jewelry and many more.

The old Bangaloreans sure miss the city which was full of lakes and greenery. However, we surely know that Bangalore is urbanizing rapidly and the by product has been to lose some of it's old charm.

The people of Bangalore are very gentle and soft spoken. They are very organized and very disciplined. Now, we are joined by people from all across India as well other parts of the world who come to seek out their jobs here. In essence, Bangalore is full of bright minds. The people are very active in various civic duties and actively participate in improvement of the city and other social duties. We also celebrate festivals like Holi, Diwali, Christmas, Id and many others with great unity and harmony.

You should also visit the city to experience it's unique charm and beauty which captivates people from around the world to come here.

With Love,
Gunjan.

Social Networking Vs Socializing

Dear Reader,

Let's discuss about Social Networking and it's implications on Socializing.

I normally take the office bus everyday in the morning. When I get in, I can see most of my colleagues hooked to their phones busy texting, tweeting and doing other cool stuff. A very few of them look up to see who boarded the bus and a even fewer smile.

When I reach office, during break hours I can see the same thing happening. People are busy sharing videos, interesting messages and liking pictures. The same amazing thing can be seen happening almost anywhere - Restaurants, Coffee Bars, Airports, Railway Stations etc. We can also this phenomenon at parties and even at home.

What amazes me is the fact that all this technology and social networking is just present since the last couple of decades. What used to happen to people before that ?

Let me tell you what used to happen when I was a kid. When I used to get in school bus, me and my friends used to jump around and laugh all the time. We used to tell stories about He-Man and Spider Man and Tom and Jerry.

When we used to go in a train we would make friends during the journey. We would chat and smile even at total strangers. We used to discuss why we loved Bollywood Heroes more than other films because nobody could kill a Bollywood hero with any amount of bullets :-) And how they could drive almost anything from a cycle, car, to even a helicopter or a jet plane.

Even though there are people around us why do we choose to ignore them for people on phones ? We keep hearing in all places about the term Live in the Moment. Are we doing that by ignoring those who are around us ?

I will say that try to make some real friends. Try to smile at real people. When we do that we immediately feel good and warm. Even though Social Networking is good but we need to limit it's use. We need to remember that after all we are social beings. We need not depend on a App for helping us to do that. We need to remember that maybe those around us really need us and we can spend some time with them.

With Love,
Gunjan

My theory of God

Hello Dear Reader,

As a kid, I was very curious with stars. In my family, we used to take a walk on our house's terrace after dinner every night and I used to love spending the evening starring at the skies.

My dad is very good at science. He introduced me to the various constellations and used to explain the thermal fusion reaction taking place on the sun.

The skies have caught my imagination and even till today I dream of various space ships hovering over our house :-)

Do you believe in extra terrestrials ? Are we alone or are we accompanied by other beings.

I have read numerous articles, books and novels about aliens. I have also watched countless TV shows and movies showing outer space beings.

All these sources point towards a probability (read a definite chance) of existence of another life form. If so, where is this life form ? Have humans made any contact with this life form ? Is it friendly ? Is it dangerous ? Where is it now ?

There are lot of questions. To answer these questions, many a great minds have explained their theories.

Let me explain my simple theory.

Throughout the ages there is one small observations which is common across all cultures. It is a strong belief in a force called God. We have always believed in God, Demon, Ghosts etc.

Could there be a possibility that God is actually a higher life force which has made humans ? Similar to how we make machines.

There is theory which says God is the painter and we are the painting. So, we can never truly understand or visualize God.

I think this theory is true to some extent. How can we explain the perfect coordination of various elements on Earth which makes life possible ?

I believe there is God or some form of outer space being much more advanced than our species. It is also possible that these beings make contact with humans in various ways. Since, we cannot truly understand the nature of the experience each person puts this contact in their own perspective and which leads to creation of Gods and Demons.

Also, have not all of us experienced some synergy at some point of time ? Taking my example, I always used to pray to God before my exams to help me pass. I used to pray that I should not get the toughest lab program. I was surprised when my prayers were actually answered.

But, even when I failed or could not get something I wanted, after sometime I realized there was more to it and things always happen for the good. Maybe a higher life force is guiding us and caring for us. Maybe we should just try to feel it within ourselves than try to look for it outside. Who can deny feeling joy inside after helping someone ?

The other day I was travelling by Metro (Subway/Tube) train and I offered my seat to a elderly lady. I felt very good after helping her. Her smile made by day.

I would love to know your thoughts on this subject and your own theories about God.

Take Care,
With Love,
Gunjan.

Contemplating on my Life

Dear Reader,

This is my first blog. So, I am excited and nervous at the same time. Excuse my mistakes.

I am a Software Engineer by profession. Not that I always wanted to be one. I actually wanted to be lot of things when I was a kid.

I always wanted to be a Uniformed Man. But, unfortunately I could not clear my military exams :(

I also liked Physics and wanted to pursue Nuclear Physics or join NASA. But, I got caught up in the rat race and ended up being an engineer.

But, I was not forced into engineering. During my college, I took some programming classes and loved it. So, I decided I will take up Computer Engineering.

After a lot of hard work and stress I finally got my Engineering degree.

Now, I that I have bored you with my flash back let me just fast forward my life by 8 years. I want to take a look back and see what I really did once I became an engineer. Have I grown as a person ? Have I done enough as an Engineer ? Have I done anything for my family ? Have I done anything for the society ?

I guess I have become little bit mature. I have come to terms with how people around me behave. I have learnt to lower my expectations from people around me. It helps me to relax and feel happy. I guess when we expect too much from people we always feel hurt.

Also, I have lowered very high expectations from me as well. It helps me enjoy simple things in life. I have cultivated new hobbies like gardening, playing guitar, playing chess, watching movies.

I have been able to help my family financially and more by being with them at all times to support them. I guess this is the biggest thing I have been able to do in all this time. There is no greater joy than being surrounded by your loved ones.

I have contributed a small amount every year for children's education and encouraged those around me to do same.

So, I guess I have made good use of my life. Maybe by doing simple things we can end up happy after all.

Hope you were not too bored.

Keep smiling,
With Love,
Gunjan.