How Hari Singh Nalwa set an example to uphold the dignity of women

Dear Readers,

Wish you all a very happy Diwali!!! May god bless you with a happy, safe and joyous Diwali and help you to fulfil all your good wishes. Today, I want to write about a very sensitive and important topic. I will be discussing on the topic of "How Hari Singh Nalwa set an example to uphold the dignity of women" with an excerpt from the Sikh history. I want to dedicate this article to all the women in the world.

Women have always been respected throughout the ages. Women have been an integral part of the society. They have been warriors, queens, doctors, discoverers, inventors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, CEO's etc. They have held an important position at home as well. They have played the roles of daughters, sisters, wives, mothers etc with great dignity and humility. We cannot ever imagine a world without women.

Yet, these are troubled times. We see everyday in news how people are humiliating women. Whether these people are terrorists or Presidential candidates they should learn how to show respect to women. After all, have these men forgotten that they came to this world out of a Mother. I hope if this message reaches out to such people it may bring them some shame and  remorse. At the same time, I want to show my support to all the women and inform that not all men are bad. There are other men who promise to support you and stand up for you. I come from a country where we revere women as Goddesses and with that sentiment I want to tell you a real incident that will infuse each women with pride and self respect.

India was the richest country in the world for a very long time in history. As such her riches have attracted several discoverers, scholars, traders and also plunderers. The Indian sub continent is surrounded by the sea on three sides and has the great Himalayan mountains towards the northern side. Most of the invaders have attacked India from the Khyber Pass in the North. Most of the invaders have been the Pathans from Afghanistan. These are tough people and nobody had ever defeated them in their own territory. This history was changed when the mighty Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa defeated the Pathans and setup the Sikh kingdom in Afghanistan. He secured the Khyber Pass and prevented any invasions to our country from that route.

One night, two Pathan spies were watching over the Sikh tents at night from the cover of a few bushes. There was a lady spy by the name of Bibi Bano (Bibi means respectfully Lady) and she was accompanied by a male spy Gul Khan. The Pathans were bewildered by the grit and courage of Hari Singh Nalwa and his Singhs. Bibi Bano expressed her desire to meet Hari Singh Nalwa to Gul Khan. Gul Khan told her that the conquerors never showed any respect to women from the conquered lands and it would be very unsafe for her to meet the Sikh general. He said that he would not allow her to take such a risk and held her hand tightly. But, Bibi Bano was adamant and also she pointed out that she had heard that the Guru's men (a reference to Sikh people who have ten gurus) always showed utmost respect to all women. Saying this she pushed Gul Khan aside and ran away from the cover of the bushes to the place where Hari Singh Nalwa's tent was setup. On approaching the tent she found that two Sikh guards were posted outside. The well armed Sikh guards on seeing her asked the purpose of her visit. So, Bibi Bano expressed her desire to meet the general. One of the guards noticed that she was carrying a dagger. But, the other guard told him not to worry and said that that all people were welcome to the Guru's home (a reference to the belief that the homes of all Sikh people are Guru's home) even if it happens to be an enemy with a weapon. Saying this informed the general and arranged an audience of Bibi Bano with him.

On entering the tent, Bibi Bano greeted the general with the words "Sat Sri Akal" (a greeting in Punjabi language which means God is the Ultimate Truth) and he greeted her with the same words. The general requested her to be seated and got seated himself. Bibi Bano then asked the general why he had conquered her land. Hari Singh Nalwa asked her with humility if it was wrong to defend one's own land ? He said that the Sikh people had only conquered this land so that they could defend their mother land. He said they had no interest in establishing any kingdom but that they only wanted to secure their people from the repeated invasions of the Lodhis and Pathans from Afghanistan. After this conversation they both discussed on lot of other topics. At the end of their conversation, Bibi Bano was very much impressed by the Sikh general. So, she mentioned to the general that it was her desire that if she has a son he should be like Hari Singh Nalwa. Put in other words, she expressed her desire to marry him.

Hearing this, the general became very offended and questioned her if she was trying to humiliate him? He said that all Guru's men were ordered to have only one wife by their Guru and they were asked to show respect and treat all other women as their sisters. He asked her to take leave immediately . As she was going out Bibi Bano snubbed him saying that she had heard that no person had ever left the Guru's court (or home) without have their wishes fulfilled. But, today this was proved wrong. Hearing her snub, the general became thoughtful and told her that if no one had ever left the Guru's home empty handed then neither will anyone leave the house of a Guru's Sikh (Sikh means Disciple) empty handed. Saying this he ordered the guards posted outside to get an expensive Shawl from the nearby tent. The guards brought the shawl and handed it over to Hari Singh Nalwa. He asked the guards to put the shawl around Bibi Bano. After this was done, the great Sikh general fell to the feet of Bibi Bano (touching feet of another person is a way of showing respect in Indian culture) and told her that from now on she was his Sworn Mother. He said that since she wanted her son to be like Hari Singh Nalwa then what better than Hari Singh Nalwa himself becoming her son.

Seeing his humility and greatness, Bibi Bano was so touched that she started crying. Tears rolled down her cheeks and could not stop weeping. She said that she was proud to be the Sworn Mother of a great person like Hari Singh Nalwa. Saying this she departed with her heart full of pride. And, while leaving she quietly proclaimed that if a normal Sikh was this great then how great would be their Guru ?

I hope we should all follow in the example of the great General and protect the dignity and honour of every woman. Please provide me your valuable feedback by writing your comments or sending me an email.

With Love,

Gunjan.

How E-Commerce is slowly killing Malls ?

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! It is great to see you again. Hope you are having a great day. Today, I want to discuss about How E-Commerce is slowly killing Malls and Why Malls may not be the best places to open your shop or start a new business in Bangalore anymore.

The Mall culture is a relatively new one in Bangalore. We had large shopping complexes when I was growing up in Bangalore. We had large shopping complexes like Gupta Market, Alankar Plaza, Jayanagar Shopping Complex, Utility building, Unity Building etc. We would get all sorts of clothes, shoes, food, toys, beauty products, travel bags, purses, perfumes, watches etc in these shopping complexes. But, there were no movie theaters in these shopping complexes. There were lot of single screen theaters in Bangalore in areas like Majestic, Malleswaram, Jayanagar etc. But, then came along the ingenious business idea to club the two things together. Hence, started the Mall culture in Bangalore in the late 90's with the advent of multiplexes inside large shopping complexes.

The Malls were much bigger and grander in scale than the largest shopping complexes in the city. People were excited to see the glittering lights and escalators. The well dressed house keeping staff added a very professional look to the area. There were all sorts of small and big restaurants also stacked into the same area. There were scary houses, bowling alleys, pubs,  paint ball, Gaming areas etc. People were lost for choice when it came to shopping for clothes. There were the world's best brands competing alongside with the local discount brands. There were numerous electronics stores as well. People could buy their dream TVs, Cameras, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Cell Phones etc in these stores. There were also stores for beauty products, hair salons, massage parlors, coffee shops, ice cream parlors, toy stores, book shops all in the same mall. There were also Grocery stores and Vegetable outlets. In short, people were spoiled for choice. But, the icing on the cake were the multiplexes. You could now watch your favorite movies by booking them in advance over the internet. There was no longer any need to stand in long queues or pay for black tickets anymore. Someone had just brought the entire city together and placed it in a single mall.

Malls have been a successful business venture for almost two decades now. The success of this venture has grown like a wild fire in Bangalore. Now, we have malls in every major part of the city. In fact, we would rarely find a prominent area without a Mall these days. In fact, real estate people also promote their new apartments by saying that they are in the locality of a major Mall. But, then the days of every successful business venture are numbered. The down slide of this business has also started already. With the advent of E-Commerce people are getting great discounts on almost anything they purchase. Also, there is the ease factor of buying stuff without leaving the comfort of your home. With the middle man (read the show rooms or the mall stores) out of the picture warehouses are shipping products directly to the end user. There is no longer need for a retail store to sell the product. This new marketing model has hit the malls very badly.

You could argue that there are still so many people venturing into the malls. Yes, that is true. But, let's analyze which stores are these people actually visiting and what are these people actually buying ? Most malls have several budget restaurants. There are lot of affordable food chains like Mc Donald's, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza etc in every mall. There is also a large food court and one or two affordable restaurants like Sagar, Kamat, Rajdhani etc in every mall. But, the maximum percentage of the people come for only the movies. Malls were mainly targeted for the middle class families. And, middle class people are the smartest buyers. They are the most careful people when it comes to handling their finances. Most of the people just window shop. Some smarter people planning to buy some phone or electronic product get a nice hands on or a demo from the mall retail store. But, they always either end up buying in the E-Commerce store or ask the retail store to reduce their price to match with the E-Commerce store. This trend has started to slowly kill the mall business.

Many shops are shutting down in Malls each day. In fact, maintenance cost of a mall is so huge owing to the 24*7 lighting, house keeping staff, security staff, business tax etc. Also, the malls are mostly empty on week days and generally have large number of visitors only over the weekends. There are many malls like Gopalan Sirsi Circle Mall, Magadi Road ETA Mall etc which have only got a multiplex along with few shops. Most of the mall is deserted and the shops are all shut down. The few open shops are having very few buyers and they are not able to afford the exorbitant mall rents. There are few new malls which are under construction since several years or where the construction has been abandoned owing to huge financial losses.

While nobody can predict the future of the mall business. But, it may not be a great idea to start a new shop or business in a mall without carefully evaluating the risks involved. The people will still continue to enjoy the multiplex experience and the fast food centers would also continue to be full. Maybe the business men now need to focus on what really the customers want ? Maybe opening multiple multiplexes in a single mall and increasing the fast food centers could help to revive their business. Also, people like to buy discounted clothes, beauty products etc. It may even be useful to have a Grocery store. After all, a profitable business is always the one which keeps up with the changing times.

I hope you all liked this article. Please send me your valuable feedback and I will be happy to reply back.

With Love,
Gunjan.

Campus Placement

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! It is great to see you again. I thank you for your continued support and encouragement.

Today, I want to discuss about my campus placement in my engineering college. I studied Computer Science engineering from VTU University in Bangalore. My college used to prepare us for campus recruitment during our sixth semester holidays. Since, most of the companies started visiting the campus from seventh semester holidays. We prepared for technical questions as well as in soft skills. After about a month's training, the companies started arriving to our college.

The first company which arrived was Infosys.  Infosys is one of the biggest Indian IT companies. It is a great company to join as a fresher. Since, the freshers are trained in a world class training center in Mysore. It paves a good platform to start one's career. The company arrived with several technical people and Human Resource professionals. The HRs explained about the company background and policies. After that there was the aptitude test and English verbal and non-verbal test.

I am good at aptitude questions. But, I used to take more time to solve questions in those days. However, I was relatively better at English. So, I solved a majority of the questions in the stipulated time. But, the competition is always tough. Since, it was a pool campus. In a poolcampus companies from several colleges participate in the campus placement. For this test, about six colleges had participated in theplacement. There were about five hundred students attending the test. And, each of the student was highly talented. So, the chances of selection were less.

After about an hour after the test, the company people started announcing the names of the selected candidates. The first name called was that of the topper girl from my department. Next, person was some other topper from another department. Slowly, about fifteen people in my class got selected for the next round. Unfortunately, I was not one of them.

I was very disappointed and heart broken. Since, I had worked very hard for the interviews. But, I was determined to perform better in my next interviews. The only disappointing thing was that next day my teacher asked in front of the whole class why I had not gotten selected ? I felt very embarrassed and did not know what to say. Also, the campus selection officer started showing too much attitude to students who had not gotten selected in the last placement.

Although, I felt sad that I was not selected in the previous company. I continued working harder for my next interview. My next interview was in a company called Perot. Later, this company was taken over by Dell. This company had shortlisted candidates who had secured 60% or more aggregate and who had never failed in any exam during the complete course. So, the shortlisted candidates were all very good and competition was again very tough. Even this time there was a pool campus but it was in some other college. After the regular exercise of explaining company policies the exam started. This exam was difficult as it had very complex technical questions and aptitude questions. After a few hours when the exam results were announced there was again disappointment in store for me. But, this time I did not feel as bad as last time. I was happy with my preparation and knew that if I continued working harder then definitely I would achieve success.

My next interview was in the same college. It was in a company called iGate. This is a US MNC which has recently been over taken by Capgemini. This company had raised the bar even higher. They demanded candidates with more than seventy percent aggregate. Also, the interview was difficult. In the first round we had to answer about fifteen questions. Also, no multi choice answer options were provided.

As the interview started I took a quick glance at the questions. I knew how to solve most of them. So, I quickly finished the test well within the stipulated time. After the exam, I was feeling relaxed. This time I did not feel any anxiety or stress.

When the results were announced, my name was called in the fourth place. I felt relieved. But, there was a long way to go still. There was still a technical round and a HR round remaining. One by one, the candidates were being called inside a room for technical interview. I was eager to attend this round and was feeling more excited than nervous. Somehow, I was not caring about the outcome but just was enjoying the interview. When my name was called I went with a quick pace and politely asked the interviewer if I could get in. After the informal courtsies were extended the interviewer started asking the questions. He asked me many complex C, C++, Operating Systems, Data Structures and questions from OOPS. He also asked me to code some programs. The interview lasted for about thirty minutes. It was quite intense.

As I stepped out of the room, there were few candidates having tea. They were accompanied by the HR. I greeted him and had tea. We had a casual conversation in which he asked about my college, hobbies etc. We also discussed about sports and movies.

The results came out after another one hour and out of three hundred people who had attended the interview only forty students were offered jobs. I was one among those few lucky students.

When I look back at this chapter of life I feel very nice. Although, a lot of hiccups and obstacles came in my life I always believed in myself. I continued working harder to achieve my goal and did not let negative people influence me. Finally, I tasted success. Perhaps, we should all believe in our abilities and not lose focus when we meet failures. We should pick ourselves in the face of adversity and remain focused on our goals. Like someone has said "God helps them those who help themselves".

I hope you liked this article. Please drop in your valuable feedback.

See you very soon again,

With Love,
Gunjan.

Diwali in the U.S. vs Diwali in India

Dear Friends,

Welcome back !!! Hope you are having a great weekend. With the festival of lights Diwali just round the corner I thought I would share my experience of celebrating Diwali in both India as well as in the U.S.

Diwali also called as Deepavali or the festival of lights is among the major festivals in the Indian calendar. It is a very popular festival in India quite similar to the popular Christmas festival in the Western countries. On this occasion, men dress up in Kurta Pyjamas and women dress up in beautiful Salwar Kameez or Sarees. The houses are decorated with beautiful light lamps and decorative lights. The courtyards are decorated with colorful Rangoli designs. People visit their near and dear ones and exchange greetings, sweets, fire crackers and gifts.

As a kid, my preparation of Diwali used to start a good one month in advance. The Dushera or Dasara festival falls normally in the month of October. And, Diwali falls generally towards the end of October or beginning of November. Me and my friends used to buy toy pistols which would have a fire cracker roll. We would run through the streets playing chor (thief in Hindi) police. We would take a packet of bijli (small size fire crackers) and fling the crackers with bare hands pretending it to be some small bomb. We used to burst lots of variety of sound crackers like Lakshmi bomb, Hydrogen bomb (this was the loudest), butterfly crackers etc. Then we used to fly rockets with lights, whistle and multi sounds at night. In short, we used to have a great amount of fun. Just like Bilbo Baggins and his hobbit friends in the Lord of the Rings movie we would act like little Imps running here and there and enjoy the festival.

From the past few years, I have started using crackers that sparkle more and make little or no sound. We bring home sparklers, flower pots, pencil sparklers etc. Also, we have stopped bringing crackers that cause lot of smoke or pollution. We perform Lakshmi pooja (praying in Hindi) on the day of Diwali and pray to god to dispel evil through light.

A couple of years back, I was in Atlanta city in the U.S. for work. I was invited by a colleague to his home to celebrate Diwali with his family. I was very happy that I would not feel alone on this happy occasion. Since, Diwali is not a holiday in the U.S. I had to go to work. When I reached office in the morning, I was surprised to see that the entire floor was decorated with light lamps and beautiful rangoli colors. I came to know that our company had recently started celebrating all the global festivals to make the employees happy and to promote cross cultural awareness. I was very happy and looked forward to celebrating Diwali with my colleague's family in the evening.

In the evening, my colleague picked me up in his car and took me to his home. A few of my other colleagues had assembled at his place with their families. We were served a great dinner by my colleague's wife who was an exceptional cook. After the desserts, we decided to light some fire crackers. Now, my expectation of fire crackers was like some rockets, sparklers, flower pots, 100 wala ladi (bunch of 100 bijli crackers tied together like dynamite sticks). But, my expectations were diffused when my colleague said that we could not light all those crackers due to various restrictions in the U.S. So, we had to be contend with lighting a sparkler and posing for pictures. My colleagues seemed little scared when the neighbors opened their doors and started seeing us. They also seemed little too anxious about the smoke as it could cause fire alarms. Their tension caused us to miss the regular fun which we have back home.

My colleague also narrated an incident that accidentally they had burst a fire cracker. And, instead of just sparkling it had caused a huge explosion. So, my colleagues and their families had got scared out of their wits and ran away from that place. They were afraid that the cops would question them or the neighbors would complain to the police. They said that only few temples had the permission to light fireworks. Also, there were some public grounds where they could burst the fireworks.

After lighting the sparklers we returned to my colleague's home where we started playing cards. Playing cards on the day of Diwali is very popular in India. And, although we did not gamble with money. But, we were just playing for fun. I returned to my hotel room at around 1.30 am in the morning. I was feeling lot of mixed emotions. I was happy that I was so warmly hosted by my colleague. But, still I was missing my family. Also I was missing the freedom of bursting fireworks on the streets and making merry without the fear of my neighbors calling the police.

I believe initiatives like my company promoting awareness about festivals from other countries are very important. It would help the people to understand each others cultures and respect them. After all, we are all children of the same God. We need to care for and love each other.

I wish all of you a very happy Diwali and may the Goddess Lakshmi bring peace, prosperity and lots of joy in your lives.

With Love,
Gunjan.

An Exemplary Teacher

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! I hope you are all having a great day. It is a beautiful evening in Bangalore while I am writing today's blog. Today, I will be talking about an exemplary teacher Mr. Shankar. I had the privilege of studying under this great teacher.

Mr. Shankar is a lecturer of Graphics Drawing for engineering students. He had been a senior faculty in the famous R.V.C.E. Engineering college in Bangalore with several years of experience. He also has a coaching center in Prashanth nagar area. It is a very famous coaching center and engineering students from all over the city come to study here.

In the first year of engineering, students from all the branches have a common subject called Engineering Graphics. It is a mechanical engineering subject where we need to draw engineering structures in three dimensions. It was an interesting subject. But, it required more attention to detail and imagination. Also, it was a very tricky subject as we were only supposed to draw structures and there were no theory questions to fill pages. When my lecturer at college used to teach this subject I used to find it very difficult to follow him. He would say imagine there is a line in space. How would represent this line in three dimensional space using two points. He would then go on to explain the orthographic projections. I have always had problem in imagining and visualizing images in my mind. So, imagining complex engineering drawings was beyond the question.

After a month of futile struggle with this subject and getting low marks in my first internals I decided to do join a good coaching center. I came to know about Mr. Shankar's coaching center from some of my classmates who were already enrolled there. Now, this coaching center is unlike most other places. It is a one man army run whole and solely by Mr. Shankar. I joined his coaching class and was lucky to be enrolled as there are limited seats in each batch due to the huge popularity of this coaching center.

Although Mr. Shankar is a senior aged person but he is very energetic. He used to conduct classes for at least  three to four batches every day. Each batch was around two to three hours in duration. Each batch had around a hundred students. But, he still extended courtesy to each student and addressed them respectfully and answered each of our questions with utmost patience. He was a brilliant man who had mastered this subject. He had invented his own methods and formulas for drawing. He never once asked us to close our eyes and imagine. Rather he would break the problem into separate parts and device a method to solve each part one at a time in a mathematical fashion. In short, I was thrilled to be studying this complex subject under this great man. The subject which was seeming impossible now suddenly was making a lot of sense.

There were a few incidents during the course of my six months of studying under him which made me appreciate his personality. Once during the middle of a session, we were interrupted by a student standing in the door way. He requested to speak to the lecturer. Mr. Shankar went out and spoke to this student. Since, I was close to the door I could overhear their conversation. The boy said that he was a poor student and he could not afford to pay the tuition fees. But, he was very interested to attend the classes. Mr. Shankar welcomed him immediately and asked him to attend the class and forfeited all his tuition fees.

I was also very surprised that many of my college lecturers used to attend his classes. I also came to know later that lecturers from many other colleges also came to attend his classes. Since, many of their own students were also in the same class. A few of the lecturers used to feel a little embarrassed. So, Mr. Shankar used to conduct a separate batch for these lecturers so that they would not feel embarrassed.

Since, Mr. Shankar was one of the most senior lecturers in the VTU university on this subject he was invited by the university for setting the exam papers and also to find out any problems with the examination questions. Once it so happened that a very tough paper was set by the university and a lot of students had obtained very less marks. There was one question of around twenty marks which was strongly considered as an incorrect problem with mistakes by majority of the students. This was brought to the attention of the university. So, they invited Mr. Shankar and few other senior lecturers to discuss about this question. One of the lecturers told the university board that this was an incorrect question and was impossible to solve. The University accepted their mistake and gave grant marks to all students who had attempted this question. So, many students were able to clear their exams and saved repeating another year. Later, Mr. Shankar revealed that he knew how to solve this problem and although it was a complicated question he kept quiet during the discussion in the interest of the career of several students.

During the last course of coaching an unfortunate incident happened. Mr. Shankar's dad passed away. So, we did not have coaching classes for a couple of weeks. The final examinations were only a couple of weeks away and there some important syllabus still left to be covered. All the students were left in a fix. But, Mr. Shankar sensed this and the dedicated teacher that he was, he came to the class with eyes swollen and wiping his tears and started conducting the classes even in that sad situation. He even politely answered a student's phone call during the class and explained to him politely as to why the classes were not conducted for the last two weeks. I was very stunned and awestruck by his humble and exemplary attitude.

Mr. Shankar used to learn new subjects every year in order to try and help as many students as possible. I salute my teacher from the bottom of my heart. My highest marks in engineering were scored in this subject. This goes to show that how a great teacher can make any subject interesting and give his students valuable lessons for life.

I hope you all liked this article. I would love to hear your feedback. You can drop me your comments or send me a mail.

With Love,
Gunjan

Why people end up in huge debts by over usage of credit cards ?

Dear Readers,

It is great to see you again!!! I hope you had a lovely weekend. It was my birthday this Friday and we had a nice family get together. The kids as usual had lot of fun and it was a nice evening.

Today, I want to discuss about the disturbing trend of over usage of credit cards. The credit cards were invented by Banks as a means of a quick loan. Most people who were in need of some urgent money used to use the credit card. It served as a great financial scheme for making purchases or for shopping and helped to prevent the burden of handling cash.

But, over a period of time the credit card is being overused by people. The market group of young people between the ages of 18 to around 35 are mostly under huge debt these days. This is a direct result of instant purchases made without proper planning. Most salaried people these days complain that all their salary gets over within the first four or five days of the month.

How is this happening ? This is due to big financial mismanagement. These days everywhere we see that there is a huge sale happening. Every big e-commerce company or retail store keeps showing up advertisements with huge sales with great discount. These sales maybe authentic as the discounts are for real. But, what we have to decide really is whether we actually need what we are purchasing.

Just because someone has a huge sale going on should I go and purchase a new expensive TV or a washing machine. It maybe that I already have a good television at home. Also, this irresponsible shopping trend is mostly visible while purchasing smart phones, tablets and laptops. Every year a big company launches a new product. Now, just to look trendy and to keep up with other people in our social circle we go and purchase that expensive phone or tablet. It looks cool to flaunt the newest phone on the market for the first few days as lot of people are in awe. But, what after a few months ? Who cares ? Now, really was this is a good choice ? What is the cost of reselling this product ? If I am right, it is not even 50% of the actual purchase cost just after the first year.

It may even be possible that this latest phone or tablet is of no great use to us. We may not even know how to use all the features of our current phone or tablet. Then, why go and purchase something if we do not really need it ?

Also, everyone these days wants to travel the whole world. Movies which show that the world is ending is creating a sort of panic in the people. So, they want to borrow money from banks and see the world. They think that they have their whole lives to earn money. This is a very wrong notion. We have to remember that most companies do not offer pension schemes to their employees. The savings that we can make in our age group of 20 to 50 years is what would be helping us for our retirement.

I am not implying that we should stop enjoying and only save money. But, I am suggesting that we should save enough and make purchases only when necessary. If we get carried away by every single advertisement and start buying stuff indiscriminately that we really do not need then definitely we will end up in a financial crisis. So, be smart and make small investments. Always remember to strike the right balance and have your own game plan to be a smart buyer.

I hope you liked this article. I would love to hear back from you. You can write down your comments or drop me a mail.

With my Best Regards and Love,
Gunjan

Celebrating three decades of my existence

Dear Friends,

Welcome back!!!! Lovely to see you again. I am writing this article on the eve of my 30th birthday.

So, today I will share with you all my fond birthday memories from my childhood. As a kid I used to look forward to my birthday. I would ask my mom every day how many days were left for my birthday :-)

The reason was that I would become very rich on my birthday. I used to get very nice clothes and toys. Since, I was from a middle class family my parents would not be able to afford to buy me expensive gifts throughout the year. But, they would make sure that on my birthday I would be treated like a king. My mom would cook my favorite dishes and desserts.

I remember my elder sister bought me a He-Man action figure on my sixth birthday. I was so fond of this toy that I kept it safely for many years. Once I got a nice car (not a remote controlled toy which was still out of reach for me). I was playing car racing with my friends when accidentally my friend sat on the car and it got smashed. I remember how badly I wept that day knowing that I would not get another toy till next year.

There were lot of things that I wanted as a kid like a cycle but we could not afford to buy these things. However, I thank God that he gave me so many things even without me asking for them. It helped me to learn the real value of all the things in life.

He gave me a wonderful mom. She used to dress me up for school, cook for me, help me in my homework and do a million other things for me. My father always took care of all the financial burden of the house and always made sure that my studies continued without any problems.My elder sister always loved me and introduced me to the magical world of books. He also gave me wonderful cousin sister and uncle and aunt. As a kid I was too naive to understand the value of these people. Luckily, today I realize this and I want to thank all of them for being with me whenever I needed them the most.

I would also like to thank all the readers for supporting and encouraging me.

With love,
Gunjan

A haunting during a college project

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! Thanks for the great response to this blog and for your generous support. I hope to continue receiving your feedback to improve the quality of my articles.

Today, I am going to tell you about a ghost story. This is a real life incident which happened to one of my close friends Tejas. This incident happened in the summer of year 2009. Tejas is a mechanical engineer. As part of his final year project he had been to a famous Steel Plant in the state of Odhisha. He had been accompanied by four other classmates. They had applied for a summer internship on the recommendation of their Professor. They were very happy to receive an Internship in such a well known industrial plant.

They arrived to the plant during the summer vacation time. As such most of the plant was deserted due to the long vacation. They were supposed to be there for three weeks. The campus was huge and spread over several kilometers. The steel plant was in a seperate industrial area and far off from the main city.

The guys were received by the manager who had granted them the internship. After finishing the joining formalities they were taken to the industrial quarters were they would be staying. The quarters were mostly deserted as most of the employees were on vacation. The five guys were accomodated in three different rooms. One of Tejas's classmate was from Nepal. His name was Shyamu. He was put up alone in one of the rooms. The first day went off in exploring the campus. In the evening the guys had an early dinner and retired to bed early as everyone was very tired.

Shyamu was fast asleep when he suddenly heard a loud noise. Since, it was summer time it was very hot. He had switched on the fan before sleeping. But, now he felt that the fan was not running. He assumed that there must have been a power cut as it is common in India to have lot of power cuts in the summer owing to heavy loads in electricity. He kept tossing in the bed unable to sleep. Suddenly, his eyes opened and he screamed loudly. He could see that the fan was shaking heavily. There was no wind at this time of the year. He started sweating profusely unable to move from the bed. But, his scream was overheard by the other guys and they all rushed in. But, by then everything had ceased to be normal and everyone just made fun of him assuming that he had seen a bad dream.

Next day, the guys were taken to to the steel plant. They were shown the machines which are used to manufacture steel. There they met a gentleman called Ajay. They respectfully called him as Ajay bhaiya (elder brother). Ajay was a Brahmin and wore the sacred thread janeu across his chest and applied Tilak (Vermilion mark) on his forehead. He was an  orthodox religious person and was polite with the guys. He spoke softly but his eyes were stern. The guys respected him and he became their project guide. Ajay lived in the officer quarters a little distance away from the three quarters in which the guys were put up. In the evening when the guys were parting to their rooms he asked them to be watchful and left without saying anything further.

This night the guys had finished their dinner and  were having fun playing cards in Shyamus room. It was around midnight time. When suddenly they heard a woman crying. They rushed outside and froze on seeing a woman's shadow near the parapet wall. The woman was sitting with her head bent down on her hands. She had long flowing black hair and was wearing a white Saree. She was sobbing sofltly now. Suddenly she turned her head towards the guys and stared at them in the most horrible and angry way. The guys who were already very scared ran towards Ajay bhaiya's quarters. They told him the whole story. Ajay bhaiya became serious and asked the guys to spend the night in his room. He said it would not be safe to venture out.

In the morning, they all went to Shyamu's room. Shyamu had got high fever after the incident and he was in a very bad state. A doctor was called and he was given some medicines. The guys now asked Ajay bhaiya as to what was happening. Ajay bhaiya became quiet and thoughtful for a minute. He asked them to accompany him to the quarters block just opposite to Shyamu's room. He pointed to a room from a little distance. He said that about an year back a lady employee was brutally raped and murdered in this room. Tejas later told me that this was a deserted block. There was lot of dust outside all rooms except this room. Although, this was this room was sealed from the outside.

Ajay bhaiya gave all the guys a copy of the holy book Gita and taught all of them a sacred enchanment to ward off the evil. Tejas also brought a poster of god Hanuman from the city and hung it in his room. The guys started chanting Hanuman Chalisa before sleeping each night. Since, Shyamu's fever did not come down even after four days. Tejas called up his parents and he was sent off home in the next available train.

After that, the ghostly incidents stopped. The guys started working on their project and began to forget these incidents. One night, Tejas was taking a walk alone in the campus after dinner and came to a stop near a mango tree. He saw an old man perched in the tree plucking mangoes. He smiled and Tejas smiled back and he walked back to his room. As he was returning, he met the watchman. They started a conversation. The watchman told him that a week before an old man from the village had died trying to pluck mangoes from a nearby tree.

I hope you liked this article.

With Love,
Gunjan.

How the recession of 2008 affected me

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! It is lovely to see you again.

Today, I want to discuss about how things can suddenly turn south on you when you least expect it. When everything is going in place sometimes out of nowhere we get a surprise which changes the course of our lives.

In one of my previous articles Campus Placement I had told about how much difficulties I had to go through before I had obtained my first job offer. I was very happy that I had a job in hand and had started preparing for my final semester exams with a calm mind. One evening, I received an email from the company in which I had been campus placed. The letter congratulated me and explained the joining formalities. At the end, they had mentioned the reporting date and time. The date was June 6, 2009. I was very puzzled by this date since the current year was June, 2008. I felt that there must have been some mistake and reached out to the company on the phone number mentioned in the mail. The company confirmed that the date was not an error and the joining date would be one year later.

I was very disappointed. All my plans were shattered. I called few of my other friends who had received offers from the same company. Some of them were very lucky and their joining date had not been postponed. Some others were in the same situation as me. Somehow, I gathered courage and gave my exams. My exams went well and I managed to secure my highest percentage in engineering in the last semester.

Now, I had to plan for my job. It is not an easy task to get a job for a fresher. And, this was the peak of recession period. I had uploaded my resume in a few job portals and after a while I got a an interview call letter from a leading US MNC. I prepared well and started early from home since I had to reach the company by 8.30 AM. I reached well within time. But, when I went to the company I saw at least another five hundred people assembled in the company premises. All these people were carrying files and it was easy to guess that they had also come to attend the same interview. I went inside to register my name. Apparently, the company had sent two call letters to few of the candidates. So, I was informed that I had to simply register my name and wait outside. There were just four job vacancies and if these could not be filled by the people who had received two call letters (there were around a hundred such candidates) then the remaining people would be called on the basis of the registration in First Come First Served basis.

I waited outside the company gate. Since, the other candidates were not allowed inside. I stood outside for four hours and still the company had not sent any intimation. A few of the restless candidates started an argument with the security staff. After sometime we were informed that all vacancies had been filled and we were asked to return home. This was my first taste of the real world. And, I found it to be very bitter. I realised that all my hard work and sincerity was not good enough and I did not know why God was testing me like this.

My next interview was in another leading US MNC. This time the company had demanded candidates with only more than seventy percent aggregate in engineering. Anyone who has studied engineering from VTU University knows how difficult it is to obtain this type of high aggregate. I thought that maybe this time there will be a lesser number of candidates for the interview. The interview was arranged in St.Joseph's College premises. I reached the college early and as I was parking my bike I saw around two thousand people in the college ground. I thought that there must be a job fair with many companies. When I reached the ground, I asked one of the candidates for which company's interview he had come. He gave me a puzzled look and said that there was only one company which was conducting interveiw. I was shocked. I guess that even the company staff had not expected this amount of huge turnout for the interview. Since, the company was ill prepared to handle such a large number of candidates they said that now they needed only candidates with over eight percent aggregate.

A lot of candidates had come from outside Karnataka. Some of them had travelled in buses and trains overnight and had come directly to attend the interview. All of us were very upset. The company had to call Police personnel to disperse the crowd. Again, I felt very dejected.

After a few such experiences, I was called to interview for an Internship for a leading US company that works on Linux. I was very happy since I had done a complex Linux based project in my Engineering. The real challenge was to clear the first round which was very tough. There were around two hundred candidates for this interview. I felt that these were good odds for me considering my previous experiences. The first round had three sections and one technical article section. There was a section on Aptitude, English and one on Programming and Operating System. Since, I had given a lot of interviews already my aptitude skills were now much better. I was able to answer most of the questions. Also, I wrote a good technical article on Linux and socket programming.

After the first round, only about ten candidates were shortlisted. Luckily, my name was there on the list. There were still three more rounds. Second round was Group discussion and third round was technical. The final round was HR. Only four people were shortlisted at the end. After spending about 12 hours for the whole process, the company people asked us to go back home. They said we would receive intimation if we were selected. After a week, I received a call from the company HR that I had been selected for the Internship. I was so happy. I remember jumping all over my house.

This whole episode has taught one simple lesson. No matter how hard life gets, God is always there with us, watching over us and caring for us. He makes us to go through pain so we may know the value of success.

I hope you all liked this article. Please drop in your valuable feedback.

See you all very soon,

With Love,
Gunjan.

Why do lot of Punjabis don't speak in Punjabi?

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! I hope you are having a great day.

Today I want to discuss on one sensitive topic. My intention is to reason and not to judge. So, please excuse me if you feel that I am being judgemental.

I am a Sikh and my mother tongue is Punjabi. Now, it is only very normal to guess that I speak Punjabi at home. Any non-Punjabi person might make this educated guess. However, to your surprise you will realise that most of the Punjabi people don't speak in Punjabi. Most of the Punjabi people that I know all speak in either Hindi or in English. As a kid I was very surprised that many of my cousins did not even know how to speak in Punjabi.

Punjabi people are very proud people. They are mostly extroverts and like to show off their culture. They like their butter chicken, bhangra (form of dance) and songs more than anything else. Still when it comes to our own mother tongue we hesitate to speak it.

I have tried to ask few people why they do not speak in their own language. The reason they give is that speak in Punjabi with their grand parents but otherwise they do not speak it. It is not like that they are ashamed of this language. But, it has become the mindset of the new generations to not speak in this language.

So, who is to be blamed for this situation? I believe the blame should lie directly with their own parents. For some odd reason I found that most of the parents try to speak to their children in Hindi or English. This is true even in most homes in Punjab.

My dear Punjabi friends, let me help you to recall that Punjabi is not an ancient or obsolete language. In fact, it is a very modern and beautiful language. The syllable overtone is poetic. Those who have read our holy book Guru Granth Sahib ji or heard the Kirtan (hymns) at the Gurudwara would acknowledge the beauty of our mother tongue.

I have seen my dear south Indian friends speaking their mother tongues with pride in all parts of the world. Our English friends have spread their language to the whole world. Then, why do we hesitate to speak in our own language ? A language is liking a living person. If you do not care for it, it will die. Do you want our language to end up like a forgotten tongue ?

It is not too late yet. We can always learn from our mistakes. Let us all remember who we actually are. A person should always remember his own roots. We need to instill pride of our own mother tongue in the coming generations. We can start this process slowly and one day will come again when Punjabis will start speaking in Punjabi.

I hope you will try to understand my sentiments even though you may not agree with all my words.

With Love,
Gunjan.

How a Sardar learnt Kannada

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! Hope you all are having a lovely day. Today I want to reveal to you all how I a Punjabi Sardar learnt the south Indian language Kannada.

I see a lot of reactions from people when they hear me speaking in Kannada. Some are confused, some are totally amused and some well are totally shocked. Some of my friends say that I speak Kannada so well that it is only my north Indian face which gives away the secret that I am a Punjabi. People on phone can never make out any difference.

I was born and brought up in Bangalore. And, I loved playing cricket. Most of my friends in the colony used to speak in Kannada. Even though there were lot of people whose mother tongue was different. But, our official language was Kannada in the cricket ground. I used to speak broken Kannada at first. But, slowly I picked up the language. I also used to watch the Sunday Kannada movies on Doordarshan. My favorite Kannada actors are Dr. Rajkumar and Dr. Vishnuvardhan. I also like Sudeep from the current generation.

Even at school I took up Kannada as the third language and I used to try to speak with my friends in this language. I used to take help from my neighbor Aunty for my homework and exams. Slowly, I became better at the spoken language.

I can tell you how useful picking up this language has been for me. Once, I was eating lunch with my friends in a restaurant. A stranger suddenly approached me and shook hands with me. He said he was very happy that I was speaking in Kannada so well. It taught me a simple lesson in life. No matter where you stay, you need to learn the native language. It helps you mingle with the local people. We become more approachable and we can communicate more freely with the native people.

I get lot of benefits due to the knowledge of this additional language. I am able to make lot of new contacts and friends very easily. Even at my office, I am able to relate easily to both North Indian people who speak Hindi as well to the Karnataka people who speak in Kannada.

I feel that all of us should try to learn at least three or four languages. One of our Prime Minister Dr. P.V. Narsimha Rao knew 14 languages. My four year old niece knows five languages - English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Punjabi. When we learn a new language it increases our IQ level. Our mind becomes familiar with a vast variety of syllable sounds and starts processing information faster. 

The most important thing is you enjoy the feeling of oneness you can feel with the local people. So, as the saying goes "When in Rome, be a Roman!".

I hope you all liked this article. Please free to drop in your comments.

With Love,
Gunjan.

Power of negative thoughts

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! It is great to see you again. Hope you had a fantastic day.

Today, I was thinking of how negative thoughts can adversely affect a person. If we start thinking something negative that thought slowly consumes us and affects our mindset very badly. I have seen that wrong things tend to happen to people who think about it the most.

Let me share an incident. Few years back, I had been to Goa with my friends. Goa is a beautiful state known for its beaches, pubs and laid back life. It is visited by several tourists every year both from India and abroad. Goa is a very chilled out city and people come here to relax and move out of the hustle of the big cities.

It was the month of November. This is the month when tourists start arriving to the city. The month of December is when the city is over flowing with tourists gearing up for the Christmas and New year festivities. The air was cool and little humid with little bit of rain everyday. We had come to the Bagha beach which is known for outdoor sports. We went on the regular motor boat and banana split sports. After this we decided to do Para sailing. None of us had done this activity before and we were very excited.

We paid the money to the sports people and they took us to a boat. We were five friends and we were joined by a young couple in the boat. The guy seemed to be a little nervous but his girlfriend was trying to relax him. The boat took us to the deep sea. I was the first one to do the activity. One end of the rope was tied to a place in the the boat and the other end was tied to the chute. I was attached to the chute using a bag type of harness belt. The rope was released slowly and I flew out like a kite. It was quite thrilling to be 100 feet in the air and to be surrounded by the blue sea. One by one me and all my friends completed the activity. Now, it was the turn of the couple. The man was nervous and was saying that he did not know how to swim. The boat person explained that there was a life jacket tied to him and also a life guard would be on stand by if needed. Also, there was very little chance of him falling in the water. After a lot of encouragement from his girl friend, the poor guy decided to sail. The guy had barely sailed to the top when we all heard a loud noise and the boat stopped.

Before we could realize what had happened we saw that the poor guy had fallen into the water. He was struggling too hard and as a result he swallowed a lot of water. The life guard immediately jumped into the water and helped the guy back to the boat. We found out that the boat propellor had struck something hard which had made it to stop. Now, this was the only guy who did not want to be on this boat and was afraid of doing this activity. And, due to some bad coincidence he had to suffer this accident.

But, I have observed this type of behavior on more than one occasion to call it a coincidence. The toughest lab program usually comes to the guy who is usually afraid to take the exam. People generally end up in accidents if they get nervous. If a person thinks that he will fail in a driving exam even before he starts the car then he will normally fail.

I believe that negative thinking is dangerous as it affects the sub concious mind. If we start thinking of all negative things then definitely something will go wrong. So, we need to always think positively and surround ourselves with positive people. Staying with a person who has negative attitude can adversely affect ones own mind set. So, think positive and be positive always.

I hope you all liked this article. See you all very soon again.

With Love,
Gunjan.

A Coffee in the US vs A Coffee in India

Dear Readers,

Welcome back!!! It is so good to have you back again.

Today, I want to discuss about a simple concept. How we order coffee in India and how we order for the same in the US.

In India, we have small eateries and tea stalls in every corner of most cities, towns and villages. Most Indians are simple people. When they go to the tea stall they just ask for a tea or a coffee and the tea stall guy just pours it in a paper cup, clay pot (Kullad) or a glass cup and hands it over to them. We generally do not have too many customization. The only option that we get is whether there will be sugar in it or not. Sometimes, we do not even get this option :-)

I am a simple Indian myself. I do not generally go to expensive coffee shops where they offer so many options. In a regular tea stall in India we could get a cup of tea or coffee for just ten rupees (1 dollar is roughly equal to 66 rupees). In an expensive coffee bar the cost is anywhere between 80 rupees to 200 rupees. Even though the cost is less but we get the filtered south Indian coffee or the Darjeeling or the Assam tea which are some of the finest varieties in the world. As such most of the Indians do not care too much for the variety and you could see a large number of people around the tea stall at any time of the day or evening.

When, I reached Atlanta in US, I went to a Star Bucks for the first time. There were no Star Bucks in Bangalore at that time. I had only been to Coffee Day shop in Bangalore a few times. So, I found it similar. I saw a crowd of well dressed office people and a few Stylishly dressed teenagers lined for their orders. When my turn came, the server asked my order. I was not quite sure what to say. I just took a quick glance at the menu on the wall and repeated the name of the coffee at the very top. It was some name like a Frappuccino. Next, he asked me in what size I needed it. So, I said regular. I learnt later that there are three standard sizes - small, regular and tall. Next, he asked me whether I needed it cold or hot. I answered hot. Next, he asked how much cream. I did not know properly. So, I just quickly said one. Next, he asked how much sugar. And, I answered one. I was just beginning to think that the guy might be asking some more questions. Luckily, he asked me for the payment which I was only too glad to make. That day I realized how complicated it could be to buy a coffee.

I suddenly remembered a scene from a very popular Hindi movie English Vinglish where the lead actress Sridevi goes to a coffee shop in Newyork and later runs away scared and with tears in her eyes. Because, the coffee server embarrasses her since she is unable to answer all these questions quickly. Luckily, I was little confident and was accompanied by a few friends who helped me.

The point here is that Indians are simple people. They accept things the way they are. They are used to adjust easily. But, our friends in the US like to customize their orders to their own tastes. It is just a mix of different cultures. Both, of us take time to learn each other's culture and life styles. We should not judge each other harshly just because we may not understand each other. It takes time to build relationships and especially those that last for a long time.

I had read somewhere that a friend is not someone with whom you do not have differences. But, a true friend is someone who has an undersanding and tolerance of these differences. After spending a few months in the US, I became a regular customer at Star Bucks. I used to make my order of a regular Chai Latte, two cream and two sugar in a single breath :-)


I hope you liked this article. See you very soon again.

With Love,
Gunjan.

Break free from your mental prison

Dear Readers,

It is lovely to see you back again !!! Hope you are all having a lovely day.

Today, I want to talk about a topic which is very close to my heart. I want to begin the discussion with the reference to an article that I had read in a book few years back.

There was once a Magician. And, one of the items in his show was of house flies. The house flies always flew in a designated area on the stage. Not even one of them would move out of that area and try to fly away elsewhere. The audience were astonished as to how the magician could train the house flies. One of his subordinates who was learning magic under him asked him the secret for this act. The magician said these house flies were reared within a glass enclosure. These flies were bred inside in the glass enclosure and had never felt the outside world. Their world was limited to the size of the glass enclosure. Only during this act, the magician would lift the glass enclosure. The flies who had never flown beyond the glass walls would stop and turn away at the boundaries of the virtual walls even though they were no longer enclosed. So, this was how the magician made the flies to fly in a designated area.

My friends we are also not very different from these flies. Most of us are bound within some mental prison. We are keeping ourselves confined within the virtual walls of this cell. We only need to dare to break free.

History is only made by those people who have ever tried to make it. We cannot be restricted by any barriers but the ones which are created by ourselves. We need to be daring and take a step towards those things we cherish the most.

In the movie, The Pursuit of Happiness, the character of Will Smith teaches a very important lesson to his son. Both of them are playing basketball. His son is struggling to get the ball into the basket. And, his father criticizes him saying that he is not good enough to play the game. His son feels disappointed and agrees with his dad and starts packing his ball. His dad walks up to him and tells him not to believe in any person who tells him that he cannot play the game well, not even him. He says that people the only reason that people  try to stop or criticize anyone from doing something is because they themselves do not have the courage to do it.

Do not be disappointed by your failures. If you want something, go and get it. Like the movie Hindi Lakshya, remember that "Lakshya to har haal main pana hai!" which translated means "No matter what, I will achieve my goal!".

I hope you liked this article dear friends.

See you again soon.

With Love,
Gunjan.

Simple ways to serve society

Dear Readers,

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

Today, I want to discuss about few important social causes and how we can contribute back to the society.

Social Cause 1 - Save Paper

As everyone knows that paper comes from trees. Lot of trees are cut every year to run the paper industry. So, what can we do to reduce the paper wastage and save the trees.

The rest rooms in all major public places like offices, restaurants, airports etc have Napkins (Paper tissues) for drying hands. The garbage bins are usually overflowing with the napkins. Now, if everyone started using hand towels or hand kerchiefs to dry their hands instead of the paper napkins we could easily save around ten paper napkins per person per day.

Also, in office cafeterias we see paper cups being used to serve tea or coffee or water. If everyone start using their own coffee mugs they could again contribute to reduce the paper wastage. Similarly, while shopping try to carry cloth bags to avoid using paper bags.

Social Cause 2 - Contribute money to a social cause

To run a country is a very difficult job. We cannot hold the government alone responsible for everything. Agreed, that we pay taxes. But, does our responsibility end there ?

Each one of us might have a social cause close to our heart. Someone might prefer to educate children, someone else might prefer contributing money to an orphanage or an old age home. Since, we may not get time out of our busy schedules to come down and help for these causes. So, it is better to identify some legitimate NGO and contribute money towards that NGO to help it run efficiently.

Social Cause 3 - Keep your city clean

I have seen people throw garbage right across the street and into empty plots. They imagine that it would become  someone else's problem after that. People also throw ice-cream and chocolate wrappers anywhere they feel like. It is high time to educate these people. If you see anything like this happening around you, quietly collect the trash and put it in a garbage bin. You can even approach the person and suggest him politely to do the same. These things might seems awkward at first, but I firmly believe in these methods suggested by Mahatma Gandhi. Since, these actions have a long term benefit and aim at changing the ideology of people. If you feel hesitant at first then start with your own family and educate them. Slowly, start spreading the right message to other people.

By doing simple things, we can bring great changes in society. Like John F Kennedy had quoted "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country."

With Love,
Gunjan.

Life is like a game of chess

Dear Readers,

Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!!!! I am having a great weekend. I started my Saturday morning with a 6 km walk. After that I practised Guitar for an hour. And, now I am writing this blog. What a perfect weekend :-)

Today, I want to tell how I can correlate Chess with reality. When I was young, I hated this game. Any game that involved using my brains was against my principles. I was a more outdoor guy. Me and my friends used to play Cricket starting early morning till late night. I could never understand why two people were spending their brains on a board game.

As I joined my new office, I saw that they had kept chess boards in all coffee areas. Since, some of my colleagues used to play the game I started observing them. Sometimes to beat boredom, I used to join them in a game or two. My team had a lot of good chess players. I lost to everyone of them. So, I was a very bad player. But, something strange started happening. I started to like the game.

I started practising the game on my phone. I played on a chess app called KLite chess which has around 12 chess levels. I could never go beyond the fourth level. Then, I started learning and practising chess moves through lessons in the same app. Slowly, my game started to improve. I went on to beat the computer at the eight level. Slowly, I started beating the guys at office too.

But, my main competition was with the guys who had never lost to anyone. I thought I should practise hard so that one day I might beat this guy at chess. So, I joined a chess forum called Chess.com. This place was a hub of chess players from all over the world. It had Grand Masters and other very highly rated international players. I started participating in team games and started learning professional moves.

In this website, I progressed very well. From a paltry Elo rating of 476 I progressed till 1676 within 10 months. I was able to play games where I could predict the next 7 moves of the opponent. At office, I defeated the champion in my team in 5 consecutive games.

Now, you would say how is all this related to reality ?

The first phase when I was young and did not understand or like chess is like the Youth. As they say, the Youth is ignorant. We do not understand lot of things and we tend to be in our dream world. The second phase is when I started taking interest in Chess. This is when I say that when people truly understand something, they can appreciate it. Like they say, only a Jeweller understands the worth of a stone (diamond).

The third phase is when I started playing and losing. This is the phase in reality when the reality strikes hard, We know how difficult life truly is. The fourth phase is when I decided to work hard for my success. This is the stage when we need to pick up ourselves and be strong to face the challenges in life.

The final phase is when I won. This is the phase when the hard work starts bringing success. I once received a beautiful message and it read "Life itself does not have any meaning. But, it is an opportunity to create one."

I hope you all liked this article. I would love to get your feedback. You can put across your comments in the section below the article.

With lots of Love,
Gunjan.