Why Geetaben??

I don't want to talk much about why I was away from blogging for last one and half years because even I need to give it a serious thought. :-) I hope this gives this post a deserving preface..Just kiddin!! On a more serious note, let me directly jump into the topic of this post.

Last Saturday, as usual I woke up at around 8.30 AM, turned on TV and started working on some office stuff on my laptop while watching cricket news. In the process of cleaning my inbox from junk forwards, saw a mail with subject line "Be cautious seven serial blasts in bangalore". And the mail content read usual precautionary measures for employees of a firm while returning home. What routes not to take and all.

And there flashed "breaking news" - a couple of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad. After a couple of minutes the allotted cricket news program was abruptly ended and first images of the blasts came flashing on the TV screen. As the time went by, the count increased and became 16 after 1-2 hrs. 16 bomb blasts shook Ahmedabad in which around 50 innocent people lost their lives and more than 100 got injured. The blasts were planned by fundamentalist islamist group called 'Indian Mujahideen' (new version of SIMI) in retaliation of 2002 Gujarat riots. In the most gruesome act of terror, hospitals were planted with high intensity bombs that can cause ultimate damage than initial low intensity blasts.

Whenever such tragedies happen, it gives media enough material to print/show for 1-2 weeks. Several stories are told and they are forgotten as the time goes by. The common man pants anger on terrorists who were responsible, curses them and then moves on with his daily routine after 1-2 weeks. But even after a week, one story which still hovers in my mind and which kept me pondering for long time several times is what follows:

Dushyant Vyas works in the Civil Hospital of Ahmedabad as an X-ray technician. He buys his children a second hand bicycle just day before the blasts hit the city. While he teaches his sons how to ride bicycle outside the civil hospital on Saturday, a massive explosion erupts which takes Dushyantbhai's life leaving Yash(7) and Rohan(12) with severe 3rd/4th degree burns.

Rohan and Yash were not told that they have lost their father. This news might have adverse effect on both sons going through unbearable pain and trauma of 75% burns at this tender age. I have seen some footage on TV and pictures of troubled mother Geetaben who is stunned and the picture itself tells the plight of this lady. My heart goes out to her who is a poor, innocent civilian who has nothing to do with politics. Why she? What wrong she did? Rohan died after a week of sufferings while his younger brother is still in the civil ward unaware of the fact that his father and brother are no more.

Likewise there are many other stories. They will be told in media for a couple of weeks and people like me and you will sympathizes with the families but little Yash ( if he survives) might have to live rest of his life with scars of terror on his body. The life will no longer be the same for Geetaben after that day. Dushyantbhai, perhaps was the luckiest of the four in the family who suffered for only a few hours!!!


This whole story raised several questions in my mind.

1. Are Government aids of Rs. 500,000 for dead and Rs. 50,000 for injured enough for those who suffered in the blasts? Will Monetory help normalize their lives? Will Geetaben manage to live rest of her life with Rs. 500,000? Is Indian blood inferior?

2. Why "red alerts" are flared AFTER the tragedy happens? The appalling factor of Ahmadabad blasts was it happened just a day after serial blasts happened in Bangalore. Most of the states were already under "red alert".

3. I agree with our CM Mr. Modi when he says terrorism is worse than war as it does not have any rules. Most probably Geetaben and Dushyantbhai would have voted for Mr. Modi whom he promised "Kal no divas (BJP ne vote aapva) jagi lo, baki na paanch varsh hu jagish ane tame unghjo". Why government is unable to take severe actions against terrorists?

4. Blasts after blasts are killing innocent Indians in India and abroad spreading fear and terror. Mr. CM and Mr.PM makes statements to take "strict action" against terrorists but even after a week the investigations do not seem to have found any clue. Let another week go by and people will forget about everything and their will not be any media channel asking questions. Are we used to live with terror now?

Honorable Supreme Court of India gave a verdict to hang Afzal Guru who was prime accused in 2001 Parliament attack. He was supposed to be hanged in Oct 2006. But ironically some so called "social activists" (I rather call them anti-social elements) like Arundhati Roy along with all kashmiri politicians like Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Ghulam Nabi Azad demanded clemency for Afzal Guru, a terrorist who attacked Indian parliament. He is still not hanged. Point to note here is these Kashmiri politicians still give "martyr" status to people like Maqbool Bhat (another kashmiri terrorist who was engaged in Indian plane hijacking and Indian diplomat murder in shootout in London and was hanged by Indian Government in 80s) and Afzal Guru. Farookh Abdullah of (Anti)National Conference crossed all limits and went to the extent of saying "India would go up in flames" if Afzal is hanged. This exposes the biggest hypocrisy of Kashmiri politicians. Afzal is still not hanged. This whole episode sends wrong signals to terrorists and encourages them. It makes them start thinking they can get away even after attacking Indian parliament!!

May GOD give Geetaben, Yash and other families who have suffered in these blasts enough strength to deal with this irremediable calamity and courage to Indian government to deal with terror!!

Commerce to Computers – A subtle transition

Last night I went to watch movie 'Guru' with my colleagues here in Toronto. My first movie in a hall outside India :-) The hall was pretty much at par with our Indian multiplexes. The only appalling difference was, there was no interval. :-) Our Indian mindset was anticipating a break and the movie went on and on and on. Finally we inferred there are no 'Intermissions' here :-(. We watched whole movie in a single stretch. Glued to our seats bearing all those 'out of the blue' kinda songs!!

Anyways, I am writing this post to share one of the turning points in my life. When I completed my bachelor's degree in 2001, I was on a junction which had many ways. I had always been in top 5 until my +2 but lost the momentum during college. I had appeared for CA foundation examination while doing grad but didn't get through. May be I was not much interested in commerce. After graduation, I had limited options. Either I could directly do a accountant or clerk kinda job in some local financial firm/bank for some 2-3k bucks or do post-graduation. My dad left that decision entirely on me. And I decided to go with the former. :-) Throughout my grad, I was somehow feeling myself as being landed in something which I didn't want to pursue. So, I decided to not go for post-grad in commerce. I started job in my native town of Nadiad, in a CA consultancy firm just to gain some experience. I was kind of enjoying there as one of my college friends had also joined with me. Few days passed, and I started foreseeing my future. I wanted to do something else, but was very confused.

One night, my dad's colleague came to our home to see us. His daughter had also completed her commerce graduation that time. My dad asked him, what she had planned after grad. He replied she was planning to appear for MCA entrance examination in July. My brother had appeared in MCA entrance examination unsuccessfully some years back and I knew it required a lot of hard work. However, I made up my mind that very moment. I didn't want to continue with the accountant job. I will start preparing for MCA entrance exam which was due in 2 months. Computer programming had always amazed me ever since I was a child. My dad was a manager in Mafatlal Mills and he was given a PC at home. That time, computers didn't have Windows. All they had was DOS OS, some console programs and games which we used to play all the time.

I started commuting to Ahmedabad daily for classes. I had never commuted daily in my life. I had done all the schooling, +2 and college in my hometown. I was not used to commuting and the summer time heat was exacerbating the things for me. However, I was not alone. We were some 7-8 folks from Nadiad. After initial struggle, I started loving daily commute as we were a bunch of people having common interests. We used to kill the time in train, solving puzzles, asking weird questions to each other, sharing jokes and savouring "special samosa of Barejadi". In July, We all appeared in some colleges in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Nadiad. I did reasonably well in some colleges. However, I was a bit apprehensive considering the stupendous number of candidates who appeared in all the colleges.

Finally came the doom's day. I will not forget that day ever in my life. It was 9AM in the morning. I had just finished my morning chores. Our phone started ringing and my dad picked it up. My dad's friend who was working in DDIT (Polytechnic in Nadiad) was on the other end. "Your son had wasted the examination fees which you had paid for him." My dad looked quite disappointed. I was more nervous as I had worked hard during 2 months of rigorous prep work. And after a while I saw an expression on my dad's face which I was not expecting. A big smile on the face and glitter in his eyes amazed me. He hanged up the phone and congratulated me. He told I was listed 17th in the merit list of 100+ candidates in DDIT. Uncle who called up from the college was trying to kid my dad initially saying I wasted his money and all. :-) I was quite contented with my performance. That was one of the happiest moments of my life which made me feel relishing the fruits of hard work.

I would tell it my good fortune that I had a chance to do MCA also at my home. 3 years of MCA were filled with joy, enlightenment and varied experiences which I am going to share in my next post.

Defying Death, time and again..

People die every day in the world. People die of ailment, accident, murder, suicide and many other reasons. Ever since when I was a kid, I used to think where these people go after they die. I have asked this question to my parents, my grandma, other elderly people and the answer I used to get was the same which almost all the other kids might have got from their parents.

“They go to Heaven if they have lived a good life and have done good deeds; otherwise they go to Hell as a punishment for their sins.”

I had always wondered as a kid, where these Heavens and Hells are; how the dead go there; how long they stay there; where do they go from there if they do not stay there forever; if they stay there forever how the almighty manage such huge number of people there, must be zillions of folks till date. Anyways, I do not want to go much in detail of “life after death” as it in itself is a separate topic to discuss. :-)

I have faced near death experiences many times in my life so far. :-) Some of them I will never forget in my life. Some in reality, so in my dreams :-)

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The festival of “Makara Sankranti” is one of the major festivals in India. One of the most popular festivals in my native land of Gujarat. It is called Uttarayana (Celebrated on 14th an d 15th of January every year) and we fly kites on our terraces. Actually, many kite flying enthusiasts like me start flying kites days before the actual festival days. I remember those days when I was a kid, some 7-8 years old. Every evening, after returning from school at 5 PM, me, my brother and my sis used to have quick snacks and rush to our terrace to fly/catch kites, just to get more time as it gets dark early during winter. Our house was in a nook of a crowded old town area where houses were very closely attached, most of them sharing common walls and having iron roof covering which are slanted both sides to let rain water fall down. We had almost mastered the art of jumping roofs to catch kites which are cut by other kite flyers.

One fine day, I returned from my school, finished chores hurriedly and went upstairs to enjoy kite flying and catching :-). The latter was the more fun for most of the kids and I was one of them. We used to run on the roofs behind the kite which is cut by somebody. It usually has a string hanging with it which passes besides you, when it is above your head. We used to run behind those kites to hold the hanging string. Sometimes more than one brat, running after kite, on slanted iron roofs, eyeing the kite in the sky without the knowledge of where the roof ends. It was dusk, we (2-3 guys) saw a 'cut kite' flying our way from a distance and we all positioned ourselves on a nook of a steeply slanted roof to catch the string of the kite, without the knowledge of each other being present there. We all grouped together at the very end of the steep roof. We almost banged each other and 2 of us lost balance. I was searching for something to hold but I didn’t find anything except a sleeve of one of the guys. He also lost his balance this time as my whole weight was on him. I didn’t understand what to do. I just held whatever I was holding, dark narrow lane beneath me. I tried standing up but was fearing of making the other guys loose their balance. Many thoughts went through my mind that time, which I will never ever forget in my life.

I thought what will happen if I fall down. I feared death. How my mom will react to this. I was my mom’s favorite of us three. And I love my mom very much. I prayed God to save me. My mind went totally blank. I didn’t understand what is going to happen next. Suddenly, my fist became a little sweaty and I was losing my grip. I started crying and shouting for help. Till this time I was not even crying or shouting. None of us did actually. I do not understand why, but none of us shouted for help for so long. It was too dark now. Most of the people had gone down in their homes.

I found my wrist gripped and my body moving upwards. I knew someone is trying to save me. I was trying to hold the roof with one of my hanging legs and I knew, once I hold the roof with one of my legs I can easily climb up. We had mastered that art. I somehow managed to hold the roof with leg and with the help of one of the guys. We managed to save ourselves. We were so frightened with such a hell of an experience that we were fearing going home with torn clothes. We feared of getting scolding from our parents. More than scolding we feared the “prohibition” of coming to terrace to fly/catch kites. :-)

Every year many kids and young guys die in Gujarat by falling from roofs. I read such news every year in newspapers and my memories get refreshed time and again every year.

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Another incident is pretty recent one. This happened on the very night of dusserah of year 2005. I am fond of Navaratri, just like any other gujarati youth. I was missing it quite a lot and had not even gone to watch it. Not a single time during all nine nights. Was working for IBM those days and used to have considerable workload. Dusserah was last night and it was Saturday, so we guys in my PG decided to go to Palace grounds to watch Navratri. Four of us started on two bikes in the night for Mekhri circle. I was riding my bike with Indranil (one of my roommates) seated in the back seat. I sped my bike. It was raining lightly and roads were wet. We didn’t know the exact place after mekhri circle. On the right hand side we saw a huge scaffolding and illuminated tent. I knew this is the place. I was so excited to go inside. Right ahead was an underpass and two roads for crossing either side. I decided to go by the side road as I vaguely saw the other two guys heading towards that road. But I didn’t follow them well because of rain and other speeding vehicles. We were going at around 60-70 KMPH. I slowed down the bike to take the side way to turn for the entrance, totally unaware of other vehicles behind me at the same or more speed. All of a sudden, Indranil shouted to turn the bike as a Qualis was rushing towards us from behind. It crossed us just kissing my sleeve. Force of Qualis made me loose control on bike. I braked hard. And we fell down. Had I not turned the bike on the shout of indranil that day, I would not be writing this blog :-).

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