Some beautiful quotes I picked up and loved to mentioned on my blog:

The higher a man gets, the smaller he seems to those who cannot fly.
Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher (1844 - 1900)
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the
public and have no self.
Cyrilla Connelly
I was brought up to believe that how I saw myself was more important than
how others saw me.
Anwar el-Sadat
Egyptian politician (1918 - 1981)
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule
of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
Frederick Douglas
It really doesn’t matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven.
Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. You have things to do and you want
to move on.
Anonymous author
Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.
Janis Joplin
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in
harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi

Some photographs of Manas's activities in the school

Drawing a line in relationships

Since last few days I am experiencing a turbulence in some of my relationships and started wondering 'Where to draw a line in the relationship'. I am very emotional and sensitive for my friends and care a lot about them. Being an active member of the society I love to do something different and that boost my morale too. I remember those days when I was extremely busy with my family and job in the school but still was able to spare time for the layout activities - arranging parties, doing accounts maintenance of the association or attending various meetings related to the welfare of the layout. But, off late things are changed and insisted me to retrospect where I went wrong. In last few months I lost few 'friends' may be they were there only for my good times only.
I have been talking to people and I always loved it but recently I am unable to understand and draw a line, so that I respect my privacy and let others also do the same. This feeling is making me even more introvert and unsure about my conduct. Yesterday one of my friend whom I like talking, called me at 12:30am without any important thing to discuss, very unusual and hurtful. I don't like people calling me after 10pm as that is my family or personal time, and this made me thinking - Am I giving lot of liberty to my friends???

BARACK H OBAMA - The New President of US

Yesterday we watched the oath ceremony and speech of the new President of US, Mr. Barack Obama. Initially his facial expressions were quite nervous and then with pride he gave a long speech about being friendly with all the peaceful countries and some other points too..

It took me a year before during olympic session of China. Abhinav Bindra won the first individual gold medal in shooting, and then India had all the hopes on its wrestlers and boxers. Just a day before the final match, all the boxer and wrestlers were put into so much pressure of 'HOPE' of India to win more golds and ultimately they could not take that pressure and satisfied with Bronze or silver medals. All the news channels were gathered in their homes and raised the expectation of the families too. I felt that this all could have waited for one more day. May be they might not have been in that tremendous pressure of expectations and would have given their best performance without any pressure.
Same thing is happenning with Obama. All the country and world are showing lot of expectations as he only will solve all the problems of economy, hatred and terrorism. It never happens, he might give direction or maximum he can give his policies but with these many hopes and pressure, I think, he first have to make himself calm to see through those expectations. Things will move slowly and steadily if Mr. Obama will get the support of the people and not only their expectations....

Tatkal booking in IRCTC - Benefit for the public and we also have some responsibility

Yesterday I read the news about Indian Railways income through TATKAL scheme, where tickets can be booked online 5 days before the journey. The revenue has reached upto Rs. 300 crores all over the country. Under this scheme, few trains have some reserved tickets quota which gets released on 5 days prior to the journey date and it can be booked by paying some additional cost ( Rs. 150 to Rs. 300) over the ticket charges.
Personally we have been benefitted by this scheme many a times and thankful to IRCTC online booking which can be done from home. It is an excellent scheme which reduces the burden and sometimes we can plan travel in a short time. Being away from the family in Delhi it is always a security which IRCTC has provided to us. Whenever we have some waitlisted ticket then we check the status 5 days prior to the journey and if not confirmed then book the same in Tatkal quota.
But we should understand the other side picture also and if we have some tickets booked in advance then all the unwanted tickets should get cancelled 5 days prior to the journey date so all the wait listed passengers should know the actual status on time and can book the tickets accordingly in TATKAL quota. If we cancel the ticket later then it will have no benefit to the waitlisted passenger as they book it through TATKAL quota.
Personally I experienced it twice that I booked the tickets in Tatkal quota and later my waitlisted ticket also got confirmed. It was frustrating but can't help. Although this is not the only reason as IRCTC also release quota of some tickets once all the Tatkal booking is completed till the end date and sometimes it gets confirmed while preparing the chart.
But all said and done, Tatkal is a good attempt from Indian railways and we should reap all the benefits of this. As a citizen we all can understand our responsibility and cancel all the unwanted tickets 5 days prior to the journey date :-)

P Chidambaram's view on Pak's procrastination views

So finally P Chidambaram has the same view as me and Tanay are discussing since many days. It is approx. 2 months now since Pakistan is denying on the proofs and taking it as mere information. It is not only saddening but frustrating also for the Indian Govt and other people having the same view.

Our neighbouring country is smart enough to avoid all the pressures and keep everyone in utter confusion. No proof is sufficient unless there is a willingness of action. After Kandhar hijack issue, it is clear that Maulana Masood Azhar is staying in Pakistan and enjoying his freedom. There is no proof needed in that case but nothing has happened and safe shelter is provided by ISI and Pak official. Many a times in the news this issue was discussed but all in vein. What's the use and what are we scared off. The only problem is that we are a peaceloving country and Pak is taking all the benefits of that. I am very happy to see PC's view of snaping all the ties, be it business, tourism, art or music or any other emotional ties of people. All should be cut off unless Islamabad takes a firm action on the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Not only India but all the countries having same opinion on terror attack should not entertain any Pak national in their country. This will pressurise Pak Govt through its own people to take action at the earliest. As of now there is no deadline assigned for the action by the Indian Govt. but I hope this will help to take the issue one step ahead.

Our vacation in Kodaikanal - December 20-24, 2008

Some memories of Kodaikanal. Although not as pictureseque as Munnar but we had great fun near Kodai Lake. I cycled after 20 years and really had great fun. Manas and ajay had horse riding, cycling and boating. Here are some pics too