It's Rain Time!!

As a kid, my favorite season was summer season. We, as children, always believed that the best thing in the world is the holidays and the vacations. So, summers automatically raced ahead of any other season by a long distance. Summers were the time of enjoying in our own world, reunion with cousins, swimming, mangoes and what not. We never bothered about the temperature at that time. What mattered at that time was that we don’t have to worry about the homework and all the boring routine. I never actually understood the logic behind the inclination of grown-ups towards rainy season.

For me, rainy season was that part of the year when you are supposed to start a new academic session, again the hectic school schedule, you can’t play cricket, you can’t go swimming, you have to be mentally prepared for unforeseen cancellation of any outings. So in all, I hated rainy season.

But time changed and so changed my outlook towards the seasons. It all started when I started understanding the fact that beauty of this earth is mostly because of the rains. It provides respite from long drawn summers to Indians. Many parts of India witness mercury shooting up to 48 degrees during summers. So rains are always a welcome relief.

Last week, I tasted the first rain of this year. The fragrance of maiden drops of water on soil is unmatchable. You want to get soaked in those messengers of greenery even if that means catching cold. You can actually spend hours looking at the rain from your window with a cup of coffee in your hand. You actually want to do a rain dance!! Rains bring a green blanket for earth with it. Now I also realize why all the good Indian sayings have taken rains as the example: “Khusiyo ki baarish” or “Dhan ki varsha” etc.

But rains are not about only the scenic beauty. Rains means happiness. It also brings in prosperity. Good monsoons are always a cause of joy for farmers. It’s the source of ground water. Our necessity of using (or may be wasting) disproportionate amount of water is also fulfilled by these rains. But I fear for the day when there will not be enough rains. And the effects of that are already visible. Human greed has resulted in imbalance of things. We hear about floods and draughts more often now. Blessings don’t take much time to turn into fury. So rains also remind us of our responsibilities towards the nature.

Lessons of Life

We all dream a lot. Dreaming with eyes closed. Dreaming with eyes wide open. Dreams of career. Dreams of a beautiful spouse. Dreams of high social status. And then, we try our best to make those dreams come true. It’s not an overstatement that we, most of the times, dream of things which are unrealistic. But it’s not human to not dream. But while dreaming, we unintentionally tend to disconnect with people who are real. Our parents. Our friends. Our loved ones.

Life, in some or the other way, keeps reminding us of the people who are worth dying for. And I got one dose two days back. One of my best friends lost his mother to cancer. He tried his best with money and time and care. He even sacrificed a seat in one of the country’s best b-schools for his mother. But at the end of the day, everything was not in his hand. But then everything is in no one’s hands.

This whole thing makes me wonder what wrong he ever did in his life to deserve this? To lose his mother so early?  These are those frustrating questions that no one has answers for. It’s all destinies and nothing is in our control.

But we can do one thing that is in our control. Love the people who are close to us more than ever.

I think we don’t need these examples to change our outlook towards important people in our lives. But these examples help greatly to remind us that we should not lose our chance to enjoy life and spend some special moments with them. While they are here. We are here.

Hail Bangalore!! Hail India!!

I’m an avid blog reader. Actually, I started writing blogs because I’ve, myself , followed many blogs for years. Just continuing my habit of reading blogs, I recently read a blog on Obama’s outburst against US companies that are involved in outsourcing. So, I got an idea of writing something on the same topic.

Our politicians can really take a leaf out of Obama’s intentions of fulfilling promises, which he made during his election campaign. One such promise was to stop job loss in US because of outsourcing. This man is taking each of his promises one by one and this is really commendable. But all his moves to counter recession smell of highly condemned socialism. And this is coming from the self-proclaimed champion of capitalism who has been teaching the whole world how to do business since time immemorial!!

This policy of protectionism is not new. It has been followed by the capitalist countries whenever their own share has been in danger (remember the time when Japan flooded US market with its small cars??).

 Mr. Obama’s recent remark against the companies “which are creating jobs in Bangalore, India and not in Buffalo, NY” has its own set of supporters and critics. The supporters consist precisely of the general public of US that, like any other country’s common people, has been lured by populist measures. The accusation of Obama against companies, which are indulged in outsourcing, as tax evaders holds little water. Can it be possible for companies to outsource just because they don’t want to pay taxes? And all that talk of low-cost-high-skilled human resources and improved efficiency doesn’t seem logical to the policy makers of Obama administration. And what about many other indirect advantages of outsourcing like creation of more jobs for the home country citizens by the way of giving companies room for more expansion and investment through the cost that has been saved?

But its politics to talk of populist measures even if they are illogical. In this whole episode, Obama has done one thing unintentionally and that is – he has given Bangalore the kind of publicity which would have taken many more years if would have done only by Infy’s and Wipros of Indian silicon valley. Now, the name “Bangalore” has been firmly pasted into the minds of many people across the globe. He has proved himself to be the best ambassador of the Brand Bangalore in particular and Brand India in all.

Indians have often been accused of being xenophobic. It’s heartening to see as an Indian that accusers have now become the accused. The statements made by Obama are not going to affect India at all (courtesy: Narayana Murthy and other dignitories) but it will, in turn, create more business opportunities in India. We hope that the corporate world in US will make the policy makers to see the benefits of outsourcing and stop this policy of unwarranted protectionism.