Celebrate Life...!

While I was posted at Nazira in 2010-11, I used to drive down to Tezpur in the weekends to spend time with the players of Rangoni Youth Sports Foundation, (a NGO working toward channelizing the energy of youth towards sports). The boys were very energetic, spirited and highly motivated. I refresh myself, spending some quality time with them. What I like most about the boys is their strong will to perform and their empathy towards each other. After joining sports the boys showed improvement in academics too. That year none of the boys failed in their annual exams. Gutkas, pan masalas and other types of intoxicants were completely   prohibited for these boys …… We the seniors of the organization were happy because we knew these boys would one day grow up as health youth and contribute towards creating a sporting environment in our state. On a particular Monday morning, I left home early to reach office on time. I used to enjoy the early morning drive through the Koli...

The Reluctant Woodcutter…! “If you don’t study properly, you will become a woodcutter”, my Uncle used to say. Back in those days, Ali used to perform multiple task for our joint family of 23 people. From cutting firewood to taking the cattle for gazing, Ali’s footprints were felt on every step. The meals were mostly cooked on traditional firewood chula and as such demand was huge for fire woods. In spite of all his contribution I knew his salary was far from being impressive probably because he never took studies seriously. I had more similarities with Ali than with any other member of our family, never wore a chapel , spend most of the time with the cows, climbed trees and used to take bath in the pond. The only difference was I could not learn the art of wood cutting, more because the axe was too heavy for me to lift. There was a fruit orchard behind the cow shed. We the children used to take ownership of one plant each and pour water every morning. We felt pride of...

The Empowered Men of Women Island…..! I was flying solo across the Atlantic. It was a pleasant Monday morning when I took off from the Lajes airport, an Island airbase of Portugal located around 1500km west of Lisbon. The tail speed was perfect, the air traffic control cleared me to fly at an altitude of 3000 Mts.  Shifting to auto pilot mode, I pulled out my favorite family photo frame to have a look at my two little daughters, my wife, ma, my niece and my two elder sisters. These wonderful women are the source of my energy. Within an hour I was into the blues, below the sky above the sea. The saffron, white and green tricolor logo on the wings were the only other colour which gave me company. Ever since I started my trip, I followed a daily ritual of practicing running commentary describing the ambience. It was a self-imposed practice to improve my communication skills. The dreamer inside me was visualizing that once I complete my solo trip across the globe, I may be inv...

Decoding 828 A friend of mine gave me a magical weight loss formula. For seven days rice, dal, parothas were replaced by fruits, boil vegetables and soups. Waking up in the morning with sugarless tea and going to sleep having boil vegetables was not only tough but painful too. Every minute seemed to last longer than an hour.  Desperate to lose few kilos, I sacrificed my taste, hunger and above all my piece of mind. At the end of the week when the weight machine showed some impressive results there was temporary satisfaction. Next, came the month of festival. It started with Durga Puja and by the time it was my birthday I was almost back to where I started. Then came the surprise birthday gift from my wife which reached home a week late. Seeing the courier guy, helped by the security guard with the biggest parcel ever, I wondered what must be inside. As I was opening the huge parcel, the curiosity was more towards the likely financial liability (credit card bill) at that ti...

The article is now available at the below link http://www.indiatravelblog.com/resources/4189-Chopta-the-land-of-whispering-meadows-and-pebble-pathways.aspx    

The city which gave our country one of the finest rum “Old Monk” has often remained in the shadow of the national capital . Here is 5 reason why Ghaziabad deserves a big round of applause.  1.                The multi  flavored   housing societies: The option of medium, small and high end housing societies are inviting lakhs of families from across the country to be part of this unique diversity. The mixed  flavoured  families  from different community and region residing in harmony, are adding to the strength of the city. Soon festival like Bihu, Onam, Pongal, Baisakhi, etc will be part of these ever welcoming housing societies, giving   Ghaziabad a distinctive reputation of The city that bonds. 2.                The Public Transport : The city offers the cheapest and fas...