Do currencies have the right value?

This happened during a summer half-a-decade back in Chennai, a Southern Indian city which is famous for its peak temperatures during mid-summer. Chennai'ites perish on failing to quench their thirst.

Along with my Mom and a friend, I went for shopping. On our way back home, we stopped at a refreshment stall on a railway station platform buying soft drinks. The table of the stall was shared by us with an old man who was busy crunching. He was poor by his looks, not a beggar though certainly. On completion of his plate, by then we were half way through our drinks, he glanced at our drinks. He must have been thirsty. He asked me the cost of the drink. It was six rupees by then and so I replied. On hearing, he raised his eye-brows exclaiming "Six rupees?" and left the place. I was sure that he couldn't afford to buy one. His way of exclamation shook me for a second and is still fresh whenever I think about this. Though my mom asked me to buy him one, I didn't for I knew he was not a beggar and he might not accept things for free. I couldn't finish my drink and was just gazing at the poor old man whose wobbled walk leaves behind a perennial question.

This was the same incident that made me think about the famous quote...
"I wept for shoes until I see a man without legs."

An NRI Engineer's Diary...

This is an informative diary that I received by mail. Though I don't know who wrote, this one will draw the attention of the readers for sure.
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As the dream of most parents I had acquired a degree in software Engineer and joined a company based in USA, the land of braves and opportunity.

When I arrived in the USA, it was as if a dream had come true. Here at last I was in the place where I wanted to be. I decided I would be staying in this country for about Five years in which time I would have earned enough money to settle down in India.

My father was a government employee and after his retirement, the only asset he could acquire was a decent one bedroom flat.

I wanted to do some thing more than him. I started feeling homesick and lonely as the time passed. I used to call home and speak to my parents every week using cheap international phone cards.

Two years passed, two years of Burgers at McDonald's and pizzas and discos and 2 years watching the foreign exchange rate getting happy whenever the Rupee value went down. FinallyI decided to get married. Told my parents that I have only 10 days of holidays and everything must be done within these 10 days.

I got my ticket booked in the cheapest flight. Was jubilant an was actually enjoying shopping for gifts for all my relatives and friends back home.

If I miss anyone then there will be talks. After reaching home I spent home one week going through all the photographs of girls and as the time was getting shorter I was forced to select one candidate. In-laws told me, to my surprise, that I would have to get married in 2-3 days, as I will not get anymore holidays soon and they cannot wait for long.

After the marriage, it was time to return to USA, after giving some money to my parents and telling the neighbors to look after them, we (I was lucky and managed to get the visa of my wife early) returned to USA. My wife enjoyed this country for about two months and then she started feeling lonely. The frequency of calling Indiaincreased to twice in a week sometimes 3 times a week as she also has to call her parents. Our savings started diminishing. After two more years we started to have kids.

Two lovely kids, a boy and a girl, were gifted to us by the almighty. Every time I spoke to my parents, they asked me to come to India so that they can see their grand-children. Every year I decide to go to India. But part work, part monetary conditions prevented it.

Years went by and visiting Indiawas a distant dream.Then suddenly one day I got a message that my parents were seriously sick. I tried but I couldn't get any holidays and was stuck up in the procedures and thus could not go to India. The next message I got was my parents passed away and as there was no one to do the last rites the society members had done whatever they could. I was depressed. My parents passed away without seeing their grand children.

A couple of more years passed. Much to my children's dislike and my wife's joy we returned to India to settle down.

I started to look for a suitable property, but to my dismay my savings were short and the property prices had gone up during all these years. I had to return to the USA. My wife refused to come back with me and my children refused to stay in India. My 2 children and I returned to USA after promising my wife I would be back for good after two years. Time passed by, my daughter decided to get married to an American and my son was happy living in USA. I decided that enough is enough and wound-up every thing and returned to India. I had just enough money to buy a decent Two-bedroom flat in a well -developed locality. Now I am 60 years old and the only time I go out of the flat is for the routine visit to the nearby place of worship. My faithful wife has also left me and gone to the holy abode.

Sometimes I wondered was it worth all this? My father, even after staying in India, had a house to his name and I too have the same, nothing more. I lost my parents and children for just ONE EXTRA BEDROOM. Looking out from the window I see a lot of children dancing. I get occasional cards from my children asking I am alright. Well at least they remember me. Now perhaps after I die it will be the neighbors again who will be performing my last rites, God Bless them.

But the question still remains " Was all this worth it? "

Road to Dehradun II

Here I'm... back after a short nap!!! The second part of my trip follows...
The first of the two nights in the train towards the Capital of the World's largest democracy went well. As the train was in the neighboring state, we didn't feel the "Cold". We were in II sleeper and very near to the rest room. So Venkatesh and Sachin had no problems in smoking near the rest room. One will guard the other from the railway guards on smoking occasions, failing which they would have been penalized. The food hunt of Sachin started in the early morning with a tea followed by Idly-Vada. Being ready to miss them for a fortnight, I ate well. I got my Mein Kampf with me. Though it served the purpose fully only when I was traveling from Delhi to Jodhpur and back, I read it for a while. After reading the preface and a few pages about the early life from the "so-called dictator" Hitler's auto-biography, I realized that the book is not just for a travel time-pass. We had everything that passed by our cabin, needless to mention - only food stuffs.
When I was young, I used to think about the Northies as rich and royal citizens. I dreamed of people there as Kings and Queens. My ignorance rose to its peak when I imagined north as a heaven having no huts and only palaces and forts. These are due to the true fact that I had never been to north and I know only Taj Mahal and few other forts there. My dream castle began to collapse as the train slowly entered into the northern India. I saw beggars everywhere, it is common in India though. They come in the moving train and ask for money and food.
It was bitter cold as it was winter. Venkatesh, a Southie wanted to enjoy(!!) winter as he too was on his first visit to northern part. He, the Superman (as named by Sachin and me during this trip) wanted to travel in the train without winter wear and whenever asked said he was enjoying the cold and was very comfortable. As he was saying the word "comfortable" we witnessed the word being type-written by his teeth. Sachin and I burst into laughter and will never forget this incident. At last we reached Delhi after a tiring one day and two nights train journey, my longest train journey ever till now. In Delhi, Anjana's brother and sister-in-law came to receive us with breakfast. I was so hungry that I didn't even get introduced to them as my only concentration was on the breakfast. The breakfast didn't disappoint me and was indeed good.
We reached Dehradun in the evening by around eight after a six hours journey in a bus from Delhi. I never experienced such a cold weather in my life till that time. Dehradun, being a valley surrounded by hills, the temperature was slightly above zero degree C. We heard Venkatesh saying "I feel a bit cold". Again everyone burst into laughter.
We reached our accommodation by an auto carrying all of us with our luggage. It was a good hotel where Sachin and I / Venkatesh and Abu / Anjana and Jeyasudha shared rooms. Abu, carrying a camera with him, took snaps of everyone. These snaps will make each of us cherish those beautiful moments we spent whenever we come across them. In fact while I was writing this blog I was searching for that folder in my laptop to see them once :)
My next blog will be on my stay in Sachin's home for two days before I left for Jodhpur. I'll try to post it as soon as possible.

Castle - I

On a sunny day, I was witnessing a boy and a girl in their early teens playing on the silent sea-shore. They seemed to be blessed and vivacious. They were trying hard to build a castle in sand near the shore. They planned as if the castle was their own and was about to be the eight wonder. The castle was built with doorways, obesliscal towers, moats, even aisles and railings.

After an uphill battle for an hour, they succeeded in their mission. They were very happy on seeing their own castle built in sand though. They were in their Cloud Nine. The accomplishment lasted for meager time until the tides washed away their castle leaving behind the heaps of wet sand.

I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me.



They ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another one. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson.


Everything in our lives, all the complicated structures we created spending so much time and energy are merely like sand castles. They will be knocked down by huge tidal waves at any instant. Only our relationships endure. Only those who have somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh and start the work building from the scratch.

PS : Can you guess who the Chaps are in the last photograph?
Clue : The great Olympians of 1936 Olympics (commonly known as Hitler's Olympics) at Berlin.

Road to Dehradun - I

Dehradun, a beautiful valley located at the foot of the Great Himalayas in the Northern India. I had been there from Chennai, almost the other end of India, the past December. I was accompanied by a few of my friends doing their Masters with me. Though the trip was quite official, it turned out to be a memorable one. In total, there were two girls (Anjana & Jeyasaudha) and four guys (Me, Sachin, Abu & Venkatesh). The trip had a messy start due to the "most responsible" Sachin. He was supposed to make a poster for his presentation at Doon. But till the morning of December 9, the day we had to leave for NewDelhi by TamilNadu express at 22hrs, me & Sachin were very busy in preparing his poster. Everytime after it was done, he would rush to his Supervisors (unfortunately he had two Supervisors) and both of them were making corrections all the time in his poster. Finally, we landed up with the poster which was certainly not the one we started with. It was around 11hrs, we left for Mount road to print the poster, the busiest road in Chennai.

We found a poster printing shop but the guys were out for Namaaz. We were asked to come in 30 minutes. At that point of time, half-an-hour seemed to be a hell lot of time. So we went out in search of other shops. We walked, walked and walked... landed up in shops but ended up in vain. At last back to pavillion...to the first shop after an hour (though we thought 30 minutes was a lot more time to wait) and gave the stuff that we had taken in USB drive for printing. The printing took hardly another 45 minutes. Meanwhile, we went to a hotel near by and had some snacks though having quit the lunch. I got a call from Jeyasudha and Abu saying that two call taxis were booked to pick us up by 1830hrs from our hostels. Sachin grew angry as he had to pack up things still. We collected the printed poster and rushed to the campus in auto as it started drizzling. On the way, Sachin called Venkatesh, who booked the taxis without his & my permission, on his mobile and asked him to cancel one of the booked taxis and to let us come on our own.

Reached the department by 1630hrs and Sachin rushed to his supervisors to show them the poster (hopefully with no more corrections). He came back to the lab with their positive feedback. As soon as he entered the lab, Abu became a scape goat for us. We started asking him as to how can they book a taxi without our consult, though he claimed he was unaware. Venkatesh came to us and said he cancelled a taxi. But he along with Anjana, Jeyasudha and Abu would go in one. Now Sachin and myself started bugging Abu to come with us. He said he would. Sachin left for his room to pack things and promised me to come to my room by 1900hrs. suddenly I got a call from Abu by around 1730hrs saying that he booked a taxi for himself and would reach the station directly. He didn't want to go with either of the teams. It seemed to be ridiculous at that time. I didn't want to sit on his nerves anymore.

I called Abu by around 1830hrs to confirm his position. By then he had turned cool. He agreed to come with us in our taxi. So I cancelled his booked taxi and asked him to come to my room. He and Sachin came to my room by 1900hrs and we started our journey to NewDelhi, my first time journey to North India... my first time very long distant journey in train(ofcourse the one I like the most in all modes of travel). I was also scared inside for one thing... that was for my favourite South Indian idly and sambar... which I would certainly not get for the next 20 days. Still I was dare enough to face North India for the first time especially to face Jodhpur all alone.

When the train started with a jerk, we were over joyous. We were thinking about our journey being started with a jerk. We occupied almost three quarters of that cabin leaving the two side berths for others. Sachin started his work.... calling and buying anything and everything that passed-by our cabin, needless to mention food stuffs. Though blamed, he never stopped buying and never paid too. In fact everyone of us enjoyed eating all those one day & two nights journey but neither stopped blaming Sachin nor eating. The first night(well...its the first of the two nights journey) went peacefully as we didn't cross Andhra border. Let me explain the reason for the previous statement in my forthcoming parts.