Go green to save green

Turn off lights when you leave a room.
Power-off machines when you don’t use them.
Make it a habit to recycle.
Buy items that are reusable.

Think before you print - could this be read?
or stored online, instead?
Go paperless, if possible.
Print both sides of papers, if feasible.

Take a hike to run an errand
or pedal a bike to go around.
Pool up to use a car
to commute to places afar.

Donate the things that you don't need.
Plant a tree - it's a noble deed.
Let's be considerate to nature
and co-create a promising future!

The sights and sounds

With new clothes to wear,
sweets and snacks to share,
the fireworks light up the skies
and oil lamps light up the homes.

The lamps glow with oil
showing triumph of good over evil.
The rows of candle light
signify the inner delight.

The rockets fly high,
burst up in the sky,
open into umbrellas,
of colourful embers.

People who stand
below in the land
see the beauty raining down
and lighting up their town.

The children light up a fire wheel
which dances on the floor
just as a flower pot rises up
to make a fountain of fire.

A string of explosives
go off in the background
just as a noisy bomb
makes a ear deafening sound.

With the anti-cracker campaign
ending up in vain
the sights and sounds of Diwali
are still here to remain.

Creative Catalogue

To reach out to kith and kin
living far and wide;
To express thoughts
to an audience worldwide;
To preserve creativity
for posterity;
To share ideas
from our own place;
And to capture a moment in time
in the cyber space,
lets maintain our creative catalogue
in a personal "weblog"

That which soared...

That which soared higher
and higher for many days;
And that seemed to be forever
a 'net worth' race.

But with no prior clue,
dived into an abyss,
and out of the blue,
made many, 'a pauper out of prince'.

Having taken rags to riches
as also the reverses,
this world of fortune change
is what we call "the stock exchange"

Integrity is the best policy

This is an interesting musing that I happened to read in a tabloid. Although we have been taught that "Honesty is the best policy", it doesn't harm to re-frame the policy as it appeals to our intellect. Honesty is to tell the truth, to not cheat or steal. Integrity is being whole, balanced and right with yourself. To exemplify these values, lets see the story of a family at times of war. When the enemies come looking for a friend, who is a refugee at this family's home, the family can choose to be honest and give away the friend. Alternatively they can choose to give up honesty and lie, thereby upholding integrity with their values. Integrity wins here, to get proclaimed "Integrity is the best policy".

The third world through three musketeers

Danny Boyle's picturization of Indians, as the third world, through the three indian musketeers might have offended the sentiments of the patriot in us, but its high time we acknowledge the grim reality of the large scale "beggary" industry that thrives at the traffic signals and trains of our metros.

How often we get to notice -
the young girl sporting a yellow sari claiming money for her own marriage;
the blind(ed) beggars with an uncalled for entertainment - singing for money;
the lady in rags carrying a baby who sleeps with fever forever;
the thin orphans who beg, claiming they haven’t eaten for the past three days;
the wholesome cottage industry that is believed to thrive on re-using the cotton waste from hospitals, not intended to create a "green earth" through re-cycling but just resorting to unhygienic bleaching to make a quick buck;
to top it all - a transgender person, touching, slapping and coaxing people for money.

Just as"Oliver Twist" is an accepted reality in the west, isn’t "Slumdog Millionaire" so, here?

Three cheers to life (with three quotes)

Life gives us answers in three ways:
It Says "Yes" and gives us what we want
It says "No" and gives us something better
It says "Wait" and gives us the best in its own time.

Three things in life that, once gone, never come back:
Time,
Words and
Opportunity

The world has three kinds of people:
those who watch things happen;
those who make things happen; and
those who wonder what happened!