Puneet's Page

And so ends my tour of the United States of America...What they call the 'land of milk and honey' A Country that has offered unlimited opportunity for growth and prosperity to one and all. Where competency, perseverance and hard work - in other words 'merit' are the main criteria for success. Where countless number of people set foot on her shores and made a success of their lives.Indians and Chinese, who, by sheer dint of hard work, gave the Americans themselves a run for their money. And this Country provided them a fair chance to do that. The US is two and a half times the size of India, but has a population that is roughly one fourth that of our Country. The result is - a thin population density. Translated to 'local' terms - lot of peace and quiet. Almost every experience is therefore enjoyable - driving, shopping, eating out and what have you. And as one goes through these experiences, there is a pang of remorse..... As I landed in India, I was quickly t...

Today being a Saturday, was a holiday for me as it was for all Americans. And for Americans, the weekend preparations begin on Friday afternoon. In many Offices people leave by lunch time. They know how to enjoy life with their families. We Indians should learn a lesson from this. The morning started with a two hour drive from Salisbury to Washington DC by a shuttle bus. And I drove through some of the finest parts of the Country side. A lot greenery, hills, fields etc. I reached the BWI airport, where I was picked up by Swati and Rajeev. I met Swati my MBA classmate, first time after 1987 - that makes it 23 years ! We then proceeded for lunch. At lunch we had some of the finest Thai food I have tasted in a while. Then a nice tour of the City. This included seeing The White House, The Capitol - that houses the Senate, The Supreme Court and the Lincon Memorial. We also visited a War Memorial. There on a long and wide granite wall, were engraved the names of all the soldiers fallen for ...

The day comes to an end. It slowly dies out. Night comes to life. It has been a long, eventful and tiring day. Full of feelings of happiness, disappointment, anxiety, then relief. A day full of travelling, meetings, formality, and gestures.... I return to my home. All energy is drained out. It seems that now there is no more strength....just no more.... But it isn't time to give up. Not just yet. Because there's a whole lot more to be done..... And there's still miles to go - before I will finally sleep..

News from all over the World and from all walks of life continues to hold our attention. Some sad, some that gives us a reason to smile or to be amused. But certainly most which can be ignored. My heart goes out to the small boy who was the lone survivor in the plane crash at Libya yesterday. As we speak, he is barely conscious, and has just about managed to state the name of the Country he came from - Holland. There were about 60 Dutch passengers on that flight, along with this boy. In all probability he was with his parents who perished in the accident. No relatives from back home have made a contact yet. Has he even been able to grasp the full magnitude of this event - I wonder. Dhoni's press conference remarks have got all kinds of people reacting. He admitted that players have been concentrating on too much cricket and as if that wasn't enough, there was a lot of partying....When I say 'admitted' I mean I suspected all along that this was a root cause of all the pr...

Yesterday was a day of mixed fortunes for Indian Sport. On the one hand you had Anand Vishwanathan being crowned the World Chess champion. And on the other hand, the Indian cricket team was knocked out of the T20 tournament, after all avenues and possibilities were closed. All avenues - including relying on and hoping for other teams' failures. We hoped and prayed that West Indies loses to Australia and that Sri Lanka loses by a minimum margin to India. Before the former case was decided, India's fate was sealed by its own doing or undoing. One last chance and it was squandered. Sadly, an Indian getting crowned the World Champion is not a news worthy of more than a corner of the sports page in any leading newpaper . Because the game is Chess. It would have been the same situation had it been any game other than cricket. So Mr. Vishwanathan can never hope or expect to be given a huge reception on arrival in some City, then driven around in a long motorcade with people lined up o...

Late last evening, I heard the news of the passing away of actor Mac Mohan. At 71 years of age, he finally lost the battle against cancer. Many of our generation and undoubtedly almost all of the generation after us, will not be able to put a face to that name.But talk about 'Sambha' of Sholay and there's instant recognition ! Mac Mohan who performed the role of Sambha had only three words to say as a dialogue in the movie - "Poore pachaas hajaar" - when asked by his leader Gabbar Singh about the denomination of the reward the police had announced for the latter's capture. Decades after the release of the movie, this dialogue has a much higher recall than even the songs of the movie, and people continue to chant this dialogue again and again, to this day ! MacMohan would himself not have imagined that the three words that he spoke in Sholay would stick to him for life. Mac Mohan acted in many many other films - always in roles relatively low profile compared...

That's the only thing we can now look forward to and cheer about. Because India is virtually out of this year's reckoning as far as the T20 tournament goes. Unless an absolute mathematical miracle and 'good luck plays a part. And India has reached this situation thanks to just two bad games against Australia and the West Indies. And one or two bad days in the field are enough for any team to be out of the reckoning - that's how severe and cut throat the competition is. So why is it that India lands up in a situation such as this, more often than not? Why is it that every time India steps into the field to play a match, we can only guess as to what the outcome of the game will be. We cannot say with a reasonable degree of confidence that India will emerge as the winner. In my opinion, it is the top order batsmen who have to take life much more seriously, when it comes to their contribution to the teams' achievement Today, everyone is so enamoured by the 'stars...

Alumni reunions have a special place in my heart. And those who know me well, know that nothing and no one can ever come between me and any alumni event, be it in Mt. St. Mary's School, St. Stephen's College or the Lucknow University. These are the three Institutions where I spent 18 years of my life, growing up and getting educated. Alumni events like annual luncheon and dinner meets come and go and I am there always and every time. On each such visit to the Alma Mater, one invariably is overcome by a feeling of nostalgia. Its a walk down memory lane. You literally walk through the School and College corridors, and classrooms. And you meet members of the faculty and staff - those people who arrived at these institutions one day, and then time stopped for them. They seemed to have found the love of their life and stayed there ! In my experience of attending in every event, the one experience which eluded me almost every time is meeting old friends and classmates. One does ...

I can't help go through the Press reports again and again as the true nature and extent of the horrific incident related to animal cruelty registers in my mind. And as my mind comprehends, I feel myself going into a 'daze' .... This incident is so extraordinary that after reading about it, I cannot display emotions like anger, horror ridicule etc. Instead my mind starts to think rationally, and go over the event reported in the media. Last Sunday afternoon, some miscreants breached the security in a well guarded Government complex - The Delhi Jal Board at Lajpat Nagar, despite full deployment of security guards, and presence of a sizeable number of Jal Board personnel who were on emergency water supply duty. Their task? To round up and kill stray dogs. Dogs which had used to reside inside the DJB complex ! I wondered.... are human beings capable of premeditated murder of dogs?? Why? These miscreants with the help (most likely the case) of some of the DJB personnel proceed...

She went through endless excruciating pain To bring you into this World And when you were too small She helped you grow and become strong. When you were too small to eat, she fed you, When you cried she remained awake so you could sleep And when you were sick, she cried. She taught you to walk and she taught you to talk She took you to the park so you could play And when you waved to her - from a swing - a big smile on your face It was her best reward For, in seeing you happy, she found her joy And forever and ever she told you she loved you On your first day to school, you wouldn’t let her go away She turned away but it broke her heart… She taught you to read and she held your hand so you could write. All this while, she ably balanced all other burdens … Bread earner, homemaker and a wife Untiring, and with never ending energy, she toiled She desired only the best for you her child And her happiness lay only in giving…. When you grew ...

So Kasab was sentenced to death. For many this was a foregone conclusion. There was much 'hype' around this development, and a sense of 'jubilation' displayed by many - some directly associated with the case - like the public prosecutor, or others -who had nothing to do with the case but related to it anyway - as good citizens. All this made this development seem as if an end or a goal had been achieved. Kasab's sentence should be seen as justice delivered to the near and dear ones of those that perished in the carnage that he and his friends were responsible for. Nothing more. And that too, justice delivered in a lower Court of law. For the law will allow Kasab to appeal in a higher Court. Is it really that big a deal? It is not the end of India's fight against terrorism - make no mistake about that. India's real fight against terrorism is with those responsible for planning such attacks. Those that spew the venom of hatred against our Country. Mastermi...

Today - India awaits the sentence to be awarded to Ajmal Kasab, one of the ten terrorists who arrived from Pakistan onto the shores of Mumbai on 26th November 2008, and in course of the next few hours brutally killed hundreds of innocent people at a Railway Station, hospital, two Hotels and even the home of a Jewish priest. Most of these murderers were gunned down by the security forces - their fate was sealed even before they left Pakistan. By a strange quirk of fate, one of them - Ajmal Kasab survived. The Government till date has spent in excess of thirty crore rupees to protect this one man, in order to prosecute him and also to try and gather more intelligence about who the master mind planners were, of this horrific attack. Three days back, the judge presiding over the case pronounced Kasab guilty and set May 6 2010, today, as the date of announcement of the sentence. All of the above are facts. But there is also a hyperactive media - pages after pages of print, and endless hour...

For some strange reason a Tweet by Priyanka Chopra, about her grandmother's demise, made me turn back the 'pages' of my blog, and revisit a tribute I had written about my own grandmother-my 'Dadi' some months ago. Perhaps it was a sense of empathy I don't know Priyanka Chopra but I could relate to the emotions that would have crossed her mind when she lost her grandmother. I read the blog I had written - once again. And once again, my heart filled up with pride for my late grandmother, who was a person who I admired as much as she loved me. And in reading this blog of mine, I also realized that I visited my blog page for the first time in the year 2010 ! And felt like 'kicking' myself for not having lived up to the promise I had made to myself, of writing regularly. My mind went through a 'rewind' of all that has happened during 2010 thus far, events and experiences that kept the World occupied and busy. Delhites went through a rather bitter wint...