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Roughly 10km from Tumkur is a place called Ajjapanahalli. A small boy traveled all the way from Bangalore to visit the temple there quite often. There were memorable moments for him in every journey, like travelling with eight other adults in an auto on a broken road or walking the last mile in the scorching heat. Whatever the odds, the boy always enjoyed visiting the place. There was a reason for his madness. The temple was something very unique. A very quiet lake adored it's background, birds chirped in merry and the whole village setting was perfect in every sense. He would enjoy running around the temple without a care in the world and a nice lunch was always assured when all was done. There were no worries on the departure time or the mode of transport. All he knew was the place was charming and fun. Today, the boy has grown up. The journey is no longer an adventure. It's just a nice road in a nice car with the aircon set just right. He thinks he has moved up in life and f...

Diwali has always been a joyous and colorful festival, personally. Ever since I was a small boy, I enjoyed dressing up for the occasion and bursting crackers before anyone in my street! It does bring back some memories. This year though was a totally different scenario. All the noise and cracker fumes(!!) were no more exciting. They were annoying and left me sick for a few days. It got all more irritating as I had to write an exam online. My quite neighborhood turned all errr.. noisy and mad. Can you concentrate in such situations? If yes, hats off to you! I couldn't and the results showed just the same. There even came moments when I wanted open the window and shout-"It's a festival of lights and not crackers!". However, it never happened and kids continued to make merry. Interestingly though, despite what I thought was the most annoying Diwali, the Pollution Control Board reported an all time low level of poisonous gases this year. That left me wondering. In this bu...

I have mentioned many times that I have taken up CAT this year. It was on September 12th. To be brutally honest, I had not expected the registration process to be trouble free and well integrated. Turned out I was wrong, by a long shot! It was a breeze and easier than standing in long queues to submit applications. (Some more streamlining is required during sale of vouchers. However, given that it is the first time CAT has gone online, this is acceptable.) I was so impressed that I even thought of writing about it in my blog. Guess I just could not put things together then. But don't get too carried away, this is not a Bollywood flick where everything ends up fine and everyone's happy. Yesterday, I casually opened my application and admit card and boy was I in for a shock! The details of my name were not matching with those in my high school graduation certificate. The only thought that came across was "Write a mail to Prometric!". And that's exactly what I did....

The past few weeks have strengthened my belief that poverty is the biggest problem faced by our nation right now. A recent visit to Mulbagal, near Kolar only made it err..stronger. After a tiring drive, the best way to relax was to catch up with the days' (and previous days') happenings. So, I took out the newspaper and as I was sipping on some piping hot beverage, came across one of the best put together articles to date. The following lines are taken straight from Deccan Herald (3rd October issue). Sit back and enjoy reading! Appropriating Gandhi for reasons of business By Randeep Ramesh, Oct 3, The Guardian: Sale of costly pens on his birthday is symbol of triumph of an economic model he railed against The rebadging of the ascetic apostle of peace, Mohandas K Gandhi, as a salesman for haute couture fountain pens in India is a triumph of celebrity over his legacy but not over his ideas. Gandhi, who spurned both luxury and foreign-made goods during his lifetime, was not averse...