मराठी पाऊल पडते पुढे…. Krushnaa Patil conquers Mount Everest

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Sudarshan Kadam

गर्जती तोफांचे चौघडे………

मराठी पाऊल पडते पुढे………

Congratulations to Krushnaa Patil, a 19-year-old girl from Pune (this is what nearly all newspapers and channels call her), for conquering Mount Everest.

On Thursday morning, Krushnaa was on top of the world, literally, becoming only the second person from Maharashtra to scale Everest and also the first woman from the state to do so. She was the second youngest Indian woman to reach the peak. Surendra Chavan of Pune was the first person from the state to conquer Everest in 1998.

source: TOI

😀 😀 I am proud of you, Krushnaa. Kudos!! 😀 😀

➡ A friend of Krushnaa has written about her at DNA News.

➡ She has been blogging about her journey at her blog The Burning Face. (I am not sure why she chose this name for her blog ❓ )

Times of India also reported that “Krushnaa’s tall feat has come at a cost”. Her parents took a loan of 30 laks to send her for this expedition!!! Government should do something for this type of initiatives. 😐 😐

Here are some pictures from her blog:

Krushnaa Patil - Mount Everest

Congratulations Krushnaa!! and Best luck for future!!

Equation for life => “Life = Love ± Logic” (Also Celebrating 10,000 hits)

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Sudarshan Kadam

Life Love and Logic recently crossed 10,000 hits. Cheers 😀 I am very glad I hit his milestone!!!

Looking back in to archives, I found very few posts which are good enough to be called memorable. But I always intended this blog to be personal and not dedicated to some special cause.
Why I used this name? Honest answer is “I don’t know myself”. When I thought of this name, it just fitted in my “philosophical” nature and as usual I never looked back once I decided to use this name. The name “Life, Love and Logic” contains three important things for a human being.
If you ask me, love and logic are most important things to form and lead good life.

But I don’t think anyone can form a fixed equation for deriving life.

Logic is way of thinking about things. It is common sense, ability to conclude things, ability to calculate things, ability to take decisions depending on the situations (e.g. deciding dodge in time when someone throws a stone towards your head!!! 😀 ) and many things. Defining Logic is as simple as the process of using logic itself.

Love? Do I need to define it? Love is love and its the second best feeling(or relation or whatever you call it) in Life.

I have derived an equation for Life, and its

Life = Love ± Logic

Why its not simply Love + Logic or Love – Logic?

Let me make myself clear. Lets take an example.
Consider a situation where there is thief armed with Rampuri Knife in one hand and he is trying to rob your best friend. (I assume you love your best friend).

So, we have,
* You love your friend
* Your friend is in danger
*You are the one who can save him if you try
* Thief is dangerous and armed, so he can harm you easily

And now, Logic says
* Rampuri Knifes very harmful!! (If you see Hindi movies then you must have heard about it)
* You have your job, family, life, career at stake if you try to save him.
* There is no need to act as hero, mummy always taught you to keep yourself out of trouble and safe.
*Blah Blah Blah……

But Love says only one thing,
* Go to hell with your Logic, it time to act NOW. Go and throw that thief out of the window!!!!

So we can derive,

Life (of your friend) equals to (your) Love(for him/her) minus (your damn) Logic

But there can be other situations too.
Most common situation is , you have got an opportunity to go abroad for an important work which can give your career a (much needed) boost. But your girlfriend is not happy about leaving you and living without you for so many days. Ok, consider fiancée instead of girlfriend for convenience.

So Love says,
* Don’t you dare to leave her alone, how she will live without you.
* You will be getting married in few days and still you are obsessed with your damn job?
* Flying abroad onsite is not important than her.
* Blah Blah Blah……

And here Logic says,
* Some things need to be done on time, if you go on-site now, your career-horse will be miles ahead of it would be without going there.
* If she loves you then she can understand the importance of this opportunity in your life.
* Afterall whatever progress you will make, it will help both of you in future.
* More Blah Blah real facts…..

Here is the newly derived equation

Life (of you both) equals to (her) Love(and patience for you) plus (your damn) Logic (if you are competent enough to use it)

So finally we end up conflicting our own conclusions. And this leads to simple more convincing derivation for Life and that is

Life equals to Love plus/minus Logic (still its damn, I agree)

Well this is how I see Life. There are many perspectives of life. And please note that this is one of the many ways to percieve life. Sometimes solutions to many difficult and complex problems lie in simple Logic and common sense. And sometimes you never understand what went wrong with things.

So I will end this post with my usual slogan
Life is not as simple as it seems……

Blog’s Content Theft by a (so called)Leading Newspaper

Posted on June 3, 2008 by Sudarshan Kadam

Before you read any further, please make sure you have read this article of “A Wide Angle View of India”.

Yes, You read right. A so called Popular News-Paper stole an Image from a bloggers article.
I could have written about this earlier but I was waiting for Nita (writer of “A wide Angle…”) to get a response from the News Paper (Hindustan Times) who stole a photograph from her article and printed it without any payment, permission or credit. Thats a serious thing. Some people are saying that “its just a photo.” But for a blogger who never tried to gain any financial benefits from her blog even its quite popular, its a serious thing. She works hard for giving her readers insights on different subjects which are socially important in India. She could have earned much money if she wanted to. But No, she is still writing for sake of readers.
Many bloggers have taken the initiative and everyone has written about it. There are many cases like this which need to be raised. If you are one of them, please don’t hesitate to protest.

You can do following if your content is stolen:

Write to the editor/owner/writer of the website/newspaper/any media (who has stolen the content) and tell them to remove it or ask them to give proper credit (and money if you want).
If you do not get a proper response, you can complain to Press Council of India. Read their guidelines here.
Ask blog world for help if you are a blogger. People out there will certainly guide you if you are really facing in-justice.

For Prevention:

Get a CC (Creative Commons) License for your work.
Put a copyright notice on your website.
Try to find out sites who are hot-linking your images which eventually eat your bandwidth.

There are many preventions and these are just basics.

Keep your eyes open and be ready. Constant Vigilance!!!

Update: Till date, The Press Council and other are just ignoring Nita.

Social Bookmarks:

Different things : Two Journeys

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Sudarshan Kadam

After a long time, here I am again with my usual “Different Things”. This time, I have two little things. Two journeys.

A little intro for my journeys:
On every other weekend, I travel 3-4 hours to get back to my “Home-Place” and away from “Work-Place”. Two weeks ago, on Friday, I was about to leave office at 6.00 PM and was trying to formulate a plan how to spend the weekend alone. It seemed a very harsh concept of being all alone for a weekend so I called Dad to ask his opinion. Half an hour later, I was seated in a bus which was about to leave for my home. 🙂
On next Friday, I was again on same bus, on same seat, with same water bottle, with same headphone in my ears with same set of songs in mobile. I have used all stock of clothes over two weeks and needed them to be washed. So decided that it was time to go home. 😛

[Just a note: All conversations mentioned below were originally in Marathi and are translated as well as shortened to include only essential part. You may find them very short but actually each of them was with me for an hour at least]

Journey Back Home: Two Weeks ago

So on my first trip in this month, I found myself a window seat (two seater). A guy of age around 25-27 came and sat beside me. As I don’t have control over public transport and the guy was thin person, I didn’t object.
Things would have gone normally and I could have listened all 89 songs in my list till I reach home, but no. The guy started talking with me without any introduction. First he pointed at my mobile and asked me the model number. Then he changed subject abruptly to his problem (may be because he thought he disturbed me while talking on phone few minutes before). Lets hear it in his words:
Guy: Sorry for bothering you for noting down the number.
Me: Ohh its alright.
Guy: Where are you going?
Me: (murmur the name of place)
Guy; Oh good, I will get down 30 Km before you.
Me: Oh thats great! (The guy obviously missed sarcasm)
Guy: (Continuing little embarrassment) I was talking with some guy who was trying to catch me for something.
Me: Aiiii? (In mind: WTH Did I ask?)
Guy: ….. we face problems like these when we try to go against parents and family…..
Me: Seems like love story to me 😛
Guy: Yeah. No one is in favor of me when I decided to marry that girl. Every member in her and my family is against us.
Me: ……..
Guy: So this guy was trying to make my life more hell like its not enough already.
Me: Hmmm, but keep your head cool man. I see you are very impatient.
Guy: (Completely impressed by my words) You have experience of facing these conditions?
Me: No, but I can see how you are!!
Guy: yeah, the main problem is cast. My family and her family don’t want an inter-cast marriage!!
Me: Why? I mean what casts you are talking about?
Guy: Well, she is higher cast- Maratha, I mean Open, and I am ____. So they are not approved of me.
Me: (My sympathy evaporate in a second) Well I am also Maratha and I will feel same if it happens in my family, but ok if you are able to earn your bread-butter.
Guy: ??????
Me: I mean you have a job, don’t you?
Guy: ummm, errr, aaaaa, well not exactly, I just earn ____ Rupees per month.
Me: (Completely angry from inside) Ohh then you should try finding a job which will provide enough money to feed your family. It not just going and living with wife.
Guy: umm, err, yeah I will try your advice……..

The conversation ceased as it suddenly as it started. I was angry not only because the guy was trying to get a girl from my caste, but also because he was just another moron who didn’t even deserved a hag. He has never thought of future and about how will he feed his wife. He was just one of the guys I hate who go and impress girls and dumb girls fall for pray and make their rest of life a mess. There are so many examples I have witnessed of this kind. And there is not a single one which was a success.
And for them who care: I am an orthodox person to some extent. At least about casts!!!

Journey Back Home: last week

Next week, I was sitting on same seat and a man in his late 30’s sat with me. He was formal and also started with asking me about my mobile. He told his surname as Pawar. He was curious about what I do and how much I am educated. After some time, I asked him about his life (just in return to his questions). He thought for a minute before answering, but when he answered, I got an impression that he was straining himself not to say something odd.
And without any reference, he asked me if I am married. I told him I am just 22 and don’t intend to marry so early. But this raised my curiosity and I asked the reason.
He said with a sigh, “Man, find a decent girl yourself or atleast marry a girl who you know already!”. I replied,” Yeah thats what people do, isn’t it?”.
Mr. Pawar suddenly let the thing he refrained so long out. He said,” No boy, its not the case. We have very less girls in our caste which will fit with you”.
Me: “So?”
Pawar: “So? I suggest you find a girl yourself instead of believing in arrange marriage, listen to me, my example will help you understand”
He continued, ” I married very late because I didn’t like any girl I was shown by parents. At last I liked a girl who was very very beautiful. I was blinded by her beauty and made decision hurriedly. But after marriage, I found out that she had a ego like no one I saw before. She didn’t even let me touch her at first. So I made a oath that I will not even llok at her until she comes and ask me herself.”
Pawar took a pause looking at my face. I was dumbfounded by hearing his words. He continued,” Now I have a little daughter who is far more beautiful than her mother.”
“But is your wife still like that?”, I asked curiously.
Pawar sighed,” Well she has improved herself a little but her ego is still there.”
“So why I am telling you that? because I found you a good boy and thought of warning you of one of the possibilities that can happen in life.”
The bus came to halt as we passed through a village on way. He said good-bye and left. And I resumed my song list with my mind full of thoughts.

Epilogue:

I met two different kind of persons on tow journeys. First one was an excellent example of careless youth who thought just getting a girl is love and life. Whereas second one Mr. Pawar was a person who spent his youth in working and doing a job for his family because of which he married late. Life played its part as weirdly as it always does. Always unpredictable! First one got a girl who is ready to marry him without thinking where second responsible person gets a beautiful wife who have her upper part(head) empty.
Finally, I can say, ” Life is not as simple as it seems”.

P.S> I am posting this while preparing for my next journey to home. So don’t hesitate to point out any mistakes.

Is India ready for Better Law Enforcement Solutions?

Posted on May 20, 2008 by Sudarshan Kadam

Terrorism. This is the most sensitive, most read, most discussed, most feared, most written about and most “used” topic today. But apart from the few who really bother to discuss or think about terrorism, is our country really ready for its solutions?

Solutions? What Solutions?

Now Let me make it clear what I mean by “Solutions”. Refer the article by Nita where she and her readers are discussing about “Does India Needs a Prevention of Terrorism Act“.
Nita ends her post saying

So, if I were to answer the question raised in the title of this post, I would that yes, India does need an anti-terrorism law, but first it needs to strengthen its law enforcement machinery, overhaul a system which allows just about anyone with money to purchase a passport, a ration card and other papers which help create a fake identity, bring more transparency to the system and prove that errant policemen are severely punished for misusing the law.

Solutions to terrorism include introducing new and effective laws, refining and re-enabling old laws, improvements in intelligence systems and most importantly, spreading awareness in citizens. Oldsailor says in his comment that

Terrorists look like us and they speak our language. All of a sudden terrorists don’t carry out these attacks…………. Government alone can not tackle terrorism.

No law enforcement will be successful unless and until the people learn to respect laws. Its a well known fact that not many law-enforcers (police) respect the law themselves. Thats why most of common people in India fear anything involving Police (I am one of them) because no one knows how police will behave with them.
I am not against the police force, but they have their weaknesses.

A little about us (Indians):

Coming back to the main point, we are common people,
We fear our own protectors(police) as they can misuse the law.
We think law enforcement will encourage the revenge attacks.
We think some laws can be used against some minorities (read minorities = muslim).
We fear politicians will reach a new level of law-misuse if laws get more power.
We, most Indians don’t like our own country. (<— I know this is a WRONG claim but wait, I have some explanation.)
We have lost and do not believe anything related to patriotism or something like that.
We say , ” Why should I bother” for any social issue which is not harming us.
And now I ask the same question again, “Are we ready? Really?”

Is that all? no, we have many good thoughts too.

I know this sounds pessimistic and negative but please note that I am NOT a pessimist nor I am negative. Its just summary of what I have been experiencing. I don’t deny that there are many people who do not fall in the category listed above. We have much population who thinks we are a powerful country which needs some tweaking. But still India has most of population in Rural areas.
Poor people and farmers feel feeding their family is more important than caring about so called ‘social problems’. Middle-class think that they are better in current conditions. I don’t know about Higher class people.

Some people don’t like this country:

About my little off-head statement above, I owe some explanation. I said some people do not like our own country. Yes, thats the fact. There are MANY who really think that being born in India is their life’s biggest problem. They detest this country, they detest everything in here. Who are they? As I have met some, most of these haters are High-educated people. Some MBA, Engineers, IITians , Doctors, and more. They think their so called talent is being wasted here.
How we are supposed to be making progress of any kind if our Talented Brains are leaving us? Common people look at educated youngsters with pride. And this generation is not aware of it.

Back to the point again!

Do you remember the dialog in Movie “Swades” where ShahRukh Khan says, “….everyone in this country is talking about how our country is going down and not progressing, everyone says that Nothing can be done, no one can help this country………”
Well, I really agree with the dialog. This is what we are doing. We are morally discouraging our own country. We need to do some brainwash and cleaning of Indian minds before we start acting against terrorism. And unless and until we start believing that we CAN always DO something for India, we are not ready for anything!!!

Wedding

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Sudarshan Kadam

Wedding of Me? No No!! You got it wrong! I am takling about my cousin’s wedding. Actually I wrote a two pages long post for it and went to dinner. While chewing the delicious leg of chicken I bought two hours ago, I asked mum the details of marriage ceremony. She counted me the various little events that are part of a marriage and I was amazed. Because in marriages, I used to look for girls, sweets and treats from grandpa(he gave treats to keep us from starting trouble). I never quite noticed all these things. So decided to keep my ESSAY as draft.

And here is how TYPICAL marriage in MY VILLAGE happens. (Place: Karad, Maharashtra, India)

(Disclaimer for nuts(from my state) who think what they do is ONLY correct: All things I am gonna explain here, HAPPEN in my village, if in your place, people don’t do ANY thing like this, I don’t care, its not my fault)

My other friends, in some days, you will know why I am pissed off on some of my co-state frnds.

Start: My village is located in Maharashtra, India. Its near Karad town.

Wedding is most famous event in world. At my homeplace, for wedding, nearly all village gets invited. Everyone gives his/her best suit/saree a try and be ready to go. A vehicle (99% a truck) is kept ready to transport all people to wedding place which is MOST commonly GIRLS (bride’s) home.

The events started when we left groom’s home.

0. The groom left his home on a decorated horse. He traveled upto the boundary of village with a BAND and his friends enjoying, dancing in front of crowd. Then we took off for Bride’s home in car followed closely by truck full of people.

1. On reaching on traditional boundary of host village, we were welcomed by group of old and honourable citizens. This event is called as “MEETING”. The groom then sits again on horse and the crowd walks cheering and dancing on music of BAND leading the way.

2. On reaching the final place, a small event took place in which we

were offered sweets as welcome. A Pujari (“Hindu bramhin” person similar to the one who conducts wedding in church) did some traditional sort of things (procedures) after that.

3. The groom then again mounted on the horse and the crowd followed him to all Temples in the village. This is called as “SHREE VANDAN” meaning getting blessings from all the local gods temples.

Finally my cousin stopped at temple of lord “Maruti” (who is unmarried as per puranas) where he tried to make a necklase (Mani-Mangal sutra) for bride(as per tradition of course).

4. The groom returned to marriage place where some “married” women did POOJA of horse and grom. Its called “Washing legs of

horse” (this honour is for sisters of bride’s father) (Note: names of events can seem weird coz they are literal translations. In my mothertongue, they don’t sound ridiculas). Every woman is presented a gift from the groom this time. 😀

5. Haldi Ceremony: Next event was most IMP. The bride and groom seated side by side where all women applied termeric

(Haldi) to both of them. (See photo on left). I don’t know reason behind this event, may be I need to ask some very old grandma. But everyone thinks it as major event.

6. Now here comes a weird tradition. After Haldi, groom and bride take a bath with Haldi clothes on. Honour of pouring first mug of water is of the local barber in village. I never knew it tradition before because whenever I saw, I thought its local barber is our family

friend or something thats why he is leading or helping. 😛

7. Marriage:Finally came the time of marriage. The Pujari (on right) announced that brides Mama(mother’s brother) and Grooms Mama should now bring them in. This announcement is so famous

that if Pujari do not say it, we dont feel like being at wedding. And then answer to his announcement came from clouds. Lightning illuminated the place for a second followed by a thunderous sound. The rain was trying few drops when the couple was brought in the tent.

They stood facing each other, only separated by a white cloth held by two persons and some minutes. Two Mama’s stood behind their nephews. They had swords with a Lemon on tip in their hands. The Pujari then started singing lines called “Mangalashtaka”. Word is made from “mangal = good, holy” and “ashtaka = 8 liners”. So it means holy songs of 8 lines each ending with “Shubh Mangallllllllll Saaaawdhaaaaan……”. Rain decided to stay to see the marriage and ceremony continued and no one even tried to run for some cover. Everyone continued.
At every chorus of ShubhMangalllll…., people threw(?) I mean poured coloured rice beans over the couple. The last song always contain last line as “Go celebrate do some firecrackers”. Earsplitting firecrackers are always blasted on perfect timing. One group of youngsters is dedicated to this.

The couple was united for not just lifetime but for 7 birth-death cycles (as oer puranas).

9. The couple then put “Ful(flowers) Mala” (Somebody suggest english word for this) to each other. The groom put the necklase called “Mangal Sutra” (which is favorite subject of Hindi Movies) around

bride’s neck.

10. Then other small traditional procedures continued which contained “Kanyadan” (meaning giving[leterally- donating] daughter to groom) and “Yadnya” (see link).

11. Finally after the feast, people headed back to homes. The crying event 😀 by mother and other women from bride’s side (now wife of my brother) went on for some time. We brought our brother and sister-in-law home with joy. Following night was for celebrating. The new married couple goes around the village sitting in a Horse Cart(with two horses and decorated like hell) in nightlamps carried by some people. The groups of celebrating people dance in front of them on rocking music by accompaining BAND. its called “Varat” in Marathi (language). Varat continues late at night. Women who were unable to attend wedding stop them and meet them. Everybody who meets them give blessings and couple visit every temple and Local God’s places.

The traditions continue next five days.

I guess my brother will be able to go to his first HM after that. 😀 He is not complaining though because he likes these traditions and so do I. May be I am going to do all these things in my wedding just for sake of our great “Sanskruti”.

Different things

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Sudarshan Kadam

Some things are not made for same context. WoW. What a line. Not true though. Because I am going to make it false. How? See, I have four different pics which are completely unrelated(source: of course me and my mobile) and I am going to show them in same post.

First one on the right is a cute doggy. What is so special about this doggy bhai? [bhai(Hindi) = brother]. Well, he is so young that he still goes around and plays only with Mummy. Mummy of the doggy bhai passed touching me with tail. And our little one was just jumping – jouncing – bumping – bouncing behind Mummy sweetly. He was saying, “Comeon mamma, lets go on road once again!!!”. Mummy turned and said curtly,”Its not as safe as you think, NOW! LOOK OUT!”. The little doggy rolled on road with fear when a giant truck passed on road roaring its horn. “I think I will follow your advice, mumma!” said little bhai and resumed behind his mother. And I caught him in frame just in time. 🙂

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Second one is definitely a candle. She is about to die. Yes. Candles do die. They give us light and then slowly lowering their light, they fall asleep, forever. What I learn from her? “Sometimes you have to burn yourself to death to give others light of hope, to show others way in dark.”

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Third one is a landscape. A beautiful valley. I clicked this photo from moving bus. Technically its not that sharp and clear. And its post processed. But still it shows some meaning. Well, see if you find something in it. I can see one tree which has lost his leaves because its start of summer. What you see? (update: Original photo)

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Last one is rare scene for many people. Its a still from a bus stop. Time 9.30 pm. Everyone seems to be lost in thoughts. See the old man who is standing aside the curious group of fellow travellers. You cant find him? Ok I know photo is blurred (because they were moving a lot). See for man with white thing covering his head. This is just another scene which shows different personalities at same place. I would like to write about this photo in detail. May be I will write in The Perspective.

For now, Cheers. 🙂

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