Life ke side-effects

Wandering from place to place has become the latest addition to my list of roles and responsibilities at my job. Yeah, thats what it is..my machine has gone for a toss. It failed to perform anything that would let me continue with my work. For the past 5 days, I ve been looking out for machines which are unoccupied so that I can work. Right from my senior's machine to the conference room and finally to the server where I am actually posting this...the journey has been quite something. Now that my machine is undergoing some treatment in the ICU (its being formatted), I have some free time at my disposal.. All this did unnerve me at some time but at the end of it all, its a nice experience... hee hee! There I go again..starting of on irrelevant things at the most relevant times.. My senior says, I have a good attitude towards problems. I take them in my stride.. Man! That was quite some boost my lost morale..U might as well ask me why a lost morale.. well, things havent been too great in my life... I stand at crossroads in my career and wonder what to do! Each day passes with a hope that I am making the right decision.. God, help me! I read sometime back, we put an order for what we need the most in front of the Almighty and also give him the requirements... well, he does listen to it! Does he relally listen to our incessant ramblings? So why is it that my prayers are going unanswered? God, Please listen to this poor soul who is petrified and lost in this mortal world.

India's most admired people

Power to influence, prominence in media, and leadership qualities were the parameters for conducting an opinion poll to find out about India’s 50 Most Admired People. The overall scores showed Amitabh Bachchan topping the charts followed by S-S-S-Shah Rukh Khan and then “Bengal Tiger” Saurav Ganguly. Sonia Gandhi emerged as the most admired lady followed by Aishwariya Rai and Sania Mirza.

So what is it that makes the Big B the most admired Indian? Why is it that he is still able to give the young lot a run for their money? Its his charisma and unfettered charm that extends beyond the 70 mm screen. He is undoubtedly the Big Badshah of Indian celluloid. Not to far behind is the K-K-K-King Khan. He is all that Big B isn’t. What I mean is that “modesty” is certainly not his middle name. A little more grounded to the earth and he would have definitely been the most coveted for actor of the tinsel town. Nevertheless, he has been able to woo the audiences with his charm and histrionics.

There are others who feature in this list..people who have made it really big in their respective fields – Anil Ambani, L.N. Mittal, Aishwariya Rai, Barkha Dutt, Narayana Murthy and their likes. A noticeable thing about the list was that more than 25% of the people featuring on it were from the tinsel town. The others were from the fields of sports, politics, business, and a couple of media persons. Sadly enough, no one from the intelligentsia..no one from the academia. Where are all the great and talented writers and artists? Is the common man inspired only by people from Bollywood or the national craze – Cricket? Do people like Medha Patkar or an Amartya Sen do make a difference? Does anyone know about the contributions of these people? What happened to people like P.Chidambaram and Jhumpa Lahiri et al? It is a very sorry state of affairs that we think of entertainment tycoons as the most admirable personalities. Not that I don’t enjoy watching movies. In fact, I am quite a movie buff myself and love to unwind myself watching some flick. But then I really am not too inspired by them and certainly don’t think that they are the most admirable people. I do think that people like Medha Patkar, Jhumpa Lahiri, Barkha Dutt et al have given a new face to Indian women. Ah-well.. I am already sounding like a hard-core feminist and so I feel it would be wise to stop now.