Umar Bhar Befikar!

Most of us live our lives worrying. Worry about family, work, money and what not. Our lives are often spent doing what we do not want to do but must do because of external compulsions. Thus,  IDBI Federal Life Insurance Company's new tagline Befikar Umar Bhar appeals instantly.

You can checkout the entire advertisement here - 

I cannot help but imagine what would be the things that I would do if I was Befikar Umar Bhar! A whole wide world is literally open to the person who does not have to worry about money and time. So these are the top five things that I would do!

1. Around the World in 80 days 

I absolutely love reading. Commercial Fiction, Literary Fiction, Non Fiction, Comics, Newspapers, Magazines, I read anything and everything that I can get my hands on! However, if there is something I like more, that thing can only be travelling. So when I am befikar umar bhar I shall combine both and retrace the steps of the protagonist of Jules Verne's timeless classic, 'Around the World in 80 days'. I shall take the exact same path he took and try to use the same modes of transport. Whether I shall have the same number of adventures, now that remains to be seen...

Around the World in 80 Days Route
Source : Wikimedia Commons

2. Get myself a Batmobile 

I love the feeling of the wind blowing in my face when I ride any motorcycle. And in motorcycles what can be more top of the range than a Batmobile? I shall commission some top engineers to build me a fully functional Batmobile! Why? Have you seen the thing? 

3. Learn Cocoa Farming in Ghana

One of the problems of the above mentioned itenary of Around the World in 80 Days is that it does not let me explore the African Continent. Jules Verne's hero just made one African stop. Cairo. I however, would like to see more and learn something while I explore Africa.

I have had chocolates from India, Singapore, Malaysia, Switzerland, USA, Belgium and many other countries. I can probably name fifty chocolate brands! However, I realise that I know way too little about the chief ingredient of chocolate, the Cocoa nut! So I would go to see and learn Cocoa Farming in Ghana for a couple of years while I take occasional tours and safaris to other parts of Africa.

Cocoa Pods
Source : Wikimedia Commons

4. Travel on a Cruise from Mumbai to Singapore

I have lived almost my entire life on two islands, Mumbai and Singapore. However, I have never travelled from one place to other by an ocean liner. I would love to go visit my friends in Singapore and enjoy the luxury of a cruise ship while I am on the way! A different cuisine for each meal, sea view throughout the journey and rounds of games to kill time! Or perhaps, I may just buy a cruise ship!

A cruise ship!
Source : Wikimedia Commons

5. Open a Free Legal Aid Clinic

My hero, Batman uses all his wealth and time for a good cause and so shall I. I shall buy a huge house next to the seaside somewhere along Maharashtra's Konkan coast to act as my home and office. There I shall run a free legal aid clinic offering my services as a lawyer to the poor and underprivileged who do not have the means or the awareness and knowledge to resort to legal remedies for their problems. I shall also spread awareness about consumer law so that no one is cheated by vendors. I shall ensure that no poor accused goes undefended and neither the government nor any well off individuals or organisations in the society deprive the aam admi of his legal rights. I shall try to ensure that justice is done. 

This is what I would do if I was #BefikarUmarBhar! Read more about IDBI Fedral's campaign here - http://bit.ly/BefikarUmarBhar 

This post was a part of Indiblogger's Happy Hours Contest!

The Real Heroes Of The Republic Day Parade

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This post was first published at Huffington Post India on 04/02/2015.

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Doordarshan's Republic Day Parade broadcast gave us much background information regarding our gallantry award winners but it forgot to focus on some other heroes at Rajpath - the viewing public who managed the awe-inspiring feat of procuring the parade tickets. Here's the story of what it takes to make it to Rajpath on 26 January.

Having a quiz to attend in Delhi on 22 and 23 January, I spotted an opportunity to extend my stay and watch the Republic Day Parade live at Rajpath. When I asked around for the procedure to get a ticket, I soon realised that the only advice that everyone (even the otherwise loquacious breed of Delhiites) had was to get a pass by contacting influential bureaucrats. I was often told, "Ticket line se nahi, pehchan se milti hai (You get tickets not from a queue but through contacts)."

Though I discreetly enquired of my friends if they knew these pass-bearing influential persons, I refused to believe that this underhanded method could be the only feasible way to obtain passes. I searched the internet to find out how I could lay my hands on the tickets being sold to the public at large.

The Press Information Bureau had no useful release regarding the sale of 2015 R-Day Parade tickets. The only available press release merely stated that tickets are still available at the "designated sale counters" without any mention of where these were.Media articles were just as vague.

Finally I thought I had struck gold when I found a 2007 press release detailing the locations where the tickets were available. However, when I turned up at the Gandhi Ashram in Chandni Chowk (which isn't really an ashram at all but a khadi store) I was told that the press release I was relying upon was hopelessly outdated and that no tickets were available there. The store attendants suggested that we go to the government's tourist office at 88 Janpath.

Having wasted my time once, I decided to call the tourist office at Janpath only to discover that the Delhi Tourism website lists only a seven-digit phone number for its Janpath office which is obviously an incomplete number and cannot be dialled.

Hearing from a friend that tickets are usually available at Parliament House, I dialled the reception where the very helpful receptionist explained to me that the Ministry of Defence personnel selling the tickets had shut shop and left an hour early as 23 January was the last day of sale there.

Hearing my side of this phone conversation, a helpful aam admi on the metro informed me that tickets were being sold at Pragati Maidan. Upon reaching Pragati Maidan Gate No. 1 the next afternoon (after being thoroughly fleeced by auto drivers) I was delighted to at least see a ticket sale counter in existence. The joy was short lived though, since the official manning the counter told me that the daily quota of Republic Day parade tickets was sold out and that I could only buy tickets for the Beating Retreat programme. He asked me to return at 8am the next morning (25 January) to buy the coveted Rs 300 tickets which apparently give one the right to reserved seating. What I did not know was that he had left out some key details.

The next morning, I braved the freezing weather (at least to my Mumbai body) and made it to the Pragati Maidan counter at 8.15am only to find a long queue of at least 50 well-equipped ticket seekers laughing at the sorry figure I cut. I had neither a warm jacket or hat nor the required documentation. The kind souls in the queue told me that the guy at the counter was issuing the reserved tickets only to those who had a photocopy of an identity card. So I walked for 1 ½ km each way and returned with a photocopy of my driving license. It was 9am by then and the counter was still not open. While I was wondering why the person at the counter didn't tell me the ID card requirement the previous day, the people around me had even more surprising details to share. On an average it was the second or third purchase attempt for everybody in the line. I was also told that even upon having ID, a person could buy only one reserved ticket meaning that I would not be able to purchase any for my quiz partners who were patriotic enough to want to watch the Parade live but not enough to go hunting for tickets.

While we were waiting for the counter to open, Delhi Traffic Police and CRPF personnel made their appearance in large numbers and briskly informed us that the counter would not open until 1pm and that we had to clear the area in an hour. When half an hour passed without anyone believing the police, the cops could be heard murmuring to anyone who asked them "Please chale jiye warna danda marke bhagana padega (Please leave otherwise we may have to chase you away with sticks)."

When clearing the sidewalks of the road which the American President plans to take to Raj Ghat takes precedence over selling Republic Day tickets to patriotic Indians, that is the point when you realise how apt the tourism slogan is. India is truly incredible.

Upon the police officer's suggestion, I decided to try my luck at Jantar Mantar where apparently the second of these mysterious ticket sale counters was located. I stopped enroute in Connaught Place to grab brunch and buy a sweater. The mission to acquire tickets was taking significantly longer than I expected it to.

As I walked towards Jantar Mantar, I could barely see its entrance or the ticket counter. All I could see was a mass of humanity, certainly numbering in the hundreds, in what might (or might not) pass for a queue. I dutifully joined it. However after the queue did not move for a few minutes, I decided to investigate. I was surprised to discover that a couple of hundred people had been queuing for two hours on the vague promise that more tickets might arrive soon. I was wondering whether to join this hopeful exercise when the Indian bureaucracy threw its final and fatal hurdle in my path. At the counter there was a small notice which stated, "Only Aadhaar Card and Election Card shall be accepted as ID proof." Since the only identity document that I was carrying to Delhi was a driving license, I finally admitted defeat in the face of these arbitrary and ever-changing ticket requirements.

I am trying to convince myself that I did not miss much since the gods literally rained on our parade. However, I can't shake of the feeling that a celebration to commemorate the day when we adopted the ideal of equality as a nation should not just be available to the elite with contacts. The ticket sale process definitely needs to be made transparent and publicised, if not reformed and opened to people apart from Delhiites with enough free time to decipher the maze of designated counters.

Of Suicides and Protests

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This post was first published at Huffington Post India on 18/12/2015.

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The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary announced in the Parliament on Wednesday that the central government is planning to give effect to the 210th Report of the Law Commission of India by decriminalising 'attempt to commit suicide'. This decision shall undoubtedly be controversial since many believe that section 309 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises 'attempt to commit suicide' is infact a provision that helps to uphold the dignity of life since it discourages taking of one's own life. While there already are debates raging regarding the morality of the move, the ramifications of the move on the culture of suicides during agitations and protests in India seem to have been ignored.

Hungerstrikes and Self Immolations

Ever since the pre-independence era, a 'fast-onto-death' has been a popular tool of protesting government actions and demanding a roll back. More violent protesters have also adopted the method of attempting self-immolation to draw attention to their demands.

Such protests are infact frighteningly common in India. Just over the past two years, there have been self-immolations for issues ranging from Telangana agitation, protest against the visit of Chinese President and even to protest the conviction of Jayalalitha, CM of Tamil Nadu.

Government decision shall render the police helpless

Most of such self-immolation protests lead to unnecessary deaths of misguided youth and rarely if ever achieve any significant objectives. The police forces' most preferred way of getting rid of such protestors is to simply arrest them for 'attempt to commit suicide' when the police get winds of their plans to self-immolate. Following the move to decriminalise it, this tool shall be no longer available to the police.

Due to the decriminalisation of suicide, the police are going to be deprived of their power to stop such protests. Police shall also not be able to prevent death of non-violent actitivists during the course of hunger-strikes and fasts-onto-death with such events only leading to further law and order problems sparked by outrage amongst the dead activists' supporters.

The Iron Lady of Manipur

The greatest impact of this shall probably be seen in Manipur where Irom Sharmila has been on a hunger-strike for ten long years. The Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize winning activist began a fast on 2nd November 2000, when Assam Rifles personnel killed ten civilians at a bus stop in Malom, Manipur. Her demand is that Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) -- a law that in effect provides military and para-military forces immunity from prosecution for their actions -- be repealed. She was arrested for attempting to commit suicide a mere 3 days after her protest began and has been force fed by the police ever since. She is arrested for the same offence again when she continues her hunger-strike even after being released every time at the end of her one year sentence.

The government should be prepared for a volatile situation in Manipur if 'attempt to commit suicide' is decriminalised because the Iron Lady has made it clear that she would rather die than give up her cause. The death of such a prominent activist shall promptly bring the issue of Manipur and AFSPA into ever sharper focus and is likely to lead to much unrest.

Thus while the government decision to decriminalise 'attempt to suicide' is rightly being studied from a moral and philosophical perspective, it would also be wise to analyse its implications from a practical standpoint of powers of police in relation to protests and agitations. It shall be an undoubtedly regressive move if it completely takes away the powers of the police to prevent unnecessary deaths and the government should find a way around this problem before going ahead with decriminalisation of 'attempt to commit suicide'.

Captain cool checks out Melbourne!!

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This post is a part of Indiblogger's Melbourne contest

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He had just finished the gruelling press conference. Why can't a man just do what he wants? Captain Cool had taken his team to #1 a few years ago and yet the pesky reporters had so many questions regarding his retirement. He had wanted to shout at them, "There is nothing higher than #1 folks and I am renting Liverpool's trophy cabinet space to keep my trophies." But true to his name he kept his cool and some how got away from the press conference. The wonderful display of the paintings and photographs of the cricketing greats at the world famous MCG - Melbourne Cricket Ground automatically put him in a good mood by the time he came out and hailed a cab for Westin Melbourne, the grand and beautiful hotel overlooking the vibrant City Square. Tomorrow he would tour the city, for now he just wanted to sleep after a long and tiring last day of test cricket of his life.

Bright and early next morning, Captain Cool hopped on to the City Circle Tram and the small town boy inside him was pleased to note that he could hop on and hop off at will without paying a cent for a ride on this wonderful tram which took him around the entire city!

The tram ride was amazing but he wanted to see more of Melbourne and even beyond if possible. So Captain Cool decided to go for one of the most unique experiences of Melbourne.

He headed out to the highest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere at Melbourne's Eureka Skydeck 88. He was amazed at how the lift propelled him to level 88 in under 40 seconds and silently prayed for pace bowlers who would bowl this fast for his one day team of which he was still the captain. Since Eureka 88 is an experience that can't properly be told in words, you shall have to watch Captain Cool's friends Rohan and Tanmay in action at the Eureka Sky deck!

Captain Cool was fascinated by the beautiful views of Melbourne from high up at Eureka 88 but again he wanted something more. Since he was missing soaring through the air to take impossible catches as a wicketkeeper, he decided to soar through air again but this time on a Hot-Air Balloon! But on his way to the Hot Air Balooning Site, Captain Cool also made it a point to drop by the Gem Pier to check out the HMAS Castlemaine Museum Ship, the last of the sixty Australian-built Bathurst Class corvettes to be still afloat. He enjoyed exploring the ship and checking out the life style that the Australian sailors had when the ship served the Navy during the Second World War.

He thought he may get hungry during the Hot Air Balloon Ride and made it a point to pluck some strawberries at the Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm, delighted that he could pluck them right off the plant by hand rather than having to buy in a market.

Finally Captain Cool boarded his Hot Air Balloon and drank in the sights of the beautiful city of Melbourne to his heart's content! He was also pleased to know that the balloon ride included complimentary breakfast at the Sofitel Hotel!

Captain Cool's body had soared as high as possible but his mind still had some way to go. Captain Cool headed to the Scienceworks where a Melbourne Planetarium show took his mind to the stars and beyond all the while sitting on a luxurious chair!

The evening had been set aside for the Sovereign Hill visit where Captain Cool tried his hand at finding gold and became a part of history by joining in Australia's famous gold rush! Again his friends can explain it best!
 

After spending time in history a call from his wife brought Captain Cool back to reality and he rushed to the Queen Victoria Market so that he could buy some lovely gifts for his wife. Regardless of how many T-20 teams you maybe captain of , at home the wife is the boss and you can get retired hurt if you come home without the most fascinating gifts.

I would love to tell you more about Captain Cool but I have to rush because I have to catch the evening show with him at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre!

Why don't you read up more on your own here? Answer my simple question below by leaving a comment and I promise some EXCITING prizes for you! Contest closes on 4th Jan 2015! Comment fast!

"Which of these places would you want to visit in Melbourne and why?". 

igenius Young Singing stars Grand Finale

MaxLife Insurance is a company that seems to have a special relationship with the children of India. Over the past few years it has endeavoured to provide some or the other opportunities to children each year as a part of its igenius programmes. There have been scholarships awarded as well as young authors hunt conducted under the igenius banner.

However, this year they did something different. In collaboration with Universal music, they came up with a singing event for children to identify the best talent in India. This is what gave birth to the "Young Singing Stars" competition which saw the participation of more than 1,30,000 participants from across the nation. By the 17th of December, after a rigorous elimination process, the top ten participants (five from the senior category and five from the junior category) were remaining for the grand finale in Mumbai which I had the opportunity to attend because of Blogadda.

Mansi Scott was the host for the evening who brought the event to life by singing one of her unreleased songs. Soon thereafter, the Grand Finale,-- taking place just one day after the horrific events which on 16th Dec unfolded in Peshawar -- struck the right chord as the participants along with the audience were asked to observe 2 mins silence for the victims.

After speeches by senior executives MaxLife, Mr. Devraj Sanyal, MD, Universal Music Group who also has a band of his own spoke about how excited he was to be associated with Young Singing Stars and identifying new talent. He was also a part of the jury for the finale.

Shraddha Sharma, the next member of the jury then took the stage and mesmerised the audience with her melodious voice which has enthralled millions on YouTube, and made her a shoo in for singing stardom.

Salim Ali, the man whom the crowd was dying to see was the next. He also expressed his anguish regarding the attack on the Army School in Peshawar and dedicated his rendition of Ali Maula as a prayer to the victims.

With all the preliminaries done, the youngsters finally took stage for round one of their performances. It seemed like they were managing to outperform each other constantly because each song seemed like the best one.

With the first round of finalists' performances over, acapella band RaagaTrippin took the stage and out in an absolutely mind blowing performance! Simply the range of sounds that they manage to produce using merely their vocal cords let me speechless!

Their performance was followed by another round of finalists' performances which were again superb. I think a large amount of credit is also due to igenius, who I heard provided mentoring opportunity the finalists before the grand finale. I am sure that the kiddos got to learn a great deal from the mentors.

Kavita Seth then took stage to while the scores were being tallied. 

And then last, as the participants and their parents waited with bated breath, the event concluded with Shivam Ahuja of the junior category and Shraddha Shree of the senior category being declared the Winners!!!

However, that did not mean that the others went home empty handed. What I loved about the Young Singing Stars was that while the winners got an album contract each with Universal, the four other finalists also got a single song contract each! Thus Universal and MaxLife Insurance are providing all ten of them an opportunity to kick start their singing careers!

Can't wait to hear those voices again! I hope they get to release their singles/albums soon!