Impact of social media on elections

 After stepping into a new decade 2021, if we reflect back on what we have achieved in the last decade then undoubtedly it's the social media and how it is influencing us in everyday life. I will go over the societal influence in another post as in this post I want to talk about how Twitter and Facebook are effectively meddling with the elections in the US and around the globe. 

Last year, US has seen a historic and divisive election ever. According to the Forbes article, social media was an important platform in reaching out the masses pre-election and was a source for continuous engagement throughout the election phase. Starting from campaigning, debates, predicting the election outcome and ultimately choosing to kick out the incumbent president from Twitter platform all together!  We will take an in depth look at what kind of effect these online platforms could have on the voters and election process. 

On social media platforms like Twitter, where user can gain direct access to their political leaders by following them and responding to their tweets. Every person or party who is campaigning have their twitter handles displayed for people to follow them. It absolutely feels like they are connected to them even though they know they can never directly meet them in person. Psychological relationship like this can definitely help the political parties to gather vote bank by tabbing on their interests and suggestions. For most people, visuals carry even more powerful impact than words. With the amount of pictures and videos posted on these online mediums, there is no differentiation on to which one is genuine and which one is fake. There is no way to stop this misinformation. Sure, platforms have come up with their own algorithms to show a disclaimer that the claim is not verified, but still it's out there for everyone to digest! With evident media polarization everywhere in democratic countries, there are certain set of people specially youths are more inclined to use social media to get direct answers from the candidates. 

As per the PBS survey, biggest thread to keeping elections safe is to stop misleading information circling around the social media. The next bigger piece is to handle voter fraud. 

The most pressing question in this time is can media really alter any election outcome? Answer is no, but can it influence the voters? Hell yeah! These social media platforms are bypassing the mainstream media which was earlier acting like a gatekeeper between voters and political leaders. The way they are influencing the people and their voices is also a word of caution for everyone. Twitter banning the incumbent president's account over the riots is a last straw. 

As a citizen of any country it's a moment to ponder, are we allowing social media to dictate policies in our country? Sure government in US tried to testify the CEOs of these companies for not allowing external interference. But there is a high time government should regulate more stricter laws around them so that they don't influence the elections directly or target any government person/agency publicly. These kind of incidents make us ponder as to why some nations have still blocked Facebook and Twitter and will never allow them to operate without accepting their terms and conditions. 

Pic courtesy: google images.

Trump's election loss and lessons learnt!

 While elections in USA happened last year, and we are yet to welcome our new President, it is time to reflect last four years of Trump's presidency. In Jan 2016, he was elected as 45th President of USA. Everyone was so excited to have someone other than a politician to rule the country. What mistakes did he made now to loose this election?

There was no doubt that US stock market was doing excellent until Mar 2020 and unemployment rate was historic low. This president had really pulled through and got everyone much needed job and employment.  He had a highest approval rating to continue his second term as President. He also survived his impeachment trial. 

Then COVID-19 happened in March 2020 and everything was a downward spiral for him and his team. With COVID-19, elections in the country was definitely a big deal and it was a greater opportunity for him to react and send a right message to the people. Here are few things that he should have done last year which could have helped him to continue 4 more years. 

1. Handling COVID-19: Undeniably for Trump, covid-19 came at a very wrong time. He told in one of his speech 'Before the plague came, I had it made.' But right from the beginning the problem was his denial to accept this problem. While many countries battled with the same virus, their leaders imposed lockdowns and acknowledged the virus as deadly. But with Mr. Trump he commented initially that it was more like a flu virus which happens every year. Even during campaign trails, he gave a wrong message by not putting mask, gathering crowd and taking this virus very lightly. He himself at one point got affected and still downplayed the pandemic. But still he didn't have to really loose this election, all he had to do was  to acknowledge the problem and fight back with everyone by giving support. Trump's denial mode cost him his credibility.

2. Like other world leaders like Modi, he shouldn't have dealt covid case strategically instead of calling it as 'China Virus' repeatedly from March 2020. While many praised him for openly accusing china for causing this deadly problem, he actually fell flat due to many people in US not accepting this kind of rhetoric. Even though China is India's staunch enemy there was never a statement from Mr. Modi on blaming China for the pandemic.

3. Another problem that caused his defeat was he didn't expand his support beyond his voter demographics. He often ruled as if he was the president for only the red states. He made very little attempt to woo democratic majority states. Hence, Biden clarified that there won't be a red or blue president but just one President of America. This statement gave a powerful message and thought to ponder. 

Though Biden was not the obvious choice from democratic party as well, but in this election year definitely it was more of people voting out Trump than choosing Mr. Biden. Only time will tell how the Biden presidency is going to overcome this challenge of stabilizing the economy and giving the million jobs back to the people instead of handing over the stimulus checks. But living in a democratic country it is our duty to welcome the new president and support him for fighting against covid and building back the economy. 

Bose & me

My relationship with Music begin with Bose earplugs that I had purchased in my college days. What can i say, the technology has come so far now to - Bose Quiet comfort headset. Listening to music on Bose gives a very different vibe all together. I always had an eye on Bose Quiet comfort headsets and finally I get that as a gift from my workplace. Yes, after a product launch all of our team was awarded with Bose Quiet comfort noise cancelling headsets. Needless to say this is one asset I always carry along with my laptop. Let me list the top features that makes me to like this headset and add more details about the latest work they have done.




As a software engineer, our job becomes very mundane at some point and the sheer beats of music can lighten up the moment. The noise cancelling feature of BOSE comes handy when there is a big group discussion that happens around you when you are seriously focusing on writing an important email to company's customer or debugging a serious issue. With Acoustic noise cancelling technology, it continuously measures, compares and reacts to outside noise and cancels it with the opposite signal. In 1995, noise cancelling headphones made a bang in the technical world when Bose's acoustic noise cancellation headphone was named product of the year. Noise cancelling is adapted by many companies around the world but it has become a mission statement for BOSE. Apart from it's use in offices, home and surroundings, it is successfully utilized in the loud environment of military aircraft cabins. Noise cancelling headphones replace irritating environmental noise by producing calming white noise. Sound cancels sound and that's the logic behind this technology.

Life is full of noises - and I want to eliminate them all !!

With Quiet Comfort 35, you can adjust the level of noise cancellation now between three levels to suit to the current environment. I like to wear it in my workplace even if i am not listening to anything. Noise cancellation is truly amazing! Sometimes you feel like getting disconnected to this world when you are at work place or focusing on something very important. The sound of the music is crystal clear even if you are walking on a busy street. There is zero distortion and I can vouch for this quality in BOSE.



Bose allows to connect to two devices at the same time. So, you can keep listening to the music on your laptop and don't have to miss important calls from your cellphone. Such a brilliant feature for techies like us. Now, with the google assistant inbuilt it will do much more justice to your day today activities. Now all this task can be managed with a voice command. The headband of the device is state of the art. It is built to survive most rugged conditions and we can take them almost anywhere and everywhere. The over the ear cushions are extremely soft and we can instantly forget that we are wearing something.

The other feature that I would die for is the battery life. It is amazing that once i charge the headphone I don't have to worry about it for about 2-3 days even after using it for 10-12hours per day. After turning on the headphone, it speaks the battery percentage which I think is supercool and helps me in planning the headphone usage for that day. Apart from this, voice prompts are very helpful during pairing of the headset and other stuff. The headphones have built in microphone and sync via bluetooth.

If you like music and want to carry it everywhere you go and expect to get the same sound quality like you hear in the cinema theatres?? The answer is get a BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 35.

I am ready for an upgrade. Are you ? Noise cancelling headphones are expensive, but they are worth what you pay for.

Check this out for the details.

Latest trend in bollywood songs!

Recently I happened to attend a musical concert of Kumar Sanu and Alka yagnik. What a spectacular duo and they have given so many hit songs in their career. Most of the audience still remember the lyrics. The exemplary lyrics of 80's and 90's era are difficult to be forgotten. That was the golden era for music industry in India. The songs were recorded on the casettes and people would buy them and play on their tape recorders.. it used to be so comforting to listen to the music and sing along or dance along the beats. We could infact make out which instruments were used in those songs. Now, with the digitization of music we don't hear many instruments in a song. They are all digital music with sound effects. 

In 90's we had songs for all occassions:

song for first crush -- pehla nasha
song to propse someone -- maine pyaar tujhi se kiya hai
song to woo someone --- chura ke dil mera
song to sing in a marriage -- dulhe ka chehra/first time dekha tumhe
break up song --- ab tere bin jee lenge hum
sad song -- rone na dijiyega/tu pyaar hai kisi aur ka
patriotic songs -- Desh mere desh mere.. 

so on and so forth...

and now time to scrutinize latest song lyrics...

1. Din hai sunny ...
2. gulaabo zara itar gira do..
3. chitiya kalaiyan ve
4. main toh superman salman ka fan...
5. Rang de tu mohe gerua

and the list goes on....

Surprisingly, these songs have been a top listed songs for a while. So, I can't help but wonder have we evolved past lyrics phase in movie industry.. don't we care about lyrics now and we simply want to hear sound/beats and rap kind of songs that we can't even remember the lyrics. Nowadays, no one seems to buy songs from the movies..songs are instead sold to the directors to include in a movie. Most of the singers don't have the charm or have any prior knowledge of music. Their voices are corrected with the help of sound systems. Anyone can become a singer in this era.. only thing you need is a nice retro mix of the music on which people can dance and a hope that the music appears catchy to the audience.

AAP's landslide victory

Call him a Muffler man, corruption hunter or aam aadmi, but Arvind Kejriwal and team are not to be under estimated. None of the exit polls were anticipating such a victory for AAP. BJP fell flat of 3 seats and congress got decimated. Similar to Modi wave, its AAP's Tsunami as some people are saying.

I am writing this post to analyze the  results and what went positive for AAM aadmi.

1. Door to door campaigning.

While BJP did high level stuff like asking cabinet ministers, calling Obama on republic day parade, calling film actors to campaign on behalf of Kiran Bedi in Delhi, AAP kept the campaigning to grass root level of going door to door, conducting Mohalla sabhas etc and trying to woe the Delhi voters. They apologized in public several times for last year's debacle and assured people that if they get a clear mandate they will prove to them that they are an asset.

2. Nature of campaigning
BJP and congress campaigned in their old fashioned way of accusing other party and negative politics against AAP. AAP stuck to the positive campaign and have struck the cord with the voters of Delhi. This kind of mandate asserts that politics is changing in India and people want a fresh party who can understand their common day to day problems. The high political drama of calling president to republic parade etc has not helped BJP much in their campaign. They gave ads in local newspaper targetting Arvind Kejriwal and spent too much time criticizing him.

3. Inducting Kiran Bedi, Shazia Ilmi and Vinod Binny
The biggest blunder BJP committed is by inducting CM candidate 20days before elections. They should have added her 2 months before elections. Kiran Bedi no doubt has a good track record and she is the only one who can face Kejriwal in terms of clean image and good record. She couldn't take part in many debates and answer to questions asked specifically for BJP strategies. It almost looked like she is alone and BJP is not with her. How can a CM candidate take up Delhi when her ministers are not going to obey her. People mostly felt that she is opportunist and trying to ride on the Modi Wave factor. However, for other two candidates they had already left AAP due to personal reasons. So, they wouldn't have added much to this debacle.

4. Gaining voters confidence
I think the important task that AAP did was to gain back the voters confidence. For this they did their homework since last year after they failed miserably in the Lok sabha elections. Hats off to them for pulling this effort. BJP was showing Modi as the face of this campaign but people know that he is a PM and he is not going to govern Delhi. They should have campaigned vigorously with Kiran Bedi as she could have connected more with the voters of Delhi. All the BJP Ads focussed only on Modi and Amit Shah.

Now, AAP has to  succeed in their 5yrs term since they have a overwhelming mandate to serve the people of Delhi. 

My fight with Pimples

Ever heard of any girl fine with having pimples on face? Argghhh.. No way ! So, the story is same for me. As a teenager, when I first spotted a pimple on my face and I was quite amazed. I tried to touch it and press it so that it merges with the skin surface, but sadly no luck. It hurt a little though but wasn't so bad. After the initial meeting with the pimple, thoughts run around your mind to get rid of those. But its not so easy in teenage specially when you have the rush of new hormones. After you get older having pimples is no fun.



First step is to run by the nearby beauty supply store and buy a product to get rid of them. But the problem is which one to pick? Lucky people get help from any suitable brand but unfortunately that doesn't work with all skin types. So, now go back to the old advice that drink more water, don't eat anything spicy and wash your face often to get rid of any excess oil. But after couple of days I don't see any improvement and in fact there is an increase in number.

Stage 2 - Raging war.

Generally when we enter stage 2, we become so desperate to go for high end acne solutions which is filled with lot of chemicals that usually make our skin more dry or we loose luster. Sometimes even if these work on our skin, they leave behind a scar or spot that reminds us of these pimples. The main reason for this is that these chemicals rip off the natural oils, which could initially improve the acne. But later our skin reacts to this and it could cause dry skin or make acne more worse. Because of which sometimes we get aggressive and try to explode the pimple which might still give us those scars. This happens because for people on whom these solutions don't work become fragile about this. For me, it was utterly important to get rid of them now as I had to meet someone for my marriage alliance. I never wanted to present myself with either acne or scars. I thought I have few days left to treat this. So, I went for the natural remedy that was present in Garnier Pure active neem.

Acne is not an incurable disease but taking right care could help to control their growth and frequent appearance on our skin. Garnier pure active has neem and tea tree oil extracts which are known in Ayurveda for controlling acne. Neem is a powerful anti bacterial herb that helps to fight the stubborn acne. Apart from controlling acne neem is good for normal skin nourishment too. Tea tree oil is another great component in this facewash that helps to fight acne. It has unique disinfecting and soothing properties which won't strip off natural oils from our skin causing further damage. With the combination of both of these ingredients we have a powerful way to combat with the acne.

Cleansing the acne prone area is usually the most overlooked crucial step for controlling acne. With this gentle face wash apply strokes on your face and try to gently scrub the area where acne is present. If we don't cleanse our skin properly then most of the acne product would make it worse if left it on the skin.

I am glad to have made a choice of having a neem and tea tree based face wash for treating pimples. I included Garnier pure active neem in my daily skin care routine and it surely gives a good result. After washing my face, I apply neem oil to condition my acne area and that benefits my skin care routine too. Aptly mentioned in the garnier website: NO PIMPLES NO MARKS !


Website to get more info on this product: bit.ly/GarnierPureActiveNeemWebsite
For indiblogger article; bit.ly/GPABlogLinkIndiBloggerActivity

Romance - A glimpse into the future

This post is written for Blogeshwar and Anubhooti.

It was a nice sunday morning. Abhi woke up from his bed after being disturbed by his violent alarm clocks. These clocks were programmed to wake up Abhi from his deepest sleep. They danced, jumped from one corner to another and they emitted a kind of sound that would disturb the human sleep. With much hesitation Abhi woke up and Firefly came infront of him. Firefly is Abhi's robo cat that had a bright neon blue tail that glowed in the dark.

Firefly - "Hi Abhi, good morning. Its 9am and you are an hour late for the skywalk."

Abhi - " Not today, I saw a terrible dream."

Firefly - "What happened? Do you want me to change the ambiance of this room".

Firefly started pressing the remote control of the room. For every key press the room would look different. He selected "Nature" theme and it changed the appearance of the room according to the current season. It was fall season and the room was filled the images of fall leaves, trees and the fall colors. It looked pleasant. Abhi went to get freshen up. He was still feeling drowsy. Abhi was 30yr old but he was still single. Instead of making real girlfriends he believed more in virtual world where he could dump any girl he wanted. He was constantly looking himself in the mirror, he sighed deeply and started to play around with his hair. He was loosing lot of hair lately and so he got one of the scientifically formulated hair solution that would artificially plant some hair strands. By applying this it will fill the hairless regions on the scalp with hair follicles that would grow eventually to hair strands. He sprayed radiation block on his hair to prevent hair from further damage due to the crazy radiations from outside.

"I should make some money and get some gene therapy done" he murmured in front of Firefly. "Life is so boring. Look at me I am 30 years old, still single and I just have computer to talk to. Isn't that sad Firefly?". Firefly nodded in return and expressed sympathy. But technology wise his life wasn't that bad.

He purchased a truvision glasses that would help you in escaping from the real world.

He had a 60Terabyte per second internet connection.

He had a premium membership to virtual wonderland.

He went outside in his corridor to smoke his electronic cigarette and trying to be social. He saw his neighbour with a bag of groceries. She was looking very pretty with a fluffy scarf and a nice leather jacket. "Wow, you made my day with your appearance" he said. She quickly went inside her apartment and his boyfriend overheard Abhi's

comment. He was about to hit him when he quickly keyed in his access code and disappeared in his hermit hole. His heart sank. Then he took a heavy drag of the e-cigarette and that released its pleasant cocktail of mood regulators. Then he sat on his sofa and wore his TruVision glasses. Then he grabbed the bottle of pills that were heart shaped and tasted like cherries. Consuming these would relieve him from the stress and submerge his mind in the virtual world. He was letting his mind to focus on the electronic sensations. He relaxed as the dose of those heart shaped pills shut out the real world and brought the colors and electronic impulses to the vivid life. Now everything felt more real to him.

He found himself in virtual wonderland's one of the chatroom. Depending on the choice the rooms varied from 17th century palaces from sleazy hotel rooms. Abhi's choice was the hotel room with red decor, a virtual bed with satin sheets and roses on them. The walls were red and covered with erotic photos. After flipping through the menu he chose Ashley Sommers, one of the costliest 17 yr old blonde with a sweet smile. Ashley was one of the virtual girls who would please any customer of virtual wonderland.

She came out of the virtual mall and started humming "fly me to the moon". She had a long hair that fell gently on her back. Her skin was flawless and she looked beautiful. Abhi stiffened for a little bit. "you look great" he said. She blushed and said thanks to him. "Are you virgin?" he asked her. "Ofcourse, I am programmed to be virgin" she said. He moved closer to her. She blushed, smiled and said " I like you too". He felt like she touched him and he started going further in the virtual world.

Two hours later he found himself lying on his sofa and

his pills were ineffective now. He found himself out of that virtual world. He took the pills again and found himself with Ashley. She said " Hi, can you let me handle the conversation? you almost slept last time." They soon picked up the conversation and he came to know that she wanted to be an artist. She decorated his room virtually and made it look like a night club. "Wow you are an angel. You are so perfect." he said. Then she kissed him. He thanked god for making him meet Ashley. He secretly prayed in his greenroom in wild ecstasy that he wants Ashley to be with him always.

Somehow, Abhi's pills turned ineffective and brought him back to reality. He checked his messages before going to bed and saw a message from virtual wonderland. The subject was: Please submit your review for Ashley Sommers.

He read one of the user review - sweet girl. loves being pampered. I love the way her eyes light up when you say I love you to her.

He tore off his TruVision glasses and tried to hold his feelings. He was crying but his neighbor couldn't hear him since she was busy with her boyfriend.

Then he spoke to firefly " She is a program. She can't think. She can't have human feelings. She is just a complex series of algorithms. She is a human A.I. Men all around the globe have had relationship with her. They all are being told by her that they are loved. She is not real..." He started crying his heart out. He couldn't do anything since Ashley was not real.

P.S. This is just a glimpse of what 25th century would be. I hope it shouldn't be this way though.

Two years post Nirbhaya.. did anything change?

It has been two years since the Nirbhaya incident took place in New Delhi that shook the whole world. This brutal incident has tormented the belief of how women are treated outside their home. There were several candle light vigils and innumerable protests in different parts of India which lead to the arrest of the molesters and court has also given their verdict in a short time.

But two years after this incident, I ask this question to myself -- can I travel safely in my city? The answer is still NO. This is not just me but several young women in India don't feel safe to travel in public transport. There are many instances of groping, cat calling and staring incidents within a bus or a busy street. But unfortunately, people don't come forward to help the victim in most cases. Take the example of Nirbhaya case where the victim and her friend they were lying on the street semi naked and badly injured but people turned their faces against them. It is after half an hour someone tried to help them. This is the case everywhere in India.

After the nirbhaya incident, police has become quick in reporting FIRs in such cases and also to start investigating as soon the incident is reported. But is it the only responsibility of the police to protect women of our country? No. Anyone can come forward and protect if they see something like this on their street. It will take years for the men of our country to come out of the myth that they are powerful and can do anything with women. We will have to stand up and stop this kind of crime.

Apart from the eve teasing and stalking in buses, taxis and autos are also no longer safer during night time. There has been a recent case of Uber taxi driver raping a young woman who was coming late from her office and dozed off in the taxi. Government's action for this.. ban Uber taxis. But this is not the only solution. Government should enforce the taxi companies to have a live gps tracking and if anyone tries to shut off the gps then immediately their details should be reported to the police. Such vigilance is definitely required by the cab companies. These issues should be eradicated from the grassroot levels. It is a social responsibility of everyone to come forward and help women when they fall in such situations. Having raised in India, I know that every women undergoes one or other form of public harassment. Usually, we are used to the common ones like eve teasing, stalking and cat calling in public but nowadays what I see is that women are more coming forward and reporting such incidents. Where as few years back these incidents were unreported as women felt uncomfortable in revealing the incident to the police. It will surely take more than a good security from police for controlling such situations.

Few things what could be done are: buses specially for women, women section in the buses, women police deployed at the vulnerable areas for patrolling, no place for men who drink and ride buses, women should be taught to shout and call people for help even for the smallest issue like someone brushing against them. Men should be given more stricter and humiliating punishments in public which would discourage future molesters. Often we see celebrities and famous people making hue and cry about women safety online and then nothing happens. I wish these people would take more action in their day to day life rather than just typing a big article directing towards the prime minister. Time has come that film industry should also be scrutinized for objectifying women in most of the films. India is the land where goddesses are worshiped. Then why this is happening with their own women ! After thinking and reading so much about this I take a pledge to stand against this issue. I hope you do the same.

Year of airplane disasters

This year is notably the year of airplane disasters with 4 disasters already took place by now. The airplane industry is surely finding ways to secure the air travel for their passengers.

Firstly, the year started with tragic news of MH370 getting lost from its normal flight path. Search operations are still going on but no one has solved this mystery yet. Many people believe that they have seen a flight near Maldives which went past the islands and crashed in an ocean. So many theories are surrounded with this mysterious debacle. But with no evidence there is nothing to prove. The search for the black boxes is still going on.

With last couple of weeks, there are 3 major accidents. First only again a malaysian plane, that was shot down near Ukraine and Russian border with a missile. Black boxes have been sent to Netherlands to figure out what happened. Despite of international rules to avoid flying from that area, many airlines have been flying from the war zone and finally one succumbed to it. Then comes Air algerie and TransAsian flight in Taiwan. What's happening here. I have never heard of so many major crashes happening in a single year.

Flights going out of radar is pointing to the fact that there are loop holes in the system that needs to be administered. Inspite of having cutting edge tracking technology, we couldn't find MH370 because there are many parts of the globe where there is no radar. For example, if the flight flies on top of the ocean, they don't communicate with any air traffic control center. Hope we don't see any more of these !

BJP thank you notes

Now, as we know that BJP and NDA are in power. Its time to evaluate their success and through my post I want to thank few leaders and their strategies because of which BJP won in majority.

1. Voters. Thanks to all those people who went out in the scorching heat and under tense situations in few parts of the country for voting for progressive India. Because of the number of votes that have increased and voter % is more for BJP than congress, BJP got the power this time. Because of their support Mr. Modi is able to cherish his ambition of becoming the PM of India.

2. Rahul Gandhi. He is the primary man responsible for the victory of BJP. We all know that Congress indirectly hinted out that if UPA wins then Rahul will be the next prime minister of India. This itself gave a boost to the BJP campaign. Narendra Modi cleverly coined the name 'Shehzada' to Rahul because of which indirectly it has affected Indian mindset that 'say no to dynastic politics'. We all know that politics for Rahul was more of a hobby than profession. He never took interest in bringing any kind of reform during UPA-I. During their second term, only during the last year Rahul came out and brought few reforms in RTI act, brought JanLokPal which is ofcourse modified according to the politicians will. But the earlier inactivity of Rahul came into highlight. His approach for the elections were not as powerful as Modi's. It was merely as if he is targetting only on AMETHI which is their base since many years. Not to forget, this time the election was not so easy win for Rahul in Amethi. His face in the election campaign posed that he is born to rule on India which was rejected by many voters. By the time he was ready to take leadership he was undermined by the BJP leaders with nicknames like Rahul Baba, Shehzada, Pappu etc indicating the voters that he doesn't have any interest or zeal in bringing up India but he is here merely to show that their family has the inheritance to acquire India.

3. Failure of UPA-II. UPA - I was still a success as far as they won again. But UPA-II was more of scams, corruption, women crimes etc. The inability of Dr. Manmohan singh to take any action against these series of scams. This gave a fuel to ignite the Indian voters. In the era of communication, a prolonged silence from Mr. Singh was never appreciated by the voters. He should have stepped down from his position long back when he had to forcibly take back A Raja in his cabinet.  He should have resigned right when Rahul Gandhi mocked PM on the ordinance issue and cabinet withdrew due to this and not because of PM's action. Rahul Gandhi's strategies to distance himself from the UPA govt failed to get any interest from the public. Instead of this he should have worked with Dr. Singh and done some work in UPA II to even beg for votes for this elections. They didn't come up with any revived ideas for next 5 years in India. Their campaign was only about their ancesstors and how they gave their life for the country. First time voters won't even bother to think all this. They need jobs, economic growth, women safety. These issues were not even in their agenda.

4. Akhilesh Yadav and SP. Next thank you card should go the the UP government and CM. It is because of their dysfunctional party BJP was able to secure so many seats in UP and it became a battle ground or Kurukshetra for the road that leads to 10 Janpath. Their government was unable to control the Muzzafarnagar riots and also the riot victims were not given proper shelter. Their failure made Mr. Amit shah to campaign more agressively against the Samajwadi party in UP. From its poor handling of the riots to return of gunda raj in UP anger against SP govt rose in UP. It was like an icing on the cake when Mulayam singh responded to supreme court act against gang rapes saying that 'Boys will be boys and they are innocent'.

5. Mr. Mani Aiyar - He was the one who made the remark of chaiwala to Modi and which led to the rediscovery of Modi's past. Modi took this critisicm in a constructive way and held chai pe charcha online. He moved the entire nation and made them to go in the drive for chai wala over shehzada campaign.

6. Corporate sector and Media: This was the first time in India that huge money was poured for BJP campaigns. Approx 10, 000 crores were spent on their campaign and huge media support was also for BJP. There was no other proper alternative than Modi this time. Indian media also discussed so much about Gujarat development model and their clever marketing paid off to BJP. Without their support Modi couldn't have achieved much in this election. If AAP had that kind of money I am sure they could have given a proper combat to BJP. Congress inspite of having the money and support couldn't revive themself and were threatened by BJP in someway.

There may be other factors helping BJP to win. I will list them out at a later point. So, thanks a lot everyone on behalf of Narendra Modi and BJP.

India elections 2014 - BJP winning strategies

As all my other fellow Indians, I was watching the Indian elections very closely this year. I listened to various debates, rallies, roadshows, facebook forums, twitter, party pages etc. Though the exit polls clearly indicate BJP victory with pre-poll alliances, anything can happen with the election results. Most of the surveys indicate that BJP will win with majority in NDA govt.

Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister was representing BJP this time and he is the contender for the PM's post. Lets skip discussing the abilities of Modi for this position and I want to focus in this article about how he positioned himself better than the opposition infront of public eyes. The main problem with the 10yr UPA government was corruption, price rice, unemployment, scams etc. People were tired of hearing one or other scams every now and then. I want to give some credit to Anna Hazare movement that opened eyes to the public about what the UPA government is doing. Ofcourse this came towards the end of second term. But the high voter turn out in this election is partly due to this. They made people aware of the consequences they are facing as they are not coming to vote for the right leader. Modi clearly mentioned in his campaign rallies about these issues and positioned himself as the 'Change Maker' that India wants. He turned the failures of UPA government as his success strategy and people surely wanted to vote anyone but congress.

Aam Admi party also meanwhile tried to emerge as a change maker and tried to convince people that both BJP and congress are hand in hand doing corruption. But they need more time to make people buy their concept. I will discuss about this in other post. Modi is quite an orator while compared to Mr. Manmohan singh who is known as the silent PM of India. Modi cleverly coined the term 'Shehzada' to Rahul Gandhi to indirectly convey people that he is contesting because of his family heritage. He takes politics as a hobby as compared to Modi who was a ordinary tea seller. Most of the leaders in congress are due to the dynastic policy and Modi vowed to people that he wouldn't encourage dynastic politics. Congress leaders named him as 'Chai wala' but Modi cleverly used this comment with 'chai pe charcha' campaigns. In that way he showed people that he is a new face for the country with vigor and who can change the current problems India is facing due to congress and incapable governance of UPA.

Modi tried different strategies in different regions. When he was in punjab he wore the turban and tried to mix up with the people there. When he was in UP, the party came up with a slogan 'Har Har Modi, Ghar ghar modi' .. like a chant and people in that area are used to these chants. Modi came up with the 3D rallies so that he can address audiences at different places at once. In a way, he created the Modi wave across the country and put lot of efforts in his rallies. People already recognize him as a successful CM who has developed Gujarat a lot over the past few years. He also got many awards for his Gujarat model. But he is still critisized for 2002 Gujarat riots and the snoop gate scandal. Now, its the choice of people to either look for the future and forget the past mistakes or punish him for those.

Next strategy to reach out people is through internet. Modi has a blog that he maintains regularly and he is very active on twitter. He is one of the leaders of India who is liked by many youngsters. He has touched their hearts, understood their problems and hence promised them for more increased jobs. While the congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra kept remembering their ancesstors who died after serving the nation for long time. Modiji kept referring the future growth of the country. There are many new first time voters in this elections and they are not concerned with how Rajiv Gandhi or Indira Gandhi died. They are worried about the job prospects, better education system, better security for women. These things were not much discussed in the congress rallies. An effort to reach out to youth is definitely going to help Mr. Modi in these elections.

It is a known fact that in 2004 Sonia Gandhi was going to be our prime minister but due to conflicts ManMohan singh was chosen to be a PM. So, people knew why PM was silent so many years inspite of so many scams, corruption and price rise. But in 2009, not many people were interested to exercise their votes. But now the awareness has increased even to the villages. People are fed up with the dynastic politics and mute PM and they want a PM who has all the power to control and govern the country. One who does'nt need orders from the party president for each and everything. Clearly congress members in one or other way disobeyed Mr. Singh's position. It looked like no one cared for his presence. That's why they couldn't control so many scams in past few years. But is there any guarantee that BJP govt will put a break, we are not sure.. and we will have to see how Modi actually rules India.

Lastly the congress party didn't seem to be interested in these elections to go out on rallies and convince people. In a way silently they accepted their defeat. There was nothing in their manifesto that could simulate interest to public. Always remembering their ancestors won't help them to gain votes. May be in this elections they will learn a lesson to not to fool Indian public again.

I am eagerly waiting for tomorrow's result and waiting to see the exit polls becoming true.

My questions to Arvind Kejriwal & AAP members

When Aam Aadmi Party won in Delhi elections everyone was delightful that once for a change there is a new party who cares about public and that historical defeat restored democratic faith among millions of Indians. I had written a post about this previously. After that I have been following AAP very closely and that has been a disappointing experience for me. Firstly, during their regime all they did was providing free water to the delhi citizens and reduction in power subsidy. They created anti corruption helplines and suspended few Jal board officials. That's about it. Party took a U-turn from their promises after Jan Lokpal was not passed. They finally withdrew from leadership after 49 days. Now I have few questions that I want to ask Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and your party.

1. Why is it that whatever AAP claims is right and people who disobey them are corrupt. They have made allegations against several leaders like governer Nazib Jung, Delhi Police, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Mukesh Ambani. They feel that only AAP is a loyal party and trustworthy. Other parties are just trash. Before making such allegations why can't they come up with proofs so that we all can support them too!

2. AAP always talked about corruption and held dharnas. But we never saw them making allegations on congress leaders like Sonia gandhi, Rahul gandhi, Robert Vadra ? Mr. Chavan? Mr. Mulayam singh yadav? They are the real corruption masters. But unfortunately the basic fundamental reason why this party was formed is now gone. AAP looks more like a congress byproduct.

3. AAP claims that BJP gives tickets to people who have cases against them. But how come they give ticket to Raja Bhatt and Yudhvir who also fall in this category?? Their party is also in a way similar to the traditional parties in India and is no longer a AAM aadmi's party.

4. AAP claims that it will bring honest leadership in India if in power. They never talk about other agenda. They speak only against Modi in any rallies. Why can't they talk about border issues? Navy security issues? Women security?Terrorism? China border issues? Youth jobs? etc

5. Aam Aadmi was formed because of mistrust of congress party and in the end they end up taking support from congress to form delhi govt. What is the guarantee that if we vote for AAP in general elections and it won't support congress again?? Congress already had its rule now its time for congress to retire.

6. AAP claimed that it had proofs against Ex chief minister Shiela dixit but it didn't take any action against her. Now she is happily governing Kerala.

7. These days during election campaigning all I see is the chaos created by AAP in whatever they do. You went to Gujarat and due to ordiance you were held in police station for some permissions and AAP members attack BJP offices in Delhi. You go to mumbai and havoc is created in the railway station. Why is this nuisance created by your party members ? Why can't they peacefully hold a rally and talk.

8. These days you have been making some allegation against media and says that if he comes in power he will jail all the media members and journalist. Isn't it anarchy? We want a good governance and not an Anarchist.

9. I don't understand one simple thing why you are alleging Modi for corruption and helping out industrialists like Ambani and Adani. But the party in power since last 10yrs is the UPA govt. People are tired of the everyday scams and national shame for having most corrupt government. You never do any dharna for those people. All he cares about the future PM candidate and campaigning against him. This makes me to feel that AAP is somehow CONGRESS - II.

10. People name you as "Bhagoda" as you ran away from governing Delhi in pretext of Jan lokpal. But my question to you is two fold.. one if you think that you kept your promise that you will leave your position as CM if you are unable to put forward the lokpal bill then why couldn't you work on several other important promises that you made to Delhi citizens like women security, corruption, FIR against Sheila dixit etc. Second, if you wanted to make this party as a national party then sorry to say you don't have any track record. You left the CM position in 49 days then what is the guarantee that you will serve as India's PM for full term??

11. You vowed that once you are the CM of delhi you will send Sheila Dikshit in jain within 15days. Now she has been made Kerala's governor and she is enjoying the immunity required by any prosecution. We are not hearing anything from you. Are you trying to cover congress moves by creating scenes in public rallies and making allegations only against Modi??

These and few other questions which I am not posting here. If by any chance you come across this post, please address my questions and take it as my right to ask questions to you. I want to make sure I am voting the correct party. Jai Hind..

Aam Aadmi Party -- Restoring democratic faith in delhi

With the recent elections in Delhi, newly formed Aam Aadmi party has won 28 seats in Delhi, defeating Indian national congress with a big number. This was an astonishing start for a newly formed political party. The last party with such a sound winning numbers was TDP in Andhra Pradesh.

History:

The first Jan lokpal movement was the cause of AAP's creation. Millions of Indians were on streets with Anna Hazare ji to support Jan Lokpal bill to get passed in the parliament. This anti-corruption movement has stirred lot of Indians and they took notice of greedy politicians. The Jan Lokpal members tried all means to convice government to form strong anti-corruption laws. Government tried to break Anna Hazare's fast by giving an assurance that they will discuss Jan lokpal in the upcoming parliament session but they failed to do so. Right at this moment Arvind Kejriwal and company decided to form a political party naming it as "Aam Aadmi Party". Anna Hazare gave the consent but he didn't join politics.

After this AAP has conducted many rallies and campaigns throughout India and it has many social activists and RTI activists as members. It has built a sense of awareness among Indian youth who otherwise thought that its waste of time to go and vote on an election day. The election commission of India also gave green signal for AAP and that's how AAP entered the battle field i.e. Delhi Elections. The party's sign is 'Broom' which signifies that they want to clean the political system of the country. Lot of youngsters have supported AAP and became its member. The party gave a big blow to the ruling party of New Delhi by defeating them with a broad margin. It is short of just 4 seats with leading BJP but AAP is not forming any coalition government.

Arvind Kejriwal defeated 3 times chief minister Sheela dixit in her own constituency and gained national fame. There have been one more political party which was formed for the similar reasons - Lok Satta by Jayaprakash Narayan. Both the leaders share similar back ground of working on a high rank government positions. AAP pledges to form a system that is strong to withstand corruption in any levels. Their first and foremost agenda is passing Jan Lokpal bill to form an anti-corruption government.

AAP was formed when the nation was struggling to get rid of the corrupt government. The party has given an alternative in India to give voice to common people who is being subject to cheating and robbery by current political parties. So, it would be interesting to know if there is a re-election in Delhi and if AAP wins in majority. Whatever happens nation is awakened with the outstanding win of AAP. More people might come out and vote for AAP in case of re-elections. AAPs win has made the congress and BJP parties to stay alert and focus on their campaigns and not take it easy any more.

Rising from the dust

There are many NGO's operating in India who are trying day and night to improve conditions of people, specially women. They operate for different causes, some are there for children, some for women who are harassed by men or by their in laws, some are for physically disabled people. In my post I want to highlight about  an NGO that operates to improve the plight of women from NOMADIC tribes of Gujarat.

I am Meenakshi. I want to begin my story from the time when I was about 10 yrs old. I had a younger sister and an elder brother. We were very poor and our parents had absolutely no money to raise us. We are from the Nomadic tribe. My mother says that our ancestors owned the haveli where currently we own a one bedroom place. Our grandfather used to perform shows on streets. He had a pet snake, elephant and some other animals. He used to make decent money, but due to the wild life protection act he was forced to stay home. They were uneducated and didn't know what else they can do to earn money. He had to sell this haveli to a man who converted it into a whore house. You might be wondering that I am too little to speak like this.

My mother always wanted me to go to school and learn something. We were given admission in a NGO based school, but I never had interest in studies. I used to dance with girls of my neighborhood and perform acts like walking on a rope etc. I had these skills by birth I guess. My father never spoke to me properly. He was always angry with me and never allowed me to show my face to anyone. My mom used to cover my face with a duppatta. I never understood the cause of his anger. He used to punish me and I would go and sit on the stairs of this haveli. I used watch many things here. Strangers walked past me who used be drunk and leaned on women. I used to like Barkha didi who was our neighbor. But I never understood why she would take these strangers to her room, lock the room and then after sometime let the person go. I used to watch all this and sleep there until my mom used to take me in. Time passed by and I was around 12 years now.

My mother wanted me to go out of this village and lead a respectful life. But unfortunately I never focused in my school. She made me to join a NGO center where I met Sunitha didi. She always used to make me read books but I used to tell her I will become a dancer. One night something unusual thing happened. I was sitting on the staircase and slowly fell asleep. After a while I don't know a stranger took me to a deserted room of my haveli. I opened my eyes and saw him getting undressed. He was drunk completely and he closed my mouth forcefully. I cried a lot and was scared. He forced himself one me and after a while he did few things that I could have never imagined at that age. "I will come back again ! You are a firework." he told these words and left.

My father came and locked me up there for two days. I cried for my mother but perhaps no one knew where I was. Third day I woke up from my sleep, it was evening. My father came to my room. He was drunk. I cried and asked him to release me but he forced himself on me. He told me this is our tradition. It was painful, it was tormenting. I waited for my mother to come and rescue me. After a while he got up and told me clean myself. After a while my elder brother came. He repeated the same thing. I thought I should jump off this building and end my life. I didn't know what was happening at that time. My mother came in a short while. I cried a lot and she consoled me. Barkha didi came and gave me a flashback on our culture. I came to know that main service our community women do is prostitution. Men from our community prepare and put their women on market. I cried a lot. I didn't know whom should I talk to. I came to know that the person whom I thought is my father was not actually my father. I was born from an unknown man. My whole world came crashing !

Days passed by and I became very quiet. I dreaded about that day when all this happened. I couldn't take that pain. I hated the whole thing. I wanted to get out of this world. I was sitting quietly when Sunitha didi came up and asked me why I was so quiet. At first I didn't speak much but when she comforted me I told her "Didi, it pains a lot. I don't like it but my father and brother keep forcing themselves on me, please take me out of this hell !" She looked into my eyes and hugged me. I felt comforted at that time. She spoke to her supervisor and they found a bigger NGO's who take care of women in my situation. She spent all her time with me and made me to focus on my education.

Slowly, I started understanding basic maths and science. They moved me to a bigger city where I was given accommodation. I started going to a english medium school and started working very hard. Soon I was in 10th std where I passed with flying colors. Slowly I understood that the basic thing of life is Education. It is very important to be educated in this century. I understood the plight of my community people through this NGO and told them that I would also help them in their campaigns. Soon I entered college and I got admission in engineering. My education was being sponsored by the NGO group and I thought it was my responsibility to study well and pay back their favour by creating awareness in my community. My mother was very happy to see me stand on my feet. She was happy that I am an independent woman now. I cannot describe how much I love my mother, Sunitha didi and this NGO group who has given me a new life. Now my aim in life is to spread this love among everyone. Women is not an object of sex and desire. But we have the basic right of education and respect. India's education rule is not different for different castes but no one follows the rule. When the government fails, NGO's play a powerful role in our society. We should all pay back to our society by doing selfless work and bringing back smile on some faces.

This can be a story of a girl protected by the NGO run by Mittal Patel. I am very impressed by the work they have been doing for the NOMADIC tribes of Gujarat. It is an eye opener video for people who don't know about this tribe. She has helped them getting a voter id card, land allotment and what not. I really appreciate the efforts put by Mittal and her team. Her video can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8cZ2iJARPM#at=50


Franklin Templeton Investmentspartnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012

I will survive !

By the time I was 15, I pondered a lot about love, romance and relationships. My family was a disturbed family and I was mostly alone at home. My father always abused my mom and used to hit her. I couldn't take this anymore when I reached junior high school.

It was the first time I saw her. She had a beautiful long hair, she looked very innocent. I was attracted to her the very first moment and the feelings came out natural. I don't know if they were right, I don't know if this should have happened .... There were many questions appearing in front of me but I slowly started walking towards her. No matter how we are  to the outside world, but from inside everyone craves for romance and love. My imagination and attraction towards her were drawing my heart to a place which is not very normal for everyone. I slowly approached her and greeted her "Hi, you look sort of ... lost here!".

"Yeah!" she said. "Could you help me to find out my classroom? I am new here."

This is how we got introduced and turns out that she was in my class. Her name was Ashley. She was very sweet like a rose and charming. It took no time for me to get close to her and be her friend on the first day of my school. We started getting to know each other well. We took same classes, had lunch together and spent most of the time together.

Our final exams were due next week. She was behaving very differently with me. I tried to call her many times but she would never pick up her phone. I was more curious now to find out what's going on. Two days passed by and I couldn't take it anymore and I went to her home. She was very upset. Her parents were getting divorced. She never wanted to stay away from them. But few things were not in her hands. She was very happy to see me. She hugged me and cried a lot. I felt sorry for her. I just told her that she should be happy that instead of fighting with each other and physically abusing they are going to part away. This is many times better than what I saw in my childhood. She sort of understood but it was hard for her that very moment. I told her that I would come with my books next day and we should start studying seriously. She nodded her head. I felt like I should take the responsibility of her and protect her from any further damage. I don't know whether this was love, attraction or anything. But by the end of this week, I had the courage to tell myself that I am in love with Ashley!

I winked my eyes, pinched myself to make sure its not a dream. But I didn't want to say anything to her until our exams were over. On the last day of our exam, I managed to gather my guts and went near her. I kissed her on her lips and hugged her. Then I told her "Ashley, I think I am in love with you."

But she was shocked. 'What?? What's wrong with you? Do you think I am that kind of girl?".

"I just thought you were my very good friend, nothing else. I am not GAY !!! JEZZZZZZZ"

Yes, everyone that was the time I found out that I am GAY and I walked up with courage to someone in order to lead a better life.

"But I care about you. I love you and will support you throughout my life" I cried.

But alas as you might be guessing now, I was humiliated enough throughout my high school for being a gay. Well, my first love never happened. But I haven't lost hope. I know I will survive through this phase and will find a love of my life.

P.S. This post is a tribute to LGBT day !

The great american roadtrip

A road trip with family or friends is always so fun. It is a great way to tell our own story. After all it is much more fun to read rather than a typical autobiography. Recently after seeing the bollywood movie "yeh jawani hai deewani" i remember a dialogue.

Deepika - "tum apni life se kya chate ho bunny"
Ranbir - "Raftaar..."

So, I want to narrate one of my upcoming picturesque tale of the journey across the country that I am awaiting to take! After hearing and reading about lot of cross country road trip experiences me and my husband decided to take the great america road trip. America is a huge country divided into 4 parts: West coast, east coast, Midwest and south. There are around 50 states that constitutes united states. The blessing of staying in America is that anyone with a car can go out anywhere. A driver's licence is the country's main identity. While in India I remember having PAN card or ration card to be the main identity. This is the country with major freeways, rest areas and services to support road trips. We have been hearing about people traveling from east coast to west coast in a span of 15 days. So, when we got jobs in the west coast we thought why not make this move interesting and memorable !

Traveling is mostly about dreams - dreaming of mountains, valleys, landscapes, animals. This made me to imagine myself in those locations. My dream involved driving miles of journey with smile. It involved the comfort, luxury, holding hands of my husband, imagining myself in the midst of the grand canyons, or caught in the forest of yellowstone ! The day when I had entered united states I had made up my mind to visit as many states as possible and collect the memoir from that place. I also had this crazy idea to stand in front of the welcome signs of different states in USA. Everything was going to come true. I want to keep a journal with me all the time to write down the most amazing things that I experienced in that particular city/town.

So, I started to map out all the interesting  places to visit from Minneapolis to San Francisco. This is a pretty long road trip and I want to cover as many states as possible. After living here for sometime I am used to the lush greenery this state has and also Minnesota is known as land of 10,000 lakes. So, we start out from here and travel to the beautiful California.

As you can see in the maps I altered the distance and now the distance is around 3000 miles. So, for travelling such a long distance we surely need a comfortable car. After doing some research we decided to travel on an SUV. We will a Ford explorer which is the best car for trips like this. To top it off, all our person stuff was to be moved at our company expense. Plus, not to mention the perks of relocation, I can stay in whatever hotel I want and all my expenses are paid by the company. So, the journey will begin with a bigggggggggg smile.

First destination that we though is Mt. Rushmore, which is in south Dakota. I have been studying about presidents of United states and it would be an amazing experience to actually see them carved on a mountain. The distance from Minneapolis to mt. Rushmore is around 600 miles so this would be just endless driving on the roads. It is located in the black hills of south Dakota. This was the idea of Doane Robinson to draw people from all over the country to his place. It is one of the famous national monument of the united states. Four presidents who are carved on the mountain are George washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It took 14 years to complete mount rushmore.

Our next destination would be the famous "Yellow stone national park". We definitely have to spend around 2 days to check this place out. This is one of the breath taking places in this country. Also, this is the country's first national park. This park was formed in 1872. The parks's size and its diverse national offerings would set it off from any other place in the world. Yellowstone's iconic geysers and bubbling pools of deep blue water constantly remind that the park sits on a super volcano who had massive eruptions. Park size is around 2.2 million acres, spread over northwestern Wyoming, parts of Idaho and Montana. I can only try to imagine how beautiful the scenery would be. Places like this are must visit if you live in USA. I am sure with heavy heart we need to move on with our trip.

Next stop is Denver, Colorado. The home of famous Indian actress Madhuri Dixit. I always wanted to visit Denver for the Rocky mountains. I have been studying and mapping the mountain on the chart during my school days and finally I would be visiting the place. Rocky mountains features majestic views of the hills, lakes and wild life. We have so many resources online to check the must visit places in here and not to mention we would love to see the downtown in Denver. Some funny facts about Denver is that it is the second most educated city in united states. There are around 200 mountain peaks visible from Denver. The panoramic picture would be a memorable one !

Moving on to next destination is the Arches national park. I have heard and read about this national park a lot. There are very nice hiking destinations. This national park is situated in Utah and has around 2000 natural sandstone arches. We would be very much excited to do hiking and little bit of rock climbing over here. I believe every picture taken in this place would be an eye catching one. Such is the beauty of this place. I am sure we would encounter some hiccups while hiking since during this activity we don't have any other form of entertainment than gossiping or fighting on unwanted stuff. But I would want to play some childhood games like Antakshari or screaming on top of my voice. There is abundance of wildlife in Arches and would love to take picture of the deers, mules.. but I hope not to meet Tiger or Lion. Then it would be "fun trip gone bad"

Next destination would be my favorite Grand Canyon. It has a vast history. Grand canyons are part of colorado river basins which has developed 40 million years ago. The natural curves that are seen on these mountains are formed by colorado river. Isn't it amazing to see a place which is that old. My itinerary for this place is amazing. I am planning to take an aerial tour of the Grand canyon. Since it is divided in three important rims. The northern rim, southern rim, western rim. My first destination is southern rim and with aerial tour I will be covering the northern rim as well. I am sure I will capture some breath taking pictures while flying. So, for now I am just attaching the google picture. I have plans to go for moderate hiking on the canyons. One such scenic hiking is Bright Angel trail. This is one of the steep trails in grand canyon but i am sure it would be an amazing experience. The website www.nps.gov gives complete information about any national park in the united states. So, all the database is enclosed ! The other nice trails are the grand rim trail, horse shoe trail etc.

Even if i leave grand canyon the journey is still incomplete. We will drive to grand canyon west and experience the skywalk. There is a rich cultural heritage in this western rim. For thousands of years this area has been inhabited by Hualapai tribals and other native americans who made many caves in midst of this giant rock formation. There are some bus tours that take close to these tribal living. The roads condition while driving in grand canyon is not that great. This is where we would feel happy for having a great SUV to drive on. Plus the fresh air because of the scent inside the car will bring us more close to the wilderness. Grand canyons is located in Arizona and from Minneapolis to here there will be a drastic climate condition change. This is what I like about traveling in united states. Each state is different in its own way ! Plus there is a time zone change from central time it will be the mountain time.

Winner winner, chicken dinner !

This is a line from the famous gambling movie 21. Yes, finally I will be visiting the fabulous Las vegas. From the mountains and natural beauty to the man made creations. Las Vegas represents the fulfillment of all our hidden fantasies - easy money, risk, entertaining shows, drinking on the road etc. You can be who you want to be when you are in Vegas. Also, one more quote is "What you do in Vegas, stays in Vegas". The city scape would be mesmerizing with tall and world class hotels. Slow moving trucks with billboards that advertise girls for hire, restaurants, bars and nightlife. This city is sure going to dazzle me, until my eyes would believe. For all those natural creations, we have a man made version here. If you haven't seen Eiffel tower, now is the chance to see in front of hotel Paris. Not seen the egyptian pyramids and sphynx, you didn't loose much. You can see this in front of Luxor hotel. There are so many free shows in front of these hotels and one is the musical entertainer of Mirage by our own Zakir hussain. This is a city without limits. We too plan to gamble for some amount and try our luck here.

Last but not the least, famous Los Angeles whose name I heard since my childhood. There are so many beaches here and the famous Hollywood studious. After living in the fantasy world, its time to travel back to our destination San francisco. Home of giants (baseball team). City where the famous golden gate is situated.

I hope my wish comes true and I actually enjoy my journey as described in this post.

P.S. Images are taken from google.com since I haven't visited these places yet!

facebook.com/AmbiPurIndia

Love or arranged ... who cares??

Love is the word that excites anybody and specially if its a first love. Yes, I too have a love story which I never knew that it would turn up in this way. I was getting ready for my wedding. I was looking pretty as my Mom said, everyone was waiting for the Baraat to arrive. It was such a happy occasion for everyone ! Yes... everyone except for the Bride to be..

Flash back to few years when I was a teenage girl. I was 18, barely knew the meaning of love. There I first time saw Ashok. He was an electrician who came to repair wiring problem detected in my room. Because of this fan and tubelights were not working and that was hampering me to prepare for my 11th exams. He looked like a fresh flower blooming amidst rain drops, I felt like violins were playing around me just like they showed in SRK's film Main Hoon na. He looked at me and gave a cute smile. He kept on staring at me and repairing fan and the tubelights. I understood his silent stare and next day I found him following me in the street.

"What is all this? Why are u following me?" I asked him.

"Madam ji, what is this? I thought you were looking at me with intentions of getting closer." he said.

"What do you mean? Should I complain to my mom?" I pretended to shout at him. He got scared and I started laughing "You really felt scared??". He held my hand and proposed to me. I was up in the sky. First time someone proposed to me and I admit he was good looking. Later we exchanged our cellphone numbers and started late night text messaging. He was not much educated so I used boost around him with my fluent English and general knowledge. I started dreaming about our wedding and how I would convince and break the jinx about love marriages. Slowly, he started coming to my house on the pretext of checking light bulbs and we played silent love tunes in broad day light and in my home.

After few days he called me in the park where he proposed and he said he wants to take this relationship forward. My eyes sparkled and I asked him if he wants to suggest for marriage. He subdued and said he doesn't have proper work and can't go and ask my parents my hand. But he slowly started touching me and holding my waist. I refused this gesture and told him that I will not allow all this before marriage. He forced to kiss me to which I didn't say anything. I was truly in love with him. Slowly, our love was becoming popular in the neighborhood and one day my brother caught me red handed.

Slap! Slap! I felt like someon's slapping me so hard when I faced this humiliation in my family. "Why on this earth you found this only lonely soul for falling in love??" my mother grieved over my choice. Before I could speak in my defense my brother shouted "She won't listen to us, now we have to ground her at home and not allow her to go anywhere without our permission". My father was feeling very bad since I had ruined his reputation in the neighborhood. But our love wouldn't have stopped for anyone. I told my father "Dad, I really love Ashok. He is right now an electrician but he is going to have his own electrical shop. We will work hard and attain a status.". "But Beta, he is not even from our caste forget about the economical status" he cried. "We don't believe in morally low things like caste etc.. "

I started speaking but I was stopped immediately by my brother. He force-ably took me to my room and locked me. This brought a wave of rage inside me. I immediately took my duppatta and got it on the fan blades and tried to commit suicide. Unfortunately, the fan couldn't take my weight and it fell down with a thud. Now enraged by this my family members came inside and called up a doctor.

"We need to get her married off to someone" my mom said. "Yes dad, we have no other alternative. Please talk to Jagdish kaka ( astrologer) and get her married" They all discussed without knowing what I wanted with my life. "She needs a psychiatrist." doctor said. "She is mentally very weak and you should understand her at this time." he pleaded them. But my family went to the police station and issued a summon against Ashok that he should be around 50meters distance of where I am staying. He called me up on the phone "Suman, are you mad. You tried to kill yourself!" he asked me. "Don't you dare ask me this question you fool. I love you madly. I want to marry you." I started crying. "How can I ask you to marry me? I don't have any money or business." he said. "I don't know what you are thinking but come here and rescue me. They want me to marry someone in this month." I told him.

Finally, bringing back the flash back to this day. I said yes to Akash when he came to meet me. He is an extremely brilliant guy. He has his own computer business and he is just 25yrs old. He loves me alot. The moment he met me, he fell in love with me. That's how he said yes to this arranged marriage. Now you might be wondering why I said yes to him. Because I didn't had a choice. We got married and went to Kanpur. That's where he is settled.

After two months of our marriage, he was going to Mumbai. "I wish Suman you could come with me. I will show you the Mumbai city. We will travel in local trains and enjoy mumbai rain. It will be so romantic." He told me. "I don't believe in romance. I don't like Mumbai. You can go wherever you want, but you can't take me along with you like a goat!" I gave him a sharp response. "Suman, I always treated you well. I am not subject to this kind of discrimination. I love you dear. Even though its an arranged marriage, you know how much I care for your opinion. I never had my first night with you since you were not mentally ready for this marriage. I am giving enough time to settle down and be friendly and close with me." He broke down calmly. But I don't want to give in to any emotions.

"Its very unfateful that you got married to me." I replied to him. He lost his patience and he forced me out of his house. I got my bag and hurriedly went to the railway station. I called up Ashok when I reached Delhi. I told him that we can go to a temple and secretly get married.

Ashok took me to his one room house and asked me to stay with him for couple of days until he makes arrangements. He came back only in the night and he was fully drunk. He brought a sindoor packet with him, he said that he loves me and put sindoor on my forehead. At last, my dream of love marriage came true, I was so happy but I wanted a traditional wedding with Ashok. "I want a traditional wedding, in a temple. You can call up your friends, your family. We will get married like I did last month." I told him.

"I waited for you so much Suman. You never allowed me to touch you. Now come here, you are my wife." his alcohol started speaking. "What are you saying Ashok?" I said. "You bitch, you never allowed me to touch you or kiss you. Now you want to marry me! I wanted to sleep with you and stopped myself so many times in my attempts to rape you. Now you are mine and you have to do what I say" he said. There it was, my dream crashed into million pieces. His words tore me apart. What did I do with my life? Where am I in the cross roads of my life? I left my family behind me which consisted of my parents, my brother who took care of me like a princess and got me married off to a rich and sensible guy who could have made my life heaven. But here I am ending up my life with a stupid guy who doesn't understand what love and sacrifice is and who just thinks loving a girl is getting licence for sexual assaulting her.

I wanted to find a way out of this. To my luck I saw that Ashok's main door was broken by the police and saw my hero Akash over there. "Akashhhhhhh" I ran towards him and started crying. "Look what did I do to you. I don't deserve you. I am such an idiot." I started cursing myself so bad that in that I didn't even dare to see his face. But he hugged me tightly and said "Suman, all I have is you. The day I took the 7 holy steps around the fire, I vowed myself I will protect you from all kind of people. I will love you till the end of my life. You are my queen and I don't like to see tears in your eyes." He wiped down my tears and took me away from the hell. "How did you find me?" I asked him. "Well you left your email open and I read all about you and Ashok in the email. I smelled something fishy in his replies which you never caught and tracked you here to rescue you." I found my soul back with this reply. He will be always there to protect me no matter what!

To my knowledge, marriage is an institution where you learn making sacrifices for each other, loving each other unconditionally. Who cares if its an arranged marriage or love?? Since once you marry your partner the most important thing is to hold on to each other unconditionally.

This story is written as a part of Indibloggers "Love marriage or Arranged marriage" debate. You can follow the facebook page here.

P.S. Images taken from google.