India is independent - 64th reminder

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"How you celebrate Independence day?" I asked one of my peers in the office. "I want to be free on this day.. absolutely free", he smiled sheepishly. "What do you exactly mean by absolutely free? I asked, sniffing what he was upto. He said "I wish to do whatever I feel like, nobody should question me". The other one joins in "We should remember those brave souls who laid out their lives for the freedom of our nation".

I'm wondering if we really understand what is this Independence Day all about and what we should really do to make it Independence Day celebration. On the eve of Independence Day I narrated Oshin what really happened on this day 64 years back. Also, this morning I was on time to make her turn on the TV to watch Prime Minister unfurling national flag and addressing nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort - same regulation stuff that I’ve been watching for quite some time now. Many people really don't bother to witness that too - "leave it man.. Anyways PM has been reading these pre-written pages every year.. you'll anyway find it in tomorrow's newspaper and Oshin's also not that comfortable with Hindi.. no parades, no cultural programs, same boring stuff. Tell me how you enjoying your day today?” I think the meaning of this Independence Day is lost somewhere and we really need to re-think if we could bring the significance of this day back.

Here's what I feel has the diring need to attain independence at the first place to say we really mean it:

- Look into the eyes of the Innocent 'chottu' being tortured in the roadside 'dhaaba', kid rag-pickers, children working in factories or the ones being sexually abused everyday. Ask yourself how you can set this India free. Hand over a book of pictures to him and worry about how to send them back to school.

- Shout loudest when next time you encounter a corrupt public servant. Let's first learn queue etiquette.

- Reach your office on time and pat on the back of your lowest subordinate for his slightest improvement.

- Pay your taxes honestly and care for public property. Let's start saying 'my country', 'my people', 'my roads', 'my public property', 'my Govt', 'my leader'.

- Let’s really start caring for female gender and change our mindset how we do upbringing of our future generation.

- Let's care for roadside trees and cleanliness.. Help in our capacity to save water, oil, electricity etc.

Don’t ask me what'll happen with this. This only will set India free & independent.

I cannot conclude without sincerely thanking my uncle Dr. D N Joshi who really helped me to get free - to get free from all sorts of slavery. He's the one who inspires me every moment to be sincere with our efforts and raise the voice against wrong. In whatever small proportion I'm able to add value to my profession or to the nation (I'm not pretty sure about it though!) I believe he paved the way for me and still keeps inspiring me. Small minds discuss people, bigger minds discuss events and add value but great mind don't discuss - they just act in silence and the community automagically gets inspired and benefited with it. Mamaji, you're one of those great souls - I salute you and assure you that I’ll keep doing, in best of my capacity, to keep myself and my country "free & independent" - JAI HIND .

Love,

ansijoshi

Environment Day.. Who cares?

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We notice these 'X-Day', 'Y-Day' and 'Z-Day' quite often these days.. Off late we've started painting the whole calendar round the year with some kind of day or the other. All this new trend started in India with the Valentines Day I guess and now the list is exhaustive..

Let me understand what's the purpose of these 'days'?

All you folks who care for the mother nature celebrate "Earth Day" on 22 April and "World Environment Day" on 5th June each year which mostly goes unnoticed, if I'm not wrong. We'd like to thank communities and individuals dedicatedly working in this direction but this is a mere drop in the ocean.. We all from every walk of the life have to come forward to really bring the change and believe me it's VERY SIMPLE.

The purpose of "Earth Day" or "Environment Day" gets fully served when:

- I don't litter on the public places (drop the wrappers, disposable plates/glasses in dustbins)

- I care for trees in my neighbourhood (pour few drops of water on them)

- I don't waste water (close running taps, water-harvesting etc.)

- I switch off the engine, if possible (use CNG, bio-diesel)

- I switch off the appliance if not needed (AC, lights etc.)

- I try to recycle waste products (newpaper, plastics etc.)

Mother Earth is crying profusely my dear friends and our small initiatives gonna make huge impact..

We'll see whole city is back clean and green in NO TIME if I start practicing the above from today.

Give it try... please?

love,

Oshin's Oasis

Happy B'day Oshin - From Anu

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Dear Oshin,

Many happy returns of the day. As you grow and we cherish to watch, you will one day become a lady full of elegance. I am in no doubt that you will make all of us proud. You are special, you were special and you will always be.

What I am about to say might come hard to bite now, but the right time will come when you will digest it. Nevertheless I can offer you only this, you see we Indians are prominent in offering free and unwanted advice.

You are born in a country where a track of birth rate can't be kept and you might end up living in other nation that humiliates on the racial ground. Beyond you is an endless world full of overgrown human civilization where everyone is competing to stifle others windpipe. It's a privilige period you are enjoying with your beloved parents. But things are never the same and wouldn't be the same. Time is bound to change and you too will have to fight for existence, maybe not long from now.

You will grow, you will one day a scholar,definitely you will also find a good job. You will get married and have a family, then you will also witness your grandsons. They will all love you, they will all remember you once you are gone. But after that no one will remember you, only a selected few are remembered after their mortal life and become the immortals. If you grow into a personality having uniqueness of your own, facing every difficulty that comes in your way with the mettle of your strength, definitely glory will be yours. People will remember you for thousand of years and many more.

Do the right, and take pride in what you do. Don't run after the orthodox society, oceans are always traversed by riding the gigantic wave. We all know Ships are safe in harbour but that is not what they are made for. Go for the kill and never settle for anything but the best. Leaders are not born from the womb but they are grown from the adversities of time. Accept your loss if it comes your way and work relentlessly until you defeat the very cause of loss. Only those reach the zenith of success, who defeat the very cause of loss. Whenever you are low, just remember this, man gets defeated only when he has lost the will to succeed.

It's a simple rule: "Some people are born to be slaves and others to rule". Though it might not be quiet evident but this is the truth. Choice is yours! Conquer the world or get conquered.

Apart from all this, be humane and kind to humanity.Philanthropy is what makes us man, otherwise we are like rest of animals. Love your parents and be kind to them. I wont say live a life for your parents because its too much to ask for. Parents too don't expect you to live your life for them, but shower them with your benign love throughout your life.

Last thing I would say: "What man is a man, who can't make this world a better place".

I wish you will make this world a better place.

Lots of love from all of us. We again wish, you get all the happiness, pleasure, delight and riches of world.

Love,

Avanish on behalf of family

Oshin's lucky Seven!

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Here come Oshin's lucky seven! She has been telling for last few days that Seven is gonna play wonders for us as she enters her seventh spring and here we're in there in next few seconds!!!

10..9..8....7..6..5..4..3..2..1.. Happy Birthday Oshin!!!!!!!

Many Many Happy returns of the day sweetheart.. Again you give a beautiful reason to smile.. fantastic moments to celebrate.. we're so happy to be with you year after year witnessing you growing so aesthetically.

This year 24 January is being celebrated as National Girl Child Day’. We’re proud lone girl child parents and feel good about contributing a bit towards girl child development and our biggest menace – population. Though not very lavishingly, this year we've great plans to celebrate our cuchie-puchie's birthday in a unique style as always.. this year we're in Delhi and India after a while so as expected we've planned the main birthday bash along with her own newly made Indian friends in the immediate neighborhood followed by a visit to a nearby temple and participating in the temple services and a generous social lunch for the poor kids, which makes more sense than organizing a extravaganza in a starred restaurants, while being in India where every third kid is deprived from basic amenities, education and happiness to some extent.

We feel fortunate that we’re your parents and we thank god for blessing us with such a wunderkind. You’ve always been beyond our expectations since day one and still you steal our awe every now and then.. Let us once again wish you a very happy birthday and may god shower you with even more happiness, heath, luck and prosperity. You’d like to see you grow as a happy and good human (more than anything else) year after year.

Hema-Naveen

Cricket in India - A religion or a curse?

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I read an article some time back that 'Cricket makes us dysfunctional'.. eats up our appreciable part of the day (tittering at time management concept) and leaves whole country paralyzed. Entire youth force (highest in the world), leave aside the aged and children, waste their productive time speculating/calculating a probable match outcome or discussing in length about how a particular cricketer should have batted, bowled, fielded or captained a particular delivery/match. And while doing so we're ruining the country in many ways by being unproductive, mercilessly killing other sports, encouraging malpractices like gambling and betting, and last but not the least putting undue pressure on cricketers by making them our gods and expecting them to play to the perfection - always. What the heck is this?.

Don't we have any better/alternative entertainment option in sports or in other forms of entertainment? In sports, I don't think cuz we ourselves have killed that option. There's hardly any doubt that cricket is eating up all our other sports. The reason? We're more interested in knowing what undies a particular cricketer wears rather than wondering how the other games are doing. See the TV channels and other media and look at the coverage of cricket verses other games.. look at our medal tally during world class games.. look at PT Usha during recent athletics meet.. look at the apathy of football in this country.. look at Indian hockey team. Its ironic to see quite a few business houses and stars coming forward to fund for the forthcoming hockey tournament rather than government/sports-fraternities seriously mulling over the issues and streamlining the sports bodies. Is there any shortage of funding? I'd love to watch a hockey or a football league match if its rather than being a cricket freak. Who's the culprit? We all - we the cricket-crazy spectators who think winning a cricket match is equivalent to leading the medal tally in Olympics.. Media and Ad world who think their TRP and advertisement business holds the sole importance rather than promoting other games.. Business houses who are more interested to fund for a games which sells like a hotcake rather than promoting the deprived.. Government and politics for interfering with the sports bodies and giving the least importance to the players. But I feel spectators can make a difference by being more open towards other games. Also, privatization of the sports bodies and developing an professional/MNC culture over there will significantly improve the games in the country.

On more brainchild of this epidemic is betting. I was stunned to see it happening right in front of me the other day and to my utter surprise these were not the richer folks (rather poor and lower-middle class) and i was dismayed how they're betting on each over, each player and sometime on each delivery. I was stunned to witness how one of my friends bets like crazy and looses (mostly) in lacs and at time see him happy even if India looses (if it earns him quick money).

Also, I'm amazed with the fact that how cricket binds this country together like no other. I see only two things that binds this country as a unit is cricket and terrorism. India shows up when we win a match against rivals and also equally during a 'Kargil. I sometimes think we can only do good in individual sports (that too if one's stars work and a real talented cud break the shackles of luck, riches, power and nepotism).. cuz we are or were never a team or believe in team spirit.. we believe in heroism & zeroism. We still prefer to tag ourselves as marathi, bengali, bihari, tamilian rather than an Indian, then how can we be build a team and eventually win?

The only thing I admire about cricket (let me confess that I was a cricket freak till last world cup!) is the way our youngsters from small towns are handling the massive pressure of playing/captaining for India as never before and maturing as a professional. Mahinder Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina are two such examples and we should appreciate the way this new lineup is taking up the game positively rather than scrutinizing their every single move and putting undue pressure on them. We need to understand that our overly excessive indulgence with one and only one game is not doing any good for cricket (or country) and killing cricketers (and other games) unnecessarily (everyone is not Sachin Tendulkar). We can open more doors of entertainment by just changing our attitude towards other games and cricket. Let's love our country not just cricket and give other games a bit of warm shoulder so that they could flourish and our youths have more diversified options as a sportsmen and eventually we could get more chances of cheering for India.

love,

Betenoire