Hadshi Temple Pune

The early arrival of Monsoon this year enables to plan an outing in the month of June only. We started this year with a-day outing to Hadshi Temple, on the way to Pawna dam.

The weather condition was amiable as it was drizzling with intermittent sun light. The hadshi temple is located around 50 kms from Pune (starting Wakad). The straight route is to follow the B’lore highway till Chandni Chowk. Take the right turn towards Paud. In Paud, just next to Bus stand, take right turn towards Pawana Dam. The Hadshi template is located 15 kms from here, on the Hadshi hill.

Some of the pics taken during the trip:

Yet another example of the biased attitude of our media, and all of us, towards hyped and so called ‘masala’ news. It took less than a week’s time for Baba Ramdev to get attraction from all corners of the country (he also has good influence outside country) towards his fasting against black money kept in tax heaven countries. Not only government, media, socialistic and non-socialistic groups but even every common-man curiously watching every moment of his fasting mixed with his attractive speech. And finally it was yet another highly influencing personality in our country, Shri shri Ravi Shankar ji (I am sorry, I don’t know exactly how many shri to be prefixed), who came into picture and witnessed the breaking of Baba Ramdev’s fast along with media and other high profile personalities. This all was happening in the ICU ward of Himalaya Institutes of Medical Sciences, Dehradun. In the adjacent ward, there was an unrecognized and lesser known personality, struggling for life.

It was 12th Feb 2011 when 35 years old Swami Nigamananda, decided to go on fasting against the Utrakhand Government’s reluctance to shift stone crushers away from the bank of river Ganga, the spot for Kunbh mela. These crushers are not only polluting the river but posing life threat to millions drinking ganga water and to the complete ecology exists there. Nigamanand decided to go on ‘fasting till death’ unless government takes any step to curb Ganga river pollution. On May 2nd he went into coma and finally died on 15th June but didn’t consume a single drop of water.

I am no way entering into endless discussion of Baba Ramdev’s or other episodes, but what Swami Nigamananda has done, is the best example of non-violent war for the betterment of everyone. He didn’t fight against the corruption, money, region, religion or politics but for the life of millions. Unfortunately in amid of high drams news (first world cup, then IPL and then Baba Ramdev’s fasting), none of the national level news channel even thought to cover this news. And surprisingly Utrakhand government organized multiple press conferences to extent support for Baba Ramdev but didn’t even expressed regret for Nigamananda’s demise. And as usual, neither his life nor struggle, but his death which bought some attention. This era of electronic means of communication has made us so close to news, but took us so much away from the reality.

A great man who, in such early age, setup an example of what is non-violence mean but unfortunately unless we and our media recognize these efforts, these will result in such failures. Salute to Shri (I think he deserve more Shri than anyone else) Nigamananda ji.

Vedant - My Son

I created this blog for my son Vedant to write about all his childhood activities which made our life different.

Saturday, 7th February 2009

Today Vedant is just 1 week less to touch 5 months mark. He born exactly at 22:32 Hrs of Sunday, 14th September 2008. It was the pious day of Anant Chaturdarshi a.k.a Ganesh Visarjan Chaturdarshi. Some of my relatives so called him ‘Anant’ also. His born place is Pune in India.
When he born he was quite fair, active but calm. Unfortunately just after one week he detected to be suffering from ASD, a coomon heart problem prevailing in new born babies. Although doctors advised us not to take it seriously and concentrate on good parenting.

Recently Vedant started to be more proactive. His weight is increasing well. All credit goes to his mother who cared her better than anyone. I don’t remember the last day when she slept well, may be around 10 months back. So far she played the role of true mother.

Vedant has now started sitting with support and he likes to sit. He also likes to talk a lot although he can neither understand or able to speak but just want everyone to talk to him and he does respond with hu ha hu ha….. The most attractive quality of Vedant is that he laughs a lot. Anyone can make him laugh. So far he was only dependent on his mother milk but recently we started serving him rice and Suji water.
Sunday, 28th March 2009
Today Vedant is 6 months and 14 days old. He is evolving as an amzing boy. Laughing most of the time. Although sometimes he irritate as well. He don't want to lay down but want to either in his mother's hand or want to stand with support. He can now sit well without support but sometimes fell down and got minor injuries in head.

Some other activities of Vedant involve his chewing of leg's thumb, push anything in mouth (clothes, mobile, toys, even others thumb and fingures) etc. He is afraid of taking bath and cry often. He also afraid of high volume sound.
Vedant loves to eat banana, apple, grapes, orange, fig sapota but don't like watermelon and papaya. We haven't tried mango, pumpkin and pear. Usually he likes sweet dishes like khir but don't like salty dishes like khichdi. He loves to drink tea but we refrain from giving him.

Friday (Mahashivratri), 12th Feb 2010
Before I write anything today, I would like to sorry my son becuase I couldn't extend this blog since last few months. Might be I was so much involved and busy with the hard-to-avoid and attarctive actions of this cute boy. Vedant is a very cute and intelligent boy. Since his birth and the time when we started taking him out, I don't recollect any instance where people can hold on themselves in touching his chicks, smiling at him and trying to kiss him. I remember many instances where people asked us: Can we take him for few moments? I always thanks goddess mahalakshi for this wonderful gift.
Few months back in Sep-09, we celebrated his 1st B'Day in Hotle Sayaji at Indore. It was quite a nice party.

Vedant, started walking quite early (almost when he was just 9 months old). this might be because he never been a fatty child. He always been a thin and very active guy, so he could never put down weight. His mother always been worried due to this and tried multiple food items for him. He seems to be less interested in food and more in 'masti'. Vedant likes fruits specially juice like orange, sweet lamon, straberries, graps and fig. He also likes soups like spinach and chinese soups.

This photograph is taken in Dec-09. (His mom has cut his hairs at home, looking cute).Sometimes we feel proudy to have the first child like Vedant but he is also lucky to have mom like Jaya. She cares her a lot, in fact much more than that. I don't remember the day when she took her complete sleep of 9 hours. Even tody, when he is 1 year and 5 months old, he doesn't sleep properly in night and his mother takes care of him every night. She has now developed cervical spondylosis becuase of this. But she always hug him with smile and love. Great example of motherhood.

A small incident occured with Vedant just before last Diwali when he fell from sofa set at my owner's home. His right hand got fractured and applied with a plaster for 3 weeks.

Today, I bought the first wooden cricket bat for Vedant in just 20/- Rs. He enjoy playing with it.

SunDay, Sep 12 2010
First of all I apologise for writing it after a long time. Today Vedant is just 2 days less to complete 2 years of his life. He is growing well and becoming an intelligent boy. His grasping power and capability to understand and emulate what we say and did, is amazing. I believe that a major reason for this is the almod which I like to serve his every morning.

Few months back we did a repeated Echo-2D of his heart to see the status of his ASD problem. With god grace, his problem is completely resolved with sontaneous filling of the gape in his heart. I remembered the instance when doctor told that the problem is gone now, both me and Jaya filled with tears in our eyes. That was the kind of emotional attachment we all are binded with.

Vedant still likes fruits a lot. He is really fond of fruits and I love to bring fruits for him while returning from office. Although so far he didn't like chocolates too much but recently I saw he starting getting taste out of it. He can eat as much fruits as possible for not a good food eater and he never never liked milk.

From health perspective, he had a good time this year. But recently we noticed his walking with jerk. Might be some minor problem in keens, which we will show to a doctor next week.

Analysis of World Financial Crisis from Indian Middleclass Perspective

“The current financial crisis is an event that occurs once in a century” – Alan Greenspan, Former head of US Reserve System.

From the last 6 months we all are hearing and reading too much about the world financial crisis. The panic is everywhere, from New York to London, Paris to Frankfurt, Tokyo to Seoul, Sydney to Toronto and even from India to China. Here I am neither deluging comments or doing analysis around the ground reasons for this crisis nor I am suggesting remedies for this century event, but I am trying to conglomerate few points which as a middle class Indian we should know, understand and try to follow.

I was recently reading about the consternation among people of different nations of being jobless and loosing livelihood. In the current year so far, in US 1.2mn people have lost their jobs. The so-far-considered stable (comparatively) economics like India and China are now also started entering into this realm. Everyday firms are showing out-way to their employees. Millions of people are on the verge of loosing their jobs. Now the big question is: As a middle class Indian, what should I do in this time especially when I am an employee of a private firm? So here are few tips we all can follow:

1. Stop taking loans: If you are planning to take new loans for house, car etc, stop for a while. Recently I saw someone did a good calculation on housing loans. As per this calculation, if you take home loan of 25L with an interest rate of around 14%, you will end up paying around 8 million (80L) rupees in 20 years. Now the question is, will that house worth 80L after 20 years. Forget about the rates, with the quality of material that builders are using these days, even sustainability of these houses in 20 years is itself a question. And even if they sustain, no one will give you 80L for a 20 year old house. Now against this, just imagine that you save just 10K per month of this EMI (after deducting rent etc) and invest this in the most safe and risk free instrument like PPF with minimum 8.5% interest rate. This way, at the end of 20 years you will get around 65L accumulated. Now don’t you think that this amount will be sufficient to buy a new house which cost 25L 20 years back? And along with this you took a new house which will provide you shelter for your retired life.

2. Rethink about purchasing luxurious items: If you are planning to buy luxurious items like car etc, that too on loan, don’t do that. Incase of houses, you can even assume that the net worth of your asset is increasing, but incase of luxurious items, its surely depreciating over time. And above this you are paying higher interest rates. It’s good to dream, but have worth before going for it. At least keep 60-70% fund in your pocket before even thinking for luxurious items. And be intellectual in choosing the items. If you think a small car is good enough for your family, don’t think beyond that and compare with high end cars.

3. Be Insured: Insurance is one of the best ways to keep yourself financially relaxed. Just image this fact that although being in job, you are feeling the panic of the current financial crisis, image the situation when your family needs to face the same situation again without you being there. So analyze the need of your family and plan your insurance scheme accordingly. Even in this case prefer to be insured under government supported and shared agencies firm like LIC etc.

4. Be financially smart: One of the lessons I learnt from this crisis is to always being smart from finance perspective. Scholastic smartness alone doesn’t work in this era. Have a mixed portfolio of risk and risk-free investments. Take positive and pondered decisions. Play forward but also keep one leg ready to go defensive.

5. Be more effective and efficient: Swami Dayanand once said ‘Work is Worship’. And believe me, those who follow this never feel the fear of being jobless. So, the best way you can save your job is to make other assured that you are the key resource for the organization. This is always helpful even in normal scenarios. Be more concentrative on you job and follow the rule of ‘work is worship’.

6. Along with this you can also follow some minor but very effective tips:

1. Spend good time with your family. A trip to Switzerland is not the only way to keep your family happy but even a short trip to nearby hill station may make a difference.
2. Be simple but think high.
3. Improve you technical, soft and interpersonal skills. Those will be the helper in these situations.
4. Always keep liquidity with you. This will give you well needed self confidence in those times.