A cube of cheese...

Yesterday India lost one of its most popular, revered, trusted and beloved female politician, arguably in the entire Indian history. Sushma Swaraj was a leader of heights that very few politicians ever manage to reach, let alone women. A mother, a wife, a politician, a minister, a nationalist and above all a visionary who was filled with nothing but compassion for Indians everywhere which she proved in more ways than one during her tenure as the Foreign Minister of India. On the day of her death, her last tweet was congratulating PM Narendra Modi for his bold and much anticipated decision to scrap article 370 of the constitution of India. She basically said- she lived this far to see this day come to reality, and then she left us. May Peace be hers. Her visions and words will guide India for centuries to come. What I personally admired about her the most was her skills of oratory. When she spoke, the world listened. Be it UN, OIC or the Indian Parliament itself. Her vocabular...

Since a very long time, I was wired to think that democracy is the best way to go as far as governance is concerned. Not just that, as part of my school education(ICSE board, set up by the Cambridge University, London: essesntially a follower of democracy) democracy was touted as next to perfect. While communism and dictatorship is touted as evil warlords of some kind. As I read NCERT recently, it still does. Making me a frog in the pond. But as I gain more knowledge I see several benefits of a concentrated power at the helm, like in China or in Russia.  Sure there have been massive failures of communism and/or dictatorships around the world, but there are several successful examples as well which our education system often tries to underplay. For eg. the communism in China has been a massive success and I cant stop thinking about it. Under the leadership of various visionaries and now Xi Jinping, China has accomplished the unthinkable. Once upon a time, just like us, China w...

After Kylie Jenner, a 22 year old girl with no specific talent (at-all) made news all over the planet for being the world's youngest billionaire, the power of well managed Business and exclusive Endorsements was demonstrated. Kylie Jenner, from the bedroom of her Calabasas home, California, promoting through her Instagram profile, at no cost basically, created one of the most in-demand skin-care line for young women. Coupled with a single exclusive endorsement deal, one of the most expensive deals in fact, with Adidas, made her a billionaire at the age of 22. Compared to that Jay-Z, one of the most prolific artist of our time, became a billionaire only by the age of 49 years. And only a handful of artists have ever achieved that size of financial success in human history. This realization has lead to a frenzy of pop artists entering business for themselves. First came Rihanna with her well-selling line of Fenty Beauty products, with the niche of making cosmetics for all com...

So I have shifted to New Delhi, our capital city only a few days back. I'm here to kickstart the next phase of my academic career using India's premiere coaching institute. But let me tell you the truth. I absolutely hated it and pretty much still do. I have never liked Delhi to be honest. I have stayed here for a shorter period of about 6 months, around 6 years ago in a different part of the city. My earlier stay was in a much worse part pf the city, but it was counter balanced by the fact that I stayed with the best person I have ever known- my bff. 6 years on, now I'm located in one of the most sought after locations for students- and I still hate it. And today I will tell you why!! Firstly, the temperature! You must have seen the latest articles telling us how massive parts of India are too hot for human kind to stay at. Yeah- the first on that list is Delhi. Right now its slightly better, but when I first landed here it went as high as 46-47 degrees(Celsius). I...

, After almost 30 years in development at HAL, when compared to international biggies like Gripen from SAAB, the Tejas does falls short but its too quick to be discounted, and actually it represents more than a sub par army jet and I will tell you why... After planning started in 1980, development didn't start until 1990 when the funds actually started to flow into the project. Built with a meagre budget of 1 billion USD, Tejas is the first indigenously built light weight fighter jet by India's HAL. After several delays due to Engine procurement, funds shortage and sanctions on India after 1998 underground atomic testings, the Tejas started flying by 2004 and so far it has hadn't had much of a glitch. That's not to say it doesn't has issues. The engine is imported from GE (cuz the proposed indigenous Kaveri couldn't be developed on time), which is not providing enough thrust, the payload is not huge and it weighs a little too much for the given category/en...

When a long forgotten actress Tanushree Dutta finally came out about her sexual woes at the hands of the veteran Bollywood actor Nana Patekar, a man who has mastered theatre, Marathi as well as Hindi movies and whose acting skills knows no bounds, it created a chain reaction when more and more women came out with there stories alleging over half a dozen celebrities- not just men, but women too, of sexual harrasment at the work place. These are not minor celebrities either- veteran actor Alok Nath, director Vikas Bahl, comedians Tanmay bhatt and Gursimran Khamba, Musician Kailash Kher, Union Minister MJ Akbar, comedian Aditi Mittal etc. It was a shocking revelation and one that has divided the country. I was talking to a friend last night and he called it a copy-cat movement from the west, but he had no answer to the question why his favourite Bollywood actress, who is one of the top most A-lister of Bollywood currently rests to gain from alleging work place harrasement on a direc...

The sad demise of Ex- Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee has just made me aware how scarce are men of his status, the giant leaders who have a vision and shoulders strong enough to take a democracy of 1.3 Billion people forward, each day a little bit till it has made a real change in the common man's life. We owe our freedom, our prosperity, and everything we have to such great leaders, It has been a long journey since India achieved freedom from British Imperialism, and by the end of 2018 India will overtake The Great Britain as 5th largest economy of the world. All the thanks to our current Prime Minister Narendra Modi!! And while our PM is taking the country forward to the most positive state since a really really long time, The longest running ruling party of the country is so hell bent on misogyny and patriarchy that they refuse to move on from their failed plans of putting a giant baby as the PM of this country. They have Priyanka Gandhi right unde...

What comes to mind when I say happiness? Some people find it in love, some family, fame, career etc. Wikipedia says - In philosophy, happiness is translated from the Greek concept of eudaimonia, and refers to the good life, or flourishing, as opposed to an emotion. In psychology, happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Happy mental states may reflect judgements by a person about their overall well-being. For me happiness is a stable professional life and being close to my family and my "friends" and music. And Im sure my friend who asked me to write about Happiness finds joy in annoying the shit out of people around her. :p Theres a huge writers block in my head right now because I'm not in the best of minds currently so let me ask you this- Whats unhappiness? Sadness as one calls it is an emotional pain associated with, or characterized b...

So exactly 4 and a half years back I started the journey of my Graduation, 2000 kms away from home. With my admission to a Medical School, I was never more excited in my life. Those were the innocent days when I still believed in the power of men and the strength of oneself to conquer the world. I still do but with better understanding of the phrase "One's own Enemy." The abundantly fabled College life was not totally what I expected it to be. A myriad of failures, wins, heartbreaks and sleepless nights was what it was. When I started I remember being anxious about the fact that the course was almost 6 years long, but someone told me that I wont even realize how fast this time would pass. And here I am, on a lonely night, listening to Adele and writing an article about it. On February 10th, 2018 we had our final exams results declared. I was on a train when I was forwarded the results and It was a moment to remember. Happiness, anxiety, surprise, shock- There was lo...

So after the latest Golden Globes, which I couldn't watch cuz of my exams, there was a lot of buzz regarding Oprah Winfrey, and a possibility of her running for The American Presidency and a few of you guys know she is one of my greatest idols. Better late than never, hence I'm here to shed some of my golden light on the matter. To be honest I stayed away from the articles regarding that, cuz I didn't want a distraction. It was too much on the nose. I mean I'm still traumatized with the results if the last Election. I didn't think that it was possible for a thing of past, with no fault of yours to destroy your future. With all the qualities and compromises, I chose her but it was not to be. The glass ceiling will break though, no matter what. As soon as we were done with papers, I made an effort and one of our beautiful "cloudy" nights, I listened to Oprah's speech and it was good. So I listened to it again! and again!! What I cant quite resolve ...

So few days back my friends took me to an undecided detour on an evening for a supper. After careful evaluation and debates, it was decided to visit a seafood restaurent. My cute Marathi friend just came back from abroad with a lust for sea food, which he used to hate before. So we went to this place which looked cheap on the outside but passably elegant on the inside. And we were the only customers there. So this aged waiter with a wide grin and a massive forehead comes to us and asks us for our order. We sent him back to discus our order. But he would keep returning every 5 minutes. So I guess, on his 6th visit we asked "whats special??" Next thing u know we have an assortment of live and dead animals on our table to choose from, but we had crabs in our mind. So we were shown two types- one small orange kind and the other- a massive mud crab, that looked eternally beautiful. So obviously we choose that. Later we find out it costed us a buttload but whats done is done....

So its official!!! Today Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe laid down the foundation stone of India's first bullet train project- 509 kms long, worth 20 Billion USD, running between Ahmedabad in Gujrat state and megacity Mumbai. The project is to be completed in 5 years, and to be started on 15th August, 2022. Japan is Financing 90% of the project through a soft loan @ 0.1% rate of interest. This was mighty generous of Japan, made possible by mutual diplomatic interest and understanding between Modi and Japan, over the years. This is beginning of a brand new phase of the friendship of India and Japan, and also signals greater the ever closeness between the two, to the dragon. Politics aside, the train will cover the journey of 509 kms in 2 hours, which takes 7 hours right now through Indian Railways. With a top speed of 350 kms/hour, Japanese bullet trains boasts of being one of the safest train system in the world, more than ...

The Metropolitan Museum Annual Gala event theme of 2018 has been released and its freekin' good one. FASHION and RELIGION!!! In the past, this very-exclusive event has been used to collect funds for the functioning of the Museum. But thanks to Anna Wintour, (Editor-in-Chief, Vogue USA) this event has become the epitomy of Fashion and Relevance. A seat at the table costs 25000 USD, and that's in case you get an invitation. You are either an a-list actor or a grand musical phenomenon. Every year, biggest names in the world like Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Rihanna, Madonna, J-Lo, Kanye and the Kardashians etc show up and dazzle up the place in dresses according to the theme pre decided by Wintour. It is considered the biggest A-list event of the year and you have to know Anna Wintour, the Devil in Prada, pretty closely in order to get in. Last year amazing things happened and not one, but two Bollywood superstars were invited. Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone. The theme w...

We have all been there. We have all felt that. At School, College or a trip to the shopping mall. Its painful to be obsessed with something or someone. And its kind of a thing you cant really talk to someone about, especially when you are a grown-up college guy. People discard it altogether cuz its silly and petty to them but its you who knows how much you crave it. I have been through a fare share of obsessions since I was a teen. From pop sensation like Shakira to Apple devices in the recent days, and a few people sprinkled here and there. Obsession is probably like a psychological addiction, you don't really need it to survive but your brain thinks the other way around. People to I-devices, you can live on your own but once they start showing up in your dreams you know you gotta get them. By hook or by crook. While addiction to objects can be harmless mostly as long as you are not selling your kidney for them, but obsession with people is devastating. Some may call it one...

The art of creative writing is at a drastic decline ever since E-mails and texting became common. While penmanship is dead all over the world, some people have taken up the newer approach to it like blogging. Writing is undoubtedly one of the most amazing art forms if not the most relevant art form any more. And the joy of it is huge. I didn't create this blog to earn money or have an alternate profession. It was a hobby, I have always wanted to write. I have always had the skill cuz a lot of people seemed to appreciate what I write, in their own ways. In class 7th I was accused by a bully that the Hindi literature answers in my notebook were copied from a guidebook and I in no way could have written it myself, just cuz she was too jealous of it getting teacher's attention. The teacher got convinced and it made me really really mad. The immediate inspiration came from watching 'Ugly Betty'. Just like me she had a lot of ideas, thoughts and stories to write...

When I started blogging, I had no idea what I was doing. I had something different in my mind and none of the blogs I read resembled it. They looked more like casual websites and online market places then blogs. But I went on and did what I liked. A blog to write about my thoughts, my stories, my inspirations and my fictions. And I'm very lucky to have inspired a fellow friend at college to start her own blog. Although she clearly objects when I say I inspired her, but we all know the truth. LOL!! Anyways She takes immense interest in Calligraphy i.e. visual art of writing and she is really amazing at it. She is also slightly cray-cray but that's a different point. Here is something she made for me. Thank you so much girl for making this for me. You are seriously talented. Her blog is called The Enchanted Ink Drop. How well thought is that and I would like all my friends to visit her blog and see for yourself how gifted she is. You probably know her already, if we stu...

The patients these days are no sheep either. Think about it. As the Doctors became more commercial, the patients became smarter, in there own ways. A lot of patients come to hospital with their own Diagnosis and ask prescription for that. Thanks Internet!!! They happen to think a five minutes research on WebMD outshines the last 15 years of experience the Doctor has. Sadly the diagnosis they generally come up with are too far fetched and serious. And luckily theres no discount for patients who diagnose themselves, the fees remains the same. :D So that's a win for us at the end. Silver linings. I used to be one of those people and when my friends pointed that out, I decided to always take a Doctors opinion when I'm ill instead of WebMD treatments, till I become one myself. Further ever since Indian patients learned that they can sue Doctors for any unsatisfactory treatment or accidents, they have started using it for their benefits. I have read news reports about how so...

A lot has changed over the past few years. When I was a child my parents used to say that being a Doctor is the greatest profession in the world and that Doctors are next to God. Now that I am about to be one I have a very different perspective. Were my parents naïve or has things really changed so much. I don't know about the rest of the world but here in India the sacred relationship between a doctor and a patient is no longer sacred and its a two way street. Every week in the news cycle theres a report about some Doctor who messed up and that the people are furious. The immediate inference amongst people is that the quality of health system has fallen drastically. What they fail to realise is that due to improved technology and connectivity, Media reports every single medical mess up to the public which was not possible few years back. Doctors are human beings too. They have a life and their own set of problems. And yes they mess up sometimes. Its onl...

If you think only women have a tendency to get addicted to shopping, then let me tell you sir/madam, guys can be just as obsessed with it. Ask me! I have been, for years. There's nothing quite like it, the satisfaction and joy and warmth that shopping brings. If it were a scientific profession, there sure would be a Noble in my future. :p The first time I watched this movie "Confessions of a shopaholic", I had no idea this would be my go to future, kinda. Well in a milder way, I donot have a $16000 debt on my head but there is some here and there. :p It all started in New Delhi, when me and my bestie realised making compromises here and there in daily life leaves a lot of room for fun. Like movies everyday and buying new watches just cuz the present one has gotten "sweaty". Since then shopping has become my drug. Whenever I'm sad or depressed, I wanna shop. whenever I'm lonely, shopping keeps me company. And when I'm happy, shopping makes me ha...

My friends would know, just last week my sister got married and I flew home for the occasion but that wasn't the only purpose. Being from a Brahmin family, essentially the priests of the Hindu religion and the supreme of the myriad of castes it hosts, I have to undergo a ritual called 'Upnayan sanskar' in order to become a Brahmin and apparently its a big deal. However it did destroy my life. I had to lose all my hairs and be bald, strip before hundreds of people on several occasions, no clothes to wear on the top half of the body (way to aggravate major insecurities), no shower for 3 hot summer days, no food for 5 days (except fruits and sweets which I outgrew in hours). It was a total nightmare. And all this religious torture was happening to me in a house filled with a million guests, some of which are seeing me after 10 years or so, coming together for the wedding. Well coming back to the topic in hand. I am not at all a fan of the Hindu wedding. No!! I am not ...