Memory Vials

2011 In 2011, I got a chance to visit Hampi for the first time. I went there over a weekend along with some of the colleagues and two curious Japanese guys. I fell in love with Hampi. The serene temples, unique boulders, quietly flowing Tungabhadra river and the silence in the atmosphere.. it captured my mind. I felt like I belonged. 7 years later, last week, I decided to go to Hampi again. My cousin Anupam is quite a history buff and I knew I would enjoy more with him. As it happened, Anupam asked his father - my uncle, if he wanted to join, and my uncle, in turn, asked his brother - my other uncle, and they actually agreed to come. My father decided not to join because of his prior plans. So, these two senior citizens and we two younger ones prepared ourselves to travel to Hampi on Thursday, 13th December 2018. We left Pune around 5.30 in the morning in my Uncle's Toyota Innova. The Google map showed two distinct routes. We decided to go from Kolhapur-Belgaum instead o...

I like Three Idiots . I have met so many people across the globe who have seen this movie and know India from the movie. However, I don't think the logic in this movie is pretty solid to be taken as a serious life advice. Consider this example - Throughout the movie, this guy - Suhas ( played by Sanjay Lafont) has been mocked. The reason Amir Khan's character Rancho gives to ridicule this guy is that “He chose to become an investment banker after studying engineering and MBA. So he wasted his education” The same Rancho wholeheartedly supports Madhvan's character Farhan to pursue a career in photography when he is just shy of one year from becoming an engineer. His logic - He should follow his passion. Why? If someone couldn't find his passion till he graduates and switches to become an investment banker instead of a techie that cannot be accepted as if he has to stick to his early life decision? Why he needs to be ridiculed and someone who chooses rathe...

Teaching aging parents to use smartphones can be extremely beneficial as well as joyful. I bought my mother a smartphone when she had no idea how to use it. I was skeptical at first but she started slowly picking up the phonebook, reading SMS and downloading play store apps. The real moment of joy was when she started using WhatsApp and sent a few messages to me and my sister. I added her to our cousins' group and she became the first senior of our family to join the young group. She would send those annoying forwarded   good morning and good night messages. Later I taught her how to type Marathi and she got hold of it without too much effort. She types faster than I do now. She now makes video calls to my sister on her own. She has recently started using youtube (though it's a pain to convince her that not everything on YouTube is true and there is no snake in the Himalayas with 5 heads though the video says so). She is now finishing her first ever digital book on her K...

Following post is my response to a question on Quora -  Can you convince me to start watching “Game of Thrones”? _*_ Without knowing what kind of entertainment you like, it's hard to sell GoT to you. I feel the most important reason to watch GoT is this - Just like any classic work in the history, it's becoming a cult and you will see people citing its dialogues, characters, and events everywhere. If you have seen the series, it becomes delightful to understand the context whenever someone quotes GoT. For example, a few years ago, even Barack Obama quoted GoT in the White House correspondents' dinner. It's part of a culture now. But, I will be honest. I had started watching GoT way before I had ever thought of missing the references. It was hard to start. There were so many characters and backstories that I could have easily given up on GoT before the end of the first season itself. But the makers are super smart. They have made the series such that viewers wo...

The Sentinelese Tribe made the news in Nov 2018. The following post is my thoughts on this subject. _*_ I live in Pune, western India which is around 3500 Kms from Andaman Nicobar. Even it's far, Maharashtra shares a special connection with these Islands. Tours to Andaman are popular amongst the youth as well as the retirees. Around two years ago, my cousin and his wife went to Andaman and Nicobar on their honeymoon. This is what they got for the family as a souvenir. We talked about these tribes and their isolation. Most of us were familiar with the tribes of Andaman and Nicobar but we got more information from the newlywed couple as they enthusiastically explained what they learned on the island. I don't remember even the elders of our family suggesting about forceful assimilation of these tribes because we were in awe of how such an ancient civilization keep their roots even in the modern world. I think most educated Indians know about these tribes and their various...

I am thankful to Uber India for the change that they have brought to my city. Everyone in my hometown Pune, India, is aware of the sorry state of public transportation. Buses are always flooded with people. To make things worse, the autorickshaws had a reputation of duping passengers by charging them an unregulated amount of fairs, denying them to go to certain areas in the city, demanding exorbitant money if it's a late-night, and all this with zero guarantees of safety. Of course, there are some honest people in this profession, but all in all, Pune hated Autorickshaws. The situation was so hopeless that one day out of sheer frustration, I wrote my heart out on my blog [1] . I Came to Uber around 2014. I am absolutely sure that it is the best thing happened to my city in decades. Uber bought safety, regulation, and reliability and moreover, they took head-on with the Autorickshaw unions who were absolutely indifferent to their customers and only cared for the welfare of the Rik...

The following post is part of my answer to the question on Quora around April 2018- Why do we need Sanskrit today? Why is the BJP government trying to bring Sanskrit back? The original question mentioned Brahmanism in the context so, my answer addresses questioner that concern as well. _*_ Why do we need Sanskrit today? Answer - We don’t need it. Sanskrit as most of the languages in the world is almost extinct. There must be a few hundred people who are using it for communication. Then why to learn such a useless language? Language is part of the culture. It’s part of people. As a society, have we left learning how to paint just because we now have much-advanced cameras and printers that we do not need to paint anymore? Have we stopped learning basic math because we have calculators and computers now? Have we stopped learning Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, and Bhangra because most of the world does not even care about it? Have we stopped conserving our endangered ani...