Bappa Morya!

Ganapati Bappa - Morya ||

Mangal Murti - Morya ||

Ganapati has a special place in every Hindu's heart in Maharashtra. Come Ganapati festival my memories take me to my childhood days in Pune, and there in our housing society we used to have ten days of "dhamaal". We were about a dozen boys of same age group and some elders in their twenties, who used gel up very well with us.

Preparations for Ganapati used to start a week before Ganesh Chaturthi with contributions. Then came erection of Ganapati "mandav" (which was done by elders). We used to have the same Ganapati idol every year (as is the practise in Pune), along with a small idol, which is later immersed in water. After returning from school and after getting refreshed I used to dash directly to the Ganapati mandav, where everyone used to assemble at the end of their working day. Then came activitities like cleaning and decorating the mandav. Girls on the other hand used to enjoy rangoli and garlanding for the lord. As I used to go to bed quite early, my day usually used to end after Ganesh arti - around eight thirty. Arti used to be fun, with guys fighting for bells first and then usual pranks. Prasad distribution after arti was another attraction. I used to like distributing prasad, which used to be voluntarily sponsored by different families.

Once during the period of ten days we used to have games like musical-chair and passing-the-parcel. I remember having won a beautiful flower-pot in a musical chair competition, that within a couple of days somehow fell on it's own and was shattered to pieces. Another occassion worth a mention was in the game of passing-the-parcel. In this game participants sit to make one big circle and a parcel, usually a soft toy, is passed on and on until the music is played. The person in whose hand the parcel happens to remain when the music stops, picks up a chit from a bowl and has to follow the instruction therein. I always used to be a bit afraid as to what I would be come to me. I always used to put myself in place of the person picking up the chit, thinking how I would have handled that part. On one such occassion a girl, a bit elder to me, was told to recite a TV advertisement. As per my habit, I quickly came up with Nirma ad (now I wonder why Nirma ad, I used to like Nutramul ad those days) in my mind. But the girl asked for time to think and was permitted to recite the ad in the next round along with the next person. She recited a very simple Onida ad later - "Neighbours envy, owners pride". I thought over this; as to who doesn't remember a TV ad! Why did she ask for time and chose an ad in which she hardly would mess up with. I thought it is more about building one's image in the public. When my chance came that year, I was asked to seek the blessings of all elder to me by touching their feet. Guess those blessings are still helping me!

Then finally on the day of immersion, we used to have all household Ganapati's from our society join us to engineering college boat club, hardly a walk of about 20 mins. With it came bursting of crackers and lots of fun. I used to like the boat club. Have a lot of good memories associated with it, of that of my engineering days as well.

Ganapati was one off many festivals celebrated by our extended family together. I should say that only truly blessed people get first-hand experience of all this.

At this defining moment change has come to America ...

Mumbai, 20th Jan 2009

I am at my desk after a normal working day. Time is ticking on, its sound unusually more pronounced against the low background noise of Arnab Gosvami on television, waiting for the "change" to start. As Mumbai is preparing to sleep the night through, there on the other side of the globe, the world is awakening to a new day, the day that promised change to America and to the world.

It's freezing cold on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. and over two million people are out on the street anxiously waiting for something the world was waiting for till this day. Barack Obama is the man in the spot light.

“I have a dream” were the words that echoed throughout America and that King Luther had dared to dream this day long back in 1963.

America has made history today. As President-elect Barack Obama rightly said in his presidential speech, America has a lot to fight for and to stand up, dust self to get a brighter and better tomorrow for Americans and the world. America is proud to have its first non-white president.

Mumbai, 2nd Sep 2010

It is more than a year and a half now. Who was going to be the best bet - a very a promising president for America, the most powerful man on the earth, has done little for his country and the world? Too early to say!

With all the problems that the US was and is facing, President Barack Obama has managed to do a good job? The economic meltdown for one and ill-effects of the Afghanistan and Iraq war on the other hand – has drained American economy. America now has high levels of unemployment, unstable housing market, and above all the towering budget deficit. White House has been taking a beating when it comes to world politics as well. Americans are not happy with the way Obama administration has been taking small but important decisions.

President Barack Obama has now put an end to the Iraq war. I still remember having seen banners on the streets of America, protesting against the loss of American lives in Afghanistan. Loss in Iraq must have been many folds in comparison to that in Afghanistan. Well done President!

President Barack Obama and his team have been strict on bonuses paid to bank employees/expenses of banks and financial institutions which have had the infamous bail-out packages to the tune of 1.5-trillion dollars in all. What started off with Bear and Stearns takeover in Bush administration in March 2008, then bloated by Lehman Brothers melt-down, Merril Lynch buyout, followed by bail-out packages for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Citi, Washington Mutual, BoA and many more. I still have fresh memories of how it all started for Lehman Brothers, a 156-year old Wall Street giant – nobody had anticipated a melt-down of this magnitude. Looking back at this America has come a long way back on this front.