One Morning, in interior Gujarat.....

Time for a morning snack.......













Just as the calf enjoys her morning snack, lesser mortals, "the two legged variety", stop by for tea...













The autorickshaw-walla is a big fan of Rani Mukherjee...
















"It's Saturday morning and these God-damned two legged creatures are rushing aroung around on the highway, God-knows, chasing what?" "Crazy!"














A colorful way of travelling in the hinterland....

More than what meets the eye?

Is there more than what meets the eye?

Isn't there too much of a coincidence that China's aggressiveness in its relations with India post the nuclear deal have been quickly followed by an upsurge in the Maoist-Naxal violence in the country?

This is too much of a coincidence.

I may be speculative in this, but the possibility of a China angle in aiding Maoists-Naxals has to be considered, examined and evaluated.

A few questions need to be answered, more importantly investigated - where do the Naxals get their funding from? Who supplies them their arms? Who has given them expertise in guerrilla warfare?

All fingers could point to China.

Why?

The Maoist ideology is one.

The second is grand idea of pulverising India into smaller geographical entities that would never challenge China's dominance in Asia, which was mentioned in my blog, The Great Game ...

It is certainly a great strategy that not only would Chinese actively encourage anti-India sentiment in our neighbourhood, but would also stoke embers within India.

Obviously, India would be too busy to take on the challenge.

Mr. Chidambaram recently alluded towards foreign support coming in for the Maoists-Naxals. Was he referring the Chinese?

Without doubt, Maoist-Naxal violence needs to be crushed with an iron fist, else we'll end up making a horrible example of our country....

Eyecatching!!

The Delhi heat made this gentleman itchy!!!!!
(Location: GKII crossing, New Delhi)










"Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often" - A Mantra to live life by
(Cafe Moshe's, Apollo Bunder, Bombay)













Roast tongue! Yum!
(Location: Cafe Mocambo, Sir P.M. Road, Fort, Bombay)

The pitch is indeed aggressive.... Is Mr. Chavan listening? Maharashtra is losing on tax revenues....
(Location: Croma Zip's outlet at Terminal 1D of Delhi International Airport)













IPood? The Thinking Man at the WC!!!!!
(Location: CSI Airport, Bombay)










Why should we smoke? Let the Pizzas have the privilege....
(Location: Pizza Hut, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bombay)










Do I get a ride for free in this autorickshaw?
(Location: Andheri Station, Bombay)

When did I last see the stars?

Travelling out of Bombay for work, at times, is quite an experience.

Not only does travel give me an opportunity get out of the grind, the rush, the endless frustrating traffic jams on the Western Express Highway, the bad roads, etc. etc., it also thrills me, re-energises me from within.

The pain of getting up early at say 4AM to leave in time is all but gone, when I drive through the scenic countryside roads, see the varied hues of green in the vegetation, see the relaxed pace of life, the smiling faces that are a rarity in Bombay.

Today was one such day.

By the time I got over with work and meetings, the sun had set. Just as night was creeping in, pin drop silence took over the place, which was punctuated with sounds of crickets, which in itself had therapeutic effect.

The cool breeze beckoned me to take a stroll. And as I was walking, I looked up into the sky..... all the stars that bewitched me as a child were still there..... !!!!!

Somewhere in the grind, I actually did forget that these little joys were once a part of my life.... and I asked myself "When did I last see the stars?"

Try answering the question for yourself.....

Alibis, excuses all the way......

When I started Rajeev's World, I had promised to be quite regular.... regular in putting my thoughts online.

I had been quite regular over the last 15-odd months in blogging here. And there had been times, when ideas just flowed like a gushing mountain stream, right into Rajeev's World. And there were also times when I really did really push myself to pen my thoughts, when the ideas slowed down, just as what happens when the mountain stream enters the plains and decelerates a great deal.

However, this time stream hasn't slowed a bit, the thoughts and the ideas are gushing at the speed of light. But the blog posts have...

Who's to blame for this?

Sad, but true, logistics and infrastructure can indeed impede thought. This may be termed an excuse, but seriously I really could not push myself to write.

Now look at this.... in the last 10-odd days, I have barely got a couple of hours at home. There had been a mad rush to get things done at work, meet certain critical social commitments, etc. etc.

Isn't that always there?

True. But the killing commute to work and back (bad Bombay traffic again!) seems to have chomped on MY time, BIG TIME!

And then, our home PC's UPS has been down for the last few days. I wouldn't dare using my PC without the UPS. Frantic calls to customer service initially and now angry calls haven't yet yield any results. I am still waiting for my patience to run out before APC's CEO gets an angry email from me. And then, we'll see APC's service engineer scurrying in to repair my UPS.

(But seriously, customer service in India doesn't suck, it stinks awfully, be it APC, Dell, Hathway, Tata Communications, Airtel, Reliance Communications, Maruti Suzuki, Citibank, Standard Chartered, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Taj Hotels, Jet Airways, etc. etc. Trust me the list is endless.....)

Till APC responds, there will be alibis, excuses all the way......