Ring Out! - Ring In!

My first entry for the last day of the year in which I decide my latest hobby for the next year. I guessed writing what I thought while indulging in one hobby would reinforce that hobby itself and spawn off yet another hobby: Blogging. Actually it would mutually fuel each other considering I list 'Blogging' already as one of my hobbies but have not been working on it for quite some time. The reasons and the action on that however will be in another blog. Let me not steal the spotlight away from the first entry of my thoughts on my ride through Mulund.

My New Ride- Hero Razorback

It's been like 4 days since I have been riding my new bicycle (hereafter referred to as 'bike'. Not to be confused with a motorcycle which is what bike is synonymous with in India! I fuel my own ride! :D) and today I chose to crisscross through the roads of Mulund starting from Jain Mandir Road and ending up in 'old' Mulund (my own term for that part of Mulund that existed since the beginning of this idyllic township with the right-angled roads and junctions). It was a fun and serious 30-minute ride with some good Music and a couple of thoughts of hitting me along the way.

Why is there Change? Why do we need Change? I guess you must be pissed off at the number of times you have heard the word 'Change' and the term 'Change Management' in schools, colleges, offices and homes; on televisions, magazines, videos and websites; over family dinners, parent-teacher conferences and annual sales meetings. It is like someone advising you on the kind of underwear you must wear: It's wrong cause (a) it is not on you and (b) only I know how it fits so back off mister! Having said that, one can't help but feel helpless at the thought of going through it without having an inkling of an idea what we need to do.

Today we will walk through 2011 into the new year 2012. It is a change we all knew about always yet none of us expected the turn of events that transpired between start of 2011 and the start of 2012. It is a fascinating thing this 'Uncertainty'. I never knew I would end up taking photography as a hobby on Jan 1 2011 yet by Feb 1 2011 I had decided on it and by the end of the year developed my skills on a new hobby. Neither did I know that I would end up taking up cycling in 2012 but here I am posting about my adventures along the mundane roads of Mulund. And so change is all around us. People say the Difficulties of life get to them. I think we have the capacity to handle Difficulties. What we cannot wrap our minds around is 'Uncertainty'. Its anxieties kill us every moment of every day till the situation exists. Which is why we choose to exist in a sub-standard manner but with certainty rather than living well but with uncertainties.

The trouble is we tend to bubble-wrap ourselves from uncertainties: like a wine glass is protected when it is being moved.  While it tends to keep the glass safe, the purpose of the wine glass cannot be fully realised unless we unwrap the packing. We need to expose ourselves to the hurts, the lessons and the lemons life throws at us to learn how to make a lemonade out of them! Unless we empty ourselves of the murky water of the life we lead, we cannot fill ourselves with the fuel of the life we wish to. Being beaten down, humbled and on our knees is very necessary for us to build the momentum to rise up.

So think about it: at the start of each day, each week, each month, quarter and every year; to humble ourselves and know what we need to 'ring out' before we can 'ring in' the change we so ardently desire. I have literally rung in good health and fitness and relaxation and pollution-free commute with the cycling. What are you going to 'ring in' this 2012?

The Culture Shock of Uganda

What an eventful week it has been, and we have not even started our work... or have we? The experience of being in a foreign nation has still not sunk in fully and I don't think I can call myself an international traveller like Neil Cornelio whose passport is stamped with more visas than I can count! But even he was not spared of the culture we experienced in Uganda in this last week. Let me take you through each of the shocks and amazement one by one.

Chicken a la Pa-Kak

On the afternoon of 6th May, after an educational trip to Shumuk Aluminium Plant in Nakawa, we went back towards MUBS and moved further on to a place called Matt's Cafe for lunch. Now the place looked quite happening with the aroma of good food and the buzz of people all around. We joined the buzz for a quick lunch at a joint that was the youth hangout spot for good food close to the Business School Campus.

We sat ourselves down and decided to call for something from the menu. Then on second thoughts we decided to trust the good judgement of our friend and coordinator in MUBS, Sadat to get us a lunch. She called for the usual fare of Chicken, Mutton and Vegetables for the diverse groups of people in our Team Africa. As we eagerly awaited I noticed a family sitting at a  table right in front our table with a candle lit and hands held together as if in prayer. It was wonderful to see such familial bond and for the first time I missed home.

However, things took quite an unexpected turn at our table with the food arriving for all of us. Our Chicken came in alright, but it looked like they missed some steps in the recipe book: Its colour pale with a hint of brown suggesting it was lightly fried before being boiled with some tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper. The food has a distinct smell of raw meat in it and all of us were taken aback by the food we were served.

Yet we bravely made our way through the food: the meat, the rice, the beans and the veggies served. And as I ate, I enquired with Sadat behind this style of cooking. She said very simply that their philosophy was to maintain the originality and flavours as is and not mask it with other fragrances or flavours. Quite a departure from the Indian style of cooking which constantly looks to mask every flavour and odour with something else!

It made me realize something that day about cultural differences on a very intrinsic level: That we will never completely adjust ourselves to another culture entirely. It is never easy to reset all our learnings and begin afresh. But perhaps, a mid-way resolution could be reached at bringing a distinct blend between 2 cultures and build something completely new and completely unique for all generations to experience.

Gandhi Gaye Afreeka
This morning we left bright and early to see the source of one of the longest rivers in the world: The Nile. The river which flows through 4 countries and has 2 tributaries: one from Ethiopia and the other from Uganda, has the source of the White Nile close to the Jinja Valley about 3.5 hours from Kampala city.

All along the way we caught some interesting sights and sounds: chicken on sticks and fried bananas,the sounds of the buses and the silence of the woods, the crammed up traffic of Kampala and the expanse of the Jinja Valley upcountry. As we approached the source, the air got cooler and the atmosphere was filled with a sense of anticipation.

This is the source of the White Nile, the smaller of the two tributaries of the river Nile and the source of water forms the Lake Victoria too which is surrounded by the East Africa nations of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. It was a lovely sight to see all the birds and greenery that surrounded the actual source: a calm spot that seemed to be bubbling from down below that resulted in the unrest of the Lake and river all around it.

Hello Africa!

Travelling for 26 hours, from Home to Mumbai International Airport, to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, to the Akemba Bus Service through the country views of Kenya and evening sunset in Uganda and finally in Kampala at 1am. 26 hours, 3 countries, 3 cities and many many towns and villages. It was the most tiring day we had today but one of the most satisfying days as well.

Travelling this far and this long, we met, experienced and witnessed many wonders of this beautiful continent. The vast blue skies, the mammoth rainbows, the picturesque houses, little children playing and changing weather from sunny to cloudy to overcast to rainy to chill and then moderate. I cannot describe how serene it was and how excited we were the entire to witness this beauty and splendour. We stopped along the way  at Eldoret in Kenya and had some piping hot bhajiyas in an Indian Shop and at Malaba Border Crossing into Uganda while filling out the immigration forms to enter a new country.

But the most beautiful thing unfurling before me was with my friends who are with me on this trip in the stories and conversations we shared with each other all along this 26 hour journey. We shared our stories, our experiences in life and by the end of the journey I felt like this was going to be the beginning of a deep friendship between us 15.

Beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder and nothing could be more beautiful for me today than to witness and experience the love of Africa and of my friends as I leave home to build another one, albeit just for 2 months! Our rooms await us, so let me sign off on this positive note!

I Told You So!

there is this innate sense of joy we experience in watching those who did not heed our advice fail! I know you might be thinking, "That's not true, I really feel bad for those poor souls!" but we know that's bullshit, so let us just cut the chase. We love having the realization that someone failed because they did not do it as we told them to!

But we aren't that sadistic. Our real kick comes from the fact that if you were wrong, then it automatically means that I am right! So it is this need of being proven right that drives this rather instinctual behaviour. But when the dust of the disaster settles and you look at the casualties: the countless who suffered, the money that was squandered, the time that was lost, the people who were left dejected, it just does not seem that fun anymore; or does it? This is what worried me: that people willfully refuse to see beyond the point of their argument at the bigger picture; the picture that they all are working for.


If an argument goes all the way around the world, it would cause nothing but chaos and destruction. Even a well constructed argument I have seen has only killed time and used little imagination. That because imagination truly lies not in your 'Right' but in another person's 'Wrong'. In an argument you choose to look at the issue as Black or White while imagination colours the mind with a million hues and shades! It is easy to argue on endlessly about why you are right and why someone else is wrong. Quite another story when you have to look at it the other way. Worse still when you have to take the best out of you so-called 'Right' and the other's so-called 'Wrong'.


I chanced upon something called 'Lateral Thinking' a couple of years ago and what inspired me about the concept was how little we seem to use it everyday. When asked to think from a different perspective, we begin to sweat, the brain begins to tingle and we begin to feel an out of body experience! And the funny thing is that this form of thinking was before us all along, right in front of our eyes. All we had to do was to choose it. But we never do, just like our ancestors never did when they believed in superstitions, when they said the earth was flat or when they called all forward thinking people heretics and witches! We commit this crime against all humanity to satiate our ego: an ego that does not know right from wrong, good from evil, ingenious from mundane, extraordinary from ordinary and calls whatever it wants to the truth.


I for one believe that the world will always continue to need more periods of 'Renaissance' with grater intensity and following for each of them and the serenity to for once choose choose Other's Rights over My Wrongs!

The House of Nightmares

i have been having some trouble sleeping the past few weeks. I hear something creaking and scratching its way through the wall behind my bed! It is the freakiest feeling to hear these sounds especially when you are trying to catch some sleep. I have tried to figure out logically what might be causing the sounds and try and stop it but seemed to be getting no more possibilities other than skeletons buried behind the wall or some spirit having some unfinished business!

I was, however, in no position to let these thoughts occupy my mind last weekend because they tend to reduce my sleep hours which means I cannot get up early in the morning for a special trip I was embarking on. My college friends and I were to join our Director General, Fr Paul Vaz on a trip to Tara Village which is located in the Panvel Taluka. A famous landmark in its vicinity is the Karnala Bird Sanctuary which makes this village ideal for winter picnics and an excellent location to go for meditation or a rejuvenation program. But we were not there for a rejuvenation of any sort. Infact we had our work cut out for the day with activities with children from a dozen villages all around this centre which is centrally located.

We had a wonderful time playing and singing with these kids and their teachers were delighted to see the kids really enjoying themselves. But it is not all fun and games for these children. They are sons and daughters of an unfortunate life their parents lead as Brick Kiln workers. And it is so because of the financial burden that they are kept under by their bosses, or should i call them 'masters'? They are paid bare minimum wages for the work they do which is making red bricks. An entire day they can make around 250 bricks for which they get paid something as low as Rs.100! How do they meet their expenses? The child's school fees and other expenses and the bills? What happens to them when they fall ill? This is certainly not enough and they know it. So out of desperation, they choose to let their children work with them and that could help them make a 750 bricks and get some more money for the family. And the maximum benefit out of this desperate choice goes to the brick kiln owner who sells the bricks made by burning away the future of the children in that same kiln in which their bricks bake!

But all hope was not lost, for the Jesuits (priests from the Society of Jesus) were there to give to their children education and give the families a new lease of life and hope. They started what is called as Bonga Shalla (Bonga means Bell which is rung in the areas where the parents make bricks and Shalla means School). These schools are make-shift huts built of the same straw that would have otherwise gone into making bricks and the teachers carry with them all the material they need for educating the children. This gives educational empowerment to these children who are most times migrating from South Maharashtra and North Karnataka to these places to work and the children complete just half a term sometimes in their homes. The schools gives them continuity in their education and the government gives these children letters which state that they have completed the term successfully at the Bonga Shalla.

However, the government is now cutting the flow of funds to these institutes because they are run by charitable institutions. The Jesuits would be able to manage the finances, but it still does put them under a sizable financial strain. They need to pay some sort of remuneration to the teachers who volunteer to teach the children. They need to purchase stationary and writing material to give out to the children. How do they continue meeting these needs over time?

Every night since then when I go to sleep and I hear those sounds behind my wall, I know it is the future of these children locked within the bricks and mortar that makes my house that is calling out to me. Will I be able to transform my house of Nightmares into an abode of Peace?