Its always about the people and the city...

“Bhakt-jano ke sankat, kshan mein door kare…om jai jagdish hare…” Music and chants, first thing when you wake up will go down as one of most undesirable things in list of waking up to what in morning…but this was different. This was my Dad saying his usual morning prayers with loud ting-ting of bells. I’ve heard him do this for years unknown. It has always been the same. I am half asleep with this ringing in near vicinity. I know where to notice if he fumbles or eat the words he forgets…I know the stanza he loves as his voice gets deep and pitch high…its been the same. It has always been exactly this…Even when I would return weekly from hostel in Delhi or fortnightly from the job in Gurgaon. This was same at the time of quarterly visits from Calcutta and Mumbai…And this time, after 6 months from Dubai… ------ I had mixed feelings, and guilt. I did feel like chicken as well. It has been less than a year that I moved to Dubai and since then, this was my first proper visit back hom...

As the winter onsets on Dubai, its almost a year I came here. In all fairness, I can't point out why I moved. I was desperate to move out of India, yes. Today I can say, after having traveled to over 50 cities in the world, including the likes of London, Berlin, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Singapore, I made a good decision. I don't know what gave me courage or conviction to move, because I was giving in to a hunch...but guess desperation gives you unparalleled strength. I had visited Dubai in August 2012 when I saw it as a tourist, unknown to the fact that I will be moving and living here after 3 months. Such is fate... Anyway so I have been a tourist, I have lived here, I have received guests here and traveled from here. I have seen perceptions and experienced little reality in whatever time I spent here. For the sake of education, my own as well since its time I understand a little history of this country, and origin of names of hundred roads and familiarity wit...

Every time there is something with regards to great people who ever lived, I can't help but think what was so different in these people...or for that matter what was the similarity that they had with billion of others who exist or existed. Gandhi, Buddha, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Mother Teresa... or even Hitler or Napoleon, how could they go all the way while others just thought and contemplated, unsure and clueless. What made them so extraordinary and exemplary? How were they same or different from others when they were just people?   What I feel hence is based on two things - Maslow and conviction. I believe in Maslow. The theory is a very basic, just another management theory that talks about the needs of human being, and their hierarchy. Maslow argued that unless a need of lower hierarchy is met, one can not go upwards. My experience says it is true. Of course if you were to base your life parallel to this theory, you need to b...