Child-Like

Raising his arms, he leaped on me time and again,
He had his charm and charisma and took all my pain.
I embraced him with all the love, warmth and fondness I had,
Wow! What an emotion and sentiment, it made both of us glad.

This is what you and I feel when you embrace a kid,
Revives your day, whether he is Yash, Kunaal or Sid.
We relish there smile coming out of there molars,
Believe it or not! It is worth a million dollars.

The Insurgence Of Natural Disasters

Gone are the times when we used to talk about the Osamas, Iraq Wars, Indo-Pak relationships, Viagras, NFL's and Britneys...We have a severe and a serious insurgence of various natural disasters in the form of tsunami's, Ivans, Katrina and not to forget about our own Mumbai rains which not only found its place in the Guinness records but created a havoc amongst the Mumbayites.

While pondering on all these disasters, one thought which comes to my mind is that what has changed all of a sudden which brings-in all these, all together. Well, I don't know, or maybe, there have been so many environmental, technological and radical changes in the past decade that the nature revolts back and tells us...Hey Guys! What are you upto? Hold your reins and be natural...be friendly....be ecological.....See, this is what I have done in the past (my credentials are mentioned below) and so, BEWARE!!!

1. On average, an earthquake strikes the British Isles every four days.
2. 10% of the world's population live under threat from the 1,511 active volcanoes.
3. There are more tornadoes per square mile each year in Britain than the USA.
4. In Britain, five million people in two million homes live in flood prone areas.
5. Colossal tsunami waves travel across oceans at speeds of up to 500mph (800kmh). Waves hitting coastlines have shifted 20-tonne rocks hundreds of metres inland.
6. Droughts starve the land of nourishment, replacing them with mineral salts.

Trip to Oscoda

Subsequent to our (Pratibha and myself) visit to Grayling and canoeing and my blog on it, we have been spreading the flavor of it within our ‘activity oriented’ friends. The ‘gang’ decided to go for Oscoda, about 3 ½ hour drive from Troy, MI.

Well! The first and foremost one to respond was Sourin and he was very enthusiastic about it. Unfortunately, it did not work out for him and he had to succumb to his family pressures. However, we managed to work-around our presuures and took a plunge into this trip…Thanks to the ‘Gargs’ and the statement from Vinod that Life Is Too Short!!!

Planning started at Rahul-Seema’s backyard with the usual discussions/arguments between Nita and Pratibha and we were all on-board on the morning of August 20, 2005. We had all our arms and ammunitions in the form of marinated chicken, kachoris, aaloo ke paranthe, bagels, eggs, wines, scotch and so on. Somehow, I felt as if we were leaving for a week but alas! Rahul woke me up and assured me that ALL THIS STUFF was only for 24 hours of vacation.

So, the Poddars, Gargs, Malhotras and Kumars drove and chatted and switched seats and ate and finally reached Oscoda. Somehow, the weather was not very pleased on our trip and started pouring cats and dogs. While checking-in into our cottage, all of us kept dilly-dallying our decision to canoe or not to canoe…but, our Mr. ‘Weather Channel’ Karan very correctly and wisely predicted a sunny weather from the time we reached there. And Hurrah! There comes out the sun in its full glory.

All of us immediately rushed to the canoeing place and started our journey for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful trip specially with all of our friends having fun (obviously with our eatables and beer). I feel the most serious and focussed and sincere were Karan and Nandini – Great Job! Karan, you sailed her across the shore all by yourself.

Returned at our cottage and we had Lake Huron right opposite our abode – the kids started enjoying while swimming and building castles – we started our drinks and barbequed chicken – plenty of pictures were taken – Vinod gave volleyball lessons to Pratibha and Karan along with the two lovely teenagers.

I personally felt that the evening session was the best when all of us were sitting on the beach of Lake Huron, sipping our wines and bathing in the moon-lit night. Vinod being a wonderful host and bar-tender (as usual) was an added attraction for the entire crowd! Kudos to him and his persona. This trip was really ecstatic and will definitely leave indelible marks on my mind and many others too!!!

Offering the finest in peace and serenity in Northern Michigan, Oscoda has more than 20-miles of pristine, sandy beaches along the beautiful Lake Huron. Wonderful beaches can also be found on the famous AuSable River, Cedar Lake or Van Ettan Lake. Check out other details about this place over here.

BPO Insight!!!

India’s rise to stardom in the business process outsourcing (BPO) arena has been unarguably meteoric. Today, more than ever the country is offering compelling advantages to the multinationals, who consider India as the destination with a well-established BPO industry, says the latest survey on ‘Offshore Outs-ourcing’ by the global consultancy major Ernst & Young (E&Y) in association with Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC).

Every NRI to American is very well aware of the upward trend (in the BPO arena) in Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hydrabad, Chennai and now Kokata. However, the focus of discussions amongst the various partners has shifted from processes, six sigma's, cost savings to the term of contract, security levels, Disaster Recovery Plans, HIPAA and SOX compliance issues and so on. In order to offset major issues such as employee satisfaction, high rate of attrition (40 percent for voice and 25 percent for non-voice on an annual basis) and absenteeism (2 to 8 percent on daily basis, mostly in voice-based), these third party vendors are endeavouring to manage the career paths for employees upfront helping them achieve an optimum work-life balance.

No matter whether it is a political or corporate platform or Healthcare, PLM or Engineering verticals, the talk of the town...oops!!! Talk of the Universe is Business Process Outsourcing.

An interesting read on this topic is here...does not matter if BPO is an Issue or a Boon - key aspect is let us be Onwards and Upwards!

VastuShastra

I do remember listening aboout this term about 10-15 years back while I was in India. Infact, it created such a hype during that time, that all the builders, contractors, business tycoons, politicians and film stars were engulfed with this concept, science or whatever you might want to call it.

Vastushastra has created a new era of business proposition with the new constructions and the existing homes too. Moreover, Fengshui also came up gradually and joined hands with Vastushastra. Now, the question is...Do I believe in it? No, not earlier but I started once it starts working during your life span. Same can be said for Astrology, Numerology and various other sciences.

I have read some of this stuff and would like to share with my avid readers over here.

Smile Please!

These are for you, Sourin!
It does not matter if the "wisdom tooth" are gone...we will still appreciate your smile (grin) without the wisdom :))))

The Tenth Planet

It has been ages since we all have been reading about the 9 planets in the universe. The 'palmists' have been indicating nine planets on our hands and the 'pundits' have been performing 'navgrah' puja and the temples have been depicting various statues and idols of the nine planets. So, now we have the tenth planet...Amazing!!!