Two eggs and tiny wings

I go my home in Nashik every weekend. Last time when I returned to my room in JB hostel in Mumbai, I saw a nest of a pigeon in my room. And I saw a pigeon constantly sat in the nest. I suspected that it would have laid eggs. That was true. The next morning when the pigeon went out - may be to have some water - I saw two eggs in the nest. I wished I could help the pigeon with some water. I found a small bowl in my room, filled it with water and kept it near the nest.


Our lectures got canceled and I decided to go back home. I had to close all the doors and windows of my room before leaving. If I had done that the pigeon would have died in few days. So I kept the nest alongwith the box on which it was built, in the gallery when pigeon was out. It came back and sat on the eggs. I happily went my home.

I came back after 6 days. I was more than curious to see the small chicks just came out of the eggs. I opened the door and was astound to see the view. The nest was destroyed and when I searched for the eggs, there was one egg in the corner of the box, the other was missing. I picked up the only egg and saw that it was broken. The half hatched chick had shade its blood even before coming out of it. The scene was unbearable to me.

Who would have done it? There are as many crows as there are pigeons in the area. The crows always try to find where the pigeons have laid the eggs, and then they eat them. May be one of the crows would have done it.

Was it my mistake to keep the nest outside the room? If I had kept the nest in the room and had left the back door open for the pigeon I would have seen the little chicks. I could have seen two new lives taking birth and growing up. I threw the egg as long as I could possibly throw it.

I know its the law of nature. But still I cant forget the perseverance with which the pigeon had sat on the eggs, without making a single noise lest I found it out, without moving even a bit for hours. Its dreams could have come true had I not kept the nest out in the gallery.

I still cant remove the small stains of blood in my gallery which could have run through the tiny wings when they would have taken their first flight...

Diwali Vacations

Today, I went to my aunts home in the same colony. She has just migrated in the city with her family as her son got a job here in Nashik and her husband got retired. They left the small town called Lasalgaon, forever. As these are Diwali days we started talking on how we used to spend this festival years ago.

Her town was really a cool place to spend days of holiday. All of our family, my mom, dad, my sister and me used to visit her place in every holiday. They had a small colony where all of the families were so close to each other. The whole day all of us children used to play around the house or in the colony. When in home we played cards or watch movies on VCR. When we were out, we used to play hide and seek or go to the riverside to catch fish.

Every evening people from different families used to gather at her place just to chat. All of the children used to play either cricket or a very interesting local game called ‘Lingorcha’ on the colony road. And when it got dark, we played badminton in the street light.

Every evening a ‘kulphiwala’ used to come and served ‘Matka Kulphi’ for 25 paise. It was so tasty that we never missed it as far as we stayed there. My uncle was a professor in the only college in that town. The college had a basketball court. Sometimes we used to go to the campus to play basketball.

The town also had a railway station. It was 2 km away from her home. Sometimes we used to walk to the station. There was hardly anybody on the platform. I used to enjoy looking at the trains speedily passing the station. A steady silence, then sudden disturbance for few seconds and again the same steady silence. I still remember the smell of burnt coal which I used to experience on the station.

In the night all the colony looked like the milky way in the sky. All the houses were lit with hundreds of small oil lamps. Nobody stayed home. Everybody was seen chatting on the street or on the steps of some home. (Mobile phones were not available then).

Before sleeping, my uncle used to tell us Tarzan stories. We used to go to sleep with the images of Tarzan jumping from tree to tree with the chimpanzees. How fortunate we were to enjoy all this in our vacations!

But as we grew up, going to their town became rarity. And now they themselves have left their home and are here in a big town where people hardly know their neighbours. Now we can just remember those days.

My cousin brother is married. We just thought where will he take his children in their Diwali vacations?

Assembly Elections 2009: A Marketer's Perspective

I am home and just returned from the voting booth. I did not vote for a particular candidate or a party. The only reason I voted was that I wanted to feel the sense of responsibility. Being a responsible citizen, its my responsibility to vote.

As a marketer if I think of this issue from the perspective of a customer, going for vote is like going to market for purchasing a product. Comparing to my case, the customer does not really want any particular brand. He even is not very enthusiastic about purchasing a product. But it was made mandatory to him to purchase something. And this mandate was the sense of responsibility he wanted to experience.

Comparing to the real situation of purchasing a product, customer goes to market because she wants the product. Here the motivation is the ‘need’. But when I went for voting, the motivation was the ‘responsibility’.

It is the responsibility of the democracy to change this motivation from ‘responsibility’ to ‘need’. Need to bring the government the voter wants. We can compare here the ‘democracy’ with ‘industry’. E.g. It’s the responsibility of ‘Skin Care’ products industry to create the ‘need’ to use skin care products in the mind of the customer.

It is also the responsibility of the different political parties to change the motivation form ‘responsibility’ to ‘need’. Need to vote to bring that particular political party in the power. We can compare here the ‘Political Party’ with ‘Brand’. E.g. It’s the responsibility of ‘Garnier’ to create the ‘need’ to use their skin care products in the mind of the customer.

I think the political parties in Maharashtra were hardly able to do so. A dismal 60% voters turnout explains everything.

Good bye 2008

Yesterday, on 31^st December, I went to marine drive to bid the year 2008 goodbye. It was the first sunset I witnessed in the past 5 months of my stay here at marine drive. I thought the sun would set well before reaching the horizon but it dipped into water till its last point.

I was sitting on the pavements and watching the sun setting. He was talking to me asking me few questions like an appraiser. How was the year? What did you achieve? What did you lose? Were you upto your reputation? Did you carry forward your legacy of achieving success? What is your agenda for the next year? What do you want to achieve by the end of next year?

When I was working for Infosys, we had annual appraisals by the managers. That was to check the progress of an employee. But do we have such process on personal level? Every person asks the above questions to himself depending on whether he feels the need to do so. The setting sun could not resist appraising me before it disappeared.

What was my major achievement this year? No doubt the top rank in Maharashtra state (ohu) in MBA CET. This could have been my all time greatest achievement. Even though getting NTS was tougher task to accomplish than cracking CET, I was among 700 achievers all over India in NTS. This success in CET completely destroyed the question on my ability to achieve great success. The three years after graduation were insipid without any significant achievement. This success created some enthusiasm in life.

On personal account I lost few good friends and got some new ones. In Infosys my friend circle was very limited. Through JB I got a bigger circle of friends. The intercollegiate events and activities got me some new friends. Through 24 hr net, I came in contact with few forgotten friends of past.

First semester at JB was totally new experience. Getting so many experiences in such a less time span was indeed a great thing that happened to me. Though I am not satisfied as far as knowledge gaining is concerned, I am happy that I got a platform. In the coming year I can use it to fill the gap.

There is only one major reason that I came to JB. I hope I will have started that dream run and will have run a few hundred meters on the path by the end of next year.