Bangalore is Rocking this fortnight

Sorry people.. for this long break !! am back now..

Okay.. Help me choose among these...

a) Unity : The Strings and Indian Ocean concert
b) Standoff : The Parikrama and Moksha Concert
c) The Sting Concert on 4th Feb


:)

I have missed out on Frank Mobus's Jazz concert, A full Jagjit Singh night,the Shakti Fusion concert featuring John MacLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan and Zakir Husain, and the awesome Naseerudin Shah in his Katha Collage @ since the last week. December - January used to be fun time in Delhi as well..There are festivals, exhibitions, shows, concerts and everything else . I missed the annual free Sukhoi-32 flypast that I used to distinctly see from my terrace @ Delhi on Republic Day.. I have been missing it for 3-4 years now. I have been missing the Great Indian Rock (GIR) Show @ Pragati Maidan grounds (tho I had attended just 2, but had planned for more ) . I have missed the IIT Rendezvous.. and other college fests.. and maybe countless concerts...


So , Its time to make amends... If I cant attend the first two concerts ( a part of IIM Bangalore's Unmaad fest) I would definitely attend the Sting one... What the heck.. I think should have attended the Benny Hinn sound and light show had i got a chance ! that would have been entertainment as well... :)

During this time I have read up one of the best books I have found in my lifetime.. Thomas L. Friedman's "The Lexus and The Olive Tree". Friedman is a two time Pulitzer Award winner and a celebrated New York times columnist.

This book is on what he thinks of globalization, how to understand it, how has it been shaped over the last couple of decades, how does it affect everybody and about how , the richest guy in the most developed country in the world is dependant on equal terms on the peasant earling his daily bread in some remote village of a poor country. Some of the viewpoints show his American spirit, cater to that section of readers, but thats just maybe 5% of the book. The rest is filled with superb anecdotes, first hand transcripts of his interviews with the most powerful (socially, economically and politically) and the street dweller and the middle class on the other hand as well . The best part is how easily he equates the concerns of any company, or association with similar concerns of many nations and presents both scenarios, with their progress, conflicts, victories and defeats on the same platform. The examples and the statistics are mind boggling. A truly great book.

I have bought another one yesterday.. Alan Hollinghurst's "Line of Beauty", the 2004 Booker winner.. the story is sposed to be weird.. and though I cant credit myself with much of a liking for an even moderately cursive fiction.. A Booker prize winner should be a booker prize winner should be a booker prize winner.

Yesterday, our country celebrated 56 years of being a Republic. Its the same feeling, for all these years, Saw the parade on the TV ... saw the T-90 tanks, the Defence shields, the ICBMs, the GS satellites, the new combat aircraft, the oldest cavalry regiment of the world, the smartest battalions marching in salute to the president of the nation.. Enjoyed the various cultural tableaus as well.. and sang the anthem whole heartedly.. Yes.. the GDP and the forex 's booming, inflation's going down, Corporates registering 55% growth in profits each quarter.. We are on a roll. INDIA INC... way to go !!... But isnt it also the same feeling when at each republic day, on your way to the felicitation nights, or to the restaurants for your dinner.. you invariably find the beggar with a child resting on her hip.. and with enough clothes just to cover her dignity, but nevertheless showing you that soon, she would have one more to care for, to fear for... and to fight for.... Where has the republic progressed for them in all these 56 years.. or the 59 years of "Independence" ?

I might agree that 150 years of foreign rule have reduced the mightiest civilization of 4 millenia into almost rubble.. But do I have to really agree that for us as the republic, the unified force, the progeny of the those who once built the glorified India, socially, technolgically and economically, 56 years is still not enough time for us to help the country's millions out of poverty.. of suffering, disease and exploitation.. Anyways, my job is to do my work for my company, reap the benefits, and enjoy a good satisfactory life for me and my family. I pay my taxes, and I toss the occaisional 1 rupee coin to the needy palm.. What else? I am not the politician.. or the billionaire philanthropist.. .. and besides what do i know?

But I think there are people who know.. Suketu Mehta (read Maximum City) , U Minn Professor C.K. Prahalad (The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits), Our President Dr. APJ Abdul kalam (India 2020: A Vision for the new millenium) , Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen (India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity) and Pulitzer Winner Tom Friedman (The Lexus and the Olive tree) .. have all written extensively about how the poor and the downtrodden can be harnessed and HAVE to be harnessed for the best development in any society in the future, Atleast from whatever i have read about their reviews.. and/or heard from friends.. who have read up these books have to say, these books are what I would really like to read about in the coming months.. And these are all best sellers.. so I have always found them at the Top 10 Non Fiction sections of any book store.. Whats more .. PRanay has half of them :) ..

Meanwhile, my project work beckons.. SO am off to the team meet in some time..

Currently on my earphones :

"I get knocked down, But I get up again..
Youre'never gonna let me down "
(-Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping")