Mere Bol Bachchan...

What would you tell your grandchildren about 2008 if they asked you about it in, let's say, 20 years' time? If the answer to a quiz question was 2008, what would the question be? The year that markets collapsed, or perhaps the year that Obama became US president? Or the year Heath Ledger died? Well for all these events there is always wikinews, for now I would like to summarize the significant events of 2008 that affected me in one way or the other.

January:  Cyprus adopted the currency of Euro as official currency with an exchange rate of 1.71 euro per Cypriot Pound. This had a huge impact on us as when the local currency was Cypriot pound we used to get paid in U.S. Dollars. The conversion to local currency with high commission rates was killing and to keep an account of income and expenses was a really arduous task. After the island adopted Euro as its official currency, we started getting our salaries in Euro which eased our life here.

February:  I had a business trip to U.S. Although this was my second visit it was a very special one as this time I had spent weekends with two of my best friends. Everyone was busy in weekdays with work and hanging around in the night. But weekends were wild, we used to drive hundreds of mile every weekend to check-out new places. We went to New York, Washington D.C., Atlantic City etc. 

March:  I was supposed to return back to Cyprus in the first week but there were change in plans and my stay in U.S. was postponed for a month. My friends who were doing M.S. had a vacation of a week in the first week of March. This was the best time for me to take a vacation. Me and Monish left from Baltimore for Los Angeles while Sonu (DivyaKumar) was supposed to travel from San Francisco and meet us on the airport. L.A. was fun especially six flags where they have the craziest roller coasters one could not even imagine. We headed to Las Vegas after the L.A.  I could write a new blog just for this entire trip of 2 months but may be some other time. After returning back to Philadelphia work continued on weekdays and so did our escapades which included driving more than 400 miles to Niagara Falls.

April: Coming back to Cyprus from U.S. was a feeling of coming back to home just that I miss my family and friends. 

May: Luckily, few of my friends from Amdocs, India had a chance to visit us for a month. They were on a business trip. We used to show them the places around. The sea - water is usually very cold during these times but still we had dip.

June:  Living on an island for a long time could get really boring if you don't know how to swim. I realized this after an entire year of just watching the people relaxing on the beaches after the swim. The turquoise waters of the island were very tempting and I could hardly resist them this year. I started to learn swimming. By the end of the month I was so comfortable that depth of the waters didn't matter anymore. Another blog post soon on this one.

July:  After 20 months I visited my home. Just don't have any words right now to express the emotion. Drought hits Cyprus. Following a succession of droughts in Cyprus, water has become a rare luxury for many residents. Is the water being shipped from Greece enough to significantly tackle this problem? Check out the video for more info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxywr7l9mGc

August: Perfected swimming to such an extent that I jumped into the sea water from a cliff which was around 30-40 feet in height. 

Witnessed live by at least 90,000 spectators and a million others on television screens, the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games was held at the National Stadium — nicknamed "Bird's Nest" — in Beijing China at 8:00 pm on 08/08/2008. The spectacular opening ceremony has already raised a high bar of expectation for London 2012 Olympics and questions were raised if ever Olympics were to be hosted India could it match China.


"With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination," said Phelps after realizing he had set the new medals record for the most gold medals won in one Olympic games by winning his eighth gold medal of the 2008 Olympic games, beating the previous world record of seven that was set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Olympic Games, which took place in Munich, Germany.

September:  By this time I know around five or more people who had suffered from the problem of slipped disk. But this time it was a very grave situation for me as this time it was my mother  who had to undergo an operation for the same. These were one of those worst days of my life when I couldn't be with someone who needed me the most.

October: I don't remember any significant event in this month. That's shameful I guess.

November: Obama becomes the first African American to be elected President in U.S. His election campaign is what impressed me a lot. An older lesson learnt again, market a product well and it would definitely be a HIT!



 Not to forget that this was the same month when the city of Mumbai was held at ransom by a handful of people. I was filled with anguish and anger because all I could do I sit helplessly and watch television praying moment after moment to ease of pain of the affected. Lesson learnt, it is not the time to say “The Spirit of Mumbai ” mourn the martyrs and the innocents and just move on with life with that “chalta hai” attitude. It’s time for CHANGE. More on this in my future posts.

December:  An Iraqi journalist for an Egyptian Newspaper named Muntazer al-Zaidi was tackled by authorities after he threw his shoes at United States president George W. Bush during a press conference on Sunday in Baghdad. Before throwing his shoes at Bush, the reporter, Muntader al-Zaidi of Al-Baghdadia, a local television station, stood up and said, "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, dog!" The words were followed by the reporter's two shoes being thrown at Bush, who had to duck in order to avoid being hit with them. Shortly after each shoe flew within a few inches of Bush, authorities quickly neutralized the reporter and took him out of the room.

In Arabic culture, hitting or throwing shoes at someone so the soles hit them is considered a great insult. Now, this reporter should win the man of the year award because he is the first great Gandhian of the 21st century. He may not be a Gandhian by Indian ideals, but he is certainly one by Iraqi standards. If it's Gandhian, it must have a moral. There is one. A single alphabet separates 'shoe' and 'shot'. If al-Zaidi had aimed a bullet, he would have been vilified and his country could have been burdened with another decade of war and misery. A thousand cartoons celebrated the miracle of a shoe ripping up Bush's reputation with a thoroughness no arsenal could have achieved. A hundred American stand-up comics could not have asked for a better Christmas gift.

Sources: Times of India and WikiPedia

Our office had organized a Christmas Charity Bazaar in one of the local government schools. They had plans to have Indian dance along with other programs for the entertainment of the people.  We were informed only requested to arrange something if possible. We agreed and had only 9 more days left with us. We were a group of 8 guys. Everyone worked very hard to get the steps right. The dance was of around 6 mins with five songs. The task was challenging but then everyone was enthu about it.  The result: ROCKING!  The crowd applauded and cheered everyone.  More info. in future posts for now check out the video. I have a better one will upload it soon....

I had been to Israel last week for a vacation of five days. I will say it's a geographically diverse holy land. The people are very friendly especially towards Indians. In the span of five days we encountered deserts, sea, snow, waterfall and many such exotic natural beauties. More on this in future posts. 

For now I wish you all very happy new year filled with good health, new hope and new beginnings!

I received this very well written poem in one of the mail forwards. I can relate to most of the lines may be thats the reason I liked it. Full credit goes to the original author.

Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. 22nd October. Morning 06.21.50. Countdown 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..0 and there it goes - Chandrayaan - 1. India's first mission to moon. The cliche in hindi films goes like this 'duniya chaand par pahuch gayi hai aur aap..' This statement is usually used to criticize someones narrow minded thinking. I guess this would be changed to 'ab toh Bharat bhi chaand par pahuch gaya.. aur aap!!'

We should really applaud the efforts of ISRO for the successful launch. The budget for this mission was around 80 million US Dollars. ISRO has many missions planned for future which include few more unmanned missions to Moon, unmanned mission to Mars and the day I am waiting for - Manned mission to Moon.

But in midst of all this success lets have a reality check.

On the news channel you could see farmers outside the space centre of Sriharikota cultivating a piece of land.This is the place where cultures of centuries blend together. The very idea of this post was supposed to give everyone a thoughton the 'Development' of the nation. What kind of development are we expecting? Do we want to spend millions of dollars and reach space which wouldonly create a foundation for the generation next to go one step ahead in finding out the mystries of universe OR work on planet EARTH to resolve the grass root level problems of the nation.

Not that India is not trying. If poverty has decreased the population has also increased which keeps on affecting the figures. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that extreme rural poverty has declined from 94% in 1985 to 61% in 2005, and they project that it will drop to 26% by 2025. Report concludes that India's economic reforms and the increased growth that has resulted have been the most successful anti-poverty programmes in the country.

Anyways, there will always be a tradeoff between socio-economical development and technological advancements for a country. What shocked me more is the amount spent by ISRO. Well, the expense in itself might be enormous but when compared to other expenses (not by the govt) will really seem insignificant. You will, in fact, give a standing ovation to what ISRO has achieved. Here is some trivia about it:

Lately, I stopped watching cricket. In fact, after reading this it makes me hate it even more.

What is the solution out of this?

- Stop marketing through cricket? Of course, not!

- Put a full stop on our space odyssey? A big NO!

And there are many more questions which need some answers. You may comment on few such QnAs.

For now, as Mahatma Gandhi rightly said - We need to be the change that we wish to see in the world.

Think about it.