Thoughts For Bharat

Deutsche Bank today said in a report that Indian Rupee could hit Rs 70 to a dollar in a month! For all the effort in the past month by RBI and the finance minister, the Indian Rupee continues to lose ground almost daily to US Dollar. Have a look at an informative article by Ajit Dayal on his blog " The Honest Truth"   where he discusses the fundamental problems behind this rot and some probable solutions !!! Does raising duty on Gold import really address the real problem?

It was my first visit to Shirdi last week. I was excited to finally be there after some failed attempts in the last years. It was a long weekend so I was amongst the many devotees who had decided to seek blessings from Sai Baba during this time. It wasn't a greatly planned trip but this is how I went about my journey Bangalore to Shirdi  I booked my to and fro journey from Bangalore from the Karnataka State Transport website . They offer Airavat Multi Axle volvo bus service which is reasonably priced and efficient. [For more on bus details click on the link ] Accommodation  Shirdi Sai Sansthan provides good accommodation options which can be explored at this link Darshan [Link to location of temple :  Location of Temple ] I wanted to be part of the morning aarti and see baba in the morning itself. The queue for the darshan starts forming as early as 2 am or before. I joined the queue around 3:30am. The aarati starts at 4:30 am ( Daily Program guide ...

20 days on. Chinese are officially inside India [Chinese troops are 20km inside Indian territory in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector in eastern Ladakh] Indian government is mum. Army is holding flag meetings with the Chinese Army without any results and our foreign ministry's visit to China now looks dicey. Why is he going at all? Shouldn't we be putting this issue on the block as priority one?Where is it all headed ? Only God knows for sure because our government looks more clueless each passing day. Beautiful Ladakh As an Indian, I don't wish for an all out war, teach the enemy a lesson kind of reaction, but I am not exactly feeling proud at the way things are being handled. Hardly missed is the fact that we are overly bending ourselves trying to please the Chinese. Why are we doing it? I am hoping our government knows what it is doing and doesn't end up ceding a big chunk of Indian Territory to the Chinese which ultimately becomes a 'disputed territory' ...

Just like any other tourist scouring the net for a nice place to stay in Vrindavan before a travel, I stumbled on to a list of numerous guest houses and hotels available. I had absolutely no idea on what might be a reasonable price for a decent staying place, but the hotel rooms on offer were definitely out of my budget. So I called up quite a few guest houses and found almost similar pricing ( around 500-700 per night for a double bed , AC room). I ended up booking randomly, where the person on the phone sounded polite !!! Savitri Seva Sadan is small guest house located on Sanrakh road in Madhuban Colony. [Click here for Google Map view and exact location] Address: Madhuban Colony, Sunrakh Road, Vrindavan Ph: 0565-254.0880 / Mob: 931.908.7338 Tariff : Rs 600 (AC room , 1 double bed) [ Rs. 100 for an extra bed] Meal : Rs. 100 per head (need to inform the manager in advance) - only Vegetarian The rooms offered were clean and decent and the guest house ambiance was also p...

Just came back from Mathura - Vrindavan darshan. If I had to sum up my experience in two words, I would say heavenly as well as chaotic ! The very fact that you are entering a holy land, a place where Lord Krishna once lived, creates an unmatched aura about the whole setting. The local people, temples, the Yamuna river, the trees, Cows and even the sand start looking as if something is different about them. Any where you travel you hear chants of Radhe - Radhe, Krishna - Krishna all day long  (Even the rickshaw pullers say Radhe-Radhe in a pleasing way to request way)! The Lord is around you, somewhere! Krishna - Balram with Yashoda On the other side is the place itself, which is chaotic no doubt. Being a popular religious place, it is expected to be crowded and it is. By evenings, there are people all around and everybody wants to catch a glimpse of the Lord, be ready to be pushed and shoved around. But to me, even this chaos looked part of a divine design. To test the res...

Am Quoting an English translation of a Tamil poem composed some 2000 years ago by Avvaiyar "It is rare to be born as a human being, It is still rarer to be born without any deformity. Even if you are born without any deformity, It is rare to acquire knowledge and education. Even if one could acquire knowledge and education, It is still rare to offer service to the mankind and contemplate on the higher self. If one leads such a selfless divine life, The gates of heaven open to greet such an evolved soul." I Read this poem in Dr. Abdul Kalam's book Ignited Minds. It took a while to absorb the import of this poem but later two thoughts built up inside me. I am sharing them below: One that India had a thinker/poet of such high capacity as far back as 2000 years ago [Did some research on net to find about Avvaiyars (Tamil: ஔவையார் ). It means "respectable women" and is a  title of more than one poet active during various times of Tamil literature]. Ha...