It is mere coincidence that I have been reading stories of two banias who influenced modern India. In my view it is also coincidental that the two happen to be banias; however even as they appear to taken two completely different paths one cannot help notice the the striking similarity between the paths. To begin with, for both of them, their way was the only way, both started their career abroad and came back to India to pursue their dream, for both of them children were a part of achieving "their" dream, role of their spouses, though not recognized as deserved, was very important, both developed huge following (both pro and anti), they both loved being called bhai and so on and so forth. If you have not guessed it by now, I am talking about Mahatma Gandhi and Dhirubhai Ambani.
Both the stories happened to have little more of whatever I was expecting and they both did disturb me a bit, in fact they left me a little unsure about the path I am treading now.
As I have started this post with mention of a particular caste, I would also like to make my views about caste also clear. I don't belong to the bania caste and I never consider myself of any caste except that I come from a peasant family. I enjoy anything related to agriculture, anything related to production and value creation in general. I have never used my caste for any favorable benefit and even dislike people using it for favors. I believe in equal opportunity and fully believe that given enough time and opportunity, any individual can achieve what any other individual has achieved if he wants to. Extreme cases may come to mind immediately but then don't take in the literary sense, look at it from a macro view and you will appreciate it.
The stories of the two banias did teach me that to achieve goals one has to be relentless and should persevere and never forget the beginning. Like Glinda, the Good Witch of North advises Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, "It's always best to start at the beginning." Let's get started
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
My Friends
As everyone else is celebrating Friendship Day around, I thought I would celebrate it by writing about my "Friends."
I am the eldest in my family and me ad my brother grew up at separate places except for few years, which meat we never strongly bonded in childhood, today we rather share a friendship than brotherhood. This meant that throughout my childhood, I was making friends anywhere and everywhere. I would not try and describe each of my friends but just try and list them in a chronological order; may be I will attempt to write about few in later posts.
Before I start listing down, I, with my whole heart, thank GOD for giving me such wonderful friends, who stood by me in difficult times despite my shortcomings and foolishness, who stand by me, if not physically but with a shadow of their soul hanging around me. As an extrovert, it was never difficult for me to make friends; one can always see me in the open hands posture for a new friend. Some of you might say that friendship develops over a long period of time but for me it is instantaneous and few of you may say that it must be mutual but for me it need not be. I don't know where I read this but I vaguely remember that it is from Gita that God is present in every living being including oneself and from that moment I tried experiencing it and despite being a judgmental person in nature, I started regarding everyone as a friend even if I had a reason to hate/fight them.
Let me get started with the list now:
1. Earliest of my friends is Mahendra from Govindaraopet, Warangal. He studied along with me till class 3 at Kakatiya Public School
2. Suraj was the next friend I can remember. I met him at United High School, Adarshnagar, Hyderabad
3. Next I remember Raghu who provoked me to study hard and come first in class in class 4 again
4. Then come my friends who are still closely in touch with me - Allam Praveen Kumar, M Srikanth, Chandrasekhar (chandu) and M Srinivas from Unique Public School, Suryanagar, Hyderabad. Two female friends Kavita Bandari and Praveena Reddy, I will never forget in my life
5. One of my closest friend with whom I share an intimate relationship - Amuda Vijaya Partha Saradhi, my diploma classmate
6. Ravi Kumar Popuri, a very generous friend and Ravi Sankar, my intellectual friend again from my diploma days, Sampath - a confused friend
7. Another friend, to visit whom, I specifically traveled to remote locations, Siram Srinivas, is special one. He stood by me in one of the darkest hours of my life. I can never forget the question I asked him and the reply he gave. He stood for what he believed and from that answer I built a new life
8. Ramakrishna Pavuluri - a colleague but more of an uncle and friend, MAS Charyulu-again a uncle friend colleague from Bakelite Hylam days
9. My boss friend - Rajendra Kumar Kandikonda
10. My guru friend - Nanduri Jagannadham
11. My enlightened friend - Sadanandam, all the above from Bakelite Hylam again
12. Trimurthy Ragi, a friend from whom I learnt how to live life
13. Sivakumaran - a dear colleague
14. Rummy Sharma, Rohan Kashyap, Ritu Raj, Poulomi Ghosh, Shibabrato Ghosh, Sawan, Satya Prakash, Chidanandam, Bhaskar, Srinivas Reddy, Prashanthi, Suryanarayana DSN, Sireesh KK, Ram Goutham from Middle Earth Consultants, Hyderabad
15. Venkata Raman Govada, a special friend again from Bakelite Hylam days
16. From ISB, if I have to list there are many but those who come my mind are - Rao Korupolu, Suhail Abrol, Anandram Narasimhan, Gauravjeet Singh, Sudhanshu Bankata, Viswa Kirti, Nidhi Reddy, Sonali Sighal, Ratnakar Gore, Arun Kumar Singh, Alka, Amit Goel, Ankur Agarwal, Ashish Naredi, Dhiraj Kumar, Dinaz Vervetwala, Karthik Polasani, Krishna Chaitanya, Narayanan Krishnan, Nisha, Deepthi and Sumit Gared, Parag Rastogi, Pradeep, Pradyot, Swati, Pavana, Shikha&Amit, Shallabh Pal, Varun Khullar and many more
17. Deeptha and her husband (who helped with my AIMA project)
17. Aman Tripathi (where are you)
18. Peter Ballem, Rajeev Kumar, Rajender, Pandyan, Rimjhim, Shirisha Boda, Sarat Sahu, Sujata Joseph
19. P G Venkateswaran and family - my dearest friend
20. Sravan Dasoju - a friend who showered me with his goodwill
21. Sunil Godavarthy (AIMA friend)
22. Anil Rawal, Anil Chilukuri and Abhishek Ranjan from ADAG
23. 100g - a special friend
If I have missed someone, I apologize but if I recall a name, will append this list. I once again thank each and everyone and many more for making my life a worthy one.
I am the eldest in my family and me ad my brother grew up at separate places except for few years, which meat we never strongly bonded in childhood, today we rather share a friendship than brotherhood. This meant that throughout my childhood, I was making friends anywhere and everywhere. I would not try and describe each of my friends but just try and list them in a chronological order; may be I will attempt to write about few in later posts.
Before I start listing down, I, with my whole heart, thank GOD for giving me such wonderful friends, who stood by me in difficult times despite my shortcomings and foolishness, who stand by me, if not physically but with a shadow of their soul hanging around me. As an extrovert, it was never difficult for me to make friends; one can always see me in the open hands posture for a new friend. Some of you might say that friendship develops over a long period of time but for me it is instantaneous and few of you may say that it must be mutual but for me it need not be. I don't know where I read this but I vaguely remember that it is from Gita that God is present in every living being including oneself and from that moment I tried experiencing it and despite being a judgmental person in nature, I started regarding everyone as a friend even if I had a reason to hate/fight them.
Let me get started with the list now:
1. Earliest of my friends is Mahendra from Govindaraopet, Warangal. He studied along with me till class 3 at Kakatiya Public School
2. Suraj was the next friend I can remember. I met him at United High School, Adarshnagar, Hyderabad
3. Next I remember Raghu who provoked me to study hard and come first in class in class 4 again
4. Then come my friends who are still closely in touch with me - Allam Praveen Kumar, M Srikanth, Chandrasekhar (chandu) and M Srinivas from Unique Public School, Suryanagar, Hyderabad. Two female friends Kavita Bandari and Praveena Reddy, I will never forget in my life
5. One of my closest friend with whom I share an intimate relationship - Amuda Vijaya Partha Saradhi, my diploma classmate
6. Ravi Kumar Popuri, a very generous friend and Ravi Sankar, my intellectual friend again from my diploma days, Sampath - a confused friend
7. Another friend, to visit whom, I specifically traveled to remote locations, Siram Srinivas, is special one. He stood by me in one of the darkest hours of my life. I can never forget the question I asked him and the reply he gave. He stood for what he believed and from that answer I built a new life
8. Ramakrishna Pavuluri - a colleague but more of an uncle and friend, MAS Charyulu-again a uncle friend colleague from Bakelite Hylam days
9. My boss friend - Rajendra Kumar Kandikonda
10. My guru friend - Nanduri Jagannadham
11. My enlightened friend - Sadanandam, all the above from Bakelite Hylam again
12. Trimurthy Ragi, a friend from whom I learnt how to live life
13. Sivakumaran - a dear colleague
14. Rummy Sharma, Rohan Kashyap, Ritu Raj, Poulomi Ghosh, Shibabrato Ghosh, Sawan, Satya Prakash, Chidanandam, Bhaskar, Srinivas Reddy, Prashanthi, Suryanarayana DSN, Sireesh KK, Ram Goutham from Middle Earth Consultants, Hyderabad
15. Venkata Raman Govada, a special friend again from Bakelite Hylam days
16. From ISB, if I have to list there are many but those who come my mind are - Rao Korupolu, Suhail Abrol, Anandram Narasimhan, Gauravjeet Singh, Sudhanshu Bankata, Viswa Kirti, Nidhi Reddy, Sonali Sighal, Ratnakar Gore, Arun Kumar Singh, Alka, Amit Goel, Ankur Agarwal, Ashish Naredi, Dhiraj Kumar, Dinaz Vervetwala, Karthik Polasani, Krishna Chaitanya, Narayanan Krishnan, Nisha, Deepthi and Sumit Gared, Parag Rastogi, Pradeep, Pradyot, Swati, Pavana, Shikha&Amit, Shallabh Pal, Varun Khullar and many more
17. Deeptha and her husband (who helped with my AIMA project)
17. Aman Tripathi (where are you)
18. Peter Ballem, Rajeev Kumar, Rajender, Pandyan, Rimjhim, Shirisha Boda, Sarat Sahu, Sujata Joseph
19. P G Venkateswaran and family - my dearest friend
20. Sravan Dasoju - a friend who showered me with his goodwill
21. Sunil Godavarthy (AIMA friend)
22. Anil Rawal, Anil Chilukuri and Abhishek Ranjan from ADAG
23. 100g - a special friend
If I have missed someone, I apologize but if I recall a name, will append this list. I once again thank each and everyone and many more for making my life a worthy one.
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