Hi.... Hello... continued....

Prabhat Road, Pune.... A few years ago, this was one of the quietest, in the heart of the city, swanky living area.. Since, nothing in Pune can be quite called as 'quiet' anymore, this area has become noisy too..
There's specially one junction(there are many actually), while passing from Karve Road to Bhandarkar, on Prabhat Road (near the Fortune Building or Canal Road), which is hopelessly crowded....
Passerby's, cars, 2-wheelers all free wheeling. ! chaos reigns this 'chowk' (cross roads) on a normal peaceful day.. There are traffic cops and wardens in pune.. But they cannot cover every road.. And this particular junction is among the 'downtrodden lot !'...
If you pass by this place, u'll see a 'kaka', regulating traffic with practised ease and smile on his face to boot...
He is usually in a white kurta and white pajamas.. If you care to wait till the traffic subsides or starts moving along, you'll see this 'kaka' rejoining his brother at the vegetable stall nearby !
YEs ! he actually is a vegetable vendor.. He and his brother run the fruit n veggies place from 7 am to 10 pm.. They routinely also act as the traffic wardens at that corner...
Nobody applauds them for this 'not my duty' job... But they do it with a smile...
As for the shop, the veggies are first class and the 'kaka' ensures you have enough nutrition by adding a fruit or two to your basket !
All of us have a job / business to put our energy into...
Most of us are stuck in atleast one traffic jam everyday... HAve we ever thought of regulating the traffic ?? Why not take inspiration from our 'kaka' ??
Does he even know the saying 'Do not ask what your country has done for you, tell me what you have done for your country' ?

Hi..Hello…Good Morning... All the Friendly people say…..

Most of my writings are thought out in my travel time….
Nowadays, I take an auto from point A to point B, almost every morning to reach my workplace… The time taken is generally in the range of 15 to 20 minutes….
I pass by certain people and sights every morning…. The traffic warden, a particular vegetable vendor, a guy getting his shop cleaned up…..
I make it a point to flash a smile to a few of these people (its useless though, because m in a scarf, which usually covers 90% of my face…)…. Despite me being in a scarf and all, I still do get a few return and familiar smiles…I’ve wondered and wondered, do my eyes smile ? (well… m a little vain too ;) !) …Its enough to make me feel ‘all’s right with the world’ :)
I plan to make this series, where I’ll try to describe some of these people, whom I actually do not know at all, but seems like I’ve known them all my life...
There’s a pre-school on my way, Vivero International….
The school looks inviting enough to me, obviously since m not going to be studying there :P
But to any little tiny tot, being dropped to the school every morning seems like a harsh punishment, from their ruthless parents :)
Well.. there are a few exceptions, but then this echoes the general sentiment..
Ok, so this school has a small entry gate which is manned by a strict looking watchman / security..
The first day I passed by, I noticed his moustaches and thought, ‘what a strict looking huge fellow’…
And the next day… a mum n her whimpering kiddo at the gate… the ‘kaka’ (as I’ll address the security guard henceforth..), takes the little fellow’s hand, says something to him, he breaks out into a gleeful smile and walks in… The mum gets a reassuring smile from the kaka too ! One small gesture !!!!! The kid’s happy and so is the mum… Every time I passed by, I’ve seen a happy kid and a confident mom/ dad, that the kid is in good hands :)
It leaves me wondering… How many hours of work is the kaka putting in ?? Does he never have any problems at all ?? And yet, everytime I see him, all I see is the smile and the joy…. His smiles seem genuine enough to me…..
This ‘kaka’ reinforces my belief in the good-world…
Yes, the earth is still a good place to be……..
P.S. - The title of this post is one of my favourite poems, studied in std 1 or 2... reminds me how much effort mom took to teach me to say it with rhythm :)

M excited!

Lets begin at the beginning….
I do not normally classify myself a movie buff…. My bro or a couple of my friends are much more fit to be called buffs…. I enjoy a good movie… But that’s where the craze stops… or so I thought….
I somehow... don’t ask me how! pls.. stumbled across Big B’s blog... I have been hearing n reading that he blogs…
but today I ACTUALLY READ THE BIG B’s ORIGINAL BLOG…..
And he’s an excellent writer.. His thoughts are linked and simply put… M a follower now ! And m soo very excited like a teenager because I’ve left a comment on his latest post !! Makes me feel a little sheepish putting up this post….. :P ….But what the heck ! I am excited ! :)

ICICI – charges for NEFT….

Somebody has very truly said – There are no free lunches in the world…
I agree… But..
ICIC Charging for internet banking ?? What are we heading to ??
Do we start using paper cheques again ??
On an average a person like me makes about 15 transactions and money transfers…. Do I pay for every transfer I make ?? I’d rather use a combination of my other accounts and cheques….
It’s a big backward step for ‘heading towards paperless banking’
Request RBI to interfere and ICICI to please reconsider….
Couldnt we have something like - atleast 10 transactions free per month ??
Here's a link with details about
ICICI Charges