Monumental waste: INR 350 cr Shivaji statue

I was so excited to hear this news!!!

Wow! A statue in India bigger than a statue of Liberty! So what if our Prime Minister has declared most part of our country drought prone. . .

Well, we can definately afford it as such we have trillions of dollars worth black money lying in Swiss bank accounts, so why not little more of stripping our economy?

Our Govt is proudly boasting that this statue of Shivaji Maharaj will rival NY's Statue of Liberty, a statue that was build 110 years back! Don't we have anything to compete that was build recently? Burj Dubai !! Wont it make us feel more proud?

If our Govt thinks that they need to do something for our cultural heritage, there must hundreds of endangered monuments, structures which are part of our cultural heritage dying slowly towards destruction due to lack of funds. The Govt has funds to build new structure but dont care about what we have been gifted by our ancesters!!! Can you imagine what can be the face of our city like Mumbai if this amount is spent on beautification of the city??

I agree that this statue will attract tourists across the globe and will generate revenue... but will it really seduce the people to put this statue in their 'wishlist'? I doubt... Mumbai city has so much to offer that one more 'must see' wont make much difference...

I wont re-utter the same crap that our country needs to invest more in infrastructure and other development projects, but atleast our so-called janta ke sevaks should think how these funds can be utilized to get optimum return in any kind..

Getting re-vived

It feels bit strange to pen (make it type) down thoughts after a gap of almost four months... Lots of reason behind this agyatwas, but could not hold more... so I am back to business.

A lot has happened in social and personal life during these four months... few good memories and couple of terrible ones too...

As I am getting lil old, I would be able to share one of the good thing that happened to me few days back... I accidently bumped on a friend whom I had lost almost twenty years back!!!! Yeah, we were schoold buddies and lost each other's touch after third grade due to change in school and city. I had tried couple of times to track him down by orkuting n facebooking with no luck.

But, one fine day I see this guy's post on a networking site!!!! Couldn believe that I had found a friend after a span of twenty years!!!

Miracles still do happen :)

G T Sheth '97 Alumni- Sincere efforts always pays well

Who could have ask for more?? It is beyond our imagination to see our event catching eyes not only in Rajkot city, but also whole gujrati community spreaded across the world.

Bharatsir highlighted our small effort by publishing the event in daily news paper 'Phulchhaab'. The news has been published in Gulmor suppliment dated 10/4/2009.

Nostalgia @ Re-union (G T Sheth '97 Alumni)

Finally, we saw, we heard and we felt what we were eagerly waiting for more than two months...

REVIVE- Re-union of all families of G T Sheth '97 batch which not comprised of ex-sutdents and faculty members but also family of our friend late Kunal Mehta who expired on our journey to this challenging world.

To give a helping hand to guys who have been continously putting efforts to make this re-union more eventful, I decided to land up in Rajkot by friday. But all I could do was to engage the whole team in more of khana-peena(non-alchoholic) and less of work... Fortunately, there was nothing left for the last few days as all team mates were well equipped and had done everything possible on this earth.

D-Day:
Rajkot, which bears an accolade of bearing highest tempreature in Saurashtra was our biggest challenge. The venue was a open garden plot with a small stage at Chowki Dhaani, which meant lot of trouble on account of high tempreature.

But due to well wishes of our elders and friends, nature shaded the whole city with clouds and to add more comfort, showered few droplets right before the event. It was beyond our imagination to have such pleasant atmosphere in sizzling summer.

As expected, most of the people had turned up for the event excluding few who could not manage due to unavoidable circumstances and few who did not wished to manage.

The faculty who once enlightened our mind and soul, lighted diyas preceding Vincy Malkan's inaugural speech. Most of the students including me, received most expensive gift from our beloved Dipti Ma'm who also showed us birthday cards prepared by our school mates on her birthday 15 years back!!

It was very nice to see all mates almost after a decade with their family, happy and eager to know about each other. By God's grace, everyone seemed to be in their best health, peace & prosperity....

At the end of the event, the most including the faculties concluded to have a bigger event in future. I am sure, those who could not manage to attend this event will definetly look forward for the next event....

Checking crime, tracking crime

I am fond of watching 'super-fast' news every morning. The most common news one can find almost every day is abduction, dacoity, theft, rape, murder and much more in metro cities particularly in Delhi and Mumbai.

Delhi, being a national capital should be as good as heaven for the innocent citizens, but on the contrary it is becoming a hub for all kind of small and big crimes. I wonder why and how local police and other security forces are unable to check these crimes and atrocities against helpless citizens.

Its not the case that this post is all about blasting off on the security lapse or less effective control in checking crime. The police force have been quite successful in solving crimes, but is only our security force responsible for checking and tracking crime?

We, as a citizen, simply avoid any involvement in eradicating criminal offense.

Couple of days back, a girl named Jigisha working in a BPO was murdered. Police and news channel states that the criminals used her credit cards in purchasing some expensive items from stores. All the criminals were involved were males. They had used the credit cards of Jigisha, a female. So, how come the shop keeper who accepted the card did not noticed such vast difference? The shop owner should have questioned the culprits regarding ownership of card.

No doubt that these murderers will be punished as the murder case has been resolved. But the shop-owner along with the person who accepted the credit card should also be penalized and punished.

Pasta in Vodka Sauce with garlic bread

I wonder why people go out and shed so much of money eating out when you can prepare exotic dishes in no time. It not only saves time, but also gives you a satifaction of having a good and hygenic food.

The restaurents which serves few italian dishes like pasta are either too expensive to afford or too much tasteless.

Pastas/Spaghetti is generally prepared in varied combination of sauces, herbs and vegetables. Once you get accustomed to the taste or blend of pasta, you can prepare a wide range of delicacies by adding differenct ingredients to pastas.

My favorite sauce for pasta is full of tomatoes, chillies, onion-garlic and a few vegetables. Once the pasta or spaghetti is cooked, saute some garlic cloves along with onions and chillies. Add ginger-garlic paste to add some tangy taste. Now add some tomatoe puree along with red chilly powder and turmeric powder. Cover the pan for four to five minutes so the puree is cooked properly. Now, you can add vegetables like carrot, green pepper, peas microwaved for around four minutes. For, people looking out something different, a cup of vodka or wine can be added but make sure to keep the flame at lowest level while adding vodka. Now, add boiled pasta or spaghetti and simmer for couple of minutes. The pasta is ready to eat.

Desi garlic bread are quick to prepare and good to eat. Apply some butter on any bread. Sprinkly some garlic salt on the bread. If the garlic salt is not available, one can spread garlic paste with common salt on the bread. Pre-heat the oven and put it on convection mode. Now, put the breads on upper rack for about 3 minutes and the garlic bread is ready to accompany pasta.

Holi Hai!!!

Here comes the most colorful, dirty n flirty fest of the country.... Holi!!Being a proper Surti (in every aspect), I fail miserably to imagine any fest or occasion without lots of khana-peena (food n beverages) and masti. This holi, there were a few people who were made victims of the rowdiness of our inner (can say 'sinner') soul.. Harish who happens to be one of our own gang was not even spared. He played a perfect role of a guinea pig by taking in all type of color, mud and god knows what... :)


The guys were all equipped with latest colors which reminds one how brutally he was colored for days...

The next victim Aman aka Chaman Jingaaa who kept on cursing us till we left him totally ruined..

Mr Patel being a great sport showed up after some time mentally prepared for all torture, but seemed to be more afraid of Mrs Patel rather than us and kept on looking up for the wrath of her better half.... :)