Shanghai Dreams Come Crashing - Mumbai Rains

I have stayed in total about 4 years in Bombay out of the 23 years since I have been in this world. The rest has been in Nigeria, New Delhi, and now Dubai, with the maximum in the capital city of India. But somehow, I relate the most to Bombay as a person, to its people, to its challenges, and to its way of life.

The love affair between the Rains and Bombay residents would never end, and why should it!.

All the pictures below, are quite ironical... The sparkling life and excitement which the rains bring with it, and on the other hand, how the life simply comes to a standstill, in the Financial Capital of India.

The authorities boast about a Disaster Management Committee and Plan which works throughout, after the 2005 floods which paralysed this city otherwise always on the move. 5 years gone, but the plan is still not out of the planning stage. This is not just for the rains, but also Terrorism, case in point the 2006 Bombay Blasts, and the more recent 26/11 attack. The city was simply left stranded by the authorities.

I would prefer watching Bombay Dreams, than even think of the Shanghai dream being shown to all of us. [pretending....]

Sidharth Mehta,

Dubai, UAE

Please Note: You shall see the pictures only once you open the blog post, and not on your email screen. Click on each picture to get a bigger and clear view.

All pictures above are courtesy of Hindustan Times.

Life -- Thats the best way to put it !

Money has no memory. Experience has. You will never know what the total cost of your education was, but for a lifetime you will recall and relive the memories of schools and colleges. Few years from now, you will forget the amount you paid to settle the hospitalization bill, but will ever cherish having saved your mother's life or the life you get to live with the just born. You won't remember the cost of your honeymoon, but to the last breath remember the experiences of the bliss of togetherness. Money has no memory. Experience has.

Good times and bad times, times of prosperity and times of poverty, times when the future looked so secure and times when you didn't know from where the tomorrow will come... life has been in one way or the other a roller-coaster ride for everyone. Beyond all that abundance and beyond all that deprivation, what remains is the memory of experiences. Sometimes the wallet was full... sometimes even the pocket was empty. There was enough and you still had reasons to frown. There wasn't enough and you still had reasons to smile. Today, you can look back with tears of gratitude for all the times you had laughed together, and also look back with a smile at all the times you cried alone. All in all, life filled you with experiences to create a history of your own self, and you alone can remember them all.

The first time you balanced yourself on your cycle without support... The first time she said 'yes' and it was two years since you proposed... The first cry... the first steps... the first word... the first kiss... all of your child... The first gift you bought for your parents and the first gift your daughter gave you... The first award... the first public appreciation. .. the first stage performance. .. And the list is endless... Experiences, with timeless memory... No denying that anything that's material cost money, but the fact remains the cost of the experience will be forgotten, but the experience never.

So, what if it's economic recession? Let it be, but let there not be a recession to the quality of your life. You can still take your parents, if not on a pilgrimage, at least to the local temple. You can still play with your children, if not on an international holiday, at least in the local park. It doesn't cost money to lie down. Nice time to train the employees, create leadership availability and be ready for the wonderful times when they arrive. Hey! Aspects like your health, knowledge development and spiritual growth are not economy dependent.

Time will pass... economy will revive... currency will soon be in current.... and in all this; I don't want you to look back and realize you did nothing but stayed in gloom. Recession can make you lose out on money. Let it not make you lose out on experiences. .. If you are not happy with what you have, no matter how much more you have, you will still not be happy.

Make a statement with the way you live your life: How I feel has nothing to do with how much I have.

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Source: Identity Crysys !(if you got what I mean; UNKNOWN)

Of Sidharth Mehta and his Madness !

Here in Dubai, we have weekends on Friday and Saturday. I had been contemplating of starting my own blog for ages now, but never actually sat down to do it! Thanks to this particular weekend, where I don't have office work to bring home, I could take the plunge(a heavy word to use here,but so be it!) to start a blog.... 

I would like to thank Pranoy (a good old school friend) and his terrific blog which gave me the kick last week to start a blog on an immediate basis!

For all those who don't know me...(I am not so scary as shown in my picture attached! )

I am just another normal human being living a not so normal life. All the madness around us, makes this life not so normal. 

Hours of thinking and contemplating about business ideas, when to take the plunge, never content with the job in hand, plans to get into politics, starting up a 'stand-up social activist group', critisizing the 'damn what the hell' sort of people all around you, which includes politicians - the so called public servants, few not soo good friends having attitude problems , and also few good looking strangers who remain either strangers forever or get into a group of people whom I refer to as 'Known Ajnabee's'. 

As the tag line states, this blog would be 'discussing anything to everything',  which surely includes my interests in people, politics, military intelligence (non classified info obviously!), cricket, formula 1, business ideas, movies!, music, stock markets, art, photography, and also myself, other than the things which is material matter in our lives.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and hope it turns out to be an Interactive Madness Un Limited session for you. Enjoy, and do post your comments...