I finished Shantaram this weekend and I loved it, it had me hooked and it rekindled my love affair with those fresh crisp printed pages bound in a glossy cover with a story to tell. While a lot of people usually get put off by the volume of a book. I look for them. I like thick, voluminous books running into thousand pages resembling more a saga then a story. A Suitable Boy, War & Peace & Atlas Shrugged are the kind of books that attract me at the first glance rather than put me off.

There is something about these multi-character, multi-track storyline spanning years that get me and I think it is usually the alternate reality that they transport you to. The character in the books are like friends in your real life, they don’t endear themselves to you immediately, it’s not before 100-150 pages have passed before I usually start warming up to the characters and start getting into “what happens next” mode. The novellas or short stories don’t give me that kind of luxury. Just after Shantaram, I picked up this collection of short stories by Yiyun Li and I must say that the two of the stories I have read so far are good reads but by the time you getting to sketch that mental image of Mrs. Su or Mr. Fong, you have come to an end. In no ways, am I saying short stories are any lesser. I myself dabble in them sometimes and I know that for lot of ideas and thoughts, that’s the best style of prose but I think am just wondering aloud why I love those thick books.

Back to Shantaram, the beauty of the novel is it’s such an intimate portrayal of Mumbai. I have spent some time in Mumbai and though I have just walked by the Leopold at best or been to World Trade center building once or twice and my only experience of slum is to look at them as my auto used to speed past the S.V.Road but still there is a certain sense of belonging to the settings of this novel which got me hooked as soon as Linbaba got down from the minibus in Colaba.

Though I can’t but admit that the novel did take a few artistic/bollywood-istic liberties but it was still one hell of a tale to tell. It may still not compare to two of my favourite novels set in Indian milieu – A Suitable Boy and A Fine balance, but it indeed completes a quartet of Indian novels (together with Midnight’s Children), I would strongly recommend to anyone who wanna form a reliable picture of India through fiction.

And now I start my similar journey to learn about China through fiction, about years of Cultural Revolution and the reality of modern China beyond tall towers of Beijing & Shanghai. And I am sure Soon I will find something to rave about.


PS: Just noticed this is the 100th post on this blog, just like Tendulkar it got a bit slow near the century but well, it’s time to look up the sky and take a fresh guard :)

And so just for the sake of old time’s, here’s a song recommendation for the day – a piece of nice poetry I heard in the latest movie “New York”
Jo tune na kaha woh main sunta raha
Khaamkhwaah, bewajah khwaab bunta raha…

There was a time when Australia adopted White Australia Policy to ensure that Chinese can't come and stay there. That was a really shocking form of official racism and now it’s turn of even more abhorrent from of violent racism ‘curry bashing’ that is targeting Indians. Not that racism against Indians is a new phenomena in Australia, I always heard of stray incidents like these from friends. And why only Australia, it’s also true for other countries – after my MBA when I had a choice to take up a job in either London or Singapore, one of the key reasons why I preferred Singapore over London was because I knew that Indians do face racism even in London.

Also, isn't racism just another form of protectionism. When Obama says that he wants to bring back jobs from Bangalore to Buffalo, is he in someway not promoting discrimination in an inter-connected global economy of today. It’s shocking at times when you look at double standards of western countries. First whiff of recession and years of talking open market at WTO goes for a toss with liberal-capitalist economies in US & Europe start talking protectionism, , US starts talking tax restrictions to discoursge outsourcing, after blaming developing countries for not doing enough on environment for years Australia decide to push back certain environmental regulations by 2 years citing recession.

I am reading Shantaram these days and there is this one line in that which stayed with me long after I have turned many pages. There is a French character Didier in this book and he tells the protagonist something which goes like “India is about siz times the size of France, But it has almost twenty times the population. If there were a billion Frenchmen living in such a crowded space, there would be rivers of blood. Rivers of blood! And, as everyone knows, we French are the most civilized people in Europe. Indeed, in the whole world.” Why am quoting it here is because I thought that what author meant was that the self-proclaimed superiority of west is to certain extent a result of being at the right place in right time.

The other day I was in a cab got talking to the cabbie, he was a Singaporean-Chinese and he had a theory why this recession won’t impact China and India. He told me that Indians and Chinese work had, work long because they know the value of money and so they will definitely survive these times. And probably the modern day racism is not arising out of any superiority complex but may be out of fear and frustration in west regarding this survival instinct of east. It’s a fear of those Indian kids winning spelling-bee, fear of Indian-Chinese kids outsmarting them in their own Universities, it’s a fear of these brown n yellow guys who were just smart team members once, now becoming the team managers. It’s probably this fear of competition which is manifesting itself in all the racism and protectionism that we are witnessing these days.

But coming back to Australian attacks, I hope that these condemnable incidents in Australia come to a halt and all the Indian students/professionals in Australia could live in peace. But if they don't, I wish that Indian students start giving Oz universities a so that these universities suffer. After all, lot of these universities which hold education fair in India every year make a lot of their fees from Indian rupees converted to Aussie dollars.

PS: One Indian I must blame for these attacks on Indian students in Australia is ARJUN SINGH, with reservation in higher-education, guys and girls have been forced to look abroad to realize their education dreams and thus expose themselves to such dangers as Shravan Kumar and Baljinder Singh have faced.

Great Indian elections ended this weekend with Congress getting a surprisingly decisive victory. And as they say - success has many fathers, so now everyone from TV anchors to reporters are falling over each other to describe it as a nationwide verdict for Congress, thumbs up to Manmohan Singh and charisma of Rahul Gandhi. I beg to differ completely from first two and partially from the third.

But before that I must clarify that I was hoping for a BJP victory in these elections. And my change of mind after supporting Congress 5 years back came because of three main reasons:

• Terrorism in the country. I have been really pained by utter failure of Congress government on internal security. Bomb blasts became rampant in last year and a half and all government did was to appeal for calm and patience.
• Other big disappointment was reservations in IIMs and AIIMS and other institutions of higher learning. I see that as murder of meritocracy and I was hoping that congress would be punished for that by Indian youth.
• Finally, 5 years back I had hoped that Congress would do better than push its communal agenda under secular guise but I was wrong. If BJP is a saffron party then Congress is a green party (given their links with IUML, MIM and potentially AUDF its more than obvious anyways). MMS believes that certain people have first claim to resources of our country only because they belong to a certain religion. Unacceptable !!! Just like I believe reservation should be on economic grounds similarly I believe that Govt.'s plan should help all needy and not just minorities.
  

But let's get back to election results, first question I tried to answer was whether congress victory in the elections really a nationwide mandate for congress ? I looked at election results in some key states and realized that it's far from that. Rather, congress won big in several states not because of any wave but due to lack of unity in opposition. Let’s look at a few examples:

- Maharashtra

Congress+NCP won 25 seats in Maharashtra against 21 for BJP-SS combine. MNS, an offshoot of SS, with a support base derived from those who supported Shiv Sena previously won none. Now consider 10 seats where Raj Thackery’s MNS was contesting. If you add votes polled by MNS in these seats to BJP/SS votes then in 9 out of these 10 constituencies - BJP/SS would have won comfortably. Result would have then read as 30 to BJP+SS and 16 to INC+NCP. So there was no congress wave in Maharashtra it was just a MNS dam that obstructed BJP wave

- Andhra Pradesh

In AP, Congress won 33 seats and “Mahakutumbi” opposition just 5 seats, PRAP of Chiranjeevi none. But PRAP got significant anti-congress voteshare. Of the 33 seats won by Congress in AP, in 28 seats TDP/TRS + PRAP votes are more than congress votes. Had PRAP been part of an united opposition, congress would have just managed 5 seats in AP and opposition would have won 33 seats. Congress wave - hardly !!!

- Tamil Nadu

Go to TN and you will find similar statistics again, had Vijaykanth's DMDK not split anti-DMK votes from opposition. DMK+Congress wouldn’t have touched half the number of seats they finally won.

So in my analysis of vote figures, congress won 85 seats in AP+TN+Maharashtra not because of any wave but mere disunity in opposition. Had there been no division of votes, Congress would have won only 35 seats in these three seats a whopping 50 below its final tally. So if UPA is 260 today and not 210, then credit shouldn’t go to Sonia or Rahul but to Raj Thackrey, Chiranjeevi and Vijaykanth.

Kerala, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Punjab was anti-incumbency vote and Congress benefited by virtue of being sole opposition in these states. In Rajasthan and J&K, Congress government has only been installed a few months back and they are still in the honeymoon period so in-effect they were basically riding on the anti-incumbency vote for the previous government that propelled them to power last year in these states. Call it a lucky timing rather than pro-congress wave.

Delhi did have a pro-incumbency vote but it accounts for 7 seats and to get only 7 seats out of 262 due to good governance is not something to be flattered about.

In West Bengal, the difference in vote share between left parties and opposition has never been too great. With Trinmool and Congress coming together as well as left’s blunder of becoming a B-team of congress thereby tacitly acknowledging status of Congress as key party worked for congress. INC+TMC was a smart alliance and arithmetically all they needed was slight swing to succeed. But I must admit that people must have seen congress positively to provide that swing vote.

And that brings you to UP, and here I will give the credit where it’s deserved. Rahul Gandhi deserves the credit of reviving congress in UP. Rahul had concentrated solely on UP over last few years and so he fully deserves credit for each seat won by Congress in UP. Frankly speaking, UP, Delhi and West Bengal are only states where one can say there was a pro-congress wave.

What proves beyond doubt that there was no nationwide support for congress are results from Bihar, MP, Guajarat, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Karnataka.

So, while there is no denying that results of Indian elections have all but sealed a 5 year term for congress but it would be a major mistake to see this as a countrywide undercurrent for the ruling party. Big Indian elections have lately been a sum of 28 small state elections and this one was no different. Only difference this time was that arithmetic worked out well for INC and to mistake sum of parts to be whole is over-simplification of complex Indian polls.

Hopefully, with leader like Arjun Singh & Antulay out of cabinet and congress no dependent on likes of Lalu, Mulayam and Karat, we could just be second time lucky with MMS. It might also help if pretense of MMS as PM could be done away with sooner than later and one of the Gandhi’s take up their dynastic seat as PM (Alas !!!). As for Congress's youth brigade - it's nothing but an extension of the dynastic politics championed by . All youth leaders in congress like Pilots, Deoras, Scindias and Prasads are not there because they have risen from grassroots but because their parents’ position perched at top echelons in congress.

But there is indeed a silver lining in this cloud and that is that country will finally have a stable government and Rahul indeed exudes sincerity. I am just hoping that better sense prevail on government in next 5 years or else we will be left to rue a choice that can't be undone till 2014.

Avian Flu – Mad Cow Disease - (and now) Swine Flu.
Wonder if this is nature’s way of telling us to stay vegetarian to remain healthy...

If I look back and have got my fact rights then all these diseases have their genesis in those pig farm or poultry farm or like. These farms which are men’s effort to play God, to control life and death of lesser animals, to alter the food chain.

And somewhere in form of these flus and fevers, nature is issuing us warnings to mend our ways & to restrict our greed. But, probably we are not going to get the message. In a few months, vaccine for swine flu will be developed and WHO will declare human victory over the virus.

But just as a parent is forced to get tough with a kid when he ignores repeated warnings, I fear that if we keep ignoring these warnings from nature we may just be exposing us to a far more serious lesson. But, I pray that this fear of mine is just that – a fear and nothing more.


PS: Just on a lighter note if we look at the pattern in first line ( chicken – beef – pork), may be next big virus is taking shape in some fishery.

I am beginning to dislike the word sorry. Its just like a mask – hides everything behind it and offer you a straight face. This word is used so often these days that I wonder if it represents “feeling sorry” anymore. Maybe we should no more use the word “sorry” for making show repentence. It’s only good enough to apologize for not switching your cell phone to silent mode during a meeting or to give a $50 dollar note for $5 cab fare. It no more moves you to forgive someone but only make you move yourself to make way for someone.

I have learnt that to apologize is not to say a mere sorry but to throw open your heart and let your genuine guilt show. To apologize is just not a promise to make amends but a sombre plea for repentance. To apologize is just not saying ‘I won’t do it again’ but to share why nothing could ever bring you to do it again. What move people is not how often you apologize but how you apologize.

I am not suggesting that apologies should come with elaborate melodrama. But I think that they need to sufficiently verbalize your regret & repentance. A mere 'sorry' at times does a great disservice not only to others' feeling but to your emotions as well. It leaves you wondering what more you could do to make someone yield and other to wish only if you could have done a little more...

There is a popular saying that “To err is human and to forgive is divine”. I think what it doesn’t say is “If you know how to apologize right then you can turn every human into divine”.

It was raining pretty hard outside. How I figured it – no not through floor to roof glass paned slide door to my balcony. That was shut with curtains drawn. I heard the rain…in one of those moments when TV volume fell off for the reason I don’t remember anymore, I heard the rain. Rain is a chatterbox, she talks and talks and talks continuously. Doesn’t matter if you are listening or not or interested or not, she just keeps talking in that beautiful modulated voice. And she has a few other tricks to catch your attention coz if constant talking can’t impress you then those occasional lightning will definitely leave you awestruck.

But I didn’t walk out immediately after hearing the sound of rain. I vaguely remember I went out to the balcony looking for something and there she had me. It was that fresh breeze blowing that made me go like one of those guys in TV ads for ponds and lux. Scent of rain has captivated me fully in that moment and I never got back to the room (but for fetching my laptop a little later). I just took the chair lying in the balcony and let that fresh breeze make my day.

Rain is not something rare here, what’s rare is walking out to meet the rain. When people ask me about the weather here am mostly at loss of words. Afterall, in the mornings you get out of your air-conditioned flat into the air-conditioned-cab that drops at your air-conditioned lobby so that you could take the air-conditioned lift to your air-conditioned office. For meals there is that air-conditioned passage from air-conditioned lobby that takes you to air-conditioned restaurants. In the evenings again something air-conditioned will get you to somewhere air-conditioned. And when you at home, you should keep your doors shut so that air-conditioners work properly because that’s what they say in manual. I wonder how much fresh air I breathe these days, may be all my lungs get is just this 'conditioned' air. And now as I sat in my balcony with that cool wind blowing right across my face I realized what have I been missing all this while.

I could remember my childhood days, the whiff of fresh air that comes along with rains was not a stranger in those days rather it was like grandkids of of our landlord who used to visit their grandparents every summer vacation but spent most of their time playing together with me us. Back in those days when I was growing up, there were no air-conditioners and we didn’t use to shut our doors when it used to rain ( not always I mean). I never really figured, was it because we didn’t want to or because we couldn’t. "We couldn't" because if it was to rain then it was pretty much a certainty that power would go off. Usual explanation used to be that some tree has fallen over power cables somewhere and so supply is disrupted. Inverters were still not in must-have lists then and so we used to keep the doors open to let the breeze cool things. And trust me that nice and fresh breeze used to make up for everything but the cricket match that one cant watch on TV because of power-cut. It was just so magical. We do have some trees here that flutter as strong winds blow but in those days when trees outnumbered people in university compound sound of all those trees going wild in those strong winds is an experience that I wonder I could ever have again in the concrete jungles i live in now. I wonder if calling that surreal or magical would be exaggeration – i guess not.

Back to present - I can still hear distant sound of lightning but rain has stopped now, so has breeze. All I could listen to now are the water features across my building, the TV inside the room which was on all this while I was sitting outside and noise of air-conditioned cabs making their way to air-conditioned lobbies as people decided to go and grab a meal or a movie at somewhere air-conditioned.

Why I won’t celebrate if Slumdog Millionaire wins an Oscar?

I finally saw the movie that world is going ga ga over - Slumdog Millionaire. And there are two people associated with the movie who deserve compliments – Frieda Pinto coz she looked ravishing and Vikas Swarup because I liked the way he presented the basic idea of the story that life at times teaches you much more than what years spent in universities could.

But unfortunately that’s where I will stop with my compliments about the movie. What about AR Rahman’s music? Well, it didn’t help that just a day back I had seen Delhi-6 with some excellent music by Rahman and if you ask me - Masak-kali or Jai ho? Well, masak kali for me, i don’t think any Indian walked out of hall humming jai ho.

As for the movie’s portrayal of India – well, I don’t remember another movie that was such a comprehensive collection of everything ugly about India. Everybody in department of tourism spending millions on ‘Incredible India’ campaign must be running for cover after watching this movie whose commercial success could undo all the branding they may have created over years. But yeah I won’t hang Danny Boyle for showing what he did because as few of my friends have strongly insisted – what he showed is what exist in India – it’s real, it’s the other india which lot of us see very little of these days but we can definitely not deny its existence. And they are right, what Danny Boyle showed is the other India. But I can’t help holding a grudge against him for dividing Indians into the ones who have never jumped into a shit-pool and the ones that did. I also hold a grudge against him for being so selective about his depiction of our country.

What if I promise to show you a rainbow and then show you a blue streak in the sky. But that’s not rainbow – it has 7 colours but see am just showing you a part of Rainbow, the blue part. So technically, you can’t deny am right – blue is part of the VIBGYOR that constitutes rainbow but guess you would still feel cheated and that’s what I felt after seeing slumdog. I saw just one shade of a multi-colour country and I know I can’t fight those who insist that the shade shown is actually one of the many that form India but I still feel cheated. Just think of those who never saw a rainbow before and when I showed them blue they just accepted that rainbow is nothing but a streak of blue – for many who have never been to India, this movie may just be what India is all about. The commercial success of this movie could well be the worst advertisement of our country probably after Mumbai terror attacks.

But may be my fears are misplaced, after all it’s just a movie. Should Indians take pride in this movie –I don’t know about others but I can’t take any pride in this movie by an Englishman that seems to be celebrating the poverty, crime and filth in India. I can’t join that celebration. But then in India – we really take international recognition a shade too seriously and a lot of people have embraced this movie as their own given all the golden globe and academy nominations but I fail to see what recognition are they seeking and recognition of what.

I want to make it clear that am not trying to wish away the poverty in India – it exists and we all hope one day people in our country will not be living in such sub-human conditions as many do today. Maybe, all am saying is that I saw this movie -I tried hard to like it and I couldn’t. So, may the best film win the Oscar tomorrow but I wont be rooting for the Slumdog Millionaire and if it indeed wins the award, despite all its Indian connections, its not going to make me feel any good.

Few of you may have wondered sometimes why in your class 6th or 9th examination papers – one word answers only had one mark while the essay type answer always carried 5 or 8 marks. After all, one word answers were always the more difficult ones and more accurate test of your knowledge – you either know the answer or you don’t. With essay type questions, even if you beat around the bush in not too distant vicinity you always had a chance of scoring 2-1/2.

But I guess it was probably because most important questions in life could never be answered in one word. Is it right or is it wrong, is it true or is it false – these are valid questions only in study of sciences and nowhere else. Least of all in life, which is a work of art spanning generations. Sometimes we see things in our lifetime which seems wrong and there comes the temptation to paint things black and white but we forget that in the grey of life – a touch of black or white is merely a part of continuum and not an absolute event.

It’s like mixing colours in a palette. You want to make grey – you put some white, then some black you realize the grey is not dark enough and you put some more black and may be some more white later. Now, our lifetimes are just long enough to witness a touch of white or black and based on our limited exposure we mistake things to be right & wrong or black and white but its only when we look at things in their historical perspective that we realize that what’s in the palette is neither black nor white - its grey and that’s how it will remain.

Lot of us point to various things which seems unfair and say look that’s a wrong but then life is never fair or just at any given point in time. It’s always skewed one way or the other but what it does is that it shifts weight as years pass by and so when you average things out over years life still seems fair.

Say for example the reservation for backward or draconian dowry laws for women, they may not be just but probably they are justified. Because the wrongs today are meant to set right the wrongs of yesterday. A generation pays for the wrongs of previous generation or the other way round a generation gets compensated for sufferings of the previous generation. At no point in time, what prevailed was absolutely fair and just but if we aggregate all the points in time may be all that happened was justified.

All of us must have heard the story of the blind men and the elephant. Each blind man touched a different part of elephant and made their opinion about what an elephant is like but none of them got their description right because all of them focused on parts but none of them remembered to aggregate those parts. And that’s why I sometimes hesitate to answer in absolutes on how I view certain events because they may just represent a dot on the bigger canvas of life. May be it’s worthwhile to step back and hear what others have to say and look beyond what’s obvious to your eyes before you step forward and put forth your view.

Probably photo frames are the happiest being in the world, after all they are always smiling – always, irrespective of whether there are people around or not, whether its day or night, whether times are easy or tough. Visit any home and you will find one of those photo frames smiling at you. Sometimes a solo face, sometimes a bunch of faces - sometimes those faces wear a broad smile and sometimes a mirthful laughter but one thing is sure they are either happy or very happy.

Few of you may say that am misplacing the credit, which should lie either with the smiling faces or the fantatstic cameras that capture those smiling faces. But I differ, do those faces always smile – no, The cameras also capture pain and distress but do those sad, distressing photos ever find their way to photo frames – never. They may adorn exhibition halls or newspapers or your private album or a folder in your comp or a CD in your shelf but when it comes to photo frames it’s always the smiling laughing happy photos that end up there. As if it’s some kind of utopian land that only lets in the eternally blissful souls.

May be the comparison is a bit contrived, may be it’s not but then sometimes it doesn’t harm to let imagination run wild and let it weave its own fantasy. After all, improbable fantasies are still the best place to take a break from the rugged reality.

It was a summer nobody expected and least of all the young sun for whom this was supposed to be the first summer. He took over as “the sun” last monsoon from his father after bad health prevented him to keep up with the demanding daily routine from dawn to dusk. It was a low-key bginning for the young sun, monsoons proved to be a playground for the clouds overflowing with rain and he knew that he was easily overshadowed. Then came the winter, for days snow, fog & mist reigned and sun was forced to take an involuntary Christmas break. But all along he remained patient and kept waiting for the summer that held great promise to him.

He had grown up listening to umpteen stories of summer splendor and summer-time heroics of his forefathers. His grandpa used to tell him all these stories. They called his grand pa ‘white dwarf’, a name probably derived from his long white beard that complemented his perfectly white hair and his dimunitive build. People say his dad will become a white dwarf too – that’s the natural course of aging for every sun. But for now only 'white dwarf' for him was his grandpa, who used to tell him those great tales every night. A few of those tales used to be about the bravery in face of cruel winters or ingenuity when challenged by crazy storms but mostly those tales told a story about the splendid summers when sun held reign. So he grew up to believe that summer is that time of the year when no one can challenge the absolute authority of the sun, a time when sun is at his glorious best. His grandpa also told him a few tales of those tyrant suns who misused the authority and scorched the earth and mistreated her during their summer rules but all those stories always ended with a good sun displacing the bad sun and deep in his hearts he knew that when he gets his chance he will be the good sun. And it was these tales and promise of proving his worth that made young sun keep his calm and patience all through the deafening monsoon and harsh winters while waiting for the summer.

And then one fine morning when he got up and looked at the calendar the page was turned and it was summer time. And so he dumped his suit, took out his bright T-shirt and went out expecting appreciative glances. But realty was far different, that morning was slightly different from winter mornings as there was no fog or mist and snow was long gone but he could still feel the chill and when he looked down it was still dark and it was still dark because of a bunch dark clouds that were blocking out all the sun and warmth. And this was the beginning of a summer which had surprised everyone with lack of sun & warmth.

On the first morning itself he recognized one of the dark clouds who were part of that bunch; he was not a new arrival rather he has been around since last monsoon. He had first noticed that dark and handsome cloud on one of those cloudy afternoons during the monsoon. As rains took a breather, the newly crowned sun tried to announce his accession by shining through and that is when that cloud first came in his way. It was as if he was marking his territory by refusing to let the sun shine – rain or no rain – and that was the beginning of a duel between them for the attention of earth that lasted rest of the rainy season. Sun remembered clearly that during those cloudy-rainy days that piece of cloud was always his marked foe and how he had wished that he could make him disappear and shine through but then it was not to be and the sun forgot all about it as monsoon gave way to winters.

Winters brought its own challenges; none of his grandpa’s tales had prepared him for hours of grind to break free from the morning fog that used to gobble up all his time till mid-day and the frustration of yielding to evening mist as early as late afternoon. But even during those times that dark cloud, overstaying his welcome after the departure of monsoon, did manage to cast his shadow a few times on those rare sunny mornings when sun succeeded in making an early imprint. But the fatigue of continuous duel with elements of winters made sun ignore those transgressions. After all, summers were just round the corner and the sun was thoroughly convinced that the summer will set everything right or at least so he wished.

And so when he first spotted that dark cloud ruining what was to be his summer, all these memories came back to him together with lot of bitterness. He did give a few days to those clouds to clear out, hoping they have just strayed on to his way but they refused to budge. It was as if they were the crusaders who were out to convert this season into a disciple of Rain Gods or a group of bullies who have been instigated against him by that dark cloud or may be just a group of guys who held personal grudge against him. As the days passed, the young sun saw his patience wear and frustration grow and finally unable to deal with the problem himself he decided to seek counsel from his grandpa and so he wrote a long letter to him telling him all about his struggle and frustration and a summer that was seemingly spoiled and requested him for an immediate reply. And next evening as he returned home, he did get his reply that read as follows:

Dear son,

I think there is one thing that I forgot to tell you and that is – “It’s not the advent of summer that signal sun’s reign rather it is sun’s reign that signals advent of summer”. Summer is not a panacea to all your problems rather it’s a celebration of all your efforts to solve all your problems. A turn of page in the calendar doesn’t signal arrival of summer, nor does the arrival of summer means that all your problems will just disappear rather it’s up to you to ensure that by the time that page is to be turned you have vanquished all your foes and doubts and you are shining bright.

Dates or events by themselves can achieve nothing; they are just a reminder for you to make efforts so as to achieve what a particular day may mean to you. If summer meant so much to you, then those dark clouds were needed to be dealt with and done away by the time summer heralded. says .Look at the earth, people celebrate Harvest Day but that doesn’t mean that they just hope that their harvest would be ready on that day ,instead they plan and prepare for to make sure they can celebrate that day.

Nothing in this universe is yours until you have made efforts to claim it. There would always be old & new clouds that will try & cast a shadow on your joy and clouds are not to be blamed for that – that is there karma – your karma is to fight with them, make them disappear and claim your share of the earth that needs to be lit bright. And until you have done that it’s not summer no matter what the calendar says.

Hope that helps

Love
Grandpa

When he finished reading the letter, he changed back to his night suit and then took out all T-shirts from his cupboard, the ones he was wearing since the day he saw that calendar show summer, and replaced them with his winter suits. As he went to bed he knew that his summer is not spoiled but only delayed and it’s up to him to shorten the delay.