First part of Pinky questions can be found here.

***

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. They were in a car and struck in a traffic jam, only few meters away from the left turn they had to take. Pinky, her mother, her father, and their pet dog. Pinky was playing with the dog in the backseat while Nidhi and Arun were busy talking some finance-stuff that a nine year old kid like Pinky could not understand. They were on their way to a birthday party they had to attend in the evening and before that to do some shopping as well. They were struck in the jam from past ten minutes. Nidhi and Arun were growing more and more impatient with every passing second.

Pinky, oblivious of the jam and delay, was playing with the dog and was lost in her own world. Suddenly, a boy appeared out of nowhere and started cleaning the car’s front windscreen. A regular scene in the Indian cities if you drive a car. Pinky’s parents seemed not to notice the boy and continued their conversation. They have seen the scene several times before and the routine had failed to evoke any emotion in them after the first few times.

Pinky saw this happen few times before but never thought about it. She was lost in her own thoughts. Busy looking through windows and counting the two-wheelers or waving her hand at the strangers sometimes.

But this time, Pinky stopped playing with the dog, balancing herself on her toes she leaned forward in between the front seats to see who that boy was. He looked to be of her age with a shirt that exposed most of his bare and oil-stained shoulders and a little bit of his chest. His shirt reminded her of the cloth with which her father cleans the car. The boy was cleaning the windscreen with a yellow colored cloth by sprinkling water from the bottle he carried in his other hand. She noticed that he looked at the dog a couple of  times while he cleaned the glass.

He finished the cleaning and tapped on the window next to the driver’s seat. Arun did not seem to notice the boy in the least. The boy tapped again. Pinky nudged her father and waved her hand in the direction where the boy stood looking through the window. Arun gave a smile to Pinky and returned to the conversation. During this, Nidhi was punching on her mobile and sent a message to her friend that they were struck in a traffic jam from fifteen minutes.

The boy disappeared after few seconds knowing very well that his effort will not earn him a dime this time. Pinky watched the boy as he crossed the road and as he started cleaning a car window on the other side of the road.

Pinky knew that the boy asked money from her father as she noticed few times when her father gave a coin before. But she could not understand why her father did not give money this time.

“Papa, who was that boy? Why did he clean our car window?”

Arun was too busy cursing the traffic jam and never bothered to answer her question though he listened to it.  Nidhi was replying to a message she got from her friend.

Pinky leaned over and repeated the question to get the attention from her parents.

‘He cleans the windows and asks money from people,” Nidhi told while looking into her mobile.

‘Why?’ Pinky asked.

‘Because he wants money,’  Arun answered.

‘Why he wants money? His parents don’t give him money?’

‘They are poor and some of the boys have no parents,’ Arun replied.

‘Why are they poor papa?’ asked Pinky. Children are capable of asking you question after question until they find a satisfying answer. They keep on asking  you so many whys and hows.

‘Be…cause…’ Arun stumbled as he did not know how to answer that question. He never thought about it. Kids often ask few questions which we cannot answer and probably never wanted an answer for ourselves.

‘Be…cause…’ Pinky almost mimicked her father to get an answer.

‘They do not have enough money. So they are poor.’ Nidhi joined the conversation after she put her mobile into handbag.

‘Why they do not have enough money?’ Pinky asked. One more why!

Arun and Nidhi looked at each other and they knew they cannot answer or rather give answers which Pinky could understand.

By this time, vehicles on the road started to move slowly and Arun started the car and joined the rush.

Pinky stopped asking anymore questions and started wondering in her mind why that boy cleaned their window. She realized that her parents were not interested to talk about it.

They took the left turn and unfortunately after few minutes, they were struck in another traffic jam. Arun and Nidhi cursed the roads of India, government of India, people of India, and whatever they thought was responsible for these jams except the irresponsible driving by people.

One more boy jumped near their car and started cleaning. Arun and Nidhi, as usual did not notice the boy or rather acted not to notice. But, they were a little bit worried that Pinky would start peppering questions again.

But Pinky, jumped to the other end of the backseat behind the driver’s seat, pulled down the window and waved with her hand and called the boy to come. The boy stopped cleaning in the middle and and came near Pinky who held her head out of the window balancing herself on her knees on the backseat with her legs stretched flat on the seat.

After wiping the sweat off from his face and rubbing his hands on his trousers, he stretched his right hand expecting money from Pinky.

But Pinky wanted to talk to him. Nidhi and Arun did not want to interfere, fearing that would make Pinky angry and they never wanted their daughter to be angry while they are attending a birthday party.

‘What’s your name?” Pinky asked.

The boy smiled and did not answer. His right hand still stretched out in the expectation of a coin.

Pinky gave a five-rupee coin to him and told him that a boy had already cleaned the window few minutes ago and he need not clean it now. The boy pocketed the coin with a real-thank-you-smile and washed off few droplets of water which were left on the glass when he left the cleaning in the middle.

‘What’s your name?’ Pinky shouted.

The boy turned back, smiled, and then left.

During all this, Tommy, their pet dog, comfortably slept as the car had AC.

After a couple of minutes the vehicles started to move slowly and Arun started his car wishing to see no more traffic jams and no more window-cleaning while he asked Pinky to close the window.

***

I am sure most of us must have seen kids cleaning car windows at traffic signals in Indian cities. I am not sure whether to give a coin to them or not. I am sure giving a ten rupee note wouldn’t really bother many of us. But isn’t that encouraging a bad thing? If I give them money, is it right or wrong? Right in a way and wrong in another way. But I feel very embarrassed when those boys tap on the window and stretch their hands. Is it their mistake for what they are now? Whom to blame?

I am sure, this post leaves with more questions than answers. My intention was not to portray a cynic’s view of India. There are enough books already which project India from a cynic’s eye.

I hope you liked reading this post and would be great to hear your thoughts.

Thank you very much for reading!

In this article, I will try to re-collect what had happened in the last two months and see how it goes. This is more of a writing exercise. Here we go!

I couldn’t believe that it’s already almost two and a half months over after I joined full-time job on April 1^st, 2010 after I left my first job in Jan 2007. They say time and tide waits for none.

The first week at office was as boring as it can ever get. The place, people, and everything else was new for me. And in those initial days my friends used to call me and ask me whether I really joined a job, for most of them had lost any hopes that I will ever join a job.

I am little finicky when choosing friends. An introvert in the beginning. And at work place it’s so hard to make any good friends. So the initial days were spent lonely, wishing few of my best friends to be there. Randomly stumbling on to new people at lunch or at other times.

The first couple of weeks were more of getting myself used to the routine of waking up early and going to the office.

I couldn’t find anytime to update the blog as I am spending almost four hours in commuting to the work on weekdays and catching up with much needed sleep and other work on week-ends. Once I move to a near by place I wish I could spend more time on writing.

The first rule for a good work-life is to stay as close to the office as you can. It saves you from the trouble of going through the mad traffic and gives a lot of free time to pursue your hobbies.

After those initial uncertain, anxious, boring, confusing, exciting, and sometimes frustrating days at new workplace, I finally started to feel comfortable. I made friends with few people and slowly got used to the routine of going to office and working. In the initial days when I had free-time I used to either watch table-tennis matches at our floor or do some random surfing and reading on net.

During the free-time I tried my hand at learning TT and after those initial attempts I decided I should stay away from learning it. But somehow, after I watched a few people play with expert skills and for other reasons, I decided I should learn to play the game at least to the intermediate level. There is a satisfying happiness when we learn to do new things no matter what they are. And after all, it is a good physical exercise at office for we sit for long times in front of the idiot-boxes without much physical movement except for hands and fingers.

People at work place come in many flavors. If there is something as complex and mysterious as it can be, it is human motive. It is too difficult to understand people’s motive behind when they do certain things. But life is interesting only because everyone is different in the way they look and in the way they behave.

But life at work-place could have been more easier if only people are little less crooked. After real politics if there is anything which I hate, it is office politics. But they are inevitable and the only thing we can do is to learn to live with the reality. As my friends say, no matter how many jobs you switch, there is no job at which you are hundred percent satisfied. Life is a fu**ing compromise as one of my friends puts it.

Apart from work-life, the last two weeks of May were spent in the anticipation of Kalyan’s marriage on May 30th. Though I couldn’t spend much time due to the job, we really had lots of fun. There were countless times when I wished I had joined job two months later

Now that it is already twelve weeks and two paychecks into the new job, I am almost settled and the routine no more bores me. Have made enough friends to make sure I do not feel lonely anymore. And of course when there  is enough work, we have no time to think about ourselves.

During the commuting I was able to finish a couple of books. This is the best part of staying a little far away from office. You can get a couple of hours of free time in the office bus and read books or listen to music.

Now I understand why people hate Mondays, and wait for week-ends.

Here, I am done with the long left task of updating the blog. There is one more article coming up very soon! So, stay tuned

Thank you for reading!

I have worked as a free-lance web developer and successfully implemented web based projects in last three years. For reasons I could not really understand completely now, I have decided I should get back to a full-time job and pursue my career primarily in the field of user-interface development.

I started my career(or should I say ‘my career was started’, as I am not sure I myself started it) as a software engineer trainee at Satyam Computer Services Ltd. in Jan 2005. It was not long before I realized I must leave job and do something different. I worked there for two years before eventually quitting the job after two dramatic attempts at resigning and finally becoming intentionally-jobless in Jan 2007.

Initially, the decision to leave job and try something on my own was more of an impulsive kind than a clearly thought out plan. I found myself a misfit in the IT industry and desperately wanted to do something different with my life then.

I have no regrets what so ever. In fact if you ask me to brag a little bit, I am so proud that at least I have had the guts to do it. I know many people who hate their jobs every day and yet they never really do something to change. Many people warned me then that I may eventually ruin my career. I am still not sure whether they were right.

Thanks to everyone who have supported me in the last three years. I think I will run out of space if I mention everyone’s name here. Sometimes, I feel very blessed to have many friends and relatives who really care for me and have been with me through all the good and bad times.

A special thanks to everyone who read my articles here and sent me encouraging comments!

And a big thanks to my dad and everyone at home. I know how it had been for my dad all these years. But he never really insisted me to do this or that. I know how it feels when people ask about what your son is doing. It’s so embarrassing to manage.

And I am happy for one more reason too. Now I do not have to listen to the boring lectures from people about my career and how I am ruining it. Sometimes, I secretly dreaded to attend any social gatherings, as the first question from people would be why am I not doing a job? And then typical Indian middle class questions and comparisons which I started to hate.

I have learned many things in life whether they are technical or other stuff during the freelance years. I have met many interesting people who have become my best friends, and whom I surely wouldn’t have met if I were in job. What if I hadn’t left job? Like many other questions in life I will never find answer to this question.

I have discovered writing is one of my passions. I never took writing seriously before. Even in my wildest dreams I have never thought of becoming a writer as such three years ago. When I started reading many books with the  freedom of not being in a full-time job, I slowly developed interest in writing. Writing really helped me to understand many aspects of my personality.

Like writing, music happened so randomly that there was every chance for it not to happen. In May 2009, I met a music teacher at Isha yoga center, Coimbatore, and she taught me the basics of Indian classical music. With the kind of encouraging feedback she gave me, I have plans to take it further when the time comes and learn some form of classical music though I may not become a professional singer.

Though I miss my freedom when I am in a full-time job, I will have to find time for other stuff too while pursing the career seriously.

More than anything else, now, I realized I must take  job more seriously and build my career.

Wish me good luck on this new journey!

Thank you for reading!!!

Only a month ago, 1411 was just another number without much significance attached to it. Now, almost everyone who watches television even moderately would say that, 1411 is the number of tigers left in India. Thanks to the massive media campaign from Aircel.

For those minority who are not aware of this campaign, let me brief it here in a few words. Save-our-tigers is a massive media campaign by Aircel to make people aware of the extinction of Tigers and there are only 1411 tigers left in India as of now according to their statistics. They have created a website where people like us can pledge our support.

Yes, it helped the average Indian to know that Tigers are at the verge of facing extinction in India. Not to forget, Tiger is our national animal.

My whole point in writing this blog post is not to make you aware of this campaign. For that matter, I think most of the average netizens in India are already bombarded with ads and chain mails about this issue.

Frankly, I really do not understand how am I going to save tigers just by writing a blog post, or updating my Facebook status message, or ‘roaring online’, or twittering. I am not kidding. I seriously do not understand how this is going to help save the tigers, and let alone increase the count. If you have any idea, please do tell me.

I can safely say I do not know anyone who uses Facebook and killed a tiger in his life. So, asking an average Indian to save them is almost useless. And how about asking an average Indian to tell police when you come to know about tiger-hunters. Come on… are you joking, I ask them. Imagine yourself going to a police station or calling a helpline to tell that you know someone who hunted a tiger. I do not see this as practical. Not for a common Indian like me.

Brand-building through campaigns/advertisements with a social issue around them seems to be the new age marketing mantra. Of course, there is no harm in doing that. But I really hate when my inbox gets filled with such forwarded stuff and when I get an SMS asking me to save tigers. Especially when my phone buzzes in the middle of an afternoon nap. Come on… I am not a tiger hunter. Not even in my wildest dreams.

If we really have to support, we must actually help people like the following kid.

Cub Warrior

Of course, I came to know about this kid from this campaign’s website.

If there is something the government can do, is to really take steps to increase the count of the tigers. But how? Hey… can’t they just bring a few male and female tigers together in a dedicated zoo for them? And I am sure they know what to do. They do not need our help. Nature takes care! When there are enough  new tigers, they can be left on their own in the tiger reserves. But, I am no ecologist though.

My point is not to criticize or dismiss such campaigns. It’s just that I really do not understand how they are going to really help the cause practically. And being aware of something really doesn’t always help to solve the problem. Being aware about AIDS is no good when we actually don’t practice safe s_x! I know this isn’t a good analogy, but I hope it helped me to convey my thoughts.

And may be this campaign was actually started with a good intention with no commercial interest. Who knows. Now Aircel guys, don’t sue me for writing this blog post. I have nothing against you. Between, I have an Aircel connection even before you started this campaign.

PS: I wonder how they have come up with the number 1411. I mean how can we really count tigers? And did they count all Tollywood heroes who say they are tigers in every other movie.

Love Story by Erich Segal is a little masterpiece, and yet standing like a giant in the genre of ‘romantic novels.’ The book is actually based on the screenplay the author wrote and the movie was produced by Paramount Pictures.

Critics, however, severely pronounced the book as banal and not qualifying to be called as literature. The judges for the National Book Award threatened to resign unless “Love Story” was withdrawn from nomination.(source)

To hell with the critics. The book became a number one best seller among the general public and is widely read even today.

I wanted to read this book from a long time and never got the interest to buy, as I always had a couple of other books waiting to be read. A couple of days back when I was watching the titles of a Telugu movie, the director credits this book as the inspiration for the movie. I decided I should give this book a try.

Coming to my thoughts on the book, I think this is really a good book. For first, it wont take more than a couple of hours to finish with an average reading speed. And it really is worth the time spent reading it.

A love story of a Harvard student, whose last-name spoke more than his first-name, and a working-class girl. They fall in love and the guy leaves the fortune he was supposed to inherit from his father, to marry the girl.

Overall, I really liked the book and the signature line of the novel was so well written:

Love means never having to say you’re sorry.

The opening line is so intriguing that it’s hard to put it down after reading it.

What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who died?

Read this book if you have a couple of hours of free time to kill. Trust me, you wont be disappointed. But let me warn, this story has a sad ending.

PS: I had no plans of writing about this book here. But, today, after finishing the book I immediately checked in google to know more about the author, Erich Segal. I realized he died on Jan 17th. Exactly, a day before my book was delivered. That prompted me to write a couple of lines about the book here. And I hope you liked reading it.

As I type these words I am wondering how  fast the year has passed. Like the previous year I could not believe it’s the last day of the year today.

Well, personally 2009 has been a little eventful for me. No major ‘wows’ though. But, yes, there are few things which I will remember for a long time.

For the first time I tried to write a diary and did not succeed though. I wrote for a couple of weeks and then stopped. Blame it on my laziness and lack of commitment.

I have moved to this new domain in February. To make it short, my first blog was hacked and was penalized by google as it found some ugly keywords in my site which were inserted by the hackers/spammers. I decided to move to a new domain with my name and here I am.

In May, I went to Coimbatore and stayed there for three weeks in the Isha Yoga Center. Now, don’t take me as a hardcore spiritual seeker who is after enlightenment and such stuff. At least not for now. It was more of taking a break from the monotonous daily routine and do something new. Those three weeks were few of the best days I have spent in this year. Made a couple of wonderful friends there.(Vinod ji and Sunita, I am not sure whether you ever get to read this article, but you are two of the best people I have met this year.) My idea was to spend some quality time with myself at the ashram and get rid of the confusions I had, but I must say that I accumulated more confusion at the end of three weeks than when I arrived there.

In June, I went to Bangalore for a weekend to meet Deepak and enjoyed a lot there. Thanks Deepak! Visited few of the places in Bangalore. Bought a lot of books at Landmark.

My interest in writing had turned into almost an obsession this year. I devoured many books on writing. Started reading classics to see how the biggies of literature wrote. I tried my hand at writing some fiction too. Wrote a couple of interesting posts here for which I got a very encouraging feedback. Hope the new year inspires me to pursue this hobby more seriously and to better my writing.

If someone asks me to name the best book I have read this year, it  would be Animal Farm by George Orwell. I have become a fan of Orwell now.

I attended a classical music concert in July for the first time. It was a good experience which I will remember for a long time.

There are few other interesting things happened and I am not going to write about them now, for few of them are lil personal to make them public… and others I am not sure whether this is the right time. Keep reading my blog!!!

And there is one thing that hasn’t changed though. My status in Orkut and Facebook is still single… lol..

Coming to the new year, I do not have any major resolutions and plans. Because we can’t plan everything. But I am sure that 2010 is going to be a crucial year for me, both professionally and personally as there are enough things to sort out in life.

Thank you for reading and let me once again wish you a wonderful year ahead.

I was going through one of the articles written by a famous cricket columnist from India, and I was not sure whether he was praising Sachin or he was actually making fun of Sachin. He could have written in a common-man’s language so that people like me could understand what he wanted to say instead of confusing us by his literary skills. In fact, he forgot the fact that not all cricket fans are literary geniuses to understand what he writes.

There is a never ending argument about Sachin that he plays more for his milestones than for the team. Recently, during the Australia’s tour(2009) of India, the milestone of making 17,000 runs in the one-day internationals had become a hot debate in the media. If media hadn’t told me that Sachin is nearing this milestone, an average cricket fan like me wouldn’t know about this. Before every match, every news-channel and newspaper talked about this milestone. Few channels airing special programs about this and running SMS polling about whether he would reach the milestone in that match or not. The hype was created in the first place by media and not by the average cricket fan. There are few cricket fans who know every statistic about cricket. They are few exceptions.

Before the series began, Sachin was 137 runs away from 17,000 runs mark. The audiences in the stadium anticipated that he would reach that landmark in first two or three matches and they came well prepared to cheer for the little master. But the crowds were disappointed in the first four matches. In the fourth match it was more because of an umpiring mistake rather than anything else. Sachin was seven runs away and he was declared out with a very controversial decision. Of course the same media guys had huge debate over this decision showing all the previous mistakes which costed India Sachin’s wicket at crucial times.

With seven runs away from the milestone, he came to Hyderabad and in all cases everyone expected to witness the history being created. Sachin took 16 balls to score seven runs and he became the first player to cross the milestone of scoring 17,00o runs in ODIs. Yes, it was easy to sense that Sachin was a little nervous till he reached that mark. For me, it was more out of responsibility than anything else from Sachin’s part. What if he got out without reaching the milestone? What a disappointment it would have been for the thousands of spectators who came to the stadium to witness history being created? They were not disappointed and in fact enthralled to see Sachin playing as if he was back to his twenties.

Unfortunately, after hitting 175 runs from 141 balls, a knock which was praised by none other than Sourav Ganguly as the best ever from Sachin, India lost the match or rather thrown away the match after Sachin got out seeing India almost home in a crucial encounter.

For me, this was one of the best innings by any Indian cricketer. Chasing 350 runs against Australia in a high pressure match is not any easy. But Sachin made it look so easy that India almost won the match. And the other big names like Dhoni, Gambhir, and Yuvraj back in pavilion without reaching double digit scores, Sachin terrorized Australians with his superb stroke play.

Now, coming to the never ending debate that Sachin plays for himself rather than for India, I think this is a silly argument created by few idle brains.

When you criticize Sachin, think of what right you have to do that in the first place. You have a little  eligibility to comment if you have played at least one international cricket match for India.

This little man had dedicated his life to Indian cricket for two decades and still going as strong as he was when he started. He had seen other players come after him and retire before him. There was a time when if Sachin’s wicket was taken, the opposition thought that the battle was almost half won.

The funniest thing is, few people with a microphone in their hands and a journalism degree behind them, talk about cricketers, as if those very journalists have played cricket forever. I wonder how many of those journalists/analysts have seen a cricket ball/bat from close quarters except on TV. Come on guys, you have got to create more meaningful news than criticizing somebody who is playing for his country. Go get some other news and don’t waste precious time analyzing what if Sachin had played a square-cut instead of a scoop-shot and what if Dhoni hadn’t made that bowling change.

Sehwag made it very clear many times that Sachin is his favorite player and of course his inspiration. Sachin, without any doubt had inspired a whole array of younger generation to chase the dream of playing cricket for India.

Modern cricket is yet to see anything near to the phenomenon that we call as  Sachin, no matter whether it is on the field or off the field. Real gentleman of of the game. Do  you remember anytime seeing Sachin losing his temper and shouting at other players? I don’t think I have seen.

I am not a statistics crazy guy, but I learned that Sachin had won 57 man of the match awards till now in one-days and 15 man-of-the-series awards. That is a real statistic if you want to look at them. This should be some food for thought for those who criticize the little master.

Now that India officially lost the series, there will be enough news for the tv-channels to talk about for a couple of days.

India cannot win in every match we play.When a billion people expect the players to win every match, the pressure is sometimes overbearing. Nobody expected India to win the first T20 world-cup and nobody thought India would perform so badly in the second T20 world-cup. It’s all part of the game.

We have to enjoy the game more than enjoying the victory.

Having said that, I still remember the day I almost cried when India lost the match in 1996 world-cup semifinal against Sri Lanka. I was a crazy cricket fan then when I was a school-kid. When I was absent for the school, one of my teachers used to ask me what cricket match was there on that day.

If cricket is considered as a religion, India is a monotheistic country. Cricket is enjoyed by kids of five years old and is also enjoyed by people who are in nineties.

Stop criticizing Sachin. He knows when to retire, he knows what shot to play, he knows everything about cricket for that matter.

For all those critics of Sachin, we know that history will forget you, but Sachin will remain forever in the history of cricket.

PS: I am a Sachin’s fan and not a maniac fan though. I do feel sad when he gets out no matter what score he is on.

Chetan Bhagat released the new book on Oct 8th, titled, 2 States: the story of my marriage. It’s a story of inter-state marriage in India. Love story of  a Punjabi guy Krish, and a Tamil Brahmin girl Ananya. Marriage of paranthas and idlis, paneer and coconut. Chetan, in his own style, dedicates this book to his in-laws. In the disclaimer, he says, though the book is inspired by his own family and experiences, he requests the book must be seen as a work of fiction.

The initial pages of the book are set up in IIM-Ahmedabad. Krish and Ananya meet in the canteen for the first time and eventually over a few days of combined study, fall in love. Life is great for them until their families meet each other. It takes sometime before they realize that they may not be able to convince their families to support their marriage. The twist in the tale is, they want to marry with their parents’ consent rather than choosing the easy way of eloping. Inter-caste marriages are still a taboo in India and let alone an inter-state marriage of a Punjabi and a Tam Brahmin.

The meeting of two families on the convocation day at the college, sets the drama into motion. Rest of the story is about how youngistan fights oldistan to get the approval for marriage. The boy tries to get acceptance from the girl’s family and the girl tires to get acceptance from the boy’s family while both of them are trying to get acceptance from their respective families. I am not going to reveal everything here as I don’t want to be a suspense spoiler.To ease the nerves of those who involve too much into stories, let me say that it has a happy ending. In fact, how can it be made into a bollywood movie if it has a sad ending.

The cultural differences of north-indian families and south-indian families are portrayed very well in a funny way.

Humor is one of the best things in this book. Loaded with some really good similes and metaphors.

If you are a Chetan Bhagat’s fan, you will enjoy this book more than his previous book, Three mistakes of my life.

For those who are not fans of Chetan’s books, or haven’t read his books yet, I would say, you pickup this book if you want to kill a boring afternoon with  ‘a quick read’.

If you are a fan of literary fiction and classics, if you read more of Tharoors, Seths, Roys, and Ghoshs, I would say it is better you stay away from this book.

Coming to me, I am not a great fan of Chetan’s books. I enjoy reading his books as they are very easy to read. Yes, I do admire what he has achieved: success, fame, and of course money, with his books. I like his diction and his subtle observations and the way he weaves them in to the stories. I think, the best from him is yet to come. For me, the best till now is no doubt his first book, Five point someone.

To end, I am sure this book is going to be made into a movie. Unlike his previous books being made into bollywood films, this story best suits for south-indian  movies. Chetan, any of the Telugu movie producers already approached you?

By the way, do you want to write like Chetan Bhagat?

***

This is the story of one boy’s indefatigable spirit. Spirit to save his family from hunger and from poverty. William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, Africa. He was fourteen when he was forced to drop out of school in 2002, for lack of money to pay the school-fee. In the same year, Malawi was hit by the worst famine in 50 years, forcing thousands across the country to die of starvation. As a boy, he was always enchanted by the workings of the electricity and the wonders it can do. He had a goal to study science in Malawi’s top boarding schools.

He refused to surrender to fate even after getting dropped out of school. He gained access to a local library where he continued his education. When he saw the picture of a windmill in a book, he was fascinated to know that electricity can be produced by harnessing wind power. He thought, this would be his defense against hunger and decided to build a windmill for himself.

People in the neighborhood thought he was crazy when he actually started working on the windmill using scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves. But, he persisted till he produced electricity from his own windmill which powered few bulbs in his house and a radio to start with.

Watch the following videos to know more about this exceptional story of the African teenager who took the destiny into his hands. Get inspired!

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Video: William Kamkwamba speaking at the TEDGlobal Conference July 2009 in Oxford UK.

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Video: William Kamkwamba’s  first talk in public at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania.

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Video: Following is the short film ‘Moving Windmills’ which is being made into a feature-length documentary

William Kamkwamba, with the help of  Bryan Mealer as a co-author, written a  new book about his story of building the windmill.

Book: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first chapter starts with the following line:

Before I discovered the miracle of science, magic ruled the world.

I am planning to order the book from BetterWorldBooks.

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Images are taken from http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/

There are times when I randomly stumble upon few videos on the Internet, read few articles, which I want to share with my friends. I usually share with few of my friends and then forget. I decided it would be better to archive that stuff here on this blog so that the content is available to anyone who is interested in such stuff.

Hope you will like them when published.

Thank you!