Full Circle

The election fever is over and the results were no different than what I had predicted in my last blog.

Thanks to my BIL(Bro-In-Law), I have been meeting a few ppl in DC.

I have been fortunate to meet one of Bangalore's most admired IAS(civil services) officer Mr. Jairaj on previous two weekends. He was Bangalore city commisioner under SM Krishna and was phenomenally succesful in bringing out sweeping changes into the city. He is currently on an assignment in the World Bank here in DC.

Mr. Jairaj is an amazingly simple and humble person. He is a Delhi school of economics graduate and with degrees from Princeton and Harvard!! The humor he brings during his conversations is something to be experienced. As he spoke about his experiences as an IAS officer and the differences that he could bring about into the system I was often getting nostalgic. As a seventh grade student and even later during my high school, I was extremely passionate about clearing my civil service exams. I had collected nearly 60-70 interviews with IAS toppers.. I used to religiously read every issue of CSR. By 8th standard I had decided what my main subjects and optional subjects were going to be when I take up the exam!! But somehow the zest didnt last long enough for various reasons. I started getting attracted to the IITs(which I never made) when my sisters got in there and then ofcourse the IT boom took off and took most of us! Looking back now, I regret many a times that getting into traditional engineering and then IT shouldnt have been my first choice at all, It was rather a blind decision.

Today we had been to a Diwali gathering. I met two MBAs, one from Wharton and the other from Harvard. Both are IAS officers working at World Bank. One of them has worked under Naidu and the other has a Masters from IISc before getting into civil services. What I found as a paradox was, interacting with such people gives you confidence on one hand for a few reasons and on the other hand it also serves as a reality check.

A few years back I used to regularly listen to music for around 20 hrs per day. It had reached a limit. Then it had drastically reduced over the last couple of years. I am getting back to the groove. I have been having short bursts of intense listening :). As I am writing this I am listening to a classical ghazal from Mehdi Hassan, the rendering is supreme..

The place where we had been to on diwali, There was a guy around my age. I think his name was Uday. He has been brought to US from India to be of help with household work. All of us probably must have had an eye contact with him maybe once or twice during the entire evening. He would have never been to colleges, never driven around in cars ... and he will probably never be able to rise in his stature during his entire life...... and he is only one among several million others back home.

Current Music:
Kesariya Balam Padharo Maro Desh
Mehdi Hassan