Exactly 5 years ago, I had written an article on how great a deal it was turning 25 – stepping into Grihasthashram. Apart from the poor response and less-welcome comments, it had content that seemed completely irrelevant lately. I deleted the article.

I had to wait for 5 years and another milestone of my age to write this article. It’s an interesting stage from 'numbers' point of view.

While I turned 30 today, both of my parents are 60. In ITSM terminology, combined, our age is 150 years. If we were to bill God (or nature?) for everything we do on a day-to-day basis, we would have billed for 150x365x24 man-hours. Of course, I’ve gladly ignored my sister’s existence for this hypothetical example. But I like this landmark. Anyway.

For months, I had completely disconnected from news and newspapers simply because of the extent of negativity they concentrate on. I do have all the respect for media – paper and electronic – much more than what they deserve; still, I feel what we’re witnessing these days is the all-time-worst decline in journalism standards (so in India, at least).

Fortunately, we also have some quality options like Times of India – Crest Edition (thanks to Kaushal for referring this to me, I’ve been a regular reader again). I was recently reading about Security and Privacy in their recent issue (Cover Story: Dec 18, 2010). Putting aside Wikileaks and Assange’s method of reaching the truth, the message is clear that balance is disturbed. Bad is weighing over Good and if the Karmic Law is to be believed, we’re in for a big trade here.

I turned pages and appeared the epic 2G scam. People in the West are moving to 4G and our ministers (and Telcos) are spending billions to make sure we don’t move to 3G as well! Surprisingly, amidst extreme pessimism and negativity, somewhere I could sense the ray of hope. As they say, this too shall pass!

Author: Ken Blanchard, Margret McBride/ Publisher: William Morrow/ ISBN: 9780688169817

Dr Bharat Desai's review of "The One Minute Apology" by Ken Blanchard and Margret McBride:

• A powerful way to make things better.
• A manipulative technique for getting what you want.
• A power of forgiveness to improve or repair relationships, your business and even your home.

This is a rare book exploring a very important subject – poorly understood and hardly bothered. I will start with the most important issue that is,

1. “The toughest part of Apologizing is realizing and admitting that you were wrong.”
2. The power of the one-minute apology is deeper than just words.
3. The core of most problems is the truth you don’t want to face.
4. The longer you wait to apologize, the sooner your weakness is perceived as wickedness.
5. Without a change in your behaviour just saying “I am Sorry” is not enough.
6. Apologize not for the outcome, but because you know you were wrong and it is the right thing to do.
7. When you honestly express your feelings with someone you care about, you show respect for yourself and the relationship.
8. A one-minute apology can be an effective way to correct a mistake you have made and restore the trust needed for a good relationship.

• Done with all the books in your collection and wondered what mroe to read? 
• Hate fiction, and need a break from philosophical/idealistic books? 
• Ever felt that urge of reading but not sure what to read? 
• (With my limited collection of books, this is the permanent challenge I face every now and then.)

Well, The Economic Times Editorial page is the place for you. Of all the columns, ‘Cosmic Uplink’ has always done wonders to me. Without dragging it further, here’s a short story I recently read in that column. The message of this short-story is much shorter than the story itself – however, it channelises us to ‘the ultimate’. I liked it. I hope you like it too.

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." - Alan Cohen

“The key to change... is to let go of fear.”

‘Change’ as they say, is the only constant. It’s inevitable and it’s here to stay. So how do we go about living with changes (unpleasant, unwelcome in most cases)? I don’t have any magic mantra for that. My knowledge is limited to this webpage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change

However, one of my friends happened to find more. Here are some points from the email he forwarded. 

Most people appreciate change — as long as it's happening in someone else's life. We all admire those who face major challenges in their lives and grow from their experiences to become better and stronger people. How brave and exciting! What a terrific story! But when we face change in our own lives, we feel very different emotions: we feel doubt and fear, annoyance and anger, sadness and guilt.

If my existence mattered to you (in any positive way), you must thank ‘Vega’ for saving my life. (Or at least, for saving my aashiq ka thobda from getting deformed completely.) Vega is a helmet manufacturer in India, and one of their products is taking great care of my Einstein-brained head for more than two years now.

To jot another similar incident, apart from my own this last Saturday, a year and a half ago one fine evening Raghu and I (we all know Raghu well enough by now, don’t we?) were sitting in our hostel room. If I recall correctly, we were trying to synchronize some jazzy music over the LAN by playing it on two computers simultaneously and trying to create some unusual acoustic effect, just when Vaibhav came rushing in. Vaibhav (Puri Goswami) lived just the next door, and he had returned from work (from his MS internship place). Instead of going to his own room, he came to us and showed us his helmet and its left side. Then he told us the story of how he was stuck in the traffic near Pune University Circle, was going so slow to the left of the road (parallel to the footpath) and lost his control falling down to his left side. It was such a controlled fall that his two-wheeler was all safe, and his entire body was equally fit - apart from the fact that his head (protected by the helmet) had banged onto the edge of the footpath. It was a hard hit, he passed out for a while and lost complete track of what was happening. He had to sit back by the roadside for some time and then proceeded and reached hostel to tell us the story. The helmet saved us our precious friend, unlike the case about three and half years ago when the same helmet could have saved many other things apart from two important lives.

If there's anything like 'luck', then I've been the luckiest. Twice! Twice I've been privileged to see and hear their master-duo. Probably it all happened just to reinforce my strong-old belief that if one isn't into one or the other form of art apart from her/his professional work, s/he's always missing on something. As of me, such a life can never be called complete. Especially for we Indians (at heart, or at least on passport), in the field of art and culture, only the sky is the limit. Rich heritage of thousands of years of art in the form of dance and music (and many other fine arts), nurtured by the best in their field Ustaads and Pandits, it's tougher to find an excuse not to be associated with one.

It was a sheer coincidence since we weren't aware of this grand event till very morning. That is, the last morning. Thanks to our local non-reliable newspaper (which proved us wrong for this case), we realized Ustaad Zakir Hussein would be playing for Bharat-Bhavan in the evening. We reached the venue on time, being prepared for the typical formal event to be carried with bureaucratic formalities like inauguration speech, conclusion, vote of thanks etc. However, it was just the evening of surprises: the inauguration formality didn't last for long, which actually was held by the Honorable Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (Mr Shivraj Chauhan), and His Excellency Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Dr Balram Jhakhar. This eventually was my third meeting (encounter?) with the new CM of MP. Any way. The surprising part was that it was not just Ustad Zakir Hussein, there were also Dr Kanak Rele (MohiniAttam Classical Dancer), Mrs Sharda Sinha (Bhojpuri folksinger) and Swami Ramswaroop Sinha (Rasleelacharya) present in the squad!! Quite a bagful, I must say. However, only Ustad Hussein was to play. Still, it certainly was a bonanza!