The harley Creed

We believe in going our own way no matter which way the rest of the world is going
We believe in balking the system which smashes individuals like bugs on a windshield
Some of us believe in the man upstairs….All of us believe in sticking it to the man down the earth
We believe in the Sky and we don’t believe in the sun-rough
We believe in Freedom

We believe in dust, tumbleweeds, buffaloes mountain ranges and riding out into the sunset
We believe in Saddle Bags, and we believe in that cowboys had it right
We believe in refusing to knuckle under to anyone
We believe in wearing black coz it doesn’t show any dirt or any weakness
We believe the world is going soft then we are not going along with it
We believe in motorcycle rallies that last a week
We believe in roadside attractions, gas stations, hot dogs and finding out what’s over the next hill
We believe in rumbling engines distance of the size of the garbage cans,
Fuel tanks designed in 1936, freak train size hand bikes, chrome and custom painted
We believe in flames and skulls
We believe that life is what you make it and we make it one hell of a ride
We believe that the machine you sit on can tell the world exactly where you stand
We don’t care what everyone else believes
.......Amen

And if the words don’t draw you close to the passion which millions of riders across the world share then watch this amazing video.

Yesterday Vijay sent me a link to one of the threads on the Pagal Guy. Post number 53 read something like this –

"I've been a little pensive for the last couple of days. Loads of things bearing upon me, but then tonight was at my friend's place who came back after an extended weekend hike and trek. I asked him what he did in the last couple of days. He smiled and answered.

1. 2 x 6 hours treks
2. Drove a car in an empty parking lot
3. Flew an aircraft with the instructor sitting besides him.

Surely no mean feat for a Wharton dude eh .. This friend of mine is completely blind and is attending Wharton. If these people dont inspire you to be a bigger and better person - I doubt nothing else will. I take one look at him and I feel small. My worries are small, my concerns are small and heck my shortcomings are smaller. Run baby .. run.. ”

Hats off to the Guy. Incidents like these just reinforce my faith in a pledge I had taken log back – I had decided never to hand out alms to anyone at any point in time.
Since then I have always tried to help people not by money but by showing them opportunities or encouraging them towards earning a respectable living. A few incidents which I can recall, I would definitely like to share –

1. In 2004, Chandigarh, outside PT - Irrespective of the fact that I had polished my shoes 2 hours back, I get them polished again from a kid who requests to do that for me for 5 Bucks. I happen to be standing with a few friends whom I encourage to do the same.
2. Indore, café Coffe Day – After a hot cup of coffee, as Jassi put his hands in his pocket to hand out alms to a kid, I scold him and make him talk to clean my bike if he want to earn money. And he sincerely does so to my and Ravi’s bike.
3. I buy towels and even balloons on red lights which I always feel are better than handing out 2 bucks to a lady begging in front of your window with a child on her side.

There are two basic reasons for which I feel what I am doing is better than most of the people around me do –

1. It is a outrage (forget insult) to people like my friend in Wharton who overcome all odds to make a carve out a place for themselves in this world. I am not arguing that every specially abled person goes to Wharton. My simple argument is that whatever be the odds every man/woman must earn his/her place in this world. Inspirations are everywhere; we just need to open our eyes to it.
2. Handing out alms discourages people towards working hard.

Incidents and news like these strengthen my belief that I am working in the right direction.

Though this begging population in India is small (according to Indian census beggars are merely half a million) but if people like us can help them realize that their existence can only be realized through hard-work and not by their cries for alms; I am sure we can change the face of India and this world for better.

Is it possible to live without a Religion?

Yesterday, I happened to read an article by Dilip which made me go into the philosophical mode. I concur with Khalil when he says –

“Thought is a bird of space which in the cage of words can unfold its wings but cannot fly”.

but still instead of letting the conversations which I had with myself die down, I thought of penning them down.

Thought 1 –

Is it possible to live without a religion?

Thought 2 –

What is a religion?

- Till date, the world is struggling in finding out an appropriate definition of religion. But I believe a religion to be a set of thoughts, principles, facts and behavior which guides a person to overcome his fear of the unknown.

Thought 3 –

Why do people fear the unknown?

- Fear of the unknown can be used interchangeably with the fear of change.

Thought 4 –

Then why do people fear from change?

- No one fears change by birth. Rather a child is the best explorer. His sense of exploration is overcome by the feeling of fear by two things –

o When his explorations yield results in form of physical agony which for a child is a disincentive to further explore the source of his agony e.g. when child touches a heated press.

o Unknowingly parents would induce this fear within the child through punishments e.g. the child is scolded when he picks up a sharp tool like a razor or knife. Even though it might be for the good of the child; but a child is a very fast learner. When he finds no reward in exploring things like “the burning effect of fire”, “pain of a cut by knife” etc and instead is always garlanded with punishments, he gradually stops his exploits to please the ones who give him comfort – his parents. He starts depending on his parents for an art which they have long forgot – “Exploring the unknown”.

- As an individual starts depending on others to tell him what is good for him and what not - he starts fearing the change and the unknown whenever he has to face them by himself.

- Whenever needed, he would turn to someone for advice who has been introduced to him as an expert in that field.

- In the event of a lack of any expert (Guru), he turns to the set of thoughts, principles, facts and behaviors which someone spoke of at some point of time and which are now encapsulated in the form of a religion. These thoughts and principles act as a lighthouse for him not only for his day to day fears but also to his gravest fear – “Death”.

- We get introduced to a religion normally by our parents and peers. Some get chance to explore them and some don’t. But ironically, majority is formed by those who haven’t even explored the first religion they were introduced to. They simply rely on others to tell them that this religion is right so follow it.

Thought 5 –

This means that the purpose of every religion is the same?

- Yes.

Thought 6 –

Then, why so many religions?

- Years ago, someone must have sat down and done some kind of philosophical and psychological analysis and derived a few facts shortlisted a few principles to follow. Some of them we know; like Buddha, Mahavir and other learned men of their times. Sharing these analyses of theirs might have benefited quite a few men who shared them further. If you take a closer look into the history of most of the religions, you would find two common things across them –

o No two religions originated at the same place and around the same time period. Moreover, the same religion took time to spread in the region within the vicinity of its origin. The major factor can be attributed to the lack of the highly sophisticated communication network as the one we have today. (Man...., thats why I love this add).

o None of the people who are “Supposed” to have started a religion wrote down their analysis (which people term as preaching today); they merely shared it with others verbally. These analyses were merely based on empirical study and the validation was always in progress during their lifetime.

- As people slowly realized that these thoughts and principles are a panacea to all their worldly problems, they started following them in a dutiful manner. Herd mentality is not the problem of this century. It’s been there for long enough to get supporters for any new religion.

- Now as times were different, people (Preachers) were different, places were different and there was huge communication barrier in terms of geography - thoughts cannot be shared. This meant that someone with a set of analysis in India would not know that a similar analysis had been done in China by someone else. And hence religions kept on increasing.

- There is another reason too – As no one took the responsibility of the propagating the religion formally, it was a kind of mass movement which brought people together. History tells us that gradually as leaders, kings and politicians realized the power of these movements; they tried to use this power in their favor. This is how a religion started to corrupt and divide. The growing corruption made people loose faith in the movement they originally belonged to and started switching to the relative new ones which were relatively free from the evils. And thus the vicious circle just continued forever.

- The involvement of the powerful persons of that time in a particular religion, helped propogate it to far of places because of which some of them have survived e.g. Ashoka endorsed what Buddha had said, Constantine supported Jesus’ preaching, and Aryans supported what was written in Hinduism and so on. I am sure, there were more such religions started but being not endorsed by powerful men and due to the lack of enough masses behind it, they became extinct. Whatever religions we follow, see and hear of today are the ones which at some point in time found a mentor in the powerful men of their times.

Thought 7 –

But with the presence of the huge communication network, if you can share all your thoughts, ideas and principles with every living being-

Would this corruption go away?

Would people realize the real meaning of Religion?

Would the number of religions decrease?

Would there be no more new religion hereafter?

- This is quiet a troublesome question for me and I haven’t got any logical answer to even after pondering over it for quiet a long time. I believe the answer to the last question shall give me an answer to all the others. It is a very high probability that I might not get the answer in my lifetime if the answer has to be positive.

- But one thing I am sure of that Dilip might have got disillusioned by religions because of the corruption that crept in with time but I am sure that living without a religion is out of question (assuming my definition of religion)

My Long Awaited Tryst with STALIN

Every time I used to hear about a South Indian Superstar (I am of strong belief from today onwards that Superstars are in South India only) movie getting released under tremendous fanfare, I tried to capture their mood in my imaginations. So, today it was a sort of ‘Dream come true’ when I went to watch “Stalin’ (1^st Day 1^st Show), the Chiranjeevi starer Telgu movie even though the ticket cost me a hefty 400 bucks.

I could already feel the adrenal rush in Ganesh (my colleague) who normally does not drive his bike more than 50Kmph but was beating my Bullet today morning.

The Experience -

I hope I will be able to post the photographs tomorrow, but, what I saw was more than what I had expected.

Even before the movie started, the fans of the superstar had started the celebrations by offering their prayers beneath Chiranjeevi’s posters, Garlanding him wherever he (his poster) hung and celebrating the event (release of the movie) as if it was Ganesh Chaturthi or Holi.

And when the movie started, paper pieces were raining all across the hall. When you pay 400 bucks to see a movie you expect to see it amongst the die hard fans only. And this thing I realized just today.

When the moment of truth came (Chiranjeevi’s introduction), the celebrations reached their peak. With deafening shouts, whistles and clapping, people gave a dancing welcome to their hero. The ceiling of the theatre was nowhere to be seen. Only paper pieces were floating in the air. (I wish I could capture this moment in audio-visual to present it here.) But this tempo did not die down. The fans danced whenever their hero danced, they shouted with him, they cried with him and jumped from their seats clapping whenever he hit a catchy dialogue.

But what my friends who went along tell me is that this is just a glimpse of what happens in the mass theatres like ‘Vishwanaath” which sent me wondering.

The Movie –

As a movie critic, I am of the firm opinion that Language is no barrier for understanding a movie. I remember one of my communication professors explaining me that words merely form 8% of the communication.

I would first of all like to appreciate the basic message which the movie tries to convey – “Don’t pay Back…..Pay it forward”. Some of the scenes of the movie were completely heart rending and well handled -

1. Through the race of the specially abled children in the first half the director was able to convey his message in a very straight forward and a very hard hitting way.
2. Towards the end when the director tries to depict how a simple message turns into a silent revolution, he is able to catch the viewer’s interest through the magnanimity of the revolution.
3. Among the numerous action sequences, the handling of the one in where, Chiranjeevi burns a petrol tanker from within a well takes you to the edge of your seat.

But apart from these few things I have little appreciation for the movie and its crew.

To me, the movie seemed to be utterly confused.

Was, it for conveying a social message? Was it a hardcore commercial massala movie? Was it a movie only for the Chiranjeevi fans? Or Is Chiranjeevi trying to set a stage for his entry into the politics?

Though the last question is highly debatable, I found the movie confusing for it has tried to be everything I have questioned. The uselessness of Trisha’s character, irrelevance and improper timing of the songs and dance in the movie convey its commercial nature. Through the unbelievable stylish action sequences like the one where Chiranjeevi single handedly thrashes the hell out of 200 people the director has tried to please Chiranjeevi’s fans. While depicting the trash in politics points to my fourth argument; the loud and clear social message endorses my first question.

Answering all these questions in different ways, the director seems to have lost his originality of which I have heard a lot. Though we get to see the glimpses of his talent in the movie in a few sequences I had appreciated above.

Chiranjeevi –

Its definitely blasphemy to speak anything against him in Hyderabad and as I am ignorant of the rise of this star I cannot comment on the overall talent and potential he holds, I would merely comment on him with respect to this movie.

He seems to be less believable in the role of a Major with a bulging body with lesser of muscles and more of fat; He seems to have failed to manage himself physically unlike the Bollywood stars. This single weakness makes the character in this movie a little unbelievable in the romantic as well as action scenes.

Though I would admire his talent in acting of which I got to see only a few glimpses here and there in the movie, overall he seemed to have overacted (May be it’s the ‘Please the fans’ effect which carried him away).

Overall I would rate the movie as 4.5 on a scale of 10.

Next, I await to capture the mood in Chennai when Rajnikant movie releases in the 1^st Day 1^st Show again.

Manish Saini

Religion and School

The media today sells only if it can create confusion and whole lot of hulla boo around a minor event happening in some corner of the country.
For the record – it is very difficult to make out what actually happened in the first place but during a regular assembly prayer at more than a century old school in Lucknow – Loreto Convent, over a dozen students fainted after what can be called as–“manifestation of Lord Jesus Christ in physical form”.
Strangely enough people seem to be discussing the separation of Religion from school which in Indian context seems to be absurd for -

• Name a subject from which you can take away the 'Concept' of God and hence 'Religion'. –


• "Maths" - Try Explaining the divine Ratio "Phi".


• "Hindi" - What would it be without 'Kabir and Surdas'?


• "Science" - One cannot have a conceptual understandig of the subject at all without questioning the beliefs and superstitions which are part and parcel of one's religion. This only subject raises student’s interest in validating the theory and Concept of God and the only place which deems fit for this research is Religion.


• India has been known to be the land of origin for the famous "Gurukul" (Parampara) style of teaching. This style of teaching which is highly respected and still followed in India had the roots of religion deeply ingrained within it. When the media raised hue and cry on Professor Sabbarwal's death, the only question it targeted was the "Guru-Shishya" Parampara, which itself had its genesis in the aforementioned style.

In the absence of data, when the media raises questions like – “Are these schools centres of conversion?” it degrades the century old image of such institutions for cheap publicity. Instead it should thoroughly probe into the history of the School and find out the total number of cases of conversions in the school in the past.
Religion is a personal choice and not a society imposed thing. Parents sending their children to schools like Loreto Convent are themselves quiet educated and aware of the schools teaching methodology. Rather, they have to share the load of the studies of their children and hence are involved in the day to day activities of the school themselves; resulting in a automatic third party monitoring of the school activities. They do not require the Bajrang Dal Vandals for this purpose. If the school is resorting to any sort of mischief, all sane parents would withdraw their students from the institution.
Learning under the shadow of multiple religions does not result in students converting from one religion to the other, rather it cultivates “Tolerance” within them; the absence of which is the root cause of world’s biggest problem today – Terrorism.

Still Thinking

Well, how do they start a war?

Well, one country offends another.

How could one country offend another? You mean there's a mountain over in Germany gets mad...at a field over in France ?

Well, stupid, one people offends another.

Oh, if that's it, I shouldn't be here at all. I don't feel offended.

It don't apply to tramps like you.

Good. Then I can be going home right away.

Ah, you just try it.

Yeah. You wanna get shot?

Somebody must have wanted it. Maybe it was the English. No, I don't want to shoot any Englishmen. I never saw one till I came up here. And I suppose most of them never saw a German till they came up here. No, I'm sure they weren't asked about it.

Well...it must be doing somebody some good.

I think maybe the Kaiser...wanted a war.

I don't see that. The Kaiser's got everything he needs.

Well, he never had a war before.

Every full-grown emperor needs one war to make him famous. Why, that's history. Yeah, generals too. They need war.

And manufacturers. They get rich.

I think it's more a kind of fever. Nobody wants it in particular...and then all at once, there it is. We didn't want it. The English didn't want it. And here we are fighting.

I'll tell you how it should all be done. Whenever there's a big war coming on...You should rope off a big field...And sell tickets. Yeah. And on the big day...you should take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals...put them in the center dressed in their underpants...and let them fight it out with clubs. The best country wins.

-All Quiet on the Western Front

Bhaarat Ki Baat Sunata Hoon

“Itni Mamta Nadiyon Ko Bhi, Jahan Maata Kehke Bulate HainItna Aadar Insaan To Kya , Pathhar Bhi Pooje Jaate HainUs Dharti Pe Maine Janam Liya, Yeh Soch Ke Maein Itraata HoonBharat Ka Rehne Wala Hoon......”

Every city and every village in India is filled with these stones which have been worshiped for years. Reason??? Faith, devotion, Love!!!
141 Kms of trek to 3888mts, just to pay their obedience in front of a stone……Ask anyone and they will answer the reason for this pilgrimage to be their enormous Faith and Devotion.
But ironically, I can hardly recall a single pilgrimage or famous temple in North India where people don’t face harassment in the hands of people maintaining the place. They will allow you to take a shortcut to a ‘Special Darshan’ in case you can shell out a hefty amount as a ‘Seva’. Safety, hygiene and convenience are of least concern for the authorities as well as the pilgrims.
At times I do wonder whether people do have faith in what they believe or is it just that infamous herd mentality.

A firm believer, I went on to test the people of Hyderabad in the small but very famous ‘Chilkur Balaji Temple’, about 31.5 Kms from my house. And when you are riding a BULL, believe me even this small journey becomes eventful (
A small stone idol in the centre and hundreds of devotees literally running around it, scrambling on paper is what you see on this lake side temple.
But this temple in many respects stands as a guiding pillar for all the religious institutions operating in India. Maintained by a trust headed by 3 people, the temple has moved away from the philosophy of an inni minni human serving the God. Rather, it has maintained the sanctity of the temple by ensuring that the only thing in mind of anyone entering the premises of this holy place is worship. And yeah, God does go to rest over here after 8pm unlike any other place.
Be it hygiene or be it a simple management of the ever increasing crowd, this small temple and its management has infact set benchmarks insurmountable by any other such institution. You need to visit it to believe me.
But like any other typical Hindu worship place, the temple also has a nick name – “Visa Balaji” for the simple reason that visiting this place has resulted in processing of many visa applications.
Now…….is this the reason you really pray to God……..to leave this country???

…… Itna Aadar Insaan To Kya , Pathhar Bhi Pooje Jaate HainUs Dharti Pe Maine Janam Liya, Yeh Soch Ke Maein Itraata Hoon
May God Bless Everyone with a Good Head over their shoulders!!!