Hey All,

Wish you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New year!
May All your dreams come True and May you all be blessed with lotsa Good Luck to achieve all your Goals. May God Bless you all !!

With Love and Best wishes: Shradha

Ice Ice Baby!

The one thing that i was looking forwad to in winter was snow. Living in Pune, I have never experienced snow. Though it does get very cold but it was never enough to have snow. So this being my first meet with Mr. Snow ;-) I was very excited about it. I was really looking forward to it. Wanted to make snowballs and play around and make snow mans just like in movies. It did start getting cold in October and sometime october 25th we did have out first light snow. They were just flurries. They never even reached the ground.

But what I saw today was amazing. Unlike rains, it makes no sound so I never realised it was snowing. For a moment as I looked out of my window, I was pleasently surprised. It was snowing. Slowly it snowed heavily and roads, lawn, roof tops, cartops were all white. Wow the site was so beautiful. Experiencing snow was worth it.

I was down with cold and sore throat but I couldn't stop myself from shooting the scene. Wore my gloves, winter cap, thick seater, socks shoes, took my camera along and risked to open the balcony and go outside. Clicked a few snaps which I have uploaded here. Also shot some videos as the snow flakes were attacking me. The temperature has been like -8 to -10 degreesC and with wind blowing, temp. was infact -14 to 16 degreesC. Right now its not snowing but temp. is -16 degreesC. The roads, car and roof tops still remain snow covered as the temp. favors the snow to not melt.. Looking fwd to some more snow to shoot and make ya, my own snow-man :-)

Some snow flakes on the floor. One thing i realised they all seemed to be in a symmetric shape. Shape of a flower, star .. infact varied shapes that too symmetrical.

Surprising isn't it?







One special pic. The snow flaked took the shape of a flower. It looked like a diamond flower ear ring :-)
Snap is not that clear.. but thats the best i could get !

The cars in the car park covered with snow. The road is snow-white as well..




A Final collage of snaps !!

Is violence the only answer to violence??

The news came as a shock to me when a friend from India told me about the riots. Buses being burnt, trains being burnt. I wonder what ppl want to proove by doing such things. Did it benift neone? and now what Next ?? What did their anger finally prove. We as citizens have to suffer the loss.. shops broken down, or other property being destructed. Well finally the owners and we citizens have to bear the cost. Buses being burnt only adds to fewer PMT buses. As is it they r in the worst conditions and now with fewer buses, transportation will be affected. Cost of getting new buses.. well..who do u think pays for it.. yep its US!! we will have to shell out more tax i guess ..

I really dont understand if something unfortuante happend in Kanpur, why was the anger shown in Pune and more importantly, why destruct, scare people and make a nuisance of all ??

These people who are involved in such destructions are just a pain in this society and are truely unworthy people. Who are these people who behave in such cruel manner.. are the Educated people involved.. But again, would someone intelligent behave this way. Or is it the uneducated, illiterate people who just want to make a whole big issue ..
In any case, I really wonder what they have gained ??

For those who don't know what happened in Pune, in a gist, this is what the Indian Express had to say:
(of course this is just pune, there has been similar cases in Mumbai and other places too.. )

"For the first time in the twin industrial township's 36-year-old history, shops, commercial establishments and schools shut down and a 24-hour curfew from 6.30 am on Thursday morning was clamped on 14 localities.
Over 160 people were arrested in Pimpri-Chinchwad and booked for rioting, unlawful assembly, damaging public property and carrying arms. At least 91 buses of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport were damaged in the violence and the services were off the roads for most part of the day.
PCMT and PMT also suffered huge financial losses as their services were off the roads on Thursday. PCMT general manager Ajit Karche said two buses were completely burnt, while 23 were damaged and they had incurred a loss of Rs 17 lakh.
A PMT spokesman said 68 buses had been damaged since Wednesday and they had incurred losses to the tune of Rs 15 lakh.
IN the Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial belt where violence continued corporates like Bajaj Auto, Kinetic Motors and Forbes Marshall suffered production losses due to low employee turnout.
Forbes Marshall director Farhad Forbes said production was affected as transporters did not operate throughout the day.
Forbes said they expect the disruption to affect 30 per cent of their monthly billing, as much of the supply is on the last two days of the month.
Bajaj Auto also faced similar problems. While employees of the first shift managed to avoid most of the transport problems, several people from the other shifts failed to turn up.
Small and medium businesses in Pimpri Chinchwad were not affected since it was a Thursday. There were broken windows and minor damages, according to Pimpri Chinchwad coordinator for MCCIA Sopan Bhor.
The mob started stoning PMT and PCMT buses. Then, they overturned a few carts. They tried to overturn a bus. Instead, they burnt the bus. All this unfolded over 45 minutes in front of the chowki. The emergency phone number 100 would not get through. 10 police personnel in riot gear come out and dispersed the mob. Not a single arrest was made. The crowd went back to the nearby slum after vandalizing property worth about Rs 1 crore. There were around 20 people in the hospital _ women with children, elderly people, some youth and a bunch of doctors. We were left speechless that such an act of lawlessness went unpunished."

Is it worth it..??
Did all the destruction serve any purpose other than disrupt our normal life and make us poorer wrt to happiness, peace and def. money after all, the expense has to be borne by us?
What can we do as responsible and intelligent citizens?
How can we put a stop to this Stupidity?
What is the role of politicians?? Do they even have a role to play here??
What is the next step... is violence the only answer to violence??
Will there ever be a solution to this problem???

Too many questions.. but will we ever have an answers for them??

As educated and responsible citizens I think its time we start to think about it and make a difference in the current state of the Nation. Is anyone listening ??