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It’s been 106 years, but Mumbai’s BEST transport service has always given its best services to Mumbaikars from its beginning and is still providing. Be it any season, any year, any month, any day, BEST is always there for its people in the best possible way. BEST runs parallel with the Railway Services of Mumbai. BEST joins the minor and major part of Mumbai and beyond and is a boon to the commuters. Of course, there is no doubt about BEST’s services, but during a year or two, BEST sometimes gets worst during the rains. Travellers close down the windows during rains to avoid rain water inside the bus and also to save themselves from having a BEST bath!! But unfortunately, roofs of the buses leak in a very irritating manner. Even if windows are closed, a passenger does experience a little of BEST bath. This actually feels very irritating and annoying. As it is, heavy rains and commutation is a dicey aspect of Mumbai monsoons, to add to it, BEST’s leaking services makes travell...

Just a few days back, SSC results were announced. Students have done well. The increase in the number of marks given to students is becoming tremendous. For example, a student gains more than 100% but just because 100% can’t be printed on the certificate and mark-sheet, it gets lowered down by 0.1% making it 99.99%. Almost every student gains such kind of ‘so called’ amazing marks. ‘So called’ because 45 out of 60 students in a class getting more than 90% with ease. After a bit of survey, I found out that out of total 650 marks exam, 160 marks are internal i.e. given by the school. 160 marks make 24% and this number is too much for a failing student to pass. Also, every school wants cent percent result and hence, it is seen that maximum marks are given to their students for making the result of the school better and better year by year. In all this, the ones who really work hard the whole year face a huge loss even after securing good marks. During my batch, in 2006-2...

This one is a very abstract, out of the box thinking but I liked it this way, it gave me immense pleasure and hope it will impress you as well. Recently I was at a medical shop to buy some medicines. One of calcium and other of vitamin. One strip was of oval shape, navy blue colour and the tablet too was of the same colour. Other was a regular white colour strip. Also, I had a seen a yellow colour strip with a nice yellow colour tablet inside. And there are many such medicines (as in tablets and capsules) which come in a very tempting packing, colour and shape. It looks very tempting to the eyes, very colourful. Medicines give us life in our worst condition. It helps us in innumerable ways. Of course, excess intake of some is bad for health but leaving aside the negative effect of it, I look at it as a colourful substance, meaning, life is very much colourful. It’s a package which comes in different colour, shape, form, size and taste, so why not enjoy every bit of life? ...

The taste of any achievement becomes yummier when the thing achieved is achieved in unfavourable conditions. Such an achievement lasts longer, like forever and is also remembered by many for a long time span. This kind of achievement also tells you many things about yourself, about life, about people you are surrounded by, for example, your capacity to achieve is much more than you think it actually is, life is full of struggles but with the capacity you have, you can overcome and achieve your goals, the one who holds your hand during those unfavourable conditions is a real friend and such a friend respects you, loves you, wants you forever. I had such an experience. December 2011, last week, the date was either 28 th or 29 th . My TYBA English Literature group was in my hometown Ahmednagar. They were here for 4 days and on one of these four days, we went for sightseeing to Aurangabad. We were 6 of us including me. Our 1 st stop in our journey was Daulatabad Fort. A beau...

It’s love that binds us together and as humans, we are gifted to express each emotion through means of ‘language.’ But that doesn’t mean animals cannot express. They too express their love through a ‘language’ which cannot be understood by humans. But more than language, it’s their gesture that ends up expressing more. As humans, we always have attachments and when there’s parting away, there’s always an empty space which cannot be filled up. Attachment to humans is dearly, but attachment with animals is more than dearly. It is their immense love that keeps you going. And when the time comes to part, it becomes painful to both the human and the animal. I had such an experience recently. Usually before going to bed, we see to it that all the doors, the front gate and the back gate are locked properly to ensure safety. Once, my mother went out to lock the front gate and as she was doing so, she heard a very loud ‘meow’ sound from our compound. It was a small kitten, hardly ...

I remember my mother had once told me that during her childhood, there were limited powders, namely bournvita, farex and cocoa powder to add taste to milk. But today, the variety of these products has rapidly increased. There are different companies launching different powders (claiming that milk becomes a health drink after adding the powder) in different flavours. Agreed that competition has increased but that doesn’t mean one should boast about their products in a fake manner. Firstly, they show that children hate eating homemade foods, vegetables, etc. I mean, when you show this, even if children who eat homemade food because they love it, they will stop eating it. These people know the mindset of children very well. They know when, where and how to attack!! Then they also show that by buying this particular product, children will gain more iron, they will grow in height, and they will get proper nourishment!! And they even show this by depicting “a research conducted wh...

What do you generally do when you fall ill? Go to the doctor? Why? I mean there’s no need to do so. That doesn’t mean you should not take doctor’s advice. But in order to do so, why take pains to go to the doctor, purchase medicine? The best solution is given by doctors themselves on tv. All you need to do is switch on your television set and wait for an advertisement where mother calls a doctor because the child has fallen ill and the doctor says ‘bimari haat pe lage kitanu ke vajah se hoti hai, isiliye sahi sabun istemal karna bohot jaruri hai, aur sahi sabun matlab…. (Whichever brand being promoted).’ What kinds of advertisements are being shown? Do they actually make any sense? This way, there is no need to become a doctor. All the medical colleges should be closed and there should be just one doctor from every field in an advertisement promoting all the brands and their products necessary for that particular complaint. “Kya apke masoodo mein dard hai? If yes, toh ye too...

I watch Crime Patrol quite regularly. Now-a-days, before they actually start the episode, they show a kind of short film, where ‘if honesty is actually implemented, your work is done without paying a bribe,etc.,’kind of a situation is shown with the line “Tujh Mein Hai Aandhi… Tujh Mein Hai Gandhi” . This short film seems very attracting and tempting. This ‘if this happens then’ is always an interesting imagination of the human brain because it shows us what we expect. But we all have to accept that this is the kind of life we all expect in every part of the world. We expect that things turn out smoothly without any kind of corruption. But for this to happen, one has to change from within, one has to ‘be the change’ and this applies to everyone, to our leaders primarily. And our ‘so called’ leaders are implementing it but in exactly the reverse manner. One expects his/her work to done without paying bribe but our leaders are implementing the saying ‘be the change’ by makin...

I am not writing this to blame any person or a political party in specific! This is just what I felt after a small incident and I think that what I will be writing here is the need of an hour. My mother is a member of a club. She had been for a meeting of that club. Now it so happened that the district head and the city head of some political party were present in the meeting as a member of that club.  Mom called me up and said that the meeting was over and these two personalities and one more woman, an ‘active’ member of that party were coming to our place to make a request (so called request) that my mom OUGHT to be a member of that political party and hold a position. The reason as they themselves mentioned was that my mom was very much active in the club, she holds special interest in social work and wants to do something for the society without any expectations (Well, we knew these things too, we know mom better than they do). They arrived and started demanding ...