The more I research into the subject the more I became convinced that success is as much about luck as about talent, hard work, risk taking, etc. As luck would have it I myself became rich and successful within a few months of moking to the US.

I do not believe in astrology and was skeptical when an aunt of mine predicted on my relocation to the US in mid 2006 that the success that had eluded me all these decades would finally dawn on me. ’You will be a celebrity ‘ she had said .

Once in the US I read at least a thousand books on success and I was convinced that we tend to attribute almost superhuman qualities to the rich and successful. The successful people go along with this myth even though they know that luck had played a significant part in their success . Indeed greater the success the bigger the role of luck. Bill Gates, the Google guys, Warren Buffet — are all examples of people in whose success lady luck played a fair share.

Let me tell you how luck made me a dollar millionaire. Hold your breaths tighten your seat belts and those of faint heart don’t read any further.

My wife had always accused me of being a theoretician and a lazy guy. I had great advice to give to others on how THEY could become rich but she correctly admonished that I did not practice what I often preached . ‘India is not the place for a genius like me ‘ I scoffed at her. It was when we moved to the US that my time had come to prove that I could achieve great riches .

One evening I was at the apartment of my old fiend Dick in Maryland. I had several glasses of beer and ,as was to be expected, visited the restroom. My visit turned out to be rather long and at one stage Fred’s kid started banging at the door. ‘Hi uncle get out fast’ he yelled. Unable to resist his plaintive calls I quickly terminated the proceedings and was about to step out when I noticed a bottle of pink powder with an label stating

’GROW YOUR OWN CUCUMBER’

I quickly thrust it into my pocket and walked out much to the relief of the kid.

Next day after my wife had left for office I sprayed the powder all over my one acre yard. A month later I asked my wife to close her eyes. I led her to our yard. When I asked her to open her eyes she screamed in delight at the luscious growth of the biggest cucumbers we had ever seen. I knew I was on to something big. Soon I made a business out of it .I announced on the website CRAIGSLIST that I had a ‘miracle’ powder for farmers and green-thumb guys. I even advertised on MIRACLE TV after the spiel about miracle cures for terminal diseases. I bought several tons of the powder from Walmart. Two months later I had made my first million.

I visited Dick to tell him that I owed my riches to him. He told me that he had also run into a stroke of luck. His wife had threatened to leave him if he did not improve his performance. He had found a magic potion to save his marriage. He took me to his bathroom and showed me a bottle that read

’ GROW YOUR OWN CUCUMBER’.,

I could almost hear trumpets in the background as he announced

‘THIS IS THE BEST THING TO HAVE HAPPENED TO MAN AFTER ADAM ATE THE FORBIDDEN APPLE’.

I decided to donate my undeserved money to the National Institute of Health with a specific request not to use it for research into male anatomy ! A hard luck story or me .As for Dick . His name speaks for itself.

K.R.RAVI

USA

It is often argued that the people of the north and south belong to different ethnic groups. As it is claimed, South Indians are a product of African genes and the Northerners definitely Aryan. However, The Indian Council for Historical research, in its 2006 report shows that all Indians belong to the African genetic pool and not the Asian or European Aryan groups as it is claimed. The report also states that it was 60000 years before Christ when the human race started to spread from Africa and through the sea route they entered India. If we take it to be true, it leads to a rather intriguing question-if the people are of the same origin, why is it so that they are so different in nature?

While discussing this debate, we have to keep in mind that differences are always relative; it varies on the parameters that we take into account. We will start with mythology and then come to some historical facts to establish the differences. The ‘Bindhya Parbat’ has always been a divide between the North and South as evident in myths. We hear the story of Agastya who had to cross the huge Parbat to go to south. We also hear how difficult it was for Ram and his royal troop to go to south in their journey. People also link the infamous ‘Ram-Ravana war’ as symbolic of an ever-going north-south conflict. Now this is not history, (However, with the Ram Sethu controversy and the attempts to prove the Ramayana as a historical piece going on, we would not be surprised if someday it actually turns out to be history!) but myths are literature nevertheless and literature always portrays the contemporary socio cultural milieu. So we can see the North-South divide as an ongoing process from time unspecified. Historically also, the South was hardly related to the kingdoms of the North. Except from 273 BC to 232 BC when King Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty ruled over all parts of Indian sub-continent, the South never succumbed to any other unifying kingdom. The central Asian and European rulers ruled over the whole North coming from the North West (except for the North East) but could not penetrate the South. The Vijaynagara and other empires always denied the Mughals any chance of ruling over South India. After the Mughal rule was over and the British tried to ‘form’ a geographically huge colony, the north and south merged as a single entity. But the divisions remained. By increasing awareness about literature, the British installed (rather unintentionally) a sense of patriotism to the Indian minds and developed a common enemy in themselves. The British divided the South into the Madras Presidency that covered most of the place and a few other small parts as they did in North. It led to the freedom moment in 1947 when nobody demanded a different country for the Southerners.

Now we also have to look at the cultural aspect of the divide. Culture, the huge phenomenon that it is, includes a lot of things-right from language and dance forms to the ideas about beauty and nature. We will look at some of the aspects and try to derive more information about it. Indian languages are very interesting research subjects. It is commonly mistaken that since Sanskrit and Tamil are closest to each other, they belong to the same language group. But it is not so. According to linguistics all the south indian languages Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Tulu, Kannada, & Brahui (spoken in Balochistan, Pakistan) & few handful of lesser known languages fall under ‘dravidian’ language group.They are separate language group and very different from the Indo-European/Indo-Iranian/Indo-Aryan language groups. Sanskrit, Persian etc falls under Indo-Iranian sub-group && along with Latin etc falls under the very broad Indo-European language group. Borrowing vocalbulary from each other is a natural phenomenon and it has nothing to do with differnces or similarites. But in this context, we can refer to to the Tamilnadu riots of early 60s . When Hindi was declared the official national language, it led to a huge outroar exapanding all over South India. The impact was of such a great mreasure that after 1969 no national political party has been able to come to power in the state.

Now, culure refelcts in habitual behaviour of people. We can easily recognise the differene of North and South in their dress code, food habits and mostly in their language. But this doesnot mean they are sepearte from each other. They are not, yet the differnces are there. On November 1,2006, CNN-IBN aired a show which proved the prosperity of south over north which led to a major controversy as they tried to ‘stereotype’ the south. The show said that southern women are more conservative in their attitude to life. The example of Khusboo, the film star who talked about free sex in public and got a serious bash from the media was used to prove the conservative nature. But the literacy among women in the south remains distinctly ahead of north and the issue of the south being a safer place for women is still on. With the film star , we can also look at ideas of beauty and entertainment in south. We can see a striking contrast between the women as they are appreciated at both north and south.. The South Indian filmstars are more of dusky and voluptuous whereas the North Indians prefer slim and fair ladies as their favourites. This comparision is indeed very interesting. The movies which become huge hits in North are actually made in Mumbai. So when we talk about movies as a tool to analyse the North-South divide, we have to keep in mind that here the distinctions are based more on the places of business of movies rather than their factory places.

There is another very interesting aspect to the issue we are discussing. When we say north, we tend to include the North West and the North East also. Because of the geographical location, the South does not have a distinct South West or South East divide. It results in more varieties in culture as well as history in North India. On the other hand, the whole of South still retains their Dravidian culture to a larger extent as a uniting force. This sense of unified passion is a great leveler for the whole of South. The festivals in South stand as a proof of this. We can also look at another fact that South Indian culture is predominantly Hindu and even Matsya Purana states that Manu, the first man according to Indian traditional belief hailed from South India. Even in other fields like architecture, sculptures and philosophy, we can see a great fusion at both North and South.

Now, it is clear that despite the ‘North South divide’, India still has lots of unifying parameters to keep it bound together. Cultural values that come out of historical or rather historiographical facts definitely do leave some serious room for distinguishing measures. Yet barring some odd incidents like creating a Telegu speaking state or creating bridges and destroying mosques, the whole of India has stood together. If we leave out certain parameters, there is hardly any room to separate the North from the South. As we mentioned earlier, the comparison is hugely relative. Even though the differences are culturally distinct, culture alone can nullify all these issues and the ‘Unity in Diversity’ sentiments will never be hurt. With Cricket and Movies already playing a cupid between the two places, we can safely say that the North –South divide is not Historical or Cultural anymore, it is simply Geographical. And we cannot help it!

Magi:yellow color spicy noodles eatn when you are in agood mood or you just catch hold of one.but seriously I don’t know how important is for most of the people but for me it ‘was’ my favorite food….and now has become a staple..yes

Staple..bcz since time time I hv stated ‘workin’..i have no other option.

And then I thought how important it has become for me, my source of basic nutrients and to fill my tummy.

I lv magi,my best frand loves maggi.and we have actually developed ingenious and different ways to make maggi with onion,tamatos,ghee etc etc….most of you must have also..

Since I was a baccha(many claim that I still am) I know how I used to have a maggi when eva that feel good factor came..geting good marks(rare occasion..heh heh..) or some occacion…

And in my deep search about maggi and its importance I googled and wikied and got to know many thngs….different flavor..atta noodle…Dal Sambar ( whole wheat noodles )..etc etc…ya ya good info…..

And recently the company I work did a sting on how 200 mg wali maggi is now 190 mg…who cares..im getng it and enjoyng it so…(ya the smell of affluence is there)…

Oky..tme for a break from my work and head for canteen for a maggi break…