Wanderlust Sajid

As we are on the verge of celebrating Independence Day, let me share with you a very interesting piece I read recently on "Why India is Shining". Within a couple of days we will be celebrating Janmashthami. Next month we would celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi and Bakrid, followed by Dussehra, then Diwali, Christmas, New Year, Pongal, Sankranti, Holi, Baisakhi, Eid etc. On every occasion, we spend our money. This money brings income to someone else and he spends and it creates an income for someone else. Thus the cycle carries on and on. Basically we are a consumption oriented economy and the consumption is increasing day by day. Thus spending  puts money into circulation  in the country. Compared to this, major other countries derive income from export or manufacturing. Hence their economy and income depends on how much they export.This is why central banks around the world are reducing their interest rates so that their citizens borrow at low cost and spend. When ...

Baghdad, Dhaka, Istanbul, Brussels, Paris, Orlando, Boston, Beslan, Mumbai, Peshawar, New York.....Nigeria, Libya, Eqypt, Spain, Indonesia, Russia, Yemen.... Restaurant, Nightclub, Train, Metro, Hotel, Airport, Mosque, Temple, Church, School....the list is multi-dimensional and endless. Somewhere by organisations, some by groups, others by unaffiliated individuals or lone-wolf, the latest media term. Somewhere they kill persons who could not recite Qur'anic verses. Somewhere they kill the masses who are reciter and follower of Qur'an. Today is 29th day of Ramadan. The most pious of all months is about to end. I have observed all my Roza, read my Namaz, recited Qur'an and abstained from things which are prohibited, to the best of my abilities and perseverance. I do not know whether my deeds have been accepted by Allah. But, whatever be the fate of my observance, today I intend to pray the hardest ever to Him. Not for me, but for annihilation and obliteration of a...

Have you seen the Hollywood movie, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps? If you have seen the movie, you will be able to recall the famous line, “What is your number?” For those who have not seen the movie, a character named Bretton James (played by Josh Brolin) asks the protagonist, Jeremy (played by Shia LeBeouf), this question. James goes on to explain what he means, “The amount of money, you would need to be able to walk away from it all and just live happily ever after. See I find that everyone has a number and it is usually an exact number, so what is yours”. As a fresh graduate fresh out of college, working in a large private sector company twenty years back, I also had a number in my head. Many of my friends also had similar numbers in their heads and we would often discuss how, once we reach that number, in terms of savings, we would happily retire from work and do the things that we “love” doing. A few years back, I crossed that number in terms of my savings. I have not ret...

We live in a world where chances of the possibilities are always probable. However, our mind always console our heart that the improbability of the impossible is a certainty. As we continue to live conveniently in a world of denial, Murphy’s law states "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". I am a Financial Consultant by profession. One of my Key Responsibility Area and Ethics is Advisory : Prudent, Practical and Pragmatic Financial Advisory. However, more often than not, I come across individual, albeit successful and wealthy in their means, are utterly lackadaisical in the approach of safety, prevention and protection of their life and health. There lies acute apathy towards the realization of the probability of financial constraints that may arise for the family, spouse and dependents in the event of their unfortunate absence. A complete contrarian to Murphy's law prevails in their mind.  Nevertheless, there lies a very simple solution for pro...

Nostalgia is an intoxicated feeling. Its also like a sudden cool breeze on a sultry evening. Nostalgia sends soothing minty musical notes to heart, soul and mind as well. A recent visit to a movie hall to watch the latest Bollywood biopic, 'Azhar', evoked a monumental rush of nostalgia in me. I would not rate this Emraan Hashmi starer a great movie experience, but I am definitely acting unabashedly biased and would rate it above average on the reason of nostalgia, and nostalgia itself. I am a passionate cricket follower since the historic year of 1983 when India lifted the cricket World Cup. I was a kid of ten years then. Next year, the country on whose soil India conquered the world, England, visited India for a full series. That India-England series gave birth to one of the most charismatic and controversial personality of Indian cricket, Mohammad Azharuddin. On the last day of year of 1984, Azharuddin made his international debut at Eden Gardens, Calcutta. ...

World over, Indian movies are seen as a song and dance routine. Almost every Indian movie is termed as a "musical", whereas in Hollywood, "musical" is a separate genre, where the story is principally narrated though songs. In India, songs are juxtaposed into the movie, inconsiderate of whether they are in tune with the narration or not. Recently, one of the sure-shot recipe of a song to be a super-hit, is to blend it with a Sufi lore. Remember, Shah Rukh Khan on a train roof calling to "Chaiyya Chaiyya", or Aishwarya-Abhishek crooning "Ranjha Ranjha" under a waterfall in Raavan. Rabbi Shergil became an instant singing sensation after his "Bulla ki jaana main kaun". "Damadam Mast Kalandar" and "Tera Ishq Nachaya" are eternal hits. All things common in the above sufi songs, is that they are the penned by the great Punjabi humanist, philosopher and poet, Bulleh Shah. Born into a very religious family in 168...

I am an avid follower of sports. Since the age of 9 in 1982, when Doordarshan live beamed Football World Cup, played in Spain from the Quarter-finals onward, I kept myself abreast on major sporting events. However, 1983 Cricket World Cup drew me passionately towards sports. That miraculous event of India against 60/1 odds, lifting the World Cup at Lords will be one of the greatest folklore in sports history. But Leicester City Football Club winning the English Premier League this year might well be the greatest miracle ever happened in sports.  Miracles do happen in sports. Apart from the Indian win in 1983 Cricket world Cup, there are few other such rousing wins. In 2001, Goran Ivanisevic from being ranked 125 and a wild-card entry to ultimately winning the Wimbledon was nothing short of a miracle. Similar, was in 1991 when James 'Buster' Douglas from being 42/1 odds, to knock-out defeating two year world heavyweight undefeated boxing champion Mi...

Last month I wrote a blog on how driverless cars will be common sooner or later and that human drivers to become obsolete will be a reality :  http://wanderlustsajid.blogspot.in/2016/03/the-romance-of-driving-is-going-to-end.html .  There had been many movies and novels depicting complete takeover of day-to-day work by robots and technologies substituting humans. Hugely successful and critically acclaimed movies like 'Wall-E', 'AI-Artificial Intelligence', 'I,Robot' and this year Oscar winning 'Ex Machina', have all illustrated dystopian world, where Robots elbowed out humans. In The World Economic Forum of 2016 at Davos, one of the main agenda of discussion was the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Participants representing head of the nations, renowned economist and business leaders around the world, all conceded that Fourth Industrial Revolution is already underway and that it will eliminate millions of jobs over next 5 to 10 year...

Three days ago, Prince Rogers Nelson, or just Prince, by which name the whole music world knows him, passed away.  Prince was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, multi-instrumentalist and music innovator, who pioneered the Minneapolis Sound, which is a hybrid mix of funk, rock, pop, synth-pop and new-wave. He sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists worldwide and winning 7 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and also an Oscar Award for Best Original Song Score. Prince became a big celebrity at an age of just 21, by when he went platinum in 1979, which technically means selling 1 million records. Quite similar to him, in present day, arrived a singer, who is dubbed the next big thing is music. His name is Edward Christopher Sheeran, or just Ed Sheeran for the music world, a 25 years old English singer, song-writer and musician, who dropped out of school at the age of 16 to pursue a career in music, quite prodigiously....