Tushar Mangl Media

In her autobiography Agatha Christie wrote that she seldom went to one place twice for vacation. Her reasoning as I recall was that you have certain memories and you like the place. When you visit that place again and again it spoils those memories. I agree to that. There are so many places in the World. Why keep visiting one again and again. Keep the memories intact. But is it always possible? There are so many places which we visit where memories are created, good and bad. Say an old fort in your city. You went with a loved one for a walk (just saying). Would you rather go their again and again or would you rather never go their again so that the memory of the place remains intact? But you can't avoid the town, can you? Like hill stations. You go to a hill station after few years, you will see less trees, more pollution, more people. The memory of the quaint little town with waterfalls is bound to be disrupted forever. Nostalgia is a tricky thing. Can get you hung over any t...

Over the holi long weekend, I was in Ludhiana, my birth place. We were driving down a road, which I used to take while cycling to school. The road has now been widened, and is much better but the majestic eucalyptus trees, that shaded me in hot summer months, are now all gone. In the maddening rush for wide roads, huge number of trees are being chopped down, not just in Punjab, but in other states as well. It does not make me sad as that is what the countrymen want. Wide roads. Everyone wants that, and politicians too realize the need of their vote bank. Trees don't vote. Where once they grew from a sapling to a an adult tree, they are now just being seen as a road block, an eyesore. And who will speak on their behalf? The moment you try to speak against this shameless atrocity you would be branded as an anti development, activist. As if speaking for a bunch of trees is such a huge sin. The felling of roadside trees also does not affect the NGO types as well, who have much larger...

Life is Life. Its harder to live and easier to die. I had so many blog posts all planned up but somehow (read laziness) could not get to write them. Will do that in near term for sure. This is a tough time. I am used to them. Nothing I have not handled before. But each battle leaves you tired and the weariness dims you further. But somehow in recent months I have met and got acquainted with new people I really liked. It also got me to realize why I am stuck on some old friends, who never even loved me. Or just used me as their emotional cushions. They did not even look back to check whether I was okay or not. Now that I got in touch with these new acquaintances whom I will not even see or meet in near future, I realize what I am missing. Still I miss those old friends. Long for the familiar shoulder for comfort. Somehow I think was I too much needy? Immersed in numerous problems of my own, I became too passive in my relationships. So much so that people thought could take advantage. ...

Something something happens and media, social and electronic all go to grab maximum twitter tweets and FB likes. The most painful part about this is the role of social media. It is easy for the Congress obsessed media to hate the BJP and make every issue about RSS and BJP. Even nationalism for example. But why does not a Rajdeep Sardesai I wonder, not pained when a Tanzanian girl is stripped in Bangalore and police decide to take things easy? Just because Bangalore is ruled by the Congress, it is okay with everyone. We are all okay with the inaction of the police on a mob that went around and beat up the girl and her friends. Well because they all love and preach Congress brand of nationalism. No Arnab gets angry no Ravish comes out with theatrical dialogues. This is the patriotism we all are made to like. Where we go around chasing young foreign women and beat them around. It is all okay as long you are not even distantly associated with RSS or BJP.  You are also allowed to...

Letting go, is such a common catch phrase these days. Let go of this, that and everything.It's a cool Sunday morning and as I am reading blogs, going through the facebook posts and all, I get thinking of letting go. In terms of relationships. You know how it is, you ask (or don't ask) any person advise of relationship they all jump in with this age old formula of letting go. Be it cranky friends, annoying relatives, the stupid bosses at work or nosy neighbours. Each relationship it seems is based on letting go. That's how we live as a society. Ignore, avoid and let go. You fight, argue, borrow money, return money whatever, if you want to maintain good relations, just let go. But in the end it hurts. You know that the friend you are sipping coffee with, had once betrayed you way back. The relative for whose marriage you are super excited still owes you money. The ex who is a friend (supposedly) once broke your heart (and ego) very bad. Parents for whom you want to do so m...

One of the biggest achievements of the present day Narendra Modi government would be the way it has dealt with Skill Development. In India, our biggest strength today is our human resource. But we have a a garbage of education system that just can best generate certificates and degrees. For obvious reasons that does not prepare you for a job. It saddens me to see so many young people looking for a job and so many corporations looking for people and things just don't work out because the youth is not up to that challenge of job. Here is where a robust skill development mission is required. And the government by setting up the skill development ministry has shown its good intentions to boost up the sector. People today need to be updated on skills especially as we are staring into a recession. The guy with the right skills will make a better impression on the companies who need quality manpower. Instead of hiring more and more they are now hiring less. So quality here will trump qua...

I met Priya during Fantastico, a college festival organized every year by Sri Gulab Chand Memorial College. Or GCM as we call it. She had come all the way from Karnal where she was studying Ayurveda at a local college. I was at Chandigarh studying IT and dreaming about heading to United States after studies. However that was not our first meeting. We had met before many years ago at my friend's brother's wedding. She was known to a sister in the family and though we had seen each other, hardly any words were exchanged. Introductions were made but we never got a chance to interact. Although I remember clearly, that I had found her really attractive and our eyes had met more than often. Now, it was a shock and a surprise to see her after all this time at Fantastico. The fest itself was open to students of varied disciplines and studies. It was more of a youth festival to bond and chill than any of the pointer representations it made on its charter.  There was way lot of drinki...

The much anticipated,  3rd book from the Ramayana - The Game of Life series by Shubha Vilas titled Stolen Hope is now out. You would have read the review of the first book at http://tusharmangl.blogspot.in/2014/08/reviewing-book-1-of-ramayana-game-of.html and almost a year ago I penned down the review for the second instalment of the series http://tusharmangl.blogspot.in/2015/02/book-review-ramayana-game-of-life-2.html Now I am fortunate enough to receive the third book in the series which continues the story of Ramayana. In the first two books we read about the growing up years of Ram and his marriage to Sita. Shortly after announcing his intent to coronate Ram as king, Dashratha is asked by his wife to exile him. This so that her son becomes the ruler of Ayodhya. Ram renounces the Kingdom to follow his step mother's wishes.  The story continues and this book chiefly focuses on the time Ram Sita and Lakshman spend in the Dandkarnya forest as part of their exile of...

Odd Even number plate? Seriously? How many people even remember their vehicle's number plates? But Delhi does. Its people have that zest for dramatic and superfluous. After all it has the highest per capita income in India. So much money can fog minds really. A few years ago media friends of AAP showed us that their dearest Mr Kejriwal has 500 plus pages proof of then CM Sheila Dikshit's involvement in CWG scam. Now the same media wallahs are creating this buzz about odd even rule to hide the fallacies of Mr Kejriwal's government. Its not about clean air. How many cities in India do really have clean air? Its about camouflaging facts like Delhi government's inability to do anything about corruption past or present. The party's own members questioned the diluted lokpal law passed by Mr Kejriwal but were clearly gagged up. I was on Sunday driving through the busy Aurobindo Marg in Delhi, where I stopped over at an intersection where a lone traffic policeman was ...

Happy New Year Friends ! Wish you al a very happy and a prosperous new year. Read a lot, love a lot and travel a lot. I have lot of updates will share later on but stay in touch folks and enjoy this year to its most. We spend too much of our time worrying about whatever we don't have rather than pleasuring the little we have.

When floods had ravaged Uttarakhand, a few years ago in 2013, the nation acted if it was shocked. The devastation that followed was largely man-made with a number of unauthorized, illegal buildings flowing down the river carrying along with them bodies, dead and alive, a huge number of them. Now Uttarakhand is in North India and Tamil Nadu in South India. Perhaps it was the distance. They  learned little from the Uttarakhand floods. When floods ravaged Chennai in 2015, the water had simply nowhere to go to. Water bodies were encroached by greed of the local population. Urban planning was like a boring essay no one had ever read about. The city is growing without any method or idea. Just on basis of greed and politics as is every other city or town in India is being planned. And this is costing everyone except the rich guys a lot of money and as in this case, lot of lives. So many are dead just because we don't feel like giving up on our dream of encroaching as much public lan...