A 'wealth' of speakers

Last Monday I was fortunate enough to attend an event in London on the topic of "India at 60 in a Changing World" - an event which sought to discuss how far India had come since independence and look at the various challenges and opportunities faced over the next 20 years. Naturally, with the event taking place at the LSE, the assembled panel comprised of some of the biggest fiscal decision makers in the world, including Kamal Nath - India's Minister of Commerce and Industry, Dr YV Reddy - the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, OP Bhatt - the Chairman of the State Bank of India and Mervyn King - the Governor of the Bank of England!

While all speakers spoke very eloquently and in general very positively about India's prospects in the years to come, it was OP Bhatt who was most objective. He warned about several factors which would hold India back if not addressed, including:

• the lack of necessary infrastructural development, which will eventually choke/restrain growth - though money is being invested in this slowly, it is not enough
• India's current demographic advantage (a high proportion of youth compared to the elderly) could turn into a "demographic disaster" if there is enough targeted investment in education, something which is vital in the current knowledge-based economy
• public health, particularly with regards to things like sanitation, clean drinking water etc. needs development
• India's banking system lacking in scale and size
• financial disparity growing between the rich and the poor

He closed on two, almost profound, points which struck me for their outward outlook. Firstly, he said that for India to be truly considered a global power it should be tackling global, macro issues such as alleviating poverty, tackling climate change, fighting terrorism etc. and ended by saying: "India should breathe the concept that the world world is one family - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam"

I'd love to hear what you all think so feel free to add your comments!

Up on cloud 9!

So I finally did it!! The weather held out just about long enough for me to actually get the skydive done after it was postponed the first time.

After being rebriefed and kitted out (whilst also earning the nickname "Ribena Boy" - you'll see why from the photos!) there was a (surprisingly not so) nervous wait while we all became acquainted with the instructors who we were going to be jumping with. The plane journey up to 13,000ft felt like forever (which did nothing to ease the nerves!) but it was only till I was actually sitting on the edge of the aircraft with my legs dangling out that the reality of what I was about to do hit me! Before I knew it I heard from behind me "3-2--" and we jumped!!

The first few seconds of freefall were exhilarating and such an incredible feeling. As the g-force built up and the wind started rushing up at me I could feel my stomach tightening. However, everything after this point was totally not what you'd expect - though we were falling at approximately (I later found out!) 120mph, because there was nothing else around us there was nothing to use as a reference and so it didn't feel particularly fast and wasn't scary at all. At this point I looked up and saw blue sky in the horizon ahead of me and a whispy sea of clouds below me - it was a sensational feeling!!

Then, the parachute opened and we slowed down quite considerably. After a few twists and turns we drifted ever so slowly back down to earth (no pun intended! Honest!) One dodgy landing later and I was back on the ground, still pumped from the adrenaline rush!

As many of you know, the point of this skydive was to raise money for charity and to date i've now raised over £1000 (my original target) for the two selected charities (McMillan Cancer Research and Refuge). Also, as a team, we've now raised over £30,000 collectively! Thank you massively to everyone who have been so generous in sponsoring us...

The last few things to say are that it was an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone - aside from the inital jump, it wasn't scary at all! Secondly, if this account of my skydive was not vivid enough for you, I got a DVD done too (which you'll all get to watch in good time...)!

Verbally Challenged

One of the best things about being on Vistaar is the wealth of different experiences you have and different people you meet. For example, last Friday I went to a shakha in Birmingham, on Saturday I went to shakha in West Bromwich and on Sunday I was up north in Oldham for a Sports Competition for all the shakha's in the North! The Sports Competition itself was fantastic and there were over 100 people present during the day. It also gave me an opportunity to meet people from as far afield as Bradford, Leeds and Bolton!!

The second, more visible (or should I say audible!) example of this was yesterday. My day began in Telford and ended in Birmingham, and almost the entire day was conducted in a mix of Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati (most of which, naturally, I didn't understand!)

Namaste!

Hi all!

Thanks to a genius idea by Jayesh Mistry (www.jayeshmistry.blogspot.com), I've finally got round to creating a blog to keep everyone updated on what i'm up to during my vistaar (something I really should've done from the start!)

So basically, watch this space...