Heir Hunters on their way, are you lucky enough?

People in India must be thinking what is this Heir hunters and what am I talking about. But people in UK are very much familiar with this term as this is a program shown on BBC every morning. Its all about searching for heirs of people who die without any will and have no one related to him to claim his left over fortune. More than 40 million pounds of wealth is left over without any will every year in UK and there are agencies specialised in searching for the heir of the deceased.

Hard to believe?? Even I was shocked initially and its a lucrative business for the agencies. There are just few in the market but have earn them fortunes through commissions they get for searching heir of dead people. Its not that easy as you think!!! Lot of efforts are put in to trace down the family tree of the dead. They even go to other countries, especially India (British ruled this country for long and many Britishers had someone related in this country), in search of the lucky heir who will inherit the money from the deceased. No matter if he has never ever seen the dead person, all he need is to be somehow related to him.

When a person dies without any will, his wealth is controlled by government and unless someone comes up within 6 months to claim it, it all goes in national treasure. So the agents have very limited time to hunt down the heirs and get their commission. Its on first come first serve basis for the agents. So its a rat race for them to reach the finish line and have to be on their toes all the time.

Really wonder if we will ever have such thing in India?? We are blessed with so many relatives around, that we will never have such situation. Specially when a person is going to die, you will have flock of relatives surrounding him with a small expectation in heart. Never know when they might get lucky and get some part of the deceased property.

But that lure of money at least bring them close to the dying person and that should be a moment of happiness for the person on death bed to be surrounded by people he know. Dont see any pleasure in dying alone with no one around and neighbours reporting foul smell after few days to police.

Master Blaster Sachin continues his sublime form

We are still basking in the glory of winning the World Cup after 28 years. Success has been incredible, and India began to favorites from the beginning. All eyes were on Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar in what is considered to be his last world championship. Serve the nation (in the form of a cricket game) for over 20 years, the honor of winning the World Cup that was missing in his list of successes. So, the question was on will team India to do it for little master?

And the dream became a reality for billions when Dhoni lifted the World Cup for Team India. All players were in tears and as hard as Yuvraj and Bhajji were crying. This shows how much this victory meant to the team. Sachin once again was the top scorer for India in the World Cup and it was not a surprise. Although the main contribution of Sachin was not much in the final, but played a decisive blow in the semifinal against Pakistan. His effort to score 85 runs batting first won him the man of the match award in the semifinals. No one on either side of the team can not exceed 50 runs in this game. It was his day and was lucky in this game 4 times with Pakistan fielders dropping catches in the field.

The beauty of this victory was teamwork. We are no longer dependent on one person or two to win games for us. All have played their role and chipped in with useful contributions. So the tournament was played in good spirit team sport.

Now the World Cup is over, we thought that his hunger and drive is over. But only four days, the IPL has started and all the players were seen in various games in the franchise. Tendulkar is leading Mumbai Indians in the last 3 seasons, and this is his fourth season with them as a Captain. Last year, the Mumbai Indians were very close to winning the title and reached the final with ease. They were in their peak form, and had every quality to win the final. But Dhoni's Chennai Super King spoiled the party last year.

This year, the little master is back with a bang and is now the top scorer in the tournament so far. His total of 201 in just 3 games is unmatched by any other person, however, he is not dismissed in the tournament so far. He got another feather to its cap by scoring a blistering century against Kochi. His hunger for runs seems to increase with age. No one complains when we get to see God playing cricket. A living legend and blessed to see him bat during my lifetime.

Mumbai Meri Jaan

Recently visited to India for a week and every time I visit Mumbai I can see the ever increasing number of people living in the city. It’s really amazing to experience the rapid change especially if you are away from the city for long time. I make a conscious effort to visit the city at least once in a year; else I will be gasped seeing the rapid changes in the city.

As my parents were going to come with me to UK, I took them for shopping in local Borivli market. First I entered the Swagat store which is famous for its high quality shoes and it was absolutely packed. I am not exaggerating but you could hardly make any movement, situation similar in Virar fast local train and you dared to board it at Borivli station. In England, I work my arse out in gym to see some sweat dripping from my body or sit in Sauna to experience what I was going through in that store. Within couple of minutes, I could feel sweat dripping from head to toes. Not complaining about the salesman in there but when I asked him to show size 10 in one of the shoe on display, he bluntly said that those are not rainy shoes and left in a hurry. I didn’t know how to react to the situation and could not do more than just laugh at the situation and walk out of the store. Probably, I was asking for wrong shoes in wrong season :)

I stood outside the store and kept watching the people entering the store and showing no sign of frustration and happily buying what they were looking for undeterred by the situation and inconvenience surrounding them. Probably all of them were inside to buy rainy shoes.

I wanted to visit a friend of mine who was just 4kms away from my place. The usual mode of transport for such a short journey is Auto rickshaw but to my horror, I end up spending 30 mins searching for Auto or rather convincing the driver to take me to that place. Finally got one and reached the place in less than 15 mins. An immediate comparison ran through my head; I drive to my sis who is 60 miles away from me and still reach in 45 mins in UK. Agreed that I have my own car here but even without a car, calling a cab and reaching destination is just a call away.

Was travelling from Borivli to Santacruz in an Auto Rickshaw one fine evening and on normal day it will take around 45 mins to reach the place. But with the ever increasing traffic it took almost 1 hour 30 mins to reach the place. Instead of getting bored sitting in the auto, I was chatting with the driver and no surprises here, he was a Bhaiya (no disrespect to UP, Biharis though, we are all used to this term now). I was really amazed by his attitude towards life. He showed absolutely no regrets in life for driving in such a polluted and populated city. He said, you guys studied and got a good position but we have not so we have to work hard to earn money. And he was ready to put that effort and still remain happy in life with whatever he has.

No wonder Mumbai is still running strong with people having never say die attitude. Even I was one of them and I make a conscious effort to keep that spirit alive in me.