Dr. Atul R Thakare

The suicide of  VG Siddhartha , the founder of India's largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), caused turmoil in the country after the businessman’s body was found washed ashore in Karnataka's Netravati river, 36 hours after he went missing. Two days prior to his disappearance, the 60-year-old had left behind a note to his employees that revealed he was in deep debt.  "I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts. I would like to say I gave it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure...," his note read. The Income Tax Department acted as per law in its probe against Siddhartha after the letter accused tax authorities of harassment. All the businesspersons in the country are mourning over this tragedy whereas the experts are busy in analyzing the faults. However, I could relate the CCD Owner’s pl...

Bekhayali me bhi tera hi khayal aaye, kyun bichhadna hai jaruri ye sawaal aaye... Teri najdikiyon ki khushi behisaab thi, hisse me faasale bhi tere bemisaal aaye. Tarun was trying to catch the beats of the woofer remembering the time spent with Sonu. He looked at Sonu’s photo on his cell phone while dousing the cigarette in his left hand, “She’s married now. It was a mutual decision”, he told himself, “But then why are her thoughts still troubling me…. why??” He screamed in the empty room full of smoke. Tarun was not able to accept that Sonu has gone far from him, after being (happily) married. All he was recollecting was the day when she met him for the last time, before her wedding, “I don’t want to get married, Tarun. I am not feeling happy with this marriage. I just can’t think of being happy with anyone but you.“ Sonu told with her eyes wet. “See Sonu, we have already agreed on that. I told you in the beginning itself that I cannot marry you, I am yet t...

Last week, I met with a Founder of a California based start-up company who wanted to venture into a EV or Electric Vehicle domain. ‘EV, I think is going to be the next big disruption in India’, He said and asked for my opinion. Since I am working with a government company in the automotive domain, he expected a realistic perspective from my end. It was really difficult to answer his question in a YES or NO manner, at that moment, but I tried to compile my views on the subject. More automotive manufacturers are now devoting a rather large chunk of their resources towards the research and development of electric vehicles. The government is pretty much inclined to converting possibly all automobiles plying on Indian roads to electric vehicles. The goal to achieve this feat was earlier planned to make a reality by 2030. However, it doesn't seem feasible for the government now. At a maximum rate, they are now aiming for 30% Electric Vehicles on road by 2030 under...

(From the title, you must have got an idea about the subject. Of course, General Elections are around the corner and the subject that is over the internet is 'Indian Politics'. Having said that, I would like to understand what is that the common man or public is looking for in the General Elections 2019. In the title of this blog, Apna means Public ka . The tapori Munna in the evergreen movie Rangeela says ‘ Apun Public hai, apun kisiko kuchh bhi bol sakta hai. ’) In most of the competitive exams, we have Multiple Choice Questions with four choices. Sometimes we don’t know the answer, but we feel that the other three choices are wrong and so we eliminate them, and thus selecting the remaining option. In this upcoming General Election also, most of the voters opine that they don’t know who would be the right choice for the nation, but they know for sure that a few of them are not the right choice, so we are eliminating the options that we think are not suitable. The o...

​ ' Mohabbat barsa dena tu saawan aaya hai.. ' This song kept on playing in loop on my car stereo till we three reached 'Meet-The Food joint' to celebrate the commencement of Saawan or Shraavan , as it is fondly known in Maharashtra. Rahul had got the Black Label (Music CDs) with him which he asked the owner of the joint to get served like the way we are used to. Suhas took the couch and asked the waiter to play some seasonal songs. ' Saawan me lag gayi aag ' shouted Mika Singh from the 240W Woofer of the Soundbox and Rahul jumped.. ' Jabra ' He said and high-fived Suhas. 'This song reminds me the days of the Music channel 'Music Asia' which used to play this song of Mika repeatedly', I said. 'How can someone like Mika become famous by singing such a song, I used to think then,' Opined Suhas.  'But see now Mika is the king of hit songs', Rahul said, 'And there was a time when al...

Meet Mr. X - A hardworking guy working with a multinational company on his merit. Also meet, Mr. Y - Another well-groomed talented guy working at a start-up company. Both X and Y know each other since last 10 years.  The similarity between X and Y is that both of them believes that India should progress and the upcoming years for them should be better than the previous ones. But the only difference of opinion in X and Y is that X believes that leader M has the capabilities to change the fate of this country. So he follows leader M and his political ideology likes his posts on social media and forwards them in his circle. Y believes that leader M is not fit for a country like India. He believes in the ideology of leader N. So he follows leader N, likes his posts on social media and forward them in his circle. Of late, X gets into an argument with Y on social media over who's better among M and N...The argument gets heated and in rage X blocks Y. ...

A four-letter word LIFE is what every creature in this world has. And they say life is not easy as it is full of ups and downs. The year 2017 was full of such surprises for me. ' Expect the unexpected'  was the tagline, one can say... Actually, certainty or routine seems boring, but too much of uncertainty can be really challenging. So, in order to beat the uncertainty or hardships, when you plan a vacation as an adventure (again an uncertainty) and something unexpected happens, then you have to say, Jindagi definitely Imtehaan leti hai... Imagine, you land in a foreign country with picturesque location to rejuvenate yourself from the stress. But a few hours later, you find yourself without that important baggage having all the important documents and gadgets that you boast off. You are bound to feel dejected and depressed, whereas the world thinks that you are having the best time of your life abroad. As it's you who have told them that you are going on a holiday...