Qué será, será

Do you have it in you? ... coz I dont!

2008-08-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

(The following section in italics was the Inaugural Speech for the new batch at the Symbiosis BBA program, delivered Chetan Bhagat in Pune on the 23rd of June, 2008 )

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party - several months in advance - just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake. I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.
Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement. But it isn't the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr. Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.
Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born.. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school, where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades - how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you. But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be.

Disappointment's cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release. Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved - movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result - at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan - I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.

Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it - not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you. In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty damm lucky by Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.
I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will shine the same way as they do today.. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.

Thank You!

After reading this forward, I really felt that there have been changes in me. Boring, mature changes that come in with age.
But really, how wise have I been? ... or mature for that matter? Happy? Successful? Content? NO.
Depressed? Serious? Boring? Tensed? Failure? No, again!

I guess I'm somewhere in between, living a mediocre, complacent, unacheieving life. It makes me go into think-mode when i just read something like this, but does it motivate me to do something/anything about it? No. I get busy about solving some stupid bug in my application and i'm all set the next day around to continue with my life.

Am I frustrated right now? ummm.. yes very much. Am I ever going to do anything about it? Very unlikely. Am I shameless enough to do nothing about it even after writing about it on my blog and publicly acknowledging it? hmmm... lemme think. Well, given my past history there are 99 of 100 chances that I will continue to be.

PS: Wonderful speech by Chetan Bhagat. I loved his books too btw :)

PPS: Lately I have noticed that, my blog is becoming a storehouse for forwards - I dont have as many forwards even in my inbox! This is just a transitory phase, I assure you and things will be better once I get hold of the writer in me and get her off her writer's block :)

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Click here to listen to a pretty girl singing a nice christmassy song

Fairyland?

2007-12-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

How would you feel if one day you enter your regular boring workplace and find pixies and fairies hopping around distributing fairyland stuff? You walk a little further holding your silver and golden helium filled balloons to see a castle filled with tonnes of stuff to eat, drink and play along with a hundred other colorful cute kids. Fairies would drop some stardust on you, and make you one of ‘them’ and give you a magic wand too. And then there’s non-stop fun, events, performances, even a DJ for kids, complete with light-smoke-music and a stage! Of course! Don’t forget to collect your goodie bag, filled with toys and chocolates before you leave!

Too much? But very real. This was just a day for Infoscions to get their kids to office. Called PETIT Infoscion day, it was so well planned and organized and was real fun!

A volunteer's Experience
Each kid was given a Tag with the kid’s name and the parent’s name and telephone number on it, so they don’t get lost somewhere. The kids were very very happy with the tag part. “Momma, I got a tag too” was the most common dialogue I heard, complete with “the-one-thing-I-alwaaaaaaaaays-wanted” look in the eyes!

One kid even wrote his name in the very same font-style as his favorite pokemon series. Well, that he made everybody else in the queue wait, is a totally different matter ;). But then I’m sure, things can wait, with pokemon-hero in queue. I took it off from him and filled the rest of it for him though.

Most of the parents, always told the kids to be good mannered and said “aunty ko bye bolo”. I really had to stop myself from screaming its “didi”, not “aunty”!!!
Kids, Me?? Aunty?? Call me aunty one more time, and no tags for you! Huh!

Then the kids start fighting, it’s always that they want a wand of the other color, or a balloon of the other color, or something (anything!) other than what they have! I got one of a very boring color though. :( (OK-OK!! I got three ;) but all were leftover,boring blue-green colored)
The DJ was fun too, with kids, parents, balloons all jumping around for any tune being played.

The part I missed out on,
The Fun Carnival: contests, events – where kids had small contests all the time and could win gifts and prizes. Lots of stalls for hair braiding, tattooing were also around.
The Entertainment program: where a kids troupe performed dances and a little girl sang and handled the keyboard, all on her own.
The Talent Recognition: I saw lots of drawings/paintings/sketches strung on the wall of fame, but somehow couldn’t spend more time with them, while I very much wanted to. There were a few really nice paintings. Each of these kids got a certificate, some even got a cash prize.

If only I were a kid, I’d have lost myself and enjoyed much much more. The grown up in me told me all the time that all this was a make-believe thingy and not true! I look at the wand as a piece of art, and never tried casting spells on the guy with the purple wand, or the girl with the pink wand. I just give kids who do that a 'grown-up smile'.

PS: All this while I was wearing a bright pink shirt with white polka dots! Friends and foes, please pleeeeease tell me you didn’t recognize me! ;)

Be a MAN !!

2007-11-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

Being a man was never this easy.
All you need to do is, stop using the girl's fairness cream you have been using all this time (its a metrosexual world afterall!! ), and start realising that you have "ruf-n-tuf" skin, which needs a special men's fairness cream! It'll make you fair and handsome, and asia's recently declared sexiest man a little more richer.
Was life ever this simple?

Be a man, NOW!!!.. and watch the ad here

PSsssst: But wait.. when was the last time I used a fairness cream??
Is my girlhood in question now?

A hope, against hope hopen...

2007-11-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

THIS IS GOING TO HURT JUST A LITTLE BIT
By Ogden Nash

One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with my mouth wide open.
And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen.
Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
But the one that is both is dental.
It is hard to be self possessed
With your jaw digging into your chest, so hard to retain calm
When your fingernails are making serious alterations,
in your life line or love line or some other important line in your palm,
So hard to give your usual cheerful effect of benignity
When you know your position is one of the two or three in life most lacking in dignity
And your mouth is like a section of road that is being worked on
And it is cluttered up with stone crushers and concrete mixers and drills and steam rollers and there isn't a nerve on your head that aren't being irked on.
Oh some people are unfortunate to be worked on by thumbs,
And others have things done to their gums,
And your teeth are supposed to being polished
But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.
And the circumstances that adds to your terror
Is that it's all done with a mirror,
Because the dentist may be a bear, or as the Romans used to say, only they were referring to a feminine bear when they said it, an ursa,
But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar in one hand and mirror in the other he won't get mixed up, the way you do when try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, and forget that left is right and vice versa
And then at last he says, That will be all, but it isn't because he then coats your mouth from cellar to roof
With something I suspect is generally used to put shine a horse's hoof,
And you totter to your feet and think, Well it's over now and after all it was only this once,
And he says come back in three monce.
And this O Fate, is I think the most vicious that thou ever sentest,
That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good condition
When the chief reason he wants his teeth to be in good condition is so that he won't have to go the dentist.

This is one of the poems I had to study during school. I dont remember much from this poem, except tht it was about a dentist. But I've never been able to forget the phrase "hope against hope hopen".

Weekend Sale !!!

2007-11-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

All of you who scowled when apna Bunty tried selling Taj Mahal.. there's some news.

Eiffel tower was sold twice by the same conman - And it was not bought by people wanting to proudly own the tower, but by scrap metal dealers.

More here.

Much ado about Coffee

2007-11-11T01:08:00.000-08:00

A cup of coffee drunk with a friend, secures the friendship for 40 years
- a turkish saying.

So, be ready friends, there's a 40 yr long payback time for every single cup of coffee we had :D

PS: Turks say, Hot/cold chocolate not counted ;)

Songs, Lyrics, and a poetically challenged me

2007-11-07T22:22:00.000-08:00

On a lazy wednesday morning, while listening to one of the songs from the famous Madhuri then-Dixit now-Nene's comeback movie...
Most of the songs are what you’d call typical madhuri songs.
One particular song caught my special interest

“koi patthhaaaaaar se na maare.. mere deeewaaaaane ko”

Ok. So you mean other options preffered and not stones??
This got me thinking about songs with weird lyrics.

Aye ganpat chal daroo laa,
Ice chala soda kam thoda pani mila,
Thoda table wable saaf karrr de na yaar,
Aye ganpatt, ganpat, Aye ganpatt ganpat,

How cud anyone write and consider this a song/poem/something lyrical?
The end product does sound musical, but I was wondering how it would have sounded before music was added! It’s just the way anybody would call a waiter in a hotel… err bar maybe. And I'm sure post a few pegs down, even they'd sounds a musical as this.

How did it ever qualify for a song??!
Some more gems:

telephone dhun me hansne waali melbourne macchli machalne waali

How could he call his girl a jumping fish from Melbourne? Or that she laughs like a telephone ringing?!

O maahi mera sharbat warga,O maahi tainu ghat-ghat pilaan

This one from jab we met.
Sounds like latin… But does it mean I feel like drinking sharbat?? Make a sharbat out of his better half and gulp it down? Its funny, whatever it means.

Main to raste se jaa raha…
bhelpuri kha raha tha….
seetti baja raha tha…l
adki ghuma raha tha…
tujhe mirchi lagi to main kya karoon?…
teri naani mari to main kya karoon

What is your style number?
What your smile number?

These songs are timeless gems. Including the video, what with karishma kapoor and govinda dancing away to weirder dance steps. Words fail me, when I try to write anything about this song.

Sarkailo khatiya jaada lage ... Jaade me sajna pyaara lage

This was the song shown again and again on TV when they were announcing that karishma decided to get married. It was very cruel of whoever selected this one, but everybody who saw that laughed.

Batata Vadaaaa, batata Vada, Dil nahin dena tha dena pada Batata Vadaaaa, batata Vada, Pyar nahin karna tha karna pada

Batata vada probably won a place here just because the lyricist happened to be eating batata vada while writing this.

Anda Agar Na Hota To Murgiyaan Na Hoti,
Murgiyon Ke Bin Maze Ki Partiyaan Na Hoti, Gar Partiyaan Na Hoti To Aashiqui Na Hoti,
Jo Aashiqui Na Hoti To Zindagi Na Hoti, Ande Se Milti Murghi Murgi Se Milta Andam,
Patna Ho Ya Batinda Ghar Ghar Mein Milta Anda, Is Mein Chupa Hai Jeevan Ka Fal Safa Aao Sikhao Tume Ande Ka Funda,
Yeh Nahin Pyare Koi Maamule Banda

Though I like this song, the words make absolutely no sense.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTYVWXYZ……I Love You, You Love me (Hum Saath Saath Hai)

???

Ghar se nikalte hi, kuch door chalte hi raste main hai uska ghar, kal subah dekha to baal banati vo, khidki main aayi nazar

As stupid as it can get. But the song has a nice tune and is one of my favorites.

Most dubbed songs end up being a disaster.

"Columbus Columbus" chhutti hai aaii
aao koii naya mulk dhoondhe chalke bhaaii

Why? Columbus doesn’t like the old mulk?

The worst of the lot is the one below. This one was a tamil song which was dubbed later.

choona bhatti jhopad patti ragdam patti patti rap patti rap patti rap patti rap

An attempted rap doesn’t need to have a rap tune with the word “rap” a thousand times in it. To view the full song and get yourself caught in a laughing riot click here.

… and not to forget the movie names.
Daag. “The fire”
A major flop this one. Forget the Fire, this fizzled out leaving behind not even a Daag.
A zillion combinations of Chori, chupke, and their repeated usage leave people confused about which movie you’re talking about.

Chori Chori
Chupke Chupke
Chup Chup Ke
Chori Chori Chupke Chupke
Chupke Se Pyar Hua Chori Chori
Humein Tumse Pyar Ho Gaya Chupke Chupke

The "I-want-to-do" of the day!

2007-11-06T01:11:00.000-08:00

Lately, I seem to want to do something new everyday!

Today while browsing through a few sites, I saw this:
http://www.blackandwhitedreaming.com/index.php?showimage=126
Isn't the picture is so magical?!

One more:
http://www.blackandwhitedreaming.com/index.php?showimage=96

So, photography it is! I'm going to bug all my friends about this for a few more days to come... be ready :)

The whole world around me...

2007-10-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

... has come to a standstill. I see everything in a morbid state. I wake up seeing the same design on the blanket everyday. The same set of dresses to select from. The same bus, the same driver, the same seat. The same rain, the same wind, the same sunshine. The same breakfast, the same man serving it. I'd never know but maybe somehow the same plate finds its way to me. I should try making a scratch-mark on it and check it up someday. The same desk. The same set of people! The same set of friends. The same set of irritants. The same lunch, the same bus, bus driver, route back home. The same radio. Same old songs. The same phone. No calls, no smss. I dread it when somebody buzzes me on messenger and asks me "whats up?", I have the same old "nothing at all" to answer everytime. I dont even have anything to gossip about! There's nothing new happening in my life, or in the ones around me. Its the same. Its all still. And I just drift along, without direction.

Bored of reading the word "same" in the above passage?

I'm bored too. Very much!
I am even bored of being bored!

Ordinary People

2007-10-18T01:44:00.000-07:00

Walking on the road, you pass so many people. Some look confident, purposeful, well-dressed, well-maintained. But the majority appear so ordinary, wear ill-fitting clothes, unfashionable footwear, have too much fat or too little, nothing remarkable about them, nothing attractive.

But yet someone somewhere eagerly waits for this unimpressive man to come home every evening.
Someone's entire world turns around the strength of this frail-looking woman.
Someone's very purpose in life hinges on this brash youngster cutting through traffic.
Someone knows only the shelter of these old arms each time their world begins to crumble.
Someone will count hours, minutes, and weep like a child when this pock-marked face alights from a long-distance train.

Someone will cave in, crack up, and never be the same again if this one person disappears from the face of the world.

There are no ordinary people.
Drive carefully.

Received this as a forward. Isn't the message so perfect?!

A Lesson

2007-10-17T03:46:00.000-07:00

I came across two very interesting stories today.
Read on…

STORY NUMBER ONE

Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago . Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed "Easy Eddie." He was his lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie's skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.
To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but also, Eddie got special dividends. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block.
Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was. Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn't give his son; he couldn't pass on a good name or a good example.

One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done. He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al "Scarface" Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great.
So, he testified; Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street . But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read:

The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
Now is the only time you own.
Live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in time.
For the clock may soon be still.

STORY NUMBER TWO

World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier USSLexington in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flightleader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.
As he was returning to the mother ship he saw something that turned his blood cold: a squadron of Japanese aircraft were speeding their way towardthe American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring themback in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger.

There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in andout of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. Undaunted, he continued theassault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly.

Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction. Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to thecarrier. Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft.

This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became the Navy's first Ace of W.W.II , and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.
A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29.
His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of thisgreat man.
So, the next time you find yourself at O'Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch's memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It's located between Terminals 1 and 2.

SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?
Butch O'Hare was "Easy Eddie's" son.

Afterglow

2007-10-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

Here I am, lost in the light of the moon that comes through my window
Bathed in blue, the walls of my memory divides the thorns from the roses
It's you and the roses

Touch me and I will follow in your afterglow
Heal me from all this sorrow
As I let you go I will find my way when I see your eyes
Now I'm living in your afterglow

Here I am, lost in the ashes of time, but who owns tomorrow?
In between the longing to hold you again
I'm caught in your shadow, I'm losing control
My mind drifts away, we only have today

Touch me and I will follow in your afterglow
Heal me from all this sorrow
As I let you go I will find my way
I will sacrifice 'til the blinding day when I see your eyes
Now I'm living in your afterglow

When the veils are gone, as I let you go, as I let you go

Touch me and I will follow in your afterglow
Heal me from all this sorrow
As I let you go I will find my way, I will sacrifice
Now I'm living in your afterglow

Bathed in blue, the walls of my memory divides the thorns from the roses
It's you who is closest

Its Afterglow by INXS featuring sona. And I'm not able to decide what is it that I like more.. the lyrics? the singer? the veena player? Maybe the combination! :)

Sometime soon i'm going to fall into a trance listening to this song over and over again!

The day Today!

2007-08-08T01:42:00.000-07:00

There is something more beautiful about today,
Other than the sun shining, birds chirping,
Chimes singing, leaves turning,
Clouds passing, wind dancing,
Children laughing, butterflies flying,
Flowers growing....
The most beautiful thing about this day....
Is knowing that it's a second chance,
To do all the things you've meant to do....
The beauty of this day lies inside YOU!!!

Disclaimer: No. I cant even compose 2 rhyming lines. This was received as a forward and found its way to my blog coz it has a very nice thought attached to it.

I am in loooooooove...

2007-08-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

At times, all it takes to make a lifelong relation with someone, is that "one look".

I experienced something like that over the past 2 weekends... sadly, with a camera and not a person. Its the coooolest looking camera I have ever seen! Slim, flat and in black! I'd have bought it even if it were a .25 MP no zoom camera, but this was a 8.1MP, 5x Zoom! Just what I alllllllways wanted! :) I'm so happppeeeeeeeeeeeee

Placed an order for it, and its going to take me 8 full days to get it..

Cant wait!!

Update: Got the cam, and somehow haven't managed to go clickety-click with it! Strange are the ways of life! :P

Complexities in Life!!!

2007-07-24T08:26:00.001-07:00

I have two black trousers.
One is buttoned and the other is hooked.
I always end up trying to unhook the buttoned one and unbutton the hooked one. Always. Without fail.
And I'm scared that one day I'll succeed in doing that!
:(

A stranger's kiss!

2007-07-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

I have seen people here kissing everywhere. But nothing prepared me for what happened on this saturday afternoon in the train...

There was a cute boy in the train standing in front of me. Cute, blue eyes, flirty smile.
His name was Harry.
He looked at me, I looked at him... and for a moment, our eyes met.
He smiled, and I smiled back.
He blew me a kiss, and I giggled.
And within moments, he was all over me, kissing me. I found him just too cute to resist, and I kissed him too!
His freind was with him, within moments he started kissing me too!! And the friend started getting a little violent. He started growling!!
I mean, I was ready to let go of the fact that he was a stuffed toy, but then, DINOSAURS DONT GROWL!! And everybody knows that!!
The dino's name was TRex.
I then asked if TRex actually kissed me or was it that he actually bit me.

Harry: He didn't kiss.
Me: If he bit me, I'll have to cry! :(
Harry: He doesn't actually bite, he just scratches! :)
Me: hmmmmph! Tell him I have dinosaurs for lunch. And ask him to kiss me.
Harry: Ha Ha! dinosaurs are very very huuuuuuuuuge. Bigger than you!
:)

PS: Harry was a 2 yrs old kid, and TRex, his pet dino told me a bye before leaving! :)

"The" Multi-ethnic couple

2007-07-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

On a lazy sunday afternoon, in a bus, I see an old Englishman and a young Chinese lady, seated, holding hands and smiling sweetly at each other. And they looked very much like one of cupid’s new found victims. :)

Conversation (overheard, even though I didn't try to ;) ) went thus:
She: your mother and me, compare.
He: my mother, … yes.. what next??
She: c o m p a a r e
He: to compare you need two things, what do I compare mom with?
She: Your mom and me, and COMPAAAAARE [almost shouting]
He: I understand, but to compare u need two things. You compare this [holds one hand palm facing the sky] with this [other palm, in the same position]. This palm, my mom, I compare this with what?? You?? [showing the empty palm]
She: blink blink
He: blink blink
She: OoooooH! No compare, “company”. Me, you mom, company. With fingers from both hands intertwined.
He: so you’ll give my mom company?? Very sweet of you!

ME: trying very hard to control my laughter :D the moment I realised what she wanted to say and what she was saying all the while, I just couldn’t control myself!

I must say this was by far the funniest, most misfit pair I have seen till date! Considering the life span of relationships in this part of the world, maybe that was good in a way, that they can never speak much, never enough to fight anyway!

Namaste LONDON!!! :)

2007-07-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

Phew!! This is one more of the boring posts, which is here, just because, someday later, I would want to see these and remember these days.

My house:

My house is quite old. But I guess it'll look amazing with snow on it :)

It is quite comfortable too, if you manage to let go of the fact that, the bathroom doors dont close, you have to bathe in a slippery tub (not a standing one, and one of my roomies already slipped and fell and had a bad cut on the chin), the lights in the bedroom are diiiiiiiim (how do i read?? and how do i sleep without reading?), the backyard has grass/weed and has not been maintained for ages, there are rodents in the house, which show up once in a while, and there is a scary looking door, which leads to an even scarier basement (I have heard, not seen). Since all WCs have nothing like a water hose attached, I thought there's no point even mentioning it [Brits, pleeeease, discover water!! ;)]. Phew!

But its nice, because, there are nice friendly roomies, internet connection, and facilities, good enough to live in and be lazy. There is a huge nice park, with a lake in it, in the next lane, and its minutes from all the important grocery stores and the tube station.

My office:

.. is at an amazing location.
It has a river flowing across it, with skyscrapers all around. There are malls in the basement of these buildings, with an underground train system connecting them as well. Phew! When will they ever have something like this in bangalore? And the view from here, is awesome! I sit in the 15th floor, which is half the building's height. From the coffee pantry, I see the river flowing in a curve, the dock, the lawn 15 floors below, and amazing cars and helicopters zoom by :)
In the latest harry potter movie, he flies by my building :) across the river.. shhhhh, now muggles aren't supposed to know that!

I work here:
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=95
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Upper_Bank_Street

Travel:

Public transport here is good, and travelling from one place to the other is not difficult at all. I cant just help praise/admire it all the time! :) Travelling to office and back takes half an hour, on 2 trains, across 2 zones! A little more than harry potter would have taken :) We have a pass made across zones, which can be used in tubes & buses. How efficient! They cant be misused, and you dont have to worry about the conductor, giving you back the right change! The frequency is very good as well!

People:

I find the womenfolk and kids very very pretty here. Some are near perfect, feautures, body, makeup, everything compliments their looks! They have very good dressing sense. I hope at least some of it rubs onto me! But sadly, men are so totally bland! :( I dont see kids around at all! Neither to or back from schools, nor playing around! I'd never want my kids to grow up here.

Shopping:

I somehow find this place not customer oriented at all! All shops in shopping malls, close by 5. they run on office timings only. At least most of the shops out here! I even found a huuuuge notice around one of the shopping malls out here! Late night shopping - malls open upto 7pm! In bangalore, shops are open even upto 11 or 12 in the night! So any shopping to be done, would have to be done either during the office hours, which is generally not possible or on early sunday mornings which is all the more not possible! Someday, if anyone opens a 24/7 open chain of stores here, I'm sure they'd do great business!

Life in general:

Facilities are at its very best. Be it transport, water, gas, electricity, internet supply, or the buying capacity of the '£'. Especially when you compare it to the Rupee, that I am used to using. Roads are very clean, I dont see mud anywhere. And there is no garbage strewn around. These people will choke even if they see a picture of garbage on hosur road.

Food. People out here eat blaaaaand food. I feel sorry for them. When will they ever know that food can be tasty as well?? Even the curd that we buy is tasteless. I wonder why?

Socialising. Maybe they do, maybe they dont. But its not my kind of socialising. Everything is very artificial or not from the heart. and mostly with a glass of alcohol in their hands, even with their kids around!

There's a river, and a nice dock next to it, sadly, its always crowded with people drinking all the time! How I wish it were an empty riverbed, and I could just sit all alone and sip coffee out there! [Sigh!]

Thats all for now! ... shall bore you with more experiences/observations next time :)

London Calling...

2007-07-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

There were a range of emotions running through my mind when I got to know that I might have to travel to “LONDON”, over the weekend. A very small part of me, somewhere deep inside felt happy, a majority of me felt tensed, anxious about how I’ll pack up in 3-4 days, and I felt sad too, that I’ll have to leave home again after my hostel days.

In the days after I got to know that I may fly and the day I actually flew, all I remember are a few blurred images of me running through Bangalore Central and Shoppers Stop picking up shirts, trousers, bags, essentials when I was out of office, and running across the office campus trying to collect documents. I couldn’t even call up most of my friends.

I didn’t have time to panic that I’m going “teen samundar paar”, ;) as by the time I realised I was already there :D

It was foreign people, foreign land, foreign air-weather-water-food! So much that even the plane I flew in was a foreign plane! But of course, the (handsome, friendly, helpful) stranger in seat 30A was an Indian friend I made on the foreign plane. He even let me have his window seat for sometime :D. That makes him a very niiiiiiiiiiiiice guy!

Reached home, reached safely and then I made my first international call home. Felt so very far away from home when I did that.

I felt almost absolutely no jet lag. Maybe because I just ate something, ran a hot bath, and dived straight into the bed.

In London, safe and sound, in one piece. :)

A suicide attempted ...and failed!!

2007-05-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

Naah! not me :)

My maid's sister in law for some reason attempts suicide whenever she feels something doesn't go her way.

She's tried various methods - hanging from the celing being one of her favourites I suppose.

This time she decided to eat some kind of poison meant for pests! ... And my maid knew just how to save her :) the trick was to make her eat a mixture of shit :D from various sources(cow, dog, human... I didn't even want to listen to the rest). And tell her what it was while feeding it to her!

Phew! If I ever attempt suicide, this method is going to be ruled out for sure ;).
And no attempts with my maid anywhere around :D

The lady lived on to make more attempts... after vomitting out a mixture of poison and shits of all kinds :D

Doing things the french way!

2007-04-18T03:26:00.000-07:00

Well, this post is named to mislead. :)

Once upon a time, not a very long time ago, Bloggie along with a few friends decided to tickle her french senses, and she decided to start off with the language. Needless to say, I didn't even get till H or I before I quit!

Whoever wants to read more about it, please click on a fellow sufferer's post here.

Statutory warning 1: Learning French can be injurious to your tongues, can make your tongue act weirdly like involuntary muscles, and for at least half an hour after the classes, you shall lose control speak english too with a weird accent! ;)

Statutory warning 2: It shall make you poorer and the miserable looking french teacher richer by at least a few thousands. :(

Statutory warning 3: Everything french is not as handsome as you may expect it to be... at times this could lead to serious heartbreaks too!!! ;)

PS: I still like french enough to appreciate handsome indian guys with a intelligent looking french beard. :D

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall...

2007-02-21T03:18:00.000-08:00

... and so did I :) … the week before last. In between getting out of my office bus and getting into my home, where I need to hardly tread say about 20 steps, I fell!! Can you imagine?? Before you slight me, let me tell you, it was only a mild tumble, and all that happened (the dress tearing, the knee scrapping, blood oozing out :( …) was just because the footpath was unevenly laid, with a few loose slabs here and there. That I was doing a balancing act with a bag in one of my hands, a grocery pickup bag in the other and a jacket juggling in between the two hands that I have is a different matter ;) so the fall is perfectly justified and it doesn’t mean anything about my walking.

Reactions shown by ppl when I told them that I fell:

Loafers on the road-side: started howling and hooting in their own sweet voice ;)

Mom: so many days since you fell down!!! Ooooooooooow!
[and needless to say I sat there all doe eyed ;)]

Dad: what??? Fell!?? You?? How?? When? Hmmm…

Sister: Ha! Ha! Ha!

Friends: Ho! Ho! Ho!

I felt a certain amount of nostalgia :). It actually felt nice to fall and bruise my knee like a kid again. I remembered all those days of falling down, trying to hide it from parents, cos otherwise they’d put that burning thing called dettol on it. Things have changed so much now, we even have a non-burning version of the antiseptic :).
And all this while there’s this one statement in my mind I read somewhere…but didn’t find a suitable place to fix it in “I wish I were a little kid again, scraped knees are so much more easier to fix than broken hearts” ;)

What makes turkish cuisine Exquisite??

2007-02-06T01:02:00.001-08:00

People all over the world have their unique cuisine and food habits.
However there is always something which people at the other end of the world eat which makes our jaws go dropping like :O
I read an article in the newspapers the other day which caught my interest… it spoke in length about Turkish cuisine.

There were lots of examples of nice tasty stuff made out of weird stuff like yarn and stuff, but some thing made of a ram’s some-part-u-don’t-ever-want-to-know was the limit! Imagine a girlfriend of the turk who ate it all and in the end asked him what it was made of… he says she just ditched him over it… no wonder she did that, I’d have murdered him with the same fork I ate it with, if it were my boyfriend :D

Click here for the original article:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/01/30/stories/2007013005322400.htm

Qué será, será

2007-01-29T02:24:00.000-08:00

Found a nice, simple poem after a long long time!!

When I was just a little girl,
I asked my mother, "What will I be?
Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?"
Here's what she said to me:
Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

When I was just a child in school,
I asked my teacher, "What shall I try?
Should I paint pictures?
Should I sing songs?"
This was her wise reply:
Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

When I grew up and fell in love,
I asked my lover, "What lies ahead?
Will we have rainbows day after day?"
Here's what my lover said:
Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own,
They ask their mother, "What will I be?
Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?"
I tell them tenderly:
Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

Sounds just like an alice from wonderland who's lost her way into the modern day chaos, isn't it? :)

Aliens??? do you read me?

2006-12-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried doing that?

In my first English test after school – in college had just one question. (college was a big thing to be in back then when I was just a little over 16 – I almost felt a old enough to take care of the world, though I feel quite different right now.) We had to do a write-up on a boring topic – pollution. No… it doesn’t stop here, we had to write something about this topic in as interesting a way we could – we could write a story, essay, experience, anything ...but it had to be unconventional and all this within 2.5 hrs after I get to know of the thing called test.

So there I was sitting with a boring topic and an empty sheet trying to write something… I guess pollution control, Mahatma Gandhi and Indian freedom struggle have been the most exploited topics for essays – across languages (I have studied 3 of them). I went blank, blinked a few times, chewed the pen, scratched my head ;) and drew a blank again.

First I thought that I’ll write a story about how the earth’s atmosphere collapsed under various kinds of problems – pollution, terrorism, exploitation of nature and the kinds, but then I decided to look at all this from an alien’s perspective.

The story went on like this –
Aliens from an alien land decided to invade earth and make it their own. But then, intelligent that they were, they decided to make a feasibility study before the attack. So they sent a brainy guy to make a study on the way of life out here and how best to attack and defeat the earthlings.

The alien observed things for quite sometime, made a lot of sarcastic remarks on humans and he finally wrote something like this to his boss. “we need not waste time or resources planning attacks on this planet. Either they’ll bomb each other out – out of hatred, or they’ll die one day just because they’ve no air to breathe, water to drink or an earth which will have supporting atmosphere for them to live on. So they’ll lose earth one day, anyway.”

The teacher got really impressed with my paper and she kept it out on display for sometime – which made me feel reaaal proud. [ I am a very humble person, most of the times, but sorry, couldn’t resist announcing this out here ]

Today when I sit in my company’s food courts and munch on something… one glance around and I find people eating – wherever I see I see them… and I keep wondering what kind of a report will the alien write back to his boss?? Maybe something like this – “All the earthlings do is eat – different kinds of food, different ways of eating, but they eat eat and eat.” :P

Life is so weird, just that we’re here, we’re accustomed to some ways of life, we’re believe some things are right and some are wrong. We live a life doing what we’re expected to do. Portraying what others want to see. UGH!!! When will we live a life of our own? Does it really matter… when you actually consider the big picture – how important is pleasing others? How important are others? How important are “we” in the scheme of things? - viewing the big picture always makes me feel so small

I believe in aliens – for one single reason, like calvin says - The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us. - Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

So, aliens, if you are reading this somehow, tell me, do you believe in earthlings ;)

the first blog

2006-11-17T03:30:00.000-08:00

Aestivate - is a nice word isn't it? :)

I came across this word very recently... and liked it so much that i didn't have to think twice before naming my blog after it.

And thats what I intend to do with my life, aestivate it :)