The Dreams We Dream...

Dreams are the most magical and beautiful things for the simple reason that they may never come true. We may spin as amazing stories as we want in our heads whilst never having a clue of what the future holds. We can create our own little world in our mind's eye, a place only for us, to visit when times are rough or simply when wanting some peace. It is so much fun to plan this place, 'the happy place' I call it, cram in every bit of joy that you can gather so that the place is overflowing with goodness. Banish all misery, pain and wrongdoing from here; keep at bay the darkness, fear and doubts that plague us in the real world and just be free to do anything you imagine. Imagine being an astronaut and shooting into space to explore infinity and beyond; or maybe you would prefer to be a mighty ruler of an empire; or a secret service agent a la James Bond; or just a world traveler flitting from place to place across the globe; or an author of best selling books; or a snake charmer; or a marine biologists discovering more and more of nature everyday; or a teacher addressing a roomful of earnest young beings; or an administrator par excellence; or an accountant, engineer, ballerina and the list simply goes on and on and on. Fate is such a cruel thing that one the one hand it offers us a world full of so many amazing things to do but such little time to do more than a few. So, I say again, even if it will never be a reality, it is wonderful to keep dreaming. Dream on..

Cheers!

Favourite Things

Just felt like listing a few of my favourite things...

Sunny days and clear blue skies

The smell of wet earth just before the rains

Late night movies in bed

Reading a favourite book by lamp light

Falling asleep listening to music

Cooking something delicious

Walks on the beach or anywhere actually

Wind blowing through my hair

Surprises and unexpected pleasures

Laughing till it hurts

High heels coz they make me look taller

Lots and lots of water

Spectacles

Photo albums (the printed kind)

Stationery (diaries, notebooks, pens, pencils, you name it!)

The sound of silence

Fiery sunsets on a summer days

The rain whipping in my face while travelling

Singing out loud

Dancing

Happy day


Cheers!

The Stories

Everyone of us has a story to tell and no stories are the same. Each and every life and it's story figures in the tapestry of human history. We may not always make it to the history books (lets face it, those are boring most of the time so we're lucky in a way :P); but it matters, every single thing that we do or do not do. There is a beautiful line that explains it so clearly, whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it's very important that you do it because nobody else will. We may not even be remembered for it, but it is still important that we do it. Our stories are all unique, unmatched and make for a fascinating study. There are stories of courage, stories of love, stories of sadness, stories of pain, stories of joy and the list goes on. Take a moment when you are feeling blue to look at your story and see what it means to you. Look at every bend in the road and see how you have risen to the occasion; look and see the lives you have touched and have become richer for it; look at what you have achieved and be proud to be you; look at all the things you love and the joy they bring you; and lastly look at yourself and the person you are because you have all these stories behind you like a solid wall to lean on. Walk forward confidently and with every step, keep building those stories.

Rants of the MBA Aspirant

Writing about yourself is the hardest thing you shall ever have done. Just the very thought makes my forehead  frown and my stomach grumble and my hands itching to do anything but write (or type as the case may be). But unfortunately most B-schools set quite a store by what we think of ourselves and leave these interesting questions in the application forms that need to be answered. How would you rate yourself on versatility? Adversities faced in life? Responsibilities shouldered? And each application wants them just a little differently. So here I am now pulling my hair out trying to look at my CV and figure out where the hell the answers are hidden and how best to write them. Ultimately it will just come down to forcing myself to stick my butt to a chair for 3 straight hours and thrashing out the stuff cringing at every loftily written phrase and neatly glossy paragraph but alas it must be done for only then do the gates to these hallowed halls open to us.

While we are on the subject, I'll take a step back and talk about all the other things these erstwhile institutes have us do. I'll begin with the application fees shall I? It is anywhere between Rs. 950 and 1650 for entrance exams. Some institutes are kind enough to not charge additional fees to apply to the college but there are others where you will end up paying anywhere between Rs. 950 and 1650 over and above the entrance exam fees to fill out the application form for the institute. I wonder if anyone has ever studied what this means financially for the institute? With the number of students applying for their post graduation courses to B-schools increasing by the year, the corresponding increase in expenditure borne by the institute would only marginally increase. Many of these institutes do not even print their admission brochures any more, preferring instead to have downloadable PDF versions, very commendable of them and I am all for making the earth a greener place but that still leaves us with a lot of unaccounted for money! I can understand the reason for placing a fee on admissions as adding value to the process ensuring students who apply are actually serious about studying in the particular institute. But unfortunately it does not work like that anymore, students who can afford it (and some who can't!) are all filling out the endless forms for every exam and application form. The simplest solution I would say is to reduce the application fees to a minimal amount and instead design every application form (as opposed to only a handful who currently follow this procedure) with qualitative essay type question which will actually cull out the serious students from the 'also rans'. Of course entrance exams as method of elimination shall have to continue, without them managing logistics would be a nightmare, but application procedures should be better thought through.

Speaking of application procedures, having filled out my share of forms, I have come to believe that very few institutes actually have a clear cut vision of what they want in an applying candidates and design their forms accordingly while in others there are mostly run of the mill fields with very little scope for expressing individuality. And lets not even get started with the poor quality of online platforms that are used that some have and of course each has a different requirement of the kind of browser required and acceptable bank credit/ debit/ online payment options. I think that that effectively summarizes the pains of all MBA aspirants in the present day. However lets not forget that after all this, there still remains the little matter of actually taking the tests, speaking up at the GDs and acing the PIs. All the best all!

Cheers!

I just discovered 2 things about myself today:

1. I really need to write tasks down on paper to be able to complete them
2. I really need to write something everyday

Coincidence? Or maybe my life is all about writing To Do Lists :P

Cheers! 

The Gift of Life...

There is one school of thought that subscribes to the theory that everything in life is about chance and that nothing is planned. So it doesn't matter what we do or don't do with our lives, we will end up where we were meant to. Then there is the other point of view that says that we make our destiny, that the power is within us to shape and mould what we want our lives to become. I believe that they're both wrong and that life is actually a delightful combination of the two. We have with the raw materials if you will: all the characteristics and strengths that define who we are and there is no changing that. But what we do with them is something that is entirely up to us. We can throw up our hands and say that it is fate that hasn't let us become all that we could be but the truth remains that whatever gifts that we have with us can be used to bring out the absolute best in us and make us shine so bright that the entire world notices. The belief in who we are and what we are doing is what will make those dreams come true. The moment you give up hope is when you have written yourself off and no matter what you do, you won't be able to make anything of yourself. I think this quotation perfectly describes what life should be about and how to live it to the fullest:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Something to think about..
Cheers!

Pocketful of Sunshine =)

Sometimes when life gets you down, it's good to count your blessings and just celebrate everything that is good about it, so that is exactly what I'm gonna be doing!

1. The internet is the world's greatest invention. There is almost nothing that you cannot do on it. All those millions of forms and standing in queues or even making payments, remember the time when cheque payments felt so easy? Well not any more, coz you got, voila! the internet. I just logged on to netbanking for 15 minutes and am saved myself an hour long visit to the bank and I am just over the moon about it. Registrations for exams, ordering merchandise, social networking, music, videos, sheer timepass stuff, it has it all!
2. Early morning bliss is something else that I am grateful for. I am normally not a morning person but there are just some days that you wake up feeling like you can conquer the world and then you hear an absolutely amazing song that just makes your day (check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONVGfzRWxaU), and find some interesting emails in your inbox or chat with some people after quite a while and it just makes you smile. Not to mention all the peace and quiet around, everyone should try it out sometime. I don't sing reularly but I'm guessing this is why people who do, mostly practice early in the morning, makes for an amazing rest of the day.
3. Unexpected pleasures that come your way are the most precious gifts we can receive. Like yesterday travelling through Aarey Colony in Mumbai, I just did nothing except feast my eyes on the greenery all around and discovered what heaven on earth felt like. On reaching office, had a really good conversation with someone who I hadn't spoken to in a while, feels nice to just slow down and do that once in a while. Managed to play table tennis for a while, made for a refreshing break in the midst of a crazy day. We all lead such fast paced lives that it may be easy to miss out on these things as they don't come with signposts that will shout out to you to stop and take a look. But it is only these things that can bring a balance to the hectic life which would otherwise drive us into mental asylums by the dozen.
4. Another of life's great joys (and world's greatest inventions) is the earphones. Sometimes you just need to block the entire world out and lose yourself in your favourtie music. Whether it is good old hindi film music or hip hop hustle, whatever gets your mood going, just plug in those earphones to your phone, ipod, music player and you are set for a spell of bliss

So that concludes my random ramblings for the day. Felt good to put all this down, maybe we could all do that, just stop for a moment everyday and be grateful for all the good things that have happened in the day.

Until next time.
Cheers!

It was a beautiful morning, sunlight filtered through the fresh green leaves which swayed gently in the breeze. As I looked out of the large windows and saw the vast expanse of blue skies with bits of grey clouds floating across, I felt deeply content. It was uttlerly peaceful and made me want to keep day dreaming all day. The hills in the distance, the buildings tall and short in the foreground, the trees in the office compund, the railway track at a distance and not a soul in sight; just everything about the scene spelt serene. It made me feel grateful for all my blessings and happy about all the good things in life. Simple things which don't need to be put in words, I sat there just recounting them in my head and then glancing at the clock brought me back to reality. Until next time then! Cheers =)

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour...

- William Blake
Auguries of Innocence

Through the camera lens…

When I look at the world around me today, I see a lot of amazing things happening. And yet there is something in me that yearns for times that are behind me. The simplest example I think of is cameras. There was a time when it was a cumbersome and extremely precious object, prized and jealously guarded by its owner. Film roll was so valuable that each shot was considered from every angle before actually capturing so as to have a masterpiece. The disappointment when the roll finished and then the breathless wait for it to be developed after which you vowed to carefully preserve them in albums but unfortunately time would cause it to get tarnished to show its age until they became almost unrecognizable. Now with the leaps and bounds of technology, one can see digital cameras small enough to fit in your pockets and what’s more, you don’t even need cameras if you happen to have the latest smartphone with built in cameras, flashlights and countless other features that are enough to make your head spin. There is no need to think twice before clicking a picture when you can always delete it if you think it isn’t good enough. There is no thrill in getting that perfect shot when you know you can try it endlessly till you get it right and there is no mystery left as you can view the picture immediately. We are careless with what we choose to capture and so it doesn’t really inspire us to print them and want to preserve them. We tell ourselves that this is good, in this way we don’t need to pick and choose and can have all the million photographs saved in the computer memory or web albums, look over them all anytime and save the paper that we would have used, to print them. But really think about it, when was the last time you went back and browsed old photo albums stored on your hard disk? Wheras we all still definitely peruse the old hardbound albums from time to time and think back fondly to the moments in each carefully shot photograph (and sometimes even the hilariously gone wrong ones as there was no delete button back then!). Not to say that there isn’t anything good about this new age digital revolution, I just miss the charm of the good old days and just wish we could sometimes go back a few decades and lose ourselves in the simple pleasures of life.

Some Days...

There are days, not the best of days, which you wish would just end so that you could collapse into bed and it would be behind you. And then something happens to make you smile and hope springs up like a blade of green grass to say that maybe the day ain't so bad after all. It could be anything, a piece of good news, unexpected praise, a nice tune, a pretty picture, a memory flashing in your head, a phone conversation and the list goes on. There really is a silver lining to every cloud, we just have to look for it. And when the day winds down and you are in that drowsy state of half awake and half asleep, you should look back at that one shining moment which will guarantee a peaceful night's sleep. Life is too short and too fast paced these days to waste even a moment being unhappy. So let go of the grudges, the petty differences, the misunderstandings, the blame games, the feelings of being wronged, and just make the absolute best of every day. Just concentrate on being happy and see how good the world can be. Cheers! 

#Munnar Diaries: The Magic Continues...

When night falls, the stars come out. There is no other word for it except spectacular, you can see them all around bright and sparkling and breathtaking. The cresent moon looked like it was caught in the branches of the tree outside our window and the cold, clear night air was like a balm for the soul. Once inside however the picture was quite the opposite, the warm glow from the lamp by the table and a blanket to get cozy under and a good book to read. The combination ensured that I was dozing off within minutes. Waking up in the morning to the bracing air was heavenly. Since unlike my brother and mother I am not very fond of the early morning walk, I decided to drink in the views from the balcony; everything looked fresh and clean as if someone had worked their magic with a mop and broom overnight. The rolling hills covered in green all around and the white clouds floating lazily in the sky and the sun shining down and lighting everything up. The entire day was spent in lazing around and doing nothing, except reading my book and listening to music, my idea of the perfect vacation.

The next day we ventured out on a trip to the Eravikulam National Park, the tour bus took us up to a point beyond which it was a hike up the mountain with the zigzag pathway offering a different breathtaking view at every turn and of course the greenery lining the path on both sides was a definite bonus. After the long and leisurely walk up and down the trail with plenty of halts to click endless photographs, it was time for a very belated lunch of steaming maggi at a roadside stall accompanied by hot coffee, absolute heaven! Afterwards it was a trip to the Madupetty dam and a speed boat ride with the cold wind whipping at your face while the boat seemed to just skim over the surface of the clear as glass water. Breathing in that rush of cold air was so stimulating, it left you wanting for more. Back at the resort, the misty grey light of twilight hung all around as it slowly gave way to darkness and the warm glow of twinkling lights with oceans of black night in between. Just to watch this change without a worry in the world, with daily life so far away was just the most fabulous feeling. Vacations rock!

Until next time..Cheers!

#Munnar Diaries: Above the Clouds...

Getting away from the city is always refreshing but when the place you are getting away to is God's own country it is positively heavenly. Of course it was not as easy as it sounds since the getting away part had a lot of obstructions but once up in the air, all of it just fell away leaving you in a state of bliss and anticipation. Arriving in Kochi, the first thing you notice is the greenery all around interspersed with gorgeous red thatched roofs, a prettier picture I have rarely seen. Even in the midday sun, a cool breeze played around a lovely change from the heat and humidity of Mumbai. The drive from Kochi to Munnar took about three hours and the sights and sounds that kept us company will remain etched in my memory forever. Once outside of the city limits, the climb uphill began. The narrow roads, flanked by green on both sides, the gentle patter of the rain on the windshield and the ever changing sky above all made for a breathtaking spectacle. The views kept changing as we circled our way up the slope, the defining moment being when we found ourselves above the cloud cover looking down upon it. Fields of white cotton stretched out in every direction and through the breaks in the clouds we could see the patches of the green valleys lit up by the sunlight that forced itself through. There were tea gardens all around now, with signposts marking the properties of one and then another and yet another company. Somehow when we look at packets or boxes of tea leaves, this isn't the picture that comes to mind is it? Just goes to show that we should broaden our horizons every once in a while. But coming back to the journey, we now passed forests full of tall trees I know not the names of and calls of birds which were just as elusive. The rain continued to beat down, just enough so that a few drops found themselves inside the car but not so much that we had to roll the windows up. A short break in journey near a waterfall offered yet another delightful view to capture in our memories but the monkeys that roamed around freely we could have done without. We clicked the typical tourist pictures and were off on our way again. The climb was steeper and at every turn we were treated to yet another fascinating view of the valley beow. When at last it seemed like we could climb no higher, we arrived at our destination. Our room has a balcony from where you can almost reach out and touch the clouds, there is an envelope of trees all around and still more tea gardens on the sloping hills before. This is where I sit as I try to put in words all the pictures in my head, but since a picture speaks a thousand words, I guess this is the best I can do. I think I shall be spending a lot of my time out here in this balcony :)

Until next time.. Cheers!

Classrooms...

Classrooms are magical places, they bring together people in a way that nothing else can. From the moment you cross that threshold, the outside world just fades away and a different one is created. It doesn't matter if you're in the classroom to learn or not, there is always a lesson. I believe it is the most carefree place that one can ever find themselves in, the worries and cares of everyday life just don't exist in here. The room itself may differ from place to place, state of the art infrastructure in one to just four walls and a blackboard in another but it is really the state of mind of the people in it that makes it what it is. Human nature can be best studied within the confines of a classroom, it is quite the ready natural laboratory, and since no one is watching, people tend to be themselves instead of trying to be someone else. There will always be the person who is ready to debate anything under the sun, to question and challenge all that is said. Then there is the person who always has an answer to everything but may choose to be arrogant or humble about it, which decides whether the rest of the class finds him agreeable or not. The class joker, ready with a quip for every situation and provides comic relief  when the atmosphere gets too serious. Then there is the shy guy, the one who keeps to himself, says little but surprises the rest when he does speak up. Then there will inevitably be that one person who has no wish to be there in the first place and will spend their entire time sulking but they too will end up in the class picture when the time comes. Then of course there are people like me, the ones who are always looking around to see what they can see in the people around them, to understand what drives them, what makes them tick and why they behave in the way they do. The classroom is my playground and I am glad that I am back in one even if only for the weekend. Cheers!

The Other Side...

I visited Crossword bookstore yesterday and the sight that greeted me was heartwarming. The normally straight laced and perfectly ordered bookstore was having an overwhelming moment. There were books spilling out of everyone, in the shelves, on the floor and just about everywhere. The entire store looked like it was bursting out of it's seams and I couldn't help but smile. Firstly just to see the sheer number of books spread about and secondly because it just shows that there is always another side to things, the side that is not so rosy or comfortable or even sensible. It helps to be reminded of that every once in a while, just to know that it is there and you should pay it some mind. It is not as if you would like the thing any less because of it, in fact it would add to its charm. We human beings are quite the hypocritical creatures; we strive for perfection everywhere and look for it in everyone but what really touches us are the imperfections, the flaws, in short the other side. Here is to embracing that other side, that we all have within us, to know that it is a part of us and makes us who we are and to learn how best it can help us along in life. We may not like some of the things that we find but that is how it is, life isn't perfect and the sooner we realise that, the happier we shall be for then we shall know what things will make us happy which aren't necessarily the perfect things.

Moonlight shone brightly through the window and cast shadows around the room. The curtains fluttered in the gentle breeze from the open window and the wind chime softly swayed about. Together with the whirring fan overhead, it made for a charming lullaby one that was guaranteed to put you to sleep when you were already weary at the end of the day. So sleep I did, blissfully :)

Cheers!


Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

The Call

The phone rings, wakes her from a deep slumber. She reaches across to the nightstand and checks the readout on the caller ID, what could he possibly want at this time of the night? She considers just ignoring it, pretending not to have heard but she cannot lie to herself even if she could to him. She rises from the bed at the same time as she answers the phone, with just a hint of sleep mixed into the concern in her voice as she asks him what the matter is. ‘Nothing’ apparently is the matter, he just wants to talk and she was the first person he could think of. She smiles and tells him she’s all ears and wanders across to the window and throws it wide open. As the cool night breeze blows in, the voice at the other end of the line begins to tell her of his day and because he is a born storyteller, it immediately becomes exciting and comes alive in front of her eyes as he describes the things that have happened. He finishes and asks about her day, she takes a minute to collect her thoughts and hesitantly proceeds to tell him the bare bones of incidents. He interrupts her with questions about everything until she has made a story of it too, something she finds she is unable to do usually. They both laugh about it; the hour has been well spent. Goodbyes are exchanged and there is a gentle click as he disconnects the phone. She continues to stand still for a few more moments before stepping back from the window, shutting the panes and falling back into bed, falling asleep once again, this time with a smile on her face.

A Different World

Have you ever taken a bus ride in the middle of the day? It's absolute bliss, the roads are practically empty, the bus itself is empty, the world seems bright and shining under the dazzling sunshine and everything seems so peaceful. The bus journey takes me past the Powai lake whose cool blue waters are shimmering and gentle ripples dot the surface, a truly beautiful sight. The trees on the bank are all sporting fresh green leaves which only serves to remind me that my favourite season of the year has arrived. I love the summers, I revel in the heat no matter how scorching. The blast of hot air flowing in through the windows is comforting to me. The bus now passes by a flyover construction where normally the scene would resemble something like a battlefield with cars jam packed bumper to bumper honking in vain but at this time of the day, it's smooth sailing. Now we turn into Aarey Milk Colony, my favourite part of this city. Nowhere else will you find such abundance of greenery stretching around for miles. You could almost forget that you are in the middle of a crowded cosmopolitan, it could be a road on a mountainside or a forest so stark is the contrast. The return to the real world is however inevitable but here again the empty highway stretches ahead as the bus speeds up and brings me closer and closer to home. The familiar landmarks rush by and very soon the magical journey must come to an end. These occasions are rare when things are not exactly like your daily routine. I've learnt to always enjoy them to the fullest and be grateful for just about everything there is.

I'm glad I decided to take the bus today :)

Cheers!
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Rigmarole [Vol II]

(continued from... http://garbbled.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/rigmarole-vol-i/)

...creature called Twerp. He was a strange one, kept to himself, rarely speaking to others and when he did it was only about rainbows. The colours (though he couldn't name them), the beauty (though he couldn't describe it) and the sheer miracle of it. In the land where he lived, people had long given up trying to understand him (they had never seen a rainbow you see), leaving him alone to his mutterings. It wasn't unusual for mothers to pull their children closer or fathers to shut their doors when they heard him approaching. It wasn't that he meant any harm, that was just how he was, and as the years went on, he became more and more of a recluse, seldom seen around until one day he had a dream. He dreamt that the land was in danger and that he would be the one to save all its people from calamity. The next day, he went to the king's court and asked for an audience. Having been granted one, he approached the regent and blurted out, "The land is in danger, we must all leave". The entire court full of people burst out laughing and he was asked to be on his way. There was only one person who did not laugh, who believed in him and who had also been the only one to ever have listened to his stories of the rainbows. His name was Half-Pint and he decided to follow Twerp when he left the courthouse. Together they set off the next day for that land far far away where the rainbows met the earth and where they would be saved from disaster...

(to be continued...http://aishwaryathapa.blogspot.in/2012/04/rigmarole-vol-iii.html)

A new way for a new year...

So I have found the perfect solution to new year resolutions. Make the resolution in January but implement it in April. That way you have three blissful months in which you can just tell yourself that you'll start the next day! Imagine the peace of it and believe me it works, I've been meaning to start a morning walk regimen since the morning of January 1, 2012 (which happened to also be a Sunday) but I finally managed to get myself out in the crisp and cool, early morning air only today. We've heard a lot about the benefits of starting the day early but you only truly understand it if you experience it. Watching the sky get lighter and lighter until the sun is finally up, the lovely weather long before it gets unbearably hot and of course the peace all around, not to mention the fact that the day seems so much longer when you've been up since 6 am. Even that took a while to cultivate, being a person who used to on an average sleep at 3 am every day switching to 12 am was not easy. The first few weeks were accompanied by massive headaches every day since I'm assuming the head probably had no idea what hit it! Change is never easy but if you really want to make it happen, there is a very high chance that you actually will. Some things in life will never change but there are other things, things which have always been a certain way without you questioning it which will not make sense sometimes. It could be a bad habit, a nervous disposition, moody behaviour, an angry countenance or just a certain outlook towards life. The day you realise that it isn't helping you is the day you will set about changing it; it will be a long journey doubtless but when you reach the end it will have been worth it and it will be a lesson learnt for life. Its never too late or too early to change anything, you just have to make up your mind to do it. With that thought, I'm going to go an make my Sunday extremely productive as opposed to extremely lazy so lets how that goes!

Cheers!

Au Revoir

Modern air travel has always fascinated me, the entire process from origin to destination is one that fills me with wonder. From the moment I see the sign that tells me that the airport is just around the corner, I begin to feel a sense of anticipation and an excitement I cannot explain. I reach the departures terminal and join the queue that wishes to enter this building. A stern looking sentry stops me to check that I have that vital piece of paper that will allow me entry into this sacred lair. Not satisfied with just the piece of paper, he asks for identification; having duly proved to him that I am who I claim to be, I enter.

The difference in atmosphere from outside to in is almost tangible; outside it is harsh, bright and uncertain while on the inside the muted lighting, the smiling faces and the welcoming voices all spell comfort and warmth. I approach the clerk at the check in counter and he smilingly informs me that my flight is on schedule. I place my check in luggage on the conveyor belt, someone slaps a sticker on it and it slowly disappears behind a plastic curtain. I collect my boarding pass and baggage tag and head towards security check. Laptop goes into the box and through the scanner and the bag follows. The human baggage all passes through the scanner and is reunited with their possessions on the other side.

And then freedom, an entire expanse of the terminal for me to explore until such time the flight is called. I stroll around, glancing at all the shops with their shiny glass windows and colourful displays wondering who exactly does shop at the airport. The food joints are a different story, almost every table has occupants who are engrossed in their newspapers or laptops with a coffee cup by their side. I spend the time alternating between reading and observing the scene around.

The view from the upper floor where I sat was breathtaking, the entire airport stretched out before me, an ocean of space in the middle of the crowded city. The scenery inside was amusing as well, people rushing around, looking flustered and not really being able to settle down in one place for a minute. Somehow I think the feeling that this is something of their lives that they cannot control, gives them a reason for anxiety. They are completely dependent on the authorities to tell them what to do and where to go and that unsettles them. I have seen very few people who are relaxed in an airport. Children are the only ones who make the most of the situation, running around wherever they please.

But anyway I digress, the flight is announced, the people form a queue to board, anxious once again as if the plane would deliberately take off without them if they didn't rush. I board the plane and find my seat, a relatively easy task for me; being so short that I neither have the problem of bumping my head on the overhead bins nor of being cramped in my seat with no space for my legs :P. Having settled in, I find that I am able to continue with my reading while all the pre-boarding commotion plays on like background music. At last it is time for the flight to take wings, the roar of the engine fills the aircraft, images rush by and everything begins to shake and suddenly we're in the air. The city below gets smaller and smaller until you can see no more than a haze of clouds.

Inside the aircraft, things have settled down and the flight crew is busy handing out refreshments and all is well in the world. Very soon, the empty containers are cleared away and there is a peaceful silence on board; people reading, listening to music or just dozing. Before you know it, it is time to land, seat belts on, seats upright and tray tables folded away. Emerging from the cloud cover the city comes into view and slowly gets bigger and bigger as the aircraft descends. It gets closer and closer when finally with a thump, it touches down. Even before the aircraft has come to a complete standstill, there is a rush of people standing in the aisles and getting their luggage out of the overhead bins. The sounds of cell phones being switched on are heard all around. Here again people are as anxious to get off as they had been to get on. I wait my turn, pick up my luggage and smiling at the flight crew exit the plane.

A bus awaits below to ferry passengers to the terminal. Arriving there, there is another rush for collecting the bags from the giant conveyor belts and then out into the open air, turning my back to the magic of the airport. There is a throng of expectant faces outside which light up on seeing the one that they have been looking out for. I find my cab, place my bags inside and seat myself and take one last look at the airport before we pull away from the kerb. Until next time then..

Cheers!

Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Chennai Diaries

I heard a lot about Chennai before I went there. The heat would be unbearable, the roads would be narrow, the language would be a problem and that all in all it would be an unpleasant experience. Well I decided to ignore everything that everyone said and go and see for myself and basically had an amazing time. The heat was more or less the same as Bombay, in fact the area where I was staying which is in the outskirts of the city near the IIT-M campus was actually very pleasant and the view from the hotel was breathtaking. The narrow roads weren't really a problem and I quite liked them, flyovers and highways are way over rated. And well when it came to language, since the basic left, right, straight and stop are the same everywhere it was easy to manage travel and in most places and in most cases English is understood in any case. I can't say I explored much but the places I did go to were heavenly. Besant Nagar beach in the morning is absolutely beautiful, from a distance the sea actually looks blue and green not muddy brown like in most other places. With the bright sunshine and cool breeze, it is the best place to laze around on a Saturday morning especially after a delicious breakfast at Chennai's famous Murugan Idli. It's a very colourful city, that's what struck me the most about the place, the plethora of colours that are everywhere around you. I brought back some of the colours with me, beaded necklaces, earrings and bracelets which will forever remind me of Chennai. With a lot of help from my friend, I also explored the areas of Khadar Nawas Khan and Adyar and amazing choices of food places. A place called Cream and Fudge especially caught my fancy with their amazing choice of desserts. I has something called a strawberry shortcake which isn't actually a cake but a delightful combination of ice cream, pie filling and caramel and spent the rest of the day in a sugar induced high and then vowed henceforth never to go without sweets again (There is a half empty tub of Baskin Robbins ice cream in my freezer as we speak :P). Another thing I enjoyed there was the solitude I found, away from my regular life, alone at the end of the day; it gave me a lot of time to think and reflect on my life. Everybody needs that sometimes I feel and I certainly found it in Chennai and I will always treasure the time that I spent there and I do hope we meet again.

Cheers!

Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Like A Sunrise...

What was so amazing about the falling rain? That all lovers claimed that the monsoons were the most romantic season of the year? He hated it, the rain, the water logging, the slush, the endless traffic jams, the humidity and the stench that enveloped the entire city like a hangman's noose. Accidentally stepping into a puddle and losing his footing, he cursed the universe in general and trudged along, still a long way from home thanks to the auto rickshaw breaking down. As if on cue, he spotted a couple walking along hand in hand blissfully getting drenched in the downpour and seeming not to have a care in the world. Disgusted, he changed direction and decided to pay a visit to an old friend, she would certainly cheer him up he thought and quickened his pace as much as his heavy backpack and umbrella would allow. Reaching his destination, he rang the doorbell and waited. She opened the door, took one look at his face and just silently waited for him to stomp in and flop down on the sofa, he would take care to discard the dripping shoes at the door since that was the only thing she was particular about but that was about it. He sat down, laid his head back and closed his eyes and just felt grateful that she would understand without him having said a word that he had had a crappy day and was in no mood to discuss it, she would pry it out of him anyway but that would be later. He listened to the sounds of her moving about in the kitchen and knew instinctively that the food cooking would be delicious, and she would somehow have managed to make enough for two. He was content for the moment to just sit there and let the tiredness of the day drain out of him. She on her part continued with her chores without paying him any mind, she knew him only too well to recognize the 'had a bad day, don't want to talk about it' face so she let him be, for now that is. He was as predictable as an alarm clock which meant that in exactly 20 minutes he would be recharged, restless and getting in her way, asking about the food. She smiled at the thought, the man still behaved like a child sometimes, and added more ingredients to the sizzling pan. The 20 minutes having duly passed, he decided he had rested enough and rose to come and stand at the kitchen doorway. Perfect timing, she thought, just as the pressure cooker gave its final whistle, and asked him if he was hungry. The slow nod told her that today must have been more tiring than most, she would take extra care to see that he cheered up before he left. They sat down to dinner and the silence with bits of conversation thrown in was comforting, these were old friends, there was no need for the pomp and show that was reserved for the outside world. Eventually, he wasn't quite sure how, he got around to telling her about his day and the incidents that led to him arriving at her doorstep. She suppressed a smile, he would always do that, insist on explaining why he came over, it wasn't often but it wasn't a rare spectacle either but he would always explain himself as if in a court of law. He for his part knew that she was listening to everything and in her head disagreeing with quite a few things but wouldn't say a word till he had had his say. Then they would clear away the dishes and sit down on the sofa and talk about everything under the sun. From interesting bits of conversation, to news about mutual friends, to world politics and business, to books and music and then back again to how the day had been. By and by, he would get up to leave when they would exchange a hug and he would thank her for making his day better and she would just smile tell him to sleep well so that it would be a better day tomorrow. In all that time if he ever even fleetingly thought of her as anything more than just a friend he dismissed it as impossible. She was a romantic, and he a pragmatist, they would never be right for each other. At the time he wasn't to know that one day they would find that they were perfect for each other for just those reasons, that they wouldn't be able to imagine life without one another. It had been like watching a sunrise, the journey from darkness to light was so gradual that you didn't notice the change until it was broad daylight. He took in a deep breath as he watched the sun rise from the east and turning back towards the house, saw her standing at the door smiling at him and he knew that she too was thinking back to those days of shared laughter and conversations late into the night. He walked towards her and back into the house, the same place where their story had once begun...

Promises

There is dialogue from the movie 'Shall We Dance' that I really love. It goes like this:

We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'

Its an extraordinary thought and never fails to bring a smile to my face. Because really if you go to see, all the other things in a marriage can be found even without being married. But it would be very difficult to find someone to be your witness for life without having that kind of promise from them. Very simply sums up the idea of a marriage.

Cheers!

The Story

You walk down the road, you purposefully turn left at the crossroads, you know exactly where you are going. You ignore all the emptiness that surrounds you in every direction and just keep walking. A right here, a left there and suddenly after an hour of walking you are back where you began, an old and crumbling building at the corner of an empty street half hidden by the branches of a large banyan tree. You look up at the light shining though the window of the fourth storey flat, take a deep breath, push through the gates and pass through, thinking that it wasn't so hard after all. You begin the climb up the stairs and suddenly it seems like it's impossible again, the stairs feel like they go on forever. You pause and wonder, maybe it isn't such a good idea after all, it is 4 o'clock in the morning, but then the memory of the light shining through the window flashes across your eyes and you can almost feel its welcome warmth. You start climbing again, faster this time, willing your legs to carry you with utmost speed towards your destination. At last you reach, out of breath but feeling glad that you made it this far, for realization dawns that coming this far was the easy part. You steady your breathing and reach for the doorbell and give it a push with no effect, you let out a small laugh, feeling like fate was laughing at you, testing you to see if you would give up. Feeling steadier now, you raise your hand and gently knock three times and then take a step back. You wait for something to happen but nothing does, so you step forward and try the doorknob and find it unlocked. You hope to God that you did the right thing and push open the door and the sight that beholds you reassures you that it was the right thing to do. A small figure is curled up sleeping in an armchair pulled up near the window, a book has fallen from her outflung arm onto the floor, glasses are still perched on her nose. You continue to stand at the doorway and look around the room, hardly anything has changed since the last time you were here, the same old sofa, the ancient lamp on the table beside it, the armchair by the window, the cabinet with the assorted showpieces from around the world, even the television set looked unchanged. Your eyes were drawn back to the sleeping form in the armchair, you look at her for a long minute, then cross the room and crouch beside her so that your faces are level. You wonder if you should wake her up, she looks so peaceful, then feeling like you would go mad if you didn't speak with her, you place your hand on her shoulder and gently shake her awake. She opens her eyes but doesn't move and smiles her welcome like she has been waiting for you for a while and then she lifts her hand and slaps you across your face. You are shocked and jump up yelling, "What the...?" to which her only reply is, "What took you so long?". She sits up now amused at the stunned look on your face, "What? You forgot that I can be unexpected?". You make haste to rearrange your expression to one of mild annoyance, clear your throat and say, "Your door was unlocked, anyone could have come in". She looks over at the door, nodding her agreement and then looks back at you, "But nobody else did, did they? Besides, the doorbell was not working and I knew I could count on you to show up the most unearthly hour when I was bound to be asleep and knowing your fascination with fate, you would probably leave and I wouldn't see you again for another ten years." She spoke lightly but you couldn't help feeling that you were as predictable as ever while she would never cease to surprise you. You say, "I saw your light on" at which she throws back her head and laughs, "For heavens sake would you stop stating facts?" but you are tongue tied, having agonized over this moment for so long, now that it has come you don't know what to say. She sighs, rises from the chair, comes towards you and saves you the trouble of thinking of something to say by placing her lips on yours. And in that moment, all your doubts vanish as you pull her into an embrace and kiss her back with a passion that you haven't felt in years and time just stands still for you in that moment. Nothing else matters.

Living in the Moment...

There is much sense in the saying 'stop and smell the roses'. That, along with many other sayings all say the same thing: enjoy the moment that you have right now. Everybody's heard of this but few of us understand what it really means. It does not mean that life should all fun and games but that it should feel like it is so. Too many of us are of the belief that constantly worrying about the past or the future will somehow help improve our lives. Not to say that some amount of planning is not necessary for life but to be obsessed with every little detail all the time just drains you of all the joy that comes with it. Take life as it comes, face problems, weigh options, make decisions but more importantly laugh loudly, smile widely and feel happy every day! Care more than it is wise, risk more than it is safe and dream more than it is practical, just do the things that make you happy today. Its true that tomorrow you may not remember most of these things but you will certainly remember the feeling of satisfaction that came with it. The relief that you feel when you decide to live in the moment can make you quite light headed. So why don't more and more people embrace this feeling? The answer is that its too easy and we as human beings are wired to always believe that if it isn't hard then there must be something wrong. So we slog through our days doing things the hard way just to pat ourselves on the back at the end of the day feeling like we have accomplished something. Just ask yourself this question today: what is that feeling of accomplishment worth?
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Through The (Looking) Glass...

I should start off by explaining that without my glasses I am practically blind, hazy shapes and fuzzy colours are about all I can see! So a few days ago, just to experiment I decided to not wear my glasses for an entire bus journey and just get a glimpse of the world without my glasses, the result was pretty damn amazing. The entire irritation arising out of endless traffic jams was wiped out to be replaced by a moving portrait swiftly changing before me. Streetlights resembled yellow pools of light suspended in the air and the long row of these lamps almost seemed like a pathway to the heavens. Lower down on the ground, all I could see were yellow pinpricks of car and bike headlights zooming past and only shadowy images of the actual vehicles and their occupants. The green of the trees by the side of the road somehow looked more sinister than usual and the sky dark and looming. The buildings were only identifiable by the colours of lights in the windows, shining blues and yellows with the occasional bright white of a hoarding on the roof. Things like gates, walls, railings, speed breakers, potholes had absolutely no significance for the simple reason that they just could not be seen. The shops on the other hand for the large part were so brightly lit with so many different colours that they caught the eye without me even knowing what I was looking at! I played a game with myself to see if I could recognise all the familiar landmarks and I did but they looked so different that it was almost like another world altogether. This entire experience made me wonder at how life is full of surprises. I had never before bothered look around me without my glasses except in the familiar terrain of my own home and here I was having spent an hour looking at the outside world and feeling like 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'.

The world is a funny place, it shows you new things when you least expect them. Just goes to show that we should always keep our eyes and mind open lest we miss out something that could be of great value to us. No matter where we are in life, there is always something new waiting for us just around the corner, a new opportunity, a new perspective, a new direction, a new relationship, a new challenge and the list goes on! Just like I could never have imagined that I could see anything worthwhile without my glasses, most people spend their life imagining that this is it, this is all my life will ever be. You have to take the time look around and see things you have never bothered to look at before or look at old things with fresh eyes. The 'things' here could be anything really, that's the beauty of it, the world is your own backyard the minute you decide to see it as such! There is nothing we cannot achieve if we put our heart, mind and soul into it. So any obstacles standing in our path are nothing but excuses to keep living in our comfort zones. So think about it, open your eyes and find that something new in your life today, seize the day and trust me it will be worth it. Cheers!
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Pointless Things To Ponder About...

Just yesterday I was thinking of the most pointless things to ponder about. It started off with seeing a facebook status which was contemplating whether the batmobile is air conditioned! After that there was no looking back. Here are some of the things that I have pondered about since then:

1. How the best suicide hotline would be the Domino's Pizza hotline!

2. How in TV series, they always seem to remember the exact number of years ago something happened (in graphic detail mind you), they never even have to stop and think about it!

3. How we think that frantically charging the phone for 5 minutes before rushing out of the house will make any difference to the almost dead battery!

4. How trees grow upwards since ideally gravity should be pulling them down!

5. How they almost never seem to talk about basic bodily functions in thrillers! Its like the entire story takes place without anyone needing to use the loo!

6. How Iron Man created a whole new element without telling anyone! The least he could've done was to have added it to the periodic table :P

7. How Star Trek has only english speaking people! I mean think about it, they have a translator for every other alien language in the universe but you never hear any other language from planet earth!

8. How the staff at big hotels are such snobs! I mean what have they got to judge us with, its the hotel that's grand not them!

9. How Rajnikant jokes have taken everyone by storm and shows no signs of stopping. So much so that this is the joke going around now:

A frustrated message from Rajnikant to all

"Saalo ek limit hoti hai.. yeh kaun likh raha hai ki Rajnikant chawal khata hai aur piche se idli nikalti hai'' :)

And now since Rajni has been mentioned, nothing else can top that. So I shall stop my pondering now. Feel free to add anything you might have pondered about lately :P

Cheers!
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Sunday Evening

The Sunday evening drew slowly to a close. The pale yellow light from lamp on the table by the far corner shed its warmth all around. The pool of light illuminated a divan with a couple of books thrown around, the newspaper and its assorted supplements, the television remote, a pair of glasses and a mobile phone. On the table where the lamp stood was pile of old newspapers with an ashtray for a paperweight, a landline phone with its dust cover. Across the room, in the corner by the window was a study table overflowing with photo albums stacked haphazardly. The huge french windows were open, inviting in the gentle evening breeze making the curtains flutter lazily. In the armchair next to the divan, angled towards the T.V. was the evidence of human existence in the room: a very squashed cushion! And as the T.V. churned out its usual volley of advertisements, the Sunday evening drew slowly to a close...
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Rain! Rain! Went Away!

Its official! Monsoons are over. October is almost here and the weather seems to know it. Clear blue skies, bright sunshine, fluffy white clouds and not even a hint of rain. And the colours all around, everything got such a thorough cleaning during the rainy season that its practically shining wherever the sun finds its way. Of course not everything came out looking squeaky clean, the roads are definitely worse for the wear and buildings have a very sorry look about them. But nothing that some repairs won't fix. And as for us, the inhabitants of this crazy city, we can finally go back to stepping out of our houses without an umbrella; leave the windows open without worrying about the rain washing everything away; traffic will probably ease up a teensy weensy bit (hopefully the 2 hour journey will turn into 1.5 but that is just wishful thinking); and best of all, maybe now with temperatures soaring again, we'll enjoy ice creams again.

On that note I'll end this rambling and wish everyone a very good day ahead! Cheers :)
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

We come into this world with nothing, but as we go along our way we gather a lot of things but 'things' may be a bit ambiguous. What I really mean to say here is the people that we gather around us. The friends we make, our circles, our gangs, our groups, our lifelines, these are the guys that make life what it is. Everything around us is a testimony to this fact, from social networking sites which wouldn't even exist if not for the innate need in mankind to connect with each other to sitcoms which more often than not would fall flat without the band of merry men to boost along the story. So winding back to my original point, whenever I look around, I am amazed at the number of connections we make in our lifetime, people we meet at every point in our lives who somehow just remain with us long after that time in our life is gone. I feel doubly grateful when I see the number of people in my life who I will always always cherish.. Here's to you guys. Cheers!

Volcano

What is it about destruction that attracts us? Nobody ever wants it to happen to them but nevertheless everybody eagerly follows the news when there is a calamity (natural or man made). With connectivity getting better and better, news from all over the world has invaded our homes and lives. Its not just that these incidents are increasing by the day, we find out about them immediately and that is what adds to the shock effect. Even the silver screen realises this, evident from the movies where the end of the world seems to be the theme! What is it exactly that pulls us in? Is it just the drama? The philosopher Henry David Thoreau once said 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to their grave with the song still in them'. Maybe we ease this desperation by feeling the adrenaline rush that comes from an event that threatens to destroy everything. The rush of emotions: fear, anger, pain, empathy all combine together and give us the feeling of being alive and from that springs the will to survive in any way possible, the proverbial fight or flight so to speak. But at the end of the day, when the movie is over or the crisis is past, we go back to the humdrum of our everyday lives...until the next time!

PS # I think I should mention here that I was watching this movie called 'Volcano' last night, I'll leave you to guess what that was all about :P. Cheers!
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Love Affair of a Lifetime...

There are many reasons to love the internet, I particularly like the fact that I can download sitcoms that I might not ordinarily have access to. There are so many sitcoms these days that one has their work cut out trying to follow them all on TV. Besides, the timings may not even be all that convenient, sometimes they even coincide and they almost always reach the TV half a year behind the original release. The solution: download them from the internet! And right there is an entire world of possibilities opening up before you, a world beyond the constrictions of the television set. My initiation to this wonderful phenomenon began even before I knew what it was all about, the TV series Lost was quite difficult to follow when there was a week between episodes aired on HBO, but a stack of DVDs with Season One and Two on them and I was hooked for 15 hours straight. All the flashbacks and the eeriness of the island and the fact that were stranded pretty much in the middle of nowhere, made it all very exciting indeed. It helped that it was summer and school was out and it was too hot to do anything else, but the journey had begun from where there has been no looking back. Strangely after the marathon run of the first 2 seasons, I have never managed to follow the rest of Lost, I eagerly read about the series every time Wikipedia got updated but never got around to watching it. I progressed from Lost to OC which most might agree was not much of a progression but I went through the whole of Seasons One and Two religiously anyway, it was a phase that one had to go through. Sometime later I caught bits and pieces of Seasons Three and Four when they were airing on TV but didn't really get hooked enough to download them all and watch them while devouring ice cream. I do however do an occasional YouTube search of 'Best of' OC videos and songs and that satisfies me quite enough. F.R.I.E.N.D.S. of course has been a part of all our lives at some point of time or the other. I began watching it on TV from the time they were airing Season 9 and went on to watch it till the end. After that, it was all bits and pieces of episodes as and when the channels decided to do reruns. It wasn't until college that I managed to watch all 10 seasons and it was always the best thing to do when feeling sick, I still have them all stored up coz it is definitely something to keep for the rainy day, the evergreen humour will never fail to make me laugh. The next sitcom of note to enter my horizon was the much debated about How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM). Having heard endless rave reviews of this one, I decided finally in my second year of college to check it out and I could not have picked a better time. It was the time when everyone was quite fed up having watched 5 seasons and yet not discovering who the mother was and here I was watching it for the first time. And not a moment too soon, coz soon after came season 6 and I was so new to the thing that I loved every minute of it. I'm not so sure about the upcoming season but HIMYM and I have had a nice ride. Another epic sitcom for me has been Castle. I accidentally began watching it on TV one day and I was hooked. The rest as they say is history, I have followed every episode with bated breath and still have all three seasons saved up on my laptop. In fact, I just spent an entire afternoon going through my favourite parts of Castle. I, along with a million other people wait in great anticipation for Season 4, which is coming soon (but really not soon enough!). Along the way I have also fallen in love with the eccentric geniuses of The Big Bang Theory and can watch all the episodes over and over again. The Mentalist also touched my radar but alas have only managed to follow it sporadically on TV but a big fan anyway. Grey's Anatomy is one other series that has captured my imagination over the years but I strangely never had the urge to watch every episode of this one, I was absolutely content with watching an episode every now and then with absolutely no idea what season it was from. In college I once discovered an entire collection on someone's laptop and filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. This series is also a target of my YouTube searches for all its beautiful songs and also for some really amazing compilation videos. Speaking of college I cannot help but mention the infamous Gossip Girl series, which I have never particularly liked but never managed to stay away from either. Indeed I only recently finished watching the remaining part of season 4 which I had begun in college and what can I say, it was one hell of a ride. Gilmore Girls too was something I discovered in college and have tried to follow it as much as possible because it really is such a happy show. Recently, I have become an addict of the TV series Bones and am avidly following it on TV these days. That about sums up my love affair with the sitcoms facilitated in no small way by the internet. I guess I miss all those times in college where I've just forgotten everything and lost myself in the world of sitcoms for hours at a stretch. Those days may be gone but the sitcoms, they will stay on, there are too many memories attached to them and I will treasure them for life. This in no way is the end of the journey, I am trusting that the entertainment industry will continue to thrill us for many many years to come. Cheers!

Freedom...

The last few books that I read (especially the order in which I read them) has really got me thinking. The simplest things are the easiest to miss and when someone does take notice and makes a success out of it, we wonder what special powers they are blessed with. The people themselves know it ofcourse, it just leaves the rest of us baffled. To explain a little more clearly, the book I finished reading just today is 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell. More impressive than the title is the subtitle - "The Story of Success". You may be forgiven for yawning and thinking heard that before but seriously, this is a very radical approach. According to this book, the way we behave is rooted in our cultures and environments we were reared in no matter how far removed we are from it. It also goes on to prove that success is no accident but a combination of opportunities and hard work. The term 'hard work' is looked down upon these days, with smart work being the flavour of the season, but it amounts to the same things, gaining proficiency in your chosen field by constant application and practice and thereby getting better and better at it. Moving on to the the next book on the list, this one was an old favourite, 'Freakonomics', discovering the hidden side of everything has never been so much fun. An interesting thing to note about both these books is that while at the heart of it they deal with facts, figures, research and analysis, they are not the run of the mill economics textbooks (read: they don't send you off to sleep) simply because they are narrated like stories with examples of real people, real lives which makes them so irresistible, you keep turning the pages waiting to see what happens next. And once you do find out, you not only have a great story but you've also learnt a few facts of life! And that brings me to the other 2 books that I read recently, 'It Happened in India' by Kishore Biyani and 'Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch' by Arindam Chaudhury. They are similar yet different books, almost mirror images of each other. While Kishore Biyani tells his story of success with the his theories of management hidden within them, Arindam Chaudhury talks about his theories and gives us examples to support them. In any case 2 things were very apparent once I was done reading these books; the first being that management in India is very distinct process (hence proving Malcolm Gladwell's point that culture has everything to do with people's behaviours). Traditional theories, models, best practices and procedures need to be customized to suit the Indian context instead of lifting straight out of popular literature. The second fact is that though there are plenty of people who have realized this truth and are doing things differently, there is hardly any record of it, nobody writes about or publicizes a new way of working which actually works in this country! So the big learnings for the month are to understand how our culture defines the way we work and use it to our advantage and also to make sure that we tell the world about how we do things instead of trying to mould ourselves to fit the so called universally accepted principles which are at best applicable to only half the world's population.

And that my friends is what I think freedom means. Its about making the choice to embrace who we are instead of being ashamed of it and telling the world we are proud to be who we are instead of apologizing for not fitting into acceptable definitions.

Happy Independence Day...

Cheers!

Self Discovery...

Her fingers raced across the keys on her laptop. Even from the flickering reflection in the window of the bus, it was obvious that she was hard at work. Brows furrowed, deep in concentration, lips twisted in a way that showed that whatever was showing up on her screen was far from good news. After half an hour of pounding the keys and somehow balancing the laptop while the bus jerked along the puddle filled roads of Bombay, she gave up and gave in to the nagging headache that had been wrecking havoc for the past few days. Even packing away the laptop in its case seemed to require too much energy so she just let it sit in the seat next to her and stared moodily out of the window into the incessant rains outside. Monsoon was certainly at its peak and she was caught right in the middle of it. After a minute or so when her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she became aware that she was far from home, it would take atleast another hour to get there and then she had an appointment with the gym. She groaned at the prospect but she had promised herself that the next three months nothing would stop her. She was to be married come December and she wanted to look her best and the thought of that made her smile sleepily before she drifted off into exhausted sleep..

And that is where it gets interesting, for you see, this is where I am lost. I can set up the picture perfectly and make you feel like you're actually there, its so vivid but when it comes to imagination, feelings, thoughts, there is very little I can do. That is probably the reason why I have half a dozen half finished stories lying around somewhere or the other, I kept telling myself, its just a problem of mine of mine, I just can't write stories. Essays? Monologues? Speeches? Anecdotes? Interpretations of events? Philosophy? All those things but never a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. I had resigned my self to the fact but that’s where apparently I was wrong. I read a book that told me otherwise. It said that the only thing that kept me from writing a story, which I clearly wanted to, was my fear of what people might think of it. Having read this a few times and digested it, I set out to figure out what it really meant. I had always prided myself on not caring much about what the world said and thought, indeed on occasion I have deliberately gone out my way to do things differently and questioned things that ought to have been left alone. So you would think I wouldn't be afraid of what people might say to a story that I may choose to write, right? Wrong. The book went on to tell me that the more the things are dear to us, the worse this fear of failure gets until we're so paralyzed by it we can't even bear to think about it. Well that made a lot of sense and again I'm not just referring to writing here. The fear of failure and rejection is always there tapping on our shoulders until we crumble and give up. The trick is to just not let it do that. Sounds simple doesn't it? Yet it is the hardest thing to do on earth, it is actually probably easier to pull the trigger of a gun! But just think for a moment that if instead of giving in to the fear we learn to accept failure as a part of life, knowing that we'd be richer in knowledge because of it, life would certainly be different. I like to call it the 'practical power of positive thinking'. I used to be skeptical about the theory that if only you would believe and imagine the best would happen, it would happen. It sounded too idealistic to be true. But lets just twist it a little bit. 'Think Positive' needs to be more interpreted to mean that whatever happens should be used as an opportunity to learn something new. So now instead of naively saying, 'Oh I'm going to think positive, I am going to be rich someday' and expecting to sail to the finish line; we would be a position to learn from the mistakes we make, hurdles we cross, ridicule and criticism we attract and because of this learning, we would be rich in more ways that one!

So here is a solemn pledge to shut out the fear and make the best use of the life I've been given to learn something and do some good in this crazy world! And I think some stories might see the light of day after all!

Cheers!

The Bigger Picture...

Sometimes we just get too caught up in the moment to realize that there is so much more beyond it. These are the times when we let our worst fears rule our best instincts and the worst that can happen at a time like this that you find that you have no one beside you to tell you otherwise. If you are ever faced with a situation like this, then just repeat to yourself a very simple statement: This too shall pass. For there is nothing in this world that lasts forever. So if you're going through hell, accept it. If you find not a single friend around you who understands why you are doing what you are doing, accept it. If at times you yourself don't understand the things you are doing, accept it (trust me, your instincts know better). Think of the bigger picture. The bad time will pass and your far thinking will take you places, the true friends will remain by your side for life in spite of what it may seem like for now and your instincts will be well honed to recognize these signs in future. And most of all just remember that there is a lesson in everything in life and that is NOT that you should fear what life throws at you just because you have had one bad experience in the past, but that you now are better equipped to deal with the situation before you. It isn't easy I know to keep yourself from sinking into doubt, but make a deal with yourself not to wallow in it. Take a minute, but only a minute, to tell yourself every single thing that you can possibly do wrong and then vow not to let it happen. You will feel better for it for two reasons; one is that once you list all the negatives they won't seem all that bad and two is that the reassurance from yourself that you won't let anything go wrong will go a long way in boosting your confidence when you find it failing. Don't get me wrong, mistakes will still happen, but they won't cripple you if you have that vision in your head of where you are headed, the light in your eyes which guides your path and voice in your ear that gives you your confidence, in short: the bigger picture is what you need to think of.

Fortune...

When once upon a time,

You sat upon a wall

Staring into the distance

With dreams shining in your eyes

The people of the town,

Would look at you and say,

"There's a lad who needs to

get the hell away!"

The children of the town

Would come around and play

And look at you in awe

And wonder what you did all day

But alas they never knew

The reason you were there

Was only so that you

Would be fortunate enough

To catch a glimpse of

The fair maiden that resides

Behind the castle wall

The very wall on which you sat

And wasted your life away.

And life and fate are such that

In the end you didn't even sway

When you took that last quiet breath

The reason I call this poem (or atleast an attempt at poetry!) 'Fortune', is because I believe that most of us waste our life away waiting to catch a glimpse of it. Instead, lets get off that wall and do something about it. Cheers!

Parodies...

Have you ever looked up into falling rain? Or noticed how raindrops bounce off surfaces before they finally come to a rest? Or how perfect it looks when you see rain caught in the beam of a car's headlights? So perfectly aligned every drop that even as we curse all the havoc the rains cause, we can't help but admire the beauty of it. For it really does test your patience when they is a lovely cool breeze playing around outside but you dare not open the window of the bus lest you get drenched from the rain. Instead, what do we do? We sit in a steaming bus stuck in never ending traffic jams on just another rainy day in this crazy city we call home. But I digress, I was talking about the sheer beauty of nature at its best. Nature taking care of its own, replenishing parched soils generously, never sparing a thought to what it might be doing to all creatures great and small. But to be fair, its not that rains are only about bad things. There is so much joy in splashing around in puddles and getting thoroughly drenched even though there is an umbrella in your bag. And who hasn't stuck out an arm through a window just to catch raindrops in their palm? Its all these enticing little things that keep you coming back for more, even when you know that at the end of the day, a drizzle will turn into a downpour and then a thunderstorm and alas flood you with all its might; but for now its just fun to play in the rain. Cheers!

Blink Of An Eye...

A blink of an eye carries so much in itself, the sheer joy of closing the eyes, giving them that split second of respite, only to open them again and behold the world in all its glorious colours. We don't appreciate it enough, the simple act of blinking, the fact that the eyelids work tirelessly all day to keep our eyes fresh and clear to look out into the world and conquer everything in it. Our eyes have a thousand qualities, they are the windows to our soul and can never hide anything from the person who chooses to look into them. Truth pours out of them like water from a fountain, our lips may lie but the eyes never can. It just confirms my belief that we may (and often do!) lie to the world but we can never lie to ourselves and that is what you see in the eyes. The eyes are also the road to our hearts, shining brightly with love one second and filled with anguish the next, all depending on what the heart is being subjected to at the moment. True joy can also be found here; as a child I never understood what it meant to smile with your eyes but now it makes perfect sense. The only way you truly smile is when it lights up your eyes, the happier the occasion, the brighter the light. Of course joy is not the only emotion to colour our eyes, the red hot of fury, the green of jealousy, the black of hate, the icy blue of indifference are all there, ready to come out into the open at the lightest provocation but us human beings naturally tend to look for the bright and happy yellow more than anything else and when we see it, it feels like everything is good in the world. But alas nothing lasts forever so is the same with what we see in the eyes, from love to hate, fear to anger to triumph, disgust to determination, patience to weariness, they all come and go, all within the blink of an eye...

Shruti, it seems to be only a blink of an eye since we celebrated your birthday a year ago, all together, but now when we are all back to where we belong, I'll take a moment to treasure the best there is. You have always been the one island of calm in the midst of the storms that blew around us and it was the strength in your gentle eyes that shone like a lamp through the darkness. You saw every colour there was to see and yet you never tired to see some more. May you always stay that way and many, many happy returns of the day. Cheers!

Great Explorations...

When you search online for the greatest achievements in human history, you find under the category of greatest explorations, the following:

• Columbus's discovery of the New World (America)

• Lewis and Clark Expedition (They traversed the uninhabited territories of the USA from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast in the early 1800s)

• Marco Polo's journey to China

• Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe

• Amundsen's journey to the South Pole

Before these pioneers explored beyond the boundaries of conventional thought there were vast parts of the earth that was absolutely unknown to man. Seems inconceivable today doesn't it? The Atlas as we know it today has been there forever or so it would seem. Every child in school has been made to learn the names of countries, their capital cities, the principal mountains, the chief rivers and lakes, the distribution of forests and deserts and even the crops that grow in the different parts of the country depending on the climate! As children, we have all cursed the very existence of the book of maps and on more than one occasion even changed the face of maps when memory evaded us, but if we could travel back to a time when the maps were being created, we might see the beauty in it, the sheer joy of watching the shapes come alive for the first time. Of course it was not without its own problems with society being so firmly entrenched in their own notions about the world and further back in history, in the age of kingdoms when maps were regularly redrawn to reflect the might and power of the kings in question. These explorers in fact had their work cut out to convince the people in power that their journeys would reveal anything at all! So now when we may even a casual glance at the map of the world, it is with the secure knowledge that there is little else to discover. Every piece of land and water body is neatly demarcated by multicoloured lines; which goes to show just how far we've come. Of course we're far from being sure of what all goes on beneath the surface but even that, with today's technology is not that hard to project. What we're forgetting however is that no matter how advanced things are now and how easily and carelessly we can access information, we are still poorer than our ancestors in knowledge. This day and age is wasted on us. Once upon a time, people with much less information on their hands, were more hungry for more knowledge and they made sure they got it, the scarcity of it making it all the more precious so that every last drop had to squeezed out of it. People ‘read' languages different from their own instead of merely learning and forgetting them; people read books to know about places, things, people and cultures that they had never seen; society was a closely knit community where people looked to each other in times of joy and in times of need; there was time for work and there was time for play and last but not the least, there was an appreciation for all of these things that is missing in today's life. The word culture was originally coined to mean the cultivation of the soul and mind. How many of us can honestly claim to doing that? Or even attempting to? It isn't easy mind you, even if you did decide to wake up one morning and start enriching yourself. We are limited by our own passion for speed and anything that doesn't quite match our pace gets left behind. The internet, that wonderful platform that literally brings the world at our fingertips is rarely used to discover something new unless circumstances demand it. We have become a servant to the technology, blindly following glitter instead of gold, instead of technology serving us. We have the means to read about anything we wish to; visit almost any places that we may wish to and find entertainment in any number of ways but how often do we actually do take that crucial step towards the unknown. It gets easier every day to arrange for anything to be delivered straight to your doorstep but it gets harder and harder to break out of the comfort zone. Its like having an entire ocean at your disposal and being content to live in the bottom of a pond of stagnant water. For that is exactly what our lives have become: stagnant. Of course one may argue that we after all are not completely at liberty to always do as we please and that we have responsibilities to fulfill but unless you put some passion into it, nothing you ever do will feel like worth it. It is heartening to hear about people who have broken the mould of ordinary and ventured into the unknown; we follow their lives with breathlessness and wish we could be the same and yet at the end of the day, we scoff at their foolishness and lack of wisdom. I'd say that people had it much better when they knew little and thus wanted to know more. They would journey across the world by the only means available to them which took them months to reach their destination (such cruel waste of time I hear you say!) but they used their time to enrich themselves like we never have. Think back to the years spent in school, how often have you sat in class and strained to hear the bell ring that would signal the end of the lesson? Did we ever even then think about learning something new, get excited about knowing something more than you did yesterday? We didn't and reason for that is just that the world and our society has made us that way, looking out into the world and seeing only the present (and an exaggerated version of the future!) and nothing else. So, sometimes, we should take the time to cast our eyes back to the time when explorers set out to discover the world (in every sense of the word) and then drew the maps which in a sense was almost like creating the world all over again; and then when we come back to the present, find some way to bring into our own lives, a passion for discovering something new and extraordinary.

PS # I am going to be practicing what I preach. When caught in the middle of a conversation about the Philippines and having only a very vague idea of where it was, I actually used the erstwhile internet to pinpoint the exact location and a very helpful website also enlightened me about the capital city, the principal mountains, the chief rivers and lakes, the distribution of forests and deserts and even the crops that grow in the different parts of the country depending on the climate (Not that I remember even one tenth of this, but it was good to know that I could know anytime I want). Cheers!