How do you mend the leaves in Fall
Spring will cast its spell
How do you quench a dried up lake
Only rains can spout it away
How do you patch the withered petals
Soon blossoms will start to sway
How do you sow the plumes that shed
New season will darn it to place
How do you mend a broken heart
You say that life's just this way
:)
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
A Prayer
Make me honest,
So I can look at my honest reflection
With a candor clear in the murky pond
Make me ambitious,
So that I can soar through the blues
Even when earthly chains fetter
Make me insightful,
So I see the candle dispel darkness
As also its own shadow beneath
Make me thoughtful,
To give without a miserly hand
As nature burgeons happiness in spring
Make me forgiving,
So I measure others’ folly as my own
As miscible as a drop in the ocean
Make me courageous,
So I bloom in the chills of fate
Like a chrysanthemum make me brave
Make me humble,
So I thank you in my greatness
Like gratitude laden boughs of trees
Make me content,
So I can be at peace with myself
Like the dew before the sun wakes
Monday, April 23, 2007
Untitled
You were always steadfast as the rock,
Loyal in your commitment
I always willful as the stormy sea,
Wavering in indecision,
Of my allegiance to you,
Swayed by the winds of circumstances,
Or may be just excuses
To façade my own obdurate stances
All I gave you were tides of emotions,
Some high, many low,
When all you deserved
Was the soothing sea-breeze,
Gentle hugs and kisses
Like when the calm waters
Meet the sea-rock.
You were always there,
Patiently waiting with arms open
But even when I wanted to
Embrace you my love,
All I ended up doing was
Lash against you with a surge…
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The Enlightened one
The mind is the soil.. the thoughts are the seeds...deeds are how you nuture them...and the harvest is Nirvana :-)
-Gautam Buddha
-Gautam Buddha
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Moonlight and solitude
Like the twinkle in a child's eye,
Some mischief, some innocence,
He peeks at me with a warm smile,
Makes an entrance, that leaves me entranced,
Gently he rises, from the mountains high,
With a brilliance that lights up the sky,
With a valor that fights the clouds dark,
Yet with a humility that wins hearts,
He is the sweetheart of the heavens,
I am just a twinkle in a cluster,
Many of my kind swoon at his charms,
So many jewels in the sky,
Vying to steal his heart,
Oh he is so chivalrous and suave!
With a dark side, unseen, unbelieved,
A best kept secret by the mystery man,
He isnt all perfect, the blemishes reside,
Yet the aura he creates,
Blinds me in his love,
Love-fooled, I only see my 'dear',
Ah, one day he will be mine...
Serendipity listens to my fond whispers,
The heavens smile at my shy glances,
Reflections of my affection so vivid,
The clear waters, sparkling in the night,
Reveal my deepest desires,
Bashful, I shimmer with a blush...
But I am destiny's child,
Eons seem to pass,
In solitude and moonlight madness,
His companion in all his phases,
So near yet so far...
A celestial event, our rendezvous,
All thanks to the match-makers in the sky,
So close to my darling for the moonlit dance,
In that magical moment,
I willingly fade out in his luminance,
Kindles a wish in my covetous heart,
Can I have this moment forever...
But I need a heavenly conspiracy for this one,
Adeiu my honey, I ll treasure the sweet memory,
A night to remember, for one lifetime...
Some mischief, some innocence,
He peeks at me with a warm smile,
Makes an entrance, that leaves me entranced,
Gently he rises, from the mountains high,
With a brilliance that lights up the sky,
With a valor that fights the clouds dark,
Yet with a humility that wins hearts,
He is the sweetheart of the heavens,
I am just a twinkle in a cluster,
Many of my kind swoon at his charms,
So many jewels in the sky,
Vying to steal his heart,
Oh he is so chivalrous and suave!
With a dark side, unseen, unbelieved,
A best kept secret by the mystery man,
He isnt all perfect, the blemishes reside,
Yet the aura he creates,
Blinds me in his love,
Love-fooled, I only see my 'dear',
Ah, one day he will be mine...
Serendipity listens to my fond whispers,
The heavens smile at my shy glances,
Reflections of my affection so vivid,
The clear waters, sparkling in the night,
Reveal my deepest desires,
Bashful, I shimmer with a blush...
But I am destiny's child,
Eons seem to pass,
In solitude and moonlight madness,
His companion in all his phases,
So near yet so far...
A celestial event, our rendezvous,
All thanks to the match-makers in the sky,
So close to my darling for the moonlit dance,
In that magical moment,
I willingly fade out in his luminance,
Kindles a wish in my covetous heart,
Can I have this moment forever...
But I need a heavenly conspiracy for this one,
Adeiu my honey, I ll treasure the sweet memory,
A night to remember, for one lifetime...
Monday, January 08, 2007
Back from the Dead
Aah the D word...it incites grief, fear,satisfaction,mania, disgust,curiosity,humor...Before I venture further to express my opinions about this, my sincere apologies to anyone who thinks this is solecism...
My analysis starts from what is death- the state of lack of life...what is life...hmmmmm???!!! now very few people like the question , need I say about the answer... as one of my friends once advised me- its not worth analysing, just live it... yeh its a fair enough way of looking at it, but hey spare it a thought...:-)
The rise of the phoenix from its ashes has always been the quintessential example of 'back from the dead'. Accepted, its a quite inspirational thought..getting over setbacks in life, picking up the pieces and moving on and not only moving on baby, conquering the world in the process... hallelujah!!!
Spiritualism has always inspired human inquiry into this... every religion has its own unique way of looking at it..infact most of religious philosophy has been based on guiding principles to lead a good 'life' so that one can reap the benefits of it in the afterlife... then there are theories about reincarnation and the repercussions of our actions in this life on other lives...The way I look at it- hey atleast something gives human beings a reason to be good not only to themselves but also to others, cheers to it all!!!
And sometimes we do see miracles happening.. almost in a sci-fi flick kinda way... patients rising from commas to play chess when a struck with a surge of electricity.. Well the way I look at it, we are used to seeing zinc carbon batteries become 'alive' after being 'dead' for sometimes arent we... the reason behind this 'miracle' is that the reaction products(hydrogen gas in the case of the battery need some time to dissipate)... hmmm may be we too need some time to 'dissipate' things to recharge at times ;-P or for the sake of evangelists- may be miracles do happen!!!
Well moving away from the literal 'back from the dead' .... is life only about physical existence, does the mere presence of vital signs assure that one is alive?... vegetables are alive... how much we as humans deem the 'quality of life' important is a question having several dimensions - ethical(the whole debate about euthanasia) , economical (economists toy with the term 'standard of living') , social( thats what forms our 'culture') etc... A look at how we as a society treat those who deserve a 'second chance'. Its easy to dismiss a criminals unpardonable, but we must also give a thought to words like 'redemption' and 'rehabilitation'...more often than not we cant get rid of the stigma that we attach to criminals, addicts and mental patients- and refuse them the second chance merely on the bais that we have against them!!! But then ... As George Orwell says in his book "Animal Farm" - 'All animals are equal, but some are more equal' ;-)
Being a computer engineer, I cant not juxtapose the 'back from the dead' phenomenon in my pasture...We are all too familiar about 'data recovery'.... a hard disc failure - is just so much like a heart failure (sometimes the cause of it too) ... the specifics are different- you have a disc rotating at around 15000rpm, some actuators, controlling logic, arms... its easy to see the parallel...We even have parallel word for the average life span here - its called 'mean time to failure'... And the same questions surface here too- how do u weigh the cost of recovery against the utilityof the data.... all that, or may be I am too perceptive for my bread and butter!!
Well the term 'back from dead' assumes careful scrutiny when it comes to world politics... One cant help but wonder how many times the innocent civilians of Iraq, Afghanistan, Seirra Leonne die every moment... but they are the true survivors and epitomise the spirit of being 'back from the dead' with every breath they breathe...This reminds me of a statement by an Iraqi girl, I saw on CNN , when asked if she found it in her to find happiness amidst destruction, this was what she said,"Yes, I can find happiness within me, because unlike people in other parts of the world, I dont assume that suffering is not meant to be a part of life" ... Its aaha moments like these that should hit as brick-bats to those of us who dont cherish their better circumstances...
Ending on a humorous note.... well this has not been substantiated but its a popular urban legend in the category of business blunders ... Pepsi in its intial days was considered to be the kitchen drink- something thrifty housewives would use to fool their guests as 'coke' which was the popular 'living room' drink then.. this was due to a wrong marketing strategy by pepsi co which adopted the 'nickel' campaign ...so Pepsi was perceived to be the 'cheap' drink..Later, Pepsi tried to market it as a social drink with its 'Be sociable' campaign but they used prim and perfect brabd ambassadors which were viewed as boring by the public, during this process Pepsi completely overlooked the Rock and roll rage that was spreading its wings at that time...Realising this, Pepsi launched its 'Come Alive! its the Pepsi Generation!!" campaign, which presented a sort of social acceptance in the 'in' clique even to those who werent used to it in real life...and hey all that at a price of a cold drink, who wouldnt buy it!!! When Pepsi marketed this slogan in China, their sales dropped.. the reason being that the Chinese thought of it as a drink which would bring back their dead ancestors to life!!!!Hmm so much for coming alive eeih?:-P
My analysis starts from what is death- the state of lack of life...what is life...hmmmmm???!!! now very few people like the question , need I say about the answer... as one of my friends once advised me- its not worth analysing, just live it... yeh its a fair enough way of looking at it, but hey spare it a thought...:-)
The rise of the phoenix from its ashes has always been the quintessential example of 'back from the dead'. Accepted, its a quite inspirational thought..getting over setbacks in life, picking up the pieces and moving on and not only moving on baby, conquering the world in the process... hallelujah!!!
Spiritualism has always inspired human inquiry into this... every religion has its own unique way of looking at it..infact most of religious philosophy has been based on guiding principles to lead a good 'life' so that one can reap the benefits of it in the afterlife... then there are theories about reincarnation and the repercussions of our actions in this life on other lives...The way I look at it- hey atleast something gives human beings a reason to be good not only to themselves but also to others, cheers to it all!!!
And sometimes we do see miracles happening.. almost in a sci-fi flick kinda way... patients rising from commas to play chess when a struck with a surge of electricity.. Well the way I look at it, we are used to seeing zinc carbon batteries become 'alive' after being 'dead' for sometimes arent we... the reason behind this 'miracle' is that the reaction products(hydrogen gas in the case of the battery need some time to dissipate)... hmmm may be we too need some time to 'dissipate' things to recharge at times ;-P or for the sake of evangelists- may be miracles do happen!!!
Well moving away from the literal 'back from the dead' .... is life only about physical existence, does the mere presence of vital signs assure that one is alive?... vegetables are alive... how much we as humans deem the 'quality of life' important is a question having several dimensions - ethical(the whole debate about euthanasia) , economical (economists toy with the term 'standard of living') , social( thats what forms our 'culture') etc... A look at how we as a society treat those who deserve a 'second chance'. Its easy to dismiss a criminals unpardonable, but we must also give a thought to words like 'redemption' and 'rehabilitation'...more often than not we cant get rid of the stigma that we attach to criminals, addicts and mental patients- and refuse them the second chance merely on the bais that we have against them!!! But then ... As George Orwell says in his book "Animal Farm" - 'All animals are equal, but some are more equal' ;-)
Being a computer engineer, I cant not juxtapose the 'back from the dead' phenomenon in my pasture...We are all too familiar about 'data recovery'.... a hard disc failure - is just so much like a heart failure (sometimes the cause of it too) ... the specifics are different- you have a disc rotating at around 15000rpm, some actuators, controlling logic, arms... its easy to see the parallel...We even have parallel word for the average life span here - its called 'mean time to failure'... And the same questions surface here too- how do u weigh the cost of recovery against the utilityof the data.... all that, or may be I am too perceptive for my bread and butter!!
Well the term 'back from dead' assumes careful scrutiny when it comes to world politics... One cant help but wonder how many times the innocent civilians of Iraq, Afghanistan, Seirra Leonne die every moment... but they are the true survivors and epitomise the spirit of being 'back from the dead' with every breath they breathe...This reminds me of a statement by an Iraqi girl, I saw on CNN , when asked if she found it in her to find happiness amidst destruction, this was what she said,"Yes, I can find happiness within me, because unlike people in other parts of the world, I dont assume that suffering is not meant to be a part of life" ... Its aaha moments like these that should hit as brick-bats to those of us who dont cherish their better circumstances...
Ending on a humorous note.... well this has not been substantiated but its a popular urban legend in the category of business blunders ... Pepsi in its intial days was considered to be the kitchen drink- something thrifty housewives would use to fool their guests as 'coke' which was the popular 'living room' drink then.. this was due to a wrong marketing strategy by pepsi co which adopted the 'nickel' campaign ...so Pepsi was perceived to be the 'cheap' drink..Later, Pepsi tried to market it as a social drink with its 'Be sociable' campaign but they used prim and perfect brabd ambassadors which were viewed as boring by the public, during this process Pepsi completely overlooked the Rock and roll rage that was spreading its wings at that time...Realising this, Pepsi launched its 'Come Alive! its the Pepsi Generation!!" campaign, which presented a sort of social acceptance in the 'in' clique even to those who werent used to it in real life...and hey all that at a price of a cold drink, who wouldnt buy it!!! When Pepsi marketed this slogan in China, their sales dropped.. the reason being that the Chinese thought of it as a drink which would bring back their dead ancestors to life!!!!Hmm so much for coming alive eeih?:-P
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Sane and silent
The best thing about sanity is that you cant define it... While there are few of us who pride ourselves with being 'crazy' almost in a fashion-statement kinda way, some others who consider it as expression of their freedom ( the sense of being 'alive') ,some others who are on a mission to prove that they are more than 'just sane', and some others who just seek refuge in their craziness, there are soo many others for whom craziness is a way of life and not a matter of choice... The beauty is nobody is right and nobody is wrong...
You get to choose your clothes from the wardrobe, circumstances are just the ocassion for which you are going to dress up:-P
You get to choose your clothes from the wardrobe, circumstances are just the ocassion for which you are going to dress up:-P
Saturday, October 14, 2006
CrossRoads
Have you ever had the feeling, when you are waiting at some crossroad, all alone admist the throng... when you just take a moment off the humdrum and trappings of daily life, and look around, above, sideways..just everywhere and simply wonder where are you heading...? When everthing around you and everyone around you just seem to be at a standstill...all sounds go mute...the scene reminiscent of music videos... where the singer is the only one who is on the move...Well guess what you dont even have to be on the road, in the middle of a rush-hour traffic to feel that way...
Life has brought me at interesting crossroads... several ways, each one promising plenty of opportunities, the best of everything...All I have to do is simply CHOOSE. We spend our entire life (well atleast 21 years..speaking for myself) dreaming what we want to be, who we want to be with , what we want to give to others and what we expect from them (does everyone do this or is it just the selfish me... I dont know...) and when one day when you have it all, or atleast you have the realistic kinda confidence that you can have it all (clairvoyance bolstered by intelligent thought and actions... ) , it is simply out of this world experience... If I were to put it in a sentence...closing my eyes and taking a moment to get the words right for this one..." There is soo much to win and soo much to lose.....But those who never play will never win..." I have echoed these words soo many times, somehow they make infinite sense to me ... probably because the most important person in my life said these once to me, when I was my usual self-doubting, undermotivated self.. I still am...but I now have equipped myself to get over it, writing is just one of them..
Another nice 'tool' I fumbled on along the way was music... I have no clue about the technicalities and fine nuances of the art, nor am I much of a connoisseur..but I have a open mind and perhaps more open ears... Music for me is when we try to notice some kind of rhythm in the cacophony that pervades us. The more you try to keenly find it the more you will be surprised of its omnipresence... in the waves of the sea, in the rustling leaves, in the metaalic shrills of the wind chime, in the pitter-patter of the rain-drops, in the chipakk-pacchak(or wateva sound u wanna call it) of the gum-boots we used to wear to school in the monsoons, in the chirps of the birds(yes even the crows can sing...)and yea in the croaks of the frogs;-P... Music is just everywhere...(thats y we have to tolerate Himeesshhhh..)
My connection with music dates back to very recent times, thanks to all the new friends I got to know in the past few months (who patiently explained the basics of all the music genres, gave me live performances online, tried to enlighten a menatally challenged person like me about the beauty of metal(I always paid more attention to nonmetals and metalloids in chem classes, but I guess this made up for it ;-D) and yea patiently listened and even managed to appreciate my sloooooooooooooow and discordant songs....and also motivated me to sing Hotel California but to no avail hehehhe) Bottomline, lets just say that music gave me much more to hold on to than just the right lyrics and the right tune...
So standing at the crossroad feels like standing on your toes while performing the ballet or doing the triple-toe in ice-skating...the process is excruciatingly difficult and requires a lot of skill, at the same time the product is soo graceful that the whole thing has a streak of facile ease...
Here I am, with the best of circumstances and people with me, it kinda feels like the winning runner..tieing the shoe lace, warming up, getting ready for the run of life, eyeing the finishing line..meanwhile the whole stadium is full is of people cheering for you... and you know you can get this right...if only you dont go off ur track in all the excitement... :-D
Life has brought me at interesting crossroads... several ways, each one promising plenty of opportunities, the best of everything...All I have to do is simply CHOOSE. We spend our entire life (well atleast 21 years..speaking for myself) dreaming what we want to be, who we want to be with , what we want to give to others and what we expect from them (does everyone do this or is it just the selfish me... I dont know...) and when one day when you have it all, or atleast you have the realistic kinda confidence that you can have it all (clairvoyance bolstered by intelligent thought and actions... ) , it is simply out of this world experience... If I were to put it in a sentence...closing my eyes and taking a moment to get the words right for this one..." There is soo much to win and soo much to lose.....But those who never play will never win..." I have echoed these words soo many times, somehow they make infinite sense to me ... probably because the most important person in my life said these once to me, when I was my usual self-doubting, undermotivated self.. I still am...but I now have equipped myself to get over it, writing is just one of them..
Another nice 'tool' I fumbled on along the way was music... I have no clue about the technicalities and fine nuances of the art, nor am I much of a connoisseur..but I have a open mind and perhaps more open ears... Music for me is when we try to notice some kind of rhythm in the cacophony that pervades us. The more you try to keenly find it the more you will be surprised of its omnipresence... in the waves of the sea, in the rustling leaves, in the metaalic shrills of the wind chime, in the pitter-patter of the rain-drops, in the chipakk-pacchak(or wateva sound u wanna call it) of the gum-boots we used to wear to school in the monsoons, in the chirps of the birds(yes even the crows can sing...)and yea in the croaks of the frogs;-P... Music is just everywhere...(thats y we have to tolerate Himeesshhhh..)
My connection with music dates back to very recent times, thanks to all the new friends I got to know in the past few months (who patiently explained the basics of all the music genres, gave me live performances online, tried to enlighten a menatally challenged person like me about the beauty of metal(I always paid more attention to nonmetals and metalloids in chem classes, but I guess this made up for it ;-D) and yea patiently listened and even managed to appreciate my sloooooooooooooow and discordant songs....and also motivated me to sing Hotel California but to no avail hehehhe) Bottomline, lets just say that music gave me much more to hold on to than just the right lyrics and the right tune...
So standing at the crossroad feels like standing on your toes while performing the ballet or doing the triple-toe in ice-skating...the process is excruciatingly difficult and requires a lot of skill, at the same time the product is soo graceful that the whole thing has a streak of facile ease...
Here I am, with the best of circumstances and people with me, it kinda feels like the winning runner..tieing the shoe lace, warming up, getting ready for the run of life, eyeing the finishing line..meanwhile the whole stadium is full is of people cheering for you... and you know you can get this right...if only you dont go off ur track in all the excitement... :-D
Monday, October 02, 2006
The Great One
Well brushing aside the worldly things that confine me in a very constricted time-line, I manage to ,for once not be self-indulgent and spare a thought for the great guy who gave me a holiday today... Not the prime minister, not my principle.. its some one they call 'THE MAHATMA'. The same person who has christened an infinite stream of roads in India, the smiling face on the currency, the face that adorns all government institutions, the guy who turned the other cheek, the one we read about in history textbooks, and yea... the one in MunnaBhai, the one in Richard Attenbrough's film too- some call him Bappuji, some Gandhi....but Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore sums it up beat with the term- "Mahatma" - the great being! Oops I almost forgot (no I didnt)he was the guy who gave us freedom, the nonviolent way.. the one who inspired some of the finest human beings in th annals of history- Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and many others...
It has almost become platitudinous to say this... (kinda sad considering the fact that we are soo accustomed to being arrogant, aggresive, non-tolerant ...almost militant in our daily lives that we find some of his teachings absolutely out-of-place in our current context) .. still a perspicacious thought to the application of his teachings in status-quo will revel that the man had a point... to say the least.
Well all Indians have been taught throughout their lives that He was great... the satyagraha, the charkha, the South African nonviolent victory, the Dandi March, civil Disobedience Movement, the Do or Die ...the freedom glory, the tragic partition and the even more tragic death of the saint.... Yes he did all that, a simple Gujarati boy changed the way the world thinks forever...
I happened to read a few of his books during my school days(one of the rare books I can claim to have read.. coz I m not a reader). " The story of my experiments with Truth" and "India Of my Dreams" were really inspirational for me at that impressionable age. But I guess I didnt get the essence then( and I think I belong to a large group of people who havent)... And if I may be so audaciously bold to claim that I finally get it, I think his life was all about showing people that truth is supreme, you cant fight it! And it is truth and only truth that can give u the peace -both outside and within...
But then define truth... Mathematics has the concept of 'axioms'- the truths one has to accept and which form the basis of all knowledge. Spiritualism has the concept of 'the conscience'...the way I look at it, its the voice within you which pricks you when you are diverting away from the truth. And in politics truth is something that cant be manipulated to be proved to be false (cutting the crap, truth is fiction there).I think history says truth is the version of the story the victors get to boast of ( think about it...)Truth by definition cant be subjective...is it really? Doesnt the human mind induce its bias inherently in presenting, analysing and accepting the truth? So what did the man say again? I m clueless!!!!
And why should one believe that truth is good...Are humans even capable of being truthful- forget about being truthful to others..even to themselves? We all love our makeups, masks and interfaces dont we? And dont you see a corrupt guy sashaying with all the comforts and luxuries, when he blatantly shuns all truth, good et all...And have we seen heaven or hell to remind ourselves of dire consequences in afterlife? I m sure such questions have been asked and deliberated upon throughout the centuries... But the very fact that Truth is still very much a human virtue goes to say that "Uus aadmi key baaton mein kuch dum hai"!
Well, I think the trick realises in realises in realising that in the long run.. it is much easier to be truthful than to lie... or rather not be truthful (there is a fine difference between the two). Truth does give you peace, you can feel it, atleast I did. It gives you the courage to stand up for what you are convinced is correct ( thats the kinda magic that empowered a poor nation to fight against the mighty oppressors and infact win in the end) It gives the ordinary man the strength to win the world without any superpowers for the rescue. All the conflicts and confusions in the world around us and within us can be won with this immortal woord- 'Satyagraha'...(which means satya-truth.. agraha-convincing)
It has almost become platitudinous to say this... (kinda sad considering the fact that we are soo accustomed to being arrogant, aggresive, non-tolerant ...almost militant in our daily lives that we find some of his teachings absolutely out-of-place in our current context) .. still a perspicacious thought to the application of his teachings in status-quo will revel that the man had a point... to say the least.
Well all Indians have been taught throughout their lives that He was great... the satyagraha, the charkha, the South African nonviolent victory, the Dandi March, civil Disobedience Movement, the Do or Die ...the freedom glory, the tragic partition and the even more tragic death of the saint.... Yes he did all that, a simple Gujarati boy changed the way the world thinks forever...
I happened to read a few of his books during my school days(one of the rare books I can claim to have read.. coz I m not a reader). " The story of my experiments with Truth" and "India Of my Dreams" were really inspirational for me at that impressionable age. But I guess I didnt get the essence then( and I think I belong to a large group of people who havent)... And if I may be so audaciously bold to claim that I finally get it, I think his life was all about showing people that truth is supreme, you cant fight it! And it is truth and only truth that can give u the peace -both outside and within...
But then define truth... Mathematics has the concept of 'axioms'- the truths one has to accept and which form the basis of all knowledge. Spiritualism has the concept of 'the conscience'...the way I look at it, its the voice within you which pricks you when you are diverting away from the truth. And in politics truth is something that cant be manipulated to be proved to be false (cutting the crap, truth is fiction there).I think history says truth is the version of the story the victors get to boast of ( think about it...)Truth by definition cant be subjective...is it really? Doesnt the human mind induce its bias inherently in presenting, analysing and accepting the truth? So what did the man say again? I m clueless!!!!
And why should one believe that truth is good...Are humans even capable of being truthful- forget about being truthful to others..even to themselves? We all love our makeups, masks and interfaces dont we? And dont you see a corrupt guy sashaying with all the comforts and luxuries, when he blatantly shuns all truth, good et all...And have we seen heaven or hell to remind ourselves of dire consequences in afterlife? I m sure such questions have been asked and deliberated upon throughout the centuries... But the very fact that Truth is still very much a human virtue goes to say that "Uus aadmi key baaton mein kuch dum hai"!
Well, I think the trick realises in realises in realising that in the long run.. it is much easier to be truthful than to lie... or rather not be truthful (there is a fine difference between the two). Truth does give you peace, you can feel it, atleast I did. It gives you the courage to stand up for what you are convinced is correct ( thats the kinda magic that empowered a poor nation to fight against the mighty oppressors and infact win in the end) It gives the ordinary man the strength to win the world without any superpowers for the rescue. All the conflicts and confusions in the world around us and within us can be won with this immortal woord- 'Satyagraha'...(which means satya-truth.. agraha-convincing)
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Picture perfect
This is not a funny passage,lolzzz, pure psychobabble, if u hate that stuff, please move on to something else...
well b4 reading ..a small exercise..what are the images that come to ur mind wen u hear the word..picture perfect...For me- it was a phantasmagoria of images- here it goes:
Princess Diana, 'The Glow of Hope' by Raja Ravi Verma,'The invitation to the feast' by Renoir, Aishwariya Rai, Maria Sharapova, The F.R.I.E.N.D.S. cast, Karan Johar movies, Lance Armstrong wining the Tour De France, pictures of deep space from Hubble, Diamond ring on a annular solar eclipse, Indira Gandhi, JFK, the sunset, the moonrise, the pic of a pride of lions in the Serangetti, Kangaroos hopping in Australian grasslands;-P, Goan shores, the lush green cloud covered Sahyadri mountains in monsoons, the orchids in Sikkim, the pink babies with 'slits' and chubbu cheeks I saw in Nepal, pics when I got prizes, my family vacation pics, the VJTI ppl pics, my chotu baby pics..etc (in random order) Now u can read on............
A picture speaks a thousand words, they say. So when I was asking a friend, (who btw analyses people in his spare time for fun and is really good at it, muuuah)what I should write in my SOP, fatttak( Hindi for 'at a lightening speed') sey reply aata hai- just put ur pic, it says it all..lolzz. Well that nonchalant remark, superficially could pass on for a very good joke, but since I have a habit of thinking tooooo much about everything, I couldnt help but ponder at the various dimensions of that sentence...( I 've trying to figure out how my mind works...is it a depth first search or a breadth first search...a complicated combination I bet!) Backtracking to the topic... all my life I have wondered at how much of an importance we humans give to the way we project ourselves. "It isnt about the looks", many people like me say...but is it really so? Every passing moment while walking through the streets, while shopping, or even just driving ...we instinctively judge people by what they 'appear' to be. Atleast I do that, though it is not a firm , rigid point of view, even-so cant deny that first impressions matter...
But interestingly, most people who belong to the category of the 'self-appointed jury' have a strong aversion to being judged. More often, I ve observed that it's not about what the other person thinks about us, rather what is objectionable is the thought that people will see what we consciously want to hide (I m pretty good at it, have succeeded in convincing a lot of people that I m a crazy, deranged person huhhahahha). Attach a frill of romanticism to it, and u can say that we all love to be mysterious, it is kinda like a gift wrapped in a nice package, all so perfect with a silken ribbon and a well-written card...the packaging certainly adds to the excitement doesnt it?lolzz
Furthermore, I have always wondered what is wrong in expecting people and things and life in general to be picture perfect... I wondered about when I painted- later I realised I was not so wrong in wondering that ccoz there are two major movements realism(the paintings you see in every church in Rome and Vatican and those which walk u down the Biblical lane when u have an out of body experience marvelling at the walls of the Sistine Chappel) and impressionism ( Avant Garde, Picasso's cubism and all that jazz)( Clarification , I didnt mention these things to exhibit the realms of my knowledge in fine arts...its just a culmination of my experiences). (So much for digression!!! And why do I need to explain myself everytime..well that can be a topic for the next post, hehehhehee). I wondered about it as a kid when I used to love the story books with beautiful pictures of fairies and elves and utopian distant lands, and used to not enjoy reading the same story from the not soo colorful books... And I wondered about it evertime I looked into the mirror and fretted over my curly hair, chubby cheeks and ...la la la. Wondered evertime I saw my pics... there was( correction is) always soooo much more of me in all that I do ;-) ( let me echo ur sentiments... I m too 'full' of myself lolzzzz). Wondered with every scrap i got saying 'nice pic'. Bottomline- A thing of beauty is a joy forever!
So splurge on way you look honey, a fake glimmer can pass on for a diamond, a yellow shimmer can be thought of as gold, it's worth the chutzpah for the large majority of people who arent exactly in the 'gems' category. ( I know I have raised many an eyebrow..(lolzz is that even correct English) with the previous statement, but if u happen to visit a saloon on a Sunday morning u will agree to what I say!!( Warning the sentence goes to speak way beyond that though, lolzzz)) So nod ur heads in the lectures even when u are basically sleeping( I prefer the headbutts hehhehehe but that doesnt create a good impression (context-sensitive grammar hai yeh ;-P)). Write neatly with gel pens, draw beautiful diagrams - cause rightly soo presentation matters!
But if u are screaming typecast error for the earlier para, here is some exception handling code for u....Dare to be happy with urself, completely with all ur strengths and weakness, dont be afraid to show them, who knows u may find good people who can actually make u get over ur deficiencies...and that my friend is what I call- honesty. The only person we 'must' be honest to is ourselves...hai na? Also, complementary to this, we need to have a much more open mind when we go about evaluating people, even if subconsciously, coz everyone has something u can learn and imbibe so that u become a better person( spoken like a true selfish person...but it works lolzzz). Perhaps that can help u if u are suffering from the deficiency of Vitamin C( complacency).
Ok, after this really drab reading which I m sure had a very soporific effect and if you know me personally u must have uttered those words "Looks who is talking!!!!"...
See, can stop judging myself and others can I?lolzzz thats me- picture perfect!!!!!
well b4 reading ..a small exercise..what are the images that come to ur mind wen u hear the word..picture perfect...For me- it was a phantasmagoria of images- here it goes:
Princess Diana, 'The Glow of Hope' by Raja Ravi Verma,'The invitation to the feast' by Renoir, Aishwariya Rai, Maria Sharapova, The F.R.I.E.N.D.S. cast, Karan Johar movies, Lance Armstrong wining the Tour De France, pictures of deep space from Hubble, Diamond ring on a annular solar eclipse, Indira Gandhi, JFK, the sunset, the moonrise, the pic of a pride of lions in the Serangetti, Kangaroos hopping in Australian grasslands;-P, Goan shores, the lush green cloud covered Sahyadri mountains in monsoons, the orchids in Sikkim, the pink babies with 'slits' and chubbu cheeks I saw in Nepal, pics when I got prizes, my family vacation pics, the VJTI ppl pics, my chotu baby pics..etc (in random order) Now u can read on............
A picture speaks a thousand words, they say. So when I was asking a friend, (who btw analyses people in his spare time for fun and is really good at it, muuuah)what I should write in my SOP, fatttak( Hindi for 'at a lightening speed') sey reply aata hai- just put ur pic, it says it all..lolzz. Well that nonchalant remark, superficially could pass on for a very good joke, but since I have a habit of thinking tooooo much about everything, I couldnt help but ponder at the various dimensions of that sentence...( I 've trying to figure out how my mind works...is it a depth first search or a breadth first search...a complicated combination I bet!) Backtracking to the topic... all my life I have wondered at how much of an importance we humans give to the way we project ourselves. "It isnt about the looks", many people like me say...but is it really so? Every passing moment while walking through the streets, while shopping, or even just driving ...we instinctively judge people by what they 'appear' to be. Atleast I do that, though it is not a firm , rigid point of view, even-so cant deny that first impressions matter...
But interestingly, most people who belong to the category of the 'self-appointed jury' have a strong aversion to being judged. More often, I ve observed that it's not about what the other person thinks about us, rather what is objectionable is the thought that people will see what we consciously want to hide (I m pretty good at it, have succeeded in convincing a lot of people that I m a crazy, deranged person huhhahahha). Attach a frill of romanticism to it, and u can say that we all love to be mysterious, it is kinda like a gift wrapped in a nice package, all so perfect with a silken ribbon and a well-written card...the packaging certainly adds to the excitement doesnt it?lolzz
Furthermore, I have always wondered what is wrong in expecting people and things and life in general to be picture perfect... I wondered about when I painted- later I realised I was not so wrong in wondering that ccoz there are two major movements realism(the paintings you see in every church in Rome and Vatican and those which walk u down the Biblical lane when u have an out of body experience marvelling at the walls of the Sistine Chappel) and impressionism ( Avant Garde, Picasso's cubism and all that jazz)( Clarification , I didnt mention these things to exhibit the realms of my knowledge in fine arts...its just a culmination of my experiences). (So much for digression!!! And why do I need to explain myself everytime..well that can be a topic for the next post, hehehhehee). I wondered about it as a kid when I used to love the story books with beautiful pictures of fairies and elves and utopian distant lands, and used to not enjoy reading the same story from the not soo colorful books... And I wondered about it evertime I looked into the mirror and fretted over my curly hair, chubby cheeks and ...la la la. Wondered evertime I saw my pics... there was( correction is) always soooo much more of me in all that I do ;-) ( let me echo ur sentiments... I m too 'full' of myself lolzzzz). Wondered with every scrap i got saying 'nice pic'. Bottomline- A thing of beauty is a joy forever!
So splurge on way you look honey, a fake glimmer can pass on for a diamond, a yellow shimmer can be thought of as gold, it's worth the chutzpah for the large majority of people who arent exactly in the 'gems' category. ( I know I have raised many an eyebrow..(lolzz is that even correct English) with the previous statement, but if u happen to visit a saloon on a Sunday morning u will agree to what I say!!( Warning the sentence goes to speak way beyond that though, lolzzz)) So nod ur heads in the lectures even when u are basically sleeping( I prefer the headbutts hehhehehe but that doesnt create a good impression (context-sensitive grammar hai yeh ;-P)). Write neatly with gel pens, draw beautiful diagrams - cause rightly soo presentation matters!
But if u are screaming typecast error for the earlier para, here is some exception handling code for u....Dare to be happy with urself, completely with all ur strengths and weakness, dont be afraid to show them, who knows u may find good people who can actually make u get over ur deficiencies...and that my friend is what I call- honesty. The only person we 'must' be honest to is ourselves...hai na? Also, complementary to this, we need to have a much more open mind when we go about evaluating people, even if subconsciously, coz everyone has something u can learn and imbibe so that u become a better person( spoken like a true selfish person...but it works lolzzz). Perhaps that can help u if u are suffering from the deficiency of Vitamin C( complacency).
Ok, after this really drab reading which I m sure had a very soporific effect and if you know me personally u must have uttered those words "Looks who is talking!!!!"...
See, can stop judging myself and others can I?lolzzz thats me- picture perfect!!!!!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
High Spirits
Well things can get more weary than this, the people I used to revel in torturing are laughing at my paltry, dessicated sense of humor...I m reminded of the 'good old days' when I pretty much was a terror on Yahoo messenger and my buddies used to light candles at Mount Mary , praying for their safe recovery to sanity after 15 min chats with me online! People in VJTI used to run agog , at the site of the horrifying "Balonwali"( the gal with THE hair) as the people in the PratibiiimmBBB committee used to call me...the crazy gal who can kill you with her looong and boring yet unbearably humorous "kisseys" ( no connection with Kisses...aaahhh, ok back to the point). I was hte rason mental institutes boasted of a 'healthy' turnout...I had achieved what the government couldnt in the past 20 years that I have been watching news(yes I used to watch World this week with Pranoy Roy and the Parliament News and the dumb and mute news when I was a baby)
( just to clarify I m still a "chotu baby" for a lot of people...infact this is a unanimous misconception, but its ok, as long as I m pampered and I dont mean "Pamper"ed) !!!
Gist of para one:
I have lost my sense of humor and the sarcastic magic wand
(Boooooo to all the CAT aspirants who skimmed through the linguistic jugglery and fine literary nuances of the above para!!!)
Well what went wrong, u ask ( even if u dont ...u should for the sake of continuity...) Btw, the previous question has multiple dimensions and has profound effect on all aspects of my life...be it academic, social, professional, romantic ( how many dimensions does this thing have anyways..? well every possible thing u can think of!!!) And now since I m totally flabbergasted at the loss of 'the wonder days' lemme just summarise the activities that took me away from the reality I was soo proud of..lolzz
Well the worst thing that can ever happen to you is : ..tantaaadaaaaa u start "POEMING" as I call it..( still vain about the poetic liberties, kya karein....) Well it is a nightmare , I remeber I had written a beautiful poem half an hour before my OS paper, not coz I was soo well preped that I thought I could indulge in a literally magnum opus, on the contrary it was something I had to do...some what like how Jim CArey feels when he puts on the Mask... I even made those weird faces believe u me... finally the mind and fingers 'synchronised' (OS paper tha...lolzz) and la la la ...there was a chotu poem.....(it was good ppl.. read 'Utopia' below)
As if the poeming on nature wasnt enough.. I started making my friends as my poetic muses...Many a great men were flustered ( where is the yahoo smiley of the taklu pulling his hair in frustation , when u need one?) when they read about themselves, I bet I extolled them soo much that they developed narcissistic characteristics which transcended into a much more aggrevated form of a psychological disorder I call " Swollen Ego" the biological term is " Hippopotaumusiais" and the cool crowd would call it 'Attitude honey'...wateva, they can **** ** ***( dont we love our Automata thoery!! lolzz). Well the poeming spree led to may a great works as you can read, only the seriously emotional types mind you, dont u dare analyse me from these poems, I m like those Russians dolls, a person within a person recursively without a terminating condition...huhahaha.
Yea then there was a series of addictions to online interfaces.. I compiled my greivances about Orkut, to which I got a thumping support( hoping there is a word like thumping and further hoping it doesnt mean anything sexually explicit, for the sake of my chotu baby peers). This was followed by a wealth of mind blowing testimonials I wrote for close friends, people I didnt know but wanted to write anyways, people who wrote some for me and asked me to write one of them and people I couldnt satnd on the first encounter and wanted to get back at but ended up liking anyways( the above sentence needs tests ur reading between the lines..) And just for the record...Please DO NOT send me scraps which say : "please write me a testi" it is just too damn funny if u read it with a twisted mind!
Moving on, ohhhh then Jack jumped from the bean stalk and landed on a cactus plant ...I know ur grandma didnt tell u this version of the story, coz children are kept away from the gory details u see...Well I was on a self healing path (or so I think) so the poeming stopped (after a series of romantic sad poems to God knows who!!!!God wonders why too now-a-days:-()the orkut account was deleted (and a new one was created) A Big thank you to all the 141 pals who think my photo is very cute and I have lovely dimples( where were u ppl when I was 20 kgs heavier or was it the grains in ur eyes at that time...excuse muaaah:-*)
Oh yea, level three of Jack story... from the cactus to the Venus-fly-trap...( thats a n insectivorous plant -gyan...since many people think I m a pest, I belong to the phylum insecta ..I hope it is a phyllum then wat is a class...? Oh its those thingies in VJTI with a population on 75 and a bee or a drone or a frog producing abstruse sounds which are out of the 20 Hz -20 kHz range!!!) Speaking of humming..I wen tona singing spree, much to the dismay of my online pals again! Many a glass bottles were broken at the cacophony, there was a new cult formed and I was revered as the "Don of Discordance", the roaches in foreign universites were killed mercilessly when my songs were played in the libraries of my seniors, the engineering community lsot a lot of talented souls who went into an indefinite coma after listening to those slow poisonous songs...(damn I should have started with the people I love to hate..but then wats Piu if she she thinks logically!!!)
Life was never soo fun being obesessed with oneself and discovering talents I didnt know I had... All said and done, it was a waste of a lot of precious things but then ...what a waste it was.
Back to reality...Oh there goes gravity, oh there goes rabit...huhahahaha!!!! Bottomline I m back sweethearts!!!
( just to clarify I m still a "chotu baby" for a lot of people...infact this is a unanimous misconception, but its ok, as long as I m pampered and I dont mean "Pamper"ed) !!!
Gist of para one:
I have lost my sense of humor and the sarcastic magic wand
(Boooooo to all the CAT aspirants who skimmed through the linguistic jugglery and fine literary nuances of the above para!!!)
Well what went wrong, u ask ( even if u dont ...u should for the sake of continuity...) Btw, the previous question has multiple dimensions and has profound effect on all aspects of my life...be it academic, social, professional, romantic ( how many dimensions does this thing have anyways..? well every possible thing u can think of!!!) And now since I m totally flabbergasted at the loss of 'the wonder days' lemme just summarise the activities that took me away from the reality I was soo proud of..lolzz
Well the worst thing that can ever happen to you is : ..tantaaadaaaaa u start "POEMING" as I call it..( still vain about the poetic liberties, kya karein....) Well it is a nightmare , I remeber I had written a beautiful poem half an hour before my OS paper, not coz I was soo well preped that I thought I could indulge in a literally magnum opus, on the contrary it was something I had to do...some what like how Jim CArey feels when he puts on the Mask... I even made those weird faces believe u me... finally the mind and fingers 'synchronised' (OS paper tha...lolzz) and la la la ...there was a chotu poem.....(it was good ppl.. read 'Utopia' below)
As if the poeming on nature wasnt enough.. I started making my friends as my poetic muses...Many a great men were flustered ( where is the yahoo smiley of the taklu pulling his hair in frustation , when u need one?) when they read about themselves, I bet I extolled them soo much that they developed narcissistic characteristics which transcended into a much more aggrevated form of a psychological disorder I call " Swollen Ego" the biological term is " Hippopotaumusiais" and the cool crowd would call it 'Attitude honey'...wateva, they can **** ** ***( dont we love our Automata thoery!! lolzz). Well the poeming spree led to may a great works as you can read, only the seriously emotional types mind you, dont u dare analyse me from these poems, I m like those Russians dolls, a person within a person recursively without a terminating condition...huhahaha.
Yea then there was a series of addictions to online interfaces.. I compiled my greivances about Orkut, to which I got a thumping support( hoping there is a word like thumping and further hoping it doesnt mean anything sexually explicit, for the sake of my chotu baby peers). This was followed by a wealth of mind blowing testimonials I wrote for close friends, people I didnt know but wanted to write anyways, people who wrote some for me and asked me to write one of them and people I couldnt satnd on the first encounter and wanted to get back at but ended up liking anyways( the above sentence needs tests ur reading between the lines..) And just for the record...Please DO NOT send me scraps which say : "please write me a testi" it is just too damn funny if u read it with a twisted mind!
Moving on, ohhhh then Jack jumped from the bean stalk and landed on a cactus plant ...I know ur grandma didnt tell u this version of the story, coz children are kept away from the gory details u see...Well I was on a self healing path (or so I think) so the poeming stopped (after a series of romantic sad poems to God knows who!!!!God wonders why too now-a-days:-()the orkut account was deleted (and a new one was created) A Big thank you to all the 141 pals who think my photo is very cute and I have lovely dimples( where were u ppl when I was 20 kgs heavier or was it the grains in ur eyes at that time...excuse muaaah:-*)
Oh yea, level three of Jack story... from the cactus to the Venus-fly-trap...( thats a n insectivorous plant -gyan...since many people think I m a pest, I belong to the phylum insecta ..I hope it is a phyllum then wat is a class...? Oh its those thingies in VJTI with a population on 75 and a bee or a drone or a frog producing abstruse sounds which are out of the 20 Hz -20 kHz range!!!) Speaking of humming..I wen tona singing spree, much to the dismay of my online pals again! Many a glass bottles were broken at the cacophony, there was a new cult formed and I was revered as the "Don of Discordance", the roaches in foreign universites were killed mercilessly when my songs were played in the libraries of my seniors, the engineering community lsot a lot of talented souls who went into an indefinite coma after listening to those slow poisonous songs...(damn I should have started with the people I love to hate..but then wats Piu if she she thinks logically!!!)
Life was never soo fun being obesessed with oneself and discovering talents I didnt know I had... All said and done, it was a waste of a lot of precious things but then ...what a waste it was.
Back to reality...Oh there goes gravity, oh there goes rabit...huhahahaha!!!! Bottomline I m back sweethearts!!!
Divine Comedy
Anyone who knows me or listens to my stories(without turning a deaf ear to it) knows this about me...My life is extra funny...the Gods or angels or the authors of my destiny enjoy adding that special zing by putting me in strange humorous situations. No qualms about that though, I m thankful to all of them for their 'divine comedy' lolzz. Here are some of my favourites:
We had open house in our school, and any one who had seen me in my school days and now can literally 'weigh' the difference...or so I would like to believe...lolzz . Anyway, I was soo "full of myself' tha I didnt bear any resemblance to my parents, so much so that my class teacheer refused to allow my mother to see my answer papers (even though there hadnt been a year when I hadnt topped the school!!!!(how modest..I know:-P))
My school had a knack of putting my parents in weird sitautions... This was my final year in school, however my princial hadnt seen my father's face for all these years for the simple fact that that I didnt indulge in any of the mischievious accomplishments that the Pirates of STHS boasted of..infact I was on the wrong side of the line altogether...I was the Head Girl...lolzz. So once again , since bad habits die hard, I committed the horrendous crime of topping from all the divisions in my std 10 prelims...but I had to collect my National Talent Search Award , so had to miss school on the result day. I aske dmy dad to collet it for me, so for the first time he went to the Principal ...well unfortunately for him... She was fumming over a parent whose son hadnt attended school coz he had some classes..and my dad just happened to stand in the same line as that fella's mom..so my Princi just presumed that my dad is that guy's father and gave him a firing of a lifetime... But as cool as ever, my dad let the poor Princi speak and had the last laugh when she realised the mistaken identity!
India is a land of celebrities...actors and politicians rule the roost when it comes to inaugurating exhibitions and ceremonies...Well, thngs dont get funnier han this..I and my dad wanted to visit a painting exhibition which was supposed to be inagurated by the corporator whose named coincidentally was Mr Prabhu... When we arrived at the place, a person, who I now thin was a very inexperienced event oragniser asked my dad if he was Mr. Prabhu to which he said yeas..and then-------- we got a welcome of that Gods get, complete with the band, garlands et all... I kinda realised some identity crisis but we played along anyway just for the fun of it. The story ends with the ceremonial cutting the ribbon and actually inagurating the exhibition...and ya we also met the actual guy when we were leaving the gala, both Mr. Pabus shared a good laugh, so no brickbats there...lolzz
This was the best telephone conversation ever... I had called up a friend of mine, for the first time...in all the 2 years of JC that we were together (Not abnormal circumstances for Sathayeans:-)..) Well in all the 20 min of converation that I had with him, I was fuming at how sarcastic the fella is..coz he refused to believe that I was in the same class...(well I wasnt a sarcastic juggler in those days or he would ahve certainly bled to death with my verbal punches!!!) When the water reached the ceiling and I decided no more underwater diving, I asked him why he was giving me attitude...and to our amazement we realised that..u get it right mistaken identity again, he thought I was some other Priyanka...lolzz
Well, everybody laughs at this one.. thanks to the faulty indicators at Bandra, I got into a Virar fast , thinking it is Bo F...At borivali , I was so caught up in getting into a Churgate train to save myself from getting caught as a ticketless first class traveller, that I got into a wrong train again ( Virar starting Churgate fast...yea those thingies that dont stop at Goregaon!!!).Just to clarify .. I did ask a lady if it was a C F and she replied positively, little did she know my plight...So there again, I passed my soil and reached the foreign shores of Andheri...Finally, had a nice laughat myself and boarded a slow to reach home safely.
I think thats enough for the day, would want you to come back again to have a good laugh...
We had open house in our school, and any one who had seen me in my school days and now can literally 'weigh' the difference...or so I would like to believe...lolzz . Anyway, I was soo "full of myself' tha I didnt bear any resemblance to my parents, so much so that my class teacheer refused to allow my mother to see my answer papers (even though there hadnt been a year when I hadnt topped the school!!!!(how modest..I know:-P))
My school had a knack of putting my parents in weird sitautions... This was my final year in school, however my princial hadnt seen my father's face for all these years for the simple fact that that I didnt indulge in any of the mischievious accomplishments that the Pirates of STHS boasted of..infact I was on the wrong side of the line altogether...I was the Head Girl...lolzz. So once again , since bad habits die hard, I committed the horrendous crime of topping from all the divisions in my std 10 prelims...but I had to collect my National Talent Search Award , so had to miss school on the result day. I aske dmy dad to collet it for me, so for the first time he went to the Principal ...well unfortunately for him... She was fumming over a parent whose son hadnt attended school coz he had some classes..and my dad just happened to stand in the same line as that fella's mom..so my Princi just presumed that my dad is that guy's father and gave him a firing of a lifetime... But as cool as ever, my dad let the poor Princi speak and had the last laugh when she realised the mistaken identity!
India is a land of celebrities...actors and politicians rule the roost when it comes to inaugurating exhibitions and ceremonies...Well, thngs dont get funnier han this..I and my dad wanted to visit a painting exhibition which was supposed to be inagurated by the corporator whose named coincidentally was Mr Prabhu... When we arrived at the place, a person, who I now thin was a very inexperienced event oragniser asked my dad if he was Mr. Prabhu to which he said yeas..and then-------- we got a welcome of that Gods get, complete with the band, garlands et all... I kinda realised some identity crisis but we played along anyway just for the fun of it. The story ends with the ceremonial cutting the ribbon and actually inagurating the exhibition...and ya we also met the actual guy when we were leaving the gala, both Mr. Pabus shared a good laugh, so no brickbats there...lolzz
This was the best telephone conversation ever... I had called up a friend of mine, for the first time...in all the 2 years of JC that we were together (Not abnormal circumstances for Sathayeans:-)..) Well in all the 20 min of converation that I had with him, I was fuming at how sarcastic the fella is..coz he refused to believe that I was in the same class...(well I wasnt a sarcastic juggler in those days or he would ahve certainly bled to death with my verbal punches!!!) When the water reached the ceiling and I decided no more underwater diving, I asked him why he was giving me attitude...and to our amazement we realised that..u get it right mistaken identity again, he thought I was some other Priyanka...lolzz
Well, everybody laughs at this one.. thanks to the faulty indicators at Bandra, I got into a Virar fast , thinking it is Bo F...At borivali , I was so caught up in getting into a Churgate train to save myself from getting caught as a ticketless first class traveller, that I got into a wrong train again ( Virar starting Churgate fast...yea those thingies that dont stop at Goregaon!!!).Just to clarify .. I did ask a lady if it was a C F and she replied positively, little did she know my plight...So there again, I passed my soil and reached the foreign shores of Andheri...Finally, had a nice laughat myself and boarded a slow to reach home safely.
I think thats enough for the day, would want you to come back again to have a good laugh...
Friday, September 15, 2006
When hope seems hidden behind the clouds..search for the silver lining within
Eminem
Lose Yourself
Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Yo, His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out
He's chokin, how everybody's chokin now
The clock's run out, time's up over, bloah!
Snap back to reality, Oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked
He's so mad, but he won't give up that easy
No, he won't have it , he knows his whole back city's ropes
It don't matter, he's dope
He knows that, but he's broke
He's so stacked that he knows
When he goes back to his mobile home, that's when it's
Back to the lab again yo
This whole rap city
He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him
[Chorus:]
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo,
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better,
His soul's escaping, through this hole that it's gaping
This world is mine for the taking
Make me king, as we move toward a, new world order
A normal life is borin, but superstardom's close to post mortom
It only grows harder, only grows hotter
He blows us all over these hoes is all on him
Coast to coast shows, he's know as the globetrotter
Lonely roads, God only knows
He's grown farther from home, he's no father
He goes home and barely knows his own daughter
But hold your nose cause here goes the cold water
These ho's don't want him no mo, he's cold product
They moved on to the next schmoe who flows
He nose dove and sold nada
So the soap opera is told and unfolds
I suppose it’s old partner, but the beat goes on
Da da dum da dum da da
[Chorus:]
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo, you better
No more games, I'ma change what you call rage
Tear this mothafuckin roof off like 2 dogs caged
I was playin in the beginnin, the mood all changed
I been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage
But I kept rhymin and stepwritin the next cypher
Best believe somebody's payin the pied piper
All the pain inside amplified by the fact
That I can't get by with my 9 to 5
And I can't provide the right type of life for my family
Cause man, these goddam food stamps don't buy diapers
And it's no movie, there's no Makai Pfeiffer, this is my life
And these times are so hard and it's getting even harder
Tryin to feed and water my seed, plus
Teeter-totter caught up between trying to be a father and a prima donna
Baby mama drama's screamin on and
Too much for me to wanna
Stay in one spot, another day of monotony
Has gotten me to the point, I'm like a snail
I've got to formulate a plot or I end up in jail or shot
Success is my only mothafuckin option, failure's not
Mom, I love you, but this trailer's got to go
I cannot grow old in Salem's lot
So here I go is my shot.
Feet fail me not or not this may be the only opportunity that I got
[Chorus:]
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better,
You can do anything you set your mind to, man
Lose Yourself
Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Yo, His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out
He's chokin, how everybody's chokin now
The clock's run out, time's up over, bloah!
Snap back to reality, Oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked
He's so mad, but he won't give up that easy
No, he won't have it , he knows his whole back city's ropes
It don't matter, he's dope
He knows that, but he's broke
He's so stacked that he knows
When he goes back to his mobile home, that's when it's
Back to the lab again yo
This whole rap city
He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him
[Chorus:]
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo,
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better,
His soul's escaping, through this hole that it's gaping
This world is mine for the taking
Make me king, as we move toward a, new world order
A normal life is borin, but superstardom's close to post mortom
It only grows harder, only grows hotter
He blows us all over these hoes is all on him
Coast to coast shows, he's know as the globetrotter
Lonely roads, God only knows
He's grown farther from home, he's no father
He goes home and barely knows his own daughter
But hold your nose cause here goes the cold water
These ho's don't want him no mo, he's cold product
They moved on to the next schmoe who flows
He nose dove and sold nada
So the soap opera is told and unfolds
I suppose it’s old partner, but the beat goes on
Da da dum da dum da da
[Chorus:]
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo, you better
No more games, I'ma change what you call rage
Tear this mothafuckin roof off like 2 dogs caged
I was playin in the beginnin, the mood all changed
I been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage
But I kept rhymin and stepwritin the next cypher
Best believe somebody's payin the pied piper
All the pain inside amplified by the fact
That I can't get by with my 9 to 5
And I can't provide the right type of life for my family
Cause man, these goddam food stamps don't buy diapers
And it's no movie, there's no Makai Pfeiffer, this is my life
And these times are so hard and it's getting even harder
Tryin to feed and water my seed, plus
Teeter-totter caught up between trying to be a father and a prima donna
Baby mama drama's screamin on and
Too much for me to wanna
Stay in one spot, another day of monotony
Has gotten me to the point, I'm like a snail
I've got to formulate a plot or I end up in jail or shot
Success is my only mothafuckin option, failure's not
Mom, I love you, but this trailer's got to go
I cannot grow old in Salem's lot
So here I go is my shot.
Feet fail me not or not this may be the only opportunity that I got
[Chorus:]
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better,
You can do anything you set your mind to, man
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Life in a Coffee Mug
Sunday mornings are the best...I get to doze around a little longer, mom gets to shout a little longer, dad gets to make comparisions of this lazy generation with 'the good old days'(not soo long ago, I may add in case he happens to read his one;-))...And what a beautiful morning it is...the princess wakes up to the sweet chirpings of mynas who have been trying to nest in the comfortable environs of my AC, meanwhile there is 'Bhai'...the pigeon who also vies for the same piece of real estate, kinda like the 'bahubalis'. Amidst their mutual exchange of 'holy words' in chirpy language, which only I can somehow understand,(a side effect that hasnt worn off since I had seen Dr. Dolittle...it also reflects in my academic endeavors "do little" :-)) , I open my window , with a broad electric smile, aaah the sunlight... the trees swaying...the cool wind....the avian chaos stops in the same way as the rogues stop fighting at the sight of the havaldaaar in Hindi movies. Later I sip on my coffee, savoring the fine tastes of the best beans from South India and wonder what's the special magic my mom contorts for the coffee that makes it such a delight...may be it is "Maa ka pyaar" :-). Then there are those heated discussions with dad on the articles in The Sunday Times, the CNN news in the background and my opinions (which fall on deaf ears btw) on the international 'breaking news' ,parallely I m scanning what I call ' the colored paper' : the Special Sunday supplement of TOI, (yea the ones with gorgeous men and women on the front page followed by Cigratte or Lifestyle shop or Cosmetics advertisements...). Well , then there are those rare occassions when we can go for morning walks to Aarey, all the way up to New Zealand Hostel and beyond...boy oh boy , dont I just love to walk on those roads with the flaming gulmohur trees welcoming me, every step I take and their small greenish yellow leaves showering me as if royality is welcomed :-)(As one of my friends would say... I m soo full of myself!!).Some other times when I m really in the mood for for some fun, there are those swims I soooooooooo love!!! But let me not get into the details of that for the sake of brevity:-) But if I m at home, its music time, Lata Mangeshkar seems even more melodious on Sunday mornings, and instrumentals seem more soothing at dawn(PST: Piu Standard Time... where 9:00 am IST is equivalent to 6:00 :-)).."Bhopalis" et all...transcending me to Emyrean realms... but soon there is freefall to reality... when I m reminded of the 'to do list' that has piled up through the week...well, like I m reminded of the time crunch I m in now...All said and done, "Well begun is half done":-) Reading that one twice doesnt complete the other half lolzz!!!
Sunday, September 03, 2006
A Travelogue
Lost in the woods, I wandered lonely,
In search of the pond of tranquility,
Many storms I overcame, the journey left me tired and worn...
A shimmer of hope, a glimmer of faith, finally my tryst with destiny...
An effervescence of feelings...is this what they call happiness?
Alas ..just a mirage...reality shattered like the brittle glass
Tears inundated.. I protested to the one peeping from the sky...
I dont deserve this agony! But my plea unheard,I surrendered....
Reminiscent of the struggle..I realised that I had taken the wrong road...
For peace of mind was not to be found outside....
It was to be searched within!
Suddenly the dark clouds clear, the full moon peeps
And the stars twinkle mischievously..
The soft wind and the rustling leaves are a music to my ears....
There is someone up there who really cares,
Having his weird ways to teach you, make you understand...
No journey, no battle, no failure in life is a waste...
You will always get success and happiness...
When you look for it in the right place:-)
In search of the pond of tranquility,
Many storms I overcame, the journey left me tired and worn...
A shimmer of hope, a glimmer of faith, finally my tryst with destiny...
An effervescence of feelings...is this what they call happiness?
Alas ..just a mirage...reality shattered like the brittle glass
Tears inundated.. I protested to the one peeping from the sky...
I dont deserve this agony! But my plea unheard,I surrendered....
Reminiscent of the struggle..I realised that I had taken the wrong road...
For peace of mind was not to be found outside....
It was to be searched within!
Suddenly the dark clouds clear, the full moon peeps
And the stars twinkle mischievously..
The soft wind and the rustling leaves are a music to my ears....
There is someone up there who really cares,
Having his weird ways to teach you, make you understand...
No journey, no battle, no failure in life is a waste...
You will always get success and happiness...
When you look for it in the right place:-)
Utopia
I dream of a place called Utopia;
Where sun plays hide and seek with the clouds;
Earth and water gleam, reflecting joy,
The breeze is reminiscent of fragrant flowers;
And the sky sings melodies of the birds.
Where the mountains, all austere, rest gracefully in pride;
And the rainbow glistens with seven different hues;
Where the water cascades dance in silver sparkles,
And the majestic trees don their lush green attire;
Where the river meanders with mischievous turns;
And the mist transcends heaven on earth…
But they aren't alone in this tranquil glory;
For I am a member of the clan,
Together we create an Empyrean bliss;
The stuff they call peace!
But where is this place, if you may ask…
It's where I lay my burdens to rest;
A solitary place, which welcomes me,
Whenever I want to seek solace;
A treasure trove of beautiful thoughts,
When everything else occludes its doors,
There is a temple- one's mind!
Where sun plays hide and seek with the clouds;
Earth and water gleam, reflecting joy,
The breeze is reminiscent of fragrant flowers;
And the sky sings melodies of the birds.
Where the mountains, all austere, rest gracefully in pride;
And the rainbow glistens with seven different hues;
Where the water cascades dance in silver sparkles,
And the majestic trees don their lush green attire;
Where the river meanders with mischievous turns;
And the mist transcends heaven on earth…
But they aren't alone in this tranquil glory;
For I am a member of the clan,
Together we create an Empyrean bliss;
The stuff they call peace!
But where is this place, if you may ask…
It's where I lay my burdens to rest;
A solitary place, which welcomes me,
Whenever I want to seek solace;
A treasure trove of beautiful thoughts,
When everything else occludes its doors,
There is a temple- one's mind!
Adieu
A last look at the reflections of the past,
It's all so vivid in the sparkling lake.
Old memories, the laughs, the tears,
The dreamy eyes, earnest pleas to the shooting stars…
Moments of triumph, frequent visits to cloud nine,
Solitary trysts with pain, tranquil solace in utopia,
Chilling winters, stormy winds, scorching heat,
Have fought them all, have been a phoenix all my life.
Never was a mountain high enough, or a valley deep enough,
Imagination was reality, passion was a magic wand.
But time has changed, and so have I;
Gazing at the gentle ripples, I wonder who art thy?
A different mind, an unknown image, a vacant spirit,
Questions that reflect, rebound and resurface like the ripples themselves.
Adieu to you, identity, a new sojourn, beckons me,
A different lake, a different reflection and a different me …
It's all so vivid in the sparkling lake.
Old memories, the laughs, the tears,
The dreamy eyes, earnest pleas to the shooting stars…
Moments of triumph, frequent visits to cloud nine,
Solitary trysts with pain, tranquil solace in utopia,
Chilling winters, stormy winds, scorching heat,
Have fought them all, have been a phoenix all my life.
Never was a mountain high enough, or a valley deep enough,
Imagination was reality, passion was a magic wand.
But time has changed, and so have I;
Gazing at the gentle ripples, I wonder who art thy?
A different mind, an unknown image, a vacant spirit,
Questions that reflect, rebound and resurface like the ripples themselves.
Adieu to you, identity, a new sojourn, beckons me,
A different lake, a different reflection and a different me …
Much A do about nothing
The cupid and angels were but a myth to her;
Tales of unending love, the stuff of legends.
Unfathomable the thought which would leave her fraught;
How the bonds of love,would not rend?
Then one fateful day, she was touched by the nasty spell;
A quagmire of sorts,an ambivalence unfelt,
when the mind said no, but the heart just would'nt relent!
Her trusted friend, the conscience, warned;
Of vicissitudes, a clairvoyance alarmed.
But there she was, oh so strong, but defenseless against his charms;
A simple smile could kill, was there any need of arms?
The utopia transcended her to empyrean heights;
A state so blissful, so blinded by love, such ecstacy...
She drank from the poison chalice, not suspecting any malice;
An unsuspecting prey to the mirage of her own fantasy.
But miracles do happen, and yes from the ashes the phoenix rose!
Time, the healer, soothed her sores.
Hope, the benefactor,led her ashore.
Still the phalanx of old memories would haunt her vulnerable soul;
With a tear in her eye and a smile on her face,
"Much a do about nothing,its just my heart that he stole!"
Tales of unending love, the stuff of legends.
Unfathomable the thought which would leave her fraught;
How the bonds of love,would not rend?
Then one fateful day, she was touched by the nasty spell;
A quagmire of sorts,an ambivalence unfelt,
when the mind said no, but the heart just would'nt relent!
Her trusted friend, the conscience, warned;
Of vicissitudes, a clairvoyance alarmed.
But there she was, oh so strong, but defenseless against his charms;
A simple smile could kill, was there any need of arms?
The utopia transcended her to empyrean heights;
A state so blissful, so blinded by love, such ecstacy...
She drank from the poison chalice, not suspecting any malice;
An unsuspecting prey to the mirage of her own fantasy.
But miracles do happen, and yes from the ashes the phoenix rose!
Time, the healer, soothed her sores.
Hope, the benefactor,led her ashore.
Still the phalanx of old memories would haunt her vulnerable soul;
With a tear in her eye and a smile on her face,
"Much a do about nothing,its just my heart that he stole!"
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Music to my ears
Starting off with a confession...I m musically challeged, dont know a thing abt the chords and the notes; pitch and timbre, all too abstruse for me! But every once in a while, I like listening to songs..of different kinds, variety is the spice of life and like I always tell my friends (and they unanimously agree to this) my life is just tooo spicy lolzzz! Right now I m going ga ga over Atif Aslam songs...the guy rocks!!!!!! Well everyone knows him, but here are a few of his songs I hadnt heard nad no I can get them out of my mind!!! The first one is Yakeen from his album Jal Pari, a soul stirring song, an d the guitar work and piano play is simply to die for!!! If I were to describe the song, its essence lies in the innocence and simplicity of the lyrics, yet they aptly bring out the essence- that of missing someone or something: it could be the books u lost:-P and lost over and over again, the friends you left behind on memory lane or the evil twin who got separated from you when you were two and had gone to the Kumbh mela! Check out the lyrics, generally I get sooo carried away with the melody that lyrics are eclipsed from my attention ( or may be I m too self absorbed to listen to what others say, coz I talk soooooooo much hehehehe) but these are some good set of pearls in words!!! And the best part I love about it that it starts out at a gentle pace and gradually catches up pace almost like the song was like a waterfall, a calm stream at its source, a current racing its way, to a violent flow cutting everything in its way and taking everything in its path, along with it and finally a freefall!!! lolzz. Excellent vocals I must add, music for the moment and moments later and later and later...;-)
Friday, September 01, 2006
Soul curry
A true Goan, I love my fish, rice and THE soul curry...South Indians have their Rasams, Punjabis have their Lassi, aaami Goye chi loka devour our soul curry. To think about it, it is not a mere curry, it is much more!!! It has the most beauuuuuuuuutiful pink color you can ever see in nature, then there is a tad-bit sweet flavor that the coconut milk adds..And of course the 'soul' is the sole ingredient that creates the zing, the magic; simply put it- it is the soul of the whole preparation, 'jaaan hai rey'! What I love is that little bit of sweetness,something worth its salt, and that oooh sooo mischievous tart...all thrown into one!(I m still describing the 'curry' dont misunderstand;-P)And we luuuuv the special adornments dont we, so there is the 'fodhni' with jeera, garlic, coriander all the additional ingredients that garnish it into a sheer culinary delight.... The next time you have the soul curry, try closing your eyes and enjoy all the varied tastes hidden in it...nice and slooooow....I promise you, wine tasting is not as pleasurable as this is, try it! Every once in a while a good soul curry is a needed, coz not everything is easy to digest;-)
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