A little drama is required

Being an Indian, I can totally bet that you can just never get enough of drama. You may hate it yet you can’t escape it. I think that we are wired in a way that from time to time, we do need to refill our drama quotient. Of course it takes different amount of time for different persons for the drama quotient to get empty. Someone’s drama quotient may last for one month while someone else’s may last just a week.

Don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying that Indians do not appreciate good cinema. On the contrary, drama is probably the least appreciated genre of cinematic content in this country. This has been around for so long that it is now being taken for granted. With the advent of international media and exposure to other genres, the significance of drama has further subdued. Yet, I firmly believe that it will never be extinct.

I know of someone who really enjoys Game of Thrones. He is a huge fan of Batman. He has watched every episode of Supernatural. He watches every super hero movie. He is a fan to an extent that he even speaks the dialogues in usual conversation. Yet when the movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan came out, his status read something like – Hum toh aapki dabangiyat ke deewane the yeh toh aap Bajrangi Bhaijaan banke aur bhi zyada fan kar gaye – loosely translated to that we were fan of your Dabangg image and you made us a fan with Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

Then I don’t know a single girl who hasn’t seen one of the drama shows. All mothers and the previous generations have seen Balaji production shows. Even the girls – I don’t think there is any who has not seen any. Countless shows like Geet, Miley Jab Hum Tum, Dil Mil Gaye and many more started as being of a different genre but they contained tons of drama and got even bigger viewership. Well you may argue that these shows didn’t contain the saas-bahu drama but hey, drama is drama in any form or relationship.

There is also a quick test for this – see any show or movie which is currently showing a romantic or wedding sequence. Even though such scene seldom not contain drama correlated, if you get a girl to watch it for a couple of seconds, she is most likely to sit through the entire run. And not just girls, I know a lot of guys will respond in the same manner to this test.

I realized this when suddenly I had this urge to see a Karan Johar movie one day. I have all marvel movies in my cellphone along with FRIENDS series. I was already seeing some more things and then just out of the blue, I wanted to see a typical Bollywood movie. The first movie that came to my mind was Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. It is a great movie. The songs are pretty awesome. However, you can’t deny that there are some real basic issues with the movie. AB being so rigid. AB was a billionaire and his wife needed permission to do everything. Rahul never realized that Naina loved him. Well these are the ones pointed from the first couple of minutes of the movie. Also drama is not my favourite genre. I love comedies and there are a lot of them that I keep seeing endlessly. Yet, I know the dialogues of this movie. And that day I had this intense urge to see it – just to refill my quota.

I am not saying it is a good or a bad thing. I am just saying that we all are brought up amongst all this. Family stories and family values are something that are quite natural to all of us. We may not love that but we can’t deny it being a part of us.

Probably that is why I take some moments off my sleep and do things like writing this blog and then tell it in the office tomorrow for the reason for my sleep deprived state – for – thoda drama toh banta hai boss!

Guys and their hair

I love my hair. For the love of God and Satan combined, I do. I don’t care if I don’t wash my face one day but I care deeply if something happens to even one strand on my head. I like them long and strong. Of course it means that I try a lot of oils and shampoos. Sometimes, actually most times, it doesn’t help. But then again often I wonder what would I do with my long hair? As in currently I do have sufficiently long hair but every time I wash them, I don’t have any option but to keep them open or to tie a braid. Those are the times when I really wonder if I would like my hair short.

This thought came to my mind thanks to my Gym Instructor. He has normal boy cut hair but every day he keeps on doing something to them. Sometimes he will gel them up to become square shaped. Other days he supports a slanted-hill or what I prefer – a Johnny Bravo look. Sometimes he will cut his hair real short from the sides and let them be as it is. Other times he will keep asking how his hairstyle is and I have totally no clue what is different. I do agree that the way he keeps his hair makes a lot of difference to his overall appearance. Some days he looks quite young and not so young on the others. Yet I have seen his devotion to keep his hair in the perfect style throughout the day. When I need to defend my laziness, I would say that his hair is shorter so he can do it. However ever since I have noticed him, I started noticing guys in general fussing over their hair.

One day I was going to my office in the office bus and I see this car at the signal. There is a little traffic and there is a little guy and probably his father in the car. The child is dressed in school dress. He is so calm and composed. He has no issues with the traffic or concerns of getting late for his school. He was busy setting his hair. I am not even sure if we had mirrors in my school but certainly times have changed since I have left school.

Speaking on the same note, my office bus driver – well, sometimes he is fresh, sometimes he is talking on phone, sometimes he is listening to music and other times he is wearing chappals, supporting a just-out-of-bed look. Still he makes sure that no matter what, his hair is always perfect. I have never seen his hair look any different or out of place. His hair is always the same length and always set the same way.

An even more striking incident happened when I was at a wedding. The groom’s family had arrived and the girl’s younger brother and sister were ushering them into the hall. There was this crazy loud music and dancing. The welcoming rituals were just done and now the groom was walking into the main hall towards the stage. The bride’s siblings are walking behind him. The groom’s side people are dancing. Amidst all this, the bride’s younger brother is dancing and then stops, set his hair and then dances again. Not even sure why but this is what I saw.

Now when I see guys setting their hair, I cant help but laugh a little. At the same time I am still unsure what do I do with my own hair.

Simply curious

I am not promoting or endorsing anything but I use this Wynk app to listen to music. Its got a fairly huge list of songs and I am more or less able to find all songs I want to listen to! It gets a little annoying with respect to the ads - ofcourse I can always pay to get rid of them!

Off late they have come up with this ad of theirs which displays when you open the app or while the ad is playing.. and its pretty amusing!

Now I am wondering if they already have lakha of people who have upgraded to their premium annual membership - why do they want others to do so as well?

I am not complaining about the ads here!! I just found it pretty amusing!
I mean from my point of view - I am getting the service I want with sometimes 30sec ads which can still be skipped - fyi Wynk team! Also I believe with their app upgrade, they have become a little rigorous with the ads. The frequency has increased. If lakhs of people have taken the membership, this increase is not quite justified. Secondly if lakhs of people have taken the membership then I assume that the ad is not relevant. People are not going to take the membership because an ad tells them to.

Anyways!! Something I found amusing so thought to share 😉

I did the unimaginable !!!!!

Life is all about extending your comfort zone.. going out there in the unknown and mastering it. It is very simple to do something you know but it is extremely difficult to make something you don’t know, simple. Well naturally, blogging is something that comes naturally to me. It gives me immense pleasure to pen down (type) my thoughts and let them generate a flow of imagination. Yet, sometimes.. just one of those times.. I like to venture into the unknown and do what I don’t usually do. This time, I did something really unimaginable!!

The story begins that due to some really amazing mobile network providers (sarcasm .. since such an entity doesn’t exist ) I am forced to keep two mobiles ( also due to the fact that my mobiles - both of them - can accommodate only a single sim card ). It keeps me on my toes to keep checking them and that is something really hard since I am quite forgetful. It also has its benefits - one I use for talking to other people; the second is a personal one - contains my games and the editor where I type this content. Anyways.. it started out being difficult but now I am quite accustomed to this.

Then one fine day our very old neighbours come to visit us. They are quite simple and humble people. They come for dinner and we talk like people did in the 1980s (no thanks to people using digital communication to keep their personal spaces quite huge to be impenetrable!)

Anyways.. so usually I don’t talk much using either of my phones. Even then the phones were in my room and I was in the dining area - cooking, eating, chatting and happy! When they got up to leave, it was quite late and dad offered to drop them to their accommodation. I went to bid them farewell and notified that there was an empty seat in the car. Greedy for more moments for sheer and simple happiness, I told my mom that I am going as well and sat in the car.

The entire journey to drop them to their accommodation and back was roughly twenty minutes. I merrily talked to everyone while we went and then with my dad while returning. Not even once did I feel that I am disconnected from the world. I was actually more connected than I had been in a long time.

Only when I came back home I realised that I had taken the trip without either of my phones - those phones I carry even to the washroom - those phones that have replaced most of my friends with contacts - those phones which have replaced my watches with digital timed display - those phones that have replaced my mother waking me up with alarms - those phones that are a part of everything I do - from writing this blog to listening to songs - from singing to watching news - every little to every major thing imaginable! And the best part - I realised that I am fully capable in their absence. I was also happy!

Yes, I don’t deny that I need these. For instance these phones provide me quick ease to talk to my grandmother who is some distance away. This phone also enables me to type out this content wherever I am and whenever I want. But I don’t want to be smart because the phone I hold is a smart phone! It should be the other way around.

So yes - I am glad that I did something that most of us usually don’t do. I found happiness without any digitalisation.

The precious Elbow

Once or twice now, I have asked people to wear helmets. When they were only travelling the nearby areas, they felt helmet was unnecessary and it is only required when travelling long distances. Further if you insist that helmets should be worn even for the smallest of distances being travelled on road, they would reply that they drive carefully.

Well, to all those people and everyone who thinks similarly -

1. Helmets are for the protection of yourself - specifically your skull. The traffic police personnel who fined you for not wearing one or I, who keeps bothering you with such trivial information, have nothing to gain from you wearing a helmet. Trust me.

2. I certainly believe you are careful and drive safely. The same can not be said truthfully about every other vehicle driver on the road. Unfortunately.

3. Helmets will protect your skull even if you are seated in the rear. So if you have a skull, helmets are mandatory. If you have a spare, you are exempted Lord Raavana.

But helmets can be really annoying if I want to talk to someone with me or especially in summer time! True!

Use the public transport or pool a car with friends. I can guarantee no public transport requires you to wear helmets. Some of them will have ACs to help you fight the summer. They will cost you less or equal to what you spend while using you two-wheeler. Moreover, public transport will take away a lot of your issues - wearing a second shirt Over your office clothes, tan over your exposed arms, gives you extra time to read or catch up on your favourite show/movie, gives you chance to meet new people, takes away your tension about your parking spot getting full.. and more. All this at the tempting price of only two disadvantages - you will need to carry perfume at most times and you will need to careful about your belongings.

It is not the case that nobody wears helmets. Almost everyone has and carries them. However, to my utter astonishment, many people find themselves safer securing their elbows instead of their heads. Now i have heard of brains being in the knee joints but God knows what hidden treasure is there in the elbow joints (sometimes my elbow joints pain.. maybe the treasures are growing beyond capacity). Weirdly we only aim at protecting one elbow. Not sure how someone finds the exact elbow where their treasure is. What if they are wrong? What if they meet an accident and their other elbow breaks and the treasure gets lost? More importantly - why only elbow?? A person has 206 bones.. many joints I don’t know the count of.. other organs and muscles.. what about them?

On a serious note.. I am cursed with travelling to Gurgaon from Delhi for the past three and a half years. Taking the Delhi-Jaipur highway, I have seen several accidents. Some as they happen.. other leaving the road bloody. Seen headless corpses. Tick. Seen a man being hit by a truck and die on spot. Tick.

Worst of all I have seen how the buses or travellers drive on the highway. Most of the drivers are none the less experts in navigating the bus through spaces enough for a nano car. This becomes more a reason to be cautious when you dare to drive on the same road.

Well even after everything you believe that your hairstyle is important than some weird safety measure, trust me hair will grow (or wear a wig) as long as you have a skull. Without a skull, it is very difficult to style and flaunt your hair!

A wedding to attend

Some twenty years ago I lived in a small town called ‘Mandi’. It is a quiet and lesser knows towns in the picturesque state of Himachal Pradesh. The city is near to the very famous Kullu - Manali stations and IIT has opened in the district. Other than the above two, there is simply nothing out of the ordinary.

I was here a great while back. The memories I have of this place are all of daily life - visit to the temple, visit to the market, celebrating festivals in the colony, pretending to be detectives in school, eating, celebrating local festivities, and the other memories that my parents have implanted in my mind from the stories heard and re-heard a countless times.

Yet Mandi remains to be one place I feel at home. It is one place that I am always eager to see. Every time that I am here, it feels like I had never left. I don’t know everyone here and I constantly get the facts incorrect. The feeling still doesn’t recede.

Today I am here to witness a wedding. Wedding of our then neighbours’ son. My parents love these people. Apparently they had been wonderful while we were here and I am supposed to have countless memories with them. They have also stayed in touch for the twenty years - sufficient time for anyone to forget the other.

The wedding is a simple affair. These people are rich but this is not the rich wedding that I am used to. This wedding was rich but in some other manner. It was rich in emotions, rich with happiness and rich with people who genuinely were there to spread happiness and bless the couple.

And this is what makes Mandi unique. Everyone here is genuinely happy about the wedding. The bride and the groom (or at least one) knows every person present to witness the matrimony. Instead of investing in decorations or the number of dishes for every function, the family has ensured that no guest remains unattended. They are spending as much time with everyone as possible. People are genuinely welcoming you as you meet and greet them.

There is music. The groom ensures that his to he better half doesn’t feel lost in the swarms of people from his end. He ensures to meet the family from her side. At his home, the groom is busy getting the room decorated for all the girls to get their selfies clicked. The food is simple and delicious than being large number of dishes with the task to find one to eat.

And don’t misunderstand me! Its not like the decorations were not there. Being a small town populated on both banks of Vyasa river, the decorations of the house or of the banquet hall were visible to anyone and everyone in the city. For anyone in the town, it was hard to miss that the wedding was happening. They house shone brighter than the brightest star in the sky. On the day of the wedding, everyone marched to the main market where the procession gathered and people danced. It was like the whole city was there. And don’t even ask about the fireworks! The fireworks were magnificent and continued for so long that everyone in the neighbouring towns must also gave seen them.

It was a wedding anyone would love to have!

Of course there were exceptions! You are to find them everywhere. The exceptions tried to make space for themselves removing the others aside. But unlike what I am used to, they didn’t try to ruin anyone else’s moment or anyhow create problem for the bride or the groom.

It was the first time when I saw the groom’s father stand outside his home for all the days of the function to welcome everyone. It was the first time I saw the groom’s father check all the arrangements done by the caterer since the bride’s family was not local and they had paid for the arrangement. It was the first time I saw the groom’s father go and hug his son and daughter in law when she climbed the stage. It was the first time when I saw the groom’s family scolding the hotel staff for not attending to the bride’s guests. It was the first time the family introduced their other samdhis with a pride not paralleled. It was the first time for a lot of things.

Moreover when I was leaving Mandi, we went to bid farewell to the family, I had tears and it felt like I was the one being bid farewell from my house than the bride.

It was not a wedding but an experience that is going to be treasured forever.

Finding God

No, this is not an article about God. No, this is not a spoof on God. And yes, the title was meant to be read like 'Finding Nemo' or 'Finding Dory'.

Recently through a new game that I have adopted, I involved myself into quite a survey on the NH8 highway connecting Delhi and Gurgaon. The game involved finding any reference to Lord Krishna (image or text) during the one hour journey that i took everyday on the same route from my home to office. Well, I started onto this game with just fun and some faith. I only thought that in a country like ours where God is more feared than prayed to, it shouldn't be hard to find the reference. I had no idea that this vague game would turn to a survey stretching over more than a week and now translating to a blog post.

From most common to rarest in nature -

God is omnipresent or so we are told. Yet, I think people believe that Lord Hanuman is lost somewhere. Most people like to keep idols or plastic mutations of his look-a-like in flying pose in their cars. This is only given competition to by Lord Shiva who is remembered through the writings 'Om', 'Om Namah Shivay', 'Shiv', so on and forth. If we take a whole count of both image and text included, Shiv ji would win. If we take a separate count, Hanuman ji would win the image/statue category. Well, i don't think this should be much of a concern since Hanuman ji is considered to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva himself. Hence, in a way the award goes to the same super being.

Following them closely are people they loved most. In text form, Lord Ram has to be quite significantly seen. Now, I am sure that we don't really understand Ram. I mean, we are taught he was great and a God incarnation and thus, we bow are heads and fold our hands and pray to him. But do we really know him? As a person - how did he become so beloved and maryada-purshottam? Yet, whenever a child goes to school in India and is taught any language, he or she makes sentences using Ram as the person. No other name strikes. Same goes to the people who own cars. Naam toh likhwa liya, par Ram ko na dhoondha... na paaya. 

In the image/statue category, the runners up position is taken by Ganesh ji. Now, every time you go buy a car, if you are a Hindu, the car vendor will himself give you a Ganesh idol to place in the car. This number gets impacted as some people want fancier or different idols and also, Hanuman ji id modelled into a flying miniature which is tied to the rear view mirror and present along with others Gods. Also, Ganesh ji doesn't have any stickers and very rare textual appearance.

Overall, it would be difficult to judge whom to place ahead of the other. So, lets call this a tie.

Third place is occupied by Lord Krishna. I didn't imagine but my game was quite easy once I started playing. Quite a few people adore their cars with multiple representations of Lord Krishna - picture sticker, name, chant, name reference under a bow which has to be a symbol of some religious guru. There are lot many images of his childhood form, his peacock feather or his murali. Even in text form you can find his name in quite a few places.

In my journey, I am also bound to find atleast one car with Lord Durga sticker. A very few cards will have the waheguru symbol and even fewer cars will have the cross hanging from the rear view mirrors.

Apart from these inferences on popularity of Gods and Godesses, there are two other important inferences that i derived from this little experiment.

Firstly, the cars I see daily are almost the same except that the number changes. Like there is a car with 'Kapoor' green coloured sticker on the hind window. I see it often but not daily. Thus, we can safely conclude that almost the same bunch of people are using the road everyday during the same time of the day. Also, this group can thin or thick as they wish. In General, I see more cars without any God reference increase gradually.

Second and the important inference is that most of the cars that have God images or name stickers or statues are with yellow number plates or to put it formally, are the commercial vehicles. Forget buses and trucks but most of these are taxis (thanks to Ola and Uber). Now, as a passenger I would feel concerned if I am to travel with a stranger on the NH and the car has so much God on it that it practically screams - only God can help complete this trip safely.

I am not sure but since I have used God and names of Gods so much, hopefully this post might be pretty successful.

The Mitesh Kanani

He woke up early morning at five, like his usual routine. It was a bright and chirpy morning. The first rays of the Sun were starting to make his window glow bright. This was the time of the day which he enjoyed the most. He was awake, yet not out of bed. After a few moments, he felt his wife get up from the bed and leave the room for the morning chores. He heard his kids wake up. It was the best feeling in the world. Every morning when he heard their voices, it made the days better and life more beautiful.
It was the same routine every day. He closed his eyes and listened to the hymn of his day starting around him.

His wife was shouting. She had the task of getting the kids ready, meanwhile instructing the household help to get the things ready. After that, she too would need to get ready to leave for the job. Seldom, when they fought, she would complain that he never helps her. Secretly, he knows that she is a self-made woman and this was the time when he was giving her space. Secretly, she also knew that he is awake before her and he listens to everything. It is the sort of silent secret between them that they never made.

Today morning was different. He lay on his bed, listening to his kids getting ready. He smelled the eggs and the toast getting ready. He heard his wife come into the room and then take out clothes from the wardrobe to get ready. He finally got out of his bed and made his way to the washroom. On the way, he noticed the time. He was five minutes late than his usual time. After refreshing himself from a sound and carefree sleep, he went to the drawing room. His kids were still in their rooms. He took the newspaper from the study table and carried it onto the breakfast table. His kids joined him minutes later and greeted him affectionately. He hugged them both back. They were ready and all set to leave. As they settled, breakfast was served on the table. His wife too joined them minutes later. She was ready to leave for work, or at least that is what she would say. They had a quick silent breakfast and the kids left for their school soon after that. They both hugged him and greeted him farewell before leaving every day. They did so today as well. Yet, there was something that made him long for more. He kept looking at the direction of the door even when he could not see them anymore.

He was already late. He took a quick bath. When he came out, he expected that his wife would have left already. But she informed him that something went wrong with her car and the driver needed to take it for repair. She was calling a cab. He had one presentation to take and it was not very urgent but he was a kind of man who does not like to be late. His wife knew this. However, out of the unexpected blues, he said that she need not call the cab and that he would drop her to her office. It felt weird when he said it but when his wife was sitting beside him, in his car, it felt the obvious thing. He could not help wonder how he had not done this for so long.

Outside his wife's office, he made a quick call that he was going to be little late. Then, he insisted on walking her to the office building from the parking. His wife was sure that she was with a different man. He loved her, she knew, but never did he show it before like this in the nineteen years of marriage. She did not know what to speak to him and he too kept the silence. When it was time to say goodbye, she turned to him and smiled. He felt as if he was seeing this woman for the first time. It was a miracle of how could she do all the chores, be perfect in her job and yet he was blessed to be with her. He kept looking at her till she disappeared from sight.

It felt like forever that he stood waving to his wife, but he would give away anything to do it again. Finally, he turned to leave. It was not much but he had to cross a road to reach his car in the parking. For the first time in years, he was in some other world. He definitely loved his family but today he was valuing what he had. He kept remembering his children. He thought of how much they had grown and how much he had grown with them. He thought of his wife and all the distance that she had come with him.

He was in his own thoughts and did not even realize that he came to the road. He was almost on the other side when he heard the brakes screech and a car stopped just millimetres away from him. It took him a moment to sink it all in and he fell down when it did. He was not hurt by the car but the shock had shaken him completely. In a matter of seconds, there were swarms of people around him, offering him all sorts of helps. He was still shaken to speak. He just kept nodding his head to refuse.
Slowly, people retreated to their lives. There were still few who insisted on accompanying him to the car. He was perfectly fine when he reached his car. He thanked the people who accompanied him and then opened the door of his car. Just as he was about to enter, he felt someone's hand on his shoulders.

He turned to see that there was an old lady. She looked nearly as old as his mother would have had been if she were alive. Something about the lady, made him stop completely. She was smiling to him and he smiled back.

Lady - “I saw what happened child. I just came to say, God is really kind on you. May God bless you.”

The lady smiled for a moment longer and then left. He stood there astonished. The shock was gone, just like it had come, in a second.

He sat into his car, drove to the place where he needed to give a presentation. He was guided to the podium, in front of hundreds of new associates for the firm. They were bright smiling faces. He smiled back. Every smile reminded him of the smiles he saw on his kids faces. He recalled his wife face when she waved to him. He remembered the old lady and how she had blessed him. That day was indeed different. He had learned a new and very important lesson. It is very important to know your blessings. You might relish them but if you don't know them, you would not be thankful for them.

When everything was ready, he closed his eyes for a second, took a deep breath, thanked God for all the blessings that he had received and those he is yet to receive. When he opened his eyes, every moment seemed like a new blessing. He stepped forward and spoke..

Man - “Hello. Good Morning. My name is Mitesh Kanani, and I am here to welcome all of you to the firm, associates.”

The I-Love-You Conundrum



I LOVE YOU! Often considered to be the three most beautiful words to be ever heard, they are actually misunderstood.
Simply putting it, loving someone doesnt mean that you get married to the person, have kids and spend rest of your life with them. I love chocolates but all the fore said things are not possible with chocolates. Now, you would argue that a chocolate is not a living entity. So, I love dogs, especially puppies. Who can not love those tiny bundles of soft fur, button eyes gleaming with innocence and cute faces. Again, you can argue that I am a human. So, let us get more specific. I love my mother, my father, my siblings, my grandmother, my grandfather, my uncles, my aunts, my friends and the list goes on. I love them and I want them (or specific ones whom I can tolerate) to be around me all the time. I want them to be a part of my laughs and share my sorrows. I want them to see my grow old and stupid and still love me back.

You see, love IS NOT just being around a person all the time. That's almost a punishment, like being in bars all the time (JAIL). Love IS to willingly spend time with someone you can be yourself with and enjoy every moment, be it joy or sorrow. Love is to accept a person as they are. Love is to be yourself and let them be themselves.
Recently, this term has been distorted and modified. It is now almost a synonym to infatuation, affection, obsession or even lust. Consider this, the English are good learned people. I am sure that they didnt create these multiple words just to make their dictionaries thicker or to write the thesaurus or just to mock others. Yes, there are words with very slight difference but the difference is significant enough to distinguish them into two different words.

Now, having said all the above, I am no expert in this subject. Everything I write is what I believe and none of you are obligated to follow this. I just want to say that being a girl, I can fall in love with a guy. I can adore him for the person he is. I can enjoy his talks that the others dont understand. I can care for him like family. I can fight with all the rights over his life. I can want to spend the rest of my life knowing him. I can plan of activities for the two of us for like forty years from today. And yet, this person need not be a lover or a husband. He is can be my father, brother, friend or best friend - depending on how much they are comfortable to share back. If you dont agree, read the above lines again with a different perspective. Since I started with 'I can fall in love with a guy', automatically, the brain gets triggered to picture a couple.

Coming to the title - firstly it is inspired by The Big Bang Theory episode titles. Secondly, you might wonder that the conundrum here is that if I say 'I Love You', which sort of 'I Love You' it is. Do I love him like a brother, a father, a friend or a lover? Actually, wrong! This is very simple. Love is a feeling and if I say 'I Love You', it doesnt make any difference unless it is reciprocated. If I say I-Love-You to my dad and he replies back to his daughter, I love him like a dad. This concept is just like bro-zoned. Let a girl call you a brother but unless you too want to consider her your sister, doesnt really end your chances of hitting on her.
The Conundrum I speak of is the confusion we have with our feelings. Its a simple word and let us stop confusing it with the other ones.
Well, maybe the feeling I spoke of, has a different name altogether and I am the one unenlightened. Well, if you know, do share.

The Sunset

Looking out of the window, I look as the rooftops bath in a deep golden shade of the setting Sun. The rays reflected by the glass on the other windows and on the tiny cars scurrying the road beneath, is making anything else, hard to see. The trees are silent as though absorbing the maximum sunlight before being engulfed by the dark night. Even though I get to see this view frequently, it has still never failed to amaze me. I can't help winder how perfectly and beautifully our world has been architected. How the rays know exactly where to fall and which angle to make at the exact moment, so as to present such a breathtaking view.
Though it leaves me astounded, hungry to to seek more of nature's surreal self, the sunset on a winter's day often unsettles hearts and fills it with longing and despair. Without a portent, just like the many others, I fall victim to the weather. My heart feels dense as my breathing gets slower than usual. Before I know my mind is submerged in my deepest darkest secrets, into depths of guilt and sorrow. The impish sparkle of the eyes gets replaced with thick tears of ache as the mind ruminates on what could have been done differently. Was it the lack of acquitted on my part? Should I have adopted more unctuous ways? Was the efficacy of my thoughts and actions not strong enough to produce benign results? A tap on the shoulder by a friend transports me back to the present. It however, didn't help myself feeling peckish.
With a last look at the now dark sky, I turn away with a sign and settle at my desk. Looking around, I find tenuous resemblance to the world I had just been plunged out of. The physical location might have been known yet it sas devoid of the people, emotions, incidents and virulent experiences. Slowly, my head began to feel clear and my heart light.
I looked again at the window. My own reflection stared back at me from the dark nothing beyond. The darkness brought me to face my true loses.
I didn't feel the pain or the misery that the memories had inflicted. The ignoble liniency on my part to let them inflict the misery is what hit worse. I couldn't blame the darkness to engulf the picturesque sunset. The people in my past didn't inflict any pain today. It was I. I chose the pain over beauty, the past over the present, the thick tears over the impish sparkle and the horrors over the joy.

No. I am no counsellor or anyone similar to tell you to live the moment. Instead, I tell you that when something happens to you, something to cause pain, feel the pain. Accept it out loud that you are wounded. For acceptance is always the first step to solve any problem. However, don't go on living it. Heartaches, sadness, pain and grief will all be there. And when they occur, we must mourn them. However, the only good thing about them is that no loss is big enough to stop life or to stop time. Today, all the events once strong enough to shatter me are just mere fragments of time gone. I have lived through them and emerged as a braver person than I was today.
Yes, we all can't help falling prey at times and be absorbed by them but we must fight this. Reliving the same time over and over again is injustice to ourselves and disrespect to this perfect creation of the Lord that has been crafted for us to relish every moment.

All I want to say through this article is, chuck all the memories that torment you. Live everything as it comes and only when it prevails. Laugh a little louder and smile more often. Each sunset is beautiful or gloomy, depending on how you want to see it. Set a goal at every sunrise to make the day worth your precious time. Thank God and people around you who made your day amazing. Let the things come as they do but let them go as they do as well.

With this thought (and hopefully a smile on your face), until you open any other blogpost, its me, signing off.

The iPhone Conundrum

After a very long time (lie!!) I am traveling by the Delhi metro (well.. After quite long I am traveling at this hour.. Otherwise I traveled on Monday itself and today is just Thursday). What I notice significantly in the train is that almost every girl is holding an iPhone. Mostly it is 6s but quite 5 series as well. Regardless of the size, color, cover or willingness-to-flash the brand, an iPhone, nonetheless.

Just a couple of years back, I sought Apple products to signify two things - riches and even more riches. The first riches is in terms of technology - iPhone is a one of it's kind phone and Apple products have the market still in awe with the maintained standards, security and style. The second and the greater of the riches is definitely the Richie Rich type of riches. And yet, here, everyone (almost everyone) has an iPhone.

I am not pointing fingers as I, myself, am typing this on an iPhone. However, this iPhone is more my dad's than mine in the second sense of riches. I am still battling everyday with Google and the user manual on iBooks for the first kind of riches. It has been more than eight months since my dad brought an iPhone unannounced. Unable to decipher how to insert the sim card, he handed it to me. I had to call a colleague who had recently purchased an iPhone to find out the same. Since then, my status with my iPhone is much like a guy's with his crush - it's complicated.

My primary reason to carry this expensive beauty in my hands is none of the three S factors, I mentioned above. I use iPhone for my love for songs and karaoke. There is this wonderful app Smule, which was recommended to me by a friend. Now I had Smule on my previous android as well but that was only to fulfill my hobby. Smule on iOS offers so much more. It lets you use some modifiers and then record your voice. I fell in love with my voice when I heard it on Smule on iOS and thus in turn, with iPhone on a whole.

Coming back to where we started - everyone has an iPhone. And as far as my observations lead me to, iPhone is much, way much popular in girls than in guys. I believe (as I have also witnessed), this is due to the guys gifting an iPhone to their fiancee. This brings us to the conundrum that I am facing - I have an iPhone 6s plus, already. I am also quite happy with it, as I have mentioned.

So, requesting all the guys and girls, feel free to suggest me what else can I take take as gift from my fiancee as and when he comes ;)

Be the Change!!

"When difficult times come, people change." - This is not something that you might have heard for the first time but it definitely is something that I heard today with a very different meaning.

I was watching the latest Bollywood movie Airlift, starring Akshay Kumar. The movie is about how the Indians escaped the adverse conditions in Kuwait post Iraq's attack. Now, like all Akshay movies, this is definitely a movie worth the watch. Bigger than that, however, the reason why I really saw the movie is because of 'Kuwait'. Kuwait forms a part of my childhood. And not just childhood, Kuwait has given me some really amazing memories that I am fond of. I would watch the movie even if there was nothing else except Kuwait. Though, on the same note, I am highly disappointed. There were very few stills of Kuwait in the movie.

Coming back on the topic; Akshay plays the role of Ranjith, who is successful businessman in Kuwait. He considers himself Kuwaiti until the unfortunate happens. An underage Iraqi soldier killing his driver in the middle of the road was the first wake-up call for Ranjith. Eventually, he not only becomes an Indian, but takes the responsibility of the near 2L Indians who was stuck in the situation.

When he faces some failures, the people around him get upset and bother him further. (To be honest, there is just one character shown - Mr. George, who is really stupid and nagging; though, I can't say much about the character in a public blog like this one... the character spoke Tamil and from the name belonged to Kerala.)

At this point, Ranjith's wife takes charge and says the same sentence. She telling Mr. George that Ranjith could have escaped with just his family and left them all behid. He didnt have to wait for the others, leave the bother part. She tells how people change in difficult times and so did Ranjith. If Ranjith had had been the same old self, he would have set the nagging people straight in a moment.

When she says that sentence, I can't help but think of how limited my thoughts are. If I had heard the sentence in a random situation, I would never interpret that the person changed for the better. Yet, here we see that people do. More importantly, everyone knows that people behave the bravest when they are least expected to.

Another beautiful thing that happened in the movie was - the picturization of the song 'Soch Na Sake'. There is a Kuwaiti women with her new-born baby in the Indian camp. While moving out the camp, people make noise about risking their safety for one lady (only George makes noise!!). Ranjith decides to take the lady all by himself in his car, with his family. He takes the decision and then introduces the lady to his wife. There is a moment there where the two of them look at each other and share a smile.

It is then later portion of the song starts playing -

"Aankhon ki hai yeh khwahishein
Ki chehre se teri na hatein
Neendon mein meri bas tere
Khwabon ne li hai karwatein

Ki teri ore mujhko leke chalein
Ye duniya bhar ke sab raaste
Main tujhko kitna chahta hoon
Ye tu kabhi soch na sake"

 This is a highly romantic song and I would never expect it to be played in a situation like this. Also, the understanding shown between Ranjith and his wife is commendable. In the start, it feels as if the things are not well between the pair but moments like this and many others, define what a real companionship means.

Honestly, truly, Hats Off!!!

Finally, we see where the Tricolor gets hoisted on the Airport in Amman (Jordan) - when all the people finally breath and air of relief. And it is the effort of the several Indian Government officials and the pilots at Air India, Indian Airlines and Indian Army, who make this entire thing possible.

Quite honestly, people keep asking what their country has done for them. But what we don't realize that the country does something for us each and every second.

Akshay and the entire team of the movie - an amazing effort! Thank You!!!

Fairytale Come True

Fairytales don't always mean the princess and the Prince and their happily ever after. So don't expect that in this blog post. Fairytales are about believing. They are about selflessness. To keep others above you. To see the world as a beautiful place and to make the world a beautiful place.

Recently I have had my own miracle... but then you would think that if it is just a miracle, why isn't it in Miracle of the Day like all other miracles? Because the miracle is there in my life for sometime now and it won't just leave.
Before I say something more, let me tell you that I am a very difficult person to be with. There is no easy day with me. Everyday is a new story... a new challenge. Frankly, I have started liking life this way. This is much better than a dull and monotonous day.
So people who stick around... I know I should treasure always!! And I also know that it might be difficult for me but it is worse for them...

So well... here enters the protagonist... on whom this Blog post is based. Let's call him Ram, I like to call him that.

The first time I got to know that such a person existed was when I joined my first project in the company. It took like two weeks for anything to begin. I didn't have a system to work and every one was busy with theirs... And then the girl mentoring me asked me to call Ram as he comes in the noon shift and I could use his system in the mornings. I dialled, Ram didn't answer. Then she asked me to call another new joined to the project. He would usually use Ram's machine in his absence. I called the second guy and he picked up and told me the details.
But working for the first time was confusing... so I kept calling the second guy. After a while, Ram called and I told him the entire story. He sounded very serious and since then, I confess, I have been scared of him. Then I remember being so confused calling one by the name of another.

Well then our office building shifted. My number of days in the team grew. The second guy got his own system. So officially, I were to use Ram's system in his absence. Work was given to me and I became an alarm clock.
Every morning at 9, I would call Ram and speak the usual line "Good Morning Ram. Could you tell me your id." Well the id is something like otp that he would only have.
Initially, I remember, I would tell him the same thing over and over again... story that I don't have a system and I need to do this, so could I use your system...?... now, that I look to it... it was damn funny. Don't know his part of the story though.
Some days he would wait for me to repeat the whole story, greet me back and then give the id. Some days he would just say the id as soon as he picked the call. Most days were in between. Some days he would be awakened by my call. Everyday I would think over how he had responded. That became a part of my routine.

He would come for his noon shift, I would tell him what all I was doing. Usually, what I did was nothing compared to what he would do but yet, he would sit there with all the attention and listen.
Quite a few days he would come with this grim expression. He wouldn't talk to anyone and neither greet. Those were the days that made me run out of the seat at his mere sight.

Slowly, I came to talk to Ram. But thanks to his grim expressions, I was so scared to talk to him that I would hardly speak. I would ask questions by mere nodding, if that was possible.
But he knew everything! I even call him that now that I have started speaking in front of him. Anti(Jon Snow). Well this is a joke he would appreciate better.
So back to the topic that he knew everything. How can someone know everything? Initially, I was even convinced that he is a robot. Usually in that grim expression and knowing everything. It was difficult to believe him to be a mere mortal.
Back to... he knew everything. And the most amazing and at times irritating quality of his is that he would repeat the same thing a thousand times, with the same dedication and willingness and patience. He would help you a million times if you ask for it. Even if he is working, he would find all the time in the world to help you out and complete his work as well.
Okay... more of thisd topic later.

Then my mentor left. She went to onsite. There were all others who could help but no one would help the same way. So I started asking him. And he would help. Slowly, he would tell me other tasks too. He would ask my report. But during all this, I never stopped being scared. I was more scared of him than I was of my TL. But all in all, he is a good man. A wonderful person.
I used to joke that whenever anyone would have a question... people would call out to Ram like people call out to Spiderman.. Spiderman... Spiderman...  And Ram would go there whizzing invisible threads from his hand to help the damsel or dude in need.

Then something changed! We had to give weekend support. There were issues that I didn't understand and people who came with me, would neglect. So I would whatsapp Ram. All professional!

Then something more changed. One day after 12am.. he asked if he can call me...
Of course he can call me.. he is an electronics engineer, I am sure he knows how to call. Sorry, it was a feeble attempt at humour. But well, that was my thought then.
And there is another little thing that changed... he was missing having friends! Somehow I found that out. Sorry can't tell for if he ever read this blog post.. remember, I am scared!!

We started talking.. all rubbish! And he became a friend.
No matter how difficult the situation was... but the most difficult it became, stronger he held on. He wouldn't let me have a bad day. He would stand by all my week moments... maybe professional or personal. 

Sometimes, I really like to look back to how I actually met him and wouldnt believe it myself. Sometimes, I think for the two weeks that I was in the old office, I dont recall seeing him even once. And now, I need to see him once to know how he is or vice versa :P

 

I can't write them all. There are not enough words to tell how important he is for me.
But every time I think of this whole thing... all I can think of is

Updated :

I would dedicate a million songs... but there is just one line that I can think of whenever I think of this person...

"Meri nazar mei jadd gaya...

Rutbe mein wohh aur badh gaya!"

 

 Life is just so unpredictable.. we find the most important things when we are not even looking...

And when I think of him... I don't believe he is real. Someone so nice can't be real. I just know, I am blessed!

And I believe that he is too good to be human... he has to be my Fairy GodMother :)