Looking Back

Here I'm now,

Looking back at life..

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when I didn't know the difference between

good or evil; truth or lie,

without a care in the world,

smiling at everyone, whoever passed by..

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I played with sand, made my castle,

and cried when somebody broke it,

and someone was there to console me,

always motivating me to build the castle again..

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Here I'm now,

Looking back at life..

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when a small candy was the biggest gift,

and a toy was like a best thing..

and the fights with friends lasted for five minutes,

what is ego? I didn't know..

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When ambitions in life changed every second,

from doctor, to astronaut and engineer.

and When I didn't need a reason to laugh,

One smile solved every problem.

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Today things are the same, but i've changed,

I don't laugh without a reason,

Nor do i have multiple ambitions,

I no more make castles, nor long for candies.

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But I still have the power,

The power to love unconditionally,

and live the life that of a kid,

and I've the power to rebuild my castle,

the sand is the same, the motivation is still there..

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Here I'm,

Looking forward to my life...

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Dreams

Sometimes I glide down the hills..

Sometimes I balance on the plane wings..

Sometimes I am at heights…

Sometimes walking alone in the dark nights..

Sometimes they make you oversleep..

While Sometimes they run you out of sleep..

Maybe gloomy, maybe enigmatic they are!

Some fresh, some repetition they are!

Dreams! Dreams! Dreams!

What do they tell us ?

Is there a message for us ?

Or just a fantasy to hook us !

A game of our brain, Or the fear of our mind ?

Oh this quest! My mind undergoes the grill..

Without looking for , I think, I should just enjoy the thrill!

Darkness before the Light

It's been ages.. ages.. since I have written anything. Life has been so overwhelming that all my senses just shutdown for sometime. The last one month has been one THE best i've had.. The months before that were the darkest and the gloomiest. It resonates the feeling of darkness before the light. I was not committed to anything but one thing that always gets my full attention and kept me going are books. All those days of being lost in the imaginary world that the books engulfed the reader. Threading through an unknown land, running across the world to solve a mystery, the feelings of a lover. Totally lost to the world. A passion which i thought was dampened was given a spark again and to those books i owe my sanity.

Then suddenly a month ago i was given another chance. A new life, a new place and new people and i'm absolutely loving it. I'm a different person now, probably a better person. I had always decided to let go but kept a plan B, a life-raft, something to cling on and maybe that was my problem. This time as I had nothing to lose and everything to gain and I just let go. And what an experience. ITS JUST AMAZING. I feel so light inside. Nothing affects me these days and i think i've found my smile back. No more falsettos, no more fake smiles and definitely no more a brooding frame of mind. My calm is permanent. Love, joy and peace are my new keywords. I have realised the meaning of grace and am basking in it. :)

All i can say is that the year 2010 was not that good to me. But I'm still here. :) A bit wiser, a bit stronger and lot more happier :)
(this post was written on 2010 2010)

Congrats Espana

The curtains finally came down on the biggest sports carnival in the Rainbow Nation. Spain claimed leaving the Oranje heartbroken, who had surprised everyone(not me though) by reaching the finals. The world cup lived up to its billing but not the big stars. But in their place rose few others who stood up on the occasion and delivered and the world unearthed a new group of talented youngsters. Congrats Spain.

But...
Oranje Forever :)

Waiting for the time India would make its FIFA World Cup bow..

Believe

The road beckons, calls you to play.
The sun shines with all its might.
Says you can be free right away,
How long will you hide in the night.

Keep your head up, forget the rain,
The cloud cover will be gone soon.
In the end, there would be a lot to gain,
And you would be over the moon.

The Pages Turn..

You never know how the pages turn,
You wonder how goes,
All the things that we hold dear,
Don't stay on for years

The pain comes and goes
Numbness fills the gaps
All in all its heaven sent
Just a dream lived on

The tears that flow out
stop when a smile arrives
Nothing stays the same forever
Nothing stays defined.

This is how the pages turn
in the book of life
Everything goes round and round
this is how time flies...

The Infy Chapter

A dream dashed.. Expectations crumbled.. Future in question.. and a lot more negatives.. End of the Chapter in Infosys..

For those who don't know yet I'm not a part of the great Infy family anymore. And for the most part of my stay there there was something inside which always asked "Do i actually belong here?". But in order to prove myself wrong i did try hard and for most part i was succeeding(if exams were taken out of the equation). But then disaster struck and i was asked to pack my stuff and move out. The dream ends.. End of Chapter..

There were quiet a few things i would miss from my days in Infy. Listed below in no particular order-

• The Campus - I challenge anyone to find a better campus anywhere.
• New friends - i have this habit of making friends everywhere i go and infy was no expecption. Some of them were so awesome that they understood me better than i did.. not naming anyone for the fear of missing out on some.. Thank you ppl.. u really made worthwhile for me..
• My own college friends - Can be said that Infy was one place where i understood my college friends better
• The badminton court - even with a broken ligament i played 12 games on an avg each day. It reignited the interest of badminton with me after 6 years. I hadn't played after my 10th.
  
• The gym - Used to wake up early every morning to visit this place. and i did lose quiet an amount of weight and put on some muscle.
• The routine - even though i didn't like the routine much it would be something i would remember.
  
• Gazebo - late night hangouts, birthday parties, gossip and what not.. This was the perfect place for almost everything in infy.. :)
• Foodcourts - Midnight parties and the place where all the fun is.
• GEC - the list is never complete without the mention of GEC.. that is where u study.. but mostly its where u do everything.. study, sleep, chat, do assignments, play pranks, chatting on email while the class is in progress..
• My room.. my tidily arranged room which u can say would be picture perfect in a 3 star hotel.. with a lcd tv and a comfortable bed.. :(
• Did i miss out anything?? if i did i'll add it when my memory pops it up :)
  

But as my friend said "the world outside is bigger than this 337 acres". and i had to agree with him. The campus being so big it was like a city out of a city. You get everything there that u gradually forget that the world outside the campus still exists. But all that is past now..

Now looking forward for a new challenge.. and that is in the form of TCS.. and guess i'll Experience Certainty..

Rip open the Package..

This is a speech that Chetan Bhagat gave @ Symbiosis

Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first.Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble . Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love.

We are people, not programmed devices.....
"Don't be serious, be sincere."

I would say that i couldn't have put it better(How so, after all he is the writer). This i guess puts my thoughts that i have been trying to convey to everyone, but could not put it in words as good as the ones above.

Now that i have found those words maybe i'll just add a few more of my own. Try to enjoy life while you can, at least while you are in college, and leave no place for regrets. Dont try to be someone else, just be yourself. Being unpopular is not a bad thing, but dont envy others at their popularity. When in doubt ask yourself what you really want. We have all the answers within us, its just that we never explore it. Its as the saying goes " Everyone is gifted, the only problem is that some people never open their package". So rip open that package, break the shackles and let yourself free. The world is at your disposal, make the best out of it. and Spread the cheer :)

ADIOS...

Tapestry of life

The threads seek each other out,
choosing from a multitude of colours and sizes.
Drawing each one to itself,
firmly weaving them into its own tapestry,
cutting loose where the pattern ends.
Working year after year,
making mistakes,
tearing out threads,
repairing the fabric and moving on.

This is the tapestry of life, the great pictures whose end cannot be seen. Many threads, many lives, many colours of different shapes and sizes go into making our one thread strong and our picture beautiful. Even in it's tragedy, even in sorrow, the picture is always beautiful. And in the end it will come to rest in the great halls of the dead along with so many others who have gone before. Each life tells a different tale, many are similar, no two alike, like a fingerprint we leave behind the story of our lives , quickly forgotten, lost in the dusty archives of the annals of time.

Riding out into the Sunset

Life has never been easy. No one said it would ever be. But it all depends on how the individuals take it and what they make of it. We could either go down the hard way or the soft up, up or down. To quote Oscar Wilde "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." But to be able to look at the stars you need to have that dream, the rich mind-set & the right approach.

Well talking about my life, it has been so kind to me till date, well there have been those prickly thorns on the way, but then we all need some sort of a balance. The time i have spent in my college, ie the 4 and half years in TIST have taught me a lot of thing, more than the rest of my 20 sometime life has taught me. Apart from the routine stuff, I learnt a lot about relationships; with friends, with roommates, with friendly classmates, with not-so-friendly classmates, with seniors, with juniors, with faculties, with greatest buddies, with the administration, with the small time workers in college. All have in some or the other way given me a lot of food for thought and bits of wisdom from their own experiences.

The moments are really memorable and i maybe able to carry a vivid collage of memories with me wherever i go. Some of the positions i have held have taught me a lot about responsibility and man management. And i found ppl with good potential and those who could be leaders in their own respect. Some moments are really worth remembering for the rest of my life & some are such nightmarish that its stupidity will keep haunting me in the days to come. ;) But hey they left me a bit more wiser than i ought to be, so no regrets. :)

But life as it is, is supposed to move pretty fast & so it will. I better refuel my veins with the same adrenaline that I used to have & get back to the usual mode as soon as possible. Life is not going to appreciate me taking my own sweet time to get a bit of the rest while i can and recharge my batteries. But life is tough. So why not face it bravely & get re-energized. It’s time to move on finally and end my 4 and a half year tenure in TIST, as a student, a teacher, a helping hand, an adventurist, a so called motivator, a PJ master and what not. But life moves on and guess my time in my alma matter is finally up and its my time for me to ride out into the sunset :)

Want to end this post with a quote...
“Part of being a winner, is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that's more productive.” - Donald Trump

3 Idiots - All izz well

If you haven't seen the movie pls dont read this post.. This post might contain spoilers.

3 idiots is a story that will possible be related to each and every one of us engineers but still is very different from that. The story is loosely based on Chetan Bhagat's Five point someone, but with a lot of chances in the plot and all that. The familiar Hari, Alok and Ryan and replaced by the new Rancho(Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad), Raju(Rastogi) and Farhan(Qureshi). The IIT-Delhi is replaced my the Impreial College of Engineering run by the hard nosed Professor Viru Sahastrabudhhe(Virus).

The movie in engineering terms can be said as a sine wave with happiness and seriousness alternating up and down. Like the peppy Aal Izz Well song drawing towards a tragic climax it's so cleverly done that it has the desired effect. There are scenes that'll make you laugh, they'll make you cry and they'll make you think. Most films have their own set of 'highlight' scenes. 3 Idiots is different because every scene is special and brings with it something that's out of the ordinary. But there are a few that have a far lasting impact the entire ragging sequence; Chatur's hilarious speech(i died laughing), the 1950's discription of Raju's family; Joy's I quit scene(after the all izz well song); Maddy persuading his family to let him take up wildlife photography and Sharman's interview; the sequences that lead to Raju's recovery in the hospital and last but not the least the scene of using a crudely made engineering tool used for pregnancy.

The film had everyhting and more and it was an instant classic. Overall, ‘3 Idiots’ is one film which will surely leave you with a smile. There will be a few glances at your watch if you have a problem sitting at one place for too long. But other than that, in all probabilities, you might have started saying ‘Aal izz well’ to yourself!

As for Raju Hirani - first it was Jaado ki Jappi(Munna Bhai MBBS), then Gandhigiri(Lage Raho MunnaBhai) and now "All izz Well". You sure know how to spark a new idea.. Lage raho raju ji :)

To the makers (pants down) : Jahanpana... Tussi great ho... tofa kubul karo..

Hidden well admist all the laughter and emotions is the message to all Youngsters : Follow your heart. Dont run after success, let success follow you. :)