Wednesday, July 12, 2006

F.R.I.E.N.D.S!!!! Nay friends
Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, Ross Geller… m sure most of us love these characters… the reason being, the friendship they share is exquisite… n moreover all of us want to have friends like them.
We (me and three other friends of mine) have also been a dying heart of fan of this series and had wished to have such friends. But for four long years we didn’t realize what we mean to each other… every time we used to watch an episode, we commented ‘how lucky yaar, we wish even we had such friends!!!’
It was only when one of us fell terribly ill and was hospitalized; we realized what we mean to each other… I cannot forget those sleepless nights… those visits to hospital… those taxi rides… those visits to market for medicines n fruits… cooking for each other… at times even fighting with each other… trying to make each other laugh even when you are most depressed… tears for each other and most of all caring for each other.
And the most memorable part of the whole affair was when one of us said one day ‘today while watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I felt nothing… we are better than them’. This one statement left us all in goose flesh and tears. We spent all four years together, freaked out, had fun, had fights, but its only in the last year we realized that “being good friends is much more than just getting drunk together” and this is reason why we didn’t cry while parting, because we never said adieu… we are in a too strong relationship to part… we are special gems to each other and will always keep each other in a very safe vault called HEART… cheers!!!

"I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth,
I knew not where;
For so swiftly it flew,
the sight Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth,
I knew not where;
For, who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward,
in an oakI found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend."
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

LIFE UPDATED

Get up early… reach training centre at 9:00… start ur daily chores, which are check ur mails… do orkut and chat on msngr… our company provides us with inexhaustible net accses. Sit there till 6:00 p.m. eat, browse net, sleep n then go back to ur respective HOMES.
This is my new life… or this is just the prelude of the new play which started 15 days back. The main characters of this prelude are I, the monotonous trainers, my colleagues and most important the coffee wala who serves the most delicious coffee on earth. I was always affrighted of entering the corporate world and now I know that it’s actually scarrrrrrrrry… at least the training part of it is a real shit.
When our company people came for recruiting us, we were told about the huge and beautiful corporate edifices our company owns. Oh I saw them… they r actually huge… but they don’t have enough space to accommodate the trainees… so, we r ditched in a small training centre, where the ac is killing… but people say it has just begun, you will adjust in a while.
Accommodation in this city is a great problem… you have to pay 10 months advance for a flat. Imagine such a thud in ur pockets before you get ur first salary (which is far less than what we expected)… but then its just the starting… things will get better later…
After searching for long I finally shift in a PG… where the food is real, real shit. But our company has got a nice food court… so after finishing my training(daily chores) I go to the huge building which I know as my company to have dinner. And after that when I try to catch an auto to my PG I don’t get one… so I walk up to my PG… but its ok… its just the starting…
After being so vexed by the training I thought that weekends would be fun… had heard so much about this city… I step out of my PG a Saturday noon and enter a mall… I had never ever seen so much of crowd in any of the malls… Gosh I felt suffocated in a huge air conditioned mall. But then I thought it’s just the prelude… once I get into it everything is gonna b fine and I hope it gets fine… but one thing is for sure this new play is not so much of fun… school and college were far better than this or may be its just the beginning…


Saturday, April 15, 2006

Culling Memories

As I woke up today I realized a month from now I’ll be a graduate. Just a month and my college life will come to an end. I had never thought that I’ll start loving this place as I had loved my school. Today I had the same feelings, I had 4 years back. The fear of leaving the college and the hostel is same as it was 4 years back.
The place has provided me with a huge collage of memories. Memories which will never fade away like our jeans. Memories that conglomerate to brim me up with emotions…
Memories of my bestest pals… Memories of the first day in college… Memories of conflicts with the administration… Memories of putting up at ramprastha… Memories of the punctured bus… Memories of pangas with seniors... Memories of raging juniors… Memories of protecting the dear ones… Memories of fighting with each other over a bar of chocolate... Memories of crushes... Memories of teasing others... Memories of laughing without any reason… Memories of attending classes… Memories of disturbing others in class… Memories of tuck and coffee shops… Memories of the cafeteria... Memories of trips to faculty room for marks… Memories of the hostel terrace… Memories of straying in atrium… Memories of exam times... Memories of gossiping all night… Memories of bunking classes for movies… Memories of breaking rules... Memories of photograph sessions... Memories of playing songs on full volume… Memories of dare sessions... Memories of leg pulling sessions... Memories of preparation for friend’s b’day party... Memories of placement activities... Memories of unsaid words…
Memories of almost every minute spent in this place fill my heart up. Now I crave to stay forever… I really want to. I asked the time to stop. I try to hold it, but the ticking goes on. I took the cells out of my watch, but even this didn’t help. Time’s slipping out. I wish I could hold it. Sun becomes moon and then again moon gets transformed into sun. I wish I had the power to take some leave from time, but time accepts no leave application. It doesn’t even go on a break. It keeps moving and in just a few days it’ll ask us to vacate this beautiful place. In a few days I’ll see the end of another beautiful chapter…

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Thank u so much….

The three kg golden trophy when handed over, fills up recipients with different kinds of emotions. Some of the eyes brim with happiness, while others keep jumping off their feet. Some of them very aesthetically describe the handsome man in the trophy while others remain speechless.
This Oscar night, Resse Witherspoon won the best actor female award. While most of us thought she was simply sobbing on the stage for three minutes, later it was discovered that she thanked 24 people in that sobbing process.
The Oscar academy rules say that you can’t extend your acceptance speech over 45 sec. Image yourself speaking 277 words in 45 sec. This is the average length of the acceptance speech they give.
The longest speech award has been grabbed by Halle berry, this speech was 528 words long. It was kinda global speech, she thanked 23 personalities and all the black women of the world, and god knows how all of them contributed to the trophy!!!! Thank god we have people like George Clooney, who compensate and bring down the average length. Clooney had just simple Thank you to say on stage.
The best part is when they thank all the white and black people on earth but forget to give thanks to the academy itself. Between 1992 and 2006, 57% winners did it and they continue to thank everyone, from their directors to their families, to their drivers, maids and dogs, but forget to thank the academy that gives them the award…. Amazing, Hollywood rocks….
INNOCENCE LOST
Distant eyes, impassive face, timorous words. It seems as if she has aged 50 years in just seven months. This is Radha, a nine-year-old girl. I used to teach her in my vacations, this time she didn’t turn up, so I went to meet her. I remember of her as an extremely jocund kid. She had always been so naughty; her eyes always replete with exuberance and she always had that 32’s smile on her face.
But this time when I met her, it was not easy for me to juxtapose the images of this Radha against the one I used to teach. That one-day took away all the innocence, merriment, and charm from her life. That one-day made all the difference, that one day which started as any other day….
Radha was on her routine chores; she left home to buy milk. Her mother seema didn’t notice radha’s absence for an hour, after which she sent her younger son to look for radha, he came back with the news that radha had left the grocer’s place long back. Seema sulked initially, thinking that she must be playing somewhere. Another hour passed by and radha didn’t turn up, now Shyam (radha’s father) was informed about the whole affair.
Shyam went off in search of the kid… came back after 4 hours… with no news. Police was communicated… After a lot of searching and probing they found her in one of the fields.
All doused in blood she could scarcely breathe… but she was alive. She was gang raped... the sad part is that she was still alive. God knows how did the little body subsist the pain.
Doctors told she had multiple fractures and numerous internal injuries.
She palpitated, hallucinated, screamed and cried; she sensed nothing but fear; she smelled nothing but dirt; she felt nothing but pain. The fanatic hatred of that mayhem thoroughly segued into her. She was back to her senses in 2 weeks. It’s been seven months now. She is still alive. All her innocence has been stolen, her smile has been snatched; she has been thrown into a very dark dungeon. She is living a nightmare. She is alive with that poisoned apple in her throat. And for everyone else the life has retained its normalcy. For grocer, for police, for rapists, for all of us life has moved on. But life has left her at a dead end… this is where I see the Timer with this metaphor of Timelessness.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Wrap up time; End of another play
I had been waiting for this since long, I love changes, I love freedom and so the whole idea of moving out of college had always appeared so adventurous to me. But the final date gives me jitters. Although the college has been pretty monotonous, but now I feel going out of here would make life all the more humdrum. Just three months left, the climax of this play called “college life” is just next-door. I don’t want this play to end; not because I love it, but because its end would lead to the start of another play and this new play is going to be a HORROR SHOW. Till now all my plays were scripted by me, but were directed by my parents; if it went well, the accolades were mine and if it ended in a catastrophe, the directors were to be damned. Now after 3 months, this responsibility will be handed over to me. After this the life is going to offer me with much more I can handle. From now I can’t just bang into someone’s car n call up papa to help me with it. I won’t be able to shout on anyone I feel like, thinking that if something goes wrong, pa will mend it. I can’t just flow money like water feeling that I have two 24 hr ATMs called dad n mom. And above all I won’t be able to blurt my favorite lines “I don’t take orders” or “who are you to tell me that???” to anyone I wish to. In a way, this new grimace of freedom is going to cost me so much on my present freedom that allows me to do anything. From now I’ll have to watch my steps, as my custodians are letting me free on my wish. Jesus!!! Its now that I realize their real worth. Its now that I realize how difficult it becomes detach yourself from that invisible umbilical cord and be solely responsible for your acts. Its now I realize that growing up is not always fun. Its now that I realize that broken knees were better….
BEFORE I CAME TO COLLEGE I WISH I HAD KNOWN...
- that it didn't matter how late I scheduled my first class I'd sleepright through it.
- that I would change so much and barely realize it.
- that you can love a lot of people in a lot of different ways.
- that college kids throw airplanes, too.
- that if you wear polyester everyone will ask you why you're so dressedup.
- that every clock on campus shows a different time.
- that if you were smart in highschool - so what?
- that I would go to a party the night before a final.
- that you can know everything and fail a test.
- that you can know nothing and ace a test.
- that I could get used to almost anything I found out about my roomie.
- that home is a great place to visit.
- that most of my education would be obtained outside my classes.
- that friendship is more than getting drunk together.
- that I would be one of those people my parents warned me about.
- that free food served at 10:00 is gone by 9:50.
- that Sunday is a figment of the world's imagination.
- that psychology is really biology, biology is really chemistry,chemistry is really physics, and physics is really math.
- that it is a really good idea to go places alone.
- that it's possible to be alone even when you're surrounded by friends.
- that friends are what makes this place worthwhile!
- don't be dismayed at goodbyes.
- a farewell is necessary before we can meet again, and meeting again,after moments or a lifetime, is certain for those who are friends.
VANITY
I was a kid when I first met her, in a very massive crowd she was the most simply dressed one, yet so flamboyant. She was wearing a very beautiful, effortless smile which people termed as smirk. Her plain, simple attire was termed as showy by most of them. Her gait was smoother than that of a cat. Her phlegmatic and charming face captured all the attention and sneers. I was completed befuddled as to why people despised her. To me she appeared to be an archetype of perfection.Dad introduced me to her; I asked her to be my friend. She held my little hands and without letting that calm smile vanish explained to me that being her friend would cost me on my social life. Although by now I had complete idea of what people think of her, but I was thoroughly enticed by her charm and succumbed to her iconoclasm; I wanted her to be my janitor; I wanted to be like her. Without giving a second thought I started venturing out with her.As I grew, I kept learning from her a lot. She taught me how to keep my pride without being irreverent towards others. She helped me to be free from all those shackles that were abstaining from success. She helped me learn autonomy. She made me love myself.Till now I was walking with her by my side, and then came a diversion. The decision was to be taken between the two paths; she explained both of them to me, one of them was the one taken by most of them; this was the path which had a predefined destination; the path where your speed is in control, so this path had no risks involved with it. The other path was the less traveled one, where you will be the only one to help yourself, where you will have to explore things, where you decide the pace; this path has not defined its distances but the milestones have the names of the most successful inscribed on them. She asked me to take the decision, I took the second path, from that day she doesn't walk beside me, but she resides in my soul… Vanity my best pal.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

See the Incredible Shrinking Planet

It's not every day you get to see a shrinking planet. Today could be the day.
Step outside this evening at sunset and look west toward the glow of the setting sun. As the sky fades to black, a bright planet will emerge. It's Mercury, first planet from the sun, also known as the "Incredible Shrinking Planet."
"This is only the second time in my life I've seen Mercury," says sky watcher Jeffrey Beall who snapped this picture looking west from his balcony in Denver, Colorado:


Mercury is the bright "star" just above the mountain ridge, rivaling the city lights.
Mercury is elusive because it spends most of its time hidden by the glare of the sun. This week is different. From now until about March 1st, Mercury moves out of the glare and into plain view. It's not that Mercury is genuinely farther from the sun. It just looks that way because of the Earth-sun-Mercury geometry in late February.

Friday, Feb. 24th, is the best day to look; that's the date of greatest elongation or separation from the sun. Other dates of note are Feb 28th and March 1st when the crescent moon glides by Mercury—very pretty.


Saturday, February 25, 2006

B-E-A-utiful
















Meet her, my best friend and the most beautiful and profound creation of god. She’s Annie, the most pampered member of family. I wish I could swap life with her just for a day and enjoy life the way she does. No past, no future, this creature lives only the present. No college, no hostel, no workouts, no assignments, no job, no mba, all she’s got to do is love everyone and in turn everyone loves her. I envy her art of expression. She can express her love, happiness, sadness, and anger so aesthetically.
I envy her for so many things, I envy her for being near to my parents all the time; I envy her for having food from mom’s hands twice a day; I envy her for being the master of her life; I envy her for being looked after by each and everyone; most of all I envy her for sleeping so cozily for so long. But, no matter how much I envy her, she makes me love her.
You can never feel alone or low if she’s around, she can make you smile at any hour of the day. She’s has a heart made of gossamer, but it has too much of space. She’s all honeyed up. She spreads some positive vibes around, she probably has an invisible halo around her.
She never gets bored and if you are with her, she won’t let you get bored. She can play with you, she can laugh with you, she can even cry with you, you can talk to her for long, she has all ears to your monologues. She is the best secret keeper; she has all my secrets intact with her.
I miss her most back in hostel, because one thing she’s not capable of doing is talking on phone. When I start packing up for hostel she becomes really upset, but she has so many loved ones around her to cheer her up. But I keep missing her until we meet again.
She has become one of the most precious members of family. People say, she is getting old now; they say dogs have short life. I wish I could meet god and ask him for some drink that can help us to keep her with us life long…. Can’t afford to not have her in my life.