order in chaos

couple of days back i had to go to lower parel. even though others trust my driving skills, i trust my impatience more. so i dont venture there. i always preferred travelling by bus rather than train, yes the chaos of western and central line train always remember to send a shudder down my spine and yet so many millions of bombayites travel in time, day after day, and it does not matter how many new commuters join in this chaos, yet there is place for all. the trains mostly make it on time.

well that day i while coming home took an ST (state transport) bus, she is always known as the older, uncool country cousin of the more urban BEST, though she is still more faster, but in todays world, looks matter too much so she stands a dismal third in bombay.

you know how the tickets look out here, tickets with different denominations printed and conductor has to punch in the boarding and the destination place which is coded in numbers. but this time i saw a ST conductor having a machine similar to the credit card amount punching machine.

i told the conductor that this time you guys have left BEST far behind with this new baby. he at first just smiled
later he came back to me with lots of pride and said, yes we are progressing, and started explaining to me how he had found it initially difficult to learn this new machine as he is 50 year old and had worked already on the old machine for 27 years, but then he believes in being modern helps life.

i guess that is what i admire most about we indians. we learn very fast and even though many are resistant to change, once they see how beneficial it is. we really pick things up fast.

on my way i also say a 60 + man driving a rustic lamby scooter with a tire rubber tied around the body to ensure the scooter from crumbling apart. where else will you see such enterprising people who never believe in giving up and are passionate.....


yes this country is full of chaos, yes each state is radially different from its neighbor, yes there are very few SOPs followed and yet we are rising and shining... so there must be an order somewhere which is allowing all this to happen...

its just that others need more time to figure us out !!

Paa paa dont preach !

saw the movie last week. one more movie which proved ab is a legend !! and the srks and aks (amir in dis case) have light years to catch up wit movies and those seen on big screen move me faster to tears.. this one dint do that .. of course it did make my throat go parched and my heart move a bit too fast but nothing more than that..

long back i had seen a movie named "anjali" where a little  girl with a heart warming smile, chubby body and most gorgeous curls which would give even dimple kapadia   a complex; made even the guys watching the movie, cry even though she did not have any dialogues..

mass media as we all know is most influential and if movies make non usage of condom sound cool, polygamy as hep, glorifying murderers and goons, making being evil the new "it" thing , drinking and rash driving as macho, smoking a cigar uber cool.

we really are giving wrong signals out to the younger generation.

its not about moral policing but it is about using the power in hand with responsibility and keeping the hidden agendas as hidden !

lastest gossip which is making the media go crazy is of tiger woods. read his press release. it seemed heart felt and i really liked the way he asked forgiveness from his fans. maybe its an pr thing but at the same time he is not endorsing being a polygamist as cool.

i wish movie makers got more conscious of their social responsibility and of course it is for mullah the world goes round but when they get a taste of the bitter fruits they planted, maybe money wont be able to act as life line to them !

Tiger gives a (mouse) flash

Since I am back in the business of  being boring let me use this opportunity to say something to justify my credibility.

Well I was driving to work in the morning and like I said earlier I fear all vehicles.. no exception.. no favorites.. so this driver in honda city all of a sudden got out of his lane and entered mine without signaling. We could have rammed !! I obviously got  mad because I am superstitious about a good start and it was an important day work wise for me. Luckily for me the signal went red. I walked up to him and gave him a piece of my mind with lot of love. Seeing that he is an south indian uncle ( read as 40 + , fat and goon looking) I expected him to add on words to my vocabulary but something really hilarious happened. He in a real squeaky voice said “Sorry”. Of course it did burst my bubble to spoil up for a fight so I just said the typical monologue that proceeds sorry “ what do you mean by sorry ?” and huffed and puffed back to my car. But later I just could not stop laughing at this incident. Sure the tiger did give a mouse flash.

Pointing fingers to others .. 3 pointing to You !!

Well as an after thought I have put these lines which I so conveniently had forgotten to mention

I was commenting honestly again on my brother's drawings when he started painting after years of break. More so I gave honest hard hitting comments as I saw his friends were flattering him for reasons unknown to me but definitely not because of his drawing skills. So I did not want bro to get carried away by those comments. I missed out one little point here, my bro is generally too level headed and knows his worth. When we were kids, the exam for which I would brag home I would score full marks, I would not fare well and for the ones I thought I would do bad, I did well .. Each time.. Every time without exceptions. On the other hand my bro could almost predict with only 5 % variation his marks for every paper and he too was right ..  Each time.. Every time without exceptions.

Some times in relation we just forget to give space to the other person, trust the other person's judgment, respect the other persons feeling. All in our zeal to protect the other person from harm, not realizing maximum harm is done by our this attitude. After burning my fingers I did learn my lesson, hope I dont have to revise this lesson soon and follow what I believe in.

broi n me :D

Criticism.. constructs ?? !!

Not been blogging for long. Not only that I have not even been visiting my blog site for about 20 days now. Thats something because I am my only loyal reader. So dear blog am sorry.

I just realized the reason I have not been blogging. Nothing really interesting is happening in my life, not that this is something new, my life is as mundane as it can be but earlier I would atleast find something humorous or annoying or silly to share. Then one day my bro told me that he thinks my blog post have become very boring and monotonous.

I decided, I will take his constructive criticism in the right spirit, I for days stared into blank word documents, jabbing words and deleting words with equal ferocity. Thought it was time to write that big bang novel I claim I will always write. I did that for days together every night before sleeping and then that pursuit lost its charm as  nothing magical happened. Then started the even more boring one way sparring with god for making me so little talented which quickly lost its charm as god did not respond with acid dipped one liners to spice up the war !! so I got back to my blog, will pen in words that come in my heart and continue my lone journey towards creative writing with my goal clear in my heart, my soul still ready to give company to my heart and my mind being pulled along as else it would wonder lonely.

beautiful people all around

been away for long.. had a few things to pen down bout .. but needed stimulation, which interpreted means, the familiar jab of my 8 year old desktop, dexter nudging me for being friendly with the desktop instead of playing with him, my bros regular gags on me dreaming of becoming a writer someday like all my other silly fantasies which meet their timely or untimely but certain death, ma keeping me updated with information which is useless for me and does not even mean much to her but sharing it is important and baba wanting to be updated on whats happening generally... ya i did miss my stimulations :)

----
was travelling by train a couple of weeks back.there was a blind man and an eunuch begging .. i gave money to both. while taking the money the eunuch bumped into the blind man. the blind man went ballistic. he asked the eunuch to stay away as he was impure.

the eunuch was beautiful. he told him every calmly that it is not good to be rude to people and all were made by the same god.

----

i always am in real foul mood when am in delhi as i always experience either crass or rude behavior from majority of the people generally , if not direct.. indirect would be definite.. i was just coming back home and went to the washroom of the airport. there i saw an middle aged lady really worried, the janitor asked her what her problem was. she said she wanted an indian style washroom.

the janitor was beautiful too. she told her that with time the lady too should become modern n learn new things. she showed her how to use the wc. the women felt lot more relaxed when both of us encouraged her to try it instead of bursting her bladder and she was a much relieved women.. funny thing is she started thanking us once she was out..

----
there are so many beautiful people who may not even enter our lives but leave impressions.. like the roses we preserve inside the folds of paper of our books, the fragrance always stays there.. even if the flower withers off.....


this is one of my bros painting i liked.. its bout beautiful love ....

paradox called life !

today i had called up a printer for some urgent work and she told me she was busy in the hospital, the word hospital always makes me go a bit cold, bringing back not so old memories of iccu.. and i shuddered and asked if i could help .. well she informed me that its the brother of a laborer who is in last stage of tb..she thinks poverty leaves very little choices... and i was sad listening to her for a bit .. but as i got busy wit work i forgot all about it

in the evening a friend called up to tell me his father aint feeling too good and he does not much trust the docs coz they are after money..

well life is full of paradox ...

money is strength and money is weakness too..

so how do we survive ??

my dear friend anita always says, its all in the hands of destiny .. so why worry .. whatever has to happen will happen ..

well leaving things to destiny makes me feel real weak.. not in control.. and that makes me uncomfortable..
but then worrying about future too wont help and neither will i be able to know what destiny holds for me unless i go out and find out what it does not hold for me . .

so here i am .. doing what i want to.. loving all i have .. longing for more.. looking out .. and going all out at life !! :)

orange and apple !

well like i said i was off on a shoot, on the last day of shoot, which was a studio shoot, i requested the make up artist to also do the smoky eye he had done to the female model. he very kindly obliged. the female model was looking ravishing in all the make up and dresses she was wearing but she looked especially ravishing with the smoky eye make up.. i too became vain and wanted to look good.. so i got the same done.. i thought i would look like a show stopper with that smoky eye.....

well you must have guessed my story.............

i did look like a show stopper.........
....................but  from some freak show
 :)

not only that next day morning i suffered from under eye infection because i have a very sensitive skin...

i just could not stop laughing at myself...

after knowing the futility of vanity i still ventured on that road and expected some miracle to happen !!

thanks god for once again reminding me oranges and apples cant be the same ...

both are great but cant be compared !! .. lol ya i know i am still being vain ... ;)

Copycat !!

its a honor when people copy what others do, as they say coping is the best form of flattery. but some times it gets pretty annoying when people improvise on what someone has originally worked on and never give due regards or acknowledge the originator of the idea!

of course it is cool to improvise and come up with some thing different from the original but when due credits are not given.. it shouts of character or lack of it !

well hope those who are not gifted enough to come up with original thoughts, work hard and learn to improvise and those good at improvising learn to come up with originals..

ya hope is all we have .. and until then happy copying to you, well i do not support you but can only feel a bit for you. And miracles do happen !

branded forever !

my brother and me share a real special bond i guess like most brothers and sisters do but yet we love to believe we have that extra bit unlike the rest.

well very vain i know but hey we cant be perfect always :)

this bhai dujh, in bengali we call it bhai phota .. which is the most important festival for us bro sis in bengalis, we do celebrate rakhi but thats an adapted thing .. by tradition bhai phota is the mother..

anyways this bhai phota nothing really special happened .. we celebrated it with adapted grandeur .. earlier ma would make a 2 course grande bengali meal ie main course and awesome deserts, this year since both of us (bro and me) need to loose weight we told ma not to bother !

later in the evening when i realized we did not do all the traditional things we usually do, i felt a bit sad, and started thinking about our relation.

has it changed over the years ? yes it has

is it good that it has changed ? yes

why is it good that it has changed ? we give each other more space and i guess we trust each other more

but did we not promise that we would never change ? yes we did and to keep that promise we never changed our fighting pattern, i still complain to ma and baba when we fight and he still whacks me when i do that !

how does change matter ? well it does matter if this change makes us happy its good else time for a change again !!

am i happy ? the heck i am ... cant imagine a more crazy, pain in the ass bro am so impossibly in love with .. and the family too .. however nutty, they rock my little world !

smiling to myself and on seeing my brother frowning at me, i gave him a friendly whack which he reciprocated with vengeance .. i realized yes we did have our own traditional bhai phota after all :)

the phota.. that is the tikka





the arti.. wading off the evil



thats me bhai n ma ... kodak moment

smell my soul .....

i just got back from a photo shoot. we had non indian models, a male and female.

their attitude just made me realize that how we physically appear is just a clothing to our soul and the attitude we carry is the perfume of our soul. so even if we wear fantastic clothes, but the odor we give out is stale, no one will be attracted to us. of course if the dress and the perfume are awesome .. we get to do the double tango !!

clothes will change.. but the perfume remains imprinted in the mind for ever !

i am sometimes amazed that most of the western countries beam in the glory of being progressive with modern man made gadgets, with superior standards of hygiene, with lots more oomph but i fail to understand how come then their modern thoughts do not include equality to all, how come the hygiene is restricted to washrooms and not to their soul, how come oomph is so brittle that it does not charm all ?

of course it is not the mass but a few who are like that, and it is sad as the foul smell of negative attitude leaves more of an impression on us than the faint but beautiful smell of positive attitude !

so all is in our hand.. to remain remain surrounded by stale odor or go find our jasmine flowers :)

not to mention it is easier said than done but it is done because we wanted to do.. and not because it is difficult...

so faint smell of jasmine i will find you and make you mine :)

diwali da festival of happiness

i was coming back home on friday on diwali eve .. was surprised when the security guard at the hyderabad airport wished me happy diwali.. that one smile and wish made me feel special and happy.. we landed on time at bombay.. again added to my smile... the road had less traffic .. smile broadened.. and i saw an ac bus going my home.. well those who are not familiar.. earlier there were no ac bus services available between bombay and new bombay but now the state transport has made this new initiative.. seeing that bus i left the cab and took the bus.. the seats flush and the ac keeping me cool away from the dust and humidity further broadened my smile..i met an old uncle in there who again was a complete stranger and we got talking a bit.. my smile broadened .. while getting off the bus he too wished me...

ya diwali does bring in a feel good factor.. a spirit of festivity .. while walking down to my home from the bus stop i saw a little girl and her mother walking down the street, the little girl seemed so happy i patted her head and she turned around to show me her new bata chappal her mom got her this diwali and i smiled and gave her a chocolate i had bought.. and wished her happy diwali...

with joy in my heart and smile on my lips i moved forward to my home sweet home.. there i see dexter and broi on their evening walk.. and i could not be more happy ...

thank god this year the noise crackers were less so dexter too did not freak out as much

diwali truly brings in the good spirit out and warmth in our heart...

city through my eyes

i have been away from home lately a lot due to work.

every time when the plane lands at bombay airport my heart is filled with the same joy of being home like the first time when i was back after a trip !

its the same city .. same family .. same bed .. same food .. same pollution .. same chaos .. same gloom.. same everything but yet it all seems so novel since i dint see it for a few days !

does this mean.. we take those things for granted which we should ideally be valuing ? Or do we miss our familiar surrounding as it makes us feel more secure.. more in control ? .. Or is it that when we are away we want all the old things just because we are use to being without it.. its got into our system so hard that it is part of our anatomy.. changing it is like cutting a part of us ??

but its funny when on my way back home from airport, the traffic jams seem like reckless children standing in a haphazard queue.. pollution seems like dragon flames .. color changed.. but never the less has fairy like quality.. the humidity like spirit of anticipation .. and family like the best thing that happened to me and home is like heaven on earth !!

life is like dat only part 2

i am in iim kolkata for a short course, in the evenings i and my colleague go every evening for a snack cum dinner at a campus canteen, its about 5 mins walk, the campus is beautiful with huge trees and landscaped gardens and ponds, so admire the scene everyday during our walks

the 1st day we noticed that many students are carrying umbrellas, we dint pay much attention to this fact, only casually wondered why, since there were no drizzles and in kolkatta by 5:30 pm it becomes quite dark, we just walked a few steps under the trees and my friend got lucky, bird shit fell on his hands and after that we were dodging the bird shit like bullets fired by enemy line and we are hapless, weapon less soldiers ducking them !!

this has become our ritual and fun game every evening and gives us scope for our little jog and now we know why the smart students of iim do not jog but carry umbrella as bullet proofs :)

another use of our good old umbrella, protection from bird shit !!

beautiful banyan tree in the campus

frog house

living a nightmare !!

i and my buddy were discussing about women drivers a couple of days back and he narrated an incident to me saying how men and women drivers are different.

Once his lady co worker was driving on highway at 100+ speed and all of a sudden she sees a dead dog on the highway and fumbles with the steering wheel loosing control, so drivers behind had a tough time to avoid an accident.

when i heard that i really rolled inward thinking how horrendous the scene would be and totally empathizing with the lady.

today the same thing happened to me !! luckily the speed was not much and i further slowed from a distance but could not believe that something i heard and dreaded just happened to me.

of course guys hooted at me and found another crazy lady driver tale to narrate to friends but i am still livid thinking of the gory scene !

i guess i was better prepared to handle the situation because i had heard of it earlier, but at the same time, the goose bumps she and i shared would have been the same !!

good the day has come to an end and good that tomorrow is another day !!

Baba now I will get the toy watch for you !

With durga puja around the corner, all bengali households are abuzz with lot of activities, its the Diwali for we bengalis! Some are busy with spring cleaning.. some with last minute shopping.. some deciding with friends the agenda for this puja and yet others doing a bit of all above mentioned..

my house is a buzz with puja shopping, we girls (ma and me) had completed our shopping long back as we are very organized individuals :P.. but baba and baban as usual relied on me to ensure I literally pull my bro out of the house and to the mall to ensure the needful is done.

Two days back I went with baban to get his and baba's shopping done.Since we got exhausted doing baban's shopping I din get any of baba's done and came home with goodies for baban alone.

Baba was sitting on the couch waiting for his goodie bag and when all the bags only unwrapped clothes for baban his face fell like that of a sulking baby's. And that is when I realized he was really looking forward to his new clothes just liked a child and was heart broken when he dint find them. Of course he quickly masked the feeling and went to bed but I started feeling real bad.

Just then an incident from my childhood flashed back in my mind, once I wanted a specific toy wrist watch and realized I would not be able to live long without it after I came home, usually my baba would never give into my tantrums as a kid but that day since i was very sick and crying for the watch was making my health deteriorate, so baba went back and bought the watch from the market far from home, late at night.

The whole morning at work I was feeling restless as I felt I did let down baba in a albeit very small way, and baba would never blame me for it which I as a kid would if did he not get me the watch that night.

Our parents go through so much willingly and selflessly to ensure that we lead a comfortable hassle free life. And as they grow old, still they alone go on giving so much more. But now is the role reversal time.

Today it is my responsibility that I ensure that he gets all that he needs and wants just like as a child he did this and more for me. Of course we can never measure any where close to what our parents have done and are still doing for us but in our own small way we all try to show we understand and respect all they have done.

Baba now I will get the toy watch for you. I ensured I completed his shopping before he came home the next day and he was so thrilled to see the goody bags awaiting him and his joy made my day and relieved my soul.

Fire in the mountain, run run run !!

At work our only constant companion is the need to be churn something different something unique all the time. Being unique today is truck load more difficult that what it was even half a decade ago ! The probability that what I think is a novel thought would have been used maybe minutes back by someone and my big idea would just remain a good idea already used.

When my friends in brand management talk over the phone as meeting is more rare than solar eclipse we always allocate time to discuss this problem! And yet have not come up with solution !

Thinking out of the box is easy to talk about than follow and some methodologies available makes life much more simpler but innovating all the time does take a toll on our mental health. Out performing each time, every time is no longer an option to most of us, its become a way of life. You do have option, either you are in the race or you are out. So actually speaking thinking you have an option is a mirage that some how makes you feel powerful and in control.

I started thinking why are we getting competitive at neurotic pace, why are needs so high and satisfaction levels so low ? Why does our hunger for variety never cease and stability only means stagnancy ? Why is polygamy in and monogamy boring ? Why is danger sexy and right seem so stupid ?

Well this is what I think is the cause of our plight today. Today we have 1000 things which we do not really need and have gone ahead and labeled them as necessity. We want to satisfy others, we are more tuned to strangers and yet we turn deaf ear to the call from with in. Further more we today look around us for strength, for inspiration, for thoughts, for ideas and have forgotten to look inside us. We have forgotten US .. the unique person that each one is, with a set of goods, bads, madness, thoughts, values, preferences etc. Maybe if we spend more time with ourselves, making it a conscious choice we will be able to understand the most basic human relation, the one we share with our own selves, once we reach a stage when this relationship with self turns harmonious, we will be able to transfer this uniqueness from us as a being to our job, to our way of handling problems, to evolve as better people both on and off job.

An acquaintance would always comment saying “you marketing professionals are this” and “you marketing professionals are that”. I always told him “my profession does not define my individuality.” and now to add to it, lets add individuality to our profession only if we understand ourselves better and then bring this understanding to our work. Uniqueness will follow !

small is big

yesterday when i and dexter were off on our evening walk i noticed that a housing society had put barbed wire railing at the lower end of the gate, to keep away stray cats / dogs from entering their compound.

Dexter was going near the gate and i ensured he dint get himself hurt, just then i thought what about the poor creature who would not have someone to guide him, would definitely get hurt!

Furthermore the objective here is to keep away stray animals, that can be easily achieved by using a thickly knitted mesh stuck to the gate which would keep away the stray without hurting it.

Humans who are supposed to be the most evolved of all animals mostly acts in a manner inversely proportional to his intellect ! Or is it inflicting pain to others without a reason is one of the carnal sins that gives us some sadistic pleasure.

Some would feel that the nail incident is too minor to warrant this reaction but some times small things speak lot more that huge incidents!

trick in treat

i am the one who is responsible for dexter's daily dose of medicine.

the moment he hears the word medicine in any language (read as english and bengali) he runs to his haven ie below the dining table and we use this trick word when he is being too naughty so that he stays put for sometime.

i have discovered a novel way of ensuring he gets his daily dose of vitamins and supplements.. i now hide it in his breakfast and feed it to him literally so he never realizes he is taking his pills regularly past two weeks in disguise of his yummy food and i am now minus the heart burns of running around pleading to him sometimes.. sometimes yelling at him to eat his medicines.

So guys try this trick or treat with your pet.. its a god send boon and you can thank me in kind for this amazing trick with is a treat !! rambling... he he he


whoever said you cant have your cake and eat it too !

trip to moon ..

Have you noticed you are a pro when it comes to solving problems of others or pro when it comes to solving your either professional or personal problem and totally clueless while solving the other one !

Well this happens with me often and one day it really got me thinking why does this really happen ?

I discovered that when the problem is what I am facing, I would look at it with all baggages attached.. depending upon the situation the baggage could be either emotional, operational, background, attitudinal (din rake my brain for a few more) or may be a mix of these baggages and so the problem takes the size of a huge bully and we run for a corner to hide in or mourn or bail in time to think of a way to out smart the problem.

But someone else comes around asks you why you so upset and you open flood gates to your anguish, and the guy just walks casually smacks the bully and there boom the bully ie problem just disappears !! just like an angel.

That I think is mainly because the angel looked at the problem from heaven, as it is, minus the baggages and hence could come up with a solution. So he / she could give a solution so easily where we are lost.

So things in life are so simple that we fail to notice them maybe because we are use to such complex situations or we complicate things as we know no other way of doing things.

Maybe thats why many distress book talk about “take a break.. go for a walk .. smell the flowers ..”

So now I try solving my problems by first going to moon I.e. looking at the problem for what it actually is minus my baggages and then solution finding becomes easy and not only that I also manage to find alternate solutions.

So next time you have a problem... just hop and move to moon.. solution will be there once your back from your trip :)




found this interesting quote by Albert Einstein which very much says it all

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

thanks nishant !

ever since I have started blogging, I have always erged people dear to me to read them. Of course some had to comply because of the under hand techniques I used, some are tough nuts whom I yet have not cracked (to be read as family members !!) but I was really touched by my friend Nishant's gesture.

Well he I guess is the only person I know read all my blog posts till date as he had promised me he would do so. Thanks a lot buddy.

We may not talk to each other everyday, we may not always share our worries, we may not agree on most things yet we would be there in times of need.

Guess thats what human relations are all about. Connecting without connections !

look out for the jasmine

today i and dexter were off on our evening walk,two middle aged house wives were walking behind us, seeing dexter relieve himself they started expressing loudly how much they hated pets as they dirtied the surroundings.

Well I was pretty miffed at their attitude, not because they said they did not like my precious Dexter but because they were using a very uncool tactic of expressing their distaste or distress if it amounts to that.

I thought to myself, these would be the same people who would throw waste outside their house to keep their interiors clean (I am taking the liberty to assume this :)) but come on its a fact.. many do that.. then i thought atleast waste Dexter throws is bio degradable. Just that moment i thought i had a brilliant case here and would love to hear them respond to it..

But Dexter all of a sudden started running and i gave up all thoughts of confronting the ladies (honestly speaking i would not if i had a chance!) but at that time i mentally told those ladies that they can thank their lucky stars and dexter even more now ;)

All of a sudden Dexter ran towards a bush of jasmine flowers and then pow ...the smell of it totally changed my state of mind.. Itl was so heavenly i felt i was in a different world and at peace.Me and Dexter just stood there soaking in the heady fragrance..

Then i thought to myself, in life we will get triggers and balms which diffuse situations, i guess its up to us whom to welcome in our lives to make it more beautiful. Simple decisions like holding on to the balm and letting go of the trigger points would bring about quantum changes in our lives and yet we get so perplexed with the little rough waves that we miss out the bigger picture and fail to see the obvious path ahead.

With this enlightenment off we went Dexter and me hopping .. running... walking... staring and leaking (the last two applies to dexter alone :)...

jack of all trade .. master of ONE

a friend of mine forwarded me a piece of "Gyan" as he calls it ..

edited version is as follows

an eagle, rabbit and fish go to a school. each had to excel in 2/3 courses taken, 3 courses were flying, running and swimming. Obviously each could excel in only one and got demotivated.

moral of the story: focus only in what you excel

well in today's scenario we need master one skill for sure but we also need to have a working knowledge of many other things. Its just not that competition is getting tougher but also we as humans are evolving, kids are smarter than their parents, so really cannot stick to old analogies any longer and i feel analogies just restrict your flight, who knows what is the limit for each individual ? Definitions always tend to restrict the wonderer, boundaries tend to curb the possibilities, we need to always stretch the horizon, be thirsty for more and look beyond the obvious.

More people are creating a niche for themselves and that is because they know where their skill lies and second they have ensured they create a demand for the same !

so today according to me the mantra for success is by all means be jack of all trade as it will get you places only after you have mastered ONE..

learning to unlearn !

today i had gone to a Bengali singing competition, where i had to announce the names.. i pride myself that my Bengali pronunciation is not tampered but the moment i started trying to speak 100 % Bengali, it was difficult and that is when i realized i gotta improve. My Bengali vocabulary was rather limited and fluency was restricted.

When i was analyzing my flaws i was amazed to hear non Bengali kids with fantastic Bengali pronunciation singing Bengali Nazrul Geeti. The ease with which they were singing a whole 3 minute song really was commendable. I have always ensured that my spoken English does not have any Bengali swing to it and now here when i had to speak out names written in English with Bengali pronunciation i was lost !

So here started my voyage to unlearn the English was of pronouncing Bengali words when speaking in Bengali. All of a sudden my sweetest language in the world Bangla became a tongue twister. But i guess i will survive through this predicament and do some more comparing in Bengali.

Friendship – the titanic

Friendship is a relation which is always a subset of some other relation. For example if a parent and off spring relationship has to be successful, they need to be good friends. Like wise take up any relation and it requires the steady foundation of friendship, be it a couple, mentor- pupil, boss- subordinate, two colleagues, siblings and the list is every increasing.

Well I find it mind boggling. Friendship in one hand can be the foundation and the cement to any relationship and yet it alone very vulnerable.
Many a times this gigantic ship just sinks. People change, circumstances change and our approach to them change.

So is friendship without a relationship a vulnerable ship ?
Today when we look with jaundiced eye at any relationship and say every single one of them has lost its charm, does friendship stand a chance ?

According to me, there is too much randomness in the world since time immemorial and if you average them out, then things are on a larger canvas the same.

Earlier there were war, now just add nuclear to it, earlier we had romances, just add multiple to it, earlier there was bigotry, thank god that remains the same, earlier there was hunger for power, now just add super power, earlier there was cholera, now we have aids, I could add in more egs, but I believe in brevity !

So I guess friendship too as a relationship has not changed much, now too we form alliances to meet our mutual objective and once the goal is reached, we break away if that was the only thing binding us. But during the phase of friendship, if we develop another relationship then alone does it lasts.

Have you noticed how work colleagues when they are in the same organization are great buddies but once, either of them change work place, the friendship takes a back seat, that happens with your school or college friends too.

So if a friend has to last it has to be a foundation of a new relationship or bound by a mutual need or complementary need.

dexter my rescue ranger again !

During the 5 days of Ganapati puja, my entire family is vegetarian, including me and dexter. These are the most difficult days for dexter as he believes in non veg protein diet only. So we really have to cajole him to eat the paneers, kheers made with sugar free and the doggie treats but the sweetheart that he is, he would go through his plight with dignity. In case you are wondering who dexter is, he is my almost 5 year old Labrador.

So once we came back after the immersion of our lord, we were sad seeing our little temple still full of lights and beautiful orchids empty. But then dexter as usual came to our rescue.

The moment he smelled the egg ma made for him as we could not buy chicken at night, Dexter started dancing. He finished his dinner in a nanosecond and was hankering for more. When he had his heart's full of the eggs he started clowning around as though he had won mr universe crown. Doing his parades, showing off his victory as once again he ruled our lives as the non veg god ! And we all forgot our sadness and started narrating our favorite dexter story !

I guess he is one of the most wise and endearing personalities I have encountered in my life. Long back I had read this article on stories about pets uncanny nature of knowing the problems of the family which then sounded bizarre. At that time I was totally terrified of dogs as I could not get over the fright poor stray dog had given me. But today I know that poor guy was more terrified than I was.

Today I stand testimony to the fact that pets really make your world rock, either ways, make us sick with worry and apprehension when they are unwell and bring happiness with their antics and give our life a new meaning. Their total helplessness and complete faith in us makes me really go all sentimental as I know this kind of complete trust we humans as babies show only have it for our mother.

my baby's got a secret !!

Some days sure are bummers. I woke up to the chantings of some kirtan on tv which sounded more like hooting and there starts the perfect day with a migraine. So was in real foul mood. (generally my not-so-serious foul mood is a killer !) To add to my woes a kid bumped my humble spark with his grand ennova and had the cheek to abuse me in actions and I of course returned the complement in words. in this one manship i could not note his car's registration number!

The whole way to the office went in first giving myself mental kicks and then calming my nerves and then I realized as usual in a signature after sight manner that this is exactly what secrets is all about ! One negative event leading to another! So I had to stop the moment the migraine started to cool myself and be more positive.

But today I have decided I definitely wont let this happen again. The concerned party who love to listen to loud chantings have received due notice for their acts and warnings of the predicaments that awaits them in case of repetition of the cause of my concern. Second no more driving on crowded roads being preoccupied and further work on my driving skills and reflexes so that I do not get effected by the morons behind the wheels and anticipate better than react.

I really believe in the philosophy behind the secret which states that we attract every good or bad thing that happens in our lives. Each thought in our mind sends out a signal to the universe attracting similar thoughts. Today was a text book example of this fact.

I practice it in a real simple manner and I have even showed it to some of my friends. Some found it useful and others told me to take a hike. But here is it for whoever is interested.


First be conscious about what you are thinking, if its a negative thought. Replace it with a positive one.

Eg if you are worried about ur increments.. let this be the dominant thought in your mind: “I will get a good increment”


Believe that what you think is possible and make a visual collage of the positive outcomes of your thoughts.

Eg: pin up the sexy jaguar's pic on your desk that you want to buy from the increment money


Start living what you believe in

eg: check out where you would like to park your jaguar once you buy it, who would you ask to wash it and with which detergent.


It all might sound funny initially and if it sounds funny then you should try it more as for the sake of humoring yourself and slowly you will see this working out.. try using it as a game initially : think of a friend you have not met in a while and tell yourself, you will receive a phone call or mail from that friend and bring this thought in fore front whenever you are conscious that you want to follow the secrets.. wolla.. it sure will happen and then try the game with another thought!

for more information refer to book: the secrets by rhonda bryne and the dvd too is available at most of the m world stores or any dvd store worth its mettle. I suggest you see the dvd first and then read the book. Helps grasping and referring things lots easier.




the link to the site is http://www.thesecret.tv/

Peace .. my butterfly white

the moment I think of this word, a white lotus smiling brightly in a green pond is what comes first to my mind. On the surface there is tranquility but to attain that a lot of ripples have lived and died.

You too must have heard these lines..

"i have no peace", "there is no peace", "where is peace?", "its so peaceful that I am scared it will go.", "oh she / he rests so peacefully ", "she / he looks so peaceful."

and lot many lines where peace is the hero!

What is peace ? Is it the absence of worries and troubles ? Is it remaining in current state and finding tranquility there in isolation or finding a harmonious co existence ? Is it a feeling of power or is it the absence of it ?

To me peace is an illusion. It mostly consists of a laundry list of goals we have set for ourselves in particular and for the world at large. Once the listed articles are ticked we feel we would have attained peace and we are about to jubilate, then all of a sudden here goes the ever illusive butterfly on another branch and we are set off on a new search of peace. Life is full of paradox and peace definitely fits the bill to the t. One goes through rain and hell water to find it and yet the moment you achieve it, you realize it is a mirage.

I enjoy my chase to find peace, as it is full of motion, some motions set me ahead, some of them set me back to where I started, further some more make me loose track of what I first was thinking was the trail in my search of peace was and allows me discover a whole new world and with it a new road map to peace. Or maybe I find peace in my chase to find it. Who knows ? And is what I love about life, hindsight does not get you anywhere, foresight does not come so easy, being in the moment makes you feel powerful as you really have nothing to loose if you live for the moment and then there is hope to find peace some day.

By the way who ever attains peace dies. So better get that shoe from reebok as its on sale and run in your chase for peace and take good time to find it !!








once when I was in a queue to get my toll pass for using the vashi bridge, I encountered mr cool dude, he was enjoying the breeze and the scenic beauty of the vashi creek. Really found his in peace so captured him on my mobile and next is the view he and I both found enchanting.






Funny I never notice this when I drive over this bridge twice daily !! so much for the chase eh !

blue blood journalism

i have almost stopped reading daily newspaper as they are more full of masala so i really have to strain my eyes to scan through the real happenings and further tax my brain to interpret the effect on human lives from that news.

so i stick to business newspapers and journals but scan the paper for interesting advertisements and promotions.

but i still enjoy my sundays dose of desi masala as it is the day for nonsense so why not start the morning perfect with my sunday news supplement.

today i was pleasantly surprised by an article on mumbai mirror which spoke about media personalities without sensationalizing the whole thing and bringing out the so called "real picture". of course not all fingers are alike but this one is a must read for those who have fantasies about celebrity lives.


i wish Indian media get out of the crutches of bureaucrats and start spilling out the real picture in true sense and did follow up on any news piece as a news is incomplete untill it yields the desired result to the community. Since we love to ape the west why dont we now ape them and got their hands dirty with substantial muck!

its da time to disco

i was attending a two day workshop on medical copy writing. my job demands that i ace on that one and this was fortunately or unfortunately the first formal training i received in medical copy writing.

but i just love workshops where in there are case presentation. it really encourages "out of the box" thinking and lets out the "creative juices". but something more important it does is makes us challenge each others thought processes, discover the strengths we did not know existed in our team mates and in ourselves and ensure we gain maximum as a group.

that is what is most required in today's corporate set up. output needs to be better than the best and everything needs to be ready tomorrow. in such a high stress scenario group dynamics needs to be encouraged to ensure we surpass our goals.

each time i attend such workshops i am amazed by the power of group dynamics. of course you need a good leader or facilitator to identify the strengths and ensure that the best of each team member is brought out.

another reason why i love group presentations is it reminds me of my mba days. the discussions.. the debates.. fundas marooing in typical bumbaiya language ( throwing fundas at each other), the gyan session..the jabs.. the kick backs.. boy i miss all that and here you are back to college.. :)






today is our ganapati visarjan and i am gonna miss my god... every day the family would get together and friends would come in .. hmm all good things have to come to an end ... sigh... but then dat makes all bad things also come to an end...

for the last time this year .. deva o deva ganapati deva tumse bhadkar kaun... deva tum se badhkar kaun .....

deva o deva ganapati deva

we welcome lord ganesha to our home every year. this time we got a red idol. yesterday i and ma had gone to do the puja grocery shopping, there i had seen this lil boi who stole my heart away and today when i went to bring the lord home i was surprised to c the idol looked so much like dat baby... the saying that god resides in little children could not be more true !!

so welcome home to ganesh puja for the next 5 days, its aartis, modaks, lights, hindi gana : deva o deva ganapati deva tumse badkar kaun and lot more sweet hogging.....

bombay meri jaan !!

I had gone a couple of weeks back to wasabi for an official lunch. This was my first time after the terror attack. I was too busy with work to give it a thought earlier in terms of this place was where it all had happened not many months ago.

But the moment I reached there, there was a part of me which was anxious and another which just wanted to go away from there as all the images on the tv started flashing back in my mind and when we went to the restaurant for lunch though its now located else where, I was not at ease. Of course to the world I was enjoying good company, interesting conversation and fine cuisine, inward I could not feel more restless wanting time to fast forward to the out of the hotel part.

Amidst all these silly pandemonium of thoughts running riot I noticed the captain, he was taking such good care of us as though nothing really had happened here after realizing this I started looking around at the other employees there and I was really amazed. Of course its been long so they would have got over the initial nerves but still the memories would not be that far,they have lived through the terror, they bared the brunt of it and yet they were there the moment it opened back. And here I am acting like a coward getting all panicky and silly.

The thought really humbled me and on my way out I silently saluted the spirit of taj and bombay.

love knows no age

today at the airport i saw something so touching and was so refreshing as i was so depressed seeing the scare of swine flu amongst all.. of course we all need to take precaution.. but anyways so heres what happened..

there was this elderly couple using the escalator. since the old man had an hand baggage he could not assist his wife and she fell on the escalator and was too frightened to get up, luckily i was using the stairs and seeing her fall i went on to bottom of the escalator to help her get up but she refused to as she was too scared so i had to brutally pull her.. well for one moment all of us seeing this scene were really freaked out

anyways she was safe but the way the old couple hugged each other after the escapade was soooooooo heart warming.. am sure they would have not even held hands in public (well am guessing from the conservative dress code they followed) and just then when they thought either one was hurt the spurt of emotions was very endearing...

i was so touched by their display of emotions.. i too came home and hugged everyone... baba hates it when i do it .. but what the heck ... life is too short to not show love for ur dear ones...

pleasant surprise

life is the best bundle of contradictions !! u can feel totally devastated one moment and next moment experience ecstasy.

i and my buddy were looking out for a decent dig to have dinner in Hyderabad and we were unsuccessful in finding any. asking locals we landed up in a food court of a mall which really had no real food so the hunt for another joint started, i some how remembered the name of another mall, but in hyderabad finding a rick to go places without being totally rigged seems impossible so i thought of asking someone about it.. there i see this very pretty lady and go out asking her for directions.. to my surprise she said she knew where it is and would drop us.

i thought i either heard her wrong or mis interpreted what she said !!.. but she repeated her offer and i was so pleasantly surprised and both me and my buddy could not believe our lucky stars... she was very kind and dropped us off at our destination and the food that we had really din matter as we were so content with the goodness of this lady who helped us out unconditional without even knowing us

who ever said the world is a bad place.. incidents like these make life worth looking forward to

days of our lives !!

today my alarm clock turned out to be a night mare buzzing way ahead of time.. i saw this absolutely illogical and freaky dream at 4 am and have been awake ever since so you can imagine my mood today and the events that proceeded this were in climaxing order of annoyance and out of turn that it wins the award for worst day so far this year..

now that am back home and have the luxury of retrospecting i realized i knew i should not have let things affect me and more i let them affect me.. more i alone get affected.. ya am rambling.. c how affected i am !!

basically its a vicious cycle and whats annoying and hilarious am enlightened about this fact and yet i let situations and people effect me !!

when things are not in our control, letting go seems so difficult when actually there is nothing to let go as it was not under your control anyways. its just a mirage, we love to believe that we can rule situations. We can only make best use of situations to ensure what we want is met. changing situations is just a myth. you use them to ensure that the end is in sync with your needs.

further more we would blame ourselves / our ancestors / god /cat / aliens .. just about anybody when the end is not the end we wanted !!

but then since nothing is really under our control and if whatever has to happen will happen then what is our role in this gamut of things ?
finding out what is our role is our eternal strive that keeps us kicking and alive, we in ways unknown to us right away fit perfectly in the big sphere of living, do our bit ... even if it is doing nothing and then wither away to unknown existence we call death to make things structured and logical for us

we love order, moment we do not know something, we transform the unknown to known form not trying to verify its existence but remain smug with the feeling we have typecasted it out..

yes this is how are the days of our lives.. living,,, feeling.. hurting.. healing.. fooling... getting fooled.. happy.. miserable.. disillusioned ..deluded...

but how we live does not matter as long as we bring in happiness to ourselves and others depended on us !!

my prince charming

whenever we see the hutch oh now vodafone advt of the pug, ma complains, dexter never learned to do anything and look at that pug earning his stay. but of course that was on a lighter side..

well many of my friends too have said the same to me of course not on lighter sight that dexter is an absolute no gooder. on hind side it was always the guy friends who said that.. but if i look at the species male they are mostly no gooders!! and dexter is following the rule if i go by their perception of dexter !!
(ha ha... ya call me fcp... but deep down u no am right !!)

anyway dexter may not help us with our daily chores like the pug but he is our bundle of joy, unconditional love and laughter.. with him all of us in the family become a kid.. he brings back the smile we had lost some place.. he makes us believe that we are indispensable for him & that we rock his world..

he wont hide his feelings and will be there to welcome us after a any kind of day..

well for this if i spoil him silly am i being wrong ??

yesterday i and dexy were on our evening walk.. on the road there were berry with thorns and i started clearing the path by removing them so that my Prince can walk safe..

he does mean the world to us.. gooder or no gooder aint matters !! as its only a perception..

who am I to judge

i was in the ladies second class compartment in the morning one day.. if you know bombay local trains .. u would know when i say it was jam packed even by harbour line standards.. anyways i was standing near the exit door as i could not manage to go in ..

a 30 something lady standing beside me started to cry, i found it weird but did not bother to ask her the reason.. my defense i was minding my business..

some other lady was kind enough to ask her why was she crying ... the protagonist replied she wanted to get down at the next station but could not due to the crowd and had an operation done which was hurting...

i that time too had no empathy for her as i thought she was faking the whole thing so that we made way for her...


later i thought.. who gave me the right to judge her !! especially when i get so miffed when others do that to me !!!

i felt embarrassed and started arguing with my conscience with real silly excuses.. but inside i knew i was wrong and resolved to not make this mistake again !

take a right then left, then again left... at the cross section ask some one for further direction !!

all our lives we look for direction.. as kids .. for the candy bar store .. as adolescence for the way to the heart of our crush.. as young professional.. quickest way to successful carrier .. as parents... way to make children's life more richer.. as sr citizen direction to get spiritually more evolved

and what if you do not look for directions ? then you are out of the race.. you are alone ..

why do we have to always fit into stereotype ? why is there no stereotype for people who are different ? why if you do not understand me .. it automatically makes me a mad person ? why do we follow directions given by others to find happiness for ourselves? why do we think we have all the coordinates mapped out and fit any body in the matrix?

when i get too bobbled thinking am i doing the right direction in life .. gabbar (anita my dear buddy) always tells me .. why do u worry .. v cannot fight destiny so whatever has to happen .. will happen.. so why worry..

ya baby why worry... if i dont find my direction.. destiny will...

i am VIP for myself !!

yesterday I was pleasantly surprised by the lady guard at a mall I visited. Usually they are cut and dried kinds, on the verge of being rude and this one was smiling. I was really touched by the warm smile and I told her that she is the first guard I met who smiled at me. Her reaction was something that surprised me. She at first did not get what I said so I repeated myself and then her smile broadened and she said to me,”you are the only one who noticed my smile today.”

I guess we get so busy with our hectic lives that if it were not a pre requisite to breathe to be alive we would even forget to do that !! (My bro always tells me when I am driving on a very crowded lane “didi breadth breadth!!” no kidding !!)

Why do we have to be so brusque to downright rude to strangers ? Of course with terrorist activities on a all time high we hold reservations in befriending a stranger but what about being good old polite to people ? Why is that so difficult ? A smile while interacting with people cant kill any one !!

Then I realized that forget others, we dont even treat ourselves well !! we love to criticize ourselves, forget to praise ourselves when we do something good, actually we might just go ahead and think its fluke that we did something good!! We never have time for ourselves, to reflect, to just be with ourselves and not think at all (now am going crazy u would say !!). But come on you know what am saying is true !

All this madness in our lives is to lead a better life.. to ensure that our beloved ones are taken care of. Dont we fall in our beloved ones for ourselves? Once I had overheard a mom telling her daughter, “ we are VIPs for ourselves”. How true!! And it also holds true for how we treat others.

I was planning to go to Dharamshala to be away from this mad mad world and give a shot at meditation for internal peace and check out if I have any spiritual craving and do I have any connection with my inner self. But now I think will a few days of change really change my attitude towards myself ? I guess not.

So now I am trying to feel good about my self on this gloomy rainy day but writing this post and patting my back and smiling at receiving a pat. Ya I have lost it !! laugh on !!

she watches wwf for a reason !!

I and ma love to go window shopping once a while together. Its fun to see ma's expression when she hears the cost of coffee at a snooty cafe or a real revealing dress at a store and I always make best use of such situations reminding her how lucky she is as she does not have to loose her sleep over her daughter wearing stuff she does not approve of.

At home I have this dubious distinction of being the one with shortest of temper and ready to mess people up bad if they mess with me. Trust me my folks have a penchant for overdoing their praises when I am the subject.

Yesterday ma and I went shopping and we had a good time.. retail therapy again worked its charm. As I picked my bag from the baggage counter, I saw a diamond earring that took my fancy and off I ran after it asking ma to pick my umbrella from the b counter. The security lady for some reason refused to give ma my umbrella, my ma tried explaining her but the lady cut her out seeing I guess she is the docile types. My ma went”wait till my daughter comes” and of course I came and ensured that I got my umbrella back.

Ma was like “i knew you would set her straight” and we busted off laughing. Some times you have to assertive (wont use the word bully my ma was using) to ensure work gets done. You know right its a bad bad world out there and if you are meek and docile they take you for a ride royally. When ma narrated home what happened there to tease me further, baba goes” of course she sees wwf with a reason.”

well laugh you guys all you want but the bottom line is that is one of the fastest way to get work done when you are right.

couch potato at work !!

off late I have been hooked to tv on week day evenings, earlier I would scorn at people who would do the same and label them dim wits but off late I lead their gang.
But I realized something real funny. I and ma now watch the same soaps, all mushy collage lub story ones and now find a lot of time to catch up on each other during the breaks, I do my routine free hand work outs as it no longer is boring due to ma's company and the soaps happening.

Now baba too joins for sarabhai vs sarabhai and bro whenever is home gives company which is rare due to his evening schedule. Our dexy always snoozes during these soaps and at stipulated intervals pines for attention which is taken care of by me and then dexter after being assured he still rocks our world go back to his smug trance.

Bro and I always had deep discussions over wwe raw, smackdown and main events so he is not much missed during the daily tv jig.

So who ever said being a couch potato was dump or dim or whatever expression you have for lack of grey cells, it is the coolest thing to be. It has medicinal, emotional and now even physical benefits. Medicinal: you get your daily dose of non sense to laugh at, emotional: great time to bond with family, physical: club it with your exercise schedule so you dont need to put in extra hours and dont need to do it alone!!
so happy couching you dim couch potato :)

rain drops keep falling on my head

it happened a few days back but I was unable to pen it down earlier.
As I had mentioned earlier, am new to driving and this was my first rains. I had heard many legends about driving in the rains from my buddies who are pros and would mentally hug myself assuring myself that I too shall survive. But when it happened I was least prepared.

At home the first thing I hear when I wake up is sai baba bhajans on tv, thanks to baba, so we dont bother checking latest news before leaving for work. I thought it was just drizzling and that would not really require me to do a mental revision of things my buddies had asked me to do during such times.

But the moment I reached the main road, the thin drizzles botoxed into swollen rain balloons, initially I started humming to myself,”rain drops keep falling on my head” but soon realized the clear sky had transformed into my grandfather's old black coat and visibility was very low.(according to my personal unit of measure, it was 40 %) And I was shit scared at first, mentally kicking myself for not checking on weather and then not taking bombay rains seriously. I just wanted to run into my ma's arm for comfort.

Good sense prevailed I prayed to sai baba and looked out to see what others are doing. Every body was driving at not more than 20km/hr. I saw my speedometer, ha ha I was at 15, good. Then I saw all had put on their blinkers on, I quickly did the same.Whippers I had turned-on, on my own (smart me !!). I realized all of a sudden everybody on the road were driving on the same pace, no overtaking, no honking, no sneering. It felt like a choreographed drive, each dancing at the same pace, each turn orchestrated in synchronization. I felt that the bombay highway had got transformed into a ballet stage and all we guys driving were like dancing to an unknown tune in total co-ordination and sync.

Once the ordeal was over and I reached work safe, I started thinking about the unknown tune, guess the unknown tune was that of survival, each one of us knew that one wrong move and many lives would be at stake here. The urge to be alive bound us all together in harmony and I guess the fear of the unknown as later I learned the first rains are most dangerous as the mud on the road makes it more slippery and hence more accident prone. Wonder why this kind of prudence is not shown during normal days, our accident rates could do with a hit.

I once again learned that experience alone is the best teacher and how much every you are prepared for the test, the answers will always elude you. But once its over, you are a changed person. After that day I no longer freak thinking of rain but of course I am extremely cautious though. When ma tells me drive carefully in the rain, I smile to my self and say a little prayer.


pictures taken from my mobile of bombay rains

lub is blind and painful

Dexter hates it when am off on tours and if my bro’s study trip coincide with mine then we are in for double whammy .. dexter stops talking and eating.

During my twice a day calls back home during these trips, I would take a status check on dexter and ma would go he is mad and sleeping. Day before ma said he had no dinner and refused to go for his walks . so we had hit rock bottom !!

I came home yesterday evening with a real bad back injury so dexter after his welcome dance number wanted to go out on a walk with me. I could not do the honors because of my back problem and he refused to go out and eat.

Today at six I wake up all guilty for not taking him for his walk as all night he slept on my bed moving restless, I knew he wanted to pee. I woke up baba and requested him to take dexy out but dexter being the stubborn refused to go out with anyone but me. I inspite of severe back ache had to go grudgingly with him and there was snuggles waiting out for us.. so off went out brigade of dexter, me, baba and snuggles on a real early morning walk. I still full of sleep looking a scare crow in my night tee and hair which seemed like had a hell raising battle.

During my walk when dexter was doing his silly dances I could laugh through my pain just seeing him happy and then I realized how pain and joy together can be an out come of love; no wonder they say life aint easy!!

Snuggles is back at it.. again he just suavely greases in the moment he sees our door open and does his merry dances in all our rooms and then runs to ma for his daily quota of milk and bread.

Today too he came home and woke ma up by going to her room and boy was she surprised. But what dexter did kind of made me again wonder is this love… when ma gave snuggles his milk , dexter purposely tripped it..

Baba is the second in line to pamper and spoil dexter after me whacked him,, god and did he deserve it. In spite of all the love, attention and goodies he gets he gets jealous of snuggles.

Love is such a complex thing.. it brings out the best and worst in us and yet we cant survive without it..it can make us secure and happy at one time and totally insecure and unsure of our selves the very next more. it rocks our world and our gets our life rocked out coz of it. we are loved because of who we are or inspite of who we are and then we get scared that if he / she did not like or love us after knowing who we are!!

Again I go out to make sense to dexter that we will love him crazy inspite of as many snuggles come in our lives…. And I go back to my pain killer but relieved dexter went for his walk and get my self together for his evening walk which I inwardly dread for my sake.. need to c a doc

new generation .. not that new

i was in goa for the quater two sales review meet and to disclose our qtr ii strategy to our sales team, with A+ on our report cards, as we had not only hit our figures (sales one !!) but had surpassed the same. so after two days of number crunching our next qtr targets sets and strategies unfolded to ensure we again surpass them we were in for fun and frolic.

like bombay goa too is raining cats and dog and my sales team is a bunch of 20 something and all in high spirits that evening so we went off to enjoy ourselves and do a micro goa tour.. so off we went singing old hindi numbers and trying real hard to remember a new number to put in during the anatakshari sessions.. we really had a good evening...

on our way back we were tired but our spirits were still warm and now we got into candid discussions and light hearted teasing.. some how the topic shifted to the gay movement and then a otherwise real cool dude said he felt the westerners are rotting our country in the same breadth he was speaking about the best pub and disc in town.

I was surprised to hear that not only he but some of his buddies too shared this opinion.

Being gay or straight is a very personal choice and no one other than the individual itself has a right to have a say in this matter. The cornerstone has be layed but the road ahead will be for sure really bumpy. But am sure they are aware of it and are standing up for their rights.

In India we have this penchant of associating everything with religion which really is the root cause of all problems. It’s a paradoxical situation we are holding on to religious believes and cultural boundaries set some thousands of years back when we talk about India being the youngest nation sprinting forward towards globalization, liberalization, modernization and what not…beliefs then made were made with the then current situation taken in mind. We all have to change with time and so do our beliefs. If we really want to be liberated, we need to liberate our thoughts. Personal choices are personal and why not concentrate on issues that are affecting the entire country like poverty, illiteracy, corruption, female foeticide. If fanatics gang up against these social demons we would truly be liberated.

And blaming western influences when we love apeing them is best example of our hypocrisy. Wish we could learn to value time the way these westerners do then we would be singing a different tune. well of course there is lot more good things we could learn from them as well..

Am really happy that India has taken this step and I wish all the homosexuals all the best in their crusade. God bless!

this is a pic taken during a cruise in goa from my mobile