i-Meme!

i am: stronger than I thought.
i think: Everyone deserves to live life on their own terms
i know: I am blessed with a rock solid will power and a well developed emotional immune system
i want: to plant a few more trees in my garden and get myself a pet
i have: the best parents and brother in this world
i wish: life was not such a difficult task master after all
i hate: the fickle emotion of love and being underestimated
i miss: …………………..
i fear: being judged wrongly
i feel: the pain and happiness of others
i hear: voices from the days gone by!
i smell: success in a work well done
i crave: direly to be liked, respected and accepted by all.
i search: to find the raison d’être of my life
i wonder: what would life be if I erased 2005-2009?
i regret: falling in love
i love: to hate love
i ache: for the loss that stole away my smile
i care: for my valuable people
…i always: loved you…you never believed me
i am not: the person someone portrayed me to be
i believe: in God, Karma, Hardwork and reasons to hate love
i dance: to relive myself of stress…it is my favorite stress buster
i sing: to myself…with my i-pod blaring Sandip Khare and Salil Kulkarni in my ears
i cry: not for everything but for a deserving cause
i don’t always: claim to be right and perfect, especially when I know I am wrong
i fight: very hard to prove my worth every single day in every single role that I play
i write: about my observations, experiences and a lot of technical stuff being the managing editor of two technical in-house magazines…
i win: not just when my work is appreciated but I feel rewarded when I get an opportunity to do more.
i lose: gracefully
i never: really got over someone.
i confuse: smooth talk with goodness
i listen: to my head and no longer to my heart
i can usually be found: working, writing, editing and reading
i am scared: of people who are scheming and heartless…they just CANNOT be trusted
i need: The French book Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire. It is a composition of his best French poems.
i am happy about: the fact that life meets a full circle

Wander Lusting!

I have packed my back-pack
With dreams and something more
It is time to embrace the world
And bid good bye to all….

Hop on the tube, sail with a ship
Or take a flight to some place beautiful and exotic
See what the other countries offer
And join in their jollification

How I wish to be ubiquitous
Travelling to distant lands to explore
Cultures, languages, heritage and places
That I have never seen before

My heart races to mystical lands
Dancing and rejoicing to the folklore
Fills me with an innate feeling so warm
With excitement and adventure galore

As I awake from my dreams of wander lusting
I decide it is finally high time
To end my apprehensions, widen the horizons
And make the world my rightful playground

So,

I have packed my back-pack
With dreams and something more
It is time to embrace the world
And bid good bye to all…

- By Me!

Colorful Butterfly!

Date: Undated
Time: 03:00pm
Venue: Some Picnic SPot

Different moods of a Black Butterfly!!

Date: 5th October, 2011
Time: 01:12 pm
Venue: Office Garden, Pune

Funny Shadows!

Date: Undated
Time: 06:00pm
Venue: Some Ghat in Maharashtra

Kafka's dream!

I dream of you Kafka,
I dream about your writings,
But I fear our story will have a Kafkaesque ending

- By Me!

Smiles

Smiling faces
Stamped with happiness
Not an iota of sadness in sight

- By Me!

Memories

A pull and a tug at my heart
Goodbyes in fading – whispering voices
Saline tears roll on the memories you left back...

- By Me!

Freedom

Free-spirited Girl interrupted
With cloistered rigid thoughts
Yet smothered freedom fails to give up

- By Me!

Sunday Sunshine!

Brutal sunshine
Filling my sleepy Sunday room
Vaporizing my lazy mornings into noon

- By me!

Beautiful!

Butterflies are beautiful
Sweetness and much more
How does it matter if dead or alive?- By me!

Tribute to Jhumroo Singham!!

You will be missed dear Jhumroo Singham!!

In your short life you have managed to touch our hearts and spread happiness in our lives!! We cherish the time spent with you as it brought joy to us!!

Even God couldn't resist the temptation of having you around him!!


For all your playful antics, heart-melting cuteness, vibrance, love and affection...we will miss you!!

May your soul rest in peace!!

Life’s big lesson in a Small scoop!! 9

For US…the not so perfect people

“Bridget Jones, I like you just the way you are” , these words by Mark Darcy make the “imperfect to the boot” Bridget fall in love with him. (Book/Film adaptation: Bridget Jones Diary) But hold on, when it comes to social acceptance not everyone is as lucky as Bridget!!

Food For thought:
1. Have you been force-fed with the idea that you are borderline fat and you may cross it soon if you don’t spring into an “exercise action” right away?

2. Or you are probably just a liposuction, silicone implants, a nose job, a tummy tuck, a face lift, a hair weave, a teeth alignment, a dental veneer pasting- practically an entire body plastic surgery away from the Miss Universe title

3. Or unnecessary attention has been garnered by the fact that you earn probably far lesser than the fancy six figure salaries raked in by your contemporaries

4. Or maybe you have become a magnet for attracting public humiliation by eating your fill instead of nibbling at small tit-bits of food to display health conscious lady like appearance

5. Or you have to be dressed immaculately in a designer piece and something from the road is a carnal fashion crime.

6. Or defamed as the messiest person to walk this earth and that a porcupine cage is cleaner than your cupboard.

7. Or accused of suffering from practical dementia and questioned on the existence of your IQ because you prefer to read books instead of watching cricket

Most of us lesser perfect people might have been put into such a “spot” at some or the other point in time by people who are blessed with perfectness.

In my opinion, the most uncomfortable experience comes from the fact that others are not as comfortable as you are with yourself.

Peer Pressure to “CONFORM”A non-conformist (I choose to use this phrase than imperfect) is a person who stands by his own choices and lives life on his own terms not swayed or restricted by the “accepted norms” of social behavior.

We practically spend more than half of our lives judging others while the remaining we spend fretting on our imperfectness. Sometimes this self induced doubt of one’s own comfort forces him/her to be the person he/she unwillingly while other times non-conformists often ends up in depression. However, some imperfections like addictions, bad company and bad habits need to be changed for sure!!!

A few tips how to combat Imperfectness:

1. Ignorance is Bliss - This is the only way one can come to peace with one self. Just ignore the people who keeping seeing only whats bad in you and keep forgetting your good points.

2. First of all, we should stop comparing ourselves with the way others are and try to seek our own identity before complaining about what we lack.

3. Everyone has small special gifts of talent which one must explore before thinking there is no space for us to EXIST on this earth

4. The best part is find like minded people/forums who care less about how socially viable you are and value your true self – JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!!


Just be yourself….It’s fun!!!

Evening by the Lake!!

Date: 22nd May, 2011
Time: 06:00pm
Venue: Venna Lake, Mahabaleshwar

My shade of Blue!

Date: 22nd May, 2011
Time: 03:05 pm
Venue: Mapro Garden, Mahabaleshwar

Nature's Own Design

Date: 22nd May, 2011
Time: 02:12 pm
Venue: Mapro Garden, Mahabaleshwar

The Universal Language

Torn is a man from man by blinding walls barring concord
Distinguished by borders, distorted by races
Discriminated by the color of skin, religion and language

When terrorism strikes, the then dormant humanity awakens
The dead are treated only as “dead”, casualties claimed sadly by grave fanaticism
They are statistics - grieved over as a loss of the world and not just a nation

Why do we need terror to unite us, to remind us that we are all at par after all?
Why do we wait for the extremists to make us realize our collective force and strength?
Why is our united power consequential to the pent-up anger post terror attacks?


Why can’t our children be brought up with the dreams of a safe and united world?
All the countries together - the rich, the able, the developed, the developing, the pawn and the player
Recognizing and restoring just one common dialect – replacing the universal language of pain with peace forever

By Me!

You Know You Grew Up in India in the 90s When…

You Know You Grew Up in India in the 90s When…
1) You know the words to ‘In-pin-safety-pin’ and ‘akkad-bakkad’ by heart
2) Cricket is almost a religion for you, and you idolize at least one of Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendulkar/Saurav Ganguly
3) You have read at least some Chacha Chaudhary or Tinkle comics
4) You’ve watched Shaktimaan on TV at least once in your life. And you can immediately recognize the character when you see him.
5) You watched corny dubbed versions of Small Wonder, Silver Spoon, and I Dream of Jeanie
7) A visit to Pizza Hut used to mean a special treat
8) You have seen Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun at least 5 times each
9) You still remember the theme song of Hum Paanch. (Hum Paanch, Pam Pam Pam Paanch!)
10) You have played hours upon hour of running and catching, chor-police, lagori, saankli, ‘Doctor, doctor, help us!’, ‘Lock and key’
11) Dog ‘in’ the bone was your favorite co-ed game.
12) You collected trump cards of wrestlers, cricketers, and airplanes, and did not quite understand why your younger siblings were obsessed with Pokemon and the other Japanese trends that followed.
13) Your summer vacations were often synonymous with visiting your grandparents or cousins
14) Bole mere lips, I love uncle Chips!
15) You know the song ‘Made in India’ by Alisha Chinai
16) You have seen many many many episodes of ‘Antakshari’ on Zee TV and know the only thing constant in the show is Annu Kapoor.
17) You were the coolest thing in class if you had a computer in your house while it was still the 90s.
18) You couldn’t wait to start 4th standard so you could start writing with PENS instead of with pencils!
19) You often used terms and phrases like ‘two-say’, ‘same to you, back to you, with no returns’, and ‘shame shame, puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name.’
20) You most probably saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at the cinema at least once. You also fantasized about singing songs in mustard fields as in the movie.
21) You have said ‘haw’ or ‘yuck’ when you saw people kissing in English movies. (nowadays kids are used to it!)
22) Titanic was your FIRST favourite english movie.
23) You thought seeing English movies and speaking English made you the coolest thing ever.
24) You remember the Gujarat earthquake very clearly and could possibly tell everyone EXACTLY what you were doing when the earthquake occurred (yes, this happened in 2001, January 26, 2001, to be exact — but this group is about the things that Indian kids that GREW UP in the 90s remember and identify with).
25) Barbies for girls, and GI Joes for boys were the ultimate status symbols. You just wanted more more more and more. And how can I forget Hot Wheels, for both boys and girls?
26) You thought ‘imported’ clothes were definitely way better than ‘made in India’ clothes (never mind that a lot of clothes brought from overseas by NRI relatives were actually made in India, before ‘Made in China’ started appearing on EVERY existing thing)
27) "Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai Pata Chala Hai! Chaddi Pehen Ke Phool Khila Hai Phool Khila Hai!" You watched "The Jungle Book" every Sunday morning at 9.a.m" and just loved mowgli, bhalu and bagheera. A few years later, you watched Disney Hour, which had cartoons like Aladdin, Gummy Bears, Tail Spin, Uncle Scrooge!
28) At some point or other, cool was your favourite, and therefore, most overused word.
29) You loved licking off the cream from the centre of Bourbon biscuits.
30) There were no Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma- Bata and Liberty was the way to go for your sports shoes.
31) You have probably consumed more Frooti in your lifetime than there is oil in Iraq.
32) You bought packets of potato chips for the specific purpose of collecting Tazos. And you had Tazos depicting everyone from Confucius to Daffy Duck to Daffy Duck dressed as Confucius.
33) For the longest time, the Maruti 800, the Premier Padmini, THE Fiat, and THE Ambassador were the only cars you saw on the road, and the Contessa was cool because it was bigger.
34) You would literally jump up in excitement if you ever chanced upon an imported car (Oh my gosh, is that really a MERCEDES?)!
35) You used to Fuzen gum. You also chewed Big (big) Babool and/or Boom Boom Boomer chewing gum. They were bright pink and disgusting tasting, but you loved them for the temporary tattoos.
36) Talking of temporary tattoos, you sometimes had contests with your classmates about who had more tattoos on their arm, leg, knee, hand, forehead, wherever.
37) You thought Mario and Contra were the coolest things ever invented, especially if you were a boy.
38) You knew that having the latest Hero or Atlas bicycle would make you the coolest kid on the block.
39) You can imitate Sushmita Sen’s winning gasp to perfection
40) You have, at some point of time, worn GAP clothes (real or fake) like SRK in KKHH.
46) Seemingly senseless acronyms like SRK, DDLJ, DTPH, KKHH actually make sense to you..
47) You have at some point debated who was more beautiful- Aishwarya or Sushmita.
48) You would watch WWF keenly every evening/afternoon and loved Bret Hart "Hitman"! really thought Undertaker had seven lives and he made an “actual” appearance in the Akshay Kumar- starrer Khiladiyon ka Khiladi.
49) You remember the Nirma girl.
50) You remember the ‘doodh doodh piyo glass full doodh’ ad and also the ‘laal kaala peela, gulabi hara neela classic hai badia bristles wala’ and 'roz khao ande' ads.
51) You grew up reading, if you read at all, some or all of Nancy Drews, Enid Blyton books, Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club, Animorphs, Goosebumps, Sweet Valley series, Judy Blumes, and Tintin, or Archie comics. Because naturally, reading foreign authors made you much cooler than reading Tinkle.
52) Towards the late 90s (1998-99) at least some of us started our Harry Potter obsessions!
53) You absolutely HAD to go to Essel World if you were with cousins! “Essel World mein rahoonga main, ghar nahin nahin jaaonga main!”
54) You watched the Bournvita Quiz contest on TV pretty religiously. The smarter ones amongst you actually took part in it and had your entire school and your entire extended families watch you on it!
55) Maggi 2 Minute Noodles = ultimate snack (and tiffin, lunch, dinner)!
56) If you grew up in the early 90s, you recall the nation’s obsession with Mahabharata on TV
57) In the later 90s, you religiously followed Hip Hip Hooray on Zee. Maybe Just Mohabbat on Sony too
58) You remember parzan dastur sayin "JALEBI!!!!" in the Dhara Ad
59) You eagerly awaited Friendship Day, so you could give friendship bands to all your friends, and get bands from them in return. Then, of course, those with the most bands loved to show them off.
60) Backstreet Boys' "Quit Playing Games" was one of the first english songs that you LOVED!
61) Andaz Apna Apna is and most probably will always be your favourite comedy flick!! "Aila Jhakaas!!!"
62) This list made you smile.

Miss that age, it was sooo awesome!

And I could relate to each n every one of them actually.. fortunate to do so.. 

Life is Like That! 1

Last month was very eventful but I am mentioning two small yet consequential incidents that we could all learn a lesson or two from.

Lady at Saras Baug :
The other day, I was strolling in Saras baug with “A”. After having a long tiring day at work, the best way to unwind is to go to a soothing quiet place and just jabber away about sweet nothings. But evening time is also hunger time. So, as usual I had a feast in the garden while “A” kept a strict commitment with his diet. I had pink cotton candy and juicy cucumbers. One cannot leave Saras Baug without eating Mataki Bhel…So we hunted for a lady who would offer us Mataki Bhel custom-made to suit my requirements (Without farsan or shev and only with natural ingredients). She handed over my special Bhel to me and took a 20 Rs. Note from us which is the usual price of one Bhel. As we were walking away from her stall, she called me back and honestly returned 5 Rs. Since there was no farsan or Shev she did not prefer to charge us for the whole amount. I was touched by her honesty. For the last 2 years I have always asked my Bhel in the same fashion from several vendors in Pune city. But she was the only one who felt the need to charge us for the value that she offered. The 5 Rs that she returned voluntarily would have meant a lot to her considering the fact that she made ends meet by selling Bhel. I was amazed that such honest people still existed in this world.

Man at the Club:
We were planning for yet another evening outing and we decided to camp at “A’s” favorite club in town. We had been planning to go there for several days but had to postpone due to some pressing work or the other. So “A” was happy and so was I that we had finally made it to the club. We were seated on one of the sofas in the porch and were observing people around us. I am not used to such places so I was keenly absorbing the ambience of the club. I spotted an old man with a bunch of ladies. The man who might be in his early 70’s was clicking his fingers cacophonously and loudly to call the waiter. I was alarmed at such harsh display of authority. Even “A” disapproved the old man’s capitalistic gestures of calling the person. Even the waiter looked embarrassed and humiliated. I hope someone does offer the old man a few good words of wisdom and etiquette…or perhaps a simple lesson in humanity….

Flying Without Wings!