Complexity of life....

One thing that has always intrigued me is that we try to escape from whatever is destined for us. The basis why I write this piece on my blog is that this time I came across the wallpaper above. Though I do not consider myself old enough to comment on the topic at hand, however the 23 springs my life has seen do have some reflections on the basis of my experience. When I was doing school I enjoyed the timeliness of things but always thought what it would be like to wake up an hour later each day and have a hearty breakfast. This happened because school started early and I was always rushing out grabbing a jam toast to catch the bus. And I couldn’t do much but comply with whatever went on.

Finally I went to college after 12 years of structured learning. Now I study what I wanted to, even bunk classes and watch a movie with friends, get up late and skip a class, more so I even could have a girl friend – a possibility either I never thought of or more honestly I let fate have the say. Though I enjoyed college, I somehow was raring to enter the corporate world. I provided tuition's to senior classes for mathematics to fund my pocket expenses. I enjoyed the economic freedom from home which reduced accountability. The first few positive cash inflows meant more than money, like a pair of branded sneakers, a new sling bag and more. Then I started working with an internet based firm only to spend a lot of time before the computer. I even skipped classes at times and was considered a bit geeky by my friends. More I worked more I wanted to, I just wanted the remaining months of college to rush by. Finally I did get a job a month before I finished college. Work brought money, creative satisfaction and happiness. But one off sad incident in office would make me say “It was better back in college”, somewhere within I had started missing college. I was out of touch with a lot of old batch mates. It was now that I started considering seriously my prospects of doing a masters degree. In a year from when I began, a lot happened and finally I found myself sitting in front of the chief bank manager requesting a massive loan. My economic freedom was to end, I would be paying off my hard earned money for more than 3 years. But then I looked forward to some enjoyment in college.

Once I was here at my second college, I did enjoy attending business lectures, participating in intellectually stimulating talks and more. As I found time I would dig into books, movies and almost ever overcasting sleep. On days I slept 4 hours and sometimes even 15 hours!! I saw some unprofessional attitude unbecoming of b-school students each day. The picture I had drawn of Mona Lisa wasn’t even what Picasso could have done. I was overjoyed when I was taken in for an internship with a consultancy. I loved being back to work (though it meant sacrificing sleep!). Three months sped by in an incredible hurry and I was back to school. Some days of the internship when the manager wasn’t happy with the deliverable it came into my mind that school was better, you had the freedom to experiment and explore but here you had to be bang on.

Now still at school, half my days are spent applying to jobs, searching on job portals and talking to people to build corporate contact. Somewhere in all this I have missed sitting back to enjoying life – if that ever was an opportunity. I could have done so much while I kept myself so complicated. I try to convince but more often than not counter arguments win. I let myself sleep a lot, you’d ask why….not because I have time but because if I cant see the light with my eyes open or rest on the bondi beach then why not in my dreams. I sleep to structure my dreams, my visions are taking shape atleast somewhere. I am not missing life…I am living each moment even if u may call it virtually. I may be losing but may be I am just raring to hit back with a big bang….complex isn’t it?....leave it..have a nice day…

Life goes on...simple isn't it

What is your favorite tea time discussion topic? I have always believed that no matter how faint hearted a man is, he comes up with the most gut wrenching intense topics to discuss over a cuppa. Be it polical issues like Should Sonia be considered Indian?, should Kashmir succeed to Pakistan? Or slightly lesser intense topics like if Sachin should retire, or the Bombay train blasts, Richard Gere kissing Shilpa Shetty…it never ends and the numerous arguments one can give never suffice to bury the discussion. You don’t believe me, then take a few minutes off and search a road side tea vendor and sip and cup of tea. And just listen to the news he has, or the men have who for god knows what reason are always found at his shop. I guess their appetite for tea is bottomless. No wonder our country has been identified with Tea as a geographical indicator.

I find the city life very interesting not only because I have spent 22 years living in the capital city but more so because now that I sit in Dontanpally which is an unknown little village 40 km away from Hyderabad main city. It is here that I have learnt to appreciate the beauty of a city. Well you could for once say that I am saying this as I am starved of urbane exposure, but nah! I guess it’s because now I understand that what it is to like stop in the middle of the road and wait for traffic, what it is like to wait for the electricity to return after a power failure. The only difference between a city and a village is time, time that separates them and also its availability. Once I asked my parents to send me a parcel through Speed Post (courier boy finds it unprofitable to deliver here), since the parcel was large I had to go into the village to collect it from the post office. Now for city grown up lad, Post Office sounded to be a modest establishment with a few workers. I negotiated my way and was directed to a brick and mortar hut shaped house which doubled up as the postman’s house and also the post office. And I waited for the post man to come and give me the parcel, it took him three hours to return and on being asked why he said simply that I had gone to deliver posts and I ride a bicycle. Had I been in my home waiting for a courier boy to deliver an expected package, I might have called its office atleast 10 times in 3 hours but here I was just thinking how clean and simple life is without motor driven technology like a mobile phone or a scooter. I loved the serenity and simplicity of the moment.

It is often said that a city like Delhi never sleeps, life never stops…no matter what. I remember when there were a string of bomb blasts in Delhi, Mumbai and more recently Hyderabad some time back. I got numerous calls enquiring my stay and safety but did I stop. One can stay off the roads for an hour or two but not for days. I shudder when my father tells me that the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated there was no public transport, the roads were deserted and he had to walk back 20 km from his office in the evening. So what stops…a few hearts that were ticking moments ago shut down by the exploding splinters that possibly were Alfred Nobel’s most unwanted invention. Tears dry up after a day or two, smiles go off the faces for a day or two but memories never go down. Blowing a few buses or planes or trains off stop the transport system and more importantly it doesn’t stop the mankind. Communal tensions would always but that doesn’t stop me from going into the lanes of Chandni chowk to savor Karims delicacies. I asked my best friend from school who visited Lahore several times during his graduation days – whats the best about the city? He said that the best would be the fact that it’s very much like Delhi plus the people are very helping. I ask myself now How many people would not want to go to such a city after listening to such an answer…The greatest thing I have learnt from any city in our country is simply “Fight…Fight back….don’t stop” . No wonder if you enjoyed reading what I said you would enjoy this song….

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=6INOamqU7xs

For you, a thousand times over....

Friend….I wonder about the magical meaning this six letter word carries in our lives. More than often this word outweighs the four letter word “Love” in more than one ways. I know you may not agree as the two are so very intertwined but the fact remains I have always loved my best friends and always tried to find a friend in the person I love. I remember my childhood as not a very colorful one but one in the company of people I called friends and my family called friends. The three such people I associate the oldest memories of my life carry a lot of meaning to me. I don’t remember saying them to ever that they were my best friends or are, I don’t know if they feel the same for me but I do know that I have them etched permanently on my heart..

I have always believed the best lessons in life come from books (and movies inspired of them). One such book I recently went through was “The Kite Runner” written by Khalid Hossieni, heard now there’s a movie on it too. The story set in the rugged lands of Taliban infested Afghanistan, is more a story of two friends who inherit a part of their friendship in legacy. One ‘Amir’ the lad of a rich man and the other ‘Hasan’ the boy of his Hazara servant, growing up together they discover their friendship and the loyalty the latter has towards the other. Towards the later half, the grown up Amir traverses half the world from the US to Kabul to search for Hasan’s son Sohrab, as he discovers Hasan was not his servant’s(Ali) son but only the illegitimate son of his father from the servant’s wife. He decides to go back to Kabul and fetch Sohrab and make sure what happened to Hasan does not happen to Sohrab. Amir himself being childless does all he can to bring back the boy and succeeds. In end comes the most heart melting part, when Amir runs a kite for Hasan’s son and says “for you, a thousand times over”…a phrase that Hasan used to say to Amir and probably overwhelms the audience completely. And the movie does give a nice picture of the Afghan Community in the USA..

It’s one of the most beautiful stories I have read in my life and probably the reason is that we all at some point in our lives wait to say this otherwise so common sentence “for you, a thousand times over”…It’s like telling someone you mean the world to me. I am thankful to god that I have people in my life to say these lines to. We have all grown up on a diet of Best friends stories, of Jai & Veeru of Sholay and more but this book goes out to say much more – a mixture of emotions that can be evoked by Love; love for one’s motherland, a partner, a friend, a parent, or a your child to say the least the book is all full of them. Hasan named his son 'Sohrab' - the name of the character liked by Amir, again it was an unsaid dedication to their friendship. In essence the book also captures the timeless nature of friendship. You may not meet or talk to a friend so often but feelings are beyond words and meeting…so just hang on to your emotions.

I have always wondered what if the person I call my best friend met me on a small journey of 10 hours from Delhi to Lucknow, life would probably have been very different that what you see as of now. We say our destiny is already written “Makhtub” but then every man on the street says “Insha-allah” – If god wills, are we not trying to ask god to erase a few lines off our life books and replace them with our own?

As a philosophical theory, man is always wanting to be loved and wants to be in company of people who love him so desire for friendship is incessant. Life is a short one so make as many friends as you can but remember the number would never matter what would matter to you most is to how many can you turn back in life and say “for you, a thousand times over”…..To all the people not only friends you love - express your feelings now…there’s never been a better day than today…….Godspeed.