Turning 23

A month since my last post. Its not that I didnt have things to write about. Just too tired or maybe too lazy. Cant really decide between these two excuses.

The highlight of the past mnth has been the visit to Ahmedabad to meet family after 8 months. I have been away from home for the past 5 years but this has to be the longest separation till date. Its the separation from loved ones that makes one realize what they mean to you, may it be family, friends or someone special.

Ahmedabad visits are always fun. Spending time with cousins (and I do have a lot of them), teasing the one who is getting married next (not me in case you are wondering),being a kid again with mom around fussing over me and taking long walks with my bro.

But this is not all. Visiting Gujarat or Rajasthan for that matter, is like stepping back into the real India. Let me explain

Having spent 8 months in a super-metro like Bangalore (Forgive me, I spent 1 yr in Kota & 4 yrs in Rke. Even Indore seemed like a metro after that), I have become used to the hectic pace of life and living for myself only on the weekends. A popular ad says "Slavery is not dead. We’ve just stopped recognizing it". This is too extreme but the gist is there.

These places have stopped in time. People go about their work at their own pace, not hurrying, living every moment. I remembered a dialogue from a Hindi movie "Badi Badi khushiyon ke peeche bhaagte bhaagte hum chhoti chhoti khushiyon mein jina bhool jaate hai"

And these places are a riot of colours. I mean, a guy in a pink dress with small mirrors (wasnt me, so dnt visualize it tht way). But didnt look out of place. After all, gujju marriages are known for their pomp & splendour. My mom tried her best to get me into one of those traditional dresses. I tried to talk her out of it but couldnt and ended up having one for myself (not the pink one. But a light cream one,without the mirrors and no, I am not putting up pics of me in that).

After all these years, I have gotten used to living away from my family but doesnt mean I dont miss them. Guess its like my dad once said "Ships are the safest in shipyards but they are not meant for it". Add to it that my mom starts getting cranky after a week because of my habits. So its better I keep these visits short.

And plz plz dont think I am depressed or something. Would I swap this way of life for that? Right now I dont think I would. I love the freedom, the responsibilities that come this way. I like doing what I am doing. These are just some things that came to my mind in Ahmedabad.

Moving over to soccer. Every time I see a Real Madrid match, I think they cannot play worse than this. Alas! they prove me wrong every time in the next match. The El Classico, Barcelona v/s Real Madrid coming up on March 11. I just hope we are not humiliated or all those Barca fans I have been making fun of since Real Madrid beat Barca will never let me hear the end of it.

And I m turning 23 today (or tomorrow or maybe I m already 23 depending upon when you c this post). My dad mails me saying Happy Birthday, time to get u hooked. For God's sake, I m still a kid !!

A year ago, I was being bumped around, being made the target on which everyone is venting his fury. This yr its going to be only two of my flatmates who cant even pick me up. Miss those times, guys.

Nothing good ever follows
"We need to talk" in a conversation
"but" in a sentence

Retrospection

The worst thing we can do to ourselves is look back and ask the question What If ?.

Should we live in the moment or take a long, hard look at the future results before taking a decision?

But then isnt this some sort of vicious circle? If every decision we make is with an eye on how it is going to affect our future then why do we have to look back and ask What If ?

A confession though. I have always tried to be one of the In the Moment ppl and have lived on the philosophy of "Greedy Algorithm" taking decisions based what I wanted to do in the present rather than looking at the future. And so I have never had to retrospect.

But lately, the dreaded question has started to raise its head in my life too What If?.

Maybe, its not always good to live in the moment. And now faced with the choice of a lifetime - the harder way is to chase my dream however improbable it might be at the risk of a failure or the hard way which is easier than the dream. Heart says "go for the dream" and mind says "look at ur track record. U must be nuts to do the same thing over again and again".

Maybe, Some dreams should remain dreams only. To act as those unattainable carrots for us to chase.

Sigh, Life shld have a software like Butterfly Effect so we know where our choices might lead us.
But again, the uncertainity of what is coming next is what makes life interesting.

Funny, how 20 days ago I thot 2007 is going to be much better than 2006.

RM going down. 3 losses in the past 5 matches. Foolish President blasting his own players in public, a dictatorial coach. Another trophyless season is here.

Liverpool v/s Chelsea and Arsenal v/s ManU to look forward to this weekend.

Have been watching Boston Legal. Its the story of a Law Firm and its lawyers. Having been a huge John Grisham fan, I just loved the series. Season 1 is over. Now downloading Season 2. Something to look forward to.

2007

It takes one comment, one line to see a person in a totally different light.
It takes one incident to realize that u judged a community too early
Sometimes u realize that u r a different person then the one u thought u were.

I missed my customary New Yr Post. As always, better late than never.

Arrival of 2006 was celebrated with a few friends on the banks of Ganga in Rishikesh.2006 was supposed to be the year of transition from college life to professional life.
I had experienced the uncertainities, the problems, the home sickness etc that come with change earlier. And assuming that I was more 'mature' and hence more equipped to deal with these things meant I wasnt too worried. As Chandler would have said "Could I be any more wrong".

But I have to admit, 2006 hasnt been all that good to me. Last semester in college was gr8 but there were some fights & issues that I could and I should have avoided.

And after 7 semesters of cursing Roorkee and wanting to get out asap, I picked out the worse possible time i.e. the 8th sem to realize that I will miss Roorkee.

The first 6 mnths at Bangalore havent been the best. I mean 3 accidents in 6 mnths. CMH hospital shld have offered me Frequent Patient plan.

To add to all of these, loss of HrishiDa (My fav Hindi movie director of all time), Zizou (The Soccer God), Michael Schumacher (Any introductions needed ?) made it the yr when I have to find new idols. Still looking, but these boots r not easy to fill. And I dont even need to speak abt how RM has been performing.

I have had worse yrs but I have also had better ones. Now every cloud is supposed to have a silver lining. Maybe I just didnt c it this yr or I'll realize it in retrospection sometime l8r. For the time being, 2007 offers a new beginning, a new hope. After all, that's the reason why we celebrate New Yr.

And also New Yr means Resolutions. I guess I'll continue my last yr's resolutions only. So same resolutions for the second consecutive year. Now to c those resolutions, I'll have to check my post for 2006 resolutions, which is not a good omen. But lets hope.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Yr 2007

Anatomy of a (former)Chat Addict

Chat Addict - That's the nick name some ppl gave me. I have to admit that they were right to some extent. Some ppl say I still am but I know I have cut down a lot.
Reasons: Work pressure, Realization that I m wasting their time as well and bringing down the productivity of India as a whole or that my lead caught on the fact. Take ur pick

For chat addicts, the gchat feature was a boon. Yahoo doesnt come with an integrated chat & mail client feature and the chat msgs sent by someone just pop up out of the blue on the screen. As Murphy's Law goes, the msgs would pop up at the worst moment like when the lead is at ur desk and someone pings u "Cant believe that a lazy ass like u could be working". Agreed it could be a lot worse like "Heard ur lead is a jerk" but this one was bad enough.

Sometimes, u end up having totally arbit chats with friends. Like in a chat, the two of us started to come up with Hindi names for superheroes.

Superman = MahaMard
Spiderman = MakdiMard
Spiderman 2 = MakdiMard Dwitiya
Batman = BallaManav
Birdman = Chidimard
X-Men = Kaunmard

Another unusual thing was that because of my name, some random guy would pick up my id from somewhere, think of me as a girl and start eflirting. Well, if the guy is that foolish, I deserve to have some fun at his expense. Those 1 hr chats r the most fun ever. I still laugh when I go thru those chats in my chat history.

Having cut down on chats, I took the liberty to sit back and observe the status msgs displayed by various friends in the chat list.

The most common ones were lyrics from famous songs with Pink Floyd being the most popular. Comfortably Numb, Comfortably Dumb, We Dont Need No Education (status msg of student with exams arnd the corner) and a few more.

One friend went for shayaari status msg:
- Dil jit le wo jigar hum bhi rakhte hai..katl kar de wo nazar hum bhi rakhte hai..Wada kiya hai kisi ko hamesha muskurane ka, varna aankhon mein samandar hum bhi rakhte hai..

- Rabba mein itna bura nahin hota, agar tu bewafa nahin hota

Another popular category was that of ppl sharing their life experiences or just picking up quotes on life by someone

- Realize things before its too late. Have lots of friends before you are alone. Accept things rather than deny them. Love people before you lose them. Life comes just once. Love it while you live it.

- Friendship is not about how you forget but how you forgive. Not how you listen but how you understand. Not how you see but how you feel. Not how you let go but how you hold on.

- Perhaps the easiest way to lose something is to want it too badly

- Everything looks amazing when viewed from a distance, its the closeness to any place, situation, person or event that reveals its true ugliness, hopelessness, despondency or hypocrisy

- if only the doors of perceptions were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is...infinite

- It is better to fail in originality than succeed in imitation

Some words on deadlines

- Deadlines r like horizons. Look beautiful from a distance but trying to meet them is impossible

- Deadlines r like monsters who look like innocent children from a distance

But my personal favourite category would be cheeky, humorous status msgs

- I slept & dreamt that life was beauty. I woke up & found that life was duty

- Coming to office on Mondays is bad. Coming to office on Mondays with lots of work is worse.

- Intelligence chases me but I m faster.

- Booze is the answer. I forgot the question

- A man got 2 wishes from GOD. He asked for the Best wine and Best Woman. The next instant, he got the Best Wine and Mother Teresa next to him. Moral of the story : Be Specific

- Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names

My Second Fav status msg till now: If electricity comes from electrons.... does morality come from morons?

And the best one so far: FREE TUTORIALS on "How to SCREW an easy exam paper ?" ... Services open ... 24*7*365 ...

The usual stuff:
Watched Casino Royale on Sun. Surprisingly, Daniel Craig looked good as Bond. The story is a prequel i.e. James Bond doesnt have 007 status at the beginning of the movie. Apart from half an hr of stretched love story of Bond (which is the norm this yr for superhero stories - Remember Superman Returns), the movie was good.

Wanted to see Dhoom 2 this weekend. But all tkts for the weekend were booked on Mon. A week without a movie.

Went bonkers in Blossoms- a book store in Bangalore. Wanted to buy 10 books but decided on 6. Convinced my friend to buy 3 of them. But with loads of work, no reading for now.

RM win in La Liga but draw in CL. RM is having an average season at home. Hope it gets better with time. Real Madrid take on Valencia on Sun, cant wait.