The Act of being Good

The set was all set. Yeah... it was just like a talk show, but was quite different; there was no host, no cameraman, no producer but just talkers, with different opinions and different footholds. Some were adamant, some were suspicious, one was curious, another defendant, and another a forward player.

One of my friends had come for a mid-week holidays to Chittor for three days. We had not been able to meet on first day of his arrival. The second evening was when we decided to go out to dine to one of the rarest kind of places found in my hometown, a restaurant. I am not kidding on this one, there is no place actually we can call as a Restaurant, and I’m not either exaggerating things. Well, there were four of us around the rectangular table: he, his friend (RJ), my wife and I.

With the various chats on our lives and all, we started to discuss on the topic, I think my wife and I will never stop discussing on. But yeah the chat-launcher was quite different. It started with the food, which had already landed on the table, soup and paneer tikka (by order it was, but by preparation it was paneer pakora). Well expected out of the soup and the starter, the chat was obvious to burp out.

The food (or rather starters) was awful, forcing my friend to condemn the whole Chittor (this is what happens practically too: if you make a small mistake, the whole of you is reviled as a wrong-doer). We started it with the food he gets in Gujarat (or rather Ahmadabad), insisting Gujjus are real fond of living life(this is also what happens practically too: if other person has a good taste in a certain thing, he/she is commended for everything you sought for). It was just for food that Gujjus had been fond of. Even I don’t deny this, but asserting Gujjus live their lives worthily was something as though reprimanding my place, my people, my community and above all me.

I hesitated on this but my friend with a strong thought reconfirmed his input, said, “You gotta agree on this that Gujjus live their life better, they don’t just save but spend also. They spend so much yet they believe in saving, they have more spending power.” I object your Honour (your Honour ...what bullshit), I objected stating spending power comes with the money. He insisted saying who said there is no money in this state. I rephrased my words saying, business opportunities are better in Gujarat, they have more resources of water, power, transportation and support from Govt, etc. A few exchange of words and I went into my own thoughts.

The real problem with my home town is not this that there is no money for people to spend, or people at my hometown are less willing to spend. But the problem is something no one actually ever thought on.

My state is well-renowned as ‘The state of hospitality’, and the hospitality starts from our people then to the people outside. We are so much attached to each other that we never realize when it starts to interfere in their world, and as a result we compel ourselves from doing things we like to do. In this place, every second (or maybe the ratio is yet less than I am stating) person know another, and every second person (no maybe here, surely the ratio is much lower than what I am stating) is also hunted from something which is socially-inacceptable. To avoid being seen by the known, they choose enjoying those (alluring) things with lower risks and hence prefer to go out for a weekend and fulfil his/her desires. This is the reason why no one has yet been able to set up a good Restaurant/Theatre/recreation place in my hometown, because people mostly go out of the town and have all these recreations there itself, when meeting his desires.

But this is not the reason I am writing a blog on the issue that I think I want people to know I have reached to the root cause of less business opportunities, more brain drain (and lesser friends of mine) in the place I am staying now. I am writing it because I am searching for an answer to overcome this issue. The issue is simple, solvable... yet I am helpless to find remedy to this problem. And, I am employing the best way to get an answer, putting it on my blog.

My friends, readers of this post, please provide your support to make my life(and many others’) a little easier. I am sure of it to move out of this place but till then I want not just to spend the life as others are spending, I want to make this place better. Whatever your thought is, your suggestion is... it would be very precious to me.

the New Year eve

I know this post is a little late in getting posted. I hope Indian Postal Services don't use the tag line

we get you the post faster than I-m-mortal

I know it is a nice way to show people your blogger profile(and your profile pic), especially when your "About me" column doesn't appear on the top of the blog's home page(okay! you don't need to click on this link, it will not get you to any better place... and yeah it is true for the previous link too).

But I am not supposed to be blamed for getting that thing fixed. I have used a new template, in which first four headers should actually club themselves together in a tab(like 4 post-it, one over the other). It happens sometimes on its own and sometimes many times it just displays them in a column pattern of excel- one below the other(please let me know what it displays to you a tabbed or a simple side bar), maybe it is also as moody as i am. After all it's my blog.

I am feeling I have not written a single thing regarding the title of the post. so first of all,

happy new year 2009

Different people have different attitudes towards the new year eve. I never happened to find out what difference does it make to one person on the evening before the new year that people everywhere are so much excited about it. is it that the moon comes that night with the disco light? or is it that the stars of that night stick to one place only all throughout the night? or that there is some imaginary real imaginary-real person(like Santa Claus) comes? none i suppose but then why so much heck about it?

Few days before the eve when you talk to someone on phone, after a few exchanges of words they will ask you "so, what's the plan for the new year eve?" and if by chance you say you have no plans, they will start suggesting, "why don't you come here?" or "you weren't like that before" or "plan something man, this is the time you can do these things"!!! WTF? if i needed to make a plan I would have done it much before your suggestion was required. and even if i have made all plans i don't see the need to let you know the plan until i intend to join you or i intend you to join me.

Moreover, it is the time, when you miss your friends the most as for any plans you make you require a good company/group(solitudes skip the last line or the whole paragraphs, as you wish). I think that is why people started this celebration, that those who have no friends to party or to plan anything should feel disgusted all for the night watching the same moon and the moving stars(Relative movement).

The eve was long and i didn't spend it doing any of the above said things and had my own plans, which i don't intend to write here. One thing is sure that whether you plan or you don't the night just passes the way you want it to, making a happy end to the year, like in the bollywood movies.

FriEnDs to live

There are few things that you require at every stage of life. Such as the air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink, land to walk on and friend to live. With a friend you live your life but without... you just spend it. I don’t know what is difficult to do: to live or to spend? But I know one thing that it is no fun to spend the life.

The importance of friends to live is undeniable. Have you ever thought that none of Chetan Bhagat’s book could have been completed without Friend(s), or Sholay would not have been a hit without Friend(s), or none of us would have known who KK was if there were no Friend(s). (What??? You didn’t get who KK is... that “Yaaron” singer da). Real life friends are as hit in life as the TV show, F.R.I.E.N.D.S. was

There was one of my cousins, who always used to write friend as “FREIND”, despite many amending her for the same. I once happened to ask her why she writes friend as “FREIND”. To that she replied, she wants to know others that she understand how to write friend but she doesn’t like the ambiguity in its spelling: “the ‘end’ in friend doesn’t fit when I know a friend is actually the beginning of the fun”, her word to word reply was.

(After a lot of paragraphs writing and deleting and writing again and deleting again and again)

There is nothing I can write here or anywhere that can explain what really it means to have a friend in life and how painful it is to not to have one. You need friends in every small (and big) thing you do.

So if you feel you are overburdening yourself with life and its (its ________ what??? there are many thing we can fill in here... summing up I write) traits, go, join orkut, facebook or other social network or do anything and make friends! Rule is simple my dear: No Friend, No Life!

The Time that's gone

A flash player. It's Adobe Flash Player or even better, better than any player available and there is a flash file being played, don't know what the creator of the file had named it, may be "Don’t worry It happens to everyone, to you too". There are pictures, hazaar of them, there are videos having people moving things here or there, there are abrupt changes from one slide to another. I feel this was the life I had spent, more than this I feel I want to spend that life again, again all throughout my life.

I don’t know whether something of this sort had happened to you or anyone, but it keeps happening to me. I keep catching the glimpse of the time that I have spent. I think this is some kind of a disease I am having, as the Dyslexia Ishaan had in TZP, (you don’t think it’s same? This way it will sound same: he was a normal child but only some tuning of brain was required). I have the similar case or maybe not. It has prolonged so much that the condition is now out of control.

The above mentioned sequence often used to cover my sight whenever I used to take a break and sit( or stand(or walk(or lay down)))(3 closing braces required!!! Lemme check! Yeah.) idle (uff... it doesn’t give continuity... please read sit as sit/stand/walk/lay down)... so I write it again.... The above mentioned sequence often used to cover my sight whenever I used to take a break and sit idle. I see myself moving in the streets of Basvangudi (FYI, location of my first rented flat in Bangalore) or eating in the restaurants of Indiranagar, or buying popcorns in the theatres of Kota, or staring the cemented basketball court of DPS Adityapuram while my teacher is scolding me or banging ceramic cups with friends in room no 61 of my college. There was time I often used to live in the past and come back to the present. But now, things are getting worse. I often find myself living in present while I am still living in my past.

My ignorance had mended the way for the disease to grow more than I ever expected. Now I see the images everywhere, every time and in everything I do, whether I ride on bike, whether I type this or that, whether I listen to music (music is one big player in it... I don’t know how this thing works but even sound of a string makes me nostalgic of the old times) , whether I jump into an old friends profile, whether I read scrap conversation of two people or whether I see myself in the mirror. The frequency has just got higher and still raising high.

I thought writing this would help me but... but it has made it worse. What do I do? I want to be normal, enjoy my present as I enjoyed my past. I don’t want to regret later in life to have missed this time. Am I not happy with my life that I am remembering those days of my life, but I remember all days, both good and bad ones? Or is it that I want to make amendments in my past life to make all those days to good ones. But the reasons are not the issue here. Or maybe they are, as I want to destroy the reasons from the root. I am confused. I should not write more... it’s a bad thing to show everyone you are confused. I am not writing further, but I am still writing. It should not end abruptly, but this is how things are in reality and so is this post, ending....

A little doubt and hope

I read this one in a local newspaper... and i thought to share it...

This is a story of two friends, Adbhut and Vibhut. Both of them were born
on the same day. They went to school together and did graduations in the same
stream from the same college and were taught by the same teachers. Adbhut and
Vibhut were equally qualified but Vibhut sometimes used to outscore Adbhut. They
both became good person when they grew up.

Once on a weekend, both these friends decided to go in the wild. While they
were moving deep into the forest, they came across various creatures, and
enjoyed it. At one point the beauty around them excited them.
It was green all around, the birds were chirping, the nature was pampering them
with all its utter care. While moving ahead, they saw a peahen sitting on the ground.
The peahen suddenly got up. Adbhut and Vibhut had unknowingly scared the peahen,
it flew onto a branch of the tree it was sitting next to.

From the top of that tree it, at one time, looked at the two humans in
front of her and on second glance peeped at the place it was sitting a moment
before. Adbhut and Vibhut got suspicious that the peahen had definitely left
something precious under the tree. They went close and saw two beautiful eggs of
a peacock.

Vibhut and Adbhut imagined a peacock dancing with all its feathers blossom
like a flower in their house. Both of them decided to carry each egg with them
and wait for the peacock to come out of the egg.
When both of them reached home, they kept the egg in the domestic poultry
between the eggs of hen.

A few days passed by and Vibhut started doubting of getting a peacock from
the egg. He kept on moving it from one lot of eggs to another, keep it in the
sun, shake to see whether there is something inside. A few days later the egg
started to rot. The chic died in the egg itself and could never
come to the world.

On the other side, Adbhut kept the egg in the best of his hens' nests. And
one day, a beautiful, peachic was born. It had no feather, but its beauty was
unimaginable. Few months later, it turned into a peacock full of youth, dancing with a bulk of feathers charming everyone in the neighbourhood.
Its feather were so colorful that it attracted people from the whole
town.

Vibhut also got to hear about Adbhut's peacock and decided to go to his place and
see the peacock. He was amazed to see the peacock and later told Vibhut that the
egg he got never bore a chic in it and that egg was not a real egg. On this,
Adbhut told him, "even your egg carried a chic but you never believed that
it did, and you killed it by the doubt on your dreams. However, I always
believed the egg to transform into a beautiful creature, which it did one
day.

The story was simple but had carried a deep meaning in it. I read this story when i required that leasson the most. The story tells us to always believe in everything we do. A small crack of doubt may break the filled dam of our hopes and fruits.

For my Ma and Pa.

I have been wondering a lot on how should i be starting this post... and finally i decided to start it the way of showing you that i am not able to find a good starting.

Well, after i shifted back to my home town and left my office and joined my family business, i have become real irregular in writing new posts... and whatever i say to make myself motivating, it won't be much of help and i will write only when i will be(and that would really be rare)

Anyways, a few days back my elder brother and his wife happened to see a complete fall of moon from "full" to "new" in Kerala. yeah they went out on a trip, a long awaited by both of them.

As i had been recently to Kerala(around 7 months back) with my wife, i was handed the responsibility of making the bookings and arranging for tickets, taxi and hotels.
I, happily did that.

My brother has a child 15months old. As there were plans for them to go on beaches, houseboats and all, i succeeded in conveying them to keep the child with us, with me and my wife taking care of her. It was much tougher than it sounded when i said them and it turned out it to be more disheartening than what i expected(i expected none). I though we would get more close to the child.

She used to play all day with her grandparents(obviously dude.... my mom and dad) but in night she used to share our room. The very first day her parents left, she fell sick with puking all night. it was terrible.

She used to blossom in day with all the fun filled play, but as the sun used to sink behind the hill, har face used to carry a sorrow filled expression. She showed so clearly that she was missing her parents. Seeing her in the nights had become so difficult for me, and we were not even in a condition to tell her parents of that... we never wanted to ruin their trip.

The pinch on the bruise was that she never happened to come to me. She remained all night in the laps of my wife, she used to move her body away when i used to take out my hands to her to hold her and make her sleep. I don't know if she heard me planning for her parents' trip sometime, or she knew it was me who had made all the bookings and all the plans to keep her away from her parents. i felt disgusting of myself.

I have not yet let my brother and his wife let know of her behaviour, but deep inside me i feel the pain she was carrying from being away from her parents. I would never ever do to anyone what i did to her.. though it was for her parents' goodness... to enjoy the trip, i made them let the kid be at home.

I now, however, love the relationship a kid share with its mom and with its dad, and the way they love their kid. This is the greatest of God's gift to us for having parents to love us, tender us, help us, fight us and care for them. deveryone shows their gratitude in a way or other. i love my parents and would always do that.

The Hindu Crossword 9339

 

Across

 1 Short advertisement in the morning for the first person (4) Answer Annotation
 9 Bask in idle street arranging for fun and amusement (4,3,8) Answer Annotation
10 Hindu god found in an ashram area (4) Answer Annotation
11 False attitudes shown at public events (5) Answer Annotation
12 Song true, even for a folklore giant (4) Answer Annotation
13 Apprehensive causing an uncomfortable sensation (5) Answer Annotation
14 To examine and break down its components (7) Answer Annotation
16 Initially, wait eagerly leaving comrades on meeting each to accept gladly (7) Answer Annotation
18 To approve in when acting (5) Answer Annotation
22 Nothing to hold a spike (4) Answer Annotation
23 Reported floor pad lacking lustre (5) Answer Annotation
24 Ultimate nerd is endlessly seeking girls on this social news site (4) Answer Annotation
25 Sinless person be confused at the trait of being answerable for one’s conduct (15) Answer Annotation
26 Get rid of an outbuilding (4) Answer Annotation
Down

 2 Create right medium for not active worker (7) Answer Annotation
 3 Famous person now, up in the morning to turn on loud article in a short time (3,2,3,6) Answer Annotation
 4 Wrong male covers many an award (5) Answer Annotation
 5 A special one with meat jelly (5) Answer Annotation
 6 The seamstress’s sensation (4,3,7) Answer Annotation
 7 Way to turn over and over for a leisurely walk (6) Answer Annotation
 8 Most expensive for the beloved person (7) Answer Annotation
15 Discussions to turn back bed article set backwards (7) Answer Annotation
17 Religious leader has a broken pail in church (6) Answer Annotation
19 Rhythmic movement around den of the Common Era (7) Answer Annotation
20 Blotch of street article in (5) Answer Annotation
21 A main point of discrimination against the elderly (5) Answer Annotation