Misunderstandings - a story

Fate had a funny way of playing with things Ayesha thought with moist eyes..
Flashback to an year ago...

Ayesha was a regular customer at a coffee shop two blocks from her office. Every day after work, she'd go there not because she loves coffee, she actually hated it... but because of that tall cute guy with to-die-for eyes working behind the counter. Shirley was her best friend… 

That was Sunday evening, exhausted and tired from the house hold work Ayesha called Shirley and asked for outing. They went to the same cafeteria Ayesha used to visit for that guy. Sitting over the coffee table Ayesha was discussing about the some training she has attended..it was something about swot analysis and soon it turned into the discussion of disadvantages of being girl. After working for the entire week at office she also have to take care of additional responsibilities of household work over the weekend.

Both were so engrossed in the discussing that they didn’t noticed the café guy was standing at their table for taking the order. The guy cleared his throat to gain the attention. Ayesha looked up to order her favorite black coffee without sugar , however when she noticed that it’s the same guy she was not able to open her mouth and kept on staring in that hazel eyes of that boy.

Shirley noticed this and waved her hand in front of her eyes to drag her back in reality. She was feeling embraced and that guy was shy to, so make them comfortable Shirley cracked a joke and all of them had good laugh. Ayesha used to say that Sid looks like “Hritik Roshan” and Shirley always completes the sentence by saying “True, looks like Hritik of movie ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ ”.

That one incident had proved to be ice breaking incident for them and that guy Sid, Ayesha and Shirley, have started talking more often after that day.  Sid working in the café has issue with actual working hours and used get angry stare from his manager when they spend more time in café. On other side Ayesha and Shirley working for some corporate giants had lenient working hours so that café became their common hanging place.

Ayesha though being closest friend of Shirley, She had not told Shirley about her love towards Sid. And unknowing of Ayesha’s feeling Shirley too started falling for Sid gradually.

On the other side it was the same story, but unfortunately Sid was one person can love only one person at time, he had started falling for the one of the girl. From the very first day they talked he started liking that girl.  

One day when Shirley was not present, Ayesha and Sid were sitting in café and Sid gathered courage and told the Ayesha about his love. Uncertain of the feeling of the girl, Sid didn’t tell the Ayesha a name of the girl and kept it as third person. It was heart breaking news for the Ayesha she was dumb struck. She quickly turned up from the table and left the place. She wanted someone to share her feeling and she finally told Shirley about her love towards about Sid and also told about the Sid’s liking of some other girl.

For Shirley also that was double shocking. Out of shock that Ayesha to loved Sid, she couldn’t get a simple logic that Sid love other girl than Ayesha and that other girl can be herself too. Ayesha couldn’t take the defeat well and flew away to the USA at her uncle’s place. Left alone with broker heart Shirley also went in isolation and left going to that place. Shocked from Ayesha’s behavior on that day Sid too started believe that it was his mistake to love those high society girl and left the job at café.

Leap 1 years, present day all of them are thinking that they have lost their true love. If we keep the person, whom Sid loved as secret, two of them might have got their true love.

Moral: - It was clear example of miscommunication and misunderstandings. Sid didn’t present his thought clearly to Ayesha. Ayesha didn’t understand Sid’s perception out of shock passed confusing message to Shirley. Shirley didn’t use her logic sense and carried away with emotion at that time.

Talent >> Hardwork

'But it is so easy for you. You are so talented and good at everything. Not all of us are as talented as you. So unfair,' she said. And i hate this word, I feel like all the credit of my hard work is going in wain by considering it as just luck.

We were having a conversation about loving what you do and doing what you love and whether it is indeed possible to follow your passion and make a  decent living out of it.

I wanted to tell her that most people saw only the sheen, not the grit, nor the passing through the cogs a million times, bearing the pain as you discovered you were much stronger than you thought and that you did not crumble after all.

I wanted to tell her about the thousands and thousands of things I have done before I was considered worthy in whatever i am doing right now. I wanted to tell her about the  back-breaking hours of  meticulous research I have done, How i have spent almost sleepless night just to do some really minor issue with code. Just to make sure that the facts I am stating are accurate.

I wanted to tell her about that accident day before my 10th board exams and how i have written my papers with that broken finger. Just to see smile on face of my dad i have ignored the pain. Life is so much easy for me i never have to thought about what i wanted to do. I just wanted to do that everything which my dad was not able to do , due to that responsibility of family at early stage of his life.

I wanted to tell her about the time I cried and cried when I lost my dad, and the people I considered 'friends' turned away and how strangers who I just met turned out to be my biggest support systems (and later good friends). [ Hey doctor, this one is just for you :) ]

I wanted to tell her that the best way I discovered to overcome my grief was to immerse myself in work and more work. I wanted to tell her about all the opportunities I had grabbed even the seemingly useless ones, because I was so afraid that if I did not, the void that was inside me would engulf me.

I wanted to tell her that I wrote  and I painted as I had finally found my calling. I wanted to finally tell her that  'I really think it is not about talent, it is about hard work. But most people do not seem to see that.'

But I do not think she wanted to hear that....

So  I smiled and said  "Yeah, you're right you know. Some people have all the luck. It is so unfair."

Life is full of turn .. never give up ...never return .. !

Life is full of turn .. never give up never return .. ! 

Stochastic Probability Theory - THE PREGNANT DEER SCENARIO...

In a forest, a pregnant deer is about to give birth to a baby. It finds a remote grass field nearby a river and slowly goes there thinking it would be safe. As she moves slowly, she gets labour pain. At the same moment, dark clouds gather around that area and lightning starts a forest fire. Turning left, she sees a hunter who is aiming an arrow from a distance. As she tries to move towards right, she spots a hungry lion approaching towards her. 

STOCHASTIC PROBABILITY THEORY

What can the pregnant deer do, as she is already under labour pain..?

What do you think will happen..?

Will the deer survive..?

Will it give birth to a fawn..?

Will the fawn survive..?

OR

Will everything be burnt by the forest fire...?

Can the deer go left..? No, the hunter's arrow is pointing at her.

Can she go right...? No, the hungry male lion is approaching her.

Can she move up..? No, there the forest is on fire.

Can she move down..? No, that is where the fierce river is.

Answer: She does nothing. She just focuses on giving birth to a new LIFE..

The sequence of events that happens at that fraction of a second (moment) are as follows:

In a spur of MOMENT, a lightning strikes and blinds the eyes of the hunter...!

At that MOMENT, he releases the arrow missing and zipping past the deer...!

At that MOMENT, the arrow hits and injures the lion badly...!

At that MOMENT, it starts to rain heavily and puts out the forest fire...!

At that next MOMENT, the deer gives birth to a healthy fawn...!

In our life too, there are MOMENTS of CHOICE when we all have to deal with negative thoughts from all sides. Some thoughts are so powerful they overcome us and make us clueless. 

Anything can happen in a MOMENT in this life. If you are religious, superstitious, atheist, agnostic or  whatever, you can attribute this MOMENT to divine intervention, faith, sudden luck, serendipity,  coincidence, karma, or a simple 'I just don't know'...!

The priority of the deer, in that given moment, was simply giving birth to a baby, because 

LIFE IS PRECIOUS...!

In future, may you always be inspired to have a focused positive insight, oblivious of all imaginary, negative probabilities.

"LIFE is Flowing Like a River

With Unexpected TURNS,

May be GOOD,

May be BAD...

Learn to enjoy Each Turn

because, these Turns...

Never RETURN."

One more time......Life is full of turn .. never give up never return .. ! 

Fear - writing is scary!!!!

When i used to write earlier, I used to rarely hit backspace. I have just started writing this blog from cell phone and i was not even bothered about grammar and spellings. I was just writing it for my self and was not worried about any weird comments from reader. Then i have got little bit attention from reader and started getting lots of likes,+1's and comments. So i have started taking writing little bit seriously. Still i was writing down thoughts while travelling but used to edit and furnish post before publishing it. I just recall that few month's back , i have got more than 10000 hits for one post and that incident made me over conscious about my writings.

And now, there's more backspace strokes than the space bar strokes! I hardly able to write on fresh topic. I think that i have just started writing more about generic topics than my own thoughts and life. Then i had almost two months when i haven't publish any post. Too much loaded with project work and these were the days when my smartphone battery was lasting an entire day without plugging it into charging. I was hardly getting time to visit this place.

I think work was not only the reason, Points about why I was not able to write were ranging from the fact that I was no longer in the everyday company of people who were inspired me to write, and also it's the fact that the so called 'grown-up' life has very few narrate worthy incidents to share with the world on this platform.

The reason that I zeroed in for not being able to write is the fact that i was scared,and maybe, somewhere at some level, as we grow up, we become increasingly scared of things, scared of getting reviewed and evaluated by people, and this ends up with putting ourselves in our shells and just shut the fuck up! I even got scared by being judged by friends. Scared of losing people in your life, scared of revealing too much of yourself , scared that if you actually do so, people may take advantage of you, scared that you're losing yourself to yourself and there'll be one day when you'll no longer recognize yourself. As i have always said and also write a Post - Writing is scary....  on this topic. But the fact is that the fear you have today, you may not have it tomorrow. And you just keep vacillating between being scared about things and not giving a damn at all.

Have you even noticed child playing around. They don't fear of anything as they are ignorant about probable risk. But as they started growing they started developing fear in them.

Growing up takes away a lot of things from you, one of them is being fearless.

Sometimes the only ray of hope is to have someone believe in you, have faith in you and then you just want to take a giant leap of faith and just dive into your fears. Like a free fall. At the end if it, you'd either be badly bruised with broken ribs and limbs or you'll discover wings you never knew you had all this while.

Really depends on you..... Life is what you make it!!!!

Rejection - We love to win...but we should be pretty humble in defeat as well !!!!

Huhh...weird topic to choose,specially for the time when you are writing a post almost after 2 months. But as i always says i don't generally decide to write about something and sit in isolation to note down words in it's best way. For me it's just as usual an intense discussion about one topic with different people which usually results into a blog post. So this one is also no different. I met one friend a few days ago. He is from same college and one of the best buddy of my tenure in this city and we understands each other better than most people of our age. He is just like brother (In typical Bollywood style, brother from another mother ;)) We can discuss about every damn thing in this world philosophically, hypothetically, seriously and whatever other ways you could think of.

We usually meet at the same place, have same food/drinks mostly and talk about various things in the same manner. It was that very place where I had encouraged him to express his feelings for the girl he liked and was studying with him in his Post graduation course. Then we have recalled college life and all the fun we had during those four years. Discussing details different pair's of college class room and how many of us have already got married and who is tagged with whom. Yeah typical gossips.... Who say boys don't gossips , girls do gossips in day and boys do at night specially after having cane of beer in stomach and another one in hand. :p 

When i meet him last time we end up discussing same topic and he told me that he has expressed his feeling to a girl and she has accepted the proposal they are planning to paired up in near by future. Even he told me that it was a good thing to confess to your feelings to someone you like. Because in his case both of them have feelings about each other since long but they have waited for two years till the time of departure from college. This is not only about them but i think most of the times we are too scared to express what we feel. Because we cannot take rejection. What's the big deal if someone rejects you? How does it change anything about you? No I am not talking about some rocket science here, merely stating the obvious. Yet, it's that obvious we ignore because we are scared of this rejection even if it doesn't really affect our life. It does affect you if you let it. If you are going to feel depressed about rejection then you very well deserve it. Feel depressed if someone says yes, for it's going to take away your freedom, you know ;) .

I have read somewhere that this new generation, Means our generation is raised in very competitive environment. We love to and want win each and every small battle and do not take the loss very well. Very nice statement again...

"We love to win each and every game but at the same time we are pretty humble in our loss "

This was from manager of one of the very well known football club after winning very rare treble triumph in the season.

I will not say I have approached girls too and I have been rejected . But i have never thought going that far with anyone as goal of life is entire different. Baring responsibility of family at the age of 16 has left me with no choice of any such thought. When i have lost my Dad at that age I thought it would affect me at very large scale, but it didn't. I have covered situation pretty much in last 5 years. Right now at this stage I do not see that phase of my life as challenge as i have not done any special in that phase. I have behaved pretty normal recovered well without any issue. So I believe for any rejection. If that major blow has not affected my life then these are pretty small stuff. I don't have the regret of not living such life style, like my friends had in college life. I didn't even had any thought of expressing what I felt. So I don't have to think about - I should have told her, how she would have reacted, how we would be right now and such jazz. Somewhere I'm glad that it had save me from getting 'No'. But what i think now is that all of us have changed with time. I am not going to write anything bad about any of the crushes.That would be an insult to my temporary preference... :p

Well this is an never ending debate but what i feel is that .....It's just plain stupid to keep quiet because you fear rejection. If you have reason or goal like i had then it's different case. But other wise rejection has not yet resulted into one's death...let me be specific until the stupid one had chosen extreme way of ending life. People who claim to be shy or introvert are mostly the ones who fear that they will get no as an answer. What's wrong with a no? If it turns out to be a yes, then wouldn't it be the best decision of your life at least for that moment? Have heard somewhere in some Bollywood movie...

"Na to hey hi....to fir kyu na risk ley...Shayad ha ho jaye...."

And in English also there is one saying....

"If you will gamble then you might loss....but if you don't then you will never win " (not always true....but for this when you have nothing too loss then you can gamble.... :p)

Learn to say what you feel. Life will be better that way. 

Keep it simple silly !!!!!

Cheers,

Akash

Trek to taranga -1

Taranga is a jain temple located in mehsana district surrounding by natural beauty of forest and hills. It is most famous for Jain temples and is an ideal location for trekking. We were around 32 people from office who opted for this one day trip. It was my third trek trip from my office. First and second trip were of 'Jessore' and 'Polo forest'. However none of those both were new for me as I had been there with friends earlier. Both place were just like picnic spot and there wasn't much for trekking.  But  this time it was reverse case place was new for me and not for others as it was third trip for a same place from office.

I really didn't care about place.  I just wanted to stay away from being alone at my place on weekend. So without any hesitation I have nominated my self for the trip.  Unlike all other trips this time I didn't even knew that who all were coming till last day. But what I had there in one day was completely soothing experience. Don't wanna bore you guys with ramblings of my overworked mind. Let's start with the trip details.

As usual we hadn't planned to start picking up people from early morning. Stops were decided and everyone were expected to come on time.  But as I had experienced it last time I knew that time decided was our typical Indian standard time.  No one is going to come on exact time but with all excitement I had been there on time. As usual I have seen few of them were already there. Then it had started boring session of waiting for the bus along with gags and laughter of silly comments and memory of previous trip.

After long wait bus came and we all boarded in it. Unlike last time it was well maintained.  All who had been there on last trip had shown some sign of relief after not seeing same bus in which everything was making noise except horn and music system.

Just after 5 minutes before of leaving from office it had started the typical Indian game for journey.  Yeah you guessed it correct "The Antakshari". Whole herd was divided into two groups and then it had started an awesome round of game. Most of us had great time jingling our favorite songs.

Then it came famous moment when I realized that am getting old.  We had halt for tea on highway near some small hut.  Some of us who were addicted to morning tea had rushed for tea, few enthusiasts were clicking photos but what had trigger me to add incident over here is the bunch of freshers.  Just bunch of guys with fresh blood recently graduated from college with full of energy. They had just started climbing on bus.

One of them had just threw the word and two of them had started and all others had followed.  I too have done such stuff in college life and I might haven't think twice even before  jumping from there. But this time I didn't even dared to climb few steps.  Seems like getting older , yeah I will not still words some of us might call it maturity, but I will not.

We all had lot's of fun on rest is of the way with playing games. Yeah how can I forget this.  When we all had fun in shelter of bus two friends have opted for journey with bike ride. Yeah I might need to re-think about comment related to getting old with age.  Because one of the rider was the one with more most experienced among us and the other one was ultimate fighter and kung-fu master with tremendous physical strength.

We reached at the place around 10 and after having quick snacks and small session of ice breaking and instructions we headed for the trek. Instructions were clear that one should wear shoes with good grip and obviously wearing heals while trekking is crime.  However difficulty level of trek was beginner so there wasn't anything to fear. All of us were divided into four groups and each group had allocated a leader who had some trekking experience.  The one who had attended trek earlier knew that no one were going to follow such group.  Only group will stay to gather would be group of photographer. Yeah one cant deny the fact that in the age of Fb and twitter we all wants photo. Instead of enjoying that place at that time we were eager to click photos so that we can share with friends and keep them as memories. And its not that bad either , I am too one of them.

People like us who are going to work 8 hours a day in same cubicle for next few months (till next trip) really need a dose of booster sometimes.  Such photos with lovely memories full fill the need of such booster.

So with all those excitement and energy we had started the trek. As expected we had few guys with extra energy who were exploring extra places along with normal trek route. Few were just busy in clicking photographs.  Few were just trying pass comments and cracking jokes. All of us were moving ahead in really hot and humid environment with exchanging water bottles and sharing weights of bags. First quarter was completed without any major issue.  But then wickets started falling.  Effect of Lifestyles with sitting in air conditioned office whole day started coming into picture.  People had started taking break on short duration water bottles started getting empty. Guides started to getting frequent questions about how much distance is still left?

People were divided into two groups. The ones who wanted to complete the trek fast and the others who didn't care about time and taking their time with playing pranks,  enjoying photo sessions and exploring different shelters to rest.

After gathering at first assembly point and clicking few photos with whole group we had started towards next point.  Someone has started spreading rumors that next point would be the "paap-punya ni baari" (the window of sin and virtue). The one who have done sins would not be able to pass through that window. Obviously it was rumor but we had quite good amount of laugh and fun with it.

To be continued---->

Technology - Bless or Curse

I wanted to write something about this since long but never got some incident to get started with. This happen last weekend. On Friday i have talked with Mom and then something wrong happen with her phone. I have tried calling her in morning and found it was switched off. It's habit of my mom that she only keep cell phone in charging in every morning. So i have waited till night and called again and i was not able to connect. I have called my Di who is staying in same city and asked her to see if she can call any of the neighbor and ask her to turn on her cell phone.

Unfortunately she was not able to do it. I almost had sleepless night and tried again in next morning and when it was not turn on yet i was panicked and called my aunt living few km way from my home. She was scared too and ran back to my home and then all scenario unfolded and we had good amount of laugh.

But all happen due to something wrong with technology , i had sleepless night , made few relatives to visit my home and panicked Di too. So after all this only one thought was hanging on my mind....

Technology - Bless or Curse

Time flies. Another year is about to get over. 90's got over some 14 years ago, and that itself sounds scary. These days kids learn to operate mobiles and i pads even before they learn to say their name. I was brought up in a small town where cordless phone was also considered a fancy technology in those days. We had to go to big cities like Bombay to get certain toys, or fancy branded clothes and stationery. Now you just have to order it online and it gets delivered at your doorstep. I don't even think office people use stationery much anymore. 

There was this land line era that amazed you. How easy it was to connect with people staying miles apart. Or talking to someone staying next door without meeting or shouting at the top of your voice. Or giving blank calls when his father picks up the call, making a girl call you as boys' calls are not allowed at your place. One ring means come down to play - I have been through everything. After growing up, I asked my parents if they didn't trust me as a child, they said that they did trust me, but they were just protective about me. Eventually they allowed everything they had put restrictions on back then. So yes, it was not about trust after all.

Times have indeed changed. People are becoming more and more independent by being dependent on the technology. There is solution available on internet for every damn thing. Relationships are becoming more and more fragile. Distance keeps increasing between people. We take along portable gadgets to remain in touch with people instead of taking the pain of taking out time to meet them. Sms, phone calls, voice notes, blocking them, flirting with five people at a time, everything is connected with some social life of that person, it's a trend to be there on at least three different social networking sites, or messengers. You are easily reachable, but never available.

After Facebook, how many people have you called and wished on their birthday? Instead of keeping in touch with them regularly, we use this to avoid them as much as possible. We stalk them just so that we remain secure about their commitment towards us. We want to foresee the heartbreak. We fight if one boy likes her every second post. I think I should deactivate all my social networking site accounts too the day I decide to settle down. I am that scared.

Girls get into depression if they don't get many likes on their pictures. Yes, I recently read about this. It was so called Facebook addiction. And whats app addiction. "Last seen at" killed many relationships. We stopped using technology for good. We started abusing it. And misusing it. 

I don't know where did this post start from and where is it ending. I am writing after a long time. As i already told... I have been trying to write something for quite some time, but couldn't come up with anything worth reading. I discarded at least five drafts before starting this one. I feel sad. I miss the old time. But I am happy too. I can avoid people easily. But do I really want this? Am I really out of place in this fast moving world? Changing oneself with time is a good thing, but what if it involves killing your true self completely? Am I ready for such a change? Is it worth doing so? 

Life - And many unanswered questions. And many unchallenged answers.

Book Review - Chankya's Chant

The book which i hadn't finished at one go. Even had left reading at one point of time but you know what this one is the one of the best book i had read till date.

I heard about this book long ago but i had no interest in reading history so just avoiding it. 

Then one day one of my friend had discussed it. Actually she was my colleague and also cousin of my best friend. We were discussing novel Life of Pi and suddenly she told me about this novel and i felt like i should read it. Someone has said it right

"You should not judge a book by it's cover"

There is lot more there inside than it's cover. But i must admit that i hadn't read even summary of the novel before that discussion just avoided by hearing name of the book.

I have searched on the internet for the summary and before reading the book i was not knowing much about Chanakya and why only Chanakya ... I hardly know or remember anything about Indian history. Yeah i had read Ramayana, Gita and Mahabharata but that's all. Chandragupt Morya and Chanakya's are just name i have heard in some library books. Indian History and that too, of 2300 years ago, when India was called Bharat. Come on yaar who wants to know how was life back then?

But then i also had read something about parallel story of teacher turned into political master mind and that has exited me. That is my genre and i like to read on it. So I have asked my best buddy to give me that novel and there comes my journey starts with the novel...

This one is the most intuitive and awe-inspiring novel I have read so far. It takes readers in two plots one is of 2300 years ago, the story of the Chanakya who is also known as Kautilya and his king Chandragupta; and the other one is of the modern india, the story of teacher turned into politician Gangasagar Mishra and Chandni Gupta. 

Similarity in both story is that the first story is a fiction revolving around an actual person, Chanakya, who manipulates people with his ruthless strategies; But you know what it is the story of Gangasagar Mishra what makes the book, that it is. And i like it ....It is how, the author has weaved the story of Gangasagar Mishra in the modern day India ...this will make you fall in love with the book even more, and rightfully so, because we relate to the circumstances and the characters better. I mean it's about me i believe that though Gangasagar Mishra did the same thing as Chanakya, which was manipulating people to reach his ultimate goal, there was a huge difference in the way he did it. I can think about the tactics used by Gangasagar Mishra and relate with the story because the circumstances were different, so were their ways to tackle the obstacles and get things done their way. Now how exactly the Chanakya’s strategy is differ from Gangasagar Mishra is for you to find out.I think it's based on perspective of readers I am not giving away any spoilers. Just admitting that Author has given his best to the novel.

That was all about novel now let's talk about style of the author. I must say unique style of the author. I haven't read such kind of novel earlier and after reading other two novel of Amit Sanghi "The Krishna Key" and "Rozaballine" i became fan of the author. I remember that after completing first 150 page of novel at one go i have to take one week break before completing it due to hectic office schedule. And generally i am not big fan of weekend but i was dying to complete week to have the book in my hand one more time to finish it.

One more unique thing about book is the music track the sanskrit Chant. I liked it for Chankya's chant and Loved it for the Krishna key. For all those who are still not sure about giving this book a try or not, watch this YouTube video which would give a clear view of the book’s theme.

 

I have initially thought of giving 4.5 out of 5 but now giving 4 out of 5 cause the next novel of the author The Krishna Key is even better than this one.

Be polite everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle !!

          It was a Monday morning, as usual I felt sorry for myself, thought about various task clients may have allocated after I left early on Friday eve, but to my surprise, I had no work. I was frustrated again, now due to the fact that I don’t have anything to do today. I opened my Google reader and started reading out various articles and it made me think about my life. What I want from my life? My friends and family? What is my fear and most importantly why do I get angry on little things??

          My mind immediately began to ponder over past incidents and I started to get answers for my questions and these answers mainly included words like my EGO, expectations, dual standards and not being true to myself. Let me explain this with examples.

          Last weekend I was at my home town for short vacation. I was waiting for a friend, she was late as usual. I was irritated by the fact she never managed to come on time, not once (we know each other from past 6 years). Finally she came; I knew she might have gone late to parlor or been busy attending her phone calls.so I had not asked her about the reason but chided her for coming late somehow tried to pretend calm. She knew I was frustrated, angry at her but kept silent. We decided to go for movie but again I could calm down myself. I was there for more than 2 hours but still irritated. In effort to change my mood, she suggested having some food and I replied- “You can rule my life at your turns, now I will decide when and where we will be going”. Then we had some chat and finally after 4 hour, I was normal. We went for dinner and at the end, just to pull her leg, asked why she was late?

          She told me, she had terrible headache last night, so went to her brother’s place where she had fight with her sister in law. Then she came to her place and started cooking for me (as I don’t like eating outside often), she still had cold but she wanted to cook for me. In between she booked movie tickets for us. Her father called her and informed her, last guy she had visited as marriage prospectus had rejected her and her mother was angry her (somehow she always finds faults with her daughter). After all this, she left for the rendezvous, on her way she met with her ex, who was with her wife. Emotions jamming her mind, her phone rang, now her boss (on Saturday evening) and started to ask explanations for the escalation client just have thrown. Now she was feeling all “Disturb!! Disturb!! Disturb!!”

          She came to see me and you heard the rest of the story. I didn't have courage to ask her what she had prepared. Feeling the guilt, I reached her bag, took out the tiffin and started to eat. Only one statement was echoing in my mind. 

Be polite everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle !!

          Sometimes we expect a lot from someone and if that person fails to satisfy our expectations, we start to blame them. We are not even bothered to find out the reasons why he or she may have done that. We (at least me) never try to understand others situation and what they are going through. We have become so judgmental and demanding we tend to forget what other person might expect from us, they might have their own set of problem, own expectations. In fact, he/she might need us more than we need him/her.

          If you are mad at someone for some reason, sit with them. Ask what they are feeling (don’t be judgmental unless and until you know everything). Speak out and let them say, listen them and if necessary we always have lot of time to get mad at each other.

P.S. I have not mention name of the any character in story this might not be my story or may be it’s all imaginary stuff . But feelings behind words are true. It’s better to think before reacting rather than regretting those actions or reactions later.

Mentors.....

Had thought about writing something on this long ago but was not able to put to gather respect in words. It's just that every time i sat down to write, i felt paralyzed. Where should i begin? every time i started to write something, i'd read over it and it didn't seem right. So i'd tear it up and promise that i'd start over again the next day. But one day just kept turning into the next and then , too much time had passed.

I would like to start the post with a short story. 

"It was hostel canteen of an engineering college. As it was semester end examination time everyone was busy preparing and discussing exams,subjects and course content. Karan was one of those student present in the canteen. But he was lost in some thoughts. He was thinking of skipping semester end exams with a fear that he was not ready for it. It's not that he has not read anything or he was dull. But he just came back from home completing last rituals of his dad. He was brilliant student and had learnt the whole subjects through out the semester But i would say it was the lack of confidence. He was part of crowd but was lost in his own world of thoughts with lots of confusion.

There was one more person existed in crowd with having thought of skipping exams. He was Ravi . He was having same confusion due to some other reason. Both were sitting opposite to each other busy eating their lunch. Suddenly Karan asked Ravi why don't you have any reading material with you, have you completed everything? Ravi replied in low voice that he was planning to skip exams. He had make sure that no one was listening him. Skipping exam in first semester of engineering was equivalent to crime. Karan replied that he was to thinking on same line. 

After completing lunch both them went outside of campus. They have watched movie , have roamed around city and had dinner at some highway dhaba. Both returned to campus late in night. Exam in engineering college is like festival. Most of the students were gathered in single room of friend and were preparing for the exams. These both guys have decided to skip exams so they went back to their room and collapsed on bed.

Aarif was student of 7th semester of same college. He had excellent record in college and already been placed in some multinational. Aarif and Karan were from city and they know each other. News of Karan was skipping exams reached to Aarif next morning. Campus was like home for students and they were like family such news can spread faster than 3G speed. Soon after hearing news Aarif rushed towards the room of Karan. He was still sleeping on his bed as he didn't want to attend exams.

Aarif had woke him up and asked him to wear shirt and follow him. In engineering college campus seniors gets more respected than Professors. Without arguing much Karan joined Aarif with puzzled look. It was 9:00 and exam was scheduled on 9:15. Aarif have rushed towards the exam hall with Karan. He had drawn 2-3 pens out of his pocket and asked him to attend the exam and write down  what ever you know.

As soon after reading first question Karan was like yeah...i know bit about this let me write it down first and then second and third. He had completed paper with a great satisfaction. He has attended almost 80% question. Same was the case with other paper. Karan has completed the semester with B+ grade and completed his engineering with same. He is now working with some very good company with handsome package. It was due to Aarif. He had mentor Karan on right time. When on the other side Ravi didn't get that much needed mentoring . He had skipped the exam and went in depression. He didn't completed his engineering and lost somewhere in the crowd of unemployed youths."

The story ends here. But there are many Karan's and Ravi's are there but very few Aarif's. It's important for every Karan's to get mentors in form of Aarif's. 

I too have many mentors in my life (touch wood). I have always been lucky to get someone to mentor me as and when needed. Be it school, college or company.  

Many time i have tried to cry when i couldn't take it any more.

 But they have helped and taught me to get back and roar....

 I would like to mention their initials....( ab,db,sv,no,uc,tp,ht,hp,sj and last but not least mg.)

Thanks guys to be there for me.... at some stage of my life.

Innovation competition - Part 1

Innovation competition

So after a long time got a chance to write and publish on this topic.

Had thought about writing something on this long ago but was not able to put to gather those magic moments in words. It's just that every time i sat down to write, i felt paralyzed. Where should i begin? every time i started to write something, i'd read over it and it didn't seem right. So i'd tear it up and promise that i'd start over again the next day. But one day just kept turning into the next and then , too much time had passed.

It was the first time i have took part in such competition. Even it was the first such competition held at my office. Competition to find innovative ideas, discuss it and present it in front of jury.

It was just my good luck to be part of such unique team. As per one of the member ours was the complete team with lots of diversity. We had one developer, one QA, one documentation expert and one architect in our team. We all were cab mates and one fine evening one of the member came up with idea that why don’t we participate in it. We were travelling from GNR to AHD and without much discussion all were agreed to it and we had beautiful days and life long memories.

We used to spend 2 hours daily in travelling and we have decided to utilize those two hours to discuss the idea. One of the senior member had suggested that first we have to zeroed down on problem statement. Then we can start thinking about solution of that problem. Let me correct bit innovative solution of that problem.

So we had started looking for problems we used to face in our day to day life... There were plenty of them but i don’t remember all of them or say all of them were not that much important. I have listed down few of them which had some funny discussion associated with.

First one is traffic problem. One of the team mate suggested that in Ahmedabad we have very big issue with traffic. Certainly all were agree with problem statement. So after that we had started discussing about solution and that discussion was the one of the funniest part of the competition. One of the friend suggested that traffic issue is result of our typical Ahmedabad mentality.

For normal people....

Red light - stop, yellow means stop watch and go.....green means go.

For ahmedabadi people....

Green means go....yellow means go fast and....red means.... (check if anyone is looking otherwise) go very fast...

So very basic solution is to stop them forcefully at traffic signal. What normal people think about the situation...well that’s not important we were not normal not at that time at least. One member of team came up with idea. Let’s install spikes at each traffic point. When signal turns red Spikes will come up on the surface so vehicles can't break signals. Just like German cops use to stop criminals. I don’t know how this spike turned into iron grill which block the road entirely. Now that was the rule of discussion that when one team member suggest solution other team member have to throw counter arguments about solution. So one more member had said that what if street cow or dogs tries to cross the road. In this case we will have barbecue :p. I just have small smile while writing this but believe me we had a quite 5 minutes laughter on this during that time of discussion.

I don’t exactly recall all the point of discussion but at one point of time we also had one of my friend suggested idea of creating fighter train. She was just like we have fighter plane...fighter ship...but how come no one had idea of creating a fighter train. All of us were just listening and suddenly I woke up with statement like "but train runs on track...its route will be very predictable and how can it fight...."... I know it seems very normal to read this line but again you have to believe that the expression on my face and that situation was damn funny. Again we had quite good laugh on this topic at that time and many a time down the line during this last one year.

There were few more funny topics like smart fridge and bio luminous something something....but i don’t recall any funny incident related to those topic. Only funny part i remember is the image of Chinese girl which one member had shared with us. I can also recall one more incident and destructive idea but someone will kill me if i write it over here.... :p

Then we also had lots of fun after zeroed down on topic . But let me limit this post to topics we have not considered for presentation. I will cover that topic and funny moments associated with them in my next post.

Thanks a ton for giving me few memorable moments of my life.

P.S. I have tried many time but was not able to write .....I have started many times but abandoned idea soon after writing few lines. Right now I am uploading this while sitting on highway having coffee in hand. After fantastic start of week i have spoiled it. Starting of the week was so perfect that I can never imagine but as always i have spoiled it.... regretting it now.....there are many happy moments associated with this and I don't wanna loss any of them by any chance.....

Rambling of my over worked mind (3)

          It just started night before. After spending 3 long hours on bed without sleep I have woke up and decided to read something. Now the next question was what to read and I have zeroed down to reading old text messages from my cell phone. There were plenty of text messages stored in my phone date and occasion wise. I didn't know when exactly I fall sleep but certainly it was very late. But still I woke up early with some fair collection of a crappy dream.

          The entire day unfolded in front of me in extra slow motion. Starting from office …Tricky deadlines, unwanted argument with someone, unwanted calls for distractions, annoying calls from agencies, faltering technology (basically this stupid damn idiot workstation allocated to me), mounting depression complete with nosy relatives talking about my marriage. I think this was the day designed by the devil.

          First time in almost 3 years of my professional carrier I had some work related arguments which otherwise don't bother me at all, I don’t give damn to such issue after office hours at all but it was that kind of a day where everything distressed me.

          Now comes to the evening, I think this time I had let go the day slipping out of my hands. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn't anything special or drastic that happened. But my office work apart than project has always been demanding and I generally don’t say no to this type of charity work. Still, this was one of those days when all the reasoning and logic goes for a toss and I felt very weak, helpless and vulnerable at that moment.

Just then, I have turned up radio and it goes like….

"Rehna Tayar pichhe…kitana bhi koi khiche
Tas hey na mas hey ji….
Jid hey to Jid hey ji…..Chak de…chak de India"

Immediately I had smile on my face and I was like … Hey they are playing song for me… J

          Do you know what…? I think Music has a strange, strong power over us. It can make you happy or sad. It can make you feel things which you don’t do generally. Music can make or break things (especially heart). I think I can proudly say that “I am 24 year old and Music is my life”.

          I listen music when I am happy…I listen music when I am sad…I listen music when I am frustrated…I listen music when I am sick…I listen music when I feel energetic….We have music for all the occasions and all kind of feeling human being can feel.

          I just want to mention one song from our own Bollywood movie from Mission Kashmir “Rindposh something something” composed by “Sanker Ehsaan Loy” which has lyrics like “…sangeet me hey Geeta Quran….sangeet main hey…allah or Ram….sangeet tute dilon ko jodta hey…. And so on….

          Huh….Another weird post of mine…sorry for that ..... Started with from some crappy dream and ended with discussion about Music… Many spelling and grammar mistakes….but still….it feels good to be here once again… J

Happy Holi - Common man is burning!!!!

                     We had t-shirt painting competition at Office and the theme was Flames. I am not that much creative with paintings and never had participated in any such activities during my school or college time. But we had bit hectic schedule in last few months so just wanted some change so i have just decided to go for it. Fortunately didn't have to wait for long for team.

                     We had small discussion about theme during lunch time day before of competition and after that crazy one hour i was so sure that what ever the result will come we are going to have complete masti and fun for an hour. One of us was expert in making sketches so we have zeroed down on painting a cartoon. We had quite a lot ideas about sketches but we also had to consider theme of the competition that was "Flames".

                     Ideally when someone think about painting competition with theme flames first idea will struck to mind would be "The Flame Art" . But we were not common people and competition arranged in IT company always have some tinge of seriousness. We were sure that everyone will try to make something meaningful serious art with some message and we were in mood of 'Dhamal Masti' . 

                     We have zeroed down on cartoon with some message so it can serve the both purpose. Cartoon was about a common man running away from flame. Flame of corruption,inflation, price hike and many other general issues. So idea was about to giving a message with funny cartoon with some tinge of sarcasm.

                     We had lots of fun and fight while painting. There was one moment when all three of us had brush in hand and seriously painting suddenly had a look at painting made by others and we were gone mad. We had stopped painting for sometime and had good amount of laugh at others work. Obviously here other means among three of us otherwise other competitors were seriously busy in painting.

                     We were gone mad at each other at the last 5 minutes of competition the star painter among us was panicking and crying and coordinators were shouting to keep us away from our work. Few friends were helping us to complete work by motivating. Then we had small round of photo session like if it was more imp than competition

                     Here is the painting made by us during competition......

                     
                     Funny enough.....right? Obviously we didn't win any prize in competition but participating in it was nothing less than prize. But as being IT people we have to retrospect our failure. So we had small discussion in cafeteria about reason for not winning competition. Discussion goes like this....

• Reason  - It was about Common man :- We have choose the topic about common man and in this country no one is appreciating efforts of common man. Either you have to be star to get attention and resolved your issues with stardom or you have to be weak so that you can gain sympathy from others and they can fight for you. 
• Reason 2 - It was about Man :- We have choose the man to represent our work others have choose topic related to save women or daughter with tinge of feminism. I also have soft corners for women and as being brother and son i know how strong they are , so no offence against it. It's good that everyone is trying to spread awareness with using the whatever platform they get. Be it a Rangoli,poster making or any other competition but we always see few creations with this topic. Anyways that was not my thought and will write about it sometime else.

P.S. We also had lots of fun with paint brush.. post the competition.

Myths Facts About Introverts

I was in very happy mood and suddenly it has ruined away my mood. Incident was about FB and some of my actions on it. Friend of mine was asking "Why did i have delete that comment from her post?". They called it weird and they have every rights of it to say so. If you see it from my perspective i have just deleted comment to avoid unwanted notification of comments made on the post below my comments. This was apparently occurred in past too as i am using FB from the cell and by chance it doesn't give option to unfollow post from cell phone application. But they don't my part of story and called it weird and some other  fellows had joined too.

Then at night while sitting in balcony with my favorite coffee, i was thinking about this incident and reason behind people's behavior. It was the "ME" and my first image of an "Introvert" has lead them to think or over think about my such actions. So just wanna get rid of some of the "myths" about introverts in this post.

(Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V)

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.

This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.

Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.

Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.

On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.

Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.

Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.

Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.

Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopa mine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways.

Some nice lines

We never know why we like someone more than others....!

Why we love someone without any reason....!

Why we feel happy thinking about their presence.....!

Cause Some feelings has no "Explanation" or "Definition"....♥

Just like that lyrics  of that Bollywood song....

"Kya hey ye...kyu hey ye... kya pata...ha magar...Jo bhi hey...Bada achha lagata hey...."

Quit writing ???

               I have lost that enthusiasm and it's directly reflecting with my updates here. I have not seen dashboard in last one and half month. It seems like ages. I have not read any blogs either was more busy with work which i have piled up and also i was in sorting out everything kind off mood. Wanted to correct many mistake i have made during starting of this year.

               I am wondering it is same place where i used to write about anything like travelling or about spending weekend at some random place. It used to give me kick when i see someone , who is interesting and had lot to offer which can make a brilliant post. I know in back of my mind that i can not write anyway near to her but i have tried. It didn't matter for me that how many mistake i have made while writing those posts. I just wanted to write and i had done it.

               Today, things have been changed too much,i have to think... think before opening this dash board. Think before opening my diary. It's not that i am not having any subject. I don't know what exactly it is but i think motivation is the word. I love to write...be it a blog , orkut , facebook or my diary. But when i used sharing here with friends (stranger friends) and they read it and comments, Yes I love comments . It always feels good when people reads, let me correct people who don't know you reads and leave comment behind. But as i have made it private for sometime after some incidents i don't expect people to visit here and read it regularly.

P.S. : I used to feel happy when I write anything here. It can be about any random topic, extremely lame or smart, funny or philosophical any damn thing in the world. I used to write something every single day and save it as draft. Here, on this space it used to feel like home. I think it's been my home for more than 3 long years. I think it owes me many thing. I also think that it has a soul too, just like i have one. This place has given me hope, heart break, happiness, sadness, dreams, night mares , lots of love and extreme hatred. It's just like a parallel life, I have created for my self, with my words, with my imagination and sometimes for some people.