Saturday, January 15, 2011

Dream a little dream

Having a dream in life is a luxury; trying to achieve it give you a kick & reaching your goal is an achievement of the highest degree.
Well when I talk about dreams, the reference is tangible dreams & not vague ones – to make money & have a lavish lifestyle,et al. Dreams which makes you wish to put in all your efforts & your energy in realizing them; dreams which make you smile at each step; dreams which are so powerful that you live your life in order to live the dream-whether the final goal is achieved or not. The pleasure of living your life with your dream as a part of it must be worth waking up for.

But how many of us have that dream, that goal, that aim???

For most of the people, the toughest decision in life is deciding what decision to make, what goal to have. The people who know what they want in life – sports, academics, anything, anything at all are envied by others. And its not just the famous personalities or the so called celebrities that I salute; but even the people who decide that they do not wish to do anything other than stay at home & do nothing other than watch TV & socialize. Anybody who knows what they want in life are already achievers in my book. Well surely they have their bouts of uncertainty about the small things like what to eat or what to wear but the ability to make life changing / life altering decisions (whatever they are) make them special & consequently heroes in my eyes.

In case they are able to achieve their dreams, they are satisfied & if they do not achieve, it might be because they haven’t tried (for whatever reason) & they regret it or maybe they tried but failed to achieve them. In all cases, they have a story in their lives, a sense of achievement / regret, a sweet smile of remembrance, a dream to hold & cherish.

But what about the maximum people (oh yes there are many) who spend their whole life without any dream, who live life as it comes & move with the current. Most of them spend time cribbing about their day-to-day jobs, their lives, hoping for something better. But they do not know what; what will give them the sense of achievement when they are at the end of their lives. They wish to do something..but do not know what; they want to be satisfied in life but do not know how.

They dream of a dream..but do not know the dream.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

November Rain List

November Rain.. a song that everyone likes (or has a memory connected to it)..atleast I haven’t met a person who hasn’t proclaimed love for this song / smiled at the song & when asked for the reason for the smile, they give an elusive 'its a secret' look. Even the people who do not have an inclination to rock music have said that they can listen to this (looooonnng) song anytime.

Confession time..i don’t like the song..it isn’t that I haven’t tried.. the guitar, lyrics, video..all are good but somehow I still can’t bring myself to like the song..though I have had discussions in which I have claimed that I really like this GnR number. However, it was all a lie (well, yes I do lie & iam dabbang enough to accept it).

In order to connect to this song, I have decided to start making a list called the ‘ November Rain List’ It shall include all things that I wish I liked coz everybody seems to love them. Well, I can already think of a couple of the things that belong to this list.

F1 : It’s the biggest confession of all .. i am not fond of Formula 1. There i said it.  I love cricket (yes, I am a true Indian), I like soccer, I can watch tennis, badminton, all other sports, games, et all..but somehow the whole excitement about F1 leaves me baffled. Well, I do know a bit about F1 ( till its about Schumacher..he’s the only F1 guy I can remember right now) thanks to my friends, news, twitter, facebook. I know that Iam not alone who isn’t a fan of the sport. I certainly have met people who pretend that they watch every race but the one which is being discussed at the given point.
I hope people would stop asking me about my reaction to the last race or my prediction for the next race (atleast after reading this post).

Reading motivational books : All the Deepak Chopra s of the world could not make me read this genre. Trust me, many have tried..I can read a fiction (have read some in record time), history, biographies (ok,I haven’t read many..just a couple of them),anything & everything..but somehow, I am not able to read the books by so called ‘motivational gurus’. I now they are well researched, inspirational, attention grabbing (supposedly) books..but somehow their aura has always eluded me. I read them whenever I feel insomniac..and the effect of such a book on me is much better than counting sheep.

I am happy that I atleast started this list (will keep on adding stuff). Now, whenever I will hear this song, I too will have something to smile about.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

IPL Fever

60 evenings of watching tv ..60 days of arguments..60 days of hoping that the matches get over..60 evenings of wishing that the thrill continues..60 evenings of watching IPL parties.. 60 days of discussing the weirdness of silly IPL parties..60 days of fun & 60 days of headache..well those 60 days are over but the thrill & fun is far from over. All thanks to Mr. Lalit Modi & Mr. Shashi Tharoor.

IPL 1 belonged to the underdogs (Rajasthan Royals) & bhajji (d famous slap)..IPL 2 was for our fake IPL player, his blogs & famous Ms. Shetty ..but IPL 3 has proved to be the most tech savvy of all..we have tweets & obviously Mr. Mallaya Jr.. Wonder what IPL 4 would bring!!

We are all aware of the entertainment value of Mr. Tharoor..(i sometimes wonder how he could remain so safe & non scandalous till a couple of years back)..Well it seems that Twitter has found the correct brand ambassador in Mr. Tharoor. His ‘cattle class ‘ comment was famous enough but he beat it all with the comments on love of his life..I strictly mean Kochi..as in the place..in his sole concern of the existence of Kochi’s own team irrespective of the owners..apparently, he was just a ‘MENTOR’.

But then how could our dear Mr. ‘blackberry-designer label-pretty gals-hot cars flaunting' Lalit Modi be left behind..He had to come up with a point to beat Mr. Tharoor in his own game..TWITTER..

There began a match of words with LM bowling bouncers & googlies of accusations & ST batting along with his partner Ms. Sunanda Pushkar..with the cup of Kochi Team at stake..The bowler was strong & knew the soft spots of the batting team..the match started off an a one sided affair.. but as we sat with our popcorns in front of the TV & PC for the latest over of comments & tweets, the match suddenly became more interesting..so much so that even a few overs of our favorite IPL were missed to watch this new match. Mr. ST was declared retired hurt (which was better than being declared out). The other team rejoiced as we refilled our glasses. However, the remaining members of the batting team came together & Mr. LM was ousted from the ground on accusation of ball tampering as we gaped in amazement..aah…the perfect game..what more could we ask for?? It had fun, thrill, suspense, action, reaction, romance, comedy.. we even had a newspaper covering the ‘before’ & ‘after’ pics of Ms. Pushkar’s nose’s plastic surgery.

But, this game is far from over..We still have Mr. Modi tweeting that he’ll be back..So Ladies & Gentlemen, the sequel is around the corner..
(Well, actually this might turn to a daily soap).

Anyways, IPL is here to stay!!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Wazzup??

How do you answer..whats up?? Or wazzup?? or howz it going?? I have been trying to figure out answer to these seemingly simple questions but have still not been able to find a standard suitable answer. The problem becomes worse when somebody who hasn’t met you for a long time suddenly asks this question..Imagine this interaction on some social networking site..You see a friend (who hasn’t met you in last 5 years) is online, u feel happy &
You : Hey!!
Friend : Hello..wazzup??

What’s supposed to be the answer?? Obviously you might find it awkward to tell the person about the latest movie u watched / the pretty dress u bought / d most amazingly delicious ice-cream you dreamt about yesterday which made you smile in the morning & wish you could sleep a little longer to find out the name of the flavor (mmmmm…). Coming back to the question, what are you supposed to tell them??? Well, I have realized that in this match of social correspondence, the one who poses the ‘wazzup’ question first, wins. And after that the conversation is no problem.

Frankly, I am not very good at answering this question..So, I asked a few able conversationalists about the answer to this dreadful question ‘WHAZZUP’ posed by a friend (meeting after 5 – 10 years). A few remarkable replies are given below :

1) Answer through a counter question (max. votes..supposed to be the correct reply)
- Am doing great..what’s up on your end??
- Am good..how have you been?? Where are you nowadays??

2) Answer in loooong stories..
- Start with your job, your working hours, your marital status, your friends…in short, a 200
word write-up on your life..till the other person regrets asking the question

3) Literal answer
- Sky!! (Love d answer :) )

4) Avoid the question & let the other person know that u are not interested in a conversation
- Nothing..

5) Then there were a list of people who were as blank as me (some even blanker..if possible).

(A very special thanks to all the people who took out time to be a part of this utterly silly survey)

Well, everybody who’s reading this, wazzup????

Friday, January 22, 2010

Regional divide- the latest trend!!

We reside in a country where a catholic lady steps aside for a sikh to be sworn PM of the world’s largest democracy by a Muslim President (Namastey London). I felt proud when I heard this dialogue & realized how true it was...a good change from the Babri masjid, Godhra riot days. We all know that the whole religionist attitude is not over..lets be realistic, it can’t be over.We can’t expect more than 1 billion people to suddenly decide to be more tolerant, more secular. But, we the people of India, are secular enough to keep our religionist views aside while choosing leaders of our country. No one could imagine this 20-30 years ago. Now thats a change – a good one too. Proud…absolutely!!

Now think about this…only marathi speaking taxi drivers in Maharashtra; a minster being slapped in Parliament for taking oath in our national language; job reservations for people of a particular state……..Amazing!!!!!

Is region taking the place of religion?? i hope not. Are we so pathetic that we always need a reason to define our boundaries..our territories..our groups?? Fighting for caste, religion is passé now.. the latest trend is - demand for a new state, reservations based on states, infrastructure for a particular region or even murder due to interstate / region marriage. Come to think of it, all this is replacing the ‘reservation for minorities’, ‘caste fights’, ‘ murder due to intercaste marriage’ columns in newspapers.

The trend continues in TV serials as well..Now we have a saas bahu serial for almost each state – Gujrat, Rajasthan Punjab, Haryana … watch it to believe it.

We read about globalization, merging of boundaries & at the same time Pakistani players are left out of IPL bidding..We don’t need to delve upon it especially when we are talking about increasing the number of states in our own country. And what not is being done achieve it: fasts, strikes, speeches..The involvement of people is so high that we had astrologers on news channels to predict the number of states at end of 2010. And then we talk about how we are are emerging as one of the best countries to be in right now. Just imagine how difficult it would be for the coming generations to remember the names of all states (& their capitals too).

Well, I guess we Indians need a reason to argue / fight among ourselves & we don’t need help from outside; we find the reasons ourselves, from within us.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Delhi ki Sardi

Finally winters are here!! All the winter loving people have already starting rejoicing & smiling. Not that Delhi is anywhere close to Canada (where every other person’s relatives reside who take immense pride in letting us know the daily temperature..and the day there is snow fall – beware as this would be the topic of conversation for the entire day!!) or even apna Shimla; but still we look forward to a post dinner walk (with piles of clothes on) having icecream / chuski & shivering in the cold..or sitting in the blanket watching TV & eating peanuts / oranges..the list is endless…

Even though we Delhites love to wear layers of winter clothes, they are a big no-no at the weddings..Weddings are a true test of our immunity..where the deep necks, sleeve less, mid-riff baring dresses are a must for every girl/woman (irrespective of age or weight)… anybody carrying a shawl is declared an Aunty rightaway.

Going out in our very own Delhi ki sardi is a big hassle..It takes hours to co-ordinate the sweater (after checking if the drycleaner’s tag has been removed) and the jacket (bought from last year’s end of season sale); jeans with the boots..not to forget the cap & d mittens & the muffler ..et all. By the time you leave, you realize that sun is in the sky & the heat becomes unbearable..whew!! You spend the whole time sweating & fuming (fighting with the Delhi traffic with A/C switched on in the car)…but those jackets can’t be taken off..when else would you wear them. Plus, if you dare not to carry the weight of all these clothes & leave your place with a confident ‘Sun in Beaming' look; the evening chill might freeze that smile on your face.

Still, the happy memories, warm colors, hot coffee, big blanket, morning fog, lazy days are enough to make us welcome this season with open arms.

With a few days remaining for the end of this season all that I can wish for all of us is.. enjoy the season - it won’t come back for another year..Happy Winters :)