IN life comes a time when you feel like being "somewhere"...and you would only know when u arrive in that space..irrespective of your family & friends telling/warning you...!
And then you feel like settling down, u feel u r ready for new experience and more responsibility. You analyse, whett, think and decide to take the next step..BUT what if you are wrong..
what if it was a camouflage..what if you should have thought through the consequences and the aftermath of your "decision"
What NOW if you are late..
Dont be a schmuck...whett your options really well, prioritise your expectation and especially your parents honour...fight for it...even if you have to let go that one this you may want...
UNLESS
You have still not arrived in that space.. (the case with me)... hmmmm
Mont Blanc
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Are you at the right place ?
A mother and a baby camel were lazing around and suddenly the baby camel asked…
Baby: Mother, mother may I ask you some questions?
Mother: Sure! Why son is there something bothering you?
Baby: Why do camels have humps?
Mother: Well, son, we are desert animals, we need the humps to store water and we are known to survive without water
Baby: Okay, then why are our legs long and our feet rounded?
Mother: Son, obviously they are meant for walking in the desert, you know with these legs I can move around the desert better than anyone does! Said the mother proudly
Baby: Okay, then why are our eyelashes long? Sometimes it bother my sight
Mother: My son, those long thick eyelashes are your protective cover. They help to protect your eyes from the desert sand and wind. Said mother camel with eyes rimming with pride…….
Baby: I see. So the hump is to store water when we are in the desert, the legs are for walking through the desert and these eyelashes protect my eyes from the desert. Then what the hell are we doing here in the zzzoooooooo!
MORAL OF THE STORY IS:
“Skills, knowledge, abilities and experiences are only useful if you are at the right place”
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Submerged !
Guys
I am just back from a musical extravaganza of a lifetime. Aly & Fila one of the best DJ's in the world were in town and of-course i dint waste anytime in re-working my schedule to accommodate this event.
At the venue, I must say i was thrilled and equally enchanted by their sense of trance, they literally brought the house down. There were two types of people present at the venue - One who'd heard them and the others who did not. Both went crazy with each beat of musical trance they played and took us right above ecstasy.
I got a chance to meet them at the beginning, we exchanged pleasantries & few snaps. I told them how huge a fan i was, and i had stocked almost all their collection in my Iphone. I placed few of my requests - lost language, neptune project & vast vision -- all of these were obliged at the most opportune moment - right when the crowd went berserk and just cldn't have handled any more.
Since the last few months i have been following them all over net, i went crazy moment i heard that they were going to play in Bangalore.
I must say these guys have the potential to be right there at the top, the very fact Armin (world's best DJ), Akesson, DJ Shah and many others also endorse their music, these guys have an amazingly bright future ahead.
Watch out for them! And just don't miss them, if they happen to be in your city.
As Nikhil Chinnappa said " those of you who came here thinking its just another sunday night to be spent at FUGA with your gf or with your frds - GUYS don't be surprised coz you all are gonna have an experience of a lifetime"
WELL i was SUBMERGED in the future sound of trance.
Cheers!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Pride and Prejudice (An article from TOI)
Who carries you on a rickshaw or an autorickshaw in Delhi? Biharis. Who drives the cars of Delhiites? Biharis. Who made Punjab the most prosperous state in the country? The answer again is Biharis. (Here too you may not agree.)
The credit for building the Delhi Metro or making Punjab prosperous will never go to Biharis. Does anyone ever say that blacks built America?
In colonial days, Bihar supplied the "girmitiya", or indentured, labour force that built countries like Mauritius,Suriname and Fiji. A bulk of the labour employed in the Raj capital of Calcutta came from Bihar. After Independence, as opportunities grew, Bihari workers flocked to places like Delhi, Punjab and Mumbai.
At the same time, Biharis excelled in other fields. Many of them became great political leaders, ICS and IAS
officers, scientists, doctors, engineers, writers and artists. Delhi and other Indian cities attracted huge white-collar Bihari populations and Biharis formed a large part of the Indian diaspora of professionals.
But in the eyes of the rest of India, "Bihari" had come to mean a labourer, a person doing menial jobs. It had become a term of scorn and contempt. In their anglicized lingo, places like Delhi University turned the word into "Harry", but the pejorative tone remained unmistakable.
Heaping scorn on the working classes is a universal phenomenon. That is how words like Negro, Paki (used for Pakistanis and Indians in Britain) and some of the words denoting dalit castes in India earned contemptuous connotations.
In fact, while Biharis were getting their hands dirty on Punjab's farms, Punjabis were migrating in hordes to the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Never mind that they would take up blue-collar jobs as taxi drivers, petrol pump attendants and waiters in those faraway lands.
As the years passed, many of the Biharis who had come to Punjab or Mumbai as manual labourers started moving up the economic ladder as did the blue-collar Indian emigrants abroad. A usually unnoticed aspect of the so-called racial attacks against Indians abroad is the threat the rise of working classes poses to the entrenched social order. This accentuates the contempt they face. Viewed thus, the attacks on Biharis in Punjab, and Mumbai, and the attacks on Indians abroad are manifestations of the same phenomenon.
What stopped Biharis from bringing about a green revolution or building a Metro in Bihar? The answer is geography and history. Geography, because ravaged by floods, the land of Bihar was unable to feed its growing population. And history, because what was the centre of the biggest Indian empire in ancient times was reduced to an obscure provincial existence. The skewed landownership system introduced by the British rulers worsened the situation.
It is a story of a couple of hundred years. Things could have improved after Independence had the political leadership of Bihar been able to exert influence on the rulers in New Delhi to get enough funds for development projects and set off a process of industrialization in the state.
On the contrary, Bihar continued to live the same, conveniently ignored, provincial existence. A system built on casteism, nepotism, corruption and crime came to dominate the state. It spawned a neo-rich class of netas, babus, contractors and government engineers who would build palatial houses for themselves with the money meant for dams, power projects, ration for the poor or even fodder for cattle.
The money meant for roads, other infrastructure and public amenities would go into their bank accounts. No wonder, the roads - supposed to be built with public money - in front of those houses would be full of ditches and become the playground of pigs every monsoon.
With limited options of higher education and hardly any employment opportunities in the state, the youth of Bihar started looking out. They flooded places like Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. They started dominating the country's toughest competitive tests like the IIT Joint Entrance Examination and the UPSC's civil services examination. With this success, Biharis started believing that they were the brainiest. As for others, they at least began to acknowledge that Biharis were inferior to none when it came to brainpower.
The academic success, however, did not do much to rid the word "Bihari" of the scorn it had gathered. People in Delhi continued to laugh at those who spoke with a Bihari accent. Those who spoke without an accent would get this compliment: "Oh, you are from Bihar? But you don't sound like a Bihari."
Biharis, meanwhile, were retreating into a shell, with little but the glory of ancient and medieval heroes like Buddha, Mahavira, Chandragupta, Chanakya, Ashoka, Aryabhatta, Guru Gobind Singh and Sher Shah to bask in. Now comes 11% growth. The state can recover from the damage it has suffered over hundreds of years only if such a high rate of growth can be sustained for many, many years. Then Biharis would not have to till others' land or build cities and countries elsewhere.
The writer is proud to be a Bihari. So am I.
The credit for building the Delhi Metro or making Punjab prosperous will never go to Biharis. Does anyone ever say that blacks built America?
In colonial days, Bihar supplied the "girmitiya", or indentured, labour force that built countries like Mauritius,Suriname and Fiji. A bulk of the labour employed in the Raj capital of Calcutta came from Bihar. After Independence, as opportunities grew, Bihari workers flocked to places like Delhi, Punjab and Mumbai.
At the same time, Biharis excelled in other fields. Many of them became great political leaders, ICS and IAS
officers, scientists, doctors, engineers, writers and artists. Delhi and other Indian cities attracted huge white-collar Bihari populations and Biharis formed a large part of the Indian diaspora of professionals.
But in the eyes of the rest of India, "Bihari" had come to mean a labourer, a person doing menial jobs. It had become a term of scorn and contempt. In their anglicized lingo, places like Delhi University turned the word into "Harry", but the pejorative tone remained unmistakable.
Heaping scorn on the working classes is a universal phenomenon. That is how words like Negro, Paki (used for Pakistanis and Indians in Britain) and some of the words denoting dalit castes in India earned contemptuous connotations.
In fact, while Biharis were getting their hands dirty on Punjab's farms, Punjabis were migrating in hordes to the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Never mind that they would take up blue-collar jobs as taxi drivers, petrol pump attendants and waiters in those faraway lands.
As the years passed, many of the Biharis who had come to Punjab or Mumbai as manual labourers started moving up the economic ladder as did the blue-collar Indian emigrants abroad. A usually unnoticed aspect of the so-called racial attacks against Indians abroad is the threat the rise of working classes poses to the entrenched social order. This accentuates the contempt they face. Viewed thus, the attacks on Biharis in Punjab, and Mumbai, and the attacks on Indians abroad are manifestations of the same phenomenon.
What stopped Biharis from bringing about a green revolution or building a Metro in Bihar? The answer is geography and history. Geography, because ravaged by floods, the land of Bihar was unable to feed its growing population. And history, because what was the centre of the biggest Indian empire in ancient times was reduced to an obscure provincial existence. The skewed landownership system introduced by the British rulers worsened the situation.
It is a story of a couple of hundred years. Things could have improved after Independence had the political leadership of Bihar been able to exert influence on the rulers in New Delhi to get enough funds for development projects and set off a process of industrialization in the state.
On the contrary, Bihar continued to live the same, conveniently ignored, provincial existence. A system built on casteism, nepotism, corruption and crime came to dominate the state. It spawned a neo-rich class of netas, babus, contractors and government engineers who would build palatial houses for themselves with the money meant for dams, power projects, ration for the poor or even fodder for cattle.
The money meant for roads, other infrastructure and public amenities would go into their bank accounts. No wonder, the roads - supposed to be built with public money - in front of those houses would be full of ditches and become the playground of pigs every monsoon.
With limited options of higher education and hardly any employment opportunities in the state, the youth of Bihar started looking out. They flooded places like Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. They started dominating the country's toughest competitive tests like the IIT Joint Entrance Examination and the UPSC's civil services examination. With this success, Biharis started believing that they were the brainiest. As for others, they at least began to acknowledge that Biharis were inferior to none when it came to brainpower.
The academic success, however, did not do much to rid the word "Bihari" of the scorn it had gathered. People in Delhi continued to laugh at those who spoke with a Bihari accent. Those who spoke without an accent would get this compliment: "Oh, you are from Bihar? But you don't sound like a Bihari."
Biharis, meanwhile, were retreating into a shell, with little but the glory of ancient and medieval heroes like Buddha, Mahavira, Chandragupta, Chanakya, Ashoka, Aryabhatta, Guru Gobind Singh and Sher Shah to bask in. Now comes 11% growth. The state can recover from the damage it has suffered over hundreds of years only if such a high rate of growth can be sustained for many, many years. Then Biharis would not have to till others' land or build cities and countries elsewhere.
The writer is proud to be a Bihari. So am I.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
AVATAR
What a phenomenon!! Refreshing & Re-defining movie experience.
Once in a while...OR rather...ONCE In a decade comes a movie that can re-define movie-making and give it a new direction..this happened with Gone with the wind - Ben Hur - The God Father - ET - The Shawshank Redemption - Independence Day -Titanic and then the latest 2012. They all brought about a different kind of change and perspective. I would place this new bewildering experience called AVATAR in a similar league...
But...it still stands CLASS apart..why?
Well all through these ages (and ever since i opened up to this world and learned to speak & understand) in movies, we have seen & been intimidated by ALIENs - (creatures whom we have tried to learn and understand in our motion pictures) threatening to dominate our mother Earth and posing a greater challenge to eradicate the human race. AND the world gets UNITED to fight this threat.
NOW Just turn this situation around...make ourselves the superior species, with overwhelming powers and technology posing a threat to other planets OR one in particular called - PANDORA(owned & dominated by a still evolving race called NA'VI - peace-loving indigenous inhabitants, who need to relocate or else will be destroyed with bombs by Alien humans. NA'VI - pose a stark resemblance to our very own Hindu mythology in some way (a clan known as ARYANS, color skin, god like appearance, monkey tails from Ramayana era, background hymns and many more). And this leads to a fight between extra terrestrials, fight for a ground to gain freedom of existence - and leading to unification of various clans to match the so called Aliens (humans) who just wouldn't understand their(Na'vi) perspective. Thank you MR. JAMES CAMERON
This guy is a genius...he just does n't believe in usual stuff...he gained ground with Terminator 2 - then vanished, returned back with TITANIC which was mind boggling - and again disappeared only to come back after more than a decade in his new AVATAR - although in a different way from his previous works - WHAT an Idea..wonderful characterization...genuine flow of emotions...such exquisite finesse, aesthete and eye for detail, he almost takes your breath away. This movie would take you to a whole new world filled with all the colours of life & hopes of existence.
You will be thrilled to enjoy the computer developed characters and their instant flow of varied emotions. SAM WORTHINGTON playing JAKE SULLEY in AVATAR who did catch our attention in Terminator 4 and made me look forward for his forthcoming BATMAN series ! BUT in this movie particularly he just couldn't match the might of his own AVATAR. Well we are still glad.
Rather all the animated characters looked so overpowering and just intact with their acting skills and keeping the audience on the edge of their seat.
Without going in to much details, i would recommend one and all to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience. I really admired James Cameron and must say i am a huge fan of his perfection, the only thing i hate about him is that he takes a long long time to come in with a new concept. Few years back i read about his research on BISMARCK and how he was going to transform it into a motion picture, but may be the subject din't excite him enough...WELL lets thanks----else we wouldn't have got exposed to this whole new world of Avatar.
So enjoy - this TITANIC of a movie with definition of ALIENs redefined - at the backdrop of a love story & a race's commitment to fight for its rights & continuity of its existence!
Summing up - AVATAR is the mother of all blockbuster movies ever made till date; it is too enchanting and long lasting because of its elegant cinematic experience. SO rush to theaters NOW..coz I just can't wait to watch it third time...
Signing off.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Empty Spheus
The world has changed for me. And it seems - i have for the World.
There is a deep rising beneath from a vacuum filled of emotions - that's killing me. Is it because of failed relationships or friends that i think i've lost in my quest to grow professionally. I was a social animal, i had my own breed of cattle, but i cant find it any more.
Who is responsible for that. Well i dont know, but in life you are meant to make sacrifices ! These were mine.
I am in doldrums, my feelings are down and out. I have become stoic, unimaginative, unimpulsive - so not SINGH. But that's what you wanted - right! Well here i am.
But for those uninspired SOULS - Guys don't be stupid; Remember - "change the WORLD - never change for the World"
Don't make a fool of yourself.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
A time of my life !
I just read a blog written by my very good friend parihar. It really inspired me to open up my blog and pen down few memories from my college book.
I miss college days a lot, but more than anything, i miss my friends and the frolicking time we had together. We were 6 of us, closely knitted, closely bound, meant to be together, till time did us apart. TAPAN, PARIHAR, SHANU, ADITI, PAYAL and Myself - we were like one big family of friends.
I dont have as sharper memory of my early days as parihar, so i dont remember when and how WE happened. But i think we ppl just clicked and found comfort and solace in each other.
So if someone was out and dry, there were always others to console and cheer up, all it took was few butter samosas and a treat in sri maya... (payal , shanu!!)
Shanu, Aditi and Payal's home were like our own home away from our native places. Parihar me and tapan were good at finding reason for all of us to hangaround at any of these places. Aunty never used ot mind, as we were like her own kids OR we were good at - "personification of decency "- at least i was ;)
Time passed on and we grew stronger together - be it studying for exams (i used to be very attentive then), bunking, pastime, movies, ralamandal (parihar babu), long driving, appearing for CAT, visiting IIM Indore, brand quizzing - we would just be together. Not to say, many would jealous us.
Aditi, Shanu and Payal had specific responsibilities of reciting lectures - 2 hrs before the paper - so as to enable me to pass the cut off - i never dissappoined them. Sometimes parihar and tapan also used to worry about me - and helped me in covering the course, although deep inside they knew "ye nahin sudhrega".
well life moved on and one by one we started getting de-engaged. First payal got married - we really missed her during our last few semesters - she used to be the cutie pie of the group - always ready to be pampered by her loving brothers (that would be me, tap and parihar).
Shanu on the other hand was a loving and caring sister who would just keep on babbling. She was a real chatterbox never short of energy, which made US a good companion - we would move around the college pestering everyone and anyone - (stupid cupid).....time moved on - she is well placed in hyd - should get married soon, but she doesn't speak to me any more. I dont know why.
Aditi, my best friend, who understood me better than anyone else, was the real powerhouse. Lots of energy, esp in her voice - it irritates me till date - while speaking to her i made sure to be at a safe distance from the speaker (she wil kill me for this).
She would just know what and how i feel, if i was low she would be the one to share my pain (when girls ditched me) she would care the most for everyone. Sometimes it really used to annoy me, coz she was just so much possessive of us. If we speak to anyone outside our "circle of trust", we knew we'll get a good spanking. She is married and well settled now, her's been the only marriage i have attended (others who trod that path are - tapan, parihar and payal) and it was just amazing to be wth old friends.
Tapan bhau, praihar and me shared a very special bond. We were like three legs of tripod. (with a support in form of aditi, shanu and payal). Tapan is one of the most genuine, down to earth person i have ever met, which makes him all the more vulnerable. He is one good samaritan always ready to help others.
Parihar on the other hand is the person who is a hallmark of gravity and maturity. He is the most learned of us all, (also coz he's seen the world more than us ;), most well behaved, best of ettiquete and mannerism, highly sentimental and very trustworthy. Well which mean an excellent ingredient for a long term good freind and that's exactly what he is. I learned from him a lot, but never told him this. Me, tapan and parihar were so different individually but somewhere we compliemented each other in many aspects.
Well we would be with each other in all moments, but time really changed after job. Distance started mattering, job becaome a priority, i personally could not invest much in fostering the relation, though i always liked and loved my freinds. I missed Tapan's and Parihar's marriage, sth we vowed to be part of (during college ) becoz of certain other commitments which became a priority then..well i dont sound to be giving excuses..but i sometimes i think i 'have missed some really good moments of my life...
Wish all of us could be together again, cherishing old memories and deeds..wish only this time could roll back (just like benjamin button)...
wish we could be friends..WE WERE ONCE...
I just WISH...
I miss college days a lot, but more than anything, i miss my friends and the frolicking time we had together. We were 6 of us, closely knitted, closely bound, meant to be together, till time did us apart. TAPAN, PARIHAR, SHANU, ADITI, PAYAL and Myself - we were like one big family of friends.
I dont have as sharper memory of my early days as parihar, so i dont remember when and how WE happened. But i think we ppl just clicked and found comfort and solace in each other.
So if someone was out and dry, there were always others to console and cheer up, all it took was few butter samosas and a treat in sri maya... (payal , shanu!!)
Shanu, Aditi and Payal's home were like our own home away from our native places. Parihar me and tapan were good at finding reason for all of us to hangaround at any of these places. Aunty never used ot mind, as we were like her own kids OR we were good at - "personification of decency "- at least i was ;)
Time passed on and we grew stronger together - be it studying for exams (i used to be very attentive then), bunking, pastime, movies, ralamandal (parihar babu), long driving, appearing for CAT, visiting IIM Indore, brand quizzing - we would just be together. Not to say, many would jealous us.
Aditi, Shanu and Payal had specific responsibilities of reciting lectures - 2 hrs before the paper - so as to enable me to pass the cut off - i never dissappoined them. Sometimes parihar and tapan also used to worry about me - and helped me in covering the course, although deep inside they knew "ye nahin sudhrega".
well life moved on and one by one we started getting de-engaged. First payal got married - we really missed her during our last few semesters - she used to be the cutie pie of the group - always ready to be pampered by her loving brothers (that would be me, tap and parihar).
Shanu on the other hand was a loving and caring sister who would just keep on babbling. She was a real chatterbox never short of energy, which made US a good companion - we would move around the college pestering everyone and anyone - (stupid cupid).....time moved on - she is well placed in hyd - should get married soon, but she doesn't speak to me any more. I dont know why.
Aditi, my best friend, who understood me better than anyone else, was the real powerhouse. Lots of energy, esp in her voice - it irritates me till date - while speaking to her i made sure to be at a safe distance from the speaker (she wil kill me for this).
She would just know what and how i feel, if i was low she would be the one to share my pain (when girls ditched me) she would care the most for everyone. Sometimes it really used to annoy me, coz she was just so much possessive of us. If we speak to anyone outside our "circle of trust", we knew we'll get a good spanking. She is married and well settled now, her's been the only marriage i have attended (others who trod that path are - tapan, parihar and payal) and it was just amazing to be wth old friends.
Tapan bhau, praihar and me shared a very special bond. We were like three legs of tripod. (with a support in form of aditi, shanu and payal). Tapan is one of the most genuine, down to earth person i have ever met, which makes him all the more vulnerable. He is one good samaritan always ready to help others.
Parihar on the other hand is the person who is a hallmark of gravity and maturity. He is the most learned of us all, (also coz he's seen the world more than us ;), most well behaved, best of ettiquete and mannerism, highly sentimental and very trustworthy. Well which mean an excellent ingredient for a long term good freind and that's exactly what he is. I learned from him a lot, but never told him this. Me, tapan and parihar were so different individually but somewhere we compliemented each other in many aspects.
Well we would be with each other in all moments, but time really changed after job. Distance started mattering, job becaome a priority, i personally could not invest much in fostering the relation, though i always liked and loved my freinds. I missed Tapan's and Parihar's marriage, sth we vowed to be part of (during college ) becoz of certain other commitments which became a priority then..well i dont sound to be giving excuses..but i sometimes i think i 'have missed some really good moments of my life...
Wish all of us could be together again, cherishing old memories and deeds..wish only this time could roll back (just like benjamin button)...
wish we could be friends..WE WERE ONCE...
I just WISH...
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I think therefore i am