Saturday, July 28, 2007

Ah! the rains....

Rain pattered on my panes today,
teasing me after quite a while,
And i rush into those tempting arms
of hope for joy, stretched to a mile.
hope for seeing that land of bliss,
where all of nature's bounty do mix,
And paint you a picture of beauty such
That remember other, you don't really much.
Where the bees hum and the birds chirp
In rhythm with the beat of the dripping mirth
And the leaves rustle in melody too
While the eyes glaze over green and blue
As all the colours in the world flock to merge
One cannot help but give in to the urge
To dance with joy in life's blessing
And with cheer, to whistle and sing
Our hearts, with joy, do oh so swell!
That we choose to forever, in this dream, dwell
And rudely, it seems, I'm shaken out of my stupor
By silence, so absolute, in all its splendour
The rain's gone back to its blessed home
And my naughty heart just stops to roam.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

When dreams come true...

One of the world’s favorite fantasies apparently is the one where we play damsels in distress and are rescued by picture perfect clichéd hero of ours! Ok, I correct that statement… it is only half the world’s favorite fantasy… The men with their insatiable egos play the hero in those dreams. But in the end of the day, all of us have seen that vision…from whichever angle. We all secretly harbor strong desires to see that particular dream come true. And most of us end our lives with but a tiny little sigh in our hearts for not having been the hero!
We often believe dreams don’t come true because we paint them an expensive emulsion and keep them under lock and key in fear of it being stolen! We guard that gate with our lives thus failing to see how our dreams fuse into reality behind our backs! Even as I write this down, more than half this world is unknowingly living their dream… Damn! If it weren’t for that darned change of shade in reality! Pain and suffering are somehow, established in a more familiar language in our lives and we get so caught up in their enthralling stories of sorrow that we fail to enjoy the soft breeze of faith, hope and surprisingly, reality, which is what keeps us buoyant during the stories!
Coming back to the world’s favorite dream… it’s a shame to see people sigh on their last steps up. If only someone would be willing to follow them up just to let them know that their dream DID come true! Jokes apart, we live our best fantasy every time we share emotion with someone in this world. This is how… the one thing in this world that makes distressed damsels out of us is losing hope. When we give up hope, is when we reach the absolute bottom of the ladder that is the journey of life. And when that one blessed person comes along who infuses a little of that very hope into our lives, he is our hero. Hope is what gives and takes life and the business of hope is what makes us heroes! So, go back in time and think of every single time you helped a friend in need… every time you were helped by a friend when in need. Every piece of candy we bought for a crying child on the street, every lunch box shared with us when we almost went hungry, every note we ever lent to our struggling classmate, every lesson taught to us when we seemed inches away from jumping off our buildings. Every merciful candy came at a time when the child was losing hope for food, every nick of time lesson came when we were giving up hope of passing the exam. All these events, have in their own way, saved lives. Or to be more specific, it has saved our hope for life. On the basis of which we have all to build our vibrant, colorful lives. So we’ve all been heroes at some point of time in our life or at least met real life heroes in our life. The only reason we don’t recognize them for their true worth is because they don’t have capes or wear red underwear!
For all those with raised eyebrows right now, I have but one question to ask… what is it that the supermen and batmen of the world do, anyway? Save the world? How, exactly? Let’s see the latest fantastic four flick as an example… the heroic four save the entire planet from the calamity that was to be struck by a gigantic planet-eating being. Why would they do that, now? What is it that they are saving, anyway? Those mortals on the street who have no clue about the oncoming danger? Why? Because those mortals have a right to live? Or at least a right to a hope to live? That is exactly what these superheroes are saving… that hope for life… that one emotion that drives the entire planet… hope! Superman can only save you from the building about to crash on your head…He can’t solve your problems with you partner or every other misery of yours. Your life is yours to live. And yours alone. All these heroes do is save your strength to live…your hope! That’s it… so simple… yet so hugely impressive only when accompanied with stunts like the emptying of the Thames…
Every man who stands up for a person, who is right, is a hero. And I do not speak only of the high profile court dramas so carefully archived by the ever-expanding media. I mean every kid who stands up in school and testifies when his teacher is wrongly punishing his classmate. I mean every boy in college who stands up for the poor girl being ragged by the bullies. I mean every man who tells off his colleague for speaking rudely to the office peon. Somewhere, we have a hero in all of us. So now, I suggest you go back to whatever it is you were doing. Go back to your lives… After all, they ARE the things dreams are made of!

Friday, July 6, 2007

U-Turn

It's funny how nothing is ever good enough for us! Although we've grown up listening to wise men drone about how we should be happy with what we have and not give in to the evils of temptation and greed but we crumble with hands held high above our heads screaming, ' We are but human!" Like being human cursed us to be creatures of sin and not a miraculous gift from the Gods above...
This particular strain of thought of mine is best emulated by the Jeffrey Archer short story, 'the grass is greener'. From a watchman to the CEO of a company, every class of life on this planet is constantly left wanting! If we have nothing, we want something... if we have something, we want everything... and if we have everything, we wish we had nothing! This vicious cycle never seems to fail to trap us wayward souls in its deadly claws!
And considering the plethora of excuses that we seem to have at our disposal,it's unlikely that we'd ever be able to shake ourselves awake and out of this entrapment. So what is our best way out?
I, being a helpless victim myself, am in no position to preach to the world. I, therefore, endeavour to make our excuses sound plausible enough... After all, we aren't wrong in saying that if we weren't wanting for something constantly, we'd lose all purpose to live! We DO need some motivation in life- some goal to seek... so what if our pursuit is peppered by liberal portions of cries and cribbing? Just imagine being happy about EVERYTHING in your life... no dissatisfactroy results, no pains at work, no headaches from your partner, no differing opinions with your parents, no bouts of cruel loneliness, no shortage of money (hoo boy!)...Whew! What would be left for us to strive to achieve? What grave problem would keep our rusting brains ticking?How do we get to feel the sweet ecstasy of accomplishment again?
And the ultimate reason- What other subject on planet earth would ever give us so much in common with all fellow beings? The language of misery is unanimously the oldest and most universal one! And in this day and age, when it is so imperative to bring the drifting lands closer, a happy life for everyone is the one prayer that could cripple our lives the most, if it came true...
Thus, we are quite justified in crying about the various 'sorrows' in our life. Way more interesting than a happy, boring life anyway....


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!

Sunday, July 1, 2007

First day!

Vivid images of that day still flash through my mind. It is one of those moments of life that one doesn’t forget so easily. It’s a moment that stopped me from scoffing others when they got reminiscent of their first days. I used to find it extremely silly how people get so attached to memories of their first days at school, college, work, whatever. Surely, in the following months and years that they spent at the place there would be much more precious memories to cherish? Then why the undue importance given to the first day?!
But it is now that I understand that the best thing about the first day is the newness. You know nothing about the place, the people, the culture. Like a puppy just opening its eyes you sniff the air tentatively… looking for familiar smells or tempting smells at least. You are brimming with hope for a superlative experience and are anxious to fit right in immediately. You want to make a mark and you want a fond mark left on you. Ah! It’s a feeling that beats all else. It is the one moment of pure innocent emotion that you feel in your whole span in the place. For once you ‘fit right in’, nothing seems nice enough, nothing excites you enough and everything around is just a bother! Your friends of that first day become the banes of your life and you don’t feel that hopeful about the situation any more!
Which is why I remember my first day at RAIT so well. Every step I took that day is etched well in my mind. After all the harrowing admission processes I was relieved to have secured a place in RAIT. And I did hear a lot about the college before I entered. So that just added to my trepidation! Though I admit, a lot of what I heard, sounded really good… but that just made me anxious as to whether it’s good enough for me?! Hehehe… you know how it feels! Just plain anxious about the future… after all, I was about to spend four whole years here! And I was hoping for the best and fearing the worst! Oh! The one piece of loose talk that really got me excited was the ragging phenomenon! I was actually looking forward to getting ragged!! Yeah, my parents thought I was mad too… So when I came to college the first time as an inmate for the orientation, my eyes, I’m sure, darted around here and there like a jumpy squirrel’s and I began to size up the situation. Hmmm… it didn’t look bad but yeah, not as good as I heard. Well, maybe, the best was yet to be seen. Obviously a couple of hours in the college wouldn’t show me everything, would it? And then I saw my seniors prowling the corridors and hid a smile! Maybe, now the action would begin….
Alas, that wasn’t to be. I had to wait for college to start before I was to be given that particular pleasure! And start it did. With quite a bang! I entered my classroom, habitually late, and could literally feel a couple of dozen pairs of eyes on me. Felt quite grand, I must admit. It was assurance that everyone out there was equally excited about the start of a, ahem, four whole years. Soon I got talking with a couple of people around me and began to find my friends. Interspersed between these highly absorbing duties of mine, lectures were being conducted and students were being periodically abducted! But the abduction seemed to have stuck only to the boys so far. Almost all the girls in the class with me didn’t seem particularly excited by the concept of ragging. Scared and shot on nerves would describe their emotion best. And there I was acting all big and ‘bindaas’ telling them to chill and relax because it can’t be that bad. We lasted till the break unharmed. And just as I was giving another sermon on staying calm to my classmates I hear a voice, ‘ hey you two, come with us’. Aha! My turn at last! The girl I was picked with, was terrified by the call! And I was jumping around like an excited young boy about to go watch his first ball game live! Well, I haven’t exactly ever learnt to keep my mouth shut so I was happily ‘chatting’ with my seniors, actually throwing a few questions their way while my classmate looked on in anxiety! Well, the ordeal lasted about an hour and I must admit the sight of this huge whole bunch of seniors sitting together did unnerve me a bit so I resorted to my favorite escape route- laughter! Though that didn’t go down well with them and they kept asking me to do forfeits for laughing in front of my seniors, eventually they had to give up! My laugh outlasted all their stupid dares! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and found myself a couple of more friends in the seniors! Truly, getting ragged proved to be the best ice-breaker ever! My poor classmate’s nerves couldn’t take the action that first time but then on she began to enjoy the small encounters herself! After all, it DOES add that whole new extra spice to college life, doesn’t it? Well, life after that lunch break was quite monotonous for the rest of the day but I had gathered enough gossip for my friends back home! And that was my first day at college… Quite eventful no doubt and absolute fun!! I definitely do look back at it with a lot of affection and kinda wish that day would come back in my life! Life in college after that day has been quite a roller coaster with amazingly funny moments coupled with some extremely heartening and some downright disgusting moment. All in all, my anxiety on the first day achieved little purpose as I have settled comfortably into a culture that has the best recipes of life- happiness, sadness, anger, and every other emotion rolled into one. But nothing could, can, and ever will beat the thrill of my first day in college!