Perspectives and perceptions

There are times when you need to hear things from someone else. Someone who has a third perspective about you and about your life. Today was one of those days, nights actually. :) I learnt a lot of things that I should've known or probably already knew but wasn't accepting or practicing. The thing about life is that it happens, it goes on and we can't afford to stop, second-guess or try and resist it. That's what I've been doing for a while now. Trying to contain myself, trying to avoid getting into things which I'm afraid of, and in a way trying to avoid letting go. While talking to a friend, he told me, very simply, you could be walking on a street and someone fell on you and you could get hurt, would that stop you from walking? If not, then why would an accident stop you from traveling. Yes, maybe it should act as a reminder to take things slow and to make slightly more logical decisions, but you can't live in fear of a 'what if' scenario. If ...

First things first, I have read and re-read all the Harry Potter books ever since they were written and almost know them by-heart! :P I have seen only the first movie of the series and after being terribly disappointed didn't feel the need/urge to go for any other after... There. Now having said this, this movie was really good. So for starters, I had issues with the book. The 7th book was the most disappointing in which I felt like there was no reason or purpose behind all the killing. Yes, she did tie most (or actually all) loose ends, but it seemed like she did it because she didn't know what else to do. I read that book in about 3 hours and for me the book really needs to grip you, like you shouldn't want to put it down, it should engulf you... but the fact that the book didn't manage to grip me till the last chapter or so when the story actually begins to unravel is pathetic... anyways. The movie is based on the book (duh!) So I pretty much knew the story well so ...

Last night I was in a movie-watching mood. Having got many movies on my laptop which I've never seen before, I decided to take the plunge and watch this movie. My friend had titled it 'If Only - Revoltingly Romantic', obviously instead of that being a deterrent, it became a reason for me to see the movie. In the beginning I felt like the movie was going nowhere. But in the second half, as expected, I got terribly emotional and there was this huge void inside me, almost as though I'd lost someone I loved... The movie speaks about the million things that we experience in our lives everyday. Things we take for granted at times, and people whose love we don't appreciate. I know I'm being overtly simplistic in my perspective and biased because I liked the movie, but to me a movie is a message and that movie definitely conveyed a strong message to me. That of appreciation, acceptance and love. Throughout the movie in the first half, the girl is doing so many things to...

So the last time I blogged about finding those key, small but your people in establishments, I'd written about this person at my regular printers near Andheri station and this guy who'd helped me out at the Vodafone store. :) Something similar happened to me recently. In a new city. I shifted to Hyderabad because I got a job with Google! And it felt different to roam around in a city that I didn't know anything about. To meet new people everywhere I went after having gotten used to going to 'usual' places for just about everything, right from your parlour appointments, to your haircuts, to getting xerox, to buying medicines, to buying groceries, to clothes, to drinks, to food, everything... Just made me realize how much of patronising we do in our lives because it just makes our lives simpler and easier to get by... In this new city, I didn't know anyone, and the first people who get to know me and give me some level of preferential treatment because of the loy...

Huge amount of expectations from this movie after the amazing success from Step Up 1 and Step Up 2. Personally I enjoyed Step Up 2 more than anything because that whole emotional tension, and the discovering of so many underdogs, that journey was magical and meaningful. I say this because that's what's missing from this movie. A quick overview would be that even though the dancing is amazing (literally some of the moves are out of this world), the movie has no storyline so to speak off, the acting isn't there, the leads aren't strong enough, the movie lacked the punch that the first two movies delivered. It didn't have a soul. In the first two movies dancing was something that brought out a new character within the people which gave them respect, here, it was very superficial. The plot is quite simple. Two friends who're the core part of a crew, part ways because one of them throws the battle to pay off his gambling debt (kind of like match fixing!). That becom...

of random things and conversations, I sit and think and smile, of close friends, loved ones and relatives, I miss and muse and write, i wake up each morning with the rising sun, I go to sleep with the wind in my hair, I plan and think and dream about, loads of things in places in my head, random words, random thoughts, have they any meaning? how does one know what's it about? if one doesn't have any feelings? am I a fool I think? just because i love smiles, just because I love love, and just because my love is mine? these words have no structure, they have no rhyme... but they make a weird sort of a sense in my head and even if they didn't, I really wouldn't worry a dime! it's been long since I wrote random things, it's been a while since I just let go, every now and then I come around, only to realize that this is who I'm happiest being! these thoughts do have a source, a conversation with friends about a place, a place that has stripped away my inhibitions...

A few of us friends were just talking and discussing about the ways in which we all go about our trips! It's funny, I'm a control freak of a person most of the times, (lying), actually all the time, but thanks to my friends, I've grown to like the unexpectedness and the unplanned mode of all our trips! I've literally reached a point where I don't want to go on a planned trip because that'll be just too boring and too decided... that element of surprise which brings with it the happiness, the joy and the exposure is just too beautiful and as a friend rightly put it, it's liberating! Megha and I tend to plan our days so much, that those few days of just being and just existing and just doing things based on what we feel and what we want feel like we've broken out of some sort of chains and it just automatically calms us down. Like when we had gone to Goa for the first time. We didn't know what to expect, where to go, nothing. We just got off at an earl...

The weekend's here and I'm turning a year old. Hmm.. Wrong tense. I have turned a year older. Doesn't feel any different though. Feels better in some way. Though last night seemed a bit odd. :P Sitting at home, watching movies, and yapping away to glory with friends at 12 in the night! I remember how the entire idea of celebrating a birthday used to seem fruitless and pointless to me some years ago, but now I guess I understand and even cherish this idea of celebrating oneself and celebrating time with friends. What I love is that it gives us an opportunity to talk and catch up with friends and that's precisely what happened! I had a great conversation with a friend of mine, Riddhi from Delhi and we spoke about so many things!! For nearly 2 hours and I was like, wow, that's something! It feels great to be loved, appreciated, and wished by so many friends, relatives and people! I'm super thrilled! In celebration plans, party at home with friends for 2 nights! :)...

It's soon going to be 2 months of me working in a new job, with a new company, in a new city... Everything's new and yet a lot of things are the same... My relationship, my friendships, and my being. I was scared. Petrified almost at the thought of having to meet new people everyday and finding those select few people with whom I can be myself again! For nearly a week or two I was floundering in the sea of people... trying hard to keep myself afloat amidst all the chaos, silence and the ironies. Funnily, this is what happens every time! When I started a course last year in a new college, I went through this same phase and ended up finding my own circle, my own space. I know that I have been through this time and again, and yet it never fails to daunt me at first. Working with Google, staying in Hyderabad was a scary prospect too... I didn't find my circle immediately. I managed to make acquaintances whom I could pass time with... but not share, converse and love... :) And t...

I’ve been born and brought up in Bombay, and I’ve celebrated a lot of birthdays... but the funny thing is that I only remember the gala celebrations from the last few years of my school! When i was 5 – 6, it was so simple, we just brought a cake from the local bakery shop, bought some back presents for all the kids, ate some good home-made snacks along with some local potato wafers in thin paper plates, played musical chairs, and then went home in time for dinner! How different from the scene today! It’s not just the spending that has gone up, the influence of brands, and products, on our day-to-day lives and on our occasional spending has changed drastically too. Today, even if we think of buying a cake from a local bakery, that bakery invariably turns out to be a Monginis, a Croissants or Ribbons & Balloons, the potato wafers are either Lays, or Uncle Chips, or whichever the latest entrant in the market is, the back presents have assumed enormous proportions and somewhere somehow...

It's been three years almost since I first sat on a Bullet... and I can still feel the thrill. It's funny how some associations just stick with you for your lifetime, my affair with the Enfield has been exactly that. I first sat on the Bullet Electra 350 cc, red colour... and I knew this was special. I had never felt like that on a bike before, and the moment I sat I was comfortable. That instinctual connection was fuelled by the connection I shared with the rider! :) And it was magical. To the point where, within a span of a few days, I could only by its sound (from far away) distinguish an Electra, from a Machismo, to a Thunderbird! And to think I had no idea about what bikes were! I only knew what they felt like! Years later, my fascination continued, I began to judge the rider by the bike he rides, and automatically one who owned / rode an Enfield rose in my expectation and in my eyes... To the point where given a choice I would most certainly place trust in an Enfield ride...

For all these months, while i was studying, the natural progression of the course is such that you expect to end the course with a clear idea of what you want to do next. After a lot of confusion and back and forth of ideas, visions, etc. i now think that i do know what i want. while i was writing my resume, i realised that these were the kind of roles that i'd like to be doing... i remembered my friend rakshit, who told me, the best way to think about all this, is to imagine yourself years down the line and imagine what would you like your visiting card to look like, what designation are you seeing yourself in... and it does work actually... :) well, the resume's ready. the cover letter's just getting ready. and then zoooom! off it goes to the company and hopefully pat comes the invitation! keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that it all falls into place!

the hot summer breeze, the sweaty, rusty bodies, the dirt filled roads, and the brown sheath all over, the pregnant wait for respite, the thirst for the flow, much like a mother's anticipation, the weather toils us hard, the small silly poems that we learn, the enforced joy that we never feel, for the weather that doesn't change in spite of our many pleas, the two months that we long for, quickly turn into boredom, and suddenly we long to be, amongst the concrete breeze, the play, the trips and the wait, passes by like a glimpse, and soon we are shopping, for umbrellas, boots and more, come the first grey cloud, and expectant eyes scan the sky, from the old to the new, everyone stakes their buy, soon enough we hear the sound, the rumble of the clouds, and pit-pat comes the drop, dripping on the grounds, running astray are many children, few of whom are afraid, most of them leap with joy, for the rains are finally here to stay, soon enough the sheath, turns to green from the bro...

I, a resident of Takshila, Bldg. No XX would like to bring to your notice the sheer inhumanity with which crackers are being bursted in the colony. One would expect that a colony has some rules and regulations, which must not permit the bursting of crackers beyond a certain time limit. For all practical purposes, a 10 O’Clock deadline must be imposed upon those who wish to burst crackers within the colony. It is sheer insanity to permit the people who burst long malas / laddis at 11:30 PM on the main road of the colony. Presently in our colony, we have around 33 Bldgs each consisting of numerous flats. The people living in these flats range from the young children to the senior citizens. Apart from humans, we also have a healthy population of dogs and cats in the colony. I have observed, every festival crackers are being bursted without any consideration and no action is being taken against the people. Buildings should instruct their members not to burst crackers such as Atom Bomb...

I'm sick and tired of firecrackers! It's always the same story, whether it's Ganeshotsav, Durga Puja, Navratri, Diwali.... I don't understand when the concept of sparklers and anars changed to atom bombs, laxmi bombs and laddis... Why must a child, boys, or anybody even want to crack these crackers?! To what pleasure? To whose liking? For whom? Why must we attempt to stimulate the terror and horror that real terrorists shower upon us? Why must we tune our lives to their sounds? Why should our Diwali be shrouded with sounds and bangs of horrifyingly loud crackers? Is it that big a nexus that the Govt. cannot simply ban the crackers and the allied sound items?! What sort of a Government are we living in? In my school, 10 years ago, we were taught about how entirely harmful crackers are, not just as a product but also as a means... child labour is used to produce crackers, the crackers cause noise pollution, air pollution, land pollution, and yet we continue and allow thei...

This image reminds me of each time in my life when I’ve been too busy running from pillar to post about something and my mother’s been my rock while also asking me to slow down and have fun! In a time and age when parents are increasingly becoming insecure about their children in this “big bad world” my mother has stood by my side and let me live a carefree, free life! Each time I ask her if I could go out of town with friends, her first reaction is never being upset, or disappointment but excitement for my plans. Each time when I return from those trips, however late I might be, her first question is never “Why so late?” but “How was it?” My mother is a treasure trove. She has jewels in her speech which she hands out to others generously and at the right moments. I love her when she compliments my friends frankly without being embarrassed about her statements; I loved her when she actually told my best friend that she had a sexy butt! In this photo, you can see her playfully reac...

It's been a little more than a month at my new college... Xavier Institute of Communications. While there are a few things that I don't like about the college, like their strict implementation of a dress code!! (imagine not being able to wear sleeveless tops, no knee length skirts, no three-fourths even!) I've literally run out of jeans and tops and kurtas by now.. but we trudge on... Apart from that I'm thoroughly enjoying the course. The kind of amazing insights that we get from our faculty members, coupled with some good competition in class is really a refreshing change from graduation! Just a couple of days back we had this amazing class by Josie Paul, who's currently running an agency in Mumbai, he actually taught us how our everyday images, conversations and scenes become inspirations for advertisements. Some of the greatest ad concepts are actually from the copywriter's real life experiences. That thought set us all thinking and soon the entire class was...

There are so many things in our lives that we care about, when does this care turn into something stronger so much so that it borders on becoming an obsession before it actually does. Obsessions have no limits (which is of course why they're called that!), they could be absolutely anything! I, for one, am obsessed with cleanliness. Everything should be in order. It should be clean. It should be in straight lines (even the collages I make, I struggle to make them look like a collage, if I had my way, I would make collages in grids!) It has to be stacked height-wise, my clothes are arranged according to their use, cleaning my cupboard is my favorite past-time and if that's not enough, I have taken to cleaning cupboards of my friends! (No, don't call me now, I don't have the time! :)) I tend to fold clothes the way the laundry guy does it (thanks to my aunt and cousin who trained me) almost automatically. It's so natural for me, that wherever I am, I see something unfo...

There was a time when a new movie released and I would watch it within a week or two... I simply don't know what happened to those times anymore. Somehow I seem to have become content with watching repeats of the movies I've seen before, reading the books that I've read before, meeting people that I meet everyday, I have shut myself to the possibilities of everything new. I seem to be stuck in a phase, stuck in an image. I prefer to eat at places I've eaten before, I drink the same drink, I have the same shot, it's all the same. Thankfully the last haircut I had was way different from what I've got ever! I'm beginning to realise my downfall, I'm beginning to realise that I'm choosing this, I'm behaving safe, I'm being foolish! I need a jolt, I want to break free. The only thing different I'm doing these days is work, I'm doing different kinds of work! :) Aah.. for those who don't know it, it's a pleasure to work. It really is....

How many times in the day do you call up a service provide only to routed through the IVR? How does that make you feel? The agonizing wait for a human to come online... Today, everything requires to be automated to make it cost-effective for the providers. Be it your telecom service providers, your banks, your take-away, your computer / IT related issues, everything is routed through an IVR, and as a last resort, you are guided to the Customer Service Executive / Phone Banking Officers who shall be "happy to help you". Yes, at times, it helps to have an automated system because it ensures that no matter who picks up the call, you're serviced the same. For example, if I want the number of an office / a restaurant and I call up JustDial.com, I don't care WHO picks up my call, because I get the number smsed to me just the same! However, when I call up Barclays or any bank regarding a query, I have to patiently explain the entire case history, background, service request ...