Holi in the air! ! :-)

Holi Holi hai!!!...laughter and cheers rumbling over and over again in every nook and corner...and i am sitting alone in an almost deserted hostel of the nearly deserted college campus, fiddling with my thoughts...I always wonder...is that something new?Anyway,..I always wonder what must have made or inspired our predecessors come up with such an idea?I mean,how did these festivals come into being?..Is it a time to celebrate the manifestation of the right values in the mirror of Life with Prahlad,the epitome of goodness, coming out alive of the blazing flames,Rama defeating Ravana or Lordess Durga putting an end to the notorious devil,Mahisasur?(they say,most of indian festivals like Holi,Diwali,Dusshehra etc mark the victory of good over evil)...or is it the time to celebrate togetherness?...with everyone,almost every one...I remember ,as a child i was always in kind of a daze and also wee bit irritated to see guests pouring in en masse like never before(as i had to help mamma endlessly to serve them).But to my surprise my mamma's spirits never used to dampen.In fact, she used to be elated seeing all the relatives,friends and acquaintances together...bearing a quizzical expression on my face,i used to ask mamma,'Why is it that so many people turn up on one day only?Why cant they keep coming in lesser number but more frequently? And she would very patiently make me understand,'beta,You know why these festivals are a part of our rich culture?because the great people who lived before us knew how significant is the role of togetherness with our fellow beings and a feeling of belongingness to the world around is,in our lives.Festivals bring forth the time when we should let bygones be bygones and greet all with an open heart and celebrate the togetherness..'Guess she was right but what an irony of fate!Such values have blurred over time.Its the era of hasty endless pursuits wherein there is little time for 'togetherness' and yours truly is the unlucky one serving as an instance for the same.And poor mommy and papa,are back home with mere memories of the sweet time spent together when their beloved kids use to be around....making futile attempts to convince them,'beta,do turn up for next holi...its as colorless as it can be without you'.And the no less poorer daughter....she is learning to live in the company of solitude in a time that cherishes 'togetherness'!
Anyway ,May this Holi brings in loads of joy,giggles and celebration and may togetherness mingle with every soul like the vibrant colors of Holi!...Holi Hai!!

My first placement happened.....and as ever 'words and words are all i have' to express my gratitude to the Almighty...

It was just another day at coll…but for some inexplicable reason,i could see everything brimming with life even in this dreary place(as I preferred to call it).At this juncture of the fall of the summer ,which one can well predict is going to to be as blazing as ever ,I felt as if the picturesque spring has just ushered in.Ohh!what was that?? Have I gone crazy??Hope my senses don’t have plans of playing disloyal to me!…give me a break…no more undermining myself…Afterall,it isn’t actually inexplicable…I think it’s this kind of joy one revels in when in some fleeting moments you come to know ,how your long lived dream has suddenly become a reality… Yes,it was like that…As if every single butterfly in the world found a way inside my stomach.
Though,I was dead out of fatigue,(courtesy the two preceding sleepless nights) I could not take my mind off the results of the interview that was to be declared…sleeping was beyond vicinity).The only question that kept rumbling inside me was, ‘What has He got in store for me this time?’…and there He was with an answer…One of the members of the TCS HR team finally,came up with the final list of selected students…a killing moment indeed for all of us ,as we waited with bated breath to get to hear the very sound of our names.Thank goodness!!,He was with me!..He answered my interrogation with no delay(it’s sometimes great to be one of the ‘As’).I guess mine was the 6th (or was it 7th?) name that was called out…And then it took me a few more moments to get it down my gut.By that time the incredible list of the 129 selected students out of the 194 who cleared the aptitude test had drawn to its close.What followed next is easy to predict…The declaration of the results left the hall burstling with a strange hullabaloo.For it ,consisted of cheers of triumph ,tears of joys and not to forget those poignant ,quiet sobs or may be for some ‘hardys’ it ended with just a sigh of despair.
But miseries apart, I, was on the eleventh heaven trying to get in touch with Him to thank Him for this day..and also for everything He has gifted me so far and the way He has always been with me in the lowest of moments…And here I realized something I once read somewhere but had well forgotten, ‘never say why me? When He tests us with trials.because we don’t ever do the same when he chooses one or maybe some to be blessed with the good things in life.He has enough of laughter and sunshine for each and every one’.
The journey is a long one(joyous of course)…the destination is still out of sight…but its great to reach one milestone…to keep a track of how much I have been able to cover so far and to know how far I still have to go…And getting placed was indeed like reaching at least one of the many milestones that I have to cross…And to all my buddys(no matter how less in number) who couldn’t make it this time all I can say is, ‘don’t loose hope is the moral of the story!’.Afterall,He’s decided the same share of laughter and sunshine for all!!

Incredible??

The world of Gizmos!!
Try plunging back in time for a few moments and when you are back take a look around….Its inevitable to escape the realization as to how these 'tiny-tots',
‘the miniature-creatures’,(Yes, I don’t have misguiving labelling them ‘ceatures’, when, on one hand researchers are tirelessly working day in and out to device an artificial human brain)have taken the world bya storm(or is it a hurricane??) in no time.Just think of a splitsecond when we are remotely away from at least a single gizmo?
Aaah….the story of a Cell Phones ,Pagers, Laptops,Digicam(oh!…am sorry it’s the Digital Camera that can certainly give your older version every sign of friviolity)and the seemingly indispensable I-pods(thanks to Apple for this incredible gift to music lovers!),gained ostensibility much later.Haven’t we ,humans, been a little too fascinated with gadgets, ever since we embarked on the journey of evolution?Remember your Granny telling stories of how a Television or a Radio was considered a bliss during the post-independence era?And isn’t a Watch(no,it isn’t solely about the luring digital watches(Matter-of-factly, way back ,even the analog Hmt watches were equally adored)considered one of the most pleasant ‘surprise-gift’ one can fancy of receiving,through ages,without failing even today!Even the least affluent people would conscent how their under-furnished house without a refrigerator,a washing machine,an oven, a geyser,a heat-blower…an never ending list,sends shivers down their spine. But this is history.Now,we certainly have entered into a new age where such gadgets are a wee bit revered because of their indomitable successors.
The priority-list of the most-wanted gadgets in a household has undergone a colossal change.The TV is replaced by a Home Theater System and the LCD TV,The blaring Stereo system has taken over the tape recorder.The upcoming Deep-freezing and automatically-stabelized refrigerators will definitely supersede the older ones.The microwave ovens indeed belittles its predecessor.The fully-automatic ,hassle-free washing machine that has made the older one obsolete... the list goes on….And on taking a step outside the home,the techno-savvy world can indeed take some elderly gentleman/woman aback with the cell phones and laptops pivoting on the Wireless Technology (should I say the 'Wi-Fi’??)progressing like
never before!!
In a daze??Hold on…the biggest bomb is yet to explode.A one-off tour down to ‘The Gadgetland’,I mean,to Japan, will undoubtabely leave one spell-bound.For,Japan truly unveils a world brimming with amazing Gadgets.To list a few,the Miuro robot radio which gives a new meaning to the term'rock-n-roll’, the Sharp’s 165-cm(65-inch) LCD television as a part of trend towards making ever biggest TV,Sanyo’s DMX-HD2(world’s smallest high-definition camcorder),Sharp’s QW-SC1 dishwasher designed for most cramped quarters,the bubble-shaped buggy called the Pivo,etc.
The pace at which these Gizmos taking over,is alarming!Is it so that these man-made machines have plans of giving a lead to their creator himself??