Umbrella!

I escaped the scorn of the scorching sun under my 'black umbrella', as i was making my way,thoughtlessly,staring at nothing,down the pavement that leads to my office premises.

But despite the nothingness that was prevailing in that moment,I stumbled upon this ebbing thought as to why did I carry my umbrella always with me?...The answer was plain and simple.Sometimes to cover myself from the sun and sometimes from the rain.And then reflecting upon my thought,I came to realize that perhaps,I loved the rain and the sunshine only as long I was sure that I had my umbrella with me that would come to my rescue,if the sun got so sunny that it makes me flinch due to its tingling heat,or if the rain has plans of drenching me in its heavy outpour instead of charming me with its drizzle.

And how can I forget to acknowledge the way,it has weathered all storms and scorns,as best as it could,when the poor little thing itself was as susceptible to the atrocities of nature as i was.Matter of factly,it considers it, its duty to care for me in those hard times...Oh!What a comrade,the inanimate,fragile thing can be!...

Then,there are those few unfortunate times,when for some reason or the other,i don't have it with me...Does the remorse of missing upon my umbrella stops me from going on??..
Certainly,not.Nothing stops me.I move on.But the distance seems longer now and difficult too.I also apprehend the sunshine and the rain now.And what makes the absence more agonizing is the memory of those times when I would walk down comfortably under the shade of my umbrella.

Considering life on a larger canvas,is there a perfect analogy for the umbrella in our lives?...Did I hear someone confessing 'LOVE'??..Is it similar to the wonder of love in our lives??...Is it LOVE that acts as the colorful umbrella in our lives???

Food for thought..

A couple of conversations i hvnt been able to find an answer to,so far...

1)from the flick,'A walk to Remember':

Jamie:Dont you have your beliefs?
Landon:..beliefs??....think there's too much bad shit in this world..
Jamie:but without sufffering there will not be compassion??
Landon:yeah,but tell it to those who suffer.



2)'Dead man walking'-hollywood motion picture

A little boy to his father(who is a lawyer ,studying for a case wherein he needs to defend a convict who is guity of murder and is likely to get a death penality for the crime he is supposed to have commited):Dad,why does the court want to kill him(about awarding him death penality??
Father:because he has killed a man, son
Kid:ok...who will punish those who will kill him??

Cupid's month is about to end!.........time for love-shmuv talk??

To begin with,I loathe Valentine's day!!...

Please dont mistaken me to be one of the forerunners of MNS or Shiv Sena or similar unscrupulous gangs whose sole motto,as could be percieved by my little naive brain,is to emanate hate and to disturb the state of equilibrium of the society...Neither do i claim to belong to the school of thought that says that there never was a need of a day to celebrate or acknowledge the love thatwe have in our lives and that love should be celebrated every day.In my belief,if we celebrate all significant events and relationships without qualms,then why to let go LOVE unceremoniously?I would
be game for the celebration...But I have my reasons to detest this festival of 'LOVE'..


In his book,eleven minutes,Paulo Coelho rightly points out a truth that we as lesser
mortals scarcely dare to reconcile to...'The great aim of every human being is to understand the meaning of total love.Love is not to be found in someone else,but in ourselves;we simply awaken it.But in order to do that,we need the other person.The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with........'.In some cases consciously,and in many cases unconsciously,but the truth still remains the same that human beings' greatest aspiration is to find the true love of his/her life...But how can one recognize something unless one understands what one is looking for?..And so,in order to meet the real love of our lives poor humans keep striving
to understand the very essence of the miracle of those four letters....

..But,i dare treading this zone inspite of my innate human bias to explore it.For,i often end up more confused than earlier everytime i have tried to decipher the much saught after phenomena of 'love' or 'falling in love',so to say...There had been a couple of times when i seemingly felt close to it...Alas! Before i formally come to rephrase my definition i end up misgiving it...I took to the lyrics of this
popular song i came across,where a girl talks about how love is happening to her.


'Remember those walls I built
Well, baby they're tumbling down
And they didn't even put up a fight
They didn't even make up a sound

I found a way to let you in
But I never really had a doubt
Standing in the light of your halo
I got my angel now
Its
It's like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breakin'
It's the risk that I'm takin'
I ain't never gonna shut you out
Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo
You know you're my saving grace

You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away

I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo

Hit me like a ray of sun
Burning through my darkest night
You're the only one that I want
Think I'm addicted to your light

I swore I'd never fall again
But this don't even feel like falling
Gravity can't forget
To pull me back to the ground again

Feels like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breakin'
The risk that I'm takin'
I'm never gonna shut you out

Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo
You know you're my saving grace

You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away

I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo'

In her song,Halo,Singer Beyonce has aptly described the inevitability of falling for love..Well,does that mean that the emotion of love makes us fragile human beings? ...Prone to falling?..or is it the light of the halo that you see only when you are in love?....well,difficult to answer...For,if i go by the tales of literature,i infer that love seems to flourish swinging between extremes.Joy and sorrow,strength and weakness,wait and impatience,agony and relief,so on and so forth.

But The Holy Bible tells a different story:

'Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.'

So,now you know why yours truly finds the love-shmuv talk gruesome?...No words of a singer could help.No art of a painter or sculpture could help.No ideas of avisionary could help...No experiences of practioner could help!...And i hope to be pardoned by Mr Cohelo, for not living upto the ultimate human aspiration,as of date.

'I could tell you a hundred things that it is not,but not one that it is!',Well,some wise soul made an honest confession!

One last realisation before the year slips away...There is virtue in everything.....

Consumerism.Sometime back,a friend of mine had asked me to pen down my views on consumerism,as in,whether its a bane or a boon?....I did a little research(courtsey google.com) on what people had to say about it.There were all kinds of talks ,some pros and lots of cons,but none made much sense to me.And my,then quixotic-self said,'what a crap?How can material possessions ever be equated to,or in any way bring about happiness?...Consumerism can certainly not be a boon but a bane.'...and so,i outrightly dismissed the idea of giving it any more thought as i was firm in my belief.Writing my views on it,therefore,was out of question...... hold on....to my disbelief,i am again finding myself revisiting the same question that i was fiddling some time back!A lot has changed between then,which was a good one and a half years ago when i was still going to college and had little experience of the raw world outside my college campus, and now,when i am almost on my own,working and earning a preety handsome salary, as a beginner in my profession!....i have more rhetorics and less answers .. is there any harm if some bruised,forlorn,lovelorn,nostalgic,restless, etc teens,adults,singles,couples,office goers ,who find themselves entangled in the inexplicable phenomenas of life come to buy some ephimeral joy with the bucks that they get,or that they earn?....How can a thing that can bring joy without inflicting pain to others,no matter how small in measure,can be a bane??..for,there has to be some solace that consumerism brings about which has driven a whole generation go beserk after it ......Considering my example,for one,the list of things that revitalises my sometimes dampened spirits,in the new alienated place where i am putting up presently are as simple as going out to the nearest shopping mall to catch the hullabaloo ,an outing wid folks ,watching a good movie,getting hold of a good book that i was looking for,or listening to good music..........Even thing as trivial as a cup of ice-cream,or a good hair-cut can push a smile to a fatigued soul!...and as a matter of fact,all such sources of happiness can be associated with consumerism...even the so-called non materialistic inclinations like art and literature cannot be nurtured without consumerism coming into play..for,be it art or literature ,both have an abstract existence and can be manifested only if they are transformed into some consumearable form....so,even they depend and flourish on consumerism...
Don’t a pack of CDs of the soulful tracks that appeal most to you ,often turn out to be your prized possession.Isnt the book that your sweetheart gifted you on your last B’day is simply indispensable for you.And after all this you say that you have no love and longing for material possessions and that they cannot make you happy.??Harsh as it may sound,human beings by their nature tends to find happiness in both animate as well as inanimate possessions.In fact that was the very cause of the evolution of human existence.When nomads discovered food,they felt the need for agriculture and their own farms and orchards...after they lived in the thatched house there was a need for a better one.When the basic needs were met, they started looking for sources of entertainment which again added to the list of objects they wished to own. This desire for more belongings and a better way of life when catalysed by a flourishing and poised market turned out to be what we can see as the practice of consumerism...In fact There seems to be no harm in its practice as long as its buying happiness to those who can afford...but in the midst of sufficing ones need care must b taken to share the needs of those we can and those who are berieved of such taste of happiness simply because they are not born lucky...the ways this can be done is upon n individual to decide.Consumerism can be made a boon for the framework of our society if it is not practiced thoughtlessly to the extent where it widens the divide between the affluent and the under priviledged.Consumerism is a drive for country's economy..It also enhances the quality of life and prosperity of the nation...But in the midst of all these assets it has this renowned blot that can be done away if we as commoners realise our sense of responsibility towards our fellow beings while reveling in our bestowed glory!

Nobody could blow away those blues.........

'Obsession' and 'expectations',i guess,are two of the most imminent causative elements of the perils that plague the social existence of a human being.Obsessions for all the good things that make up the worldly life,like luxury,love etc ...and then,the expectations to get the best from your fellow beings and from the world around....but hold it,for there is another unnoticed phenomena that can cost much more that what we ever thought of and that is,SELF-LOVE..In the rut,or so to say,'the symphony',of life,we often fail to realise that half the cause of our miseries is nothing but the intense love we have for ourselves............What happens as a result of it,is the simplest way we choose to vent off our miseries.That is,blaming time and destiny or life as a whole,or for the sense of unfullfillment it dawns time and again..The solution to it is simple if we choose to listen and reflect on our our own thoughts...Dont we pamper ourselves a little too much!
...here's a list of fancies of the self-obsessed souls:

-that life should offer them ALL that they ever wished for and a single exception can inflict pain.

-that everyone around should percieve the way they do.

-that their opinions should be congruent with everyone.

-that the world should smile,laugh,cry,sigh,and go berserk with them.

-that life should be a roller-coaster ride of their whims and fancies.

But the grave tragedy strikes when they just cant get out of this cobweb even after realising that they need to get themselves disentangled!
Poor bruised hearts!...And bruised minds!!...indeed ,no one could device a cure for
your ailment.....the strife with self continues........

Love,a healer always........??

You thought love would always do wonders?? I doubt...Am I sounding like a cynic? ...Well, better watch out! At times, love might be a sweet poison too...It's high time you checked your facts. For, sometimes, love can also lead to abysmal consequences….

Love for luxuries and a sedentary lifestyle (courtesy, the incessantly evolving and pampering technology) is resulting in early average mortality. Unrelenting love to be at the top is trampling the significance of the moral virtues that are the pillars guiding the way through life. I mean, how often do you find people who consider and take education because they aspire to be a good human being in tandem with working for their professional goals. Love for excess money and riches can bereave you of the simple yet invaluable joys of life. When one is so busy working for one's love ,where is the time to spend some quiet time with family and loved ones, where's the time to care for those craving for your attention. I still have a vivid recollection of the fable of the greedy king Midas….Isn't it some kind of love for the accomplishment of their mission or motives which blinds the terrorists of the catastrophe that results from their brutal antics, who also put their own lives at stake for their purpose.

Of late ,the whole of nation stands witness to the repercussions of chauvinism or extreme love for ones religion, culture, region etc….Some love their culture so much so that they have difficulty getting over the dismay of their culture being dwindled by the presence of so-called outsiders. Some have such a love for their God and religion that they live under constant fear of another or some 'foreign religion' enjoying greater rights than what they receive in that foreign land. Mind you, this love is so true and blind that it can shed blood, can give birth to homeless, orphans, widows, and can inflict as well as endure pain, suffering, hunger, starvation and what not.

Yes to your disbelief, its love that is plaguing so much of nuisance. Love for a thing is resulting in hate for the other….But how can that be possible? How can love be a cause of peril? So, does that mean that we need to reconstruct the traits of love?.. If not, where is the loop hole, which, if not checked may lead to, the term love being regarded as a misnomer? ..... Well, what is actually required is a reconstruction in the perception of love by some 'great lovers' of the day. Let's remind ourselves that Love does not inflict wounds but alleviates it!

Poetry of life...or life and poetry??

Long time...i know..back with only another rhetoric..hope to be pardoned.


Was i a fool to solemnly take up this task of unravelling you,under the belief that you will see me through?

The more i tried to get into your core,the more you were willing to throw me away from the shore.

Aah!.. rejoicing in your delicacies? I realised, that was how i should soothe my haggard soul .

So, i settled down to mingle in your colors manifold..it was ecstatic,dreamlike,but i guess it was not my zone;

Going on with my convictions in your simple and explicable phenomena ,seemed to me,was my mistake;

As,your enigma surged higher by a few steps.

Ambushed, as i was, by your dear cousins time and destiny;

i still could not give up the plan of continuing with my scrutiny.

Sometimes my strength seemed to wither;

Sometimes the flame inside seemed to flicker.

Why not i call u a comedy,for ,then,your ways took an intriguing turn;

And you acted like a saviour, giving me the courage to go on.

Alas! I had to bid farewell to my utopia...that had to be..for i had greater things to see.

No, i have no complains.For,this i know, is your innate poetic trait..

Oh!...yes, i have come across another analogy for you.

How can i write a poetry on you?

For me, you are nothing but a poetry!

You take pride in remaining 'the inexplicable'.

But your poor readers are happy to explain you in ways that suit their respective fancies.

Each time one takes a second glance at you,one finds something yet to be comprehended!

To your lovers you are lyrical and to the reluctant readers you are unreasonable............

I confess that i acted silly in trying to write a poetry on a poetry.

Therefore,let me just continue playing my role, on an already written story.

The butcher’s shop..

Is it an analogy of what the world has become today?...Is the world on the brink of transforming into one like it?..or was it always so?

He wakes up every morning saying silent prayers to his God, “Dear Lord, may the count of those I behead , multiply, so that I can take back the best that I could for my beloveds.”

He briskly gets ready for the day and makes his way to the poultry, collects some good ones, and proceeds to his dingy little shop on his squeaky, tattered bicycle. The long queue of customers waiting outside his shop thrills him. He performs his duty with unfazed enthusiasm….slays one after another. At the end of the day the dividends that he earns for all the blood letting, leaves him content. He returns home and takes a stuffy dinner with his family and goes to sleep. But before that he does not forget to convey his gratitude to his God for the day and looks forward to another fulfilling day at work…..

Now the story from the eyes of those who fall prey to the poor butchers daily antics. The poor butcher is no more poor. To them he is a monster who gorges some of their innocent mates everyday… And they live in the terror of the day when it will be their turn to be put to the alter.

There also exists a third party,of those who avidly devour on the corpses and hold a justifiable conviction for doing so?..

The scene rakes up many rhetorics?....Is the bloodshed truly hateful and calls for no mercy for the butcher, who is just making an honest effort to support his people?...Are there set of people existing on the same planet who rejoice such a carnage and bank on it for their ephemeral satisfaction??...And not to forget,is the plight of those who fall prey to the butcher’s knife. Are they being engulfed by the stroke of time or destiny?or perhaps, they are making up for some ill-deed of their past life...Is it because of their inconsequential dimensions, if seen on the canvas of the entire creation, that their suffering goes unnoticed and unheeded?...Could one among the supposed victim, come up and look into the predicament, giving it a much likeable direction?...

Freedom of an individual is a myth…

How far is it true?...that, man is born free. That, life is all about making choices…I sometimes wonder whether we actually have the choice of making our own choices. From where does the concept of ‘freedom of an individual’ comes into being?...I am not quite happy to infer, that the world that I live in falls short of that very primary requirement which makes the odyssey of life what it is believed to be. Taking the scenario that is prevalent lately, an individual doesn’t have the freedom to practice a cultural belief he finds faith in, nor does he have the right to express his/her offbeat perspective or belief on the so called cultural and social issues without making things take a contentious form. Freedom to reside in any part of the territory of India was fairly laid down in the fundamental rights section of the Indian constitution. So what? When were theory and practical congruent to each other. There are places in the same territory we talked about ,where a person born outside it, is unable to reside in it without a chunk of people apprehending his presence in their native land and compelling him, sooner or later, to make his exit. What an irony of fate? The conditions applied to the freedom of an individual is so enormous that it sometimes leads one’s very own principles and beliefs to comes in the way of exercising one’s freedom….Alas! The freedom to choose our times of festivity and celebration is also not an individual’s choice but is determined by factors like, one’s place of birth, the religion one is supposed to follow, the practices followed by one’s relatives, guardians and ancestors, etc. Freedom to form association and union, as also laid in the constitution of India, seems to be another joke. If we talk about associations and unions on professional fronts, it may still hold some ground with its price to be paid, but on personal front, it’s a downright fallacy…

Considering freedom on one’s personal perspective, don’t the supposed set of protocols of the supposed civilized society, determine things as small as, when, to laugh, to cry , to get annoyed, to order, to demand, to speak or to keep quiet ,also whom to hang out with, whom to fall in love with, whom to hate!(strange but is expected out of one at times), whom to revere ,whom to abandon, and what not…As if the so called social norms have intruded in every nook and corner of an individual’s personal space. A part of it might be of some good but if it pervades at an unchecked rate, it may turn out to be fatal, strangling the very natural flow of life!

A father, once, while giving lessons for life to his young son, rightly said, “I can’t imagine the life for you, son. But I can certainly show you the way to live in an uncertain world. Make a pact with yourself…..”. The world is ever changing and so are the rules that govern it and are best fitted for it. So, if a father finds it hard to decide what’s best for his kid, how can a group of people, claiming to be the forerunners of our country’s glorious cultural and traditional past, do so? Are we blindly entitling them the power to decide the course of our lives?

After all, was there ever a teacher, better than one’s experience? ...And experience can extinct if we bereave an individual of the freedom that is his due from life.

Life………… an art or a science?

Science is absolute while art can never be absolute. Science pivots on well defined laws, theories or empirical results while art can identify itself in any circumstance and is not always context oriented….So what would you call life? A glance at it might lead you to conclude that it cannot be a science where every event can be explained by a plausible law. Not everyone is priviledged with the so called good things in life like parents, a happy household, a gratifying career, the true love ,so on and so forth…Not all earn dividends from their efforts. Each one also has his own way of taking things in his stride. In the words of a wise man, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”…I mean, some prefer to be happy no matter how hard the trials and tribulations of life press upon them and some frown and whine for no rhyme or reason….. There are myriad questions that are unanswered or half-answered about life itself, like how did life originate? why did God create life? and not sounding blasphemous, who or what is God altogether??....With such colossal ambiguities, life certainly cannot be a science.…

Some say, ‘life is what we make out of it’…Well, if we can mould our lives by our rules and idiosyncrasies, it implies that it is not contextual and can be recognized in any circumstances which is the quintessential trait of any form of art…

So does that bring us in readiness to leap to a seemingly appropriate conclusion… Wait! Ever pondered on the phenomena of life? Being born, growing up,learning to live, finding a way of life, falling in love, finding a companion, marrying ,raising a family and looking after it, getting old ,relaxing ,looking at life in retrospect, and then one fine day giving in to the forces of life. These are well predefined and specific phases of the process of life of each and every one…In other words, can we say that life is pre-programmed by some supreme force, say, an efficient programmer who is working day in and day out applying all possible coding techniques for a common problem viz. life,thus trying to look for the best technique? There is another thing called human emotions which seems to add to the indefinite aspect of life. But a closer observation reveals that even emotions can be explained by a branch of science called biology or to be more precise, human physiology and that, human emotions are driven by various hormones.

Now to say that life is a science with such handful of naïve explainations would be foolish. Then is it a combination of two. Perhaps a ‘scientific-art’!....Balanced on either side of the fulcrum or inclined on one side?...The question is still clamouring to be answered. Hopefully some wise soul will take up the puzzle some day and would do justice to it. As of now, Life and its characteristics is an enigma much beyond human comprehension.

Hitches, glitches and whatsoever...the journey ahead will continue with relentless faith!

Oops! ...its been an year since I last scribbled something in here! ....but never mind…better late than never...and as ever, I ‘hope’ to be excused for the same…may I ?.........
So, I am back .With lots of thoughts jostling inside me and lots craving to be shared. But because its the beginning of the year, a time to look forward to and look up to, I shall keep the rest aside and usher the year inside with a positive note.....a word which has been just about my perfect companion….That is, ‘faith’. The words of some wise man won me over when he said , ‘faith can do wonders. You become what others expect you to be!’…Things cannot work with mere faith. We need actions as well… Indeed!.. But affirmative actions with little or no faith might lead us to limp and therefore why not brace up ourselves with faith in our course of actions…
The year we just bade farewell to was supposedly not one whose memories would be cherished for many reasons. The time blatantly displayed one of its most frowning facet….The capricious figures of inflation, the turbulence encountered by the Indo-US nuclear deal, the shakiness in the governance at the centre, the stifling aircraft industry due to the rising fuel prices, the Kosi river embankment breach that made life impossible for the poor flood victims of Bihar, the alarming incessant terror attacks that bereaved families and stole lives of innocents in the different parts of the nation in addition to the most unforgettable Mumbai attack at the close of the year…and needless to say, the innumerable miseries inflicted on the poor that goes unnoticed …It was indeed a dark phase…But do the tribulations of the dark time shatter the possibility of the much awaited positive change?....And it in the end, the year was not all that bad either…If statistics are to be believed, for the first time ever, India has been successful in attracting about 60% of its children below the age of six to schools and the total literacy rate has attained an all time high figure. India also successfully accomplished its Moon-mission by launching Chandrayaan, the remote sensing lunar satellite, and has become the fourth nation to place its flag on the moon…It certainly calls for some applause…But at the same time ,we cannot afford to revel in the glory of handful of accomplishments when there are bigger issues to be answered….Now, here when we need to fortify ourselves with faith in tandem with affirmative actions that can help us out of the predicament….Of late, we could learn from the example of the American population that has maneuvered a supposed liberal administration, which was their need of the hour, by electing to the president’s office, a person who was speculated to have little demographic favor, Obama being a black American. I guess its because the Americans had faith in their ability to bring about a change…And not going too far away, how can we forget the feat of our own people of Jammu & Kashmir?.. Even in the midst of looming terror, the voters turn out for the legislative elections was spectacular...higher than was ever witnessed earlier….Wasn’t it because of the strong conviction the people of the valley must have had in their need for an efficient governance and also the faith in their ability to bring about the required change??....So, why not we, Indians as a whole, show greater faith in ourselves, in our ability to bring about the time we wish to see, in our policy makers and in the efficiency of their policies and moves. It’s high time we acted as element that trigger a positive changing rather than simply indulging in hollow lambasting. Why not instead extend our support and co-operation to our employees (Lets not forget that we are the employers and not the employees of our governance, and an employer has no right to expect fruitful work from his employees, himself acting recklessly .), to be able to make some of the worthy moves work out rather than their perverse wipe-offs on the sand of time….
If there is one thing that requires to be honed and fostered in these difficult times, It’s the power of faith!!

Figures struck!!

Numerology and astrology claims that figures and arithmetic calculations are the factors that decide the course of our destiny.But there still are many who forthrightly belittle such theories.The debate on their authenticity has been lingering till date.This is one story......Apart from numerology, astrology ,mathematics ,daily counting and calculations etc,figures also have another imperative say in our lives.Ever took heed on how figures play a vital role in triggering our emotions.

Wacky as it may sound,but the adding figures inconspicuously cause humans to emote.Mythology and history has several such instances.Be it kumbhkaran's incessant hundred and eighty two days of slumber that raises million eyebrows in amazement,be it the eighteen day battle of kurukshetra which was a cauldron of emotions like the spirit of triumph,sense of utter loss ,misery, joy and what not,be it Rama's fourteen years of vanvaas which left poor king Dashrath forlorn or be it Gandhari's hundred sons or Draupadi's five husbands which amuses one today....Well,that is history and they say history pivots on fragile instances.....

So what? For,figures rule in all times and even today...Aren't we all aware of the rising figure of inflation that has been creating such a hullabaloo in the Dalal Street?.Or do we claim not to be one among the 'aam aadmi' who has lately been whining and grumbling on the rising food and fuel prices?The 'adding zeros' (oh!! i hope to be pardoned for putting it that way being a mathematics-literate ..but isn't it how they call it these days?) to the salary of MBA graduates have ignited their desire to make more and more money!Isn't the increase in pay package pushes a smile of gratification of even the poor overworked employees?Remember how a nine-on-ten or a ten-on-ten on your score card in school made your parents proud and certain of your efficient and flawless upbringing...Isn't it sometimes amusing to see mommys flaunting the 6-feet height of their kids.

There is still more to how numbers influence our outlook.Someone pick-pockets your 100 bucks and you forget about it much before you realize it but if your thousand or ten thousand bucks go missing you start loosing sleep over it.A single bomb blast is too mundane now to be given a thought over but when TV flashes news on ten or eleven intermittent 'serial blasts' ,its more than what is required to glue the entire family to the television set catching the bedlam prevalent in the effected area and updates on how far the police has reached in nabbing the suspects or the culprits....If one is killed we call it a law of nature to keep the cycle going but if thousands are killed in a train or bus mishap or an air crash we suddenly become considerate to the plight of fellow human beings.Every year rain floods some or other district but the news has never taken the attention of the people of the nation and also across the globe for that matter as it did lately when the Kosi river embankment breach which flooded nine hundred and seventy nine villages in thirty four blocks and five districts under six to ten feet of water for almost a fortnight.The havoc killed ten people,about three million became homeless,one million cattles perished ,around one lac twenty five thousand hectares of agricultural land damaged and caused an agricultural loss of rupees hundred and fifty crores............The alarming figures earned mercy of the entire nation so much so that aids and funds and all sorts of help started flowing in unfazed from all corners and helped the struggling people of Bihar come out of the dark phase....

Does it all say that figures can even help to bring about compassion??..Well, figures have this immense unacclaimed potential.They can amaze,alarm,enchant,irk,enthuse, tranquil...........and what not? In the words of Mathematician Philip J Davis,' The numbers are a catalyst that can turn raving madmen into polite humans.'

Rise and arise to realise even more..........

'There's no thrill in easy sailing when the sky is clear and blue,
there's no joy in merely doing things which anyone can do,
but there is certain satisfaction that is mighty sweet to take,
when you reach a destination that you thought you would never make.'


Sometimes i wonder if things are going in accord with the plans of the creator.He gave the same share of gift talent to all so that they can carry it with humility.Its just tht some find time and circumstances to discover the gift while some are left to grumble about the injustice of the creator.The question is, is it really not possible to get over the hard times.To rise and arise...to realise even more??

No mountaneer ever knew that he could make it to the peak of the Everest until he actually did it.How would it have worked for the wood-cutter, had he given in to his profusely oozing sweat?Because he knew that when he eventually cuts the wood in
hundred blows of his axe,it would be not because of the hundredth blow but because of the consistent 99 preceeding blows that seemed futile at one point of time.lets take for instance, the life of the legendary American President Abraham lincoln.He lead an utterly underprivilaged childhood.He didnt get a chance to go to a proper school and gained knowledge while working in farm and splitting rails for fences.He also lost his mother as a kid.His family was forced out of home and he had to work to support them.In the later years of his life he failed in business twice and lost 8 elections when he took to politics.....a stream of set backs indeed.But did he not rise again and again.Even in the midst of the stoic life,did he not dare to dream big and find a place as the 'Great American President'?.It must have been despairing for Edison to encounter successive failures. But he arised from every failure saying,'I have not failed.I've just found 10,000 ways that wont work' and ultimately invented the electric bulb without which the world would have never realised that the setting sun does not take away all the light!
To take a broader view, lets plunge back in time when history witnessed the greatest catastrophy.The nuclear attack of the United States on the Japnese
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the year 1945.The bombing vanquished whole of Japan. The aftermath scares one even today.Cities were reduced to rubbles.Corpses were strewn all over like litters.Hunger,agony and suffering enveloped the nation for years after........Today Japan is one of the most developed and prosperous nations of the globe with world class infrastructure,health care system,burgeoing technology,second largest economy and what not?The question is what made it possible for Japan to raise itself from rubbles to riches??Isnt it the 'rise and arise...' spirit?
Its must be a great feeling.When one realises transcening one's own supposed capabilities and expectations.All it takes is to keep alive the never-give-in attitude towards the weakening forces that make all attempts to put off our spirits in times of strife.We all have it in us deep within.All it takes is a little bit of stirring our souls,our conscience.All it takes is to try awakening the powerful human being within each one of us that often seems to be slumbering.
C'mon folks...get up and get going.The creator never gave you the veto to undermine yourself.He has made you the treasurer of your talents..so take good care of it..dont let its sheen fade away..afterall its yours!

Love,as i see it...

Love.....its like the wind.I cant see it but i can feel it.And shall i tell u a deep seated truth?For some time now,i have come to value love(i mean 'true love'..if at all it exists and deep down i believe,it does.)so much so that i always end up chasing such thoughts..thoughts of love.Because,the more i think of it,the more i fear of falling in love!(is it rightly said that fear never disappoints??!!)Talks apart.Today i am in to pour out all i have been able to explore about LOVE.
Well,i think love has a very diverse implication in our lives.This certainly is for the good,because,no matter whatsoever form love may camouflage beneath,the magic that those four letters come together to create,makes life beautiful,complete and above all worth living.
I consider love analogous to a tree.They share so much in common.Though absolutely mundane,there is no substitute to the shelter both of a tree and of love.(then be it a long tiresome walk on a hot sunny day or be it walking through the road of life).Both never cease to grow with time.Both outlive us.And most importantly,its hard to imagine life without both of them.
There are basically two forms of love.One form of love is the 'inbuilt love'.Like parents' love for their children and vice versa,siblings' love for each other and the love of the almighty.Needless to say,the tree of true love is planted within our souls right before the time we are born.Had it not been so,how would a new born baby be able to recognize her mom,much before the gray cells of her brain come into action.It often used to leave me wondering,as to what was the thing that brought back the giggle on the face of a crying baby the moment she is back in her mom's or dad's arms.Ever realized that the first word that you involuntarily utter in pain,is 'maa'.The only thing that can explain all such phenomena
is love...and only love.This is what i call inbuilt love.Its simply there and we cannot or need not explain as to why?But it sure does wonders.Love for instinctive inclinations,or for inanimate things is also inbuilt.like some love music,some love to travel,some love books,some love money!Its also inexplicable.At times its concerned with heredity but quite often its absolutely instinctive.
Then there is this another form of love,which i will say is not a fully grown tree of love when we are born.Its just a sapling initially and its up to us to nurture it so that soon it takes the shape of a tree(the way god did with inbuilt love much before he sent us down.And by not doing so,i fear,in a way we are disobeying gods will)Like the love for our fellow beings(better known as compassion)and the love that we fall for.That is,the love for that 'special companion' .
For the former all i will say is,its all right if we do not care to love our fellow beings,if we can well fortify ourselves for the day when we will have to confront the almighty.
Love that we fall for...Actually its this form of love that i have been trying to understand lately.What is love all about?when do you know you are in love?..so on and so forth...Realization..Yes...its the word that pops up in my mind when i think of love.The realization of significance of another person in your life who is unconditionally dear to you.The realization of belongingness to someone to whom you do not actually belong!!The realization of the unbound faith that you have for someone.the realization that you immensely respect someone.The realization of finding a companion for whom there never was and there never will be a substitute and whose company you do not find surfeit even for a lifetime.
When you can feel the presence of someone always by your side in low moments and you miss him while having a ball, i guess its love.What more.Erich Segal says it best when he says,'to love is never having to say you are sorry'.For true love does not seeks regrets and apologies.Rather its always ready to forgive because it can see things deep down that the rest of world cannot and things unsaid.
Like life,lov is a process and not a pursuit.Its a journey not a destination.Therefore,its path may be bumpy at times but thats not reason enough to put an end to love(could we do the same with life??)After all how can we unrealize something that we have already realized?True love is never complete.It keeps growing with time.(no wonder, expressions like 'we are no more in love','we broke up' etc often leaves me intrigued.)
Some say love is a commitment.I beg to differ.We love somebody and make efforts to see the person happy not because its a commitment but because we love to do it.I believe,true love never flourishes under the grace of confinement.Rightly said,
"if you love something,set it free;
if it comes back to you,its yours;
if it does not it never was."
All forms of love are interdependent.If we have abundance of any one form of love(which we all do have),it should make us rich in every form of love.

In simple words,love is great beyond words.And its great to fall for love and to be in love!!
Wish you loads and loads of love in your life!

Science Vs Religion or Science and Religion??

Reading does help to explore new avenues.Here is an instant example...A random reading prooved to be a real eye-opener..i was a non-believer of religion(not an atheist but a believer of one and only one supreme being,the sacred figure ,the guiding light..)So,being a technologist-in-making,relating religion with science was out of question..but after coming across this piece i found even science and religion have lots in common.This is how i would like to go about science and religion now...........

Science and Religion.Two terms that evolved from two starkly contrast schools of thought.One would wonder if science and religion have things to share!On the contrary,superficially ,one belies the other!Science is based on testable hypothesis while religion is mere faith.In science,a healthy sceptism is a necessity while when religion is concerned belief without evidence is a virtue! So similarity in science and religion is seemingly out of discussion....Hold on...baffling as it may sound,but both have much in common.....Remember what the great scientist Einstein once said?That, the more he studied universe(which is based on phenomenas that pivot on science),the more he believed in the existence of the higher power(the existence of the supreme being,the aura of ideal human values,which is the essence of every religion).Weren't both science and religion founded on belief in the existence of something outside the universe?As in,unexplained set of physical law and unexplained God.And dont neither of the two succeed in giving a complete account for physical existence??If religion or God is supposedly holding the natural order from beyond the universe ,the physical universe is governed by external laws(i.e Meta-laws).Physicists think of the Meta-laws as laws inhabiting an abstract realm of perfect mathematical
relationships.Shouldn't the laws of physics have an explanation from within the universe not involving appealing to an external agency ,if science brags on testable hypothesis being its sole basis??And if specifics of such explanations of science are a matter of future research,its claim to be free from faith is dubious until it comes up with testable theory of laws of universe.
Going by that which is more apparent on taking a broader view on the laws of science,don't both religion and science seem to flourish on the same side of the shore?The crux of both science and religion come down to the very similar mantra of 'faith'!!

Life's puzzles!!...huh..

I thought it was all over..i mean,trying to answer those questions that life takes unbound pleasure in posing before a 'poor child'(no, not a child actually ..couple of years back i even crossed my 'prized' teenage, though still nostalgically entangled in the time that i must learn is passe) or a 'poor human being'(sounds more apt?) every now and then.Alas! ..There was an entire questionnaire waiting to grab the slightest chance to help me sweat my brain.The ones that had always lingered in my head.And today they are back and adament on not letting me escape this time..So,the big questions are....Why are we here for?What is expected out of us as quintessential human beings?Why is it sometning baffeling if we prefer to remain ordinary?Why is it that the 'should' factor is abashedly intimidating?Why do we 'have' to be 'practical'?(the word seems to me still as puzzling as ever)..Why cant we live life on life's own?Why cant we be like the stars that keep twinkling and never fail to charm the onlooker no matter each is just like a speck in the face of sky(here the optimist in me reminds me of the words of one of my great teachers ,'Cmon girls,make something of yourself before it is too late because its only here that you can make something of yourself.Outside this collage campus you are nothing more than a speck of dirt..')Aaah... those inspiring words ..they keep haunting me ..... in the midst of all the talk i cant afford to put down the last but the most dreary one..where can i find an answer to at least some of them???
The optimist in me is not happy with such troublesome thoughts and would not let the poor pessimist take over.For,it does not want to embroil in the futile battle of intrigues.It asserts that though she too hasnt found an answer to any of them,she is nonchalant and better off with things to look up to....and she gave me this super mantra to disentangle myself...which says ,'dont bother ,Just bear in your mind the words of a wise man who once said:the three essentials of happiness are,to have something to do,to have something to love and to have something to hope for'.

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??