Somethings make more sense to us than others. Somethings strike a cord somewhere and sometimes we can identify with them at a whole new level. And at that point, you have this sense of excitement, joy and self realization.
It is the time when you just connect.
Have been listening to a lot of ‘Wake up Sid’. Sometimes shallow commercial movies also can have somethings to teach. Some feelings to express. Some logic and some words of encouragement.
Just hum these lines to yourself, they are as if, written only for you.
“yeh jo kahein woh jo kahein sun lo
baat jo sahin dil ko lage chun lo
karana hai kya tumhe yeh tum hi karo faisala
yeh soch lo tumakao jaana hai kahaan
tum hi musaafir tum hi toh ho kaarwaan.”
The next stanza is simply brilliant. Seems like an extension of me.
“Aaj bhi dekho kal jaisa hi na ho
aaj bhi yuun na tum sote hi raho
itane kyun sust ho kuchh kaho kuchh suno, kuchh na kuchh karo
ro padon ya hanso jindagi mein koyi na koyi toh rang bharo.”
I could repeat it a hundred times to myself and yet feel the connection each time I hear it.
Live life. Break free. Redefine your horizons. Please your heart. Look beyond the obvious. Take that leap. Get hurt. Fall down. Stand up again.Do something.ANYTHING!
In a neck tied schedule of daily assignments, boring lectures and seeing the same old faces, came a wonderful break of Diwali. And suddenly the dark neighbourhood was lit up. Its rather amusing to see how only little diya can vanish the darkness and lit up our moods.
The traditions needless to say were followed. Nothing new. It was just another Diwali. But then I looked around. We always have a choice. To celebrate Diwali because we have to, or to celebrate because we want to.
And it was then that I decided that I wanted to celebrate not ‘my diwali’ but capture the diwali spirit of different sections of the society. Diwali is Diwali, for the rich or the poor. And I found it extremely amazing, how everyone wants to celebrate in the most limited resources as well.
There is a complete change in attitude. I could sense it. In strangers, in friends, in family, in me.
In a meagre 4K salary, my maid bought her son a second hand PC. She must have saved I know, she must have refused too numerous times, but diwali is when you let yourself free. Bring a smile on your loved ones’ faces.
Very rarely I get to hear those golden words “bol tula kaay pahije”. And Diwali just seems to do it for me. Suddenly your parents are pampering you and you have every reason to splurge…its Diwali after all..
But I found some unique changes too…changes in me..on a normal day I would look away from a beggar at a signal, but last week, I didn’t think twice before handing out a 5 rupee coin. Not once but a good 6-7 times in the week. Maybe it is this feeling that let others should have their ‘diwali’ too and let there be happiness..let there be celebration and festivity..
I have always been amused by the sheer number of festivals we have here. From Makar sankrant to Christmas, there is always one around the corner. Specific traditions for each, and sometimes we do go overboard with them too. But it is rather fascinating how a festival brings positivity and happiness in the household. And we need such breaks. Life is fuller this way.
You never know where life would take you from here, how and where your next year would be..so I had a good Diwali this year and I am sure I would look back at these days and feel good about it.
Leaving you with a few Diwali photos..
( taken with cell phone camera so don’t mind the blurred ones)
Whose Diwali is better? That of a child sitting before a diya in a humble house or of a spoilt child in a culturally dead mansion?
Some colours enrich your life
First things first. After a couple of humble attempts of drawing rangoli, it all came down to today’s final one. After a few discouraging remarks which only made my resolve stronger, this is what I came up with today.
I know its not great not even good enough. But it is my idea. My implementation and done in a record time of 10 mins. Not bad eh?
Looking back at the to do list. I have checked off most of the things and the last one being, a mother-of-all posts..coming up in a bit..couldnt stop myself from showing off my “art”.
Happy new year!
And this one goes to Rohit! One Diwali we would burst crackers together.Either here or there.:D
So today was narakchaturdashi…and lakshmi pooja and ofcourse I was determined to check a few things off my to-do list..
After a morning of killing the ‘rakshas’ and getting myself tortured with ‘utna’, it was time to get into my best and go seek God’s blessings. So here I was, certainly not in my best, thankfully not in a saree, looking at a pool of what seemed to be a ’shaadi ki baraat’ in front of the Parleshwar Mandir. It is a tradition here in Parle to go to this particular temple right after the Abhyang Snaan and I was practically looking at the whole youth of Parle there. ( No good looking guy, sigh!) Anyways, after a lot of “hiiiieees” and “long time, you have reduced yaar”, I could manage my brief private moment with God. A year that I can happily survive and difficulties only small enough to overcome is what I asked for, and I was off. Yes, the photo sessions followed which would be all over facebook and orkut by now..
A lot of sweets can make you sleepy. 
I love afternoons.
Lakshmi Pooja was a fairly serious and smooth affair and yes, I tried my hand at Rangoli drawing today too..so you have to see it today as well…temme have I improved?
The Lakshmi footsteps are always going to be there, simply because they are a convenient thing to do..I have shamelessly copied the ‘toran’ from my neighbour’s Rangoli but hey, the Swastik was my idea…tomorrow I am doing to have a proper design in mind)
BTW, I burst my first bomb today…it is always great to overcome your mental barriers and go out there and do what you really want to…good fun..try it..Happy Diwali once again…
Its diwali and suddenly I wanted to revive old memories…there are some many things I used to do when I was a kid and I have unknowingly given up…from fighting with my brother as to who gets more crackers to not bursting them at all..from being the first to attempt drawing a rangoli to buying a ready made thing to be stuck..I had apparently grown up too soon…so this time, in a deliberate attempt to celebrate Diwali as a kid, here is what I am planning to do…
1. rangoli every single day..much to my moms annoyance
2. crackers..I am going to light a lakshmi bomb this time round
3. eat a lot of sweets…faraal rocks..
4. let mom do everything her way…from the ‘utna’ applying tradition every morning to cleaning the whole house.( which I already did btw)
5.capture some diwali moments on my 3.2 mgpixel cellphone camera n satisfy my new found photography urge..
6.write the mother of all posts kinda post about diwali..ekdam dilse…
to begin…this is what I made today…
‘why those well made laskhmi footsteps?’ you may be wondering…coz mom gave me this God-sent stencil..the diyas are entirely my creation…I think it is well understood…btw,the white footsteps have red nailpolish on them ok? and yes..finally frustrated and completely bored, I found my ‘engineer-ish’ way out and filled the space with “HAPPY DIWALI”..God bless the one who created the concept of language!
Empty roads. No need for brakes or horns for minutes. No street fights, no beggars, no haphazard road crossing by pedestrians. No over-smart rickshaws. No rash BEST drivers. Clearly not the Mumbai we live in right? Well it’s not the Mumbai you see during your busy day. It’s the Mumbai under the moon.
Not every day do you get permission to be out late night. At least I don’t. So when I did, there was no turning back. The windows went down and the music volume went up. No, there was no liquor. I have not really understood the need for it, but from what I have heard, it’s all about the ‘kick’. Well Mumbai was more than enough to provide the kick, and feeling the gush of cool air on our faces as we cut through the silence of the night, was our absolut alcohol.
After 11 in the night, boundaries and borders don’t exist. It’s not about Andheri, Bandra, Worli or Churchgate anymore. Coz on those blessed traffic-less roads, you seem to fly past everything in a flash.
From college to Bandra over the sea link to Worli and finally to Nariman point and back was the basic idea. Or so it seemed.
The sea link is a magical place. And it is divine at night. With the dark sea on one side and the glistening skyline of Mumbai on the other, with the salty waves dashing on the humongous pillars and adrenaline pumping in you as you literally glide on that magnificent marvel with a sense of pride, excitement and most of all, coming out of it overwhelmed by the whole experience, the Bandra Worli sea link is surely worth all the 10 years of shit gone into its making. All through, we all had our heads out of the windows and ‘Wake up, Sid!’ blasted on your eardrums. Each one was in his/her own world, taking in the best of Mumbai.
Nights are supposed to be peaceful. We had broken the silence. After the initial enthu slowly died down, came the real beauty of the city. Worli to Nariman Point was a relatively calm and the Queen’s necklace was another spectacular sight. We drove in silence. Taking in all the hustle bustle on those streets even at this hour.
After a small halt there, it was time to turn back. The clock was ticking and the dreaded call was imminent.
Worli sea-face was where we actually got down. Our legs had been cramped for a long time and it was time to experience Mumbai the real way. First we stood there looking at the black sea. We could only see the white foam as the waves hit the rocks. Something was missing.
I cautiously sat on the parapet and everyone followed. Then we slowly stood up. And then it was only the endless sea. And then its only about you. You and the unseen horizon. You and the unknown. And suddenly the unknown had a tremendous calming effect. The salty wind softly blew on my face and my hands were lifted involuntarily. Though it may seem really funny, I loved my brief feeling of being at the best place on earth. There couldn’t have been a more right place and a more right time for this.
I could stand there forever and be the happiest person on earth. That moment was peace for me. But the ‘moma ringtone’ screeched through the tranquil atmosphere and my heart skipped a beat.”Where are you? Who is dropping you? You said you would be back by 12.” “Coming aai, I am near santacruz. Traffic ahe.” ”I have been staying here for 45 years sweetheart and I am your mother. Stop lying and come home.” The line went dead. “ I am screwed” is all I had to say and the race against time began.
Back on the sea link, everyone was silently enjoying the breathtaking view and the untimely rain was like the cherry on top!
You and your city would always connect. Because you know it in and out. You know its best and you are aware of its worst. And you live through both.
I can never have enough of Mumbai. And it is times like these when you know, what you blindly love is actually worth so much more.
Till when should you hold on?
To an idea. A resolution. A decision. A dream. A bond. A friend. An institution. A thought. An experience. An ambition. A wish. A feeling. A life.
When is it time to let go?
Or is there a time?
Life is never going to be well defined. It’s not always the ‘school-college-love-heartbreak-work-marriage-kids-pay raise-retirement-incomplete ambitions-peace’ way. In most cases we just try to manoeuvre our life accordingly. We try. We always try. But till what?
We look around. We dream, we aspire. We want. We WANT. We care. We want to be cared. We want things to last forever. And we struggle for that. We keep struggling forever.
As cynical as it sounds, but don’t we in most cases end up hurting ourselves with our own expectations in life? Why do we expect life to turn out in a specific way?
We want people to behave in a particular way. With us and with others. But aren’t they individuals just like you? Why would people do what you want them to? Why?
We want circumstances to be according to our wish. We will never wholeheartedly settle for anything else. Even if we are lucky enough to get what we want, are we happy and relieved? Or are we still hoping for it to last?
Do you ever thank God without the next wish lined up?
Every day I learn something new. About life. About how to be. How not to be. Life is like one huge onion. You keep peeling off one layer at a time. To discover what had always been there. If you try to slice it in one go, you would end up crying. Enjoy each layer of it.
Your tomorrow isn’t going anywhere, but your today is.
It is always about us, isn’t it?What I like, what I don’t..what I will, what I wont..
But till when? When do we give up? When do we ease the pain? The need? The crave?
I laugh at my decisions in the past, I ridicule the way I used to think, or the stupid mistakes I have committed. I look back and wonder if it was really me? And then I realise, it’s a process. A few years or maybe months down the line, I would laugh at this very post( which by the way I have done with a few older entries) . But life after all is all about looking back once in a while, because it is when you look back that you realise what it has made you now.
I never let go. I always try. And I keep trying.It hurts me. I have been advised to change. To accept. To give up once in a while when it isn’t working out. But somehow I can’t. Just another drawback maybe. I always hope.
Hope is a good thing right?
I will hold onto life forever.
Who doesn’t have problems? Who doesn’t find life imperfect and who doesn’t crib once in a while? Or at least spend a moment in melancholy solitude regretting something. We all do. Life is good but many times not good enough. But life is about all those not -so-good-enough moments after all.
You can sink to the deepest darkest pits of self pity and sorrow and let circumstance and time drift you to unknown locations of depression and ‘loser-ness’(if I may say so). But you can also go about it differently. Surprise yourself…shock life itself!
- Get yourself the most colourful huge delicious ice cream and walk off. On the road. Care not about the people staring at you. Nor about the melted ice cream ruining your sleeve. Or the dogs barking. Or that stupid rickshaw driver honking his horn. Or that low gloomy thought which had made things difficult. Or what he or she said the other day. Or what they meant to say. Or what you think they meant to say. Or what they didn’t say. Let go.
Eat it like a child. Set yourself free.
- Sing. Aloud. Shamelessly. And if this is coming from me, trust me you have to be really shameless to sing aloud with a voice like mine. Add your own illogical rhyme or beat to it. Go high or whatever that is called. Makes those intense expressions. Feel the song. Live the song. Don’t care about the world. They never cared about you.
- Go to the beach. Watch the waves crashing onto the coast. Breathe in the salty air. Observe the amazing sunset. The beautiful colour shades that nature has to offer. Get lost in the horizon…in the serene enormity of the ocean. Clear your mind. Listen to those waves. Their ever-changing yet uniform movement can make you sit there for hours.
- Walk. Keep walking. With no destination. No, not with loud songs playing through your i-pod headsets. Just walk. Think about life. About insignificant events. And feel good. Or bad. But feel something. Stop going numb. Analyze life. Find a way out of the rocky paths of life. Keep walking till you are sorted out.
- Look around. People around you are going through worse. You are lucky; cheer up. Go help someone who needs it. Life would be greener. For him. For you.
Let’s stop waking up only because its morning. Get up because it is one more day God has gifted us to make the best of. Every moment is unique and special. Because it’s not coming back. Ever. Let us make ourselves believe that life isn’t about just living, it is about LIVING it the jhataak style!
Mixed emotions fill me as I introduce you to our college Entrepreneurship cell. Being a part of e-cell has already given me so much to share..so much to give..so much to learn..so much to spread..
Here at SPCE-SPIT we hardly ever bothered to think about E-cell beyond the fifty rupee venture and a few went ahead to pursue IMPETUS. But today as I look at this committee, as we look at the potential an E-cell has, what kind of resources and opportunities we enjoy, I am no less than shocked to see the sheer wastage of talent we end up doing.
Well things are about to change. And how!!
E-cell in college is going to be BIG! Real BIG! Things began with 50 rupee venture; not ended with it. We have a whole new list of interesting events lined up. From adopting the ‘case study model’ usually used in B schools to E-Talkies which would screen inspiring movies and relevant documentaries. We provide you direct access to all resources of NEN( National Entrepreneurship Network) and at the same time we take care that you enjoy yourselves at the end of the day.
Rough skeleton of the ‘to-do’ list of E-cell:
- Case Studies over Chai!
- Seminars on marketing, finance, stock market, PR, HR, publicity, etc.
- Lectures and mentoring sessions by SP alumni and well placed entrepreneurs.
- E-talkies( movie screenings)
- IMPETUS
- E-Week
- Periodic business quizzes
- VSM
- Business idea generation competition
10. Inter college Business events
I hope you realise as fellow SP-ites that we are just one of you guys. Trying to make some new changes around our very own college.
Its a rather interesting concept, you know it. Give yourselves a chance. Make this big. Lets stand up and make an entrepreneurship-friendly background in SP and who knows, we may have the next Steve Jobs or Sabeer Bhatia from among us!
Create awareness about E-cell..join the online communities and stay connected. Give it a chance, give it an identity. Make it a part of your blog. Share it. Live it.
After a unexpected yet welcome vacation, making it out of bed at 8.15 for a 9.15 lecture( 9.15 is an intelligent choice; you occupy the only vacant seat which would invariably be the first and hence a few enlightening words fall on your otherwise useless ears) was a killer. The fact that apart from the usual, numerous activities like Robocon, some interesting (s)elections, even this certain Pictionary game that we play during lectures, did little to overcome the laziness and fatigue.
And a welcome back ‘gift’! Surprise!!!!
The clean white stall with apparently delicious sandwiches, frankly looks slightly out of place in the haven of cutting chai and schezwan fried rice. What should I have? “Corn coleslaw achcha hai” says a new ‘ Anna’ in the canteen. “Garam kar sakte hai?” Smiles as if I had complimented his culinary skills. “Aap ke liye”(WTF!) He grills it, wow my lucky day! And it soon becomes a routine for him. I enter the canteen and he goes, “Corn coleslaw?” I have to admit it is yummy but not everyday! Shocked to hear him say ” Aaj khatram ho gaya hai par ‘kaal’slaw banau kya? Woh waisa?” I am speechless. Did I have a choice? So basically, living on corn coleslaw these days. Missed chicken. Shucks! Shravan!
Another reason keeping me away from everything I HAVE to do is what I do in spite of not ‘having to do it’. For reasons unknown to me and to any logically balanced individual, I am now officially addicted to chick flicks. So what if they are the new millennium fairytales? So what if they are highly unreasonable, impractical and sometimes pure foolish? So what if they paint a wrong picture of life and its considered too ‘girlie’ to cry watching them or make you get butterflies at the climax? I love chick flicks solely because in a day of assignments, books, pollution, traffic, disappointment, loneliness, success, failure, those 2 hours bring me joy, hope and a zest to continue. More importantly, a smile. So yes, I am a girl and I love chick flicks. Period.
A new concept introduced this semester has ruined all plans for the next 6 months. No waking up at noon only to have a heavy lunch and getting back to bed. No pampering yourself to no end. So in short Sundays are no more fun-days. All thanks to this new ‘Monday morning test’ system. Its hardly September and I know which subjects I have and I have already got the books. They got me back to books or at least tried to! Sundays are now basically a disaster. And Swooosh! Your week is gone. In attending lectures, classes, workshops, studying and finally staring at the paper at 9 am on Monday morning.
Now I sit, awaiting the new weeks cycle. Life couldn’t be fuller. Yet sometimes feels so empty.
