Intelligentle

2011 is leaving, waving me good bye and honestly, I'm going to miss it badly. As time progresses, the thumb rule of the universe works; things change. Things change for good and/or bad, but however optimistic I'm trying to be a huge percentage of people are getting worse, especially in the way they co-exist with  fellow human beings. This observation is not just a passing remark, nor superficial. Sometimes I feel that we do not deserve this beautiful planet, and we should not waste time searching for aliens, we ARE the aliens. I am not trying to be the angel here, but at least I'm trying to live in a mutually supportive world. Be it my home, work place or public road, I am not trying to be the emperor. I depend on help, support and kindness of a lot of people in day to day life and it is not going to change even if I reach the ultimate position in my career or life. Humility and helpfulness are taken for granted almost everywhere. If you do an odd job f...

Almost all 'ism's are playing with our heart, mind, fantasies and even practicalities for years. To make it a little clear I will give a simple example. I have seen people wearing Che Guvera t-shirts and other merchandise with Che's picture to express the revolutionary 'within' them. Really? Isn't it stupid to think that a Michael Schumacher t-shirt makes me a good formula 1 racer? Yes, you can come up with another argument telling that this is one of the ways in which you show respect to your icon. If Che was a sport or movie star as in the Schumacher scenario, I would've easily fallen for that argument. The man stood for a greater principle and cause, he was not an entertainer. Dear teenage revolutionary, if you want to know a bit about Che, I would recommend to watch The motorcycle diaries .  If you want to respect Che, fight within your limits against inequality and poverty, wearing a t-shirt or cap is profitable ONLY to the vendors who sell them. ...

Today is 11-11-11 and in just over two hours* it will be 11-11-11, 11:11:11. Oh yes, I'm not here to state obvious, cliche facts. This is about two dreams shaping up, slowly but surely. The kind of dreams a lot of people see and forget when they wake up. I have started dreaming some 8 years back, during graduation and slowly it started shaping up, taking a deviation whenever there is an obstacle, but working towards it constantly. Initially the dream was my energy, my reason for survival and my momentum. But now I live for it, that dream is safe in my hand just like a heart which still beats but needs a body to survive. But this post is not about my dream, this is of another big dream which has the same birth place but with a different trajectory. When a good percentage of the boys of his age are concerned about having a bike, latest fashion outfits or a girlfriend, the owner of this dream had a bigger concern. And he made me a proud brother by chasing ...

There are two major things about life I have learnt over the last 27 years: 1) You don't make life, it happens. You can still mould it to some extent. 2) Whatever happens in life, good or bad, the end result will always be a lesson. You might still miss it. And these points made me think about creating a life list of mine. As usual these are just experiences and are not foolproof. When all the doors and windows are closed (or crashed), this might help someone. Some of these points are genuine and some I retain from some early readings or conversations. Life is not as complicated as philosophers and modern intellectual says. When someone says life is complicated, understand they are making a living out of this hype. On the other hand, of course, we can make life complicated if we want. As everything else in the world, it's just a matter of choice. Peer pressure is farce. You do not have to do anything just because everyone else does. When you are sad, talk t...

What do you need most when you have cold and slight fever with occassional cough? Obviously, for a person who works in a far away city, home is the best treatment. Fortunately my 'annual cold & fever fair' came with my opportunity to come home for two days. So here till tomorrow evening with my mom, dad and brother and then board a bus to bangalore again. In the last two weeks, I have visited three of the four (so called) South Indian states, except for Andhrapradesh. And I love all these three states for three different reasons. I like Karnataka for Bangalore and my coporate communications team there, like Tamil Nadu because my better half is there and Kerala, because here is where I belong to. With less than 60 days to go for my wedding and some other unconfirmed happiness expected , I look forward to an exciting time ahead. I hereby click the 'I'm feeling lucky now' button of Google search and the keyword entered is 'happiness' :)

I remember my childhood, when almost everything was a wonder. The rain, the smell of soil when it rained, the press button umbrella, the school van, the music in it, LED lights, telephone, the stereo set...the list can go on and on. So one of my prominent childhood wonders was the moon, who often changed her shape and size, who dominated the sky on some nights and timidly hid behind clouds on some other day. She was beautiful and for the little me, the best thing about her was she followed wherever I went. Yes, when I walked in the night, holding my mom's hand, I used to look up to make sure that the moon is with me. A good friend she was and as I grew up I forgot her friendship, i loved the rain more and then music and then my laptop. But yeah, I missed the company once in a while and when I looked up she was still there, through my teenage till yesterday night. So though she is still there, I'm not dedicating this blog to the moon up in the sky. If why is the question, th...

Obviously you know what it would be about, yes the big match today. Normally Wednesdays are like the half finished medicine bottles when you are ill; you know that you are getting well by the end of it but you still have to go through the torture and finish half of it. But this Wednesday, excitement is in the air, as India confronts our neighbour Pakistan in another head-on sporting battle. As we know, India-Pakistan matches are normally considered as the mother of all cricket matches and when it is the semi final match of World Cup, it acts as a natural pacemaker. Just like anyone else, I want Team India to win and it will be extremely delightful to watch Sachin and the boys (don't expect Dhoni and boys from me!) beating Pakistan in this spectacle. But let us keep it in a level where we can see it as a game, with pure sportsman spirit. Yes, I will be sad if anything goes against India in this game, but then we can try and avoid comparisons to terr...

Yesterday night, I was planning to write about my childhood as it was really memorable (in a way); at least for my parents. I kept it on hold as some other incident made me think about an entirely different issue. Last week, I went out looking for a mobile handsfree and stepped in to a shop. And there I met a boy who was trying to help me out with my shopping requirement. He was hardly 12 and looked skinny but energetic. As the salesman, he was working really hard, trying to help out one customer after another. When stepped out of the shop, I felt a little bad and thought about somehow informing this to some child welfare organization, as it is a clear case of child labour. Then again some other scenarios that I came across in the past, stopped me thinking any further. Read on; Scenario 1 Last year, for almost three months, I was staying at a guest house in Bangalore. There were 2-3 guys to take care of the occupants and among them there was a kid of 12-13 years age. He used...

Saturdays give me deeper shades of blues than Mondays. On Saturdays, my Sametime chat list is almost inactive as the corporate office has a 'proper' weekend off and a lot of guys in the Nasik office take an off too. But this Saturday is slightly different with a lot of personal and professional jobs to finish. However when you feel like writing something, you have to do it. There is no way out or in and obviously there is no two ways about it. Let me digress from Saturdays and writing, I want to tell you about something else. As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts, I did not write to influence, inspire or insult. But, if this inspires someone or at least encourage them to think a little more, I'm more than happy :) Ok, so I go to the office canteen for lunch during office days and I go alone as; I get hungry by 12.30 and the scheduled time is 1.00 I do not have a team here to go with I prefer to finish the lunch fast without much chattering in between I spend so...

Forewarning: Facebook has not introduced a dislike button yet and this post is in no way related to that. So, I thought of listing out my dislikes, primarily for my information and importantly, for others too. Though I am aware about 'Advaita' doctrine, as a not-so-enlightened human being, I frankly don't like everything and everyone around me. Though there are other things I dislike, the following is a list of things/people which I do not like under any circumstances. People without original thoughts, I appreciate original thoughts even if they are crude Talking while eating Hypocrisy Smoke (all kind of them, especially cigarette) Regionalists Religious extremists The sound of rubbing on balloons (close me inside a room, do this, you'll get a dead me) Wannabes; who really don't know what they wanna be! 'ma' for my, 'kewl' for cool, 'wot' for what, ni8 for night etc. I read gr8 as G, R and 8. Airtel mobile (contradictorily I use ...

I don't use this blog for moral enlightening or generalization, just because it is more of a virtual scribbling pad for me. But, at times, you have to divert from the usual, especially when you start feeling like trash to be a part of certain civilization. Let me make it very clear, for the past few years I am really ashamed to be known as an Indian man! Yes some of my counterparts from various parts of the country are such lowlife creatures, just because they don't know how to respect women. Some of us must be thinking now, "I have not done anything to question the dignity of women, so why should it bother me?" Think over it, you might have witnessed a 50 year old trying to touch a 9th standard student in the grossest manner in a bus? Well I witnessed once, and my knee bone went down on his head like a thunder and all I had to do was to look ignorant while he was staring angrily. We all witness such incidents and do nothing, everyday. I understand that it is most...

In my last b'day post also, I mentioned that I have no intention to grow up, whatsoever! I stick to my word and I will. Though a lot changed since then, they happened mostly for good. 27, as a number, has nothing special to claim like I mentioned in my blogpost ; but me at 27, can create a lot of special moments during the upcoming 365 days till 28 and guess what, I already started creating special moments :) This b'day was comparatively a lonely one, except for the phone calls and FB messages which made my day. And I can't thank enough for all the calls which made me feel really special, along with the twitter and FB wishes. For some reason or for no reason, I was really happy during the entire day, despite of the loneliness factor (blah! loneliness is over rated) 26 to 27 was a real roller coaster ride; from daily classes to daily office, from Pune to Nasik, from a zero to 0.1, above all from me to a better me. So what will it be like in 28...

I usually do not write blog posts back to back, major reason being laziness. However today I am feeling a major 'work-block' which is not usual and can be attributed to any or all of the following reasons; I had a very bad sleep yesterday night, which resulted in the ongoing fatigue I have finished almost all works (say 90%) which looked like a heap last week I am a little too excited about the things happening in my life So I thought of dealing this 'work-block' with 'writers'-flow'. I listen to Bryan Adam's 'On a day like today' at least once in a day and I love the first two lines most "Free is all you gotta be Dream dreams no one else can see" These two lines are becoming the catch words of my life, they symbolise me, my dreams, my future, in short me as a person. I am not trying to tell that I dream one in a billion dreams or not that I am free. But I am one of those people who think that I can see a genuine dream some t...

I have this strange habit of connecting each year to one or other lucky signs of mine, especially for the last three years and the ongoing one. For example my lucky number is supposedly '1', as my birthday is 28th (2+8=10; 1+0=1) and my self-proclaimed lucky numbers are 111 and 11, in that order. So 2008 was obviously my lucky year, 2009 was also, 2010 because it has a 10 and likewise for 2011 (duh! i'm not going to add numbers here). Personally it can mean either of the following two deductions or both; 1) I am losing my mind 2) I am becoming a die hard optimist Both ways I am happy ;) Well, what happened over the last, so called, three lucky years of mine? Looking back, there are a lot of obvious changes and not-so-obvious ones, let me try and list some! Three years back, I would not have written a blog like THIS (THIS-Language, style, tone) Food- 'Almost' a vegetarian from a hardcore non-veg, completely gave up meat for the last one year and when I go hom...