Indian Rain in Munich

Concert in Munich

Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Chewing Gum

I have been observing my mind lately. And I am totally amazed at the kind of thoughts it thinks! That in turn has kind of given me an insight into what this entire game of relationships is like. Yes, the news is that it's a "game".
If one goes to see, relationships are more like chewing gum. It's great to have it in the beginning...nice and tasty, makes you look cool and all, feels like you could keep chewing all life long! But wait! What's happened after a while? You can't wait to spit it out. It's lost all the taste. Not just that, but now it's leaving a bad taste in your mouth! Try to get rid of it...take it in your fingers and try to hurl it away...but it sticks to whatever part of your body you touch it with. Eeeeks! Wake up to the truth my friend. You can't get rid of chewing gum just so easily.
Doesn't it sound more like most of our relationships? It does. And scarily so.
Normally there are these phases even after a break-up. The "letting go" and the "moving on". I think it's all a myth. What the *bleep* does "letting go of someone" mean anyway?! Physically letting go? Stopping to hound them with calls or any sort of communication? Is "letting go" for the sake of the EX or your own? Is it stopping to expect a reconciliation? Is it letting go of "hope"? Letting go of WHOM or WHAT???
The second part is even more confusing. "Moving on". Just one query, "how?".
Technically I think "moving on" is just a myth. Unless you end up with Amnesia, I don't think you can really move on.
Think about it. Have you completely forgotten your past love? All the things? Events? Words? Expressions? Especially the times when you had most fun? Can you erase all that? Do you want to erase all that? The answer is "no". Then how have you moved on?
People are stickier than chewing gum! It's not so easy to spit them away...

Where everything would be laughed off in squeals of laughter

Where complaints about each other would be narrated in poetry

Where there would be an underlying urge to only be with each other at nightfall

Where the journey to self-discovery would begin by holding each other’s hand

Where satisfaction and completion would stem from just being in each other’s lives

Where we would live in a cute little white house

Where friends would come to have a comforting cuppa tea

Where weekends would be reserved for each other, with each other

Where these dreams would see the light of day

Road (chain)Rage

When I am driving, I complain about Autorickshaws
When I am riding, I complain about Pedestrians
When I am in a Autorickshaw, I complain about Bikers
And when I am walking, I complain about Cars

Hello World!

Once one decides to see the funny side of things around, EVERYTHING starts seeming really funny! And I mean EVERYTHING. I thought laughing at one's own self might be a darned difficult thing to do. But it isn't. Eventually we all learn to laugh at us and also what happens/happened with/to us.
I have become newly single. Newly meaning it's been a good 4-5 months but I feel liberated from all kind of 'post heart-break' emotions only NOW. I say that with conviction, because I can now laugh at it and actually enjoy it!
A funny phenomenon has started happening off late. All the people in my life know now that I am out of a relationship. Suddenly these very people have been asking me for my advice for their relationships! Doesn't it seem utterly illogical that when I could not save my own relationship, how the hell am I going to save theirs?!
But no. The fact remains that they yet want my advice. I could think of only one reason.
Perhaps, for them being in a relationship is anyways dumb. I am out of one and therefore they perceive me as WISE. Yes, WISE. And they seek my advice...
Alright, got to go...there's a friend waiting on the phone...he wants to know the secret of my never-dying smile...am going to tell him it's because of 'singlehood' :))

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I just saw the movie. I think everyone has got to watch it once in their lifetime. There are so many thoughts that have taken birth in my head after watching the movie that I don't know which one to write about first.
Would we really be able to love our beloveds better if we erase all the previous memories of them? As if it were a new start? Is that even the solution?
It's fictional in the movie, that a non-surgical memory erasing method has been developed. But in real life too we try to achieve the same effect of "getting over" or "getting past" our previous relationship by perhaps jumping into a new one without thought, thinking "oh this one seems better than the previous one".
But Nature doesn't have a provision like that! "selectively erasing the memories of a person we want to get over!"
It's our own quest. Our own journey.
The key to a real 'spotless mind' is perhaps to make it work. Anyhow...
If there is Love, anything can work! There's got to be Listening. Giving. Accepting. And of course a will to give it the best shot. Because nobody is perfect. People are like children. They make mistakes. Some BIG. Some real small. There has to be a certain degree of informality in the relationship, where one is allowed to make mistakes.
That's what I learnt from the movie. It's an invaluable lesson.
I also believe, from my own experience now, that if there is still a little love in the heart, you cannot really 'get over' in the real sense...You take the person WITH you, wherever you may go.
And if you HAVE moved on, then the love is over too!

Just when I was thinking about the next thing to write, Arunima tagged me, so here i am continuing her "Me, Me, Me Meme"

I am thinking about...
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
I said...
Insanity when contained inside an artist is called 'Genius'

I want to...
Stop wanting.

I wish...
I could be more self-assured

I hear…
My inner voice...sweeter than any piece of music :-)

I wonder...
Why a 'Singer' also HAS to be a dancer, carrier of X-factor and son of Adonis! Why Why why?? Can't he be just a great singer?

I regret...
Not having tried to understand my father as a person. I have lost that opportunity forever now.

I am...
That. But there's a certain difference between what I know from experience and what my faith tells me but am yet to experience it...

I dance...
When I am extremely happy. That's many times in a week :-))

I sing...
Everyday

I cry...
when I am touched by kindness

I am not always...
Reasonable

I make with my hands...
Deeds and Music.

I write...
Only with my heart

I confuse...
myself with what I want to do and what I should be doing. Always.

I need...
A float

And finally...
Confuzzled
Jes
Rathish
You are Taaaaaaagged!

Have you felt stirred by a particular song on a particular day?
Have you felt so much love that you don't know what to do?
Have you appreciated truly how fortunate we are to have had a glimpse of love?
Have you smiled without a reason?
Have you cried tears of bliss thereafter?

I am doing all this right now :-)
I have no complaints...not with myself nor with the world!

Everyone is going to die!

"Everyone is going to die!"

It's such a weird thought when one reads it out first. But what makes it even more weird is the fact that it's true. We all over here...the REAL people, walking, talking, listening, conspiring, gloating, thinking, writing and reading this...we are all going to vanish from the face of the planet one day. Death will come to us and ask "Are you ready to come with me RIGHT NOW?" What will our answer be? Most of us will say "NO!" even before blinking. There's SO much to do! So much to sort out...
"My bank balance is still not how I'd like it to be..."
"I still have to show him what I can do...Hmmpff"
"Once I have her in my life, I will be happy...but till then..."
"Tomorrow is my big day..."
Sometimes it looks like we take life too seriously and that's why we don't have time to smile. It's ironic that a simple action of smiling to oneself has become something to plan about. "I will smile when I get that promotion..." we seem to be saying. Aren't we all waiting for that perfect situation which lies far ahead in the hands of our elusive future? But will THAT future ever come our way? We don't know. It may not. It may. We may not even be alive to see that day!
How many of us have lost our loved ones too suddenly? Most of us have because death always seems sudden. It never comes with a 15-day warning period. If that were the case, we humans would have taken undue advantage of that knowledge of our own death and used it as a means for escape the 'misery' of life.
What's the solution?
Well, what seems to be a really simple and immediate relief is to not take life too seriously!
Ultimately we are all going to die!
We will learn our lessons here in this magnificient opportunity that we have got through this birth. And as humans, as spirited beings, it befits us to put in our 100% in all that we undertake be it relationships or anything else.
Just let go! Chill! Remember? Everyone is going to die!

Commitment

Sometimes I begin to believe that this entire world...infact, the Universe in its entirety runs on just ONE thing- COMMITMENT.
If the Sun weren't committed to rising everyday, we can't even imagine what kind of chaos it would unleash! The milkman is committed to his job...our day begins smoothly because of his commitment to his job. Journalists are committed so we get news on time. Our homemakers are committed, breadwinners are
committed, students are committed, soldiers are committed, sweepers are committed,water is committed and so is air, singers are committed, dancers are committed, Mother Nature is committed.
It's amazing!!!
Just imagine what a pathetic situation it would be if all these above mentioned roles faltered from their commitment! Each one of us is committed to atleast one role...out of choice. Happily.
Commitment is beautiful.

What does one do when one falls in love with someone REAL hard *thud* ....?
What does one do when the other person is ALSO maybe having feelings for you...?
What does one do when the other person is in a relationship with someone else but is not happy there...?
What do I do...?

On our way to becoming Shanghai

Location: Western Express Highway, Jogeshwari, Mumbai.
Time : 2:00 P.M.

It has become the MMRDA digging ground. A group of 10-15 dhoti-clad workers were sweating it out. I was in my car at a signal. I was watching one really thin man in his early thirties amongst these ‘diggers’. He was pounding the earth below with a long heavy iron rod. He had almost acquired a rhythm in his digging and I followed the beat in my mind and I was singing songs in my head….(thump)I walk this (thump) street (thump) boule(thump) of broken (thump) Where the (thump) sleeps…And suddenly he stops pounding; straightens his bent back…and…he puts a cell phone to his ear!!!

“Aama Saar. Parva ille saar”

The signal turned green.
I grinned in amusement and drove away.

The toilet is a very strange place indeed! Some of the best creative ideas strike in the loo when one is doing one of the most mechanical jobs one can imagine.
When I was in the loo I was transported in the past this time…precisely 7 years ago. I was in Ruparel College in the first year, science stream. My subjects were Physics, Stats and Maths. But looking at those please don’t jump to the conclusion that I was good at studies. I was basically crazy about Einstein and his theory of relativity and I loved astronomy in general. That’s why I followed Physics into Degree College too. Well, but by this time even the Guitar had entered my life and I was totally in love with it and the twist in the story is that I had begun hating my science-student life from the bottom of my heart! That’s because my whole day was spent in completing journals and in the dark physics lab! I hated it because it kept me away from my guitar. BINGO! It finally struck me that I am an artist and not a science freak! When I used to read my science texts and see that the current flows from Point A to Point B or when it proclaimed that the earth goes around and the oceans are held on the earth’s surface because of a certain Centrifugal and Centripetal force, I thought,

“How does that matter to me and my guitar?! The only force that keeps the
guitar stuck on me is Love!”

I changed my stream. I took up Arts; Psychology, Philosophy and History. !
I had joined a guitar class by then. But it would not suffice for my hunger for guitar knowledge. I wanted more. So, one day I left from home for college. But instead of reaching college, at 8 A.M. I reached my guitar tutor’s home and told him, “I want to be a musician. Please help me.” He sent me to a more serious tutor called Mr. Rodriguez. I travelled to his home and told him that I wanted to learn more. He gave me a guitar and asked me to play. He was a stout old gentleman with really big stern eyes. He told me that if I kept playing like that, he would slap me! Then he told me a big list of things that I SHOULD learn…while two other guys with guitars looked meekly at me. Perhaps they too were at this stage in the recent past. From there I went straight to the Mumbai University to find out about music courses offered there. It was lunch time there so I was sent somewhere else…ultimately I did not find what I wanted.
But the point is that at that time, there was no ‘fear’, no inhibitions or hesitations! The mind was so full of innocence that I could just go out and search for what I wanted. It was so easy to change paths, try something new or do something which the heart desires.
*sigh* I so love those days…

The real thing...?

What is ‘real’?

Something tangible? But that tangible, can turn intangible anytime! Is the person beside you ‘real’? But people can just vanish…and then what is left? Memories, sounds and pictures in the head. Can you show them to your best friend? You can only ‘tell it’ as it was. It can never come back. All the ‘reality’ that we see around us, how much is ‘real’ for sure? Transient is everything. Everybody.

We say something is painful because we have experienced pleasure, we know something is cold because we have experienced heat. As with all dualities, so with this. If all this is ‘unreal’, what/ where is ‘real’? There has to be something which is NOT transient, something that is time-proof, something that does not decay…

What is real?

If you notice, so many of us are worried about our ‘image’ more than anything else. We are all busy sticking to our images of who we think we are. Of course, it also means this is with regard to ‘other’ people’s perception of our image. Confusing? It’s not really that complicated!
A husband and wife have been married for five years now and the wife’s mother always taught her to respect her husband and his family. Now, five years down the line, this woman discovers that her husband and her in-laws are not all that ‘respectable’ and being the humans that we all are, we commit some really stupid mistakes. Because this woman has squeezed herself into this ‘image’ of the ‘ideal’ wife/ daughter-in-law, she refuses to depart from it by not speaking up at all! Ok, now we all might not identify with a situation like this. Let’s take another example.
There is this young man in his early twenties who’s just got his degree and has begun working in a very reputed firm with a handsome salary, perks etc. His family, his friends, his neighbours…everyone is happy about him. He’s enjoying his job too…even his odd hours and overtime. After about four months in the job, he realises that he’s not all that happy. He feels this kind of heavy feeling in his head when he wakes up and thinks about going to work. It becomes a burden. He gets this job because his qualification matches his job profile. But his heart lies in theatre. He knows it. It won’t pay well, the working hours would be odd but still he would love going for rehearsals anyway. The lights, the stage, the energy, the script…he is dreaming about it when he goes for his job too. What would this man do? Normally, he would stick to his job because, suddenly he would lose all the ‘status’ associated with the job. Perhaps he doesn’t want people around to think that he is a ‘struggler’ in the theatre business. So, even though his heart yearns for something else, he doesn’t do anything about it. Reason? IMAGE!
Unfortunately, this the way mind works.
What is Life about after all? Being happy, right? So of what consequence is living something we don’t enjoy?
On a lighter note, one of teachers used to call this state of mind, ‘toilet-seat mentality’!

“SUCCESS”

How is it measured?
How does one know if one is successful or not?
What lengths will one go to, to achieve it?
What kinds of compromises are involved?

Really, how is success generally measured? We usually measure it in terms of money. If the occupation we are in returns money enough just for sustenance, it’s not really a great success. But if we earn enough to buy a car, shop extensively on weekends and pamper the taste-buds with ‘Fresh Pizza’…it may be called ‘SUCCESS’.

Everybody wants to be successful at the end of any given endeavour. Nobody willingly embraces failure. People forget hunger, thirst, sleep, leisure, family, lovers, friends, duties, countrymen, compassion, entertainment, movies, music, passions, hobbies, sport, health, life, breath, holidays, travel, meditation, parents, God…everything! Most importantly, they forget who they themselves are! This is too big a price to pay for ‘success’. To become happy in the FUTURE, we become unhappy in the present!

What I am arriving at is that, ‘Success’ has to be redefined. There are thousands of ‘successful’ people in the world outside…but how many of them are really ‘happy’???

For me, success means being happy in the present. What does it mean for you?

Slow down, You move too fast...

Why are we all running?
Do we know that we ARE running?
Is running important at all?

I just happened to get this flash of thought the other day.
Our life is like driving from point ‘a’ to destination ‘b’. We all have our own chosen destinations. Usually we start from the highway at full throttle speed! Why at such great speed, do you ask? I don’t know. Nobody does. We can overtake other vehicles on the highway, cut lanes. But when we reach a red signal, all the vehicles stop. They must. Else they will be fined. Big, small, new, old, indigenous, foreign-made, diesel or petrol…everyone must stop and then start the journey again together.
Then what was the purpose of shooting from the highway at break-neck speed, draw the wrath and bad-will of vehicles we have dangerously overtaken or honked endlessly at? Ultimately, even we had to obey the rules by stopping at a red signal; and red signals are predestined! Then could we have taken it a little easy on ourselves and on other vehicles? Could we have enjoyed the journey by going slow? It’s not just important that we reached the destination. It’s ‘HOW’ we reached there which matters! Are we smiling at the end of it?

Don't blame me if you die laughing...

Do this when u go online
Google home page
Language tools ka button (to the right)
Type “my mom is nice and cool”
Translate from English to Spanish
Then copy this translated sentence in to box again
Say translate from Spanish to English this time
See what happens

Leave a comment if you are alive.

The SCARIEST sight in Mumbai...

Do you know what it is?

A group of 3-4 BMC workers preparing to dig ONE more strip of land which looks relatively 'flat'.

This reminds me of a very funny SMS I'd received:

Idhar khuda hai

Udhar khuda hai

Jahaan dekho khuda hi khuda hai

Jahaan aaj khuda nahin hai

...wahaan kal khudega