Shame India !!

Absolutely horrified by this.

Do not know how to vent my anger. Is this the country that we're aiming to make one of the superpowers of tomorrow?
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updated on 29th February, 2006 @ 7:00 PM

Hopefully, the arm of justice will finally tighten its grip around the neck of the scoundrel. Here is some news which might keep our hopes alive in the system.

Obsessed

This post is not by the author of this blog. This is an Obsessed man speaking. For sometime now, people have been asking where I have been. For a long time now, people haven't known me. For a long time to come, people will remember me.

I am not one of you. I am he who walks against the crowd.

Some people do not like the color red. I Love The color red. It symbolises Blood....and at times, death. Blood is what sometimes people spill in order to get ahead of others.

I was not like this initially. I have become what you made me. Love me or hate me, I am what you turned me into.

Do not misunderstand this rage. It is neither misdirected, nor is it going to go useless. It is directed at you and it is going to tear you apart. Not because of anything else, only because you stand in my way. Nothing personal, just life.

Isn't that what you taught me to do when you did the same thing to me??

I listen to hard rock and gangster rap. But you will still not be able to spot me in a crowd. I'm not dressed like a punk; I don't have a goatee, I don't wear faded jeans, I don't wear torn shirts, I don't have wild, pink-colored hair. I'm dressed in a pin-striped suit, the same one that you saw me wearing today morning on television. Only difference is, I was smiling then, shaking hands with other 'important' people. Now, I'm staring hard at you, my deathly stare makes the hardest of men cringe and shift uneasily in their seats. They call it the stare of the fox.

I wasn't happy when I left my previous state of thinking. I hated myself for what I'd become. I hated the world of hatred, the world of stabbing knives in the back of people, of feasting by tearing flesh apart and quenching my thirst with blood. But I had no other option. You left me no other option. I had to become like this. It was a question of survival.

There are no Gods in my world; the only God here is me, and I control my own destiny.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST Ha !! No one knew it better. I've killed people, I've had them murdered, had them removed from my path. Only because they were in my way. And I did all this with the same sense of calmness with which I would pick up and throw away a pebble which happened to be in my path.

But, am I happy now? You bet!! Or perhaps, it cannot be defined as happiness. But at least, I'm alive. Isn't that what people told me to be? Alive?!! If this is what you define as alive, then alive I am.

I told them that this is not what I want to be. Give me another option, and I'll gladly take it. I wanted to be a truly happy man, with the sweet sun shining, sitting in the shade of a tree, writing sonnets for my sweetheart and reading them out to her as she lovingly gazed back at me. But it wasn't to be, it wasn't to be...

Remember the line that Eminem sings in the song "Loose yourself" - "Success is my only motherf****** option; failure's not." Well, that's the mantra in my world.

I will not apologise for a dark post. I intended it to be one ~ The Obsessed.

What would you do?

Another quick post before I hit the books.

Strolling around blogworld, I came across this interesting post. The post ended with a question that the blogger had been faced with:


What would you do in life if money wasn't a constraint?


I too was stumped for an answer for a couple of seconds. But immediately piped up, "Start my own company."

"Abe dhakkan," came back the reply from the 'saner' part of the brain, "company khol ke karega kya? Aata aur saabun bechega??"

*Deathly silence*

Well, truth be told, I really don't know. In fact, every time I've told people that I wanted to do something of my own, they've asked me what precisely I'd like to do. And that is where I've been stumped again.

Unfortunately, this MBA doesn't seem to be helping me answer those people back either.

This obviously remains a deep, deep regret with this MBA studies. I remember coming across a book in the library which was by a company which had been fed up with people with fancy college degrees but completely unable to do the most basic of managerial jobs. The book was very aptly titled "What we need: Managers, not MBAs"

I've realised one thing through this post. I really do not know how successful I shall be working for someone else, unless I have a position in the organisation which allows me the freedom to do my own thing in order to achieve their goals. The only other option would be to have my own startup. Which would again require money and lot of technical help in whichever field I decide to take a plunge in.

No matter what the outcome, I now know what I need to do. All the best to me.

And hey, selling 'saabun' doesn't seem to that bad an idea after all. Didn't Nirma's Karsan Bhai Patel start off on that very route? And today he's what, worth around 1,800 crores?? Not bad!!

The 2 'o clock madness

One of the great advantages of living in a boy's hostel is that you get to see the kind of madness you obviously wouldn't be able to be witness to in your own house. Don't believe me? Well, read on.

Two o' clock in the morning is when the chai-waala on the first floor of the boy's hostel shuts his shop. Hence, like a flock of migratory birds, most of the batch descends daily on the first floor at around quarter to 2 and shouts of 'Chotu ek chai', 'Chotu ek coffee', 'abe Chotu, zyada veg. puff kyun nahi mangvaate ho?' reverberate in the halls of the first, second and third floors (talk about MBAs with loud voices).

Today, there was a small difference. Well, a 5' 5" difference to be precise. One 'Don' of a student was at the scene of action too and was God-knows-when challenged to a Pepsi drinking competition by one of the guys.

Glug, glug, glug...even before we knew, the first 200ml Pepsi bottle was emptied. The bet was to finish 15 such bottles at a go. Although the guy was downing the drink at a good pace, it wasn't as if he were attacking the bottles with the same intensity with which, say, an American soldier would attack a bottle of beer in Iraq (is beer available in Iraq?).

Anyway, the strains were clearly visible on his face by the time he'd downed the first 5 bottles. As usual, a crowd had gathered and there were voices of encouragement as also shouts of "Idiot", "Gadhe" and "C********, kya kar raha hai?". All this, I guess, just added to the fun and the adrenalin rush which helped the guy drain another 2 bottles.

However, the shouts were loud enough to awaken the watchman sleeping on the ground floor. Up he came to the first floor, thinking there was trouble brewing. On being told that this was just a bet that we people were witness to, he too had a grin of uncertainty on his face. Of course, by now, the 9th bottle had been emptied (go five and a half footer!!!).

Good ol' common sense prevailed, and the security guard quickly stopped the show. Fortunately, there was a rush of practicality back to the Marketing Research stuffed-brains of the guys and we too stopped the guy from going ahead from completing his bet.

Although the bet was lost, the atmosphere that it was able to create was absolutely DHAMAAL types. All 9 bottles of it!!

The 'Don' in his 'Dil Mange More' act...

Year ending / Last Lap

"Year ending"..this used to be the reason why most dads would return home dead tired and not be able to play with kids; when Chunnu Munnu would gladly jump about the feet of the thaka-haara do bacchon ka baap who'd just returned from office and Mummy would come with a glass of water and shoo the kids away by saying "Chalo, ab bahar jaake khelo..papa thak gaye hain"...and when she would smilingly turn towards him and ask, "Kya baat hai, bade pareshaan lag rahe ho?", he would respond with just two dreaded words.."Year ending." Those two words encompassed all the shouting in the office, the mad dash for files, frantic search for bills long forgotten, a frenzied call to another department for help in technical matters...and the list goes on and on and on.

Well, a similar situation can be found here too. We're two weeks away from completing our 1st year MBA course; but instead of the jubilation of having almost become a manager, there's tension and worry and hectic work around the clock. I must admit that I've been lucky (or have I been foolish not to sense the danger early on?) for I've been getting my dose of sleep for the last couple of days. But I have a feeling that with the presentations and project report in each subject coming up coupled with an examination which is practically banging on the door with the brute force of a sumo wrestler, sleep will come at a premium in the coming few days.

Hence, mere doston, thoda yaar is off to a land called 'Where-harried-people-experience-what-hell-is". Do not know when the next post will come. Do not know whether I'll be able to snatch away snippets of time from the ongoing hectic activity and post on my blog, which has almost become a therapeutic habit.

And the next time you hear some person with drooping shoulders, unshaven face and dark circles mutter the words "Year ending"...just make way for the tired foot-soldier.

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An afterthought: Or should we take a more positive imagery and speak of a long-distance runner running his last lap? He runs the entire distance with the rest of the atheletes, sometimes ahead of the group and sometimes falling behind. Yet, in the final lap, the runner decides to give in his BEST...he runs the hardest and the fastest that ever knew..this inspite of all the pain and the exhaustion...the runner just shrugs it all off, empties his mind of all thoughts, negative or positive and all that he repeats to himself is "I've got to run."

Go Yuva, Go !!

Here is something really interesting which you must go through.

A newspaper article and the website.

Encouraging news for India.

A Melting Pot

Reading books is a passion. After coming to the Nirma Institute of Management, this passion found a creative output when I became the co-ordinator of the newly founded book club. We juggled with quite a few names for the club; Nitishastra and Papyrus to name a couple. However, we finally decided to call it 'Sumantra', since we felt that there were very few individuals from the Indian corporate world who were as passionate about learning as the late Sumantra Ghoshal.

Sumantra - The book club, I am extremely pleased to say, has almost completed a dignified one year. We've had 11 book reviews and a couple of book-related quizzes. The books that have been reviewed have been of very high class too. We've been able to find a good match between the fictional works (Fountainhead, Alchemist, Catch-22) and the non-fictional works (Blink, Freaknomics).

What has also been interesting is the development of industrial acceptance for a gathering such as a book club. 'Sumantra' has now had two outings to the Zydus Research Centre where two very different books have been reviewed - 'Who Moved My Cheese' and 'The Life of Mahatma Gandhi'.

The approaching academic year is filled with even more excitement. 'Sumantra' will be looking at a greater number of book reviews, a more interactive library website where a link to 'Sumantra' has already been provided, more quizzes and perhaps a few good guest lectures. We shall also be looking forward to conducting events in collaboration with other book clubs in and around Ahmedabad.

However, all this remains work where it is my duty to help provide a platform for sharing of information and knowledge that one receives from an activity as enriching as reading books. On a personal front, however, I just love reading books and encouraging others to read what I felt was particularly nice. It is with this in mind that I'd set up another blog titled 'My reviews'.

I felt, hoewever, that there would be many more friends who would perhaps be interested in expressing their views. I discussed this with a good friend of mine while we waited for a third friend to graciously arrive and give us her birthday treat. We explored a couple of options of whether the reviews should be in a blog format or whether we should start a new Yahoo! or Google group. Ultimately, it was the blog format that prevailed.

:)

Dear reader, I have much pleasure in letting you know about our new blog 'A Melting Pot'. We currently have 3 people on the team; myself, a thinner version of myself who prefers calling himself trash_u online and a mad, mad girl who's highly spirited and goes by the name of Ani. We're also eagerly awaiting a sweet friend to join us, who typically shies away from making a Powerpoint format book review and who, I'm sure, will be perfectly at ease when it comes down to simply 'writing' one.

The blog is just an outlet for us to express our thoughts about any good book that we've read. Of course, I wouldn't want to put any creative limits to our voice of expression; the team members are free to post a review of a music album, a movie or a concert that they greatly enjoyed.

This endeavor shall enrich us and we are also hopeful that you, the reader, will also have fun in the process.

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update at 2:51 AM: The expected fourth member has just joined the 'Melting Pot' blog. :)

Khamoshi

Quarter to 3 in the morning. My desk is covered with books, yesterday's newspaper, my cellphone, a coffee mug, library books and incomplete project submissions. A hush has enveloped the hostel. People who have partied hard during the day and have studied even harder in the evening are off to sleep. A few insomniacs (your's truly included) are still awake wondering how to complete that darned Operations Management project submission that must be made anyhow by 5 p.m. tomorrow evening. As the world of men pauses all its actions, the following song with the haunting voice of Hemant Kumar comes up on my media player and causes me to stop typing, stretch even as I sit on my chair...and smile.

Tum Pukaar Lo, Tumhaaraa Intazaar Hai,
Tum Pukaar Lo
Khvaab Chun Rahii Hai Raat, Beqaraar Hai
Tumhaaraa Intazaar Hai, Tum Pukaar Lo

Honth Pe Liye Hue Dil Kii Baat Ham
Jaagate Rahenge Aur Kitanii Raat Ham
Muqtasar Sii Baat Hai Tum Se Pyaar Hai
Tumhaaraa Intazaar Hai, Tum Pukaar Lo

Dil Bahal To Jaayegaa Is Khyaal Se
Haal Mil Gayaa Tumhaaraa Apane Haal Se
Raat Ye Qaraar Kii Beqaraar Hai
Tumhaaraa Intazaar Hai, Tum Pukaar Lo

- Khamoshi (1969)

Holi aaee re

Shatru (aside): Khaaamoshhhhhh....... abe o chapad ganju....is taraf kya taank raha hai. Jaanta nahin ki aaj holi hai..HOLI. Aaj to hum us Amit ki tarah Holi khelenge...

Meena: Arre o mere darling Shatru, itne gusse main kyun ho? Why you so angry hoying?

Shatru: Ab kya bataaunn...(slurp -- quick sip of 'wine')...uff, yeh angrezi daaru bahut kadvi hai..(to backstage helper) Oye !! Ek desi daaru ki botal laa...

(to Meena) Arre meri jaan, this Amit gives me a complex. Pata nahin kab se Rekha ke saath ghoom raha hai. Woh bhi Holi ke season mein.

Meena: Arre jaanu, tum kaun se zamaane ki baat kar rahe ho...

Shatru: Is zamaane ki, dekho....



Meena: Uff hoo....kab sudhroge !! Ab na to tum jawan ho, aur na hi Amit.

Shatru: Shut up !! Kiski itni jurrat ke Bihar ke is naujawan ko chunauti de..

Amit (in the background, a drunk voice): Haann.....Range barse....... haaan.....range barse.......

Shatru: Dekha, abhi tak gaa raha hai...

Meena: Arre darling, yeh remix version gaa raha hai, poora to sun lo..

[enter Amitabh]

Amit: Haannn....rang barse when holi kheling raghubeera ....

Shatru: What !!!!!

Amit: Arre haan bhai Shatru. Aaj kal bahut sudhar gaye hain.... ab ham Rekha ke saath nahin, Basanti ke saath Holi khelte hain.

Shatru (shocked): Kya ??!!!!

Amit: Haan yaar...bahut ho gaya yeh naatak-waatak..us Salim aur Javed ki baaton mein aa kar marna pad gaya tha Sholay mein. Tab se thaan li ke bhaad main gayi yaari-dosti...'apni akal lagao'. Yeh dekho...

Amit (continuing): arre holi kheling raghubeera awadh mein, holi kheling raghubeera...!!!

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Sorry for a MAD MAD post, but just had to have fun. :)

For a relatively saner view of Holi, go here.

And, oh yes, HAPPY HOLI

Think about it

Today, I glanced up for the umpteenth time at a poster put up in the institute library. It always puts me into deep thought.

"30 years from now, it won't matter what shoes you wore, how your hair looked, or the jeans you bought. What will matter is what you learned and how you used it."

What do you have to say?

The two factors

The other day, I was having a discussion with two close friends. The following just happened as a result of the conversation. Interesting point.

There are 2 things that a runner must decide.

One, what is the speed at which he must run to outdo the fastest and the best in the group. Only when he strategises at what speed he will run and how he will pace himself can the runner have any chance of winning the competition. He must remember that if he must outdo the best, he must run better than the best; the quality of his running must be absolutely top class.

But, what is even more important is point two.

HE MUST DECIDE WHICH DIRECTION HE MUST RUN IN.

This for him is even more decisive than the first factor, since in whichever direction he looks, he will find different grounds, different competitors running at different speeds. What is important therefore, is not to make a mad dash at the first finish line that the runner spots. He must first decide for himself which direction he wants to run in and which is the race that he wants to win.

LATENT 3: Sam Pitroda

Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the Knowledge Commission of India, addressed an audience of students on the 8th of March, 2006 at the Thakorbhai Desai Hall, Law Garden, Ahmedabad. That is where I found material for this post.

He narrated to us an incident about the time when he was in India and had invited a friend over for dinner. They agreed that the guest would come over at 7:30 in the evening. Sam made an entry into his diary, reminding him of his appointment.

At 7:30, however, two things happened. One, the guest did not arrive. Two, Sam forgot all about the dinner guest and settled down for his meal. At around 8, after Sam had finished his dinner, the guest arrived. Sam, being the good host that he is, settled down for a couple of drinks with the guy. When, after some time passed, the guest refused to budge, Sam inquired why he had come over. "But you invited me for dinner !!", the fellow retorted. Sam, in a fix, had to have his dinner a second time.

But this prompted Sam to think. "Why did this happen, I asked myself," says Sam. "And I realised that the problem was that although I'd made an entry into my diary, there was nothing which REMINDED ME of the fact that at 7:30, someone was due at my place. So, I did a very simple thing. I wrote a program for a circuit where it would check for a scheduled time against the current time, and if the two match, would notify the user. I filed for a patent and the world's first digital diary was born."

After a couple of years, things changed for the worse. Rajiv Gandhi, the then PM with whom Sam had a good understanding, was assassinated and Sam was without a job. In a desperate bid to get his life together, a penniless Sam had to go America, that too on a tourist visa. There, he saw various companies such as Sharp, Sony etc. selling digital diaries.

"'Wait a minute,' I said, 'this is my invention.' So, I wrote to the all the leading electronic firms saying that what they were selling was under patent and that they must pay me royalty. They saw the name, Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda, an Indian, and said nothin' doin'. I said 'Fine', went to my lawyer and filed a suit against each one of them. That is when they realised that I meant business and paid me the due amount. And that," Sam pauses for breath, "is how I got my life back on track."

Unbelievable. All the while that we've been using digital diaries, I do not think many of us knew that it came from the mind of an inspired Indian. Wow!

And even today, the guy isn't satisfied. "What is keeping you guys from being active?" he asked us. "Today, I'm 64 years of age, and just about yesterday I've finished filing for another 20-25 patents."

Everything around you is waiting for a change, you just need to look around with a questioning attitude - Sam Pitroda

Kicked in the *****

Know what I mean? Of course you do. It is only human to feel that pain. And every once in a while, life has it's own ways of doing that to you, yes, kicking you right where it hurts you the most. Ouch!!

But what we do as a result is what is more important. Sample this. Today morning, when I felt like I was down and out, it took one phone call and a ten minute nap to knock sense back into my head. "Do you wanna get angry, fret and fume about what happened despite your efforts or do you wanna get up and actually do something about it?"

Get the idea? No? Need further proof of what needs to be done?

Well, here goes. About 2 years ago, when your's truly managed to get himself in a perfect rut by methods best known to himself, this is what his sister's SMS was like: "Winning is about rising each time you fall - Those words have been my inspiration. May they serve as yours too. Be strong and keep the faith. God has strange ways of working things out! I promise. Smile?"

No wonder I still have the SMS sent on 22nd July 2004 in my message inbox.


I PROMISE TO FIGHT BACK !!!

Mad delights

This was the name of the play in which Parnab Da (Parnab Mukherjee) directed us. The whole process actually began when he conducted a theatre workshop at Disha, the youth wing of Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, Calcutta. Initially, the workshop was a lot about body movements and exercises. Later, the script of the dialogue-less play, "Mad Delights" by Mohan Rakesh, was provided to us.

The best thing about Parnab Da's style was he just let us free. He gave us youngsters (there were about 7 of us) the freedom to experiment. We read the play a couple of times before coming for the workshop, and once more in his presence in the practice room. He asked us for our opinions, our interpretations and then brought in his own. Having given us a framework...sorry, I take back that word, for a 'framework' can be assumed by many to be restrictive. So, having given us a direction in which to proceed, Parnab Da vanished.

He allowed us to script almost the entire play according to our liking. He would just walk in, have a look at what we were doing and make certain suggestions. And mind you, most of these suggestions were extremely powerful. Imagine having a crude piece of paper being torn in front of your eyes, words of riot victims being written in red upon it and then the papers being burnt right in front of you. In your face, shouting to you about the attrocities that took place, yet quiet (much like India?). Somehow, it yet made a point because while one watches the play, one can smell the fire, see the paper burn and the room is filled with smoke.

For the final act, we presented the play to the Calcutta audience in a room and purposely not on a stage. This was street theatre, remember? And we sincerely believed that it was essential to remove the distance between the audience and the actors. Were we really actors? I think not. Most of the audience in the first sitting were our parents. The second time we put up the play at the same venue, most of the people who came belonged to the cultural elite of the city. Yet, we the actors had been transformed from mere children to both, the perpetrators and the receivers of violence.

I am sorry if this post fails in recounting the exact incidents that were depicted in the play. It is impossible to put it down into words. If we communicated without any words then, how shall I communicate with the help of words now?

I still do not know what the reaction of most of the audience was. Most of them went away very very quiet. Mom couldn't come to watch the play as she was ill when we put it up, but Dad did come. His first reaction when he reaches home? "I need to take a bath...I have a headache." Though this might send peals of laughter amongst some, it brought a smile to the lips of those who were a part of the play. The headache and the burning questions that we'd sent everyone back with were more important than the applause that came at the end of the performances.

But was there any applause at all? I don't recall loud applause. What I do recall is a terrifying silence. A silence which only told us that the message had been carried across. That death, in its ugliest form of riots, had affected the next generation.

A Socratic approach

This morning, as I was getting ready to run yet again to the institute, the post that I made day before yesterday, titled "I want to win", suddenly came back to my mind. Even as I was wondering whether I would be late for class or not, I was reminded of a short story that I had read elsewhere. I felt that I must share it with whoever I can.

A man once went to Socrates to ask him what it took for a man to be successful. Socrates dismissed him at first saying that the person was not serious enough. But on being continuously persisted upon, Socrates asked him to come the next morning to the river bank where Socrates used to take his bath.

Although a bit surprised, the man agreed. The next morning, the man met Socrates at the agreed place. Socrates asked him to follow him a few steps into the river to find out the answer. The man did as he was told. When both were in water which reached up till their waists, the powerful Socrates suddenly lunged at the man and dragged him underwater. Caught unprepared, the man was soon fighting for breath. He thrashed about in the water as much as he could, but to no avail. Just when he thought the mad Socrates would drown him, a bit of the pressure was relaxed and his head broke out of the surface.

Even before he could get his breath back, Socrates once again forced the poor fellow's head into the water. The man had had enough and fought with all his might to break free, but to no avail. The strong Socrates just held him in there...long enough to almost drown the seeker of knowledge.

Just when the man thought his time had come, Socrates let his neck go free. The man immediately came out of water and collapsed on the river bank, gasping for every breath of air that his screaming lungs could take in.

"What was that for?" the man cried once he'd gotten his breath back.

"Well," asked Socrates smiling, "how did you feel in there?"

"I could've died there had you not released me!!"

"And what was the one thing that you would have given everything in the world for when you were in there?" asked Socrates, the wise.

"Air. I would do anything for a breath of air when I was down there."

"There is your answer," laughed Socrates. "Untill and unless you do not want success as badly as you wanted air when you were fighting for your life down there, you will never get it."

Earthquake

Ok, you heard it here first.

We experienced an earthquake here around 1/2 an hour back. Waise everything is cool. Nobody is worried or anything and junta is happily chilling out. Allright, most guys (n gals, for good measure) ran out of the hostel buildings and were merrily chatting away. What's even better, they played 'antakshari' to relieve the tension.

*slaps head in frustration

Kya miyaa, yahaan pe logon ko apni jaan se zyada chillout ki fikar hai.

But, I guess their explanation is: Life is short, jaana hai to aise hi chale jayenge. Much rather go singing and laughing.

*Sings

Hone do, dil ko..fanaaaa...!!!

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P.S. It has been a few hours since I made the post. I was just going through the post again when the word 'fanaa' caught my imagination as well as my curiosity. On checking the Net for the meaning of the word, I realised the irony of the word being used in this context. Apparently, 'fanaa' means Annihilation, although in a completely different context.

Uee maaaa !!!

I want to win

At times, I wonder whether it is as simple as that.

No jargons, no mathematics, no statistically proved data...no nonsense.

Just sit down and tell yourself that you want to succeed...AT ANY COST. That's it. There's something that needs to be done and you must do it. End of matter. Decide the 1 or 2 things that define your parameters of success, decide what it is that needs to be done...and then HUNT THOSE DAMN THINGS DOWN !!!!

I do not know why all of a sudden at 6 o' clock on a Monday morning (when I've been awake the whole night), I'm writing this down. All that I am trying to do is capture this moment...the moment that has perhaps let me know, how to achieve that which I want to achieve.

Pardon my inability to express it here in words. This is more of a personal milestone for this traveller. Hope you won't mind. And I of course, also hope, that someday, you too might finally achieve this milestone. Amen.

Me happy

Me happy. And no, this isn't those times when I'm feeling happy after a long, long, time. Aji, main to aise hi thoda pagal (the use of the word 'thoda' as a prefix to 'pagal' with reference to me has led to debates more serious than the ones on nuclear non-proliferation) kisam ka insaan hoon, it doesn't take much to make me cheerful and happy. Beautiful stars pop out in the night sky, noisy children run like mad in the garden, sun shines (no puns intended) brightly in the early morning, I get offered a chilled glass of lassi, Angelina Jolie/Aishwarya Rai sexily stares back at me from my computer desktop....Shekhar is happy. Get the idea?

I just wanted to list down the reasons for why I'm feeling so happy....for future purposes of course. For example, what if in the future, the night sky only reminds me of the few hours left to an exam (!!!), the noisy children turn out to be neighbour's kids who are in the garden even when one's "sar dard se fataa jaa raha hai" ala those Vicks Action 500 tv ads and instead of Angelina Jolie/Aishwarya Rai, I have been threatened into marrying a 89.32 kg, oil-dripping hair braided-into-'do choti' daughter of a Bihar MLA who is a distant relative of Lalloo Prasad Yadav. Honestly, life can get very unfair.

And as it so often happens, one thing reminds you of something else. I was reminded of the anonymous comment to my tag regarding 'Things I don't like'. The anon reader had asked me about the things that make me happy (specifically speaking, "aur tainu achha ki lagta hai?" was the query). And though it originally wasn't my intention to answer the question here, it turns out that the result of the intent to write down what makes me happy currently shall also partially answer the question (Errr...I too am a bit confused, let me read the last sentence again). So, here goes...

1. I've just consumed my 3rd cup of coffee for the day. *Evil grin* This ALWAYS makes me happy. I've often wondered whether I should've taken up engineering instead of B. Com just because of the ease with which I can consume gallons of tea and coffee.

2. I've finally made the "first" proper book review for my new blog 'My reviews'. What gives me more happiness is the fact that the book happens to be the biography of Swami Vivekananda. :) So Cool !! And what gives me EVEN more happiness (now really!!) is that I am looking towards beginning a blog together with friends where we will come together just to write book reviews. Let me see how this plan shapes up, it certainly sounds interesting.

3. Having read Freakonomics by Steven Levitt, my mind is brimming with ideas and is looking at the things around me with a curious and questioning mind. Some thoughts are really interesting. Perhaps, I'll put them down here. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right and maybe what I say will be controversial, but I'm a little known person, so 'ki farak penda hai yaaron?'

4. I have quite a few ideas for new posts in my mind. I'm not being able to put 'em ideas down here immediately due to lack of time, but I'm certainly going to express myself. Airtel zindabaad !

5. Can you imagine how a 5 year old would feel standing in a candy store with a 500 rupee note? That is what I feel like right now. That is because I have gotten hold of a couple of books which really excite me. Like I said, I've just finished reading 'Freakonomics'. These are the books in the pipeline:

i. Adventures of a Bystander - Peter Drucker (currently reading)
ii. Karma Yoga - Swami Vivekananda (currently reading)
iii. Managing Radical Change - Sumantra Ghoshal, Gita Piramal & Christopher Bartlett
iv. Wings of Fire - APJ Abdul Kalam
v. Life's Mysteries - Osho

Hmmmm.....all in all, a good way to conclude this week. :)

Dreams

Someone dozing off in a lecture ain't anything new. Specially if that someone has a brilliant track record of dozing off during lectures. It is almost like a divine gift. "Thou shalt be asleep during lectures" seems to have become the First Commandment in a b-school. In fact, it is almost like a challenge to the faculty...a constant game of cat and the mouse where we, as students, continuously experiment with new designs of falling asleep during class.

On occasions, however, the cat gets lucky. Yesterday morning's lecture on Strategic Management was one such occasion.

GK was merrily nodding during class, something that is his core competency, the only other core area being playing Counter Strike. The class roared in laughter the moment the prof. spotted the rogue. Fortunately, the prof. is a cool dude who just said "It's all right. One must dream. Only difference between anybody seeing a dream and a student seeing a dream here is that we teach you how to convert it into reality."

*Brief pause*

"So, what does it take to turn dreams into reality?"...and before an excited me could answer, a voice piped up "A Deadline." Pretty similar to what I was about to say, except for the use of word. I would've shouted out "Set a Timeframe to achieve your Dream."

Late last night, free from powerpoint presentations and mid-term review reports, my mind once again went back to the morning's drama. Dreams, huh? So, what does it take to turn them into reality?

Deadlines? Timeframe? Energy? Vision?

A dream will only remain a dream unless you decide to do something about it. Unless you visualise your dream and set a clear path forward, you will never achieve this dream. Psychologists often talk of something about "seeing what you want to be" or some such garbled stuff. For a simpleton like me, it boils down to the following: See your favorite dream, "wake up", realise what needs to be done in order to achieve it and GET GOING!! No point sitting there on your backside, buddy.

There have been many who have seen mighty, gigantic dreams. But what of those? What if they only remained hidden in some dark corner of your mind? Nothing's gained. And what if someone else chances on the same idea and gains that which was rightfully yours? The two words sting for the rest of your life...What if...

"I have a dream" - Martin Luther King Jr.

Even the illiterate shepherd boy in The Alchemist had seen a dream. The difference between him and us? He was crazy enough to follow in the path of his dream. He was crazy enough to trod the unkown path. He was willing to throw away the comfortable life of a shepherd in exchange for the travails of an unknown traveller. Are you crazy enough?

He faced troubles. You too will face troubles. Every path is strewn with pebbles. Every path has its rough moments. Yet, that is the journey that one must undertake in order to realise his dream. And only when one has travelled the path less trodden that they will realise that the pleasure lies in recounting the smiles and the tears that one has shed on the path. You would have experienced these emotions on any other path as well, but here, you've become one with the path.

Cynics may look at this post and grimace. After all, who values the words, the thoughts and the world of a dreamer?

*Smiles

You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw


The dusty path calls....are you listening?