Home.....

Like a leaf torn...a bird thrown....
I flew here....I flew there...
Searching for the place called home....

My heart yearns for the place I seek...
Where I grew up among the trees and the mountain creek....
To count the days when I will go again...
Searching for the place called home....

The sky that beckons me, the arms that welcome me....
The familiar smell of the earth in the air that comforts me...
I look at the horizon to make that day come soon....
Searching for the place called home....

Vindication revisited?

A lot of hullaballo has been generated over the elections results that have just been declared. Pro-incumbency has been toasted to no end. However, I beg to differ. All this fancy analysis aside, of how the electorate chose to view the larger picture keeping aside the recent repeated assaults on national security and the nerve recking economic gloom, how people voted for development, I think the BJP lost in a few states because of its own undoing and not because of some spectacular feat pulled off by the Congress. This was an opportune time, and the BJP milked it right too...what with V. Raje going on television exhorting people to rethink about a party that brought the country to the brink of downturn......but the BJP failed to capitalize on the moment. Especially in Delhi (being a Delhiite), where Sheila Dixit didnt quite do justice to the capital, being there for a decade...but people saw the alternative on offer...V. K. Malhotra....and they chose the lady over the relic......why field a toothless tiger in the first place?
Elsewhere too, the Congress won on the weakness of the opponents not on the strengths of its own candidates....Aptly put...these results are not a vindication of the Congress....but the electorate choosing the lesser of the two evils.....As they say...the devil known is better than the devil unknown.....

Words.....

Everywhere we glance around … we see and hear the pitter patter of words, some move slowly, some need time to form, some hit bull’s-eye the first time around, others lumber on. Some convey the exact message we want to, some leave us feeling restless and dissatisfied….Yet, it is necessary that we speak or write to express…it is not enough to know, it is equally imperative to communicate, to speak out loud, to write, to tell…

Speech is a gift we are blessed with, but speech optimization is an acquired skill. Imagine when words are clogged down your throat and all you want to do is speak…and you can’t. There are only a few things as heartbreakingly sad as this…

So go out…and speak your mind out loud. Share ideas, thoughts, brainstorm, express…..
Reach out to that person you love, to your close friend, to your family and let them know how much you love them, learn to stand up and speak for yourself, speak and assert your rights, declare your independence, affirm your vows, let go of your inhibitions and soar high on the power of words…

Happiness...

We associate happiness with a time when everything functions smoothly in our life…like a well-oiled machine, which does our bidding. It is a time when the yacht is bobbing on tranquil waters, professional sails are booming, personal matters are resolved. But happiness is not the absence of chaos, conundrum, disorder, disarray and turmoil. Happiness is trying to find joy in the everyday turmoil of life, of trying to remain sane despite mayhem around us…it is not giving up despite all other things going wrong. Happiness is not the absence of chaos around us…it is how well we manage the chaos…

There is never going to be a time when all the variables in our life are solved. We have to figure which are the ones that matter…Our life is always going to be as disorderly, as frenzied, as cluttered as it is now…so quit waiting for that perfect time when you are in that cocoon of happiness…and let happiness be the air that you breathe, the aura you radiate, the moment that you live in….

Life and Longing

"Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths " Etty Hillesum

The irony of our times is that we spend years agonizing over a particular need, a specific desire and when we finally attain it…we move on to the next one! We don’t enjoy our achievement at all, which we spent years working hard to accomplish. Forever wanting, forever waiting, for an absolution we never get….

Then arises restlessness, a sense of urgency, sleepless nights, tormentous thoughts, anguish rules, misery looms large, distress decapitates our happiness completely.

Plan ahead, but learn to enjoy this moment. It is never going to come again because unfortunately we can’t hit the rewind button for life to relive the good times once again. If we don’t live in the moment, we snatch from it the opportunity of giving us joy…

Don’t let longing erase the joy of living….take life by the reins and you lead the way…life will follow…

Crossroads...

It was love at first sight … I was floored hook, line and sinker. Taken aback, breathless…so different from anything else I had ever seen and then reality sunk in… and I came to Bangalore finally…but I hope not for keeps!

Well Bangalore…as a thoroughbred Delhiite would put it…The city is way too neat…Where is all the dust and grime we are so used to? Bring it on…Miss it all…even though I hate it all.

Bangalore is the land of ubiquitous CCDs, round every nook and cranny….They have more than one in every block…Can you beat that! Ahem… we Delhiites are more used to Barista, definitely more arrogant than the humble CCD.

More seriously, the city smells of jasmine everywhere…software is like a cottage industry here…a place where you will find the biggest showrooms and yet not get the things you want… the city where having a two-way road is considered “the thing,” a very common sight when you peek out of the autorickshaw is scores of techies, all on bikes saddled with backpacks…as if some divine assembly line is generating those prototypes and mailing them to Bangalore. You could get stuck in traffic jams even when you move around your block…It’s a place where there is no correlation between the weather and the time of the year…Heck…I can look at Delhiites and tell what month of the year it is…you will find innumerable pubs and discos, but sadly not that many libraries…that’s Bangalore for you.

Ah Delhi…the city exudes warmth, shopping at Sarojeni Nagar, the narrow bylanes of Kamla Nagar, the riotous colors in Chandni Chowk, where it is forever festival time…Delhi Metro, rickshaw rides, malls and flea shopping, blueline buses, all night tea stalls, the greenery of Delhi University, the big white buildings at CP, vendors and hawkers on every pedestrian pathway, the open air amphitheater at Central Park, boating at India Gate, all those massive flyovers, road rage, kulfi at Roshan’s in Karol Bagh, haggling with autowallahs, the crème-de la crème at Rajouri Garden, Delhi is forever on the steroid called arrogance, we are forever throwing our weight around…and forever flaunting…boisterous, noisy, chaotic, rude, and amazingly likeable at the same time. Gawd! I miss it all ….

From noise I sky dived into vacuum… the silence in Bangalore is killing….

It finally started … all this jargon, the fancy terminologies, biz gobbledygook, Greek gibberish … I wonder …do we really need all this?
Yeah … I am told … “cuz others spout these so you need it too … there has to be some USP, else what is the value add?"
I have suffered much waffle over the past few days-some good some bad and some worse!
I used to feel that we unnecessarily complicate our lives with all these theories, hypotheses, models, concepts and systems, some of which is pure conjecture … but now I feel that even if it is hogwash, it is pretty good hogwash.
Rome beckons … and so I must heed the Romans… and do as they have done and are doing…

Deconstruct deconstruct deconstruct!