Love actually......

Love … ahoy!

No single emotion can be as draining, as frustrating, and as wearisome as love. It can erode, and efface your self, dissolve your identity and then you keep seeking solace in the dark.

“Your heart starts to feel like an overcrowded lifeboat. You throw your pride out to keep it afloat, and your self-respect, and your independence. After a while, you start throwing people out--your friends, and everyone you used to know. And still it is not enough. The lifeboat is still sinking, and you know its going to take you down with it.” Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts,

Then what is love, and what should it be like? Love should consume you and create more of you each day each moment. It should keep you anchored and liberate you at the same time. Love should be one of your achievements, one that you are proud of....

The denominator

In a high performing scenario, the marginal performer’s output increases, and in a marginal environment, the high performer’s output declines.

Mediocrity is the ultimate bane. One day the mediocres will overtake the world because the intelligent are meek and too busy….The meek, the denominator, shall rule the world.

You can know your true worth by competing in an environment where you are pitted against people better than you. Mediocrity is a slow killer, it kills your self worth like nothing else. Consciously make an effort to challenge your mind, to associate yourself with high performers. Being in a mediocre environment is like being in intensive care with the monitor showing a steady line, and you wait for an absolution that never comes….

Revisited....

The radio blaring Hindi songs, the laaaaaaaaazy sun, Anant and Saurav on Radio Mirchi, Delhi Metro snaking through the whole of Delhi, chilly mornings, garam chai, squiggly toes nestled under a blanket, a cupboard full of woolens, extra helpings everywhere, sunning yourself on the terrace, bonfires on Lohri, the big big white buildings in CP, getting lost and helpful strangers helping you all the way…great roadside food, tandoori nights, Delhi-ized version of Chinese, South Indian delicacies, high fashion couture, the intellectual elite at IIC, and theaters, plays, Indian International Film Festivals, chaat at Netaji Subash Place, Delhi University, footpath fashionwear, junk jewelry, chartered buses running from nowhere to everywhere, dhabas on the go, bhalle papdi, debates at Delhi School of Economics, the lush green cantonment area, the beaurocratic snobs, the land of amazing contrasts, of scorching summers and freezing-to-death winters, of stiff upper lips, of British Council Library and the American Council, diplomatic enclaves, the lawns surrounding India Gate, the fashionistas at Hauz Khas, the land where everything is possible by jugaad, the land where I belong…

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….