OMG!! Liebster

Wow! I received five Liebster nominations, and from whom?? My five favorite bloggers!! (eeeeee)

Actually this is what blogging community is all about, appreciation and recognition! Can’t thanks, Meenakshi, Deepak, Jahid, Guspazha Chinar, Meera, enough for acknowledging my blog, Congrats to you all and Thank you so so much!!

Meenakshi – I can never ever stop praising her, she is a wonderful writer, poet and thinker, her poems, especially haiku (she specializes in haiku!) and articles have deeper sense and meaning to it… its so good to read her!

Deepak:  He is the one who wrote Katy & Dug!! – I also own an e-book ! Everybody I know, knows Deepak!

Jahid:  he is a captivating blogger; his memoires take you to that time & place, It seems like I know his friends personally now -parag da! special mention, because of his ‘great escape’!

Guspazha Chinar: She is young, she is enthusiastic and she has so much energy (read youth) in her writing I just love her

Meera: Oh I first read her short story, it was real fun, real short but interesting enough to hook me to her blog – Rat Nibbles (he he he Loved her intro)

Sorry for blogging so late (I am not going to give too-much-work-in-office excuse anymore, so just say I have been Lazy!- its not true, I am loaded with work!

Now as a nominee of Liebster Awards I must to do following things

a)      Write 11 things about myself- That’s easy!!

b)      Answer the questions by the blogger , who nominated me – Will be a mixed bag

c)       Nominate 11 bloggers (with less than 200 followers)

d)      Tell all the bloggers I nominated by posting in their blogs

11 Things about Myself

1.       From Allahabad  and an Allahabadi in every sense! Language, attitude, creativity, intelligence, humor, politics, power-lust, show-off...

2.       I am a voracious reader, I read all the time!

3.        I love Russian literature, Ivan Turgnev, Maxim Gorky, Tolstoy…Just love Charles Dickens (have read all his books) Romantic poets Keats, Wordsworth, Shelly… I adore Harishankar Parsai! Modern writers : Khaleed Hosseini! Aravind Aadiga , I read espionage/spy novels as well- Alistair McLean, Robert Ludlum are my favorite.

4.       I  believe in myself, I believe in God

5.       Professionally I write! For leisure I write!

6.       I Love my self- I am trying to be humble here that’s why its mentioned at #6

7.       I am a passionate about my work and I am a perfectionist

8.       I am painfully honest; I have never lied to my parents!! Sometimes I have lied to other people , friends, collogues, vendors, but only for a good … (that’s what I think!) -If its good you will know, if it’s bad you will know

9.       I love Music- hip hop , R & B , Trance to be precise and like all Michael Jacksons fan I too think I am the biggest MJ fan in the world.

10.   Volunteered many times for society servicing, Women upliftment and Child Education primarily

11.    By this time you must have guessed I have never done any crazy stuff in my life  so I might as well accept- I have not! , you may want to call me boring!

Answer Questions by bloggers who nominated me!

He he he I am going to choose the easiest ones!

1.       Mention 3 things which give you happiness

a.       Good Food, Good book and Animals (except reptiles)

2.       How many hours of TV you watch daily

a.       One  hour most of the time

3.       The reason you write?

a.       My emotions are better expressed in writing, I also think I inherited it, My mother is a famous Hindi writer

4.       What do you admire about yourself and why?

a.       I am honest and I admire everything about myself ! and why? Because I am blessed to be me

5.       What’s your idea of charity and why?

a.       I think in place like India, its better to devote time than to give money, so I prefer to spend time and do things myself

6.       You can’t leave home without…

a.       I can’t leave without my Phone!

7.       Emotion or logic

a.       Mix of both, logical emotions

8.       Can love happen more than once?

a.       True love can happen only once. 

9.       Who is your idol?

a.       My mother

10.   What will you do if you get to know that there is no God?

a.   If there is no God I will find someone else to pray , to believe in..

11.   What can you die for, if anything?

a.       Truth!

The bloggers I nominate

Heartiest Congratulations! You all are amazing bloggers!!

1.       Pink Orchid- The Fire in Me

2.       Eswarji- Tryst with writing

3.       Needhesh- Expression

4.       Saurabh Chawla- Saurabh’s Lounge

5.       TTT- Tangy Tomato Twist

6.       Ravi ji- Ravi Akula Chronicles

7.       NanI- South Explored

8.       Himanshu Nagpal- Being Traveler

9.       Titli-The Little Princess

10.   Prasoon- Life is short and Time is Swift

11.   Sathish- It slips a beat

Now My chance to ask question ( I will try to make it simple J)

1.       From where you get ideas to blog (streets, newspapers, daily soaps…)

2.       Why your blog name?

3.       Poetry or prose what do you prefer and why?

4.       The last book that touched your heart & why?

5.       Fame or Money (yeah yeah I am asking this to writers but I have my reasons…)

6.       Adventure or serenity- idea of perfect vacation

7.       Work: Idle time everyday

8.       Thoughts on online relationship

9.       Religion v/s rational what’s your opinion

10.   Being Married is better than being single?- your thoughts

11.   We are Indians first then why there is a difference (read conflict) between South & North India - Thoughts

Ok I did it!! Would love to see other bloggers (besides the one I nominate) to answer some of these as well, whenever they have time. I read them a lot and would love to know more- Deepak (Not a surprise), Meenakshi (Not a surprise either), Panchali,  Amitji, Jahid, Jay (oh I simply love his blog, road to sanitarium)

Thanks once again Meenakshi, Deepak, Jahid, Guspazha, Meera, for acknowledging my blog…

Sony(o)! I Still Love You

Ok Today it happened: My Laptop finally freaked out and screamed ‘ Oh Get Up!!  Pick me up! You are hooked to wrong things! First You come back home, LATE!! Every day!! Then you play stupid games on ipad : Empress of the Deep?? Who is she? Why you are even bothered? Why do you want to bring her justice? And haven’t you finished the game already? You want to play part 2 now? What’s it with the empress and you..Are you even straight, hanging around with empress all the time??’

‘I am not with the empress for last two days ‘, I defended

‘Oh Yeah??’It shrieked , ‘And while you were not with it, you were busy watching stupid SITCOMS? Since when have you become such a TV freak? You are watching everything even ‘Everybody Loves  Raymond’!! Everybody Loves  Raymond’??Seriously??,  I thought you didn’t like that show! You never liked Ray Romano’s nasal voice! Why you are doing it to yourself? Just to avoid me eh?’

‘My Choices have changed! ‘

‘Choices or priorities??’

‘My Choices!’, I stressed, ‘ You are still very dear to me, remember I was with you for the whole day, last Sunday’

‘Oh Oh Oh Don’t you get me started on it now! You mean mean person. Last weekend was the most painful weekend of my life!’

‘Ccmon we were together, what do you want?’

‘Together my foot! You have used me for your ecstasy you played Plants and Zombie ENTIRE DAY damnit! What is that stupid game? Super unrealistic, plants firing zombies and killing them?? And you love it? You finished all its levels, its mini games, its puzzles even survivals!! Survivals – That’s a new low even for you! While you were drawing some sadistic pleasure out of ‘killing zombies’ I, had pretty hard time pleasing you. I tried showing you I am exhausted that day, by buzzing several times, by getting warmer but you !you… just put a cushion underneath and continued? Same stupid game! And today you have the audacity to remind me of our times together? Sorry Boss We are not on same page anymore

When you brought me home, you promised me you will give me happy time each day, you will read, you will write, but now it seems I am with a different person altogather , You are a selfish jerk ,you have used me only for pleasure. Listen carefully .  I am not one of those who can be played with!’

‘I..err..’, I stammered

‘And don’t you give me crap about your office work. I got to speak with your office laptop yesterday, you may be loaded but compared to other writers you are not! You are a writer, you are SUPPOSE to write, professionally and otherwise so stop cribbing

Either its me for something or Nothing, Play one more time and I am outta here’

I saw it again, my silver sleek Sony Vaio. It is still glowing, it is still beautiful. I have been mean to it. I remembered happy times together, when I was writing a book, when I use to write articles every day read a lot. Today I hardly get to see it. I felt sorry , tears rolled my eyes. I hugged it tight, felt it again with my fingers.

‘I am not going to be mean to you again baby’  I promised.

For those of you who think I am bluffing with my laptop- Well you are correct!!

Muaaahhhhhhh (Devilish laughter)

Deep in Ditch, Drenched

I didn’t realize I have fallen! Worse I didn’t even realize I have been in this dirty ditch all this time. Yes! what I have been thinking as the bed of roses (curse the human power of imagination) was actually a dirty stinking ditch with ,what seems like, abysmal depth!- What was I thinking??

I was thinking of world where –LOYALTY, HONESTY, INTEGRITY, ETHICS, VALUES really means what is written in the dictionary, not what it has become now. Loyalty became sycophancy, Honesty is new foolishness, integrity is innocence (you will learn as you grow up) ethics and values are like dinosaurs   (interesting to read but extinct long back)

I was thinking of the world - where relationships exist in its purest form and last long only because of love in heart not mullah in bank.  Where when a sister calls her brothers it’s because she wants to, not because she wants something. When father spends on son it’s because he knows his son’s smile is priceless not because he wants the price of it back with interest! Where mother does not want the son to payback her warmth in cash and gold!

Dreamy and mesmerized by all the goodness around me, I never noticed the fall, frankly to me then it was an exciting fall... Zero gravity!! Extreme exhilaration!

I looked around again, things have changed miraculously. Truth does not exist anymore- Everything is make belief. I noticed I am one of the victims of convulsive social system. I raised my voice several times but it was drowned in the cacophony of hypocrites, trying to prove that this is a better world and there will be a better tomorrow.

There is a sense of paranoia; everyone is living on the edge, people have been betrayed so many times that they have stopped trusting their own blood! Purity in relationship has lost its luster. It’s not white anymore! Purity does not exist, everything is amalgamated every relationship is impure. I could smell the strong stench of rotten relationships here and it’s getting worse

Even God has been questioned and dethroned.  Everyone is disillusioned. Everyone is making their own rules, implementing their new laws of nature. Everyone has painted the world Grey. Individuality have been crushed freedom has been chained. It’s suffocating here!

I am tired of this place! I looked up, there I saw the real world the world that I imagined -the world as it should be. I saw hope! I staggered, trying to reach up, it is an abysmal depth, but I will try! I have nothing to collect from here I just want to elevate.

 I am just back on my foot, I can stand upright. Oh well it’s raining heavily now and its blurs my vision, but I could still see that light. It’s a long distance but I will try. It’s slippery and dangerous, but I will try. Now that I have seen hope I will try.

 I will elevate.

A Mediocre Post

So it is the same here! Every day, same life!! There is no excitement no depression It’s  just the same everyday..mediocre to the core

What are we doing with ourselves?

 

We- people who are dedicated, working 9 to 5 (actually working most of the time), afraid of wrath (of God, Mother in Law ,Boss, HR), praying God, watching TV, talking politics types 

We call ourselves, Hardworking?  Well they call us BORING!!

We struggle hard to meet our personal and professional deadlines.

·         Oh! Its 2^nd Already 7^th is the last date for payment of electricity bill, I must hurry

·         The financials are required tomorrow?? I can sit entire night and finish it

·         1^st I must pay rent, children's school fee and maids’ salary! 1^st I must stock my ration!

We are not risk takers!! Our heart beats 10 times faster on slightest of risk. Oh we are so calculated!!

Taking a 10 ft  roller coaster ? woaah!! Too much.  We are happy on our recliners. More than 3 rotations on our office chair make our heads spin (literally and other wise)

• Going crazy in love- shouting our lungs out and telling everyone about it?? – Very difficult Question, ignore
• Infidelity? – Out of Syllabus
• Petty clandestine operations? Manipulations?- higher studies
• Spending savings for few moments of excitement?- Blasphemy
• Fighting in public?- Ok No more Questions
• Going berserk in public??- Seriously No more
• With us it’s like, more than 4 random questions?-  Retrospection of self/suspicion/ anxiety/fear… all emotions along with hyperventilation !!

We were happy in cocoon- discussing health problems (national and self),sipping coffee until the day two worlds collided. Extremism v/s Mediocrity !!

Moments of silence!! For sometime both the worlds were not making sense to each other. Gibberish!! Mediocre stood there and watched in silence, while extremist rolled on floor with laughter. Mediocre smirked and prayed for the day when they will have lastlaugh. Extremist laughed harder

Time passed. Both the worlds are going along together now. Well none shed their innate behavior, but they have learnt to respect each other!!

We , mediocre,  have learnt that – The sky  will not fall on occasional delays in deadlines

They, extremist, learnt-   Sky can fall sometime, be prepared

And then they lived happily ever after .. (minus some slight ego clashes, occasional slugfest, frequent showcase of power, demeaning remarks) 

P.S: Sad part , I dont know how to works on alignments here!! so sorry if it has gone little awry sometime

Of Preachers and Followers

We humans are a unique breed. We claim to have evolved to be at top of the echelon, but in true sense we are still part of the jungle.The innate qualities of being in herd, in continuous paranoia of attack and unwillingness to start something new, still exists. We are still like animals of the jungle and worse.

We are still part of a larger herd, we still follow - whom we assume ‘alpha’!

While going around the streets of Chennai with Ms Melhotra; I noticed something strange- she is turning her head away from all the temples/churches/shrines. Strange indeed.  When finally I asked for the reason, she said her ‘guru’ refrain all his followers from idol worship! Oh Oh…so she is not an atheist but a  believer- believer of different God! Idol worship is highly debatable and I would have let it go, had I not happen to visit the Ashram of her preacher. In middle of the sprawling 30 acres property they (followers) have erected a 10 ft gigantic statute of their guru and were praying it every time they were passing by it – Followers!! Wake up!! This is idol worship!!

Irrational minions!! They are playing with you

 We, human beings are strange lot, for we are searching for answers of the questions nobody asked. We want peace but cannot find solace within and then we turn to someone we believe is capable of bringing peace. We do not trust ourselves!! We like to follow and are afraid to lead our life the way we want- The way it should be

Fragile vulnerable souls! – Take stand, They know you!

There is no harm in following a great deed and understanding the nuances of being a better soul. There is no harm in listening to the positive sermons to uplift you. There is no harm in learning ways of meditation and becoming a better individual.

Spirituality is not harmful!!

I am not against spirituality!  It’s the extremity of it which concerns me! It’s the blind faith that worries me. My heart sinks when I see 10 year olds doing ‘ 108 hari naam jaap’ at ISKCON!- I am believer of the ISKCON foundation, our forefathers have been instrumental in making it happen ! But I never did ‘hari naam jaap’  till I was mid twenties ,old enough to understand, what it means. A 10 year looking for spirituality? Cmmon be rational!! He doesn’t even know what he is holding and its significance! For all I know he could be just playing with the beads!!

Don’t let anyone fool you in name of religion and spirituality.

Explore your own spirituality! Don’t jump in bandwagon- or if at all you have jumped, keep your senses alive. Don’t be blind don’t be slave. Reason!! Don’t turn spirituality into fanaticism.  I remember members of ‘people’s temple’ who believed in their preacher – Jim Jones, to an extent that they gave up everything they had, to live a humble life in Jungles of Guyana (South America). They trusted their leader so much so that they all committed suicide in November 1978, on command of their leader (mass suicide of 909 individuals, second highest loss of American civilian life, highest being in 9/11 attacks)

Who is more stupid? The leader who asked the followers to end their lives or the followers who believed and ended it?

Remember only you can find peace for yourself, you only have to trust yourself

Aham Brahmasmi !! Believe me you are God yourself!

FD aayi?? Haan aa gayi!

So yet another thought on FDI in retail?  topical blogging eh? But what to do then - this is what everyone has been talking about for a long time now and my puny brain with limited access to knowledge is bound to get influenced.  However, I will refrain myself from talking its implications- All News Channels hosts, Indian Intelligentsia, Humanitarians are talking about it and I have a feeling I might end up emulating them

Besides I don’t want to dilute my core topic today- India’s reaction towards change (read Govt. New policies/schemes)

Accept it or not, we Indians have been fooled by government so much that we have stopped believing in the system at all. Even though sometime government do things/bring policies (let’s not question the intent here, for we all we go in different tangent then) which are actually beneficial for India as whole, Indians start protesting it before its implementation (or drafting sometimes)- It actually kills enthusiasm of the whole project

Its Conditional Reflex, They (Govt) introduce a policy/bill/scheme/anything and We (Indians) Protest!

I remember liberalization of economy dated back late 90s. Here the ever so quite P.V Narsimha Rao thought of liberalizing the Indian Economy and there BAM!! Entire India is on street! I remember rallies and protests where white Kurta clad, Allahabad Universities Student Head/would be Politicians ,were actually throwing ‘so-called-imported’ stuff (clothes basically) in fire and shouting “Angrezon Bharat Chhodo!!”  (Seriously I am laughing as I am writing!) Later these would be politicians were  found celebrating – after tearing few shirts, breaking few vehicles and middle finger to law -at the local bar; todays special order “Aaj to Angrezi piyenge”

That’s what it is! Nobody is bothered about the common man. He is still stray, still clueless!! – If 100s are saying its BAD its BAD, join in! If FDI in retail will come what will happen to the mom & pop shops? in 20 years they are like my family… they  will go out of business, poor and homeless and what not common man is compassionate, that why he is being exploited. His heart is more commanding than brain. His heart is letting them (hypocrites) win!

However, I am happy, after all the revolt and non-cooperation, FDI in retail is passed! Many Thanks to UP majors SP, BSP- I Love you guys, for the first time you actually DID something for the nation, YOU DID NOT VOTE!!

I am looking forward to its implications – I am sure it’s not going to be what social workers/opposition is pointing at! It’s all going to be good. India will shine again

Ode To A Simple Man

He trudged all the way through

Yet he never sweat
Nor he stop smiling
They sneered, they laughed
He laughed with them too
But never stopped
And walked all the way through

Achievements you have none

They said. He agreed!
And he never told them about
Relativity of Success
They materialised and numbered it too
But he savoured them all
As he walked all the way through

 

‘Gold I have many’-

Often he use to say
‘But its a golden heart I treasure
What good is wealth?
If it cannot make your loved one smile
Love is only wealth that counts when-
You walk all the way through’

 

He died like a simple man

Quietly from our world to beyond
He left as the morning sun rose
But little did people know
The man was a wizard
Who mastered the magic of simplicity
As he walked all the way through


* Dedicated to my grandfather- a great philosopher, visoner and a very simple man