Loving a stone sculpture..

The day we broke up,

Was the day I was shattered,

Slowly as time went by,

A few pieces I gathered,

Putting them together one by one,

I somehow held it together,

And then you came back to me,

Making everything much better.

The wind whispered to me again,

Singing a song of its own,

Even the stars seemed happy,

A little brighter they shone,

And then the fights began again,

Leaving my dreams shattered.

The thirst for love tortured me,

The fury of my ego burned me,

The pain it caused was severe,

But the desire for you was stronger,

Sometimes you were so good,

Sometimes you were so harsh,

Your mood swings left me confused,

And I started getting disillusioned,

Finally I realized that all this while,

I had been loving a stone sculpture.

I wish I could forget you..

Every morning I wake up,

I wish I was beside you,

Every time I think of you

I feel like calling you,

Every mention of you name,

Makes me feel nostalgic,

Every item gifted by you,

Brings back a piece of memory,

Every time I eat Chinese,

I wish I was eating with you,

Every time I see you online,

I feel like pinging you

Every waking moment spent alone,

I spend it dreaming of you,

Every moment spent with people,

I spend it missing you,

Every night before I sleep,

I wish I could somehow forget you.

Caesar's Love

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your beers;

I come to taste Caesar, not to eat it.

The taste of good food lives after it;

The food is often digested by the intestines;

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Bluto

has told you that this Caesar is the most delicious:

If it were not so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously will the Caesar's Chef  answer for it.

Here, under leave of Bluto and the rest–

For Bluto is a hungry glutton;

So are they all, all gourmand men–

Come I to taste the Caesar’s flavour.

It is indeed tasty and delightful and not just to me:

But Bluto too. He says it is delicious;

And Bluto is a gourmand.

He has tasted many Caesar's across the world.

Whose bills his general managers filled:

Is this Caesar indeed The Most Delicious?

Whenever have the hungry craved, Caesar has delighted:

The Most Delicious should be made of tastier stuff:

Yet Bluto says this is The Most Delicious;

And Bluto is a gourmand.......

Fernweh...

"If you cage a bird for too long, it will forget how to fly."

To begin with I have a few confessions.

1)Confession 1:I am a food addict. Not just the type that hogs at a particular dish. I like to taste and try varieties. I even enjoy experimenting with my cooking style. Sometimes it is delicious but then sometimes it is .......Arrghhh! Don't have a word to describe it.

2) Confession 2: I love reading. Not the academic stuff or the scholarly literature. Any random book I feel like reading. Reading about different places, different people and different customs and beliefs fascinates me. Honestly there is so much to read and learn that one lifetime is not enough.

3) Confession 3: As a kid I wanted to learn many languages. Unfortunately I did not have enough passion for learning languages. In fact I can only manage passable Hindi and English. But I have picked up many words and phrases from different languages and I use them a lot in my daily life. Mostly it is Bengali, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Telugu and Arabic. Some I learnt from books about those places some I picked up from my stay in those places. Certainly not enough, but sufficient to irritate others.

It naturally follows that I love travelling as it combines all the three things I just confessed my love for. Almost every other person will immediately respond "hell I love travelling too!"

Let me give you a reality check.

Signs that you really love travelling:

1) You just have to go out on a Weekend. A weekend spent at home is a weekend wasted

2) You have your dream destinations listed out. And you keep ticking them one by one.

3) If you are going out for a long trip, you find out all about that place. The major tourist attractions, the historical importance of the place, best local food joint and their specialty dish, the languages spoken there, the common greeting words, the local folk lore or any other interesting thing.

4) You would rather not sleep and waste money on lodging if it cuts into your budget for sightseeing. In fact all you need is a rucksack or a backpack and enjoy all attractions. Even a night time stroll.

5) You will take pictures of sights that mesmerize you. It is not absolutely necessary for you to be in the snap yo make it memorable.

6) You will interact with the local people and find out more about each place you visit.

7) When you are travelling food may not be the most important thing at some places. You will skip a meal in order to try out the one local dish that was a bit expensive.

8) You don't always need company to visit a place. Sometimes alone trips turn out to be more fun.

9) Budget is hardly ever an issue.

10) Spontaneous trips are something you love

Signs that travelling is not your thing

1) You like to relax at home on weekends and only go out for a movie or food.

2) You travel with a heavy baggage of your best clothes and accessories to ensure that you look good in all pictures.

3) Any picture taken of anything must have your face somewhere in the frame.

4) You decide your budget beforehand and more than half of it is for lodging.

5) Nothing can interfere with your meal timings even if you are on a trip.

6) You must have good company before you even plan a trip.

7) "Folk lore, history? Not my thing. Is it beautiful?"

8) " What will I do by learning even a word of local language? I have to stay there for like one day. I'll manage."

9) The moment you get back from a trip you just have to share pictures immediately. "Why else did I take all those selfies for?"

10) Alone trips are a strict no no. After all we plan trips with friends so we can relax and gossip.

This is it. I am done with my stereotyping. Most people are going to say "What is this rubbish? This guy is a self proclaimed know-it-all. I love travelling and I am still going to write travelling as my hobby in my resume." Well thank you for the name-calling. You are entitled to live in your fantasy world. I am entitled to my opinion.

PS: This bird had been trapped too long in a cage. Tomorrow it will be released. A few days to strengthen its wings and then time for a reality check. Does it still remember to fly?

Transition.....

Once upon a time I was cool,

Back then I was at school.

My parents called me lazy,

My teachers called me crazy,

Everyone tried to lecture me,

But that did not bother me.

Because back then I was cool!

Moving a little forward in time,

I had my best days in college time,

So many lectures to bunk,

So many subjects to flunk,

Days were spent in hangover,

Before I sobered up college was over,

I had managed to stay cool!

Now I have a salaried job,

And a boss who is a snob,

I work hard round the clock,

Causing serious mental block,

My friends tell me to take it light,

And I think they might be right

Because I no longer feel cool!!

So many books, so little time...

I was born a bibliophile. Maybe that is stretching the truth a bit, but as far as my memory serves I got the bug at a very young age. I don't remember which was the first book I read, I don't remember when was the first book I read. The only thing I remember is that fascination for books was always there.

I am told that even before I had learned to read or write, I enjoyed going through "Glow Books". As the name suggests it glowed in the dark. I could only make out the glowing images, but still I spent a lot of time in the dark with my "Glow Books".

The next thing I remember reading is "Champak". I was quite a fan of "Cheeku" probably because that was quite similar to my pet name. Next of course were nursery rhymes. Sindbad, Pinnochio, Rip Van Vinkle, Don Quixote, Gulliver, Alice, Mowgli, Noddy, Snow white, Little Red riding Hood, Cindrella, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Dorothy and many others were my best friends.

My favourite authors back then were RL Stevnsn, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Ruskin Bond and Vishnu Sharma (Panchtantra)

By the time I had reached primary school reading books had already become my greatest passion. Nothing else could give me greater joy and satisfaction, perhaps maybe seeing Sachin Tendulkar bat. Although I was too young to understand the technicalities of the game I still loved seeing Sachin play. Maybe it was because he looked like an outsider, too young to play alongside the other players. I don't know the reason but seeing him bat always made me happy. 

Anyway I am drifting from the topic. Perhaps I will write about Sachin some other day. Coming back to the topic of books, this was the phase when I was fascinated by mysteries and thrillers. Everyone who loves mystery books probably started with "The Famous Five". I completed series like " The Famous Five", "The Secret Seven", "Nancy Drew", "The Three Investigators", "The Five find-outers ", "Hardy Boys", "The Barney Mysteries", A-Z series of Sue Grafton and best of all Goosebumps. 

This was also the phase when I started reading comics. Chacha Chaudhary, Phantom, Mandrake, Pinky, Billoo, Gamraj, Nagraj, Dhruv, Parmanu, Doga,Tiranga, Inspector Steel, Kobi, Bhedia, Bhokal and Shakti were my new companions. Back then I had crates full of comics. I was reprimanded by my parents on numerous occasions because they did not like me reading comics. I remember spending my entire pocket money for renting comics. 

Even today I prefer reading Tinkle or Archie while travelling. 

When I entered secondary school I shifted to a bit more mature books. Agatha Christie, Sidney Sheldon, Robin Cook, Jeffery Archer, Danielle Steele, Charles Dickens, Bernard Shaw, Franz Kafka, George Orwell, H.G.Wells, Michael Crichton, Ian Fleming, Alistair Maclean, Mario Puzo, John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Stephen King, Shakespeare, Mary Shelly, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Canon Doyle and above all J.K. Rowling.

I must confess I am a Harry Potter Junkie and J.K. Rowling is my favourite because she wrote Harry Potter.

After completing my 10th board exams the first book I read was "Love Story" by Erich Segal. My first reaction was "What rubbish!! Such characters don't exist in real life". All that talk of love made me sick. I am a sensitive person but the line "Love means not ever having to say you're sorry." seemed a bit far-fetched. I decided I would never ever read Erich Segal again.

Now the period between my 10th and 12th board was one when I probably spent the least time in reading books. After reading "Love Story" I shifted to much better stuff. Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, V.S. Naipaul were my favourite authors. I also read the authobiographies of Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler.

In my opinion "Mein Kampf" is the most thought provoking book. I was very deeply affected by that book and spent a lot of time on the internet reading articles and other texts about Hitler. I am not very proud to say that I spent a lot of time giving arguments justifying Hitler's act, and also coming up with counter-arguments. All in my mind of course. It was like arguing both sides of a Mobius Strip. I am ashamed to say that I was quite gullible back then.

After Mein Kampf my next book was Fountainhead. It was an equally thought provoking book. 

Unfortunately, I did not perform well in 12th boards owing to other distractions and I had to drop a year to prepare for entrance examinations. This was a period which I utilized fully to finish reading great works. Khaled Hosseini, Harper Lee, Ayn Rand, Tolkien, Frederick Forsyth, Alexander Dumas, Jules Verne, Dan Brown, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen Leacock, Anton Chekhov, Guy de Maupassant, Iris Murdoch, Robert Frost, John Lennon, William Wordsworth, Keats, Kiran Desai were a few authors in whose company I spent my time. I also started reading up on a lot of relegious texts during this period. 

After my 12th board I once again picked up another Erich Segal bestseller "The Class of 58". I loved this book a lot.I particularly related to the character of Andrew Elliot. A youngster who was unsure about what he really wanted from life. Andrew's biggest strength was his ability to make friends. I was so consumed by that book, I read it again.Some time later I read another Erich Segal book "Doctors". The book bored me with its details about medical student's life. But the core of the book was the love story of Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano. The book described how their platonic friendship changed into love. It was beautifully described and I liked it a hell lot more than the unrealistic characters of "Love Story". 

This was also the year when I started reading Chetan Bhagat's works. Although none of his books are in the league of the above mentioned elite names, but still credit is due to him as the first author to create interest among the masses. I also tried reading the works of Stephen R. Covey and Dale Carnegie. To my dismay these were not my cup of tea. 

In the year 2007 I started college. Engineering was never my thing and once again I found myself spending a lot of time reading books. My friends will confirm this that even on the eve of examination I was to be found with a novel in my hand. Although by the end of my 1st year the time spent on reading books was considerably reduced. A conributing factor could be the quality of books I read during this period. Stepahnie Meyer, Tuhin A Sinha, Tushar Raheja, and a lot many rubbish love stories written by lesser known Indian Authors.Even the eagerly awaited "The Lost Symbol" was a disappointment. As far as I remember there was hardly any exceptional book which I came across in my engineering career apart from the works of P.G. Wodehouse, Cecelia Ahren, Aravind Adiga and Paulo Coelho.

Once the college dream is over, reality hits hard in the form of job. Suddenly there is very little time for books. Especially when you have to work 6 days a week.

In spite of the little time I got over the next 3-4 years I managed to read quite a lot of books. Some were disappointments like "The age of Shiva", "Mahabharata Secret". "The Abomination" while a few were surprisingly good like "Gods and Warriors", "Atlantis", "Being Billy". Some books were really gripping like Rick Riordans mythological series, Shiva trilogy, the Millenium trilogy , Ashwin Saghvi's works and Karan Bajaj's books. Fifty Shades of Grey was another disappointment.. Some were simply great like Howard Jacobson's Finkler Question.

The last book which I would like to mention happens to be my all time favourite."The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes is one of the best books ever written. Especially if you consider the fact that it manages to convey Anthony's entire life within 150 pages. Had this book been written a year earlier it would probably have won the "Best of Booker" prize too. "You don't understand, but you never did, and you never will.."This is what Victoria Ford says to the protagonist Anthony in the end. A simple line which carries a lot of weight in it. It shows you how much Victoria has endured, that all she manages to say is this one line. The one line which has so much impact on Anthony when he finally understands.

There may be a few names which I missed here. There may be a few names which don't deserve to be here. But there are infinitely more names to be added here. 

Life is what we make it...

Life is like a novel. You don't know what will happen unless you turn the page. – Sidney Sheldon (The Other Side of Me)

Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. -Forest Gump 

Life's a song, you don't get to rehearse and every single verse can make it that much worse. -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

As we begin to realize that every different type of music, everybody's individual music, has its own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realize how life changes, and we learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.

As we begin to realize that every different chocolate from the box, has a different flavour, a different taste, which may be desirable for one person but very disgusting to another. We begin to realize that life gives everyone the same chances; the same chocolate box. The taste is a personal inclination.

As we begin to realize that every different genre of novel, each and every chapter of the novel, tells a different story, has a different twist, and perhaps a different ending we begin to realize how everyone's life is different from each other, and we start writing a whole new chapter for ourselves.

Life is a gift which is the same for everyone. It is how we use the gift that really matters. I am neither a preacher nor a philosopher. In fact I do not belong to any breed of the self-proclaimed scholars, who claim to know the purpose of life. All I claim to be is a wanderer.

Yet again  "Not all who wander are lost"  -Tolkein. 

Life is full of unexpected happenings and many crossroads. We have to be lost to find something. We have to wander, We have to believe but above all we have to live. The only way to understand life is to live it and accept it no matter what is in store. Read every page, taste every flavour and listen to every tune. 

A Simple Answer..

"Do you believe in God?"

A question that each one of us comes across on many occasions. Time and again I've tried to dodge this but it just keeps popping up. This is one question which has no right or wrong answer.

I believe in God. But I don't believe in religion, or anything that man says about God. I don't believe in idols, I don't believe in superstitions or any other religious dogma. Being in a society one is sometimes forced to follow some codes but it is entirely a personal choice to believe in it.

To me, God is not omnipresent, he is not omniscient, he is not almighty, and certainly not a supreme power residing in heaven aloof of all our day to day problem, capable of performing miracles. Its not God who performs miracles, its us. What is a miracle? An unexpected, extraordinary performance or occurrence, which can be performed by an individual in a moment of brilliance. 

"God is the life that exists within us, the inspiration, the motivation, the self which makes us who we are..... "

This is the simplest answer which I can think of.

Forevermore....

There was this one girl,

Who was a very close friend,

A person on whom,

I could always depend.

She was my angel,

She made me smile,

Though life was never easy,

She made it worth-while

For so many years,

From beginning to end,

We were always together,

Like a perfect blend.

Each waking moment,

Since the day we met,

I have always loved her,

From sunrise to sunset.

Through all these years,

Our friendship grew,

I have always loved her,

But she never knew.

Slowly she drifted away,

To a different shore,

Leaving me across the sea,

Waiting forevermore....