Fly bird fly

Fly bird fly
the sky is waiting

Fly bird fly
horizon awaiting

Fly bird fly
There are boundaries to merge

Fly bird fly
With your profound upsurge

Go about
with courage in your heart

Chase mountains
with the well learnt art

Cross seas
Cross continents
Cross the mighty earthly gown

Act as that shining beacon
that doesn't
let us settle down

Go bird go
Ignite the spirits
Burn procrastination

Coz you are the one
who give us that
sense of satisfaction

That someone up there
is faithfully
playing its part

That someone up there
knows how to merge
duty with art
.
.

Friends

From the pen of a kid (my keyboard of course) who wants nothing but his friends around wherever he goes, whatever he does.

Life without friends....

Industry without shifts
Building without lifts

Father without heed
Moral without deed

Restaurant without food
Bike without hood

Shadow without light
Democracy without right

Sun without heat
Body without feet

Sleep without dream
Cake without cream


Life without friends is unimaginable
Lessons without them are incomprehensible....

Straight from the gut i declare
These are the guys on whom i swear

But in pain and in sorrow
When i have no choice but to borrow

They are the one who say
cheer up baby
This is just a rough time
don't go crazy

I know this life is full of
ups and downs
But my friends are here to
up the ups and
drown the downs

To narrow the lanes
Between love and care
magic and charm
and make my cold life
lovely and warm.


Thanks to all those who came into my mind while penning this.

Goodbye - salutations

It is always tough to part from your loved ones. Hence, the English language takes care of it through so many adopted words, phrases and idioms from various languages.

Some of the most appealing and widely used ones are briefed here, all of them suggest a meaning very close to goodbye:

• Ciao - Italian (pronounced Chao).
• Hasta la vista - Spanish (meaning: until next time) (remember Terminator 2).
• Sayonara - Chinese.
• Adieu - French.
• Adios - Spanish.
• Au revoir - French.
• auf wiedersehen - German.
• ta-ta - British (informal).
• Do svidaniya - Russian.

And the regular ones - See you later/soon/tomorrow(cya), goodbye, take care, b-bye etc. (Origin of Goodbye - God be with you).

OK so bye for now!! More coming up soon, keep crawling (a term used by Google to look for your search items in the web pages worldwide).

Each one of us is both a sinner and a saint,

the difference lies in the ratio.
-sudharm baxi

Writing - my endearing romance!!

This blog is like my baby. I once heard somewhere - किताबो से तो शादी करनी पड़ती है (One has to get into a wedlock with the books). But my engineering books never found me worthy enough as a life-long soulmate, hence i could just manage short term relationships with them (short term implies one semester).

And no traces of anything studied in that semester could be found in the rarest-remotest corner of my brain post that semester. Still, somehow i managed to clear engineering and ended up in an IT company. Here the ghoulish coding languages were awaiting my welcome to this graveyard (sorry for being harsh - i know this is my PRESENT EMPLOYER - making me a PAST). Somehow i managed to finish off with the gruesome training and right now doing something that earns my company some dollars.

During this whole expedition, i came across the world of blogging. And here i could deliver this baby - i was expecting ever since i came across linguistic communication. I could give shape to my thoughts, my ideologies, my understanding and as per my title - my underintelligence.

So why do you write?
Because i love writing.

And who gave you the right to impose this writing upon others?
I never imposed anything...

Yes you did..you forced them to read and admire your so called 'baby'..
Nooo!! i just send the link and if they wish they read it...

Don't send the link even - this is like forcing them to read..
I don't force them, i share it only with the selected few and that too i stop sharing if i feel they might not be interested in it.

This is like showing off, displaying your ego..
Showing off- i can't believe this, i have stopped using a capital 'i' ever since i started writing and you accuse me of showing off.

Ok Ok!! Still stop telling them that you have added something on your blog, stop imposing your love of writing upon others - Be humane, you should not trouble others because of your love. Should you?
No i should not and i will try that i do not.

But let me assure you of one thing - i will never let this baby grow old. Right now the baby is maturing with time, it is going through the vicissitudes of life and once it attains adult-hood, i would stop the process of its ageing (Yes, i can do that, but don't ask me how?). Because if my writing grows old it is bound to die, and i can't let it die.

I would die but my writing won't, it would see the times that even my last worn-out strand of DNA won't be able to.

.

.

.

Contentment is bad

Contentment is bad unless you are Buddha or Mahavir. You would not even realize when this contentment transforms into complacency and thence your (asked for) failure.

The world is full of examples that claim this fact. You remember Romesh Powar, the red-goggled Mumbai spinner. He might be talented as he got into the national team, and then out of contentment, he started to take it for granted; never tried to improve his fitness, his fielding and above all bowling, as a result he is out forever. Ask a guy who practices cricket 8 hours a day, sweats out in the gym, pool and race tracks for the remaining day, just to get into the Ranaji team or the university team. And here we have a guy who got such an immense opportunity, a chance to represent the nation and he wasted it like anything.

Have you visited any of the 'More' stores by the Aditya Birla Group? They have huge establishments, so many employees, so much space, money and experience to experiment with and become a leader in FMCG sales. But where do they stand right now? Nowhere.

This is because of the very basic reason - they don't even understand that the force that drives the middle class is money; if you don't give discounts, if you are not healthy on the pockets of the consumers, why would the customer prefer you over the local kirana store or any other local grocery store.

Have you visited any of the huge book stores namely 'Odyssey' or 'Crossword', i am not sure if they generate profits or not. But one thing is for sure, if they deploy a few very obvious strategic techniques, they would be heavily profitable.

People actually love reading, they want to purchase original books, but the books are so heavily charged. A piece of fiction which is not more than a few hours read for a voracious reader is worth 500 bucks. I can not even imagine buying that book; hence i go to the road side vendor and purchase the duplicate copy for 70-200 rupees. Yes, i feel guilty in doing so but i can't help, i can not purchase a book at an asking price of Rs.500.

Firstly if that book had been priced 250 or so i would have gone for the original one, secondly if those grandiose stores offer schemes like discounts on future purchases or gift coupons or for that matter anything which make me feel that i get worth of MY money whenever i go to so and so store, why would i go for the duplicate cheap purchases (Recently i purchased the duplicate titles of - 'Go kiss the world' and 'The White Tiger' for the very same reason).

Contentment certainly leads to happiness but it kills the urge to get ahead. In a race, you are contended that there are five cars behind you, but that would never make you win, what would make you win is i have to speed up, there are still 8 cars ahead of me.

Just after college, we get into the job without thinking or giving a second thought to WHAT IF i go for this or that? I seek contentment in - Hey! At least i have a job. Also, in the job we don't put in our 100% because we don't find it necessary. But in order to succeed we have to get ahead, think of new frontiers, think of new horizons and without fail head start in that direction.

If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.
--Norman Vincent Peale

Smile - Joviality Transmitter!!

Here in this post i would like to share something that i have discovered recently. I call it a discovery because it was ever existent, known to many maybe, but never realized and practiced. And pertaining to my altruistic, philanthropic nature, i ought to share it with you..

Do you realize how scarcely we smile, how we have almost forgotten how to smile. Try to recollect - Your mom's face when you left your home for studies or job; a mix of care, fear and love beautifully encompassed in the teary smile. This smile was pure, straight from heart and selfless.

Smile is one of the most beautiful gifts; which i am not sure if is adorned only by humans because i have seen monkeys, donkeys, owls, cheetah cubs and particularly dogs and cats smile. So, why not make full use of this gift, why not smile in all the situations of life - good or bad, tough or easy.

There are umpteen benefits of endowing a smile in the tougher times of life:

• A smile creates an atmosphere of positive energy.
• A smile shifts mood from sad to happy and happy to happier.
• A smile always signifies calmness, laugh can not boast of this.
• Smile makes you livelier, jollier and much more adorable over the period of time.
• Being contagious, it relieves tensions, worries and the troubles not only you but also others around you.
• A smiling face emanates - happiness; contentment; high energy level; welcoming and accepting attitude.

The mojo possessed by smile is not something that a hearty laugh can boast of. The technique was employed by Boman Irani in Munnabhai-MBBS, he actually laughed heartily whenever he was in tension and suggested that it is a good technique to relieve him from tension.

But i feel a smile comes more naturally than a laugh.

• You meet your dear ones, you smile and not laugh.
• You see a cute puppy on the road, you smile and not laugh.

Hence, we are (if not can be) more prone to a smile than a laugh. A smile is more personal than a laugh. A person is at his honest best when he is smiling, he is his own true self and that too through his own eyes (try hiding your mouth and than smile and see your eyes smiling). A laugh when cherished in memory can lead to a beautiful smile.

Initially it would be tough for you to adorn this jewel, this crown of smile; it would be like wearing an Armani tuxedo in the company of beggars. Yes it would be tough, because over the period of time we have been taught to be serious. So, you need to condition your mind with the benefits of wearing a smile.

• This would be like that flowing river which flows on and on smiling, creating lives all over.
• This would be like that tree which is so very happy to give shelter, fruits and whatnot to the fauna.
• This would be like those flowers which are so welcoming to the bees.

So, the mantra is smile whenever you feel worn out, smile whenever something troubles you; use this infectious perfume to spread happiness all around the globe. Wear this perfume wherever you go, in the process you will not only enlighten your own self but also the lives of all your dear ones. The aroma, the charm of smile is going to glorify your life and let you exude gallons of positive energy all around.

Smile - This investment only knows hefty and merry returns and nothing else, always!!!

Bombay - a transposer

While talking to a friend on phone yesterday, who has just shifted to Bombay, i tried to comprehend how the life in Bombay can be characterized for the middle class. Also, let me tell you that - you are just another middle class guy here in Bombay, irrespective of what you or your native city thinks of you.

Bombay had always been a dream city for me; i have always admired the beauty, the mojo, the excitement and the quality of life here. But the charm is available only for less than 0.001% of the people (Don't ask me how i reached this figure, just wanted to state an enormously small quantity, hence 0.001). For everyone else, the life is killing out here in Bombay.

Once, i met a couple of well-to-do bank guys in their early forties at around 10:30pm in the local. They were returning from the job, so out of curiosity i asked them If it was the usual time to return. Of course they said yes, and told me they won't reach home before 11, just to leave the other day at 5:30 am. I was severely surprised to find out that it had been their routine ever since. Now tell me- What kind of life is that?

They can surely be considered amongst the well paid middle class, but what for - Raising just a modest living even after so much pain.

Bombay is a city full of luxuries both necessary and unnecessary. Yes, here in Bombay you get to learn that luxuries can also be necessities, you can't live without certain luxuries that could have sounded utterly unnecessary earlier, but no more in Bombay.

My father says - 'Bombay is a city to enjoy for those who don't actually require to personally go and do business. The business creates money for them and they get to spend this automatically earned money.' These people actually enjoy the life in Bombay; all the others, however hefty pay packs or revenues they generate, have to lead a laborious life.

I feel whenever a new guy comes to this city, he gets transposed to the bigness of Bombay from his native place in three stages as mentioned underneath:

Excitement -- So many people around; so much to see; so many trains, buses, expensive cars, malls, hence the guy is so much excited; he travels in the local and shares the experiences with friends; experience a fight or an accident and narrates it with minute details to his relatives and so on and on. Hence, everything excites him like anything.

Boredom -- After a while, the same crowd that had created a sense of excitement, now is a source of constant trouble; the endless queues at the ticket window; daily pouts of fights both verbal and physical; uncaring attitude of passersby, and all the robotic attributes now appear mundane and boring.

Habit -- Now the time comes when the guy is completely acquainted with the vicissitudes of Bombay, he has experienced enough to start the mundane life without the minutest thought of excitement. For boredom, there is no time at all. In a way he got bored of getting bored and is no more bored in anything for that matter.

• He is no more astonished looking at the queues longer than the great wall.
• He no more fears at the look of heavily crowded buses and trains.
• He doesn't care to say a sorry to the passerby whom he has overstepped.
• He doesn't believe in creating relationships with the shop wallahs.
• He goes to the job, comes back, to go back the next day.

So, this is how life changes for a guy from a small town (barring a couple of cities on this planet, all towns and cities are smaller when compared to Bombay). He becomes acquainted too quickly and rarely wishes to move out of this habit. No pain, no excitement, no feelings, just plain robotics.

He doesn't want to get out of this mechanical trail just like the train that knows nothing but to move on the same parallel tracks over and over again. He doesn't even think of moving back to his home town. A personality trainer in a workshop once said for Bombay

You can checkout anytime you like
But you can never leave...

(picking it from the famous song 'Hotel California' by The Eagles).

But one thing is for sure, this city hates slow movers. Bombayites might not respect anything else but they definitely respect time. You have to be quick-moving, 7:32 local arrives precisely on time and you can not afford to even think of missing it.

Bombay creates quick movers, fast learners, pompous-flashy-socialites and laborers (yes not at all i've mistaken here). It can and will teach you high class management lessons but at a cost which might not be acceptable to you; but do you really think you have a choice against BOMBAY....No you don't have...Here

Bombay decide and we quietly reside..

Diana

A lady probably having half a dozen disclosed affairs, if still is adored by the masses, that lady ought to be Lady Diana.

She was so very beautiful and charismatic and wonderful (one adjective is never enough for 'Di') that you can’t live unnoticing her. Leaving the pulchritude (physical beauty) apart, she was so gracious, so magnanimous, so helping, so much eager to work for various public causes, that you can not avoid getting inspired by her. One of her pictures, showing her sitting with an AIDS patient is considered the best ad campaign ever for awareness towards AIDS.

This is always believed that her aura shadowed the complete royal family, one smile of hers outsmarted umpteen claims of her bad attitude by the members of the royal family.

Prince Charles did not like her even a bit, pertaining to various reasons:

• Out of many girlfriends, he adored Camilla Parker (yes the one whom he married later in life - God knows WHy??) to an unacceptable and unbelievable (she was not beautiful even when she was young - take my word, I have seen her photos) extent.
• Diana was more like a necessity for Charles because only a virgin; royal/partially royal member could be a soul mate (yes yes ironically speaking) to the royal heir (what heir, Still at this age, Queen rules and there is no King).
• People loved her much much more than any other royal member ever, this made Charles particularly uneasy. There were umpteen incidents when Prince Charles was standing all alone and people, journalists, paparazzi chased 'Di'.
• And of course, with time people showed unprecedented love and warmth for Diana, that was incomprehensible and unacceptable to Prince Charles (I don’t like using the word ‘Prince’ for this jealous, good–for-nothing guy).
  

Prince Charles, at that time was a crappy, spoilt, extra rich kid who got a toy which could have been a beautiful possession for life time but he kept on looking in dirt for something else and never ever cared for it. And when others took care of her, showed interest in her solely because of his negligence; he became utterly jealous and started to foulmouth and misbehave with one of the world's most beautiful possessions.

If Andrew Morton (author, Diana-Her True Story) is to be believed:

• she tried to commit suicide five times;
• had a digestive trouble called bulimia, a severe eating disorder;
• was constrained so heavily by the royal family (Charles particularly) to behave in a way they wanted;

So, she was covering the wounds caused by an uncaring husband under this veil of smiles, love, warmth and affection. The real love was offered to her by many friends, many of whom have actually lost lives, lost jobs and whatnot. But i m not sure, any one can actually prove this ever.

I admire many women, and Diana for me is much more than a mere admiration, she is a ray of hope, a beautiful way of life. And i am sure whosoever knows even a bit about her would share the same thoughts.

I leave you with the beautiful lyrics by Elton John, a special tribute to the love of all...Diana

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
You called out to our country
And you whispered to those in pain
Now you belong to heaven
And the stars spell out your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will

Loveliness we've lost
These empty days without your smile
This torch we'll always carry
For our nation's golden child
And even though we try
The truth brings us to tears
All our words cannot express
The joy you brought us through the years

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned our long before
Your legend ever will

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
Goodbye England's rose
From a country lost without your soul
Who'll miss the wings of your compassion
More than you'll ever know

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And you footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will

Front seaters - Back benchers

This post is a consolidated effort of all my fellow movie goers and me.

What are the benefits of sitting in the first (in worst case second) row in a movie theatre (read Multiplex):

• No pain of finding the seat.
• Enter the hall and here is your seat.
• You watch the movie afresh, it gets worn out after passing through eyes of so many sitting in front rows.
• We get to see the minutest details of the movie.
• You are amongst the best of the lot, all these guys are your fellow back benchers in various institutes around the globe.
• Full leg space, stretch your legs as much as you want without worrying about anyone.
• Don't like to lower your head, use front rows and keep it high always.
• Movie ends and out you go, no need to wait for the uncle or auntie to clear stairs

So, by now, you must have left the wrong notion that guys buy front row tickets, because they are cheap.

No man no.

They buy them because of the reasons mentioned above.

What say front seaters (syn: back benchers)?

What say all my fellow movie goers??

Feel free to add, i am sure i have missed out quite a few...