dreams@work

I hate it! - Part III

2009-09-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

So while i am still dancing to the tune of 'purani jeans' ...
i want to talk about the innocence of the those days! - friendships, homework, uniform or any inane thing of the world would be done with such religious sincerity that it would put military to shame, such innocence that i wonder...what hormones cook up on growing up that, it all gets lost somewhere in oblivion...

then there are 3 thigns that i have just forgotten totally about -Pranks, More Pranks
and even more pranks! well obviously those who know me know that i could not be the prankster....but no dearth of naughty boys around who would pull them off on me and others! and such pranks are the anchors of memories of school days!
so this one afternoon ...after school as we were queuing up for our respective buses there was some 'gobar' lying on the earth outside the school..when suddenly one witty boy shouted out to another guy..."abbey neeche dekh...(And as all eyes fell on the floor)....abbey saaley tera deemag gira pada hai"...hahaha..
now i know doesn't sound funny enough here...or if it does..its cheesy at its best....but imagine that poor buy in front of the entire school as rest of us were holding our tummies in splits!

many such more that could make a compendium of funny book.... may be i should write one...at least i would ensure some smiles for me for sometime then!

I miss getting up at 6, dewy eyed, struggling to find my glasses, i miss ma putting the brush in my mouth after waking me up for nth time, i miss her stroking me to sleep at night (in fact every night when i don't get sleep i remember that and miss it like nothing in the world - what powers reside in a mother's hand! ), i miss dad polishing my shoes, i miss him walking me to bus stand when baba wasnt around, i miss all his endless answers to my infinite questions, i miss his firm grip on my hand that assured me that world is safe & nice place and nothing could ever hurt me..
i hate it that i don't feel like that anymore!

I hate it! - Part II

2009-09-17T22:29:00.000-07:00

So on a continued zest of recounting some more things that i can only cherish now ...

There were these heavenly blissful summer holidays... With or without summer homework, this prolly is the time of life
I guess summer hols are god's way of doting on kids and showing His affection..... And you must be really favorite with god if ur parents were working! So u know even I had these brownie points with god back then and so did my bro! ..and together we were such a riot back home...
back to back tv, all the forbidden foods, sampling all the millions of thaeley walahs that go by, buckets of cold coffee and zillions of experiments that would often go haywire...and then all the cleaning up of the mess so that ma doesn't get to know to the effect that even before ma would step in, she would ve already smelled the rat! ...all the fights and physical ones mind u and no marks for guessing who won with the opponent all battered and bruised and I mean literally!...

This one time i remember, after one such violent encounter - my bro had his hands all scratched -with the scratches that have a bloody trail and form a ridge like exterior on the skin...deadly scary...
he of course like a chauvinist younger brother dint hit me back but went to ma like a cry baby....ma being ma first din't listen to such 'unmanly' complaints, but on seeing his hands turned towards me, smiled and said...'shiti yeh kya hai'...aage se mat karna! and got back to her work
my bro obviously expected more than this 'polite' conversation...and infuriated, he retorted back ' kya ma u always take her side'...then ma called me again..this time i feared a scolding...she stroked my hair and said...."beta aisa nahin karte"...
My bro just so appalled at this complete neglect of his hurt stormed out of room rambling 'hamare ghar mein toh zabardast gender discrimination hai'....and this as they say became his 'legendary' dialogue...that still lives on and that he still uses..often when situations take such a turn!

i really miss that cold coffee, that chuski wala thaeyla, that tikki waali tak tak on his tawa, that bottle full of rasna orange, that home made rooh-afzaa malai ice cream, ma's gajar halwa on sat cold night in rajai, followed by her pav bhaj on sun morning, that 2 rod heater that was my only company on the night before exam when i was chewing up my course, that blue rain coat that was my outer skin on rainy mornings when i hopped to bus stand with baba & badima.. i miss those skies and those rains too...it smelt different!

I hate it!

2009-09-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

Actually this post is about the things that I love the most and the fact that I hate it that I know that I m gonna have to do without them for the rest of life!
U know things like... Walking with a bag of 5 kgs on your back in the delhi summer at 1 in the afternoon..
Only that, 'the' bag used to be my favourite blue colored school bag dangling on my shoulders filled with every possible book in the world- this 5 min walk from bus stand to home would be a mutual exchange of quick reportage of the day at school with the accompanying entourage..and just as u were about to discover a major gossip, there u would see ur mom waving so frantically at you from the balcony that u almost wondered if u just returned from ur trip to US after a month... And then u would take 'god swear' to be told about that gossip the next day and make a dash for home.. And in what I now know is K3G style mom would welcome u (ofcourse sans the arti thaali n all). After the warm usher in and cool rasna, it would be time for some topline of the day to be shared with ma, while the lunch was being laid out and she was cursorily checking your school diary for any mishap... Oh and how could I forget that kicking off shoes in the air... Sigh! Some action that was, with background score of usual nagging of ma.

I really cherish those times now! ...for i know now that i could never be so carefree and yet be so cared for..
no cellphones, no wallets, no keys, no tasks lists, no Hercules sword perennially dangling over you as you undertake anything- sheer joy of life- pure bliss.

No hypocrisy, no hiding of emotions, speaking without a care in the world, nothing you say or do ever gets misread, you could climb and shit on someone's head and he wouldn't be offended.

No heavy stuff, no lethargy of relationships, no burden on any part of your body leave alone shoulders....and you are darling of the world around...you are all that there is to life for them...

and i know it will sound like the worst cliche - but i so hate growing up!

Conversations

2009-09-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

On your middle seat in your 5 hours long flight
On your organized group holiday for 15 days with 30 other strangers
In the first week at new workplace
and of course at that party when you knew no one..

...there is just that one tool of 'conversations' that keeps you alive.

Conversations interestingly are an underestimated find (or shall we say capability) of mankind and rewardingly enough only this species seems to be capable of this evolved communication!

It is not just the fodder to keep afloat with strangers but is also the mainstay of our most basic emotional need - relationships. And when you have reached that high up in Maslow's heirarchy, conversations only help you climb up higher.

I hear there are many places in the old interiors of delhi, where depending on the moolah you shell out - you get someone to converse with - to stimulate your mind - talk about the gothic architecture, about the mughlai cuisine, about Shakespeare and sundry..
and this just highlights our desperate need to talk ( to some one ) about SOMETHING we really care about...when you want to talk about 'higher' things in life and all you seem to be talking about is the day at work, daily ration, bitching about that fella....basically when you have fallen into this trap of 'mediocrity'..it is important then to broaden horizons, open up minds and climb a level up!

And we have done what we know the best, we have succeeded to even monetize even this!
Be it Oprah or Simi Garehwal, Karan Johar or Farah, name it u have it...
Even our popular culture has captured (and exploited) this sentiment beautifully -
it 'Before Sunset' or 'Jab we Met' - the conversations kept them going on...

and don't fear if you are not well versed with this art...just pick on any of the 2,040,000 results that google belches out for 'most interesting topics for conversations'!!!

Pehli baar Mohabbat ki hai...aakhri baar mohabbat ki

2009-09-03T22:44:00.000-07:00

In a very eerie sort of way these innocuous lines from Kaminey got me thinking about the
mankind's eternal quest of finding the holy grail to answer the question "what is love"...

Recently i read up a note in one of friend's book - which i am extrapolating to contemplate a thought :
"man is a social animal and needs others to complete himself, the degree to which one completes you would be an approximation of the love you'd have for him or vice versa"
well ya you guessed it right - my friend is an engineer.

Another commonly propounded 'love'-ingly judgmental thought:
someone who sits on judgment over what you say would not be your altar-ego. Corollary to it is - someone who you could speak your heart out without pausing and having to think about it, is the (wo)man!

What else -
John Keats (or was it Khalil Gibran) thinks that the love is all about the idea of love - (what did u expect from philosophy) - translation: it means that its the feeling when you give yourself completely away and is completely dissociated with 'expecting' anything in return!
(Now really! )

Some Say
It's when two people can (and still would want to) talk to each other (read tolerate) for endless hours - and even have the best time of life in each other's company without a word being spoken.

There's more
All of us have an aura - a circle of influence - a region around us created by the wavelengths radiated by our bodies.
And when we find the most comfort in this region of someone - that's when they say our wavelengths match.
(Aah now i remember getting bad vibes from ...)

My favorite one -
It's when you can FEEL (mind u, not understand) the pain of someone and would do ANYTHING, just anything to have it go away. Corollary being that you would bring the moon down to see a sparkle leave a hint of smile on that special face.
and yes it stands true for any kind of love!

street food please

2009-09-01T22:02:00.000-07:00

ok i think i m getting an overdose of sophistication these days... i m really yearning for the delhi street food so listing a few places i contemplate i could possibly go....
was scouting for a compendium on net..but couldn't come across any such one...so here we go (not in any specific order).. pl chip in
1. Paranthewali gali - Chandni Chowk
2. Scindia - Chole Kulche
3. Moolchand - paranthe wala
4. jantar mantar - dosa
5. bengali market - chaat
6. UPSC building - chaat
7. Kareem's - chandi chowk
8. khan Chacha - Khan market
9. Nagpal - Chole Bhature

There has to be more in delhi's underbelly...wotsay?

QG Murugan

2009-08-31T23:45:00.001-07:00

"the (y)earth i(ee)s my b(a)ed, the (ee)sky i(ee)s my c(ee)eiling and the(e) e(y)ntire creation is my(ii) native place, m(A)ind it!!"
My first experiment with hyperbolic world of southward cinema or well a shadow of it..

Shashank Ghosh who first created this character in eighties on Channel V (and also stuff like 'waisa bhi hota hai part 2- which did not have any part 1) has directed this movie.
So one rainy day i was buying the tickets to watch this piece (just building the context) at the posh Priya Cinemas of posh Vasant Vihar ( one of the friends who also happens to be a resident there says people expect the residents to throw up a Rs. 10 note every time they even spit out!)
So after this useless info on vasant vihar..coming back to the movie ... i can do something i m best at ...i have a question to ask..

what is about such stuff that gets the 'cult' status while any other attempt like this mind you by a lesser known director, with a lesser known cast, with non followed type of support but mind you not less talented...i can bet forget the cult status, it would be called all names - cheesy, hopeless, worthless, and blah blah...Mind it! (and while we are at it Mind you also!)

so is there some snootiness ...some upscale-ness, some haughtiness (and mind you nothing to do with Vasant Vihar) in appreciating such stuff...or is it sheer brilliance that escapes the intelligentsia of lesser mortals like urs truly...

but ya...for some light hearted moments...for some exaggerated humor...some good time while your car is getting serviced...it's a good tp..
my favourite pick - Anu Menon better known as Lolla Kutty as the locket girl!

PUWPS

2009-08-31T23:45:00.000-07:00

You know that time when the maid tells you "kya memsaab ghadi ghadi special request hota hai" ..when the driver tells you "kya maydam bahut late hota hai"...when the vendor tells you "kya boss bahut short time hai"...when the office boy tells you "arrey abhi aapko wait karna padega"...when the photocopier tells you "abhi aapka nahin ho sakta"...when the parking guy tells you "yeh roz roz aapki gaadi ki wajah se late hota hai"...when the agency tells you " you are a hopeless client"....and well let me not even get to the important ones!
basically when the world is conspiring against you and all you can do is PUWPS...

why is life a series of phases? why can't such PUWPS cycles be normally distributed over the parabola of happy time zones...why do they almost have to sadistically coincide and cocircle with the abyss of sadness...i think God needs some lessons in Mathemetical distribution ....Boss did you bunk these lectures in your college kya?

(oh btw in case you din't get it PUWPS = Put up with People's Shit )

and yes one last question .... why do you only get the wits to laugh at these PUWPS times once YATKOWA (You Are The King Of The World Again)

Naun Mahine

2009-08-31T22:30:00.000-07:00

right...9 months into 2009...it is time....
to give birth to new thoughts
germinate new ideas
re-incarnate actions...much like this blog!

Formality

2009-08-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

So when does the time come for you to stop being (c)rude to someone u have always been (c)rude to? that you pause and think before you say something? that you discover that he/she too may sit over some judgment...that what you say would (finally) carry some import! that basically you better be more FORMAL now!
is that good or bad?
confusing sure!
guess that's growing up too...

Comeback!

2009-08-29T23:34:00.000-07:00

4 years, 1 month and 23 days later - yes i don't know exactly what - but something has sparked off it all again - feels nice to be at the keyboard again and my mind is slowly absorbing the tickling of grey cells that are beginning to toy again with ideas & words now. I can almost inhale the aroma of cookery of creativity and the zest to spill the beans on this blog again. I am amused at the conflict of thoughts, visuals and expressions that i am observing inside....

Alas!...I missed writing.

A lot has happened in the last three years.... A LOT.
I went to MICA. I graduated. I got a fabulous job. I fell in love. I married. I had kids...
ya all that but not the last one...just got carried away.

Most importantly ... i m growing up ...i can see the college kids (note the usage kids) going around huddling up in groups in their trendy clothes outside the pubs, at the bus stands...i can find the tiny toddlers wading through winter fog of delhi december, their tiny fingers held by their bear-hugging grandfathers, going to the bus stand.. i can see the growing popularity of twiter (i can't just get it... including the spelling i guess).....
and in them, i see all the lives that i lived...and i realize that the pot is leaking...that something is slipping away and i can almost feel a rush in me to hold on to something...to make the most of it all before it slips away... (btw i can also NOW understand why my mom always found it difficult 'then' to understand 'orkut' and 'facebook' )

Ok that is one.

I am also learning... i have learnt a lot in past four years.... yes sure from David A. Aaker
and some from life as well...

i m losing the exuberant irrationality of passionate youth... i m losing the undiplomatic excitement of innocent yet fiery argument... i m as they say 'maturing' and able to understand other's perspective and therefore forgiving...I am becoming tolerant ... to people, to ideologies, to views...

SO you get the drift right....
so lets not go down the philosophical dissection of these years...
i had a blast in the time there was...and as i sit at a juxtaposition of two echelons of my life, i m looking forward to what lies in store for me and what i make of it.

ecstasy

2005-07-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Now i know wat it feels like to have come back from the death bed..
Now i know that all the people who ever fancied i knew something abt vocab were simply fooled for i never knew the meaning of exhilaration the way i do now..who needed a LSD in PGP-1 MICA in chandni courtyard on the dunking night of 5-6-05 to ride on an absoulute high..at least i dint need one.
i never had an answer to the column of "the most memorable moment in ur life" to fill in ppl's diaries....i have one now.
On a serious note i would never have enjoyed the importance of freedom had i not experienced the past one week...my heart goes out to ppl in times of pre independent India n to the ppl inhabiting some parts of the world that even today foollow some barbaric n arcane rules..
wanna taste the real freedom?
my word of advice to them...
COME TO MICA :)
neway gotta wind this up..have a presentation tmrw n small pre read to do..

Nebula

2005-07-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

here i am this is me ...the place where i had long longed to be .. MICA or as they fondly say Mecca!
lush green campus, stunning architecture take you in ur arms n for a split second u go back to the golden era of kings n queens n then ur eyes while sipping in the beauty of this diamond in shela suddenly graze thru ur dress code n wolla there u are thumping back to where you are!
with sleep doses that i was fed in a day n that i gulp down here in a week.. the mind is in an inexplicable trance n boy the palpitations i ve experienced in palash courtyard...i know wat they mean by "time of ur life in MICA".. as if the mental drill is jus not enuff the main lawns have their own gifts to present me with...something that even my 5 years of Yoga have also not equipped me for! ;)
it's ensured that wen i crash into my bed or on table (if at all) i know the meaning of "i ve earned it' !!
the mess food rocks jus as the campus and its inhabitants do...U now understand y MICA is a brand ..its jus got stunning brand ambassadors! n i aspire to b one of them i that is if i m not already one.
a sleep starved mind compressed with tons of pre reads and vacuumed to nihilism... lets c wat i come up with..
Nebula
In the haze of an ignorant light
confused expression,morose delight
I had thoughts earlier and i am thinking now
where do i go from here and how
I am on an uncertain way

I am blinded by the guiding light
darwin's theory-for survival fight
aporia in the alphabets of mind
answers to which where am i to find
i am on an unknown way

have i lost the old vigour in search of new
have i lost the pearls that i so fondly sew
where the time zones merge
expectations surge
mind n heart in eternal fray
to lead me onto further this way

prisoners of perceptions that i become
chords of prejudice
binding captive choking gruesome
leaking thoughts thru mind's crevices
sprout forth monstrous apprehension
freedom from binding perception
then the heart begs to pray
on this uncertain way

Abilities in doubt
living in survival's clout
talents hide
expressions subside
stars in what heavenly play
will surely show me my way..

The Signs/Science of God

2005-06-20T00:49:00.000-07:00

Am i doing the right thing?
Am i making the right decision?
is this career meant for me?
is this person meant for me?
For every vacillation of mind, in every confabulation with myself, on every path i walk, i look for signs...signs of god.. i look for them so i find them. or i find them because i look for them, i don’t know..
(u could call me indecisive, dependent, unsure and i would gleefully accept.)
i have felt on such occasions when strings of indecisiveness hold me back that i always have some "pointers" that help me...like milestones on the highway roads, i literally have found signs littered everywhere on the blind turns of my life. and i jus cant be happier today having followed them till date..
i have written several poems and articles about my favorite brand (GOD) but this one written six years ago enjoys a special status..with a malnourished vocab and an unposlished language. call it raw and pure..the words untarnished by usage(as ayn rand wud say)..i hold it as my dearest baby...till date if my parents ask me to showcase my (non-existing) talent to some unsuspecting guest...i choose this one... till date every time i read this one i cant hold back the pearls of reverence to Him from rolling down my cheeks..

The Signs/Science of God

A gentle breeze of whispers blows
the soul shivers, the heart quivers
an eerie silence permeates the air
and then a thought begins to grow
those whispers, I try to figure out
never felt or heard them ever about.

The signs of god, I call them now
you find them where, decipher them how?

On the boulevard of life, I often meet
on the shores of my dreams now and then
those ubiquitous harbingers do often greet
yet perchance I don’t find them when
I yearn for them, I need them most
yet perhaps they are there to see me through
when I am desolate, when I am lost.

The signs of god, I call them now
you find them where, decipher them how?

This levity of almighty that’s played on us
that manifests itself in blessings or curse
when problems abundant,paranoia rife
these clues are there to take us through
the clueless dreary desert of life
but, these impalpable signs command
an ambit that far transcends
any limit that we ever know
for they come so fast
and we act so slow.

The signs of god, I call them now
you find them where, decipher them how?

When I was young,
when I learnt to walk
with tiny hands clasped
by the big ones who could stalk
since that day when I first fell
and the grass beneath that I could smell
till today when I take big strides
today, when my soul confides
that now when I have ran so fast
covered a few milestones in the past
every milestone bears some signs
which rescue me whenever my heart pines.

The signs of god, I call them now
I find them all over, to them I make a bow..............

Tantra

2005-06-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

I had written a post on AntiBrand on March 02-2005 titled Rethink The Cool. I had written about Kalle Lasn and his anti-brand Blackspot.

I am glad to know that Ranjiv Ramchandani's co-founded Tantra T-shirt (anti)brand (yeah those "cool" ones that we rockers of age bracket 17-29 gleefully pull up our sleeves to show (off) our "attitude") is an indian version of the same.

(for more updates pick ur copy of yesterday's Brand Equity)

Wording a Thought

2005-06-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

" Thought is a bird of space, which if kept in a cage of words can unfold its wings but cannot fly"
says Khalil Gibran, the philosopher

So what do Ido to put a hose to the chimney of my mind that in its casual peregrination also plays a lapidary to perennially examine the pearls of thoughts that keep rolling incessantly on its floor.
Like a PCB(printed circuit board) the experiences imprint themselves on my tabula rasa germinating billions of thoughts on its fertile landscape
What do I do to “express” them if not mould them in the words.
I am a painter of words not colors, I m a dancer who maneuvers with phonetics not limbs, I am a trapeze artist who juggles in the sea of symbols. I am an engineer who manufactures imagination and a sculptor who carves out words out of them.
I am a writer.
The moot question according to Gibran is (as I perceive):
1) Is there a need
2) Do the words take away the virginity of the thought

To the first query I say ..the answer will be contextual.. if there’s an injustice going around me or if there’s simply lack of awareness around. Merely thinking about making people aware wont do….u HAVE to bring it about through your words!
To the second one I say … it’s a corollary to one’s abilities…ability to express the thought..which does not need the cushion of any verbose vocab or highfalutin language.
So what is the rhetoric. What is the harm in expression
Isn’t the pen mightier than the sword?

The Great Expectations

2005-06-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

Expectations: The hero. The villain.
The food for a rocking relationship.
The fodder for a relationship on the rocks as well!
An abrupt start u ask?
Chill.Settle cozy for some more crap coming up that is if u will.
No nothing wrong with me or any of my relationships right now....but i can always draw my learnings frm my past
Well so genesis of this write up is : in the recent times i had many kind hearted souls visiting my blog who had even kinder things to say of the same! And poor me, my fragile frame and even fragil'er' mind to what extent wud have supported the expectations building up...the weight of expectations that was compressing my already depeleted realm of imagination and driving out the remaining thoughts(if any)left behind! so i thought of penning SOMEthing before my mind was pushed to a state of complete nihilism and so i thought, y not strike at the root itself..

Some are victims of habit, some are born to have fun, some are students of life, and some are creatures of "expectations"
I dont know if the last species is extinct or better still if ever roamed about the earth but for all i know i belong to it!

Expectations:My sweetest friend.My ruthless foe.My greatest afflatus.My biggeest woe.

I expect a lot frm "my people" (mom, dad ,brothers and few closed frnz that maketh my world) and i crumple easily under the same frm others!
I tend to overpower my being and my abilities under the infulence of the same.
I tend to become tiny, subdued and lose my being under the weight of the same.
Paradox, it is. Or is it not?

Am I ready for the change?

2005-05-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

As the D-day(24th june-when i leave delhi for MICA) finally draws closer, the fits of philosophical paranoia with life beseech me with even greater intensity that might put the wrath of Tsunami to shame!
Well not a real uncommon phenomenon with me to go deep down in my reams of reverie, but the seriousness and magnitude of significance they behold this time in terms of impact on the pulchritude of my future makes these thoughts to be paid a little attention to in my conciousness. (yah i dont call my state of sombre reverie "concious" for the reasons better kept under the carpet for the risk of me being pelted with the tag of insanity that i undoubtedly deserve).
I can comfortably say that i have made "a decsion" in the immediate past that was tough to the extent of being uncomfortable, concerning the dramatic swing in my career that it would enforce.
But once the decision to follow the road (or the rail tracks in my case) to MICA was taken ... everything started to look pretty easy,pretty rosy,pretty pretty in a flash!
When i say rosy.. it means the flowers smelt nice, the comedy serials actually made me laugh, Ash looked prettier, the friends were kind and kinder were the foes...blah blah..
in short( yes! i too can cut it out and at times be short!)it also means that there was certain pressure (that must have broken all barometers of the world) on my "shoulders" (heads, eyelids, fingers, nails....ok don frwon,so u get it)that seemed suddenly to evaporate. jus "disappeared in thin air".
So rosy was the world with me pretty cindrella having a dreamrun in it UNTIL....(ok no attempts to b dramatic)......until the repeat happened. repeat of what?
well wat else ...repeat of my bouts of cerebral excercise ( my dad calls me a compulsive thinker)...
so here I am, this is me .....there is nothing else in the world that i'd rather think and see

MICA is a big change, a change that,for a change, I am looking forward to,BUT..

AM I READY FOR THE CHANGE?

The senses curl the nerves into knots,
As the days inch closer and the nights crawl by.
Time takes a ride on the train of thoughts,
As the sun cruises the arch of the sky.
Thoughts that implore me through their range,
Am I ready for the change?

Vision sieves images eidetic,
not of the bygone but what waits ahead.
The dynamism of the world goes static,
as I see through the road I m to tread.
Images that ask me a question strange,
Am i ready for the change?

Winning the battle of life is not my concern
for the life shall be no battle for me
It shall teach me to unlearn and learn
Not to be "fought" but "lived" with rectitude as I see
the decisions that beckon my instincts to say
yes indeed I am ready for the change

writer's block

2005-05-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

If the fact that one's last post reads Friday, May 13, 2005- a good twelve days ago and that too in a month when one gets time to get "superbusy with nothing"-as my friend loves to call it( read one's last official month long vacation of life) is not enough an afflatus to push one to write a new one ..then all one needs to do is to take a tour of fellow bloggers' blogs. This espial should do one good to get one outta one's taedium vitae or writer's block or plain lethargy and save one from undergoing further calvary of doodling (read letting the green eyed devil take over) by finally making one put pen to paper (ouch.. fingers to the keyboard)...
Now if u still have the guts to read further nonsense then welcometo the party!

Not that i m really putting an effort to dig out the eschar of dead thoughts or even attempting to give my grey matter a lil excrecise to prevent any further atrophy.. i will try anyways to come up with something!

Well.. nothing captures my imagination more than the
1) DREAMS(vision, passions, ambitions, hope and desires for i believe these are the food for life and the "real josh machines")
and
2) my favourite brand -GOD...(now in case u ve already made the blasphemy of reading this post then u might as well love to take a look at the previous post"(is) someone up there" for any further reference...and if u r already cursing ur gods for the extravagant use of alphabets then wait till u finish this n u would understand the meaning of "verbiage" that ur dictionary/english teacher failed to make u understand!)
Right...so now the latter of my interests needs some sedulous thinking that i m in no mood to induge in, so i'd rather go for the earlier one..
Hence "today thou shalt peruse an ode to the title of my blog"

The colours of my dreams

From the soil of dreams sprouts forth a thought..
it talks of silent desires,
vacillations of beliefs and battles of emotions fought.
it soothes aching ambitions,
it portrays a few intricate scenes,
and spills on the canvass of my conscience,
the colours of my dreams.

Amalgam of hope and despair flows,
through the vessels of mind and heart
and a sinking stupor grows,
as the world inside begins to part.
Toil and turmoil and feelings benign
on the waters of reality beams,
light of emotions through the benighted world of mine
alongwith the shining proclivity of my dreams.

The hues of future and visions of the past,
the clay of memories in time set in the cast.
fastidious moments from infinity arise,
to be shelved in the closed eyes,
when time sits still on the lap of my drems,
when the night paints the colours of my dreams.

Another dawn just slipped by………………

2005-05-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

There are dawns and then there are dusks and in between them we live a "jouney called life"(okie hope i dont have to pay royalty to chevrolet for that!)...right so this journey is travelled by around 6.5 billion people and each has his own pace to go at it....so an ode to all the travellers on the blue planet.....to those who reach their destinations and to those who dont!

Another dawn just slipped by………………

As the sun pecked the face of the earth
And rose on its heels to touch the sky
As its rays enveloped the land in its girth
She stood in complete surrender meek n’ shy
those on the earth shall celebrate the warmth of the day with mirth
As another dawn just slipped by…………

O’er the horizons of their dreams they stood
To live each dream in the lanes of the time
To etch the lines of their future they would
Let the events of past sublime
Setting the mind free soaring high
To hold the dawn that just slipped by

Yet every dusk along with it shall sweep
Endless chase of dreams benign
Panting up their ways so steep
When predestination shall force them to resign
Stargazers‘d be gazing up at skies
Content to let every dawn just slip by

Yet the historic travails have seen
Them who through vicissitudes of life
Have beckoned the elements to bestow darkness a sheen
who scaled higher with every strife
Dreamers who made their dreams to spy
To let not any dawn “just” slip by………

(Is) Someone up there?

2005-05-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

One brand that really fascinates me is GOD....why i say brand is simply coz of two reasons:
1) i m going to step into such waters where i shud b correlating my known territory to the mad ad world to keep my boat alive
2) God HAS become a brand today.
and by this i mean to offend none. Not even HIM.

Now the first point indeed needs no further insult to ur intellect by any elaboration from me...let my justify the latter one.
The concept of Brand in broad sense is something that:
- Moves masses
- has its own identity
- belongs to an umbrella domain (commodity) of which it is a kind.
- has its own followers(loyalists) to prove thier own brand's superiority towards others.
Now in short today the brand-GOD covers the above points as
-i rather not speak how badly it moves masses ...eh
-identity...sure
-larger group-religion
-fanatics
that was my ideology and as concise as possible.

anyway there have been times in my vacillatory immature thoughts that i ve pendulated from theism to agnosticism.
so here are a few breathings from the suffocations that i experience on the crossroads of my reflections..

(IS) Some one up there…………..

A strange fatigue of life,
A sinking heart and a few labored breaths.
Miasma of vacuum rife,
And the life begins to pray for the death.
Then dawns a voice as if to answer the prayer
A distant voice
Voice from someone up there……..

The past shall not steal the future
The cushion of time shall carry it away
The hands of change shall always nurture
The fragrance of life shall be here to stay.
Comforting words of benign care,
Words of wisdom
Words from someone up there………

Strewn in the threads of bonds,
Are the precious beads of life.
Haunting, grueling and the memories fond
Beating the consciousness of existence, they shall stare
And a piercing glance
Glance from someone up there………..

The dunes of grief are beginning to pile,
The tunes of life starting to lose the rhyme.
‘O’er the destiny faith shall smile,
To let in the breeze of exaltation that shall kiss the time.
A stroke that “he” shall spare,
A healing touch
Touch of someone up there…………..

That distant “voice” has beckoned many a “words”
Glancing me from time to time whose impalpable "touch" I have felt,
When stimulates me and those bits and pieces as I begin to gather,
My fears, they push me to dare,
To ask
Ask” IS someone up there……………..

On this Turn of LIfe...

2005-04-20T08:21:00.001-07:00

Time is infinity and yet there are moments we live,moments we die...these very moments make the cup of ife....so i thought of taking some moments out ON THIS TURN OF LIFE to take a peek into my future from the steps of my the present and then bid adieu to the present itself(read my college!!)...so this is farewell part II after " The impressions of ephemeral youth".

On a turn of life....
I sped fast,through the way
dropped at last and put on a stay
on a turn of life...
left to gather the dust of time,had,
a few thoughts blurred my vision
rose an apparition ahead,
with almost surgical precision.

the perils fo road ahead,i could see
evanscent stupor of mirth,
that in time would flee.
a disconsolate cognizance settled
at the corners of glee.
there i "was" the way i "shall" be
I was petrified, to look at myself
the time had calcified,in the hourglass it held
on a turn of life....

(to b continued...)

right now on the turn of the present...Farewell part II

AMARANTHINE
pursed in the folds of memory
some pearls of events lie
as if the life just walked in front of me
in some moments that shall live not to die

i hold onto them to feel if i could
hold some more grains of time
before they would slip away from me
into the past sublime

i hold on to them to smell if i could
take in some more fragrance of life
before it fades away
into the anosmia of routine strife

i cling onto them to hear if i could
listen to some more music of joy
but alas they would sing to the tunes of time
to be soon lost amidst some magical ploy

yet the bundle of pearls
that i ve unearthed
as we move apart
will keep us together
that i carry close to my heart
intangible treasures not to be seen
which is why i call these pearls "amaranthine"

(amaranthine derives from the word amaranth which is a flower having an unfading smell....so amarathine is an adjective to imply the quality of being everlasting)

!!!I AM CHANIGING GEARS OF MY CAREER!!!

2005-04-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

phew!!
deja vu at gettin back at my blog after a month long hiatus..........well to say the least it's gotta be one of the most eventful months of my life so far.

!!!I AM CHANIGING GEARS OF MY CAREER!!!

i m gonna quit the lucrative software engineering career(read a job offer from TCS)to chase my advertising dreams (read a PGPCM-Post Graduate Programme in Communications Management course of two years in MICA)....
Now for the uninitiated MICA=Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad.
And the course that i m gonna pursue is equivalent to an MBA.....the admission process is through CAT.
MICA shortlists a few candidates from CAT(approx1.5 lakhs junta appeared for CAT this yr)....then these shortlisted candidates(approx 3000) appear in another entrance test(an aptitude test) of MICA. Apart from this test there's the usual GD/PI(Group iscussion and Personal Interview) and finally students are selected for some 60 odd seats.....
So here i am,this is me,there is no where else on earth i'd rather be....
i ve gotta go to ahmedabad on 24th june (and i jus cant wait).

Looking back from future to my present...my final yr engineering in delhi(Jamia MIllia Islamia).......the studies have almost come in background (who cares!).right now i m working on UWB project (don worry ppl its just as greek to u as it is to me)...thnks to my fellowmates that i m hoping that i ll scrape through ;)
the final yr exams begin from 26th june (which means another impending seperation form my blog :-(...)
it also means some burning midnight oil in the coming week n well this aint a good start..eh (who cares)
Now an nteresting experience (again a deja vu)
....today was the official last day of our college....and the same nostalgia ran thru the veins that i once experienced when i was leaving CJM(my school)....filling up of diaries...scribbling on shirts...patching up with old frnz (n foes)...not to forget the rocking farewell party that our beloved juniors gave us....n boy i did dance(read almost lost my senses!!.... i nvere thought that i'd feel so nostalgic for an engineering colege but alas it jus proves that people maketh a place and not otherwise and i had and hopefully will have some of the best people as my frnz...a toast tonight to all of them

Project

2005-03-07T00:54:00.000-08:00

Anyone got any ideas on UWB(Ultra Wide Band)....puhleeeezzzzzzzzzzz chip in here..me startin my final semester (enginnering) project on it...
so grab this chance with both hands to contribute to some pioneering work in this century n to make ur name go down in the annals of inventions....all u hav to do is to suggest n comment!:)
dont miss out!!!

The impressions of ephemeral youth

2005-03-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

Into the final three months of college,the feeling is eventually coming down heavily that one descends into the world when one no longer finds friends but only "colleagues"...wen relationships are hard to come by and wat are left are only "contacts"...yet these golden memories from the alleys of hallowed portals of college life are always there to "attenuate" my pain (m in fianl yr "engineering") as THE IMRESSIONS OF EPHEMERAL YOUTH ARE HERE TO STAY....

The Impressions of Ephemeral Youth

Times r shared, the moments r few
In an attempt to hold the evanescent dew
Grains of time shall slip away
The impressions of ephemeral youth r here to stay.

In a cobweb of emotions dreams r spun
Time a metaphor,life a pun
Whirlpool within yet placid waters outside flow
and the gust of ever changing resolutions woudnt stop to blow.
Mind n heart shall b in eternal fray
Coz,
The impressions of ephemeral youth r here to stay.

O’er the walls of prejudice heart tries to peep
Promises made to itself it tries to keep
Annealing the frangible ideologies within
Shaping the persona calm n serene
The orders of time it shall obey
The impressions of ephemeral youth r here to stay.

With a sparkle of glint of eyes of a new born
Holding the pristine beauty of icecaps on the hilltops there
As firm as a tiny bush waging its own war in a storm
As benign as a morning prayer.
With ambitions to b realized come what may
The impressions of ephemeral youth r here to stay...

Rethink the cool

2005-03-02T05:39:00.000-08:00

Ever spared a thought wat makes u buy a coke n not pepsi (or vice versa).....well i m sure if u do, the reason wont b the TASTE !!!
lets take a fast quiz:
1) wat was the latest ad that u saw for both the products
2)who is their latest brand ambassador or ambassadorS considering they have tsunami sized moolah to throw away at celebrities like they were some school kids found on streets!
3)wats their latest ad gingle
well.......so u get the drift right!
yeah it is those commercials v feed on that make us feed on their products n eventually thats wat that feeds those million dollar babies (right CEOs of these MNCs!!!)
to put things in persepectives pepsi spent Rs.58.88 crore between jan-aug 2004 vis-a-vis Coke's Rs. 50.87 crore(in india)
so thats how they sell those coloured sodas(and pesticides as bonus) to generate that kinda money!! so thats how they build a BRAND!!!
eh!.....so u knew that already and i caught u wondering wats the big deal??
well.... the big deal is that now enters the conept of "ANTI-BRAND" and "ANTIPRENEUR"...
yeah!
and well it doesnt take a genius to tell u that building an antibrand makes brand buiding seem like singing a lullaby (when say antibrand building cud b eminem rap stuff!...ok a PJ)
Right so our first antibrand is .....hold ur breath.............(and the oscar goes to).........BLACKSPOT.
Blackspot is the latest venture from ADBUSTERS MEDIA FOUNDATION,known best for its adbusters magazine.the activist group has so far restricted itself to publishing a magazine and spoofing the advertisements of famous global brands.
So blackspot's first target is NIKE (and nike's Phil Knight).
From the horse's mouth (and the horse here is Kalle Lasn,CEO,Blackspot Anticorporation) "Everyone knows it(Nike) uses sweatshop labour.And people know Knight pays millions of dollars to celebrities to create his cool.Many young people are very uneasy about Nike if u scratch the surface".
Blackspot's first shoe has sold 10,000 pairso so far with their website being the primary distribution medium....
so if ur "dil maange more" of this "thanda(cool) matlab anitbrand",check outblackspot to rethink the cool!!!

housewarming!

2005-02-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

I have shifted to this new residence today at blogspot from my old one at http://shitirastogi.rediffblogs.com/