Life is a cup to be filled not drained

Scanning through some website, I came across the phrase, 

Life is a cup to be filled not drained

Author's Note: Do things that makes you feel accomplished, and let the aroma of your achievements motivate others!

Real People

"Real people with all their flaws are much more attractive and beautiful. "

This is what I read while scanning saturday's Mail Today. I instantly stole the quote by Anurag Kashyap (he directed, Dev D, Black Friday, Gulaal), for my gtalk status. 

Even the best of people have flaws, so do I. Looking for traits of perfection in others irrespective of understanding that no one is, no one can, no one was, no one will be perfect, is a natural human behaviour. The series doing the rounds on TV, 'Sach Ka Saamna' has brought in to the fore. And the camera work during the series to add spice to the confesion. I have not seen the show even once, but TV visible from the kitty-corner of my desk keep me updated with the shocl and confessions. The episodes are often discussed with office colleagues. Some have queries, some are amused, some are not at all bothered, thats about it.

Net-wor(k)ld

The terms Networking and social marketing are driving the corporate agenda to new limits. While scanning through blogs I see a lot of focus on social marketing endeavours.  

Now the question:

Did the online networking tools like social networking sites like orkut, facebook, twitters, linkedin and blogs gave birth to this concept?

Or 

Did the concept paved way for the development of the online networking tools?

An article online outlined how an entrepreneur / aspiring entrepreneur locate business online. Its all there and easily accessible now. 

The networld is just as amazing as an ATM. I don't see any problem in locating information. Information is instantly served on the desktop, just a bit of effort is require when one fiddles with the mouse and type a few words. This takes me to a mail sent by a friend, which highlights google suggestions, when one types on the search box:

Why are Indians

(The drop down item with suggestions come up with some sensible search items) 

Why are Americans

(The drop down item with suggestions come up with some baseless search items) 

Why are Chinese

(The drop down item with suggestions come up with some funny search items) 

Try it have a laugh. And please suggest who came first - Social Marketing or the online world of Networking

Budding Entrepreneurs

Hmm well this one deserves to be read, especially for people aspiring to get into some entrepreneurial venture! 

Company run by school kids gives 900 pc dividend.

This is called exposing the amateurs to the real time business environment. A school in Chandigarh has done it! When I think of Chandigarh I think of industry, rich brats, planned city, Dev D and now an innovative strategy to promote entrepreneurship. 

I went to the city some 3 years ago, for some work which turned out to be done, there was no need to travel there from Delhi, but still it was a remembrance... So it was me and my mom visiting the city and coming back.. But yes I liked the planned aspects of the city, greenery and wide roads with no still traffic.

Well I too had my share of business plans when I was as young as 10 years old. Me along with a kids of my age would plan hosting a fest on the terrace, put up stalls and invite kids from other blocks to join us. Though the plan always remained a plan. But I after reading this article feel that I had an amazing childhood. We had played the best of games. 

Learned cycling with my sisters, as we could not find anyone to teach us, loved to skate during evenings, dancing on the terrace, hide in some scheduled corner of house where no one, not even my dad could locate me. Many of these facets are the same. I still like to go for long walks in North Campus, I would run on the road adjacent to the DU correspondence office. 

But duh! I don't have time.......

Flash - Part IV

For those of you who have not followed the Flash series, please read Flash Part I, Part II  and part III.

The Man

The only question on my mind was, why is he so careless. Why did he not do anything when the lady was alive. We could have saved her. I felt guilty. I felt that I killed the lady. The feeling was just absurd. When I looked back at it, I was not to be held  guilty. I don't know who was guilty, may be the weather which took the plane into sea, or destiny.  The condition that I was in, was guilty. I was living with no gadgets, no communication device, no entertainment tele series. Just me, an island and a sea.

The man came to me a bit distressed, that girl died. Her body is lying next to the scavengers. 

I did not reply. The man was really distressed. Seemed he was high on anxiety. 

He again stated those words in a louder tone. Ooh right, the man replied! You wanted to help her out. Is this how u help people. You killed her!

My eyes were just stuck on the man. He blamed me, for something I was grossly trying to console myself for. The man said further that, u will kill me as well.

The place was cursed. I was fearing that the man will also run inside the sea. He will also do what that lady did. I was just standing and thinking how do I correct things. How do I tell him that I did not do anything. How do I narrate what happened. his words were echoing across the island. I just did not want him to run away from my sight. He kept yelling and yelling till he got tired, and sat close by.

I was thankful that he did not go away. I was happy that he stayed around, rather than me chasing him. He knew that we both need each other's company. For the next few days he did not talk to me, did not eat anything that I offered to him. Thank full he stayed around me. Now I had problems in recollecting how many months have passed. As everyday looked the same. The man also started talking to me. I am sure that he knew that I did not kill the lady. It was pure fate.

Could you help me break this coconut, questioned the man.

Yes sure, replied me.

The man was growing old. He was weak too. I kept praying that someone locate us ASAP, as I did not want anything to happen to the man. He often coughed for long but I did not realise that he was suffering from Asthma. He would walk restlessly, trying to catch his breath. I often apprehended his health. But could not do anything about it really.

One day he did not get up. I could see worms picking pieces of his body and vultures rolling up in the sky. I was numb. I shaked him. He did not reply. He was out of breath, his heart was silent. He was a dead body!

I ran to the other corner of the sea, and wanted to kill myself. It seem worthless for me to stay alone in the island. The sea waves haunted me everyday. The noises were deceptive, as if two many people are talking, guiding me to stay fit, sending signals that you are waiting for me. I resolved that I have to be with you before making my move from this world. 

Author's Note: This was suppose to be the final part.. But my readers are not happy with this ending. So I am likely to carry this forth and come up with further sequels.Thanks for motivating me to write further :-)

PS: This is not the final part.

Secret Diary

I simply love blogging! Today I started a new blog, a confidential and secretive account of my life. And before you would want to read it, please note that its only me who can read it. I can share my aims and aspirations, deepest darket secrets, details of my crush list etc with myself and read it at leisure. I dont have to worry if someone will catch a glipse of it, its password protected.

I have maintained a personal diary, and over the long weekend 14-16th August 2009, I managed to read it again. The thoughts I joted down some 5 years ago were nostalgic and are simply amazing. I could relate it to the kind of person I was. The dreams and aspirations that I had.  I am happy that I wrote it long back, and I can go back to it when I have to get into a self realisation execrise. I can go back and check where I have reached today. 

Though I am occupied today, but I can spare time to jot a few words about myself, which I would not want to share with anybody.

Hey all, if not a blog, maintain a personal blog. Trust me, some 5 years down the line, you will thank yourself! 

Gender Blender

Again the 'State of Nation Survey', conducted as a crusade by CII-IBN caught my attention. Findings of the survey suggests, 'Ideas not clothes define Indian Women.' Alrite beyond any peradventure I subscribe to the thought. 

But unfortunately I have not seen in the attitude of nation's populace towards the fairer sex. Off late as per a report published in The Times of India, credits the Delhi government's 'Laadli' for balancing the sex ratio. The report outlined that 1004 girls were bron against 1000 boys in 2008. 

Sad part is.. why do we need such schemes to achieve gender balance? Do we really need stringent laws to set the society in place? 

Towards my métier

Word of the day flashed on my desktop. I was indifferent towards it but clicked on the flicker with an intent to add something to my intellect. I have been through the word quite a few times, but did not know the exact meaning, which goes like:

métier \met-YAY; MET-yay\, noun:

1. An occupation; a profession. 2. An area in which one excels; an occupation for which one is especially well suited

The word, strangely took me to think about my métier. What it is? I feel that I have to do few things before I make my move from the world. And of course it is my passion. Alright point taken! is my profession my métier? Or is my métier lost somewhere in the jumble-dumble of official timings and weekend offs?

While I was in college, I thought that office life is going to be fun. But the only fun part about following a profession is that one feels independent. Nothing else!! College was full of activities, slipping out of the lecture just to find something suitable which can pamper my palliate. I was least concerned about the nitty-gritties of life.

It leaves me perplexed! Let me list the things I have to do before I die. I don't know when will I die, but I have to find a way to get it:

Learn Swimming - I love water. I feel great when it rains. I soothes my senses and can take away all my agonies. I want to go to a beach and experience the sea, while swimming like a fish!

Indulge with nature - Now this is again adventure. I want to go for camping expedition, trek, climb hills and mountains and capture the view from most difficult locations. 

Spirit of adventure - Its in my blood, I think my parents have it too. I like risks and coming out of it clean. I like the feel of accomplishing something. Now let it be bungee jumping, para gliding, or hot air ballooning. Gosh I feel it will give me wings to fly! Phewwwwww~~

Travelling - I haven't travelled much, but whenever I travel I intentionally don't sleep. While travelling I have stayed awake for more than 36 hours, I don't feel sleepy and even if I do I prefer to keep my eyes open. While everyone would be sleeping on the back seat, I prefer to chat with my dad while he drives. Besides it helps in self realisation, capturing the scenic locales somewhere in my mind, just to go back home and feel great about this world. 

Entrepreneurship - I have been considering quite a few business plans, but get stuck somewhere. Don't know where to start. Probably it will take time. 

Fight wrong - My friends know very well how I fight back eve teasers. People often suggest me to avoid them, but I just cant stop myself to react at that momentary mess.

Blog - Well thankfully I am blogging! I enjoy it and the blog has shades of me, be it in the stories that I post here, or just random stuff, its all a reflection of me.

Be Myself - I don't like usage of vulgar language. I like to spend time with myself and let a rigmarole of thoughts capture my mind. Thoughts about the moon, starts, night and days, sea and mountains make rounds in my mind. 

Author's Note: 

mY nURSeRY rHYmE:

Ringa Ringa Roses
Pocket full of Poses
“Husha Busha!”

We all fall down! 

Just to get up and sing again!

My métier is to live my dreams~~~

Flash - part III

For those of you who have not followed the Flash series, please read Flash Part I and Part II. 

 

This one narrates the state of mind of Gyan, a man stuck on an Island for seven years. Heres the narration by Gyan about staying in the Island:

I felt hopeless for not been able to communicate with anyone. There were two people with me and I saw them dieing right in front of me, talking insane and crying for help! I went through the experience while I was horrified at the plight of others.

Rescue crew was visible and passed by us. Days passed by and no sight of man except the three of us, a lady in mid 30s, a man in his 50s and me, youngest of them . I witnessed strange narrations of emotional behavior, extremes of mood etc....

We did not know each other's names. I address them as mam and sir, nobody bothered to. It was already shocking to realize that you have fallen from some km height, into the endless waters. We survived on the strangest of food, sea water, coconut water. fish and prawns, crabs and even algae.

The Lady:

Around four weeks passed by. We kept seeing helecopters crossing over our heads. We all waves and shouted for help. We were surely not audible to them. The lady amongst us started talking utter non sense. She would say the I am getting Pizza, would you like to have some. She would keep insisting and on realising that we both are not interested she would says, alrite if you two dont want a pizza, why should I get it for me only. Let me call up the Dominos home delivery number. She went off looking for a domino's flyer. We knew that she is mentally very upset and has been talking some non comprehend-able stuff.

I tried talking to the man and said sir, can't we do something about her. She has been talking non-sense. I pity her.

He replied, no. We cannot! passed a forced smile and turned his face away.

I decided to keep quite too, as I knew that we were helpless. The situation was not in our control.

After around some two days I saw the lady lying on a tree branch, not in her conscious state of being. She looked horrible. I tried calling her, she said in a mild tone, did you find a domino's flyer?

The question killed me. I said No to her. requested her to come down. I managed to get her down from the tree and took her to a safer corner.

She ate whatever I gave her and slept. I sat awake next to her, and fell asleep, siding by a rock. Thus i was sleeping while sitting. At around dark in night I heard the women screaming and running towards the sea, there is a donimos flyer. she ran and I ran after her. She drowned and was not visible to be. I was scared.

Author's Note: Thanks all my dearest friends for waiting, I will soon come up with the remaining part of Flash, a perspective of 'The Man'. Keep reading!

I support Queers!

For those of you who dont know what does Queer refer, please see here.

People have this inherint tendency to perceive one falling in the catagory that s/he supports. Now before you tag me as one, I dont see any point in justifing my sexual orientation to anybody. People who matter to me know me well, and those who dont know me well are clearly not under my priority list.

The idea to post something on homosexuality has been high on my agenda list. Though I have been an ardent supporter of gayism, I have deliberatly kept quite about the topic, because I wanted my understanding of the topic to be so apt that I can project my opinion in a convinsing fashion.

The High Court of Delhi decriminalise gay sex, but it remains a taboo for a whooping 70% of Indians. Refer to State of Nation Survey, which has come out with findings that Homosexuality is still a taboo in India. Well I believe this tendency prevails because people are averse to change. People think more about social stigmas than someone's happiness.

Take note of this case: "A" is happy with "B" and both are of same gender. They are like any normal couple. They are not harming anybody, just sharing some cozy moments together. Probably want to stay together forever. Die hand in hand. Adopt a child, probably a "girl". Give her the best of education and upbringing. And have a normal life!

Case two (if queers remain illegal): A gay is cheated and heart broken. S/he feels sick and have a strong case to sue the other one. The person is encouraged to get into depression because the society does not acknowledge the existence of this creed.

People do look down to homos and make fun of them. The notorious newsy episode of linking Kjo and SRK. And the very much in news thing: Murder of SRCC alumini who was a gay. Connaught Place's Central Park and the park above Palika Baazar is frequented by the gay community. Spain Tourist Board wishes to promote its gay attractions in India. But the representative office in Delhi shyed away from promoting it on the grounds that it may envoke political rift in the country. I completely identify their apprehensions

I wish to make a point here, with a far sighted view. The Indian society has not been able to achieve any landmark on controlling female feoticide, gender bias etc. Thus having queers is a way out, let the left out male population, who is not to be blamed for the gender mismatch prevailing in the society have their share of love making witin the gay community too.

Plus NGOs, LGBTs, and social activists see lealising gayism as tool to prevent HIV AIDS to reach unfathomable limits in the country. Ours is a nation where sexual needs of people has been suppressed. Let the spirit of love in which ever form be allowed to florish. I support the spirit of queers and happy that gays are coming out to endorse their cause.

Thought to delev: "Its okay to find people peeing on roads but its grossly unacceptable to find two people kissing on road."

Further update on the survey is available here.

Protect Intellect

I don't admire my work / stories / reviews being lifted from my blog. I am sure nobody on earth would. I remember how in college I made a point to not share my work with class mates who may copy it to suit their benefit. Though some close friends were always privileged to have access 24x7 to it.

I subscribe to 'freedom of information' but laxity in attributing my work will upset me. Clearly 'I Detest Plagiarism'! Free time in my office often takes me to an entirely new world. The world whose ideals I subscribe to. Recently I was taken to the web page of Creative Commons. The India charter of the website is under IIT - Mumbai. This is a legal self help site to get creative works licenced, donate work and find licenced work which is eligible to be remixed, shared and reused. I am yet to try it, and the field of intellectual property invites my interest. 

Layers to protect creative endeavours supports innovation, discoveries etc are necessary. Starting from the field of science, to the domain of entertainment protection of ones creation calls for 'being creative'. Copyright, patents, trademarks, industrial designs are parts of Intellectual Property. In times to come the domain will spread to sound and smell protection too. I feel I really need to hone up  my IPR knowledge. Its exciting and vast.