As far as 15 August is concerned, it is either a relaxing day for the ever-exploited employees or a great business time for the flag selling community. What ever it is, the newspapers of this world dedicates a section to enlighten the readers on the importance of distressing and naming some exotic locations for a quick vacation. They do dedicate another section to try to point out what’s the real meaning of Independence is and what we have made it to be. I am very sure of the fact that by tomorrow night I would find more than couple of dozens of flags on road becoming more dirt ridden by the minute and being run over by every vehicle. Still they speak of Independence.

Please do not tell me that it should all be in your hearts and minds and not in a piece of coloured paper or cloth. May I have the liberty of breaking down all the temples and mosques going by the same concept? We have some of the shopping malls announcing great discount on either Republic Day or Independence day and ON PUBLIC DEMAND extend it by another two more days. I should really say, we have our own way of celebrating and understanding our independence day. The shopping mall would be full of people standing for some hours to get into it and no one shows a percent of that same patient when it comes to standing for that few minutes to salute our flag. We get all new ideas about all those things we have to do that day in those few minutes but we never spare a few minutes to salute our flag? We whine about how we have to go to office again the next day or some other big problems but I always find it strange that we never ever talk about this great moment in our history at least on this particular day. Do not raise your eyebrows dudes; I know what I am saying. Period.

India is developing. India is the next superpower. India is the upcoming economy. These are the things we hear these days. I really do not understand these things. But all I know is I know that India, which does not indulge in violence even when she is being attacked by numerous associations physically and mentally. I know that India which has the history of not attacking any other nation in the last 1000 years. I know that India which never wants to see other nations around it getting destroyed and she reigning supremacy.I know that India which believe in tolerance and universal acceptance of all religions and which is the only Nation which can come near than any one to the word Peace.

What I want to see is the India shining eradicating corruption and terrorism with its beacon of rays cleansing each and every part of it. I dream this and I want to dream big. What I want is to see the India that Gandhiji wanted. What Bhagat Singh wanted. What each and every person who fought for our freedom wanted. What each and every family member who encouraged others to fight for our freedom wanted.

All I say is spare a thought for all those who have sacrificed everything in their life to give us this freedom. Let us praise all those people who laid down their lives without a second thought to let us live freely. Let us make them and the world know that their efforts are not futile.

One of my friends went to a store on a Sunday to buy some stuff and saw that they were offering a free gift on a purchase of Rs. 250, but that was only on weekdays. Well, the mere mortal that she is, she couldn’t resist the temptation of the ‘free’ apple and ended up temporarily suspended, if not completely banished from her husband’s list of good shopping companions. Yes, you have guessed it correctly. She went back that day, but only to return with her husband, who had been hounded into accompanying her, a few days later. They bought some stuff and were eligible for the coveted free gift. The salesman went inside and promptly returned with a broom in his hand and a big smile on his face, saying, “Here’s your free gift mam”. Well, my saying that the broom was something useful, if not for anything else then at least for giving her hubby a few whacks and making him clean the house, was definitely no solace to her.

Ek lo ek muft….jodi hai re….seems to be the mantra of every retail business these days. Freebies and free gifts with anything and everything you shop for have become the order of the day. So much so that even before we ask for the price of a certain appliance or any other thing we may be planning to buy, the salesman informs us about the surprise (read shock) gift we are going to get if we buy it. And believe me, many people are gullible enough to fall for the offer and buy the thing even though it may not be so good after all, just for the sake of that surprise gift that they are going to get (which many a times turns out to be useless).

This addiction to the word free starts right from the time when we are still in the childhood phase. We tend to buy only those chewing gums, which have a sticker inside them or those wafers, which have a boomerang
free with them or may be cards with the pictures of cricketers on them. The infatuation with the word, grows, develops and matures (err…may be not) along with us.

The moment we hear the word ‘free’ I don’t know which particular area of our brain goes into an overdrive but something does happen to us. There is an excited look on our face our heart starts beating fast. (I sincerely believe that this can be a rather interesting and distinct topic for a Science student’s Ph.D.)  Some of us can even pass off as the personification of avarice in such situations. Whether we need that thing or not becomes secondary, but the fact that it’s coming to us for FREE is the highlight of the matter.

Here, it would be good to quote the example of a friend of mine who went to one of the shopping malls and spent some Big Bucks in the hope of getting a ‘fabulous’ dinner set for ‘free’. Yes, the word just doesn’t leave you, you see. Well she did get the dinner set, but once she got back home and opened the packing, she found, to her utter dismay that the set was none as fabulous as it had been made out to be. To be honest it would have been a shame to bring it out for anybody.

A set of people who have mastered the art of offering freebies are the ones working for tele-shopping networks. They will present to you a basic mixer and hope to make you jump out of your skin with joy and excitement as effervescent as theirs, as they offer you sundry things available with almost any mixer in the market, for FREE. On the personal front, I do get a perverted kind of pleasure in watching the bubbly goras
chattering on in flawless Hindi, about the woes that their present mixer gives them.

If you have ever noticed it, wherever there’s a sale, the word ‘free’ is almost always written in bold red letters. Somehow, my poor brain which unlike many people is untrained and unaware of the great possibilities inherent in this four letter word, has a habit of associating red with danger (Apart from a few good things, which come for a price of course). Alarm bells start ringing in my mind the moment I read the bold red FREE and I start thinking ‘What’s the catch, honey?’ Some people like me don’t have a trusting bone in them you see. We can’t seem to digest the fact that the owner of the store is actually such a benevolent and munificent spirit that he really wants us to have two or at times three things for the price of one. You see after meeting the Scrooges of this world one starts believing that Mother Teresa’s is just a legend.

Despite such experiences that we all have had at one point of time or the other, the word ‘free’ still fascinates us to no end. We experience the same kind of excitement, the same kind of anticipation and eagerness, every time we get to scratch a card and find out what our free gift is. Those few moments when we hold the scratch card, thinking of what might be waiting for us behind that silvery veneer, all sorts of wishes and dreams and hopes that we have had in our lives come to our mind and we secretly wish that that one card becomes our gateway to those still unfulfilled dreams. However skeptical I or some other people may be, none can deny the hope, optimism and happiness those few moments of probability and expectation give us.

“Hey Sweetums, What’s the plan for the evening?”
“Nothing. Let’s meet for a movie.”
“Sure baby doll. Love you.”
“Love you too, my Superman.”

If you think these are the cheesiest words ever, then look around you to find any couple of this generation and ask them. You might require a book to jot down everything, as the human memory isn’t designed (with of course a few exceptions) to store so many cheesy and sugary words at one go. Let me tell you that I am one of those lucky souls on this planet who has had the opportunity to witness love struck Homo sapiens calling each other with words of their choice. Frankly, I never knew there would be a choice in this category of words also. Pardon me for my ignorance about this issue. Never had the opportunity to say this kind of stuff to anyone till now. Anyway, I am no wizard with these kinds of words. There go all my prospective girl friends who crave to be addressed this way.

If your girl is someone who drowns you with all these words, then you either counter it with that typical sheepish smile indicating your resignation to destiny or drown in the adulation. It’s all about, how you say it and whom you say it to. Flirts around the world would agree with me that these words look awful while flirting with girls if you are a novice at it. It takes great panache and personality to carry off words like these without making them look cheap.

When people struck by cupid use these words, believe me, they do sound good as long as they do not overdo them. Once that happens, then they may look like school children using words they crammed during the day. If you plan to say these just for the heck of it, to satisfy your girl (of course with words!), then say them after arranging suitable defense for yourself. If by chance your non-interest is discovered, then God knows what would hit you where (Ouchh!!!). If your stars are none too pleased with you, then you just may have to face some mob justice as well. And lynching isn’t ruled out. Who knows your girl might have some company. Exaggeration!

It is but natural to call each other with all these names, but have you ever wondered what the legendary lovers used to call their other halves? I do not know whether Romeo called Juliet with such monikers or Devdas called Parvati with any name other than Paro. Imagine Majnu calling Laila, “Cuddle Cake, kya hum shaadi karenge? Or may be Romeo saying to Juliet, “Jaaneman, dil ki rani, shall we elope?” Paro itself was so enough for Devdas to show his love.

It is always good to call your sweetheart with some good, cute names but when it is done too often in public and say after an interval of every 5 minutes, the sweetheart herself/himself might want to say, “For heavens sake, do not fill my heart with too much sweetness? Leave some space for blood.”

Go through a mobile phone contact list and you may have the luck of finding names like Jaan, Love, Pyari, My heart……………………… entered in place of their wife’s or girl friend’s name. That is interesting. Like, the phone is ringing and you ask, “Who is calling?” The answer would be, “My heart is calling.” As far as I know, heart calls only when it has trouble or confusion. Out of the two, which one applies here? Let me leave it to the guy whose heart is calling. After all it is his heart and his blood, arteries and veins.

Sweet or not these names do add spice…umm…sweetness to your life. The worst is that person’s life whose sweetheart likes to be called with all these names and he does not like it. My advice…….run to the nearest lyricist and learn the filmy way of expressing things. Much better, if you could hire someone to tell you what all to say (like in Salman Khan starrer, Jaaneman). Make sure you do not choose your girl’s ex for this job or else you might find yourself becoming an ex.

So dear horny…errr…honey filled sweet readers, I hope you have seen the lighter side of this article (at least tried to, as I have, in writing it). If some of you feel it is insulting, sorry buddies, but you know what? You can actually have a nice evening with your girl and say all those sour and bitter things about me. At least there will be a change of routine.

Last week when he said his site www.gii.in and www.theseoworld.com got featured in an article in a newspaper, it was a casual congrats form my side. Not because it did not mean anything but that’s all I could say. That was my first reaction. After about two hours could I actually get the gravity of the incident and felt really good for this guy. Ironically, one meeting with him gives you an impression that he cannot be the guy who gained all this. He seems to be not caring at all for anything but at the same time shows some interesting confidence, which shows that he is sure of what he is doing. In fact I remember the paper quoted some time back, “Local guy promises domain names at low rates.” The first thought that came to my mind was, “He does more that that. It’s just not about giving out domain names.” Nevertheless this time around when his actual skill got mentioned, a totally involuntary smile came on my lips and I knew this time the newspaper people were right on target.

Smug attitude. This is what highlights him. Amazing way of showing that careless attitude. You instantly feel he does not care for anything and let me tell you, you would be wrong if you would not think like this. This is what he carries in his business. Whether it is his personal blog www.amitbhawani.com/blog or his other websites like www.onlinejobs247.com and www.thewwwblog.com you see that. Somehow, I am always amused at the rate at which he reached where he is. Feels great about this friendship with him.

Inspirational. Very inspirational. I am sure the audience seated during the speech would have been impressed and would have made those usual ‘will forget once we are home’ promises to go by what Mr. Kalam said. No one, apart from just listening and appreciating, goes all the way to do what has been said. I am sure you will agree that the percentage of people following it would be less than 1%. It’s been the same way for ages now. The one thing we can find in all these audiences who attend any meeting or seminar or speech, is that as long as the speech is on, they all will be very excited and inspired by the talk and the moment it ends, their inspiration suddenly seems to vanish as they come out of the hall. The longer they are in the hall, the longer the inspiration lingers on. The more they see the speaker, the more they feel like admiring him.

This excitement extends to the post seminar gifts, which every person gets. All we are interested in is, what we are getting apart from the heavy dose of lecture. Even if the notes of what is being said are of no use to us, then also we fight it out to possess it as though not having it indicates our inefficiency. Even the most impeccably dressed guys who take all the care in the world not to get their clothes dirty totally forget about it and just barge in to the queue as though they would be looked down upon by their family members if they did not take anything home from there. If some gifts are being given away, then every ounce of decency left in a person can be seen being killed and cremated without any respect. Find yourself a place to stand in the queue and either you will be pushed aside or forward. Lucky that the chief guests are given these things in advance or else it won’t be a surprise to see the ‘always present on the dias and speaking strong words’ chief guest fighting for the t-shirt or a bottle with you in the line. The same person who presented himself as a picture of great knowledge and stature would be no less than a refugee fighting for food.

A large chunk of the audience goes there to see if the speaker is actually as good as he has been portrayed to be. They do clap very hard (of course only after being asked for some applause) sing his/her praise and even advise others to listen to him/her. The moment the speech ends, all of us, with our blood filled with inspiration from the speech and our minds having accepted everything that has been said and fully determined to know more about it and if possible do whatever we can to help the cause, go to the person or his deputy and religiously take the pamphlet which gives their objectives or address and keep it in our pocket with immaculate neatness. If one observes the general behaviour of people, it will be evident that the moment we are outside the hall, all the previous inspiration drains out of our hearts and the topic which occupied the mind a couple of minutes ago evaporates without a trace. It looks like a joint venture of Alzheimers and Schizophrenia. If we notice that pamphlets are being distributed for the next program or about anything in this world (even if they have information regarding the type of wood used in Japan to make chopsticks) immediately our mind sends us the signal to tell the youngest person of the group to go and take the pamphlet. Various reasons can be found for the anxiety to have the pamphlets but in most of the cases it is because everyone is taking it. Talk about sheep like mentality. Imagine the poor soul of the speaker, who would lose all his inspiration to make another speech after seeing all those pamphlets, which a few moments ago were taken with so much interest and excitement, lying outside the hall.

Even if a pamphlet succeeds in clinging to our hands till we reach our homes, the moment we step inside the house we find some more interesting activity and as usual the slip of paper slips from our fingers, looking askance at us, for that’s all the poor bit of paper is capable of, till its journey ends in a crash landing. Paper rights unlike human rights, still being unknown in this land. The next day we hear the maid servant asking,”Malkin, yeh kya hai?” (Madam, what is this?).

Nine out of ten times, this paper would be recycled. It is much better than the usual torture paper goes through if it is not recycled. At least it is has a fair chance of not being a pamphlet in its new life. Who can forget the art of making paper rockets from these pamphlets by school guys. I can vouch for the happiness derived from it.

In some cases, these pamphlets serve as plates for the prasadam/prashad, which is given after the heart filling speech. At least this is much better then the state of those papers which are used to clean our hands after savoring the hot and delicious prasadam/prashad. Eventually we come back to the stage of finding it lying on the road, raped of its chastity and sacredness. If we can give one thought to the amount of knowledge it carries or the fact that it can pave the way for us to come closer to that knowledge, these pamphlets will not be treated like that. In fact those guys who take them in bundles and utilise the blank side for their rough work make much better use of these pamphlets. At least that enables the paper to be used in some way even though not in the desired manner.

If you go to a seminar, you will find a set of pen, paper and a file holder is presented to all the attending members. If it is said that lunch will be provided, then even if the seminar is as boring as Bush’s repeated claims of capturing Osama, more than half of them will stay only to have lunch. Half the hall will be empty. What with half of them having gone back with their tummies full. The remaining half of the audience would be more interested in checking out the contents of the file holder and ensuring if they have got everything even while the speaker is busy talking. If a pen or a notepad is missing, then you have got to see the reaction of the person. It’s as if he has been denied salvation after a life full of abstinence and asceticism. At the end of the seminar, the notepad would be full of nothing.

So, for all you guys out there, if any speech, lecture or a seminar is there to be attended, then go right ahead and do so. All you have to do is, take in what they say and do what you can implement. Don’t forget to carry out our ritual of making those easily forgettable promises. In the meanwhile, I would go and find out if there is any possibility of passing an Act to save the rights of our poor old papyrus’s gen Y and make sure that no paper is made into a pamphlet more than once, in all its lifetimes.

Chance and Choice. These two words boast of having a place at the core of philosophical books. All the sacred books talk about the chances and choices in man’s life. Spiritually, these two concepts are considered the very basis for human existence in this life and thereafter. So, in simple terms, the chance of being a human again in next life depends upon the choices we make in this life.

We see governments complaining about over-population or under-population all the time. While the Indian Government is urging its citizens to go by choice and not by chance in planning their family, the Singapore Government is encouraging its citizens to exploit the chance they have got and increase the population full throttle.

As per my friend’s observation, today is a chance and tomorrow is always a choice. But most of the time the world is so busy with their work that they never realise they are making a choice each and every minute of their life, whether good or bad. They have just got accustomed to the concept of living till they have a meeting with death. If at all they get to know about the meeting, the chance of living a year or even a month more is explored. The life that is between birth and death is merely a flow of events involving all sorts of chances and choices. In other words, a man’s life as such is totally based on the chances he gets and the choices he makes.

When Chetan Bhagat talked about the decisions of the three friends in his book Five Point Someone, I always felt bad for these guys and the situations they got themselves into. The choices we make in our life need not be bad from the start. It’s only that our inefficiency to deal with those things makes the choices look bad. It’s like a bat in the hand of a cricketer. It’s not about the bat but the batsman. Incidentally, when I look back, at the last four years of my life, I made more mistakes than correct decisions. May be having my own site and making some of the best friends of my life are the only good ones.

Being happy or not is related to our choice of whether we want to suffer the pain or have the power to endure the suffering. The reason that we could not get what we want or the impossibility of not being able to lay our hands on something we have grown to have a great liking for, results in suffering. The choice is whether we let our weakness take control and suffer, or be stoic. In other words, we always have a choice.

If words such as big and small are the yardstick to measure the importance of a chance, then good or bad are the words for choice. History, in school, for me was only a subject full of stories, which were interesting and provided for a nice post lunch lullaby. But never did I think that history is the snowballing of many choices made by people right from Galileo’s time to Mahatma Gandhi’s. Choice is, in short, making history. Chance, on the other hand, facilitates the choice to make history. A choice represents our view of the world, religion, human kind, our traditions, personality, outlook, our standing as regards finance and politics etc.

Is the Universe by chance or by choice? A chance to human kind or a choice of God to give humankind a chance? In all these chances and choices, the Principle of Uncertainty arises at each and every step of decision-making. The uncertainty can be about what is right and what is not. The uncertainty principle here does not exactly refer to Physics or particles and atoms as in Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, but has a touch of philosophy, psychology and human logic attached to it, apart from the trends of the human race at that particular moment of decision-making. Till the precise moment of drifting towards a decision, the uncertainty principle always plays its part to the hilt. It literally plays with the mind of the person and if the person is fickle then it can play havoc with his decision-making abilities. Even though it is not necessary that these choices are made at the mercy of uncertainty but the less uncertain a mind is, the better the chance of making a correct choice.

“Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. It’s the choices that make us who we are and we can always choose to do what’s right”.

“Raavan tuney Sita deni ke nahi deni? Nahi deni? To ek chutti de de yaar…”, goes the latest Mirinda advertisement. It’s a matter of great surprise and wonderment for me that how these advertising industry people have their fingers right on the pulse of the market and people’s latest concerns. They know them and they use them to perfection.

In the corporate world, asking for a leave is nothing less than climbing Mt. Everest. Especially if you are one of the junior employees. You really need to have an imagination which can produce a riot of fool proof ideas at the drop of a hat. After all you can’t just barge in and say to your boss, “Hey dude I am off for tomorrow”, unless of course you have just heard from the Naukri.com guys.

I had the lucky chance of coming across a particularly hilarious specimen of such excuses. An acquaintance had to take her exams and needed roughly twenty days off. Unthinkable, isn’t it? Unless of course you have Jesus as your boss. So, the lady hit upon an ingenious plan of faking a leg fracture and disappearing for a month. Well, the plan was working quite nicely until one of her colleagues decided to suddenly drop in to ask after her health and she was found walking about the house!!! I was told that the colleague was somehow fooled into believing that there was just some problem with the tissues and she didn’t really need to wear a cast. I do wonder though if they could actually convince her colleague completely.

Now, some of the most clichéd ‘faking it’ excuses come from our maid servants. Yes, the people without whom we can’t imagine our lives. Our legs start shaking the moment they talk about going to their village for a month because we know that after a torturous month when we would be eagerly awaiting their arrival with about ten inches of dust on almirah tops, the postman would silently drop us a postcard as if sympathizing with us in our period of tribulation. The contents of the postcard would run something like this that there’s a cousin’s wedding or a parent is on his/her death bed. That’s another matter altogether that they come back after knocking at death’s door almost every year and only God knows how many more cousins need to be married in the near future.

The most brilliant example ever of this ‘faking it’ phenomenon is to be found in the Amol Palekar starrer ‘Golmal’ whose storyline I don’t need to tell you people as the movie itself is a legend. Instead, what I’ll tell you is something from my own life. Well, I’m also a human being and definitely not immune to the ‘faking it’ syndrome. I have this tendency of taking an off on Mondays and I try and device a new excuse every time. The thing has become so conspicuous now that my colleagues have started believing that I’ve a boy friend who owns a showroom in one of the markets that remain closed on Mondays and I take an off and go to see him. I think I desperately need to do some shuffling as far as these Monday leaves are concerned.

I.P.L. too contributed in its own way in organizing this ‘faking it’ business a little. The other day there was an article in the newspaper about employees pre-deciding the excuses and dates on which they were going to take a leave for watching a certain match so that there won’t be a mass bunk and hence the bosses won’t be able to really take any action. Truly, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’.

All this pondering over the ‘faking it’ phenomenon has given me a crazy sort of idea. What if I start a firm which provides people with brilliant excuses, no boss can see through or refuse, at a nominal cost of course? The only thing stopping me is that who would save me from my brilliant employees’ excuses?

No interview is complete without the quote, “He/she is a good human being. He/She is doing well for himself/herself”. Apparently nothing remotely related to the quote can be found in the question asked. It’s only that the glitterati are used to these phrases. It’s as though they run in their blood. When you are talking about any person’s performance in a movie or a match, this quote just appears somehow, as though it is an indispensable part of the conversation. Sometimes a mere suggestion can be portrayed in an entirely different way due to communication errors. How many times have we come across actors giving suggestions to another actor about handling his/her career and not getting carried away by the adulation? While some of them are true and genuine and have an intention to help, others might just take it as a chance to be one up. Whatever be the intention, these quotes are always the favourites of both the celebs and the media.

Whenever any celebrity gives out a sound bite, it is given in a tactful way. Diplomacy is employed, as all these guys know that they may not be in a position to rule the cameras all the time and when they need help they should have someone to bank upon. These comments and statements are interrelated with their career and fame.

When you are in an industry brimming with people with similar ambitions and curvy and hunky figures with some oozing sensuality, some simplicity or some treading the thin line dividing, being vulgar and being sultry, there is every chance of falling for each other. Here’s where the oh so famous quote makes its entry; “We are just Friends.” If some are friends in the true sense, some others might want to be ‘just friends’ in the eyes of the world. Apart from the clichéd and routine ones a few others like,” We have met only a couple of times”, “He is a good actor and nothing else at all”, “Why don’t you ask him, instead of me?” or may be “I don’t mind talking about my professional life, but when it comes to my personal one I would rather not”, are used. Even though all these sentences mean the same thing, they are used depending upon how close these guys are in their so-called “friendship”. Certainly these guys give the word ‘friend’ a whole new meaning. But thanks to the grapevine before they decide to come out with whether they are just friends or more than that, the whole of the world (including a few die hard fans who would have performed some puja for the marriage to happen by that time) has already guessed the outcome.

There are many actors who support a particular cause or a movement against the government or a corporate entity. Whenever these guys stand up for the common people, a political party interferes and the first thing that is done is to stop any new film of that particular actor from being screened. “This is a democratic country and no one can stop me from doing my duty”, is the only thing these poor guys are at liberty to say, as they do know the reach of these politicians and their black deeds. In the end, not many are able to stand up against a narrow-minded and senseless group of politicians who don’t leave any stone unturned to get an apology from all and sundry even about the most innocuous things. In the end, it looks more like begging than demanding. But one thing, which always surprises me, is the timing of these rallies or clashes with the politicians. All these happen only when a new film of that particular actor is going to be released. A very old, but quite an effective marketing strategy.

A relation made in heaven is passé. For these guys, one of their many relationships is made, not in heaven, but in the underworld and by the mafia. It’s like an offer very difficult to decline. Not because it is very tempting but because they do not have much choice. “No. No one called me. No one from the underworld contacted me”, is all the celebrities are entitled to say to the media and the public. Imagine their predicament when the mafia threatens these guys not to say anything and the police are constantly after them to answer their questions.

It’s been a long time since I heard of any development on the Sharon Stone issue. So with you guys busy reading the article, let me go and take a look at what more has happened on this matter. After that, I should jump to my next article, which needs my attention desperately as it has been awaiting completion for almost 4 months now. So long.

Many of the things which these guys miss once they go away from home are the things, which never get their due attention when they were easily or readily available. Many small things, which never looked that important, seem to be the most important things in life. It can be a washing machine, any equipment to cook food, or sometimes a small talk with their families which could mean so much to their coming weeks. It’s like having a pep talk to improve your behaviour towards everything you. Most of the time all these things do tend to take a back seat as they are taken for granted. Their importance is felt only when the right time comes. It is as though all these ’small’ things wait for their turn to hit back in a big way.

Things which were categorised as extra curricular activities during the school days become a part of life here and most of the time become the only source to gain extra points on the academic front. It can be painting or projects of different kinds etc. These things become so much so a part of life that I wonder if we wasted all the money during the summer holidays when we were anyway going to learn them like this. It’s another issue that the money spent this time would be hundred times more than what we paid at that time. Things like cell phone conversations for long hours, outings to all the best places without a concern for the amount of money spent, movies and so on are all missed very dearly. By the word movie, I am reminded of the fact that once these guys are away from their home for a long time, they tend to get very sentimental and have every chance of crying at each and every emotional scene in a movie. Like my friend Vineeth puts it,” You get too much into it. It’s a different intimation all together”. More so, when the scene involves a father or a mother. it may appear funny to the onlooker but believe me, it is never easy to be away from your parents and more so for those guys who have been brought up in a country like India where relationships are given utmost importance. Now after reading this do I see anyone laughing at those who get emotional and cry???

When it comes to money it is both exciting to earn the first salary and also difficult to save it. The fact that they have to work hard both to earn and save it makes the experience even more fruitful. Teaching, lab assistant, pizza delivery, petrol bunk etc are few of those jobs, which are generally taken up to. Quite an interesting list though these would be looked down upon as undignified jobs when we are staying with our parents. A scene of a family going out does certainly freshens up their memories what with these guys finding themselves or relating themselves with all those families. They can go to such an extent that they see their father in some, mother in some or a sister in some. Given the situation, I don’t think we can actually blame them for that. So from my side, this case does not need a laughter punishment but from humanitarian grounds will be seen as one of those phases of human life when philosophy and sentiments take over their rather violent suggestive moods.

In a country like India, which is known for its diversity of cultures and traditions, it is very normal that each and every month of the year becomes a host for more than a couple of festivals. It is no wonder that once you get accustomed to the general way of preparing for a festival two days in advance or even more than that, the feeling of not able to celebrate these festivals, even for a year, does makes the day real boring and sick. There probably isn’t much fanfare when it comes to celebrating the festivals, for these guys, as either the goras are accustomed to celebrating more silently or their rules regarding the celebrations might be strict. The hungama, the excitement, the hum-drum sounds of people getting anxious, music, drums, hymns, chanting, the decoration of house, people visiting each others’ houses and finally going to a temple to celebrate, are all missed and there is no feeling worse than formally celebrating a festival just for the sake of doing it

If we take a country like America for example, then we find Indian diaspora forming their own communities to help each other. ” Apparently, you get to know what India is, once you get to America. You find people of all the states at one place and you get to see what the whole of India celebrates all through the year”, is what Vineeth has to say. I can’t disagree more as all you have over there is a bunch of guys of same nationality and either out of compulsion or mere friendly nature, all of them come close.

What shapes up all these testimonials is a long list of adjectives used to describe a particular guy. Words, such as “sincere”, “caring”, “loving”, “beautiful” and “crazy” rank high in the vocabulary of testimonial writers. Along with these words a few “kiddings”, “lols” and “hehes” end up being in the brackets. If the testimonial becomes too sugar coated then a few witticisms are added to make it look somewhat funny. The way these testimonials are ended is really predictable and clichéd. Addition of sentimental dialogues like “lucky to have you as a friend”, “loveeeee youuuuu”, “he/she will reach great heights” etc. makes it all the more amusing. I did write quite a few testimonials with all the ingredients stated above

Not that I haven’t written any testimonials or received any (which eventually made me write this and also gave me a good half an hour of laugh) but, I do feel that most of the time people just go overboard in praising their friends, which apparently is not required. The sheer feeling that more the number of testimonials present in a profile the more important it looks must be the reason for people to go crazy. Writing a testimonial is not a measurement of how good a friend a person is. Even though sometimes someone who may not be close writes these testimonials, they are still accepted out of courtesy. Apparently that testimonial does not really have any great importance when compared to other testimonials written by close friends.

These testimonials are filled with words like “good” or “best” which appear before each and every attribute of that person, e.g. “he is the best guy ever” or “she is a very good friend of mine” etc. If we take Orkut alone, there are 120 million accounts (Till March 2008) and if every guy and girl is best or good then probably, (after taking into consideration the other social networking sites like My Space and Facebook) all the computer users in the world must be the best people to be with. Haven’t you guys heard that the anti-social elements, who people generally call terrorists, also use computers and social networking sites???

Testimonials can be classified into a few categories:

1. Sentimental and over the board.
2. Funny and made up, with good usage of English.
3. Written in their mother tongue to show their closeness.
4. Written for the heck of it.
5. Written all because the other person is a girl.
6. Filled with all sorts of poetry and sometimes pictures.
7. Written by relatives to show their unity.
8. Written with genuine interest.

So with all this giving and receiving of testimonials, I am tempted to write a testimonial for someone at this particular moment and since I could find no one I would rather write it for my site itself. So here it goes:

“It has been great to know you and it has been a great journey with you. Life always seems great when you are around. The world looks like a cozy and secure place. For all those who do not know this site, it doesn’t just focus on one topic even though it majorly talks about simple things in life. It is beautiful in its maintenance, simple in language but equally complex in thought and special in its own way. One thing I like about this site is, it is very cool even though it isn’t really looked upon by many as one of the best ones in the field. It doesn’t care about the whole fame thing and presents to the world what it likes to.

It has helped me in presenting my thoughts to people round the world. It has been one of those sources, which helped me to show to my friends how much I love them and it gave all of us a chance to showcase our talent. It is a legally existing entity with perpetual existence. We hope it makes it to the Hall of Fame.”

When I was in school but just old enough to understand what I wanted and what I didn’t, I used to find little things like a pen or for that matter something, which I really didn’t require, like a business card box, very exciting and I always wanted to have them. I ultimately did but all I could manage to do was to keep them with me to give me the satisfaction that I had them, but before I could use them, I lost them. So these little things mentioned above and all the other ones (Whether they were pens, pencils or erasers) I treated in the same way, were ‘used’ in such a way that they were never actually used

In all these years we have bought at least five irons but, have never used them regularly. Each summer when I was at school I tried to plan out things in such a way that I ironed all the clothes and saved money. All I did was iron one dress and leave the rest for my Dhobi (washer man). Over the years the iron has become a symbol for me, which promises a lot but doesn’t really deliver.

On the contrary, I feel there are things, which are used more than required like the detergent for cleaning dishes. Their excessive usage makes me feel that I am drinking water with detergent mixed in it. No day goes by without me hearing my mother telling the maid to use less detergent. Another thing which I feel is used extensively by the girls of this planet is make-up. Most of the time the make-up applied is more than necessary. Don’t you think they are wasting resources of the world by using them excessively? (I am sure I have raised quite a few eyebrows with this question of mine)

Almost every household has a vacuum cleaner and also a maid servant. Neither does the servant use the vacuum cleaner (as most of them don’t know how to) nor do the owners replace the servant maid with it. What is more appalling is that the vacuum cleaner is never used or used as much as it should be. All the vacuum cleaner has to do is clear some cobwebs once in three months. Most of the accessories provided with it are either thrown away due to non-usage or they are kept away so safely that they are forgotten.

One more thing I think I have never used is my mind. It’s been ages since I used my mind properly and for productive things. The first thing I will do when I complete this blog is to try and clean the dust from my brain and sharpen it. Who doesn’t want their brain to be sharp? In this creative, competitive and corrupt world who wants to be called a dimwit or “Nalayak” as some would love to call for no reason?

Many people feel I have a rather good talent for writing and even though I am really happy to hear these things what I feel is all these guys who said all these things about me are much better writers than what I am (not being modest) provided they start writing. Talent whether hidden or not should never be wasted or not used. So guys after you get finished with writing comments for my site pick up a pen and a paper and start writing something.

What I feel or what I understand from this concept of not using things up to their optimum level is that we should not have anything in excess. It may be clothes or any luxury for that matter. So the next time if you guys have excess clothes you are not using, remember there are many less privileged people in this world who have everything in less except for the desire to have at least one thing in excess (except for poverty).

A spark in your eyes, the skipping of a heartbeat, butterflies in the stomach, a tingling in your toes. Oh my there you are! You have caught the disease they call ‘love’. Now, doesn’t that sound like the typical Mills and Boons definition of love? So very clichéd. Many a thinking souls have wondered about this phenomenon called ‘love’ and failed to define it even to their own satisfaction, let alone to the satisfaction of anyone else. So what makes two people tick? Loads of studies, statistics, calculations and theories later we are still hankering after that one elusive definition that would satisfy us all. The word is still a chimera eluding humanity. One of the biggest mysteries (Of course, apart from understanding a woman) of our universe that many of us yearn for the whole of our lives and probably never solve or never understand.

The agony of Hell or the ecstasy of Eden, the torture of deception or the bliss of the first passionate kiss, hot tears of separation or the boundless joy of meeting. How do we define love? For any layman in simple words, it means many things, apart from the obvious one i.e., having a girl/guy to love. But on a more serious note, it’s that intense feeling, that passion which can be thunderous as a stormy sea or calm as the blue sky bereft of a single cloud and, which ironically, can find its expression in as simple a gesture as a light holding of hands. It’s something to be savored, FELT, relished, enjoyed and admired for its complex simplicity. We seem to be talking in oxymoron but that is how we have or have not understood love in all these years of our existence.

Love is probably one of the most violent of emotions known to humanity. Violent, not in its expression, but in its inception, in its existence. A feeling even more intense than hatred. Something, which thrives on one’s lifeblood, one’s life force, and in some cases, to such an extent that it becomes the reason of one’s existence. It doesn’t require you to have a Swiss bank account or the best features even though it would be a bonus if your loved one had a Swiss bank account in addition to a golden heart.

A simple caress, an “I love you” whispered in the ear, a little chat in the balcony, reading a book together, a spur of the moment slow dance or sending the person you love, a love letter (a practice which has vanished into thin air these days) shows that you really care. In fact describing your lady love in a poem or may be a small after dinner walk can be enough to convey to her that you need her and your life is incomplete without her. Interestingly all these small acts are indeed big players in expressing your love and definitely go a long way.

Love is what Rhett and Scarlett had (In ‘Gone with the Wind’ By Margaret Mitchell). Something, which most of us realize after having lost it or maybe never. One wonders how Margaret Mitchell succeeded in defining love so completely in a war romance, as something, which makes you writhe in anger and smolder in longing, not carnal but emotional and mental.

Love to some is more prime than anything else on this earth. Love is the passion of Mirabai for Lord Krishna. Imagine a woman choosing an idol over a living, breathing man and even agreeing to drink poison for that faith/love. (Of course one would be foolish to relate the incident with today’s life but we would just like to concentrate on the strength of her feeling.) The enigma of so completely giving yourself up to someone is what love is capable of. True love chooses. It chooses those whose hearts can burn with its passion and rise again to resurrect themselves like phoenixes.

When we start expecting love to be only sweet then it is better to stop loving someone and continue loving ourselves. Take for instance, the Valentine’s Day. What is it that the whole world craves for on this one day? Apart from being a day for love (which we feel is unnecessary) it has been made to appear like a birthday wherein people celebrate with a party and forget about it the next day and start thinking of the arrival of the same day the next year and what with the media going into frenzy again at the start of February. From all we know, majority of the people see it as a day meant to have a companion and show off. One startling fact that we found out is the increase in sales for condoms on Valentine’s Day. Holy Hell! Does that mean, at least in some sense, that Valentine’s Day has to end with the two of them in bed or does the day have to start with the intention that the day should end with both of them in bed? It may not be the same with everyone but at least for many of them.

An old couple sitting hand in hand in a park, a husband reading out a fairy story to his pregnant wife, a wife cooking her husband’s favorite dish or a guy bringing that one book his girl has been hankering after or vice versa. This may sound a little filmy but if you actually look at it, aren’t these situations very common day-to-day ones? Haven’t you ever seen your mom cook something especially for your father or talked to your grandma about what kind of a person your grandfather was and seen her blush? How does one define that? There aren’t any words for it…It’s love…in its purest form…indefinable yet obvious.