Gone are the days, which bought so fun
Gone are the days, which left us mum
Gone are the days, where life just blotted
Gone are the days, where a new sun was spotted
Cometh the agony, in the winds of the future
And there , ther wont be a BIT to nurture
Forcasts are heavy, and the present is light
Happiness and glory are gonna take a flight
And then u contemplate, the things went by
The times of assertion, nd the time u were shy
The clauses and the causes,all are gonna fly
And then you remember, with a tinge in your eye
You remember
Those packed bags, that came.
with an inexperienced lame.
Those first sem registrations
Those first day preperations.
Those people speaking bengali
With just a man on your side
Whom you never thought at that time
Thats he gonna be your pride.
Those 2k2 placements,more worrying for 2k5
With every time a guy placed,H6 will give a high 5
Those midnight discussions on the India Today rankings.
With heat and humour, both on the spanking.
Those frustration of Biotech, shared by us
Those midsem xams , which was no fuss.
Those nightouts, and night ins in room 43
The peot remembers, when he was free.
Then came 2006, with a deadly start.
The 2nd sem results and the glory departs.
The start of the demise was on the GPA card
And Chetan with his 5 point, hit me hard
But the glory revived , and misery departed
As came the planchet, and Animesh Farted
The entry into the brach, and into the synth
Came a new dimenstion, into my plinth
Sems passed and with it the time
And then came the moment, to mug the barron rhyme.
Words were a mystery, but not thier meaning.
Answers were thier, but the questions went for cleaning.
And then came, what they say the final frontier.
Where rocks break and and the strongest crumbles
Where thers no place for music, or for dumbles
When thers one thing that counts in every single hearted
Thats to be with those , who are gonna be departed.
Its a halt for few , and an end for some
For me , I guess the best us yet to come.
But has the end come and has the best ended
Have The plethora of thoughts now descended
Have the Guts gone and so are the glory
My dear friends is it the end of the story?
No story ends, on a wretched note over here
Nor is this an exception from adhere
The story is not abt the buliding or the place
Niether its the story of the teacher's face.
Its a prose of the blends.
Connection of the friends.
Moments of bonding
Moments of sharing
I remember my days
of my real pairing
Its a story of emotions, which are immortal.
Its a story of those, who'l share the same portal
May be the place will change and the routene will differ.
But niether the friendship or the closeness is gonna suffer.
So dont be despondent, as we are gonna boast
Kyunki Pikchar, abhi baaki hai mere dost.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friends Revisited
Its written in the Gita that, having formed the first person, Brahma immediately declared our social character: "It is not good that man should be alone." Most of us, most of the time, would rather be with anyone than be alone. And when we compare being with anyone to being with a real friend, there is no comparison. The reasons are endless. The Great philosopher Francis Bacon noted two tremendously positive effects of friendship: "It redoubles joys and cuts grief in half." How true. Friends make the ordinary running errands or eating lunch, for example, extraordinarily fun. And good friends ease our pain and lighten our heavy load. They also strengthen us, nurture us, and help us grow. And without our knowing, they cause all those effects..
This brings us to a central issue. What are the "right kinds" of friends? What makes a friend "good"? What are "the real" friends?
The regular readers of the blog would be knowing the concepts of the pest and guest friends.Well, this time though there Is an addition to the club.These are fair weather friends. These are the people who walk with us in the sunshine, but they are gone when darkness falls. Overly engaged and emotionally needy friends who don't know the meaning of reciprocity are "downers". They take and take while we give and give, but we never see a return on our investment.And when I say investment, I don’t mean the monitory aspect of it. On the other end is "know-it-all friend" who mothers and smothers with unwanted advice but never asks for our input. In short, friends cannot be your employer they can't be your project, they can't be your psychiatrist. But they can be your friends, which is plenty.
Very recently I was asked this question that friends can never take place of your siblings.Well, as far as I am concerned , I don’t have a sibling but what I do have ,are eyes and a heart through which I can judge ,see and decipher that may be we don’t share the same blood group or the DNA ,BUT.So, who said that human blood or the DNA is the one which has got the responsibility of acting as a channel to connect hearts.
Real friends are few. The few real friends we enjoy generally come in one of two forms, both desirable and equally delightful. They are friends of the Road and friends of the Heart. Here is a story to explain what I mean.
He was He. That's why I liked him. He could always, I mean, always make me laugh. Whether we were hanging out at the restaurant, playing cricket in a field, sitting in college, or giving serious speeches in the Bhakshala, a mere glance from him could slay me.He and I had more in common than humor, however. We had countless conversations at all hours of the day and night about everything from music to the meaning of life. We also had soul-searching talks about our fears, our futures, our relationships. This was no lightweight relationship. We saw each other through the Storm of adolescence. Like two war veterans, we helped each other survive. At journey's end, however, the friendship may fade. I may not see him, my college confident, after we graduate.
Is a friendship that fades away necessarily a bad thing? I don't think so. There is a line in novel Q and A by Vikash Swarup "Centennial" that speaks to how even good friendships can be fleeting: "He wished he could ride forever with these men ... but it could not be. Trails end and companies of men fall apart."
Some friendships are meant to be transitory. Like cowboys who ride hard together for miles, sharing both dusty perils and round-the-campfire coffee, we all have friendships that come to their natural end. Not because of discontent or lack of interest. Simply because the road has run out. We've hit the end of the trail together and it's time to move on to other things, other companies of men.
What we got to Understand is that, these are not failed friendships. Not at all. They are friendships of the crossroads, equally intense, equally necessary, equally worth cultivating and treasuring as the long-lasting versions. We couldn't survive without them. They get us through a particular stretch of road, and for that we can be grateful. The friends we meet along life's road make the journey joyful. And they are just as fulfilling as friendships of the Heart. Well, almost.
What we ideally want is that those friendships of the roads turns out to be the friendship of the hearts.So what if we don’t live together in the future, don’t spend that much time again,or don’t know whats going on in each others life.For me my friends of the roads are indeed the friends of the hearts.I don’t know thiers but I presume it’s the same.Sporadic phone calls, as well as e-mail and a few cards or letters here and there, can bridge the connection between long lapses. We may not keep up on daily details, but these friends will know my headlines and I’l know theirs. We’l count on each other and we’l share an irresistible impulse to keep going together.
There's nothing like a true friend of the Heart, long-lasting pals who know us sometimes better than we know ourselves. They bring such comfort to our lives. It's nearly inexpressible.
As I started with Gita from the East , I’l end from the words of the west as given in Archer’s prodigal daughter quoting some poet that the comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are - chaff and grain together - certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
This brings us to a central issue. What are the "right kinds" of friends? What makes a friend "good"? What are "the real" friends?
The regular readers of the blog would be knowing the concepts of the pest and guest friends.Well, this time though there Is an addition to the club.These are fair weather friends. These are the people who walk with us in the sunshine, but they are gone when darkness falls. Overly engaged and emotionally needy friends who don't know the meaning of reciprocity are "downers". They take and take while we give and give, but we never see a return on our investment.And when I say investment, I don’t mean the monitory aspect of it. On the other end is "know-it-all friend" who mothers and smothers with unwanted advice but never asks for our input. In short, friends cannot be your employer they can't be your project, they can't be your psychiatrist. But they can be your friends, which is plenty.
Very recently I was asked this question that friends can never take place of your siblings.Well, as far as I am concerned , I don’t have a sibling but what I do have ,are eyes and a heart through which I can judge ,see and decipher that may be we don’t share the same blood group or the DNA ,BUT.So, who said that human blood or the DNA is the one which has got the responsibility of acting as a channel to connect hearts.
Real friends are few. The few real friends we enjoy generally come in one of two forms, both desirable and equally delightful. They are friends of the Road and friends of the Heart. Here is a story to explain what I mean.
He was He. That's why I liked him. He could always, I mean, always make me laugh. Whether we were hanging out at the restaurant, playing cricket in a field, sitting in college, or giving serious speeches in the Bhakshala, a mere glance from him could slay me.He and I had more in common than humor, however. We had countless conversations at all hours of the day and night about everything from music to the meaning of life. We also had soul-searching talks about our fears, our futures, our relationships. This was no lightweight relationship. We saw each other through the Storm of adolescence. Like two war veterans, we helped each other survive. At journey's end, however, the friendship may fade. I may not see him, my college confident, after we graduate.
Is a friendship that fades away necessarily a bad thing? I don't think so. There is a line in novel Q and A by Vikash Swarup "Centennial" that speaks to how even good friendships can be fleeting: "He wished he could ride forever with these men ... but it could not be. Trails end and companies of men fall apart."
Some friendships are meant to be transitory. Like cowboys who ride hard together for miles, sharing both dusty perils and round-the-campfire coffee, we all have friendships that come to their natural end. Not because of discontent or lack of interest. Simply because the road has run out. We've hit the end of the trail together and it's time to move on to other things, other companies of men.
What we got to Understand is that, these are not failed friendships. Not at all. They are friendships of the crossroads, equally intense, equally necessary, equally worth cultivating and treasuring as the long-lasting versions. We couldn't survive without them. They get us through a particular stretch of road, and for that we can be grateful. The friends we meet along life's road make the journey joyful. And they are just as fulfilling as friendships of the Heart. Well, almost.
What we ideally want is that those friendships of the roads turns out to be the friendship of the hearts.So what if we don’t live together in the future, don’t spend that much time again,or don’t know whats going on in each others life.For me my friends of the roads are indeed the friends of the hearts.I don’t know thiers but I presume it’s the same.Sporadic phone calls, as well as e-mail and a few cards or letters here and there, can bridge the connection between long lapses. We may not keep up on daily details, but these friends will know my headlines and I’l know theirs. We’l count on each other and we’l share an irresistible impulse to keep going together.
There's nothing like a true friend of the Heart, long-lasting pals who know us sometimes better than we know ourselves. They bring such comfort to our lives. It's nearly inexpressible.
As I started with Gita from the East , I’l end from the words of the west as given in Archer’s prodigal daughter quoting some poet that the comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are - chaff and grain together - certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
Boss, I'm Late!!
Boss, I'm late , well all mumbaikars are very much a part of this movement . Yes a movement indeed . Thats because ,it very well satisfies the primary condition of being called a movement as it involves a huge mass. Thanks to this spectral traffic of the greatest city known to the humans.. Mumbai. That is the most common SMS that people send at around 10:30 to their bosses all over this place rite from Church Gate to Ghatkopar to Borivali, and guess what .. the most common reply that they recieve: "Even I'm stuck". No one is spared by this Devil, neither the employees , nor the employers. In this sense , its quite a socialist, isn't it? You remain seated in your car, bus , Taxi(if u can afford ), Auto or whatever, & it just doesn't show any mercy. It tests your patience to its core. You will continue hearing horns from the back , left , right , up , down from every possible directions known to physics. Sometimes you just wonder what is the need for this , and when it becomes all fine and you can see an empty passage and your vehicle is just about to move forward, from no where an auto or a cycle will come in between to cross and the JAM restarts, and as is the saying that the devil doesn't come alone, he comes with his secretaries, well there's no exception here. When the traffic is at its peak, the sun is at its prime. Here is the time when you feel that God can be so unfair sometime. I mean , he dropped us in the hottest place of this world and made us hairy, what else can you ask for. You are left sweating profusely in your car just to see the whole world getting stopped and wondering why do people say that Bombay (Mumbai, for my safety) never stops. Other secretary of this devil are those road side vendors.I mean you wonder why God created them. They are like those Mithun Chakravarthy movies in which you kind of want to get into the TV screen and bust his ass off but just cant do that, they are like those Jack Fruit vegetable prepared by your neighbor after calling you for dinner and then asking you about how was the food. food???I mean you should have tasted it before asking me Madam .There are better ways of killing a young neighbor.
But at the end, after going through all these calamities , all the trauma ,you reach your workplace thinking that you have to return as well, don't be so happy. And there is just one thought preoccupying your mind , how will I say this .. "boss I'm Late "..
Love you guys..
Manas Verma
(Traffic Victim)
But at the end, after going through all these calamities , all the trauma ,you reach your workplace thinking that you have to return as well, don't be so happy. And there is just one thought preoccupying your mind , how will I say this .. "boss I'm Late "..
Love you guys..
Manas Verma
(Traffic Victim)
Black or not Black enough, he is the first man on Earth!!
"Finally a day will come, when people of America wont be judged by thier color of skin, but by the content of thier character".
Years ago, a guy known as Martin Luther King Jr told this to many of the people who shared one common attribute. They all were victim of prejudice.They all were the victim of the white man's quest for power,superiority and dominance. But they had one more thing in common.. that was thier will to struggle, thier desire for equality and thier faith in the justice of the lord. They were slaved and they did what was needed to protect thier family, they were lynched and they moved forward, they were prejudiced and they got themselves educated.. and educated themselves enough to finally produce a President of the United States of America.
He too shares the same pain, the same agony and thankfully , the same quality.His vision is intense,lucid and absoloutely clear and most importantly, the sense of vengeance has completely eluded him, quite contrary to the thinking of the great WHITES.
When he started of the campaign, some said "he is black", he responded by talking about generating employment , others said "he is not black enough", his talked about the families of American soldiers , those soldiers who are unnecessarily being butchered in Iraq. He also has the firm belief , that he has inherited from his ancestors , the belief in democracy, the belief in the power lying in the hands of the people, the same people for whome he has committed his life, first as a lawyer, then as a senator and now as the President.
Him being selected as the president is not only a victory for the democrats , its a victory of equality, its the victory of magnamity and most importantly its a victory of democracy. It has raised the bar, the bar which represent people's ability to judge ,adjudicate and respond to the buggers who feel him as a threat.
If at all he was a threat, if at all he was dangerous , he could have easily proved them right as a senator . Unfortunately for them its still the same.. its still a "white man's burden to civilise the world" and for him... well..Thank God he is BLACK.
In the name of equality.
Manas Varma
Friends!!
Reading a lot of Arun Shourie's books have imparted me this gift of categorizing things. So let me try. Let me categories friends.They are of three types basically.
1. Pest Friends
2. Guest Friends
3. Best Friends
The first type of friend is simply an acquaintance. This means that you basically , only know their name. You might not even remember what they look like if you go away for a short vacation. Usually, you meet these type of friends in school, at work, on the bus, in the gym, or anywhere else you might be. You normally would not mind having a cup of coffee with them, but if anything else came up, you usually would have no problem parting company. You normally don’t miss them when they are elsewhere. It is also this type of friends who give you the most amount of aggravation. Since most of the time you are placed in a position where you have to act friendly, such as school or work,you would not normally tell an acquaintance when he or she is doing something aggravating, such as tapping the fingers an a table or chewing gum loudly. This is why I call them "pest friends."
The second category of friends I call "social partners." This is because they are closer than acquaintances, but no where near as close as a true friend. Social partners are usually acquaintances who evolve into "guest friends" through increased extracurricular activities. You know their name, a little of what they like or dislike, a little of their family history, and usually have several things in common. As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together," so too the social partners have to have several things in common with you. No one is going to want to spend any more time than necessary with somebody completely opposite and aggravating to him. Keep in mind, though, that the biggest thing that distinguishes a "best friend" from a "guest friend" is the fact that "guest friends" usually don’t converse about anything substantial or deep, such as their innermost desires and fears. Usually, "guest friends" toy to keep the topic of conversation happy and light. They would not open up to you how they are really feeling. They are still preoccupied with "saving face." You still do enjoy hanging out with them. But when the going gets tough, they are not there for you. The last type of friend is the "best friend." Normally, you know them the longest. You probably grew up together as children or they might have come to your life and taken the most intimate place, Its just mutual chemistry. He or she knows everything about you. Likewise, you know everything about him or her.There comes a stage when you don't have to talk to him to convey or display your emotions , its just the subtle movement of your eye balls that will do (save lots of muscular energy , doesn't it, as one report says that over 1 million cells die , when u say hi).They are the one whom you can rely upon , they are the one with whom you share those things which are troubling you, which you cant even tell your family.
In fact when you look at at it with a political aspect , this relationship follows the basic principles on which our country is running i.e Equality, Democracy and Socialism.Well.. back to Mr. Shourie's Categorization
1. You classify brothers, sisters or whatever as big or small,bt best friends are one of the few relationship which cant be
classified at all.they are just the same.Gives you the sense
of equality.
2. When friends are there, there is no single boss or no single
leader , there is just one collective unit and that why its
so strong.That is where democracy comes in.
3. As melodramatic as it may look , but there is no rich and poor
Hindu and Muslim or Brahman and Non-Brahman when you talk
about friends .So all the principles of Secularism and
Socialism are perfectly followed aren't they.
The essence is ..that friendship is a phenomenon and friends are gifts that God bestowed upon humans when they felt , that the world may become too materialistic.
Dedicated to all my friends.
Manas Varma
(a friend)
1. Pest Friends
2. Guest Friends
3. Best Friends
The first type of friend is simply an acquaintance. This means that you basically , only know their name. You might not even remember what they look like if you go away for a short vacation. Usually, you meet these type of friends in school, at work, on the bus, in the gym, or anywhere else you might be. You normally would not mind having a cup of coffee with them, but if anything else came up, you usually would have no problem parting company. You normally don’t miss them when they are elsewhere. It is also this type of friends who give you the most amount of aggravation. Since most of the time you are placed in a position where you have to act friendly, such as school or work,you would not normally tell an acquaintance when he or she is doing something aggravating, such as tapping the fingers an a table or chewing gum loudly. This is why I call them "pest friends."
The second category of friends I call "social partners." This is because they are closer than acquaintances, but no where near as close as a true friend. Social partners are usually acquaintances who evolve into "guest friends" through increased extracurricular activities. You know their name, a little of what they like or dislike, a little of their family history, and usually have several things in common. As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together," so too the social partners have to have several things in common with you. No one is going to want to spend any more time than necessary with somebody completely opposite and aggravating to him. Keep in mind, though, that the biggest thing that distinguishes a "best friend" from a "guest friend" is the fact that "guest friends" usually don’t converse about anything substantial or deep, such as their innermost desires and fears. Usually, "guest friends" toy to keep the topic of conversation happy and light. They would not open up to you how they are really feeling. They are still preoccupied with "saving face." You still do enjoy hanging out with them. But when the going gets tough, they are not there for you. The last type of friend is the "best friend." Normally, you know them the longest. You probably grew up together as children or they might have come to your life and taken the most intimate place, Its just mutual chemistry. He or she knows everything about you. Likewise, you know everything about him or her.There comes a stage when you don't have to talk to him to convey or display your emotions , its just the subtle movement of your eye balls that will do (save lots of muscular energy , doesn't it, as one report says that over 1 million cells die , when u say hi).They are the one whom you can rely upon , they are the one with whom you share those things which are troubling you, which you cant even tell your family.
In fact when you look at at it with a political aspect , this relationship follows the basic principles on which our country is running i.e Equality, Democracy and Socialism.Well.. back to Mr. Shourie's Categorization
1. You classify brothers, sisters or whatever as big or small,bt best friends are one of the few relationship which cant be
classified at all.they are just the same.Gives you the sense
of equality.
2. When friends are there, there is no single boss or no single
leader , there is just one collective unit and that why its
so strong.That is where democracy comes in.
3. As melodramatic as it may look , but there is no rich and poor
Hindu and Muslim or Brahman and Non-Brahman when you talk
about friends .So all the principles of Secularism and
Socialism are perfectly followed aren't they.
The essence is ..that friendship is a phenomenon and friends are gifts that God bestowed upon humans when they felt , that the world may become too materialistic.
Dedicated to all my friends.
Manas Varma
(a friend)
Confession of a dying man!
"Dad, I want to be an Engineer”. Says a prodigal son aged 16 ,just passed his senior secondary examination with distinction unaware of things coming ahead.
Dad replied “Go ahead Son..the whole world is for you to conquer” . And there you go. The boy starts his journey of becoming what he had wished. As was expected ,the start was for everyone to see. Its an old saying that the road to hell has the doors of heaven in the pathway. The boy gets good marks in the competitive examination and here he is ,starting the journey as his Dad tells him “Son , you are going as a boy , expect you to come back as a Man”.
Its believed that people from East suffer a lot in the western countries as things are supposedly quite different over there. “Alien” is normally the adjective given to such places. For him , this new environment was nothing less than West, and yes ,the adjective “alien” was befitting for that place as far as he was concerned. He was amazed , shocked , frustrated and traumatized to think that the placed which he had such high regards for , for which he sacrificed his 2 years just to get into, could be as haunting as it has been for him.After a week , he had just one thought in mind, “1 gone , 207 to go”. But frustration was no solution, nor was anger , and the fighter that he was ,he could see just one solution to this problem ,and that was “resilience” and moving forward. He took the pain , and carried on . He changed himself and when the time was appropriate ,he tried to change the world that surrounded him. Feelings changed, people around him started looking at him differently and by the end of the year he had pouched many a jewels in his tiny pocket . He used to call them his “Friends” . And suddenly everything was falling right into places. All his old days glory were back. The giggles at night, the parties, the addabaaji, the “dekh lenge” attitude, the debates and yes which were very seldom on meaningful topics were a common phenomenon. The charmer had just found his charmland.
In his whole approach of providing companionship, sometimes his self-interest got a beating. But who cares, there’s always plenty of time for one’s self, at least that was what he was thinking. But in this whole Dolby time of yaarana or dostana or whatever you may call it, he forgot a major issue which he thought about latter “What was the MAN thing that Dad told me about”. He had absolutely no idea that solution to that problem was lying somewhere else.
Spinal Cord, they say is the organ that controls your senses. That why it’s included in the “parts of brain” category. Cancer, is some thing which the dictionary describes as “a disorder which arises due to abrupt growth and decay of living cells” but trust me, it’s a lot dangerous, haunting and grievous than what the dictionary says. So, what if a person has cancer in his spinal cords? The boy may not have the answer to his dad’s question but he certainly has for this one.
Because as he was sitting nervously in front of the Doctor’s chamber which he had gone to complain about a minor backache and was expecting the Doctor to prescribe a regular doze of anti-biotic, the Doctor had some other plans. “I have to carry an endoscopy of your spines”. Though the engineer was quite alien to these biological terms, but endoscopy was certainly listed in his dictionary as a diagnostic test for cancer. The endoscopy results came and the inevitable was there in front of the Doctor on a piece of paper. The boy had cancer in his spinal cords.
After knowing the fact that the disease was in a stage where no resilience, no strength and no fighting spirit could tarnish it, the first words that came out of his mouth were “Don’t let anybody know this” . The boy has finally had the solution for his father’s puzzle. The guy who went to the college as a boy, is finally a MAN now.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction .Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely co-incidental.
Dad replied “Go ahead Son..the whole world is for you to conquer” . And there you go. The boy starts his journey of becoming what he had wished. As was expected ,the start was for everyone to see. Its an old saying that the road to hell has the doors of heaven in the pathway. The boy gets good marks in the competitive examination and here he is ,starting the journey as his Dad tells him “Son , you are going as a boy , expect you to come back as a Man”.
Its believed that people from East suffer a lot in the western countries as things are supposedly quite different over there. “Alien” is normally the adjective given to such places. For him , this new environment was nothing less than West, and yes ,the adjective “alien” was befitting for that place as far as he was concerned. He was amazed , shocked , frustrated and traumatized to think that the placed which he had such high regards for , for which he sacrificed his 2 years just to get into, could be as haunting as it has been for him.After a week , he had just one thought in mind, “1 gone , 207 to go”. But frustration was no solution, nor was anger , and the fighter that he was ,he could see just one solution to this problem ,and that was “resilience” and moving forward. He took the pain , and carried on . He changed himself and when the time was appropriate ,he tried to change the world that surrounded him. Feelings changed, people around him started looking at him differently and by the end of the year he had pouched many a jewels in his tiny pocket . He used to call them his “Friends” . And suddenly everything was falling right into places. All his old days glory were back. The giggles at night, the parties, the addabaaji, the “dekh lenge” attitude, the debates and yes which were very seldom on meaningful topics were a common phenomenon. The charmer had just found his charmland.
In his whole approach of providing companionship, sometimes his self-interest got a beating. But who cares, there’s always plenty of time for one’s self, at least that was what he was thinking. But in this whole Dolby time of yaarana or dostana or whatever you may call it, he forgot a major issue which he thought about latter “What was the MAN thing that Dad told me about”. He had absolutely no idea that solution to that problem was lying somewhere else.
Spinal Cord, they say is the organ that controls your senses. That why it’s included in the “parts of brain” category. Cancer, is some thing which the dictionary describes as “a disorder which arises due to abrupt growth and decay of living cells” but trust me, it’s a lot dangerous, haunting and grievous than what the dictionary says. So, what if a person has cancer in his spinal cords? The boy may not have the answer to his dad’s question but he certainly has for this one.
Because as he was sitting nervously in front of the Doctor’s chamber which he had gone to complain about a minor backache and was expecting the Doctor to prescribe a regular doze of anti-biotic, the Doctor had some other plans. “I have to carry an endoscopy of your spines”. Though the engineer was quite alien to these biological terms, but endoscopy was certainly listed in his dictionary as a diagnostic test for cancer. The endoscopy results came and the inevitable was there in front of the Doctor on a piece of paper. The boy had cancer in his spinal cords.
After knowing the fact that the disease was in a stage where no resilience, no strength and no fighting spirit could tarnish it, the first words that came out of his mouth were “Don’t let anybody know this” . The boy has finally had the solution for his father’s puzzle. The guy who went to the college as a boy, is finally a MAN now.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction .Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely co-incidental.
Changing values of friendship
One of the most over used word in English, a word that's probably applied for the maximum no of people in this world is 'Friend'.We talk about evolution, well this word has certainly passed the test of Natural Selection seeing the way this word has evolved with the changing times.
Rite from the days of Mahabharat, when a guy named Karn fought till his last breath for his friend, n that too aginst his own brothers, to the days of the Dark Ages when Joseph II chopped of his own head for his friend Alfred ,fulfilling his last wish to see how his friend's skull looks like in isolation, friendship had a much deeper meaning than what actually the dictionary suggests.
But this is the 21st century, the "modern" era so as to speak.In this age there is a special 'tadka' attached to this word increasing the complexity of the term.Friendship now, has lost the basic virtue over which the term was coined, selflessness.And not only has it lost this term, but it has been replaced by something which is quite contrary to the original.In the era in which everything comes with a price tag and certain limitation, the term friendship certainly hasn't been immune.You use a guy for your amusement, treat him well at times, ask for advice when your schedule permits , but as soon as a time comes when you have to compromise your own interest for him, bang.. end of the sequence.Today, even George Bush and Tony Blair are friends, or for that matter India and Pakistan. Tell me something sir, how many times has the term mother been used for describing diplomatic relationship between countries or people, so who has given them the right to derrogate the term 'friend' by using it in contexts like these.Now, in a way thats not their fault. The culprit lies within us.How many times has it happened to us that until and unless he says something , we cant judge what he is feeling.Why do we need to go lower when the 'eyes' should speak and understand. How many times has it hapenned that we sit in our room and doing nothing else but to think which act of mine can bring some happiness to him.This was not the way it used to.
Mind you , all these feelings do come , when you have a prefix attached to the word friend.Yes you have guessed it absoloutely correctly. Those prefixes are the most famous common nowns known to man."girl" and "boy".Its a pity that we people today have narrowed our mind to an extent where our whole thought process is jeopardised by the thought of opposite sex.
But may be thats the need of modern era.To make your work easier, to have a co-ordinated environment, meanings have to be modified, and the sacrificing nature that this relationship has, Friendship has to be the first one to be crucified.
Rite from the days of Mahabharat, when a guy named Karn fought till his last breath for his friend, n that too aginst his own brothers, to the days of the Dark Ages when Joseph II chopped of his own head for his friend Alfred ,fulfilling his last wish to see how his friend's skull looks like in isolation, friendship had a much deeper meaning than what actually the dictionary suggests.
But this is the 21st century, the "modern" era so as to speak.In this age there is a special 'tadka' attached to this word increasing the complexity of the term.Friendship now, has lost the basic virtue over which the term was coined, selflessness.And not only has it lost this term, but it has been replaced by something which is quite contrary to the original.In the era in which everything comes with a price tag and certain limitation, the term friendship certainly hasn't been immune.You use a guy for your amusement, treat him well at times, ask for advice when your schedule permits , but as soon as a time comes when you have to compromise your own interest for him, bang.. end of the sequence.Today, even George Bush and Tony Blair are friends, or for that matter India and Pakistan. Tell me something sir, how many times has the term mother been used for describing diplomatic relationship between countries or people, so who has given them the right to derrogate the term 'friend' by using it in contexts like these.Now, in a way thats not their fault. The culprit lies within us.How many times has it happened to us that until and unless he says something , we cant judge what he is feeling.Why do we need to go lower when the 'eyes' should speak and understand. How many times has it hapenned that we sit in our room and doing nothing else but to think which act of mine can bring some happiness to him.This was not the way it used to.
Mind you , all these feelings do come , when you have a prefix attached to the word friend.Yes you have guessed it absoloutely correctly. Those prefixes are the most famous common nowns known to man."girl" and "boy".Its a pity that we people today have narrowed our mind to an extent where our whole thought process is jeopardised by the thought of opposite sex.
But may be thats the need of modern era.To make your work easier, to have a co-ordinated environment, meanings have to be modified, and the sacrificing nature that this relationship has, Friendship has to be the first one to be crucified.
Beginning of the End!!
This is the introductory blog of the many to come describing the final phase of probably the most significant journey of my life.
It’s our final semester and we have all assembled here to the place which is described by some people as a mere hostel, for others it’s an adventure playground and for a very conservative minority including me ,It’s a planetary asylum .I say so because this is indeed like a rebirth on the planet.
Everybody knows that the fairy tale is about to finish. But as is the human psychology, we tend to realize at the very end. Because as I am sitting in front of my computer, busy writing, I can see people busy with their lives, doing things that interests them, stuffs which pleases the nerves running inside their body, completely unaware or ignorant if I may say of the fact that this probably is the last time when the flocks can move together, when the fleet could chirp together and definitely when the friends could live together. Unfortunately for most of us it’s the same common story, we realize at the very end. For most of us putting value is about crying for the other one in the future than enjoying with him in the present. And then as always we realize, to what extent we can go for getting an extra hour before departure, getting one more session of laughter before we part ways, and getting just a little bit of time more to convey those things to our friends which we never actually said in the past. And that my friend, is called realization. The question remains why we have to carry the abominable and lousy legacy of realizing at the end. Why can’t we just realize now, that for the fleet of birds to chirp together, each one of them have to open their mouth simultaneously? That gentlemen, is called togetherness. That is bonding.
It’s our final semester and we have all assembled here to the place which is described by some people as a mere hostel, for others it’s an adventure playground and for a very conservative minority including me ,It’s a planetary asylum .I say so because this is indeed like a rebirth on the planet.
Everybody knows that the fairy tale is about to finish. But as is the human psychology, we tend to realize at the very end. Because as I am sitting in front of my computer, busy writing, I can see people busy with their lives, doing things that interests them, stuffs which pleases the nerves running inside their body, completely unaware or ignorant if I may say of the fact that this probably is the last time when the flocks can move together, when the fleet could chirp together and definitely when the friends could live together. Unfortunately for most of us it’s the same common story, we realize at the very end. For most of us putting value is about crying for the other one in the future than enjoying with him in the present. And then as always we realize, to what extent we can go for getting an extra hour before departure, getting one more session of laughter before we part ways, and getting just a little bit of time more to convey those things to our friends which we never actually said in the past. And that my friend, is called realization. The question remains why we have to carry the abominable and lousy legacy of realizing at the end. Why can’t we just realize now, that for the fleet of birds to chirp together, each one of them have to open their mouth simultaneously? That gentlemen, is called togetherness. That is bonding.
Life at 5:30
I thought the day before and I thought yesterday and I am thinking even now, what keeps you going. Why are the human emotions so weak and so tender that they react differently in different situations? Why is that? Why does the heart pump faster when there are people around you and why does it sedate and goes to seclusion when you have no one around. Why does the weight of the eyes increase when it cant see any one in front of it if the value of “g” is same anyways.
Its 5:30 PM, a weekday and I am sitting helplessly in front of this screen who has taught me an important lesson. The term ‘who’ used for the computer is a very deliberate attempt to emphasize the kind of role that it plays in the lives of people like us at 5:30 Pm in our college. It may not have the heart and other parts of the human anatomy but it certainly does all those things which you expect from it. It plays the role of a teacher by educating you, plays the role of a friend by being with you in this boring period. Boredom is an evil which haunts you at this time over here.
As told by the great philosopher Allex Hudley:
“Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.”
How true a statement and By God never in my life did I think I can understand all that .Boredom is like a pitiless zooming in on the epidermis of time. Every instant is dilated and magnified like the pores of the face.
Every minute , every second comes in front of you , slaps you and ask this question “what a big looser you are”, that no job is good for you, no work lets you touch it , no person finds you comfortable enough to be with.
At a time when you are in a state where your own body which you have cherished and flourished over a such a period of time stops supporting you, there is just one thing that you need, no food helps, no serials materialize, even a Gambhir 150 wont do any good, at that point you just need at least one person to be with you, to understand you , to talk to you, to show you, that there is one, at least one who cares, who cares when your own body has betrayed you.
This however doesn’t by any way demean the people on the other side of the wall. They are right too. No body on earth has come with an extra buffer of life with them. Every one here has to do the stuffs in the limited period. They cant go on wasting their precious time just because the other person can handle his life on his own. That’s what Darwin said many years back. Its true even now. There’s got to be a problem on your side if you are facing the heat. That’s basic science gentlemen.
What I have learned is that there is an art to friendship just there is with all relationships. It's simple, to have a good friend, you need to be a good friend. Be loyal, kind, trustworthy, patient, humble and nonjudgmental. More than anything if you tell your friend you are going to do something, do it. If you can't do it have a damn good reason why you can't. So, for those of you out there with strong intimate friendships, cherish them, protect them, enjoy them, and more importantly don't take them for granted. Because one day, the other half of the friendship circle could get a wild hair, and flip out, and play their stupid card. To this I say "oh holder of the stupid card," think long and hard before you make the dumbest move of your life. Sometimes people do things, and lose people, and relationships in their lives that can never ever be replaced. They are usually one of a kind relationships. So before you make the final decision to go through with this ultimate act of betrayal, just know that this just might be it for your antics, the true "coup de gras." You just may be losing the person and or the relationship forever. There may be no turning back.
But as is the case with every Dark Age, there comes a renaissance, a renaissance full of thought, imagination, new ideas and definitely with much better prospects, that’s because God created us little differently.
Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination. Its just that you have to understand the difference , and make use of it.Unfortunately for most of the people they are better of as monkeys, because anywhere you go, you will see monkeys and never a monkey.
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