Its always about the people and the city...

“When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it...” ...You just need to figure out what you want and if you really do… People ponder over different things and they have opinions about them-like all of them! Its like "not again man!" Everyone has an opinion on Cricket, God, harry potter, Mumbai vs Delhi, love... I have refrained from saying anything on these because frankly I won’t have anything new. But I guess, I will do that, one by one for each of them. Its my need to narrate… I pick up love first. I did that because I actually picked it up first from amongst the list. Bah I am not defining, declining any idea of love, poking or bashing any behavior, establishing or challenging any theory. I am simply propagating my idea of love which so far has appealed to me the most- “There are ten thousand thing I can tell about what love is not, but not a single thing i can tell about what it is. Yes it happens on its own, for no reaso...

There are questions that don’t have an answer, there are questions that can be answered in as many ways as possible, there are questions whose answers are not known, and then there are questions whose answers don’t matter The cycle of birth and nirvana is stuck somewhere between the journey of unknown answers to the one where it doesn’t matter anymore. I think of nirvana and I think of Budhdha and wonder that he was a coward. I appreciate a lot of his teachings and views but all in all, the man failed. What man will leave an infant and his wife to seek ‘meaning of life.’ Yeah, he apparently succeeded and all that but you can’t ignore the fact that he failed in other things. Is that even commendable? To give up all your liabilities and ties is the first and most binding thing in life. If you can attain or seek purpose of life with that on, it is commendable, if you let go of every responsibility, all ties, I am sorry, I cannot appreciate. There are hundreds of examples of such people, t...

It came to me just like that, how arms are so important, the most vital part of us. You cuddle, you snuggle, you slap, you hold, you lift and curl up in cold- all arms and all hands. Now that I think of it, they are the most precise, most beautiful and most universal way of expressing emotions. Lets begin from the beginning of life. They say, a guy becomes a man in true terms, not when he falls in love, not when he takes vows for a lifetime but when he lifts his child for the first time in his arms. That 6-7 pounds of flesh when clutched tightly to the chest beats new rhythm in his heart and transforms him forever. What a mother’s scold, girlfriend’s banter and wife’s nag can’t do, a quiet, non complaining, non expecting hold does. What I think next is the swing by my parents. When I was old enough to be persistent and still young enough to not be persuaded, I would accompany them for night walks. Holding both my hands and walking on either side, I would ask them to lift me and swing. ...

"Don't Jinx it. Oh freak! I said it too soon. I don't wanna think about it already. TOUCHWOOD" Hard to find people who do not believe in superstitions at all. Lately it happened all the more around me. Excuse me if I am mixing religion with superstition, but they both share socks for more than half the mile. My office just moved to a new building. Each desk had luck bamboo plants and a miniature Ganesh. So a bird's view on the floor will encompass tiny Ganesh in yellow or red dhoti in front of each monitor! And if this wasn't enough, we started a new service for our client which needed new trading platform and dealers etc. This senior 'God fearing' guy got an Iskon photo of Radha Krishna...so we have a nice little God family in that area. Ganesh and radha Krishna...Marathi god meets Gujju one. I hope they get along well! And what is absolutely crazy is that i ordered swimming cap and goggles online as i had no time to go shop and needed them sooner. Wh...

It was dark in my room-usual dark with AC blanketing all sounds. Same like all days. I heard my phone go beep beep on battery low. I was trying to figure out the wire to charge it. That's how this piece came. I touched the USB ports and followed the wires to see if any was the right one- Photon, another phone cable, speakers. Eh. The one i want, like always, is not here. Then i was about to push myself to fiddle more in dark, or worse, get up and switch on the light when it strikes- let it be. Let it die a slow death, technically speaking just a coma before i will bring back life to it. I let that happen. Let's play this game. Switch off our phones for a week. No more no less. A full week. Imagine. No phones to call people to share taxi in morning or ask them to get something from office Pantry. The maid won't call to ask or remind anything and the people wouldn't know what time to expect you. No DND pain or promotional messages. Nothing. Its like a full stop to most of...

I am a compulsive thinker. My mind wanders all the time, particularly when idle. So this piece which comes from my thoughts while stuck in traffic today is no surprise to me. And that I was returning from a rather engrossing day at work did the trick too. I was sitting in an auto which i found after asking at least, if not anything, 25 autos and taxis. I saw it stuck on a stretch. It was pacing ten inches a time and then the light at distance will turn Red again. I saw meter ticking and out of boredom and habit made several different calculations around those numbers. It hit me how i am paying so much more for standing there. Then next second my mind, out of the bad habit given by my job, wandered to calculating how much more return one needs to make in each investment to cover this uncalled for cost. That's when the white fairy propped up from one shoulder and said "look at you! What's wrong with you. Of all the good things in life, you are thinking investment and returns...

LDR is an acronym which is often dreaded by the angry birds uh i mean love birds. Long Distance Relationship. I am writing about it for two reasons. One I needed a break from my travelogues, two i realized it was a topic where each one is entitled to their opinion. Now don't get me wrong. frankly i am none to comment on it, or for that matter on long-short-medium whatever relations whatsoever. But as i said, opinion matters. There are a dime a dozen stories of people falling apart when subjected to LDR's. Analyst in me says it must be at least 42% times the reason of why people separate. I have had, without being in one, two thoughts about it. First was that why do people crib over LDR's or be sad? As in, the part of being away and all is understandable, my focus is on operational bit. It is so freaking easy to run a relation when one is separated. Couple of phone calls a day and you are sorted. I understand the relation will not move any further or grow in the life cycle, ...