Dadhich Uvaach

About a year-and-a-half ago, on an evening like this, with nothing to do, I was sitting on a metallic park bench of a HDB unit in Singapore. Sweating. Due to humidity. And possibly also due to the enormous decision that lay in front of me. There was no wind - characteristic of a typical Singapore evening. Some kids playing on neatly manicured grass. Some other kids cycling on a well-tarred narrow cycling cum jogging track. Still others playing on the swings and slides atop a rubberized earth. Constant sounds of basketball dribbling emanated out of the adjoining basketball court where few shirtless teenagers were practicing the sport. Amisha was holding little Vihaan's arms and making him slid on a slide. Vihaan gurgling his excitement every time the descent started. "Let's go back home", shouted Amisha, "he's hungry". "Home is too far. Let's go back to our flat rather", I winked. She smiled. After a small protest Vihaan relucta

It was a special day today. For at least 2 reasons. 1. It was Amisha's birthday today. Yippie! Cakes, candles and celebrations! 2. Papa's retirement. Yippie! He enjoyed his job and now it's time to enjoy his life! A little sad feeling though for item 2 My father completed his service term and got retirement from his government job today. Papa will turn 60 in a few days. He was in this government job for the last 35+ years or so. He was in the same city, same office, surrounded with almost the same colleagues for more than 35+ years! Papa started this job in his early twenties. He was all alone then. Then, he got married to my Mom. After a few years the couple had my elder sister. A couple of years down the line they had me. And another few years later my younger brother. We all children grew up together in a small government colony where in all the employees of that government department used to live in staff quarters. Those were the best days of each of our lives.

So what's the minimum number of people required from a population to bring about a change? Most of the people may say "At least 50% or slightly more than 50%". If you also thought so then you are in for a surprise. According to a research, it takes only 11% of the total population to stand up to bring about  ANY change. Yes, just 11%. They studied all the major changes in the world, all the major revolutions and then arrived at this figure. They found that if at least 11% of population is in favor of something then the rest of it is more inclined to adopt the change. Isn't that a pleasant surprise? We often want to change some thing but don't move ahead because we are afraid that the majority may not be with us. So, the good news is we don't really require a majority. We just need 11% of like-minded people and once we get them and move ahead properly we can see the change happening very quickly. According to a survey, 48% of Indian population is with te

Living in Singapore makes me strangely nostalgic at times. And in those times, any thing related to India makes my heart skip a beat. I go into the past and relive those wonderful times I had in my homeland. And then there is a stubborn smile on my face. People ask me the reason for this smile and then I construct something silly, but which is in context. At some places it's better to be stupid than crazy. Because it's extremely difficult to put in words the feeling of crossing oceans and continents, driving past those crowded days and nights, zooming in to the narrow and criss-crossed memory lanes and picking up a memory and living it all over again and then coming back to present. Brings in a bit of motion sickness. I was travelling back to home yesterday evening. Weather was surprisingly pleasant and last rays of the setting sun were clinging on to the greens. Light breeze was swaying the trees gently. It's been some time using this route to home, but I seldom see any

I had heard so much about parenthood that I almost thought I knew what it means. Thanks to my friends and relatives and colleagues, with kids, who endlessly blabber about that "special feeling" of becoming a parent that I sometimes really doubted if they were all exaggerating. But now, after being blessed with a baby boy - Vihaan - on 4th January 2011, I feel that back then, I knew nothing about parenthood. And all those blabbermouths were not anywhere near exaggeration, in fact this "special feeling" can never be expressed adequately in words. However much and whatever is said and written about it will still be an understatement. Yeah, it's a great feeling, yeah it's a great happy feeling, but still it's so different from the "regular" happiness or any other happiness that I have ever enjoyed. I just love it and the only thing I want to do is look at my baby, in fact, hours just pass by and I just keep looking at him. Smallest of his smile

Another year has gone by. And yet another year is dawning. We will make more resolutions. We will watch more dreams. We will wish a better life - this year again! We will try to believe again that we've grown wiser this year, just like we used to believe that we've grown taller when we were kids. Only difference being, it was often true back then! 2010 was a good year for me. I managed to get out of the job I didn't like, to get the current job which is way better. I managed to find a few more good friends, revive contacts with some of the older ones and strengthen the existing bonds. Nonetheless, I also lost contacts with some of my friends and will surely work to revive those too. For me, the most happiest moment of 2010 was my father's birthday when we managed to surprise him by gifting a car. And it's kind of cute to see him diligently taking driving lessons at the age of 59. This blog has grown 1 year old now. This is the 10th and last post of this year

Came across an amazingly funny organization structure chart!! Can't stop myself from posting it..... Enjoy!!!! When top level guys look down, they see only shit;  When bottom level guys look up, they see only assholes...

So, why do we switch jobs? Why do we take the risk of moving out of our comfort zones and move into something unknown? Why do we agree to part with what's familiar and a well-known-and-well-rehearsed-routine? What makes us believe that the new job will bring us what the current job couldn't? Is it just an itch to do something new and challenging that drives us to a job hunt? Or there is something more to it? I am sure all of us who've switched our jobs at some point of time, know that it is stressful and not at all an easy decision. After all, haven't we spent a lot of time in our jobs building up the rapport with the office colleagues;  Haven't we spent a lot of time in understanding how things work in the current company; Haven't we done a great deal of work to prove ourself; And a job change will mean we will have to do it all over again. And to make the matters worse we need to prepare for long and technical interviews. Yes, it indeed is very difficult a

Continuing from where I left in the last post, let me write about some more melodious songs that I love to listen over and over and over. Yun Hua (Striker) : Again it's a Vishal Bhardwaj's composition, penned by Gulzar. Vishal has sung this song himself and his voice suits this song and it's mood. After a small prelude beats, the song starts with the words "Aur phir yun hua...." and from that moment it seems like a friend is continuing his story after the last pause. How he woke up from a dream and then couldn't sleep for rest of the night. Gulzar has again woven beautiful words: "Chaand ki wo dali ghul gayi" for he saw the moon fading away slowly & slowly and when he tried remembering the dream he couldn't ("khwab ki woh ladi khul gayi") and how it seemed like being awake for a very very long time. It's quite clear that this song is written and composed to be used as a background score and to that effect Vishal's voice pr

Some songs cling to me. They tag themselves to my heart. They are there with me in solitudes and in company. They come to me with the first ray of light and hang around at night in my dreams. I like humming them in trains and in restaurants. I keep playing and replaying them in my mind at my office desk and at home. I can hear them in the pattering rain-drops and in the sounds of the rolling sea waves. I can feel them in the warmth of sunlight and smell them in the stale winter breeze. Their vibrations, I can sense, in the chirps of old crickets and in the croaks of young frogs. I am trying to list down a few of them in this and coming posts. Here's the first one of them: Ab Mujhe Koi Intezaar Kahan (Ishqiya): This is a beautiful composition by Vishal Bhardwaj, penned by Gulzar, sung by Rekha Bhardwaj. The song starts with slow and soft piano notes and delightful guitar tabs interspersed. Rekha Bhardwaj's husky voice creates the lonesome atmosphere which is at the heart of

The other day, while   orkutting , I came across my school's group photo of the time when I was in IX grade. Looking at that pic made me so nostalgic. There were comments of the people in the pic mentioning about their whereabouts. It was so good to see how our lives progressed in last 15 years. Many of us studied in colleges, found jobs, switched jobs, switched professions, travelled to different countries and continents, found life partners, got married, had kids - and survived to tell the tale. While looking at that pic I tried recalling the names of those faces with which I had spent a long period of my life. It was quite a bit of exercise honestly. I tried reconstructing my life that was lived about 15 years ago and realized how different it was from what it is. Even my looks, my appearance, my preferences, my likes, dislikes - I have changed so much. I realized that people come in and go out of our lives. They existed before they came, and would continue to, after t

God is an introvert - a clever one at that. Evidently He never meets with people in person. Never speaks with them in words. Never comes out in public. Never arranges press conferences. Never argues and never takes sides. Doesn't make his address or telephone numbers public. And yet he is so popular! He always wants to remain obscure, so much so that some think He is aloof or doesn't even exist. He is enormously creative, meticulously thorough but obstinately reticent. His most intelligent creation - Humans - could understand the chemistry, mechanics and all the Science behind His creations but that clever dude never planted the "circuits" in human brain to let them know & understand Him or His world or even themselves. Do yourself a favor today. Step out of your home and behold His marvelous creations. Go and see for yourself any vein of a leaf or any drop of rain/speck of dirt on it, any feather of a bird or any petal of a flower, any fur of an animal or

So after a huge success of the last post  (before anybody protests, let me remind "success means different things to different people") and enormous public demand (I have the gift to read people's unexpressed thoughts) and having survived the TOUGH fast I am back with the part 2 of the Fasting and Feasting in Singapore. Let me start from where I left in the previous post. I slept with all my mind and house filled with the delicious aromas of the fasting dishes and happily dreamed eating those one-by-ones tastefully with the divine rhythmic chants of  Har Har Mahadev . In the morning, I was getting ready for the office when Amisha casually asked me about the address of the Lord Shiva temple so that she and her friends can visit the temple later. I will leave it to the Cricket connoisseurs to declare it a "clean-bowled" or a "stumped" as even after spending one-and-a-half years here, I have no clues about the whereabouts of "orthodox" sacred

Once you leave India, you leave many a things behind, a lot many in fact, which you keep missing every now and then. One such thing is the joy of celebrating festivals. In India, you know for weeks in advance which festival is coming up, the exact dates and times of pooja , the exact items needed for pooja and upvaas and start preparing for it leisurely. But in Singapore, it has happened to us many a times that we just called our parents or relatives to discover that they are busy celebrating some festival and we in Singapore have no clue about it. So, this time Amisha was quite conscious to not miss any of the teej-tyohaars and celebrate them in the best possible way in Singapore. She was doing quite well, but as it happens, she declared it on the night of 11th Feb, in her usual last-minute-but-cool-down-dude way, that we are celebrating Mahashivratri tomorrow. We will just need to fast for the whole day and pay a visit to a Shivji temple. Now, whoever has ever "casually&quo

I often wonder what makes some people stand out of the crowd. When do they realize that it is better to leave the warmth of herds, the safety of anonymity, the ho-hums of lassitude, the elations of irresponsibility, the tranquilities of aimlessness, the buoyancy of freedom and all the temptations of mediocrity. When do they decide to embrace the solitudes of success, the scrutinies of public eyes, the boredom of single-mindedness, the burdens of responsibilities, the obligations of power, the slavery of ambitions, the gracelessnesses of passion, the fatigues of perseverance and all the perils of excellence. When do they determine to disregard the ordinary and start toiling for that "extra" in extra-ordinary. And when they recognize that being average is being stagnant then do they also know then that excellence is nothing but a moving target and knowing this do they really choose without a second thought to move on for this elusive endless journey. I salute their spirits!

Though this is not my first attempt at blogging, yet I am feeling the same excitement and same enthusiasm, that I had felt while starting-up my first blog. I am feeling the same flood of feelings gushing vigorously to be sensed, acknowledged and expressed in the form of words. Myriad thoughts are flaring up into storms wanting to be released and rendered into endless emblems of black over white. I always had a flair for writing and about 2 years ago had started my first blog named "Dust Unsettled", in anonymity, under a pseudo name. I thought it would be more liberating to write things with no strings attached; it would be easier to say things that I always wanted to say with no identity affiliation; it would be comfortable to take a stance with a brand new personality, which had no past, no history, no form.  Boy, how wrong I was! I tried to run the show for almost 2 years without really ever feeling like running it. And that became the drawback. It proved more difficult