Redemption

It was last week when I happened to catch up “The Shawshank Redemption” on Movies Now. It was the third time that I watched this movie (my personal highest is Gladiator-5 times and The Bourne Ultimatum-5 times). Every time I watch this movie there is an upsurge of innumerable thoughts inside my head, thoughts which rise and burst like the tiny bubbles of water after a torrential downpour. Perhaps, the past few weeks have been pretty hard for me and “The Shawshank Redemption” was the perfect thing that indeed brought some semblance to my otherwise chaotic inner-self.

Lately, I have this feeling that everyone reaches a point in his life when he/she tends to lose control over his/her thoughts. There is a crisis of faith in what one has believed in for so long. These are the times when one really needs some words of comfort, words of encouragement, or a simple but comforting pat on the back, just telling you that you are fine, helping you to reinstate that lost faith. For me “The Shawshank Redemption” did just that.  Those platinum words of Red are still fresh in my head. “I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged; their feathers are just too bright to be caged. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more grey”.  Every time I reflect upon these words I feel liberated, a feeling which is much more profound than just being happy. A realization dawns upon me that how much important it is to respect others freedom, how much important it is to just rejoice in the glories and happiness of our near and dear ones, setting every other thing aside. Perhaps, that’s the best that we could do from our side.

Another lasting effect that the movie had on me was helping me to reinforce my belief in the concept of hope, for Andy Dufresne so rightly puts it “Hope is a good thing; perhaps the best of the things and no good thing ever dies”. Giving up on something that’s close to you, or a dream that you have been chasing for so long is perhaps the toughest thing in the world. It’s the hope that keeps you going, that keeps you thinking, that acts as a stimulus to catalyze your actions, that shows you the way out of that proverbial dark tunnel. I once again “Hope” now, hope that sooner or later I will have things the way that I have always wanted them to be, hope that I will make it to the end of the tunnel and witness the resplendent colours of success, hope that I will never give up “Hope” for it is certainly the bestest of things ! 

A-Z

Think of the places that you have been till date, or the people whom you have met till date, or the things that you enjoy doing or even the things that you hate doing, recall the instances that filled you with joy or even the instances that turned out to be heartbreaking, recall the song that is always in your cell phone’s playlist or a movie that you can watch for n^th number of time. This blog is nothing but a collection of all such wonderful places, people, things and incidents in an A-Z form. The list is certainly not an exhaustive one, for the reason that I realized only while writing that had I put a hundred more things I still would have missed out on many. I just hope that if in future I venture into such an act again my list just continues to be a never-ending one. So here goes the list:-

Andres Iniesta.......for the most tragic as well as the most joyous moment of my “football viewing” career (the former refers to his goal against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals and the latter refers to his goal against the Dutch in the World Cup finals).

Balrampur.......for the countless memories associated with it.

City Montessori School.......for making me the nerd that I am today.

Delhi.......for the recurring feeling that I don’t belong to this place.

Engineers India Ltd.......for helping me to restore some faith in myself when everything seemed to be going a wrong way.

FIFA.......for being the awesome-est-est game in the world.

Gmail.......for reasons already stated in the previous blog.

HIMYM.......for the legen.....wait for it.....dary Barney Stinson.

IIT Roorkee.......for bestowing me with, undoubtedly, the four best years of my life.

June.......for the celebrations that it brings with it every time.

Kota.......for showcasing before me, for the first time in my life, a life-size     3-D picture of the world around.

My Dying Laptop.......for staying alive.

Music.......for always being there when no one else is.

Nothing Else Matters.......for those divine lyrics and music.

OED (Offshore Engineering).......for being the sole reason of my continued interest in the field of engineering.

Punjabi By Nature.......for the lunch that wasn’t just a lunch but an experience.

Q......Perhaps, for the reason that I coudn’t  think of anything with Q !!

Rohtang Pass.......for snow-snow-snow and some more snow and only white snow.

Shaktiman......for those awesome days when I planned to bunk the school to witness the heroics of Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri.

Tendulkar.......for everything that he has done for the game of Cricket.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.......for an opportunity missed.

Video Games.......for my favourite characters Mario and Lugi.

World Cup’2011.......for We became the “World Champions”.

X–Men First Class.......for being the best X-Men movie till date.

Youtube.......for being the best thing ever after TV.

Zee Horror Show.......for being the only Horror Show to scare the hell out of me.

A Phenomenon Called Gmail

So how do I put it? What was it that struck me? Was I surprised? Or Was there a sense of disbelief when I received that phone call. It was a bright sunny morning and I was just getting ready for a day’s hard work in my cosy cubicle, browsing some customary “Good Morning” and “Have a Nice Day” e-mails, doing the needful by forwarding few to the hallowed spammers expecting to get some meaningful mails in return and sipping what I often regard as the most talked about and discussed beverage of all time, Coffee, when my cell phone rang. It was a landline number, certainly not in my phonebook. As a general protocol for these situations I tend to ignore such calls, thereby depriving myself of an opportunity to make new-friends-for-latest-gossips, or even an opportunity to unfold my future, or even buy a fancy property in some far far away land, and more recently an opportunity to do my MBA from some Top Management Institute of North India. Instead of following the aforementioned protocol I decided to attend the call this time.

It was the naughtiest of voice exuding energy. “Hello Sunny Dadda” were the first few words and were just enough to recognize who it was; Monu, my eight years old cousin was on the other side of the line. Now, I have always found it easier to strike a conversation with kids than I do it with adults and with Monu it just gets a bit more easier.

“Hello Sunny Dadda”, that’s how he started and without even waiting for me to respond he continued and said  “I have created a Gmail account and from now on I expect you to mail me daily”. Finally getting an opportunity to speak I assured him that I would be doing the same (which unfortunately I haven’t been doing) and then asked him how he is, how is everyone else, studies, cricket, Chikki and Shivansh (my other two cousins) and other umpteen things. He told me about everything and then said that he would talk to me later as he had to finish his homework.

As I hung up my mind raced back to the start of the conversation “A Gmail Account”. There was a feeling of amazement over the fact of an eight year old kid having a Gmail account, although the very fact made me happy. If I remember correctly it was only in the first year of my college that I started using computers on a regular basis. Late Mr. Orkut was a new buzzword at that time and Gmail had an aura of exclusivity attached to its name. The reason being it wasn’t open to all. Anyone who wanted to be a part of this esoteric community required an invitation from another person, and there was also a limitation on the number of invitations that a person could send. I somehow managed to receive an invitation from a friend of mine and finally created a Gmail Account. Although I had a Yahoo as well as a Rediff account earlier, but being a part of an exclusive Gmail community filled me with a sense of pride. It was indeed the start of a journey. One thing that separated Gmail from Yahoo, Rediff or any other webmail was the feature of a chat enabled mail box, wherein one can check his/her e-mail as well as chat at the same time without requiring an additional messenger for the same. Apart from that, Gmail has always been commercial free giving it a much refined look. With the addition of more user friendly features, today Gmail has become almost everyone’s favourite.

For yours truly Gmail has always been a trusted companion acting as a bridge connecting him to all his near and dear ones. Wherever I went, in whichever part of the country I had Gmail. Perhaps, there have been an umpteen number of indelible memories associated with Gmail, some good, some bad but all worth remembering.

As I see it today, the exclusivity is no more intact, there is no sense of achievement or pride in having a Gmail account, but the Google Mail has indeed taken over the masses with the tag of being the most user friendly web based email service.

As far as I am concerned my enchanting journey of Gmail continues and now I have two more people, Monu and Chikki, to accompany me in this journey. May they have their best of the times using this superior e-mail service!

Rio & Jewel !

The inspiration that I had for this poem came from two lovely birds, Rio and Jewel, from the recent movie Rio. The movie was infact my first 3-D experience and it turned out to be a great one. The beginning was so colorful, the vibrancy, the charm, breathtaking sights of picturesque Rio de Janeiro, the lively Brazilian samba, everything was just mesmerizing and captivating and kept me glued to my seat from the beginning till the end. The only thought that came to my mind when I left the theater was "If I were your Rio and you were my Jewel..." and what followed next goes like this :

If I were your Rio and you were my Jewel,

We could fly high, up above the sky,

Witness the clouds swell, and the nature just revel,

Feel the soothing breeze, putting everything at ease,

Watch the giant sun, spreading colours of fun,

Feel the lovely moon, wishing night to not end so soon,

Dive into the seas, feel the waters that freeze,

Listen the trees rustle, forgetting times we had a tussle,

Climb the lofty mountains, and capture the loveliest of fountains,

Fly into an alien land, as wonderful and mystique as Peter Pan’s Neverland,

Lovely, indeed, it would be, with you by my side,

Happy, indeed, I would be, when together we take a stride,

Bright, cheerful, happy and everything would seem so well,

Only If I were your Rio and you indeed my Jewel.

100 days

Well the name of this post reminds me of the riveting Bollywood thriller starring Madhuri Dixit and Jackie Da and also one of its songs which till date serves as a classic cliché for all of us “Gabbar Singh Yeh Kehkar Gaya....Jo Dar Gaya So Mar Gaya”. True Indeed !

But to be honest this post bears no resemblance to the aforementioned movie or even the song, though I wish I had that magical ability to conjure up such thrilling scripts catching the imagination of my dear readers. Without digressing any more, 100 days here refers to the longest hiatus in my blogging history. A time span even longer than the duration between two Aamir Khan movies !!  Errr, a matter of concern or a thing to pride ??

Well to be frank I only wish those 100 days were just as thrilling as the movie itself, or even if not thrilling, then indeed not as prosaic as they have been. Monotony is what filled up that vast space frame with splashes of excitement and celebrations filling up the voids. If it was the Office-Home-Office-Home schedule that formed the monotony part, then it was the 31^st December celebrations, the regular departmental parties, the occasional visit by a dear friend of mine, the sporting month of February, the eventful month of March with Holi celebrations back home and those never-ending-ever-so-wonderful conversations with the dearest friend of mine that added some colours to the otherwise grey canvas of life.

How many times did I introspect as to what I was and what I am now in the past 100 days. A different person all together or the same person responding differently to different situations. Well the later seems more befitting.  Perhaps, there also have been many worthwhile lessons to learn in the past 100 days, the prominent of them being to have control over my emotions, to letting things go when they are not worth it, to believing in only what your eyes see, to always being honest to yourself and going hammer and tong for things that I believe deserves all that I can give.

Now to venture into the finer details of the events of past few months let’s start from the start.

January, 2011 the month when my frustration level peaked to its maximum owing to the tedious nature of work which plagued my daily schedule. As I retrospect today I believe it was that particular period that helped me to realize the importance of learning from scratch, deriving something from nothing and understanding the importance of believing in yourself.

Then came February, 2011 the month which saw the cricketing giants battling it out for the “Cup that Counts”. From pre-match cricket shows featuring the ebullient Siddhu, the fluent Harsha and the effervescent Sourav Ganguly to selecting players for my Fantasy League Team, the World Cup turned out to be the best thing to happen and I enjoyed every bit of it.

February was followed by the month of March, the month which certainly brought with it some moments that will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life. There were moments of discomfort, moments of anger, moments of regret, moments of relief, moments of excitement, moments of disbelief, moments of silence, moments of playfulness, moments of happiness and umpteen other moments that indeed made March a month to remember.

Well, the month of April is only in its incipient stage and we have already witnessed the biggest spectacle of our lives, Team India becoming the “World Champions” in Cricket. I just hope that the days to come would be just as exciting as the days gone-by.

For the time being just rejoice in the Glory of Team India !!

Adios !!