My Silent Musings

When I put an end to my Compulsive Social Networking ‘Mania’

2012-01-25T13:18:00.001+05:30

Should I call it a mania? Better you guys decide after reading this!

One fine day I woke up with a strange idea, and that was to deactivate my Facebook account for some time. I had no plans to hop-off the social network bandwagon, but really wanted a ‘normal’ life for myself for a few days, and wanted to start-off blogging and reading again, along with spending some time for some other things in life that I had almost forgotten for quite some time. The idea to shut-down the doors to social networking was due to the kind of compulsive social networking mania that I had for quite a long time, which took away my keenness in other things like reading and writing. I kind of felt a sense of guilt seeing my blog one day, and wanted to take up writing seriously and start off again with some good blog posts.

Facebook had almost taken away a good amount of hours from my post-work time, and I was all in to uploading pictures, writing on walls, adding friends, and trying all the possible stuffs that I could do on Facebook, kind of literally hooked-on to it. After buying a mobile with in-built Facebook settings, things went from bad to worse that I had to literally stop me soon from going on more towards the craziness of Facebooking. Given that all my friends from are permanently signed into Facebook, I was all caught up in Facebook obsession and never bothered to realize the ‘social-media fatigue’ taking a toll on my mind and body. High-time to put a full stop, and I did it!

After 1 month of hibernation, I logged in to my account to check if I had lost my craziness, and luckily I was no longer madder after social networking. And by that time I had almost lost my ‘compulsive Facebooking’ and had started off my blogging and reading again. Now I logon to my account less frequently than before, and don’t go for stuffs other than what’s really needed, literally maintaining a low profile.

During the one month that I vanished from Facebook, people kept asking me where I disappeared and called me crazy. But I'm glad that I took the right decision at the right time. Now I have more time to write and read, interact with people, do creative and useful stuffs, and even go to bed early. Now I also do so many things good for my body and mind.

I don’t know if this happens to everyone out there, but I am sure that at least a few people who read this blog would agree with me that social networking websites somehow take away a good amount of time from our days, making us more and more sedentary, entangling us in the world of World Wide Web. If you all start giving a serious thought about the time that you guys spend on social networking websites, I am sure you all are going to get shocked seeing the result.

Find Happiness in Small Things

2012-01-20T16:32:00.001+05:30

Right from Monday to Friday, the one thing that we all wait for is the weekend, to dump all those boring and tiresome works, to get away from those stress inducing works and deadlines, hurtful computer monitor, and irksome and gossip loving colleagues. I am no different from you all, or I would rather go extra mile when it comes to weekend planning, as I have been living in various hostels since the last few years. Weekends are times to be with my mom and dad. Well, if I am not planning to visit them I try to be in my room and hardly go out in the city. Yes I prefer being alone there. Don’t get me wrong, I have many reasons to say so. But I won’t be surprised even if you call odd, monotonous. For most of the people out, weekend remind them of hard partying, and travelling. I don’t want to say that I don’t like travelling, yea, I do, but only when my mind really wants. Otherwise I prefer being in my room.

My weekend is tad different those who believe in ‘Work hard and party harder’ theory. But I have a lot of things to make me happier on those two days. Watching a beautiful sunrise sipping my coffee, relaxing on my bed, enjoying a worth reading article or book, watching my favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons and Charlie Chaplin movies, taking long baths humming my favorite songs, a sumptuous lunch, a quiet afternoon nap, walking through the garden in front of my hostel in the evening, going to temples nearby, they all make me feel so happy and relaxed than taking long journeys and coming back to office tired and exhausted. Clichéd but it’s true that there’s of lot of happiness in doing such small things during weekends to keep me relaxed. Often small, and costs nothing, but the tenderness of those enticingly simple things make a world of difference and fill-in a lot of happiness in me. Always caught in my daily rushes, I make sure to safeguard my weekends, so that I can get zealously absorbed in my own pursuits and relish every moment of those two days. I am not sure how many of you will agree with my idea or try enjoying such small things, but give it some thought because such smaller things won’t cost you the world, but gives you a world of joy back.

Shake Your Legs and Swing Your Hips with a Flash mob

2011-12-23T19:03:00.000+05:30

A customary shopper in Chennai mall, or a passenger who waited in CST Mumbai would have popped up his eyes wide open seeing the sudden upsurge of energy in one or two people standing near him, as they started dancing suddenly for some blaring music that came out of the blue. Yes, even I did the same after watching the first Flash mob video, posted on YouTube. But taking people like me to more and more surprises, Flash mobs, the recent web sensation, are now becoming the talk of the country, inspiring more and more people perform Flash mobs in their cities. I was literally astonished seeing the video, but couldn’t stop admiring the group who managed to perform in CST, one of the busiest railway stations in India. The next moment I was all set to ‘Google’ about Flash mobs in India to find out the brain behind this interesting rather energizing act. I was surprised seeing 23 year old Shonan Kothari’s picture! Is that right? A 23yr old girl made Mumbai dance ‘Rang De Basanti’ in CST, and made the onlooker join them and dance to joy. Kudos dear friend! That was a worth appreciating act to make people know that there’s so much fun and enjoyment in aping the right part of western culture. Do you know why? A little research that I did gave me quite a lot of information about Flash mobs. They may be new to Indian community, but are very common among the westerners. Leaving the embarrassment of dancing all on a sudden at a public place, Flash mobs won’t do any harm, but entertain you and those few people around by infusing a lot of vigor and vitality. When Indians can dance to almost ‘anything’, why not dance oneself to happiness?

Flash mobs, even though are preplanned, would look like an impromptu public celebration for the people around, when one or two among a group would come out and start dancing to some foot tapping numbers from well known movies. This spontaneous public celebration actually has no weighty messages to convey, as it’s just to entertain people. Once started, it’s often seen that many people soon join the Flash mob dancers and become willing to shake their legs too. A dance, though not professional looking, that appears apparently out of nowhere with just 1 or 2 people, growing to hundreds, then quickly disappearing, Flash mobs will always give the public a joy out of surprise. If rightly used, Flash mobs can raise a lot of public awareness about some of the important crises that the world is facing. When it’s done in an entertaining way, messages would definitely reach public more quickly rather than making fruitless efforts to give a serious speech, or distribute some pamphlets that contain hard-to digest descriptions and thoughts. So I think we should ponder on this idea and make wise use of such energizing acts, to trigger immense joy and enthusiasm in us and people around, along with spreading some valuable information.

Hoping to see a Flash mob someday!

Can we all move on now, please?

2011-07-13T10:00:00.007+05:30

Hostels are stays with the least internalized understanding. This ticks me off the remotest chance of viewing the NEWS telecasted every day. Minty tinny shows of channels are the preference of lots and hence our TV blinks and flashes every moment in the very futile effort of multi channel viewing, with thousands of choices other than NEWS. The precious chances I get in the dry time is often spoilt by the off- late art of (hypo) critical discussions and analysis of topics by channels, which needs no relevance of their such video audio conferencing. It’s pitiful to see how media exploits certain incidents and use them for making cheap publicity. These horrid discussions at times force me switch off the TV at the very instant over a reflux.

Why is the media so obsessed? I would say discussing such incidents again and again, and showing those unpleasant footages repeatedly on the television would do more harm than creating awareness among the public. It would only aggravate things, when people sit in studio floors and keep on repeating how someone got killed/harassed, etc; describing each and every scene of that, as if they witnessed it.

I think I should rephrase and say exaggerating instead of describing because that’s actually what they do in front of the camera. Media has a kind of eccentric and shameful obsession for such cases, and the madness often break-off the all set limit when some of the public goes along with the ride, discussing these stories in buses, streets, parks and in every bit of stride.

One’s outlook is entirely different from another. A topic can take the meaning of his/her choice, be it right or wrong. But the media is now trying to make the viewers take, believe and swallow the interpretation of the topic by the discussing genius, who is left to travel only through a guided path that the higher-ups have set for him. This is brainwashing because the methods that the channels adopt are overt and the controlled environment is very obvious.

It is one's moral strength that informs and orders his power of reason; and without it the mind becomes little more than a recording machine waiting for imprints. This is what one looks like while watching the television discussions that happen these days.

The media now think that people have lost the ability to relate the images of their own brains, without television intervening to tell them what it means. Almost every comedy I see in these discussions is about people making all wrong choices and all the errors of judgment possible.

We have the right to make choices about what we should hear, where to look, how we want to feel about what's going on. But nowadays are left with little choices and are forced to listen to all these bizarre discussions for no sensible reason at all!

The print media too are madly in love with such stories. I really don’t understand what’s there in the mind of journalists while jotting down pages and pages of articles about those ghastly incidents related to these people that we the commoners want to forget and wipe-out from their lives. Don’t you think they all should move on and report something else; as there are a lot more things other than all these in our country and in this big world.

Are You Being Watched?

2011-06-14T17:06:00.011+05:30

Newspapers give some of the bizarre, yet though provoking stories these days. I happened to see one such today morning in one of the leading dailies. It was about a thief, rather a stalker, who stole the mobile phone of a young girl in the city. He later called-up her dad saying he has some of the pictures of the girl in the mobile phone, allegedly threatening to post obscene morphed pictures in the cyberspace soon, if he is not given money. Even though the thief was later caught by the police, there is one question that’s coming up in my mind again and again. Why are people still getting threatened in the name of morphing when everyone knows that a person of average computer knowledge can easily morph anyone’s picture in minutes? And the worst part, why this happens only with women? We hardly see a man threatened this way, or I should say no one is bothered when a man’s morphed photograph is published in the internet. But when it happens to a woman, a big hullabaloo is created or rather made unnecessarily . In most of the cases the victimized woman won’t even know that someone has taken her photograph and made a bad use of it. Still she is treated in a very bad way by the society and the public.

Have you ever notices something odd? Whether its website pictures or YouTube videos, you should be really lucky enough to see a page with morphed photographs of men, whether celebrities or commoners. In fact I have seen people going gaga saying ‘He is hot!’, when they see nude or semi nude men’s picture in websites. But try for a woman’s picture, the list that you get will be endless. I do agree that there are certain websites where models meant for such purpose do agree to be clicked. But what about some of those innocent victims whose pictures are getting posted unknowingly?

Of-late I read an online article where it was said that a girl's morphed photograph was uploaded it on various porn websites along with her mobile phone number, when she rejected the proposal from a guy whom she met through a well-known social networking website. Soon-after she started some telephone calls from strangers who took her to be a prostitute. Upon enquiry, they told her that they her information through various porn and social networking websites. Finally she had to file a complaint and the guy was arrested.

You can see a lot of men in bus stops, parks, railway stations, inside trains, and restaurants who cunningly take pictures of women using mobile cameras. According to statistics, more than half of these photographs are getting morphed with nude pictures, later getting uploaded to various porn websites. No one even bothers to stop such rogues from doing this heinous crime , not even our so called ‘highly dedicated’ police officials. Had there been a vigilant watch on these nuisances happening around us, such pictures would not have filled-up the cyber space destroying the life of many innocent women!

Monsoon Musings

2011-06-09T12:33:00.005+05:30

I haven’t updated my blog since April. To be frank I didn't get any interesting topic to write about. Plus I have had a handful of official assignments in the last couple of weeks. They took a major share of my days and left me worn-out by the time I reach the hostel.

Even after buying a laptop I couldn't find an interesting topic to jot-down. And still I am thinking about what I should write and trying to figure-out the best topic from a bunch of thoughts that I am pondering over now. But from the endless list if I am asked to choose one I prefer talking about rain. It is rainy season again!

Rain always brings out a mixture of emotions; some feel romantic, some others feel lonely, depressed and low, and certain others like me feel extremely happy watching rain or getting drenched. But rain does arouse human feelings, a lot of feelings.

The monsoon is never just one among those seasonal changes for me. It’s during this time I take time and enjoy even simple things. By simple things I mean the really simple ones like watching kids making paper boats and enjoying running around and playing in the rain, seeing the much serious mommies shouting from their houses ordering their kids to get back. Even now (that’s because I am 30, an age where I am supposed to have a serious life) I make paper boats and run out as soon as the rain stops to let them sail in the water.

Actually I love the pitter-patter kind of one than the heavy rain. Well, let me rephrase a little; when I am out on the streets I prefer the pitter-patter, but when I am near the window side I like watching both, sipping a hot coffee ( I know it’s the cliché again! But I am serious.) Make some coffee and yummilicious pakodas, take your favorite book, go and sit nearby your window enjoying the book, pakodas and the rain; you won’t get those blissful moments anywhere else I bet. Not even in your favorite holiday destination. We have a good balcony there in the hostel where we all gather for our post-dinner chit-chats. That’s the best place on earth to watch it raining outside.

Last week I had to attend the marriage of a colleague. The venue was about 40 Km from here and we all went in a bus that the company hired. I was the last one to get in to the bus and got the first seat, close by a window. It was a sunny day but rain started to pour out of nowhere right from the moment we started. Rain drops on my windowpane! I love drawing pictures on the window pane when it’s raining outside and during the trip I enjoyed good ample time drawing funny faces on the window pane.

It rains all the day now, but gets intense in the evening. All the traffic lines in my city get really longer during rain and I have to spend more time to reach my hostel. But I seriously don’t mind sitting in the city bus watching the pitter-patter outside. After getting down at our bus stop I have to walk for about five minutes to reach my hostel. With slower than the snail footsteps I take almost fifteen minutes to reach there when it rains and never tell my dear mom why I am late. Like any other caring mom, even my mom doesn’t like me walking around in rain. Sorry mom, but I love it! Sometimes I just wish I had a whole day to sit in my room and watch rain, and listen to the sound of raindrops as they hit my roof. Just the thought of it creates a peaceful sensation in my mind.

I love to just sit and watch rain but many of my friends don’t understand why I enjoy rain so much. I don’t think I can ever explain the magical and ecstatic feel that rain gives me. It brings in a lot of good memories that hug me tight making me feel that I have a lot of things to be happy about, to be proud about.

PS – I don’t see the samosa chaat walas these days. Seems the city officials have put a strict ban on street vendors. Or else the spicy and flavorsome chats would have increased the joy of watching rain! :(

Confessions of a vegetable pan roll addict

2011-04-07T12:22:00.006+05:30

Why is that bakery so close to my bus stop, making me literally salivate over those luscious pan rolls?

This is the question I have been my asking myself ever since I saw the bakery and started having their lip-smacking, 'seductive' vegetable pan roll. Once or twice in a week was my so called self-allotted ration in the beginning, but it slowly started increasing alarmingly because of my uncontrollable craving for pan rolls and rose so high to a level where I started having one pan roll every evening! Can you imagine? Almost 25- 30 pan rolls per month! Oh! I should not miss the amount of profit that they made out of my craving for pan rolls; almost 350 rupees per month. The pan rolls were so yum making me want them more and more that I hardly started bothering about money, the amount of unnecessary calories, the additives and preservatives getting in to my body. All that I could see from the bus stop was the spicy and scrumptious pan rolls dragging me towards them in minutes. Relishing those pan rolls thus started becoming a part of my day today life; draining my health and my pocket simultaneously. Sort of compulsive eating I should say! Or I should rephrase it as the result of sorrows of a foodie living in a hostel. Well, you all know how hostel food is! So pan rolls brought a lot of happiness for the foodie in me.

But within a short time the pan roll eating disorder slowly started showing its hidden monstrous face. I started getting stomach problems on a regular basis due to the higher amount of spicy content in them, which started upsetting my dad who never knew about my ‘pan roll addiction’. Thank god!

I somehow wanted to stop my pan roll addiction and obviously the only remedy was to stop buying it, but this wasn’t very practical in the beginning. Although I had made up my mind, there had been many moments in the initial stage when a particular trigger used to bring back my pan roll addiction and I used to unknowingly walk towards the bakery , buy pan rolls and have it. A distraction from this was really necessary and it was then I had to finally start taking a different route to my hostel, much way from the premises of the bakery so that I don’t even get a glance of the delectable pan rolls. I also started having fruits in the evening to lessen and slowly overcome my urge for pan rolls, to put an end to the kind of gluttony I had. It took time for things to settle down. Now it has been almost 4-5 months, and I won’t say that I completely stopped having pan rolls. Yea, I have it once in two weeks or so, but the glutton is no more alive.

Enroute to days without pan rolls!

Will there be a day, a world, without child abuse?

2011-03-09T15:31:00.004+05:30

Women's Day Or Women’s Inequality Day?

2011-03-08T16:15:00.007+05:30

Here comes another Women’s Day! I was just trying to rewind my memories to the college days, when we used to conduct seminars and discussions on Women’s Day. My thoughts about this day never used to go beyond those seminars and discussions; or rather I never took pains to know more. Like any other college student, that was just another day to escape from sleep inducing lectures. As any other student I too loved when a public holiday sneaked up.

To be frank even now I don’t like the way we take-in this day; the way we go gaga over Women’s Right and do absolutely nothing for it. It sucks at times. You know why? No one really bother to make any changes in the society.

I was reading news paper in the morning and found tons of write-ups about Women’s Day. When women can’t even walk safely why bother to write all these for formality or eye wash?

Let me take a step back and tell you something more. Less than a month before, an innocent girl was brutally raped and killed by a fellow passenger in a local train. As usual no one was bothered until the girl surrendered to death. The hullabaloo of political parties or their pre-election gimmicks too lasted only till her cremation and I bet no one will bother to go-over the issue again, until another one gets raped and killed. When women are not safe even in broad day light, what message are we trying to convey by these seminars and discussions?

Physical, mental and sexual harassments against women; I really feel men have taken them as their privilege now. Harassments happen everywhere; homes, offices, markets, malls, streets; literally everywhere! Many women even leave their jobs because of such intolerable harassments; be it from her colleague, boss or subordinate, the only resort for her is to leave the job.

I wonder why they can’t spare us while we travel. I have heard many of my colleagues saying about men who find fun in displaying their genitals in public places. People always look at the cops, expecting them to take action against such people and sadly most of them don’t do it. I travel every weekend to my hometown and meet a lot people during my journey. I have seen many women silently bearing anger and frustration when men purposefully press their pelvises against women’s body in crammed public bus and enjoy it. Even the fellow passengers will keep their mouths shut and won’t speak out that a woman is getting sexually harassed. The same happens when bus conductors find pleasure standing close to the seats of women passengers with their wicked eyes peeping in to women’s blouses. How brutal! And the ‘footboard romeos’, especially in private buses, I can’t forget them, another set of bloody f*****s.

How sarcastic it is to see the pompous Women's Day celebrations; when women cannot walk around the city without carrying pepper sprays in their bags!

Let me conclude with a news paper report.

In a country where fathers rape daughters brutally to death, why the hell should we celebrate Women’s Day?

When Stardom & Success Gets into Head!

2011-02-24T13:49:00.004+05:30

What exactly is there to be proud of?

2010-12-11T17:05:00.003+05:30

Should we say kudos to our politicians and business men who love cricket for the framing of another IPL army for a state lamenting for pesticide-free food, a roof for everyone, gutter less roads and primary sanitation facility? Should we generously praise the hard work of all those wonderful and broad minded people behind Kochi IPL for bringing cricket to a state were price hike and unavailability of food items have made life impossible? Should hands be clapped for the hard work and ‘sacrifice’ that honorable MP and other leading business men have done to bring IPL to a state that’s plagued with security threats and terrorist attacks? Should we all join and arrange a meeting to congratulate these wonderful people who made the hue-and-cry to bring IPL and cricket to a state where the list of political scams and corruption are endless? Thoughts started coming out one after another after seeing the news telecast in NDTV that discussed the confirmation of Kochi IPL team. The newscaster was literally going gaga over the team management’s efforts, and the honorable MP from Kerala was quoted saying that ‘sacrifices' made for the Kochi IPL team were worth it’.

One question to all these generous people! Is this our priority? Is this what we want now? No, we need a good and safe place to live in and not cricket matches. We need 'endosulfan free' vegetables , fresh air devoid of poisonous gases from factories, good living spaces, good hospitals, jobs for all, a state that's free of corruption and terrorist attacks. No cricket matches can ever fulfill these needs of ours.

The zeal that’s shown for making the ‘elite cricket team’ has once again proved beyond doubts that money weighs much than lives.

Shame on you all!

Chilling days inside a ‘refrigerator’

2010-11-15T11:23:00.003+05:30

I am having really crazy days with 8 hours of training sessions daily, to make myself more Google friendly. The news of the training session actually came out of the blue that I had absolutely no idea about what I could be ‘taught’. But thankfully it’s all about what I am familiar with, but in a little more explanatory way. The ‘marathon’ training session brought along with it many good things along with an ‘ice cold’ change for me, as now I am made to sit in a place that I can literally name ‘Antarctica’ or ‘refrigerator’. The people around me are so much in love with the centralized AC here that they will literally burst into tears if at all I switch off the AC. The temperature is so low that my hands and feet become ice cold soon. I, someone who is glued with sinusitis by birth, am a total misfit here now and carry home headache and dizziness every day, finishing off the tablets that I have stored.

My new habitat is mostly filled with guys who are ever set to make this place a ‘refrigerator’ Really freezing, like thousands of pins pricking my body and brain at a time. Killing headaches start in no time, with excruciating pain making me exhausted and angry.I always look at the ‘AC lovers’ here with surprise and wonder how they manage to concentrate and work in such chilliness.

Every time they start freezing our room, I will have to drag myself from my seat, go and switch off the AC. But of really no use! Seeing me switch it off someone will soon jump from his seat running towards the control switch of the AC to switch it on again. Poor me! All I can do is just show him a sad face, a last (hopeless) attempt to make him know about the brutality that he is going to do. But I am always failing miserably to convince the ‘chill lovers’.

Scandal obsessed Media

2010-10-20T16:04:00.003+05:30

Why don’t media and people get bored talking about the personal life of our celebrities? I really pity them for such mean discussions of no use! I think India has some good number of other relevant issues which are to be discussed, and not just bawdy gossips. But unfortunately Indian press; not just Indian but the world media never leaves such masalas behind.

I happened to see a leading online news website yesterday going gaga over a photograph in which an Indian cricketer’s wife is seen with a cigarette in her hand. A sensational piece of sale boosting stuff, they were really celebrating it, and were literally playing the role of morality preachers. I really don’t understand why media is so bothered about the personal life of someone when there are a lot more relevant issues in India to be discussed and sorted out. I don’t mean to justify the photograph or the person in it. No comments on that. But is that news really relevant? Should such news reports be published? I would say a big “NO”. If she wants to party she can, if it doesn't turn-out to be a public nuisance. Smoke or booze, it’s her life and media need not bother.

To be frank, celebrity news has now started rising above even the important world events. Media culture, both visual and print, has become really rotten! Many of us dismiss such gossips as harmless fun, but we should not forget that we are forced to consume those trashes thereby turning ourselves away from stuffs worth reading. Our media’s dangerous obsession with the personal life of celebrities always reminds me how boring and smutty the much celebrated news papers and the so called celebrated reports of veteran journalists have now become.

Almost the same hullabaloo was seen a few months back when an MP got married to a business woman. Our media tried really hard to dig out his two failed marriages and even conducted forms and discussions to analyze the failure. So obsessed with celebrity scandals! What if he marries twice or thrice? It is his life. Healthy criticisms related to his works as an MP can be appreciated and not derogatory remarks about someone’s personal life. The way the media ridiculed him was really gross. A man in his 50s wished for a good partner, what’s wrong in it? Why scorn him and his wish? Dear friends from the media, I think you have better topics to write about. Try and find them out!

Freedom To Write When Exploited

2010-10-04T13:08:00.006+05:30

Ayodhya: It’s Ramjanmabhoomi.

I was shocked to the core seeing this headline on the main page of a leading daily, after the verdict of Ayodhya case. By now you all must have got a clear-cut idea about the essence of the verdict and how judiciary managed to do justice to everyone through a really good verdict. The reporter of this esteemed news paper did sheer unjust to the verdict of the honorable court by publishing it in a very wrong way. Was it a purposeful act to create an unwanted controversy? I don’t know! But the much awaited verdict was totally misinterpreted and was given an unfair look by giving such a title & a controversy igniting explanation to add fuel to the fire.

I know very well that people perceive things in different ways and process and reproduce them uniquely. But this headline and writing style looks really ruthless resolutely written to set fire to wrong thoughts.

Everyone has an opinion, biased or unbiased. But publishing such reports in a national daily without thinking about the reaction of millions of people who read it is just disgusting.

People create articles and blogs and publish them easily in print or online to make their voices heard. But a wrong use of such facilities to create unbalanced reports that fuel radical thoughts should be curbed, or else the day when communal riots start occurring based on news paper reports is not far away.

Spitting All The Time And Everywhere

2010-09-20T16:40:00.002+05:30

A person spitting at regular intervals; can you see one such who is healthy but yet keeps on spitting for no reason? Yes, you can see one on the roads of India. It is a very common sight to see people spitting on the road. Every right is taken for granted here and so are the public roads where they feel they can spit or pee or do whatever they wish. Very relaxed and unconcerned of other people who may unknowingly keep their legs on it, such people keep on spitting from the beginning of their walk to the end, or may be till they have saliva in their mouth. The worst among this is the group of people who eat betel nuts. They keep on chewing these nuts even when they travel. The real tragic act would be someone sitting near the windows seat of a bus and spitting while traveling, without caring about people walking on the roads or those who sit behind him.

Just imagine that you are on the way to office, standing on the side of the road relaxed waiting for your bus. The bus arrives and as you are about to get in the bus conductor spits near to your leg. Yes, this do happen often as people have now started spitting anywhere and everywhere they find a space, be it the road, building, hoarding or even a boundary wall. I have always longed for a day when government implements some kind of penalty or warning for those who spit on the road, but seeing the present situation I don’t think any such change is going to happen in the near future. Just imagine how gross it is to see saliva all over the street! It is so sick to see people spitting everywhere on the road. And when you walk through narrow roads, this would become a big trouble.

Are you thinking about the sign boards and warnings placed by the government? The satirical part would be to see a person sitting near pictures & sign boards erected by our government. Yes, dear readers I have seen that too. It is really hilarious to see “NO SPITTING” signs stained by spits. Civic sense is all in speeches here and when it comes to practice I think Indians really don’t bother much. It will be the last thing to happen!

Well, I thought it this way too. What if we have spittoons on the road so that people avoid such yucky habit? I don’t really know if it can be made practical or not, but I really feel we can curb this and at least make sure that germs and illness doesn’t spread due to this bad habit.

Or will there be a day when government officials start offering free spittoons to get rid of diseases and germs?

Wish I had a remote control to manage their vocal cords!

2010-09-02T15:38:00.005+05:30

Work Ethics; does that sound too much heavy? Well, it isn’t really I think. Because all that I mean here is just the basic etiquette that someone has to have while working in a corporate world. At-least the manners to make sure that you don’t become a trouble for your coworker.

Clear communication, a proper interaction, good personal behavior, honesty, accountability, meticulousness, dependability and self-discipline are very much necessary even in the smallest business house. Among these I think personal behavior and self-discipline are the most important. These two life skills differentiate you from others and make you a good coworker.

While talking about self-discipline, I need to say this too. One among the thorny problems that I have been facing at work place is the difficulty in handling people who have no control over their vocal cords. People talk as loud as they can, laugh over stupid gossips, yell at their friends, make shady dialogues seeing a svelte & beautiful new comer, talk over phone aloud and later justify saying they were in ‘ highly official discussions’. I won’t mind the unnecessary chats if they don’t trouble me. But once these noises start intruding and harming works, even the saintly ones will get pissed off for sure. I am just a ‘plain Jane’!

A good working atmosphere is the basic necessity that every employee would ask for and I feel one has to be really lucky to get that. In my case I kind of started ignoring such ‘loudspeakers’ purposefully now. Why waste my energy ‘requesting’ to people who say content writers like me just ‘copy’ from existing websites and hence don’t need a good work space? ‘But friends, let me tell you all something. Being a ‘writer’ is not a crime and having some creativity is not a sin either. We too work hard to earn a living. If you feel that we writers just a ‘cut’ ‘copy’ ‘’paste’ and have no brains at all, you are highly mistaken!’

Wish I could make them understand this! But that’s where my lucky stars don’t support me. You know why? I am talking about a typical men's world were women are considered puny, and those who have an average idea of English language are the puniest.

Thus to be frank ‘loudspeakers’ do irk me a lot. But I make sure to give them a signal that they are not getting on my nerves though I really wish I had a remote control to manage their vocal cords!

Will I be lucky enough to get that? Yet to find out!

Why women walk behind men?

2010-07-21T10:30:00.000+05:30

I was on my way to office when I saw something that made me write this. A man was walking towards me and behind him I could see his wife carrying their kid, trying hard to keep-up with his pace. I was literally stunned seeing that the man didn’t even bother to look behind or even to walk in a slow pace so that his wife could walk along with him. Why does this happen? Why can’t he walk along with her or at least share the responsibility of carrying their kid? Poor woman! She was literally panting by the time they reached the bus stop where I was waiting. I have seen many situations like this before and always used to get baffled seeing those women who walk behind men. Do they think it as a mockery if a woman walks in front of they or even next to them? Why can’t they walk hand in hand which sweeter than having someone follow them? It will also give the women a feeling of care and love.

I have seen the practice of women walking behind men during weddings and always wonder why we do this. Why should women be always in the back and follow the man? This continues even after marriage. For men, they take it as their right to walk in front of women and not to bother her even if she is carrying a handful of heavy bags and their kid together. And women, they accept it as a man’s privilege and don’t even bother to question this. I find it ridiculous when women themselves consider as someone worth less than a man.
This practice has almost become a cultural norm, that I do not understand why even educated women do this? This is wrong! It degrades women’s identity and this is why people look-down upon women even in this 21st century.

Being a writer

2010-07-14T16:20:00.004+05:30

This post got triggered off when I heard someone making a comment that writing is not something which can be taken a serious profession, and one should always go for engineering or medical degrees or even law, to have a ‘safer’ career. Whenever someone asked me about my ambition even I never used to say that I wanted to become a writer. I used to have the stereotyped answer that most of the kids had; either a doctor or an engineer. But frankly speaking, I knew very well that I am not going to take up both. Those answers were just for the sake of avoiding the thunderstruck faces of my family and the society, especially those people who make faces when they hear about a person ho wants to do something different. Destiny had already planned something for me and I took up writing as my profession, something I always liked. I am not an accidental writer. Because despite all those stereotyped answers that I gave others, I always had a love for books and creative writing.

I always did whatever possible to read and improve my language skills. But I don’t remember having written much in my school time. I was sort of scared at that time to show my scribbles to others. I still remember how my teachers used to ask me to write, whenever they see me reading books. I didn’t actually have the guts to publish them. I used to feel that I need to grown-up a little more and wanted more time to brush up my skills. My high school teachers would probably laugh when they come to know that I write and publish my writings.

But believe me, I’m not someone who has read the works of all authors, past or present, because I don’t read books which don’t fit in to my thought process. And I never select books based on the number of prizes that it received. I have seen many people selecting books just because on the awards that it has won. Most of them even don’t bother to look at the topic discussed in it. I can tell you an example for that. Once I had attended an interview for the post of editor for one of the leading publishing houses here. The Managing Director of the publishing house who was proud of his bloodline, his MBA from UK and the voracious reader in him, asked me a lot of questions one by one, about books, reading and writing. I answered all of them. Finally he asked me about a Booker Prize winning book which I had not read. “It’s a Booker Prize winning book and you have not read it, shame on the reader in you!” said the to-be boss, sitting back sipping his coffee. I replied that prizes are not my criterion of selecting books. I read only if I am interested in what’s said about in that book.

I love to write about whatever I read about. My creative writing is about having fun by taking up a good, crispy writing style throwing away the hard and fast rules of writing. Be free to express yourself in the way you want with the language you have.

I am a content writer now, someone whom my company can program according to the arising needs. I have now started getting used to writing about every topic that I get. Plunking myself in front of a PC close to the main door of the office, I teach the world about beauty, dresses, travel, medical science, web design and a lot many topics, through my writings. But still I make sure that I select topics which I can handle.

A good personal entertainment that brings me a good sum of money every month, I don’t think you can find such a profession anywhere else in the world.

A great song worth listening to

2010-07-02T12:21:00.003+05:30

I happened to hear “Madhno” from the movie Lamhaa yesterday. Great composition & lyrics I should say and the singers have also done a really fantastic job, by singing the song with all the needed emotions. There is no overdoing in the whole composition and has no extra musical instruments, but only those which are needed for the song. I generally don’t prefer songs where a lot of musical instruments are played. It often kills the beauty of the song and the charm of the singer’s voice. But “Madhno” is really apt for my taste as it has all that I prefer in a good song. Something like “instantly likeable”, that’s what I can say about the song, as it infuses immense soothe and calmness in to the hearer’s mind and soul in no time. Soulful tunes and right lyrics along with an apt voice makes a good song and I think “Madhno” has all these in the form of Mithoon , Kshitij and Chinmayi. I am already a big fan of Chinmayi and her song “Varaayo Vaarayo” from “Aadhavan”. I am sure that this song will become another feather on her cap. “Madhno” has a slight touch of Kashmiri folk songs; may be because the story is based on Kashmir Valley. But this song has once again proved that a good song is loved better than blaring noisy music and meaningless lyrics that we hear these days. I couldn’t enjoy the song much in Mika’s voice. I didn’t feel it as mesmerizing as Kshitij’s. This does not mean that Mika’s version is bad. I just want to say that I prefer Kshitij-Chinmayi version than the other one. Altogether a smooth flowing song has been added to the list of superb tracks in my playlist like “Maula Mere”. I mentioned “Maula Mere”in particular here as the beginning of “Madhno” is more or less similar to “Maula Mere”. Do checkout for the song and enjoy!

Some weird realities

2010-05-31T12:00:00.005+05:30

There is nothing real about those ‘star studded reality shows’. The so called ‘reality stars’ engage in all sort of weird, scandalous and stupid talks and arguments throughout the show and literally make a hue and cry about even the smallest thing that happen in the show. Yet this has now become the underlying reason people to watch such shows, rather than the dancing or singing that are being conducted in the show.

Yesterday I happened to see a celebrity dance reality show. More than a dance show, I felt it should be renamed as a celebrity gossip show when I heard the host asking one of the participants about how she feels to see her ex-boyfriend as a member of the opposite team. I really don’t understand why such a question was asked in that show, as the question had absolutely nothing to do with the show or the acts that they perform there. That single question created a long ‘drama’ for about 10-15 minutes and also had some absurd music played in the background. How can they ask such a question in a TV show, and how come a person discuss that in a show just for the sake of money and ratings?

I was literally taken-aback or rather felt weird when I heard the hosts asking such stupidest questions and discussing about them every now and then. The cast and the crew were repeatedly saying that these were not pre-scripted and were not meant to raise public demand. The more they said, the more such acts looked funny and strange as they always made it a point to create some fabricated situations to ask such stupid questions.

I felt the very same weirdness when the participants cried for the silliest things that happen in the show. Do they really feel that the viewers will also cry along with them? May be some hardcore fans of the show, but definitely not all! I found it pretty hard to believe those delicate hearted people and their tears. It looked more or less like a decoy to increase the TRPs, as it looked really pointless to cry for such silly things that happen in the show.

Altogether the show was looking very much artificial and far-fetched. Is it the same with all the other ‘reality’ celebrity shows? If so, I really feel sorry for those who watch them with eagerness.

Please take a second look at yourself and your kids!

2010-05-21T12:40:00.001+05:30

“Hey! That’s the new trend!” I often hear this from my friends when I don’t become broadminded enough to appreciate the filmy costumes that they wear, even to their offices at times. I find it difficult to shower praises for such dresses which may perhaps look fine when I see it being worn by the glamorous babes of silver screen. But if someone wears the same in day-to-day life it’s not something I would really appreciate. Fashion trends should always be looked upon as per the situation and circumstances that we are in to, and not just our convenience and happiness. You can’t follow trends just for the sake of doing that. I would say that following something wisely is different from following it blindly, and many people now are blind followers of fashion, and this becomes really awkward when even children are made to wear certain ‘X-rated’ dresses in the name of fashion. I have seen many parents who make children wear skinny tops & short skirts and boast about how they follow the trendy fashion statements. Please do keep in mind that fashion statements and trends are to be followed but only after knowing the edge between decency and vulgarity. But it’s really sad to see that nowadays people are at times very strange in choosing fashion. It won’t cost the earth to take time to think about what’s that you can wear and what you can’t. You can find your own decent style rather than being a fashion victim.

Something related to this is the way kids are dressed up for some dance reality shows which are being conducted these days. Last week I happened to see a dance reality show where I saw a kid dancing to a Hindi item number. Barely ten years of age, but she wore a very short skirt and a highly revealing top. Her dance had very cheap moves which we usually see in films when a seductress dances to attract a man. Thank God! One among the senior judges in the show was sensible to stop her then and there and to advice her mother not to make her child do such cheap performances just for the sake of publicity. It’s really sad to see children dressing up & dancing like strippers. How disgusting!

I really want to ask something to those parents who entertain these. Why do you shoo your children on seeing women and men dressed in obscene way or doing any intimate scenes in TV, when you are training your kids to become one such in near future?

Blogging Ahoy!

2010-05-20T15:14:00.010+05:30

I was wondering why I am not writing anything these days. I had made up my mind to write something amid my work schedule but somehow couldn’t make it happen.

I never used to bottle up anything inside my heart, as I always used to write them in my blog. But when I had Shirley with me, I rarely had anything to pen-down. My blogging had to take a backseat as she used to be my wonderful listener. But now that I have to give her the privacy that she needs (she got married to her dear ‘chachan’ last month), writing is what I feel as the best option, like how I always used to.

But I think it is really good to have someone who can listen to you, and I have always felt that she is the best listener I have ever seen. After meeting her, even I too wanted to change a little more and be a better listener. There is a big reason behind this. When we have something bad happening around us, or when we don’t feel good, we need someone to whom we can share our difficult emotions. It is not at all for any sort of solutions, as most of us are smart enough to tackle our problems easily. But you would definitely long for someone to whom you can just share our feelings, or someone who listens and understands us and say a word of comfort in the most tender and loving way. May be in a few simple words, but those words have a lot to give. They make us really feel better and take us back to a stable state from where we can think about a satisfying solution to the baffling issue that we have.

To avoid uncomfortable feelings at work place or personal life is not easy. But we can tackle these challenging parts of our life with the help of a good friend. For me, my blog has always been my best companion. I used to bottle up everything inside my heart before, but later started to write in my blog. Comments, good and bad and at times worst and offensive, slowly started pouring in. I threw away the worst and offensive and accepted the good as well as the bad ones.

Then came Shirley, and I slowly started slipping away from writing a little, as I always had an opening to share my thoughts. Now that I want to give her the needed privacy, I have to depend on my blogging and will be writing about my happiness, turmoil and tensions again.

Some of my readers had commented very badly about my blogs, saying that I take this as a platform to give away my frustrations. But it’s not true.

I have to work my ass off the whole day; inexplicably tiring, yet I try my best to find happiness. Well, I know that it’s not a great thing as we all do work very hard, don’t we? But it’s difficult to handle selfish and backbiting corporate environment alone. Here it’s all about winning as much as you can, and how you achieve it is not an issue. You are always free to trample the hard work, dedication and emotions of others to get a quick victory. Back to hostel, I have my music system and my books to spend time. But I think writing is the best or rather a great thing that one can adopt, rather than ruminating all alone over repetitive thoughts. Why not share it with others???

So blogging ahoy!

A tragic tale with a realistic touch

2010-03-20T11:52:00.010+05:30

It was a Sunday afternoon & both I and Shirley were in her room talking about some random things. Actually we don’t run out of things to talk about but the afternoon discussion was about the movie ‘Fashion’ by Madhur Bhandarkar. I was kinda literally going gaga over the movie and the actresses who played the lead roles when Shirley started telling me about Gia Carangi, a name that I had never heard in my life. She began telling about the destruction of life & carrier of Gia Carangi, the movie based on her life and about Angelina Jolie’s praiseworthy performance as Gia. She really wanted me to see the movie & know more about 'Gia' before creating hype and hoopla over ‘Fashion’.

The next day was a little hectic but I managed to get some time during the lunch break as I was so curious to read about Gia. I found a few pictures of Gia from a website. Innocent face, seductive and erotic body, I am sure she might have been the photographer’s favorite during her days. But it’s sad that Gia’s life reached nowhere and she ended up as an AIDS victim at the age of 26. Although drug addiction is a hard to defend reason, I felt so sorry for her and her tragic fall. A needy and lonely woman left all alone amid riches that she hardly bothered about! What she wanted is the love and care that she hadn’t received all throughout her life. It’s sad that we most of us take the love, warmth and care that we get for granted whereas life people like Gia end-up longing for love.

After seeing the pictures of Gia, and reading about her sad story I really wanted to see the movie & the way Angelina Jolie has portrayed Gia. Shirley had told me that Angelina Jolie has done quite a great job portraying Gia in the movie. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the CD! So I searched for some clipping of ‘Gia’ in YouTube. I couldn’t see much of Angelina Jolie’s laudable performance as Gia, but could feel the depth of the story. I also found quite a few well written reviews about ‘Gia’ read them one by one.

After reading a few, I should say that the movie literally got stuck in my head. The movie ‘Fashion’ doesn’t have anything praiseworthy when compared to ‘Gia’; and about the models and their rise and fall, I felt ‘Gia’ would be worst that someone can face in her life. In fact it is really hard to see someone who has success safe on her platter plunging down deep in to a ditch so quickly, like what happed to Gia Carangi.

Well, after that short and brief research about the movie and about Gia Carangi I kinda stopped talking about the movie ‘Fashion’! (lol)

Yes! Aims are never meant to be forgotten

2010-02-27T12:03:00.003+05:30

I am being haunted by the possible aftermaths of the indolence that I show towards my reading and blogging habits, in the name of my official assignments. I am have a dozen of projects for which I have to provide fixed number of articles daily, and also do other works apart from this, as well as do the necessary repair for the natty contents that I get. And to during write post office hours is just impossible, as worn-out me is worth nothing, as I will be only having the energy to go back to my room and sleep. This process has been going on for quite some time and has almost taken away my reading and writing routines.

Now I feel a sort of vacuum when I look at my blog and books, and want to revive myself and the writer in me. Well, apart from works I think there is another big reason that I should say here, about why I hardly write anything these days. My blog used to be the best place to scribble down my random thoughts and the day-to-day happenings and now Shirley has taken its place. After sharing every bit, I would literally be left with nothing that I need to write here. I often make fun of her saying that she gave me a good friend, but took away the writer in me. Poor girl, in spite of all her personal prpblems, she always with me during my bad times and helped me to get out of it.

Writing has always been my passion and may be due to that I finally ended up as a writer, after being a teacher for almost four plus years. I always looked-upon people who write with utmost respect. Only a very few people can write in a captivating manner, and attract the attention of those who read it. I always wanted to be one among those very few. But somehow I had to take-up a long journey for that, as I had Biology for my PUC & Chemistry for my Graduation, both were never my sincere choices. Finally I ended up in the MA English class, which gave life and blood to my writing ambitions. A degree in Journalism was a bonus, but somehow I couldn’t make a wise use of it in the beginning and ended up as a teacher in a higher secondary school. I won’t say it was a bad job as I had a lot of good times there and loved teaching kids. But somehow it had nothing to do with my writing ambitions.

Roller-coaster life brought me a platform for writing by 2008 when I got a job as a Content Writer in a web solution company. Two years since then I have been writing for most of the projects that our company has done and have also been luck to start a blog of my own, which I think is going pretty fine…. ;) …lol

My writing job has also helped me to learn all the tips and tricks of SEO, about which I never heard of, when I came first. But now, I think I am too much in to my assignments and has almost for forgotten the main aim that I always had in my life. All my official works are going really good but they hardly improve my creativity, as they have more of fixed topics and have certain fixed styles of writing that I need to follow. Or I should say I am bound by certain pre-set rules and regulations. So I have decided to take time to do more of creative writing, and to bring me back towards the road that leads to the fulfillment of my ambitions.

My 60 non-blogging days

2010-02-18T15:07:00.003+05:30

It has been almost two months since I wrote something on my blog. If you ask me the reason I would say I didn’t feel so, or maybe I may perhaps make an excuse that I had loads of exhausting working sessions that I didn’t get time to think about.

Actually the 2 months article writing process (purely technical and official) had almost wiped out the idea of blogging from my brain that I hardly thought about my blog. Now that the rush has turned down to a slower crawl, I think I can sit and brood over a little on all the bits and pieces of my day to day life that’s often sandwiched between my office at one end of the city and our hostel at the other end.

Office+Hostel+Shirley = past 2 months…..would be the simplest way to say about the 60 odd days that passed by.

My non-blogging days…

Life is going smooth irrespective of all the attempts of Mr.: F to isolate me in between everyone. But I don’t have any grudge towards anyone and hence behaves as if the cheap trick that he plays has no impacts on me. He is thus successfully beaten by my quickest come back.

I had a marathon session of article writing for a handful of websites that said about the most mind-numbing topics that I have ever heard in life. Still I had to write about 200 plus articles about all those uninteresting topics. I really strive hard to get the natural free of flow of words, but words often get stuck somewhere while writing about such lifeless topics. But the desperate situation and the necessity of more and more articles force me to go on again and again chasing words to prepare SEO related articles over and over again. Thus after much pain and struggle I write about 4 to 5 articles and mail it to my boss, who would always ask me for a +1 as usual; give 4 he will ask 5, give 5 he will surely ask for 6! Oops! I need to go back to my work! See u soon!

PS - I often get comments from certain greathearted readers and I take time to give the modest reply to everyone. Recently I received a comment from a ‘generous’ reader that he is getting bored reading my blog, and said that I don’t write anything worthy but just omit my ‘frustrations’ through my writings. For your kind information my dear reader, I use this platform to note down my random thoughts, may be they sound silly to ‘intellects’ like you. Just like any other person in the world I too have the right to enjoy the freedom to express my thoughts. Through my blogs I don’t hurt anyone personally nor do I make any offensive remarks about people. And I am not forcing anybody to read my blogs. Only those who are genuinely interested need to read them or comment about them.