Sample Prescription
At 8 in the morning on a fine dusk Sunday, sitting on my wooden chair, with my rest reclining nicely upon it, I am brooding whether to read the day’s newspaper or not. These days, newspaper and such lifeless things are my only pals! So, merely because of lack of any other options, I decide to visit my balcony and pick the nicely bundled newspaper. These days, they have hundreds of additional pages to lift the marketing of various advertisers, which makes the size of the 24-page newspaper look like 124-page dossier! No wonder there are a couple of rubberbands to bind together all those remaining 100 pages of baseless information. So, I had the added requirement to remove the rubberbands from the newspaper. After I did that, my eyes got transfixed on how there are so many self-psychotherapy schools and libraries opening in Europe and USA and other such highly developed nations. Ok, I understand that people can fall prey to depression and such useless things in their tumultuous lives at any instant. It could happen to Indians too. But, to open muted schools and libraries abroad to offer self-help to those requiring psycho-therapic treatment is a bit too much. Their method of madly opening some pages from a book and narrating to the patient and giving him bundles of advise is both non-humane and ineffective. What they need is something totally different.
Sorry if I sound like a journalist thus far. But I promise the remaining piece is anything but plain narration. So, watch out.
Once, my brother was suffering from upset stomach and high fever. Swine Flu and Malaria were rampant in those days. At this, I decided to give him my own dose of psycho-therapic treatment. First, I asked him what had caused his ill health. He immediately it was because of him coming in touch with an infected Swine Flu patient and his eating stale food at the previous night’s marriage function. Listening to him, I immediately suggested him to eat his favorite spicy delicacy “Aloo Tikki”. He got distracted by my suggestion, and found it really tempting! No wonder his health and depressed mind became normal the next day itself.
Did he actually eat the Aloo Tikki? Well, how do I know? But he surely eats Aloo Tikki every month. This gives him a belief that eating it will keep him away from diseases! What a transformation a free yet funny advice can make to a human being.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Turning on my mischief
Here are my interesting events in my life thus far...
1. My Host at Virginia Tech campus of Blacksburg gifted me his own desktop computer. This was a result of great mutual understanding and trust that I had established with him and his lovely family, which had his wife and 2 beautiful young girls.
2. When I was driving in Maryland USA in my Accord at top speed, then suddenly I and my sister noticed a racing bike whizzing past our ears. It immediately pulsated me and in the heat of the moment, I felt like competing with that bike rider. But, to my surprise, I found 1, then 2, and then 4 other bikers criss-crossing me, and all were in bikes of different colors. What an experience!
3. Coorg exploits -- meet me to understand!
4. Dance video of myself on Youtube: search for Prince of Arabia, or Sanket Jain.
5. When I was young, I used to draw inspiration from Steve Waugh. All my colleagues know me for that. Till date, his image comes to my mind on a daily basis. The most defining image is his yellow shirt with collar up. It taught me to be in command of the situation at all times, and how to boss the situation coolly and confidently. Really an amazing living legend to draw inspiration from.
6. My favorite sportsperson when I was young -- Stefan Edberg. So much so that I adapted my playing and serving style according to his style. Used to stay awake till 3 in night to watch his games when needed. Amazing talent, and amazing performer, with utter grace and elan. A true champion both personal and as a national contributor. Even Federer idolizes him. I idolize his playing style, very classy. I also play Table Tennis with the same style that he brought to Lawn Tennis!
7. At Virginia Tech (VT), my colleague Altaf was conducting ego tests of all others. The test was on scale of 0-10, with 10 being the highest. The average ego of people was coming out to be 6.5. Then, my chance came. No wonder I brought the average down, because I scored a big 0 in that test! Yes, I have got no ego.
8. At Lalitha Palace of Bangalore, I was invited for giving a presentation on behalf of IBM. We had to present to a large audience based on our posters. I saw my mentor’s (Alok) poster also. At this, I told my friend how much I have learnt from that mentor, even though I have never seen him. The talk went on an on for 5 minutes. After that, Alok suddenly patted on my shoulder and thanked me for talking positively about him to my friend. I was surprised to see Alok in front of my eyes.
9. This incident both saved my life and gave me a new fillip to life. I was returning from Exxon Mobil at Washington D.C., to my VT campus in evening. But the bus arrived late at 12:30 in night to Roanoke, the city near my campus. I had to search for a taxi to travel from Roanoke to my campus. The distance is some 80 kilometers. Almost everyone from the bus had got their friends or family to pick them, so I was almost alone there now. Also, the office of the bus station had closed by now, thereby leaving me with the only option to stay outside the station. To my horror, I found a man armed with a knife. I quietly ignored him, but the fear started shaking me from inside. I thought I will lose my life. Then I prayed to God to give me another chance to live. Soon, a car with 3 Ghanese opened its gate from me. Rank strangers, and my life depended on them. They had come to pick their Ghanese friend from the bus station. I came along with them and became instant friends in those 60 minutes of unforgettable journey. They safely dropped me at my apartment gate. I thanked them. Ghanese are easily the best people in the world!
10. I like to know about all brands, and watch quiz shows with special interest.
11. I had a fantastic time in Washington DC museums.
12. I find Spanish language the most attractive language in the world. No clue why!
13. My days at Capital One were simply superb. We played pool, watched movies, dined together, helped each other, played volleyball, rode on each other’s cars, invested in shares, future & options, made great friends – all in 2 months only. Result – I made 3 long life friends!
14. The share of Mcleod Russell gave me so much profits that people around me, including me, were surprised! They had never even heard of this magnificent stock. Sometimes you hit jackpot out of nowhere!
15. Can Sanket calculate faster than a calculator or a computer? Yes.
16. Blacksburg during Football Game day is simply a breathtaking scene to watch and absorb. People in maroon and orange jerseys, the march past of the military, free food, barbecue, sunny weather, and the Turkey bird’s symbol hanging everywhere – wow, what passion! I am a truly passionate for my VT campus—I have never seen a place more beautiful and more purposeful than that.
17. I had joined Deloitte, which I feel is the best company. Many great memories of that company and its employees. Once, I was assigned a mentee. I was so excited! When she came aboard, she announced to the Deloitte world that she had cleared one certification with 100% marks, which is a record! I felt excited at the prospect of learning from her and greatly benefited from her! Who says that a mentor cannot learn from his mentee?
18. I found some stores in USA like Ikea, Panera Bread, Starbucks, Arabica Coffee, Barnes & Nobles bookstore, etc. -- to be very interesting. Just visiting those stores used to fill me with creative juices.
1. My Host at Virginia Tech campus of Blacksburg gifted me his own desktop computer. This was a result of great mutual understanding and trust that I had established with him and his lovely family, which had his wife and 2 beautiful young girls.
2. When I was driving in Maryland USA in my Accord at top speed, then suddenly I and my sister noticed a racing bike whizzing past our ears. It immediately pulsated me and in the heat of the moment, I felt like competing with that bike rider. But, to my surprise, I found 1, then 2, and then 4 other bikers criss-crossing me, and all were in bikes of different colors. What an experience!
3. Coorg exploits -- meet me to understand!
4. Dance video of myself on Youtube: search for Prince of Arabia, or Sanket Jain.
5. When I was young, I used to draw inspiration from Steve Waugh. All my colleagues know me for that. Till date, his image comes to my mind on a daily basis. The most defining image is his yellow shirt with collar up. It taught me to be in command of the situation at all times, and how to boss the situation coolly and confidently. Really an amazing living legend to draw inspiration from.
6. My favorite sportsperson when I was young -- Stefan Edberg. So much so that I adapted my playing and serving style according to his style. Used to stay awake till 3 in night to watch his games when needed. Amazing talent, and amazing performer, with utter grace and elan. A true champion both personal and as a national contributor. Even Federer idolizes him. I idolize his playing style, very classy. I also play Table Tennis with the same style that he brought to Lawn Tennis!
7. At Virginia Tech (VT), my colleague Altaf was conducting ego tests of all others. The test was on scale of 0-10, with 10 being the highest. The average ego of people was coming out to be 6.5. Then, my chance came. No wonder I brought the average down, because I scored a big 0 in that test! Yes, I have got no ego.
8. At Lalitha Palace of Bangalore, I was invited for giving a presentation on behalf of IBM. We had to present to a large audience based on our posters. I saw my mentor’s (Alok) poster also. At this, I told my friend how much I have learnt from that mentor, even though I have never seen him. The talk went on an on for 5 minutes. After that, Alok suddenly patted on my shoulder and thanked me for talking positively about him to my friend. I was surprised to see Alok in front of my eyes.
9. This incident both saved my life and gave me a new fillip to life. I was returning from Exxon Mobil at Washington D.C., to my VT campus in evening. But the bus arrived late at 12:30 in night to Roanoke, the city near my campus. I had to search for a taxi to travel from Roanoke to my campus. The distance is some 80 kilometers. Almost everyone from the bus had got their friends or family to pick them, so I was almost alone there now. Also, the office of the bus station had closed by now, thereby leaving me with the only option to stay outside the station. To my horror, I found a man armed with a knife. I quietly ignored him, but the fear started shaking me from inside. I thought I will lose my life. Then I prayed to God to give me another chance to live. Soon, a car with 3 Ghanese opened its gate from me. Rank strangers, and my life depended on them. They had come to pick their Ghanese friend from the bus station. I came along with them and became instant friends in those 60 minutes of unforgettable journey. They safely dropped me at my apartment gate. I thanked them. Ghanese are easily the best people in the world!
10. I like to know about all brands, and watch quiz shows with special interest.
11. I had a fantastic time in Washington DC museums.
12. I find Spanish language the most attractive language in the world. No clue why!
13. My days at Capital One were simply superb. We played pool, watched movies, dined together, helped each other, played volleyball, rode on each other’s cars, invested in shares, future & options, made great friends – all in 2 months only. Result – I made 3 long life friends!
14. The share of Mcleod Russell gave me so much profits that people around me, including me, were surprised! They had never even heard of this magnificent stock. Sometimes you hit jackpot out of nowhere!
15. Can Sanket calculate faster than a calculator or a computer? Yes.
16. Blacksburg during Football Game day is simply a breathtaking scene to watch and absorb. People in maroon and orange jerseys, the march past of the military, free food, barbecue, sunny weather, and the Turkey bird’s symbol hanging everywhere – wow, what passion! I am a truly passionate for my VT campus—I have never seen a place more beautiful and more purposeful than that.
17. I had joined Deloitte, which I feel is the best company. Many great memories of that company and its employees. Once, I was assigned a mentee. I was so excited! When she came aboard, she announced to the Deloitte world that she had cleared one certification with 100% marks, which is a record! I felt excited at the prospect of learning from her and greatly benefited from her! Who says that a mentor cannot learn from his mentee?
18. I found some stores in USA like Ikea, Panera Bread, Starbucks, Arabica Coffee, Barnes & Nobles bookstore, etc. -- to be very interesting. Just visiting those stores used to fill me with creative juices.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Television talk
How often it is when your television set talks in utter frustration to the home theater system attached to it and annoyingly to its own remote system? Ever wonder what these non-living objects talk to each other about?
When the pulsating advertisement on Ten Sports is flashed on the screen, and the viewer in sheet excitement decides to tune up the volume by several notches, then you can well imagine it is time for the television to give a long hard stare at its neighbor home theater system, because it is the latter that further attempts to magnify the already loud volume, thereby adding special effects to the whole scene, and almost deafening the television set.
Now that the television's ties with the home theater system have been severed because of one stare too many given by the former to the latter, the television has no-one else but the remote device to befriend. It would not be hard to believe why these two entities become the best pals and also relax the most whenever there is a power cut at home or when there is a rare moment when there is nobody at home.
However, the mood of the remote system soon turns somber when the young family member starts pressing it a bit too much merely for changing channels.
The intensity of pressing the remote grows when the battery cell inside the remote becomes weak due to its aging. The plight of the poor remote system is written on its face and it is now left with no option but to discuss its grievance with the television. Harried and tired of now associating itself with nothing but a nuisance value, the remote system just does not know when to stop weeping in front of the television set, which now is suffering from something of an equivalent of a human being’s blood pressure 180 systole and 200 diastole.
Fearing no end to its misery, the television attempts to blow itself by short circuiting it with the electric wires. But suddenly the young kid decides to turn on the channel that is now showing an inspirational movie. That movie shows some of the struggles faced by Indian women’s national hockey team of four decades ago that defied all odds and all adversity from being written off by everyone to win the most coveted world cup trophy in Australia. In a matter of two hours, the television observes the kid weep in ignominy of the then poor state of affairs of the team members. Next, it observes the kid watching how those players and support staffs were quickly losing hope of even qualifying for the championships and how they threatened to implode themselves. However, soon the kid sees how those players allowed their coach to mastermind their destiny, followed by how they sensed the emotions and adrenalin pumping like gush of energy in their nerves. The same team would then march to the semifinals of this mega event. Then, the players would work in tandem to help romp their rejuvenated team into the finals, and finally trounce its most feared opposition Australia in the most momentous final match.
It all ended with a vociferous victory lap and uninhibited unfurling of the Indian flag in front of the happy and emotional spectators amidst bright sunshine.
The television suddenly felt an urge to speak to the young kid that, although it was not a living being, yet it also felt the desire of being part of the contingent that was unfurling the Indian flag. At this the kid jokingly replied to the television set “Please do not get too emotional, or else you might blow up because of too much electric current flowing in your box!”
But the television was occupied in soaking the pleasure of having broadcast this movie to the young immature kid.
That kid later would grow to become a world famous lawn tennis doubles team player.
When the pulsating advertisement on Ten Sports is flashed on the screen, and the viewer in sheet excitement decides to tune up the volume by several notches, then you can well imagine it is time for the television to give a long hard stare at its neighbor home theater system, because it is the latter that further attempts to magnify the already loud volume, thereby adding special effects to the whole scene, and almost deafening the television set.
Now that the television's ties with the home theater system have been severed because of one stare too many given by the former to the latter, the television has no-one else but the remote device to befriend. It would not be hard to believe why these two entities become the best pals and also relax the most whenever there is a power cut at home or when there is a rare moment when there is nobody at home.
However, the mood of the remote system soon turns somber when the young family member starts pressing it a bit too much merely for changing channels.
The intensity of pressing the remote grows when the battery cell inside the remote becomes weak due to its aging. The plight of the poor remote system is written on its face and it is now left with no option but to discuss its grievance with the television. Harried and tired of now associating itself with nothing but a nuisance value, the remote system just does not know when to stop weeping in front of the television set, which now is suffering from something of an equivalent of a human being’s blood pressure 180 systole and 200 diastole.
Fearing no end to its misery, the television attempts to blow itself by short circuiting it with the electric wires. But suddenly the young kid decides to turn on the channel that is now showing an inspirational movie. That movie shows some of the struggles faced by Indian women’s national hockey team of four decades ago that defied all odds and all adversity from being written off by everyone to win the most coveted world cup trophy in Australia. In a matter of two hours, the television observes the kid weep in ignominy of the then poor state of affairs of the team members. Next, it observes the kid watching how those players and support staffs were quickly losing hope of even qualifying for the championships and how they threatened to implode themselves. However, soon the kid sees how those players allowed their coach to mastermind their destiny, followed by how they sensed the emotions and adrenalin pumping like gush of energy in their nerves. The same team would then march to the semifinals of this mega event. Then, the players would work in tandem to help romp their rejuvenated team into the finals, and finally trounce its most feared opposition Australia in the most momentous final match.
It all ended with a vociferous victory lap and uninhibited unfurling of the Indian flag in front of the happy and emotional spectators amidst bright sunshine.
The television suddenly felt an urge to speak to the young kid that, although it was not a living being, yet it also felt the desire of being part of the contingent that was unfurling the Indian flag. At this the kid jokingly replied to the television set “Please do not get too emotional, or else you might blow up because of too much electric current flowing in your box!”
But the television was occupied in soaking the pleasure of having broadcast this movie to the young immature kid.
That kid later would grow to become a world famous lawn tennis doubles team player.
Friday, April 22, 2011
The uninhibited niche
The rain was pouring so heavily now that the legendary lawn tennis player Chris had decided to stop looking at the national broadcast of his dear friend and equally exemplary partner Adam’s farewell speech on the Cable News Network. Chris had decided to take a ten-minute break from this emotional exit of Adam and instead go up to the terrace to enjoy himself in the company of rain.
It is common knowledge that occasional rain brings buoyancy in the hearts of those who love the nature and who pride in living in the moment. So, he donned his slippers and the red robe, kept the television switched on, and swung his steps through the slippery stairs to climb seven stories.
Now that he was up there in a flash, he was wondering whether his pace of reaching up to the top was faster than the sound of the lightening he had just heard. But his mood threatened to get dampened because he found himself surrounded by closed canvas clothes that had effectively cornered any chances of him seeing the swanky splices of rain drops.
Yet, his hands moved forward to open ever so small an angle between the juxtaposed curtains to create an orifice that was large enough for him to gain an appreciation of this beautiful moment that the nature had unfurled upon him. Still enjoying this phase, he suddenly sniffed someone preparing non-vegetarian food. He being a devout vegetarian did not want to savor the sumptuous turkey being cooked at the door next to him. Instead, he quickly forced his focus back on enjoying the odorless and overcast rain drops. He could now uninhibitedly experience the enjoyment of contacting these crystal-clear dank droplets of rain.
Even though the rain persisted, he had now decided to depart from the terrace and join the commentary of Adam’s farewell speech. As soon as he entered his room, he was greeted with an advertising commercial where he saw his eyes getting transfixed like a small arc on the glimpses of beautiful objects like yellow orchid trees. Then, all the sports superstars of his generation were being shown in the next commercial. It was followed by a commercial showing a gymnast gyrating through her twisting and twirling torso with twelve turns in a matter of three tiny seconds.
As if he had seen it all with his limited vision, he felt even more so when he saw the entire career of Adam in front of his eyes that started from being a bystander ball-boy, then evolving to a splendid Wimbledon triumph and finally finishing with winning moments of French Open men’s double title that he had played along with him.
Now, his nearsighted niche had witnessed a giant gamut of uninhibited nature in the form of careers of Adam and those sporting icons, dense trees, a dense downpour, and an elegant exhibition of surefooted skills of the graceful gymnast.
It is common knowledge that occasional rain brings buoyancy in the hearts of those who love the nature and who pride in living in the moment. So, he donned his slippers and the red robe, kept the television switched on, and swung his steps through the slippery stairs to climb seven stories.
Now that he was up there in a flash, he was wondering whether his pace of reaching up to the top was faster than the sound of the lightening he had just heard. But his mood threatened to get dampened because he found himself surrounded by closed canvas clothes that had effectively cornered any chances of him seeing the swanky splices of rain drops.
Yet, his hands moved forward to open ever so small an angle between the juxtaposed curtains to create an orifice that was large enough for him to gain an appreciation of this beautiful moment that the nature had unfurled upon him. Still enjoying this phase, he suddenly sniffed someone preparing non-vegetarian food. He being a devout vegetarian did not want to savor the sumptuous turkey being cooked at the door next to him. Instead, he quickly forced his focus back on enjoying the odorless and overcast rain drops. He could now uninhibitedly experience the enjoyment of contacting these crystal-clear dank droplets of rain.
Even though the rain persisted, he had now decided to depart from the terrace and join the commentary of Adam’s farewell speech. As soon as he entered his room, he was greeted with an advertising commercial where he saw his eyes getting transfixed like a small arc on the glimpses of beautiful objects like yellow orchid trees. Then, all the sports superstars of his generation were being shown in the next commercial. It was followed by a commercial showing a gymnast gyrating through her twisting and twirling torso with twelve turns in a matter of three tiny seconds.
As if he had seen it all with his limited vision, he felt even more so when he saw the entire career of Adam in front of his eyes that started from being a bystander ball-boy, then evolving to a splendid Wimbledon triumph and finally finishing with winning moments of French Open men’s double title that he had played along with him.
Now, his nearsighted niche had witnessed a giant gamut of uninhibited nature in the form of careers of Adam and those sporting icons, dense trees, a dense downpour, and an elegant exhibition of surefooted skills of the graceful gymnast.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Short Story: The natural log
Shane, a happy man was flying in his private jet all the way from the Carribean islands to Sri Lanka. It was his well-earned two week break from his tough office days at Capital One in Boston. He had encountered only open and clear cloudless shiny smiling skies all this way. Swiping the natural smirk on his face, he was celebrating after literally being on top of the world! He was even having a fun time with the pilot of the swift paper-like paltry pounded plane.
But suddenly, out of the blue, a lot of clouds stacked in front of his sight and also staggered across his entire line of sight. Initially he thought they would not act as a deterrent to his swift and silken ride thus far. But those manic clouds dared to continue to look at the face of the mini aircraft that was now meekly and mercifully pleading them to show another route.
The clouds looked at the honest and the once-joyous face of the two people pitifully stacked inside the cockpit, and suggested a detour to turn west. But little did those honest clouds know that they had misguided the travelers to a completely wild and unyielding set of unforgiving clouds. Now those clouds at the west wanted to feast the poor plane and its travelers; so much so that they even threatened to rain. Rain they didn’t is another story that would next day come back to miraculously save the life of the man who was happy just a dozen minutes ago!
With no option left, both the helpless souls decided to dive. Both were lucky enough to take their parachute with them, which did open as soon as they exposed themselves to the intimidating sky that was yelling in their fragile small ears “you guys cannot see below me!” And indeed they were blind sighted and not knowing where they were about to land after an estimated twenty minutes of free fall.
It had only been two of those twenty minutes when Shane lost sight of his pilot, who until then, had been shouldering like a soldier just beside him. Again, out of the blue, Shane realized that the fleet-footed plane had decided to lay its full fury on the increasingly poor pilot who was now also listless at his luck-less situation. He could not avert the plane from gyrating and then eventually crashing on top of his gut-wrenched gross body. And Shane watched in distress his pilot getting lost from his vision.
Before he could react to this shocking and terrifying incident, he quickly saw his past that lasted for only those last one hundred and twenty seconds, and saw his even worse and sickening future in just twenty seconds as he landed in Indian ocean above 3 sharks! He was now several miles away from any coast. At this, he immediately started crying at his poor fate. However, he quickly regained his senses and tore his clothes so that he could stay afloat of the shark-infested side of the stunning ocean. Next came the 17 of his most unforgettable and death-defying hours in ocean. Those long-as-eternity seventeen hours must have accumulated at least twenty one thousand cries for saving his life. But, even after so many repeated attempts, his yells yielded in no help from anyone across the planet.
Then a log came near him, and he clung on to it for the entire night and slept with it. Next morning, he found that he was still alive. His life had been saved so far in that vast ocean by the log. Immediately, he saw an island in front of his eyes, and it was a mere forty meters away. However, a sudden troubling tsunami came and slowly and painstakingly carried him away from that island even though he had the support of that “life-saving” log. That island could have redeemed his life and could have kept him away from those sharks and other countless creatures that could have consumed his life without even breaking a sweat.
So, he had to make a decision whether to cling on to the log which had made him cling on to his life by the barest of margins till now, or to let go of it. He decided to leave that log and to find some other solution to cross that vast omnipresent ocean. But, as soon as he wanted to take sigh of relief at his bold decision, he now found himself even more hopeless, for his own hands had removed the only life-saving thing that was with him. At this, he started crying internally, and later as a result of an abject misery, he was forced to reckon only the positive things of his past life.
Several good things struck his mind, from sitting in the cradle with his parents in the perambulator to saving the life of a woman who helplessly wanted help to avoid her from falling into the deep Niagara Falls. He also thought that he was one of the only few fistful remaining people in whole world who still used a pen to write and a diary everyday to log their daily thoughts. All other 6.99999971 billion people were either using a computer or iPhones to write.
Thinking about the pen and softly smelling the ink of it in his now incorrupt yet irrepressible imaginations in mind, he realized that his mood had become so good as if cozy chocolates had entered his mouth. Only then did he realize that the pen and diary both are made of trees. And he himself had left the support of a log, which also is a product of a tree.
Now, he was totally immersed in a battle of ensuing positive and negative thoughts. Next day, still in his self-state, he saw the same clouds bursting from above him to form a thunderous noise and then it rained. Now, his imagination had grown so wild that he thought that these rain drops falling on his naked body were denser and heavier than the entire stretch of eleven miles of ocean below him. But, to his utter surprise, when he next looked down to compare the heaviness of rain drops with the ocean's intimidating iconic waters, he could only see sand beneath him. He had reached the closest island! Bravo! The rain had become his "natural log"!
But suddenly, out of the blue, a lot of clouds stacked in front of his sight and also staggered across his entire line of sight. Initially he thought they would not act as a deterrent to his swift and silken ride thus far. But those manic clouds dared to continue to look at the face of the mini aircraft that was now meekly and mercifully pleading them to show another route.
The clouds looked at the honest and the once-joyous face of the two people pitifully stacked inside the cockpit, and suggested a detour to turn west. But little did those honest clouds know that they had misguided the travelers to a completely wild and unyielding set of unforgiving clouds. Now those clouds at the west wanted to feast the poor plane and its travelers; so much so that they even threatened to rain. Rain they didn’t is another story that would next day come back to miraculously save the life of the man who was happy just a dozen minutes ago!
With no option left, both the helpless souls decided to dive. Both were lucky enough to take their parachute with them, which did open as soon as they exposed themselves to the intimidating sky that was yelling in their fragile small ears “you guys cannot see below me!” And indeed they were blind sighted and not knowing where they were about to land after an estimated twenty minutes of free fall.
It had only been two of those twenty minutes when Shane lost sight of his pilot, who until then, had been shouldering like a soldier just beside him. Again, out of the blue, Shane realized that the fleet-footed plane had decided to lay its full fury on the increasingly poor pilot who was now also listless at his luck-less situation. He could not avert the plane from gyrating and then eventually crashing on top of his gut-wrenched gross body. And Shane watched in distress his pilot getting lost from his vision.
Before he could react to this shocking and terrifying incident, he quickly saw his past that lasted for only those last one hundred and twenty seconds, and saw his even worse and sickening future in just twenty seconds as he landed in Indian ocean above 3 sharks! He was now several miles away from any coast. At this, he immediately started crying at his poor fate. However, he quickly regained his senses and tore his clothes so that he could stay afloat of the shark-infested side of the stunning ocean. Next came the 17 of his most unforgettable and death-defying hours in ocean. Those long-as-eternity seventeen hours must have accumulated at least twenty one thousand cries for saving his life. But, even after so many repeated attempts, his yells yielded in no help from anyone across the planet.
Then a log came near him, and he clung on to it for the entire night and slept with it. Next morning, he found that he was still alive. His life had been saved so far in that vast ocean by the log. Immediately, he saw an island in front of his eyes, and it was a mere forty meters away. However, a sudden troubling tsunami came and slowly and painstakingly carried him away from that island even though he had the support of that “life-saving” log. That island could have redeemed his life and could have kept him away from those sharks and other countless creatures that could have consumed his life without even breaking a sweat.
So, he had to make a decision whether to cling on to the log which had made him cling on to his life by the barest of margins till now, or to let go of it. He decided to leave that log and to find some other solution to cross that vast omnipresent ocean. But, as soon as he wanted to take sigh of relief at his bold decision, he now found himself even more hopeless, for his own hands had removed the only life-saving thing that was with him. At this, he started crying internally, and later as a result of an abject misery, he was forced to reckon only the positive things of his past life.
Several good things struck his mind, from sitting in the cradle with his parents in the perambulator to saving the life of a woman who helplessly wanted help to avoid her from falling into the deep Niagara Falls. He also thought that he was one of the only few fistful remaining people in whole world who still used a pen to write and a diary everyday to log their daily thoughts. All other 6.99999971 billion people were either using a computer or iPhones to write.
Thinking about the pen and softly smelling the ink of it in his now incorrupt yet irrepressible imaginations in mind, he realized that his mood had become so good as if cozy chocolates had entered his mouth. Only then did he realize that the pen and diary both are made of trees. And he himself had left the support of a log, which also is a product of a tree.
Now, he was totally immersed in a battle of ensuing positive and negative thoughts. Next day, still in his self-state, he saw the same clouds bursting from above him to form a thunderous noise and then it rained. Now, his imagination had grown so wild that he thought that these rain drops falling on his naked body were denser and heavier than the entire stretch of eleven miles of ocean below him. But, to his utter surprise, when he next looked down to compare the heaviness of rain drops with the ocean's intimidating iconic waters, he could only see sand beneath him. He had reached the closest island! Bravo! The rain had become his "natural log"!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
LIVE Legacy - My Autobiography
On January 24, 1995, some sixteen years ago, at the always-awake age of fifteen, bundled with surplus energy, I sprinted out to the sides of the apartment complex early in the morning. In those days, I was living a charmed life borrowed from friend John in his apartment. In the midst of the second long lap with my brand-new brilliant blue marathon shoes glittering like gems, with smash hit music of Arcade Hits pouring pure magic of mellifluous music in my tender yet all-absorbing ears, I realized something odd. Something that would change my life forever, even though stating this during the first passage of my writing might evoke a rather odd response from the audience. Odd simply because I was the only one who was gyrating the gates of the apartment complex in a direction that was outlandishly opposite to that of the other dozen daily strollers.
Oddly, no one realized that I was the sole soul marching hopelessly to cover one lap after another, until I had done my day with six rounds, three lesser than the others gone by. I was in utter hurry to go back to my friend’s room and hide myself and assess what was wrong with me. Well, luckily, I had dreamed the previous night, and I had envisioned a situation where I would rip the heart of those twelve commoners and critics and make my mark in this world, albeit not feeling shy of any stutter that could always accompany me in my unending quest to attain success.
Even more oddly, I had inherited a legacy of high achievers from my parents, their parents and others in my freak family tree. So, it was difficult to break the mold of the usually successful lineage and form a BRAND of my own. Come, watch the journey how I achieved my dream in these dramatic yet eventful sixteen years.
That day, I came back to the room of John, almost crying at my poor presence of mind to have not realized that I should have been following the same direction of walking as the twelve others had been following. After all, they were all much more experienced with living in that apartment complex. So, sanity should have prevailed upon me after having realized that I was walking wrong. Something sub-special should have occurred to me in a split second saying that I needed to alter my direction and follow the herd. Still, there was something odd that avoided me from taking that step and also avoided me from the extreme event of cursing myself. Instead, I stopped short, mollycoddled myself and took it as an opportune moment to drive home the point within my majestic mind that I was built to last a longer lap of life.
At a handful age of twenty two, I was embarking into USA for pursuing my Master’s degree program from Virginia Tech, a school which was classified as the big league institute for learning. Taking my confident but cold legs – yes, I was awestruck by the magnanimity of the situation – my eyes suddenly fell on a plethora of orange and maroon flags flying forming a V-shape to signify victory. Already, I could scent success and suddenly my favorite tune of Yamaha Sports Update started pulsating my mind like the speed of thought. It was a very charged up and exciting moment for me to find myself among students who brought with them traits like different diversity, crisp communication, classic creativity and awesome athleticism. It would be this trait called classic creativity that would define my future, although it would change slightly to associate me with class and creativity.
Enter the age of twenty four, and I was soon dating a lovely blond girl in the campus. Although she could not team up with me for the rest of my life, yet I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her at one of the coffee shops. I was particularly attracted towards the smell of coffee beans and it raised images of brew forming a curvilinear shape above the coffee cup. It is this moment that aroused a high level of creativity in me. The girl was so classy that I decided to be influenced by her class and blend it with my creativity.
It was just after a few weeks that I happened to watch some of the legends, most of them alive, on the giant screen at Times Square in New York City. They were the enigmatic Rafael Nadal, the classy Roger Federer, the sporty Andre Agassi, the gritty Michael Jordan, the revolutionary Verghese Kurien, the eye-catching idols Sachin Tendulkar – who was proudly donning an Indian flag on his helmet - and Stefan Edberg, the never-to-forget Mother Teresa and a certain Steve Waugh flaunting a fluttering full bright yellow shirt and steely steering his team to win the World Cup after all had grotesquely given up on his team. There were more, like the God gifted Lionel Messi of Argentine soccer, the trend-setting mythical musician Michael Jackson, the always at your face Al Pacino from Hollywood, and the creative yet competitive Michael Schumacher of the red, feisty and fearless Ferrari. Given my thoroughly indecisive mind, I always grappled with whom to filter and which all to select so as to learn the most from!
It took six long years for my abject attitude to realize that it had to be the class of Federer coupled with the creativity and competitiveness of Schumacher, not to forget the never-to-forget passionate selflessness of Mother Teresa. It was a non-trivial exercise to cut down from the laundry list of good traits to the two or three attributes that would define the shape of my character and the way I would live – yes, LIVE – each and every moment of my life. In the hindsight, I am glad that I took six years to learn from the success of all these personalities, to learn from their long living legacy, and to choose such traits like creativity and class from them. Now, whenever I come across a dull phase of life, which suddenly threatens to snatch the energy and action that are so symptomatic of me, I merely look forward to these three icons and draw an image in my head about how they would have coped with such a similar stressful scenario. And guess what, more often than not, I am aptly able to focus on the task at hand and also add a bit of Midas touch to it.
As I conclude writing about myself, it brims me with purpose, passion and pulse that I need to learn more from these three folks and constantly improve myself so that next decade might see someone hailing me as the next LIVE legend.
Over to you, LIFE. Now, I am yearning to ask you to give me more cruel challenges so that I can improve upon myself. Oh, so sinister of me, I still haven’t learnt how to close my autobiography on a classy (elegant) note!
Hope you liked my creative yet compelling choice of colors and its contrasts to code my sentiments while writing this piece. Takeaway for you: think big, and back yourself to brace the new surprises and challenges that hit hard at you, and think of drawing long-lasting inspiration from some great idols. But, please never blindly follow me, lest you risk yourself from being creative.
A special word to my parents who created me.
Oddly, no one realized that I was the sole soul marching hopelessly to cover one lap after another, until I had done my day with six rounds, three lesser than the others gone by. I was in utter hurry to go back to my friend’s room and hide myself and assess what was wrong with me. Well, luckily, I had dreamed the previous night, and I had envisioned a situation where I would rip the heart of those twelve commoners and critics and make my mark in this world, albeit not feeling shy of any stutter that could always accompany me in my unending quest to attain success.
Even more oddly, I had inherited a legacy of high achievers from my parents, their parents and others in my freak family tree. So, it was difficult to break the mold of the usually successful lineage and form a BRAND of my own. Come, watch the journey how I achieved my dream in these dramatic yet eventful sixteen years.
That day, I came back to the room of John, almost crying at my poor presence of mind to have not realized that I should have been following the same direction of walking as the twelve others had been following. After all, they were all much more experienced with living in that apartment complex. So, sanity should have prevailed upon me after having realized that I was walking wrong. Something sub-special should have occurred to me in a split second saying that I needed to alter my direction and follow the herd. Still, there was something odd that avoided me from taking that step and also avoided me from the extreme event of cursing myself. Instead, I stopped short, mollycoddled myself and took it as an opportune moment to drive home the point within my majestic mind that I was built to last a longer lap of life.
At a handful age of twenty two, I was embarking into USA for pursuing my Master’s degree program from Virginia Tech, a school which was classified as the big league institute for learning. Taking my confident but cold legs – yes, I was awestruck by the magnanimity of the situation – my eyes suddenly fell on a plethora of orange and maroon flags flying forming a V-shape to signify victory. Already, I could scent success and suddenly my favorite tune of Yamaha Sports Update started pulsating my mind like the speed of thought. It was a very charged up and exciting moment for me to find myself among students who brought with them traits like different diversity, crisp communication, classic creativity and awesome athleticism. It would be this trait called classic creativity that would define my future, although it would change slightly to associate me with class and creativity.
Enter the age of twenty four, and I was soon dating a lovely blond girl in the campus. Although she could not team up with me for the rest of my life, yet I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her at one of the coffee shops. I was particularly attracted towards the smell of coffee beans and it raised images of brew forming a curvilinear shape above the coffee cup. It is this moment that aroused a high level of creativity in me. The girl was so classy that I decided to be influenced by her class and blend it with my creativity.
It was just after a few weeks that I happened to watch some of the legends, most of them alive, on the giant screen at Times Square in New York City. They were the enigmatic Rafael Nadal, the classy Roger Federer, the sporty Andre Agassi, the gritty Michael Jordan, the revolutionary Verghese Kurien, the eye-catching idols Sachin Tendulkar – who was proudly donning an Indian flag on his helmet - and Stefan Edberg, the never-to-forget Mother Teresa and a certain Steve Waugh flaunting a fluttering full bright yellow shirt and steely steering his team to win the World Cup after all had grotesquely given up on his team. There were more, like the God gifted Lionel Messi of Argentine soccer, the trend-setting mythical musician Michael Jackson, the always at your face Al Pacino from Hollywood, and the creative yet competitive Michael Schumacher of the red, feisty and fearless Ferrari. Given my thoroughly indecisive mind, I always grappled with whom to filter and which all to select so as to learn the most from!
It took six long years for my abject attitude to realize that it had to be the class of Federer coupled with the creativity and competitiveness of Schumacher, not to forget the never-to-forget passionate selflessness of Mother Teresa. It was a non-trivial exercise to cut down from the laundry list of good traits to the two or three attributes that would define the shape of my character and the way I would live – yes, LIVE – each and every moment of my life. In the hindsight, I am glad that I took six years to learn from the success of all these personalities, to learn from their long living legacy, and to choose such traits like creativity and class from them. Now, whenever I come across a dull phase of life, which suddenly threatens to snatch the energy and action that are so symptomatic of me, I merely look forward to these three icons and draw an image in my head about how they would have coped with such a similar stressful scenario. And guess what, more often than not, I am aptly able to focus on the task at hand and also add a bit of Midas touch to it.
As I conclude writing about myself, it brims me with purpose, passion and pulse that I need to learn more from these three folks and constantly improve myself so that next decade might see someone hailing me as the next LIVE legend.
Over to you, LIFE. Now, I am yearning to ask you to give me more cruel challenges so that I can improve upon myself. Oh, so sinister of me, I still haven’t learnt how to close my autobiography on a classy (elegant) note!
Hope you liked my creative yet compelling choice of colors and its contrasts to code my sentiments while writing this piece. Takeaway for you: think big, and back yourself to brace the new surprises and challenges that hit hard at you, and think of drawing long-lasting inspiration from some great idols. But, please never blindly follow me, lest you risk yourself from being creative.
A special word to my parents who created me.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Short Story #9: Dead Even
I was watching the tennis match between the champion Nadal and the never-heard-of Petzschner. When I had switched on TV, the score had read one set all and two games apiece. Miraculously, Petzschner played well enough to snatch that third set from Nadal. Soon, the match went into the fourth set, which Nadal won. Next hour, even as the weather became dank, my eyes fell upon the giant scoreboard that read two sets all and three games apiece. “What a fascinating dead even”, I had conjectured.
It reminded me of the Olympics gymnastics event of year 2008. The degree of crossing and then uncrossing the bar by the champion Romanian team had created an effect of a dead even angle. It also reminded me of the philosophy of negative and positive lags used by their captain.
When I had switched on TV, USA was leading the pack in the Gymnastics event by overhauling the 9.7 score of Chinese by a mere 0.05. The blunt and sharp scissors of the scorers was in full action, as they were literally shearing the fate of the teams by a margin as little as 0.05 points. The combat between the bluntness and sharpness of their scissor-like action resembled was dead even. Tension was spilling everywhere as USA hoped no other team would better their score. However, they were skeptic of Romania, who was the last team to participate. USA was aware of the stunning performance produced by Romania in the previous Olympics. Before the entire nation of USA could complete praying to the God for the Romanians to default, the Romanian captain’s legs crossed and then uncrossed the bar with amazing symmetry to hand his team a score of 9.85 and with that the Gold medal. The position of both his legs while crossing and then uncrossing was dead even.
“What is the reason of your continued success at the Olympics?” he was asked after the felicitation. “I try to arrive at a dead even between positive and negative lags.” he said. Amused by this response, the reporter requested the captain to elaborate. “I use positive lag to delay the start of our practice sessions until my team composition is final. After that, however, we get a surprise in the form of negative lag. Even before our practice sessions are over, generally the news breaks out that there is a fair chance that USA will qualify. Recent history suggests that when they qualify, they pose the stiffest challenge to our medal aspirations. So, once our practice is over, this negative lag helps me in predicting at what stage we would need to face them in the main event. With this knowledge, I ask my team to focus on tackling USA six months in advance. So, we try to first scale up our own preparation, and then focus on winning over USA. When the contribution of positive lag matches that of negative lag, we arrive at a dead even scenario, which helps us in winning Gold!” he concluded.
Never in my wildest of thoughts had I fathomed the lively importance of such a term that contained the word ‘dead’!
It reminded me of the Olympics gymnastics event of year 2008. The degree of crossing and then uncrossing the bar by the champion Romanian team had created an effect of a dead even angle. It also reminded me of the philosophy of negative and positive lags used by their captain.
When I had switched on TV, USA was leading the pack in the Gymnastics event by overhauling the 9.7 score of Chinese by a mere 0.05. The blunt and sharp scissors of the scorers was in full action, as they were literally shearing the fate of the teams by a margin as little as 0.05 points. The combat between the bluntness and sharpness of their scissor-like action resembled was dead even. Tension was spilling everywhere as USA hoped no other team would better their score. However, they were skeptic of Romania, who was the last team to participate. USA was aware of the stunning performance produced by Romania in the previous Olympics. Before the entire nation of USA could complete praying to the God for the Romanians to default, the Romanian captain’s legs crossed and then uncrossed the bar with amazing symmetry to hand his team a score of 9.85 and with that the Gold medal. The position of both his legs while crossing and then uncrossing was dead even.
“What is the reason of your continued success at the Olympics?” he was asked after the felicitation. “I try to arrive at a dead even between positive and negative lags.” he said. Amused by this response, the reporter requested the captain to elaborate. “I use positive lag to delay the start of our practice sessions until my team composition is final. After that, however, we get a surprise in the form of negative lag. Even before our practice sessions are over, generally the news breaks out that there is a fair chance that USA will qualify. Recent history suggests that when they qualify, they pose the stiffest challenge to our medal aspirations. So, once our practice is over, this negative lag helps me in predicting at what stage we would need to face them in the main event. With this knowledge, I ask my team to focus on tackling USA six months in advance. So, we try to first scale up our own preparation, and then focus on winning over USA. When the contribution of positive lag matches that of negative lag, we arrive at a dead even scenario, which helps us in winning Gold!” he concluded.
Never in my wildest of thoughts had I fathomed the lively importance of such a term that contained the word ‘dead’!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Eyeball Not Football From Argentina
It was June 11 of 2010 in South Africa. The first meaningful game of World Cup featured a hot Nigerian team pitted against the pit bulls Argentines. Both teams play with a lot of flair. But who knew these South American superstars would start playing eyeball and not just football?! Four games had preceded this game. Ardent African spectators had drowned the atmosphere in those games by ‘vuvuzelas’, which soon took the name of “Roo-boo-zelas” when Rooney led Brits had been booed by their fans for failing to get past the most moribund Algerians in the first game.
Being rich in knowledge of history, I was smiling at the development of such events. This is because English had beaten Argentines in the Battle of Falkland. This war had resulted in their bullying the spirits of the Argentines. No wonder they had made a huge hue and cry over the famous “Hand of God” goal scored by Maradona against them in 1986 World Cup that Argentina had won.
But, the first eyeball had started much before the World Cup had begun. For the first time in their hundred year pedigree, Argentina had failed to qualify with aplomb. They were thrashed by Bolivians by a five goal margin. This disappointment definitely raised many eyeballs. The new captain’s name itself raised my eyebrows and that of the best footballer in world, Pele. With nothing going in this coach’s favor, he then annoyingly told, “Pele should be sent to museum”. He had earned so much disrepute that even the tabloids were running out of any more sensational story. Yes, the volatile Maradona had taken the mantle of coaching. This team was filled with superstars like Messi, Tevez and Rodriguez, the man who had scored the best ever goal. How can one forget Rodriguez’s goal in the game with Mexico in 2006 World Cup? He had received a pass from forty meters away. Then he chested the ball, and kicked it with ferocity to find the ball meet the goal from fifty five yards – all in a flash! Also, the goal involving nine men who doused the spirits of Serbia with crafty and crisp passes to score a goal with my eyeballs rolling all over. But, to mould them under Maradona was becoming increasingly tough. However, this team regrouped exactly when the World Cup event knocked at their door.
The first glimpse of their peaking at the right time came in their game against Nigeria. Nigerians knew they had their task cut out after Argentines had scampered to Olympic Gold Medal at their expense a couple of years ago. Their supporters had brought ear-deafening vuvuzelas. But, they were soon shocked to see the Argentine supporters stifling the sound of vuvuzelas with drums even before the game had kicked off. Soon after, Messi, Tevez and Higuain stamped their authority with Heinze scoring with his head. “They play with foot, hand, head, and also with my eyes. They are mesmerizing!” I summoned.
Their second game in World Cup 2010 showed what eyeballing really means. Messi had got a pass from Veron. Soon, Messi, the little lion, literally raced away towards the Korean goal. But he found six larger-sized defenders surround him. In a flash, he created space for himself and struck from thirty yards. The goalkeeper’s eyeballs got transfixed at the ball which had found the net. He had just now seen something illogical. Soon, Argentina would reach the final game against Germans.
Before the final beckoned, Maradona told the media that he had an announcement to make. “This team becomes unruly when they are defeated”, he said. “So, from now, we will respect our opposition. World Cup should be remembered as a giant ball with many different colored candies around it. Without the wisdom candy, it would be incomplete”, he concluded. They went down to the tireless Germans, but they had already established themselves as the real champions even before this game.
Being rich in knowledge of history, I was smiling at the development of such events. This is because English had beaten Argentines in the Battle of Falkland. This war had resulted in their bullying the spirits of the Argentines. No wonder they had made a huge hue and cry over the famous “Hand of God” goal scored by Maradona against them in 1986 World Cup that Argentina had won.
But, the first eyeball had started much before the World Cup had begun. For the first time in their hundred year pedigree, Argentina had failed to qualify with aplomb. They were thrashed by Bolivians by a five goal margin. This disappointment definitely raised many eyeballs. The new captain’s name itself raised my eyebrows and that of the best footballer in world, Pele. With nothing going in this coach’s favor, he then annoyingly told, “Pele should be sent to museum”. He had earned so much disrepute that even the tabloids were running out of any more sensational story. Yes, the volatile Maradona had taken the mantle of coaching. This team was filled with superstars like Messi, Tevez and Rodriguez, the man who had scored the best ever goal. How can one forget Rodriguez’s goal in the game with Mexico in 2006 World Cup? He had received a pass from forty meters away. Then he chested the ball, and kicked it with ferocity to find the ball meet the goal from fifty five yards – all in a flash! Also, the goal involving nine men who doused the spirits of Serbia with crafty and crisp passes to score a goal with my eyeballs rolling all over. But, to mould them under Maradona was becoming increasingly tough. However, this team regrouped exactly when the World Cup event knocked at their door.
The first glimpse of their peaking at the right time came in their game against Nigeria. Nigerians knew they had their task cut out after Argentines had scampered to Olympic Gold Medal at their expense a couple of years ago. Their supporters had brought ear-deafening vuvuzelas. But, they were soon shocked to see the Argentine supporters stifling the sound of vuvuzelas with drums even before the game had kicked off. Soon after, Messi, Tevez and Higuain stamped their authority with Heinze scoring with his head. “They play with foot, hand, head, and also with my eyes. They are mesmerizing!” I summoned.
Their second game in World Cup 2010 showed what eyeballing really means. Messi had got a pass from Veron. Soon, Messi, the little lion, literally raced away towards the Korean goal. But he found six larger-sized defenders surround him. In a flash, he created space for himself and struck from thirty yards. The goalkeeper’s eyeballs got transfixed at the ball which had found the net. He had just now seen something illogical. Soon, Argentina would reach the final game against Germans.
Before the final beckoned, Maradona told the media that he had an announcement to make. “This team becomes unruly when they are defeated”, he said. “So, from now, we will respect our opposition. World Cup should be remembered as a giant ball with many different colored candies around it. Without the wisdom candy, it would be incomplete”, he concluded. They went down to the tireless Germans, but they had already established themselves as the real champions even before this game.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Photography unseen
Those were the days when I was dating girls. Surely, I had done a lot of research and introspection about my ideal life partner. Keeping these things in mind, I started searching for a beautiful damsel. I logged onto all kinds of dating websites to sell myself and to make myself comfortable with girls out there. I put my photograph that a friend of mine had taken when I was very young and handsome in USA. Days went by, and soon weeks eloped. But there was no girl in sight for me. The search started becoming unyielding and mirroring an epic struggle. Now, I was in India. And my looks had changed somewhat, not to say that I was still young. But, I had grown grey gloomy beard. My hair had whitened slightly. My mood had become heavier and the anticipation for the lucky lady had snatched my pulse of living in the moment. I had also become more philosophical. Next, months passed by, but at a much slower pace than the initial weeks. Once, with a heavy heart, I sat down to count the number of such days that I had spent looking haplessly for my partner. It had been a huge hundred months. By now, my friends also know this statistic by their heart! My friends insisted me to post my latest photograph on those same dating websites. Being a redoubtable character, I obeyed their request, fully aware that the girls out there would start losing interest in me.
Amidst this web of insecurity and hopelessness, the God finally looked at me and rewarded me with a surprise gift. Out of the blue, a girl opted to befriend me. She soon fell in love with me. No wonder she wanted to see the photo of the man she wanted to spend her life with. No wonder that I wanted to avoid showing her my latest photograph to her. But she kept asking me at an alarming frequency to show her my recent picture. I was soon getting bereft of ideas. Suddenly, I thought of using the technology to my advantage. I asked her to sign up on Gtalk, where I had kept my younger picture. The only problem was that I was wearing a heavy jacket and was standing next to my sports car in USA. After five weeks, she questioned me whether my photo was recent or not. But these five weeks had energized my mood to an altogether different level. I had grown younger in these thirty five days. My wrinkles and rumples from face had disappeared. I immediately updated Gtalk with my most recent photograph. And it served the purpose! After my marriage with her, I thanked her for changing the look of my face in those five weeks.
Amidst this web of insecurity and hopelessness, the God finally looked at me and rewarded me with a surprise gift. Out of the blue, a girl opted to befriend me. She soon fell in love with me. No wonder she wanted to see the photo of the man she wanted to spend her life with. No wonder that I wanted to avoid showing her my latest photograph to her. But she kept asking me at an alarming frequency to show her my recent picture. I was soon getting bereft of ideas. Suddenly, I thought of using the technology to my advantage. I asked her to sign up on Gtalk, where I had kept my younger picture. The only problem was that I was wearing a heavy jacket and was standing next to my sports car in USA. After five weeks, she questioned me whether my photo was recent or not. But these five weeks had energized my mood to an altogether different level. I had grown younger in these thirty five days. My wrinkles and rumples from face had disappeared. I immediately updated Gtalk with my most recent photograph. And it served the purpose! After my marriage with her, I thanked her for changing the look of my face in those five weeks.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Short Story #6: From The Chef's Own Store
Is this the face of a chef? Stephen wondered when he was placing his breakfast order. The store was running a promotion, because of which it was open till late night. It opened at 7 in the morning under open sky, and it would continue operating till 3 AM. At first, we thought that the chef would not be able to work so long to prepare good quality meal for his hungry customers. I could never perfect the art of blending the right kind of spices with the main curry. Nor could I ever enjoy flipping burgers tirelessly over the gas stove. I always used to burn both the ends of the burger! Up until now, his store had three chefs who followed a standardized recipe to cook burger, pizza, fish, chicken wings, nuggets, etc. But that day was different. As soon as he started taking the order of his first customer at 7:19 AM under the cool breeze, he announced that he will prepare food customized as per the demands of the customer – and all by himself. So, he decided to throw the ‘cheat-sheet’ recipe to cook food that was used to prepare food in a calibrated manner.
“Can I take your order, Sir?” asked the chef to Stephen, his first customer, at 7:19 AM. “One double cheeseburger and one orange juice”, replied Stephen. “Sure, just 25 minutes, Sir”. Hearing this, Stephen got amused. “I order breakfast everyday here. It’s only supposed to take 15 minutes, so why the 10 additional minutes today?” he asked. The chef replied that he needs to add special flavors to the cheeseburger and offer freshly prepared orange juice instead of a packaged juice. “Wow, that would be an ideal breakfast!” imagined Stephen.
The chef started flipping the cheeseburger in a skillet, and the rustling noise was for all to hear. “Sir, while I prepare your morning munches, would you like to solve today’s Crossword puzzle?” Stephen was delighted with this kind service. The chef sprinkled mustard and then added mayonnaise over the bun. He then added sautéed mushroom, onions and tomatoes. Amidst all this action, Stephen was busy solving the Crossword. Soon, the smell of burger disseminated into the open air, which riveted his appetite. After just a few minutes, Stephen saw a bunch of oranges in front of him. He couldn’t resist seeing the chef tightly squeeze the oranges with his palms, then cut it in pieces, remove the seeds, use the juicer to get the juice out, and finally add the pulp in the juice. The chef put down his tacky gown and approached Stephen. “Eat your meal while it is still hot. And orange juice should energize your day.” Stephen thoroughly enjoyed the food. He would soon spread the word to the other customers. And the chef continued to work tirelessly and please them until 3 AM.
The lesson is that if you love your trade, then you can be confident that you can please the people around you.
“Can I take your order, Sir?” asked the chef to Stephen, his first customer, at 7:19 AM. “One double cheeseburger and one orange juice”, replied Stephen. “Sure, just 25 minutes, Sir”. Hearing this, Stephen got amused. “I order breakfast everyday here. It’s only supposed to take 15 minutes, so why the 10 additional minutes today?” he asked. The chef replied that he needs to add special flavors to the cheeseburger and offer freshly prepared orange juice instead of a packaged juice. “Wow, that would be an ideal breakfast!” imagined Stephen.
The chef started flipping the cheeseburger in a skillet, and the rustling noise was for all to hear. “Sir, while I prepare your morning munches, would you like to solve today’s Crossword puzzle?” Stephen was delighted with this kind service. The chef sprinkled mustard and then added mayonnaise over the bun. He then added sautéed mushroom, onions and tomatoes. Amidst all this action, Stephen was busy solving the Crossword. Soon, the smell of burger disseminated into the open air, which riveted his appetite. After just a few minutes, Stephen saw a bunch of oranges in front of him. He couldn’t resist seeing the chef tightly squeeze the oranges with his palms, then cut it in pieces, remove the seeds, use the juicer to get the juice out, and finally add the pulp in the juice. The chef put down his tacky gown and approached Stephen. “Eat your meal while it is still hot. And orange juice should energize your day.” Stephen thoroughly enjoyed the food. He would soon spread the word to the other customers. And the chef continued to work tirelessly and please them until 3 AM.
The lesson is that if you love your trade, then you can be confident that you can please the people around you.
Short Story #5: Laughter The Best Medicine
The professor had made some mistakes in grammar and logic while explaining a subject yesterday. So, he wanted to make amends for that today. He started the day by greeting to all of us – Very good morning folks! He radiated a huge smile on his face, and three of us immediately wished him good morning. Seeing a weak response to his manufactured smile, the professor tried to induce a sense of humor. He replied, “Please copy to all.” Everyone went into peels of laughter. His first attempt at covering up for yesterday’s mistakes had worked well. But then, he tried to overdo this and wrote on the board: “Sopry sudents for teh tyipos and misstakes.” Seeing this message on the board, all of us laughed out of our guts! Shockingly for the professor, even he had never fathomed that his mistakes will continue the next day. But he was not complaining. His impromptu mistakes had at least created a light-hearted environment in the class.
Today, the professor no longer teaches grammar or logic. Instead, he has joined Laughter Special show, and he enthralls the audience by doing stand-up comedy. He soon realized that if he tries to bring some laughter to people, then he would be very happy. Today, when we ask him to attend some social gathering on Friday, then he refuses. There is no longer a day called “Friday” in his dictionary. Instead, he has replaced it with a “Try-day”. He tries to create happiness in others in his own way. This trait of his has won many hearts and given him good responses. Today, he has his own list of friends, and his own social circle.
If the laughter is original, then give it a rip. It will infect the others too.
Today, the professor no longer teaches grammar or logic. Instead, he has joined Laughter Special show, and he enthralls the audience by doing stand-up comedy. He soon realized that if he tries to bring some laughter to people, then he would be very happy. Today, when we ask him to attend some social gathering on Friday, then he refuses. There is no longer a day called “Friday” in his dictionary. Instead, he has replaced it with a “Try-day”. He tries to create happiness in others in his own way. This trait of his has won many hearts and given him good responses. Today, he has his own list of friends, and his own social circle.
If the laughter is original, then give it a rip. It will infect the others too.
Short Story #4: The Cab Experience
We were six people in company cab, three gentlemen and three ladies – all of us in mid-twenties. But I was the elder-most and the senior-most. Ninety minutes we were waiting to reach our office by sitting in the cab. So, it was three hours both ways that the destiny has asked us to stare at each other every single day. Being good gentlemen, we all knew we needed to respect the ladies.
Coincidentally, all other five members in the cab were Christians. Ever hungry for more knowledge, I sought posing a question to them about this religion. Surprisingly, one of the ladies was not quite familiar with her religion. And she was quite introvert too. Soon, one of us started making fun of her. She didn’t feel nice about this. Seeing her negative body language, one of us started advising her to know more about her religion. But we never knew she was simmering from within. She was getting hurt by our loose comments. We began wondering whether her mood would spill to her work too.
We decided to dab her and explain her that we are her well-wishers. We apologized for any action that might have hurt her. She got further pissed at this. I instantly realized that she was too disturbed by what had happened yesterday. This sense of knowledge gave me the direction to help her. I went to her and asked her to travel back in time. I simply told her that our objective in the first place was to merely share our knowledge so that we can have a fruitful time in the cab. The motive was just to give value to the social element of life. I had told her that we are very fortunate to have someone like her in the cab. Listening to my response, she immediately beamed a huge infectious smile.
If we are clear of our objective, and if we decide to work spiritedly towards attaining, then the short-term impact of the daily details should be ignored.
Coincidentally, all other five members in the cab were Christians. Ever hungry for more knowledge, I sought posing a question to them about this religion. Surprisingly, one of the ladies was not quite familiar with her religion. And she was quite introvert too. Soon, one of us started making fun of her. She didn’t feel nice about this. Seeing her negative body language, one of us started advising her to know more about her religion. But we never knew she was simmering from within. She was getting hurt by our loose comments. We began wondering whether her mood would spill to her work too.
We decided to dab her and explain her that we are her well-wishers. We apologized for any action that might have hurt her. She got further pissed at this. I instantly realized that she was too disturbed by what had happened yesterday. This sense of knowledge gave me the direction to help her. I went to her and asked her to travel back in time. I simply told her that our objective in the first place was to merely share our knowledge so that we can have a fruitful time in the cab. The motive was just to give value to the social element of life. I had told her that we are very fortunate to have someone like her in the cab. Listening to my response, she immediately beamed a huge infectious smile.
If we are clear of our objective, and if we decide to work spiritedly towards attaining, then the short-term impact of the daily details should be ignored.
Short Story #3: Just Born
Just born was a baby leopard from her mother in the hot open jungle of Savannah. He slowly lifted his head to see a mirror image in his mother. But he soon saw that she was several times larger and stronger. Also, he realized that he was the only one crying.
Immediately in the wild jungle he was left alone by mother. He had to obey her decision and create a living for self. But being just born, he was not yet empowered with the power of making a decision by self. All he could do was sprint a sublime race with the agility that God had not given to any other creature.
After a year, he realized the vast hunger in his stomach. He needed someone to feed him. But she was not there with him at the need of the hour. Luckily, he soon spotted a fleshy deer strolling lazily just a mile away. Suddenly, he had a desire to run racily towards it and pounce it to make it his first meal. He quickly took charge of his current position and pivoted his eyesight in the direction of that deer. The deer had now got alert and had started running at just a notch lower slower than the leopard. Seeing the deer take top flight, the leopard got a burning desire to go for the kill. Just ask yourself, if you get a desire to accomplish something, will you bother about explaining to others? So, he no longer cared about his mother about this desire, nor did he have enough time to go to find her mother. Instead, he channelized his thoughts on how to make that deer his meat.
After an epic struggle that lasted twenty minutes, he tore apart the flesh of the deer. After having satiated his hunger, he now realized the importance of his desire that was just born. He thanked the God for granting this desire to live.
Immediately in the wild jungle he was left alone by mother. He had to obey her decision and create a living for self. But being just born, he was not yet empowered with the power of making a decision by self. All he could do was sprint a sublime race with the agility that God had not given to any other creature.
After a year, he realized the vast hunger in his stomach. He needed someone to feed him. But she was not there with him at the need of the hour. Luckily, he soon spotted a fleshy deer strolling lazily just a mile away. Suddenly, he had a desire to run racily towards it and pounce it to make it his first meal. He quickly took charge of his current position and pivoted his eyesight in the direction of that deer. The deer had now got alert and had started running at just a notch lower slower than the leopard. Seeing the deer take top flight, the leopard got a burning desire to go for the kill. Just ask yourself, if you get a desire to accomplish something, will you bother about explaining to others? So, he no longer cared about his mother about this desire, nor did he have enough time to go to find her mother. Instead, he channelized his thoughts on how to make that deer his meat.
After an epic struggle that lasted twenty minutes, he tore apart the flesh of the deer. After having satiated his hunger, he now realized the importance of his desire that was just born. He thanked the God for granting this desire to live.
Short Story #3: Just Born
Just born was a baby leopard from her mother in the hot open jungle of Savannah. He slowly lifted his head to see a mirror image in his mother. But he soon saw that she was several times larger and stronger. Also, he realized that he was the only one crying.
Immediately in the wild jungle he was left alone by mother. He had to obey her decision and create a living for self. But being just born, he was not yet empowered with the power of making a decision by self. All he could do was sprint a sublime race with the agility that God had not given to any other creature.
After a year, he realized the vast hunger in his stomach. He needed someone to feed him. But she was not there with him at the need of the hour. Luckily, he soon spotted a fleshy deer strolling lazily just a mile away. Suddenly, he had a desire to run racily towards it and pounce it to make it his first meal. He quickly took charge of his current position and pivoted his eyesight in the direction of that deer. The deer had now got alert and had started running at just a notch lower slower than the leopard. Seeing the deer take top flight, the leopard got a burning desire to go for the kill. Just ask yourself, if you get a desire to accomplish something, will you bother about explaining to others? So, he no longer cared about his mother about this desire, nor did he have enough time to go to find her mother. Instead, he channelized his thoughts on how to make that deer his meat.
After an epic struggle that lasted twenty minutes, he tore apart the flesh of the deer. After having satiated his hunger, he now realized the importance of his desire that was just born. He thanked the God for granting this desire to live.
Immediately in the wild jungle he was left alone by mother. He had to obey her decision and create a living for self. But being just born, he was not yet empowered with the power of making a decision by self. All he could do was sprint a sublime race with the agility that God had not given to any other creature.
After a year, he realized the vast hunger in his stomach. He needed someone to feed him. But she was not there with him at the need of the hour. Luckily, he soon spotted a fleshy deer strolling lazily just a mile away. Suddenly, he had a desire to run racily towards it and pounce it to make it his first meal. He quickly took charge of his current position and pivoted his eyesight in the direction of that deer. The deer had now got alert and had started running at just a notch lower slower than the leopard. Seeing the deer take top flight, the leopard got a burning desire to go for the kill. Just ask yourself, if you get a desire to accomplish something, will you bother about explaining to others? So, he no longer cared about his mother about this desire, nor did he have enough time to go to find her mother. Instead, he channelized his thoughts on how to make that deer his meat.
After an epic struggle that lasted twenty minutes, he tore apart the flesh of the deer. After having satiated his hunger, he now realized the importance of his desire that was just born. He thanked the God for granting this desire to live.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Short Story #2: Hilarious Laziness
Lying cozily cuddled in mother’s womb was me. However, it was not acceptable to the nurse who pushed me out. Now out of the womb, I felt like scolding the nurse. “Why did you disturb me? I was having such a nice time inside the womb?” I asked her in an admonishing manner.
I don’t remember an iota of information from before my first anniversary. The only thing I remember was when I was wearing a white kurta pyjamah and my friends has greeted me gleefully on my first birthday.
Soon came the second year. “Babu, your food is getting cold”, my mom uttered these words to alert me. I used to reluctantly drag myself to the dining table. When I got successful in grabbing my favorite chair at the dining table, I always thanked my mom and the farmers for having given me the good food. When the prayer got over, I frequently used to drown myself into a sumptuous song. Soon, I would start to sing it too. My mother would then shake me so that I could get out of my conch. Generally, she increased the volume of TV. But, shockingly for her, I would then immerse myself into TV and start watching anything but sensible. The food would then get hopelessly unpalatable!
Now three years old, I remember some standpoints. It was the don of the microwave era. I would buy bread, butter and a basket of bananas, and then keep those in the fridge. But, my laziness was one step ahead of the lazy folks for whom microwave was invented. I would wish the bread and butter in the fridge to get automatically toasted for sixty seconds so that I could take that out and melt it in my mouth! Well, that would never happen!
Age four it was now. Now, my mom had started putting all delicious delicacies in the fridge for me. I so much yearned for the butter in fridge to melt by itself and find its smooth way beneath the paneer vegetable, then meander towards the fenugreek and ask it to get prepared to be sprinkled over the butter-paneer combo. Seeing all this, I wished the pita bread to get excited and uncork a plate and land itself in it. “Can you please come and get seated next to me?”, the bread would then ask the paneer-butter combo vegetable. The meal would thus be ready! My task would just be to sprinkle some salt and eat it. Well, if wishes were to come true, then the salt should also have somehow found a way to cryogenate itself and find a place in that fridge. My task would have become so easy!
Age of five frightened me the most. Ship was swaying in all weird directions. I am taking you to a vacation in Madras. What was meant to be a breather soon became a blistering experience. We were sitting in a ship and sauntering in the sea. Suddenly, the ship sent a SOS signal. People who knew swimming were readying themselves to plunge in water. Others rushed for life jackets. But, I neither knew swimming nor wanted to shed my laziness to don a life jacket. No wonder I don’t even remember who rescued me!
Soon came college days. My aim was to be cross 40%. But, I was struggling to even achieve that aim. Soon came the final semester. Panic had to outsmart my laziness, and somehow I eked out 40.002% aggregate! My clearing the 40% dreaded benchmark coincided with being offered a job in a ridiculously high-paying oil-drilling company. I knew that even if I work only for 4 years there, then no need to work for the remainder of life. And then I can laze off for the rest of my life, I thought! They asked my marksheets. I could sense trouble because flunking was my trait. I xeroxed all my marksheets where I had successfully got beyond 40%, and removed the faulty ones. I stitched a successful tale of my successful courses and hid my failures. I’m still breathing safely at my oil-drilling company.
However, I still wear non-matching socks and tie only the middle lace of my shoes for this job. Who would find time for me to arrange my socks? Who will un-tie my laces when I need to put off my shoes, and then tie those back again when rushing to work?
I have grown in stature. News correspondents flock at me to give weather update for news channels. So, I tried my hand at one of them. When it came to giving weather update for the five metropolitan cities of India, I advised them to avoid me the hassle of announcing the weather update and instead read it in the next day’s newspaper!
Ala, Purel hand-wash was designed specifically for me to avoid the mess of cleaning the hands before having a meal.
I don’t remember an iota of information from before my first anniversary. The only thing I remember was when I was wearing a white kurta pyjamah and my friends has greeted me gleefully on my first birthday.
Soon came the second year. “Babu, your food is getting cold”, my mom uttered these words to alert me. I used to reluctantly drag myself to the dining table. When I got successful in grabbing my favorite chair at the dining table, I always thanked my mom and the farmers for having given me the good food. When the prayer got over, I frequently used to drown myself into a sumptuous song. Soon, I would start to sing it too. My mother would then shake me so that I could get out of my conch. Generally, she increased the volume of TV. But, shockingly for her, I would then immerse myself into TV and start watching anything but sensible. The food would then get hopelessly unpalatable!
Now three years old, I remember some standpoints. It was the don of the microwave era. I would buy bread, butter and a basket of bananas, and then keep those in the fridge. But, my laziness was one step ahead of the lazy folks for whom microwave was invented. I would wish the bread and butter in the fridge to get automatically toasted for sixty seconds so that I could take that out and melt it in my mouth! Well, that would never happen!
Age four it was now. Now, my mom had started putting all delicious delicacies in the fridge for me. I so much yearned for the butter in fridge to melt by itself and find its smooth way beneath the paneer vegetable, then meander towards the fenugreek and ask it to get prepared to be sprinkled over the butter-paneer combo. Seeing all this, I wished the pita bread to get excited and uncork a plate and land itself in it. “Can you please come and get seated next to me?”, the bread would then ask the paneer-butter combo vegetable. The meal would thus be ready! My task would just be to sprinkle some salt and eat it. Well, if wishes were to come true, then the salt should also have somehow found a way to cryogenate itself and find a place in that fridge. My task would have become so easy!
Age of five frightened me the most. Ship was swaying in all weird directions. I am taking you to a vacation in Madras. What was meant to be a breather soon became a blistering experience. We were sitting in a ship and sauntering in the sea. Suddenly, the ship sent a SOS signal. People who knew swimming were readying themselves to plunge in water. Others rushed for life jackets. But, I neither knew swimming nor wanted to shed my laziness to don a life jacket. No wonder I don’t even remember who rescued me!
Soon came college days. My aim was to be cross 40%. But, I was struggling to even achieve that aim. Soon came the final semester. Panic had to outsmart my laziness, and somehow I eked out 40.002% aggregate! My clearing the 40% dreaded benchmark coincided with being offered a job in a ridiculously high-paying oil-drilling company. I knew that even if I work only for 4 years there, then no need to work for the remainder of life. And then I can laze off for the rest of my life, I thought! They asked my marksheets. I could sense trouble because flunking was my trait. I xeroxed all my marksheets where I had successfully got beyond 40%, and removed the faulty ones. I stitched a successful tale of my successful courses and hid my failures. I’m still breathing safely at my oil-drilling company.
However, I still wear non-matching socks and tie only the middle lace of my shoes for this job. Who would find time for me to arrange my socks? Who will un-tie my laces when I need to put off my shoes, and then tie those back again when rushing to work?
I have grown in stature. News correspondents flock at me to give weather update for news channels. So, I tried my hand at one of them. When it came to giving weather update for the five metropolitan cities of India, I advised them to avoid me the hassle of announcing the weather update and instead read it in the next day’s newspaper!
Ala, Purel hand-wash was designed specifically for me to avoid the mess of cleaning the hands before having a meal.
Short Story #1: The First Seal
There are a lot of seals that need to cross the ocean filled with sharks. They want to cross their shore. But, unless one of those takes the first foot forward by diving, no other seal would muster the strength to cross. Clearly, the first seal is at a disadvantage because it knows it will be consumed by the hungry sharks circling around. That seal knows this move will cost its life. But, still that failure is required to inspire the others. This seal will later instill team spirit and self-belief in others. No wonder some of those others will later gather great courage and thus cross the shore. Instead of being called a failure, the first seal would be labeled as a successful someone who tried to create a positive environment.
Once, I needed to lead a disengaged employee in job. Myself being new to this job, I was unaware of the working style of my junior. So, I was unsure of chalking out his career plan. “How will you work for my future, Sir?” asked my junior. “I am new to the city. I also don’t know driving. Without a car, I would be wasting a lot of time in travelling”, he said. He continued, “I am unaware of the tools to be used too. I know you too have a learning curve”. I conjectured at my grim situation. Luckily, my plight was matched by that of other leaders around me. It reminded me of the volunteer seal who must plunge the shark-infested waters to show others the right path. I retorted: “I want to help chalk out your career path. But, I will adopt a novel approach. Can I begin by asking you what do you respect about me?” He replied, “I respect your passion to lead and fearlessness”. This spurred me. I decided to go out of my way to help him. I began teaching him driving and allowed him to settle down in the new environment. Good quality work soon followed. We became a strong unit and people got envious of our accomplishments. I involved him in all critical team meetings as well.
Our chemistry culminated in us winning the best team award. But, I always thought someone might blow the whistle on me. This feeling singed me. My worst fears surfaced, and I was questioned with an intensity of a court martial. They questioned me on my leadership style. In my defense, I said, “There exist many divides across the world, such as socio-economic, geographic, caste and attitudinal factors. These layers of divide have been creating friction between us. Soon, it would become difficult just to put forward a novel idea to your neighbor. One fine day, we would wake up to see all of us so spent that we would be robbed of any creative ideas. It would engulf our self-confidence. So, sometimes we need to become the first seal, throw the fear factor out of the window, and adopt our own ways of showing light to rest of the pack.” At this reply, I was immediately promoted.
We may have started our journey with a timid seal, but its fearlessness in its ability to write its own future is no less than the ferocity of a raw tiger. We would do well to choose the tiger inside us.
Once, I needed to lead a disengaged employee in job. Myself being new to this job, I was unaware of the working style of my junior. So, I was unsure of chalking out his career plan. “How will you work for my future, Sir?” asked my junior. “I am new to the city. I also don’t know driving. Without a car, I would be wasting a lot of time in travelling”, he said. He continued, “I am unaware of the tools to be used too. I know you too have a learning curve”. I conjectured at my grim situation. Luckily, my plight was matched by that of other leaders around me. It reminded me of the volunteer seal who must plunge the shark-infested waters to show others the right path. I retorted: “I want to help chalk out your career path. But, I will adopt a novel approach. Can I begin by asking you what do you respect about me?” He replied, “I respect your passion to lead and fearlessness”. This spurred me. I decided to go out of my way to help him. I began teaching him driving and allowed him to settle down in the new environment. Good quality work soon followed. We became a strong unit and people got envious of our accomplishments. I involved him in all critical team meetings as well.
Our chemistry culminated in us winning the best team award. But, I always thought someone might blow the whistle on me. This feeling singed me. My worst fears surfaced, and I was questioned with an intensity of a court martial. They questioned me on my leadership style. In my defense, I said, “There exist many divides across the world, such as socio-economic, geographic, caste and attitudinal factors. These layers of divide have been creating friction between us. Soon, it would become difficult just to put forward a novel idea to your neighbor. One fine day, we would wake up to see all of us so spent that we would be robbed of any creative ideas. It would engulf our self-confidence. So, sometimes we need to become the first seal, throw the fear factor out of the window, and adopt our own ways of showing light to rest of the pack.” At this reply, I was immediately promoted.
We may have started our journey with a timid seal, but its fearlessness in its ability to write its own future is no less than the ferocity of a raw tiger. We would do well to choose the tiger inside us.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Tear Across To Progress
Breaking the barrier of his self-struggle and slow moving rubble
Fearlessly he takes the measure of conditions yet would stumble.
Timing and resonance are no longer symbolic of his array
All his preparations, plans and ploys are ascending away.
He is desperately searching for that moment that will spark his signature
And give him that moment making him think the world is miniature.
He begins to look for his lost touch by opting for an arduous adventure
And gives himself a heavy task of drawing inspiration from every creature.
He will dig deep into the reasons for his failure so pure
Yet he will also preserve his strengths that will do him cure.
The fist pump and his enormous emotional will to succeed
Precision of a surgeon and accuracy he will notably need.
Suddenly he recalls he has too much variety and too much flair
Strikingly, he knows it’s time to take a notch ahead and end his despair.
The confidence now sky high and his flight having been regained
He tears the tight ribbon across the cell in which he had remained.
The front of a quilt that had looked to him monstrous as a mountain
The kind of off-color he was where his attempts seemed to have no gain.
Now, the coverage resumes tomorrow at 13 hours GMT on your favorite channel
Now you rate his present performance, no please bring the entire panel.
Fearlessly he takes the measure of conditions yet would stumble.
Timing and resonance are no longer symbolic of his array
All his preparations, plans and ploys are ascending away.
He is desperately searching for that moment that will spark his signature
And give him that moment making him think the world is miniature.
He begins to look for his lost touch by opting for an arduous adventure
And gives himself a heavy task of drawing inspiration from every creature.
He will dig deep into the reasons for his failure so pure
Yet he will also preserve his strengths that will do him cure.
The fist pump and his enormous emotional will to succeed
Precision of a surgeon and accuracy he will notably need.
Suddenly he recalls he has too much variety and too much flair
Strikingly, he knows it’s time to take a notch ahead and end his despair.
The confidence now sky high and his flight having been regained
He tears the tight ribbon across the cell in which he had remained.
The front of a quilt that had looked to him monstrous as a mountain
The kind of off-color he was where his attempts seemed to have no gain.
Now, the coverage resumes tomorrow at 13 hours GMT on your favorite channel
Now you rate his present performance, no please bring the entire panel.
V For We
A man with scarf staying on top of sweater looks like smart stuff.
Posing with a cigarette circling heavy smoke and a lot of puff.
Deep embroiled in thoughts is all for everyone around to see.
Cigar between his first finger and middle giving his hand a shape like V.
On opposite end is a woman with a face built like V.
Rays coming from her mouth channel out like V.
Freeing a bird with her hasty hands, now the bird from far looks like V.
A human spirit she is singing song with her neck now shaping like V.
On the opposite end was this man standing in front of a valley shaped like V.
He was occupied with self summersault - now his inverted legs shaped like V.
On the other opposite was woman staring at a sand hill like an inverted V.
She was electrifying the environment everywhere with a smile broad like V.
When the V of the man unites with the V of this woman,
very vast void of his listless life gets going with wonderful woman.
Exuberance will result when he realizes the unison of V with V.
His hand headed for harmonizing hers to form a different kind of V.
Posing with a cigarette circling heavy smoke and a lot of puff.
Deep embroiled in thoughts is all for everyone around to see.
Cigar between his first finger and middle giving his hand a shape like V.
On opposite end is a woman with a face built like V.
Rays coming from her mouth channel out like V.
Freeing a bird with her hasty hands, now the bird from far looks like V.
A human spirit she is singing song with her neck now shaping like V.
On the opposite end was this man standing in front of a valley shaped like V.
He was occupied with self summersault - now his inverted legs shaped like V.
On the other opposite was woman staring at a sand hill like an inverted V.
She was electrifying the environment everywhere with a smile broad like V.
When the V of the man unites with the V of this woman,
very vast void of his listless life gets going with wonderful woman.
Exuberance will result when he realizes the unison of V with V.
His hand headed for harmonizing hers to form a different kind of V.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Quintessence
In radiant rays of light
Azure Air of magical sky in our sight
Fearless Fire having harsh heat
The wonderful wide Water.
The Essence of Earth...are all so bright
Quintessence is so subtle and light
yet felt with such might
That none of Air, Fire, Water or Earth can bear it's light.
A deft delicately poised phase it has
One being the Satanic strife
The other the innate intimate Love-
The Saga of life.
Azure Air of magical sky in our sight
Fearless Fire having harsh heat
The wonderful wide Water.
The Essence of Earth...are all so bright
Quintessence is so subtle and light
yet felt with such might
That none of Air, Fire, Water or Earth can bear it's light.
A deft delicately poised phase it has
One being the Satanic strife
The other the innate intimate Love-
The Saga of life.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Vroom Mauritius...
10..9...8…7…..6..….5……..4….……3……..…2……..…..1..........................0
Vroom Mauritius!!!
Hey ya all leaps-behind daring guys stop pause energise eagerly your ravenous senses
Yummily yearn new wet teeming glaring gung-ho ocean-ordeal lives spring glances…
…At your faces facing fishes filled with frolic n fulsome fun
…At your eyes eyeing enormous eels with electric élan
…At your camera chasing cotton-like corals from above the colored waters
…At your senses stimulating ‘selves with the presence of sea-shells in sea-shores
…At your dreams to watch dolphins dance in the dawn of Splendid Saturday morning
…At your moods that finally decide to catch mega marlins in tiring big fish hunting
…At your overt fears from seeing stunning shape n size of O-shaped Octopus
…At your steamy speed boats booming with wild noise running at nine nautical miles
Vroom Mauritius!!!
Hey ya all leaps-behind daring guys stop pause energise eagerly your ravenous senses
Yummily yearn new wet teeming glaring gung-ho ocean-ordeal lives spring glances…
…At your faces facing fishes filled with frolic n fulsome fun
…At your eyes eyeing enormous eels with electric élan
…At your camera chasing cotton-like corals from above the colored waters
…At your senses stimulating ‘selves with the presence of sea-shells in sea-shores
…At your dreams to watch dolphins dance in the dawn of Splendid Saturday morning
…At your moods that finally decide to catch mega marlins in tiring big fish hunting
…At your overt fears from seeing stunning shape n size of O-shaped Octopus
…At your steamy speed boats booming with wild noise running at nine nautical miles
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