first post of the year!

So this is the first post of this year. And mind you, its still January, last day though. Lol!

Well then, here's to another year of hard work, poor pay, multiple responsibilities, little acknowledgement, viciously short-sighted politics, rampant hysterical ignorance, rape torture and murder, and worst of all, a bland diet thanks to soaring grocery costs.

And also to small pleasures. Cha on the stairs, adda on campus, people who think, greasy fish-fries. Luck, hugs, solidarity and of course, friendship!

2011 seems like a great year so far. No disasters reported, no coups, tsunamis, recessions or even a major scam. There has been at least one uplifting event already, so the year has started well.

Oh, but it might not be a fair thing to pass judgement on 2011, rather, I must retreat to the dim and distant past. Specifically, to 2010. Which seems to have been a good year on the whole. Except perhaps for the Democratic Party in the USA. Or marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. And Ricky Ponting’s Umpire Education Policy. And Arun Nayar, who found that safety-pins cannot hold a marriage together. Or the Indian Railways in Uttar Pradesh, where 6 accidents were reported in January 2010 alone. And the General Post Office, Kolkata, where employees were taken to task at year-end because they could not achieve unreasonable targets (such as delivering letters on time, specifically a letter from the Home Minister of India). Further, this was not a good year for bond salesmen and stockbrokers in Greece, or for that matter in Iceland or Portugal. There was some talk of an economic crisis in Spain as well, but all calls to their Ministry of Finance yielded only a recorded message at about 98 decibels that went “OLEEEEEEEEE!!! GANAMOS!!!” (We won). Apart from these, 2010 seems to have gone off well.
It was also a very moving year. The earth moved early and often (no, I am not referring to intimate experiences.) In January, an earthquake in Haiti touched 7.0 on the Richter Scale. In February, there was an earthquake in Chile that touched 8.8; since the Richter Scale is logarithmic, that means it was nearly 100 times as powerful as the Haiti earthquake. The earth wasn’t done yet – it moved again in April in Qinghai, China; in June off the Andamans; and in October off the coast of Sumatra. And these were only the major ones reported! As a result, People magazine and Times Now had to change their definitions of movers and shakers.
2010 also saw major advances in scientific inquiry. Psychics and clairvoyants in india examined the possibility of grafting on six more arms apiece, but were baffled when informed that an octopus also has a beak. Later, conspiracy theorists had a field day when Paul the Octopus died. The most popular theory was that somebody had asked him to predict Rajnikanth’s death. In related news, Diego Maradona finally stopped throwing players off the team when it was pointed out to him that he had himself been thrown off the team. Elsewhere, scientists declared that they had developed a car that can run on water. As long as the water came from the Gulf of Mexico. On the other hand, some scientists expressed fears that if the oil spill got worse, we would have to start drilling for water. Unless the oil spill was diluted by melting ice caps, because global warming seemed a very real menace in 2010 (though trains tangoed in the fog in January and monkey-caps bloomed all over jaipur in December). The issue had come to public notice much earlier, when almost-President-of-the-USA Al Gore won an Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth”, the highest-grossing PowerPoint presentation in history. Unfortunately for him, that did not cause any significant change in US public policy, such as declaring him the President.
The year that saw the rescue of the Chilean miners ended with a different kind of digging out. Julian Assange caused consternation when Wikileaks spilled the dirt on many governments, but allegations of an entirely different kind of leak dumped the dirt on him.
India has had its share of drama in 2010. The most heartening aspect was the spirit of innovation. Such as the provision of snakes in the Commonwealth Village, purportedly to make athletes from wilder climes feel at home (there is no truth in the rumour that the snakes story was really all about Gujarati catering). Or the proposal to solve one of India’s most contentious political issues by commissioning a temple-cum-mosque on the site – under the able stewardship of the CWG Organising Committee. Lalit Bhanot, poor man, caught some flak with his comment about Indian standards of hygiene; so much for speaking the truth. In related news, the External Affairs Ministry learnt of the existence of some countries only when these countries threatened to pull out of the Games.


All in all, 2010 was a rich period of history.

it has been an eventful and difficult year. With the things moving back and forth, my life too seemed to be in a constant state of upheaval. Specially for the memories of someone who used to talk on the phone for half an hour every day apart from having long leisurely conversation until we fell asleep--it nearly tore me alot in those good nice memories. Shanaya, wherever you are, i’m missing you.
Ah, never the less, Yet I had so much to be thankful for, and like we all know, its life, which just keeps moving.

In 2011, I want to try more consciously to improve my life, to not wait for circumstance but seek out what makes me happy. So I started with some of the lessons I've learned over the last year (and should have learned long ago really, and some of them I had and then forgot.

Hoping to have more bonded connection with you in this year.
Let me stop typing before i get wet in tears.
Wish you a great remaining year ahead!

Why are TV soaps popular amongst women

True, not everyone is a friend.

Today when so many people we barely know are “friends” on our social networking sites, I am reminded of an episode long time ago. I think I was in class 4 or 5. I knew a girl in my class who I rarely interacted with. She had her own set of friends, belonged to a different state, spoke a different language, and had nothing in common with me. We sat in opposite corners of the classroom. She was short and I was tall, and thus never even stood close to each other in those queues we made during the assembly. The only time I heard her name and her voice was when the teacher took the class attendance every morning and I heard her “present ma’am”.

It so happened that my father happened to know her father, which we discovered accidentally. My father had to go meet her father for some work and asked me if I would like to tag along and visit my friend. I was not very excited at the thought of it and hence decided to stay home.

The rest of the story, we heard from my father. He was at their place when my friend entered to say hi. My father smiled and asked her if she knew he was her school friend’s father. To which she smiled and said yes, and corrected my father saying “Although he is not a friend, he is a classmate”.

My father was very intrigued with the wisdom of a 11 year old. When I heard this, I was angry at first, but later realized that what she said was not to demean or insult me, she just spoke the truth. We must have barely spoken 3 times in school, sat at different corners, never shared or food, never hung out with the same set of friends, and had nothing in common.

Years later, I still appreciate the wisdom of what she said. We use the word “friend” in very general terms, referring to anyone we meet in the train, work with, go to school with, are neighbors with, or even study in the same class with. You go to a class with classmates, go to work with colleagues, and so on. Friend cannot be a generalized word used to describe classmates, colleagues, or contacts. Someone who is not a friend doesn’t necessarily have to be an enemy. But not everyone you are civil to and in good terms with is a friend.

On the same note, it would be interesting to have categories like classmates, colleagues, contacts, neighbors, relatives, etc. on these social networking sites. True, not everyone is a friend.

don't be serious, be sinceer!

I love the compositions of chetan bhagat, and am quite impressed by his philosophy.
Yesterday, when I’ve got a mail in my inbox comprising with a speech of chetan bhagat which he gave in a well known management institute, thought to share it with you as well. Enjoy!
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Don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before
successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts.
Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the
marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is
only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited
and alive, will start to die. .......
One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really
temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50
years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? ......
It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little
fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices........." :)
"Don't be serious, be sincere."!!
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Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty impressed by what he said, and tent to agree as well.
it started echoing to my brain, "don't be serious, be sinceer"!