Monday, December 12, 2011

Philosophical Nostalgia

A year or two back, I remember writing a post on how boring philosophy is. And I had started that post with a super philosophical paragraph. I always thought it was beyond me and my feeble understanding. But life and time teach you so many things. It surprises me sometimes when I go from normal to philosophical effortlessly and in no time. It's not a big deal, really. All you have to do is talk some positive and intellectual shit using a few heavy words. Elaborate a simple sentence in a profound manner and dang - you are a philosopher. 

I meet so many people each day. Everyone has a different take on life before and after a few drinks. And it's amusing to hear about their stories. How sad/happy they are before drinking, and two pegs down how things change suddenly. How senselessly sensible they become, how they look at life and talk about it. If only they applied all those principles in life, they wouldn't be drinking with friends.

I guess it's to do with age as well. I remember discussing about girls, boyfriends, heartbreaks, crushes, movies and such else during college. Then came the time when we discussed about work pressure, performance, target, promotions, lay offs, career options, marriages, family etc. And now mid-life crisis has hit us so bad that each of our discussion revolves around life and fight to survive. All of us have some or the other problem, nobody is entirely happy in one's life.

We fight. We work. We slog our asses off just to be happy, and at the end of the day, are we really happy? If I talk about me, I don't have any social life as such. There were times when I met friends without any reason and whenever I felt like. Now, I have to think 10 times before making such leisure plans with them. We go to fancy restaurants, good multiplexes or a nice holiday destination, but none of the meetings take place outside college, on marine drive, checking wallet before planning a movie, eating in fancy restaurants only when we get some birthday treat - that time was happier.

And no, I am not unhappy. Maybe I miss the simple and less complicated life. I miss the carefree and responsibility free life. I miss those nonsense conversations about nothing. And I miss being happy without any reason. Just a good sunny day made me happy, finding a 100 Rs. note in old book or bag made me jump with joy, birthday preparation started with shopping almost a month in advance.

Looks like I got lost in the memory lane. Philosophy can turn into nostalgia too I believe.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Just another post

The biggest disadvantage of not having anything stored in your draft is that when you want to update your blog and don't know what to write about, you are stuck. Busy times are back again. Monsoon season is usually a relatively free time for us professional. I happened to discuss it with a friend who has his own firm too, and he pointed it out. When I see the trend for my firm as well, monsoon slows down the business. Weird it be, but it's true.

Everyone is aware about Mumbai monsoons. Because of that, lectures get canned too. I love to work all the time, but these days, I miss my free time when I can just spend some time with myself. Since I am good at multitasking, I talk to people while working. But I miss reading, and writing. I miss blogging - reading as well as writing. Some days, when I get a bit of free time, that time I don't feel like logging onto blogger and write something.

Ah I sound lost. Rather, I am too happy to care. Happy as I am finally writing something. Happy because finally I am so busy with work that I don't have time for anything. And this happens to be my birthday month too. I turn a year older.

I visited Goa last week. It was a fantastic trip. Very much rejuvenating and well deserved. I am right now at a time when I take a vacation when I need to. I want to take my next vacation when I want to. I can do that easily as I have my own practice. I have Pondicherry and Auroville on cards. Let's see when it materializes. 

That's about it for now. There are many things to write about on my mind, but I am not in mood to write about those. I shall be back soon, pretty soon!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Typo story

So many of my posts are a result of conversations I have with people around me. A few people I love to talk to are not in the same town as me. Thus the only contact point is messengers and/or e-mails. I remember those days when I used to share an e-mail thread of 100 + mails with a few people within a span of an hour. Yes, there is always an option of calling up, but e-mailing has its own charm. And no it's not boring or pathetic if you really love the person.

And so the story starts. Now, people around me are amazing, that goes without saying. But they are mere mortals after all. And they make a lot of mistakes while typing. A few mistakes can easily be overlooked, but when one makes more typos than the actual sentence, you can be sure that it is written by Guria.

Now a days, she blames it on auto-correct. Yeah yeah, I believe her. Her each typo is epic. It makes me laugh like crazy for sure. While she apologizes for the typo, she makes a couple of more of them. Ah, she is mad.

Funnier thing is, she makes typos even when she types out an emoticon. Every single time. She gets it right in third of fourth attempt. Just to cover it all up, she starts praising me as she knows that's the best way to embarrass me. Kids will be kids.

And now I know I shall be murdered for this post. But I solemnly swear that each word of this post is true. And it was long overdue as well as I had told her more than a month back that I'd blog about this. The busy me and lazy me never got to write this one.

And finally I take a break, after almost a year. After a very refreshing trip to MP last year, this year I go to another beautiful destination. I shall blog about it if I have the patience and interest, otherwise see you soon with yet another rant.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Beauty of thoughts

It's one of those days when you are itching to write something. Words are beautiful. They can express your heart, your mind, your soul. They have the power to hurt you, to make you smile. They have the power to possess you as well as to destroy you, they can make you and break you at the same time. They flow naturally sometimes; at the same time, they can make you chase them to find the correct ones.

Each one of us creates stories in mind. For every situation we face. Especially while sitting idle, while travelling. Even while reading, the mind wanders. It creates stories on paper, it writes them, and erases them. Each time, the mind creates a new world for you - a perfect one. Things work as they are written. There are no surprises, only happy instances. No sorrows, no pain, no grief. Just a happy journey lasting for a few moments. A scene you can die for, a moment you can wait for your entire life. It looks so beautiful, surreal and pure, perfect beyond any perfectness.

Words have magic. Words have feelings. They can breathe. They have a heart that beats. You can hear them breathing if you listen to them carefully. You can feel them casting their spell on you. You can't help but fall in love with this magic. There is an invisible cord that pulls you closer each time you read and feel them.

Have you ever felt the words? Reading a book for the first time, and reading the same one 10th or 20th time - the feeling is different. Each word feels like a verse on those tattered yellow pages. The fading title resonates with your own life. This be the same book that grew up with you and grew old with you. Its pale skin reminds you of its loyalty towards you. It is almost worn out, but it has retained its magic as yet. Howard Roark is still the guy you desire and you have a passion for, John Galt is still a mystery which is too good to be true. Atticus Finch is the hero we need right now.

These books talk to you. They answer your questions. They become your companion in loneliness. They absorb your tears and don't complain. They love you back - more than you love them. They stay locked for months and years, see you getting close to other books. They age in depression. You can smell their sadness when you open them, you can see the patches of their dried tears on the otherwise crisp white paper. They have lost their youth behind waiting for you, but still embrace you without complaining.

They stare at you when you are lost in your scotch and forget to acknowledge them. They stay close to your heart when you hug the sleep, they will fall hard on the floor and don't move until you pick them up and lock them once again. They keep ageing, tattering, shedding tears, waiting for you to acknowledge them.

It's all about words at the end. Words written on them complete them. Words written by you in your mind define you. Each time you write a line, you change. And your words accept you. It's a power to create this world in your mind. It's a power to create such thoughts. And this power is addictive. It takes you everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

And this power is beautiful..

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Why judge?

This blog-world always manages to amuse me. When you are good friends with bloggers, and talk to them more or less on regular basis, and you are girls, then stories are bound to be discussed. If you have been blogging for more than a year, you tend to develop a bond with your readers. You may communicate with them through other mediums like mails, chats, facebook and such else.

I have a few friends too whom I met through blogging, but I talk to them even outside the blogs, more or less on regular basis. And we discuss about various things. One of such topics was about the blog content. I have a personal blog, so do most of the people I follow. Though rarely, but we do discuss blogs, especially when we have a post that's inspired by some conversation or comments.

One such discussion I'd had with a blogger friend about her style of blogging. Someone told her that she came across as a very different person from what she really is in real life. Well, it was a bit surprising to hear it as people have so much time to analyze posts and compare the real you and the blogger you!

Talking about me, even though I have a personal blog and I am honest about what I write here, I may not always write about my feelings for that particular subject matter, I am sure most of us don't do that. Thus judging a person from blogpost is not too accurate.

A person may write all sober stuff on blog, but in real life his/her sentence may not be starting without any abuse. A rude person on blog would actually be very humble and vice versa. And common, unless you want to settle down with that person, why would you bother about how that person writes/sounds on his/blog?

These social networking sites have spoilt us. We take them way too seriously. I was one of them too. Such things really mattered to me earlier. I took the social networking sites way too seriously. It really mattered to me what people did and what was happening in their lives. I have come out of that stage now. I don't even know what I have on my profile. I have disabled all e-mail notifications. I don't even know these days how many comments are there on each my post. 5 on an average per post? Or maybe less. I do get a lot of page views even today. And followers keep increasing too, but no comments as I don't read them. Don't I miss that?

Another discussion I'd had was about typos. I know so many people who make at least 3 typos per sentence. Some of these typos are classic. Some of them are a result of auto-correct too. This typo story deserves a separate post. Until then, STOP JUDGING!