27 September, 2008

Lucky Number

But, before I stick onto my current lucky number, I think I should give a short history of my lucky numbers.
My first lucky number I can remember about, was 2.
This was logical as I born on 20th and
that adds upto 2.
I stuck to it for a pretty long time, and then something happened.

When I went to North Point, the roll numbers were in the order of the surnames. So I was at roll number 5. And then, at a game show in the school fete, when I was in class 5, and I had won a prize (a brylcream hair cream), after I had randomny selected 5 as the number. So here I was getting these signs from somewhere that perhaps 5 was my lucky number!

I remember reading those sacred mantras before sleeping 5 times, and also taking up the number 5 jersey, when playing for the house football games. (too bad that I sucked at them though :P)
So it was 5 all around! Players who wore the number 5 jersey, became my favorite and I made it a point to have the number 5 around me at all times.

Little did I know that the hair cream was going to be the only prize I would ever win!

As the classes changed, a couple of guys left our school, or something happened. My new roll number was 3.
Hence, yes you guessed it right. My lucky number changed to 3.
Also, for a stretch of around 5 years, class 6-class 10, I was coming third in class, so it was natural for me select 3. A lot of people consider 3 to be unlucky. There are lot of things that people say that you should not do three times. But here I was. Thinking that I was "different" and perhapd 3 was my lucky number!

Did not really get lucky with 3, so i thought to change back to my good old 2.
Back in IIT, my jersey number at he hockey team was 2. I was just trying to stick to this.
Nothing lucky really happened.

I tried 13, 7, and 4 for a few days too. No luck in either of them...
So the whole concept of a lucky number faded away ..
Hey

Of late I have been feeling that my lucky number is 9.
I will tell you why!
I recently turned 27. Which adds up to 9.
I was born in 81, which again adds up to 9. :)
I was born in the 9th month of the year.

So,What's your lucky number?

24 September, 2008

The notion of friends...

When I was a kid, I always had a problem with the spelling of the word friend. I often mis-spelt it as freind. And someone would correct me.

Then one day, someone said this to me.
A friend is one who is always there till the end, after all even the word says it, friEND.
So that was the most valid definition of a friend that I imprinted in my mind.

This whole notion of friends and friendship has been with me from a very young age.
Being in a co-ed boarding school, the first few years of my life that I can remember, the notion of a friend was that of a person who shared tuck boxes. Those who played with me and those who helped me in some way. It would at times also be a person who liked the same teacher, or disliked another person. It could also be a person from the same town as you, or if our fathers knew each other. There was no differentiation between a boy and a girl. All were equally worthy of friendship.

Time moved on, I switched schools. I remember a couple of names but then that was the last time I spoke to the friends from that school.
Now in 1991, I was in a only boys boarding school. The notion of having friends revolved around only boys. So school outings, or the school fete, were always special occasions as that would give us the remote possibility of breaching the code and having a friend who was a girl. I did have some friends who switched to the same school as me so there was some similar faces around in the new school.

First lessons in sex education happened around class 6, and the different kind of friendship with a girl started to play out in the mind. Would have been around that time the notion of a girlfriend was implanted, though that did not happen till much later. Thanks to the notion that a girlfriend was a distraction and hence was not acceptable in the society that I grew up in.
So my gang was mostly with guys. And it was no surprise that i did not have the same set of friends over my birthday cake for two consecutive years. Every year the set would change. Sometimes it would just be a friend to get some work done or often at times by a senior to bully the juniors.

Being good academically, the other interesting thing was that my set of friends increased near exam times and then after that friendship was a lost word in a storm of activities that followed soon later.
There was also a time when there were no close friends and hence I guess that explains my easy mixing capabilities with as many as possible. I was always on the lookout for a person whom i could trust and be with at all times.

One of the not so good things that my school North Point did was, it made me shy of girls.
Though it did make me good at a ton of other things. So no regrets on that one. End of education in the magnificient hills of Darjeeling and I moved to the only hilly town of Bihar, Ranchi. (This was before the partition).

Time moved on and I landed in this school where the prime focus was studies. And I tell you, in class 11, I was psyched at seeing people solve Mathematics questions of IIT Exams JEE. So it was kind of difficult to imagine and believe still that India's cricket captain, Dhoni, was a senior to me. Though I never spoke to him. After all he was not my friend! :)

And yes, this again was a co-ed school. So the possibility of having a girl friend was still in the picture. But as I was shy, I did not go about talking to girls for almost the first year of this new school. But ya, I did manage to make a few friends who were girls.

The concept of friends here revolved around people with whom I went tuitions with. People with whom I shared the flat. And people who would accompany to the movies.

Then I moved to Delhi for a year, and here the notion of a friend was one who went to same coaching institute with me. They sat in the same coaching classes and discussed with the same teachers.

After that I shifted base to Guwahati for a period of four years. The notion of friends here then shifted to someone who is in the same department as me. Sometimes it could also be a friend who was in the same hostel. At other times it was someone who sneaked upto the ghats to take a fag or gulp down a booze. Or perhaps just accompany to the outside tea stall for a cuppa chai.
It would also be a set of people who agreed to whatever you did. Lets call that activity as bunking classes. Or revolt against a teacher.

This was the time when the whole notion of a real friend and one who walks in when the whole world walks out came into the picture.
This was in 2003-2005.

College life was interesting. Internet and chatting was making it big. It also brought the notion of a friend whom you might never meet. I would have not thought about this some years ago, but then it was happening. So when the hunt for a friend would end in failure in the campus, a lot of us would be seen in the computer centers, looking for "that special friend".

2005, I shifted base to Bangalore. Initially it was the notion of anyone i knew was my friend. But then this was the time where we get to face the "real world". So the notion shifted strongly to someone who could help you in even the smallest possible manner when you are in deep sh**.

Also, after the job started, notion of a friend revolved around someone who could accompany to the pubs and the theaters and go on long bike rides.

Then Flickr, Orkut and other internet related things happened. So now there was this notion of an e-friend.

Over the past 22 odd years, I managed to make a few great friends. A few lost touch with and a lot few I am still are able to keep in touch with a lot of them.

Why this post?
It was my birthday and I was really surprised at the number of scraps / wall posts / comments I got. I had a lot of people that just wished me, because the reminders said them to. I am sure I would not have got even 10 % of that if it was hidden or not mentioned anywhere.
What was more disappointing that the notion of a friend that was imprinted in my mind made me sad. People whom you thought to be close, did not wish. Not a big deal I know, as people are busy with their own lifeworlds.

But still, I wish I had the handful of friends that would stand by the definition of a friend that I have.

19 September, 2008

Love of Tea...

..as far as I can remember...
since i was 5 .. some 22 years ago...
My fascination for tea started...
I remember making all bahaanaa to not have milk and get a glass of tea instead!

Morning Blues

I guess it was also due to being surrounded by tea gardens all around.
The beds of tea bushes on those undulating hills in its zillion shades of green had something in it.
The aroma of the tea (for which Darjeeling tea is famous for) was something that put tea drinking into my soul.

And now not a single day passes when I do not have tea.
Heat, Rain or Snow,
Summer, Winter or monsoon,
There is always a toast to the chai.

:)

18 September, 2008

Balance...

Life is a lot about balance!

After doing the Mind Dump, yesterday, I start out to balance out the things in my life.
I think its really important to do that from time to time, so that one thing does not pre-dominate over the other.

17 September, 2008

Mind Dump

Required:
A fresh (blank) piece of paper.
Pen / Pencil

Time to perform: 15-20 minutes.

Ideal place to perform: While traveling :)

Activity: Just dump everything that is going on in your mind onto that piece of paper. Of the things that you are doing, things that you wished you would do, things you wish you would do.
This could be as simple as doing groceries, calling mom, cleaning house, call up lover, learn something, chat with someone, read/post blogs, etc etc.

Do in silence independently and without consulting anyone and without any censorship.

After doing this, reflect for a while.
It's amazing how much it works. One is able to see the different tasks and what's taking how much time.

I did this today, and was surprised to find out that I was not able to stop writing!
My page was full and I was still finding for place to write more.
At the end it struck me, my life is way tooooo complicated, with toooo many of unwanted things taking up too much of my precious time.

Chief result: Prioritize things. Time management.

You cannot do EVERYTHING well. Do somethings only, but do it VERY WELL.

15 September, 2008

What's going on?

Reading
Currently am reading "Buddha" by Deepak Chopra, almost about to finish it.
Have another few books piled up.
"A Wedding in December" is one of them.
Apart from that been doing a lot of reading for my courses here at college.
Philosophy, Design and Art books! Uff.. too much !
The only problem that I have is to read these course work stuff from the laptop. And I don't like to print just for the sake of reading once.

Movies
Saw "Before Sunrise" yesterday, very sweet movie.
I so want to visit Europe someday! I remember when a friend asked me if I had visited Europe, I replied saying that Europe is too romantic of a destination to be roamed alone!

I am also trying to catch up on watching documentaries.
Just saw "Ocean Odyssey", Simply outstanding. These BBC and Nat Geo folks definitely know HOW to make Documentaries!
And ya my desire to make documentaries keep increasing day after day!

Catching up with people
I love to stay in touch with people. Just the other day, I got in touch with a friend from school who now is a lead Bass guitarist in the band Silver (www.silvertheband.com), which won the Yamaha Rox 2008 and the Independence Rock 2008 in India.

Cooking and Eating
Relishing on South Indian Food lately! Thanks to my roomie and the awesome friends !

I read somewhere that a person in his/her life makes a career shift four to five times. I wonder when mine first one is going to be. I get a feeling that it may be pretty soon.

14 September, 2008

Troubles

....as if the floods were not enough, India gets another set of serial blasts to deal with.

God.. Why!!!
Why can't these (whoever they are) people just think a bit on the grounds of humanity instead of just animosity.

I was surprised by a comment by a person on an online group I am part of
Me: :( Another Serial Blasts rocks India.
XXX: @Happy, Blasts have become common here...


It appears that the common man is also starting to accept this as a way of life.

I would strongly suggest to see this movie "A Wednesday".


Apart from some brilliant acting by the veterans Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher, I totally loved the refreshing concept of the movie.
It has a very strong point to put forward as well. I think its high time people did something like this.

11 September, 2008

Fav Movies

These are the few movies that I have loved.
Not in any particular order.




















These films inspire me day in day out to get into film making!
Someday surely I will.

10 September, 2008

Contribute to the Flood Relief Work

Here's a link to different ways in which one can contribute to the flood relief works in Bihar.

Ways to Contribute

Everyday I have been following the happenings across the different India based news sites.
I am sure there are stories of inspiration and wonder also in this times of trouble. Wonder why they do not cover that?

04 September, 2008

Lost Smiles

This is in memory of the many people who have been rendered homeless in the recent floods in Bihar.

Lost Smiles..

Lost Smiles

In the darkness of the day,
a deluge unwanted arose.
from the waters untamed..
..which were once a blessing.

To territories once abandoned
..to places one thought safe
making its presence felt ..
in lives it never dwelt.

One lost those crops
Some lost a beloved
Some their kins...
but all their smiles.

Haunting memories...
it leaves each day.
stories to be told
for centuries later.

How am i to...
laugh again.
how am i to get back
to the future
without a scar
of the recent past.

How am I to smile again?