Celebrating the New Years eve!

Why is it so important to celebrate the new years eve…Why is it such a big deal. I’ve been hearing these things all of last week.

It is very important to celebrate the new years eve. It is a big deal. You should make it a big deal. Celebrating the New years is not overrated at all.

The evening before the new year strikes marks a year full of glory, success, achievements accompanied with hard work, pain, joy, frustration, love, agony, troubles. But hey look… you survived! And you’re happy no matter what you think. It could have been way worse.

Its time to retrospect on all your losses and gains, on all your achievements and failures. Its time to celebrate the family and friends in your life that make your life so wonderful. Yes you can do that anytime of the year, but you don’t. So let the new year be an opportunity to thank, forgive, move on, declutter and celebrate everything that make you who you are today. Let it be another mark of another successful year where you grow and learn, forgive and forget because it is only a journey of these experiences after all. It is your story to tell.

The new years eve to me symbolizes my independence, my successes and failures, my losses and my gains, my love and empathy, my friends and family. It gives me a reason to live and to love more. It marks yet another chance I get to all fix all my mistakes.

So pat yourself on the back and go and celebrate the year that is passing by whichever way you like and get ready for another roller coaster. Make it meaningful, make it a celebration!

The Envelope of 2012, Open Please…

IT WAS an extraordinarily good year… for odd, inexplicable, idiotic behavior… yet one that turned out just fine in the end. And I am not just talking about the elections.

            Millions of women in countries the world over fell in love with a novel in which a marriage went terribly wrong. Apple decided to omit google maps from its Operating system. The novel in which the marriage went terribly wrong became the best selling paper back in history.

            Judgement day finally arrived for the beloved man who killed hundreds in a bomb blast. After contemplation over years, the Indian government finally thought of it to be a fair deal for death to one in return of death that came to a ton. Judgement day finally also arrived for Twinkies in the United States. Now you have to go to Canada to get them.

            And Book Wire and Publishers Weekly, both venerable institutions which usually don’t go for this sort of thing, named the author of the novel in which a marriage went terribly wrong the Publishing Person of the year. It was that kind of year.

            GoDaddy showed early support for the online piracy act and surprised everyone. As a result hundreds of sites joined boycott and in protest moved away from GoDaddy.

            Idiocy as always was on full display in professional sports. Jeremy Lin played with such verve and passion that he created a global phenomenon called “Linsanity”. Then they traded him to Houston. Oh and Whitney Houston died this year too. What coincidence.

            Idiocy was especially rampant in politics. The American Dream became the Americian Dream, hence Obama got re elected.

            The 20^th employee of google became the 1^st pregnant fortune 500 CEO, while inspiring the rest of us on how to take up motherhood for 2 kids at the same time. And Twitter suspended journalist for tweeting the Olympic presidents email address. So much for social networking.

            Queen Elizabeth 2, or someone resembling her, parachuted out of a helicopter to help launch the London Olympics. The Queen’s reward for this was having to listen to “Hope I die before I get old”. No irony intended.

            2012…was idiocy your other name?

God's own country!

I was walking on the streets of Mumbai this morning. It was 10.30 am. A crowded street filled with people to board a bus had a stretch of vegetable vendors by the curbside. A bridge construction had blocked the other side of the road. Under the bridge, cabs and rickshaw drivers had turned that area into a parking station. People had occupied a part of the road negotiating vegetable prices with the vendors. The line of people waiting for the bus was increasing.

I saw the bus cross the intersection. Before the bus could reach the bus stand, a big Honda Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)car was trying to make its way on that street. Meanwhile, the bus crossed the signal and was waiting behind the car honking away. The driver in the car was on his cell phone talking, ignoring the honking of the bus.

The people in the line were shouting. The car was parked diagonal blocking the street. There was no chance for a bus to make its way through.

A few young men approached the car driver and started abusing:

“****-Dee-Ke, dikhta nahi hai kya…itni badi bus khadi hai…hatt yahan se”.

The car driver shut the car windows and decided to stay parked.

The bus kept honking, the car driver stayed adamant parked in the middle of the road, the people waiting to get into the bus kept screaming, the vendors by the curb side gathered around the car driver. Amidst all this, I was still trying to figure out how to make my way through, to reach my doctor’s office to make it in time for my 11 o clock appointment.

The hawaldar (traffic police) was called. He had tobacco in his mouth and was also talking on the cell phone. 5-10 minutes after he was explained the situation he spoke with the car driver. The conversation was as follows:

Hawaldar: Arrey Namashkar Saheb. Kasa Kaay? Suresh Saheb kashe aahe? Aaj Andheri mein kaise? (Hello sir. How is it going? How is Suresh Sir? How come you are in Andheri today?)

Car driver: Sagla theek aahe (all is well)

Hawaldar: Bara bara, kaay saaheb, bus ubhi aahe maage. Thoda pudhe park karta kaay? (ok ok. Sir the bus is standing behind the car. Would you mind parking a little ahead?)

Car Driver: Mala shivya deto toh. Tyaala saanga Sorry bolaayala mala. Mag me gaadi pudhe ghetto. (He cursed at me. Tell him to say sorry to me. Then I shall move my car ahead)

The hawaldar went to the 4 young men standing there still furious. He told them to apologize to the MLA’s son. He explained to them that if they don’t apologize, the car will not move and he won't be able to do much. He cannot put his job at risk and argue with the MLA’s son. The men refused to apologize.

There was a huge fight between the people screaming at the bus driver to take a different route, between the hawaldar and the young men, between the bus driver and the MLA's son.

Meanwhile it was 11 o clock and I was already late for my appointment. I decided to take a different route and make my way through to the doctor. It is 2 pm now and I am on my way back home. 2 in the afternoon and that road has now been blocked with the MLA’s son not budging to move the car, the bus is in the same place it was but empty, the people have dispersed.

I am left writing this article wondering how does this city and country operate on a daily basis.

God’s own country indeed!

Lost in transition…

Earlier today I was speaking with a friend and she asked me how I felt about not being in my own country.

While that triggered a lot of thoughts and emotions, it made me wonder how our entire generation lives in this medley of different cultures.

As culturally aloof as we think we might have become and conquered the fear of accepting our identities, it is as hard to leave the want and desperation of wanting to be a part of your own country. The furiousness of not being completely tolerating of any country yet wanting to be a character of both cultures is intimidating by itself. The struggle to call any other country your own and the fight to accept not being a part of your own country yet wanting to be one amongst those people is almost a never ending process.

The identity crisis and lack of the sense of belonging together weave a frame of mind that prances with abandonment and creates emotional spaces and we end up lingering with the over-dramatization of culture, religion, belief and behavior.

What is the color of culture, what is the rhythm of religion, what is the crispness of belief and what is the sound of behavior?

The memorandum of unsettlement is a prism through which the reflections of self, get shaped in such a way that the own appears ironic and the distant appears own. Yet living in that coded abstruse belt feels like an ever so irrecoverable and preoccupying maze which never speaks for itself most certainly but almost always interrogates you, while most of us are still bridging the gap to find ourselves amidst the tangled system.

Our generation is most ineptly lost in this transition of identity and culture hunt.

My Butter Clutter

Last week I thought of going on a “detox” diet (a short term diet focused on removing toxins from your body) out of a suggestion from a friend and a book given by him. I had no clue what it meant to be on a detox diet but the thought sounded quite simple – eating fruits and veggies all day for seven days with lots of water. I figured it couldn’t be that hard given that I am not a meat eater anyway.

Later that week my friend and I decided to go on the detox for seven straight days followed by a one-day starvation day. We ate the best of meals the week before, to ensure we don’t miss good food too much the following week - all this to recover from a really bad stomach that my friend suffered earlier that month.

I had no clue what I was jumping into till I actually did. As one of my life principles go, to not pursue things half-heartedly, I knew if I decided to do it I would follow through it till the end without compromise.

The weekend before the starvation week, I read the book that had details on how to follow the diet. The idea started to scare me a little. The thought of no fries for lunch, no coffee, no bread, rice or milk, no butter, cheese or chocolate, no gelato (and the list goes on) – or in short the idea of no comfort food started to freak me out a little. Moreover the idea of no coffee sounded like something that wouldn’t fit into my routine given that I used to be a coffee addict till a while ago. Though I had considerably cut down my coffee intake, it hadn’t gone down to zero. The medley of all these thoughts started to overwhelm me a little. Nevertheless, I thought I’d try anyway!

The first two days were a nightmare. Really!

I wonder if a non-vegetarian person would ever understand why is it so difficult for a vegetarian to eat only veggies all day to fill in your hunger pangs! How hard can it be for a vegetarian to eat vegetables?! You meat-eaters please your taste buds by eating meat and so eating only veggies might turn out to be a novelty at such times. We vegetarians please our taste buds with some sugar or vegetarian processed food or food which is full of carbohydrates. That’s what keeps us going! You might ask who forces you to be a vegetarian – but no! Look at it as if it is almost a compulsion for us to not eat meat- for whatever reasons, religious or something that your mind doesn’t allow!

So the first two days, I was down with severe headaches and restlessness topped with some irritation. A perfect mix to screw up one’s day! Less productivity at work and horrid temptations seeing the donuts outside my office! 48 hours straight headaches even while I was asleep, I was almost tempted to say “screw this diet!”

But I resisted! And the third day was a breeze. My headaches were gone and I survived.

Though, what came out of the whole thing was the realization that we tend do get so dependent on stuff that we don’t really need. Things that we think we can’t survive without, we perfectly do with a little bit of aggression in the beginning but flawlessly comfortable later on. It is such a reviving experience! And now I can say that I will never need coffee moving on. I can also dare to say I can live without anything by myself.

Our body and mind are way too flexible and we don’t even realize it. They work WITH you in whatever you decide. So if you do decide to love your body and mind, they’ll cooperate completely with a little push back initially, as we all do when we come across any kind of change!

How such experiences mold our thoughts and teach us lessons that we don’t otherwise learn is just so fascinating. And then finally as every lesson applies to life itself so did this. What we really think we’re addicted or habituated to is a myth and the makeup of the mind.

Throw away your addictions! Whatever they are – food, work, smoking, alcohol or a person! You will eventually live happily without anything and anybody! Resist and live the pain and trouble, push back on your invitations and enticements, acknowledge the aches and harassments that come with it and while doing all this have faith in your stunts and you’ll zip it through the air!

And if you’re one of those who don’t really learn lessons without actually living them – then Go Detox!! ;-)

The Jobs Fiesta

As is rightly said “3 apples changed the world - 1st seduced Eve, 2nd fell on Newton and the 3rd was offered to the world half bitten by Steve Jobs”

It was all about putting a dent in the universe forever. A dent that will remain for the rest of the coming generations to cherish and get inspired by, to pursue their dreams and “to live before you die” as was taught by the apple man.

The misfit who didn’t have rules and no respect to the status quo, the man who saw things differently, the troublemaker who did what he believed would change the world and stood uptight till he proved himself right – he was the crazy one.

Such are men who you can glorify or who you can deviate with while they are alive. But what you can’t do is ignore the change they bring – because they change things and push the human race forward. In them we see genius.

And though the world thinks of them as the crazy ones because they think they can change the world – those are the men who really do!

While the Gods have found a new CEO and the Jobs Fiesta on Earth has indeed ended, here’s to the rebel, the crazy one, the true genius – RIP.

Every moment changes

Every time i feel sad or depressed, I wish for that time to come to an end soon.

Every time I feel like someone doesn't understand me, I feel helpless and thoughtless.

How dependent sometimes we get on moments that are defined by situations is so amazing. So much so that we start hoping or expecting them to stay or leave, almost trying to wanting to get a control over life - sadly.

But so many years of learning lessons and many more to come, all of them only restate over and over again reminding me of the age-old "Change is the only constant".

I resonate with that saying today, every day and every minute i feel a certain emotion.

After so much grief, sadness, happiness, pleasure, anxiety, peace and joy - it all finally comes to an end. And every moment changes.

How you feel at a certain time does not last. Good or bad, happy or sad, it won't last and every moment will change. Every moment will be different from what you experience at the moment. And every moment changes regardless of anything else. This alone thought makes me move on from where ever I am in my mind.

Also considering the fact that life is really too long, most moments won't ultimately matter in the bigger picture. Those that matter will be a stepping stone to your destiny and you'll always remember them. Those which won't don't last anyway.

How unfortunate that the same is true for great moments that make us feel elated. They don't last either. Ultimately none of it lasts, whatever you do! And we can't control that change. It all keeps changing.

But what you can control is how you look at the changing time and what you take out of it.

And every time these changing moments shock me, as much as they do, I only say to myself:

A sleep inducing world and Im wide awake

In a thought provoking world, I lie thoughtless

But what more to say to my mind when every thing seems as huge and wide as a mountain range

It is true today and will stay forever, every moment of time in my life will most surely change!