Hope & Despair

It’s dark outside & dark in here,

The light inside died long ago with fear.

 

I touch the cold base & rummage thru the empty heart,

But what I get is nothing – no hope no faith, no part.

 

It feels the fear inside will swallow me,

And the child in me will never walk free.

 

I cry, I break, I search for breath,

Every day the person in me die a thousand death.

 

I crave for liberation & for that one light in me,

That will shoe away the darkness outside & in me.

 

I know that situation will definitely change for good someday,

But I want that hope which sails me thru to that day.

 

When I’ll breathe fresh & I’ll feel the warmth,

When I’ll touch the sky & eat the merry broth.

When the world will kiss my path & happiness will embrace

And I’ll smile back at them with hope, satisfaction & grace.

Memories are all that I have…

Last three years of my life have taught me one thing – Everything in life is momentary. Happiness, sorrows, pressure, laughter, embarrasment, achievements, failure, love, hatred, friends and enemies, just about everything lose their meaning as the time passes or the distance do you apart.

Priorities change and so do people. You lose the company of people most important to you.

Everything passes, but what remains are just memories. They make you smile, they make you cry. But, surely don’t let those moments die.

In Wonder-Villa !!

Sitting in front of my laptop (after all, I spend most of my time with it, in fact it has been institutionalized into a friend of some kind, so I better refer to it as “He”), I quite often wonder how life changes so often and so fast. What you once craved for day in & out becomes a passing phase of your life once you achieve it. In terms of Economic theory, I can safely say that the ‘Marginal Utility’ of your accomplishment diminishes .

The more tightly you hold your prized possession, the more forcefully you squeeze out the value from it. And then you turn your attention to the new set of Goals/ Aspirations etc etc (Call them what you plz) only to get into the Vicious Circle of life.

Life would have been so much fun if the only aspirations one had was to have a life full of love and happiness, and there were no constraints to make either a part of one’s life. No Competition, no winners, no losers, Just a perfect world!! Utopia, eh!!

Killing of the Pawn won’t mean a CheckMate for the King, eh!!

 Yeah. The end has finally come. Kasab will die and with him the chapter of 26/11 will die too. Watched the uproar on the News Channel-, reporters enjoying the BREAKING NEWS, calling it the victory of DEMOCRATIC INDIA - What was strange was the awe with which Indians watched the entire drama. As if we were unsure about the decision that the Judiciary would take. As if, killing of Kasab would be the only way we could stop terrorism in our country.

Killing an individual, a country or for that matter the entire community WILL NOT stop terrorism. It is an ideology, a belief of an individual that will be passed on from one person to another. Getting rid of a person is easy….but getting rid of an ideology is difficult.

An ideology takes a beating not by violence, but by actions that can eliminate the reasons that forced the individual to form a belief that was harmful and venomous. 

It is crucial that Indian Government takes actions that build trust among those who feel that they have been mistreated or neglected by the Government.  Only this can discourage this transfer of Ideology.

The much needed Pause

Did I ever say that I enjoy waiting for my flights at Airports. Perhaps, because they are one of those moments when you can sit back, relax your muscles and introspect whatever is going on in your life or think about how excited you are about going to a certain place or what amazing things you did recently at the place you are about to bid goodbye to or can simply wile away your time by checking out books at the nearest bookshop or perhaps enjoy a cup of coffee with the book you have recently bought. —- Such a long list of alternatives.

And the best thing is (at least in my case) you have nothing much to lose except time. But, I have long thrown my towels in my battle with time, and so life moves on and so do I .

Moral of the story: I generally end up being satisfied by the timeI spend on airport (read without any company except when family is around)  and come out as a happier person.

What’s most interesting are the short stories that take place in that set up. Husbands informing their wives & kids (who are about to fly for the first time) about airports and flights and the experience once on-board. Families coming in their best attire to celebrate their first flight. Kids running around with trolley.  Excited faces. Hurrying steps. Queues  or rather people pushing each other to be the first in the queue lest the attendants should not allow them to board the flight at all .

And yet what caught my eyes this time was a bunch of 3 kids (between the age of 2 to  4),  strangers to each other, belonging to different region and in fact nationality, and yet enjoying each others company.  Nay, none uttered even a single word from his/her mouth, but they all giggled and smiled whenever their eyes met each others’.  And yes, this did bring smile to all our faces. A speechless (quite literally) friendship among kids that was not to last long for no one knows if they would ever meet again after their tryst at the airport, had such an indelible effect on so many of us. And yet we so often we enjoy being strangers to people than making new friends.

Head Vs Heart

This fight of head and heart is endless. Never do they think in same direction and consequently never will they  let you live in peace.

But my findings go beyond this. If you happen to listen to heart than to your head, you are less likely to feel disappointed with your decision even if the probability of failure is more in this case.  However, your heart plays tricks if you happen to listen to your head. You are less likely to enjoy the success of your decision especially if it affects human life negatively in anyway.

I generally try to avoid the latter situation by not allowing myself to get into a self-cursing mode. But, alas!!! You cannot always take decisions that you know have probability of failure. And perhaps as managers, such a thing can be suicidal.

So, whosoever wins – Head or Heart – You’ll always lose the battle

Hasta La Vista Baby!!

An end of another year and we move into 2010. Adios to the year that happened to be so eventful for me. Never was saying goodbyes to dear friends so difficult and never did I thought that I’ll meet such great new friends in the new place so soon.

A mixed year which gave loads of reasons to cry and many more reasons to laugh. Surely 2009 is the year that’s too precious for me to ever forget. I guess, it is the beauty of time that you never remember the moments which hurt you the most and yet remembering the happy moments fill you with joy. And this year has given me lots of such happy moments to think and smile over.

So a special thanks to my family and all my friends who made the journey of 2009 a truly memorable one.

And a Very hAppY nEw YeAR to AlL.

Hope 2010 brings with itself loads of fun and happiness too (and this time with no Conditions attached ) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!