The Dry Leaf

I wake up as a fold of soft green
With a lovely hope to see the world unseen
The blow of the gentle morning breeze cold
Jolting awake into the new day with a story untold

Surrounded by leaves darker and stronger than me
Lush with greenery as far as the eyes can see
Dew falls on me like a rain droplet
Making me refeshed and energized as I can get

I hear a humming sound far far away
Could see the strong and mightiest of the trees sway
Crack! Whoosh!! and the earth beneath me trembled
Men, I now see with their machinery assembled

The air once so fresh, lost its cool & charm
Fear crossed my heart as we lay in the path of harm
I remained motionless with my green kin helplessly
As the men mowed their machines on us recklessly

I lay on the ground, damp and cold
with fellow leaves new and old
Dirt and mud splattered on us
I wondered who were they who couldnt care less?

Turning brown at the ends spoiling my light green complexion
Hurts to see myself in the water's reflection
I realise my end, I see my doom
Why am I destroyed before I could bloom?

I stare at the blue sky as I turn brown
The sun's warm rays mercilessly glaring down
I close my eyes resigning, pondering over my worthless existence
While more trees blend with the ground at a distance...

 

Aap Katar me hai !

Queues. Who exactly thought about bringing this concept? The one who did, was successful in bringing it to practice everywhere except for India :D

We, Indians mostly do not believe in such a system. Getting the job done without standing in the queue and waiting for your turn is always considered a talent or a test of the fittest or the cunning/smart. We believe in saving the time by not following the queue and just create chaos.

But I have noticed that there are places where people do not have any qualms about standing in a queue no matter how long the queue is or what the climate is. These are the 2 places which caught my attention.


1. BEVCO

The Beverages Corporation. No matter how the climatic condition is, you still see people standing in the queue making a peaceful line. Be it the sun or heavy rain or the tornadoes.

2. US Consulate

Same case here. The only difference is you get to see women in the queue too and also, the people are in their crisp uniforms, looking the best even better than their wedding pics! :)


B.R.B !!! :)

Sky is the limit

Wrote this piece for a competition in TCS. The topic given was 'Sky is the limit' and this is all I could come up with. And yes, did manage to bag the 3rd prize ;)

Year 2030

15th Dec

‘Yes Jake, deployment will be complete by tomorrow… Yeah... Ciao.’ Abhinav with a smile on his face replaces the receiver of his phone with a click. ‘Well… That went fine. Now need to get home ASAP’. He leaves his workplace and gets into his BMW to drive to his apartment building in Manhattan. He reaches for the Stereo to switch between the FM channels, when he observes the date. ‘Oh… This Sunday is 21st Dec! Totally forgot about it!!!’

17th Dec

Abhinav has completed his Security check and is seated in the JFK Airport Lounge awaiting his flight to India. He has his passport and tickets in one hand. To make sure he has his car keys safe, he fumbles through his jacket when his fingers brush across something cold and metallic. He pulls it out.

‘Ah… The pen…’

Year 2008

21st Dec

Dec 21st is the day there is an annual get together at St.Peter’s Orphanage, Mumbai. The day when all the former inmates come to visit Fr. Francis and spend the day with him. Fr.Francis was in his office when Abhinav had first come to the Orphanage. Abhinav was not alone. He was with other five boys who lives also took an ugly turn on that fateful night. Abhinav had lost his parents in the infamous 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. With all his relatives dead, he had no ray of hope. It was then, when Mrs.Sheila, a social worker, brought Abhinav and the other children to St.Peter’s Orphanage. Sensing the anxiety of the children, Fr.Francis handed a bar of chocolate to each one of the boys. He introduced them to the other children in the orphanage. Abhinav soon became friends with the other kids. Fr.Francis used to teach them various subjects. Fr.Francis came to know that Abhinav was passionate about studies especially Mathematics. Abhinav always scored the highest in class. He knew Abhinav had the potential to rise beyond the rest to reach immense heights and become a great engineer some day.

One day Fr.Francis called Abhinav to his office. He handed over a wrapped package to Abhinav. Abhinav was surprised to see a Black Parker pen when he unwrapped the package.

‘Wow… Thanks Father. Thank you so much!’

‘No Abhinav, You deserve it. Turn it over…’

Abhinav sees something inscribed on the pen cover. “Sky is the limit” read the words.

‘What does this mean Father?’

‘It means that nothing can stop you from reaching great heights. Sky is the limit for your ambitions and dreams. Whenever you feel low, always have a look at this pen’

“This is the final boarding call for passengers booked on flight 372A to Mumbai. Please proceed to Gate 3 immediately. I repeat. This is the final boarding call. Thank you”

Abhinav puts the pen back into his pocket, picks up his hand luggage and slowly walks towards Gate 3 with a smile on his face and says ‘Sky is indeed the limit’.

Beauty of Life

I happened to pen this down for a poem writing competition held at my workplace. This is a couple of months old :)

Battered, bruised and injured in the merciless combat
With fellow soldier’s bodies lying around, excruciating to look at
The very thought of meeting his innocent children and lovely wife
Fills warmth of love into his anguished heart…
And that’s the beauty of life.

When you are weary, depressed and all alone
And it would seem you are treading on a lifeless zone
You feel all your problems mounting with great rife
 A ray of hope appears encouraging you to move on…
And that’s the beauty of life.

B.R.B !!!

India & Olympics

Olympics. The biggest international event or rather a celebration of talent of people over the world. Since it occurs only once in 4 years, it is highly awaited and celebrated. 

Now coming to India. 

India being the 2nd most populous country in the world, bags only few medals in the Olympics despite the huge population the country has. Why is it that India comes nowhere in the top 20 countries medal tally and the list is always headed by either USA or China? Why not India?

One reason I could think of is that Indian parents want their kids to end up as Engineers or Doctors or MBAs. If their kid is good at Sports or Athletics, they are not encouraged to continue it once they are in their higher secondary (Unless its Cricket). Why? 'Cos the parents fear the kid wont be able to focus on his/her 10th & 12th Board exams, which is the turning point of one's life. Everybody wants their kid to have a white collar job and yet expect India to bag all medals and lead the tally. I am not saying all the parents should train their kids for Olympics. Only that if a kid has a remarkable talent in anything, please nurture it instead of trying to block it. We never know to what great heights the kid would reach. 

High time we include cricket as an event in the Olympics*. 

Yes... I did manage to come out of my lazy hibernation to post this ;)

B.R.B !!!

* - It is laced with sarcasm, incase you didnt get it :P

The Wet Promise

Sitting by the window sill
I watch the rain drops splatter the ground
I reminiscence the moments last year
Those lovely memories when you were around

The innumerable games we used to play
The walks across the park we had
those joyful escapades we have shared
And also the times you made me insanely mad

With a heavy blow of the strong wind
The rain drops come splashing through
Bringing me back to the present
I then realise, its time to meet you

I drive through the streets lost in your thoughts
I reach where you are and the strong wind blew
I see your smiling face, I sit beside you
And place a rose on your grave promising you



"Tommy...No other pet can ever replace you" 


B.R.B !!!

India is free. Really?

India is free. But are the Indians? From the land of Wealth, prosperity, India has now turned into a land of corrupt politicians & their scams. Its true, that we must be the change we wish to see in the world. Tough, but not impossible.

A big salute to all the leaders, freedom fighters, who sacrificed their blood & lives for us to be free.

India celebrates 64 years of freedom today. I wish in the coming years, India gets her freedom from poverty, illiteracy, corruption. That would make us truly free.

Proud to be an Indian. Always.

Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Indians. Also, to all the Koreans!

B.R.B !!! :)

Desk-Top !!!

A short story written by me for a competition held in TCS. The Topic was Calendar and we had to write a story less than 1000 words in less than an hour. This is what I could come up with! And I dont know how... But I managed to bag the 3rd prize :D :) This story is more than a year old. Happy reading... !


New Years Eve [2010], At the Office, Cubicle#1234

8:30AM

CRASH!!! BHAAM !!!

Desk : Oh God!!! Not AGAIN!!! [Suddenly realizes our presence] Hi, I am The Desk. The main element of Pinku’s cubicle. Oops… Forgot to mention who Pinku is… Pinku aka Pinky is the person who sits in this cubicle… Cubicle # 1234… A very pretty , intelligent girl who spends around 10 hours with me in office. And all this fuss you are witnessing now is done by Milton and Brownie who keep vying for her attention. Milton is her Blue colored 1 litre water bottle and Brownie is her Brown colored Teddy Bear who sports a White Tshirt which has Happy Birthday printed all over it. CRASH!!! Oops..There they go again! See you guys later! Bbye!

DHOOM!!! CRASH!! !

Milton : I am the most important person out here. You get it Brownie?

Brownie : In what way? Duh! Just splashing me with water wont do you any good and make you the most important person. I, as always am her sweetheart. The way she looks at me, the way she cuddles me with her cute eyes is nowhere to be seen when she holds you to drink water. Hahahaha!

[Milton throws the paper weight at Brownie]

Brownie : Ouch!!! Here, Take this!

[Brownie retaliates throwing the stapler towards Milton. Milton loses his balance but manages to regain his balance. Looks around for his next weapon]

The fight goes on till ages and soon its 9:00AM.

9:00 AM

A beep sound is heard [of the swipe]. The doors open and Pinky arrives in a light yellow cotton salwar kameez clicking her sandals on the spotless floor.

Milton : Hey… That sounds like Pinky!

Brownie : Yeah you are right… Don’t make any noise now! Ssshhh

She makes way to her cubicle. She is carrying her crimson handbag. She reaches her cubicle and pulls her chair backward and settles into it. She places her handbag on the desk and opens it. She takes out a brown paper wrapped package and keeps her bag into the cabinet.

She unwraps the package and studies it with curiosity and admiration.

It’s a Calendar of the year 2011.

She keeps the calendar in the right corner of the desk, next to her monitor.

Brownie [In a hushed voice] : Err… What is that?

Milton : Looks like a Calendar to me Dude! Hmmm… Yes… He is a calendar indeed… Look at his attractive pages and he has got the dates printed over him!

Pinky is in awe looking at the calendar. She is flipping through the pages.

Pinky : Wow! I haven’t seen such a pretty calendar in a long long time. Mom sure has a good eye for all such things. There are wonderful pictures of sceneries, birds and animals. Also, It has a quote for each month!

Milton : Bro… What is so fascinating about a calendar? She seems to be very impressed!

Brownie : I don’t see anything that great in him!

The Desk : Guys! I see some serious competition for you both!

Milton : Bah! He will be just like the 2010 calendar . Remember what happened to him? Ha ha

Brownie : Yeah… For 2 days he was the centre of all the attention. Soon , he was full of markings of her red pen. Poor Guy! This fellow is also going to end up like him! Ha ha ha. Hey! Ssshh… Here she turns.

Pinky stands up to fetch Milton and to fill him with water from the water cooler outside the ODC.

After they are gone,

The Desk : Hi Newbie, I am the Desk. What is your name?

Newbie : Hi Desk, I am Calendar. Its nice meeting you. Is it generally this cold out here?

The Desk : Yeah. The AC is ON. But don’t you worry, you will get adjusted to it pretty fast! By the way, welcome! Hope you have a great time here!

Calendar : Thanks a bunch buddy!

Calendar turns to Brownie.

Calendar : Hi there, I am Calendar . I am new here.

Brownie : Hi I am Brownie. I am here for the past one year.

Calendar : That’s nice. Hope we can be good friends.

Brownie : Yeah sure. Why not? Only if you don’t try getting too close with Pinky.

Pinky returns with Milton who is brimming with water.

Days pass by. Milton and Brownie find Pinky getting closer and closer to Calendar. She keeps fiddling with him even when she is on a call or talking with her team mates or getting bored.

Milton and Brownie see that Pinky is no longer interested in them and is always with calendar or Miss.Trring [the desk phone].

One fine morning, Milton and Brownie decide to confront Calendar.

Milton : Hey you! Don’t you try messing with us!

Calendar : Hi Guys! What’s the problem? I don’t understand!

Brownie : Don’t pretend as if you are naïve. Okay?

Calendar : Seriously guys, I don’t know!

Milton : Do you think we can’t see what’s going on? You are getting too close to Pinky!

Calendar : Guys…Guys… Relax! Don’t you know she is getting transferred? Today is the last day here.

Milton & Brownie : WH-WHAT???

Calendar : Yeah. She is leaving today to Los Angeles. Here she comes!

Pinky comes rushing to her desk. She has a big polythene cover with her and is dumping all her things into it. She puts in all her documents and files. Leaving Milton , Brownie and Calendar alone on the desk.

Milton : I can’t believe she didn’t take me along with her!

Brownie : Same here Pal!

The Desk : Nobody can take me along with them *sigh* Hey…Wonder who is our new owner?

Milton & Brownie : Who cares? Pinky is gone!

The Desk : Wow! Look! A stunning girl!

Milton & Brownie : WHERE???? Where??

And The Story goes on…

Say NO !!!

DISCLAIMER : This article is meant for educational purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

How difficult is it to say “no”? Why are we not able to say the simple two lettered word? I have been in zillions of situations where I forced myself to say YES instead of NO.

What are the possible reasons? I could think of the following :

• I did not want to sound rude
• I feared it would sever the relation I have with the person
• I did not want to displease everyone
• I did not want to create a bad impression
• I did not want to cut a sorry figure

Think of the consequences. Be it at home, work place or with friends. You end up doing something you hate/dislike at the expense of yourself. The person who asked you to do *something* would be oblivious of your initial/continual disinterest.

Lets take up the example of workplace. Your Colleague asks for help. You being the good soul agree to cover in for him/her. You do not mind to sit late hours and complete the work as long as you do not want to displease your colleague. Such requests add up and eventually you end up being the "person" who can come to anyone's rescue.

What is the end result? You end up losing your quality time and are working late hours at office. I am not asking you not to help anyone. Helping a person is different. But helping somebody at your expense continually is not encouraged.

One needs to master the art of saying NO. Soon you would be so pissed at yourself, as you are the one who could not decline or say a NO and ended up losing your time.

Better late than never. Stand up for yourself.

I have started saying NO. And seriously, I feel a hell lot better !!! :))

Learn to say NO. I am sure the ones who care for you would not mind and the ones who just want their work done, would hunt for an another scape goat to fill your space! ;)

That's all for now... B.R.B !!!

Interests - Do they fade or hide ?

Yes people... my wonder mode is ON. And by wonder mode, I dont mean I can do something wonderful, I just mean I am going to torture you poeple writing about I wonder... :P So no luck there.

This happened a few weeks back, during one of my visits to Guruvayur temple. The Holy abode of Lord Sree Guruvayurappan.

As usual, there was a long queue of people who waited for the darshan. But this time, it was different. The queue was so long, it stretched halfway out. My family and me stood in the queue, as the queue slowly started progressing. The queue was of parallel rows. So, I had no choice but to look straight, admiring the board where the Dont's were specified. 'Do not carry your cell phone/Video camera/Camera/etc etc. Do not enter the temple wearing a lungi/banian/shirt/etc'. Well... there were many versions of the board. But in different languages such as English, Malayalam, Tamil. Being so jobless, I read the same content in all the 3 languages. Yes, I know to read Malayalam & Tamil, in spite of not having learnt it :P [Bragging point # 1]

Well, coming back to topic, after reading all the boards and stuff, I could hear music coming from the mandapam. Finally, when the queue progressed a bit forward, I could see that it was an 'arengetram' function. Please dont ask me what is arengetram. Google it. Its too complex to explain. :P Well.. Yes, coming back to topic, I saw 3 girls dancing to 'Alai payuthe kanna' song. No.. no references to the mani ratnam flick or maddy. This is a classical tamil song. The 3 girls were dancing beautifully. The steps were being executed so gracefully. The steps seemed too familiar. It was then I remembered my dance teacher had taught this song to us. Not the exact same steps, but very similar. I knew the exact steps which our teacher had taught us.

Everything which I thought I had forgotten, was there in the back of my mind. Just that I had not thought about it for years. To people, who do not know, I have been trained in Bharatanatyam [Bragging point # 2 ;)] Its true that I have not danced (Bharatanatyam) after I left school.

It was then I started thinking of all those hobbies/interests I do not do anymore. I used to play the Guitar once. I still remember the day I could save enough pocket money to buy the Guitar. There were days when all day I used to irritate my poor family trying new new tunes on the Guitar. But now, the Guitar lies somewhere in my room. I have not even bothered to check if the strings are proper.

I used to paint a lot once upon a time. Won a hell lot of prizes for that. But, no signs of paint or brush in my room now.

What is it that has changed? Is it us? Don't we have time to pursue what we really enjoy doing? Aren't these all a part of who we are? Did not these help in defining who we have become? I feel I have lost the creative part of myself somewhere down the lane.

Am happy I still sketch. The only one interest that has clung on to me, no matter what.

That's all for now. Let me go, search for my Guitar and dust it and trouble my folks again :D :D buahahaha :P

B.R.B !!! :)