The Phoenix's Song..

Early in the morning today, at about   4:30 am , I could hear noises- I woke up wondering if somebody had entered the house or if the noises were from outside. Living downstairs is a whole new experience in itself- all the sounds of the neighboring houses, the trees and the birds, the  dogs , the cats, the cabs that come to drop people late in the night, the people who come home late after a late dinner or a party – everything is known to us. It is pretty darn annoying at first – especially when you don’t know that the kids in the neighboring house have a habit of creating a ruckus only post  11pm  and not one minute before that. For the first two days, I would respond in shock to the sudden shrills that could be heard from their house, I would wonder what the parents were doing to them to make them revolt so violently. When it continued to happen on the third day, I realized it was a pattern, and now it has become the new normal. Being a light sleeper does not...

They say if there’s an innocent amongst a hundred criminals, the law of the universe is to save the hundred rather than punish one innocent. Surely there was one such innocent on the bus I took back home. The fates of hundreds intertwined, we travel as a single unit in a bus from Hyderabad to Bangalore. The fate of the bus is the fate of all of us, and my strong belief is that the fate of all of us is indeed the fate of the bus. Context: I’m traveling from Hyderabad to Bengaluru by Orange travels. 2:45am: I wake up to see two women standing at the driver’s seat, and a man checking some diesel pipes in the bus. Me: What’s up? The woman standing: We have a diesel leak in the bus- they’re figuring if it is fixable. 2:50am:  Technical guy who analysed the issue- It is just a pipe problem, fixable in ten minutes, but we don’t have the necessary material to fix it. Orange Bus customer care: Please fix it using an alternate material available. By then franti...

Well, not the revive that replaces your need for starch! Reviving- this blog, the habit of blogging, and my self. That’s the whole idea. It’s been aeons since I found the need to write here- life has taken many a twist and a turn since I last updated here, and the person who wrote on this blog before no longer is the person writing today. Well the identity with which she goes in the real world is still the same (my account isn’t hacked :P), but the person behind that identity- well the old me is no more. Out of all the twists and turns on the road of life, some have been sweet, some bitter, and some bittersweet. From someone who was a total out and out extrovert to an introvert today, the journey has been surprising, to say the least. This afternoon, while on my way to a friend’s place, this blog came calling in my thoughts- and as is my habit, I answered that call. I am now answering, rather. I wistfully thought of all the auto stories that I have missed writing here- all the ...

Short Story: (a meaningless one ) “An angel must’ve saved you!” joked his sister, as she bought light coffee for her brother who had just awoken from coma. “No… It wasn’t an angel, it was my wife.” “Wife? We were here all night Mithun, and your wife did not come here last night. She went home 6 months ago, and she said she won’t come back. Maybe it was her dreams that woke you up, but not the real girl”, said his mother. “NO.. I know the difference between a dream and reality. She was here, right here. I don’t know how she woke me from my coma, that you must ask her” said Mithun, completely convinced that she had come the night before. “Alka is in Pune, not in Kashmir; and even if she were in Kashmir, she wouldn’t come back. No. It was your fault that she left, and I doubt she would ever forgive you” Mithun sighed. How would he ever convince them that if she hadn’t called his name in her own sweet voice, he wouldn’t have woken up? How would he explain the touch of her hand...

This was a post written long, long ago; when I had just finished reading "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a world that cannot stop talking" Susan Cain is her name. Quiet is her book's name. And whatte book it is. Well, a name is an identity mapping, and it plays a prominent role in how you look at people (this happens at a subconscious level, so many of your reactions might have been plain surprise, and some of you who have consciously changed this subconscious pattern can laud yourselves- for you are the people regarded as open by nature (most of the times). And the reason Quiet is the quite at the main focus of my mind is that homo sapiens inhabit this world, and as humans, each one of you has been labelled an extrovert or an introvert at some point in our lives,and each of you, dear readers, can imagine how you felt the first time someone said to your introverted college self, "Speak up, dear boy. You need to speak to get noticed", or some...

NOTE: This is not an article written by me.This is a conversation I had with my cousin last night, and I don't guarantee you laughs or anything worthwhile, though both of us were in splits the whole time we were texting. SR: What? Are you crazy or drunk? (Well, this was, as you guessed, NOT the first thing she said to me. This was well after we'd spoken a few things which I cannot disclose here, and to my consistently crazy (or as per her, drunk) responses, this was what she said.) (OK, I got permission to add this : The above response was in response to this statement of mine: Now that you both are putting the same dps and all, when are you going to get him to meet the family? :D  And no no, we can't backtrack beyond this, sorry :D) SN: Which one do you think?  SR: Drunk definitely. SN: No amount of getting drunk can fetch you this. It's called Insanity, m'Lady. SR: I totally agree :D       Christmas was one crazy day, can't wait...

I was reading "Inheritance", Eragon's sequel 4 last week, and somewhere in between the story, the protagonist reaches a point where he needs to know his true name to open a vault (I did not say spoiler alert, because I think all of you would've read it way earlier than me, not to mention this is not a spoiler which people would want to kill me for.) --Which reminds me of a very famous spoiler I was at the receiving end of-- In 2005, when Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince had just released, my friends and I stood in the queue from 6a.m to get hold of a copy, so that we'd read it before anyone else did, and so that nobody could spoil it for us. Sadly we had college to attend later, and no, Krupa  and I didn't read novels in class-atleast in 11th std :D ( I think Krupa was preparing for NTSE that time, not entirely sure. :P) So I go to BASE in the evening, and Soumya  enters. The very first thing she says: "Dumbledore dies!". I go ...

There is jubilance in the air (and so are we – we haven’t landed yet :P), and the crowd breaks into applause. I’m surprised that anybody would express their joy for a mere phenomenon of landing, and turn to look at Amit in astonishment. He looks at me like as if their reaction is normal, and I begin to see reason. After a few pictures on the runway, the three of us walk to the bus stop, where we buy tickets to the Termini. The bus ride is unpleasant to the extreme, and I believe that if I had spent a minute longer inside, I would have suffocated to death. Rangit and Amit however, find the bus journey pleasant. I haven’t had lunch and hence hungry (also to the extreme- it’s around 7.30 p.m), when I spot an Indian restaurant and exclaim loudly, “There’s an Indian restaurant here! Let’s go!” *Amit and Rangit’s comments for this will be a spoiler, and hence not included.* We walk in, and Rangit speaks Bengali with the Bangladeshi in the restaurant. One might think we’re taking a stroll...

Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing So, here I am… Forgetting all rules, and forgetting about getting published. Though I always write for myself (and there has been no exception to this rule), I don’t know about the ‘Celebrate Writing’ part. That, only the readers can tell- whether the writing brings out not just a part of myself, but also the joy or celebration in the action itself (perverted minds, concentrate :D) Straight to topic, I have just read a few more pages of this world. As I’m sure you didn’t get what I meant, some great person has quoted so: “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page”. Allow me to bask in a moment’s glory, before I revert to my normal down-to-earth self. :D As I’m sure many of you know, the girl has always claimed to be a travel enthusiast, and though she has hardly seen a part of India, she always has claimed that given an opportunity, she’d pack her bags a...

June 30 th ,2012. It’s been a year since I joined Huawei, and I look back at the year-gone-by, and as is tradition, see how different I am today from 30/06/2011. Progress reports were misleading in the sense we only needed to track our academic performance, and the time has come when no one’s going to hand me over a report card measuring pure academic performance. The time has come when I need to make my own assessment, and see where I stand. I see what I’ve done, what I’ve let pass, how I have spent my time, the challenges faced, the defeated battles, the wars won, the maturity attained, the (disastrous number of) books read, the people I’ve met, the tits and bits I’ve learnt and what I’ve become, overall. And what I see, not so surprisingly, is a changed person. The old me wouldn’t have thought of investments (I used to dislike financial management, and now have to terms with the fact that money will slip through your fingers, if you aren’t careful), wouldn’t have tho...

I got my hands on (the much talked about) Vampire Diaries yesterday. Was curious to know what the hype was all about- around the Damon Salvatore guy- I was in total judging mode when I sat down to check S01E01. So the guy who plays Matt Damon appeals to most people, and as the discerning reader has already guessed, I am not 'most people'. I'm not saying I can't care less about Damon on screen. His character is interesting enough, compelling me to see if he has a soul or if he is nothing but a hot looking cold blooded monster. (Cold blooded seems so fitting a description, pardon the pun!) Stefan -the younger brother- on the other hand, is a completely different story. I ain't objective about him, and I'm still trying to figure out if I am rooting for the good guy here. (Coz I think I must've hated Snape at one point of time or the other, but I didnt hate him when he killed Dumbledore. I dont conclude till the author / scriptwriter concludes a story.) But I m...

It's been long friends I wanted to share with you all, about our Venture and platform Inspiration Unlimited. Just covering this write up about the same. Inspiration Unlimited is a vision, founded as an answer to the present scenario in the world. The need for training is higher than ever in every manner. Values have to be restored. This time the felicitous process is hammering. The values need to be hammered into masses & potentials incarcerated inside need to be brought out. The masses stand in need of training in some or the other form, right from school level to the level of CEOs. As is rightly said, Any & every form of success has its root in training and then success stems from execution. IU believes in passing the right training in every arena of life, from personal development, to mental abilities, to staff training, to self motivation, to leadership, to sales training, to art of relationships, to training for teachers, to better parenting & lots more. IU is back...

The picture of Niagara falls in the head.. speaks a thousand words. Since drawing a picture is out of question, ( the strained efforts I will put in drawing will be equivalent to a helpless girl grappling against the mighty storm) I choose to deliver a thousand words instead. I have always wanted to visit the Niagara (thanks to a Social Science teacher who'd traveled the world)- to take a ride in the Maid of the Mist- and the strength of the desire intensified when I watched The Smurfs the other day. My wishlist is becoming a bucket list these days, really. Just the idea of ticking off each one is sufficient to get the adrenaline rushing.. ah, I digress. So coming back, The Smurfs, those cute blue mythical creatures- who I wish really existed- who travel from their world to ours through a portal on a blue moon day, bring luck to the family which shelters them. The ending is cute- really no other word for it- and the Smurfs are so endearing. I don't like pets, b...

When somebody I know and respect has reached the 111th position in the "Your Big Year"(YBY) contest from India, him being the only Indian to reach that position, I can't help but post about it. The aforementioned senior, is the 24 yr old One Young World Ambassador from India, Mr. Sujit Lalwani, also the founder of 36 meals.com , IU Y2C campaign etc. The reason I'm posting this is because I'm taken by the concept of Your Big Year, which is a 'Smaller Earth' initiative. Chris Arnold is the man behind this, and what he has to say about entrepreneurship and global citizenship is indeed commendable. Since young I have believed that being a citizen of a country is ok, but every human being must be a citizen of the world. Global citizenship must be promoted, and this is precisely where Chris Arnold strikes a chord with me. The top 12 finalists are to compete against each other in the month of March/ April in Liverpool, and the tasks that await them will put their...

Hello Folks! Time and again I vanish from the blogosphere, only to be pulled back by the delicate strings that tie me to this place. It's been ages since I've written that post on Huawei (3 months, to be precise), and a lot many friends have asked when the next post was coming. I don't know why I didn't post so long, but this is like the last piece of Chocolate that remains after sharing the choc with friends- you will definitely want to eat it. I opened my blog for some reason, couldn't go away without putting this up. And while I've been away, significant things have happened. Huawei has again been a mixture of fun and boredom- funny how almost everything in my life is like this- and while we've learnt some essential things, we've had more than our share of free time. And this is not one of the significant things that happened. Randy Pausch talks about why it's important to concentrate on the elephant in the room.. it seems like I have a soft spot ...

I know I'm joblessly importing the posts I'd put up on a website when I was interning with them to the blog here, and quite a few of you might be frustrated by the fact that you've already read those posts before, on the other site. Sorry for that, I'm just putting together everything under one roof, don't ask me why. The routineness of the job kicked in this week, and me being the type who cannot and will not be bogged down by a routine life, have taken up some interesting- though offbeat- threads, which I hope to convert into something big. *Fingers crossed* Also, though N and I work for the same company and get to talk to her on the intranet, I haven't seen her in ages. Imagine that. There are loads of things running on my mind, Looking back I see what I've left behind; Judge not this post, do be kind, Come back tomorrow, you'll see a post- refined!

What does the most famous malls and shopping complexes have in common apart from the fact that they’re the most flocked places in India? You go shopping-for clothes, footwear, accessories, household items, gifts, you’re inevitably hungry at the end of it. Hell, you go window shopping with friends, you see a place where you can relax and down some fast food which also happens to be light on the pocket. What am I driving at? McDonalds . Yes. You (and I) are more likely to walk in, than not. Which is what McDonalds is really all about. McDonalds founder, Ray Kroc once walked into a class of students at Harvard and asked them what they thought McDonalds was about. Burgers, they said. And he asked the million dollar question: “ How many of you can prepare better burgers than the ones made at McDonalds?” Several hands shot up in the air. He then told the class that burgers weren’t the deal, because obviously, there were so many people better at that. Infact, food itself didn’t qualify as t...