Need to be Home for DIWALI!!

Remember that Maruti advertisement!!! Hope in spite of all odds the guy manages to get a lift home in a Maruti for celebrating Diwali. Being at home on Diwali is so important.
I too am one such guy. I love the festival, the lights, and the happiness everywhere. I seem to never have missed the festivities of Diwali since ever. While I was a kid, I used to celebrate the festival like crazy.
Starting with the electric lighting on all the visible roofs, painting the walls above those with red paint to write Shubh Laabh and then, in the evenings, running up and down the stairs carrying those earthen diyas in a tray putting them in every corner of the house as soon as the Ganesh-Laksmi pooja got over. And after that, cracking all those fire crackers with so many relatives.
I managed to continue this even after I went to college. Although, getting home wasn't possible during those four years of engineering in a distant southern corner of India, I managed to find some like-minded people. We would dress up in all sorts of traditional clothes, go to temples, light diyas outside our rooms at least and have a lavish dinner after that. This was not the best way we could celebrate Diwali, but at least this was some way we could!!
As it turned out, after getting a job, I managed to sneak back home on diwali for two successive years. Both these times, I distinctly remember watching this Maruti advertisement several times on my laptop before actually leaving for home.
This Diwali is going to be a different story altogether. This time I am far-far away from home. Its been only a few days since I arrived here. So not a big chance that I can still celebrate it with friends. You don't get earthen pots here, so how do I light diyas? We have a temple here, far away from my place, but I think I will go there.. to celebrate Diwali, in whatever way it can be celebrated. The achievement I seem to have achieved, though, is that its a holiday on Diwali here too..

Foreign lands..... the Indo-Pak way!!

Whenever I meet someone from Pakistan, I really get a warm feeling from inside of having met someone very close after a long time. You won't feel it till the time you talk to someone from the neighboring country. And obviously, me being from Lucknow, love hearing the perfect blend of Hindi and Urdu as it should be. And when we converse we somehow exchange a few words which directly reach the heart and make us ponder as to why the two countries still aren't able to be friends with each other!
So I went to an Indische restaurant in Munich a few days back for dinner with an old friend. It turned out to be a Lahori-Indische restaurant, the ones serving Indo-Pak cuisine. The owner came to us, very politely and gently, took our orders, and served us a delicious meal ( the food was a but expensive though, especially the water, but then, we from the sub-continent are known to make fools of even our own people really well).  After filling the desires of the stomach and heart, my friend (who was giving the treat) was all set to loose some more euros. By the way, its not about the owner getting emotional and serving us free meals!! So the waiter came with the bill and while my friend was using his card, we started some small talk.
The guy asked us where we were from. He spoke in the typical tone spoken by an Indian Punjabi/ Haryanvi but with some polite words. Since I was the only one amongst the group who could speak hindi perfectly, I decided to take that question. I introduced everyone and then told that  am from Lucknow and he was like, "O so you are from the city of Nawabs, tehzeeb ka sheher (city of Etiquettes)".  As an etiquette, I too asked from him that where was he from. He simply said, that he belonged to Punjab. My immediate reply was, "The one in India or the on in Pakistan"? His reply was, and I would like to quote by memory, "Paaji kya baat karte ho aap bhi, kya India kya Pakistan, hum to bas Punjab se hai". I didn't have any words to reply to that!!
This conversation left me thinking again, what I have thought several times in so many years! Why are we still fighting, the people they don't see or imagine India and Pakistan differently. We have so much similarity in whatever we do, even then we can't be together. But I was happy somewhere. Happy to see and know, that even though we can't be friends on our own lands, we are at least brothers in a foreign land. The reason for being foes at home, is left for you and the bureaucracy to decide!!

The Malignant tumor

You know how a malignant tumor works. It remains in hibernation for most part of your life and then it suddenly attacks you.  The pain it gives you then is most frustrating although you know that the tumor had existed since along time. You always knew that it would attack you on some random day and you will have to take it on without any prior notice , preparation, or consent.
This is what happened yesterday. She was trying to talk to me since a week. But I was suddenly busy with something or the other, which doesn't usually happen considering I am totally jobless right now. I finally called her and she broke the news to me: she was getting engaged. I always knew this news will come about some day or the other, but was just ignoring thinking about it. And then it came. And what a timing!!
We had this pact sort of thing that I will be the first person she will tell about her marriage once the thing is planned. And for the first time, she actually fulfilled her promise, some promise, fulfilling which I would have gladly avoided.
And just like in the movies,when the hero is totally frustrated and decides to leave everything for a great career ahead. thinking of coming back and talking to the girl of his dreams only then, does he get the shock of a lifetime: that the girl is getting married.
But this is how life moves on. She was the only girl I ever had a crush on.  Though I always knew there was only a bleak future ahead.
I am about to leave for Germany, not knowing what is in store for me now, except maybe a bright career. But the pain of this malignant tumor, I really don't know when its going to vanquish, for me to start fresh again. Maybe, this was the right time for her to go away, giving me a reason while I am abroad to work on my career, rather than thinking about this silly stuff.

Dream of dreaming

I left my job for a better life in the March of 2013. I applied to some good colleges assured that I would land up with some great admits by the end of May, and fly away for something better by June. Life went on peacefully since then. Wasting time at home, going out, partying, knowing that I had got very less time before I start a new life. And then slowly, time passed, and I couldn't manage a single admit. I wasn't disappointed. I had this planned. I frantically started applying for jobs. Living in a small city, I had always had internet as my best friend. Applying to large number of jobs online, I was sure I would land up with a lot of interview calls by June. Nothing has happened yet.  I am bored of wasting time now. But I have now turned so futile, that I don't or rather can't do anything now. I used to be good at everything, but now I seem to be good at nothing...
Life sometimes plays weird pranks on you. You leave something just fine to catch something better and you end up having the worst. The world of dreams is not that easy to achieve. It requires some hard work but a lot of luck. I dream a lot, most of the dreams; I don't know very well how to work around for them.

Dreaming about the city of Dreams

The city of Gardens, you have deceived me for 6 years now. I sometimes tend to believe that I did engineering so that I could have a chance to live in the city of gardens.There is something about the city that

has intrigued me since I was a child. The greenery, the technology, the crowd, the temples; i don't know exactly. I even tend to think about the meekest job, the bleakest possibility or opportunity I get to reach Bengaluru, but it always evades me in the end. Whenever I have been to Bangalore, I seem to have enjoyed my stay there. I don't know when I am going to get a chance to get there but surely I am going to grab the opportunity with both hands.

Sad Frustrated Irritated!!

I couldn't get an admit in any of the colleges I had applied to.  I had resigned from my job for this. Now I am sitting totally jobless, not knowing what to do in future. Sometimes I feel that life tends to teach me lessons the hard way. The first step towards anything I try always tends to be misplaced. But is it life that teaches lessons to someone the hard way or is it the lethargic ways we treat our own life in.
I have always had this problem with myself. I tend to take for granted every new thing I start in life, be it a career goal or a friendship/ I tend to get bored easily. In other words, my saturation point in reached easily. I used to think earlier that it happens with all of us but now things seem to differ. People have matured. They have started taking their career seriously,their goals seriously, they even take people seriously. Is it a kick they suddenly get some day suddenly, or is it time which teaches it to them. Both the scenarios seem to be untrue in my case, I haven't received a kick yet nor am I maturing with time. And if life is trying to teach me a lesson, I seem to be very bad at it and have not really grasped anything yet. I can just wait for the bad days to end and some bright days to start.

3 Mistakes of My life

I have been struggling to be stable for some time now. I believe that I have somehow managed to see a lot of both good and bad phases in a short span of time. A long life is still left. But there are some mistakes I have made which I might never repeat again. A few of them are:
1. Money is not important
Once you finish your grads and land into a number of job offers, you are mostly attracted to the more monetarily lucrative offer. This seems good at that point of time considering that you had been undergoing the "more time less money"  syndrome till now, but this will prove to be pretty wrong in the long run. Its better to have a "plenty of time and plenty of money" syndrome in your life.
2. No one can love you more than your family not even friends
This lesson was learned the hard way, or rather I am still learning about it. During your times of need, most of the people around you vanish away. Only the true friends remain to support you. But the ones who actually hold you are your family. Try discussing even the smallest trouble in your life with me. Even if they can't provide you with a solution, they will make sure you stay afloat.Girlfriends/Boyfriends and love are usually a myth. Don't rum after them. If you believe in luck or kismat, let your kismat play a role in such matters.
3. Pursue your dreams
If you ever had a dream, don't just leave it aside. Start working on it. I regret not able to work earlier on with what I want in life, diverging from the path and not able to move back towards it. Once you start deterring, it would be very very difficult to get back on course. A time will come when you will think of staying happy with what you have achieved and will stop working towards your goals. I have seen people who lost hope. I don't want to suffer the same fate ever. If you want to be a painter, be a painter; don't be attracted by what the boring architect's job is paying you.