The winter's is finally here...

Beautiful weather outside right from the morning... I am enjoying it right from the morning walk I took at Jogger's Park... there was this slight drizzle... and now it's cloudy all over... The temperature has gone down, it has rained since morning, though only light drizzling... it seems the winter has finally arrived in Mumbai...

Just wondering how it must be in Sringar - Leh, where it has been snowing since Sunday morning... just dying to experience the snow-fall first hand... !!!

For the moment, I would just enjoy this pleasant Bangalore-like weather over here... !!!

Saw Kaminey last week. It's an absolutely awesome movie - if you understand the underlying theme that runs through it. Developed from an idea, into a full fledged Hindi pot-boiler, presented with an awesome treatment, it's an effort well accomplished.

It doesn't make difference with what you chose in life, but it certainly makes a great deal of difference with what you leave behind in life..!!!

And I have left many - things, people and choices - behind. Has it made any difference to me?

Hmm... hmm.. Kamini life...!!!

A very short story... indeed!!!

Read this brilliant stuff in a Sunday newspaper recently.

Ernest Hemingway, the legendary author, was once challenged if he can write a story - all of six words. He accepted the challenge and he wrote :

"For Sale : Baby Shoes. Never Worn."

Simply awesome stuff!!!!

20th August, 2009. He came into my life, again - after 20 long years..!!!

It is pleasantly surprising. I received his friend request on Orkut. I must have re-read it a couple of times more just to ensure that it was him.

I had left my earlier school in class 7th and had moved on to another place, another school and in lives of another "friends". I remember him as only one of my three close friends - with all of whom I have lost touch now. We actually kept in touch via snail mail (this was long before orkutting, mobiling and messaging stuff) for some time. But then other worldly matters took over.

The bridge between then and now seems long - very very long. There's a lot of walking that needs to be done. By both of us.

It just strengthens by belief in Him, once more... !!!

(Words fail me what I want to convey...)

I heard this song a few days ago and the following two lines won't leave me...

"Kahin to yeh dil kabhi mil nahi paate
Kahin to nikal aaye janmo ke naate.."

How so very true and profound!!!

So will we think of this, when kahin dur jab din dhal jaaye..?

How many different feelings can you feel at a time?

- Anguish, Sadness, Loneliness, Escapism, Want-to-break-free, at times even blissful, knowing the futility of it all, and finally, suicidal -

All of these visited me yesterday...

Subhashitam...

(Thanks to my friend, Darshan, I got this wonderful piece of wisdom)

पत्रं नैव यदा करीरविटपे दोषो वसन्तस्य किम् ।

नोलूकोऽप्यवलोकते यदि दिवा सूर्यस्य किं दूषणम् ।

धारा नैव पतन्ति चातकमुखे मेघस्य किं दूषणम् ।

यत् पूर्वं विधिना ललाटलिखितं नन्मार्जितुं क: क्षम: ॥

-- Can the spring season(vasanta ritu) be blamed if the karIr tree (a leafless tree of the deserts) doesn't blossom (even in the spring)? Is the sun to be blamed if an owl cannot see during the day? Can the clouds be blamed if the rain drops doesn't fall into the beak of Chataka bird? Who can change the fate written on one's forehead.

So, stop blaming others for everything that happens in your life.

I had first seen this ashram, the Guruji and the pandits-in-the-making on the Discovery Channel some times ago... And since then, their images haven't left my mind for a moment... The place is in Rishikesh... I can feel it's strong pull... Two of my best friends has been there...!!!

I await my turn..

{P.S : Thanks to one Anon, I got to know that this is Parmarth Niketan Ashram at Rishikesh. More can be found at www.parmarth.com. Thank you, Anon... :-)}

There are long waits after the sms has gone... a 'good night' missed call has been made... almost every single night... but there is no response... and the wait continues...

Just sometimes, I sneak into His profile to check out on Him... I know it's a sin to do it, but then I have no other option...

***

And just the other day I read about Gondolas... I am in awe of them... There's "something" about them... their tradition...

Rain drops by

The rain Gods are finally smiling on Mumbai... It's a great feeling to be draped in sensous little droplets... nothing comes as near as feeling it's fall on our face... it invariably brings in a floodgate of memories... But NO, I shall not allow myself to get drowned into those again... (locked in some remotest corner of my anatomy... )

Thank you, God, for such wonderful blessings... Ah, how I LOVE rains... !!!

A quick Pune trip served a good break from the heat of Mumbai...enjoyed every moment over there...the cool morning bus ride...the sexy expressway...beautiful ghats... ride through the tunnels... and reaching for the seminar on time... the seminar itself was quiet an eye-opener... innumerable opportunities in the IT and ITES sector... enjoyed interacting with some of the best faculties in the field... been to Abhishek's flat and was a bit sorry for him, for the way he has to stay there... met Ashok after a year or so... all-in-all the next time I need a quick break, I would head to Pune...

Extract

"Life is like a journey on a train
With two fellow travellers at each window pane
I may sit beside you all the journey through
Or I may sit elsewhere, never knowing you
But should fate mark me to sit by your side
Let's be pleasant travellers - it's so short a ride."

" Origins "

This extract is taken from a book I am currently reading, Myth = Mithya by Devdutt Patnaik :

In the beginning,
There was neither Being nor Non-Being
Neither sky, earth, nor what is beyond and beneath.
What existed? For whom?
Was there water?
Death, immortality?
Night, Day?
Whatever there was, there must have been one
The primal one (God?)
Self-created, self-sustained, by his own heat,
Unaware of himself
Until there was desire to know himself.
That desire is the first seed of the mind, say seers
Binding Non-Being with Being.
What was above and what was below?
Seed or soil?
Who knows?
Who really knows?
Even the gods came later.
Perhaps only the primal being knows,
Perhaps not.
(Rig Samhita)

That moment had come again all of a sudden, catching me off-guard... Viewing the vast dark canvas of God sprinkled with few stars in between... The cold wind was making it's presence felt, gently bypassing my touch...

In the midst of the din, those memories came flooding by, when we had sat on his terrace till about 3 am in the December cold of Kolkata... He had offered me his winter-coat, exposing himself to the bitter cold... We had sat there for long... talking, listening to the silence of the night...

It was the time, then...

A year later, we had sat together, on his terrace, this time in Delhi... There were few things to talk and even fewer to share... The bulk of the time was engulfed by our silences... That deafening silence which came back to me yesterday, as I wandered on my terrace in the midst of Republic Day Eve celebration...

My cell phone beeped... It was a message, whose sender I had met only a few days back... It said : "Think abt this..u r sittin on d stairs with me at 3 in d midnight on d terrace of ur home...suddenly ur phone rings n u go 2 attend d phone promisin me 2 cum back but d person on d phone is from my family givin u d creepy news tat i died last night...will u cum back 2 me?..."