Plans! Funny things they are. Plans contain stepwise execution of ideas of what should happen in the ideal scenario. However plans don't ensure execution. Thus whether plans are carried out or not are dependent on will. All of us know how that goes. So most plans are part of archives in our minds or on paper and rarely in reality. At least that is the case with me.
However I stand corrected by a certain percentage of people who do materialize their plans. These are those people who are striving continuously to achieve their dreams. They have planned out their dreams and are making them come true. I wonder about how they are able to motivate themselves day after day to stick to their plan. These people dare to change. They don't get comfortable and relax. They have places to go, milestones to achieve and each step only provides a push for the next. They are more worried about the question 'how' than 'why'. They are more fond of 'present and future' than 'past'.
Seems like I have all the answers to why my plans are eating dust. Its the worst of cases when you know answers to all the why, what, and how questions but don't act on them. No excuse for that one. Inner voice calling - Stop writing, start acting.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Woh pehli baar jab hum mile!!!
The subject here has I am sure brought pictures of Dino Morea and Rinky Khanna in your minds. The high school memories of this song must have come back. Ummm... Nothing like that here. Folks the subject is deceiving. "Hum" stands for me and a raccoon. Oops!!!
Yesterday when I went out for a walk, suddenly in the garden behind our apartment i saw something big. I went ahead and realised I saw something so came back. I saw this creature, bigger than a large male cat and even some of the dog breeds like Pomeranian. I had seen this animal in Hollywood movies and read about it in books. But this was the first time I saw it. It had stopped in its tracks and was looking at me. I was not sure if this animal roams about freely near apartment complexes. After all there are no stray dogs or cats running around here like back in India. My husband was also with me and seemed equally surprised. We were about to reach our mobile and take a pic when the raccoon thought it had had enough of admirers today and strolled back into the bushes behind the complex. Later when we came home, with Google zindabad, we found that they do commonly appear around here and some are even petted. But wild ones could be little dangerous.
Well that just sums up our first encounter with a raccoon. Now that we know its hanging around here somewhere we need not be surprised the next time it comes up and says hello!!!
Yesterday when I went out for a walk, suddenly in the garden behind our apartment i saw something big. I went ahead and realised I saw something so came back. I saw this creature, bigger than a large male cat and even some of the dog breeds like Pomeranian. I had seen this animal in Hollywood movies and read about it in books. But this was the first time I saw it. It had stopped in its tracks and was looking at me. I was not sure if this animal roams about freely near apartment complexes. After all there are no stray dogs or cats running around here like back in India. My husband was also with me and seemed equally surprised. We were about to reach our mobile and take a pic when the raccoon thought it had had enough of admirers today and strolled back into the bushes behind the complex. Later when we came home, with Google zindabad, we found that they do commonly appear around here and some are even petted. But wild ones could be little dangerous.
Well that just sums up our first encounter with a raccoon. Now that we know its hanging around here somewhere we need not be surprised the next time it comes up and says hello!!!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Snow Show!!!
Its been rainning here since past 2-3 weeks. Seattle is a place where rains are nothing new, Snow is!! All most throughtout the year there are mild showers now and then. Yest was one such cloudy wet day. All of a sudden around 12:30 in the noon it got pretty dark. I was checking emails when suddenly i noticed something white bouncing on the ground. It looked like rain but it was more solid and bouncing off when it hit the ground. When i went out and checked it looked like white thermocol balls are falling from the sky. I realised it was ice, it was snow. :) But it looked pretty hard and round. I took a few in my hands. They didnt feel that hard and would soon melt. I was confused as to whether it was hail or snow. I was so excited. This was the first time i was seeing snawfall. or was it hail shower?? I called my husband immediately. Turns out he was trying to call me too at the same moment. ;)
Anyways he said it was snow. aaah :) My wish came true. Soon the ground was covered in a thin layer of white. The plants had little shimmers of ice on their branches. It looked so beautiful. After just a couple of showers of snow sun showed up. :( The snow melted away in less than an hour. My snow season came and went in a flash. But anyways am glad for that hour or two when I saw my first snowfall.
Back to School...
After almost 4 months in US, unemployed and nothing much to do at home, I was seeking for activities to keep me busy. One of the first such moves was joining the salsa class. Three months into it, I am really enjoying it and eager to join level 3 now. However I needed something more than a 2 hours activity once a week to keep myself occupied. I was all set to experience the classroom atmosphere again and was eager to join some academic course. So this month I have joined C# and Spanish classes. C# because I had to learn one of the contenders in the recent technologies' race to actively get into the job seeker's market space. I admit, learning technology and languages should have by now been part of a self study exercise after a 4 years stint in the IT. My mind though resists self motivation. Spanish was more of a wish list thing. Learning a foreign language. And in the US of A, Spanish is an obvious choice that would come in handy.
I was as excited and nervous on the first day of these classes as I was on my first day in engineering college. I was more excited about experiencing one of the more advanced methods of teaching. Back in India too, most of the post graduation institutes have similar methods of teaching. As in open book assignments, computer at every desk in classrooms, not to mention free Internet and access to Gmail ;-). You can be in a class and if the lecture gets boring reach out to friends online. The teachers are more liberal and practical than they were in schools or grad level colleges. The classes are much more interactive and have more of lab time. Since these are more of professional vocational type of courses most of the students attending are working professionals or people seeking jobs. One thing which I love about all these courses be it fun classes like Salsa or academic courses there is a mixed bag of students. I don't mean this by race or colour of skin but by age and experience. People from age group of 25-30 to 60-70 attend these classes. Some of the most skilled dancers in Salsa in my class are people in their late 50's. They are fit and dance so smoothly and effortlessly, it looks like they are just gliding and the floor is shifting for them. Even in the C# and Spanish class, most people are above 40 or 50. This shows the enthusiasm and willingness to shed inhibitions if any by the general public when it comes to doing the things they want to.
I had been thinking of joining some classes from such a long time. Even in India when I had so much of free time during bench period or on weekends, I never actually took the step and put off things to future. We always hear age no bar for learning, learning till the end of time. But in reality not many of us actually believe it. Deep down we think that time has run out on learning. Or we start giving some or the other excuses like time constraint or cost and budget(this was my favourite excuse at all times). If that is not the case then our passiveness wins over the urge to learn. Now the situation has finally forced me to get out of my inertia. If I don't do this I will waste away sulking in idleness and lethargy ultimately leading to feelings of worthlessness and despair. I hope I can keep up this new mindset, enjoy the new student phase and spend my time constructively for all the days to come. I always had a to do list for the things I wanted to learn. Now its the question of prioritizing and actually implementing. Fingers crossed. :)
I was as excited and nervous on the first day of these classes as I was on my first day in engineering college. I was more excited about experiencing one of the more advanced methods of teaching. Back in India too, most of the post graduation institutes have similar methods of teaching. As in open book assignments, computer at every desk in classrooms, not to mention free Internet and access to Gmail ;-). You can be in a class and if the lecture gets boring reach out to friends online. The teachers are more liberal and practical than they were in schools or grad level colleges. The classes are much more interactive and have more of lab time. Since these are more of professional vocational type of courses most of the students attending are working professionals or people seeking jobs. One thing which I love about all these courses be it fun classes like Salsa or academic courses there is a mixed bag of students. I don't mean this by race or colour of skin but by age and experience. People from age group of 25-30 to 60-70 attend these classes. Some of the most skilled dancers in Salsa in my class are people in their late 50's. They are fit and dance so smoothly and effortlessly, it looks like they are just gliding and the floor is shifting for them. Even in the C# and Spanish class, most people are above 40 or 50. This shows the enthusiasm and willingness to shed inhibitions if any by the general public when it comes to doing the things they want to.
I had been thinking of joining some classes from such a long time. Even in India when I had so much of free time during bench period or on weekends, I never actually took the step and put off things to future. We always hear age no bar for learning, learning till the end of time. But in reality not many of us actually believe it. Deep down we think that time has run out on learning. Or we start giving some or the other excuses like time constraint or cost and budget(this was my favourite excuse at all times). If that is not the case then our passiveness wins over the urge to learn. Now the situation has finally forced me to get out of my inertia. If I don't do this I will waste away sulking in idleness and lethargy ultimately leading to feelings of worthlessness and despair. I hope I can keep up this new mindset, enjoy the new student phase and spend my time constructively for all the days to come. I always had a to do list for the things I wanted to learn. Now its the question of prioritizing and actually implementing. Fingers crossed. :)
Friday, July 3, 2009
An Unnoticed Act of Kindness…
It’s that day of the week we all are eagerly waiting for… esp. the people in IT. Weekend!!! Friday is the happiest day of the week. By 5:30 people are out of their desks packing and catching the bus, which supposedly leaves at 5:40 while in reality leaves everyday sharp at 5:38. Some unknown timeserver has synced the admin’s clock 2 mins early. The bus is full packed especially because of the fact, ‘Oye it’s Friday’… And there… just before the whistle is heard, ‘She’ boards the bus. She is carrying the most well known women’s accessory the purse and some documents and wait a min… she is also carrying a box wrapped like a gift…. It’s her last day in this office…
She takes a seat near by and keeps her gift and documents safely. Suddenly she gets a call from a friend. This friend is the usual ‘latecomer’ who thinks the bus will leave at IST. Oh no wait… she knows that the bus leaves early, that’s why she called her friend to stop the bus for her. Smart!
The girl in the bus, the devoted friend that she is, tells the driver to stop the bus. The driver is near the gate and finds a suitable place to stop the bus. The driver is very dedicated to his work and absolutely punctual. This idea of waiting for a latecomer is just not okay with him. But he can’t disobey a direct order in an obvious manner. So he starts the bus slowly and takes it a few steps ahead. The friend gets nervous that he might go ahead and frantically calls the latecomer to tell her to hurry up. She spots her friend who btw just got out of the building and is taking her own sweet time to get to the bus. Now the driver has had it. He starts the bus defiantly. The friend gets down to call the latecomer like ‘DDLJ style’ only here the Dulha gets down the bus. The bus driver takes it as a green signal and drives away.
Meanwhile fellow passengers have just noticed something. The girl left her gift and most importantly some documents in the bus. The ones she kept safely on her seat. The ladies who were sitting near the girl’s seat are telling ‘each other’ to stop the bus and also the fact that how this must be that loyal friend’s last day in office. The documents must be her relieving letter. Bingo! They are right. Now it’s the dilemma, the moral social responsibility for a fellow passenger/colleague against this very self indulged driver who is still only engrossed in speeding up and turning deaf ears to the airy whispers of people telling ‘EACH OTHER’ again, to stop the bus. No direct orders so no need to stop the bus.
In all this, suddenly a lady emerges from the whispers and accepts that she knows this girl and vehemently takes the responsibility of the ‘valuables’ saying “haan ab toh lena hi padega”. She calls the girl. Asks her for options and means in which the girl will take away the ‘valuables’ and she will be relieved of her responsibilities. They agree on some measure in which probably the girl would have to come to office the next day to fetch her stuff from the kind lady. Today may not be her last day in this office after all!!!
20 mins have passed since the episode and by now the bus has reached the highway. Suddenly after the traffic signal went green the guy beside me who was very silent until now got up and asked another guy near the driver to tell him to stop the bus. All the people are stunned… what’s wrong now?? The guy explains that apparently the girl was following in another bus, which was coming behind this one, and that she is coming to catch this bus. This time the driver stops since he got a direct order ‘again’. The passengers are excited. This girl is catching up. People are seeing out of the window. They can hear her footsteps now...
I am wondering. How did this guy know? He didn’t get any phone call I m certain of that. Then how did he? The girl gets into the bus. She is very grateful…. to the lady who kept her stuff so ‘Safe’. It doesn’t strike her to think of the question, who stopped the bus? Who came to know that she was following?? She is oblivious to this unknown person’s unnoticed act of kindness. He is concerned. He silently observes her coming back into the bus, she thanking the lady loud enough. He is concerned of whether she got her important documents or not. Then he is at ease. But a slight disappointment appears on his face. His efforts were unnoticed. My curiosity arose again and I asked. That was the least bit that I could do and ask him how he knew she was following. He said, “The driver of the other bus was signaling our driver to stop”. That’s how he knew. One simple observation, accurate understanding and perfect application of common sense is all that it took. He smiled. He was content that his effort was indeed not unnoticed after all. One question is all that it took. Happy Weekend!!!!
She takes a seat near by and keeps her gift and documents safely. Suddenly she gets a call from a friend. This friend is the usual ‘latecomer’ who thinks the bus will leave at IST. Oh no wait… she knows that the bus leaves early, that’s why she called her friend to stop the bus for her. Smart!
The girl in the bus, the devoted friend that she is, tells the driver to stop the bus. The driver is near the gate and finds a suitable place to stop the bus. The driver is very dedicated to his work and absolutely punctual. This idea of waiting for a latecomer is just not okay with him. But he can’t disobey a direct order in an obvious manner. So he starts the bus slowly and takes it a few steps ahead. The friend gets nervous that he might go ahead and frantically calls the latecomer to tell her to hurry up. She spots her friend who btw just got out of the building and is taking her own sweet time to get to the bus. Now the driver has had it. He starts the bus defiantly. The friend gets down to call the latecomer like ‘DDLJ style’ only here the Dulha gets down the bus. The bus driver takes it as a green signal and drives away.
Meanwhile fellow passengers have just noticed something. The girl left her gift and most importantly some documents in the bus. The ones she kept safely on her seat. The ladies who were sitting near the girl’s seat are telling ‘each other’ to stop the bus and also the fact that how this must be that loyal friend’s last day in office. The documents must be her relieving letter. Bingo! They are right. Now it’s the dilemma, the moral social responsibility for a fellow passenger/colleague against this very self indulged driver who is still only engrossed in speeding up and turning deaf ears to the airy whispers of people telling ‘EACH OTHER’ again, to stop the bus. No direct orders so no need to stop the bus.
In all this, suddenly a lady emerges from the whispers and accepts that she knows this girl and vehemently takes the responsibility of the ‘valuables’ saying “haan ab toh lena hi padega”. She calls the girl. Asks her for options and means in which the girl will take away the ‘valuables’ and she will be relieved of her responsibilities. They agree on some measure in which probably the girl would have to come to office the next day to fetch her stuff from the kind lady. Today may not be her last day in this office after all!!!
20 mins have passed since the episode and by now the bus has reached the highway. Suddenly after the traffic signal went green the guy beside me who was very silent until now got up and asked another guy near the driver to tell him to stop the bus. All the people are stunned… what’s wrong now?? The guy explains that apparently the girl was following in another bus, which was coming behind this one, and that she is coming to catch this bus. This time the driver stops since he got a direct order ‘again’. The passengers are excited. This girl is catching up. People are seeing out of the window. They can hear her footsteps now...
I am wondering. How did this guy know? He didn’t get any phone call I m certain of that. Then how did he? The girl gets into the bus. She is very grateful…. to the lady who kept her stuff so ‘Safe’. It doesn’t strike her to think of the question, who stopped the bus? Who came to know that she was following?? She is oblivious to this unknown person’s unnoticed act of kindness. He is concerned. He silently observes her coming back into the bus, she thanking the lady loud enough. He is concerned of whether she got her important documents or not. Then he is at ease. But a slight disappointment appears on his face. His efforts were unnoticed. My curiosity arose again and I asked. That was the least bit that I could do and ask him how he knew she was following. He said, “The driver of the other bus was signaling our driver to stop”. That’s how he knew. One simple observation, accurate understanding and perfect application of common sense is all that it took. He smiled. He was content that his effort was indeed not unnoticed after all. One question is all that it took. Happy Weekend!!!!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Life moves on......
The moment of truth…. when u wake up in the morning and hear her scream. She has just received the news of her sister’s death. Her beloved sister, whom she wasn’t able to meet in 14 years. The rush of shock and pain strike your heart at once. Your priority is her pain now. She has always been that sensitive and emotional person who has given her entire life and devotion to her people, her family. And losing one of them is like losing one part of herself. Now she is looking for that part of herself in everything. She wants to remember each and everything she knew about her sister. She wants to learn the things she didn’t about her. So that she can once again rebind with her. Find her ‘self’. This soul searching leads her to the saddest street. The street called ‘if only’. If only I had spoken to her yesterday. If only I had somehow defied my circumstances and met her. If only I had done more to help her. She knows that what happened in no way could have changed by doing anything else on her part. And as if the pain was not killing enough there is that fact of ‘life moves on’… How can it? One important person is left behind. One piece of your heart taken away.. Then how can life move on.. She sees and hears the world around her and realizes the life led by other people. People are going to their day’s work. Hoping to find something engaging today. Hoping to find hope to live on today. There is the continuous cycle of day and night and before she knows, its almost an year.
You wake up today, she is waking you up… This time she is giving you a news... “The King of pop is no more they say on TV.” You wake up, the news hasn’t sunk in yet. The shock hasn’t shown up yet. And you ask her why on earth did she have to give you such news while waking you up in the first place?
It’s late already and you need to get ready for office. TV channels are flashing the news. This time you give it your notice. All these years your favorite star was in recluse and his sudden death didn’t shock you at first. But as time passes you feel the heaviness. The man you loved as an icon is no more. It’s on the TV, radio and the Internet. People are frenzy everywhere. How/what/when questions seek answers. And the feeling of loss takes its place everywhere.
However slowly life gets back to normal again. Life has in fact moved on. You stare at the cruelty of life. Life of a person, be it of a sister or of an icon or any other creature on this planet has importance only until its alive. Once that biological functioning of breath stops, life has moved on. The people directly involved are halted only for a moment. But they have to get back on, on this ‘track of life’. They feel how can life be so brutal. How can life ask us to get going? But Life’s not asking you. It’s commanding you. Those who fail to take these orders are only left behind.
Once in a while people fall back and travel the ‘if only’ path again… You fill your mind with memories of your beloved ones and thrive on their strength. And as the moment passes away, you breath again, you take the next step, you live again.
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