When Silence Speaks...

Let me begin with one of my favorite quotes - “ In the end only three things matter : how much you loved, how gently you lived and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. ” Every year on the same day of the month, when I recap, I think that I have had the most eventful year of my life. That life cannot get more happening, more painful, more tough - all in all more eventful than this year. But here I say it again like most of my blogs resonate - life has an amazing way of astonishing me with its own unique style. As far back as my memory goes, from the time I have been on my own; 2006, 2007 8 9 10 and so on till now 18; freaking 2018! Every year, I have seen different shades of life. A lot of life changing experiences which has groomed my personality inch by inch; day by day ( am not talking of those gms/oz that added to kgs/lbs over the year; let’s not get there :-P ) Every year I feel this is it; I have seen it all; and then the new year brings along with it ...

When the night is dark And there are no stars shining Will you still be around To show me way to your heart When the winds are harsh And the mast is destroyed Will you still be around To sail my ship to your shore When the desert gets devious And mirages fake water Will you still be around To keep me sane from illusions When the world seems to fall apart And I get lost in the chaos Will you still be around To walk me back to our home.

I blog about my random thoughts; about things that impress or impact me; about how I feel in and about certain situations. When I do so, I tend to analyze the heck out of it. And that's why most of my blogs sound philosophical. I love doing it. My dad was a good company, we would philosophize ( I never knew this word existed :D ) about anything in this or outside this universe. Lately, haven't found a good confidant, but that doesn't stop me from going into this wonderland. Someone, after all the philosophical discussions told me that he felt I knew what I was doing, that I was wise, that I had figured everything (life) out. And I was like, Hell No!   As much as I would love to flatter myself that he was right, and wished that he would have told it to my mom so I would probably get a time out; but No, that's like the most startling comment ever. I think, an always correct & ideal person can never be a good philosopher. He probably will have the fear of fa...

कमरे की सफाई में एक बक्सा मिला धूल की चाद्दर ओढ़के अलमारी के ऊपर सोचती रही की आखिर क्या है इसमें खोला तो चंद लम्हों के लिए साँसे रुक सी गयी लम्बी सी सांस ली मैंने आँखें बंद कर उस धूल में घुलकर वो पुरानी यादों की खुशबू सीधे ले गए मुझे भूले गलियों में आखें खुली तो हलके से नम थी होंठों के किनारे हलकी सी मुस्कराहट उस बक्से में ज़िन्दगी के वो लम्हे कैद थे जो मैं वक़्त की दौड़ में कहीं भूल गयी थी वो बस की टिकट आधी वो गुलाब के पंखुड़ी सूखे से वो खत जिसकी स्याही उझडी वो तस्वीर जिसके रंग उड़े से पता नहीं क्या था वो प्यार या बचपना आवारगी या आशिकी जो भी था हसीन था अगर कोई याद बरसों बाद भी इतनी ताज़ा हो की चेहरे पे हँसी और आँखों में नमी लाये दिल में अजब सी बेचैनी के साथ एक अलग सा सुकून लाये वो पल भले ही हकीकत से हार गए पर यादों के ज़रिये खुशियां देकर आज साबित कर गए की हकीकत से भी ज़्यादा सच्चे है वो एहसास

Jeevan ke safar mein rahi, milte hai bichad jane ko. Aur de jate hai yaadein, tanhai mein tadpane ko :) I was talking to my cousin yesterday, who is fresh out of college and working in an IT firm for about 3 months now. She was telling about what she does on weekends, her confusions, challenges etc.. and I was taken back to my days.  When I was telling her what crazy stuffs I had done; I could not help but smile remembering all those moments. If sophistication would come to life, she would commit suicide looking at me and my friends back in those days. Am pretty sure quite a few of my friends who are married and with kids; would hesitate to reveal that side of theirs anymore. The way we would dress, the way we would behave (misbehave); in fact we looked so undernourished and pathetic that when we compare today to back then, we wont recognize ourselves. I t feels so stupid to think of some of our so called life threatening problems of those times. I think we are sti...

There are numerous ways of how freedom can feel like. Each one of us would have been in different situations that gave us a sense of freedom. Could be as insignificant as getting off of a crowded bus or a traffic jam; to something significant like being fortunate to study further or relieved of an unwanted relationship. I rejoice freedom every now and then; when I sit watching horizon of an endless ocean or a night sky or mountains or while am running or simply meditating. But this time I am feeling light and free due to my haircut.  I have seen that a haircut or a makeover kind of acts as stress buster. I have played with my hairstyle more than often and written about how I felt afterwards too; but this time I just took a bold step. I had long straight hair till my hip; and I went straight to a boycut.  Me few months before this day I thought, it doesn't matter if it suits me or not, I will get it done. I wasn't confident that I would like it, but I wanted to get i...

I had bought Rubik's cube around 4 years back I think, and I would just keep turning it's faces around without any logic to see if color's aligned. I knew there was some trick and logic to solve it; but I never had a deep interest in learning it. So it used to lie around in my house with not much success. Last month, I got an urge to check this off my list. So, I sat watching Youtube videos and reading numerous webpages, learning about various tricks/moves to solve the Rubik's cube. I solved it.  Then I scrambled it, to start all over again. I solved it again. I scrambled it again, and redid the process till I memorized it's move so I could solve it without any guidance. During, this process, I learnt something. There were times when I was close to last few steps in solving the cube, then I would make a bad move and cube would get messed up. I would scramble it again, and start over. There was this weird feeling of losing what I have accompli...

I am a huge Jason Bourne fan. Jason Bourne, James Bond, Ethan Hunt and so on are my favorites. So my next area to explore in Indian cinema was Spy movies; but I am hugely disappointed. We haven't had that many Spy movies in last 2-3 decades, when I searched for movies across different languages. I am surprised, why we haven't made movies like Raazi before; and there's not many RAW agent movies out there. But anyway, here's my list that involved life of a spy. 1. Raazi - Hindi - 2018 (No Brain'er :) This tops the list) IMDB  -  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7098658/ Plot excerpt from IMDB -  A Kashmiri woman agrees to marry a Pakistani army officer in order to spy on Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 Director -  Meghna Gulzar Highlights - Storyline & Performance. Tops my list for amazing performance and direction. No one could have done the role of Sehmat better than Alia Bhatt. 2. Goodachari - Telugu - 2018 IMDB  -...

We Indians are huge fans of drama. There is drama in everything we see, do or say. We eat, drink, breathe drama. You will be amazed to see how dramatic our routine life is most of the times.  For the world, Indian Drama is Bollywood. And we all know Bollywood is Mumbai - the then Bombay. This is one such novel that walked me through gullies of Mumbai - The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay by Siddharth Shanghvi. Any author trying to write about Bombay or Mumbai will include  bollywood,  politics, gang wars, slums, media and so on. This novel has all that too. So how is this novel any different?  This is the third book based on streets of Mumbai that I have read; and as a reader I did not feel one bit bored. Siddharth Shanghvi has done a good job with this novel. City of Mumbai unlike any other city in India; holds so many stories that any author walking into the city can find a new plot. My previous two reads were from authors who narrated real life incidents-...

A novel that unravels details of South Africa from apartheid era.  A story telling by two different people coming from opposite backgrounds.  A book of emotions so closely knit with the characters that you really cannot resist getting emotionally involved yourself. 'Hum If You Don't Know The Words' I am not sure how many of you are aware of apartheid era, and even if you know all about it, this book shows the experiences from both sides of the players; and that's completely different from what you learn from your history books or wikipedia. For me, this book took me deep into the world of South African society during the 1970s; letting me experience the thoughts and feelings of both a white child and a black mother.  Like the book says 'Divided by the colors of their skin, their paths should never have crossed' Somewhere, I don't recall if it was a movie or a book, a person asks why people even bother to study history, why waste time on...

I am not a movie buff. I watch selected movies in theaters as well as at home. But last few days, I spent time exploring movies in other languages and realized that Indian cinema does have an amazing library of movies, if one chooses to expand their territory. So here's the list of thriller movies I enjoyed watching.  They top my list of best thrillers because t hey stick to the genre, no unnecessary songs (some don't have a single song), no unwanted scenes, style of storytelling, makes your mind think,  surprises till the end, suspense is well maintained and more beautifully revealed. (And am not a fan of grotesque murders) I understand  Kannada,  Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, and a bit of Malayalam; so I enjoyed watching these more. But if you don't know the language, you will also find these movies in Amazon Prime, Netflix, Einthusan etc... with subtitles. 1. Mumbai Police - Malayalam - 2013 IMDB -  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt292...

I went on a winter hike last weekend; woods covered with snow; it was an amazing scenery; but I had not built my stamina enough post surgery for a level 4 hike like that one; and at the end was almost dragging myself to the finish line.  But this hike reminded me of an unfinished blog about an amazing person I met last year; which I had in the list of items to blog about. Today I write about Pia. Last year, 2017, I had been to Manitou Incline (famously known as The Incline) in Colorado. It is a very famous climb with maximum incline; and has been athletes favorite workout spot, as well as a tourist attraction. For native Coloradans this is a next door fitness challenge spot. The incline gains over 2,000 feet (610 m) of elevation in less than one mile (.88 miles). So you can imagine it's steep grade; with an average grade of 45% (24°) and as steep as 68% (34°) in places. The trail is fairly maintained, and on weekends it gets really crowded. But the view is breathtaking;...