When Silence Speaks...

I was home from school with the progress card in hand. We had just moved from Mumbai to Mangalore and I had joined 5 th Grade of a CBSE school in late June when classes had already started.  The monthly exam was due in 2 days from the date of my joining. So for the first time my marks were low; C, D in all subjects except Science. I had got E in Science. I was scared to take the progress report home and get it signed. Firstly, I never had such low grades so wasn’t sure how my parents would react, and secondly my dad was at home, so I will obviously have to get it signed from him instead of Amma. My dad used to travel a lot and would rarely be at home, so with papa not being around much, we (me and my sis) were both scared of him. So you can imagine how I would have felt while carrying that progress report back home with a FAIL/E grade on it. I still remember how I was reciting different excuses to give on being scolded, I dint have time to cover all the syllabus, I will do b...

I have a new addiction these days :) Short Films!!! From last 3 days I have watched over 50 short films in Hindi, Telugu, Marathi & Tamil; and I LOVE them. I was wondering how come I never came across these earlier. I have always loved and admired our Indian advertisement’s creative department. The stories they put in a video of few seconds to couple of minutes is just awesome. They have a good story line, awesome actors, screenplay, direction, music and also succeed in getting their message across. I mean look at the ads of Virgin mobile, Asian paints, Fevicol, Airtel, Surf Excel, Imperial Blue etc…   Below are some examples of recent commercials; I have embedded YouTube links to these videos (I am not even including our good old Doordarshan time ads like Jaleebiiii or Cadbury dairy milk   or Hamara Bajaj etc…) Some heart touching ads like Airtel   ,  ICICI   ,  Asian Paints  . Some beautiful ads with social message like -...

I finally did it. It isn’t a great achievement to show off, but for me it’s one more item on my bucket list getting fulfilled. So I am very happy about it. What did I do? Oh like I said nothing great – I just got my FIRST Tattoo  :) My first Tattoo Artist I had done a lot of research on it since last couple of months. I wanted to get it done on my birthday, but it somehow dint work out.  For all the first timers, I wanted to list out my personal experience, just in case it helps :) First of all, I felt it will be very helpful if you have some friends who would have got it done already. But I dint have that privilege. So I went through lot of blogs and articles in About.com, Wikihow, YahooAnswers etc… Well Google, the new lord of knowledge :) has all that you need to know. So, in summary, what I got from all these sites were First decide on what you want to get tattooed and where. Go over it again and again, since it is permanent, you will have to live ...

I was with couple of my friends on a trip earlier this month, when we landed on the topic of Radha while listening to the song “ Radha on the dance floor, Radha wants to party …” from the movie Student of the Year . My friend suddenly told “ Isn’t our culture a little strange? Although Radha and Krishna were never married, every time people see a good couple they say “ RadhaKrishan jaisi Jodi hai! ”(ie. Couple like Radha-Krishna). ” For those who aren’t familiar with Hindu mythology; Radha & Krishna appear in the Dvapara Yuga which is the 3 rd out of four yugas (4 th one being Kali Yuga, the current one that we all are part of). Radha is considered an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi and Krishna is the Eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Radha and Krishna are most popularly known and worshipped as RadhaKrishna – in one form. Radha is Krishna’s supreme beloved and his childhood friend. Acrylic Painting of Krishna with his Flute - By Me. The Lord and His consort are refe...

There are times when we think of someone and wish that they were with us at that moment. When we close our eyes and hope that the wait isn't too long; and patiently or impatiently wait for that time to pass. And the moment we meet that person it’s like living all those long tortured moments (which could be yearlong at times) in that few precious seconds of the meeting. All of us have felt it at some point or the other in our lives. But what would we do when we remember someone and know that we can never have that beautiful moment of togetherness again? I am not speaking of those characters whose role in your life have ended; but are still continuing their performance in some different stage. I do have few people in my life with whom the ties are either broken or just too strained to be normal. But they are there somewhere in this world living their lives. So although the probability of us being together is close to NEVER , it’s not IMPOSSIBLE . May be few years do...

Whenever I open a notebook and come across the set of blank pages; my mind goes blank. For some reason, it always reminds me of my life. It forces me to start thinking about my life; about the past and the future. Being part of the age of computers and belonging to the IT industry, I hardly get an opportunity to actually pick a pen and write in the notebook. I write lot of blogs, poems etc… but I write them on the webpage or in Microsoft word in my laptop.  Once in a while I like to go back to traditional form of writing; using the actual pen and paper. And in last few years; I noticed that every time I try doing that for some reason the blank paper gets me all philosophical.         Although I never have that thought while opening the book; but whenever I see those blank pages; I just go blank. I always feel that my life is staring back at me with all those unanswered silenced questions, doubts, thoughts…forcing me to think – What does my lif...

We have all grown up listening to the statements “ Man is a social animal ”, “ No man is an island ” etc… True to the saying; we have all spent our lives with family, friends, relatives, colleagues etc… The kind of company we keep has always been pried on by everyone who cares for us. As kids, we are kept away from “Bad” company. As we grow and start choosing our own friends/company, we are advised over and over and over to stay away from “Bad” company. Your parents will leave no stone unturned to show how much they hate "That One" friend of yours, whom you respect or like to hang out with. How “That” friend of yours is not of your kind; how he/she will ruin your life; how he/she has an ulterior motive to DESTROY you. And am sure all of you would have screamed,  SERIOUSLY Mom/Dad? Oh wait; if you have opposite sex as your friend, you are screwed big time boss! You are definitely on the schedule for the dose of daily drill. “ All boys are out there to cheat you ”, “ ...

4 years back, a friend of mine lost his father to cancer. It was for the first time when something like this had happened in my friends circle after I grew mature. Back then I dint know how to react to such a situation. Should I call him, would I disturb him, would he even like to talk about it, would it give him comfort or cause him more pain, should I rather mail him and so on? I dint know what to do. I mailed him, called him once and refrained from calling further; thinking he needed some lone time. It’s the last situation you would want any of your friends to be in. Losing a dad or mom feels like an unimaginable incident. And not having been through it, it makes it more difficult for any of us to deal with it. On August 15 th 8:00 AM IST of this year, I was standing in that situation. My parents met with a road accident and my dad passed away on the spot leaving my mom injured. I was here in USA; my relatives and immediate family members dint want to disclose the fact to me. ...

No matter how long the night is, there will be sunrise ahead of it. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. We always hear these encouraging words when we are in tough times. People always refer to tough times and bad incidents to darkness. I have started to wonder why? Why do we refer darkness to negativity? Why is the night feared? Why do people say darkness is to death as light is to life?  Past few days have been the toughest in my life so far. I have been through a lot of tough and sad times; but this one beats them all. And I have been thinking through it; this write up is a product of these thoughts. Over last few days, I have realized that these tough times are the ones that bring out our hidden true self. When a person walks in the darkness, all his fears come out. There is no one to run from and nowhere to run to; no place to hide; because you see nothing. It’s just dark! As soon as the dawn breaks, the outside world comes to life and your inner s...

I have a journal with Buddha’s quotes printed on its pages. Once in a while I flip through the pages until one quote catches my mind and starts its wheel of thoughts. It generally depends on my mood, chain of events in the recent past, probably just the state of mind at that moment which finds some solace in one of those quotes. Yesterday was one such day, when I wanted to put on my thinking cap and do some self-review.   The quote that caught my eyes and mind was “There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.” I don’t know why but this quote caught my attention and took me into the world of thoughts, analysis, reasoning, philosophies and self-debates. As soon as my eyes fell on this quote, I suddenly reacted saying I don’t think I agree to this and then I began writing. I have grown up listening to and eventually believing in the concept of Karma - what you give is what you get. Do good and good things will happen to you, do bad and you will suffe...

“ It’s high time. You have to let go. ” Everyone hears this line at some point in life. So what is this letting go stuff? Why is it so difficult for few of us to let go of something or someone? I have few people in life who fall into this category of “ should let go of ”; which I haven’t been able to till date. They have moved on, probably don’t even remember me or the incidents involving us. Their priorities have changed; couple of them are family people now and others may be just busy with their lives. So why is it hard for me to behave normal when thoughts or names of these people come up? Does that mean I am emotionally weak or my feelings for these people were much stronger or just that I haven’t been able to accept the reality? It is hard at least for me to believe that people and situations can change so fast. To see that folks who were your best buddies or partner for lifetime can one fine day just turn into complete strangers. My friends say I am stuck in the past and a...