FORGET ME

As time passes by
And you prepare to leave
But I can’t see you cry
So I want you to forget me

Pack your dreams in your eyes
Hold the stream of your cries
Leaving my memories behind
Take me out of your mind

Forget the times we spent together
And the promise to be forever
And the vows to be there for each other

Forget the laughs and petty fights
And the chats late night
The mischiefs we didn’t spare
And then saying ‘I don’t care’

Know not I was a friend
Sometimes even a lover
Forget the love we spent
Forget that I was even your brother

No matter how dear I am
Or how dear I will be
Now let the door slam
And you, you just forget me

सूखी बारिश

बारिश मे हूँ मैं सूखा

आसुओं मे हूँ घुलता

देते बादल हैं मुझको धोका

मैं हूँ साफ़ पर दुनिया धुओं में 

काश मैं ये नदी होता

अपनी राह पता होती

क्योंकि टूटा मेरा एक सपना

जिसमे तुम मेरे साथ होती

भीगे कपड़े चूमे मुझको

याद दिलाएं तूम्हारी

मृत्यु से मेरी सुख मिले ठन्डे पवन को

दिल खोले धागे यादों के हमारी 

A QUANTUM OF BLISS

I haven't seen day
I know not what is sun
With grief sorrow death I play
My favorite toy's a gun

I live in smoke
And one day we'll be one
When a bullet in my blood soaks
And I'll finally see the sun

I kill people I do not know
I kill people I might like
Not knowing the name of my foe
I decide the day he has to die

I'm the one people praise
I'm the one people curse
But once my body in the coffin lays
My memory fades and disappears

Sometimes I wonder why I fight
For the sake of greedy liars
When I can help my people with my might
And raise my land from the scorching pyre

I may be tuff but not a stone
I have a home and people I miss
And before my head is to dirt blown
I pray to God for a quantum of bliss

I WILL BRING YOU HEAVEN

When thunder strikes the world

When your life is caught in swirls

When you're tired and have no cue

Don't worry I'll be there for you

When your eyes rain more than clouds

When no one hears your cries so loud

I will carry you when your feet would not

And protect you when the Gods will not

When you're drowning in sorrow

And have no hope of tomorrow

When you can't walk though so hard you try

I'll give you wings so you can fly

All your griefs I will drink

All your pains I will sink

When with hellish fires you're laden

Down to earth I will bring you heaven

A DISEASED MAN

I am diseased

At the core of my heart

Where my blood is released

I have a dying part

My skin embraces my bones

My eyes cry in envy

My voice quivers I'm all alone

My rotting is privy

I seek solace as time passes by

I wish for spring in hell

I want to live before I die

And look where I slipped not fell

Forget me not when I'm gone

Don't let my memories be released

I will come back I will be reborn

A strong man who's not diseased

I'VE BLED

The rose's gone black

The leaves are all dead

Wish you could be back

Ask the thorns I've bled

The petals are on the ground

Over stepped by my tears

Darkness me surrounds

Dying feels so mere

Blow the rose and shatter

Shatter the petals in air

Let the thorns prick me it doesn't matter

If what you did was so fair

I know we made no promises

There were no vows to keep

And that became my nemesis

I let my trust in too deep

I wish I hadn't a heart

Or at the most one that's dead

Wish you weren't my life's part

Because ask the thorns, I've bled

THE SARCASM OF THE GODS

Rain tries to keep me dry

As I dissolve in my tears

Even the skies have become so sly

They clean me up but my world's unclear

I wish I was this stream

And know where I would go

Because everything's intact but my dream

The dream to with you forever flow

My clothes stick to my skin

Reminding me of you

The cold kills me in storm it grins

As my heart your memories un-sew

Thought rains were romantic

And it couldn't get any better

As the sarcasm of Gods is so ecstatic

That all I can do is into pieces shatter

THE LAST TALK

The sun has finally set

The dusk has finally gone

Things happened that I regret

And my life has finally torn

But I promise I will try

To keep my tears in me

But I can't promise my heart won't die

Every time your memories it sees

I know I have to be strong

But my strength came from you

Now all I have are my melancholy songs

As my world is now without hue

GOD'S UNLUCKY

Like a garden after rains

I feel new and lovely

I keep smiling in vain

Spring's come suddenly

And I feel you feel the same

Like drops of water we gel

My world lit up as you came

And in my heart you dwell

I feel heaven all around

When you flirt and start to blush

Your love is so profound

All my sorrows it can crush

As the words fail me now

To say how special you are

I wonder the Gods live how

From a beauty like you so far

खुशियों से दुश्मनी

एक सड़क पे
चलते अकेले
दिख रहे हैं मुझको
लाशों के मेले

नदियों में खून
आसुओं की बूँद
खुशियों से सबकी
दुश्मनी हो जैसे

धुओं में जहाँ है
खुदा तू कहाँ है
क्या मर्ज़ी थी तेरी
ये जो हुआ है

नफरत की आंधी
खा रही है सबको
कलि का प्यार
बढ़ रहा है जैसे 

जलता नहीं सूरज अब
जलते हैं इन्सान
इर्ष्या ने सबको
मौत दी है जैसे

पैसा कभी था
इन्सान के लिए
पर होती है मृत्यु
पैसा भगवन हो जैसे

शायद नरक है बेहतर
धरती से जादा
क्योंकि रोता है हैवान
ए धरती पे ही जैसे

YOU ARE GOD'S GIFT

Rain drops feel like rock

As all alone I walk

I hallucinate you by my side

And for a moment my tears I hide

The crowd makes me lonely

Because I want you only

I need you to hug me

And say mine you'll forever be

I may be far away

But your's is the only name my heart says

Because when my life ran out of bliss

You came by to give me a kiss

 And I promise I'll cherish you forever

And see you I dream whenever

My heart flowers at you hurls

Because you are God's gift to the world

YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE

Sometimes we're lost in the dark

Knowing not where to go

Not able to find a mark

Which'll help us leave the sorrow

Sometimes the light blinds us

Just like it does to the stars

We can't see the cooler dark behind it

And end up having scars

We wish for someone beside us

To laugh with and share our sorrows

Coz sometimes life seems like a curse

And we wish for a better tomorrow

But no matter which way you go

You'll get what you deserve

Go against it or follow the flow

It's just a question of what you neglect

and what you preserve

Also available here

PARENTS - THE REAL GODS

Almost every Indian must have watched the movies Baghban and Rajiv Bhatia a.k.a Akshay Kumar's 100th movie, Waqt. This article's something like those movies.

A 20 year old boy went up to a sage of high repute and said to him, "I'm tired of this mortal world, I want freedom from the circle of life. Please help me attain enlightenment and I promise I will give up all worldly distractions and take haven in the Lord's feet for He's the only one I seek." expecting a pleasant and proud smile from the sage, the young lad bowed his head and touched the Brahmin's feet.

"Then why are you running away from Him," replied the sage, "He lives right with you in your house and you have come to me seeking Him? Your old parents need you at this stage and if you support them He will come asking for you. So, don't be a fool, go back and serve your parents as they are the ones because of whom you exist."The lad was surprised and dejected. Naturally, he had to leave having learnt a BASIC lesson.

There are four reasons why parents are equivalent to God or sometimes greater than Him too:

• 
  
  God helps those, who help themselves. But parents do and will always help you no matter what you may or may not do.
• 
  
  God is the creator of all things including you. Parents are my creators and if it weren't for them, all creations of God would've been a waste for me as I wouldn't have existed to relish them.
• 
  
  You have to pray day and night rigorously to please God. It's very difficult to please Him and He has a tendency to sometimes answer our prayers a bit late when it's no longer needed. But parents are there for you whenever and wherever you need them. You don't have to do anything to please them, you don't have to fast for days or make any sacrifices and unlike God they never doubt your affection by testing you at every stage of life. Parents don't write down your faults and mistakes anywhere and then evaluate you at the end of the day. They understand that you're human and as long as you are learning from your mistakes they never bother you with your faults, so unlike God.
• 
  
  If we are all children of God, why does he have to make us and then see us suffer through our lives and then put us under the fear of whether we're going to Hell or Heaven? Why does he rejoice in killing his own children and even when he knows what is going to happen next, he sits in Heaven and just watches the old movie over and over again? If he really is so powerful why can't he destroy the evil and rid the earth of so much nuisance. Further more, why does he have to, in the first place, create demons and other evil structures? He loves it when people cry out His name in agony. He's just a selfish arrogant piece of our imagination. Does any of this hold true for the beings addressed by the first word of the article's title?

Another name for Him comes from the phrase, 'the one who forgives' but is it really true? When you see someone suffering they say he's paying the price for his/her misdeeds. But if God really forgives all the sins why not this time? Why do all things He does which we cannot comprehend have to be covered up with the blanket of the word Maya? Why can't he uncover all his mysteries and let us know about them if we really are the dearest to Him? Why does he have to disguise himself if he ever comes down to earth? What's the harm if we see him in his true avatar, don't we deserve to see our true parent?

There are hundreds of more questions which scream that God is just an imagination and His true form exists only in parents. They may not know any magic or cast any illusion upon us but they are the only ones who have sacrificed their blood for us and for those who are a staunch believers of God, all holy scriptures give account of the holiness of one's parents. Even Lord Rama used to touch His parents' feet.

The relation between a parent and the child doesn't end at any stage of life. The souls of the parents and their children are connected with a such a strong bond that it may be weakened but it's impossible to break it completely. There have been instances of people killing their parents but it's an undeniable fact that they do regret it now or will at some point in the future because nobody has the capability to love you as much as your parents do. No matter how strong a person is, his/her child(ren) are always his weakness and it's the duty of the children to be their strengths too. We shouldn't be a liability, we should be an asset.

A person can win all the wars but the war he/she fights against his own child. Akbar, one of the greatest emperor's in the history of India lost to his own son Jahangir who went on to be defeated by his son Shah Jahan and Shah Jahan in turn lost to Aurangzeb. Even in Mahabharata, Duryodhan was able to manipulate his blind father, the king of Hastinapur, at his own will. We having read and understood a lot from history should be knowing what we ought to do but that really is not the case. We tend to forget our parents once we find a good job and settle down with our families. We forget that our family is incomplete without our parents, we are incomplete with our parents and we owe our lives to them. Today, it becomes a burden for a person if he/she has to take his/her ill mother/father to a doctor everyday forgetting that his/her mother woke up the whole night when he/she was sick during childhood. A person can go on tours with his/her wife/husband and children but will never take his/her parents with him/her. We have to realise that all visits to places of pilgrimage are useless unless we learn to respect and love our parents. Then there wouldn't be any need to take up any such visit as God is residing right with us under a common roof.

So it's time we realise that our parents are priceless and no matter how much we do for them, it's never going to be enough. They are the real God we should be worshipping.

Lord Rama tells Sita at a point in Ramayana: "Obedience to parents is the greatest Dharma".

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY - MY TAKE

Just finished reading another of the great works of Late Michael Crichton, The Great Train Robbery. A gripping, amusing, enchanting and an unput down able book.

Very much known for his science-fiction writings, Mr. Crichton displays a completely different side of his right side of the brain. He is as successful in exploiting each of his characters as he is the the culture and traditions of the nineteenth century. He can literally make you smile and admire the craft of Edward Pierce, the central character, in planning, handling all the difficulties and hurdles that arise even minutes before the start of the execution of the plan and finally executing it so well that he, two of his acquaintances and the money acquired from the robbery couldn't be found till the end of the book. A serious plot which could have become quite morbid is put down in a light-hearted manner but not losing its lustre of nail-biting moments providing a gush of adrenaline rush.

Here is the summary of the novel taken from wikipedia.

Plot:
In 1854, Edward Pierce, a charismatic and affluent "cracksman" or master thief, makes plans to steal a shipment of gold worth more than twelve thousand pounds being transported monthly from London to the Crimean War front. Unfortunately, he faces enormous obstacles as the bank has taken strict precautions, including locking the gold in two heavy safes, each of which has two locks and thus requiring a total of four keys to open. He then recruits Robert Agar, a "screwsman" or specialist in copying keys, as an accomplice.

To ensure the success of his bold plan, Pierce spends more than a year in preparation as well as dealing with various unexpected developments; his first steps are fairly easy as he uses his wealth and social contacts to procure information on the security measures and locations of the keys: the bank's executives Mr. Henry Fowler and Mr. Edgar Trent each have a key in their possession while the other two are locked in a cabinet at the offices of the South Eastern Railway at the London Bridge train station. Much of the action during the story develops simultaneously although told in different order.

Pierce's first target is the key held by Edgar Trent. The attempt to take Mr. Trent's key is difficult as the man is a total stranger and Pierce has no clues or prior information on his habits. Through painstaking surveillance, conversations with bank employees and a deliberately bungled pickpocketing attempt, Pierce deduces that Mr. Trent's key is kept at his mansion but is still unable to learn the exact location. Finally, after learning that Trent is keen on ratting (a blood sport involving the betting on dogs killing rats), Pierce succeeds in becoming acquainted with the man and visiting the Trent mansion feigns romantic interest in Elizabeth Trent, Mr. Trent's twenty-nine year old daughter who has had few suitors. Edward then begins to court Elizabeth and manages to learn that the key is most likely located in the house's basement wine cellar. With the assistance of his mistress Miriam and cab driver Barlow, Pierce and Agar successfully break into Mr. Trent's home at night and make a wax copy of the key after much painstaking searching.

Henry Fowler develops syphilis and, being unwilling to seek medical attention out of embarrassment, decides to seek a remedy through sleeping with a virgin (similar to superstitions about HIV) and asks Pierce for assistance. After charging Fowler an exorbitant price of one hundred guineas for a night of pleasure with a twelve year old (twelve being the legal age of consent), Pierce and Agar take advantage of the opportunity to make a copy of Fowler's key (which he always carried with him around his neck but took off left on the bedside table during the assignation).

The most difficult keys to copy are the two keys at the train station which Pierce plans to procure and copy by night; the presence of "crushers" (policeman) forces him to recruit a "snakesman" (burglar able to slip inside buildings through small and cramped spaces) nicknamed Clean Willy who is currently incarcerated in the high security Newgate Prison. He sends a message through Willy's former mistress and assists him in escaping from Newgate while the public is distracted by an execution. After nursing Willy back to health from injuries received during the escape, the criminals succeed in making wax copies of the two keys at the railway station, completing the task with only seconds to spare before detection.

Now possessing all four copies of the necessary keys, Pierce loses no time in bribing Burgess, the poorly paid guard on the train who rides in the baggage van containing the safes. Agar is then able to perform a dry run of the theft on February 17, 1855, making sure that the copied keys work perfectly.

Everything appears to be moving along smoothly (despite some minor setbacks that cause delays) and the actual theft is planned for May 22nd when the would-be thieves find themselves seriously compromised: Clean Willy turns informant to the police (presumably, although the book does not specify the reason, as a result of being picked up for an unknown crime). Luckily Pierce manages to have Willy murdered before he could reveal the most crucial information, although their plans are now greatly compromised by law enforcement agents who correctly fear that a major robbery is at hand. Through careful manipulation of a "nose" (informant), the criminals manage to divert the police's attention to an alleged robbery in Greenwich, leaving them free and clear to finally strike.

On the eve of the Great Train Robbery, another unexpected development occurs as a new railway policy requires the train doors to be locked from the outside. Unwilling to further delay their plans, Pierce manages to smuggle Agar into the baggage van (in spite of new security precautions) inside a coffin and then risks his life by climbing across the roof of the train during their journey and unlocking the door from the outside, thus allowing them to drop off the gold at a pre-arranged point. By the next day, much of England is in an uproar upon the discovery of the robbery with every organization involved in the gold shipment blaming each other, and there are few leads towards the true culprits who have largely vanished from the public eye.
Although their daring exploits appear to have succeeded, Pierce, Agar and Burgess are ultimately apprehended after Agar's mistress, who has been arrested for robbing a drunk, becomes a police informant to escape imprisonment and Agar confesses after being threatened with transportation to Australia by Scotland Yard official Edward Harranby. Pierce and Burgess are arrested at a prize-fighting event in Manchester, and at the conclusion of the book all three are convicted. Pierce is sentenced to a long prison term but successfully manages to escape while being transported from the court and disappears, though reports indicate he, Miriam and Barlow spend much of the rest of their lives living in luxury at various foreign cities such as New York and Paris. The train guard Burgess dies of cholera during his short prison term while Agar is indeed transported to Australia but actually manages to prosper and pass away a wealthy man. Edgar Trent dies from a chest ailment in 1857, while Henry Fowler dies from "unknown causes" (presumably from the syphilis he had contracted) in 1858. The gold from the Great Train Robbery is never recovered.


Characters:
Edward Pierce: A professional burglar who poses as a gentleman amongst his upper class acquaintances in Victorian England. Pierce is arguably one of the most mysterious characters found in Crichton's works as almost nothing is known about his background; indeed even his name is likely false as others also refer to him as "John Simms" along with other titles. Nonetheless, his actions and thoughts in the book consistently demonstrate a sharp intelligence and broad knowledge which far outstrips that of his fellow criminals; perhaps his greatest asset is an ability to easily navigate through both the British underworld and the aristocracy. Throughout the planning and the execution of the Great Train Robbery, Pierce is always cautious, never truly trusting anyone--this caution is eventually justified as it is Agar, his closest accomplice who finally sells him out.
Robert Agar: A twenty six year old screwsman (criminal who is skilled with copying keys and picking locks) at the beginning of the novel, Agar is pivotal to the eventual success of the Great Train Robbery, though he is also largely responsible for the culprits' eventual capture. He is apparently very well acquainted with many criminals and helped Pierce identify many persons of interest including the informant Chokee Bill as well as the snakesman Clean Willy. Though he became a police informant at the end of the book in hopes of avoiding transportation to Australia, the judge sends him there anyway and he dies a wealthy man. Ironically, Michael Crichton depicts Robert Agar as Pierce's lackey with limited intelligence though his real life counterpart actually masterminded much of the robbery and got away with minor punishments.
Clean Willy: Generally acknowledged to be the best snakesman available in London although his skills were apparently inadequate to prevent arrest and incarceration (which occurred at least twice before and during the story). Edward Pierce went to great expense to help Willy escape imprisonment at a high security prison for the sole purpose of enlisting the snakesman's aid in the train robbery. After successfully completing his tasks, Willy is paid off by Pierce and disappears for some time from the narrative before resurfacing as a police informant, almost jeopardizing the entire scheme. Ultimately he is garroted by Barlow in a boardinghouse.
Barlow: A violent thug and murderer who served Edward Pierce loyally as a cabby although his services were also employed for other purposes such as the death of Clean Willy. He and Ms. Miriam managed to elude capture by the authorities, eventually rescuing him from the authorities before the trio completely disappeared.
Ms. Miriam: Edward Pierce's mistress who is generally regarded as highly attractive by other characters in the book. She is also a talented actress and plays rather brief though important roles in the execution of the train robbery such as pretending Agar was her dead brother and distracting Mr. Fowler while Pierce unlocked the cargo train. In many ways, she and Pierce are very similar and well suited for each other: both are resourceful and possess the ability to mix with men and women of all classes.


Historical Deviations:
The story is a fictionalized representation of the historical events that happened, although the setting can be considered quite accurate. The character names are mixed up in the novel, for example, the main protagonist William Pierce is changed to Edward Pierce, and Edward Agar to Robert Agar.


Make sure you read the book on a Friday or Saturday night, you don't want to be sleeping at work the next day, do you?!!

India vs Education

"Education is the sole defence of a nation", said Burke, an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher.

And how true do we find it today. But sadly, we Indians have a habit of creating great theories and philosophies, attending religious and spiritual discourses, reading and agreeing with almost all the scriptures in the holy books but we never, never do we act on them. First of all, what are the discourses, philosophies and holy books telling us? They all sure do differ in content and quantity of it but if you consider the quality, they are all the same. They all want us to be wise and inculcate civilised methods of living in ourselves. So how do we gain wisdom? There's only one way in today's world, education.

A common man (and woman) would say, "the world today is extremely materialistic and as a result of that the education dispersed in various institutions has become corrupt towards wisdom. We cannot enhance our wisdom through what is taught in schools and universities. The meaning of real education does not exist anymore in this age." Yes it's true, but the essence of education is still not lost. Even today an educated mind is more open to changes and able to adapt to given situations more easily. Educated men and women can handle problems in a more rational way than uneducated ones. Education continues to inculcate the habit of reasoning which is completely absent in the uneducated class. It comes as no surprise that the uneducated are burdened with grief and sorrow most of the time as compared to their counterparts and one of the most significant reasons of this is a strong belief in superstitions. I would like to narrate a story here regarding this point:

There was a temple in a rural part of India. The priest used to conduct daily morning and evening prayers without fail. However, he faced one nagging problem. There was a cat which would give the priest and his disciples a hard time while conducting the prayers daily as the cat would move around the temple disturbing the setting of the rituals involved during the prayers. It would spill the oil from the lamps, lick the holy sculpture of the Lord and so on. This made the priest order his disciples to catch the cat and put it in a cage during the prayers. The disciples followed his orders and the prayers were now conducted very smoothly with no problems at all. This continued for several years.

Unfortunately, one day, the priest took ill and died of the sickness. So one of the disciples of the priest was made the head priest now and it was his duty to take care of the prayers which were taking place since several years. The priest carried out his duties pretty well and pleased everyone. A few days later the menace in the face of the cat died too. There was no need of a cage now but the priest and his disciples had something else in their minds. The head priest said, "Our teacher had a holy habit of caging a cat while conducting the prayers and that cat has unfortunately died. However, his ritual shall be carried out with all honor and sincerity. Let's find another cat and cage it during the prayers and honor our great teacher." And this is exactly what they did.

I do not need to mention that these priests were uneducated and pathetically superstitious.
But it is not just superstition that acts as a parasite on the uneducated class of society, it's the unwillingness of many people across the uneducated world to avoid educating themselves and their relatives. It's pretty common in India to hear from a successful business man saying to his son, " पढ़ लिख के क्या कर लोगे? जो धंदा मैं कर रहा हूँ उसी पे लग जाओ, करोड़ों में खेलोगे और अगर पढाई करोगे तो अपने (कोई सम्बन्धी) की तरह हज़ार रुपये की तनख्वा में रह जाओगे." (what will you achieve through education? Take over my business and you'll earn in millions and billions and if you go for studies you'll end up like your (relative) earning a thousand bucks only). The father here doesn't realise that he had to pass through a lot of dark and difficult times to establish such a great business. The son would take over the great empire as it is but will never be able to expand it and there are high chances that he'll lose everything his father leaves behind for him as he wouldn't be having the required open mind ready to grasp the knowledge of the changing business world and adapt to the changes. While attending business meetings and conferences he wouldn't be able to stand up and speak in front of so many people most of whom are likely to be educated. If attending an international business meetings or conferences, it gets worse. He is likely to treat his children the same way he was treated by his father and we all know, to survive today's competitive world education is the primary requirement. In the end he is most likely to blame his father for not educating him and making him an able gentleman and that's where the family problems start.
Lack of education also prevents people from advancing towards social benefits and makes them unaware of the changes taking place around them. For example, a few days back I used the web cam while talking to someone using Skype and I got a really unexpected reaction from my relatives. It was a kind of technological magic for them. Though web cams have been around since many years and it's become a child's play to use them, my usage of this facility made my relatives give credit to my computer engineering skills (now why the heck should I not accept compliments!!).
These are just a few among many instances of what lack of education does to us. The rising population, poverty, unemployment, corruption, are all due to absence of education in the Indian society. Here is a link to the list of countries by literacy rate as included in the United Nations Development Programme Report 2009. I'm honestly not surprised by India's position in the table (Note: Pakistan has been featured twice in the table, don't ask me how and why. I didn't create the table). The vast population also has to be blamed for the figures dropping but the vast population has to be blamed for the lack of quality education among the people. Even if it is present, it's not utilised because we are Indians. We do not believe in bringing changes ourselves, we expect a foreign party to do it for us. Even if an Indian takes charge of doing it himself/herself, he/she would never be allowed to do it, not by the society, not by the government and not even by his/her family, because we all lack education.
I was reading some success stories on Reader's Digest and it's sad to say that none of them were about an Indian. One thing that I noticed from those stories is that the people had become successful doing what they believed in. They did something which no Indian would do or would be allowed to do. One of them started out picking garbage from houses and now owns a recycle company profiting in millions, one of the fathers left his job and along with his family went on a trip and created a website to post details about the trip. It became so popular that this became a full time job and they are now earning in millions through the website. Their children help them too design the website with wonderful ideas. No one ridiculed their decision and let them do what they wished.
This became possible because the family was well educated and knew the basic fact about success of a business in today's world, the Internet. They were well educated about how to design a website and use it well. So, education is extremely necessary for development of any society.
I hope I was able to bring forward the importance of going to schools and having a passion for gaining knowledge through this article. This article is not to hurt anyone's sentiments but just to spread awareness. Please do not confuse education with the so called higher and richer class of the society. There are many rich people living in posh areas of India but are uneducated.

There is nothing that an uneducated person can teach an educated person and no matter under what conditions and lifestyle an educated person is today, tomorrow's always better for him/her and tomorrow's always worse for the uneducated.

About God

Once upon a time there lived a farmer. He worked hard all day to produce enough harvest to feed his family and make some money to go about his daily chores. He went about his routine daily with complete sincerity. He had no weekends and medical leaves as farming was his sole source of livelihood. No matter how difficult and tiresome his life was, he never complained. However, he had a habit of quoting the Lord's name just five times before going to work on the field each day. He didn't pray or remember Him throughout the day and night after that but still God had given him enough to sustain himself and his family pretty well.

This made Lord Narada restless as he was in a habit of reciting God's name all day and night but God was never as happy with him as He was with the farmer. One day, Narada went to God and asked, "Great Lord, I sing in praise of you more than I breathe but your grace is never as much as it is on that petty farmer who quotes your name only five times a day. I find this unfair on your part and wish for a satisfactory explanation."

God smiled (just like He always does in every Indian TV show, movies and books) and said, "take this lamp filled with oil up to the brim and come back to me after you have taken one full revolution around the earth. But make sure not a single drop of oil spills from this lamp." And handed Narada a lamp filled with oil up to the brim. Narada set out on his voyage happily as this was as easy a job for him as is for a child to cry out for his mother. He returned to God after completing his journey with no drop of oil spilled from the lamp and said with his head bowed, "Lord, I have completed the job you gave me but I'm still waiting for my answer."

The Lord replied, "how many times did you think about me when you were taking a round of the earth?"

"I didn't think about you anytime my Lord as the task given to me was directly by you so on doing this task I'm always connected to you."

"The task of farming given to the farmer is also given by me but still he quotes my name five times a day with complete dedication. Had he been doing it only once, I would be as much happy with him as I'm now. Now, I think, I have answered your question."

"Yes my Lord. I have received my answer and I promise that I shall remember you even while doing the work given to me by you and I will never doubt your grace over your followers."

So, if you're one of those who spend hours in the morning or/and in the evening praying to God, there's good news, it isn't that necessary.

What is God? God is just a feeling like that of wind and pain. You cannot see Him but your sincerity can bring you close to Him. He's just a means of growing your strengths and damping your weaknesses so that you achieve what you strife for. The Ramayana and Mahabharata give accounts of even demons fulfilling their wishes because of their sincerity towards God. If God can help the demons then why not us. We're far better than them, aren't we? God did not fill Sir Edmund Hillary with extra physical strength and climbing skills to climb Mt.Everest but it was his own determination and probably his belief that God is with him that helped him become the first man in history to achieve such a feat. So belief in God is just a positive source for energy which helps us get what we want if we do our duties with all dedication.

Now that we know what God is, how do we reach Him? If you read the scriptures you'd notice that all we dwellers of earth have been asked for is being nice to one another. The Gita, Quran, Bible and other holy books state a path towards the supreme Lord. This path is treaded by following the basic lessons of 'Humanity' such as respecting and loving each creation of God, respecting the work assigned to us by Him and establishing faith in Him. The path is easy and simple, just love your fellow beings and you reach God. But like they say, it's never easy to be simple. There's no point in wasting time praying if you close your window on a traffic signal if a hungry child approaches your car or if you turn your head away if an elderly woman comes to you begging for food or money. The fact is, you do not have to spend a single minute praying if you're a good human because then you wouldn't have to pray for yourself, there will be others praying for you.

To quote Sir Edmund Hillary, "when I've been on slightly questionable expeditions, people have prayed for my welfare, but I certainly haven't."

WAKE UP!

We all do believe there is some super natural power controlling the whole universe. There is something undiscovered by and probably beyond the reach of science that is manipulating the universal objects.

"Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy," said director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado Mr.Thomas Bogdan (for details click here). Well, considering the vast expanse of the universe and its hidden, but open, chambers of secrets, weather forecasting will never attain puberty. I'm not trying to be a pessimist here by downgrading Mr.Bogdan, I'm just trying to make a point that some secrets, some cycles, some elements and some phenomena are beyond human capability......right now. We humans have the capability to uncover all secrets and hidden messages, but is it really us? Is it really our own intelligence that is helping us become the most powerful species ever in the history of Earth? Is there a possibility that someone is only manipulating our lives and we're nothing but mere pawns of the game he's been playing with us since our advent on this planet? Here are some facts which say we're just a bunch of over rated mammals.

• 
  
  We hardly have any idea about extra-terrestrial life.
• 
  
  There are many unsolved mysteries about our home planet itself.
• 
  
  There are loads of uncovered mysteries about the HUMAN BODY.
• 
  
  We maybe the most intelligent species on earth but there's no denying the fact that we're making rapid progress towards our own extinction.
• 
  
  We're are the only species who kill for purposes other than food and defense (can someone forward this to Osama?).

No matter how advanced we are, if the earth has to come to an end in 2012 or if the blackout in 2013 has to occur, we by no means can stop these phenomena just like the tsunami of 2004.

These facts coupled with some more like, our inability to gain knowledge of man-made or natural disasters before they occur or atleast take precautionary measures, make us just another species to rule planet earth like the rulers of the jurassic period. The only difference is that they had physical strength and we have brains. But are we really using our brains effectively?

Is it too late to shed our ego and live with nature, not as its counterpart, but as its part? It's never too late (exceptions are always there guys). It would be a bit difficult to cut down on carbon emmision, a bit tiresome to plant a tree once a month, a bit 'anti-religious' (to all so called jihadis) to not kill anyone and a bit strange to live up to the meaning of 'Humanity', the word which sounds so hypothetical today, but c'mon we all have the incredible ability to adapt to any given situation. A few weeks of following 'Humanity' will turn us human and who knows, maybe the next Satya-yuga, from the Hindu scriptures, is just round the corner. If we all adapt to the actual meaning of 'Humanity' there would be a majority of us treading the right path and the minority will we compelled to follow us. This requires initiative and in the beginning there would be some resistance but isn't a peaceful world desired by us all? To quote Gandhi, "be the change you want to see in the world."

I know what I just said is nothing new and it's something realised by all long long back, but that's exactly what I'm saying. We have only realised what we ought to do but we've not acted on it. Maybe it's high time we stop dreaming, of daisies swaying along with the wind in spring, the sun shining turning everything its light touches into gold and children playing happily in the fields like there is nothing they have to be worried about. Artists have been dreaming about a world like this since ages. They have shown us our destination and it's time to wake up and catch the first flight for such a world. The soldiers fighting in Iraq, in Afghanistan, on the Indo-Pak border and at many other parts of the world have a life too. They have a family who prays each moment for their father, husband, son, brother to come home safe, let's give them that. There are still babies taking birth with disabilities and defects in Japan, thanks to the nuke missile from US. Imagine your child or sibling without a limb, imagine him/her without an eye or imagine the worst case of a child born dead. This could all happen to anyone, we're all vulnerable.

What if we're unable to curb our activities harassing the environment? Soon there would be air for sale, 20 bucks for a little bag of Oxygen? Why not? We're selling water today and we've been selling food since ages so why not air? All this feels like a night mare, right? But we can prevent it and nobody needs to tell us how. We're the most intelligent and powerful species on earth and we know we can make the dream of an artist's world come true through a basic action to convert our dreams into reality......wake up!

TIRED OF USING TECHNOLOGY (Title adapted)

This one's not mine:

A computer was something on TV

From a science-fiction show of note

A window was something you hated to clean

And ram was the cousin of a goat

Meg was the name of my girlfriend

And gig was a job for the nights

Now they all mean different things

And that really mega bytes.

An application was for employment

A program was a TV show

A cursor used profanity

A keyboard was a piano.

Memory was something that you lost with age

A CD was a bank account

And if you had a 3 inch Floppy

You hoped nobody found out.

Compress was something you did to the garbage

Not something you did to a file

And if you unzipped anything in public

You’d be in jail for a while.

Log on was adding wood to the fire

Hard drive was a long trip on the road

A mouse pad was where a mouse lived

And a backup happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocket knife

Paste you did with glue

A web was a spider’s home

And a virus was the flu.

I guess I’ll stick to my pad and paper

And the memory in my head

I hear nobody’s been killed in a computer crash

But when it happens they wish they were dead.

Source: http://www.thatscomedy.com/

You're In Charge

Do you ever have mood swings? Does it ever feel that everything and everyone around you has turned against you all of a sudden? Blame your brain for such feelings.

You may think that you are in charge of your life completely (with the exception of 'nagging' elders pretending to understand your life better than you) but this is so hypothetical. It's your brain controlling your every action, not only from the scientific point of view, but in all view points. Sometimes you find a task boring and you can do anything to get away from it and some other time you love the same task so much that you go on doing it for hours. A glance of a dark and gloomy object can fill you with negative feelings and the one which is bright and colorful can do the opposite, and we all know the aftermaths of either events.

The point here is that if we humans boast of universal supremacy over all living and non-living things, what about the supremacy over ourselves and by that I mean our actions, emotions, expressions and feelings which are controlled by the brain. I've read and heard that the most powerful person in the world is the US president, which is true to a great extent, but there is something more powerful than him (other than the first lady of course!), his mind. Instead of blaming Mr.Bush Jr. for the Gulf crisis I would blame his greedy mind. Had he had his mind under his control he wouldn't have declared war over Iraq and executed the dictator Hussein. My scarce knowledge on this issue doesn't permit me to discuss this topic in detail and it isn't the point I'm trying to bring into focus either. What I'm saying is that if we really want to conquer the Earth we have to conquer ourselves first. We need to conquer our mind as that is what defines us, right?

I would like to place an example here of myself. I'm trapped here in Mumbai doing internship in a pharmaceutical company. I'm assigned work which can be completed in at the most two hours but I'm expected to work on it for about four to five days. I don't know what I can do after I've completed my work in just 2 hours. I still have a couple of days ahead of me to work on it but my work doesn't need any optimisation and even if it does I'm incapable of thinking of any. To add to the problem, I can't take leaves for unmentionable reasons, I can't cut down my working hours, so what do I do? My office has become the most boring places I've ever been and I feel I'm trapped like a bird yelling for freedom but no one wants to listen. This is what I used to think when my mind was let free by me. But now I love going to the office and I can sit there for eight hours with very little, rather than no, boredom in company. Earlier I wanted to terminate my training before the official date and that would have also made me lose the valuable certificate I will receive at the end of it. But now it's just the opposite (not that I want to extend the official date but I'm comfortable with what it is right now).

So, how did this transformation happen? I just associated my mind with the positives of my internship.

When I was made to sit idle I used to surf the net for personal reasons, browsing through many sites looking for information on various topics, checking mails and working on my blog. Even this article is written sitting in my office. Because my time was spent on constructive tasks only (it's a different story why I started using the net for constructive purposes explored in my article My Four Pillars for Success)  and I had the liberty to say, if questioned on why I'm doing my personal work in the office, "I have not been assigned any work" I had no fear of higher authorities. I started associating my training with the time spent on the net which was so fruitful and entertaining at the same time. Thus, my perception of the boring and gloomy office changed to a 'happy-happy' place for fun and it was some days later that I realised that it was all in my mind. Even today if I think of work before leaving for office my legs start to hurt but if i think of everything other than that I want to rush to the office. No matter what my mind tells me, I keep enforcing the idea that office is fun and that has made life a lot easier and happy.

If you follow this approach of associating everything with the positives every task would become easier and eventually your mind would be in your control. It tells you something negative and you empower yourself over it by thinking about the positive.

Had Mr.Bush Jr. thought about the positives about his nation by thinking about the high standards of living of his citizens and his nation's rich economy, his mind would never have won over him by making him greedy for more treasure from oil.

GIRL IN THE MIRROR

As I try sleeping
And keep myself from weeping
Your face doesn't leave my mind
Troubled by memories I wanna leave behind

I wish I could pass a minute
With a thought and you not in it
But it's something I can't do
Because however much I try,
I can't stop loving you

But you can come to me whenever you need to
With every passing day you grow dearer
And I promise I'll keep loving you
Keep loving the girl in the mirror

The Amazing Puducherry Trip

We(9 guys) set off in the qualis to execute a plan made while bathing. It was just us and a music system which literally changed songs with every bump on the road. We started at 3.30pm and entered the city at around 7.30 and there it was, our first task of finding a place to stay. We went to 3 hotels but none had even a single empty room. Finally, the 4th lodge had 3 non-AC empty rooms............ just enough for us 9 people. After just throwing the luggage in our rooms we went for dinner in a near by restaurant which was north-indian just in name. After the dinner the restlessness sprung when we decided to start the tour right away at around 8.30. We arrived at the Gandhi/rock beach in the middle of mesmerising showers. The beach was beautiful with attractive structures around including a huge statue of Gandhiji which is a metaphor to Jitendra's name. We clicked some pictures with Rehmat being the most enthusiastic guy amongst us. Rain always drives him crazy, he's a nature fanatic. I only got out of the car once the rain had gone milder as I didn't have any casuals for the next day which was the bigger one.

We returned back to the lodge at 11 having tasted the air of the union territory. Sleep was something that refused to befriend us at this point of time due to the excitement of the coming day and the heat in the room. Watched TV till late and tried to sleep, it was difficult but we did it.

I woke up at around 7am to the sound of the camera click of my phone. Sandeep was clicking pics of Jitendra who was in some 'unmentionable' positions while sleeping.

After just a wash we set off to witness the rock beach in daylight which was not so attractive as we had thought the previous day. Spent just about 15 minutes there and left for Paradise beach............why, why did we go there?

The only way to reach the Paradise beach was using a boat which began at 10am and we were at the spot at 9.30. So, that gave us enough time to get some dry breakfast. But even after that we had some long discussions on whether using the motor boat to reach the beach or the paddle boat. Due to ramzan Rehmat and Mubbu couldn't paddle so the motor boat was the only option left and that turned to be a good decision owing to the fact that the beach was 3.5km from the point we started. Reached the beach in about 20 minutes and the first sight of the sand beach made me crazy and I just leaped into the inviting waves. I forgot that I still had my CELL PHONE IN MY POCKET. And guess what, I realised that after 15 minutes.............enough times for my phone to reach 'paradise'. That's how my cell phone died, the Paradise beach turned to be a real paradise for my phone. But being sad is something I'm really bad at even though I may look like that most of the time. The beach could've taken another innocent life but Mubbu somehow managed to save himself. Clicking pictures had now become a custom with that continuing wherever we went so I won't be mentioning about it all the time.

After about an hour or more we decided to leave with the 'corpse' in my hand. I was still hoping that my phone might be just in a coma.........the results shall arrive at 7pm today. To be honest, I was a bit down the whole journey back to the point where we started because of the spoilt phone.

Our next and the last destination was the Auroville. It's a really beautiful place. It's simplicity and grace makes you want to come back again and again. That's the reason there were more foreigners than Indians at this place. We had our lunch here, visited the beautiful, beautiful Matrimandir and left for what we do best...........visiting beaches. We reached the Auroville beach at 1.30pm and left at 5. That should tell how amazing the place is. Honestly, no one from us really wanted to leave the beach even at that point of time but all good things do come to an end. The waves were more fiery and challenging to handle. Everyone, had atleast once, played his life with the waves......literally. But that's what made it worth remembering all the more. We built sand castles, buried each other in sand till neck and I even got an elephant foot there. My track pant is a double-layered thing so the wet sand(definitely more than 3kg) found place between the layers near my right ankle. That made it damn difficult to walk. I had to lift my right foot and put it in front to help myself walk a bit faster than the turtle. Yeah, my day was going really bad with the dead phone and now the elephant foot but still I wouldnt't call it a bad day at all. Sandeep had to tear the pant from the bottom to remove all the sand and I got some good relief. My toe still hurts coz of that burden I carried.

We left at 5pm for the lodge where we had a bath and cleaned ourselves from the infectious sand. The time to leave was nearing so after a meal in the Pizza Corner(which some 'hard-core desis' didn't wish for) we were back on our way to VIT.

We had started with two, us and the enchanting music system, but were leaving with another dear friend..........the unforgettable memories of Pondy, specially the Auroville beach.

Love Me Again

To listen to the voice click here

Feeling like a star

Wandering in the sky

I'm powerless

You left me to cry

I'm falling down

I'm aimless

I don't have no ground

It's all such a mess

But I was once a star

With nine planets

And I loved the most

That is you my earth

You are full of life

With so many colors

But a little strife

Made me a wanderer

It's okay to fight

But shouldn't we even talk

Bring the problem in light

And clear the path to walk

I will take the blame

Do whatever you say

I will play no games

It's a promise I make

You just have to come back

And we can sort it out

We can fill in what lacks

And talk instead of shout

Because there is nothing that

Can't be rectified

We can make a new start

And never fight

We can live together

I know we can

Coz when they are plucked

The flowers grow back again

Cuz I don't wanna be a star

Alone all above

Jus wanna be the one

Whom you love.

Your Dream Guy

To listen to the voice(.WAV) file click here

I never thought this would happen to me

Fallin in love at the first sight

Like the flowers turning to the first ray of sun

That's what happened to me at your sight

You were like a fairy embarassing beauty

The God's gift for my good deeds

However much I try to describe you lady

The words just fail me.......

But I wanna say

I'm gonna be there, no matter what

I'm gonna love you, give it a shot

I'm gonna keep you, all above

I'm gonna be the one...........you always dream of

I feel the wind blowing at my face

Invitin me to croon a song

I turn my head and fix my eyes on your gaze

But I'm scared that you'll get me wrong

I see the sea falling in your deep eyes

The rainbow in your beautiful smile

The frown on your head takes me by surprise

When you see me lookin at you like a child...........

And I fail to say

I'm gonna be there, no matter what

I'm gonna love you, give it a shot

I'm gonna keep you, all above

I'm gonna be the one...........you always dream of

Now don't think I'm flirtin when I sing this song

It's not me it's my heart singing

Trust me you're the one I've always longed

And I wish we could be mingling..........

So you better say

I'm gonna be there, no matter what

I'm gonna love you, give it a shot

I'm gonna keep you, all above

I'm gonna be the one...........you always dream of

Let's together say.....

(at higher pitch)

We're gonna be there, no matter what

We're gonna love us, we're givin it a shot

We're gonna keep us, all above

We're gonna be the ones............we always dreamed of

Love Never Dies

To listen to the voice(.WAV file)  click here

Like a morning star

I was lonely so far

You made life bright

Hiding the star in sunlight

Ecstatic beauty of the greens

Isn't a match for my queen

You're the rain of april

My pains you so kill

When the day begins to wear

I know you're there and you care

You cover me in your arms

Saving me from all harms

There's something I wanna say

We'll never part ways

When the skies begin to tear

Don't be afraid coz I am there

Every minute every hour

I'll love you wherever you are

If you lose me don't cry (coz)

I may but my love will never die

Love Success...Then Live Your Dreams

So, how many of you love, I mean have a real passion for, what you do? If you are an engineer, do you love being that? If you are a doctor, do you cherish every moment of being a doc? The list can go on. If you love your work, this article is not for you. This is for those who are forcibly, monotonously and reluctantly doing their job. I pity them. Some of them do it for money, some for honor and some are too afraid doing something different. But are they to be really blamed for this? I don’t think so.

Majority, if not all, of the engineering students pursue a career in it only because if the pay at regular intervals or because of their families and parents. I can say this with complete liberty as I am an engineering student myself. It’s all about following the tradition. In our nation, an engineer always dreams of his child becoming an engineer and when he realizes that it is not going to be so, he is heartbroken. Children, on the other hand, are taught to do what their parents tell them to and hence follow the old custom of becoming an engineer or a doctor depending on the tradition of the family. C’mon stop it! India already has the third largest pool of engineers and doctors in the world. There are other fields too like arts and sports, when are we going to raise our standards in them? Imagination is the mother of all invention right? So who can imagine better than an artist? So parents please stop pressurizing your child, let him/her do what he/she loves, because mental satisfaction is the thing we all thrive for and you are always mentally satisfied when you do what you love the most. There is like a war going on between the parents to decide whose child is more intelligent and more likely to do well in science, and the victims of this war are the children. Students should not follow the old traditions if they do not suit them, don’t be scared. Your parents just want you to be successful in life and trust me, if you do what you love you will always be successful. Ask Bill Gates, the man because of whom I can type this article!
But this doesn’t mean children can laze around the whole day saying they love that. Look for a talent, it’s there in everybody you just have to discover it and you will find it while doing your daily chores. But be careful as to not to ignore it. Because when in need, everyone and everything comes handy.
Secondly, people spend their life doing a monotonous job. When they die, they are remembered by their friends and families. But for how long? One year, two years, three years at the most five years, that’s it. Have you forgotten Leonardo-da-vinci or Wright brothers? Have you forgotten Jesus Christ who lived 2009 years ago or king Ashoka who lived 2000 years before Christ? Well, if you ask me these numbers are a little greater than F-I-V-E. Get up, do something so that the world remembers you even after you die. Leave behind a story worth telling, writing and listening. Let your successors live with pride, become their identity. Let your name become immortal, let people name their babies after your name. Let yourself dream of making it big one day. You can do it, everyone can. All you have to do is trust your abilities and yourself. Remember, every stone has the potential to be carved into a masterpiece and every sculptor has the potential to carve it into one.
When you try to do something different, something risky, the society mocks at you. If you still continue, the society tries to make you ‘understand’. If you continue yet, it tries to stop you by hook or by crook. And if you still go on my friend, the society calls you mahatma (great soul). Don’t be scared of being famous and popular, it’s not a sin. You don’t have to be celebrity though. But there are ways of becoming a big person and ultimately popular enough to leave a mark behind. Jack the Ripper was famous and so was Mother Teresa. Hitler was famous and so was Mahatma Gandhi. Do you get my point?
Now, if you combine my above mentioned points, you can become a big person by doing what you love. It is very much possible, just requires patience and hard work, something you require to become an engineer and a doctor too. You have examples from William Shakespeare and J.K Rowling. This proves that if you do what you love you become a great person and you even earn very much. So, I would end up by adding two things.
Do something to make your name immortal after your death and do what you love, otherwise you will end up loving what you do.

Being An 'NRI'

I would like to begin with placing the fact that I’m not an NRI. But everyone except my relatives consider me as a hardcore NRI and some lunatics even go to the extent of calling me a foreigner.


In India NRIs are considered nothing more and less than a reserve and an easy source of money and wealth. For an average Indian an NRI has lost all his/her Indianess and has completely mingled into the culture of the country of his/her residence. It’s owing to this fact that you see so many auto rickshaw/taxi drivers, at the arrival terminal of all Indian airports, trying to speak in English with the NRIs but in vain. The NRIs know very well what India is, perhaps a little more than us. We cannot consider them as fools just because they don’t live in India. Yes that is the only reason why some ill-educated Indians think of NRIs as foolish people.

The moment I tell someone, my parents live outside India, their first impression is that I’m from outside India too. Please guys, I go to Thailand as a tourist just to meet my parents, I’m not from Thailand. I often receive highly annoying comments such as, “you are a rich man, you can buy anything. We are poor people please have some mercy on us.” One of the most annoying, yet funny at the same time, comment was, “you’re from Thailand but you don’t look like a Thai.” Someone needs to educate this piece of crap that just by visiting another country the anatomy of the body doesn’t change. Sometimes they get on my nerves so much that I feel like making them stand in a queue and shooting them one by one (don’t worry people I’m cool). This problem is not just confined to uneducated class from undeveloped areas. One of my friends from Mumbai strongly believes I’m from Thailand and spending a fortune in a day is no big deal for me. I don’t know what they mean when they say India has a high and good standard of education. I don’t even find a standard.

An NRI is expected to spend thousands in day, live life king size and be a fag. And if he/she isn’t doing this, “you are a stain on the brotherhood of NRIs”. BROTHERHOOD OF NRIs? My friends often tell me that I’m not a true NRI because I don’t have a girlfriend, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, don’t do drugs and I’m not a spendthrift. Thank you guys for calling me an ‘untrue NRI’ but it would be great if you say, “he’s not an NRI”.

There are many more things to say but I shouldn’t disgrace my country, because I’ an Indian, maybe more than anyone else.

I was born, brought up and educated in India. I have Indian O+ve blood in my veins, Indian flesh in my fat body, I love only Indian food and can speak only Indian constitutional languages. I AM AN INDIAN. Get that in your head!!!!