India...abroad....

Of course gone are the times when only the riches could afford to go abroad or be able to send their kids away to a foreign country mainly ' The Americassss'. I mean of course still it's a dream for the masses in India but retrospective things have changed especially for bustling metropolitan crowd from cities like Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore etc. With the massive growth in the purchasing power of Indians in the recent times, rich becoming richer and evolution of the financial sector wherein banks are no more so stringent about giving loans to students who wish to pursue their higher education abroad, there has been a tremendous and multiplying surge in the numbers of students venturing overseas. And it's just not the students, numbers are equally higher for immigrants and professionals as well. But as obvious as it may seem, why such a never ending trend? Aren't we happy to live here in our own home country?  Aren't there enough  job opportunities here? Is our standard of living and quality of education so bad or let's say competitive that sustainability becomes difficult and its drives us to step away?  Or because it's a family trend or let's just say it's a badge that we want to flaunt (don't we Indians just love doing that anyway)? Or is the whole socio-political and economic environment in this country ?(which has been legendarily corrupted, since god knows when) But whatever the reason be, increase in brain-drain hasn't stopped and I wonder on my own personal front and because of my own personal experience, if given an opportunity why wouldn't an individual go?  Reasons are repetitive and have been heard of already, better job prospect, better standard of living, better educational facilities etc etc and of course 'Dollar' and 'Pound' has its own charm!!! (not sounding bombastic, rhetorical and pretentious).  But of course everything has its own pros and cons, grass isn't always greener on the other end. Competing in another country for everything amongst its own country mates is a challenge in itself, cases of racism is prevalent everywhere(but don't we have that in our own country as well) etc. Yes of course being away from one's home country has its price tag attached, we are away from our family and friends, we sometimes miss the hustle bustle, miss the festivals( as a matter of fact I think Indians abroad are more Indian than Indians in India) etc. But at the end of the day given the professional world we are in, what would bring bread and butter to our table, our patriotism or the better paying job? What would make us happy, pollution, power shortage, water shortage or a better standard of living where one can even drink water from the running tap?

Of course cribbing and just complaining won't solve any problems, we can have endless discussions and endless debates but at the end of the day we all know what the problems are, which if not acted upon soon and rectified, will continue to stir problems for our nation.

Karma

If we plot two different graphs with things expected and unexpected then ‘unexpected’ peaks, so what about the poor expected? Well it remains unanswered.
We as human beings have this natural tendency of expecting things to work out the way we want, the way we would love it to be, the way it could look more beautiful to us, and the way we have ever pictured that in our dreams but what is a story without the climax so there we have the so talked about invincible ‘unexpected’ coming into play. Things start to look gloomy, looks as horrible as it could, as if it wants to show its most horrifying face to us. We become the victim of devils non-nurtured hands. Disastrous of disasters take place, ‘no way out’ shows up from nowhere, solutions are way down the deep. So, there we are, cribbing for all the wrongs we seldom have done in the past, cursing our fate, reaching out to means to get things fixed and when undone we feel worse.
People say time heals, but does it really? Well if its applicable to masses it might not be applicable to certain people. We have problems in series, a string attached to another, if one ends then there arises the other. Its like life in its continuous form. Problems come and go and with each departure, irrespective of having solved or not, leaves behind seeds of the other uprising unexpected problems.
Talking about time healing, so by time healing do we mean that flowing is going? Unplugged? What I meant was as time flows are we too suppose to flow with it leaving behind the problems? Is it really easy? It might be for the highly practical people of our society which is good on their part, but what about the others? Can they really ignore it? as for what its said ‘ignorance is bliss’.
So there I was starting with unexpectations going to problems and standing on stack of problems remained unanswered as until now.
But life goes on, problems solutions solutions problems and so on. So, even we being a part of life have to live along not expecting the’ unexpected’ but then again at the end of it all, there is something waiting for us. Go and check it out for yourself.

(2008 blog)

Memories

Memories? What are they....and why do they exist? And if they do then why do they have to remain?
Why cant they be those scraps n pieces which comes n goes away with one blow of air.
Categorization of memories could also vary. For instance, what I am writing now would soon become a memory. What I did an hour before has already gone back to the memory box. What I cooked in the afternoon soon turned out to be memory continuation.
I often wonder why do we memories? And what do we memories? Childhood memorization of "abcd" to adolescent memorization of multiplication tables, teenage memorization of "h20" formation to trigonometry formulas, 20s memorization of job interview questions to memorization of bank account credits, memorization of “what to do for kids” to memorization of “early retirement plans" etc seems never ending. Some might argue about memorization of “ what to do for kids”, retirement plans etc....dude what is wrong with you? Well, its all a part of memory. You think because you inculcated something from past which eventually became memories.
Carrying forward, as I was talking about memorization of things, man, kudos to human mind!! We all can memorize so much and still have sustained, but apart from certain essential things, do we actually remember everything? Because seldom I come across something non-materialistic.
Do we memorize because we want to? Because we ought to? Or because we wish to? Well in my case I don’t know when was the last time I wished to memorize a thing because I wanted to!!
Everything around us is so materialistic.Half the time we students memories not to learn anything out of it but just to get staright ‘A's’ on our transcript. We slog our ass hard for years, learning and memorizing stuffs just to get that piece of sheet in our hand, called the "Graduation Certificate", which is believed to be the gateway to the professional world. But what remains unanswered is that half the thing we memories and learn during that time remains non-applicable so why the hell are we to do that memorizing thing? Materialism has its approach in every phase of life and one such major phase happens to be so called memory.
Memory remains!
Well someone said it right, everything comes with a package. Everything has its pros and cons. If they are good then how could the devil part its way from it! If its nostalgic for you then you wouldn’t argue it to be not agonizing and irritating and embarrassing at times. Certain memorize we want to jog about again and again but some never!!
So? Memory has its phase, which could be perceived differently by different people.
But before I pen down, guys, don’t you think at one point of time, irrespective of it being good bad or whatever, memories accumulate a whole lot of baggage which at one point of time seems would just burst out? Haha I know its funny but everything comes with a package.

Written in 2008.

Who exactly is to be blamed for this??

Have you ever wondered where exactly are we headed? whether it be depletion in the name of modernization or industrialization, corruption in the name of new government's never ending new promises or it be what it is being called as the new name of this decade-"Terrorism". I guess even nature had its toll which we saw in the name of Tsunami, earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. Everywhere we look around, things are just falling apart one by one.
When we talk about modernization what exactly do we understand ? Do we mean that we are trying to create a world where we are trying to create perfect sky scrappers and trying to come up with that state of the art technology where everything is possible in a moments wink? but when we go to the other end of it, we witness that in the aim of creating huge monuments we are depleting our nature of its beautiful land and its resources. In my country farmers are being deprived of their precious land with a very little compensation just in order to build some factory which as promised by the government would bring prosperity to the country hence these poor people are left with little or no choice than death. So, were we talking about prosperity ? I mean prosperity at the cost of one's life?

And talk about peace in this era. 'Peace and 21st century' sounds so 'Oxymoronish'. I think we have just lost the definition of peace. It is peace in the name of ever growing terrorism attacks which we get to know/witness very often. Its so disheartening to see innocent people dying in those attacks who become victims of such awful inhuman act. What I fail to understand is the fact that all those people who are themselves involved in this game of mindless ruthless act, why are they actually doing it? What are they gaining from taking people's life? Is the answer revenge and peace? But when has death brought peace to one's life? Or have we become so immoral that the human within fails to remind us of the goods and evils of life? Well plethora of such questions remain to be answered.
We all pray to god( not including those who are atheist), so if god exists then why isn't he doing anything about it? We all Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs pray to god. Is he even listening? May be he is. All these natural disasters for instance, Tsunami, earthquakes, floods which may be scientific but may be its a signal from him that if humans do not put an end to what they are doing then may be nature will have its own way of ending life on earth.
Or may be we have to go by the saying "the man who starts it he himself would have to finish", after all everything moves in a cycle:  if life began with a single particle then soon shall this humankind be reduced to the former. Is Global Warming the end stage of this tremendously paced human life?
well lets leave that to god and time.
If we think we still have time to get things back on track and save destruction from happening then we all shall make the earnest endeavor to do it else it may be way beyond saying"its never too late".

Written back in January 2008. 

"Dating" what about it??

Hmm...so have you ever thought about it?like...dating ya..i mean if i were to comment on it then the first few words that comes to my mind are-strange,stranger,first time,best actually bestest(haha i think there doesn't exist a word like that but whatever who cares haha) etc.
I mean I know its something that we all do all the time but have you ever thought about the strange part of it. You meet a complete new stranger with this idea of making that person your potential "better-half", or just a random date (where you end up being in bed with each other but never meet up again) etc. But whatever it be, it needs investment in terms of time, money etc. But have you ever wondered like why so much? I mean just to meet that complete new stranger who you might have been chatting for the longest time or who you just met couple of days back and decided to meet or who you just met from one of the hook up websites. Whatever it be, you invest considerable amount of time chatting online, going to those websites, cruising through those profiles sending each other messages sometimes you hit it off sometimes you don't I mean so much for just a meet up? I mean don't you already have enough things to keep you occupied? what about your friends? your family? your job?  Part of the reason may be because we are always looking for something new and someone new. Why do you think there are so many dating websites out there? whether you are gay or straight, the services are a click away. They are there because you demanded it. But sometimes I wonder things have become so instant that what about the traditional idea of dating where you meet each other at a social gathering spend time together and when there existed no such thing called "Sex-dating" or least it wasn't that significant that it got itself categorized under dating!! I guess things evolved where from a more traditional party meetings changed to meeting at a club changing to meeting online to god knows what next. Thanks to the marketing team who are always looking for an idea to give it a "to be adored by masses image" and the whole world will run after it.
But whatever it be there is always going to be you, there is always that person, there is always going to be sex, marriage, kids or if not that far there is going to be again another you and another meeting and another person etc etc with the whole cycle repeating itself again and again. But thanks to the idea of dating and medium mediating its flow from one prospect to the other.
So what next? Just observe what is the next step to the idea of dating I mean what more mode of changes are to be witnessed. Whatever it be there is always something flourishing the idea of dating. So I guess just be part of it and keep playing with it :-)

Was written back in August 2010.

Goals and its limitations

How we define success is a matter of an individuals choice. Success is a very broad terminology as when we talk about it we are referring to its jurisdictions at both our personal and professional fronts of our life. However, it could have its regional/personal aspect as well meaning its measurement varies from person to person and region to region.  When you talk about someones success, what precisely do you perceive from it?  Did you mean he has accomplished what he endeavored or he achieved what society expected from him ? Jinxed?? Well that's what our society i.e. Indian society is about where your success is merely about personal aspirations but fulfilling what has been forged on us even before we were born. Besides few options for instance doctor, lawyer, engineer etc which when and if you don't follow your choice is scrutinized and you are made to feel like you have just made the most foolish decision of your life. Amongst the masses here, its not about what you want to achieve on the basis of your interests but mostly its based upon your strengths, practically there is nothing wrong with that, but do strengths always define our professional goals?  GO ask our parents and they will give you a big nod meaning 'DEFINITELY', hence sacrificing our goals. Even though things have changed dramatically and societal acceptance about our own choices (both personal and professional) has improved figuratively, but still for the most part it still remains a struggle and a massive amount of works needs to be performed to unearth what's lying beneath it.
It needs to be realized that it is no more about following the masses but following what you desire which when accomplished would define success in its true form. This generation has brewed some very different fields of work where people have niche-d their talent and work and hence society needs to address it in a broader way so that more youngsters break in these fields or form their own niche in different areas. Let society and the stereotypical cliche blue collar and white collar jobs NOT be the epitome of ambition for the coming generation, let them not be the yardstick for measuring success and tell us what is right and wrong for us. Let us discover it our self, let us trip, fall, get up, make mistakes and learn from it our self, let us not follow what needs to be followed but create our own identity and create our own path.
If I want to be a photographer let me be one don't ask moronic questions like " that's ok but what do you want to become", did I just not answer?? " I want to be a photographer??" The point is, our interests, our goals, our visions need to be taken and nurtured carefully and seriously.
A lot can be said and written, As I mentioned before, a lot has changed in the recent times but still a lot needs to be done to change the perception of a common man w.r.t to his vision of 'success' and goals.
I hope with time what should come is nothing but change in people's perceptions.

Life and its moments

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life as we expect is seldom the way we want it to be, sometimes within snap of a moment everything changes and you just wonder what just happened. In my case I don't remember a moment when 'things' actually happened the way I wanted it to be be it good, bad or a combination of both. As they always say being positive means viewing the glass as half glass full not half glass empty but can we always visualize it to be that way ? I am sure your first reaction would be why not; even though you at the back of your mind  might have had an itsy-bitsy moment. I try to be optimist myself, at least most of the time, but when you have had series of moments when you have experienced both goods and bads(later being more) you are bound to become a little sceptical at times. Hence you may have moments when you actually begin to view the glass of water as half glass 'empty' but again, hey its a perception that's completely individualistic.

In my 25 years of life experience, I have realized one thing, its good to live in the moment and make the best of what you have now because you never know what may happen tomorrow. In the course of thinking and planning for tomorrow(which I am sure most of the sane and sorted people do) we sometimes forget to live life momentarily. Because honestly guys, life is very unpredictable. You just don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. You may not be alive, you may not have the job you have today, you may not have you loved ones around tomorrow etc life could just present you with anything and then you have to figure it out how you want to deal with it. Even though when I am talking about living life as it comes and enjoying the present, I know its difficult for me to not to think about my future, past etc because I am not so powerful to be able to control my thinking that far.
If you are able to, kudos!! I try but at the same time we cannot really change the fact of life that is
---life has its moments and be it astrology, numerology,science etc we can never accurately predict what is going to be happen tomorrow.