La cigale et La fourmi

For those of you who aren't familar with the french language, this story or fable rather is in english known as the cricket and the ant.

This was a fable that was told to us when we were young and in school when our connaissance de la vie (the knowledge of life) was very little. I've been learning french at alliance francaise and i have had the best professor, she's an amazing person who has got a lot of knowledge about literature, paintings and culture, and she's also got a very different point of view about things.

So, talking about the cricket and the ant, what do you remember? probably the same image that came to my mind when we started with this story.. What we learnt was the while the cricket was busy singing away and whiling away his time in summer, the ant was working hard to collect food for the winter. and then winter comes and the cricket goes to the ant for help as he has no provisions for the winter.. so moral of the story being, not to waste time and prepare for the future.

Now you may wonder as to why i have written a post on this, but the fact is, i came across this story in my french class and the thing was that this story written in french has so many nuances that it changes the perspective totally. obviously my prof, helped us see these nuances but once she mentioned them, it became obvious to us all.. so this is what i'm going to share with you'll..

The cricket is shown to be enjoying the summer by singing, dancing and playing in the summer while the ant is shown to be working and gathering food.. the interesting thing is that, if you decided to use these characteristics to conjure up images of people who'll fit them, what can you see ? this is what i saw, i can imagine the cricket as an artist, a painter, a writer or a poet.. artists are people who are expressive of the life within them and they merge that with the surroundings. the summer for the artist is a new life and a time to rejoice and that's precisely what the cricket did, his passion for singing and dancing was fuelled by the atmosphere and the surroundings and he did as he pleased, on the other hand, the ant reminds me of an employee who is tied down by the work that he has to do no matter what. he reminds me of the person who doesn't like what he has to do but does it because it's mechanical and it's needed to.

the cricket lives his life on his terms while the ant strives to exist. in the end, maybe the ant will survive through the winter, but what a life did he live! a life where he never enjoyed a moment, where he never experienced the joy and the beauty of nature.. par contraire the cricket might not survive the winter due to lack of food, but he lived the life he loved.. the artists do that usually don't they, they live their lives in misery and utter poverty only to find that after they're gone, their work is recognised..

i'm leaving you on this note, think, reflechir, because you need to stop and smell the flowers once in a while.....

Senses

I see girlfriends hanging out together,
I see a couple walking together,
I see a family enjoying together,
and I see love.

I see the leaves flirt with the wind,
I see the trees trying to touch the sky,
I see the clouds shielding the sun,
and I see love.

I sense the touch of a hand,
I hear the sound of silence,
I see the moon kiss the sky,
and now I can feel the love.

Love is nothing but an emotion,
the one you can neither see nor hear,
for it is meant only to be felt,
'tis is love my dear...

Chance..

A sullen glance and a worried face,
She knew it was time to declare her fate,
The men came silently and knocked on her door,
The wind was blowing with a gusty flow,
She felt her heart skip a beat,
as she saw her life so bleak,
She knew he was hurt, probably gone,
The void in her heart already strong,
The man who she had now grown to love lay miles away,
Though she knew she shouldn't think of him this way,
He had been there during those long periods of loneliness,
He had loved her like her first love never did,
But still he was not her husband,
and she knew the sacrifice her man gave to the nation,
She was determined to give her love for that man,
Since he was fighting with hopes and love in the main lands,
She came back to where these men now stood,
At her door porch they solemly stood,
"Your husband, they said has called for you,
He wants to be with you,
She felt a calm, peaceful breeze flow through her mind,
They had not spoken the worst truth,
Instead in their words a redemption she found,
She smiled and asked them to wait a while,
She packed in a few things while she pondered a bit,
about the very chance she got to live,
Now, she could love her first love and heart,
as for once he called her his sweetheart,
She now remembered his tenderness and care,
and she knew that she had to bear,
a thousand hardships that came her way,
for this very moment when she could stay,
in the arms of the man who loved her a lot,
and forever remain his wife throughout.

Pain et al

Is it always true that I’m at fault,
Why is it that I’m always wrong,
What should one do when there’s no other way,
Should I give up or persist ahead,

When the world seems low,
When the pain begins to blow,
There’s nothing else to do but to think,
To write and express my not so pink and blue thoughts,

I feel like crying, shouting and tearing my head apart,
I wonder why I can’t bring myself to do just that,
I guess it’s just not what I’m supposed to be doing,
Instead this is something that I could be doing,

It’s true that penning my thoughts helps me calm down,
But what about the mind that’s still racing and the heart that’s still beating,
At a rate that’s faster than it should be,
It makes me hyper, and tense,
So much so that nothing seems to make any sense…

At the end of the day, these are nothing but moments,
Moments of grief, pain and hurt,
Though when we think of the big picture they get mollified against the other moments,
When you view them in isolation,
There’s a feeling that lingers,
A feeling that says, sometime or the other you’ll have to pay….

La finale après tout!

After months of hard work and deliberations,
it's finally the day when i think of all the things that we've done,
and i can heave a breath of joy, peace and serenity,
a sense of freedom yet a light feeling,

a feeling that makes you suddenly free,
but leaves you terribly unattached,

this feeling, this void i feel may never get replaced,
as there's nothing that can compare to what i received,
the love, the challenges, the work et al,
everything we achieved and didn't get it all,

in the end, i have to say,
in spite of all those endless stuggles,
seeing that first copy in my hand,
made me really feel,
that all that and more was worth it all...

( The Annual Magazine 05-06 of my college has been released today and saaranga and myself are very proud to be its editors.)

Thank You All!

It's been a day since i celebrated my birthday.. and i'm still receiving birthday wishes and greetings!! so here's a thank you to each and every one who wished me, blessed me and remembered me on my birthday..

To name a few of them:

My school friends: Prutha, Tejaswini, Poorna, Amruta, Sneha, Akshay, Amulya, Aayush, Varun, Nikita, Gaurangi, Priyanka, Bhagyashree, Jinita...

My college friends: Saaranga, Urmin, Annora, Saviona, Rohit, Ninu, Nin, Harish, Ezu, Fedora, Rohit, Dolly, Dipika, Neha, Rohan, Keshav, Ayushree, Dyneshwar, Vineet, Sameepa, Akshay, Monish, Nikhil, Merryl, Sneha, Nikhil, Vinit, Aditya, Asad, Khushbu, Samrita and many more whose names i can't recall!

My colony friends: Jitha, Jigar, Dilfrina, Natasha, Shilpa, Shruti, Priyanka...

Friends & Family: Aalaap, Tua, Shweta, Rakshit, Anuja & Family, Priya & Family, Aaji, Uma, Lambert, Gauri, Pankaj, Geeta Aai, and others...

Rain Rain once again!!

Almost all the people who were sweet enough to cal me up on my Bday asked me, why i asked the Rain Gods to bless us with so much rain!

Looking at the news, the situation is quite crazy, chaotic and heart wrenching.. people say that this is a natural calamity, who can you blame except for God, but that is so not true.

These are all signs of Global Warming and the floods, incessant rains, torrential downpours are nothing but warnings of the impending dangers...

and to answer my previous query, God is not to be blamed for this, it is we, Mankind who are at fault.

It is the fault of us citizens, that we are not maintaining our civic responsibilities, who are we to blame the government when we offer them bribe in the first place and then say that they accepted the bribe?

how many of us today, if caught actually pay the fine, most of us, pay the person some sum of Rs. and the government is deprieved of so many lakhs of rupees thanks to our pathetic attitude.

when the rains fell, we were quick to comment that the drains have not been cleaned, but then who cribs while paying the money to the people who come to clean it? who throws the plastic into the nullah instead of the garbage bin in the first place?

The truth is that, at the end of the day, the amount we give to the city and its needs, that much support the city will give us, lets get together and resort to be better citizens.

Why the railways resumed service after barely 3 hours after the blasts! with such a strong support system we should achieve greater heights..

so here's wishing and striving to have a better tomorrow!

i love my city, and i hope so do you..
Proud to be a Bombayite! :)

Happy Birthday to me!! :)

well, this may sound like i'm being too overjoyed with myself but then what the heck! :) its my birthday!! ;)

ahh the rain gods must've been very pleased with me as its been pouring cats and dogs since last night.. :) well thankfully my friends are very determined to make it so my party plans have not gone for a toss! :)

19 years of age,
and it still feels it was yesterday when i distributed sweets in class,
danced around asking for gifts,
why my mother still reminds me,
of the day i refused the guests from entering my party without them handing over my gifts first!
she never fails to tell me stories of my birth,
which even though i know by heart,
still send a special warmth through my body when i hear them,

then birthdays became more important in the year's calendar,
the friends needed to be given appropriate back presents,
and the one whose present was the best undoubtedly became most popular,

and once school got over,
birthdays took on a totally different point of view,
they no longer required the supervision of parents,
there was no need for back presents,
even gifts took on a secodnary priority,
surprising the person became the first priority,
which considering we've been together for 3 years now is an achievement to keep innovating! :)

having fun, dancing, partying, and still maintaining the innocence we had,
is a remarkable challenge and not many like to take it,

considering now i'm an adult,
i could very well choose to do things a bit differently,
but then, a small part in me says, that i should wait,
wait till i get the support i need from inside to go ahead and break the bonds!

so here's wishing myself, a very Happy Birthday,
and a hope for many other days to come! :)
a

Creeps and scumbags!

A slash of a blade and blood all around,
i'd never guessed t'was jus another man in town,

gazing out calmly i was on my way,
and suddenly there came this wastrel with a sway,
one look, one cut thats all it took,
to bring my world crashing down,

one moment hesitation, a moment of fear,
and building up inside me was the rage,
a hatred to kill all men,
who torture, torment and hurt women,

such men don't deserve to live,
they ought to be castrated o even better killed!

how can someone just have his way?
and scar a person's life this way,

tomorrow's another day,
this time we'll be smarter,
alert and prepared,
for any eventuality that may come our way....

Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan...

The past two weeks we've gone through a lot,
yet the city does not complain,
it is becoz of this resilient spirit of ours,
that everyone takes us for granted,

be it the rains or the floods,
the vandalism of the sainiks,
or the blasts in the locals,
the next day we all were back to our lives,

while we went for peaceful candlelight processions,
the world prayed for us and our wellbeing,
but why are people targetting the innocent?
what crime have we committed?

we pay our taxes, we protect our environment,
we are dutiful citizens but we are a world of our own,
Oh Lord, forgive those who have been passive so far,
Give them strength to stand up and raise their voice,

Let Mumbai not be just a resilient city,
let us become a vociferous city,
Lets raise our voices together,
and push all the evil out forever,

Oh Mumbai! we love you loads,
come on everybody,
lets pave the road..

Yuva Studio - a damn cute place to be..

its been a long long time since i have posted anything on my blog... the reason - Busy bee! busy me! :)

well now i'm back and i have decided to write at least once in two days.. while i might not stand up to that very religiously i hope to do the same.

This is something i'd like to share and personally recommend for everyone, its a fun site and what's best it allows for creativity to flow.. so check it out!

June 1, 2006

Toronto design studio launches online environment to stimulate creativityIt's Children's Day in China and Hungary, and children everywhere have something new to play, create and share with! Thanks to YUVA Studio ( www.yuvastudio.com ), a Toronto based studio with a mandate to develop products that nurture creativity in young children.

YUVA Studio's Product Design team announced today that YUVA, their premier product is ready and available for purchase. YUVA, the root of all words meaning "young", is an online environment, a creative playground for children aged 4 -10 years.Shapes are at the core of YUVA. Co-founder Jayashri Deshmukh, refers to them as "the basic alphabet of a person's visual language".

YUVA fosters PLAY with a palette of shapes. The rich environment challenges the imagination of young artists as they merge, rotate, enlarge or flip them to create a variety of drawings. "It's like playing with 2-D blocks. In the process of play and experimentation, a child makes a multitude of connections that unfold the principles of pattern, design and composition.

"CREATE follows PLAY - it is a more deliberate act, one driven by intention. Using YUVA, children will be able use their original drawings to create e-cards, posters, greeting cards and even custom T-shirts.A natural step to follow CREATE is SHARE – the act of confidently showing one's creations to others through e-cards, printouts, galleries and the YUVA Studio Merchandise store.

YUVA not only makes sharing easy for children but also encourages them to solicit a response. E-card recipients can send messages to the artist. They go directly into the child's "Sketchbook" – much like signing an Artist's guestbook. The YUVA Studio Gallery is a public-facing online venue for these young artists to submit their drawings to. Soon, the Gallery will invite professional artists and designers to curate art shows and competitions.

Although YUVA's primary audience is children who have basic computer skills, the co-founder of YUVA Studio, Parth Upadhye says, "YUVA is actually for everyone, for all ages. There's a child in each of us that delights in creative play. In our product tests we found that while the children were drawing trucks and birds with YUVA, their parents were designing rugs and wallpaper! The possibilities truly are endless!"At YUVA Studio, we can all be YUVA Artists.

About YUVA Studio:YUVA Studio (www.yuvastudio.com ) designs and develops products that: foster play (with shapes), stimulate creativity, and encourage sharing. We have a "single" focus - that of creating products that fit this "Play. Create. Share." model of a creative process.Contact Information:YUVA Studio www.yuvastudio.com Play. Create. Share.T: 416-607-6125 or 604-678-5764 E: media@yuvastudio.com

Men and Women

Beauty and glamour,
Don’t always go hand in hand,
For there are so many people,
Wishing they had a magic wand,
To make them glamorous
Forgetting that behind,
That mask lays immense pain,
There lies a feeling of complete insecurity,
It makes every woman dress up for the society,
Men will ogle, and they will stare,
Not realizing its another person’s way,
There is no freedom, there is no choice,
One has to keep up the farce and rejoice,
It pains me to no extent coz,
I can share the pain,
When I don’t want to look good,
Why do people care,
It’s a horrible world to keep appearances,
To keep up the fame,
What really is weird is that,
Beneath all this make up,
It’s just another face,
The woman’s heart ain’t no rock,
It is a beautiful space,
Where one can love and one can hurt,
But why does no one wish to stay,
Is it so hard to commit,
Does it take so much force?
Why isn’t love enough for two people to stay?
Together, together this way,
Why must a beautiful woman have to be alone?
Ain’t there a man in this wide world,
Who can understand her heart n soul,
And withstand the society at large,
Why can’t there be a perfect man?
A man who not only knows how to love,
But a man,
Who knows what a woman wants..

Rains!

For the first time in this heat, yesterday there was some respite.. :)

After all the dusty, sweaty, long days in the sweltering heat, it was a major relief to run out on the terrace and dance in the rain.

Nature is something that never fails to fascinate me, i'm always amazed by it.. be the wonderful melodious cuckooing of the cuckoo, or a fabulous tree, a flower somewhere, the magnificant ocean (even though its dirty, its huge!) the breeze.. oh i could go on and on about the various facets of nature that delight me..

But the truth is that, at the end of the day, the first shower of rain is always the best! i know all about acid rain, and that this shower might be harmful.. but what the hell! i waited 5 mins after it had started, surely most of the acid must have dissolved by then. :) and anyways, it was too tempting to resist jumping around on the terrace..

Having seen a movie on dancing in the afternoon, i was very inspired to dance, and dance i did! i even taught my friend how to waltz and salsa in the rain without any music.. it was fun and great..

ooohhh! monsoon is here again.. now's the time for the kande bhaji, garam chai at the tapri, butta at the sea face, standing at marine drive waiting for the washes to lash out, and now is the time for just enjoying life.. :)

Fear

Fear is something each one of us have, by it the fear of death, being alone or being killed by Lord Voldemort, we all have something we fear..

The most recurring fear i have is that i might not succeed at something i take up.. this is not because i don't, its just that i have succeeded in most of the things i have wanted to do and succeeded really well, but the idea now is that i was successful earlier thinking about fear so i should continue even now..

For years i have perceived the glass to be half full, but that's only because it is a conditioned response, its only to show that i'm an optimistic person.. outwardly i might be but inside, i'm a downright pessismist.

so now i sit and think why? why do i anticipate failure at the start of every juncture? sometimes i feel that the idea of a failure keeps me motivated to work harder, but later i think that, its really odd to be motivated towards success by thinking of how badly you might fail, i mean the success i'd probably achieve thinking about success would be far more greater!

truth is that somewhere in the back of my mind, imagining the failure is like a buffer in case i do fail, what i simply mean is that, in case i fail actually, then my mind is half prepared to face it coz i've already imagined it. and when i succeed inspite of the odds, it makes me happier just thinking about that fact that i didn't fail. :) i know this is morbid philosophy, but sometimes it pays not to expect much..

sometimes it feels right to just succeed by a smaller margin, and sometimes when you suddenly win it feels great to win by a greater margin, when you haven't prepared for anything and something like that happens, its like a miracle, a sudden spurt of luck..

at the end of the day, there are so many self help books that one cannot help but think, that no matter what you think about, fear or success, a balance of the two will keep you motivated enough to strive towards success.

Deep Inside

Scrounging for topics high and low,
At times I sit and stare out of my window,
The nature is at its beautiful best,
Making life like one big fest,

A thousand thoughts flood my mind,
So much so I become momentarily blind,
It is amidst this chaos that I hear a calling,
A calling from an inner voice who wants some reckoning,

‘I’ve been mute for far too long’ she says,
It’s time for my constitutional right to be let,
So I decided hearing my inner self wouldn’t be that bad,
After all I can stand the pain even if it is just a tad,

Although she started with stories happy and gay,
I realized that the path is becoming grey,
The world isn’t just black and white you know,
Even through my gladness I could feel the sorrow blow,

I don’t know when and I don’t know why,
Staring at the clear blue sky,
Listening to my inner voice’s cry,
Made my eyes moisten and glow,
For there was a tear glistening to show….

Matrubhoomi

To begin with, I had earlier written this article keeping in minds two things, one was my emotion and the other the topic, but I forgot the most important rule of writing, I didn’t keep the reader in mind. So now I am editing my post and making it simpler to understand and also to absorb.

Feminism, this ideology is not in vain.. The female-male sex ratio is diminishing day by day. In India the situation is aggrivated thanks to the age old customs and beliefs. The female child in India is being aborted, killed and drowned in milk amidst prayers and hopes for the male child.

The movie Matrubhoomi, is a movie which I saw recently at home with my mother.
Well, in this movie, although the scenario was very bleak, the situation was that of a village, normal people who have no females left in their communities. There are cross dressers for the entertainment of men, and there are young boys to do the household. There is no love, sensitivity and no caring in the community. One man however, finds a women, she is the daughter of a man who has protected and taken care of the child till she has blossomed like a flower into a beautiful person. After she is spotted and tracked. the richest man in the village goes to meet her in order to get her married off to his eldest son. The father however refuses the proposal citing reasons that the eldest seemed too harsh for the girl, the father came up with another proposal that she should be wedded to all the five brothers.

The scenario is similar to what happens with the Pandavas. Appropriately, she is married and taken to their house. The first night while everyone's wondering who is going to sleep with her, they decide to keep days on which they will spend the night with her. The father of the sons, in his anger, and in his desperation, makes a plea or rather an order for satisfying his desires. He reasons that he has lived without sex for so many years, that it is unfair for them to enjoy it while he remains deprieved. The sons having no choice, agree. By the end of the week, the girl is tired having serviced the five sons and the father in law. while all the men just go inside the room to bang her and sleep, the youngest and the gentlest, talks to her, makes her open up, and in other words indulges in foreplay thus allowing her to breathe easier and live rather than just exist. seeing his soul and his heart, she begins to love him deeply and enjoys with him while she can. The brothers utterly jealous of this fact have him killed.

Post his death, the situation worsens and all doors to her happiness are shut forever. She is locked up in the stable because of her misconduct although the men ensure they sleep with her regularly. One of these days she becomes pregnant, not knowing how to deal with it, she remains the way she has been kept. the young boy in the house however helps her in her condition and allows her to survive the torture. amidst this scenario there is a raging debate about the father of the child. while her stay at the stable, a villager had forced himself onto her, and this persons putting the onus on another villager leads a protest stating that the villager is the father and hence the girl should be given to them. the father of the sons, in his rage, picks up the gun and begins to shoot the villagers down, this sparks off a battle and it continues till everyone is killed.

the only remaining surviver is the women, with her child, another girl...

though a very shocking movie, it has a tremendous power to make one sit up and think.

The male to female sex ratio in India is diminishing by the day, its down to 833 females for 1000 males, the day is not far when we have no women left. Sit up and think about it. Don’t have to be a feminist always, just be human..

selective perception

this is a term which i studied in organisational behavior and it is supposed to be the key element in trying to understand a person's behavior.

i have noticed, that this word encompasses the entire point of view and it also holds the reason for all the arguments, misunderstandings and misconceptions. its strange but real.

we might be looking at the same thing but because each of us perceive this thing differently, our point of views will differ and we'll have different things to talk about that one thing, imagine, in our lives we all see so many things and perceive it differently each time, how will we ever concur?

the basis of trying to understand another person's behavior i have found is first trying to establish the frames of references the person has. from where he has come, what he has seen, whom he has been with, etc. following this we can try and understand the person's opinions on various issues and after spending time with the person it is possible to understand and predict his behavior.

over the years, i have been observing people, their ideas and their behaviors unconciously. earlier i used to do it just because i could, and now i do it because i want to. the worst thing about observing people is trying to understand elders, not only do they have very wide frames of refrences but they also have some established perceptions which will not change no matter what.

its a complex world out there, and its really hard to be able to understand everything and even worst, to be in control of everything!

one must not lose all hope though, things change and so do circumstances and keeping in mind a positive attitude is all it takes to be happy! i must add however, the right companions play a v v imp role. :)

Orkut

these days i'm feeling like the internet is a vast ocean and one has to keep learning new things everyday! literally, jus the other day i started my blog and yesterday i became part of this orkut thing.. its a gmail offshoot and is for networking and making friends basically.. well i was mighty surprised, not only was my old colony a community there, but even my school and that too my batch was on it!! :) my college too is a community there but no one from my batch has joined so far..

i used to get these invites for hi5, and smsac and all those kind of things but i was pretty bored with all of them. first of all i never remembered my username or password so it would take me 15 mins to figure all that out and then i was too not interested in that site.. but orkut is fun!! and its very addictive as well.. its like connecting to the whole world and so easily.. i know i am sounding like i'm promoting this sit but seriously i had a blast yesterday.. :)

Blogging!!

i'm a rookie, i admit, but i thought this was supposed to be easy!! gosh, when i thought i wanted a blog i had no idea that there are some kind of steps one needs to follow!

to post something on my blog, it took me almost 15 mins to figure out how to post stuff on my blog.. so finally i'm here.

yesterday was a fun day, deciding to travel by best bus was the BEST thing i could do.. its been ages since i travelled in one and even though i had to wait for almost 30 mins in the harsh sun, it wasn't all that bad (though my skin is still complaining!) the entire journey was actually okay. its strange but you begin to notice so many things once you're amongst people.. and i love observing people.

somehow the journey is something like a reflection of your mind.

i have this weird feeling always that our surroundings reflect our feelings, or maybe, its the other way round, our feelings reflect our surroundings. sometimes when i'm calm i love going to the terrace and feeling the breeze hit my face, or just standing observing the glorious sun.. when i'm feeling lonesome and yet happy i love staring at the moon, somehow yesterday amidst all the chaos around me, listening to a song "i'm like a bird" and some other feel good numbers made me feel quite at peace even though my surroundings were anything but calm!

our mind is playing a game always.. :)

there's never a dull moment when you listen to your mind i guess, it just becomes fun when you have a conversation with it!