A Bowl of Elusive

This article is about a real living person, lets call her Alisha. I am aware that a single article can never do justice to a person’s story, so I am going to try to cover only certain aspects of the story. What is Love? When people claim that they have fallen in love, what exactly do they love in the person? And I am specifically wondering about people who say they have fallen for someone who doesn’t feel for them. I mean, are they in awe with how that person looks, speaks or carries themselves? Is that what love means to them? See, I am not trying to make a point by asking these seemingly existential questions. I am genuinely perplexed by these thoughts, have always been. You see, love, for me, has always been a reaction. A reaction to someone’s affection for me. The only reason I ever needed to love a person was for them to love me first. And that’s why I could never understand Alisha. We had first met under the worst possible circumstances. I was in the last stag...

So yesterday, I wrote this article about certain hardships I faced in college. And all hell broke loose. Coz certain people who read my article, didn't quite get it and just worked out a meaning that suited them. And kept on sharing my blog post and criticising it all day. I say “free publicity”. Anyway, this article is NOT about them. Among a bunch of people of who commented on my FB page, there were several sweet souls, who showed concern about my well-being, by advising me to move on. They got the impression that I am still beaten down by the struggles of college days. I’d like to set the records straight. I am not sad or depressed about college. I took it in my stride. I just wrote about it yesterday coz I was reminiscing. And I love to write. This was something I had always wanted to write about. And a lot has happened since college. It was 3 years ago. And the things I wrote about yesterday happened in the first 2 years of college. Things had started looking u...

Innocent Song of a Six-Year Old I will make the moon brighter, I will paint the world in green; I will make this earth a beautiful place: Such as was never seen. The air will be free of dust, The walks shall be all clean. I will fill people’s heart with trust: They shall not be so mean. I will make this earth a loveable planet, Where everything will just be right. Peace shall be the ruling passion: No more useless fight. I don't remember when I wrote this one. I had it filed along with other poems I wrote. Hope you like it. Its short & sweet.

I still ask myself whether I’d have been better off at IHM, Pusa. My AIR (All India Rank) in the Entrance exam was good enough to secure me a seat at Pusa or Dadar, the best IHMs in India and I chose to be at IHM, Goa. I know what you’re thinking; Beaches, babes & booze, right? Wrong. For one, I don’t like beaches that much. Two, I never had a dearth of babes, irrespective of the place. And lastly, I was a teetotaler & I still am. I chose IHM, Goa coz I knew for a fact that Goa was culturally different than the rest of the country. And I needed to experience the diversity and the exposure. And yes, I did get all that I came looking for, and a lot of other crap. Maybe a little more than had I bargained for. The three years of college at IHM, Goa broke me down! You see, IHM, Goa is more than an educational institute. It is a way of life. The students here are as diverse as the flow of tourists that Goa gets each year. So imagine a random mixture of student...

There aren't a lot of people who know this story. Hence, the identity of the girl is well protected. Just one of those crazy experiences I thought would be fun to share. It was recently pointed out to me by a dear friend that everybody from our high school (juniors, seniors, teachers) still remembers me, while they have forgotten a lot of people who were actually popular back then, even the pretty girls. So apparently, I was kind of a celebrity. I sure didn't feel like one. I felt like an outcast, always the odd man out. But I’ll leave that story for another day. Of course, everybody knew me. I had joined the school in seventh grade, when they usually don’t accept new admissions. And I was freakishly tall and hefty for my age. So, not that easy to miss in a crowd. Add to that, the fact that I was a major attention junkie and always involved in one controversy or the other, and you get wide-spread recognition. Now, coming back to my story, remember the ...

I don't have to tell you the woes of being a smartphone owner in today’s world. Its a blessing, no doubt, but you kind of end up wishing that the blessing came with a longer lasting battery. ;-) I own a Samsung Note since a couple of years and even though it has been rendered outdated by its successor models, I love the little beast. It gets stuff done, keeps me connected and doesn't trouble me as much as you’d think it would. But like all smartphones, its batteries give me a lot of trouble now that I have started travelling so much. And no, I won't carry a spare basic phone. Two phones, two numbers is just not my thing. Hence, a power bank. Like all guys my age, I too love gadgets and research them online as much as possible before I go for a buy. And after a lot of research, I moved my crosshair on this device: MI 10400 mAh Power Bank. Its from the Chinese Smartphone Giant, Xiaomi. You know the MI3 guys. Remember the hype? Their products are hyped so m...

My views and ideas about the american culture are mostly derived from the movies & television shows that I watch. Hence, I might be mistaken. But it feels like a majority of foreigners (americans, englishmen, etc) prefer to get employed in their hometowns, unless of course, if they are enlisted. The scenario here in India is different. As an Indian, you will find yourself moving away from your family and hometown at a certain age. Usually it is to pursue higher education, which is fine. But then, you get a job, and almost all the time, your job keeps you away from your family. As youngsters in a capitalist, ambition-oriented society, we don’t mind this in the beginning. New job, incentives and perks, we are happy to make our lives all about that. Until that longing, the one that is the epicentre of the family unit, sets in. You start missing the people you grew up with and your home. Again, I’d have to draw your attention to another difference between our culture a...