Of blankets & pillows...

As the month of November rolled into December and the holiday spirit took over, Bangalore city was also in a mood to chill, literally. (Hah! and you thought I had gotten over my habit of cracking PJs this new year ;-) :-P ) Being a hard-core suburban-Bombayite, my definition of winter was the time of the year when you don't sweat and perhaps the only time when people do not compete with each other for a window seat or the space nearest to the door in the local trains. (at least not in the early morning)

But Bangalore, apparently, was hell bent on making me realize that winters are meant to be, well, err... wintery  (for lack of a more apt word) :-P
I had turned up four months back with my favorite green blanket (apt for amchi Mumbai weather) and refused to buy a newer, thicker one in the hope that it will somehow tend to make my stay in Bangalore less 'permanent', (the exact story is too long and boring). But if you thought that I spent the better part of winters here shivering away, ah boy, are you wrong! Being the angels that my friends are " O:-) ", I was lent C's amazingly warm brown comforter which I happily snuggled under shamelessly (and still refused to get one of my own, stating the above mentioned lame reason). Now, here you might want to call me a miser, but sorry to burst the bubble, I have almost spent through the better halves of my quarterly salary on lesser needed things...weird, but true and so very moi.

Finally, after numerous telephonic doses from back home, I relented and got myself a blanket this weekend.

The moral of this long, boring tale is, I realized blankets are necessary. Warm, comforting things under which we can snuggle, dream, curl up and create our own small perfect world, oblivious to what's happening outside. Inside the blanket's warmth, we forget our daily ups and downs, the struggles, the competition, the strain of everyday life. (and when C reads this, she will roll her eyes and say mischievously, "OMG, you are suffering from all these?! Since when?!" :-O and burst out laughing :-| )

Aren't our family and friends just like blankets and pillows...- creating a small perfect, safe bubble of warmth and comfort around us...a blanket which we can pull tightly around us when the world gets too cold, a pillow on which we can lean on, depending on its cozy warmth. So the next time you feel cold, go get your blanket or pillow and blow away the blues...

Feeling grateful to have such blankets and pillows in life. 
Here's to my coziest, thickest, warmest blankets and fluffiest pillows...love u all! :-))

"If..."

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it...


--Rudyard Kipling

PS : Thanks to Gayathri for introducing me to this amazing poem!

Bundles of joy

There are clothes that you love and then there are clothes that you cherish...Your favorite (and lucky!) bottle green t-shirt, the magenta saree you so love to see mum wear, brother's blue cotton chequered shirt (which you loved dhapofying when he wasn't around), dad's favorite pair of socks... along with the favorite faded blue jeans - clothes that evoke warm memories - all bundled up in granny's orange cotton saree... (which acted as your own personal comforter in times when you most needed it)... packed to be given away.

Clothes that bring out memories, clothes you'll recognize even when you look at them after ages, clothes that remind you of loving people, places and events in life...

Your bundle of joy, now ready to give security, comfort and joy to someone else...

Pass on clothes, books, toys and things you don't need/use and let your bundles of joy be a reason for some one else to find much more than happiness...

Today there are many NGOs which help in collection and redistribution of stuff, from places of excess to places where they are are required - a noble task indeed.

Some of these NGOs include :

VanVasi Kalyan Ashram : This is mostly managed/run by volunteers from in/around Kalyan/Dombivli. Every Diwali, they set up a stall at Sarvesh Hall, Dombivli (E) to accept donations in the form of clothes, books, food grains, essential medicines etc. These are then given away to the lesser privileged people of Devbandh, a village in Kalyan district. If you talk to these people, you'll realize how systematically they sort and redistribute stuff, an awesome lesson in Management!

Goonj - They primarily collect clothes and redistribute it to the under-privileged. More on their work and collection centers at - http://www.goonj.org

PS: These are just what I am aware of, there are many more such people/NGOs out there..what is needed is just the willingness to pass it on...

A Diwali Wish

Let the light of a million lamps brighten up lives...let it illuminate every dark corner, let it banish away darkness, bitterness and sorrow forever...

                          Source : http://www.worldmostamazingthings.com/2010/10/diwali-deepavali-festival-of-lights.html

Let it shed light on all cross-roads and help us make our own way, let it shower brilliant starry specks in the night sky and make us realize our dreams...

This Diwali, let there be Light...:-)

Direction-less

PS: This is a "pre"-script...(no idea if such a word exists, merely had to warn you that this is one of those TOTALLY random posts I often come up with, and one that you can choose to safely ignore...plus it also rhymes with the usual "post"-script PS)

Have you ever felt lost? As if you are in the middle of a vast desert with dunes and dunes of yellow sand stretching away on all sides...As if you are stranded on a tiny island with miles of blue ocean staring at you till as far as you dare to gaze... As if you are in the middle of a crowded street, standing on the divider with vehicles buzzing past at full speed in both directions - caught like a deer with headlights in its face, rigid, incapable of action...

As if you have been given a map without any specific destination, a map that seems to change directions randomly at will...As if you are caught in some weird time-warp and everything seems to go on either in slow motion or in fast forward mode...you are either just dragging away the day routinely doing stuff you are supposed to do or are whirring away in your own sweet world at fulll speed, your thoughts sometimes switching at the speed of light, quite oblivious to what's happening around you...

But then again, isn't this what they told you is supposed to happen - that the journey is more important than the destination itself?
Maybe, perhaps it is true...that being direction-less is indeed a blessing...but at this point, all I badly need is a compass and the safety of relying on that li'l black pointer...

Follow your dreams

Came across this poem on a blog.

If while pursuing distant dreams
your bright hopes turn to grey
don’t wait for reassuring words
or hands to lead the way.

For seldom will you find a soul
with dreams the same as yours.
Nor often will another help you
pass through untried doors.

If inner forces urge you
to take a path unknown,
be ready to go all the way,
Yes, all the way alone.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t
draw lessons from the best;
just dont depend on lauding words
to spur you on your quest.

Find confidence within your heart
and let it be your guide.
Strive ever harder toward your
dreams and they won’t be denied.

-- Bruce B Wilmer

One last time...

One last time I want to hit snooze until it's 9.25 on the clock. One last time I want to go tap-tap-tap at A#43 and ask a sleepy K to come for breakfast ASAP. One last time I want to be woken up by K knocking away at my door and me requesting her to let me sleep for 5 more mins. One last time I want to have a night out and walk back to the hostel early morning, to have fresh hot breakfast. One last time I want to sit at my favourite spot in the mess near the window,with upma+sev+corn flakes and a tumbler of hot chai and day dream like there's no tomorrow. One last time I want to forget about the time and have debates/discussions with S&M over any arbit issue @ the breakfast table. One last time I want to read and funnily interpret our horoscopes in all the papers@h11 with C&K. One last time I want to wait at the bus stop near h11, start walking after some time and watch an almost empty tumtum drive past just as I reach staffH. One last time I want to buy the (now rarely adrakwali) chai and 'tilwala' biscuit at Badlu. One last time I want to go to shakti with P and gorge on the unexpected puranpoli/thalipeeth special on the menu. One last time I want to be a part of the registration frenzy at ASC. One last time I want to get frustrated attending calls from Mr.K during MtechApp. One last time I want to doubt the mtechapp algo, spend a long time decoding it with P, only to conclude (for a hundredth time) that 'we should be trusting our algo'. One last time I want to request a song, ask for biscuits or some munchies at teatime@asc.

One last time I want to skip a heartbeat as soon as I see an unread email from my guide in my project folder. One last time I want to have a meeting with sir, discuss/brainstorm/nod, come out confused, totally blank, go in and discuss the same thing again. One last time I want to work like crazy on a paper deadline. One last time I want to forget to eat/sleep/bathe and pore over the bug in my code. One last time I want to curse the traffic and autowallahs at Kanjur for not plying till IIT. One last time I want to carry heavy bags and a laptop and get frustrated looking for an auto at Vikroli on a rainy Monday morning. One last time I want to tease (the now working from 9am-3am) D as Mr.Cinderella because of that one rdb project. One last time I want to have Saturday snacks@mess with C&K. One last time I want to promise C/M to go swimming @6.30 and doze off. One last time I want to swim in the rain till the sky and the rain blurs and merges into one. One last time I want to sit by myself and read a book by the lakeside. One last time I want to take off on the lake side road on a breezy evening and meet AM on her daily walk. One last time I want to go just in time for the aarti at DeviTemple. One last time I want K to forget her room keys,watch youtube lockpicking videos and try breaking the lock on her door. One last time I want to share my craziest ideas/whims/fancies with C. One last time I want to go for aarti@Siddhivinayak and dinner@Visawa with K. One last time I want to go to M's lab and raid her lab 'kitchen'. One last time I want to go on a shopping spree by myself to dmart and crosswords. One last time I want to have crispy roomali masala and sizzling brownie@gullu. One last time I want to (try to)whistle 'kisiki muskurahton pe' (out of tune ofcourse, it's me afterall!) and do the step-dance with K on A wing ground floor. One last time I want to get and give peptalks during placement season. One last time I want to bug D and pull his leg over silly issues. One last time I want to say (and believe) 'sab moh maya hai' during trying times. One last time I want to trip on the uneven road on the way to hostel. One last time I want read athvankar mam's warning of stopping the stipend and rush to sign the kresit attendance register.

One last time I want to zooom down the slope to hostel on my blue bicycle. One last time I want to order a cheeseburst pizza and watch FRIENDS re-runs with C&K and laugh till our sides ache. One last time I want to sit @the porch lazily on a Monday morning, reading newspapers and watch the sprinklers water the hostel gardens. One last time I want to come home dead tired, drop down on the bed and find the moon peeking at me through the window. One last time I want to wake up to the glimmer of powai lake outside my window. One last time want to relive the past three years of my life. One last time...

PS: One last time I want to wait impatiently with A and wish the clock on the asc wall ticks as fast as it can. One last time I want to hear A say his golden words 'ayushya asach asta...*sigh*'...'