When parents go ‘online’ and get tech savvy

You may bond with your folks via technology; give it a chance!
Image courtesy: Google images

A friend of mine recently got the shock of his life (he described it to me in this fashion) when he saw that he has got a ‘friend’ request on facebook from his father. According to him, his father had put a passport size picture as the profile picture which was totally not ‘cool’.  What freaked him even more was the fact that his father would be now able to see everything that his son does ‘online’. Another friend of mine just can’t understand why his mother wants to learn how to ‘Whatsapp’. He never gave it a logical thought and gets furious whenever his mother asks him for help concerning the same.  I’m sure many of us would’ve felt a bit uneasy when our parents wished to learn new things about technology or wanted to join the virtual world. I wouldn’t deny it; I felt the same at some point of time. But I think that when our parents start getting tech savvy, that’s the cutest thing they do and if you think logically, they are not wrong in doing it!

Who doesn’t have a little curiosity? 
When I reach home at night, my sister opens up the door for me. After that, she gets back to what she was doing earlier; she starts surfing her iphone again. I give a hug to my parents, lie down on the bed and start the TV. On one of the channels, they show how youngsters get tricked on ‘social networking sites’. They also show how virtual world can create problems in real life. I watch a little TV, get bored and then go to my sister again. She’s still surfing through her phone. I take a look and discover that she’s replying to her friends on FB. Then I ask her if she has seen my latest profile picture. She says yes, and we start discussing the comments I’ve got! And during the whole TV time, the conversation with my sister, my mother is just listening to everything. Isn’t it obvious on her part to be a little curious about the whole thing? Will it not make your curious if you listen about a same particular thing every day, everywhere? The whole world has gone ‘online’, so why should our parents stay behind just because we don’t want them to enter our ‘online’ space?

They use it for fun; the way it is supposed to be!
Any kind of online medium is meant for two things – connectivity and fun. The irony, as everybody knows, we are getting ‘disconnected’ from people who really matter and we are so much into the online race that it’s not fun anymore! Parents know things better than their kids always and in this context as well, they know it better. Most parents use online media for fun rather than anything else and if you talk about connectivity, they are connected to their close ones in real sense. And about fun, oh they have it more than us for sure! One of colleagues recently told me that her mother is way ahead of her in Candy Crush Saga and she teases her often with the same! But she agreed that it’s really cute! Some other parents I know have gotten online just to be more in touch with their kids who are studying away from home. Like many of us, who think about the ‘like’ and the ‘comments’, our parents don’t give two hoots about it and if you ask me, that’s a real cool thing to do!

It’s cute, period!
When parents start getting tech savvy, except it or not, it’s cute! A senior at work some days back started smiling suddenly while she was working. When I asked her about it, she told me that her father joined facebook months back and it was now that he was replying to a post she posted to welcome him online. Her father had written that he was learning the thing slowly and it was fun. I remember during my exams while I was studying at a friend’s place, I sent a couple of family pictures to my father on Whatsapp. My father replied by sending me a picture of Sai Baba to wish me luck for my exams! And all I could wonder was just one thing, ‘Can parents get any more adorable?’ I’ll also share the most adorable thing my father did once. It was some years back when my father learnt to type a text message. The first ever message he sent was to me was on my birthday. It read –

‘H:a:p:p:y::b:i:r:t:h:d:a:y::m:y::d:e:a:r::a:m:ar’

He typed the colons, instead of giving a space as he was still in the learning process. He now types the messaged with a space, but frankly, I miss those damn colons!

Just have a little patience
I’m not trying to be preachy here, but I’m just trying to put forth a point. There’s nothing wrong if parents go ‘online’ or start getting tech savvy. They might ask for your help regarding the same at times. At that point of time, have a little patience as they might take time to understand it. This if you compare with the zillions of things they have done for you till date, is nothing, absolutely nothing!

Change always comes at a price

Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times

 When I was a kid, my mother once reduced my ‘play time’ because I didn’t score well in my exams. I protested, rebelled but to no use. Knowing that I had no other option, I played a little less and studied more. And in the next exam I scored well. Had I kept protesting, I think I would have done worse. I have always had a lot of belief in my parents like every other kid has and I understood that if I have put that belief in them, I have to give their decision a chance. It may sound a little unreasonable at times, but I have to give it a chance.

Now the above example may not exactly match to the current scenario, where people are not taking the ‘bitter medicine’ of 14.2% hike in the railway ticket prices in a good way, but I had no better example of putting across what I want to say. When people voted Narendra Modi as the PM, they put their belief in what he said, ‘Achhe din aane wale hain!’ I wonder sometimes, did they think that good days will come over night? Obviously, measure will be taken for it, measures which people may not like, but in the end are necessary. The problem with our country is that we start over reacting and never wait for the result. We are a protest obsessed country.

Let me tell you about the current Indian Railway scenario. These are not the statistics; these are the things which a common man like me discusses when he talks about Indian Railways. 

• I’m scared to eat in trains because many times, the food seems unhygienic.

• I’m tired of having waiting tickets all my life. Clearly, there are more passengers and fewer trains.

• The sanitation at our stations and in the trains sucks big time. There are some trains in which you have to constantly keep a hand on your nose to avoid smelling something bad.

• There are some trains which don’t even have a pantry.

• If somebody dear to me dies in a city far away from mine, and I can’t afford an air ticket, how am I supposed to get a confirmed train ticket in one day. Fine, there’s always the jugaad, but it would too burn a hole in my pocket!

These are just a few of the hundreds of complaints that common people have. Clearly, the Indian railways aren’t in a good shape, on the paper they might be, but in reality they aren’t. What I understand as a logical person is – The last ten years, the people of India gave Congress a chance to do something about this. And they may claim that they have done a lot, but the common man begs to differ. We are still struggling to have a safe journey and are skeptical to travel in Indian railways but we have too.

The NDA government has come to power after 10 years, 10 years which Congress didn’t utilize properly. If they would have, there wouldn’t have been the need for this hike. Bad governance has severe repercussions and unfortunately the repercussions of Congress’ bad Governance and abuse of power and money (remember the several corruption scandals?) will have to be faced by the new government. In this case, it is the hike that they have decided to make. When people praise honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the virtual world, anti-Modiists declare a war saying that it’s soon to judge him. When people elect somebody via democracy, it means that they are putting that belief in the leader whom they elected. Now what I’m trying to say is simple, if we have voted for the NDA government, let’s have a little faith in them as well, that being a person who voted is our responsibility. I agree that people who haven’t voted for NDA government of the BJP in general may feel the pinch even more, but even those people have to understand that there representative didn’t win the election, somebody else has come to power and the as Indians more than a party they should be supporting the general cause of making India better in every way. Change comes at a price and we as a country should be ready to pay for it!

When I met the Indian counterpart of Aron Ralston

One amazing thing about being a journalist is that you come across a lot of interesting people regularly; people with different life experiences. When you interact with them, you realise that the world is not as small as you think it is. These people inspire you – to overcome the odds in your own life and to understand that life is not as bad as it seems. It’s all about perspective - a simple thing which you tend to forget when life throws lemons at you.

I seldom go to watch movies in the movie hall, but I make sure that I see many of them on the television in my leisure time. One such movie I saw was Danny Boyle’s – 127 Hours which is a story about Aron Ralston, the physically challenged mountaineer from the US. I was thoroughly inspired by the movie. So, I was very happy when I met, who I think is the Indian counterpart of Aron Ralston – Ashok Munne, a 30-year-old physically challenged adventurer from Nagpur. I later did a story for Nagpur Times, The Times of India when Ashok decided to lead a 15-member group for a weeklong bike ride of Vidharbha.  The group also included three more physically challenged men: two from Pune and one from Mumbai who joined the trip and citied Ashok as their inspiration.

Here’s a little more about Ashok which he shared with me in a conversation…

The accident

Ashok Munne lost his leg in a train accident in 2008. Ashok said, “Though I had a sleeper class ticket, I got in general compartment as the sleeper class was too crowded with people travelling without ticket. I was near the gate and somebody pushed me and I fell outside the train. One of my legs came under the train wheels. The pain was unbearable. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital in Nagpur.” Ashok lost his right leg below the knee in the accident. For the next one year, two operations were done in the government hospital on his leg which went wrong. He lost 25 kgs of weight in one year bringing his weight to a mere 40 kgs.

The hopelessness

When in despair, even the closest of your friends’ desert you and Ashok experienced the same after the accident. Many of his friends and relatives started maintaining a distance from him thinking that they may have to shell out money for his treatment. They stopped visiting him in the hospital as well. Ashok said, “I felt really sad when people started treating me so badly. More so, because I knew that, had the same thing happened to them, I would have helped them.” It was a pit of hopelessness that he was approaching to and he could’ve fallen in it, but he didn’t.

Against all odds

Fed up with his situation and wishing to make a turnaround, Ashok took his life in his own hands. He said, “I understood that if I wanted to do something better with my life, I would have to do it myself. I heard my inner voice which told me, ‘Ya toh mar ja, ya toh sab kuch bhul ke aage badh!’ I started reading inspirational and motivational books. I stopped taking medicines completely and started doing Yoga. It was working as I was starting to feel better. I guess it was the positivity which I was brining in my life which was working for me. I learnt Martial Arts thereafter. With the help of an NGO, I went to a private hospital for an operation in Pune. It is there that I saw the news of Krishna Patil, the mountaineer scaling the Everest on a news channel. Something in me changed at that moment and I decided that no matter what, I want to do the same.”

One legged wonder

Mount Everest – Earth’s highest mountain and the Mecca of mountaineers became Ashok’s dream. And so he started preparing himself for the same. Ashok said, “Agar aap pahado ka hilano chahte ho, to pehle pathar ko hilana sikhna padega,’ and that’s why I started practicing at the nearby small mountains around my village, Katol. Afterwards I came to Nagpur to join an adventure camp. The head at that camp looked at me and told me, ‘Beta, pehle zameen pe chalna sikh le, phir pahad chadne ke khawab dekhna!’ I felt bad but it didn’t discourage me for I knew that my destiny was in my hands. I kept working hard, kept trekking and kept scaling small mountains. An article was written about me in The Times of India after which life changed for me drastically.” Ashok shocked everybody when he scaled Mera Peak (21,247 feet) in 2012. He also took a bike ride from Delhi to Ladakh in June 2013. Ashok now heads an adventure company along with his friend Mukesh Sonbarse in Nagpur. The company organises adventure camps for people. Ashok is now eyeing at his dream – Mount Everest – which he plans to scale in 2015.

An inspiration

By the time, I finished talking to Ashok, I was completely in awe of him and I couldn’t help but thank God that somehow, in some way he made me meet this guy. I got up and hugged him; not out of sympathy, but because of a strong sense of desire to achieve things and overcome the odds he gave me. He touched a chord inside me and gave me courage to complete those dreams of mine - those childhood dreams which I thought would be impossible to pursue now. He said it right when he told me, ‘Losing a leg or a hand doesn’t make you incapable of things, lack of will does.’ Ashok now gives motivational speeches and wants to inspire physically challenged people like him. I don’t know what will happen when he will scale the Everest finally, but I’m sure of one thing – Whatever he does, he will always be inspiring people wherever he goes with his inspiring story, just the way he inspired me and a lot of people I personally don’t know.

Rock solid: Ashok Munne at Ladakh

Victory: Ashok at the Mera Peak after scaling it

Cheers to life: Ashok during his Ladakh trip

That little stranger!

Image Courtesy : gdeichmann.photoshelter.com

Lost in his own world,

Wandering on the streets of the city…

This little boy has one intention,

He wants some money earned out of pity…

He’ll not say even a word,

He’ll talk through his eyes…

Eyes which have the depth of desperation,

Equal to the depth of skies…

He doesn't have any friends,

Nor he has any toys to play with…

He works even in the scorching heat,

He can never afford to relax and sit…

He gets up in the morning,

Somewhere, a kid his age is getting ready for school,

He has no idea what a school is,

He’s told that it’s an institution of fools…

A dark future waits for him,

And he’s completely unaware…

He’ll probably live like this forever,

But he has no one to care…

Cheating your conscience,

You tell yourself, there’s nothing you can do…

Look in the mirror and ask yourself,

Is that really true?

Snap out of your selfish life,

He’s your responsibility too...

You can bring a little change,

Only if you decide to do!

Socha nahi aage kya hoga!

Image Courtesy : Google Images

Khoobsurat hasi dekhi uski,
Dekha uska saaf dil...
Pyar kar baitha usse,
Socha nahi aage kya hoga ...

Ek nayi duniya ka sapna dekha,
Jaha sirf woh thi aur tha main..
Hazaar khwaab piroye,
Socha nahi aage kya hoga ..

Sab kuch luta diya us par,
Pyar me uske majnu bana..
Laga ek din woh meri hogi,
Socha nahi aage kya hoga ...

Phir pata chala mazhab ke bare,
Woh  jisne mere pyar ko tod diya..
Ladta raha mazhab ke rakhwalo se,
Socha nahi aage kya hoga ..

Haar gaya, dur ho gaya usse ek din,
Uski yaadon me ab bhi jita hu ...
Umeed ab bhi zinda hain usse pane ki,
Socha nahi aage kya hoga!

You can succeed in making them go away from each other on the name of religion, but can you ever succeed in making them forget each other ever? 

The Strength Within

Recognise the strength within and live strong!
Image Courtesy : edoniskville.deviantart.com

Every person when born is absolutely perfect, he's God's most loveliest creation. And it's that perfectness rendered to the new born by the almighty which gives him the power to bring a smile to a person's face without even doing anything. Little fingers, silky hair, soft skin and a certain magic which makes a new born the epitome of innocence. A new born is the perfect example of a person being himself. He cries, he does what he wants to, throws the tantrums yet manages to be adorable and win hearts by being himself.

After he's born, he's on his own. What happens to that perfectness depends on what he does, his surroundings and his way of living his life. As he matures, the sins in the world start gearing up to throw their vicious trap over him. Still innocent, he falls for it and gets injected by that pinch of impurity which he has never experienced before. His parents or his elders make sure, he stays on the right path. Curious, he still goes for it. He falls into the dump and after doing what should not be done realises that he shouldn't have done it. He tries to make amends to retain the innocence, but a bit of it already is lost and what's left is a new found strength which he has got from the bitter experience. That strength is God's gift to man which he has to discover on his journey of life. But how many of us really acknowledge and try to acquire that strength ? How many of us believe in standing up after we fall?

'Confused souls are what we are,
Reluctant to fight after a scar'
The Strength to Rebelive
'I got hurt once and I don't want it to happen again to me' - is a reason why people believe in building walls around them. Walls which they believe will protect them from the incoming hurt, walls which will strip people of the right to hurt them and walls which will keep them at peace without anybody around. How can a person be happy when he's alone? He can never be and if he says he is - He's lying or probably doesn't even himself realise how wrong he is. The world is full of bad and good people. It's a perfect balance - While the bad will hurt you and go away without giving a damn, the good will help heal the hurt. If you gave a chance to the bad to hurt you, why deprive the good of the chance to heal which will help you in return? The ability and strength to rebelieve even after getting hurt is in everybody, one just needs to give it a fair chance. A chance which is will not only help heal the scar, but is likely to earn some very sweet relationships for you.

'Too short to enjoy, to short to live,
Life's too short to not forgive'
The Strength to Forgive
Holding a grudge has never helped anyone. It just keeps you reminding of a bad experience you've been through, an experience which you would never want to have again in your life. And yet for some reason, you don't let go of it. So while the hurt was painful enough, you make it more painful by keeping a grudge about it. Most believe that being forgiving is being weak as it makes them feel incapable of showing their anger. Forgiveness is a strength and that's why it's said that it is the virtue of the brave. It takes a piece of your heart to forgive. It's really easy to take out your anger and say or do something to hurt a person, but forgiving the person is the only way which will bring peace to you and the people around you.

'Be what you are,
Believe in what you can be'
The Strength of Self belief
Ever experienced a person around you with a great deal of infectious energy? An energy which makes you wonder, 'How can he filled with so much confidence?' No man in this world lives without his share of problems. While the ordinary gives up his belief and confidence to their problems, the extraordinary stands up to it. What exactly is extraordinary? Every one of us is extraordinary! Some realise it, some just let the chance go away. That 'extra' in 'ordinary' is the self belief and confidence. If you don't believe and respect what you do, do you really expect others to do that for you? Even the most amazing and the most confident person have had his turbulent times in life. But his will to survive and not give up makes him special. Self belief and self confidence are strengths which can only be triggered only a person wants them to be and when triggered brings the best out of him.

'He has the heart of gold,
He's the favourite of new and old'
The Strength of Heart
It's a shame when a person after getting hurt decides, 'The world screwed me, it's time to get even now and I'll whatever it takes to do it!' Being a nice, sensitive and emotional person has it's long list of drawbacks, but you'll always be respected for it. People will come, they'll hurt you and they will take you for granted, but if you're among those who has that heart of gold, who is still nice to them even after getting hurt; they'll never be able to forget you and you'll always be remembered as someone who has been a good part of their lives. Your heart is your biggest strength and it makes you special for many!

We all were created the same by God, but the choice of way to live the life he gave us has been given to us and it's only we who are responsible of what we make out of it. Recognise your strengths, for you're special!

No Country for Women?

The Shameless man!
Image courtesy : Google Images

Woman – She is the sole reason for our existence and she is the sole reason for our survival. No man could ever become great without a woman, and there will be no man without her. But that’s a fact that we have taken for granted as we have started to ignore the atrocities being done on woman all around us.

Some incidents happen and are forgotten, and some others though are forgotten as well, they prove a certain point and they throw a question at us. Such is unfortunate incident which happened some days back at Guwahati. Around 30 men with not even a hint of shame, molesting a girl in public with hundreds of people watching it happen and not giving a damn about it. The incident has drawn large public outrage but has also put forths  some questions – Is this country no longer safe for women? Do the men of this country have no respect left for women?

What happened at Guwahati came to light because it was recorded (although many think it was a really unethical thing to record it), but had it not been recorded it would have been another chapter just like several others which don’t even come to notice and are buried somewhere deep down in the hearts of the sufferers. But does that lessen the impact of being molested or harassed? No, it doesn’t! Women with whom these things happen choose to hide it (What other choice do they have given the hypocritical attitude of our society) because they know this society blames the woman for every thing that happens. In retaliation, some women became the bandit queen’s in front of the world (not that they wanted too), and some became in their own lives putting aside what has happened to them and trying to move on!

There’s a friend I’ve, who moved to a metro city post her masters for a job in one of the software companies. We don’t stay in touch that much, but we’re the best of friends. One day, I gave her a call. She seemed happy as ever but I could sense of tinge of sadness in her voice. I asked her the reason, she didn’t say anything. On not letting it go, she finally told me. She told me that something had happened to her when she was on her way back home. She just told me, “Some guy did something on the bus to me and I don’t want to talk about it. Others on the ride didn’t even give a damn! They just kept watching!” That girl whom I always knew to be sensitive developed a certain hatred, hatred against the society because of that incident. She abused which she never did and she cried while telling me about it. When I told her to complain about it, she got scared and instead told me not to tell anyone about it. But then that's not her mistake, that's the lack of support the woman in our lives have from our side. They know, nobody is going to do anything about it!

There’s a famous dialogue from one of the movies – with great power comes great responsibility. But do people in our country really understand that? It’s a common sight to see goons disguised as politicians having their way with things. And there are people who are close to these politicians and do the same thing. One of my friends who works in a company in Delhi faced the brunt of this power sometime back. As she was returning to her office from a meeting, a car with a red light (it was a government vehicle) over its top, dashed against her car. The moment that happened, the driver came out and hurled abuses and started beating her in broad day light. The gentleman (a top PR executive in one of the nationalized banks) who was at the back seat didn’t feel the need to come out. And when he did, he declared that it was the girl’s mistake and tried to scare her away by flaunting his political connections. It was only when her friends came; she was relieved as they took her to the police station to complain against it. This incident was being watched by hundreds of people passing by, but none of them bothered to help her out!

I’m sure there are plenty of incidents which happen almost everyday and go unnoticed. The problem is not that that they go unnoticed, the problem is that they happen and we are mute spectators to it. If you’re saying no, look around and you’ll realize you’re wrong. Are we waiting for it to happen to our sisters or mothers? Is that when we’ll act and retaliate? A dirty hand laid on a woman in any part of the country is not only a hand on her integrity but also on our integrity and respect as well. The middle class man of India can’t do much they say. It may be right in one way, but it’s not right entirely. He may be weak but he is also the person who runs the largest democracy in the world. If he can’t retaliate, he certainly has the choice - a choice to not be a mute spectator to any atrocity. He has the choice to keep them safe and stand for them. It's time to take a stand against atrocities against women, for they are where our world really is!

The person writing this post is a middle class man and he refuses to take any kind of injustice against women.

That thing called love!

Love is everywhere! ( Image Courtesy : Google Images)

Being in multiple relationships over the years, I’ve always complained about how much I’ve given to the world and how less I’ve got back in return. Some days are full of regrets and some are full of a certain feeling - I should really stop being such an emotional person. But then there’s a realisation. May be I haven’t had that luck with a relationship, maybe it was never meant to be; but that doesn’t make me or the other person a bad person! And that certainly doesn’t take back the love I enjoy in my life!

Such is the definition of love today that a broken relationship gives a feeling that one is not loved by anyone. Love is like beauty, you need the eyes of the beholder for the latter and a pure heart for the former! It’s not something you ever had or ever will in a material way, it’s a feeling which is always there, which is always shared by the world in some or the other way! You just need the right heart to understand it!

A friend of mine complained on a social networking site about how much a girl has ruined his life and how much he feels betrayed about it. And there were some people who were helping him out, giving him random suggestions to work it out! I was one of them too. The point is – why will people care if they don’t love you? They love you very much.  You don’t realise it and even they don’t, but they care and they will feel bad if something bad happens to you.

Some months back, I was working at my office – a place I love more than anything in this world. I was eating and something got struck in my throat. I couldn’t breathe and I headed straight to the washroom. Almost half of the people at my office came after me and made sure that everything was fine. They still keep telling me to eat slowly, so that it doesn’t happen again. When they do that, I consider myself lucky – because it’s love they have for me!

If there’s one word which is bigger than love, it is – mother! The world would’ve been a disaster without mothers and the unconditional love they have for their children. My mother very often calls me in the day time when I’m at work and tells me how much she misses me! She cries sometimes. If I leave the house without eating something, she feels horribly guilty. She makes it a point to hug me, to give me a kiss before I leave the house. Such is her love that I haven’t known anybody in my life doing more sacrifices than her for me! She is a woman who will accept me no matter what!

There’s love all around and like I said, you need to recognise it! That random smile or help from a stranger, a hug when you need it the most from the person you least expect it from, a surprise specially planned for you, people who admire you, people who call you at the time of need – it’s all love and it’s in the air all the time! You need to breathe it, to live with it! And if you still think that you’re not being loved in spite of the fact that you’ve been giving away love all the time, know one thing – The power and the ability to love, is also nature’s and God’s way of telling you – We love you and that’s why you feel it and you have the same for people!

Don’t try to find love. It’s already there – in every bit of your life. Recognise it, embrace it and value it! Life’s lovely and so are you! 

‘Things not to say when you propose’

Image Courtesy : Google Images

Most relationships end up before even starting and the reason – Guys being the losers they’re at talking, screw up the proposal part. When you’re all set to propose the girl of your dreams, you might want to avoid saying a few things which can really get you in trouble or worse, you lose her once it for all. Here are a few things which shouldn’t say even if it’s the last thing you want to say before you die someday.
  ‘You know I use to like your best friend first, but then I realized - it’s not her, it’s you!’

Say that if you’re really strong and don’t mind taking a few beatings from her. Now, one may wonder, ‘As if that’ll hurt?’ Don’t underestimate them. When they hit it, they hit it really bad! And besides no girl deserves and wants to the second choice, and definitely not when her best friend is the first!

  ‘I can really keep you happy; I’ve a lot of money’

It may work for a few of them but most of them will take it as an insult. So even though it’s true that you need money to keep her happy, (You can’t just pamper them with self written songs and poems these days, that’s thing of the past. These days it’s about that ‘costly-burning-a-hole-in-the-pocket-perfume’ or that classic ‘made-by-killing-an-innocent-animal’ leather bag or anything that keeps them happy!) Don’t try to impress her with your money!

  ‘Just by looking at you I can tell you that we’re going to have amazing kids’

Seriously? That is a cute line and works alright but not when you propose (Except some larger than life SRK movie). Don’t freak the girl out by talking about your family plans. Remember when you propose, it should be only about her and not about any other single thing. So, wait a little bit for your family dreams, you’re not going to get infertile in that little bit!

  ‘You look great; I wonder why your facebook picture is not that great?’

The moment you say that, forget the girl. When you said that the display pic on FB isn’t great, you probably forgot that she’s a girl and more than half of the boys in her friend list must have hit the like button! Whatever you do just don’t talk about the pic if it isn’t great and you’re not good in lying!

  ‘You know, I got a lot of girls crazy about me, but I’m crazy about you!’

When you said that, you forgot the basic principle – ‘The stud gets the girl first but in the end it’s the baby face who always has the last laugh with the chick on his side!’ Don’t try and be a stud and even if you’re, conceal the fact. A girl will like a stud for a moment but will always settle down with the other kind!

  ‘You know there was this cruel girl I used to love a lot, but you’re not like her’

What exactly were you thinking when you said that? That’s not a compliment. So even though that’s an honest confession for a guy, for a girl it’s ‘Oh my God, he’s still not over his ex!’ Save it for the right time, for example when you’re in a great mood to bitch about your ex but seriously not when you propose!

Proposing that special girl should be as special to you as it becomes to her, so try and make it special in the best way possible and avoid saying stupid things. And if you really have a problem with words – Do more, talk less! Take her to a candle light dinner; bribe the restaurant to play her favorite track, pour a glass of wine for her and tell her she’s is what real beauty really is!

Oh yes! Don’t ever forget to say those magical three words, ‘I love you!’

Take care :)

That thing called ‘Opportunity”

Image Courtesy : Google Images

They often say opportunities come to people who are wide awake; well they still haven’t had a look at me.

If there’s anything which has always been able to put me at peace in the worst of the times, there’s only one thing – putting the words on the paper. Name the problem and the solution has always been my writing for me. Whenever I’ve been happy I’ve wrote about it and the same whenever I’ve been sad. I’ve always been in love with words in the English language probably that’s why even my blog is called ‘The Magic in Words’. People call me a maniac because most nights I’m awake reading blogs, but then I know I’m right, and I believe so.

When I was small I would write essays for my friends which was a part of their homework. When I grew up a little bit I would write leave applications for my sister, now one may think what intelligence does that require? Believe me writing leave applications at 15 and that too the most precise ones is surely something which deserves a Nobel Prize! When I grew up a little more I understood what a boon  my love for words is, for now I realized I was amongst the very few around me who could do poetry. I’m a Leo and of course a little appreciation doesn’t hurt. Some guys told me that it’s useless what I do and but I believed in myself.

Very soon I was writing poetry for many of my friends – for their relatives, for their companions. Many gave me the idea to take money for it, but it just didn’t seem right to take money from the only audience which I had. The brilliant minds amongst my relatives said – ‘Concentrate on your career, concentrate on Chartered Accountancy’ and tried to discourage me. But I knew that life without passion was like a life without purpose and writing has always been my passion. I believed I was doing the right thing.

Now after so many years of carrying on my passion, it’s not just about poetry. It’s about everything – Politics, relationships, human behavior and of course there’s a little bit of humor in everything. If there’s anything which soothes me down after a whole bad day – it is a cup of tea and my laptop with my fingers running over it generating words. I’ve been writing all sorts for so many years, I’ve been happy but I always questioned myself – Will I ever get a chance to reach out to a larger audience? Will ever there will be people, complete strangers who will want me to write something for them. Everyone told me that I ain’t that good but I knew I wasn’t that bad either. My opportunity was just on the way and probably stuck in the traffic somewhere!

Today, after spending a whole night again reading blogs and then after planning of doing what I’m best at – sleeping throughout the day, opportunity knocked on me just when I was sleeping. One of my friends called who works as a freelancer at a leading newspaper calls and asks me – ‘Are you sleeping?’ Then she comes to business and tells me that her boss wanted to see me and if I was interested in doing what she was doing. So, Opportunity doesn’t always necessarily come to people who’re wide awake but sometimes to people who are half sleepy, red eyed and sleep deprived.

I’ve understood something today, If I hadn’t been determined and believed in what I always did in spite of the fact that many try to discourage, I wouldn’t have the opportunity.

Opportunity may come to many people – Wide awake or half sleepy, but opportunity necessarily comes to people who – Believe, in themselves and their work!

P.S : This piece was written because I was told by the editor in charge to write it there!

The right thing to do

Need - A four letter word leading to so many things in this world. Everything happens for a need. Fight - need to prove that you're right, eat - need to live, smile - need to be happy, cry - need to give it off from your heart.

Everything happens for a need and in turn gives rise to a new need. A person who has money will need love, a person who has love will need some more love. The need will never satisfy.

We human beings will know it better then anybody the meaning of 'need' which makes us so selfish,self centered at times that we tend to ignore everything. We forget others are human beings too. Everybody is needy. We think about our ownselves.

Even a father scolding his son for his bad performance in exams has a selfish interest at times when he says 'what will people say now ?'

We get so selfish at times that we don't realise what are we doing. Remember the last time you lied to save your skin ; i'm sure it isn't far away. It saves your for a moment but at the cost of something. Once again you betray yourself. The easiest one can do - to betray oneself.

Everything we do is for us. We don't think about others. Nobody really does.

Somedays back i went to Mother Teresa's home at Pune, I donated some clothes. I saw people who couldn't speak properly,some mentally ill, some crippled for life but still helping each other out,considerate towards each other,a nun sitting in between all of them and feeding them medicines. And i could just say one thing 'And we grudge about things'. Guys, i'm not telling you to be a saint,with so many things on our head i'm sure we can never be, but the least we can do is be considerate towards everybody forgetting about our needs, our selfish motive at times, putting our need at stake at times when we sometime see the person more needy then us. Some of you may question , what's the point ? Try doing it , the way you will feel after it will be the answer. You'll be happy with things internally but ofcourse at a cost,at the cost of your need. You'll feel like a better person because you'll know in some way or the other you've helped the world getting a bit better..:-)

Be good, do good, be one !!