Inspirations can sometimes come from sources terra incognita!!
Unknown... unusual... but they inspire you more than the best inspirational lecturer can!!
Every evening while I walk down from my building gate to my apartment, I hear the sound of someone playing guitar. It is not the best effort...I have heard better...but there is a passion which comes through...You get a feeling that its being played only to satisfy the player...
I don't know who the player is and might never know him either and yet in a way, he has inspired me the most in recent times. He inspires me to live a life beyond the mundane affairs of regular eat-work-tv-surf-sleep (with a little more of eat and sleep) He inspires me to fulfil all my aspirations, things i have always wanted to try, hobbies i always wanted to have and little activities i always wanted to indulge in, activities which can make my life truly interesting and rich!
And the inspiration is not without effect...I love listening to good music and when i say music, it is not songs, it is the beats and rhythm and instruments which i love to listen more than the lyrics. So I upgraded my hapless pc speakers to new ones which are capable of delivering the right notes and boy I am glad!!
Small steps these but they have set me rolling...I plan to learn guitar or atleast begin guitar lessons in the next one year. I am inspired to do all those things in life which I always wished to. A little effort backed by a lot of passion is all it requires to set the ball rolling.
I have got the passion, now lets get that little effort on!!!!
Wednesday 27 June, 2007
Tuesday 26 June, 2007
The Truth about Happiness
Read this somewhere...really liked this!
"Happiness is not about having everything you want but wanting everything you have"
I am a striver and continue to strive to get more than before as it is human nature and it is what keeps me going, but somewhere the truth in the statement above helps me strike a balance.
It helps me enjoy the things I already have while I am striving for more!!
"Happiness is not about having everything you want but wanting everything you have"
I am a striver and continue to strive to get more than before as it is human nature and it is what keeps me going, but somewhere the truth in the statement above helps me strike a balance.
It helps me enjoy the things I already have while I am striving for more!!
Saturday 23 June, 2007
I like Missy Elliott's music...ask me why?
Was just remembering the good ol' days when i was an engineering student. Those were the days when I was learning the real rules of life, rules I can use and make practical sense. Somehow I feel that all what u learn in school, all those 12 years of schooling is not really to learn the basics of life and get prepared for it. Those days are truly to get you prepared for college where u learn the real rules. And engineering teaches you more than u ask for! Neways u've got one more year in college than other under-grads, so u get to learn that much more, not abt the subjects but abt life.
U learn the rules of love, of politics, of personality, of friendship and the most important lesson u learn is that life isn't as simple as it looked when in school where u had limited and simple choices like 'do i want to do my homework today or do i want to go out and play cricket?' But then u learn that life's gonna be a lot more complex and there are a thousand choices at every stage and thousand people would advise u a thousand ways to do a thousand different things.
And the Indian engineer is even more confused, he's got more choices than any other damn professional in the world...
1. A thousand jobs profiles to choose from and a thousand jobs in each profile
2. Choice of MBA vs MS vs PHd vs Job vs Business
3. Work in India vs Work Abroad
4. Study in India vs Study Abroad
5. A thousand cute girls around you so u really don't know where to spend the efforts and where the real ROI is gonna be
6. Long distance relationship (LDR) vs Local Flings
7. A thousand places to hang out to and a thousand types of acquaintances to hang out with
and
8. Finally, since I wanna speak about music here...a thousand music genres to select from, go the indipop way, or the ghazals, or the rock n heavy metal stuff, or trance, etc, etc.
You are real confused with all those choice, atleast I was...
So, when I heard Missy Elliott's "Get your Freak on" for the first time, I just fell in love with her music...
Why? B'cos it was simple music - peppy nursery rhyme beats, extremely basic lyrics and sounds which must have been very common with us humans when we had not developed the art of language!!
And so I love the music, bcos its simple, all the songs have the message right up and makes me dance to it!!!
And talking about basic instinct...nothing can be more basic than the lyrics of Missy Elliott's famous rendition "Work It"....
There is no choice here, u just gotta 'WORK IT'!!!
Check out the lyrics at "http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/missymisdemeanorelliott/workit.htm" or hear the song on http://www.coolmusiczone.com/album/7858/Respect%20Me-Missy%20Elliott.html
Njoi and keep life simple!!!
The City with a Soul!!
I recently got a mail from a fellow Mumbaikar which discussed the essence of a Mumbaikar....one of the many 'You know you are truly a Mumbaikar when..' mails!!
But, it got me thinking about my own feelings about Mumbai.
Mumbai is a city of cities and there are thousands of worlds within this world, so what is the essence of Mumbai and is there an essence after all?
Well, my first impulse (and i still feel that) was that there is something about Mumbai, and its not the look, not the smell, not how the people dress, not the money, not the buildings, but something more sublime which instantly tells u that u are in Mumbai. Its the same feeling which u get on meeting a fellow Mumbaikar in a different city or country. So, I came to a conclusion that the city must have a soul, which gives it its essence!
Every city is made of numerous microcosms of itself each with its own flavor but there is only one soul to the city! The 'soul', like a halo, glows around the diverse flavors and colors which garnish the city. And no city exemplifies this better than 'Mumbai'.
So, the first thing about Mumbai and a Mumbaikar is their love for each other, a 'love' so different from any other known in the world...
Well, lets just accept the fact that its not easy to live in Mumbai and yet in a strange way it is truly 'a city with a life'. I mean Mumbaikars spend a quarter of their lives travelling and 'travelling' is a euphemism for a much more arduous feat which only Mumbaikars can achieve day after day. Whether its the flooding trains or bustling buses or the beeline of screeching autos...
And yet again, this very time which Mumbaikars spend travelling is the easiest way of getting a taste of 'Basic Instincts'. Not in the context of the famous movie ;) but something truly very basic, the 'instinct of survival'. I can truly make a strong argument against the director's claim for I truly believe that survival is the most basic instinct although the one conveyed in the legendary movie comes a very close second! :)
It is a state of Nirvana...the only thing u are capable of remembering at that point of time is that u are alive!!
So ,in a way, the city tests u every day and u have to prove your worth each day to the city, then only u can wear the prestigious tag of a 'Mumbaikar' and once you get the tag, its not easy, in fact almost impossible, to give the tag away.
So a true Mumbaikar loves his city like a man loves his long married wife....he curses her, he argues with her, dreams of prettier women he could have got married to, even has a few flings here and there but finally knows no other arms where he can peacefully sleep. He enjoys the flings but each time realises the worth of his own wife and draws closer to her.
Rajkapoor must have had this city in mind when he sung the song 'Jeena yahaan, marna yahaan, iske siva jaana kahaan...' in his insightful creation 'Mera naam Joker'. So, then what does the city offer to the Mumbaikar.
And a Mumbaikar myself, I can just feel, not really express, what the city has to offer for all the hurdles it presents. I can speak of it being the only city in the world which is a country's financial capital with 3 lakes, a national park, a mountain range, beaches, a naval base and port with the most accomodating people ever. But truly it is not just all this which defines the city, there is something more to it which I can't really express which differentiates itself from any other place on the planet. Think it is the soul...
The city's got a soul!!
But, it got me thinking about my own feelings about Mumbai.
Mumbai is a city of cities and there are thousands of worlds within this world, so what is the essence of Mumbai and is there an essence after all?
Well, my first impulse (and i still feel that) was that there is something about Mumbai, and its not the look, not the smell, not how the people dress, not the money, not the buildings, but something more sublime which instantly tells u that u are in Mumbai. Its the same feeling which u get on meeting a fellow Mumbaikar in a different city or country. So, I came to a conclusion that the city must have a soul, which gives it its essence!
Every city is made of numerous microcosms of itself each with its own flavor but there is only one soul to the city! The 'soul', like a halo, glows around the diverse flavors and colors which garnish the city. And no city exemplifies this better than 'Mumbai'.
So, the first thing about Mumbai and a Mumbaikar is their love for each other, a 'love' so different from any other known in the world...
Well, lets just accept the fact that its not easy to live in Mumbai and yet in a strange way it is truly 'a city with a life'. I mean Mumbaikars spend a quarter of their lives travelling and 'travelling' is a euphemism for a much more arduous feat which only Mumbaikars can achieve day after day. Whether its the flooding trains or bustling buses or the beeline of screeching autos...
And yet again, this very time which Mumbaikars spend travelling is the easiest way of getting a taste of 'Basic Instincts'. Not in the context of the famous movie ;) but something truly very basic, the 'instinct of survival'. I can truly make a strong argument against the director's claim for I truly believe that survival is the most basic instinct although the one conveyed in the legendary movie comes a very close second! :)
It is a state of Nirvana...the only thing u are capable of remembering at that point of time is that u are alive!!
So ,in a way, the city tests u every day and u have to prove your worth each day to the city, then only u can wear the prestigious tag of a 'Mumbaikar' and once you get the tag, its not easy, in fact almost impossible, to give the tag away.
So a true Mumbaikar loves his city like a man loves his long married wife....he curses her, he argues with her, dreams of prettier women he could have got married to, even has a few flings here and there but finally knows no other arms where he can peacefully sleep. He enjoys the flings but each time realises the worth of his own wife and draws closer to her.
Rajkapoor must have had this city in mind when he sung the song 'Jeena yahaan, marna yahaan, iske siva jaana kahaan...' in his insightful creation 'Mera naam Joker'. So, then what does the city offer to the Mumbaikar.
And a Mumbaikar myself, I can just feel, not really express, what the city has to offer for all the hurdles it presents. I can speak of it being the only city in the world which is a country's financial capital with 3 lakes, a national park, a mountain range, beaches, a naval base and port with the most accomodating people ever. But truly it is not just all this which defines the city, there is something more to it which I can't really express which differentiates itself from any other place on the planet. Think it is the soul...
The city's got a soul!!
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