“Searching and learning is a process of remembering…………… and I, believing this to be true, am ready to search with you what virtue is.”
Plato,
Meno 81d
Touche!
Plato,
Meno 81d
Touche!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
For my poor girlfriends!
For all my girlfriends who agonize over their boyfriends... Here's a lil something darlings!!!
All women think they know what men really want. All of them believe they know what men want just because they’ve been ditched by some airhead (also read as airhead or sniffling idiot) or handed out a rough sentence sometime in life by a man.
Their assumption of what men want is the following:
1) Topping the list is obviously the usual; SEX
2) A bunch of equally desperate nutheads to hang out with.
3) Free alcohol.
4) Good hair! (Oops, I can almost hear the guys say, Ouch!)
5) A beach house in Goa.
But hey, guess what when I was given this assignment, I did what people seldom do. I THOUGHT!
I asked myself, “What do men really want?”
And that prompted me to go on an ‘ask-all-your-guy-friends-about-it’ spree.
I did encounter loads of quizzical expressions and half-joking replies and even some raised eyebrows when some guys tried to size-up my intentions.(Ha ha at that!) But at the end of it all, I finally got the elusive answer to what men really want.
And guess what! It’s not very different from what you and I want (and I mean the chicks.)
So here goes the result of some painstaking albeit fun research.
What men really want:
1) A successful and pretty wife.
2) A good career. (Also read as MONEY)
3) Fame/ Recognition.
4) A good set of friends.
5) Regular road trips and a great car tied for this spot.
Well, This is exactly what every metropolitan girl (like yours truly) wants. So, I guess that just sort of puts the guys in the clear. Way to go guys. I knew you’d be vindicated some day.
(P.S.: What women really need though is to get over themselves and get a life instead of agonizing over what men really want!)
All women think they know what men really want. All of them believe they know what men want just because they’ve been ditched by some airhead (also read as airhead or sniffling idiot) or handed out a rough sentence sometime in life by a man.
Their assumption of what men want is the following:
1) Topping the list is obviously the usual; SEX
2) A bunch of equally desperate nutheads to hang out with.
3) Free alcohol.
4) Good hair! (Oops, I can almost hear the guys say, Ouch!)
5) A beach house in Goa.
But hey, guess what when I was given this assignment, I did what people seldom do. I THOUGHT!
I asked myself, “What do men really want?”
And that prompted me to go on an ‘ask-all-your-guy-friends-about-it’ spree.
I did encounter loads of quizzical expressions and half-joking replies and even some raised eyebrows when some guys tried to size-up my intentions.(Ha ha at that!) But at the end of it all, I finally got the elusive answer to what men really want.
And guess what! It’s not very different from what you and I want (and I mean the chicks.)
So here goes the result of some painstaking albeit fun research.
What men really want:
1) A successful and pretty wife.
2) A good career. (Also read as MONEY)
3) Fame/ Recognition.
4) A good set of friends.
5) Regular road trips and a great car tied for this spot.
Well, This is exactly what every metropolitan girl (like yours truly) wants. So, I guess that just sort of puts the guys in the clear. Way to go guys. I knew you’d be vindicated some day.
(P.S.: What women really need though is to get over themselves and get a life instead of agonizing over what men really want!)
Apni Paathshala!
Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.-Vaclav Havel
There are ways of thinking and there are means of doing. This applies to everything that we wish to achieve but have shelved for lack of time or effort. One concept that is always sacrificed at the altar of personal gain is the initiative to make a difference to the condition of the world today. The same appalling state of affairs that is now fashionable to balk at in dinner table conversations. Strapped safely into our jaded, cynical lives that is. So what are you doing for your world today? Why your world, your country or your neighbourhood for that matter? Only questions you say? No answers? No point in that eh? Well here goes then!
What I believe we need to do, is to educate one child at least and motivate that child to live, to create the truly wonderful thing that children are capable of creating in their lives; meaning. How often have we rolled our windows up in disdain at the shabby appearance of the boy selling flowers at the traffic signal or muttered something about pity or worse yet asked him, “Aye yeh sab kya karta hai, school jana chahiye!”? Don’t even bother answering that. But give it a thought.
In other episodes, we may have very graciously given clothes our children have grown out of to the children we see walking around close to the building. We believe we have done our good deed for the day and in some way improved their lives. But how do these mindless acts of so-called charity contribute to their lives? DO you really believe that these children care how they’re dressed? Well maybe in a superficial sense they do but what they really want is to be acknowledged as a success story, not a statistic! They want to be known by their names, live in houses like you and I, have a family to live with. That’s what they really want and need.
So why can’t we with all our haloed existences provide this kind of environment to one child? All we’re talking about is some time and even lesser money. But a lot of will; will to not give up in the face of the child’s resistance to your efforts to make contact with him or her. Most of these children, by this time in their lives, have seen things more scary than people like us will see in a lifetime. They develop a natural mistrust of people and refuse to believe that good does indeed exist somewhere in the world and that not everyone has ulterior motives behind giving them an opportunity to do something.
The statistics with reference to destitute children in India belong to the Stone Age. While one may endeavour to do something positive for these children, one doesn’t even know the extent of this problem. Thankfully, child labour laws have been revised to extend childhood to the age of 18. But this has also been done in a fashion that has affected the children adversely as many of them were then employed by employers as illegal workers and hence paid much less.
So what can you do? Take the time out for one child. Just one person more in the crazy scheme of your life. DO something! Don’t just sit there, look on and wonder what’s wrong with our world. Maybe, just maybe, YOU are the problem!
Note: To all those who felt even a twinge of emotion as you read this, the BMM class of 2007 ran a program in their first year called “Paathshala” that was a summer school for destitute children who live around the college. This project was privately funded by sponsorship garnered from a major corporation in the city. The program was a huge success and also contributed tremendously to the personal careers of several students (including, yours truly). However, the program was discontinued because of lack of initiative and left the children high and dry. But in the course of conducting the program we discovered that the children had a lot of potential to make it where we have and more. Very often, I’m asked by those children, “Didi, school kab chalu hoga?” and I have to look into their hopeful eyes and feel distraught and say that I have no idea, probably never. But YOU can change this! You can make Paathshala happen again. You can make it a reality, an institution, an initiative, an effort. You can make it anything you want it to be. You can make it yours. Do any of you have it in you? To dream? To create? If you do, I’m calling out to you to reach within you to make this happen. If you feel you can do it, I believe in you and trust me you’ll be glad you did.
There are ways of thinking and there are means of doing. This applies to everything that we wish to achieve but have shelved for lack of time or effort. One concept that is always sacrificed at the altar of personal gain is the initiative to make a difference to the condition of the world today. The same appalling state of affairs that is now fashionable to balk at in dinner table conversations. Strapped safely into our jaded, cynical lives that is. So what are you doing for your world today? Why your world, your country or your neighbourhood for that matter? Only questions you say? No answers? No point in that eh? Well here goes then!
What I believe we need to do, is to educate one child at least and motivate that child to live, to create the truly wonderful thing that children are capable of creating in their lives; meaning. How often have we rolled our windows up in disdain at the shabby appearance of the boy selling flowers at the traffic signal or muttered something about pity or worse yet asked him, “Aye yeh sab kya karta hai, school jana chahiye!”? Don’t even bother answering that. But give it a thought.
In other episodes, we may have very graciously given clothes our children have grown out of to the children we see walking around close to the building. We believe we have done our good deed for the day and in some way improved their lives. But how do these mindless acts of so-called charity contribute to their lives? DO you really believe that these children care how they’re dressed? Well maybe in a superficial sense they do but what they really want is to be acknowledged as a success story, not a statistic! They want to be known by their names, live in houses like you and I, have a family to live with. That’s what they really want and need.
So why can’t we with all our haloed existences provide this kind of environment to one child? All we’re talking about is some time and even lesser money. But a lot of will; will to not give up in the face of the child’s resistance to your efforts to make contact with him or her. Most of these children, by this time in their lives, have seen things more scary than people like us will see in a lifetime. They develop a natural mistrust of people and refuse to believe that good does indeed exist somewhere in the world and that not everyone has ulterior motives behind giving them an opportunity to do something.
The statistics with reference to destitute children in India belong to the Stone Age. While one may endeavour to do something positive for these children, one doesn’t even know the extent of this problem. Thankfully, child labour laws have been revised to extend childhood to the age of 18. But this has also been done in a fashion that has affected the children adversely as many of them were then employed by employers as illegal workers and hence paid much less.
So what can you do? Take the time out for one child. Just one person more in the crazy scheme of your life. DO something! Don’t just sit there, look on and wonder what’s wrong with our world. Maybe, just maybe, YOU are the problem!
Note: To all those who felt even a twinge of emotion as you read this, the BMM class of 2007 ran a program in their first year called “Paathshala” that was a summer school for destitute children who live around the college. This project was privately funded by sponsorship garnered from a major corporation in the city. The program was a huge success and also contributed tremendously to the personal careers of several students (including, yours truly). However, the program was discontinued because of lack of initiative and left the children high and dry. But in the course of conducting the program we discovered that the children had a lot of potential to make it where we have and more. Very often, I’m asked by those children, “Didi, school kab chalu hoga?” and I have to look into their hopeful eyes and feel distraught and say that I have no idea, probably never. But YOU can change this! You can make Paathshala happen again. You can make it a reality, an institution, an initiative, an effort. You can make it anything you want it to be. You can make it yours. Do any of you have it in you? To dream? To create? If you do, I’m calling out to you to reach within you to make this happen. If you feel you can do it, I believe in you and trust me you’ll be glad you did.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Shirley
It was 14 years today. Fourteen years since we’d got Tubby. Tubby was a puppy then. He’s a big dog now. Nothing’s changed in this house since. Nothing at all except….
The walls which were once white are now an indistinct shade of yellow still spattered with long-dried drops of blood. The plants which were once green are now a fossilized cursory reminder that they hung there. The house which was once full of a bustling population of 14 people is now a haunted shell with a ghastly aura. It was fourteen years today”, I thought to myself.
How long does it take to forget that your whole family once visualized its life here? That you once had a whole houseful of people where you were a mere non-entity? What does it feel like to be the survivor, the chosen one?
I’m Shirley, Shirley Bernstein, sorry to sound so Bond-like but I’ve always wanted to be able to say it like that. Have I been thinking aloud again? I’m sorry for blabbering on like that without telling you what I was talking about. You see it’s just this place that gets to me. I’ve lived here ever since they took me away from my house. And good riddance I’d say. They never even remembered me there. It’s nice here. Airy, warm, comfortable. You just have to press a button to let them know you want something. But there’s something I don’t like around here. They all whisper around me. I wonder why. There’s always this hushed silence. I have neighbors though. Lots of them. Twenty on this floor alone they say. I don’t know how they are though. Sometimes, when they make a lot of noise, those awful blue men have to come to make them be quiet. An unholy cacophony, my mother would’ve said. She always said Mark was a nice boy. He never made any noise or messed around like the other kids. I never paid any attention to her. There are no favourites around here. Sometimes I think they don’t like any of us. Sometimes, I think. Actually I think it’s just me. I think too much, they tell me. I should rest more often. My mother never knew that. It was always Sherry do this, Sherry do that. I hated even the sound of that name. That was the only time she ever noticed me. How I hated all of them each and every one of them. They tell me I torched 12, Cherry Tree lane. Mighty funny thing to say: torched. Humpf! What do they know about anything? I liked Nina. She was a little doll then. Only 8 months old. I would’ve liked to get her out of the inferno but those ghastly Smiths next door. They didn’t let me. Maybe it was her fate, maybe she deserved it. Maybe she’d tortured someone else somewhere.
Bang, bang! “Do you have any justification to offer in defence of your actions?”
I hadn’t said anything then. But then they knew everything. The judge was looking at me with my mother’s eyes.
“We all get what we deserve in the end. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” That’s what my mother would’ve said.
The judge said, “Guilty!”
The walls which were once white are now an indistinct shade of yellow still spattered with long-dried drops of blood. The plants which were once green are now a fossilized cursory reminder that they hung there. The house which was once full of a bustling population of 14 people is now a haunted shell with a ghastly aura. It was fourteen years today”, I thought to myself.
How long does it take to forget that your whole family once visualized its life here? That you once had a whole houseful of people where you were a mere non-entity? What does it feel like to be the survivor, the chosen one?
I’m Shirley, Shirley Bernstein, sorry to sound so Bond-like but I’ve always wanted to be able to say it like that. Have I been thinking aloud again? I’m sorry for blabbering on like that without telling you what I was talking about. You see it’s just this place that gets to me. I’ve lived here ever since they took me away from my house. And good riddance I’d say. They never even remembered me there. It’s nice here. Airy, warm, comfortable. You just have to press a button to let them know you want something. But there’s something I don’t like around here. They all whisper around me. I wonder why. There’s always this hushed silence. I have neighbors though. Lots of them. Twenty on this floor alone they say. I don’t know how they are though. Sometimes, when they make a lot of noise, those awful blue men have to come to make them be quiet. An unholy cacophony, my mother would’ve said. She always said Mark was a nice boy. He never made any noise or messed around like the other kids. I never paid any attention to her. There are no favourites around here. Sometimes I think they don’t like any of us. Sometimes, I think. Actually I think it’s just me. I think too much, they tell me. I should rest more often. My mother never knew that. It was always Sherry do this, Sherry do that. I hated even the sound of that name. That was the only time she ever noticed me. How I hated all of them each and every one of them. They tell me I torched 12, Cherry Tree lane. Mighty funny thing to say: torched. Humpf! What do they know about anything? I liked Nina. She was a little doll then. Only 8 months old. I would’ve liked to get her out of the inferno but those ghastly Smiths next door. They didn’t let me. Maybe it was her fate, maybe she deserved it. Maybe she’d tortured someone else somewhere.
Bang, bang! “Do you have any justification to offer in defence of your actions?”
I hadn’t said anything then. But then they knew everything. The judge was looking at me with my mother’s eyes.
“We all get what we deserve in the end. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” That’s what my mother would’ve said.
The judge said, “Guilty!”
Friday, January 12, 2007
If I had just one more chance....
If I had just one more chance
I would go back to where I was
Before I strayed.
I've had my share of speaking
I've had my say
And who would've thought
Realization
Would come so soon this way.
I'd never thought that I would ever be
SO full of apology.
The sun is already coming up
But inside it feels like midnight
Without even the reassuring
Dim light of the moon in sight.
It's been a long time...
Since I last put my head on your chest
Felt your breath heave in and out.
Been a longer time
Since I've been your shoulder
To rest your day on.
All those moments
Which I reasoned were forever
Seem like
They were never
Yours or mine to keep...
Oh! If only I had just one more chance....
I would go back to where I was
Before I strayed.
I've had my share of speaking
I've had my say
And who would've thought
Realization
Would come so soon this way.
I'd never thought that I would ever be
SO full of apology.
The sun is already coming up
But inside it feels like midnight
Without even the reassuring
Dim light of the moon in sight.
It's been a long time...
Since I last put my head on your chest
Felt your breath heave in and out.
Been a longer time
Since I've been your shoulder
To rest your day on.
All those moments
Which I reasoned were forever
Seem like
They were never
Yours or mine to keep...
Oh! If only I had just one more chance....
Monday, January 08, 2007
To Infinity and Beyond!
For You....
I only have to close my eyes and I can see
How you intend to take me farther than I can see
To infinity and beyond, my love
Maybe beyond the ends of the earth
Unfathomable but true
Is how I feel for you
Unknowing and perhaps uncaring
About what I need from you
But I don't have to worry
For you remember what I need
You fulfill my dreams, even before
I close my eyes to dream
Oh! For the light of day to never come
So the beauty of our souls
Shines only with the light inside
A love that the world hasn't known
I couldn't have thought I'd wait so long
So hard or even so longingly
For you to come back and soon
For you to run to me
Every second I have with you
Is something that God gave to me
A favour in return for
A little goodness I hope to do
I wish for the dream to never end
I wish to wish to go to infinity
To the end.....
For You....
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