You've got mail!

My mom keeps telling me, you might stay in touch on twitter, facebook, email whatever, but the pleasure of exchanging letters and postcards is incomparable. Till last year I used to laugh it off saying she must be kidding, who writes letters dude? And with Indian Postal Services if a person is in hospital a letter will reach you probably after the person is dead. So email is quick, convenient and user-friendly. And no one uses a telegram nowadays (I don’t even think it exists). A simple SMS and you are sorted.

But as I said, till last year. One of my very good friends left Mumbai last year for VNIT Nagpur. The college might be great, but dude, Nagpur?? I don’t know what made him take that college, but he did, eventually. Well to start with hostellers in first year don’t have net access. (Nagpur, see I told you). Secondly when you live in a hostel you don’t have the “daddy paid” landline. You have to call with your own money or probably sneak your roomies cell who sneaked yours to call his girlfriend the previous night.

So when my friend told me he would write to keep in touch, i was baffled.

Me: “Write as in mails right?            

Ankur: “No, letters”

Me: Arre seriously say na? Mail or FB inbox.

Ankur: Mail like post. And I’ll probably send a pigeon with it. I‘ll write letters to you stupid. And you are supposed to reply back.

Me: Wtf?? Are you serious? Well, Umm... Ok let’s see

It’s been a year since Ankur left and I still have all 8 letters written by him carefully preserved. I anticipate his letter more than anything else. Every time his letter comes it’s like the arrival of a little packet of joy. It’s like a treasure which I die to open. What happened to the auditions he was talking about? That new NRI girl who had befriended only him in the entire batch? His college festival; how did that go? When is he coming next? In his last letter he had mentioned he had met with an accident. Today his letter saying he was totally fine finally arrived. Phew!

There was an initial awkwardness when I earlier used to reply him back, but eventually I started liking rather enjoying the whole process. I started waiting for his letter. If it took more than 15 days I would get paranoid and call his mom and ask (we will talk strictly on letters, he had told me). The whole process of rushing to the courier guy to see your name on the envelope, receiving it, carefully opening the letter so as to not damage it, seeing his beautiful handwriting, reading his letter, re-reading it, again reading it to decide the reply, carefully selecting which font to use to reply him back (my handwriting is illegible, that’s why). This is a wonderful process in itself which many of us haven’t experienced.

 I now agree with my mom. We might tweet and FB inbox. But the overall joy of receiving and sending a letter is unparalleled. Thanks buddy for giving me this wonderful experience. I wish you a speedy recovery! J

Men! Hmpf!

I have often been fascinated by Men’s Psychology. What they say and what they mean. What you say and what they perceive. You say hi, they think let’s be friends, you say let’s be friends, they say she called me for dinner, you call for dinner they think you wanna take them to bed, you wanna take them to bed, they might probably ‘price’ you.

Men say women are complicated. I think men are so complicated within themselves that they fail to understand women. Majority of my fights with my boyfriends and other men in my life have been due to their inability to understand things or being over- presumptuous about issues. You ask your random friend to meet you and he says “Hey it’s just a meet haan, I am not trying to impress you”. Ya right, I was anyways going to pay for my coffee, if that’s what you wanted to hear.”

I agree women act dumb at times, but men are dumber most of the times. They can be much more kiddish and much more stupid than any other women on the planet. Be it 75 or 25, they want to be pampered like a 2 year old. And they sulk like one if they are not.

There are all kinds of men, the mumma’s boy, the naughty kind, the gadget freak, the metrosexual etc etc. But well however they are, men are adorable.  Whatever they are, men will be men, and we will continue our love hate relationship with what they are. Had there been no Mr Big, who would have lifted Carrie Bradshaw on her Jimmy Choos? What both sexes need to understand is that they should both complement and understand each other. Men do have a hard time in understanding women but women go equally berserk when men decide to go into their shell. So please, be more considerate, you let us in, and we will let ourselves out.

Anyways that’s my opinion, you figure out your own

Smile if you like it, laugh if you don’t J

War of the Sexes

 For centuries this question has time and again intrigued us, baffled us, often without answer and resulted in the classic debate. “Who are better, men or women?” Well I am no one to provide answer to this age old debate, but from my personal experiences and observations I’ve come to one basic conclusion. Men are better, when it comes to formulating plans and women are better when it comes to executing them. Men are lazy, incompetent when it comes to executing their brilliant idea. While women at the same time can’t think of something extraordinary but can carry it out with brilliance. Both are equally necessary. Perhaps that’s why women make for great managers.

It is said behind every man there is the hand of a woman. Said, not questioned. It is a fact that while women are physically weak, men are emotionally weak. How many women have we seen suicide or turn insane after their boyfriends dumped them? And how many men have we seen broken down, dejected, drugged, doped etc after a girl ‘left’ them. If men are supposed to be courageous, daring and strong, it is women they derive their mental strength from. They need someone to come back home and vent out their true self to, their mistakes and disappointments, the little things that make them happy etc. 

 And the fact holds true always. However strong or authoritative a guy is, a women’s smile can melt even the toughest of hearts, unless you are gay of course. A woman on one hand can bring out the truest of emotions in a man while on the other hand set him to vindication, all with her charm. Notice it anywhere the greatest Hindu epics ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ both were centralized on a woman. From overtaking kingdoms to companies, wherever men appear in the front, a woman in most of the cases has an important role, usually greater, to play in the backdrop. For anything to maintain its balance, for creation and destruction, you need an alter ego or counter-part to vent out to.

The association of the two genders on earth is more mutual than selfish. It’s a symbiotic relationship where one is the climber and other provides support.

Anyways that’s my opinion, you figure your own

Smile if you like it, laugh if you don’t J

Love and Sex and Magic!

Food, water, clothing, shelter and sex are human beings basic requirements. Oh yes I used the three-letter-word but yes it is. Any person who has attained puberty needs some kind of sexual pleasure along with emotional and physical requirements. It’s not that you will die without sex but yes after a certain age frustration or dissatisfaction will definitely creep in. And people can go to any lengths to cure that dissatisfaction.

Coming back to the basic requirements, for everyone Mom is the best cook. Everyone is brand-conscious. Everyone prefers mineral over regular water. Home is more comforting than the luxuries of the best hotels. But when you are away, you can’t carry Mom everywhere. If Westside doesn’t have your size on a particular day, doesn’t mean you won’t shift to Globus in urgency. Same is the case with sex. I am not saying if you don’t have a girlfriend when you are away means that you will sleep with someone else.  I am just saying it happens. And if it does that doesn’t mean you don’t love your girlfriend.

Love and sex are two different things. It’s great if you get sex from the same person you love, but more often than not you can get intimate with a person you don’t love. Intimacy is not the measure of love. Love is way too strong a feeling to be compared to the mere requirements of intimacy. Sex is needed. Love happens. So physical attraction towards someone and love towards someone else can happen. And that doesn’t stop you from loving that person. These are two different feelings which can happen for different people at one time. Yes but if the attraction part, if any, takes over love then you know it spells trouble.

So it’s not that if you have got lunch from your place you can’t eat out. Of course you can, perhaps Mom will feel bad, but she loves you and you love her back, she will understand. That’s the logic behind love and sex. We all love our dog, maybe even more than our siblings..but well..err...I hope you get the drift.

Anyway that’s my opinion, you figure out your own

Smile if you like it, laugh if you don’t J

You Sow, You Reap-Its Generally the Same

As I said in the previous blog, every matter has antimatter. Nature has a balancing mechanism by which it takes care that if something is gone, it will manifest itself in some other way, but come back. It’s prevalent in many forms. Life and death, joy and sorrow, earth and sky. Nature makes sure that if there is something, its opposite has to exist. I believe it’s not if you do well to a person that the same person will do well to you. Of course, unless its sheer coincidence, which is highly unlikely in most cases, this is technically impossible. But what I am sure about it is something good will happen be it through somebody or something.

There must’ve been many instances in all of our lives when we must seen the whole world collapsing and felt that Why? Why is this happening to me? But what we fail to see is there must’ve been many instances when we must have felt that I don’t believe it’s happening with me . We think the night is long but we fail to see the calm and serene winters with them.

So from next time try it. Pick a guinea from the road and trust me sooner or later you ll either misplace your own money or might just lose it somewhere. Try bargaining with the shopkeeper and give him 25 rupees less, the next time your own chappal will break. At every stage in life, there is no such thing as “just” and “unjust”. Whatever happens, happens as a result of one’s own deeds. And the 50% balance will always remain. If you eat, you need to shit too.

Anyways that’s my opinion, you figure your own

Smile if you like it, laugh if you don’t J

Change, Is Good

Most of the people I know around me are very averse to change. Everyone is happy living his life the same way they have been living since 20 years. The same house, the same city, same Khanna-aunty-who-had-a-hot-daughter-who-is-fat-and-married-now, same newspaper, same local channels etc etc. I can go on with list of things which many find comforting but I simply put as “boring” or mundane for words worth.

My dad has a transferrable job; hence this love for change came naturally to me. (I didn’t have an option actually, did I?). I spent every second summer in a new school, new friends, new city, new neighbourhood. I ve lived in 7 cities all across north India and studied in 7 schools. I still have all 7 of those uniforms, trust me. I have become so adept rather used to change now that Bombay has begun losing its charm. The earlier cities were big, but not as big as Bombay. So after 4 years when the exploration part was over, I felt worn out. And queries to my dad began.

Me: “When are we going to shift? Weren’t you supposed to move to Pune, Bangalore etc etc.”

Papa (opens his mouth, mom interrupts). So, Mom: No I am not shifting. We are so well settled here. Don’t even talk about all this.

Period

As much as the Gemini in me loves change, the Virgo in my mom hates it(it’s only a mother -daughter thing, Virgos are perhaps sweet otherwise :P) She always wanted this one house, one garden, one 18 year old banyan tree which she must’ve probably planted when I was born, same Khanna-aunty-who-had-a-hot-daughter-who-is-fat-and-married-now,perhaps for all her life. I mean I don’t understand how can people not get bored? There are so many things to explore in this world, how can you restrict yourself to one?

I agree there are many downsides to it. I don’t even remember the place where I took my first steps. No childhood teachers to give cards on teacher’s day. The best friends whom I made in my junior and senior school are all away from me. But at the same time I am lucky to have friends in places all across India. By making new friends and acquaintances every two years I am not shy to make new friends at all. I’ve lived in more cities than most of my friends have even visited.

Change for me is inevitable. Be it moving on from a certain place or a certain thing. It’s very hard, I agree, but I believe the future is always better. So change is good.

Anyways that’s my opinion, you figure your own

Smile if you like it, laugh if you don’t J

Hello Blogspot!

Well, ok, fine, hey! Yeah thats actually my state of mind before writing this blog or maybe this is what it is  perpetually. Tripping and falling, jumping and a coupla broken bones here and there. Well so m clueless about what actly to write. My friends told me a blog is an article where u can write anything and everything that comes to your mind and express it at a portal. I was quite happy and surprised by this definition as i being a gemini LOOVE to communicate. i mean i can talk forever. so i was really happy to find a portal where i can utilize my non stop banter in a constructive manner. But frankly what surprised me at the same time was that in a place where we live in, hardly is our freedom of expression expressed in the rite manner. There is so much noise around that everything is taken in a completely contradictory manner altogether. How often have you come across situations like "dude i wont be able to make it to the party, please tell priya" .On the party priya asks " pratik where's avni?" pratik : Oh she told me she cant make it. dint she tell you? . I dont know if its done on purpose or maybe due to sheer carelessness, but i feel that if miscommunication or maybe noise is removed from our conversations then perhaps we would have less people to fight with. Perhaps there will be less of " he said that, are u serious. I really dint expect him to say that" n so on and so forth.


And here i am having finished my first blog. Trust me the awkwardness was the same as the first few dates. But maybe like facebook i ll get a hang of stuff and then the shyness may disappear!

P.S.Neways quite some philo stuff to start blogging with but might put some people to think. I hope lighter stuff will follow :)