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October 19th, 2007
11:14 am The heart wants to go to Paris. Beautiful picturesque Paris.
Current Location: Bangalore Current Mood: amused
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June 4th, 2007
01:17 pm - Run for Hope! I need support! I need all my friends at the St. Joseph's Indian High School at 8:30 am on the 10th of June for Run for Hope! More info
If you guys would like to help Lovedale and me by selling tickets in your respective companies, it would be great. Leave me a comment and we would ensure that you have posters and tickets to sell at your doorstep!
Hope to see you all there! Current Mood: excited
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March 12th, 2007
02:26 pm Some call it faith, some call it love. Some call it guidance from above. You are the reason we found ours, So thank you stars.
I was listening to the song.With my eyes closed, in the closed confines of an airplane. Isn't it funny how some songs bring back moments out of time. The image of two hands clasped. I see the lines etched across the surface of a palm and as i trace them with my fingers a feeling of contentment washes over me. I am happy. I am involved in a whirlwind of activities and amidst the chatter and no time to breathe, there are moments like this which make me thankful for life and love.
After a very long time, I am not beset with the whys and the hows. What is there instead is an energy. An energy which makes me a cause in the matter of my existence. And not an effect controlled by circumstances. It feels good. It makes me laugh! Current Location: Bangalore Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Katie Melua- Thank you,Stars
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December 22nd, 2006
10:46 am I was watching an advertisement for pens. I think it was the linc ad. The ad was something about change and India. About how we will change India. A place where a woman will not be sold and raped to compensate for another woman's honor. A place where every child will go to school instead of washing dishes. A place where I will not sit, and think that by donating some money my responsibility to who I am, is over. Where I will not be so embroiled in "me, me , me, me" that apart from me nothing else would seem important. I sat there thinking all this when something from a long long time ago came to me...a couplet..which goes... Awr bhi dukh hain zamane mein muhabbat ke siwa, Rahatein awr bhi hain vasl ki rahat ke siwa, Mujh se paihili si muhabbat meri mehboob na mang.
I do not want to change, for wanting to change never really made things different. I am going to create something new. Give life to a possibility.Make a difference for "Awr bhi dukh hain zamane mein muhabbat ke siwa" Current Location: Bangalore, India Current Mood: peaceful Current Music: Inner chatter.
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November 7th, 2006
12:11 pm Human Beings are quite funny!
What is it about us, that makes us treat people we care about with such arrant callousness? While in the same situation if a stranger were around, one would be more considerate.
On the flip side what is it about us, that makes us so eager to judge and hang, draw and quarter people we care about with such righteousness? In the same situation if a stranger were around, one wouldn't care a damn! Current Location: Bangalore Current Mood: weird Current Music: The little voice in my head
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August 17th, 2006
11:00 pm - Travel ramblings I am sitting at the Rome Station waiting for my 11:50 pm train to Nice Ville. I am tired and the tiredness is overwhelming.So i plug in my earphones . The song that is playing is " She is always a woman to me". I listen to the song and a memory unfurls. It brings a smile . I leave the tiredness behind. I find myself as pillion on a motorbike, riding in the dark. Talking about songs . This is one of his favourite songs. As i listen to this song I am happy and I hope he finds happiness as well.
Rome was good. I had a fun time walking the wide streets of the Vatican first and then Rome. Seeing the Sistine Chapel made worthwhile the three hours I stood in line to enter the Vatican Museums. 15th was a holiday here, some religious thing. Hence Italians from all over the country came to the Vatican and stayed on to see the Chapel!
Seeing Rome in a day doesn't make sense to a lot of people. But I saw what I came for. The realisation of a much loved Novel - Agony amd Ecstacy. As i stood in St. Peter's Basillica looking at the Pieta, trying to find Michaelangelo's signature(which is impossible) and later gazing at the Sistine Chapel, I felt has if I had accomplished something.
Rome though is a city filled with lovers. From teenagers to backpackers to sixty year olds if not older.Couples hold hands and walk here. I was sitting close to the city centre, people watching and day dreaming. Spinning yarns made of fantasy and love and sitting there doing nothing felt just right.
My song ends and i come back to the present, to the sounds of a train approaching. As the train stops infront of me, I look inside the coupe infront. There is an Indian couple sitting inside it. They look out and are surprised to see the only Indian on an Italina station at 11:00 o'clock at night. I enjoy that look on their face and then I smile at the girl. The girl smiles back. It feels good to see an indian face. The train moves on and i am left with a pleasant feeling. Current Location: Rome, Italy Current Mood: calm
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July 7th, 2006
09:17 am - Dancing in the dark There is something about this song. It makes me want to jump up with joy and dance till i can't breathe. I was feeling lonely 5 minutes back. Not now.
"You can't start a fire, worried about your little world falling apart, This gun's for hire, even if we are just dancing in the dark"
It makes me smile. It makes me realise my problems are small in comparison. They are not problems. Just a bundle of worries and what ifs... the speculation that makes life interesting.
It is a dark miasma. It sometime surrounds me like a lover's embrace. At other times it touches me by leaving me with a feeling of sadness. Fleeting but tangible. At times I wish I could go 5 years in my future and see where I am, what I am doing and with whom I am.:-) The present never was this confusing. Or probably it always was, but in retrospect the past seems simpler.
I have written and now it is time to change the song.
" Chalte chalte" from pakeeza... There is a line there as well ....
"Chalte chalte yuhi koi mil gaya tha, saare raah chalte chalte Wohi tham ke rah gayi hai meri raat dhalte dhalte" Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Dancing in teh dak/Chalte chalter
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May 15th, 2006
10:53 pm - Time to move on my crazy diamond I get up in the evening and I ain't got nothing to say I come home in the morning I go to bed feeling the same way I ain't nothing but tired Man I'm just tired and bored with myself Hey there baby, I could use just a little help
You can't start a fire You can't start a fire without a spark This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark
Message keeps getting clearer radio's on and I'm moving 'round the place I check my look in the mirror I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face Man I ain't getting nowhere I'm just living in a dump like this There's something happening somewhere baby I just know that there is
You can't start a fire you can't start a fire without a spark This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark
You sit around getting older there's a joke here somewhere and it's on me I'll shake this world off my shoulders come on baby this laugh's on me
Stay on the streets of this town and they'll be carving you up alright They say you gotta stay hungry hey baby I'm just about starving tonight I'm dying for some action I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book I need a love reaction come on now baby gimme just one look
You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart This gun's for hire Even if we're just dancing in the dark You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart This gun's for hire Even if we're just dancing in the dark Even if we're just dancing in the dark Even if we're just dancing in the dark Even if we're just dancing in the dark Hey baby
-Bruce Springsteen Current Music: Dancing in the Dark
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April 17th, 2006
12:26 am I lie down. Close my eyes. I am choked with feelings. Tumultuous and overwhelming. SO much of it that I panic at times. But there are times when I look at you and I am plain thankful. Irrespective of whether it will last or whether it will wither away with time, I am blessed today. I count my blessings. Sleep doesn't come easily. Hence I am up and writing it all down. Storing it, making it a part of my brimful of asha and my world entire. Current Location: Bangalore, India Current Mood: mellow Current Music: The whirring of the fan
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December 22nd, 2005
12:02 pm I sit staring at my computer trying to solve a problem, when my mind suddenly blanks out.It starts thinking about open spaces and blue skies. The fresh air of mountains. Freedom and peace.
The enclosed spaces of my office, my town, my life is slowly strangling me. I want to sit at the steps of a fast moving train and feel part of the movement.Feel the exhilaration as my body and the air around fight for the same space. Feel alive. Feel the thrill of exploration as I land at a not before visted place. And the freedom of it all.
Today I want to be the eternal traveller. Current Mood: awake Current Music: Rang de Basanti
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November 23rd, 2005
04:35 pm
It is an old house.Time is old. She is sitting in the middle of a huge verandah. With her ghughat half covering her face, she tries to look out. Outside the threshold. Waiting for the familiar sound of his footsteps. There is a rythmn inside her. The bubbling laughter contained. The dance that is there ...waiting to come out. Waiting for a glimpse. For a confirmation that he is home. The sun is setting. The orange of the sky is on her face and a smile begins to break free....
Gori aaye hai aaye hai saajan Dekho kaisa milan ho gaya hai Tere chehre se lagta hai jaise ek naya hi janam ho gaya hai.
P.S.- I was listening to "Dholana" by Shubha Mudgal. For a moment I went back into another era. Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Dholana- Shubha Mudgal
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November 14th, 2005
10:37 pm I danced.
After so long.
And still my feet move.
Rythm and motion together.
Oh after so long.
Perhaps this is good.
New things, New experience.
A trickle of happiness and loads of laughter.
I am singing out loud with the music as well.
Hearing my voice, loving it.
Appreciating it.
I had forgotten.
Not anymore.
I dance. In abandon. In love.
And in complete acceptance.
Exuberance and a smile that doesn't go away.
I dance. Current Mood: chipper Current Music: channa vey
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October 14th, 2005
10:52 am A carving, An art form on skin, Of a passion and Of Love
A wish.. To be loved like that.. A smile.. Sad and rueful.. And life, the bitch! Current Mood: numb Current Music: Sometimes love just ain't enough- Patty Smith
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October 10th, 2005
10:22 am - Need I was talking to a friend. We talked about need, about women who are strong, capable and independent. And about how all women fall prey to need.
The need to have someone around.To share thoughts and feelings. The need to know that there is someone who is absolutely yours accepting you for all your failings. It is need which defeats all of us.
But it isn't something that we can root out from our psyche. Can we?
I felt ashamed for a moment. For need took something away from me. Made me less.
But did it really, I ask myself again? Would I choose to live with myself, if I did not feel the need to hold and to be held. Perhaps not.
Needy still but living and laughing nonetheless. Current Mood: moody Current Music: office chatter
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September 18th, 2005
01:59 pm - Songs and memories Ek sirf humi maay ko aankhon se pilate hai Kahano ko to duniya mein, maaykhane hazaaron hai
In ankhon ki masti ke
I am listening to the song on a sunday afternoon, when the above lines bring to mind... a snapshot from the past.
She was singing this song. And she looked at him as she began singing the above lines. Not to tease him. Not to flirt with him. It was chance and she liked looking at someone when singing this song..these lines. He was a friend..her best friend for a small span of time. He looked at her,got his sunglasses out and put them on promptly.. hilariously! It was quite comical. She was hurt. Then shrugged it off as change and an acceptance of things that were.
Aeons have passed since then, and today all she feels when she thinks of that moment is a lot of laughter and a pinch of hurt. Current Mood: amused Current Music: In ankhon ki masti ke
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August 11th, 2005
10:20 am - A need. I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind
Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea All we do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see
Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind
Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky It slips away, all your money won't another minute buy
Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind Feeling old. Sitting here watching tv, with a shawl wrapped around me, looking at the world through dark rimmed glasses. Lost in the never never land of thoughts emotions and an undefining feeling of...loss perhaps...of the fact that all i am is dust in the wind..
Of standing one day in the sun and dissloving in nothingness...No it is not that..
It is the song. Haunting.
It is a need to be more. To experience more. There has to be more to existence that how I see it, feel it and live it.
A feeling washes over me. I try to define it. I fail... Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: Dust in the winds
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August 7th, 2005
12:22 am - New York City New York was awesome fun. I was there from 29th-31st of July.
Met up with a bunch of college seniors/friends. Went to all the tourist places that are there. Hung out and got dazzled by the lights that adorn the New York sky at nights. was awed and amazed at a lot of points in my journey.
I reached there at 11:30 pm. Sai came to the airport. Went to his place. His 30th floor apartment overlooks the Hudson river and Manhattan which is on the other side of Hudson.It was a pretty sight. The weather was good. So went for a walk around his apartment block after i had freshened up. Walked and talked for about two hours. From one end to the other, where i could see the flashingly lighted spire of the Empire State building on one end and the faint light of Statue of Liberty at the other. It was a time well spent. Sai is as funny as I remembered him to be and comfortable to be around. i was meeting him after a gap of 3 years and not even for a moment did i feel that I was imposing on him.
As we walked about,I noticed the language people were speaking around me... Gujrati was heard most. Then tamil and hindi. I was later told that Manhattan has more indians than americans.
New York is a lot like Mumbai. The energy, the people, the diversity and the fast pace of life.
I fell in love with the lights that adorn the City at night. From the Brooklyn Bridge, I could see an unending stream of lights on my left and right.
I have to go there again and see a broadway show. And see the Central Park in Autumn when everything is as orange as it is green now.
There were people dancing around a raised platform, these were normal everyday ppl, ppl who had come to spend a lazy saturday afternoon in Central Park. They were dancing to the tune of a small unknown band playing on the platform...some tune...for the fun and energy of it all.
And as i sat there thinking of you and the world, looking at people milling about, I felt peace sweep over me... And then it was gone... and I was ready once again to see the other wonders that this City had in store for me.
Madam Tussad's, Times Square, Statue of Liberty,Wall street, New York University, 5th Avenue.. Saw them all.. felt good.
Felt the thrill of traveling, of exploring, of new lands and new stories.
I am looking foward to Washington DC now. That city is supposed to have a different flavor all together.
I guess the traveling bug has bitten me. Next on my agenda is "Europe".
1350 hours 6th august 2005 Austin, Texas Current Mood: peaceful Current Music: Parineeta
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August 6th, 2005
08:22 am - Ice-Cream The best ice-cream I have had in a long long time..
I am feeling nice and happy. Current Mood: bouncy
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July 26th, 2005
08:16 am - Science I bought "What do you care what other people think?", a sequel to "surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" by Richard P. Feynman as a gift for Umang. The book is out publication in India so had to get it here. And like a shameless bum that I am I went ahead and read it. The book in itself is a good one and an interesting read. But what is the best part of the book is the last chapter called "The Value of Science".
I am still reeling under the impact and beauty of what is written in there.
Two excerpts: ---------------------- "The radioactive phosphorous content of the cerebrum of the rat decreases to one-half in a period of two weeks." Now what does that mean?
It means that phosphorous that is the in the brain of a rat-- and also in mine, and yours-- is not the same phosphorous as it was two weeks ago. It means the atoms that are in the brain are being replaced: the ones that were there before have gone away.
So what is this mind of ours: what are these atoms with consciousness? Last week's potatoes!They now remember what was going on in my mind a year ago-- a mind which has long been replaced.
To note that the thing I call my individuality is only a pattern or dance, that is what it means when one discovers how long it takes for the atoms of the brain to be replaced by other atoms. The atoms come into my brain, dance a dance, and then go out--there are always new atoms, but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday
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It is our responsibility as scientists, knowing the great progress which comes from the satisfactory philosophy of ignorance,the great progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought, to proclaim the value of this freedom; to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed; and to demand this freedom as our duty to all coming generations.
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Loved the book. It made me think and wish....
25th July, 2213 hours, Austin, Texas. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Secret garden- OST jerry maguire
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July 21st, 2005
08:00 am - The world is a small place. My trip so far has been quite good. A little less exciting because of lack of transportation but otherwise good. Have gone to my aunt's friend's friend's place, gone to the University of Texas, gone grocery shopping again, gone to a coffee place which plays live music every friday( Went on a friday), gone swimming( and as i lay back in the pool, i could see the sky...dark and menacing. There was a rage in the air. I found out next morning that we were hit by the tail end of hurricane Emily). So on the whole did quite a few things.
Today, I got talking to the chap whose work cube is right across mine.His name is Muhammad. He is a Pakistani. Was born there, came over to the states to do his Engineering from UT and has been working with NI for 7 years. He was curious about whether i were originally from bangalore. On finding out that I am from Patna, Bihar, he was quite amused. The reason for his amusement- His dad is from Patna. He was there till before partition and then moved to East Pakistan and finally to Karachi. He told me how he(his dad) gets nostalgic about the place and I was quite stunned. Here i was in austin, because of my company surrounded by people whose roots are in Bihar(The other person from Bihar is Prabhav(my tech lead). He grew up in Dhanbad, now in Jharkhand) . In Bangalore i hardly ever meet a person from Bihar.
Quite something ha...
Well that is all for now.
One big thing- I am going to New York City next weekend!!! Yippee! Current Mood: amused Current Music: Bang bang- Kill Bill
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