CRUX OF LIFE

Remember the complex numbers in Mathematics??? The numbers which have real and imaginary part (a+bi).  The methods for solving complex equations generally depend on the type of equation, both the kind of expressions in the equation and the kind of values that may be assumed by the unknowns/variables.  Wait wait wait.... Before you stop reading further thinking that it a blog on complex equations of Maths, let me tell you that I'm not an ardent fan of Mathematics and this is surely not a mathematical blog... Its just that the general concepts that we learned in school seem fascinating when we relate it to our day to day life and understanding.  Our life too is complex.. isn't it?? It too has both the real and imaginary part. REAL part can be understood as the GOAL, the purpose of our life and imaginary part--- perhaps, the emotions attached.. Maya as we say... Life is simple or complex was the question in my mind. Many great people have said that Life is simple...

"It's more of Brown coloured sweet water !!!", I frowned at the cup of Tea.  "Ye tera ghar nahi hai jo tujhe Adrak wali kadak chai mile. This is Hostel (This is not your home, where you get Ginger Tea)", said Ranju quickly having her first sip.    "There is a Tea stall nearby. Shall we go?", I asked. "Nahi Didi.... Have you seen any girl having Tea there???", asked Preeti - The most girlie kind of a girl I ever met. "No... but...", I thought for a while. "Let's be the first ones to do that.", Ranju completed my sentence. So... We went near the Tea-stall. Somewhere around 10 customers (all men) were there.  "Bhaiyya, Teen Chai", I said. ...  We felt that everyone there is staring at us with amusement.  " Parcel ", continued Ranju adjusting my request.  We get the comfort zone only when we can't be singled out in crowd. Don't know why, but we girls (specially Indian girls)  tend to think more...

Hang On! Hang On! If you are guessing that it is about the upcoming Venkatesh starring, Sequel of Chandramukhi, Telugu Movie - Nagavalli, you are absolutely WRONG!! It is about my friend - my childhood friend - my first friend after I understood the meaning of the word "friend". I was in 1st standard when I met her. She was my classmate- rather say, Bench-mate. She was extremely cute with dimpled cheeks and dimpled chin. We had companionship of nearly 6 years after that. She was the Ishaan Awasthi (TZP Kid) of my class. Least interested in studies. She was always ready to donate her things... pencils and erasers and even her copies!!! I remember how we used her copies as roughly as we could to play! Her home was very near to our school; she used to come by Tanga- the Ghoda Gaadi (Horse-Cart). On the other hand, mine was too far and I travelled by school-bus. We would always invite each other to our homes ( I knowing that it is anyhow not going to happen, our parents wont al...

"8 more hours".. "6".... "4".... "2"... "Half an hour more"... "Youhuu!!! Shift Hand-off. Week-off". I constantly looked at the spinning arrows in my watch (which seemed to be too slow). Not that I was very tired and not that I worked too hard...not that I have anything special to do this week-end... But I was waiting for a break.... Nine hours at work seemed to be unending...  "Why the time is running too slowly" has been my thought from quite some days, now.  Contrary to the above thought, sometimes, I feel like time flies by. It seems just a few days back that I graduated from college and came to Hyderabad... and, now... its already been 4 years and 1 month that I'm staying here.  Days go by and turns as months, months into years and years finally become our whole life. Time takes its own time. Its never fast and never slow... Time is always on Time... ;) One of my favourite childhood serial Mahabharat portra...

"Welcome to XYZ Broadband services" (someone told me that we should not use brand names in public.. SIGH!.... ) "Please press Star to continue"  * Pressed "Dear Customer, Your Account No is four nine two .... To confirm, please press 1" 1 Pressed "For technical assistance, please press 1" 1 pressed "Kindly be online, while we transfer you to the next available executive. Your call may be recorded for internal training and assessment purpose" Irritating music starts...  After some time... "All our executives are busy. Kindly be online. Your estimate hold time is ONE minute" Irritating music starts again.. After sometime.. "All our executives are still busy. Kindly be online. Your estimate hold time is ONE minute" ============================================================== Just imagine, how must I be feeling to hear this again and again.. I was drifiting along, like a log of wood in water, for quite some time now. L...

Coming back from office on a rainy day, I was waiting for auto. "Auto... Auto... JNTU" I screamed. "NO", he said arrogantly. Few more autos went by without even replying. Another Auto came "JNTU...".  He was kind enough to reply, "Madam, no one will go to JNTU today. Rain water has blocked that route. You have to take another route". I was already wet with the merciless rain. "Why didn't I take umbrella", I cursed myself and was looking for any kind lady who would offer to share her umbrella with me. Alas! there was none .... I was worried about my mobile being wet...  I ran towards the other corner of the road to check for other route. "Auto... Miyap..", Before I could say miyapur, seven people grabbed it and this auto ran away with flooded candidates on it. Few more autos went away that way. After half an hour or so, a bus came "MIYAPUR" on its board; overflowing with CROWD. I somehow managed to enter it. I cur...

It was 9 AM in the morning. Half bucket of water was available in wash room. Mom said, "I'm waiting since 5 AM for water. Please go and arrange some water cans.".. New thing for me!!... I said "I think Dad can arrange... Let me call. He is in office. He must be knowing".  " No need beta...  There's a tea shop in the next lane. Ask him where we can get water cans ", Mom said. But, the impatient ME was already on call. "Hello, Dady, There's no water in home. Relatives too are there. Veena Aunty and Sharma Aunty may come in next 2 hours for satsang. what should I do? Where should I call? Do you have any phone number to call and arrange water??" I was speaking NON-STOP. Dad with his patient voice asked "Entii ?? " (What?) "Huh!! O Dady.. No Water. Please arrange", I said, this time in a shorter version. "Oh... Hmmm... I had one contact of a water supplier.... Hmmm.... But.... I changed my mobile... That numb...

Yes, who else it is, but me! And, what would a typical Indian Idle do? Yes, It's watching the Idiot Box - TV. ( Chatting, orkutting FB and Blogging on a parallel track) The average Indian family is hooked to the TV shows which start from 7.30 PM and continue till 10.30 PM.  After a long time, surfing the TV channels, I chose the below serials/ programs some of which I love to hate while watching.. ;) 1) Balika Vadhu - This half an hour program has less than one line of story. It begins with Anandi's cry and ends with the same. This serial was started with the motive to kinda eradicate child marriages in society. But, now it seems that the serial is encouraging it!! "Eeh! This should be banned", I say, every time I watch.  2) Na aana iss des me LAADO - Eeh... The lesser I talk about it, the better. I change the channel, as soon as I see any of the character on TV. My mom insists "Laado aa raha hai, channel mat badlo". "Not again! Mom.. PLEASE! This s...

"Aa gaye Beta, chutti leke??" is the common question every one asks when I reach home from Hyderabad. Hyderabad - My karma bhoomi, so far! And it is always a pleasant experience to say "Yes!!! I came on vacation." The love with which everyone receives makes you feel very special. and, I simply love this ;) On a long vacation, this time, it feels great. 3 days passed and I'm loving the freedom of no work, mom's morsels , TV, phone calls from friends, waiting for Sunday to meet friends. It's all so exciting... I feel the same anxiety which I felt before joining my first company. How would the place be? Will I be able to make good friends? How the work will be? Will I get to learn new things? when will I be transferred to Delhi/NCR? Will I be transferred at all at first place? Chalo, chodo bhai... abhi tho ek mahina ghar baithe maze karte hain, fir sochte hain.... And, with all this excitement, anxiety and happiness of being at my home, I have this sligh...

Why do we keep secrets?    I'm not talking about the Government Secrets, corporate secrets or technology secrets. I am talking of those which we keep as individual people. Do we keep them to protect ourselves? Or others we love? Are we afraid of being judged? Do we keep secrets out of fear? Are we afraid that by revealing our secrets that we will be rejected? Or is it just for prestige? Or do we fear that the other person will benefit more out of our hidden task...? or do we fear that people will be jealous of us?? I remember how as school kids, some of my friends used to hide things... important questions for exams, how much portion one has completed, etc.., etc..... I was never able to hide such things.  I confess that I too tried to hide just because others are hiding, but, p art of me, likes boasting about myself and hence always failed in hiding things :). I loved to tell how much I have read and told my friends how much ever I knew, whatever my wisdom sai...

"Em Pilla, meeru evaru??" ("Hello girl..., who are you?", here 'who are you' signifies 'what caste you belong to'); this was among the first few questions asked when I entered my hostel, some 4 years back. I was not used to this type of questions. I'm brought up in a locality where almost people from most of the religions and most of the states live together. This question sounded odd to me... Nevertheless,  I answered "Hmm.. Brahmin... why?"  She was startled.. That's what I understood from her reaction.  She asked "enti? Brahmin aa?" (What!, Brahmin?) giving some extra stress to the word "Brahmin". "Why? What happenned?", I asked again.  "Ah.. Nothing re... You don't look like a Brahmin, so...", she said.  "Oh, is it??, By the way, I don't know how Brahmins look like... Please explain", I asked.  She smiled this time and said, "Don't mind, but brahmins are generall...

A lorry on the divider at cross roads trampled one of the pillars, a crushed bike was beneath it. I closed my eyes as I saw a broken helmet and blood flowing. The body was already taken out from the accident place, but the blood was still flowing. It was 5.30 a.m. when I happened to view this terrible scene from the window of my cab, while moving to office. There doesn't seemed to have any chances of the victim to be alive. I prayed for the soul. My mind was disturbed. As the 8 hours in office passed, I kind of forgot the "View", and my shift ended well with a birthday celebration of one of my colleagues. I returned to the same cross-roads while walking towards my hostel. Lorry was no more there, crushed bike was no more there... the blood was cleaned up... but the broken helmet was still there, as if crying helplessly. Mind was disturbed again. For two nights, the view of a lorry crushing a person brutally, haunted me like anything. No one knows what happens the next m...

When is the last time you saw post man coming in a bicycle with a bag of letters??? For me, it is perhaps when I was in 9th standard or so....  To open the envelope from family members or friends, replying, and knowing that they will take time to write back to you was a great feeling. I remember how we used to make  greeting cards on special occasions for friends and spent hours in making them look the best. There is something special in the golden ribbon boundary of the cards, the smell of Fevicol, Blue ink and hand writing in personal letters and cards. I have saved a treasure of such Hand written letters and Hand-made cards and I love to see them, adore them even today. Now-a-days, people don't much prefer to write. Whether personal or business related, people pick up a phone before they pick up a pen . Then again, I cant blame anyone, for I haven't written anything with a pen, for some months, except just the odd signature here or there. I get e-mails no...

"Such a boring life!!!",I thought as I monitored the OS alerts at work. Same work, same cabin, same system, same cab, same room, same food every day... I'm bored of this routine and the repeated tasks.... I looked up and saw the roof of my office... "Eh! Fan is also not there", I thought.. I have this peculiar habit of looking at the rotating fan, whenever I feel bored. I closed my eyes, still head upwards, and my back rested on the chair.  A question popped up from somewhere... "Is repetition and routine the key to life's boredom or is it the life's meaning? "   The question gave me a mild jerk and I sat straight. I was fully awake now.. I heard my heartbeats. It's repetition of the same beats throughout our existence. Our heartbeats, Our breathing, revolution of the Earth, the diurnal circles of the sun, everything needs repetition... My rotating fan too repeatedly rotates to make me feel the air... We need to sleep every day; we need to...

Getting to know different people and their very different perspective on life is a great experience in itself. We get amazed when sometimes people don't behave in the way we expect them to. Some of the things or say basic ethics which we feel are very natural to any human may seem to be "Rocket science" for others. I have experienced this recently and was wondering and pondering over these thoughts. I believe that the basic difference among the people comes from beliefs and values one has.  There are many influences in society that could affect our beliefs and values. It probably starts from the influence of our cultural backgrounds, our parents, our communities, our schools and teachers, our books. And, we also form our own beliefs from individual life experiences and observations. Eventually, we figure out an optimal path guided by our values -- matched to our personality, environment, responsibilities, health, etc. But our beliefs and values can change with time. Chan...

Holi went by yesterday. Some of the girls were playing with colors. I was not much interested. I remembered the good old days of my childhood, when Holi was the time to play, play and play...It usually occurred during the Final exams in the academic year and that was really sad. I remember how we used the water from the tanks upstairs and poured water on every person passing by.  Holi is a time to reach out with the colors of joy. It is the time to love and forgive. It is the time when one can express the happiness of being loved and to be loved through colors. Holi is a special time of year to remember those who are close to our hearts with splashing colors! I see Holi, not as a religious festival, but as a social festival in which all the colors of castes, creeds, regions and religions shall be mixed up. So, coming back to reaching the colors of joy, I spent the day by watching the colors of nature. Isn't color an integral part of our life? We know the colors of the r...

We all have thoughts frequently popping-up in our minds. How much ever hard you try, sometimes they just don’t leave us.     You're doing something; but the mind works on its own thoughts many a times. Ever experienced the feeling of "I WANT TO SLEEP NOW! Hey, THOUGHTS! Please don't disturb me!"?  Sometimes I do imagine myself opening the Task Manager of my mind and killing the process "Thought.exe", when I am actually fed up... And, if I'm feeling extremely bad for some reason, I imagine myself doing "Shift+delete" to permanently delete the sadness or bad thoughts associated with it. Or, if I am angry, just delete the anger to recycle-bin.   Sometimes, these funny things work and sometimes they don’t. It depends upon the WILL with which the suggestion is given to your mind.  It may sound quite absurd for some, but being a windows system admin, I sometimes tend to implement a few things on my own system :) I feel that when a man-made machin...