A picture may be worth a thousand words, but words are still needed to describe the picture
Thursday, August 15, 2013
"HAPPY", "INDEPENDENCE", "DAY"
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Royally Rajasthan
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Long-lost Friends & Timeless Beauty
Indian Diary: Entry No. 1
03.08.2013: Day 2- en route Agra
As I sit back munching on the McDonald's Happy Meal, peeping out the window of what will be our second home over the next few hundreds of kilometres, the previous day blends with the green fields outside, flying by as we move ahead in our excursion. Road trips outdo any other form of journey for me, and when these involve big groups comprising of family and friends, the charm is enhanced. The fact that this particular trip involves my beloved India, manouevering through roads to whom I am a stranger, takes the excitement to previously unheralded levels.
Having stayed abroad for a majority of my life thus far, making a few sporadic appearances in the past years, these roads now greet me like a long-lost friend. There's a tinge of recognition, mixed with a semblance of hesitation while both decide who makes the first move towards the other, whether they should lean in for their once trademark embrace, or settle with a formal handshake for the moment. With time that hesitation slowly fades away, only for me to leave my friend again for a few months, at times over a year.
This probably explains why I've been to one of the greatest wonders of the would only once in my entire life thus far, despite hailing from a city less than 500 kms from Taj Mahal. Now as I head towards the Taj for a second time, my excitement stems from the anticipation of admiring the known beauty. Beauty dazzles easily when first set sight upon, but true appreciation of beauty is reflected when a known marvel leaves you awestruck. Here's hoping to be dazzled once again by the timeless temple of love that has managed to do just that to millions of people over hundreds of years. Wah Taj!
Monday, July 15, 2013
Order Order!
"Kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna, chodo bekaar ki baaton mein kahin beet na jaaye raina"
Opinions, advise, judgement, presumptions, stereotype, assessments, impressions. There is a lot people have to say about various things. Usually it's about aspects which least concern them. And often it's unwanted or uncalled for.
I find it mind-boggling how much we care about what others have to say about us. "Reputation" is the solace we use to explain this behaviour. But this reputation is the first to go into hiding come a time of need, during which you look around and find your hand held in support by the near and dear ones, not by those you've spent your time building an impression on. Not many would agree, but each one of us at times is guilty of behaving artificially, and letting the obsession with reputation come in way of us being ourselves. In the extreme scenario, entire lifetimes are spent living up to a certain reputation, and any effort to break free from that claustrophobic space proves futile.
Then again, our world today is filled with all sort of unwanted noise. Heck, a genius even used this innate human tendency, to create the most popular social networking site, one which has entirely transformed the complexion of social media. The reason behind its success is none other than the constant need for humans to form opinions and the urge to share them. Every Tom Dick and Harry is disillusioned into thinking they are sitting in a courtroom with a gavel in hand, and all eyes upon them as they pass a verdict.
Its time we take that gavel in our own hands, and lead life the way we want to. "Order order!"
Friday, July 12, 2013
It's a "SMART" world after all!
Recently, a friend of mine posted this question on her Facebook wall, "what did people do on their way to work before smartphones?" This got me thinking about myself. Even though it's just been three years since I've started owning a Smartphone, the world before that seems unnaturally distant. It may have been my brain protesting work early in the morning, but I was surprised at being unable to recall exactly what I did during journeys to school, college, or internship. Averaging an hour for each journey, I realised I've lost countless hours doing absolutely nothing (although I'm sure I wouldn't classify sleeping into that "wasted" category too often).
Startled, l made a mental note to myself to better utilize my hour-long journeys henceforth. And as is the case so often, just when it seems a thing of the past for me, the writer in me, "Paar-T" resurfaces. So I've turned to my trusted companion, the BLOG, hoping this will last longer than it did the last time this phase hit me.
Through all this, the irony remains. I saw the status on a Smartphone on my way to work, on a social networking site that didn't even exist 7 years back, and to top it all, I'm writing this on the latest addition to my "smart" world, the Samsung Note 10.1.
Some world eh?