Name

Shakespeare said, "What's in a name?" Someone said, "If there was nothing in a name then why to keep a name?" I say, "There are so many things to bother about, what difference it makes if we add one more to the list?" So the journey of name begins with the first step we have in the world or may be even before and the way it shapes it's life is dependent on some one else, you. Yes we are responsible for the life of our name. We may burn the midnight lamps to make a success for our names or we may end up making it lose the battle of existence.

It takes a lot to add meaning to our name and just takes a snap to shatter it. This is something what everyone knows. But we tend to forget that in doing that are we missing on something. Think hard and you will get to what I want you to arrive at.
Yes, in trying to build an existence for our name we end up killing our own existence. The more we sacrifice our being the more we are able to add value to our name. Is it worth it? We may not have an answer to this, but I am sure you will agree that it depends upon the objective of the individual. For a few making a name is the sole purpose of their existence. While for others name matters only if it holds any importance or else they are happy with their own life. Now, if there are only two types of people it is definately not an easy task to have a defined
objective.

For me, there are another set of people. They dream and dream to make names of their loved ones or make name for their loved ones. These people are certainly those who are ready to chase the life and any challenge that they come around. More than
that, often they are carried away by emotional objective than sensible approach.

So now I guess all of us will agree with why Shakespeare was stuck with "To be or not to be".

Relationship with Distance

What comes to your mind when I say a mile or a km. May be a distance you need to cover by road, rail or any other transport. Ever wondered what it takes to cover a distance between two people? How do we measure this distance? I do not have a
rational to measure this, but I know a method to decrease this. Do not have any wrong impression that I am going to share some magical spells to get close in relationships. In fact, I am going to talk of relations with distance and you can figure out the hidden magical spells, if want to say that.

They say if you loose contact you tend to see the relationship fading. I argue, doesn't it mean that the very existence of the relationship was so shallow that a temporary loss of contact wiped it off. Maintaining contacts, understanding each other, being there for one another is very essential. What is more essential, is to maintain and try to come up with ideas to cut down the problems creating those distances. Of course, we may not have solutions to every problem but we can come up with a mid way path to counter these distances and the troubles arising from them. I am not saying you need to stick around to make something happen. Instead you should do every bit for the relationship that matters for you. Every other thing will start
falling in line there after.

Being too optimistic. Yes, I see lots of challenges creeping in while we try to go ahead with this idea of mine. So before you go ahead let us discuss those road blocks, after all we are trying to cover a distance. One tends to be disehearted and at times may feel the snarling pinch of the distance. You may feel drifted apart and look for support and some one around. You may like to find people who are there to be with you. That is not inhuman and is totally accepted. The million dollar question is how do you look at this new or temporary support grooming up. Do we ever anticipate what might happen once the new support throws a dark side to us. What if this new support also vanishes? Would we start looking for another support? If that would be the case I feel we might end up in a merry-go-round. Does n't this suggest it is more advisable to try and support your existing relations rather than looking for temporary supports.

Having said that, let us look at the roads to relationship. The trust and the sense of being for one another besides having the light of charm and passion for each other continues to shorten the long distance in relations. As long as the spark of being together continues to be there I don't see any harm in the actions you might take to overcome the road blocks. It has been always true that we need to stand for each other, but what is more important is we need to learn how to sacrifice for each
other. We not only need to appreciate each other but we also need to become a picture of appreciation for each other. As long as we continue to do this I don't see any kind of a distance playing a role in a relationship.

Lemme Think

Some great person has given his wonderful thought as " If you are my friend do not walk infront of me, for I may not follow you. Neither walk behind me, for I may not guide you. Walk by me for I would need you by my side each step I take forward." Most of us would say what a beautiful thought it is. Let me think if this thought is really that great.

Do we really want some one to be by our side. If that's the case why do we keep shouting for space and privacy. May be this thought was for people who want emotional support and require mentorship in one form or the other. One may also argue that humans being a social species are those who need some one to share their experiences and feelings. Hold on did I say we need some one to share with. Who could be the person we might be willing to share with. Our spouse, a close friend, a friend, a mentor, an online friend, relatives, family members....who? So we return to our first question what about our privacy then. Do we really want to share everything or do we want to filter our experiences and then share? What would happen if we do not share? Is sharing that important? What elese can I do if I do not share? Lemme think.

No, some one says there is no existence without friends. You need people around you for you can not think of a life without them. Aha! so does it mean your experiences are all with your friends, or do you create your experiences with them? Then what do you share with them. Agreed friends are some one whom you can count on unconditionally but does it mean your experiences and viewpoints be always motivated through their existence. Do we need to be so bogged down if we do not find any of our friends around? Does it cause an alarming bell to ring if one of your friend misinterprets your feelings and experiences? There are several of these unanswered questions which needs a thought to be given. "Individual's Identity", isn't this the first thing with which we started our journey? Didn't we made friends with whom we were able to gel with smoothly? Certainly we need to maintain our identity and for that we may end up with no one either walking behind us, or infront of us or by our side. Still we need to get going and continue with our journey.

I actually tend to agree with, "We just need to make a difference and rest will follow." You may need people around you but they should not limit you in your journey way forward. Rest assured you are your own travel mate and in this journey the only companion that you might find is the look like of your soul.

FLUSH!!! Wat abt it?

Ever wondered when did this name came into existence? Is their any history behind its invention. I read through Wiki and they have written a lot about it. In fact they say it came into existence during the Harappa and Mohenjodaro civilization. There are more details around its history which you can know by reading through wiki, but I am not here to share about the history of flush. I am here to tell you about the significance that flush has in our life.

Being around a flush is like being in a place similar to a Gurukul. The only difference in this kind of Gurukul is that , over here its you who is the guru as well as the student. There is no one to disturb you and no one to interrupt your thoughts. So its a place of retrospecting yourself and invoking new ideas. If you have not done this before try it once and I will appreciate your comments after that.

I know many of you tend to think that I am talking rubbish but let me take you through some other thoughts as well. Director and writer Imtiaz Ali has portrayed the importance of flush in one of his hit bollywood movie "Jab We Met". Definately its a way to get rid of many commotions of life. It could be a motivation to get going in your life and leave every conflict, failure or stress behind. I didn't believe in this concept of Imtiaz Ali but I gave it a try and certainly it works.

It's something which also brings an instant relief to you. The very sound of flush tells everyone about your presence and status. You need not explain anything to anyone and they can understand your state of relief. I have seen people in the most comfortable and pleased state after they release the flush.

It's not any other flush but the flush in your hand.

One of the easiest ways to dump off your stress and get going in your life. I think we should give a little more importance to our very own FLUSH.

Who is the deer?

It's a strange story of following your deer. I know I may sound offensive but it's true...all of us are deer. As a deer is meant to be grabbed by the strong jaws of one of the stronger animal we also keep waiting for that moment when some one or the other would take hold of us.

When we say we want to maintain a democratic environment don't we mean that we want our responsibilities to be taken care by some one else. Why do we want a leader if they don't serve the very purpose. If we choose leader so that we could be the deer of that chosen special one then we should think again. After all it hardly matters who ever owns this deer.

I hear people saying youth needs to come out and vote for their candidate or if they feel they are competent enough then contest in the election. In an interview a youth said, " It hardly matters for me who ever comes to the power as manifestos and back ground of all of them hardly have a difference." So this guy voted for the person who appeared the most handsome.

Let us peep into some of our neighbours. One of them is the finest example of failure of democracy where as the other own is a fine example of success of republican government. Have we reached a point where we need to give a thought to the way we chose our leaders? I don't have a definite answer but certainly I have some thoughts.

Worldwide I have seen countries with strict regulations which requires its citizens to do community service. Men are required to serve the defense while women are required to serve the community. I don't know if this activity brings in the strength to get out of the shackle of being a deer but certainly it increases the sense of being a martyr. I understand making a wishful thought is easy and implementing them is a lot difficult. We have several plans like NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), and Golden Quadrilateral, that were initiated in the right spirit. Yet again the deer within us overpowered and most of these plans remained at the first step. We need to give more thought around implementing rather than just planning things.

We need to mend the constitution and redifine rules to adjust with the changes around us. We don't want deer and neither do we want to sit idle.

So True but yet not the Truth

Truth is something which never needs a definition. It surfaces itself at any cost. Yet many of us remain unaware of the fact that what we consider the truth may not be complete on its own. It is this uncertainity that keeps us on bay and continues to encourage us for the search of that incomplete.

I was holed up in a similar situation sometime back and it is then when I came to realise that nothing is complete on its own. I was waiting for my friend to pick me up from the railway station when I came across this never lasting experience of three hours.

It was a bright sunny day when I landed in Ahmedabad, my flight being on time. My friend was supposed to pick me up from the railway station which was on the way to his home from airport. But fate had something levied in it and he was caught up in a meeting giving me a three hours of time to experience something new. While I stood there with my luggage I had people of all kinds around me. Civillians had a company of army personnels, rich had a company of brats and beggars and I had a company of a nice little family. As my shadow shortened nothing changed much. Faces changed but the categories (don't have the right word) did not. I regret that I had no camera to capture that moment but I am glad as well because had that been the case I would not have been writing this post.

Let me ask you a question; "How much will you pay to a cooly for carrying three suitcaes, five airbags and some more luggage.... say for a distance of 300 meters?" I guess you would be thinking he won't be able to carry so much on his own..ya true he used a trolley for carrying this stuff. So now your bet would be 60 / 70 rupees. This cooly took all these luggage for merely 25 rupees. The bargaining lasting more as an order. So the first truth which surfaced was India in its true sense hardly values all the work and still we say "India Shinning".

Even if we consider this wage rationalization to be justified in some sense or the other I don't know what would you say about this nice little family. The oldest man in this family (in his odd 60s) was sitting upright on the floor and managed to stand up without taking any support. He sat on the ground (in the way people sit during their morning ablutions) for nearly an hour and he seemed to be enjoying his style. I don't know about other young generations of the country but I can bet you I can not sit so long. If my guess is not wrong more than 75% of the youth won't be able to do so. All of us seem to be so fitness freak but how fit are we compared to this old man? Seems a little amusing but its really true, Indian youth seem to be loosing their strength to the work culture we have imbibed in ourself.

I also observed a couple of beggars enjoying their time and cracking jokes more than often. Their loud laugh caught the attention of many and their talk caught mine. One of the beggars threw a brand new slippers to the other and said mockingly "Look what I got from the train going to Godhra." So this is what the beggars have been doing don't know since how many years. Beggars or theives? no one knows the truth but one thing that I was pretty sure of was that i had started to hate the beggars. Not because they were beggars but because they had fake faces. Wait a minute... am I doing the justice? Obviously this is a cruel question but I have no answer to it.

Enough of this social questions. Let me share one fine moment as well. As I observed all these things I saw a group of students (perhaps +2 batch) gearing up for some sort of tour. I saw my school days in them and I was in a moment one among them. There were some guys trying to impress some of the girls and there were some cool dudes living within themselves and leaving their own impression. Other kids were enjoying the moment in their own way. Isn't this the golden time of their age? Ya definately it was and though all of us know this we are always in an uncanny mood not realising this at the nick of the time. It takes a lot of learning and experience to realise the hard facts of life.

Those three hours were definately like one of those moments when you get into a retrospection mood. May be you get answers to some of your doubts and at the same time increase a number of them. Still we continue to dangle between what is the truth and what is the complete truth.