Year End Resolution

Wake me up when september comes!!! I am wide awake in Oct, thats when I realize it is going to be one year and it was pretty exciting. Was it exciting enough.

This is what I am feeling now. I know for a fact, i cant squeeze in huge trips before year end. But at-least i want to complete few things I had planned for. These are realizable goals ( Seriously, Goals - Goals should be realizable says my boss. More about that later)

1. Afghan Church
2. Mahim Nature Park
3. Mount Mary Church
4. Train Museum at CST
5. Modern Art Museum
6. Jehangir Museum
7. Mani Bhavan
8. Jeejabai Udyan

 Is this realistic? Seems pretty easy to do. With 2 end to end weekend travels ( Fri/sat of week1 to Monday of week3 travels) and today is week of 17th Nov. I am left with 22 - 23 Nov, 13 - 14 Dec and
20 - 21 of Dec.

OMG i am going to sound like logical reasoning question they give in CAT or other aptitude tests.

• Mahim nature park is open only in Saturday
• Modern Art Museum and Jehangir Art gallery are close by
• Above are open only till 4 pm
• Afghan Church and Mani Bhavan can be combined
• We have a target to acheive
• Not to eat out
• Not to miss evening runs

With these contraints, Challenge Accepted.

Can do Mahim on one of the saturday morning and it is quite a walk. Mount Mary in one of the evenings.  Can do these museums and then start our jogs.

Kala Ghoda - this year

From the time I discovered Mumbai, Kala Ghoda is the most waited for time of the year for me. More than even the festivals. Festivals would drive me back to home but Kala Ghoda is the time which would make me stay back. Reconsider even travel plans to exotic places. It is sheer inspiration for me from the people who dictate art in this city to who breathe art or even who has a view/different view about things. Well all of these work positively for me. There is a sense of excitement, not many around me can understand.

It is fusion and it expands my horizon of art. Let us say I have understanding about Music and Painting but this place oozes art across all forms. From Cooking to Literature to Theatre, I just didnt know how to cover all events happening in these 10 days.

Had to set priorities, covered few plays. Bonus for me: I reached late on day 1 and the crowd was less. Many of them packing up, but I got to talk to few of the creators. One downside was that I felt many of the installations were following a theme. It is possible they were asked to create based on a theme but not sure.

The success of my Kala Ghoda journey this year was to inspire one more soul to one more art form. Well I would get to see more plays here onwards. And a personal note for myself - I would want to see myself putting up a stall of my art work one of these years :) Kaash!!!

Random Gyaan

Well its appraisal season and I have been getting so much of gyaan that I cant really handle. Its like a river gushing to cleanse all the dirt but then it will tend to overflow too....


I am passing on few things off as my gyaan of the day ;)

1. Failures pushes you to retrospect

We might be successful, kind, talented, cheerful, extrovert, helpful, satisfied ... but not all. Hence if you have something you will look for something else and this is a journey and this same journey will make you a better person. We are always better person with each experience

2. Sometimes let life happen

May be it is not a bad idea to let life take over and not fight. Assume you are fighting against the rushing gushing water and swimming against it. You are tired cause you have been fighting and the shore is nowhere to be seen. May it is a good time to just take couple of moments off, calm yourself, dont care where the life is taking you. Probably take a moment to enjoy it :) and then move on to fight again with fresh perspective.

3. Push down to go up

We have been told in school not to compare and personally we dont like comparison. My bro ( the lay ass) always used to ask my mom why she cant compare him with those who were not performing as well. I dont want to feel good comparing myself to someone not appropriate and feel good in my cocoon, but at that same time sometimes I do want to be aware of people who are managing just fine without the luxuries under question. It just want some assurance. It is like a rocket that take energy from below and push to propel above.

4. Give lots of gyaan

Damm, I am already feeling good. Well even assumption of failure gives you the license to give lot of gyaan. During teenage how many heartbroken friends gave new name of cribbing as giving gyaan. It helps them as much as it helps us.


5. Magic called sympathy

If nothing works there is a magic called sympathy. A snug on mom's lap to hug from bestie. Random vent out to acquaintance. If nothing works the word will spread and may be people hear you. Power of rumour. I was about to make a new pointer saying if nothing works spread rumour. Well not a very nice thing to do, how much ever you feel satisfied about revenge served cold :)

6. Believe in something

Believe in something - yourself, miracle, god... whatever name you give. Doesnt mean you will sit idle wait for miracle to happen but things will turn around and just matter of time when tables turn and you join the race back.

7. Look through the advice

I did not mean ignore the advice, like look through the advice as if you didnt see it. But look deeper to know people care and what could have been done better. I know what has happened is happened but doesnt mean it has to happen again to anyone and worse, to you. If at all it is some random advise and doesnt applicable to you, it might be what appears to people. It is worth knowing what optics are playing.


8. Derive strength from your strengths

Find your own personal way to derive strength from inside of you. It could be by thinking of all positive things that happened to you to how you helped someone in need to how you got a prize for your talent.

9. Spend on you

A late night icecream snack to extra bar of chocolate - retail therapy always works. It makes you worth spending that amount on yourself. ( in case you had any doubt)

10. dinchak

Music - dance, or what better that has both - Movies. If not a bath. Relax and take your mind off to keep yourself occupied. Simplest of all - smile. :)

Dude... I just feel i should have published this before for manager to flick this gyaan to give their subordinated and for peers - shoulders to cry on. Well and I get paid for it :D Damm it, its all about timing. Will keep that in mind.

Lost thought

Whenever there is a simple idea that leads to innovation we always think "Man!!! Why didnt I think of this?" Thinking out loud of an explanation - Is it possible that the idea came to some people, some didnt deem the thought enticing to think further, some thought about it but didnt take it conclusion, some didnt say out the conclusion loud, some didnt market the idea well enough for other to know about it.

Enough of the life cycle of an idea. How many such thoughs are lost in transition. Where am I taking this topic, well I am getting at the current age where we are bombarded with Information all the time. Are we assimilating all of them? On an average, a person sees or hears abt A and before A is Assimilated, another B is introduced. Now the person takes a new direction because B Biases the almost assimilated thought A.

And I can definitely say with confidence ( i meant confidence interval of 95% ) that the conclusion C of the thought is lost because of a damaging thought D. Entangled thought E has no chance of deciphiral.

There are some Fixed thoughts F that keep coming again and again. Brain has got so used to it, they are ignored to death. Sudden gush of thoughts G come up, when the person is in stimulated environment

Entirely new thought E comes up, because the brain was temporarily Full of mixture of thoughts F. Even though the though G Gazes at the person cant react to it.

Hardly a thought H comes to Iota of a size and all other neighbouring thoughts of parellel processing I just kill it. Kaboom it was burst. A thought J Just lost!!! Or an entire Horde of distractions H just making it difficult to concentrate. "Well what was i thinking??? " Said the self obsessed thought I. Just in time thought J sorta reminds you what you were thinking but alas you need to resign to the fact you were not able to fully comprehend the same. Okay you let the thought K rest in peace.

More thoughts M might come in future. But many of them will be related to your past, what you have seen, experienced or thought. None of them purely new... You wish you had a totally new thought N , but  the thought O is not out of the ordinary because it is a result of processed thought P, even few quarantined thought Q those were locked away never to be thought again. Still the brain does go there May be because it was too radical R or it was socially not so appropriate at that situation S.

Title it any way you want, term it in any manner you want - you can be diplomatic or you can be blunt but Thought T was thought by you. It somewhere defines you. This definition leads to "What defines you?" Well, many say - what I think of me defines me as per me and what you think of me defines me and vice versa. But is it only this thought of you or me U defines me and not the action. Lets take this a level above... if you didnt think of it how can it be converted into action. So all U need not be action but all action need a underlying thought U.

If versatility was a desirable skill then a versatile thought V that can be moulded into various thought process to be Worded diplomatically W or Cite as X ( verdict without any logic or background) or deceive someone to believe at your will Y. For all you know it was just a useless thought you spend wasting time on like this post but still have a sense of achievement. All those didnt have any category will be kept under Z. :D

Peace!!!

Bhaag zaroor Lena

Some months back succumbing to peer pressure, I decided to try marathon. Well as a child I hated to run. Those 100 mts, 200 mts and 1000 mts. After a certain speed ( which was considered slow for any human standards) i used to feel I am flying and still... i was never able to reach. The destination was too far.. I pondered why was this so? I realized that was because i was running for someone else's reason, along with someone else and competing against someone else. It was not for me. I realised the adrenaline kick was something that could motivate me to try something i hated so much... no points for guessing - Running. It was never about winning but it was about me finishing that 21 kms. How much ever tired you get just finish it. So the next time you run a marathon it is just about being better than what you were, even by few minutes. 

You challenge your own physical limits. After 7 - 8 kms it is not your physical ability but your mental ability you keep going. Trust me your body is not going to know till the next day. And before that you would have definitely finished the marathon. :)

Well crowd does help. You can find your inspiration. A old lady who over takes you to a disabled person to a husband who pushes his wife who is unable to run herself. It is about the spirit. Once you discover it, it is an addiction. You can never get enough.

So the idea is to take the marathon challenge to next level, we are trying to cover most cities where the marathon are held. Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi,  Hyderabad, Chennai, Vadodara, Pune are few that we have considered.

It is that time of life

It is that time of life when i am surprised that i am not cheerful. Its been ages since I was genuinely happy about things. It did make me ponder what is wrong. For the only cosmetic I wear is my smile. :D waah waah dialogueeee!!!

Well is it work? are things not working out with a friend? are you bothered about your health or of someone dear? did you lose money in the market?

That is the whole point, i am at a stage where things are not defined. I can define it and probably that is where i am lost. From my childhood, I was asked to study, play and do things that is good for me, but defined by parents, relatives and the society. Then i reached high school, i was asked to focus - focus on getting marks... then i got a college - i was asked to target a good job. well one can have one more iteration of study and job. Chalo MBA, MS and another naukri... but ab kya...
Parents go berserk ask you to get married. married ke baad kids... the cycle starts all over. but when is it about me? when is it about what makes me happy???

Sometimes I do relate to Maslow's theory ( and the needed social media acknowledgement)

It would take a huge leap of psychology to think beyond basic needs and do give credit to materialistic needs to psychological wants. I ideally want the world to give me a society that utilizes my skills and capacity to the maximum level and probably push me to go beyond!!! Well it is never an ideal world but least strive to get it for yourself.

As it is said, you might not get the job you wanted but dress up as if you would for the job you always wanted!!!

Politics in photography

Sounds like a serious topic and trust me it is nowhere close to what it sounds!!!

Whenever I go on any trip there are only two thing that end up happening - 1. either people are forced into taking my pics and i pose endlessly. So they prefer the second option that is give me the camera and i keep taking pictures endlessly. And I ensure no scene is missed ... WITH OR WITHOUT PEOPLE. Well my fellow passengers are happy because their misery is shared between horde of people.

"Where is the politics?"

Well politics comes into picture ( literally) when i am not allowed to maintain a balance. A balance between nature and people. Or even between people for that matter. More self obsessed you are about your pictures ( blame it on Facebook profile pics :P ) I would not want to take your pic.

And come on... if you have a SLR it would make more sense of clicking nature than profile pics. Well if i was to take pics of people i would do a photo shoot and i wouldnt be on trip. ( I would still not go back in saying trips are about people whom you travel with ... )

And then if you really want a natural setting I can always photoshop with the the nice nature photgraphy i did. Let me shoot in peace. I have seen people wanting to pose and then they run out of poses. Well imagine how boring it would be for the photographer. Then many a times like my partner would say - Photography is all about shooting too many times that few of them works. But it is all about reducing the bad shots or knowing what went wrong and how to reduce it. It is about being man and machine all at once. It is a form of art and indulge in it :)