Treasure (Un)earthed !!

Few days back, I was getting bored on one of the weekends...as most of the places were unsafe to go and have fun...courtesy swine flu. So I just thought of making some changes to my room...as in looks and all. I started with re-arranging my books / notebooks that I had used last few years...( I love keeping few of my old books and note books with me...as they remind me of my childhood or teen-age...when the life was much more exciting as compared to what it is now). While flipping the pages of one of my older books, a folded sheet of paper popped out of it and fell down on the floor. I picked it up and looked at it. It took me less than a second to realize what it was. It evoked poignant memories of my sophomore years. This sheet of paper belonged to a diary that my elder brother had given to me when I was in 9th standard...telling me to get into the habit of daily diary writing. I never was able to cultivate that habit and after few failed attempts the diary was thrown in one corner of my room and was not touched until I read my first book, The God of small things. I was very much inspired by the book and something in me impelled me to write. I wanted to give myself a try at writing. I picked up the same diary and started thinking about a good topic to start with. And then one good evening, I wrote my first poem named - Safalta. To my surprise, everybody in my family appreciated it and I was savouring my first tryst with writing. Few days later followed Raah...and few more...and then the very next year, in the pressure to excel in 10th standard, I somehow, unconciously, left that habit behind me.

And the sheet of paper that had popped out was the one carrying these two poems. I felt as if a treasure was unearthed...but after few minutes...another thought struck me...may be a treasure was earthed (buried) some years ago. How many such treasures do we bury in the zeal to go ahead in the rat race...numerous!!...We wish to be successful, rich, known, etc but in that quest, we are actually burying the God gifted treasures that we have. Stop for a little while and have a look around. People who are successful and rich ( in the broader sense of the word) are actually the ones who opted to sharpen one or more of these treasures and delved deep into it...followed it and pursued it till they pushed it into the REALMS OF MAGIC !!...and guess what !!...just ask a simple question to yourself - "Who you have ever dreamt to be like?"...and in most of the cases the answer will be a person who was indifferent to the rat race and who relied upon one of these God gifted treasures. Isn't it?

:)

Anyways, below are the two poems that were my first two - "Safalta" and "Raah".

Raah...Path

ae manushaya, tu badhta chal
iss jeevan ki raah par
paar karta chal har mushkil
bade se bade kahar ko kuchal

kabhi thakna nahi iss raah par
yeh sabse mehatv-purn hai
jab mushkilon se jeevan bane mushkil
to samajhna yeh aakhiri mushkil hai

jiss tarah surya-grahan par
dheere dheere banta hai andhera
jab andhera ho apne uttchatav par
tabhi phir hota he savera

kai chale iss raah par
kai bichhdhe iss raah se
kai saathi naye mile
kai choote beech raah mein

kintu pathik tu mat rukna
iss jeevan ki raah par
kisi sankat se mat jhukna
swayam par sadaa vishwaas kar

jo daraa iss rah par sankaton se
veh haara hi kehlayega
jo chala ni-darr sahaasi ban
veh sikandar ban jayega

~ Anuj (October, 99)

Safalta...Success

jab maine chalna seekha
jeevan ko jeena seekha
tabhi mein neeche gira
sukh se pehle dukh mila
dukh milne ke baad phir
mein utha aur badha phir
lekin aage phir gira
issi tarah chalna seekha
jeevan ko jeena seekha...

aage mile kitne kankar
jo the pehle se bhi bhayankar
dekh jinko darraa phir
aage jab mein bada phir.

yaad aayi jab manzil
to socha inhein paar karoon
socha aur mein kar gaya
aur aage badhta chala gaya

chalte chalte raat hui
na jaana kya baat hui
jiss se sukh ka matlab jaana
sukh ko humne bhi pehchaana

veh sukh mila uss khushi se
jo manzil ko dekh mili
ek badi si muskurahat
mere honthon par khili
mujhe wo safalta mili
jo mujhe chahiye thi
yeh meri subah thi

~Anuj (Aug,99)

Doing OUR "BIT"

Few months back, there was an initiative taken by the company I work in, to save the Mother Earth by GOING GREEN. Under this initiative, a limited number of porcelain cups were placed in every pantry in the office. Also plastic bottles with green caps were distributed to all the employees. All these steps were undertaken to minimise the use of plastic cups. People were urged to use water bottles rather than taking water in plastic cups to their seats and also to use porcelain cups instead of plastic cups to have beverages. I liked the idea. Also, A note saying "THINK before USE" pasted in the wall next to where plastic cups are kept makes the message louder.

And as I mentioned before, I liked the idea and started using as less plastic cups as I could. And to bring a similar awareness, I am writing this post as well. Small small things like the afore-mentioned plastic cups thing can bring a big change. A few are lined up. This is the list of things that i am already following and thus are very practical to do. Please have a look:

1) Request Banks to send digital credit card and debit card statements on your mail-id's , thus minimizing the paper wastage.
2) Request for online postpaid mobile bills rather than paper bills to be sent on your mail-id's.
3) Take print-outs only when its really urgent.
4) While taking print-outs, Make sure that you use both the sides of paper to print on.
5) Carry a hanker-chief with yourself to avoid using tissue papers wherever you can.
6) Switching off the monitor when are going away from your seat.
7) Switching off the monitor (at home), when only songs are being played and you don't really need the monitor.
8) Don't ask for poly-bags at various shops when you actually can do without it.
9) Turning off your vehicle's engine on red-lights.
10) Honk only when it's needed.
11) While working-out in gyms, etc, use one glass for drinking water and keep it aside to use it every time you wish to have water. According to my observation, a person going to gym uses more than 10 plastic cups per day while working-out, to drink water in the small breaks between the exercises. This count can easily be reduced to 1 per person.

...and so on.

I feel proud to do anything that I can to save the Mother Earth. I feel proud when I don't see even a single paper credit card statements/phone bills/etc in my pigeon hole. I feel proud switching off my monitor...and I will feel proud of myself if I can inspire even one person to think about this and act. A small act on your part can play a big part in transforming world.

"Love and Relationships" -- Not a MYSTERY.

It's not my creation rather a nice article which I wish to share. No better way to put it all down….do read it.

During a seminar, a woman asked," How do I know if I am with the right person?" the author then noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so he said, "It depends. Is that your partner?" In all seriousness, she answered "How do you know?" Let me answer this question because the chances are good that it's weighing on your mind replied the author. Here's the answer.

Every relationship has a cycle...In the beginning; you fall in love with your partner. You anticipate their calls, want their touch, and like their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love wasn't hard. In fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn't have to DO anything. That's why it's called "falling" in love.

People in love sometimes say, "I was swept of my feet." Picture the expression. It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing, and then something happened TO YOU. Falling in love is a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together, the euphoria of love fades. It's a natural cycle of EVERY relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage. At this point, you and/or your partner might start asking, "Am I with the right person?" And as you reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when relationships breakdown.

The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love the person you found.

People blame their partners for their unhappiness and look outside for fulfilment. Extramarital fulfilment comes in all shapes and sizes. Infidelity is the most common. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby, a friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your relationship. It lies within it. I'm not saying that you couldn't fall in love with someone else. You could. And TEMPORARILY you'd feel better. But you'd be in the same situation a few years later. Because (listen carefully to this): The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love the person you found.
SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. You have to work on it day in and day out. It takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it demands WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make it work. Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your partner). Just as there are physical laws of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships. If you know and apply these laws, the results are predictable. You can "make" love. Love is therefore a "decision". Not just a feeling.

Remember this always God determines who walks into your life. It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let GO.

"Gentlemen will lift the seat."

Few days back, I was travelling by train from Pune to my home-town. It was a pretty boring journey as I had no one accompanying me. And to add to my misery, I was travelling by 2nd AC. Now one would think, "Travelling by 2nd AC...that should add to the comfort...but not misery". But that does not hold true for me. Being gregarious by nature, I was hating the deadly silent and serene surroundings, where no-one was interested in talking to any stranger (including me).

In the otherwise boring journey, an interesting thing happened. It was 4 a.m. in the morning when I woke up. Reason?? a nightmare?!?! Naahh...rather I badly wanted to pee. I rushed to one of the toilets. It was a western style toilet. And I was just about to start to have a leak when all of a sudden, I observed a line written on the wall next to the commode that caught my attention. It read "Gentlemen will lift the seat.". I looked down and...Oh my God, I was not acting like a gentleman. But I am a gentleman and so immediately, I lifted the seat up. Feeling proud of myself on being and behaving like a gentleman...I peed with honour, washed my hands properly and checked if I turned off the tap properly. After all, I am a gentleman and I should behave like one. I returned to my berth and lied down. But I was amused with something. That line had an impact on me in no time. And the reason my brain acted upon the line in no time was the word "Gentlemen". Had it been a normal line saying something like "Please...do this, do that...blah blah", my brain would have easily overlooked it (especially when it was 4 a.m. in the morning and you have got up to pee :) it's easy to neglect everything else).

And I was wondering that even in a closed toilet, where you are all alone by yourself, you care about being called a Gentleman...not by anyone else...but by yourself (or probably a dead wall). Isn't the feeling/wish/desire of being special/gentleman so deeply ingrained in any human being that a person sometimes ends up doing anything (good/bad) and everything to gain that importance. And this is the very tendency that is used by all the advertisements, marketing people,etc. Just by making you feel that using a deodorant can turn you into a girl magnet, they make you buy it.

Yet another thing I realized that this power of FEEL GOOD factor can actually be harnessed in a proper way. Today what I observe and probably what is true as well is that the human brain (in general) has become blind to instructions reading like "Please don't...blah blah", so may be signboards having instructions like "Gentlemen will not spit here" or "Well mannered will switch off mobile phones" will serve the purpose better than "Please Do not spit" or "Please Switch off the mobile phones"...and here is my first experiment... "Gentlemen, brainy, well mannered, intellectual, smart, handsome people will leave a comment after reading this post" ;) :) After all, we all are well mannered gentlemen ;)

PUNE TRAFFIC RULES --- SAB CHALTA HE!!!

(This is not my creation totally but few thoughts of a friend of mine)...enjoy :)

The traffic sense of average Punekar can be summed as look ahead, try not to bump into anyone in the front. Everything else is chalta hai.

So you have PMT (Phaltu Municipal Transport -- yes there is such a thing) buses stopping right at the center of the road (if you're lucky -- otherwise in the rightmost lane), the auto-wallahs (the ubiquitous auto-rickshaw drivers) taking a U-turn out of nowhere, cyclists moving in rows, etc, etc...Think of a violation, and you'll find it here.

If you ever wanted to drive in Pune (may god bless you), here are some tips:

1) Buy a cellphone if you don't already have one, and always use it while driving. It is considered a sign of novice driver if you stop to take a call. If you have to stop, don't bother taking your vehicle to the side of the road. Stop right where you are, or better keep on driving at a sluggish place. People will respect you more. Don't cheat by using hands-free. It's a strong taboo, in this part of the world. Who do you think you are?

2) Stopping at signals is passe. The in-thing is to hang around for couple of seconds, pay homage to the red-light and move along. That is, if you just have to stop. Generally, it's not advised. It's very dangerous to stop at a red-light, especially if there is a PMT or some heavy motor vehicle behind you (the red-light will then signify your blood). If you need to stop at the signals, raise your arm up from a kilometer back and ignore contemptuous looks of the drivers vrooming past you from either sides. A few of them can even tell you or rather shout at you to use your common sense and move ahead or atleast get out of their way and let them move. And trust me, you will get utterly embarassed in no time and will feel like a fool standing over there ALONE and will become one of those SMART people.

3) If anyone honks, and is expecting that you give him the side, DON'T move. In general, you're not supposed to think about anyone behind you. Especially true if s/he's honking. This is not to teach you to be mean. Really, that only means s/he is deciding which side is more comfortable for overtaking, and you don't want to complicate his/her algorithm. Remember: you're supposed to hold your line (and not bump into anyone in the front).

4) Another intelligent evolution is...If you are standing on a red signal, you will observe that nobody is looking at his signal but everybody is looking at the other's signal (on the lanes perpendicular to his own's) and doing some calculations. Everybody knows the order of traffic lights going red/green for all the possible lanes at all the possible signals/crossings. And everybody will be ready with switching on their engines well before their signal goes green. Now you must be wondering that HOW COME THEY PREDICTED IT SO WELL?? Well that's why I called it an inteliigent evolution ;) People new to pune will go berserk at the accuracy of such calculations done by the people :)

5) If you yourself want to overtake there is a complicated algorithm, that I'll try to simplify: basically the strategy depends on the vehicle you're trying to overtake:

PMT/Water-tankers: (this latter is a menacing vehicle that's driven by people who generally can't even differentiate between the forward and reverse gears) forget it.

Auto: Move marginally to the right (don't need to look in the rear view mirrors, they'll manage your sudden lane transition) and honk.. the auto-wallah will move towards the right.. then you move back to left, and if you don't mind overtaking from the left go ahead. But still, If you have to overtake from the right (a habit, you should unlearn fast, if you want to stay here) honk again after going to the left, the auto-wallah will move to the left too...now shoot past him from right.

Cycle: May god bless you. Try not to hurt him/her as you overtake.

Biker (and this includes every moped): If under 30, s/he'll start a race with you. Watch the Terminator bike chase, and get some ideas. Otherwise, swiftly overtake from the left.

6) Right of the way: The earlier you forget that there is such a thing, the better for your mental well-being. You want to turn? Turn. You want to cross? cross. You think you've the right of the way, you have it. And so has everyone else. After all, it's not for no reason that they ask you "Sadak kya tere baap ki hai ?".

7) Disable the low beam on your vehicle. People here can't spot low beams well. They might not be able to see you approaching. (If you don't know what the low beam is, great! you're just the kind of person who'll enjoy your ride here).

8) Also you may drive over footpaths, drive in the opposite direction on a one-way, cross by moving over dividers, stand right in the middle of the road raise your hand and stop the traffic, if someone does not stop stare him/her in the eye.

9) A very new trend in the market: Bikes with both the indicators glowing continuously (rather than blinking) and simultaneously(Beat this!!!). So they do not act as indicators anymore but just like show lamps/lights to give your bike a wierdly appealing look (...that appeals only to the biker himself) . Another such noticeable thing on a lot of crossings is...all the signals simultaneously showing RED...and sometimes, even a single signal can show both red and green simultaneously. (YES that happens...it was in the news as well...pune mirror...obviously DUH!!! :) )

Phew!!! The list is long and never ending...and these are a few very commonly followed rituals on roads. But still I love driving on pune roads. A person who can ride/drive/survive on pune roads can survive on any damn road in this world. It's the best driving lesson that you can ever get. Rules ka kya he....SAB CHALTA HE!!!