Ishq jab hadh se paar hota hai
Bewafa se bhi pyaar hota hai

So true :)

Happy Diwali

Diwali/Deepavali as we all know is a festival of lights. But its more a festival of crackers. Whatever said and done, the zooming rockets in the sky, the colourful fireworks, the thundering crackers are a feast for the eyes. As a kid my fantasy for crackers was unlimited. Though money was a constraint in those days, I would be somehow contented. Even today, at the age of 26 I still have an urge for fireworks, but its limited to those big and colourful ones and probably the longest and the most powerful rockets. So tomorrow some of these would be unleashed into the skies, provided the rain god doesnt offer any showers :).

All u guys have a happy and wonderful Diwali.

Blessed Mother

Mother Teresa the embodiment of love, the saint of the poor was beatified yesterday by Pope John Paul II. She is now the 'blessed mother'. The missionaries of charity, founded by the mother, whose sole purpose and aim in life is to help the poor and the needy is the one of the organizations that has given charity a practical meaning. There are people who just talk about love, who give lectures, who propound theories, but Mother Teresa has shown what love means. She has seen Jesus in every individual, be it a destitute child, be it Princess Diana, be it a leprosy patient. Without regard to caste, creed, sex, religion, her selflessness has today elevated her to such a position that no man can dream of. Though she died at the age of 87, she still lives, in the hearts of those thousands of inmates of the missionaries of charity. The world today is such that, even such a selfless person is charged with conversion, and television channels do not feel ashamed at all in going and blatantly clarifying the conversion factor with the sisters at the mission. Its high time the people in television media learnt some 'etiquettes' in communication.
I regret, for being an Indian not to have met the Mother when she was alive. Last night emotions overflowed, watching the inmates of the Missionaries of charity in Calcutta and the Indian Tricolour, being waved and fluttered by thousands at the Vatican. For once, I felt proud of being born in India, home to the Blessed Mother.

I call up the HR department to get an address proof document, a lady picks up the fone, says some form is available on the web, download it and get it signed by some one in the HR department. The tone in which she spoke makes u feel as if u r begging for something and this lady did a great favor by just picking up the phone. I dont know what exactly the HR department out here does, 90% of the time the employees of this department are not in their seats, not reachable via mobile, if an email query is posted it goes directly into their trash, and when someone goes with a query they talk in such an arrogant and boastful tone. I feel most of the women in our HR department think that they are the 'Apsaras' and 'Menakas' of the industry and the first thought they have in their mind is to treat other employees like dirt, especially if the employees arent the managers or directors or someone whom they dont have a good rapport with. So much of discrimination. Upon this they are also boastful of bieng the Alumni of some of the top B schools of the country.

Late night talks :
Some thing which I always loved. It was during college days that it all started.
Hostel is the place I guess where it all began, life would start at 10 in the night and wouldnt end till 3 or 4 in the morning. We would talk talk and talk, mostly arguments, disagreements, career prospects, higher studies, happening girls/women, sex, movies and what not. Added to that the overnight train/bus journeys. During the initial days of College we always travelled in big 'gangs', minimum 10 members :). Later towards our last year, it decreased to 2 - 3. However we rarely slept in our journeys, always talk talk and talk.
Soon after college, it became quite difficult to get out of this routine. Late night talks, teas, walks. Even after 4 years, I still long for them. Incidentally I happened to come across a Nepali girl in some SMS confusion and gradually the SMSs led to conversations and further conversations and talks and talks. I simply love talking to this girl without knowing her, without seeing her, without regard to anything. I am usually not very comfortable speaking to women but I donno how I end up talking to this girl so much. Since I will be busy through out the day, I pick up the phone in the night between 11 pm and 3 am. She bieng a college grad, adds further nostalgia, as if am back in College. It feels good to get back into the late night talks, though not accompanied by the road side tea :). God knows how long it will last...

Vedas:
I am a firm believer in the Vedas. I believe that the vedas are an energy form which is even superior to what people term as 'God'. All my knowledge w.r.t to the vedas are theoritical. I have heard from some experts in this field that vedas are not something u can learn but something u need to experience. Sitting on a mat and chanting the various 'shlokas' is of no good, unless one allows oneself to delve deep into the chasm of the vedas. There is no end for this experience. So no one can literally claim that he/she has finished learning the vedas. There are so many misconceptions about this very concept of 'vedas', thanks to the present day priests and other revered sages of the 'brahmin' community. To give an example : There is a particular shloka 'yopaam pushpam veda, pushpavaan prajavaan pashumaan bhavathi' and the priests chant this shloka in the temples and other festivals while offering flowers to the god. People stand in the temple with closed eyes and think that the shloka is appropriate, because all that matters for a common man is 'pushpa = flower' so the shloka is logical and correct. The essence of this shloka is totally different. This meaning I got to know from a renowned scholar in sanskrit. He said 'pushpa' does not mean 'flower' in that context, it actually means the birth of planet earth. The shloka actually explains the origin of the first forms of life in water. I have forgotten the entire meaning but each and evey word in that shloka refers to the basic life form. Alas, today most of us dont bother to know about one of the greatest treasures of mankind, the vedas, which ultimately makes the person realize his true self. Instead we worship the rishis, the various forms of God, celebrate festivals and ultimately fight in the name of God and religion.