Found and Lost

We come across a lot of different people in our lives....some we notice, some just pass by. While some people will inspire you, some will break you apart and make you lose faith in the word called life. Some will make you live life while some will make your life feel worthless. But life is when we survive all these people and the incidences and still continue to trust and have faith.

They met on a hazy afternoon of February. The conversation was easy and they talked for some time discussing their likes, dislikes, ups and downs and fears for the future. Though they seemed different from the outside they had a lot of things in common and by the end of their conversation they were aware of this. The two hours while they chatted just flew by and they decided to continue to talk the next day with the hopes of finding a new friendship in their life.

Two years went in a jiffy and they were still good friends. They were comfortable in each others life as long distance friends who were available when the other needed a ear to hear the concerns and help in the various transactions of life. This was the beginning of their story and as every story has a middle and an end they were also supposed to complete their life journeys.

They never thought of moving forward or lessening the physical distance between them. When one of them got involved in a relationship the other kept fair distance. Things never seemed to work out and when one of them would end broken the other supported by providing a virtual shoulder and gracefully pointed out the pros of not being in the relationship.

One fine day they thought of exchanging their numbers. The idea of hearing each others voices for the first time in their three years of friendship excited both of them. Starting from hilarious incidences they already knew to the habits they wanted to know they talked for the whole night for the first time. The next whole week went in a jiffy and they continued to talk for hours on the verge of being labeled as insomniacs by their friends. The distance between them was a long bridge which they were shortening day by day but still considered that they had a long way to go before they can meet up.

They knew they were perfect for each other. Both of them were broken but aren't most people in this world are? The important point was that they still wanted to be in each others life after five years of long distance friendship turned relationship. One fine day they decided to meet. It was easier said than done. They wanted this to be perfect like their love for each other. They decided on a date which was a month later. They would both meet in a new city, in a new country to start a new phase of their lives. She dreamt of being in his arms and kissing him on his lips. He dreamt of hugging her tight and kissing all her worries away. Yes, it would be a perfect start to a new life.

The date they decided on to meet was the day when they had both first entered into each others life. It was the day when they had both written hello and taken the first step of their friendship. He reached a day earlier in the city and booked a room for their stay. He knew she loved the sea and so he had chosen a beautiful sea faced room in a hotel in the quiet area of the city. The sea touched the sands and erased all the previous lines leaving a blank slate. His love and commitment would also help them to start a new life. He silently promised himself to fill her every living moment with all the happiness in this world.

In the afternoon he left for the airport with a bouquet of her favorite flowers. He was dressed in her favorite colored shirt and plain khaki trousers. He looked like a child filled with excitement and determination enough to conquer the world.

As soon as he entered the airport international arrivals he shivered as the cold wind touched his face. Something was amiss. Every face was sad and eyes filled with fear. The announcements were loud and their were a lot of cops calming the crowd gathered on the gates. He pushed hard and went to the front of the crowd. His chest touched the hard railing and the cold steel made him take a step back. Still he kept his feet fixed and with all force shouted the flight number. The cop in the front tried to make him calm and started explaining the situation. The flight was missing. No one knew where in the world it was. The situation was getting worse with each passing minute but with all the technology at their disposal the flight was still missing from the morning. The authorities had no clue about any thing. The breath left his lungs. He was pushed back into the crowd and then pushed to the end. His vision got blurred. The frantic cries of all the relatives were deafening. He sat on the floor as his feet no longer seemed strong enough to hold him. The time had stopped for him. For the next 48 hours he just sat at the airport with prayers on his lips and hope to see her in his eyes. He had lost his appetite and water no longer seemed to keep him alive. The flight was branded as missing but their were strong reports of it getting crashed in the ocean. No survivors were expected.

After 5 days he returned back to the hotel room that he had paid before for a full week. He had lost the will to speak. When the cab driver asked him about his destination he just showed the hotel card that was still in his pocket. As he entered the room the sound of waves crashing seemed like laughter. The calm sea which was soothing him some days back now seemed a cruel reminder of all that he has love and lost.

Life Quotes

I love reading and whenever I read a story there are some lines which always make me read them twice. They are the mirrors to the authors heart and his/her life journey. From now onwards, I would be sharing all those life lessons on this page. Hope they inspire you all in the same way they do me :)

"Do you know what's scarier than taking a risk and losing? Regret, Joss. Regret does awful things to a person."

----------On Dublin Street, Samantha Young

"Awareness and apologies were fine and good, but they could come too late."

----------Easy, Tammara Webber

You have to teach your heart and mind how to sing together... then you'll hear the sound of your soul.

----------Sweet Thing, Renee Carolina

The Escape...

The answer was clear to her...it had been clear from sometime but she was afraid. She knew what was in store but she never thought that her life would change forever after that. If someone else would have heard her story they would have told exactly what was about to happen but being a Sagittarius had its pros and cons. She kept everything to herself.

For months she had remained as calm and composed as she could possibly be. She had planned every second because she knew that the final moment would arrive eventually. After months of crying and cursing the almighty she had decided to take things in her own hand. She never lost faith in herself. She knew she could do it but somehow the plan couldn't take a shape in her mind.

The day when she saw that mouse for the first time in her life she squealed with joy. This was the ray of hope she had been waiting for so long. The plan was final in her mind and she didn't lose even a second to start working on it.

The cut on her forehead throbbed due to head rush as she tried to stand up. She sat again. With all the strength left in her she stood up again quietly. The drugs made her lousy but she had been clever enough to not gulp them. She kept them in her mouth and then spit them as soon as she got alone.

This was the day she had waited for so long. She had been counting days and hours and seconds and now the time has come. It was her only chance to escape the dreadful fate she had encountered 2 years 4 months 15 days 12 hours ago. She had never stopped counting.

With all her might she tried her best to push aside the cupboard. She was weaker today but the thought of escaping was enough to give her strength. As the cupboard slid aside the hole in the wall was visible. She had been literally scratching the wall from last 2 months. Every day she scrapped as much concrete as she could. She knew this was her route to leave the room and live her life again. She would be free. She smiled victoriously as she saw the hole. It was enough for her to wriggle through it. It was the last bit of brick that she would be digging through today. She knew this because she could see light peeping through tiny holes...this was the light of hope. She started working. For the next one hour she dug without stopping even for a second. The light was getting brighter and brighter and her excitement knew no bounds.

When the last bit of brick was gone she wriggled her head out and started pushing herself out of the hole. She was about to make history she thought. The air was clean and the light filled her with warmth. She would run for her life as soon as she could get out. She would run for help.

As she wriggled her shoulders out there was a shout from her left side.

Before she could react she heard loud bells all around her. She panicked and started moving fast. She had to get out and run as fast as she could to save herself. This was her only chance. She heard footsteps around her but she couldn't see anyone clearly. She had very less time in hand. She just had to get out and run fast.

As she was halfway out...she could see people approaching towards her. She shouted at the top of her voice to leave her. She pushed and they pulled her out. She struggled to run but there were too many hands grabbing her. She started to kick with all her strength. She was not strong enough.

Suddenly she felt stabbing pain on her left shoulder. She looked by her side but couldn't make out anything. There was a lot of commotion....lots of voices as she drifted slowly to sleep.

The nurses lifted her up and laid her on the stretcher near them. She looked serene while sleeping. The doctor has ordered to keep her in isolated cell for few weeks. She would be given another round of shock therapy.

She was admitted 4 months back. At 20 years, she was one of the youngest patients in the institution. Married at the age of 18, her parents never would have imagined that their beautiful daughter would suffer from such severe trauma. For two years she tried her best to escape from the tortures of her in-laws and husband. Her parents knew everything but ignored the warning signs as they never wanted the stamp of divorce on their daughter's life. She trusted them and hid her bruises from the world. When the atrocities grew she tried escaping but was caught, beaten ruthlessly and she never saw the day light for months after that.

She never knew she would now always remain captured in those memories. Her plan to escape had failed.

This story is written for Colgate Total Contest at indiblogger.in

Date a girl who reads

An interesting read for every parched soul....

“You should date a girl who reads.

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or if she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.”
― Rosemarie Urquico

Aaghaaz, the fresh start

As she entered silently, all eyes turned towards her. The silence was marked by the melodious rhythm of her payal and bangles. She was oblivious of the people around her. As she reached near her destination her eyes automatically met his. The smile that danced on her face at that moment was incredible. All the anxiety and tiredness vanished instantly. To answer her smile, he just put forward his hand and held hers’ tight, silently promising of never leaving, ever.

She had dreamt about this moment so many times that now it seemed like déjà vu. As the chants started, the incidents from the last 7 years flashed before her eyes. The ups and downs, the happy and sad everything seemed to fit in its place now.

She has changed in all these years and so has he.

What mattered was that they had lived through everything and were still together. Past was gone for good. There present and future were now together. A new life was starting.

What to do?

when you feel happy and sad at the same time....

when you want to laugh hard but end up crying silently...

when you don't know what to say still, want to talk ...

when you don't know the reasons of your slow heart beat...

when people value money more than relationships...

when you say something but mean something else....

when you fight most with the person you love....

when you want to share your feelings but feel cold....

when someone sees through your mask....

when you have a destination but it feels the best to wander in the wild....

when you don't want a dream to change into reality....

when you want to take a leap but are afraid of letting go of present...

when you have desire but no fire....

when you know that you don't want to change but still you think you should...

when you miss the warm hug of someone who is a thousand miles away...

when you start questioning your existence.

Rain rain....

After the scorching heat of summer the eagerly awaited rains are always refreshing. The smell of damp earth, the greener leaves and the clear atmosphere fills everyone with joy and peace. You may be in any kind of mood the rain drops will always make you change into a child. And in no time you will get soaked in the pouring rain, laughing at your own juvenile self.

It is the time of the year when the potholes no longer bother you because you realize that without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

Heartbreaks & promises

Heartbreak is lying on your bed, soaking the pillow with tears, sobbing endlessly struggling to breathe, and at the same time wondering why it all went wrong and how you are gonna live and pretend that everything is all right.

Heartbreak is remembering every moment you spent together, movies and dinners you had, those sleepless nights talking about your future and lives together.

Heartbreak is when tears roll down your cheeks even by the mention of his name or listening to the songs he loved.

Heartbreak is when you cry to sleep at night, only to wake up with heaviness in your heart and feel like shouting at the top of your voice to make him know about the pain you are enduring.

Heartbreak is when you laugh too hard to hide the tears already in your eyes.

Heartbreak is when you start pretending that you are better off without him.

Heartbreak is when you start cursing the moment you met. And swear to never fall in love with anyone else.

It is difficult to pretend that everything is all right when in your heart you know that nothing will be same ever again. It feels like that you are back to where you started, the only difference being that now you are more lonely than ever. But in your heart you still pray every moment for the same person to come back and fix everything. 

There may be thousands of solutions your friends may be giving you to get over with all of this. But you are the one going through it. You know all the answers.

Sometime you just have to hold your head up high, blink away the tears and say good-bye. You are going to be all right. And if you need some great distraction you know whom to contact. No matter what I promise I am not going to break-up with you.

So... from now on... when you think of him... just remember that you were actually the best thing he ever had. He was just a chapter in the story of your life...a lesson to make you stronger.
Its time for you to let go of him and embrace much better things you have in your life.

P.S. This is for you N.

A Vacant Room

Ever wondered why a vacant room looks much smaller than a room full of people. It is then you notice the color of the walls, the floor, the door and the windows. It is then you discover the missing elements, the free space around you.

Then you realize that your life resembles that room. Confined from all sides by the walls...there is just one door...a door from where people enter and exit....spend time in the room and then leave....the windows allow light to enter and you see the outside world from them...wondering all your life what's outside those boundaries. At times your life is full of people and some other time it's vacant like that room.

A vacant room makes you remember the people who are missing from your life. The people who once lived there...the people who laughed with you...shared life with you....the people who once were an indispensable part of your life...the people without whom you couldn't imagine to live a second alone....the people you swear to be with, all your life.

And then new tenants come and the room is again a place full of happiness and laughter. The color of walls change...there are new pictures...new furniture...and new life. You become part of someone else's life. And you start living again...though with new people....at a new place...already ready to face another emptiness.

Some quotes which I love :)

“This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today.”

~ One Day

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

~ David Copperfield

"Sometimes you have to be apart from the people you love, but that doesn't make you love them any less. Sometimes it makes you love them more."

~ The Last Song

"What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me."

~ Love Story

It's the possibility that keeps us going, not the guarantee.

~ The Notebook

“Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy. Remember that.” 

~ Message in a Bottle

My daddy used to tell me that the first time you fall in love it changes your life forever. And no matter how hard you try, the feeling never goes away.

~ The Notebook

For all the lies I've tasted, just looking for the truth. For all the dreams I'm chasing, well what am I to do. When everything's against me, and the answers are all wrong; I'm hoping that I find out it was worth it all along.

~ The Calling

“If you have to keep a secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place” 

~ One Day

"Who am I? and how, I wonder, will this story end?"

~ The Notebook

"Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature. And while I occasionally step over the line and into the world of the melodramatic, it is what I must do in order to communicate effectively. In order to make my point without question."

~ The Art of Racing In The Rain

“Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.”
~ The Room

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...”
~ The Kite Runner

“It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting. - Amir”

~ The Kite Runner

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.”

~ The Princess Diaries

And as Roark looked at him, he added: "Don't worry. They're all against me. But I have one advantage: they don't know what they want. I do."

~ The Fountainhead

“And then some days you wake up and everything's perfect”
~ One Day

No wonder they say love is a game, a mystery, a madness.

Failing is the first step to success, crying is the first step to happiness. And heart break is the first step to true love.

"Shes a great girl and she knows what to say to make me smile, but the funny thing is u dont even have to say anything to make me smile..just u urself makes me smile."

There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful, you need to be a person who makes things happen.

The things you regret in life are the risks you didn’t take.

Too often we don't realize what we have until it's gone, too often we're to stubborn to say 'sorry, i was wrong' too often it seems we hurt the one's closest to our hearts and we let the most foolish things tear us apart.

When you can't avoid...enjoy it :)

New beginning or another ending

Another day...another eventful year...

So here I am another year older but not necessarily any wiser (or maybe more dim-witted!!!) As any other year the previous one was as normal as it can be for me. The bumpy ride, the smooth sailing, the happy faces, the sad faces, and the angry faces...all were seen.

As usual I did cry a lot and as usual I did laugh a lot. There were setbacks and there were accomplishments.

Looking at the events believe me you learn a lot in an year. But the greatest learning this year for me was accepting "changes".

Just when you think that things can't get any better, they actually do - believe me. And it boggles with your mind because it is too good and you don’t want to mess it up so you keep pretending that nothing changed. But the truth is, things change in an instant: 60 seconds phone call, one harsh comment, one tender kiss, one silly mistake... and nothing remains the same. The how and why is beyond me. Change is the greatest mysteries of life.

Things change, people change....Though I have made some great friends I have also lost some very precious one. Life's all game...either you continue playing or quit it...either you enjoy winning or accept losing, it will not make any difference to its pace.

Life has no meaning, Life has no purpose. It is meant to be "LIVED"

So here's to another year which I am going to "Live".

Cheers!!!

What's in a Religion..err.. Caste..err..Surname?

Juliet:"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fall in love in Shakespeare's lyrical tale of "star-cross'd" lovers. They are doomed from the start as members of two warring families. Here Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called "Montague", not the Montague name and not the Montague family. Romeo, out of his passion for Juliet, rejects his family name and vows, as Juliet asks, to "deny (his) father" and instead be "new baptized" as Juliet's lover. This one short line encapsulates the central struggle and tragedy of the play.

So this was about name...and in our society name, surname and religion are intrinsically related. We identify a person's caste, religion based on their surnames. A person may be very honest, truthful, or courageous but as soon as the surname is revealed all things are flushed and what remains are the preconceived notions related to that caste or religion. I have always wondered why judge a person by his/her name when we have a better way of knowing the person face to face.

What difference will it make whether a person is a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Jew, or Christian....these are just their ways of worshiping the almighty. We all have our own believes so why judge a person by his way of praying.

Another way of deciding a person's behavior is caste. You say your surname to anyone in this country and a sketch of your behavior is already in place. Any change in that means you are not true to your caste. And your every move is "scrutinized" based on it. The social restrictions based on caste have also shaped the economic activities taken up by people. Caste related violence and politics are common.

Not just this there is distinction based on regions too (like religion and caste were not enough to divide and rule us). And the best thing is "Unity in diversity" is just a slogan now to describe India. Every region believes that it is the best.

Here is the summary of various tidbits I collected based partly on hearsay and partly by observation.
1. Punjabis
Believe in PDA (public display of affection), show-offs, spend more than they can afford, shrewd.
2. Biharis
Polite Hindi speaking, more inclined towards public services and politics, hardworking, values commitment, life-long friends, have something to say every time, ready to kill or die for anything that they feel is right.
3. Malayalees ( Mallus)
Systematic, Neat, Short-tempered, would readily help other mallus, a close community, great minds.
4. Maharashtrians (Marathis)
Culture loving, fanatics (for good and for bad), extremely loyal to their state.
5. Bengalis (Bongs)
Love their state too much, language and culture, artistically oriented, a bit loud, believe-in-me-first, a close community, great taste in food.
6. Gujratis (Gujjus)
Laid back, great business mind, live-to-eat, loud, stairs and a swing in every house is a must.
7. Tamilians (madrasi)
Religious, artistically inclined, good sloggers, timid, too rigid, less tolerant.
8. Rajasthanis (Marwaris included)
Money matters more than anything, caste rigid, views everyone as dishonest, selfish, substantial diaspora, opportunists.
Though there are exceptions to the above but I feel that nature of a person is the result of the environment he is growing up in and that very well constitutes the region.

The state "India" is what I dream about...where all these distinctions will merely be a matter of past.

The Road Taken...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost (1920)

Life @ LBSIM

It takes courage to let go off the familiar. Leaving school & home to move on to a college....then leaving college for a job...a new life....then leaving it again to go for a college. This is how my last 6 years have gone by. I have been a guest at my own house. The decision was difficult but then it has paid off.

Moving on in life is simple, it's what you leave behind that makes it so difficult. Those memories always lingers on. And the worst part is you start comparing things....and getting upset at the new ways. The same happened to me when I joined LBSIM. Comparing it with my previous college the life at this institute looked dull. The huge library and the studious students made my heart sank. And I cursed everything that was happening in my life for bringing me here.....Why Me???

At that time I just wanted to get neck deep into studies so that I won't notice a thing and somehow survive the 2 years.

Time passed....I made new friends....and then the same class started looking to me like a family. A family in which though every member doesn't say that they care about you....but still you can feel the warmth. The feeling that though they may be sometimes busy but whenever you need them just look at them and they will understand.

And today I had one of the best days because of the LBSIM family. My lazy bones never let me get up on a Sunday morning though today was a different day...it was different me.
Getting up early to go to a small school to teach some underprivileged students.
Yes!!! this is what I did today. Though it was just an hour's activity but still the smile on their faces was worthwhile my hours' sleep.

Their excited voices urging me to continue telling them stories....and then the enthusiasm to act on them was astonishing. Hadn't it been for their teacher who asked us to continue this next week, this session would have continued for hours.

Now I am looking forward to next week with greater excitement. Have more such beautiful days to live....

Sisters At Heart ♥♥♥

The Merriam - Webster dictionary defines sister as,"a female who has one or both parents in common with another." For me this definition changed sometime 5 years back when I met my two sisters.

Going back the memory lanes, I clearly remember the day when we first met in hostel...

We had an instant liking for each other. Though we were in different departments and had quite dissimilar attitudes, still we blended. In textile terms we got woven together by the yarns of friendship, togetherness and love... ;)

The nights we shared gossiping and discussing each other's love life (other people's too), classmates, faculties, and every other topic least related to studies were the best nights spent huddled together.

I still remember those days when at 4 in the morning I would find you whispering about the days' activities and "breaking" news and would wake up instantly to give my inputs. I still remember the dinner we had at U.S Pizza, eating the dreadful spinach soup and swearing that we would finish it anyhow(even the waiter took pity on us...though the chilli sauce made it eatable)....the morning when we all were in the balcony mesmerized to see the sun rise after a sleepless night.....those Sunday mornings when you would shout at me to get up and then finally would be able to wake me up by lunch time....those endless paani-puri sessions....those best birthdays that I would ever celebrate in my life.....the photography sessions in the newly stitched designer garments......the late night Maggie meals......the Garba for which you guys got me ready....the college fest....our best hang out place "Ganne ki juice ki shop".

And how can I forget the nights spent listening to FM radio, singing along every other song (remember the RJ's!!!). The nights when we used to open a dhobi ghaat in the flat.....the endless nights of smiles and laughs.

Though I don't believe in luck, it must have been some good work done by me sometime in my life as God gifted me with two angels so that I may survive those four years in a new city.  The support you guys have given me will always remain special to my heart.
Though we are not blood sisters but we share a much special bond.

You are the first people I think about when I make plans. You are the first people I go to when I need someone to talk to. I call you guys up just to talk about nothing, or the most important things in my life. When I'm sad you will try your hardest to cheer me up. You are the shoulder to cry on, because I know that you truly care about me. You give the best hugs in the world!!!

We had goofy pictures, crazy times, and are sisters at heart and partners in crime. Love you guys.

Dedicated to my two college roommates...Love you Manjeeta and Neha.

Bollywood ~ a Love Story

As a little girl, I loved the larger-than-life world that Bollywood movies depicted. The so called heroes of the movies became my imaginative future husbands. (I never dreamt that I would have a boyfriend). The happily ending love stories were what I liked the most.

My love for movies was seen normal in my family. My parents are movie-buffs. They have incredible stories to share like how they went to see so-and-so movie’s 9pm show and left me n my sister sleeping in the house. My father used to watch 3 consecutive shows a day during the weekend. (Phew...!)

Years passed, I went to college and I switched from Bollywood to Hollywood. The main reason for this shift will look quite astonishing to some people. The ticket price for bollywood movies was 110 while that for a Hollywood movie was 40. Mind it, a stark difference for a student.

The new genre of movies (that’s Hollywood) was interesting, sophisticated and urbane and I found my second love. If you love two people at the same time, choose the second one, because if you really loved the first one you wouldn’t have fallen for the second. But this wasn’t me. I was up-rooted and in a completely new environment. I just bought this because I wanted to fit in.
Bollywood on the other hand started changing, moving into new-age cinema, bringing topics of social interest and concern. It is not the movies that make India what it is today. It is the India of today that has inspired these Bollywood movies. India of today is better, brighter and bolder, and “More righteous!” An India that re-defines Devdas, Don and Agneepath that encourages a fighter who is strong but does not always need to raise his fists. Yes, Bollywood has come a long way.

After I left college and started working in a new city, fitting in was not all that I wanted and definitely it was not worth the sacrifice of one’s individuality. Long torn between my love for many things I again started exploring ways to blend the two....Bollywood with Hollywood. And, I am beginning to fall in love, all over again, with Bollywood.