Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Tweety in the Cake


Picture credits: Roma and Ashish

Most Awesome Elder Brother Ever

Gudda,

Given that this is your 27th Birthday, I believe I have waited a little too long to say this, but you are and will remain the most awesome elder brother ever.

The past 1.5 years have made us both realize just how valuable family is. And I hope we can both continue to remember that, in spite of all the issues we both know we will face.

I hope you have a great birthday there. We will, just like last year, miss you even more. See you really soon.

Lots of love,
Tinku.

The Deepak we know

Deepak,

I realize you must be overwhelmed receiving everybody’s wishes today, I see this as an opportunity for me to express my gratitude towards you!

Even though it has been just a few months since I know you, I gather you are one of the genial and compassionate people I know…

I can remember the time I first met you at your place in Mumbai. I somehow imbibed positive vibes that made me able to connect with you on some level. It is always pleasure talking to you and hearing your viewpoints..

Your conveyed image by Rohan of a person being “Gem by Heart” is somewhere around back of my mind..

Looking forward to many years of fun and friendship!

Have a very happy birthday and a wonderful ride ahead..May all your hopes and dreams come true..

Stay Blessed!

Shilpa

We make You, You make Us

On your 27th bday, let me tell you something you already know :)

'Hope' created you...Pessimism dare not touch you!

'Unparalleled, matchless' strength of pillar stands behind you...failure dare not push you down!

Golden rays of 'sun' nurtured your dream (for cars)...nightmares dare not spoil them!

With such beautiful people around, I am sure you would ' rise to' 'perfection'! And vast 'blue sky' would shield you against all dark clouds...
And ofcourse you have 'blessings' from the 'mother of all gods'

Just when I was trying to fit in my name, I realized that I have been 'perpetually' with you all through this rendition :)

Glossary:
Anupam - incomparable,matchless
Shilpa - perfectly created
Aarohan - to rise
Sunny - sun
Aasha - hope
Neela - color of sea/sky
Ashish - blessing
Aditi - mother of gods
Aneesha - perpetual

Money, Choices, Decisions, Luck, Wishes and everything that it takes

Hey Deepak,

It is your birthday and I have to write a little message for you (super Gay). So I thought…. What better than a conversation from the past that defines our friendship the best. The following conversation might sound lame but it talks about how both have us have taken the biggest decisions of our lives.

(Early January 2012, Gtalk chat)

me: what are ur thoughts

deepak: Germany professional part will be very good

But personal will suffer

US personal will be set

And u can get a good profile as well

Maybe not as good as bmw

But something worth considering

Ofc things will depend a lot on timing

me: sure...

personal life toh paise pe hai.. if i have some extra money

money can buy me some happiness

deepak: But i feel ki u shud make up ur mind what is ur priority

me: abhi toh its like beggars are not choosers

let me look at my options first

deepak: Money se tu sab kuch nahin kar sakta bhai (ONE MORE TIME)

me: we are overthinking right now

i knew this was coming..

deepak: Tu bata... When u were in germany if u had more money what wud have changed?

me: i was going to justify my statement ... but i tht right now its important to create options

i could have just traveled to UK to see you with the money

i could have got a bike and went riding in the mountains

deepak: :)

me: been to bars and picked up German women :P

taken language courses

all that i did in Pune

not that i picked up desi women in Pune :P

deepak: Good..fir koi tension nahin

(End)

Since most of our posts are laid out on songs in one way or the other, so I chose a song that talks about the other aspect of our lives - Luck.

Here are the lyrics:

Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Song: Fortunate Son

Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Ooh, they're red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief"
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no

Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don't they help themselves, oh
But when the taxman comes to the door
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask them, "How much should we give?"
Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! yoh

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, one

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no no no
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no no no

http://youtu.be/EU7H--USv6Y

We have all that it takes to be fortunate in our own ways. Besides the “Luck favors the brave” aspect of our lives, the success we have had has always been about our confidence, hard-work and OUR choices.

Loads of good luck and gay wishes!!

Happy Birthday!!

- Sunny

Yaad aaye woh din, jinke hone se main hoon aaj


-Aarohan

Friday, July 22, 2011

The echo of the distant tide from a near-distant time

So why is this post titled the way it reads up here.

Reason One:
Pink Floyd wrote an extravagant piece of art that lasts a little over 23 mins.
(staggered lyrics attached in post - marked in italics)

Reason Two:
Echo - A four lettered word that is very profound and also meticulous that it continues to haunt me with its certainty (or uncertainty). An echo by definition means reflection of sound. What goes unnoticed in the definition is the the adequate distance that separates the source and the obstruction. Because the certainty of the echo depends on single large factor, which is the "Setup".

Setup.exe here refers to the executable part of our lives that shall control the two physical dimensions: Distance and Time (M
0L1T1) and give us Speed or Godspeed. Dimensionally Speed and Philosophically Godspeed!!!

Before we get further into the post. I have a few thoughts running in my head, that may be remotely relevant to the "Echo-Philosophy".

Argument One:
"The only language of communication between the Creator and the User is the Creation"
Give a switch to 10 year old and he will fiddle with it, Give a wheel to him and he will learn to roll. Instruction manuals are for bad creations. So... if the big words don't matter, a post graduate degree that teaches you to talk-in-style will never count. Or just may be. The words can surely sell a bad design.
Bottom Line: You choose to either "talk-in-style" or "create better designs".

Argument Two:
"Opportunities can be global, but Talent cannot be globalised"
I can be the best engineer of the team that makes the best nuts and bolts in the smallest industrial town in the third world. I can also be the best engineer of the country that makes the best motorcylces in the biggest technology sensitive economy of the world. The talent to barely acheive, achieve and overachieve the task is identical. So if I cannot find an opportunity in my backyard, it is certain that I will never find it anywhere else.
Bottom Line: You either "travel the world" or simply "explore your backyard".

And no-one called us to the land
And no-one knows the wheres or whys

Argument Three:
"For a creator, smallest of success is the end of the oldest of the facts"
Success defeats my brain every time. The escape route says that 'Assumptions of a Pre-consumed mind' keeps the nerves calm and heels cool. You evade the need to think, act or even react. But every success defeats the assumption. So being successful, is always dangerous.
Bottom Line: It is not Victory-Loss, it is "Face-Defeat"-"Give-Up"

Argument Four:
"Size of the opportunities does not grow bigger than us, but we outgrow them"
Opportunities big or small are alike because all of them set tasks, targets and goals. And while taking the long strides of success (defeating the brain) the goal is scored and then it leaves a Void. I call this the "What Next?" state of mind.
Bottom Line: The "What Next?" only ends when the whistle blows and time is up. Happy scoring!!!

So when does the echo come in, what does the echo do to me.....

Effect One:
Gives me inspiration
When I look back at the reflections from the past I feel confident and know for sure that "If it hits into me, I am sure that I can hit into it and nail it... because the "Hammers of Gods will always drive me home". Hence I am confident to find a few nails in the backyard that need attention.

Effect Two:
Gives me an instantaneous feedback
So while I am in the middle of an instinctive decision, the echo of the inner voice reflecting from the walls within me give me a sense of responsible action with anticipated results. Now I know what the Walls in me are doing. Glad to have them around.

Effect Three:
Gives me Hope
Simple and straight, if I know that all that I say is going to come back to me, I can "Shout it Loud", because I ll do it only once and the world will listen to it more than once. So I am hopeful that my actions will not go unnoticed. I only have to use the right words, actions or reactions.

Very strange to my pre-conceived notion that the echo is a hollow repetition of a stray sound wave reflected between random obstacles.
Put them all together, the four lettered word makes me Confident, Responsible and (if not anything else) Aware.

The echo of a distant tide
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine

So why do I have Two Reasons, Three Effects and Four Arguments.

I hear sounds around me, but I cant hear my own echo. I am longing to listen to the echoes from my past. So what is it, that I am talking about. It has shades of "the Quarter Life crisis" and more dangerously "A Complete breakdown of Identity". I do not have to explain what they mean.

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me

But I sure am preparing the Setup with laying up of the bricks. I am also separating myself from the wall so that I can create the echo I want to hear.

But something stirs and something tries

And starts to climb towards the light


I am living the quarter life crisis but I am more than half way through. If you are still not convinced, read this post again!!! Awaiting to hear the resounding echoes of worldly success very soon.

Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning

And no-one sings me lullabies
And no-one makes me close my eyes
And so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky

-Sunny, Munich, Two weeks before turning 26 Years old !!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

What do you want from me

As I sit looking out of my room window, I only see the fire exit sign hanging on the stairs. And I begin to wonder, why the hell did I end up in a room from where I can only see the escape stairs. Taking a risk of viewing this as a metaphor, was this move in my life in a greater sense an escape route??
Lately, assignments, job application forms and BBC documentaries have activated some long lost grey cells which were probably on the verge of extinction. And the only answer my mind figures out to every question asked is "What do you want from me". As always, a song by Floyd sums it up more beautifully than I can ever do.

"What Do You Want from Me"
As you look around this room tonight
Settle in your seat and dim the lights
Do you want my blood, do you want my tears
What do you want
What do you want from me
Should I sing until I can't sing any more
Play these strings until my fingers are raw
You're so hard to please
What do you want from me

Do you think that I know something you don't know
What do you want from me
If I don't promise you the answers would you go
What do you want from me
Should I stand out in the rain
Do you want me to make a daisy chain for you
I'm not the one you need
What do you want from me
(David Gilmour/Richard Wright/Polly Samson)

That's it guys, this blog is alive again, not for the sake of being on the internet, but just for 'being'...
Deepak

Sunday, January 10, 2010

5 to 1

Listening to a lot of Doors these days... Jim Morrison's voice is drugging me..
I just got back from a late nite ride... and was listening to some more music on Media Player....
The player's playing me The Doors shuffled...
And soon it plays 5 to 1 ... I happen to look at the right bottom corner of the screen...
the clock reads 5:Oh-1 AM...
And them i count 5 to 1 is eight hours...
5 to 1 is also a quick downshift on the left foot lever...
and 1 in 5 is always the right gear to exit a corner "IN THE PRIME"
Lets get together baby one more time...

Here are the lyrics for you....

Song Title: Five to One
Artist: The Doors

Lyrics:
Yeah, c'mon
Love my girl
She lookin' good
C'mon
One more

Five to one, baby
One in five
No one here gets out alive, now
You get yours, baby
I'll get mine
Gonna make it, baby
If we try

The old get old
And the young get stronger
May take a week
And it may take longer
They got the guns
But we got the numbers
Gonna win, yeah
We're takin' over
Come on!

Yeah!

Your ballroom days are over, baby
Night is drawing near
Shadows of the evening crawl across the years
Ya walk across the floor with a flower in your hand
Trying to tell me no one understands
Trade in your hours for a handful dimes
Gonna' make it, baby, in our prime

Come together one more time
Get together one more time
Get together one more time
Get together, aha
Get together one more time!
Get together one more time!
Get together one more time
Get together one more time
Get together, gotta, get together

Ohhhhhhhh!

Hey, c'mon, honey
You won't have along wait for me, baby
I'll be there in just a little while
You see, I gotta go out in this car with these people and...

Get together one more time
Get together one more time
Get together, got to
Get together, got to
Get together, got to
Take you up in my room and...
Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah
Love my girl
She lookin' good, lookin' real good
Love ya, c'mon

Thursday, May 07, 2009

for all you know that your life is just a strange illusion

Few combination of words when strung together have a strong influence on your life. However, this honest influence is very ironically deceptive and fades in no time. The title of this post is the best example of what I am trying to disseminate. These are powerful words picked from Iron Maiden’s popular song “Hallowed be thy Name”. Coz each day there will be moments when you feel that your life is not more than just an illusion of your own mind.

For elaboration – Most days of my life, I try to live with a reason. A reason conceived and perceived by my own imagination. The reason recorded clearly in my brain cells. I work towards it and then begin to observe triumph. And once the reason to live is justified to me – the question that haunts is “Is this all that I wanted to do?” Whenever these words hit my mind's eye, it illuminates the fact that our live is, just for the record, an illusion of our own mind.

When I fell in love with Mechanical engineering I wanted to sit in a design studio and make better machines. Which is very much what I m doing today or rather expected to do. Probably I wish to do even bigger things in life, which I am sure I’ll do. But what troubles me is that once I get to do that thing the question will remain the same “Is this all that I really wanted to do?”

Can’t really believe that I waited for 23 long years to live the life I’m living right now. This is the time I differ with myself – Is this what I wanted from life? It’s often said that you don’t always get what you need but what you deserve. Well that’s not quite true. Because you’ll always get what you always want, provided you want it really badly. But once you get it – you ll want some more and then some more and still some more.

For example, you set out to design a part which best suits the purpose. Then slog your ass out to make it work. Then you gauge the performance and record it for justification. However the gauging of performance is merely the interpretation of your own understanding. Meaning you end up convincing yourself that you are convinced. Eventually nothing exists in result – all you know and see is just an ILLUSION of your own mind.

And today when I sit down to complete this post, I am blank. I have very little to write. The reason for the same is certainly not known to me. But what I speculate is that I m genuinely confused. As I begin to look a few years back I see a time when I knew exactly what I wanted to do and the rest of planet earth of my age was still trying to find their preferred way of success. Today the tables have spun round a complete 180 degrees..It’s the time of my life when I actually don’t know what I should be doing next. The illusion has disappeared. The confusion has taken over.

And then I face the irony of life each day. Each day I go to office with a motive to make a difference to this place. Very often I sit down to list the things I wish to do, and each time I know that I have very little time. And on top of it all, I try a million times and fail a billion times.

Coming back to the reality, I think I am standing in midst of a youthful confused state of mind. The youthful enthusiasm to do whatever comes my way. The confused me who doesn’t know what to do at times. And then the state of mind that smacks me down to achieve that seems to be a distant dream.

Am I getting used to success or am I not getting any success at all? Have I showed myself the wrong way? Have I started to doubt my decisions or rather my choice?

And then Led Zeppelin had to happen. Run thru the following lines to learn more. Here the "Woman” being my “Distant Dream”.

Been dazed and confused for so long its not true,
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you.
Lots of people talk and few of them know,
Soul of a woman was created below. Yeah!

You hurt and abused tellin all of your lies,
Run around sweet baby, lord how they hypnotize.
Sweet little baby, I don’t know where you’ve been,
Gonna love you baby, here I come again.

Every day I work so hard
Bringin home my hard earned pay
Try to love you baby, but you push me away.
Don’t know where you’re goin
Only know just where you’ve been,
Sweet little baby, I want you again.

Been dazed and confused for so long, its not true,
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you.
Take it easy baby, let them say what they will.
Will your tongue wag so much when I send you the bill?

PS: None