Growing up is the process of giving up things that you loved to do when you were a kid. As you keep growing up you just give up on those things, one by one. It's not easy growing up. You are not old enough to make a choice of the kind of life that you want to lead and you are not young enough to just stand there and let everything happen in front of you against your wishes.
Sometimes I think that the worst thing that someone can demand from you, is for you to "Grow Up". You would ve heard this retort so many times without actually ever bothering about how bad a retort it actually is. "Grow Up" means that you are being asked to let go of one more habit of your's that actually lets you be a kid, an innocent kid who does nt know about the complexities of a grown up world around him. I wonder sometimes why would anyone want anyone else to grow up. Is it because they themselves have grown old and are feeling miserable about it ?
All your life you will always wish that you could rewind the time and go back into the past to a time when you were young and happy and everything was so good and lovely. But the thing that you never realize is that even if by some miracle you did end up there, you would want the same wish again. The point that one doesn't understand is that one has to be content with what one has and one must also, learn to live in the present.
What most people call a "Rat Race" I like to call it as a "Rabbit Race", not because I like rabbits, but beacause I hate rats. You can see everyone who loves you and wants you to succeed in life shouting out like an ardent fan of your's, "Run Rabbit Run.....dig that hole, forget the sun.....And when at last the work is done, don't sit down, it's time to dig another one". As soon as you learn to walk, you are asked to RUN. At the end, you find that all your life, all you have ever done was to keep running, leaving all the things that you wanted to do as a kid, all your dreams behind.
The race never ends. It just goes on and on and on. People keep joining the race all the time and similarly others keep going out of it. Others just keep running without knowing what are they running for. This all makes no sense at all, but still all of us keep doing it, because if you do not run, that means you are stagnated at one place and no one today can tolerate even a second of stagnation.
Growing up can be tough. You want to do so many things and you seem to have so little time. You have so many dreams but you can't sleep long enough. You have so many friends but you always want a best friend. You have so much to learn but you still end up going to school. You have so many choices to make but none of them is decided by you.
Happiness is a relative term. When you are happy you would want everyone around you to be happy too. That's easier said than done. People, grown-up people, have so many complications in their lives that they hardly remember when to live their life. It seems that they are living their lives for someone else. When you live your life for yourself, you ll understand how easy it is to be happy.
Ever seen children playing around in a park. The last thing on their mind is what will others think about me. I would term that as absolute happiness. It's when you have no care in the world, no worries about anyone else in the world, when you live life for yourself and no one else. All I would like to wish is that we all could stay kids for all our lives, that we never become Rabbits, that we stay happy forever, that we never GROW-UP.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Moving On
As I write this story, in some days I will be completing one year in my current job, which as a matter of fact happens to be my first job. Over the past one year I have learnt a lot of lessons, gained a lot of new friends and lost a few too. Now that the year is about to end, everything that has happened seems so far back in past that it's tough to imagine that it all ever happened once. All that remains with me are the memories and the companionship of those who are the closest to me.
I still remember the day when I first came to this rather unwelcoming city. It was an overwhelming experience, so much so that it was tough to imagine that something like this was happening to me. Slowly and steadily it all began to sink in, and I started 'coming back to life'.
If I had to mention some of the most important things in my life I would certainly keep my friends among them. I just can't seem to live without them. I have always been really dependent on them. I have always had great friends and I have always loved their company. It was only recently that I realized that I am too possessive about my friends and to speak the truth, it came as a shock to me.
It's going to be an year and what I see all around is a lot of discomfort and a lot of movement. This reminds of a very important fact of nature that says that the same kind of entities in an place tend to move away from each other and keep moving away from each other forever. Much like the galaxies that just keep moving away and farther in the universe expanding it along the way. No one seems to be happy with what they are or what they have. I guess one has to be in their position and experience what they do before commenting on something like this, but the fact is that this discomfort is universal. Only thing that differs among everyone is the level of discomfort and more importantly what steps they can take to get rid off it.
While some choose to crib about it all and vent it out and start all over again a few days later, others are much diferent and crib all the time. The remaining handful of people really have the guts to do something out of the ordinary and they really show us the "WAY TO GO". I personally really appreciate such people and dream that someday even I would follow where they have led by example.
What I need now is that this year be full of good things and full of lucky charms for me and all my friends and that I be ready to move on in life without my friends too. I have made all efforts possible to meet each and every one of them for one last time before they embarked on a new journey in their lives and to spend quality time with them while doing so. The fact that I might never meet them ever again compells me to do this and I love doing it too. Some of the best parts of my life till now have been spent with them and those will always remain in the deepest corners of my heart forever. I guess it's tough to accept but things change and they will always continue to do so as long as they exist. I for one, do not like things to change at all and this has been a very dreadful fact that I have never come to accept.
Now that most of my friends are moving on in life, I have nothing more to say but "WISH THEM THE BEST OF LUCK" and hope they succeed in life. I would love to meet them someday somewhere in some distant corner of the country and share a moment with them over a cup of coffee or a glass of beer, whatever suits him/her. But what I would want the most would be for the time to stop so that no one ever had to go anywhere and things remained as beautiful they are forever and ever. Cheers to all my achiever friends, my heart goes out to you.
I still remember the day when I first came to this rather unwelcoming city. It was an overwhelming experience, so much so that it was tough to imagine that something like this was happening to me. Slowly and steadily it all began to sink in, and I started 'coming back to life'.
If I had to mention some of the most important things in my life I would certainly keep my friends among them. I just can't seem to live without them. I have always been really dependent on them. I have always had great friends and I have always loved their company. It was only recently that I realized that I am too possessive about my friends and to speak the truth, it came as a shock to me.
It's going to be an year and what I see all around is a lot of discomfort and a lot of movement. This reminds of a very important fact of nature that says that the same kind of entities in an place tend to move away from each other and keep moving away from each other forever. Much like the galaxies that just keep moving away and farther in the universe expanding it along the way. No one seems to be happy with what they are or what they have. I guess one has to be in their position and experience what they do before commenting on something like this, but the fact is that this discomfort is universal. Only thing that differs among everyone is the level of discomfort and more importantly what steps they can take to get rid off it.
While some choose to crib about it all and vent it out and start all over again a few days later, others are much diferent and crib all the time. The remaining handful of people really have the guts to do something out of the ordinary and they really show us the "WAY TO GO". I personally really appreciate such people and dream that someday even I would follow where they have led by example.
What I need now is that this year be full of good things and full of lucky charms for me and all my friends and that I be ready to move on in life without my friends too. I have made all efforts possible to meet each and every one of them for one last time before they embarked on a new journey in their lives and to spend quality time with them while doing so. The fact that I might never meet them ever again compells me to do this and I love doing it too. Some of the best parts of my life till now have been spent with them and those will always remain in the deepest corners of my heart forever. I guess it's tough to accept but things change and they will always continue to do so as long as they exist. I for one, do not like things to change at all and this has been a very dreadful fact that I have never come to accept.
Now that most of my friends are moving on in life, I have nothing more to say but "WISH THEM THE BEST OF LUCK" and hope they succeed in life. I would love to meet them someday somewhere in some distant corner of the country and share a moment with them over a cup of coffee or a glass of beer, whatever suits him/her. But what I would want the most would be for the time to stop so that no one ever had to go anywhere and things remained as beautiful they are forever and ever. Cheers to all my achiever friends, my heart goes out to you.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
!AutoMobile!
Life is fun isn't it. You just can't get enough of it. When you are happy the whole world smiles, or they just seem to be smiling, but who cares as long as you are happy. The worst part is that you know that good things come in small packages whereas the common perception is that "Size does matter". The two conflicting points-of-view almost got me admitted to a psycho-ward.
There was a time when public transport was the way to go. Familiar routes, empty streets and the same old Ticket Collector every day. Ofcourse, the bad part was that you had to wait at the station for a long time for the right "MOVING BOX" to arrive. The good part was that you could get accross the town at the price of peanuts. Well things do change, and so they did and I started to detest public transport for all that I could see in them was the CONS. The crowd, the sweat, the crawling speeds and the same faces everyday. I thought this was not for me and that I had to do something about it, and so I did. I started to patronize the AutoRickshaws.
This small 3-wheeler has the capacity to cut the road anytime and anywhere and anyhow the driver likes and there is no dearth of power in this vehicle either. So you get the excitement and save time too for a little extra burden on your pocket. But I could live with that as long as I liked it. The matter of fact was that I started to hate them too.
I began to see all the bad things about them. Sure, the waiting time had reduced at the stops but still there was a waiting time. Sure, the Rickshaws were omni-present all over the city but not everyone would go where you would want them to. The agony of a stupid AutoDriver turning your offer down as if you had asked him to take you to a place that is below his dignity to enter was getting too much to handle. But above all what annoys you the most is the exhorbitant prices they demand, and in cases where they don't demand anything the Meter does the trick on their behalves.
So finally I decided that I had had enough and that I needed a car. All my life I had been thinking why do people think so much while buying their cars. I used to think, whats the big deal about getting a car. I felt as if buying a car was like buying any other commodity, like soap or soda or something like that, you go to the shop choose what you like and just pay the price and get it home. Now that, after I had myself decided to buy a car, all that became clear as a crystal to me. I understood that it is really a big deal, probably the biggest deal that you will ever do in your life of course after a house deal for sure.
Now that I had decided that i needed a car, I had to take a series of decisions one after the another. The first and the most crucial decision one was which one did I want to buy. I will tell you one thing about cars, if you ask 100 people for their advice on buying a car you will get close to a gazillion answers and everyone will seem to be giving the right advice. You will get so confused that you will actually start to regret the fact that you even thought of buying a car, leave alone asking so many people. But the dream of having your own car will be so attractive that you will get over all those thoughts pretty easily.
After a long, and I mean a really long thought process that included inputs from my room mates, my friends some of them experts in this field and some of my long forgotten relatives I finally decided on which car I was going to buy. It had to be a Mercedes and that too C-Class. I knew that this was a bold decision but I never had a thing for hatchbacks. I was more of a big car type guy and by big I mean really BIG. So the decision in the end was pretty easy and seemed to be logical considering the fact that I had a budget which helped me narrow down on only one or two cars that I actually liked.
I would like to tell you 2 things that you should keep in mind before buying a car. First and the most important, decide your budget. By that I mean, decide the least amount and the maximum amount that you can put in. I am putting so much stress on this because without you having decided on this factor, only one sentence will keep ringing in your mind "Dude, let me stretch a little bit more and get a better car", and beleive me, this, by far is the most horrifying thing that can happen to you. So bettler learn to avoid it and once you have decided on the limits of your budget, you are good to go.
The second most important thing to note is that once you have decided on what car to buy, you should, rather you must become totally deaf. This because you will hear so much criticism from so many people that you will actually think for a moment that you have commited some crime. Still, this is not as tough as it sounds to be, only that its a bit tricky as in how you handle so many people speaking about your decision at the same time, while half of them have nt even seen the car that you are planning to buy and the other half has never sat in one.
In case you survive these two gruelling periods the car that you decided upon is almost half yours. Well I say half because you still have nt paid the money yet, remember. I have already said that a car deal will be amongst the biggest deals of your life and this is bound to affect your economic condition whether you like it or not. Whether you go for a loan or for a lease you will definitely end up having lesser bounty in your hand each month than you used to have previous to buying the car. Still what makes it worth it is the fact that the car is all yours, atleast you have the pleasure of driving a vehicle of your choice and this feeling, beleive me is not surpassed by too many other things in life. I can promise you that the moment the dealer gives you that key in your hand and says that the car is all yours, you are bound to have an emotional breakdown, and thats just the lull before the actual high that you will get once you sit in the car and drive it away from the showroom.
Finally, what's most important to remember is that a car is a car, but your car is "THE CAR". I would recommend all the people who are reading this to actually own a car once in their lifetime and see how it feels like to drive a new baby out of the showroom for the first time onto the streets, to a place will be her territory for the rest of her life. A car is one of the most prized things a man can have and it's very deeply attached to his emotions. I would like to end this with a beautiful thought from one of my friends. It went something like "...a car's a car, it's the feeling that you own that marvellous piece of machinery that is unparalleled..". Happy driving.
There was a time when public transport was the way to go. Familiar routes, empty streets and the same old Ticket Collector every day. Ofcourse, the bad part was that you had to wait at the station for a long time for the right "MOVING BOX" to arrive. The good part was that you could get accross the town at the price of peanuts. Well things do change, and so they did and I started to detest public transport for all that I could see in them was the CONS. The crowd, the sweat, the crawling speeds and the same faces everyday. I thought this was not for me and that I had to do something about it, and so I did. I started to patronize the AutoRickshaws.
This small 3-wheeler has the capacity to cut the road anytime and anywhere and anyhow the driver likes and there is no dearth of power in this vehicle either. So you get the excitement and save time too for a little extra burden on your pocket. But I could live with that as long as I liked it. The matter of fact was that I started to hate them too.
I began to see all the bad things about them. Sure, the waiting time had reduced at the stops but still there was a waiting time. Sure, the Rickshaws were omni-present all over the city but not everyone would go where you would want them to. The agony of a stupid AutoDriver turning your offer down as if you had asked him to take you to a place that is below his dignity to enter was getting too much to handle. But above all what annoys you the most is the exhorbitant prices they demand, and in cases where they don't demand anything the Meter does the trick on their behalves.
So finally I decided that I had had enough and that I needed a car. All my life I had been thinking why do people think so much while buying their cars. I used to think, whats the big deal about getting a car. I felt as if buying a car was like buying any other commodity, like soap or soda or something like that, you go to the shop choose what you like and just pay the price and get it home. Now that, after I had myself decided to buy a car, all that became clear as a crystal to me. I understood that it is really a big deal, probably the biggest deal that you will ever do in your life of course after a house deal for sure.
Now that I had decided that i needed a car, I had to take a series of decisions one after the another. The first and the most crucial decision one was which one did I want to buy. I will tell you one thing about cars, if you ask 100 people for their advice on buying a car you will get close to a gazillion answers and everyone will seem to be giving the right advice. You will get so confused that you will actually start to regret the fact that you even thought of buying a car, leave alone asking so many people. But the dream of having your own car will be so attractive that you will get over all those thoughts pretty easily.
After a long, and I mean a really long thought process that included inputs from my room mates, my friends some of them experts in this field and some of my long forgotten relatives I finally decided on which car I was going to buy. It had to be a Mercedes and that too C-Class. I knew that this was a bold decision but I never had a thing for hatchbacks. I was more of a big car type guy and by big I mean really BIG. So the decision in the end was pretty easy and seemed to be logical considering the fact that I had a budget which helped me narrow down on only one or two cars that I actually liked.
I would like to tell you 2 things that you should keep in mind before buying a car. First and the most important, decide your budget. By that I mean, decide the least amount and the maximum amount that you can put in. I am putting so much stress on this because without you having decided on this factor, only one sentence will keep ringing in your mind "Dude, let me stretch a little bit more and get a better car", and beleive me, this, by far is the most horrifying thing that can happen to you. So bettler learn to avoid it and once you have decided on the limits of your budget, you are good to go.
The second most important thing to note is that once you have decided on what car to buy, you should, rather you must become totally deaf. This because you will hear so much criticism from so many people that you will actually think for a moment that you have commited some crime. Still, this is not as tough as it sounds to be, only that its a bit tricky as in how you handle so many people speaking about your decision at the same time, while half of them have nt even seen the car that you are planning to buy and the other half has never sat in one.
In case you survive these two gruelling periods the car that you decided upon is almost half yours. Well I say half because you still have nt paid the money yet, remember. I have already said that a car deal will be amongst the biggest deals of your life and this is bound to affect your economic condition whether you like it or not. Whether you go for a loan or for a lease you will definitely end up having lesser bounty in your hand each month than you used to have previous to buying the car. Still what makes it worth it is the fact that the car is all yours, atleast you have the pleasure of driving a vehicle of your choice and this feeling, beleive me is not surpassed by too many other things in life. I can promise you that the moment the dealer gives you that key in your hand and says that the car is all yours, you are bound to have an emotional breakdown, and thats just the lull before the actual high that you will get once you sit in the car and drive it away from the showroom.
Finally, what's most important to remember is that a car is a car, but your car is "THE CAR". I would recommend all the people who are reading this to actually own a car once in their lifetime and see how it feels like to drive a new baby out of the showroom for the first time onto the streets, to a place will be her territory for the rest of her life. A car is one of the most prized things a man can have and it's very deeply attached to his emotions. I would like to end this with a beautiful thought from one of my friends. It went something like "...a car's a car, it's the feeling that you own that marvellous piece of machinery that is unparalleled..". Happy driving.
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