Winning.

Winning is not only about participating. It is about putting in your best, coming out of the worst and forging ahead of the rest !!
Winning is winning and you cant win if you keep on whining.
Winning is like the peg of whisky which gives you a high.
Winning is better than losing, even if failure is the first step to success. If you win once and keep winning you dont come across the first step at all !!
Winning is the ingredient which adds flavour to life.
Winners never weep, losers may.
If you think you'll win, half your job is done, but then, think again.

Kimaya.

Poem dedicated to Kimaya- my little niece.

Kimaya is sweet, Kimaya is cute,
Kimaya is a darling, Kimaya is a beaut.

Kimaya is fair, Kimaya in a chair,
Looks very much, like a teddy bear.

Kimaya is chubby, Kimaya is tubby,
Kimaya becomes giggly, and rolls on her tummy.

Kimaya loves trees, Kimaya loves places,
Kimaya has the ability, to make many faces.

Kimaya is a tilu tom,
Kimaya is a danger don,
Kimaya is a star, whose already born.

Hahaha.......

bhagwan deta hai to chapar phad kar

For the past one month, I get the feeling that I aint having a very good time. As in, I am not in the right state of mind. The feeling had swelled, this week. For the past month, I havent been in the best of my health, aint getting any good work in office, I have had a lot of run-ins with people around me, have yelled at two or three people, had disagreements with another two or three, bribed one against my own wishes, have been caught by the traffic police for breaking the driving-with-helmet law, have heard things from people, about me which I wouldnt like to hear or which I am hurt to hear them. It is said that 'bhagwan deta hai to chappar phad kar.' True, I am forced to say. I havent even been able to fix a tubelight which is not working at home !!! Downhill they say. I'd say this is a dive !!! Today, the realisation has hit me......that I am feeling frustrated from a few days. Not a big problem, of course. I am sure all of us have these 'downslide' times and they could be much horribler than what I've been through, as some of us might feel.
Tommorow is another day. And things couldnt get worse, could they? If they do, I'd know the times are continuing. If not they'll be good.

P.S: My granny fractured her wrist when we were visiting the birla temple at alibaug. I had taken them to the temple. It was my idea. Not that I blame myself for that of course. But it just makes the list of unlucky events in the course of the past month longer. (But then, my granny argues saying that, it was lucky that she didnt fracture her leg !!! She would have lost her mobility then !!! At least she's able to move around !!!)

Melodramatic poem.

Yeh jawani kabhi naa aayegi,
Naa aayegi kabhi ye zindagi,
Kisi ki hoti hai jaise aapno se bandagi,
Hamari to bas apne jawani se hi dillagi.

Hai abhi itna josh ki duniya jeet lenge,
Mushkile aayengi to date rahenge,
Akele hai kaafi, akele saamna karenge,
Aasu aaye to bhi khud pi lenge.

Jeena hai is umeed par,
Ki haasenge zindagi bhar,
Phir bhi darte hai pal pal,
Ki budhapaa aana hai kal.

Door kahi rahenge woh sapne,
Khud ke bhi naa rahenge apne.
Log kahenge, buddhe jaa be,
Sadak ke beech mein naa aa re.

Yeh jawani kabhi naa aayegi,
Naa aayegi kabhi ye zindagi,
Kisi ki hoti hai jaise aapno se bandagi,
Hamari to bas apne jawani se hi dillagi.

-by me

Things to do when you dont have work in office.

With recession on, our company is having a tough time. One of the projects, on which I was working got over. So from 2-3 days, I am having less work or almost no work to do.
Things to do when you are in office and have no work to do.....

1) Shoot a rubber band: Try shooting a rubber band at the coffee cup on your desk. Fasten one end of the rubber band at the tip of your middle finger and the other end should be fastened to the edge of the thumb and form a sort of gun like shape with your fingers. Now take proper aim and bend your thumb to let go the rubber band with a zap !!! When your experienced enough....try shooting a colleague whose been overtly annoying to you.

2) Have coffee: The vending machine is a life saver at times. You'll feel drowsy after lunch in the afternoons. And with no boss to light up your arse, the coffee pleasantly lights up your senses so that you stay awake !!

3) Filing: Always a trick to make you look like you are working. Actually you are just punching papers and keeping them in files. If you work in a engineering consultancy, paperwork is lot and sometimes, tension free work like filing can make you look like you are doing a lot of work, while actually you are just doing a job of book keeping, quite important, but not as important as the actual work !

4) Come up with an administration or an office safety idea: This is a good one. People who really feel that the idea could improve things, do give ideas on a regular basis and these ideas are implemented many a times. For timepass, you could come up with a totally useless idea, which sounds good, but cannot be implemented for practical purposes. Prepare a detailed report and include details like how the idea can improve things and its benefits. For example, if the desks in your offices have sharp edges, suggest that rounded edges would be preferable for office desks, for purposes of safety. Knowing the cost of replacing the sharp edge tables, or the carpentary work involved in rounding the edges, the safety team wouldnt do it. Instead, they'll tell people to be more careful !!!

I tag my readers to suggest 4 ideas for ' things to do when you dont have work in office'

I like this para.

Like this one paragraph in the song mere haath mein....from fanaa..
Dont know why, though

Rone de aaj hamko do aankhen sujaane de
Baahon mein lene de aur khud ko bheeg jaane de
Hain jo seene mein qaid dariya woh choot jaayega
Hain itna dard ke tera daaman bheeg jaayega

Rani.

Dogs are considered to be a man's best friend. And very much true to this they are the most faithful creatures a man could ever tame. Once you take a dog under your care, he'll go miles with you...... all the way. He'll be with you day and night, he'll guard you with all his ferocity, he'll play with you as long as you like, he'll fetch a stick if you want to, he'll catch a ball if you make him, he'll even jump in a well if you do or if you want him to. That's a dog for you. Amazing thing is that man uses 'dog' or 'bitch' as a derogatory and accusatory term !!! Thats mankind for you.

Anyway, I remember the bitch (here I mean to say female dog) on my grandpa's farm. She was a cross breed alsatian. A great dog (ok, ok, bitch.) she was. Her name was 'Rani'. Annoyingly, she used to step her paws on the front of my shirt and wag her tail like crazy. It was her norm when someone familiar came to the farm after a long time. Then she went around circles around you till you finally gave her a gentle pat on her head. Later on, when we used to sit outside (in the front yard.), she used to come sniffing......tickling your feet with her dirty nose. Then she used to look up expectantly at each of the people sitting there, in turns. Expectantly for what? Then, when you would gently pat her head and she would lazily close her eyes, enjoying it. I used to pull her ears just for fun. She used to enjoy munching on a biscuit we call as 'butter'

In the summers she used to enjoy the shade of a particular neem tree which was planted in the front yard of the farm house. Like all dogs and me, she particularly enjoyed snoozing at any time of the day. She was as fierce when any cattle strayed off in our farmland. Its quite something to see big creatures like cows being chased of by comparatively pint sized creatures like dogs!!! She used to accompany any of us when we roamed around in the farmlands. There was a time when my grandpa was roaming around in the field. He stopped to look around.....as he looked up front he saw her clawing around at something slithering. She had actually saved grandpa's life by scaring off a snake which had crawled near grandpa's feet !!!

Later on she gave birth to a litter of puppies, two of which were kept on the farm....Rest were sold off. The puppies live on, have grown quite a lot now.
Rani died a couple of years ago, living to a ripe old age. The neem tree in the farmhouse frontyard was hit by lightning that very year and fell.

Fickle-o-luck

Luck plays a fickle role...we know it... Luck tries to confuse you...how?
Bad luck...you start believing that your luck was bad.....next moment you think over and come across a situation when you realise ...that it was indeed good luck that bad luck happened. Did not understand? I am sure you didnt. Let me state a few simple examples:

Bad luck: I reach out to open the elevator gates, but as my hand touches the handle, the lift was summoned by someone else...
Good luck: You climb up/down the stairs, annoyed that you couldnt use the elevator. Next moment there is a power cut and you can hear the person inside the elevator yelling for help!!!

Bad luck: I have an accident on my bike, which happens due to someone else's mistake. I am hurt and injured
Good luck: I had preplanned a biking trip to some location the very next day. Good luck is that, it didnt happen on the day of the trip, atleast.....cause a highway accident might have had even more serious consequences !!!

Bad luck: 26th July 2005. A friend of mine has a slight fever in the morning. Decides to give an important office meeting, a skip. His office is located town side in mumbai. He himself lives in navi mumbai. Decides to rest at home, even though the fever is slight and he could go to the office.
Good luck: Mumbaites know where the good luck for this part lies. In case anyone doesnt, please google '26th July 2005', you'll know what I am talking about.

Performance.

A friend of mine recently gave his first 'onstage' sitar performance. His sister recorded the video of the event. He did, indeed, play the sitar well. He modestly admitted on committing one fault, but frankly, seeing the video, I couldnt make it out. He did invite me for his performance, but I am the lazy guy who loves his sunday afternoon 40 winks and hence did not go. Later on, he described his pre-performance nervousness and the way the performance went and how the public applauded the performance thereafter and the euphoric feeling you get after a satisfactory performance. Reminded me of the way of the old karate tournaments, I participated in. I joined karate classes when I was in 5th standard, I guess. Although very mean in stature, I had quite a lot of stamina, in those days. In a few days, even if I did not become an expert 'fighter', I had build quite a reputation for being a 'kata' expert. Now, in karate, 'kata' is a sequence of movements. The movements consist of various types of punches, kicks, stances and kiais. Now, a 'kiai' is a sort of battle cry of a karate-ka. It refers to a term which can be defined as a short yell before you execute an attack, whether its a punch or a kick. If you have been to a gym, you can here people yell out when they lift weights. Its the same kind of thing.
So being a kata expert, I used to participate in tournaments in the 'kata' event. I remember the pre-performance nervousness, the cheers by our team when I used to walk into the 'kata ring'. Then the silence. Then I use to shout out the name of the kata, which was to be performed, into the silence......... it used to echo around. Then started the kata......brisk, fast, powerful and focused movements, power packed punches, hard kicks, the sound of the canvas dress rubbing against itself, sounds of my own heavy breathing. There used to be nothing my mind, except the thought that all the movements have to executed to perfection. As the kata ended, there used to be a moments silence during which I could feel the adrenaline pumping. Then the crowd used to erupt. Every person who sat as audience used to clap. Smiles everywhere. An encouraging nod from our instructor, the reassurance that everything went off well. Then, four judges lifting their boards to display marks. A 9.5 or a 9.6 on every board. And then a louder applause after announcement of final score !! If it was the final round, our team members used to pour out of the stands and carry me off on their shoulders. A medal to one in the team greatly contributed to our tally.
It seems to be a long time since I have done anything on-stage or in front of a crowd. My friend did it....and I know completely how great it feels......Wishing him many more to come his way!!!