Posting hiatus

I’m rather somewhat very extremely completely busy lately, so if you see me posting here it’s because I’m procrastinating something else taking a little break (Which will be awesome if it happens) . I expect to be back to a normal posting frequency (whatever that means) in about couple of weeks. Don’t worry I’m sure the world will not end, the sun will still rise, friends won’t do or say anything funny or noteworthy during that time. Or nor shall I forget how to blog  - well it just took me 4 days and 2 hours once, but..umm…

Did you feel that?

It was time I took to a positive approach to my life, needless to say my previous posts hasn’t been all so honky-dory. So after procrastinating for the past couple of days, the decision to resume the act of getting into shape is now official.

Why? I mean are you asking as to why working out is the only ‘positive’ thing? Aren’t there any other versions to being optimistic? I mean sure, there is, many a people like to go out, party, read inspirational texts, turn to the almighty (just so you know, presently I’m an atheist), etc.

Now, before I drift to a world entirely inhabited by my imagination wouldn’t it be lovely if we ought to resume the story here? So, as the day had just begun for me (mid-afternoon)  I had a very pleasant conversation with myself.

Sub-conscious mind: Dude, get your lazy bum up man!!

Conscious mind: Yeah, right..hold onto your horses..I need to snuggle a bit here.

Sub-conscious mind: I’m going to give you a very lame migraine if you choose not to!

Conscious mind: Ok, Ok I’m up….

Talk about calling truce!

Now wide awake I tried looking through some of my books, guarded with crumbled layer of dusty particles joyfully  resisting gusts of wind.  Thus, I resorted to brute force.  With no evil deed going unpunished I  dusted and coughed (they are like Siamese twins) and uncovered something that I’d long forgotten. It was my ‘diet diary’. Freaky right? So I thought until I started reading to realize the degree of passion, motivation and hard-work that went into dropping those extra unwanted pounds of flesh – for a moment reminded me of  Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.

It sometimes help to be taken back in time, when once again you can picture yourself taking those hard decisions, and living by them not knowing what awaits you in the future, but still holding strong. Then I realized I’ll have to hit my gym once again.

It’s not like the only and sole reason for hitting gym is to get into shape, it’s just a very pleasant side-effect. Truth be told, here I can push myself against myself! Sounds strange right? Yes it sure does until you know what I mean. Getting those last reps going when your body seems to give way –it’s your spirit, your willingness not to quit, to go that extra mile, to be optimistic and reminding yourself time and again deep within your thoughts –‘yes you can do it’.

Wow! seems like I’m a bit emotional now.But you know, it does feel good to see yourself in the mirror and hoping if you can keep to the regime (which I seem to find very hard) someday you shall witness, how good it feels to stand again after you take that great fall (didn’t you feel that today?).

A celebration of birth – Your’s truly

As the clock struck 12 last night,  I watched how swiftly the date had changed to 18th, the midnight celebrations of diwali had subsided, but it wasn’t the only  reason I was getting late night calls.

It was hard to believe how fast this year has gone, and pretty soon, I’m not going to keep up with my own birthdays.  It’s interesting to me how much meaning we seem to put into birthdays. We celebrate, we throw parties, we buy gifts (sometimes, very expensive gifts), and even we go out of our way to make other people’s birthday’s once-in-a-lifetime special.

Of course, as we get older, we like to tell people that they aren’t important to us, that we don’t want to be reminded of another year going by, but, I think the truth is that we really enjoy having a day – a holiday – that’s all our own…to a point.

Even if we only take the day to pamper ourselves, to stay in, do something we love, it’s still special.  It’s a day to reminisce, a day to remember what we’ve done with our lives, how far we’ve come, where we’re headed.  Of course, there are those milestone birthdays, those that hold special meaning in different societies.  As far as I know, this  isn’t one of those.  And, really, 21* is the last big birthday we have before 30, and then it’s 40, 50, and so on…I only hope that we accept them with grace, dignity, and the realization that age is merely a number.  What really matters is that we keep ourselves young.  After all, you’re only as young (or old) as you feel, and, me…I feel like I’m turning 11 again enchanted with tales of angels and demons.

So, starts a new chapter, an episode written by an angel wishing the devil – the very best for the day.

–

*Note: This wasn’t my 21st, already had it

From up here, the city lights burn like a thousand miles of fire

I stand on the fork of the road overlooking a busy intersection, trying furtively to make to the other side. The one with trails of incandescent light-bulbs lighting up the streets similar to every home illuminated with the orange glow of twinkling diyas, lanterns, and candles as ‘light’ today,  metaphorically signifies knowledge. It illuminates your soul to drive away your demons, to bring you closer to your beloved ones,  it makes you share the special moment – happiness.

I also needed to be  somewhere, a store, a cell phone store, where I handled various models but happily survived by procuring a sub-entry device. As this is my diya to drive away the silent darkness that had prevailed over the past few days, as I’d handsomely managed to lose mine over dinner. But this was not the day to sink into the past repenting on could have been done to be more careful, to not to have made a mistake. Today is a day of festivity, an atmosphere resonating distant thunders, a child’s giggle, as well a sudden rush to avoid the firecrackers. The hiss, the siren, the crowd, the very city breathing the intoxicating air filled with sweet smell of treats engulfed by the smoke. Today is ‘Diwali’.

I see people fighting the eternal battle between abstaining and indulging from the array of sweets. I happen to hail from a part of the country renowned for its share of sweet delicacies, but this is not day for regions, religions, today its all about us. I’ve been fortunate enough to have shared this festivity with friends and their families in a home far away from mine. This is an experience I cherish and wish you’ll a prosperous diwali – this wish goes out to  all whomsoever and wherever you might be. Happy Diwali.

With a note to end this post, I must say -

Something is happening and now everything is different, now everything is fine and this is the good stuff. Yesterday is what you left behind and it’s just in your mind. You got to talk, talk to the one understands you, talk to the one who gave you the light in your eye.

The curse of knowledge…

So I was doing some light reading on how to get ideas across, and ran across an interesting read.  It stuck a nerve in my mind, and I hoped it might mean something to my reader as well.

“In 1990, Elizabeth Newton earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford by studying a simple game in which she assigned people to one of two roles: “tappers” or “listeners.” Tappers received a list of twenty-five well-known songs, such as “Happy Birthday to You” and “The StarSpangled Banner.” Each tapper was asked to pick a song and tap out the rhythm to a listener (by knocking on a table). The listener’s job was to guess the song, based on the rhythm being tapped. (By the way, this experiment is fun to try at home if there’s a good “listener” candidate nearby.)

The listener’s job in this game is quite difficult. Over the course of Newton’s experiment, 120 songs were tapped out. Listeners guessed only 2.5 percent of the songs: 3 out of 120.
But here’s what made the result worthy of a dissertation in psychology. Before the listeners guessed the name of the song, Newton asked the tappers to predict the odds that the listeners would guess correctly. They predicted that the odds were 50 percent. The tappers got their message across 1 time in 40, but they thought they were getting their message across 1 time in 2. Why?

When a tapper taps, she is hearing the song in her head. Go ahead and try it for yourself — tap out “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It’s impossible to avoid hearing the tune in your head. Meanwhile, the listeners can’t hear that tune — all they can hear is a bunch of disconnected taps, like a kind of bizarre Morse Code.

In the experiment, tappers are flabbergasted at how hard the listeners seem to be working to pick up the tune. Isn’t the song obvious? The tappers’ expressions, when a listener guesses “Happy Birthday to You” for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” are priceless: How could you be so stupid?

It’s hard to be a tapper. The problem is that tappers have been given knowledge (the song title) that makes it impossible for them to imagine what it’s like to lack that knowledge. When they’re tapping, they can’t imagine what it’s like for the listeners to hear isolated taps rather than a song. This is the Curse of Knowledge. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind.”

Ahh, yes, the Curse of Knowledge…

A trip down memory lane…..

If it weren’t for stories and snaps carried back home to show-off, travel wouldn’t have been much fun. Missing those days I  start reminiscing  good old days reaching destination  Lonavala.

It was one of the short weekend getaway. Rainy season and any place looks good right? If you ask me, its even better when its a lovely strip of mountainous land. All you need is the right route and right company.

Do you know how to extend the fun factor? We did. A drive on the Bombay – Pune expressway is like driving on a road to heaven with lush green blooming picturesque scenery, mesmerizing breathtaking views, wonderful tunnels  leading to open space greeted by unfaltering drizzles.

Though we cheated on the speed limit, but don’t condemn me, I wasn’t behind the wheel. Try sticking your head out when your seat mate is busy clicking away.

Since the early days of my earthly existence I’ve been fascinated by the way roads swirls round the slopes. Today was no different.  As we broke free from the speedway to ox-cart way, we found ourselves stuck amidst masses of geometrically progressing souls.  Welcome to Lonavala.

We slipped into our jackets and started on foot and we were hungry. Soon we zeroed in on our nourishment. The maize was available at every nook and corner of Lonavala. Roasted ripe maize served with salt and chilli powder spread with lemon over was just too good. I was having roasted ripe maize after a long time and the soft juicy corn was just the thing to be had with the drizzling rain.

Yummy.

We visited couple of locations, its hard to recollect the names now. The memories are as foggy as was that day. With zero visibility we were lead by our ‘Airtel’ umbrella guy. Dude what was the comment again? (chuckles) .

Click-Click. Another couple of photographs. Wonder how many time I need to look at myself.

The weather was getting chilly by the second as sunlight gave way to darkness with distant head lights acting as beacon for us to walk up towards our vehicle. With the swift turn of the key, we started cruising the streets. Objective – A place to crash. Status – Found.

After I’d helped myself to a very appetizing dinner which comprised of several servings of Indian delicacies I ached for a warm bed. But wishes rarely come true. Drenched to our bones, we gallantly turned on the AC, why you ask? For the fun of it! Nah…..it helps in drying clothes.

With a high degree of noise filling up the room, silence prevailed as one after the other slipped under the warm blanket.

Love the chirping of birds. Good morning. So a new day, a new start. We started with Bushi Dam; if I recall.  Since there was no heavy rainfall, the lake  wasn’t as expected but the weather more than compensated for it. So we went a bit further. Some stayed behind as I was accompanied by my friend. At a certain time I simply stood like a spectator admiring the heights scaled by him.

By this time, we had seen a bit of this lovely place. And it was time to head back. And as with any visits demands shopping, we shopped the prized commodity of Lonavala – Chikki & Fudge – go crazy.

We decided on having a lavish late lunch as we hit Pune. Tareef @ Aundh. I won’t go into the details of what we ordered but I shall not fail to mention by the time we were done eating, the adjacent tables were served thrice – for three different set of people

Burp! Yeah I did it..

Wallets, calculation, and realization what we spent. A bit of repentance on the amount we just shelled, a whole lot of witticism  and yet planning for the next weekend.  But one has flown away like the birds we left behind. Time has rolled and as I sit on my desk planning to survive the next few days at college  I snap out of my past into the present.

The end of the road has arrived. Time to plan something new. A new destination awaiting new adventures, avenues yet to be seen. The sheer excitement will drive me tonight.