Open Up!

Another year ends with shit load of lessons. Many would say that it was an awesome year, many would say otherwise. But everyone will find the new year's Eve very attractive. Reason is very simple, end of something old, brings arrival of something new. And this something new is what we all look forward to. Cause this new has some uncertainties, surprises, and probably again, shit load of lessons. But more importantly it brings us one more thing, Hope. But that's not just it. Everyone is hopeful about at least one specific thing for the coming year. The one, most important thing. Could be anything, from job promotion to a world tour to publishing a book. One thing, which could not happen this year, and that does make us sad. And when the clock hits midnight, we'll wish our closed ones a happy new year, and few may drink and dance and eat good food and lots of stuff. But everyone will recall their one thing, and make a promise to themselves (again), to keep chasing, unt

Diwali! The festival of lights of India. But like Diwali, there are number of festivals all over the globe. Like Christmas, or Easter, or Ramadan, and so on. But on this day of Diwali, I had a thought. Why do people all over the world celebrate something or another? Why do people have this immense need of coming together and celebrate an occasion which may or may not have any significance in past? Here is my understanding on this subject. But before going in the festival part, here’s little about human behavior. I think any human being is just another machine made up of atoms and molecules. Now for any machine to work in a specific environment with multiple variables, it has to have a feedback mechanism. We all have input sensors, like eyes and ears. Then the input is fed to processing part of the machine, our brains. And then we take actions with the actuators, like hands, mouth. Basically we provide an output. And here’s how a feedback mechanism works. If your action gives

एक  सितारे  को  ढूंढ़ने  चला  था, चाँद  और  सूरज , दोनों  से   झगड़  के  चला था , यह  कश्ती  कब तक  देगी  साथ , क्या  पता , कोई  फ़िक्र  नहीं , दरिया  को  दोस्त  बनाता  चला  था सफर  में  कुछ  अल्फाज  मिले , गुजारिश  थी  उनसे  की  कुछ  तोह  बयां  करे , पहली   बार  अल्फाजो  को  खामोश  देखा , उसकी  तारीफ   में  अल्फाज  भी  निशब्द  हुए बस  बेहता  रहा , न कुछ कहता  रहा , एक तस्वीर के सहारे खुशिया ढूंढता रहा , तोहफे  तोह  हजारो  मिलते  होंगे  उसे , इसीलिए  अपना  दिल  कागज  पर  उतारता  रहा लिखते  लिखते  एक  सवाल  आया , के  ऐसा  क्या  लिखू  जो  उसे  छू  जाए , में  ऐसा  क्या  कहु , के  उसकी  खूबसूरती  और  खूबसूरत  बन  जाए उसकी  मुस्कराहट  ही  बस  याद  आती  रही , उन  लबों  की  वो  अदा  मुझे  सताती  रही , लिखते  लिखते , कलम  ने  भी  हार  मान  ली , पर  उस  सितारे  की  आँखे , मुझे  रौशनी  दिलाती  रही बस  अब एक  मंज़र  बाकी  हे , उसे अपना  रहनुमा  बनाना  बाकी  हे , लगता  हे  जैसे  एक  अरसा  बीत  गया हो , उनकी  नज़र  से  एक  मुलाकात  अभी बाकी  हे 

What's exactly a sorrow? A bad feeling, a bad emotion, maybe pain, some disturbed mind, anything that makes you feel helpless is a sorrow. Right? It's that state of mind when you actually blame your destiny, or God, or what not. And while feeling a similar emotion, I decided to give it some thought. Why I feel helpless, why I feel like this pain is too much, or why things are too worse. And as my mind was thinking it in a way any victim thinks, I could not see a clear picture. Studies show that more than 70 percent people think that they are better at their work than average people. That means people like to think that they work more even when they are just doing average. Similarly even while going through little hurdles, we all think that we are victims of some tragedy, and we are some sort of survivors. But fact is we ain't doing anything different. So coming back to my subject, this attitude of a victim wasn't helping. So I decided to go with a different approach.

The Jinn gave Reehan three wishes. It was sort of general practice. Reehan just smiled. He knew exactly what he wanted. But Jinn kept talking. Jinn explained what are the things which are out of scope and which are in the scope. Also explained the basic rule,i.e., you cannot wish for more wishes, LOL. But Reehan wouldn't need that. He wouldn't even need his three wishes. He looked at the night sky, but he didn't focus at anything. He just kind of tried to look through, and beyond. Unclear of his understanding of the world, and what it stands for. He was tired. Not tired physically, but emotionally, mentally. He failed to understand his very purpose, and at some point he gave up. Why, he wondered. May be it was way damn difficult. It is easy to solve a problem. But it is very much difficult to find a problem which is worth solving, which would make you feel whole. And He was searching restlessly. And yet He failed. He always thought, man was never supposed to have intel

I am a die hard fan of harry potter series, both movies and books. But definitely more of books. And I keep reading it once in a while, I just open any random part with any random page number. And then I find myself spending an hour, submerged in the world of magic. So when recently, after reading few pages, I thought to myself, why do I do this. I mean, after all, I know every page of this book.  And then I asked around, in my circle, if anyone does this. And apparently, everyone has a thing or two. Somebody watches FRIENDS again and again. Somebody likes to watch some YouTube series. Another one likes to read some book, again and again. Someone loves to listen narrations by Pu La Deshpande, Someone watches highlights of some old sport event. And why do we do this? There are very few things in life, we experience, which makes us really happy. And that happens when we feel like we are part of the experience. For example, while reading Harry Potter, I always feel like I'm

Do you ever feel like the people around us, at times, influence us too much. At least a guy like me, who listens more than talk, feels like that. I mean it's like you are being bombarded with thoughts and ideas and experiences and views and opinions. And this stuff isn't just about what people are doing, it's about what I'm doing as well. That doesn't mean I don't like to be around people, it's just that sometimes the place called mind is overcrowded. And that's the reason, my own thoughts are finding it difficulty to find their way. Getting what I mean? And that's when I made a plan. A plan to find some me time. But sitting at home alone doesn't work, cause when we are alone at home, we have an habit to surrender to the trio(fb-whatsapp-insta), so I thought, let's get out. But when I got out, the places I know, they were filled with people. Just like crowded mind, these crowded places were unable to give the space I needed. And I kept loo

'Somebody asked him, what is your drug, He said "Hope", the most addictive of them all' I came across this quote while going through some Instagram feed. And it's true, isn't it? We all are addicted to this thing called 'Hope'. And that's when I decided to give this a little thought. Here it goes. I believe, when humans evolved over a period, and while evolving physically, our brains got evolved too. And then we started to think, and that was the biggest achievement of mankind. The ability to think, makes us different from all the other living species on this planet. But like every good thing comes with a bad thing, this too, had it's own disadvantages. Thinking gives us capability to solve our problems, but then there are some problems which we cannot solve, and that's the trouble. Whenever we come across a problem we cannot solve, our thinking hit a roadblock, and that's when we feel sad, lost and at times depressed as w

When I was a kid, I always wanted to grow up. cause being a kid, you don't get to have many liberties. Being part of middle class is even worse for a kid. You have limitations on everything. From the cloths you wear, to the stationary and toys you buy, to movie theater and restaurant visits you can have, to the trips you can make. It feels like you are trapped in a life, which has so many things and you can't have most of the things, and there's nothing that you can do about it. And yes, that definitely sucks. And that is when I decided, it's better to be an adult than a kid(Yeah, I was always more mature than the kids of my age). And then I grew up, where I could earn sufficient to spend the way I want to. But what I failed to understand as a kid is that it's just not about money only. When you grow physically, you grow emotionally as well. Being a kid, our emotions are so limited that they don't bother us much. We are not exposed to stuff as attachments, in

He walks towards her apartment. And stops at the gate. He isn't sure if this is right move. He knows that he behaves stupid when he is nervous. So decides to not do that. And he waits. He calls her up, but her phone is not reachable. He tries couple of more times. But it's not happening. He feels restless, should he just leave? And that's when he gets a SMS, she's on her way to the gate. It's often the case that, the person you talk on WhatsApp and call, isn't same in the real world. And that's what he's worried. What if she finds him a nerd or weirdo, he's too tense. But somehow he holds everything together. And she walks out of the gate. And she smiles. And that makes him smile. There's famous lyrics from a famous song, "Itfaaqon mein, laakhon mein, milte hai ajnabi " ( it  takes millions of coincidences to meet two strangers and connect - poor translation), and that's what is playing in his head while walking with her.

"Lately I've been losing sleep, dreaming about the things that we could be" And that's the lyrics of the song 'Counting stars' by One Republic. Very beautiful song with awesome music, but this line of the song has made home in my mind. Cause it's literally the story of this generation (My generation, LoL). I have seen people talk about the world, as if they see it as a dream. And everyone is a dreamer, everybody wants something that belongs to our imagination only, like an expensive car, or a perfect partner, or a super-paid job or maybe an awesome vacation, a rich home, or other "N" number of things. A dream which makes us feel good, just by imagining that it would be true. Now coming back to the line. While thinking about this dream, few of us realize the fact, (Everybody sooner or later), that it may just stay as a dream in the end. And that thought loves to haunt us. And then we start to panic. And literally lose sleep, in some c

Something woke him up, and the clock said it's just 2 O'clock after midnight. He looked at the cell notifications, and gave out a sigh. He knew, he was fucked. Now, there's no way he could attend the morning meeting, and even if somehow he could, it would be a zombie barely looking alive at the office. He always imagined that he'd have a perfect life, and after having it, he'd realized it wasn't perfect. It was as if he dreamed wrong. He used to cheer himself up whenever things would go south, by saying 'i just woke up on the wrong side of the bed', and now he felt as if he woke up to the wrong side of the life. He rose, and went to the balcony, and on the way grabbed a can of beer from refrigerator. Holding that can made him laugh, cause it was only the beginning of the Monday. Apparently the breeze was pleasent, and the city was asleep. Taking few sips at a time, he kept thinking about a question which was haunting him for long. "What do yo

Once upon a time there was a storyteller, who used to go to village to village, to tell his stories. Kids loved him, as he would tell them stories of fairies and pirates, and witches and wizards. He used to take them to worlds they dream about. On his journey, once arrived at a small town, and as usual kids surrounded him, but with those kids there was a young lady. The storyteller got little confused, cause he wasn't used to adults as audience. After the session ended, the lady came to visit him. And told him that his stories were great. He smiled, and told her that he was surprised to see an adult in his session. And asked her, what brought her to these stories. She told him, that she was always amused by the stories. And more than that, she was curious how these stories got created. And that's what she asked him next, "How do these stories come to your mind?, Do they just appear in your head or you observe them anywhere?" "

I believe that we all have some triggers, towards happiness and sadness. During childhood these things were fairly simple, like watching Pokemon after school made me happy. Playing cards with cousins during summer, or watching a India-Pakistan match with family and friends(true till date) made me feel good. But the thing is I never realized that these things were the triggers.  And just like happiness triggers, there were sadness triggers. Apparently those were pretty simple too, like sitting on first bench by teacher's command, or cycle getting punctured when the repair guy wasn't available, or maybe something like waking up on Saturday morning for school when sleep wasn't letting me get out of the bed, lol.  And when I think about these things, those were easy to trigger, in both cases, rather possible, very simply.  But then I grew up, just like all of you, and it became tough. And now we all have to work towards happiness, and apparently sadness loves t

                                       "It's not who you are underneath, but what you do, defines you", very strong thought mentioned by Batman. And yes, our actions makes us who we are, rather than our thoughts. But have you ever noticed that our thoughts as well as actions are inspired by people around us? It's rather rather very simple. Like a child learns every little habit from his parents, siblings and other family members, we too, observe and learn from the society. Sometimes consciously and many times subconsciously. We all do this, because every connection we develop with a person creates a mark in our lives. It's not necessary that the person creating the mark is very important, but somehow s/he will give you something that will stay with you. A mark that probably will stay with us even if those people aren't with us.  It could be very simple things like picking up a phrase while talking, or an habit like eating KitKat or Cadbury, or ma