Whats in a name

Had always heard my friend Gaurav Gupta talk about how common a name he has. Always thought that wasn't true untill I experienced this. Tried searching him on facebook - and as expected I found 3 search pages on various namesake's of his.. each in different countries of the world...but the funny thing was that I had 1 mutual friend (each being a different one) with the first five on the list. And guess what - my friend Gaurav is not even connected on facebook :-)

A Handful

• Standing in front of dad on his bajaj two wheeler motoring around Rajpath trying to get to Nani's in saket
• A bunch of colony friends getting together and putting up a mock show on the terrace for the parents to spectate
• Those picnics and orange bars at India gate
• After dinner walks with mom and dad
• Playing stapoo, red letter, badminton, throwball and being shouted at for not coming home in daylight
• Ginni passing away with his ear in his water bowl
• Learning about rotation and revolution in II-A
• The tubewell batch bath in Chattarpur farms
• The day I learnt to cycle
• Waiting on the window sill for ma to return from school
• The creche with its three rooms and the rocks (this one's brilliantly fresh)

Maybe, I do want to go back to being a child..

Wishlist

While the meeting with the new guy from the chemical company was primarily stressful, there were these moments where I would happily lose myself in my world. One positive (maybe the only) that came out was my wish list of things that I WANT to do. Perhaps documenting it will make me move closer to doing something about them:

• I want to learn to swim. I do feel am a little scared of water (cant keep my eyes open under the shower). But I do want to get over it (wonder why I always focus on stuff I need to get over :)) Anyhow, now is the time BT!!
• I want to pursue photography as a hobby. Yes, I may need a better camera, but I want to first learn to express myself better through my existing cam!
• I want to learn spanish. Though having experienced german for 5 years and French for 6, I months really dont think the duration matters untill you get to use it. But it just seems like a calming yet stylish language.
• I want to learn the Salsa. Now here is where the problem surfaces - and maybe the solution too ;)
• I want to see atleast 5 unseen places in India in the next two years
• I want to publish a different kind of cookery book of borrowed/ collected recipes
• (Don't think will ever pursue this one) but I do want a small cafe/ restaurant of my own.
• I also often think of joining a social organisation. But somewhere, I don't think I have what it takes to do that kind of work. The selflessness in you really needs to rock for getting there in my opinion!!
• I want to paint/ sketch. When I think of this, I often wonder whether its the oil colour or HB pencils that attract me more - cant make up my mind. I think I would enjoy the in-control feeling in the pencil sketching as well as going wild with colours on the canvas. I think this one is the easiest to begin with!!

Foot prints in your Heart

Read this forward a while back..something I would not want to google everytime I want to replay the messages in my mind, and so..

Many people will walk in and out of your life,
But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
To handle yourself, use your head;To handle others, use your heart.
Anger is only one letter short of danger.
If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.
Great minds discuss ideas,Average minds discuss events,Small minds discuss people.
He who loses money, loses much;
He who loses a friend, loses much more;
He who loses faith, loses all.
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,But beautiful old people are works of art.
Learn from the mistakes of others.You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.
Friends, you and me.You brought another friend,And then there were three.
We started our group,Our circle of friends,And like that circle -There is no beginning or end.
Yesterday is history.Tomorrow is mystery.Today is a gift.
That's why it's called the present.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Simply Meaningful

As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend
I took my broken dream to God
Because He was my friend!
But instead of leaving Him to work
In peace to work alone
I hung around and tried to help Him
With ways that were my own!
At last I snatched them back and cried
“How can You be so slow?”
“My child,” He said: “What could I do?”
You never let go.”

Footprints in the sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

Mary Stevenson, 1936

Time

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say

- 'Time' by Pink Floyd

Mile sur mera tumhara

There was a time when I guess every child of our generation used to rattle this off as a nursery rhyme - and I just could not help smiling when I looked at it after almost 20 years now. At that time, it was all about guessing the celebrities (Om puri, Deepa Sahi, Mithun, Tanuja, Sharmila Tagore, Revathi, Kamal Hassan). And now, it just inspires me even more than I am already to see my diverse country.

However much the limited media in those times was criticised, Doordarshan completely rocked for these videos (Chanda ek, taarein anek, jungle jungle baat chali hai etc). Someday, I hope I can show this to my children. Live on You tube!!!