Destiny

No matter what happens,

No matter where I go.

There's always a special place

in my heart that you hold.

Even when we're far apart,

I trust my destiny. 

One day we'll be together, 

that's what its meant to be. 

You know you're the chosen one.

Although we're apart, 

I'll never stop loving you, 

You'll always have my heart. 

 I always have a hope, 

that some day you will see. 

The only one who loves you like this, 

I hope you know its me....

PS : No apologies for being damn irregular. I guess that's what MBA does to you ! :)

College Days - Full Text

Ahhh !! Back from a sabbatical... well almost !

I know I'm risking my blog by not posting frequently... I have lost a lot of regular readers by not posting at all ! But then, as it is said, "As you sow, so shall you reap !" Its my loss any way !

Okay, I'm back, not with a bang, but yes, err... I'm back, isn't that enough? :P

Without much ado, this post is related to my last post "College Days". It was a poem on college days. I intentionally didn't post the text. I posted a video... an audio-visual (no visuals, it was audio in a video format... lol) of the poem because the poem was to be felt, and not just read.

But bhai-log, public demand ki wajah se I am compelled to post the full text of the poem. Here it is....

Raah dekhi thi is din ki kab se,

Kitne hi sapne sajaa rakhe the na jaane kab se.

Bade utaavle the jaane ko,

Zindagi ka agla padaav paane ko.

Par na jaane kyun, dil mein aaj kuchh aur aata hai,

Waqt ko rok lene ko jee chaahta hai.

Jin baaton ko le kar rote the, aaj un par hasi aati hai,

Na Jaane kyun, aaj un palon ki yaad bahut aati hai.

Kaha karte the, badi mushkil se teen saal seh gaya,

Par aaj kyun lagta hai ki jaise bahut kuchh peeche reh gaya.

Kahi ankahi hazaaron baatein reh gayi,

Na bhoolne waali kuchh yaadein reh gayi.

Meri taang ab kaun kheecha karega,

Mera sar khaane ko kaun mera peecha karega.

Jahaan 2000 ka hisaab nahi, wahaan 2-2 rupaye ke liye kaun ladega,

Kaun raat bhar jaag jaag kar saath padhega.

Kaun birthday par cake mere muh pe lagayega,

Kaun mere naye naye naam banaayega.

Main ab bina matlab ke kis se ladunga,

Bina topic ke kis se faaltu bakwaas karunga.

Kaun assignments ke liye aage peeche chakkar lagaayega,

Kaun lab mein chhup chhup ke Facebook aur Orkut chalaayega.

Kaun exam mein padhne ke liye motivate karega,

"Kitna hua..." kaun raat ko message kar ke ye puchega.

Kaun last moment tak notes zerox karwaayega,

"Mujhe to kuchh bhi nahi aata..." hamesha ye kaun sunaayega.

Kaun fail hone par dilaasa dilaayega,

Kaun galti se number aane par gaaliyaan sunaayega.

Canteen mein slice kis ke saath piyunga,

Wo haseen pal kis ke saath jiyunga.

Aise dost kahaan milenge jo khaai mein bhi dhakka de aayein,

Par fir tumhe bachaane khud bhi kood jaayein.

Meri pange lene ki aadat se pareshaan kaun hoga,

Kabhi mujhe kisi ladki se baat karte dekh hairaan kaun hoga.

Kaun kahega, "saale, tere joke pe hasi nahi aayi..."

Kaun peeche se bula ke kahega, "aage dekh bhai..."

Class mein message chat kis ke saath karunga,

Kis ke saath boring lectures jhelunga.

PJs pe ab raakshas ki tarah kaun hasega,

Roz message na karne par taane kaun kasega.

Mere mobile ko dabba kehne ki jurrat kaun karega,

Bina darey sachhi advice dene ki himmat kaun karega.

Stage par ab kis ke saath jaaunga,

Juniors ko free ka gyaan kaise de paaunga.

Achaanak bin matlab ke kisi ko bhi dekh kar paagalon ki tarah hasna,

Na jaane ye fir kab hoga, keh do doston ye dobaara sab hoga.

Doston ke liye teachers se kab lad paayenge,

Kya ye din fir se aa paayenge.

Kaun mujhe meri kaabiliyat par bharosa dilaayega,

Aur zyaada hawa mein udne par zameen par le aayega.

Meri khushi se sach mein khush kaun hoga,

Mere gham mein mujh se zyaada dukhi kaun hoga.

Meri poems kaun padhega,

Kaun inhe sach mein samjhega.

Bahut kuchh likhna abhi baaki hai,

Kuchh saath shaayad abhi baaki hai.

Bas ek baat se darr lagta hai doston,

Hum ajnabi naa ban jaayein doston.

Zindagi ke rangon mein dosti ka rang feeka naa pad jaaye,

Kahin aisa naa ho dusre rishton ke bojh taley dosti dum tod jaaye.

Zindagi mein milne ki fariyaad karte rahein,

Agar naa mil sake to kam se kam fariyaad karte rahein.

Chaahe jitna has lo aaj mujh par, main bura nahi maanunga.

Is hasi ko apne dil mein basa lunga.

Aur jab yaad aayegi tumhari,

Yehi hasi le kar thoda sa muskura lunga...

This poem is dedicated to all the people who touched my life during my college years. It is an ode to my college, my classmates, teachers, staff, and everyone who were a part of my life in these wonderful years. Miss you all !

College Days

Everyone says that "All good things come to an end." But has anyone dared to ask "WHY?"

No one has the answer to this question. Even I don't ! :(

As they say that all good things come to an end. So were my college days ! I never expected that these 3 years would be so precious and memorable in my life. I never thought that I would make so many bestEST friends during this phase.

Well, I forgot to apologize for such a lonnnnnnnnnnnggggg break from bloggerdom (not to be mistaken with boredom, which obviously is not the case). The reasons are plenty, studying being the most important, but they're not to be discussed.

Apparently, my last post, which was published almost 3 months ago (a week or 10 days less), was titled "Miss You". And coincidentally, even this post is on the same lines ! I am missing the good old college days. And this post is dedicated to all those buddies and profs, who made this 3 year journey a memorable one.

Following is the video, which features a poem, recorded in my voice, but not completely written by me. The original poem was written by someone else which I got as a forwarded message. I modified it according to my college life. THANKS and FULL CREDIT to the one who originally wrote this mind blowing poem.

I am not posting the exact wordings of this poem on the blog, only for the reason coz this poem is NOT meant to be read, its meant to be FELT !

And before you go ahead with it, here's a personal request from my side, just put on your headphones, close your eyes, remember your friends and listen to it !

Thank you very much for being there in my life :)

Life ka Update ! - ver 2.0

Ahhhh !! A lot of days have passed since my last update on the blog !!

Ya ya... I know you've been missing me... Even I've been missing you !! Actually something or the other kept me busy during this span of time. Diwali, my nephew visiting, CAT preparation, CAT - the test itself, Mumbai trip were a few of the things that happened in this time interval.

Oh ya !! How can I forget to tell you this... I bought myself a new car !! :) And its the Chevrolet Beat ! I call the 1200cc of AWESOMENESS !! :) And with this car, I'm no more a Be-CAR !! One can call this car a BEAST, of course, with the "S" silent. ;)

This Diwali was great in its own terms. I met a lot of batchmates this time, reliving the good old days of school. Prateek M, Kaushal, Kamlesh, Bhupendra, Anshu, Shruti, Garima and of course me - all of us had a gala time with each other. :)

And then I had CAT on the 10th Nov. So a bit of studying for it and then appearing with almost no preparation wasn't that difficult. LOL :) The test was good. Don't ask me how good it was. My result will say it all :P

Even the Mumbai trip was good, met a lot of people, couldn't meet some of them. Met my brothers and sisters and my bhabhi-to-be over dinner. And had an amazing time with them. The picture below taken at Grapeviine has (from left to right) Yukta, me, Kadambari bhabhi, Akshay, Honey and Chirag bhaiya :)

PS: I also watched Golmaal 3. ;)

Be-CAR ki Dilemma !

Folks, I don't know whether this news falls under the category of a "good news" or a "bad news"... I couldn't decide. So I leave it up to you to decide...

The Tata Indigo (recently nicknamed : The Truck!) that I had is now not mine !! Yes, I've sold it off... Although I've been very possessive of my stuff. I've remained upset when I sold my beloved Nokia N72 cell phone (click here for more details regarding this), but this was a totally different ball game. I was happy that its sold. And I am, still. And there are some unmentionable reasons behind this happiness... Samajhdaar ko ishaara hi kaafi hai... :P

And I'm now be-CAR (for those who couldn't understand, wait till the end of the post !). And decision making is one of the toughest job on the planet, especially when all the choices are equally good. And the cars in contention are (in increasing order of prices) :

1. Maruti Suzuki Alto : just for the sake of having an option
2. Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 : almost zeroed in on this one, but then the Chevy exec gave me a test drive of the next two cars
3. Chevrolet Spark : although a bit old, still a great package!
4. Chevrolet Beat : wasn't an option earlier, but the test drive made it a tempting option

So far I'm considering these four options. Although some people also suggested me the following cars. But I rejected them for the reasons mentioned :

1. Hyundai Santro Xing : pretty old and stale, even the new model doesn't offer new features.
2. Maruti Suzuki Estilo : just don't like the model and the dabba-looks
3. Maruti Suzuki WagonR : another dabba-looking car

And now I'm in a dilemma so as to which car should I finalise !

Decisions... Decisions... Decisions... I'm not that good at it ! :(

Dear God, please intervene and make things easier for me ! May be you can use an aakashvaani to enlighten me... ;)

I'd like to mention one more thing, I have not considered any cars from Tata. And its only coz if I wanted another 'truck', I wouldn't have sold the one that I already had ! Again, samajhdaar ko ishaara hi kaafi hai ! :)

PS : For those who didn't understand the meaning of be-CAR, its being without car. Go learn some Hindi. And those who know Hindi, try and learn how to apply a li'l bit of your brains !

Mumbai 26/11 - Bhoole Nahi Hum....

Extraordinary circumstances evoke extreme reactions and therefore need to be handled with extreme caution. The Mumbai terror strike brought death, devastation and shame. The vultures who wrote the script had planned it like this. What more could they have expected. They got round the clock television coverage as they held a nation of a billion plus population to ransom. And even though everything went according to their script what they failed to calculate was the enormous, once in a life time, kind of opportunity that they presented to the mighty Indian nation.

History is replete with examples. Opportunity travels alongside death and devastation. Japan was able to grab it because the death and devastation caused by the nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were wrapped in shame. America's 9/11 also had shame written all over. And now if those who planned the terror strikes in India are not taken care of once and for all the opportunity that has come alongside the Mumbai shame would also be lost for good.

Of what good is the nuclear deterrent if we can be bled like this. Has the weapon of peace been good to us in any way? Peace sells, but who's buying it? The lives of those who are still lucky to be alive are in no way more important than those who have laid down their lives. Let not a single drop of Indian blood go waste. Those who are coming out on to the streets be ware, it is no candle light party out there. Everything comes for a cost and the cost has to be borne by everyone.

Let's not look up for any kind of action to the Singh who became king by buying votes in parliament. Nor from the BJP that abused the ATS chief a day before his death and later turned up at his residence to offer a compensation of Rs One Crore to his family. Nor the communists for whom shame is a decent word. Only a rabid dog could have said this: not a dog would have visited the Unnikrishnans' house had it not been the slain Major's house. Where and when in history has a martyr's father been treated like this? What could be more shameful than this?

The solution is lying somewhere around in the dark. We needed to act, and we needed to act fast. But we didn't. Who's responsible for this cowardly act? All eyes on Pakistan. All fingers point to Pakistan. We even had the proofs. But we couldn't do anything. We handed a number of dossiers to the neighbor, but no stern action taken till date.

Mr Manmohan Singh, a year is too much. For you, it might be just one-fifth (just twenty per cent) of your term, but to the families of the martyrs and deceased, each day passed as a year. And you didn't care. Only monetary compensation and showing sympathy is not the solution. The solution lies in curbing terror from the root.

Yes !! I feel shame when I have to accept that we have failed. I don't know what others feel. I don't know if Mr Manmohan Singh feels the shame or not, but I do. 'Coz we failed. We failed to provide security not only to our people, but also to foreign nationals. We failed to act against the perpetrators. We are merely watching the tamaasha unfold in Pakistan. We are helpless. We lack the spirit. We shouldn't have moved on with this until any strong action had been taken. But we moved on. India lacks leadership. India lacks courage.

I feel shame when I see the President of India having a gala time flying a Sukhoi, but she has no time to come down to Mumbai on the first anniversary of the deadly massacre. I feel shame when I see pics of the Prime Minister partying in the USA when people are paying homage to the martyrs and the deceased. It happens only in India !!

If India is crying for leadership, this crisis had the potential to throw up one. Only raising slogans against the government and the politicians is not enough. A few of us should have raised from the rubble to become leaders. But we chose to remain silent and protest. Candle light vigils can just add CO2 to the already polluted environment. Let there be no peace till the perpetrators of the Mumbai Mayhem are smoked out of their safe holes.

JAI HIND !!! JAI JAWAAN !!! 

May the souls of the martyrs and the deceased rest in peace....

Amen.

Kid turns ONE !!!

"We all have our time machines, the ones that take us in the past are called memories and the ones that take us to the future are called dreams."

I am going down the memory lane. Exactly one year ago, out of inquisitiveness, I tried my hands on blogging, which has today cultivated into a habit. It is an easy vent for all my feelings, my views, my frustrations, my anger, my love, my emotions and what not.

YEAH ! Exactly one year ago, I started this blog (titled "Good For Nothin...." for no particular reason), made friends (in the blogosphere), commented on random blogs, liked a lot of blog posts, LOL'ed, got ideas, got inspirations, got praised, got compliments, publicised (read :: over-publicised) the blog amongst friends (believe me... its really difficult compelling friends to read your 'shit'... thats what they call it) and a host of other crap !

It's a journey and it's better than the destination, I can't sum it up in words. I have no doubt when I say that blogging has been the most beautiful thing that has happened to me recently. It has been a welcome change in my otherwise shy and reserved nature.

1 year... 125 posts... 27 followers (via Google FriendConnect)... 67 fans (on Facebook FanPage)... 629 comments... 9825 visits.... these stats might not seem that great to the bigwigs of the blogosphere, but this response is A LOT for me. I mean I am not a blogoholic, I just post twice or thrice a week. And thats quite sufficient for me. (* stats at 7th Oct 2009 at 12:01 AM)

I must take this opportunity to thank all my readers, those who commented on my posts, those who helped me improve, etc etc etc. I could go on thanking people but I guess the list is endless.

Still, I'd like to name a few people who kept me motivated to continue blogging, who appreciated my 'crap', who kept commenting on my posts and who showed me the mirror. I've always said comments and criticism are more than welcome. They help in improvement. I'd like to thank

• B K Chowla sir : for commenting and letting me know the quality of my posts
  
• Kamlesh : for constantly providing me support
  
• Garima Ranawat : for providing me what i call 'invisible support' and for commenting 'honestly' and personally
  
• Prateek Monga : for encouraging me
  
• Shruti aka The Lonely Wanderer  : for the comments and also for waiting for the posts... lol
  
• Rashmi aka Raashi : for encouraging me and for the comments
• Trishala : for the comments
• all my followers
• all the readers
• all those who've visited the blog even once
• all those who were 'inspired' by me and started their own blog... :p (Being successful is not the matter... lol)

I'm sorry if I left out a few names. THANKS everyone !!!

I'm happy to have successfully completed one year of blogging. And I hope this habit continues for years to come.

PS : Unfortunately, OLD FRANCE, the WINNER of the TEMPLATE CONTEST, could not be put up as a template 'coz it had some problems, and so had the other two podium holders VINTAGE and DAYS OF OLD. So, I have decided to put up RED LIGHT as the layout. Hope you guys like it. I must say 'The Template Contest' was a dud :(


PS2 : To make this one year old kid happy, bring the gifts along :)

Sisters, Thank You !

There could be no better day than this to thank your sisters. And in this post, I'm just doing that.

I take this opportunity to thank all my sisters : Rekha didi, Rita didi, Yukta, Honey and Komal. Apart from these, there's one more sister I'd like to thank, my 'rakhi' sister, who was always there for me, Anshu.

I thank you all for always being there for me, supporting me in the best and the worst situations, bearing me and my feelings (coz I've been an over-sensitive and over-emotional guy) and for all that you have been to me. Well, I always feel short of words when I wanna express something about my close ones.

Today, on the day of Rakshabandhan, even though I tried to be there with 'most' of my sisters, there are always a few of them who I can't be with. But that doesn't mean I am not close to them. I'm equally close to all my sisters.

And I just don't understand when someone asks me about the sisters being 'real' or 'cousin'. I just feel that a sister is a sister. Who can understand it better than me? I feel equally attached to all of them. I can never categorise them under 'real' and 'cousin'.

Distance has never been a deterrent in rhe bond we share. None of my sisters are at a stone's throw. Almost all of them are a thousand kilometres apart from me. But this distance has never been a hurdle. I trust my sisters, and share my deepest and darkest secrets with them and I'm glad even they equally trust me.

Actually, I had not planned this post earlier. While tying 'rakhi' on my wrist today, I felt nostalgic about all those good and bad times when my sisters lent their unconditional support to me. Thats when I thougt of thanking my sisters 'in my way'. But now I don't have much words to express that feeling. And I think I should rest this post here.

Once again, thank you all my sisters for all that you've been to me. Be the same. You rock :)

Turning Back The Clock

Moving on from those 'love-lorn' poetry posts, here's a post that's something very different. Its something related to my past. I wish I could turn back the clock. Yes, I wanna re-live my past, although not every moment of it, but definitely the brighter and the carefree ones. And preferably my school days.

School days are the ones that have a special place in everyone's life. The days were filled with unlimited masti and loads and loads of fun (u might guess the amount of fun we had, provided i've used the phrase 'loads' twice...).

Although we were the smallest batch in the whole school (13 people... that's it.... I can hear people asking 13??? only??? yes.... we were just 13...), we were the most united, most sincere (our teachers said so....) and most favourite of all. I get nostalgic when I remember those good old days. The bond of friendship that we shared, the fun we had, standing with others in their good and bad times, sharing joy and sorrow. These days can never come back. I wish they could....

Some five years ago, we were together, together we had fun, we did some real silly things, we had our own pranks, our own thoughts, overall we're proud of being each others friends. And five years down the line, today, we are scattered in different directions (almost...) and we still are proud of being called friends. Ever since we left school five years ago, all of us have never been together.

Of late, we've planned a reunion of sorts somewhere around the last week of December in our hometown Falna or nearby. And I, being the local boy, have been given all the responsibility - from deciding the venue to making necessary arrangement and stuffs like that (ab kya bachhe ki jaan loge???) But actually as its still at planning stage, and not most of us have yet confirmed, I thought I should first draft a 'convincing-yet-funny-and-not-so-boring' invitation. I took it as a challenge. And here's a sneak-peak of what I've written :

Guys, we, the class of '04 of K S Lodha Public School, are planning to have a REUNION of JUST our batch, somewhere in the last week of Dec '09* (Tentative Date : Sunday 27th Dec 2009) in or around Falna.* We want you to come (ye invitation NO sunne ke liye nahi bheja hai...) For more details contact :

» Anshu Jain

» Shruti Dev
(ladies first.... lolz)

» Prateek Monga

» Ankit B Rathod (i'd prefer to be last on the list, so as to be blamed the least.... - it tends to rhyme too.... :p)



RULES :

a) ONLY our batchmates are allowed.

b) PLUS three WILDCARD entries (Manish Jain, Rishank Singh and Arpit Mehta) are also invited.

c) Since this is our first time, we are yet to know what the word "NO" means. (hum ko "NAA" nahi sunna hai... ok? aage tum samajhdar ho... apni jaan kisko pyaari nahi hoti...)

d) SPOUSE (not more than one) and KIDS are allowed. Girlfriends/Boyfriends are also allowed (only if you are not getting your spouse along... lol)

e) Suggestions are more than welcome.

f) Please confirm your presence till 30th September 2009 so necessary arrangements can be made.

g) Please send a latest and best photograph (NOT passport size, at least 4x6) to Ankit B Rathod either via E-mail or any other medium before 31st Sep 2009. We need it for a personalised gift, which you'll get when you come.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The above time and date and venue are tentative. We are yet to finalise things.

Well, this was something which conveyed my message that everyone must be there with a tinge of satire. Mazaak mazaak mein bahut kuchh keh diya na.... I know man.... I know I'm the bestEST.... lolz :D

Anyways, I found it good.... Its now your turn to comment on this piece of invitation. And PLAGIARISTS... beware from copying my creation !!!

I just want to end this post by saying : "Those were the best days of my life...."