Let's make your lives interesting....

I have realized that a lot of people are getting bored with their jobs and such.

So i have an idea. All the people who check this blog, I would request you to leave a comment to this entry. In the comment you will have to continue the story that I start right now. You will continue the story 1 paragraph at a time. So don't leave just a line or something. And continue only the part which has been posted and not which someone has done in the comments section. If there are more than one continuations, I will select the best and we will continue. So let us see how far we go. I am sure there is a writer in all of us. All the best! Don't let me down by making a parrot out of me. Maybe we will end up making a fairy tail for our kids to read.

Once upon a time in a land far far away, there lived a boy. This boy wasn't the usual fairy tale good looking prince kind of boys. Instead, he was the usual fairy tale ugly looking boy. But yet he had a heart which was the usual fairy tale good and pure one. He lived all alone in a hut which was next to a small pond in the middle of a jungle. No one else lived close to him, all he could interact with was the nature.

As a result, the boy learned to love nature. Whether it was about identifying the call of which bird woke him up each morning or understanding how every component of nature works in tandem with the rest of the surroundings, he couldn’t help but marvel at natural delights. He learned of a beautiful harmony that exists naturally, that everything that occurs does so for a reason. The boy, with all the might of his good and pure heart, took utmost care to maintain the balance of nature by blending his life with it seamlessly.

The quest for ………what?

Now that most of the people who actually read this, though a lesser number now because of the lack of update, are done with college and started with work, I thought it was an appropriate time.

We get out of college, not knowing why we went through the whole thing. All we remember is being together with friends, fooling around, enjoying, shouting, screaming, playing and doing much more with them. But do we remember what we have actually learnt in this time? I mean how many of us will be actually applying that exact same knowledge in work, and we also know people who could have done the same work without even going through all this. But that thought is for later.

For now, we are working!! Regardless of what we did to get here, we are here. We are at a place where we hope to find things to do which we like. Which makes us happy, wanting us to do better things. This is called as a job. We will be doing this now for the rest of our lives. But will we be thinking like this about it for the rest of our lives?

You can’t blame me to think like this. How many people do we know around us, who are 40 plus and are actually enjoying what they are doing, now caring about how much is being deposited into their account. I know that is an important part too, but don’t you think when you see them, that this is the only part that they are working for? If given a chance they would retire the next day. But they can’t. Because they haven’t ‘saved enough’ for the rest of their lives. They are doing their jobs for the quest of what? Happiness? Money? Or maybe retirement?

I have always believed that every human being you see teaches you something. Maybe they are teaching you something. Maybe you love your job now. Maybe you will love it for the next 50 years too. But what if you don’t want to do it after 20 years? What will you do then?

Maybe even you will do the ‘job’ till you ‘save’ enough. We are living in an amazing time now. It’s the best time to live in this country. And if it is not the best, then best has not yet come. But it will. So what does it mean? It means that you will need even more money to spend. But it also means that you will HAVE more money to spend.

So people, start saving up. Use all the lovely tools this free economy gives you. And maybe ask your dad why he is still working.

Merry Christmas!! --------> Happy Holidays!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It’s Christmas of 2006 and I kind of like this festival a lot. And I am quite sure a lot of other people do so too. It’s a chilled out no fuss festival, where even though the build might be a bit frenetic with the shopping and all that, but when it is actually here, the people celebrating it do it in a very calm and chilled out manner. Unlike many other festivals.

But there is something about this festival that you might have noticed quite a lot but rarely think of it. If you pay attention, any organization, brand, person, community or anyone, addressing to the society as a whole, never wishes or says ‘Merry Christmas’; yes you are right, they say ‘Happy Holidays’.

This might seem to be just a way to wish people one might say, but this is done only in the ‘West’. If you think deeper, the reason for this is not too far away. In the West, there are a lot of people, who don’t like the idea or the festival of Christmas. For these people it’s just like any other holiday. I guess it’s fair enough, I mean every one has the freedom to think what they want to. And you can’t exactly blame the people addressing them for being diplomatic.

But let’s compare this to our own country or the Indian society. Here, almost the entire nation more than celebrates much more than their share of festivals. And not only is this done to oblige, but in a manner which cannot be dramatized but only felt. You feel the equal amount of happiness when a friend invites you to his home for Biryani, or another one to light a few crackers or someone else to a langar and all of these people at the end of the year coming together to eat a cake. We don’t shy away from what the others feel about a festival.

Again, I am not saying the West should not think like this, it’s all a matter of your opinion and choice. But having experienced the Indianised version of all the festivals, don’t you think they would be better off learning from us.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

What in the hell were they thinking?

Seriously, what in the hell were they thinking? If you are wondering what exactly I am referring to, consider the name SHINEY!!

What does it remind you of? Who or what do you picture when you think of this name? a six foot man, or a golden retriever with shiny fur because of pedigree dog food?

But no, this is India! Here, a MAN is named as Shiney, and girls are actually crazy about him!!

Now back to my question. What in the hell were his parents thinking when they gave him that name? Now imagine a kid named Shiney, what is the next thing that comes into your mind? His school life? Kids can be really cruel, they will find all kinds of weird association with your name, and a name like Shiney is almost TOO easy. And I know this, I mean I have a surname like Kandala, of all the people I should surely know about school kids and their cruelty.

And why stop at school? People of any age are bound to be tempted. I know each one of you is; how many corny rhymes are coming into your head when I say Shiney? But seriously, why should someone come up with a name like this and that too in a foreign language? Have we run out of names in Hindi, Sanskrit and even the Punjabi names with an inder as a suffix? Not only would this poor guy have to face jokes in his own country, but if he ever earns enough and thinks of settling abroad to get away from the ridiculing people, he will have to go to a country where absolutely no one speaks English. Another problem he would have would be to understand their language.

All this reminds me of a TV commercial where the kid’s parents and their friends are thinking of a name and suddenly the kid, who is just a few days old by the way, speaks and says some name that HE wants. Ok, that is not a practical thought, but shouldn’t that be how names should be kept. There should be a system in place where the parents give the kids a temporary name like A1 or B19 or something like that. Now if everyone that age has a name like that, then there is no ridiculing right? Then later on at a predetermined age, the kid should be taken into confidence in deciding his/her name. Far fetched for sure, but practical.

All said and done, I guess there is a special feeling a parent has when he/she names their own product. I guess when I become one; I would like to name my kid myself too. But I am already in enough trouble with a funny surname, so I will have to think of a name which more than evens out the odd.

Suggestions anyone?

Breed of Drivers!

Oh YES!! There are BREEDS of them out there!

Driving is truly an art that not many can master. And I mean MASTER! Driving takes a certain amount of commitment and finesse, which I might safely say, is not available in plenty out there.

Before we start categorizing them, let me say, I myself am a driver and a pretty good one at that, so rest assured, my comments won’t be totally senseless.

One of the most common characteristic of any driver is that he/she thinks he/she is good! Example can be seen in the previous line itself. So now let’s dissect them.

THE TURTLES – These are the people who if given a chance, would drive even a formula 1 car at not more than 40 kmph. They are the people who, forget coming in last, would surely have DNF against their name in any race. Again there are two types of turtles, one who are the detached people. They don’t care which day it is or even which year it is. They would stay out of everyone’s way and make sure no one disturbs their mission of maintaining a speed of 40. The other type too doesn’t care about the day, but they make sure everyone else also goes at 40. They would purposely drive on the right side and no amount of honking will make them budge. Their motto is drive slow and make sure everyone else does the bloody same too.

THE HARES – This would be the most obvious category after the Turtle. These people are hell bent in creating a new land speed record every time they get behind a wheel, and not even the municipal corporations earnest efforts in stopping them by digging holes doesn’t help. What I can conclude is that they have some serious digestion problems which makes them hurry so much every time. Another contrasting feature is, they have absolutely no clue which car they are driving. Everytime they have a steering wheel, they believe that it’s a Ferrari.

THE SUMO DRIVERS – Ohh yes!! They are totally a different breed. And surely the scariest! They truly believe that an automobile is meant for a person to go from point A to point B, and the straighter the road, the better. Not only do they want to get to point B, but they want to be the fastest, most hated, most cursed, most scary one in getting there. When it comes to caring about the people who use their own anatomy to do the commuting, the sumo drivers just don’t care. These innocent pedestrians are absolutely invisible, or a more plausible explanation would be, they see an X mark on every pedestrian and are hell bent in scoring by hitting the X.

THE WOMEN – These are even scarier than the SUMO drivers. It’s almost an urban legend, the curse of a woman driver. I am quite certain they have never read the back of their driving license. It says, ‘Driving is a privilege, not a right.’ But I guess, they don’t believe in this. They believe that it is their birth right to drive a car. No matter whose it is, which one it is and where it is.

I guess I will stop here. I have a suggestion; I guess you readers can add more categories to this. Please leave it in your comments. Not that I am expecting a lot of them considering the trend, but I am willing to take a chance. So until next time, walk safe!