STOP THE BLAME GAME

Millions of hearts were broken on 26^th of March when it became clear that India would not make it to the final of World Cup 2015. I am also included in that heart-broken crowd. After the match, I tried to calm down with help of books and songs but in vain. Finally, I called my father to elevate my mood and bingo! Within seconds, I was a different person. At that moment, however, I wished what he said to me could be heard by everyone, hence, creation of this post.

Ever since I have started watching cricket, I have witnessed extreme behaviors of Indians during India’s matches. This extreme behavior turned into absolute abnormality during World Cup tournaments. Whenever India lost a crucial match, newspaper editions of the next day featured incidents of people dying out of shock, people breaking their televisions and still others venting out their frustration on expensive crockery. Whoa!!

One such incident (without much damage though) took place in my own home during the 1999 World Cup. India lost a league match to Zimbabwe by three runs. That match was India’s ticket for making entry into the quarterfinals. India had three wickets and nine balls left to score those three crucial runs, but they couldn’t. When the last wicket fell, my father shouted and sat up with a jerk, and seconds after that I could see the cup and saucer (the nearest objects he could find) lying broken on the floor. Next day, he could not go to shop because of high fever. Newspapers and news channels were full of criticism on India’s lame performance.

When team India lost the semifinal to Australia, they knew something similar awaited them. I felt bad too, but that bad feeling was more because of judgments coming from my country people and less because of our defeat. I knew that the newspaper next day would be filled with statements on how our batsmen screwed our dreams, how Dhoni should have set a better fielding and of course, the poor shot played by great Virat.

However, when I told Papa about my wallowing, he started laughing. He answered calmly, “Your wallow is legitimate sweetie, but Australia is a strong team. It has robust players, a power-packed batting line-up, and most importantly, they are playing on their own ground. Unhi ke jagah mein unhi ko dadagiri dikha ke cup le aana halwa hai kya (is it a cakewalk to defeat them on their own ground and bring back the cup). Our team did their best. So cheer up and cheer them up.” He was so right.

So, here is my question to so-called die-hard Indian fans. After winning seven games in a row and defeating strong contenders like SA and WI, is it fair on our part to play the blame game? Be it Twitter or Facebook, not a single platform has been left for their criticism. Calm down folks! If you have the guts to sneer at other teams on India’s victory, then have the spirits to accept its defeat sportingly. Above all, stop the blame game. Why didn’t Kohli perform? Why didn’t Dhawan show some sensibility? Who asked Dhoni to take that single? Stop shooting questions.

Our team has landed on its soil after months. Act less like BCCI directors and behave more like cheerleaders. They have lost a match; they have not triggered apocalypse. Come on! I mean what slogan would we have for the next world cup if India won it this time - take it if you can? How lame! Now, I have already come up with an energetic punch line for 2019 World Cup – we will get it back. Spectacular, isn’t it? :-D

P.S. – A crucial reason for India’s defeat was the absence of Australian players’ non-gentlemanly banter on the field. I bet. Had Starc or Maxwell dared to crack jokes with Kohli or Dhoni, we would have fired our way into the finals. What say? ;-)

2015: WE READY FOR THE ROAD

2014 has become history. With the dawn of 2015, we now have another new book consisting of 365 pages. Though 23 pages have already become history, we still have 342 pages ahead of us. Isn’t it strange? Every morning the rising sun breathes a new life in us. It promises us a fresh start with renewed energy and refreshed hopes. But, it is only the eve of New Year that gives us a new, different kind of excitement. That different ‘excitement’ lies dormant all year and resurfaces only at the last day of that year – the only day when we contemplate its specialty. I, by the way, am not here to contemplate 2014.

I am here to welcome 2015 with open arms. I had to run a few rough roads in 2014, but I am not carrying forward grudges to 2015. Of all the lessons life taught me in 2014, the most important one was that ‘today is a gift’. The past cannot be changed (we still don’t have time machines), and the future is nothing but a thick fog. We know that the fog will lift up, no matter how dense it is, but what lies behind the fog is beyond our control. All we can do is comprehend the situation, act accordingly, learn our lessons and then move on. And that’s exactly what I plan to do this year.

From the very first day of 2015, I have stopped lamenting over my past and worrying about my future. Yes, I have had bad experiences; I had faced betrayals and I had quarreled. So what? I am a normal human being and I behaved humanly. If people have cheated on me, then they should feel guilty and be ashamed of it. Whenever my honesty and trust got shattered, I wept thinking that I was living my pain. So wrong I was because I was actually living the pain of people who were on the wrong side. I am done living others' pain.

Hence, in 2015, I have decided to liberate myself from regrets, pains and guilt. I have decided to free myself from clutches of society’s hypocrisy. I will accept myself unapologetically. I’ll laugh harder, cry louder, shout at the top of my voice, write till my fingers ache, sing my heart out, dance like no one’s watching me and live as if I’ll die tomorrow. At the end of each day, I wish to live just like the song of my favorite band OneRepublic:

I did it all

I owned every second that this world could give

I saw so many places, the things that I did

Yeah, with every broken bone

I swear I lived….

That's right! So many things to know, books to read, songs to listen, movies and series to watch, places to visit, cuisines to relish and only one life for everything – how unfair? I’ve already wasted enough time, but no more. So 2015, behold me! I am ready for the road. I will continue my journey towards my dream. It doesn’t matter if the road gets bumpy because I know that at some point of my journey, it will be smooth. During this journey, I’ll give my sweetest smile to life, and life will be compelled to smile back. Does it even dare to slap me, I’ll slap it harder. I am going to keep the confident, young woman inside me perfectly intact.

I wish all good (I mean truly good) persons an extremely joyous and prosperous new year. As for the bad ones, I would just say all the best because if you are not having a good time, then your karma is rounding up on you. So, try to be good and just from now on.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

“God cannot be everywhere, so He made mothers.”

This has and will always remain my favorite quote. The major and the only reason for my devoted likeness to this quote is because I’m blessed with the best mother in the world. Dictionary wraps up meaning of mother as ‘a female who has given birth to offspring’. But, words can hardly give a concrete definition to a mother.

A mother is a universe where the only thing that resides is the undying love for her child. She is the only person who accepts you as who you are and what you are. She has known you since the time you started taking shape. She is among the solitary manifestations of pure and selfless love. I better not dare try to explain Her in words because if I do, then perhaps a book wouldn’t be enough.

My message to my readers (and especially to today’s youth) is that feel blessed to have a mother. Feel glad that God has considered you worthy enough to keep you under the warmth and love of a mother. This post is undoubtedly a tribute to all ever loving and caring mothers. But, that does not mean that your love and respect for Her should be restricted to this day only.

Don’t forget that one day you will have to bid goodbye to your mother forever. Don’t ever forget that there will be a cruel day when the comfort of your mother’s kindness and love will be snatched from you forever. So, take every moment and all opportunities to make her feel special. Give all the love you can while you can. I am not saying that your relationship with your mother should be an absolutely smooth one.

Nasty feelings like anger, frustration and annoyance will be there. She might be over possessive and over protective. But there is always a way of talking things out, and do you know what the best part is? A child is the only person who can convince a mother. If certain things get sour with your mother, then you are the only person who can turn it sweet. Don’t hesitate to talk to her because no matter how strict and harsh she appears, deep down she is truly, deeply and madly in love with you.

I hope this post has given you enough reasons to spare some time and share at least a cup of tea once in a day with your mother. Once again Happy Mother’s Day to all ever special mothers and all folks who are blessed with mothers!!

Please share some ideas for surprise gifts so that I can use some for my *Maa.

*Maa – In India, mother is addressed as Maa.

2014: TIME TO IMPLEMENT THE ‘HARD-LEARNED’ LESSONS

First of all, I offer my apologies to all my readers. I’m trying hard to cope with the head-on collision between my daily chores and writing schedule. And now that you all have accepted my apologies, I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year. :) I’m sure that just like me, most of you must have fresh hopes, fresh plans for the year followed by resolutions of course. As for me, I have made just one resolution this year because in my case, too many resolutions have always spoiled my year.

My only resolution this year is to implement the lessons I have learnt from 2013. The year 2013 turned out to be great for me. Why? Because all my best laid plans went astray. I was literally screwed up and was thrown into a maze of hopelessness. Surprised why I still praise 2013? It is because I found out that God screwed my plans to make my wishes come true. My initial disappointment was gone when I looked over the incidents and the dots connected.

Those incidents taught me useful lessons and the reason behind sharing them with you all is my hope; hope that some lessons might come in handy to my readers for knowing and recognizing the ‘actually’ valuable things in life. So here come my ‘hard-earned’ lessons.

# Never Say Never

Life does maintain a diary where all our actions are noted down (that’s how karma gets back to us). Out of all entries made in that diary, situations that are entered for sure are those for which we firmly utter - I’m never going to do it. The moment you utter those words, the next moment life starts hatching out a plant to ensure that you do it.

I remember a conversation with one of my friends when I so confidently said to her, “I cannot stay away from my home for more than four months.” That very year, I moved to Ahmedabad for my job and my next visit to home was after eleven months. I turned almost insane, but I survived. Life rescued me but it smiled at me and said, “Never say never darling.” So better ‘never’ utter those words. Simply avoid the situation and move on.

#Never Take Anything or Anyone for Granted

Not even your slippers. Ever heard of Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the US that went bankrupt in 2008? No no! I’m not saying that they took their success for granted. I’m just emphasizing on the point that things can go wrong any time. What you have today may not be there tomorrow. So better respect all your loved ones and every good thing that you have – your loving parents, caring siblings, your beloved, your clothes or as I said, even your comfy slippers.

#What Doesn’t Kill You Definitely Makes You Stronger

Life often throws us in situations when we feel excruciating pain and wish that dinosaurs were alive to eat us up. Make damn sure that you survive those situations because those are the situations that turn you into warriors. And as my favorite Po (the kung-fu panda of course) says – warriors have nerves of steel and souls of platinum. It won’t be easy for others to break you down again.

#Hope for the Best but Stay Prepared for the Worst

Rihanna’s ‘Love the Way You Lie’ has a captivating line – even angels have their wicked schemes. SO VERY TRUE! In July 2013, I just landed into a great job and before joining, I decided to take a break. I was at home when malaria caught me for the third time and ruined everything. I lost the offer and was completely shattered. Thanks to my ever-supportive parents, they helped me stay stable and help me to put up new plans.

Guys! There’s nothing wrong in keeping your fingers crossed but there’s nothing wrong in keeping a backup plan either. Keep yourself prepared to face the extremes. That’ll help you a lot to stay stable when things don’t go your way.

#Don’t Try to Please Everyone

Because that’s next to impossible. Even God doesn’t try to do that, which maybe a reason for existence of atheists. Let me make it very clear that I’m not raising questions or doubts on anyone’s beliefs. I’m just trying to clarify that keeping up with everyone’s expectations will ultimately result in failing on your own expectations. Remember one thing – trying to make everyone happy will leave you lonely. So try to keep yourself happy because only then you can spread happiness.

These five important lessons that 2013 taught me have brought out several unknown aspects of my own self. I went bonkers when I was put through those tough tests but when they were over, I found myself again with stronger traits and in better shape. All I had to do was stay in the game.

I wish that my lessons turn out to be of at least some help for my close pals and nice folks. Once again, I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. :)

AN UNUSUAL BEGINNING OF 2013

The first two months of 2013 are over and they have turned into memories. My memory bank has now some extra lockers where fresh memories are stacking up. Among those newly added lockers, there’s one that will always bring a smile on my face and that locker is of 01^st January, 2013 – the very first day of the year. For me, 2013 is passing rather quickly as compared to the last two years. I still remember the first day of 2012 that I had spent like a slothful snail. But this year, it was very much opposite. It just seems yesterday, when I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling on the night of 29^th December, 2012, trying to plan something interesting for 01^st Jan.

But, almost all my plans ended with one or the other flaw; so, I had to discard all my lucrative ways of welcoming the year. Had I been at home, this brainstorm wouldn’t have been necessary, but I wasn’t and hence, the plan. My very first idea of greeting the day was a lousy one (sleeping late till 11 am in the morning as my very generous office heads decided to grant a holiday on that day). So, I continued searching for better ideas. My next thought was to have tasty fried chickens, but for me, my Mom is the best person to prepare this dish and as I wasn’t at home, I immediately kicked out this idea.

The next one was to visit a decent restaurant that served extra-delicious food. Unfortunately, I was running on a low-budget scheme at that time, which meant that I couldn’t pay heavy load on my wallet; hence, this idea was formidable for my wallet. After checking and cross-checking the probabilities of all my ideas, I finally gave up on brainstorming and decided to embrace the day as it would turn out to be. But, I did ask one thing from God, which was a different and unique start to the year. My wish was granted as I did have the most unusual start to 2013. I spent the very first day of this year hunting the city for vampire fangs.

Yes, you read it right – vampire fangs. This hunt was the outcome of the theme party suggestion which was offered to our HR by my mischievously innovative colleague, Gaganpreet who was accompanied in this task by the ultra-intelligent ME. :P What was more appreciable than the suggestion was the very thoughtful nature of our HR department to shoot the mail in the end of our last working day of 2012 which was 31^st December, which meant that we were left with just a single day for preparation.

Both Gagan and I were predetermined to be vampires for the day, but we felt that just two of us weren’t enough to scare people; so we included Hina in our team, and after office hours, we were on our way to become vampires. Wow! That was some preparation. Hina and me hunted the shops on the 31^st night (when we were supposed to be partying around) and Gagan and me spent the entire day of 01^st Jan to gather all the things (when, again, we should have been hanging around). What caused so much pain for us to find the teeth was the inappropriate time that we chose for teeth-patrolling.

When I opened my eyes on the pleasant morning of 01^st January, every artery and vein of my body was aware of the fact that I’ll have to go on hunting, even before I turned into a vampire. At 11:30 am, Gagan and I set out on our journey again. We knew that finding the ‘fangs’ was going to be an uphill struggle and so, just to have some encouragement, we first went to Gurudwara (a place of worship for Sikhs) to seek God’s blessings. After leaving the Gurudwara, we went straight to collect our lenses. Getting the lenses was less tedious as Hina and I completed that part of homework on the previous day. But, the teeth – they were the real cause of our trouble. It took us almost thirty shops (and all our energy and precious time of the precious day) before we could finally shout ‘Hurrah’.

However, all our efforts paid off on 02^nd January, when our colleagues were awed by our transformation. We were poured with appreciation from known as well as unknown colleagues. We even won the prize for the best costumes. That day, I came back to my room extremely pleased because we spent a quality time with our ‘vampire-selves’. At night, I sat down and looked back at the cascade of events of the past two days. There was no doubt at all that those days were hectic and back breaking, but I was happy that my wish my fulfilled and that I got to spend my new year as a pseudo active-vampire rather than a slothful snail. J

A LAZY KICKOFF TO 2012

I left my blog with a final take on 2011. So, I decided to embark on my journey with a review on beginning of 2012. Although, it had been only five months (rather five long months :-/), my life has always been on skates. Ironically, 2012 knocked my door with a dull mood.


1st January, 2012, was a Sunday, and had I been in my hometown, I would have welcomed the year with delicious Bengali cuisines and a freestyle dance with my sister and cousins. But, there I was, lying sluggishly on my bed. The only commendable thing was an elevated temperature (around 12 degrees C) that let me enjoy the first day of 'Apocalypse Year' (according to Mayan calendar and so many theories) without teeth-chattering chill. I would have been disappointed to be the only sluggish snail but, my roomies were my partner-in-boredom, and this came as consolation for me.


We woke up around 11 am, gathered in the common room and lay there like lethargic reptiles. Eventually, we got bored of lying there as human snails and decided to chill-in (we were still lethargic to chill-out). We kicked off the day with a good, hearty laugh at videos of old hindi songs. After that, we showed our expert sides on culinary arts and prepared the best Indian cuisines(an all time favorite chawaal, dal or sabzi). We were all filled up with fuel, and finally, got ready to have a glimpse of the city. All of us were in our best bib and tucker, and our buddies were waiting eagerly.


Then came the next phase and the damn irritating one. Before stepping out of PG, I totally forgot that the day had a perfect combination of Sunday & 1st January AND Ahmedabad runs out of food hubs on Sunday. My friend and me were hoping against hope to find a food hub where we would have to wait for minimum time (which was at least 1 hour :P).


Alas! After circling the whole city, we came back to Shambhu's, the hang out place of high-class lukkhaas, and had our usual Cheese Chatni grilled sandwich with hot coffee. When I got back to PG, once again, we all gathered in the common room and cursed the city for being overcrowded with foodies. I came to find out that, coincidentally, none of us got to munch on anything yummy. But, we had had enough of cursing and blaming, and hence, we decided to wrap up the day on a good note. Once again, we switched on the television, and Dev Sahab popped up with his famous and fitting-in-the-situation song,
Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya,
Har fiqr ko dhuen mein udata chala gaya.....

A LAST LOOK AT 2011

I’m visiting my blog exactly after a year and that too at the very last day and at the very last moment. During the last 365 days, I made up my mind a number of times to put a post, but it seemed that the universe conspired to keep me away from it, and at last it helped me to find few minutes today.

It would be very wrong in my part to blame it all upon the ‘Celestial bodies’ because throughout the year, now and then, my body was dominated by ‘lethargic feel’. On the other hand, my curious mind asked me to wait for more interesting incidents (as if the ‘Arab Spring’, Japan’s Tsunami and Osama’s death wasn’t enough to jolt the mind). Whenever I sat with pen and paper, another breaking news broke my heart. The earth is undergoing changes. In the history of evolution, it isn't a new phenomenon. Millions of years ago, the earth underwent geographical changes but, today the changes are less geographical and more anthropogenic.


Today, on 31st December 2011, when the world is cheering the dawn of another year, people are busy in summing up their lives; my mind seems to be preoccupied with the changes that have thrown a strong global impact. Every month of 2011 added extra pages to the history. There wasn’t a single month that was spared from accidents or incidents. Nature’s fury, once again, poured on Japan. The tsunami lasted for few minutes but, left blemishes on the land of the world’s one of the most advanced countries.


I felt bad for Japan, but more than feeling bad, I felt sad and scared; scared because we are so vulnerable, especially in front of natural forces. When nature strikes, all we could do are sit back and watch people die. July 7, 2011, became another historic date as one more technological progress showed up. World’s first artificial organ transplant took place on that date. I would better restrain myself because one post is not enough for enclosing all the incidents. But, for me, it’s not a full stop.


So, here I am and this is me, and I’m all set to frame my views into words, and put up the picture in front of all of you through my posts. As I always say, your opinions and views are most welcome. After reading this post, do leave your views.