Whenever You Want To Find About Something, Plunge Right In!

I am totally swept away by this line in Paulo Coelho's 'Brida'. It just sums up how life is to be lead.

I have discovered the treasure and wealth of books recently. I was not a reader at all. All i read was newspapers and the books in my courses that too out of compulsion. Why i have taken to reading is not because its hip and cool to read but to find myself. The first novel i read was 'If Tomorrow comes' by Sidney Sheldon. A friend recommended it to me and i was amazed how engrossing it can be to read. Since i wasn't use to reading so much and reading to me was purely sedative, it took me a month to finish the book. But then on i have cut down my slowness drastically. I did not read as often even then. Until 'The Secret' happened to me. This book gave a secind life to me practically. I read The Secret at a time when i needed help the most and it sailed me through the most difficult phase of my life. I was addicted to reading then. I spent 2 grand every month to buy books and read and i never regretted it.


I have never felt so enlightened and enriched before as i feel today. Brida has shown me a new direction. I was distressed about a lot of things when i read this line ' Whenever You Want To Find About Something, Plunge Right In!' and its not funny. Its right - you don't find books, books find you! Its magical how every time the books found me when i just needed that gyaan. This book is about a young woman who is in search of answers. She has to choose between her undying quench for wisdom and her soulmate and the words of wisdom in this book have helped me realise so many things that is was personally seeking.


Although i haven't finished reading the book but the insights and learnings so far have been encouraging. I did not particularly like The Alchemist and picked this book only because i felt it was close to what i was going through i am not dissappointed. Its important to take risks. Its important to choose a path and we often miss out on a lot of things on other paths when we choose one. Its possible that the path you choose may be wrong, but its worthwhile to choose a path sometimes just to prove its the wrong one!





Thanks... i am happier and much more sorted than before. I took a step which i was speculating for so many days and i don't regret. Books are magical... i hope i finish mine soon!

ek wahi...main aur khushi

ek wahi pani
jo aasman barsaaye to baarish

jo aankh se barse to aansoo

ek wahi dhoop hai
jo roshni se jeevan bhar de
jo tez tarrar kirno mein tan jhulsa de

ek wahi hawa hai
jo shama ko jalati hai
wahi aandhi ban bujhati hai

ek wahi tum ho main hoon
jo duniya se alag sath reh paaye hain
jo sath hain phir bhi paraye hain!

har roop behroopiya hai
har yakeen dhoka hai
har galti dhoondhti doosra mauka hai

jo jaisa hai woh waisa nahi
hai shaqsiyat dabi kahin
ab ya iss paar ya uss paar

ab hawa se sirf diya jalega
ab dhoop se andhera talega
ab paani sirf aasmaan se barsega

khul gaya hai umeed ka daira ufaq
nahi hai dil mein ab koi jale huye ki rakh
ab bas main hoon aur khushi hai...

Ek chai lana

No no i am not obsessed with tea pls. This can unimaginably be the closing line of a movie makes me laugh. I found it really funny. Sarkar Raj for those who have seen it will identify this line where our dear Mrs Rai Bachhan wearing a black shirt signifying empowerment turns around and asks pappu ' Ek chai lana'. Funny! I am not a very huge fan of the Bachhans so i found the whole movie a good gimmick. The bahu is strangely the front runner everywhere these days. She is been given ABCL to handle, a school has been named after her, she is centre of most of their activities and its interesting how the movie also depicted the same. I did not follow why Abhishek was killed half way in the movie in the first place. And if Sarkar was to come to power again, why was Mrs Rai Bachhan introduced to power???? Its like they are giving her the responsibility in open! Even in the film. I feel Abhishek is quite sidelined unfortunately in the three. Where Big B attracts more fans and Ash is always the show stealer Abhishek has not much to add.

Haha so we came out with this entire series of one liners add to 'Ek chai lana'

> Bachhans ka fav drink - obviously Chai
> Bachhans ka fav food - Chai-nese
> Bachhans ka fav place - Chai-na
> Bachhans ka fav movy - Gehri Chai
> Bachhans ka fav animal - Chai-tah
> Bachhans ka fav girl name - Chai-tali
> Bachhans ka fav boy name - Chai-tanya
> Bachhans ka fav radio show- big Chai
> Bachhans ka fav TV show - Ek Chai-bi Padoss Mein
> Bachhans ka fav gaali - Chai-la
> Bachhans ka fav sport - Chai-chi
> Bachhans ka fav song - neeche Chai ki dukaan upar gori ka makaan
> Bachhans ka fav actor - Jackie - Chai
> Bachhans ka fav actress - Priyanka Chai-pra/ Chai-meron Diaz
> Bachhans ka fav dog - Chai-hua hua
> Bachhans ki fav car - Mer-chai-des

i can go on.... if you have anything to add pls do punch in ur one liners....

SAVE! SAVE!! SAVE!!!

SAVE THE TIGER, SAVE THE WORLD, SAVE WATER, SAVE THE EARTH SAVE ME, SAVE MY NEIGHBOUR, SAVE MY DOG, SAVE MY BOSS, SAVE MY ROOF. SAVE THIS SAVE THAT!!!!

So many things to save does anyone care really? I have been seeing so many 'Save' campaigns on TV lately that i have begun to wonder what difference is it going to make anymore. They just pass off as one of the many blank ad spots or 'here is another save promo'! Too bad. The people who really need to get educated are people who have no basic education. And the educated do not care.

I felt so bad when the Save tiger campaign ran massively on TV and i planned for a similar campaign in the radio station i worked for and felt at the end of it... who are we talking to? Who am i asking to save the tiger??? People who sit at home and watch TV? They anyway have not seen the tiger out of a cage ever. They have never hunt down a tiger. The ones who hunt will never see you PSA or understand your hoardings so who are we talking to? If you gotta save whatever the message should reach the right person in the right manner. My heart skips a beat everytime i hear the ice on the artic has gone down, the sea level has gone up, flora and fauna is depleting... But i do not understand how will ME doing anything to conserve the environment alone help the situation.

What i wonder is how does one bring about a mass difference? How can a billion people be affected by your message. Everybody gets touched and ponders but in a day or two forgets that the resources he is using will be gone from the surface of the planet in a few years, or may be the planet won't be there anymore! When prices for most stuff goes up is because of its scarcity we would not realise it perhaps. There would be a day when we would not have the resource at all. But we are not farsighted and we choose to blind as well. How does petrol scarcity in the Gulf affect my future generation? If the ice in Arctic is melting how am i responsible? Well dude you are and the ones who suffer could be your family in the future. We only act when anything in our first circle gets affected. If it affects my life directly or indirectly only then will i consider saving the environment. Its almost like the govt yelling drive safe, dnt drive drunk and you ignore it, but when you or your near ones face a fatal accident you suddenly become doubly cautious of every sign board on the road. We do not bother ourselves before that.

We have developed such immunity towards most things and the damned human nature of doing exactly opposite of what is told. We can never do what is asked from us so if i am asked to not use plastic i would choose to ignore! I can practically see the world coming to an end. Infact all of us do. The geographical, atmospherical and environmental changes around us are signals to where we are heading. We are intelligent enough to pick them but ignorant by choice. I, in my life dont want to witness the end of the world. I don't even want to see the beginning of it. I love this planet and somebody pls tell me what can i do to keep it alive as long as i am alive! I can't change the world but i can change my world and my environment. I am ready!

Blued

I have just re-opened blogger i think i had to write something. Am feeling lost from the past few days and i feel like writing down everything that comes to my mind because when i am ok i want to remember how it is to be lost.

Sometimes the perks of being SANE do not really remain perks forever. It becomes a compulsion then to be sane all the time even when you don' really feel like it. Its worse to pretend to be so. So lame i feel today sitting in front of the screen not knowing what to write. This is happening for the first time that i am at loss of words. The urge to write still persists.

The gloom in the weather is adding to my blues. Even the vapors from the hot cuppa tea are clouding my mind. Sane, i want to be, but somehow the defination of sanity has changed to me. I think a lot these days, atleast i try to. And i am thinking that need can make you so weak sometimes. Psychologically you get into the begging mode and become small. Its a demotivator. There are occasions when you hesitate to ask even for small things pens and pencils imagine asking for love affection and attention from someone. Things can be really cruel at such times. I am talking about a friend who was very jovial and forthcoming but suddenly turned her back when i asked for a favor, personal and professional. I was slightly dissapointed but i understood quickly how weak i must have looked to her for her to turn her back on me ignore me and block me from her mind. I felt pretty disgusted about it for sometime. Even about myself for a while till i realised anybody who asks for anything, however worthy he may be, will always bend down hence look smaller to you.

Anyway, I am dazed and i must do something to get over my blues before i get choked.

Right and Left

Your right is my left, my left is your right so how can i be wrong? To the world if your right your right, if your wrong your left!!!

Its the people who have created words like 'perspective' 'thoughts' 'values' 'mind' 'logic' rationale' and they conviniently forget them. Right and wrong is such an individually driven opinion. What may seem right to you may not be right for me. Doesnt mean i am wrong, it just means my opinion is different. And that is purely because my brain functions differently than yours.

There can be several reasons why i think the way i do. I am brought up differently, my envoirnment is different, my reactions are different and simply because i am a different individual. I have my own independant brain that functions and questions and i cant help it. I cannot stop reasoning and differing and follow the pact like blind sheep.

For years the question of being right and wrong has been debated. I was going through this article on the net that quoted ' What would you do if, during World War II, you were hiding some Jewish people in your home and a Nazi soldier came to your door and asked if there were any Jews inside? Would you tell the truth and consign these innocent people to death, or would you lie to protect them? Most people respond to this question with the “logical conclusion,” that they would lie and protect the Jews'

This question is based on morals but it is a perfect example of how right or wrong depends on the individual and the circumstance at that time. I remember my grandma telling me stories when elders teach you how not to lie to be better humans. Ironically, somebody said that a lie told to save someone's life is never counted as a lie. Which means it may be a lie to u and not to me at that time.

On another site - Primatologists like Frans de Waal have long argued that the roots of human morality are evident in social animals like apes and monkeys. The animals’ feelings of empathy and expectations of reciprocity are essential behaviors for mammalian group living and can be regarded as a counterpart of human morality.Marc D. Hauser, a Harvard biologist, has built on this idea to propose that people are born with a moral grammar wired into their neural circuits by evolution. In a new book, “Moral Minds” (HarperCollins 2006), he argues that the grammar generates instant moral judgments which, in part because of the quick decisions that must be made in life-or-death situations, are inaccessible to the conscious mind. People are generally unaware of this process because the mind is adept at coming up with plausible rationalizations for why it arrived at a decision generated subconsciously. If this is true and proved, it will shake the very basis of Right and Wrong.

Who makes right and wrong? Somebody who felt guilt after doing something must have felt that this particular thing is wrong... and A particular thing is right just because it makes u socially acceptable. How cool is that? if there was to be so much uniformity in the way people are we would have had one GIANT GOD BRAIN to control all of us humans. We would not have been planted with independant brains ryt? The article also has an interesting example 'Assume now you are on a bridge overlooking the track. Ahead, five people on the track are at risk. You can save them by throwing down a heavy object into the path of the approaching train. One is available beside you, in the form of a fat man. Is it O.K. to push him to save the five?
Most people say no, although lives saved and lost are the same as in the first problem.
Why does the moral grammar generate such different judgments in apparently similar situations? It makes a distinction, Dr. Hauser writes, between a foreseen harm (the train killing the person on the track) and an intended harm (throwing the person in front of the train), despite the fact that the consequences are the same in either case. It also rates killing an animal as more acceptable than killing a person.'

Interesting i must say! I have often encountered this situation of being stuck between a right and a wrong. Unfortunately i have been on the wrong side most of the times and felt guilty about it for a long long time. Now i dont which is why i am writing all this. Nobody is wrong, not that everything is right! But one must always weight the reasons circumstances and background of each right or wrong... these two words can actually change a lot of thing around us... Relationships for sure! I have only thing to say, think what you think is right if that makes you happy coz for me you are wrong!

' Never Been to Goa Girl' ...not anymore!

I was in office as usual surfing sites and travelling places in my head. Just then i get a call from a frend asking if i'd want to go to goa ... Tomorrow! There is no 'NO' in my dictionary so i was set!!! I couldn't believe it will be so easy, after all the planning and falling out in all the previous zillion times it cant be so easy. But i was goin!!!

It was too late for us to catch anything on land and we dint wanna waste time as well so we hopped on to a plane. I heard this is one of the most awesome times in Goa coz its off season to begin with and the place is less crowded so u can enjoy the sea all to urself... also the rains convert Goa into a tropical paradise. So i was glad am going at a time where i can explore the 'It' town!

Our trip was totally random, we planned everything on our way including accomodation. So on our way to finding this sea side resort we decided to stay in Ronil which is in Calangute near Baga. The one hour drive from the airport to the hotel had worn us out ocmpletely and we checked in and straight went for some grub. The obvious choice was Tito's

So we boozed with the dim and cozy ambience just adding to the spirit and rain playing the usual seducer. Food was a bit expensive but all for the name, we did not mind. A Honey Suckle Cocktail to begin with and then a breezer with some awesome Prawns goan style left us slurping over the food. For main course we had another Prawns Dish with Thai rice.... so full that we could barely walk back to our hotel which was just 10 mins away from Tito's. The town was seemingly lazy and we saw humankind zipping past us looking at us as if we are species from other planet. Understandably so coz we were the only two girls roaming around at that time in Goa. Anwyay room was fantastic and i was eager to get up early like never before have i waited for the sunrise.

Day 1 i was the first to wake up as usual. We had no toothpaste how dumb! and we chose to walk out just like that! ... and so we did... straight into the sea! Baga beach was just 10mins away from out hotel and that excited me a lot. No shower no nothing we were merrily enjoying the drizzle over the sea and dissolving in the tides until lifegaurds came and threw us out. 'High tide hai madam, andar nahi jaaneka'...thanks we said... for being a spoil sport. After being soaked from head to toe we headed to this shack and had breakfast at noon. What a life i say! Mint tea, french fries, mushroom on toast and bhajiya... and we were set for the day. After a quick shower we hired a scooter and headed straight to Fort Aguada. My sister had recommended this place highly. She had been to Goa on her school trip years ago. The weather was just fine for a two wheeler drive around the tranquil roads where people stared at us like we came straight from Neptune! But we were enjoying that as well. Most bikers zipping past us and making cheeky comments like "hi GIRLS" i mean we are grown ups and older than most men who passed comments, "hi pretty, want taxi" no thank u as of now i wanna puke....ewwww i mean Goa is where most foreigners come through the year and how can people be so cheeky with tourists? Anyway we were reverse aging in Goa, atleast we felt younger after all those comments. Fort Aguaga was just amazing. One of the most spectacular views i saw in a long time and what amazed me was the play of coulds on the sea bed. There was dark shadow on some parts and in this silver light from one tunnel in the cloud. I hadn't seen this before in my life. From this point up there you could see the endless sea that seemed to be spilling over the horizon and drippping over on to the other part of the globe. Stunning.

Suddenly there was a cloud burst and it started pouring again. There was a waterfall of rainwater on the stairs and we were stuck. Just when it slowed down and we thought it wouldn't rain now, we walked out and made a move to go to Panjim. On our way it began to pour so heavily that we could barely see anything. I got drenched completely since i was driving we thought we will return to the hotel and we had to yet drive almost 10 kms to Calangute. My back went for a toss struggling to sit straight and battling the strong rain just about sitting upright on the edge of the seat with my friend trying hard to save our bags and cameras from getting wet. When we reached Calngute it had stopped raining and we got down at a few shops that we saw open for the first time! Shopping is something every woman would do and thats wot we did too. Night falls and we get ready for the dinner party. We were in so much pain and so tired we din't want to walk too much so we went to a near by hang out and had booze and like most places in Goa this one too served awesome prawns fry and surmai fry!

Day 2 began with aching bones and throbbing muscles. The sky was clear and we decided to go out shopping. We had lunch at the shack on the beach and strolled around to see Baga river merging into the arabian sea and then headed straight to Calangute to shop. With wotever little was open we could manage to gather some goodies for people and were dog tired. We walked upto the famous Calangte beach and it was so dirty and crowded that we decided to walk back. It was a good 6pm then i couldnt walk anymore. In that day alone we walked around 10km from our hotel to the beach back to the hotel then to the ATM to the the market and to Calangute beach and back to the Hotel, Phew! The hotel we were in on arrival had a party over the weekend and we were deprived coz we had to vacate our room and moved to the adjoining hotel. The party was on till we reached and we were jealous! Not that the party was good but becoz there was a celebration going on, and that too Goan style... so we went to this place opposite to Tito's and decided to make our last night in Goa a bit low key. The fact is we were too tired to do anything but sit in one place. So we had booze again and called for the most most raise to power infinity amazing prawns (again! but goa has other food also) so far. Some prawns 65 that they call it for namesake was divine. We ate and ate till we lost count of how much we ate.

Day 3 we were gonna leave by noon and wanted to hit the beach before we left. So 9am as soon as we got out of our beds we were in the sea. I sat away on the shore for an hour just listening to the sounds of the sea trying to decode what it meant. It was hypnotising and i got lost for that time. Then the current grew stronger and the sun came out full on and there i was in the sea. The waves madly splashed over our faces and we enjoyed the 2 hours only to take back fun memories of Goa to share with frens.

Goa has been my first absolutely unplanned trip just the way i wanted it to be. Awesome is a small word to consolidate all the fun i had in Goa in just a word. Have already planned our next trip and cant wait to go... Goa we shall return!

Goa thru my eyes : http://picasaweb.google.com/preeti.phalke/Goa?authkey=afqY3nOnlu8

BLOG KAI VAACHTAY... KAAM NAHI KA???

Pune - the only word that comes to my mind with the mention of Pune is Blunt... and all the synonyms of the word. I lived for a good 5 years in Pune and i have seen the most colorful people in terms of rudeness. The sheer variety of 'how one can be rude' is fascinating i can write a book on it! The title of my blog is also inspired by it hehe..

I was surfing the net for a good laugh since i was gloomy today and actually telling you no better way to cheer up than to read some hillarious PUNERI PATYA or Puneri noticeboards. For people who understand marathi know about it already, but for people who do not, i have only one thing to say 'you are deprived'. These are embodiments of rudeness, the limit of being in your face, the only example of bluntness and the result of extreme frustration!!!

I am pasting some here with their translations where i am sure most fun would be lost... but i would love it if you can have a laugh only reading the marathi. Specially take note of the negativity in them. Every note will have only 'DO NOTS' them to teach you what not to do. I love Pune and i salute the spirit of these people who have put these PATYA up for all morbid souls like me to bring a smile on our faces.

(This is a trasnformer, this is not a trash can, absolutely do not put trash in here. Do not paste ads)

Literal translation...Eh... self explanatory!

Pls do see this site www.puneripatya.com