Changes

One Mr. Narayan Shankar in a Bollywood blockbuster ‘Mohabattein’ emphatically declares – “I don’t like Changes” in 2001, I was a young 20-year-old guy then and was doing my first year engineering. We idiotically shared our plans to watch first day show of this movie, with our seniors and they banned us from doing so as were still under the fresher’s gagging rules. But with the young rebellious blood bursting through our immature brains, we still went ahead for it. With our dumb luck our seniors caught us and made us stand in a line staring at our first buttons of shirts (normal position to be assumed when we confronted our seniors). They said we could only enter when every single person outside the theater had entered the movie, but in the end we still got to see the movie.

I digress so directing my wandering mind to the point – while watching that movie every time the character said – I don’t like changes. The 20-year-old I never identified with it, for me change was exciting, change was necessary, change was required. I am remembering this today as after 5 years with my first company Infosys, my first corporate job, I will be moving on to another firm. And with that I will be moving from my residence here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US to a new state.  So I remember the movie as I am mirroring same feeling as Mr. Narayan Shankar, I am not liking this change (moving part).

Although I am excited about the new job and challenges, moving to a new place completely unsettling my current base, leaving friends and favorite hangouts is a very daunting task. As you grow older, you might have new acquaintances, new colleagues, new neighbors; but making a new friend (sincere one) is like winning a lottery, the odds are stacked against you big time. You aren’t as open to new people, sharing and compromising on your choices and beliefs. So once you get comfortable in your life at a place, if suddenly one day you have to move and you don’t have your own family/girlfriend to rely on at the new place, it becomes a slightly scary scenario.

But then you in today’s world you cannot start and end you work life in a single company/location, so your career will demand from you to get used to changes, which I am being forced to these days. Additional problem is most of the people at my age are married (sometimes with kids), so their idea of hangout is completely opposite to my idea. Hence the options are very less and to avoid being a social zombie, you have to improvise. Get invested in hobbies, volunteering, getting used to doing things alone like movies, bars etc. It isn’t easy I will tell you, but then you have to adapt. I hope I will remember this stuff at my new destination and not get overburdened by novelty. Oh how I wish my I could get back my young infatuation with Change , I could use it a lot today.

Why I am a ‘Night’ezen

Lets start from start, I have been told by reliable sources (My Parents) that I blessed this world by my presence on a beautiful Friday Morning at 7 am sometime in 1980s [not telling exact year just for security purposes]. Now I believed them for the early part of my life till my daily schedule was governed by the rules of the house; so I used to hear these words often that Morning times are good, waking up early is good for health, brain works faster in the mornings and thus was forced to Early to bed and Early to Rise regime. But as small doses of freedom started infusing my life and I was allowed to choose my bed time voluntarily, I realized I am in love with nights and equally not very fond of mornings.
My brain used to get some automated adrenaline shots at ungodly hours by common beliefs, say 12 am. My cramming abilities of academic subjects or solving complex Newtonian mathematical problems was nothing more than childs play. Although just to clarify I made better use of time by watching movies or listening to music ( because I had this enlightenment pretty early in my life that ‘Life is too good to be wasted in books’).
Anyways as I discovered more and more that I am a denizen of the after hours, I started suspecting my sources whether they told I was born at dawn, just to hinder my realization of prospective potential as a Vampire/Werewolf/Serial Killer or other such attractive personas. Letting bygones be bygones, I started working towards honing this skill of insomnia. Pursuing MBA helped a lot, because the curriculum there helps a lot to make zombies out of people, late night assignments, database of movies, gaming etc.
I dont believe people have realized the Beauty of night-time as they waste it normally by sleeping.They haven’t enjoyed the silence of the night, when you can hear crickets chirp or the sound of a lonely vehicle passing by.Taking out your bike and wandering the empty roads which during daytime require you to be a daredevil, at night-time provides you an endless horizon to explore and cold unpolluted breeze in your face. Or if you are not an outdoor person, just try listening to music during night and you will be able to appreciate much more as there are no outside noise to interfere the symphony.
If you are a net buff, you will always notice that during night times the download speeds are much higher, allowing you to surf your heart out on the web, without pulling your hair out waiting for pages to load.Now as I am working, night-time is me time, Unlike day time when I have to work for the MAN,sitting on my desk for 9 hours straight working on something which I really don’t care about. I blog at night because my brain is oozing with ideas and words, later used to bore the hell out of you people. Night time is when my voice is not lost among thousand others who are shouting at higher levels; I can still hear my words.
When they used to tell me at school the proverb – ‘Early Bird gets the Worm’. Today I will say to them – The poor worm also got up in the morning and got hunted. So its all about perspective, night time is the best time as it keeps you optimistic, as you know there is always light after darkness.

...

The Selfless One

The one who holds you in his lap first after you are born..
The one who holds those silent tears of joy on seeing you first time..
The one who will be the horse when you will want to ride around as a kid..
The one who will be capturing each moment of you childhood in photographs..
The one who will have a 10 hour day in office and will still play with you after coming home..
The one who will take you for a ice cream after Dinner..
The one who will be teaching you to ride a bicycle and assure you that you wont fall..
The one who will be present at every sports day when you are participating..
The one who will always slip you that candy when mom isn’t looking..
The one who will live on few pairs of clothes just so you can move around in expensive jeans..
The one who will start losing you little bit each year as you grow up..
The one who will promise you a Bike when you get into an Engineering College and fulfil it..
The one who will be very watchful about your friends and make sure they are good..
The one who will never let you now the financial troubles he is going through..
The one who will be very proud when you graduate and he will bring the sweets..
The one who wont talk much but his love is transferred through actions..
The one whom you always take for granted and now feel that he doesn’t understand you..
You will always hug your mom but never hug him or Say that you love him..
The one who has got old and he just wishes that you get settled in life and be Happy…
The one who never asked for anything from you just gave selflessly..
Still when you call him from seven seas apart and fight around to find words to say to him..
He is your Father, the reason for your being on Earth..
Respect him, Worship Him, At least Say Thank you to him…
A Very Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers of the World…