Unbound beyond the horizon

When I wrote "I will be back soon.." i never thought this will be so soon, but i guess thoughts should be bound once they start flowing. At least I would not like to try so.

Actually this post is more about the opposite of its heading. Imagine getting bound by some stringent rules and limits. The truth is we all are already bound, we need not imagine it. Getting up at 7 then college/job at a particular time, coming back at a particular time and so on. But that is something we have been doing from god knows how long! But what I am talking about is not just time. What about the expectations that we have from so many people, doesn't that bound them too? And I guess that applies to all of us. Like, I can be included on either side of the table.

It is always easier to say than to do. How many time have you said something that you haven't meant just because it was appropriate in that situation or in simple words just because you were expected to say so. And how many times had you known that you were being told something just because you needed to hear that and even then couldn't say that you know it.

For once people let your thoughts flow. Let people around you not just look into the freedom of skies but have a taste of it. Tell them not where to fly but how to fly and you will see them getting beyond those limits of horizon!

Happy flying!

A Birthday is a gateway between old year and new
An opening to the future where we can get a wider view
Birthdays are gateways to what future holds

And to greater understanding as the story of life unfolds.

-Anon.

Aptly said! At least in my case it does, for my birthday marks the end of another session, another year here and the period of togetherness with some people.

So this year, finally the day came (246) :D. The day started at 00.00 with bone breaking, back bashing (to say the least) bumps. The cake was cut but it ended with the cream on my face. This was the beginning.

The end however was better (actually it would have been the best if only it were not the end).

A surprise treat (!!!) (to say the least)

All in all one of my most wonderful birthday. I will save the proceedings of the day for cherishing the people present and that too through their own memory for my words may not bring out their charms as they actually were.

Of course, this birthday or its speciality is not confined to just 24 hrs. It brings with itself all the times of my laughter throughout this year. As for gifts, well there are too many to mention, I will mention just one - of all the accessories I have, the one I treasure the most, the one that I nowadays wear too often (and may this always be so) is the sweet smile (read as horrible grin) that adorns my face - a gift forever!

A princess of her own world
A girl often termed special
There is nothing so unique about her
Nothing that makes her ideal
Except that there in her vicinity
Live people who are wonderful
Who treat her in a way that
Makes her think she does rule!

For all those wonderful people of my world, here in this hostel, and here in this institute, I don't have words to say how much grateful I am for you all. And on this special day, if I were asked to make a single wish, the only wish I would ask is that may I be saved from any invidious feelings from others for all the special people I have in my life.


"Always remember you are an absolutely unique individual just like everybody else". This often makes me wonder what is so special about me. I know it today. It is not me, it is the people around me.

Seashells

The earliest and maximum number of my holidays have been spent in some sea beach areas. I don't even remember the names of all the beaches I have visited. Some very unknown yet beautiful (may be more so because they were untouched by the crowds !). From the east, west and the south, of each of these directions, I have visited atleast 1 beach (mind it, atleast 1).

The mighty sea never ceases to create a feeling of awe in my heart, even today if I see one, the first things that comes to my mind are its beauty, power and the stretch of land that keeps it in check! I remember I used to walk in the beaches after sunset. Away from the crowd and near the sea, where the waves can wash my feet each time they come, and as they moved away, I used to feel the sands below my feet slowly drifting away. I remember I used to see the huge height of the approaching waves with fear and surprise and still wait there till the wave splashed into drops of white foam. Then the sun that quietly found its way beneath the cover of the large blue mass during the sunset. I used to stand in the balcony or the window just to watch that. And after that when the crowd dispersed, I used to coax my Mom and Dad to take me for a walk. A late-riser, I missed the sunrise most of the time :D.

During my visits to the beaches, other than watching the sea waves, one more thing that I spent my time was in collecting sea shells. Small. big, broken, unbroken, coloured or white, it never mattered. They were my treasure. I used to roam about and collect them. Then when my small hands could not hold any more, I deposited them to my Mom and started collecting again. :D Even today (after so many transfers) somewhere in the boxes that hold my precious treasures, there are those seashells. It just makes me smile. :)

I never thought, when I will open my closed fist to see the shells that I treasured so much, I will find nothing but trifles from my childhood.

Reality or rainbow ??!!

If only this world was as we perceive it.

No, I am not compalining, but as usual just wondering.

And this is what actuated the gears of my mind.-

"The rejection of certain propositions because they contradict cherished beliefs is more common than we realize. We underestimate the extent to which our desires can influence what we accept to be true. We concieve of ourselves as eminently rational; everything we hold true to be considered the most reasonable position. This is an illusion, however. In our saner moments, we all realize that it takes little or no evidence to convince us of what we dearly want to be true and, while no amount of evidence will covince us what we cannot accept"

Well, the above view is not mine. It has been cut and pasted from something I read. But the pondering is mine, for sure. So, 'truth' or for the matter 'belief' is all relative. Does that mean, reality does not exist? Is this world we live in, all imaginary just beacuse it is all dependent on our perception. But then how can each individual's imagination be just the same. How can we all imagine the world in the same way? So this must be real. Isn't it? May be. I am not sure.

All of us must have seen a rainbow. And if we see it, we will definitely tell someone around us, "look, there is a rainbow". The other person will see it too, hardly realising that he was actually looking at a different rainbow. Scientifically, one rainbow can be seen only from one angle, so if another person is able to see the rainbow, it must be a different rainbow, one visible due to dispersion of sunlight from another water drop, that which is not visible to the first person. However both of them are sure they are looking at the same rainbow. Interesting, isnt it? The problem arises when one of the rainbows cease to exist.

Who knows, may be this 'world' or 'reality' is similar to the rainbow.

Never mind. I was just wondering. If you don't feel like, just forget it!

An Italian Delicacy

Almost 1 month and I remember my first (and hopefully not the last) encounter with Tiramisu.

15th Jan
10:00

Ritu comes and tells me that, she plans to prepare an Italian Cake. The ingredients are ready and she will need a helper. Talk of cakes and I will jump at the mention of it.

14:00

So soon after the lunch I found myself in her room. The requirements placed on her table - eggs, Amul cream, coffee powder, sugar, containers, spoons, forks etc etc, and how can I forget the Italian Biscuits - ladyfingers. Anyways, I am not here to tell you the recipe of Tiramisu.

It so happened that our little adventure was waiting to strike us with small and sweet hurdles which we were absolutely unprepared for. The first happened at the start itself when while breaking the first egg, we messed up the yolk and the albumen instead of separating them. After much struggle, we managed to convince ourselves that they have been separated. The rest two eggs were broken smoothly. The 2 hours that followed were taken up by continuous beating of the eggs. At some moments we were almost close to giving up because of unavailability of electric blender but then we didn't. Finally the mixture was ready but not before making us realise that Amul cream was a bad option for making Tiramisu. We were letdown when we saw the cream fluidising our paste-like mixture. More than that we were unaware that the result of this fluidising will be more devastating in the coming hours. Anyways with a few more manipulation from our side we finally finished the paste-making process.

16:30

The next step was garnishing of the biscuits. So they were carefully placed in a thermocol box and covered with the paste made earlier. But the amount did not suffice, so the second round of paste-making started. The ingredients were bought once more and we started moving our hands yet again. While we were busy with the 2nd round, out first round of hard-work found its way out from the box through the corners and edges. :( We helplessly saw the fluidised paste trickling out of its appropriate place. :(( We were not interested to give up. So with cellotapes and polythenes, the box was mended to our best. Phew!!! 2nd round continues.

19:00

Preparation complete. Cake placed for refrigeration. Thanks to canteen. Well if only that was the end. Our plight continued as electricity decided to paly hide and seek during the entire duration of refrigeration.

23:00

Enter Tiramisu.

Looks delicious, doesn't it?

16th Jan
00:00

Ritu's BDay.
The cake is cut and tasted. We are pretty happy at the response. I of course could have onle one piece. But never mind that. The net result is that we completed the preparation, it turned out to be good enough to be eaten, I learned a new dish and more than that I enjoyed being a part of the whole thing. Thanks Ritu.

But one thing that disheartens me is that I will not be able to make it at home. So any of you going to Italy in near future, do bring me a pack of ladyfingers (tell them about Tiramisu, they will understand) .

[For Ritu's version of story, read this.]

Just remembering

I dont know in which class I was, may be Vth or VIth when this incident took place.

In the backyard of our house, we had a tree. I was told it was a guava tree. It was dry, had no leaves, never did it bear even a single fruit. It did not give shade in the hot summer days, nor was it good enough to be climbed or for the use for a tree house. Basically a useless tree that we seldom noticed. It didnt come close to the house or its fence. So it was neither a treat nor a threat. Except perhaps that it engaged too much of our backyard which could have been used for something else. But I dont think any of us ever gave that a thought. In course of time we grew oblivion of its presence, watching it everyday yet never giving a thought.

One afternoon, however on returning from school, I found the backyard filled with some 2-3 people (later I was told they were from municipality). I stood there and watched them as they chopped off its topmost branches, then the lower ones... and continued till there was nothing except a stump almost at the level of the ground. I dont know how long they took, but I stood there all the while watching them and even after they were gone, I stood there.

I dont remember being sad or even thinking about it ever again. Yet yesterday I found myself narrating the whole event to a friend. Why did this incident which I never thought about came back to me after 10 years.

I wonder how many such events or things are stored safely in my mind. I wonder how many such things to which I am indifferent at present will be rememberd by me in future. Just wondering.

Some of my fav. poems

Poetry is said to be the oldest form of literature, known among the ancient people of Babylon, Greece, and Rome. Poetry basically combines feelings with idea and therfore appeeals both to our mind and our heart. One more reason for which poetry stands out distinctly is the way it is written. Unlike prose, poetry is not exact and definite. The poet uses fewer words and arouses the reader's imagination. And for this purpose there are tools like imagery, figurative language, rhythm, and so on.

I started reading and enjoying poetry at the same time when I first started reading for pleasure (that was probably form class I) but my proper introduction to poetry was in class VIIth. That was when I started reading (and writing) poems with a sort of purpose, tried to understand and analyse them. I may not have always seen them in the same way as they were written (because most of the time nothing is written explicitly in the poems) but I did start seeing them in my own way and relate it to something that I know. Poems have that beautiful property... each time you read them, they bring out a new meaning, sometimes one totally different from the previous and all readers interpret them in their own way not necessarily in the way, the poet wrote them.

So here are some of the poems that I carry in my heart and mind...(and this is not an exhaustive list). For now I will list only 14 of them for 2 reasons... 1) they r on varied subjects and 2) I could find the links to these. (I would have given 15, but I lost one of the links. The poem is A Musical Instrument. See if you can find the link. )



1.Casabianca

I read this long back but even today when I read it, I get the chills in my spine and my voice gets almost choked when I reach the last stanza. I wonder if such an incident can occur in the present days!

2.O Captain! My Captain!

The poem is beautiful, but I realised its true worth when I came to know that it is a allegory. I was told it was written after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The rhythm is so wonderful that I keep reading it again and again.

3.Success is counted sweetest

A message that all of us realises at least once. Ask the losers what they have lost, not the winners what they have won. Emily Dickinson has written on varied subjects but her strength (I felt) is that she can bring out pain in a way that u start admiring it and well, she has a different way of looking at even the day-to-day things. But this poem still stands out!

4.I'm Nobody

I have mentioned the last stanza in a prevoius post of mine. Each time I read this, I feel the poet is sharing a secret with me and I wonder what would be my answer. I cannot disagree but I guess I cannot agree either.


5.I had been hungry all the years;

From the same poet. Is it not true that once we get what we wanted we forget its worth and if we would have not got it, it would have become all the more precious. Why is it so?

6.Song

What do you say? There are very few people who can say that they don't want to be remembered. Even I am not one of them. This poem still touches me, "if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget"

7.The Solitary Reaper

This one comes from the memory of my school days. And I am sure I must have reminded some of you as well. Can you hear that tune echoing in your mind? It is amazing, how words can incite our imaginations. Some of my very earlier poems are inpired by this poem. I just cannot forget it! (neither do I want to.)

8. Sweetest Love, I do not go

The words were remembered after the first time I read it :) pretty good isnt it? I dont know which is more beautiful, the words, the rhythm or the way both of them are presented!

9.La Belle Dame sans Merci

This is remembered because of my English Literature Sir. The speciality of this poem, he said, was that it can be interpreted in many ways, (3 of them I remember). I would have never gone to the depths of this without his guidance. Infact, it was he who made me realise, poems are wonderful in so many ways. I am grateful to him. As for this poem, hopefully, none of us ever get entrapped in the false enticements of this world.

10.Hope is the thing with feathers

Emily Dickinson, yet again! See the last line "Yet, never, in Extremity, It asked a crumb--Of Me". Tells everything about "hope" in so few lines. Doesn't it? I just love this poem.

11. The Road Not Taken

Well, how many of us in a situation of taking decision, decides in this way? Very few. One poem that rings in my ears if I ever feel, I am walking out of the crowd. have faith in yourself. If you cannot have, how can others?

12. Verses

The pleasures and pains of solitude all encompassed in one poem. More pain, less pleasure! All in all a poem you cannot disagree to.


13. Milk for the Cat

You know, after I read this poem, I actually observed a cat and realised it really does happen this way! Nice observation (not mine, the poet's). And of course, written in a wonderful way, I can almost see the cat. Can't you?

14. I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud

Well if I havent mentioned this, I havent mentioned anything at all. Read and enjoy. Poets like wordsworth have brought nature right in front of the readers through his poems. Nobody has to see the daffodils to realise how wonderful they are and nobody can help remembering these lines (once read) each time he/she looks at a row of flowers (not just daffodils, any flowers.)

Enjoy!!! Any choices from your side that I should read, drop in the links please.

(This had been a draft from Nov 5th 2005. I felt I shud publish it finally. Now that will keep you busy for some days. Will it not?)