Having turned 21 ..

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!<:-P..............A1...:D " Here I stand tall , by the 21st milestone of my life, carrying an onerous satchel , full of memories, with a supremely humdrum realization that these 21 years have just zoomed past in a jiffy. When I turn back and look at the road I've been traversing since 21 years ,I notice that this road wasn't all that smooth , and at the same time , it wasn't all that bumpy either. The decent number of accomplishments I've had, undoubtedly keep my spirits soaring high in the sky , but all the indecencies , follies and gaffes I've made leave me in a melange of emotions. I feel a strong urge to turn the clock back and merrily correct those mistakes which often keep plaguing my soul. Some of those absurd acts of mine , may not be seem justified to the onlookers, who accuse me that I wasn't right at a particular point of time. I would like to tell them all that perhaps I wasn't right at certain points, but at the same time , I wasn't wrong too. The biggest supreme court I can ever face is my own conscience and which is why convincing my own self is of paramount importance to me. Once I am able do this, then I quit justifying myself and also cease shouting from the rooftops that I am not all that bad.

As a child, I was greatly enamoured of cakes, celebrations , confetti, festoons and gifts. But as I grew older, I could gradually discern it's diminishing magnitude. Today , my birthday is just like any other day except for the fact that I become the cynosure of all eyes for a few hours. My birthday this year,I thought, should be something different from the other ones. I firmly resolved that I should be doing something which I never did till date. This might seem a little weird an act to be done on one's birthday, but its quite necessary that I do. Its very essential that I pay a tribute to all my friends who've been everything to me. I'd love to dedicate this post of mine , to those six jewels who were always with me through thick and thin. In this world which is forever permeated with a stench of selfishness and envy, it's only these friends of mine , who always wish that I ride the elevator to the floor of success.

These six people comprise two of my school mates( Aashu and Praveen), my cousin 'Sowmya'(she is more of a friend than a cousin), this guy 'cnu ' ,whom I unfortunately( :D :D )met in my intermediate( bears a great resemblance to me , we share the same birthday too !!! ), Divya ( the best gift which my engineering bestowed on me) and that very special jewel, who was there for a short time, but had always acted as a sponge, absorbing all my petty little inconveniences with immense forbearance.

These are the people whose company pumps my energy levels to the summit at a breakneck pace. I reside in this small but beautiful world with immeasurably high spirits, with no fear of being bogged down and ofcourse with an unreasonable possessiveness about them.:) ;) Can anyone be luckier than me ?? Noooo... So a very jumbo thankyou to all those precious friends of mine. And a cute budday hug to cnu too :) :)

Give us some respite !!!!

Opinionated as always , I always believed that the only route to realize my dream is diligence and nothing else. A staunch aficionado of Swami Vivekananda as I am , I firmly reposed faith in 'pluck' and blithely dismissed the existence of the entity called 'luck'. Never did my mind ever think of the 'indelible writings on one's forehead' and the inexorability of something called 'fate'. The values which my school had injected into my mind, the copious poems and stories I have been absorbing over these years have probably tailored my mindset to rule out the existence of the entities called 'destiny', 'fate' and 'luck'. But why do I see that the profound beliefs which I've been nurturing since years galore , have now begun to shudder. ?? I somehow realize that the potency of the practical experiences and that of the daily happenings has now started to gradually dislodge my deep rooted beliefs and impressions.

The origin of these practical lessons traces its way back to 2003 , the year I took my Class X exams.I still remember how horrendously I worked to secure a 90% mark and I finally scored something less than what I deserved. Something similar happened during my intermediate course. Right from the first year,I was focussed and determined to pursue my studies in BITS. I successfully secured a decent 98% which was adequate to fetch me a seat in BITS. That very year, BITS changed the mode of admission and started conducting online entrance tests. I was finally forced to take up engineering in a college which I didn't even know. My experiences in engineering have never been all that bitter. This joy was pretty ephemeral as efforts didn't fructify for long. All of a sudden my aggregate took a sharp nosedive without any concrete reason. These are just a few instances of my academic experiences. There have been excruciating experiences in my personal life as well. Certain things which I yearn for , cannot just come to me for no proper reason. Thanks to the intricacies and complications which can never be understood.

If everything were in my own hands, why is it I don't get what I deserve at times ?? Why do I get dragooned into doing something which I abhor ?? Why do I always have to change myself or convince my own self ??? Why do I feel that there is a supreme and massive force which monitors the whole universe ?? Probably it is this colossal force that decides every human being's life. Is it the same entity to which we are always forced to succumb ?? The words destiny , fate and luck refer to the merciless and heinous decisions taken by this juggernaut. Is it that we minions can only make untiring efforts and then seek the approval of this adamantine power???

Many a time ,its ferociousness reaches the acme. Its appalling to note that this entity ,in disguise of Nature savages lakhs of people , renders thousands of them homeless , and doesn't rest until it sees it to it that they starve to death . Is it only that this great power is arrogant of its enormousness ?? If that is so , I hereby question its very wont of preconceiving our future. "Give people what they want if they truly deserve it.. What kind of contentment do you get out of snatching away our dreams and joys ?? You don't even deign to spare poor little children . How arrogant and heartless can you get ?? What right have you got to make and then mercilessly break relationships ??? Oh mighty force, preserve and maintain your supremacy by developing something called 'magnanimousness', lest people's faith in you should gradually get eroded. " is all I want to say.

The realization .... still eludes ???

Well this particular aspect of our Indian Society has always left me infuriated .. I've always denounced it since my childhood .. and even today when I notice people seriously discussing it , I feel an irresistible urge to display the mastery I possess over abuses and then plant a decent kick on their backs .. The movie ' Dasavataram' which I recently watched is no doubt one of the pathetic and wretched movies ever , but it successfully fanned the protesting spark me in to a bright flame which provoked me to pen it down..

The movie went back to the 12th century and portrayed the protagonist as a staunch ' Vaishnavaite' and the wicked king as a 'Shaivaite'. I was surprised to notice that the whole audience was applauding its way to glory when the protagonist uttered the words ' Om Namo Narayanaya' , which was considered morally offensive to the institution of Lord Shiva . He eventually gets tortured and killed in the most brutal way for hurting the religious sentiments of the king. Innocently , I turned to my cousin and asked her as to how different the words ' Om Nama Siva' are from those uttered by the hero. She then went on to explain the feud between the two communities - the Vaishnavaites and the Shaivaites. Strangely, I saw nothing heroic in what the protagonist did ( as opposed to what the audience felt). On the contrary, I was extremely appalled and felt that both the hero and king were supremely and equally insane. "How the heck could people belonging to the same religion raise voices over trivial arguments about sects ??? " ,was the immediate question which occurred to me. And then my cousin whispered into my ears " As if the society has changed today.." Is it not alarming that it's been 8 to 9 centuries hence and we are still the same ??? Hat's off to the determination and obstinacy of we people who have vowed not to budge from our stand and who have still chosen to wallow in a world infested with so called castes and religions.

The fact that people haven't changed an iota since centuries shoved me into a rude shock !! Any sermon or any seminar which we attend these days start off with the hackneyed phrase ' the advancements of science and technology are ...'. But nobody ever bothers about the maturity and broad-minded attitude which most people have failed to acquire over the times. Something more horrendous is the fact that even the educated lot is no better !! I still remember those early days of my college ,when people unhesitatingly came to me and enquired the caste I belonged to. Is it so important an attribute to be found out from your fellow classmates ?? I mean, as long as I am a human being with two legs and hands , how does the sect I come from ever matter ??? I definitely don't belong to the class of reptiles or animals , if the case were, would have seemed justified for a person to question my presence in the classroom . Yet another boon of the ' advancement of technology' are the social networking sites like orkut !! The 21st century's high-tech users with a so called 'cool attitude' have brazenly incorporated caste-centric communities which work for a 'very phenomenal' cause of bringing together people of the same sect, whose only goal would be to mindlessly glorify their respective classes. Worst still , they have no qualms in associating themselves with certain noble virtues , which they claim are categorical identities to their respective clans.

I was in for a sweet surprise on the day of Krishnashtami when I spotted my aunt's muslim maid paying her due respects to the footprints of Lord Krishna. When someone like her,who unfortunately couldn't get herself educated , could be so magnanimous and pure at heart , why is it that the fully educated class of people still resort to such atrocious gaffes ???

When shall we stop judging others by their castes ?? When will we begin to broaden our horizons of thinking ?? Why do I still notice people trumpeting the achievements of their class and demeaning the occupation of the others ?? Why is it that even the elite conform to the notion of endogamy?? How long would it still take for people to dump this abysmal concept into oblivion ??
Just imagine a world which is shorn of all possible communities and religions , which is complete with pure happiness and brotherhood and where all of us belong only to the species of 'human-beings'.

Let me now quote a dialogue from one of the superhits of telugu cinema which has enormously inspired me " Prapanchamantha oka kutumbam : vasudaika kutumbam" .. Is this realization going to elude us for the centuries to come ??? Hope not !!

And here it comes again !!

After a torrent of serious and ominous topics, I think its time for me to post something healthy and jovial. It's after eons that I am so very delighted, so very excited!! No prizes for guessing the reason !! Its Ganesh Chaturthi tomorrow. !!!! Undoubtedly my favorite of all the festivals !!

Right from the age of 6 or 7 , I was always fascinated with the pomp and splendor the festival is performed with. I can't help recounting the good old memories associated with this festival. Just one day before the festival, my adrenaline would start pumping in the order of gallons. I still remember whiling away all the time in school and desperately waiting to come back home. And after returning home, I'd suddenly transform into a 'boisterous' child( from the ' innocent and cute' image which I generally have ;) ) and pester my mom to take me along with her to Chikkadpally :D :D . That's a sprawling place with a plethora of idols of various kinds, colors and backgrounds. The huge variety of flowers , fruits , leaves and herbs would render me completely enchanted. As is my wont , I'd gorge on the host of delicacies prepared. I'd completely earmark the evenings of the next ten days for exploring all the Ganesh pandals in my vicinity. The funny memories of queuing up along with the other kids for a bite of the 'prasad' is still so vivid. I also have to my credit, the idiosyncrasy of collecting all the regional newspapers and cutting out the spectacular pictures of the Lord and preserving them for future perusal. I would have probably collected them for more than 10 years and that bag of pictures still leaves a smile reminding me of those innocent days.

By and by , I began to sense the mounting intimacy of my family with the Lord. Dad suddenly developed a rare prowess of putting pebbles together and unleashing amazing images of Him. I should confess that initially , I didn't possess the ability to appreciate what dad was doing, but later on the idols dad was dishing out began to proliferate and it surprisingly began to draw everyone's attention. And then I began to wonder as to how dad was able accomplish something which seemed really insurmountable !! The way he zeroes in on stones , his style of glueing them together and finally bringing out awe-inspiring images began to fully captivate me. May be I still do not know how he does it !! I tried following closely the rigmarole he employs , but later I realized that I, who can't even draw the picture of a 'vernier calipers' properly , shouldn't attempt learning an innate talent. In the beginning, it used to be the members of our colony who used to visit our place and check out my dad's work. As time flew, there were many channels and newspapers which came down to our place, captured glimpses of the idols and even conducted interview sessions. I completely enjoyed those moments as my house became the center of attraction. So I take the liberty of leaving a few glimpses of the idols which my dad calls ' prized possessions'. :) Hope people don't take it for fanfaronade. Please condone the flaws in my photography and alignment of the pictures.