“Get your ideas on paper and study them. Do not let them go to waste!”

It’s 3 in the morning and feel tempted to propose something to myself after reading this wonderful quote “Get your ideas on paper and study them. Do not let them go to waste!”

The thing about quotes is that there are millions of them documented throughout history covering everyone worth giving an ear to. Now out of so many, there are still plenty of them that will get our attention and we feel like sharing and remembering. I feel it will be interesting to take the quote in perspective and fit it with an instance in life and make a logical comparison. To analyse how we fared in comparison to the logic in the quote we believed in.

Well that’s an idea I am gonna hold on to and possibly follow, but yes I did put it in writing as the quote suggested. That’s the first step, let’s see where the next quote leads me in coming days. It could either just be a tweet as it usually is or could be a piece of history of life or some direction of what’s up for the future.

Good N…. Well not really at 3.15!!

When The Jungle Wowed Me!!

The fact being when you think of The Jungle you don’t expect to be served food but rather to be served as food to the carnivorous kind J. But The Jungle Restaurant in Qurum was a great treat and I have to thank my colleague for referring me to take my nephews and family  for a day out.

I for one while seeking a place to dine would consider ambiance, quality of food, hospitality, comfort especially with the seating arrangement cos a couple of my cousins have the pin pointing at the obtuse angle of the weighing machine so the usual won’t fit their troubles in . The Jungle has one of the best seating arrangements I have witnessed within Oman.

The concept was so refreshingly different that it started to sink in that it’s not just about the dining but this is what I would call as an experience. And not just mine cos I would still concentrate just on the food but the kids look to be surprised at every corner. The alligator with whom my nephew took pix with his hand between its jaws and took pictures reminded me of Steve Irvin and the kid goes home happily to upload them on FB to his envious friends who I am sure would follow suit and may the jungle staff be prepared for some alligator hunting 12 year olds landing during the next week so don’t say I didn’t warn you fellas to save your endangered species.

So if I have to sum it up, I would say that Jungle was a clear winner in its wonderful Ambience, great seating, delicious food, polite and considerate staff and best of all I was a hit with my nephews and nieces and cousins and the ladies alike.

These days when all that we do about nature is just limited to a disclaimer at the end of e-mail asking recipients to not print in order to save trees and nature and all that, but ideas and concepts like this answers to our kids and reminds us what we miss or might miss out in future that how beautiful the jungle can be.

Their “As You Wish” to my “I Wish” !

Someone asked God: If everything is already Written in my DESTINY, Why should I WISH ???

God Smiled and replied: What If, at some places, I wrote “As you WISH”!!!

 

Had thought about this a few times as a passing reference or in the sub conscious mind that if its all DESTINY then what’s all the fuss about. I mean if its all signed, sealed and delivered then even if you laze around you would still get where you were heading anyway and no amount of trying would lead you anywhere else either!

Then after some thought what i could gather was Destiny is a way of describing where we are at a point  in our life. So, say i choose to not eat and starve myself to death, should it be called the consequence of my action or some prerecorded script of destiny that got enforced on me to make that choice. In all fairness, I could have eaten something and saved myself and then the destiny would take a different course and we would conclude that i was meant to live anyway and it wasn’t time yet!! Is destiny something consistent with my actions or its something regardless??

Another instance i have thought of is a scenario where a drunken driver runs over someone trying to cross the road. The guy who is drunk comes out unscratched and the one who did nothing wrong to deserve the trouble got played. So that’s what destiny might mean then?

If its your actions and your tragedy or reaping then its consequence &

If its your actions and someone else’s tragedy or reaping then its Destiny!!

Its just a way of being objective about any scenario. Either take it as a consequence of an immediate action or life meeting its schedule. It is confusing and i don’t know if there is an accurate answer available to this query.

Well all this does not take away our opportunity to make a wish, so in sync with the idea that the big fella handling our script has left a few aces for us to get what we want so, I WISH to what he would say AS YOU WISH and accept the prize GLEEFULLY!!

Happy b’day mom!

The day today is what was supposed to be a chilled December evening in Chandigarh made warm by the love of family celebrating mom’s b’day and instead it is a warm muscat afternoon with me feeling the chills of folks being away and for too long.

For what it’s worth, it’s only 3 hrs to be home and why I have not taken that leap is something I can’t figure an answer to today. The heart said today that it’s time big fella to step up and fly and the feeling that what’s gained in comparison to what i am missing just don’t add up, the equation is not balanced anymore.

Fair Enough

“Fair Enough” is a common enough term used to describe an acknowledgement of agreement reached on any proposal. But yesterday i got a new view on someone using the same wording at a difficult moment in his life. The guy in question here is one Mr. Garry Geddes and the question to which he replied  “fair enough” was “Sorry sir, we have to amputate your arm”

This was a follow up of an accident he put on himself while trying to catch a running train after returning from a ranger’s football match. I would just like to have a link of the article just for the irony that this was not an answer given after much thought or weeks after the tragedy but this was while he was been taken in an ambulance just after the accident and hats off to him for looking at the brighter side of surviving the fall with his life intact and paying a lesser price of a hand lost. Don’t know how i would have reacted myself if i were him but that’s how i would like to be remembered myself. An old friend Manavta always used to put on her status and i remember and quote “When life offers you lemons, ask for salt with taquila!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046550/Sorry-sir-amputate-arm-Fair-The-incredible-response-football-fan-slips-train.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

life of ‘oh wells’ than a life of ‘what ifs

Can’t figure out if its the higher count of “oh wells” in life (which is good) or the low count of “what ifs” (which is also not bad) is where the problem lies. But really even if this is how its been or meant to be (life they say is best this way), its a little unnatural to have it like this.

How does it feel to regret, would i ever have regrets (it will catch up but not today), would i ever do anything to set things right (i doubt so), would  i ever care (never enough), is anything good enough (nothing is right up there), where does it lead (Follow me, or get out of my way). Its all a chase and then who’s chasing (not me), who is rolling the dice (me sometimes and destiny when it wants to play) and why are the stakes never good enough for me to call the play and do it the easy way (just not meant to be that way). Why is it that after all this, it still feel alright as if nothing happened, nothing or none mattered and a feeling of what’s gone is just gone and what stays is just what chose to.

The thing isn’t that there have been no mistakes  or any illusion of living a perfect life but the lack of feelings to any outcome is what gets to me after i came to think of it. Whatever goes, whatever lost, whatever broke, nothing seems to have the impact the circumstances deserve. It isn’t as much to feel human or anything but this when i look back has a devilish beckoning.

But the bottom-line is “I’d rather have a life of ‘oh wells’ than a life of ‘what ifs’ “

Archiving – Life as it unfolds in words and videos

A while back someone gave me a comedy series “how i met your mother”. Its about how one is sort of capturing and narrating the events of his life for his future self or here in this case to his children about the story on how he met his wife or their mother.

Its an interesting idea to look back and understand. This offers much more than the concept of writing a diary. You may just switch on your camcorder or mobile and record about that day of life as you experienced it in your words and expressions. Just to imagine a few years down the line and getting to look at those videos. It would be a some experience.

I used to write a diary as a kid and i remember a couple of years ago when i read about something i wrote when i was in 11th grade. Felt the sort of emotion that i could not put a finger on to describe it, but given that is how i felt with a diary and a few words, it would be quite something to look at me alive as i was a few years back sort of like just rolling back the years.

I am definitely trying this fella, would be fun i am sure and thinking more about it i mean to archive my days,  the feelings, the expressions, the people, life itself in its living form. I am just wondering being around all these gadgets and stuff for all these years, why did i not i do or think of this earlier. So bloody blind !!

Since today is about life so why not end with one of my favorite quotes.

An Onam That Really Wasn’t !!

The title was a silly one is what i thought when i heard of the movie the first time, yeah i am talking about the Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, but since that being the only movie released last weekend left not much of a choice for i had made up my mind to finally watch a movie in this part of the world.

It was a nice movie and had a good time followed by a stroll, some fresh air by the beach and finally a nice dinner. It was a good Thursday. Not to forget earlier in the day when got treated with some really nice south Indian food with the Rice, rasam, sambar, couple of other stuffs and all with everyone making a feast.

What followed next day was an anticlimax of  the day before. Had a sort of Punjabi-Western Onam on Friday. Woke up to some home made paranthas for a late breakfast and then had chinese for lunch and pizza for dinner.

I dont know why i am discussing so much about food today but its justified considering Onam to me is all about great food. Something like 10-12 dishes followed by pradhaman was the highlight of this day of the year. I did not get my due so its worth a bit of whining i guess

Waking up remembering a song at 3 am!!

Its 3 AM and i cant explain how i woke up at this time to remember the song i have been trying to remember since 8 AM yesterday morning. Its just one of those feelings and i am so glad to hear the song a few times and with that its only fitting wishing Asha Bhosle ji b’day greetings and start the good day of Onam.

Tributo a los dos leyendas – Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar

To travel well is better than to arrive

Something that i heard a few minutes ago and if there are any fellas who watch dance or follow movies based on dance might know where this beauty came from -

‘To travel is better than to arrive‘.  Well, because I used to think that there was only one path to take to where you wanna get to be in life. But if you choose that one path, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon all the others. I realized that it’s actually what happens along the way….that counts. The stumbles or the falls. The friendships. It’s the journey. Not the destination. You just gotta -I guess- trust the future will work itself out like it’s supposed to.”

Nice! and its true as well, i mean i remember as a kid growing up in Chandigarh, during the early 90′s we used to see these MIG 21′s and Jaguars do sorties in pairs and even 4 fighters together at a time and sometimes flying low and i wished then to be a pilot.

Down the line came plans of engineering that i ironically crash landed as i was the acting pilot on that mission! Then came studying computers and IT and to become a Tech fella, learnt everything from cracking to low level hacking to social engineering but never did the usual so put that away, then joined the great Indian dream of 2000′s to work for a B.P.O or call center or whatever, did well there and left that at a peak and a rot with nothing more to achieve in that Game. Next was business did alright for a year to prove a point and after “the been there done that” feel to that mission left it for the next sortie on my MIG 21 to do the Dotcom stuff of the late nineties, although should have known that the shine was off on that fella long before we started but what the heck “it ain’t over until i am done with it”  so again did the rounds and hours and phew it was some journey and i wont go to what happened after that..that would be just a bit too much to handle on bandwidth and those who know me will know i don’t exaggerate

Now that was just about the work side of things and lets not even get started about the You know who alls and everything that comes with it !!

Coming to the crashes it ain’t as bad as i presented really if at all it felt that way (The problem maybe is that i was sort of a fan of the MIG 21′s and you know what they are called ….yeah “flying coffins” give a MIG to an Indian and the MIG is gonna Die ),

Not many people know where in the whole wide world i am right now. Its a Ghost feel with an aura of slipping right through and never staying anywhere long enough or know anyone well enough to worry about getting my travel bags out for the next Game plan and that just explains why ‘To travel is better than to arrive‘  Its not time to arrive yet, The Game is unfinished !

All u you fellas, Stay Alive Please..

Death is the only thing that’s certain in life. Something we all know is true but for the first time in life I had a real time feeling of how it feels and it shook me up more than i thought such a day would. As I write, there is a nerve on my left temple that is fluttering like a bad nerve and it’s been constant since I head the news of my Grand-Uncle’s Demise. Might sound distant in the hierarchy of relationships but he held the place same as my Grandpa, He was the Uncle who raised my Dad, His father figure.

There is something that I  would like to do though……I would like to wish everyone i know or have ever known, friends, family, those i love even those who i don’t like much, those who have done and wished me well, those who have wronged me and for all the memories worth for the good or the bad. For all the memories that made this life as it is -  to look back fondly or sadly or any emotion ever named or experienced………….. All u you fellas, Stay Alive Please..

To win some or Learn some

Holidays coming to an end thankfully. Not a nice thing to say and i am not workaholic or anything but holidays away from friends and folks is just like bad booze with only the hangover. Tomorrow would just have to suit up and start fishing again.

Lets Rework on my old friend “The Missing Sandwich” with my own bite at “You win some or you learn Some” after 3 years since the original.

I was listening to Jason Mraz earlier today. “I’m Your’s” sounded like a nice chirpy tune to listen to but when I actually listened to the lyrics and it reminded me of stuff I’m going through all the time. He says “I reckon it’s again my turn to win some or learn some”. I’m always learning some and winning occasionally (nothing I did special but the law of the averages do catch for good time sake as well!). Always chasing after stuff that I am better off staying away from and then getting pissed not at the outcome but the fact that I knew from the onset that it was a fool’s cause anyway.  Like in school or since then in the larger school of life, easy and simple does not have the appeal for me; I need the tough, the complicated and the extremely complicated. Why is that…. Well I ask you? And ask myself of course!!! You know who maybe the Devil knows!

The thing is, if I chase after those things I know I can get, it’s not much of a chase now is it? There’s very little effort and I wind up realizing that I didn’t really need it after all. It’s the things that I lust for with all my heart and soul that mean something to me. And those are the very things I want to get out of life. Is it because I don’t appreciate those things that I have or can get out of life? Is it as simple as that old cliche? Well that won’t get answered I guess, cos nor do I judge or care to be judged.

So then again  I reckon it’s my turn to lose some, I’ve sort of done myself in all over again. And in the process it’s my turn to really learn some this time. Maybe it’s time to stop the chase. Period. BUT if that’s the lesson to be learned, it’s at the cost of losing myself? Losing my thrill for the chase? And my desire for the spoils? Not that I’ve always got to enjoy the spoils, but am I also giving up on the chance that I might just pull off the unexpected?

Giving up also means leading a mediocre life. And that really is not one of my choices tonight or for the few years left on this mission earth I guess. George Bernard Shaw said “as long as I don’t have what I want I have reason to live. Contentment is death.”. I’d like to add what my good friend sandwich says about that, mediocrity is also death.

Is that my lesson? That I’ve learned none……never have, never will so the Devil has got to quit being up my tail so much cos he ain’t winning either!!

Going back to listen to that song for I don’t know the umpteenth time for the day. Bye all, I’m sorta having a moody Saturday, but you go on out and have a good one eh? It’s weekend in most of the world while I start my week early. A little ballistic I know it was tonight but what the heck!

Here’s  to …….”to win some or learn some” ..Cheers!!

The Horse Wrote History!!

Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride,
Friendship without envy,
Or beauty without vanity?
Here, where grace is served with muscle
And strength by gentleness confined
He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity.
There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent.
There is nothing so quick, nothing more patient….like “The Horse”

After dinner tonight while surfing the channels, saw this movie by the name of “Black Beauty” and with that came pouring the memories of my childhood days. I remember distinctly when i was in my 3rd  Grade when my mammu got me enrolled in the children section of the State Library in Chandigarh. And guess which was the first book i ever read…Yes, “Black Beauty” I remember its rectangular shape and greenish binding which the library used to do for all children section books and paste the cover on top of the bind.

Horse has been a part of my life in many ways. Starting from the first book i read to  my favorite board game which  is Chess and in that my showstopper is always the Knight (represented by the horse) followed by the equestrian endurance racing that we used to conduct in Bahrain which had leading and respected riders from all over the world with their legendary horses competing and me traveling to Bahrain – Qatar – Kuwait – Oman for witnessing the finest breed of beast in combination with its rider go head on head for Glory.

You can truly feel the earth shaking with these amazing creatures weighing over 1100 pounds with the best engine in the business lets off the steam galloping at speeds excess of 30mph. Its a great sight and you can’t but respect the amazing strength and power that makes the Horse the deserving reference point for Power itself.

In tribute to the beast  that they  say is no flatterer.  He will throw a prince as soon as his groom and earning the respect of the horse is even now considered the ultimate test of royalty, military acumen and leadership.

A dog may be man’s best friend, but the horse wrote history!

Write a Story Today!

Fill out this structure:

• Once upon a time….
• And every day ….
• Until one day ….
• And because of that ….
• And because of that ….
• Until Finally ….
• Ever since that day ….
• And the moral is….

There you just became a writer..Good Luck!!

The Deafening Silence!

Silence is a strong man’s virtue and is a weak man’s jewel at the same time. So how do we know who we are dealing with or even more importantly understand which side of silence we find ourselves to be?

A lot happens around us like water wasted for washing a car when there will be thousand others doing marathons across to get the same fluid to support life. And what do we do, we stay silent thinking being a good neighbor is more important than to protest for the unknown. When you don’t speak here, “This is the silence of convenience”.

Or your wife brags about the long hours you have been working and spending less time with family and brags about the first weekend in 12 weeks you took time out with old friends to a bar instead of taking her out to buy groceries. When you don’t speak here, “This silence is to buy Peace”

Or we can be at work and you get a chance to get even or one up on someone just when you covering for him would save him, you remain silent for that extra second and hence sowing the seeds of uncertainty and doubt and finally achieve some divine pleasure on your role in the duel. When you don’t speak here, “This is silence of Conspiracy”

Or when you do something brilliant and you are showered with accolades and praises for the achievement, you show restraint and take it all silently when many others will shout their mouths off. When you don’t speak here, “This is a silence of Dignity”

Or when you are sitting in company of your dad and you go frantically explaining all the great fortune you think can be made quickly with some investment that you can get from your dad’s savings and you see the old man smile and be silent. When he don’t speak here, “This is the silence of Wisdom”

Or when you see a child of a slum dweller bleeding in pain for some rich brat in his fancy car just ran over his toes, you stay silent and growl within yourselves on what is happening to the world of maniacs but you find no time to comfort the child. When you don’t speak here, “This is the silence of the Soul Lost Within”.

Silence is a great gift, it brings control and character to life but by being silent and not fulfill ones responsibility socially and morally is a crime we stage on ourselves and we pretend to make ourselves so busy and self centered that the very values on which our society was built is being compromised by every act of our silence.

So like I said before “Silence is a strong man’s virtue and is a weak man’s jewel at the same time. So how do we know who we are dealing with or even more importantly understand which side of silence we find ourselves to be?”

Here’s To Life

Here’s to a life and a merry one, A quick death and an easy one,

A pretty girl and an honest one, A cold pint and another one!

Doesn’t that explain most of it excepts anything on the folks part which i guess the Irish missed. This was an Irish saying by the way and me and Irish go way back. My first client back in 2004 was Irish (Fiona Williams) and my coffee no matter where i am is incomplete without the Irish Flavor. Thanks to my good friend Gaurav who first introduced me to the concept of cream floating over coffee which further floats over whiskey easily differentiating between each of the ingredients all in one vessel. Delightful!

It was Eid yesterday and it was all chaos the way i went about it. Slept when it was time to wake up, woke up after breakfast time, had breakfast at lunch time, crashed on bed at reading time, woke up at i don’t know what time, did my daily cardio at dinner time and now having dinner that i ordered at 10 at 2 and by the look of it tomorrow would not be any different.

Do Your Worst, for I would do mine!

Life is a storm, You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you is what you do when that storm comes. Look into that storm and shout….Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know who Survived to tell the tale.

Holidays start tomorrow and i am wondering what am i gonna do for the next few days. Have brought out my chess videos and software, guess its about time i restarted playing again. Very rusty in a couple of games i played yesterday with my both knights stuck in wrong squares for most part of the Game.Pretty ironic considering its a similar pattern with life (There i go again…whatever the happened to the always the being the optimist….life is a storm dude rememberrrr, go read the last stanza again and work on that or like dad says “Take it easy Son you’d be alright”).

They got the old saying “it’s not weather you win or lose, it’s how you play the game” WRONG it is suppose to be “it’s how you play the game that determins weather you win or lose” ….To Fair Play and Still Winning “Cheers!!”

Can Easy Be Right ?

“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.”

Given a choice between Right and Easy, if we choose to go for right which is usually fairly distant until/If we get to it….it confuses that…. maybe just maaybee….. Easy could have also been Right!

Walking away from easy doesn’t necessarily get you right cos easy is what you have and right is what you seek, something you may or may not find….The vacuum in the path between Easy to Right is the Uncertainty that asks if such a Right exists, how far off and what does it take to get it.

The bottom-line is Right ain’t Easy and Easy ain’t always Wrong cos Right is as much a phantom as Easy with a face. Easy is an option, Right is a choice…. Easy is to failure Right is to justify.

The Game is the Devil’s advocate tonight and it isn’t even full moon yet…….Peace

Day for Remembrances’

It so happens sometimes that you begin to do or think about something or someone and suddenly find yourself facing a scenario outta no where in context of those thoughts. Today was that kinda day when Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” was right on the money with her laws on attraction. Everyone (who i thought of) except the person who gave me the book got in touch today.

Then, its was a European Night on football front with Europa cup champions F.C Porto take on the European champions F.C Barcelona and  Barcelona won 2 -0. Fabregas wins his second title in 2 weeks after winning nothing in last 5 years at Arsenal.

One of my favorite songs to go to bed with…

Go or stay, stay or go, start to go then change your mind again

Did you ever get the feeling that you wanted to go, But still had the feeling that you wanted to stay.
Go or stay, stay or go, Start to go again and change your mind again.
It’s hard to have the feeling that you wanted to go, But still have the feeling that you wanted to stay.

My day just got described in the lines above. Reason says that i should maybe take a mini vacation and get together with my folks for a week or so while another logic wants me to stop and stay back. The thing is i doubt my own resolve on whether i would leave friends and folks to come back again. Now such a thing can be either for the good or the usual (by the way usual does not mean bad) …… Just Unpredictable!!!  So i am gonna do what it takes to keep things simple in life  which is to “Read it, roll it and hole it. ” easy peasy!!

Slept like a baby in the afternoon after drugging myself to a hefty lunch followed by a nice long walk along the wadi of kabir in the evening. The hour long walk has become the time of introspection for me where thoughts, ideas, past and present just fizzes by and i can analyze or at-least notice things and matters that i had been missing or overlooking. Gotta thank mum for this cos it wont have started but for her insistence and keeping this promise for her has been very fulfilling. With that senor et senorita es hora de decir buenas noches