Avant Garde Bloggie Awards

The Avant Garde Bloggie Awards are here again (all thanks to Poonam)!! :)

It's a competition where some of the best blogs from blogosphere get recognised and appreciated! :) A fun competition where a panel of judges (some of the best bloggers around) will judge your posts that could be nominated by you or your friends!

Official video by Publicist Nikhil :

The last day for sending in nominations is 20th December 2009 ! You can have a look at the categories here. The rules for nominating your entries are all mentioned here. You could enter nominations in the comments section of this post.

Get all the other info you need on Poonam's blog:http://alchemistpoonam.wordpress.com

So hurry up!!

Nominate yourself, fellow bloggers, start campaigning for nominations, spread the word !!

P.S: You could do me a favour too :P

I wish...

I wish ...

I could laugh/cry my heart out for no reason at all.

I could keep running to no specific place, till I can run no more.

I could dance on the roads like crazy and not feel a thing.

I could fall in love madly and express it freely.

I could go on an unplanned world tour.

I could ride a bike as fast as possible and go nowhere.

I could sleep on a beach listening to the waves looking at the stars above me without a care in the world.

I could fall in love with life all over again.

Yayyy!!

After a lot of thought over what it would be, what it should be, how I wanted it to be, I just went with my own name.. for my domain!! I FINALLY got one for myself on my birthday! And it's --> anubhabhat.com
Super cool, I know! :P

I configured it two days back. By configured, I mean I simply forwarded it to my blog. Yet to buy hosting and work on the site properly, don't know when that'll happen though! I've been too busy since the time I switched jobs; trying to juggle between work, coming online, friends, learning to ride a two-wheeler and studying (almost forgot I was studying too! :D). I'll still try to be as active as I can here. :)

Meanwhile, you can access my blog from both the links now- anubhabhat.com and anubha-bhat.blogspot.com. Both are the same anyway! :D

I'm so happy! :)

What have you done?

Okay, this should ideally have been my first post in the coming year (like some new resolution post)! But since there is a lot of talk happening over the world ending in 2012, I got so paranoid; I thought I might as well put this down now.

For those of you who are still clueless about Dooms Day-

Our planet is coming to an end on the 21st of December, 2012. The poles of the earth are supposedly shifting.

The iron core of the earth is magnetic. Because of the switching of the magnetic core, the earth will start to rotate in the other direction! Because of this, the outer earth's crust will break off! In other words the outer layer will be "floating." It will be on the loose, no longer attached to its "master." If you are on the planet at that moment, it will tilt some thousands of miles in a couple of hours. Looking up in the sky it will seem as if "the sky is coming down," as it is described in the old scriptures!
Giant quakes will occur. Earth plates will be moving, mountains will be rising where first there was nothing, land masses will break open and collapse, mountains collapse, land will sink into the ocean, volcanoes erupt in many places. In short, the most terrible nightmare cannot be terrible enough to describe this world's destruction.

source: http://www.crawford2000.co.uk/patrickg.htm

I used to keep getting email forwards and messages, most of them asking me to forward the same to 11 others- like THAT will stop the poles from shifting, and the sun from aligning itself with the earth and the moon! I ignored them all just like I ignore mails which tell me to hit F6 after forwarding them to 20 other people just so that I would know the name of the person I'd get married to! :D
So, anyway, getting back to the point, I kept hearing of the world ending from so many different sources; my mentor in my previous company even told me of this book called "The Orion's Prophecy" which proves that the world should end by 2012. And after the movie (2012) that has just recently hit the theatres, I'm starting to get worried all the more! I haven't watched it yet, but the fact that so many others are taking it seriously is creepy..

As always, a hundred thousand thoughts raced through my mind. So what if I die in the next three years? What have I done so far? Have I done all the things I ever wanted to? Have I done ANY of the things I wanted to? None at all!! And when the time comes, I'd regret it to the core. When I breathe last, I don't want to have any regrets.

And so, in the middle of my Java class as twenty others were dozing off and as I was on the verge of falling off the chair sleeping-- I sat right up and made a list !! So here I am presenting a list of all the things I'd like to achieve before I close my eyes forever, and I'm planning to start achieving them slowly, starting today!

1. I'd like to write professionally once-for anything! Be it a magazine, a newspaper or a book! Would also love to write a book someday- it'd be so cool! :)

2. I want to paint my house downstairs all by myself. The house would fully depict me.
(One wall could have paintings of tea, bombay, friends, music. I'd arrange all my novels together, paint a seperate wall for them too with alphabets maybe!! It's the "Fountainhead" effect I guess ;))

3. I want to work on two sites (can't really reveal much right now).

4. I want to learn SOME form of dancing- be it jive, salsa, waltz, hip hop, anything!! I want to stop feeling so shy of dancing!

5. I'd love to play some form of musical instrument, a guitar maybe!! Would sing too!

6. I want to travel- A LOT, go to new places, meet new people, click a lot of photographs and enjoy different cultures!

7. I want to buy a scooty for myself and a car for my family. The traffic in Bombay explains why this one was last on the list!

Most of all, I want to break free once- with no one to answer to, nothing to feel scared about, nothing to feel worried about, going where my heart takes me and doing what it tells me to. No rules attached!

Imagine if the whole world were ending in a week's time for certain- wouldn't there be a huge chaos? People would hurry to chase their dreams, to do all that they always wanted to. The problem with us humans is- We take life to be permanent when it's not. We think we can live our lives anytime later and "later" never comes.

Wouldn't it be great if everyone could just pause and think about what they were doing and pursue their dreams? The only good thing that would come out of the Dooms Day is - people will finally realise we won't be here for long. Mistakes will be forgiven, ties will be made stronger, emotions will no longer be hidden! Everything would be truthful and transparent.

So let's start living each day as if it were our last. Let's not waste even a second.
That way, even if the theory is faulty, and if the world won't really end on the 21st of December 2012 like it's supposed to, we will still have found what we truly desire and what makes us immensely happy, no?



I tag Nikhil, Sakhi, Reema, Scorpria, Calvin, Aditi, Mona and Ashwin to make a to-do list too and post it!! Just realised, it's been really long since we did tags! :)

She!

She smiled when she noticed him looking at her from the corner of his eye, and how he looked away, embarrassed, when she caught him doing that! It was the third time now. Since the last one month, his head was not where it should have been. He was in class merely in the physical sense. There was a lot going on in his life other than just Socket programming. He was already frustrated by the field he had chosen for himself and he had felt life had nothing more to offer. For the past five days, however, things had been different. Maybe it was her. No, let me rephrase that- it WAS her. He didn't know what it was about her that made him feel so hopeful about himself, so safe, so peaceful. He had barely managed to catch her name a day back, he wasn't sure if he had heard it right. It was either Priya or Supriya. He hoped it was Priya. "Priya" was sweeter, just like her!

He'd come to class everyday now, surprising his professors who'd usually cringe at him for being so laidback and unpunctual. He had a reason now, and he'd run to class on days that he'd get late, hoping to be allowed in, just once, so he could get a glimpse of her. It felt heavenly. He could easily carry on with the rest of his day knowing she was there. Her presence had a lasting impact on him. There were a few times when they bumped into each other at breaktime or in between two classes, but strangely, neither of them would feel the need to talk. This communication was different. There was so much said only with the eyes that somehow, talking seemed unnecessary. The language of the soul is truly remarkable! And at times, when she'd pass by brushing her side against his, he'd get blown away! His world changed. He looked at things differently, he surprised himself by scoring straight A's in all the subjects he had chosen for himself. He realised he was happy and enjoyed every moment of his life.

Summer holidays were approaching and Priya had already started bunking classes. He felt anxious not knowing what had happened to her and desperately wanting to see her. Days passed and there was no news of her. No one knew where she was. He became increasingly restless. Soon the term got over and the holidays had begun. He did all that he could to keep himself busy and happy. His life was a little on track now thanks to her and he realised he had to get on with it. He would see her after the holidays, he could wait till then. And he was right. Soon after the holidays, as he went to college for the next term, he saw her at the gate walking towards class with a couple of books in her hands, and her trademark embroidered jhola slung on her shoulder. But something was amiss. He couldn't place it. There was no serenity on her face any longer, and she seemed pale. It was painful to see her like that. And just then he noticed her hand- the ring! He never remembered seeing it before, he was too afraid to ask. He just knew. She was married, she had to be.. but she didn't seem happy at all!! He wanted to ask her a lot of things; a whole lot of questions came to him, he was just about to approach her for the first time in the four months that he knew her. And as he went closer, she walked away. Never to return to college again.

He couldn't tell what had happened that led her to get married so soon; he could only guess it could be parental pressure. Atleast that's what her friends thought! He was depressed but he knew he had to accept it. She had come in for a purpose, and it was served. Now it was time to move on, to pursue what he had discovered, to live the life he had almost given up.. if it weren't for HER!

A Piece of My Mind - II

Picture this:

You go to your family friend's place with your 7 year old daughter and she is happy to have met you after so long. She greets you with a plate full of mithaais including a few methi laddoos that you're not very fond of (methi laddoos are supposed to be bitter-sweet). Nevertheless, to keep her happy, you tell her that you love them and go on to gobble a couple of them to convince her you're not lying, while your daughter makes a face and tells your friend it's bitter and she won't have it. And then you think "She could get away with that, she's a kid!"

What is it about kids that make you want to forgive them for anything that they do ?

And why do we start wearing a mask by the time we cross adolescence ?

Is it because of social acceptance?

Is it because we want to be loved, and we think by pleasing people we'll somehow achieve that?

Is it because we are afraid of who we really are, or hate ourselves for how we are inside?

Why do we hate our inside from the outside?

I think the best part about being a kid is speaking your heart out- without giving a single thought to the consequences thereafter. Kids just do what they want to do, they don't have to think about the society, what their friends think or what their family thinks. They know what they want and they have it by any means. If they don't want something, they simply say "No" without giving a thought to what the person will think/feel. It's their genuineness that makes you want to forgive them for whatever they say or do, because you know they speak from their heart and don't hold back anything against you.

Where does all that go away then?

I think, as we grow up, we build a bubble around ourselves. Rather, I'd say, we build a wall around ourselves. A wall made of opinions of people, the way they think, the way they perceive us, and of course whether our views will be accepted by them. And if they aren't, we tend to manipulate our own views in ways we don't even realise! Result? We end up losing our own selves, our own voices. We are stuck in a trap we have built by ourselves. We are scared because we are all alone, we aren't kids any longer and will no longer be forgiven for our actions. We feel we need the people around us, we need their approval. We need them because we don't want to feel we're alone. We are scared of not being accepted and loved by the people around us when they don't really care and we end up living their life- a life based on their views and wants.

It's only when we break free of this bubble and listen to our heart that we'll be truly happy.

It's hard to break free, it's hard to let go, hard but not impossible!

Let's all start listening to our hearts. Let's see people for what they are from within. Let's not hide our insides from the world. Let's all become kids again.

P.S: Posting about something that you wished you did feels better!

A Piece of My Mind - I

The other day, my mother commented on me being never satisfied with anything in life and I nodded my head in agreement. I pondered over what she and many others have said about me. So, maybe I'll never BE fully satisfied with what I get but isn't that human? What happens when we achieve total satisfaction? What happens when you stop wanting more things in life?

Life is always a pursuit of something. There is always a motive, a goal to be achieved that drives us to rise up early each day and go to work even if that means missing out on "FRIENDS", "MIND YOUR LANGUAGE" and "DIFFERENT STROKES" in the wee hours of the morning(*sob*). But seriously, if we stopped wanting more things, what would we be living for? We'd be doing our chores daily without ever knowing WHY. There would be no purpose to it and trust me, that can drive you crazy (SERIOUS!). We would merely exist, but cease to LIVE. What difference then between fauna and us humans?

Man is constantly in search of meaning, a goal, happiness and peace while animals lack cognition and live for survival alone. Many of us are satisfied with what we're doing but that fades away in time and we start wanting newer things and work towards achieving those. The confused lot (including Yours Truly :P) lacks a goal and hence, is always unstable. They want to dig a spoon everywhere to see which taste they like the best and they don't know which icecream bucket to start from! It makes you insecure, scared of your own self, unsure about yourself and everything else in life, and believe me, nothing can get worse than that. It needs a lot of control on the mind to be able to know what you want, to work towards it, to FOCUS! Not all of us are lucky enough to be born with a clear vision but we can certainly discover it.



We also need to understand and accept things that we feel we don't want (this one's for me-- trying to convince my conscience that "it's not that bad, it's okay, calm down"! :D).

It's strange that you can decide so easily for others but when it comes to your own self, you're puzzled. Discovering yourself is not easy, but once you've done it, life cannot get any better! :)

A Fruitful Sunday

Many Bombayites spent their Sunday fruitfully this week- painting the walls of Tulsi Pipe road from Mahim to Lower Parel at the WALL PROJECT. I missed it the last time (15th August 2009). It was too late by the time I got to know of it and the very next day, I added myself to their group on Facebook promising myself not to miss it the next time after ogling at the photos for over an hour!

My life has taken a complete turn ever since I switched jobs and I crave to find time for myself! Spent Saturday night at my childhood chum Chinky's place who was lecturing me, stressing on the fact that her job sucked more than mine and that it's a way of life. I slept really late but it was a peaceful sleep after having found some solace in the fact that I wasn't alone!

The WALL PROJECT was to start at 8 am and people could paint right upto 8pm. Aditi, Neeraj and I decided to be the first ones to get there so that we'd get the best wall and even some of those limited paints! I set an alarm for 7.30 on 2 different cellphones and a clock. Needless to say, a lazy bum that I am, I stopped all of them when they went off and slept away to glory! It was only at 9.30 that I woke up with a start, realising I had to go somewhere! I checked my cellphone expecting my inbox to be flooded and to find a good number of calls unattended. I got nothing. Aditi was asleep and so was Neeraj. I had to wake them up and finally, we all got ready, Alisha joined in too and both of us stepped out. We reached at 1pm and saw the entire street all bright and colourful, people were still painting and each work of art was remarkable! We wanted to get started as soon as possible. There were a few cans of paint left in the BMC truck but we bought some nevertheless, along with some mugs, brushes and a roller. Alisha and I booked our walls and waited for Aditi. She arrived soon and we quickly planned on drawing the Bandra Worli sea-link! I had thought of drawing the Java cup symbol a week back but then the sea-link seemed far more exciting and we started off with it. Alisha drew a Unicorn and she finished in no time! We were still painting the wall-background blue when she was all done with her painting. Neeraj came a little later and joined us in completing the sea-link. He took a lot of photographs capturing every good angle of all the paintings!

We took the longest time for the sea-link and it turned out to be worse than what we expected! But we had fun and clicked as many photos of it as possible, posing with the moon and the boat. :D We even wrote our Twitter handles on it! When you do something with all your heart, you love and cherish it no matter how good or bad it is! :)

It was a great feeling to see so many people painting together, one wall-different people- professional artists, first-timers (like us), toddlers and some street kids too! It just makes me love Bombay all the more!!!

Here are some of the paintings on our side of the street (courtesy: Neeraj :))

Loved this wall the best of all that I saw-

The artist-

You can check out all of the paintings here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=162741035038&view=all

And add yourself to the group here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9822921861

Happy Painting! :)

The good times! :(

It's been a week since I joined this company (can't take names.. company policy it seems!) and so far I can undoubtedly term it as an experience of hell on earth! I came here only to build myself a career in development and I don't think I'll last here long enough. I miss my old workplace terribly.. I miss everything about it.

First of all, I miss looking forward to coming to work. I'd always look forward to meeting my team- Calvin, Abdul, Manwar, Anandji, Abhishek and our mentor- Pandeji!

I miss having a laughter-filled lunch break. Calvin and I would always joke about the canteen food being unlimited and how we could mint money out of it! One comment from Calvin and I'd be on a laughter riot! Once, we even played table tennis in the air when no one was looking. Our rule was to not let the ball hit the table- NO MATTER WHAT! :D He's the best combo of a funny+ sweet friend I've ever met!

I miss my long philosophical conversations with Abdul. We'd get into discussions, debate on something, and then Google would solve it for us sometimes.

I miss Manwar who'd always scare me off and then himself protect me from falling into a soup..

I miss having fights with Abhishek! :D

I miss Jigy's witty comments and the way he'd make fun of my walk and my way of talking. I wish there was a Jigy at my new workplace!

It was always a pleasure talking to people like Birju, it'd leave me feeling so calm, happy and better about myself :)

I miss Krishna's innocence, his laugh and his way of saying "Dude" :D

I miss flirting with Nolan on our internal chat client. I miss Janeve too.

I miss all those little things like wearing casuals to work everyday.

I miss going for tea breaks whenever I wanted to and sipping on endless cups of tea whilst working. Here, we have to wait for ONE tea break and can't even take the cup outside the vending machine area!

I miss sitting with my team in the parking lot and laughing my heart out!

I miss everything... :(

Building a career - Not my cup of tea!

I was all set to build a career soon after I graduated.

Four months back, I wanted to get into a company because I thought I would be comfortable there and it suited my interests at that time. Thanks to the recession, I took up another job not getting a call from this one. I was scared, I didn't think I'd get adjusted to the new environment and the new people there. I stepped out of my comfort zone, and soon started enjoying the new environment and the people. It made me more confident and happier. There was so much freedom there that I started exploring my other interests. Just when I got attached to the people and the environment there, I got a call from this company I wanted to get into four months back. And since I had waited for so long, I took up the offer.

I didn't realise that it meant getting back to my old self, to the old environment again. I liked my new self better. Adjusting to the old environment scares me, it makes me feel I'll get back to being my old self again, the one I am not very fond of. So each time I try to talk to a person, I back out, I hold myself back subconsciously. I feel claustrophobic sitting on my desk all day and trying hard to focus. I haven't found a single person who would come out just for a walk with me, or have a cup of tea. I am rethinking my decision time and again. People tell me I should learn to live with the consequences of my decisions, and learn to live with different kinds of people and different environments. I don't think I am flexible enough, since I am having a hard time doing that. I don't know if I am working here because I want to, or because I am good at the work. It's not giving me enough time for myself, to do the things I love doing. I am so confused! I wish I wasn't like this all the time. I want to be sure of myself.

One thing that I have learnt out of this- "Always obey your parents, they know what's best for you." I wish I had listened to them all this time... Things wouldn't have been so difficult then.