Eat, Pray and Love

Some of my favorite quotes/lines from the book.

To me, the Augusteum is like a person who’s led a totally crazy life – who maybe started out as a housewife, then unexpectedly became a widow, then took up fan-dancing to make money, ended up somehow as the first female dentist in outer space, and then tried her hand at national politics – yet who has managed to hold an intact sense of herself throughout every upheaval.

I look at the Augusteum, and I think that perhaps my life has not actually been so chaotic, after all. It is merely this world that is chaotic, bringing changes to us all that nobody could have anticipated. The Auguteum warns me not to get attached to any obsolete ideas about who I am, what I represent, whom I belong to, or what function I may once have intended to serve. Yesterday I might have been a glorious monument to somebody, true enough – but tomorrow I could be a fireworks depository. Even in the Eternal City, says the silent Augusteum, one must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.

Naples – They talk loud and emphatically, and if you can’t understand what they’re actually saying out of their mouths, you can usually pick up the inference from the gesture. Like that punk little grammar-school girl on the back of her older cousin’s motorbike, who flipped me the finger and a charming smile as she drove by, just to make me understand, “Hey, no hard feelings, lady. But I’m only seven, and I can already tell you’re a complete moron, but that’s cool – I think you’re halfway OK despite yourself and I kinda like your dumb-ass face. We both know you could love to be me, but sorry – you can’t, Anyhow, here’s my middle finger, enjoy your stay in Naples, and ciao!”

Virginia Woolf wrote, “Across the broad continent of a woman’s life falls the shadow of a sword.” On one side of that sword, she said there lies convention and tradition and order, where “all is correct”. But on the other side of that sword, if you’re crazy enough to cross it and choose a life that does not follow convention, “all is confusion. Nothing follows a regular course.” Her argument was that crossing of the shadow of that sword may bring a far more interesting existence to a woman, but you can bet it will also be more perilous.

Richard found himself praying all the time. His prayer was always the same. He kept begging God, “Please, please, please open my heart.” That was all he wanted – an open heart. And he would always finish the prayer for an open heart by asking God, “And please send me a sign when the event has occurred.” Now he says, recollecting that time, “Be careful what you pray for, cuz you just might get it.” After a few months of praying constantly for an open heart, what do you think Richard got? That’s right – emergency open-heart surgery. His chest was literally cracked open, his ribs cleaved away from each other to allow some daylight to finally reach his heart, as though God were saying, “How’s that for a sign?” So now Richard is always cautious with his prayers, he tells me. “Whenever I pray for anything these days, I always wrap it up by saying, “Oh, and God? Please be gentle with me, OK?”

“I am not laughing.” I was actually crying. “And please don’t laugh at me now, but I think the reason it’s so hard for me to get over this guy is because I seriously believed David was my soul mate.”
“He probably was. Your problem is you don’t understand what that word means. People think soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it. Your problem is, you just can’t let this one go. David’s purpose was to shake your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light could get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master and beat it. That was his job, and he did great, but now it’s over. Problem is, you can’t accept that this relationship had a real short shelf life. You’re like a dog at the dump, baby – you’re just licking at an empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you’re not careful, that can’s gonna get stuck to your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it.”

Hi Blog..

Just realized that I haven’t written anything for a long long time now. Oh damn, am I losing my left over senses too?

Well, actually too many thoughts that I am completely lost. And also caught up at work, so don’t get much time to improvise on any one thought.

Apart from work, trying to see a few cities in the States that keep me occupied over the weekends. In fact, honestly speaking, most of the weekends I am busy window shopping and not travelling. Can’t help, the shoes, clothes, jackets, furniture, perfumes, cosmetics, kitchen appliances, lamp shades, baby stuff, toys…. everything is Awesome. I easily end up spending the whole of Saturday in a mall.

Sunday nights I watch American Football. A very interesting game. Although as of now I am more interested in checking out the hot guys. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand the game. I DO.

So generally wanted to scribble and bring back some life to my blog.

10 Most Amazing Men (In MY list)

Pablo Bartholomew - The Photographer
Abhay Deol - The Actor
Anurag Kashyap - The Director
Amit Varma - The Writer/Journalist
Clayton M. Christensen - The Professor
C.K Prahlad - The Researcher/Professor
A.R Rehman - THE Music Composer
L.N Mittal - The Entrepreneur
Ankur Walunjkar - The Boss
Paul - The Octopus :-)

(Not in any order.)

Makkad and Gun, i wish to add you guys some day may be around 2015 :-)

Why Marketing isn't bullshit?

An interesting read sourced from (http://andrewmager.com/why-marketing-isnt-bullshit/)

Marketing is the cancer on the nutsack of creativity. You cannot afford to take your eye off your brand for one second. No excuses. This is 100% relevant to any industry.

Who do you love? What brand do you love? What product/organization/charity could you not live without? Which brand can you connect to. How are you going to get the consumer to love you and your brand? You are gonna have to work your ass off.

Back in the 50s, we just had billboards. You couldn’t like, comment on, or retweet those. Our parents and grandparents took it as gospel. Smoke cigarettes to make yourself feel better. We have been fitted with very good bullshit detectors.

Social networking is not about connecting with brands; it’s about people. This isn’t a new thing.
How much do you care about your brand? Will you risk your reputation. You have to believe every single day that you are creating the best experience in the history of the world.
Fuck consistency. It’s not Dogma, it’s a state of mind, like winning. Your app is not the be all and end all. Don’t believe that “if you build it they will come”. Build up a voice and a personality around your app. You have to extend your read with your content. Give it some identity. Keep it real and transparent. When shit goes wrong, own up to it. People will forgive you and trust you.

Branding does not equal name or logo.
Your values are going to be the foundation of what you are and what you always will be. It’s easy to half-ass this, but don’t.
Ethical means giving your users what they deserve.

Balance your values and your brand will be successful. Never stop listening to your users.
The development process is like a soap opera. There’s emotion there. Opening up the doors and letting people into your experience will make people evangelize on your behalf.

Path to Being a Manager

Complete graduation in a subject that comes your way,
Join a company that hires you from campus,
Work in the company for two years and get bored,
Quit and join another company,
Do any and every work given to you, without thinking,
Get a promotion,
The company sends you to U.S,
Go to U.S and do the same crappy work,
You know that it is 80% useless to the client,
And there are cost-saving techniques that client can use,
But obviously you as a vendor cannot say that,
Anyways why should you care, you are getting paid in dollars,
And get to see U.S for free,
So you continue doing the crappy work,
Without giving any pain to your brain,
Which by now has anyways stopped functioning.

It’s like driving without GPS,
Don’t know where you are going,
And you don’t care where the road is taking you,
Moving from one highway to the other aimlessly.

Soon you will be in late 20s,
Will literally hate your work, which you just dislike as of now,
Will be too scared to start anything new,
Stick to the same crap,
Get sucked into the corporate culture,
Learn to bitch, blabber and backstab
And succeed in being a manager.

Sounds like a cold blooded murder??
A lot of youngsters lead a life this way,
Just trying to make some easy money,
Instead of having ambitions and achieving that,
Nobody really wants to struggle today,
I obviously fall in this category,
Committing the biggest sin of doing what I don’t believe in.

To the Sweetest Person i have known

We lived together for 22 years.
Lived in the same room for say atleast 10 years?
My class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7… teacher (Did u torture me even in KG??)
The best teacher in terms of getting good results,
But the worst torture for the student,
You used to make me spell “A”.

The kindest grand daughter
The loveliest cousin
Ya I hate you for all the attention you received
For being the nice quiet little girl

Sorry for all the fights
But u did torture me
How can I forget the time,
U would pull down my favorite skirt
And run away..
Obviously I had to chase you :-)

And all the chellam cooking class experiments
You did on us,
Only I used to like that stuff

And forcing me to eat,
When I had 104 temperature,
You are the best girl I have ever known,
And the best sister in this world.
Love you LOADS

2nd December 2007

ReSoNiAa is at home and we are having lunch together,
These females smuggled beer into the house,
We sneak into a room and have beer with lunch,
All laughing and giggling and of course commenting at each other,
Mom comes into the room to serve us paranthas,
Ni is having a Breezer in her hand; she gets scared for a second,
But then I wink at her and she understands that it is not a problem,
She offers the Breezer to my mom and mama takes a sip very coolly, (later we did assure her that it is only 4% alcohol)
ReSoNiAa cheers happily for mama.

We continue our lunch and dad comes into the room,
SO freaks out and tries to hide the beer,
She could not find a better place but put it under the pillow next to me,
Dad understood something is fishy,
He lifts the pillow very innocently and sees the beer can,
Luckily he does not say anything, stares at So, Ni, and Aa (Me),
Passes the sarcastic grin and leaves the room.

We continue our chit-chat till 4,
The majority of which is resolving issues between So and Ni,
By 4.30 Re is all pissed and leaves and So and Ni continue,
After some time, they both realize that I will be leaving in an hour,
So they decide to drop me to the station.
I say bye to everyone at home and leave with my sis, So and Ni
I was expecting a mini melodrama to happen, but everyone seem very chilled out,
Mom gives me a small Ganesh murthy and asks me to take good care.

We reach the station, and I get a bit jittery about leaving home,
It just occurred to me that I am going to a complete strange place,
Where I have never been before, where I know no one.

ReSoNiAa Days

ReSoNiAa – this one word stirs thousands of feelings
Love, Excitement, Curiosity, Enthusiasm,
Affection, Adventure, Humor, Wit,
Anger, Races, Fights – All of this can happen at the same time when ReSoNiAa is together.

I am sure each of us treasures those moments till date and always will.
It was such a life,
Nothing existed outside us,
Nothing mattered outside the ReSoNiAa bubble,
Did we ever notice anything else?
There was never a need to notice anything else,
We were each others best of mates
We were for each other and made each other

Now, as I look back, it feels like a story,
Tough to imagine that I lived like that,
Today, we are walking the paths we chose,
Each so different from other,
Wondering if our paths will ever cross,

ReSoNiAa seems to have vanished in thin air,
Only the thought and the name remain.
We thought we will be friends forever,
But it never appeared to us that we had such differences,
The difference in opinions set us apart,
Each busy supporting her own point,
In times when we should have supported each other.

So You Want to be a Writer (by Charles Bukowski)

I havent been an active writer lately, and here is the reason why -

If it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it.

Unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don't do it.

If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it.

If you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it.

If you're doing it because you want women in your bed, don't do it.

If you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again, don't do it.

If it's hard work just thinking about doing it, don't do it.

If you're trying to write like somebodyelse, forget about it.

If you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait patiently.

If it never does roar out of you, do something else.

If you first have to read it to your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your parents or to anybody at all, you're not ready.

Don't be like so many writers, don't be like so many thousands of people who call themselves writers,

Don't be dull and boring and pretentious, don't be consumed with self-love.

The libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleepover your kind.

Don't add to that.

Don't do it.

Unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket,

Unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it.

Unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it.

When it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you.

There is no other way.

And there never was.

Where Am I?

My first trip to U.S., so far away from my home and my people,
Strangeness everywhere, with new things to see and learn,
Civilized way of life and existence, with no stuggle for survival
And I wonder, is it all a part of the same blue globe?
My eyes gleam on seeing all the fancy cars and malls and beautiful people,
And glooms the minute I think of my family and friends.

I don’t exactly know what I am feeling here,
I feel good that I got the opportunity to explore a different world,
I feel bad that I am all the way away from home,
I feel scared that my loved ones would forget me,
I feel glad that with every passing day, I am realizing their importance more and more,
I feel that destiny brought me here to teach a very important lesson,
The distance may be long, but some people will always be close to heart.