A Nation less told,most ignored...

India is in a pitiable state..period!! No matter whether the sensex touches 20K or the country hosts CWG, it’s divided, and no, being divided is no diversified. India is in a pitiable state because the country gives full freedom to communal killers, mass murderers, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor roam free. Justice never comes easy. The media and politicians engage themselves in ruthless conversations, arguments, discussions and ignore the most important issues crippling the nation. It’s a nation, less told and most ignored. It’s a nation of corrupts and hypocrites who believes in the game of double standards.

So, while today morning, I was wondering whether the ban call on burqa by the Shiv Sena was at all a right move, my morals questioned me of the people who are questioning my identity and stopping me from practicing my religion. What’s the use of shouting on top of our voice of our country being secular when we cannot give them the basic respect to any particular religion? A nation which creates a furore on certain Ms. Roy’s comments and charging her of sedition but not taking any step on the poor state of affairs in one of the most controversial regions of India. Corruption has always a way out in this nation, even reputed institutions like IIT Kharagpur is no exception where a professor is charged of distributing fake certificates and even Kalmadi having the balls to prove himself right on the opening ceremony of CWG.

I being an Indian feel sad not for this country but for the people residing her. I feel sadder when I see countless children struggling on the roads of Kashmir than feeling happier of Indians winning gold medals. I feel disappointed while reading the news of rape and murder of young women every other day than feeling elated on reading the news of Saina or Sania making a name in the field of sports.

And, no, we cannot escape the pity by saying every country has its own problems because everytime we make this excuse, a victim will question, “What have we done to stop this?” like the lakhs of people who are still waiting for 26/11 justice. There is no hope, justice dies a silent death in this nation……

A City....

Away from buzzing life of the city, I took some time to introspect. Why am I cribbing going to Kolkata?? Places never really mattered to me, I have travelled and stayed almost in all the cosmos and metros like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi but every time I leave Pune, there is a sense of dissatisfaction. Truly said, a city is a city because of its people. A city is a home because of someone special who resides in that city and our life run parallel to theirs. Not necessarily, I feel for something only if I stay… I have a special attachment with Mumbai and I have a special attachment with Hyderabad too. Pune is a place where I completed my education, it’s a place which is responsible for my transition from a boy to a man, it’s a place where I struggled for a life, it’s a place where I have gained identity.

Everything has been said, repeated and exhausted, there is nothing much to say about the cities…every breathe that we take weave a new tale and become an experience of sorts. Conscious or unconscious, everytime, we talk about cities, we end of talking about people. They are the ones who make your life memorable in a city. For Pune, I owe it to two of my good friends, without whom Pune would not have been Pune for me. Every single day that I have spent here is a tribute to our takes of friendship, whether it’s waking up early morning after a booz in the night to catch up an early morning show at e-square to save money or roaming around in the lanes of pune enjoying a nightout in cold December night. Whether it’s lazily lying around on the sofas on CCD and discussing people or painting the town red and purple with shopping!!! I might have mighty hated Chennai but then I have someone in my life today because of Chennai, I might have a harrowing experience in Mumbai, but then, it’s Mumbai who helped me identify true friends in my life.

Every city comes with someone special in your life. Every city brings a new hope in the form of someone who helps realize the importance of your life. Being a vagabond, I have had the best experience that a life can offer in the form of people. It’s people who makes and it’s the people who breaks…

Kolkata…I am coming!! In an unknown journey, the only thing I expect is to find that someone who can be a reason for me to be in KOLKATA….

Virtual COMPANIONSHIP!!!

With the advent of Messengers, Facebook, Twitter, Orkut….”Friendship” has taken a new face alltogether!! While some are still confused, whether it’s friendship, I would call it as “Virtual Companionship” to be on the safer side!! So, while Hawan is still confused whether Aahuti is his friend, Aahuti seems damn sure that nothing seems promising than naming “Companionship” as “Friendship”…Why??

1. What’s the use of going to the other town to meet Hawan or need of Hawan visiting her when everything can be shared through messengers??

2. Chatting through messengers really don’t set any expectations..It’s a burden free friendship…

3. As they say, the more you stay close, the more you get to know each other and the more you start hating each other after some point of time..so, better be STRANGERS yet be good Companions..err..FRIENDS!!! FAMILIARTY breeds CONTEMPT…

While Hawan still refuses to believe that Virtual Companions can ever be called as BEST FRIENDS even though they are virtually together everyday but then Aahuti believes that TRUST can be built..though it might not be real..but virtual trust per se…

But then, you see, life itself is so disconnected!! It’s not possible evertime to be in the city of your friends and spend some good time…so, the best way to remain connected is to get hooked on to Messengers, FB, Orkut, Twitter etc….That’s probably the reason God created Human Beings and Human Beings created Social Networking Sites and Social Networking Sites created “Virtual Companionship”… Gone are the days, when there was an excitement of visiting to the other city, sit with your friends and have a booze or visit a discotheque to shake a leg!! Gone are the days, when friends would get a company transfer to the other city just because some of his very good friends are there in that city….And, if some foolish like Hawan attempted to do that, they were bitten and that too again and again!!!

Hawan tried a lot of times to pursue Aahuti to visit his city or even hinted at him visiting Aahuti’s city..she somehow resisted it!! Aahuti and Hawan know each other for more than 1 year…same company…office communicator…and on holidays, GTALK came to their rescue…and if nothing worked, Aahuti slowly started calling Hawan on his mobile and that too happened after 6-7 months of knowing each other!!!

Is this “Virtual Companionship” leading somewhere or going to vanish after sometime?? Aahuti is sure of an onsite soon and Hawan is looking for a change in job…..How often you all have taken the pain of breaking the barriers of Chats, FB, Orkut and packed your bags to the other city to meet the person you want to be with?? What will be the motivating factor for you to just say “NO” once to all the social networking you have been doing all this while and actually visit the person..Will ever Hawan and Aahuti meet?? This seems a BIG question indeed…a question bothering Hawan for sure but not Aahuti….

Have your presence for real on my blog to know about Virtual Companions, Hawan and Aahuti coz there is a HAWAN and AAHUTI in each one of us!!!

Disclaimer: There is no surety of having a PART 2 of this story…but as they say..NEVER SAY “NEVER” and needless to mention, this story is entirely fictitious and any characters bearing any resemblance to any person in real, living or dead, is purely unintentional and coincidental!!!

What Failure teaches you which Success Can’t??

This is not something taken directly from the pages of a certain Robin or Khera but from someone who have seen failures, or things which people consider as a failure….

For Cancer Survivor, Lisa Ray, breathing moments was not that easy when she got diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. For a celebrity like her, it was almost a failure of life after a string of success. But then, today, when she has successfully battled and defeated death, she knows the importance of life and love…as she says , “Love is an action. It’s not a feeling. And its not love until there’s evidence of action….”…..how true….It’s during these moments, you test the real people and get to know whether they actually love you and have the courage to stand besides you…Failure sometimes teaches you the importance of love or to differentiate between the fake and loved ones….

I remember, while sitting idle for 1.5 months without jobs, almost everyone of them whom I used to consider as my friends turned their back…being “jobless” is still considered as a heinous crime, a shame…and I was not “Jobless” by choice, it was by destiny….

Everytime, I used to feel low, I simply used to take a trip to Juhu Beach….Believe me, those 45 days of failure has taught a lot to me…it has taught me to remain unaffected by both success and failure, it has taught me to be compassionate for there are others who are less fortunate than me, it has taught me to value every moment of my life and most important, it has taught me to celebrate every small success that we human beings forget to recognize with the desire of achieving something great…..

“When you fail, you learn” is a passe….I would say, “Experience Failure with Elan” for there is something more you achieve than just learning, “You achieve SUCCESS of tackling a FAILURE“…

People do ask me about my success…How am I successful in my life inspite of having so many failures in my life??…I say, I am successful….I have a family who are proud of me being the person I am, I am associated with some NGOs and donate a part of my earnings to them, I have friends for whom I have been a mentor, I have associated myself with a lot of activities, I am an orator, dancer, writer…..Now, if at all success can be quantified, then my inner happiness is the answer to my success and if at all I can quantify my failures, then, I attribute the “HUMANITY” in me to my failures….

Having said that, I end this piece of writing saying..”I fail only to succeed“……

WOES of a LOO....

Everytime I use a public loo, it turns out to be an experience of sorts. Loos in offices, theatres, shopping malls, railway station, airports etc are filled with people of various species and I will stick to MALE SPECIES because I have never seen how a WOMEN LOO look like…..So, coming back to the point, going to a loo freakes me out, not because it’s a loo but because of the kind of people who comes to the loo to take a leak……

1. The first and most irritating ones are those, who stand for hours and hours leaking!! In fact, they are not interested in completing their business and leave the washroom but keep on standing there and look others leaking, singing, whistling etc..etc… They are the ones who strictly believes in, the only place available to flaunt their “DUDEISM” is inside the LOO….They are least bothered even if three others are standing behind them dying to take a leak……Disgusting!!!

2. The second variety are those who comes to the “LOO”, well, to see “How come on earth they are so beautiful??”!!! They stand infront of the mirror blocking the wash basin. They apply water on their hair, making it look more horrible which they think as “FUNKY”!! Even if everything is in place, they still need to open their pants, take their shirts out, tuck in again and if that was not enough….again, put WATER on their HAIR!!! Freaking A****

3. And, then, there are some who are always in a hurry to leak. They don’t mind watching the direction of their apparatus while leaking. They just CLOSE thier EYES in ECSTACY and take a leak and the poor guy who stands besides him leaking, his shoes gets wet by the drops of the other guy…And, I have been a victim of this!!! Grrrr…………

4. The best place to talk to your girl friends is LOO!!! That’s the MANTRA few people follows….Come inside the loo, stand to take a leak and talk for hours in your mobile and talk to your girl friends. Loo is the only place where a lot of break-ups, hook-ups, fights, quarrels etc. takes place..Worst, when you watch a bad movie and then have to bear their stories!!

5. The worst is yet to come…..Some people find “LOO” the best place to give your telephonic job interviews. Comfortably sit on the commode and clear your technical, functional and HR Interviews. And, the rest waiting ooutisde the loo are fools hoping you to clear your interview or else there is a high probability of their stomach being cleared outside the loo!!

6. And, then there are some LOOS where that wall is not there between two urinals. There are some guys who fall under the “VERY SHY” category. They stand infront of the urinal, wait for the people besides them to leave and then only they take a leak…They think the whole motive of the people coming inside the loo is to check their apparatus…They give all those dirty stares as if the others are gay!!! They forget that there are more important things for the people waiting behind them to complete their stuff and leave that urinal for use!!! Disgusting to the core……

Some people forget that PUBLIC Loos are afterall PUBLIC!!! But, strangely, there are whole lot of things which are done inside a PUBLIC LOO, and I thought, it’s used only for leaking!!!

No, I am not a frustrated soul, but a victim of those innumerable stunts performed by those insane people who thinks LOOs as their private space…

BALLZ!!!

Guys and Gals, well, you must be wondering what this post is all about…simple, it’s about BALLZ!!! Everyone talking about Spain, Portugal,Brazil and the Foot”BALL” fever is there everywhere..only I am the one who is not touched by this BALL!! Coz, my life has become a big BALL..People kicks it in the direction they want me to go….trust me, the matches of my life are more interesting than the football matches….

The importance of BALLZ illuminated my life during my MBA…When we were struggling for placements in the college, and the frustrated students including ME went to the Placement Co-ordinator to ask whether any company would be visiting our campus, his reply was “BALLZ“!!!

And, then, a friend of mine, we used to call her “ALLAH KI BANDII” (she always used to look up and talk to us) went to the Director of our college to settle this issue, when she returned, we asked, if anything materialized, her reply was “BALLZ” and when we asked the meaning of that, she replied “TWO BALLZ“…..So, that very day, I realized…everything is BALLZ…You just need to know the art of tactfully playing it…

Okay, coming to BALLZ, many of the people don’t have it…BALLZ to raise their voice for truth, BALLZ to fight against injustice, BALLZ to stand for the right!! BALLZ to their life….A life dictated and designed by others is a life worst than a dog…

Then, there’s literally some BALLZ, eye ballz, rum ballz etc..Sometimes, it’s a different BALL game and sometime, we all have a BALL when we freak out or party..so, you see..BALLZ BALLZ everywhere…aage se peechhe tak, upar se neeche tak…it’s all BALLZ…sar se leke paon tak…daayein haath se lekar baayein haath tak..there are BALLZ….

BEHOLD BALLZ my friends!!!

And, if someone accuses me of writing non-sense in a THURSDAY afternoon, BALLZ to him/her :)

I AM.....

On sunday, I was watching the “I AM-SHE Contest” on Television, organized by India’s first Miss Universe, the dignified and beautiful Sushmita Sen for choosing the Indian Contendor for this year’s Miss Universe Contest to be held at Las Vegas and suddenly a beautiful thought came across my mind…

Every single day, I have questioned myself about the reason for my existence and identity and I am sure it would have happened to most of you. The very reason for your being on this earth is stilll questionable to yourself. Every single day, I have to struggle relating myself to different people in my life whom I meet at different crossroads. I am Ashutosh, I am a bengali, I am an Indian, I am a Hindu and the list goes on.…Life becomes very difficult sometimes to give myself a new identity everyday and in turn come across innumerable people like me.

As Sushmita Sen puts it ” World would be a beautiful place to stay if we believe in just “I AM”, no Ashutosh, no bengali, no hindu, nothing…but just a simple I AM“….The chaos, struggle, battles, confusions can be put to rest simply by eliminating everything that comes after “I AM”. “I am” is enough for all people in this world to survive and relate to each other. Every child is born with the same flesh and same blood but we human beings being the selfish lot, show those two innocent eyes the difference between a HINDU and a MUSLIM, make their little ears hear “the best of our religion and hatred towards others” and that’s where the very identity of that little child becomes questionable.

I am is what I am born to be, and that is a HUMAN BEING and continue to be a HUMAN BEING…Forgetting all the other things, I AM a part of HUMAN RACE who believe in HUMANITY and work towards leveraging the lives of other HUMANS..Isn’t that enough???

This is my guest entry to TONMOY DREAM LABS , a very dear friend of mine who has created an INDIVIDUALITY of himself and given a platform for bringing the best ideas together of the same human race and help everyone learn and gain knowledge…