life aaj kal

My ears continue to pain even as I type this. I have little idea of how many decibels were actually pounding against my ears last night.

Had gone to Chaos :)

Chaos is the name of the annual cultural festival of IIM-A, the most coveted B-School of India. By just stepping inside the institute one can actually feel the brainwaves pervading the air. The people in there must be oh-so-smart. Indeed, that's why my attention kept drifting to the dozen insti students standing lazily at the upper hallways of the buildings surrounding the famed Louis Kahn Plaza, than the huge crowd that was thronging the LKP.

I just love the Joie de Vivre of concerts. It unites people. People who don't even know each other. And the best part is that you don't have to know the other people for bonding with them. You need not know their identities. Not before, not after, not even during celebrating music. When hundreds of people are cheering and clapping for the same music, swaying to rhythm of the same music and when the same source is making all of them euphoric, then at that moment a magical string ties them together in a way that is next to impossible in the real life domain(now see, how similar it sounds to real time domain..but never mind that now.) But it's beautiful, isn't it? We're all strangers, there comes a moment when suddenly we're not, and when the moment's over we again go on to be strangers.

Music is magic. Magic is might.

And yet music remains to be the most underestimated power. How sad.

Now because Sonu Nigam (What's with this Niigaam-numerology anyway?) was performing-obviously Uttara had to mail Sonuji to say how miserable she felt that she was not in a'bad and obviously he had to reply to his biggest fan alive. And obviously she decided to listen to his voice on phone because she was obviously more excited than the entire crowd put together. So obviously she called.And obviously stayed on phone till we were there. And obviously I had to use 'obviously' an obscene number of times to make it obvious that-hey, it's Uttara we're talking about. It's passion at it's best with no destructive obsession-obviously!

The final semester has begun in full swing. And this one is so different from the ones we had till now. Because it's not the regular college sem. It's a project centered sem. I'm doing my project faaar away from college-that makes me happy. And it happens to be verrry close to home-that makes me happier. But what makes me happiest is the fact that I'm doing it in a place that will ensure tremendous exposure in terms of knowledge and learning. For those who're interested in instruments and electronics Space Applications Centre , Dept of space, ISRO is the finest place in the country to be in. I had always heard that as a kid, when mummy-papa log used to talk. But some things can be understood well only by experiencing. Plus walking by the lush sloping gardens makes me so nostalgic. I remember the days when we'd play and roll on these grass slopes on Kaumi Ekta Diwas (Communal Integration Day) while waiting for the results of the Drawing Competition :).Vikram Sarabhai hall was where the presentation ceremony and quiz session took place. That too, comes in the way of the department I do my project in.

And the fact that I have my friends around is like an icing on the cake! Since all of our respective projects are at incipient stages, we can afford to wander about a little as of now. Breathe some fresh air, amble to each others' departments, stare at the lovely peacocks, eat in the cafeteria, share our experiences. Of course, we get just one hour to do all of this-but that's OK, for we make the most of whatever we get! But this carefree life isn't going to last for long. A few days into feb and we'll see a sea change..(*gets tensed*)

Republic day went fine. Saw President Pratibha Devisingh Patil hoist the national flag at 10:18 A.M on Doordarshan. It's extremely shameful that most of the Indians don't know the exact time at which it should be hoisted and the significance of this time. After the school got over, I never sang the National Anthem everyday. Just two days per year. Despite this 'Jan gan man..' never fails to instill a feeling of immense pride in me. I don't understand why people refrain from watching this ceremony. Some think it's boring. Well, of course watching the brave soldiers being felicitated and decorated with Ashok Chakra is boring! Why don't these people combat the terrorists/naxalites on their own then? That would be pretty exciting.Huh! Shameless ingrates.

We don't do anything for our country as such. The least a person can do is heartily applaud the people who do. Went down to the Vikki garden next,where Republic Day is a big event-rightly and rightfully so.

Apart from this, the only new news is- I got a haircut :)

Mother wasn't too pleased. God knows why! It's not even that noticeable. I and mamma have always been at loggerheads regarding my hairstyle since my childhood days. As a girl, I always wanted to have long hair like her, like Kajol in the second half of Kuch kuch hota hain, like Hema ma'am, like Divya Rangarajan, like Divya Nair, like the ladies who advertised for hair oils (*dabur aamlaa kesh tel, resham sa ehsaas lage, chehra kitna khaas lage, dabur aamlaa kesh tel*), but inspite of my severe pangs of desire to grow it long my mother would firmly tell the barber "Rasna cut" or at the most "Baby cut". In rasna cut I would have fringes covering the front of my forehead like the little girl in the ad of rasna ('I love you rasna'), in baby cut I won't. But in either cuts my hair would not reach beyond my ears. My mother's reason for having my beautiful hair chopped off? (yes, in those days my hair was actually beautiful. Jet black and dense) Well..according to her there was not one reason but many.A) Aunties have long hair B) Little girls look good in short hair C) Divya Rangarajan, Divya Nair and the other girls in your class have a horrible infestation of lices, and if you get it from them, it is easier to use an anti-lice shampoo on short hair. D) Look at the brighter prospect, you don't have to tie your hair like other girls in school. You can always keep it untied.

Reason D) was the only reason I used to agree to the brutal hair-shortening session. All others had to tie theirs into ponytails and plaits..haha..and I would look different and stylish in my untied, embellished-with- cute-clips hair. Plus they can't punish me. I'll just say- "Ma'am, it's too short to be tied up" :D

But it's a total opinion reversal now. The thing is when I came to college I started growing my hair against my mother's wish...and she started liking it! So much so, that she frowns even before I speak 'Haircut'. Now her reasons are A) You're a big girl now. B) Big girls should have long hair

C) There's no Divya Rangarajan or Divya Nair in your class now, who carry generations of lices on their heads. D) Hair of appreciable length looks good with almost everything.

Option D) always appeals. It's my secret manipulative plan cum mission to tell her the best way of instant hair lengthening-hair straightening ;) Oh, she'll agree sooner or later.

Only if one could type at the same speed one thought.

'09-lessons learned:

Often the most trying circumstances are the ones that teach you a lesson or two. There are some mistakes you've got to make. Some tears you've got to shed. Some vile people need to enter your life. Bad things need to happen. Only then will you appreciate the good ones and also the not so bad ones.
These are the major occurrences of the year which put me through a lot of agony, which I now think, was quite unnecessary. This is both the comedy and tragedy of looking at things in retrospect. You either hit upon things that you should've had done/said or things you shouldn't have had.

Year 2009. New semester began. All was well. Was extremely happy to be assigned an interesting project. The desired modifications were challenging and the expectations, encouraging. The icing on the cake was that I was to continue with my old project team- people who were more than team members- they were the people I had come to regard as my closest friends in college since previous sem. I knew everything would go smooth just like previous sem. Like all previous sems. Nothing would go wrong. Except that, it did.
Egotism is something that harms not only the perpetrator, but also the people who are subjected to it. But with friends, or people you call friends anyway, one tends to overlook and let go a lot of things.I completely understood when they say they couldn't contribute to the designing as they had to take an entrance (which btw was totally unnecessary at that point of time), So I and another teammate started doing both our and their bits, like I knew they'd have done. We looked up, rejected , discarded, archived something like a thousand plausible circuits, were asked by our professor-who for some reason refused to treat students as a humans-to make a million changes in a strictly stipulated time. But a billion calculations and trillion taunts and more than two weeks later one prototype was finalized and hence I told myself happily that a work well begun is a work half done.
But the good project, like a lot of good projects, looked good only on paper. It is frustrating when something that seems to be so simple doesn't work. But we kept working anyway. Our friends were still on a self imposed study leave.
One fine day they returned and we gladly filled them in with what all progress we'd made. And then kept trying to get the output somehow. Wow! now this finally feels like team work. And even if something was funny, and the vibes I was getting were not so good-I was too happy to sense it. And then one day I took a leave for two days for some important reason, on the third day celebrated sari day with college friends :). And when I got back in the lab on the fourth day, I wondered if I had been in coma for four years! The prof called us to his lab to reprimand us because we'd been very insincere and in his words 'dummy members'. Because apparently according to our 'outta-leave-friends-cum-team mates' we didn't do anything. I think that's what 'are-you-fucking-kidding-me' moments are like. Feels like..you know..maybe the before and after Tsunami scenario. The ugly turn of events that followed this are too sordid and too painful for me to type. And honestly I don't want a record of it anyway. But from where I see it now, I think being thrown out of the project that I initiated and nurtured was not a bad thing after all. Because I saw the true hues of people, was able to differentiate my real friends from the phoney ones, did another project that was of much more use (no, the grapes are not sour :D), and proved my mettle to the prof who later went on to praise us in front of the same people who were responsible for the entire mess. No regrets. Yes, I feel bad that things can not be same as before but I also can't have it the other way. People backstab. Life's like that. Move on.


My friends were worried that I had not had a major crush in years. The last one was five years ago (from that time). They kept suggesting guys after guys and I kept pooh-poohing them, until the time for a big entry came. Entries, actually. This would remain one of the strangest events of my life. Two guys who share more than their names, zodiacs, languages, heights, builts, intelligence. At one point of time it was actually as thrilling as a movie :D. Both of them were so similar and yet so different. They came at about the same time, stayed for about the same time and I started liking both of them at about the same time. And then there's the very obvious dilemma. I couldn't figure out which one did I like more. First one- lovely, Second one-too good to be true. More proper tags would be- the simpler one and the stud. But it's always wise not hit on someone unless you're sure. In anycase I don't casually hit upon people. Something that I need to learn before the clock starts ticking, but that's not until I'm twenty five or six. So anyway, the stud kept offering me ride back home and I kept declining it. And even though I used to cite some feminist crap as the reason for not accepting his lifts, the real reason was that I got too conscious of myself every single time (Shit! my hair isn't even properly shampooed, why the hell am i wearing yellow :x ). But on one beautiful moonlit night (talking of nature playing it's part!) I sat behind him. I knew he was blabbering something, but I couldn't hear him. For my insides were doing conga and there were a thousand violins playing in my head. BUMP...BREAK..."..and that's when my girlfriend said..blah blah"
Whaaat??!!?? OK. So, the sound of the surroundings is back.And that my friend is how a card castle falls. Never laughed so hard-at myself. Matlab what's with life! He could've mentioned it anytime. Anytime in more than a year long aquaintance. But no! He had to mention it precisely at my movie moment. And soon after this incident he started boring me with his silly girlfriend talks. But if truth be told, the more he talked about his girlfriend the more relieved I got that the person he's talking about is not me. For one, he kept on referring to her as 'my girlfriend'. Till date I don't know her name. Neither do I have any curiosity for it. Hopefully I will never cross paths with him again. And the simpler one, I found out wasn't so simple after all! But at least he's still lovely. There are times when you can neither eat your cake nor have it. But that's because the cake is fungus infested and you can't see it! Life's like that. Move on :)


But these issues are way too trivial. Difficult was the part when Chikny left vikki :( But she's quite happy and honestly it doesn't matter that much, like she said it won't and like we agree it doesn't. Ok, it matters a little bit. But only a little bit. And it won't matter much when we'd move out the coming year. Although she is quite thrilled at the prospect. Now I wonder why :P

'09 taught Acceptance.
Letting good people into your life is important but equally important is to let the bad ones out-accept it.
When I say bad, I don't necessarily mean bad person. Maybe just bad for your focus and your long term happiness. Although some are downright bad! :P

And also, cliched though it might sound, but still needs some acceptance. Change is constant. People might go to different places but that doesn't mean they drift apart. Uttara didn't drift aaprt, did she? Definitely not. :)

"Acceptance is the first step of understanding and with understanding only can there be recovery"- Albus Dumbledore :)

PS: Might've quoted incorrectly. My memory is cursed!
PPS: Only if Dumbledore wasn't gay.. :P

mixed bag

This clearly was the longest gap between my any two posts. Back in business :) Well..no, not totally. I don't think I'd be blogging that often. I've lost the will to blog like before (how bad is that on lethargy scale?)
But, quite a few things happened in the past few days of which I'd like to have a record. Mainly because these things were neither memorable, nor exciting. In fact it would be safe to say that these were of no significance at all. I feel bad for such events, such memories. Events that were okayish. Memories that are not good, and not bad either. We tend to forget these. Like I'd always remember that amazing school picnic, or that feeling of riding a bicycle for the first time. And no matter how hard I try, I'd also never quite forget the nasty fight over a petty issue, I had with a friend. But there is a distinct possibilty that I'd forget the walk that I had today with a bunch of old pals. Very good memories. Check. Very bad memories. Also check. Normal workaday memories. Forgotten.
No problem. Diaries/blogs to the rescue (yes, diary is still and will always remain a first preference; there's a lot of clipping and a lot held back stuff in the blog-intentionally :))

Part One of the festival season over. Nine nights of Navaratri, five days/nights of Durga Puja and finally Vijayadashami. Maybe I'm expected to be in very high spirits. All ecstatic and jubilant, with fresh zeal and verve. I was all this and more, last year. This year..well..was not like last year. All my friends were in town a year before. No one came this time round :( I watched the ultra crazy garba videos of last year and became sadder. Durga Puja wasn't compensating either. This year has been a record. I didn't meet one single person I intended to meet. Not even one! Only the people from my parents' friend/aquaintance circle I see once every year and whom I greet with fake smiles. These people always ask me the same set of questions. I always give them the same set of answers. For some reason, they are ever so interested in the way I commute to and from college. ("Which bus did you say"?, "How much time does it take"? ). It's OK. I've got used to it. I also saw someone who somewhat jolted my memory. It has been so long since I thought of this person. There was a time when I used to do that extensively. The first glimpse was exhilarating but the next moment I remembered about his current status. A sinking feeling. Very bad feeling. I think my only crush till date who probably doesn't even know me!
And inspite of such rather dangerous possibilities which have the power to transform my sanguine disposition into a doleful one, I love going to the puja for just one simple reason- for her! The divine Maa, who is the most beautiful, most loving, most forgiving, most protective of all :) Besides, for me no music can be as evocative as the music of pujo. I love the sound of the dhak-that typical rhythmic percussion, the tinkle of the bells during shondhi pujo (evening aarati), the smell of the camphor, the dhunuchi naach(ritual dance worships). I feel protected. A feeling that no pain or sorrow in the world can touch me. It is a blissful feeling. A moment for which one is beyond happiness and/or miseries. Beyond the worldly pleasures and the sufferings. I don't quite know what kind of a feeling is that, but it spawns very strong emotions. It makes me feel really really powerful. Like there's nothing to be afraid of, nothing to worry, nothing that cannot be done or achieved. And even after it is achieved, it would be no big a deal. I can keep standing there watching the idol for ages,I actually do till my mother drags me away ie :D

Dusshera at vikki is always fun. I've been watching it every year for years now. It has almost become a ritual, but a good one. A huuuge effigy of Ravan is made up, stuffed with the most sparkling (and consequently the most polluting) fire crackers. All complete with an act that the folks put up. Lord Rama, brother Lakshman and devotee Lord Hanuman along with the vaanar sena conquer the army of the nefarious ten-headed king of Lanka and eventually Ravan himself to save Mata Sita. For obvious reasons, no girl from the colony volunteers to play Sita :D Which is why some or the other poor fella is coaxed into draping a sari, fashion a false plait, and allow Lucky aunty to put tonnes of make up on his face! After the last fragment of Ravan is burnt to ashes, these 'actors' tend to dance a bit-victory dance. More often then not the Raavan sena and Sita also join their 'co-actors'. And one can always hear someone quipping or disapproving- "Sita ko to dekho, kaise pallu lehraa lehraake naach rahi hain Raavan ki sena ke saath" :P And every year Chinky says the same thing-" Iski(referring to the Vaanars of the Vaanar sena) punchh kitni cute hain" :P

Met the old vikki gang after a long time today. Especially Prachi didi. I don't remember when was the last time I saw her. Oh wait! wait! I do. It was almost two years ago when she dropped by to say hi and I showed her our teacher's day pics. I think she might've broken a rib while laughing her head off at poorna's pic in a sari. Oh! how we used to ridicule poorna banerjee. How extremely hilarious it used to be :D. Only Uttara was missing :( I remember how much fun it used to be in those days.

I watched 27 dresses this afternoon. Sweet. I hate to admit it but I love romantic movies. I have a love-hate relation with romantic movies. I love them because..well..because of emotional reasons :) But I also hate them as they are a constant reminder of the fact that my life is not like those movies, and I so want it to be one! I have neither appreciated, nor longed for regular romance. As in, being involved with rather 'obvious' people-classmates, colleagues, people from the same friend circle. It's a nastily common thing. It should be like movies! The backdrop stretched across a couple of cities. An absolute stranger.Cynical. Not the very best of beginnings. A dozen heated arguments, a million sarcastic comments. A vulnerable moment. Get to know the 'real them' part.Change of opinions. Friendly bonding. Circumstantial misunderstanding. Big fight. Parting of ways. Revelation. Realization at the better-late-than-never time. A panicky search. A crazy confession...and they walked away in the sunset hand in hand :) Ohh and yes-it also involves torrential rains, skating, airport and a public speech-albeit, not in that order. Yup- that's my movie. And even if it isn't at least spinning such tales can be my alternate career, if engineering goes for a toss :D I mean, people with far baseless storylines are raking in moolahs!
Yeah, I'm gonna keep this option open, just in case...

I wish I could go on and on. But my body is screaming in protest. Today was very tiring. And I have my darned college tomorrow :x

PS: I'm very happy for Anu :)
PPS: I'm seriously at my wits end as far as the post titles are concerned. Help! Help! SOS!

life's comical!

If there's one thing that strikes me every time I read Khushwant Singh's compilation of jokes, is the fact that all the while when we rummage around for 'good jokes' in joke books, comic strips, on the internet, radio (radio mirchi has an oddball joke reader called Sudarshan-"Oh,please call me Sud" :D), forwarded messages and a dozen other potential sources which help those lips to achieve and sustain that curve, we tend to overlook the real life comedies that keep happening around us all the time. Maybe because our mind is not quite receptive to it. We overlook it because we think,hey funny moments can be stumbled upon only in places that are most likely to be full of it. But once we start observing things and people around us,the laughing hyena tag might not be far away!

These are just three of the many random unanticipated hilarity that I came across in day to day life.

Once while standing in a queue at a billing counter in crossword, I happened to glance at the two books the man standing in front of me had purchased. He put the first one on the desk which was titled ' Conversations with God'. After the second one was placed I said to myself, "God surely is going to have a grueling time", for it was titled ' You can negotiate anything'. :)

This happened around a year ago. I had gone to the Bhaikaka bhavan for attending a workshop and as they were running a bit late on schedule I had to wait outside. After ten minutes had elapsed I got so bored that I decided to have a stroll in the garden nearby. But it was quite sunny so I dropped the idea of the saunter and sat silently in a shady bench near the entrance,observing the saplings, the hues of the flowers, butterflies, insects I don't know name of, etc. No sooner had I begun drinking the beauty of nature,came flouncing two beggar girls in their tattered chaniyaas. The elder one couldn't have been more than six and the younger one was probably three or four. They instantly got on to their regular jobs of dramatizing for scraping a few pennies . Their rather vehement performance told me( for I was unable to comprehend the brand of gujarati they spoke) that they were trying to pass off the younger one as a blind girl. The little one kept blinking her eyes in a sporadic manner and flapped her limbs in the air. There was no need for this performance actually.Those who know me also know that I don't think twice before giving alms( something that has often had people accusing me of encouraging social evil,but let us get back to it later on). Now, despite the fact that her acting was splendid,she was a little girl after all. For how much time can a child possibly keep fluttering her eyelids! She gave up and widely opened her eyes. Her sister elbowed her to resume it,but she just couldn't. But by that time I had doubled up with laughter,and then both of them joined in as well. Children make life so beautiful,and funny too! :)

Ok,this is a rather vulgar one( do I sense sudden alertness? :p)
I saw this guy at fun republic wearing a very funky pair of jeans. But I wasn't able to gauge the extent of funkiness until I passed by him. His tee was tucked in so that a clear view of the jeans would be possible. On the right side of his jeans,at the crotch level was printed the word 'Tom'. And on the left side,on the same level was written 'Harry' :P :P Any more elaboration would be inappropriate. If you get the joke good,if not better :D. Uttara laughed for a full five minutes after hearing this. I don't find it so funny now,but at the time this incident happened, I blushed scarlet,doubled my pace and walked away guffawing!

There's comedy and laughter in every walk,every step of life. I hope I encounter and recognize it more often. :)

a journey called life

Today's daily horoscope in the newspaper got me into serious contemplation...and I've finally made a decision. It's hard. It's not good,but it's for the best because it's absolutely correct.
Being a rationalist, I always tend to search for reasons for each single happening. Why did this happen? What was the reason for that? It could've not happened but because it did,it must have some kind of significance.But tell you what...sometimes it's better to chuck this rationalist mentality and embrace things in life without bombarding series of questions. The "Everything happens for a reason" adage is human made after all which makes it totally liable to exceptions.
There are so many people one meets in the course of life.Some who have supreme relevance,some irrelevant,some who at some point of time we thought were relevant but they didn't quite turn out to be so. I have often ruminated about the significance of every single person that I've met. Did I meet them just like that,for no particular reason or was I ordained to meet them? In both cases-if yes,then why;if no,then why? As an answer to my own myriad end-to-end questionings I've kinda thought of an arbit model of life's journey-one of those crazy metaphysical speculations.
The way I imagine it,it is very complex in the broader picture.Like a maze with infinite dimensions,infinite labyrinths,infinite start points,infinite end points.All start points are connected-It is called birth.All end points are connected-It is called death. I dunno if I can convincingly describe the way I visualize it.But the narrower picture is better,simpler and more comprehensible.Roads- long,endless roads with zillions of diversions.A bend here,a bend there.Roads that are smooth at some places,tortuous at others.Paths that are brightly lit,cheery.Paths that are dark and depressing.Paths where you flounce,paths where you trudge,paths where you run,paths where you simply walk.
Everyone has a pre-decided path. When you start, some people start with you. They walk till their bend comes,and then they walk in their own paths. There're some people you don't really care went away,some you're happy are gone elsewhere,some you wish had stayed longer with you and some you absolutely don't want to let go but you can't because they've got to trace their own paths. And you can't tag along because that path doesn't take you to the destination you're ordained to reach. There are also people you keep bumping into time and again. This too,might or might not have a significance. Mostly,you start it with different people and you end it with different people. The end people might be as relevant or as irrelevant as the start people.
We're born at one extreme,we walk till the other extreme- to die. Some die,some end,some perish and some transcend to the higher world. Some might say we get finished in the end,some say we get complete. Finish and complete-to many it means the same,to some these are two drastically different things. Perception matters. But is it end or beginning? I don't know.I haven't reached there. I'm too ignorant,too illusioned,too delusioned-but I'm not the only one,so it's ok. Now what about the people we meet? Well..we meet all of them-nice,not so nice,okayish,forgettable,horrible,vivid.But we must not seek the reason behind meeting them. When you're on a journey,you're bound to meet co-travellers.That's them.As simple as that. Everything need not happen for a reason, we might not meet everyone for a reason. And if one is a staunch rationalist,we can reason this too. Good things(/people) happen to give us momentary happiness ,bad things(/people) happen to make us appreciate the small packages of happiness. And then there are also things(/people) that happen out of the blues,all of a sudden to spark up our banal lives,to remind us that we need to be happy, but then end abruptly-Well so what! We got the spark, we wanted.It made us happy..why complain then! Everything happens for perpetual happiness :)
I just love this title track of an old tv series- Who's the boss? I've been humming it for I don't know how many years now!
There's more in life than what you've lived,
Take a chance and face the wind.
An open road and a road that's hidden,
Brand new life around the bend.
There were times when I lost a dream or two,
Found the trail and at the end were you.
There's a path you take and path not taken,
The choice is up to you my friend.
The nights are long but we're on our way.
To a brand new life,brand new life,
Brand new life around the bend!
So long! :)

music,life,us.

"The trouble with life is that it doesn't have any background music"- anonymous.

I respectfully disagree! I have music playing inside my head all the time :) At any given instant I sing-vocally or not,that's a different issue.Even as I write I'm listening to a song called: wish you were here-mentioning the legendary band would of course be abysmally foolish :D

I've been like this ab initio.My mother informs me that the first full fledged song that I sung was- "Imli ka buta,beri ka ped"(Saudaagar) :D. I have no memory whatsoever of this baby attempt at music( that too bollywood music..arrr!!).But it sounds convincing though.One because mamma says so :) .And two because I have a faint memory of not using the pronoun I (or aami,as it is said in bengali) as a toddler.I always used my name instead. Jhimli jol khaabe(jhimli will drink water),jhimli ekhon khelbe (jhimli will play now) etc.So now,my logical deduction says that the probable reason for singing this song would have been the fact that my nickname jhimli and imli are almost homophonous.And children have a knack of picking up homophonous words speedily.I might've even sung jhimli ka buta..i don't know!! :P

Anyway I am diverging from the topic (something my english teacher often complained of;my mother still does :P).Music forms the most intergral part of all of our lives.But because it is so funadamentally entrenched in the cosmos,we sometimes don't take any notice of it. I have seen such superficiality,such ostentation when in comes to music. I had arrived at a conclusion long back,that in this world of plasticity one is considered dull and dumb unless one listens to the music of reknowned musicians/bands.And this happens more so in cyber world."Oh gawd! you don't listen to justin timberlake?". vaise,I do-but it's ok if someone doesn't.It's not an offence.As a consequence of such narrow-mindedness people generally tend to listen to international music just for the heck of it.I did it too.I am not proud of it,but then eventually I started liking it anyway :)

But can music be entitled to the connoisseurs of music only? Isn't it for everybody? I hate musical reality shows.The concept of pitching one's music against another is so sick.Music cannot be judged. It cannot be rated.It cannot be compared.It can only be shared.

It is not restricted to musicians,bands,singers.One doesn't need lavish i-pods,blaring music systems or cheap radios made in lal darwaja(but printed: made in china) to listen to music.It is omnipresent.The tune a blowing zephyr brings in our mind,is music.The sound the raindrops make while falling on a pavement,is music.The chirping of birds in a lazy morning,is music.The mooing of a cow,is music.The way an infant tries to string various syllables together,is music.The way our maid servant manjuben hums in gujarati while dusting,is music.The way the little begger girls sing pardesi pardesi on railway platforms for collecting money,is music.The splashing noise that the sea waves make before flushing my mud heap with initials N.B etched upon it(which I call my castle),is music.The way school children beat their tables in rhythm as if playing tablas during recess,is music.The sound the ceiling fan makes when we sit under it after a long sunny day,is music.The ticking of the clock as we wait for someone special,is music. The way the half naked, covered-in-rags,destitude children near the railway tracks mimic the chhuk chhuk sound of the train because they can't travel in them,is music.The way the hawker who shouts out loud selling goods for a few dried up rotis with salt,is music.The way we use la la la la..na na na na..hm hm hm hm when we tend to forget the lyrics,is music.The way the baansuri waala plays serenely under the shade of banyan tree in may heat,is music.The way I found myself letting out an exhilarated woo-hoo! as the cool wind caressed my face when I paraglided for the first time,was music. The morning prayers is music.The sound of jangling bangles while the women hastily fix food in the mornings,is music.The way our hearts play a thousand violins when we see a beloved,is music.The divine chants uttered during tying two souls into a holy matrimony,is music.

Music is all-encompassing,all pervading,all transcending.Every atom resonates with music.All we need to do,is to stop being self-engrossed for a while and search for it within ourselves.And we'll hear it-reverberating in the universe.As a bollywood movie song: Awaara bhanvare hums- jeevan sangeet suno :)

Even moods and feelings can be described in terms of music. The feeling I've been having at these days is kinda queer.It's similar to the same feeling I get when after a lot of pining, all of a sudden my favorite song finally plays on the fm station-but,it's the last paragraph of the song.I get happy that I got to listen to it,but I wish I'd turned on the radio a few minutes earlier.

ps: I am currently singing the nursery rhyme- doe a dear,a female dear.. :)

pps:I am ten year old,trapped inside the body of twenty year old. :D :D