The New Year Prayer

These are bad times gentleman, the world seems to be to frail a place to live in. For a second it did seem that the Hollywood proclaimed Mayan prophecy was right after all, with impending social doom resonating from all cardinal directions. At times we feel bereft of all sanity, such is the hope and happiness of today, jaded and desolate. 

But every year is a new year, every beginning a new beginning and though the horizon looks bleak now we can hope and we can believe that a time of bliss will unfold. We can hope for a day the world's women can walk freely without the fear of cannibals, we can believe in a day when the children of Haiti can eat a full meal and smile their innocent smiles. We can dream of an era sans guns and bombs where all men can sleep peacefully. We can believe in a tomorrow that is worthy of humanity and is bright and colorful as the world of fairy tales  This friends is my wish and prayer for the year to come.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS

The Many Colours

Red, Blue, green, yellow, Pink, [purple and I lost count as I looked on at the countless vibrant dunes of colors in the shop. ‘Holi’ the day of the colors is here and it’s a nightmare to be out on the street on this day. They won’t leave any one out, and no one knows an escape from the clouds of colors that rise from every nook and cranny of the street. It is mayhem and its totally unpredictable. It’s the one day you regret ever making friends as you don’t want them anywhere in a one mile radius near you. You don’t have a single safe place to hide safely from their sinister intentions; they infiltrate everywhere including your bedroom. The streets are the worst, you have no idea from where a bucket full of colored water will hit you and you have no escape from the rogue pichkari bearers running lose on the streets and what not.  You are under street from the two foot toddler and they are more dangerous and reckless than their adult counterparts.

In short it is a wonderful and colorful day to live and its one hell of a festival to be part of. The celebrations are heart warming and the sense of brotherhood reverberating. Huh! I can hear the foot steps of my friends approaching my door now and guess what I have a surprise planned for them. Poor chaps they are expecting to a me hiding carefully from them and they are in for a surprise.

Happy Holi and let the colors lose and the spirits free.

PS: I have to see their faces! He! He! He!

The Day of the Women

Every once in a while when something sinister happens, we start talking about, their security, their safety, their lives and the several clichés that we so randomly use. The only exception to it ought to be this and a handful of other anniversaries. And now I am not going to be doing the same here just because it’s a cliché.

There were many women in my life and quiet a few are worth mention. And there are of course a few that I will not talk about ever, not even a passing reference or a unwelcomed memory. But in the making of the man I am today there are quiet a few skillful hands that that belonged to the some very lovely ladies all along. I must be very thankful, rather indebted to these very special souls.

I don’t know what being an women would come to mean and how it feels to be being the daughter of Eve. I can only imagine and my imagination ought to be highly restrictive. After all the key is to a women’s thought is yet to be identified. But it must feel wonderful to be the one to possess the gift of life a rare and divine responsibility that the heavens entrusted to them. The continuation of humanity ought to be a very demanding responsibility.

When we talk about women, its just natural to talk of fertility, the wonderful gift of giving birth and ‘The Mother’.  For centauries we have worshipped this divine gift and have always embraced it close at heart. So I am thankful to my very loving Mother whose sole love and care and the occasional scolding and scorning made me into the made of value I believe I am today. Then there is her mother, my grand mother who with her love and unbelievably tasty magic made sure that I was always full and stuffed to the brim. I must thank these two wonderful ‘one hell of a woman’s but I wont, I just love them and I will leave it at that.

Women have a heart so big, yet so small. It’s heard to get out once you have found your way in and its hard to find your way back into it once you have been thrown out. There are many women I love and I loved in the many (twenty one) years I lived. There are the ones that require a special mention and the ones that may have a passing reference, but irrespective of that they all have made significant contributions to the big and small things I have done and became. I have two aunts who were my world when I grew up and they are quite amiable too. And one of them I solely remember from her photograph on my grandfather’s desk and the weekly call she made to my grandparents house during my stay there. The two women own much of my construction and rightfully so.

Falling in and out of love is not a prerogative of men, women do it to often with such deceptive elegance and for a chauvinistic argument they do blame it on men always. But we both know the truth.  Then again its not the breaking and breaking of love that matters but living it. And from all the romantic relationships I have had and all the wonderful souls I have been with and the angel whom I have decided to share my life with (officially and officially she doesn’t know yet) I have had a life’s worth of wonderful experiences.

I have been blabbering for too long now and I don’t intend to take it any further than this. So for all the wonderful ladies I missed but not forgotten. All the teachers, friends and acquaintances and all the wonderful time they cared to spend with me I have just this to say.

Sorry! I missed to mention you

And

Thank you! For all the things and times you cared to share.

    

To the Best of Times.

The year is at its end, and it’s a time for a toast for all that happened this year. The good things and the bad ones, the ones I will never forget and the things I never want to remember again, the things that I am grateful for and the things I wish never happened. The year had it all for me, suspense, romance, action, drama; everything a good adventure needs and I know yours where just as much fun if not better. Now that we stand at the last days of 2011, one thought keeps me alive, much more alive that I ever was. It’s the knowledge that though a lot of good things had happened and many more did not quite work out just as well, I can rest assured that this is not over yet and the best of the moments are yet to come. Now that a beautiful year is finally about to bid adieu to us all and as the clock strikes twelve tonight, a new year will be born, an year of promises, hope and of the countless to be born memories.

As 2012 rolls in, I believe we have an obligation, an obligation to raise a toast to all the good things that made 2011 and eleven special. A toast to all the friendships we made, all the moments we lived in all the people we care about and all the people who care about us. A toast for the times we laughed out loud and all the time we cried alone tucked to a corner of the dark rooms, all the pranks we pulled and all the little things we did to make our special ones happy.

2011 was no walk in the park, it was an adventure and adventure we all shared and we together made a memory of. May 2012 be only better, may 2012 bring us more joy and prosperity, may we all go forward and not backward, may our future be just as perfect as we ourselves are. Friends some of you I know, some of you I do not, but nevertheless may all of us live a life that we always wanted. So guys please rise your glasses a for 2012 is here!....................................Cheers! To the Best of Times.

Happy New Year, Ladies and Gentleman,

May all of us live happily ever after…