Adhuri Kavita ...

In palkon pe moti meine pehle nahi dekhe ...

in aanzhon ki roshni kabhi itni nahi zhalki,

is dil se baat ek muddat se ho rahi he,

is daud me aaj ek arse ke baad ruken he

Guru Mantra

Going on a different tangent from the original theme of this blog ( which was to rant away about things that i question) this post is about management.

The Master Strategist of the Indian History- Chanakya

Here are some of his golden rules. Read on.

1)"Learn from the mistakes of others... you can't live long enough to make them all yourselves!!"
2)"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are screwed first."
3)"Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."
4)"The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you."

5)"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."
6)" Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."

7)"As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."
8)"The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman."
9)"Once you start working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest."

10)"The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."
11)"God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple."
12) "A man is great by deeds, not by birth."
13) "Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness."

‎14) "Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."
15) "Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."
16) "Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth."

Me....

It seems life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. May be its just meant to be lived for the moment. May be it is something that needs to be planned meticulously so that each moment can be lived to the fullest. So they keep telling me. Me? I can't make up my mind. May be its just that I don't know when the fine balance is struck. I don't know when it's time to say enough. They say I am ambitious. They say I have no clue. They think I brilliant. They think I am a curse on this earth. Me ? I don't know whom to listen to.

They say being free weightless is the true measure of freedom. True nirvana is attained when one is free of all that holds the being to this world. Then they say that weight is not the worst thing to happen to our being. It brings us closer to the earth it brings us in contact with our root. Don't all lovers wish be to weighed down with their lovers body into a warm soft place of submission. Me ? I like to dominate too. I like to do so many things. Sometimes the problem of plenty is the worst curses that the humans were cursed with. The potential like the seven seas that cannot be conquered in one life time. When do we start? What do we do? Where do we end up? Whom do we take the journey with? So many questions that have no definitive answer. Me? I am in search of that answer.....

Aazaadiyan

Azzaadiyaan .....Freedom, a word, a thought an idea or an ideal. I remember half a life talking about my innate need for it. Although today when I sit down here to talk about it, i find my thoughts fairly clouded. Freedom .... what is it about it that makes half the middle east rise up in protest !! What defines it moulds it makes it so dear to us that the sacrifice of life seems like a small price to pay. Yet there seems to be more than just one kind of freedom and many a times the burning desire to attain it comes from some obscure oppression and denial of this right to act on ones free will. Is freedom that ? acting on ones free will ? that question brings to light what is free will in the first place ? I believe that freedom about choices. Having them even if you may not necessarily choose them or try out where each one takes you.

The theme to this blog originated in the music album of the Film "UDAAN", a brilliant take on the freedom and a choices. But what is it about freedom that makes it so necessary for us to attain. Be it the financial freedom that all youngsters are looking for so that they can go out party all night or be it political freedom that leads many misguided idealists to overthrow oppressive governments only to be replaced by someone worse. Its a open ended question everyone's free to answer it. What is freedom for you ? and why do you need it so much ??

Here's something to get the thoughts going ....

The Long Journey ...

HE found himself staring out of a window of a old rackety window ... he felt moving side to side without any apparent rhythm. His eyes held a fluid reflection of one green tree, albeit only for a moment only to be replaced by another. The reflections didn't stop. The trees did not stop. But he seemed not to look at the trees but somewhere far beyond them, somewhere deep and someplace that was so removed, so out of reach that he had a tough time recollecting its shape or size or the colors of its walls. But now he felt no walls around ... His sight had turned inside himself. He was trying to understand the serenity of these lush green trees. He couldn't help thinking these lines from his favorite John Denver song. It was true what good old John had sung in the song. The serenity did lie inside him, without the feelings trapped inside him the trees were mere convoluted shapes. The color was just a light of a horribly sterile sounding wavelength.

He looked deeper still. Things were dark still but he could make out a strange form. It was a young boy running toward the wooded hills. He looked hard, tried to remember who the boy was. The boy wore a t-shirt that looked hauntingly familiar. It didn't take him long to recognize the boy. Someone he once knew but knew not where he had been lost or when. He thought to himself when did the boy grew up ... he couldn't remember the day the suit became the boy's identity and he knew nothing of the day when the boy stopped dancing. It clearly bothered him. It made him angry. Shut his eyes only to swallow the ethereal reflections of the trees ... It only made him more mad !!! The trees reappeared in the reflections of his eyes ... That seemed to calm him considerably. He remembered the day when he only a 8 year old boy had run towards those beautiful hills. That very moment the darkness lifted only a bit. He had found the moment that made the trees so pretty. He had found a piece of himself lost long ago ... drowsed by multiple layers of experiences memories.

As the bus suddenly halted he gathered his bearing. Picked up his knapsack slid out of his seat and walked into another journey of self realization.

Snippets of a Wonderful Journey !!

I have had one of the most enriching experience travelling to Karnataka. Here are just a few spinets of that wonderful trip. This is my best photography work by far. I have also tried my hand at Black and white photography intensively after being impressed by the work of John McCullen, a British Wartime Photographer, who is famous for his work in Africa, Vietnam and Middle east. A travel log on the same trip is long due .... It'll be up soon.

Wild Montana Skies

This is a John Denver song that I came across recently. I mean there is a sepia-ic charm in rediscovering old songs .... and here is an interesting video with the background score of Wild Montana Skies.

Do pay careful attention to the lovely wild life cinematography !!!

He was born in the Bitterroot Valley in the early morning rain
Wild geese over the water headin north and home again
Bringin a warm wind from the south
Bringin the first taste of the spring
His mother took him to her breast and softly she did sing

Oh Montana, give this child a home
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes
Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies

His mother died that summer and he never learned to cry
He never knew his father and he never did ask why
He never knew the answers that would make an easy way
But he learned to know the wilderness and to be a man that way

His mothers brother took him in to family and his home
Gave him a hand that he could lean on and a strength to call his own
And he learned to be a farmer and he learned to love the land
And he learned to read the seasons and he learned to make a stand

Oh Montana, give this child a home
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes
Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies

On the eve of his 21st birthday he set out on his own
He was 30 years and runnin when he found his way back home
Ridin a storm across the mountains and an aching in his heart
Said he came to turn the pages and to make a brand new start

Now he never told a story of the time that he was gone
Some say he was a lawyer, some say he was a John
There was somethin in the city that he said he couldnt breathe
And there was somethin in the country that he said he couldnt leave

Oh Montana, give this child a home
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes
Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies

Now some say he was crazy and theyre glad that he is gone
But some of us miss him and well try to carry on
Giving a voice to the forest, giving a voice to the dawn
Giving a voice to the wilderness and the land that he lived on

Oh Montana, give this child a home
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes
Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies

Oh Montana, give this child a home
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes
Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies

Start ... Stop .... Start ....

For a long time i have been wanting to update this place.A place much beloved, although like a wife of 20 years, much ignored. I noticed that it has been 5 months since i last updated this blog. Although another number that did not escape my EVER WATCHFUL observation is that 2010 was the second most productive year of my blogging time. Now its 2011 .... a lot has happened over the last one year ... a lot of positives a few negative that can be taken in their own stride and moved on from.

"I am off to cornell bitch" was my favorite quote of 2010( ala Mark Zuckerberg, The Social Network) little did i realize that it should have been followed up with ",and i am screwed too !!" Not really .... I have had a lot of time of late to think and make innumerable observations. Living the life of a 23 year old unemployed, holed up with parents guy has its own little perks!! ;) I even get to take the car out for grocery shopping !! :P

Moving on. A few serious topics, plenty of frustrated ramblings, a travel log and loads of picture are on offering much like the all pleasing Budget of 2011, that promises a candy to all and is even considerate enough to offers a dental insurance at double the cost !!

So my beloved blog .... You shall not be ignored like the AAM AADMI of India .... After all i am not the Reformist from the land of communism and strikes ... !!!