Random Ramblings

What you need to make your day ? There can be a zillion answers Maybe, getting a promotion and a pay rise, or getting a praise from an unexpected quarter, or maybe getting your pay cheque on first of every month ... probably getting something you earned or you deserved! ... Or maybe, getting a call from an old friend ... just to have a chit chat! ... and few more such standard answers. Or maybe, the answer lies in something extremely trivial Like - Watching a really funny poster on roadside Eating an extremely spicy roadside chaat, and desperately asking for drinking water. Or seeing a 6 year, class 1 kid smiling at you and in the process showing off his front teeth which aren't there. Or cracking a really bad PJ and laughing for minutes together, and realizing that you are the only person who laughed ... and this making you laugh even more! Or discovering that old chocolate lollipop in a store and relishing it! Or reading an interesting line in a newspaper article. Or listening to...

"If only I had ..." "I should have ..." "I shouldn't have ..." "It was too harsh on me ..." "That wasn't too fair ..." ... and many more such common refrains we hear, here and there. The underlying thing remains the same - regretting things which could have been different, had some decision or some input been different. Often these phrases seem to be excuses for things having gone wrong or unfavorable, and often they are the reasons why others did better than us. But, if I lost to any of other factors which I may regret, there might be some other factors in which the person who wins may regret. Maybe, there wouldn't be any person in the world without his share of regrets, including the most powerful or the wealthiest person or most successful person in any field. Probably, that young business tycoon sitting in his ivory tower still feels bad having fought and broke up with his girl friend few years ago, but he chose no...

"Hi, How r u doing ?" "I am fine" "Howzz life ?" "M doing great. Life is great." "Great. Life is great at my end too... you tell, What's new ? "Nothing special. Enjoying at Delhi" How many times has this or one of its variant been repeated! Maybe often, be in case of two friends catching up after quite some time catching up probably on a social networking site like Orkut, or catching up through chat or mails. Maybe, in case of a telephonic conversation, it may last a bit longer getting to some the specifics. But more often than not, the script is similar. Usually people are always doing great, they are always happy. The facade usually remains similar. But how much of those times do we actually manage to look beyond the facade? Maye, very rarely. Maybe many of these goody goody things are quite 'good' if not great. But often behind this are many layers - layers which are hidden from majority of the outside world by means...

Below is one of the signs I saw at the extremely busy Platform number 1 of Allahabad railway station recently ---> I wonder, How 'secret' or 'intelligent' the department's services would be !

"Freedom of expression is the freedom to say what you want, as long as you say what they want to hear" - Freedom of expression – One of the hallmarks of great societies of the world; one of the basic rights guaranteed by our constitution. But is it all in theory? Take the case of Tasleema Nasreen or M.F. Hussain or students of MS University, Baroda or many others who dare to express things against the norm, but have to face wrath of some self-appointed moral police every now and then? … Or consider countless others who do not even dare to express, because of the fear of consequences from likes of Shiv Sena or Bajrang Dal or infinite others self appointed guardians of our culture. Yes. As a nation we have had fairly decent record on this front, if not anything great … but that is not enough. It must be made much better if we need to progress as a society. But where are we heading for ?