DIL…DOSTI….YAARI

A few days ago, on a little prod by one of my “Bestest Friends”, I put up a post on my facebook wall which went as follows - "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves". Following this, during all the lonely time that I now have at my disposal, I went on a ride down memory lane. The ride brought back an unrestrained flow of priceless memories of the times that I have spent with my extended family of friends. And then it struck me……I have used “My Cognitions” to put across my thoughts on various things…….why not add one to this list which goes out to all my buddies?

The list is endless……..so many moments that I would like to put down……

Let me start with the friends I had made in school……….one of my closest friends starting from those days of carefree abandon till today is Mona…….she has been and will always be special to me. I can’t forget those long walks we used to take, sometimes all the way from Police Bazaar to Laitumkhrah (those of you who know Shillong, might agree that it certainly isn’t a short distance), talking about almost anything in this world. Then there were those visits to the church near Don Bosco Square. We had and still have a lot in common, the best being our love for animals. I remember, how the two of us would make plans of following in the footsteps of Maneka Gandhi and starting something to help the strays lead a better life. I still hope, that one day we can come together and turn this childhood dream into a reality.

School was also the time when I was a crazy fan of the Little Master, none other than Sachin Tendulkar. My partner in this madness was Paromita DebRoy…….Paro if you happen to read this, am sure you remember the times we had. I must admit though, that I am still one of the greatest fans of this extra ordinary talent and I bet Paro feels the same. And then there was this brief but extreme obsession that we shared about the scene from Dil to Pagal Hai in which the Badshah of Bollywood allured the lady of his dreams with the double worded o – so – romantic dialogue “Aur paas aur paas…….” J.

Many more from the school days could probably add on to this sequence of memoirs and each one is equally important to me, but keeping in mind the concepts of time and space let me move on to the next phase. That would be the days from the 10 +2 years. Mona continued to be one of my closest buddies through this period as well. Lopa, was added to my self-chosen family of friends. We spent some absolutely fun – filled moments during the tuitions that we took with my favourite teacher till date, T.S. Sir. Also worth mentioning are those frequent visits to the “Chaat House” that we simply loved on our way back home.

Then came the time to move away from home………for the first time, to experience what was called - the hostel life, and one which I certainly didn’t have a very good impression about. And the initial days most definitely lived up to that very conjecture. However, with time it was this very hostel life that I came to associate with the best days of my life…….so much so, that I still miss it terribly. What made it great positively wasn’t the place……one look at it and you would probably agree that it really wasn’t. Then what was it? But obviously, the people……the friends…….a few more members added to my chosen family. Enter…..Anjori Dutta, Anjali Thakur, Lakshmi Prabha and Piyali Sinha. Together, we had some of the most rollicking times of our life. Just the other day I was talking to Anjori, and as we were reminiscing the boisterous times we had, she happened to mention a particular episode where we had a gala time in sort of adam – teasing a few boys who had come down to take a stroll in front of the girls’ hostel after dinner. The poor guys never figured out who were the ones turning the tables on them….thanks to the cover of the boundary walls on the terrace and the comic façade of voices we used in the process. Anjori let out a strain of “Babuji zara dheere chalo” in a playback perfect voice for a witch J while Anjali and Piyali were showering the funniest dialogues they could think of on the victims.

I remember another outrageous incident during one of our trips to the hottest eatery known to us in those days…...Aashiq ka Dhaba. We planned to go for an early dinner….so there we were at the “Corner” (which was the place from where the transport to and from our abode for four years was available) waiting to get into an auto. We decided to fit into one, and instead of going for the lap as the extra seat for the additional two, we decided to take the front seat on both sides of the driver. You bet, the driver must have been a happy soul as that was a seat meant only for the boys to take. As the three great minds, Anjali, Piyali and Prabha took the back seat, it was on me and Anjori to adorn the seats beside the driver. We started off, and while the two of us couldn’t stop smiling at the driver blushing to the limits of infinity….the three at the back seat, made it even better with their constant jibes at us. No sooner did one of the three give an example of “Do Phool Ek Mali” and the driver who was so long trying to contain his expressions to a few shy smiles, could no longer help it but break out into a laugh. God…….I don’t know what it was if not crazy.

I don’t think I could miss out the charge that the girls’ hostel as a whole had made on the annual crowd of Diwali visitors who would come to trouble and frighten us by hurling in firecrackers over the walls of the girls’ hostel shattering window panes, and damaging things inside the rooms next to the walls. We decided, it was enough and went for the chase, and we did get a handful of the culprits much to our delight.

I could go and on with so many more of such memorable incidents……..it truly is an endless inventory of priceless moments.

Friends truly are a family we choose for ourselves……..and all I want to end this with is a big thank you to all my mates for being part of this special family of mine and giving me this invaluable treasure trove of fun-filled moments that I will cherish for my entire life.

Love You All……J

P.S.: This piece is dedicated to all my friends and not just the ones whose names I have mentioned here.

The whole thing is that…………….

Bollywood has given us a lot many memorable one – liners……….a few of particular interest to me in this context are –
Money Hai to Honey Hai
Paisa Bolta Hai
Sabse Bada Rupaiya

We might have used these in many of our fun – filled conversations, but is that all these lines hold? Come to think of it and I end up concluding that probably they do much more than that, in fact, they hold what might be the ultimate truth and goal of life in the current day scenario.

There was a time when I was strongly of the opinion, that money, although important is not the whole and soul of the matter. There are other things, like love, peace of mind, the company of loved ones, the satisfaction of doing what you want rather than doing things based on calculations of profit and loss, etc. that are the ones which come first in the list of must haves……and money features somewhere down the line in this list. However, with time and with the good and rude experiences of life……..my unstaggering belief in this seems to have dwindled a little.

Why?........lets see……

There’s someone who’s passionate about nature and animals. He wants to pursue a career which will allow him to make his passion his work. He conveys his thoughts to his parents………..I am sure most of us know the answer he gets…….”Are you nuts?....Where do you think that’s going to take you 10 years down the line? Don’t be stupid “. He definitely doesn’t want to be that, does he, so, there he is, a Senior Analyst in a multi-national company. And what does he get…..a handsome pay cheque for sure, the power to buy all the luxuries of life………but, at the cost of……..the time he wished to spend pursuing his unfulfilled wish to do something that deals with his passion…….or may be that smile on his daughter’s face which he wanted to see when he takes her out on a surprise visit to the ice-cream parlour on a Wednesday evening…....

And then, there is this sweet young couple, very much in love, each wanting nothing but the everlasting company of the other. Happy in their own little world of a rented 1 bhk in a metro, a two – wheeler, a job paying a decent enough salary but certainly not enough to go about collecting the many temptations and luxuries the world of today has to offer. Soon enough, they get tired of getting soaked in the rain everytime they plan a ride together on their so long good enough two – wheeler, and of having to strike off their plans for a few days off to Goa because of non- availability of the train tickets and the insufficiency of funds to get the available but expensive air tickets. So, what do you think they do………..
……..but obviously, take off in search of greener pastures in terms of the financial returns. And where do they land up………happily, in high paying jobs. But is it the happiness they were looking for……..well, they do have a flashing car parked right outside their door, and they do have the funds to get the air tickets not only to Goa, but to Europe if they wish to…………but do they have the time to even plan a drive together to some place nearby…..well sadly….not really.

Then, at one of the many traffic signals in the city, while you are seated in the auto waiting for the lights to say “Go”, you see a mother holding his son by the hand, making her way across the vehicles, tapping at the windows with her hands spread out making a desperate plea for a few pennies to be handed over. May not be a very unusual sight in our country…….which you might as well have chosen to ignore, but this time, there’s something that particularly catches your gaze. It’s the boy, following his mother…….a look at him closely, and you see scars all over his face, head, hands and on whatever more is visible, beyond the cover of his clothes. You call out to the woman and hand over a twenty rupee note to her……...and the mother looks at you hurriedly before moving on to the next vehicle, not saying much in words, but her eyes tell you………she just can’t thank you enough.

I could go on and on with many more of such encounters………..but whatever may be the scenario, there is one universal truth that lies beneath all of them………..whether we like it or not, whether we accept it or not, money does play a crucial role in life. While it is a necessity in some cases, in others it is an agent by means of which we attempt to buy happiness, all the while forgetting that happiness is not a commodity with a price tag on it.

But vain as we are……...we continue to follow the Bollywood mantra……..
“The Whole Thing Is That Ke Bhaiya Sabse Bada Rupaiya”.

Haso, Jeeyo, Muskurao….Kyu Ki Kya Pata…………..

Am back, again after a long hiatus.......had been putting this off giving no one but myself the same old excuse of a busy schedule.....no time...........but all my excuses were blown into thin air by the rude realization of something I had heard many times.......life is short, live each moment as if it were your last......coz you never know when you will be cut short of your words........

In the past, whenever I had come across this sentence, it just seemed like a small philosophical note on life.......nothing more. But over the last two weekends, the sudden news of the demise of two people, one an ex- batchmate and the other an acquaintance at my office, have forced me to take a closer look at the very painful and ultimate truth in it. One moment, you might be alive and kicking......and the next moment, in just a breath you might be whisked away to the other world. Frankly speaking death has never scared me. Like everyone else, the world on the other side of this thin line between life and death, has been a mystery for me as well. But somehow, I’ve always felt that however it might be, it can never equal this big bad world in the negatives.

Coming back to the point of the realization, that life is a short journey......which is the reason why I am sitting down here today putting down a few words.......making an effort to leave back a few memories (of my thoughts, my feelings etc.) etched in my own personal little history of life, for posterity. Today, I genuinely want to promise myself one thing, and keep up to it to the best of my abilities.......that as long as there is even an inch of a possibility that I can do so, I will never leave anything that comes to my mind undone, and put it off for some other time.......a tomorrow, which on one day might and will turn out to be the day I cross over that finish line.........

So, to sum it up, let me sign off for today with a personal favourite and one of King Khan’s most famous dialogues........ “Haso, Jeeyo, Muskurao........kyu ki kya pata KAL HO NA HO”........ :)

A Precious SMILE….Not Just A Curve That Sets Things Straight!!!

Am back on track………..was a little tied up with everyday activities, so just couldn’t fit in a slot to pour out the words reeling in my head…….

This time the “Object” which set the words in my mind in action turned out to be a four month old bambino, my cute little nephew, “Siddhanth” aka “Rihaan” whom we very lovingly refer to as “Mr.Lal”. The reason behind that being – everytime he lets out that wail to express his indignation at the current state of affairs, his face turns a bright red in a matter of seconds J

However, it was not his occasional wails that caught my attention, it was in fact, the only other expression that he manages to put forward at this stage – his SMILE. This is the first instance that, I, after having mellowed with time, have come into such immediate and continued contact with the tiny lot. This is therefore the first opportunity that I have had to observe and comprehend the activities of this age group. Amongst all the other things that I thus noticed, the SMILE was the one thing that fascinated me.

For most, in fact, for all of us and by us I mean all the people who have gone past the stage of infancy, a “Smile” is restricted to a facial expression formed by flexing a few muscles at both ends of the mouth. At most, it might be something that we perceive in the twinkling of an individual’s eyes. However, for Rihaan, it appeared to be something that had to propagate through his entire constitution in the form of some awkward twists and turns. The scene is more like that of an umpire gesturing a six with a naughty bug somewhere down his pants J, the creature creating a good amount of disturbance…..or an even more appropriate vignette would be the famous Sunny Deol - “Yaara o Yaara” signature dance step. There is an important point to be noted however, the umpire or the Sunny Deol replica, whichever suits your taste…..in this case, is flat down on the ground JJJ. Of course, the trademark open mouthed exhibition of the toothless cavity is forever there. But for Rihaan, the very meaning and purpose of a “Smile” seemed to be incomplete unless accompanied by the incoherent boogie. This in turn led us to come up with the inane but suggestive phrase – “The Full Body Smile”.

“The Full Body Smile” was henceforth observed as being constituent in whole or part in most of Rihaan’s daily activities, to mention a few –

• His “Good Morning” wishes
• His response to a smile anybody passed on to him
• His response to any kind of greeting or for that matter any kind of gibberish
• In his mood of playful banter………

……..the list could just go on and on….....

It is said that on an average children smile 400 times a day as compared to a mere 15 times for an adult. Assuming the same to be true, each time Rihaan adds on to his daily count of 400 he makes sure that he adds on to the count of his onlookers as well, for it can seldom happen that you miss out on your quota of simpers while you stand a witness to the most infectious “SMILE” that I have ever come across.

Thanks a lot kiddo for brightening up my day with the flash of your exquisite smile everytime I cast a loving glance at you….

The Choices ’WE’ Make......

“CHOICE” - sounds like a very mundane and naive word, doesn’t it? But it is this very word, which when put into action shapes up your life. If we take a closer look, it is the various choices we have made in the past that defines our present. Of course, the choices of the initial stages on our behalf were made by our parents, ranging from...what we should wear, what we should eat, where we should go, what we should learn.....to which school we should go to and so on and so forth. As we move on in life, the onus of making our own choices, taking decisions for ourselves, falls upon us......which is how I feel it should be. The reason being, that after we attain a certain age we should be mature and intelligent enough to be culpable for our own lives.

However, it is often seen that even in the later stages of life, sometimes the choices for us are left to our parents to make, be it choosing a suitable life partner for us, or for that matter, choosing a career for us. I totally agree to the fact that this is absolutely a matter of personal choice, while some people might feel that there can be no one better than their parents to decide the course of their lives, the other lot might feel that they are the ones who should decide and be responsible for whatever their future holds. I for one, belong to the second lot of people.....although it is equally true that I haven’t been able to hold on to this belief of mine at all times in life.

Keeping my own life in view, I would like to focus on the two most important decisions in any person’s life, first, a career and second, a life partner.

I have often heard and read that it is best if you take up what interests you as your profession. For in that case, work ceases to be an additional burden that you are forced to carry for life. Today people are often heard of using terms like ‘zero job satisfaction’. That happens when a job is just a piece of task which must be completed to receive a pay cheque at the end of the month....something that has become so very important for survival in today’s world. Today, people are judged not by who they are, but what they do.........to be more specific, by the brand name which they proudly carry around in person in the form of an ID card, and the figure credited to their bank accounts on the last day of every month. Anything for the 5 figure salary and compromises become the more dignified, diplomacy. Such is the rat race, that one who doesn’t match up to the rest.....could be the ones who care more for what they learn, or the ones who believe in getting the much talked about “job satisfaction”, or the ones who believe in sticking to their beliefs.....are termed as failures in life.

As I was saying earlier, when interest becomes your profession, work becomes fun. Talking about my own interest........well for most people who know me and have been with me, it wouldn’t be hard for them to notice and state how much of an interest I have in anything to do with animals. There was a time in school, when me and one of my closest buddies to this day, Monalisa, who was equally passionate about animals, would go on about our plans to someday do some work that would deal with animals. Maneka Gandhi was our idol; we would watch her programme “Heads and Tails” on tv, and talk about how things should change in India from what it is to much better facilities and arrangements when it comes to animals. We were termed crazy by many, as her house was home to almost 14 cats at one time, while mine was home to a dog, two fishes, a rooster, a hen, two parrots and 11 cats!!! We were almost sure that one day we would come up with an entity that could match the standards of what is found in developed countries.

It was in this very mode of thought that I had expressed my desire to take up a career in the field of veterinary sciences.......What? Have you gone nuts!!!!!That was the reaction I received. I was told that this wasn’t a field that would take me anywhere in life. Moreover, having secured a rank at the state level in the board exams in Class 10, how could I even think of something so much beyond normal levels of comprehension. So, that was the end of the “veterinary scientific” story. My mother wanted me to be a doctor, one who deals with humans, of course J....however my strong opposition to dissection, which was an important part of Biology, helped me to opt out of that option. Going by the flow, the only other option in those days, Engineering - the choice in this case completely made by my parents and much to my surprise I seemed to be totally in sync with their views. So, that brings me to where I am today, a Software Engineer by profession who is part of the mad rat race that the rest of the world is involved in.

So, as far as a career is concerned, the decision here was for the most part of it guided by the choices that my parents made for me. I wouldn’t say that I have any major regrets regarding the same, but yes, at times I do wonder what it would have felt like to be doing something that was of greater interest to me.

Moving on to the second aspect, choosing a life partner........well this is a decision, that as per my beliefs, was totally my own. Let’s not delve into the complications associated with the same. I would instead like to talk about the reason behind doing so. During my life, I have come across numerous examples where parents have chosen the best life partners as per their judgement and experience for their darling daughters and beloved sons. While there have been cases that the alliances so formed have been phenomenally successful, there have also been instances that the relationships thus evolving have been a total misfit. It is in these negative occurrences that I have seen the blame game go berserk. Since, it is the parents who had made the decision, the whole world and sadly enough, even the kids start blaming the parents for the failure of the relationship. Not that, a love marriage is the recipe for a guaranteed success story. There have been myriads of wreckages in this scenario as well. But, I still believe that it is better to seemingly know and understand a person, and take a plunge into the unknown, and be responsible for the outcome of the same, than to end up holding somebody else responsible for the worse, if it turns out to be so.

Whether my decision was an infallible and befitting one........is yet to be seen...results to be declared in about a few decades from today............. J

A Special Valentine's Eve.....

Valentine’s Day, a day to celebrate love.....love for your partner, family, friends or for that matter “The four legged beings”. This time it was truly a celebration for me, although my interpretation of celebration here is a little different from what would normally be expected - may be a party, gifts n so on. For me, celebration means any act that makes you feel good to the level of ecstasy, one that gives you a feeling of contentment, a feeling of being truly happy with yourself for having done what you did. The onset of this year’s Valentine’s Day was one such celebration for me, and here is what made it so...........

My husband and I were out till about 10:30 p.m. on the eve of Valentine’s Day. He was out parking the two-wheeler and locking up the gate behind us, while I made my way up the stairs to our apartment. As I waited at the door for my husband to come up with the keys, I heard a cry, or rather a bark which sounded significantly different from the barks of the numerous stray dogs in and around our residence. It was one that immediately grabbed and drew my attention towards it unlike the usual barks that we were used to overlooking at that time of the night. When my husband reached our floor with the keys, I pointed out the same to him, to which he said, “Ah, it’s nothing, they must be up to some of their usual tricks”. We walked in and while my husband starting fiddling with his mobile making calls to our family members, I moved to the balcony to take a closer look at the empty plot of land just opposite to our building which was home to all the strays of the area. On one corner of the plot, is an incomplete and uncovered tank like structure. As I was inspecting the area as closely as I could, I once again heard that distressing cry and this time I noticed one of the strays, a white one, which made it easier to spot it in the dark, run towards the “tank” and stand up on its front legs to peep into it. The cry was no longer to be heard. Next I saw the white one climb up the tank, and then it sat down on the side of it while still intently looking inside the structure. My heart told me something was terribly wrong, so I insisted that my husband go and take a look at it. He did so.....

On coming back he told me that a poor fellow, one of the strays, had fallen inside the unattended tank which was also full of water, and it was unable to make its way back. My heart sank, thinking of the trouble in which that pooch was. I immediately started thinking of ways to help it make its way out of that tank. We had moved in to the apartment just a few days back, and the building being an absolutely new one was home to just the two of us. Neither, did we have anything that could help us manage to get that poor creature out of that tank and nor did we have anyone else to call out to for help. Nevertheless, we decided to give it a shot as we realised that the poor thing would not be able to pull through the night if left on its own. We went down and tried looking into the bits and pieces of wood and other materials heaped up under the stairs, which were left after the work in the building. My husband picked up a few that seemed to be of some help and ventured out towards the tank, while I waited at the gate so as to simultaneously keep a watch on the unlocked door as well as, the proceedings of the “Rescue Mission”. I could see my husband trying out all means to help the poor fellow out, but to no avail. I couldn’t hold myself back any longer, so I just latched the gate shut behind me, and ran across the road to see for myself what the exact situation was. On reaching there, I found the dog swimming and trying hard to keep itself from drowning. It was evident that she (don’t know whether it was a he/she, but I am referring to it as a ‘She’ anyways) was very tired. She had somehow taken the support of a few thermocol pieces floating in the water to keep her head above the water level. My husband told me that he had tried pulling her out with his hands but the dog was too scared and so she had tried to bite him. Considering the fact that she was a stray it wasn’t advisable that we try the ‘pulling out feat’ again, as she had certainly not been vaccinated and she was definitely prone to infections being totally exposed all the time. We were in a fix......

It was then that my husband suggested that we ask the people living in the house just adjacent to the plot for help. I had often seen the members of this family from our balcony. They owned three dogs, a Labrador Retriever, a German Shepherd, and another tiny one. I had seen an elderly lady of the family regularly feed the strays of the locality. It was apparent that this family belonged to the “Dog Lovers” group. So, we thought that they might be capable and more importantly willing to help two strangers in a “Stray Dog Rescue Mission”. We decided to go ahead. As my husband walked towards the house to talk to the family, I continued with my efforts to help the distressed dog. By this time, she had realised that we were trying to help her, so she had become a little less apprehensive and was eagerly responding to my calls. She swam towards me and tried to hold on to the log that I had thrown towards her with her teeth. I realised that she must have been struggling in the water for a much longer period than we had initially thought.....she was totally drained out so all she could manage to do was to grab the log with her teeth, she just couldn’t put in any effort to pull herself up. I could hear her breathing hard....it was very evident that she wouldn’t be able to hold on too long.....we needed to do something asap......

Thankfully, I saw my husband walking up towards us alongwith the gentleman from that house.... I looked back and saw the elderly lady standing at the door watching us from a distance. The man, by now we knew his name, Anil, had a dog lace with him, which he had brought with the intention of somehow getting the dog hooked on to the lace and then pulling it out....but it was not to be such an easy task........

I told them that she was responding to my calls and trying to hold on to the log. At this, Anil came forward and took the log from me, he asked my husband to support the dog’s weight from underneath with another piece of wood, while he tried to pull her out with the help of the log that she had grabbed onto with her teeth. The two men tried with all their might, and they were almost close to getting her out, but the poor tired creature couldn’t hold on to the log long enough with her teeth........and splash......she went back to the waters!!!! They tried the same process a few more times but, it was the same story over and over again.....the dog was just too tired and she failed to support herself with her teeth alone. Anil then called out to his mother, Judith, the elderly lady at the door, and told her to go get the ladder. I ran towards the house to get it from her. I hurried back with the ladder and handed it over to my husband and he passed it on to Anil. He immediately lowered it into the tank and tried to get the dog on to the ladder somehow. The poor one was quick enough to understand what was expected of her and she managed to pull herself up onto the ladder. By this time, Anil’s mother, Judith, had also come to the site. Then, Anil and my husband used all their strength on one end of the ladder, while the dog perched at the other end, slowly started moving up. I pushed a log underneath the ladder to support her, lest she should suddenly slip. Things were moving on as expected and we knew we were almost there..........but, to my horror, just when we were almost there, she started slipping..........I shouted out to her “No, no, please hold on”, as if I expected her to comprehend my words and feelings...............and to my utter surprise, it seemed as if she did..........she immediately grabbed on to one of the rods of the ladder with her teeth.......I just can’t say how happy I was to see her doing that...........!!!! We realised that we needed to act fast, otherwise all our efforts would soon be back to the waters again........the two men hurriedly pushed the other end of the ladder up, while I pulled the ladder towards the side....we were almost there.......the ladder was at the side of the tank, she knew she had almost made it and all she needed to make it to the ground was one final leap..........in her excitement, she tried jumping off the ladder, and in the process her hind legs got trapped under the weight of the equipment......she shrieked out in pain.....I tried to lift the weight up from her legs and free her.....she knew she couldn’t let go and so inspite of the pain she somehow managed to free herself and jumped down to safety and freedom............!!!!!!!!!!!!! Judith cried out, “Thank your stars, you lucky little one”..............and all of us, the so called members of the rescue team, heaved a sigh of relief, satisfaction, happiness.......n utter joy...........and that was the triumphant and joyous end to the two hour long effort.............!!!!!

It was truly a moment that I will remember for life........words are not enough to express the feeling......the feeling of having succeeded in helping a distressed soul, and it was even more special to me as the soul in question here was one belonging to the afore mentioned group of “The four legged beings”. I have been an animal lover all my life, and anything to do with animals has always made me happy. There have been other such instances in the past, wherein I have tried to lend a helping hand to this community........at times I have succeeded and sadly at times, I have also failed.........but this one will always remain close to my heart......it created a bond of unseen trust between us and the little pooch, and a new bond of friendship between two families.......this is how we ushered in Valentine’s Day, 2010......for me a “Celebration of Love”, in the true sense of the words.

P.S.: Special thanks to Anil and Judith, the God sent angels, without whose help, this wouldn’t have been possible.

A Beginning.....

Blogging.....a term almost everyone is familiar with and a process most people are involved in these days..........

Blogging, or should I say, a Blog has been defined by Wikipedia as follows -

A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

As an individual, I am a regular follower of the blogs written by others, be it my friends, famous personalities or anyone else.....I also make sure that I voice my approbation for the work whenever I happen to like one........but at all times that I would be involved in reading or applauding the works of another, a thought that always crossed my mind was - when would I come up with one of my own.......? The reason behind not having done that for so long........hmmm, let me see.....the possibilities - i) Wasn’t very confident about my writing skills, ii) Lack of Time, iii) Lack of the will to do so, call it laziness if you wish to..........well the first reason doesn’t sound very convincing, for the simple reason that at one point of time, to be specific, during my days at NIT, I was actually into a lot of writing, and more often than not I had also managed to grab the attention of people as well as a considerable amount of admiration for my work........now moving on to the second, lack of time - well if I was to agree to this reason, I would be cheating myself for I am totally aware of the colossal amount of free time that was available to me, atleast in this last one year, and shamefully enough a huge chunk of that was spent sitting in front of the “Idiot Box”...so, reason no.2 ruled out without an ounce of doubt................so that leaves us with, reason no. 3 - Laziness....i.e., a disinclination to activity or exertion despite having the ability to do so - courtesy, Wikipedia. Although I hate to admit it, but I am one belonging to the class of people termed as “The Lazy Lot”......at times I feel life could have been a lot more different than what it is, had I not been the lazy chap that I have been on many occasions in life.

But, as they say, “Better Late Than Never”.......so here I go, my first attempt at “BLOGGING” begins right here........