Serendipity

Dreams fulfilled. Prayers answered. Smiles,laughter,cheers all around. Extreme ecstasy. Drunk in happiness, delirious in joy. Am I exaggerating? Naah! I don't think so. It WAS a Night to Remember. When an entire nation which had, for weeks, held its breath, hands folded in prayer, fingers crossed in anticipation let out a triumphant roar. It was a sort of victory where every common man felt like an equal winner, everyone had the freedom to share in that indescribable feeling of having the world at their feet. True it would make no difference to their mundane daily existence, it would not swell their bank coffers by even a penny, but for a nation which thrives on passion and emotions (which sometimes borders on plain hysteria) it was the feeling that counted. The right to proudly proclaim  "We are the best in the world", never mind that this 'world' comprised of only a motley group of twelve to fourteen cricket-playing nations. When each day's morning...

The latest stuff on my must-watch list these days are Disney's Silly Symphonies. Being silly has never been so rewarding before! Brilliant in conceptualization,masterful in execution, imagination soaring to unprecedented heights - little stories and priceless lessons all wrapped up in a stunning parade of colors and melodies. "Adorable" and "Oh so sweet" are just a few of my oft-repeated exclamations as I watch these shorts back to back. For more information,anecdotes and trivia on one of the most amazing creations of Walt Disney Studios refer to these two links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_Symphonies http://www.disneyshorts.org/miscellaneous/silly.html Seventy-five different Silly Symphonies were created over a ten year span (1929-1939). I have watched only about twenty till now, so I have a long way to go. I will decide on my favorites once I am done with the entire series. However, some of the shorts which tugged at my heartstrings just a ...

"Life's greatest tragedy is not getting what you want but not knowing what you want."  I came across a dialogue on similar lines in some English movie few days back. And couldn't help but draw a parallel with my life, the way it starts off towards a destination, only to realize half way through that it was but a mirage. Previously I used to wonder when people complimented colleagues,friends with an appreciative “He knows what he wants.”  “What’s the big deal in that?”, used to be my take on such a comment. Don’t we all know what we want! Unfortunately, the answer is no. The road ahead becomes much more clear and easy to traverse when we have a clear picture of the destination ahead. From school till college, it was somewhat easy, though totally predictable, following some standard norms. Easy because 'out-of-the-box' thinking was not mandatory and one could manage to get along without it. Score high in the standard ten b...

I did something quite crazy yesterday and surprisingly it made me really happy and pleased. I applied for some online writing jobs yesterday! I duly created a profile filled with sundry details, submitted it and then the site asked me to give a short test of thirty minutes duration. Fifteen minutes of prepositions,verbs etc and another fifteen minutes of writing a short essay about the country I had always wanted to visit. (I wrote about Italy) The grammar part was a piece of cake,the second part had a catch though,I had to judiciously use some prescribed keywords. I am awaiting the results of the test now!  All pretty normal and sane till now. Then,after the completion of the test,I had to list my previous experiences, provide details about the writing style I am comfortable with and the one where I think I require further training. My short answers to the above mentioned queries were ‘abstract’ and ‘objective’ respectively,if at all they in...

A friend in high school had once narrated an amusing anecdote about her Math tuition classes. Her teacher had explained a particular concept and had asked them to learn the related formulae by heart, learn them so well that they (the students) would be able to rattle them off at the snap of a finger at any time and at any place. To emphasize this part he had, apparently, given them quite a vivid example. "Suppose someone pushes you from the top of a thirty-storey building and in the midst of your free fall, a person pokes his head out of a fifteenth-storey window and asks you the formulae, you should be able to say them as fluently as you can sitting in my class " Well, speaking for myself, I don’t trust myself with formulae in such a cliffhanger of such a situation. However there is something which can be my forte in such a predicament. Leaving aside jumping from tall buildings, I’m pretty sure that if I am ever woken up on a freezing winter morning and asked to recite t...

A short note before I begin: An  essay I wrote in my school years comes back to life in this new Avatar! It was in all probability the year 1999 or 2000 and I wrote this piece on a whim a couple of months before my final exams. I remember it was autumn and I was studying for the exams when all of a sudden an idea struck me and  I got down to work on it before it flew away! I used to count this as my finest piece of work in those days,in fact, I still hold a special affinity towards it. I have refrained from making any modifications to it because I wanted to see how I have evolved over the years,whether I still feel the same about certain things in life,whether I still possess similar longings and desires. The entire essay is just the same as I wrote it years back and I have retained the title too! And yes,I still can strongly identify with the wishes of my younger self. As I sit by the window, my thirsty eyes eager to catch a glimpse of unadulterated blue among the m...

" See Jehane...I remembered the roses ."  These poignant words form an abiding part of my childhood memories. It is not as if I have always remembered this line or the story it came from. But,sometimes, like a ray of glimmering sunlight through dark clouds,or like the melody of a long-forgotten song, it used to come back me to me,crystal clear. It still does... It was in the early '90s. My elder sister was in standard ten, preparing for her public exams. Her English curriculum comprised of this book called 'A Treasury of Short Stories'. I was probably in standard three or four, and devouring her English books counted as one of my favorite occupations.This story was featured last in that book. The name 'Remember the Roses' immediately struck a cord in my heart. I found something very beautiful,yet heartbreaking, very close yet intangible in this name. What added a touch of mystery and enigma to this alluring title was the fact that information on th...