serendipity

Serendipity is the lucky discovery of an object that you were not looking for by accident. Our world teems with such examples..penicillin, america and what not...you name it..and it was probably more of serendipity than a focussed search.

Now, I might be wrong, but I believe that our universe is also a result of serendipity. And out of this is born the fundamentality of probability. Everything is not deterministic as we would likt them to be. And whatever we perceive to be deterministic always has some amount of probability intrinsic to it however we may try to ignore.

This leads me to ask, is it the deterministic nature nature of the universe which leads to serendipity or the probabilistic nature?

Had it been a completely probabilistic Universe, it would be child's play to convince ourselves about the serendipity. Serendipity is an embodiment of the chance - the very basis of the probabilistic theory.

So, now the real question is whether Deterministic Theory account for serendipity. Now any layman might raise this very valid question, if the universe is deterministic, there is no chance then how can serendipity be applicable. I would tell him thus, It is the determinism in this universe which ensures that a person does what is expected of him in spite of the million decision he takes to avoid it. All the what if's that could have gone the other way went the other way but still he managed to come back to the right road? that would be the essential nature of the deterministic world again. The end has to be predetermined and certain in spite of any deviations that may occur in between.

Serendipity may be borne out of either universes but it is an essential part of our life and this is what makes our life infinitely more interesting even amidst our drab daily activities.

Imperfection lets us appreciate perfection

This thought struck me when I stood in front of a lush green lawn, fresh after a morning rain. My friend commented that It was the greenest grass he had ever seen. That thought kept bugging me until I comprehended a very important human notion of comparison. We love to compare objects and their traits. When we say how blue the sky is, we are implicitly comparing it with a mental image of the bluest sky we remember seeing.

We say how beautiful she looks..or how cute the baby looks! They all imply comparison albeit done implicitly and unconsciously. Although we sometimes pay them compliments to conform with the appropriate societal forms and requirements, it still incites us to compare this situation with a familiar one in the past or with an ideal situation we have in our utopian imagination.

But within all this lies the fundamental weakness of our being imperfect and our inability to make judgements without comparison. The goodness of an object in every sense should not be the result of a comparison but an appreciation of the object's own intrinsic beauty and value. It should not be the byproduct of a skewed comparison between two situations which we perceive to be fundamentally alike.

Another very important issue that could be raised here is that if everything were perfect, then we would all be good and no-one will be better and none the best. We would all be spitting images of God himself and we would all be the same in every sense. It is the small imperfections and shortcomings in us that makes us all different. Unbelievably, it is the small quirk in the mouth, or the twitchy jawline that makes us imperfect, which in turn allows in all to appreciate perfection when we see it. Some appreciate the perfection, some covet it, others desire it, but only some truly have it. But what very few might have is the ability to see others perfection and appreciate it, without belittling others or even themselves. We appreciate beauty at the cost of considering ourselves imperfect which in itself is a crime against your own conscience, but it is the cost we pay for comparing others with our own sense of perfection.

Perfect is not a idea, it is neither a goal, it is simply a state of mind.

Ethics

This is a so-very-common word we come across in our lives. So many other words have been built around it too like conscientiousness, conscience, values and value systems. It is a tragedy that we have such a rigid structured system of ethics that even the slightest perception of anyone deviating from it is considered a social faux-pas in the least and a crime in most cases.

Ethics have been ingrained in us since our childhood. We are supposed to imbibe ethics into every walk of our life. Even while writing this article/blog I have to be consciously aware if I am being politically correct and if anything here is taking a dig at some one.

We sometimes need to forgo ethics in situations of extreme urgency or extreme complications, but we are still held responsible for our actions and are looked down upon. But this is to all the two-faced hypocrites I direct this to : Do you flinch when you speak two facedly? Have you ever thought for a moment the purport of your actions on others?

If we committing an unethical action is a crime then hypocrisy is a felony which has no excuse.

Random thoughts

In this sombre mood, when I get too philosophical, the strangest of stories come back to me.
There was this once when I read somewhere that Love was more enjoyable when it was not yours to take, but yours to give.
When you have loved someone for most of what you can remember of your life, he states enigmatically that, you will love her more because she was unattainable and her fey attractions will always be more enticing and enduring than if we were the object of their love.
However stupid it may sound it rings true everytime I think about it. For instance, didn't the toy in the shelf, the one your mum wouldn't buy you look more enticing than the one you already had at home?
Doesn't that car look amazing? But once you own it all sense of awe and wonder disappears over a week. What happened to that girl you so desperately loved after she agreed to go out with you?
Do all things lose their wonder we held for them once we have it?
Food for thought!

even better!!

Today it was the classic case of - if I don't listen you, how will you bore my ears off me?
Listening to people droning on sometimes brings on a comatose state that is so strongly soporific that it is just too irresistible to put our head down on the table and snore softly.
So I take to writing furiously whatever is up one the board or whatever sense I find in the monotone that I hear. It is a terrific remedy to counter the sleepiness that permeates the class.
And looking around the class to see the fretful spastic movements of my friends I can safely surmise that they're up to no good too.

A bland face is one that works very well in class in which you have no idea what is going on where and when. And it earns you some sympathy from the professor too. But all that is utterly useless when the professor himself turns around, not only himself but the podium too! He addresses the board as if it was the most receptive audience and looks back at us only to impress upon a point that he thinks we should appreciate.

But as you get used to the schedule you drift off and think how nice it would be to come up with another a real anecdote about someone who talks to a wall instead of an audience.

should i? shall you?

No this is not a way to propose a girl. Nor is it a question to an examiner. It is an inner conversation between the mind and the heart. The mind is a cold and calculative and the heart is warm and empathic and emotional. Not sensitive but emotional.
For all those who dare to deny this, I ask you, have you ever loved a woman (or a man for that matter if you are a woman)? If you have then either you are lucky to have a woman(man) who loves you too much to be with a man(woman) who doesn't love her(him).

This is a simple story of the heart asking whether it should do what it does best and the brain calculating the possible consequences and arriving at the most likely conclusions. Then asks the heart again, shall you? Heart as we all know is a fickle thing. Be it in a man or a woman. Hearts change in a matter of seconds if allowed to. How many of us get cold feet moments before climbing on a stage?

But hearts are also the reasons we make the most mistakes in our lives. We give up what would have been good and take up what is bad. But it is after all a heart and not a brain and we learn to live with it. Hearts are why our lives are not lived like machines. It is why we lead colorful lives. It is what that lends joys and sorrows to make our lives more meaningful.

For all the people who rely more on their vaunted brains educated and trained in prestigious colleges, please use the heart. It'll make everyday a new day. To all my friends - learn to think with your heart. Perhaps we shall make mistakes that we shall remember, but they will be worth more than the correct decisions we took and forgot.

Latest class fiasco

"Talk to the hand!! " that seems to be the worst kind of insult anyone can throw at a stranger without abusing him. But it was taken to new heights today with the professor talking to the foot the whole while. It was a comical one hour trying to catch his eye. Ever tried catching the eye of a sleeping man? This was probably harder even though our highly qualified professor had his eyes wide open.

With a monotone going on in the background it was hard not to let our eyes drift out of the class to the beautiful soft rain outside. The lush green grass was a much better sight than the drab earthy colors one could see inside. With noone to keep a check at the what the class was doing we students were left to our own resources. Conversations were carried out with hands and eyes and some even resorted to outrageous hand gestures. Some took to the more profitable activity of "sleeping in the class" and took it to new heights in the comfort of a suitable cushioned arm chair. That there was the cool breeze with a soft fragrance of the wet grass was a luxury, few would like to miss.

But all good things come to an end and so did the siesta.
By the way the class was called ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR.. !!

about beautiful sunrises hidden behind clouds

Its still dark when you wake up and rub the sleep off your eyes. You check your watch again and realize its dark because the sun is hidden behind a veil of black clouds and its pouring softly outside.

There is an ethereal stillness. And you grudgingly let go of the bedlinen, swing over your still numb legs over the side and into the sandals. A slight jolt as you realise the sandals are damp. you grope your way to the bathroom and turn on the lights and look at yourself all bedraggled with hair standing out at odd angles. With a resigned sigh you take up your toothbrush and with unfeeling fingers squeeze some paste onto it. Then with the daily practiced motions we start brushing our teeth and lose ourselves in a semi dreamy state..and we wonder..

Behind those clouds was there a brilliant sunrise?Were there birds chirping in other cities which were witnessing the sunrise that you missed? Maybe in another city there is a person just like you, but he woke up to a brilliant sunrise and dry sandals! To him the birds would chirp and sing and brighten his day. He'd be humming happily as he prepared his breakfast and got ready.

Drawing parallels, this is just a scene where the same sun rose and ushered in the morning to a new day, but where one person woke up to a dank and dark morning just because some dark clouds hid the brilliant sun while another rose to a crimson sunrise.

There are many incidents in our lives which sometimes are masked by rather unpleasant happenings. (This in no way suggests that rains are unwelcome or bad-on the contrary, I love rains-but as a portrayal of how it can change someone's perception about the mornings) We would have to learn to look past the dark clouds and learn to find the silver lining and live our lives which are meaningful. Who knows there might just be a brilliant sunrise waiting to wake us up the very next day. After all clouds don't last forever.

coming home

Its has taken me nearly five days to recuperate enough to compare the two places I've called home the past four years. Bhopal and Guwahati are as different in climates as they are in the people they house. Where its the bluest of skies from dawn to dusk in Bhopal, it is almost impossible to come across a patch of blue when one looks up in Guwahati. The air is moist and humid and breezy in Guwahati but in Bhopal we had to take care not to expose our skin to the elements to escape the dryness and the searing heat of the hot wind that blows across the land. The sunlight is harsh and unforgiving as the desert in Bhopal but in Guwahati it is a pleasant warmth.

But most of all the people are different. People in Guwahati are soft spoken and helpful whereas in Bhopal they would be raucous and indifferent and too rude to even bother.

However there were some people in Bhopal I call friends, with whom I shared some good times and some of the best moments and without them Bhopal seems as inhospitable as the uninhabited Tundra even with the multitude of people there. Here in Guwahati I have a few friends from the olden times but it doesn't seem so inhospitable.

Under cloudy skies threatening rain every second I take some time to think back to the time when even the worst of weather and environment felt hospitable and in fact welcoming just for the "friends" and on the contrary the best of pleasant weather here feels as alien without the same friends.

I truly salute the good men I stayed with for four years of my life and whom I now wish the best in their lives.

leaving the hostel

It seems only a few weeks ago when we first stepped in to the hostels. Most of us had no previous experience of staying in hostels and were intimidated at first with the prospect of staying together. But for all of us it has been a learning experience filled with tons of happiness and camaraderie. For all the trying times we have all faced there have been equal or more fun filled moments which will be cherished for a long time to come.

We came to our rooms with some clothes and some dreams. Now we leave with some of the dreams fulfilled, new clothes (most of the old ones having been donated or lost) and new dreams and most important of all- so many memories. Happy ones which bring a nostalgic smile a dreamy stare, sad one which bring a tear and a crooked smile embarrassing moments which bring a mocking smile and the stupid grin on our faces. But these memories help us navigate the darkest hours and will probably be the silver linings of all our future lives.

Leaving friends at the end of these four years- eventful four years-friends you shared some indelible memories is a painful experience. But the thought that once in your future we shall meet again in some corner of the world where our paths are destined to cross is what keeps us going. When we say our goodbyes we do not even know whether we shall see them again for the rest of our lives, but the believe that we shall helps us make it through.

To all my friends (who i know will never read this post) I salute you all at your talents and your thank you all for your friendship.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being there at my darkest hours. I salute you.

I am grateful to this college not for making me who I am but for introducing me to such people and making them my friends.

I hope I shall one day in some way repay you all in kind and tell you all how much I have loved you all.

two guys one gal

This is perhaps one of the oldest paradoxes and the most debated and fought over.

In societies this is the one of the basis of life. Males fight it out among themselves for the female.

Today's society had only served to make this struggle more sophisticated. Guys fight over the gal in all walks of life, from better jobs to better lifestyle, from better gifts to the most expensive gifts, from the strutting to the swaggers he does it all. He does anything to attract her attention and goes to great lengths to please her and have her favors.

What he does is no different than muscling the other males out in some way or the other. But what if the two males are friends and very good ones at that? This sees many interesting results. Where one guy gives up the girl for the friend putting comradeship and love for both of them ahead of his love for the gal we have at the opposition to this where the guys turn into foes.

But this all leads to an inescapable fact that only one of them can have the girl. This is the paradox of today's world. She can be a friend to one and be the wife to the other.

Selfish as it may sound and self centred this probably leads to a more stable social structure and a closer knit family structure in today's world.

But when the one woman you loved betrays the guy after all the promises imagine what goes through the psyche of the man. Traditionally it was always the woman who was supposed to be the weaker in matters of the heart but today it seems the situation has changed slowly and subtly where masochism has replaced the laconic outlook of the man which sees so many men who have evolved in to the modern versions of "devdas" what we call charras.

guys and gals

"Hi!" This comes easily to us for addressing friends. For us guys, we might be foul mouthed, unsophisticated, brutish, rough around the edges, but whatever faults we may have, we find it easy to say hi to the person in front of us. Even in the worst cases of enmity we still manage a stern "hi" to each other. We talk to anyone we know or not know, for that matter.Even if a man stole another's wife both will talk albeit in an estranged way. Conversation may be strained but will carry on.

But in case of us conversing gals the most many of us can manage is a fretful "hi". A suffocated coughing sound that sounds like one most of the times.
And there exist a million reasons to not talk to a female friend. From shyness to the arrogance, unfamiliarity to difference of thoughts, there are a million barriers for us to cross.

Sometimes we just let them be and enjoy a peaceful moment on their own. We quietly pass by without the acknowledgment.

Here I am writing something that popped into my head suddenly..

Its strange, is it not?

The things we remember

From the good ol' times.

Not the Rain,

But the Splash

on the way back.

Not the letter,

But the handwriting

On the Envelope.

Not the chatter,

But the tone

On the phone.

Not the fights,

But the looks

Afterwards.

Not the gifts,

But the thanks

Effusive and heartfelt.

Not the name,

but the smile

on her face everytime.

long lost friends and of new friends

Many of us might be tempted to say friends are friends..That they are the mirrors we can see ourselves in. That they are treasures.

But haven't we come across situations many a times when long lost friends have been hard to talk to? when your "langotia yaar" the childhood friends are the ones you find the hardest to talk to. When your new friends are easier to talk and connect to, have we ever paused to inspect what was lost on the way?

Have we ever wondered what it is that creates this growing divide between the best of friends when we lose touch? Why is it that an awkwardness grows between us? Why is it that we find hard to share our thoughts and feelings with the person we used to trust the most at some point of time?

Mysterious as it may sound, the explanation is as simple as opening of a door. We open the locked doors to the old feelings and gradually we open up to them...

But opening old rusty hinges isn't easy especially when these doors hide our past demons.

the results

Well there is good news and bad news...Didn't some saint say there are two sides to any news-the good and the bad.

Well I made it through the ordeal safe and sound but I didn't make it.

Which puts me in a tricky position.

Whatever be the course of my future, I know one thing for certain, I will always enjoy each moment of my life. I shall relish my failures with the same intensity as I would my successes.

One setback does not mean the end of the world. I would be delayed not stopped. And this delay I will make useful to ends unimaginable.

Let us see what the future shall hold for us.

..the awakening..

The results have been declared. And the page doesn't open for me...why? Is it because I didn't make it and its His way of saving me the pain and embarrassment? Or is it a genuine hitch?

Or is it divine intervention to insure that i have a good test tomorrow?

I do not know. But one thing I am aware of, should I make it through this ordeal hale and hearty I would relish this moment. Life as we know it is full of tension and strain that we fail to relish our sweet success and learn from our failures.

We go through our lives so fast we do not even register our success and failures but zoom past them in our hurry. Life is in the miniscules, and not in the gigantics... It is lived in small measures and enjoyed in full. If one chews off more than he can bite what taste will linger on? Will it be the taste of emptiness that would be profound after such excess or will it be that of failure to relish the taste of that sumptuous soup?

Bite chew relish and the gulp down every instant of your life.

Dont you worry about the failures because without them there shall be nothing to differentiate your success from.

Perfect Plaza

The other day I passed by a Mall whose name read "Perfect Plaza". It struck me right there on the road, the implication of such a name. Was it a Plaza which was perfect in all respects? Or was it simply referring to the fact that the building was the perfect definition of a plaza?

Or was being perfect was just as natural to it as it was to include it in its name?

It was a thought provoking ride to say the least. And the ideas and thoughts of the person who named it so plagued my mind until I had no other option but to put it in writing and thinking out loud..

posing for photos

At the beginning itself let me make it clear that I am not opposed to anything I write here or for that matter support it.

For many of us "the camera" is always an inseparable part of our luggage wherever we go, even to the party down the street. Some of us miss our camera so much we borrow someone else' and take snaps with it!
A variety of reasons are cited for this behavior, ranging from the want to preserver memories to passion for still moments. But lets try and answer a basic question here, isn't being behind the camera betray one's desire to not be there in front of it? Doesn't it seem like trying to be behind the scenes?
Another line of thought arises here. Before there were cameras there was still art. Artists of renown were hired to paint stills of the scene and such. But they were the natural settings which caught the artist's imagination. But today we have photos taken where we intentionally pose for it! Ever wondered why the lady in the beautiful dress looks so beautiful? or the handsome man looks so irresistible? They are intentionally posing in ways they know will make them look better.

And gullible as we are we are drawn towards the photos. Photographs are all about remembering the scenes as they were not artificially making up scenes we would want to remember. For instance the other day we were at this beautiful lakeside. And some of us were admiring the lake. But soon the commotion behind us was not that of the beautiful sunset that one would want to remember but posing for photographs. Would you have liked to remember the beautiful sunset with cherished friends admiring it or would you prefer your friends jumping around making a mockery of the sunset?

While we were returning a cute little child wandered off from his parents and was smiling at us. We like the posers guild burst into a flurry of activity and were hustling around for the best positions to be in with the kid in front of flashing lights going off. It was no less than a Hollywood movie premiere night's flashing with only two cameras.
The child looks natural in his smiles but there were two broad artificial ones on both sides of him. So is that "picture perfect" or picture "tried-to-make" perfect?

They say, to understand the worth of a decade ask the entrepreneur whose ideas were ahead of time. To understand the worth of a year ask the student who fails. To understand the worth of a month ask the lady who delivered the child prematurely. To understand the worth of a day ask the clerk who has to submit a report. To understand the worth of an hour ask the candidate who takes the test. To understand the worth of a minute ask the passenger who missed the train. To understand the worth of a second ask the man who averted an accident. To understand the worth of a millisecond ask the silver medallist.

But I say, to understand the worth of timing it right ask the man who could never ask a girl out.

A year too late in college. She is with someone now!

A month late? sorry she moved on.

A day late? sorry she just broke up and there is someone comforting her.

An hour late? She is talking a bath.

A Minute late? She is on the phone.

A second late? someone else caught her eye.

Need I say more?

"You know how hot it gets in here" was what I heard when I boarded the train. The next was "water is getting scarce here". Then time seemed to lose itself as we all started the routine of trying to make the jigsaw of all the luggage fit in the space provided. After the scuffle I found myself in a window seat.

And to prove the man wrong the A.C. started up and we all heaved a sigh of relief. Soon the banter was resumed and I looked out of the window. The train had begun its ritual of hootings and false starts. There as we passed by a train that had just come to a stop, I noticed a man who was relieving himself against the engine. Now I am not presuming he is a terrorist who is trying to deliberately sabotage the engine, but it does reflect a certain irony in demeaning the engineering marvel which will take him places!

For all the laymanship he may lay claim to, his conscience failed to register the fact that the engine was the sole reason the train moved. My cynicism says he was deliberately being stupid. And my intelligence says he was trying to prove a point. Take your pick..

to best or to be the best?

Just a day before Holi is not the time when you normally expect to get the results from IIM's especially with their results being postponed every time they were about to release them! But fate it seems had a different plan to make and break this year's Holi-day with unexpected adherence to the timeline from the team in charge of declaring the results.

Just as many people were shocked as those who knew their fates were sealed. Happy faces and sad faces and some very shocked faces were seen. It was a journey through hade and those who survived to tell of their tale seem to be facing a monster in the path now. Perhaps the last monster they will ever perceive in their paths ever again in their lives.

Being branded as an Indian Management student from IIM especially a former engineer seems to hold a different value, what with the word "Indian" signifying Advanced Mental Capability, Management signifying "MBA" and the acronym IIM doing all the magic. But with the tail end engineer seems to beg the question IIT? But even if the reply is in the negative an NIT is quite something and so is BITS or VIT or Manipal. Now that I am in receipt of the invitation letter, which incidentally is another shock at having received such short notice for their interviews, let me sign off.

XoXo.. Take care

Ex-es and New ones

How does it feel to talk to an Ex? Especially when she hasn't spoken word to you in the last two years? Weird? That's an understatement as any that can be imagined. And when there is accusation in all the sentences she said, you start wondering if you had starting imagining things and emotions that weren't there. Or if you were reading more into whatever that was said and creating things out of thin air and reading between the lines where there was nothing to be read.

It makes a mess out of you. You wonder if you had made the right call when you broke up with her.
You thought you two had an amiable break up but it turns out to be a bad one. She took it badly and then all hell breaks loose.

You think that there is some hidden motive behind that quick chat. Your imagination kicks into overdrive and all the bizarre ideas start chasing each other in your mind. Each idea, each sentence starts off a memory. It seems unreal and so unworldly that your skin starts crawling and you look back to remember to see if there was anything of significance that you missed. And when she leaves all too suddenly, you go through the chat again to see if you behaved badly or if all the things in your head have a basis, if there was anything that you missed to notice, if there were any hints there that you should not have missed, if you said something that might have brought back painful memories.

It is a nightmare when something like this catches up unawares. It leaves you uncomfortable with yourself and leaves you wondering why did you even break up with them. Because you realize whatever the reason for the break up, You DID actually LOVE them at some point of your life and THAT cannot be erased, however hard you try. And that you can try to block the feelings but you can never be at peace with yourself. That is how one loses one's innocence with a rude shock in wait.

exam hall

Imagine yourself sitting in the exam hall. Not very good memories, are they? And if you haven't prepared well, it is a nightmare. What if you don't understand a single question in the question paper? Unreal!

Look around, and you see the others scribbling away furiously as if there is no time to waste, and it gnaws at your belly like nothing else. A tight knot forms there and you start wondering what prompted you to waste those precious couple of hours playing games or whiling the time away watching movies you have already watched twice or perhaps thrice. Or why you were so interested in the magazine that you just bought. Or just looking up friends to chat up online.

And when you come out of the reverie you see that the minute hand has already traversed a quarter of the hour you are allowed. Then looking down you see the page lying there blank and unmarked and you start wondering what you can write that will seem relevant and will not give you away to the professor that you are fishing around for the answers.

Of course having unhelpful classmates sitting around you is a big letdown. But then long channels of communication have to be established and clandestine information is passed to and fro. And then you discover that the persons who are scribbling away have no more idea than you do about the question asked, but are not stupid enough to let anyone else know that. And then your eyes wander and catch those of a sympathetic friend who is in the same shoes and both of you smile and get out of the class leaving an empty answer script behind with a note saying, "I studied although I don't remember any of that now. Am going to visit a doctor."

XoXo... :P

basic computer education

With the advent of computers in every nook and corner of the office and homes and business, most of us only know how to use it in the most primitive way. We mouse over icons and use the keyboard only to type the mails and to chat. But how many of us know how to operate a computer without using a mouse at all? And how man of us know how to install and uninstall the even simple programs?

These are meant to be user friendly but we still call up our resident technician for the most basic installation because we are afraid we will ruin our machine. We are not afraid when that heavy fingered and heavy handed tech sits on our system and bangs around. But we are averse to tinkering around with it!

What if one day all it does to make a living is to know how to install software and know how to switch on the computer and how to turn it off?

The past few days have been unreal. Hitting highs and lows quicker than one could exult or moan . Half hearted moments were few and in between. And amidst them all I was expected to function as a superb machine. Isn't it our emotions and feelings that separate us from machines?

Perhaps emotions are hard to show for some of us, but that does not mean we are devoid of emotions. We would be fools to not feel what we feel and even bigger fools to not express, simply out of some misplaced and convoluted sense of righteousness or gallantry.

Were it not for our own process of evolution perhaps we'd be someone else who was more comfortable with their expressionless and emotionless society, but as fate would have it we are humans and fraternity based on emotional bonding are an integral part of our innate behavior.

After all, who would not want to talk to someone sitting next to you, and who wouldn't if it was a she, a pretty she at that??

14th of February contd..

And so the story goes on..

It seems I was premature in signing off today's post. In the past four years today must have been the best valentine's day for me :) Oh! Did I write four? Its closer to fourteen.

We have our good days and the bad days. Inevitably I made all my valentine's days worse. But today someone up there seems to have had different plans for me.

I heard an interesting story a few years ago from a person i'd like to call my 'friend'. He had lost in love but was still happy. He told me a secret that day.

I believe I finally understood what he told me that day. Its nice to be in love and the feeling is wonderful. But one has to know loss to know love truly.

Thank you my benefactor wherever you are. It was disheartening but oddly infinitely more satisfying. Perhaps am just wallowing in self pity and this dictum is a perfect example of a rejection. But it heals the mind and soul.

14th of February

This date, more commonly known as Valentine's Day, seems to have become the most important date this year. Legends have it that a certain benevolent saint by the name St. Velentine wedded a couple who were forbidden by their family.

Whether we choose to believe rests on each person's opinion. Perhaps the very fact that there exists a day solely to celebrate love is the way it was planned initially. And for that we all celebrate it in its true form.

But in today's world love is not all as some songs seem to suggest. One can't eat and drink love. One needs money. In olden times the couple could elope settle down far off and make a living for themselves. Today no place is far enough. And one finds it difficult to sustain oneself. Today is a different world.

It was ironical that today when some couples might be holding hands and professing their love for one another, some serious students took a more practical view of life and took the GATE test. It will further their career and deepen their purses.

Won't the chummery of gals follow the purses?