Auto Rickshaws and Me

I have a strange relationship with auto-rikshaws. Since childhood, I am constantly bumping on Autos everywhere I found them!


When I was 14, my dad brought me a new lavendar miss India cycle. With all joy and confidence I was ready to take her home! So, I was on my new cycle, mom and dad on scooter (yeah my favorite hamara bajaj), we reached near home. Much busy admiring my "miss india", I failed to notice the auto coming from opposite side and the next minute I was below auto. That was a first clash (Of course for my cycle. For me it might me 100th or 200th perhaps), gave a broken front basket and a bent in front-wheel. 
My cycle's first ride took her to garage instead of home!


After a month when I was going to school on cycle, I fell in love with another auto and did a fantastic dhoom stunt on a narrow road. This resulted in 1 week of leave due to scratched right leg from knee to toe. But by then it was routine for my teachers since 1 week of leave was still manageable compared to 1 month leave of previous year and 40 days for the year before that! Thanks to my self destructive habits.


It was a saree day during second year and my friend came to pick me up for college. She was on scooty and I insisted to drive. We reached main road, constantly chattering, going parallel with one Auto. Suddenly the autowala realized that he should be driving from left side of the road and without looking anywhere he turned left! I lost my balance, as a reflex action turned right and did ride scooty on a traffic police who was just standing there. All three of us were lying on ground and scooty went ahead to crash upon a wall. My friend got scared and I was still trying to figure out what happened exactly. However, police uncle are not bad all the time. Considering our "Decent" faces and saarees, instead of asking for fine, he gave us a polite smile and asked if we needed any help ;)


After coming to Pune as well, there was no change in this relationship. In-fact this time it created better impact. During my initial days in Pune, my company bus crashed an auto once in Kothrud.


Later on when I brought a new streak, went to Laxmi Road with my bro sitting behind me. (Now don't ask me how Puneits can manage to drive on a place like Laxmi road as when you stay in Pune, you get all the answers.) So we were going through a crowd and an autowala came from (god only knows from which) galli and tried to overtake us. But a Maruti 800 blocked both of us and while trying to apply breaks to my streak, my bro was inside the Auto! (I wish if there was any cute girl in auto, my bro might have taken a chance over there. but there was one Aunty sitting, so I had to take all the blaim on me)


The reason I remembered all this today is (yeah you guessed it right), it was my "fall for Rickshaw" day today! While coming to office in the morning, I helped a garagewala to earn a few bucks by breaking that Auto's headlight.


Now what could be the possible reasons that I choose only Autos to collide? Hmm I got them...
1. Their wierd shape : I don't get judgement of Auto's triangular shape while driving!
2. Autowalas rarely use side mirrors while turning left or right... and have you ever noticed any autowala giving you a signal that it's gonna take a turn?
3. Some autos always keep right even on heavy traffic roads. I wonder why dont they consider a maximum speed an Indian auto can have is 45-50 km/hr?


Interesting! let me know if you find any other reasons and also if there are any suggestions to avoid collisions with autos!

Rules again, this time not mine!

My husband believes in rules and that rules are meant to be followed. 

With little or no exceptions, he follows each and every rule he comes across.

He is always on time. If anything says "Do Not!", he absolutely does not. 

In fact he keeps on saying "you should not!"

I am kind of Rule Breaker Questioner. 

I drive the maximum speed limit. I often sometimes neglect stop signs. 

I am always running late. If anything says "Do Not!" I consider it as a dare.
and I keep on saying "big deal!"

Clearly no one of us is right or wrong here although I am right. 

What I feel is, if you always walk on marked path and never get off it, you will miss the flowers, birds and delights that haven't been stepped on. You might never know what surprises may be waiting just off the beaten path!

Sometimes, walking the straight & narrow path sucks the fun out of life.
Some rules....are meant to be bent.

I'm right 97% of the time, the other 4% doesn't matter.   :)

My Life, My Rules!

A look at everything between life and death, day and night, you and me!

Life is all colours. colours of day, of fun, of work, of emotions, of relations, of songs, of lyrics, of paintings. Everthing has a different colour which is not same everyday. However every colour for that particular moment is fixed somehow by someone. Everything happens for a reason and it's not our business to get to the bottom of that reason. Leave reason, make your own move.

Life is loving. No matter what happend in past and what's gonna happen in future, life still loves you. Even if you think no one loves you, life is still there which loves you, warms you and invites you to live. The person you were is safely frozen in the abyss of time. It's up to you to be the person you want to be. Lock your past and lose the painful key for tomorrow is another day. And tomorrow will be better, tomorrow you will be better.

Life is random. When time freezes and you have no hope left, you stare at that blank wall and cry, making the pillow uncomfortably wet. You are shaken back into existence of money and materialism in spite of all your precious emotional agitation realizing, "Ohh, I hate sleeping on a soggy pillow" !  :)

Trivia reminds you to take it easy, to go with the flow and keep the faith. Randomness is what makes life interesting and vibrant.

And, it's not my life and my rules, it's my life that rules :)

                                                                                        

                                       - Inspired by one of the posts by a friend.

Get the life and paint it!

Since last few days, I was bored of life. I was on bench, had nothing to work on, same routine, same set of people around! I was not unhappy with life but something was missing and didn't know what. And a quick short trip to my home made me realize what the thing was.

My nephew was sketching a rainbow, he tried it several times. Each time, he drew a semicircle with 6 lines, filled them with colors, reviewed it and showed a dustbin. I went to him and checked the latest one, he had filled first four parts with the same color and mixed two more colors randomly in remaining 3 parts! I helped him with proper colors and his picture was ready.

I did the same with my life, filled the same color in major parts and mixed inappropriate colors to the remaining. And this was a cause of boredom! I should have given a different color to each aspect, may it be as a professional, as a friend, as a daughter, as a wife, as a good person, as a bad person and most importantly as ME.

Now it's time to paint life with new fresh colors, taking care of not mixing up these colors :) 

Off Astrology and Naadi Astrology....

"Hey, are you free tomorrow? I am going to KalyaniNagar in a Naadi Jyotishi center. Let me know if you wanna join me" - My best frnd.

I was a bit shocked on her question. My frnd is from a well-to-do family, graduated from a famous management institute and working with a top MNC. I wondered what could have dragged her to go on such superstitious things!

"Since when you started believing in all these things?", I asked her.
"Are it's awesome, my mom and aunt have got perfect readings and you know what, these people also suggest you various ways to improve ur future. I am impressed and gonna get mine details as well."
I was not in a mood to argue with her so denied to go but wished her a good luck (and a logical mind too!!!)

About an year ago, I first learned about Naadi Astrology and was fascinated by it's history (http://www.naadishastra.com). It is believed that, long time ago there were 18 rishis who recorded future predictions about everyone on palm leaves in ancient Tamil language. From generation to generation, these astrologers have kept these leaves safe and are available for those people who are destined to know about their record. Interesting ha...
My first obvious question was, how can my past, present and future be written on an old palm leave? Not only future but I can find the names of my parents, siblings, husband as well on these leaves. Now any logical person would think if it's really possible to note down the correct future of billions of people in the world, that too many years back!

So I concluded, I am not "destined" to get my record through Naadi Astrology and left that topic. But call from my frnd made me think over it again. For me, the thought of knowing my future is a bit scary. Besides, if god wanted us to be aware of our future, he would have made us capable of doing it. I personally believe, astrology, horoscopes are just the things created by a bunch of so called spiritual people to fool other innocent creatures. Even if I know my future today, what's the point as I can't change it. And if I somehow I can change my future, whats the point in knowing about it as it's not gonna happen?

Quite confusing!!! But now I am just waiting for my frnd's Naadi prediction results though :)

Bhag D K Bose!!!

Place : My company bus
Time : 8:30 AM


It was a boring monday morning again and resisting cloudy climate was making it more hard to get into the mood of office. In the bunch of some serious professionals (As I was sitting in the front side where only these type of people prefer to sit :S) and with FM broadcasting some pathetic movie songs, the morning sounded more dull. 


I decided to take a nap but as soon as I removed my headphones, I heard a typical women talk on my next seat. Two women were talking so loudly, it was hard to ignore them 


W1 : I am fed up of this work yaar, didnt even get any time to look at myself during the weekend. 
W2 : Hmm n same is d story at my end, had to shop for child as his school would start this week, a lot of laundry work plus kaamvali didn't come so had to do all the housework, it was pretty exausting!
W1 : Ohh, I had planned many things for this weekend but as we got those relatives at house, all plannings changed.
W2 : I wish we could get one more day in weekend. At home, everything is getting out of order and at office, project is burning. Have project delivery on wed and we are still doing these stupid changes.


while listening to this, I tried my best to take my attention away from them and concentrate on something else, as I knew this conversation is never gonna stop. But thanks to my luck (don't know if it was good or bad) I heard the same kinda conversation on the back seat, this time between two men!


M1 : Had to go for an interview last week, bacche ka admission lena tha! Saala khud ke liye kabhi itna prepare nahi kiya maine jitna iske admission ke liye karna pada! And the money I spent on my BE was less than the money I spent for his admission in nursery. Pata nahi aage kya honevala hai.
M2 : hehe ha I know man but believe me this is just the beginning. Still ur kid is in nursary, till the time he goes to college, I bet your bank balance will be less than your kid's pocket-money!


This was again more than enough. So I resisted my urge of getting involve in their conversation before it go on the track of inflation and growing rates.
Problems at house, money matters, professional tensions, decreasing quality time and so on, were the crucial topics in every conversation.


I put on my headphones again, hit my FM and it started


Ye bheja garden hai...
aur tension maali hai...
Man ka Taanpura,
Frustation me chede ek hi raag,
Bhag D K Bose!!!

Bidding Adieu

I am always bad at saying good bye to people. Specially when you know that you are never gonna be in that cubical, in that team, with all office friends, with those clients and with all that work around. It's always a bit difficult to deal with it.

I remember when I left my first job, I was actually happy on my last day there. Almost all my friends had left the organization, my old team-members were already waiting for me in the next organization so it felt easy. But when I gave away that cts id tag and came out of the building, got goose bumps and realized that I have just lost something very important. I won't be catching that company bus again and won't be coming to this place, won't use that email id again, won't chatter in pantries, canteens and roam in and around those 4 buildings. We build relationships not only with people around but also with the surroundings!!!

I am facing the same situation again today while leaving my second organization. This time a bit different as I am leaving behind some of my dear friends and some very sweet moments shared with them. But as life has to go on, I would definitely look forward to a new world :)

Be yourself, everyone else is already taken!!!

My friend watched a movie yesterday- 'Mein Madhuri Dixit Banana Chahti Hu' and it came through discussion, how many of us dream of being a person we envy the most? Guys want to be Sachin/Hritik/Aamir, girls want to be Sania/Aishwarya etc. But did Sachin wanted to be a brian lara? or Madhuri wanted to be Madhubala? No, as they had their ambitions in place, they followed their instincts and have reached today at such heights.
The point here is, admiring people and having some role model is a very good thing but why to think of becoming that person only? 


I wonder why people keep on comparing themselves with the other people. May be it's a human tendency to fall for such fruitless comparisons. Or since childhood, we are being told to see other people around and follow them. I remember during school time, my friend's mom used to tell her, "beta look at that guy, he does all his masti but still manages to come first in the class, learn something from him." and it started a phase of comparison for her, today as well when I meet her, I always find her envying someone. 


That's why I really admire this beautiful quote by Oscar Wilde : Be yourself, everyone else is already taken!!! There are so many things which we normally avoid even if we want to do them, just bcoz of the fear, what people may think if I do this. It's all about being true to yourself and doing what you actually want to do. We get this life once and no need to waste it aiming towards something which is not on our list. So just be confident, love yourself and live the life you love :)