Stars, Planets and Life.

Astrology is study of effects of Stars & Planets on Life of We, The living.Astrology is based on Stars & Planets which are visible to naked eye. People have done so much study to predict the effects of them on human lives. But is it like this that only the visible stars & Planets have the effect on Human lives.
What is the definition of visibility? For Astrology it’s a limitation of human eye. We believe in what we see. There are so many Galaxies filled with Stars & Planets in this universe. What we see are the Stars & Planets in our own Galaxy - Milky Way.
The only visible Galaxy is Andromeda located near the Pegasus-Constellation, which you can’t even locate if you dont know it exists there. All these studies are based on data which is not even only some part of Milky Way stars & out of so billions of stars from other Galaxies.
Dont the Stars in the other Galaxy have the effect if these Stars can have the effect on Human Lives. It may look like an effect which has no solutions as per astrology. But it can be possible that some Star or Planet in this Universe is neutralizing the effect. The effect can be Good, The Effect can be bad. Does Astrology give us right predications? Nobody knows the answer to it. All we believe whatever we are told. Bad effect puts fear in our mind and we make decisions based on the same.
Two people, who love each other, can get separated if their Stars dont match. Is this fear or is this blind-faith which is stronger than a true feeling called as Love.
One has to decide and have faith in oneself. One has to believe in oneself. One has to choose oneself. Life is not about living other’s dreams; live your own. Life is too short and you just get one life to live. Sometimes I feel one life is not enough; you should get another one or may be you can roll back in life.
Decisions in Life should be Self-governed. They should not be influenced or based on what other people say. Because one single decision can make a life or break a life.
Always decide what to believe; always do what you feel is right, rather then what someone says is RIGHT.
Bhagwad Geeta, (I feel the book has answer to all the questions we humans will ever have) says “You can only love someone if you know them. You cannot love an invisible or unknown person.” I only loved what I can see, touch and feel and would always do the same, Love is immortal; life is not. I believe in Karma, and life is not about counting the moments that we live; it’s also about living out the moments that we do not count. Lets live the way we want to and let the stars and planets glitter in sky the way they are without interfering our lives. If God has really created this universe, stars, planets and us; he wont let anything interfere unpleasantly. Have faith and hope :-) and do your karma.

"NICE GUYS" rhyme :)

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.
This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.
This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the whole place was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.
The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. Many of the gals claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.
So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

P.S:

With few of fabric lifted from following post (Ode to the Nice Guys: Wharton Undergraduate Journal).

TRANSFORM(ed)

Am happy these days, am TRANSFORMed. I smile at everyone, compliment people and look into their eyes felicitously. I enthuse people, cheer them up and in the end convince them to believe that happiness is just not a emotion, mood; its something related to mind, body and soul, which can be experienced in smallest of things and can scale to biggest things in life too.

But this wasnt the case just few months back. My employer says every being has a TRANSFORMER in self, never understood the crux of this statement (Am not sure whether they themselves understand the same). I have transformed myself (eeh, sounds bit geeky, but its a fact). Yeh transformer they talk about is a business and technology transformer, but to me a transformer can transform any aspect of his life, and as i always say good things do spread around, so aint it a initiative to transform the world itself. A small change can have big impact and only small things can someday blend well to scale and become huge.

Few things i would like to mention here which i did actualize over a period of time. Some were purely thoughts which struck me randomly, some i took from others lives/statements, but all these small things have got me to stage where i see myself transformed. Ok lets talk about it:

1. "You Have got to find what you love": so true. how valid is it!! I wasnt doing what i loved to do. There were many "what-if" things going at back of my mind. All this lead to a distressed being, not doing justice to myself, my skills, to my organization. Then one fine day as part of usual "garbage mail" my friend Nilot sends me at my work id, i got this interesting read with title "you have got to find what you love, says jobs". Thanks Steve Jobs (i adore this guy, i had already read his biography ICon but never thought what was the thing he was putting through out). From scratch this guy did what he loved, got kicked, brickbats so many times; but he continued what he was doing. I realized that day i gotta do what i would love to do. I got enough kick to go and talk to people without considering what they going to feel that i want to move on to something which i would love to do and i am about to get what i wanted. Thanks guys (Nilot and Steve). It just not "WHAT" but also "WHOM" you love. Its very tough if you are confused entity like me to figure out whom you like, i like so many people, tons of them and thankfully they too reciprocate; but their should be a special one; i would say just figure it out. You really need that someone special when you cant broadcast things, this unicast link is a must.
   
2. Good things do come back in life: Am talking about the things which already existed. As we move along in life we meet people who become special and then they are lost. You wonder why did they leave, or if they have left now; why they came in at first place. We humans are insatiable, its good we are, we keep looking for more and more; but sometimes best of things which we always wanted, come close to us, make their presence felt and we the insatiable beings fail to agnize their presence and only when they go off; we realize. It happens to everyone; but moment you realize, make a point to get them back. If they were the special ones; mark my word they will come back. If they can not you would learn a important lesson in life. Never let a person who is special to you go by only because you cant say it. Go ahead and tell them; rest is upto them to decide. No human being ever would get offended to know that they are special to someone. I got my "good thing" back in life. Just gotta tell them (not stalk them though).
   
3. Say Sorry: Dont feel shy to say sorry. It needs a lot of guts to say. No matter how bad the situation is; a apology for some wrong doing would ease out things. Its supposed to be a weapon of coward; its not. Only strong people can accept their mistake and say sorry to someone especially to loved ones. But make it point not to repeat something for which you had been sorry before; then you dont even deserve to be sorry second time around.
   
4. Dont run away from self: I do it, dont know if its foolish. Sometimes stand in front of mirror and think of things which are bothering you or things because of which you are in conflict with someone. Look into your own eyes and see how fair you been to self and others and put yourself into other person's shoe. You will get answer. I know you may ask why a mirror, i know myself well enough? But we humans try to run away from facts when we find ourselves erring and feel shy to tell others about it. So it helps to be with someone; its better be thyself.
   
5. Have a Dream: Ok every time i write about this stuff, but its the most important thing. You cant be a transformer without a dream in your eyes; a personal dream, a career dream, a relationship dream or any dream. And then go for your dream with honest intentions. Not always you will end up achieving that; but trial is worth the effort sometimes.
   
6. Don’t Rush through things in life: I was rushing through things; realized it midway that its not what i wanted it to be. It takes time or lot of effort to get back to a mode where you can clearly see things and understand why they are like this. Sometimes you dont have enough time; but its mere a excuse, we always have time; just we dont want to look at it that way. Think well before going for something.

These are the things broadly i wanted to speak about which have transformed me from a soul-less, follower, always complaining being to i would say a "Happy" being who can look into your eyes and smile at you and can make you smile too (may be just a gesture). Being happy is not just this; your mind is open, you are open to think new and big things, listen to people, help them getting transformed too.
So be happy and keep smiling. Smile is a curve which can put many things straight. (Courtesy: a tees caption i saw at landmark).

Journey@SCIT

There’s no lexicon sophistication here, its sheer nostalgia, a desire which I had of late to pen it down. It was the journey, not the destination; which transformed a nerd to a substantive entity, Journey was SCIT (My Post Grad Insti). It all happened by chance, a newspaper advertisement, followed by a phone call, a rapid fire machinating for entrance exam, followed by GD, PI which landed me at Symbiosis Center for IT, Pune. I chose it, it was my decision, and looking back I must say I made a right choice, acquired a lot from this place.

First came the orientation, the phase I must admit we all were pretty serious about. Everyone was convinced the coming times would be intriguing and challenging for us. It was bunch of 35 enthusiasts (now don’t mistake it as acad enthusiasts). As time started flying by, the bunch broke up, groups came up. Priorities changed, it varied from Cricket to TT (only if its Girl’s hostel Block) to Movies to Gymming to Swimming to Sleeping (they were the coolest bunch) to Counter Strike sessions and later on, o yes Pinging to of course, Academics (there were few amongst us!!!).

Parties, Outings, late night gossiping became integral part; studies took a backseat always, only time most of us were seen studying was a night before exams. Every month had its share of birthday parties, (from girls must come to girls must not come!!!). Then came summer Internship, people moved away, pulling and nagging now drifted to mailing group (myself being in thick of events, engagement for some, and entertainment for others). By time everyone came back from Internship back to Pune, only thing on mind was Placements, damn the academics, who needed them. Classes and sessions froze, till eventually every one of us was placed at some company. But the worst part was, it remained like that even after that. Only difference was earlier, they (guess, who am referring to) didn’t wanted to, now we didn’t wanted (those few who wanted they were told to shut up and do it yourself).

All this makes it look like all play, no work but don’t you assume that there was no learning; it was a bunch of hard core techies who worked in labs till 2 in night, spent days in library, rooms locked with people going through text and loads of text, my own room being a mini library. On personal front, achieved best academic performer award, best performance of life academically, but I blame it equally on hard work, luck, my very talented peers and some times just reputation from previous terms worked. Also would always be grateful to (and each of us would be):
1. Anjali Madam (who laid the basics right, and got us what we wanted), we missed you madam Term 3 onwards.
2. J Hariharan, he got best out of us, he taught us security, but built competencies which can run across any domain in IT.
3. Somesh Chabalani, who made us realize finally it all boils down to processes and how good they are, which personally I never believed hold any relevance being a techie.
4. Ravindra Bhosle, our lab/network admin, he gave full support to our causes and made sure we had resources at our disposal for our work any time of day.
5. Jay sir, gym instructor, fellow cricketer, warden and above all a good friend to have. Totally chilled out and easy going person, always felt nice to be in his company. He was particularly famous with Networks Batch guys.

Moving out of academics, post placements, it was party time, parties flooding with booze, dancing till mid night (and yes, girls strictly prohibited) and then getting up at noon next mornings was order of the day. The bunch was getting together again at twilight, groups integrating again.

I won’t go into details of who’s who of network guys, its already scripted at Mann’s blog, (http://meet-mann.blogspot.com/), but he didn’t mention about “7 layers of our Network Batch Stack” i.e. 7 girls of our batch. Ok let me do the honors by walking this tight rope. It would be a brief Introduction and rest is upto reader’s discretion:

Chavvi Tiwari (Rawalpindi Express): No she doesn’t bowl at same speed; neither has she run that fast, but when she speaks, its case of fast transmitter drowning slow receiver.

Divya Malik (Malik Bhai): The way she walks, and looks straight into your eyes, it’s enough to run chill down your spines. Perfect D company stuff.

Kaweri (Amma): Title from Swades, very laid back, soft spoken, and always smiling.

Ranjani (Yedi): very expressive, We all used to her Gaalis.

Rincy (Rondu): When she smiles, it looks she’s doing a favor, the geography of face can change in instant to someone in deep depression.

Soma (Soma VPN Bhatamishra): her expertise with VPNs, her counseling sessions, and yes she’s the genuine techie from gal’s side.

Sumedha (Sumiiiiiii): Ever smiling, easy going lass from Chandigarh.

This was in brief about them, for details ask them yourself at your own risk :p.

I had my share of controversies, cold wars, but still there is this feeling of oneness about my batch which never left me, for me its always case of Networks Batch first. Some people loved to hate me, even I felt same for them, but i think we all would be there for each other anytime when we would need each other, differences are secondary, and closeness and togetherness we shared is primary. I have learned a lot from many people, from all of us, something or other, good or bad, academics or values, something being written to the book of my life continuously.

I would sign off with a note for my 2 room-mates. Yeh, they hold an important position in my life. First Manpreet, I felt his pain, his joys, his celebrations as mine, we had differences too, he’s someone who I guess knows me as closely as anyone else. When he departed, post Convocation, and gave me hug, his words “It was nice staying with you for 2 year” summed it all, that was what I wanted to tell you kaadi, and you stole my words. But I felt a part of me going away that time, but we would be friends forever.

Second Shreyansh, first time I saw him I thought we can never be friends. Then he was one I had spent most of my time at campus, at gym, at treks, at outings, movies, hostel room and now here is in Chennai, slogging it out and making subsequent plans to move away from here sooner rather later. There is a chemistry between us which works well, we share things with each other which we normally don’t do with others, what I feel is both are at a comfort level with each other which usually takes time for people to reach.

This is all I wanted to say, there are lots of memories which I have treasured and would always be with me, I hope we all see each other at our Alumni meet in 2010, would be eagerly waiting for that. In the end it comes down to how much we miss those days, I do a lot at times, but then life moves on.

My Girl

She’s one girl I think of most of the time, she is always there in my mind either in spotlight or in backdrop. I have-not seen her face, neither I need to tell, she her self will withdraw the veil. I do not know whether its love or something else but I want to be with her, tell her how much I love her, she’s woman of my dreams, my fantasy, my reality, my ultimate ambition. Many have come, many may come, and none like her had ever come or will ever come. She will stay here forever and ever, to find myself in her and her in myself is utmost goal, a goal which I have set out to achieve and I will pray to God, Like always I accomplish it this time as well. One thing which I have for her is Respect, my perseverance to make her realize the same is something which has kept a Hope alive inside me, and this hope keeps my faith, hope and faith are two pillars on my Love is supported, and am going to make sure that these two pillars remain inexpugnable and impregnable. Some people might surrender to fate, she might even surrender to fate as well, but I wont do it, I have promised her and won’t let her surrender as well. I am trying it. All I need from her is a little bit of trust and faith in me, and I promise to her that I won’t disappoint her either. She’s my sweetheart, she’s one I have chosen in my life and sometimes as it’s said, I don’t want her to feel one day that true love knocked on her door and she can’t realize it. I don’t know what’s there in past, all am concerned with is present is ours, and future where I see us together.

I always live in moments, I don’t have time to think time, I have time only to think about my moments, and she’s one moment I would want my life to carry on with. Oh god, please just for once give her the vision to see herself the way I see her. Its then she might know what she is to me. Words sometimes fall short of telling the complexities at the core of human heart, but that’s the beauty of her, she can’t be described in words, once she will see into my eyes, she will realize very moment that she is MY GIRL. I sometimes just ask myself isn’t me going a bit too far in seeing things like this, she would have her life, her wishes, her preferences, her reservations and so on, but I am living on Love, Hope and Faith. I owe a part of my life, my time and everything that’s mine to her,thereby committing lifetime of happiness, lifetime of pious and pure love, hugs and kisses. Am risking one big time, perhaps first time in my life, don’t know the consequences but it’s a very dear, devout and may be a dangerous obsession for me, but now am committed.

YES, AM COMMITTED TO ‘my girl’ AND IF IT’S A DELUSION, LET ME LIVE IT.

How can Blogging help students and budding professionals?

To see how blogging can be beneficial for students and professionals, let’s see what blogging is basically and how this phenomenon has evolved. A Blog is a user generated webpage, which may have link to other web pages or a complete website in itself and may contain text, images, videos etc. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Now lets see whether blogging can help student community in any way or not. Many students think that blogging is a complicated, but once they start using it, it’s like a push button thing. During student life especially in technical field, students often carry out research and development kind of work, but fail to document their work.
Firstly, Blogging provides a alternative to such students, it can be greatly used as a knowledge management tool where a student can keep his data, keep it on a medium where everyone can read it, comment on it, and even inter link to other pages.
Secondly, blogs can be used as a personal image builder both by students and budding professional community. They can discuss various issues they come across in their professional life, ask people for their comments, help or can take cue from other people’s blogs. Both students and professionals can put forward their strong points which help them present their true picture in front of world and others can notice them. This can help them in their growth in terms of their academics, their careers as many a big employers often at the time of interviews search people’s names on popular search engines and blog sites, so it is better to blog for that purpose too.
Thirdly, potential of blogging in the field of education is enormous. Student community and professionals can put their work on daily, weekly or monthly bases into their blogs where other can keep themselves updated with the current works done in the relevant field. One such step is already been carried out at University of California at Berkley, which introduced weblogging as part of its curriculum for their new media course.

In a way Blogging can be used by both the student and professional community as a way of organizing their thought process. I personally use blogging as a personal image builder and discussion forum where I talk about issues relevant in our daily lives, things out there which exist and impact our lives in tremendous ways, but still no one bothers about them much. I personally find blogging to be extremely useful not just as a personal website or a publishing kind of thing, but in building a a well networked community of people. I have personally met many a like minded peoples and shared our experiences with them. Apart from these above mentioned benefits and usages there are many simple but useful plus points about blogging, like command in written English (a common problem with many a Indian students and professionals), by means of images and videos to share your passions, your lifestyles and give an feeling of owning a personal space on the World Wide Web.

We The Human

We are the supreme regnant force of the Earth, Human-beings. We have the brain which is said to be evolved more than any other living form on this planet and our known universe. Though we don’t know exactly how we got onto this level, but here we are. One key aspect of our evolution is our feelings or opinions, and one thing which come front most is something we call LOVE. I personally feel that it is one uniting force that is keeping humanity alive, all of us bounded in some way. But now this aspect has started to evade us of late.

Right now there is so much suffering, pain in the world around us (now I don’t mean the physical pain or suffering from wars around the world, that’s a different issue all together) that we are getting acquainted with it and that’s not a very good thing. I personally know so many people, everyone brooking in a way or other be it love, work, personal relationships, even thinking process. To be concerned about life is different cup of life, but suffering for it is altogether different. In the process we are getting immoral and perverted. Finally we have reached a stage where it can be said that “WE HUMAN BY NATURE ARE IMMORAL NOW”, a default for all of us. Usually first thing that comes to our mind for others is something bad, degrading rather than constructive.

When we are in a herd (deliberately calling it so rather than group), we are always talking about other people, their behavior, how bad they are, how good they are (rarely if we find time from back bashing), etc etc, instead of making most of those opportunities when we are in social groups (that’s more like human now) to talk about our ideas, our minds, beliefs, thoughts, and have discussions. Many fruitful conclusions can be reached this way, but regrettably we have forgot this way. Am part of a knowledge society and have seen lots of these meetings and sorry to admit that even I have been part of such herds back bashing people, putting fingers on them for our own wrong deeds. Even best of us do that. Let’s just think about it, with a bit of purest substance. I have realized and decided that I won’t be part of such a meeting, group or what I called a Herd. Sometimes we cant escape it, so its better to be quiet and let others speak, but if you get a chance to speak make your point clear to others as well.

Three things which are required for sustenance of “The Humanity” in its pious and pilot form, the way it is supposed to be are; LOVE, HOPE and FAITH. Hope and Faith not necessarily means those associated to religion or caste but Hope in us, our good senses, our capabilities and faith in the humanity, faith in love and faith in our companions, friends. Sometimes our faith does gets shattered, hopes elude us, but then we need not get dispirited, all we need is to talk to ourselves, regroup ourselves. One thing I have observed is we don’t even know ourselves well. We never ever talk to self, we may be lying idle, sitting in depression, doing nothing but even then we never try to talk to self. Just try once, my honest suggestion, half the problems would be solved this way only. Think, think and think, make this mind grow, it has no limits. Put this mind in topsy-turvy ness, it will keep evolving, you will come up with ideas, thoughts will flow through your mind, lots of clear water (clear thoughts) will dilute the polluted water. Listen what people say, but finally do what your mind tells. Think with your mind, but never preclude the heart.

Finally, let us grow, lets other around us grow as well, do talk to others about them but on their faces, not at their back, lets discuss, lets compliment not comment, respect people, love people, have faith in them, they will reciprocate. Above all don’t lose faith, life without faith leads us nowhere.

And Keep smiling, it is infectious. No one minds getting infected with it.

☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺