Commencement 2007: Not an ordinary one!

I sat in the newly renovated Stanford stadium amongst the rest of the audience as all my batch-mates and closest friends took the commencement walk last week-end. I had teary eyes as a deluge of old memories and emotions overcame me.

The orientation sessions at the beginning of our masters program, those late nights that we studied together, those walks to Starbucks, those end-quarter exam phases when we stood by each other through the stress and anxiety, the parties and birthdays that we planned and attended together, the cooking and shopping that we did jointly.... everything that was to end now! They all go their separate ways and I go mine! I will miss all the times I shared with them and all the happy and sad, stressful and fun-filled memories that they have left with me.

I wish them all the very best in their future careers and hope they find all the happiness and satisfaction that they might ever hope and pray for!

I love you all and will always be there for you! Stanford wouldn't have been the same but for you!!!

Congratulations to the graduating Class of 2007 (as President Hennessey put it!)

Madness that's Mumbai...

I received this message from a friend through Orkut and found it very relevant to my last blog and thought of pasting it here. It's HILARIOUS!!

(For those of you who find it difficult to visualize what's being talked about, here are some pics - courtesy http://www.viveksawant.com/Photos/India/bombay/ and mumbai.metblogs.com )



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D mega polis of Mumbai holds many a challenge 4 d 'rookie' who lands here unaware of d hurdles & challenges that he or she might have 2 face.

A recent incident saw 1 such hapless victim falling prey 2 d overenthusiastic nature of Bombay's local train commuters.Our hero,a man from Pune,wanted to go to Matunga,but as luck & trains would have it,boarded a fast train not halting at his destination.He panicked on realising his mistake but by then d local hd started moving.

On seeing his plight,a sympathetic co-passenger decided 2 come 2 his rescue. It seemed that he hd been commuting by that particular train (6:03 pm Kasara Fast) for d past 6 years & had noticed that d train always slowed down just before Matunga station and crawled at a snail's pace while passing through it.He told d man 2 jump out of d running train as it slowed down & that with a little bit of fleet-footedness,he would make it safely on terra firma.

However,knowing d man's inexperience,he added some words of caution: "Keep running d moment you jump or you'll fall.Just keep running."He stressed d word "running" lest d man not know d laws of motion.

D train did slow down just before Matunga station &and at d prompting of his mentor,our hero jumped out of d train & started running as if all hell had broken loose.What he didn't realise,was that he was running parallel to d train instead of running away from it.

Meanwhile,d train slowed down further,now our hero was running faster than d train.In d process,he reached d door of d next compartment & d footboard commuters there pulled him in thinking he was trying to board d train!To his agony d train picked up speed & sped past Matunga & his new co-passengers started 2 congratulate him on how lucky he had been,until he told them that they hd actually undone what he hd done with great difficulty.

Those standing at d door of his "ex-compartment" had witnessed d whole drama & just couldn't stop laughing at d poor man,while he grinned sheepishly.

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:-)

Incidentally, another friend had blogged about Mumbai city around the same time as I had written my last post and I thought it was just such a wonderful coincidence that both of us had described exactly the same thing at roughly the same time! Here's a link to Taral's blog:

http://alightlessordinary.blogspot.com/2007/05/aye-dil-hai-mushkil-jeena-yahan.html

My Lifeline....

... Mumbai City!!!! I love you!!

It's one place you'll see the juxtaposition of the most conflicting natures and sights! The tallest of skyscrapers right next to the low lying slums in South Bombay; the high-class Taj Lands End alongside the stinky Bandra Sea Face fish-market; college girls and guys wearing the most fashionable designer clothes and the poorest of street kids wearing single ragged pieces of dirty cloth; the most stately Mercs parked next to pavements lined with poor, handicapped beggars who cannot even walk; the "rocking" nightlife at the best of nightclubs and people shivering in the cold chilly rainy nights with nothing covering their bare skin; the over-stylized, anglesized babes haggling in fake-accents with the paani poori walaas at chowpatti.


What I like most about this city, though, is its resilience! Rains, floods, riots, bomb-blasts.... name it! Two days! And I guarantee the city will be on its feet again! Nothing can stop or muffle the spirit of my city! The chai walas and naariyal paani walas will be back in action! Those BEST buses will swarm the city again. My beloved subarban trains will be overflowing with people! Literally!!! Oh you have to see and experience this atleast once in your life! The 8:10 AM Churchgate local on a Monday morning! Ah! The sauna of your life! :-)

Can't wait to come back to you, my life! :-)

Brought back memories....

One of my all-time favorite poems from high school is 'She Walks in Beauty' by Lord Byron. I just remembered it reading a fellow-bloggers most recent blog (I was startled at how wonderfully he had conveyed the same idea through his blog - great description, Aseem!)...... so here's the poem:


She Walks in Beauty

-Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

In pursuit of happiness....

Spent years getting my career on track.... now after years of trying to discover my intellectual needs and career aspirations, I finally feel like I might know where my career's headed! But what about my personal life?

I was chatting with mom the other day and she was asking me (she has been quizzing me for a few weeks now!!) whether I had found the person I wanted to spend my life with! I had no choice but to tell her that I had been too busy with my work and studies and research the last soooo many years to look out for someone I could spend my life with!

Here's the irony: when I finally stopped to think about what I really want from my life, the answer I got from myself was really simple - a nice, compatible soulmate with whom I can share a beautiful, harmonious relationship, two adorable little kids (whom I'll probably spoil to a point where they become the most devilish brats ever) and a peaceful, happy family life!

And what have I done towards it? Zilch!

Why is it that for some of us over- achievers, our personal life takes a back seat and that our career always takes precedance inspite of the fact that we so desperately need love, understanding, caring and warmth at the end of a long stressful day? Why is it that we use our "work and research" to fill up the emptiness and loneliness inside our hearts?

I look back at the gorgeous years of my life and think back at all the beautiful people who have come and left - not one I could settle down happily with?

Oh well!! I chat with mom again tomorrow - and I know what she'll ask - have I found someone for myself since I spoke to her last (which, btw, was last week)!? I feel like telling her - how do you expect me to find my Mr Right in a week when I have failed to do so for so many years now??!! :-)

The Eternal Enigma?

So why have I chosen this caption for my blog-site?

Simple answer: In my perception, it summarizes life, people and relationships!

Why is it that whenever we feel like we have established control over our life, over our reactions to circumstances and our emotions and set-backs, life never fails to spring new challenges and surprises on us and to disarm us completely to such a point where we are forced to rediscover ourselves and counter life's twists and quirks?

Why do people unnecessarily complicate themselves and their readings of others' intentions? Why is it that so many people cannot adequately understand their own needs, insecurities, prejudices and threats let alone those of others?

Why is it that on the one hand two random people can just hit it off from the word go, and on the other, two individuals can be so fundamentally incompatible (in personalities, in values, in emotional levels and needs or in intellectual needs) that no matter how hard they may try, things just don't work out? While some relationships can be effortlessly blissful, others turn out to be so agonizing that parting ways may be the only anodyne that will work! But then, even two completely compatible individuals may be forced to part ways due to some higher design that fate may have in store for them and nothing can be done to keep them together.

I have spent a good bit of time over the last couple of years talking to friends, introspecting and reading about people and relationships and these questions have intrigued me tremendously ever since!!

Here's a tribute to life, its challenges and to all those wonderfully strong people out there who manage to face all these obstacles with an undying resilience, a smile on their faces and a confident, victorious glow in their eyes as they triumph over each one of them and look forward to the next one coming menacingly along their ways!

My beautiful campus...

Tall and embracing Palm trees; wide stretches of open, verdant lawns; the perennial warmth of the California Sun; a never-ending stretch of beige-stoned and red-roofed buildings; little black and brown squirrels burrowing the tender grass-covered soils; graduate and undergraduate students cycling around the central quad with merry smiles on their faces (inspite of all their academic pressures and worries) and the divine blessings of the Church pervading the entire stretch of the campus..... that's Stanford University for you! :-)