Make an appointment with yourself!

For the past few weeks that I became a morning person, I never seemed to enjoy the freshness that the morning used to hold, until last week, when I went for a solitude walk and boy!!! it was fun. Ya! I know we need to enjoy company of others and try to stay away as much as possible from/being a social outcast, but after such a long time I have felt peace within myself. I sensed calmness and serenity within myself which got me thinking about how in whole of my graduation life, I was never alone. One of the most prominent feature of college life is that you always have company. You don't often get the peaceful time with yourself that you deserve.

Though time spent with company, and I mean it in the sweetest of tones, is one that we cherish all our life and one mustn't miss those opportunities, but here we are going to talk about the prospects that being solitude brings to the table. It’s sort of like a wisdom walk of ‘How I met your mother’ fame  and as Ted Mosby would say “I want you to go outside and simply put your hands on stuff that you interact daily, observe the beautiful rustling of leaves, feel the trees’ pulse, listen to the stories the streets are telling you.” I want you to do to the same, but with less dramatics and even less creepiness.

I have even started to look forward to such quality time with myself. The time gives me the chance to reflect upon my previous actions, think hard about a problem and take them down with well-thought out measures.

You can think of this as a modern day sibling of meditation. Meditation has long been known as a method to concentrate your mind and make it more focussed. And, since finding time specifically for meditation is a big impossibility; taking a solitude walk maybe a way to go.  I know that when I started doing this more often, it brought a remarkable positive changes to my whole attitude towards the materialistic world and its devised components.

Biggest perks:
* No risk of running out of topics.
* You can be 100% yourself.
* No one can judge you or your opinions.
* Hassle-free thought process.

The interesting part of this article is that I wrote most of the drafts whilst on the walks. Mornings are actually perfect time to have these conversations with yourself.  So if you ever need to talk about your problems, dig deep into them and actually need a solution, make an appointment with yourself.

It’s now Bale vs Neymar

4 years ago, when Ronaldo joined Real Madrid and confronted Lionel Messi, we thought nothing can top this. I mean seeing Ronaldo and Messi head to head in the same league was exhilarating enough, but now arrival of two best promising youths into the team has doubled the excitement, and tripled the anticipations. Neymar, already dubbed as the next Messi arrived in Barcelona earlier in the transfer window, while Bale was brought at the last moments to fill up the void created by the departure of Ozil and Kaka. The ‘transfer market enthusiasts’ were behind Bale from quite some time; well he’s a good catch and will prove that in no time.
It’s pretty safe to predict Bale to be a successor of Ronaldo (if he ever caved in to the homesickness he has for Old Trafford). Madrid seems to be one fully balanced team. Though fans aren't very thrilled by the selling of Ozil to Arsenal, but with Isco and Di Maria performing well, they might not even miss him once the season's on the way.
Tottenham have really dealt well with Madrid's negotiators to have extracted 85.3 M£. With that price tag, Bale has crossed Ronaldo's amount of 80M£ (paid in 2009), not accounting for inflation.
The Champions League has a solid chance to be in possession of one of these teams at the end of this year.

La-liga has never been so awesome and the rivalry between the two giants was never so fierce. The expectations have even superseded EPL limelight and it would be a treat watching how everything pans out.

As a matter of fact, both have started the season well, with wins without fault. In fact, Bale scored on his debut, promulgating his arrival and making a solid mark to commence another rivalry that will go long way.

A brand named India!

Its year 2030…and I just came across an e-article about Uttarakhand floods. Man! That was a real disaster. While researching around this article, I also realized that 2012-13 was a year filled with utter humiliation for Indian chauvinists. Newspapers crowded with news that could easily force your smiling curves inverted.

The dilapidating state of country was perspicuous in economic, social and humanitarian sense. My memory is fading and so it’s hard to remember how the shaking boat survived the drowning, but one thing’s I can bet on, we sure were close to reaching a deadlock where the scenario could have been described by even bad and ominous adjectives.

The political setup of India, both centre and state administration was seeing the lowest that it can be. I don’t know how we got through that horrendous phase where hopelessness, lawlessness and scrutiny of sincerity prevailed. Inconsiderate governance, apathetic politicians, slackly decisions, foraying into personal lives were just some gifts presented to citizens by our so-called ‘public servants’. The prevailing conditions were far cry from the promises of the incumbents.

The highlights of those times included falling rupee, the division of telangana, the national surveillance program, uncountable mid-day meal laxities, the disastrous National Food Bill among another national issues. In the local section the violence related with reservations, the suspension of SDM Durga Shakti Nagpal made the news constantly. Do you know, in UP, around 50 IAS officers are transferred every month. And this trend has been followed up for more than a decade now.

                Anyways these weren’t the only issues of let-down…these were following a long list of scams namely Coalgate, Commonwealth games, 2G auction, Chopper gate scams were just some major ones.

                Those were the times when utter helplessness and frustration marked over any discussions regarding India’s scenario. Patriotism was seriously taking lot of hits. I had seen the real patriotic souls on the verge of giving up on the country. The spark that enthused them was slowly fading followed by more impuissance. The times were so dark that leaving India looked eminent and substantial to a quality living. But as you can observe things are better now. The frustrated sense is no more acting now. The inevitable phase that no democracy has ever dodged was handled efficiently by our now developed India (of 2030). A new India rose from near ashes, with the efforts from bureaucrats, politicians and common man. Perhaps finding the right tuning to work with each other was the key.

It’s legen-please don’t wait for it-dary

With HIMYM drawing to a close with the season 9 premiering very soon in every television near you (Oh sorry! Not everyone has a DTH connection), it got me thinking about how naturally it brings about the comparison with one of the best sitcom ever, FRIENDS. Certainly there are no comparisons, considering the timeline differences between the two. But we, audiences can’t live without comparing the two. It’s like comparing Messi and Maradona, but then again, we do that and isn’t it fun? As Barney says: ‘New is always better’, it is better when it is this awesome. Well, better or not, I leave it to your judgement, but NPH and Hannigan’s impersonation deserve the biggest of applauses.

                First of all, congratulations to the producers of the show, for completing 8 successful seasons (Of course they aren’t listening…..but…just….just….OK) with the same cast. Most importantly it was the holy-mother-of-all-that-is-good-in-heaven relief to finally not force to personalize the mom of the two kids (whom names we still don’t know off!) of Ted’s through his words. We have seen her buying ticket to Farhampton. And I hope directors aren’t smiling wicked while the audiences are having this thought. It’s already hard to digest all the twists, especially during binge watching, that it might seem uncanny. What?? Why are you looking at me like that?? How it is not uncanny you ask? Yes, Every day can be legendary, meeting at the bar every single night is possible, being friends even if you want to see your friend’s wife’s racks, hooking up with girls in the same bar over and over again (and the bartender or the manager doesn’t mind), hit by a bus outside a hospital (that never happens :P).  

                Being the most well framed sitcom ever (with timestamps in every story), it kind of makes sense that the anticipations are high for the final showdown. The team has given us great laughs, sumptuous jokes, hilarious one-liners and the aggregation of theories of which some of them really make sense. The ‘cheerleader effect’, ‘the hot v/s crazy scale’, ‘Platinum Rule’ are as charismatically true as Barney’s repertoire to make his audience laugh. Ted and Robin’s enthusiastic and simultaneous salute on every mention of military lingo viz captain, private etc. is exasperatedly sweet.

                And how can I forget the most important and sacred of all ‘The Playbook’ and ‘The bro code’, both written by Sir Barnaby Stinson. One is the notorious collection of plots and the other, the code of conduct to be followed by two bros. The two sacred books once safe in the havens of Barney’s ‘fortress of Barney-tude’ are now at large. Playbook achieved martyrdom and Bro code soon will be obsolete for them.  

 Kids have listened to his story once but the loyal fans have vicariously lived his stories for only God-knows like zillion times.  I would call you a ‘blitz’ if have missed any of ‘awesomness-packed’ 8 seasons of laugh-riot.  The show’s worth of all the attention it has got. It’s nice to know that this love story is going to be even better than the previous love interests of Ted, better than his 2 minute date with Stella…..well that’s the dream!

So now I leave you with the image that I got somewhere from internet that quite aptly compares some characters.

Nature's Wrath Yatra

11 days and more than thousand feared dead since the Uttarakhand disaster occurred and still rescue operations are at run. One cannot even begin to explain the trauma and suffering the people there have gone through. Showing its fury, nature struck to suddenly stamp out hundreds in the name of maintaining balance. There’s no fighting the nature’s wrath.

As the attitude of a person during glee and glum day tells a lot about his character; similarly a country’s character is quite aptly observed during calamities and certainly my opinion this time is towards the positive side. The way the pilgrims have been helped and comforted by various-not-less-than-God-like Indian army personal directly and by relief funds’ accumulators indirectly has been too overwhelming to describe, especially when the early monsoon has been a constant opposition to the rescue operations. It has foiled many such efforts and the short windows it has provided in its absence weren’t of much help either.  

It makes me think how it’s kind of ironic that people believe that God is taking care of them and is watching over them; but here people are at unease, to say the least, due to a ritual that is supposed to keep God contented. Then I heard about a village close to Kedarnath that is determined to help victims by offering them food and shelter till their reserves end. Such vicarious compassion shown by villagers is truly shows the high spirited and giving nature that Indians have been historically known for. Then there is heroic Indian army best illustrating this quality. They have been on a constant alert to ensure the relief operations do not lax. Around 19000 pilgrims have already been evacuated and Uttarakhand government has promised to complete the evacuation within 72 hours.

Believe it or not, I believe, Uttarakhand calamity had brought Indians a little closer; the stories sharing the grief and pain of losing or being separated by the loved ones, the apathy by some poor souls, the helplessness mixed with fear....thanks to media for acquainting us with the condition about the stranded pilgrims and Indian Army for their hospitality shown to the rescued in their camps after saving them from the stranded lands, thanks to all the individuals who contributed to relief funds(especially CRPF and BSF jawans for cutting in from their salary)....this disaster has taught us a genuine lesson about humanity......hope we all keep that flame of humanity burning!!!

And let’s pray for those stuck in inaccessible areas that Indian Army reaches them soon!

Jai Hind!!!