GIVE ME SOME SUNSHINE, GIVE ME SOME RAIN, GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE I WANT TO GROW UP ONCE AGAIN!!!

Swanand Kirkire couldn’t have come up with anything better than these lyrics for the movie 3 IDIOTS.

They just make so much sense if you ponder over them for 2 minutes. Imagine if you got a chance to “grow up” once again.

How different things would have been! We always sit and wonder, “had I taken that decision my life would have been different,” or “I should have told that girl that I like her…. damn I made a mistake” or even something like, “why am I doing what I am doing right now!!”

There are so many things that have happened in your past which have made you what you are today.

Let’s start with the school life. There can be some school election that you won or lost and now if you get a chance you would want to get back there and set it right. There could have been many juniors in your school who used to respect you a lot and had a very nice opinion about you, but they never told you as you were always a “senior”. They might have told you that now after 5 years but now it doesn’t really make that much of a difference. Had those things happened in school how different your life would have been? The same thing goes with whatever you felt about your seniors… the girl you always had a crush on….. a failed relationship…. A competition in which you choked at the last minute resulting in your team’s loss…. A exam you screwed up because you were too casual about it… and so many other things. If you get a chance you will definitely want to relive it again and correct a few things.

Same goes for your school life. The people whom you love, your best friends, people whom you hate, people whom you want to beat up, people who were meddlesome and caused you a lot of trouble. Had you known this beforehand or had you had a chance to relive it again you could correct so many things.

All these are the negative points that I have been discussing about. There are so many positives too.

The tomboyish girl (from the school that you hate the most) you saw at some entrance exam who looked so snobbish that you detested her and would have never imagined that she would one day become your best friend, the guy whom you just casually met while playing football ends up becoming your “bro”, some lass whom you never even looked at when you were in your junior college turn out to be the person who understands you so very well and becomes your bestest friend… there are numerous such examples.

All these things constitute what we call “destiny”. And the thing about destiny is that it’s fair!! It gives you positives and it gives you negatives. If at all we do get a chance to grow up once again we might do these things right but then there would be something else we would have in store courtesy destiny.

People always say that we would like to see the future but I think this way would be much better. You experience future first hand and the go back and change a few things.

But is it really necessary to change those things?

So many people say that I regret doing this, I regret doing that, blah blah blah. BULLCRAP I say.

We never regret anything; rather we should not because “NOTHING LASTS FOREVER. SO LIVE IT UP.. DRINK IT DOWN… LAUGH IT OFF..… TAKE YOUR CHANCES AND NEVER REGRET THEM… BECAUSE AT ONE POINT ….. EVERYTHING YOU DID WAS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED!!!!”

YOU!!!

whenever we get into a new crowd, we are always excited about it.. new people(better people at times), new environment, new things to do.... all this is exciting at the start... but as years go by even you have to change

you have to be the new you.... and this new you has to be better than the previous you otherwise what happens is that the people around you transform into a better versions of themselves where as you just deteriorate.. and this metamorphosis is not visible at the start... when another phase comes wherein you have to embrace another new crowd you realise that you need to to be better than what you are right now.

but instead of being better than what you are , you are not even close to the yesteryear's "you"..... its like "dhobi ka kutta, na ghar ka na ghat ka"

in the end its all about YOU..... and YOU alone....

I am sure YOU must not have understood anything about this blogpost but nonetheless i had to write this.. :D

cheers!!!

UNSUNG HEROES

This is blogpost of mine is dedicated to the UNSUNG HEROES!!!

Unsung heroes are probably the most important characters in any film, book, match or anything… even our life.

In football , the goal scorer or the midfielder who creates the goals is always glorified. Well that is obvious as wayne rooney and ryan giggs deserve that kind of appreciation, but even the less known but equally important player like john oshea deserves the applause. I am not saying that the team mates don’t appreciate his effort, but come on he doesn’t get that limelight as the “stars” get. How many people do you know want to get hold of a oshea no.22 jersey??? Very few I would say.

Well this is just one example.

This happens in the books and movies too.

It is always Frodo Baggins who is the real hero whereas we know he is just more that mediocre. Nobody will look at Samwise , or Pippin. Well Gandalf and Aragon do appreciate all of them but the hero is always Frodo. All others are supporting heroes. Sidekicks.

Even in Harry Potter books (it’s obvious as they are pale copy of Lord of the Rings). It’s always “Harry Potter and blah blah blah”. That useless kid gets away with everything, all the glory and the limelight, whereas he is not even 1% as great as Dumbledore or even Voldemort. Lord Voldemort. Even Fred, George, Lupin, Tonks, Ron, Hermione and even Ginny are better than him. But this green eyed boy gets all the “awwwwwwww”.

Severus Snape!!! That man is god!! I mean everyone who has read the books knows. And we do appreciate him. I am not saying no to that but at the end of the day it’s always Harry Potter!

I recently saw the much hyped New Moon of the Twilight Saga. That is what actually prompted this blogpost. Even in this movie it is that stupid, stupid Edward Cullen who gets away with everything. Jacob Black doesn’t get anything. Even though the main hero talks in an undertone and as if he is constipated it is always he who gets the girl and the limelight. Poor old Jacob Black just doesn’t get anything in the end. And all this when is much better than the stupid hero who is dumb enough to leave the girl for an even dumber reason. (I really didn’t get why he left that heroine … didn’t really care.)

And the girl in this book/movie is a dim-witted female. I mean that Jacob Black made her an awesome bike out of scrap and was always there for her, but the minute she saw a flashy car…… gayi bhaage ke…

Your heart really goes out to such unsung heroes who don’t get the limelight/appreciation which they deserve or to put it in a better way…. People who are dumber than them get more admiration than them.

So this is your moment of glory… all you John O sheas, Rons , SamWises, Snapes and Jacob Blacks in real life… You are the Real Heroes and you are truly AWESOME!!!!!

God Proposes, Man Disposes.

It was the day when Sachin Tendulkar played his best innings against Australia when India was chasing 352. Sachin played a fantabulous knock of 175 but still India lost that match by just 3 runs. Every Indian was very upset that day and we all felt more bad for sachin than for India.

It was truly a day when GOD proposed but MEN disposed.

What happens the next day is actually funny.

People put all sorts of updates on facebook, twitter etc. but there is no formal discussion because it is like coming out of a bad break up. The more you discuss about it the more it hurts.

I went to my gym the next day and met all my friends there. Everyone was quietly working out. I decided it was best not to talk about the match as guys with big muscles are “presumed” to be bad with emotions. (infact all the guys… muscle or not… they are like mascara…. Start running at the sight of emotions)

After some time the guy on the radio said something about the match and then everyone just vented out their emotions.

One guy said, “ it was all fixed man. Otherwise who gets out when there are just 17 runs to win!! Sab satta hai !! “ ( he would probably take a break up pretty badly.)

Other guy cursed ravindra jadeja and the tailenders saying that they couldn’t even get 17 runs.

I pointed out that the top order got out in single figures. This turned the direction of the entire discussion on to Dhoni and Yuvraj.

Someone said Dhoni is useless and is more interested in commercials while our gym instructor made remarks about Yuvraj’s love life.

A ganguly fan who was still nostalgic about the time Dada lead the team said that Dada should be recalled to the team and made the captain.

It was so funny to see so many comment come up. It always happens. Whenever India loses a match every single Indian has a suggestion as to what should have been done.

This love hate relationship will always continue till the time cricket remains a religion in India.

Not to mention our workout for that day was neglected and our gym instructor had to interfere in our discussion to stop it.

But seriously, Wadda innings!!!

A Local Story…

I generally travel by first class from thane to matunga while coming to college. But my quarterly pass had expired and I had to come to college for hardly 10 days in that month. So I decided to take a second class pass for that month.

When you travel in Mumbai, you are frequently known by the train you travel. So even if you don’t know the name of the person, you always address him as, “ arey woh !! 8.19 wala !!” (8.19 being the Thane-CST train which departs thane station at 8.19 am). So like that I am a 8.09 guy.

That day I went early to catch the train as soon as it entered the station. If you don’t want to stand and travel , this is what you have to do. The first class compartment generally gets filled up in 50 seconds of the train coming to a halt. I thought the second class would get filled up even faster. ( There is a general notion that Second class is more crowded; Its completely untrue… I was about to find that out.)

So I jumped in the train and to my surprise I found that I easily got the highly venerated window seat. (the one in the right direction , not the opposite). There was no middle aged gujju man from mulund who had occupied it. ( If there is anyone Thane people hate the most then it’s the people who occupy the window seat by boarding at mulund)

I somehow started liking this compartment inspite of the fact that there were no cushion seats. They don’t really matter, you know.

Then suddenly a group of 8-9 middle aged men banged into the compartment. They were normal working middle class men; mostly maharashtrians. They occupied seats next to me and reserved a few seats for their other friends. Then somebody from the other side of the compartment shouted out, “ JAI MNS!!!” to a guy sitting next to me. He smiled and said, “ JAI CONGRESS!!”. The election results were out the day before and Congress and MNS had badly beaten Shiv Sena and BJP. So this was going to be the hot topic to discuss and I could sense that.

All of them were supporting different parties and they had their reasons. The congress supporters said that they opted for stability, where as the MNS supporters claimed that the change was about to come. The shiv sena supporters were upset for more than one reason. But they were not the only ones who were upset. Even the congress supporters weren’t very happy about the results.

Somewhere deep down inside each one of them knew that things were not going to be different and they were more upset because they are the worst affected by all this. They do their bit by exercising their right to vote yet there is no drastic change in their situation. They still have to travel day in and day out in the overcrowded compartments, they have to work their ass off in their offices so that they will get a good pension that will help them lead a peaceful retired life, they have to educate their children and hope that they don’t face the same lifestyle as they do. Some of them might have had a fight with their wife or neighbour , kids not listening, boss is nagging, had fight with a guy on the way to station, and so many countless other things are there which can multiply the irritation and frustration they have.

Yet there is not a hint of frustration on their face.

It is like the look forward to meeting their friends in the train every morning. That is probably the most amazing time they have in the entire day. And they camaraderie they share is something equivalent to that shared by aamir, saif and akshaye in Dil Chahata Hai. Trust me. It is a treat to watch. They will poke fun at each other, crack jokes, plan outings and do so many things in those 40-50 mins they share together. It is this local train that brings them together and keeps them together.

The bomb-blasts taking place in train do not instill fear in them. They are not afraid of that. They government is impotent; it doesn’t affect them. 31 crores are being spent on a terrorist to keep him alive ; they are not bothered.

And why should they be bothered. They do everything they can do. But after one point you just get saturated by doing the right thing again and again. They won’t stop doing the right thing. But now it really doesn’t matter to them. They have all become indifferent and immune to everything. That is what Mumbai does to you. There is no time for emotions. It is a ruthless city. These people have a very strict schedule to follow and so they derive fun and laughter from anything and everything. Anything bad happens they just cover up the wounds and move on. They have got in the habit of getting used to everything. And its not just them. All of us to a certain extent can relate to this emotion.

Enough is enough and all that big talk is okay. But at the end of the day each one of us has some job to do and so all those things take a back seat.

And even though its saddening to see such indifference, we really cant blame ourselves. All we can hope that things will improve and a certain section of people will do what they are supposed to..