Saturday, August 21, 2010

Actual Lessons to Understand!

From the time we are born through
The time, on our own that we start to stand
And till the eternity as it seems we have to understand
A feeble memory exists in the memory
When first was I asked, "Did you under stand?"

Sports I played hard and hurt many a times
Always it begun with a failure which I could hardly stand
Spell bound with game intricacies
That I tried hard to understand
Sportsmanship, Fair play & the patient endurance
Were the actual lessons I had to understand!

Books I read to score good and to top
Read & practiced till I knew it by heart
Thinking sometimes about the wisdom of history
Can it be sometimes be really of any use to me
And the geographical boundaries could I really travel
But then it struck that Education actually
Gives knowledge more than you need 
And
And that’s the actual lesson I had to understand

Being small I always wanted to grow up
But growing up destroyed many many small childhood joys
Being an audience I always wanted to anchor
Anchoring though gave me highs and pleasure
But calmness of being Audience was lost forever
With pleasure of something that was conquered
And that’s the actual lesson I had to understand

While Learning to drive I loved to gaze at pace
When the fear was conquered,
It was thrilling in its own ways
But all in all it was not that worth the risk
Neither the race nor the reckless breeze
And that’s the actual lesson I had to understand

In the frames of general usual passing life
In a spontaneous growing old we learn that we should grow wise
Joys & sorrows which shows friends & seasonal friends like wise
Learning to shrug the failure & the criticism was nice
And Nicer was separating stupid comments alike
An unending learning, continuously unfolding an interesting mystery
Thereby making a small regular each one of us’s Life
Challengingly beautiful in its own way & style
Rather than just a repeat of anyone else’s History & Lifestyle
And
And
And that’s the actual lesson I had to understand!
-Kiran Hegde

Friday, August 6, 2010

Don't Generalize

It was another BAU Business as usual) day for Raj.
He had been engrossed on this Monitor with small noise of clicks and keyboard as usual. After coming early to office and he used to be enjoying the silence till someone broke it…

“Hi I am Diya!”
There was a new girl in cube diagonally opposite to him..
After a few days of her presence at usually empty cubicle perhaps she must be thinking why people around don’t talk she was still smiling.

“Hii.. I am Raj!”

“Do you guys have lot of work? You guys seem to be busy”, asked Diya.
Raj now moved completely out of his monitor…
“Ehhh!!! Well not really, not so much I think :-D ”

They exchanged a smile and back to work.

But some thoughts were still loitering Raj’s mind.
He had his own set of Cubicle mates and cubicle neighbor experiences.

1. Although being a happy-go-lucky kind of guys who would smile on all faces that made an eye contact, but still he distinctly remembered a cubicle mate with whom he was in his neighboring cubicle for more than 5 months but still not talking.
He was 2 weeks from leaving the city because of transfer and he got to know that it was his birthday. Being uncomfortable to stand up and wish as he was at least 10-12 years senior to him, Raj had sent him a mail and voila to his surprise he got a prompt reply! But still never spoke.
Two times of smiling were also returned by blank glares on his last working day in the cubicle to add to his embarrassment.

2. So called having boyfriend counterparts, they are typically lost in only and only non-other than – Can you guess it???
Most you might have already, “cell-phones!!!” and that too almost clinging to ears as it were their ear rings.
And it clings so much so that you are debugging something for them, they get a call and you end up like a fool initially trying to help them, then waiting at their desk, to ask them about their problem and they so called BUSY on phone.

The list might be endless in this sub-conscious though till a team-mate next cubicle interrupted,
“Coffee?”
“Sure!”

Raj just discussed this with Diana at coffee perhaps to get a feminist point of view.
Diana said, “The problem is with not talking but you lot of guys assume…”

Raj giggled spontaneously but noticing that Diana replied immediately,“What happened?”

“Nothing serious…
Interacting with people around had been usually like not-my-business approach for most of us although we would be extremely active on our virtual online communities like facebook/orkut. But many a times if it’s a person of opposite sex, you would speak all the way less just avoid the person painting a different picture of you.”

Understanding it’s really difficult for people to maintain composure while they still stay in equipoise and respond equanimously, Raj tried his best to express what he thought

“As you know typically girls has some critical Mental Attitude which makes them presume that if a guy is initiating a talk to one female counterpart sitting next cubicle, she might build up multiple scenarios in her mind giving a grinning smile and at times pathetic attitude on interaction later”

Diana was almost smiling back in apprehension to say something to which Raj interrupted, “Especially the ones who can be called as not so good looking ones are the ones to have more attitudes perhaps! Good ones behave Normal and understand that you can really have good friends with people of opposite sex or even as being a normal friend who just smiles & greets when you meet and go your ways!”

A little shocked but unable to resist her disagreement Diana said,
“I do agree with you few girls have attitude issues so can’t be really generalizing”

“Fair enough that’s exactly what I am trying to say. You can’t be generalizing!!
And as it seems the problem is not about the fairer sex or later but people in general but still people generalize that boys are like this likewise gals are like that..
Both laughed and Diana replied at they got up to leave, “That’s what I call a Non-Feminist and Non-male chauvinistic view! ”

Raj, "Thanks :-)"