THE PATH OF LIFE

Ups and downs are a part of life

And every achievement smells sweet

But bitter is the taste of loss

And ugly is the face of defeat...

Some work hard with an aim

To succeed, exceed and attain

Much wealth prosperity and fame

Living life at their terms...

But some get lost,

In this vicious circle of life

Get bogged down by troubles,

Lose their line of sight

Fumbling in the dark,

They look for a light

Often seeking solace,

In the wrong direction

Puffing away to ease their pain,

Drinking and dreaming hoping to drain

Their problems, their plight, and seek respite

From irksome issues of their everyday life

Is that the solution?

Is that the cure?

Does it make their lives,

Any better than before?

And in the end remains

A high roof top...

For some a ceiling fan,

For the ‘brave’ ones- the knife...

They frequently forget that life

Is God’s greatest gift to us

Given to treasure and preserve

Not to end with such ease....

-Mystery Mind

THE SILVER LINING

Wind blew, clouds flew

Darkness spread but none knew

The void opened and engulfed everything

All that remained was a silent aching...

The bird fluttered, looking about

Desperate to find a way out,

Various plans went in vain

The objective seemed difficult to obtain

But every cloud has a silver lining!

Thinking and blinking, straining hard,

Planning and scheming, staying on guard

An idea struck, changing luck

A daring plan filled with pluck!

Up it soared on and on,

Without second thoughts of what lay beyond

A flutter, a quiver, a flitter and a flap,

Speeding away from the awaiting trap!

Tearing through the dark sky

It flew away from the evil-eye

Thus adversities vanished, the bird escaped

With bravery and courage its fate reshaped

As the first rays of sun spread on its face

Sweet sense of freedom bloomed with grace

It lay down in peace as life ebbed away

Free bird at heart, on its eternal way...

- Mystery Mind

Euphoria: The Song

Wake up its morning

We have to go to the shop

Oh c’mon wake up already

Said my brother with a hop!

He sleeps till 9 in the morning

But today’s a special day

So he has woken up all early

With all his worries kept at bay

He so excited,

There’s a gleam in his eye!

And he’s talking about it non-stop

Without a breath, break or a sigh!

Its gonna be awesome

Its gonna be great!

It was like love at first sight

Like how me and my girlfriend met!

Euphoria is setting in

Oh it’s beginning all over again!

Euphoria is setting in

Affecting everybody all over again!

God, he kept rambling

About it, the whole day!

Gave me a proper headache

Made me search for a place to run away!

Finally the laptop arrives

And a look of rupture crosses his face

All his chitter-chattering stops

And a sweet smile blossoms with grace...

I looked at him, and feel a warm glow inside

A rogue grin breaking loose

Defying my attempts to stop it,

No matter how hard I tried!

We fell about laughing

For quite a long time

Rejoicing the wonderful moment

So magical, so sublime!

Cheerio!! :)

-Mystery Mind

Trip to Tambaram (Part 2)

“Ow! I’m famished! L” I said to my friend Rohan as we trudged out of Tambaram railway station. There was a huge crowd milling out of the station and we were flowing along with it.

“Yep! Me too! L” agreed Rohan ruefully. “I think my mom has kept some lunch at home. We’ll go and have that. ”

Rohan’s mom was out shopping and he had informed her earlier (1hr back to be exact! :p) that we (Rohan and me) were coming home.

“Hmmm... ok!” I agreed doubtfully. We took an auto from the station and started out for his house. 

On the way I suddenly saw a Marrybrown outlet and asked the driver to stop.

“Wanna grab something to eat? ;)” I asked Rohan.

“Sure! My house is close by so we can walk home from here. ” agreed Rohan enthusiastically.

So he paid the auto driver and we made our way to the inviting food outlet. And that was when (for the second time that day! :p) I remembered  that I had run out of cash! Rohan declared that he was broke too. And there was no sign of an ATM nearby.

“Now what?” we said together.

“Hey!” I said suddenly. “I’ve got a few meal passes with me! I think we can use them here.. ”

 I looked into my wallet and found what I was looking for! Never in my life had I appreciated the invention of meal coupons more! :p

We congratulated each other for my timely brainwave and made our way into the restaurant. I ordered for two large cokes and large French fries and paid with the coupons. The cashier returned me a rupee change. We ate our ‘lunch’ ravenously with great relish and resumed our journey with our hunger somewhat satiated.

Suddenly a thought struck me.

“Hey you know what?” I told Rohan. “That guy need not have returned me that one rupee change! There is no need to return change if we pay by meal coupon!”

“Hehe! I guess you got your one rupee back which that ticket counter lady jacked from you!” Rohan chuckled and replied.

‘Oh! I guess that could be it!’ I said remembering. Rohan was right! I had indirectly received back my change which I had lost at the ticket counter earlier. That’s the cycle of life I guess. Things always come back to you. As the saying goes-‘As you sow, so shall you reap.’ There’s always a reason behind everything that happens in our lives. It’s just that sometimes it’s difficult to decipher it. It stays concealed from us for a while. But a time does come when everything becomes clear. All we need is patience and understanding.

“Hey dude! I forgot to tell you. I’ve got three dogs at home. I hope you wouldn’t mind!” said Rohan as were walking towards his house.

“What??” I exclaimed! “Couldn’t you have told me that earlier?”

“Sorry! I just forgot! I didn’t know you were an anti-dog person!” Rohan said worriedly.

“Hey! I’m not anti-dog or something! I love puppies!” I said and laughed. “I’d love to see them.”

This cheered him up instantly we carried on ahead chatting nineteen to the dozen.

When we reached Rohan’s house we were greeted by three cute dogs.

“That’s Sasha” said Rohan pointing to an excited doggy that was jumping all over the place. That’s Max” he said pointing towards another doggy with a golden mane. “And this here is Pogo” he said patting a cute little puppy fondly.

 The fourth one, sitting in the corner just raised his head lazily and wagged his tail cheerfully.

“That’s Sherry” said Rohan.  “He’s a cross between a German Sheppard and another breed.”

And that’s when I saw the fifth dog lurking in the bushes.

“Hey that’s tippy.  He’s always scared! Never lets anyone touch him.” explained Rohan. “He just comes along whenever he needs food.”

“Oh.... Okie!” I said. I began playing with the cute little Pogo and saw Sasha bounding towards me! It started jumping all around me wagging its tail happily!

“Sasha never lets anyone play with anyone but herself!” explained Rohan. “She’s pretty possessive! :p”

I found this situation mirroring the real life. There are all sorts of people in the world. Some lead their lives courageously in a carefree manner. They are not afraid of anything and face the adversities head on. They do not get bogged down by hardships and see a solution in every problem. But there are some other people who are cowards. Their lives are shrouded with fear and they try to find an escape route for everything. They find a problem in every solution. People fail to understand that hardships are a part and parcel of life. Everyone has to face them at some time or another. Some choose to confront them and fight their way out audaciously while some choose to ignore them and hedge away from them. But shying away from problems will not make them disappear! It will only complicate them. So I believe that the best option is to battle it out and hope for the best! Even if we don’t succeed, it would be a good source of experience and we’ll know how to handle that problem next time we encounter it! And the next time that problem threatens us we can show it our fist and confidently say ‘BUZZ OFF’!! :D

We played with the cute doggies for a while and then proceeded to Rohan’s room to freshen up and play his synthesizer.

(To be continued......)

Trip to Tambaram- (Part 1)

“Dude! We should better get going or else we’ll be pretty late.” said Rohan my classmate. He was taking me to his house for the first time. We were sitting in the press club office of my college, discussing about the technical details of the next issue of the newspaper we were going to publish.

“Hey Jack! I’ve got to go dude. I’ve pasted the file on beni’s laptop. Will see you tomorrow.” I told my friend Jackson.

“Sure. But do be there tomorrow ok? We still need to work on a lot of things.” said Jackson. 

Railway station pic taken by me. :)

After assuring him that I would be there the next day, Rohan and I proceeded to our college railway station. Rohan stayed in Tambaram which was a suburb of Chennai, situated 24km south of the city. The most convenient way to reach there was by the local train. At the ticket counter I took out my wallet to pay for the ticket. And to my horror I realised I had only twenty bucks sitting prettily inside! I had forgotten to refill my wallet that morning.  “Anyways”, I thought, “i’ll pick up some cash from the ATM.” I gave those 20 bucks to the lady at the ticket counter, bought for a two way ticket to Tambaram, and received 5rs back as change. It was then that my friend brought the discrepancy to my notice.

“Hey! The ticket costs only 14 bucks. That lady should have returned you 6rs change!” said Rohan.

“Never mind.” I replied. As there were a lot of people waiting in the queue, I didn’t want to stand there and haggle with lady at the counter. We stepped down to the platform and waited for the train.

“Let’s go to the other end of the platform and wait there.” suggested Rohan. “The coach which’ll come there will stop exactly where the exit of Tambaram station begins. So we won’t have to walk much.”

Following his advice, we went to the other end and sat at an empty chair. Soon the train arrived and our journey to Tambaram began. As the train was quite crowded, we searched for a comfortable spot to stand and began chatting. From the mundane day to day activities to interesting anecdotes of our college, we discussed about whatever we felt like discussing to pass time. As usual I was cribbing about Chennai weather. “It’s just freaking hot here! And the high level of humidity just makes it worse! L” I said.

“Yes seriously!” agreed Rohan. “But what can we do? We’ll just have to put up with it I guess! L”

‘Quite true’, I thought. We may not be surrounded by comforts at every point in life. Life is not a bed of roses. It is a struggle. It’s about the survival of the fittest. We have to adapt and adjust to the situations which come our way. We cannot always keep complaining about what we don’t have or about situations which are not in our favour. As one of my favourite quote goes, ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.’ Unfavourable situations or circumstances could always be lurking around the corner. They may pop-up unexpectedly from somewhere and leave a sour taste in our mouth. But it is up to us to redeem ourselves. We should try to find a solution to our problems and try to overcome them in every way possible. We should never loose hope. For as the saying goes, ‘Every dark cloud has a silver lining.’ All we need to do is to find that ray of light and grab hold of it! Every problem has a solution. All we need to do is to figure it out and put in our whole hearted sincere effort.

As far as I was concerned, I had already adjusted to Chennai climate. But somehow I enjoyed complaining about it as I found a lot of people who shared my sentiments! :p Isn’t it nice to have someone to confine our dislikes and find them agreeing with us? Makes us feel lighter! :p

Anyways, we reached the station happily and didn’t even realise how that period of one hour sped by! That’s another aspect of life. Time always seems to fly by when we are having a nice time! In the fun-filled company of friends the hands of the clock always seem to move faster! But at times (especially during boring lectures L) it feels as if its crawling slower than a snail! L

Our coach stopped exactly at the exit of the station just as Rohan had predicted. “That’s the advantage of having knowledgeable friends around I guess!” ;) I thought.

And thus our journey continued.......

(To be continued)

EXAMS!!

“Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer”  -Charles Caleb Colton

The moment this word is uttered, or even thought of, we experience a host of reactions. With reactions ranging from that of fear to nervousness, this one word manages to capture our mind like nothing else! For some, this word marks the beginning of forbidding period of a week or a month and fills their mind with dread. Some see it as an opportunity for performing better than last time. And there are some others too who just see it as an irritating obstruction trying to ruin their perfectly happy and fun-filled life! I have divided people into three categories based upon their reactions upon hearing this word.

 The first category consists of the so called ‘nerds’. They know all about the question paper pattern, the marks distribution, and most importantly, the portions. They bury their heads in their books as soon as they hear the word- EXAMS. They are the ones who stay attentive in class all year long and listen attentively to all the lectures. They take perfect notes in all classes and keep their notebooks up-to-date.

The second category consists of the sceptics. The moment they hear the word exam, their reaction is something like- “What? Oh God! Not again! What’re we gonna do?” They are the ones who had been attentive in some of the classes and managed to take some notes while they were busy doodling in their notebook the whole period. They have a vague idea of what the portions are and when the exam is. And one week or a few days before the exam starts, the scramble for collecting the notes begins. Their sincere friends (previously called ‘nerds’) suddenly become their closest friends! And thus after much running around and gathering satisfactory amount of notes they sit down to study. They start studying a week or a few days before their exams start with full concentration focused on- their cell phones! :p  Then the messaging begins. “Hey dude! How much have you done? Started studying?” 

“Well... Yes kind of! I’ve been stuck on the same page for like an hour! :(” “What? Really? Same here! Just can’t manage to concentrate at all! :(” 

And this is how the text book lays forgotten and the chatting continues for hours. And finally-

“Hey gotta go for dinner now! Will catch up with u later ok?” 

“Ok buddy! All the best!” 

“Thanks dude! Wish you the same!”

I like to call the third category as the ‘geniuses’! They are the ones who hardly attend class yet manage to ‘manage’. They have no clue when the exam is or what the portions are. They manage to get hold of the notes a day or two before the exam and manage to cook up something.  They use the wonderful faculty of the human brain called ‘creativity’ to the fullest extent. They believe in the philosophy that the more studying you do for the exam, the less sure you would be as to which answer they want. Therefore they study everything in brief and try to elaborate and elucidate their answers as ‘creatively’ as possible.

Finally after the exams get over, everyone comes out with great determination to do really well next time. They plan to try harder and do even better. But only God knows (even those who take this pledge) how long this vow is followed. ;) There’s always a next time(Except if it’s the final exam)! :p

Anyways all the best fellas! Hope you achieve what you desire in life! :)

Cheerios!

Mystery Mind....

The first step forward!!

"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it."   - Albert Einstein

My blogs are an attempt by me to divulge some of my experiences over the years. I agree that the best way to learn is by doing and getting the experience firsthand. But I do believe that our experiences can also be a source of motivation or a guiding light for someone else. We may not realize it, but our actions may prove to be an inspiration for someone who needed just that little bit of motivation to take one step forward. And it is
only by taking one step at a time that we can manage to reach our desired goals in life. 

But taking the initiative, that first step, is the most difficult thing to do. It is shrouded with a lot of uncertainties, doubts and fear of how things would turn out to be. We try to remain in our comfort zone and not indulge in anything new and challenging. We are afraid of making mistakes. We think that people would laugh. But what we forget is that failure is the stepping stone of success. Now some people would say these are just fancy quotes. Easier said than done! But to them I would like to ask- how can you know without trying? We may experience failure at first. People may laugh. But SO WHAT? Everyone has to go through it in the starting. The sooner we get over with it the better. All we need is a little bit of extra courage in the beginning. And then things wouldn’t look so intimidating anymore! As it is famously said- The one who laughs last laughs longest! The fruits of your hard work will definitely be sweet. And then it would be fun having that last laugh! :D

So go ahead and let your light shine! Make as many mistakes as you can but make sure you analyse all your mistakes. Figure out your weaknesses. Ask your friends to provide you a feedback and strive not to make those mistakes again. Make that 'first' step a 'firm' step, and THAT my friends, will definitely lead you to achieve success!! :)

Cheers! :)

Mystery Mind07