Firecracker

I feel like a firecracker. Now, now, I may be going too far with this, but I've been thinking a lot, this weekend, and MOST of it is rather unrealistic. But I figured, If I actually put those thoughts down, It'll all become more real, and then I have nothing else to do but follow the green signal.

Ready, set

Is it because of Diwali? There are firecrackers bursting all around me. They're all bits and pieces of things, really, put together in a fashion that allows them to shoot up and burst into splendour right in front of your eyes. In big, spectacular fashion. In a way that cannot be ignored.

I have all those bits and pieces in me, I always have. But right now, I'm no more Miss purple shoes with bits and pieces in them, wandering about life. I have a plan. My plan is to take those bits and pieces, and find a way to shoot them straight out. It will be painful, it will be confusing, it might make me go on hiatus or it might make me blog so much more because that might be the only way I will handle it. It might be impossible, even, but all I can think about are those big, colourful lights.

Because in the end, I will burst into a a wonder, and for a little while, you can't help but look at the sky, you will notice and then, hopefully, I'll have a LOT more to blog about.

Go!

Blog Action Day 2009 - What WE can do

Blog Action Day 09 is finally here. If you don't know about it yet, I really think you should check out their website. It's a fantastic event that is clearly organized by fantastic people- and I think they all deserve a big thumbs up, a massive round of applause, and whatever else you can give them. But what they really want is a world-wide conversation, one that brings about change better than superman, and one that finally makes our planet a better place to live in.

How amazingly selfless is that? These guys want us to do something that will hopefully create awareness and ultimately benefit us all. Although I have no clue what I should write about, I'm definitely going to give it a shot- for it's the LEAST I can do, don't you think?

I've been trying to read up on a lot of things for this post, and the only conclusion is that there's WAY too much about the environment that I don't know yet. There's SO much that will be affected by it, and I'm learning a lot. But I'm going to leave the advice and the well-crafted posts to the experts, because they truly know their stuff. But here's my take on things people like YOU and ME can do. We don't know all that much about what works, what doesn't, and we don't have the resources or the finances to truly bring about world-wide change. But we can do our part, and hopefully, influence others to do theirs, too.

Over the years, I've come to understand that there are millions and millions of people on this planet, and that's a force to reckon with. I mean, come on, peeps! We can fix space stations and make amazing discoveries and build supercomputers, but we can't do enough house-keeping for this planet we've been given?! It's time to pull up or socks, grow up and behave like we actually HAVE the brains we're famed for, don't you think?

There are some basic, simple things we can all do to make things better for the people who are actually trying to make GREAT things happen. These things don't involve money or resources or even too much time. They're all common sense, and most of them come under good old decent behaviour. Here's what WE can do, starting RIGHT NOW:

1) NOT LITTER.
And, not argue about it.
I've spent hours arguing with people about how it doesn't really create jobs, how some street corners and gutters are meant for garbage, and how there aren't dustbins everywhere. I think people should save their breath and just not litter, instead. It's just plain decency. Here's what some people think- "I don't own the street corner or the gutter, so why can't I throw it there?". Public ownership should matter to you just as much as private ownership. People don't litter in their own houses, do they? Eventually, they clean it up. Save yourself that time, and look for a dustbin next time. Until then, roll it up neatly and keep it with you till you can throw it. It won't kill you, places will look cleaner, smell bettter and fewer germs will breed. This goes DOUBLE for many Indians- you litter, and then talk about how amazing singapore looks. Hypocrisy isn't smart.
And there are a million things to be done- if there is no litter, people who clean it up can be utilised for more important civic work.

2) TURN OFF APPLIANCES AND SWITCHES and TAPS that YOU DON'T USE.
This is simple enough. Use power save. Does it bother you when other people clog up your LAN? Well, think of using power you don't need as clogging up the earth's limited internet. It's plain decency to switch off things- and it takes no time. Close taps you don't use.

3) FANCY SHMANCY, simple is good.
I love fancy workplaces and malls as much as the next guy, but do you really need a conveyor belt for used plates in a food court? If you're a manager with the power to affect these decisions, you should think about this. Why use the elevator or the escalator for one single floor? You have legs so you can move them. Do you really need a flat escalator when you can walk?

4) TRAVEL IN PACKS
Carpool, PLEASE! I've seen enoug roads clogged up with hundreds of cars all going to the same Tech park, each loaded up with one driver ONLY. It wouldn't hurt to carpool, it'd save you money, it'd save the environment, you wouldn't have to drive in traffic and everything would get better. While we're on this, road rage does NOTHING besides popping your veins out. Check out this amazingly simple initiative to see what I mean- Smiling Drivers. (Thank you, Shob, for that.)

5) DON'T IGNORE FREE LIGHTING
I've seen SO many offices that block out all natural light and air for complete air-conditioning and artificial lighting, throughout the day. Why? Architects, designers, managers and CEOs should sit up and take notice. It's really lame to have to use so much lighting when there's SO much of it available, for free! Even in the tropics, even in India, people want to run away from natural light and air. A little air-conditioning is necessary, but it doesn't have to be all that cold. Attempt to use natural things as much as possible. I really don't get why companies would spend a fortune on electricity when they can just get away with using natural light for most of the day for FREE. You don't need ANY finance degree to get that point. People have LOST THEIR MINDS while they've gained degrees, truly.

6) SPREAD THE WORD.
It isn't uncool to care about the environment or talk about it or discuss it when you're with your friends. It isn't uncool to spend your weekends being involved in projects like a sapling plantation drive- some of the coolest people I know are involved in stuff like this. A lot of teenagers think that doing this sort of stuff is uncool- and it's time to change that perception. Going green should be looked at in a whole new light. You should do whatever little you can to spread awareness- whether it's writing about it, singing about it, doing a play about it, drawing about it, talking about it, or being an example to others. Awareness is what's going to get us anywhere. And people should stop being cynical, in my opinion. You don't have to worry about which gas is categorized as a pollutant of not- it isn't in your hands, anyway. Sure, voice your opinion. But don't stop using your common sense to use this planet in a way that DOESN'T imply that it's a big round ball of trash.

So, there you go. If you've read till here, I'm glad and honoured that you gave up on doing something *far more precious*, I'm sure, than reading my views on how we can help do something as drastic as treat our giant home with respect. And no, I'm not trying to be captain planet or the planeteers. I just think that humans have it in them to be decent to their surroundings, and that such behaviour needs to be encouraged, applauded and expected in order for it to become commonplace. Fines are one thing- but if everyone n a street sticks up their nose at someone who litters, I can guarantee that it won't continue for long.

Here's to Blog Action Day, and more importantly, here's to the human race- and our ultimate test- Can we undo all the damage we've done for years? Can we get to the very bottom of that grimy stain and wipe it out? At the very least, can we stop that stain from getting bigger? We have to try, in our own small way. We're not just skulls with separate lives, we're people who jointly live in this one huge place. Here's to the hope that we all start acting like that's true.

Join the Conversation Here

Above Average with a Whoop!

Finally. Although I still have a couple of drafts that I'm supposed to finish and post (a fun music-tag one, in fact), Silverstreak certainly got one thing right- this is THE post-tag for me. Not because I've truly conquered this category, but because in this tag category, one thing is guaranteed- I am above average. And it feels FANTASTIC to type that. This list has a lot of classics, actually, and so the numbers are quite sad. Put me on a fiction list and I shall astound! But the longest list I can make is undoubtedly the list of books I want to read. One lifetime isn't enough for that, no kidding.

It has been quite a week, folks. Not a bad week, just a busy one. I haven't even started working yet (still in training) and I'm already acting all grown up and busy. I'm personally very scared for myself. I happened to see the friends episode on TV today, the one where chandler takes a bath, and all I could think of was how amazing a day in a tub would be. Completely putting aside all the soaked-skin effects, of course.

Anyway, here we go...

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

• Look at the list and bold those you have read.
• Mark in blue those you intend to read.
• Mark in RED the books you LOVE.
  
• Reprint this list in your own blog.
• Having seen the movie/cartoon/TV series is not the same as having read the book.

Presenting....My list!

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

I tag whoever wants to be tagged.

and W stands for working, really?

It's been almost a week since I started going to work- and yes, it still feels weird to say that. I'll be lying if I say that I'm fully aware of the change. It feels like something's changed, but I don't know what. When I'm there, I feel like I'm in a distant world, and I'm not really in control of my actions. Now, that can't be a good thing, you say. I'll get real enough there, as soon as my brain adjusts to functioning in a colder environment, my head adjusts to the coffee, my butt, to sitting for long hours, and my mind, to growing up.

Work's been fun, for the most part- I went in with more warning than anything else. The really cool part about starting work is that people remember and wish you and message you and call you- it's overwhelming. It's also a brilliant reminder of this new phase in life, I suppose. I like how Akaash put it on the first day, 'The first day of the rest of our lives'. I got a lot of gyaan- don't expect anything, keep your senses open, be open to working hard, smile a lot, avoid dressing for social suicide, never go in without checking your teeth for gunk somewhere- and most of it was useful, I'll admit. But the only advice I'd give anyone would be to look at the positive side of things- and that starts early as hell, I suppose. Typically, you should start looking at the positive side of things from day numero uno in your life, but If you can't, you should really learn to identify the positives, like I am. Because there are a lot, believe me. And it's almost sad if you don't see it sometimes.

So yes, it's been crazy, I'm sleep deprived, my diet's flown away and I can only manage a tired smile by the end of the day, and work hasn't even started.
But I'm loving it, folks, because I'm growing up, I'm learning, I'm growing to understand myself better, and work is the best lesson in people you'll ever get. People can really surprise you, and when they do, it's like BOOM!
I'm also more aware of all the mad awesomeness in the world, the analysis that goes behind every little thing there is. I'm also growing increasingly resistant to temperature change- that can only be looked at as a good thing. I'm learning how to remember names, I'm learning how to remember acronyms, and I'm learning how to make coffee from coffee machines. Well, sort of.

This is me, signing off- Miss Waiting for Weekends (I think), Miss I hate travel, Miss Whole-new-wake-up-call-to-myself, Miss Finally, finally, growing up (I think, again.) For all those of you who still haven't worked somewhere, it can be a very humbling, interesting, and sometimes amusing experience. Amusing because you'll only be amused at yourself, if you're anything like me. For those of you who have, tell me which is the best place for wrinkle free clothes, because all the ironing is driving me nuts, peeps.

I hereby tag Akaash to post anything. Anything.

Somewhere a clock is ticking

We're always looking forward in life, aren't we? That next job, that new place, that new life. That thing we want, that person we want, that person we want to be. This thing, that thing. We're always looking ahead, because our eyes are programmed to see that way- in front.

But this video a bunch of us recently made for Sutta made me realise that I may be too busy looking ahead to look back. I'm always looking for something else, never truly getting the worth of what I have right then. I might be having the best time ever, and I'm too busy trying to find a BETTER time, trying to find a better place, trying to find what I THINK I want to truly sit back and enjoy it. I'm too busy running ahead to look back over my shoulder.

But when I do, all I see is perfect. I didn't know it at the time, but in hindsight, everything went just as it was meant to go; it doesn't matter if it was according to plan. Everyday was filled with the best I could've asked for. And yes, I've an imovie to prove it. An imovie to remind me that regret is but a trivial part in life- it has no spot in the bigger picture. The bigger picture is filled primarily with the good times. Kingfisher got that one very, very right.

If only I'd made an imovie before. I miss everything, everything I never realised was perfect at the time, perfect in a way that I'd never imagined. I guess all I'm trying to say is that you might think that all you want for life to begin is for something to end- say college, school, hostel, project, exams. Ho Hum, guess what- you've been living life all along. Yes, life IS what happens when we're busy making plans. The good life is the 'in the middle', the filler, the general, the regular. The regular is what will bring laughter and smiles and SIX hours of joy in making a video of your life in a few years. We thought that was a lot to begin with, but can you compress all the happiness (that you didn't even know existed) of Four years in Six hours? You can't. You can barely take out a slice.

Moral of the post? Your parents were right all along (SHOCKING, I know). You'll look back on your life one day, just like me, and hopefully, you'll also find that it lacked in nothing. Retrospect is key to getting that. Things may suck, things may burn, things may go to hell, things may not go according to plan.

You'll curse and swear and cry and hate and in the end, all you'll remember is the love.

Somewhere, a clock is ticking. Ticking too fast, ticking away. I didn't even hear it for so long, and I'll stop hearing it soon enough, because I will be living. As will everyone else.
And the cycle shall repeat.....

The Gift

One of the phrases I hated most when I was growing up (STILL feels weird to say that, I'm still growing up!) was "rose-tinted glasses". Everyone at home thought that I had them on, all the time. Come down to earth, and throw away those glasses, they'd say. I lived in a dreamy haze, where everything was great, everything was fabulous. Yes, it's true- I didn't really understand things like pain, suffering, evil.

And then, just like they said, I took away those glasses. Shattered them for a brand new pair, one that gleamed of practicality, supposed good sense and clarity of thought. One that I thought I'd always wanted. One that I thought would get me through life better.

And now, I find that the rose-tinted ones are probably better.

How many times have we resented our lives for being incomplete? How many times have we wished we had certain things, trivial things. They may not seem trivial to us, but in the grand scheme of things? I know I look back on so many events in school and wonder why certain things mattered to me that much. How many times have we wanted something, only to have someone point out that we actually DO have a lot going for us? How many times, have we cribbed and detested things about our lives? Quite a few, atleast in my case.

Ironically, what opened my eyes was a visually challenged boy I met recently. I was his scribe for his exams, and at the end of it all, I don't know who needed more examination- him, or me. I basically got to go to his college, write exams there and in the process, I happened to see how every tiny little thing is different. Sure, it was remarkable, how he was coping, how he was succeeding, even. But to a great extent, I realized the sheer magnitude of the everyday gifts we have. Tiny, almost miniscule ones- from being able to cross the road, to knowing which direction to turn exactly when someone calls you. From being able to sit and study with friends, to playing lagori and round-robin table tennis. From being able to see how good someone's chicken steak looks, to seeing someone's outfit. From being able to comment on an ad or movie, to being able to drive. From being able to be completely and totally independent, to being able to see pictures of people you miss. From having the potential to do almost ANYTHING, to just as easily, helping others reach their potential.

We truly have it all. We can experience everything we want to, remember what we want to, believe what we want to. We've practically nothing standing in our way, unless you look at rocks on the way as walls. Yes, folks...most of us have no major setbacks, nothing pulling us apart, nothing freezing our senses. We, quite literally, have a license to live in every way we can. And still, most of us don't.

And this is how we should view the world, ideally. Through the rose tint, where everything is ours and we don't need anything more. If a visually challenged boy can finish a degree, use a laptop, catch a bus and do SO much more, why do I sit and complain about all the perfection that exists around me? I'm embarrassed about the entire section on this blog that has the tag "How can you not vent?". Because the question, really, is, How can you, possibly?

I'm sure I'll go back, at some point, to having issues with things, wishing, wanting, needing more, a lot more. It's called being human, and being flawed. But it helps once in a while to step back and see the enormous pile of gifts we have in comparison to so many others, I guess. It's like everyday is my birthday.
And I barely celebrate.

Here's to the happy tint, a good dose of being grateful, P.O.S.I.T.I.V.I.T.Y (sutta, are you smiling?), less cribbing ( a lot more people, are you smiling?) and to the gift. The gift that we all have, of opportunity. (Sound- :) ) And to people who think I'm getting too philosophical with the post- it will happen to you too someday!

In school, we had this assembly regularly with thoughts and speeches made by students, and surprisingly, in all my 14 years there, I remember only one saying from one speech- and it wasn't even my own (adt, you will remember this too).

The past is history,
The future's a mystery
and the present is a gift- that's why they call it the present.