Inspire Me

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
― Mahatma Gandhi


 “Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum LP

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth


“If you meet a woman of whatever complexion who sails her life with strength and grace and assurance, talk to her! And what you will find is that there has been a suffering, that at some time she has left herself for hanging dead.”
― Sena Jeter Naslund, Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer


“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don't believe it. Seek out the memories depression takes away and project them into the future. Be brave; be strong; take your pills. Exercise because it's good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds. Eat when food itself disgusts you. Reason with yourself when you have lost your reason.”
― Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

“Life is filled with unanswered questions, but it is the courage to seek those answers that continues to give meaning to life. You can spend your life wallowing in despair, wondering why you were the one who was led towards the road strewn with pain, or you can be grateful that you are strong enough to survive it.”
― J.D. Stroube, Caged by Damnation


“You almost have to step outside yourself and look at you as if you were someone else you really care about and really want to protect. Would you let someone take advantage of that person? Would you let someone use that person you really care about? Or would you speak up for them? If it was someone else you care about, you'd say something. I know you would. Okay, now put yourself back in that body. That person is you. Stand up and tell 'em, "Enough!”

Travel Diaries - 1

Saturday arrived with all its fanfare and glory. The sun was up, the birds sang and everyone was walking around whistling,smiling and feeling good about the next two days. I was excited too, but for different reasons. We were to go on a trail in Changi that was called the Changi Coast Walk. Now, it didn't look like anything extravagant. It was just a 2km walk along a beach, but it had been a while since I stepped out into nature and really enjoyed it. So it was something I was really looking forward to. 4 o clock came and went by the time we left. The journey to Changi took us close to an hour and a half as we trudged along talking about everything under the sky. When the destination finally arrived, we got off and started to look for the point where we had to begin the trail. Once we knew where we had to head, we stocked ourselves with some water bottles and took off. I must say here that the entire path was man made, so there were no surprises. It wasn't strenous, so we weren't sweating and panting either. We walked along at our own pace taking as many pictures as we could at all the places. Some of the sights were beautiful, but one wouldn't say from breathtaking. The sunset was worth it though. As the sun went down, the rays on the water gave it a pinkish tinge that was absolutely stunning. We walked past a few dark places, a few stairs, a sailing club and a few families that were staying in the Aloha resorts. I have heard rumours about the resorts being haunted, but we just moved along. After 2 hours of walking a stretch that should have ideally taken us half an hour, we sat for a bit at the point which we thought was the eastern tip of Singapore. It was our tiny little break after which we walked back quickly to the where we began to get home. Like I said, it wasn't the awesome-est trip, but i felt giddily happy for having reached out to nature after so long. Also, I was with the most controversy free, fun people on the trip , so yes, it was totally worth my Saturday evening. 

THE MIRACLE THAT HE IS-

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives - BBC on Sachin Tendulkar

I'm writing this post one day after India beat New Zealand in a 2 match test series at home. I was just reading the news and I am absolutely baffled and anguished by the number of people asking this man to hang up his boots and walk off from the game he has contributed SO much to, over the last two decades. I mean seriously, are you all out of your mind? Who are we to ask him to retire or walk away? Have you played the game ever? Even if you have, have you played like him? HAve you shouldered the hopes and expectations of over a billion cricket crazy fans? Have you been as consistent and fit as he has? If you haven't, you have no right to question his ability or decision to continue playing.

Before we go any further, I want to emphasize that I don't think Sachin is GOD, I don't think he is the greatest cricketer to have ever played the game (simply because I haven't watched every generation and I can't say that unless I have seen all of them, even then I may not be knowledgable enough to make that call). Hell, he's not even my favourite-est cricketer, that would be Rahul Dravid. Then why am I so pissed about all
this news? Because you cannot, absolutely CANNOT deny his contribution to this game just like you cannot question his brilliance and amazing talent. He has been a worthy role model for many a kid. There is a Rahul Mehra, from Times Of India asking this question. "what does he get out of playing now, he has almost all the records, he won the world cup, he has scored so many centuries, what has he got left to prove"!! You NITWIT, you've touched upon the answer yourself, he has nothing left to prove, or nothing left to achieve. Yet he plays the game because he believes he can contribute further to Indian cricket. With all the legends like Dravid, Laxman retiring one after the other, have you thought of the consequences if Sachin were to retire now? This was New Zealand, who don't have extraordinary bowling or batting. Next to come will be England followed by Australia and I don't think your 'youngsters' alone are going to be able to handle that. If you give me shit like he's playing for money, one SLAP on your face is all you will get. What money does he not have that he will possibly get out of putting his body through more torture. Give him a break. The man is almost 40, and cricket requires training hard, he is not going to put himself through that kind of physical stress for nothing. So instead of yelling for him to leave, sit back and enjoy while he still plays because when he does decide to retire (which is not too far away), you are going to miss him, Indian cricket will miss him and world cricket will say goodbye to one of their most precious gems.

As Mathew Hayden put it -

His life seems to be a stillness in a frantic world... [When he goes out to bat], it is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man.

The chaos WILL come to an end one day. It will be a sad day because you are never going to find someone to fill the void that he is going to leave. So until that dreaded day arrives, let him be. Your Sharmas, Tiwaris and Rahanes can wait. Of all the people that have been unceremoniously kicked out, at least this man deserves to go out on his own terms!

A little Koffee anyone - No? Really? Not even a little bit?

Just the other day, when I was sitting in my room absolutely bored, I turned to YouTube for some much needed entertainment. I spent half an hour going through a lot of crap before I chanced upon an episode of the show 'Koffee with Karan'. Now, I am not a huge movie buff, I don't really give a shit about most of the movies that are running in the multiplexes. But I like filmy gossip,again not to the extent that I sit over it for hours and ponder and worry about it, but just generally, I like to watch chat/talk shows with different famous people in them. Now don't get it in your head that this is the only reason I watch these shows, I am not that shallow either, but it is definitely one of the reasons when it involves film stars. I am not looking for any kind of 'gyan' from them, obviously.

So for those of you who are not familiar with the show itself, Karan Johar is a director in Bollywood who most of the actors would die to work apparently. Lets not get into that kind of logistics for the time being. He hosts this chat show where he gets all the biggies from the industry to come by and chat with him in a 45 minute episode where they discuss everything from the actor's journey to stardom, new movies,ex relationships and current flames on an apparently steaming couch ( Don't blame me, I borrowed the cliche from Mr Karan himself). Despite how cheesy and terribly annoying it sounds here, it is actually quite nice. As in, the show is well hosted and some of the movie stars are really funny. You wouldn't want to watch this if you are in the mood for something useful because this really is utter nonsense. But sometime utter nonsense is what you need for entertainment.If you can watch movies like Shivaji or Dabangg or Ready which is actually mindless shit, this should be OK too. You watch it for 45 minutes,smile and laugh wit them and then you let go. You don't ponder over what they said and what they are doing because the truth is that you don't care. Neither do I. Nor do we have that kind of time in this age. So for all those who keep bitching about talk shows like this, go get a life. If you only wanted to do something useful in life everyday and nothing else, you wouldn't be doing half the things that you are actually doing.

Life is not meant to do only useful and awesome stuff. Take a break once in a while, do some nonsense, it helps :)