Author: ddgaikwad

The Crush…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

For all these years all the guys and gals that I had met and talked with, all they have these encounters fresh in their memories… these are the encounters that they always talk about with the same amount of enthusiasm, as they would have on the day one itself! These encounters I am the ones that they would never forget, even till they leave this planet for a better place… So special and warm are these encounters … and you might be thinking what these encounters …actually are?
These encounters are nothing else but, the memories of their first crush!! (And yeah this has nothing to do with the film from 1993…)

It all started with some subject or an object or a location that one might be looking at and then out of blue, without any warning, all those memories start gushing through the mind like a flash flood, filling up all the each and every corner with emotions… to such an extent that eyes show the effect intensity to the crush’s memory!

The first sighting of the one, and you fall heads over heels for that one! The first sight, that face, that hair, that smile, and that time of the day… Some even tend to remember, the direction of the sun, the speed of the wind (that too in nautical miles)… I bet some might have even memorized the star map! And then lost in that world of fantasy… most of the times an external jolt is needed to snap back to reality…

The first time our crush is seen, the game begins to get noticed or to notice the crush. During the college days, just to get a glimpse of our crush, we get up early and get dressed and head to the bus stop, just to travel alongside with our crush. Then even when we do not have any classes during crush classes, we will sit or loiter around the campus just to get that small peek of our crush…
And if you are lucky and if the crush lives nearby, then you would find a hundred reasons just to pass by crush’s home. You would also agree to do all those chores (there would be times you would ask your mother for any chores to take care off…) that you do not like, so that you can pass by crush home and get a peek, if they are in the lobby or on the balcony or all these antics just to get noticed…

When our crush does notice us, the first “Hi” is always the difficult ones… the butterflies that we feel, the words that are there at the tip of the tongue but, it gets difficult to speak those words, the building pressure of NOT blurting out something non-sense, which might put off our crush and the mounting pressure of blowing up this only once in a lifetime chance to talk to the crush… It feels as if after this there will be no tomorrow and you will be alone for the rest of your life… thus you get that the first “Hi” which gets stamped in our memory forever…
And every time we recall it, it’s like we go through all those emotions once again, the same feeling that same magic… and sometimes the same pressure as well… no wonder…

And with the passage of time and some external efforts from our friends, we start to converse with our crush, which had been a dream about, and oh boy! Well, the first “Hi…” does feel like a long-awaited conversation though. The feeling is like, an out of the world experience… the talk, the walk together towards our homes, the wait for each other at the bus stops, the catching and reserving seats in for each other… all these things happening without uttering a single word… and the time seems to be flying with twice the speed when we are with our crush, all the feelings are magical, something that just out of a Bollywood romance movie…

But, the happiness is short lived and before you could take any of those imaginary actions, crush bounds to depart away from us… the reasons could be anything, maybe a change in the city, maybe a new job opportunity, maybe family moving away… and even marriage… how heart-wrenching!! Whatever it could be, we just stand there witnessing that our crush is moving away from us, far away, never to be seen… all that remains, are the one-sided memories and the pain of departure and things that you could have accomplished, if and only if, you two would have been together for the rest of your lives…

With pain your heart and confusion in your mind, you accept it, ALAS! A crush will always remain a crush no matter what…

Time machine…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

Ever wondered if we had a time machine? What could have been its implications on the history as we know it? Yes, there has been a lot of discussion in a lot of literature already… but, what if?

It is a technological concept which has always intrigued me… It is something that has always caught my imagination! It makes me think about a lot of possibilities and even a lot more events that one individual, could have an impact on…

Having such a machine would be no less than having a superpower of some sort. One can always go back in time for, a few minutes, a few days or even years and change that one particular event… That one particular nagging thing or that one mistake or an history in its entirety? It’s just endless things which could be accomplished, it’s as vast as one’s imagination could get…

With such a super-power and is almost God like ability, what are the events that one would be motivated to modify? Could it be moving to the future and getting the future tech here to get a head start? Or moving to the past and altering that one event, which will have an impact on the history of the entire planet? Or what if a person is motivated by personal motives and greed, and then move back in the past or in the future, just for his personal gains and in turn changing the entire timeline of the world as we know it? It’s just a matter of, who gets his hands on the machine first?

The last thing that remains, who knows? If the time travelers or time agents are already within us… Making those minute adjustments to the timelines as it suits their own future may be? Would these adjustments be same as we make them on our timekeeping devices? a little minute here, an hour there?

Who knows, how many times the history might have changed, changing the future along with it?

Who knows, when you get nightmares, they are because of the minute adjustments already made by the time agents? Or its just because you have entered a new timeline of your own… Who knows…?

The Indian Monsoon…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

In India its the time of the year start from mid-June to mid-october.
This is a season that all of us are craving for, from the start of the summer, generally, summer starts from April to and lasts till June.
It is a season of great joy, well at least in the first few weeks of course.

In the first few weeks, we all love the smell of the rain, when it hits the already scorched land… the aroma is sweet and tantalizing…
It even kicks a few of us back to our good old childhood of carefree days… that amazing it is…
The first few weeks is the time when the hills and mountains start shedding away their brown and dead covers with the soft green and slowly lush green covers…
The air firstly becomes, cool, then cleaner, no dust, then moist, you can almost like smell the monsoon inside it… It feels as if, it has given you a new set of lungs altogether!!

The rains are nice and sporadic in the first few weeks, it feels as if you have been transferred to the heaven on earth
All the rainy trips and picnics and trek are organized during this first few weeks only…

As we progress further into the month, the drizzle is converted to downpour…
Sporadic rains replaced by continuous showers…
The city roads once having small streams flowing, now are submerged underwater…
The rivers are roaring and are in their most powerful state, scary!

In a few days of time, the oohs and ahhs of the rain are replaced with pleading to make it stop!
And with this, we slowly stride towards the end of the Monsoon season, and even before its ending, we start waiting for the winter season to come and rescue us from the rain gods…

The Cubicle…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment
There is an individual who works for about 9 hours a day. Commutes the same route. Parks at the same spot. Enters the workplace from the same door. And then sits in a square called a cubicle, where he will be spending rest of his days, months and the years to come, just to make his ends meet.
Sometimes I feel, what an irony are these cubicles, we, the most of the crowd, spend so many months and years just so that one we could break out of those four walls. And then explore the world that is very different from those four walls of the cubicle?
Its like we are stuck there with our own will, we have trapped ourselves in those four walls, just so that slogging inside them will one day give us the freedom that we need. But, then after some years, we are all become complacent of those four walls and never want to leave them again.
Many swear by those four walls and become afraid of actually exploring the real world out there… That is when you enlighten what power the cubicle hold over you… It just becomes a second home for you, you spend about 9 hours out waking hours in that small confined space…
Cubicle, a place where most of our years are spent and these years just fleet by you… that is when you wonder, what if I had tried something different? Or is this where I will be for the rest of my life?

The impatience…

~ ddgaikwad ~ 1 Comment

Recently there have been a lot of mental ramblings about the right partner to choose. As here in India, if you pass above the age of 30 and if you are single then your family gets really impatient envisioning about your future without a life partner…! And all the hardships that one might have to go through…

Thus, the search for the right bride or groom begins with full throttle, and support is enlisted forth from the close friends, neighbors, and from relatives from a far far away land…

The suggestions start pouring in, first one then two and then a few more and a few more… Every weekend is a fest of playing the game of matchmaking, comparing the stats, the incomes, the skin colour, the education, the family background, the place of birth and the most important of all, (sigh) matching the horoscopes (I mean really! In this day and age you are going to blame some planets and stars millions and billions of kilometers away for what happens in your life? Really?)… Oh well, since its the tradition have to bear it…

Then the day comes in when you have to visit the bride/groom’s home meet her/his parents (most of the times it’s the groom that visits the bride’s home)… Pleasantries are exchanged, a few jokes are thrown around and same questions are asked (even when the entire bio-data along with all the stats was forwarded earlier to them) Oh well…

Then the time comes when everyone is staring at the girl and the boy, urging them to ask questions to each other… In the gaze of those 100 eyes, they are barely able to speak… With a few generic questions and answers, the meeting finally ends…

Everyone is delighted with the breakfast or the little snacks that are served… another round of loud jokes is passed, with some more generic discussion of where each family tree has started and where it ended, and with wide smiles, we depart, not sure if gonna meet again or not…

And midst of all this chaos you are standing there trying to grasp and summarise the situation… wondering if you really had proposed that girl you really liked from the college long long back then…? Would you have been spared these weekly meets and greets?

The atoms…

~ ddgaikwad ~ 3 Comments
Recently, I was reading an article from one of the science magazines. It was an article that I came across, relating to the research being conducted using LHC or the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. The worlds most complex and advanced machine.
This article provided the details about how the scientists are trying to unravel the mysteries of the Universe and its inner workings on a level that one cannot even grasp! And they are trying to unravel the workings by smashing atom together, so that it could decay into its smaller constituents… Which could be further studied…
It got me thinking, we as humans, who are trying to understand what makes up the Universe, what are the basic components? How they came into existence? Why they are the way they are? This is something which really tips the scales of awesomeness to the MAX!!
If you think of it in this way, we are smashing atoms in tiny bits to understand their makeup, to decipher those grand and big hidden mysteries of the natural world..
But, when you think a bit further, humans and the machines used to smash those atoms, are themselves made up of countless number of atoms…
So, in a nutshell, its the atoms themselves who are smashing these other set of atoms, to find out what they are really made up off?
At the first feels a tad bit creepy, but then one tries get a grip of how grand it is! It makes the head spin even thinking about it…
Makes you wonder, how could something which has no life, comes to existence to study itself?
Is that not a big mystery in itself? Is it not like the maker himself is trying understand what he is?
Any thoughts?

Handicapped…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

When one reads the word handicapped, what image does flash in front of his eyes? Probably disabled human, or a human who is unable to carry out all normal tasks as a normal human being, right?

The kind of handicapped human that I am referring here, is actually, a technologically handicapped. Yes, a human can become handicapped due to technology as well. Its surprising but true in nature and a fact. This fact could be proven with multiple examples around us. It really bothers me to the my wits, when this same tech is not used for what it is meant to be used for? Why does a human get addicted to it?

There are multiple instances where in this could be observed in the wild. The animal called human, is unable to leave its home, without the gadget called as mobile phone. Mere with its absence, human becomes anxious and savage. He returns back its root in the pre-historic era. In short just becomes a beast…. A beast which is unable to cope with the complexity of the modern world and becomes an outcast from his herd…

They say human animal is a social animal, but with the advent of internet and ultimately social media, this has reached a new level altogether itself. You could see these humans constantly updating their current statuses, as if they are celebrities of some kind. You could observe them becoming pretty anxious when they do not see a “Like” or “heart” or a “re-tweet” (really tweeting was or the birds in the yesteryears, but humans, ya know…)… Amazing behaviour…

There is this distinct behaviour observed in the social gatherings inside the human settlements as well. Where in all the humans after exchanging the pleasantries, would dive deep in the glowing screens of their devices. Even when they are al-together, physically, their minds is taking trips down the digital highway… One might ask, then what is the point of having a social gathering after all? Hmmm?

When we try to observe this human species mating rituals, they seem to have become quite short term as well. All thanks to the easy peesy apps, dating apps to be precise, are at the disposal of their finger tips. One swipe right and man you are one hell of a stud! Brilliant. Long gone are the days of awkward conversations and embarrassments…

With the advancement in technology, internet and devices, the human no longer has to wander off from the comfort of his cave. Everything gets delivered to him. All those stuff of the wild are left to the express delivery guys, from vegetable to pizzas to babies. You name it and it will at your door step within a few hours.

Thus this heavy reliance on tech has become a new epidemic for human species and it might one spell out doom for sure. Not sure when that might occur, but one thing is for sure, its in the making as we speak of it… stay safe and have a great day….

Time…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

Recently I watched a movie named, Passengers. In the story there is a star ship which is traveling towards a new planet. This planet is going to be the new home for humanity. In this journey it is carrying varied humans with various skills and professions. This total journey would take about 150 years, one way that is!

In the film there is this one reporter who will reach the new planet, spend a year and then return back to Earth. It got me thinking and I did some calculations, One way journey will be 150 years and return will be another 150, and a year spent there. That sums up to 301 years in total.

Since that person is going to be cryo sleep, so he would be ageing by just another year before he makes back to Earth! But then when he is back on Earth, all the people, the friends, the relative, the family, no one would be there… they would have vanished and the person arriving at the destination Earth would find a completely new planet with new techs and new social structure!!

This is just so mind boggling!! For the person its just a year that has passed, since he began his journey, but for rest of the world, the Earth, its 301 years… This just does not feel right, it makes you drift and think again about time.. Question it, time does really flow differently for different people.. and when such a tech will be available what will it be like…

Even thinking about such a possibility gives me goose bumps at a cosmic level… Time for one is not what it looks like its really totally a different entity altogether..

Companionship…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

To start with, I am not even sure if companionship is the right word? You may ask, what might be the reason to dig into subject of this sort?

Why would anyone need a companion? This was a question that I used to toss away in the garbage dump in my teens and would not look back… but lately I have been pondering on this same question and it has started to bother me on a daily basis!… After pondering over it for plenty of sleepless nights and quite a few naps at work, I was able to come up some closure… Or that is what I might think…

For starters, after crossing a certain age a person is left all alone and I mean really alone. The number of friends are dwindling and there are a very few left. The ones which are few left, are either engaged or in a very serious relationship. They have their own priorities and responsibilities to tackle and take care off… They are no longer, “Available all the time to be with you…” PERIOD!

Even at work, as one keeps climbing up the ladder of work experience and promotions and positions, the number of people whom you could interact freely, and I mean by being the real you, also dwindles… Since one has an image that is needed to be managed in front of all those subordinates. Else it will just become a bottle neck and won’t be able to get anything done!

Well, as the days pass along, the feeling of being alone also creeps in and a person gets tired of portraying an image of oneself, which he is really not!

The feeling of having someone besides, the kind of a person, who could embrace you the way you are. The desire to have that person, who could just make you feel better, no matter what your mood is… The pain of not having anyone around where, you could act the normal you, the real you… All this creeps in…

Then reluctantly and silently, one gets up and logs in to the computer, firing up the browser and start registering over all those millions of dating sites… Just in the hope that one would find their companion of the dreams… Thus the quest for a companion begins, in the hopes of not needing to spend the rest of life portraying the not real you…

Someone better…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

Over so many years, I had been in Love with so many girls, but there were only a few to whom I was able to confess the feeling of Love… As it goes…

As I vividly remember, it were my college days (higher secondary school in India for the 11th and 12th grades), there was this girl on whom I had crush from the very first day of the college. She was pretty and charming and had a really beautiful smile. A smile that would melt anyone’s heart away. And above all that she had a very bubbly nature, and a added bonus, she was very friendly as well. I was head over heels for her and wished and dreamed to spend the rest of my life with…

Another year passed and we were in the Second year of the sciences, she had become the part of our group and a really good friend of mine. We shared a lot of things, those long chats, our family issues.  As for our group it, consisted of two girls, her and another one from our class and three boys, including me and two of my other friends from the same branch… We were a group of smart and happy go lucky, our grades were great, even when everyone thought that we never studied, we had built a very reputable rapport with out faculties as well as our senpai’s… All was nice and dandy.. Then one day (it took a lot of planning and thinking for this day) I decided to go and express my feelings to her and win her over…

The day chosen was the last day of the college exams, the last paper, I had finally decided to go out and express all my feelings to her… Which I had bottled them up for more than a year now… and filled with little anxiety, I was expecting a positive result, since we have been in the same group and known each other for more than a year now…

The bell rang! The time of the test was upon me, the paper was over, I rushed out of the class hurriedly submitting my answer sheet to the supervisor… After searching for her at our regular spot (katta), I was a little disappointed not finding her, feeling bad was about to head back home, I saw her standing at the corner of the college sports ground.. A new hope and I literally rushed towards her! As if someone might steal her away before I did… haha!!

There I was standing in front of her, huffing and puffing, trying to catch my breath… looking into her eyes, and she staring into mine with confusion and amazement… I took a pause, looked at her, she was all confused, and in an instant blurted out all those emotions I have been bottling up for last year…

Her reaction was not what I had expected! She took a step back, looked at me and with a long pause and low voice, she replied…
“You will find someone better than me, I am not good for you…” I was standing there in amazement, confusion, heart ache and what not, thinking… what could be wrong? What does that even mean? Is she even real? Or is there something off with me? Or just maybe that I was dreaming? Trying to scream or yell at her… I tried to explain it to her and requested for an answer of if there was anything with me… Nothing was unearthed that day… With a heavy heart and full of sad emotions, I bid adieu to her, never to see and meet her ever again…

Well, it took about a year to get over that incident and I tried my luck with another girl, and to my surprise she used those same words, “You will find someone better, I am not good for you..” The flash back came in from my college days! I was again amazed and a little petrified though. This was the second time, thought that I might just be a coincidence…

But, then it happened the third and fourth time, all in a span of less than 7 years! I am really not sure if this is the real trend or is there something really wrong with me. As all the females I met, it seemed that they enjoyed my company, but when it came to long term commitment, they all have backed down with those same words, “Someone better than them…”

I am even not sure what those words really mean? But, since then I have not been able to express any feelings to any other girl ever. All of those beautiful ones, always will remain as a crush for the rest of my life… All this pretty much hurts, make me think what do all these women really want then? Or is it just that I need to focus more on myself rather?

The question is still pretty much unanswered though. Has anyone been through this before? Let me know in the comments…

Plan B…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

The new year has come in and its already been 2 weeks into it, but when I look at Life, what I have seen is that, it always has a different plan than what you had expected from it.

No matter what you plan to do and what you are prepared for, Life will swoop in and put you in such a situation which you had never expected at all…

It like you make Plan A and failover Plan B, to that fail over would be Plan C, but Life, is such a mysterious thing, that it will always put in situation D and will test you wits to the max!

I guess such are the situations, where one is tested with its wisdom, how to react to it, is all that to it… Some of us would us tremble in fear, since we were not prepared for such a situation and some of us would attack it head on with whatever they got, and that is how it all works…

So, in a nutshell there is never Plan B, its just how one could move forward with the data accumulated over the years, converting it into knowledge and then deploying that knowledge at the right moment, giving rise to the wisdom!

Thus going back stating, its all part of a bigger plan that is all….

Square one…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

As the year approaches the end, unknowingly a melancholy creeps in. It is something that one cannot control neither ignore, it just creeps into the mind…

With the last few weeks remaining, one starts pondering over the things done over the course of last 11 months. Its a mixed bag of emotions, the good, the bad and the some, no one would like to bring it to the light…

But the melancholy one faces is about the wrong things that have been done over the last year, the promises made, the resolution broken and still being at the same place where was one year ago… how they were not fulfilled and how one is back to square one?

Being at the square one is not an issue, but resolution or promises which were never achieved, just put up a mark on ones mind. There is this reluctance to working over them again.
This reluctance is due to all the overthinking one does in order jump start that resolution in the next year again!!

Since, its a new year one has another chance and another year to give it a try, make sure that the determination does not fizzle out in a first few weeks of the year…

Why not give it another chance to yourself, the taste of victory would be really sweet rather than sitting in melancholy, thinking over what went wrong and how it would have been better if, x or y variable would have not been in play…

All in all, sometimes square one is all you need to catapult yourself towards the greater good, may the coming year be one such beautiful and fulfilling!

Earth 21000AD…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

Planet Earth, Terra or Prithvi, a home for all of us. What a beautiful blue planet this is, so peaceful from up above… No borders, no conflict, no politics just pure serene beauty… A wonder in its own self, with those vast lying seas and high mountains… At the right distance basking in the Sun’s radiation! The cradle of Human civilisation…

Suddenly! The alarm starts ringing, there is an warning displayed and I exit out of my VR, wondering what’s the matter? I hear 3rd officer announcing, we have reached the war zone, the Solar System… we the Terrans (another branch which broke away from Humanity) who had left the its cradle long back, about 21000 years ago, to explore the newer worlds out there in the distance… Today we are back to fight against the other colonies, who are claiming our holy Earth, all for themselves…

One after one we take our positions, the engines go online, the main weapon systems online, warp drive to 80% and climbing, 85%… 90%…. As for me? I am wondering about the outcome of this war.. What will happen if we claim this world for ourselves? Would we even be able to salvage anything from its surface? Have we forgotten the only reason we left in search of new worlds? Were our ancestors not the ones who depleted it of all the resources? Snatched away all its beauty? Turned a thriving planet into a dead rock??!! And yet here we are again, in the same solar system, same humans, divided  by technology and beliefs, fighting for a ruined planet… proving once again, no matter where humans go, how many worlds they conquer, war will always remain a part of their DNA…. But as the first officer, I was the one to drive the fleet of 12000 carriers and about 50000 cruisers, and a total of 1000000 soldiers for this holy cause…

The formation is ready, we prepare for another jump… this time, right into the heart of the arena, near the 1st Lagrange point… my heart is racing, my palm sweating, I see the entire fleet right in front of my eyes… I look at the captain of the ship, he looks at me… We are ready to leave New Terra… I can see if beneath the deck…
With a heavy heart I have to command them, keeping my doubts aside…

Warp drives are charged 100%…. I initiate the countdown, 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…!!

The balancing act…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

My transition from childhood to teenage to an adulthood, has not been that bad, but not that good as well… its somewhat been like where in the difficulty level settings for the life have been preset to medium… Oh well…

The memories are not that vivid, but quite faint of me being a child and being in the first grade, I was one of those introverts, trying to cope with the chattier ones, (what a pain those kids were…).. As being an Asian (Indian for that matter) there has always been a pressure to perform in the academics, but, since I knew my own capacity, I always used to manage to stay in the lot of top 20 kids of the class… and soon this became an balancing act for me to keep the same pace till my grade 10… (but little did I know that this pressure to perform would stick to me in the coming years as well…)

What a relief it was, when I joined in the junior college, and as a freshman I was pretty much able to choose the subjects and branch of my liking, (options, being, science, commerce and arts) looking my well balanced marks, was able to get a seat in the science branch, along with subjects of my liking. Little did I know, this will initiate another set of 2 in the balancing act.. this time it was, balancing the marks, completing the assignments, completing the experiments, (for me, I had 4 subjects) spending 7 out of 4 days just completing the experiment sheets… rest of the 3 days, studying hard to keep the Asians standards or just staying at the edge of them…

Then with all this balancing was able to graduate and join a good company and start another journey… initially all was good, able to learn new things and was happy about the progress as well.. Seems that Life was set and then would just go with the pretty good Life that I had always wanted in those yesteryears…

But little did I know that I have entered one of the grand schemes ever!! Still being part of it, but this time the stakes are pretty much high and pressure and the time all seems to have mingled together…

This time around, it is huge, its time to balance, work, work pressure, money, the finances, relationships and still there is Asian standard of performance, the balancing act has never been this huge and it has become more intricate.. no matter what…

The conclusion would be, Life itself is a one big balancing act!! sigh….

Old tech…

~ ddgaikwad ~ 2 Comments

I know that this has been said by many and many more times, that the old tech was the best tech… or old school as they call it…
Came to a realization this Dashera, why the old tech or the old school as you may call it, is called that way and why its the best way?

Let’s take small trip down the memory lane, shall we..?

During 80’s, with every Diwali, Dashera, or any big festival, there used to be this hustle…
Which included, (as some of you may recall), head to the post office, get a dozen or two letters… Come home, sit at the study desk, make list of all the relatives, start writing well wishes and all the pleasantries, and that too mind you in really, really and I mean really good handwriting the best ever…! Finish the writing, put down the addresses accurately (you know India post, ahem!) In a week or a two head back to the post office and post them…
Phew! Come back and wait for the responses…

Then came the 90’s, the telephone had started to become the house hold appliance, but still not that common… An entire area of 100 house hold would be sharing one phone number… Then there were also those STD booths, where in people used to flock during the night, for the lower call rates and so they could have those really long conversations with all the relatives and friends… Still this was exciting and magical, to listen the person, who was hundreds of Kilometers away, but felt like he was just besides us…

Enter the 2000’s or Y2K as they called it.. hehehe!
We had the intrusion of phones and sms messaging was just gaining popularity, but was not main stream.. the call rates were pretty low as compared to 90’s and the conversations used to last a little longer… the best part was that only the required person could be reached out and no one would even know, wink wink…

Enter the 2010’s, Internet is a common thing, the “smart” phone is in every person’s hand…. Now we just wish each other by sending a mass text, or an image or just a gif, searched and downloaded from some heck of a server, we don’t even know…?
Or best, just put a greeting one of many Whatsapp groups and you are done… The hassles of calling, writing have become a thing of past…

This type of communication has lost the personal touch, which was there during the 90’s and well late in the Y2K… but, these days, all seems pretty mechanical, there is no personal touch, heck! your friends so called close friends as well, will not bother to memorise your birthday, they heavily rely on online services…

Still there are so many other who are still going with old school way… but, they are just the endangered species… seems that this is how the future, pretty non-personal, and mechanical… sigh…!

Hometown…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

There is this place called as the Hometown, this place, has a special meaning in everyone’s heart… It could be a small village, a town, a city or even a huge metropolis….

We all have this connection towards it, there is this strange feeling that runs through, when we are traveling towards it. There is this smile which keeps on popping up on the face when you are there. The things seem so similar and that they have a weird connection towards oneself…

It is a place, where we never feel lost or alone or as an outsider, it is a place where one can feel an authority, a connection, a nirvana… All roads are familiar, all places are known, every nook and corner…

When one is there, it feels like as if we had left it yesterday and are back again the next day, we cherish those get together spots or katta’s, those wada wallas and those ice cream parlours, we know them since our childhoods and college days…

But, then there is this feeling that, you have to go back to the place where you work and make a living… There is always this feeling within, that someday, someday I will come back and settle down here, a place which one knows and is cherished… A place where you have that irreplaceable sense of connection…

But, still as time passes, one keeps on cherishing the memories, from this one place called as the Hometown…

As the vacation nears to an end, we pack the bags and plan to come back here to spend some more time, albeit but like an athithi…

Traffic light…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

We all travel on a daily basis, using the road as our main medium of transport. Daily we are heading for work, somedays we are heading towards some leisure activities. Some of us travel via car, some like to use a motorbike…

And since we are using the roads, we all come across the most dreaded thing, the traffic signal or some might call it traffic lights…

This is the spot where we all have to slow down and come to a hault at the command of the red traffic light to let the traffic from the other directions of the road pass… everyone is pretty patient about this process and it makes one more patient, when these traffic lights have a counter… You know the one like they have for launch control at ISRO… waiting like, 10… start your engines…. 5…4…3…2…1 and blast off.. yeah those….

And with this information, you are waiting there for it to turn green, so that you could move a step closer to your destination. But, while you are patiently waiting at, there would always be a moron or  a may be specially gifted, (who is, a mile away)…
Consistently keeps on honking, as if all the cars on the road would magically dis-appear  (a le Bruce Almighty) and he would have the entire patch of road to his own…

By the time he reaches the intersection, you have well passed and think to yourself, did the signal really turn green because of his honking???

The transitions…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

There have been times when I was completely unaware of certain things in my own way and life… There was a time when everyone used to call me with my name or a nick name or something that would really make you uncomfortable in a group of people…

Then the years go by, and you move from School to College, you are a junior, then another year passes by and you are a sophomore now…
In those years of college, you call whoever you want, with whatever name you wish, there are no barriers, there are just these friendly gestures, and best of all no one gets offended… Because you know that something similar will be thrown back at you!

Finally, you graduate and move to the “real world”, you start looking for job… you start addressing people with proper salutations, you know because you need to look good and you really need that job…

You get the job, you start working with a team, they are all of your age, passed out in the same year…
Again you have that same college kinda environment, you feel liberated, you work with same enthusiasm, you make progress…

You start moving upwards in chain of command (I mean the corporate ladder…)

One day you move out and head to another Organization, now you have your team, you work with them, you do your best.
You create healthy and friendly environment where people are with you because, there are no barriers of seniority or age or industry experience, everyone is content and learn form one another…

Then one day, the team you loved is spread across, its no more there… you go to work with heavy heart and a lot of thoughts.. you see another set of team, you try to create the same rapport, But…..
To your shock you are made to realise, that you are senior, in age, position and industry experience and should behave like one! All these words come out of the mouth of a kid, who has been recently hired…

Suddenly you see all these barriers! Then you realise small things that have changed in the due course of time…
The gatekeeper calling your sir… The new kid addressing with respect… The cab driver, even though elder than you, addressing with salutations…

Next day you just wake up with a heavy heart and get ready and head back to work, thinking what went wrong in all these years… Get to office and start working, keeping those barriers up and observing all those newly joined grads and remembering your own good old days….

The Experience…

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

It always makes me wonder, how when one shares something, could it be, person, thing, emotion or an event for that matter. Something that makes you feel special.
Its funny, how it makes you vulnerable? How it exposes you to someone, who might take advantage of it? How it turns out to be a sore experience altogether, all because someone used that small piece of information just to put you down!

It brings us to the second point, then with this bitter experience we come to an understanding. Why, people wear masks, and these masks are different for different people…
Its one for the work, one for the family and one for someone who is special to them…

You get to know the importance of wearing masks, it makes you wonder why you don’t have to be the same you for everyone else.
Why you need to be reserved for all the others out there, and how you need be you, with the ones who understand you…

These small bitter experiences, thus elevate the importance of wearing masks and finding happiness, just for oneself, by being a tiny bit more selfish… and nothing else…

What happens when your spouse is a manager…?

~ ddgaikwad ~ Leave a comment

You are screwed! Well, not really… But few of the following will start happening;

  1. You will start making most of the time spent with her…
  2. You start remembering all those special dates, first date, birthdays, day you proposed her, and on… and by heart them…
  3. Put a quite a lot time and thought to plan those all those specials dates…
  4. Voluntary start sharing all of the daily chores…and that too without a complaining…
  5. Learn to cook… I mean like really learn to cook…
  6. Get to know her favorite dishes… and practice preparing them…
  7. Start making her feel special every way..  because you know that she would be swept with work at office…and you don’t want her to be grumpy when she is back home from work…
  8. Once in a while you drop by her workplace, just to say “Hi”…
  9. If you are working in shifts, then you try to get into shifts which help you get home before  she comes homes…
  10. Unknowingly improve your listening skills and actually start to being on the listening end…I mean really…
  11. You try to keep your fights to a minimum…
  12. Her tantrums no longer stress you out…
  13. None the less, you have to support her and share a lot of responsibilities…