Monday, May 26, 2008

Wanderlust -3

So, on the same morning after, i sat in the (old) Airport, waiting for my flight to take-off. I was more excited about the 9 - hour long journey to LHR more than the actual holiday that I would be taking! I have always been, and will always be , a sucker for in-flight entertainment on all long haul flihts. And I had not read a novel in too long for my won good. I had lined up a few good reads - some intellectual stimulation and the emotional challenge to pander to my varying plethora of moods.

After 9 hours in the BA flight, shuffling between economy and business class and 2 adrenaline filled movies and TV shows, we finally arrived at LHR. London is one city I am an eternal fan of. There is something so comforting and welcoming about its cold heat and frigid cold that makes you want to stay despite everything. Its like the city, through the sunny fog, stretches its hands out to you, just beckoning you to come , no matter where your origin lies. That is the beauty of this city, not ignoring the obvious jewels that it has handed out - like Hyde Park and the Tate Modern.

At the airport, we spent the four hours in the business class lounge which my mother smuggled me into. It is a waxy heaven, so perfect , so idyllic, that for a short haul, its the perfect place to be but for any longer, you begin to wonder if you are being enveloped into a world which you don't belong, no matter who you are. its perfect but artificial. All the food is overwhelming, yet tantalizing and the multi-nozzle showers are like a temptress, just waiting to be showered in, with the branded shower gels and shampoos. The single best thing about the Lounge is KETTLE CHIPS. the single greatest creation by the international junk food federation. The name sounds fancy , but it tastes even better. The whole experience is worth going through at some point in life for all of us.

Duty-free airport shopping, is quite a deceipt in word-play. The prices of all the big brands are so high that any concession that "duty-free" could offer are more than nullified. But this again hails from the same waxy worth that I spoke of earlier. So perfect, so covetable but yet so unrealistic that in the long run it is just not worth it. Everything about the LHR is something like that.

As we waited for the connection to Barcelona to arrive, albeit late, I was thankful for small pleasures such as this, where one can escape from any semblance of reality and just exist, in a n environment so perfect and FREE!

The morning after

4.40 am, 12th May : On being so cruelly dragged out of my bed by my multi-snooze alarm, I brushed my teeth about propped my pre-sleeping-bathed-and-dressed self on the dining table. It was then that it all slowly dawned on me once more - who I was and what I was doing and under what circumstances. The thing that struck me the strongest was : I WOULD NEVER HAVE TO STUDY AGAIN! ... Even if I wanted to, I could not study, because I had no clue where I was headed or what I was doing. It seemed like the perfect situation. I hadn't felt this free in nearly four years. First there was NTSE coaching, then studying for the 10th boards, then more NTSE coaching, then IIT coaching. ANd finally the nail hit my head and I realized that I HATED science , and then there was Tuition for CBSE and then LST and now finally it was DONE with. I was off on my holiday and there was no guilt whatsoever.

Ever since I was in the 8th grade, I'd been cringing at my father's constant admonisions, "Go study, you're acting like your 12th standard is over"! And now finally, after everything, it was! There was nothing anybody could say that would dim my spirits.

The morning after - it could not have been better. And the best part was, it did not feel like a half- hearted attempt. It was not some excuse for hard-work or effort. It had been a consistent stream of work and I was satisfied.

Indulgence indeed

Short -comings and goings

A recent discovery I made was that great people are not perfect. Big Surprise!

I was going through an article in Fortune magazine about Steve Jobs, a veritable God in his industry, and my gosh, he is just like the rest of us! He is mean when he's in a bad mood, he shouts at his employees, is arrogant to a fault... This article came as quite a revelation to me and at quite an opportune moment when I was grappling with the sudden and monumental realization of how terribly flawed I am, and everybody else is...

That cliche - Nobody's Perfect, finally made sense to me.. Its not the people who are perfect who become successful or content or leaders in the world, its those who pull through despite their flows. They seem to accept the flaws and leave them aside, not letting their shortcomings become them...

It might seem like I am adopting a preachy tone, though I certainly don't mean to be, but the whole event just came as a complete shock to me and I was left knocked out of my senses. Suddenly, I found myself trying to see how I should accept the fact that I tend to be self-centered at times and impatient and if I want to stay who I am, I need to just learn to live with it and, if possible, make occasional amends wherever I can to make life simpler for myself and everybody else around me.

And quite often accepting your faults and learning to live with them are far more difficult than actually deciding to change them. Because when you decide to change, it seems that it will all be better and different. In this alternate scenario, however, all your flaws will be pointed out, time and time again and try as you might to want to change, you'll know deep down that its a part of who you are and that is how it will remain till kingdom come.

Interesting.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Colds in Summer

Like a very poorly immune fool, every so often, I get a cold in the summer. I don't know how or why.. its not the ice-cream, its not the rain, its nothing ... Its just that. And its killer.. for some reason it feels like the sign of a weakling. Not one cold all through winter and monsoon, but when summer dawns.. Tada! *achooo*

That reminds me... as a child I was called "akshu" which unfortunately sounds very very similar to "achoo"... whooops.. wait tillmy friends find out, that's gonna be one long laugh riot.

And, yes, going on holiday is a good enough sxcuse to neglect a blog. Fear not, it will all return

Goodbye to everybody!