2011

Dear God, grant us...

the Serenity to accept things we cannot change,

Courage to change the things we can, and

the Wisdom to know the difference.

Patience for the things that take time

Appreciation for all that we have, and

Tolerance for those with different struggles

Freedom to live beyond the limitations of our past ways,

Ability to feel your love for us and our love for each other, and the

Strength to get up and try again even when we feel it is hopeless.

The Last Sunday.

1 route
2 Bikes
3 winters
33 months
825 happy mornings
33,000 km
3,21,750 distinct jerks to spinal cord.
Restart.


Few dreams
some wishes
many people
some friends
few relations
lot of exposure
some lessons
few realisations.
Refresh.

Thought of You

Came across this exceptionally beautiful animation of the song "World Spins Madly On".
Loved the simplistic intricacies of the animation by Ryan Woodward.
Enjoy the animation here.
Check website of Ryan Woodward also for more details.



And here is the lyrics of The weepies song.

"World Spins Madly On"

Woke up and wished that I was dead
With an aching in my head
I lay motionless in bed
I thought of you and where you'd gone
and let the world spin madly on

Everything that I said I'd do
Like make the world brand new
And take the time for you
I just got lost and slept right through the dawn
And the world spins madly on

I let the day go by
I always say goodbye
I watch the stars from my window sill
The whole world is moving and I'm standing still

Woke up and wished that I was dead
With an aching in my head
I lay motionless in bed
The night is here and the day is gone
And the world spins madly on

I thought of you and where you'd gone
And the world spins madly on.

Make new Mistakes (epilogue)

I had talked about this here before.

It took a long time, exactly one year! But I did it.... finally.

It's quite strange and weird when you have to choose from one of the two closely linked things.
Time. Money
Thrill. Fear.
Dreams. Reality.
Self. Family.
Now. Later.
Theoritically the choices seem to be easy. Practically?
:)

कातरवेळी

(हो, पहिल्या दोन ओळी सांज गारवा मधून! )

The Unreachable

"You should go for things closer to you than the unreachable ones!"
-By Anonymous
I wish I could agree!

9 months

This post (questionnaire) is dedicated to (aimed at) my expecting friends, wives of my colleagues and some relatives etc. Somehow there are many of them this time! (recession?) ;) Enlighten me.

How does it feel, to know that something is growing fast inside your body? Something that you WANT to grow, something that is completely dependent on you, your life, you breathing, your eating. Something that is as good as your own body part, something that will give you a new identity!
How does it feel, to know that when it is fully developed and ready to see the light, it will be the most painful time in your life! And you still want it to grow, the piece of your flesh, which is being nourished on 'your' food, blood, thoughts! How does it feel to wait for that day? The day when you will get the pain, life and identity!
How does it feel to know this, so much in advance? Something that is even slowing down the time, feeling each minute, kicking inside you slowly! Something that demands and gets all your attention, all the time!
How does it feel to know, this is the closest you can ever hold a life to yourself, your own life! Perhaps something much more precious than your own life, because you know, you had never touched your own belly with so much care and love before this! And you know how exactly it feels to exist and move around in an almost different body for few months!
What is that feeling, that you exerience till that day of 'light', amongst all those uncertainties and huge expectations? How does it feel to simultaneously know and not know something? How does it feel to know that only half the human beings can experience this? that is if you didn't consider a farmer's experience and situation worth comparing. The farmer who buries all his earnings in the soil and expects some life to emerge from there! The life that will probably save his life and few more!
How does it feel to end something good, expecting something better will start? And to be mentally ready, rather willing for it, 9 months in advance!

(update: Aakanksha gave me this link to a supposedly amazing video named 'in the womb'. Will watch it soon!)

Stories and Trees

This was a long due post and now I don't even remember how I thought about the link between type of stories and type of trees. I still haven't thought about this in depth though. With my limited reading statistics, I can provide only 1 or 2 examples of each type! :)

Palm Stories: These are generally plain looking and not so interesting stories at first look. The story teller takes enough time to build the base for the story. It requires you to go on reading till you reach the top point (high-point as it is called), to really enjoy and understand the story. Examples can be some good humour stories (jokes?) or even some travelogues etc.

e.g. Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Bush Stories:

The story teller is an ordinary person and so is the topic of his story. The story can be woven around any routine experience or common personalities existing around. Whether the story is interesting or not depends hugely upon the creativity of story teller. There is not much firm basework and main attraction is the surface ornamentation of story (or bush!). Many blog posts fall in this category.

e.g. this post. and this too

Creeper Stories: There exists a huge variety in this little complicated and equally interesting category of stories. They can range from real life experiences to fantacy stories and love stories to murder mysteries. The interesting part is, the branches or supporting parts are almost as strong (or weak) and as important as the main stem. So even if it looks like there is not strong enough base for the story, the strength lies in the complex network of all the characters and their own lives! There are lot many twists and turns and many 'high-points' worth enjoying throughout the length and width of the story, just like flower creepers. You can actually enjoy any part of the story and will be pulled in to trace the start and end, eventually realising its the journey that is more enjoyable than the end points.

e.g. the recent good example is this story by Janaki (part 1 to 10).

Pine Stories: The composition, form, structure, details.... this is what makes these stories worth reading. They are very predictable, like love stories, but the way they are told/narrated, in a very soft romantic poem like manner, makes them enjoyable.

e.g. 2 states by Chetan Bhagat, 50 first dates , bollywood movies like DDLJ etc

Mango Stories: Biographies or even some novels based on real life. A very strong base, strong enough branches,very closely linked to each other and to the environment, very much like mango tree! The concept is very deep rooted and demands your proper involvement and interest in it. This is not just for enjoying the story, it will stay with you for a long time even changing the way you think sometimes. Very inspirational!

e.g. Closest from what I have read till now is Totto Chan, better example can be stories of raja Harishchandra.

Banyan Stories: Epics! I do not have enough words and wisdom to write about them 'in short'! Unlike mango stories, they go beyond the individual reader, to inspire, affect and nurture the whole societies, cultures. They can be interpreted at various levels of literature as well as social evolution. And they are still not boring but very beautiful examples of art!

e.g. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Odyssey etc.

Bonsai Stories:

I would really not like to call them stories! They look like they were made as per marketing demand and requirements. They have everything, but still lack something very important like the scale, gravity, rendering them more of decorative item on the shelf in living room. They simply don't feel original. It's like Bhavin writing his interpretation of Ramayana/King Lear on his blog in one post! Show off!

Ok What is This?

:)

frustration sketches

This is an old concept we had in first few days of NID. I don't remember who named it so, but when we used to get frustrated while trying something worth showing someone, we used to do thes frustration sketches. The idea was to take your frustration out on paper, sketch (if you could call it that) with all the possible negative energy (!) and thinking of pencil as sword most of the time! The joy of showing the outcome (or merely of having finished the pencil or torn the paper etc) could help to get over the frustration! At least it was supposed to work like this :)Talked about this to poorva yesterday and today I felt I needed to do that for myself. The quality of these sketches is not so much enjoyable, may be because of 'not enough level of frustration' or may be because they look unnecessarily clean because of the 'hardware' (wacom tablet) used! :)nice exercise though! :)

क्षण एक थांबण्याचा.....

त्या एका क्षणाला,
वारा वाहायचा थांबतो,
पानांची सळसळ थांबते,
झाडाखाली उतरलेला कावळा
कावरा बावरा होउन बघत राहतो.
उगीच दोन तीन काळे ढग
आकाशात रेंगाळत राहतात.
पाउस नाही पडत,
पण थोडं शहारून येतं.
मन उभ्या उभ्या हरवतं,
भूत - वर्तमानाचा गुंता होतो,
न सोडवावासा वाटणारा.
काही कळेनासं, काही कळू नए असं वाटतं.
मन आणि शरीर, दोघेही स्तब्ध होतात,
सगळ कसं शांत होतं, थांबतं.

ह्या सगळ्यांपासून अनभिज्ञ
डोळ्यांतलं पाणी तेवढं वाहत राहतं!

त्या एका क्षणाला.........

- भावीन

Rs. 9/min

Call 55365,
Udaas ho? Akele ho?
Muzase karo baat, din ho ya raat!
Main banungi apki dost, kar rahi hoon aapke phone ka intazaar.

Apki dost,
Rs. 9/min


(courtesy: one of the numerous vodafone messages)
Do girls also get the same message?

Parting lines (updated)

1. What (and why) boys think about their bikes is as unexplainable and complicated as girls!
Bigger or smaller, boys will be boys!

2. It's official!
Valentino Rossi will be riding for DUCATI corse faqctory racing MotoGP team from 2011.
This also means that this is his last year with his favourite Yamaha YZR M1, the bike he developed over last 7 years, and brought victories for the Yamaha team. The greenish yellow 46 on blue Yamaha will now be seen on red Ducati.

3. This is what the 9 time world champion Valentino Rossi said yesterday in a press release on his parting from Yamaha,
"Now the moment has come to look for new challenges; my work here at Yamaha is finished. Unfortunately even the most beautiful love stories finish, but they leave a lot of wonderful memories, like when my M1 and I kissed for the first time on the grass at Welkom, when she looked straight in my eyes and told me ‘I love you!"
:)

Read the full press release here.
UPDATE: Reading between the lines of Valentino , what makes him much more than the best rider ever... what is more important than winning, to him?

TOUCH sensitive

when was the last time?

you dipped your fingers in a bottle of paint,

and left an almost alive trail on the white paper,

slowly feeling the dryness of paper

or may be of your finger!!

when was the last time?

you felt like biting into the chocolate-soft brick of clay you just made.

or almost licked the remains on your fingers!

and kept re-touching that still-wet vase infinitely,
just because you liked that touch so much!

when was the last time?

you tried cleaning that old antique brass bowl

with some dry coarse powder,

till it turned into a glossy yellow surface!

and smelled fascinating new!

when was the last time?

you made a bunglow of brand new playing cards,

with utmost careful breathing and your gentle hands,

or tried picking up the the glass jar broken into pieces

and learnt what 'careful' actually means!

when was the last time?

your touch gave some life to the material,

and brought a smile on your face,

and realised that sensitivity of your touch,

can do much more than the rectangle on your laptop!

Both images from 'Preschool Crafts' website

Smart Efforts

It takes a lot of efforts to fool yourself.
But then, the trick is, to keep telling yourself, "you were a fool!, weren't you?"

Inception

Cobb: Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.

*

Mal: I'll tell you a riddle. You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure. But it doesn't matter. How can it not matter to you where the train will take you?

Cobb: Because you'll be together.

*

Mal: You keep telling yourself what you know. But what do you believe? What do you feel?

*

Mal: Do you know what it is to be a lover? Half of a whole?

*

Cobb: Look at you. You're just a shade, a shade of my real wife. How could I capture all your beauty, your complexity, your perfection, your imperfection, in a dream? Yes, you're the best that I can do. But, I'm sorry, you're just not good enough.

*

Ariadne: Why is it so important to dream?

Cobb: Because, in my dreams we are together.

एक होती प्रजा

आटपाट नगर होतं
नगराचा एक राजा होता
राजाला तीन राण्या
तिघिना एक एक राजपुत्र
राजा नपुंसक होता
बाकि सगळं व्यवस्थीत चालल होतं

राजवाडयामागे खोल विहीर होती
बारा महीने भरलेली असायची
सर्वात मोठ्या राणीने तिच्यात
जीव दिला होता असं म्हणायचे
नगरातल्या शेतकरयाशी तिचे
संबंध होते असही म्हणायचे
पण आता असं कुणी म्हणत नाही
दर अमावशेला सगळी प्रजा
एक एक हंडा पाणी विहिरीत ओतते
जुनी गोष्ट आहे इतकच म्हणतात
बाकि सगळं व्यवस्थीत चाललय

दरबारात एक प्रधान होता
राजवाड्याशी त्याचे घरचे संबंध
दरबारात तो फारसा नसायचा
पण राजवाड्यातल कमी जास्त
सगळ तोच बघायचा
प्रधानाची बायको हुशार
प्रधानाचा संसार राजेशाही ठेवायची
तीन वेळा का होइना
पण प्रधान राजा बनला होता ना!
प्रधानाचा संसार ही व्यवस्थित चालला होता

दरबारात एक सेनापतिही होते
राजाची कुणाशी दुश्मनीच नव्हती
राज्यातला सगळा कर
सेनापति गोळा करायचे
राज्यातली सारी न्याय-व्यवस्था
सेनापतीच बघायचे
न्याय-व्यवस्था न माननारी लोकं
सेनेत भरती व्हायची
बाकि सगळं व्यवस्थीत चालल होतं

आणि उरले राज-ज्योतिषी
त्यांच्या परवानगी शिवाय तर
नगराच पानही नाही हलायच!
प्रजेच उज्जवल भविष्य
तेच तर ठरवायचे!
नवीन रस्ते, नवीन राजवाडा
कधी कुठे बांधायचे, हे
सेनापती त्यानाच 'विचारायचे'
त्यांच्या आशीर्वादानेच तर
नगराची भरभराट होत होती

ते आटपाट नगर होत
नगराचा एक राजा होता
'राजा नपुंसक होता
हे फ़क्त राजालाच माहिती होतं'
असंच सगळे म्हणायचे!
-भावीन

नको

(click to enlarge)

mad mad rossi!

I have no words!

It's just 6 weeks after his crash, and he managed to get permission from MotoGP Chief Medical Officer to race in tomorrow's German MotoGP at Sachsenring!

“Immediately after the crash the doctors said it could be five months before I was fit to return; maybe five months to play football, but I just need to ride the bike,” said Rossi during a press conference on Thursday 15th July.
Rossi has missed four races over the course of his injury and currently sits seventh in the championship standings.

If you have been following my post on this for last 6 weeks, you will know what it means to have Rossi back on the MotoGP track within 6 weeks!

To read the original article, click here.

To view his crash on Youtube, click here.

I wish him the best luck for everything and wish the MotoGP will get its real meaning again from tomorrow.

Bridge, The time

How many times have you woken up in the morning, sat on the edge of bed facing window, and kept looking at the golden reflections in the river? How many times have you returned home in the evening, looked out from the window and searched for your camera to capture all the heavenly shades of light in sky and the dancing reflections in the river? I have experienced that for almost an year till date!
Even after spending 2 years in this apartment on the bank of Sabarmati River, I still find it so amazing to look at the bridge from window or balcony... almost every day! The bridge, I feel, is something which has it's own character, feelings, moods and I like to relate to that at different times. The bridge has taken me on many thought journeys, some stretching to hours! The bridge is really capable of taking me to the other side of time.
Following are some of the pictures I took over a period of more than a year, in different seasons, or time of day. There were many more moments worth sharing, but they are captured only in my mind, completely unexplainable in words!

On a rare rainy night in Ahmedabad.

The undisturbed patch of water below the bridge.

On a cool morning in July 2009.

A warm winter evening.

A sunny evening in this monsoon.

10 minutes ago!

:)

That's the spirit!

Rossi is back on motorcycle!
:)
This is with reference to the brutal crash he had on 5th June. Withing 5 weeks of his open fracture accident, he is back on bike! He tested on a Yamaha YZF R1. Thats the spirit!
:)

The Metropolitan

This is first time I am writing about a scooter! I loved this! The Honda Metropolitan, also known as Honda Jazz in Canada. The Vespa inspired, cool, simple, chic and with Honda realiability! I doubt it is an Italian design though. But thats what (apart from price) makes it even better than Vespa, Italian design and Japanese technology! At 49cc it's more like a fashion accessory than a scooter. This is a good example of how you sell an underpowered scooter. Don't just sell it as a scooter. Apart from communicating that its a simple, easy casual commuter, it also gives you a chance to make a statement and to have fun! The simplicity of form makes it easy for a large audience to connect to it at some or the other point of time, in some or the other colour. This is a good example of how something can be elegant as well as fun! A very nice play of form, proportions and colours.

Here it is, the only scooter I loved! Because when I say 'scooter', this is exactly what I imagine. For anything else, better go for a bike! ;)

I am not sure about the front though! A normal head mounted headlight would have been better I guess. It also reminds me of our popular Activa. Ohh, and Honda Activa did something similar to Bajaj here in India. When it was launched, critics said, "Honda has made a better Bajaj!"

These are few pics depicting Vespa way of making a fashion statement.