Sid.

Next time I come back from Mumbai, it will be bit difficult for me to accept this flat as 'house'! No, not because you will not be there, but there will not be any stuff lying around on sofa, bed, chairs, no fan running at full speed, no shoes scattered everywhere on floor. And surprisingly, somehow, to me, it will look like no one stays here! Without the dry daaru bottles and drying utensils, the kitchen too will look empty. I will not have to remember to close the gas knob before I go to sleep, neither will I have to think whether to keep the outer metal door open so that you can come in anytime at late night (rather morning). It will be like, I will have nothing to do in this place still called house! (oops little too senti!)

It's not that I have never stayed alone in this house before, but then I always knew that you will be back sometime, may be we will even see and talk to each other once in 3-4 days at least. Even when you had gone for your long jaundice holiday, I still didn't feel like I feel today (not for you, for myself). Sadly, I also feel that it's not because you are leaving, but because I will be alone, that I am sad. But I guess that's the case with everyone in this selfish world.

When we were classmates in NID, I never imagined I will spend so much time with you after NID! At the end of these 4 years (f...o....u...r.... years!) of sharing a house (and few other things, like your laptop charger and my laptop), I still find it surprising that we actually did! And if someone asks me what made you two stay together for this long, I have no answer! I wonder how come we even never had any fight or argument!
As if this feeling was not surprising enough, as I am writing, I receive an SMS from a very distant friend,"Some reasons definitely make relationships strong, but the fact is, only strong relations will remain forever without any reason!"
aamen
take care
bhavin

Epilogue: This reminds me that I will have to buy a new laptop charger now! :( This post would have been a much better read, had someone paid me to write it. I might have even taken little effort to find and photoshop a good picture of yours then, and name this post as 'an open letter to my house-mate' etc. Jokes apart, there were so many things coming to my mind as I thought of writing this Sid, but somehow its not possible and even required. To some extent this whole blog itself is somehow related to all the time we spent together, all the things we did, from chatting on our own blog comments, to bike rides, photography, to window shopping, movies (and writing the reviews on blog!)..... I have to stop writing now as the dictionary meaning of epilogue uses the word 'short' write-up. I also have to spend some time talking to my next room-mate, a much better one! ;)

You are beautiful!

One day your eyelashes will turn white, one day your lips will be covered with wrinkles and so will be your palm. And I will still say, "you are beautiful!" For, the love in your eyes will still be the same, the smile on your lips will still brighten my day and the warmth of the touch of your palm in my hand will still give me all the strength to overcome the challenges in life. And whenever I will tell you that you are beautiful, I will mean it, irrespective of how you look then, for the real beauty never ages, it only becomes richer and richer with time.
It takes time, not to look beautiful, but to 'be' beautiful, to be perceived beautiful, for you to understand yourselves that you are beautiful. 'Cause the real beauty is something to be experienced and not just seen!
I always wondered what is that makes you look so beautiful, all the time! I knew it is something beyond your beautiful tender skin, your silky hair and your deep black eyes. And then one day I saw you with that baby oil bottle in your hand! Eureka! No, it's not your skin as tender as a baby's, neither your eyes as expressive as a baby's. It's your heart! You have a pure heart, as pure as that of a baby. A heart that brings such a beautiful smile on your lips, the heart that says it all through eyes, without any hesitance, without any hidden intentions. It's this ability of yours to have maintained the purity of heart, which makes you beautiful. It's this lovely spotless heart which makes you happy and smiling about all those tiniest of the things, from a mere thought of having an icecream to making new plans of travelling to places. A happy person always looks beautiful. I can now see all those small things you do and you have to make yourself happy. 'Cause to be happy you need to love yourself, appreciate yourself and be confident about what you are. I wonder if this is what you think about when you sit in front of the mirror, with all those colourful tiny bottles and brushes? Trying to do things to make yourself happy and not exactly beautiful? Or actually giving that beautiful expression of your pure heart, a finishing touch? Yes you are beautiful, and now I know your real beauty is in the happiness you have and the happiness you spread, and that this way you will be beautiful forever!


image from Juliettesunshine.wordpress.com

To indulge in more discussions about realy beauty, visit Yahoo! Real Beauty

Anushree

"Two types of people get sound sleep. The first who just don't dream, second whose dreams have come true! Few others like me, get up half way through their dreams, with anger in their half open eyes, and memories of their dreams haunting the day!
I feel, dreams have their own life, or is it that the life itself is a dream? You wake up and it's gone!"
(an attempted translation of Anushree's blog intro in marathi, all credits to her!)

welcome!

hii dearos,
hope it was not much effort to reach here (again)!
And I am really curious to know who has reached when!
so do drop a comment!
:)
except for the web url, nothing has really changed! so just change the address you have,
from
http://www.besigns.blogspot.com/
to
http://www.bhavinmali.blogspot.com/

and enjoy...
;)
bhavin

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?

:)

If I were..

My reply to JSincro

If I were a Month, I would be November ;
If I were a Day, I would be Sunday;
If I were a time of the day, I would be Dawn ;
If I were a Direction, I would be North ;
If I were an Element, I would be Oxygen;
If I were a Liquid, I would be Water ;
If I were a gemstone, I would be a 'GEM' hahahaha;
If I were a Tree, I would be a Banyan Tree ;
If I were a Bird, I would be 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull';
If I were a tool, I would be a Spanner;
If I were a pair of shoes, I would be a pair of Skating Shoes ;
If I were a color, I would be Orange ;
If I were an emotion, I would be Love;
If I were a Fruit, I would be Banana;
If I were a Sound, I would be Laughter ;
If I were a car, I would be Lamborghini;
If I were a Food, I would be 'Pineapple Sandwich';
If I were a Taste, I would be Tangy;
If I were a place, I would be Lakeside;
If I were a Material, I would be Wood;
If I were a Body Part, I would be the Eyes;
If I were Music, I would be Instrumental (Indian Fusion) ;
If I were a Dance, I would be Tap Dance;
If I were an Animal, I would be an Elephant;
If I were a gift , I would be Flowers;
If I were an Element Of Earth, I would be the Air ;
If I were a Historical Figure, I would be Einstein;
If I were A Famous Actor, I would be 'Bhavin Mali' hahaha ;
If I were a Book, I would be (ummm... good question!);
If I were a Poem, I would be 'The man who thinks he can' by Walter D. Wintle;

And If I were a bike, I would be 'MV Agusta Brutale' :)

But to be honest, I am quite happy being myself!

:)

almost me (still riding like rossi)

Long time ago I started riding like rossi, expressing myself, exploring myself... through my blog 'ride like rossi'. There is more to me than rides and roses. I thought I will change the blog name to 'simply me'. But found so many 'simply me's on internet, so I thought 'almost me' says it better. Found a song named 'almost me'! Liked that too.. here it goes.

Someday soon I'll be ready to go
Mind, body, spirit, I'll be out on my own
80% of me is done, yeah yeah yeah yeah

I'm in the car but I'm missing the keys
See them on the top shelf, still outta reach
They say the only way is up, yeah yeah yeah yeah

So take these days
Feel the sun, soak in raise
It's all good, I've got a lot of time
Feels so free in this little world of mine
I figured out I'm gonna have to fall before I learn to fly
I'm almost me, I'm almost me

Wrong time, right time, ready to change
Find that clear path out of the maze
It's like I'm living in between, yeah yeah yeah yeah

If life's a ride
Guess that I'm waiting in line

It's all good, I've got a lot of time
Feels so free in this little world of mine
I figured out I'm gonna have to fall before I learn to fly
I'm almost me, I'm almost me

I'm almost me, I'm almost me yeah yeah yeah
I'm looking for the answer yeah yeah yeah
I'm living in between yeah yeah yeah

Going nowhere, heading somewhere all at the same time
Reaching up and looking forward, just about to fly

It's all good, I've got a lot of time
Feels so free in this little world of mine
I figured out I'm gonna have to fall before I learn to fly
I'm almost me, I'm almost me

I'm almost me

problem

Mostly, there is a problem, when you discover it!

Solution is just a by-product of that discovery.