The Poet in me....

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED….?

Like every other day we wake up gray

Cursing the alarm for ringing so shrill

Then drag outta bed and get on with the day

Of boring routine and a mechanical drill.

Surprises are few, happy ones close to perish

The whistle goes off to an endless race

What do we stand by? What do we cherish?

When the person who’s your friend becomes just another face..

And then suddenly when ourselves lonely we find

Drenched, shivering in the rain with the tea gone cold..

When you conclude that nothing can ever be kind

Have you ever noticed the world that you sold?

Beautiful things, have you ever noticed

Are not merely what you can keep and hold

The wonders that lie deep, you should notice

Are not always polished, they don’t always glow.

The most beautiful things in life are veiled

Beneath the wings of the feeding mother

Who soars far and high from field to field..

To provide her child with all of her gather.

The majestic sunrays piercing the dark night

Announcing the dawn of a new day

Is a gift in its own, when we absorb it all in sight

A promising new beginning expunging the gray.

The words of a friend, his contagious laughter

The sweet tears shared when he’s in pain

Feeling there’s nothing else worth running after

Such beautiful things know of joy as well as the tortuous lane.

The raindrops lined on the edges of the leaves

Glowing like diamonds and defining beauty

The rainbow so perfect, the admiring heart heaves..

And then we drench in relief of sheer purity.

The smile of a student, when you’re the teacher

A baby curling his tiny fingers around a single one of yours

Have you ever noticed how the world hates a preacher..

Yet I say anyway, doing good and helping needs no cause.

So learn to notice the small things around thee,

Imbibe it, grow to love and learn to be free..

On the most beautiful thing you may not agree..

But the most beautiful thing is all you can really be.

Trip to the movies

Today, here in Phoenix, I went to my very first movie theater after stepping foot in the United States. Felt kinda momentous :P

Me and my grandparents had come to see "Julie and Julia". After much hype about the movie and a previously failed attempt to get ready in time, this time we just could NOT miss our movie time. All of had spent a leisurely morning, having breakfast, watching the lawn mower do his job in the garden, stare in awe at gushing winds blowing away dustbins, taking a nice, long slower... you get the drift..

Clock struck 1:30! Show at 2:20. And as fellow students like me having come to US for studying will understand, everything from shops to restaurants to just about anything.... is far ! Not like Mumbai where, for a 2:20 pm show, you could start getting ready at 2, hop into an autorickshaw outside your doorstep and still reach in time for the previews before the movie to end! (Sigh).. makes me miss home.. Anyway coming back to today. So it was rush time at an otherwise lazy household. Thanks to my grandma who is super-skilled at managing stuff, we got lunch ready and us peeps ready with plates and forks in flat 15 min by 1:45! We both were surprised at our own agility..hehe. Then we chomp away happily to 1:55. My mind says..cool... now we just gotta dash with our car and we'll reach well in time.

We lock the door in a frenzy, ready to jump into the car in the garage, when the garage door opens very theatrically to pouring rain!! Damn! should've guessed from the crazy winds before... off we scoot back to the door, scrambling with the keys, burst it open, granny runs inside to fetch umbrella.. and she's back in a moment! Wow... I NEVER remember where I stow away stuff like umbrellas and come situation like this, I tend to attract...umm.. profanities coz I waste precious time searching that stuff.. :D Grateful to my granny's superb organization, we finally hop into the car and get going.

I love the rains man..

Admiring the raindrops trickling down my Lexus window, we set off along the outskirt roads to avoid traffic. One of the roads we drove by was called "Elliot" which sent me into doing funny imitations of "E.T." calling out to his li'l friend in that alien machine-like voice. (Now that was one legendary movie!) Interestingly, traffic signboards here are brown in color as opposed to the usual green i've come across everywhere else and where brown was only for certain defined parklands e.g. Stone Mountain Park. I reason its landscape-specific, Arizona being mostly a mountainous, barren, so mostly "brown" region.

Its 2:30! Praying that we didnt miss much, we finally reached our destination - "Tempe Cinemas". Granny dropped us at the ticket counter and went ahead to park to save time. Welcomed by the enticing smell of fresh, hot popcorn, I entered, helping my grandpa along, and bought 3 tickets for Julie and Julia at.... guess what.... just $2 each!

Apparently its not a hotshot theater; which was kinda obvious from the other movie titles adjoining J&J like:

• Cloudy Blood Meatballs
• Men who stare at the Goat :|

Anyway, my granny caught up with us, we then rushed to the screen, almost tripping over in the dark, and finally sat back.... commemorating a successful "race"! I'm sure my grandparents will not forget this instance easily as being one of the rare times they had to undergo such frantic activity! :D

Bless them! I had a wonderful time! Phoenix is beautiful!

Words that move..

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves..

-- Victor Hugo

Weird things about me I bet you dint know!

I wanted to start off this blog with a whole lot of interesting anecdotes I'd noted mentally about a legendary time towards the end of the Georgia Tech semester.. very cleverly named.. "Dead Week".

But before I could do that, I flew to my grandma's place here in Phoenix.


Here's me penning down some random thoughts as I spend an utmost relaxing time here :) The dead-week series is next.. look out!

I bet you didnt know that: (in no particular order mind you.. :D )

(1) I have a compulsive disorder of cleaning rooms! Courtesy of my room-mates who kinda dont share the same level of enthusiasm, and the fact that I camp out more in college than home, the state of my apartment seems to state the opposite.. but come weekends.. and I give myself a party :D

Here's why I'm never at my 'house'.. my univ's Klaus Advanced Computing.. my home :)

(2) I love taking photographs... well who doesnt? but I've observed no camera can capture the detail and beauty that we see with our eyes. The most expensive SLR's simply attempt to come as close to it as possible. Kudo's to the maker of the world's best lens technology called the human eye!

The awesome colors of Fall....

(3) I cant help crying in movies :D I cant help but empathize deeply with the character goin thru some shit.... then be it a cartoon fish in "Finding Nemo", lion cub Simba seeing his father dying in "Lion King" or fans of the drowning "Jack" in Titanic (where I'm not the only misty-eyed one) I still remember my college friends surprised on getting up in the interval, turning back and seeing me cry during "Munnabhai"!!

(4) I can never buy just ONE piece of clothing. After carefully narrowing it down to a choice between TWO, I simply cannot choose between the TWO and settle for buying both :) Same goes for greeting cards and gifts these days too!

More to come... :)