Then I flipped the pages of my GB and went thru' the messages, which said it all .. Voila!!! I am on the Home Page .... Gosh!!! How did that happen??? I ??? Someone of my caliber??? 'Pleasant surprise' is an understatement here. I was THRILLED!!! I have been a part of RediffiLand since last coupla months and since then I've been reading the posts of so many talented bloggers out here. I'm more of a reader here than a writer. (I write only when I need to give vent to my pent up emotions. Something which I can't share with anybody else. After all it is a substitute to my habit of writing diary, which I used to do so regularly at one point of time.) Bloggers like FG, Kanchan Da', Dee Vine, Kush, Mahesh Suvarna, Firdaus, BronzeGoddess and many more are simply excellent, awesome and I love to read them. Seeing them on the homepage, has never come to me as a surprise as according to me, they deserve to be there. So, when I actually found out that I'm really there and it's no mistake.....I was thrilled.

Thanx a tonn to Rediff for putting me on the homepage for a day and letting me hog all the limelight and thus making me a star of the day. Thanx a lot to all my fellow iLanders, who cared to drop their congratulatory notes in my GB and thus made me feel better. Thanx for your best wishes and last but not the least, those few iLanders, who've put me on their favourites list. That was quite an honour. Thank You so much. Love you all.

A friend, a colleague

Going for good

A better opportunity

Beckoning her..

Good for her ...

Still why's the heart aching?

Eyes brimmed with tears

Throat choked with emotions

A feeling of loss...

We hugged each other

Promised to keep in touch

After all, it's just across the road

The same city, same industry

Why bother...?

Yet we knew....

Nothing will be the same

Priorities will differ

Schedule will change

We'll get engrossed in different routines.

But as people say...

Time is a great healer

'N' I too believe in it now.

Whatever happens

Always happens for good.

No direction whatsoever...

East, West, North, South..

All seem the same to hover.

No lighthouse, no island in view,

Corners offering solace are very few.

'Tis a journey with no destination,

In a ship without any motion.

Dark clouds looming large,

Fierce wind whipping past

Streaks of rain lashing hard

Lightning flashes to crack the sky.

What a waste!! What a waste, O Lord!

An aimless being amidst an endless life

Stuck within the whirlpool of ambiguity

Awaiting to be steered towards life so pretty.

Pick me up with your hands so strong

Place me in your heart so huge

I long to be a part of you

I yearn to dissolve within you

For no one needs a ship so wrecked

With a sail so badly tattered

The deck in shamble,

The anchor about to crumble.

Take me within your folds, Oh Lord!

' Can't bear to live in this distraught.

Special Exploitation Zone

Development, Industrialisation, Economic growth

Do they ring a bell, remind you of something?

Employment for the unemployed, education for the uneducated

Food for the starving children, clothes for the bare bodies!!!

Wow!!! Sounds excellent .. just what Tagore and Gandhi dreamt of!

Oh, Men in RED!! You made the nation proud

You've finally achieved it, you did it again

Splashed blood everywhere ...

Corpses scattered all over ...

Sultry air blowing fierce ...

Water dripping down the cheeks ..

Bare bodies were taken care of by your bullets

Starving bellies were offered corpses and blood

Special Economic Zone did it all

The farmland is watered by tears and blood

All set to sow the gory seeds of Industrialisation

Out of which you can reap Development soon.

Right you are, Oh, LEFT!!!

We thank you for educating us.

We thank you for giving us employment.

We thank you for leading us to darkness.

We thank you for a Singur and Nandigram.

When we used to write to each other every week

When I used to sit on the corridor of my hostel room

My ears too eager to listen to the hostel guard

Screaming my name followed by my room no.

(He wants to inform....I've got a letter)

.... 'N I knew it was from you .....

How I wish I could go back to those days

When both of us knew what we wanted to say to each other

But did never say those obvious three words....

Do you really need to speak it out or shout from the roof top?

To tell the other person that you love him / her?

Neither of us believed in it ... so we continued

To write, to speak occasionally over phone and we loved it.

How I wish I could go back to that Sunday morning

When nobody expected the postman with letters

It was the day when the gals were too eager to listen

To the hostel guard screaming their names followed by the room no.

(He wants to announce ..... visitors for the inmates)

This was not my day as I never had visitors; no local guardians etc

An unsuspecting me got startled when the guard announced MY visitor!!!

How I wish I could go back to that Sunday morning

When my first and only visitor turned out to be you

Someone whom I had only met only in my dreams

Someone on whom I had never set my eyes on

Someone who visited me only thru' his letters

Someone whose words had always caressed me

Touched me, felt me and above all loved me from deep inside.

How I wish I could go back to that bright Sunday

When the sun shone with all its might and all signs of gloom faded away

When both of us just sat by each other and kept talking for the whole day

Never for once did either of us feel that we're meeting in person for the 1^st time

It seemed as if we knew each other since ages, as if we were made for each other

Sat down in this park and talked for hours, even forgot to have lunch

Never realized when the Sun headed towards west and its time to go back to hostel.

Sigh!!! Those days will never be back ..... nor will we be the same again!

As all of us in a typical middle class Indian society would do, she too was trying to mend the matters. But things definitely didn't work out. Only after a year of her marriage she conceived and had a daughter. So, at a certain point of time when she thought of getting divorced, she realized, doing so will hamper her kid's future, mental growth and all that. Hence she chose to continue with her sufferings. Then her daughter grew up and got married. Earlier it was her daughter's studies; future etc which stopped her from taking a divorce and now it is her grand children for whom she could not go for a divorce. Since her daughter was working so she needed to be there to help her daughter bringing up the children, take care of them when her daughter is at work and all those little things for which elderly people of the family are much needed.

Now look at the determination. Now that her grand children have grown up and her daughter no more depends on her for bringing up the kids and all that so, she's applying for a divorce, 40yrs after marriage!!

What made her take such a decision? Hasn't she learnt, by now, the tricks to live with these kinds of sufferings? Isn't she habituated to live with whatever she was subjected to? Hasn't her heart become numb with the pain, which she has undergone for a period of 40 yrs? Why does she need to shake up the whole system all over again? Won't it create ripples in the peaceful life of her daughter, grand children and more importantly the relatives and people around (as, in a society like that of ours', they are the people about whom we think the most before taking a decision)? Why can't she let sleeping dogs lie?

Guess what she answered???? "I want to die in peace since I couldn't live in it". More surprising was her husband's reaction to the whole episode. He was absolutely unaware of his wife's discomfort as she had, reportedly, distanced herself from her husband and was living a life of recluse but for her daughter and grand children. Hence her husband too never cared to find out if she had any problems or whatsoever. Now when he has been told about her wishes, the first and the only thing that crossed his mind was "Is there any other man??"

Why do these men fail to understand that it is not only the social security and money that women crave for in the institution called 'marriage'? There's much more to it than plush apartments, expensive necklace & saris and occasional foreign trips??? Trust, comfort, respect, peace and above all LOVE has to be there between two people, when they decide to live together the rest of their lives under the same roof. If someone is not complaining does not mean he / she does not have any problem!

Ever since I have read this, I've been longing to share this with you all......

Watched this movie called 'Eklavya'. Much hype was created about this Vidhu Vinod Chopra creation but to my utter surprise, I found the movie has got a 2-star rating... was very curious and wanted to find out how could VC go so wrong to get a 2and a half star?? Lot of my colleagues also said the movie was a trash but I dunno why people failed to get the message the movie was trying to send across?

We often give examples of various characters from the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata in real life. Similarly, this movie too had picked up the character of Eklavya, the symbol of dedication, determination and sacrifice. It is about this loyal guard (Amitabh Bachchan) of an ancient royal castle whose duty is to protect those who live within the castle. He also bears the same name as that of the above mentioned character from Mahabharata. This guard vows to burn down all the secrets of the royal family with the holy fire of his own funeral. Much like the character from the epic, this royal guard too selflessly sacrifices all his emotions, strength and his entire life taking care of the royal family and guarding all it's secrets. The silver screen Eklavya, shows his dedication to the extent of even trying to kill his own son for avenging the murder of the head of the royal family. Just at the nick of time, he tends to think the other way round and becomes little practical.

It's too impractical in today's life to think and act like 'Eklavya' of The Mahabharata. While it is extremely important to be dedicated and loyal to one's master or teacher for that matter but at the same time it is also extremely crucial to think practically and be focused towards one's career. As long as you are not harming anyone in an attempt to rise in life, I guess the rest is just fine.

'RIGHT' or 'WRONG' are acts, which should be decided by your inner self. Whatever one's conscience says, is wrong, is actually WRONG and one should act according to one's inner self. This movie, time and again, sends the message that DHARMA takes birth from one's MATI (mind, heart, conscience).

The message was beautifully communicated by the director through the 2-hrs long movie; such a short and crisp narration. No unnecessary exaggeration and repetition of facts, which we generally see in our 3 or more than 3hrs long movies. (Madhur Bhandarkar's Traffic Signal fell prey to the same fallacy. Extremely well chosen topic but unnecessarily stretched and thus forcing the audience to loose interest) About acting skills???? I don't need to testify the senior Bachchan's acting shills. Needless to say how well he portrayed the character of the royal guard, the lead role but what is worth mentioning is the excellent performance of Mr. Saif Ali Khan. Khan and Bachchan complimented each other. If Bachchan was fabulous, Khan was no less. Seemed as if both both towered on each other at various moments in the entire movie. (the Bahchcan fans might not like my comparison but I'm helpless) This is exactly what I felt after watching Eklavya.

Keep going Saif........Cheers!!!!!!!!!

May be he too is upset about something. May be he too got a nice scolding from his boss or something or the other but you need to keep your cool amidst the entire worse scenario and adverse situations!

On top of everything I personally feel that no matter how hassled you're in the office or no matter how bad the day has treated you, you should be keeping your cool and not shout or scream at your colleagues...at least I don't. Dunno, whether I'm right but this is how felt right now.

What irked me more was the fact that the Late Mr. Jim Corbett had written so many accounts on the 'Maneaters of Kumaon' and other accounts on the 'Maneaters'. I wish he could witness the 'Tiger-Eaters' of this genre. It is sad to see how we have destroyed the wildlife for our petty requirements.

Is Mrs. Maneka Gandhi listening???