Life experiences

June 6, 2016

9 secrets of happiness

1. Travel while you are young
“To travel is to take a journey into yourself.” – Danny Kaye
Traveling changes the way you think and perceive the world. Do adventures. After all, life is all about adventures, isn’t it?

2. Lower your expectations
Don’t keep too much expectations from anyone. Expectations might hurt you

3. Don’t take life too seriously
No one has ever escaped it alive. Those with coins enjoy drenching in rains peacefully. While those with currency notes in their pockets keep looking for roof

4. Choose friends wisely
Have a small circle of friends who share your interests. They don’t need to be in the same group. If you’re interested in music, find someone who is that crazy as well. Love to shake your legs in DJ? Find a dance partner and your happiness will be doubled

5. Love finds its way
Stop chasing love and start pouring that energy in something new, something exciting. Love usually comes when it’s the right time

6. Be optimistic
A hopeless person is as good as a dead. Hope keeps you telling there are things worth fighting for

7. Keep smiling
You’ll attract good people full with positive energy around you. Noone wants to talk to sadistic people

8. Get a good tight sleep
Keep your worries out of sight when you go to bed. A good mental health is the secret ingredient of happiness. And a good mind needs a peaceful stress-free sleep

9. Don’t tie your emotions with materialistic things
Broke your car? No problem, you can always get it fixed. Sometimes, it can be difficult but not impossible. Spend money in experiences and you will cherish it for the lifetime

Bonus tip from our favorite headmaster of magic:

May 27, 2016

Void

In the night when clouds pass by,
Full of pain these eyes cry,
A faded picture you appears on wall,
Memories spent with you begins to crawl,

The beautiful spark was between us,
Innocent blooming love that could make any soul jealous,
When everything was just going fine,
Why did our interests not align?
After all the caring for nights and days,
I still don’t know why we broke up and parted our ways,
I thought I would always make it right,
Never imagined you could ever out of sight,

Although we argued and fought each other,
At the end of day, we were together,
Fights at dusk always dissolved with greetings of good mornings,
My days won’t great without your morrow rings,

In the night when clouds cover the moon,
I ask myself, “Will it be all over soon?”
I don’t wanna live in darkness,
When will moon of happiness tear down colors of sadness?

In the night when I stare at roof,
I keep turning sides, coz sleep from eyes is unhooked,
Your sweet voice echoes from far behind,
Purpose of my life without you, where do I find?

In the dawn when sunrays brighten my face,
I check my phone accidently for your presence,
These realize were are days of past,
Happy moments are ephemeral, they seldom last,

A feeling of emptiness after unheard prayer,
My life seems to crumble in despair,
With the moment spent with you, my heart dances,
I, sometimes wonder if dying love also has chances,

In the day when I smile widely outside,
There is nothing but a void inside,
If it were possible to rip heart out,
I would the first to try it out.

www.replicaswiss.cc replica orologi swiss-watch.me swissreplicas.to

May 21, 2016

What if each profession is equally valued and earns you equal salary?

Life experiences

Well, this question is bugging me for the past few months.
What profession would I have chosen if each profession is equally valued and earns me equal salary?

Before I dive into thoughts and weave webs about my feelings of living life , here is something which has fuelled my desires to live and changed my perspective of life completely:
Life is not always about destination. Sometimes the journey is more important and beautiful. Sometimes, you don’t care about where you want to reach. It just takes one special person to make that journey refreshing, enjoyable and memorable.

Once I started thinking about this, I started having a gut feeling that this is not the life I always wished to have. A life which gives me enough money to survive in this inflated world. A life where everything is virtual. A life where we stalk each other on web and develop a simple perception based on what we see and read. The vast majority of my past “likes” on social sites have been given by the people, whom I never met. Even if we have got a popular profile with tons of views, it’s not the profile which gets bored and lonely, it’s just us. Social networks have penetrated our lives to such extent that instead of experiencing real life, we keep our eyes constantly glued to screen and our ears filled with earbuds, putting our energy in judging people online who show others only a fraction of who they actually are in real life. Data says, if Facebook were a country, it would have the third-highest population, behind China and India. How cool!

I wish there were some app which could notify, “Hey! you need to enjoy fresh air. It has been long when you met real people”. After acquisition of Nest by Google, we can even expect such technology in near future.

I always wanted to make money, lots and lots of money so that I could live a king size luxurious life. A big Bungalow, a good wife(really?) and a Mercedes(I didn’t know a better car that time :P) to take a drive. That long drive on the non-ending hilly roads in the dusk of monsoon, with drops of rainy water gently kissing our faces, with a no care in the world. But in this tightly packed busy-busy schedule, all those dreams are lost. Those dead sunken dreams are awoken by just one incident. That one incident happened when I chose to watch Zindagi na milegi dobara (You get to live life only once) on a boring Sunday noon, which pumped adrenaline in my veins. An adrenaline rush to fuel my desire to live. An insight that materialistic things were never meant to be the sources of real happiness. Sometimes, we don’t need to seek happiness elsewhere. It is just within us. We only need to take a break, hold and look inside.

I have been more interested in photography, cars, traveling while being closer to nature. Nothing is more soothing than capturing moments you live in a camera so that you can relive those moments, freshen your memories when needed. Nature, beautiful nature. That wind whispering through the dry grass. Those golden flowers waltzing in the gentle breeze. Transparent water droplets splashed when a huge waterfall strikes the big stones on its way give a much more pleasant feeling, a feeling of relaxation, a feeling which is non comparable.

With all these thoughts, I realize I have never been so much wrong in my entire 25 years. But all this is only a feeling, like a fragrance floating in air, which can only be felt, which lasts only for couple of moments and then gets lost like we do in this fast moving technological world.

I have never been so lonely. I wish to explore the things around me before it’s too late, before my passion is crushed by the pressure of responsibility.

In the last 10 months, I started exploring the world. Trying out different things have been fun for me. I never thought I would ever get this much time for all these stuffs without hampering my work . They say it’s just about priorities and time management. Some people call me travel junkie, someone that crazy to save every penny for the next travel. Some call me adventure seeker, may be because I lived life to the extreme, may be because I have tried many things: Bungee jumping, Parasailing, Sea walking, Sky diving, Scuba diving.

To know and understand things better, I started picking up things one by one, dancing, piano, poem, photography. And the list goes on. Someone has said, 20 years from now, you would regret less about the things you did than the things you didn’t. I wish I would have started this earlier. Anyways, It’s better late than never.

There are things yet to explore, places yet to visit and experiences yet to garner. Who knows, while doing so, I may find my life companion. I could then someday tell, “And bwoy, this is how your mom and dad met”.

After exploring so many things, traveling seems to be just made for me. A guy who easily mingles with new people, never afraid of trying out new adventures and flexible enough to easily adapt to the new surroundings and culture. Traveling has changed me a lot. It has turned me into a writer, a poet. Someone has rightly said, “Traveling – It first leaves you speechless, and then it turns you into a storyteller”.

You know what, I have turned 25 this year. Why do I still feel like I haven’t achieved much? Why do I still feel I could have done much more? A writing from Ghalib beautifully explains my situation:

Thousands of desires each worth dying for,
Many of them I have realized…yet I yearn for more.

At this age of life, I am,
Too young to start saving for a future, too old to live carefree,
Too young for people to take you seriously, too old to speak your mind freely,
Too young to settle down, too old to switch your profession,
Too young for philosophies, too old for cartoons.

An excerpt from ZNMD which is true to its each word:

Did we ever quit our jobs, switch off our phones, leave all tensions behind and just travel? No. We’ve only been planning of this while life passed us by? This ‘my bwoy’ is a serious problem! We live just once but die everyday at the hands of our mundane lives. May be, it’s time to explore the unexplored and let the road decide our destination.

Signing off for now. Hope you enjoyed reading this. If you have something to share, I would love to hear. After all this is how we connect, by listening, by telling, by sharing, isn’t it?

April 25, 2016

Cupcakes of life

Good people are like cupcakes. They are exquisite. They look very yummy. You crave for their love.
It can be easily seen in your eyes, that you want one. But you’re too scared.
So instead, you gaze longingly from a safe distance, wishing that you had one all of your own.
Well, let me tell you, cupcakes like these, they don’t last. They get snatched up and devoured.
And if you don’t act fast, they will be gone.

You eat that cupcake daily. But you never appreciate it. The time you realize, it’s too late. It goes out of stock.

Now that cupcake of your life is gone, you think you’ll get another similar or better cupcake.. But somewhere down in your heart, you know that no other cupcake will please you. That your craving won’t be fulfilled by any other cupcake no matter how delicious, yummy, good looking and decorated it is.

So in case you get to find a cupcake so delicious that happens to blind you to think of any other, don’t be late. It deserves to know that it is exquisite. It deserves to know that you like it. It deserves to know that you love it. It deserves to know that you would never get bored of it no matter how many cupcakes you will get to see in your life.

Courtesy: Supergirl

April 16, 2016

The blue shade

A walk to remember, a walk on the sea-bed,
Rumbling and echoing voices in the blue shade,
A feeling of peace, a feeling of freedom,
Only me, my heartbeat and ocean’s calming rhythm.

We can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Sometimes, we just have to cross it by walking on the sea-bed

March 18, 2016

Ek anokha anubhav – Skydiving

13,000 feet – That one minute of your life when you forget to breathe.

They said:”It’s now or never”. I said,”Let’s do it”.

Kabhi kabhi alfaaz kam pad jate hain tajurba byan karne mein,
Aisa hi kuch ehsas sa tha,
Ik khamoshi si thi maano hawa mein tairti,
Jo kah rahi thi, haule haule, fusfusate hue,
Parindon ki tarah hawa mein aazad rahna sikho,
Mehsoos karo apne dil ki dhadkanon ko,
Ud chalo inn madhosh si hawaon mein kahin,
Jee lo zindagi ke iss pal ko,
Kuch yun sammohit kar gaya tha woh lamha,
Piche rah gaye zindagi ke saare haseen pal,
Kash woh waqt ko wahin thaam pata,
Kash woh waqt wahi tham jata,
Mehsoos hua zindagi ki bediyon se aazad hokar kaisa lagta hai,
Gote lagate hawa ko cheerte cheel ki tarah,
Woh dubte suraj ki surkh lahu si khoobsurti,
Woh neela khula aasman aur main, sirf main,
Na tanhaiyaan, na kuch khone ki fikar,
Kaise kuch pal mein itni saari yaadein yun sama jati hain,
Ki alfaaz kam pad jate hain tajurba byan karne mein.

You get to live life once. But if you do it right, once is enough

February 14, 2016

The proposal

A chapter of my life, which finally closed.
I close my eyes, I see a face,
Time has passed at a splendid pace,
It was a scorching sunny day,
With rains of happiness on the way,
A day to remember, a day to dare,
I was to promise a whole life to care,
A red rose in hand and hundred evenings of hope,
Balloons of happiness and dreams unfold,
They call it the day of romance,
Day of luck, or the day to take a chance,

And then, there she was, in ruby red attire,
Stunning, soignèe and glowing in necklace blue sapphire,
Right beside me, standing,
In a place solumn and serene,
Her raven hair tightened with a pinky velvet ribbon,
She never looked so beautiful, needless to mention,
Memories started rolling, like a flashback soon,
How I waited for hours all the way,
And her one glimpse would make my day,
Her rosy lips, her charming face,
Her eyes with an ocean depth,
Her infectious smile,
Those cute dimples little,
Raven tress, nose pointing like knife,
As if the statue of Aphrodite came to life,

With all the love I had for her,
I walked towards her,
My heart was beating like drums,
My eyes were swinging under blanket of dreams,
With some dare in eyes,
And love in heart king size,
I bent down on one knee,
Took her hand in my hand,
Oh my dear, will you be mine?
I will stand by your side till the last sunshine,
My love for you will never fade,
Be it mountains of happiness or sorrows’ shade,
Noone would love me like you do,
That’s why I wanna live forever with you,
No matter how many fights between us would happen,
We will always make it right, our world won’t be shaken,
You would always find me there,
In every moment of joy and each moment of despair,
You make me love you so easy,
It has become part of me rather than a necessity,
Being with you rejuvenate me in such a way,
Morning has brought hope in its every ray,
A little tiny world of ours, I aspire,
You are someone to me, for whom I respire,
This is a little tough decision, I know,
For we can’t predict everything now,
I promise, you would never find yourself alone,
Just say you love me, I asked in calm tone,

And then to my surprise,
I saw tears rolling out her eyes,
She was holding a heart,
Which was not mine,
She said, with a sigh,
We do not make a good pair, you and I,
All lyrics of songs, we kept on listening were unspoken,
Ah! All in vain, the heart was broken,
I heard a small crack somewhere,
I wonder if anyone would even care,
Collapsed and sunken were my eyes,
Silent and tearless were my cries,
I was left alone with shattered feelings,
For heart was punctured with iron drillings,
As moon shies from the sun,
I shared my love with noone,
Then I realized, even moon is alone,
Did it ever love someone?

February 7, 2016

Life is a blessing

It’s been quite long when I penned down something. Here it goes, something that has been carved straight from the heart, something that came from a real life experience.

I sit, I look back,
Lost in the lanes of memory track,
Drowning in the waves of reminiscences chain,
A trauma flashes, like lightning does, before heavy rain,
And I see everything going black,
What happened to be spectacular and dazzling,
Suddenly transformed into cloudy, moonless sky darkening,
Nothing does make sense out of that shade,
I still keep looking with eyes wide,
A ray of hope, that might change something,
And I would again be the younger being,
Rightly they say, one has to pay for one wrong done,
Or was it one right that went mistakenly wrong?

I sit, I look back,
Delving into the threads of memory strangling,
I realize each moment is beautiful and a blessing,
That anything can happen in a trice,
And life turns upside down without asking any price,
All beautiful trails changed in a single stroke,
Leaving traumatised, emotionally and mentally broke,

I sit, I fantasize drowning in a reverie,
Looking myself in the mirror of Erised,
I glance my heart’s truest desires carved,
Is it a coincidence mere,
Or really the deepest desire,
Reflection it shows, is nothing special,
All it appears is a mirror typical,
For all I wish is to be the same old me,
Exuberant, cheerful and carefree.

Some say, you understand importance of something only after you loose it. Truth is, you always knew the importance, you just never imagined losing it ever.

A beautiful day begins with a beautiful mindset. When you wake up, take a second to think about what a privilege it is to simply be alive and healthy. The moment you start acting like life is a blessing, I assure you it will start to feel like one.

October 8, 2014

My experience of New Hire’s Day @Microsoft

Life experiences

I usually do not write diaries. Since this is probably the best two days of my life, I thought to pen it down.
24th September 2012: A great day for me. Hired by Microsoft, India.

I traveled to Hyderabad to attend an event organized by Microsoft, called the New Hire’s Day on 8-9th march 2013. I with my friend Abhinav boarded flight on 7th march from Bhubaneswar. We were more excited as this was our first trip by air and that too fully sponsored by MS. We were warm welcomed on the Hyderabad airport. We were taken to the Re:gen:ta One(Five star hotel). We were the first one to arrive Hyderabad(7th afternoon). So we kept on exploring the hotel room. The hotel was awesome and it had everything you can think of. The only thing it missed that there was no lock in the bathroom. 😛 Anyways, i enjoyed a lot. I have attached few pictures of the hotel.

People started landing from different parts of the country right from the 7th evening. We interacted with few of them. I met my roomie Akshit Khurana, a very cool guy. Each of us received packages in the hotel itself which included a MS T-shirt and schedule of the event to be held in the next two days. The great thing was that color of the T-shirt represented team so that we could find it easy to interact with members of same team. We were supposed to wear the T-shirts on the next day.

The main event started on 8th morning. We were taken to the MS campus at 8:30 AM. We got NHD I-cards which was representing a random team name (This had nothing to do with our actual teams). The event started with some talks(as of our surprise, it was not boring, we enjoyed it fully) from great leaders regarding careers @Microsoft and how they did it, followed by a tea break. Then, we had an ice-breaker session. This was a kind of intro program so that we could mingle with each other in our team and know the team and its product better. We had great fun together. Everyone was interactive. MS is full of smart people where you get a chance to learn from everyone. We learned about the products more closely we would be working on. We also played some games together. Few of us got goodies too. Within half an hour, the environment melted and we had interacted with most of us. The session ended on 1:00 PM.
At about 2:30 PM, academia session started. They told us how MS is organizing varieties of events like http://Code.Fun.Do in different colleges to pick up the talented people apart from campus hires. There was a discussion on how they could improve such programs and events.

One of the best things in MS is that the working life is very flexible here. You can come at any time and leave at any time. There are many exciting things in the campus which won’t make you feel bored and which make it a wonderful place to work. We(I and Abhinav) played Kinect(first time) where your physical activities are synchronized with the game. It was an amazing experience.
There was a photo session where we had a lot of pictures(by MS of course). I will attach it once they upload it.

Real fun begins.
The main fun began at about 5:00 PM. We were clustered in the hall for group photo session where the environment suddenly became noisy and some of the previous year hires started dancing. Then everyone went mad and each of us jumped onto the dance floor to rock on. We danced a lot. We also got chance to visit the MS campus. Guys I must say the campus is beautiful and amazing. One eye catcher is that you will find road running from the 7th floor of the building. Then it was time for some D.J. We all danced a lot (even me, and I’m not one who likes to dance) and had dinner. There were some small games. People got chocolates for winning it. The food was great. This ended the first day at Microsoft.

The next day was something challenging for us. We were told to group together with team name as indicated in our NHD I-cards. We faced Engineering Challenge. We were given some stuff and we had to make a mechanical structure. The major challenge was that they told us to do it in steps. Design. Implement. Test. The main objective was to make us learn how to work in a team while having fun. We had a lot of fun together. Special thanks to Richa Bansal, Aarif Jindani, Manish Kumar, Saurabh Agarwal, Ritu Lakhotia, Amritha Raghunath, Prateek Agarwal , Naresh Kumar and Harshit Pahuja. It was almost done, we just missed something. It was really fun interacting with you guys. Cheers. 🙂 🙂

The one thing which makes MS an amazing place is that nobody cares how you look and what is your background. The only thing which they care is work hard and party harder.

All good things come to an end..
They were right. After the NHD, you will keep on counting the days of your joining. Great food. Free cold drinks. Beautiful and amazing campus. Smart and innovative people. Diverse culture. Everything just blew away my mind.

And here is the pic of the day. I am the one in the middle. Red represents office team 🙂