Hassan and I have been friends for ever. We have grown, fought and laughed together. These are the streets where we rode our first bikes. Those are the shops from where we bought our first candies. A lot of time has gone by. We went to different colleges and our jobs took us to different cities. But we never lost touch. Whenever we got a chance to meet up we did. Distances have only made...

It has been raining for the past 4 days. Roads have turned into rivers and neighborhoods into islands. Dullness of the weather seems to have seeped into day to day life as well. More often than usual I see people gazing blankly outside their windows. Perhaps awaiting a change only to witness the constancy of a gloomy day. People downstairs are having an even tougher time. Their carpets are drenched their patio is all clogged. But...

हर मायूस  आँखों को  आज थोड़ी सी आशा मिल जाये  थक कर लौटते कदमो को  थोडा ही सही हौंसला मिल जाये    हर एक डूबते सपने को  तिनके का ही सही सहारा मिल जाये  हर अंधेरी रह को  ढलते सूरज का सही, कुछ और उजाला मिल जाये    धूप में चलते हर राही  को  थोड़ी ही सही, छाया  मिल जाये  लहरों से लड़ती हर कश्ती को  दूर ही सही, किनारा मिल जाये    बरसों से राह...

Happiness eludes us all. At times we feel its unduly overrated, while at other times we agree that its carelessly ignored. Either way we seldom lose a craving for it. We often force ourselves into believing that happiness can be attained or derived. But to our surprise it remains ever so fleeting. No relationship, no success, no prize seems abundant enough to ensure a perennial supply of happiness. Invariably it fades, inevitably it reappears. For...

During one of my sporadic attempts to read philosophy, I stumbled upon Leibniz interpretation by Rodger Scruton. I was struck by the idea of monads and predefined harmony. Leibniz argues that the entire creation is objective. Frame of reference or observer does not impact existence. The world is as it is. Not as it is observed, making interactions between objects nothing but a byproduct of hidden preexisting harmony. This makes each of us monads fully...

It is a usual day, sky is quiet, water cold and morning busy. Other gulls have started fetching fish. Looking for food and eating seems to have taken most of their lives. As they briskly dip their beaks inside water, hardly ever missing, they seemed to have ignored their wings. The wish and strength to fly has gone past recall or desire. Is it odd that when I see the water i see my reflection...

He has always been the silent kind. He has feared getting too involved, with people and world in general. For him keeping to himself has been a way to prevent getting scattered away. Besides, sometimes neither people nor the world interest him much. Not because of any arrogance, he just loses sense of reality every so often. From which stems his propensity to stay distant. Not that he bears a grudge against reality, but he...

I have been standing next to the speaker for whole of my life.. I still remember my father describing vividly the night when Pandit Nehru first spoke in the house of a free nation. The enthusiasm, the honor and the optimism was infectious, every single one of them sitting there was filled with a resolve to do something for the nation. For the motherland that had been torn apart and reduced to debris by foreign...

The city is silent. Lights are dim, and the night quite.. Neo sees the giant pillars of packed rooms. Are they safe he wonders, then suddenly.. C: I do not want to intrude if you wish to be alone (Councillor Hamann walks in, not all were sleeping after all! ) N (startled but also relieved): no I could use some company C (smiles gently) : so could I N (looks up the solid dark sky...

from the fire to the stone, to the moon to the clone from the terror to the drone, then to the money to the loan   they changed the rules and rigged the game they’ve made it sure, world would never be the same they’ve implanted in us the idea of freedom the idea of fun, and also that of boredom   they told us whats joy, and whats rightfully sorrow what we would be...

जब जब देखा आईने में मैंने, एक अनजान सा चेहरा दिखा है जब जब देखीं हाथ की रेखाएँ, बदलती सी लकीरें दिखीं हैं गौर से देखा दुनिया को जब भी, पहेले सा कुछ भी नहीं है नया है आसमान, नया सवेरा है, नयी सी किरने दिखीं हैं बदलाव ने तोड़े हैं बोहोत से सपने पर साथ ही बोहोत सी उमीदें जगीं हैं सोचा है कईं बार लौट जाने की मन में पर जैसे सफ़र से...

I always thought that abstraction is a very useful, sometimes even indispensable, tool. It lets you control complexity, lets you build something bigger without getting overwhelmed with deluge of similar sets of details everytime. I treated it as a means to let rate of creation catch up with speed of imagination. However after having watched few minutes of a very interesting documentary something struck me.. perhaps the world of abstraction isn’t that blissful. Rather might...

Finally something useful. Cinema and media in general are often seen as an attempt to escape from reality (along with its cumbersome problems and their unforeseeable solutions) into a neverland where either suddenly everything is beautiful or in most cases turns out that way eventually. This is terribly unrealistic. This is pretty similar to why people do drugs. Escapism even for a little while, seldom helps. But there is another side of this spectrum as...

What disgusts you the most Pretense.. What are you most afraid of My mind.. What do you fantasize the most A utopia What fascinates you the most Our endless pursuits Do you value relationships Not really Are you proud of it Not at all What about feelings They are superficial What are we if not our feelings I would like to believe we are something more .. permanent.. What do you think of this world,...

कागज़  की  इन  लकीरों  में  ही  कहीं  खुद  को  ढूँढता  हूँ इन्ही  में  कभी  ख़ुशी , इन्ही  में  कभी  सुकून  ढूँढता  हूँ खुदी  के  सवालों  के  शोर  में, थोडा  एकांत  ढूँढता  हूँ खुदी  ने  बांधीं  जो बेड़ियाँ  हैं, उन्ही  का  छोर  ढूँढता हूँ जिन्हें  छोड़  आगे  बड़ा , अब  उन्हें  ही  ढूँढता  हूँ राहों  में  अपने  घर  को , गैरों  में  अपनों  को  ढूँढता  हूँ ना  जाने  क्यूँ  औरों  की  आँखों  में  अपने  वजूद  को  ढूँढता  हूँ खुद  में  किसी  और  को , आईने  में ...

कुछ ही पलों के लिए सही, फिर एक नयी सुबह देदे एक झोंके से ही सही इस आग को कुछ और हवा देदे एक इशारे से ही सही इस सफ़र को एक दिशा देदे डूबती हुई हिम्मत को किनारे की एक, झलक देदे बेबस हुए इरादों को उम्मीद की एक किरण देदे दम तोडती सांसों को जीने की एक वजा देदे फिर से इस  जंग  को सच और सादगी की ताकत देदे जंजीरों को तोड़ने का, फिर वही एक जूनून देदे जकडे हुए पंखों को, फिर एक...

एक  के  बाद  दूसरा  जुड़ता  गया कभी  रुका , कभी  मुड़ा, कभी  आगे  चलता  गया हर पड़ाव  ना  जाने  कब  शुरू  हुआ  कब  ख़त्म कभी  हंसा  के  गया  तो  कभी  झोली  में भरे  ज़ख्म पर  हर  एक  हंसी  के  ज़रिये , हर  एक  आंसू  के  बदले कुछ  देके  गया  कुछ  सिखाके  गया हर  पड़ाव  से  बहुत  से  ठोकरें  मिलीं , पर  हर  ठोकर  ने  एक  नया  नजरिया  दिया , हर  पड़ाव  ने  गैरों   से...

What do we look for while buying a house, or while searching for a rented apartment. How livable and usable that place is. How well connected with the rest of the world it is and how close are the most commonly used services. Like money, goods and communication. Are there theaters nearby or music stores or libraries (depending on where you lie on the cool-nerd spectrum) etc. Software market is transforming and shaping up in...

From 2004 to 2011 reaching 700 million member base is commendable. But is also inevitably unsustainable. Lets do some calculations, let us make some modest assumptions, let us assume that each user does facebook for half an hour every day (though i think the actual average would be much higher) applying the 80-20 rule 20% of 30 mins is not useful or shall I say aimless (and most probably) wasteful browsing. 6 mins every day...

Yeah its not even a word, but still is worth some thought. The idea comes from our constant and involuntary and sometimes even uncontrolable urge to categorize the world around us. Be it things, people or events. Hows the cake... great, how is your friend .. better, how was the party awesome! We do it all the time. If you think about it, attaching an adjective is directly related to being judgmental. Its our judgment...