A cold winter evening...

And then you decided to just get up and walk away. I knew that this was coming, but I was not sure of the time and place. If I could plan this in my mind, I would have planned it exactly this same way. Nothing would be different.

The feeling of seeing you walking away was like being pierced in my chest with a cold knife. A knife so cold that it could heal the big skin-deep wounds. It would have been the coldest day in winter with snow falling down on me and you. The slow breeze making the snowflakes dance. The dark alley where you would take me would be long and dark, just enough, so that no one could see us. My pain would be left bouncing across the walls. It would be a loud shriek in my mind but it would be just a failed attempt to gather any attention.

Well, it felt similar to what I had thought it would be like. But it was not. You were just perfectly dressed, dressed to kill. In that tight hugging red skirt of yours. That dress, looking at which people would lose their control. You had the perfect silhouette on the wall as you got up. I would fall in love once again looking at the shadow.

You got up and I knew exactly what you would say. "Its getting cold and suffocating here, forgive me. I need to go.Good bye." You knew this was the last goodbye. My heart was hung on the dry line with the blood dripping. You selfish one, you just didn't care. 

upside down

the day's molten heat gripped my rubber shoes. as i walked away from it, it trickled through the cracks of wooden floor; crawled towards me. i had seen this in my dream sometimes, it was all so charismatic and thrilling. i was however, running towards the molten day in my dream. why was i running away now?

the night started to freeze. i turned the heater on and it suddenly was gripped with sharp knife edges of snow. i must be tripping, i thought. this is the opposite of reality. i opened the window and a cold breeze embraced me like my death. she was so peaceful yet so chilling.

i walked on the beach and looked at the sky, under my head. the water went upside down as waves formed and then went back up as the wave subsided. wind created ripples in the sky. i felt the sky extending its arms towards me and i wanted to fall in it but i could not, gravity had given up. well no, it was acting opposite as if someone just dialed it in the reverse direction suddenly.

sun is all dark today, as against yesterday when it was oozing bright energy. it is dying, i thought or being reborn? it was a massive ball far away with red ring around it shining in the night. or may be the fuel on this side of it burned out and that side just started burning, just like a forest fire would spread. i was wondering if life would now start on the other side of solar system. it was a weird thought.

moon had disappeared, nasa and other authorities were looking for it for months and could not find it. may be it just gathered enough escape velocity and sprung itself away from gravity of earth. it left a white mark in space though all through its path, may be they can trace it that way and bring it back one day. was it an organism with beating heart that just ran away when it saw something different?


this too shall pass i thought. then i had a sudden jerk and i woke up and whatever i had seen in my dreams was a reality. 

Story a dream has to tell..

A recurring dream can be inferred as a dream that haunts you every night it strikes you. Though you know what's coming your way the effect and haze of dreamland makes it impossible to come out of it. A dream that sends that shrill down your spine!!

I see a constant dream where I see small multicolored balls. They are bouncing across the walls of my mind and gravity has its effects. However, they decrease in size with time initially and pose as if they would disappear. Suddenly, they start to grow as they bounce back and forth. Their size seems to define the volume of the space. Next thing I remember is they disappear and room is empty.

Phase-II starts with me running in space and I run as if some one's life depends on me and I have to get there to open a safety lock. Suddenly I feel that I am the prey and something is chasing me. I run like a machine only difference is I don't get anywhere. I feel like running in a vacuum with no friction and no ground. The sense of losing the grip is evident in my efforts without gaining any momentum. Frustrated and scared I wake up and don't know what to infer from these dreams, if anything at all.

Illusion called 'Privacy'

In this age of ‘You-Twit-Face-ogle’ it’s getting increasingly difficult to contain your information private. With more information readily available from various sources may it be business related information or government data, ‘Privacy’ is an illusion. Though security measures are highly recommended and applicable, violation of it is probable for future benefits.

Marketing firms are being more aggressive as the need to understand and analyze competitive strategies is of utmost importance. Basic product information is now obtained through re-engineering and surveys are getting less effective. With shopping malls, pharmacy stores, banks and vending machines becoming more user friendly a lot of data is accumulated. Data available can be requested by insurance firms, automotive companies or next door marketing firm in order to customize their offerings for each customer’s need at the right moment. This is a new age of utility offerings; ‘offer as is consumed’ is the new key punch line while proposing cost savings.

How sensitive can a consumer be then to her/ his own data? As the race to acquire more information to segment customer base aggravates, customers become more ignorant of their information or is it? More and more web 2.0 applications are offering security features at customer’s disposal. They can tweak the security features and make their identity less/ more public. However, with customer trying to do this, firms are taking more interest in places where customers have no control. Loyalty plan data for various firms is an immense pool to dive into and offers lot of advantages ranging from private selection of menus to basic information. It’s time to think whether your privacy really private??

Pop-goes-the-cork!!

Has this ever happened to you? You have been sliced and pushed down with so much of pressure that you hardly find time to breathe. To top it off, you get stuffed in all the aspects of life such as your professional, personal, too-personal and social sides covered in deep-sh** and you cannot even run away and face them with all the weapons you have in your store, is the only option.

So, what you do is learn the skill of fighting in all the rings or war-fields and all of a sudden you blink and it all disappears! Its like you are standing in the middle of a ghost-Detroit-town and everything and everyone’s gone. You have the same puzzled look and peace masks as your enemy. Staring into the Sun till it transforms into the cold dark look of a moon-less sky you are horrified by the missing action.

Well, all you need to do is kiss the worries good-bye, smile and enjoy the free time at hand. Force yourself into that discomfort and watch the movies with popping corn in your hand. Take it easy!

What if

What if I wake up tomorrow and find out that the people I knew all through my life were part of a dream. A dream that I was playing in my head while I was in a Coma and all of a sudden I got out of the dark side and its dark again?

This identity defying thought ventured in so many times and I am still lost to find a solution to this 'What if'. So when I go home and find that the house is there but no one inside who knows me or whom I know and they were NEVER there, how would I react? What if I can see the same view that I had witnessed in my dream but nothing more than that matches with the reality? 

Would I drown myself in the pain of having no one around or I would start something new? Will I trust anything more in my life or would I just walk out to find new faces? If I do find new people what should I do to make sure that this is not another dream? Haunting as it seems this thought is also comforting to some extent. Strange? Yes, its strange even to me. 

Its like the music that you listen to again and again and then it starts being part of your system. The box shaped car that you see your neighbour driving everyday and you start liking some features of it. Like some false political promises which come into being, cyclically with time. 

Got the numbers?

The way education system in Maharashtra is changing I can only empathize with the maximum number of students. Currently Maharashtra State Board came up with a policy of normalising the scores of its students to make them equally competitive with the ICSE and CBSE students. I say its a good policy for the students of State Board who were suffering otherwise. But I also have some doubts about this policy.

1. Majority-ignored: With normalisation of scores, number of students who have passed the exams have improved. Nothing bad you will say. But here's the catch. The students who have scored more than 85% has increased drastically. With the nominal increase in number of seats the college are facing an unprecedented issue of admitting students. Students in Mumbai having less than 85% are waking to a nightmare of 'No-Seats-Available'. This competition is unending. If the students with more than 90% cannot get into their choice of college what about the majority? This problem wasn't thought of while devising the policy? If it was what is the solution?

2. 70-30% reservation: This is a fresh course of concern for students. If the students this year are breathing freely for this policy won't be introduced this year think of future batches. This policy states that 70% of the total seats will be available for students from that district only. So if I hail from some part of Mumbai which has less number of colleges I will compete in 30% bracket with the majority of students like me in other districts. Thus, I cannot hope for getting an admission in Pune also since I will fall in the 30% bracket, an alternative option.

The filtering policy applied in the 70-30 policy is completely mind boggling. This way the future generation is not only pressurised to perform from the age when they should rather explore but also feel the threat of left stranded in this majorly education based economy. Will this or wont this lead to brain drain?

PS: Feel free to drop your comments on this future-sensitive topic.

Civic enough?

The beauty that strolled on the road and got your head turning is back again. Its more sexy, oozing out energy and is more efficient. It has a lot to offer under the hood but as always its too expensive to tame a beauty like that, making it a beast. There is nothing like a free meal, after all!! A price tag of around 24 Lacs makes it looks like a sexy brunette molded in a Versace studded with Diamond rings.

Yeah Civic Hybrid is launched and how? Definitely exterior is the same stylish, sharp and mouth-watering. But its engine has changed and so have the gadgets. The Instrument panel wears a different look and simply makes life luxury. The best part of the whole deal is the Hybrid engine.

However, over a talk I heard my brother saying "With that golden price tag, I would rather go for a more aggressive car like BMW or something". Came as a harmony to me. Seems like the government is still adamant on giving these cars some space on the already crowded streets of Metros like Mumbai, Delhi. They are taxing with glory (104% as import duty). That makes this environment friendly vehicle out of reach for most of the people and thus drives down the volume. Its like a rolling ball. When less people buy it and wear the Green tag, it still has little impact on the whole purpose of going hybrid.

Its like selling the word green and taxing every alphabet of it at the price of Gold. Government should welcome this kind of a move with tax cut and promote other OEMs to come up with this technology. After all the perto-based PSUs can sustain the pressure for not too long. Anybody listening??

WWTs...

Ok fine, I don’t have any work right now. So what? I finished it well ahead of deadline and waiting for more. In the free time I was thinking about ‘WWT’ moment of yesterday. WWT? ‘What Was That?’ So thought of listing down a few so that I can come back to them sometime later in life.

· Was walking to the photo studio to get some urgent photographs for some blah blah blah. Got down from the bus and increased the volume of my iPod as the magic of ‘Matrix Reloaded’ tracks spreads in the air. While crossing the road I started feeling that in reality I am not here at this moment and I am just dreaming about the whole situation. Looked at the onlookers and saw a fair girl crossing the road, something like the programmed chick from Matrix. And then it happened. I was brought back to reality by a sudden rush of wind of a passing vehicle. It swooshed so fast that I felt like it had hit me. ‘I am here for sure and I might have realized it by the pain in my body if not for a moment. What was that?’ And that was it.
· I am enjoying the late nights. Not that I hated them. But college days had sharp 12 O’clock endings. If exams would overshadow casual theme of the system, it would get beyond 12.30 AM sometimes. Not that I am doing anything that’s helping mankind or something, but late night dose of Russell Peters or some high volume songs keep me yearning for more. It’s a good time to enjoy UEFA. Quite exciting to see the clashes of former World champions struggling to stay in the final pool of 8 teams. However, in the dreamy vision of the morning I can only think of ‘What was that?’ Another day at work knocks me down.
· I am having more of WWTs at my work. But this is not a healthy forum for them. At least for now. They are better left alone.

Good to see many good things happening in the life of my close friends. Hearty congrats to all of them. This is me signing off from this place promising that I would be back soon.

PS: Time for tea now!!! Got any WWTs? Post them. Would add them in my next post.