Johnny Gone Down - Karan Bajaj

    Johnny Gone Down

                                      by

               Karan Bajaj

For those who love to read fiction, but mind it, I am not talking about fairy tale lovers, would definitely love to read it. Beautifully crafted and stitched with real world happenings, Karan has done a fantastic job.

Its story of life of Nikhil, an MIT graduate. How life turns upside down for him as he plans his vacation to Cambodia with his friend Sam. How he manages to escape from there the Khmer Rogue, peaceful monk life at the monastery, uncertain life as a Brazillian drug lord, to a multi-millionaire software developer and then back to what we consider a normal life. And certainly love does not misses to touch his life. A thoroughly complete journey of adventure, excitement, hope, love, fear, friendship and every other emotion you can think of, has been poured in. Interestingly the book manages to keep you glued to it from the first to last page.

At the end of the book, it might seem a little bit of unrealistic life one can have who has the best out of the worst fate in this universe, but none the less, reading it is very much enjoyable. Recommended.

Image source : http://www.flipkart.com

The Story of Appreciation

One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision. The director discovered from the CV that the youth's academical achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score. The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "none". The director asked, " Was it your father who paid for your school fees?"The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees. The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" The youth answered, "My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect. The director asked, " Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?" The youth answered, "Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me. The director said, "I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid. The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water. This was the first time the youth realized that it was these pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future. After finishing the cleaning of his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother. That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office. The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, asked: " Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?" The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes' The Director asked, " please tell me your feelings." The youth said, Number 1, I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, by working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship. The director said, " This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired. Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company's performance improved tremendously.

A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted,would develop "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first.He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts. When he starts work, he assumes that every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know the sufferings of his employees and would always blame others. For this kind of people, who may be good academically, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement. He will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more.

If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead? You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.

P.S.  This was shared by one of my Facebook friend Aswani Srivastava. Click here to view the original note shared by him on facebook.

Life

Everybody wants happiness

Nobody wants pain

But you can't have a rainbow

Without little rain

The lonely walker

I wander through the loose mornings

so different from those spent together

which had so much of our absurd chats

I drift through the aimless afternoons

so different from those spent together

which had so much of our savoured lunches

I walk through the solitary evening

so differnet from those spent together

which had so much of chit-chat coffee breaks

I tramp through the lonely dusks

so different from those spent together

which had so much fun driving together

I roam through the empty pre-nights

so different from those spent together

which had so much of our naughtiness

I stroll through the sleepless nights

so different from those spent together

which had so much of our togetherness

I maunder through the dreamy dawns

so different from those spent together

which had so much of our shared dreams

And I wish I could turn back the time

again and again to relive those moments

दिवाना

I wonder if you'll look into my eyes; ever
And still find the love that prevailed between us

My eyes still lust for one look of yours
My hands rise in vain to touch you again
My lips long for the moisture of your kisses
My soul lurks for yours

Nothing more that I wish for
And you are nowhere around to love me; ever


दिवाना हँसता है तो हँसने दे यार
बेचारा तन्हाई में बैठ कर रोया बहुत है

Just wanted to add the last two irrelevant lines for me; and for you.

Ripples - Short Stories by Indian Women Writers

Upon suggestion by my blogger and Facebook friend Mrs. Tikulli Dogra, I bought myself a copy of Ripples - Short Stories by Indian Woman Writers. Thanks to Mr. Prashant Karhade for the strong yet beautiful foreword in the book. It arises interest even before one starts reading the book.

The book is a collection of 48 short stories by 26 very talented women writers. Every story delightfully narrates various forms of human emotion. While reading, every time you reach the end of the story, you'll either of the two expression - you'll be amused and say "beautiful", or rather you might be shocked and say "what the hell !!". Every story unveils a new dimension of the human emotion. Personally, I was touched by each content. Though every story stand far apart from each other, they are complete in themselves and are able to bring out the best. Every story has been so beautifully crafted that you could almost picture them being played in front of your eyes. Though I am not a very keen reader of fiction, but this book does deserves special place in my bookshelf, pretty sure that I would read it time and again and it would amuse me like it did for this first time.

And last but not least, I will say this book is definitely worth reading. Do get yourself a copy of Ripples - Short Stories by Indian Woman Writers, today.


Cheers !!

Healthy level of insanity

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity 

1.. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down. 

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice! 

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that. 

4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ' For Marijuana.

6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get. 

7. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face. 

8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'. 

9. Sing Along At The Opera. 

10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache. 

11. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!' 

12. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!' 

13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.' 

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity 

14. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WHERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.

And I bet the best is the one below you see.

Sincere thanks to my friend who sent me this email.