You're With Me

YOU'RE WITH ME

She’s a thousand miles away 

And I can feel her breath on my face 

I close my eyes to see her smile 

As I drift on to a dreamland 

I can hear her childish laughter still 

And the touch that is like the morning dew 

That innocent face devoid of guile 

Makes my dying shreds come to life 

Morning twilight and I’m wandering 

To a place and direction unknown 

The crimson roses greet me on the way 

And I say she looks just like one of you 

I want to laugh like I did with you 

And taste the sweetness of your lips 

To make you breakfast and hold your hand 

All worlds, I’d give away in a flash 

I write it all down in my notebook 

Don’t want to forget this feeling 

When bonds of time and distance faded 

Closer than ever, I kept you in my heart!

My experiments with the pen and the keyboard!

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don’t start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid clichés like the plague.
                                   ~William Safire, “Great Rules of Writing”
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Whoever said ‘writing sets you free’ was a prize ass. There is, to me, nothing more arduous or mind-bendingly frustrating than sitting down in front of my laptop and attempting to churn out a simple piece of prose. I cannot simply hammer away at my keyboard or scribble on a sheet of A4, and emerge half an hour later freer, lighter, calmer. Nor am I capable of throwing down sentence upon sentence, abandoning form, flow and finish for a little skinny-dipping in the stream of consciousness.

It is, as far as I am concerned, bloody hard work. It is painfully slow, very tiring, and therefore, no fun at all. You celebrate the little victories, of course: the little turn of phrase that came out just right, the perfect metaphor that you’re sure you invented, the use of the appropriate punctuation mark, even. But until it is complete, and you are satisfied with the end product (or discard it outright), there is a gnawing vacuum, like a blocked ear that will not pop.

For long, I thought this was because my writing was not honest. I don’t write for myself, it’s always for The Reader. And very often, there is an involuntary attempt to give The Reader what he wants, to make him smile, frown, react. This playing to the gallery does not attempt to reproduce your inner self. It is showmanship, mere entertainment, and you are no more than a literary Humphrey Boggart.

But what does honesty have to do with anything? What is wrong with a little paperback promiscuity? And so what if it is hard work? The purpose, as far as I am concerned, is for it to be effortless, for what is written to seem like nothing more than a happy accident. And that, if you can remember the first time you clambered upon a bicycle, is not easy.

There is no point to this post. I was attempting to do precisely what I said I was incapable of. I was also trying to see if my powers of concentration were as rotten as I thought they were.

On both counts, I was right.

Of the Desired, the Derived, the Destined and the Denied!

The Alchemist was indeed a very successful book. Truly, the epitome of Paulo Coelho's witty and crafty genius. One particular reason why this book is hailed as a modern classic.... "the face of contemporary literature" according to Vir Sanghvi, is that it is based on the asipirations of the human soul. Santiago's mammoth journey in search of treasure is portrayed as the journey of one's life, which can be a vey arousing and touching sentiment, spiritually as well as physically.

All lovers of the Indian cinema, or let's say SRK in particular, must be aware of the famous dialogue from the silver screen catastrophe Om Shanti Om - "इतनी शिद्दत से मैंने तुम्हे पाने की कोशिश की है, की हर ज़र्रे ने मुझे तुमसे मिलाने की साज़िश की है".  To my greatest surprise (haha... not really!), this dialogue has been 'inspired' by the converging idea of The Alchemist - "When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true". But I often wonder if that were the case, why doesn't everyone gets what they want? Does the son not cries loud enough for his dying mother to be saved? Or does a derelict prays not hard enough just so he can feed him and his family a meal a day?... They do... We all do to fulfil our needs. But then comes the villian to the party... Destiny. You know.. I often feel that the universe does conspire when you really want something. But until you get that thing.... you always feel that the conspiracy is versus you. Desire against Destiny is one battle that has been going on since biblical times. Both are hailed and both are cursed. What we Derive is finally the net result of an intricate balance between the former two. What is Denied is often discarded as something that was not meant to be.  However, we don't understand the need for denial until we've derived our benefits. Well.. how can else we differentiate a man from a saint! 

I saw a wonderful movie recently 500 Days of Summer. One of its soundtracks just touched my heart for its sheer simplicity and honesty. Yes.. an honest song. Hard to find.. huh! I dug a little deeper and found that the song was composed by Smiths... a very popular English rock band. The lyrics are so peircing that they just grab your jugular vein and stir you from within.... which in the context of this post I find very relevant! Here they go....

Good times for a change,
See, the luck I've had,
Can make a good man turn bad.

So please please please,
Let me, let me, let me,
Let me get what I want.... This time!

Haven't had a dream in a long time,
See, the life I've had,
Can make a good man bad.

So for once in my life,
Let me get what I want,
Lord knows, it would be the first time!

Nocturnal Serenity

In the dead silence of the fading night,
When stray dogs are on scavenging spree,
I wonder in the feeble lamp light,
For nights, we thank the powers that be.

When the world's asleep, drowned in dreams,
Somewhere an analog kiss unravels a smile,
In a time minus chaos and deafening screams,
They walk down the love road, the cupid's mile.

Tiny pearls sprayed all over the black sky,
And the full moon floats amidst amorphous clouds,
When the zephyrs play with your entangled hair,
By this cosmic harmony, my head is bowed.

The haunting recurrence of the watchman's call,
The shrilling moan of the hungry canine,
The rythmic beating of a fulfilled heart,
When all it seems, the world is mine!

I switch off the lamp and the lovers now part,
The dogs scram away and the watchman yawns,
Its time for the birds and roosters' tart,
So beautiful was night, not so charming is dawn,

The moon snugs back into the horizon,
The lake glitters by the morning ray,
As the wheel of life is set in motion ,
I just wish I could have nights all day!

The Interview Room

If there’s one situation where you shouldn’t say, “Been there, done that”, ever, is when someone gets rejected in an interview. People like me, however, are allowed to say this, the reason for which will be explained later. Coz frankly speaking, no one and I mean NO ONE knows what goes inside that god-forsaken room except for that poor soul who faced the interview panel (the people in which seem look-alikes of Jigsaw, Frankenstein and Dracula). To us, every HR & Tech guy is a sadist... seeking pleasure in ripping us of our already-stingy self-respect and of the hope that we might walk from the placement cell with a smile on our face!

I have appeared for the interviews of 8 top-notch companies that have visited our campus. Excellent job-profiles, superfluous packages, posting in metropolitan cities... you name it. And I guess it’s time to tell you that we have a one-job-per-person rule in our college. So when I am saying that I have appeared in these 8 companies, I am definitely not boasting because I was rejected in all of them. And in this context, I happen to hold a record for a pretty pathetic feat... one that no one should ever achieve... appearing in 8 companies back-to-back and getting rejected in ALL of them. I know there may be some more wretched beings that share the same sickened fate as me or may be even worse. And that’s why I said that when people like me say “Been there, done that”, it counts.

Some people have claimed that their closest experience to hell was when they were sitting in the interview room. These are the people who are the first ones to go in. Except for one instance, I always landed up being last but fourth or fifth in the interview order. And trust me, as far as that waiting period is concerned... let’s just say that it is a very efficient method for military grade torture. You are lost in a different world. Your eyes fixed upon the clock. You shake your legs, not due to fear or nervousness but due to uncertainty. The morbid silence of the room makes your mind numb to be capable of perceiving of any constructive thoughts. You wait to hear the feedback to person who has just come out.

I never believed in Luck-Fate-Destiny trifecta. And then 5th September 2009 happened. My first interview for a reputed mobile software making company. Since then, there have been numerous instances where my hard-held belief was not only abrogated but annihilated. Anyway, let bygones be bygones. The most important thing that worked for me was that I was just not ready to give up. Even after what I had been through, I always went for the next interview, with much more confidence. Before entering the room, I used to say (and I literally did)... “Bring it on”. And one day, out of the blue, it just paid off. I got a job... a dream job... handsome salary, civil engineering related work and a PSU company. But trust me, I observed a paradigm shift in my belief system over the last few months. But as they say... All’s Well That Ends Well.