Thank You PUCHCHU.

Today, Puchchu passed away. It left me sad and cold. I could see it coming. He didn't seem well and it seemed as if his time had come. It was very difficult to handle the loss. For a while, I didn't know how to react. Such pain and agony at the passing of my affectionate pet bird.

Thank you Puchchu for giving me a month of joy, the time when I brought you home. I started to live. I would look forward to return home and play with you, hold you in my hands and have you bite your beak onto my fingers and thumb, making you run and fly across the house. In the last month, I learnt from you how to keep tweeting and playing despite your end coming nearer. You never failed to entertain me. You never put conditions on how we played. You just came along. It feels empty without you now as though something is lost and will take plenty of time to get restored.

I got reason to leave work and play with you because you just called me for playing. Living carefree, nibbling away at your food, playing the hoop in the cage were somethings you taught me about the indirect learnings of life. I will remember you for the good times spent along with you.

Rest In Peace. Thank you for sharing your love.

Sikhism - Another Inspiration Video

Hi Everybody. I came across this very beautiful video shared by one of students, Pahul. It tells us how young  Sikhs need to get a hold on to their true culture and not get lost in show-off. Getting back to the roots in the right manner is the message of this film. Loved the message on "Khanda" symbol becoming merely a tattoo and the "Langar" (community service) decline in recent times. There were many things where I too received some lessons. Thank you Pahul for sharing the video.

TAAJ - A short movie on Turban and Sikhs

A very nice movie on the respect Sikhs command in the society. Really proud to be a Sikh. The movie sums up the importance of "Turban" in a sikh's life. Do watch it !

 

Oh My God !

I just finished watching this movie. I am still not sure what just happened. I always maintain that each and every movie has something to give as a TAKE-AWAY MESSAGE. The movie was such a breeze that it didn't feel like 120 minutes. It was completely mesmerizing. It was so compelling that I had to break out of my shell to resume my blog. I almost felt like I had my own questions to ask through Kanjibhai Mehta to God as to why there was so  much misery around the world and what it really meant to be truly happy. Sadly, it was the silver screen and I eventually realized it was a story that made me dream.

And it did. It made me dream. I actually had to squeeze every ounce of faith from my heart and accept the grim reality of the society. The sarcasm by one of the religious leaders towards the end as to the masses being "God-fearing" and not "God-loving" made the single most important impression. It was blunt and was the truth. In many ways, as we grow up, the mind becomes more and more bound to the accepted norms and behave to conform with the society. I actually remember a dialogue from the movie - Matrix. [Wicked sneering]. It goes something like this: Morpheus to Neo : "I owe you an apology. We have a rule. We never free a mind once it's reached a certain age. It's dangerous. The mind has trouble letting go." The same thing is what I believe would be true to most of the Indian society. Many would term the movie blasphemous. But to the younger generation, it appealed straight to the heart. What it actually did was to clear up the notion of religion and faith. Religion is a way of life and faith is the guide.

These are sad times. Our cultural values are eroding away under the invasion of the babas, the gurus and their camps. People have misplaced their faith in the so-called traditional practices. Religious gurus present contorted views and create extremism. The religious marketing has become so pervasive that once you enter a place of worship, almost every priest is asking you to put a piece of Gandhi in every other donation box. And if you don't, you are condemned.

What is faith ? It is not to sit and meditate to get a job done. Faith is a belief that if you have good intentions, your act will have the blessings of the divine. People tend to assign faith with the form of religion. Faith is something innate. Religion is a commonly accepted set of beliefs and ways of life which a person can choose to follow. The TAKEAWAY MESSAGE from the movie is not to stop believing in religion but to act always in good faith. This takes care of your selfish needs as well as the greater good. More on selfish needs and greater good later :).

PS: I actually signed up on IMDb to give it a rating (9/10). A must watch for all the atheists and specially for  the unlike.

Moving from Patiala to Chandigarh

Time has come for me to move from Patiala to Chandigarh. Still associated with Lakshya but moving to Chandigarh. Three long years have gone by. Thinking about the last working day spent at Lakshya, Patiala. Scribbled a few lines:

इस मुकाम पर आ पहुंचे हैं हम,
जब लगता था कि कोई होगा नहीं साथ,
क्या उम्मीद थी कि कोई गर्मजोशी से मिलाएगा हाथ.

आज जब घर से चल पड़े हम,
आँखें थी नम, दिल बड़ा कमज़ोर था,
सोच रहा था जहा बसाई दुनिया मैंने,
क्यों वहीं से आगे बढ़ चला था.

जब मेरे जाने का वक़्त आया,
कुछ ने बड़े ही सर्द होकर हमसे रुखसत ली,
और कुछ ने हमें गले से लगाया और कहा,
शुरुआत इतनी हसीं नहीं थी पर अब क्यों जाते हो,
जब दिल से दिल दोस्त बने, क्यों अकेला कर जाते हो,
मैं मुस्कुराया, कोशिश थी आँखें नम न हो,
किसी को मेरी कमज़ोरियों का इल्म न हो.

एक और साथी से तो मिल भी ना सका,
बेखबर ही मैं बिना उसकी दुआओं के बगैर आगे बढ़ चला,
दुआ करूंगा कि मेरे साथ मेरे दोस्तों का साथ हमेशा रहे,
अकेले ही रह जाउँ दीवारों और सिक्कों के साथ, ऐसी फ़तेह मुझे कभी ना मिले.

FEAR

One of the most important human feeling that challenges beliefs, self-confidence and capability is fear. What is fear ? For me, fear originates in doubt. The moment I doubt something, I fear. Fear is not getting afraid and crouching. Fear can also manifest in aggression and ability to accept.

I used to watch a US sitcom very popular in the world - FRIENDS. There's an episode on how the actors react when they turned 30. Hmm, the revelation dawned upon me only lately. Turning 30 is a huge milestone. If I were to approximate human life to approximately 60 years (arguable), I have spent half my life. I am going through my checklist of "things to do" and I realize, there's a lot to catch up to.

So how does FEAR come into picture ?

Even after turning 30, I still have to cope up with FEAR. I fear if I will be able to fulfill my dreams. When I do that, I let my dreams fade away little by little. When I think about saying what I feel frankly, I fear how the other person might react. I fear about giving up something dear to my heart to attain something else. I fear failure, I fear imperfection. I fear to start all over again. I fear to mend the relationships, I fear status, I fear judgements. FEAR is so overpowering.

The moment FEAR becomes too big to handle, I close my eyes, think about the people I love most and God. It gives me immense strength. It gives me courage to fight that doubt. The moment I am certain, my mind becomes clear and I get going once again.

So why does FEAR creep in ?

Because sometimes we forget our philosophy with which we started, the reason why we started upon a journey and the objective that we intended to achieve. I believe, most people and civilizations that started off greatly perished on the way because they forgot the very idea that got them going - the very engine that revved up their progress. This idea, the engine needs a lot of care. If you don't care for the engine but just want to pedal down to success at a lot of MPH, you gonna ruin the engine en-route the journey before the destination is reached. Most of us make this mistake.

Care for the idea, the dream you started out with. Believe in it and it will eventually come your way. Sometimes, it's a good idea to revisit the starting point. Probably that's why, history is an important subject.

As for me, I am going to go after the checklist I made.

Harpreet

F1 2008 - A miserable season for Ferrari

2008 couldn't have been worse for Ferrari. After the last evening's Singapore GP, they have lost the lead in the constructor's championship also now. My favourite driver, Kimi Raikkonen, being out of form for most of the season and Felipe Massa committing horrible mistakes after doing all the hard work has cost Ferrari a lot. They can only reconcile to the fact that the last year's driver's champion Kimi being virtually out of contention this year, Massa was putting up a good fight against Lewis Hamilton of Mclaren Mercedes. However, that reconciliation also seems to be going out of hand with only 3 races to spare and Lewis/Heikki looking really good in their cars.

Truth be told, Mclaren have outpaced Ferrari all this year round and God forbid whenever it has rained, Ferrari has been trying just to stay on track and not aquaplane all the time. It was horrifying to see Kimi crash out in Spa. I am an ardent fan of Kimi's style of driving but Lewis has impressed me equally this year. He absolutely is the best wet race driver for me. Even so, I still hope that Kimi will put all the bad luck and results behind and look forward to 2009 now that Ferrari have confirmed the extension of his contract till the end of 2010.

When I started following Formula 1 in 2005, all I could wish was for Kimi to win. His classy overtaking maneuvers and his smooth driving was just amazing. But if you didn't know Kimi from before and just saw him this season in the last few races, you would say what a horrible race driver !! I couldn't agree more. Even if I were to spare him the unfortunate crash in the pit-lane due to Lewis's mistake, it was still awful for him after the first few races in the season.

The Kimi I knew was so aggressive, he used to show his anger by smashing things in the garage when his car gave away due to a mechanical failure after a fantastic start or a good piece of driving. These days, I have seen him mellowed down a lot. Not very sure about this but he seems to shrug off the responsibility of bad driving very casually. He is not the master of public speaking but he hasn't been able to speak up with driving skills either this year. Well, I am not enjoying his driving lately and I am afraid neither are many others. I guess I will have to be now the Kimi 2005-2007 fan.

I will still follow Kimi for the rest of his career but I will welcome the fresh blood more. Getting more and more impressed with Sebestian Vettel and the company. Lewis is good but he seems very arrogant. Another amateur Fernando Alonso to be observed for the coming year but until Renault finds a good car or he finds a good team for himself, chances are he'll be lying somewhere in the midfield only.

I hope for a good showdown to the end of 2008 season and will eagerly wait for the 2009 season.