Disconnect!

Note- When this post was originally planned, I was terribly bored and was over-thinking things. An idle mind is indeed a devil's workshop!

DIWALI!!! The festival of lights, the festival of holidays. Time to gorge on sweets and then gorge some more, time to make merry and celebrate the good things in life, time to meet long-lost friends and loved ones. Diwali is also the season of nostalgia, because you receive countless Happy Diwali messages from people who you have literally not spoken to or texted in a long time. And this leads me to the point of this post.

There is a famous saying on the internet which goes by: It is surprising how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, so much has changed. Truer words have never been said. Day by day our life gets so busy, we often forget where we started off from. And everybody flies off from the same point to different destinations, that the change as a whole is too large to comprehend at once. And then when we meet on such occasions as Dwali or weddings, we feel a disconnect. Today, more than ever, I can feel it right in my face. I am currently on a festive break from my extremely hectic schedule, and realise that I haven't had this much of free time, since more than a year. So much has changed in this year, I have gotten busier and there are a thousand things on my mind all the time. Which is why, this sudden free time made me visit my Whatsapp list and say a HI to many people, people who I just missed being in touch with, owing to my hectic schedule, people I feel disconnected from, thanks to the routine.

Call it the quarter-life crisis hitting you, or whatever you must, but Diwali does not feel like Diwali anymore. The crackers have reduced, the excitement has gone down, the visits to relatives have reduced, the sweets have reduced and overall, the joy has reduced. But Diwali is still reminiscent of long-lost friendships and laughter, and we must make make every effort to uphold this tradition. To avoid disconnects with people, it is necessary to stay connected all year round, and not just on Diwali. Make that phone call you have been wanting to make, wish that friend on his/her birthday and make small talk, call a friend randomly just to say HI, do not put off visiting your relatives because it is too boring, have dinner with your family with conversations and not just in front of the TV, do not be at home and shut the door of your room all the time. Open up, make small talk, converse and just connect! Open the door to happiness, and let the laughter flow.

Oh yes, Happy Diwali..

Life - thou art a fickle friend!

It has been about four months since I quit my job, and I have been in touch with a couple of friends from the office after that. So, one evening, I receive a call from my office friend V:

V: Hey, you remember our office friend A?
Me: Of course, I do. What about him?
V: Well, he passed away today, while he was in office. He had a severe heart attack.
Me: WHHHAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT????!!!!!

It was one of the most shocking things I had heard, in a long, long time. Well, you see, A was in his mid-twenties, physically fit, a vegetarian, a teetotaller, a non-smoker; i.e. he had none of the vices that otherwise led people to suffer from strokes and heart diseases at such a young age. It therefore came as a terrible shock when I leant that he had died of a heart attack.

A and I first met when we were on an onshore assignment in the UK, and we did not get along at all. We managed to rub off  each other the wrong way, always, and often tore strips off each other whenever me met. Thankfully , for both of us, my onshore assignment ended early and I returned to India. A followed suit in a couple of months, and there we were, back in the same office, seeing each other everyday. It was during this time that I got to know him well, and realised that we were both very similar by nature. He had big dreams, and his ideas and dreams resonated with mine. Better late than never, we became really good friends and I was happy I found someone in the office I could share my ideas and ambitions with.

A was a dreamer. He had big dreams. He was never content with the present, he always strove for more, for better, for brighter, for higher. I admired this quality in him, that he found motivation within himself, and did not look externally to find motivation or encouragement. When I told him that I was planning to quit my job and sought his advice, he told me to always look at the big picture, and never fret about the small things and petty issues. He inspired me to follow my dreams, and instilled in me the confidence that I was destined for bigger and better things in life.

Grief-stricken as I was, his sudden demise has got me thinking. A had told me to look at the big picture. What if there is no big picture? When we hear things like 'It won't matter in the long run', are we sure that there is a long run? In this fickle world of today, what if the big picture, the long run never come? Everything is uncertain, most of all, the lives we lead and the breaths we take. We immerse ourselves so much in the chase for the long run and the ultimate goal, that we fail to realise that there is life in the journey too. Life is not a chase to the destination of success and glory, but a journey -  a journey of  ups and downs, successes and failures, joys and sorrows,  and most of all love and laughter. It is not a journey to be rushed, but cherished. Who cares what the long run looks like? So far as you have had a beautiful journey, the ultimate destination is irrelevant. The ultimate goal is definitely not worth it, if you are dying a little, each day, in chasing that goal or dream. If you are ever stuck in a dilemma, do not only think about what is best in the long run. It is important to enjoy the journey as much as the destination, only then will you be truly happy. It took your death for me to realise, A, that it is important to strive for happiness, not just the long-run happiness, but happiness and contentment in everyday life as well. If you are unhappy or dissatisfied with your present situation, strive and make an effort to change the situation, never accept anything less that what you truly deserve or desire, without so much as an effort. Work hard for your short-term success and happiness, and the long run will take care of its own.

In your death, A, you have given me wisdom, and I am sure there can be no better memory than that! RIP, my friend. You shall be sorely missed. 

Long Time, no see..

Hello there!

I am back!!!
And I promise to stay. Well, at least I will try to...Pakka.. 100%... kasam se re! :P

I realise I have been away for a long time now, and I am not happy about it. I feel ashamed to admit that I have a blog, which has been dormant for ages now.

Not that I have not had any ideas to write about, but I have just been lazy. More so, after I jumped head-first into the crazy,twisted and engaging world of 140 characters. It's just that there's something very attractive and irresistible about people who can be sarcastic in 140 characters ;)

But, that's no excuse to write off the longer, but more interesting and elaborate word of blogging. Not every idea, feeling, emotion or thought can be expressed in a few characters, and then we must resort to good old blogging. Micro-blogging is contemporary, blogging is a classic ;)

I will just conclude by saying that, it feels amazing to be back here in blogosphere. I promise to think more, write more, elucidate more and just be more expressive, fluent and steadfast with my thoughts and opinions.

:)

Has the blogging inertia ever hit you? How did you get over it? Please drop in your comments below...

P.S. This is an impromptu post, no drafts. Just wrote down and hit 'Post'. I would love to have more such impulsive posts too, along with well-thought out ones... :)