The shortest Fairytale ever :-D

Loved this PJ and hence posting it against better judgment!! ;-)

The shortest fairytale ever:

A guy likes a girl and asks her, "Will you marry me?"
The girl says "No!"

The guy lives happily ever after...

:-P

Defining Pain

To God...Hope you are listening :'-)

I have over the past couple of years heard a lot of inspirational stories and seen a lot of rich presentations/ videos on motivation. More often than not, they have a message of keeping positive and telling us that failures are part and parcel of life, without which success cannot be achieved and infact success cannot be appreciated without it. I agree, wholeheartedly. Just that there is a small problem.

What do you about time? Till when are you able to cope with your situation if it is continuously going downhill. When do you say enough is enough and you cannot take it anymore. Furthermore, what do you do after that? What are the choices a person can make.

There is a theory where a lot of people mention about happiness and sadness having their own specific time lines and both definitely coming to an end after some time. Not sure about this though. Just take my case. Everyday my depression keeps becoming deeper. Everyday i think the corner is just about to be taken and i will be free again but it does not. I have been thinking on those lines for the last 2 years. That is an awful lot of time to be depressed :) and i am just tired, plain tired. Now how do i decide that its time to throw in the towel or not? Till when should i continue.

And hey, before you make a judgment call about me, let me assure you that i have tried...a lot! Tried to be happy and not getting bogged down. I have always got up and tried to push myself harder. Try and make myself better and try and adapt to situations around me. Sure, i have been grumpy sometimes but that has never stopped me from giving myself a good chance of trying to be happy. Oh and yes, i try to be happy every moment or at least most moments. A lot of times it is false and most possibly meant for other friends to make them happy but didnt someone say that your own happiness lies in the happiness of others? Hmmm...again an unanswerable question!

Another thing; i am religious or at least believe in god and used to pray, till a couple of months back when i realised that it is all so futile. The gods are not really going to help you. I believe in their existence completely but am not sure as to their work profile; as in what are they supposed to do if they cannot even guide you, forget about helping you directly. All i had asked was for some guidance to tell me the path that i should take but umhnnnn; sorry guys but God really didnt answer and the situation is not that great. So again; what should i do? Interesting question that!

I know some people will come and tell you that there is so much misery in this world and yours is nothing compared to that. Agreed that i am not physically handicapped, agreed that i not mired in poverty, agreed that i don't have abusive parents and definitely agree that i have had many more opportunities compared to so many others around me. However, pain is very very relative. Its almost like a child aspiring for a chocolate while a grown up man aspiring for a luxury car or an old man aspiring for comfortable retirement. Aspirations and pain are very very relative. A person might be poor but extremely happy. The opposite is quite true too. And i am sure you understand what i am saying. Everyone would have gone through some form of pain and sadness in their life. The question is, for how long?

You might ask why i am not thankful for all that i have got?...Well i am, i definitely am for having had some good times in my life but i can't just live on those memories for life, right? particularly when the painful ones are so near and recent. What are the next steps when everything that you do gets a spanner in the works. Every step that you take encounters a roadblock.

I consider my aspirations to be a happy and cozy dream. About finding life and soul within you and enjoying every living moment to its fullest. Why is it a crime to dream about this. Ok, now coming to the question of if i am tired with all of this, what are my options. Do i decide to end my life. Is it not an option of the losers or is it that god has to maintain a percentage of suicides every year and that some people will come to their end irrespective of how much they tried to resurrect themselves. Is there any other option; maybe just let go and let life decide for you while you do nothing and wait for some god to act. But isn't a purposeless life meaningless. Will you not become a dead man walking. Or you may decide to continue fighting but then again till when...or is there no end?

Just a final word. I recently heard a quote 'Keep swinging away' when you encounter troubles. Its supposedly a very famous quote by some baseball player of the 60's. I have one question, what happens when after swinging a lot of times, your arms are really tired. Do you drop your bat?!

Any suggestions! :-) (A very wry smile)

A superb motivational video...

Another highly inspirational video!
Even if i am really really down in the dumps, i still feel rejuvenated after seeing them. I know they are manipulative in the way they have been created but its damn good to see such manipulation working once in a while! :-)

Apple: Think Different - Here's to the Crazy Ones :)

Came across this brilliant motivational piece and a very old Apple advertisement. Just my way of telling everyone...All of us have the chance of one lifetime to change the world...Lets be crazy enough to do something about it!!

Apple's original "Think Different" ad from 1997: "Heres to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. Theyre not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you cant do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Order of appearance: Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon (with Yoko Ono), R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright, Pablo Picasso, and Shaan Sahota (young girl).

Something Happens - Precious platinum advertisement :)

Being a sucker for romance, i just fell in love with this advertisement. It is such a beautifully done ad and with such sublime lyrics and piano play. Superb! In fact i was surprised that i had to search really hard to find this on the net.

Anyways here are the lyrics...Enjoy!!

You know they arranged everything, the meeting, the date, the place and we...we did the only thing we could, We Laughed
Today 1 year, 2 months and 11 days later,

(piano music)
Things just happen, That's the way it feels...
Somethings just happen, things we just cant see...
Who knows the reason why, should i laugh or should i cry

Suddenly we discovered...Our Day of Love

Something happens...to you and me
hmmm...hmmmm....hmmm.....and me....

Bartimaeus Trilogy - A must read for every fantasy lover

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

It really made me cry. The end that is, just a lot of what ifs remained in my head. Frankly I hated Jonathan Stroud in these moments of my final reading. Why couldn’t he keep Nathaniel alive, kept him and Kitty together. It would have been a perfect ending. I guess there is a bit of Quentin Makepeace in Mr. Stroud too. They had started liking each other and would have been perfect for each other; sparring continuously, feeding off the energies of each other. It just would have been the right ending. At the end it was Nathaniel who was the hero and not Kitty or Bartimaeus. They were the guiding lights and really had the most important role in removing the coat of John Mandrake. However, Nathaniel had done no extraordinary wrong that he should have been killed. It just doesn’t feel right to have them separated, Kitty and Nathaniel that is. She will now be all alone in this world and doesn’t again deserve this ordeal. Seeing that she has always been so alone in this world till now and is in reality still only a teenager, she should have been finally free of the pain life has brought on her for no fault of her. Two souls who had been so alone throughout this time would have found each other. The death of Nathaniel is a jolt more for Kitty than anyone else which is why it is not fair. She had not deserved this ending. Please Jonathan; it will be great if you can come up with an alternate ending and put it up somewhere even if it does not make it to your book. Please…

Having said that, the Bartimaeus Trilogy is a masterful set of books which is a must read for anyone who has the least bit of interest in magic and fantasies that revolve around it. It is definitely not in the Tolkien class or rather ‘The lord of the Ring’ class; however it is definitely an 8 out of 10 if LOTR makes a perfect 10. It does do very well in intricately managing several mysteries that are thrown up at regular intervals and successfully integrating them all in the final book. There are actually no loose ends except for Ms Lutyens who should have been able to see Nathaniel in a better light at the end of the book. It would have mattered probably the most to him.

The real spirit of the first couple of books is literally Bartimaeus. It is actually more fun to read the footnotes than the actual pages. The wit is superb and keeps the reader going even when the story seems to slow down a little. The Amulet of Samarkhand is better than Golems Eye but the Ptolmey’s gate is what makes us gasp. The way in which the artifacts of the first two books are used in the final book and also the way Ptolemy is wound right across the storyline are masterstrokes. It tells you that the author has thought about the ending a lot before actually committing ink to paper. However I actually also got the feeling that a lot of time, the story became visually graphic possibly with one eye on a movie being made in due course. Kitty, Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, Quentin and the rest are really unique characters who keep up their own quite comfortably without taking more than the required space. Except for one bit as to why Kitty takes to magic and summons spirit herself (and if that is so, how come other commoners have not done so earlier and what then will be the difference between Magicians and Commoners) is not really explained properly. That somehow for me limits the ‘essence’ of the trilogy, even if a little bit. Maybe there is a 4^th book coming along which will explain this bit and how this magician-commoner difference helped Nathaniel escape at the end of the trilogy. Maybe….

Maybe he can be brought to life if we all promise to buy the books in huge quantities. We promise, it will be one of the biggest bestseller in recent memory. But Please…..

Beautiful Pictures

One of my friends while forwarding the pics said "It seems as if one has already lived and then betrayed each and every part of it."

Commitment


Sorrow


Innocence


Departure


Pain


Solitude


Passion


Respect


Compassion


Grace



Friendship


Music


Wait


Stranger


Rescued


Best friends