Love Thy Self

Yesterday I happened to quiz the teenaged sister of a friend about the biggest cause of stress in her life. While bracing myself to hear something like studies, parental pressure or even boyfriend trouble, I was totally stumped when, without even batting an eyelid, she replied 'my weight'.
And before you pour your sympathies for the poor 'fat' teenager, let me tell you that she weighs a mere 50 kg. She went on to tell me that almost all her friends are perennially stressed about how they look and #8230;some are fat, some too thin, most loathe their acne-d faces, and all girls in her class think they are not 'endowed' enough and hate themselves for it.
Come to think of it, the 'I don't like my looks' menace is not restricted to teenagers alone. While we adults crib about the bigger tensions in life, somewhere in the deeper darker corner of our subconscious also lies the stress of not looking our best.
Wouldn't life be much calmer if for a change, we decided to love our bodies the way they are and make peace with our looks? This, of course, is not to undermine the importance of a healthy diet and exercise for our well-being. But why kill yourself stressing over the length and curvature of your nose when you may just have the friendliest personality.
Believe me, the sexiest pouts and the most curvaceous figures are no substitutes for a warm, friendly persona. And if you don't have the latter, you sure have a valid reason to stress and do something about it.
So the calmness trick for the week is very simple - quit self bashing, look at yourself in the mirror and for a change, appreciate the way you look. What's better, ask a close friends to point out five things they love about your appearance.
They might just surprise you by coming out with ten!.

Arrivederci

Have A Nice Day!!!

Donuts For You!!!

Disclaimer: They following experience is not mine. DUH!!! I came to know about it from from different places and then finally got the exact version as it is below by the person involved himself. This can also be regarded as a contradiction to the controversial news that usually is heard of Orkut, the social website these days.

Do you Orkut?" .
"No," was my answer two years back when I had joined Orkut on being invited by the same friend who asked me this question.
I had no idea of the influence it was about to have on my otherwise conventional life. With a sudden exposure to this whole new reality, rather virtual reality, it took me few days to understand the tit-bits of this insanely attractive and dangerously addictive world.
Networking sites were not really a new phenomenon to me, however a community so vibrant and spirited was indeed a jitter to the already established and popular ideas like instant messaging or mailing. Scraps, communities, friends and the famous "Bad bad server, no donuts for you".
the days passed like never before. The whole world of mine seemed entrapped behind that login page of Orkut.
I became one of the big advertisers of Orkut. Every upward tick of those figures boosted my virtual ego.
Posing in front of camera to produce that sensational image to be posted on my profile, or giving an arresting introduction of myself in 'about me', my brain was truly "orkutised". In no time I had a profile to be proud of.
Life was dreamy. Then I met this girl.
So many times in life you meet people, have a chat and then just forget. And meeting a pretty face over Orkut was such a common phenomenon, may be we could have ended with a future more common.
I had once scraped her a simple "Hi", obviously being appealed by her profile picture, to which she had replied with a similar gesture. We added each other and then vanished from existence.
But one day her eyes caught hold of a guy in her friend list whom she had almost never talked with. She scraped him asking how come he was in her friends list.
The guy incidentally is me, no donuts for guessing that. I replied her with a fresh and smart introduction of myself.
And then we never looked back .
in regret.
We never rushed in. We never pushed each other.
The relation just developed like forests grow without any conscious nurture. We just clicked and kept on clicking with each passing day and exchanged scraps.
Our brainwaves harmonised on their own. And what else could we depend on except those so called wavelengths.
We never had seen each other and we still had not heard each other. The relation just grew on those written words that flashed on screen.
The relation at first seemed a little improbable. First of all, we still have a negative sympathy towards our relationship that developed over digital media, be it telephone or Internet.
We trust our sense of sight more than anything else. Secondly, the distance.
She was almost 2000 kms away from me. Long distance relationships too have very less takers.
But love has an uncanny tendency of making things look easy. And they lived happily.
I first called her on her birthday. And it was the first time she heard me say those famous three words.
I was still in the last few months of my post graduation degree and had to take my parents into confidence. They reacted too cool to be true and my father announced his willingness to sponsor my journey.
After my exams in May 2006, came the D-Day. Going miles to meet my soulmate sounded fairytale and I was anxiously on cloud nine.
Then we met and sparks flew. I could see rainbows.
I could smell the first rain against the earth. It was a hit, more than any Shahrukh movie! Everything went well after that.
We are proud to belong to the small percentage who make online relations successful. 2005 to 2007, like Orkut our relationship has also matured and had many facelifts.
And today we are set to get married within few months. The dates are fixed, the venue is set.
We retired together from Orkut quite some time ago. Nowadays we get to see Orkut and other online networking sites on newspaper due to controversial reasons.
However, I believe it's the people who make this community and it's on them - how they treat and utilise it. "Bad, bad server.
No donuts for you".
Thanks Orkut for the sweetest donut.

Good things do happen. Just that they fail to get a word of mention. If you have any such experience or know of it then please do share it with us.

Arrivederci

Have A Nice Day!!!

The Interview.

I was sitting there on one of the 4 chairs placed at equal paces. My legs were shaky as though I'd fall off as soon as I stand, butterflies were having a field day in my stomach, my mouth was dry no matter how much water I drank and was feeling as though I needed to use the restroom even though I actually did not need to. Then finally I was called and I managed to force myself to go till the Interview room. And as soon as I entered, I was greeted by the interviewers but suddenly my cell started ringing and and everything was haywire since.

"Pheww... That was close", I thought after waking up. So it was a dream after all and the time was, Oh God already 6:30.... never woke up after 5:30am for the previous 2 days. But then I never felt more sleepy so I slept again and lazily got up by 7, went out to eat something and thought I will study for a while. But then my laziness got the better out of me. So again I wasted some time and then finally had bath and got dressed up by around 8 and my father started preparing me for some possible questions in the interview. By 9 I thought I would go through the text book but instead I took some time out and just focused my thoughts and thought how to present my body language. My batch's interview started by 10 so I was supposed to report by around 9:30.

I left for the university by 9:30 and met my other classmates and we started discussing. We all were supposed to go one by one roll number wise and there was one common waiting hall for each batch that was going on (10 guys in each batch) and the next four boys who were going to be interviewed after the boy being interviewed were supposed to sit on some four chairs and not supposed to talk. I was 2nd from last in my batch so I had to wait a lot to sit in one of those chairs. Each chair was at a distance of about 6 feet from each other with the last one ending up near the boardroom where the interview was going on. Slowly-slowly I reached till the last chair and instead of being nervous, I was excited. I wanted to go in and get done with it soon. Then finally I was called and asked what did I learn in NCC. That took me by surprise so I said some words like "discipline, military etc". Then I was asked a question from accounts by the controller of examinations and I gave exactly the opposite answer. Then he asked me if I was sure and gave me the hint that it was wrong. So then I gave the correct answer. Then came the Vice-Chancellor's turn to ask and he was know to ask economic questions (he is from the IAS). And I answered them really confidently that he himself doubted that if his question was correct and that just boosted up my confidence to new heights. So realising me as a tough candidate to tackle with he told me that I could go and then did not fling any more questions. Mine was one of the shortest interviews and I was not even told that my entrance test marks unlike my peers who were told that they did not do so well. Guess I must've done well. I was off the hook soon and today i was really happy when I got the news that I was selected for the course.

May be it was my luck or the way I showed my body language, but my interview was a hit. I was scared of interviews but after giving 2, I am really confident about them.

The 1st mistake most of the people do is that they smile too soon. Don't smile as soon as you see them but wait for a second or 2, soak in their persona and then let a big , warm, reponsive smile flood over your face and overflow into your eyes. That looks more genuine while the immediate smile looks like artificial. The next thing is to maintain eye contact. Especially when you are answering someone's question, look at that person in the eye and answer confidently even if you are not too sure about the answer. But don't look at the same person for long as it may become intimidating. Your posture is important too. How you walk into the room, how you sit on the chair and how you stand up again. Don't move much as it is a sign of nervousness. Usually many interviewers are present in a interview but only a few ask the questions while the others are busy observing you. Dress formally and decently. Wear clothes which suits you and the institution which is conducting the interview. Don't fold your arms or legs as it sends out very negative signals. Keep them by your side. And never have a blank face. If you have an idea but don't know the exact answer then start your answer with "I think or I believe". If you don't have even an idea then ask for a change in the question. After answering each question give a short smile to the questioner. Know about the background and history of the Institution for which you are being interviewed. And if you are feeling nervous, then take in long breaths and drink small amounts of water with intervals cos you don't want to start searching for the toilets!

These tips are really useful if you want to get through an interview successfully. Have some clarifications or suggestions then do paste them in your comments. All the Best.

Arrivederci

Have A Nice Day!!!

Be yourself.

Far too talented was he... my classmate, friend and guide...

"Could I reach upto him?... no way!",

That was what my mind had to say,

But in him saw my heart an ideal,

I wanted his talent, was he ready to deal?

I tried to imitate him, his every word, his every action,

Perfection?... I knew no satisfaction,

For the harder I tried, the harder I fell,

Oh, God! my childish inspiration led me to hell...

I aspired to be someone- someone I could never be,

Finally I decided to be ME- my very own self.

Unique!- Yes I would be a Somebody.

Even if it meant being a Nobody.

I'd be myself...

Arrivederci.

Have A Nice Day!!!

IPL... The scoop and controversies

There was a lot of hype over the IPL before it started. The player auctions were on the main pages of all the newspapers, Most of the teams were coming up with their team songs to generate the publicity, cheerleaders being flown in from the States etc. Even though it got off to a great start, it was not short of a few hassles. After so many of the players were missing out of action, and many more doing things which are making them miss out all and action and of course the cheerleader controversy.
Sachin has not yet played a single match because of a supposedly groin injury. Now that must have hurt. I think that's the reason why he was not able to appreciate the cheerleaders. Even if he is not able to play for his team, at least he can join the cheerleaders.Even George Bush was a cheerleader at school. I ain't kidding. May be because they didn't take him in the team so he became one of them.
Regarding the cheerleaders, are the supposed to build up the excitement or get the crowd excited??!! Just think how they will be responding to theirs parents back home, "Hey mom.We are enjoying here so much. We are the cynosure of all the eyes as soon as we start giving those high kicks and those routine steps. We never got this kind of attention back home. But a fat guy in some kind of ethnic wear doesn't want us do perform. He wants us out. May be we are too hot for him to handle. The crowds all ga-ga over us. They keep asking us for photographs and handshakes and they keeping making all sorts of signs at us. We are really enjoying the attention. Cya later."
And then there is Bhajji. He seems to have become a michi bhajji now. With the slapping and reunion incident, looks like hes trying to make the IPL into an Ekta Kapoor soap. Even Symonds had to hear more than a mouthful from Bhajji during India's recent tour to Australia. But the allrounder did not smack him. A few days in Symonds wing will surely afford him the art of keeping calm. And now that he is anyway going to sit in the stands, he can also join the cheerleaders and give Sachin company there. Both of them failed to get their team a win; we can hope that the dancing will change their team's fortunes. If Bhajji does join the cheerleaders then looks like we will have to call him leerleader. One thing we know for sure is that Sreesanth's face value must be a lot because the slap cost Bhajji 3 crores rupees i.e. 3 followed by se7en zeros. OMG!!....... Shree must also be having a lot of water in his eyes that he overflowed like the Brahmaputra does during the monsoons. Was it because Preity Zinta hugged Yuvraj and not him??
SRK's publicity seems to have paid off. His team, the Kolkata Knight Riders are now probably the most popular and successful team. But then even Ganguly Dada was in trouble with Warne which cost him his match fee.
Vijay Mallaya's team dint have much luck with the cricket or the foreign cheerleaders. But he's become the IPL's Beerleader................
And finally we can hope to see the Rawalpindi Express to set the pitch on fire as he will be making a come back after his ban has been suspended which is being taken into consideration.
That's it for now. Do tell me what you think about it by posting your comments.

Arrivederci

Have A Nice Day !!!

A date gone scary!!!

Hi all, a friend of mine has a girlfriend and officially they have been in the relationship for a few months. But they are highly discreet about it which obviously means that hardly a soul or two like me know about them ;) Because they are so secretive, they meet only at school and have late night chats on the phone. So when they want so spend some time together where can they go?? Thankfully there are a few places on the outskirts where they can meet and spend a few hours together........

So they made a programme like that one day which was not their first and everything went on well. They left their homes the correct time and met each other there, had lunch, retired to a lonely spot and started enjoying their private time together. So far so good. Was it going to be a perfect date like any other time? Or a....... disaster?

It was closing time and like everyone else, they were also heading towards the exit. The exit was half a mile away (it was a really big place you know!) when the girl started having severe stomachache. Meanwhile I messaged him that if he had finished his date we could meet up somewhere. Our guy was scared out of his wits and all kinds of thoughts started coming to his mind about how to reply to me and eventually he did not reply (nobody would in this kind of situation). There was no one near by to call for help. So he was kind of helpless and that's when a really low feeling sets in over a man when he can't do anything for his girl. Also he had not told anyone where he was going (other than me, that is). The pain subsided a bit so they sprinted up to the small restaurant near the entrance and there she drank some soft drink which he thought would help the stomach to calm down. And fortunately he were right. The pain started reducing and he sent her home. By the time she reached her house, there was no sign of the ache.

Later when my friend narrated this to me, I thought about the expressions that would have been coming on my friends face at that time and I started laughing. He said that you are laughing now but if you would have been in my place, you would have pissed in your pants. He said " मेरी तोह उस समय बुरी तरह फट गई थी। ". But as Shakespeare had said, " Alls well that ends well".

The bottom line is, be careful next time when you go out somewhere (with anyone or anywhere) and do tell some people where you are going so that you can contact then in case of emergencies. These guys were lucky that the pain went away fast. But don't depend on luck always. Don't take chances cos that can sometimes lead to serious consequences.

Arrivederci

Have A Nice Day !!!