The good thing about riding in a bus is you rediscover your city. I sat in one today after almost..well, don't even remember the years. And boy, did I enjoy it! Buildings, streets, shops, parks and even the people looked different from that high seat. And the best part was, there was this shop I would always try and watch closely whenever I drove to work - "what brand is that? It's a factory outlet. Lemme just read it once"...err.. oops, a bus came in my way or somebody honked my ears off from behind me and I had to turn my eyes on the road again. Not now; I not only read the brand displayed in the shop, I even noted down the shop timings and contact no. and the % of discount offered, and...well, you get the idea. But that's just a small part of it. There were many more buildings I rediscovered, many landmarks I'd missed earlier. "ohhh, so THAT'S the Diamond plaza my cousin would always ask me to watch out for..". I'd driven right under that board several times, never could actually get around to seeing it.
Now that I know my city better, I'm gonna carry a novel tomorrow. (Human beings are incorrigible, ain't we?)

I think Blurty doesn't want me to go anyplace else. So I'm back here..

Just do it. That's the phrase the Nike guys have patented, huh? Well, I for one must adhere to that one more than anybody else. I have this habit of putting off things for as long as it is possible. Only to brood about it later on. Ok, maybe I don't go as far as brooding about it, but I do certainly think about it. Oh well, what the.. the last time I was here, I thought I'd be able to stick to my schedule of penning something here every single day. Didn't work.

At work, I sit beside this huge glass window so typical of IT buildings, watching human civilization below, zoom back and forth. So you might say, all the more inspiration to write something in my blog. But well, with me it doesn't exactly work that way. I get my ideas from not watching, but by actually living out experiences. And more so when I'm actually busy doing something. The idea is freshest then. Ripe. Ready to be written down immediately like a perishable food. Err..eaten, but what the heck...

I'm not gonna say here now, that I'm gonna write every single day. Kal dekhenge..but for now.. hey, it's nice to be back. It's nice to be 'just doing it'. Did it.

Ok, I'm back - at least for now. It's been a while in blogger's time and I had this big, fat, stubborn writer's block sitting square in my mind that needed to be budged like a cow from the traffic circle. Ugh! It was quite an effort, believe me. And now it's like I'd been away on a vacation and fear if anyone would recognize me on return, not that I've developed horns or resemble a 'woodstockian' by any yardstick. But, be that as it may, the past month..or however long that I've been away, has been... err, eventful (for want of a better sounding excuse). Work, home, other activities etc. Work mostly. Ok, ok.. only work. Let's get it over with this 'conscience thing.

And hey, don't throw the noose round my neck if you're not able to make out a damn thing of what I'm cadoodling here, lemme just get over this fat lump of a block that's been inhabiting my already rusty brain for this long. But it's a relief that the words are slowly trickling in here like the blood from a hollywood wound.

I'm tired. (This is nuts. What am I saying?) Well anyway, c ya later..

All they are, are lines and lines of '1's and '0's, yet they have changed our lives forever. The generations to come will never know about life before computers.

"To tell the truth, you don't need to raise your voice". This is just one of the priceless quotes I've read in the Reader's Digest over the last 2 decades. Yeah, that's right. This small digest resembling a course text-book has probably had the most influence over my thinking ever since I could think coherently. I took to reading after my father. Books by and large influence my ideologies and perceptions of life to a large extent. Well, to be able to learn from life itself is also something I learned from books. But RD has somehow become a part of me. I just have to read it whenever I feel low or in need of ideas. And not just the current issues. I dig into some really old ones too (again, thanks to my father) when I want to go time traveling. RD for me is something more than a mere book. It's my friend, philosopher and guide. I have laughed with it, cried with it, shared feelings with it's subjects, been a silent spectator in the lives of so many people who were written about, wondered at the mysteries around the world, generally dipped into slices of life from every corner of earth. So much so that I had not even realized how ingrained it was in my life. Something like breathing. You don't really think about it, but it's there. For life.

Someday when I'm too old to read any book, I'd like someone to read out from RD, to me. And if my hearing fails me, I'll probably spend time holding it in my hand and going to sleep.

Get that guitar out. Sit on the porch, by the gentle rain, coffee cup at your side and string along as you sing...

To really love a woman
To understand her
You gotta know her deep inside
Hear every thought
See every dream
N' give her wings -
When she wants to fly
Then when you find yourself
Lyin' helpless in her arms
Ya know ya really love a woman

You love a woman you tell her
That she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her
That she's the one
Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
That it's gonna last forever
So tell me have you ever really
Really really ever loved a woman?


To really love a woman
Let her hold you
Till ya know how she needs to be touched
You've gotta breathe her
Really taste her
Till you can feel her in your blood
And when you can see your unborn children
In her eyes
Ya know ya really love a woman


You got to give her some faith
Hold her tight
A little tenderness
Gotta treat her right
She will be there for you,
Takin' good care of you
Ya really gotta love your woman...

- Don Juan De Marco, by Bryan Adams. Ah, bliss!