Nightmares and Scars

on October 29, 2011


They beat him up to pulp in the alley,
A broken jaw and a blackened eye.
He got up somehow...
and ran for his life.

As he entered the dark hallway,
He saw his image in the wall at the end.
It was as bad (good?) as a ghastly devil...
The wind got knocked out of his sails!

He ran again; fate it was or a twist in the tale?!
Even tougher it got to rein in the horses of thought.
A dank, unkempt, claustrophobic room awaited.
And he escaped into it, wasn't he lucky?!

Saw 'em there for the first time ever,
seemed too good to be true, all of them.
"Oh well...", said he to no one in particular.

He was flying up and above...
when they brought him down with a thud.
"You worthless piece of shit!"
He gave up...
before, much before he gave in.
And ran again!

Escaping from the escape route...
Hell yeah, what a sight!

Hearing myself out

on October 27, 2011

Hear that eerie sound in the middle of the deathly silence?
That's me gnashing my teeth!
At what is... and what could have been.

What should I be regretful for...
For it all fell apart or, for it was a castle in the sand.
Or for the fact that I've got better at putting up a face!

They say resilience is the stuff the strong and brave are made of...
I say to them, they have never been resilient enough!
Resilience is what the meek prefer, without a voice or a backbone.
The ones, who have been strong for too long, just break down. 

 Someday I'll say it all too loud...
So what if it will be too late!
And so what if there will be no one around! 
I know I'll still hear myself out...
…Gnashing my teeth in the middle of the deathly silence.

Pretty average stuff, this. But at least I'm back. Can only go up from here.
And though the post belies this, I wish you all a very Happy Diwali!

The spirit of Entrepreneurship!

on October 16, 2008

Lose yourself...
to find the true "you"...
Never get so old...
that you can't run after your dreams...

what matters is not the greenbacks...
what matters is that you are a greenhorn...
ready to take the world on...
your mind is not corrupt...
that does help...

Fun lies in the uncertainities...
Fun lies in the journey, not in the destination...
Fun lies in asking the right questions of yourself...
Have fun, they rightly say...

Have a huge appetite...
for risk, that is...
but do know your limits...
Get your calculations exact...

Interact, Ideate, Innovate, Invigorate...
then Initiate, Implement, Intensify, Improve...
and then Improvise and Inspire

Failure is heartbreaking...
Hell yeah, it is...
But it isn't permanent...
so even if you lose, don't lose the lesson...
for it may help in your next flight into your own space...
Never give up on yourself...
You are the ONE!
Hope I can inculcate this spirit in me.

Of Compiler Design and a 4th grader

on October 02, 2008

Are "parsing" and "purse-in" one and the same thing?
For everything that goes in, comes out sooner.
How can alphabets be non-elements?
No, please don't go back on primary education!
It befuddles me no end, I swear!

How do LR and SLR differ?
does SLR refer to "Sylar" from "Heroes"?
My God, save my soul, or rather brain from that evil man!

Why do we have languages for all levels - high, low and middle?
We got to have uniformity and equality, don't we?
That's not what they taught me at school
Is it not akin to fooling me? Answer me, O teacher!

Why do we need to transfer the innocuous dot to so many places?
Won't it get tired? Come on, think of it!

Who is going to explain to me what is happening out there, no; in there in the compiler?
Who is tending to what and whose ID are we constantly referring to?
Arithmetic tells me to open the brackets first,
but here the rules have been marauded!
I don't know when, don't even have a clue!

'I' referred to only me, that's what my English teacher told me
It was strictly singular, though plumpy she herself was,
good enough to be two! (hope she is not listening!)
Here there is a sea of 'I's', I saw eleven of them on the blackboard today
God, am I hallucinating or what?

Someone please come to my rescue,
this is a SOS call
My cute, little brain is not able to compile all of this arbit gyaan
The load is too much, this flood of symbols, arrows, elements and non-elements
I swear!


Readers, please empathise with me in my troubles with understanding Compiler Design.
Please pour in with your comments.

Keep climbing!

on September 15, 2008

koi chamakta sitara nahi hoon main
naa koi mujhe seene se lagayega
shayad kismat ko bhi main pasand nahi hoon
par musibaton aur mushkilon ne sacchi wafa ki hai mere saath

main hoon kaun ? apne nishaan dekhta hoon ...
apne andar jhaankta hoon ...
apne wajood ki woh ek kambhakht wajah talaashta hoon ...

fir achanak ... badi lambi, gahan ... ya ... fir sirf upari jaanch ke baad ...
(lambi ... gahan ... upari ? kya ajeeb trikon hai ... )
mere mann main ek vichaar kaundha ...

ki shayad main himmat hoon ... rannkshetra main tikna meri aadat main
shumaar hai
main ... haan, main garv hoon ...
raahon main jo roke mujhe, un sthitiyon se mujhe kuch pyaar sa ho jaata hai,
na jaane kyun?

shayad isliye....shayad nahi, yakinan
kyunki ek din jab suraj purab se ugega
tab main unhi sthitiyon ki aankho main aankhe daal paaunga
aur mere mukh par hogi ek vijayi yodha ki santusht muskaan...
haan, woh ek din zaroor aayega ...
woh din ek punarjanam ki tarah hoga mere liye

kyunki us ek din se ...
kisi darr se nahin darrunga main
aur mujhe pasine ki mithas ka ekdum satik anumaan ho jaayega

fir main peeche mudunga ...
kuch pal apni raahon ke nikhar ko nihaarta rahoonga ...
aur fir, agle hi pal apne fefdon ka pura zor lagakar iss duniya se kahoonga

aakhir jeet meri hui ...
par zyaada mahatvpurna yeh hai ki ...
main nahi khela apni mannmaafik sharto par ...
aur apna raasta bhi maine khud banaaya ...


The above lines are an apt depiction of my thoughts in tough times - specifically, my resolve to emerge victorious.

I have been thinking on some issues, of late. Here are my thoughts -

1. There is a spate of turncoats in this world today. These are people who appear to be on your side, generally your friends, specifically from the opposite gender. Be wary of them. I have seen two people very close to me suffer hell due to such sandbaggers.

2. Another category of people includes those whom you care about, but in return they don't give a damn about you. That's bad enough. But as if the demons weren't satisfied, they go one step further - they don't even want to hear what you have got to say, but you have to bear with all the bullcrap they throw at you anywhere, anyhow, anytime. So most people who are at the receiving end, just close up themselves, their entropy goes down all of a sudden and that leads to dire consequences. They begin to resemble the insides of a pressure cooker which is just not being opened. And, every Tom, Dick or Harry knows what happens next - The inevitable blast which just exterminates everything in sight. You have got to put your intelligence agencies to work - they are the ones who will tell you the hidden details about this blast. (Are RAW and IB listening?) And then when you get the cues, you have got to foil these terrorist-like plans. Start loving yourself for a change and also, people who love you selflessly (i.e. your parents). Just focus on the activities that will make this set of human-beings happy. Believe me, it works wonders!

3. Now, what to do of those hypocrites? My advice : forgive them! For today, they will not realise the value of your forgiveness when they indulge in merry-making without having a figment of concern for your state of mind. But one day, when you whisk away the ghosts in your mind and conquer your self-doubts, they will hear a silent noise (silent noise - it rises from within) which has the power to de-stabilise their thought process completely. . Agreed, that wasn't and shouldn't be your primary motive, but that's when they begin to seek your forgiveness once more. For that's the exact time when the sad realization hits them like a bolt from the blue.

4. To my mind, the road that leads to sucess is an uphill one..and a very steep one, at that. So don't make your march towards success a rat-race. The tricks that no one is going to tell you are - to start early, to set periodic targets which you must achieve without fail and to reassess the circumstances after every target achieved and to never stop pushing yourself, come what may! Let every possible obstacle be unleashed in your path. You must not budge. You must not stop going up even if that ascent is at snail's pace. BUT you must never stop, NEVER! Because the steepness will cause you to drift or even slide downwards and then it will be back to square one.

Readers, please let me know about your thoughts.
Ciao.