I'm posting to my blog so regularly that it's now getting scary... Either there's something really amiss with my life or I'm actually becoming an active blogger for want of a better pastime.
Keeping in tune with other posts, this one too shall contain no names.
I have a friend, let's call him X. Now, calling him a friend implies that we share stuff.. ideas, thoughts, words, time and sometimes even secrets. Now sharing secrets requires a mutual trust to exist between two people. So, yes there were some secrets kept between us, not just us but amongst all the people I usually hang out with. Now, this was never said, but I hoped that by an unwritten and unsaid contract, certain things would not be spread outside our circle.
Well I have been occasionally frivolous, almost all my life, especially with people I call friends. However, I believe I have also been as quick to apologize when I was hurting someone's sentiments. Needless to say, this has also happened innumerable times with this friend.
Today, I just found out some strange things. Quite accidentally, and almost unintentionally, I stumbled upon some piece of evidence that pointed to the fact that this "friend" had been discussing some of the things I had said unintentionally and accidentally with people whom I had wished not to know those things. And unfortunately, I'm quite sure he knew it.
Well, it's too troublesome confronting people, and needless to say, I won't confront him, for now at least. However, it's not easy to forget such things. Now, the matter that was discussed was probably quite silly and not very important, but it did make me question myself about the integrity of the people I keep as friends around me.
I may sound paranoid, but if you look at the larger picture, people you keep around yourself may not be just your friends, but your business associates whom you will trust to keep business secrets. And a leak at that point of time could bring everything down.
I've always been very selective about who I call a friend, and trust is something I never bestow without thinking it through. But all through my life, there have always been instances when I thought I had trusted the wrong people. And unfortunately, even though some of them have apologized, a sorry just doesn't take back their actions.
I've tried multiple times to rid myself of this paranoia, but there's always someone to re-affirm my belief in the fact that "Trust is a weakness" indeed...
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Childhood Ambitions
It's 6:30 am on a Sunday, and I'm awake... :-|
Sitting with my laptop in the balcony, looking out at an amazing view of Bangalore city.
Looking, back, I realize that when I was a kid, I had lots of things I wanted to do. Some of them were kiddish, some were actually useful and worth doing, some were plain impossible...
Decided to enumerate them, here they are... (in no order whatsoever)
1) Collecting all the G.I.Joe action figures and vehicles
2) Completely buying Enid Blyton's Five Find Outers and Dog series
3) Interacting a lot more with other members of Mensa
4) Becoming a HAM Radio operator
5) Learning a new language
6) Becoming financially independent
7) Building a magnetic personality
8) Making a war bot and participating in Robot Wars
9) Reading minds
10)Learning handwriting analysis and palmistry
~MH
Sitting with my laptop in the balcony, looking out at an amazing view of Bangalore city.
Looking, back, I realize that when I was a kid, I had lots of things I wanted to do. Some of them were kiddish, some were actually useful and worth doing, some were plain impossible...
Decided to enumerate them, here they are... (in no order whatsoever)
1) Collecting all the G.I.Joe action figures and vehicles
2) Completely buying Enid Blyton's Five Find Outers and Dog series
3) Interacting a lot more with other members of Mensa
4) Becoming a HAM Radio operator
5) Learning a new language
6) Becoming financially independent
7) Building a magnetic personality
8) Making a war bot and participating in Robot Wars
9) Reading minds
10)Learning handwriting analysis and palmistry
~MH
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Death
Guess what? It's Saturday! Perfect timing for another of my posts...
This time, it's about death.
Various dictionaries define death as the following:
"the event of dying or departure from life", "the permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism", "the absence of life or state of being dead", "the time when something ends" and "the time at which life ends"
The ideas for this post were thought up on a train journey (Mumbai-Goa or vice-versa) when I was discussing the concept of death with Vigi. We had quite a discussion about the same then...
I always thought of putting down what I thought as a blog post, but kept procrastinating, as it is my habit, till now, when certain events made me realize that I just simply had to write this post in the near future.
The idea of death isn't new to me. I had known it to be the inevitable end right since middle school. In first or second grade (don't remember which) I lost a classmate. I think his name was Varun. I may not remember most other details because my memories about school have grown quite blurry. Then again in high school, I lost another fellow student, this time a girl. She wasn't a classmate, but my mother told me what we had been in nursery school together. It's very unfortunate that I never had the opportunity to know them better. I only wish I had invested more time in interacting with them a bit more when I had the chance.
Then again, in BITS the trend continued.... Lost a person almost every year... Fellow students, director, what not... It's been very sad, but inevitable none the less. In fact, one of the students who passed away at BITS had been the immediate neighbour of one of my close friends. I know he was quite shaken knowing that he would never be able to see his neighbour's friendly face at BITS ever again.
So, back to the discussion we had. What is death? Death seems to be the ceasing of the existence of a living being, for any reason. But yea... I'm living, I experience myself inside me. Pain, pleasure, relief, anger... the entire gamut of 'feelings' and also memories and experiences I have gained through the process of 'living'. It's baffling that I am inside me, and not observing myself as a third person. That feels weird sometimes, especially when I think about it. It brings me to the question, what happens when I die? What happens to my 'self', my so-called 'feelings', 'memories'? Do they just disappear? Whoosh??? Or are they stored somewhere? What happens of my 'awareness' and my unwritten and unshared ideas?
All these questions bring me to a newer, and a more fundamental question...
We start 'living', grow up, learn, start earning, make a family, and then finally die. So what is the purpose of life? Is it just doing the above? All humans do that (I hope). So what makes me different from the rest? Am I just a tool in the propagation of the human race (and hopefully improving its genetic code through evolution) and nothing else? If so, life seems quite pointless, actually. These questions have been troubling me since a really long time, and unfortunately, I haven't found their answers yet. Maybe the answers lie in death itself. Maybe I will find out eventually (after I die?)
What I am more curious about is that have other people (my contemporaries, friends, whatever...) thought about these above questions themselves? Has it occurred to them that these questions are worth thinking about? If so, what are their views? I would really like to hear/read them. Maybe the reason I think about this so much is because I read certain books, mainly "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" both by Richard Bach when I was quite young. These books actually gave me quite a lot of new ideas and made me think deeper. I definitely recommend that you read these books when you do have the time. They're fairly simple to follow, and I believe they'll get you thinking at once.
These made me more 'comfortable' with the idea of death, and made me realize that even if people die (leave?), my life does go on, and new experiences and ideas will still be born (will they be of any importance?)
And so, I keep living my life, trying to hold on to people precious to me, spending as much time as I can with them, lest I lose them and have regrets later on...
Hope you do the same...
Rest in peace, all those who have moved on...
Later!
This time, it's about death.
Various dictionaries define death as the following:
"the event of dying or departure from life", "the permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism", "the absence of life or state of being dead", "the time when something ends" and "the time at which life ends"
The ideas for this post were thought up on a train journey (Mumbai-Goa or vice-versa) when I was discussing the concept of death with Vigi. We had quite a discussion about the same then...
I always thought of putting down what I thought as a blog post, but kept procrastinating, as it is my habit, till now, when certain events made me realize that I just simply had to write this post in the near future.
The idea of death isn't new to me. I had known it to be the inevitable end right since middle school. In first or second grade (don't remember which) I lost a classmate. I think his name was Varun. I may not remember most other details because my memories about school have grown quite blurry. Then again in high school, I lost another fellow student, this time a girl. She wasn't a classmate, but my mother told me what we had been in nursery school together. It's very unfortunate that I never had the opportunity to know them better. I only wish I had invested more time in interacting with them a bit more when I had the chance.
Then again, in BITS the trend continued.... Lost a person almost every year... Fellow students, director, what not... It's been very sad, but inevitable none the less. In fact, one of the students who passed away at BITS had been the immediate neighbour of one of my close friends. I know he was quite shaken knowing that he would never be able to see his neighbour's friendly face at BITS ever again.
So, back to the discussion we had. What is death? Death seems to be the ceasing of the existence of a living being, for any reason. But yea... I'm living, I experience myself inside me. Pain, pleasure, relief, anger... the entire gamut of 'feelings' and also memories and experiences I have gained through the process of 'living'. It's baffling that I am inside me, and not observing myself as a third person. That feels weird sometimes, especially when I think about it. It brings me to the question, what happens when I die? What happens to my 'self', my so-called 'feelings', 'memories'? Do they just disappear? Whoosh??? Or are they stored somewhere? What happens of my 'awareness' and my unwritten and unshared ideas?
All these questions bring me to a newer, and a more fundamental question...
We start 'living', grow up, learn, start earning, make a family, and then finally die. So what is the purpose of life? Is it just doing the above? All humans do that (I hope). So what makes me different from the rest? Am I just a tool in the propagation of the human race (and hopefully improving its genetic code through evolution) and nothing else? If so, life seems quite pointless, actually. These questions have been troubling me since a really long time, and unfortunately, I haven't found their answers yet. Maybe the answers lie in death itself. Maybe I will find out eventually (after I die?)
What I am more curious about is that have other people (my contemporaries, friends, whatever...) thought about these above questions themselves? Has it occurred to them that these questions are worth thinking about? If so, what are their views? I would really like to hear/read them. Maybe the reason I think about this so much is because I read certain books, mainly "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" both by Richard Bach when I was quite young. These books actually gave me quite a lot of new ideas and made me think deeper. I definitely recommend that you read these books when you do have the time. They're fairly simple to follow, and I believe they'll get you thinking at once.
These made me more 'comfortable' with the idea of death, and made me realize that even if people die (leave?), my life does go on, and new experiences and ideas will still be born (will they be of any importance?)
And so, I keep living my life, trying to hold on to people precious to me, spending as much time as I can with them, lest I lose them and have regrets later on...
Hope you do the same...
Rest in peace, all those who have moved on...
Later!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Ticketgenie ki Jai!!!
Hey Readers,
I really wanted to see a Mumbai Indians IPL match this season. Unfortunately I'm in Bangalore, and the only MI match I could watch here was against RCB at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. I had booked my tickets well in advance.
To my great disappointment, I received this email today:
-----------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer
Due to a technical error in the ticketing website, it over sold more than the tickets allotted for online sale, hence we are compelled to refund our valued customers or accommodate them in the coming Semi Final matches.
We do understand your concern and it is not your mistake and at the same time it is a technical error which cannot be undone.
We regret the inconvenience caused to you and request you to bear with us this time and either opt for a refund or opt for the Semi Final Matches scheduled either on April 21st or April 22nd.
The prices for the Semi Finals are slightly higher than the League Matches and request you to bear the difference amount whoever opts for the Semi Final Tickets.
Order No:
Stand:
Based on your decision, request you to follow the instructions mentioned below:
Refund
If you opt for the refund you need to send us an email to refund@ticketgenie.in requesting for a refund. In this case we will process the refund immediately and normally it will take 8-10 Working days to credit your account.
Semi Final Tickets
If you opt to trade in for Semi Final tickets, you have to visit the E Ticket redemption counter (Gate No.19 of the Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium) on 13th April or 14th April or 18th April and collect the ticket by paying the difference amount. Rs.60/- paid towards courier charges will be adjusted against the ticket amount.
Once again regret the inconvenience cause to you in this regard.
Regards
Manager – Customer Service
-----------------------------------------------------
What a mockery!!! I just couldn't resist writing a reply to this mail....
Here's what I wrote:
-----------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir/Madam,
Your unprofessional behaviour has no bounds. I find it difficult to believe that a prestigious company like yours cannot even build a simple online booking system properly. It should be a matter of great shame to your company.
Having committed this massive error, you also fail to include in the apology mail the difference in cost between the tickets for the match I had booked and the semi-final match you are willing to exchange our tickets for. Even your beautifully designed website yields no data about the prices of the said semi-final tickets.
Please do me a favour by responding to this mail with the ticket rates for the semi-final matches and which stands you are willing to offer as a compromise, so that I will not have to spend my valuable time and energy going to Chinnaswamy Stadium to enquire about the same.
Great work once again!
Regards,
An IPL Fan
-----------------------------------------------------
Let's see how this proceeds from here on.... :)
I really wanted to see a Mumbai Indians IPL match this season. Unfortunately I'm in Bangalore, and the only MI match I could watch here was against RCB at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. I had booked my tickets well in advance.
To my great disappointment, I received this email today:
-----------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer
Due to a technical error in the ticketing website, it over sold more than the tickets allotted for online sale, hence we are compelled to refund our valued customers or accommodate them in the coming Semi Final matches.
We do understand your concern and it is not your mistake and at the same time it is a technical error which cannot be undone.
We regret the inconvenience caused to you and request you to bear with us this time and either opt for a refund or opt for the Semi Final Matches scheduled either on April 21st or April 22nd.
The prices for the Semi Finals are slightly higher than the League Matches and request you to bear the difference amount whoever opts for the Semi Final Tickets.
Order No:
Stand:
Based on your decision, request you to follow the instructions mentioned below:
Refund
If you opt for the refund you need to send us an email to refund@ticketgenie.in requesting for a refund. In this case we will process the refund immediately and normally it will take 8-10 Working days to credit your account.
Semi Final Tickets
If you opt to trade in for Semi Final tickets, you have to visit the E Ticket redemption counter (Gate No.19 of the Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium) on 13th April or 14th April or 18th April and collect the ticket by paying the difference amount. Rs.60/- paid towards courier charges will be adjusted against the ticket amount.
Once again regret the inconvenience cause to you in this regard.
Regards
Manager – Customer Service
-----------------------------------------------------
What a mockery!!! I just couldn't resist writing a reply to this mail....
Here's what I wrote:
-----------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir/Madam,
Your unprofessional behaviour has no bounds. I find it difficult to believe that a prestigious company like yours cannot even build a simple online booking system properly. It should be a matter of great shame to your company.
Having committed this massive error, you also fail to include in the apology mail the difference in cost between the tickets for the match I had booked and the semi-final match you are willing to exchange our tickets for. Even your beautifully designed website yields no data about the prices of the said semi-final tickets.
Please do me a favour by responding to this mail with the ticket rates for the semi-final matches and which stands you are willing to offer as a compromise, so that I will not have to spend my valuable time and energy going to Chinnaswamy Stadium to enquire about the same.
Great work once again!
Regards,
An IPL Fan
-----------------------------------------------------
Let's see how this proceeds from here on.... :)
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