chit chat with Kaustubh!

Kaustubh is a decent chap (....well, not really but for the sake of this post:-)

Sometimes this guy teases me by calling 'Galib' and I tend to defend myself and the fight goes on and on .... here is good one after karun's farewell.

Kaustubh: I will come down some time latter
me: aaj hi aana.

Kaustubh: where is Karun
me: shopping . as usual.
Kaustubh: k

me: leking jaroor aana
Kaustubh: sure, I have to take the fan back

me: accha.
isliye aayega kya .

Kaustubh: nope milna bhi hey
me: mujhse milne nahn
aayega.

Kaustubh: chal ab senti mat mar
me: bas bhool gaya saale.
abhi se.

Kaustubh: kam kar
Kaustubh: bhul gaya
ab kya kam khatam admi khatam

me: yeh duniya yeh mehfil mere kaam ki nahin
.
Kaustubh: tu tha hi kaun
koi chai walal jo US aagaya
me: wahi to galib .

"woh kahte hain chai wala galib humko ...
hum unke cup main phir bhi apni muskan se mithas bhar dete hain";

Kaustubh: chal bahut senti mar raha hey
kam kar
its 6 pm now

me: shayri kaise lagi.

Kaustubh: I should be there by 8:30
badiya hey
_____________________________________

....btw, we still pick on him for his video .....which explains the phases this guy goes through when he thinks .."Sochne de ..... b??" lol!!

rock on man!
-Ashu

This is my letter to the world!

This is my letter to the WorldThat never wrote to Me —

The simple News that Nature told —

With tender MajestyHer

Message is committed

To Hands I cannot see —

For love of Her —

Sweet — countrymen —

Judge tenderly — of Me

-a poem by a great poet Emily Dickinson

Abel and Cain

According to the Holy Bible and the Holy Qur'an, Cain and Abel were the first and second sons of Adam and Eve, born after the Fall of Man (the only other child of Adam and Eve to be named in the Bible was Seth)

"In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought the fat, fatlings, or milk as Josephus has it (the possible renderings of the consonantal Hebrew) from the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him."

- Genesis 4:3-8

It's all about Wat? ....Passion!!!

I came across an article, being passionate about what you do, today. It plays an important role, wherever you are, whatever you do, whoever you speak, wherever you go ..

"Passion is the foundation of effective communication. Dig deep to discover your core purpose, your true passion. Once you connect to it, use it as fuel to build a rapport with your audience -- recruiters, managers, employees, etc. Your presentations, pitches, speeches, and all forms of activities (non business or business) will be more engaging than ever. Nearly everyone has room to increase what I call the "passion quotient" -- the level of passion you exhibit as a speaker. The higher your passion quotient, the more likely you are to connect with people. Chris Gardner's (the pursuit of happiness guy) passion fueled his determination in the face of overwhelming odds and obstacles. Take the time to imagine where harnessing your passion can take you".


Another one:

Rather than approaching any problem from the standpoint of "I'm a square pegwhich hole should I put myself in?" Turn it around and say "I am amorphable peg and which hole would I most enjoy being in?"

Connecting the ....ts

God!....time flies so fast, this July 17, I will finish an year in DC ....seems like yesterday only, I graduated from USC and preparing to move to DC ...little nervous, somewhat excited ....fearful about "what will happen next?"

.. I enjoyed this year to the best ...met several interesting people, made good friends, not to mention about trips to NY City, Smoky Mountains, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, India, Atlantic City.

DC has it's own flavors during spring (cherry blossom festival), winter (heavy snow fall), 4th july (parade and fire works), christmas (national christmas tree), Fall (colorful trees), musesums and art galleries, night life ...attracts almost everybody to this part of the country.

..being in the software security industry, not only met geeks but also learnt how to become one ... and yes, how can I forget about yoga classes, unfinished salsa classes.During past one and half month of language classes, I realized how it feels to be a teacher ...hopefully I will be able to continue some work with association of India's development as well ...

...I had a very good reputation of being a bad reader and a terrible speaker :) ...i guess with time this glory will start fading as well ..Siddhartha, The Alchemist, The go getter, Hope for the flowers, Interpreter of maladies, The monk who sold his ferrari managed to convince their philosophies and I am happy about that :)

...well, it is a separate issue that I am still questioning some Indian immigrant families (who become my good friends now)about "Inheritence of loss" , the night long arguments with my collegues about how unfair the war on iraq is ...everyone's life worth the same irrespective of their cast, creed and 'color' ...perhaps one day somebody will understand that it takes nine months to give a birth and few seconds to take one ..

Now when I look back, i believe this one year has given enough foundations to make a strong building upon ...One thing is sure

That time will tell,
If I fail,
The brightest ring around the moon
Will darken,when I die :)

.....well, its 2:54 am in the morning, i can still write a lot but I have some plan for kayaking tomorrow...so i guess it's time to say good night? i mean good morning....I will upload the pictures tomorrow ...have a good day!

Gazal!!

लज्जतेग़म बढ़ा दीजिये,
आप यूँ मुस्कुरा दीजिये

चाँद कब तक गहन में रहे,
आप ज़ुल्फें हटा दीजिये

मेरा दामन अभी साफ है,
कोई तोहमद़ लगा दीजिये

आप अंधेरे में कब तक रहें,
फिर कोई घर जला दीजिये

एक समुंदर ने आवाज दी,
मुझको पानी पिला दीजिये

लज्जतेग़म बढ़ा दीजिये,
आप यूँ मुस्कुरा दीजिये

-- From someone really great!

.....and then I started teaching Hindi!!

....This summer when everybody is involved in different activities and setting up hopes for the future, I thought of doing something too ...

....recently, I came to know about the "Global Language group" in the Washington DC area and got a gut feeling that this is the place to start.

And guess what???

Yesterday, I took my first Hindi class in George Washington University. There are around 14 students enrolled in my class. They are all from different backgrounds ...one of them is doing Phd is linguistics, another one is doing some research about malnutrition in India ..and so and so ..

In one line "...this is a new completly new experience for me"

but still there are two questions in my mind:

1) Would i be able to make some difference somewhere? and the bigger one is ...

2) How come, I never thought of doing same thing back in India??

I think therefore I am!!

.....the term "Cogito ergo sum" ( i think...therefore i am..) was coined by Rene Descartes (a philosopher)..which further became the foundation of "rationalism" and "empiricism"

..the basic interpration of this term is " i am vivdly aware of my existence.."

perhaps he wants to address that: "i do not know whether somebody is there with me or not? but i am on my way, because i am thinking ..."

So....think about it!!!!
-Ashutosh...

Kabhi aisa lagta hain!!

....kabhi aisa lagta hain:

Is duniya se dur nikal jau, aur chand main chipe aadmi se dosti kar aau,
jab kabhi akela houn, to kam se kam use to apne pass pau.

Is virane, Is sannate main jab 'ashu' kahin ghum hoga,
chand pe chipa aadmi muje aake dhoond lega.

Jo mukam sadiyon chalkar bhi paar nahin hota,woh shab-e-raat ke palon main sakar ho jayega,

aur chotti chotti ankhon se chand ka didar ho jayega.

(..In progress)

One of the best picture ever!

it was yesterday when I and my roomies went to see the Cherry Blossom Festival in Tidal Basin, Washington DC. It was such a good day as we took a lot of pictures ;-)

I liked one picture in particular, so thought of asking concept of the picture:

Swarup: (The guy in the center)...you know ashutosh, right now i wouldn't be able to explain you, cuz' I have been working on a research paper and I am sick of it ...but I think in this picture three of us are showing our ass to the camera-man and encouraging him to take our picture and post it on some web-site.. .lol...

now it's Karun (The guy in the right) turn ...

Karun: In this picture we are standing together and looking at Washington Monument, it is kinda indication of thinking big, now you tell us what do you like so special about the picture that you are bugging both of us ..

Me: well friends, I can formulate a story out of this picture ...which i would like to share with both of you ...this is a story of three guyz, who belongs to three different parts of a holy country ...three of them are standing in different direction but focusing on the same object...their aim, their destiny ...all of them have different thoughts/plans in their mind (as shown in the picture), its kinda hard to tell about their emotions (whether they are happy, depressed, enthusiastic etc)..since the picture is not showing their faces ....they want to reach some where but the hurdles are everywhere ....river is stopping them to cross through, road is also not visible anywhere ....and it has started turning dark.

...but the white flowers (cherry blosooms) are indication of new hopes for them, new dawn ....may be a revolution ... the three faces are up and thinking beyond the normal human being's expectation, and they are thinking to finding a new way to get there ...it's neither by crossing the river nor through the road ...no one but they know about it!!!!

--Ashutosh

Phir Ghalib!!

"Bhid se alag dikhne pardes chala tha ghalib,

chand paise kamane aur kuch naam karne ke liye sir-per chala tha ghalib,

kaal ke chakra main aur paredes ki hawa main kuch is kadar khoya,

ki bhid se alag dikhna to dur, bhid main jaane layak bhi na raha paya ghalib"

---------------------------

This shayri is composed by me and it is tributed to Galib. This is specially for people who come abrod with big dreams and ignore values of little things ... but when life starting acting on them ...they start appreciating the beauty of their home, their people, their country

... ghalib expresses here that they can get better visibility even staying in their own country ...as long as they understand human values and contribute towards it...

-Ashutosh

Love wins, love always wins!!

So it's a discussion between a Professor and his favorite student...
____________________________________________

Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.

"A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle"Sounds like a wrestling match, student said

"A wrestling match" Prof. Moorie laughed and said "Yes you could describe life that way"

So which side wins, student asked?"Which side wins?"Moorie smiles back at him, with the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth..

"Love wins. Love always wins."