So Long, and Thanks for all the fish!

A speech for Toastmasters:

Sometime ago, I read a book by Douglas Adams called the Hitchhikers’s Guide to the galaxy. The book starts with some alien creatures on the verge of demolishing Earth!
And for a moment, I felt something happen in the pit of my stomach, something outrageous, even though it was a fictional story. I was a little uneasy because they were demolishing our planet, which in galactic proportions is my home! After all, the home and the heart are supposed to reside in the same place! I wondered if this was a common sentiment, or was it just me?

Looking more closely, and in more real-life terms, things didn’t seem very different. I have been to many beautiful places, I’ve met many wonderful people, but at the end of the day, I am tired. I want to go home.

I was browsing through the internet once, and I discovered that in some places like the US, there are actually traditions associated with homecoming. People, towns, high schools and colleges come together, usually in late September or early October, to welcome back former residents and alumni. They are built around a central event, such as a banquet and, very often, a game of American football, or, basketball, or ice hockey. Homecomings were occasions to revive old and fond memories, to put things in a different perspective and to provide a bridge to the future.
When I was little kid, my homecoming would be different. I would go to school in the morning, and go to play in the evenings with my friends. At the end of the day I would be tired and longing to come back to my parents, I would be very hungry and I would want food cooked at home.
I would sometimes go visit some relatives or my grandparents, and spend a few days, or weeks with them. It would be very comfortable, I would be pampered and treated like royalty. But it would never feel home. It was not my home.

When I grew up a bit, I went to a college in another city, and I’m talking about a huge country like India, where unlike NL distances could be quite far. Fortunately this was quite close – only 8 hours by train. I was quite excited to go as this was the first time I would be on my own. I would have freedom to live the way I wanted to. I could spend more time with friends, stay out late with friends, and take my own decisions. I stayed in a hostel- and I visited home during all the breaks and major holidays. But despite all the freedom, I would get all excited whenever a break came up. And when they ended, I felt sad every time I left home. On retrospection, it seemed like Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to. The home is the bottom line of life, the anvil upon which attitudes and convictions are hammered out. It is the single most influential force in our earthly existence. It is at home, among family members that we come to terms with circumstances. It is here life makes up its mind.

Now I have a job and I am working in a different country, a different continent. Things have changed, but have they? My assignment in Netherlands is about to end in a few weeks. And I am already dreaming about all the things I would do when I get back home, my mind is already drawing up plans of friends to meet, of places to visit, of things to do, of food to eat, of movies to see, of things to buy! This in no way means that I haven’t enjoyed my stay here – I have, immensely. I’ve seen so many amazingly beautiful places, I’ve seen different cultures and met some very smart people. But its time to go home!

Thank you all for making my stay even more memorable. As they said in the Hitchikers guide, So Long, and thanks for all the fish!

Shallow Hal

I like the Modern.
I like tall skysrapers, the glow of streetlights and wide roads.
I like a city buzzing with shopping streets and restaurants.
I like trendy clothes, good shoes and the fashion magazines.
I like well groomed people, who dress up well and make themselves look good.
I like having food in an expensive restaurant with the waitors treating you like royalty.
I like living in a house which is big, spacious and has big windows.
I like indulging myself...
...Even if that makes me sound materialistic and shallow.

The dream

I don’t know how I got so lucky.

I don’t know if I have become a better person. I don’t know if God suddenly woke up to all the good karma I had done in my previous life. But someone up there sure did pull some strings for me.

For I haven’t been this happy ever. I have gone through more than 20 years of my life and it all feels like a different era. The world is still as mean. There still are people who are selfish and insensitive. Some friends have gone, the inevitable clash of personalities bearing too much strain on relationships. Some friends have stayed, surviving the rough and the storms. I am still a doof. Nothing much has changed with life as we know it.

Except one. He.

He decided to fill my life with sunshine. He decided I was worth the effort after all. He has made me feel loved. He has shown me a part of myself that i never knew existed. He makes me feel the way I had always wanted to feel about myself. He has made a moron like me fall in love. I never thought it would happen, but it has. I love him. Its the least I can say. And it is the most diminutive expression of emotions that I can allow myself.

I’m living a dream, and I don’t want to wake up!

The one and only

A tribute to a brilliant performer
And the guy who has made me fall in luv with tennis all over again

I've been blessed...

The piece ahead is hardly original, but I just stumbled upon it, and I couldnt have rediscovered it at a better time...

Today, upon a bus, I saw a girl with golden hair
I looked at her and sighed and wished I was as fair.
When suddenly she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg and used a crutch
But as she passed, she passed a smile.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine
I have 2 legs, the world is mine.

I stopped to buy some candy
The lad who sold it had such charm
I talked with him a while, he seemed so very glad
If I were late, it'd do no harm.
And as I left, he said to me,
"I thank you, you've been so kind.
It's nice to talk with folks like you.
You see," he said, "I'm blind."
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 eyes, the world is mine.

Later while walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue
She stood and watched the others play
It seemed she knew not what to do.
I stopped a moment and then I said,
"Why don't you join the others, dear?"
She looked ahead without a word.
And then I knew, she couldn't hear.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 ears, the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I'd go.
With eyes to see the sunset's glow.
With ears to hear what I would know.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I've been blessed indeed, the world is mine.

A few drops of dew

I have been asked the significance of the title of my blog a million times by now. And to all those curious souls who are wondering, my answer is simple: its the meaning of my name! Apart from signifying a constellation of stars ( think astronomy, and think 'nakshatra'), it has another little known connection - a drop of dew!

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf


As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you


Dewdrops, Nature's tears, which she Sheds in her own breast for the fair which die. The sun insists on gladness; but at night, When he is gone, poor Nature loves to weep


In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Man's life is like a drop of dew on a leaf

PS: Thanx Aditya for posting my pic! :)