And I Miss....

Dated June 6, 2009 on Facebook Notes.

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From the past two years spent at SIMC ....



1. The Orientation Day - 15th June 07: Nervous faces...racing heartbeats...curious minds...familiar voices...and anxious thoughts!


2. Kothari - Room # 205, 306, 405, 406: New place but the warmest people!


3. Viman Nagar Campus - Classroom # 501 - The beige carpet, the somewhat uncomfortable chairs but the beauty sleeping on them! :)


4. Backbenchers - Rocking Stars of Batch 2009


5. Tapri: cutting chai, wada pav, samosa pav wid mirchi, kanda bhaji...and our sweetest Mavshi! :)


6. Hira General Stores: Our Savior for the whole goddam year...Bread, Butter, Cheese, Maggi, Colddrinks, Ciggarettes (Not for me), Gossips, Wafers, Biscuits, Ice-Creams, Coffee...ohhh its neverendin!


7. Trips: Panchgani and Khandala - Bestest Times Ever...the bondin...the sobbin...the carin...the sharin..the madness..the dancin...the joy! Happiness! :)


8. Gujju Garba: Miss ma lovely gujju ladies and the not so gujju ladies who joined us at MRA/ Khandala and danced their heart out! ;) Navratri night at Lavale !!!


9. AS aka The Anupam Siddhartha: The warmer side of him away from SIMC Land!


10. Birthday Parties: Both @ Kothari Rooms/Terrace and Lavale Campus :)


11. The LIFT: Viman Nagar Campus - One which was strictly for Staff but crowded with 14 SIMCians @ daily rush hours! ;)


12. The Warning Letter Tension: Phew...Not Wearing Sleeveless...Capris...Skirts...Transparent Clothes lol...Shaved Beards...ROUND Neck Tees...Graphic Teess...Oh Gawd...we survived it!


13. ATTENDANCE!!!!! Present Sir...Present Ma'am....Yes...I am Here...OHHH F*** I missed it! lollllll


14. Lavale Campus: The vastness...the hills...the weather...the architecture....the people...the MESS...the canteen...the Hostel...the swimming pool...the Gym...the TT / Badminton Courts...the Cycles...The Recreation Area....The Amphitheatre :)...The Coffee Shop :)


15. Bus Trips: From Lavale to SB Road and Back...the most important introspection was done during those! ;)


16. Screenings: Movie for the Day - "How much/many can you Tolerate?" lolllllllll


17. The Debates in class....non-stop...arguments...fights...throwing the professor out of the freakin class! lolll...Remember days of Nandita Khaire, Ramashastri....:)


18. UKC and Conference Room: The long long lectures...."U B*******...good for nothing...useless Rascals!" lollllllll.....I Wish we had one last Farewell Speech from him ;)


19. The Breakfast: The best meal in the mess....ohhh I so miss it!


20. The Students' Council: President's call/sms...Hot hot discussions...planning...some more planning....brainstormin...DISPERSE! ;)


21. Projects/ Assignments / Exams/ Class Tests / Self STUDY/ TNG's - Deadlines!!! Bring it on!!


22. The COMPULSION OF Events - FOC, DAM, seminars, conferences, talks, chats, sleeps!!! blah blah blah OM Shanti! (PR Batch 09)


23. The Learnings - About communication, PR, AD, Journo, AV...most of all about people, about yourself and about LIFE!


24. PR Batch 2009 - Each and every soul...I still remember your roll numbers by heart! ;) Miss you all!


25. SIMC Batch 2009 - We really did BRING IT ON! From Orkut community to Facebook Networking...Please stay connected! ;)


And I Miss all of it...hope you all do!!! :)



Cheers,

Drashti

Who are we to judge?

"Don’t be judgmental. See people in a better light and like them for what they are. Because no matter what your perception is…someone somewhere surely sees them as a ‘masterpiece’ of all of God’s creations!"

This is something I’d written a while ago and since it was my gtalk status message for the longest time, a lot of people took the liberty to copy and post it as their statuses or their FB walls. Nevertheless, that’s when I realized that people do resonate with this thought and I think I should delve into a deeper thinking about it.

How often do we find ourselves being judged or judging others? I guess the occurrence of this phenomenon is very frequent and moreover at a subconscious level. You meet people and you start judging them – the way they are dressed, the way they speak, the way they behave, how smart or dumb they are, how well they live up to your preconceived notions, are they worthy of knowing and spending your precious time with or just letting go of? And I have seen this happening not just in professional lives but at a higher rate in personal relationships and acquaintances. Every time I find myself in this situation, I ask myself “who am I to pass judgments about this person I hardly even know?” It takes us a lifetime to understand people, even those whom we’ve been with and known for years. Then how can we judge people whom we’ve barely spent any time with or those whom we don’t have the patience to understand better? There are so many instances when we find ourselves judging our parents, our siblings, our closest friends and our better-halves. Why do we have to make them the victims of our judgment? Aren’t these the people who love you unconditionally? The one’s who know you inside-out? The one’s who’d be there for you during the sunny days and the darkest nights? The one’s whom we call our support system, those we depend upon, those we trust and care about? If they mean so much to us, then what gives us the right or for that matter even a thought of judging them!

Life’s pretty simple and relationships can be equally simpler if we try and see people in a better light. I do believe that people are complex beings, some not so very amiable and some that make you smile by just being themselves. But at the end, it’s how you see them, at what pedestal you put them, with what value you tag them and the amount of power you give them to influence you. I had read a quote somewhere which said, “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are!” Doesn’t it make sense? When we begin seeing people differently, appreciate their positive sides and ignore the negative…we not only help them by being fair but help ourselves become better human beings. It’s as simple as that.

For the past few months now, I’ve been at the centre stage of this process I refer to as “the arranged marriage circus”. And I don’t call it a circus because it’s a hilarious thing to be a part of but I call it by that name so that I can laugh about it a little and get over the emotional trauma thprocess leads to or the punch that it gives to your self esteem and self respect time and again. I have been told that one must be practical about this whole thing because after all it’s an arrangement between two people…two families. I’ve been trying to be as practical as I can be but deep down I am an emotional fool and what I fail to understand is that how “marriage” – the most important resolution of one’s life, the deepest emotional risk….can be a well-thought practical decision rather than a deeper heartfelt commitment?

I had made it very clear to my parents from day 1 that I won’t judge a guy I meet by his first impression. It’s just not fair to him or me. How can one conclude whether a person is ‘eligible’ to be your life partner after speaking random things with him/her for an hour or two over a cup of coffee? This is not a job interview wherein the job description or the aptitude needs to fit a set of pre-decided company requirements. Isn’t it supposed to be a process of understanding people beyond their face value, knowing them better than just a few words they rambled when you first met, finding a common ground of things that make each other happy or sad and finally isn’t it all about letting your heart feel rather than letting your mind decide? Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s only me who’s been thinking so much and analyzing things while other’s don’t really know what the hell they are up to.

Well we’ll just have to wait and watch for what’s in store and how life’s going to unfold for me. But I’d like to leave you’ll with a thought to ponder upon…"Who are we to judge someone when each one of us is God’s masterpiece?” The next time you find yourself turning on the ‘Judgment’ button – STOP! Give it a moment and THINK! :)

It’s Not That...

It’s not that she is lonely

Or that her friends aren’t enough

But sometimes she needs a pal

Who melts her from inside while on the surface she seems tough!

It’s not that she wants to belong

Just because everyone around is taken

But sometimes she desires a companion

Who knows her in a way that even she had forsaken!

It’s not that she is fragile

Or that she needs someone to lean on

But sometimes she wants a pillar

Whose existence is the only thing that never leaves her alone!

It’s not that she is running out of time

Or that she’s ageing faster than she could perceive

But sometimes she wishes to live with a devoted soul

The moments shared with whom is the only life she’ll ever believe!

It’s not that she is scared

Of walking this life’s path in darkness

But sometimes she yearns for a ray of light

That shows her how hitches can also bring along happiness!

It’s not that she feels incomplete

Or that love is what would fill the space

But sometimes her heart aches for a lover

Who adores the emptiness in her with all its grace!

- Drashti :)

Better Late Than Never !!!

Phew…this busy-hectic-workaholic (I’d like to believe that) life of mine has kept me away from a lot of things I used to do just for “myself”. Things like dreaming, writing, sketching, dancing amongst others. And while I kept doing things that weren’t really the one’s I would want to see myself doing, one day I realized that I was turning 25! Oh hell yeah…I turned onto the other side of the twinkling twenties on 28^th June this year. Growing a year older is always a depressing moment for me and turning 25 surely felt the worst. Anyways so I decided that since life seems to be moving at a pace that I am unable to catch up with, it's about time I go back to doing things that give me joy – so here I come back to what I love doing most – talk CRAP!

When I graduated from SIMC in 2009, I had read this article in Mumbai Mirror titled “Unsteady Quarters” and I think that’s the topic I want to write about in my blog at this point in time.

As Wikipedia cites “The quarter-life crisis occurs shortly after a young person – usually an educated professional, in this context – enters the "real world".

I believe this so called “quarter life crisis” doesn’t leave a single soul. We all go through it in someway or the other, some with a greater intensity and some lesser. But moreover I feel that it’s not really about a job or a relationship. It doesn’t circle around friends or family. It truly is about who “You” are from the realms of your very own existence to what you or others perceive you to be. This is a phase where we struggle not to mend a poorly paying job or an unfulfilled relationship, a friendship that’s gotten bitter or a rift with our parents. We struggle and struggle really hard to put together pieces of ourselves - some which are broken over the years, some which are lost on the way, some that are newly found and those that we are yet to create.

Taking cues from my own life over the last 5 years and those of my close friends, I have come to the conclusion that we all want to find just one and I repeat just one “identity” that defines what we are and not what we or others want us to be. Yes! We do work hard and party harder. We do want a fat salary to get deposited into our accounts each month end. We do want to get rewarded for our talent and efforts. We do want to make our parents proud. We do want to gift them a world tour fully paid by us. We madly want to fall in love. We want to nurture a strong relationship. We want to be committed and we want to plan a life.

But hey! Before we accomplish all of these…we want to find “ourselves”. We want to know what makes us happy and what makes us cry. What matters and what we care a damn about.

And that is why it’s called a crisis! Because you may suddenly realize that a job paying a fat salary does not bring you as much happiness as a job where you love what you do every minute of those hours you are stuck in office. Your parents who didn’t seem to understand why you scored such low marks for all these years have now become your best friends who know and understand what exactly you want out of life. The huge circles of friends are now reduced to just a handful of close friends who you know are going to stick with you through the most difficult times. It has now dawned upon you that a high school sweetheart might not always turn out to be the one you get married to because after so many years of being in a relationship and growing together, you know that he or she is not the one. It is not that you’ve stopped loving them…you just aren’t “in love” with them.

Like I always say, “get to know your own self first…it’ll be much easier to know what you want out of your life and from others who are of part of your life!”

So dear friends, quarter life crisis to me is nothing but a phase of introspection, that of self awareness and getting to know the only person whom you haven’t spent enough time with – and that is “YOU, Yourself and Thee.” :)