Ashish Dharamshi

"Excavation" - by James Rollins - A mini review

2011-03-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

"Excavation" was my very first James Rollins read. The way he describes the merger of archeology and religious faith really got me interested in his style of writing. I must say that his treatment of the sensitivities of merging scientific thought with religious faith is excellent. His plots and sub-plots are extremely well woven together and he paces the book well. His characters are well thought out and rarely contradict their established behavioral patterns. All of this is based on some excellent and very interesting research. All in all he is definitely an author whose literary works I track avidly.

P.S. I must also recommend all his "Sigma Force" novels. Just can't wait to get my hands on the next one in the series.

View all my reviews

There's a story in every moment

2010-10-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

How have all of you been? You know the funny part is I don't think anyone actually reads my blog. But out of sheer politeness I feel the need to ask how my readers have been. After all you guys have been doing me a real favor reading this.

Coming back to the real reason that I am here, for the first time in many days, I felt centered.

After a long time, I liked the idea of me today. And the moment I liked me I started seeing things around me again. And this time I really saw them. I saw that this city, with all its downers, is still filled with warmth. Sure its bursting at its seams, but it takes every new person in and says "I'm going to try and make you as comfortable as I can, but you'll have to tough it out a little bit."

Today, I saw people expressing their love and joy in this city. I saw a sense of harmony settle onto it. Sure there was the usual hustle and bustle, but then, among it all, I saw working mothers spending Sunday evening with their kids. I saw sons shopping around with their old mothers, daughters showing their dads the newest mall in the city and a thousand other things that clearly chalk out a different picture of Mumbai than what we are lead to believe about this city.

The people are as normal as anybody else in any other place. They try to act superhuman, but they are as vulnerable as anyone else. In every moment, they tell their story, hoping that they are heard but at the same time wishing that their vulnerabilities are not discovered. There are friends here and lovers, some openly, some not so much. But at that moment, when they are in the middle of their story, you just know exactly what they feel towards the people around them.

I have now started viewing this city as an outsider, which is the way it should be. I never can be one of them. But I think that's a good thing. This way every moment I can watch them and listen to their story. Who knows? Maybe listening to them I might realize something about myself that has stayed hidden from me.

For now I want to focus on sparing a few seconds everyday and study, learn and appreciate this complex web of emotions that surrounds me. As I said there's a story in every moment.

Ashish

A matter of perspective

2010-06-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Its been really long since I have blogged. Though most of it can be attributed to my laziness, part of it can also be attributed to my moving to Mumbai and a crazy work schedule.

But my first blog since moving to Mumbai is not going to be about my first days here. Its about an experience that I have had here.

Now I heard a lot of Mumbai being a soulless city...How money and power where the only thing that drove the people here...About how aggressive the people from Mumbai were and how heartless and ruthless they could be to get and stay ahead. I came with all these preconceived notions and immediately on landing here I viewed everyone around me only from that perspective, which is in fact a very negative way to judge any new people or place. All I could and would notice was how miserable people where and how they never bothered about what happened to anyone around them. But then a very small incident broke all these perceptions.

I was canvassing the nearby locality around my new apartment to find an ATM when I came across a dog that was dying. Now having had dogs for pets before, I knew the dog was dying of distemper and nothing could be done. I was about to move on, when I heard a nearby conversation between a Bhel Puri wala and his assistant. The Bhel Puri Wala told his assistant to give the dog some water. The assistant said that the dog was dying of some disease and what was the point. The Bhel Puri Wala said "I know its dying you idiot. But at least give it some water. Let it die with some peace."

This city has a soul guys and girls, no matter what anyone says. Compassion and Mercy exist here as much as they do in any other place. The question really was whether I saw steely, cold hearted ambition or determination tempered with compassion. It was just a matter of perspective. The first impression had better not be the last impression.

Ashish

The Rebound....really glad I did not miss this one.

2010-04-19T00:36:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys and Girls,

Wassup? Well I'm back in Bangalore now and preparing to head out to the city of dreams (the Indian Financial kind :-), I know bad joke). So whenever I get some time at home I start downloading some random movies to watch. "The Rebound" is one such movie.

Now the first thing that attracted me to this movie was simply the fact that Catherine Zeta Jones was the lead. I think she is by far one of the most attractive actresses and what's more, she really knows how to carry it off at her age. Yes people. That OMG beautiful woman in "the Mask of Zorro" and "Entrapment" is now on the other side of forty.

The second thing that got me watching this movie is the fact that Justin Bartha plays the male lead. Now FYI, Justin was the sidekick in "National Treasure" that starred Nicholas Cage and Diane Kruger and is years younger to Catherine Zeta Jones.

But then I wasn't expecting something great from the movie. I expected it to be another one of those run-of-the-mill May-December romance things. Maybe something like "Prime", the Uma Thurman-Bryan Greenberg starrer where the inevitable sad ending turns up.

I'm really trying hard not to ruin it for you dear reader, but trust me when I say this movie was handled very differently. The fact that Catherine and Justin both are just rebounding from bad relationships sets a very "nice" platform for the ensuing romance to take place. And the best part is that the relationship does not begin and end at a random physical attraction. It begins with friendship and continues from there. The question obviously arises as to where does it end. Well watch the movie folks. Its worth watching on a nice lazy Saturday afternoon when you are just chilling with your significant other. (Drop that macho facade muh brother, accept the fact that some Rom-Coms are just too good to be avoided)

All in all it is one of those excellent movies which are very quietly made. Kudos to the director Bart Freundlich for a really well made movie. Now coincidently Bart is married to the very pretty Julianne Moore who is ten years his senior. Well I must say real life has really been brought out well on the reel.

I am glad I did not miss this one.

Ashish

Speechless!!

2010-03-25T13:09:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

Hope all of you have been well. I have not blogged in a while and the only reason I see for that is I have been very short sighted in the recent past. As I said earlier I am pursuing my MBA at the Indian School of Business. Well that is coming to an end. Within a week, I will be leaving this place with a degree and this ride will be over.

All this while I was vehemently denying one unassailable truth. Actually two truths. One, I thoroughly enjoyed my time here (regardless of the ups or downs). Two, I am going to miss this place. You know, the more I think about it, the more one song plays in my head. "Big Yellow Taxi" - Counting Crows (originally performed by Joni Mitchell). "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got till its gone", these exact words keep playing in my mind.

When I was here I would incessantly crib about all the bad things that have happened over here to me (actually the one bad thing that happened to me). But now, when I reflect on my time here, all I can visualize are my friends, my peers, happy memories, fun memories (including moments when I felt like a prize idiot (which were many)) and the first day I stepped into this amazing campus.

This, more than anything else, has left me speechless. I had promised myself that I would never set foot in this city (let alone the campus) ever again once I graduated. Today, I am unashamedly breaking that promise. I will return to this campus whenever the opportunity presents itself, even if it is to plainly dwell on nostalgia.

I have loved my time here and I am sorely going to miss the Indian School of Business and am going to miss everyone here (without any exceptions!!). I wish all of the people I met here, a happy and full life. I don't wish them success because I know they will achieve it regardless.

Funny, how things turn out don't they. The year is over and another journey is about to begin already. I don't know where the road ahead is going to take me. All I know is this is one stop that I am going to revisit again and again, plainly for the joy of reminiscing my moments here.

Take care all,

I wish you all a happy and full life ahead. Till next time then, take care.

A closing thought and a correction. There were no bad things at the Indian School of Business. I just learnt from all of them. And you know what. I think I learnt more from the so called bad experiences than the good ones. Here is to the bad experiences (again so called). CHEERS!!!

AoL - An experience

2010-02-07T23:53:00.001-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Hey all,

Hope you're doing great. And if not, don't worry you will be soon. Now I am sure you all would have heard of this phenomenon called the "Art of living". Many of you must also be staunch followers and supporters. Good for you all.

Now as a Chartered Accountant, I have been trained thoroughly to question anything and everything and take nothing as it stands at face value. The result - in many cases I have been told that I am quite a cynical person. Trust me I get no pleasure in self deprecation but this was the general opinion or perspective that people had of me. A worrywart who would immediately question anything said and try to find as many negatives about anything really fast.

Now added to this in the past 6 months I have gone through what I believe was one of the most beautiful and one of the worst experiences of my life. In the past month I have pulled my life back together somewhat but the pain still existed at some level. I think it was the notion that I wanted to be rid of the pain that actually pushed me to try the "Art of Living". I was ready to try anything to be able to move on. Here is the irony. Before I had promised to attend the "Art of Living" to keep someone happy. Now here I was attending the "Art of Living" to get over exactly the same person. That thought definitely put a cynical smile on my face.

I can't say what exactly happened there because you have to experience it and any description of it pales in comparison. I am not purporting that a miracle occurred there and I am now completely pain free. No. But what I got there was (a) a few friends (b) a few lessons to get my body back in shape and the most important part (c) lessons to get my mind, soul and attitude back in shape.

Today, is the first day since I finished the course. I don't see radical changes. But I do see a calmer me. A more composed me. A more satisfied me. I am not saying I don't worry any more. That will take time. But I do have a belief that everything will pan out ok. And that there are better things awaiting me in the future to come. More than anything else I learnt to be grateful for all that I had in the past and also to let go of the past.

All in all I think I have had change or transformation as they say and it is for the better. I didn't look for miracles and I got none. But I did get a new attitude. Hey, maybe that in itself is a miracle. Only time will tell. For now, I'm happy.

As usual I am,

Ashish

Sherlock Holmes??!!!

2010-01-09T01:42:00.000-08:00

To be frank with all of you I had read sometime earlier that Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law were involved in the Sherlock Holmes project. Now I am a huge fan of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. I for one, truly believe he is one of the most underrated actors of our time. I loved his performance in "Air America" and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him in "Chances Are". But I think at that point of time he was sinking into, what is referred to in India as, a "Chocolate Boy" kind of stereotype.

Now he successfully broke this persona that he had created for himself when he surprisingly acted as the bad guy in "U.S. Marshals" and then followed it up much much later with a stellar performance in "Ironman". Thank god, such a fine actor could finally kick the drug habit and get on with what he did best. Furthermore, I believe Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the greatest writers of Detective Fiction (I say one of because I really feel Agatha Christie was also quite in the same league). So all in all I was looking forward to Sherlock Holmes quite impatiently.

I wanted to see how Robert Downey Jr. would depict Sherlock Holmes because I knew that there was a very small physical match to Sherlock Holmes as described in the book and Robert. So Robert essentially was going to add his own twist to the character. Now I must put in a word for Jude Law. I really was mesmerized by his performance in "The talented Mr. Ripley" and again was by floored his performance in "Sleuth" (for those interested in quirky movies - the entire movie had only 2 characters played by Jude Law and Michael Caine). Here Jude Law played Dr. John Watson, Sherlock Holmes' most trusted friend and partner in almost all his adventures. But that's where any and all similarities between the books authored by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the movie end.

This version of Sherlock Holmes bears a very negligible resemblance to the Sherlock Holmes in the book. He fights like a trained martial artist, has a witty disposition and is of short stature. Sherlock Holmes though a trained pugilist was never a fighter and rarely was comical by nature. At the same time Dr. Watson never was known to match Sherlock Holmes' intelligence and was rarely known to fight. Period. But Robert Downey and Jude Law team up to make Sherlock Holmes and John Watson another "Batman and Robin" franchise. The storyline is in fact very weak. But what Robert Downey and Jude Law do is take the half cocked story and turn the movie on its heels with stellar performances and amazing chemistry. These two were destined to act together. The action scenes are plentiful (again a major departure from the books) and the comic timing is on the spot. Rachel McAdams also does a decent job as Irene Adler (but I for one would have liked to see somebody more equal to Sherlock Holmes in both with and intelligence).

The villain Lord Blackwood (played by Mark Strong) is decently dangerous but not once coming close to performances given by other villains played by Norman Bates or more recently Heath Ledger. The rest of the cast have done a decent job but the duo of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law completely steal the spotlight and carry, what would otherwise have been a very mediocre movie. The one thing I have to say this movie lacks is Sherlock Holmes' uncanny way of closing a case or explaining each facet of the case in his quiet undramatic manner.

All in all it is a great movie if it is seen standalone bereft of all notions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson that we have built from books and earlier movies. But if you have been an avid fan of Sherlock Holmes (the logical thinker with the quiet but strong persona) you may be very disappointed. So if you want to see this movie, I suggest you keep the book aside and just go to enjoy a great action flick or wait for the DVD release and save some money.

Ashish

On what wise men have said before....

2010-01-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I don't know how many of you actually watch this show called Dexter. The main protagonist is Dexter Morgan, a serial killer who kills other serial killers who escape from the law because of lack of evidence and other such loopholes. So in one way he can be termed as a lone vigilante who cleans up the society of its anti-social elements. To some he even seems heroic in a weird way.

But in last episode of the show, a serial killer whom Dexter kills later has killed Dexter's wife. Now why am I relating such a gruesome sight? I relate this to a question a friend asked me over one of our coffee shop conversations. If I had a billion dollars what would I do? I had very naively replied, that I would build an army of ex-special forces men and take down crime barons and mafias all across the globe. I told her that this was not the perfect solution but then this was the best that I could come up with. Now that was just an excuse.

I mean after reading so many comics and watching so many hero movies and cartoons, I thought the only way to eradicate crime completely was violence. Heroes who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. But here is a theme that runs across all of these stories too. Their loved ones are always caught in the cross fire. Be it Batman, Spiderman or even Superman, their loved ones always came close to their death or actually die.

So the question then arises, is violence the only way? And I start thinking of other stories that I have heard and seen. Stories of Buddha, Ashoka, Mahaveer, Mother Teresa, Patch Adams, even Taare Zameen Par & 3 idiots. I notice that there is another theme that runs through all these stories. Compassion, love and understanding. Buddha turned a serial killer like Angulimala into a man of peace, Ashoka spread god's word to the four corners of his known world after renouncing war, Mahaveer preached non-violence as the way to actually merge the atman with the parmatman the ultimate energy that binds this universe, Mother Teresa brought education, hope and love to millions in despair, Patch Adams I believe most of us have seen.

Yes there are stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata where the evil was vanquished through bloodshed and war. But please remember that war was the absolute last alternative that was explored in both cases. Rama sends Angad (Sugreev's Son) as emissary and messenger to Ravana asking him to release Sita in return for a full pardon. Krishna approaches Duryodhana and promises him peace from the Pandavas only for 5 villages instead of 1/2 of India. It was only after both Ravana and Duryodhana absolutely refuse these alternatives that war was chosen as the only option left.

The wise men of the past have always known the way. Non-violence, love, compassion and understanding is the only way to rid anyone of their misery. If anyone (myself included) wants to better this society then there are plentiful ways in which to do it. One need not even look far. Cook food for the hungry, volunteer to educate the uneducated, build houses for the homeless and if you can't do any of the above, then donate to organisations and support the people who can. It is that simple.

I know that it is not as simple as this. But this could be a start. And a positive step in a new direction in a new decade. If you have already been doing this then good for you, if you haven't then try it. You will make a very big difference. For all you know, your donation, your food, your knowledge, your love could change the life of someone who was destined to be the next crime baron. We may not be able to change those who have already taken this path but we sure can make certain that fewer and fewer choose this path of crime.

Just my two cents. I know many of you might look at this very cynically but just for one second stop and think about the last time you did something selflessly for someone else. That feeling of immense good is what you can feel everyday. You just have to take the first step.

Non-violence is not the only way, but it IS the ONLY way.

Ashish

A period of revelations and realisations and one final resolution

2009-12-30T09:10:00.000-08:00

The months of November and December were always the best months of the year for me. In school it was because I could celebrate my birthday. In college it was because I got to celebrate numerous occasions with family and friends all through these months. In office it was because these were the slowest months of the entire year (I actually worked only for 12 hours a day on average and could occasionally take Sunday off :-)).

This year was the first time I spent these months away from home. I was looking forward to having the best experience of my life and live these months to the fullest with my new found friends. Instead it turned out to be the darkest period of my life. I, for one, have seen bad times. But none of those experiences comes close to how I felt this November and December.

I couldn't believe what had happened to me. I had done nothing wrong. I didn't deserve this. I was disappointed with myself. I could not believe I had made such a serious error in judgement. I had made the wrong choice from the very beginning. How could I have not seen it? These were the primary thoughts in my head. I was sinking into depression and my temper got bad. All I could see were my problems and all I wanted was retribution.

What could be so bad? You have guessed it already & its not worth mentioning. But I am sure as hell not the first person it has happened to and I am sure I am not going to be the last. Such is life. Anyways I needed to get my self involved head out of the trash can and get some perspective and in the last few days I have done exactly that.

I got back home and when I saw my family & old friends I realized exactly what I could have very easily lost. I had gotten my priorities all wrong. My friends, both old and new, had time and again told me that nothing was worth the frustration and anger that I was saturating myself with. Now I saw it. I realized that what I already had was so fantastic and so good that I really had lost comparatively nothing. Rather what I had gained in terms of perspective and experience was invaluable.

After a lot of soul searching and a lot of self introspection over my travels this past week, I understood that I only viewed the glass half empty when in fact it was brimming with great stuff that I had and was going to have. It was a revelation to me that my biggest asset in my past profession was that I could find loopholes. But carrying that same attitude into my personal life I had begun finding fault with everything around me. I was looking for imperfections all the time.

I had become almost everything that I once hated. I had begun to judge people without knowing them. I had been heeding the opinion of many when I should have only trusted a few. I was being cynical when it was most uncalled for. I was so self-involved that I could not see that others were facing and had faced much more than I could imagine. I never realized when or how did my perspective of life become so uni-dimensional and I slowly ended up wearing virtual blinkers.

To all those whom I hurt during this period knowingly or unknowingly, I extend my heartfelt apologies. To all those with whom I acted badly I am sorry. And to all those who stood by me regardless of me being a complete jerk I am so thankful.

I had heard that age old idiom - "Every cloud has a silver lining". But this is the first time I have actually experienced it. I realized the meaning of brotherhood. I realized the meaning of friendship. I realized that no matter where I am, my family has my back. Had it not been for these three elements in my life, I know for a fact that I would have gone to pieces.

Friends, readers, this is the last day of 2009. It is a time when people make new resolutions for the coming year and set new goals for themselves. Today I make one resolution for the rest of my life - I resolve to become a better person with each passing day, being grateful for all that I have gotten from this wonderful life and I hope to give whatever I can and share whatever I can with all of you (Disclaimer - My money, my bike, my dvds and my books are out of bounds from this pact - I ain't that good ). From now on I hope to see life as a glass filled with opportunities, hope and goodness. And I hope all of you will be there to correct me in case I deviate from any of this.

I wish you all a very happy new year and an amazing life ahead. May all your dreams, ambitions, wishes and hopes come true. Let's look at the coming decade as one of progress and advancement - both personally and professionally.

I am a humbled Ashish Dharamshi

A New Beginning and a great experience

2009-12-08T06:34:00.000-08:00

Guys,

For the better part of my working life I was working for nothing less that 17-18 hours a day. I heard all sorts of lectures from my friends - "Dude, you are headed for an early burnout", "Dude you'll end up with bad health", " Dude you are so gonna lose it one day".

Guess what! I did suffer from a burnout, I did go bald and I put on nothing less that 20 kilos and I realised I was losing my temper very easily. All in all I was very soon going from a work horse to a wreck. At around the same time I was offered an admission into a top B School and I cut loose from my previous life and set sail to greener pastures.

I decided what I needed was a break from the old life, a chance to learn something new and meet some interesting people. And that's exactly what I did. I learnt a lot when it came to the fundamentals of some subjects and even revisited some long forgotten concepts that now made a lot more sense to me because of my work experience. I met some very interesting people and now believe have made some friends for life.

I have had some very forgettable experiences over here and there are some people that I would never want to interact with again and of course, I do miss my paycheck, but then all the pros and cons put together I believe the year at B School has been worth it.

More than anything else I believe I have learnt how to balance my work and my life out here and have made an excellent move to regain my health. Now I look forward to an interesting future and some fantastic experiences in the world outside.

Ashish

Authenticity

2009-12-06T21:39:00.001-08:00

Hello All,

Continuing my ramble on winners, I read that authenticity is of paramount importance to be a winner. The question therefore arises - why?

There are people that have been very very successful without being authentic (read lawyers :-))). All joking aside, why is authenticity this critical. From what I read and what I have now come to understand, being authentic allows you to live with yourself. This I believe is the most important thing in everyone's life.

Defining success as material gain is too narrow. Success can be in many forms and in many ways. Hence, what truly seperates the winners from the losers is not material gain rather whether one can actually be unregretful of all of one's actions. If one does what he truly believes to be the right thing while at the same time giving due consideration to opinions and views of his seniors, peers and juniors, he is well on the the path to winning.

To be unafraid of the consequences of one's actions is the true sign of a winner. Here I do not, for a moment, suggest that a winner can adopt a carefree or a reckless attitude. However, a winner is one who faces the consequences of his actions regardless of whether they are favorable or not and in a responsible manner. A winner is one who can take a loss in his stride, who can fall down, get up as soon as possible, dust his clothes off and move forward.

For me the epitome of a winner would be Rocky Balboa. Though a character and a figment of Mr. Stallone's immaculate imagination, he has inspired me more that probably any real person has to date. His statement of taking all the punches that Apollo Creed threw at him and then getting up and saying that he wanted to go one more round is what makes him a winner.

So dear reader, please do not fear consequences, for they are going to be consequences (adverse or favorable) to every action of yours. The question is whether you are unregretful of that action. If so, the consequence does not matter. It was an experience that you were lucky to enjoy and now it is time to move on - a winner.

If you will not lose, no one can defeat you. You can be a winner always.

Ashish

Winners

2009-12-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

I was browsing books at Landmark in Bangalore. I usually do that when I am particularly depressed and this was one of those times. Now I was looking to get over my worst heart break since I got to know Kate Beckinsale was married (actually getting to know Katie was married wasn't that painful. I think she was out of my league anyways).

I decided that what better place to do so than the self help section. I really can't recollect what my exact thoughts were at the time, but I am pretty sure I wanted to tear the world apart in absolute rage and misery. So there I am looking for a book that will help me get over this. I am thinking - "Man I am so gonna prove who I am and who I am going to be. I am gonna be this big achiever and she is gonna regret treating me the way she did."

And I see this book simply titled "Born to Win". I immediately pick it up, saying here is a no-brainer. I need to win and prove that I am a winner. So on absolute impulse I purchase the book and a few others (irrespective of the fact that I was flat broke and my credit card bill was bulging by the minute).

It has been a couple of months since then and couple of patch ups and a final break up later, I decided to actually read that book. The first page endeavors to define a "Winner". It says a winner is a person who can be himself / herself (girls, come on, do we have to take this "politically correct" thing so seriously. I mean why can't you say "herself" and I won't take offense and I can say "himself" without being worried of being pelted with stones tied to a stake by all womankind.)

It further explains that no one can be absolutely himself or herself but the more one behaves as such the more one behaves as a winner. Now I don't know about behaving like winners, but it is true that one must not be pretentious and behave like someone he / she is not. So then comes the true problem. Who am I? The more I look inwardly the more I notice that I have been collecting characteristics of people that I have known. And the worst part is, there are many characteristics that I don't even like.

My thoughts then were that I was being smart, that these characteristics will help me win people and impress them. I will find acceptance in everyone and everyone will like me. But we all know that is absolute bullshit. No one can be liked by everyone. No one can please everyone. No one can escape being judged by everyone. The best one can do is to be true to oneself and be the best one can be in one's own judgement.

We know right from wrong and we know who we are capable of becoming. I am trying to use this as a basis and do the one thing that I have never been able to actually do. I want to find out who I am. And if I can do that maybe I'll know where I am headed. Right now, that's the only question that I need an answer for. Where does my journey take me?

Ashish

Happiness - An elusive quest...

2009-07-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

What defines happiness in life? For a long time I have had no idea. None at all. But over the past few months and over many conversations, I have begun to understand.

Hello all. Its been a long time since I posted my welcome speech i.e. the eye sore that is my first blog post. But since it is my first ever blog post it stays on (ouch!!!). A lot has gone on since then. I have had many first experiences some of which I loved, some I hope to forget. Many of my beliefs have been shattered, but many have also been vindicated.

So how have you all been? Fine I hope. And if not, don't worry cause tomorrow is a new day and what it brings with it is an entirely different story.

Now for the real deal. When I started this journey, I knew I was going to find happiness somewhere along the way. I would suddenly be hit....KA POW...and I would say "Eureka!!! I am happy." All of life's questions suddenly would be answered and all would be clear to me. I would find my purpose in life. And people would recognize me as the next ruler of the world and bow down to my greatne....oops sorry got carried away there (got to stop reminiscing about those awesome days as Adolf Hitler, HEIL...oops...ahem).

Now where was I? Oh yes. The moment of realization.

Well that did not happen.

Instead, I had a constant series of realizations that happiness just does not hit us one day. There is no working towards it like a goal. It is a state we can achieve regardless of anything happening or not happening. If you knew this fact before me, screw you, should have told me.

Anyways, happiness can be found in doing the smallest of things and cannot be gotten even after doing some of the biggest things in your life. I got to know this in the funniest manner. I feed stray dogs whenever I get the opportunity. I drop spare change into any donation box that I come across. Both these actions give me immense pleasure. But I don't achieve the same state when I get top grades in some subjects because I know the grade is not at all representative of my actual knowledge (rather ignorance) of the intricacies of the subject.

Happiness cannot be defined friends. It cannot be achieved. It cannot be bought. You can be happy regardless of the failures in your lives and happiness may elude even the most successful of you. But how can one be happy? This is something that I have not yet figured out yet. But I will share my ideas on this (hey, my blog post, I can yammer as much as I want, you are the one reading it.)

Until next time, which hopefully will be tomorrow, good bye.

I remain yours sincerely,

Ashish

Welcome…I’m Ashish

2009-05-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

When I hear the word “Blog”, I immediately picture balloons filled with coloured water, thrown against a wall and leaving some amazing patterns.

And somehow, I believe this analogy actually suits the very idea of a “BLOG”. All of us “bloggers” (I know, one post he thinks he is a blogger....HA), are actually filling up our imaginary balloons, with our thoughts, experiences, beliefs and disbeliefs, adding some pictures for a colourful background or in some cases to create the foreground and then with an almighty swing, hurl it at our respective walls. The resulting pattern is mesmerizing to some and meaningless to others. But nonetheless, a pattern that invokes some thoughts & ideas and alters others.

This idea and this idea alone, has intrigued me for a long time and hence, here I am, hurling my own coloured water filled balloon at my wall...not knowing what patterns might show up, how the mix of colours would actually look like and how it would be read by different passersby. But regardless, here I am.

Hello all, I am Ashish and this is my very first blog. I spent the first 25 years of my life in a city that I really love. It represents home to me and I know for sure, I’ll never really move away. But then all of us have to journey, right, even if the journey that we embark upon brings us finally back to the same place where we started.

This raises a simple question though? If you love the place you are in, you have a good life, you’re entire support system is readily present in terms of family, friends, colleagues etc., why leave at all?

The answer also is quite simple – to figure out of by any chance is there something different outside that you know you would regret not having experienced.

Thus answering this lingering query, a month ago I started a new journey. I gave up many things that were a familiar part of my life and parted ways with some people. Now, it’s a long road ahead of me, but nonetheless one that I am willing to explore. These are my thoughts as I walk. Some maybe interesting, some not so, but do come by and walk with me and experience my journey, and who knows, maybe, find one of your own.

The destination is unimportant.

Ashish