For Old Times Sake

Hold me tight,
But just for tonight,
But not as tight as before,
We're not that close anymore.

At least not in that way,
We've drifted further apart with each day,
We have waited it out just to see,
If we could love one another casually.

But I've been a good friend to you,
I've always been there for you,
You say you don't know,
Where did the people we used to be go.

You say you don't understand,
Whatever made me let go of your hand,
But you never asked me to stay,
If you wanted me to, you did not say.

Now for old times' sake,
Go ahead and repeat that mistake,
Cause the moment is passed now,
I've stopped counting the days somehow.

Let it be what it is,
Though we never intended for it to turn into this,
We had something good that did not last,
Let's not be constantly reliving the past.

I have nothing but love for you,
Though you've often questioned how that could be true,
Well you better start believing me,
If you wish to set yourself free.

From this long and drawn out process of letting go ...
This grief and regret has kept your spirit low ...

How To Be Alone

If you are at first lonely, be patient.

If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.

We can start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library, where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books; you’re not supposed to talk much anyway so it’s safe there.

There is also the gym, if you’re shy, you can hang out with yourself and mirrors, you can put headphones in.

Then there’s public transportation, because we all gotta go places.

And there’s prayer and meditation, no one will think less if your hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.

Start simple. Things you may have previously avoided based on your avoid being alone principles.

The lunch counter, where you will be surrounded by “chow downers”, employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town, and they, like you, will be alone.

Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.

When you are comfortable with “eat lunch and run”, take yourself out for dinner; a restaurant with linen and Silverware. You’re no less an intriguing a person when you are eating solo desert and cleaning the whip cream from the dish with your finger. In fact, some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.

Go to the movies. Where it’s dark and soothing, alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.

And then take yourself out dancing, to a club where no one knows you, stand on the outside of the floor until the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one’s watching because they’re probably not. And if they are, assume it is with best human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats, is after-all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you’re sweating. And beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things. Down your back, like a book of blessings.

Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you. Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, they are always statues to talk to, and benches made for sitting gives strangers a shared existence if only for a minute, and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversation you get in by sitting alone on benches, might of never happened had you not been there by yourself.

Society is afraid of alone though. Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements. Like people must have problems if after awhile nobody is dating them.
But lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless, and lonely is healing if you make it.

You can stand swathed by groups and mobs or hands with your partner, look both further and farther in the endless quest for company.

But no one is in your head. And by the time you translate your thoughts an essence of them maybe lost or perhaps it is just kept. Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those “sappy slogans” from pre-school over to high school groaning, we’re tokens for holding the lonely at bay.

Cause if you’re happy in your head, then solitude is blessed, and alone is okay.
It’s okay if no one believes like you, all experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can’t think like you, for this be relieved, keeps things interesting, life’s magic things in reach, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t connected, and the community is not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it.

Take silence and respect it.

If you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it, if your family doesn’t get you or a religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it.
You could be in an instant surrounded if you need it.

If your heart is bleeding, make the best of it. There is heat in freezing, be a testament.

- A Poem by Tanya Davis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7X7sZzSXYs&feature=player_embedded

Niroop 2010

For All My Friends....

When we all joined this college, we were mostly complete strangers. But over the past four years our lives have become entwined in such a manner that today we cannot imagine a day where we won’t be able to meet each other.

Soon the world will force us to say Goodbye but remember…..

There's nothing that's so final about leaving,
Even though I know that's what you've heard.
Just like forgive, forget and try again,
Goodbye is just another word.



We tasted success but the real joy was sharing it with our friends. The joy that every achievement brought was meaningful only because our friends used to ask for that treat! The euphoria of our friends made the success even bigger! We also experienced failure, saw some dreams shattered but we had each other. Friends who helped us cope with the pain, who strived to bring a smile to our faces, who helped us to accept it and move on.

Soon the world will force us to say Goodbye but remember…..

There's nothing that's so final about leaving,
Even though I know that's what you've heard.
Just like forgive, forget and try again,
Goodbye is just another word.



There was love and then there was heart-break. There were hook-ups and break-ups. We gossiped about the latest ‘couple’ and blushed or got worked-up when the ‘topic’ included us. But all this would have been meaningless if we did not have friends to tell and tease. Some found the love of their lives, others were not lucky but everyone had a fair share of these delightful “cardiac” moments!

And even though the world will soon force us to say Goodbye, remember…..

There's nothing that's so final about leaving,
Even though I know that's what you've heard.
Just like forgive, forget and try again,
Goodbye is just another word.


We wonder what will happen when each one of us goes on our own paths. Some consciously chosen but mostly just given to us. How our relations will change when there is no ELR and no Quad, no main-gate and no canteen, no library and no hub, no football ground, cricket ground or five gardens? What will happen when there is no Madras Café, Relax, Garnish or Classic? What will happen when there is no one to walk down the road to Kapol Niwas and later to Matunga Station?

Soon the world will force us to say Goodbye but remember…..

There's nothing that's so final about leaving,
Even though I know that's what you've heard.
Just like forgive, forget and try again,
Goodbye is just another word.



I am myself at loss because our lives as we know will soon change. I so dreaded this date, April 16 that I went into denial mode. Every day I refused to accept that the countdown had indeed begun. But here we are today, the day of our “Niroop”. I fight back the tears, tears not of loss but of helplessness due to the uncertainty of our future course of life.

Soon the world will force us to say Goodbye but remember…..

There's nothing that's so final about leaving,
Even though I know that's what you've heard.
Just like forgive, forget and try again,
Goodbye is just another word.




Friends today I want you all to know this… It was we who chose to be friends and it shall be us who shall decide if we want to stay friends. No Niroop or MBA or MS or Job can decide the future journey of our friendship. If we want, nothing will change but only the distance. It is up to us to ensure that we do not lose this precious bond that has developed over the years. There will be new friends, new acquaintances but there won’t be another Friends Union! So let us vow today to preserve this special bond that formed in VJTI. Let us vow to make it stronger in the years ahead.

Because as I have been saying,

There's nothing that's so final about leaving,
Even though I know that's what you've heard.
Just like forgive, forget and try again,
Goodbye is just another word.



Many friends have crossed my path
And I thank God for them all
But I got an extra special blessing
When your friendship answered my call….

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the rain fall soft upon your track…

So Friend, always remember….

There's nothing that's so final about leaving,
Even though I know that's what you've heard.
Just like forgive, forget and try again,
Goodbye is just another word.


-Ameya Vaidya

A Little Story...That got me thinking...

I would like to share a little story, a story I witnessed outside my window. Our drawing room has a large window which opens out to the horizon (limited :P) and a Peepal Tree. Many times you can see me seated here gazing out into the oblivion. As my uncle would say...I smoke my imaginary pipe, as I stroke my imaginary beard, having a philosophical moment.

Once I happened to catch sight of a crow, working frantically on a branch of this tree. Ferrying leaves, sticks and other hay-like refuse, it was trying to build a cozy home. In a matter of days its nest was ready. A cute and comfy home, ready to welcome the crow and its family. There were two crows. The mother who would mostly sit in her nest, fidget a little until she was comfortable. The father crow meanwhile could be seen perched on the branch near the nest or flying sojourns to find food or any other thing the mother would fancy. :)

Then as expected the nest suddenly had three eggs. Now guided by instinct the mother would guard her eggs fiercely. Her instincts tell her how to protect her eggs and ensure they are hatched. Any other crow or bird or even a squirrel which dared to venture near her nest would be met with a stern glare of her eyes and fluttering of feathers. The other birds soon leaned to keep their distance from her nest. The father crow would still fly out to find food and sometimes would take up position to guard the eggs while the mother flew.

All stories don't have a happy ending and even this one didn't. A couple of days later I noticed there was unconfortable activity at the nest. To my shock, the eggs were missing. The poor crows could not understand what had happened but I could see that a hole at the bottom of the nest was the culprit.

Mother crow was probably shrieking in grief and kept helplessly fluttering her feathers. She flew away and came back to the nest several times in a day. I could feel the pain but I wondered if she felt the pain,as an emotion?

After a few days, the crow did not return back. I thought I would see her again, visiting her nest,but strangely no crow ever fluttered back to the place which the two crows once called 'home'. Soon the nest was all cleared and very little remained to indicate what had transpired. Clearly her instinct told the mother that it was time to move on.

And that's when I got thinking about 'instinct'?
What makes it possible for a species of a lower intellect to commit deeply, protect its loved ones, procreate and then Let Go?
Humans on the other hand can't just do it. And humans also show a paradox. First we can not give enough of ourselves and then pain, anxiety of separation and loss lingers much longer than is sometimes healthy!

Was Charles Darwin Wrong? Is Intelligence really inversely proportional to instinct and ur thinking?

When we really have to make a decision, does a lack of instinct and an abundance of knowledge perhaps leave us with more options and reasoning? Or does it just leave us discombobulated and at sea?

Familiarity Breeds Contempt...

Mark Twain wisely said, "Familiarity Breeds Contempt- and children". The latter part is not of significance here, because we are talking about how the more you know something or someone, the more you start to find faults and dislike things about it or them.

This happened to me of late. The perfect bond we shared was shattered by what Mark Twain called familiarity!

Before you rush to conclusions about the identity of the entity with whom I got familiar with.....Let me Dash your hopes and tell you it is none other than my, my one and only, LAPTOP :D


It started on a fairy-tale note when I successfully usurped my father's second Laptop. I fell for the looks....slim, prim and cute! Our union was like running away and eloping :P

It went sweetly for few years with me discovering new aspects of my LG XNote everyday or so. We together mesmerized my friends and family, what with rotating the screen, remote controlling presentations and music, controlling a robotic car we built, etc. And then the curse hit! It was not responding to my requests and one by one the functions failed me. Then I ventured to open it and investigate its interiors. There were the many resistors and capacitors ( which a friend of mine uses as rings ), the serene ROM chips, the awesome processor, the compact hard drive and the cooling fan and ducts. I cleaned it, serviced it and replaced few things which didn't work and ultimately formated the OS all with the hope that we could once again embark upon an eventful journey together!

But alas, my XNote took offence it seems. It now refuses to connect to the internet when I most need it or the applications like Mozilla do not open. It will format my External Hard-Drive only to render it useless where it is not detected by the machine!

If you think that these are technical problems which a more accomplished and sensible person can solve, I am afraid you are highly mistaken and immature. These are all signs of contempt shown by my XNote towards me! Alas what did I do to deserve this! :(

Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend....

This is one of the many songs which touched my heart really deep...
Enjoy the lyrics and the emotion effusing through the words...



I stopped sending flowers to your apartment,
You said you aren't home much anymore.
I stopped dropping by without an appointment,
Cause I'd hear laughter coming through your door.

Sometimes late at night you'll still call me,
Just before you close your eyes to sleep;
You make me vow to try and stop by sometime,
Baby that's a promise I can't keep.

I love you too much to ever start liking you,
So lets just let the story kinda end;
I love you too much to ever start liking you,
So don't expect me to be your friend.

I don't walk down through the village or other places,
That we used to go to all the time.
I'm trying to erase you from my memory,
Cause thinking of you jumbles up my mind.

I love you too much to ever start liking you,
So lets just let the story kinda end;
I love you too much to ever start liking you,
So don't expect me to be your friend.

You always act so happy when I see you,
You smile that way you take my hand and then,
Introduce me to your latest lover,
That's when I feel the walls start crashing in.

I love you too much to ever start liking you,
So lets just let the story kinda end;
I love you too much to ever start liking you,
So don't expect me to be your friend.

-Lobo

What an SMS conveys?

Hello Friends, I am sure everyone of you sms-es! If you don't, go wash your face and get a life!

Well I was sitting the other day, doing nothing, my usual occupation when I got an sms! And then I started to classify the people on the type of sms they send...

Here's my list...

1. The Purists

Now these are part of a species who believe in typing their messages with the correct spellings, grammer punctuation. Their sms even have paragraphs with indents!Crazy people yaar...but they are now extinct. If you come across one surviving member please introduce me!

2.The Marlon Brando or Amitabh (before Paa).

Discretion is their forte! Their words are few and the letters used to express even fewer. Its like a telegraph compared to a letter.

e.g.

Ameya: "Hey man congratulations! Awsum score yaar! 1500/1600 with 800 in Quant, kya baat hain! Abhi toh u will fly naa? To America! Good show buddy! So Happy for you! Congrats once again!"

Reply: Ty

What the hell! 'Ty'. Thankyou ki Thanks yaar! Aur kuch nahi! They either really are at loss of words or they can't type! God save them! Break out of the mould! Express yourselves. Don't be so bovine!

3.'TC' category!

TC == Take Care, Tak Car, Take Careeeeeeeee, etc..

These people have each and every message ending with TC!
Its like a signature!

e.g.

Ameya: "Hey! Hello! Hows u? How have you been?"

Reply: "I am fine. Wat abt u? Tc"

Ameya: "I am also ok...living....didnt see you today...how was ur class test?"

Reply: "Test was decent. I was in quad only. Wer were you? Tc."

Ameya: "U were busy! No time to meet friends! Wat do u mean in quad? I was der too!"

Reply: "No re....TC"


Note the replies are getting shorter and always end with TC

With no offence to anyone...this can mean any of the following...

1.I really Need to TAKE CARE! Something is seriously wrong with me

2.TC actually equals "Ok.Fine. Now dont trouble me" Then say so directly!

3.I am addicted to TC! Then go to Rehab! Never overuse a word if u dont mean it!

Thank god none of my friends or enemies fall in this category! Few are close to it mind you!

4. The Crazy People!

Now we have crazy nuts everywhere!

e.g.

Ameya: "Dude whats come into you? Why are u so sad and forlorn? Kuch bolli kya woh?"

Reply: "Sachin will score a century today"

Ameya: "Wat????? R u mad? I am asking about ur 'Cardiac Problem' and u r talking about tendulkar!!!!!!?????"

Reply: "do u know that The complementary colour of yellow is purple!"

Ameya: "Abbe bhootnike! Kya ho gaya hain be tereko? Do chammat du kya?"

Reply: "Yes the song Kwaja Mere Kwhaja is really good! I agree"

Ameya: "Ok. U have lost it! Man u have really lost ur marbles!"


Just one word to describe them! Freak!

5.The scary bunch!

These people scare the hell out of me! To a question their reply is odd and apocalyptic!

sample this:

Ameya: "Hey i hope alls well! The misunderstandings are part of life...Hope you are not Mad?"

Reply: " :)"


The people who answer thus, with only a smiley scare me. If u watched "Child's Play" or "Dead Silence" then you will understand! They remind me of those dolls in the movies who go about killing people! I really freak out! If u havent watched the movie, Google the name and look at the images. Its really scary!

6.The 'shortform' dudes and dudettes!

These people have no other business than making up new short forms for simple english words! And they make my life Hell! Arre baba simple englih, marathi, hindi mein bollo!

It took me a week to understand that b4 is 'before', 4tune is 'fortune', 4wrd is 'forward'!

And I was so worried that a couldn't understand when a friend said 'mi nehmi v4 karun bolte!"

What was she saying? Wat does she mean 'v4'? Will some one please explain!
Then i understood...v4 is v and char(4 in marathi) which means vichar or thinking!!!!

Poor me! Am i a dumb yodel or what?

More crazy short-forms:

ayor : at your own risk

asl: age, sex,location...This one floored me

hand : have a nice day! I thought u want my hand!

eod : End of discussion! I thought tom is Eid!

e2eg : ear to ear grin! I thought its a new Android in Star Wars!

e.g.

Ameya: "Well actually I have a exam tom!"

Reply: "lol!"

Ameya: "how rude! why did u laugh??????"

Reply: "Arre baba its not lol its lol. as in Lots of Luck and not Laugh out Loud!"

Ameya: "How would i know. anyways thanks a ton..or tat!"

hehe...

btw lol also means "loads of love". But i havent gotten 'this' load yet :P.

So people.....Comment...Tell me if you have more categories! And in what Category u classify me!!!! Cheers! Tace Kare (I mean Take Care) :)