Things I want to say to my 25 year self

Twenty five is a tricky age. You're neither a college kid nor a family man. You’re somewhere in between young and old. Life changes as you move closer to your mid twenties. Old chapters close and new ones start afresh. And here are 25 things I wish I could tell to my 25 year old self.

1. Your work or job doesn't determine your worth.

2. Everybody’s life is difficult. You're not the only one.

3. Nobody has the time to keep a count of your mistakes. So, chill. 

4. You will lose old friends and make new ones and it will all be okay.

5. You will not always find like-minded people and you will have to work for people with contrasting viewpoints

6. Following your dreams is not selfish.

7. Kindness is not overrated. It can never be.

8. You will have your heart broken a couple of times.

9. You might not even end up with your first true love. But it is okay, for you will realize that love is much more than romance.

10. Time heals everything. No, really.

11. Everybody needs help at one point or the other, and it is okay to ask for it.

12. Even the smallest savings make a difference in the long run.

13. Being well-dressed is important .Your clothes don’t make you a better person, but they definitely add to your personality.

14. Sometimes, people just fall out of love. And more often than that, they fall in love with the wrong people.

15. Money can't buy happiness. Contentment, most definitely not.

16. There is always enough time to exercise.

17. Most things you worry about right now won't even matter eventually.

18. You will never have enough. You will always want more.

19. This is the time when you will have your most amazing travel memories.

20. There is no ‘right’ time to do anything. It is when you decide it is.

21. Respect is harder to earn than money.

22. It is never too late to quit your job and do what you love.

23. You will soon realize your parents were right about most things in life.

24. Nobody is going to transform you into a better, more successful person. You need to do it yourself.

25. Confidence will take you places.

Look Up

I have 422 friends, yet I am lonely.
I speak to all of them every day, yet none of them really know me.
The problem I have sits in the spaces between
Looking into their eyes, or at a name on a screen.

I took a step back and opened my eyes,
I looked around and realised,
That this media we call social is anything but
When we open our computers and it's our doors we shut

All this technology we have, it's just an illusion
Community companionship, a sense of inclusion
But when you step away from this device of delusion
You awaken to see a world of confusion.

A world where we're slaves to the technology we mastered
Where information gets sold by some rich greedy bastard
A world of self interest, self image and self promotion
Where we all share our best bits but, leave out the emotion.

We're at our most happy with an experience we share,
But is it the same if no-one is there?
Be there for your friends and they'll be there too,
But no-one will be if a group message will do.

We edit and exaggerate, crave adulation
We pretend not to notice the social isolation
We put our words into order and tint our lives a-glistening
We don't even know if anyone is listening

Being alone isn't a problem let me just emphasize
If you read a book, paint a picture, or do some exercise
You're being productive and present, not reserved and recluse
You're being awake and attentive and putting your time to good use

So when you're in public, and you start to feel alone
Put your hands behind your head, step away from the phone
You don't need to stare at the menu, or at your contact list
Just talk to one another, learn to co-exist.

I can't stand to hear the silence of a busy commuter train
When no one want's to talk for the fear of looking insane.
We're becoming unsocial, it no longer satisfies
To engage with one another, and look into someone's eyes.

We're surrounded by children, who since they were born,
Have watched us living like robots, who now think it's the norm.
It's not very likely you'll make world's greatest dad,
If you can't entertain a child without using an iPad

When I was a child, I'd never be home
Be out with my friends, on our bikes we'd roam
I'd wear holes on my trainers, and graze up my knees
We'd build our own clubhouse, high up in the trees

Now the park's so quiet, it gives me a chill
See no children outside and the swings hanging still.
There's no skipping, no hopscotch, no church and no steeple
We're a generation of idiots, smart phones and dumb people.

So look up from your phone, shut down the display
Take in your surroundings, make the most of today
Just one real connection is all it can take
To show you the difference that being there can make.

Be there in the moment, that she gives you the look
That you remember forever as when love overtook
The time she first held your hand, or first kissed your lips
The time you first disagreed but you still love her to bits

The time you don't have to tell hundreds of what you've just done
Because you want to share this moment with just this one
The time you sell your computer, so you can buy a ring
For the girl of your dreams, who is now the real thing.

The time you want to start a family, and the moment when
You first hold your little girl, and get to fall in love again.
The time she keeps you up at night, and all you want is rest
And the time you wipe away the tears as your baby flees the nest.

The time your baby girl returns, with a boy for you to hold
And the time he calls you granddad and makes you feel real old.

The time you've taken all you've made, just by giving life attention.
And how you're glad you didn't waste it, by looking down at some invention.

The time you hold your wife's hand, sit down beside her bed,
You tell her that you love her and lay a kiss upon her head.
She then whispers to you quietly as her heart gives a final beat
That she's lucky she got stopped by that lost boy in the street.

But none of these times ever happened, you never had any of this.
When you're too busy looking down, you don't see the chances you miss.

So look up from your phone, shut down those displays
We have a final act existence, a set number of days
Don't waste your life getting caught in the net,
As when the end comes nothing's worse than regret.

I'm guilty too of being part of this machine,
This digital world, we are heard but not seen.
Where we type as we talk, and we read as we chat
Where we spend hours together without making eye contact

So don't give into a life where you follow the hype
Give people your love, don't give them your 'like'
Disconnect from the need to be heard and defined
Go out into the world, leave distractions behind.

Look up from your phone. Shut down that display. Stop watching this video. Live life the real way.


- Gary Turk

GOOD Morning

The ray of light entered my eyes slowly as my eyeborws started to sprang their wings and pull my eyelids wide apart.... The window was right wide open infront of brown pupils and I got back to my senses on my location. Suddenly, I felt I was the Ben Affleck of the movie Paycheck and the last night's memory has been somehow erased from my mind. To answer all my questions, I got a call from a very sweet friend of mine (ofcourse a female). Smile spread across my cheeks and the golden sunrays fell right on my mouth and with all my 33 teeth (dunno how I have an extra one) shining like pearls, I picked up the call with a tinkling effect in my body which was telling me to enjoy this moment of sleepiness and talking your loved one.

On picking up the call, I sensed some

It was early morning . The sun was not yet up (just kidding.. ;) ) and the fog was still cast low. The refreshing dew-laden breeze was brushing lightly against my hair.

Soon enough i was walking to my office. Drawn by nature i walked slowly, and allowed my thoughts to wander and my observations to loiter here and there. After reaching the office. Hitherto i saw a girl, dressed in salwar kameez (red sexy one) . I could not stop my mind from reading her features. She was a girl with a pretty face , but a discreet flicker of worry was hanging on her brows. Her lips were slightly drawn apart and i could imagine her tongue swirling in the warmth inside. Her hair was just long enough to worry her as the wind relentlessly played with them adding more to her anxiety. I was enjoying her looks and ways and it was turning out to be a good way to spend my otherwise insipid morning. As people sat beside her, she struggled to manage her hair and her dress.

Her soft arms twitched and turned as the merciless coffee cup was hot enough. Her struggle with the support straps added beauty to her feminine aura as her face became more vivid with disquiet emotions. My silent observations remained unnoticed.

I was almost hoping that she come and sit by my side as my side seat was empty . But being at the end of a seat, i knew her trepid self wont allow her to come so far. Luckily, soon after, she found a seat and a sweet smile flashed across her face. And then as if some unknown communication made her realize about me, she looked at me, all of a sudden.

It was absolute silence for a moment ..........; followed by the distant sound of my imagination shattering. She was not the lady in red after all . she was someone whom I used to like for a long time and rediscovered it today again
Alas ! It was just another hallucination of a drunken mind....

Ummm..... Dunno wy...

I wanted to let the tears out of my eyes today, Dunno wy...
Wish if I could hide my face under my mother's shawl in her lap today, Dunno wy...
Lost all on the relations in the hurry bury of this world,
Want to tie all those relations with a single unbreakable thread today, Dunno wy....
Saw her eyes amongst the crowded street someday,
Want to get lost in her eyes again today, Dunno wy...
Used to talk to her in my dreams everyday,
Dunno wy ... but I wanted to defy her sight today,
I lie to myself everyday,
Dunno wy, I wanted to face the one truth today in my life
My words Have broken the heart of many,
Dunno wy, I wanted to bring back two hearts together today,
Dunno wy, I wanted to let the tears out of my eyes today

The Handicapped

Amidst all the hurry burry and the pandorum of our (my) busy lives, watching a handicapped working among those who aren't definitely raises the eyebrows of all of us. The other day when I went to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the 2nd time in Cinemax (night show) I saw a few deaf and dumb people serving at the counter in KFC. As me and my friends had already decided that we will be having our dinner in KFC (as it was the last resort at that hour) we went ahead to KFC. The sight which left me wondering about this fact was something which I observed among the people in the queue to place an order for their food. All the guys who were taking down the orders were deaf and dumb, but they were doing a fairly good job. But, the so called "normal" people weren't reacting in the same way. Some of them showed pity towards the people who were on the counters and others showed a wary and hasted attitude towards them. The stinking attitude on their faces clearly said that "What are these freaks doing among the normal people". Even in this dense crowd of highly paid, extravagant people there was a small girl who wanted to place her order of a kfc krusers. She went down to the counter and happily pointed out what she wanted. The guy at the counter asked her in sign-language whether she wanted 1 or more than that. The girl replied 1. And then he punched in the amount and showed it onto the screen, how much she needed to pay. She paid the money, took back the change and waited for her krusher. Moments after that she got her krusher greeted the other guy a thanks and left as happy as she would had been if there was a "normal" guy at the counter. I fail to understand why do people need to treat them in a special way. Why can't everybody think like the small girl in the queue. Whenever we see someone deaf and dumb or as a matter of fact any handicapped person, we tend to bring the pity thoughts in our mind "Oh! Poor him". There's always a glitch in almost all of our minds. We need to step into their shoes and think, how would they have felt after that treatment. Even they observe those eyes. That look which people give when you are not similar to the people around you, when you have something missing in your body. Those eyes impinge through their mind and body more than any physical thing can do. Trying to act normal is not what is required today. One must not have the thinking that they are different from what one is. We should be ready to accept that the other person is just one of us and is doing what he is expected to do and that too in a very efficient manner. Today we talk of youth power, and how the young generation is going to drive India. This is not something which is to be overlooked. If someone is retarted or handicapped its not their fault right?

That Darn pillow

23rd Nov (Sunday) 7"00 am: After writing the biggest exam of the year yesterday, after drinking 2 bottles of beer yesterday, after freaking out till 3 in the morning yesterday, after going thru a hlf an hr loadshedding yest night (x-( ), after sleeping on my friend's cozy bed at the end of the day (sleepover), I woke up at 7 in the morning.. Waking up at 7 on a Sunday morning is a crime for all the bachelors. All because of a stupid extra fluffy soft and cozy pilllow.
The night which I thought would be one of the most relaxing and complacent life in the past few weeks turned out to be the poignant pinching neck pain night due to a stupid fluffy pillow.
I am getting this instinctive feeling right now, which is saying that nothing is in place and everything went wrong on Saturday ( yest). Don't have the exact words to describe it.
Even now when I am writing this stupid blog, my body is asking me to jump on that nice and cozy bed but after ogling at that pillow my neck is denying and overriding all the emotions and desires that my body is showing.
Well, I atleast have a movie to look forward to. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow (Part I) Yayy!! The much awaited movie which everybody (atleast all the Harry Potter fans like me) was waiting for is finally here. And the reviews say that this movie has lived upto the reputation of the book.