Stardom...

Stardom….

As I stood in front of a huge crowd of at least 5000 people consisting of males, females and the rest.. My heart was pumping very fast; I could hear my heart beat even when people were screaming my name…Lights were flashing all around the stadium and even on me.
Me with another five people were on the stage ready to perform a blockbuster song from a bollywood movie. I was on vocals and rest on various instruments.
We had practiced a lot for last one month just to rock on the stage.
Atif Aslam was my inspiration and the song sung by him was chosen. Just about to start the song suddenly there was huge roar in the stadium, I was like shocked, didn’t now we touched the heart of so many people and that to with one line of the song. Only then I came to know that there was a technical issue and people heard none of our play. Confidence came to ground zero and we were quite nervous.
Finally after 5 minutes break, we were all set to perform. Lot of water entered our body during that break.

As I started the song..
:
tumhi ehsaansin mein…
tumhi jazbaaton mein…
tumhi lamhatton mein…
tumhi din raaton mein…
Bakhud..tumhi ho..
Har jagah tumhi ho..haan main dekhun jahhan ab…
Use jagah..tumhi ho…

Etc etc etc………

Tum hi ho..beshubaa…
Tum hi ho….
Tum hi ho…mujhmein haan…
Tum hi ho…
Tum hi ho….ho….
Tum hi…

And when I took this high note just like Atif.People stood on their feet and started clapping. I didn’t have the time to notice that since I was deeply involved in singing.
The singing went on and on…

Tum hi ho….mujhmein haan
Tum hi ho…

Tum hi ho…
Tum hi…

Finally the performance was over, and we just couldn’t believe the response of people. It was a standing applause for about 5 minutes; we could hear people shouting “ once more – once more”. Camera clicks started flashing from all the angles. We were in lime light, cloud 9 as people say.

As we go down the stage and into the crowd. People started hugging us, shaking hands, and so on and so forth. Awesome feeling. Congratulations started falling from all sides. Couldn’t handle this stardom,

Until ……
Until…

I heard some sound from my cell phone…

Airtel ring tone started ringing… only then I realized that it was 5:30 am in the morning and I had to go to office…

Ahem…it was a Dream…. A dream, which made me a Star….

Vineeth
19/03/2010

Feeling of being at Home

Feeling of being at Home @ Mangalore

It was quite a long time since I’d been home to Mangalore, to be precise 75 days. Office was asking a lot from me for the past year, but having loads of responsibility is also a proud feeling. The time came to take a small break from work and go back home. I was excited thinking about home and spending time in Mangalore.

Just to give a brief description of Mangalore, It is in the coastal belt of Karnataka, famous for seafood, beaches, education, temples, churches, ice creams, and lots more. As far as I noticed, the whole crowd has changed a lot over the years. Fantastic!!! The way people live their life has changed a lot. People love to have fun in Mangalore. To name some wonderful places to hang out in Mangalore ,Taneerbavi beach, Someshwar beach, Surathkal beach, Sulthan battery, Adlabs, Helipad are all very scenic & must see places
Coming to temples and churches we have Kadri temple, Mangaldevi temple, Kudroli, Sharavu temples, Milagres church, Alosiyous church etc.
Food is one thing people will love in this part of the world. Famous for all kind of seafood, Lots of good restaurants have come up in Mangalore recently, which serve you typical south canara food. To name a few Maharaja, Royal Darbar, Gold finch, Kori roti etc. One place people shouldn’t miss going in Mangalore is the ‘Ideal ice cream parlor’ or ‘Pabbas Ice cream parlor’. Amazing ice creams. Worth every penny you pay.
Mangaloreans give prime importance to education, no wonder there are some wonderful colleges here like NITK Surathkal, KMC, Canara PU College, Alosiyous, Father mullers, SDM law college. Young mangaloreans are smart and intelligent. These people end up being toppers in state entrance exams. A few famous personalities who have a Mangalore background are Aishwaraya Rai, Shilpa Shetty, and Sunil shetty.

I was all excited to go to home. Mom and dad were eagerly waiting for me to come home. Few of my friends wanted me to come. Packed all my stuffs in a back bag and was set to go. Had done a bit of shopping for my parents and sister during my visit to Delhi and Ludhiana. Reached a bit early to B’lore bus stand, didn’t know what to do, gazed around and then spotted KFC, thought “what an Idea Sirji”. Spent more than hour they’re enjoying the amazing food, was not bothered about my diet then.
As the bus went through the ghats it was a nice feeling, since it was quite a long time passing by the road, as the bus entered M’lore I could sense the difference of being in my home town, it was about 6:30 am in the morning. Warm welcome was awaiting me at home; I was more excited to have food prepared by mom. Rest is history.
4 days just went in a jiffy. Just was wondering how to stop the time from running?
Waking up bit late in the morning and sleeping off late was the order of the day, even enjoyed nightlife in Mangalore with few of my friends. These holidays were quite different from previous once since I got an opportunity of getting into college life again. One of my friends had his convocation where in he was declared as a Doctor. And next three days was cultural festival in his college. Enjoyed every bit of it. Had met lot of people there.
As I passed through the city and outskirts of Mangalore could get back lot of memories of past right from school days. The roads through which I used to walk to school with a loaded bag and Tiffin bag in my little hand, the ground wherein I played cricket for my school cricket team, the small petty shops where we used to have cold drinks, the get together we had after school and lot more memories. The place, which used to be empty land, now carries a huge load of tall buildings. The place, which was quite famous for young people to hangout, now seems to be haunted, could see only few people. Place where I almost got hit by vehicle still seems the same but with more density of vehicles.
I still remember the days when day used to start at 5:00 am in the morning and it would end up at midnight, those were the PU days. All these memories are so nice to relish when iam at home.
Now I have realized how important it is to come home frequently so as to get energized with all these memories and nice feelings.
That’s what I felt being at Home

Vineeth
19/03/2010

Green is well

As the bus goes over the elevated flyover on the way to office early in the morning at 7:00 am, I am able to see only one thing that is buildings. Its only concrete structures all round the IT city. Life of people becomes so busy starting right from the early morning to late in the night. We all fail to notice something, which is very important for human beings to survive. Now the question arises, what is that I am taking about?
Its nothing but the lush green “Trees”. We all fail to notice the reduced frequency of trees across the city. That’s the matter for concern now. Tall buildings are coming up either flats or software firms, but the sad part is no one is bothered to plant trees (yours truly included).
Guess it’s high time that each one of us takes initiative and plants trees either at work place or place where we stay. Or else the below quote would hold good.

Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten – Cree Native American Prophecy

Vineeth

11/02/2010

They never felt like that before.

Below Write up is just a fantasy..and not based on any true incident.

It was the year 2007, sometime during the rainy season, when the weather was nice and soothing. It was drizzling, which made things even more wonderful.

The feeling was quite good. A guy wearing a white t-shirt and dark blue jean was eagerly waiting for someone whom he has never seen before. Lots of thoughts were running through his head. He was excited as well as nervous. Guy was waiting with hands folded. 15 mins passed still there was no sign of the girl.

Suddenly an auto stopped in front of the mall. The guy did not notice that. The girl had already seen the guy once, so she was in a position to recognize him.

The guy was enjoying the rain as well as the breeze. He heard footsteps nearing him, which made him change his direction of sight to see the girl standing in front of him.

“Hi” said the girl with her hands coming forward to greet him. A brief description about the girl; she was wearing a black salwar which fit perfectly on her as well as big earrings. She was also carrying a small purse and a mobile in her hands. She was just looking so beautiful. Finally after observing her beauty for a few seconds, He said “hey hi”. They shook hands. Emotions waxing,

Hormones raging. It was just wonderful. They never felt like that before.

Both of them reached the staircase since the plan was to meet up at CCD, in the top floor of the building. Both were smiling, as if happy meeting each other. They maintained a distance between each other. There was silence for a few minutes, and all of a sudden the guy said, “You are looking good, the salwar suits you well”. The girl replied in a very sweet voice “Thank you ------“. They went around each floor gazing at the shops and finally ending up facing each other at CCD.

CCD was quite filled up with students, since it was located close to many colleges. There were a lot of pairs sharing either hot or cold cups of coffee, but the weather called for a hot cup of coffee.

They ordered the same. CCD had a big TV screen showing English video songs and audio being played was songs from the movie “Train”. The Song called “maahiya” was being played again and again.

The girl had beautiful eyes, which the guy couldn’t stop looking at. They went on to talk about lot of things, college, family, likes, and dislikes, friends, interests, hobbies and lot more. Time was just flying by like a super sonic jet. Neither the guy nor the girl had felt like that before. They spent a couple of hours with each other and finally the eyes of the girl went to her watch. Seeing that she said “Oh god, its late”. “ I need to leave now, my mom will be waiting for me”.

The girl was right, it was late in the evening and it was sure that it was going to rain heavily.

They walked down the stairs, to the ground floor. They were more confident talking, since, by now, they had come to know more about each other.

Both of them never felt like going. They went on to look at the drizzle and talk for another half an hour or so. Lightning started and the cracks were clearly visible in the open sky. They never felt like that before.

Finally the girl said, “Got to go now”. The guy replies “Can I drop you?” The girl was taken aback for a second; she stared at the guy for a few seconds before she said, “It’s raining na, I will go by auto”. “Anyways thanks a lot”. The girl went on to say “It was really wonderful meeting you”.” you seem to be a very good guy”.

The guy was so happy that he didn’t have any words to say, he just replied:” Same feelings here”. “Thanks for coming”. Finally they said “bye” to each other and the girl started walking to the auto stand. The guy just looked at her walk away slowly. He could still see the smile on her face. He too went off in his two-wheeler drenching in the mild rain. They felt as though they wanted to see each other again. As he was riding back the droplets of rain were dancing to the tunes of his heart and also to the tunes of the girls heart.

They never felt like that before.

Vineeth

26/01/2010

"Strange Feeling"

I was having dinner on a chilly night in Bangalore, when a strange feeling, one I couldn’t quite put a finger on, crept into my head. The place where I was eating was called Ghar ka khaana, a nice place which served good homely food. The radio was playing old hindi music, while I glanced around at my fellow diners. The pair sitting next to us seemed to be well bonded; both the girl and the man good looking enough to land each other. The group sitting opposite us seemed to be good friends, the three of them discussing their pays at work.
The restaurant was bustling with activity. Waiters scurrying around serving food, while we waited for our north Indian meal, complete with mouth watering jalebis.
I started eating the moment my food arrived, when I caught my glance at a waiter. Dressed in an orange shirt and black pants, the waiter could not have been more than 16 years old, an age when we weren’t the least bit concerned about responsibilities, let alone earning for a livelihood. The sight made me so sad my food lost all its flavor. It just wasn’t fair.

I called one of my old friends, a law student and we ended up discussing what I saw at dinner. She said only this “If you can change the life of people do it, or else accept the facts and don’t’ crib about it”. Coming to think of this, what she said was true...

The incident also rekindled old thoughts in my head, thoughts of the amazing years I spent in school. Schooling was fun especially the lower classes (1st to 5th standard). My schooling started in a place called Kasaragod (Kerela). It was then that I had my first crush, first fracture, first reward, and so on. For two years I stayed in my grannies place and went to school. I still remember my first day at school. Mom and dad had come to drop me. The previous day was full of shopping for a new bag, new box, new Tiffin and lots more. I wasn’t excited though. Parents made me sit in the second row, and next to me a was plump little boy like me who was sitting so silently, and the time came when my parents were about to leave and yes I cried on the top of my voice, teachers had to hold me from running away. Days passed and the boy sitting next to me started getting close to me. We were together all the time. And believe me he went on to became my best friend till date. Days were nice, teachers used to love us a lot.

Even now I can’t believe I would fall for a girl in class 4th. Man I had my first crush. It was so very wonderful. Always would try to impress her. (Anyways it did not turn into anything else, crush remained as crush, and later on it got crushed). I still remember my first stage performance; it was a fancy dress competition, was dressed up like a rabbit and almost fell off from the stage since my eyes were covered fully. From then on there wasn’t any more fear in performing in the stage. Even when we were in class 3, we used to go on a picnic, and the place used to be behind our school. The place used to be like countryside. People used to get eatables and stuff. Those days were over when I had to shift to Mangalore, those wonderful moments came to a sudden halt (that’s what I thought), but reality wasn’t that. Yes of course I missed my friends, the place, and my school.

Schooling at Mangalore too was good since I developed a new interest there, that was Cricket, and it went on to become a passion. Went on to play loads and loads of cricket in school as well as after school, I really do not know how many instances I got beaten up for screwing up my exams because of this. Even now when I think about the scout camps, which we had attended, it was truly memorable.

All these thoughts were running in me. It was so nice being in school. Simply put it was an amazing time because we had no responsibilities

Now things have changed, I have been transformed into a responsible person.

I felt like writing this because that night I had strange feeling, one was a sad feeling about the kind of life some kids go through in their early life and the other was a happy feeling recollecting my school days.

Combining both it was quite a “Strange feeling”.

Note:
I would Like to thank my friend Srikanth for going through the blog and suggesting changes in flow as well as grammer.

Vineeth
18/01/2010
Bangalore

" Be happy and make others happy too"

How to be Happy and Content in Life….????

Write up below is my idea of being happy and satisfied in life, Based on some lessons which I have learnt in life.

Lifestyle followed by most of us is very hectic and busy either due to work at office for people who are working and for students it’s the classes at college.

How can we define stress in these cases? Its nothing but the pressure to perform well, the inner self always strives us to do, this indirectly is getting us into physical and mental stress.

I have seen my lifestyle completely change after joining work, I mean to say the time what we get for spending with our self is so squeezed making us unhappy at the end of the day.

One day (4 months back) I sat back and thought about it... Thought, Am I giving time to myself? Am I giving time for my body to be toned? Am I giving time for parents? (Parents = God), Am I giving time to my friends? And lot more questions….

All these questions erupted out in me….

All these had one solution “Do justice to your life”, but how? Again a big question mark.

These are the points which I jolted out after lot of thinking and trust me am the happiest person in the world... (Been following these for last 3-4 months, life has changed completely, this world has become an amazing place to live). And for these changes to be followed in your lifestyle there should be some inspiration or a challenge within our self.

• The most important one being Physical fitness. Half an hour of Jogging or yoga or workout is a good solution for that (Preferably early in the morning).

This keeps oneself physically and mentally fit (Directly proportional to your confidence which is directly proportional to your happiness).

I follow yoga daily which has helped me loose 7 kgs over last 3 months and also has built my confidence.

• Read books and keep yourself updated about the happenings in the world.

Here I mean to say read books on topics which you like. Don’t force yourself to read topics which you don’t like. One or two books max. A month will do.

Reading news paper daily will keep our self updated on lot of things which becomes very important in this competitive world. Especially for professionals it’s important to read business news.

I love reading love stores. (Latest being, “P.S. I love you” by Cecelia Ahern)

• Listen to good music or play sports which you like

Here the problem again is time to do all this, music is a good stress buster and a tool to make you enlightened. Playing sports what ever you like may be during the weekend will keep our self happy. Joining music classes or instruments during weekend is another way to keep us engaged.

I do play cricket every Sunday and listen to music most of the time.

• Eat Healthy food

Include lot of fruits, vegetables, juices and loads of water in your diet. Long term benefits are lots. Keeps our skin young, hairs intact, fit and fine always. It’s better to avoid junk foods. And yes more importantly have food which you love the most once in a while which makes you feel happy.

• Spend time with Friends and Parents

There is a saying time lost once will never come back, same way friends lost once will never come back. So it’s very advisable to give quality time for friends. May be hanging out during weekends or going for movie, giving them a call once in a while, texting them, mailing them. This becomes very important for maintaing any relation. Celebrate birthdays of friends which will make them feel very special and also will make you feel happy, very happy.

• Give 100% at work and be dedicated

To be satisfied with our work it becomes very important to give our 100% and be very dedicated and never allow any distraction take away that. This will make you happy again. Be good to people working around you. Be helpful. This will make people respect you as a good person.

• Do not expect anything from anyone

Expecting anything from anyone is not a good thing according to me. This is will make one very unhappy if the expectations are not met. Even in any relationship avoid having expectations.

• Respect people and their thinking

Either right or wrong the thinking of the other person, respect their feelings, it will make one light hearted and indirectly a source of happiness for the other person.

• Party hard once in a while

Dance to the tunes of the music once in a while. Party hard once in a while. Enjoy life.

• Attend Functions and Marriages

Never miss any important occasions of friends or family. Attending marriages and functions helps one in socializing with relatives and people. It’s largely missing now a day with most of the people. I make it a point to attend where ever possible.

To quote, recently my cousin told he won’t be coming to my marriage since I didn’t attend his. J (Fun part of it)

These are some things which I have learnt over a period of time and it’s into implementation in my life.

Definitely it has helped me a lot. It has made be happier. All these have happened based on self realization. I thought of writing this, since I felt it can help a few.

Friends, valuable feedback on the blog can be posted or mailed to me.

“Be happy and make others happy too…”

Vineeth

29/12/2009

Mangalore

Home Alone. A night in Mysore

Home Alone. A night in Mysore

Based on a true incident

It was one of the days during my engineering. After a long day at college, I came down with my friends to our normal hang out place in the evening (Bakery – we used to have tea there). We had a nice chat and gossiping for an hour or so with a hot cup of tea.

Then we parted ways to our respective rooms and house. We had our internal exams coming up in a couple of days.

Before that let me give a brief description about my room. For a span of 6 months I used to stay alone at a rented place about a km away from college. The owner used to stay at the ground floor, first floor was a house again which was empty ( haunted) and on the top floor there were two rooms, one was occupied by two people from the same college and other was occupied by me. The rooms were opposite to each other and there was also a big verandah, anyone walking out of the room in sleep would directly end up on the ground. There was a common bath room. A dim light always glowed in the night outside the room. Way to the top floor from the ground was like walking through a dark cave, seriously very scary especially in the night. There were two coconut trees just touching the terrace. Verandah was quite big so as to play cricket too. Place was the tallest building in that area. Close by there was a park where kids used to play in the evenings.

I can say it’s quite boring to stay alone there unless you have some entertainment source. I really wonder how I stayed there for six months; anyways I didn’t have a choice either.

It was one day in winter, the atmosphere was very chilling. It was hard to come out of the room in the night. I reached my room somewhere at 6:30 pm in the evening. With lot of pressure to study I entered my room. The semester was about to end and also I had internal exams in two days. I had my bath with real hot water and was all set to study (So disciplined you see). Time was about 7:15 pm. That day the two people staying opposite to my room were not there, both had gone to their friends place and informed me that they won’t be coming for the night. So I was going to stay alone the whole night with only owner on the ground floor and only me on the top floor. Isn’t it scary..? I was quite scary guys. I finished my dinner at 8:30 pm, used to get home made food at 8:00 pm daily. Food was not that great. Anyways it was just for the sake of eating was really not passionate about it that day. Was back to study with full concentration. I had planned to study Machine design that day. My table was filled with A4 sheets, reference books, Xerox notes, class notes etc and not to forget other stuffs like mobile phone, wallet, and snacks. A study went on till 12:00 pm, and was very happy since I could finish few topics which were pending for few days. Still wanted to sit for another two hours. I got a call from one of my close friend Saurab at 00:15 am; he wanted to ask few doubts. We talked for about 15 mins and he had few questions like when I was going to sleep all that?

I was really tired by 1:00 am, my eyes started drooping, it was just telling me “ hey vineeth , enough buddy go to sleep baby:” and I had to listen to my eyes. I finally decided to end the day. Prayed for a minute and switched off the light. I had to close all windows also since it was real cold outside. Put on my warm sweater and fell on the bed. Ha very tired. My body really needed rest. Went off to dream world in a swift.

Here the thrill begins….

I suddenly woke up at 2:00 am hearing some foot steps outside my room, tak tak. Tak tak. Guess there were minimum two people according to me. I slept off again assuming the people staying in the opposite room are back. But my assumptions were really wrong.

The sound started increasing, now I could hear some whisper outside the room, sound of foot steps started increasing; now I was really wondering who can be at this late in the night. I could hear people hitting the floor with sticks or something. Now really got scared , I was even scared to wake up and sit in my bed too, couldn’t even open my mouth and shout for help since was damn scared. People outside stared making unusual noise and sound. Small sticks started coming inside my room from small gaps in the door. People started knocking the door hard and their voice sounded really strange.

Guys my balls were on fire. Real fire. My eyes started burning. My body started sweating. One person started shouting…knock knock...”open the door”. “Open the door”.

Finally some word came out of mouth…”Please tell me who you people are? What you people want”?

All kind of thoughts started coming to my mind. Would I be alive the next moment? Will they break my bones? Oh my god. Horrible feelings started running in my mind.

Finally I had the balls to open the window and shout “Aunty Aunty” because I used to call my owner as aunty; her age was about 50 years. She was like a ghost herself, even if she would come to my rescue I would faint seeing her, real scary.

Hearing my shouts I could hear people running down the steps, still I was scared to come out. I took out my strength out to open the door finally and come out to the verandah. The dim light was glowing. Just went to end of the verandah just to seen anyone was there. Finally I could see three people running with their face covered with clothes. I couldn’t notice any face since it was dark outside. Was not able to guess who were they? And what was their intention? God I was trembling with fear luckily didn’t have a hear attackJ. Finally stood outside for 15 mins gazing at the sky, looking at the stars and moon. Even a small sound scared me at the moment of time. Even in that chilled night I was feeling the heat in my body. Took of my sweater, and finally went inside the room. The time was about 3:00 am. God, all that I studied was gone away with my sweat.

Frankly speaking I didn’t have the courage to switch off the lights and sleep off. I had to switch on the light and sleep, and finally could see the morning light coming inside my room. It was morning yippee. Was so very happy. It was about 6:00 am in the morning. Still I had the nightmare of the previous night which was not going to be forgotten for some time to come. Still I had some questions in my mind.

As usual reached college at 8:45 am in the morning. Went to the class kept my bag in my seat and came out to gaze at some beautiful girls J .

Suddenly Saurab comes to me and says, “Hi vineeth what time did you sleep yesterday?” I replied 2:00 am.

He replies.” We slept at 3:30 am”? I replied back “How come so late”? He usually sleeps early. Then I had to break open the incident that happened last night.

When I was explaining he had a cunning smile in his face. Was I hinting something from that? I explained the entire incident for 15 mins and it was time for the class to start.

Finally I do not know what… he hugs me and says Vineeth do not worry, it was us who scared you last night and he starts laughing like crazy. Even I couldn’t control my smile. But still I had to use some “F” words against him. And he went on saying that’s the reason he had called me at 00:15 am, and it was not for clearing the doubt.

The culprits were Saurab, Ganesh and Charan, my own friends. I had a sign of relief and machine design what ever I had studied the last night was back into my brains and I was confident again. Happy again.

That was the day I decided I would never stay alone any more. And within two months I shifted to place where the three culprits were staying. I would thank them for taking me in and looking me as their own brother.

This was one of the weird and thrilling experiences I had during my engineering life. We still talk about it even after 4 years and smile and laugh over it.

Home alone…a night in Mysore.