Where is the happiness...??

The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was...the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be..

Children of GOD

Last Saturday I didn't oversleep as opposed to the usual Saturdays where I don't leave the bed until I make sure that I slept complete ten hours so as to compensate for a rigorously tiring week..And there was a chaste motive behind that. We were being taken to an orphanage for a visit & I was quite keen to be there for my own ethical contentment. Its not that I've never been to one..just beside our home in Ranchi there was a child-rehabilitation center where most of the kids were orphans so I had a fair idea what the visit was going to be like.

But this visit was of such a short period that I at once was feeling I better shouldn't have come at all. That was something which nobody had expected. I was feeling it would be more of a formal sojourn. Very much like a political leader's hasty visit to such places done just for media attention. People were evidently not happy with that..and why wouldn't they be, they were there with a purpose - taking their time out to spend a weekend with those unfortunate kids.
I was amazed & delighted at the same time by the no. of folks turning up to go there..it will be so great if everybody continues to show the same eagerness ever n always to lend a helping hand to the needy.

I'd like to make it clear that its no somber recount of my experiences from this brief visit..neither its any usual dismal condemnation of the society and system. Its just my attempt to glance the things with a positive perspective, a revitalizing way rather than my habitual cribbing at the system..enough of that hogwash. Contemplation makes life miserable..we should act more, think less, n stop watching ourselves live. I needed to look at the positives of the life. I feel acknowledging the commendable work those benign men & women are doing in that orphanage is one of the aspects we always miss out. Its no easy job to handle those many kids who are without their parents & that too when many are just few weeks old, but they were doing their job with so much of dedication and devotion that was truly laudable to say the least.

It was quite touching when one of the toddlers held my finger & wasn't willing to leave it when I reached out to caress its cheeks..one beside was too happy with our presence n was smiling continuously in its cradle as we looked on..it brought smiles on the faces of everybody around. Most of the kids there were below 5 years of age or around that..some among them were even few weeks old. It was all so good to see so many infants sleeping, smiling, giggling in their cradles. :-)

In the next room there were kids playing..just 2-3 years old. As we entered there was a kinda apprehension visible in the children's faces but it went off as soon as we greeted them with a smile & we were fairly reciprocated with their sweet smiles.The happiness in them was worth watching while I was giving away chocolates to them..I was in fact feeling like a Santa Claus without a beard & his red cloak surrounded by those little kids.[;)]
It was amusing to see one of the kids hiding her share of chocolate very smartly behind her and asking for it again & again. I gave few more to that little gal & said to myself.."oh..look at her..how cunning this kid is..". But soon I realized I was wrong..she wasn't collecting those for herself..she gave away those extras to two kids who didn't get any. It was so moving..Children are so much innocent, far from any malignant feelings for others..they really have the purest of hearts.

There were mentally challenged children in another room..it was so pathetic just to see them. We were told that some of these children can not perform the simplest of tasks that we all seem to take for granted like sitting or walking straight or even eating.
The orphanage staffs there I must acknowledge were doing a commendable job for its quite evident that a great amount of patience and tolerance is required to supervise and handle such children.

This visit got over in no time ,n I wasn't feeling like going anywhere else. So I came back to our bus which was there to drop us back to our dorms. Those high spirits of the morning had taken a different shape by then..may be taken over by a mixed feeling of anguish and empathy.




Babies are angels that fly to the Earth,
their wings disappear at the time of their birth,
one look in their eyes and we're never the same.

Monday mournings..

mondays are the potholes in the road of life..
but sunday's carousal is always there to get through it [:P]

Pro Palin..but not a Pro McCain-Palin

I was so eager to watch Palin-Biden debate & was expecting to see Sarah Palin going great guns in one of the world's most highly anticipated vice-presidential debate..though sadly I wasn't able to watch it, I managed to get a transcript of the whole proceedings together with some experts' feedbacks and what I could make out from it was she was unquestionably able to live up to the expectations encompassing her. I'm quite happy about it for I'm pro Palin and this endorsement is there cuz I've high regards for this woman and there are a flurry of reasons and explanations for this reverence.

Having said that this backing is limited till her encounter with senator Joseph Biden Jr. as I have no sympathies with the Republicans. Its strange that though I strongly abhor the Republicans' policies n ideologies (especially talking of its imperious foreign policies) I am exhibiting favoritism towards Sarah Palin but for the reason you got to read "Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment on Its Ear," by kaylene johnson & the chances are even you'll become an admirer of the governor of Alaska. Anybody having an interest in world politics must be aware of Palin's executive experience..prowess with a gun in the woods or the lakeside fishing but the book speaks of those minute details cuz of which what she is now today & what made McCain choose her as a vice-presidential candidate for the Republicans.

Back to the debate of yesterday which I was talking about Sarah Palin must have made McCain feel good this time after her series of not so good interviews. Her adversary Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. Was not going to be a piece of cake anyways but she managed to survive it. McCain is already a man in distress & there were some talks about her basic qualifications for the VP Office which was surely adding up to his woes but after this highly anticipated debate which certainly gave him a sigh of relief & would help him to concentrate on his other troubles shading his campaign. Her feisty performance must have raised the spirits of the conservative Republicans who were so dejected since she was nominated & I heard that some of them from the conservative block are coming forward to acknowledge that “her performance will re-energize the conservative base,”.

Palin and Biden's debate was pivoted to the economy and diplomacy.
"You're darn right it was the predator lenders,..there was greed and corruption on Wall Street."...She was putting the Wallstreet responsible for the United State's one of the worst economic crisis which has eventually led to a global economic slowdown...on the other hand Senator Biden blamed few of the crisis on deregulation policies that Republican presidential candidate John McCain believes in. "McCain voted for deregulation and that is why we are in the crisis that we are in," he said. (Even I feel the same, that its all a good lesson for the Republicans who believe and keep banging the drum for a market that would administer and regulate itself with minimal government interference ).

Shifting to international issues Palin was quick to accuse Obama of voting against funding for U.S. troops in combat & chastised Biden for defending the move, "especially with your son in the National Guard headed for Iraq..!!"
Biden was even quicker to counter-attack.."John McCain voted against funding for the troops, as well.." adding that the Republican presidential candidate had been "dead wrong on the fundamental issues relating to the conduct of the war." He didn't reply to Palin's mention of his son, the attorney general who's scheduled to fly to Iraq with his national Guard unit on Friday..

Due to the growing public interest on Palin's performance, cuz of the governor's largely unknown political skills & her mistakes made during recent interviews the debate had been expected to be a TV hit..& as a matter of fact it turned out to be one, becoming the most watched vice presidential debate in the U.S. history..The debate set a new record for a VP debate beating the previous high set by the VP debate between Democratic Geraldine Ferraro and then-vice president George H.W. Bush; in addition to that it also very easily succeeded in beating their running companions' debate (the debate between Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain a week back) by a large margin.
There are talks like who did the better job at the end..who was more likable..and so on.. but to me what matters is that both the candidates crossed everybody's expectations with their performances, especially Palin who I feel will make her critics do a rethinking who hold a wrong opinion about her. I'm eagerly looking forward to get the recorded version of this televised debate.

Sun goes down... again

Inspiration has left me..i have got no inspiration at all to write..theres so many things to write about but as soon as i take out the phone i choke (yeah its far better than PC with the mobility factor as an added advantage).I forget everything that i wanted to write down.Its quite annoying actually. The last blog was just about a song. I was looking for another song but I don't really like using other peoples' words and make them my own..

But still there are some songs which I like keep talkin about again n again..Last night thanks to my good fortune(I must emphasize it cuz I still remember how much crazy I was for this song few years back)..I got to listen "Sun goes down" by deep purple on VH1. Rarely do I watch TV these days but that was somethin I couldn't have afforded to miss out...n I was wishing if they could play next "Pictures of innocence" from the same album but sadly they didn't..:-( This album 'Bananas' was one helluva album and surely this was their one of the best..i mean each of the tracks in it gelled so well n made it one superb album, however it will be a pure blasphemy if I try putting it in the same league as 'Machine head' (Highway star & Smoke on the water fame).

After the disappointment of 'Abandon' I was wary of Bananas but after a listen I knew that this album was leagues better in every way..any fan of melodic hard rock will enjoy this.. It was their third album with guitarist STEVE MORSE n who would resist the sexiness of Steve Morse & vocals of Gillan together..well at least I couldn't that time and even right now I couldn't..

Now the first thing Im gonna do is rummage around for this album or at least that track by any means (my means consist of mainly searching through the net or asking some fren of mine for it-some are self proclaimed connoisseurs of music among them:-P..)so that I can put it in my zenstone firsthand as an attempt to satiate this never ending craving for music..
But before that i wish to post the song here as a moral commiseration for me until I get it in my audio player.

So ladies n gentlemen here goes down the sun for you...!!!

DEEP PURPLE- Sun Goes Down

Oh you're all looking up
With hearts of devotion
Through the dust and the heat lost to me
In a cloud of emotion
I have no motivation
To keep this breathless pace
I'm more inclined to stay here
In this breathing space

And the sun goes down
And the moon comes up

I never tried to walk the walk
'Cos the steps are elusive
The membership is too costly
And exclusive
Hey, the more I've got
The more I stand to lose
So I'm gonna unpack my bags
And take off my shoes

And the sun goes down
And the moon comes up

Let me tell you there's no point knocking
At the big oak door
Can't you see that it's all full up
They can't take no more
The line's so long
It's almost Disney
Ooh:
Wont somebody kiss me

And the sun goes down
And the moon comes up

.......

These aren't my lines..these are from a song whose title I couldn't recall
'She loves him more than he would ever know, he loves her more than he would ever show..'
Im listening CSNY right now n still those lines are doing rounds of my mind since last hour.Somebody help me find out which song it is...

A welcome change

Today was so different..Guess why..??
Well no rewards for any speculation..for the folks present there in the lab late afternoon better know why.

The man in charge for the "Scare factor" was today unanticipatedly a horse of a different color singing a completely different tune, nevertheless im sure everybody must have enjoyed that. Certainly there was a reason for his cheerfulness & the reason was everybody from our batch had successfully cleared one mandatory certification in one go..and not just cleared but cleared with surprisingly such great marks.. one can reckon it from the fact that the lowest was 90%:-) (Not to forget that it's regarded as quite a tough nut to crack :-P )

As a result we were treated with a sorta small coffee party thrown by the commander himself for the batch's fabulous performance and it was labeled as "Coffee with commander " -Sounded so familiar except for the 'commander' part but he was at his best to be an equally good n hospitable host as that name suggested. Smirking all the way since the moment He entered into the lab till he left. When I first came to know about it I hoped we were cruising for a bruising( folks were in fact lookin for "excuses" for backing up their superb performance,..guys who had scored highest marks were miserably scared the daylights of it ) but He really caught one and all off guarded with His unusually congenial behavior.

There was that typical smile on His face as He spoke but this time it was genuine..not involving anything sarky. Nonetheless His own acid test was still undone so he wanted to double corroborate it again with His own set of questions. The first one being related to laws of motion it was so much pleasing to see the giant OAP[:P] talkin about it in such a descriptive way after few responses which were not at par..It was impressive in the way He illustrated it and I honestly didn't expect from Him.

Few more rounds of such questions with a tinge of smile n His unique dry humour and lots of giggles from our side added up to the already gleeful ambience...n He was a happy and contented man at the end, by the words of Him & by the look on His face..;-)

We were later told that this was the first time the commander was having coffee with an ELTP batch..n I feel we deserved that for this was the outcome of the sweat of our very own brows..Rakshit & I know it very well..(or for that matter the whole class knows it so well :-D )

Now if there's anything called sea change..this is it..!!!


They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. ~Confucius