Music…. For my ears and my soul

Music…. What does this word reminds you of? To me it’s not just an integral part of life but its life. Imagine life without music. It means a deep silence without music of nature because nature is the first musician. Chorus of birds, the concert of crickets in the silence of night, the sound of ocean waves crashing on rocks, rain drops on the roof top, drum booming sounds of thunder and the cymbal crashing sounds of lightening, all represents music of nature.

Though the nature has the greatest collection of music, the man made music cannot be ignored as a soothing touch, the expression of a lover, sorrow of broken heart, lullaby of a mother, love of siblings and patriotism. In fact there is not any emotion left uncovered by the great musicians, lyricists and singers around the world. I always wonder that how are these people able to gauge human emotions so beautifully. Many a times when we listen to a song, it feels it’s meant for us. Doesn’t that happen to us all? These beautifully written lyrics, refreshing music and captivating voices keep me spell bound and force me to repeat them on and on. I am a great fan of hindi music and enjoy numbers like “aaja sanam madhur chandni mein” from old hindi movies to Ghazals of Jagjit Singh and Chitra “Agar hum kahen aur who muskura de” to the latest numbers from Love Aaj kal, Kaminey and others. Music has been and will remain my best friend in all the happy and sad moments of my life. Thanks to all those wonderful lyricists, composers, musicians and singers.

Friendship….. the sunshine of life

This post is inspired by a message from a friend sent on Friendship day. The message stated the history of the Friendship day as “In 1935, American Government had killed a person on 1st Saturday of august, the next day his friend committed suicide. In his memory, American Government had declared 1st Sunday as the Friendship day.” In an attempt to know more about the reason behind this much celebrated day, I discovered that in 1935, with the devastating effects of the First World War still showing and increasing hostilities, mistrust and hatred between countries providing the perfect conditions for another imminent battle, there was a greater need for friendship and camaraderie not only among nations but also among individuals. So the US congress decided to dedicate a day in the honor of friends. The idea got caught up very fast and in no time become an international festival.

In tune with the spirit of the occasion, people dedicate Friendship Day festival to their friends. But off late, Friendship Day has been commercialized to a great extent in India. Days before the festival, gift marketers run an extensive campaign to lure the people to buy cards and gifts for their friends. Restaurateurs too try to entice people by offering special discounts or holding bashes. The youngsters have been strongly impacted by this commercialization and the ever increasing peer pressure has underlined the importance of celebration of this day.

But amidst all this commercialization and peer pressure to celebrate Friendship, have we lost the very essence of friendship? Is it about exchange of cards, gifts and friendship band or is it about exchange of thoughts? Is it the number of friends that matter or having just a single friend who understands you and stand by you in thick and thin of life.

Thinking about friendship, the first example that comes to my mind is the friendship between Krishna & Sudama. The friendship that did not demand anything but believed in giving. The friendship that did not require words to express but thoughtful actions.

I feel that true friends are actually the rare treasures that very few people posses, so if you have one, make sure that you make your friend realize that how special he / she is and why wait for a Friendship day for that. It should be celebrated every single day, every single hour, every single moment. So I wish happy friendship to all.

Thanking my Role Model…

A Role Model is someone whom we wish to emulate in our life. As kids we love our parents, and as we grow, celebrities take the position of role models in life. To me it makes sense to admire the people with talent and ambition who have made big by perpetually following their dreams.
As a kid I wanted to be like Mother Teresa and serve the humanity. I was very impressed with her (and I still am). she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.
But as I grew up, struggling with life’s issues, the dream to serve the humanity took a backseat (though it’s still deep rooted in me). The concept of role model again got unearthed when I joined Blue Lotus. The name of my role model is a very familiar name to my friends – Mr. N. Chandramouli alias Mouli. He is not a film star nor a politician nor a scientist. He’s my boss, the CEO of Blue Lotus Communications. I have learned from him the importance of perseverance, focus, untiring efforts, facing failures boldly and still moving on while keeping alive the desire to achieve.
Apart from the qualities important to excel professionally, I have learned from him to value every single individual in your life, to enjoy every moment of life and to learn to live without emotions like guilt and fear. I also have learned from him to eliminate all kind of waste, waste of energy, resources and emotions.
All in all, after joining Blue Lotus, I have learned to live life in a more fulfilling way. Here I am thanking Mouli for all his support and encouragement and wish I could become like him some day.

Jab we met…..

There is something about this movie that keeps me hooked to it every time its so called premier is shown on star plus, Zee TV, Colors or even pogo. So this time after watching this movie for the nth time, I thought to analyze why I like this movie. So here is my analysis of this movie, which I’m sure will give you a reflection of my personality too.

• Let’s talk about the background of the characters i.e. Punjabi so a Punjabi could relate with the Punjabi culture shown in the movie. While the custom of unnecessarily dancing and singing “Rangpure di Rang rangili naar….” is alien to me. I guess Bhatinda has this culture.
• Moving on, the characters of the movie which is the soul of the movie impressed me quite a lot. Shahid Kapoor as Aditya Kashyap has acted really well in the movie. The guy who has faced a lot of troubles in life, his father died, mother ran away with someone else and girlfriend left him in the lurch. So of to speak a complete loser in life just sets on a journey to the unknown. And meet this Bubbly, talkative, typical Punjabi girl who’s ‘her own favorite’ and wants to live life on her own terms. I had never liked Kareena’s acting except in this movie.
• The movie dramatically displays the change an incident can bring in one’s life. While Aditya gets positive after this journey and starts clearing up the mess in his life, Geet lose her smile after her boyfriend refuses to marry her. Moreover the dilemma of youngsters about recognizing their true love is well portrayed. Geet could realize her true love towards Aditya only towards the end of the movie which is so true about so many young kids I come across who don’t know whom they love truly and why.
• The sacrificial nature of Aditya also touched my heart which is hard to find in today’s world where it’s all about possessing what you want.
• Next good thing about the movie is non-violence. When sex and violence rules the Bollywood, such movies are refreshing, especially for peace loving people like me.
• The music of the movie is awesome right from “Jab hum chalne lage…” to “aaoge jab tum o saajna…..” I hope its original composition of Pritam though many critics said that even this is copied. Anyhow, it has the right blend of well thought lyrics, melodious voices and engaging music.
• And last but not the least “Dadji”, who can judge a person’s intentions in just a glance. All in all, a light movie to drive away the blues.

Delhi…. The journey

“The Alchemist” states “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person realize his dream.” I had the strong desire to work with an efficient and understanding team. It was two years with Blue Lotus and I had not got a chance to work with a full fledged team. Reasons being the scarcity of business in the city beautiful and also of qualified PR professionals.

November ushered in the news of additional responsibility of Delhi branch along with Chandigarh, as Archana was taking a break from her professional career to focus on some impending family responsibilities. Though everybody was speculating it to be additional burden on my feeble shoulder, I took it as an opportunity, an opportunity to paint on a bigger canvass, with more colours.

But the biggest challenge posed was to retain and enhance the smooth functioning of the centre while being the buddy of the team as earlier. My limited exposure of being a leader in my previous assignments underlined the fear. Another challenge was to not disturb the comfort zone of the family as I had to stay away from the family at least three days a week. But knowing my dedication towards Blue Lotus, my husband extended his much needed support to look after the family in my absence and my mother helped us in the endeavor.

Anyhow the journey began with my shuttling between Chandigarh and Delhi. My only aim was to do whatever it takes to keep the spirit of the team high. I got an opportunity to explore the potential of the city in terms of business development too. As a mother I used to have guilt pangs of not spending enough time with my son Aarush but I used to feel the same way when I was not able to spend time with my extended family Blue Flame.

The team had been wonderful all this while. They kept me assured constancy of the quality work and never even once did they fail my expectations. We all had a lot of fun together with whole hearted participation in freaky Fridays and other celebrations. I enjoyed every single minute spent with them. While Alka and Akanksha acted as the serious sentinels of the family (with hidden good-humored side), Prateek added the zing with his mischief. The cuteness of Richa and Jasleen completed all elements of a playful family.

Two months just flew away and we all got the news of Yusuf’s joining in the BL family. We were all excited about the new member. And then the process of handing over started. The sorrow to split from them is immense. I wish the wonderful team all the very best for their future endeavors.