Finally Goa... Again



What Do We Really Want???



14.11.2012 – I’m back !!! It’s been ages since I posted my last blog, so here goes once again. Before reading this, take a look at the caption picture on my blog page... its called "What do We Really Want? I had posted this picture in 2008 after our first trip to Goa. It was then that i started blogging and I posted my first blog called “Finally Goa”. Finally Goa was meant to be about friendship...a place where we came together as friends. Almost 5 years later much has changed in my life and in all our lives. Unfortunately not all of us in this picture are still in touch anymore. We've all grown up and this time our paths have taken us in different directions. I guess that’s how it was meant to be.

Well yesterday i came back from my second trip to Goa. I visited the same spot where this picture was taken and many other places where we had visited the last time around. I should probably have felt a sense of nostalgia as old memories came flooding back. In some ways maybe i did, but more than anything i was overwhelmed with a feeling i still can’t describe....

Life has changed so much over these past 5 years... My best friend got married, i came back from UK, I got married, my professional life changed again and again, my best friend now has a 6 month old baby, UK again, Malaysia, Thailand, Hua Hin.... So much has happened and Life's just been so unpredictable...

 

Coming back to my trip to Goa, I’m a guy seriously in love with water and beaches (although I couldn’t swim even to save my life). Beaches kind of always spell Party…Fun…Crazy (atleast that’s the definition which my head holds),the waves crashing into you, the force of the wave when it hits you, the sound of the waves at night…its seriously something out of this world. However, this time it wasn't about the fun.... it was about reflection, peace and serenity. Sitting in the water, with my back towards the sea, my eyes closed, i could just hear the waves approach and then feel the thunderous impact as it crashed on me followed immediately by a sense of calm and silence as if the sea was asking everyone to keep quiet, just as a teacher would tell their students in class. Can’t really describe the feeling other than totally overwhelming.

Many a times I used to turn and face the sea, trying to push the waves back as they approached me… but every time I tried to do this, it just pushed me back and knocked me over harder than before. It’s awesome fun splashing around in the water and getting knocked down, but whenever I wanted some peace and wanted a break from all the salt water entering my mouth and ears, I always had to turn around and stop fighting the waves and just let the waves carry me in whatever direction it wanted to and to whatever distance it had to…

Kind of reminded me of life (atleast my belief about life)… Just need to stop fighting and worrying about the things that happen to us and just go with the flow. We never know where it will take us or in which direction, but no matter where we land up, it’s always going to be where we were supposed to be…

Even today i still have one unanswered question.... "What Do We Really Want?".... ONLY TIME will tell.... Till then, I guess I got to keep trying to connect the dots... Life is Unpredictable so I just need to stop predicting it and go with the flow !!!

Just Beautiful...

I wish had written these myself, but truth be told I haven’t. I found them hidden in my mailbox and may be you have even read some of these before, but I just loved them so much that I thought they deserve a better place to be hosted. (These forwards also came with a moral....which i have removed. I'm sure you'll figure that out...)



Give Your Best To Relationships: -

A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her.

The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed. The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised.

That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble.

Anger and Love Has No Limits

While Dad was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked stone & scratched lines on the side of the car.

In his anger, Dad took the child’s hand & hit it many times, not realizing he was using a wrench. At the hospital, his child has already lost his all fingers & child asked “Dad when will my fingers grow back?” Dad was so hurt.

He went back to car and kicked it a lot of times. Sitting back he looked at the scratches, child wrote “I LOVE YOU DAD”.

I Cried Over You

I saw your face today, In the face of a stranger
But when I looked again, You were not there anymore
I heard your voice today, In the middle of a crowd
I turned arround to listen, But did not hear a sound
I felt your touch today, In the blowing wind
I clung to that moment, Held it to its end
I cried over you today, Drowned in my own sorrow
Then I came to realize, There is always a tomorrow

Treasure Your Love

Don’t throw your back to love when it’s already in front of you.
Don’t drive it away from you because if you do,
Someday you’ll think again,
Why you let love fly away when it was once residing next to you?
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength and loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Who defines Fate?

“See that fella over there? He's 20 years old. In 10 years, he's got a chance to be a star. Now that fella over there, he's 20 years old, too. In 10 years he's got a chance to be 30.”

They say the difference between the two is ‘Fate’.

If you ask me, I’m kind of confused with this whole ‘Fate’ thing. We are all human beings and each of us have un-imaginable powers within us. In spite of that don’t we get to choose our own destiny, be what we want to be and do what we want to do? Isn’t everything possible? Why do we always restrict ourselves? But there are those that believe that our fate is already decided……and that no matter what we do; we must finally accept the good and the bad that fate brings along…. How can this make any sense…..? How can our future already be written somewhere? Don’t we have the right to choose what we want for our self?

Are we so weak that we need to portray our inabilities as fate?? Can we not be free? Free from this invisible bondage?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Whatever limits us we call fate. Men are never prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”

“There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul. A man, when he wishes, is the master of his fate.”

“It (destiny) is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.”
--- Paulo Coelho

Are we getting too old to dream? Or are we just losing the spark in our lives?

Fate only takes you so far, and then it's up to you to make it happen… Let’s not forget what we are capable of.

‘When I was younger, things happened in my life that made me wonder if they were a coincidence or was it fate? And now, as the years have passed, I strongly believe in fate -Everything happens for a reason. “
--Catherine Pulsifer

Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that everything that happens in life, always happens for the best (even if that is sometimes not visible to us till years later). But does this necessarily mean that it is fate and we can’t do anything to change that? Once things happen to us, it’s very easy for us to turn around and say that it is ‘fate’…..and that it’s happened for the best…..but since we haven’t actually seen fate, how do we know that whatever is happening to us is as per this great plan called fate?? How can we be so sure that it is not what we ourselves have done… Maybe whatever we choose to do, we call it fate. When things work out the way we want them to, we say it’s our fate and destiny and when things don’t go as per our plans we just blame it on fate and say, maybe it was never meant to be.

What if there is nothing such as fate? Maybe it was always us doing all the work and giving the credit to fate??

Each man is the architect of his own fate.
--- Appius Claudius

Croeso I Cymru… A trip down memory lane

We often say that our school days were some of the best days of our lives and here I find myself going back to those days when I used to look outside the window of my corner classroom, counting the seconds for the bell to ring and for another day’s class to come to an end. Let’s face it, the actual classes weren’t that much fun, but it was the time outside the classroom, may it be in the school campus hanging out with friends, or in the canteen, or outside the gates waiting for that special crush, or in some favourite haunt or simply in a friends house that made those schools days so memorable.

12 years on things haven’t really changed that much. There are no bells and there are no fixed times, but there’s always something that we look forward to more than anything. Something that will make us smile and make that day a little less unbearable. It could be that someone special who is eagerly waiting for you to finish work, or it could be a hobby that you are really into, or it could simply be spending time with your friends and family.

Well, for me it has always been spending time with friends and this blog is about my life, rather our lives in Cardiff.

I have spent more than 18 months or so in this city and I have always believed that it was one of the best places to be in and I had grown over the months to love every beat of this city. Note that I say this in the past tense. The last couple of weeks have however been a bit different to say the least and that beat no longer throbs within me and it isn’t difficult to figure out why

My story begins on the 13th floor of the tallest building in Cardiff. To those who are not familiar with this city, that is the BT building and my desk was on the 13th floor. This was like a little battle ground. This happens to be the place we initially dreaded to move too and the place that ultimately brought us closer. Like any battle, we obviously had our own war room in one corner, form where we used to touch base with headquarters and get our new missions. Not sure if we won or lost the battle and neither does it matter anymore. But strangely enough I don’t think any of us will ever forget that little room called ‘Kilimanjaro’. (I certainly won’t because I am still sitting next to it…)

And offcourse after the bell rings or in other words once we finish with work, there were plenty of things to do. Prince of Wales on Fridays almost became a ritual for us. One Orange Juice, One pint of Carling, One blue lagoon and One Jack Daniels with a plate of nachos on table 68. Badminton on every alternate evening, a drink at Nosda on a cool summer evening overlooking the shallow waters of River Taff, were all the little things we had taken for granted.

Our daily lunches at the canteen, take-away from walk the wok, a bite at Subway, an afternoon stroll in the city centre (only on those light days), the monstrous lunch at Spice Root over the weekends, home deliveries from Café Naz, Monday nights at Q-Bar for a free round of pool, unlimited movies at Cineworld, the un-fulfilled dreams of a Bash were just few of the things that kept us occupied. And lets not forget that all of us are great cooks as well. We used to all take turns in making our specialities for dinner. Some made hot and spicy mutton, some made excellent chicken (that is me by the way… ) while some gave us dreams of Biriyani. But amongst us all part-time Master Chefs, there were two genuinely natural and talented Chefs who were always ready with their special home cooked meals. I can safely say I have spent more time in this house than in my own. New and experimental party punches, Diwali Santa, dumb sharades, bingo, hundreds of hours on Nintendo Wii, we did it all. We were like one big happy family.

Lets not put aside our travels and excursions around UK and Europe. Spending the new year in the worlds most romantic city amidst the Eiffel Tower, welcoming the new year amongst the fireworks, lights and splendour of Disney Land, standing above the holy grail at the Louvre, walking down the Champs Elysees with a Hagen Diaz ice-cream, travelling to the highest point in Europe amongst the mountains of Jungfrauch, playing and fighting in the snow-capped mountains of Titlis, my first and last taste of the much heard of Cheese Fondue, taking in the fresh mountain air of Zermatt, a stroll by the Rhine Falls, a cruise on lake Geneva, the exhilarating view of the Island of Capri, a look into the home of the roman gladiators at the colosseum, standing under the leaning tower of Pisa, a peek into the Vatican and the glory of St Peters Basillica, a Gondola ride in the rainy afternoon in Venice, a hot cup of coffee at Piazza San Marco and finally a glimpse of the Duomo at Milan, the fashion capital of the world.

Coming closer to home, we did manage to pay homage to the great Loch Ness monster in the Lochs of Scotland, a salute to the Edinburgh castle, mingling with the tigers and wolves at Longleats and keeping the car well away from the monkeys, a Barbeque in the cold Summer evening at Prembrokshire with only the fire and the red wine to keep the cold away, amidst the wild rides at Oakwood and the shooting, golf, archery and go-carting at Heatherton, chugging along the Brecon Mountains Railways with a sensual traditional lunch at the Red Cow Inn, the roaring of the trucks at Monster Jam and the mesmerizing Madonna on her opening night were just some of the high-lights of my stay here.

There is so much more to pen down and I could go on and on but allow me to put a cap on my thoughts for now.

We spent so much time here and looking back on them now, they seem so special. Strangely I never realised how special those days were until now. Believe me it wasn’t Cardiff that was fun and it wasn’t Cardiff‘s beat that I loved, it was all of us that made it a fun place to be in and it was us that gave a beat to this city..

And what is sad is that all of us might never be together again, but I’m happy that we have created such amazing memories and friends that we will cherish forever…

I still have some wonderful friends here today, but things have certainly changed... I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if we were all back together again in this city known as ‘Cymru’. Unfortunately all I can do is wonder and pray that we get a chance to continue this adventure somewhere along the way.

Croeso I Cymru ! That means Welcome to Wales !

Note: I have not named any characters above but I’m sure they can relate to the different parts of this blog.