Treasure these moments .........

There will be days, when u get home from a party,
and forget what the fun was about..

Or have a very long intimate conversation,
yet feel there are still words unspoken...

Or embrace your special someone
yet never had the strength to say
you care so much...

Life tells us that happiness is never absolute...
So while it's still there,
seize the moment,
cause it may never come again

..Manas .......

Music - The Poetry of Air

Music is what feelings sound like. It is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music. As I go down the memory lanes, brooding over the songs that have stirred my soul, there are countless of them. Some of them are so angelic, that they transport you to a different world. Some are so succinct and meanigful, that you empathize with the emotions and tend to associate with it.

How many times after listening to good music, you felt homesick for something you never had and never will have. Thats the power of music. Its love in the search of a word. Though it was a gargantuan task at hand, I managed to hand-pick some of the first rated songs that have influenced me big time -

Itni Shakti humein de na data - This is from the movie Ankush and I heard this song when I was 10 yrs old. And I wanted to listen it everyday. It inspires me when I feel lonely and isolated. There are instances in life when you are flummoxed by the intricacies in life, and everything seems futile. At this point of time, I murmur this prayer, hum its tune.

Aane wala pal jaane wala hai - You must have seen the movie countless times, as it tickles your funny bone with its sheer simplicity and some sterling performances from all time greats. The song inspires you to live every moment in life, write it in your heart. It injects life into a fused life, and beckons you to unlearn the past and live in the present. Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don't.

Tujhse Naraaz nahi Zindagi - This one has a soulful tune beautifully rendered by anoop ghoshal. Again the highlight of this touching song apart from the tune is its lyrics by gulzar..

I love this -

जीने के लिए सोचा ही नहीं ,
दर्द संभालने होंगे
मुस्कुराऊँ तो, मुस्कुराने के कर्ज़ उतारने होंगे,
मुस्कुराऊँ कभी तो लगता है ,
जैसे होंटो पे कर्ज़ रखा है
तुझसे ...

Aazadi - This list cannot be complete without a Rehman rendition. He is an ageless wonder ! This is from the movie - Bose the forgotten hero - an inspirational number about India craving for independence. Rehman has himself rendered this song with rising gusto, aplomb and much required punch. You can almost hear the ache and pain of the homesick statesman in every word of the song.

Jeevan se bhari teri aankhein (Safar) - Eyes talk the language of love. The song is a tribute to the beauty of a woman and has some astounding lyrics.Beauty is when you look into a woman's eyes and see what's in her heart.

Tell them dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for being

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Stopping the flow of music is like stopping of time itself. Incredible and inconceivable. I cannot imagine a life devoid of music.

Do tell me which one is your personal favourite through the ageless journey of music in this world which has left people captivated and spell bound.

There are no extra parts in this Universe

100 years ago this year, Albert Einstein published three papers that rocked the world. These papers proved the existence of the atom, introduced the theory of relativity, and described quantum mechanics.

Pretty good debut for a 26 year old scientist, huh?

His equations for relativity indicated that the universe was expanding. This bothered him, because if it was expanding, it must have had a beginning and a beginner.Since neither of these appealed to him, Einstein introduced a 'fudge factor' that ensured a 'steady state' universe, one that had no beginning or end.

But in 1929, Edwin Hubble showed that the furthest galaxies were fleeing away from each other, just as the Big Bang model predicted. So in 1931, Einstein embraced what would later be known as the Big Bang theory, saying, "This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened." He referred to the 'fudge factor' to achieve a steady-state universe as the biggest blunder of his career.

Einstein's theories have been thoroughly proved and verified by experiments and measurements. But there's an even more important implication of Einstein's discovery.Not only does the universe have a beginning, but time itself, our own dimension of cause and effect, began with the Big Bang. That's right -- time itself does not exist before then. The very line of time begins with that creation event. Matter, energy, time and space were created in an instant by an intelligence outside of space and time.

About this intelligence, Albert Einstein wrote in his book "The World As I See It" that the harmony of natural law "Reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection." He went on to write, "Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe--a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble."

Pretty significant statement, wouldn't you say?

Cupid is back !!

Yeh khaas din hai premiyon ka,
pyaar ki batein karo,
kuch tum kaho, kuch hum kahe,
izhaar ki baatein karo

Jab do dilon ki dhadkane,
ek geet sa gaane lage,
ankhon mein ankhein daal kar,
ikraar ki baatein karo

Some goals are so worthy, it's glorious even to fail

The surging crowds were jostling to get a glimpse of it. In a city of abt 3 million,almost one third of the populace was present.Was it another case of mass hysteria in a country where people wait for miracles to happen ? The public reaction was overwhelming. People of all caste,creed and culture had thronged the narrow bylanes of the place.I pushed through the crowds to steadily make my way through. I did not want to lose this chance,it was a pilgrimage. And what was this which was creating this Hullaballo ? It was a CORPSE !!

In a family of three sons and a daughter,he was the eldest.His father was a street side vendor,and their life was replete with abject poverty and devoid of almost everything.In the scorching heat of the sun, the father stood from day to night to eke out a living.The one room home could make anyone feel claustrophobic.The future of his children seemed bleak. But the eldest lad dreamt of doing something unique and making a identity of his own.

At an age when adolescents like to adorn the Denim, he liked to dress differently.The attire of the military uniform seemed to cast a spell on him.His courage and undaunting spirit manifested itself throughout his schooling days in the Army School at Lucknow.The Bronze medallion wrapped in a purple ribbon always fascinated him.And finally when he joined the army he was asked why he wanted to be in the armed forces. "I want to get the Param Vir Chakra," he replied. "Is it a toy?" The officer asked. To this he said that he would prove it in the course of his career.

They nicknamed it "Operation Vijay".The strife between India and Pakistan turned into an ugly battle.The Indian Army was determined to thwart the nefarious designs of the enemy.The battleground was Siachen,one of most difficult terrains for combat battle.Siachen which ironically means the "Land of Roses", gets temperatures upto -50 degree celsius.The inhabitants had to be on a constant vigil.

On July 2, the Gorkha regiment got orders to clear up some of the enemy positions in Khalabar in the Batalik sector. They travelled for 14 hours on foot and were short of 400 metres from their aim when there was suddenly heavy fire on their column. The fire came from two directions, from the top and other from the side. At that time the troops were split into two and he led the division of about 30 people.They had lots of casualities but the spirit of this young man remain undeterred.

Bullets were flying past them. He told the battalion not to worry as he would be able to finish his task.Although wounded in the shoulder and leg, he pressed on his solitary charge with grim determination, till he closed in on the first bunker. Then in ferocious hand-to-hand combat, he killed two of the enemy and cleared the first bunker. It was the turning point. Inspired by their leader's spontaneous valour, the troops charged at the enemy and fell upon them. Unmindful of his grievous wounds, he rushed from bunker to bunker urging his men on. Critically bleeding, he collapsed at the final bunker and finally succumbed to his injuries, but not before the last of the enemy had been annihilated. His last words were, "Na Chodnu" (Don't Leave Them).

This was the corpse of Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey.

Strangers were trooping into the living room of the old senile father, just to talk to him or hold his hand.The donations had been flowing from the federal government and people alike. But that was immaterial for the aging parents who had just lost their young son.The profound grief had surpassed the feeling of pride for the glory that their son had brought to the country.

Public memory is shortlived. They built a memorial in Gomati Nagar in the fond remembrance of this valiant soldier.I salute the spirit of this juvenile ideal, moreso, the words from his diary are a personal source of inspiration for me - "Some goals are so worthy, it's glorious even to fail".

Dukh ke Jangal mein phirte hain - Javed Akhtar

Dukh ke jangal mein phirate hain
kab se maare maare log
jo hotaa hai sah lete hain
kaise hain bechaare log

jiivan jiivan ham ne aag mein
khel yahii hote dekhaa
dhiire dhiire jiitii duniyaa
dhiire dhiire haare log
sangat dene ko paate hain
saanson ke ik taare log

is nagarii mein kyon milatii hai
roTii sapanon ke badale
jinkii nagarii hai vo jaane
ham Thahare banjaare log

Time's running out !

Fumbling our way through life, it seems to me
is much like a series of short stories
that we insist into a novel badly done
and the editor was out to lunch that day
Overplotted, characters obscure and undefined
It isn't War And Peace and we're not Tolstoy

History will clean it up, the victors always do
well after the fact of life, a critical review
But history makes a lifetime work of censure
and won't submit a damn thing of its own
lived well or badly, scrawled equally across a page
Every life leaves tracks that quickly fade

But it breathed and bled through pain and fear
it smiled and loved, this life so badly penned the moments each and everlastingly connected
like numbered dots that form an image
and it could have, might have been a masterpiece
if we could see the colors in bold strokes

Each of us wrote hurriedly, hands shaking, novices
as best we could, one draft without revision
Too much paper, the dialog dashed off unrehearsed
apprenticed with no clear need to learn the craft
Far too much to ask and yet it's what we're given
and all too soon the pen runs dry, too soon

(Inspired by the Muse - Time is Running Out

I think I'm drowning asphyxiated
I wanna break this spell that you've created
you're something beautiful a contradiction
I wanna play the game I want the friction )