No more space

"Hey stop staring at me! I feel guilty. I don't have any more space to accommodate you. I could have stuffed you  somehow but you're not that tasty!"
He looks up from his dinner plate, and keeps it for washing.

Path of my life

One of my dulla friends (B.Tech + MS by research dual degree program student at IIIT-Hyd) told me about a year ago that the fifth year in college will help us think and plan our life ahead and I think I might have finally decided on what to do with my life !! I'm really excited!
Yes, first and foremost, I'll take all the efforts humanly possible to get enough work done towards MS, get the degree and get out. The uncertainty usually starts then.
Do a job to earn livelihood? Yes, for next one and a half year. Then appear for CAT, get into IIM-A, get a degree in MBA, specialization in Marketing. No, its not the pay package, the knowledge/skills I'd learn, perhaps, but there's one more very good thing about a B-school. Network of alumni and batchmates, perhaps.
I'll then work for a year using the skills learnt in the B-school. I'll then appear for civil services exam, become an IAS officer and serve my country for 10 years.
This would be the end of phase 1.
I'd save enough money and go to Hollywood, become a voice-over artist, work in some sitcoms, and perhaps become a scriptwriter in the process. With fame and money, I'll return to my motherland, and join a medical college, study MBBS, become MD, DM and serve in a village for few years. I hope I have covered all the sought after degree programs in India!
This would be the end of phase 2.
By this time I should have turned 65. I'll then start my own company.
Oh, I forgot about LAW. :( I'll read law whenever I'll get time in the last 40 years.
Finally I'll settle down in my hometown and write an autobiography, which would be a bestseller, making me the best selling author. Hence I'll fulfill my childhood dream!
I missed out on song writing, music composing, cooking, martial arts... life's so short. :'(
And I might also apply to Guinness Book of World Records.

Funny SMSs

The thing about funny SMSs is, there are too many of them.

My sister, since last one month (using unlimited SMS scheme), has been sending me all the funny SMSs in the world. And they are good. Believe me, even the lame, pathetic PJs are good. I've requested my sister a few times to stop sending me those SMSs but she says she has limited memory on her mobile so wants me to store them. And I keep all those SMSs now on my mobile.

Every morning I wake up with the sound of her incoming SMS buzzing in my mobile, even before the alarm I set in my mobile could ring. My day starts with reading her SMSs. I read her SMSs on my way to bathroom, on my way to breakfast, on my way to lab... and before I sleep. Its interesting to note at this point that because of all the lovely funny SMSs pouring in, I don't feel like watching sitcom episodes anymore.

Traffic generated by my sister's SMS is so very much that advertisements and various vodafone schemes SMSs now seems to come so very rarely. Moreover any personal SMS amidst these funny SMSs sometimes feels really good, a fresh breath of relief.

Funny SMSs, either circulated or created by teenagers does show their innovation intellect. Its amazing, really. And most of the times the topic is, "exams". Exams bother them a lot! Its a part of being a teenager... later one stops making jokes of exams because its not funny anymore!

The point where it isn't funny anymore is, when you get a serious SMS or SMS with a moral in it, and you expect it to make you laugh and you may even laugh, as a reflex and then realize that you were not supposed to laugh! Now, that's funny!!

P.S. - Thank you sis, for sending such funny SMSs. Please take some time out for other things in life as well. :-)
P.S. - After SMSs, gtalk/facebook/twitter status updates is where people showcase their creativity! :D

The "don't" decision

At every moment, we reject many possibilities to select one. Our mind processes a lot of information and based on experience, decides on the next thing to do, or next step to take. Before making a decision, however small, we think of all the possibilities that would arise if we 'do' and possibilities that would arise if we 'don't'. Finally we 'do' the thing.

Have you not been a bit curious to know what would happen or how things would be different if you 'did' the 'don't' instead of the 'do'? Owing to personal bad experience or other's stories or facts, we tend to arrive at the safest or most profitable 'do'.

I have the tendency to think of various possibilities if I had done the 'don't'. Most of the time and most of the possibilities are false, mainly because of my presumptions which are, most of the times, incorrect. I have read this or heard this from some source that infinite parallel universes exist and each universe is created because of each decision we make. Our universe is made of all the 'do' decisions. Other universes might be made of either some 'do' and 'don't' decisions or all the 'don't' decisions. By not doing the 'don't', we reject being in that other parallel universe created by that 'don't' decision. Can too much brooding over the consequences of 'don't' make me jump to that universe and back, as in give me some superpower to jump between universes !!

I once read a book from the series, "Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, Be a detective mystery stories" in which the reader could either choose to read Nancy Drew's part or Hardy Boys' part of the investigation. Because I didn't want to miss any of the investigations, I kept tabs (my fingers, and later few bookmarks) at each of those pages where I had to decide between Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. After reaching a dead end or end of the investigation, I backtracked and read the other stories. It was similar to traversing all the nodes of a tree (the data structure in computer science) in preorder fashion.

Its like the game in which a person has to choose between two or more doors. The person decides on one door, and other doors are shown as to what he lost by not choosing the other doors. In life, the other doors are never opened. We make a decision, we enter that one door and can never walk back. Later we're again faced by some number of doors, out of which we select one door and walk in, never to walk back.

She called me

I saw her number flash on my mobile screen as the ringing tone filled the empty dim lighted corridor of my office. I decided to ignore it.

After 9 rings:

"Hi Mandy, how're you? I just called to..."

"Please Shruti, this is not a good time. I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"I know you don't want to talk to me, but please listen to me. I just wanted to..."

"You've always been so persistent. God! I felt so stifled when we were together. Everything had to be about you! Last few months have been so liberating."

"But I can't help it Mandy, this is who I am. I can't change now."

"Oh sure, but I could, isn't it? Mandy don't do this, Mandy do that, Mandy this..."

After fifteen minutes:

At the other end of the corridor, I saw silhouette of Mr. Mehta waving at me. I looked at my watch.

"Listen Shruti, I don't have time to listen to you crying over the phone. Please could you not do this. I am seriously in the middle of something right now."

I disconnect the call.

"Gosh! I wish she was here. Why do I still miss her? Bitch!" I spoke to myself in low voice as I hurried to the grand hall in the office campus.

"Mandeep, where had you been? Everybody is waiting!"

"Yes Mehta ji, I'm really sorry. Was attending an important call."

As I entered the grand hall, I saw everyone dressed up and a banner that read "Happy Birthday Sirjee". I heard my mobile beep an incoming message signal which was drowned under the "Happy Birthday" song which everybody started singing.

The message was from Shruti.

"Happy Birthday Mandy."