ब्लैक - बैंचर

    For past few months now,  I have surprised myself. Not only have I managed to give up one of the very few great habits, the crassness and smooth slide into lethargy have been impressive & consistent. They say a well-rounded gut is a sign of a happy man. My happiness seems to be growing in leaps and bounds of late. You know you have come of age in life when little kids on the street ask you the time by deliberately calling you "Uncle".  And I go on to tell them the wrong time, because sadistic pleasures are rare.

It has been more than 10 months since I last wrote.  What can I say, life has thrown a lot of experiences at me. While I have caught some of them deftly, some others have hit me hard.  Personally, I am at peace. Most emotions seem sorted out, clarity of space both outside and within... However, living by myself for prolonged periods of time has rendered me slightly difficult to share living space with others. I always found solace in singularity. And living with loved ones at closed quarters after 11 years threw it all out of the window. I am yet to come to terms with it... Hope the closure comes soon.  Professionally, I have absorbed an ocean of knowledge in the past year. From a technical noob I have transformed into an assistant manager somehow. The journey, however brief, had its own share of bumps and potholes. An experience worth sharing was the personal interview I faced after applying for Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) at the Indian Inst

आदरणीय श्री नरेन्द्र मोदी जी, इस महान देश के साधारण नागरिक की ओर से आपको कोटि-कोटि प्रणाम! अपने परिचय में मैं बस इतना कहूँगा कि मैं एक मेकॅनिकल इंजिनियर हूँ और पिछले ४ वर्षों से ऑटोमोबाइल इंडस्ट्री में कार्यरत हूँ| इंजिनियरिंग की पढ़ाई मैने अबीट्स पिलानी के गोआ कॅंपस से संपूर्ण की और उसके ठीक बाद ही नौकरी में लग गया| मेरी उम्र २७ वर्ष है और मेरे परिवार में माँ, पिताजी, भैया एवं भाभी हैं| मैं मध्य प्रदेश में जबलपुर नामक शहर से हूँ और फिलहाल मुंबई में रह रहा हूँ| देश के लिए आपने अब तक जितना कुछ कर दिखाया है एवं आगे भी करते जा रहे हैं उसको देखकर आपने मेरी सोच में बेहद परिवर्तन कर दिया है| आज से ठीक २ साल पहले मैं इस देश से बाहर जाकर अपनी मास्टर्स की पढ़ाई करना चाहता था और अमेरिका या फ्रांस जैसे किसी देश में बस जाना चाहता था| अब इसे मुक़द्दर कहूँ या फिर बदक़िस्मती यह नहीं समझ आता, क्योंकि मैने ४ यूनिवर्सिटीस में अप्लिकेशन भेजी लेकिन एक में भी मेरे दाख़िला न हो सका| किसी ने कहा की मेरी पढ़ाई के नंबर कम हैं तो किसी ने कहा कि बाकी क लोगों की प्रोफाइल ज़्यादा मज़बूत है| इस कारण से मै

verb (used with object), controlled, controlling. 1.  to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command 2.  to hold in check; curb 3.  to test or verify (a scientific experiment) by a parallel experiment or other standard of comparison. 4.  to eliminate or prevent the flourishing or spread of For a while now, I have been tensed, frustrated, morose, depressed, confused, dazed, blank, blah blah blah blah... You name a negative emotion and there's a high chance that I have been its victim in the past few months. All elements of self-control have eluded me, sometimes collectively. It's one thing to move ahead in life, a whole another to bring about a paradigm shift. And when that shift doesn't happen as per my plan, I tend to lose control of my own self.  And I have been losing control steadily, of my mind, health, work and life as a whole. 

They say change is the only constant in this world. How this statement never irked the grammar Nazis, I would never know. However, change, in itself, should be comprehensive. Past week, my life underwent another paradigm shift. Uprooted from the most peaceful city I have ever lived in, I shifted base temporarily to the concrete haven they now call Gurugram. Professionally, I am at a newer place.  Personally, I never moved away from the great City of Lakes. Bhopal has given me a new way of life and a chance to rediscover myself through different gateways. Right from the beginning, that city absorbed me like a long lost child meeting his mother. Cordial and helpful people, in office and beyond, largely shaped my comfortable stay for two and a half years. Never having to witness any wrongdoing or negative event, this city always gave me unreserved bliss.  The home where I spent major part of my stay was probably the best home I could hope for. The morning view went like this:

Starting with the latest, Mrs. Aamir Khan's "controversial" revelation about her insecurities and second thoughts of being a residential Indian, Mr. Aamir Khan's admission of the same at a public event and subsequent chaos… Even as a useless Indian, I feel overwhelmed and highly amused. My reasons are fourfold:

There are times when you reach a stage where the world doesn’t give much of a damn towards you, and you reciprocate. I have been living alone long enough by now to have a first-hand experience. Out of home since the age of 15, this is my ninth year of solo riding. Missed out on many homely activities and nuances, I also got to believe that nothing really matters in the bigger scheme of things. Our so-called civilized world is ripe with hypocrisy and indifference. Genocides are rampant throughout the globe under different brands – ISIS, Africa, war against terrorism, struggle for freedom, patriotism, artificial diseases, economic meltdowns, man-made disasters, conflict diamonds and whatnot. Being God’s sole mistake, we have been punishing Him consistently.

They say that it’s enough for one life to figure out who and why you are. For a long while now, my primary quest has been to identify my Self. Eventually, this might probably assist in getting a fulfilling life where I constantly learn something new. So, here goes:  :-

Four years it will be since I wrote my first ever post on this very blog.. Life never ceases to surprise you though. Because for the first time in these four years has someone actually declared that they are waiting for my next post, explicitly ordering me to "write something good".. :-D Anyhow, I hope this one might be "good" enough. When I wrote 'Winged Dreams' ( http://black-benchers.blogspot.in/2012/10/winged-dreams.html ) back in October 2012, I got the very logo of Honda wrongly oriented. For the record, it's as specified below:  One and a half years since my first job at this automobile giant, I have learnt more than I knew in the initial 22 years of my life about vehicles. And while I am still not very sure about my definitive career path and/or life's passion, something about learning how an automobile works or just reading up ways to mod up my winged lass  Six years old and still good as new, I hated her since the very f