Down the nostalgia road

It was the last working day of our school lives. Panic was running high among students for it was the final boards physics practical. Running helter skelter to touch up those last changes in the journals, we were all geared up and ready to finish the practical quickly and then sit and reminisce the 10 years of schooling we went through in those few years.

The bell rang and we arranged ourselves in our cosy little classroom, everyone sitting in their groups, waiting for the teacher to arrive. The January chill casually reminding us of al the Christmas parties that we celebrated each year before the winter holidays began. Everyone was going through the journals, trying to cram the last few words they could into those tiny little brains and then the teacher walks in, snapping everyone into the present.

Slowly the practicals got over, and there we were, like a free bird, ready to walk down the nostalgia road, soaking up all the little things about this wonderful place and making sure that we would never let this damn place get out of our hearts.

Everybody has their own special place in the school, their own “adda”, which provides their group a place to have fun, have those endless conversations about nothing, and so we visited our adda. Just sitting there and realizing that this would actually be the last time we would collectively as a group hang out made the moment more real than it could possibly be. The wind calmly blowing through the place and all of us just silently sitting their, moving back in time, remembering every single one of those little stories that made us all laugh out loud or made us cry. At that moment, even the most boring conversations were valuable for no one would come back here again. Marking the place our own, we moved to the other places in side the school, coming up with stories that made the place stand out, erupting in laughter at the time when the pants of one of my friend ripped out open in the field or the times when our “BADASS” mode was turned on and we brought our cellphones into the schools. Slowly, we moved around the whole place, spending a little time here, a bit more time there. It was a beautiful mess, our school, and we couldn’t be happier yet sad of the fact that we were living this place to be adults, at that moments, none of us wanted to leave and everyone wished that they could be there for a bit longer.

Whenever someone talks to me about the most memorable day of the school or the day that gives me strength and the motivation as well as optimism to look up to a better tomorrow, it will be my last working day at school.

I did attach some of my pictures from that day here:

Just like the way housing.com has revamped itself to look up to a better tomorrow, even I look upto a better tomorrow by taking a trip down the nostalgia road.

A beginning. A tough decision.

Standing at the cross roads, waiting to cross the road, watching the same old people crossing the same Damn road at the same time everyday, the insanity of the life struck me. How maddening it is to be stuck in this wheel going round and round, following the same damn routine day in day out. It was then, at that moment when the life started to bug me. Before then it was all good, even enjoying it. The cubicle which I had transformed into my second home, now felt like a jail cell. I was regretting the sudden realization. Yes it was not the life I wanted for myself, but it was the one that paid bills. No it didn’t allow me to be independent, but it did give me a stability in life. Why was I even regretting it? Why did I suddenly start to hate what I think was loving? Why couldn’t I just be that guy crossing the road and moving towards the office with normal thoughts and move on with my day? Why did it have to happen to me only were the questions that frequented me.

But the idea kept nagging me, always going on and on in the back of my brain, making up dream sequences of how I was a successful writer, not the kind who published books, typing away my articles across the serene beach. The voice concocting such dreams were the reason behind my sleepless nights. Oh how I wished I was the guy in the dream.

Standing across the same cross road, I decided to start writing again, to calm the voices inside my head. No I had not left my job, but I did start to write again. Spent an hour or two everyday after office, reading, writing around 800-1000 words, editing, asking for opinions, working on criticisms, getting better slowly. It took me almost an year before I even dared to apply to write professionally. Slowly I started to get traction, writing for meagre rates at the start, writing articles, working away on content-management services. This continued on for more than six months. Building my reputation slowly, making connections, taking references. It was not until july 2014 that I finally started to make the money equivalent to that off my current job. Then I decided to leave my job and pursue the dream career more aggressively. Before leaving I could only spare an hour or two, but after leaving, I started writing full-time, and it was then that I felt that I was truly out of the cog. My after one year of constant writing for various companies has finally stabilised a lot and now I can finally visit a beach town and fulfil my dream.

Just like me, Housing.com has had a new beginning, a new start. Here’s a preview to that.

The Great Fest

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

Oh what a boring clichéd phrase to start a post that is supposed to contain ideas and tips and tricks on Remaking the World, a post that is supposed to inspire its readers, to enlighten them and make a fluorescent bulb glow on top of their heads signifying the Billion Dollar idea inside their brain that has the potential to wipe out all the misery from the earth, and yet I start off with no innovative comments whatsoever. But yes, History does repeat itself, with glorified metaphors and overwhelming coincidences.

The question asked was:

What if you became the Creator who could build a new world the way you want?

Excuse me, but that sounds a lot like the questions that were asked when we were students, when the teacher needed some peace and quiet, asked her students to write an essay on “If I was the President/Prime Minister of our country, I would…” 

The question asks of ideas, ways and different methods that is supposed to ignite in its readers, a flame that will cure the earth of all its misfortunes and so I request all of you currently reading my post to keep a working a fire extinguisher alongside you.

Remaking the world, sounds like an awfully big and tough job, but there is something that is fundamentally wrong with the question being asked as well? “WHAT WOULD YOU DO?” This expectation of us, the true-born citizens and heir of the beautiful planet Earth, that there is a someone else who will take care of the problem, even though, I know, if I contribute even a little bit to the task, it would make a big difference, but well, I am lazy and that person will definitely do it mentality adds to our woes. For example, People want the government to boost up the methods and procedures and bring in laws to clean the country, but nobody wants to walk a few extra steps to the bin. I have witnessed so many people who’ll maintain themselves and be all civil at the airport, but as soon as they step out, I don’t know what kind of wave hits them and suddenly trash just starts to flow out of their hands and goes everywhere except the trash can. Every citizen wants the government to wipe out corruption from the very soul of the nation, but nobody will mind bribing someone when it will benefit them. Somehow corruption becomes a problem only when it is not in their favor. There are things that are wrong at the grass-root levels, and no matter who comes in power and becomes the next Prime Minister or the President, change will happen only if the people are actually willing to change themselves. Government can only do so much, unless it is the citizens who act. In my world, people would actually act for the things they want instead of begging and blaming the government because they couldn’t find the damn TV remote.

In this age, where we gobble up more information than our pansy brains can accommodate and with the influx of technology and us being on-the-line for almost 24 hours a day, there are only a few things that we don’t outrage about. Oh my God, Maria Sharapova does not know who Sachin Tendulkar, the god of this country is, we must abuse and threaten her until she apologizes to us. Holy crap, this particular brand of newspaper only showed us one side of the story and did not publish the complete details of the story, we must totally side by them because whatever they say, is definitely the truth without researching for ourselves. Damn, this random person on the internet totally just shared his views and they do not appear to be aligning with the views I have, he must be thrown into the jail for being an anti-religious person. With our short attention spans and without the patience to research everything before we air our views along with zero tolerance for other’s opinions and views, it is only a matter of time before this implodes in our face. In my world it would be fine to not know a famous player, not get trashed for not believing in God, even though it does not align with your thinking of God and that opinions would be respected. 

One of the many things that has always plagued our country and will continue to do so is CULTURE. People have this weird notion of culture inside of their heads and if a sound reasoning is provided against a cultural practice that has been followed around for centuries, it messes with their head and the outrage starts to flow. Today, homosexuals are hated upon in our society citing the Culture excuse, rights are being denied citing the culture excuse, in our country even hanging out as a young couple is looked down upon as an abomination to the culture even though one of their most powerful gods had a gf. It is the constant hypocrisy battles that we fight amongst ourselves is what is fuelling our constant dislike towards the others. In my world, hypocrisy would cease to exist. 

I can go on and on, but I can see the smoke coming our of your chest, and i think the flame has been ignited. The only thing that I have to say is that, before we blame other human beings, our luck, the kind of situation we are in, it would be a lot better if we were to introspect, look at ourselves before we start despising others to mask the things we do wrong or don’t understand. And if we were to begin this introspection right away rather than procrastinating, it would do us a hell of good and REMAKE THE WORLD. 

I am participating in the #TheWorldRemade activity at BlogAdda in association with India Today #Conclave15 “.