Charu's Blog

Her eyes are wide shut for the living, But for her, it is a new beginning. She opens her eyes, regains her senses, She is in heaven - her afterlife commences. It's where you go when you die , they'd said. They were right, the thought pops in her head. Her eyes gleam with joy, her soul sings a song, She was destined for this all along. There are no laws to obey or flout, No one to question her, no one to doubt. In the days she can fly and attain new heights, And in deep slumber she spends her nights. Back on the earth, the mortals cry for the dead, Having bloodshot eyes, countless tears shed. For them, her eyes are still wide shut, For they know not what lies beyond the rut.

  What’s gone once is gone forever, It won’t return, not now, not ever. Life is a journey, you have your path to tread, Looking back isn’t an option, so why not look ahead? Why have regrets about what you’ve been through? Why not look forward to something new? There is a lot to be seen, to be learnt, A lot of memories in your life to be burnt. Throw away the sorrows. don’t live in your past, It has gone away, it was never meant to last, Look forward to the future, enjoy the present, Don’t be so bitter when your life is so pleasant.    Picture courtesy: www.evangelicalsforsocialaction.org  

Traditions and cultures have always been widely followed in India, and that is what makes India unique, really. But let's face it, tagged along with these traditions come the uncountable, rather annoying superstitions. Most of them are baseless, and some are simply absurd, and in an attempt to bust these superstitions, I've decided to list some. Pzzt, I couldn't help being somewhat sarcastic, so if you can't handle sarcasm, maybe skip this for now. A cat crossing your way is bad omen. Cats are living creatures. They have work to do. I can't fathom how a cat crossing the road could affect one in any way, or how it could be made up for by letting someone else go through the area first. Don't wash your hair on Tuesdays or Thursdays, or any particular day. My hair is dirty. And I prefer being clean, any day of the week.  Playing with scissors causes fights. I'm all for safety around scissors, but I really don't understand how they could cause fig...

Now my life has reached a stage, Where I’m full of regret, full of rage. And if I could, I would turn the page, But this book named Life is locked in a cage. I used to believe in making the most of it, Until I slipped and fell into this pit. And in the dark, helpless I sit, Such silence surrounds, so now I quit. And once again, I've been left alone, My soul has been turned into stone. Wounded and hurt, it has been thrown, Now and forever, I’ll be on my own. One last time, an attempt to rise, No response, now tears fill my eyes. Its not me, its my soul that cries, My soul that’s tired of listening to lies.

You can't resist cakes and chocolates, you crave the most random sweets at odd times, you don't consider your meal complete unless you have dessert to go along with it. Congratulations! You have a major case of sweet tooth. And if it is so, you are probably accustomed to the feeling of walking into a bakery or a pastry shop, the sweet smell of those delicious pastries and cakes hitting your nostrils, and giving your eyes the pleasure of looking at those perfectly carved pies and tarts and macaroons and what not, knowing that you'll get to treat yourself with one. I've only recently realized that I have a sweet tooth - and by recent I mean a couple of years ago. So yeah, I live on high cal diet, I wouldn't mind having a piece of cake for lunch or dinner, or both. Also, shakes form a major part of my life, and I'm highly dependent on chocolates for survival. Speaking of chocolates, only one bar is enough to single handedly turn my bad mood upside-down! There ex...

Walking all alone with these scars, Nowhere to go, just following the stars. Nowhere to be, no destination, Just pacing until I achieve salvation. I’m mortal, an end will come to this, There would be a day when I find bliss. Till then I keep striding down the road, Striding alone, bearing this load. It starts to rain, but I’ll be alright, The load feels heavy, I need more might. No one to help, but I can take it on my own, Being on my own is all I’ve ever known. As lightning strikes, I start to fear, I cry out for help, but there’s no one to hear. The load drops off, and I fall face first, The thunder cracks, so do I, I burst.

I'm trying not to turn this into a literary blog, but recently I discovered something that any avid reader might find interesting. I was reading a book and had no bookmarks (annoying, eh?) Also, I had bought new clothes and their tags were stacked on my bed. And that's when it hit me - You can use your tags as bookmarks! I've been using them for a while now, just wanted to share this with people.

It was a placement drive to be conducted by a leading media company in my college. They needed energetic people for a front facing job. The selection criterion was - merely a vibrant personality and good communication skills. They wouldn't look at our marks, we were told, and they didn't. The selection process went like this - There was a group discussion, which was to be followed by 2 Personal interviews. The group discussion was an elimination round. The best few were to be selected and the ones not selected (we were told not to use the word "rejected") could try again some other time, preferably after 6 months. It was the first ever group discussion of my life. Was I nervous? Not so much, considering the profile that they offered was not something I was really interested in. I attended it because it was the first ever placement drive for our batch, and for the sake of experience, to get some insight into how I (an introvert) would perform in a GD. Personall...

So a few days back, around 10 o'clock at night, we had a power cut - the electricity went off. Unpleasant as it is, on top of it, the inverter wasn't working. So there I was, helpless and sleep-deprived, in utter darkness, without fans, without any trace of light, except for the flash light of my beloved mobile phone, whose battery seemed to be dying any moment, considering there was no electricity to charge it. The first few minutes of the black out were bearable, but after a while, it turned into a vacuous procedure of staring at the candle light and fanning myself, waiting for the NDPL guys to finish their work and bring back the power supply. Boredom took over, for I had nothing to do - nothing at all. I was in the middle of realizing how starkly dependent I am on my phone and my laptop - not to mention the internet - when I decided to pick up a book kept on my study table. In candle light, I started reading the book and I failed to realize how the minutes turned into ho...

[Warning - Contains Spoilers] Released last year, Inferno is Dan Brown's fourth book in the Robert Langdon Series, the other three being Angels and Demons, The Da vinci Code and The Lost Symbol . Inferno isn't much different from the others, it was a page-turner like all his other books. The story takes off with Langdon waking up in a Hospital in Italy and suffering from retrograde amnesia. A female doctor named Sienna Brooks lets him know of his whereabouts and accompanies him in his journey which includes a sequence of interesting events, involving, of course, a lot of codes and symbols, and the story picks up pace thereafter. There are various puzzle pieces that Langdon needs to put together, which are made up by a ludicrous (also, dead) Geneticist named Bertrand Zobrist, who [SPOILERS] wants to cut down the population of the world by four billion. He commits suicide right at the beginning of the book, but not before creating a plague by the means of which he wan...

I was going through this book named Veronika decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. The story goes like this - Veronika tries to commit suicide in the beginning of the book, but is saved by someone and goes on to live for a few more days. This is when she realizes the value of life and things unveil themselves. So I was in the middle of the book, having read about a hundred something pages, when something not-so-random popped up in my head. Why did Veronika decide to die? In spite of the numerous explanations and theories given in the book, I  am still kinda dissatisfied, and I keep asking myself this question again and again. Why DID Veronika decide to die? Why do so many Veronikas each day decide to die? And I am not referring to only females. Let's try to ponder over the matter. You don't have enough money, enough freedom, enough friends. You lose your job, fail an examination, get into a fight with your parents, friends, lover, or someone close to you and you think it's the...

Welcome, final year! It's been hardly a month since my college has reopened, and already, I see people around me discussing farewell parties, job applications and post graduate options. But well, one can't really blame them for this. Final year is the part of your life when you're caught between the woes of leaving college, the trauma of job applications and post graduation options. No matter how confident you are about your future, the amount of confidence is never enough. Questions surround you like bees surround honey. Life decisions begin to take shape. Time has finally come to start working towards the future that you have planned for yourself. I myself, am overwrought with thoughts about the future. Not to mention the chills induced with the idea of not being in college anymore. Nostalgia surrounds - two years have passed so quick - the third year will fly away in a flurry. No more being around Miranda  ladies, no more North Campus hangouts, no more buzz about so...

Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry, Sometimes I get too tired to try. Sometimes I want to be left alone, Sometimes I want to make a moan. Sometimes I have too much to say, Sometimes I can’t find a way. Sometimes I feel too dim, Sometimes I enjoy life to its brim. Sometimes about no one I care, Sometimes my thoughts I wanna share. Sometimes I have no time to think, Sometimes I brighten up and wink. Sometimes I feel like a child, Sometimes I wanna go wild. Sometimes I feel I’m in a fairy tale, Sometimes I try but still fail. Sometimes I wanna get a new start, Sometimes I feel nothing in my heart. Sometimes I commit a blunder, Sometimes I feel life is a wonder. Sometimes I want to leave it all, Sometimes everything seems to fall. Sometimes I’m in deep sorrow, Sometimes I feel there is no tomorrow. Sometimes I want to stop time, Sometimes I want to sing and chime. Sometimes delight is at its best, Sometimes I feel life is a test. With this, I've found my existence, And I...

This is not a Book review per se, just the thoughts and opinions of another reader. Courtesy the much created hype over this book (and not to mention the movie), I decided to pick up John Green's The Fault in our Stars and gave it a read. I had no preconceptions about the book, and absolutely no idea about the story line, but having previously read Green's Looking for Alaska, I was familiar with his writing style. And, a few pages into the book, I gained interest and got a vivid idea of how the story would proceed. The novel is a romantic tale about Hazel Grace, a Sixteen year old, who was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer at the age of Thirteen, meeting a charming, attractive, fellow cancer survivor, Augustus Waters. Augustus - or Gus - has lost his leg due to his osteosarcoma (a form of bone cancer), but has been in remission for a while. The two of them meet at a Cancer Support Group, and instantly become friends, given their circumstances and common interest...

I am 20 years old, and without a doubt, the question I have been asked most often in my life is "Are You A Lefty?" It is amusing to me that people who have been blessed with vision to actually see me writing with my left hand still manage to ask this question with the same surprised look on their faces. Every time. Then come the ludicrous reactions like "Oh my God that is so awesome" and "Does it mean you're special" and even "Are you an Alien?" Let me get this straight. First, I am definitely not an alien. I was born a lefty - on this very planet - mind you. I'm simply a part of the 10% minority of people who use the "other side of their brain" to think and the other "other side of their body" to carry out activities. Am I special? No idea. Do I feel special? Absolutely! It does make one feel special to be a member of the southpaw family, to possess the ability of doing something the majority can't do. That b...

Social media websites have been in the spotlight for quite a while now, and no one is oblivious to them. Although all of us have our own lists of reasons to be dependent on social networking websites, we all have the same confession to make - we are addicted to social media. Most people justify the time they spend on these sites to be spent in order to catch up with friends or to stay updated. Some of us use it as a medium for letting our ideas and opinions reach a wider audience (And that's what I am doing right now!) But the bottom line is that we all spend the majority of our time on these websites, and our lives basically run on the shallow, judgmental virtual world that is social media. Let us all devote a minute to think about this: How many of us personally know even 50 per cent of our Facebook friends? Guilty! Apparently, the amount of Facebook friends and followers we have specify our status in society, and the number of likes on our Instagram pictures determine how be...