Author - Unknown

If with pleasure you are viewing
any work I am doing;
If you like me or admire me,
tell me now!
Don't withhold your approbation
till the father makes the oration
As I lie with snowy lilies
over my brow.
Then no matter how you shout it
I won't really care about it —
I won't know how many teardrops
you have shed.
If you think some praise is due me
now's the time to tell it to me -
For I cannot read my tombstone
once I am dead.
More than fame and more than money
is the comment, kind and sunny,
And the unmistaken handshake
of a friend.
For it gives to life a savour,
and it makes you stronger, braver,
And it gives you heart and spirit
to the end.
If I earn your praise - bestow it,
if you like me let me know it,
Give the hearty, warm approval
you can say.
Don't make me wait till life is over
and I am underneath the clover

Inception

When I was a kid I always thought that this life isn’t real. It’s all a dream. It’s kind of a psychic way of telling us what would happen so as to better prepare ourselves. I could never believe that I finished my summer holidays or the wonderful family events. Or I passed the 1st grade and moving to the 2nd Grade. I wanted to wake up because I was not ready to be a grown up.
I still wanted to have those carefree childhood years back again. No worries about food, money, shelter. No worries about relationships like girlfriends, wives. Life was beautiful. But now more than ever I wish I wake up. I had enough of this existence and would like to come back to reality.
I now don’t remember any of my dreams like I used to when I was a kid. I know its not that I don’t dream at all its just that I can’t recollect what it was anymore. After coming from the movie “Inception” I was amazed that all that I thought about was there in the movie. It was like Leonardo and team came and “extracted” my dreams and put them on the screen.
It was just like how I felt. This is not real. This is just a dream I created and need to get back to reality. Concepts like projectionist, dream within a dream, how we never know how we get to a certain place in our dream. How we never remember the entire dream even right after we wake up with a start And what really connected was the fact that we age faster in our dreams then in real life.
So according to the movie’s concept my life of 30 years is like 3 hours of sleep. So if I wake up in another 4 hours from now I would have “died” in this dream around the age of 70 years. Makes perfect sense! So now how do I make this dream stop as it is not pleasant anymore? Guess the only way out is to kill myself here and wake up to reality! Or wait! Have I been “Incepted”?
If you are confuse as to what I am talking about – just watch the movie all the answer lie there in the open.

What's In A Name

What’s in a name they say? It’s a proper noun so one can get away with a murderous pronunciation. But not with this one guy - when there was an argument over a pronunciation, to end it we told him it’s a proper Noun. but he was destined to say the last words – “then pronounce it PROPERLY!”
Being born in a Goan catholic family it was normal for me to have western Name compared to most parts in India. But mine was still unusual, as mostly the former Portuguese colony catholic names were influenced by saints and clergy. Mine was not!
I do not know what prompted my parents to zero in on that one. They never followed cricket so it could not be the West Indies captain that inspired them. Maybe it was my God parents – Lolly and Lydia, which sounds plausible.
Right from childhood it was a problem for people to get it right… they could never pronounce it. It was troy, Loyed, Loud, lied, light, Jo… aaagggh! Even till the 6th standard each of my class teachers had their own version of spelling my name. In their defense we normally spell the way we pronounce.
After school I thought my woes were over. But it was not to be… it followed me to work as well. My Second job was a call center job where I was in telesales, selling stuff to the US consumers. Whenever I said “Hi My name is Lloyd, how may I help you?” there was instant distrust. People could not just get by the fact that we Indian’s could have western names or for that matter we can be Catholics or we can speak good English!
My name not only confused the foreigners it confused our desi folks as well. To some I was foreigner which meant that some of my work got done faster in the internal departments. When they realized I was an Indian I had to wait in the queue just like the others. When in US I was either Spanish or a Mexican but that was more to do with my surname – Gracias.
Yes my name is Lloyd Joaquim Gracias. Not very common for an Indian :)
So there is a lot in a name – think twice before you name your kids because names like this just don’t make it easy

Apple: Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow
Aurelius Cy: Elle Macpherson and Arpad Busson
Blue Angel: U2's The Edge and Aislinn O'Sullivan
Bluebell Madonna: Geri Halliwell
Camera: Arthur Ashe and Jeanne Moutoussamy
Destry: Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
Fifi Trixibell: Bob Geldof and Paula Yates (also parents to Peaches and Pixie)
Fuchsia: Sting and Frances Tomelty
Heaven: Lil' Mo (also mother to God'Iss Love Stone)
Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily: Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence
Lark Song: Mia Farrow and André Previn
Moon Unit: Frank Zappa, also father to Dweezil and Diva Muffin
Luna Coco Patricia: Frank Lampard and Elen Rive
Moxie CrimeFighter: Penn Jillette (also father to Zolten)
Rocket: Robert Rodriguez (also father to Racer, Rebel and Rogue)
Sage Moonblood: Sylvester Stallone and Sasha Czack (also parents to Seargeoh)
Willow Camille Reign: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith

Walking in Job's shoes

Guilt...it's like a bag of f***ing bricks.
All you got to do...is set it down.
Who are you carrying all those bricks for?
God?
God likes to watch.
He's a prankster.
Think about it.
He gives man... instincts.
He gives you this extraordinary gift,
And then what does He do?
For his own amusement,
His own private, cosmic gag reel
He sets the rules in opposition.
It's the goof of all time.
Look, but don't touch.
Touch, but don't taste.
Taste, but don't swallow.
And while you're jumping from one foot
To the next, what is He doing?
He's laughing.

Free will, it’s like butterfly wings: once touched, they never get off the ground.

- From the Movie – Devil’s Advocate

Journey to NY

They Say an estimated 500,000 people pass through Time Square each day! Over 30 Million people visit Times Square annually. One of the biggest businesses apart from finance is Garbage!

I never imagined in my wildest dreams that one day I would too be at time square! The first day I saw it I was rather appalled then mesmerized by it. I reached New York airport and there and there ripped off by a desi posing as a cab driver. On my way to the hotel I saw all these old buildings, apartment complexes on the verge of falling apart… road constructions… garbage bins overflowing at every Conner and what was that stench all over? And not to mention… the unbearable heat! It so reminded me of Mumbai (Bombay – India)

How could people love this place and how could someone kill to be here, though everything is so damn expensive? I could not understand it at all. I asked my companion do you like NY? And he said – “I don’t know what the big fuss is? Chicago is much cleaner! Less expensive… you get the same stuff there that you get here. So even I wonder why people go Gaga over NY

But all that changed! The same night we visited Time Square and it was a far cry from any city that I visited. So many people… well lit… easy to commute… and open almost 24 by 7!

The other thing I was amazed was about was that you are never lost in the city. The whole cities are rectangular blocks every street and avenue numbered sequentially. Just look up the address and walk you would reach your destination no doubts no confusion. And everything seems to be a walking distance. It was fun! I used the Yellow cabs, the subways, walked and it never seemed as I was lost here or new to this place!

 The place has lots of parks, amazing historical sites, tourist spots, theaters, eating joints; even the roadside joints are tasty and hygienic and make as much business as an established restaurant! Wherever you go you see people any time of day and night either in their power dressed clothes or workout fatigues. They com e as Couples, girlfriends & Boyfriends, fiancées, one night standers, families, alone, with kids, with pets. It’s the truly the city that never sleeps!

Though it did make me miss that someone special … it still was good to me as lonely as I could be.

It’s like the RHCP song –Under the bridge –

Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner

Sometimes I feel like my only friend

Is the city I live in, the city of angels

Lonely as I am, together we cry

I drive on her streets 'cause she's my companion

I walk through her hills 'cause she knows who I am

She sees my good deeds and she kisses the windy

Well, I never worry, now that is a lie

It's hard to believe that there's nobody out there

It's hard to believe that I'm all alone

At least I have her love, the city, she loves me

Lonely as I am, together we cry

Needless to say I love NY and would love to be there and so did my companion he says it just grows on you but all it took for me was a matter of hours.

State Of Equilibrium

Coming from a physics background I had learnt this somewhere that everything in the universe tends to go towards a “state of equilibrium” it’s the same concept as when hot tends to move towards Cold, High pressure to low pressure, action – reaction etc.

Which comes to the point on what’s on my mind? Does Physics and life have similarities? We try so hard to bring order in our life, surroundings, our professions, our relations etc. But is “order” a state of equilibrium? I guess not! Cause every time you try, something goes wrong and it’s back to Chaos.

You try so hard to be happy but things always screw up. You try so hard to hold on to the person you love but things work against you. You clean so much yet it becomes dirty. You try to do what’s right yet the wrong always wins. You try to bring stability in the world and it is thrown back in chaos.

So I believe Chaos is the balance! Sadness and depression is the right state of mind. So why do we try to unbalance it? Leave it as it is and with time you would get used to it and it won’t feel so bad anymore.
Have no expectations and you would never be disappointed. Love nobody and you would never have heartache.

This may be a pessimistic view! But hey! Even the optimist believes someday the pessimist would be right!
Peace Out! Or rather The War is on!

Pseudo Patriotism

This takes me back to about 14 years. We have this inter-house debate in school on the topic “Is India a developed nation? “. I have to put up a case for “NO” which is not that difficult. No doubt India is a great country and I am proud to be its citizen. But in reality we have a long way to go before we can call ourselves that.

Despite of having put a good case and leaving my opponents very little margin to prove me wrong, I lost out. Reason - simple enough the votes were in favor of my opponent as no one wanted to sound unpatriotic by agreeing with me!

And from that day onwards I have always wondered - do we stand by what is right or by what we feel is “politically correct” or is it a herd mentality?

Take the recent case of Sania – Mallik wedding controversy. Why do some of our political leaders feel disappointed that Sania chose a non Indian person to marry? Or are they really that concerned he is a non Indian or is it that he is a Pakistani? Why are they upset that she would be settling in Dubai? Why does Bal Thackeray question her patriotism? Why is she is being asked silly questions who would she support in an Indo-Pak match? And it’s not only the Indians but so are the Pakistanis wanting her to represent Pakistan in tennis.

So the question is - does patriotism means marrying your countryman? (What about the Indian pledge that we took in school – All Indians are my brothers and sisters?). Is it patriotism to only support your country’s team? What about may the best team win? Is it patriotism not to allow Pakistani’s in IPL? Is it patriotism to pack all Pakistani artists out of our country?

So what are we to do? Do we cave in to prove that we are loyal or do we stand our ground and stand by truth? It’s a very difficult thing to do, Sometimes I wonder would there have been lesser Nazis if Germans did not cave in to Hitler’s call of supreme race patriotism? Would there have been lesser terrorists if people did not question their faith? Would there have been lesser wars/ battles within countries, within different states of the same country, within different religions, within different sects of the same religion? Why do we have to go to such drastic lengths just to prove that we belong?

Oh and this just struck me! What if Sania had married a North Indian and moved to Mumbai and took up a spot of Marathi Manoos in tennis, what would Raj Thackeray have to say to that?