The magic of Mohit Chauhan :

As the lyrics of the famous Camel song, "Song within a Song" goes :

"So far beyond the sky
Not knowing how or why
You realize this feeling is forever
And though another day
May steal your dreams away
You and the song will always stay together.

The dream is like a song
It leads you on and on
The piper plays his tune so you must follow."

Yes, such is the feeling whenever Mohit Chauhan embarks on his duty, the responsibility to be a piper for others to follow, the duty to infuse love and melancholy with equal ability and of course, the duty to enhance his priceless natural ability to be the heart and soul of a song.

As part of Silk Route, his first album (Boondein) had approached, mystified and allured me with its sheer simplicity. While "Dooba Dooba Rehta Hoon Aankhon Mein Teri" had his magical voice supported with acoustic brilliance and flute, the title track "Boondein" itself proved what he alone can do. The song "Humsafar", in its own class, justified the power of lyrics and the strength of a song when the lyrics are delivered with apt articulation. For me, it was so evident that they would scale new heights that it never surprised me when they bagged the Channel V Best Album award for Boondein.

Post Boondein-era , came their next project Pehchan and along with it came the magical song, "Sapnay"- prompted me to fall in love with harmonica, there came "Door Chala Aaya", an amazing rendition of nostalgia and came Mohit Chauhan's self-discovery through the song "Morni". I whole-heartedly appreciated the range of experiments that the lead vocalist, Mohit Chauhan himself can deliver. I was haunted.

Sadly, the band faded away but Mohit, like a God-sent warrior to fight for music that reminds someone of dawn, when the world sleeps in solace or of the twilight, when the world waits to be reborn, continued his duty.

And came "Guncha Koi" [OST : Main Meri patni aur Woh], and proved the melody assures the seat well above rhythm.

Lost in my own duties, if there was ever an escape through music, it was always Mohit Chauhan who had opened the doors for me. I realized I have discovered Mohit Chauhan.

A long pause in between, long enough for my hunger and then came "Tum Se Hi"( from the movie Jab We Met) and "Aankhon Hi Aankhon Mein" ( from the movie EMI). The former being a velvet while the latter had just recreated the magic. The "Magic" of Mohit Chauhan.

What happens when you get a dream job and love at the same time?

Well, it seems to speak thru my eyes nowadays .. :) .. read on !

oh.. so tenderly , so leisurely ..
happiness tiptoes into my heart
and in my heartbeat, it sways..
fills my world with fragrance , with colour ..
and seems to speak thru my eyes..

Like a dew on a rose..
like waves meeting the shores
like the fragrance that fills the air..
happiness fills my heart..
and in my heartbeat, it sways..
fills my world with love , with pleasure ..
those seem to speak thru my eyes..

slowly it glitters with unfathomable joy,
Gradually.. tenderly.. makes me feel what I am ..

Every sight looks so colourful..
the seasons seem so lovable..
In such happiness, the world is indeed such a beautiful place..
What else on earth is peace all about??

While all along.. gradually and tenderly..
happiness tiptoes into my heart..
and in my heartbeat, it sways on ..
and seems to speak thru my eyes..

and I do blink :)

Where I am !!

Preface : This particular blog is unlike others ! It is not an idea that I want to portray , its just for the satisfaction of using the keyboard as a medium to type ur mind , that I am writing this note .

To be honest , I feel myself as a person who is running all over , finding the same old fears .. thinking , manipulating , planning ... yet unknown of the present and the future .
Working for a company that is the leader of mobile software development in the world , I should have been satisfied with my achievements so far , should look to continue in this role and lead a hassle-free life .
However , in between all the C++ stuff , the software processes , the designs , the market stats there is something latent which I am unable to decipher .. some idea that forces me to think that this is not where I belong . I have been spending 8-10 hours every day for the past two years and yet , I do not have the feeling of self-achievement . This is my age , my time , my world and yet , what am I doing ? Debugging a part of the code and developing a future mobile application which contributes to less that even 5% to the whole mobile domain ! Who is benefiting ? Am not for sure . Then why stick on with this ?

Career is an interesting word . Its more attractive than a woman to a man . Before a woman , a man might lose his senses and reasoning , but before the "career" , maybe he loses himself . And what is career btw? what is it leading to ? How is it measured ? Is it measured by buying a Mercedes at the age of 35 after not knowing what he/she has done for the past 15 years ? or is it buying a flat in the heart of Bangalore with minimum down-payment ??

The worst part is often we speak the words that I have put in the paragraph above and yet , this career blinds us enough not to make us think what we actually want . Result : we continue in the trade , take up the lead role in the cage .

And yet I or maybe some of you might yet not know what you were born for ? When I used to think and plan for future , it was like 3-4 years of good work experience followed up with a MBA from a reputed university abroad and settlement after that . Alas ! I was optimizing my options among all my confusions !

Things will change from my part . I am indeed pondering about what I want to do and what I am the best at . It will be not be the same again . I will not exchange my walk on the path to my destiny for a lead role in a cage . Hope I reach the conclusion asap.

A Love Poem (semi-major influence from a song ) :

Kyun ..
mere dil ki tanhayee
tumhe choonke sharmayee
kya mein tumse keh doon ??

Kyun ..
naye khwabo ke saath
mere aankh huye lehraaye
kya mein tumse keh doon ??

Kyun ..
koi resham resham aag
chere meethi dhoon mein raag
main bigaal jaata hoon
tham jaata hai pal
yun har ek pal

Kyun ..
naya lagta hai akash
kuch karta hoon talash
kya mein tumse keh doon ??

Ohh Kyun ..
mujhe hota hai ehsaas
ke ho tum bilkul paas
kya mein tumse keh doon ??

Kyun ..
tumhe dekhu tou har baar
meri saanson mein sitar
saj ta hai tumhara tun
banke meri dulhan

Kuch din se Kyun ...
yehi aata hai khayal
ki sitaaro ke yeh ishaara
ke har sitaara ho tum

ke tum pehli subah ho meri raaton ki
ke tum pehli wajah ho meri baaton ki
Haan tum pehli kasak ho meri dharkan ki
Haan tum pehli jhalak ho meri deewanepan ki

tum , kaheen shabnam mein khoyee
kaali jaise koi ..
tumhe paa liya maine
aangan tha benishaan
dhoondlaata har nishaan
roshan kiya tumne

tum musafir ho chaand ke
mujhe le chalo baandh ke
tum mere dil ka aks ho
haan woh tum hi ho
main jiski khusboo mein huaa guum

ke tum pehli khushi ho meri waafa ki
ke tum pehli duaa ho meri yaadon ki
Haan tum pehli kasak ho meri dharkan ki
Haan tum pehli jhalak ho meri deewanepan ki



-- from someone "Unconquered" :-)

The "Father" :

Sometimes I wonder whats there in a father that makes him someone whom every child wants to emulate ? Whats in his persona that makes every child admire him and look up to him as the summit of his/her existence ?

He, "the Father" , didn't breathe with his wife when the child was born , he might have been outside the delivery room anxiously awaiting the best news of his life . He never knows where his kids' nappies are , he hardly knows what time the kid gets what nutrition , he rarely makes an effort to go deep into the understanding of which toy would be suitable for his kid's age ... and yet , when he returns back tired , stressed from a day's work and sees his kids waiting in the bench for him ... all he does is to run his fingers through their hair and ask , " How are u, son ? " ...That was it , it means an ocean to the kid .

Whenever a child cries , you know what he did ? He yelled to the Mother , " something wrong , he wants you ! " . He might have never realized that the child might want him too .

Sometimes , it seems he wanted to hug his children , he wanted to kiss them ..but he hung back .... but yet , when he does hug ( for instance, after the kid's first appointment letter ) , it means more to the kid than anybody else , that one hug makes him forget all the expected-but-didn't-get-hugs that the child had since he was a kid .

Personally , I have always looked up to my father with an unfathomable amount of trust and esteem . His struggle at workplace , his love for me , my mother , his sense of responsibility , his sense of brotherhood , his social status .... he seems flawlesss a person .

A magical elusive quality that children see in their father is the "strength" of their hands which they trust never to drop them when they are thrown into the air ....

Maybe there is a fear deep inside , never coming to surface , slowly transforming into a love for the father that can rarely be accomplished by words .

Without ironing a shirt , without baking a cake or reading a bed-time story , "He" does occupy a place at the summit of a child's existence , gradually initiating a dream in the child to fulfill the rare role , that is father .

The Realization of Success :


Let us face it ! What is success anyway ? What is the worth of this 6-letter word ? What is this idea that keeps us alive in its efforts to get us closer to the definition it sets for each one of us ?

Over the years there have been numerous definitions of success, and sometimes I think we must all wonder what success really is and where we stand individually . I would like to paraphrase John Gray's definition :
" Success comes from within you and is reached when you are living authentically every day. It is feeling confident, happy and powerful in the process of doing work about which you are passionate. It is identifying those things that make you feel fully alive, vibrant, joyous and fulfilled and then excelling at whatever those things are. "

True indeed !

To add on to the above definition , I feel that to be truly successful , we must honour our whole being . That involves appreciation of the spiritual , intellectual , emotional and the physical components that give expressions to who we are truly at the core . Being successful involves a complete understanding of the above expressions and identifying, working towards a goal that brings about a feeling of completeness and justice to one's being .

For example , a friend of mine is passionate about bikes . Nothing can match the happiness in his eyes when he sees the modification of his bike being done to exactly what he wanted . He thrives hard so that his bike can have the best-look as well as have the best on-road conditions . As he pursues this passion, he is able to care for his whole being and experience a sense of being fully alive that he has never known before. And when the bike is ready to be kicked , he has an internal voice that yells "Success" to him .
A mother finds success in giving birth to a child and then gradually bringing him up with utmost care and unfathoamble love . Again , in that process , she experiences a sense of being fully alive as her child grows up to mark her success to the world .
Carrying on with the list , check out the grace evolving out of those adventure-freaks who show glimpses of their succesful ventures into the wild in television channels Nat Geo or Discovery .

One can thus conclude that each person has their own definition of success, and those who succeed, have pursued goals that match their values born out of a deep passion in their hearts.

Identification and Realization :

Hmm . Now comes the difficult part . Identifying one's true passions and then realizing them . Most of us fail to identify them , we just get carried away with circumstances and try to seek happiness under-estimating our actual being . Result - we all know it very well , we face every second of it !
Even after a "successful" identification , its hard to realize. Cant say much about realizing them as I am still in Identification phase :) .

However , in my search for an answer to the situation above , I have had the priviledge to look into several articles , discussions and this is what I have concluded so far :

You need to take time to clarify what your version of a successful life is and then go for it. Now , that involves a lot of self-analysis , exposing oneself to different situations and checking out inner-reciprocation . Along the way, you'll find others who will offer their support and encouragement. This "other" may include different people u meet while u keep on breathing or different situations that u face alongwith . Unfortunately, you will also find those who would prefer you to stay just as you are now. Often these might include the members of your family, close circle of friends or the mini-world that you have constructed for yourself . It takes courage and determination to focus on your goal and not allow these naysayers to deter you. But you can do it , if and only if you are true to yourself .

My conclusion above promises me an end of my search . I am carrying on with the next phase , with the hope of a clear-sky ahead .

Each person deserves to become the best they can be and that can only happen when we are pursuing dreams that have meaning and value to us. So, lets make world a richer place , blessed with the gift that only You , He , She or Me can give !

A Friend named 'Rex' :



It was the autumn of 2000 . I was then a 1st year student of Sri Siddhartha Institute of Technology,Tumkur ( near Bangalore ) specializing in Computer Engineering . Like all other 1st year friends of mine , I too was exposed to ruthless torture of some self-unsatisfied seniors who believed the country can progress only if Ragging is done to an acceptable-extreme level . It went to physical extemes while emotions , brotherhood were something that existed on a Neverland .

However , even this dark cloud had a silver lining ! Our seniors used to ask us to take a detailed "Intro" of the girls and handover the notes to them. God knows what they would do with those collections ! Whatever , it silently gave us and the girls an unique opportunity to get to know each other , become friends .

It was in this stage of life when I happened to see an "intro" of a lady who mentioned her favourite song to be "Paint my Love" by MLTR . Incidently , that happened to be one of my would-die-for favourites . I reverted back to the first page again and saw the name ( reading this time) of the lady to be Rekha Natrajan . Details reflected that she was from Bangalore and a Computer Engineer-to-be . I made up my mind to meet her .

The next day saw the end of my search and I met her , relating the basic cause that made me stand before her . Being an ardent fan of MLTR herself , it was easy for both of us to kick off a chat and sooner , we were friends .
Days passed by along with our discussions related to varied topics , varied experiences in and before college life , opinions and modifications of personal goals we set in life ... steadily becoming friends whose scope doesnt end with the end of one's college life . As years passed by , trust dominated the friendship . Internals , Semesters , College Fests , a dance performance ( was a big flop though we had immense fun ) , birthday parties of other friends , hostel politics , class stupidities , unsuccessful plans of going to Germany for MS etc etc ..the list goes on ...all were part of our thought-sharing process . Nicknamed "Rex", Rekha was indeed one I could always count upon .

After our glorious! engineering timespan , our first job search was for AOL , which was a sort of a mini-adventure where we came face to face with reality , with interviews , GDs . We enjoyed it thoroughly as we had taken it as an effort to know what things actually are . All these experiences , which involves learning and puts a deep impact on any of one's future ventures , were those that we shared together along with a few think-alike , act-alike friends .

Our search ended with Rex joining 24/7 and myself Accenture . Discussions now took a new turn with topics like professionalism , seniors 'n' juniors at work , values of work-experience , learning new technical stuffs , new friends , changing company , job-satisfaction etc ...the list goes on .

As in today , we still carry on the legacy , sharing our knowledge on whatever we gain from life , taking some time out to listen to the other person , looking forward to grow as an individual and always standing beside each other .

Maybe , thats the purity and the bliss of friendship .

Thanks Rex . Friends Forever :) .