दिल की बातें, सीधे से

Library Originally uploaded by prabhaJha Book Review I just finished reading the book by Edward Luce “In spite of the gods”. I am as amazed as I always am after reading some extraordinary book. I wasn’t looking forward to it as much assuming it will sound like a text book about Indian history with gruesome pictures of beurocracy politics and other various problems a large democracy can have. And I am more convinced than ever than India is like no other. It is a must read. No matter if you are an Indian or not this book talks about the emergence of India and relevance to world. It gives you an overall picture and covers the topic entirely leaving no questions to ask for. I must thank my boss who recommended that I read this book. And I made sure I get it and read it. This is one of those rare books where I couldn’t skip a word, leave alone the paragraph and page. The author has done his complete research and has gathered indepth knowledge from the people in front line. Be it politics, ...

friends Originally uploaded by prabhaJha Friends Friends meet and friends greet Friends say thing you wouldn’t believe Friends listen and they cry hiding no tears behind Friends are those who let you cry and blow your nose Right on their shoulders no matter how you pose Friends come to you unannounced And welcome you way past-midnight No matter what, you know that They will be there and they will stand by you When with them you don’t really have to talk You don’t have to know if it was amusing or not Life is just the way it is and friends can sail through Along with you, effortlessly Just give it time and some soul searching Leave judgments behind for heart warming On the winter’s night, nothing else feels better But a fireplace and a friend to share the coffee With warm warm feelings Year after year Every harsh winter That’s the way- I see my friends You tell me - did you feel same way about me.

radha-krishna Originally uploaded by prabhaJha Conspiracy My mind and heart are involved in the plot That my beloved plays on me Otherwise why do my heart pangs out of chest Beating hard Every time I see him or hear him coming Why does it fill my eyes with saline water At the slightest thought of losing his side Feeling lost and helpless at the moment When I know I just can not reach him Hard to explain was that all Not anymore and I know their trick It’s him, who has gotten control All over me They have this plan and they make me suffer No matter when and how my lover Occurs to me I lose control and they take charge They enjoy in tormenting me No matter how much I try to hide They really know and find out My feelings they are fully aware of All that I can not beat and I am trapped into It is the conspiracy of my mind and heart and him.

birds Originally uploaded by prabhaJha Free Bird Only if I were a free bird, I would roam in the vast blue sky And figure out myself that it is not actually blue but seems Then I would travel all over, wherever the air would take me Widespread my wing, from the dawn to dusk I would fly and explore, see things and move on to other Across the ocean and way above the clouds Touch the says of sun, as far as I could And come flying back with swelling heart Drench my wings with every drop of rain Fluff the weather with the first touch of snow I would fly fly and fly allover When my wings get tired And I wouldn’t want to fly anymore I know it will happen I would need that nest and I will have it right there On that tall and old banyan tree, by that river Across which I will see the boats sailing through Sitting right in my shelter While also getting ready for my next adventure I will wait till my moment arrives and fly out again But only If I were a bird.

man2 Originally uploaded by prabhaJha Another favorite of mine, As I was suggested to add ethnicity and I guess I was able to do that successfully after trying 3 sketches for an African American Face. Wohoooo!! I can post from Work...I must make a lot more pictures now that I can scan and post here. Alta kept saying I have too many words here but no visuals and guess she figured how I could do that. Than you!

child Originally uploaded by prabhaJha Out of 40 - This is undoubtedly my favorite !

women4 Originally uploaded by prabhaJha This is another sketch from the series I was making on Post-its. I am done with those. They are all put together in a collage now which Praveen thinks is crowded by people and I agree- Sometime doesn’t the world appear crowded by so many faces- known and unknown. Especially in a train. All that excitement caused me to commit the TYPO in my last posting…..Too much to handle !

man1 Originally uploaded by prabhaJha Thanks to Alta , I was able to blog from work. WOW ! This is a breakthrough. It is something - Since I did not have the proviledge of posting from work, I am feeling so dumb at the moment and wondering what should I write. May be I should write teh way I do - In word document and then copy and paste it....No. I will think of something first let me get hang of it !!

Diwali tomorrowIt is going to be Diwali tomorrow and I am planning to leave early to make some arrangements for puja. I haven’t even bought diyas or mithayi yet. It was first time ever that I did not buy anything on Dhanteras for reason; I prefer to keep with myself. I was thinking of few more things to say but I guess I will just close today on this note….

Diwali tomorrowIt is going to be Diwali tomorrow and I am planning to leave early to make some arrangements for puja. I haven’t even bought diyas or mithayi yet. It was first time ever that I did not buy anything on Dhanteras for reason; I prefer to keep with myself. I was thinking of few more things to say but I guess I will just close today on this note….

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I guess I must write something today, Now that I am done reading my book "Second Helpings" I can move on to the book which I do not really look forward much to but have to read as my boss recommends. I will tell more about that later. For now I was glad I finished this book - I did skip some of the letters she wrote to Hope and I am glad I won't be laying down in my bed, couch and rug around the house reading this book tonight as I did last 3 nights. I also have a book of haiku poems that I want to read, 2 years back papa was into writing Haiku all the time. I never asked if he is still writing them, guess not. I gather he hits the wall just like I do but he has better sustainability than I do; after all he has pulled it so far. They are back to Calcutta now; I need to talk to them sometime. Today was such a boring ugly nerve-racking sloooooooooooooooow and drag day. I can not believe it that I have survived it so far. I can not wait to go home and ... Well that was yeste...

Winters in Calcutta When I think about winters in Calcutta the first thing I remember is that early morning when I am walking to station, wrapped in a shawl to catch the train to Salt Lake, for one of those early morning lab sessions. It is a busy time for Sabzi wallah's setting up their places by the station Road; there are huge bags of fresh vegetable getting off the train at pretty much every station. And the vegetables are so fresh they are a picture of perfection still holding the dew drops on their skins. Well I sometimes confuse the chilies for Peppers for the smell, well I dint taste or see it and it did smell like peppers. Then the second thing about winter is walking barefoot to the river Ganges on early morning for the Chhath Puja, a festival of worshipping sun while it's still rising across the river. WOW, I miss it so much and it's almost the time, I guess it is due in next 20 days or so. I wanted to be in India this year for the festivals so badly. May be next...

Well I finished making 20 faces and I guess 30 should be enough for the size of collage I have in my mind. I showed those 20 to Praveen and he thought Most of them do not look happy, and he was actually right as there is no body in and around the train unless they are with their loved ones which is a very rare scenario. People with kids are usually annoyed in process of calming them down and rest of the people are in so much rush or tired that there is no smiles, any happiness or any sign communication of around if not frustration. So is it the communication that brings happiness, if not real at least the virtual one? I will make 10 more in next 2 days, though today I will be leaving at lunch time and I will have the whole day tomorrow to catch up with things. I wish I am able to do it. I have been moved to this new isolated position, which has bigger desk more space and more quite also a better view. According to Feng Shui it is good to have a water body in front of you and so this is...

It is funny how sometimes I hit the wall. I hit another wall after those first 51 pages. I feel like my writing sense has gone numb or am I waiting to get some feedback from the editors. So far haven’t heard anything from anybody about my writings. Anyways, I will see to it later. This week I am into a frenzy of making miniature face sketches on post-its at my desk. You can imagine how small they are. Well most of them are facing straight across, other somehow tilted. They are actually those many people that I see on train pretty much everyday. Too bad that I took notice of just young faces and there are barely any travelers of other age group. I am planning to put them all together on a big sheet overlapping each other, symbolizing how people from different place and stages of life come together to catch a train every morning. It will be fun. I made some 6 faces and they are not those pretty young women but there is a young boy, some men and old women as well. After making those real...

I do not want to enlighten people anymore with the sinking financialmarket news. I guess they will be doing favor to themselves by avoidingsome of it and praying instead as some has already chosen to do. Altathinks I am concentrating too much on the negative aspects of everythingand she showed me that graph (she knows) which was really an eye opener.On that note I have been thinking about being more environment friendlythese days. I obviously recycle as much as I can. I also avoid usingplastic. For paper also I try to minimize the use - I use the same cupof glass for water as long as I can, I reuse my plastic cutleryeveryday. I try to switch off whenever it isn't required. Now that theChristmas and Thanksgiving are approaching, I came up with an idea.Yesterday while getting off the train a noticed a collage made out ofnewspaper. It looked quite alright and contemporary. So I decided nowonwards I am wrapping up all my gifts in news paper decorated by my dearson. This way I will not ...

Well Here I go again. I read the article how the housing market has picked up after August http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27083134/?GT1=43001 and then again another article claiming the US is headed to the worst recession in history http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27083134/?GT1=43001. A perfect day to begin with, though I am very happy for Alta and can feel the thrill for her that she will be singing at Avery_Fisher_Hall in New York on Dec 13th. I will de my best to be there and since it's a show for kids, Pratyush might enjoy it as well. I am really delighted and want to wish her all my luck. I admire people who work hard to live their dreams and achieve what they targeted for. The weather is somewhat dull now though it was quite sunny in the morning. The wonderful color of dawn that I see from my bedroom window makes my day. I wish to live in that house all my life, collect cherries and peaches after summer and garden in spring and do parties in my winters or chat with friends by the fi...

Seems the Wall Street has its entire wall invaded and crushed. This is the 3rd Monday since the Lehman collapse and there is no end in sight. Last Monday Citi announced its Wachovia deal and there was an upbeat mood at Citi offices, people were running around only stopping to catch a breath - busy making plans and charts which just culminated into a Law suit today morning. Well I thanks god for letting me have what I still have in life while I can not help grieving over the losses, may be it was never mine but the still the loss is all mine. I admire and respect those men of steel who are pulling through this turmoil and standing up for their rights, dignity and people. It is treacherous without any end in sight. I wonder why commoners like us become a part of it while we did nothing but worked hard, dreamt, and tried to lead a fulfilling life. That was all – Was that too much? I am in shallow mood today but since it is very quite on the business front as people are not holding their b...

Yesterday I dint write anything as I was just trying to digest all the information received. Well - I know I can not digest them all with my tiny brain which is so pre-occupied with its own silly complications. Day before yesterday evening, I almost felt that I am going to qualify for a spot in any mental asylum. I was so convinced I even got the phone to call dada to warn him about it. With hope that he will either tell me it was Normal or take action on it after some analysis. Well as usual- he wasn't available and I dint get to talk to him and I haven't even received a call back yet because I dint leave a message to send him in panic. I waited cried growled and soon the day was over and I slept peacefully. I hate it worst when I take my anger out on my little son who hardly sees me during the day and instead of spending some quality time with him I am setting goals and squeezing plans into it. It is sad, very sad- pathetic. I also finished reading How Opal Mehta Got .....By ...