380 Days of xyzz

380 days of me.

Note: Inspired by 500 days of summer

 Day 1: Convocation-Begin with an ending.

Supposedly a day that marked the end of everything Indore (my other Alma mater, Thapar being the first one). End of two very emotion filled years. Friends, heart break(s), infinite parties, 81 days in Europe and 10 days of chicken pox, beautiful sunsets and campus jogs. My parents decided to skip the whole thing which gave me one more reason to party. The whole saying goodbyes was very difficult and along with that the feeling of embarking upon a new phase after the MBA campus life, with all friends scattered in itself felt dark and bleak.

Day 239: Coldplay

From their entry to exit, I was ecstatic, full of happiness, childlike joy, bouncing around with joy and tears of happiness. The moment they played The Scientist instant tears developed and the same happened when they played Everglow, paradise and fix you. We thought that the concert would be not more than 20 minutes but since it was Coldplay, we had to attend it and to our surprise they almost played for 2 hours.I am glad I attended this concert and even more glad to have shared this amazing experience with a man who loves Coldplay as much or even more, Kishore( wow rhyme moment :P). 

Day 61: The greatest beard

97 days of unkempt beard, raw in its truest form and definitely a head turner (people in Jodhpur are not used to such a beard). During my break between college and job I decided to keep that beard in memory of a friendship. Well now it doesn’t even matter but yeah this beard made one thing sure that I and it are inseparable, my current beard is 105 days old. A wise friend once said, you simply do not grow a beard, the beard grows you.

Day 204: Amreecan Express

During my stint at Amreecan(internal joke) express, I made a very good friend and then due to something very stupid we fell apart until one fine day, thanks to FB memories thing, we connected again and met on day 203 along with another amreecan express friend. It was a brilliant night that ended up in a flight journey worth narrating for a lifetime. <insert some keywords which cannot be said in public> made this flight awesome.

Day 331: The grand Punjabi Wedding

The man who made my Eurotrip possible, the man who hosts me whenever I am in Patiala and ever optimistic, got married on this day. The whole ceremony was so peaceful and left me with moist eyes. I had specifically kept a beard to look as much of a Sardar as possible and indeed I did look like one. I still cannot fathom that the guys who I grew with at Thapar are now old enough to get married, it scares me and at the same time makes me happy. I guess this is beginning of part 2 of this book of Life.

Days 242-275: the darkest timeline

One failure after the other, a combined effect of many made me completely lose all my positive energy. I literally fought with every friend close to me and distanced them for a while. I spent a bachelor’s trip not talking to one friend because I was so low and had fought with him for trying to be there for me. It was the lowest low and darkest dark. I hardly talked during this phase and became paranoid, but thanks to the Legion, the Christmas morning snow, I was back to normal by New Year '17.

Day 169: 3^rd Annual Bar run

Continuing the tradition which I and Angad started in 2013 inspired by Simon Pegg’s: The World’s end,We made a plan along with 3 other friends to do pub hopping in Bombay, but ended up covering just 2.5 pubs/bars and decided to go home and sleep(age catching up I guess). But yeah the whole effort to gather in Bombay and do it is why we do it. Sharing experiences, reliving memories and creating new moments. 

These are just some of the days of 380 days of highs and low, how highs/lows of past affects your future. There are people who make you and there are people who break you, and it might happen any fine day.

These days remind me of how alive I am, how involved I want to be with everything and everyone around me. I guess this is what living is, feeling is. No matter what awaits, lose or win, it will define you. 

Does this scare me, yes it does! Does this make me hold myself?, No, 

Go all in, feel it all. Go Live

For background score

Things to Do – Part 2

It is that time of the year when you would be bidding your farewell to a lot of people you spent time with. Some say First Impression matters, I say

"Last impression is the final impression"

MBA life has been very transaction oriented in nature, many people you met just needed something from you and you needed something from them, once the business was done the relationship ended or went dormant.  Amidst all this dirt and muck you must have come across a few crazy diamonds, crazy enough to call "friends". You might have a friend for everything else you do, foodie friend, social media friend,’ music and stuff’ friend and what not ; but this diamond person is someone who has just been there always and forever (after all diamonds are forever: P). Have you seen a diamond ring judge you? , no right!!, these diamonds / constants are the true gems of your life. They just stayed watching silently, like a secret guardian, like the Dark Knight. They probably have seen you cry, and deep down they just cried with you but on the outside wore a smile, they could see you make mistakes but just stood by to make you learn the hard way, they just let you be yourself, untouched and pure. They are rare, don’t let them fade away.

Go back in time a couple of years and just remember the good times and bad times(specially the bad times because only when it is dark enough , the stars show up ) and some faces will appear who were just stuck in your thoughts and in everything else,who were there every time you needed them to be ; these faces  are the diamonds/constants of your life. Remember all the quality time you have spent with them , hold them close , tell them how much they mean to you and thank them for every single instance they stuck out and you will come across a smile so warm and heart melting that you might even cry(you can thank me later) .

I remember how after chicken pox a person (won’t name you ) offered to go that extra mile to help me , I remember that person who would just listen to all the cribbing I had to do and just give the best advice. I remember that person who partied with me when nobody would, I remember that person who with a smile would make my day, I remember that person who would just offer me to teach guitar and be my punching bag, I remember that person who even after all the personal troubles would always smile and give me the best advice. I remember those persons who made Scandi happening, I remember that person who literally saved me in Germany and that person who kept me fed in Europe. Most of all I remember that #one single person who didn’t and couldn’t let me go, even when the odds were against.

In a nutshell, go break your precious bubble and let go of any reason holding you back, do what is just and right(be a little less selfish) and spend whatever time is left with these constants because frankly speaking nothing else matters and it’s time to polish those diamonds. Somewhere down the line I did forget and made a lot of my friends unhappy, so here I am doing the one single thing I should have done a long time ago #JustLive

For all other non-serious stuff read this other entry I wrote during the final days of BTech.
Things to Do - Part 1

Enjoy this wonderful Coldplay song which goes perfectly with the theme of the post

The Lists

In December Coldplay announced their final closing album; this event not only triggered a series of sad emotions, Coldplay videos on loop but an insight as well. Visiting a Coldplay concert along with other items is one of the top items in my bucket list. Talking about lists, one’s life(not you Neo Anderson)  is full of lists ,some independent and some dependent on other lists. Right from inception till death, there are lists. As a child list of do’s and don’ts, list of your favorite toys, list of items one is allowed to eat. With time as life goes on and gets so heavy more lists come into picture, list of favorite people, crushes, friends, songs, and more songs. The lists are dynamic and keep on growing in size and number ; list of fantasies ; list of favorite  games ; list of football fantasy teams , the bucket list ,list of things to do when bored in class , list of pick-up lines and lists lists lists. Almost everything one like’s or does is an item in some list. One particular list of interest is of who one perceives to be his/her friends , this list is of vital importance and should be taken care of with utmost importance , though there are jumpers who get in and out of this list , one should keep track of this single most important list he/she is gonna make

In one of the marketing lectures I attended , it was explained that in general humans make mental lists in their minds of things they like and at most remember the first three entries in it , the point that I am trying to make is that given so many lists one has , a person remembers only the top entries , rest all are more or less not important. All one has to do is get the lists right , coz there is so much to do in such less time. Go ponder who and what belongs to which list , and start crossing items in your lists. 

PS – Here is one of the greatest Coldplay song and a gateway to the rest