अर्द्धांगिनी, जीवन-संगिनी तुम..

"अर्द्धांगिनी, जीवन-संगिनी तुम..

मेरा आज तुम,

मेरा कल तुम,

मेरे रात और दिन भी तुम।

मेरी मुस्कुराहट में तुम..

मेरे दिल की हर आहट में तुम..

और मेरे व्यथित-मन की राहत भी तुम।

सुख-दुख की सहभागिनी तुम..

जीवन-संगिनी, अर्द्धांगिनी तुम।

मेरा धैर्य तुम,

और करती अधीर भी तुम..!

मेरा साहस तुम,

और मेरी बड़ी दुर्बलता भी तुम..!

मेरा आन तुम,

मेरा शान तुम,

रखती सबका मान तुम,

करती रिस्तों का सम्मान भी तुम।

मेरा भाग्य तुम,

मेरा सौभाग्य तुम,

क़िस्मत को जो कर दे बुलंद

मेरे हाथों की वो लकीर भी तुम..!

मेरी सहभागिनी, जीवन-संगिनी तुम.."

                                              -विराट्

The Dangerous Habit of Living in Denial..

It hurts when we don't support, in what so ever way we can, the causes which have or can have greater impact on our society, our nation and our Home- The Blue Planet EARTH..!

Yesterday was world Earth Hour (28th March 2015 from 8:30pm-9:30pm local time). It's being promoted by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) every year since 2007 when it started in Australia as an awareness initiative against Global Warming.

All we had to do was Switch Off our all non essential lights for 1hour starting from 8:30 pm local time! But did we?

I didn't..because I forgot! And why I forgot?? probably because I didn't give it that much importance.

I was also hurt by the fact that we all have all the time to send/forward so many useless nonsense jokes/pranks on all social media sites. But, I don't remember seeing any regarding this important issue in my frnd circle..which disheartens me! 

We can't be aloof about climate change for long. Because it's inevitable.. unless we pledge to act now! 

"We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and the last generation that can do anything about it!" -Barack Obama 

6 Reasons why every 'arrogant' bachelor should Cook!

I started cooking (full-fledged cooking! I mean...I used to cook maggie and stuff like that earlier as well..) few months back - Last week of October or early November last year. Prior to that I have always been getting food cooked by some maid or was lucky enough to have with me my mummy or  my cousin who are expert at this art.  Last year in October my cousin shifted to her new house and I was having trouble finding maid for cooking due to my work timings and also due to the fact that I am a lone bachelor (will not be for very long though! ;) !! 

So, unwillingly though, I decided to cook myself. And today I can tell you this was one of my best decisions of my life. Learning to cook was a great fun. It also has given me great confidence and brought within me a kind of humbleness/ humility. Here is what all I have learnt from my experiences: 

1. Cooking is not EASY.

Yes, it's not at all easy! It's a full fledged work! And now that I have done it for a while I realise, what someone once said to me was absolutely right that a housewife's introduction shouldn't be "ye kuch nahi karti, ye housewife hain!" anymore. I've started cooking only few months back and I know this is not all that a housewives do...It's just one aspect of her daily chores but after having gone through this I must say it is indeed a very significant and demanding one. So in my view being a homemaker is not at all any lesser job than the so called fancy job of yours!

2. Cooking is not that "Big Deal" thing as well.

You also come to know this fact after you are in the kitchen for 2-4 weeks and after you have burnt few dishes and few fingers of yours as well, ruined some recepies and after you finally got the measure of salt and spices to be added to some particular dish you start to have this feeling that cooking might not be as simple as a walk in the park but its not a 'rocket science' as well. So, it's not a big deal after all.

3. Cooking is a Great Stress buster.

At least for me. It works. I think mainly because when you are naive at something you tend to focus bit more consciously to get things right as you are not used to these kind of work. So your all attention is on the job at hand only and not wandering all around in the universe...and after a period of an hour or so you really feel relaxed as your mind was doing what was in your control instead of worrying about things that may or may not be in your control. This brings happiness feeling of achieving something, specially when your chapatis puffs up like a big spotless sun-melon!!

4. Cooking makes you a multi-tasking expert.

Well, not from the day one I suppose. In fact, during initial days all I could do was just one thing at a time. If I was boiling milk I used to keep staring at the milk in the container until it got boiled and I have turned the gas off. And today, I can use all four burners of my gas simultaneously with different things cooking on each of them.  

5. Cooking reminds me of my Mom.

This I didn't know till few weeks back, although I was cooking for almost 4 months now! Very recently I think last to last week, when I was done with my kitchen's rituals and when I had rearranged all the stuffs to pre-cooking stage in my kitchen, I washed my hands and was checking my twitter account when I smelled my hands- in that very instant all I could remember was my mother - her hands too smelled exactly the same...! I belong to that generation of people and come from that family background where we didn't have the luxury of servants. My mom is a working lady. And she is a homemaker too. She used to cook and occasionally, feed the two of us (me and my brother Kunal) with her hands...! It was a priceless memory lost somewhere in my mesencephalon and I am glad that I have revived it and it was possible only because of cooking. 

PS: Now I never forget to smell my hands after cooking.!!

6. You can always Experiment/ innovate.

As long as you are bachelor and you are cooking for yourself alone or some 'chaddi-buddy' friends, you can experiment with whatever you are cooking whether be it cooking rice with few mint leaves in pressure cooker, cooking maggie with oregano seasonings with hint of garlic butter added right after turning off the gas (awesome) or cooking maggie with scrambled eggs (Awful- never try) and many more such things. And sometimes something amazing comes out of your experiments. So, while there is no one to judge you or rate your cooking keep experimenting and keep learning.

Dr. Virat Kuntalam (Follow me on Twitter @viraat_k)

Happy New Year

For me this whole year was some sort of roller coaster ride... with so many highest highs and equally even were the lowest low...! But over all, like they say, all is well if it ends well...

If I were to sum up the whole year I would say I did reasonably well professionally...made new good friends who were just my colleagues once, earned respect from colleagues and sub-ordinate staffs, gained admiration of my superiors, and most of all, it was the love and affection of patients which blew me over...!

While my professional life was full of highs...(except for a few lows too!) my personal life was a bumpy ride... with me hurting so many of my near and dear ones...! Though on most of the occasions it was purely unintentional.. but still the fact remains unchanged that I did hurt them and hurt them pretty badly.

Sometimes it so happens that you are so pissed off with yourself that you don't even treat other people well... it's not that you are mad with the person standing next to you or the person you are conversing on phone with...but still you behave rudely...you talk rudely... and they think its them who are at fault...when the fact is its actually your frustration with yourself that coming out...!!

A while back, I read somewhere, "People will forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel." this is so true..everyone should remember this...I need to remember this all the time.. for there is no greater cruelty than to make someone feel awful..specially when you are aware of their feelings..

Problems aggravate when you become habitual in taking people for granted...you need to cherish the people who care for you...not take them for granted...as if what they do for you is their duty...! Be wise, and always have this knowledge that if you are cared for then you are certainly very lucky! Stand for them. Take good care of those who care for you..for you can only repent once you have lost them to your arrogance..!

May this New Year brings more happiness and wisdom to all of us..