How much do you want to do?

Past few weeks, to be true.. past few years..
..have gone by, thinking about what I want to do in life. What would be my passion, what would be my motivation.. and blah blah blah.

Last few days, Yes last few days..
I saw a very old man riding a bicycle, then I saw a couple having coffee, then I saw a person driving a Beamer, I met a woman who drove alone from Pune to Jaipur, I also talked to somebody who has already skydived 3 times, Met a man who has seen 40 countries and culture, I saw people working 16 hours a day for couple of thousand bucks, I witnessed millions worth deals being struck, I saw a couple with two kids taking their yearly off to goa, I saw their holiday pics, I watched 'Moment of Truth' on Star world, I saw F.R.I.E.N.D.S .. yet again, I saw people leaving their jobs, I saw them jobless for months, I saw a 6-7 year old kid on streets begging, I saw his mother pushing him towards car to do it, I spent all day at friends place watching crappy movies and eating Maggie, I saw people taking cabs to 5 star hotels, where I took an auto to a budget one, I also saw people partying late in night, People getting high and wasted, I saw pictures of people having a pool party, I sat through a meeting where people wanted to change the root cause of backward education, then I saw an old couple yapping over a cup of tea, I saw people sleepless over screwed work, I saw them getting back in action next day..

Last few days.. I Realised,
I want Everything.

The Ordinary Joe

Lately my work makes me get in touch with a lot of Start-up related news and happenings in India. Its evident from everywhere that entrepreneurship is quite glorified and its hep to be an entrepreneur these days.

For some reason though, Media and even common people who blog, only thinks that when people who come out from IIT/IIM and start their own ventures are the real heroes. Is it?

Few things that come to my mind-

We do know that they are not the lesser mortals in terms of IQ (with the hectic selection process they go through to get into one)

We do know that they have the best networks in terms of contacts, coz all their batch mates get placed at crucial postions in big companies.

We do know that the IIM stamp get's them moolah flowing in quick. VC, Institutional Capital, Angel Investors.. all are just looking with a torch for some IIM guy to triple their money.

We do know that as soon as the IIM guy opens something, media flocks around to cover it. Coz OMG! he left his 1 crore job oppurtunity to sell vegetables. He's from IIM! Click Click Click!!

No, I am not further glorifying these guys, I am not degrading either. Have huge respect for them. After all they have also put years of hardwork to get into that institute and clear it.
Just trying to put across an overlooked fact that things are 200 times more easier for them as they are from THE institute, which pulls crowd. which makes things automatic for them.

Real heroes are the one, who have nothing coming towards them, they have to run after all. They loose their weight, their shoe's loose their sole, their hair strands choose to leave their head. They are the average people, ordinary people who walk past you everyday, but just dare to dream for themselves and choose the most difficult route.

This ordinary Joe is the one who deserves the Spot.

Its time media realizes where to focus.

Quarter-Life crisis.

I have not written the following lines, Before you move ahead with reading .. I just wanna thank the person who has written it (I wish I knew who did).
"Dear X, I don't think I have came across feelings compiled so well into words for a long time now. And yes I do relate to it."


BEING IN TWENTIES - SOMETHING

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.

You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you're doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

We call it the "Quarter-life Crisis."

FATE DETERMINES WHO COMES INTO OUR LIVES.....OUR HEART DETERMINES WHO STAYS

Launching!!!!

Finally the crucial day is upon us. We are launching http://www.yomacha.com/ on this 17th!
Now a lot of people are thinking that its a gonna be a massive launch with booze party, hot girls, dance floor etc.. lemme jus butt in and clarify... Its a website launch by a start up venture, Which means a couple a insiders, cups of coffee or tea, one cake, chips and stopping every passable face on road to click picture and put up on yomacha.com.
So ladies and (few) gentlemen around, get your best screen shot and load it up! Who knows you can be the next newest recruit of the super sexy no nonsense K-Serials! :D Jokes apart, Its your moral obligation to encourage us Kids. DO it NOW!!

Excitement building!

Finally after millions of samosa and kachoris down, the work has started to build on! So has the excitement... Excitement of the expected, the unknown, the response, the failure, the victory.
I hope everybody is praying out there :D

100 point someone.

95% of people I know today (I know awfully lot), are not living the lives they want to, they dreamed of, they thought of. Shamelessly I am one of them. Most are entangled in the web of Comfort, Status Quo and mainly Security. Rest plainly just don't know what they want.

Luckily and accidentally I met one who is not ashamed to live her own life. The one she wants. Being an alumnus of AIESEC, I happened to meet this ex-intern (Swiss) who is now living in Jaipur to help a few ignored lot make a better future. Make India Shine.

Couple of days back, I went to this pre-school run solely by her in a slum where its hard to find a decent place to breathe, let alone conduct a pre-school for very young unprivileged (only by money) kids. Thanks to Shashaank who I tagged along with. We were there for three hours amidst 30 kids, 3 teachers, 2 outsiders (me and shash) and Regulla Willi a.k.a Regi.


Class was divided into many parts from imparting general knowledge to dance music to crafts (being a Saturday). Some of the kids seemed awfully bright.
Adnan, this 3-4 year old child was a rockstar, setting stage alive with his dance moves.
Arjun, possibly the brightest one, not to mention most notorious, makes Sculptures for living.
Khushi, the sweetest takes care of her toddler brother thru the day being 4-5 years herself.
Shankar, 2-3 years old boy with two rabbit ears dressed in hip hop clothing and never standing still.

Surprisingly, every kid there was known in out to Regi and every kid knew her. They liked her, they talked to her, and they wanted to play with her. Given, that communication was limited to very lil hindi and mostly gestures.

At one point I couldn’t help but feel ashamed of myself being same blood and sitting like a goon whereas an outsider understood what my country really needs. At that point of time I wanted to stab every relative and friend I know who had gone abroad to earn money. It was guilt about fretting at nonsenses in life, when actual problems are the ones which I saw then.

People like Regi don’t go through all this. They do what their calling is. They are the ones who deserve page one on newspaper.

Before being at that place, Shashaank had mentioned to me that he couldn’t stop smiling ear-to-ear while he was there the first time. Well, I couldn’t stop smiling either. The place does it for you.

Just in case any of the sane heads out their anywhere in the world want to help out this lady (she got no sponsors, no government aids) carry on her cause, in anyway (volunteer, sponsor, in-cash, in-kind, teach) please drop in a mail to me at vandanamakhariaATgmailDOTcom, and I promise your contribution would all be worth every penny!

Fuck cares about title!!

My today's blog is dedicated to my dear friend and only person I know who cares to read my blog, This one's for you Parul.

Nearly 8 months since I have posted anything here. I hope it does not make you think 'I m also jack's wasted life' :))), coz I sincerely beleive I am not, I know I am not.

Quick recap would include:

quitting the 'looks glam - critically important' job (on a monday morning, YES!!),

moving back from 'oh so interesting' Delhi to my 'ends before it starts' Jaipur,

Foren trip,

failed attempt to be liked by kids,

living under constant threats of desertment by parents due to my EARLY rising habits,

endless coffee mugs at beans,

constant endevour to dodge people asking questions 'so what are u doing these days' 'oh why did u leave the job' 'aw.. aw' crap,

living a horizontal life (its hard to sleep vertically)

This post has no particular agenda..
I could brag here about my FOREN trip; I could write about reasons for leaving job; I could write about getting up in the morning with having nothing to do; I could comment upon the infinite number of books read - movies seen; I could talk about inflation rate - effect of US policies on BRIC countries - Budget - Racism - elections; I have a thousand thoughts going through my mind I could talk about. All relevant.

What I really wanna talk about is a thought, which keeps coming back almost every night in half sleep. A scene from my most favorite show, FRIENDS.

A woman impostering as Monica (Courtney Cox) is telling Monica, about the 2 hours that changed her entire life. She had gone to watch a movie and that turned around her life. Becoz she had wasted those 2 hours on the most boring movie.. 2 hours she knew that would never ever come back.

Since then no other moment of life could be wasted on unimportant things.

Wonder why it keeps coming back?
I wish for everyone alive to have this recurring thought. Possibly in half sleep.