The Bhang effect. It's strange. But different.!

I and a friend studied about Bhaang which is prepared from the leaves of the cannabis plant. Wikipedia did helped us know every stuff about it.I was sure I would try it some day. May be it would be great. Well, I am intoxicated now in effects. Bhang is considered holy and is taken in North India in festivals like Holi, where they are used to party!

Today was the day I again tried it. This evening I was studying and went out with my friend to try it.

So we finally tried it in the market. We went to a bhangwala and said - "Bhaiya, do do rupaye ka bhang dijiye with a bit of rabdi." He served cool, finely ground leaves and we got a smooth drinking experience. I got no effects within an hour. The real fun started just after one and a half hours. I noticed many effects, which were real Euphoria.

It was so euphoric, that I wanted to record it then. I became desperate to write them down as soon as possible, or I could forget. It was like out of the world euphoria. That was always new to you, and you will think, this moment seems the last, you are being taken to a newer world and you are bidding good bye to a planet that's powered by Newton's rules. You have a couple of short term memory loss moments. You will forget how you got to this place. I mean, you will forget what you were the  last moment, before arrivng at a place. At few times, I noticed I was in balcony and in the next moment I would be participanting in the family talks.

I noticedd myself talking to my sister and parents, which I generally avoid. I was cracking jokes and passionately talking everyone at home. Most of the time I have found myself not able to socialize with them properly. But that day I talked to my hearts content.I generally didnt like Maggi's Noodles from childhood, and had been avoiding it, though my sis used to have regularly. Bhang makes you so hungry that you become quite unsenstitive to taste. You will find a lot of things that tasted awful, taste good. I quickly gobbled up the whole noodles served to me and asked for more, to everyone's astonishment.

I even called the lovely girl, whom I have a crush on, and am like become-dumb-when-you-see-her. But today I talked to my hearts content, of many of the unexpressed riddles hidden my heart, housing my love for her. It was once in a blue moon that I would have interacted in the same way I do in the dreamworld. Well I am a bit half-nerdy half-geeky person. As expected I can't make any conversation interesting. I fail to arrive at topics that will extend the converation. I often arrive at topics that will shut it down. So, talking to her in such a note surprised me. This was the first time she laughed from her heart and it was an applause for the struggling artist like me who is trying hard to entertain his lady love. She was finally entertained after a series of many failure conversations; one was just the day before. Her voice seemed equally lovely or I'd say that day I didnt wish to stop talking to her, in contrast to other days when I was really nervous and wanted to stop talking.It was a great experience indeed of one of the untried things.

It makes you so crazy and confident that I wrote all these while I was still intoxicated. The feeling of Euphoria is great. And people do get addicted to it. In case of Bhang, its cool for a day you want to relax. But don't try it during exams, cause it will not let you study. 
Try it!

Test

This funny incident happened to one of my friends from another DC.

I bumped into him at Kolkata's South City mall. We boarded a metro train to Esplanade and he described all about this girl on the way.

***
I was at a food court early morning for tea. She was there at a corner table having her cappuccino.
I had been seeing her almost everyday at the same table, at the same time with the same drink. The only reason I used to watch her was that she looked like one of my ex-girlfriends whom I had dearly loved.

It's true that it is 2013 and not 1993. Love doesn't happen the way it used to in those days. Today, we do not need to stalk the girl we like and ultimately get a chance to talk to her. Today we just do not fall for someone we do not know. We start conversations directly on WhatsApp. We share pics. We fix dates. We meet. We chat more. Go on some more dates. And then a few months down the line we have a new girlfriend. Bingo!

Having a crush, wanting to talk to her and yet not getting a chance, trying hard and using common friends to find out her number, getting the number but not having the guts to call: these things have become history.

I don't know how but after a long time and half a dozen not-working relationships, I had fallen for this girl the 90's way.

I didn't know anything about her except that she was also working in the same company (which was quite an obvious thing).

I realised that it isn't a movie and nothing good will happen to me if I just be a silent spectator.

I started thinking about how I could talk to her. I had to figure out a way soon, or just watch her until a job switch or marriage or transfer would take her far away from me.

I glanced at her once. She was beautiful, was quite fair and had an innocent look on her face.

What happened at the school cafeteria

It was a sunny day.

I hurried to the new cafeteria that had started operating in my school.
There was a long queue of students at the counter for ordering food.

I joined at the end of the queue and started thinking. No, I wasn't thinking what I wanted to eat (like all the other students there). I was thinking something like this:

What should I order? Let's pick something that I can say easily without stammering. The guy standing behind me says 'poori sabji' tastes great. But it would be really hard for me to speak that. I better point at the pastry kept on the counter and say that I want this.

I didn't like pastries. And it they were too expensive for me because I was a school kid. But I decided to have it for lunch,  because I didn't want to stammer and make a fool out of myself.

When my turn came, I pointed at the strawberry flavored pastry kept in counter and said I want this. I paid the money and he gave me the pastry. I has a sigh of relief. Mission  accomplished! I didn't stammer!

But the cashier started speaking, "we are having a lucky draw this week. So we need your name. Please tell us your name."

The feeling of victory for being able to successfully order food changed to panic, I felt something uneasy in my stomach. I tried to speak out my name.
B - B - B.. I got a severe block. I gave up.

The cashier said,  "What? You forgot your name?" Everyone including the cashier started laughing. I had made a fool out of myself.

I took the pastry and ran to the playground and sat in a corner. I felt worthless that day. First I cursed the damn lucky draw. Then I thought why poori sabji wasn't kept on the counter like the pastries,  so that I could point at it and buy it.

I don't know when a drop of tear fell on the pastry. I felt worthless and threw the food. I didn't have lunch that day.

Ordering food, speak on the phone, responding to roll calls, telling a story or a joke were nightmares for me.

That lunch break was one of the worst lunch breaks of my life. I had a mixture of emotions inside me:
I was embarrassed (I made a fool of myself in front of others)
I felt sad (I had to live with this problem till the end of my life)
I felt angry (How dare they laugh at me like that!)
I felt frustrated (I punched everywhere asking God WHY ME? WHY?)
I felt revengeful (One day I'll prove it to you who I am and I'll laugh at you!)
I felt hopeless (No matter what I do, I'll always be like this)

The next day I didn't go to that cafeteria. I asked mom to pack fruits for lunch. When she asked why, I lied to her saying "I don't like the food at the cafeteria. It's unhealthy". I had lunch in the classroom with a nerdy boy who used to study even in lunch breaks and games periods.

This went on for a week.

On the seventh day I got a bit of enlightenment by having lunch with the nerdy boy. He had habituated to rote learning. He used to memorise mathematics problems also. His only intention was to score the highest marks in the class. He never gave up.

Watching him I realised I had two options:
1) I will never have lunch in the cafeteria again.
2) I will not give up and work hard like the nerdy boy and I will order poori sabji like all the others.

The problem was not with the cashier,  or the students or my name. The problem was with ME!

That day back at home I started to learn to speak poori sabji. I spoke it in front of the mirror for a 100 times. I enacted the scene and imagined I was standing in the queue and decided that I will order what I like to eat and not what is easy to speak.
I practiced for a few days. And the next day I went back to the cafeteria.

I was least bothered about whether people will laugh again. But I didn't want to move back. I wanted to give it another try. All the time I stood in the queue I didn't think a lot many things about my speech. I just told myself that i was going to have poori sabji today,  and I relaxed by watching kids play football in the nearby playground.

"A plate of poori sabji please",  I spoke out when my turn came. And I had spoken it clear enough for the cashier to understand and he had started printing the coupon. No one congratulated me that day,  because the war I was fighting was against my own self.

I realised something that day. The biggest hurdles in our lives lie inside us, in our minds. And that is the reason why,  when all of us have the same set of limbs and legs and eyes,  only those who know how to overcome those hurdles win.

The newest start-up destination : Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar is one of India's less known capital cities. But the city has its own advantages, this planned city has one of the lowest traffic congestion rates, better electric power and water management (which means lesser number of power cuts and water shortage in contrast to the bigger and older metros).

Spread in a diameter of just 25 kms and good roads, any part of the city can be traversed in just 30 to 45 mins. Well connected via rail and air to all major cities of India, bhubaneswar has become a top destination for software startup companies. 

Most of the startups which were born here have prospered. Mindfire solutions is an good example. 

"You will find over a 100 startups in Bhubaneswar today. Most of them provide IT services to smaller companies in the Americas, Europe and Australia. Some of them have bagged projects of public sector banks in India also. I started my company in the year 2007 and we experienced around 150 percent growth every year",  says Ranjhan Jha who started his company called Shivam Technologies when he was still in college. 

Coming to work culture at these companies, don't expect cafés and spas in the campuses. These startups often rent a small place and setup their office,  with the basic requirements to operate an IT firm. 

Sibatri Roy who joined a startup just after her graduation says,  "It's a small company so it involves more interaction in between employees."

"Everyone including the CEO and sales team is easily approachable",  says Sandeep who works for Mindfire. 

As is true for all IT services firms, sometimes employees need to give a lot of extra efforts in crunch situations and when they are handling a project single handedly. 

Miss Roy further adds that though her work was challenging she was not completely happy because her paycheck was not as heavy for the amount of effort she put in the company. "I used to work for long hours to fix issues and complete on time deliveries but I wasn't paid that we'll because I was a fresher,  she says. She switched to another fast growing MNC based in Delhi recently and is looking forward to some growth in her career. 

Bhubaneswar, often referred to as the "Temple city" has now become a hub for several Web startups,  because of its advantages that bigger cities like Bangalore and NCR don't have. 

Yehi toh zindagi hai

Aj kaun mujhe ehsaas dilayega,
Ki ishq mein kitni mithas hoti hai,
Kiski ankhon mein kho jaun aj mein,
Sab kuchh bhula kar,
Bas tujhko mehsus Kar..

Yehi toh zindagi hai..

Jo dil mein kaid hai teri yaadein,
Ki tu jaise aaj bhi bas meri hai,
Kaise bataun apne aap ko,
Ki kho chuka hoon main aaj tujhko,

Yehi toh jaana zindagi hai...

Meri intezaar bhari nazron se,
Us mod ko dekhna,
Tu jahan chhup ke milne aati thi,
Aaj fir se khada tha usi jagah pe,
Par tu nahin, tera saaya nahin, teri awaaz bhi nahin thi..

Sayad mere liye itafaq tha,
Aur tere liye bas mohhabat,
Nahin samajh paye tujhko,
Galti kar gaye tujhe thukrake,
Teri yaadon main aaj hai meri zannat..

Tujhe fir se paane ki tamanna hai,
Tu na mile toh,
Teri khushi mein khush hone ki arzoo hai,

Yehi toh jana ab meri zindagi hai..
Yehi toh jaana ab meri zindagi hai..