My Journey of Books

I remember my childhood. I remember those summer vacations when I used to get bored. I would wait for my exams to get over so eagerly and in a day or two I'd get bored. I would ask my mother what I should do. She would tell me to play something, I'd play and then come back and ask her the same. Even she didn't understand what to tell me more. Now I wish she had had an idea of giving me books to read. I'd have read many books. Atleast I'd have started reading. When I was in 9th standard, my Marathi teacher told me to read some books. I had read few small Marathi books like Vyakti Ani Valli, Batatyachi Chaal by Pu.La. Deshpande. And the other science teacher told me to read Mrutyunjay. That was the first huge book I had started reading. I had almost finished it. But then because of hype of S.S.C and H.S.C, I was supposed to concentrate more on regular studies. So the book reading stopped again. Then during engineering, it started reading again. But then I read only few books. Still I was not so fond of books. I had liked few of the Sidney Sheldon's books. Then I read “One night at call center” which I had liked a lot! I was amazed by the story. Who knew that there are still more a lot better books?

Then when I entered Amdocs, I met Sharan. I knew him as a geek and a purely techie guy. I had an impression that he might not have read even a single page besides his techie stuff. And just to tease him and to show him that I do something more than him, I told him that I read so and so book by Chetan Bhagat and that was awesome. He must have laughed inside at my stupidity and show off! :D Anyway, then after commenting on the poverty of the book, he told and later gave me to read The Kite Runner. I took 2-3 months to read that book. But when I had completed it, I understood what the good novel is! Later I came to know about this blog. And when I went through all the blog posts I was sunk into shocks, surprises, wonders, amazement, and what not! I loved the blog. It was the great source of information about books, reading. There I questioned about my existence till now. Like, I had just born then and wondered which world I was in till then. I feel ashamed sometimes! :(

Later, I started visiting book stores. I would pick up any book and buy as I didn’t know which is good and which is not. This way, I bought quite a good number of books to inspire myself. Whatever books I read after that, I have already blogged about them.

Few months back, I started reading Shantaram. I have never read such a huge book! The book doesn't have very difficult language. But while reading it, I realized that if I know meaning of all the words, then I'll enjoy it more. Meanwhile I was reading another Marathi book. I can understand Marathi very well and even if I don't know the word, I can figure out its meaning by its roots, prefix and suffix. And I enjoy it more. Hence, I decided to take a halt. My English vocabulary is very poor. My reading speed is pathetic. And because of this, I take a lot of time to read which doesn’t allow me to concentrate for long. I found people on goodread read 2-3 books in a week. Then getting inspired I decided to work on my vocabulary and speed of reading. I bought few books for it like - Word Power Made Easy, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, How to Read Better and Faster, All about Words.

Word Power is a good start when you want to work on your English vocabulary. One can read a session from it every day and get happiness. It is an excellent book to boost your efforts. Every day was awesome when I was reading this book. But I know I'm still an indigent.  The ocean is too large. I just need to keep swimming, keep swimming! All about Words is not my cup of tea yet. But I found some nice tips of reading there. The dictionary I bought is also good. You can just open it whenever you want, you'll get more than a dull way to learn words (puzzles, tips, concepts etc). It also has a CD which has software. If you are really hungry for words, you'll get much from it. How to read better and faster has nice tips of reading and some exercises too. That'll definitely help. If you want to be an avid, voracious reader then go for this book.

Then, other than books, I have got few applications installed on my iPod. These applications are nothing but word games, word tests. Search for tests for GRE/SAT. Search for any vocabulary application. There are lots of them. These games are helpful whenever I find free minutes. Playing with words is also a nice way to learn. Other than games, we can also find some podcasts about vocabulary. I found certain 2 minutes episodes, where each episode concentrates on a word or two and discusses about their meaning, their usage etc. Good when you are travelling in bus and can't read books.

The other source of words is watching English movies, soaps.

Some of the best tips to learn new words -

1) Read as much as you can and whenever you encounter new words, search for its meaning, check the pronunciation, speak up the word, and try to use it wherever possible.

2) Read anything, anywhere. Voracious readers don't leave even the food coupons and bus/train tickets.

3) Avoid making mistakes when you write/pronounce the words.

If I had known these tips few years ago, I'd have been definitely a lot better person. I don't want anyone to be deprived of knowledge just because he didn't find anyone to guide, like I hadn’t. And therefore this blog post!

Next, I want to improve also my writing. My writing is pathetic. I gave a friend a blog of another friend to read. He thought it was mine and exclaimed - "tu itna achchha kabse likhne lagi!" That was not my blog. :( That tells me I have a lot of scope to improve.

Honesty is not the best policy

Some people are very good in nature. They treat you very nicely and sometimes suddenly appear to be hiding things. We ignore once, twice. But later it becomes intolerable. It appears very disgusting to me. I don't know why but I can never tolerate lies. I get very tempered with such people. I believe I'm an honest person. And I expect next person to be the same. I could never understand a reason what makes them keep me away from the truth. In my opinion, stealing one's right to know the truth when it is completely related to that person is one of the greatest sins. You'll never know how much pain it can cause. I think I need to calm myself. Or is leaving my honesty the better way? I won't be honest, I won't expect the next person to be the same and thus I'll condone his act of being dishonest. No more the feeling of being cheated!

An evening in reading... and retrospecting

Today I spent some time in reading some articles from an old magazine. The magazine is about an international philanthropic program which concentrates on mentoring. Some good rising artists and some expert artists had been selected for participation. Experts were mentors and rising artists were mentees. And the magazine has tried to get their experiences about it. I loved reading it. It reminded me of my mentors.

We need mentors in all the phases of life. We do get them in one or other form. We need to identify them. For me, every person I come in contact with, is a mentor. I believe every person has something to learn from. We only need to indentify it. And this is possible when we leave finding faults, when we leave thinking that I'm better than him, when we leave thinking that I have finished my learning. There were few who deliberately played role of mentor. They shaped my life. 

My mother is the first mentor as everyone has. But I have got quite more from my mother than everyone else must have got. I had got few nice teachers at my high school. I can't forget to mention about my Marathi teacher. I remember we'd talk for hours forgetting about the lecture. He had given me a lot to think on. I was not very good at expressing when I'd write. But he always made me believe that I had got something different at my core. I needed some good gold finishing. I failed to work on it even when I realized it. And then I never had a chance to work on it. Then in my junior college, my Physics professor had showed a lot of trust on me. I remember he'd give me books to read/solve. He'd suggest me good ways to study. I didn't find any mentor in my engineering college for studying. But my friends taught me to enjoy life with things other than studies. 

In Amdocs, I found a friend cum mentor in my very first project who made me believe in my identity. Before I met him, I'd always feel I'm wrong when I did things differently than others. When I observed him I found it was not only me who did those things differently, it was not only me who looked at life differently. Also, before I met him, I had lost myself in specious joys of life. He brought back my original soul into existence. It was a short season when I could observe him and learn from him. Later I tried to continue to gain something more from him but couldn't. My project was changed and mentoring ended there. But now when I look back, I feel mentor should not always be observing you and correcting you. Separating from mentor is also necessary. It is necessary to learn to apply independently what we learnt from him. Otherwise we’ll become completely dependent on him.

Mentors came and went. But they mixed their essence in my life. Whatever I'm now, I've something from each of them.

Next I spent some time reading my mother's diary. She wrote it when she had gone to the U.S. She had logged her few days there. I found some analysis of everything she had observed there. She noted down the differences as anyone can do. But every page had a sentence which showed that she has got something different at her core. I also might have inherited it from her. But she also, like me, has to work on expressing. I'm sure, if she does, she'll be able to write like a professional writer. I remember when I was in school, all my friends used to come to her to get the points to write in essays, to write for elocution competition. People still come to her.

I found a page where she had expressed her grief that I was not going with her. She wanted me to come with her, but at the same time she also wanted me to become stronger. I have never lived away from her for long. That was first time when I lived for 3 months without her. It was she who along with me had seen the positive side of my not going with them. I was always more pampered than my sister, for an obvious reason that I'm the youngest member in my family. And the other reason that before birth, I had created such circumstances that she couldn't keep herself from pampering me. Before my birth, she was told by doctors that the baby would be abnormal if given birth to. She faced problems during the gestation.  But then she didn't give up. Yet, she was scared at the time of my birth. She checked if I, the baby was alright. My sister had started walking and talking very early of her age. Comparatively, I had started very late. There also my mother was worried about me. This is the reason, why I was always pampered. And now after so many years, she and everyone still pampers me.

When I was reading the diary, I realized that my sister does too many things for everyone. She showed my parents too many places in the U.S. I'm useless. People do a lot for me. In return I have hardly done anything for anyone. The only thing I can give others is the belief that they have ability to give. :(

शब्द संपले? की तात्पुरते हरवले ?

Life is stubbornly obnoxious sometimes..

Main jaisa hoon main waisa kyun hoon

Bad loonga main abhi kya  
Maanu toh kya maanu main  
Sudhroonga main kabhi kya  
Ye bhi toh na jaanu main 
Jaane ab mera, hona kya hai (oh)
Lagta hai tumko kya
Jaane ab mera, hona kya hai (oh)
Kya main hoon jaisa bas waisa rahoonga? 

Main aisa kyun hoon -4
Main aisa kyun hoon -3
Main aisa aisa aisa hi hoon

Finding Nemo

Dory reminded me of few more dialogues from the movie-

"No, of course I like you. It's because I like you, I don't want to be with you. It's a complicated... emotion."


"That's a funny thing to promise. If nothing ever happens to him, then nothing will ever happen to him."


"I suffer from short-term memory loss. [Marlin: Short-term memory loss? (Dory nods) I don't believe this!] No, it's true! I forget things almost instantly. It runs in my family! Well I mean... at least... I think it does. Hum... Where are they? ...Can I help you?"


"No. No, you can't... STOP. Please don't go away. Please? No one's ever stuck with me for so long before. And if you leave... if you leave... I just, I remember things better with you. I do, look. P. Sherman, forty-two... forty-two... I remember it, I do. It's there, I know it is, because when I look at you, I can feel it. And-and I look at you, and I... I'm home. Please... I don't want that to go away. I don't want to forget."

I was complaining about my bad memory to myself and then I read someone had a stroke and has lost a lot of his memory. And now he is trying to build up all the memories he lost by various techniques and using whatever memories he is left with! Hope never dies, so true! :) - Like Dory in “Finding Nemo” says – “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!”