Happy Independance Day

As I was walking home from school after the flag hoisting and the patriotic singing competition (in which we lost :-( ), I was full of joy! I don't exactly know what was the reason behind my joy. And then suddenly I heard the tunes of our national anthem 'Jana Gana Mana'. And then it struck me, all these years I have been singing this song everyday in school and I still didn't know what it meant. I went to check on Wikipedia (like always) and I came to know the meaning as well as I found out that there were 4 more paragraphs to the song. So for all the patriots who have not heard the full song here is the song and the translation in English.  So I leave you with the video India's national anthem - Jana Gana Mana, undoubtedly one of the most melodious songs, goes beyond the stanza accepted as their anthem by billions of Indians worldwide. Jaya He is a wonderful rendition of the whole song written by Rabindranath Tagore, by 39 artistes - folk singers and national, organized by TOI - Times of India.

First day of rest of my life......

Sunday, 24-7-2011. It was a very special day for me indeed. I woke up early in the morning since it was my birthday (sweet 16 as some people would call it). Drizzling rain, cool breeze and smell of fresh cake baked by mom. Early morning greetings from my relative and friends. It was just like any other birthday till 8.30 when I had to go for tuition. It was on a sunday for the first time in my life!

My favourite cartoon from childhood

While I was on my way for tuition I suddenly went into flashback. Remembered all the good times I had with my friends and indulged in the memory of my childhood. And it made me think "Did I enjoy enough from my childhood?" And there was no clear answer to that. I thought and thought, rejuvenating all my memories. Those were the days that we can never get back. The memories of a small boy from Mushtifund primary school rushed back into my head. I was in the Marathi medium and we had a red striped uniform. We used to study and have fun at the same time and education didn't seem so bad. And the four years of my primary education passed like nothing. The hardest decisions I had to make was to choose which colours to use for the drawing and  whether Jerry was better than Tom. And after those four years I found myself wearing a blue coloured uniform instead of a red one. And with the new colour a new phase was introduced in my life!

It was hard for me being from Marathi medium to understand the subjects being taught in English in the beginning. I had no friends at first and everyone thought that i was a freak (they still think so ) but gradually as time passed by I made some friends and that was the best thing that has happened in my life. Nothing is better than spending some quality time with your close friends. We all together enjoyed every event in the school and participated with great enthusiasm. And as the years passed by I found myself in the 10th std. And it was the best school year of my life. Missing a lecture had become daily routine. We used to take part in everything even though we sucked at it just to have some fun with friends. And the year went by just like that. After our farewell I knew I would be separated from the rest of the group (and it did happen) so we enjoyed the last day to the fullest. And the next thing was the scary SSC board exams! I managed to do well in it and got admission in the science stream. The first day was on 15-6-2011 and most of my friends were not with me in my school.

Things had changed all of a sudden and everything seemed to speed up. I had just heard that that science studies were tough but now I was convinced looking at the books and the difficulty level. I knew that the coming 2 years would be tough for me.


Thinking about all this I reached my tuition and only few friends of mine came forward and greeted me. No one else was around and there was dead silence. I just couldn't concentrate on the trigonometry lesson and I was in a gloomy mood. I knew there wasn't going to be a birthday party at home like the earlier years, I knew I would have to do the homework for the day, I knew I had to prepare myself for the mid-term exams which were just 3 days away. And this made me realize that my childhood was over. What fool I was when I was a kid that I wanted to grow up quickly. Things would never be the same again. And when I reached home I was greeted by my younger brother who was asleep in the morning. The feeling was describable. It changed my mood from gloomy to optimistic and now the answer to my question was very clear. I had enjoyed my childhood to the fullest and couldn't have been any better. This transit from childhood to adolescent was inevitable but there is no other way but to live life as it is. Mom served me some delicious food and then I thought it was a new beginning and a new chapter in my life. As a young adult, it was the first day of the rest of my life and my heart knew that things would definitely go well!

My brother! (lol)