I was a teenager once...

Teenage is an exciting phase of life. As you gear up to meet a new world, nothing can challenge the confidence, the enthusiasm and the spirit. This is where you decide for yourself, what is right and what is not. You have that liberty, but sometimes maybe not just yet.

Your hormones are going crazy. They cant understand why they are acting that way, but in the process, whats taking form is a rebel. A restless youth with incessant energy, loads of kewl attitude who thinks he is on top of the world. All those raging hormones rarely think about the consequences of their actions.

Home is no place for such attitude show-off. But the rebel does not want to be succumbed anywhere and what follows is a bitter argument full of disrespect for elders. A teenager may not look at things with the same perspective as his parents and may completely overlook a valid rationale for some things and actions.

I was a teenager once. What I say has happened to me at some time or other. Years have gone by and now I find myself doing some curious retrospection.

All that show of kewl attitude is good enough for bragging in front of college crowd, but I learnt that it does not help if you are at a job. The world beyond teenage will take no time to humble you. It will crush you if you resist. The i-know-all or i-know-better attitude blocks the ability and willingness to learn anything new. Arrogance can prove hazardous for a career in making.

Also have I long forgotten those bitter arguments with parents, albeit just because of a difference in opinion. Over the period a sense of responsibility sinks in and I realised that there is no better friend than your father and no better listener than your mother. The support you can expect from your own family is far stronger and reliable than those teenage friends you once had. The rebel soon gives way to realization of unending love, support and caring.

Teenage is that phase of life where you try to find your identity as an individual. Find where you stand in this world. But this cannot be at the cost of where you come from. The new you will always find its roots where it came from and that is why parents have to be given due respect and attention. Respect your roots as they are strong foundation for the future. If at any point, you think you cannot handle the challenges of this world, just turn to your roots and find shelter. No place can be more comforting.

I have lived through and realized all this. That rebel needs to be heard, those hormones will surge but take care not to damage the shelter you are fortunate to have. Couple years down the line, as you look back, hope what you see is a confident, strong-willed, dependable you in the making and not the dishevelled, broken strings of relations gone bad and repent as it is too late to make things right.

Hobbies: Revived!

As a kid, when someone asked me about my hobbies, I would say reading or maybe painting. Yes reading was something I really liked as a school kid and a local library was my frequently visited place. Equally interested in painting, I would spend time trying to draw landscapes, nature and some stills. Those were the days when life spared enough time to pursue these activities.

But soon things changed and as I got through to high school and college, I let go of these hobbies under the pretext that there wasn't enough time. And what was I doing when I had spare time? Lazying around the house or watching TV while relaxing on the sofa. These aimless waste-of-time activities soon filled up my routine and I was finding it difficult even to read the daily newspaper in the morning. Probably it was lack of commitment or plain laziness on my part that I never opened a book in past seven years.

Hey don't mistake these for college books at all. Doing an engineering course leaves you immersed in loads of technical books, each one thicker than the other. Tackling study volume came naturally to me and the fat books never intimidated me. But I was loosing touch with the reader within me. Finally graduation was through, that too with flying colors. All the pain-staking technical reading had paid off. By then the reader in me had gone dormant. Nothing interested me anymore; No books, newspaper, magazines or novels. It was back to being a couch potato wasting all the time in front of the idiot box catching MTV, FTV and the likes. The painter within me had also died long before. Things weren't right. But I wasn't complaining either.

Soon job became a priority, sometimes demanding fourteen hours or more a day. Frustrations would reach their peak bringing along lot of restlessness. It was then that I found solace in books again. Reading interesting spy novels, thrillers, occasional self help books for motivation and learning way of life. The more I read, the more my curiosity aroused. I always knew that books were a man's best friends and I was certainly embracing them after a long time. I would spend weekends shopping for books and have quite some collection now. I won't say I have a voracious appetite for books as yet, but I am definitely getting there.

Reading novels also brought a creative writer in me to life. I used to maintain a diary, much like a daily journal, where I would write about the job frustrations, aspirations in life and vent out some anger as well. Writing the diary did not last for long, but when a fellow friend introduced me to blogging, it was a whole new world for the creative me. I have been blogging for more than a year now and though I only have a small fan following, it is the process that I enjoy rather than the outcome. Writing a blog, telling some story has its own ecstasy. Wonder if I can join some course to enhance my creative writing. The search in on. Maybe someday I will write a book.

Another hue got added to this spectrum of reviving hobbies. With a recent purchase of a high end digital camera, I find myself intrigued by digital photography as well. And though I am a novice, I am finding it irresistible to find more material that will teach me the basics. With sufficient practice, I will gradually start taking better pictures. Maybe photo-blogging could be my next venture. Who knows!

The journey of this revival seems to have just started and I will definitely make more time to nurture it. Throw the i-have-no-time excuse out of the window and start making good use of it. Seems, it is not about how much time you have got, but what good can you make of it. So next time someone asks me about my hobbies, I will have many interesting stories to tell.

Just Pooling Around...

Work can occasionally get mundane and the only saviors, of such a lull, are a few corporate activities that aim to make the workplace, a fun place to be. Though few and far between, everyone looks forward for some fantastic events to be organised. And so when the memo for pool championship in my department was circulated, me and a friend sent out our nominations and started with some serious practice.

The tournament schedule was soon out and surprisingly not many teams were participating. A little turn down for the organizers as lesser participation did not serve the purpose of organising the event at all. But this came as a good news to us, it meant lesser competition favoring a better chance of winning. Then came a shock, if I should say so, there was but one team of girls participating and we were pitched against them for the eliminations. If I were to praise myself at the game, I am neither a novice nor a pro, which means luck has a lot bigger role to play if I were to win a game! The word soon went around that we are being challenged by a bunch of girls for the eliminations. It almost became a prestige issue for us to win this game because loosing to girls was just not acceptable! We had never seen them at the pool table before and so were apprehensive about their skills at the game.

The game started and pretty soon it was obvious, who was the champion at the table. No. It wasn't them. It wasn't us either. Both teams were equally pathetic at the game and it was becoming difficult to point out who sucked more at the game. Curious onlookers cheered on initially but were soon loosing interest in our game. Occasional cheers made us feel good, but another poor shot would dampen the enthusiasm. I could see fewer people watching our game, as most made their way to a more exciting game being played at the next table.

Gradually pocketing the stripes we made ourselves comfortable and started playing with some confidence. After a few hits and a lot misses, it was just the black ball on the table and for some reason it just refused to go into the called pocket. Now our best chance was to wait for them to make some mistake and use it to our advantage. We had had enough of this and wanted an end to the ordeal. The drooling game drew to an end when we had a golden chance to pot the black ball and register a victory, though not a well deserved one. My partner took the cue, called the pocket and hit it well. What followed was most unprecedented for, we did pot the black ball, unfortunately in the wrong pocket, forfeiting the game. Owing much to the poor show of talent, we were awarded with this unfortunate loss. I cannot say that the better team won, nor did they win on their merit.

After all that pooling around, pun intended, I can't help but put things in this perspective - Poor show of talent : Some sympathies from onlookers ; Losing to the only girls team : Some more embarrassment for days to come ; The look on the girls' faces when they won : Priceless!!