Being a twenty-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 the people who mean a lot to you might eventually hurt you in the end and you have to make a choice of who exactly is worth taking pain for. And that the friends 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 what u r studying or ur 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. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. 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.
Its called "Quarter-life Crisis." nothing is constant......except change. whats life without a few risks?

Keep playing the game!

This reminds me of a speech given by Chetan Bhagat.. It goes something like this :

"Don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful, Balanced means ensuring your health,relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your break-up. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first.. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.
One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a prepaid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up?

It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices. "

"Don't be serious, be sincere."

Controlling one's emotions, a way to keep life simple.

Emotions lie.

Humans have an animal brain : that is basically an emotion generator and a thinking brain : that wastes a lot of time justifying the animal brain’s emotions.

But emotions lie. And justifying them is a waste of time. Just because you feel angry doesn’t mean anyone MADE you angry. It doesn’t mean you are JUSTIFIED in feeling angry. It means your animal brain was upset and as a natural tendency, one tends to blame someone/something for it. This blaming tendency or let me put it delicately, the process of 'giving your emotion a name' is nothing but a lengthy process full of justifications, tensions, evaluating repercussions, etc etc, which eat up a lot of time and positive energy.

Recognize emotions, accept them, but don’t let them control your mood or your thinking. Always remember not to take things personally. Other people have their own fears, desires, needs that drive their behaviour. It rarely has anything to do with you personally!

CAT-Walk or CAKE-Walk?

I somehow do not understand human psychology. When things get difficult, we complain saying "Why me? Save me the pain, I don't want to do it! Can't they make things easier? I don't stand a chance. God, I hope it'll be easier than last time".

When things get easy, we complain... saying "This is stupid, even a moron can do it. We aren't in 8th grade anymore" (Now you'll say, I called an 8th grader a moron, see? Bah... Human Psychology!)

Yeah, I'm talking about CAT and CAT takers in general.

Someone has rightly said, "When it's hot and humid we crave the cold and when it's cold we crave the hot". After browsing through Forums, I think I've read some of the most pathetic comments ever! (apart from the groans and complaints of candidates whose systems unfortunately didn't work) One such stupid comment went something like this : "Ohh, the paper was soo simple !! I think everyone will crack it !!" ... lol ... Dude, IIM-A has only 407 seats. !! Percentile (and not percentage) is what u should care about!! Or the favorite one these days "IIM's level has gone down", I can't help but laugh at it. How can we possibly judge an Institute on the basis of an entrance exam? In fact, I think the IIM's are openly challenging everyone by lowering CAT's level of difficulty. It's not about hits and misses, neither is it about your risk taking ability, this year, CAT is all about your accuracy and speed.

Neways, gtg, Best of luck to all those who are yet to give the test and for those who gave it, Jan 22 is the D-day :D

Up - A movie for the young and the old

My friend Kartik and I, after a lot of background research, chose to watch The Ugly Truth. We researched this time round, coz when it comes to watching a movie together, we believe our company is kind of jinxed. The last two movies we watched together were Watchmen (please, DoNotWatch it men!) and Yuvvraaj (Need I say more?). So this time, we kind of confidently arrived at the theatre (and as usual, we were late... :D).

Now what? We asked each other..


Kartik: Up?
Me: What's up? Where?
Kartik: It's a 3D animated movie
Me: Ohh... *surprised*
Kartik: Let's give it a try.. Heard it's good..
Me: Let's go for it... We've seen worse :D

Up tells the story of an old man, Carl Fredericksen, who wishes to fulfill the dream of his (late) beloved wife Ellie... and in an attempt to defy his helpless senior citizen status ... ties thousands of balloons to his house and floats to South America... and on this journey.. he finds a stowaway ... an 8 year old Wilderness Explorer called Russell (:D)

Well I wont make this post a spoiler for you... but honestly, one thing that I liked about this movie... and what makes it special is, even though Ellie isn't physically present in the storyline, and the entertainment industry as a whole has a bit of a bad record with the deaths of female characters (:D) ... I’m glad to inform you that I was pleasantly surprised. She's everywhere in the movie! She's the mover and the shaker... She introduced the 'cross your heart', the house that is shown is her's, the grape soda badge, the Adventure Book, her dream of going to Paradise Falls, everything... almost everything... even Carl... the way he talks to her.. even when she's not there with him anymore... a typical grandpa type character... his conviction and determination to fulfill Ellie's dream... and Russell (:D) adds a bit of innocence to this really touching story.. :) Not to mention the adventure... My goodness... The old man's really strong! :D

Go for it.. If u find time... Don't miss it.. One of Pixar's finest movies I must say :)