The Q and A

It was 4 in the afternoon, time to play cricket. I asked dad some money to buy a Tennis ball (for cricket of course). He asked me why do you want a tennis Ball, why not a rubber ball. I was about 8 years of age and the only answer to this question he just popped me was rubber ball 7 Rs, Tennis Ball 15 Rs, tennis ball ought to be good. I knew that answer could convince me, but not my father. At the end of conversation, I ended up saying “Ok, Give me money for rubber ball, it's fine”. He would give me that. After playing cricket when I came home that day, I saw a box of Tennis balls lying in my cupboard.

Why this incident still persists in some part of my memory is not because of some stupid reasoning I gave. I will remember this for the important message I got from my father, that was asking the right questions before making a decision. Sometimes, you may not be able to give a satisfactory answer to justify the decision you are making, but atleast you have thought it through and would have less of a reason to regret the choices you make.

I once went to an auction where they were selling vintage coins. There was a high school kid sitting next to me. He was bidding for an ancient Egyptian coin. He had to raise his bid 4-5 times and every time he did that, someone else would put in a higher bid. It so happened that the bidding stopped with the kid next to me winning it. I can never forget the look on his face. You think he would be jumping with joy, but he was a bit pale. He said to me after he got his coin , 'I should have not bid so much money on it, but everything was happening so fast, I did not get a chance to think it through'.

A few months ago when the new Nexus 7 rolled out, I was just a final click away from buying it. Had filled in my address details, credit card information and everything, last thing was to click the confirm button. I don't know at that moment I thought to myself, what am I going to use it for? Good question, probably should have come in a lot earlier. I did not hit the confirm button that day.

Last year at around this time of the year, I had planned my vacation to San Francisco with a friend of mine. I got a very important interview call just before the trip. My tickets were fully refundable tickets and I could have very well dropped the trip plan and studied for the interview. Then I asked to myself, what am I going to do in the next five days that is going to summarize what I did in the last few years.

Did I taken the right decision back then? I don't know. It could have very well worked against me. But again, I had a question at hand and I had made up my mind. No answers are perfect, you have to live with them.

My current job is a result of that interview. 

Les Amis

It has been more than 3 months in America and personally a lot has changed for me. The biggest change has been my circle of friends. My closest friends in life are people who think more or less in the same way that I do and have kind of a similar approach towards life.

Now, for a change, I am around with people who have a completely different take on things in life around me. 5 of us staying together in the same apartment with a lifestyle completely different from one another, sharing very different opinions and having a very different persona.

Initially, I was a bit skeptical about how things are going to work and are we really going to have a good time together? Now, when I look back at these 3 months, I think we've gelled together quite well. Each of us has a very different nature and has brought something unique into the group. There is liveliness all the time. The variety is so vivid that there are people who stay awake in the night till 6 and then there are the ones who wake up in the morning at 6.

I feel it's good to have people with different approaches about the same thing around. It's like if you are in troubled times in life, you need friends who will keep assuring 'There will be a brighter day' and give you some hope where there seems none around. On the other hand, you also would like friends who would shout at you and say 'What the hell are you doing with you life? Stop cribbing and start working. Why do you need lady luck to help you?'

Both approaches above are effective in their own way and we need both of them!

Back to the original topic, would it have been better to have similar thinking friends? The answer is, 'I don't know'. At times, it is good that people cannot read my face.It is good that I can keep some of my happiness and pain to myself. It would have been freakish if friends around me all the time would figure me out completely. But, sometimes you feel that your friends should figure out what you want to say without you actually saying things. There is always a trade-off.

This is just the beginning. At the end of 2 years, it might be a completely different blogpost. Time will tell.

The Madness...

On the way to New York, I was sitting besides a psychiatrist. I always thought that they are the kind of people who must hate their job. After seeing so many crazy people everyday and dealing with them, who wouldn't? But, like most other Americans, he enjoyed his job.

I had a nice discussion with him during the journey and got to know lot of interesting things. He said that most people become mad as they cannot achieve what they want in their lives. Or rather, they would not accept who they are or what they have become. It can happen to anybody who finds it difficult to digest failure (or rather be jealous of the success of others).

After this, I was curious and asked him how people who seem to lead a perfectly normal life turn wierd all of a sudden. He said the process of getting mad is similar to the thing that happens when people get drunk. When people get high, the part of the brain that regulates what you speak mellows down and you begin speaking what you really wanna speak, without filtering it.

Similar thing happens when you become mad. The difference is that when you are drunk, you get back to normalcy within a few hours, it's not the same when you turn mad. It's very difficult to come back to the state of normalcy for them. The worst part is no medicine can bring your brain back to normal, you yourself have to work your way out of it. Medicines can only temporarily put you to sleep or mellow you down, but not change anything. It is like taking painkiller, the pain is still there, just that you don't feel it. There is no standard way to bring things to normal, different things work out for different people.

He talked about some weird people that he treated. He had a patient who used to be normal all day and turn mad after 10 in the night. Some people turn mad when the come across a particular person or see a particular color or object. These are the type of people who are the most difficult to treat. Their brains are wired to think in a particular way. They have to be taught to unlearn that, which is very difficult. People are a lot more reluctant to change rather than they seem to be.

He says, the best part about his job is that a lot of people come back happily to him and thank him for bringing them to normalcy. According to him, a lot of doctors in other fields do not get credit for the job they do. People visit them in times of sickness and when they get well, there is no acknowledgement.

His happiness lies in the fact that he has brought lives of numerous people back to normalcy!

From the Observation desk...

This post is about various people I’ve met in last 10 days in US. I like to observe people and how they go about the doing thing.

The one thing I liked the most about people working in US is that they have a smile on their face, have a cheerful attitude even if they actually don’t like the job that they do. They are eager to help you. A simple thing like opening a bank account, which is a boring task in India given the amount of paperwork is such a fun task here. They treat the customer as a friend and talk very freely.

Now, a little bit about the Indians I met here. I came to this place with a bit of prejudice about my peers and seniors whom I would meet. But things are not the same as I pictured them to be. Our seniors are extremely helpful. I expected there to be some ragging, but there wasn’t any. Infact, all of us freshers had someone to pick up at the airport.

I live temporarily with 4 Bengali phd students who prepared food for me for the first day and brought food packets for me for that would last 10 days till I find a permanent apartment. Bengali food tastes great I tell you! The Indian student bodies working here are doing a great job. They are full of enthusiastic students, there is no senior junior divide, and all of us sat together in a conference room and sketched a plan for the Indian Independence day program in the university. We played cricket and football and hopefully play that ever weekend.

Now, about the batch mates, there is a lot of variety over here. Many of them are quite diplomatic. I think that’s because most of the students who have come here carry a form of burden which will ease as time progresses. ‘When I get a safe and secure job in the university I’ll give you the information about all the other jobs available in the campus’ is the indirect message everyone around is carrying. Safety first is on everyone’s mind. There is a bit of professional touch to friendship, you help me and I help you. Give and take. I’m sure if I’d met these people in Engineering Degree College, they might have made great friends.

One thing I like about blogger more than facebook or twitter is that not many people read it! So, you can be more frank about the things you write rather than writing the edited version or the polished one.

I hope all of us here get good jobs, at least the hourly ones and things around change for the better. One more thing, a long lost friend called yesterday. I don’t know where he got my number from, but the conversation went something like this….

A: Hey Sanket, wassup, how’s life, Aaj teri bahut yaad aa rahi thi.

Me: Oh Sahi hai, good you remembered after such a long while. How’s life.

A: Life’s great, acha sun, Can you help me with one thing, actually…….

Now I know why he remembered!!

The Premier League Paper

Engineering question papers have a typical Style of setting the question paper.

If we had a subject called premier league, we would have a paper something like this.

Here it goes

Premier League

Note: 1. Question number 1 is Compulsary
2. Figures to the right indicate marks
3. Attempt any 4 out of remaining 6 questions
4. Any assumptions made should be clearly stated.

1. (a) Why the only good thing about Liverpool is their history? Answer with reference to 18 titles overall, No title in 20 years. (10)

(b) Money cannot alone buy you trophies, Explain. Also, compare Man City with Chelsea (10)


2. (a) Describe the incredible success story of Harry Rednapp from 17th position when he took over to the top 4 finish. (10)

(b) Describe the revenge of Leeds United over Man United (10)

3. (a) Explain Chelsea’s misfortunes in Champion’s league semis with the mention of Luis Garcia and Tom Overbo (10)

(b) Average age of Arsenal Squad is currently 23 years and 3 months which is decreasing at an average of 5 months per year since Wenger took over. How many more years will it take for the average age of squad to be 16 years. (10)

4. (a) Describe the legendary Champions league final where Milan beat Liverpool with no mention of Istanbul. (10)

(b) Who are better, Hicks and Gillett or the Glazers? (10)

5. (a) Distinguish between Liverpool minus Gerrard and Torres and Wigan Athletic (10)

(b) Why is every successful manager in the world tipped to replace Alex Ferguson? Jose Mourinho, David Moyes, Martin O’ Niall to name a few. (10)

6. (a) Why do most of the players leave Arsenal at the peak of their career? (10)

(b) Why is the Istanbul game the only one for which Benitez will be remembered for? Can you name any member of that team still surviving in Liverpool squad? (10)

7. Write short notes on.

(a).Burnley at home with and without Brian Laws. (5)
(b). Birmingham’s 12 match unbeaten streak. (5)
(c). Italy, a retirement destination for premier league players. (5)
(d). Van Der Saar, Still going strong at 40. (5)

Addiction

You like something, you start with it, you keep doing it and sometime later, bang! you are addicted to it. The worst thing is, you don’t admit it when people say that you are addicted. Or rather you don’t realize that you are addicted.

Addiction can be about anything, absolutely anything. About playing Counter-strike, playing cards, facebook, chatting, bowling, and watching movies, anything. Getting addicted to a girl also counts here!

The general idea about addiction that when you are hooked on to something for a long time, it’s addiction. It’s not my way of looking at it. Addiction is when you find it difficult to live without that something. It’s like when you play computer games for long time, that's not addiction, but if you feel restless when you don’t get an opportunity to play computer games, that’s addiction and that’s bad.

There are people around us who would call it a dull day if they weren’t to play some stupid game on facebook or talk hours and hours on gtalk. People who would get frustrated if their favorite IPL or EPL team is playing and they can’t watch it. People, who would not be able to bear the thought of not watching their favorite director’s movie on the first day, first show and so on.

Addiction is bad because it takes control over your life and moreover, you don’t even realize that. It’s like the boss who dictates you the terms. People are so addicted to chatting or texting or phone convos that they do not acknowledge the people around them.

I never want to be addicted to anything in life and I’m pretty sure that I will never be. I might get a hundred good things from life, I might buy another hundred good things, but there will be nothing that I will not be able to live without. I remember a good line I once read.

I would like to earn so much that I could buy whatever I want. I would like to grow up so much so that I could live life without all of it.

Nice sentence. It’s also true with all the things money can’t buy. Like close friends. If tomorrow the person whom you love gives you a cold shoulder, your life should not become a disaster; instead you should have the courage to move on.

Life is all about making the best of what you have, not about what could have been the best for you!

Problems

Problems, everyone has them, but the way we approach them makes us different. It is good to be a spectator sometimes, listening to the problems of people around you and how they tackle them.

At times you are hearing about people who feel the pressure in handling the smallest of the problems. On the other hand, there are some who will never let the gravest of the problem tear them apart. You learn from both the type of people. One teaches you what not to do while handling a crisis, other one tells you how to face the crisis.

But, it’s not so easy always. Sometimes you see people stuck with a problem not handling it the right way. You feel had you been there yourself in that situation, you would have done things differently. But, one fine day, the same problem strikes you. You fare no better in handling it. Weird, but true!

I admire one of my friends when it comes to facing problems. He tells me, ‘Most of the things that we consider to be problems aren’t problems in the first place’. I feel he’s right. Problems are there for a reason. They make us who we are, how our lives shape up depends on how we handle them. If it is something that will shape our lives, then how is it a problem?

I’ve never seen this friend of mine succumb to any pressure from problems around, not cribbing about any of them. Not running away from them either, sometimes going from one defeat to another with no loss of enthusiasm. He was once consolidating someone who has just dropped from 80 percent to 70 percent saying things would be fine, whereas he himself had 60 percent marks in the exams. He was a person who would give in his best and then accept what the scoreboard says. This guy didn’t even get pissed off when his girlfriend of long time dumped him. He instead gave us a break-up party!

A week before the 12^th board exams, he fell of the staircase, fractured almost half his body, the left side, was bedridden and still appeared for the boards without a writer. His scores were affected badly, but he never cried about it. Maybe someday his scores will ruin his chances of getting admitted into a premier educational institute, agreed, still how is crying about the situation going to help? Making the most of what he could achieve was the thing he should’ve done and he did exactly the same.

Life is not a disaster when you are plagued with problems. Life is a disaster when you stop fighting the problems around you. Nobody could’ve known a certain Lance Armstrong if he didn’t have the fighting spirit.

These and a few other examples make me want to reflect on my own life. I’ve sometimes let problems dominate me, acted weirdly in situations, freaked out. But that won’t be a problem anymore. The world is full of people fighting millions of problems. I’ll face my share of problems, that too in a sporting way!

Optimism

I feel like a jerk today. Told someone that he/she is being excessively optimistic. Being an optimistic person myself, I should’ve never said that. Never crush the ray of hope people have about things turning the way they want them to be.

I think the word ‘reality’ is now-a-days more closer to me than ‘optimism’. Optimism sure drives you a long way. It tells you if a certain Ambani who came in with 500 rupees and made billions out of that in this city, but it will never tell you the story of millions of people who came to the city with 500 bucks and left with nothing.

By no way I’m talking negativity, but sometimes by choosing optimism, you make yourself ready for only one result, that’s called victory. Thousands of people come to Mumbai each year to become a filmstar, unfortunately, not everyone can become one. Raising your hopes high is good, but when the dreams crush, you should be able to handle it the right way.

I think the best approach would be about being optimistic throughout the journey and accepting the reality dose in the end. What’s wrong in thinking you can achieve massive things, thinking that you can be the best? But when it comes to the final outcome, you have to take it sportingly. You’re going to win some, lose some and accept whatever comes your way.

Optimism may tell you that you can climb Everest, reality might keep you happy with Amarnath yatra. Still, if this optimism would’ve gone missing, nobody would’ve climbed it till now.

Itz Mie Life!

Today, as I walked out of college, my bike was the last bike parked in the Bhavan’s Parking lot.

2 years back, this was an everyday scene. I was amongst the 10 crazy people who stayed in college everyday till 11 pm. Today, I had a feeling of Déjà vu. It brought back great memories. Memories of pushing the bike half a kilometer till the Petrol pump at 12 in the night coz’ some idiot stole Petrol from the bike. Coming Home on 4^th gear, full throttle, no brakes 6 kms, 7 minutes that too without a power bike. Cool nights. Counter Strike, Warcraft with full fledged sledging and cursing one another. Nostalgia!!!!

Around a month ago, I had decided to kick the word ‘Boredom’ out of my dictionary, and am very much happy to have lived without it for past one month. Idea is to stay occupied and not give boredom a chance. Most people feel boredom is related more with things around you rather than yourself. I feel the other way round. You are the one who lets boredom creep in.

I know people who keep themselves so much occupied that they utilize the 5 minutes that they wait for the train at the railway station to read the day’s newspaper. In a world where people cry for want of time, why should we aspire to kill available time by giving boredom a chance? We should live life in a fashion such that there would be no regrets later. Else, you’ll end up saying stuff like “I had so much spare time, I wish I had studied driving. Now, I am in a 14 hours job in an unknown city wasting much of my time waiting for the crowded bus to my office”.

After a comparatively dull semester, I want to be back working pretty hard again, making the most of the time I have, interacting with many people, pursuing my hobbies, living my dreams. Not thinking of college as just another 9 to 5 activity, being active in the society, completing some of the projects I’ve undertaken. Having a life! Not just having a life, I’ve began to love my life. For the last month or so, I’ve been very much active socially. My father is a very popular person in our neighborhood and many people know me as his son. I want to venture out and work so hard that people know me by my own identity. I want the pace. I remember Lance Armstrong saying ‘I want to die at a hundred year old after screaming down an Alpine descent on a bicycle at 75 miles per hour’. That’s the spirit.

So, hopefully I won’t be saying ‘I am bored’ for quite some time now, coz’ I know, I won’t be bored!

This is my 50^th post. The blogging experience until now has been great until now. Pratap and Yugandhar’s blogs have inspired me to start blogging. They both have killer blogs with amazing creativity. I also thank all my readers who spared their precious time to read my posts. Thanks to all of those who pointed out my mistakes, thus helping me improve. I’ll keep blogging.

Random things about engineering!

These are the random little things which are very much a part of every engineering student by the time he's in third year. Didn't put much thought into it, but you'll agree on most of things i feel. Do add more to it!

• Attention span---Even the fiercest of the warriors who could battle the dullest of the lecturers in their lives till 12th grade, would find it difficult to concentrate in some of the lectures after two years of engineering. My attention span has been ridiculously low for this sem in college thanks to the wonderful insight of the subject these people provide.
  
• A Guiltless state--- You are not guilt about so many things. Not guilty about thrown out from the class, not guilty about completing assignments day after deadline. Not guilty coming at 10.45 for 10 o clock lecture and asking attendance. Many more things..
  
• Best invention----Thinking about the best invention for engineers, the one that comes to mind first is the time machine... oops ... err... sorry... The Xerox machine. We spend ridiculous amount of money in 4 yrs xeroxing stuff. Now-a-day's all journals are xeroxes too. Life made easy.
  
• Exams, here I come----After giving so many engineering exams, you are ready for anything in life. Any subject, buy a book, ask syllabus, buy question papers, make few phone calls and excel. So much prepared that tomorrow if you're given a book on 'Human psychology' of 400 pages and told that there's a test in 4 days, you'll surely clear it.
  
• Bird watching---As a engineer, this surely develops as one of your major hobbies. Should I say more. Just that it's interesting only outside the campus. Quick Pj: Girls are also interested in this activity. But the ones that they watch are actually real birds.
  
• Attendance---You come to college daily, go home always late. Are seen around the campus most of the times. Yet, your name shines with florescent color on the defaulter's list. Maybe they don't really take attendance in the gymkhana do they?
  
• Vivas--Here's the fun stuff. Say any crap, but say it confidently. Never show a tinge of worry or fear on your face. Never will you fear vivas again.
  
• Borrowing things---You are in college..1 assignment pending...Deadline today...No assignment sheets...borrow...open bag...pen not working....borrow...pencil...oh wait i have....shit, no lead...borrow...By the time you are deep into engg, you stop using erasers. If any error, manipulate it by adding few strokes of pencil here and there...things like sharpeners are passe...No Stapler.... borrow...no pins...wait...again borrow...Udhaar ki jindagi.
  
• Manipulation---If you cant get it right, make it right. So many things come here. Program gone wrong, take xerox of the one which works. Experiment not working, show on paper that it's working. It started with me quite early. First chemistry practicals, all we needed was a pink ppt. The closest anyone got was orange. Mine was blue, miles away. Saw a pink chalk lying nearby.Put a piece of it inside test tube. Next moment, prof is telling the entire batch, this is how the output should be.

Travel Companions

You been with your school friends, junior college mates, college guys. You begin to think that you’ve figured them all out. Go out for a trip together. You’ll see them in different colours. The ones they are actually made of!!

Being a frequent traveler and traveling with different group everytime is fun. Every journey has led to meeting people of different taste. These are some prominent types of travelers I’ve come across.

1. The loner - This person, even if in a large group, likes to be alone for most of the time. He seldom talks to other people, sits alone in a corner. At tourist places he/she likes to wander alone. He never really is a part of the group. During journeys, he’s stuck with I-pod/ Music Player/ FM radio into his ears. Likes to be lonely thinking something on the beach when all the group is playing beach football.

2. The Boss—He’s the type of person who’s always busy in issuing commands to people. Usually when I go for trips, normally I’m the one taking all the initiative, getting all hotel bookings done, tour bookings, cab rental and stuff. These people just give orders. Sanket bring me tea. I take the initiative so what. I am not a tour guide whose traveling free on your money. Go get it yourself. Probably this could be a better answer to this people but why spoil the trip mood.

3. The initiator—These are the people at the heart of everything. They are the best kind of travelers you’ll ever meet. Always ready for work. Ready to find a hotel in an unknown city when rest of the group is feeling tired. Ready to walk an extra mile to see another visit point. Ready to bump out of the hotel room earliest and plan the day tours.

4. The entertainers—Very essential part of the traveling group. These are the guitarists, flute players, people making Donald duck voices and other such talents. Without them the fun quotient is not quite upto the mark. They keep the liveliness intact even amongst the most boring parts of the journey.

5. Camera Lovers---Two kind of people come into this category. The first ones are the one who like clicking photographs of almost anything. Always busy at clicking something or the other or Video shooting. They like to keep memories I see. Sometimes, in search of these memories, they actually fail to enjoy the moment. Memories are fine, but temme the last time when you saw the 2 GB photographs of the last tour you went. You would rather enjoy the calm and cool sunset instead of being worried about capturing the exact moment of sunset on your cam. That’s again a personal opinion. The second kind of people here are those who love to be clicked themselves. At every spot, he/she asks someone, 'meri yahan pe photo nikal na'. These people need not be photogenic either. And yes, they have to be in every group photo.

6.The Chatterbox---You sit next to this person in long train or flight journeys. They have lots and lots of stories to tell, lot of topics to discuss. I’m sure you wouldn’t get bored. The chatterbox would find someone who listens to him and he’ll be happy and your friend for rest of the trip(Some people like listeners, just as this blog would like readers).

7. The Critic--- Some people derive immense pleasure in finding faults in most of the things and speaking them out. In a perfectly well organized trip, they’ll keep finding little shortcomings. One more thing that these people love is to compare this trip with the previous ones and say how that one was better and things have worsened. That Simla is not the same that it used to be.

8. Late latif---Always late. Tell them to wake up at 7, they’ll be in bed till 8. Every tourist spot, they are late. They never really value time. Without doubt they are the worst travelers to be with. You need to be with the group, not ahead, not behind. That’s the idea of a good travel group.

9. The crybabies---They’ll always cry to get what they want. Cry for the window seat. The ‘I don’t want to go to this place’—Cry. “This food I can’t do with, I want proper restaurant food”. Basically they don’t really adjust to the situation and try to turn things to their favour.

10. The everpraiser--- They’ll see the place. Praise the place. Then praise the organizer for showing them such a beautiful place. Then thank the crowd for accompanying them to such a beautiful place. They’ll praise the food even if it’s average. Trust me, there are people like this who still exist in this world. I remember in one of the tours, a person would call me ‘Sirjee’ for the entire tour. I initially liked that but was pissed off at the end of the tour.

And if you are not one of the above, you are the aam-aadmi who’s forgotten at the end of the trip. Try to acquire one of the above characteristics so that you are remembered by everyone on the trip. Maybe for the good reasons….-:)

Cellular Walls

Some days ago, I accidentally met a school friend at a mall. I was delighted after meeting someone from school after long and so was he. We decided to hang out at CCD for a while, talk about good old school days and have a nice time. Minutes later, he gets a call, gets stuck on it for around 20 mins and there I am : Staring at the menu card, observing stupid things around me, stuck with boredom. Wishing that the phone call just ended and we would get to talk.

After a little while, I began to think about it. There was no point in cursing my friend coz sometimes, I also have been stuck with lengthy phone calls at wrong time and put my friends in this position. Now I realize that the person in front of me is more important as the person on the phone whom I can get in touch with later. How rarely do we get to meet old friends and how a stupid phone call sometimes disrupts a wonderful conversation.

Cell phone is no doubt a fabulous invention that lets you to be in touch with everyone, but I feel it should be used properly. I hate when people say to me “Hey it’s abc’s birthday have you messaged him yet?” I say “No I haven’t messaged; I’ve rather made a call.” I feel message is an extremely cold way to say Happy Birthday. It really doesn’t say you care about the person. Make a call instead, talk to him or her, wish good luck. What good is a forwarded message, however sophisticated or decorated it might be?

Pretending to say I do care about you…No I don’t get you. You get messages from people saying ‘May this bond of friendship last forever’. Crap! I haven’t seen your face in 3 yrs, which bond are you talking about. I might go on and on about forwarded messages, but it aign’t worth typing. I forward the crap myself too, most of the times.

About messages, I usually don’t like typing messages which require the other person to reply. In that case, why should I make him pay, I’d rather call him. Why be a miser? If unreachable, messaging makes sense. Usually I reply to any message within 15 minutes, be it a forward joke, a messages that needs reply, a thank you msg, I have some work message, whatever. Whatever time of the day it might be, whichever lecture might be on. Unless the msg is sent from free sites like 160 by 2 or someone that has a extremely cheap msg rate who can go on forwarding. However, I don’t care much about whether the other person is prompt in replying or not. Afterall it’s a personal choice, and we usually run out of good messages even if we want to forward them.

I believe cell phones have changed our lifestyle enough and will continue to do so. Just that we should let it affect in a positive way. Let technology not come in the way of the joy of accidentally meeting someone and having a great time