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This page was supposed to redirect you to the new Zoy Cafe page but as you are reading this it means you are still here. You see there are some technical difficulties that I am facing with my account and have to move to a new location. Without bugging you with the entire story of the disaster of my back-end… let me take you to the new relaunched blog location…I call it ZoyCafe…Whispers. This will be a relaunch of ZoyCafe with old and new articles.

So enjoy it and do not forget to comment… I love to read them.

Cheers!

Zoy

Image Curtsy- http://images2.layoutsparks.com/

1. It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.

2. Many people wait for something to happen or someone to take care of them. But people who end
up with the good jobs are the proactive ones who are solutions to problems, not problems themselves,
who seize the initiative to do whatever is necessary, consistent with correct principles, to get the job
done.

3. There are some people who interpret "proactive" to mean pushy, aggressive, or insensitive; but that
isn’t the case at all. Proactive people aren’t pushy. They’re smart, they’re value driven, they read
reality, and they know what’s needed.

4. While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions.

5. "Success," said IBM founder T. J. Watson, "is on the far
side of failure."

6. The power to make and keep commitments to ourselves is the essence of developing the basic habits
of effectiveness. Knowledge, skill, and desire are all within our control. We can work on any one to
improve the balance of the three.

7. Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. It’s not what they’re not doing
or should be doing that’s the issue. The issue is your own chosen response to the situation and what
you should be doing. If you start to think the problem is "out there," stop yourself. That thought is
the problem.

I am not talking about baby diapers; it is the other pamper I am talking about.

There are couple of other stuffs that are linked to pampering, like closing your eyes and sitting with nothing in your mind; a peg where who can tie yourself and remain un-noticed; a sleep where one does not have to get up because something is pending; a conversation which does not involves speaking or listening and other alike stuffs.

Right now I would not like the believe that everyone’s life moves around pivots which no one knows; I would not like to believe that the concept of gravity applies to us; I am not able to digest that strong determination can bring out a change and neither I find the concept of fate valid.

I am looking for a religion, not the religion that have texts under their names. A religion which I can believe and stand for if I get to know that I am the last one in the planet. I am hunting for the faith can reside within every one and substitute for the language or dialect that we use. The connect that is visible and not be questioned upon now and then. Right now I wish the words to appear without forcing it on  this blog.

If there is a place where monitory system does not exist; somewhere babies are born out of love between souls; one does not have to be unconscious to dream; rejuvenation is the outcome of wakefulness and time is the function of happy thoughts, I wish to go to that place.

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What am I saying dude????…Forget pampers…I need some beer!

Image Cutesy – http://smartcanucks.ca and http://media.gamerevolution.com respectively

I need to meet Spiderman right now and ask him what he meant when he said life is all about choices. In fact the doubts I have are about the choices that makes you a stupid no matter whatever you choose. Right now the choices for me are like if I want to be awesomely stupid or seriously stupid.

For censorship reasons I cannot reveal the choices no matter how much i want to, but any ways, I have to come up with a strategic decision as how to strategize such circumstances (what the F***!!!). But let me now hover around the situation I am in and do some worth while time-pass for you.

You know guys I had different types of friends who are girls (it is quite dangerous to use ‘girlfriends’ here because it leads to lot of assumptions and may lead to harmful consequences in my personal life) but i had never been a friend to some one who is a model and have been face of some product or company sort. Well I did not have any guys as a friend of that sort either but let me talk about girls; I am just better talking about them.

So where was I, yes, being a face. Being a face of a product is simple (I never said it is easy). But being a face of a community is a sick thing at times. Representing a crowd is no more cool when it becomes a CROWD literally. You just lose hope you know. But boss when you are the face that means that somebody is seeing you too, right? And beauty of the face is so much open to individual’s perception that you become tired making faces to make people happy. So what you do at the end, you quit being the face; that’s it. But what if you just feel like avoiding the crowd; and when you are not the face of your community, you by default become the part of the crowd. Do you see you just happen to have stupid outcomes of all the choices you have; now it is how seriously or awesomely stupid you want to be.

Now coming to my scenario I chose the ‘seriously stupid’. I believe I can handle it; I will not neglect the crowd but completely avoid it; just like Spiderman. Will keep you guys updated on that. See ya!

Image Curtsy: http://media1.break.com/

Ahmed said no when I asked him for dinner. Inquiring a bit, I got to know that he was very upset.

“How can she do that”, he spoke suddenly.

I did not have to ask him further; the blank face of mine prompted him to talk, I guess.

“ She killed her yaar! How can she do that”. He waited to collect back his emotions and spoke back with some effort – “That was not at all required”. He sighed and I could say he has vented it all out.

“She killed the Honey-Bee yaar”, he almost whispered with his sentiment-drenched words.

He finally declared that he does not want to have dinner and my other friend and I left him to have his space and find his peace after this heart-dropping incident.

Truly speaking this incident touched me deep. I knew within it can only be a ‘male’ who can come down to commensurate to the level of insect-emotions; and moreover this has never happened before. It has been an utterly disappointment from the ‘female’ side. They are considered the epitome of care and love (at least Indian females are) but they seem to undervalue the entire concept. I mean life is a life, may it be of a human or a bee. In fact I must say that every honey-bee-family is much larger than any human family that has ever existed and hence needs even more respect.

So I salute Ahmed for advocating for a cause that has been neglected by everyone. We would certainly be missing its humming and its playing on the tube-light of our rooms. It makes my heart sink with the grief that the flowers shall now have to wait forever for it to come and sip its nectar.

Long live the honey-bee in the hearts of people.

Image Curtsey – www.adrianasite.com

I am so so sorry friends that I am not able to be consistent in my post updates. But I have thought about it, now for a long time, that I have to be regular in Zoy Cafe. So I have finally decided regarding what should I be writing in this cafe; I would be writing about confused girls, weird boys and the philosophy behind it.

The decision is the outcome of the email that I received form a site that I do not remember right now. The email read that Zoy Cafe renders a lot of insight on life to the readers. Man!!! I was so much disappointed. But wait a sec, did you guys expect me to be happy about it! Stop kidding, Zoy Cafe is not a lecture series dude.

Now the thing is why confused girls and weird boys?Simple, I see a lot of them around me and for obvious reason that I am one of them. That makes me capable enough to understand the psychology of my TG (target group), and I can virtually connect to them. Above all I strongly believe that it will be so much satisfying to demystify this biggest philosophy of life. I mean just look at the great philosophers and thinkers of all times, they had so much focused on normal people, unfolding secrets behind the confused mind, introspecting the inner self to reach the pinnacle of enlightment etc. etc. But dude why don’t they understand the sentiments of the confused soul? Just think how boring it can be when there is no one to do stupidity; in fact the thought of it scares me. So I am taking it as my responsibility as a denizen of the global community to be the self proclaimed flag bearer to save the concept of stupidity and weirdness.

But there is one thing, my weirdness and stupidity is so much incomplete without your support. Just imagine the flavours that you guys can add to such an initiative. So before I leave I would request you to give your weirdest and stupidest comment on how can I put a good work here. You all know how much I love you guys, so do help me out.

Signing off.

It was a Friday morning which brought down my life to a very critical stage.i woke up at 3 am to receive a call.The strings of guitar which i kept as a ringtone in my cell phone was continuously ringing.I was surprised to see my sister in law calling me at this early hours.I was shocked to know my brother who had left Mumbai to go to Karwar in Karnataka was missing.The train had reached on time at 12.30 am.Being a hot tempered guy from childhood,i thought he must have been engaged in some fight with co-passenger and was detained by the police at some station .I was worried and couldn’t think of anything at that point of time.I tried calling up his cell phone.The attempts were failed and the response was that "the person you are trying to call is unavailable.My mom was in a state of mental trauma when she heard.We even thought of losing him.My sister in law rushed to the railway station to enquire,but we were not able to trace him.

We called up all the railway stations after which he had last called up at 9 pm.Finally we had a sigh of relief when we heard a railway officer saying that they have found one person on Mudgaon Station in GOA.We were happy to know it,but our excitement ended as soon as we came to know that he was a 70 years old person who lost his way and was waiting for his family to take him.We were still in the battle to find him.I called the ACP of RPF in Ratnagiri and gave him the details of my brother.My cousin and sister in law were waiting in Karwar station for a ray of hope.At 7 am the phone rang and a policemen from Kundapur station(Karnataka)called to inform that we have a person in our custody with the similar identification.The person on the other side explained that the person with them was "drugged"and was not in a state to talk.Only words he uttered was his name "Vishal".We identified the person is non other than my brother.After hearing the news on my cell phone,i rushed to the Mumbai Domestic Airport to find the earliest flight to GOA as it was the nearest airport which was located around 110 kms from Karwar.I booked the tickets with JetLite airlines and was in a hurry to reach. To my bad luck the flights were delayed due to bad weather in Delhi.I screamed at the airport on the staff for the delay.The staff was good enough to understand my problem and placed me in the Jet Airways flight which was fortunately scheduled on time.I reached GOA airport at 3.30pm.I took a cab to Karwar and was curious to see my brother.I reached the Civil Hospital and was shocked to see my brother.As said by the policemen he was drugged and was unconscious.He looked at me and i was happy that he was fine.He was unable to talk and was looking like a drug addict,his eyes were swollen. The first question he asked me was-"Varun is my gold chain safe with you". I was told by my cousin that he was robbed by some co passenger in the Netravati Express which starts from Mumbai to Trivandrum.After 24 hrs i was able to talk to my brother.he illustrated me what had happened with him.He was fine till 9 pm when he last called  home.He was forced by a co passenger to have a biscuit which he insisted as home made biscuit by his mother.My brother agreeing to his insistence had it.After having a bite of the biscuit he felt a sour bitter feeling in his throat,that was the last thing he remembers.Even after 4 days of the incidence he still murmurs the same thing.But our family was happy to find him safe.

The truth is most of us who is reading this have been lucky not to go through such an experience; but as said, precaution is better than cure. We can actually refresh our young-days advices of our parents regarding strangers, or just ignore it. Only that the fact is, sometimes cure is just not available.

Take care.

Author: Varun Nayak

Image Curtsey: Wisearce

Dedicating to my friend who helped me sort out a major chaos of my life.

It is funny when I see my life as a third person. I see a chain, a sequence very well placed and synchronized that constitutes my life. The ambiguities there always had a meaning that I found out as I lived. I see getting all that I needed; not all that I wanted. And then when I close my eyes and open it back again to get to my present, a gust of chaos and uncertainty hits my face; I am clueless as  to what should be my definition or what I am up to; the rampant broken links are prevalent. I find myself walking through them, and it does not take much time to realise that I am walking with a faith, something that I have gathered from my past, that every questions that crops into my mind shall be answered, and that shall happen if I walk past through all that is in front of me. I know for sure that I do not need an answer to every question right at this point. I then feel good that I am still walking.

The story:

There were two carpenters in a village who were known for their craftsmanship. As a test, both were given a log of wood to curve out an elephant. People wanted to see who is best among them. After the carpenters were done and the miniature elephants were brought in front of the entire village, the people were clueless as who is better as both the sculptures were astoundingly beautiful. The confused villagers went to the carpenters, who happened to be very aged and also very good friends; they were having their evening tea. One among the villagers walked to the carpenters and asked them the secret of their marvellous skill.

The first carpenter: When you people said you want an elephant and gave me this block of wood, I visualized an elephant and started carving to make a trunk, body, legs and all parts that an elephant has. When I was done I gave it to you.

The second carpenter: When you people said you want an elephant and gave me this block of wood, I visualized an elephant and started carving out the portions of the log that were not supposed to be parts of an elephant. When I was done I gave it to you.

*———-*———-*

This story is very important to me. Like the the villagers, it took sometime for me to understand what actually was said by the wise carpenters were not just about their sculptures but about the two ways I get to live my life.The first one is to choose what I want to have in my life; the second one is not to choose what I do not want in my life. Though both of them sound the same but I know for sure, living both of them is not the same.

As I walk through the randomness of my life, I find, though I may not know what is right but certainly I get the feeling what is not right. So I am the second carpenter. The thing right now is, do I carve the elephant or just plan to do it.

It is again so funny how I feel that other’s lives are so much guided and mine is so lost. For the person I am thinking such, surprisingly, looks at me and thinks my life is guided! Now I get to realize that how disrespectful I had been by not letting my life to be my life, but tried to manipulate it by comparing. It also feels good at heart when I now understand that for someone, one’s life is not his own but every member of his family has a share, and for others one’s complete life is about oneself, and if that is true for anyone, there is nothing wrong in it. I believe now I know to live the best way.

I too understand how my life is about the bits and pieces, but I think the largest chunk is mine for all the choices I made in my life. So this time I am done with the planning and I can clearly visualize the elephant; I chose to carve it.

Image Curtsey: http://www.portofafrica.com

I have seldom heard people telling me how my real world is all about people who love me and who care about me. The people who respect the way I am and accept me even though I am a crack egg; I was also told my life is about my family who would stand by me no matter what. But as a child when I was sitting in the class, away from home in the hostel, I was unconsciously waiting for someone who would come and crack a joke or something and take me to the dining hall and make sure that I have my dinner, which I was planning to miss, but sadly no one came. That was when I felt life is not just about people who would shower their unconditional love and care, but something more. I left my frown aside and went to the dining hall. I found every one seated in their place along with their friends and that is where I got my answer that life is a bit more than what I was told. I smiled to a face that was looking at me and I got a smile in return. I walked to him and he made some place for me to sit and I had my dinner with him. This was the first day of my hostel life which began more than a decade ago.

Life took me to places and made me experience my first day of my hostel again and again; but the best part is that it made me feel it not only in the first day of every new place I went, but almost every day I spent there. And if I can put that feeling in words then I will say that feeling comes from the opportunity that it gave me to love and respect people around me. Being loved and cared is a satisfaction in itself but for me the complete satisfaction came from the ones who let me a chance to care for them. All the times I had been out, Mom, Dad and my sister telephoned me frequently and every time I kept the phone I felt like talking to them even more the next time. I knew it was not just the talking, but the love that I could share with them that made me want even more; it happens even now. But I have been living with it since long and I know that I get over it as soon as I have someone to talk to; they are my friends around me. Nothing can match a feeling that I get when I find someone valuing my concern towards them, finding me worthy enough to share something personal or looking around for me to share a joke; it is like being a part of someone, though not very conscious but good enough for me. I got the most satisfying experience at times when people woke me up at mid of night just to talk to me, may be over the phone. It is like the feeling that someone around me feels that they possess some piece of my life and nothing can take it back from them. It is equally satisfying when I get comment ruthlessly rough, not because they hate me but feel that if they do not tell, then who will? I know they too feel the same; they do not need a formal invitation to tell me, they own a little bit of my life too. Bit of scolding for my bad habits and sometimes giving the verdict as if that part of my life’s decision belong to them; and I admire it, it gives me a chance to be a part in their life too.

I wish I could name everyone who constitutes me, but I am an outcome of a conglomerate of infinitesimally such pieces. This makes me believe that the life is not entirely mine. My life is all about being the bits and pieces of the people who are around me and who had been around me, may be just for a little while, may be for a long long time, or may be precisely for some moments and hence add to the bits of my life, and that is what I am all about; and that is what I will be all about.

Image Cutesy: http://lawrenceyong.files.wordpress.com