A Brotherly apology to a Sister

It's the 20th anniversary of f.r.i.e.n.d.s and I'd rather apologize to my sister. To people who know the value I have for that sitcom would understand the sacrifice I'm currently performing. Well, sacrificing a post for f.r.i.e.n.d.s is rather too small when compared to the mistake I've done.

With deepest regret I post here today,
Forgetting my dear sister's birthday.
Embarrassment is all that I feel,
And It may take months to heal.

Never did I think that this day would come,
There is nothing in my head, just an empty drum.
My dear sis, forgive me this time,
Though I know this is a merciless crime.

Eyes are moist with tears at bay,
And now I wish you a happy birthday.

With regret and sorrow,
Your brother,
Asif Dash

5 Things I Leaned From Godfather

Godfather is a classical hit released in 1972. According to me this film comes under the "must watch" category. It's not just because Al Pacino performed a brilliant piece but also for the values it teaches a human being. I normally see the good in a film and this film had some unique lessons. The top 5 that I loved the most are as follows.

5: Shedding Blood isn't always the way to solve a problem.

It's plainly the third law of Newton, you take blood and someone takes it from you. There is nothing in this world that has an everlasting life, everything comes to an end, but what matters is how long you live, how long you serve to make a difference and this film has definitely taught me that particular thing. Not that I wanted to kill someone, but a lesson like this once in a while always keeps you from that thought.

4: If there us one thing history has taught us, it's that anyone can be killed.

Let's not get worked up on this idea. I actually included this to remind people that they may the one standing at the gun point. So, fear death, it may reduce your mistakes drastically. I know that I mentioned 'killing' is something I wouldn't go for, but you dare hurt someone close to me and the repercussions would be something you would regret.

3: Faith protects you. You lose it, you die.

Not to be cocky, but it would be better if all followed this. At the end of the film the one thing I realized is that bad faith is what killed many. People believe in others for a reason and when one breaks it, it just doesn't dissolves, it kills. Though not by the person you just broke with but by you own heart.

2: Keep your friends close, but you enemies closer.

When it's too late to make amends, this is exactly one must follow. Hell yeah, you may not be the bad guy but you definitely have to keep the enemy close. Maybe for good, maybe for bad, things always may go rough.

1: Family comes first.

No matter what you family does, it definitely is the one thing you must always adhere to. This is not just a point I learn from the film, this is something I experienced. Family comes first because there is always a Godfather watching over you, protecting you, caring for you and will definitely kill for you at times needed.

Let's Talk Love

“Love is something you feel when you see a crocodile eating mangoes from a tree.” – Asif Dash

I’m not implying that the possibility is zero, but just that it is not in the negatives. People believe in many things, like superman, transformers, unicorns, kraken and sometimes even the possibility of living within the matrix. These things are more than beautiful, magnificent, and love is something similar. Love according to my dictionary goes something like this,

LOVE: noun; a feeling which has no definite expression or explanation but often searched.  

This is plainly my view, and I do hope that I’m wrong. But let’s not dwell in the definition area. To the good parts. I've been meeting interesting people my whole life, clever, not so clever, dull, boring, proud, arrogant, and so on. But very few people inspire me, no matter what category they fit into. An even interesting thing is that, these people are victims of “LOVE”.

This one guy Mr.X(Name Changed), a dear friend, was listening to a song (Ninaivugal from Autograph). Listening to a melody after a long time really was quiet good. The song ended and he played the same thing again, it wasn't that bad the second time either, then the third time. This made me realize that something was wrong and as a good friend I had to do the right thing.

To guys like me, when I mean ‘to do the right thing’ , it implies ‘Close the drapes, switch the lights off and go to sleep’, but I did the wrong thing. I asked him what’s wrong, and I slept at 2 AM that night. He rambled on about his so called ‘broken heart’ for almost 4 hours. This wasn't for the first day alone, this continued for two days. The composer of that song would have cursed himself if he were to be in my position. The repeated listening actually made him forget her and drew him more closer to itself.  Maybe now he is in love with the song.

I started this article thinking of something and I just don’t know what took me here. So, to end with a couple of notes,  

                    1)      Love is an undefined feeling frequently confused.

                    2)      Victims of love are usually like me.

*******Criticism Accepted******

  

The Egg Story

Every parents have their way when it comes to disciplining their children. Some parents advice, some beat and some just ignore. Well, my mom had different methods and this story is based on one such method.

People close to me, especially relatives, have a good knowledge about me, and very few know the reason behind my 'egg-phobia.' (Just the raw ones, I love the fried ones). Yeah, I'm afraid of raw eggs. I can handle them, but a part of me shivers when I have them in hand.

To the story, long long ago, I guess I was in the 5th grade or 4th, I don't really remember when. So, my mom sends me to buy a dozen eggs and I OBEDIENTLY (Because that's how I was when I was a kid) walked down to the store and bought her the eggs.

Now people who have bought eggs may know that at some point in his/her life, an egg may break while bringing it back home. So the egg broke, big deal. A scolding, or at the most a beating would have sufficed.

Before saying what my mom did, I would like to confess that no matter what, I love my mom, like more than anything in this world.

Unlike the image, i just broke a single egg. Back to the ending. My mom noticed the single egg that broke, after which she took the remaining eggs one by one and broke it. Inside the house. Next room to the kitchen. Right in front of my eyes. (Eggs were cheaper then, 12 rupees a dozen I think). That wasn't the end, she made me clean it. People who haven't cleaned egg from a cemented floor before, believe me when I say this, writing exams are easier.

It nearly took me 3 hours to clean it and still the stench never seemed to reduce, after which I had to use washing powder to cover up the smell. But it just made it worse.

So finally, after a struggle of nearly 4 hours, I was exhausted. The floor was clean but a faint smell of the eggs still remained.

This story has been more of an amusement than a tragedy and honestly this is one effective method to discipline a kid, if you don't want him/her to ever touch an egg again.

Origin of DASH - Not for the faint hearted

If i had a penny for every time someone asked me "What's with the name DASH?", i would have at least earned a hundred dollar note. That's an honest assumption, believe me it is. I've grown tired explaining it to each and every person who inquires about it. So, I've decided to put an end to all the constant badgering with this post.

It was the year 2006, i was in my eighth grade. Playing football with broken sharpeners and the secret chips consumption during classes were the best of times I experienced those days. Nitin, Raju, Abi and many such were within my friends circle. Though i wasn't close enough with many, the bond i shared with them had a meaningful source. To be honest, those guys taught me a great deal that influenced a varied change within me.

Now coming to the point. Some particular day, our section had to attend a two hour computer class. Normally theory classes were taught but the substitute teacher preferred a practical session. The task was to do anything you like and meanwhile the teacher would sit relaxed in his chair. That's the day i created my first email id. The Sign Up page asked for a User Name, and i similar to most new users typed in my name.

asif -- taken

asifahamed -- taken

syedasif -- taken

syedasifahamed -- taken

Those four suggestions alone exhausted me. The guy to my left was Nitin and to my right was, i don't remember. So, i started bugging Nitin for a suggestion, for which he accepted to help after a while. But my new found curiosity over this kept me interrupting him without break.

Another piece of information readers here must know here is that, foul language was forbidden within the campus and certain words were substituted in order to, you know, just scold. One famous word that usually filled in that void was DASH. Many would have guessed it by now, but yet i'm gonna finish this post.

So, the nagging part. My constant irritation bothered him and some creative instinct of his came up with ASIF DASH. Yea, he actually used those exact words to scold me. The ring it gave sounded good to me and ever since Dash stuck on to me as my last name. And hence the origin.

Brotherhood, Sisterhood - It's FAMILY-HOOD

Being the only son never really bothered me much. I had my share of brothers and sisters in the form of cousins. In fact, the share I received was more than what I deserved or even expected. Imagine a dozen (in my case 10 siblings). That's how many were born to my grand father, not a dozen but 10 and later on imagine the children these ten have. I haven't actually counted, but my guess would be roughly around 20. That's the number of brothers and sisters I have.

The love I received from each is paramount. Encouraging me at every step and guiding me through the right path are just a few of what they have done for me. Nothing actually matters when I have them around. A sense of completion is what I actually feel.

Moving on to the fun part. Cricket has special place in our hearts and heads. Being a lot, we never had to bring in other neighbors while playing in the backyard. The age group within us varied but the teams were usually unequally split. Elders on one end and the Youngs on the other. ( Not the best of brothers). Luckily the one player who plays the best, always stuck to us. The fact that he is the youngest of all who played may be surprising to many, but the fact is, he really was the best. We bowled and as per the 'backyard cricket rules' - the best bowled the first over, same applies for batting. I was at a corner supposed to be fielding. The first ball, youngest to the eldest. Clean bowled. The stumps came apart.

That's how good he was with the ball. Moving on to the second eldest(The second batsman). Youngest to the second eldest. Stumps fell again. That was shocker, as the batsman was his own brother. Before moving to the third batsman, introducing the wicket keeper of our team is a must. Currently pursuing dentistry, AZAR (The only cousin's name I'm using today) is a year elder to me. A very enthusiastic guy, even today.

So,the third batsman was on the crease and the youngest ready to bowl. The ball roared,missed the bat, towards the stumps and then came his savior. Azar , our own wicket keeper caught the ball even before it hit the stumps. That wasn't actually the funny part, the funny part is when he yelled "How Is That!!!!!!????" thinking it came off the bats edge.

I'm going to laugh till my stomach aches. Couldn't type anymore.

House of Colors

All i wanted this weekend was a good night sleep for the entire 24 hours within the privacy of my room. But the universe had a different opinion. Universe - "let's put this lad under a roof where screams and cries never come to an end". And here I am at my cousins house fighting for a moments shut eye.

Khichidi and Pudina ka chutney was served at breakfast accompanied with the sweet sound of my ...... ( I don't exactly know the relationship I share with this kid). It seems that her sister tore a part of a calendar he held dear to him for the past five minutes. And that's what started the crying session. There were pauses in between, so that he could catch a breath and start screaming again.

Moving on to the 'calendar tearing' sister. She giggled, as he cried at the top of his voice. That's what he was doing now - screaming not crying. Her giggles aggravated his temper and a war begun.

The only peaceful time I had was the small breaks one gave to recollect their energy, only to start again even mightily. My mind failed to comprehend the taste of whatever I was eating.

This may just be the beginning. I would rather call it the house of sounds.

Life's philosophy

There comes a time when people don't understand what life really is all about. A cousin of mine resently posted a pic on a whatsapp group. It displayed an arrow mark pointing at our solar system within the milky way. This image was just the top half and bore the words, "Are you really here".

Moving on to the bottom half of the pic. It showed a woman writing something and a mountain of papers were behind her. This had the quote "to do this?".

What was I supposed to make of it? I responded with a lol and thought about it a lot. In fact, the pic kept me thinking and baffling even at 2, when all I could hear is the snoring noise of my friends.

That is when the thought stroke, I mean really stroke. What if this was just something to test my ability. Giving upon such small things just makes a person vulnerable and most importantly stupid.

This is what life gives you when you doubt it. Just keep living it and give your best at every chance you get. It's basically Newton's Third Law.