DO WHAT YOUR HEART SAYS

By SAKSHI CHAUDHARY

Weekend at home! :) Sumptuous food being offered, me being treated as an eminent guest in my own home, full day-night rest. Wow! Now, what else can be better than this! But, in between all this aristrocratic, regal treatment, one question keeps haunting me, which is, "What next?" Yes, "What next? It's less than two years of your graduation left now, so, What next?" I do have a lot of answers, I want to say a lot as I have lot many plans on my mind, but eventually I decide staying quiet, keeping my mouth mum. Why? Because somewhere inside I know they won't stand by me with this decision of mine. I am scared to tell them what I really want to choose as they want me to choose something else. So, should I sacrifice my dreams because my parents are scared for me to choose the path I have decided to? Should I stop following my heart?
Well, I guess I am not the only one going through this situation. Now, imagine, this day will start out like any other day. You'll be eating, working or jogging: when an idea pops into your head: a grand idea: it might be related to your future, your career thing, or to go somewhere great or to do something crazy. But, you'll dismiss it like you've a thousand other outlandish ideas and would take it as just another dream and would get back to your work. But that idea keep following you, it keeps coming back. It has landed itself in your mind and its tendrils are wrapping themselves around you, tightening your brain, your body and your heart. Everyday you try to get rid of that idea by distracting yourself, getting into other ideas to which your heart won't hopelessly attach itself. You keep giving thousand of reasons for not to think about it. You spin all the unneccessary webs and foolishly congratulate yourself on being mature. You often do this, right? This is the most impossible thing on earth most of us find to do, that is: to follow our heart! Yes, to follow our heart.
Following your heart means actually doing what your entire body and mind are begging you to do, no matter what the risk or consequences are. Doing so, you could lose something. You could squander your savings. You could get emotionally hurt. Now, lets take it this way: After following your heart, you'll definately gain something more. Savings, money: Cummon, who cares? It comes and goes! Getting emotionally hurt, you would get emotionally strong. And there you're. You find yourself in the place of risk and possibility of mustering the courage and fighting like hell to hold onto it. At first sight, everything seems complicated, difficult, doubtful; but in keeping calm and listening to your heart, moving in the right direction, you'll get a way. You start figuring out all the statistics of your plan. You convince yourself you're not giving up, just putting it on hold. You are proud for yourself. The agony of the past dissipates and you feel relaxed. Content. Because at the end of the day it's not the money that you earn is important, infact, it's the satisfaction and contentment in your life.
I was so inspired by that movie called '3 idiots'. I remember the sequence when Farhan goes to his father and how inventively he explains him why he want to follow his dream. That's what tells us that it's never too late to listen to your heart and follow your dreams.
I have a very good friend of mine who's actually doing what she always wanted to. It's not that her life is unambiguous, it's actually very challenging. But, yes, she knows what and how to plan out things for herself. She's in love with the life she's chosen, for she followed her heart. :)
You should never get scared of listening to your heart as it's said : 'The Cost of not following your heart, is spending the Rest of your life Wishing you had."  Follow your heart people! An amazing thing happens when you get honest with yourself and start doing what you love, what makes you happy. Your life literally slows down. You stop wishing for weekend. You begin to live in each moment. You just ride the wave that is life. A veil is lifted and a new perspective is born. When I began writing this, I stated that am scared of conveying my perspective, but as am coming to the end I myself feeling so light, filled up with a distinguishable sensation and zest. :) Your LIFE is the best gift of god. He's has left upon you, how to make the best out of it. Keep living life! Keep following your heart! :)  <3

TALENT HUNT

When you have got your favorite dish for the lunch , all your focus in on devouring the sumptuous food and giving no attention to what is going around. So was my case , one fine afternoon, enjoying the lunch-break with my friends and yes , my favorite dish :) . My friends were discussing something since we ensconced to have the lunch but as i was busy glutting , I barely lend my ears to the discussion until I heard something or I would rather mention some words that suddenly made me obsequious. IIT DELHI ; RENDEZVOUS ; REGISTRATION ; EXCITED , was all I could imbibe from their then going discussion. The story so far was IIT DELHI'S cultural fest , RENDEZVOUS , was round the corner. Yes , RENDEZVOUS was about to hit the city and a being a delhite and an engineer I was totally oblivious of the fact :\ What a turn off!! Do you people also fall under the same umbrella? :P If yes, raise your hand and give me a high-five :D yaayy!  (What! You all knew about it? Fine, don't give me those looks now!)
So, where I was! Yes , RENDEZVOUS. My friends were registering themselves for the singing competition in the fest. Didn't I mention I am surrounded with all the talented people? Singers, dancers, artists, instrumentalists, name it and I will put forward each one from my friends' list (Not the facebook one, you Einstein! I have a real world to live in :P) And that is my point of discussion today TALENT ( although I have nothing to discuss about it :P )
When you start feeling and rather better know that you are the only one UNTALENTED among all the acquaintances, does it not bother you , makes you glum? If it doesn't , then you, my dear friends, are among the best persons alive on earth or may be the narcissists :P But if does, then come on join my army and lets retaliate against God for being so biased towards us :( Yes, it really hurts to realize you are good at nothing and this what I have been constantly feeling for the past one week. Believe you me , it is so depressing at times. From the past one week, while my singer friends were busy rehearsing and being delirious for the event, I was busy sulking :\ Glum and almost with nil confidence I reached home and discussed everything I felt with my mother. Mothers, you know, will never let their child feel unworthy of anything. So she started to fill me with confidence albeit without success. Her first attempt could not even inject a single drop of confidence in my dejected nerves. but she didn't give up and explained " you never know what all you can do and be best at it until you try". " yes mom I know but this is not something called talent, something god-gifted" I argued. "How do you define talent?" she questioned. "Obviously, something god-gifted" I uttered. "Poor gal, you are in illusion. Talent is not always God-gifted. It is what you are best at and you can't be best at anything until you try, try and try!" she repeated with a smile. "You say I am the best cook. Do you think god gifted me and all the mothers with these culinary skills? Of course not, this is something we mothers tried one day and are trying to improvise till date. And then you call us talented moms" she completed with a wink. I don't know how but she always makes me understand things so better. Now my sulking tank was less than half. I got her point! :D So what if I can't sing, can't dance or can't event paint. If one day I try and never give up, may be one of these would be my talent or may be someday, at some point in my life I will find my mysterious talent :p I am feeling happy now :)
Apart from being enlightened by my mom, there is something I realized : Sometimes we do tend to underestimate our potentials despite of the fact that others have full faith in our capabilities. This thought left an ear to ear smile on my face and my sulking tank is almost emptied now. I have decided to register myself for some events. I know am not gonna excel but there is something called experience that will help me rise :) Wow!! With so much optimism I am sounding like some spiritual guru :p So maintaining my spiritual guru's image here's a short message to all who feel the way I had been feeling recently : "Always look up to life with a new ray of hope. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF even if the world stops believing in you".
I know am not talented and still hunting to find the address of my talent's abode and I sulk at times. But there is one thing I am certain of, is not loosing hope that I CAN , if not today may be one day , someday. After all, the world is not ending tomorrow. Is it? :p

SCHOOL LIFE VS COLLEGE LIFE

By-SAKSHI JAIN
Shift from schooling to college life is one of the most crucial phase of everyone's life- when teachers turn to professors, attendance issue turns to who cares, when the joy of being known by teachers turn to oh shit! teacher knows my name:-P, when tears of standing on "2nd position" in class turns to, oh my god! I passed :D and when early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise quote changes to LATE TO BED LATE TO RISE MAKES A MAN LAZY, CRAZY AND GRISE..
Schooling of a person plays the most important role in shaping the person the way s/he is today and also helps us in adapting to the outside world while college life teaches us a bit professionalism.
Everyone has their individual experiences so for some college life must have been better while for others schooling must have played a lot more role in making memories.
Some students consider college life to be a paradise and have the same feelings like a prisoner being freed after years of imprisonment. They are curious to know the world outside and experience the fresh air. On the other hand some are depressed to part with their friends, their teachers and the environment that they are accustomed to for years.
I am a bit (actually a lot more than a bit) inclined in favour of school life. It was in school that we made our first friend,had our first crush;), ate lunch boxes during classes, and learnt our first lessons about life. Also  the environment provided in school was much more protective than that offered in college, not just in sense of teachers but also our collegues. Amicable and selfless people all around filled with munificence, family like relations, innocence everywhere felt like living an impeccable life. Politics, groupism, duping were the words which were only supposed to be in dictionary. The bonding and support was like one for all and all for one. Chafing our friends deliberately, making fun of them with no intent of hurting them, being uncanny with them and having endless guffaw used to be the only things we do (obviously apart from studies :p). I still remember the day when I was in 11th class and I had a free lecture so I alongwith my batchmates begun playing basketball in class itself. Mistakenly I broke window glass pane and got a bit scared, but then few of my friends said if any teacher comes and asks that who did this then whole of class is going to stand. The whole class agreed and did the same and I shunned the punishment :p. This was school life about, helping each other endlessly without even keeping a count on it. I have countless experiences of the ilk. While I was a kid and saw my seniors crying at school farewell I used to think how crassy they are to behave in such a frivolous way but then at my time of departure from my school and my crony ones I went through the same pain and realised what it meant to me. THE LIFE THEN WAS NO LESS THAN HEAVEN.. In college I feel like I am socially interacted to many while attached to almost none. Among those socially interacted few are HELLO, HI ones, some are those who approach only when "they need favour" while rest are those despicable ones who deftly pretend to be my friends..

Few of u would agree while others may not. Everyone necessarily do not sail in the same boat.
College life is surely better in many ways like free entry and free exit at any time, no burdened shoulders with any "homework" stuff, Independence of scheduling the routine our way, exposure to people of different backgrounds, participation in unstinted competitions and many more.
At the end I would say whether it be school or college we are going to miss both, so we should learn to enjoy every bit of what we are living before it turn to MEMORIES...
NO MATTER HOW MUCH PAIN OR SUFFERINGS WE WENT THROUGH WE WOULD NEVER LIKE TO LET GO OFF THOSE MEMORIES.. THEY WILL BE THERE WITH US DEEP DOWN OUR HEART FOREVER..):)

LOVE OR ARRANGED : BE WISE WHILE YOU DECIDE

Love or Arranged: Be wise while you decide!!
By Sakshi Chaudhary

Living this hostel life makes me so pleasurable. Here, we have freedom, late nite parties together, lots of fun, celebrations, games. I would like to share one episode of ours which made me write on this. Last night, we the girls were playing that very common - the traditional youngster game which you call "Truth or Dare" . Now, we improvised it as "Truth , Dare or Stare" . Silly us! So, I catechized one of my friends on her turn, what would be her decision if she had to choose between her love and her parents; to which after thinking a lot she responded in favour of her parents. I passed on the same situation to every girl and to my surprise , each one of them would go with their parents as per their replies.

This made me a think a lot ( i usually think a lot) . I asked myself "Am I too self-centred?" to which my mind and my heart both were together this time replying a "No." I am a girl of my own ideas , and a big follower of Sir Paulo Coelho who says "Don't let others say that this road is better or that route is easier. The greatest gift god gave us is to make our own decisions." And I am proud about what i feel about the society norms and have a stong will to change them.

I remember I read somewhere that 74% of indians still prefer arranged marriages according to a survey. This reflects that Indians are still conventional in thinking of marriage as a set-up in which a person should fit into the family. Your parents, grandparents, uncle and aunts and rest hundreds of relatives should like you partner regardless of your own feelings. So, it means that your partner needs to be a perfect match for your family. Then, what about the one who sticks to you and sticks by you and treats you as an equal and not as a relative in the house. When these illustrious society people ask this question to you "Do you want an arranged marriage or a love marriage?" You know what the actual translation of this question is? Its - "Do you even have the common sense to know the right match for you or would rather choose your Mr./ Ms. Perfect and make a blunder of you life in the name of love." First I wish they get some brains and then would like to ask them "How many couples they know about who had arranged marriages which were completely acceptable and they are comfortable with each other, enough to spend their lives together, happily?" I highly doubt they'ld able to answer me here.

Arranged marriages are all about weighing the pros and cons of getting into an argument or tussle with an individual to whom you are not sure of revealing your innermost thoughts and feelings. To enter a matrimonial alliance, the two individuals need to be great friends first. While I was having a debate over the same issue with my friends, they strongly said "The society is changing , Sakshi! Now, even in arranged marriages the girl and the guy have long talks and get to know each other so well. I explained them "Girls! You need to get aware of this fake world around yourselves. People can fake upto a limit you can ever imagine. You can't just make out having few ralks before 3-4 months of your marriage. It takes years to get to know a person well. The real picture comes before your eyes when you are made to live with it. There are several couples who live in the same house like strangers without communicating at all or couples whi have been living in different cities and have no relationship between them. The only reason why these people do not become a representative sample of population during a survey of divorce, is that, legally, they are not divorced for the sake of society; but pyschologically they are. Arranged marriages are no more than social contracts in our country where the bride's family offer payments alongwith their daughter.

Marriage must be arranged by two individuals, where they mutually come to a decision regarding the order of their life together, based on love, affection, respect and commitment. While I harbour respect to both kinds of marriages, I choose to take the path where I maintain my individuality.

DRESS TO LOOK TALL

Yesterday , like any other boring day , while leaving my class after dispersal I came across this girl who was struggling to walk coherently. At first I thought , may be the load of the books which she was carrying in her arms made her stumble ( foolish me ! :P)  Then I suddenly realized that was not the books but the heels , almost 3-4 inches of heels , which she wore on a normal college day!!! :O
Thinking to myself , aren't these heels too long to be worn on such an ordinary day?! , I subconsciously uttered , "What made you wear such high heels?". "What???" , was all she could utter with a perplexed face  bemused by my question. A little embarrassed , I tried to sneak out of this awkward moment as she said "sorry?". As she stood there a little shocked I continued "Err..I mean there is nothing special in the college today , I guess , so why these?" emphasizing on the height of heels. She gave me a look which clearly stated who the hell I am to ask!! Ofcourse , who the hell I was to ask , silly me!! I again tried to sneak out of this now-getting-more-awkward situation when she asked in a low voice "What do you think make girls wear heels?". The answer was obvious. " THEIR DISPARATE LOVE FOR THE HEELS!". "But that is not the only reason" , she explained , " especially for the girls like me , you know " .
After scanning her from head to toe, like fools :P , I finally understood the reason she was talking about. she would be merely five feet tall. And just to look tall she was struggling with those high heels. This made me ruminate over the fact : ARE HEELS THE ONLY OPTION TO COMPENSATE YOUR HEIGHT? Or there is something more that can make you look taller?!
So , I dis some click-click (research) on google and here I am with some great tips for you all .
(These are not my personal views but this is what the experts and the designers have to say. So you can rely on the tips :P )
Read on to enhance your already great personality :)

• WEAR VERTICAL STRIPES :  Anything that elongates your height is a good thing. Vertical stripes help extend the look of a shorter body. Patterns such as pinstripe , chalkstipe and herringbone also give the " vertical effect ".
• DO NOT GO SHORT : Wearing short sleeved clothing and shorts draws attention to your limbs and makes you look shorter. Go for linen trousers and lightweight long sleeve shirts that you can roll up on the forearm during hotter months ;)
• WAIST IT : Ditch the hipster pants and jeans to feign longer legs. Wearing pants down on the hips makes your legs look stubby. Just wear the waistband of your pants higher or at the natural waist to look taller.
• MONOCHROME IT : Discarding contrasting colours from your appearance helps streamline your look. Keep all your clothes within a consistent colour theme to look tall. You can opt for bright colours too , as long as you wear the same hue from top to bottom.

This was a small piece of information I shared with you all. Hope you get benefited :)

Any kind of suggestions or queries are most welcome. :)

INTRODUCTION

Hello people !

Here we bring you "THE MELANGE BOX" : Chimera of three young ladies. We three are sweet and simple girls :) pursuing our graduation. (Now, you must believe we are YOUNG :p )


MELANGE BOX  is a joint effort of our ideas. Now, lets come to the point what made us write this blog! As all of us are so busy in ourselves and we let our stupid problems hyped so much that we rarely give a thought about the surroundings. Our case was pretty similar. But as there comes a phase of attainment in everybody's life , so did it in ours. We had an idea of availing something , an urge to know more , to share our thoughts , to involve and get involved in this rapidly growing planet. Thus , we bring you THE MELANGE BOX.


THE MELANGE BOX , as the name suggests , is a mixed thoughtful bag that we are gonna sell you. We promise to give you a deliberate account on the general , social , political , technological issues ; new trends ; tips for various problems ; entertainment media ; know abouts and numberless interesting things on this earth and a lot more you could ever think of.


We wish that you enjoy and get benefited by the reviews and topics shared over here. And yes , all your suggestions and comments are whole heartedly welcome :)
Because at the end of the day our victory lies in YOUR satisfaction and happiness :)