Meins

He said 'Meins' and till the time it remained to 'Meins', her world remained perfect. It meant he would take care of her and the world was her little wonder to play in. What I didn't get is the word meant by playing with someone else's rules and there is that problem I face with rules. Artists don't live by rules infact if it all, they make new ones by which the society abides, adheres and follows. Just by the way for those who don't know artists in my definition are creators and visionaries not just painters and musicians. You need the art to rise.

In a world of mergers and acquisitions, everyone should watch out for what really is theirs and what really never will be. So a Facebook bought a Whatsapp, so is Whatsapp theirs...in a fools fantasy sure. Snapchat turned down the offer but is still making it work right. Guess why? It doesn't quite follow the 'Meins' philosophy. What I find amazing is that ownership of a company, individual and their potentials is a joke on paper and real life. In real life, the real mergers should be collaborative, symbiotic relationships which don't just work on a give and take but on realising real potentials and making a kill for the creative and passionate space. In the business world, it means one word: innovation. What no one could ever think off or believe in and you come create dreams for others to follow. When one tries to curb a spirit and ambition, one will only be met with the most ultimate disappointment in life.

Ownership has a new meaning in the world we live in today. You could only own, merge and combine what has the potential. Say you take someone else's debts and try to balance it with your own credits: Bad investment.

I guess I made many and now it's time to learn the new from the scratch. 'Meins' exist..it exists without limitations, compromises and control otherwise you're doing it wrong. Or so says my experience. Go defend. 

Dominique

They told me fountainheads can't and don't exist anymore. In this fast world of speed and momentum, we as people are constantly evolving, setting up goals, achieving them and moving on to the next best goal. And then on a constant repeat mode of excellence. I wonder if everyone out there moves as fast as I think I do?

Why do I find myself more and more away from crowds and closer to my inner self. Why do I find places, people and small talk rubbish unless it brings something in to my beautiful and peaceful world? Why do I push the underdogs, the bores, the depressed and the cruel away? Have I become the cruel and heartless?

It may have started by being turned away too much and being roughened up too often. My situations have made me who I am today and I follow a discipline I find many people lacking today. Inspite of my order in life, I've come to a point where my heart longs so much more and I feel I can't settle with just anything that comes my way. First I'm afraid I'll hurt the weak in the longer run and second may be I'm still not that heartless.

The fountainhead propagated a theory which fit my vision and imagination of the future. Cold, clean and beautiful structures. I imagined it more colourful honestly but still done to perfection. I did imagine in that bright and cold world, a Howard Roark and a Dominique who never compromised on their ambitions and visions. Yet they could find each other. The book didn't talk about an ending but it did say they were on the way to build up their empires. I'm on that search of finding that empire and my Howard Roark. 

Why am I writing and publishing this today..because I want you out there to remind me if I forget all this in my red wine frenzy and dare to slip again. I have to be strong and I need friends to hold me together and protect me in this time from falling from grace. Help me in my search to find myself again and never lose it again. 

Sommerfest in Stuttgart and the samosa trail

Stuttgart will never cease to surprise me..the same city which lay barren at nights a few months back..is now so crowded..it looks like a midnight sinful carnival. The star-lit streets, the smell of different perfumes mixed with food and beer..wahhhh..so intoxicating.
On Friday as we decided to take a look at our favorite thirst quenching joints, we were met with a surprisingly full city..the usual guitar player playing 'everything's going to be alright'..the parakeet man, the violinist..the street dancers and street artists...so the first thing we did was to take a frozen cappuccino and sit on the stairs to get an overview of what's happening where..soon enough..you could hear the chant of what's on where. The Sommerfest, the screens, oddly dressed foreigners in an Indian attire..so the Indian film festival and the never ending music on the streets. As we paved our way to Palast, we were greeted by the BIG plastic elephant, a sign of the Indian film festival and as luck would have it, my friend just had to have an Indian samosa. It was such a home away from home feeling, drinking a beer at Palast and enjoying a samosa..OMG..absolutely Geile!(The Germans would say that now!)..From the way from Palast to the schlossplatz, we just couldn't ignore the lights from the old library building anymore. We had to stop by there, where the coolest of the coolest sit. It's such a different crowd there too, everyone sitting on the steps under the colorful lights enjoying the same view, enjoying the same music, some humming, some drumming, some silence, some words and the beer. Even under those colorful lights, we could enjoy the starlight. It's such a peaceful and beautiful feeling. Definitely a must try for the romantic! Luckily the S-bahns that day gave us a chance to romance more since they were all cancelled in to the wee-hours..wow..

One would think that the adventure would end on a Friday night but it only got better and bigger on a Saturday night..the latin american bands played along their tunes, the crowds got louder and decided to dance on the Marktplatz! The food variety got bigger and bigger..from Columbia, Cuba, Romania, Ecuador, India, China..and you could name it..it would almost be there..As usual my friend had the usual Samosa craving but guess what they ran out of it..which started with the next adventure..to look for the Samosa in Stuttgart!..A trip through the schlossplatz, where people decided to jump in to the fountains, the Hans im Glück thronging with people and back to the Palast! It's like all roads lead you to the pee-house, yes that's what Palast was or so I have heard...and guess what we found there..SAMOSA!..

It's always so interesting to find what all they could pack in to a small city like Stuttgart. I love the spirit of the city where you could be what you want to be and do what you would want to do (culturally ,creatively and constructively)..you could sing, dance, do a lil jig and no one would really mind :) The full-moon helped with the looniness of course!

Till next weekend..

Cheers..

The crazy times of silence and hackers

In all these times of web blasts, twitters, face book likes and other social media platforms, what catches my attention most is the silence of firms and certain forums.

Recently I attended the less publicized events like a "Silent Friday" which took place on a Thursday and was less than silent. It was one of these concerts held by the owners of one of my favorite coffee houses in Stuttgart called the Galao. The concert was also on a less than known cafe, Cafe Merlin. The concept was simple, it was targeted at office goers, who didn't want to get sloshed on a week night, the place was a bar less known, and the performers were less airy, a group of young musicians caught in a city less public too. Sweet and simple. There were cushions on the floor as a seating arrangement. No food and a pint of beer or a glass of wine were the only little options you had. The night turned in to an overwhelming evening as the music flowed through the small room and the whispering crowds drowned in to the strong music of the struggling artists in Stuttgart.

Another such event I found worth mentioning was the work of the nerds! Yes, I love the nerds as I consider myself as one. It was the work of our hacker community in Stuttgart at a place called "Shack's space". Another less than known event. The nerds gathered in a dingy place painted by street artists, surrounded by computers to hear another newbie in town. The music wasn't of my taste but the evening was so awesome as the hacker's took us in to their labs and showed their abrupt experiments. A new definition to the “cool” factor in Stuttgart.

In a city where the word "culture" and "bio-" never seems to go un-noticed, the little less publicized events seem to take the cake-away. So you have the art galleries, the museum nights, the high-flying concerts, the animation film festivals and then you have these small events that just make your evening worth grinning about. You feel a little cooler!!

This city will never end to surprise me and the opportunities it offers if you have the right spirit ;)  .Can't wait to see what 'less-publicized' event I end up in tonight!

Cheers to a wonderful Friday evening!

Life with a 'delete' button

Do you ever wake up in the morning with this feeling of deleting parts of your life or some of the people that you knew in some parts of your life. The feeling of deletion is so negative and yet so relieving. I woke up with this feeling today morning and struggled with this thought over my morning coffee. I wondered why I often felt the urge to delete and shun people from my life.

My life as I know it and some people close to me know it is very transitional. I look different each year, I dress differently and walk around with different people. Since my life is so transitional, it's but natural for people in my life to fade away from time to time. What is not natural is that I choose to cut out some people from my life. I am a very people's person and so what causes me to take such nasty steps.

By the time I had my second cup of coffee, things started to become clearer. There are some people, no wait a lot of people in my life, who have made me feel very very alone. They left me alone to deal with my own emotions. They have abandoned me in my times of crisis. They have forgotten that I am human. They have burdened me with their miseries and I've carried their miseries in my heart and on my shoulders. I've tried my best to understand, analyze and find a solution to their miseries only to be complimented by them going back to their miseries. I've never had too many expectations from people except that they take care of themselves and sometimes just sometimes hear me out.I am very thankful to these people because they didn't hear me out. They didn't take the time to know me or my life and they stayed in their miserable lives when my world shattered, broke and then resurrected. They were too busy and now they don't belong in my life! I hate desertion but it seems to be like a flu these days and I've learnt it only too well. And so I press the 'delete' button.

I also have another theory to counter the 'delete theory'. When one dull window in my life shuts down, I paint a 100 doors to make it more comfortable for others to find me. I've been taught by a lot of my 'so-called' friends to be alone and guess what, I'm leaving them all alone now :)

Cheers to the new light I'll bring in to my life today by hitting the delete button.

The bliss of the sunny winter mornings

There are very few days in Stuttgart in the winters, when you wake up to a beautiful sunny morning like today. The first rays of sunshine pouring down on the snow-capped roof tops, melting the snow in to a light falling stream of diamonds. The colors of the drops reflecting and refracting in to various shades of the rainbow.

One tends to drift in thoughts about the week ahead and the week gone by. I think about all the things I still have to do in my little time and my little life. May be write a book, put up an exhibition, participate in a marathon, the opportunities in life today seem countless.

I think about all the people, who have stood by me in a time of rough weather and now that the rough weather is almost through, what could I possibly give back to them, as a sign of my gratitude. I think about the materialism in the world, which has its short-lived joy and then I think about a long-term and life long reward. Could I return the joy in the world by imparting, what I have learnt all along my life, positivism. Could I teach them the skills that I acquired through my teachers? Should I continue to give back in the way that I find the easiest and most selfless : Teaching? I will still have to figure out which way can I combine what I have learnt and still have to learn to give back to life, the same way it gives to me each day and each morning.

While I figure out, what to do next in my life, I can enjoy for these little moments like today, the sunlight that falls on my face and thank life for giving me the little rays of hope. May the weeks ahead guide me on a path of self discovery and recovery. May my friends, family and loved ones receive every little joy that I receive in this life and in the glimmers of a sunny winter morning...Everything will be alright..

cheers..

The white wonder

It's a day like this in Stuttgart that makes you believe in the goodlife. The snow flakes covering the streets, each branch, smiling at you with its new found accessory, a little flake here, a little flake there. The rooftops beaming at you with their new found white beauty that they glow in under the white skies.

It's a day defined in white perfection. A day where friends should sit around a wooden table in Zimt und Zucker and drink a cup of warm hot chocolate, sharing the weeks laughter and joy. A day, where silence makes sounds at the charisma of  nature. As nature seduces me in to its purity and innocence, every hardship of the weeks seems to ease out of my veins bringing back fresh white light. Nothing could go wrong now in the white blanket of nature. Every little whisper from the trees ruffling with the snow flakes smothering them, seem to be calling out to me today to go out and sin in nature.

As I watch the white wonder by my window today, I can only wish happiness, love and joy to each one near and dear. This is definitely a page in the good life I sin in!

Cheers :-)