Life at what it does the Best - Creating Memories !!!

Reminiscing the year and a half which went by ...

This blog will include a lot of names - friends' names of-course - who have been an integral part and without whom this blog post would have not existed in the first place ...
So people who might read this post, could be or could not be knowing these people who will pop up now and then as I write this long script ....

Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...


Its been almost a year and a half since I landed up in this place which is famously coined as "The Silicon Valley" ...
Of-course this notation is more prevailing amongst people around the world who really fantasize about this so called hyped place where it is said that the world breathes because of the technology and innovations which are fostered here in the Silicon Valley ...

For most of us - the fun loving, enthusiastic young crowd its just simply termed "The Bay Area" !!!

Yep ! Its been a long time since I started working here and shifted out of Los Angeles. LA was like a paradise to me and gave me some of the best moments of my life which if I have to pen down then would turn out not to be a long long blog but instead I can write a book on those splendid years which I spent at USC... But I didnt knew, that I was going from a paradise to another heaven itself, and this new place will sketch out even more memories which I can talk about and remember for years to come ...

I was just chatting with my friends Nirmam and Suhani(Bhabhijiii) and its during this conversation that we discussed what should be the next topic of my blog ....
Why not recollect some memories from the year which just went by ...Ofcourse bhabhijiii's topic was something different which I am still working on .... (Ha bhai) !!
Is this a good time to do so ? Well some would agree some wouldnt - But I think any time is a good time to sit back and remember those moments and just have a laugh about those ....
I personally feel that "Life Kya thi Kya Phonchi Gai" .... How our life has traversed through Stop Signs, U- Turns, One-Ways, Right Turns, Left Turns and some times just Stalled , waiting for something exciting to happen - which is where I would exactly place my life to be today !!!!

I don't know where to begin, but for starters, I used to live with a group of SJSU buddies, all of them being students, initially when I came to San Jose, of-course there were my USC buddies too, who had already shifted but couple of them were already married, and/or were living far from my job ...
So I started living with Vivek Modi (My next door neighbor back in ahmedabad, my high school friend), Sahil, Kunjan (i was scared the first time I saw him), Jimmy, Sanato (Viral) ... Had loads of fun ... as straight out of USC, I was still not willing to give up my student life style ... I just wanted to njoy the way I used to do at USC and so I really enjoyed every bit of my stay in downtown San Jose...Its during this time I met my old high school mates - Nirmam and Karan(Batti as he was used to be called) .... I still remember that one party I had with them in a club called Vivid in San Jose, and I didnt knew this was just the beginning lol !!!! There were MORE to come later on ....(People who are aware of it might understand it already ..... hahahaah lol )... I also met Gaurang (Tanna), and when I saw him the first time I was like - WHAT THE HECK !!!! He had converted to a Hip Hop star ... hahaah just kidding ...
So yeah those couple of months, living the exact same student life, got me in the groove, helped me settling down ... I still remember I used to go to LA almost once a month for sure, and sometime twice a month .... I still do now .... That thing for a matter of fact has not yet changed !!! (Damn I already have like 28K miles on my Camry ....) ....

Further moving on, we had a great trip to Lake Tahoe with almost all my USC buddies, skiing, hot tub in the backyard.... was a great fun trip .... Meanwhile, my high school buddy Vivek (Patel) also got a job here in the "Bay Area" and we decided to move into a new appt in May/June .... Amidst all this, my parents visited me for my graduation .... That Moment when I took the Walk , being a USC Graduate, Parents with me - I have no words to express that moment, those 2-3 minutes of moist eyes, happiness, if someone knows why I felt it that way its only because they would understand and know what I had gone through in order to graduate "FINALLY" !!!!
I enjoyed every bit of those moments with my parents ...

So me and Vivek moved in with Harsh (Harshya) in San Jose .... Meanwhile Nirmam was also in the loop .... and Then started the partying circuit .... Me, Nirmam, Vivek, Harsh, Savan and ofcourse SOTU (Soham) .... No matter how much one would be getting frustrated during the whole week at job, but come thursday/fri, everyone would get Guestlist emails in their inbox saying "You are on the guestlist" .... No matter what, we partied hard almost 2-3 times a month ..... Those moments in Taste Lounge and Fluid in San Francisco would be remembered a lot .... The first DJ Aqeel night, where Sotu got us in by just yelling "Leena" (Nirmam and I were like what the hell !!!!) .... Oh Man !!! Those were the days of complete freedom (ofcourse I still do have that freedom) ..... (Psst : Pun Intended) ....

Moving on, Sotu announced that he is moving back to India - "Permanently" !!! Oh man shit !!! We were all like - Come o Yaar Sotu yaar, No yaar , There is nothing in India yaar .... Ofcourse inside we all knew, that someday we will be lucky too to announce "I am going back to India permanently" !!!!! But yeah, we still sometimes - and PLEASE MIND ALL only "Sometimes" do miss Sotu King !!!! But then in came Bimal Lal !!!!
Bimal bhai, and his round the clock Tea Service, and those Poems and Small Funny Stories ..... It felt that for the first time there was no age bar ... Bimal bhai was our roommate for a good 4-5 months and even though he was older to us (married and has a child) we never felt it that way, nor did he felt that we were too young... in fact he always used to say "I have become younger for some time now" !!!! hahahahaah Nirmam is a fan of the daal-bhat he used to make, we still remember the great Mammoth Lake Trip we all had - Me, Vivek, Nirmam, Bimal bhai, Harsh, Ravish, Kalgi, Karan, Suhani, Bhupesh, Chinar, Darshil, Avani, Lichy ? (hope i didnt miss someone ?) ....I also had a great November long weekend, with my college buddies, Kartik and Jai visiting California, and we travelled like what almost all of Northern california, with Jaishal Bhoomi Jeet Ruchi Rucha Vivek etc ....Bhaskar one of my other college friend, also was here for some time ... How can I forget the great great "BOYS NITE OUT", and the funny moments at Naan n Curry later on that night, in SF !!!

Then came the trip to India, which saw further surprises and changes .... Sotu got married, Nirmam got committed - This seemed as if the partying is gonna end or what ? NAH !! I was wrong I guess....lol ...Bhupo(Bhupesh) also got committed. .... So it was the season of love I guess in India !!!! Came back, finished one year at job, got a new title at work and above all my own matrimonial front was getting active and there was a lot of buzz that I might get married too even before I would leave india .... but still here I am - very much single !!!! ;-)
Bimal lal left, and while he was there we also had Ankit (Aghro as bimal bhai used to call him) ....Well life was going on pretty smoothly I would say ....

Well there was no excitement - and suddenly out of the blue, we thought why not register to play cricket - why not have our own team and play the tournament .... Whoa !!! THATS IT ~!!!!! All The Hidden passions, desires, talent and what not started surfacing and the only buzz amongst us was "The Immortals" and how we can WIN !!!! Thats it... Some of you might have already followed my blog and would be aware of this .... So every weekend after weekend, it was like Partying and then Cricket !!!! We had a great pool of talented players - Savan(Captain), Darshil(Vice Captain), Ronak, Keko(Karan), Bhupesh, GD(Gaurav), Ravish, Aditya(DOG), Vivek (Patel), Vivek (modi), Sanato (Viral), Kunjan (Kapad), Manan, Harsh, Nirmam, Karan(Batti) and ofcourse Me (Manager hahaahahah) .... Well this cricketing moments were real fun and made us fresh to face the torturing week to follow at job .... (Psst: Amidst all this, there was this big fight between me and Harsh too, and hahaahah the funny part is Keko was almost thinking that I would go and hit Harsh or do something like that .... But let bygones be bygones ....) .....

Then we decided to shift, to a new place, well and no one would have guessed that this new place called "The Americana" in Mountain view, would have to be the platform for a love story to build upon, a place which one of us would remember for the fact that it is this new surrounding that let the love in the air blow in all directions .... Yes as most of you know by now,... Vivek (Patel) has found his partner ... Aarohi .... So this was like the prem kahani of Appt 211 and 511 brought under the roof of Americana !!!! Meanwhile, Aditya (The Dog) also shifted permanently to the "Bay Area", and just recently we had a BLAST at his surprise bday party which Paula his better half had organized .... That party relived some of the older USC memories some of us had and also relived some partying memories too which we used to have last year ....

So just looking forward to what is gonna come next within a few months, by the end of this year ....
Vivek getting engaged (could be getting married too - who knows - this is life !!!!)
Nirmam getting married
Karan (Batti) getting married
Bhupesh getting married
Aditya getting married
Ronak getting married

Phew !!! Tired already ??? What a storm or events !!! Whoa !!! Damn !!! That's what I and Nirmam were discussing ... Life Kya Thi Kya Phonchi Gai Che !!!
Hahahaahahahah !!!

Its amazing to just sit back and think for a while as to how our paths have crossed each other, how have we found each other, how and where life is taking us - together or alone !!!!
And the tequilla shot here is - No Matter what we think, or we do, we have no control over this series of events which surround each of our life !!!

So just looking back to these small events surrounding most of us here in the circle I just have one quote which I found somewhere on the net :

“Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends.”

Cheers

Samy

(Disclaimer : There have been a lot of other events but I thought lets keep it short and simple LOL ;-) ) !!!!

What does your name mean ?

I was thinking of what to post, and came across this thought of trying to know what does my name mean and suggest !
I was reading some Jain Scriptures, and came across the following definitions / meanings of what my name "Samkit" indicates ...

Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...

Samkit :
- Blessed state of the Self-realisation and Equanimity.....
- Synonymous with Samyak or Samyaktva; True path; Samyak darshan.....
- Three vows or goals :
1) Upshama samkit - dedicated 'faultless' doubtless following the guru or the enlightened one
2) Shaayik samkit - initial experience of the ultimate Truth after destroying all passions' and
3) Kshaayopashmik samkit - union with True knowledge, continuous and consistent realization of the same Awakening of the soul to the right path.

- Samkit means right faith in the nature of substances, animate and inanimate and conviction accompanied with self realization of soul as distinct from body and allied objects.
- Such a faith remaining alive in an embodied soul night and day and each moment of time is Kshayaka Samkit.
- On attainment of this sort of faith an individual can be liberated from the bondage to body and Karmas in the same birth or in maximum within three ensuingbirths.
- This state is obtained by the total annihilation of Darshana Moha (infatuation arising out of illusion and ignorance of self) and Anantanubandhi Kashaya i. e. due to clinging to erroneous belief of body as soul and not heeding the words of the wise, a queer type of passion is generated forcing an individual to act in a manner that causes him to wander in this universe infinitely.
- This kind of Samkit can be achieved in the present age of spiritual decay and corruption.

The overall conclusion I got from this excerpt is,
Once a soul has 'Samkit', he gets liberated within few incarnations....

Cheers

Samy

(PS: I would like to hear the meanings of your names too ... So feel free to write and post the meaning of your names ....)
;-)