What it was or what it is, I care less
What mattered was you, then and now
And I will see that that’s how it stays

Then it was attraction,
I the subject who objectified the ‘you’
You being the driver of my reckless do’s

Then it was adamance,
An urge, a greed
Now all there is, is the need

What was in me has changed
A fire that was there
Now all there is, a spark, but that’s enough

I have you
I am the one who made the choice
And I am surviving, a pleasure

All I need to say is
Then it was you, and today too
And from where I see, it will always be you

Jab pucchaa to sach bayaan na kar paayaa
Ab sacchai se zyada khud se darta hun

Kaise izhar karu ke ab tu sirf ek zaroorat hai
Jab chaahat kisi aur ke dil me chuppaaye baitha hun

Wafaa ki meesaal ban baitha tha
Meri parchhai bhi teri muskuraahat ke wajah thi
Ab jab unke darmiaan hotaa hun
Toh tere gum ki bhi fikar nahi rahi

For my Hindi readers:

courtesy: https://www.trippendicular.blogspot.com/

khushnuma aankhon ke bheetar, chhupi nami pehchaane kaun
zaahir khushi har koi jaane, dil mein dard hai jaane kaun

raat aur din bas yehi silsila, kaun sahi hai kaun galat
lamha lamha toot toot kar, khatm ho raha jaane kaun

dheeme dheeme pighalte hue, armaano ke shaffaq ye jaam
gumshuda koi shaks maze se, pee raha hai jaane kaun

subah subah har roz vahin se, ugta hai suraj, koi shak nahi
kaunsi aisi saher mein dooba, andhera phir bhi hai jaane kaun

vo jo kho gaya ek pal mein, sadiyon se jo paa na saka
deewangi ko sar pe baandh ke, dhoond raha hai jaane kaun

meri hi tarah dard mein dooba, mere libaas mein kaun hai tu
koi baat chale to andaaza ho, zyadaa gum-geen hai jaane kaun

is dil pe itne patthar hai pade, ke dil hi patthar ka ho chala
in zakhmo ka ilaaj bhi hota, par, marham chura le gaya jaane kaun

vo hai jaise aina mera, aur main uska hi aks hua
mere hi andar rehta hai, mujh jaisa hi jaane kaun

haathon mein laqirein hain phir bhi, taqdeer kyu naraaz hai
meri mukaddar se dushmani ki saazish kar gaya jaane kaun

For my Hindi Readers:

खुशनुमा आंखो के भीतर, छुपि नमि पेहचाने कौन
ज़ाहिर खुशि हर कोइ जाने, दिल में दर्द है जाने कौन

रात और दिन बस येहि सिलसिला, कौन सहि है कौन गलत
लम्हा लम्हा टूट टूट कर, खत्म हो रहा जाने कौन

धीमे धीमे पिघलते हुए, अरमानों के शफ़्फ़क ये जाम
गुमशुदा कोइ शख्स मज़े से, पी रहा है जाने कौन

सुबह सुबह हर रोज़ वहिं से, उगता है सुरज, कोइ शक नहि
कौनसि ऐसि सेहेर मेन डूबा, अंधेरा फिर भि है जाने कौन

वो जो खो गया एक पल में, सदियों से जो पा ना सका
दीवनगी को सर पे बांध के, ढूंड रहा है जाने कौन

मेरि हि तरह दर्द मेन डूबा, मेरे लिबास में कौन है तु
कोइ बात चले तो अनदाज़ा हो, ज़्यादा गम-गीन है जाने कौन

इस दिल पे इतने पथ्थर है पडे, के दिल हि पथ्थर का हो चला
इन ज़ख्मों का इलाज भि होता, पर, मरहम चुरा ले गया जाने कौन

वो है जैसे आईना मेरा, और मैं उसका हि अकस हुअ
मेरे हि अंदर रेहता है, मुझ जैसा हि जाने कौन

हाथों में लकिरें हैं फिर भि, तकदीर क्युं नाराज़ है
मेरि मुकद्दर से दुश्मनि कि साज़िश कर गया जाने कौन

Ek Dost tha mera apna sa
Kuch begaani baaton se wo khafa ho gaya
Na usne, na maine kuch kaha
Waqt guzarta raha aur wo juda ho gaya

Ek maasumiyat thi jo hamein baandhey rakhi thi
Baarisho mein jab bheega karte thae saath saath
Ek barsaat mein saans kuch ruk si gayi
Dil dhadka fir toh jawaa ho gaya

Sardiyo mein jab mila karte thae nukkad par
Jhapat kar gale lag jaati thi uskae
Ek dafaa saanso ki garmi chhoo gai
Toh chehra ye sharam se pheeka ho gaya

Ladta tha mujhse wo
Jhagadta tha, kabhi hass padta tha
Din bhar buss usi se batiyaati rehti mein
Baato baato mein jaane kab pyar ho gaya

Din kat te gaye aur raatein dhalti gai
Doori gumshuda aur nazdiki badhti gai
Usae toh shaayad pata bhi nahi tha
Yaar hi tha wo mera jo phir dildar ho gaya

Mein hi nahi thi yun chanchal lekin
Dil to uska bhi machal raha tha
Chhupana to usae khoob aaya
Bohot der ho gai jab mujhe pata chal gaya

“Kaash mujhe khabar hoti
Toh yun dur na hone deti tumhein
Kahaan gayi wo maasumiyat
Kyu apna milna bura ho gaya?

Ek tu hi to tha mera apna sa
In dilo kay bawandar mein kyun khafa ho gaya
Na tune mujhe, na maine tujhe roka
Waqt guzar gaya aur tu judaa ho gaya.”

For My Hindi readers:

एक दोस्त था मेरा अपना सा
कुछ बेगानी बातों से वो खफ़ा हो गया
ना उसने, ना मैने कुछ कहा
वक्त गुज़रता रहा और वो जुदा हो गया

एक मासुमियत थि जो हमें बांधे रखी थि
बारिशो में जब भीगा करते थै साथ साथ
एक बरसात में सांस कुच रुक सी गयी
दिल धदका फ़िर तो जवां हो गया

लडता था मुझसे
वो झगडता था, कभि हस पडता था
दिन भर बस उसि से बतियाति रेहती में
बातो बातो में जाने कब प्यार हो गया

सरदियो मेन जब मिला करते थै नुक्कड पर
झपट कर गले लग जाति थि उसके
एक दफ़ा सांसो कि गरमि छू गयी
तो चेहरा ये शरम से फीका हो गया

दिन कट ते गये और रातें ढलति गयी
दूरि गुमशुदा और नज़दिकि बढति गयी
उसे तोह शायद पता भी नहिं था
यार हि था वो मेरा जो फिर दिलदार हो गया

मैं हि नहि थि युं चंचल लेकिन
दिल तो उसका भि मचल रहा था
छुपाना तो उसे खूब आया
बोहोत देर हो गयी जब मुझे पता चल गया

“काश मुझे खबर होति
तो युं दुर ना होने देति तुमहें
कहां गयी वो मासुमियत
कयु अपना मिलना बुरा हो गया?

एक तु हि तो था मेरा अपना सा
इन दिलों के बवनडर में कयुं खफ़ा हो गया
ना तुने मुझे, ना मैने तुझे रोका
वक्त गुज़र गया और तू जुदा हो गया।”

I trusted and believed
Whatever that you said
I thought you were for real
And gave up all I had

Yes, we started off quite alright
Whatever that we had
Until you leaked the farce
And showed off your real cad

Yes it hurt.
And it hurt quite a bit
When I finally gave up my woes
And declared we were illegit

After all,
I am but a human
I do re-live my wounds
Time and often

Today was such a day
And I decided to forgive you
And free MYself for ever
From the casts of this voodoo

You abused my innocence
Yes, you faltered my faith
I used to be a lover
There’s a reason why I hate.

jab woh nahi the to koi ehsaas nahi tha
kabhi koi shikve shikayat nahi the
koi gum or kuhshiyo ka saathi bhi nahi tha

phir aap ne kadam badhaaye ya humne thaamaa haath
kuch bhi yaad nahi kahaa se hui shuruaat
aapne baant li zindagi jaise, ho khushiya gum ke saath
ab to sirf parchhaai ban ke reh gaye hum aapke baad

 When I see you looking so affectionately at me,

When I feel the warmth of – you holding me,

When I see how caringly you’re wiping my tears,

When I hear you talking your heart out to me,

When there is only LOVE everywhere…

Between the two of you and me,

When there is a divine smile on your face,

When there is real joy in your voice,

When happiness doesn’t depart as soon as it arrives,

And when nothing at all is wrong between us,          

…  It feels so very good

But,

When anything blissful like this happens,

– I KNOW IT’S ONLY A DREAM

When we’ve argued and had a dispute

When all our conversations have gone mute

When words stop birthing and thoughts don’t grow

You have no idea darling, I feel so poor and low

When there’s no chit-chat and talking between us

When a tiny little thing turns into such a big fuss

When we don’t talk, there’s no soothing noise

I wonder what to do, I have no choice

The wall turns pale and the furniture stares at me

Within our home, they’re witnesses of my misery

I feel so cruelled and helpless with everything around

When we’re constantly quarreling, but without a sound

My vision goes blurred and the sun fades away

My mind goes blank and dull goes the day

For days and nights, when our eyes don’t meet

Neither mornings, nor at evenings we greet

Lost is the love and emotions shattered

Only ashes we have, of all that mattered

We don’t even know of what went wrong

No, ya I know, nothing really went wrong…!

Then, why does it take such a long time…?

Is there no cure, no quick regime…?

Inside my heart, I bleed and suffer

Please for once, let your ego surrender

My heart, I feel is tied up tight

There’s so much sorrow and less delight

Why do you always, have to prolong and delay…?

Couldn’t you this time, refute my dismay…?

Am I the only one to break the ice forever…?

Don’t take me for granted baby, I can’t always pamper…!

O my love, I hope you will value

How much eternal, my love is for you

Pretending that I’m watching everything but you

I constantly gaze and steal glimpses of you

I wish for once you could reciprocate and be fair

To the labors I’ve always done in doing the repair

Don’t you care for the twinkle in my eye…?

That, for every little reason you easily let it die

I wish that some day you show some good concern

And realize that I’m waiting, this time it’s your turn

So come and hold me, make me cry out all my pain

Tell me honey that you’re sorry for being late again

Baby you don’t know, I’ll feel so nice and light

I’ll really say nothing but “it’s okay… it’s alright”

But again my love, when the next time this occurs

Please promise me, it’ll not be me who suffers

That you’ll not take too much of a wait time

Just assure me of that and I promise it’ll all be fine

Neither yours nor my heart should suffer and bleed

To make it beautiful, some promises are all we need

A promise to stay happy, a promise to be fair

A promise to love and a promise to care

But alas, right now I really feel so poor

We don’t talk; we don’t look at each other

My voice within is choking, I’m dying

Too much it seems, my soul is crying

I want it back and I want it like before

Nothing less than “that love”, and nothing more

Holding hands, when we sleep at nights

While we smile again and forget our fights

When we don’t talk, when I don’t hear your voice

I wonder, when again there will be reason to rejoice

It’s my only prayer, may good times soon return…!

May pain pass out and take a jolly turn…!

Let us again, recover the bliss

Let us again, share a goodnight kiss

And one more thing, I want to declare

That, I for you will always be there

And these feelings of mine, while I am narrating

I want you to know that I’ll continue waiting

So please my love, come back soon

Sit on my lap and watch the moon

And tomorrow there will be a brighter sunrise

Our days of courtship will once more reprise…!!!

________________________________________________________________________________

*** Above lines are a work of fiction and purely imaginary; nothing relating to the author’s own circumstances. Hence, it is modestly requested for this not to be perceived as a reflection of the writer’s personal emotions in a relationship. However, a lot of us who are in a relationship may as well be able to relate to these emotions due to the very nature of relationships as to how complex they are and that, quarrels & clashes are parts and parcels of the bond of love that binds the individuals involved. It is hoped that this unreal (to the author) tale of feelings which is made-up to express the sentiments one runs through when having quarreled with his/her beloved, is reasonably relatable; and that, it is able to give all of us a view into our other (better) half’s perceptions of how he/she would have felt when we had sometime disregarded their right to expect us to break the ice and pamper not our ego but the relationship…

 … Hearty condolences to all those lovers in this world, who couldn’t unfortunately take the pressure and gave up

… For admiration and tribute to all those survivors who several times overcame such tough phases and progressed positively ahead

… For the Inspiration and encouragement of present/future lovers to handle delicate situations with care

Ek sadak hai jo chalti jaati hai
Hamein apne ghar tak le aati hai
Waise toh woh har kadam saath rehti hai apne
Kabhi kisi mode pe bichhad jaati hai magar

Saath mai hai jo khet dur dur tak
Sach kahein to hai wo tanha zameen
Kahin kahin kuch paedo ki chhaao hai
Jiske chhoone se wo machal jaate hai aksar

Guzartey hain unn raahon se roz
Jo le chalti hai humein apne thikaane par
Gaur se dekhte hain jab unhe
Udaas aur sooni nazar aati hai aksar

Ek ye raah hai aur ek wo khet
Ek hai hum
Inme kaun tanha hai aur kaun soona
Hum tey nahi kar paate hai aksar

————————————————————————————-

For my Hindi readers:

एक सड़क है जो चलती जाती है
हमें अपने घर तक ले आती है
वैसे तो वो हर कदम साथ रहती है अपने
कभी किसी मोड पे बिछड़ जाती है मगर

साथ मे है जो खेत दूर दूर तक
सच कहें तो है वो तन्हा ज़मीन
कहीं कहीं कुछ पेड़ो की छाओ है
जिसके छूने से वो मचल जाते है अक्सर

गुज़रते हैं उन राहों से रोज़
जो ले चलती है हूमें अपने ठिकाने पर
गौर से देखते हैं जब उन्हे
उदास और सूनी नज़र आती है अक्सर

एक ये राह है और एक वो खेत
एक है हम
इनमे कौन तन्हा है और कौन सूना
हम तेय नही कर पाते है अक्सर

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Foreword:

Agreeing to the unusual & dissimilar natures of this blog journal and that of the post below, this piece of writing is very much poles apart to what this blog has ever contained or may have ever been expected to enclose. However, I did not really have any better place than here to store this editorial which evolved into itself whilst my recent research on the said subject, for the company I work with. And then anyways, I thought, “why not publicize it rather than just storing”; let the information spread. Let there be learning. I thank all the readers who would spend the value of their time in reading through the lengthy perspective below, which is my personal opinion on the subject matter. Selected text from within the article has been published in a textile magazine. Feedback as well as critical comments shall see a kind welcome (not sure of how far would I acknowledge the same, due to the lazy syndrome that I’m affected by.J) …..

Online expos have rapidly created a niche for themselves and have impressed the business world with their identity remarkably evolving as “the generation next expos”. Promising to hold a great deal of lasting success, online trade fairs are an end-to-end delivery of business right on the desktop. These virtual avatars of their traditional versions are almost as similar in terms of the overall objective-set, but are on the internet medium and do extend for quite a longer stretch of time in comparison; a lot cost effective too, along with the bunch of other benefits which we’ll look at later. Hence, besides serving independently by itself as an individual setup for specific product lines and services, online trade fairs unconventionally serve to enhance the virtual aspect of, or digitize the existing physical conferences, exhibitions, business networking events, and trade shows. Dramatically, these virtual models are fast becoming the vital elements of cost-effective branding & marketing so as to offer a sophisticated though unconventional mode for efficient marshalling of company products and services.

Trade fairs in general, are organized gatherings of buyers and sellers established precisely to create an environment where the two sides can meet and establish communication for furthering their business objectives. Bringing together a community in an industry, to reach out to specific target audiences from either fronts i.e. the supplier and buyer, in an existing region and across the globe, online exhibitions cast a thorough platform for suppliers to market their products and solutions in the virtual community and serves as an information resource for visitors. This breeds a virtual resource to serve as the exclusively consolidated location where there are virtual exhibitor store-fronts, and archival materials like product catalogues, company profiles and perhaps, white papers, case studies etc. With all these marketing and informative tools together with this highly interactive medium of online trade shows, exhibitors and visitors can communicate online, conduct business networking with prospects, achieve branding and marketing ambitions, and review current trends, innovations and latest products or ideas, respectively. Everything is done online.

Online Exhibitions prepare a smooth foreground for offline business activities too. That said, online trade fairs act as functional consultants for companies and also help achieve their pre-sales objectives by way of accomplishing lead maturity to a great extent; also, mostly, closing of deals as well take place directly at the events. In this e-age when everything is going virtual and getting online… perhaps, it would be a primitive strategy now, to solely depend on just the offline task management for commerce and trade. Or, if that statement finds a less valuable place in the agreement process for some readers, it would be better to call it this way then … it would indeed be a modernized approach or let’s say up-to-the-mark strategy, to lay equal dependence on virtual activities too, like that as the online trade fairs, just by the side of offline activities. Gone are the past times and in today’s new times, new strategies, new methods have emerged to add up to the olden classics. No doubts, offline exhibitions are still a vast-positive deal, and they will continue to be so. However, online exhibitions are the new faces of their same offline counterparts. This trend of online exhibitions has raved up with the adoption of more online practices to organize events with a lot of better features, procreating good amount of benefits on the go. Unlike the offline world, online medium has its drawbacks of lacking in physical interaction, which includes a handshake or meeting face to face and hugging, for that matter. But it is also true that the absence of the possibility to greet and meet in that manner doesn’t stop business. One would not mind the bargain if it’s really coming at such reasonable bag of benefits, after all. Incidentally, the online world only aims at offering an upgradation to its offline counterpart, primarily. And hence, there lives no argument between the both. Instead, there is a mutual alliance amongst, as logically observed. And so, online trade fairs and the offline fairs go hand in hand, without invading an inch of each other’s areas.

And then, online trade fairs or the virtual exhibitions are not just all about full-fledge trade events alone. There also is a different shape of it; it is, “offering support and pre-launch aid to the offline exhibitions’. Now with this different spread, there is a silver lining on the classification of online trade fairs. To further explain this, let us consider a common practice of the exhibition industry. Going a little back in time to when there were no online trade fairs, there used to be some shortcomings. Like for example, as commented by the President of Reed Exhibitions Asia Pacific, Paul Beh, in the Reed China Beijing Summit, “You won’t say a toilet is fine when many people are queuing for it” (Source: https://www.tradedot.com/2008/12/29/the-future-of-exhibition/). The metaphor is indicative of the long queuing of visitors that used to be seen at offline exhibitions some time ago. That has been handled now with the help of online exhibitions and perhaps, some other tactics too. Trade Fair organizers as well as exhibitors and visitors of the event have reached to a level of quality consciousness. They don’t want this long queuing to annoy the smooth functioning of the event and thereby hampering the business objectives to whatever little extent it may be. Queuing is also a waste of time. Subsequently, the online counterpart of these offline exhibitions is a nice bargain to organize things well before the launch of event, as practiced by the exhibition organizers. Online exhibitions also conveniently serve the pre-purpose of summing up the leads and hence estimate the number of prospective buyers likely to visit the event.

Well, sufficient talks have been done of the amount of boost and support that online events can help their offline equivalents gain. Now coming back to the original topic of discussion, let us touch upon the functioning and benefits of online trade fairs. Covering the very current stroke of the whole world, “RECESSION”, when all businesses are affected of jeopardy, it demands of extreme care and thoughtfulness on expenditures. In these times, when spending after business generation endeavors is a key concern and marketing budgets are critical, it becomes very important to plan investments wisely. When the times are tough today and companies have to closely watch their expenditures and take wiser decisions on business sourcing links, online trade fairs are becoming the most preferred medium. Online business fairs aka e-expos for sourcing and networking offer cost effectiveness, and are response driven along with the other value added provisions. On those lines, preliminary business payment outflows cannot be completely disregarded and has to be continued. But that outflow has to be done prudently. And so, investing into online business activities is more promising to secure profit margins by curbing the investments and keeping the earnings assured. Investment in terms of trust and economically cost effective amounts on virtual exhibitions would be a wise decision.

To understand briefly the entire process of what happens in case of online exhibitions, let us look at the take on proceedings. For an online exhibition catering to a specific industry sector, the organizers (like www.fibre2fashion.com) build an event website for the view of exhibitors and visitors. There, these two entities (exhibitors and visitors) who will participate in the event get to learn about the event info and other specifications. Exhibitors are invited for registration and payment. Exhibitors register and pay the amount to acquire their exhibition stalls. Organizers like fibre2fashion study exhibitors’ company profiles and product lines. On basis of lead maturity models, business matching is done instantly to scout for specific potential buyers for specific exhibitors. On launch of the event, buyers are invited to visit different exhibitors’ stalls and communicate. Ongoing, buyer profiles and enquiries are handled and recorded immaculately to distribute them evenly to matching suppliers from within the event exhibitors. Buyers are able to download supplier catalogues to study and contact them. Likewise, exhibitors are able to respond to buying enquiries ongoing as well as later. After continuing mutual communications online and then offline, the buyers and suppliers reach to the stage of productivity in the demand and supply order. At the end of the online fair, a comprehensive buyers’ and supplier’s guide is prepared to be distributed across the board of exhibitors and others for future business references. Thanks to online exhibitions.

One more thing, online exhibitions are all about generating business opportunities simply sitting on computers. In such an arrangement, one has the leverage of not even needing to leave offices especially during the difficult times when physical traveling has become costlier as well as risky. All that is required to be done is to understand how effectively online exhibitions can enable communication with potential customers and target an evenly larger audience that is central to one’s business. Be it branding or direct/indirect business sourcing and networking, online exhibitions offer virtual tools to add to or to substitute participation in offline exhibitions and can certainly help in the process of achieving business objectives; that, barring some businesses or products and services.

Earlier it used to be, or it may still be a worry for the offline trade show organizers that their online counterparts, the virtual exhibitions might completely substitute the former models. However, people’s understanding about it is changing and now online expos have clearly begun to be viewed as supplements or complements to the live physical events. Conceptually, both are alike. They are gatherings of buyers and sellers. Today, when the global meltdown is a major knock on the world business, an era of worry has been launched, when exhibitors and visitors appear to be less interested in devoting as much time and money. Hence, the stand of online exhibitions has ever more become practicable. After all, “returns” is what matters. And with virtual trade shows, the returns are sure shot to mobilize more mileage in terms of greater lead generation capacity, bigger global reach, and extensively longer duration. All of this, at an even lesser comparative cost, attached therewith a bunch of many more beneficial features. With internet being the medium here, the capacity to draw greater number of audiences which again is target specific, increases promisingly. A maximum of online exhibitions offer a replica of the offline exhibit floor just like at the offline trade shows. However, depending on the style of organizer and demand of the nature of industry sector, there are also simple forms of virtual exhibitions with the most simplistic company listings, product images, videos, and chat interface to extra sophisticated ones embracing people icons and even meeting rooms.

For example, my employer, www.fibre2fashion.com (whom I highly respect and think highly of), which is the world’s largest online B2B vertical, hosts online expos for its clients from various sectors from within the textile-apparel-fashion and allied industries. Fibre2fashion has kept the format of their virtual expos as simple as possible owing to the less hi-fi requisitions of that industry and its clients. Fibre2fashion offers a host of various other products and services and has recently begun with the online exhibition concept. In fibre2fashion’s online supplements, there is an online environment, just a replica of the physical trade shows, which goes online and stays online for the specified period of time, a month or more. Creating a niche for like-natured exhibitors and visitors to come on board and do business, these online expos run 24/7, letting them to connect with several others for mutual business goals without travel, extraditing the geographical constraints to exchange valuable information, etc. Celebrated as one of the most promising tools for generation of a quantum of qualified leads, these virtual trade fairs offer the required platform for business entities to come together in attendance from their individual desktops, to view online product presentations, chat and raise enquiries, and arrange for further meets or directly finalize business deals.

Moreover, trade expos on the internet also let entry to exhibitors with limitations of funds and/or locomotion. They could also offer to let participate willing exhibitors in the event if they could never participate in similar live events due to xyz reasons including natural, business, or geographical reasons. Online exhibitions are booming with the response as received from suppliers as well as buyers. However, one important point to be carefully understood is that these virtual models of their physical counterparts are not a competitive threat, but are just coming up as to provide a choice for what type of environment do the participants want, to display and view products, to attend or exhibit, given the positive and convenient factors against their existing limitations. Virtual exhibitions are not jeopardy but an appendage to the offline trade fairs in progressing towards enabling global business ambitions; they are the modern marketing vehicles to suit to the changing appetite of the business world, today. Without a doubt, online exhibitions are the new age cinematic representations parallel to their offline versions. As well, these “generation next expos” have gone forward to a point where anything and everything that can be done in a regular traditional trade fair can be done at the online floor.

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