Prairies

<pic courtesy: wheresalex.wordpress.com/tag/canadian-prairies/>

Zoya was walking through the prairies, holding the hand of Zohan, her little brother. She was feeling angry at being abandoned by their parents.

'Really? Who abandons their 10 year old daughter and 4 year old son in an unknown place?' She thought.

The grass was only waist high for Zoya. But little Zohan couldn't see much in front of him, so was clinging to his sister to direct him to some place where he could go to pee. If he didn't reach his 'destination' soon, he was sure to wet his shorts.

They reached a big old tree. She helped him undo his shorts and then walked a few feet away from him and looked in the opposite direction. She waited him to finish his nature's call.

'It was unlike them to abandon us here. Sure, they were angry with me for fighting with Zohan, their little innocent angel. "Don't make your baby brother cry, Zoya... Give Zohan the toy, Zoya."', she mocked in her mind. 'They never recognize Zohan is four years old, no more a baby. They never had shown such intimacy to me when I was that small.'

Zohan finished and turned around.

Zoya was still fully engrossed in her thoughts, 'I've been grounded many times recently. But abandonment is new. This is diabolical, even by their standards. That too along with him. How do they expect me to take care of him? Maybe this is one of their new techniques of "making me understand" '

 "Where is Mama and Papa?"

Zoya turned  around to see her brother looking at her sheepishly. She didn't respond.

"Joya !... where is Mama and Papa?"

"I don't know where they are, OK? It seems Mama and Papa have abandoned their precious baby Zohan along with not-so-precious me." Zoya blurted out in anger.

Zohan looked at her for few seconds. Then sadness spread on his face with a reddish tinge and his small eyes started to well up with tears. "No.. No.. You are lying.. Mama and Papa won't leave me.. won't leave me.. "

Zoya stared at him stupidly for a moment. Then she felt guilt for venting her anger on her younger brother.

"Oh, don't cry. I'm sorry. I just said that in anger. (Seriously, don't I ever think to whom I'm talking.) They didn't leave us here. They are coming back for us." Zoya said, and then thought for a second. "It is simply a game. Mama and Papa wants to see if we'll win. And meanwhile, they went to purchase Diwali gifts for us."

"Game... What game?" Zohan asked wiping off his tears.

"Mama and Papa wants to see how long we can be own our own. They will gift us what we've asked them for, if we win this game. So, shall we play this game?"

"Yeayyy... I'm gonna get new Transformers toys then.", Zohan started to dance around in excitement.

Zoya hugged her brother and kissed him on both of his chubby cheeks. She liked to do that when she is not fighting with him.

She looked around. To one side of the prairies, there were big old trees growing. To the other side the were few rocky hills. They were atleast as high as a ten-storeyed building. And there was a small waterfall at the bottom of  one of the hills. 'There might be a pond above the hill.' She thought.

She made a little space in the grass by stamping around and sat there watching Zohan do his dance moves which came out when he was excited. She opened her backpack and brought out the pearl necklace she was making by combining pearls from her broken necklaces. It was coming out to be really good looking. She had a talent with such sort of things. Her girlfriends in her class used to adore her for this. 'Will I ever meet them again?' Her mind wandered for a second.

She resumed with the work on her necklace. Using different combinations for color and size of pearls, it was turning out to be an attractive necklace to be worn and it was sure to attract some jealous eyes, perhaps even the jealous eyes she wanted to see.

Zoya carried on with her hobby until evening, while Zohan ran around chasing insects, occasionally stopping to complain how much boring it was without being able to watch his favorite cartoon show or play the computer game which he was halfway through.

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One week had passed. Now nostalgic memories of her home and her parents started to hit her. Zohan had asked her many times during the week about why their parents were not coming and each time Zoya gave some tactical reply. She too was worried about not seeing her parents for so long. They've never left her this long even in their relatives' homes. She had not seen another human being in the last week and that made her wonder where she and her brother have got  stranded. Though there was ample food to be had for both of them, in the form of fruits from different tress on one side of the prairies.

Zohan was playing in the beach, making sand castles. Zoya went near the waterfalls. She removed all her clothes and plunged into the water. It was very cold, but she had started to like it that way. And she finally liked this place in which they were marooned on. When their parents came, perhaps she could persuade them to make a house here and settle here at least for her summer vacations.

First few days, she used to get angry having to accompany Zohan for his bodily functions and to chase after him when he runs off in some direction getting excited on the sight of a bee or a butterfly. But she withheld her anger always, whereas previously she would have censured him till he cried or their parents intervened. As the days passed, she started to feel less and less angry at her brother's gimmicks and had started to love her brother's childish actions.

'If their intention was to make us close, that have somehow miraculously worked. If only I could convey it to them and ask them to come and pick us up', she thought floating in the water level.

********************************************************************************

Two more weeks have passed. She had grown inseparable with her brother, something she never thought was even possible. They had explored the top of the mountains. They spend a lot of time during that day and many days after, swimming and playing in the pond above the mountain. Zoya was always very careful when Zohan was in the pond, staying to the shallow regions. She showed him the maneuvers she learned in her swimming classes when he was safe standing on the shores and they never failed to excite him and he made her promise she'll teach them to him as soon as he becomes an expert swimmer.

Zoya was happy most times of the day, except when slight memory of their parents made her sad. But she carried on putting out a brave face for the sake of her baby brother. Zohan too was happy here. The frequency with which he asked about their parents have reduced.

Though, once Zohan had come running to her and said he heard his mother say "Baby, Mama's here". She comforted him saying that when we miss someone dear, we feel their presence and like we hear them. She knew he was too small to understand that, but he didn't ask about it afterwards.

Zoya was all eager to get back to her friends and  tell about all adventures she had these past weeks. Her parents might have some trouble clarifying her class teacher about why she was absent for so many days. But she was sure they will handle it well. More than everything she wanted to show her parents, how much loving siblings they have become. She had started to take good care of Zohan and even Zohan have started to share his toys with her. It was going to be good days ahead. She was thrilled at that thought.

They have found a beach on the other side of the mountain, few days ago. Now they used to spend more time on the beach. They were enjoying the waves coming at the at a position where the waves will only get waist high for Zohan.

She thought, 'If this was their way of making me understand my responsibility to him, it is not bad after all. There is some sort of a happiness is seeing your loved ones happy because of you.' She smiled to herself.

They laughed and played until dusk. After the sun had set they retreated to foot of the hill. Zoya started to search for a towel in their backpack to dry Zohan. Not hearing his sound, Zoya turned to find Zohan frozen where he stood. He was becoming translucent, perhaps resembling a hologram. Zoya got really scared.

"Zohan... What is happening to you?"

She tried to hug him, pull him back from disappearing, but her hands simply went through where he was standing. Then in a moment, he disappeared.

 Her world was once again breaking apart. The one companion she had with her is gone, leaving her alone there. She started to cry.

"Please.. Please.. come back to me, Zohan... come back to your sister."

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"Joya... Joya... "

"Mama and Papa is here, sweetie."

Zohan slowly opened his eyes. He kept his eyes half closed in the bright light, taking time to adjust.

"Joya... Where is Joya. Mama?"

"She went to school, baby. Today is Tuesday, right? You'll see her soon."

"Oh... Why didn't I go to school, Mama?"

"Because, my baby got a wee fever. Don't you worry. Just sleep now. Fever will vanish once you wake up. Mama and Papa will be here till then."

Zohan closed his eyes and fell back into sleep, instantly.

The doctor who was standing at the end of Zohan's bed, moved to the door of the room, gesturing Zohan's parents to follow her. Once outside, she turned to them and said in a hushed voice, "It is really good news that Zohan has come out of his coma. He'll be back to normal within a fortnight."

"Thanks doctor... thanks a lot.. We don't know how we could have survived if we had lost him too..." Zohan's mother said, through tears.

The doctor patted on her shoulder and said, "He won't be remembering anything regarding the accident. You should not, even by mistake, let him know of his sister's demise in that accident. The poor child is way too young and traumatized to comprehend that. It is better you see an expert therapist for advice on how to break this news to him."  

God or no god?

Two neighbors, an atheist and a believer, dies.

They used to quarrel almost daily. The atheist was always irksome about the loud religious chores routinely followed by the believer. On the other hand, the wanton lifestyle of the atheist who had a living relationship with mates from both sexes over different periods of time, incessantly succeeded in invoking wrath in the believer.

They both used to mentally laugh at each other. The atheist used to think "that fool believes he is going to Disneyland after death" and the believer used to think "that infidel is gonna burn in hell".

After death, they found themselves standing next to each other. Their surroundings were shrouded in some sort of mist.

Seeing the atheist looking around nervously, the believer started taunting him "Look around, O stupid infidel, I was right all the way. Angels will be coming shortly to welcome me to heaven. Don't worry, demons will also be coming to take you to hell. Happy frying!". Then the believer gave a vile laugh.

The atheist stood overwhelmed in realization of the grave error, and in acceptance of defeat in front of the believer.

The believer continued mocking the atheist for a long time. But in their minds, both of them started to wonder what happened to the visiting angels and demons. Are there traffic jams on the roads from heaven and hell?

Then they noticed something gigantic, perhaps a mountain, at some distance from them. The mist cleared a bit to reveal that the gigantic object was in fact a baby. It was rolling up mud into a ball. There was mud sticking on the face and body of the baby. The believer and the atheist, both alike, wondered who this baby was.

Then the baby started laughing and winked both of it's eyes at the ball. The ball gradually transformed into a planet teeming with all sorts of life. The baby's laughter became louder, clearly enjoying the spectacle enfolding before it and started clapping it's hands as seasons started changing in cycles and evolution churning out different species of flora and fauna, all of them alien to the believer and the atheist. Baby continued laughing and clapping for some time. Then loosing interest in it's toy, the baby turned it's attention somewhere else and at the same instant, the planet turned to dust.

The believer and the atheist stood with their mouths agape in wonder.

Then they heard some laughter from behind. They turned to find some people sitting some distance behind them, pointing and laughing at them. "Those newbies would have shitted on their pants by now... if it was possible." Their laughter rose again.

The believer and the atheist went near those people. The believer asked, "Where is the angels and the demons? Why are they late in picking us?"

The believer's question aroused more laughter in the people. "There are no angels and demons, you fool."

The atheist asked, "And who is this baby?"

"Oh, oh... Is that cutiepie, child of God? And where is God, the omniscient-omnipotent-blessed one?" the believer added while looking at the baby with all affection that could be mustered.

The people just looked disinterested. One of the said, as if in a routine, "We don't know if there is a God or not. But if an all powerful being controlling our fates is what you call God, then that would be that baby. Whenever it starts playing it with the muddy ball, some of us vanishes and when the baby averts it's interest from the ball, some are added to our group. And we've no idea how long it is being going on."

The believer and the atheist sat down among the people, with the full awareness that what they believed about life and afterlife was merely what they had always wanted, and that the truth never owed anything to their believes.

And, the baby continued playing, paying no heed to anything else.

PS: It was desired not to assign any particular gender to the believer, the atheist and the baby. That seems to have led to grammar mistakes in certain places. Kindly overlook them.

Journal Week 4 (18th May - 24th May 2015)

Monday, 18th May 2015

Reconnecting with nature

In today's world, we are faced with so much information flow on a daily basis, that our minds tend to get cluttered with too many thoughts and our focus is divided among too many unnecessary things. Silencing your mind for some period of time, every day, can lead us to efficiently focus on the important things during the remaining time of the day. Perhaps, the best way of achieving that is taking a walk in the park, or enjoying the view of sunset from your balcony, or anything thing which can connect you with nature. Reconnecting with nature can immediately relax your mind and can silence most of the unwanted thoughts running around in your mind at that point of time.




Tuesday, 19th May 2015

A day, a life

In his wonderful book 'How to stop worrying and start living', Dale Carnegie tells us to live in day tight compartments, ie., to consider each day as a new life and to live in a manner such as to make each 'life' meaningful. By concentrating your full attention on the day at hand, one can live free of guilt of the past and the nightmares about an unknown future. Not many people are good in laying out their plan of actions for long periods of time. But we all have the capability to live one day perfectly, and doing just that is all required. We can live better when we can see life for what it really is,... a simple summation of such perfect days. 




Wednesday, 20th May 2015

Importance of vacations

A human being is wired such that he/she'll get bored with repetition of same work over a period of time. Even his efficiency in such work gets affected due to this boredom and gets reduced over the period of time. What is a better way to recharge your mental batteries other than going on a small vacation with your loved ones? No one has to explain it to you, you'll know from your own previous experiences that a good vacation can clear your mind from all the negativity and leave you with a pleasant mind.




Thursday, 21st May 2015

Letting loose your creativity

All human beings have some sort of creativity within themselves. It might be present in varying levels for different individuals, but it is present in each one of us without doubt. May he/she be a 7 year old kid or an old timer at 70 years of age, there is creativity to be tapped. Exercising your creativity, let it be drawing, writing, singing or anything, will let you lead a happier and fulfilled life, rather than filling your life with meaningless things. Finding what you are good at and exercising it on a daily basis can be tough, but with repetition it could be made a habit that you can't be without.  

Friday, 22nd May 2015

Stop blaming others and start taking responsibility

Whenever we are faced with a roadblock or a wall in our life, our natural tendency is to search for people and external conditions to blame for, rather than accept our role in that failure. Unless we start to take full responsibility for being where we are currently, in the road to goals of our life, we'll always have a victim-mentality. That means, we'll always think of ourselves as helpless and that other people or factors decide where we end up. For example, most people who discontinue going to gym or abandon their daily exercise routine, have a tendency to blame it on the cold weather or late night work shifts, but not on their own laziness. Taking full responsibility for your life is of course scary. But, only when we take responsibility for our current standing, we can start truly believing that we are capable of making changes in our destiny. And with such a belief, one can do wonders.

Saturday, 23rd May 2015

Embrace information silence for a week

On comparison with someone who lived 50 years ago, the amount of information at our disposal is tremendous. Information inflow into our mind, knowingly or unknowingly, through the time we spend in social networking sites or reading newspapers, amounts to be very large. Letting in unwanted information can crowd you mind to an extent that, accessing wanted information gets difficult. Also, our mind gets restless on being subjected to too much data inflow. So we can practice an exile from social media websites and newspapers for a week, so that our mind gets clear and we can take decisions better.

Sunday, 24th May 2015

Don't be a slave to your moods

People acting on their moods can invariably have an affect on the social atmosphere around them. A person in a good mood can improve the general positiveness of a social gathering. While that is socially acceptable, spreading negativity by throwing tantrums in a social gathering is in no sense acceptable. A normal person will have troubles in mastering his/her moods, but the least we can do is not to let our bad mood affect another person. Also, people tend to stay away from those who express too much of mood swings. 

Journal Week 3 (11th May - 17th May 2015)

Sadly a gap of 12 days crept in when I was at my home. I hope I'll strong enough to stick with the schedule for remaining 7 weeks.

Monday, 11th May 2015

Stop pondering over trifles

During my childhood, I've stayed in a number of rented homes before getting to live in one of my own. After we had vacated one such house, a family known to us became the tenants there. When we were staying there, we had kept the house clean, but didn't stress much on keeping the house spotless. However, this family was a bit too much obsessed with cleaning. They engaged in daily cleaning and had optimized the usage of all available spaces. They had really surpassed us in this aspect, that even the children of the family started teasing me that that was how a house supposed to be kept. At that point of time, I wanted to be basically be like that family once I grow up. But, in reality I became a lot worse once I grew up. On thinking about that now, I feel that as a normal man I can keep focus on only a few priorities in my life, and I'm happy that for me they are my family and my passions, rather than socially acceptable virtues like high cleanliness. I'm sure I won't be sad about not keeping a cleaner room, while I'm on my death bed. The world is full of trifles. Happiness and success comes when you follow what is really important to you.




Tuesday, 12th May 2015

How you stick to your decisions determine your character

All of us want a strong and altruistic character. At least, that's what we have been taught from our childhood, as the character of a perfect man/woman. But that's not something we can wish into existence. Whatever be the sort of character you want for yourself, you actions should be in alignment with that. Everyone makes resolutions and decisions at different points of their life. How one stick to these decisions, decides one's character. Because character is always a moldable thing. It is not something fixed throughout our life. If we repeatedly stick with our decisions, our character will be a strong one, whereas a weak character will be the result of an inability to stick with our decisions. If you want to be altruistic, you have to do such deeds. Even in case of molding your children's character, rather than giving oral lessons, you should be able to put forward your life as a lesson for them to follow.




Wednesday, 13th May 2015

Setting time as your currency and health as your asset

I've met a lot of people, who go ahead with doing something which is of no value to their time and possibly even having a negative effect on their health, for the reason that they've paid for it. For example, people eat more than they could possibly digest, to avoid the guilt of not eating enough after paying for it. I'm also one among them. But if that is seen as a transaction, it is full of losses. We've lost money by paying for it and by taking in more food than needed, we are putting some loss on the health side too. We could have prevented the second loss, if only we had stopped after eating what we require. Perhaps, the mature way of making decisions can be done setting time as our currency and health as our asset. Thereby we can avoid a lot of decisions taken to avoid monetary loss. It will always be good to remember that money could come back to your life in plenty, but loss in time and health are a thousand times harder to get back.




Thursday, 14th May 2015

Listing your troubles

It is said that sharing your troubles with your best friend can reduce your tensions. And who can be a better friend that 'a pen and a paper'? You can pour out your heart on a piece of paper, perhaps even more than what you could do with your best friend. It is often mentioned by psychologists and other experts that keeping problems locked up in your mind is a sure shot way of getting ended up with a restless mind. It is really curious how we can remember a slight injustice done to us even 20 years before and feel bad about it even after such a long time, while we easily forget a small favor which has been done for us yesterday and won't be able to feel as grateful as we felt at that point of time. That's why dealing with your issues becomes something of great importance. Listing down your troubles in a piece of paper will relieve you of the burden of remembering them all and your mind can be freed from the restlessness to a great extent. Perhaps, a proper phrasing of the trouble might be enough for us to realize that it was just some minor inconvenience. In case of worries for which nothing could be done, acceptance comes easier with sharing your feelings in the piece of paper. And finally for those issues which do have solutions, writing it down forms a tool helping in visualizing the possible solutions and makes it easier to work on them.

Friday, 15th May 2015

Anger Management

Well, if you are a rageaholic, you better see a psychotherapist. This article is of no use to you. But if you are someone like me, who gets irritated with minor inconveniences during the day, perhaps we can sit around a table and share our views. We get irked by many things in our daily life - 'plates are not available when we come to take food in the mess', 'someone overtakes our car without following the rules' or 'something is not where we kept it previously'. These things will be always coming at us throughout our life. So, isn't it better to develop a proper response to such situations than getting angry every time these things present themselves before us. Because, unless we keep serious check on it, getting angry on such things will become a habit on repeating it over a period of time and gradually an angry or irritable nature becomes a part of your character. While it is definitely bad for your health, it can also lead to damage your relationships. Changing the focus of your mind to something else when you are faced with such irritable things can help you a long way in having a peaceful life.

Saturday, 16th May 2015

Meaning to work

Our generation, unlike that of our parents, doesn't find satisfaction with simply having a job. Now the question is no more that of survival and getting to eat three meals a day, as it was 20 - 30 years back. Now, we want a 'meaning' to whatever we are doing. We are not satisfied with spending our time on a job, if it doesn't give us a feeling that we are important and that we are making a change, irrespective of how much better the pay might be. Hence it is necessary for everyone, to ask themselves, while selecting a career path, that - 'will the world be a better place, that I happened to be born and opted this career path for my life?'.

Sunday, 17th May 2015

Being selective about what you read

One can always take some lesson or some bit of information out of any book he/she reads. But we need to be selective in what we read. This is because, there is a lot of literary material available and which keeps on increasing owing to widespread availability of the internet, and we'll never be able to go through all of them. Perhaps, starting with the 'best seller lists' or 'books to read before you die' could be somewhere you can start. In current era of digital information, we might prefer videos and audiobooks for our convenience, but an avid reader will always tell you that there is always an extra something to take away by reading books as compared to the digital mediums.

M Police

"Oh my god! What happened to you, baby? Your lips are bleeding. When you called me last, you were coming here with her."

"We were... We were... walking this way through the park. Suddenly... some rogues surrounded us and... started questioning her why she is walking with someone outside her religion... Then they started calling her derogatory names, telling her how she is disgracing her religion... and began interrogating her whether I'm her lover."

"What is the issue with these idiots? Can't a man and a woman walk together in a democratic country like ours?"

"I tried to interrupt them,... saying we are just friends. But they won't listen."

"How hard is to understand that? Even in this age, the mentality of such people are so primitive."

"That was when I really got angry and shouted at them... that it is none of their business whether we were lovers or not... They became really furious at that point and started beating me up saying that how dare an infidel like me try to taint the chastity of a girl from their belief.... They didn't even stop after I started begging them to leave me and that I already have someone else as lover..."

"Oh, my poor baby.... "

"Please don't cry darling... You know it is the only thing I can't bear.. Please stop."

"Did they hurt you a lot, dear? Shall we go to a hospital? "

"It is ok, honey... I'm fine now..."

"We should complain about this to the police. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this."

"There is no use in that, dear. Two policemen were idly watching the whole event, while it was taking place... Once the mob left me after beating me up for some time, they came to help me get up... Surprisingly, they were angry at me instead. They warned me, not to repeat it and never to be seen in the park."

"Our society is going to the dogs. What will happen to our country if those who are to uphold the law, just remain bystanders when laws are broken... By the way, where is she?"

"They forcibly took her along with them saying they'll take her to her home and warn her parents of her wayward lifestyle and how that is a disgrace to their community... She had already many problems in her home with her conservative parents. Now they'll stop her education and get her married... It breaks my heart knowing that her walking with me might become the reason for shattering all her dreams and ambitions.... She had even told me that someone might tell her parents if we walked together this close to her home, but I assured her nothing bad will happen... Only I had not insisted...."

"Ay.. Don't cry... You are not responsible for that.. Come here.."

They hugged.

A crowd was standing a little distance away from them. One of them spoke to others pointing at them, "These imbeciles have been doing public display of indecency. What message is that sending to our little brothers and sisters? It is time to teach them a lesson of their life. Let's thrash up these gay bastards for good."

Journal Week 2 (22nd April - 28th April 2015)

I would like to start by thanking all those awesome people who through their sincere appreciation and good comments, for last week's post, kept me going for another week.

Wednesday, 22nd April 2015

Fear clouds the path to success

Today, I've repaired my laptop on my own, after procrastinating the repair for nearly 8 months and buying a new laptop in it's place. It had some serious issues, as I felt at that time, the internal keyboard was basically paralyzed in it's lower half and the laptop was frequently getting hanged, that I basically lost hope it could be revamped and any further spending on it is bad investment. Hence I turned down the authorized dealer's offer to repair the keyboard at a charge of Rs.6000. Now that I repaired it own my own, under a charge of Rs. 1500, I realize this possibility was always there, just a Youtube video away from me. Then why didn't I thought of it before. Perhaps it was the fear of unknown which clouded that option from me, like 'what if I couldn't put it back together' or 'what if something else gets damaged'.This incident showed me that one should definitely check behind the solutions, to a problem, which he is most uncomfortable with. Because it is highly probable that the answer might be lying just there.





Thursday, 23rd April 2015

Living life for the second time

Many renowned philosophers have said that one should lead his life like he/she had already lived his/her life once and that this time he/she is avoiding all the mistakes done previously, thereby he/she could live a better life. First time I heard it, I felt it to be a nonsensical concept. Surely, we are not astrologers to know what will happen and how we'll respond to things in future, and then to do it better now. But now I realize that the essence of this message is, perhaps, to use the wisdom gained from past mistakes to predict the sort of mistakes we are prone to make in  future and to avoid them. The sort of mistakes which we make in high emotional state seems a most likely candidate for this principle.




Friday, 24th April 2015

Possessiveness is not a synonym to love

We are all possessive about someone/something, to a varying degree of intensity. It is known that possessiveness in small quantities can be pleasant and charming. It even forms a factor of assuring the presence of love in someone for us, as life doesn't offer frequent opportunities to express it through heart-felt care. But in large amounts, it is intolerable because possessiveness is actually more an offspring of a love for self than the love for the person at the receiving end, since it is the feeling of having someone more to oneself and not taking into consideration what the person wants. 

'Spend some more time with me' - Love

'Spend time with me only' - Possessiveness

If we think about it, no one man can survive with only one human being in their life. He/She will require a father/mother to feel pampered even at the age of 60, a sister/brother to share intimate feelings, a group of friends to chat or gossip with and even a friend of opposite sex to have a non-romantic relationship. Expecting a person to get satisfaction of all his/her requirements from a single person is similar to telling him/her to do grocery shopping from a hardware store. Hence if people don't betray their relation with you, it's better to let them enjoy their other relations.

Possessiveness and love are not part and parcel of each other, something which can be understood from the fact that possessiveness needn't necessarily come from love. We see people irked by things like a girl of their caste/religion/state marries outside the group. They oppose it due to possessiveness, which takes a more literal meaning here, as they feel like their group of people own the person like a thing and no one outside is supposed to take it.




Saturday, 25th April 2015

Talents are not obligations

When I first saw the film 'Good Will Hunting' I couldn't digest why a guy having exceptional level genius intellect sabotages a future, which would have utilized his talents to the maximum, for a girl. I still don't know if  'love of life' is worth under-utilizing your talents. But I do feel that life is not even one-tenth about doing justice to your talents as compared to doing justice to your heart, mind, soul or whatever you call your inner self. 

Sunday, 26th April 2015

Too much modesty is not good

When people tend to compliment me for something, my natural reaction is to play it down citing it as a ordinary feat. But I took note of it when it started to show some effect on my mind. Since you are what you think and your thoughts are affected by what you repeatedly say, such an over modesty tends to deprive you of a sense of achievement. In long run, it can even let pessimism sprout its roots on your mind. So it is better to stick with a little modesty like 'perhaps it might be so' or 'well, hope I can repeat that'.

Monday, 27th April 2015

Continuous improvement

People want to improve from their current state of life, even (or especially) the ones, of whose achievements many are jealous. Humans are beings who can't thrive happily in stagnation. No matter how large a victory, a person could feed off positiveness from it for a fixed period of time only. After that he/she should accomplish something else to keep his mind occupied. Sometimes, it feels like our mind goes over victories like a mischievous child rampaging through his/her toys. Such an aspect of human mind is even a challenge to the possibility of existence of a 'happy-ever-after' heaven, as we'll get bored soon.

Tuesday, 28th April 2015

Courage to follow your dreams

Like most students taking science subjects for the 11th and 12th standard, I too took into engineering entrance coaching. My heart was more aligned towards doing B.Sc. Mathematics, owing to the fact that mathematics was my favorite subject. But on securing a good rank, joining for B.Tech in the topmost college in the state seemed more logical, socially acceptable and giving a superstar status among friends entering less desired colleges, when compared to listening to my heart to follow a path leading to 8-9 years of study, ending in getting a doctorate without a guarantee of a job even then. Later I realized, what I thought couldn't be more far from truth. Well, the first four years of engineering was a suffering and it took two more years to finally fall in love with the stream I've selected. Though I'm happy with current status, I feel that some show of courage would have actually done some good. 

'I will settle for something better' is as much a dream killer as 'I will settle for something lesser'. If one is a silent assassin, the other is a messy murderer. One giving no clue as to our dream dying, while other screams in our face about the killing of our dreams. Following dreams are tough because the path ahead is not visible when we start, only a few feet in front will be visible at a time. Courage and faith are the only candles that will assist you in this journey, as clear paths never lead to great dreams.

Journal Week 1 (15th April - 21st April 2015)

I've decided to follow this exercise for a period of 10 weeks where I'll be learning something (not necessarily new) everyday. I do hope I can stick to the plan.

Wednesday, 15th April 2015

Dreams without Action is like Cars without Wheels, both won't take you anywhere

Today is the auspicious occasion of Vishu and I'm embarking on this journey of learning. I happen to read a poem, written by a friend, which says that people who act on their dreams are like those migrating birds who fly away in search of food and shelter to unknown lands without even a thought of procrastination or wasting a second in nostalgia of the home they are leaving. But men are a lot different than birds, we know. Unless a man is a sociopath, he can't be immune to feelings like nostalgia. But something which could be understood from this is that if a dream doesn't generate enough passion in you to push you into action on the very next second, it is unlikely to have the capability to transcend you to where you wish to go. Hence, one have to keep on dreaming new dreams until he gets the dream which could finally kick him into action.

Thursday, 16th April 2015

Health is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in your life

Today I've read somewhere the news that Jishnu, the actor, have been hospitalized with a recurrence of cancer. I reminds me again that health is undoubtedly the most important thing in a person's life. If health is lost, everything else will be gradually lost. The things which we are tensed about all the time will seem so trivial once our health takes a major hit. Hence working out everyday and eating proper food are not things you can excuse yourself out of.

Friday, 17th April 2015

People crave importance

As some noted personalty has once said, all men crave a sense of importance. There is fewer things which will give more happiness to a person that getting acknowledged for the work he has done. Perhaps one of the easiest way of making friends with a person is to give him a sense of importance,  and letting him know that his presence is recognized.

Saturday, 18th April 2015

Paradoxical Intention

'Paradoxical intention' is a technique in Dr. Viktor. E. Frankl's theory of psychological treatment called logotherapy. He explains it as a method in which you try to exaggerate and ridicule your fear so that you gradually come out of it. For example, if one person is having trouble in sleeping and is in fear that he will wake up late, he can instead think that he is going to sleep very late and will wake up late. According to 'paradoxical intention', since he is focusing on the reverse, the higher will be the probability of the opposite of what he is focusing now to happen. If fear of sleep not coming actually makes him so tense that sleep doesn't actually come, the decision of remaining awake very late will ease him up as his mind will see this decision as humorous and finally leading him onto sleep. 

This seems a tough theory to put your head around, but seems worthwhile to put some effort on it.

Sunday, 19th April 2015

Smile more

Bringing more smiles to your face is said to be more socially acceptable and to enable you in making more friends. One of the major complaints people I know about have told me is that I rarely or never smile on meeting them. I couldn't bring myself to smile in front of people, unless the person has a place in my mental universe. How I used to wonder about my friends who could smile at anyone? They've told me that this have helped them throughout their life and it is basically their success mantra in getting to know girls. But even that incentive was not strong enough to make me smile at random people. But now I realize that smiling more could actually be a more selfish act. Since feelings follow actions, smiling can make you pleasant instantly and as smiling is said to be good for health, you are getting another plus. Hence you can stick to these reasons for smiling and put all other reasons to waste bin, and start smiling. But that realization too won't trigger a smile easily. A best method, which I found, to bring out smiles is to imagine the face of a person you truly care about, in place of the stranger or acquaintance you are smiling at. 

Monday, 20th April 2015

The Art of Graciously turning down someone

If you are a person of weak resolution, you'll find that you agreed to do something which you didn't want to, because you couldn't bring yourself to say 'No'. As explained in the book 'Who will cry when you die', this inability to turn down someone comes from a lack of having a clear vision of your future goals. A clear vision of you future will enable you sincerely give a reason as to you are needed elsewhere, rather than having to make up excuses.

Tuesday, 21st April 2015

Thoughts which transcends us always comes from within

Outside factors will always motivate you, but they don't possess the power to move you. That is always with you only. If there is anything capable of transcending us as human beings, it can be seen throughout history that it has invariably came from within. Such a great thought or impulse which comes from inside can come either in a fraction of a second or gradually over a long period of time. You should constantly feed you mind with ideas so that they may guide you to that one thought which can change your life for good and elevate you to new heights.