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. 

A Father

I was handed over a fragile piece of heaven

When I was waiting outside for hours, all tensed up

I felt my heart leap with unbounded joy as it never before

Tugged in a small blanket, fully within my palms

I wanted to shower you with kisses,

But afraid I might accidentally hurt you

I wanted to say, my angel,

I love you more than anything else in the whole world

Though you might never feel the same I felt for you

When you were lying taking in the warmth of my hand

I know you will keep me awake for so many nights

But I'll only be worried about your sleep

I know you will call me daddy one day,

Still when u do that,

I'll run around telling everyone,

The most wonderful thing in the world just happened

I know you will be up to some mischiefs as you grow,

But one innocent smile from you,

And i will forget all that

I know you'll cry on your first day at school,

Unable to cope up with separation from known loving faces,

You might feel each minute as an hour,

But know, each minute will feel a decade for me.

I know you might get down with illness occasionally,

But never would have a stronger terror struck me,

I might even call all gods heartless,

For I'm blind, except to you.

I will surely not like anyone you confess to love,

Asking my permission to marry him,

Even if he is an incarnation of the just god,

For no one be a suitable match for you,

As my heart will tell my eyes,

But I will finally agree,

Just to see your face brighten up with happiness

I was searching for a meaning to my life in my prime,

But I didn't know it would be handed to me wrapped in a blanket,

My beloved daughter.