It is a wonder how the human mind finds innumerable reasons to celebrate. Take New Year's Eve for example. It is one time of the year when there is an excitement of something ending and something new beginning. Therein lies one of the oldest concepts that we so unabashedly use in our work. Particularly we mind you. The concept of a reset.
So here goes.
Every New Year’s Eve I look back in retrospection (because one does not have any choice in the matter having been bludgeoned into looking back, by the world in general and the media and idiot box in particular) at the year gone by. I peruse through the months spent in arduous work that includes the daily struggle to pull myself out of bed and the angry bickering and noise of the traffic that I swim through, getting rather bothered and dusty I might add, in the process of leading a life. I am struck with the absolute horror of monotony not realizing that monotony pays. And pays quite well too!
It is not that I do not find anything worth noting in the year gone by. I see that I've grown a few millimetres taller (I am 5feet and almost 6 inches tall now...YAY) and I see that I am not as "round" as I was last year...LOL!! Though I am no way near being slim, I am OK now!! I couldn't get into the best of the colleges in the country, but I made it to one of the best colleges in my state/city. If there is but one thing that I would have liked to interchange, it would probably be this. Then I take note of the people. All like me and each in his/her own way, trying to be different…like me. The new people I have met and the people I fell out with. The old friends and their new found joys in study, family or children. The family members, especially the little ones grown older and the older ones ageing fast.
I take note of the decisions made in the last year. Decisions in my opinion are underrated. Especially when taken in career and money matters. For one, there is nothing much to decide if one looks objectively. It is more a choice rather than a decision. I took a new job. I wanted to study journalism after my 12th grade. But in India, people give you murderous looks if you don't end up being engineers or doctors. So, I took up engineering (I am a person who is too afraid to dare, I think....It does not mean that I don't have the Gryffindor courage. Thank you very much. I am very brave but for making people around me happy, I took this up... I am plenty much of a journalist when I blog. And I can definitely interact with people through this medium) I took up this job...A job as a graduating student. Made a decision and then made a choice. Then of course, I moved into a new house (I am talking of my college. I believe its unlikely you'll understand or gain anything in a place you are not comfortable with) and spent a considerable amount of effort trying to make it into a home. There is still something missing, they tell me, one involving major decision taking and one I am happy to procrastinate about.
I take note of humanity. And the lack thereof. For, the monotony that pays very well also effectively draws the shutter on the evil beings we humans are. On one hand are a people encroached upon on the pretext of WMD (WMD stands for weapon of mass destruction), not found and probably will never be found. The mutually agreeable deals struck with the big guns, the effects of which will be seen much later, when we as a people will become signatory to the NPT (The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) On the other hand are the steps away from civilization with the great Hindutva movement and the Islamic Jehad and the alarming effects of the fight against terrorism and also, as always, terrorism itself.
Then I take note no more. Being much too tired to go on in retrospect. Just before 12 midnight, in the din of fireworks and the cries of exhalted and high spirited people (literally), I reach out for the reset button. I promise to break the monotony. I promise to make amends and I promise to eat less and work out to stay thin. I promise to try and make the world a better place.
A few days later, the entire world realizes that its reset has failed.
Disclaimer : I don't own anything related to Harry Potter apart from my copies of the books. I mentioned Gryffindor here. It belongs to JKR wholly, may be partly to Warner bros., bloomsburry, scholastic and raincoat books . I am not making any profit out of this word :)
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Happiness....What is it????
Hey friends!!!!
Have you people ever wondered what life and happiness is all about?? I am sure you have.... and I am also sure none of us have ever found any convincing answers....... well thats why life is the most mysterious thing ever created....
we see loads of people in our lives...experience a contrariety of emotions... undergo huge number of different experiences.... but at the end of the day what is it that seems to be most important for us?? what makes us feel most satisfied and happy??
Do you feel happy just because your english teacher praised your excellent expression or is it because you won the gold medal in table tennis ...or because nobody could beat you in that tough programming contest...or is it because that someone special said you looked great in blue??? well i do agree all these things make us feel great... but believe me friends none of them last..all these happiness are just momentary....
So what is it that gives us actual pleasure??? let me tell you what it is... All the real happiness and satisfaction depends on how true you have been to yourself all day... what is that small thing you have done to lighten up somebody else s pain..... to make a grieved soul laugh....
The happiness is not because your english teacher praised you.... its because you helped a friend who is poor in grammer and he got the highest marks in class..... it s not because you won a gold medal in the game...its because you had the character to step down from the game to take a sick freind to the doctor..... its not because you won or didnt win the programming contest.. its because you gave it your best shot.... its not because that someone special complimented you its because you complimented someone who is usually ridiculed.....
So dear friends .... you see what makes you actually happy???? Its not about what the world gives to us... its about what you give to the world without any desire for returns...
Have you people ever wondered what life and happiness is all about?? I am sure you have.... and I am also sure none of us have ever found any convincing answers....... well thats why life is the most mysterious thing ever created....
we see loads of people in our lives...experience a contrariety of emotions... undergo huge number of different experiences.... but at the end of the day what is it that seems to be most important for us?? what makes us feel most satisfied and happy??
Do you feel happy just because your english teacher praised your excellent expression or is it because you won the gold medal in table tennis ...or because nobody could beat you in that tough programming contest...or is it because that someone special said you looked great in blue??? well i do agree all these things make us feel great... but believe me friends none of them last..all these happiness are just momentary....
So what is it that gives us actual pleasure??? let me tell you what it is... All the real happiness and satisfaction depends on how true you have been to yourself all day... what is that small thing you have done to lighten up somebody else s pain..... to make a grieved soul laugh....
The happiness is not because your english teacher praised you.... its because you helped a friend who is poor in grammer and he got the highest marks in class..... it s not because you won a gold medal in the game...its because you had the character to step down from the game to take a sick freind to the doctor..... its not because you won or didnt win the programming contest.. its because you gave it your best shot.... its not because that someone special complimented you its because you complimented someone who is usually ridiculed.....
So dear friends .... you see what makes you actually happy???? Its not about what the world gives to us... its about what you give to the world without any desire for returns...
Monday, December 8, 2008
Just another random thought by a random
Firstly, I don't know how much sense this blog is going to make but I am gonna give it a shot anyways :)
I can trace the origin of one of my "current most haunting" thoughts to a nice lil sentence I read a few days back which goes something like this.
“Really great people make you feel that you too, can become great.”
Mr Mark Twain must have told this on one of his exceptionally intelligent days :) .
I have this really odd habit of analyzing conversations, meetings, mails, chats and the like with people long after they are done and forgotten. It gives me special pleasure in doing so because every analysis gives me a new chain of thought, something that i had totally missed when the actual interaction was happening.
I have had the pleasure of meeting some really interesting/wonderful people. Intellectuals, so called "philosophers" :), teachers, managers :P , technical people, bankers, farmers, artists, musicians, etc etc I have met them all. Though they may not have been the "really famous" ones, they have been remarkable people by themselves. Some of them have been true and honest, some kind and understanding, some proud but very capable, some proud but seriously stupid and the rest plain hypocrites.
Regardless of what profession they have been in, regardless of their origin/place/birth, there are some things that are so insultingly common in all of them/us that it makes me wonder at times about the striking simplicity that exists amidst the seemingly complex human behavior. One of them, I have made an attempt to describe in this blog. This is just a personal observation done over a period of time :).
Let us imagine a situation where we have had the chance to have a conversation/interaction with someone who is considered "good" at something. Has the conversation made you marvel at the beauty and the elegance of the job they do or has its complexity amazed you? For me, it has almost always(with a few exceptions) been the latter. I always have wondered at that point, how any mortal could do something like that within such short time and the like :). There have been exceptions where the conversation has been successful in making me understand the job/work and realize the simple but profound logic in it :).
And time and again, life has proved to me that such people who make you feel their job is the easiest on earth and you can be as good as he/she is, are the ones who really know what they are talking about :)
When I say simple, I don't mean they have done it by down playing their job or work. They have done it by stating stuff in simple, straight clear terms what the job is all about and what it takes to get there. No fancy words, no frills, nothing.
Maybe we all do it at some point.. exaggerate everything a lil more than what it actually is. Use stupid jargon and confuse others. Make it sound really nice and wonderful. The really great just don't do it.. they don't need to. And such people will always have all my respect and admiration :). Explaining something the way it is(not the way they want it to be), so that the other person understands the elegance in it is an art.. which unfortunately most people don't want to learn. Decorating something that should not be decorated might make it look nice momentarily but in turn makes it lose its central meaning, and its beauty.
Maybe we should all contribute by example to form a space devoid of hypocrites and big and empty talkers. Rather, look towards creating an environment of honesty and truth.. Looking at things as they are and telling them as they should be.
I can trace the origin of one of my "current most haunting" thoughts to a nice lil sentence I read a few days back which goes something like this.
“Really great people make you feel that you too, can become great.”
Mr Mark Twain must have told this on one of his exceptionally intelligent days :) .
I have this really odd habit of analyzing conversations, meetings, mails, chats and the like with people long after they are done and forgotten. It gives me special pleasure in doing so because every analysis gives me a new chain of thought, something that i had totally missed when the actual interaction was happening.
I have had the pleasure of meeting some really interesting/wonderful people. Intellectuals, so called "philosophers" :), teachers, managers :P , technical people, bankers, farmers, artists, musicians, etc etc I have met them all. Though they may not have been the "really famous" ones, they have been remarkable people by themselves. Some of them have been true and honest, some kind and understanding, some proud but very capable, some proud but seriously stupid and the rest plain hypocrites.
Regardless of what profession they have been in, regardless of their origin/place/birth, there are some things that are so insultingly common in all of them/us that it makes me wonder at times about the striking simplicity that exists amidst the seemingly complex human behavior. One of them, I have made an attempt to describe in this blog. This is just a personal observation done over a period of time :).
Let us imagine a situation where we have had the chance to have a conversation/interaction with someone who is considered "good" at something. Has the conversation made you marvel at the beauty and the elegance of the job they do or has its complexity amazed you? For me, it has almost always(with a few exceptions) been the latter. I always have wondered at that point, how any mortal could do something like that within such short time and the like :). There have been exceptions where the conversation has been successful in making me understand the job/work and realize the simple but profound logic in it :).
And time and again, life has proved to me that such people who make you feel their job is the easiest on earth and you can be as good as he/she is, are the ones who really know what they are talking about :)
When I say simple, I don't mean they have done it by down playing their job or work. They have done it by stating stuff in simple, straight clear terms what the job is all about and what it takes to get there. No fancy words, no frills, nothing.
Maybe we all do it at some point.. exaggerate everything a lil more than what it actually is. Use stupid jargon and confuse others. Make it sound really nice and wonderful. The really great just don't do it.. they don't need to. And such people will always have all my respect and admiration :). Explaining something the way it is(not the way they want it to be), so that the other person understands the elegance in it is an art.. which unfortunately most people don't want to learn. Decorating something that should not be decorated might make it look nice momentarily but in turn makes it lose its central meaning, and its beauty.
Maybe we should all contribute by example to form a space devoid of hypocrites and big and empty talkers. Rather, look towards creating an environment of honesty and truth.. Looking at things as they are and telling them as they should be.
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