Well...

...I guess I'm still around!

Office Humor

Deadly ones

Tumhari adaao pe main vari vari, Wah Wah....
Tumhari adaao pe main vari vari, Wah Wah....
Dial 139 for railway enquiry... :)

Abhishek Bachchan has one sister... But he wants more n more sisters... How do I know? ***think think*** Dont know? coz he sings in Ravan
'Behne de mujhe Behne de’... :P

Beer pine se phele bolte hai cheers..wah wah
Beer pine se phele bolte hai cheerswah wah
Arey o pushpa, I hate tears :P :P

Bhook meri mar gayi...mujhe lagti nahin pyaas..
The time period of pendulum is independent of its mass :P :D

Na jeene ki tamaana hai na marne ka khauf..(feelings to dekho)
Na jeene ki tamaana hai na marne ka khauf...
The number you are trying is currently switched off... ;) :P

Apne gamo ko mere dost apne dil me daba lo....
Apne gamo ko mere dost apne dil me daba lo....
Naya godrej powder hair dye....Bas kato, gholo aur lagalo.....

Na isko na usko thi mere pyar ki khabar
Na isko na usko thi mere pyar ki khabar
Arey mera diagram galat hogaya... rubber de rubber... :P:D

Clueless

Don't know what to write these days. Really have no clue! I'm surprising myself, again!

Perception graphs

How, and not what

In most cases of strains or misunderstandings in any relationship, it is seldom what we say that creates the rift. It is, in most cases, the way we say it. If we watch the way we put things, even the most unpleasant things can be communicated effectively.

Taking efforts to communicate well in any relationship is a vital part of its sustenance. Or so i feel.

Worth a read

Click on the image to enlarge

Simplify

If we were to see how a typical life around us goes, there are just a few instances in one's lifetime where one has to take potentially life-changing decisions. Rest of the time, the things that we do are mundane, uncomplicated stuff. Yet these mundane tasks are the ones that test our mettle. Its these little moments that define what we are and what we could be in our lifetime. Unfortunately, we end up assigning a lot of undue importance to the big moments and take the smaller ones for granted.

Life's short - made up of tiny little beautiful moments. Capture them. Live them well.

As Anton Chekhov puts it: Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Don't fantasize!

No, I'm not veering towards what the title would suggest. I am talking of some froth we create in our minds - consciously or sub-consciously. Over the last few weeks, I have been audience to few incidents that had the same underlying theme - the disappointment of expectations not being met. Let me take few general instances here:

First: A die-hard fan of a mega superstar, who likes the star madly, desiring to meet him, goes and stands outside his house everyday from 5am till the sun decides to call it a day. Even after 10 such days of wait, the mega superstar does not turn up to meet the die-hard fan, who is presumably his greatest fan. The dejected fan goes back home and vows never to worship his hero who broke his hopes and dreams so brutally and heartlessly.

Second: A boy deeply loves a girl. He expresses his love to her. He is very sweet to her and takes good care of the girl. He wishes all the happiness in the world for the girl. He desires to marry her and keep her happy, always and forever. The girl, however, does not wish to marry him. Reasons? Irrelevant here. The boy is dejected. He feels cheated. He goes down hard on the girl and thinks of her as a heartless, brutal person who has no respect for other's feelings.

Third: A young married couple wishes the joy of parenting and wishes to bring a little bundle of joy to their lives. A baby is born to them. They are extremely delighted to have value and purpose added to their lives. The baby is well taken care of. The husband quits his job to be able to be with the growing baby who needs to be nurtured. The baby grows to become a very able adult and the parents are proud of her. She falls in love with a guy and wishes to marry him. She conveys the same to her parents. The parents are dejected and feel betrayed. Their hopes have been shattered by their daughter for whom they made so many sacrifices over many years. They decide not to be with the girl in this decision and makes it very clear that the day she marries the guy, she is out of their lives. Why? Because she is heartless and brutal who does not take care of her parents' wishes and expectations.

What is common among the three instances? Expectations have been broken. Desires have been left unfulfilled. Well, hard luck. Yeah, it is a simple case of hard luck. It is utter nonsense to put the blame on the superstar/girl/child for the state of mind of the fan/boy/parents. Sounds harsh? Well, so be it. If I expect something from someone, it is MY problem and not the other person's. Why should the other person accomodate your expectations if he/she is not happy doing it? If they are not able to see your viewpoint, fair enough. Different people dances to different music in this world. If they do not like your music, hard luck. Accept it and move on. Stop feeding sympathy to yourselves. Do it if you feel so, but do not hold the other person responsible. It is your problem and you must be the one who should take care of it.

The more unfortunate factor in all these instances is that the fan/boy/parents apparently love the superstar/girl/daughter. Unconditional love, they boast! Such unconditional love that their expectations comes much before the other person's happiness. Amazing love indeed.

To all the parents in this world, your children have a life and mind of their own. Accept it. Be with them if you indeed love them.

To all the lovers in this world, the person you love may not be be happy loving you. Accept it. Be with him/her if you indeed love him/her.

Accept things. Stop fantasizing. Everything we do for others are only because they make us happy. Everytime. Let us accept that we are selfish. Let us stop blaming others for breaking your expectations from them. Sure, feel bad that your expectations have been shattered. But do not hold anybody else responsible for it.

Am still around..

Just a quick post to remind myself that I have a blog I am supposed to write on and that the blog turned 3 yesterday! Hopefully, I will be frequent soon. Let me do a little chance pe dance and thank all my amazing readers for taking the time out to read and comment on my musings. My followers list gives me this little bout of inspiration to be more regular in feeding you with some crappy stuff :)

Really really appreciate your readership from the bottomestestest part of my heart (cannot give you a proof for this though).

Me thinks..

The more I live, I realize I cannot plan to live.

Well..

I am around. Don't write me off yet!

Okay, I admit this was just to add to my count of posts :)

Children and values

A lot has been talked about the demographic structure of India and the amazing dividends that we could reap owing to the fact that a large proportion of our population is in the productive age group. One dimension of the key to exploit such natural advantage is to ensure that the upcoming lot of younger generation is educated and skilled. Towards that, a lot is being done and a lot more promised to be done.

Personally, I am more concerned about another dimension. How and where is the value system of kids going to be cultivated and nurtured! Reason why I feel there is a lacuna here is two-fold.

Firstly, schools increasingly are money making machines these days. The entire process of education and teaching has now become more a business idea with the objective of creating knowledge-driven-weath creators rather than values-driven-productive-human beings. Money making at the cost of deteriorating values is an unwarranted scenario.

Secondly, families these days are increasingly becoming leaner and nuclear. A married couple where both partners are working professionals, staying nuclear away from their respective parents and trying to manage a full-time career is extremely productive for them. But when a child is born to them, the equation must change. What we are increasingly seeing is that the mother taking a maternity leave followed by a post-child birth sabbatical for few months (a year tops) to take care of the infant. Post the initial couple of years (where generally either set of grandparents are also present), the child is taken care by a nanny/baby sitter, sent to kindergarten, school, etc (with years passing). Now, when the child's mind is most fertile in the growing years, parents are not really available. They are, but not completely. In many cases, even the grand parents are not. So whom does the child learn the values of life from? He will surely be educated but will he grow up to become a man of strong values? In my generation, mothers generally were home makers and inculcated a lot of essential values to us. I can be sure in my case atleast.

And what do the children get exposed to when they come to home from school and wait for parents to come? Shocking television programmes, abundance of polluting information on the internet, social networking sites with hosts of online 'buddies'. 10-year olds are becoming memebers of networking sites these days and some of their status messages really shock me. Surely all this would make the kids cool, funky and street-smart but we should not complain if some of them later think that commiting a crime for money is fine or getting the latest electronic gadget for themselves must be the agenda in life.

I wonder about this for the coming generations. Should one of the parent completely devote himself/herself for the development of child in the formative years (between the age of 4 and 12 perhaps)?

Bringing a child to this world is a responsible decision. Does it end with sending the school to the best available school and coaching class? Isn't parenting a lot more than that?

Catch me if you can!

During the good old school days, we must have all played this search-for-my-name game. It went like this: in the inside cover page of a book, normally we write our name. Instead, I write 'to know my name, turn to page 14'. On page 14 I write, 'now go to page 183' and then so on and so forth. Finally, you sometimes end up seeing the name in one of the final links. One of those little fun things we did as kids.

Interestingly, I was playing a different version of Catch-me-if-you-can game myself. I was the hunter and someone else the drifter! Today, the game ended when I reached the elusive! And how!! It was fun. The finding is also quite surprising. One of those oh-I-never-thought-it-was-you moments!

Quite satisfying, really.

All this around...

... and I continue to lead a self-centered, selfish life.

Source of pictures: Amit Naik from Pankhudi (a very active NGO)

Aid birds

What love means to me

This magnificent piece is written by a dear friend Payal. I am really jealous of her in a sense that it is she who wrote this and not me! I totally loved it. Incidentally, one of her poems was also posted by me earlier.

- Love to me is a selfless feeling when you want the person to be happy, even if it involves him / her being with someone else

- Love to me is when even if you are fraught with pain, when you go to the temple, you pray for the one you love, not for yourself

- Love to me is when the two people have the ability to find the craters in each other's lives and fill each one of them with love and warmth

- Love to me is when you are not scared to expose that side of you, which can be otherwise judged

- Love to me is when you feel safe and complete with the person

- Love to me is when you feel that one lifetime is not enough to experience fully the karmic ecstasy when with your partner

Either it is love or it is not... there is no mid-way :)

How?

After a gap, I am back to my favorite theme - Marriage. This time, a question to those of you who are married:

How do you decide when and with whom to get married to? Seriously. Try & share your thoughts. Please.

The IPL thread - Irritating PL

Two things gets on to my skin a lot when I watch the IPL Television telecast. Firstly, DC playing akin to the Indian national side during late 1990s under Azhar - without a bite and ever looking to be fine with losing. Secondly, the MRF blimp, and references to Lillee and MRF pace foundation and the bowlers who came from there and their grand mothers and the man who fills the big balloon up. It irritates me so much that every time they show the balloon now, I mute my TV set!

Damn irritating.

Aha

Life's changing... Slowly but surely.

Me thinks..

Compatibility, looks, age, likes/dislikes are fairly over-rated parameters in relationships, aren't they? The basic parameter must always be respect. If you cannot respect your partner, all other things would fall apart sooner or later. If men could respect women the way they must be, we would not need a Women's Reservation Bill. Stop taking your partner for granted. Mutual respect is the essence of a beautiful relationship.

Never say never

Well yeah, never say never! Really.

The IPL thread

I love cricket. I love IPL - the concept, the conduct and the clink. Like the last two seasons, I have been closely following this third edition too. The matches till now has been superb and the quality of cricket on display in most matches are top-class. If there were doubters of whether cricketers would play whole-heartedtly for a franchise based format, they can now go and have a cup of tea because the format clearly works fabulously well.

It needs either a fool or a brave-heart to be able to put money on who will go on to win the tournament. For, firstly the format of the game is such that it is absolutely unpredictable and secondly (and more importantly), there is a long way left to go. Having said that, my money is on the Deccan Chargers and I hope they win this time too. Will they? We will wait and see. Can they? Surely, absolutely.

RCB, MI and DC are looking very good at this stage. Yet, the match of the season till date came in the form of a tied-followed-by-super-over match between KXIP and CSK. It was an important match, not just for the entertainment value but for the way KXIP won the match from almost being nowhere. That result will shower a lot of belief on many teams who might find themselves is a similar situation in the matches to come.

Interestingly, the mainstays of most teams have not been the high-ego-high-reputation youngsters, but their sober, senior team mates. Be it a Gilchrist/Symmo for DC or a Tendulkar/Sanath for MI or a Hayden/Murali for CSK. I am not taking away anything from the yonger lot but we will do well if we do not take anything away from the older lot too. Look at Kumble's accuracy in delivering bowls or the catches being plucked out of thin air by Dravid/Ganguly or the crisp textbook shots played by Kallis, and you will realize that they might be still calling the shots in T20 like they have in the more beautiful Test match cricket.

The beauty of the IPL lies in the lack of loyalties to a country/state/language. So when a Southie in Karthik leads DD against a Northie in Raina doing the job for CSK, the regional bias gets thrown out of the window. It is amazing how cricket cleans up the stains of regional politics. For, it is very plausible that Mumbai wins the league due to the talent of a Dhawan or Tiwary. Will some regional politicians suggest Sachin not to accept the trophy?

The pleasure of seeing Kumble bowl to Hayden with Boucher keeping wickets - three stalwarts from three different countries - is beyond words. It emphasizes the passion they bring in to play the game they love. How many of us manage to do that in our lives? I am truly jealous of them. Many say they play for money. Anyone who understands the intensity of cricket being played in IPL can only laugh at such observations. Money can be a motivator but cannot be the foundationstone for what Tendulkar does with the bat.

How can I not talk of the Mongoose bat! It looks weird to see Hayden holding something that looks more like an axe than a bat. But then, it is apparently effective. Symmo, like Hayden, is also a user of that bat. Would love to see what the monster can do with the mongoose.

My sense is that in insipid tracks of India, bowlers can not be the ones who decide the outcome of the game. And so, the quality of batting will decide the winner. Team with the best bat would go on to win the league. On their day, any line-up can do that as Dravid rightly answered to a Harsha Bhogle question after one of the matches. Peaking at the right time holds the key. Or else it will be like what DD experienced the last two times. Will they be third time lucky? Lot of people do think so. I am not one of them though. As I said earlier, we will wait and see.

So, here's to IPL and here's to awesome display of cricketing talent. Looking forward to more moments of brilliance. May the best team win (and may DC be that team!)

The zing of life

Every time you think life's a cool ride and you know the route, there's a change in plan. With each day passing, the noise around is unending. The scenes change, the characters remain. The plot change, the actors remain. New happenings, different beginnings, several endings, old woes, new joys, an old face taken off, a fresh one added, an enemy here, a friend there, missing someone now, being with someone the next moment, a hope there, sometimes a wish, at times dreaming, most times chasing.

In all this, there has to be an underlying generic theme, isn't it? What is that constant?

Giving while living!

There was once a very rich man in town who had everything that any one would want. He lived a life of extravagance and had all the worldly pleasures that anyone could ever think of: expensive attire, jewels, delicacies served everyday, innumerable mansions, a fleet of cars and help at his every beck and call.

However, despite his lavish lifestyle, he neither gave a needy person a penny to comfort nor did he say a kind word to soothe a hurting soul. Thus, everyone ended up calling him a miser. This perturbed the rich man and so he decided to do something about it. He informed one of his friends to let the enire village know about his plan to donate his entire wealth to the village after his death. Despite knowing this, however, the villagers spoke behind his back and continued to make fun of him. This further aggrevated his depression. One evening, the same friend came to meet him and sensing his disturbed mood, he narrated to him the story of "The Cow & the Pig".

There was once upon a time a pig who was unhappy that despite all the perceived help and assistance provided by him, he got only rude comments in return whereas his friend - the Cow was loved by one and all. So, one day the pig out of sheer curiosity, the pig asked the cow as to why the world treated her so reverently and the pig so crudely. The pig said, "All you give them is milk, while here I am, who gives them a lot more – I give them my hair to make brushes, I give them my skin, I give them my entire body but still they treat me so badly."

The cow heard all his complaints very patiently and then after taking a few munches replied – "maybe if you try giving something, even a little something while you are alive, you may be treated differently. Think about it!"

Received this as a forward. Source unknown.

For the teacher in me

Someone sent this to me today and asked me to replace Math teacher with FM teacher! Thankfully, it was a friend who sent this and not a student :)

I'm sure a lot of my students would read this and say 'I wish'! :D

On a kind-of-related-note, I think I'm starting to lose traits of a professor/teacher. Ofcourse, the assumption here is that I had those traits at some point in the past!

Current Affairs.... the Lighter Way

Received them as a forward.

Flickering lights

It was a ‘blanket of blank’ as far as I could see,
Came tearing through the darkness, a tiny little refugee.

The tiny tot, small at his might, trembled,
Will I be able to survive the world, he fumbled.

Couple more joined him, to render strength,
Soon there was an array of flickering lights through the length.

The flickering lights…
Give me courage to face the world,
Wisdom to gather every stone hurled.

In togetherness, they lit up marooned streets gazed by yearning eyes,
In creativity, they give a new dimension to horizon-less skies.

In deafening silence, they create musical symphony.
In excess of stillness, they give a ‘reason to be’.

In times of rue, they epitomize victory over despair,
In times of iniquity, they symbolize en era of just and fair.

The flickering lights…
Give me hope for life,
Strength to cope through strife.

We may not be as bright as the big street halogen lights, they say,
But at least we provide twinkle to the eyes that pray.

We may not help you see all obstacles that lay,
But at least, through the falls, we give you strength to rise and walk away.

We may not bring jazzy colors, shapes and patterns to the variety tray,
But at least we bring variety to someone’s life’s monotonous, melancholic play.

The flickering lights…
Give me inspiration to light others’ lives,
Chance to spread optimistic vibes.

An en-route experience by Payal Sinha

(PS is a dear friend of mine, based out of Noida. Feedback & comments on the poem are welcome.)

Double ton

Few days before my blog turned 100 posts old, Sachin had surpassed a Test record. This time, when my blog turns 200 posts old, Sachin has just surpassed an important double ton too! I noted this little co-incidence today when I realized about my count (with the posts-count displayed in Blogger, it is easy to keep such track).

Do not have much thoughts to write about. Been a lull period, blogging wise. No real reasons to offer, just avei. :)

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

I have been wanting to write on this phenomenon named Sachin, but somehow could never match my words to his feats. While browsing today, read this well-written paragraph by TIME magazine on what Sachin has been:

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy.

It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.

A year of discovery?

Turning a year older seems to be quite normal. My birthday yesterday was absolutely 'normal' like any other day. Deliberately so. Looking at the year that went by, I do not know how to tag it. Perhaps, it was the year of discovery. Rather, self-discovery. One of the key things I have started to realize is that I really do not have any passions, so to say. If you asked me a year back, I would have said I am passionate about teaching, or finance, or reading. Now, it may not be the case. All these and even the other stuff feels 'normal' and 'ordinary'. Good for me, me thinks.

What I have also realized is I am extremely fortunate to have some awesome people around me. The value that they add to me is amazing. This has been surely a year of true learning owing to interactions I have had with them at various points. Also, the time I spend in the lectures interacting with a magnificent set of students also helps in keeping the mind steady. When you are trying to explain a concept to a batch of eager students, the world outside the concept comes to a stand-still. I cannot think of anything much - my deliverables, health issues, other trivial matters that would otherwise be plaguing my mind - when I am into a lecture. It's an awesome perquisite of teaching.

Things that I have discovered and realized over the last many months are quite contrary to my 'older' self. Moreover, I am loving the transition, if I could use that term. I think I have found my footing in the world. I know what my stance must be, talking like a batsman. I am at peace with myself. The noise inside me is surely dying down and I am letting myself just be. I do not remember the last time I 'seriously contemplated' my career options or the 'time-effective way to garner resources and build wealth'. All these things and a whole lot of related materalistic aspects of the world seems like a big, worthless zilch to me.

So here's to another year of discovery and realizations. A year ahead towards NOTHING. Let more and more of nothing come to me!

By the way, I completed 27 years of my physical existence yesterday.

Important & Useful

Came across this at a site. Must share this in any way you can.

Colorful India

Do see some awesome photographs on India and her different shades. Enjoy.

Tired..

Tired. Exhausted. Completely saturated.

Social advertising

Received these as a mail forward. Good ones. Click on the images to see them in larger size & to read the tag lines with them.

Disclaimer time

The thoughts I expressed on my post on money being a mean and not the end has had many takers. The reactions have been amazing. I am extremely happy that a lot of us are inclined to think on these lines. Somehow, I feel there is a need to add some additional points (what I have called 'Disclaimers') about the thought-process and its implications.

1. I am basically only saying these things. Do I personally live by it as of now? - NO. Do I want to? - YES. Will I be able to? - I HOPE SO. Point being I do not deserve any credit for saying it. I have NOT done much on those lines. So you can well tag me as an arm-chair reformist :D

2. I have written the post after reaching a point where I am financially not constrained. I have been doing things to chase materialistic ends. Charity begins at home, isn't it? So we have to be reasonably secured ourselves before we try to go around trying to help others. When I say we, I include our family members too. They have their own set of expectations from us. We must try to adhere to them too. Balancing between the two set of 'ideologies' is a fine act to attempt.

3. Many have reacted something like this: Dude, all this is fine. What is to be done? We are not sure of it. To that I would say, surely lot has to be done and many many many around are already doing it (NGOs, Organizations, etc). I will be throwing some light on many of them on this blog going forward. May be that could help to begin with. Also remember, when the student's ready, the teacher appears (Deepak Chopra mentions this in one of his books). Once we begin to think towards an aim, everything will begin to fall in place. The paths will be relatively clearer then.

So with the air being cleared now, I can resume my musings guiltlessly.. hehe :)

Do you own things or do they own you?

I read this statement recently and was quite struck by it: Things that you own now will end up owning you someday.

It is an extremely powerful thought. Loved it. It has been running inside my head since the moment I read it. Today, as I was having a conversation with my professor, he shared a beautiful story with me. It goes like this:

One fine day, while a sage is giving a discourse to his disciples, a man comes walking with his cow. The sage says to his disciples "See there, a man and a cow are coming together". The man hears this and gets a little agitated. He tells the sage "Hey old man, we are not coming together. You cannot put it like that." The sage replies "Oh yes, you are right. I am sorry. I will correct myself." He then tells his disciples "The cow is bringing the man". This makes the man very angry. He yells at the sage "Are you crazy? The cow is not bringing me. I am bringing it. I am controlling it. Do you understand?". To this, the sage replies beautifully saying "Sorry boy. The way I see it, the cow is bringing you alongwith it. If you leave the cow alone, it will still keep walking on its own, peacefully, without your help. But if it leaves you, can you do the same? So who's controlling whom?"

Awesome story. Hope you understand the gist and the message.

So, are you owning things or are they owning you?

I love movies

Recently picked up few already seen/to be seen movies. Here are the titles: Firaaq, Train to Pakistan, Little Zizou, Black Friday, Ek Rukha Hua Faisla, Gulaal, Kameenay & Dharm. Amovie a day keeps the stress away :-) Have a lot more in my list of 'want-to-see' movies.

Well, I'm a self-proclaimed movie buff! I enjoy watching Bollywood, Malayalam and sometimes foreign language movies (mostly English, but sometimes other language movies with English sub-titles on UTV World Movies channel).

Isn't money simply a mean?

Let me begin with a question. How much money is 'good enough' to leave peacefully? I realize it is an open-ended question with no possible consensus reply. But what I am trying to ask is, do we all really believe that money is merely a way of securing a peaceful life? If yes, then should we not also know how much is enough? On the other hand, if money is not the mean but the target itself, what's the target amount you are trying to reach? Is there a quantifiable answer to it?

I am fortunate enough to be at a stage of life where survival is not my main target. This is the case with a lot of people I know - my friends, my cousins, my seniors, etc. Lot of us earn substantially higher than our basic needs. Most of us also earn much above even our luzury needs that we enjoy. Most of us earn enough to take our families out for a movie or dinner few times a month. We earn enough to enjoy a couple of vacations in a year to a far-away place, away from the routine. Sure, we need money to do all this and more. Point is, many of us are earning much more than what you need to do all this. Day in and day out we are slogging out in our lives to get that higher increment or a super bonus that marginally/incrementally goes into our savings and not towards luxury spending. Saving for an uncertain future perhaps. Despite all this, I strongly feel a lot of us are giving way too much importance to money and financial safety, thinking about not just the next year or two but even 10 years and 20 years down the line. If this is how it goes, money will hypnotize us and leave us drained and dead even before we are actually dead.

I have two points to add further. First is the happiness quotient. If the money-making efforts are making you truly blissful, then half the problem is taken care of. You are not killing yourself internally for a secure future. However, is this not a rarity? Lot of us crib about not having enough time and mind-space to live for ourselves. The attempt to get 'work-life balance' has caught up in a big way among corporate executives. Clearly so, there seems to be an unhappy inner self even as the outer self is busy chasing the money targets. That, to my mind, is a problem one must address. If more money does not make you more happy on a daily basis (and not at a future unknown point in time), then we ought to change few things around.

Now, let's assume one is indeed blissful in doing things that consequently results in money being created. Case in point would be a sportsman, an actor, a painter, a musician or a CA for that matter who loves what she does. Even then, I have an inkling that there is something not-so-right. That's my second pointer. I cannot see a lot of sense in a situation where someone tries to achieve a separate room for each member of his family (by purchasing a 3BHK flat, for instance) at a time when some of them around in this world cannot afford a single small room for 10 of them put together. I am not intending to sound 'socialistic' here. Question that disturbs me is, do the money making people not think about the relatively under-privileged soceity? I am not taking anything away from people who make money. Surely they are extremly skilled and work hard to earn whatever they do. But, do they not believe that once they reach that point of security, they can then try to help somebody else around to get to security as well? Like as if we are one big family in this world and we seek & help each other out? Can we not do that more often than not? Can there be no collective efforts towards that? Or do we remain self-centered as always? Do we simply add more luxuries to our own wealth & lives, and may be end up not even enjoying them. By upgrading from a 21-inch TV to a super big Plasma, when life is so reckless & fast that we spend only a few hours in front of the TV. If that's the case, wasn't the decision to upgrade the TV just a symbolic gesture to tell the society around that you are a wealthy person and ought to be respected? TV is just an example, we could be spending our money in a lot of other ways.

I read this somewhere recently (I think it was Sri Sri Ravishankar who said this) that our education system needs to be modified to include two more things in it right from grass-root levels: a little bit about Philospohy and a little bit about Philanthropy. I totally agree. This will add a sense of perspective in our lives and see things in a different manner. We will be more compassionate and less wasteful in our attitudes.

I have asked myself how much money is 'secure' enough for my family. Working to reach that number and then trying to spread out for others is what my motto is. If you think this way of living makes sense, then ask yourself how much money is 'secure' enough for your family and their needs. Then work hard to reach a level where even 'ancilliary' works (read part-time) that does not consume all of your time will help you earn that bit. Rest of the time can be used to make this whole world a much better place. This is where education helps. A professional degree like MBBS or CA must be used to make our lives less complicated and easier. Unfortunately, we use these degrees to challenge ourselves to earn some obscenely high amount of money and screw up our own happiness in the process.

I began with a question. Let me end with a beautifully worded line that I read as the status message of one of my friends and is apt here. A perfection of means & confusion of aims seems to be our main problem.

Go get it

Hey... Don´t ever let somebody tell you, you can´t do something. Not even me... Alright? You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it.

Will Smith says this to his son in the movie Pursuit of Happyness.

Creative ones

Received these as a forward. Click on the images for a larger view

Another year, another chance!

In an otherwise unending journey of life between birth and death, New Years give us a mini restart. With another fresh year ahead of us, it's another chance to chase our unfulfilled dreams, to revisit undone tasks, to re-ignite passion and hope in ourselves. We have been given a fresh stock of 365 days to try and pursue happiness. We have another chance to experience joy each moment and more importantly share joy with umpteen lives around us, known and unknown. Here's to more rays of hope and even more wishes for happiness!

Dream BIG... chase your dreams... ignite your passions... inspire... get inspired... love... be loved... smile... keep spreading smiles... LIVE...