Life, Among Other Things

Innocence, Lost!

2011-08-02T10:59:00.003+05:30

When we are born we are all sweet and simple.

Then, we start growing up.

As we begin the process of growing up, we start losing our innocence. We begin to believe that all that is sweet and simple is childish and needs to be done away with. In the beginning, an individual enjoys the process of growing up, especially the guilty pleasures that are associated with the first sins. With time, however, the pleasure aspect begins to diminish, and the guilt part becomes powerful until there comes a time when a deep yearning for return to innocence takes birth in the heart.

Along with the yearning for innocence, there is another voice in our hearts that tells us that it is too late.

"Innocence, once lost, can't be regained, you fool," the voice tells us, and we believe it.

The yearning for innocence is quickly overpowered by this other voice that tells us that we are doomed to live with this complicated and unforgiving life.

The choice, however, is always ours.

The innocence that we believe to be lost is never lost. It is always insides us, even if it is hidden under layers of "real-life advice" and "worldly wisdom" that we have acquired over the years. We can choose to uncover these layers, or we can choose to put more layers on it, so that it is lost forever.

What are you choosing?

(Image courtesy: andreyutzu from sxc.hu)

Back again!

2011-01-17T19:55:00.000+05:30

It has been such a long time since I have posted anything on this blog. Often and again, I have stopped blogging here, but soon I come running back to it. This is the first blog that I ever started, so I guess I have some kind of attachment to it - not very different from first love.

Every time I come back to this blog, I have different ideas for what I am going to write here.

This time however I am not going to think a lot, and just write whatever comes to my mind. Let us see how that goes.

Today is a "Present"

2010-03-10T12:00:00.004+05:30

Life has a way of continuously making us realise things. Most of the times, we are already aware of these things, but we conveniently choose to ignore them, until they come to stare us right in the face.

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk, writing something, and all of a sudden I found myself searching for a word. A word that I could faintly recognize on the horizon, but couldn't clearly make out. It was a weird feeling. Quite like a dream, where you are being attacked and you want to scream, or hit back, or do anything at all, but you simply can't.

It was not the first time something like that had happened to me, and I am sure it must have happened to all of you too, when there is a word on the "tip of your tongue" but you just can't get it out. But, somehow, this time it felt different. It was as if I had lost an ability, a gift. I have always thought of words as something I could bank upon. When everything else would fail me, I was sure I could count on words. It seemed like I had lost one of my most trusted allies.
It was a scary feeling, and one that almost made me break out in cold sweat. What would I do if I lost the ability to write? Or, for that matter, what if I lost any ability that I have got so used to that I have begun to take it for granted. For example, what if I am not able to walk when I wake up tomorrow. It may sound implausible now, but going by the lifestyle we have come to adopt these days, we are prone to quite a few maladies that can severely hamper our lives.

So, in a matter of a few minutes my mind turned from a calm, serene ocean, into a whirlpool of unpleasant, scary emotions. There was no way I could get myself to do anything until I had dealt with these thoughts, once and for all.

The future, as they say, is uncertain and even the best laid plans can fail. This makes worrying about the future a futile exercise.

Que Sera Sera- What will be, will be.

Therefore instead of worrying about the future, it would serve our interests well, if we do whatever can be done today making the best use of all our faculties while we still are the masters of them. Tomorrow they may be there, or they might not, but we have them today, and we should make the best use of them. As they say, "Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, but Today is a Gift. That is why it is called the Present."

With those thoughts, and a calm mind, I abandoned my search for the right word, and finished what I was writing using the words that I could come up with. After all they were what I had at that point in time, and I had to make the best use of them.

BYBS: Getting Hurt!

2010-01-11T08:57:00.006+05:30

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One of the last things that I thought I could be thankful for was getting hurt. There are times when someone says something, and you can't help but feel offended. Sometimes, you react immediately and tell the other person how you felt about what he, or she, said. At other times, you stay quiet but make a mental note of avoiding the other person as much as you can.

Something similar happened to me recently.

I was talking to a friend on the phone, and she said something that I thought was hurtful. I did not say much at the moment, though I did drop a hint about feeling hurt by what she said. I realised, however, that she had no idea about what it was that she had said to hurt me. In fact whatever she had said was in a matter of fact way, with no intention of being offensive. So, I tried to forget it, and let it go at that.

Later, however, I was thinking if I should have something to her, and I realised something. There must have been times when I must have hurt people without realising what I was doing. I like to believe that I am a frank person who doesn't mince words in telling people what he thinks about things. In my frankness, I am sure I must have said things to people which might have hurt them. Had I ever apologised for that? I don't think so.

By being hurt the other day, therefore, I realised two things:

1. Sometimes people don't mean to hurt you even if they eventually do. Before you form an opinion about them, you have to think carefully about whether they were meaning to be hurtful, or whether they said something that they believed was in your best interests.

2. Sometimes we say things that we believe are in the best interests of other people, but these things might actually hurt others, and they may even decide to stop being our friend.The solution lies not in hiding things, but in choosing your words carefully to ensure that the other person involved understands that you have his, or her, best interests at heart.

Have a great week ahead!

Fifteen Years Ago...

2010-01-07T13:27:00.001+05:30

We all like to believe that as we grow up we learn new things. If someone asks us, we accept unhesitatingly - with some pride even - that we made some mistakes, but we insist that these mistakes were necessary as they were an integral part of the learning process which makes us what we are today. If someone were to tell us that we have not learnt anything from our past mistakes, we are sure to take offence. To accept that we don't learn from our mistakes is to accept that we are not as smart as we like to think we are.

It might, however, be true. As much as we may want to believe that today we are better at living our lives than we were, say, fifteen, or twenty years ago, it might not be true. It is a possibility that we may just be living our lives without actually benefiting from the experience.

I say this because, recently, I came across this question: "If you were able to go back in time and get a few minutes to spend with the person you were fifteen years ago, what would you tell the young yourself?"

On the face of it, it seemed like a simple question, with answers that were not difficult at all. Wouldn't I have so much to tell a young me? Haven't I went through fifteen years in the meanwhile and experienced so many new things? I would share all that with him, so that he would not make the same mistakes as I did.

A little thought, however, disturbed me.

I realised that most of the things that I was going to tell him were things he already knew, and still, he made the mistakes that he did. In the last fifteen years I might have had different experiences, met new people, got a few degrees, etc. but did I really grow as an individual? Or, did I simply keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again?

Something tells me that the answer to the question is not something that I would like to hear. So, I am going to avoid the question for now.

What, however, I would like to do is to live my life in such a way that if fifteen years from now I get another chance to interact with the present me, I would not have such a tough time dispensing advice to me.

Who Am I?

2010-01-01T13:36:00.002+05:30

Another year has gone by.

With time I have felt that the years pass me by at a faster rate than they used to when I was younger. Some might say that this is merely a matter of perception, as time continues to flow at its own steady rate, and does not vary its pace for any reason whatsoever. This is no doubt true. But, then again, there are reasons why we feel that time runs faster as we grow up.

The main reason for the perception is simply the increase in the number of things we begin to do as we grow up. A one year old is content to spend all the time laying in bed - maybe he isn't, but he has no other option. No wonder to him time seems to stretch forever. As we grow up we learn to do things - sit, walk, play, make friends, read, fall in love, fall out of love, work - and pretty soon we have no time for anything at all. We always seem to be short of time, and, as a result, we keep wondering - where did the time go?

There is another reason (which has no basis other than my meandering thoughts), I feel, for the perception that time runs faster as we grow up. When a baby is newly born he has been on this planet for only a few seconds, and those seconds are his entire life. Every second of that life is important to him. As he grows up the number of seconds in his life keep increasing, and accordingly, the relative importance of each second in his life decreases. This is just a hypothetical argument, but it could be a reason why we feel that time is running faster as we grow up.

In 2009 I felt I was short of time, or that is what I told myself and those around me, who cared enough to ask. But, on hindsight, it was not the lack of time so much as it was the lack of proper management of time. There are so many things that a person can do with his, or her, time. The trick here lies in identifying the things you enjoy doing, and those that satisfy you.

There are a thousand books - or even more, I am sure - on time management out there. It would be too easy for me to say that they are totally useless, but they are not. They have their use. They will provide you with tips and tricks to manage your time. But all that will go in vain, unless and until, you make an attempt to know yourself.

Before making any attempts to make resolutions, or enhance the quality of your life, in 2010, it is important to ask yourself questions like : What do I want? Why am I doing this? Where do I want to be at the end of this year? You need to make sure that the resolutions you make are inspired by your needs, desires, and aspirations, and not by what is fashionable, or acceptable in society. I don't know about you, but I have found myself, and some of my friends, do things not because they wanted to, but because their friends, relatives, or parents wanted them to. These people are important parts of our lives, but they are not you!

I start 2010 with along list of resolutions. Some I will keep, and some I will not, but in 2010, I will make a sincere attempt to answer the question : Who Am I?

Will you?

The Right, The Wrong, and The Middle Path!

2009-11-26T12:25:00.002+05:30

Life is all about decisions. Every moment we are making one decision or another. Some of these decisions are big, life changing ones, while others are small, less significant decisions. For example, right now, you have the option of continuing to read this post, or click on the little cross button on the top right hand side of the web page. This small decision will affect, in the least, the next five minutes of your life.

Before you make a decision, you invariably weigh your options – either you choose the better of two goods, or as is more probable, the lesser of two evils.

But how do you define what is good, and what is bad.

However much we may like to claim that we are the masters of our own thought, the fact remains that our thoughts are a result of years of indoctrination of what the society believes to be right, or wrong. What is even more surprising is that most people who tell you the difference between right and wrong – and expect you to do right – themselves choose what might not be right, but, of course, they have a very good reason for it.

The most common being - Life is not black and white, but grey!

I am sure all of us have used that statement to get out of a tough spot, or justify a decision that we knew was not one of the best that we could have made.

So, what are we supposed to do?

Before I try to answer that, I will assume that most of us are aware of what is right and what is wrong. It is simply the enormity of the consequences of doing the right thing that makes us stray from that path. For example a kid may lie to his parents about his marks to avoid the scolding he might receive if he speaks the truth. It is just a small, but relevant example nonetheless.

Just like that kid, we are constantly deviating from the right track, to avoid unpleasant consequences. Then we find an excuse to justify our deviation. Sometimes the excuse is so good that we are convinced that what we did was the best possible course of action.

But these deviations, over the long run, lead to confusions. Since we have always justified our behaviour in the past, we are convinced that what we have done was right. We ask ourselves then, “What did I do to deserve this? Haven’t I always done the right thing?”

Maybe we haven’t. Maybe in our search for a middle path, we have taken the wrong path. It is not that there is not a middle path, but taking the middle path is actually harder than taking the right path, because the middle path is not defined, and each one of us must define that for ourselves. Before we can do that, we have to ensure that we have the capability to do so. We must not fool ourselves to believe that we have that capability, we must be sure that we have.

Till the time we have the capability, I say, it is best to choose the white, over the black and grey. What say you?

BYBS: Children's Day and Our Environment!

2009-11-14T11:11:00.008+05:30

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Two months and a day. That is how long it has been since I posted anything on this blog. Come to think of it, this is the longest blogging break I have had since I started blogging almost four years ago. In the last two months I have tried to write something on the blog, but for one reason or another I have managed to put it off. But, as those who know me well would know, it was only a matter of time before I got back to regular blogging, and here I am again.

And when I am getting back to blogging, what better subject to start with then Blogging my Blessings.

One of the things about my life I really like is living in the hills. Despite the recent developments that have converted our villages and towns into cities and mega cities, the hills have manged to retain some of the original beauty that nature had bestowed upon them in abundance. Living in the hills since my childhood, I have managed to stay in touch with nature and appreciate the bounties that nature holds for us.

Living in the hills means living in close harmony with nature. A picture they say is worth a thousand words. So, without using too many words to explain what I mean, I'll just show you a picture of the view from my window:
On the tree that you see in the picture, in addition to observing birds of many varieties, I have often spotted a monkey, or the occasional langoor.

This is when I am living in the capital town. When I was a kid, I lived in many smaller towns and villages, which were quite untouched by modernity. Living there was a great blessing as I got to see first hand what the poets of the past have tried to describe in the unforgettable lines they wrote. At the same time, knowing how things were once, makes you even sadder when you look at the way things are changing now.

In our quest for comfort and a better life, we are hurting the environment. The changes that are happening now are irreversible, but the good thing is that we still have time to stop these changes for the worse, and turn the wheel around. Mother nature has a way of forgiving us our transgressions, and if we learn our lessons even now and decide to repent, things can still be good, and our children can have a chance to be as close to nature as we were when we were kids. we owe the future generations at lest this much.

This Children's Day let us decide to make this world a better place for our children. What say you?

(To know more about Himachal Pradesh, the State I live in, and stay up to date with the latest happenings in the state, you could follow my friend's blog)

BYBS: Seek Not, And You Shall Find

2009-09-13T08:25:00.004+05:30

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It is, sometimes, hard to come up with ideas to write about. It is not that the mind runs out of ideas; the ideas just decide that they want to play hide and seek. As soon as you try to grab one of the them, it slips away into a dark corner. You don't mind because you are sure there are other ideas in there, but as soon as you turn around to hold on to any one of them, you find them all slipping and sliding away into the nooks and crannies of your brain.

You are left with an emptiness, which gets deeper with every attempt that you make to fill it.

What do you do now?

Well, I don't know about you. But, off late, I have developed a strategy. I have stopped trying to look for them. If they choose to hide, in stead of going after them, I let them be. Ideas, then, are not unlike mischievous children. When you scold them, or try to stop them from doing something, they will run all over the room. They will hide behind a sofa, or in an inaccessible corner of the room. They have fun teasing and taunting you. But the moment you start ignoring them, and begin doing your own work - pretending they don't even exist - the fun goes out of hiding. The children, now, will come to you, without you having to lift a finger.

Ideas, I feel, are similar. Don't try too hard, and your brain will be overflowing with them.

A good example of the above theory is today's post. As I began to write this post, I had no idea of what I was going to write. I searched my brain, and found nothing there save for an irritating emptiness. So, I just sat back and, without actually trying too hard, wrote this post. As for how good it is, I will let you be the judge.

However, to thank you for your patience with reading this post, I am going to leave you with this video, which, I guarantee, will make you smile:

BYBS : A Great Teacher

2009-09-06T06:47:00.007+05:30

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In India, September 5 is celebrated as Teacher's day to mark the birthday of the second President of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Thankfully, its not a holiday - we already have too many of them to want any more - but on this day the regular schedule of the educational institutes is replaced by celebrations and special events.

One of the things that used to happen at our school was that the students of the senior-most class volunteered to teach the junior classes, while the teachers looked on. The time-table for the day was not changed, only the students replaced the teachers. When it was the turn of our class to teach, we were very excited and nervous. I chose to teach the subject that I had always liked - English.

I really don't remember what happened that day, but I do remember that I used to like my English teacher, and the way she taught us. So, I am sure, I must have tried to copy her style while taking the class. I had a great time, and I thought, then, that when I grow up I am going to be a teacher.

Though I never became a teacher, I still wonder that if I had become one, would I be as good as some of the teachers, who have taught me over the years, have been. Teachers have great power over their students, and they can lead the students to give their best. If you are able to find one such teacher, you can count yourself lucky.

Here is an example of what a great teacher can to his students:

BYBS: Those Who Took a Stand!

2009-08-30T12:24:00.002+05:30

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All of us, at some point of time or another, have been discriminated against by others or, like it or not, have held a prejudiced opinion about other people based on caste, colour, sex, creed, money etc. Often, these biases get so well ingrained in a person that they become like second nature.

Today, in spite of what the dooms day prophets might say, the world is a much better place than it was fifty years ago. Most countries of the world now have democratic systems which allow the principle of equality to thrive. These systems allow people to raise their voices if they perceive injustice being meted out to anyone.

It is, however, a fact - and a sad one - that a majority of us will still choose to ignore an act of discrimination, sometimes even when we ourselves are at the receiving end. We simply hope that in time this will go away too.

But, it won’t…unless someone acts.

We simply cannot imagine today what persecution people who stood up against any discrimination suffered, when society thought of the discrimination as the most natural thing. For example, when caste system was socially accepted in the Indian society, it would be suicide for any one from any caste to try and fight against the system. Similarly, I think, in the US when the discrimination based on colour was widely accepted, anyone- regardless of his colour- who raised his voice against the system, would be ruthlessly crushed.

Yet, people stood up for what they thought was right. These people did not care for what the society – their friends, relatives, peers – thought of them and their ideas. They knew that their cause was just and they were prepared to go to any length to fight for the cause. We remember many of these men and women as our heroes today, but many, I am sure, must have perished without anyone knowing of their sacrifice.

With today’s post I would like to thank everyone who has stood up for what is right, without worrying about what the others said. It is because of these people that we live in a world that has more respect for life, ideals, and values. I hope that more of us have the courage to stand up against anything wrong so that we can gift an even better world to our children.

Wishing you all a great week ahead!

BYBS : Weather!

2009-08-24T08:04:00.003+05:30

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Somethings are all around us, and yet we miss them. In fact, the reason we miss them is that they have always been there and we can't imagine a life without them.

One such thing is the weather.

Shimla, the town where I live at, has always had great weather. Its climate, I am sure, was one of the reasons that the British chose it for their Summer Capital of India. Living here for most of my life, I never stopped to appreciate the good weather we have almost all year around. For, the last one year, however, I lived at Delhi, and suffered the extreme temperatures there.

So, naturally, coming back this year I was more appreciative of the weather. For the last four days, especially, the weather has been simply out of the world. Clear blue skies, sunlight bathing the world with it's golden rays, a chill in the air...you get the picture. The picture seems perfect, but there is something wrong with it, something dreadfully wrong.

This is not the time for the weather to be like this.

The climate changes and global warming have silently taken charge of our environment over all these years. For a long time we, being so short sighted, failed to observe what we were doing to our environment. Now, Mother Nature seems to have decided that enough is enough, and we need to be given a warning in a more palpable form. The signs are now there for all of us to see. I am sure you must have also observed the change in weather wherever you live. Haven't you?

I think it is time for each one of us, as individuals, to take actions to save our planet. Not only for our children, but for ourselves too, because at the rate we are going it won't take long before things get really bad.

Let's all join hands, and make the change that we hope to see in the world!

BYBS : Smile

2009-08-16T09:05:00.003+05:30

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I read something interesting the other day, and I have been trying to implement it in my life ever since to test it for authenticity.

What I was reading was a book on destructive emotions, and how to deal with them. By choice, or not, all of us are affected by destructive emotions - like anger, craving, and delusion - at some point of time or another. More often than not we also regret our decisions made under the influence of any one of these destructive emotions. The answer lies in waiting before acting; we have been gifted with enough powers to ensure that we make the right choices, but for some reason we choose to act in haste, and repent in leisure.

The chapter that caught my attention, however, talked about how we feel any emotion only after the chemical reaction for it has been initiated in the brain, mostly involuntarily. We never realise what emotion we are feeling, until it has already begun. Then, the book went on to take the example of a smile.

When we sense something pleasant, we smile. That's a natural involuntary reaction. Most of the times we smile without actually making an effort to do so. This much is common knowledge. The chapter, further, went on to say that the reverse is also possible i.e. if we fake a smile, it can cause a chemical reaction in our brain that is the same as when there is something good happening around us. In short, even if we fake a smile, we will feel like smiling in a few minutes.

I thought, isn't that a good way to feel better when we are felling...not so good. Have you ever felt something like this happen to you? If not, try it, and you just might agree with what that book said. I know I do.

BYBS: Formalities

2009-08-09T10:37:00.004+05:30

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Last week, we celebrated Raksha Bandhan, popularly known as Rakhi, in India. It is a festival that celebrates the strong ties between brothers and sisters.

Usually, it is a day where people visit their families, spend time together, eat dinner, etc. I am sure you get the picture, because this is what people do all over the world on major holidays.

We had gone to my maternal uncle's place, where a few other friends and relatives had gathered for dinner. During the course of conversation One of the guests made a remark. She said, "These days everything has become a mere formality. Relations, festivals, ties, everything. We do them because we have got used to doing them, and they must be done. They actually don't mean anything."

As you can imagine, this line of thought made everyone a little uncomfortable, and no one wanted to continue this discussion over the dinner table. However, I found it hard - and I am sure there must have been others like me - to push the thought out of my head.

Was what we did on all major festivals a mere formality without any meaning whatsoever? If one person felt that way, I am sure there must be others who feel the same way. And what if it is a mere formality? Should such practices be abandoned entirely?

These questions bothered me for a while, but, then, I think I found an answer.

Whether such occasions become a formality, or not, depends, to a great extent, on the state of mind we are in. If we are happy we look forward to such occasions where we can share our happiness with others. At such times, the question of these days being a mere formality doesn't even arise in our minds. If, however, we are under a cloud, we tend to think that these occasions don't mean a thing and we just have to suffer them as something that must be done. But, even under such circumstances, without our realising, being with friends and relatives helps lift our spirits to a great extent.

So, formality or not, these days that come in our lives at regular intervals are a great blessing and, like most blessings, we tend to underrate them, what say you?

BYBS : Friendship Day!

2009-08-02T21:51:00.005+05:30

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Anyone who knows me, or reads this blog, knows that I am not a big fan of the trend of naming days after relationships. I believe that every day should be a day when we nurture our relationships, and remember our friend and relatives. My first reaction, therefore, on receiving the various friendship day messages and emails in the morning was one of irritation, and annoyance.

As the day progressed, I received some messages from friends who, I must admit, I had all but forgotten about. I couldn't help but wonder: How did that happen?

Sometimes, we think we believe in something, when we actually don't. We convince ourselves that we believe in it, and we have ourselves completely fooled. While going about the funny business of living our lives, we hardly get a chance to put ourselves, and our theories, to the test. Maybe a part of us doesn't want to take these tests, in case we fail. But, every once in a while, life will provide us with an opportunity to test our theories and, sometimes, the result may surprise us.

This happened to me today. I thought I was paying enough attention to all the friends in my life, but now I think I don't. In fact, I now think that our lives today have become so fast paced, that it is simply not possible to pay attention to all the aspects of our lives. We need to get our priorities straight, and try to do the best we can in the time that is given to us. The "best we can" is a relative phrase, and once again it provides us with an excuse. Wen we fail. we quickly say, " I tried to do the best I can, and yet..."

You can, perhaps, fool the whole world with that, but you can never fool yourself. When you haven't given it your best, you know it. Whatever you might tell others, you know you could have done more. However, I digress. We were talking about friendship day.

Whatever the reasons for the origin of this day might be, I am glad that today is friendship day. It made me think about all the friends in my life - from my early days to today. I am thankful to all of you for having helped me through all these years. I am sure I would not be what I am today, if it was not for you guys.

Wishing everyone a very happy friendship day.

I am posting a couple of videos from Bollywood movies that celebrate the spirit of friendship. Also, these are songs that I have always liked (especially the sad version of Yeh Dosti).

This is the sad version of the same song:

BYBS: The Darkest Hour

2009-07-28T17:22:00.003+05:30

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Like a plant that starts up in showers and sunshine and does not know which has best helped it to grow, it is difficult to say whether the hard things or the pleasant things did me the most good. ~ Lucy Larcom

I am posting this on a Tuesday, but since this post has to do with a blessing – although in a roundabout way – I am posting this under the BYB Sunday category.

Last week was another busy week for me during which I spent time with my parents, and a few family friends. We had something going on at home, and it took up most of the week. The week ended very well. But then, on Sunday, something happened that shouldn’t have happened, and was not expected to happen.

I can’t write in detail about the incident here, but it would be sufficient to say that the incident came like a dark cloud on the horizon of life.

For a while, I was sad and devastated. But, for some reason, I can’t stay in a sad state for a long time. I think it is only natural. No one can stay in one state of mind for any length of time. If you are happy today, you will be in a different mood tomorrow. If you are sad today, that will change too.

However, there is a huge difference between being happy and being sad. In a happy mood, it is easy to live in the present, and it is easy not to worry about the past, or the future.In a sad mood, one can’t live in the present, and one is forced to think of all the bad things that have happened in the past. Also, one looks toward the future with little hope of things getting any better. At the darkest hour, it seems that life is not worth living. Whatever direction we may look in, all we are able to see is despair.

However, even the darkest hour has to yield to light. Eventually, sadness has to take a backseat. And it doesn't take a lot to make that happen. All it takes is one happy thought; one happy memory.

The one thought makes us realize that things were not always bad. Since, they were not always bad, they will not always stay bad either. We consciously begin to think of why we are in a position that we are in at the moment, and what can be done to get out of that situation. We realize our mistakes and decide that we are not going to repeat them. We make a promise to ourselves to ensure that things improve. We know that they will because we will make sure that they do.

It is at this moment then that the dawn breaks.

BYBS : The Others

2009-07-19T22:49:00.004+05:30

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Most of us spend a lot of time thinking about ourselves. It is all about me, myself and I. The questions we ask ourselves are: How could I do this, how could I achieve that? What makes me happy? What would make me happy? In a lecture, I once attended, the speaker said something about intrinsic motivation being more important than the extrinsic one. Even a lot of inspirational books tell us that we are the most important thing in our lives. Everywhere around us we find cues that make us believe that our world revolves around us, or, at least, it should.

I am no one to disagree. It is an undeniable fact that we have to pay utmost attention to ourselves. So many people, and so many books, can not be wrong, can they?

But, for a moment, think of a world where the only living person is you. You pay all the attention to yourself that you deserve. You do all the things that you have ever wanted to do. You become all that you have ever wanted to be. But, will that leave you satisfied? Happy, perhaps?

If I was to hazard a guess, I would say it will not.

Like it or not, our happiness is inextricably linked with the happiness of others. Be it in material terms, or spiritual ones, we need others to share our achievements, our victories, our failures, our losses with. There are times when we need others to guide us, and there are times when we need to guide others. There are times when we need to take from others, and there are times when we need to give to others. During such times if we don't have the others, we feel incomplete, and our lives cease to have a lot of meaning.

So, when others are such an important part of our lives, why do we ignore them? Because somewhere we begin to believe that if we succeed, the others will have no option but to like us. We believe that our achievements will guarantee that the others will be there when we need them - for giving or taking, as that case may be. But, it does not always happen that way.

I don't mean to undermine the importance of focusing on self in any way. To be a member of a strong society, every member needs to be strong. But, with this post, I intend to make you focus on that other, who may be needing you today - when you don't need him - so that the other can be there for someone else, or even you, when the time comes.

BYBS : Food on the Plate

2009-07-12T22:22:00.005+05:30

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One thing I have never been any good at is cooking. Trust me, I have tried, and more than once.

The first time was when I was quite young. My parents were out of town, and I thought it would be a good idea to cook something at home instead of going out to eat. So, out came the utensils, and the cutlery, and the vegetables. I had seen people cook before, and it never seemed like a big deal. But, as they say, the devil is in the details. The tomatoes were too soft to cut with a knife. The onions brought tears to the eyes. The garlic was all but forgotten. And there were so many kinds of spices in the box, that I was not sure what to use. Eventually, I put in a little bit of each.

At the end, what was cooked looked delicious. I invited my younger brother to eat, and with great love and care I filled our plates. The food looked good, and I felt sure that he was going to love it. I waited for him to take the first morsel in, and prepared myself for a pat on the back. But, to my dismay, his face turned green and he all but threw up. I tasted the food, and I realised what the phrase "looks can deceive" meant. The food, that looked so good, tasted bad, very bad. Too little salt, too many spices. However, to a mother, no baby is ugly. Morsel after morsel, I swallowed the food, with a smile on my face. I went to the extent of telling my brother, "What's the matter with you. This is delicious."

Seeing me eating the food with such poise and grace, he ventured to taste it again. The result was the same for him. He thought I had gone crazy.

After that, I did not attempt to cook for a really long time. But, when I tried again, the results were the same. Each time I got a little better, but never good enough to cook a whole meal by myself.

So, today, when I found myself alone and hungry, I thought to myself : what now?

Lucky for me, in the kitchen, I found the two minute Maggi noodles, and bread to go with it. Not a wholesome meal, but a meal nonetheless.

I know that canned food, and ready to eat foods are not the best kind of foods. But for some, like me, they can be a real blessing.

To Err Is Human...

2009-07-10T07:52:00.004+05:30

I am not perfect. Far from it, I have more failings than your average guy. Yet - and I have said this in many of my earlier posts - I hope to get rid of these failings someday,and get as close to being perfect as I can. I think being perfect is achievable, and everyone should aim for it.

The biggest obstacle in achieving this comes from the society itself. The society wants us to be good, but when anyone starts becoming good, the society begins to get threatened by that person, and thus they begin to thwart his or her attempts in getting better. And when faced with the opposition of the society itself, most of us give up our attempts to become unique, and fall in line with what is generally accepted.

To take an example, let us consider the oft-quoted, and widely accepted, idiom: "To err is human, to forgive divine". I am sure all of us have used this phrase at one time or another.

I completely agree with the statement. But, I also think that this statement has a hidden meaning too, which stops us from improving ourselves.

When we make a mistake, we usually realise it. When we realise it, we get angry with ourselves for making the mistake. We are not happy that we made the mistake, and perhaps we would have been determined not to make that mistake ever again, but then we think, "To err is human...", and that is the end of all our troubles. For, aren't we human? If we are then making the mistake was just a normal thing, that was bound to happen. Wasn't it?

Similarly, we all know that forgiving someone is one of the hardest thing to do. I have still not forgiven a guy who I had a fight with in school, almost fifteen years ago. I am sure all of us have someone that we have not, or cannot, forgive. I am sure we try, but then we think,"To forgive is divine...". And who are we to try and claim to be divine.

What I have said above is merely an example of how the society has come to accept, and propagate, mediocrity. Instead of helping us trying to become the best we can, it makes us believe that we are good as we are, with all our weaknesses and faults. Now, I am not saying that there is an ideal, or a perfect being, that we all should try to follow or become like. All I am saying that we should be comfortable with ourselves, and our faults, but we should not get too comfortable and we should constantly strive to improve ourselves. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

What do you think?

BYBS :Coming Home

2009-07-05T08:38:00.005+05:30

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"If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation."

The above quote seems quite apt. Most of the time, when our vacation ends we are so weary that we are happy simply to have come back home. When we embark on any new adventure, our spirits are high and we just want to leave our homes behind. Our home is the last place we want to be at such times.

But, somewhere along the journey, we begin to miss home. There are so many memories - sweet and bitter - associated with our home, that we begin to crave for another chance to be back there. Sometimes, it is easy to come back home. Sometimes, despite our best intentions, it is not possible to do so. But, in either case, the knowledge that somewhere there is a home, that we can return to if everything goes wrong, fills us with hope and courage.

In the Lord of The Rings, Frodo and Sam thought about their homes back in the Shire whenever they felt their mission was doomed. This thought filled them with hope and lifted their spirits. This thought also gave them courage, as it made them want to fight till their end to save the Shire.

In our lives too, having a home to come back to makes life so much more easier. We can go about living our lives, taking risks, doing new things, knowing fully well that if all else fails us we have a home to come back to.

BYBS: Looking

2009-06-14T15:16:00.003+05:30

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There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

-J.R.R.Tolkien

Almost an year ago I took a chance - I took a break from my job, left the life I had been living for the past five years behind me, and joined a one year management course. I was definitely looking for something. Now, an year later, I am still looking, but the time left for looking has come to an end. In a few more days, the course will be over and I, in all likelihood, will be heading back to my old life.

So, was this a wastage of time?

This is a question I often ask myself. Would I have been better off if I had chosen not to look, and continued with my old life. When I discuss this question with my friends, I find that both sides have their supporters. Some of my friends feel that coming here was a mistake, while others feel that it was worth the time and trouble that it cost. One big factor for the disappointment is the current economic downturn that the world is facing. The recession has made it difficult for most people to find a job of their liking. So, most of us have to either go back to our old jobs, or take up a job that is less satisfying than the last job.

For me that is not a big factor. However, even I can't say that I found what I was looking for.

Yet, I am not disappointed. The reason is simple: While I was looking for the thing that I was trying to find - but couldn't find - I found many other things; things that I did not know I needed.

Today, as I was thinking of what to write, I chanced upon the above quote, and I thought how appropriate it was. Looking will always help you find something. Even if we take the quote in the most literal sense, I am sure all of us have examples of finding that long lost thing, when we were looking for those misplaced car keys. Have we not?

Looking, thus, is a great blessing. Let us hope that we never stop looking, at least not till we have found everything that can be found.

BYBS : All Things Simple

2009-05-25T00:34:00.003+05:30

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There are so many things that make our lives simple, but, because they have always been there, we take them for granted. If we sit down to think and make a list of such things, the list could very well be endless. From the shoes we wear to the hats we don, everything is a blessing. One thing protects us from the stones and the thorns that might lie in our way. The other thing protects us from the harsh sun and the dust.

Whenever we need these things, we reach out and grab them. We never pause for one moment to think that maybe these things will not be there. For us these things have always been there, and will always be there. So, why be grateful for them?

But the fact is there are so many people out there who do not have access to even the most basic amenities of life. The much talked about and Oscar winning movie, Slum Dog Millionaire, became a spectacular success because of the way it depicted the life in the slums of Mumbai.

Though I can not comment on the authenticity of the life the movie depicts, it is safe to say that even if half of the things shown in the movie were true then a majority of humanity is living in conditions that can at best be described as sub-optimal.

So, this week I am thankful for all the simple things that I have always taken for granted, and which form an integral part of my life.

What is the one thing that is important to you, but you have always taken it for granted?

The Curious Incident of a Lizard in My Bathroom

2009-05-23T00:38:00.002+05:30

I am an animal lover, and I am very sure about that fact. When I see an insect, or a reptile, on TV I marvel at, and appreciate, the beauty of mother nature. I love to see the animals going about doing their thing in their natural habitat. However, I am not so sure about my love for animals when they choose to abandon their natural habitat, and decide to enter my domain, my bathroom to be more precise. That, putting it in the most simplest terms, freaks me out.

But let me begin from the start. Yesterday, I came back to my room after a few games of Table Tennis (some might know the game as ping-pong). It is not a tiring game, but Delhi weather in May being what it is, I was sweating profusely. Uncomfortable as it was, it also made me look forward to a nice, cold shower.

I enter the bathroom, hang my towel and underwear on the rack, and then I let out, what I am pretty sure, was one of the loudest screams I have ever screamed. Of course there were some expletives thrown in, but those are best not repeated here. The reason for the scream was that just as I had hung up my towel, something had jumped out at me. For a moment I thought I was being attacked by an invisible force. I think watching too many episodes of LOST and HEROES can do that to a person.

However, I soon saw what had actually come out at me. It was the smallest lizard I had ever seen in my life; a baby lizard, I guess. Before I could think rationally, I had to ensure that the lizard was as far away from me as was possible within the confines of the small bathroom. That done, I had a good look at the lizard. Should I kill it? Should I throw it out? Should I let it be?

These were questions that sprung to my mind. Not surprisingly, I was reminded of the lines from D. H. Lawrence's poem Snake, "If you were not afraid, you would kill him!"

But unlike the hero in the poem, I am too kind, and I couldn't bear to kill the little thing. The fact that I was a bit scared of the lizard had nothing to do with my decision. If you think how anyone can be scared of a lizard, and that too a little one, I would only ask you to try and be with one in the confines of a bathroom, and that too a small one.

In the meanwhile, the lizard - as if reading my thoughts - started moving towards me. It was time for action.

I yelled, again.

It worked. The lizard quickly changed direction and tried to climb up one of the walls. I thought that it was good riddance as that wall had a window near the top. But, what is not meant to happen, does not happen. The baby lizard found it hard to cling on to the slippery wall.

I was praying for the lizard to get out, but it slipped and fell very close to my feet. I jumped, and I think some yelling was involved too. This time the lizard, instead of running in a different direction, came towards me. Maybe, it had decided to fight, rather than fly.

In some quick moves it came very close to me. I was standing there, waving my arms wildly, and making some sounds that can't be really described here for want of words. After a few seconds of arm waving, the lizard moved in the direction where lay my toothbrush, and paste, and soap, and shampoo, and conditioner and...well you get the picture.

I knew that if I saw a lizard walking over my stuff with my own eyes, I would have to throw all of that stuff out. That lizard was going to cost me quite a lot.

Now, money is a strange thing. It tends to strangle whatever slivers of kindness and ethics one has. It has the same effect on me. I decided that I had to kill that little devil.

But, when I looked around, I found that there was nothing around that I could use to kill the beast. Brave as I had suddenly become, I still could not imagine myself killing a lizard with my bare hands. Doesn't their tail fall off, or something. That thought by itself was enough to gross me out. Somehow I made my legs move in the direction of the lizard, and that had a magical effect.

The lizard scrambled away, faster than I had seen it move in all evening. It ran quickly, and fear , it seemed, helped it in climbing the wall this time. It climbed up to a safe distance. It did not go out, but it seemed to me that it had managed to reach a safe height - a height from where she could not hurt me. After observing it for some time, I decided that it had given up all intentions of attacking me. I decided to go ahead and take my shower.

All the while I was showering, my eyes were focused on the lizard. It was moving all the time, but thankfully it stayed at a safe distance. After I was done, I quietly stepped out and locked the door behind me. I had made sure that the thing did not come close to any of my stuff, before I stepped out.

I went out and had my dinner, but all the while I was thinking about the lizard in my bathroom. The food had lost its taste, and the after-dinner walk had to be cut short. I quickly came back to my room and carefully stepped into the bathroom. But the lizard was no where to be found. I checked everywhere, but the coast seemed to be clear. I was glad, but it also made me wonder where the thing had gone. Where would it turn up next?

I didn't have long to wonder for as I stepped on to the balcony, I saw it lazing on the outer wall. It made me smile as now I did not have to worry about a lizard showing up in my bed. The lizard seemed to be smiling too. I wondered if that was because it had seen me naked!

BYBS : Time Flies or What?

2009-05-17T22:58:00.003+05:30

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They say that time flies. Indeed it does.

I can very well remember the time when I was young. I believed that anything and everything was possible. Ghosts, fairies, miracles, angels, Santa Claus, anything.

Didn't we all believe at some point of time in our lives?

Then I began to grow up and realised that everything was not possible. Yet, the level of belief was still high. I still believed that most things in the world were possible. Then I grew up some more, and the full extent of the things that were possible - and that were not - dawned upon me.

Last week marked another mile stone in my life. I turned twenty-nine.

When I was young - about 12 or 13 - 29 seemed like an really old age, but now that I have reached that age myself, 29 doesn't seem that old at all. Age, I guess, is just a number after all.

Birthdays, however, are important days in our lives. Not only do they remind us of passing time, they also help us in breaking our lives down into manageable time periods, where we can set targets for ourselves, achieve them, and move on.

But it does not always happen that we are able to achieve all the targets that we set for ourselves. We might have a tendency to keep on doing what we had set out to do, even after we have failed at doing it a few times. Birthdays remind us that we do not have all the time in the world, that we need to rethink, and re-focus, and re-figure our goals.

So, this year, I have made a few changes to my goals and targets too. Let's hope that I am able to achieve them.

What do birthdays mean to you?

BYBS : Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T12:32:00.007+05:30

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I was on Twitter earlier and saw many Mother's Day messages posted there. I did some research, and soon found out that Mother's Day is celebrated on different days in different parts of the world. It comes as no surprise. A person as special as a mother should have a special day, every day of the year.

Out of all the people in the world that we take for granted, our mothers are the ones that always get taken for granted. Since they have been with us from the very first moment of our existence on Earth, we feel that they will always be there. This belief sometimes leads us to neglect the most important relationship that we have.

Celebrating days, like Mother's Day, is a good way to remember things which are easy to forget, especially with our lives becoming busier and tougher with every passing day. However, being busy and having a difficult life are no excuse for not doing the right thing. Therefore, if life happens and we are sidetracked from our main objective, reminders like Mother's Day are a great way to get back on track.

Here, are two songs from Hindi Movies that celebrate the spirit of Mother's Day. These songs are in Hindi, so my apologies to the non-Hindi speaking crowd. But, if you watch the videos you might just like them:

BYBS : Routine

2009-05-03T13:02:00.010+05:30

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One of the easiest things to get fed up with is routine. So many things have been said about routine being boring, and variety being the spice of life, that most of us feel frustrated with our daily lives, because, sooner or later, our lives get caught up in routine. It does not help that our movies, TV shows, books, and stories talk about people finding themselves after they break the shackles of routine and live a life of complete abandon.

But what happens after the story has ended.

The person who has left routine behind, and found his new self, will have to settle down into another routine if he has to stay happy. Therefore, contrary to what many might say, routine is a great blessing. Variety might be the spice of life, but routine is life itself.

There are only twenty four hours in a day, and there are so many things that one wants to do in this time. However, no one man, or woman, can do all the things they want to do. But, to make the most out of the twenty four hours given to a person, he has to try and do as many things as he can do. To do that he needs a routine, or he will find himself overwhelmed by the number of things he is trying to do. The worst result of all is that the person might actually end up doing nothing.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation like this? What did you do to get yourself out of it?

I was like most people in believing that routine was boring, and I needed to get out of the routine. Then, circumstances changed, and so did my routine. Without a routine, I found myself LOST - I guess it did not help that I spent hours watching LOST :-) - and I realised what a blessing my routine had been. So now, I am trying to set up a new routine for myself, and I hope to get that in place soon...

...while you guys have a great week ahead!

BYBS : The Butterfly Effect

2009-04-26T11:58:00.005+05:30

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The Butterfly Effect, which is also the essence of the chaos theory, says that small variations in initial conditions can result in large variations in the system over a longer period of time. A movie by the same name came out in 2004, which used this concept to develop its storyline.

The Butterfly Effect seems to suggest that every little thing that we might have done in the past contributes to our present and our future. However, this makes it difficult to attribute any one single cause to our success or failure. There might be little things that we did, without giving them a second thought, that contributed to our success, or failure, as the case may be.

Thus, sometimes when things don't go according to plans, we find ourselves frustrated and angry. As far as we can see, we did all the things in the best possible manner, but the end results were contrary to our expectations.

I am talking about this subject because last week things did not go as per my expectations. A lot many things went wrong, and a few other things, I could have easily controlled, went out of hand. So, the end of the week found me sitting on my laptop, the word processor open, and wondering what I could write about as my blessing for the week. I mean I am a strong believer in the idea that no one can live through a whole week without having something nice happen to them. If you think you have had that kind of week, I will that you are not paying enough attention to the good things. But that is another debate, for another time...

So, there I was, sitting at my computer, wondering what I was going to write about. For a moment I wondered if I should even write anything in the first place. But all those thoughts were dispelled as easily as they had formed.

I also found what my blessing for the week was.

It was simply the ability to focus and stay on track. I admit I was guilty of a few things I did, that I could have done without. But the very fact that I have realised my mistakes, and plan to make amends in the coming days, is a great blessing for me.

For, as per the butterfly effect theory, I realise that these small things - which really have no great impact on my present - have the capacity to greatly alter my future in a way that I may not like. So, let us all make sure that we take care of the small things today, so that the bigger things in our future take care of themselves. Have a great week ahead!

BYBS : Good Food & Simple Life

2009-04-20T17:20:00.011+05:30

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As I had mentioned in my last post I had planned on attending two weddings during the last week. But I ended up attending three. That is why I am a day late in posting this. I had planned to get back in town on Sunday, but some things came up and I was delayed. If any of you have attended marriages, especially north Indian marriages, you would know what it means to attend a marriage here; it means food, lots of heavy, oily, tasty food.

It is advisable that one exercises extreme restraint in choosing what one eats at such weddings, but for a foodaholic like me that is not an option. I sometimes think that I belong to that category of people who live to eat, rather than the other way around. But, be it as it may be, it was a great week where I got to eat to eat great food, and for free.

Of course, there was alcohol too, but, fortunately, that was one department where I managed to exercise complete restraint.

Two of the marriages I attended were at my village. If you didn't know, marriages in Indian villages are still very elaborate affairs. They last for about three days. Since one of the marriages was that of my cousin, I got a chance to closely follow all the rituals and ceremonies associated with a north Indian marriage. One thing that needs saying here is that the bride and the groom need a lot of patience to stand the ordeal of an Indian marriage. They have to just sit there for hours - wearing many clothes and accessories - while friends, relatives, and guests in general, do all sorts of things to them. I am not sure if I could sit through something like that.

One thing I liked greatly about the village life was the lack of rush, that has become an integral part of the city life. Everyone seemed to have the time to give you directions, to explain things to that you didn't understand, or to just talk to you about things in general. In the cities we seem to be always running without getting anywhere. The running is most definitely missing from the rural life. I had planned on taking it easy myself, and therefore I had left my cell phone, and any other thing that could connect me to the city, in the city itself.

So, for me it was a weekend where I realised that simplicity is really the best policy.

But, it also made me wonder what exactly is simplicity? Do we sometimes confuse ignorance with simplicity? What do you think?

Where on Earth is Blue Panther

2009-04-17T08:07:00.008+05:30

If you have visited this blog in recent times, you might have asked yourself the question : "Where on Earth is Blue Panther?"

Well, before I go on to explain my absence, I would first like to apologise for disappearing like this. I just checked, and my last post was almost 12 days ago. That is a lot of time, even for someone like me.

But, you know how things happen - planned ones, and then some un-planned ones.

What happened this time was a friend's marriage. A very good friend's marriage. I had been looking forward to attend the marriage for the past couple of months. So, there was no way I could have missed it. Though it was a reminder that I am almost the last one of my friends who is still unmarried. But, that is off topic...

Then, another group of friends planned a rafting and a camping trip, and invited me to join . It was an offer that was too good to refuse.

However, I was hoping that in the middle of all this, somehow I would be able to find time to write something on the blog. But, could I have been more wrong?

The worst (or the best) part is that it is still not over. I have a cousin's marriage to attend today and tomorrow. So, I am going to be ignoring the blog for another couple of days.

But, I promise, I will make up to my dear blog soon. I am thinking that putting up some pictures of all the things I did could be a good way to do that. What do you think?

BYBS : Pitstops

2009-04-05T18:30:00.004+05:30

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The Free Dictionary defines a pit stop as, " A brief stop for rest and refreshment, especially during an automobile trip."

Just like an automobile trip, we need pit stops in life too. In a car race, if we keep going without making use of the pit stops, we run the risk of a burst tire, or some mechanical failure, resulting in a loss. Similarly, we need to make sure that we have enough pit stops in our life. Without them we push ourselves towards burnout. These days it is very easy to forget to rest - there is always something that needs to be done.

This could be one of the reasons a lot of people are getting tired of their jobs and lives these days. In fact, I remember, a few years ago, the general perception was that heart attacks hardly ever happen to someone who is under 40. These days it is not uncommon to hear people in their thirties getting heart attacks. I think this is a trend that needs to be reversed.

I took a first step in that direction by taking the whole week off, and just relaxing for the whole week. That was my pit stop, and I hope that this stop has rejuvenated me enough for the days to come.

Have a great week ahead!

A Fair Deal

2009-04-03T10:20:00.004+05:30

On November 26, 2008 the city of Mumbai was attacked by a group of militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan based militant outfit. Te authorities were successful in capturing one of the attackers, Ajmal Amir Kasib, alive.

His being captured alive led to many consequences. One of them was quite unexpected.

Ajmal's capture caused a debate as to whether Ajmal deserved to be defended by a lawyer in a court of all. One side was of the belief that his involvement in the crime was beyond doubt and there was no reason for a trial; he should just be sentenced. The other side believed that the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to legal aid and representation, and it also goes on to say that every defendant, regardless of his nationality, gets a “fair, just and equitable procedure” in court.

The two sides had been at loggerheads for quite a while. Even the Mumbai Bar Association passed a resolution where it asked its members not to defend Ajmal in any court of law. While many Judges were in favor of appointing a lawyer for Ajmal.

During the course of the debate, I favored the side that was in favor of a quick sentence for Ajmal. I mean his guilt in the event is undeniable, as can be seen in the picture alongside, where he is seen brandishing an AK-47. Many innocent people were killed in the Mumbai attacks, and even the Constitution of India gives the state the right to override the Fundamental Rights, when there is a threat to national security. The attacks on Mumbai were clearly a threat to the security of India.

Moreover, it is also a fact that the judicial machinery takes its time to run its course. In that time, sometimes the defendants find a way to wriggle out of the claws of the legal system. Therefore, in such exceptional cases, we could dispense with the normal route, and punish the guilty.
However, a special Mumbai court, decided that Ajmal deserved to be defended in court, and appointed Anjali Waghmare as his lawyer. As soon as this news got out, there was strong opposition in the country against this decision. On Monday night, some people staged a protest outside her house, and even pelted her house with stones. Despite the opposition, Anjali has now agreed to defend Ajmal in court. The Mumbai police will provide her with Z category security at all times of the day.

As I said before, I was of the opinion that Ajmal should be sentenced straight away, especially because his guilt is proven and does not need any further proof. However, if the judicial system feels that it is necessary that he gets legal aid, then we, as citizens of India, should support the decision. After all, the courts are only trying to ensure that The world's largest democracy does not falter and stays on course. It is , sometimes, easy to get carried away by emotions and let the impulses get the better of you. But, I think, it is praiseworthy that the judges have tried to be true to the spirit of justice, and given Ajmal a fair chance.

Now, the only thing that remains is that the case is brought to a speedy conclusion, and is not allowed to last for any longer than is necessary.

BYBS : Good Things

2009-03-30T12:40:00.007+05:30

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"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." - Gautam Buddha

Life is not all good. Even though I would be one of the first to believe that it is, it is not. It has its good, and it has its bad. I often have discussions with people where they tell me that most of my ideas are mere whims and fancies of an impractical mind. They tell me that in life bad things happen to people who, sometimes, have done nothing to deserve it. I completely agree with them.

There is no doubt that life is not pure black and white. It comes in various shades of grey. But, the choice of what you see is yours alone.

Grey is a colour that is made when black and white colours are mixed together. So, though the colour in our lives might be grey, it is how we look at the mix that determines how our lives progress. It is said that there is great power in positive thinking. It is because positive thinking helps you separate the black and the white in the grey. By separating the black and the white, you can then focus only on the white, and push the black to the background.

Pushing black to the background is not like being the ostrich that buries its head in the sand, hoping to avoid danger by thus device. It is like looking at it, learning from it, but not dwelling on it for any longer than is necessary. On the other hand, focusing on the white is just the opposite. You look at it, learn from it, and then keep it in sight so that you are able to see all that is good in life.

By looking at what is good in life, you are able to believe that things will turn out good in the end. This belief helps you in giving your best to whatever it is that you are doing. When you put your best effort in anything, the chances of sucess in that thing improve dramatically. So, just by focusing on the white, you can greatly improve things in your life, and the grey in your life will start turning white.

Focusing on the black, will produce just the opposite results.

So, let us all try and believe that life is a beautiful thing, and live life in that spirit. And, if at all, we see any black anywhere, let us do our best to convert it to white!

With that thought I will sign off, with the hope that everyone has a great day and a great week ahead!

The Great Indian Elections

2009-03-28T12:32:00.007+05:30

It is that time in India again.

The 14th Lok Sabha will have completed its course on 1st June 2009. In terms of the constitutional provisions, a new Lok Sabha will have to be constituted before 2nd June, 2009. So, India is getting ready for the general elections.

Since, it was only recently that USA held its elections, it will not surprise many if there are comparisons between the elections held in the strongest democracy in the world and the elections now being held in the largest (this time there are approximately 714 million people who are eligible to vote in the elections) democracy in the world.

One difference that instantly springs to mind when I think about the two elections is the lack of a clear Prime Ministerial candidate in the Indian elections. Agreed that the Congress and BJP – the two major national parties in India – have come forward with the names of their Prime Ministerial candidates, but I haven’t yet seen the two parties using these names as one of the major issues around which they are going to base their campaigning. This, I feel, is in sharp contrast to the US elections, where the main focus of the campaigns were names like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain.

Another major difference in the Indian elections is that the regional parties are going to be playing a major role in the eventual outcome. The leaders of the third front parties are silently hoping that somehow the elections result in an outcome, where there is no clear majority for any one party. This will mean that any party that will be able to put together a coalition with maximum numbers will rule the day. The Prime Minister, in such a case, could be just about anyone. There is a long list of names to choose from.

But, this is just the beginning. I hope as time passes and the elections draw near, a clearer picture begins to emerge. For in the present times of economic crisis, we do need a strong government, and a re-election is the last thing we need!

(I might be away from a computer during the weekend, so the BYB post may be a little late in coming. But, come it will.)

Examinations - Almost a BYB!

2009-03-22T10:56:00.006+05:30

Exams are such a bore, but, then again, where would we be if there were no such things as exams.

My experience as a student as well as a working professional has taught me one thing - people need some kind of deadline or test to give their best, otherwise they tend to just take the easy way out. In most of my posts, I try to generalize things as much as possible. But, in this post, I am going to break my own rule, and talk strictly about myself.

As I have said in many posts, I like to read. Give me a good book to read, and the world could just cease to exist, and I might not notice. But when I have to study for an exam, I simply don't have the inclination to do so. I think I have a morbid fear of being tested. I think this fear results from the fact that exams are inevitably followed by results, and results bring in their wake comparisons. And, like John Madden, I think all comparisons are odious.

Also, the fear of failure is another something that brings on the examination fever for me. However hard I prepare (and I really don't prepare that hard), I can never be sure of getting the desired result in the exam. I think only a very few I-live-to-study type of people can claim, after an exam, of performing to their satisfaction. Most of us, mere mortals, come out feeling, "If only I had spend a little more time, I could have surely topped..."

Also, exam times bring about some funny changes in me. I have observed some of these changes in some of my friends too. So, I guess, once again, I can jump from the field of individuality to generality, with due respect to the few exceptions. Some of these changes are:

1. I enjoy watching TV more. Some of those soaps that have been going on endlessly take on an interesting, unmissable turn.
2. Playing any sport, even dumb and boring ones, seems more fun. After all the body needs exercise, and so does the mind.
3. The realisation, "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise," dawns upon me. Though, I conveniently forget about the early to rise part.
4. The organizer within me becomes hyperactive. I schedule my whole day, with fix hours of studying. But, more importantly, I schedule breaks for tea, coffee, meals, and - last but not the least - refreshing the brain.

With all these changes in me, it is anyone's guess how my exams go.

(Disclaimer :I had intended to write this post as a humorous one, but I later realised that some parts of the post had turned out to be offensive. I strongly believe that like there are no excuses for bad manners (except too much drinking :-) ), there are no excuses for offending people. So, I toned the post down, which I think has taken something away from the post. But, as they say, one can't have his cake and eat it too. Another reason I added this note was that I have exams from tomorrow, so maybe I won't be able to visit all your blogs, but if you leave a comment, I will try my best to reply to it on here, as well as on your blog! Thank you for reading this, and have a great week ahead.)

BYBS : Ides of March

2009-03-15T19:38:00.003+05:30

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I have always loved to read. I guess one reason is because I have never been very good with people, and, therefore, making friends has never been one of my strong points. So, it is not surprising that I took to books. They accepted me for what I was, asked no questions, and showed me a world that I could never have imagined. But this post is not about books.

This post is about "the ides of March."

There are a lot of things that go into making a thing happen. On the face of it, it might be convenient to attribute a cause to an effect. But if we look deep enough, there are many causes for any one effect.

I think, therefore, that there were reasons, other than my loneliness, that helped cement my relationships with books and reading.

Let us see what these reasons were. I was about fourteen when I read Julius Caesar - as a part of the school curriculum. It goes without saying that though Shakespeare's plots are very entertaining and intriguing, his language is not something that can keep a fourteen year old spellbound. But, in this case, the good thing was that the book, prescribed by the school, had the text in contemporary English on the facing page. Before, I read Julius Caesar in the way Shakespeare intended, I had read it in a way that I could understand.

Then, not being a very interested student, it was my wont to read the book at any other page, except the one that was being taught in class. So, I found many interesting passages in the book, and I was impressed by the way fate played such a major part in Julius Caesar. What also impressed me was the way Shakespeare had intricately woven the plot in the book. It gave birth to an intense desire within me. A desire that I carry around even to this day. The desire to someday write something like that, or, if possible, even better.

A fourteen year old with a book like Julius Caesar can hardly be expected to understand all of it. Unless, of course, you are some kind of a wunderkind. That I was not, as time later proved.

So, having some really great teachers really helped. I think I was very fortunate that I came across some really great English teachers at school. They not only explained the text, but managed to generate enough interest that, soon, the students were asking for more. Even a student like me, who was more interested in the clouds in the sky than in the class, could not help but understand the book, and feel like reading some more.

Lastly, a good library, always at hand, has also been a crucial factor that has helped me keep alive the flame of reading. For, we all know, there are so many temptations out there, and a young person can always find some thing that he needs more than a book!

I guess if any of the above factors had been missing, I just might not have been as much into books as I am now.

But, how is this post about "ides of March," you might ask.

It is because the soothsayer warning Julius Caesar about the "ides of March" is one of the first things that comes to my mind when I think of Julius Caesar. And today, my dear reader, is the "ides of March". May you have a great day today!

Happy Holi!

2009-03-11T09:20:00.003+05:30

Today is Holi - the festival of colours! It is celebrated almost all over India, and there are many stories that are associated with the origins of the festival. One of the more well-known stories can be found here.

On this day, people play with colors (if that was not obvious from the banner above). Everyone throws colours at others, or just rubs it on them. The end result makes for some interesting viewing.

As the joke goes, at the end of the day people have been known to bring back other's children because, under all that colour, they failed to recognise their own.

Jokes apart, like most other festivals, Holi, too, signifies the end of evil and beginning of good. The special significance of this festival is that on this day even enemies are supposed to forget their differences and play Holi with each other, and start a new relationship - preferably over a drink or two.

So, I will take this space to wish you all a Happy Holi! May all your enemies become your friends.

BYBS : The Choice

2009-03-08T18:07:00.003+05:30

(To know more about Blog Your Blessings Sunday, click on the banner above. If you want to join us, you can read the instructions and begin. Blogrolling is finally up again. So, sometimes this week, I will be updating the blogroll. So, leave a comment if your link in the blogroll is pointing to the wrong site, or if you are a part of BYB and your name is not on the blogroll.)

Time flies!

I know I am not saying anything new with that line, but for one reason or another we keep forgetting the value of time, and I guess it wouldn't hurt to be reminded of it every now and then.

It was about nine months ago that I decided to take a break from work, and go back to school to get an Executive-MBA degree. At that time, one year seemed like a lot of time. But now, when I look back, I don't know where the nine months went.

After nine months of being in a management course, the one (I almost wrote only) thing that has become very clear to me is that before you can start thinking about managing anything, you have to successfully manage yourself. I guess you don't have to go to a management school to know that. Most of us know that already. But we keep looking for ways and means to somehow find a way to manage others, without, first, having to manage ourselves.

In this regard, I recently read two stories - H. G. Well's The Country of the Blind, and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. The two stories deal with the subject of the interaction between the individual and the society. They talk about how society can be a limiting factor in an individual's search for excellence. But, whether an individual chooses to swim with the current and accept the diktats of the society, or whether he chooses to create his own path, is the choice of the individual alone, and no one can take that away from him.

Most of us, when faced with a situation where we have to make a choice usually choose the path shown to us by the society. The simple reason for that is because it is very convenient. Going against the society would require a lot of effort, discipline and determination. Most of the time we are not very sure if we have it in us to achieve success on our own terms, so we take the easy way out, and follow the path that is well trodden, and, therefore, safe.

However, I feel that it is a great blessing that despite the pressures that the society exerts on us, the final choice of doing the right thing, or the easy thing is always on us. And though most of the time we do the easy thing, I am sure a day will come when we do the right thing.

Have a great week ahead!

BYBS : LOTR

2009-02-22T21:55:00.005+05:30

(To know more about Blog Your Blessings Sunday, click on the banner above. If you want to join us, you can read the instructions and begin. Presently, blogrolling is down so I am unable to make changes to the blogroll. But, leave a comment and your name will be added to the blogroll as soon as possible.)

Yesterday, I was sitting at my computer with nothing much to do. So, I decided to go through the collection of movies I have and my eyes alighted upon The Lord of The Rings. I decided to watch The Two Towers again, and I was reminded why I love The Lord of The Rings so much.

This love affair actually started with the book itself. It could have something to do with the circumstances in which I read the book. I was away from civilization at a place where I did not have any friends around, no TV, nothing to do with my time. Fortunately, I had taken the book with me, which I read at one stretch of so many hours. At the end of it I was in love with the book.

Then, in time, I saw the movie and, needless to say, it was another case of love at first sight. Like true love it has lasted.

It is very difficult to say what it is about the movie that I like. I think it is the story, the characters, and the way the book has been written. The book successfully manages to take the reader to a different world, leaving behind the worries and the troubles of this world. Of course, the worries and the troubles don't go anywhere, but for some time they are forgotten.

In addition to all that, I think there is a certain strain of morality and heroism that runs throughout the book, which I find very motivating.

Yesterday,too, watching the movie had the same effect. And that, I think, is a great blessing!

BYBS : Love

2009-02-15T23:15:00.003+05:30

Last week was another busy one. I had exams, for which I was not prepared at all, and hence I had to miss BYB Sunday. I always say that lack of time is no excuse for anything at all. When you want to do something, you find a way; when you don't, you find an excuse! So, I guess, there must have been a lack of will on my part to do the BYB Sunday last week.

However, this Sunday, although I don't have much to say, I will not let any excuse stop me from posting. Especially, when yesterday was Valentine's day.

A few years back, hardly anyone knew about Valentine's day in India. But with the rapid strides made in the field of media, this day has become very popular now. From young to the old everybody is using this day to spread the message of love.

However, not all is well with Valentine's day in India. A section of the society feels that this day is promoting promiscuity among Indian youth. This section of the society has gone to the extent of using violence to discourage people from celebrating Valentine's day. There were reports of incidents of violence in some parts of the country, and a girl committed suicide after she was brought home by some people who had found her with her boyfriend.

India, for long, has been a traditional society. Sex is still considered a subject that is best discussed in the closed confines of a bedroom. Whatever the media might say, it is a fact that middle class and mid-town India still shies away from discussing sex with their children. And children, try their best to hide their relationships from their parents. Even in the bigger cities, though there has been a certain change in the way things are done, yet it is an undeniable fact that in India arranged marriages are still the most popular way of getting married. In smaller towns, barring a few exceptions, this is the only way of getting married.

So, for some people, it is very difficult to digest the change that is presently sweeping over the youth in the country. The youth, in their enthusiasm to embrace modernity, are showing utter disregard for the age old values. This is leading to a tricky situaktion, and eventually causing conflict.

However, no one way of acting or living one's life is better than another. But, I feel, the following points must be kept in mind:

1. Violence is a solution to no problem.
2. Every culture is rich and varied, and develops over a period of time due to various geographical, social, anthropological factors etc. Therefore, if any culture is different from another, there is a reason for that difference, and, therefore, the difference must be respected.
3. Culture is not a line on a stone. It is something ever-changing. It is our job to give the change a direction that is for the better.
4. Every culture has good things and bad things. It should be our effort to weed out the bad, and adopt what is good in to their cultures.
5. Lastly, Love is the greatest power of them all. So, Love one must.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

BYBS : Rituals

2009-02-01T21:29:00.001+05:30

It is considered fashionable these days to debunk rituals. Everyone wants to do something new, and whatever has been continuing for ages is termed orthodox and conventional. I am no exception. Sometimes it comes naturally. Maybe it has something to do with the education system, which encourages us to challenge the existing system, and find our own way.

But, rituals have a meaning and significance. There is a reason that these rituals have been set up, and are followed by people over the generations.

Just the other day in class - on January 30 - someone interrupted the class, because he wanted us to hold a moment of silence and remember Mahatma Gandhi on his 61st martyrdom anniversary. I cannot explain how I felt at that moment because I do not really understand the concept behind holding a minute of silence. To say the least, I was skeptical.

But as we stood up, and were silent, something changed. Once again, I cannot really describe my feelings, but I can say that at the end of that one minute I felt grateful for it. A lot went through my mind in that one minute, and, at the end of the minute, I felt that every ritual has some meaning.

Before we debunk it, we should give it a try, and it may turn out to be a great blessing.

Have a great week ahead!

BYBS : Work, We Love

2009-01-26T11:04:00.005+05:30

The Free Dictionary defines work as: "physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something."

The key words here are "effort" and "activity". Any kind of work requires some effort, or activity and that is why we seem to avoid work. I know I do.

Everything that we do in life can be put into two categories : things that we want to do, and things that we have to do. Some amount of work is involved even in doing things that we want to do, and yet we do them with great pleasure. For example, blogging is an activity that involves a fair amount of work, and yet so many people willingly spend hours sitting in front of a computer, racking their brains, trying to come up with a decent post. On the other hand, if we don't want to do something, then a job as simple as brushing teeth becomes a big chore.

A big part of our time is spent in doing our "jobs" - work that we do to earn our bread and butter. The majority, it is said, are stuck with jobs that they don't want to do, but have to do. This results in this majority being not very satisfied with their jobs, and, as a result, they are dissatisfied with their lives as a whole too.

But, if we could find jobs that involved doing what we like, nay love, to do, then we would not only be very happy doing our "jobs" but we would also be able to achieve more happiness in our lives. Therefore, being able to find a job that will let us do what we really enjoy doing is one of the greatest blessings that we can hope for.

Have a happy week ahead!

BYBS - Technology and an ebook!

2009-01-18T22:10:00.005+05:30

I have always wanted to write a book, and that, I am sure, is no secret for anyone who has been visiting this blog for any length of time. But, writing a book is no mean feat, and getting it published is a task that even Hercules might have failed at.

However, today, we have a gift that Hercules could not even dream about - the gift of technology. Technology has made it possible for a whole set of people - like me - to write, and be read through the medium of blogs. I am sure I am not alone when I say that being able to blog is a great blessing.

Human beings are never satisfied with what they have, and they are always looking for more. This need for more has caused the rise of some, and the downfall of a great many. A little hunger, I think, is a good thing. Too much is definitely bad, but a little bit is needed to make a person try harder and stretch himself to do his best.

I have also - to satisfy my urge of writing a book - compiled an ebook out of some of my posts I wrote in 2007. It is titled Thirteen Cross Two (because it has twenty six posts) and you can download it here.

So, this week's blessing is technology - the great enabler - that helps us achieve many things that for our ancestors were nothing but dreams.

Have a great week ahead!

BYBS : What is Religion?

2009-01-11T19:10:00.004+05:30

Religion and metaphysics are subjects that have intrigued man since time immemorial. From the very beginning man has been in search for answers to questions like: Who am I? Where I have come from? Where will I go?

I recently got a chance to read a book, The Science of Religion by Yogananda Paramhansa, which deals with some of these questions.The most impressive thing about this book is that it answers most difficult questions about life in the very simplest of words.

We all define religion in various ways - sometimes just to suit our needs. But what truly is religion?

The answer given in the book, and one that I totally agree with, is as simple as avoidance of pain, and search for bliss. If the answer is so simple then why are we always troubled and in pain? Because, the book says, we, in our search for bliss, confuse pleasure and Bliss, and mistakenly begin to pursue pleasure.

The ultimate source of suffering in our life is the fact that our spiritual self begins to identify itself with the physical self a little too much. The spirit is undying and eternal, but the physical self is temporary and it is best for us that we always keep this is in mind.

The book also says that we should not curb all our wants and desires, but we should make a hedge around them so that our wants and desires do not become a source of pain and suffering.

Many more such questions are answered in the book. I felt that the book is a must read for all because today we are all running after things – things that we are not even sure we want. We want them simply because our neighbor wants them, or perhaps because it is fashionable to want them. But is that what the goal of our life is?

Yogananda Paramhansa did not think so, and I find myself agreeing with him completely.

I think everyone should read the book if one gets a chance; one’s entire way of living might change – for the better – after reading this book, which has only about 85 pages.

BYBS : Resolutions

2009-01-04T18:06:00.002+05:30

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Friends tell me that I make a lot of resolutions, and often I end up breaking these resolutions.

I can not disagree with what my friends say. I do make a lot of resolutions - I will do this from tomorrow, I won't do that from tomorrow, and so on and on...the list is endless.

Why do I do that?

One, because I am not perfect. Far from it I have many flaws and imperfections, but I want to get rid of them. Slowly, steadily, but surely. Resolutions are a good way to do that.

Two, it is kinda fun to have resolutions. Doing things differently adds variety to life, and variety, as we all know, is the spice of life.

Three, resolutions, more often than not, are for the better. I mean have you ever heard of anyone making resolutions for the worse. At least I have not.

Making resolutions to me is a sign that the person is interested in making things better for himself, and for those around him. Making resolutions to me is a sign that the person still hopes that things can become better.

Making resolutions, therefore is about hope. I hope you have not given up that hope, and have made many resolutions for 2009. How does it matter that some of your resolutions will be broken. After all 2010 is still to come, and then 2011, and then many more years...

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-02T10:33:00.009+05:30

Happy New Year to all readers of The Blue Panther Experience.

I am not sure if you would want to know where and how I spent My New Year's Eve, but I am going to tell you anyways.

I spent it in a bus. It was very cold and adding to my cup of woes was the fact that in my hurry to leave I had picked a sweater that was still wet from the washing. How was I feeling? I will let your imagination decide that, because words, at least decent ones, fail me when I start to think about how I felt.

But, I am glad it was the last day of 2008. I reached home at 4 AM in the morning, and went to bed. I woke up to 2009 in a warm and a comfortable bed, so I think 2009 is going to be a good year.

But then again, no year is good, or bad for that matter. It is what you do in the year that decides whether the year is going to be a good one or not. And one of the things I do every year is make a list of new year resolutions. How long I manage to keep them is another matter altogether, but I do make the list every year.

This year the list got pretty long. I guess it is because of some new things I learned this year, and some bad habits that I might have caught over the last few years. Whatever the reason might be, the fact is that the list got pretty long, and I am not going to burden you with it.

I am although going to talk about a couple of resolutions with respect to my blogging. I was looking up the number of posts I wrote in 2007 and 2008. The number in 2008 was almost half the number in 2007. Not only that, after a brief run through the posts, I felt that the quality of posts in 2008 had definitely gone down. Look from whatever perspective, a decline in both quality and quantity can not be a good thing. Some things need to be changed over here.

So, I decided one of my resolutions is going to be : Blog more, write better!

What are your blogging resolutions for 2009?

BYBS : Oasis

2008-12-21T18:37:00.002+05:30

One of the definitions of an Oasis - as given by the free dictionary - is a situation or place preserved from surrounding unpleasantness. Festival times are just such a place in our busy lives.

Without saying much, I hope all of us have a great time while we are at the Oasis. Eat, Drink and be Merry!

BYBS : A Written Down Goal

2008-12-07T11:50:00.004+05:30

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Most people, it is said, live their lives without really knowing what it is that they want from their lives. They just live on, from one day to another, doing whatever it is that they feel is expected from. Usually, at the end of the day, such people do not feel very happy. I am sure almost everyone will agree with me when I say that no one can please everyone. In fact, it is not even possible to please just one person all the time, because, however hard one may try, the expectations of the other person will just be a little bit more.

But, the secret to happiness is not achieving what others expect from us. The secret of happiness is achieving what we expect from ourselves, and what we want for us.

Now, here is where the whole problem lies. We usually do not know what we want. We usually begin to want what we see others wanting. Then when we don't get that, we feel frustrated, or if we are able to get that we feel empty, because this was never what we wanted.

So, what can we do?

The simplest - and the most obvious - thing to do is to take a break and spend some time to think about what we want from our lives. An even better thing would be to have a written down goal for our life. This written down goal has to emerge after a lot of thinking has gone into the process of arriving at it. This written down goal will, then, act as a light house and will keep the ship of our lives afloat in the turbulent seas of this world.

Weekly Round-up

2008-12-01T00:32:00.001+05:30

This is going to be a different kind of post, because, this time, instead of talking in paragraphs, and talking about only one thing, I am going to talk in points. Why, you might ask? The answer is simple: there is more than one thing that I want to say today, and talking about them in paragraphs will make this a very long, and a very boring post. So, here goes...

The BlogRolling site is till not up, so I have not been able to add new sites to the BlogRoll, nor have I been able to update the sites that have changed their addresses in the last few days. Sorry!

I am sure most of you would have heard about the Mumbai terror episode by now. It was a very sad incident and I pray and hope that nothing like that happens in India or anywhere else in the world. My wishes and prayers are with the families of the people who died during the two days Mumbai city was held hostage by the terrorists. It has always saddened me to see how easily men are ready to take the lives of their fellow human beings. But, I am also sure that such incidents make the desire to make the world a peaceful place stronger in every heart.

I am also thinking of updating this blog a little more often, but that is just a thought and I am not sure if that thought will ever be converted into action.

Oh, I have not forgotten the blessing for this week. We had a new teacher this week. We had heard about him from people who had been taught by him earlier, and we had heard good things about him. But as they say, seeing is believing. So, it was only when he had taught us that we realised how good he was. The job of the teacher is not merely to repeat what is written in the books, but to stimulate the student's mind to imbibe what is being taught, and also to seek out for more. Most teachers today use the authority that the system provides them to make the students study, but if a teacher can make the student want to study and learn, then that is true teaching...and a teacher like that is atrue blessing.

Time management is still eluding me. If you have any tips or tricks that help you manage your time better, I am more than willing to listen.

I feel bad that I have not been able to visit the BYB blogs for the past couple of weeks. I am going to try and make up for that this week.

NaNoWriMo was a disaster. I could write barely 2500 words. Exams, illness, excuses...

That is it for now. Hope you have a good week ahead!

BYBS : Defeat

2008-11-23T16:23:00.002+05:30

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This last week was pretty hectic. I had my exams, a couple of assignments and on top of of it all, I fell sick. The weekend, I thought, would bring some welcome relief but, boy, was I wrong or what.

We had a cricket match scheduled for Saturday evening, and despite my sickness I was looking forward to playing in it. I am no player of cricket, but you know when I go out to play, I want to do my best, and hopefully be the star performer of the match. I guess that is what we all want - even if we are playing a game after a long time, we want to excel in it. And when we don't, we are devastated.

This is exactly what happened to our team on Saturday. For a hundred different reasons, our team got hammered, and all our team members were depressed...big time. It won't come as huge surprise to those who know me that I was leading this depressed brigade from the front. Misery thrives in company, and anyone who saw us then could have seen live proof of that.

Somehow I managed to drag my heavy feet into my room. I lay down, and thought: what went wrong?

The answer came to me soon, with surprising clarity, and it was : "Nothing had gone wrong. Everything had happened just the way it was supposed to be."

We had not practiced. The other team had.

Why should we have won? I am sure the other team had wanted to win just as much as we did, and they had practiced more, and, perhaps, they even had better players. So, why should they have lost?

To cut a long blog post short, I went to sleep that night with a loss under my belt, but with the awareness of what I needed to do to hopefully have a better result the next time around.

Wishing everyone a great week ahead!

BYBS : Reminders

2008-11-16T11:27:00.002+05:30

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Before I begin this post, I would like to apologise to the new BYB members for not being able to add their blogs to the BYB BlogRoll. The BlogRolling site, that I use for the blogroll, has been down for the past few weeks, and it seems like they won't be up in a rush. Since, it is a free service, I can't really complain, but I thought I owed an explanation to all those who have joined BYB recently. As soon as the site is back up, I will add you to the blogroll.

Moving on to BYB...

A couple of weeks back, our class was scheduled to have a guest lecture by a renowned speaker. He was supposed to talk to us about "Time Management". The sceptic that I am, my first reaction was what could he tell us that we don't already know.

We all know how a lecture like that goes : There are 24 hours in a day for everyone, it's how you use them; Winners don't do different things, they do things differently; It's all about organizing and de-cluttering your life; Make lists; Remove your weaknesses, improve upon your strengths etc. etc.

The lecture, as expected, followed the predictable lines, and I was sitting in class, with a smug expression on my face, telling myself, and the guy next to me, "I told you so!"

But, somewhere during the course of the lecture, I realised that though I did know most of the things that the guy was telling us about, I did not actually implement many of those things in my life.

Then, the importance of what the speaker was doing dawned to me. He was reminding us of what we already knew, but had forgotten.

I think we all need such reminders in life. Life is a pretty long affair, and though 24 hours in a day may not sound like much, yet each day has 86,400 seconds in it. Every second has the capability to bring with it a new thought. And one wrong thought is all it takes for things to go wrong. On the other hand, to make things better, we have to constantly remember that every second is a gift, and we have to make the best use of the gift. I think this requires a conscious effort on our part, at least till the time this becomes a habit with us.

To help us do that, I think we need constant reminders from life otherwise we tend to get a bit complacent. People, like the guest speaker we had, are a great blessing because they are constantly reminding us of what a beautiful gift life is, and how we can make it even better.

Hope you have a great week ahead!

BYBS : NaNoWriMo 2008

2008-11-02T10:59:00.004+05:30

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November is the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, when over 100,000 aspiring novelists spend a considerable amount of time sitting in front of their computers.

Doing what, you might ask.

Answer : they try to write a 50, 000 word novella in one month. I have been one of the 100,000 aspirants for the past couple of years, and this year too, I am going to join in on the fun. I was able to write the required 50, 000 words in 2006, but I failed to do so in 2007.

This year I am hoping to not only write the 50,000 words, but write something that I can eventually try to get published. I am not sure if that is going to happen, but, as they say, one has to try. So, I am going to try.

NaNoWriMo comes as a blessing for me every year because it forces me to focus on writing for at least one month in the year. This year I specially needed it because due to some other changes in my life, I have not been able to write much lately. I am hoping I can change that this month and come up with something good.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo?

Happy Deepawali!

2008-10-28T09:48:00.006+05:30

Deepawali, or Diwali for short, is one of the two major festivals of India. There are many stories associated with Diwali, but the most accepted one is that of Diwali being the day of the return of Lord Rama to his Kingdom Ayodhya after defeating Ravana in battle.

Ravana had earlier kidnapped Sita, wife of Lord Rama, and Lord Rama had followed Ravana to his kingdom, waged a long war and defeated him. The day Lord Rama defeated and killed Ravana is celebrated as Dusshera.

Twenty days after Dusshera - the time it took for Lord Rama to travel from Ravana's kingdom to his own - we celebrate Diwali. It is said that to welcome Rama on his return, all the houses and nooks and corners of Ayodhya were lit up by the people. This tradition is followed to this day. Hence. Diwali is also known as the festival of lights.

To celebrate the occasion people exchange gifts of sweets among themselves, and light firecrackers. It is not uncommon for people to gain a few kilos of weight during Diwali because of the amount of sweets they consume. But, lately, with people increasingly focusing on health , sweets are being replaced by dry fruits.

The same is true for firecrackers. To keep pollution( both sound and air) in check, the number of hours during which firecrackers can be lit up have been restricted, and I think that has taken off some of the sheen of the festival.

But, despite that, Diwali is a great festival and provides a chance for families to get together and even the most busiest of persons takes a break and enjoys the day with their families.

I hope all of you have a great Diwali. Enjoy the day and be safe!

BYBS : A Beautiful Excuse

2008-10-26T18:51:00.003+05:30

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There are some things that we all know about life. Yet, sadly, it is rarely that we practice what we know, or make a good habit a part of our lives. It is as if the good habits are for others, while for us there is just one word - excuse!

We have an excuse for almost everything...

If you are thinking that this is another one of those holier-than-thou posts that I often get criticized for, you could not be more wrong. In fact, this post is just the opposite. Here, I am going to shower many praises on The Excuse.

These days I have an excuse for getting up late in the morning, an excuse for not working out, an excuse for eating as much as I like all day long, and an excuse for not doing anything constructive at all. The excuse is that I am home, on a three day break, for Diwali, one of the most celebrated of Indian festivals. I will be posting more about the festival on the day itself (Tuesday), but till that day, I am just going to use it as an excuse to do nothing, but take a break and, as they say, chill out!

Hope you all have a great day!

BYBS: An Everlasting Smile

2008-10-19T10:45:00.001+05:30

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The other day, I had to go to the local market here to get some work done. It was the middle of a very hot and humid day. It was the kind of day when the best thing you can do is stay indoors - and rest - till the day cools off. Yet, the market was crowded. Everyone had something to do, and, like it or not, they were out there on the street with a very hot sun beating down upon them.

Suddenly, I noticed something in that crowd.

If the frown on one's face is an indicator, I could not see a single face in the crowd that seemed to be happy about being there. Then, I wondered, why was everyone there, if they would rather be somewhere else. The obvious answer to the question, it seems to me, is that all of us have work to do and that work sometimes leads us to places and things that we would have avoided otherwise.

So, I thought, now that I was here, it would be best if I went about doing what I had to do with a smile on my face ( I had by now realised that the expression on my face could also be best described only as a frown). Immediately, I felt better.

A lot of things have been said about the smile. It can help you make friends, it can make you confident, it improves your face value etc. etc. Here I am not going to repeat any of that. I am sure better men than me have written about that, and all you need to do is take the help of our tried and tested friend Mr. Google to find what these men and women have written. What I will say, though, is that however much you read about the power of positive things - like the smile - you can only get an idea of their true worth after experiencing the power yourself.

How, when, why that will happen is also something I can't say. But it will happen for sure. All you need to do is keep smiling! In the least, it will improve your face value. :-)

BYB blogroll changes

2008-10-11T10:17:00.002+05:30

As had been felt by most BYB participants, the blogroll needed to be updated so that the regular BYB bloggers are not sent on a wild goose chase everytime they set out to visit other BYB bloggers. So, this week I have pruned the blogroll to include only those blogs that have had at least one BYB post since August, 2008. I think that is a fair enough criteria. I have left a couple of blogs on the blogroll that have not posted for a long time, but were regular BYB participants when they were posting regularly.

If I have deleted any blog by mistake, or any blog that needs to be removed is still there, please feel free to point it out. I have saved the names and URL's of all the blogs that were on the original blogroll, so that I can re-add any blog that I might have deleted by mistake.

Hope this makes things better!

BYBS: Vacation

2008-10-05T08:04:00.002+05:30

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...and the exams are over. I am not going to say how good or bad they went because that can be known only when the results are out. For now, I am done with them and that is a huge blessing.

There is one week's vacation before school re-opens, and I intend to make the most of it. And that is my short and sweet blessing for the week. Hope you all had a great week too, and continue to have a better week ahead.

BYBS : Intrinsically Motivated!

2008-09-28T19:42:00.002+05:30

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My end-term exams begin tomorrow, and I had decided that I was going to miss posting this week. But, then, all of a sudden - out of nowhere - I had this inspiration to write a post.

I guess most of my posts sound similar. In fact, one site that reviews blogs, said this about me : "He tries so hard to be interesting, that he ends up becoming boring." I cannot deny that charge. I do try hard, maybe too hard sometimes, to come up with ideas for my posts. After blogging for more than two years, it becomes a little difficult to come up with new ideas - at least for me.

This post is about dissonance. All of us, regardless of age, sex, caste or creed, have an inherent desire to become a better person (of course, I am no exception). Different people may have different reasons for doing so, but everyone wants to be good at almost everything they do. Also, most, if not all, people know what they need to do in order to become better. Yet, most of the times we fail to do so.

Why?

A smoker knows that smoking is not doing any good to his health, and yet he smokes. Sometimes, he might even feel bad about it, yet he can't kick the habit. Why?

I think the answer lies in motivation. Most of the times our reason to do good lies outside us. Maybe we want to conform to society's laws, or impress someone, or something similar. I have begun to believe know that this approach really does not work.

We can only do things that require effort if we perceive them to be directly beneficial to us. The motivation to do better has to come because of reasons that lie within us, and not outside. I think this requires that a person spends some time introspecting, and finding out what he truly wants? Once he has done that, it will be easier for him to identify the steps that are required to get what he wants.

A classic example can be getting up early in the morning. Most of us want to be early risers, because everyone says that it is a good thing to be an early riser. So, we try to wake up early in the morning, but try as hard, we fail. The reason is simple, we have never actually thought about how getting up early in the morning will help us. Once we identify that, and realise the benefits that we can get from starting the day early, it might become easier for us to get up early.

So, the ones who are intrinsically motivated to do right, are truly blessed, because they are the ones who actually do what they plan. For the rest, like me, most things just remain on the planning level, and never get executed. But, I feel now, that this realisation is a huge blessing in itself.

Have a great week ahead!!! And don't forget to wish me luck for the exams, because I need all the luck that I can get!

BYBS : One blog too many!

2008-09-21T23:02:00.005+05:30

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Time truly flies. Another week has gone by, and it is time for another BYB Sunday post.

When I started this blog, I had no idea about blogging, and what all was involved in the process of blogging. I just wanted a place where I could write down some of my thoughts. I had no illusions about my writing ability; I knew I was an average writer, yet I still wanted to put my writing out there to get a few comments - mostly from friends.

Somewhere down the years ( I have been blogging for almost three years now), I began to take blogging, and hence my writing, a little more seriously. The result was that I started another blog and an e-zine. Now, for the last couple of months, I have not been able to devote as much time to either writing or blogging, and that usually leaves me with a bad feeling. At times, I have even thought about bidding adieu to at least one of the blogs but, fortunately, I have managed to keep them going.

Today, as I write this, I am really glad that I have not closed any of my blogs. The reason is simple : Today, my blogs are the only reason I write!

I still harbour no illusions. I know that if I stop blogging, no one is going to lose anything. The only person who will lose anything is me. I will have no more reason to write and, eventually, I will end up not doing the one thing I really enjoy.

Therefore, I am glad today that I have one blog too many and I hope that I can keep it like this for as long as possible.

Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

BYBS : Guilt

2008-09-14T15:46:00.003+05:30

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Recently, I attended a lecture where the speaker was telling about how we tend to carry the weight of guilt on our shoulders, long after the deed has been done. Sometimes the weight of guilt stays with us even after the deed has been forgotten by one and all. This weight does us no good, but hampers our effectiveness in more ways than one.

For a while, I completely agreed with the speaker. I still do. But there is another aspect of guilt that makes me feel that guilt is a very necessary human emotion.

The guilt, I am talking about here, can be defined as : "Remorseful awareness of having done something wrong" (from thefreedictionary.com).

I find this to be a very good definition as it implies that when we feel guilty we are aware that we have done something wrong, and thus we regret our actions. Taking this a step further, it would mean that if given a second chance, we would not do things the way that we did the first time around. So, the feeling of guilt is the first step on the way to self-correction, and improvement. Wouldn't you agree?

And if you are wondering : why this post about guilt? The answer is not far to find - I feel guilty for missing out on the BYB Sunday post last week. Not that this was the first time (or will be the last time) that I missed a BYB post, but last week I had no real reason to not post a BYB post...unless laziness is a reason that is real enough. :o)

P.S. : I am sure all of us, who do BYB on a regular basis, have noticed that many blogs on the blogroll have stopped doing BYB for a long time now. I was wondering if I should take them off the BYB blogroll? Any suggestions, or comments on the subject are very welcome!

BYBS : Nostalgia!

2008-08-31T18:07:00.003+05:30

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As I began to write this post, I was not very sure whether feeling nostalgic is a good thing. I mean, after all, feeling nostalgic makes you focus on the past - a past that will never return, and it makes you feel that the future might never be as good as the time that has passed you by.

But, there is something about nostalgia that is good.

Earlier today, I was watching Rambo - IV (John Rambo), and I could not help but compare the new, but aged, Sylvester Stallone in the movie with his old, but young, self in the previous versions of Rambo. It made me think about a lot of things and, in some ways, it made me nostalgic. That made me wonder : if I was feeling the way I was, how must Sylvester Stallone be feeling when he made the movie, or when he made Rocky Balboa.

I am sure not everyone likes those movies, but there is an entire generation that spans countries and cultures which has grown up idolizing the two characters of Rambo and Rocky. For many Sylvester Stallone will always be known as either Rocky or Rambo. So, how must he have felt when he was making the two movies?

There must have been sadness for sure, but I feel that there must have been great satisfaction in making the two movies, knowing fully well that this was the last time he was being a part of a Rambo, or a Rocky movie.

Anyways, I think I am rambling here, so I will end here by saying that though I am not very sure if nostalgia is a good thing, I am very sure of the fact that every time I am nostalgic I feel motivated to make my future just a little bit better.

BYBS : Resting and Relaxing!

2008-08-24T18:39:00.006+05:30

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As I had mentioned in my last post, I had some exams in the week that just went by; the exams came and went, and I guess I did OK in them...The exact details of my performance will be known only after the results are out, which I hope happens as late as possible.

The brighter side of it was that I got a couple of days break, and I was able to come back to my home town (which I had begin to miss after staying away from it for more than a month and a half). I don't know If I have ever mentioned it on here, but I am a small town guy and big cities intimidate me. There is so much going on, that one hardly finds time to do what one wants to do. In other words, it is so easy to lose oneself in the crowd.

As we live our lives, we begin to participate in many activities - some willfully, and some because we have no other option. At some point we become so engrossed in our lives, and the activities associated with our lives, that we totally forget what, or who, we truly are. Usually, by the time we realise that we are lost, it is too late.

So, my blessing this week is a reminder that there is more to life than work and play. There is resting, and there is relaxing and there is that cooling time where one sits back and reflects on what one wants to do with his or her life. But, I guess, a word of warning is in order here : too much of resting and relaxing becomes laziness, and that should be avoided at all costs.

BYBS : Citius, Altius, Fortius !

2008-08-17T10:43:00.003+05:30

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With the Olympic games on in Beijing, I did not have to look too far for a blessing this week. Sports, in general, and events like the Olympics, in particular, are a great blessing.

While I was thinking about what to write about, I remembered the motto of the Olympic games : Citius, Altius, Fortius ( Faster, Higher, Stronger)! For a moment it made me wonder if the Olympic Games were such a blessing after all. I mean, if it was all about the competition, and all about one man beating so many other men - who had worked just as hard - at a sporting event, then where, or what, was the Olympic spirit?

However, a little reflection on the subject made me realise that the Olympics, or any sport for that matter, is not about winning or losing (though winning can be the icing on the cake) but about playing well, and giving your best to the game. The spirit of sports lies in improving.

When they say Faster, Higher and Stronger, they don't want you to be to faster and stronger than your neighbour, but they only want you to be faster and stronger than you were the day before. The spirit of Olympics wants you to soar higher than you did ever before. In short, the spirit of Olympics lies in self- improvement; not only for the athletes, but for all those watching too.

The sad part is that due to lack of access to a television, I have not been able to follow the events live. I have tried to read about the games on the Internet and in the News Papers... but that too will have to take a backseat in the coming week, as I prepare to take on my mid-term exams for the semester.

Have a great week ahead!

Happy Independence Day!

2008-08-15T13:04:00.004+05:30

(This post has originally been published at The MAG )

It was on August 15, 1947 that India won it's freedom after a very long battle for freedom. The first struggle for Indian Independence took place in 1857, and it took almost 90 years for India to attain independence. It is said that there is a silver lining to every cloud; the Indian freedom struggle is no exception. The freedom movement gave birth to exemplary men and women like Rani Lakshmi Bai, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, and the list is endless. These courageous sons and daughters of India stood up tall against a system that would brook no resistance. They proved to India, and the world, that one person can indeed make a difference. All it takes is courage and will power.

Today, as India celebrates, its 61st Independence day, it seems to me that people have forgotten the lessons that history has taught us - lessons that were learnt at the price of the lives of great men and women.

An argument that is often forwarded against doing something truly heroic is : " Oh, not everyone is born to be a hero!"

The truth, however, is just the opposite - we are all born heroes. As we grow up, we somehow manage to hide that hero inside us, or maybe the society hides it for us, and doesn't want us to find it. But - and I am sure this is true for everyone - the hero within us raises its voice every now and then. For example, many a times when we see someone in distress, by the side of the road, the spontaneous feeling is to go and help that person. But, in a few seconds our brain begins to remind us - we have to go somewhere, the person could be pretending and turn out to be mugger, why bother when you have so many problems of your own, etc. etc.

If we act before our trained mind stops us, we actually go and help that person. If we begin to debate on the "to help, or not to help" question, it is often too late by the time the question is satisfactorily answered.

So, today, let us all (regardless of country, class, race or creed) take a vow to pay attention to the hero inside us, and also ensure that we listen to his voice every time.

Wishing India, and all Indians, a Very Happy Independence Day!

BYBS - A Thought

2008-08-10T23:17:00.005+05:30

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"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

The above line is from Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. The same thought also formed the central theme of a Hindi movie, not too long ago.

Though this thought might easily be dismissed as wishful thinking, yet, I am convinced, there is something in the thought that rings true. The pre-requisite, of course, is that you have to want something with all your heart, and you have to be prepared to do all that it takes to get what you want. The universe can conspire in helping you to achieve it, but it is you who have to actually achieve it.

Most of the times we dwell on the option of failing too much. I think we are afraid to anticipate success because then we would have raised our hopes, and these hopes would come crashing down in the eventuality of a failure. So, we choose to think about failing, so that we won't get hurt when we actually fail.

And here is where the thought about the universe helping us comes in. It is a simple matter of believing and having faith. We should dream, and have a goal in mind. Once that is done, we should not worry about failing, or even succeeding. It sounds like a cliche, but it is true : failures and success are a part of life, and they will come to us. So why worry?

We should accept that there are forces out there that are looking out for us. We should just do what we are supposed to do without worrying about the end results. In other words we should faithfully do our duty, and want something for when we want something, all the universe conspires in helping us to achieve it.

Have a great week ahead.

BYBS : The Sweet Ache

2008-08-03T11:35:00.004+05:30

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Initially, I was thinking about making Blog Your Blessings Sunday (BYB) my blessing for the week. The most important reason for doing that would be the fact that, at present, BYB has become my only window to blogging. I think if it was not for BYB, I would not have blogged at all in the last few weeks. So, having BYBS around is a great blessing because it is my sole motivator to blog these days.

I am sure all of us look into the mirror at least once every day ( for some, I am sure, the number many times more than 1). Every time we look into the mirror, we see somethings that we like, and some that we don't. Invariably, we also tell ourselves to watch our diet and start exercising when we observe that the little bulge under the shirt has started getting a bit bigger.

But, then, life happens and that bulge gets bigger and there are other parts of our body that begin to show symptoms that we don't like at all. Things go from bad to worse, until one fine morning we decide that enough is enough. We tell ourselves that from tomorrow everything will change; We will get up early in the morning, and we will work out, jog or play a sport. Anything to get fit and stay that way.

The first step in this direction is getting the right shoes and dress (Didn't we read somewhere that wearing the wrong shoes can cause more harm than good?). With all that ready we actually get up and do as we planned. We do the work out, or go for that jog, or play that sport.

What happens the next morning (sometimes the same evening) is simply bliss. We feel the sweet ache of our sore muscles. Muscles, that had lain dormant for years and were put to use after such a long time. We can actually see that fat disappearing and, muscle taking its place, in the ache of our sore muscles.

For me, that is the best part of any exercise. The sweet ache that tells us that our body is changing, and changing for the better.

A word of caution : If you engage in any physical activity after a long time and the next morning your body hurts in a painful way, you should actually go see a doctor.

BYBS : No One Thing

2008-07-27T14:33:00.004+05:30

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The last week has been a busy one and there is no one thing that I can call my blessing, or curse, for the week.

I have realised something about time this week. Not that I did not know it before, but I was almost forced to string together a coherent thought about it only this week. When we have something new to do, we usually try to avoid it by saying, "I just don't have the time". While that is true sometimes, many-a-times we just use that as an excuse to avoid taking on more responsibilities. We get so good at this, that sometime we manage to fool ourselves too.

Whereas the truth is that if we use our time efficiently, we might be able to fit in a lot more things into our schedule. And if we do not manage our time well, we will not be doing much and we will feel that we are always running short of time. I mean, if you think about it, have you ever come across someone who is not complaining of lack of time?

In fact, there is even a law on the matter (Parkinson's law) that states, "Work expands to fill the time available". So, if you are doing less, that less will expand to fill the time available with you. It is, therefore, better to use your time well and do as much as you can in the limited time you have.

In other words, what I am trying to say is that I have felt a very strong need to be better organized in this past week. And that is a great blessing. A man is not complete in himself, but it is his environment that completes him, and defines him.

In that respect, it is a blessing to be in an environment that pushes you in the right direction. Isn't it?

BYBS : Change

2008-07-20T09:51:00.003+05:30

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I think I have written about change as a blessing once before. This week, once again, it is change that I write about as a blessing as a change has come about in my life as a blessing, or so I hope. In fact, it was this change that has prevented me from blogging at my regular pace for the last couple of weeks. In the past, it has been on a very rare occasion that I have failed to post a Blog Your Blessings Sunday post; last week was one such occasion.

Change happens whether we like it or not. We can close our eyes to it, but the change will sweep us off our feet and make us struggle to regain our balance. Therefore, it is always a better strategy to anticipate change, prepare for it and meet it head-on when it finally comes. Sometimes change comes about because we get tired of the current situation, and we want things to be different. At other times change comes as a natural order of things, even if we are satisfied with the current situation.

In my case, the change has come about as a natural order of things. To be honest, I must admit that there was not a lot about my past situation that was tiring and yet I felt that it was but a matter of time before something would change. So, I, as a preemptive measure, decided to bring about that change myself. The change was in the form of taking a break of my job, and going back to school. So, as some of you might know, I am back in school now for a course in Energy Management.

The tricky thing about change is that it is almost impossible to predict what the outcome of the change will be. One can plan and prepare for the change, but what finally happens depends on a variety of factors - some of which one has some control over, and some lie outside our domain of control. This holds true for my case too. What I am expecting from this change is really hard to say, yet the least I can do is hope that this is going to be a change for the better.

What it does to my blogging is another matter. I wonder if I will still get the time to blog regularly, and I don't know the answer to the question. What I do know is that I am going to try and update this blog as often as possible, so keep coming back and checking it out.

Have a great week ahead - a week that is full of positive changes for everyone!

BYBS : Good Health

2008-07-06T08:08:00.003+05:30

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Health is wealth, they say, and I think most of us will agree with that.

But, at the same time, most of us will also very conveniently take good health for granted, till something goes wrong. Last week I fell ill for a couple of days, and for one day I could not even get out of the bed. It was then that I realised that I had taken my health for granted for the past some time. I had been eating what I wanted, sleeping at odd hours, and even working out in a very indisciplined manner. It took a bout of sickness to make me realise what a great blessing good health is, and how miserable we can be when we are sick.

Taking care of our physical health is very important for improving the quality of life we lead. The modern life has brought with it so many new things that we often fail to find enough time to take care of our health. As I said before, our eating habits, our sleeping habits and our exercising habits get affected for the worse, but we should not let that happen.

A very good theory that can help us take care of our bodies is to treat our body like a temple. Since God is everywhere, he is in each one of us too. And if he is in us, or body is His abode and hence a temple. We should make sure that we take good care of the temple that our body is. Just like everything in a temple is ordered and disciplined, so should be the things in our life.

Have a great and a healthy week ahead.

BYBS : Music - The food of love

2008-06-29T08:02:00.003+05:30

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Music goes down well with almost anything. Whatever mood a person might be in, there is a song for it. But, the best company for music is love, and vice versa.

The reason might be that love is the subject of most poems or songs ever written. Also, both love and music are about passion. But, whatever the reason might be, I am sure everyone will agree that Love and Music are just made for each other.

There is a song written for every stage of love - the first time you see her/him, the first time you meet, the first kiss, marriage, and even heartbreak. There is a song for every kind of lover - the romantic, the passionate, the dreamer, and the aggressive.

I started thinking on the subject, when, recently, I saw this song on TV. I must have seen it before, but I really had not paid attention to it until this time. I am sure most of you must have heard it before, but you can never hear a good song too many times, can you?

I was trying to embed the video for the song here, but it turns out that embedding has been turned down by request. So you will have to click on the link below to watch the video.

Leaving on a Jet Plane - Chantal Kreviazuk (Official Video)

Is Excess of Everything Bad?

2008-06-26T14:36:00.003+05:30

It is said that excess of anything is bad.

This phrase is often used to imply that too much of even a good thing is bad. Recently, in conversation with a friend, this phrase came up. I felt at that time that there was something about the phrase that was not right. But I did not get a lot of time to think about it, so I let it go then.

On thinking about it later, I am convinced now that though the phrase is not wrong, it is not entirely accurate either. Of course, the statement holds true for most things, but there are many things - good things - that you can never have excess of and hence they cannot be bad.

If something is good than you can never have excess of it. If you seem to have excess of it, then you are doing it wrong. This might sound a bit confusing, but if you think about it a little, you will, I am sure, understand what I am trying to say.

To quote an example, let us continue from one of my previous posts and take truth as an example. Can there be a thing like excess of truth, and can that be bad?

According to me, the answer to the first question is a huge "No". Truth just is - an excess of truth is exaggeration, and any lack of truth is a lie. So, you can say the truth a many times as you want to, but you will never have excess of it, and hence, it will never be bad for you.

I believe that excess of many good things can never be bad. Do you agree, or do you believe that "excess of everything is bad"?

BYBS : Writing

2008-06-22T18:40:00.003+05:30

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The development of language as a means of communication can be said to be one of the greatest steps in the human evolution process. Using language one human being can communicate to another his feeling, experiences, fears, hopes, desires etc.

Over a period of time, languages developed scripts and things began to be written down. That was the best thing that could have happened to humans, as transfer of knowledge became independent of the capacity of the human mind to remember things.

In ancient India knowledge was transferred from teachers to students orally. The teacher recited the mantra, and the students repeated it after him until they had learnt it by heart. This way the amount of knowledge that could be transferred from a teacher to a student was limited by the student's ability to remember things.

Having things written down made things easier for both the teacher and the student. The teacher did not have to worry about any "knowledge" getting lost over the ages, and students weren't under pressure to mindlessly learn things by heart. They could take their time to read things, understand them, and eventually remember them.

If it was not for the written word, every generation would have needed a Newton, a Einstein, because if they had not written down what they had discovered and invented, the next generation would have been lost to all of their work. It would have to be re-done by someone else.

Having written literature has therefore contributed immensely to all the major developments that have been made by human kind.

And then there is that other great benefit of writing as an outlet for our creative enrgies...but that is a matter to be taken up on another Sunday...on another BYB.

Have a good week ahead!

Speaking the Truth

2008-06-18T19:27:00.002+05:30

I am sure there is not even a single person in the entire world who has not said a lie, except the little, new born baby who is yet to learn the art of talking.

The question, however, is: Why do we feel the need to lie?

In other words, the same question could be put as : Do we want to speak the truth?

It is often said that a lie that brings a smile on someone's face is better than the truth that can make one cry. I feel that the preceding statement is just an excuse devised by us humans to justify our weaknesses. We try to avoid uncomfortable situations, and we also do not want others to think bad about us. So, we choose to lie to either avoid crying or making others cry.

But, a smile that has been brought about by a lie is just as false as the lie that has made the smile possible. A lie is un-natural, simply because it is a narration of events that never happened. The truth is, therefore, natural because when truth is spoken, it is a mere reproduction of events that actually happened. No artificiality is involved in speaking the truth.

It is but common observation that anything natural is good, and anything artificial may seem good in the short run but is never good in the long run. The same is applicable for truth and lies too. A lie might bring a smile on your face in the short run, but a lie does not have the power to keep that smile on the face in the long run.

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the strongest advocates of truth that ever walked this earth. On the face of it the principle of truth sounds like just another principle, but if we delve deeper into this subject it will not be long before we find that if we walk the path of truthfulness steadily, we will be doing a great favor to ourselves.

Every other principle can be considered as an extension of the principle of truth.

So, once again, if the principle of truth is that important, are we ready to embrace it wholeheartedly, or are we going to use the excuse of lying-so-that-someone-can-smile.

It is also said that in this imperfect world of ours, someone who speaks the truth all the time will be seen as an aberration to the rule - a mad man. But, I think, that is another excuse devised by us humans to avoid speaking the truth all the time. No one has tried speaking the truth all the time, and so we can not say what would happen to someone who speaks the truth each and every time. But it is no secret that anyone who has tried to stick to the truth as much as possible has achieved great heights in their chosen fields.

To end, I will modify a quote of Mahatma Gandhi, and put it as:

"We may never be strong enough to be entirely truthful in thought, word and deed. But we must keep truthfulness as our goal and make strong progress towards it."

BYBS : Change

2008-06-15T08:22:00.004+05:30

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Change is the law of nature. It is bound to happen sooner or later - whether you like it or not. So, it is better to be prepared for a change when it comes. In fact, what is even better is to be the cause for the change.

Mahatma Gandhi has said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

He couldn't have been more right.

It is easy to find people who are complaining about one thing or another. But it is really hard to find people who can quit complaining, and act in a way that the cause of the complaint is removed. And to be honest, I find that I belong to the former category more often than I belong to the latter category.

One of the problems facing the world today is the global rise in oil prices. Though there may be many factors responsible for the price hike, it can not be denied that one of the major reasons for the rise is the increase in the demand of oil all over the world.

So, I think it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to save as much oil as we can. If we do that, I am sure that is going to have some effect on the oil prices. It is strange that we, as humans, can easily ignore a problem until it begins to have a direct impact on us.

Similar has been the case with oil. We have known for years that it is a non-renewable resource, and once finished it will be centuries before it will be replenished. Yet, it is only now, when we have been affected in the form of increasing prices, that we have stood up and noticed the problem.

Let us hope that it is not too late even now, and the changes - if we make them - will make things better for all the people in the world, and also for our planet earth as a whole.

BYBS: Over-reaching

2008-06-08T18:08:00.003+05:30

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It is often said that a man must stay within one's limits, and I cannot but agree with the statement. But who is to decide what a man's limits are?

I think that most of us are not aware of our limits, or, for that matter, our capabilities. Most of the time we settle for less than what we are capable of. We feel that we can't go beyond a certain point, because we have never done that in that past. We slip into a comfort zone, and it is hard to get out of there.

And when we are trying to get out of that zone, there are many forces that try to prevent us. Trying to stay within our limits becomes just another one of those forces.

Though one must test one's limits, yet it should be done with great care as the testing of our limits is a territory that is fraught with risks. There is a good chance that we might over-reach and break ourselves in the process. But, I feel ( and I am not really sure if I am right on this one), that it is better to be broken after a hearty and well meant attempt, than to be wasted without knowing what one could have done.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been busy and not-so-busy in turns. There has been a lot to do. Some things I have managed to do, and some other things I have not. At times, I thought that there is only so much that a person can do, and I wanted to stop - I thought I had hit my limit. But then, I thought some more and decided to over-reach, and though I don't think I came any closer to finding my limits, it was fun trying to get out of the comfort level and do just a little bit more.

Have a great week ahead!

BYB Banners - Finally!

2008-05-29T16:17:00.002+05:30

For a long time, I had been trying to set up a BYB banners page on the blog, where most of the banners that have been created for BYB would be put up and anyone who wanted to use them could just visit the page and chooose one that he or she liked.

But, I always managed to put it off for one reason or another...until today. Today, I finally got myself to sit down and search for the BYB banners that were available on my computer, and put them up here.

The list of banner is not fixed, and with time I will try and add some more. If you are interested in making a banner and sharing it with the other BYB bloggers, just leave a comment with a link to the banner and I will add it to the list.

If you have any suggestions regarding the banners, or the banners page, I can't wait to hear them.

BYBS : Milestones

2008-05-25T07:48:00.005+05:30

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Life is a journey. Just like a journey, there are times when we really enjoy life and then there are times when we wish the journey to be over. But, unlike a journey, in life we do not have the choice to end it anytime we want to. The journey of life is one journey that we have to carry on till we reach our destination.

When we set out on a long journey, we are on a constant look out for milestones as they tell us how much of our journey is over, how much is left, and also whether we are on the right track. Similarly, there are milestones in our lives - some that we know are there and we are always on the look out for them, and some that come as a pleasant surprise.

Milestones - expected, or not - are a a great motivation to a person. If we do not come across a milestone for a long time, the journey begins to get boring and we begin to lose interest in it. Eventually, we might even begin to wonder if we are on the right track, or perhaps we have taken a wrong turn somewhere? Therefore milestones are an absolute must - not just for keeping our motivation levels high, but also to keep us going.

Then, there are milestones that provide us reasons to celebrate. For example the first (and hopefully last) love, the first job, the first child etc. The more milestones of these kind we have in our lives, the better the journey of our lives become.

So, this week, I hope that each and every one of us finds the many milestones that we are looking for in our lives.

BYBS : What do you want to be?

2008-05-18T17:28:00.003+05:30

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"What do you want to be when you grow up?" is a question that we often ask our children. The replies range from cute to funny to outright ludicrous. A grown up is never asked the same question, because, for one, he is grown up and has become what he wanted to be. Or, has he?

Many of us realise our true calling as we grow up, and are able to find a job that has something to do with what we like to do. For the rest of us (and this is especially true in India), our job has nothing to do with what we want to do. What we end up doing is what is expected of us, or what we manage to end up with in the quest to become the best among our peers.

Stuck with doing a job that we really don't like makes us mechanical. We begin to do things because we have to, and not because we want to. Some of us again get used to that life, and actually begin to enjoy it. While the rest just live from one day to another, and then the next.

The solution does not lie in quitting your job, and starting doing whatever it is that you like to do. After all as a grown up person there are responsibilities that you have to fulfill and, in most cases, you can't let go off them just like that. The solution, I feel, lies in identifying what you want to do; setting up goals and targets - short term as well as long term.

When you do that, you try and take out time to achieve what your heart truly desires. Doing even your routine job, then, becomes less boring as you know that you are slowly, but surely, working towards that ultimate goal, where you end up doing what you really want to do.

Being able to set up goals and objectives, and attaining them is a great blessing. And I hope that all of us are blessed with it. Have a great week ahead!

Every Day is a Special Day

2008-05-14T16:25:00.001+05:30

Have you noticed how most of us feel special on days like New Year's Eve, Holiday's, Birthday's, anniversaries etc. What is it about these days that makes us feel so special. We tend to forget our troubles - and any problems that we might be having - and simply enjoy the spirit of the day. On some of these days it is the spirit of others around us that infects us,but there are days that have a special significance only for us, as an individual, and these days tend to make us feel better.

So, I think, the trick does not lie in the day, but in our perception of it. We prepare ourself for the day, and make preparations for it - on the physical level as well as the mental and the spiritual level. We choose not to let any problem bother us on the day, and just have a good day.

Working on that theory, I feel, that if we believe that every day is a special one, we can live a satisfying life - a life where we are more contented and happy, and a life where are not always complaining about the situation that we are in. So, if we are able to make every day special, we will not have to wait for that special day.

But till such time we are able to do that, I guess we will have to keep waiting for those special days in our lives. And if you have begin to wonder why I am going on and on about special days, let me put a stop to your wondering. Today is a special day for me, because many years ago, on this day, I was born!

BYBS : Never Giving Up

2008-05-11T07:08:00.005+05:30

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What does one do when one feels that he or she has done one's best, and yet nothing has come out of it?

In the week that went by I had some conversations with different people who were almost ready to give up, because, they said, they had tried their best and it did not seem to be enough. These people were talking about different things - relationships, work, studies etc. The common thing was all of them felt that they had done enough and if things were not going to happen, they were better off moving on to something else.

While I was thinking about what to tell them (because giving up seems to me a very sad thing), I was forced to think about the many times I have wanted to give up too. And I think I found my answer.

I feel that when the things are at their worst, an overwhelming feeling of surrendering oneself to one's fate - whatever that may be - takes control of us; It seems to us that all our efforts are in vain, and that we are fighting a losing battle. And all we can do is give up.

But, it is at times like this that we have to give our best. If the circumstances are tough, we simply need to be tougher. However hard we might have tried in the past, we just have to try harder.

In short, we must never give up...and if we can do that we are truly blessed!

A Personal Post!

2008-05-06T10:59:00.002+05:30

The last few days have been strange - a mix of good and bad. There have been highs, and, then, there have been the lows. One of the results of all that has been that I ended up neglecting this b. Initially, I felt bad about that, but soon I got over it. After all, the blog exists because I do, and not the other way around (though at times it does feel like one exists because the blog exists, no??)!

I did not even post a BYB Sunday post last week. The reason was that I was not having a particularly happy weekend, and it did feel kind of artificial to do a blessings post when I did not feel blessed at all ( It was a phase, and , of course, I am over it now. :) ). I am hoping I will be able to get back to regular blogging now. At the least, I will be trying to.

It has always been difficult for me to blog about personal issues, be they good ones or bad ones. That is especially surprising as I consider this to be a personal blog, though I do write about other things at times. I guess it is because of the feeling that anyone, in any mood, might be reading this, and he might not understand the sentiment in which the post has been written. One can't blame the reader, and one can't let one's feelings be taken lightly. So, the best thing to do is keep away from the personal posts. And, in line with that principle, I am going to cut his post short... and end it.

I would like to end it with a question though : Are you comfortable blogging about personal issues?

BYBS : The Search

2008-04-27T07:28:00.008+05:30

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Since times immemorial, Man has continuously been on a search for the right path. His search has led him to form new religions, philosophies and theories. But, yet, even after the passage of so many centuries there is no one religion, or philosophy, or even a theory that all men agree upon.

The reason for this could be that there can actually be no one philosophy to explain everything. How we see things depends upon the place from where we are looking at things. So, each one of us has to find the right path for himself. In his search he can bank upon the work done by the people before him, but at the end of the day he has to find his own way. And when a man has found his own way, it will be easier for him to walk on it.

I really can't say that I have found my way, nor can I say, with any amount of certainty, that I will. But, I feel, that even the search for the right path is quite enjoyable, and the journey gives as much pleasure as the destination.

With the hope that all of us are able to find what we are looking for, I wish everyone a very happy week ahead!

Do you Trust?

2008-04-25T06:56:00.002+05:30

Trust is a small word, but it's importance in our lives is not small. In fact, in it's various forms, it is the essence of our lives.

First of all, we need to trust ourselves. We need to be sure that when we are put to the test, we will do good. Most of us, I feel, are not very sure of ourselves. We just let things happen, instead of taking charge. Of course, however hard we try, there will be some things that will not be in our control, but we should at least endeavor to do the best that we can.

Trust is the keystone that holds all relationships together. If there is no trust, there is no relationship. What usually happens is that we find it difficult to trust others, but we want others to trust us implicitly. Why should they?

In today's age and time, promises have come to mean nothing. There was a time when a man would give his life - gladly - before he would let his word be broken. Who would not trust such a man? But, today, most people make a hundred and one promises each day, and, out of those, ninety-nine are broken on the very same day. Who would trust a man who does that?

It might be easy to argue that times have changed, and it is not possible to be true and honourable these days. After all one has to lie to save one's job, to make friends, to keep parents happy and so on. Everyone lies in today's time, so why can't we?

Blaming the present times for any, or all, of our faults is the easiest way to get out of a tough situation. I strongly believe that regardless of the times, man's nature has stayed the same over the centuries. Our basic needs and desires - that govern our actions - are still the same. So, why blame the times for our faults, for our inability to take the right decision...for our willingness to lie rather than to bear the consequences of our actions.

So, if you want to be trusted, you have to make sure that you live your life in a way that makes it easy for people to believe you. More than anything else, be a man, or woman, of your words. Don't promise, but if you do, do everything in your power to keep that promise.

The best part of being a trustworthy person is that we will find it easier to trust others, and others will feel more responsible towards us.

So, do you trust others?

BYBS : 300

2008-04-20T07:24:00.005+05:30

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When I started blogging, almost three years back, I had no idea of how long, or how much, I was going to blog. I had just heard about this great new thing called blogging and wanted to try my hands at it. For some reason, I had always wanted to write and blogging gave me the place to do it.

But even then, I was not sure how long I could continue. People who know me know that perseverance is hardly one of my strong points. Every now and then I have felt like ending this blog (though lately I have not wanted to do that), but the inspiring comments from all of you have kept me going. I am very thankful to all the visitors of the blog for that.

Over the last three years, I have started another couple of blogs, but this blog was my first, and just like the first kiss, or first love, I have a special place in my heart for this blog. So, I am going to keep this blog alive for as long as possible.

One of the things that motivates me (or any blogger, I think) to blog is numbers. Be it Page Rank, Alexa, Visitor count, Comment count - an increase in any one of them is a definite motivator to blog more and better. Today is another landmark for this blog, as this post is my 300th Post.

Hopefully, I can keep going till 500. Wishing everyone a great week ahead!

New Template

2008-04-17T15:59:00.003+05:30

After going through quite a few sites offering blogger templates, I finally found a template that I liked...and I also managed to find some time to implement the template on the blog.

I liked is template for the many features it has to offer, and the nice way the features are integrated into the template (If you want you can download this template here). Also, it offers enough flexibility for customising the template to make it suit your style.

I would love to hear your comments about the new template, and how it compares with the old template?

BYBS- Good News

2008-04-13T19:36:00.003+05:30

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Time flies. Another day gone, another week and soon the whole year has passed us by. Before we know it, we have put years behind us. And in those years are memories, achievements, rewards, and also lost opportunities...

It's almost impossible to grab every opportunity that comes our way, but it is very easy to look back and feel bad about the lost opportunities. As is rightly said, sometimes we look so hard at the doors that have closed that we ignore the ones that are open. Anyways, I digress as this post is not about lost opportunities.

This post is, in fact, about an opportunity that has come my way. I had applied for a MBA course in a university, and only this week I found out that I have been selected for that course. So, that is good news, and my blessing for the week.

Hope all of you have had a great last week, and have an even better next week.

Need for Change

2008-04-09T10:49:00.002+05:30

Change is the law of nature. Everything changes with time, whether we like the change or not. Some changes are made because there is no other option, and some changes are made out of choice.

This blog also has not seen any major change in a long time, and it is time for a change. I think it is time I upgraded to one of the new blogger templates. But, there is something about the current template that I really like.

So, I want to try and keep some of the feel from this old template, when I upgrade to a new template. Most people who visit this blog will know that I am not very tech-savvy. So, I am looking for someone to help me with the new template. If you want to help me, please leave a comment.

Or, if you know any good sites where I can find some good templates, and any other information that I might need when I am upgrading to the new template, please leave a comment and tell me about it.

Thanking everyone in advance, and hoping that all goes well with the change. For changes, they say, can make or break...

BYBS : The best things in life are free

2008-04-06T09:37:00.003+05:30

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The title of the post might have nothing to do with the body of the post, as this is one of those posts where you get down to writing without having a plan in your mind and write just about anything that comes to your mind. So, here goes...

As I have said a few times on here, I live in a small town. Living in a small town, like living in any other place, has many advantages an disadvantages. One complaint I often hear is : "There is not much you can do with your time in a small town like this."

I have been guilty of saying that a few times myself. But this week I realised, and not for the first time, that even though there were not a lot of things to do in my small town, I was not even doing whatever little the town had to offer. The realisation came to me in the form of our State Library.

It has been there for a very very long time. I like, even love, to read. Yet, I was not even a member of the library...until this week. That is to say that I joined the library, and the membership cost me nothing. The membership to the library is - you guessed it- FREE!

On another note, the assignments that I was to submit last week but couldn't, are ready now, and I am on my way to submit them as soon as I am done posting.

Wishing everyone a great week ahead!!!

Well Begun is...

2008-04-02T08:33:00.001+05:30

Well begun is half done, they tell me. And I can't help but agree with what they say.

After all if you don't start a thing, you can't expect to finish it, can you? So, just by having a beginning, the chances of having an ending are increased manifold. If the beginning is good, the probability of the ending being good will be greater too.

But, like most things, there is a rider to this theory. Starting things is not all that difficult; keeping them going till the intended finish is an altogether different story(...as I have found out in the recent past). The time available to us is fixed - 24 hours in one day - and what we can do in this time is limited. Out of the one million and one things we can do in this time, we have to choose a few, and this choice has to be judicious.

When we start a lot of things, our time gets divided into so many parts that sometimes all we end up doing is waste the whole day. And out of the many things we started, nothing gets done!

So, though well begun is half done, it would be wise to remember that one who starts too many things gets nothing done.

BYBS : A litle more time

2008-03-30T21:16:00.005+05:30

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I strongly believe that one who wants to do something will find a way, and who doesn't will find an excuse. But sometimes, however hard one might try, one might not be able to do what one wants. And that is what happened with me...

I had some assignments to submit for a course I am pursuing. I procrastinated doing them till the very last date, and then, when I got down to doing them, I realised I had waited too long. They needed more time than I had thought they would.

It wouldn't have meant much, if this time would not have been my last chance to submit the assignments. So, naturally, I panicked.

But, I had made another mistake.

This time it was a fortunate mistake. When I went to the institute to meet my advisor (to beg, borrow, or steal a little more time), I found out that I had made another mis-calculation. The last date for submitting the assignments was still a few days away. It was a HUGE relief to know that.

Now, I need to make sure that this time I don't wait till the last date, but finish my assignments well in time. Whoever said something about a stitch in time saving nine, surely knew what he was talking about.

BYBS - Holi

2008-03-23T16:48:00.003+05:30

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Saturday was Holi - a festival that is celebrated all across India, with great gusto.

It is popularly known as the festival of colours, as people put colors - both dry and wet - on each other. It is a festival where people forget past quarrels and become friends. It is a festival to that marks the beginning of spring. It is a festival where "bhang" (an intoxicating beverage derived from cannabis) is served to one and all. In short it is a festival to have fun, and have a good time.

Lately, the importance of such festivals has increased manifold, as most of us have found so much to do on our own that we hardly get time to meet our friends and neighbours. Festivals like Holi provide us with a chance to take a break, and just have a good time.

This year I decided to pass playing with colors on Holi. This is a hard thing to do, because someone is sure to come up to your house, and colour you in all hues. But, somehow I managed to save myself from being a victim to the colour brigade, especially as this year eggs and tomatoes were also being used as an alternative to color. And I for one would surely hate to have an egg cracked on my head.

And that talk about eggs reminds me that it is Easter on Sunday. Though we don't celebrate that in India, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter Holiday, after the Holi Holiday on Saturday!

The Good Old Times!

2008-03-19T22:11:00.004+05:30

Meeting someone from the distant past is always good. It brings back memories of times that have long gone by, times that have faded even in our rememberances. Last night, at a friend's place, I happened to see a familiar face in a sea of almost strange faces.

It did not take long for me to realise where I had seen the face - she was a teacher from my school. I wanted to go up to her and wish her a good day, but I wasn't sure if she would recognise me. So, I almost avoided meeting her.

Then my friend came to the rescue. We both had attended the same school, and he had been in touch with the teacher through the years. The teacher did not recognise me until my friend re-introduced me.

But once she did remember, we had a good time talking about the good old school days. I think for anyone who has gone to school, it is imposible to forget those days. There is not much to worry about and the responsibilities are minimum (though, back then, it didn't seem that way).

When one is in school, one just wants to grow up as soon as possible, get a job, and be released from the boring routine of going to school every day. If one knew what the life of a grown up is, he or she would never want to get out of school. Don't you think?

BYBS - My Best Friend

2008-03-16T08:55:00.004+05:30

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I wonder how life would have been if the person who discovered lenses, had not discovered them...and how life would have been without lenses?

People with perfect eyesight might not understand the blessings of the lenses, but for someone like me, who has had to resort to wearing spectacles for more than ten years now, lenses are a great blessing.

I remember, at school, I was not able to make anything much of what was written on the blackboard. But, naturally, I thought that this is how it was...that no one was able to read what was written on the blackboard. How everyone was noting down every word written on the blackboard on their notebooks was a mystery to me.

Then, one day, it dawned on me. I needed glasses. I was devastated. Quite unlike the present times, where my 12 year old cousin wants to get spectacles to look stylish, in our times wearing spectacles made you stand out, and not in a good way.

But, what is to be done, has to be done. I was soon walking around with the contraption on my face. And I fell in love with the device, because it showed me that part of the world, that I did not know even existed.

Since that day, I have never parted with my best friend!

Insurance is a good thing!

2008-03-12T22:07:00.001+05:30

For anyone who starts earning, investing some part of the income is very important.

Investment can take several forms, and one of these forms is insurance. Though, strictly speaking, insurance is not a form of investment, but a way by which one prepares himself, and his loved ones, for the worst case scenario.

These days one can get an insurance for almost anything. Ranging from life, health, property... you name it and there is an insurance for it. There are times when we feel that insurance is a nuisance. For example, getting an car insurance is legally binding in most countries, and if your insurance has expired, more likely than not, you will get a ticket.

At these times one feels that it is my car, and if I haven't taken an insurance for it, it is my problem. If something happens I will pay for it. But, when that something does happen, one can not be thankful enough for the insurance.

Some time back, a friend of mine had a major accident. His car collided with another car, and both cars were severely damaged. Since it was no one's fault, damages were paid by neither side. But, still the car had to be repaired, and that involved a major expenditure. But the friend's Car Insurance company settled the claims and most of the money spent by him was reimbursed.

When someone is involved in an accident, he is already under a lot of stress, and it is only good that under the circumstance he has one less thing to worry about.

What is your take on insurance?

A village in pictures

2008-03-11T21:19:00.009+05:30

As I said in my last post, I went to my ancestral village for the weekend. There was a lot of work to be done, but I did manage to find some time to click a few photos. Here are three that, I think, are the best of the lot.

The Village. (It's a small village, with a population of about one thousand)

The Orchard. (There are about 600 apple trees in this orchard)

The Village School.

BYBS : Physical Labour

2008-03-09T21:00:00.008+05:30

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Saturday and Sunday were spent away from town. I went for a visit to my ancestral village, which though not too far from where I live, is not a place I get to visit as often as I would like to. Especially, because I get to see my grandmother when I go there.

Visiting the village is, therefore, always a great blessing by itself!

We also have a small apple orchard in the village, and this time there was some work to be done at the orchard. We were a little short of men, as a few men who were supposed to be there didn't show up. Since we had only a day and a half in which the work was to be done, I finally decided to get down and dirty myself.

As a result, I am tired and sore now (Sunday night), but I think there were many things that I realised (or was reminded of) in the last two days. Here are a few of them :

Manual physical work is really hard work. LOL, it didn't take long for me to realise that.

The modern life (sedentary life style, with little physical activity) is not the best, if you are planning to get involved in some actual physical work in the near future. Even if you work out one hour every day, you are really not prepared for one day's hard work under the sun!

One hour seems much longer "out there" than when you are sitting in your office. The first day I was out in the orchard I was sure my wrist watch had stopped working when I checked my watch, after what seemed to me an eternity, and found that it was only 11:15. Still two hours and fifteen minutes to lunch.

You eat well, you drink well and you sleep great after a day's hard work. I did.

At the end of the day, hard work feels good...really good!

The last two days were a real blessing. Hope you had a great weekend, and have a better week ahead.

Life is like a white sheet

2008-03-05T08:39:00.000+05:30

Bad habits usually sneak in upon us. By the time we realize that we have developed a bad habit, it is too late to get rid of the habit easily. It takes quite an effort to get rid of it.

Anyone who has tried to quit smoking, drinking or gambling knows what I mean. And long after one has quit, there still remains a strong chance of a relapse.

But, let us say, a person has no bad habits, or has got rid of any bad habits that he had. So, this person feels that he has a right to a better deal in life because he does nothing wrong. Sounds quite fair too, no?

I think not. Merely not doing anything wrong is not enough. It is also important to do something right.

If one does not do anything wrong, nor anything right, he is merely wasting the time he has been given on this earth, So, it is important that you do something, and do it right.

Another thing that is a bit strange is that as you begin to do things the right way, living seems to become a little harder.

Life is, I feel, like a white sheet. Bad habits are like spots on the sheet. If you have many bad habits, you have a dirty sheet, and on that spotted sheet, the smaller bad habits get ignored as the major spots become the centre of attention. But as you get rid of the major spots, the smaller spots seem just as bad or even worse. So, the cleaner your sheet gets, the harder you have to work on keeping it clean. Doesn't seem fair, but that is the way it is.

The choice to have a clean sheet, or a dirty one, is yours. What will you choose?

BYBS : Superannuation

2008-03-02T08:46:00.003+05:30

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This week one of my bosses retired from work. He had been working with the organization for the past 37 years. And I had been working with him for the last four years. He was a gentleman, through and through. The one thing that everyone specially liked about him was that he never raised his voice, and kept his cool at all times.

A couple of farewell parties were organized on the occasion of his retirement.

Now, there is something about retirement parties that is very nostalgic. Everyone remembers the good times they have had working together, and the bad times - if there have been any - are usually forgotten. And in the present case it was especially so, because there were hardly any bad times to be forgotten, while there were many good to remember, and share.

Also, in today's day and time when anyone hardly sticks to one job, or organization, for any length of time, it is good to see someone happily retire from an organization after having served it for 37 years. May the rest of his life be peaceful and prosperous!

While, for the rest of you out there, I wish a great week ahead!

Despair, or Hope?

2008-02-29T23:17:00.003+05:30

Any given situation can be perceived in two ways : optimistically, or pessimistically.

I read somewhere that given a choice between hope and despair, most people often choose despair. I was surprised to read that, because, to me, it seems natural that a person, when given a choice, should chose hope over despair. But, when I looked around me I realised that there wase truth in writer's claim.

In life things rarely happen the way we want them to. There is always many a slip between the cup and the lip. And over a period of time our experiences begin to tell us that there is a greater chance of us failing, than succeeding. So, we begin to expect failure. And if we are expecting failure, the desire to succeed, instead of raging like a wild fire, gets extinguished. It is a vicious circle indeed.

But I feel that regardless of what has happened in the past, one should always look at the future with hope. Ofcourse the mistakes of the past should not be forgotten or ignored. One should learn his or her lesson from the mistakes, and move on --without losing hope. For, however dark the night may be, morning always follows it.

How do you look at the future? With hope, or despair?

Getting an Award!

2008-02-27T08:36:00.001+05:30

I was watching the repeat telecast of The Oscar Awards ceremony on TV yesterday as I had missed the live telecast earlier (it was on quite early in the morning, here in India). There is something about the Oscar Awards ceremony that I really like.

It could be the grand scale at which the event is organised, or it could be the wit and the humour in the lines of the host and the various presenters, or it could be the performance of the various artists, or it could be the various montages that are on show at the ceremony.

But, I think, more than all of the above, what I like most is watching the reaction of the winners. It is not just the Oscars; watching the reaction of a winner of any event - big, or small - is always satisfying.

I am sure most people who win the big awards, like the Oscars, have spent hours practising their winner's speech. But, even then, there is that one moment on stage when the guard gets lowered and the true emotions are expressed by the award receiver. However small that moment might be, it is worth watching!

In some ways, watching an awards ceremony is quite motivating. When you have a dream, there are times when the dream seems distant and it seems easier to let go than to keep pursuing it. Watch someone getting an award and you know that some dreams do come true. Of course not all dreams come true, but there is no reason why yours won't. Right?

Life, Among Other Things

Innocence, Lost!

Back again!

Today is a "Present"

BYBS: Getting Hurt!

Fifteen Years Ago...

Who Am I?

The Right, The Wrong, and The Middle Path!

BYBS: Children's Day and Our Environment!

BYBS: Seek Not, And You Shall Find

BYBS : A Great Teacher

BYBS: Those Who Took a Stand!

BYBS : Weather!

BYBS : Smile

BYBS: Formalities

BYBS : Friendship Day!

BYBS: The Darkest Hour

BYBS : The Others

BYBS : Food on the Plate

To Err Is Human...

BYBS :Coming Home

BYBS: Looking

BYBS : All Things Simple

The Curious Incident of a Lizard in My Bathroom

BYBS : Time Flies or What?

BYBS : Happy Mother's Day!

BYBS : Routine

BYBS : The Butterfly Effect

BYBS : Good Food & Simple Life

Where on Earth is Blue Panther

BYBS : Pitstops

A Fair Deal

BYBS : Good Things

The Great Indian Elections

Examinations - Almost a BYB!

BYBS : Ides of March

Happy Holi!

BYBS : The Choice

BYBS : LOTR

BYBS : Love

BYBS : Rituals

BYBS : Work, We Love

Blogrolling woes!

BYBS - Technology and an ebook!

BYBS : What is Religion?

BYBS : Resolutions

Happy New Year 2009

BYBS : Oasis

BYBS : A Written Down Goal

Weekly Round-up

BYBS : Defeat

BYBS : Reminders

BYBS : NaNoWriMo 2008

Happy Deepawali!

BYBS : A Beautiful Excuse

BYBS: An Everlasting Smile

BYB blogroll changes

BYBS: Vacation

BYBS : Intrinsically Motivated!

BYBS : One blog too many!

BYBS : Guilt

BYBS : Nostalgia!

BYBS : Resting and Relaxing!

BYBS : Citius, Altius, Fortius !

Happy Independence Day!

BYBS - A Thought

BYBS : The Sweet Ache

BYBS : No One Thing

BYBS : Change

BYBS : Good Health

BYBS : Music - The food of love

Is Excess of Everything Bad?

BYBS : Writing

Speaking the Truth

BYBS : Change

BYBS: Over-reaching

BYB Banners - Finally!

BYBS : Milestones

BYBS : What do you want to be?

Every Day is a Special Day