Smile please !! Mr.Gandhi

There was just the roar and the wind hissed the melodies of the dark into our ears, we rode the lonely deserted desolated roads still trying to digest the movie we had just finished seeing. FYI it was "7khoon maaf". Mr.Ruskin bond had tricked us for the night and we needed a chai to wake up and boys a fag to breathe life again. Towards the end of the 100ft road,indiaranagar  is a 24 hr chai shop. a small shack in its best knit rags. We took chai and were sipping discussing our helplessness being caught by the police and had to shell 100 bucks for showcasing the tomcat ( thats karizma) in the odd wee hours with out a license.

i was nibbling some biscuits when i find the rest of pack awestruck. before i could even question i was also in the same state. Their state was quite comprehending when i shared the sight. Two beautiful gals (in all proportions and departments) jus walked by us to the chai shop. it was almost half past the 12. We did stare at them for a moment and gulped our comments too.Two gals at dead of the night at an odd chai shop was crazy for us.The more crazier it got was when they asked for a pack of 'classic milds' , let me tell u my pack was smoking KINGS like Kings. Two girls riding alone bought the pack, rode their way to the emptiness towards KR puram.

We stood their looking at the gals when boys exchanged some gyaan. Somewhere back in mind i was smiling, a little proud and out of no where remembered Mr.Gandhi. His dream was more than true, just not walking alone at dead of the night they were even living life on their terms. They were brave enough to tread at night. I felt that women no longer were what it was long ago. I am sure Mr.Gandhi would have smiled and felt a lot better at the sight we had noticed.

Signing off...

Goodnight and have a great weekend

The Other Side

“When you're finished changing, you're finished.”     Benjamin Franklin


Its quite engaging to know about how we respond and react; Understand the patterns that drive our actions. In a quest for finding precise words to define my crazy thoughts, was reading through and found something about benefits of Philosophy - "... great benefits of philosophy is that it challenges us to think critically about our beliefs and to justify them with good arguments. The development of critical thinking skills is something that can help all of us to make better decisions in many aspects of our lives..."

This is when i coined the phrase - "Philosophy of benefit"(POB). Phew !! Chill, I ain't really talking about philosophy, but just a perspective about things. Let us consider POB and antonymous to that is the "Fear of loss" (FOL). I have tried defining them in a vague fashion to convey a thought.

All the actions we do, seem to fall into either POB or FOL, as the reason behind it.

To put it in a simple way, I work because i get money. I learn something new because i see some benefit or pleasure in it. We watch movies, travel and do innumerable interesting things as they make us happy and feel good. So it is the POB; definition of benefit varies form person. Similarly there a lot of things that we don't do or want to do because of the 'Fear factor' attached to it. That's how FOL controls our motives and actions. But we are mostly driven by POB than FOL is what i feel. To quote a simple example, we have people who smoke and booze though they are aware of the loss and effects. Arguments can be debated endlessly though.

What's the whole point of this? Its actually not about philosophy but about marketing that i wanted to talk about. Off late everyone is talking about going green, saving trees, saving paper and i have witnessed so many initiatives. To name a few - Bus day, using coffee mugs, and by now you should be quoting the major ones that i have skipped quite intentionally. Go green is not the only thing but many measures and marketing to save power, oil and water are all focusing and targeting public with FOL. Everyone is aware of this, yet people don't take initiatives to save any of the things because they don't really see a benefit out of it. It sounds funny when you ask someone to save oil so that someone can burn it tomorrow. By now you might have an intriguing feeling that "Dude its your world, save it..."

I agree taking ownership is what one should to. its individualistic. My arguments are when an institution or a group of people try marketing an idea, it should not be backed with FOL. Take public transport, car pooling to save fuel are nice options but not nicely put. Why should i share the luxury for no benefit is what a common man might revolt with.

Instead market it with POB. Say you get benefits using the shuttle transport provided by the company instead of car allowance. Its a win-win for both. I believe instead of just a lame propaganda and blogging and texting, we should come up with innovative ways to ask people to save and follow something so that they see the benefits in it than the loss that you are trying to exaggerate. This will by-large see an adoption and change can thus be achieved.

Change is needed in thought, in attitude. In this blog i lest, comment on an individual, its all about marketing.


“Some people change their ways when they see the light; others when they feel the heat”        
                                                                                                                    -- Caroline Schoeder

Happ(Y)ness??

                   

While browsing, my sister accidentally stumbled upon this blog. This pic kept me hooked for quite a long time and then i decided to post it . The message was so simple. A simple fact that we are responsible for our happiness and somehow we tend to place our happiness in other people's hands!! If you are not happy, you can do something more than cribbing and complaining.

Link to Original Post

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”               

                                                                                                             -- Einstein

A Spring-summer's night dream

"....I was standing at a cross road, as i just had passed through a rough patch. For awhile, the days now, seem to be empty of life; very sultry, hot and dry aaah.. Just like the summer outside. 
The days galloped by and kept me busy and worried. Lots of things lingered around adding to the heat and myself being baked amidst these, though not into a nice cake, but a dark charred lump. The infamous yet essential mirage - "Appraisals", the summer heat, the Carlton mishap, scintillating sexual encounters of Swami had also added to the heat and life seemed nothing more than an empty dusty road to me.


Filling excel sheets that never made any sense to my senseless mind, drowned in the calls with unconventionally idiotic people, justifying myself convincingly to the most unconvincing and stingy manager for the impossible thing-'Hike', preparing material for an audience who call it immaterial, reading through, yet not understanding the unfathomed fathoms of the subject, Blocking a huge amount of money to convince myself that i saved few pennies by filing tax, struggling to master the mysterious tax slabs and right investment and the bike odyssey to office everyday seems to have made me numb towards things around. I looked at myself, and  suddenly realize that somewhere in these few days had lost my instincts to observe and appreciate the world around me. 
A rendezvous with the mirror, I looked an alien to myself. Leaving so many a things behind i was walking, walking the mile along the most deserted road. There seemed to be no sign of life and the air breathed envy and death around. No sign of hope and all the trees around were dead dry, as if they were no more young and to be called fossils... it was suffocating and jus then i saw... it was walking towards me... it was......."


Screeeeeeeeeeeeecchhhhhhhh!!! Thuddddddd!!! and i woke up with a start. A chill had run through my spine even in the sultry summer night. It was a Midsummer's Night mare to me and i woke up to realise that it was 9 am on a fine lazy Saturday morning.


Shaken by the clutter of the reality and wildest imaginations i popped out in my shorts to take a walk. I started feeling good, the air breathed life, and to my surprise i noticed the change. The old withered leaves were no longer there, the fresh green leaves ornated the landscape. The street was painted yellow,bright and beautiful. the flowers had laid a 'red-carpet' on the streets. I felt in my weirdest thoughts that maybe mama nature had a great week and had shopped brand new clothing in yellow and green as if there was a 50% sale. Stupendous thought though. The vibrancy around filled a life and in my most materialistic ways and instincts of a software guy, i glanced to the calendar to find UGADI was just few days away and that spring had arrived. 

“We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are.”                                                             --- Calvin and hobbes
                     
May be in the rush of our lives, we forget to admire beauty and live, we merely exist. Lets shed our schedules and take some time off the comp and admire the beauty. Enough of reading this too, go out, the world is a wonderful place. All you need is a little time, silent eyes and heart to admire it. Everyone has it. Maybe this is what everyone around us goes through. 


Uncomplicate....  Break free...!!!
Its your life... go live it up !!!


PS: The pic was taken right in front of my house
      (HAL 2 stage)

OXYMORONIC.....!!!

Know Aids for No AIDS

Sometimes. . . .

“Our best thoughts come from others.” -- Ralph waldo emerson

                      With thousands of thoughts and worries, staring at the monitor, monitoring some un-monitored messages and issues had left me a little tired and jinxed about the whole thing. Just then as any other software guy's day, a forward knocked at my inbox doors. To claim my right for the break i again started staring at the bright monitor that makes me dull end of the day. But the forward did cheer me up and thats when i remembered emerson and thought i should share this piece of writing with all my friends.

                      Though might seem very known and heard stuff, trust me it gives u a sense of good feeling. I don't really know the author of it and even google failed to tell this to me. Yet neverthless anonymous though, the words were worth a read. So here it goes.

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there. They serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or help figure out who you are or who you want to become.
You never know who these people may be; your roommate, neighbor, professor, long lost friend, lover or even a complete stranger who, when you lock eyes with theirs, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way.

Sometimes things happen to you and at the time they may seem horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength, willpower or heart.

Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good or bad luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul.
Without these small tests, if they be events, illnesses or relationships, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. Safe and comfortable, but dull and utterly pointless.

The people you meet who affect your life and the successes and downfalls you experience -- they are the ones who create who you are.
Even the bad experiences can be learned from ... those lessons are the hardest and probably the most important ones.

If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious about to whom you open your heart.

If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because they are teaching you to love and opening your heart and eyes to things you would have never seen or felt without them.

Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can, for you may never be able to experience it again.

Talk to people you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Let yourself fall in love. Break free and set your sights high.
Hold your head up because you have every right to.

Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you either.

You can make of your life anything you wish.
Create your own life and then go out and live it!!!