Sunday, February 28, 2010

Aren't we better than lots of other people..?

Sometimes back I got a forward SMS from one of my friends that read "We always feel that life of others is better than us.. but we forget that we are also 'OTHERS' to someone else..!"

How true is that statement.. Isn't it? I see so many people complain about their life. They complain that they don't have shoes while there are people who don't have feets. They complain they don't have good goggles to wear while there are people who don't have the vision to see the world. And the list goes on and on.

Dreaming big isn't a wrong thing. Taking effort to better your life, life style, status, luxury or whatsoever isn't a wrong thing. Taking effort to better ourself emotionally, personally, financially and in all aspects should be there. But at the same time, are we appreciating what we have got right now with us, which are even beyond imagination for someone else. Are we thankful for the life that we have been offered..? I think it requires deep thinking to answer that question. Shouldn't the efforts for betterment be on top of gratitude of what we have got so far instead of the complains?

Lets think about it..

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Prepare for the unexpected..

Life isn't always easy.. Smooth sailing isn't always possible.. Just because things have been good doesn't mean that it will continue to be the same for the rest of your life. It is important to understand this and be prepared to handle the tough time. Of course, you shouldn't be missing the joy and happiness of the present moments, especially when things are going in the right direction. But getting ourself prepared to face the varying rhythms of life becomes important to keep ourself moving ahead irrespective of the situations we face.

It works the other way as well. Just because you are going through bad time doesn't mean that your rest of the life is going to be a hell. The climate change, the wind changes its directions, it rains when you don't expect, it becomes cold, it becomes hot.. so as the life.. Expecting the unexpected can help to handle the 'ups and downs' of the life easily.. It also gives more joy when things happen in the right way and reduces the stress when things don't go well since you have 'kind of' expected it..

I always see that people get upset when things suddenly change [including 'me' sometimes]. They get into a horrible state of stress and unable to handle the truth that things aren't the same as what it was few seconds back. They are not prepared. Handling the brighter side of life is always easy. Because when things go well, you automatically be filled with lots of energy, so moving ahead isn't that difficult.

Problem comes when things change in the negative direction. Especially when you haven't expected and not yet prepared for the change. It is always good to have a backup plan as 'what if it doesn't go well..?' But thinking of 'what if' shouldn't be ruining your present moments and eventually force things to go wrong :-D So enjoy the present moments. At the same time, prepare yourself to handle the truth that 'life becomes tough at times'..

More importantly, develop the attitude of concentrating on 'what to do' when tough time comes.. Worrying isn't going to change anything. Fight the hard times. Think what you need to do to bring the things back to normal.. Be flexible to change your plans when things are not going in the way you expect, yet getting to the place where you want to be. Always get to know the multiple routes to the same destination. If one route doesn't work out, try different routes. Have different plans for life. Face and handle the change in the situation.. Of course, you cannot change the destination, but you can change the route according to the situation and still reach your destination..

Remember that life is what we make it.. what we choose to do.. it is absolutely based on the decisions we make. We can choose to fight back the situations or we can choose to get killed by the situations.. Every second of the life demands you to make decision based on the situations.. Always take the decision that favors you, which gets you what you want, which helps you to move further towards your ultimate goal and destiny :)

Come! Lets live the life!! :)

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Discuss your (miss)understandings..

How much ever you try avoiding, misunderstanding happens all the times.. Sometimes it is even worse that the person who misunderstands don't even want to discuss about it. They want to chew their thoughts based on their own assumptions, judgments and based on what they saw, heard, read, or understood. They don't even think in the aspects of "can't there be a tiny possibility of my understanding of what I saw or heard could be different than the other person's intention".

Most of the relationships break only because of misunderstandings. The problem comes when someone isn't open to talk/discuss about what is bothering them and not taking effort to discuss their understanding through open talks. When certain things, especially the ones that bother the inner mind, are not discussed openly, they eventually result in frustration and one day there is going to be a big blast and thats when everything will break..

In some other cases, even if they are ready to discuss it, they keep their mind rigid thinking that what they assume or judge is correct. If the mind is not flexible enough to consider the other person's point of view, there is no point in discussing about it. It is as good as not discussing and eventually it is not going to help.

We might very well be right and what we have understood might be correct, but keeping the mind open and flexible to consider other's thoughts and their side of assumptions and intentions can only help to bring the understandings back to the right track.

During the discussions, it is important to have the attitude of 'I want to workout this relationship..', rather than having the thoughts of 'I'm right and you are wrong'. Most of the times compromises, forgiving, flexibility to understand and consider other's situations are really important to keep the relationship going.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Busy Bee..

Life is going really busy these days. Not finding enough time to sleep. It happens especially when I be lazy for some period and spend my time luxuriously. So now, I have to chase up with those stuff that I postponed and yet do whatever I'm supposed to be doing now. When the backlog increases, it makes life little tougher yet interesting :) May be, I'm a kind of guy who enjoys life when it goes really busy. May be that is one of the reasons why I be lazy for sometime, so that my backlog can increase in multi fold, so that I get enough stuff to keep me busy.. [see, what a kind of excuse I'm giving to myself :D]

Work is keeping me busy on one side, while my personal life still demands much of my time. Especially after resuming the activity [they call it habit, but i'm yet to put enough effort to make it a habit :D] of reading, life becomes very busy. One way it is good. It makes me not to think too much about certain stuff that I normally worry about.

Talking to friends, emailing/chatting with them has increased a bit nowadays. It gives me a good feeling. Planning to go out this weekend for photography. Lets see how it goes. So, how are things your side...?

Reading Ponniyin Selvan

It would have been almost four years since I bought the complete series of Ponniyin Selvan.. I have heard very good reviews about that book, so I thought I would buy it and read it sometime. But I never got time to read it. Just two days back, I thought why not to start reading it slowly. I haven't even completed first book yet (5 books complete the whole story) but I'm amazed by the way the story has been told. Kalki (the author of Ponniyin Selvan) is really a great novelist, I thought.

There are lots of characters, however Kalki managed to write the story such that it doesn't bore. It provokes the interest of the reader and makes them not to keep the book down without completing it. He is really a good story teller. So far I have read almost 23 chapters and I've hardly saw few words repeating. I was wondering how much this guy rich in Tamil literature and Tamil words. His narration is too good. Each and every page is fast paced and very interesting. More importantly, as I mentioned above, I'm impressed by the Tamil words the author used in the novels and his Tamil literature knowledge.

Really loving the book. I'm so very eager to complete the whole series in one shot, but I'm unable to find time for this since I have other priorities. So I decided to read it few chapters everyday, so that eventually I can complete this historically famous novel.

If you like reading Tamil books, I suggest you to read Ponniyin Selvan and I'm sure you wont regret the time you spent on that. :-)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

He switched off his phone because I was busy.. :D

My phone rang when I was busy washing my clothes. I quickly went and saw who was calling. It was one of my friends.. 'Let me call him back after few mins..', I thought. So I decided not to pick up the phone and went back to continue washing my clothes.

After few minutes, I called him back.. I heard a sweet lady voice instead of my friend's. She said, 'The number you are trying to call is presently switched off. To leave a voice message press '*' followed by the ten digit mobile number...', I didn't want to hear further. I hung up the phone.

After an hour or so, he called me again. This time I didn't want to miss his call, so I picked up and said, "hiiiiii.. whatz up dude..!".

Instead of telling 'hi', he started complaining me as I don't pick up the phone when he calls. I smiled and said, "Dude.. I was busy doing something else, so I thought I would call you back after few minutes but you switched off the phone..".

I continued to ask him, "why did you switch the phone off..". I knew he wasn't at roaming either for him to switch it off to avoid unnecessary calls.

"I called you, you were busy, so I switched off my phone..", he replied. He might have tried to say something else. And yes, he was continuing to say something else.

I started laughing.

"You switched off the phone because I'm busy..?", I laughed out again.

"******.. first let me complete..", he said louder. That ****** is a bad word he used. And thats his usual way of talking. Then he tried to continue explain me again. But I cut him off again and told,

"You switched off because I'm busy ah..?",  I started laughing again.

"******.. ******.. ******.. ", he started scolding me in bad words. He must have got pissed off.. But who cares, I was laughing! He hung up the phone. I know he would call me back and yes he did..

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

An old pal's call after several years..

I was hurrying to office and thats when my mobile phone started ringing. I looked at the display of the phone to know who was calling but only the numbers were displayed on the phone. So it is someone new, I thought. Or perhaps a old pal. I picked up the phone and said, "hello..!"

"Is this Paul..?", a male voice on the other side inquired.

"Yes.. It is..", I was quickly searching my memory cells to see whether I am finding a match for the voice I'm hearing.

"Do you know someone named Ashok..?", he asked.

"I know lots of Ashok..? Which Ashok are you talking about?", I said. I really know lots of Ashok. I was really puzzled of the voice I was hearing. I couldn't make out who it was.

"Ashok.. A friend of your friend Karthick.. Karthick from Trichy", he started giving me clues.

Well.. Honestly I knew lots of Karthick's too.. That too lots of Karthick from Trichy. I said, "well.. I know lots of Karthicks from Trichy too. I am really sorry for not able to recognize you.. Could you give me little more details..?', I asked. At the same time, I was thinking very fast to see whether the Karthicks I know in Trichy has any link with anyone named Ashok. But I couldn't think of anyone.

"Ada paavi.. avlo periya aalaayitiyaa..? Karthick-a kooda maranthitiya..?", he immediately switched to Tamil. [ "oh.. You have become that big guy ah.. you even forgot Karthick.." ]

Now I got a match in my memory cells for the voice that has similar flow of Tamil.. I immediately asked, "Is it Ashraf..?"

"Then who else am I talking about.. I have been telling that it is Ashraf. Honestly tell me, how many Ashraf's do you know.. you bugger!!", he got into local Tamil slag.

"Sorry buddy, there had been a confusion. Whenever you were pronouncing Ashraf, I was hearing it as Ashok. Thats why.. I know only one Ashraf dude.. you knew it..", I said. I was happy to hear his voice. We talked for a while then.

It had been more than three and half years since we talked over phone. I knew him through one of my close friends at school, named Karthick. He is Karthick's college mate. But when Karthick introduced him to me, we became good friends.. I even go to their house when I stayed in Chennai. It was more than 3 years back. Then I came to Bangalore and he went to Singapore. After that there were not much contact.

I felt happy about talking to him after a long time. I like that guy since he have been one of my good friends around. He said, "I'm in Bangalore now for some transition phase of my project and will be here for another week time, can we meet sometime tomorrow..?". I said, "yeah.. why not.. I will meet you at your hotel tomorrow evening.."

There are still lots of my good friends with whom I'm not in contact with. It is not that I don't take effort to contact them. I try to contact them sometime, but somehow I lost their phone numbers. They also didn't bother to get in touch with me, it seems. I am still in search of few of my friends in Orkut and Facebook.. It makes to feel good inside when you talk to your old pal after several years..

More than all of these, I sometime scared when some of my old pals call me after several years. They will expect me to remember their voice and will puzzle me to identify who they are. If I say, "no.. I couldn't..", they will take it personally. I don't know why they do that. They will start complaining that I forgot them and I didn't even took any effort to contact them. They would think that I intentionally forgot them or intentionally telling that I don't know them. They don't realize the fact that they also didn't contact me for several years.. Then the situation will become little uncomfortable.. But Ashraf is not one such guy. He understands. I know him and thats why I felt happy talking to him after several years.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Moving on..

I don't know why (yeah, you are right, I know why), but I am surrounded by some kind of uneasiness. Certain things are moving very slow. I'm unable to make right progress that I have been expecting. Some kind of laziness or dullness has gotten into my mind and that is making me not to progress in the right pace.

I feel like I need somebody with whom I can share my feelings and what I have been going through. But no one is out there. Everyone is busy with their own world. I don't want to disturb them. Though I say like this, I'm not sure whether I'm really ready to discuss about what I'm going through with someone else.

Change is good. There is no doubt about it. But the transition is the toughest time that one can go through. But got to accept the fact that life has to be lived forward. Move on.