What are your Assumptions

Recently during a discussion with my manager, the topic of discussion turned to my involvement in a work which was handled by another team in HR. I reasoned saying i felt that the work was confidential hence i didnt involve myself in it. He said "you seem to be bounded by so many assumptions".

Thinking over it i realized that so many times in our life, we have so many of the assumptions which put a veil over how we see our life. Just to name a few couple of assumptions which come to the top of my mind are:

• Autoricksaw drivers always charge high fare
• Politicians are corrupt
• People who drink/smoke are bad
• Money is the root of all evil, etc etc etc. 

During last weekend while traveling outside, I wanted to take autoricksaw to go to my destination.Usually, I dont ask any autoricksaw fellows who would be waiting at the bus stop since I have always assumed that they will quote a high fare. However this time, I felt why not ask and see what he says. So, when i enquired not only he quoted a nominal fare, I was able to negotiate with him to put the fare and charge an extra 10 bucks. The point is, my assumption about autoricksaw guy been unfair & charging exhorbitant fare was proved wrong. All i did was question my assumption.

i dont mean to say our assumptions may be wrong. In some cases, it may be right, but blindly following some assumption because thats what our parents had told us or that was what we had experienced several years back, might lead us to ignore the reality and keep ourself confined.

As a good colleague of mine used to say "When you assume, you make an ASS of U & ME".

So friends,

What assumptions do you have in your life?  To what extent they dictate your life.

Can you try challenging them and see how true or relevant they are?  

  

Secret to become Rich

Iam back! 

After a long hiatus, thanks to the prodding of two of my friends, I finally got back to write an article. To think of why i stopped writing, there were a couple of reasons. One, I felt I had to write a truly perfect, and unique article, which will be well received. Secondly, I thought that instead of writing blog, I will use that time to focus my efforts in writing my book. Surprisingly, I couldnt utilize my time for book writing as well. To cut a long story short, I eventually ended up becoming lazy and my procrastination friend ensured that I continued to procrastinate my idea of writing a blog. That was until now, when I decided to kick out the procrastinator guy out and write an article now! 

I really havent a clue of what to write now. Iam just wondering which apt topic to write upon. If you are expecting something profound to come up, do not go any further! Seriously, do not go any further. One thing which comes to my repeatedly since the last couple of months is the desire to become rich. To have a big bungalow, have all the luxuries of life and being rich enough to travel across the world! As i sat wondering how will i go and make my desire come true, I came across an video in the net, which was about the topic of becoming rich! With my curiosity bursting out, I watched the video earnestly. At the end, I was dumb founded about what i got to see. 

The video had a very profound message to share. It tell a story of a boy who dislikes his father, and sees him as a nobody, a poor, unsuccessful and not a smart person! They struggle to meet their daily needs. His father inculcates a habit of making him put a part of his pocket money into a box. The boy asks his father "Why arent we rich". The boy's father responds "Being rich is not about how much you have, but about how much you give"

The boy doesnt understand it then, but resolves not to be poor as his father. He puts his best effort and in due time, gets scholarship and ends up getting a good job! He becomes busy with his work, neglects his father by not visiting him during the vacation. In few months, his father passes away. The boy visits the home then and gets to see a different side of his father (Dont worry, his father is not a CIA/FBI agent, as we most often see in movies). I have shared the video link below for you to watch. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ieg9MkNR3X8

I will leave it to you to watch the remaining part of the story. IT IS WORTH THE TIME TO WATCH! 

As I watched the video, I had a couple of realizations. Most often we are so busy with our own concerns and problems in our life, that we wonder why arent we happy or why arent we getting rich. We are fully immersed in multitudes of problems in our life. But the secret of being rich, is not about having a big balance account in the bank, or owning a huge villa. Coz, at the end of the day, you would still want to have more, earn more. 

The moment one starts thinking about someone's else happiness, doing something however small to bring a smile to other person life, there is a completely new world waiting to be discovered. Just try doing any of the following today! 

• Make someone feel better about themselves (Because you will feel better about yourself at the end)
• Making someone belief in their dreams (Coz your belief in your dreams will become much stronger)
• Making someone's hope come alive (Coz your light of hope will never fade)
• Bring a smile to someone or (Coz you will remain smiling always)
• Appreciate someone for their goodness. (Coz your good deed will be appreciated for eternity) 

Call it law of karma, law of universe or the SECRET working in your favor. Irrespective of what you believe in, when you truly take a step forward to help someone else by overlooking your own problems or concerns, that's when LIFE gives you much more than what you can imagine! 

Imagine a world where people respect you genuinely, love you and truly care for your well being! Imagine a place where your one simple action impacts someone's life so much that you are remembered forever. Imagine leaving a legacy behind where you are good deeds continue to touch and make others live their life for better. That is in the truest sense, being RICH. 

All you need to do is one simple stuff. Dont bother about how much you have, just give. Because at the end of the day, being rich is not about how much you have, but about how much you give. 

P.S: Thank you Preeti and Vardhinee for reminding me often to re-start my blog writing. Your insistence helped in me overcoming my laxness. 

As a extra note to the article, something interesting happened, which Iam sharing here. When i finished writing the article for the first time. I had fully written the article and had pasted it to the blog post, when suddenly my laptop got switched off. (it keeps switching off, arbitrarily). I restarted the system only to find my entire article disappear! I had written in a unsaved notepad, so it wasnt there and neither was it saved in the 
blog post draft. I had with great difficulty overcome my lazyness to write an article, and when I finished writing it, I found to my dismay that it had fully vanished. A part of me said 'it already late, go to sleep, you can write the article later, but another part of me said "if i dont write the article now, possibly, I may become lazy & not write the article for a long time. So, i sat back and again wrote the article for 30 minutes and published it again. 

The reason why Iam sharing this here, is to just remind my lovely readers that whenever you decide to change for the better, YOU WILL BE met with unforeseen challenges or troubles and you will be tempted to give up! My only request to you is not to GIVE UP! Just continue trodding an extra few steps, you will reach your destination. May the force be with you :) 

When the Gods said ‘Oh My God’

Disclaimer:  I was inspired to write this post after a long hiatus. Initially I was skeptical about writing the post as I wasn’t sure to what extent this would be helpful to others. But eventually, I went with my gut feeling on expressing my thoughts lest someone finds it helpful.  Just in case you don’t find it useful, don’t blame me. My disclaimer is that I have pre-warned you. 

Three things are sanctimonious in India. Religion, Politics and Cricket. Anyone having different belief or thought against the wildly held belief on any of these three will be straightway declared as rebellious misfits in a best scenario to outright madmen in the worst case scenario. Hence, anyone courageous enough to touch on any of these subjects could be labeled a misfit or madmen, depending upon his good deeds in his ‘Purnajanam’ (last birth). Rarely there comes a movie which deals with the subject of religion and manages to convince people in terms of driving across its message.  Oh My God (OMG) is one such movie. I loved OMG not only for the entertaining dramatized script but also due to its direct take on the way religion is blindly followed by people. 

It’s about the journey of a protagonist from being a non believer to a believer in God.  Paresh Rawal has done an awesome job of donning the protagonist role of Kanshi, who is a businessman who sells God idols in his shop and tells far-fetched tales to sell his idols, the ones which we hear in Haridwar, Rishikesh. He considers the God idols just as stone pieces and tells white lies to lure unsuspecting customers to buy his goods, who completely fall for his trap.

To keep it short, a small earthquake destroys only his shop. He approaches the insurance to claim the damage amount, who tells him that earthquake being an act of god, doesn’t fall under the claims. Having no other option to get funds to save his collateralized home, he files a case against God accusing him of intentionally destroying his shop and seeks compensation for that. The Godmen, being salesmen agent’ of God represent and fight the case on God’s behalf. What follows is a funny account of how the media, society ridiculing the insanity of Kanshi, later start supporting him in his case. Also, enters Akshay Kumar as God Kanhaiya who stays with him and supports him towards the end, making him realize that there exists God, not in the sense people think and worship him, but in a different way.

This article is not a movie review of OMG; rather it’s the sharing of my main learning’s in the movie. These are my own personal opinions and; not intended to hurt anyone sentiments or religious belief. [But if you still insist on getting hurt after reading some of my views, by all means be hurt. After-all, we live in a democratic country]

 In the movie, Kanshi argues in the court that the beggars outside the temple aren’t allowed inside and they go hungry, but there is a big line of devotees waiting to do ‘Pal Abhishekam’ [Bathing God’s idol with Milk]. My major contention is with the wastage of gallons of milk, oil used for the Puja’s and God preparations, which could be used to feed the poor and the hungry.  Add on to it the temple entry charges, special ‘darshan’ tickets; it seems to be one of the most profitable businesses next to politics. As Kanshi says in the movie, this is the only business whose growth rate doubles during recession.

The other point which is beautifully captured in the movie is about the role of Godmen, the self proclaimed messengers of the Almighty and who claim to know the right way to worship God. Some Godmen have moved onto the next level. They proclaim themselves as the God’s avatar and bless devotees prostrating at their feet asking for their blessings. What madness. People who believe in Godmen, falling for their magic acts can think about what Akshay donning the role of Krishna says in the movie "Mein Kishan hoo, isliye Chamatkaar karta hoon. Mein Chamatkar karta hoon, isliye Kishan nahi hoon. [Iam Lord Krishna & hence i can do miracles, I do miracles but that doesnt makes on Lord Krishna]

My take is that if you want God, you need to look within, because God is in everyone, he is everywhere. Instead of blindly following and prostrating before Godmen who become rich with your money and dictate to you how and when to worship God. As Kanshi says, they have copyrighted God who is available to all. For instance, a saint in the movie says that Sai Baba of Shirdi died with lack of water and oil with not much followers. But post his death, people found a way to worship him and collect crores of money to run a trust in his name, thus making the trust owners wealthy. 

I have much respect for the belief people have in God. I too believe that God exist but he doesn’t exist only in temples. He is omnipresent. But sometimes in times of despair or unfavorable situations, I have found myself turning to an entity called ‘God’ and blame him for the unfavorable circumstances and asking him to help me out. As if, crying and petitioning will work out. On introspection, I have realized that I have done that mostly because I want to shift my accountability to him, so to feel pity for myself and have less guilty about ‘projecting an image’ of helplessness. I don't intend to say don't reach out to God. We certainly need the support of the superpower to help us wade through the crisis, but what is required at the crisis time is undying faith and a positive belief that things will turn out well, rather than visiting temples and giving chunks of money as donations and expect things to turn better.

Just to bring a scientific angle, which I felt could have been dealt in the movie but was surprisingly missed out, I believe the reason why our prayers are answered is that because of our earnest belief to make something happen and due to the power of our sincere thoughts behind it. As someone – “When you truly want something to happen, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it.”  It’s your earnest desire which makes thing happen, rather than God sitting in his office who keeps approving or disapproving your applications request. 

My sincere appeal to my fellow friends who are die hard theist are - If you spend Rs.1000 towards temple visits and puja’s, please spend at least 10% of that amount for feeding a poor person. Just in case, if you are able to spend the entire Rs.1000 in feeding or helping a needy person, Iam sure you will meet or experience God in real life. 

Diving a little into spirituality, wise people have said that everyone is a God. There is a Tamil song whose lyrics goes like ‘Manidhan enbavan deivam aagalam’ (Man can become God) and goes on to share ways in which a human can become God through his deeds, hence everyone is God. Even actor Kamal Hassan says the same in his movie ‘Anbe Sivam’ where he says ‘Love for Humanity is equal to God’. When a stranger helped you in times of distress, they were being a God. When a teacher motivates or inspires a child to aspire for the best in his/her life, the teacher is being a God to the child. When your friend gives you a helping hand in difficult moments, he is being a God for you. Every-time we are helping a needy person, we are representing the God through us, through our actions.

In the climax, when people realize the true nature of the Godmen and they had to run away to save themselves, one Godmen makes this comment to Kanshi. "People are God fearing and not God loving. Hence, no matter what the awareness, eventually they will seek asylum in the temple because that is how weak they are."  

I can only hope and pray that even if we continue to visit temples, we continue seeking God through our actions, by being a Samaritan first, Devotee later. 

As a said before, if you are an Atheist, this is a good to watch movie. You will love it as it reinforces many of your beliefs. If you are a Theist, this is a MUST watch movie as you will have an opportunity to experience the way real GOD exist among us. 

That's all I had to share about the movie. I hope you found something useful in the post.  I would like to hear your opinion too about the movie and your beliefs. Look forward to hear your thoughts. 

God speed to all in our journey of life.

The Law of Reciprocity

I was motivated to write this post when I was having a casual conversation with my colleague Ashish.  He was assisting a junior acquaintance of mine for his GD/PI preparations in an institute. The background story is that I had referred Ashish’s name to my junior who was appearing for GD/PI in the same institute which Ashish had graduated last year. For the last 4-5 days, Ashish had been spending close to 45 minutes discussing & assisting my junior with his preparations even though my junior was a stranger to Ashish until then. I was appreciating Ashish on his good natured help, when he said that he was simply returning the favor. That got me interested and I asked him which favor he was referring to. He replied that when he was preparing for his GD/PI interview, he was assisted by his senior who had spent quality time with him which helped him in converting his call. Now he being a senior, he simply was returning the favor back by helping someone.

That got me thinking. My friend Ashish was not only being grateful for the help he had received, he was also reciprocating it by freely offering his services. What’s more interesting is the fact that the senior who had helped Ashish had started off a chain of reciprocity by helping Ashish. Or probably that senior would have received some help from his senior and he too decided to help his junior (Ashish). No matter what the case was, the good thing is that the chain of reciprocity was started because of the act of a one individual who had offered a help initially. And it continues to touch many people’s lives in multiple ways. It also makes people grateful for the help received & provides free help being offered to the deserving. And probably, this is what immortal truly is. Someone who remembers your little act of kindness/help & helps others by being grateful for it, I think that you have been immortalized by your act of kindness. Thinking back, even in my life I can recall instances when people have touched my life by sharing an encouraging word when I was down or by sharing inputs which had helped me make a good decision. Iam sure all of us would have experienced something similar.

We don multiple roles every day like that of a Father, a son, an employee, a Manager, a Citizen, a Human. We become so engrossed with our own lives, that it’s only less often we tend to reflect on the impact we are making on others & what we are doing to make this  world a better place. Even if we intentionally focus on taking an initiative and doing one minor good act for someone, for anyone who we meet, the good feeling which comes along with it can only be experienced.  The act of kindness can be a small thing like guiding someone who is confused, cheering up someone, helping someone financially, there is no limit to the way we can touch others life. The one learning which I would like you to take from this article is ‘How many chains of reciprocity have you initiated today’. 

As  Stephan Grellet said,

“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

Another Journey Ahead!

Dear Readers!

Wishing you & your family a Happy New Year 2012. Let the year ahead be a more enlightening, happy and learning year for you. As the new year begins, i would like to share few key aspects which i have embraced in my own life. There is a lot more to learn, more to explore, more to experience, still i hope the things which i have learnt would be useful for you too.

The below things, i have been fortunate to learn from my many mentors/teachers who i have had in my life. The 5 things which i wish for you would be:

1) Quest for infinite learning
2) Invest in yourselves
3) Consider every experience (success/failure) as a stepping stone to your life's purpose
4) Enjoy the journey rather than await the destination
5) Share what you have with others

1) Quest for infinite learning: There is a quote "Known is a drop, unknown is an ocean". No matter what the circumstances, always keep learning and more importantly, be open to learning. Of course, Learning comes not only from books, but from meeting people, situations. The list is endless.

2) Invest in yourselves: Apart from your routine work, study, ensure you keep investing in yourself. May it be a hobby, interest or anything which you have liked doing, just go ahead and start doing it. It's never late to invest in yourself. Now is the best time to START.

3) Consider every experience (success/failure) as a stepping stone to your life's purpose: Most of life problems are anticipated ones, rather than the real ones. The cause of anxiety is having expectation on the outcome and the tendency to differentiate situations as bad and good. Instead, look upon every situation as a learning experience to help you move forward in life and accomplish your mission in life.

4) Enjoy the journey rather than await the destination: This encompasses the above aspects in the sense, enjoy every moment of your life journey. It's the journey which helps us evolve the most, and which truly empower us. hence, the journey is the true bliss.

5) Share what you have with others: We are very fortunate to have so many things in our life but we realize it very less often. The law of universe is that the more you give, the more you get rewarded. May you give to others, what the needy requires, and accordingly your needs would be taken care of.

Some of the above things, even Iam trying to follow earnestly. Hopefully, I would be able to accomplish it. Iam a man of less words, as a result many a times, many of my friends think Iam inexpressive or secretive. I on the other hand believe that it's best to let our actions do the talking rather than spend time in proclaiming what about it. Experience has taught  me that the former works much better than the latter. I hope that in this year you achieve your dreams, ambitions and get a little more enlightened (Of course, do leave few things out for the subsequent years ;) )

Wish you a Enlightened, Happy New Year 2012.

Best wishes,

PS

Is it impossible for another Steve Jobs to be born in this world?

Iam currently reading ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Isaacson, and completely glued to it. There are many incidents which spark a chain of (positive) thoughts in different directions. Anyways, don’t worry. I won’t be elucidating the nitty-gritty of the book in this article. Nor Iam going to speak about Steve Jobs and his legendary work. I leave it up-to you to get a hold of the book and see it for yourself. The main reason why I got inspired to write this post was to raise a simple question.  “What does it takes to become a legend like Steve”

In one of the chapters in the book, Steve Jobs after addressing Stanford University students makes an observation that “the new generation of kids has become more materialistic & careerist than his generation.  He says that there was a wave of practical purposefulness which was present but now students aren’t thinking in idealistic terms or nowhere near it.”  Now, how is this statement related to the title of this article?

It’s my personal belief that to do great things in life, one has to be great himself; in the sense, great in terms of thought, attitude and value system. And why do I say that? Steve Jobs life has many instances where his actions were guided by certain maxims, by his belief systems, strive for perfection and his passion for creating WOW products. There were few situations where in he did it just to get an experience and in the process somehow connected the dots and made use of the opportunity which presented before him. 

Unfortunately, many of today’s youngsters are motivated by job titles, compensation, perks etc rather than the most important thing which is required at-least a Passion for the work being done. Iam not saying that everyone has such mindset. Some of my good friends are passionate about what they do, and that’s why they do what they do. And it mighty feels good to see them working on their passion. But my concern is the vast majority of the student population who are getting into jobs just to make a living. 

The need of the hour is people recognize that there is innate potential waiting to be tapped in them and it’s better to do what they like doing. If 5-10 people passionate people can make a difference, imagine the difference 5K-10K people can make?

I would say the following 3 traits is required to create and do great things. [Of course, other traits like hard working, perseverance, patience, humility, visionary etc else is needed. But the below highlights the few MUST criteria’s to be able to succeed]

       a)  Open attitude to experience

       b) WHY & not WHAT

       c)  Strive for perfection

One with an open attitude to embrace life in its fullest will experience uncertainty & risk. While it brings a whole set of good and bad things in to your life, understanding and learning from the up’s and down moments will help us wade through uncertain times & succeed later.

Many times in our life, we are motivated by ‘WHAT’. What will I get if I do this? What’s in it for me etc etc. but we forgot that to become truly successful in anything we do, what matter is not the WHAT but WHY. ‘Why should I do it’, Instead of asking ‘What is in it for me’ ask – “Why is this for me”. If you can come up with a good answer for that, there will be no doubt about the outcome of your work.

Man’s search for perfection lends a meaning to his life. Otherwise, routine life brings with it routine job which is just ROUTINE. Strive for perfection in any work you do. That’s what Martin  Luther King Jr famously said “Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”

 

To sum up, the tenet on which I raised the question ‘Is it impossible for another Steve Jobs to be born in this world?’  is based on the state of mindset of current generation on pursuing materialistic things which are transient.  But if we realize that and start exploring things, begin doings thing we love or love what we do (which holds true either way) & a focus on doing things perfectly as much as possible, all the traits which were one of the prime reason for Steve Jobs to be an iconic legend, will be applicable for others too. I firmly believe that each of us can make a dent in the universe too.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish :)

Lessons from the movie 'Charlie & the Chocolate factory'

Iam sure many will like this post at-least for the name ‘Chocolate’, if not for the lessons from this movie. Still, this is one such movie which has a good amount of creativity, fun as well learning integrated in it. A friend  of mine liked the movie because of the subtle messages which sensitized the audiences on finer values of life. We will see some of the learning, but before that for those who haven’t seen the movie, here is a brief description of the plot. (Of course, the suspense has been kept secretive as much as possible) 

The movie is about Charlie Bucket a kind, loving boy who lives in poverty with his mother, father, and four bedridden grandparents. Directly across the street from their house is a world-famous chocolate factory, the owner of which, Willy Wonka, has long since closed access to the factory due to problems concerning industrial espionage that ultimately led him to fire all his employees. One day, Wonka announces a contest in which five Golden Tickets have been placed in five random Wonka Bars worldwide, and the winners will be given a full tour of the factory, as well as a lifetime supply of chocolate. One ticket-holder will be given a special prize at the end of the tour.

The first four tickets are found by Augustus Gloop, a greedy, gluttonous eater from Germany; VerucaSalt, a spoiled girl from Buckinghamshire; Violet Beauregarde, a boastful, competitive gum chewer from Atlanta; and Mike Teavee, an arrogant, aggressive video-game addict from Denver. The rest of the movie details the tour of the chocolate factory (which wows the audience with every new scene) and how each of the bad children disobeys Wonka's orders after being tempted by something related to their individual character flaws. I hope that you have some idea of the movie plot. Let’s move forward with the lessons from it.

Spoiling children with too much pampering:

The movie shows in a typical way how today’s children are spoiled by too much pampering. The girl Veruca initially asks for the Golden ticket so her father buys hundreds of thousands of Wonka bars to find the Wonka ticket. After 3 days of effort, when the Golden ticket is found, he gives it to his daughter who immediately after having her desire fulfilled, asks for a new pony.

Pampering a child will lead to bigger & greater disappointements as the child's expectations grows with each fulfilled wish. The child not only begins to demand things to happen (because they want it) & expect all things to be delivered to it in a silver platter, which surely prepares it for failure later in life. The idea here is that many parents think that if they pamper their child with money, toys and other thing which they desire, the child will be happy and that they will like them. Unfortunately, that is far away from the truth. What a child truly requires is the love, care of his parent. Hence, the parents should try to instill values in their child rather than spoiling their childby fulfilling all the child's wishes.

Value Character over Champion:

The girl Violet is a very competitive person and her mom states that proudly in the interview that Violet has won more than 200 trophies till date. She says to Violet “Eyes on the prize, Violet; Eyes on the prize” to win the big prize at the end of the tour. The movie shows that her competitive & boastful character, results in her failure during the tour.

This is very prevalent in the current generation too. Parents want children to be a winner in life. There is nothing wrong with that. But the sad thing is that children have become a medium to be show cased as victory trophies. The parent proudly display their child talent in literary, sports, and arts to other people. Not to mention that the child becomes adamant, egoistic as he grows up which contributes to his downfall.  A simple look at our mythology as well as on the life of great leaders reveal that during childhood, it’s the focus on character which matters greatly rather than upbringing a child to be a winner. Winners evolve with the right values but right values don’t evolve by winning in life. (Just to clarify, Iam not advocating not to win in life, but to have a good set of values rather than just  a desire to win. If you have a good set of values, there is no way you won't win :))

Taking Chances in Life:

When Charlie gets the Golden ticket and shows it to his parents, he feels that they can sell the Golden ticket in exchange for money so that the extra money will help them in some way.(His father loses his job adding to their existing poverty).  That’s when his grandpa says “There is plenty of money out there. They print more everyday but this ticket; there’s only 5 of them. And all that is ever going to be. Only a dummy is going to leave something like this."

Extrapolating this to our lives, imagine the ticket to be our lifetime in this Earth. We get only one chance at living, still we spend all our waking hours running after money at the cost of neglecting our dreams, family etc, thinking it will provide us some security. The idea which I want to emphasize is that money is present in abundance out in the world. But your dreams, your ambitions are unique and few. Hence, don’t exchange your dreams for money. Chase your dreams/ambitions which will give you lasting happiness & peace (and unimaginable monetary surplus), rather than chasing money.

Holding on to the past or a thing:

In one of the rooms where chocolate is made, the kids are told that they can eat anything they like. The girl Violet plucks a candy and to eat it, she takes the gum which she is chewing from her mouth and saves it for chewing at a later time.  Charlie asks her “Why hold on to it. Why not start a new piece.” For which she replies that if she did that, she would be a loser like him”.

I believe that most of us too hold on to something, similar to the girl Violet holding on to the chewing gum. it can be our past or a thing; The past could be an incident, experience; the thing can be your home, car or any material possession and as long as we hold onto it, we not only hold back ourselves from growing, we shut ourselves from experiencing new things in life. So, just give a thought to it. Are you holding yourselves to something which isn’t benefitting you?

The quality of your thoughts determine the quality of your life:

This is one of my favorite lessons. In the end, when Wonka proposes an offer to Charlie and he rejects it, Wonka is disappointed & hence begins to feel terrible. When wondering, why his candy isn’t tasting as good as before, he realizes that “I make the candy I feel like, but now I feel terrible so the candy I make is also terrible”.

That is so true in our life. Everything which you do in your life will be of the quality similar to the quality of your thoughts. This is similar to the law of attraction. That’s why the wise people have always said that to achieve Enlightenment ; look inside yourself. All the problems of the World can be solved by looking inside ourselves & searching for the truth. Once you attain peace within yourself, automatically you will transcend greatness. Genius is what you do and how consistently you do that, and it can be achieved by realizing your inner selves. Your thoughts create your destiny, hence always be mindful of the quality of your thoughts.

Those were the 5 learning which i had derived from the movie. I hope you found it to be useful. If you havent watched the movie, i strongly recommend you to see it once. As always, have a enjoyable time absorbing the values in your own life for a better living.

Learn, Integrate, Empower.

Happy Living!

Pursuit of Happiness

If you think that this post is on the movie “Pursuit of Happyness”, I commend you for guessing something which most of us would have done. Anyways, this article isn’t about that. I was reading an article on balancing life and money, and I realized how many of us over rate money in our life. Not to suggest that having more money is bad. An i-pad, i-phone, a new car, a trendy watch definitely brings a smile in your face (and jealous glances from others), still it is surprising to see the extent to which money is sought after. Likewise, Happiness is equally under rated in our lives, albeit all of us want happiness, but only few dare to take steps to be happy.  Many of us get so busy running after money, hoping to earn some extra cash, that we forget that we are letting ourselves into a money trap. The more you think of getting rich, the more you exhaust your mental and physical faculties, resulting in the decline of your health (the very thing required for leading a happy life)

“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” --- Nathaniel Hawthorne

So I have penned few thoughts on the ways to be more Happier in your life. I dont claim that these are the only ways to pursuit happiness. There a lot many things which one must do so to lead a Happy life, and these things are few of such ideas to be Happy...

1. Have a purpose: Having a purpose in life creates wonders. Great leaders have always emphasized that having a greater mission or calling gives you the energy to go about doing your daily activites. Hence, make ‘living rich’ your life purpose rather than 'getting rich'. The pursuit of money as a primary goal has negative mental health consequences. resulting in lower self-esteem,depression, and more trouble in the relationships."

2. Indulge in fun activity: I have used the word ‘fun’ to indicate things which one loves doing. May it be taking a walk, swimming, book reading or whatever be the activity, take sometime of your daily life for it. Studies have shown that doing things which one loves, not only is a great entertainment, it also rejuvenates the mind and the body. When was the last time, you did the activity which you loved doing. If the answer to it is anything before 1 month, its high time you do something about it.

3. Be ‘pragmatic’: It’s always better to be realistic rather than be ‘dramatic’ in our lives. The main source of sadness/disappointments in our lives is due to our unrealistic expectations. As a wise sage said that all we need is what we really need, remaining else is ‘just extra’.  If we think about it, we will realize that there are very few things which we really need, the others are extravagant. Hence, leading a realistic life is a sure way to lead a satisfied life.

4. Beware of the ‘Matching feeling’: Most often in life, we are concerned about the things our neighbor has, rather than what we have. This matching concept leads us to live others life. We let others decide what we buy, when we buy and why we buy. Happy people concentrate on their own successes and don't compare themselves -- their income, their family time -- with others. So, its time to unlock yourselves from the clutches of ‘matching’; un-match and live your life. 

5. Stop thinking and Start living: God has blessed us with a unique gift - brains, and we ended up being so grateful that we decided to use this gift for everything. And I mean for everything. Probably, our ancestors took an oath that we will continue to use our brains until the end. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to say that we shouldn’t think. On the contrary, we should think before doing something. But the ‘thinking’ has to have a limit. If you could look into your own life, think of the times when you spent lots of time on thinking, planning, ……ing…ing…ing…! Yea, that’s true. Just recall the number of new ideas which you have got until now and how many times you were excited to go about doing it. Yes, you would achieved a lot many of them, only if you hadnt thought much about the other variables. Will i be able to do it, would my parents approve of it, will i be able to  get the necessary support etc etc... Many of our plans don’t fruition because of our habit of perennial thinking/planning. Life would be better lived if only we could stop worrying of the various consequences and take the first step to execute your plans…

6. A Googly:   I was just checking if you do follow, what you read. There is no 6th idea. So enough of reading and start living ;)

Wishing you a Happy living and a good journey towards the pursuit of Happyness…