the extra effort...

everyone goes through days when they are tired or exhausted physically, and this indirectly affects the way they think, and eventually the way they act or react...

while it may be very tempting to say whatever comes to the random intellect's thoughts, it becomes all the more important to take that extra effort in "not saying bad things about anyone, or not doing bad things to anyone"... it is a common belief that every person in this universe, is a selfish being to a certain extent, and this extent differs from one induvidual to another... just like the fact that it is SO EASY to break something but SO HARD to make/maintain something, people and relationships with them works the same way... at every step in the everyday life, it becomes so important to always do the right thing... and by doing the right thing, i mean, an action which does not affect another person in a direct or an indirect way as far as the knowledge of one's conscience is concerned...

moments of silence...

life in a crowded environment can sometimes lead one to long for a few moments of peace and quiet... infact, one could even start believing that time and silence are the most craved aspects of life... in order for one not to get saturated with the everyday-life would be to be balanced... a good balance between time with people and time with one's self, is usually the best way to get the best of both worlds...

it is said that for a healthy living, one needs to COMPLETELY relax one's mind for a few minutes every day, without having to think of anything... almost getting blanked out... however, this obviously is so difficult for us to practice in real life, due to the restless minds of ours which are often preoccupied with so many random thoughts that they are capable of getting intrigued upon...

those moments of silence, when one reflects with one's self... are probably the most important moments defining someone's personality... whether one gets to become more stronger mentally or weaker emotionally, at the end of the day, it sure does make one realize what are the most important priiorities in one's life...

the importance of courtesy

how many times have you come across books that talk about Customer Service or books that offer advice on how to be courteous to a customer or client? the answer would be atleast MANY if not ALWAYS... how often have you ever wondered and thought about it from the other side? how many times are customers actually courteous to the people who offer them service? personal experience coupled with feedback from a lot of my friends, point me to the fact that not often would a customer actually take the time to really appreciate the service being offered to them, although there is a price for everything. when I say there is a price for everything, I mean that this is a material world that we are living in, and everything revolves on how much money one has and how much one does not. is this problem with the customers inherent OR is it just that they do not even think for a moment about this?

if one introspects the REALLY happy people in this world, it would be more often than not the case that they are all simple minded people who work from their hearts. Sure, money to life is like a healthy body to a healthy mind. but people and basic courtesy come first, ahead of everything else. the value of education is not in all those textbooks that one may read to get through all those tests and grades, but is infact in things like these, where an educated person must be able to distinguish clearly between cultured and uncultured behaviour at a social as well as an inter-personal level.

lessons from nature...

there is a tamil(one of many officially recognized indian languages, spokem primarily by people whose origins are from a state in the southern part of india called 'tamilnadu') saying 'kattradhu kal alavu, kallaadhadhu ulagalavu'... it means 'what one has learnt is equivalent to the volume of a small stone but what one has not learnt is equivalent to the volume of the world... this saying, couples well with a chinese proverb translating to 'learning is like swimming against the stream of a river... the moment you stop learning, you are bound to go in the wrong direction'...

once we realize that learning is a constant process happening in every moment of our lives, we could focus more on the sources that could teach us the deepest things in life, to optimize this learning process... according to native american indians, 'nature is god' and 'god is nature'... their point was not to worship nature, but to learn their lessons from it... whether it is the endless seas or the untiring rivers or the every-rising sun or the changing-seasons, they attached values to it, and learned invaluable lessons out of it... they recognized that with the falling of leaves in the autumn, the lives of the branches and the roots of a tree do not end, but get more stronger and work towards re-growing them... they recognized that the most has to be made out of nature's gift of natural light through the sun, and most has to be made out of the innumerable natural resources that nature has to offer...

to an average person who is too busy planning his life in the quest for enriching his life and feeding his own interests, it helps in getting out of the so-called-planned-life... which is a set of chores carried out mechanically day-in and day-out, which is highly prevalent especially in countries like the u.s. of a. where money comes ahead of moral values, and selfish-interests come ahead of family values... and all it takes to get out of this imprisoned-life stuck-up-in-a-bunch-of running-behing-self-treat and do something that is more meaningful to people around and more selfless, is to look at nature and learn lessons from it... to be able to observe beautiful things its one thing, and to be able to observe the beauty in what one might think are ordinary things is an entirely different thing... this is what they mean when they say 'take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy what you have... ', rather than trying to be like a blade of a ceiling fan which is ever-trying-in-vain to catch up with the blade ahead of it'...

"go with the flow, and see what life has to offer... you'll be so surprised how exciting it can get!"...

points of view...

how often do you look at someone and NOT form an opinion or judge that person, even before knowing what he/she actually is? OR, how often do you HEAR about people from OTHER people and NOT form an opinion or judge, even before knowing what he/she actually is? OR, how often do you NOT form an opinion after actually knowing about someone? the answer probably is: not very often do you actually NOT form opinions and NOT judge people...

while the challenge lies in constantly being able to take a neutral stance despite all temptations to form those opinions, and make those judgements, the tougher part is not controlling these temptations but overcoming the default way of communicating what one might think is a WELL-THOUGHT-OF judgement... according to the one of what i consider the greatest souls to have ever existed on earth, Mahatma Gandhi,"if you have something positive to say about anyone, go for it, but if you have anything negative to say about anyone, you will be helping that person AND yourself by not telling the negative thing as it is, but conveying it in
positive light..."

to inculcate positive encouragement in someone, it takes a positive approach on part of the person who is trying to communicate... and for that, one needs to believe that it is the RIGHT way to approach things in life... so, if you ever feel that you HAVE TO let someone know about something, make sure that you do it the RIGHT way...

what does one have and what does one not have?

The answers 'It depends...' or 'Maybe...' or 'Not sure...' are all excuses we use to shy away from facing the truths OR when we do not possess enough knowledge on the subject to comment on it... Sometimes, it becomes a habit of saying 'not sure...' so much that we tend to over use it... What knowledge does one have, and what does one not have? If one possesses the knowledge of the fact that 'anything is possible if a sincere effort is put into it', then, not possessing knowledge on any subject matter is not actually not knowing it... Unfortunately, it usually takes a personal discovery or overcoming a bad experience, to realize this fact... and anything that is TOLD, will seem pointless...

One of my most favourite quotes - 'Attitude is Everything', sums it all up... Whenever you say 'I didnt have time' OR 'I hate it' OR 'Whatever!'... just look at youorself, and look at your attitude... Maybe the problem is not with the world after all.... Its ALL about you !!!

Head Start...

Better late than never, as they say (wonder who comes up with such one-liners!!!) - I kick off with my first blog...

So many times when I look back at 'the' things I've wanted to accomplish in life, the could-have, should-have, would-have kind of stuff, it motivates me all the more to get up and do something about it atleast now... For a head-start, am starting this blog... Wait and watch for more posts...

Wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year 2005... Hope the new year brings more happiness and peace on earth...