the thin lines between...

as we take our stance on certain qualities that we possess, seldom are we aware of being caught at the thin line between two extremes... the thin line between lack of confidence and self-confidence, the thin line between self-confidence and over-confidence, the thin line between over-confidence and arrogance, are all examples of typical caught-in-betweens...

as we stand on every such thin line, it becomes critical to identify not merely which side of the line we stand right now, but also to understand which is the 'right' side to move to... personal perspectives, situational constraints, percentage of ego (will get to this percentage thing later in the post), past experiences, quality of friends, age (to a certain extent) are all some of the many factors that help us determine the two rules of thumb to handle these thin line betweens... once we identify our stance and choose our move-to-make, the journey to that destination is as important as the goal itself... in the path of this personal transformation, the strength of the intellect and the truth of the heart should prevail for the traveller's success...

as we talk about inner qualities, it is worthwhile analyzing another important aspect of life that we live with during every single moment... our very own 'EGO'... while some may like to define ego as an enumeration of a set number of states, i personally consider it to be a certain percentage rather to be an absolute, just like most of the other personal qualities we possess...

it is however not right to say that someone with a higher percentage of this 'ego' is a bad person... looking at the big picture and then assessing the result, is what counts... a simple example of a situation where one needs his/her ego at a boosted level, is at a workplace... if members of a project management team are all people with such less ego that they bind to the rules of the project implementation team, then they are pretty much not serving their primary purpose... the other extreme also works, to demonstrate the same effect... finding the right balance involves a complex set of rules that we have in place... these rules, which as we learn to live in this wonderful filled with such a variety of people, are iterative, which means that our intellect iterates with every change that it comes across... and so continues the beautiful journey...

squeezing time out of 'no time'

if someone's said a 'thank you' from the bottom of their heart, not because you left them a fortune but spared a few of your minutes to go out of the way and help them, there lies REAL satisfaction... this sense of personal satisfaction comes as a result of that willingness to squeeze out the time within your mind, more than the actual time...

taking time off for one's self will also help tremendously in maintaining a balance between keeping the senses together with that growth-of-the-thinking-domain... while it may help you maintain low stress levels, it'll also help in giving a 'refreshed' feeling, each day, every day!

probably one of the most common phrases you hear people say is: 'sorry - didnt have time'... just before giving up on anything due to 'lack of time', the difference between an ordinary being and a difference-maker is determined by small mental adjustments like these to the increasingly mechanical life-styles of an urban living...

the hidden patterns in chaos theory...

it would take a beautiful mind to figure out the distinct differences in the existential world and the creative world... one such creative world exists within the intellect... there is a dream, there is a hope, there is a theory, there is a definition, there is a flavour, there is a taste... amidst the chaotic real world, is this calm and peaceful inner world, which longs for nothing but peace!

secrets to life is not merely experiencing the patterns, but living 'it' to the fullest, and understanding and appreciating the gains out of any challenging situation, treating it as part of the same whole which provides all the other 'sweet moments' as well...

for not what it takes to forget makes you great, it is what you forgive... it is for this reason, that when great people are made, it is for-real and not may-believe...

the pic is from a recent trip of mine to Vancouver, Canada... just made me realize how wallpapers are taken out of 'actual' places!

what a wonderful world...

Lyrics By George Weiss / Bob Thiele

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"

I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

Oh yeah

the art of negotiation...

in a world that is constantly 'expecting' something in return, for any and every action, it is almost a mandate to know how to make 'everybody' happy! we may think that it's not possible to make everyone happy, but i strongly believe it is! you may call it 'playing the tables' or 'making hay while the sun shines' or whatever, it is certainly possible with a few basic rules of the thumb...

such an art associated with the philosophy of making everybody involved happy, involves a lot of situations as to what may be termed 'win-win' situations... for instance, if you attend an interview, do not merely say what you are capable of, but strongly portray your positive qualities in a way that can solve the needs of the employing organization... another example would be getting the best deals on purchases like a cellular phone, where the key lies in how you can convince the service provider that it is a win-win situation (or convincing the customer, if you are the service provider)... win-win situations are far too many in everyday living to be ignored for long... despite this fact, we often tend to overlook this aspect in everyday life... the earlier the realization to make complete use of them, the earlier the benefits of those fruitful situations would be...

it is however extremely critical that we create such situations out of what would otherwise be 'selfish motives' or 'using somebody to their gains' kinds of situatons... a thought worth thinking about ??!! you betcha!

oh... those wonder years...

for a majority of the people, those years growing up from being a kid to an adult - are often thought of and cherished to be 'wonder years'... having 'no ties', 'no responsibilities', 'no fear' are probably some aspects that we often correlate those years of experiences to...

somehow we tend not to, or to least think about what actually were the driving engines behind those high-speed high-powered years of glory, of fascination, of freedom, of fantasy, of learning... on deeper inspection, we will realize that it was a phase meant to serve a certain unique purpose... just like how one appreciates the value of some 'cool shade' after being out in the sun, like how one appreciates the value of some 'hydrating fluids' after a physically exhausting session of workouts/sporting activities, like how one appreciates the sunrise after long hours of darkness... some experiences happen so that we live through them, learn through them and start cherishing them for even having been a part of the ever-diverse set of experiences in our lives...

it is indeed special to cherish every single special moment around, and merely to be thankful that it happened atleast for that little bit... for, there are those who live to tell the tales, when they do not even know what you are talking about!

the significance of being insignificant...

i was commenting on a friend's blog recently, when a certain 'eureka' struck my head... if and when we do wonder at often times about our insignificant presence in this monstrously HUGE world, do we really wonder what it actually means to be so?

some believe there are always two sides to a coin... many others believe there is always one side that you can see, the other one being the flip... looking at the problem in hand from an optimist's perspective, physical insignificance never limits one's abilities to be truly significant to the eyes of the world... sure there may have existed ONLY ONE Gandhiji, or ONLY ONE Martin Luther King, or ONLY ONE Sir C V RAMAN, etc etc etc... but he fact of the matter remains that they were 'naive' about being insignificant... call it a blessing or a boon, so was it! now, looking at the same problem from an eternal pessimist's point of view (note that i'm using an extra word in this context - eternal, as thats how they usually stay... its so easy to poison a whole lot of pure milk, than to purify just a little bit of poison... ), the concept of physical insignificance is too trivial to be noticed in the series of sad, terrible, disgusting and depressing set of issues in hand (according to the eternal pessimist of-course) that its more often than not, rejected from being a subject of discussion...

what one must actually take to heart is that, since this world (and life) is made up of all kinds of perspectives, all kinds of cultures, all kinds of intellects, all kinds of circumstances, all kinds of experiences (good, bad and neither), this concept could easily be argued differently at different points in time by different people, living at different places! a wise-man once said

"life is like a grindstone... whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you are made of"

its about time you quit thinking about your being insignificant... and start twinkling in the deep blue skies instead!

the importance of physical well being...

a healthy mind needs a healthy body... does this mean our priorities should change to pamper our bodies? probably not! but, it is of great significance to how one goes about in his/her thinking process...

a nagging physical ailment or an injury, will not just divert all the attention of the mind to that, but also hinder the mind's natural incline to think out of the box... when somebody says 'take care', it more often than not means 'take care of your physical health, and your mental health will take care of itself'... there are ofcourse exceptions to everything, and we are talking about the examples, not the exceptions...

this life is probably just that temporary phase of a fascinating journey, of which no one knows the absolute start or the absolute end points... all that are known, are the times that one's conscience comprehends and the times that one's psyche co-operates and co-exists with...

essentials in life...

a friend once said:

a few years back, i was not contended. so i thought to myself, i will earn enough so that i can buy enough, and ultimately contentment will follow... but it was not meant to be... as time passed, sure my earnings got higher, but so was my getting entangled in the wordly material things and attachments... eventually, i found the solution - not to think about it too much!

have you ever thought about the ONLY essentials in life that one really needs? if you just thought they were some things(materials), you are not alone! so did many others when they were asked this qustion! the ONLY needs one must have?

• To live
• To love
• To learn
• To leave a legacy

Some great thoughts on the purpose of a being : A Bernard Shaw Quote...

this is the true joy in life being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one... being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little cloud of ailments and grievences complaining that the world will not devote itself in making you happy... i am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as i live, it is my privilege... my privilege to do for it whatever i can... i want to be thoroughly used up when i die... for, the harder i work, the more i love... i rejoice in life for its own sake... life is no brief candle to me, it is a sort of splendid torch which i've got to hold off for the moment... and i want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations...

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...