Before I forget...

Life is wonderful, beautiful and bountiful, as it has always been. It is all the more beautiful because we have so many magnificent friends, colleagues, relatives and dear ones around us. Their sheer presence brings loads of smile for a disheartened heart, their pat on the back bolsters confidence into a struggling journey and their kind words heal all the wounds in due course of time.

I tend to go back in time whenever I think of this priceless gift of Life. Life has offered me so many great friends and colleagues. May be for some reason, all of them have not been in frequent contact which is not so pleasing for sure. However, I have come to terms with this dilemma gradually for it is inevitable given the constraints within which one has to operate. Some call it hard fact of life while some blame it on other impending matters at hand (supposedly needing immediate attention). Valid Points when you look at it from different angles. So what would one do? Or rather what could one do? I am not in a position to offer exact answer as it may vary depending on the individual.

What I could do under such circumstances is perhaps keep all those anmol treasures in the thoughts, remember them for a lifetime and wish them plethora of joy and fulfillment. I could offer a silent prayer for their welfare and success in whatever they do. I could transmit a tranquil smile into this universe hoping it reaches them with the whiff of air and make them smile for a moment, if not more.

To each and everyone, whom I have known since long or not so long, I dedicate this song and hope to connect with you all at some point of time… Jeena_Isi_Kaa_Naam_Hai :-) :-) :-)

Grow and Grow Absolutely

Growth in corporate parlance implies assuming more responsibilities and living up to management confidence in a more effective and robust manner. So what does this mean? Does this mean more work, more projects or more tasks? A very famous cliché that management often uses while discussing career and development plans of its employees is that "we have everything available within this organization and it is up to individual to demonstrate his/ her appetite."

I am not sure whether volunteering for more and more every time would lead to absolute growth in one’s competence, abilities and skills. It is understandable that there are a few ad-hoc activities that need to be addressed on an urgent basis and within no time. However, living in quadrant one (most important and most urgent activity zone) for majority of work life may negatively impact growth of a person. That ways, one may not be able to think of lessons learnt in the whole process and obstacles on the path ahead would be difficult to anticipate.

An example could be dismal performance of Dhoni’s boys in T20 world cup. 45 days extravaganza of IPL on Indian soil really engaged all our players to their core. Owner’s expectations served them no less as they were under pressure to perform due to varying reasons depending upon who is the owner and how poor performance could affect them. It left them with no time to realize that the host of world T20 cup is a country known for bouncy tracks and seaming wickets. While IPL did ensure hefty bank balances for popular players and rise of few local players on a national spectrum, this could not let them breathe in between and plan for tasks ahead. Well, what could be said about IPL nights... I really do not think that they should even be a point of discussion. I have seen so many people working hard and partying even harder :-)

So how would one assume more responsibilities and live up to management confidence thereby evolve as an improved personality also? I reckon that this can be achieved by continuous assessment of work-load and corresponding value added to the self. Also, better time management is a key when it comes to do various tasks all at the same time. Even if one assumes daunting and uphill tasks to manage, learning on all critical parameters needs to be analyzed after the completion of tasks.

Remember, every act done and every word spoken stand for your character and transmit tons of waves about your attitude and personality. Grow in a way that builds a great character, that amplifies self-belief and that cements unwavering serenity deep within. After all, the cause of existence supersedes cause of survival.

Just Let It Be!

“Death is as sure for that which is born, as birth is for that which is dead. Therefore grieve not for what is inevitable.” – Bhagavad Gita

Faced with a quandary on the battlefield, Arjuna placed several questions in front of his Almighty Charioteer. He could not believe the fact that he has been ordained to kill his OWN. To respond to his baffling thoughts, Lord Krishna instructed and taught him to stand up for the cause – for what is destined. Amidst several teachings, he mentions “Grieve not for what is inevitable”.

Grieve not for what is inevitable. Grieve for what could have been avoided. Grieve for how much energy could have been preserved for a beautiful today and coming tomorrow. Remember all those moments of lust, wrath, greed, attachment or ego (may be under trying circumstances or out of ignorance) which squandered one’s potential energy. The endeavor must be to take a lesson from each of those moments for these are the tiny seeds which help us build a character forever.

Life is a journey. Obstacles were placed right there on the path for this very purpose. We all arrived with an unconscious mind and were subjected to the process of gaining and loosing, fullness and emptiness, determination and perplexities. The whole process definitely made us stronger, fitter and calmer. We grew with every bit of this experience. In retrospect, the greatest learning of it all has been not to be fazed by the demands of the situation and handle it with grace and contentment. One must not grieve for what is at hand as the present is what one has chosen.

Just let it be and it will let us learn few more tricks of puzzling life. It will help us venture into unseen areas more powerfully and more resourcefully. It will enable us to spread the serene message of “The Universal and Cosmic God” with panache.

ज़िन्दगी है एक दरिया, मिल जाना जिसे समंदर में

नौका है एक ज़रिया, बहते जाना है सुहाने मंज़र में

फ़िक्र नहीं है करना अब, चलते चलते इस सफ़र में

मोती लाख बचे है राही, रेतो के अनदेखे शहर में...

Love – Source of Delighted Hearts

“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” – Robert Frost

Hearts speak one language, hearts understand one language and hearts feel one language. Hearts contain volumes of suppressed sentiments, illegible scripts and few dots which never finish. Be it a day time, be it a sleeping time, or be it a time with your sub-conscious mind – heart never ceases to beat and with every beat, it wants to live the moment with paramount bliss.

Love is the alchemist that fulfills these incessant wants and love is the language that hearts understand. Love is the medium which heart chooses to connect to another heart. Love is the source of energy, love is the cause of living, love is the purest form of God on the planet, love is the system of support in trying circumstances, love is the smile manufacturing machine with unlimited lifespan and love is something which never lets that sweetness of childhood die. Love is the elixir.

You know you are in love when life becomes easy in company of someone special, when someone comes close to you and you treasure the embrace of stillness forever, when one listens patiently to his/ her beloved for hours and hours. Love is when you can feel what others feel. One cannot get over the enigma of love – all these effects of love makes you yearn to fall or rise in love again and again. The beauty of love lies in the fact that the older the love gets, the more contentment it cherishes. Everyday looks extremely gorgeous yet so different. You dive deep and you will keep on exploring innumerable moments of unprecedented amazement.

Wow!

Love is a set of strings attached to the nucleus of human body which wanders in universe in search of yet another set of strings – to create the magical fusion.

Revitalize the Glory

As a child, most of us have all gone to the primary and higher secondary schools. Each one of us would have had a wonderful time at school where we were imparted so many lessons (which holds true in most complex of the circumstances even now). Most of the friendships that we made at school are still pure and refreshing. Just imagine the joy of bumping into one of your confidant of school time while walking across aisles of one big glass quoted corporate building. Won’t that be a special moment? A moment that is worth waiting for years. A moment that one would wish to last forever.

Weren’t those days special? Starting the day with a lovely prayer, Sharing those lunch-boxes and preserving one of those last bite for the special friend who was busy talking to the teacher, Getting drenched on that rainy evening (Perhaps overwhelming joy of first Monsoon), Bunking the classes for most awaited cultural event of the year etc. Wow! The glory, the joy, the pleasantries, the rivalries and the tussles – all were so natural. Yes, these were all so natural till a certain stage arrived in one’s life.

Suddenly, business became more important or rather keeping busy became the best way to lead towards progress. The thought of making friends at work never crossed the mind. And even when the thoughts cropped up, time limitations did not let this prosper. Family commitments also demanded a lot of efforts and time. True, these were genuine constraints and one should not be blamed for such ignorance ideally. One had nothing to choose over here, had to sail by the flow, I guess.

But, how about the vision that was THE foundation of this journey. Did we look back and realize whether the vision was intact or whether we are treading towards THE vision. Did we recollect the glorious childhood which was full of natural moments. If the vision turned hazy on the way without any likelihood of regular musing or continuous refinement, then we are heading towards an impasse. The idea is to avoid this impasse and take out time to do all those activities which helped us inculcate values and beliefs since long.

Many more rewarding and special moments would be one definite consequence of this and thus, we would be able to relive and revitalize the glory of the past!

Appreciation OR Attainment - A difficult choice!

When the odds are against, going gets tougher. When odds are against, life seems to be random. Chaos dominates actions and words. Heart thumps not as vivaciously as one would wish to. Brain lingers at a pace not suitable for survival. Nerves become vulnerable to break-down every now and then.

What could be a perfect analgesic in such a situation? Where lays the remedy and how to envision the roads ahead? These are not individual questions or private quandaries. Roughly, every one of us witnesses this challenge at some stage in this wonderful LIFE.

Yes, life is wonderful and fulfilling. Then, why stakes are heavily placed against the flow sometimes? I reckon that is how it had to be. Invariably, we subjected ourselves to a world where individuality lost its sheen to outer appearances more than several times, where we forgot to introspect at regular intervals and became handicapped in the hands of the inevitable more often than not. We followed a way not in search of attainment but in pursuit of appreciation. Appreciation of any form and it did not matter how long they lasted. As a result, all the odds even though in favor of appreciation seemed totally unwieldy. Remember, this journey was meant to be towards attainment.

If one thinks in retrospect, redemption may not be a distant dream. It is basically about knowing oneself and doing things which attracts celestial joy. When we say that the odds are against, it is not that the odds are against. It is basically odds against attainment. The best thing about odds of attainments is that it is readily transformable at any given point of time regardless of mental, physical or emotional well being. One can continue to be busy in all mundane activities - perhaps that is the cost of appreciation – but still can do a bit for transformable odd. Who know a bit may slowly turn into a large canvas of extraordinary colors – one which will have most meaningful theme of one’s own imagination.

We never chose our odds and we can never choose our odds, what we can choose is little actions or few thoughts which have capability to breach most obscure canopy.