Work hard and Party hard - that's how life used to be while I was in college ~ first BITS, my alma mater and then UW.
BITS - We would keep running around with classes, test series, labs, tutes and what not and still find time to catch up late night RAF movies (They used to screen 24 movies (yes you heard it right) in the auditorium), prepare dance sequences to celebrate a friend's b'day even before the test, go to C'Not (the hangout junction at BITS) every now and then!
UW - Things were a little different, mainly because we were not in a hostel anymore. But still that was a high energy stint in life. We would still be running around for classes, for meetings with the profs, for project discussions but still find some time to go to those Ballroom sessions every Friday night, have dinner out on Friday eves, go to Farmer's market every Sat morning and have a pot-luck or dinner invite every now and then!
And now I feel as if life has taken a step back, it has become more slow paced, more laid back! At times I feel it's more balanaced this way. I am atleast able to sleep well at night and enjoy my weekends and weekday evenings not worrying about work all the time. That keeps changing a little bit depending upon the work pressure. But that's how it is on a daily basis. That's all good, because I have become a little health concious these days and thus working out, eating healthy, getting enough sleep and learning new sports/activities have become part of my life.
But sometimes I ponder if this is it - if this's rest of my life! I love the balanced part of this life, but again I miss that energy! I enjoyed that running around all the time and I seem to miss that now! I again want to be on my toes all the time - but at the same time I want to have a balanced life so that I can have a healthy life style, so that I don't miss on some of the most marvelous things on earth - such as exploring nature, learning a new activity, stopping by to gaze at stars, going for an outdoor concert just a block away from my home......
Well such is life - we can't get everything at the same time. We need to compromise on certain things to get other! But I feel we need to keep introducing little changes to keep life flavorful. Changing schedule of various things for instance would bring some change - for instance going to work early in the morning for some days and then going to the gym early in the morning before going to work for some days would bring some change :P
Probably balanced high enery life is indeed possible. Need to work hard while we work and need to party hard when we are not working - it's as simple as that! That being said, it's not all that easy as it sounds. I seem to be concentrating on the latter one lately :P I certainly need to switch, oh no not switch but strike a balance between the two :) Need to bring that energy back!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Money - Can't we live without it?
I don't really know why this question came flashing into my mind! But when it came, it kept bugging me. Can't we live without money? Or is it really overrated? Is it just easier to say "Money is not everything! You have it today, you may not have it tomorrow!" when there is no lack of money? Imagine for a second that you don't really have any cash with you, your back account is absolutely empty! Suddenly you would think, oh man I can't live like this. I have no life. It's all over!! However happy you were before, suddenly you become sad. It just takes everything away from you. But why is that so? You just lost money, you have everything else. Your family, your friends!
It's true it's not easy to live with the lack of money, nor is it easy to earn respect and dignity when you don't have it! I saw this in "Pursuit of Happyness" - a movie that conveys that we always pursue happiness. It's not something we can have, not something we can own. Chris Gardner led such a hard life. He was struggling so damn hard to earn money - indeed he was pursuing happiness. Does that mean "You need to money to be Happy"? Money is just not something that just pays our bills, that buys us food, that helps us lead our life luxuriously! One gets happiness when they see their family happy and contended, when they can keep upto their needs and demands, when they can feel they are worth something, capable of doing something extraordinary, when they can make the world realize that they are smart! But at the end of it, you need to earn money for this. This is how they measure your success. Chris Gardner had to make most money at Dean Witter to get the job offer. Finally he did, but the underlying aim was not to earn money - it was to see his son happy, it was to prove that he was not ordinary!
Money has become a 'scale' for many things today. And we say "money is the cause of all troubles". It's actually not money that's the cause - it's our thinking that's cause. We have become it's slaves while money should be our slave. We created money and not vice versa. Money is the means to satisfy our material needs in life - it's not life!
It's true it's not easy to live with the lack of money, nor is it easy to earn respect and dignity when you don't have it! I saw this in "Pursuit of Happyness" - a movie that conveys that we always pursue happiness. It's not something we can have, not something we can own. Chris Gardner led such a hard life. He was struggling so damn hard to earn money - indeed he was pursuing happiness. Does that mean "You need to money to be Happy"? Money is just not something that just pays our bills, that buys us food, that helps us lead our life luxuriously! One gets happiness when they see their family happy and contended, when they can keep upto their needs and demands, when they can feel they are worth something, capable of doing something extraordinary, when they can make the world realize that they are smart! But at the end of it, you need to earn money for this. This is how they measure your success. Chris Gardner had to make most money at Dean Witter to get the job offer. Finally he did, but the underlying aim was not to earn money - it was to see his son happy, it was to prove that he was not ordinary!
Money has become a 'scale' for many things today. And we say "money is the cause of all troubles". It's actually not money that's the cause - it's our thinking that's cause. We have become it's slaves while money should be our slave. We created money and not vice versa. Money is the means to satisfy our material needs in life - it's not life!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Yippie got my own ice-skates :)
Yes after all those contemplations and searching frantically on internet, I found them, practiced with them and feel a lot happier now that I have them :)
I was really nervous about the size and fit since I had to order them online. Yea, skates are not true to size when it comes to different brands! And it's very important to have a perfect fit to be able to skate well. Buying them from a store isn't a piece of cake these days, apparently because it's summer. Many stores that ought to have them said they didn't have them for this season! Well I don't really get it, when there are several ice skating rinks that are operative in summer why do the stores get them only in winter? Well whatever, I resorted to my friend "The Web" and it didn't disappoint me :-). These skates feel so much nicer on ice! No more torture to my feet with those rental skates. Now I am Happy Happy :)
Monday, August 17, 2009
The curious case of Benjamin Button
At times we feel our lives are so complicated. We don't feel happy and contended with what we have. Our mind wanders - always asking questions like - "what's next"!!
Though it seems very unpredictable, we know a lot about what is it going to be like tomorrow. Well not exactly true, but we know that we will be a day older tomorrow and more as the days go by. Many a times we wish if time could just stop, if we would never grow old! But I never ever in my life pondered what would really happen if I never grew old (leave alone getting younger). "The curious case of Benjamin Button" - this movie made me ponder that!
How Daisy and Benjamin were both so helpless. If I had to compare, I thought it was Benjamin who was even more helpless. First getting born like an 80 year old - he couldn't enjoy his childhood like other children do. But he said OLD AGE wasn't that bad. It would be unfair to say something about this since I haven't had an experience yet - but still I would agree with him. It isn't that bad if it comes at the right age! But what about him, who was born old and died an infant! When he married Daisy and had their baby girl, he didn't want to get any younger. Instead he wanted to grow old with his daughter. Could you imagine someone more helpless that him? He had to leave Daisy - the love of his life, his soulmate, his wife. Daisy suffered too - because she loved the strange Benjamin Button! He made the right choice, Daisy wouldn't have been able to brought up the two of them - their daughter and him. He was a strange miracle, not everyone couldn't understand. I felt the most helpless and emotional moment was when he died. He was an infant in Daisy's lap. He couldn't speak, but he knew who he was, who Daisy was.
Then I wonder he still lived so many years. Because there are people like Queenie, who love unconditionally. His own father thought he was monster and abandoned him. He was ugly - but still one day old child craving for the love and warmth of a mother. Queenie gave those to him, she made him live, she loved him and he loved her back.
It's the love that drives this world, that drives us. We have so many things in our lives we take for granted. We take for granted that we would lead a normal life, we take for granted that we would own many worldly treasures, we take for granted that people around us would behave well. This list can never end. Leading the normal lives, the number of things we take for granted keep increasing. In all this, we forget that we came into this world empty handed and that's how we are gonna leave this world. Lets not take anything for granted. Lets thank God for what we are, for what we have.......
Though it seems very unpredictable, we know a lot about what is it going to be like tomorrow. Well not exactly true, but we know that we will be a day older tomorrow and more as the days go by. Many a times we wish if time could just stop, if we would never grow old! But I never ever in my life pondered what would really happen if I never grew old (leave alone getting younger). "The curious case of Benjamin Button" - this movie made me ponder that!
How Daisy and Benjamin were both so helpless. If I had to compare, I thought it was Benjamin who was even more helpless. First getting born like an 80 year old - he couldn't enjoy his childhood like other children do. But he said OLD AGE wasn't that bad. It would be unfair to say something about this since I haven't had an experience yet - but still I would agree with him. It isn't that bad if it comes at the right age! But what about him, who was born old and died an infant! When he married Daisy and had their baby girl, he didn't want to get any younger. Instead he wanted to grow old with his daughter. Could you imagine someone more helpless that him? He had to leave Daisy - the love of his life, his soulmate, his wife. Daisy suffered too - because she loved the strange Benjamin Button! He made the right choice, Daisy wouldn't have been able to brought up the two of them - their daughter and him. He was a strange miracle, not everyone couldn't understand. I felt the most helpless and emotional moment was when he died. He was an infant in Daisy's lap. He couldn't speak, but he knew who he was, who Daisy was.
Then I wonder he still lived so many years. Because there are people like Queenie, who love unconditionally. His own father thought he was monster and abandoned him. He was ugly - but still one day old child craving for the love and warmth of a mother. Queenie gave those to him, she made him live, she loved him and he loved her back.
It's the love that drives this world, that drives us. We have so many things in our lives we take for granted. We take for granted that we would lead a normal life, we take for granted that we would own many worldly treasures, we take for granted that people around us would behave well. This list can never end. Leading the normal lives, the number of things we take for granted keep increasing. In all this, we forget that we came into this world empty handed and that's how we are gonna leave this world. Lets not take anything for granted. Lets thank God for what we are, for what we have.......
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Ice Skating Wohoo or buhoo!
Ice Skating - does it bring chills to your mind or excitement or both? I will go with both :)
I have been thinking all along how I sucked at almost every sport ( :( !! $%#$#) - well it's mainly because I never really tried my hands (or more to say 'legs' :P ) on anything!
Then one fine day I decided to change that notion. Lets try and explore something I am absolutely alien to - I thought! Ice skating came pretty close :) Not alien in the sense that I never heard about it or didn't know about it, but never really imagined myself in the ice ring. Alright, I just signed up for it and started waiting for the first day of the class to never come :D But fortunately or unfortunately it did! When I first set my foot on that ice ring - the first thing to flash in mind was if I really wanted to do this? I kept thinking - Why the hell do I want to break my leg or sprain an ankle. Isn't life just happier and way better without it :)) Hmm just 6 lessons, five more to go - I will somehow pass my time holding tight to the walls and never think about it again :P
At that time it was hard to imagine myself even standing away from the walls, without any support, just on those skating blades. I felt I was learning to walk all over again, taking baby steps and fumbling at every moment, trying to hold anything that was close enough and within my reach. I was a child again. There was one significant difference though! A child doesn't know
what fear is while we adults have it in every other corner of our mind in some form. Those 3 yr olds just went zooming around me and I was trying to stand, march with baby steps with fear that I was gonna fall!! But I haven't fallen even once. How do I even know how bad it hurts? I just keep saying - it depends on the angle, position and momentum we fall with. And I just assume all these three parameters are going to play against me when I fall :P
I wonder how easy it would be to learn almost anything and everything if we could just let go off this fear. We can make progress otherwise too, if we have the will and determination. I can't say a whole lot about the fear factor, but I can certainly work better on the latter two. I am still fearful and still death scared to fall, but I am making progress with the will to skate and determination to learn. Now I can glide somewhat without any support - wohoo! Hoping this will not turn into buhoo :))
I have been thinking all along how I sucked at almost every sport ( :( !! $%#$#) - well it's mainly because I never really tried my hands (or more to say 'legs' :P ) on anything!
Then one fine day I decided to change that notion. Lets try and explore something I am absolutely alien to - I thought! Ice skating came pretty close :) Not alien in the sense that I never heard about it or didn't know about it, but never really imagined myself in the ice ring. Alright, I just signed up for it and started waiting for the first day of the class to never come :D But fortunately or unfortunately it did! When I first set my foot on that ice ring - the first thing to flash in mind was if I really wanted to do this? I kept thinking - Why the hell do I want to break my leg or sprain an ankle. Isn't life just happier and way better without it :)) Hmm just 6 lessons, five more to go - I will somehow pass my time holding tight to the walls and never think about it again :P
At that time it was hard to imagine myself even standing away from the walls, without any support, just on those skating blades. I felt I was learning to walk all over again, taking baby steps and fumbling at every moment, trying to hold anything that was close enough and within my reach. I was a child again. There was one significant difference though! A child doesn't know
what fear is while we adults have it in every other corner of our mind in some form. Those 3 yr olds just went zooming around me and I was trying to stand, march with baby steps with fear that I was gonna fall!! But I haven't fallen even once. How do I even know how bad it hurts? I just keep saying - it depends on the angle, position and momentum we fall with. And I just assume all these three parameters are going to play against me when I fall :P
I wonder how easy it would be to learn almost anything and everything if we could just let go off this fear. We can make progress otherwise too, if we have the will and determination. I can't say a whole lot about the fear factor, but I can certainly work better on the latter two. I am still fearful and still death scared to fall, but I am making progress with the will to skate and determination to learn. Now I can glide somewhat without any support - wohoo! Hoping this will not turn into buhoo :))
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Mango People!
"Mango People" - this word or rather phrase is stuck into my head since today evening! Thanks to the Mango Bollywood movie "Love Aaj Kal"... oops I apologize for the slang here! If you happen to understand Hindi, you would have fathomed by now - Mango means "Aam" in Hindi and "Aam" in Hindi means Ordinary!! Though an ordinary movie, it did convey some extra-ordinary msgs.
Title of this movie seems so apt - Love aaj kal - Love in modern days! I think the most important msg was conveyed by Rishi Kapoor - He became successful for love of his life while Saif broke up with his lover because he wanted to be successful! How come time has brought this drastic change in our lives. It has changed definitions of some of the most important things existing in this world!
Let me share a wonderful story with -
-----------------------------------------------------------
A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat." 
One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."
The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!", he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"
----------------------------------------------------------
I do strongly believe in this. Love between a woman and a man, between a mother and a child, between siblings and above all between GOD and his children is such a divine thing, it can only bring along the nicest things in the universe.....
And given that we are all Mango people in broad sense :P, we can't wait to become immortal and set our names in golden letters in history books for our children and grand children to read. Lets love everyone, lets respect everyone and lets enjoy life!
I gotta go and have some mango now - man talking so much about mango, how can i restrain from having one :))
have a happy monday ----
Title of this movie seems so apt - Love aaj kal - Love in modern days! I think the most important msg was conveyed by Rishi Kapoor - He became successful for love of his life while Saif broke up with his lover because he wanted to be successful! How come time has brought this drastic change in our lives. It has changed definitions of some of the most important things existing in this world!
Let me share a wonderful story with -
-----------------------------------------------------------
A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."
"Then we cannot come in", they replied.
In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened.
"Go tell them I am home and invite them in!"
The woman went out and invited the men in"
"Go tell them I am home and invite them in!"
The woman went out and invited the men in"
One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."
The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!", he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"
Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!"
"Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his wife.
"Go out and invite Love to be our guest.."
The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."
"Go out and invite Love to be our guest.."
The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."
Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?"
The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!!!!!!"
----------------------------------------------------------
I do strongly believe in this. Love between a woman and a man, between a mother and a child, between siblings and above all between GOD and his children is such a divine thing, it can only bring along the nicest things in the universe.....
And given that we are all Mango people in broad sense :P, we can't wait to become immortal and set our names in golden letters in history books for our children and grand children to read. Lets love everyone, lets respect everyone and lets enjoy life!
I gotta go and have some mango now - man talking so much about mango, how can i restrain from having one :))
have a happy monday ----
Thursday, August 6, 2009
On my mind
It's 11:53 pm and I suddenly thought of starting blogging! Weird isn't it? It's been ages since I have been thinking blogging isn't for me. I can just read a few at best! But they say there's no time and age to start doing something. Then it just makes you feel so relieved when you pen your thoughts down as if somebody has just taken hell lot of load from your shoulders. It feels nice, it has already started feeling nice :-)
I was watching Frasier tonight while having dinner (sort of a daily routine that I have been following quite religiously :P) and it just occurred to how I was so similar to Frasier in certain aspects! Started wondering if he is a Virgo too. Perfectionists as Virgos are - is it really a good thing? I have started feeling that it somehow reduces the satisfaction and happiness you could get otherwise. Frasier was planning a perfect vacation and every single spoiler was making him grumpier! I have seen this happening a lot with me too. I start planning things so much in advance and it pains when anything goes out of order! Is it that big a deal really? Someone just mentioned yesterday that everything is temporary. If we could bear this simple in our mind all the time, we would never be unhappy again. No decision would seem as bad, because our mind will immediately start working towards a better one.
But it's not all that easy after all. We will need to keep reminding ourselves, because it's very easy to forget in glorious moments and in very sad ones too! I was feeling quite low yesterday - this one word did the magic "Temporary". I felt much better all day and it's gonna last atleast temporarily and I am gonna enjoy it as long as it does :-)
I was watching Frasier tonight while having dinner (sort of a daily routine that I have been following quite religiously :P) and it just occurred to how I was so similar to Frasier in certain aspects! Started wondering if he is a Virgo too. Perfectionists as Virgos are - is it really a good thing? I have started feeling that it somehow reduces the satisfaction and happiness you could get otherwise. Frasier was planning a perfect vacation and every single spoiler was making him grumpier! I have seen this happening a lot with me too. I start planning things so much in advance and it pains when anything goes out of order! Is it that big a deal really? Someone just mentioned yesterday that everything is temporary. If we could bear this simple in our mind all the time, we would never be unhappy again. No decision would seem as bad, because our mind will immediately start working towards a better one.
But it's not all that easy after all. We will need to keep reminding ourselves, because it's very easy to forget in glorious moments and in very sad ones too! I was feeling quite low yesterday - this one word did the magic "Temporary". I felt much better all day and it's gonna last atleast temporarily and I am gonna enjoy it as long as it does :-)
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