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Sometimes, when you’re alone and feel that all is lost, what do you do? Who do you talk to in such times? Is there anyone who can understand what you’re going through? Do you understand what you’re going through?

There is a very thin line between sanity and insanity. Not knowing yourself is more likely to lead you to the latter, in my opinion. We all have a conscience. We all have thoughts we want to express. We all have emotions we want to feel. How do we express these things if we don’t know how to?

We should strive to know ourselves better before trying to the same with others. We are so lost in this world where we are judged for what we do or say that we forget to appreciate ourselves. It is imperative that we are not brought down by this weight of societal opinion. We have to live our life on our terms after properly analyzing the ramifications our actions might have. We all have to get better to do better.

-Rohit Parwani

What makes your heart “SING”

What makes your heart “SING”

This question is something which I want everyone to think about.

After thinking about it myself, I realized that this is a very difficult question.

It took me good enough time to answer it for myself. There is a good chance that you are not doing anything that is even remotely close to what makes your sing.

You are so engrossed in the myth of SUCCESS brings HAPPINESS that you forget the fact, actually,HAPPINESS creates SUCCESS.

We so often, forget to live for our passions as we are worried about making all the money and being successful. 

Steve Jobs once said, follow your heart and intuition, they already know what you really want in life. That makes a lot of sense and has great depth in it. 

Passion is something that is true to your identity, you cannot live without it, so let us all embrace our passions, and convert them into actions, that would lead to happier lives.

My suggestion – Ask yourself the question, what makes my heart sing, be as profound as possible and then do something everyday relating to your passion and slowly you will find it becoming your mainstream and you will realize the difference,

– Akhil Katara.

Mj says

The Rain in all its magnificence

I got back home early from work. I thought I’d go for a swim. It started to drizzle. I figured it’d be a while before it starts raining more than a mere drizzle. I ride up the elevator and observe from my balcony that it has already begun to rain.

This is undoubtedly one of the better evenings I have had in Bangalore. I can see the railway tracks from my balcony on the fifth floor. It is heartwarming to see how beautiful nature can get. Along the palm trees these people walk on the tracks, some with an umbrella over their heads, some with a plastic bad and some with just their palms to cover their heads. Trying to get to shelter, they barely realize that nature is showering it’s blessing on them. Easy for me to say that I suppose.

The trees
They look greener
The soil
It looks more alive
I sit here and stare
When all around me
Everything comes to life.

A slight drizzle as all
The rain falls on us
With it it brings us love
That nature blesses upon us.

An evening
I solemnly cherish
The clouds
They seem to smile
I sit here and stare
When all around me
Everything comes to life.

I hope I live my life
Like the clouds, Oh so merry
Spread happiness and joy and love
Sail atop nature’s ferry.

Cheers everyone. We get to live just once. I think we should all start appreciating the small things and smile a lot more 🙂

-Rohit Parwani

The cultural difference between east and west. Not quite a difference is what it is.

“Ego is to the self what a blindfold is to the eyes.” – Rohit Parwani

Is there really a cultural difference between people living in the east and those living inn the west. In my brief period in the United Kingdom, i observed that it is not much of a difference at all. People there think in the exact same way that we do. The only thing different there is the climate and the visible opportunities available to them. I say visible because I believe that India is a land of innumerable latent opportunities that only need to be discovered.

Coming back to the discussion at hand, the difference that is there is only a perception. Every human being is different. You and I react to different situations in different ways. You an I have a very different understanding of the world for what it is. You and I basically like different things. None is right or wrong. In much the same way, the things we do and the things the westerners do are different. But that does not mean there is a cultural difference between us.

For example, getting a divorce is not a big deal there. Homosexuality is not a big deal there. Staying unmarried is not a big deal there. Here all that is frowned upon. But that is only superficial. Give a housewife an option- a very objective option. Ask her if she would like to stay married to her husband in this “just about average” marriage or would she rather prefer to marry another man who will take care of here and her children and with whim the marriage will be terrific. Her answer would most probably be “No.” Why? “Because that is not what I’ve been taught to do.”

In India, no matter how open-minded we would like to be, we still end up with pockets of narrow-mindedness. Personally I want to marry once and remain happy. But what if I get married and my wife dies after the birth of our first child? The society would be okay with me getting married again. Why is that? How is it different from a situation where my wife passes away after my 65th birthday?

What I’m trying to say is that were are all made of flesh and bone. We belong to the same species and to the same things to keep our interests fulfilled. We are all interested in self-preservation. We don’t get a piece of the cake that they bake in the west and that is why we frown upon their customs. Given a chance, all Indian men, young or old, brahmin or not, would like to visit the Playboy Mansion. But instead, they just put on a fake sense of value and ideals because they just can’t afford to to be looked down on by society.

There is no cultural difference between the east and the west. If anything, we are both more similar than we would like to admit.

-Rohit Parwani

How to beat ‘Procrastination’

” The best way to get something done, is to begin.”

– Anonymous.

Procrastination – The action of delaying something. In common words, laziness.

Don’t we all suffer from this in some form or the other?

After doing a lot of research on the topic, would like to give some advice on how to beat it ( I know that I should first and foremost follow my own advice :P), anyway, here it goes :-

1) Sleep – This is something which we all perpetually love and never want to give up, come what may. However, as the saying goes, anything in excess is poison, the same applies to sleep, excessive sleep is not good, both mentally and physically. But the biggest question is, how to avoid it? 

Sleep should not be avoided, it shall just be in the right amount. What is a right amount is a matter of judgement and there is no benchmark, however, different research finding, have different minimum hours, I would suggest that you are the best judge to decide about how much sleep do you need.

A few techniques to avoid over-sleeping,

a) Mock Alarms – Set mock alarms for yourself, so that you get used to waking up with the sound of the alarm clock, this is a very effective method to avoid over-sleeping.

b) Make it a habit – Practice waking up at the same time with the help of an alarm clock for a few days, till you get used to waking up at the same time without the help of an alarm clock,

c) Disconnect before you sleep – Make sure you have a peaceful sleep, disconnect from the world, get the required number of hours of peaceful sleep.

2) Make a to-do list – A to-do list helps you identify the tasks you need to complete during the day and then by the end of the day assess whether the tasks have been completed or not and if not mention a reason for the same and the revised date of completion. This will help you to prevent yourself from procrastinating.

3) Make a Goal – Make a goal, this is a MUST step and this will help you identifying where you want to see yourself and that will build in the positive drive and energy in your body and take you the extra mile in achieving what you truly want.

4) Have a mission obsession statement – Make a mission obsession statement which is quite similar yet different from a goal, it deals more with the method of reaching your goal. Make use of visuals, audio, video, etc, to make it more interesting and inspiring, so that you never go off track and in case you do, it will help you get back on track.

5) Comparison – The only person to whom you shall compare yourself to is your previous self. That is the true comparison in life and you shall ensure that you are always learning and growing. The comparison will help you to perform better and want to make you do better than your previous self.

Don’t allow procrastination to get the better of you, you need to get the better of it.

 

– Akhil Katara.

What is my “Interest”?

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

― Albert Einstein

 

What is my interest, is a question that always makes me wonder, what is my interest? Like really, what is my interest?

When I sit down to think, what is my interest, I ask myself questions such as, what is my interest, what makes me happy, what is it that I like doing, what could make me happy, etc.

As we have grown up, we have got so engrossed with the world that I would like to call ‘artificial world’, that we forget that we are living for ourselves, we forget to laugh from our hearts, we forget to be happy, we forget to feel the happiness, things seem to be superficial. Lot of you might argue, saying that, we need to grow up, we need to take up responsibility, we need to act more mature, I quite, if not completely agree with your side of the argument. My only question to you is, till what extent? What is the level of the sacrifice that we need to make? Do we need to let the ‘child’ inside us die?

The ‘child’ inside us is something we all should look at as the biggest ASSET that we have. The child inside us lives life truly and honestly, without the fear of anything. I would like to pause here for a little while and take you through an anecdote:

When we were younger, when we were learning how to walk, how many times have we fallen down? While playing how many times have we fallen down? While riding the bicycle, how many times have we fallen down?

Once we went through it, didn’t we all get up, dust ourselves and make a fresh start? We did, right? That is the child inside us, who never wants to give up, who always wants to keep trying, till he/she tastes success.

Well then, why do we indulge in the Rat race, forgetting our interests, forgetting what we really want out of our lives? Why do we start to mimic somebody else’s life? Why are we so scared of failing? Why are we so worried?

Let’s all take some time out and live for our interests. Let’s identify what make’s us happy, what make’s us content and do those things, rather than trying to find contentment and happiness in monetary items.

I suggest, let us all identify minimum of 3 interests in our life and try and pursue them, remove time for those interests, prioritize those interests and start living for those.

It will give us a happiness that would make us feel good about ourselves and we will be able to indulge positive energy into our lives and appreciate what we have, rather than cribbing about what we do not have.

Let’s give re-birth to the child within us and let’s not fear about anything and start to live for ourselves.

 

– Akhil Katara.

p.s. – Please drop in your comments, points of improvement any other information which you want to bring to our notice by the comments bar below. Let’s make this interactive and improve ourselves.

 

THE BLACK CAT

“Think positive thoughts because they magnetize that which is sought.”

Superstition is a belief, a blindly accepted belief, not based on any reason or knowledge. Each and every one of us at some point or the other have believed in some superstition. Why does everyone in society from lay people to scientists succumb to them (or at least feel slightly uneasy about not doing so).  Even after being optimistic, why do we end up knocking on wood? i have always wondered if these things are really true or it’s all stuck in our head. Is it our brain making up such stuff for things that can not be explained. 

We all are familiar about the Black Cat Crossing superstition. In India it is a belief that if a black cat crosses your path, something bad is about to happen. The Scottish on the other hand believe that if a black cat crosses or suddenly enters your home, there is going to be lots of prosperity.  So why such contrasting views, which belief is actually correct. Will there ever be an answer?

On a personal front, I generally don’t believe in superstitions. But sometimes due to family or religious beliefs I would say, I tend to have a negative thought which most of the time bothers me, especially if I was heading to complete an important task at hand. 

I would now share an experience which at least changed my opinion about the Black Cat superstition.

This took place last year when I was going to Shirdi. I had lots of things to pray for (especially for my further education). I wanted this trip to be perfect. I believed if I was content with this trip, I for sure would achieve all I wanted.

Early morning at around 5:30 am the train stops at Nagarsole where we had to get off and take a cab to Shirdi (another 1 hour drive). As I got off the train, a black cat cuts my path. It didn’t bother me much as I was in a rush to get a cab.

My friend had arranged for passes to attend a special puja. As we got done with it and were heading towards our next destination, a black cat once again crosses my way. This time I couldn’t ignore it. It did bring in a kind of negativity in my head. Anyways we went ahead.

We were now heading to a Ganesh temple (about an hour’s drive). I had forgotten about the cat and was all excited to whisper my wishes in the Rat’s ear (a common belief in that temple). Everything was going on well, I was happy I visited the temple. As I was walking towards the car, once again I had a black cat cross my way. This time I was completely disappointed. I was scared that something bad is definitely going to occur. I even concluded that it would be related to my studies as that was the only thing I was praying.

I was very disheartened and shared the entire experience with my friend. She tried her best to keep my mind off it, but it didn’t seem to work.

Finally, at night we got a chance to attend the aarti (my favorite one). While everyone present there were engrossed in the aarti, singing it aloud, enjoying the entire positive atmosphere, I was there praying in fear (thanks to the black cat) to remove all these superstitions and negative, heart breaking thoughts from my head. 

God did listen to my prayer then and to my greatest wonder I see the black cat once again walking right in the center of the temple. i did have a scary eye contact with it after which it headed towards the main idol and disappeared. I honestly wonder if anyone did really see it then. 

My immediate thoughts were that “there was no way a black cat can be inauspicious if it could walk so freely in a place I consider Divine.” This incident changed my entire perspective.

This change in perspective was definitely put to test.

Back in Hyderabad, I was heading towards my test center (was giving IELTS exam). A sort of nervousness entrapped my heart. I prayed to God asking Him to keep me calm and remove this nervous feeling. i didn’t even finish this prayer in my head and to my shock I had not one, not two but three black cats cross my way. 

This time, instead of getting depressed, I was thrilled. I knew for sure that this exam of mine was going to be cleared for sure. I knew I would fair well, which I actually did.

After this entire experience I no more believe that a black cat is inauspicious and since then feel blessed to see a cat every time i am out completing an important work.

Moral – There is nothing such as lucky or unlucky. Think positive and positive things will occur. It entirely depends on our perspective.

Stay Blessed 

– Sneha Katara

 

 

Sad story

Today my dadi passed away…. None of you guys know her obviously but she and big mama were good friends. I was not very close to her but still it’s so sad.
I feel very blessed because Vivek and I were the last grandchildren that meet her before she left. My Nani and dadi both lived a great life and passed away peacefully. I’m so thankful to god that she did not suffer at all. I’m just so sad that she had to leave so soon…. But I know she’s in a better place now and this may sound to many of you guys weird or dumb. But I think that even tho I was not close to her we all are connected and I feel like I have many connections with her. I’m sorry I’m writing this on the blog but I felt it was a good way to express my feelings. Rest In Peace Dadi❤️
-Aarti💘

I am what I’ve made myself

I’ve often heard people say “I am what I am. I can’t help it. It is who I am, so deal with it.”

To be honest I don’t understand why people say that. I am of a very different opinion.

When we come into this world, we’re covered in blood, we cry and laugh and smile and frown. Our environment, our parents and everything around us has an effect on us. As we grow older, the effect enhances and we are influenced by our surroundings more and more. We understand our surroundings more and more. We learn to take decisions and judge right from wrong. When we enter our teen-age is when we say we are what we are. Consider this:

When we go out and have a good time with people and make people laugh we always say “Ha! I made a good joke. I had fun at the party. I felt so happy at the end of the day.”

When we have a bad day we say “I feel depressed. I feel lonely. I feel like killing myself.”

See the thing is, all the emotions we feel are generated within us. Emotions are nothing but abstract energy that is generated in response to a particular stimulus. You see a funny video, YOU laugh. You see a violent movie, YOU feel exhilarated. Whatever the stimulus, it is your body that generates the energy to emote. If you can generate such energy, is it not then possible to manipulate that energy? After all energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is merely transformed from one form to another. All the food we eat produces energy in our body. Some of it is used up for building the body and feeding the organs and generating blood and the likes. What happens to the rest? Some of it is dissipated during exertion. Some of it is used up in speaking and talking and laughing and some of it is converted to emotional energy.

We are evolved for a reason. Animals can’t control their desires and killing instincts. We can. That is why we are the superior species. Everything we say or do is entirely our credit. People can influence us but we choose to do what we do and say what we say. We use such statements as an excuse to get away from situations and to shy away from our faults. We find it exceedingly insecure to accept our shortcomings. We are scared when we have to look ourselves in the mirror and be disappointed with our image. We blame it all on the universe or god or whatever we believe in.

That allows us to shirk our responsibilities and let someone else fix the situation or right OUR wrongs. We have to understand that if we are unable to keep our calm or unable to keep our temper in check or unable to concentrate, it is only us who can change that. Yes, genes do play a part in our physical and mental make up but it is our environment that molds us into what we are. And since we choose our environment and friends and expose ourselves to different stimuli, in the end it is us who make we who we are.

It’s not rocket science. It is our body and our mind. We can think what we want and we can do what we choose to. It is up to us to make a wise decision and do the right thing and weed out the negative emotions.

You are not therefore, who you are, you are exactly what you are consciously pretending / choosing to be.

 

-Rohit Parwani