Being ethical

(Writing for 4th Feb)

He felt a hand at the back of his shoulder. The touch was to get Praveen’s attention by Raj. Raj wanted to ask the answer of question no 3 in the Class 10th Mathematics exam. He surreptitiously was trying to ask Praveen, but Praveen didn’t budge and politely declined by giving a stern look at him. This also got in the eyes of invigilator and he warned Raj. Praveen didn’t believe in cheating or helping in cheating. The value which he had got from his upbringing was not to do wrong and anything unethical.

Fast forward 6 years, he was in the engineering college. He was into the college journey and was in full youth, energy and the enthusiasm. He found himself pointing to Joy who was in front of him asking for answer of one question in Basic Electronics. He was the same Praveen who was against even small wrongs. But the college environment and friends with him have diluted his thoughts and threshold for declaring an event wrong had risen in his eyes. Small wrongs was right now for him.

You start accepting things which you considered wrong earlier. This slowly drifts in your mind and you start justifying your act by giving some or the other excuses in your mind. But what is wrong is wrong. You know it. If you are taking the credit of a task done by your team mate or by your direct report, you know deep inside that it is not right. If one is claiming incorrect capability of a product that it can do so many things which it cannot do, just to do sales, it is again unethical. We are into so many things and at so many different kind of environments that we adjust ourselves to that environment and start doing the same things as others even if that is wrong.

The question need to be asked always. Ask yourself “Are you ethical”. Only you and you can answer this. Do not accept superficial justification from yourself. Let the thoughts subside and keep on asking “Are you ethical” with relation to any activity you do. This will help you improve. Even if you have done small wrongs earlier, this will help you improve your future journey. It doesn’t matter much how you behave when all are watching you, it matter most how you behave and act when no one is watching you.

Last and the only page

(Writing for 3rd Feb)

What will you write about yourself and your activities if you have only one page and that is the only page you have. In the next 24 hours, you can write, draw anything about yourself, plan for the day. You may want to look into that what you have written may be before going to bed. This idea just popped up in my head and I found it quite interesting. This limits your thought and excitement for the next 24 hours and you would want to do your best in that duration and write about it. This will help you seeing yourself in retrospective and will help you in improving every day.

The last page could be either preserved or destroyed every day. The purpose of this is to improve everyday and learn from the past. You can be creative and innovative. This also help you not to go very far in future and be in present. The positive reinforcements and the tasks to be done during the day could be written. If you focus more on how to do rather than what and why to do, you will inherently improve. The focus on how will improve the productivity and results in better output both in personal and professional life.

Go ahead and write your life. It is an interesting journey and worth writing about. It is your life. Live it your way and not wait for anything to trigger. Live and write as if it is your last page.

Transformation Fear

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(Writing for 2nd Feb)

John had always seen at others participating in debate, racing events, recitation and other school competition and always thought that he would be better than the participants. In the mind he visualized that he would be the winner in those events. But the hesitation and fear of public appearance and stage fright prevented him from participating. The fear got reinforced in his mind with more and more non participation and thinking of himself as winner. The contrast thought and action made a huge mark which was almost indelible.

His fear continued from school to college and till early part of his job until one day a thought struck to him that he should do something which he think he cannot do. The trigger of this thought came from a mail in his company where it was asked to participate in a skit on the annual day of his company. He found himself on both sides while contemplating whether to participate in the event or not. Most of the times he found himself more comfortable being on the other side and in non participation, which any way was his inbuilt characteristic. This time he wanted to challenge himself and go against the comfort thought and comfort zone. While struggling with the thoughts of giving his name for the skit, he found his finger clicking on the send button of the drafted mail which he typed for participation in the skit. His heart skipped a beat when he clicked on send button instead of delete on his office blackberry.

Within a month after couple of rehearsals, he performed the skit on the annual day with other participants. The skit was very well appreciated and John’s performance was the cherry on the cake. People couldn’t imagine that a person whose image was of introvert could perform so well. He won a lot of accolades and his colleagues and other people remembered him with his role. This boosted his confidence and broke his image of non participant to participant in his mind. He started trying himself into new avenues like learning new languages, playing guitar, running and many other new things. His overall outlook started changing.

You need to come out of your comfort zone. You should try some small things which you think you cannot do. That brings a different perspective in life. The nervous energy in trying new things helps and once you are into that activity that brings confidence. You will get into a habit of trying new things and coming out of stagnancy. There is a lot to explore within you. You will be amazed to know about the new you. Its a never ending experience. Till the time you have the last breath in you, you can do anything and everything. You need to rise above yourself and the fear of transformation will slowly be gone from within you.

Change in 10 minutes

(Writing for 1st Feb)

Mick was told by Elizabeth, his manager, to create a pre-sales presentation for their company’s product. Mick noted that in mind, but hadn’t started working on that thinking that this may be one of the tasks which Elizabeth might forget and is not in the priority list. This assumption was taken by Mick as while communicating about this presentation, she didn’t mention the deadline which she usually used to give for the tasks.

Mick was comparatively relaxed and working on the daily list of items which he has to work upon as an executive. The relaxed period continued until Elizabeth bumped upon him and asked about the status of the pre-sales presentation. He fumbled in replying her and mentioned he will start on that soon. To her surprise, she blurted out why has he not started when the deadline is tomorrow and the next day they have to give the presentation. The anxiety nerves went all through his body and he nervously replied back that he will ensure that it is complete by tomorrow.

Mick went to his desk and took few deep breaths and tried to regain his composure. After 10 min, he thought of an earlier idea which emerged into his mind while his daily run. The idea was to focus on the next 10 min and only 10 min. Not more than that. This will ensure that he is truly focused on the work which he decide to do in that next 10 min. That was just an idea until this project gave him an opportunity to execute the idea. He started with that and opened a blank ppt on his laptop and with full focus started thinking and typing about the content which he has to write about the product. Things started flowing and it became a bit interesting and comparatively easier. He didn’t have the anxious moment of thinking about the presentation being delivered to the client. Rather his full energy was in this current moment of making the ppt to the best of his ability and knowledge.

He focused fully on creating a masterpiece at least from his side. He wanted the presentation to be his best. While working on that 10 minutes after 10 minutes after 10 minutes, he didn’t realize he spent almost rest of 6-7 hours in office and the first draft of the presentation was ready. He was satisfied about what he has done. While driving home, he has the peace and smile that he is not worried and he was engaged in the task he was given. He was deeply satisfied that the idea which he got out of blue, could be implemented. The next day he worked for few more iterative 10 minutes and came up with the final version of the presentation. Elizabeth was happy with the presentation and it went well with the client too.

Rather than worrying about tomorrow, day after tomorrow, next month, next year and any dreadful day (in your imagination) in future, if you focus with all your energy in the next 10 minutes, you can cool your nerves and can devote to the tasks in hand. This way you will always remain in present. However bad the situation be, if you accept it and then work upon the task which you have to do to come out of the situation at least for the next 10 minutes, it will not be long when the 10 minutes can become 4 to 5 hours. This will increase your productivity and will give you immense satisfaction.

Do it now. Days are less

Preet ran for the decided time and did his 10 min of meditation which he does just after the running. He does this meditation in a park which is adjacent to the School where his son Krish goes. Once he was done with meditation he looked into his watch and it was 7:58 am. A thought penetrated his mind that he could align with his son’s arrival in School and he may see Krish off at the school gate. Waiting for 2-3 minutes, Preet thought of tracing the path where his son comes from daily expecting he would see his son.

To his disappointment he was unable to see Krish. He was calling his wife Kiran to know about Krish but she was not picking the phone. Later almost when he reached at the gate of his housing society, he received call from Kiran. She mentioned she missed waking up on time and Krish was dependent on her to wake up as she was his alarm. So the situation was that Preet could not fulfill the desire of seeing off his son at school which he earlier thought he should do frequently.

He decided to not postpone anything. Do it now or do not repent of not doing. We generally go in the mode of postponing and thinking that we can do it later. That create a baggage in mind in a way that something you think should be done and you are not doing it. If you think a task has to be done, do it immediately or within the next opportunity. Else not doing and thinking to do that you have to do it , will create stress.

To come out of that stress, you need to plan and act for a shorter duration. If a plan has to be created plan it for 1 day and ensure you act upon that. You may want to have a long term goal, but if is better to have short plan and act on immediately. If you start acting upon short tasks and see that being completed, you will get that confidence.

Plan , Act , Plan , Act , Plan. Create shorter plan for a day and execute those smaller tasks, learn from it, repeat the exercise. Life is short. You do not have all the time and if you keep on waiting, you will always be waiting. Do not just wait to be happy. Be happy and content now.

This is unacceptable

(Writing for 30th Jan)

This is unacceptable ! How could you do this. Matthew was on top of his voice shouting at Martin. A minute before Martin broke the news that the project cannot be delivered on time as per the plan as there are certain challenges and the testing for the code build could not be completed. All hell broke loose for Matthew and he was shouting and saying “This is unacceptable”.

Martin was politely replying and mentioning the reasons for the delay in the start of the testing. The resource challenges, the environment challenges etc. He mentioned that this has already happened, so how can this be unacceptable. You have to accept what has happened, then we can sit together to assess what could be done from here to bring the project back to green. But Matthew was furious and he was again and again coming to the same point. As per the project plan, the testing should have been completed by this time and you are mentioning the testing hasn’t started. Again Martin heard the same three words “This is unacceptable”.

In any bad situation or event which has already happened, we find it very difficult to accept the event. If we do not accept the present situation, how could we progress. We will be stuck in questioning why it has happened and blaming each other. It is good to understand why that has happened to learn from it, but not for blaming and going deep into it and not accepting the situation. The project plan is a plan. There is no guarantee that the project will be delivered as per the plan. It has to be re-planned. Even after re-planning, many projects fail to deliver.

Rather than saying, This is unacceptable, we should accept it because it has already happened. Retrospect and learn from it. And Move on.

What If

(Writing for 29th Jan)

What If I am going to die today ? There will be one day that this will be true. And that day can be today. Why are we waiting for something to happen to start living. The death is always round the corner, so why not start living in present. Start exploring the life. We live in the limited constraints of our mindset and do not think beyond that. Lets look into the possibilities outside our mind world. This will bring energy and enthusiasm to live. We are not just to live in certain pattern. A lot could be done with the body and soul which we have.

What if I become billionaire. As a common person we generally do not say, think or believe these words. We find it difficult to imagine ourselves as a billionaire. If you want to be rich or you need a comfortable life and want to attract money, you should not feel discomfort in thinking that you will be rich or have that much amount of money. You need to remove the blocker from your mind. If you remove the inhibition in thinking about money, the possibilities of earning more may open.

What if I become happy, content and peaceful. No need to wait for becoming happy. That could be done now at this very moment. Unless you become happy and content now, you cannot be happy. Here happy doesn’t necessarily means laughing, cheerful, happy that deep inside you are at peace. So even if outside world is bad and harsh, difficult to you, deep inside you can be at real peace like the bottom of the ocean.

Explore all your What Ifs and see how those What Ifs can transform your life. Life is about exploring and learning, engaging, enjoying.

Hold my hand

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(Writing for 28 Jan)

While coming after my daily run, I saw a lady with her son holding his hand and walking towards the school. The boy who would be 10-11 years young was looking to be assured and was not thinking much about the road which he had to cross along with her mother. Contrary to that his mother was vigilant, eyes towards the school and rushing with her steps one after the other as if the race was between her two legs on who can be faster.

The boy’s speed to reach the school was governed by her mother’s rush and intention. He was least bothered if he will be reaching on time or if there are any cars coming on the way. Trust plays a big role here. In life scenarios, especially in difficult situations, we wait and wish if someone would help us. At that time even if you get someone who understands your situation and listens to you helps. A person cannot live his whole life alone. By basic nature human beings are social animal. And you need some people if not many to talk to you, to understand you or hold your hand.

You would have different trust or comfort factor with different people. With few you can talk for few minutes, with few you can talk for hours and open up. There are always few, may be 1-3 people, you can call at any time, talk to them, ask for help fully trusting that that person would surely help. Similarly you will be that person for few other people. These small circles, close circle of friends, then family and then few colleagues with whom you work, creates your world. All other things are in TV, internet, newspaper and in your imagination.

In this busy world no one has time for anything. Everyone is running after something or the other. The rat race is never ending. And you hear some or the other news about someone has passed on in family, friends or acquaintances. You will feel sad, reminisce some moments where you have last seen or interacted with that person and then get up and move on to do your daily chores. As you grow older, you will start feeling the need that someone should be there to hold your hand. The holder could be one of the person in your closest circle.

The boy going to school may not want his hand to be held as he goes into adulthood. He will have his dreams of independent world, going beyond the sky. The mother would still want to be with him, if not physically at least in thoughts and conversations. But sooner or later this realization comes back that you need someone to hold your hand, not physically but who is at the back and you have the trust and belief that he is with you no matter what. You don’t have to say to that person “Hold my hand”. You are already held in the love, care and trust.

Peace

(For 27 Jan)

Peace cannot be described in words. Peace can only be felt. The deeper the peace the more peaceful you will feel. The feeling of peace is very soothing to heart. We generally attach peace to happiness. We assume if we are happy, we will be at peace. That may not be true. If you are elated and excited, you might not be at peace. You would be expecting something, the next high in your life, so you may be in the mode that this excitement, happiness should continue, there should be some reward, but not peace. On the contrary you may be at peace even after a great loss.

Peace doesn’t have a condition. Being in peace is a choice which you have to continuously take even when it is chaotic in outside world. You need to consciously choose to be in peace. One of the ways to be in peace is to practice meditation. The other way is to observe your thoughts whenever you can. To be in peace is greater than any materialistic thing you can attain in your life. It is better to understand this sooner. A normal person do have very few peaceful moments which he can remember. We must try to create more peaceful moments.

We need to stop being desperate about things and just be. Do your best and stop. Do not over think about the result.

Are we strangers or connected

I was running today and covered till 16 km and was planing to complete 26 km today, a man in his sports bicycle slowed down the cycle and asked if I am ok. He was genuinely concerned and I felt that. He offered water which I politely declined as I had the water bottle. He went ahead with his cycling wishing me luck on the rest of my run. I thanked him for his gesture.

Are we complete strangers or are we all connected just waiting for the artificial cover to be removed by initial talks. Even talking to a stranger feels refreshing and brings a new perspective. Sometimes just by looking at a person you feel connected to that person and you would want to talk to him.

There is some signal which gets transferred between two bodies even when they haven’t started talking. That signal helps in starting conversation. Contrary to the older belief and advice given by parents that we should not talk to strangers, we should not be that skeptical towards strangers. Who knows one of those encounter may give you a life long friend

Waiting to be called

( 25 Jan 2020 12 :06 PM Noida)

We are always waiting to be called. Called by whom ….. To be called by the interviewer, to be called by the immigration officer, to be called by the receptionist, to be called by the announcement of flight.

Why are we waiting to be called by someone. Is it because we do not find peace in the current position or do we have a material need or it is natural to move from that place or it is just a physical need or we need to move as that movement is the means to a different end goal.

Whatever is the case may be to wait for the call and as soon as we hear our name go towards the caller, are we at peace from inside. The internal peace and stability matters. Even if we are moving physically and doing things as per the worldly demands or for any practical purposes, we need to be stable and peaceful from inside. That peace and stability gives us the strength required to survive and be content.

The outside call will always be there and we have to follow the calls, but from deep inside once those call stops then we are at peace. From deep within we will know that there is no destination and there is no origination. We ourselves are the origination and destination

There is so much in life

Life is unlimited. It can only be limited in your mind. The limits are set by you. If you break those limits from your mind, you can go beyond the sky and even sky is not the limit. Life is full of surprises, adventure and fun in all aspects. But we make ourselves limited to a particular target.

You will find all kinds of people doing what they love to do. There are examples where people have won over their adversities. All the excuses about not having time, or too busy in life are irrelevant. It is up to you on how do you want to take your life.

Life is waiting to be explored. Take risks, be playful, be free, forget your fears. Life is not about accumuating materialistic things. It is about gaining experience, making friends, enjoying, being peaceful and content.

1000 days of running

#1000daysofrunning

A mail popped up in my company mailbox somewhere during the end of April 2017. 100 days of running to start again this year from 29th April till 6th Aug. A voice inside me, as always, said “Let’s take up this challenge”. And there I was. Running my first run in this challenge on 29th April. Challenging myself excites me and gives me a kick. I have done this on a few occasions in the past. But this challenge was very different. It is not a single instance. It has to be done again and again, without a single day of failure. Running for 100 days continuously, no matter what, running for at least 2 km. I stretched the minimum 2 km to more than 5 km since starting off. To be precise, the distance was 6.5 to 7 km daily barring the initial 7-8 days, when it was 5-6 km. The journey of running, getting into a new routine, thus began on 29th April 2017. I asked a few of my friends in my company whether they want to be a part of this, thinking that there is no reason why one would not participate in this event. But to my surprise, I found no one taking the interest to join. But that didn’t deter me to join in the event.
This is the exact same first paragraph I copied from my company blog which was posted on Sep 9, 2017.
Now comes the second part. I am still running and today on 23 Jan 2020, I have completed 1000 days of running. Yes 1000 days of running. What a journey it is. Now it has become a part of me. I have not missed a single day when I didn't run. I ran for all days and that too more than 2 km. Recently I have got into habit of running more than 5 km daily. I have heard so many comments like you should not run daily, Why are you running ? Will you not get exhausted. But I kept on going. I remember one instance when I was in Pune staying in a PG, and it was raining outside and I completed my running of more than 2 km just running around the small room keeping the tracker Endomondo to keep track of km run. It has been a fantastic journey and I get a great feeling. Running has also kept me maintain my weight and gives the necessary physical exercise required by the body.
During this journey, I have actually run 5 half marathons (1 half marathon = 21.0975 km). Total distance run since the beginning of my journey is 4064 km. This distance is 29 km more than the distance from Srinagar to Kanyakumari on road via Delhi, Indore, Mumbai, Bangalore. The total time for which I am running till today is 484 hours, 57 min and 54 sec which is more than 20 days of running day and night. Out of the 5 marathon which I have run, the best personal record is in 2 hr 31 m 6 sec. I am not running for any record and now it has become a habit, the habit so strong that if I do not run I feel some itching. People say till what time you will run. I reply till the time I can run. Whats the harm in continuing a good habit if you have attained that habit. Why to stop that.
Getting into a good habit brings self confidence and motivation too which keeps you going. I feel that taking a challenge and attempting something which you think you cannot do, brings the energy and confidence. This helps in other area too. Subconsciously you get the feeling that if I can do one thing which I thought was not possible, I can do other things too. Moreover doing regular physical exercise keeps you healthy and reduces the stress. You will never hear an athlete or runner or someone invoved in regular physical workout going into depression.

Running has become like a meditation for me. I feel relaxed and refreshed while running. Running in the morning keeps me refreshed and energized the whole day.

A child's play

Life is like a child’s play. Life should be like a child’s play. A child is so playful and keeps laughing or crying but remains in that very moment. He never gets tired of his mischiefs. He is always excited about everything.

The same child becomes serious as be grow old , become teenager and later grows to an adult and becomes a completely different person compared to how he was during his childhood, especially during the first 4 years of his life. The innocence spills over from all his body and through all his activities.

A child is easily connected to the nature and laughs and plays with the nature. The natural tendency of a human being is to laugh, play, live, learn which are innate but as he grows he learn to take stress, be busy and start complaining about life. There is a complete change in him.

There should be conscious effort to keep the inner child alive in you even when you grow old. Keeping the child alive is keeping your energy alive, live completely in the present and not worry about past or future. Awaken the child within you and enjoy the moments of life.

Am I important

Am I really important. We get the feeling that I am very important as our world rotates around me. We feel that the world at least the smaller world around us cannot exist without us. If you are in office and working on a project, generally you want to be on top of the project and would have the pressure to deliver. You will feel that the work cannot be completed without you. Even if you delegate it to someone else, you want to see from the side if things are being done correctly. That feeling that without you work, personal or professional, cannot be complete.

Is this feeling that without you the work cannot be progressed correct ? It is not. The work was being done before you also and can be done without you. This way the stress that any work brings with itself can be reduced. Actually the world is not dependent to any one person, we get attached to the world. An officer who has worked in an office for 40 years finds it very hard how the office will run without him. In fact he has the fear and apprehension where will he go to the next morning. After his retirement, there will be some other person who replaces him at the same position.

Giving too much importance and trying to take everything in our hand is also a problem. You will repent for any mistake or on anything which doesn't go as per your plan. Planning is ok, but expecting that everything will go as per the plan is not correct. There is every possibility that things will not go as per the plan. The plans are bound to fail in many scenarios. There are unknown scenarios and situations. Do your best and leave the result, do not expect the result to be in a certain way as said in Gita (Hindu Holy Book).

You may not be that important as what you think. The world can still go without you. Do not worry too much about anything. Do not be desperately attached to anything. Let loose. Play with the life given to  you. The life is a playground where you need to play your role. Do different types of things, enjoy and be yourself. From the heart be honest, do not hurt any one intentionally, you will lead a good life.

A new habit

(Writing for 20th Jan)

When you are trying to get into a new habit, it becomes very difficult. Almost on all the days you will feel that you should leave this. The mind will respond and repeatedly say that this is not possible, why are you doing this, what is the need, be in your zone. You will be constantly in the mind game. You need to be adamant and be on top of your mind at least for the initial 20-30 days. After that the mind will  understand you are not listening, it will give few more try and then will surrender. That is the point from where you can pick up and go over and above and make a mark for yourself. However small the habit is, this will bring a confidence in you that you are able to do what you have thought. That brings self confidence and a good feeling. This will also bring a confidence that if you are able to develop this habit, you can add other habit too in your routine. And the other way is also true, if somehow you are not able to add in the habit somewhere there is a mark in the mind that you were not able to do this and the mind may signal you that you should not try new things and be in the comfort zone.

You need to win those mind games. Try with smaller games where the chance of win is more. Once you start winning those mind games, you will be in that habit and the mind will also understand that you can do things which you decide to do. Once a habit is strengthened, you do not require extra effort to continue doing that, it will go into your blood and will become the muscle memory. Then during that habit, you can do something else and develop a new habit. For example if you have developed a habit of running daily for more than 5 km and that doesn't require much of effort. The only effort required is to wear the running shoes and as soon as you are in the shoes, your mind is all set, no extra effort required, you find yourself running. While running you can listen to some good books on audible or any other app and develop this habit of listening to audio books. This way a new habit can be made on top of existing good habit.

The start is difficult and important too. If you remain focused and patient during the start and keep putting your effort, you will be able to develop that habit. If you keep on adding small new good habits,  you will develop a whole new habit of learning many small things. This will have a great effect on you not immediately but in the long run, you will find a new you.

From immense noise to deep silence

There is so much noise in the world and then there is noise inside you , the mental noise. Human body is conditioned to remain in these noise as it grows from a child to adult. But deep inside there is silence, silence to be explored. Silence to be uncovered.

The silence is the way to know yourself and go beyond yourself. Silence is our true nature.Through the silence and nothingness everything emerged. If you remain silent and without thought for sometime, you may get to  reach certain level of your inner self.

The exploration of self is a long process and life long learning. This journey has to be taken individually and no one can come along with you in this journey. If you are regular in exploring yourself you would be generally in peace in spite of the outside chaotic environment.

This exploration is very satisfying and fruitful especially for the spiritual journey inside. Once you are into this habit of going deep inside you would be able to be in silence even when there is immense noise outside.

The world is a marketplace

The world seems to be a marketplace. Everywhere you will find people selling or trying to sell something to you. If a person approaches you in a shopping mall or near grocery store, you anticipate that he is trying to give some info about some card, some scheme and trying to sell. The anticipation becomes truth in most of the cases. Similar is the case when you are receiving the call from some unknown person. Most of the time it is related to credit card, loan, overdraft facility etc. Why is so much of focus on the consumerism. Are we born to consume as many things as possible and if we consume less, are we lesser than the person who consume more. If you open any media tv, radio and newspaper, there also it is full of commercials promoting something or the other. 

Just because it is visible in the market, is it required that I need to buy it. Sometimes it happens that we see the item in the market and then visualize why is that item needed by us and then consciously justify the need of buying it and then finally buy it. The buying spree and the consuming trends has made us dependent on the consumables and after using them repeatedly, mentally we have decided that we cannot live without that object. But to start with we were not using that object earlier. 

There is another type of people which are going the opposite way. Consume less and consume what is required and attain peace. The more item you have, the more time will be spent on thinking about those items and maintaining those. If you have a suitcase and 10 items with you, you just need to think about those items and move around easily. But you have 1000 items with you, your mind will always be thinking about one or the other items. These people who want to live in less are called Minimalist. 

More money in the market, getting good salary and getting easy loan, access to credit card to purchase anything has enabled the behavior of excessive purchasing. The purchasing of items outside the capacity and beyond the need becomes an addiction. The situation starts when you do a job to earn and run your house and it ends that you cannot afford to loose the job as you have unnecessary liabilities, loans against you which in the first place could have been avoided. 

The Fire

I was reminded of the importance of fire yesterday night when the LPG cylinder suddenly got exhausted. The gas stove doesn't give any signal that the gas is going to be finished, it was just when my wife had put the 3rd or 4th Chapati on the pan, the fire on the stove started loosing all energy and like the last few steps of marathon was almost stopping. This also gives me an idea, that there should be actually an indicator of how much gas is left in the cylinder. This would prepare us for the unknown. Anyway the things which are taken for granted have the ability to make us realize their importance once they are gone. Do not take things for granted. Be grateful for what you have. The sudden loss of fire in our kitchen created panic and throw of words between myself and wife to which there was one almost teen spectator my son Shuaurya. The other one is still an infant and doesn't worry much about these war of words unless it affects his daily supply of milk and other entertainment mainly mobile. The words between the couple went on that one should have booked the cylinder earlier and we could have avoided this situation.

The words settled down and the team focused on the solution. The hand went on to mobile to fulfill the demand required in our household, the other 7-8 chapatis. I ordered 10 chapatis, some buffer to be on safer side. The vegetable curry was already there. This was one of the few occasions when we ordered something from the restaurant just to fulfill our basic needs and not to relish any delicacy and tingle the taste buds in our tongues. The almost 30 minutes which took us to reach to mobile and get the chapatis at our doorstep was pretty smooth. It is so easy now to fulfill the basic needs of human being in a very less time if I compare with prehistoric age when Homo Sapiens or Neanderthal has to go long to search for food. But here in our scenario too, the chapati at the doorstep couldn't have been prepared without the Fire. The fire ended in our house but somewhere else the fire was still burning which helped us dampening the fire of our bellies.

How exciting or not exciting or surprising would it have been when first time the prehistoric human rubbed two stick or two stones and saw the sparkle after rubbing. They wouldn't have known what could this fire do. If I keep myself in their position, I would have been surprised or may be frightened or taken aback about what is this light coming out of rubbing two stones. The only lightning would have been visible in the sky which they would be accustomed by then, but some lightning happening so near would certainly would have surprised them. How many days, months or years would have taken them to light something may be the bushes, trees etc. with that lightning. And then we know from history, it was the greatest invention which separated homo sapiens from other living organisms and made him traverse to the top of the food chain. The same fire which we ignore in day to day life.

The other form of fire which we see is the fire which brings disaster. A factory creating plastic school bags and stuffs gutted to fire because of electrical short circuit or the forest fire in Australia which is burning for days killing around 500 million animals. The amazon forest fire and the California forest fire are other examples where fire played havoc. The start of the fire could be human-driven or human negligence or climatic. The same small fire which helps in preparing some food so that the indigestible food can be digested within our stomach, could also create the disaster and in a way  end the whole world too. The fire is so powerful. The context and the control ability of fire is so important in utilizing it for good use or for exploiting it to create harm to the world or climate.

The enabler of helping us satiate in the dinner, the Fire, is easily ignored until we are reminded of its absence. The fire in the belly should still be there after fulfilling the basic needs. The fire in the belly should be there to keep running and working towards challenges and help us change for the betterment of the world. The fire in the belly should be there till the end of our life to keep progressing, helping others, preventing bad things, educating people, setting examples, working towards betterment of self and society, working towards a cause. Let the fire remain burning in control to keep us illuminated. 

You are being watched

Sometimes I feel someone is watching me. If I do something wrong even by mistake or if I think something wrong I feel someone is keeping a note. I am not able to see who notes that but I feel it is being noted. And however much time passes those wrong doings are being reminded somehow, sometimes without any reason sometimes with a cue. 

You should not talk real harsh to anyone or do real bad to anyone without any reason or when you feel you are superior to that person and take advantage of your position. The time changes and the situation could be opposite later. Be humble and be polite. Treat others as you want yourself to be treated. 

The one who is watching you and keeping a note of your wrong doing as well as rightdoing is your conscience, your true self. You cannot cheat to your true self. Keep your book as clean as possible. Even if there are mistakes done by you, do not repeat those.