Self discovery – a way of life!

I believe all of us every now and then embark on a journey of self discovery. At times like these, almost everything that we see or do; we do it with a lot of intensity , trying to extract the most out of it. It could be triggered by a great conversation , an excellent film , a TED talk or just any video that you watch on YouTube for that matter. But it does happen to all of us every now and then! 

It is in times like these that we really think about pushing ourselves in a field that excites us. We realise how little we know and yet how much we talk. We often think that we know a lot about something, but when we actually meet someone who lives and breathes in that stream and get into a conversation with them; we realise how shallow we are. 

It is very important to know about many different things for various different reasons. Their are only so many battles that a person can fight. And so ” To choose your battles wisely ” becomes really important.

Their was this interesting talk that  I once saw that spoke about a theory called the theory of a 1000 hours. It said that if you can spend a 1000 hours studying and getting to know something about a topic, then you will know more about it than 90% of the population.

Now this sounds great , and we get all excited and decide to start implementing it the very next day. But after 2-3 days , we are back to square one; until the next time this phase of self discovery hits us again. 

It is very important to get the balance. Not everything is an examination that you can assume that you can pass if you prepare hard for just a particular span of time . 

Everything in life is a process and should become a habit. Or as they say it , 

Habit formation is discipline.

So self discovery is a great moment to actually kick start a process that will ultimately result in the formation of a habit . Coz anyone can think of going to the gym from tomorrow or reading more books in the coming days or doing some charity in the near future, coz in the future; all of us are the best versions of ourselves . 

It is when this best version of us becomes our present for a continuously long span of time does it actually make a lasting impact on us. 

So, what are you going to do about it ??

Here’s a link to the video whose theory I just mentioned to you.

Watch “How to crack world’s toughest examinations | ROMAN SAINI | TEDxJUIT” on YouTube

Harry Potter and the cursed child- the book we have been waiting for!

“There is never a perfect answer in this messy,emotional world.Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic.In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison, the knowledge that pain will come again.Be honest to those you love,show your pain.to suffer is human as it is to breathe.”

Before you think I have gone completely crazy,those are the words said by Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the cursed child.I don’t know whether you have read it or not. In case you have,it’s well and good;in case you haven’t, then don’t worry;I’m not going to reveal any plot lines to you.Except the fact that I urge you to read the book as soon as you can.

I was skeptical when I heard that Harry Potter was being brought to life,once again; even though people were really hoping that it happens.I was skeptical because I was scared that the book will be only a pale shadow of it’s glorious past.That it will try to cash in on the Harry Potter mania just like many famous movie or book series have done before(read Ice age, Pirates of the Caribbean, the girl with the dragon tattoo). And the last thing I wanted was to see the book series that brought the reading bug in me and opened me to a lifelong friend and partner in crime brought down in one attempt.And to top it all, it was in the form of a play-not exactly a book.So I was all the more worried when I got my hands on it.Luckily-I was wrong!

The book is exactly what we need , and much more.It ticks all the right boxes- and yet never pushes it too far.It has enough in it to remind the children of the 90’s of those glorious days reading the books almost at breathless pace; and yet it has enough in it to make the readers all the more fans of the Harry Potter world.

From bringing our friends(and foes,and several others)back together and creating a deceptively brilliant and imaginative plot that is quite perfect for our times when people crave for intelligent content and revel in the fantasies of watching a Chris Nolan film brilliantly unfold.

The book does something that is no mean feat to achieve-bringing alive all our favorite characters-their comrade,their fears, their joys, their nightmares, their pains and their enemies; as well as some of the most dreaded characters (along with new one’s to love,loathe) who still stay true to their nature and continue to bring in us that feeling that we all loved about from the harry potter series- being sucked into another world.

I wish I could see the play and actually see the magic.And I do hope the party is carried forward to the 70mm screen as well(with the original cast-of course- no offense meant to the new actors performing on stage); for who wouldn’t love to see Daniel,Rupert and Emma(heart leaping already) give another shot to it.

Till then- enjoy the magic.It’s Christmas already!

The Jaded Generation

Found this wonderful article in the Sunday edition of this week’s Times of India.

 

We are tired even before waking up, go through the motions like robots through the day, and sleep eludes us at night because of fatigue. The exhaustion epidemic is upon us. How did we reach here?

Look around you… how many energy bunnies do you see? Probably none. Maybe one. At the most, two. Now count the ones slouching – either in their cubicles, on the metro or even at home? How many are there? Doctors say, one in five of us, is in a state of near-permanent exhaustion.

Physicians have a handy acronym for this syndrome where patients complain of fatigue al the time – TATT (Tired All The Time) . General physician Dr Dheeraj Dayal says, “These days, I treat more people for exhaustion than fever or sore throat. Sometimes, it’s chronic and they get hospitalised. Others need a holistic plan to learn how to relax – a change in their lifestyle.”

Why are we always so tired?

Research by market analysts Mintel reveals that one in three of us admits they are permanently worn out because of the pace of modern life. As a result, sales of supplements such as ginseng, energy drinks and power bars have shot up like never before.

As we move to a 24/7 work culture, more time is spent at our desks, there’s no time to relax at home with loved ones, not enough vacations to rest our tired, body, mind and soul. Add this to the lack of exercise and clean breathing air, and you get an exhaustion epidemic.

Psychologist Bhawna Monga says, “The problem is that people aren’t aware of just how tired they are, and even if some are, they don’t allow themselves a serious chance to recover. There’s a paranoia that they will lose everything, if they let go of a few things and relax.”

Two worlds collide

A study done by the Economist a few years ago said that we are more exhausted than any other generation so far in history. They called the 30-somethings a victim of two trends colliding – acceleration and slowing down at the same time. The need to accelerate involved work goals. To rise in a position of CEOs or top bosses in any organisation; the priming begins a decade before. So 30-somethings do not have the time to slow down. Yet, this is also the time most people settle down, have kids. So there’s a demand to slow down at home. It’s this constant pull and push of the two polar opposite demands made on our bodies and minds that has left our generation on the edge.

Make a Positive Plan

The question is how does one learn to slow down and relax? Experts say you have to be prepared to deal with exhaustion head-on. If you see the symptoms, accept the fact that you’re tired. Then get your action plan ready.

 

– Try breathing: Breathing is the most elemental and immediate way to beat stress. But there’s a difference between breathing to live and breathing to thrive. If you make a conscious effort to deepen your breathing, you will sleep better, gain more control over your moods. – Connect with nature: Nature has built-in mechanisms for relieving stress. According to the Center for Disease Control, as many as 148 industrial chemicals move through our bloodstream at any given moment. Make sure you go to a park every day, and see natural beauty without long gaps. – Rest: Insufficient sleep causes major energy drain. Don’t stay awake to play with your gadgets. – Resentments and Regrets: Holding on to anger or sadness depletes our energy and kills our soul slowly. Learn to let go of resentments. According to experts, emotional togetherness helps people gain energy. Surround yourself with family, friends, well-wishers.

 

 

Blackbirds feel the pressure too!

 

 

A research between Glasgow University and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, came up with the conclusion that city living significantly alters our daily body clock, making us active for longer, and less rested. The group studied stress factors in male blackbirds in cities when left in the wild. The city blackbirds began their daily activities around 30 minutes before dawn, while forest birds began their day as the sun rose. The city birds ended their days around nine minutes later, meaning they were active for about 40 minutes longer each day and the urban birds’ circadian (daily) rhythms were altered, running faster by 50 minutes than forest birds and being clearly less robust. This research proved that even an animal species’ internal clock changed while sharing human habitat.

 

 

In our day and age, when few of us have physically demanding jobs, we are wiping ourselves out through psychological factors.

 

—Elliot Berkman, professor of psychology

 

Sleep and you sleep alone!

I’m pretty sure we are all familiar to those moments when we are really trying very hard to sleep, but then sleep completely deserts us.

It is then that our mind begins playing around, and thoughts that had remained lost in your subconscious start resurfacing.
Its mostly memories of a person you are really missing or wish to reconnect to; or of a long cherished moment you had totally forgotten about; or sometimes of how you wished some situations would turn out to be but didn’t quite turn out so.
Maybe its our minds way to bring back something from the dead, or for the need of retrospection that we aren’t actually giving ourselves as much time as we should.
Or maybe its just we trying extremely hard to sleep. I remember the scene from Saving private Ryan where everyone is trying to sleep but nobody is able to do so. And then Tom Hank’s character says

The easiest way to fall asleep is to try to stay awake.

The phenomena of sleep is something that isn’t very well understood- and god knows how many mysteries lay hidden in it, but whatever maybe the reason for those thoughts- you never even realize when you fell asleep. And when you wake up, you normally have a strong point that you wish to do.
There’s no denying that sleep is the one time you have for yourself. For

Laugh and the world laughs with you.
Sleep and you sleep all alone.

Abhishek K

When your home is as beautiful as ur city of dreams

People have the habit to travel the world, only to come back and find exactly what they were looking for.

Travelling is a great practise and exercise- one that we must always be on the lookout for, and yet, many a times; we undermine how beautiful our very own city is.

This mostly happens coz we take our city and the places it has to offer for granted, seeing it change and wither and be back again as we grow in life.
But when an outsider visits ur city for the first time and looks awestruck at its magnificence, you once again begin to grasp how lucky you are- and appreciate your surroundings once more.

So travel the world, but appreciate what you’ve got back home as well, for truly ;

There’s nothing like home.

My city, my home – VIZAG, INDIA

Abhishek K

A dream broken!

Being an Indian and a full on lover of movies-both Indian and world cinema; France has always appealed to me as “the place to be”.

Blame it on the way it has been shone in movies and travel diaries of people across the globe, or its rich history and open culture . Movies like Woody Allen’s midnight in Paris and even films like London, Paris, new york in India only made my love affair with the place grow stronger .
Although I hadn’t personally ever been to France, all I could ever dream of was to travel to France at least thrice in my life- once with my friends to soak in all the pleasures and joys that the place has to offer; the next time perhaps with the love of my life so that we make unforgettable memories; and the third time- all alone, more like a personal trip the kind that people make when they are lost or looking for more from their lives. Being to France is clearly nothing short of a dream for me- one that I really hope I can fulfill.

But then today’s attacks happened. Right at the time when a football match was in progress and the city was in a mood to have a great time. Right when history was being created elsewhere in the world in Britain where Mr Modi was speaking his heart out to the Indian population and to the world in general, right when a guy in India was happily tucked in bed perhaps living that dream of someday walking the streets on France.
It felt as if a dream broke right there. Where a snap and a blast and the world around you changed forever. I felt someone violating my peace and my dream even though I sat witnessing the proceedings from thousands of miles away.
And yet something in me snapped deep down . Suddenly, I wasn’t really sure if I would wish to be there or not! The place of my dream was changing and with it was changing my dream and resolution to be there .
All this not because of anything else but the fact that an event happened and violated the image of the place in mind. I cannot think of walking in France and soaking in its glory without also forming an immediate picture of the pain and shock that I witnessed today.
Maybe its just an immediate reaction. Maybe as with everything else, the healing touch of time will fade away these sights and my dream will be restored. Maybe once again I’ll watch a movie or see a documentary on France and my love affair with the place will be back again.
But today is not that day. A part of me is broke and their doesn’t appear to be any repairs for it!
My prayers are with the people of France. The world is with you!
#prayforparis

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Guilty reminders

You get reminded of things from quarters you least expect to act as reminders

As we grow up, their are so many things we take for granted that we fail to see how beautiful or amazing they actually are.
Quite recently , their was a power cut in my colony, and when there’s a power cut, it becomes difficult to stay in the room. So we stepped outside to the terrace; and just as we took our first few steps, we were literally blown away by the wind. As everyone rushed back to their rooms, I stood there just for a minute longer to notice how the wind ruffled through the trees and they looked as if they were dancing to the tunes of the wind. Or how the dog was furiously trying to locate a safe place to hide, or how a woman rushed to the terrace to gather all the saris before they get soaked in the rain.
As I stood watching all this, I noticed a crow sitting beside me, its feathers hither-tither due to flying in the wind, it looked visibly dazed by the effort. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight, and the crow cawed as if acknowledging the presence of my company. And as I walked down to my room , I reminded myself once again that nature is perhaps the best teacher- and that their is nothing called boredom . All you need to do is look around you.

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The Ride

Life is like a roller coaster ride. It has its ups and downs. But its your choice to scream or enjoy the ride!

There where months when I did nothing but sit and watch movies and TV series and chat- neglecting almost every duty that I had as a student. And then their are times when I’m so busy with my college work that it has been over a month since I did any of the above. On one occasion , working really late in the night, I thought what exactly I had been doing for the past few years that I had a truck load of stuff to do right now!
That’s how things always are, aren’t they. You never know how your wasting time until time is the only commodity you wished you had more of.
I sat and thought and thought about it and realized that once again I’m idling way the precious little time I had.
Sometimes we don’t really realize what we are doing until its too late or there’s no turning back. Drowning yourself in questions you can do nothing about right now should easily be the least of your worries.
What you do have is now- and all that matters is what you do with it. So just plunge yourself in the journey and give it your all.
Enjoy the ride!

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Tom the teacher!

Quite recently , I found myself sitting in a multiplex watching Mission Impossible: Rogue nation. I was barely getting used to the seating and the ambiance when bam – Tom Cruise comes running and jumping and hanging on to an aeroplane and doing stunts that even the fittest of actors in their 20’s wouldn’t risk doing. All that at the ripe age of 53!
The scene really fascinated me on many accounts. Let’s start with something very simple- the timing of the scene . It comes right at the start giving you a bang for your buck even before you’ve settled in. Somebody who arrives late and hasn’t seen the trailers wouldn’t even know that the scene exists. Isn’t that how it is with us as well when we sometimes arrive later than we should to grab an opportunity, or at times; don’t arrive at all!
And how about the commitment of Cruise to his job. In this CGI driven industry where almost everything that you can think of and cannot think of can be created using CGI- his insistence to do his stunts himself; you cannot help but cheer for this man who is giving more than his 100% to the job he is doing. And isn’t he loving it ?

Shouldn’t we live our lives to the fullest? Sure – jumping from Burj Khalifa or hanging on to an accelerating flight may not be the best and safest of ideas; but in our own small ways – shouldn’t we give it our all.
   Isn’t the thrill of anticipation sometimes the most exhilarating thing that there is – even more than the thing itself. We keep creating scenario after scenario about how things might turn out and cannot help but check or compare between our ideas and that of the actual outcome.

Comparing , evaluating, living to the fullest, finding and making the most of an opportunity- isn’t that what a good life is all about!

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Remembering the phenomenon that is Shri APJ Abdul Kalam

There are people who come into this world, rise against all odds, do things that are hereby unimaginable for a person of their upbringing and in the process – inspire millions and billions of people across the globe. Mr. Abdul Kalam is one such person.
Not many people have caught the world’s eye the way this man had captured it. And to think that he is no more leaves a hole that is going to take a long long time to fill.
Be it his almost single handed dedication for the rise of ISRO in India, which famously gave him the title of “the missile man” to being one of the most spectacular President’s of India to being awarded the Bharat Ratna , being known as a people’s representative all through, at the core of his personality was a dream to see India restore to its glory and a world of peace of harmony- and he wished to achieve this through the future of the world- children. At the very heart of his personality was this immense simplicity and love of children that made him rise above all.
I had my first brush with Mr kalam in my 6th standard, when I was part of a quiz competition based on his autobiography “wings of fire” . His story greatly inspired me- just as it had to billions of people before. Born in a poor household with barely enough means to carry on day-to-day activities to becoming a scientist and then president to what not. There is almost nothing  this man couldn’t achieve. And it was almost impossible to not be moved and inspired by it. It only made my longing to meet him grow stronger.
Luckily for me, he decided to visit our school in Visakhapatnam in India, and even better was the fact that I was the captain of my school and so would get the honour of welcoming him. My joy knew no bounds. I was tensed as well- the last thing I wanted was to screw the moment out of my tension and excitement combined.
But none of it happened. There was a huge rush of people to see him. But none of it mattered to him. He was there to speak to the students of our school, and I was there to receive him – and the one who got his attention.
He addressed us in the assembly and delivered a message that inspired us all. And through the entire speech , I stood there beside him- soaking in as much of him that I could. I could see the excitement running through everyone, could feel the burning eyes of the future of a nation resting on the actions of a small but strong man, and I got an idea of what it is to be loved and looked up to my almost everyone you come in contact with.  I had been studying in the same school since the past 10 years, and never did I feel the very walls of the building reverberate with the voices of the students repeating after him.
I showed him an art work of his as a representative of the students, and he shook my hands and congratulated me on the good work- thinking that it was I who had made the art! I got my first hand experience of what humility is and what really makes a person “great”.
I remember him quoting that “when I die, don’t declare a holiday. Work a day harder than ever if you really love me”.
The fact that he passed away while delivering a lecture at IIM Shillong, among students- addressing them and doing something he loved the most till his very last breath goes to show what a truly remarkable man he was.
His speeches, his words, his books, his actions, his contributions to science and his very being is sure to inspire people for generations to come.
Rest in peace Mr APJ Abdul Kalam

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