Give it any Title

When we are born, we have a lot of questions on our mind. We don’t know who the people around us are, where we are, what we are supposed to do, how to talk, how to walk and so on. As we grow up, we find answers to most of them – from mother, father, siblings, teachers, friends and few other answers on our own. And then we have more questions – Why do I have to go to school? Why is the moon not falling on earth? What are stars? Who is an engineer? Why is my friend taller than me? Why can’t I eat chocolates and so on. Yet again, as we grow older, we find answers. We like it or not, some answers cannot be changed. Later in life, few more questions – What is my purpose of life? Where am I heading to? Why am I not as talented as my friend? Why do I have all the problems in life? What’s my passion? Am I passionate about something at all? Where do people go when they die? Who’s my life partner going to be? Am I really alone in this world and so on.

As it goes, we continue to find answers again. Some answers strengthen us, some make us happy, some unexpected, some tear us apart, some of them come at the right time when we just wanted them and some questions go unanswered… Yes, some go unanswered, you like it or not and that has to be accepted! We continue to live to find those answers. So does that mean we find them all before we die? Not necessarily. If we do not know an answer, it just means we are not supposed to know the answer! That gives rise to another question – Why?

Well, I don’t know. All I know is, every question has to have an answer. Just that, we do not know, at this point. We might never know. You might be a superstar, richest man on earth, most powerful saint, man with highest wisdom or anyone – The answer is the same! You cannot know all answers.

If there is pain, there has to be pain. If there is pleasure, there has to be pleasure. If you have to go through something all one, that’s how it has to be! The Almighty and his intentions cannot be questioned. We have to keep faith and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you know the reason, well and good. If you do not know, believe me, it’s better!
This is probably all I want to say in this post. If it’s incomplete, well, that’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s again for a reason. I also do not know all answers for the questions in my life. But I enjoy finding answers. I enjoy this mystery. There’s no other way I feel.

Feel free to comment.

Life is Beautiful, when You are in Love...…with Life itself!

It’s an age old saying – “Give respect and take respect”. True. Why just respect? Give anything and you get back the same, like this one – “What goes around comes back around”. This is true not just with people; it’s true with everything around you. Just give so much Love to your Life and see what it gives back! It’s just amazing – a magic almost! Just imagine, on a hot sunny afternoon, in heavy traffic, at a signal, when everyone else is frustrated, I’m smiling away to glory. Sitting at office, at tea break, I’m looking outside through the glass, sipping hot tea and I’m at peace – not breaking my head at coding or testing (or looking at the watch thinking of when to leave).

Sometimes, just sometimes, turn the pages of your childhood album, talk to your granny about how much they could do with 10 rupees in hand back then, sleep on your mom’s lap, feel the breeze while riding, go through your old slam book or personal diary, have a long walk with your best friend, eat pani puri roadside, ask dad “How was work today?”, smile at a total stranger, dance to the beats of your favorite song, sit with your entire family on the terrace, play with the kid next door, wear a new dress and flaunt it off like you’d do as a kid, share a chocolate with bro/sis, just look at the sky and imagine all possible objects the clouds look like, drop a tear of happiness and just ‘feel’ every single moment. If just reading this could bring a smile on your face, may be now you know why I was smiling on that hot sunny afternoon.

As my mentor says, take life at the rate of 1 second per second. No point in trying to go faster than that. Enjoy your present. One life – you can see it as, “Oh already 20 odd years over”, or as “So many more years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds and MOMENTS to live!!”

I’ve heard many people tell me “You’re a lucky gal”. Yes I am, because I believe I am! Life is beautiful if you think it is; you are lucky if you think you are. Everyone faces problems and difficulties in life. Sometimes you just have to accept the hard facts and move on. Life is all about turning the next page with as much curiosity as you did when you picked up the book.

I started looking at my Life from a whole new different perspective. Comments/queries welcome.

Time, a Precious Commodity!

Time, who has time today? Students think teachers have lot of time. Teachers think students have lot of time. Dad thinks mom has lot of time. Mom thinks kids have lot of time. I think you have lot of time and you might think I have lot of time to be writing this…. Oh wait; don’t we all have 24 hours a day?!
24 hours: What do we do with them? So, we don’t have time problem; we have time management problem! We want more time to sleep in the morning and we all press the snooze button when the alarm rings (if you keep an alarm in the first place!) We want to watch “5 more mins” of IPL – now that RCB is reaching finals!

During the so called “study holidays”, you take a book with complete determination to finish that chapter. Few lines into the first page, your phone rings. No, it’s not your friend calling you up to chat with you, but she has a doubt. Unfortunately, the phone call doesn’t end with that one doubt – it continues with topics of movies you want to watch after exams, the trips you might be planning, music, IPL, what not until your mom shouts at you. Then you go back to few more lines in the same page and you can’t keep your eyes open anymore! You say to yourself “I can study better if I take a power nap” How long is the power nap? 2 - 3 hours sometimes! It just goes on this way and you really do not know when your day came to an end. When you look back at the entire day (if you care enough to do so, that is) you see nothing has been done. So here I have compiled few tips for time management during exams. Do read and most importantly – implement!

1. Make a To-Do List Every Day.
Put things that are most important at the top and do them first. And don't forget to reward yourself for your accomplishments.
2. Use Spare Minutes Wisely.
When you’re commuting on the bus or train, use the time to get some reading done.
3. It's Okay to Say No.
If your friend asks you to go to a movie on a Thursday night and you have an exam the next morning, realize that it's okay to say no. Keep your short- and long-term priorities in mind.
4. Find the Right Time.
You'll work more efficiently if you figure out when you do your best work. For example, if your brain handles math better in the afternoon, don't wait to do it until late at night.
5. Review Your Notes Every Day.
Reviewing helps you reinforce what you've learned, so you need less time to study one day before the exam.
6. Get a Good Night's Sleep.
Your brain needs rest to perform at its peak. Lack of sleep makes the day seem longer and your tasks seem more difficult.
7. Communicate Your Schedule to Others.
If phone calls or text messages are proving to be a distraction, tell your friends that you are only available at certain times of day and not to expect a response at other times.
8. Don't Waste Time Agonizing.
Instead of agonizing and procrastinating, just do it. Wasting an entire evening worrying about something that you're supposed to be doing is not productive, and can increase your stress.

If you just follow the above with enough discipline, you’ll be able to rock your exams with just 5-6 hrs of studies per day. You have the remaining time to use it as you wish. All the best folks! Looking forward to your comments :)

What's Your Problem?!

Problems, problems, problems – who has not faced them? I have, you have; the person whom you have a problem with also has! I often come across people exclaiming statements like “Why do I have all the problems in this world?”, “I’m in deep trouble!”, “Why me of all people?”, “You don’t understand my problem!”
The question is not “What’s your problem?”; the question is what you do with them!

I believe in the statement – “In every problem lies an opportunity”. I know you tend to think this is nonsense when you are really depressed and confused and cannot think of a solution. But trust me, Life gives you a problem so that you overcome one of your weaknesses or learn a valuable lesson or to prepare you for the future. All having the same meaning – Opportunity!
So the first and foremost thing you absolutely have to do with a problem is to change the way you think about it. Plastic surgery is very much necessary. Then look at it once again.

But before all this, I mean, before you feel you have a ‘Big’ problem, there’s something you can do. Consider this: Life always throws small stones at you to make you realize something. But you ignore them saying “How can these small stones affect me?!” Next, the stones come in a slightly larger size. This time you are a little hurt but you still ignore them because you feel they can’t put you down. They get larger next time and you still don’t decide to deal with them. You ignore them once again. Finally comes a day when Life decides to send ‘one big boulder’ your way! That’s when you end up saying statements I’ve quoted in the beginning.

If you can just recognize those small stones and start learning at that very moment, probably the big boulder would never come your way. It’s easily said than done. But it’s easier in life any day! If you cannot recognize those small stones, start observing yourself when you procrastinate anything. That’s a signal. Never postpone something, have a ‘Do it NOW!’ attitude always.

Do post in your comments if this post helped you in any way. Any kind of feedback accepted. Thank you!

The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose…………………….

There are innumerous times in my life when I have wondered what the true purpose of my life is. What is it that I’m heading towards? What am I going to accomplish in my life? Where is life taking me? Little did I know that every human on earth has similar questions. Everybody is in search of his/her own answers for these questions. It struck me hard today when I heard this statement from a young social entrepreneur – “The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose”

Till today I was walking towards something, striving hard for something not knowing what that “something” is! Majority of the people I have met are like me. Is it that people don’t have dreams? No! It is that their dreams have been brutally killed by everyone around them when the dreams were just born. Many people do not dare to dream big today for the fear of what the society will think about them or that it will not come true tomorrow. I was one of them……….. But TODAY, I feel like I’m born again because my dreams have taken life again! And this time, nobody can dare kill it. “The question is not who is going let me, the question is who is going to stop me?!”

It seemed like a normal day when I got up this morning thinking that I’ll be going to college and finish few meetings for the day as usual. But what it turned out to be, now it seems like I’ve lived thousands of lives in this one day! This might seem like an exaggeration, but the feeling can only be felt, not explained. I did not imagine that I would be going to one of the posh areas of Bangalore with an elite club of social entrepreneurs to celebrate a new level achieved by my cousin working with us. We just enter a Van Heusen showroom and The Personality Mr. Sujit Lalwani (We’re blessed to be working with him! Thank God) just selects a shirt and gifts it to my cousin! This was the first time I saw a man just picking what he likes without checking its price tag and gifting it to someone in his team! Touched by the lifestyle.

We then get into the black Hyundai Verna self-earned by this 23 yr old individual and head towards airport road. To my ultimate surprise of my life, WOW, we enter THE LEELA PALACE! Every inch of that place speaks of richness and class. Every single pillar there says what the status of the place is. And we, the future big shots sit there and visualize our dreams. I was taught in school and in my childhood “Do not build castles in the air”, “Stop day dreaming”, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” etc., etc. In one shot, all these words became meaningless today! We went on and on and on discussing about our dreams and visions. If just the ‘feeling’ of the dream was so good today, I cannot imagine how it would feel to accomplish that dream. I just learnt “FEEL”, realize, visualize, express, believe, share and respect your dreams and CONTINUOUSLY work towards them, no power in this universe can stop you from achieving them! It does not matter where you start, but it matters where you reach.

I learnt how to give life to every single dream of mine and my parents and every single person around me and how to put efforts to turn them to reality. This is not even the beginning! “One life! Live it fully”

Please add life to this post by leaving comments if this piece of article has given atleast a molecule of oxygen to your dreams :)

Learnt Forever, I Shall Forget Never…!!

God gives us so many opportunities to learn something new every day. I’m glad to have got a very good opportunity in the form of internship at Microsoft, that too away from Bangalore, to learn lots and lots. Some lessons very deep, some I already knew but never applied, some totally new and some out of the blue! I’m listing down all that I could come up with in the past one and a half month.

-> Just go out of your way to explore!

This was the first time I was staying away from family and home for such a long period of time. Initially was really excited. I clearly refused my parents from coming along with me till Hyderabad. Everything went so smooth for two weeks in this new place. Soon after that I started facing many challenges regarding health, food, climate, self-confidence, loneliness and so on… Didn’t know I was so resistant to change. Things went worse, I went crazy! All I wanted to do was to go back home!! But now I thank God for not letting that happen. Slowly some things changed… Situations were almost the same as before. But it was my mindset, my attitude, my perception that changed. I became stronger and much more confident of facing anything that came my way. Started loving myself more! And now, I’m no more hesitant of exploring any other place… Things do fall into place after a while, believe it or not.

-> Make mistakes when you can still afford to!

The best part was that, this was still my internship, couldn’t get fired or something in any way! So could make as many mistakes as I wished because failures are the best teachers. It’s never too late to make mistakes and learn, but of course, the cost you need to pay for it increases with time. So be very quick! I’ve got this all new confidence in me to jump into the corporate pool and learn to swim with the experts because I anyway have a life jacket. This is not just the case with me. Each and every person gets such a chance in life. All you need to do is recognize it!

-> Strengthen your strengths even more and weaken your weaknesses!

I learnt this, the technical way during my project, but can be applied everywhere in life. I knew my programming skills and concepts were very good but wasn’t strong in few operating system concepts. Coincidentally the project required a lot of programming to do which helped me go deeper into C++ and easily learnt new languages like C#, XML and ASP.net. And there came a day when I had to implement few things which I was weak at. Ended up learning them also, and after all, wasn’t as tough as I’d assumed. So it is indeed easy to strengthen your strengths and reduce your weaknesses once you’ve recognized them.

-> Sharpen your axe more often than you think is necessary!

It so happened that we had only one programming language in the syllabus of 3^rd year, that also with very less number of programs. (Needless to mention the reason for it being out beautiful education system!) Hence I didn’t get a chance to put my skills into practice. During my project it took a very long time for me get back into the groove. I learnt that I need to keep practicing something I’m good at, something that’s my passion.

There were many more small realizations and lessons which are etched in my brain now and forever. This duration of just one a half month has brought a lot of changes in me. This will be a memorable time for me in my future for sure.

This post cannot end without taking the names of people who were in one or the other way responsible for the circumstances, realizations and for me writing this article. I thank my parents the most, then my mentor Adarshji, my best friend Sandhya, my sweet little cousin Meghashree and a sister-like room-mate Madhuri akka.

Do pour in your valuable comments :)

There’s more…….Lots more in YOU!!!

It’s been a really long time since I blogged. Somewhere I felt I do not have much time to actually sit down and create a blog. That’s where I was wrong. It’s a general mindset that any human can do only a certain amount of work in a day. Once a person reaches a saturation feeling that enough is done for the day, complacency sets in! (I’m sure many of you can relate to this).

When this happens to me, I just recall a statement said by one of my leaders. It goes something like this -- “Looking back into your past creates complacency while looking forward into your dreams creates URGENCY”. Damn! Then I suddenly realize “I’ve achieved almost nothing compared to what I really want to and have to”. This is when I can push myself harder and harder and harder…! Just question yourself every second “Is this all I can do?” and the true answer you get from your inner voice is, “NO! You can do MORE”.

They say that time expands for those people who know how to squeeze every single second of their life pushing themselves closer to their dreams. Yes! EVERY SINGLE SECOND!! By the end of the day just introspect and ask yourself if you have harnessed your true potential. There’s definitely a lot ‘hidden’ in us. The only question is, “Are we ready to play the toughest ‘hide and seek’?!” Just GO ahead, BREAK all the mental barriers, FORGET the couch at home and FACE the heat of the sun!

Trust me my dear friends, there’s always more to what we are doing and there’s always better way of doing what we are doing. While writing this also I know that I can write more and in a better way!! Hence I would love to improve. So please keep the comments flowing in.