Be humble... Take Home #498

Confidence and clarity are good to have. They make our convictions better and stronger. However, there are many a possibilities around us and so is a possibility that we are wrong too at some point. Realizing this fact makes us humble from inside and outside. It's very important to be humble as much as possible, because we could be wrong! And even if we are correct, being humble makes us look perfect. 

Think noble... Take Home #497

When we see the task at hand as a noble one, all the materialistic distractions can be overcome including the desire to get recognized. This does not seem practical, but it's truly possible. 

In the times of crisis... Take Home #496

In the times of crisis, do what you know better and that you are known doing for, rather than trying to learn something new and attempting that. New attempts cannot deny success to you but at the same time, they always carry a higher chance of failure which you cannot afford in the times of crisis. 

Priorities... Take Home #495

At different points of time in our lives, we need to prioritise different activities. The more we feel responsible to the activity which is currently prioritised, the less we regret about the other activities that we are not able to prioritise, even though we would like to do so. Also, the more we feel responsible, the more we give ourselves to. 

Opportunity... Take Home #494

Learning makes life interesting and opportunities make us feel worthwhile. Give your best to the opportunities that come to you and experience the joy of opportunities that keep coming to you.

And the below quote, it's worth practicing. I second it. 

Express love... Take Home #493

Expressing love and keeping on expressing love is the key to a successful marriage. Respecting each other, supporting each other, encouraging each other, taking care of each other, allowing each other their freedom etc are all there and are of course required. Expressing love is important to be able to recognize and empathize with all those said above happening between the two people involved in a marital relationship.

#SayNothingNegativeChallenge

The image says it all and no need to say anything further. But just want to mention that I'm going to try following this and want to see what change it can bring to my thought process. Hope I will experience something different and pleasant. Hope I'll succeed in saying nothing negative! You may try this, if interested. 

The generation that we belong to!

Neither the decade of our birth nor the level we belong to in our family tree, but our thoughts and actions decide which generation we belong to.

A lot of times I get to here this "old generation". Usually its heard while it's being said to older people. A lot of questions keep coming to me every time this phrase comes to my mind. Does the age really indicate the generation a person belongs to? Can the age or the decade of a person's birth confirm to which generation he or she belongs to? Or is it that a person's thoughts let the others know the generation that he belongs to? And the actions, are they the ones that actually confirm the generation a person belongs to? And so on. But mainly these. Here I sit on a weekend's day to scribble down my views and the answer that I believe is right for the streak of questions mentioned above. 

Let's take a case of two people who hail from one family, whose age difference is two years, but are from different levels of their family tree. I.e. for in general terminology, two generations. The elder of them is obviously made feel that he is older than the other person by age and also by relation. And by relation, a lot of times he is made believed that he is from an earlier generation when compared to the person who is younger to him by just couple of years. The younger person, on the other hand, is made feel younger than he actually is and is also made believed that he hails from the next generation of the family. Now these two people, since their age difference is too small, go through the education more or less together, go through various other phases of their lives as they come, at a relatively same time. Over a period of time with the respective advancements in their lives, they develop their own thoughts, ideologies, and friend groups. After a few years, on one fine day, when these people are analysed independently by their behavioral and thinking pattern, the following facts turn up. 

The elder one behaves and thinks similar to the people who hail from the same level of their family tree. And the younger one behaves and thinks more or less similar to the people who hail from his level of their family tree. 

The above is one case and the result of which might or might not be applicable for all similar cases. Nonetheless, I believe it happens the same way in most of the cases. With the deeply connected family systems, we tend to develop ourselves more closer to the people who belong to our level in our family trees. Our thoughts and actions usually get matched with the people belong to our level by relation, provided the age gap is not too far. But is it rightly happening? Is this a right situation to be in? Is that a right way to bring up the generations? I think no. A big 'no'. 

Its not our level in the family tree that can let us know how to think or what to do. It's not the decade of our birth that decides to which generation we belong to. It's actually what we think and do can only define the generation that we belong to. And what we think and what we do have got a lot to do with the way we are brought up and the way we have been encouraged to think. Since the brought ups are different, since the situations have been different for all of us, we think differently. 

Some of us think backward, some of us think forward. Some think beyond the reality and some hardly understand the reality. Some of us use the technology and some of us struggle to do every task all by ourselves. Some of us think new, some of us like the old. Some of us are practical and some of us get stuck with the theory. Some of us get used to the way we live and some of us keep realizing the dreams with never quit attitude. Well, all these cannot happen at all the times with any person, we keep changing with time, with situation. We behave differently, think differently from situation to situation depending upon a lot of factors.  What makes people get segregated in terms of generations? It's they way we are. The way we think. The way we do. Not the age, for sure. That's the reason why at times we come across few people who do not seem to belong to the generation of their age. They either appear a generation ahead or one before. 

Brought up indeed has a lot impact on every one of us. Situations to matter to all of us and make us do that we do. But apart from these two, the strong will to develop ourselves time to time, update our selves time to time, think beyond the social and all other barriers can make us cross the generation gap. Let's take the same example given above. If the elder one gets himself accustomed with the latest trends and exhibits a behavior that's more rational, he can cross the generation gap. And if the younger one for some reason, starts behaving and thinking a lot backward, then he might appear to have come from a generation before! This is quite possible and practical.

All that we need to do is to be contemporary in our thoughts and actions. Or may be more than contemporary. Being contemporary does not mean to do what's everyone around is doing. Its about following the basics to the core and maintaining the values in everything. One must all the time satisfy the needs of the people around him, and along with that one must be rational in his thought process, must update himself about the advancements the world is moving ahead with. And must believe that what's happening is happening for betterment and in case any hazardous is happening, the same must be confronted. None of us alone cannot do all this on our own. We all need teams and we must set up our own teams, along with neighbors, friends, colleagues and strangers at times if required etc. 

Everything is possible so is overcoming the generation gap and so is the attitude to decide the generation that we belong to. Neither the decade of our birth nor the level we belong to in our family tree, but our thoughts and actions decide which generation we belong to.

Think new; be new... Take Home #492

'New' need not be big. It just needs to be different. Do new things. Roam around new places. Identify the new things that get added in your daily routine. Keep developing the zest to do new things. Add newness to your life. 'New' need not be big. It just needs to be different. 

Think new and be new.

Celebrate... Take Home #491

Celebrating the journey is as important as celebrating the success. Celebrate every moment. 

Simple things... Take Home #490

Simple things that we do, that we take care about, that we remember can let the life happen to us in a big way. It's not easy and practical to define those simple things as they may vary from person to person! One must be aware of his or her own list and shall of course follow. 

"The importance of simple things is unlimited"

Standing out... Take Home #489

"Standing along with many is the first step towards standing out of many"

Google and people... Take Home #488

Be it from google or people, the information that you get can make you knowledgeable. Its then up to you how much to believe and what to ponder upon to get realised about a lot of things and people. 

New beginning... Take Home #487

Everyday is a new beginning and so can be everything that we come across. New beginnings bring new opportunities and so does everything that we come across. We shall look through the situations and find out the hidden opportunities to make it to success. 

Diwali crackers... Pic of the day #27

First thing that comes to my mind when I think about Diwali crackers is going to market along with my father on his cycle to purchase crackers in childhood. As they, some of the childhood memories stay with us for a long time. The one that I said above is one of such for me. My father used to take me to market on the day of Diwali. I used to purchase crackers for one hundred rupees. In those days, for hundred rupees we used to get a carry bag full of items. After the purchase, we would go home and open up all the cracker boxes to expose them to the sun light. It was said that the crackers would lighten well if they were exposed to the sun light. I would keep them in the sun light until the evening. And in the night, at around 7:30 pm, I along with my parents and grand parents sometimes, would start cracking them out. One of my favorite item then and still is "Vishnu Chakram". One needs to hold the wire in hand and the other side of the wire would have the chakram, after the knot. When I was a kid, my father used to hold them for me and I used to enjoy. While looking at him, I used to wonder when would I hold them myself. After few years, I started holding them myself and just started loving that experience. 

Even during the recent Diwali, we purchased the Vishnu Chakrams and I enjoyed a lot. As the Chakram rotates in front of me when I hold it, my childhood memories occupy my mind to the full time. It's an awesome experience. I also like all other items in crackers and do not prefer to lighten the ones that make sound. Bhu-Chakram is yet another chakram that rotates on the ground, that gives great photos. Selfies and photos have become so casual in everyone's life style these days, but no one can dare to take a selfie when the Bhu-Chakram is rotating on the ground. Well, it can be attempted but not recommended from my side because of safety reasons. Match boxes is another item that I love. They come in all different colors and at different lengths these days. In my child good, the short ones used to be there and I used to lighten them even in the day time! Well, a lot of memories I've with crackers. I have never lost interest in them even though on couple of Diwali eves I did not lighten them supporting the Green Diwali concept. But, somehow, I could not continue doing that. Lightening them is good as they say from mythology, but for me, lightening them is more about reminiscing the memories from my childhood and of course to enjoy the colors and lights.

Colorful bangles... Pic of the day #26

I'd never been a vivid lover of bangles since my childhood until the day I purchased the set of glittering bangles shown in the picture below. It was only during my marriage that I took special interest in selecting various colors and designs of bangles. South Indian marriage is of course filled with lot of gold ornaments but the attraction that the bangles similar to the ones shown below is priceless. Bride's hands look just awesome with the bangles that match to the saree that she wears. So, I too wanted special appearance and attraction in my attire. And the immediate thing that I did was to purchase a set of bangles which had all main colors of bangles. 

The ones that are shown in the second row of the box in the picture are the ones that glitter, and at the same time they are the main culprits since the golden colored 'chumkys' get sticked to the hands and all over the body wherever the hand reaches while wearing them. I used them only during my wedding and later on, only the ones shown in the top row were preferred by me. I've used all these sets on so many occasions yet they still appear just new. And they don't give me a reason to look for some more new sets of bangles. But that's ok, I think as I'm still not a bangle buff. After using them for all these months on number of occasions, I never took time earlier to keep them in an order. I always used to pick up the required color from a complete mix. But during the recent vacation, I deliberately sat with them and kept them in an order. And then clicked them. My memories with these bangles are wonderful and every time I'm going to look at this picture, I will be super nostalgic for sure! Thanks to my cousin, Yamini for being there with me while I was selecting them and the time that we spent then is going to be memorable and cherishable for a long time. 

"Mahabharata" - My Experience With The Epic

The subtitle of the post "The Epic" stops me from calling this post as a book review. I cannot post a review on the longest epic ever written in Sanskrit. I can only share my experiences with the epic. 

I watched a lot of movies, in bits and pieces though, on Mahabharata. Having been born and brought up in India, I heard many a people mentioning about this epic at number of occasions since my childhood. I of course knew the over all story of it but never knew some of the important relationships among the characters. Without knowing that, the story that I knew always used to feel incomplete and used to create a lot of enthusiasm in me to read "Mahabharata" once. Some how I never could do that all this long and finally, and the recent Diwali vacation did give me a chance to fulfill my long pending wish. So I did. I read one of the books on Mahabharata my dad gave me from his collection. The book was in Telugu language, my mother tongue,  so I enjoyed reading it more than I had expected it to be.

Since I knew a major portion of the story, I decided very strongly to read the epic by keeping the logics aside. My logical brain was all the time disappointed by suppressing it every time it popped up a question like "How?" while I was reading the book. And by doing that the emotions and the characterizations have been thoroughly understood and enjoyed. Since it's a vast story, the number of characters is huge as known. Remembering the significance of each and every small character was not possible for obvious reasons. However, going back the pages and referring to the related portion of the story helped a lot in maintaining the connection among the characters in my mind. What particularly I liked was the way the naming of the characters was done! Brilliant. Just great. I came to know a lot of new and beautiful names. 

My dad said an interesting thing while I was discussing the story with mom and him. He referred to some of the names of 'Kauravas' and said which parent would name his or her son like "Dussasana, Dustha buddi etc"! Since it was the writer who named all those characters, the names were so chosen that they were near to their respective characterizations. I completely agree with what's said by my dad. This reminds me of yet another story that was read in childhood about three fishes named 'Sumati', 'Kumati', 'Mandamati', which would behave just according to their names as said in the story. It was the writer who named them and in Mahabharata as well, it was the writer who named all those characters and not the parents of the characters. The epic is written, just written, and I think it did not happen as most people believe. 

Fortunately I do not have any 'favorite' character. Each one of the main characters has been portrayed in a great manner. A lot to learn from! Actually, more than learning, what I felt was, all that was happened, all that was done by all the characters was just human. It was just to the  moment. Be it the way 'Dharma raja' say about 'Ashwathama', the son of 'Drona', to distract the concentration of Drona, be it the way 'Draupadi' lashes at  her husband indirectly for having lost  her in the game of dice, be it the way 'Bheema' was asked by 'Srikrishna' to hit 'Dhuryodhana' on his thighs, and many other incidents, it was just human and the need of the moment to win over the people who cheated! Well, the other side also, kauravas cheated because pandavas played further and further! No, again the writer made them say all that 'Dharma raja' said or did. Mahabharata to me appeared as a well sequenced story with the exaggerations at most of the places. Nevertheless, the way its portrayed, the way its narrated, the way its constructed into huge volumes, its simply unbelievable that someone wrote it with such a grip in those early years of human civilization. 

If all that written was happened, then something great happened. And if all that written was just written, then some thing more than great was written. Either way, it's just awesome! 

I will write in my later posts about the leanings from Mahabharata. This post is just about my experience with one of the greatest epics ever written in the history of mankind. I'm very happy to have read it, to have known about it, to have liked it, to have enjoyed reading it.  

Perspectives... Take Home #486

Perspectives can neither be judged nor be concluded as right or wrong. They are just true. True to the core! It's very difficult to understand various perspectives but if tried to do so and succeed at least to a significant extent, it will be immensely useful to all the parties involved.

Truth and false... Take Home #485

Truth appears negative for those who do not believe it and positive for those who believe it. Ironically same is the case with false too! It too appears negative and positive for those who do not believe it and for those who believe it respectively. 

Rice crops... Pic of the day #25

Rice crop is one of the main crops in India. And India is one of the world's largest rice producing countries. For a maximum portion of people in the southern part of India, rice is one of the main food item. Also, the southern India produces a larger portion of the total rice produced in India. Rice crops look very beautiful apart from being the main source of income for many a farmers. 

While we were going on a road trip lately, I clicked the above. The scenery has come awesome with the mountains in the back ground and the rice crops dancing to the tunes of a mild wind next to a national high way. While I love to drive, I like to click too. So, when I'm in car, I enjoy it thoroughly, be it when I've to drive or when I've to sit in the co-passenger seat. Both ways it's good! 

Below one is yet another picture taken from the national high way. It has also some very nicely with a free road and the coconut tress alongside. 100 kmph did seem nothing! 120 and 130 kmph looked like we were driving! In Pune, we do not get to drive on so vacant roads except on the express way from Mumbai to Pune! Every where its traffic and traffic. Even on the high speed way, you cannot go beyond 80-90 kmph as there are rough patches on road; unless you have a robust car, you cannot jump that speed figure. The Chennai-Kolkata national high way that we traveled on was too good for a long and fast drive! Try it once, if you ever get a chance. On a mild sunny day, the drive feels further beautiful. 

Scenic train journey... Pic of the day #24

The train journey between Mumbai and Pune is one of the best scenic journey I've ever been on. Train journey in Kerala first made me click the nature and landscapes in green. Since then I've been clicking the photos from train wherever I go, provided I like the landscapes, fields, house rows etc. It gives me great pleasure. When I reach the destination and look at those photos once again, the memories from the journey entertain me to a great extent. I enjoy the recollection. 

Above shown image was clicked around Lonavla city, which comes between Mumbai and Pune. It's a widely known tourist spot for the greenery, water falls and landscapes, especially in rainy season. I'd been to Lonavla earlier along with friends a couple of times. It's full of parks, view points and water falls and of course traffic too, in weekends though. The city is full of shops, small houses, independent row houses constructed in different adorable shapes. "Chikki" is a sweet which is very famous there. Many a types of Chikki is available but the one with ground nuts is the most famous. It's very tasty, at least once it must be tasted I'd say.

When we had been to Lonavla for the first time with friends, we had taken bat and ball and other sport items. We played in a park until the evening. It's an ultimate relaxation! We had taken a day off and had been on this trip hence it relaxed even further. One must agree that the trip that's planned on a working day gives more pleasure than the one arranged on a holiday, at least I feel so. Most of the people who came on that trip are not now with us in our company, as it's been at least four years now! These days, you know, people switch jobs as easily as the outings are planned. Well, that's better too, may be! It depends, as we cannot generalize. 

My recent journey, when the above pic had been taken was enjoyed to full extent. The tunnels that come on the way from Mumbai to Pune are the special attraction! Kids and college students, especially, enjoy them outwardly. It feels good to be amidst them while on journey. If you get a chance, please do this journey and do enjoy the scenic way!

Whosoever you may be... Take Home #484

Whosoever you may be, you need not know everything and you need not be known everywhere! The same is applicable not just for you but for every person. Knowing this basic fact of life cures your way of expecting and enhances your way of living. 

Handle in silence... Take Home #483

Certain behaviours cannot be complained against. They just need to be handled in silence and peace. You are the best judge to pick such behaviours which you come across in your day to day life. 

Status and stature... Take Home #482

The big things that you achieve elevate you and make people come to you. The small things that you do define you and make you come closer to people. 

Both are important, I guess. The former is your status and the later is your stature! 

Maintain the distance!

What's important for us at one point of time might not be important for us at some other point of time. What appears as if it's everything at one point of time might no longer matter at later times. What makes us desperate at one point of time might never succeed at later time in inspiring us even to think about it. 

Anything that appears important in the present time might not carry any value in future, although this does not applicable to a few things, people and relationships. In general this is so with a lot of tasks that we do, a lot of things that we encounter with, a lot of people that we meet in our life's journey. This is nothing bad, this is just the fact! 

Make as many memories as you can any maintain a minimum distance with everything, so that you can move forward with a hope that there can be a better thing coming your way.