Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Of Writing and Self Discipline

Apparently, I was supposed to write every single day in the month of February. Since the last post was on 4th of Feb, it is evident that unfortunately I did not stick to my commitment. Probably the biggest reason was exactly that. The toughest job in the world is to stick to your own commitment. We tend to go too easy on ourselves, don't we? Discipline is easy to teach. "Self Discipline" is the hardest to learn. I am not alone. How many of us decide to get up early, exercise or pick up some fruitful activity and make it a habit? And how many of us actually do it? Discontinuation of the the so called "New Year Resolutions" every single year of your adult life is proof enough of the fact that the hardest thing is to be tough on your own self. So what brought me back here? This!! Amitabh Bachchan's blog. This man is ...well ... he is not different from any one of us. He just has way too much control on himself. And this one simple trait puts him leaps and bounds ahead from lesser mortals like me.
During my engineering preparations I used to attend coaching under a man named Anil Aggarwal. One day, which seemed like any normal day when it began, Anil sir was in a furious mood. He was throwing questions at us and no body was able to answer them in all confidence. He had proved his point. We were not serious about our preparations. Frustrated, he did what all teachers do -- lectured us for one straight hour. NON STOP!! For some unknown reason, I heard that lecture with rapt attention. (Maybe I was too guilty for not answering his bouncer questions) He said something which never goes away from my memory. This was the time when 9/11 had freshly happened. He said , "That terrorist must have trained day in and day out for an operation he knew he was going to die." "This" , he said pointing towards the board, "you know will make your life. And you still cannot give it enough commitment?" True , right? Ladies and Gentlemen reading my blog, the point I want to make here is, this : It all lies within!! ALL we need to do is to "wake up the giant within" Tough? Very!! Achievable? quite!!
So I erase the commitment board and start fresh. I still can not make any promises. A simple technical reason being I do not have net at home as yet and with all the work in office, I might miss writing here. But try I will!!
People reading this can probably drop ideas on what I should write, in the comments below. :)

Monday, February 4, 2013

The Questionnaire

I found the following questions on highexistence.com and figured it would make an interesting blog post. So here are my answers to the following "thought provoking" questions. They really are thought provoking!!


If you could make a 30 second speech to the entire world, what would you say?

" I have wished for a better world. A world where people never cheat and always love, where anger dissipates in seconds and love lasts forever. I wish my wish comes true!"


If you were going to die at midnight, what would you be doing at 11:45pm?

Spending time with my family and the husband, laughing my guts out over something funny. I would want to die laughing.

How do you really KNOW anything for sure?

When you take a decision and the voice inside you says , "It feels right."

If you had all the money in the world but still had to have some kind of job, what would you choose to do?

Travel Journalist

When you’re 90 years old, what will matter most to you?

To be able to look back and say, "I lived a wonderful life."

What do you regret most so far in life?

Not exploring many options at a young age.

How can you apply the lesson you learned from that regret to your life TODAY?

Grabbing every opportunity NOW!

What would you change if you were told with 100% certainty that God does not exist? Or if you don’t believe in God, that he does exist?

I would not change anything.

If you lost everything tomorrow, whose arms would you want to run into? Does that person know how much they mean to you?

The husband, of course! And yes he does .. I hope he does :)


Do you fear death? If so, do you have a good reason?

Like any lesser mortal , I do fear death. Its probably just the fear of unknown.

What would you change if you knew you were NEVER going to die?

My retirement plans.

If you were at heaven’s gates, and God asked “you why should I let you in?”, what would you say?

"Don't let me in. Lets take a walk outside. We need to talk -- a lot"

When will you be good enough for you? Is there some breaking point where you will accept everything about yourself?

Maybe when I would be earning far more than what I am earning today, be happy and be busy.

What would people say about you at your funeral?

Finally she is quiet!

What small thing could you do to make someone’s day better?

Compliment /Thank him/her with the bottom of my heart.

(If you believe in god) would your relationship with god change it all if you were told with 100% certainty that he was actually a she?

I believe God resides within me. Technically, then, God for me is already a SHE!

What do you believe stands between you and complete happiness?

A sleeping sub conscious


This was fun. What would be your answers to the same questions? Do let me know!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Books!!

140 odd posts and I still have not written about my most favorite thing in the whole world! Books! How can that be? Thus, here it is! The love affair began when I must have just started learning reading. I was introduced to the world of comics -- not the high class Archie or even Tinkle Digest , mind you! The comics I started reading (maybe at the age of 7 or 8) were Raj Comics .. where there were murders, ghosts and all that works. I distinctly remember two comics. "Khooni Khanjar" , which was the part two of some other comic book I don't really remember, but it involved a boy getting murdered and his ghost residing in this khanjar which would fly across rooms, avenge his murder and actually talk. The other one was Pret Uncle (like bhoot-pret) which had a young girl being helped by a ghost obviously. Right! This was what I read when I was hardly growing up! Thank God, somehow, even miraculously, my seven year old mind did not get influenced by these blood thirsty stories.

It was only later that I moved on to Pinky, Raman, Chacha Choudhary and another fat aunty comic book whose name I am forgetting. It was probably in sixth standard that I was introduced to Enid Blyton. Undoubtedly the major reason why I started loving books. I also have to thank Supriya Ma'am for introducing me to Blyton. She was our English teacher and by far my most favorite teacher ever. I remember she fleetingly told us about the story of "The Faraway tree". Sixth standard was also the time we were allowed to issue books from the school library. I had already been intrigued by the Faraway Story and obviously the first book I rented was exactly that. I had a second source of books. BHEL senior club's library-- the place where I borrowed my first Mills and Boon. Yes!! 6th Standard! That's right! I had discovered my love for reading. I was reading in the bus, in free periods, at home, standing in the kitchen ... basically every where. Anyway, This started a string of events. Dad took membership at the British Library and then the world was my oyester. Soon, anyplace with books became my favorite place in the world. In Bhopal, it was the reading room at Senior club (Yup!! a reading room ---the luxury I tell you!! ) When I was living in Old Airport road, Oxford book store at Leela's was the best place in town because they had a Cha Bar and now, here in JP Nagar, there is a Crossword with an adjoining CCD! (Yayy!! God loves me!!)

Now one day, cleaning some of her old stuff, mom found a copy of Jane Eyre. I obviously HAD to read it and thus, Jane Eyre ended up being my favorite book ever. Soon, I realized books had become my sanctuary. I was reading when I was happy or when I was sad. I was reading when I was angry or when I didn't want to see anyone's face. It continues till now. Sadly now I don't have a membership in any library. Hence, I end up buying books and guiltlessly so. I have definitely moved on to reading better books. I even have a few classics in my kitty. But I still devour on chick lits and some other here and there books -- and I enjoy them all equally!.

I end by quoting my most favorite line about books -- "They are my world, both real and Imaginary"