Tuesday, March 31, 2009

I had this thought in my mind from a long time. Especially after joining my company. I don’t know how far I’m correct in saying this. I always feel that there are two types of opportunities in this world. One which will come in your way when you are least expecting it. The other one is which you achieve with your hardwork. Your sweat and dedication will earn you the opportunity which will take you to your dream destiny.
Example for first type would be, getting some recognition or perk or some thing which you never would have imagined in your dream that it will come to you. And Example for 2nd one would be some achievement in your life, dream, target, which you set for yourself and then work hard to reach there.

Well, now time for debate. I’m 100% sure that not a single soul on this earth will have any objection to the First type of Opp. The debate is only on the 2nd type. The most basic question which I myself get is “Why is there any limitation? If the opportunity hasn’t come in your way, go and achieve it. Why leave it to fate?” let me stop here. otherwise whole article will contain only questions. There should be some good explaination for these questions. If you ask me, my answer would be very simple- “Not every person in this world will get everything as the other. There should be some distinction. What we get and what we don’t is not in our hands in some matters. And instead of cursing ourselves for not getting it, we should be happy with what we have(but never be content, if you are content you wont think of improving yourself) and aim for further”. Let me end this debate here.

Last week my friend Shilpa got rolled off from the project. She would be moving to another location of our company here. She is the only female in our all male friends group which meets only during lunch. Poor girl, she always was our subject of fun. Be it making fool of her(I’ve a separate blog on one such experience), her taste in movies, (Abhishek Bachan, Chetan from A Dinagalu etc yuck ppl), her engagement, fiancĂ©e, marriage…. The list will never end. We decided to go out for dinner on Wednesday last week. Myself and Vivek went from office directly there and she joined us there- “Halli Mane” at Malleswaram. It was nice evening. We really enjoyed a lot that evening. Today was her last day in this facility and she got really emotional before leaving(but she made it a point not to show that, least we would make fun of her). All of us were really sad. My group has now reduced to only 2 (from 5 at one point of time). But only good part as of now is that we all will meet again during her marriage on April 17th this year. I’m really looking forward for that day. There are many firsts on that day. This is first friend’s wedding that I would be attending, first time going out of city to attend friend’s function, etc…… I wish and I pray to god to keep us all united in future also.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

We Don’t have time for anything.

I had to think about this topic a lot. Not about the contents what I need to fill in. But whether I need to write this or not. Day in and out we read in newspapers, magazines or see in TV, how deteriorated our life is becoming. When I come across such stuff anywhere, I just avoid them saying to myself “We have to suffer it anyways, now why waste my time in reading or seeing about it again?!” But now I’m here writing about the same topic. There is a reason behind why I’m writing this. My belief is that if there is something disturbing your inner soul from long time, bring it out of you and face it. That is the only way to fight with it. So I’m here now waging a war against the topic-of-debate which has taken the form of a soldier.
I promise that I will try to keep the discussion as different as possible, and will try to abstain myself from blaming anyone.

Unlike the authors who have written their biography, I’ve a very weak memory. I can’t recollect many a things that happened in my childhood. At least till the class of 9th. But somewhere in my mind, one of the statement which my mother told me is deep etched. “look son, from here onwards I will not interfere in your studies. I will not ask how you are reading. But remember one thing that if you work hard and study, it is for your good only. Otherwise you have to sell the bhel puri on road side. Myself and your father have saved some little money with which we can take care of both of us. So whether you study or not is left to you. You need not feed us if you earn fortune, nor we will feed you if you fail”. This line has not got erased from my mind till now. But in spite of such a powerful sentence, I was always fortunate for not being pressurized to read. I always had ample time to mingle with my friends and do whatever I want. But only thing was that I used to study myself without any coercing from my mother or dad(hardly possible, given his hectic work)

But when I look at today’s children, I feel very fortunate for having born 22 years back itself. Not that I’m blaming today’s children for being pampered with lots of facilities or things like that. But I think on the changes that has happened, we have raised bar on everything everywhere. This underlined statement is what worries me, makes me think. Studies – less than 95%? Get lost. Sports – not within top 3? Get lost. These are just couple of examples that I’ve mentioned. But there are lots of such stuff. I feel like we have just made their living a hell. Childhood is the best phase of life. And if the children don’t enjoy that stage how we can imagine creating a society of happiness, togetherness?

Let me pull myself back from blaming. It is not just the children whom I want to target here. I want to address here all sections of society. We have a tendency to get adjusted to some particular way of style in life. We get up in mrng, read newspaper or go out for jogging(strictly for those working in non software industry) get ready and rush to office(this phrase minus the previous one is for s/w proffessionals ), follow the work routine there, come back, relax, have dinner and sleep. Without our own knowledge, we will fall into this way of life. This of course is very easy to follow also. And if you are not dreaming to achieve more, no harm in disturbing this lifestyle also.
Try changing anything in the above routine. Pat comes the reply “I don’t have time ya”. The answer will change depending upon the audience. It is not just applicable in the cases where you ask yourself to take up some exam or some certification or something. But it is applicable even in the cases where you ask yourself to change the lifestyle so that you can practice yoga, go for a jog, meet your friend or relative on weekend, go to temple, etc etc. remember that all these were amusing you a lot before you had joined the work. See the change!!!

We have lots of things which help us to cut down on our time spent on useless things and use it for useful work instead. We have mobile phones which helps us in connecting with our near and dear ones. But the same instrument is increasingly used to stay connected with our company colleagues for work matter rather than using it for calling up your friends. We have bikes, cars etc available for traveling from home to office, but the same has created the traffic chaos making the travel time eat our useful hours. As the technology has improved, our needs have also improved in same pace. Thus maintaining the equilibrium in nature!

I saw a movie called ‘Luck By Chance’. I Liked one particular sentence the protagonist makes there. In order to achieve something, it is imp that you make a move in that way. The success will come only if you ensure that you are working in that way. Otherwise you need to accept how your life is now, and forget about the change. You will not stand a chance to win the lottery(strictly confined to ad lotteries like “slogan bharo aur fridge jeeto” kind of stuff. No controversies please, don’t pull in play win or other lottery stuff) if you don’t mind to put it. So if you think you can do one extra thing to break the monotonous routine and fill in some life in your style, please work in that direction on a smart way.

Well I kind of like that a lot. Aptly applies to all of us I can say. Whether we have loads of money and luxury or not is not something which can be used as a metrics to measure our happiness. Whether we are leading our life by challenging our comfort zone is what we can use as metrics. The happiness what we get by achieving what we did by fighting with our limitation is something which no words can describe. Keeping faith in almighty and promising ourselves about the confidence in our own potential is the need of the hour.

Last but not least, I would like to mention the list of things which I ensured not to come in my discussion above
Name of cities, list of things in life which have changed badly(this is very very broad category), and finally the INDIAN POLITICS(something which really made me spend more time in editing the article, than writing).