A Collection of my personal thoughts, views, Poems, Stories and some exceptionally good articles found by me in course of reading.
In short, my real, Inner thoughts on display in this Blog :)
This blog-post is triggered by a weekly blogging exercise practiced at Indiblogger. The topic of discussion there was- "What is it that we are running after? Isn't it time to step back and enjoy life, nature, family or anything we really love"
Most of us get so busy with our lives
that we seldom step back to ponder where is it headed. The world is changing so
fast, that our topmost priorities always becomes- how to get on and get moving
along, lest we get left out!! Changing dynamics of society, increasing
materialism, increasing cost of life, all these things make a significant
impact on the way we spend our life.
In my opinion, the motto should be simple- "Live, Love, and
Enjoy". Imagine if we start loving every simple thing/person around us.
Imagine if we love our friends, family, and a stranger poor all alike. Imagine
if we start finding joy in living a harmonious life with our surroundings. In
stead, most of our life, we keep struggling improving our career or gathering
more and more wealth. In the race of gathering material wealth, we ignore our
emotional and mental health. As we keep growing up, we keep losing our natural
character- which is of joy, innocence and of pursuing what we love. In stead,
we end up getting into a never-ending race of gathering wealth and physical
commodities. We associate happiness with wealth , and love with convenience.
Seldom do we step back and think what actually makes us happy and joyous.
Life is not only about comfort, and material wealth. It's more
about our emotional well being and inner happiness. And this is what we need to
think about. What brings inner happiness to us? What energises us, and makes us
joyous? What makes us playful, bringing out our childhood and innocence back?
These questions are what we need to ask ourselves every once in a while. They
are the keys to our happiness and emotional well being. Do I love nature, or a
hobby which has ceased to become a "hobby" actually? Can't we take
some time out from our busy schedules to pursue what we love to do? I am sure
we can, and that's what will bring us real happiness. Career and some minimum
wealth is necessary, but let's not go blind for them. So let's promise
ourselves, that we will find out what we really love about life, and will make
it a point to indulge in them. Let's get out finding them out!!
There are some things in our life, which we know we can never have, but still try to have!! Ironical statement, isn't it? But happens many times in our life if you try to notice. Things which are beyond(?) our reach, things which seem practically impossible to have, sometimes they even cause great despair , but due to our desire, we don't give off its pursuit. We are hopeless, but relentless.
Specifically
talking of relationships, sometimes we love and care for someone and wish to be
with that someone for forever. Even though it may not seem feasible, even
though it may seem practically impossible, we keep putting in efforts. Deep
down we might be knowing that our paths are so apart that its completely
foolish to expect some positive outcome, but still we can't stop trying. We may
be knowing that ultimately it will leave us disheartened and hurt, but still we
don't give in. So driven we are by our desires, that we are blinded off
reality!! Its like we have a hopeless hope. We know its not possible but still
we are not losing hope. We are hopeless but we are still hoping!
Even
talking of materialistic desires, it seems to be all the same. We may be
knowing that we can't acquire something we wish to have, but still we keep that
desire burning in our heart. They say "Hope is what keeps us alive",
and rightly so. Howsoever small hope we may have, it keeps us moving. We have
goals in life, we have our dreams for our life, we may have very little hope of
getting them, but sometimes we are relentless in the pursuit. The mere
happiness which comes from dreaming about them, keeps us moving. Its quite like
luring a child to keep coming towards you by dangling a chocolate!!
Thinking
about all these aspects, I always get this notion that "If its in your
mind, it can become a reality". Even seriously pondering over it, there is
a very thin line between imagination and reality. It may seem weird to think,
but it could be possible of being a reality. Its all in our head, if we can
think of it, we can make it a reality too. Desires are what drives our life, if
we have a desire in our mind, who knows it becomes a reality!!
How many times have we got confused about
love or no-love? How many times have we got confused by the confusing signals
being sent across by the other person? Isn't it quite strange that we take so
much time to figure out a simple relationship! ( Or is it actually a pretty
complicated relationship? ). So that's pretty strange, isn't it? That we may be
in love, but may not be knowing that we are. And we may NOT be in love but may
be thinking that we actually are!! :)
They say, "Don't fall in Love. Rise in Love!". So that's where I
start wondering..... Does 'Love' brings prosperity and happiness, or does it
spell doom for the person? Standard philosophical response would be of course
that something as pure and pious as 'Love', can do no harm. But then do we not
notice numerous of lives getting spoiled by this same "Love"? Doesn't
it waste hell lot of time of those love-struck couples? Or is it like that
every relationship demands time? And of course, in many cases we even notice
people committing suicides!! So is it 'Love' which is playing devil here, or is
it that people themselves are devilish!! Strange ways...... :)
Not having a wild side can be quite a bit of disadvantage for guys. There are
umpteen articles lying around which concludes that girls find themselves
attracted to bad guys. And this is not a matter of articles alone, this could
be easily experienced by us. Haven't we noticed the most beautiful girls of our
class taken away by the most notorious, mischievous boy? And it has logic
too.
So point is, the nice guys-those with nothing wild and unconventional to
show off- are put off on back foot. They are most of the times, on a
disadvantageous ground. Even though they might have much better qualities than
the other set of guys, they always fail to get a nice girl. Why? Because the
nice girls are always lured to the bad boys!! That's really strange, isn't it?
But then, that's the way things mostly happen around :)
Is love all the same in every cases, or is it different in different type of
relationships? It is always so puzzling. The love of a mother for her child,
the love of two friends, the love of love-struck couples.... are they all the
same, or they are completely different? The obvious response seems to be that
they are distinctly different, but wait! Some people also opin that love has
the same basic threads everywhere. After all, don't you expect a clear
commonality between all of them? Care, affection, empathy..... the most
basic but important ingredients of Love, don't they bring a clear, distinctive,
quite an intrinsic kind of similarity?? So much that we can say that "Its
all the same in all cases"? Confusing, isn't it? :)
P.S.- If you liked this post, then you will like these two even more :) -->>this one and this one
While growing up, we seldom realize the gradual change in ourselves. In the quest of materialistic success we tend to forget the undergoing psychological changes in ourselves. All we care about is the future, and in order to have a bright future we keep working blindly, totally unaware and careless of the subconscious changes taking place in us. So we keep getting away from the child in us. We keep getting covered with an artificial aura. We lose our natural instincts, we lose our innocence, we loose our inquisitiveness, we loose our truthfulness; we in fact become a new person- a different person altogether. But the irony is that we love those childhood days and in fact sometimes we wish we were still child!! Why don't then we simply be the child in us? Why do we let ourselves change so drastically?
Once I had gone to meet 'Mitthi'- my Jijaji's niece. I was meeting her after 3-4 yrs. Last she was just 4 yrs, and now she had turned 8, studying in 4th Std. She recognized me easily but was really shying off. Thankfully, I had brought lots of chocolates to bribe her. I was feeding her chocolates and chatting with her. I was coaxing her to come with me to my home. I said- "तुम मेरे साथ मेरे घर चलोगी? 2-3 दिन रहना, चाची (my didi) से भी मिल लेना, और फिर हम तुमको वापस पहुंचा देंगे." She said- "नहीं, हम मम्मी के बिना नहीं जायेंगे, मम्मी जाएगी तभी जायेंगे." I said- "Plzz चलो ना." She again replied in negative. I said- "नहीं चलोगी? :( :( Plzz चलो ना :( " She said- "आप तो एकदम बच्चों जैसे कर रहे हैं" !! I was left amused at her straight, innocent reply. But later, I was also left pondering over the changes in her. She thinks acting your natural self is childish!! Back then when she was 4 yr old, she definitely wouldn't have said the same thing. But now she has grown up a bit, now she thinks that grown up people needs to act serious, not behave sentimental in front of others.
The surrounding environment changes children a lot. We start undergoing change from the very childhood. First our parents teach us the right and wrong, how to behave,how to react and all; and later, when we have grown up a bit, we ourselves start observing and learning from our surrounding. Friends, teachers, books, magazines, TV; these start changing our behaviour. Unfortunately, almost none of these teaches us to preserve some of the most needed childlike traits. We learn, we evolve, we grow up and we are never the same again!!
Many will say that we can't carry our childlike traits for long. We have to keep evolving, keep changing with growing age so this entire talk of being the child stands nowhere. Well, true to some extent. Of course we can't remain the same always. We need to change, keep adapting, but to what extent?? Sadly, being surrounded by shrewd minded people all around us, most of us, in order to cope up, change so much that we totally lose the child in us. We become a completely changed person. We start taking things too seriously, we stop having fun, we start hiding our natural emotions, we start taking a pragmatic approach (to things) rather than acting on our natural instincts.
Children are one of the most marvelous creation of God. They say "God resides in small children." Look at a child's behaviour intently, it is so fascinating. The innocence, the truthfulness, the frankness, the inquisitiveness, the easy-to-mix-up friendly nature.... everything looks so lovely, so enchanting (and that's the one reason we love children). But unfortunately, we tend to lose all those qualities one by one. As we grow up, we start departing from our natural self and keep drifting towards an artificial being.
But why is it so hard to be the child?!! I don't think it's really so difficult that we change ourselves so much. Try for it, throw your artificial aura, embrace some of those childlike traits back, you will love it. You won't lose anything by being your natural self. You will, in fact enjoy the new experience. So go ahead, 'Be the Child in you'!! :)
Well, it's a story of two friends falling for the same girl. One guy is passionate about bringing about revolution through his writing, and the other guy-the hero,being out of choice gets caught up in setting up a College business. He albeit himself clean, but the money for the college is funded by an MLA who is corrupt. The girl keeps changing sides until finally deliberately given away by by the hero to his fellow competitor friend. Apparently he gets a change of heart, feels guilty and thinks he doesn't deserve the girl.
Anyway the story is a nice one but since it has sad ending, so it disappoints a bit in the end (In the end the hero deliberately sacrifices his love for another supporting role hero, which most reader would dislike). Otherwise, apart from that, it's very nice. It has been given modern touch by including online chat conversations and a few more similar things. And as always, Chetan Bhagat has put a few very good one-liners, some witty and some thoughtful ones. All in all, a detailed love triangle having all the needed masaala(a few steamy scenes too), and also enlightening how girls can switch between guys so easily and so frequently. If the last 30 pages had been of my choice-i.e. the hero getting the much deserved gal, then I would have given it a 8/10 rating. But this way, I would give it 6/10. But still, it was far better than his "3mistakesOfMyLife" and "1Night@callCentre". I am sure he could have easily written a bit better,just brought sm different twist in story in the end making the ending a happy one. I don't know why he preferred a sad ending :/
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Now here goes a composition of all the witty, hilarious, interesting and thoughtful one-liners from the novel, that I liked big way-
☞ Love makes us do stupid things.
☞ Love, officially, is nothing but a bitch. (Page 73)
☞ (#Bansal) Students and teachers strode about in a purposeful manner as if they were going to launch satellites in space. (Page 59)
☞ Why does girls give confusing signals? (Page 44)
☞ Happens. We are losers. We don't get things easily. Marks,ranks,girls- nothing is easy for us. (Page 79)
☞ Sometimes the only way to get rid of an unpleasant feeling is to replace it with another unpleasant feeling. (Page 80)
☞ Of course you could be one of those naturally talented students who never have to study much. But most of us are not,courtesy our parents' mediocre genes. Ironically, these same same parents who donated these dumb genes take the longest time to understand that their child is not Einstein's clone. (Page 82)
☞ I wanted to tell her she hadn't spoken to me for three months. However girl gets extremely upset if you give them evidence contrary to their belief. (Page 85)
☞ She gave me an understanding nod. But she could never understand that losers, even if they do not have a brain, have a heart. (Page 102)
☞ When you screw up someone's life, the least you can do is leave the person alone. (Page 105)
☞ It's amazing to be in love (but) only when the other person loves you back. (Page 151)
☞ Life is a bitch when the only women you can think of belongs to someone else. (Page 159)
☞ I didn't know what to say to that. Girls can come up with the simplest of message that have the most complex meanings. (Page 208)
☞ Girls are contradictory. They will say they like communication, but on certain topics they clam up. If they like you, they would prefer you sense it rather than make them say it. (Page 228)
☞ Girls don't like to discuss intimate moments,especially if you probe them. However, they also get upset if you don't refer to the moments at all.
(Page 251)
They say "Love happens when you least expect it." And so I was left wondering should we stop expecting being in Love with someone!!! Everyone dreams of being in Love with someone. And so it's quite natural that one would keep expecting it hoping for his good times to turn up and enjoy that alien feeling. But then what about that philosophical statement!!
I kept wondering a while till I realized what it means. It is said that everyone is a unique person in himself and no one should wish to be someone else, and that's because one can perform better being oneself than trying to be someone else. That also means that one should focus over one's strength rather than weakness while trying to achieve something. In short we can say that it's better to be one's natural self than being over-conscious about things around and thus losing control over even things you are good at. Being Natural brings out the best in you thus making your chances of falling in Love better. And definitely when you are being natural, you will be totally submerged in your acts and so you won't even realize when exactly you fell in love.
Being Natural is of course not easy but neither is falling in Love. If you be your natural self, some people may dislike you for your being so but but some may even like you for being. The fact that you pose as your natural self is a proof in itself that you have confidence in yourself. 'So what, I am what I am' attitude just shows that you have learnt to accept your inadequacies and still seem to bank on the positives in you. It also clearly indicates to your 'to-be' partner that you would happily adjust to her inadequacies and still be happy being with her. So you see, being natural instills a sense of security in your 'to-be' partner.
Still, love remains a mystery. You know why, because no one knows when exactly Love walks into one’s life even if one keeps expecting it every moment of life. As the saying goes- “True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.”- Erich Segal
Love is a big mystery and puzzles often. I mean what is that which makes you fall in love? What is love exactly like? What are the subtle differences between Love, crush, infatuation etc.? The more one thinks, the more he gets puzzled. You think you love someone and would love to spend lots and lots of time with her but the next moment you may think, “Am I really in Love with her”!!! Frustrating you see. You would love to talk to her, you would love to spend lots of time with her, you would love to see her smile, you would love to help her out in difficulties..... But then how come you get confused about it!!!
What is heart? According to medical dictionaries it is a chambered muscular organ that pumps blood received from the veins into the arteries, thereby maintaining the flow of blood through the entire circulatory system.
Umm… Well.. it is something like blah blah blah.... for a boy like me.
According to me, heart is that single chambered part of body which circulates the feeling of love in one’s life.
Now the question arises that what actually love is? People will again define it in many ways. Some may define it as a pure feeling; some may relate it to sexual requirements. But according to me Love is a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person. This feeling can be towards any person, not only boyfriend or girlfriend. We love our friends, brother, parents….. & our parents love us. When we get out in rain or sun without any protection it makes our parents feel uneasy. When we simply sneeze, our parents start worrying about our health even if it is just simple seasonal cold.
Have you ever thought of those parents whose kids are suffering from some inborn disease or disorder which cannot be cured or which requires lakhs of money to be cured.
This post of mine is dedicated to a very sweet child I came across. I got to know about her through a tweet retweeted by the Great BigB(on his wedding anniversary day). Her name is Harshita Luthra. Date of birth 17th June 2007, 3 years old angel.
When I saw her video I got more curious to know about her. I called her father to know about the matter and then requested him to send all the related documents. Along with those docs, he sent some of her beautiful,adorable pics and then I was compelled to devote my time to save her life.
Doctors say that she is having some problem in her heart. Ummmm.. what they called it.. YES.. VSD (ventricular septal defect).. that means there is some problem with the wall (Ventricular septum) that divides the two chambers of heart. The doctors also said that there is some defect in her pulmonary artery & Aorta.
I don’t understand these medical terms. All I know is that she is having some serious,fatal birth defects in her heart. She is too young to die. And this innocent smiling beauty is not aware of her conditions. Her parents…. Huh…. I don’t have words to explain their condition…
But the good part of the story is that her life can be saved if her parents can arrange 70 LAKH RUPEES for her surgery. This surgery will take place at Childern’s Hospital, Boston. Hmmm.. So there is a ray of hope, isn’t it.. But 70 LAKH RUPEES.. BIG AMOUNT.. especially for a middle class family.. it is BIG BIG AMOUNT.. So now what.. what should we do ..? You all must be thinking that even I don’t have that much money.. What can I do..? Right..?? Even I don’t have that much money.. But we can't let her die for this reason..
I just want to request all my readers to participate in saving her life.. even donation of 200 rupees each can make a big difference..
Paypal Account created with the email ID- luthrainbox@gmail.com
You may want to call Harshita's Father on this no.- 09781699996
Thanking You
Shanti
*DISCLAIMER: This post is not originally written by me. This was actually written by one of my friend. I just modified it a bit and posted it.
P.S.-
*45 lacs INR has been collected in this Campaign, about 15 lacs INR more are required for Post-surgical recovery expenses.
*Today (on 4th August, at 4:30 pm, IST ), Harshita is undergoing her major Heart-Surgery in Boston. Let's hope and pray for her surgery to be successful and her to get well soon.
***Her Operation has been successfully performed by the concerned Doctors there :D (News update as on 5th August at 12:40 am, IST)
**** Harshita has been discharged from the Hospital (Updated as of 11th August, 7 am IST). Now she will remain there for a few weeks more(for regular medical check ups)
*****Harshita's father Mr. Amit Luthra is in USA right now, so you won't be able to reach him on his INDIAN Contact no. given above. You may call him on his USA no.- (001 617 922 4662 ), or, if you are not able to reach him, then for any clarifications/info you may contact me instead.
*******Harshita has been suspected to be suffering from another minor problem. Doctors suspect some problem in her 'mitral valve'. So their stay in USA have been extended by one month. Her next check up is on 20th October. Let's hope for the Best.......
*********The Latest update is that Doctors have confirmed leakages in some parts of her heart. Doctors there have suggested another surgery after about 6 months and she will have to undergo similar surgeries after every 5 years till she turns adult. The parents seem to have been into a long drawn battle to save their daughter. Let's Hope their determined struggle finally bears fruit and Harshita gets perfectly fine in near future.
**Update (as of 23-01-11)- Harshita's dental surgery needs to be done which will be followed by her Heart's surgery in a few months. Large sums of amount needed again. Efforts are on to raise funds for that. You too can contribute for the cause. THANKS
Well, I think everyone is confused about what actually Love is. I am myself confused a lot about it (and now please don't start yelling on me- "how can you write on a topic you yourself are confused about, hey man,,, calm down, calm down.... read ahead)
Before I go ahead, I would like to make it clear that henceforth, in this blog, when I say "Love", I am actually referring to Love between opposite sexes (that we youngsters have to most often deal with) not any other kind of love.
Well, you know, this is such a tough and complex question that even if put to some renowned thinkers and writers around the world, will put them to think over it for a while, before answering it. Of course may be Paulo Coelho, Deepak Chopra or Robin Sharma can give you a one line reply to this question but that will leave you more puzzled than satisfied.
May be they are quite thorough with their concepts but why does it take sooo long for us to fathom out what actually Love is, when to say deep inside your heart that “I love her”. Why does it seem so confusing to make a clear distinction amongst terms like- liking, infatuation, crush, friendship and love!!!! Why are we sometimes puzzled about our relationships?
Let’s for example assume that, I like one of my female friend and she has a very special place in my heart but it is not clear to me as to why does she get such a unfair treatment from my heart, I mean even for the time being, why does my heart gives her a special place to live in !!!! Is it just a passing phase, is it just normal attraction that a boy can have toward a girl, is it just some kind of infatuation or is it actually ....well....errrrr- LOVE ?????!!!!!
So that’s it, why do we face such kind of situations, even when we are so mature now (age-wise), why does it take this much effort to figure out what actually we are into!!!??? Tell me, tell me, I am not here to answer this question, I am not writing this blog because I have figured out why things are the way they are. I am writing this blog to sort out my own mess (hey, hey common, please do not start running away, I am sure it will help you too). I mean, I think by writing about these things and by taking your suggestions, comments and views I will make myself more enlightened about these things, and in turn, you too will become more mature by discussing and reading these things here (and do not worry, I will keep some fun factors involved too, so that it doesn’t get boring).
That was the first part of my blog- Description of the problem, here goes the second part-
I will start by posting an sms that I received from my friend Rahil yesterday, though it doesn’t make everything clear but anyway it does give you some idea and starts your thought process. Here it goes-
"Love is not what you see, not what you think, not what you hear, not what you achieve , its all that you feel in yourself....
You are in Love when you touch your heart and you feel the touch of that person, you close your eyes and have the picture of that person, you take a deep breath and feel the closeness of that person.
You are in love not when you think you are in Love (oops, does that mean I am not in love!!!), you are not in Love when you want to be in Love, you are not in Love just because of some good looks of a person (does that mean I am in Love!!!)....
In fact you are in Love when you keep telling yourself you want to be away from Love, Love is when you die for a glance of that person (yes I die for, hahaha ), Love is when you are ready to do anything just for a smile from that person(anything??? Well,errr, ok may be.), Love is when a tinge of sadness in his/her eyes brings ocean of tears in your eyes(ocean??no, but it does make me sad too), Love is when you start praying for the well being of that person even if that person may never become yours ever........."
That’s the end of that sms, and if I analyse my situation in accordance with the above laid terms, I find myself concluding that I am actually ............well, I leave that for you to guess and add it in the Comment section below.
Now, all of you, please do not start comparing your relationships with above written conditions, there are many more things to consider.
What I think is that true love is Unconditional and can’t be reasoned with, I mean you don’t have to have a reason for loving somebody, you love somebody just because.... well.... you don’t know or better say, you can never figure out the reason for loving somebody. In the words of Paulo Coelho(in his book-The Alchemist)- “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
So that’s it, if you can’t find a reason of being in love with somebody, that is one of the things that hints that you are actually in love. You won’t be able to find a particular reason for loving (actually you may have too many to choose from).
Then of course Love is unconditional. When you want to understand “unconditional”, better visualise a child-mother relationship. The mother loves her child despite so many shortcomings. Even when the grown up child goes wrong way, walk over their parents and sometimes parts ways with them, the mother (after some time-period) still wants to be with her child not for बुढ़ापे का सहारा, but simply because she loves her child. So, if somebody is loved , he/she is loved unconditionally, there are no ifs and buts involved. In Love, you donot and cannot find differences, you are actually so blended with your beloved that you simply can’t notice the other person’s shortcomings and your differences with him/her.
Apart from these things, I have just one thing to say, I do believe in true love, and for those persons who think that Love is the business of fools or it is totally useless, puts your life in reverse gear, destroys your career...blah, blah, blah...I have just one thing to quote here for them –
"You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love… “
-Paulo Coelho (in “The Alchemist”)
Well, I think I should stop writing now. Although still I can write many more things as there are so many things coming up in my mind right now, But this will make this blog unnecessary lengthy and a bit boring for you too.
So that’s the end of this blog entry. Thanks for coming here and going through it.
I will ask you for just one more favour (please do it for me)-
Please leave your Comments or views about this particular topic or about my way of writing (or anything else) in the Comment Section below, that will be your way of appreciating my blog.
