Species….

A lot of times I have lots on my mind that I really want to write about, but I don’t have anything near by where I can jot down those thoughts and then blog them up later. Best is when I am in my shower, I will have ten thousand thoughts flying me by and by the time I am out…my mind is blank. Surely, some research studies said that an individuals mind crosses more than 60,000 thoughts in a day. Its some lean mean machine that we all carry.

But there are really amazing respectful idiots who usually use their mouth without using the machinery that God has so gifted them with. They tend to usually speak with such flair and confidence thinking that the opposite may not really understand and catch their non existent intelligence. When I usually tend to meet such species it makes me wonder how far can they really get away with this. How far can you really go making people believe in something that you are not. Guess, even that becomes their strength and a positive point of acting out – after all even acting is considered as an art in today’s times and has a complete industry dedicated to it.

Another aspect related to such species from Pluto would be that they really live in a complete dream world of their own. A complete make believe world that no one can catch the real them. No one will be able to figure out who they really are. No one will be able to actually measure that depth of the water that they are standing in. The belief that no one can catch them also again pulls them down to another believe that no one again would confront them. It really makes them more confident to be actually be very sure that they will never land themselves in any embarrassing situations where they will be caught off guard.

I can surely say, that some of these species make me think that maybe even I am unconsciously doing certain things that some other people may not like. It just makes you more aware about your own habitat and nature. Something’s may be we need to change in the way we interact with people at times as well. The question is – do we pay attention? Do we think? Are we aware? I ain’t wanna become any specie 🙂

Why We Fail?

Failure has been always an intriguing part of our life. What we don’t realize is that we sometimes get so drifted away that we don’t really sit and reflect that there might be just and absolutely JUST that little something that we are doing ourselves that is making us walk on the road to Failure. We get drifted away to not always REFLECT back on our own actions. So why do we fail?

Anything But Fiction – Part II

This is a continuation from “Anything But Fiction”.

Life does move on. The feelings do change over a period of time, however they will always leave behind a lingering taste of what she always felt for her soul. How far can she erase the memories, how far can she ever take the effort to try and completely rub out her thoughts of someone who became the reason for life and existence. Some people surely can but it will never be forever. It was after all your soul. Can you ever completely take your own soul and throw it out? The answer to that will be a No.

However, how far can she also keep a non responsive soul with her as well? Her mind and thoughts have taken over. The thoughts are questioning. The mind is raising a doubt about her soul not responding back with the same sound that she always responded for her soul when it cried. She needs to feel the feelings echoed back to her. She is hungry and starving for it. She needs to be able to trust that her soul is still there for her and still stands for her and not against her. The response needs to be coming back more strongly and consistently. They need to come as the times are not right. There is a distance. Distance raises doubt which starts shaking the monument of Trust right off its base.

Her soul needs a conversation. Her soul needs to rise like a wave to cut off those doubts and thoughts off her mind to be able to tell convince her that it is still alive and feels the same for her. She is waiting to feel alive again. She is waiting …but as time passes by she is also realizing that she can’t hold on to a mere branch of her heart that’s wearing off its strength with every passing day – as below is the valley which in all its glory has a river flowing in with its open arms down under waiting to wash her off as soon as she falls.

Fish for the Soul…

Something to Ponder about:

The Japanese have a great liking for fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So, to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring back the fish. The longer it took them to bring back the fish, the staler they grew.

The fish were not fresh and the Japanese did not like the taste. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little hashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive.

Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. The fishing industry faced an impending crisis! But today, it has got over that crisis and has emerged as one of the most important trades in that country! How did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. And they survive and arrive in a healthy state! They command a higher price and are most sought-after. The challenge they face keeps them fresh!

Humans are no different. L. Ron Hubbard observed in the early 1950’s: “Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment.”

George Bernard Shaw said: “Satisfaction is death!”

The Angel Who Passed By…

I met a man the other day. He appreciates life like I have seen no one do it. He has the worst hardships that one can ever imagine. He lost his family in an accident and some really close relations over a period of time. He works really hard and stays alone. He has lot of friends and acquaintances. When I met him, there was this really warm aura about him. He was completely himself and by far you could see the transparency in his personality. He carried a very charismatic smile on his face. The smile that hid his age and any such past events of his life.

He would be in his late forties, when he spoke to people around him, you could see his eyes smiling. I couldn’t resist not noticing certain very stark aspects about him. Here is a man who goes back to an empty home, that same home which he shared with his loved ones once. He still works hard to live and probably take his mind off certain things that he may feel that he is missing out in his life. However, when he meets others, he tends to give out his best side to everyone. He wants to help those who need him, he shakes peoples hands with so much of passion and warmth, he hugs his friends and their family as if it were his own.

I feel his pain, I understand his loneliness but I am amazed that he is a walking and learning inspiration to most of us who have never ending list of things that we don’t have in our life inspite of having everything that this man may have lost out on. Do we really value what we already have? Do we ever take that extra step to tell the already existent people in our life that we so value their presence in our life and what difference it makes to have them around. I guess most of us do not do so. It’s very easy to take these loved ones for granted and keep focusing on the list and people that we would still want in our life.

This man took me over completely not only by his charm and charisma, but by his tryst to live his life for those who need him. He is not a social worker nor runs an NGO, he runs a very successful business and he in that few hours made me reflect on my own life. He made me appreciate all those who are a part of my life It’s amazing how some strangers can just walk into your area of space and just teach you a lesson or two about your own life.

Raunchy Chat & Celebrations Galore.

I am again on a nice holiday. Basically for the next nine days no going to work…Yuhooo!! I wanted to get some “Me” time and finally I did get some. I was wondering and looking out for options to what I would be doing in this time. Now, in the past couple of months, it had just been very hectic with one thing after the other in my head to finish. One thing used to get over, the other thing used to pop up in my head.

My head was becoming a vending machine of sorts…pooping out things to go one after the other with out any break. However, no complaints now, I am just breathing normal now. As it is the year end and I am completely in no mood to work hard. Just want to take it easy, step back, enjoy the weather – which is hot according to my standards and basically just chill with friends and catch up with all those who I have been just forever planning to meet.

Now, today was my first day of off, and I was in such high spirits that I logged into this public chat room after ages. Public chat rooms have been always my place to have some fun whenever I am bored and have nothing better to do or simply when I am just in the mood to play a “Brat” to the core. As soon as I logged in with this really raunchy nickname, I started getting private messages which obviously were responding more to my raunchy nickname.

I started off a conversation with this supposedly “Ghajini” who was supposed to be from Delhi and a lawyer. The reason why I actually responded to his private message was as he was the only one who approached with a decent introduction of himself – even though his nick sounded one of those filmy wannabe’s. After the initial introduction, he asked me a question – “What do you think would make a guy look pretty?”

Hah! Now my vending machine started like an AC’s compressor. Seriously, what do you think would make a guy look pretty? Ah well, lets see – a dainty pink frock with frills along with some matching pink lipstick and just throw in a dash of kaajal and a pink eye liner and of course how can we forget the pink rosy cheeks and finally finish it off with a pink bowish ribbon on top of his head.

Mr. Ghajini logged off after that answer! 🙂

*Holds A Margarita Glass Up In The Air* This is my 100th Post. Thank you all for walking this journey with me, either by reading, commenting or adding me to your Blogroll. Thanks to all my friends who encouraged and pushed me into writing every step of the way.

My very special Thanks to my dearest friend Sheece – I would have never got my lazy dreams to blog, if it wasn’t that final push from you.

Cheers & Happy Holidays Everyone!

Office Exercises To Avoid Sleepiness – After Lunch

Now, we all know how stressful our work environments can be. Don’t we all know, how hard we work? We really in today’s times need to follow an absolute healthy routine which can be so easily even practiced at work.

Below is the routine that I recommend each and everyone of you to preach and practice and follow it every step of the way at work.

As a warm up, let’s do some Tai Chi..

Follow like this to ease your
neck & shoulder pain

Wa..wa.. aaa

Move to the right
and then to the left

After that, move to the left
and then to the right

Just follow. Don’t force yourself to do 360 degrees, 180 degreeswill do. Bend down a bit like you gonna faint. Repeat a few times till you’re bored

Grab anything on your desk and smash your head hard. If you are still sleepy smash harder

After that move your feet and swing your body a bit like this. Do it like it’s nobody’s business and remember to smile.

Move your feet and body just a bit like this….
Do it like there’s no problem at all…

And now more aggressive!
Don’t bother about what others say

Let go of all your stress…

If your boss ask what you are doing, move your head slowly like this and tell them you’re dying in the office.

When your boss walked off, get your colleague to join you and move your body like this. The more the merrier …

Finally, dance like this.

Still Sleepy ??

GO HOME !!

Pssssst: Hopefully you are still employed!

Interview With Pakistani Spectator…

Life is strange and how and when you bump into doing certain things has always succeeded in baffling me completely.

Another one on my list with respect to the above is my Interview with Pakistani Spectator.

1.  Would you please tell us something about you and your site?I am neither the master of the universe nor a Miss World; I am a humble resident of the sector that creates wealth and money. Investment Banking has been my abode for more than 5 years now and now its place that I have accepted as home along with mentoring those who need my help to make it their home.

Empowering Roots is a personal blog along with a personal dialogue with my readers over various aspects about life, philosophy, travel, experiences and its likes. Moreover, it specializes and highlights the importance of social relationships at different stages in one’s life. My aim is to emphasize the value of any relationship especially in today’s times would stand out stronger.

Personally, I enjoy every little to the smallest thing in life, be it eating ice creams with friends on weekends, to a nice late night movie, to sitting with best buddies and rambling over life and its strange timings to experiment with new restaurants giving my penchant for food to the best of all lazy Sunday afternoons with family.

Empowering Roots is a little about personal experiences, a little about ways of directional thinking of different people at different times. It’s about getting a perspective and/or expressing a perception side by side. In short, it’s about making a difference at least in someone’s life, by giving them the strength to maybe change their thinking and in return in all probability change me personally as an individual.  

2.  Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?

Anything that you do for a longer period of time, you would tend to grow. If I ever learn the art of making flour for the first time, I am sure I would proudly turn out and advertise it as Modern Art to cover up my shortcomings. However, you would always tend to know it within yourself where you need to get better. If you focus on your strength, then if it be writing or making flour – you would grow every step of the way.

It’s important to grow, because if you don’t then you probably haven’t really tested and stretched your capabilities to experiment for yourself what heights can you achieve, and what exactly you are capable of. Every second of the day, to every day of the month can be a learning experience if you just have the will to learn with an open mind.

 

Read my full interview here.

 

Thinking – A Power By Itself.

This is a story that many of you may have already read or got it as one of your forwards, however it has a certain element that makes you think about the ability of your own thinking. 

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the farmer’s debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter.

He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

Now, imagine you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.

3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl’s dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers. 

What would you recommend to the Girl to do? 

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

“Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”

Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

Most complex problems do have a solution.  It is only that we don’t attempt to think in that direction. Thinking can be an Art to some while a power to the other. If you can make your thinking and program it to be situational, trust me most of your life all your problems will appear as a piece of cake that just needs to be cut. 

Situational Thinking will force you to open your mind to many avenues. The fact that your mind is going to be open, new things – be it ideas, suggestions, opinions and perspectives will enhance your daily experience especially when you have been challenged with the most complex problem in your life and you may feel that you really don’t think you can get by it. 

The more open the mind is to what others may also tell you or talk about – will enhance your thinking to a new level and direction. Direction is all we need; the point is if we can make our Mind Situational to it.

March For Peace.

The peace march that I attended about which I spoke about in my post “I Salute” was an initiative started by the citizens. It caught onto a wild fire through Facebook, Sms and emails.

Like I mentioned in my previous post of “I Salute” I had never seen the spirit of Mumbai the way I saw it that day, however there were a few of my friends who had slightly different views on it as well.

Some people at work along with some of my friends asked and questioned that we as Indians usually come together when these things happen, what’s the point of doing a peace march when we could have sat together and brain stormed about the possible solutions? What’s the real outcome of this peace march? People will soon lose their rage and everything will be forgotten? What’s the point of coming out so large in numbers?

Their thought process is as valid as it could be. However, I am aware as you are that this is a complete debatable subject and everyone should and will have the right to their opinions and to be honest in this situation all of it will be valid and justified. My take may match with those of my friends however I beg to differ at the same time.

The reasons are solely my personal views and opinions on the question posed to me by some of my friends.

Question:

I really don’t know what was the point of the march.. I understand that it was to express solidarity and pay respects… But please correct me, as Indians we are anyway together at times like these!

I thought we could have come up with some solutions… Discussed and brainstormed about what could have been done for the future.

My Thought Process:

1. I have been a terror victim/survivor myself and in the last couple of years after my tryst with terror, I have never experienced or been a part of a movement and turnout ever. It was my first experience that I felt so strongly to go there. It was the first time in Mumbai I experienced its Patriotism first hand. The anger, the anguish, the feelings, the emotions expressed by the people with boards, placards, T- shirts and candles was over-whelming.There was everyone on the streets, from the young to the old, from an Hindu to a Muslim to a Parsi to some even foreign tourists expressing their condolences to those who lost their lives. It was the first time where I saw no nonsense slogans being shouted at, no one acting street smart with anyone there, hooligans eve teasing, no one pushing or shoving, no one making a mock having fun; something that I do have seen in these kind of sensitive situations as well. So this to me was public completely “OUT and OUT Outraged” and “Enough is Enough”.

2. The turnout of the public coming out on the streets was more over this time “against the politicians”, just all of them which again, I have never personally seen or experienced myself before. I don’t think this ever happened after the 1993 serial blasts, the Babri Masjid demolitions, the July train Blasts or even the Malegaon and Zaveri Bazaar Blasts. I have only seen discussions and discussions about and from our politicians about what they think, and about who should be doing what except what they need to be doing.

3. More to say, I have myself been a part of such no outcome discussions & brainstormed from the time I was a kid who was just coming out of the trauma of blasts to what I thought after 14 years when the trial began. I did give a lot of suggestions, opinions on what should be done in the country from the last umpteen years, without any outcome. How many of these kind of talk shows I have attended along with eminent public figures from lawyers to police chiefs giving their suggestions along with the media asking questions and pushing for non existent answers. Social workers that I knew from these shows had sent letters to the home ministry asking more questions on lapses in security, signature campaigns that I have signed – but there were still blasts and more terror attacks. This time around the line was crossed. It was even more stronger and out in the public; completely open in comparison to where they just left bombs and ran away.

4. I am not qualified or confident that these kind of peace marches will have any particular impact or derive any concrete solution; however this to me was a plain simple public outrage at it’s best. It was an outrage done by the public without any of us knowing if something will be done or not. Irrespective, lakhs of citizens were out on the streets. I am sure many who even came there are still not confident about the people in power. This was a plain simple but a very strong outcry. There still may not be any assured promises or concrete solutions but does that mean that we won’t ever put our foot down and express our outrage? Does it mean we still quietly watch the news, read the news papers, discuss it with friends and family and eventually forget about it?

5. This was different. This public outrage in comparisons to what I have seen was clearly different from the past. If we noticed the execution of a politicians resignations was executed and forced much quicker and faster just within 2 or 3 days at the max in comparison to the other instances in the past where a lot of contemplation and discussions are done first. This was executed and forced all because of a public outcry.

6. If I knew I had to brainstorm and give out my opinions or suggestions trust me I wouldn’t have gone for the Peace March at all; until and unless I was very sure about whom I was giving it to this time around.

I have my strong opinions however I am not in power to execute changes. I am in a much stronger power to execute changes by forcing the cleaning up of the current system we have. Whether its being out on the streets and just lighting candles to standing up and penning down a charter along with the media – I sure will do everything I can – but a public outrage and an outcry with or without any outcome is called for. This somewhere, just somewhere is the tiny bit of hope and justice for all those families who lost their loved ones that the sacrifice made by their loved ones was not wasted.