Knowing Thyself

What are the toughest questions to answer? Most of the times these questions involves the self. For Eg: "About me", "Tell me smth about yourself" etc. All our lives we try to judge people, form opinions about strangers, try understanding others but how does it matter? Why we try to understand others when somewhere we don't even understand ourselves? We have a self-perceived notion about who we really want to be but sometimes that notion is the exact opposite of what we truly are. Its only in the times of adversity when things don't go the way we plannned, in the times of utter desperation, in the times of complete hopelessness that we come across a side of ours that is a complete stranger to us. What if we don't like that side of ours? What do we do then? Most of the times, we refuse to acknowledge that side completely. We wrap it in multiple layers and bury it deep inside ourselves where we can hide it from everyone and even from ourselves. But what makes us dislike that side of ours? Is it the society that has made its own norms regarding good and bad? It all starts from the time we are kids, we undergo a very smooth and very strong hard wiring wherein we are made to believe things that might not be true or probably that might not be anything close to reality. So what do we do to get out of that hard wiring?
I guess thats when we need to face the adverse situations wherein the other side of ours is exposed and instead of hiding that side somewhere, we need to accept that side of ours. We need to analyse it. We need to face it. We need to make a decision. At times like these we face our worst of fears. We learn how to overcome that fear. We have two options infront of us: Either we succumb and let our lives take the course, our fear wants us to take OR face our fears and let the life take the course that we somewhere want it to take. In both the cases, the final outcome would be what is destined by the higher powers but in the later, we would atleast overcome our fears.
When times are truly testing is when we also realize how much are we ready to push ourselves? What are the things we are ready to give up? How much are we ready to give up? What are the things that are most important for us? We come to know so many things and facets of our personality that would have always been hidden if it wasn't for the testing situations.
It is therefore probably that God gives us struggles, sadness, happiness and so many other emotions. It's only post these emotions that we can discover so many things about ourselves and others. Afterall, life is nothing but a journey of self-discovery.

Success: A 'Perceptional' Term

What is success??? Is a person who has become the CEO of the biggest multinational at the age of 33 a success? Or Is a person who gave up a bright future to stay back in a small town to make a stable living for his family a success? Or is an extremely well educated lady who gave up her 'career' for her newborn child a success? What is success anyways? Who defined what is success??? What made them come to a conclusion about its defination??? Different people have different definitions about success. It all depends what is life to you. What is your perception regarding achievement.
Today if we look around us, we would see people running behind money, promotions, appraisals, fame, power etc etc etc. Since we were kids, it has been ingrained in our brains through various medias that success is if you get good marks in the exams or if you do well(which basically means earn lot of money). But what makes it a success.
As we grow up older, slowly few fortunate ones realize that success is much more than money and promotions. But most of us get stuck in the maze called 'SUCCESS' all our lives.
Some might define success as doing things that would make people remember you even after you are gone. Everyone is perishable, those people who remember you will perish one day too...what then? How does it matter what others think about you when they are as much a bundle of flesh and blood as we are. Whats the point of this?
Whats the point of all the 'success' if you are not happy? Whats the point of all this if you are not at a stage where nothing can touch your soul? Whats the point of all this running when you are not even in the direction.

So my question remains the same...What is success???

Knotty People...This is for all my married friends...

It wasn't long ago when marriage was nothing but the biggest mistake anyone could do according to me.
It wasn't long ago when I thought who, in their right minds, would want to go through something that horrible.
It wasn't long ago when I pitied those who got married.
It wasn't long ago when I couldn't believe that anyone would willingly want to go through this.
It wasn't long ago when I couldn't understand how can two people not related by blood love each other much more than anything else in the world.
But then it was sometime back that few of my very good friends got married who felt just like me and it was then that I realized that such things are beyond any understanding.

WISHING THEM A VERY HAPPY MARRIED LIFE :)

Anybody can 'look' good

Enhancing one's looks is very easy. Lets see why:
If you think that anyone is born gorgeous...think again... Today...It doesn't matter what your complexion is nor how well placed or misplaced your eyes or nose are...you can still look great and that too without getting into the axe. All that really matters is how much are you ready to work upon your looks and how bad is your need to look mesmerizing.
First and foremost thing is being thin...which anyone can get depending upon the level of dedication that one has. Once you are in shape, all you need is the right clothes and few hours on yourself daily. If your complexion is dark...u can go for sexy or macho look( eg. Bipasha Basu or Akshay Kumar(see his old movies)) or if you are on the cute side, you can go for a Preity Zinta or Ranbir Kapoor look.
The baseline is...ANYBODY CAN 'LOOK' GOOD...These actors n actresses have dozen of people who make them look the way they do. You can also look as good as anyone you see, just depends on how much time you wanna spend on yourself.
But...Being good and feeling good is another story altogether. Probably thatswhy its said that anyone can look good or looks are deceptive etc etc. Looks is something which can be improved and fixed but the basic nature of a person remains intact forever. It depends on you…what you wanna go for.

SIIB Rocked :)

Now that college life is gonna end in next 7days to be precise, it feels like we have taken a full circle. We started with temporary cards and are back to temporary cards. All those clearances that you need to get, all those signatures from all around the campus, somehow makes you nostalgic. Every stop that you go to for the clearance reminds you of the time you have spend there, the fun you had and the sadness you shared.

I learnt loads of things in these past 2 years. More outside the class than inside and I guess thats what a full time 2 year residential course is all about. It teaches you about life and about people more than anything else. It teaches you what to do and what not to do. I learnt a lot too. And I am glad I did. I learnt the max in my last sem probably because we had a lot of time at our disposal and got to stay too long with people. Staying too long with people made me see them for what they truly are. It made me realize how right my teacher has always been. He always told me that people are not the ones you are supposed to get attached to, its smth else. I also realized that looks are definitely deceptive and so are people. I learnt not to be judgmental about anyone. I learnt to take my own time before making any decision. In these years, I have admired people and I have hated some too but most of all I have learnt that none of these feelings are permanent. They tend to change to almost diametrically opposite views. I have made mistakes here but then its ok. I have learnt from them. Thats more important.

All in all...these 2 years were the best days of my life till date. I ll cherish it for the rest of my life and would try to remember the learnings for the rest of my life too :)

But at the same time, its time we move on. There are new challenges waiting for us. Theres a whole new experience that we need to get. We need to make some more new memories. Some will be good and some will bad just like always. Its time we flap our wings and be ready to fly instead of being scared of it. It is indeed time.

ALL THE BEST TO ALL MY BATCHMATES...THE JOURNEY WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THE SAME WITHOUT YOU :)

Look Beyond!

So many unspoken words reverberate,
In the mind they circulate,
The world around,
Looks at the beauty of the wearable and rusting tin that surround,
They forget about the nectar of life within which,
Lies the utopian bliss,
In order to find the eternal gold,
Look beyond what eyes can hold.

Who's An 'I' ???

Its someone whom you think you know completely but yet you dont know at all.
Its someone who you think is the best but still is worst of all.
Its someone who means the world to you yet you are oblivious to the fact.
Its someone who will surprise you everytime you think you have figured it out.
Its someone who changes every minute when you think the world around changes rapidly.
Its someone who can make you the best or break you the worst than anyone else in the world.
Its only when theres no "I" can you see what cannot be seen by EYES.

Stop Searching and Start Seeing

All of us face various ups and downs in our lives. Few best of ups and few probably worst of downs. Our lives are divided into various phases(childhood, schooldays, college days, corporate 'professional' life, post graduate college days (for people like us doing their post graduation), again corporate life, married life, etc etc etc). The list is endless. Each phase has its own set of happiness and sorrow. If we look back, we would realize that somehow in all those phases, we have some very good memories as well as some really bad ones.

I read a quote once, which was smth like this, " Humans tend to get depressed because they see their past much more glorious than it actually was and future much more scary and negative than it actually will be". I guess thats where most of us make mistakes.

If only we could see the positive in every phase of our life, probably we would be much happier than we are. If we think back and look closely at the past we would probably realize what we haven't been able to understand about life till date. Look ahead closely and you will realize, there is a whole new experience waiting for us all...it will have its own glorious moments...so what if it will bring with itself some sadness too...This process is not something new to us anyways.

You, You, Yourself

Well, how many times have we heard someone telling to us "Why is it always about u" or "That person is all about I, Me, Myself" or " When will people stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about others". Today I just wanna ask 1 simple question to all those people, "Can you keep someone else happy until and unless you yourself are happy and contented?". If you can then go ahead and think about others before you think about yourself but if you can't then doesn't that mean that the first duty of every individual is towards themselves and then its towards others.

Probably thats why it is rightly said "Charity begins at home" or rather "Happiness begins with self".

One DJ Night at SIIB

Yesterday night was full of music, dance and masti. We had 'War of DJs' which is a part of our annual B-fest, Ignisense. There were more than 200 people dancing to the tunes of the competing competent DJs. Seeing those people reminded me of the words of one of the best teachers of my life till date. He always tells me how each and every person represents a life which has its own unique problems which are great to that individual and happiness which is not enough to the same.

So many people with so many problems, so many would have had heartbreaks, so many would have lost their loved ones, so many would be facing financial turmoils, unending responsibilities on every shoulder, unending struggle in everyone's life. But what was it that united them all today to dance, to get wet in 'rain', to just forget everything and enjoy the moment with friends and perhaps with themselves. For a change I was among the spectators and not the participants in all this frolic. It made me realize that perhaps it was the music that united them all together, that shielded them all from the excruciating pain that they might be going through. Maybe, the shield was just for sometime but atleast it was there. It somewhere symbolized that no pain is painful enough to stop a person from smiling for a second, that music has healing powers. It just shows that there is something much more to this life than what we all are running after, something much more meaningful, something which is above all that is happening with us and around us.

Its said that life goes on but have we ever thought that why is it that life goes on? There is a meaning to it and we need to discover it. But more than discovering it, we need to believe in it. There is a pain that can't let a person to smile even for a nanosecond but there is a happiness which can surpass the boundaries of time. Once we experience that pain, there will be no pain, painful enough and so once we get over it, there will be no happiness so everlasting as that one.