Friday, January 30, 2015

Because Its Your Story!!



I was born talented but education ruined me.” I would rather like to narrate a story of my friend Deepak. He was a fantastic guy, a child prodigy. He used to write and he loved to write. He used to tell me and confess that he wanted to be a writer. But his father had some unlike thoughts. He wanted to make him an officer who would depart from his home at 9:00 and would return before 5:00 in the evening. He wanted to make him someone who would carry a leather briefcase containing some documents of ‘national importance’ being escorted by some officials in an ambassador with a lal bathi. His fathers had his own ambition and Deepak respected him and his expectations a lot. He enrolled himself in std.11 and begin to prepare for JEE MAINS. He once told me that the ‘things were not going his way’. I didn’t knew that those 5 words were as deeper as the sky.

“I don’t know this stuff. I don’t know what they are trying to search in an atom and wasting their time in those damn microscopic level. Let’s switch to macroscopic level. I think that these α, β and ϒ are going to kill me.”

He used to love to write about the sky, about his friend and her strands of hair fluttering in the air, the curious way in which the sunset used to fall at her face and the beauty being used as a drapery…. 



Fake it, till you make it.” He used to believe in that principle. For a brief time he tried to devote his time in those equations. He was made to handle those thick books of Arihant and RS Agarwal by force not by choice. He thought faking those things might help him. He read, mugged up, but he didn’t that he was fighting outside his domain. I hardly believed whether he could sustain. 



He was pushing hard and I thought that he had taken enough hits and he was down. He still wanted to study because he knew that after his evening classes his father would call him and would ask about his study and preparations. His father was an expertise and a very noble person. His father loved him blindly just like every like every father in this whole civilized world. The only thing that his father wanted was his security. His father knew that being a writer meant that he was going to have many hardships in his life. 



Deepak tried hard but he couldn’t make it. He tried again and again but all his endeavors ended in fiasco. And today after many years when I am not in touch with him, I neither hear his name as bureaucrat or any writer. He tried to fake it but he couldn’t make it.

I had started the context in the first person but rather I would like to wrap it up in third person.

“He was born talented but education ruined him.”

Monday, September 29, 2014

What I want to become in my life




Morning starts in an expected manner. Lazy one, shorter in life and too fast…  I wonder if she hasn’t read those poems line that goes as, “What a life full of care, there is no time to stand and stare”.
She has got some rules and her rules are not meant to be broken. I’m wake, still on my bed and watching my room. Still in the same condition I had left it last night. Surprised?? No way what can an engineering student expect when he has got no roomie and he is the inevitable king of that room. My eyes again take a tour of the room. In one corner there are hockey sticks, let us c, novels, newspaper (might be a month older), laptop, headphone and just beside me lies my cousin shadow i.e. my phone. It requires enormous strength to muster your will to leave that bed with whom you just spent 8 long hours. My bed sheet has finally become dirty and she gives a dirty look to me but I can just say sorry to her. “What is desirable is unattainable”, she should understand this fact. And she do.  Well she is mine property. I have my morning times with Sunday times. Nothing catchy. I see the 1st page and simultaneously flip to the last page. I run down my eyes through the middle pages as fast as I can, until any printed advertisement beholds my eyes. ‘More works to do this Sunday’: with this thought I head towards my room. I open my laptop and revise the content that I downloaded last night. It’s an emotional video with a message to do something for the nation. The video mesmerizes me. I play it for next consecutive times with volume at its zenith. Two big drops roll down my cheek from my wet eyes.  What was that? It was helplessness that I was feeling, doing nothing for my nation and saying to myself in any corner of the empty auditorium of my head. “Well, buddy this is something that you have to do.” [1] After a remarkable gap of Desh bhakti I switch to the next video of Roger Federer. I’m again moved and mine every cell tissue is paying respect to him. He always remains calm and quite. He is the ultimate G.O.A.T. – Greatest of All Time. “He is the greatest player of all time” comes a voice in Russian accent from the vid. I wish I could be like Roger and then somehow feelings rising from the core of my heart drapes themselves in the alphabets and request the tongue to be their medium, and the overall clumsy mechanism results in one statement and that is “I want to be a tennis player and want to be like Roger”. [2] “Hey, how you can do it??”  , the stick (hockey) standing against the pale wall in the dark pinches me saying that.  ‘Saying SOMETHING and executing that SOMETHING are something entirely different’. I mollify my hockey stick, she is jealous. I do my lunch because I had done my breakfast in my dream. This time I’m unable to remember it. Quite irritating??? Huh? After seeing my books I decide to go to my bed I again unlock my lappy. “Well he is amazing”. I utter these words after watching Robert Downey in IRON MAN. And then I began to analyze his character. Whether he is proud or brilliant. And then I think and I wish I could be IRON MAN or a proud owner of billion dollar fortune company ‘STARK’ [3].  Now I want to be a mechanical or electronics engineer who can make that suit. After all these unproductive works finally I sit on my chair with thick and thin books ahead of me. Suddenly my eyes’ attention falls on these lines written on the back side of my notebook.


The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
- Robert Frost

How can any human convince you so many thoughts with mere alphabets of language? Just like the wood the meaning of the stanza is also dark and deep. But I try to dispel that darkness with my intellectual and wits and my mind takes a deep dive into that ocean of thoughts, spontaneous feelings and much more. The stanza keeps me beholded and silent for next 20 minutes. And finally I think of opting for pen as my profession. [4] It weird and strange however it has got a remarkable vote share in my heart’s by-poll election and every proposal should be given respect. I again go outside my room.  I see the blue sky with white spots and think upon those things. The landlord of the sky doesn’t allows me to watch him. He is generous, kind and benevolent. However he doesn’t allows me to see him. However you can watch him with glasses on your eyes. But there would be a difference if explained in an analogy, it would be just like using a cracked version of windows instead of the genuine one. You could feel the difference. I again enter my empire and think of doing some workout. I start with crunches in the ground and I land hundred fists on the beam. With headphone in my ear, I hit it hard and hard and even harder. For a short span of time a virtual 76 mm movie begins to roll in my empty auditorium of mind. It gets a boost and I’m reminded of every action scenes, I have watched so far. I began to think of Abraham and Stallone. I remove my t-shirt and began to stare my own body. I began to watch my future 8 packs in my pre-mature 6 packs. I can clearly notice the nerve going done from my biceps in a non-uniform way splitting in twos and finally getting lost. I’m happy with my body and somehow proud. You can’t buy it. You have to earn it and I have been earning it since my childhood days. And I have become a regular employee and it always pays me back. “Rome was not built in a day” and I have got the meaning behind those 21 letters. ‘I want to be a fighter’. [5] I’m speechless. My heart has become a collection of different desires just like a mini INDIA. Each may not mix with the next but collectively form an interesting human.  And that’s me. And I keep thought aside for the latter debate. I surf through YouTube as per my subscription I began to buffer a video. “Mr. Tyson don’t try to patronize me. I am not going to spare you. Mind it.” How can a TV journalist be so fearless?? I have become die hard fan of his firm and electrifying journalism. For the last few months I too have participated in many debates. There is another taste and craze in debating with others. “What about being a journalist.” My comments are getting recognized but the real thing is that these all things convey something else, something that has to do nothing with my clan as well as my past and that is journalism. At the same moment of life I want to be a journalist. The fact is that I am an engineer and not even I can deny this fact. Well if I virtualize my road map then it is going to be a very simple one. Have the placement. Do the job. Satisfy your family and say hasta la vista to life. It’s so simple, no risks, no potential danger zones and simple and long lasting life. ‘But the real risk lies in living riskless living.’ There are millions of nerve cell sending zillions of stimuli and signals across my lobes and different parts of my body.
At last I can conclude that there ain’t any formula which is going to tell you what you should become in your future.  Until you start believing yourself you are not to have a life. Do whatever you wanna do but always keep a PLAN- B. Do work hard. As Rocky Balboa says, “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you got to be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!”


 BE A THINKER, NOT A STINKER




Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Fortune favors the brave




September 24th, 2007 was not a normal day in Johannesberg, South Africa. It was the ICC T20 World cup final was between India and its arch-rival Pakistan. It was the last over and Pakistan still needed 12 runs with only one wicket in hand. The in- form batsman Misbah-ul-haq was on the strike and Dhoni had to make a vital decision on who would bowl the last over. At the one end, there was the little known Joginder Sharma and at the other was Harbhajan singh, the most experienced bowler in the team. Many thought that veteran would be preferred over the inexperienced and what happened after-wards still remain history. Joginder sharma bowled the last over and India became champion. Because in order to win you have to think different and Dhoni did the same. The real risk lies in living riskless living. To succeed you have to take chances and there is always risk in doing so. And so is the proverb that fortune favours the brave.
It is a latin proverb traditionally attributed to Terrence (c. 190-159 B.C.) It’s common translation of the latin phrase -"fortis fortuna adiuvat”. The latin word ‘fortis’ does mean brave and ‘fortuna’ refers to the Goddess Fortuna. ‘Adiuvat’ is literally translated as helps or aids. The basic meaning of the saying is clear. Succeeding or being a winner is not just a matter of luck. A person who takes action, acts boldly, takes some risks and strives hard to achieve a goal is more likely to succeed, win or be rewarded than someone who doesn't. However it is very tough to make bold decisions. But to be successful one must work hard and to work hard one have to make bold decisions and for that, one has to make the first move: Boldness is the opposite of hesitation. Whenever you're feeling hesitant in interaction with others or making a decision for yourself, learn to swallow your pride and make the first move. Over-thinking is often cause of hesitation. If you can say,"i want this”, you've said enough to make your decisions.
In 1969 Indira Gandhi moved ahead to nationalise fourteen major commercial banks. At that time most banks in India had continued to be owned and operated by private persons. Businessman owned the banks were often accused of channeling the deposits into their own companies and ignoring the priority sector. Also there was a great resentment against class banking in India ,which had left the poor (the majority population) unbanked. After becoming prime-minister Indira gandhi expressed the intension of nationalising the banks in a paper titled, ‘Stray thoughts on bank nationalisation’ in order to alleviate poverty. After the nationalisation of banks, the branches of the public sector banks in India rose to approximate 800 percent in deposits and advances took a huge jump by 11000 percent. Nationalisation also resulted in a significant growth in the geographical coverage of bank branches that rose from 8200 to 62000, most of which were opened in the unbanked ,rural areas. This decision was welcomed by the masses and soon Mrs. Gandhi was applauded for her crucial decision of nationalising the bank. This decision made her a masiha in the eyes of poor and she was at her new heights of her popularity. So fortune favored her because she was capable of making strong decisions.
Julius Caesar also transformed his fortunes when he marched on Rome, declaring ‘alea iacta est’ (the die is cast) as he crossed the Rubicon river. The utterance was a commitment of his fate to fortune. While Caesar was a professional soldier, many of his victories were achieved by taking bold risks which exposed him and his troops to significant danger, but resulted in memorable victories.
In one of the famous poems ‘The Road Not taken’ Robert Frost has ended his poem saying,” Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by ,And that has made all the difference”. These lines depict about the dilemma of the person and the successful decision that he takes aftermath.
One of the interesting incidents is related to the life of J.C.Bose. Bose gave a lecture at the Linnean Society at the gathering of scientists. He was to explain them about the response of the plants towards the stimuli. He had come to the conclusion that plants can feel pain like animals; that when we pinch them they suffer; and that they die in a few minutes after they are poisoned. Bose started the experiment by injecting poison into a plant. The plant should have shown signs of death in a few minutes. On the contrary nothing happened. The learned audience started laughing. Bose showed admirable calmness. He thought quickly. The poison didn’t killed the plant and so it was not going to harm him also. With full confidence he got ready to inject the poison into himself. At that instant a man got up and confessed that instead of poison he had put similar colored water. He conducted the experiment again and the results were positive. The decision that he took to inject himself with the poison was seen as a great example of self-confidence and it elevated Bose to the next level.
There are endless instances which make this proverb true and aptly justified. If we find the literal meaning of fortune then it is defined as ‘chance or luck as an external, arbitrary force affecting human affairs.’ Action embodied in one’s effort is the real key to success as well as happiness. Action or effort may not produce the desired result but happiness or fortune never come without effort. As David Mcnally says,” There is no guarantee of reaching goal with efforts made, but there is a guarantee of never attaining goals that are never set”. We should focus on our attempts and endeavour rather than on fortunes and the results that are beyond our limit. Lord Krishna also said the same thing to Arjuna in Gita. He said,’ karmaniye vadhikarste ma falesu kadachan’. We have the right to perform the prescribed duty but we are not entitled to the fruits of action. Success is the courage to undertake the journey that you believe in. And ask any successful man about their story and the unbelievable beauty of the story is that each and every person would reply that they didn’t did anything for reward. They did because they believed. You must have courage to undertake the journey and crucial decisions. And Krishna said exactly what 1000 of years later today the icon of million of managers all over the world Steve jobs said. He said ‘journey is the reward’ and Krishna said karma is the reward.
- SHASHI PRAKASH




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