Lumuhuku

Here I am writing a post for Dev. It is an honour I must say, writing the 100^th post. Thanks Dev. I am clueless as to what I’m going to write and I’m sure most of you following the blog would find it monotonous and wonder where he is? But please bear with me, because if I don’t write this, I might disappoint my dearest childhood buddy.

Talking of relationships and disappointments attached to them, most of us feel sad and demented when one of the closest person to us leaves us or drifts away. There is nothing wrong with it and rather, it is quite an obvious feeling. But it’s my feeling that every relationship teaches us something. Something good. No matter how badly it ended. Everyone comes in our life for a reason. They are there with us when we need them the most in our life.

Maybe to share our feelings because we were lonely, to cheer us up or boost up our spirits when we did not believe in ourselves and to lend us a shoulder when we were down and needed a friend. But the mistake we make is that, we want to hold them for life. This is the point when things start to deteriorate. This is indeed the point, when relationships move from ‘not-expecting-anything-in-return’ state to the ones where both sides of the relationships sound like, ‘I-expect-something-from-you’.

People come and go but what remains are the memories that will last with us forever. It’s my personal belief that there is no point in regretting anything in life. It’s always good to listen to everyone, but when the time comes to take the decision, its best to take your own decisions and if something goes wrong then we shall have only ourselves to blame, instead of those who were ‘supposedly’ expected to be influential in our decision making. 

Shifting the focus to the darker and troubled side of relationships – read broken ones, we should look back and smile. Yes. We should smile. It’s because that was the best time, we could have spent with that person at that point in our life. With every bad relationship that ended on a sour note, we should be observant enough to recognise the hidden lesson for the future. And once we are able to understand that, we can be sure that we are not all that vulnerable as we used to be. We can judge people by their behaviour and decide whom to associate with and whom to stay away from. And one of the biggest realisations, that comes out from evolving with the relationships is that, we realise that we should not care for what people say about us. It’s because I believe in living life for myself and for people close to me and not for the society that “supposedly” I should be serving.

Experiences when passed through prisms of life manifest themselves in various human emotions, which are essential to make our personal rainbows colourful and I feel that I am blessed, that God has provided me diverse situations, which have enriched my life. Now I have the power as well as wisdom to appreciate life with all its pitfalls.

Neha K.

I was actually planning to write a post titled Things I wish I could start doing. But then I realized that, I have already, done a similar list of things I wish to do. Also, under normal circumstances, we all wish to do a lot of things which we haven’t done. It can be anything. Anything as simple as eating something delicious and long not eaten or extreme stuffs like sky diving. But more importantly, there are certain things, that should not be done on a regular basis. These are the things that have actually become a part of our routine existence and are difficult to break away from. We all are different, so we can have a different list of things to avoid doing. I start here with mine.

Procrastination

Now, this is not unique. Almost all of us have this problem. But what matters to me is that, this is a part of me. Although, I don’t procrastinate big time; I do it enough to annoy myself.  I have tried a lot and I must say that I won’t be boasting if I was to say that I have been successful in reducing this horrible habit of mine to a great extent.

Hero Worship

There are 2 people in this world, who are like God to me. I use God here for the lack of a more apt word. I very diligently try to follow these people, in every way I can. One of them is Howard Roark. A man as a man should be. I swear that after reading Fountainhead, I have changed. Roark, although a fictional character has an impact on me, that even the real life characters could not have on me. I started reading Fountainhead during a long train journey when I was 19 years old. And I won’t be wrong, if I say that, It took me 19 years and a long train journey to find myself. (Remember Lakshya’s tagline J ). The other person is a real person. He is not a character from the books but he is now definitely a part of the folklore. I am talking about Warren Buffet. You should make a note here that I am not a follower of this man because of his money making capabilities or for his knack of being right almost everytime. I worship this person because of his simplicity. For his uncomplex and water like uncomplicated life. So what is wrong with worshipping heroes? Nothing I would say. But only as long as you don’t forget what you yourself are. There is really no point in trying to do each and everything as the person you admire. I remember that when I first finished reading Fountainhead, I tried to assume that I was the real life version of Roark and actually used to make genuine efforts to take decisions in ways that Mr. Roark would have taken in his ‘objectivism’ ways.

Declining Enthusiasm

Following graph is an apt representation of my enthusiasm levels from start till the end of a project. Now, a project can be anything – a relationship, some office work, some assignments, some new and innovative ideas, or just about anything.

As you can see in the graph, just after an idea is born at t=0, the enthusiasm shoots above 100%. But after that, it slowly starts to fizzle out and then abruptly comes to a negligible percentage during the half way mark. And then again the downtrend continues just as if some Universal Law of Declining Intent is making it happen. Ill effects of declining enthusiasm are, I suppose, universally known.

Being too frank

The mere fact that I am writing a post of this nature tells you how frank I am.

Reading too much

Librarian. That would have been a perfect job for me. I just love reading. There are times when I can read 3-4 books simultaneously! There are times, when if I can’t find some good reading material, I start feeling uneasy. This is not a comfortable habit to have. I agree that reading is a good habit. But excess of anything is bad. I can very well utilize my reading time in something more (or rather less) brain taxing. But no. My habit of reading on and on, will never allow me to do so. When I was a kid, I used to make beautiful drawings and sketches. But then one day, I don’t know from where, just like swine flu, I caught Reading Flu. And under current circumstances, it seems incurable.

Taking Risks

I have a habit of taking risks. Some of these are huge ones and some are not. I have taken a lot of life threatening risks too. Some which I have already shared on my blog. I won’t say that what I do is wrong. After all, life is about doing the things that are interesting and difficult. And to do difficult things, we need to take risks.

So, these were some of the things that I wish I could top doing a bit. I won’t say completely, because then I won’t have much to make life exciting.  ;-)

How can I not read?

Why shouldn’t I take risks?

Why shouldn’t I look at my heroes with awe?

Why shouldn’t I be as I am and be frank?

Isn’t it.

Shah Jahan

For convincing me that, even with so much selfishness, there is still a thing called ‘Love’. If someone just comes up to me and tells that there is no such thing as love, I am going to slap him/her (or better still, throw a slipper on him , and become a celebrity), and ask the person to go and look at the Taj. Its impossible to make such a monument without a feeling called love. For those, who have still not seen it; I can only say that I feel sorry for you. Go and see it. Its once in a lifetime or I don’t know what, that love is personified s beautifully. Don’t miss it for anything. And please don’t go alone.

Gutenburg

Couldn’t have been more thankful to anyone else. It is because of him that we have all our books today. If he had not invented the printing press, we would not have been able to read all those books that surround us. If it hadn’t been for him, we would still be reading text written on leaves!!!

Thank you so much for making this knowledge so accessible to all of us.

Thank you for almost everything we have today.

Warren Buffet

Before knowing him, I believed in Chinese Prime Minister’s call – “To be rich, is glorious”. Now before you make a biased opinion about me, let me clarify that I was not a person after money, but yes, who doesn’t like making money? Then Mr. Buffet came into my life (No, I haven’t met him. But I have read and researched a lot on him). Being the richest man on planet is not an easy task. But being the richest and still knowing the value of simplicity, frugality and stability is really somehting. And this is what defines him. Giving life much more importance than money. Money is there to help us lead a comfortable life. And its is really not the other way round.

Life is not there to earn loads and loads of money. LIfe is there to live life.

Thanks sir. Thank you so much for making me realise this truth early in my life,

Ayn Rand

So being selfish is wrong?

She said no, its not. She made the world realise that we all are born for a reason. A reason that is not for the benefit of all, but our own. We are here for ourselves and not others. We can’t give anything to anybody, till we are able to create. Every man is an end in himself. Not a means to end of others.

Thank you so much for making me realise that I am not answerable to everyone.

Thank you for helping me to gain the ability to think objectively.

Thank you for giving me this ability to decipher between a creator and a parasite. 

And when you said that love is exception making, nobody had ever before, been so right!

John D. Rockefeller

Imagine owning a company that was later broken into 7 ’smaller’ (I repeat – Smaller) companies. Nothing special about it? Now here is a fun fact about those 7 ’small’ companies. They were 7 of the 10 largest companies of the world at that time!!!

Now its special

Another fun fact –

Have you heard the names like Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips & Total?

All are companies of gigantic sizes in energy sector and 3 of those 7 ’small’ companies.

Want to read another fun fact? Here it is –

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet fight it out to be the richest men in the world, with around 50 Billion dollars.

John D. Rockeller is the richest man that ever was.

Wow!! Read it again…

John D. Rockeller is the richest man that ever was. Its really something.

Thank you sir. Thank you for changing the definition of big for me.

Thank you for personifying the word ’superlative’.

Someone (?)

Thank you. Thank you for not being there.

Thank you for not being where I wanted you to be.

Thanks for teaching me that reciprocation is not obvious.

For teaching me that, we can’t have everything in life.

For teaching me that there is no point in forgetting things that hurt.

Because sooner or later, we become used to those things.

Thank you for teaching me that there is no point in running from the past.

Everyone is haunted by their past, and I am one of everyone.

Thanks a lot for teaching me that life does really go on.

Once again, thank you to all of you. I would really have been a different person altogether, if it had not been for you all.

Thanks.

Heavenly bodies orbit.

Planets, moons, satellites, stars, galaxies…all orbit.

They all orbit around something or something orbits around them.

So can a conclusion be drawn here?

Can we generalize a bit here?

Does everything have an orbit?

Do humans like you and me, also have orbits?

Let’s focus on the last statement. Do humans have orbit?

If yes, then around what? What is the center of there orbit?

Do they just have one orbit? Or do they have multiple orbits?

With these questions I begin my “Theory of Orbits“.

Yes. Every person is in an orbit. Orbit around something very important. And what is this ‘important thing or centre’? To tell the truth, I am not sure. It can be anything.  Anything and everything. But my personal feelings are that, it might be the “Holy Grail of Existence” – The reason for our very existence. The guiding beacon of our lives.

Now as we have answered the question of “what’s at the centre of our orbit”, let’s focus on the next important question – “The Number of Orbits“,

4.......

4 is the answer.

And all of us are in one of these 4 orbits. At a time, we can only, and only exist in one of the orbits.

So here are the 4 orbits –

Orbit 1 : I don’t know that I don’t know, what I want from my life

Orbit 2 : I know that I don’t know, what I want from my life.

Orbit 3 : I don’t know that I already know, what I want from my life.

Orbit 4 : I know that I know, what I want from my life.

The first orbit is the farthest from the center and the distance keeps on decreasing as you go down the list. That is, at the centre, we have the Holy Grail of Existence. Then comes Orbit 4, followed by 3, 2 and 1.

Now, when a person is born, he starts at the orbit 1. He is, at that point, farthest from the Holy Grail (the centre).

Orbit 1 : I don’t know that I don’t know, what I want from my life

This is the first orbit that a person is allotted after birth. He does not have the knowledge about what he wants from his life. And to make the matters worse, he doesn’t even know that he does not have ‘that’ knowledge(!) A person usually spends his entire childhood in this phase. This is the worst (technically) of all the orbits. But there are pleasures, unexplainable, attached to this orbit too. Just remember your childhood days. No worries, no problems, no goals…nothing. No tension at all.

Orbit 2 : I know that I don’t know, what I want from my life

Now comes the 2nd orbit. A person moves a bit closer to the center. In this orbit, a person realizes that he is born for a purpose. He realizes that he is here for a reason. But…he does not know the reason. He has the knowledge that like everything else, he too has a purpose in life. But what is the actual purpose….he doesn’t know. According to experts like me , this phase should get over before a person reaches 30. And if the person fails to realize this goal of existence even later, he will most probably lead an aimless life and a life, which is just about existing and not living.

Ideally a person should leapfrog from orbit 2 to orbit 4.

[Reasons a bit later]

So let’s take up the orbit 4 first, followed by the 3rd orbit.

Orbit 4 : I know that I know, what I want from my life

This is Nirvana, in the real sense of the word. A person in this orbit is at heavenly rest. He knows what he wants in life and is going after that very thing. He is existing for the sake of that very goal. He has an aim in life. Orbit 4 is very much a mirror image of Orbit 1. The mind of people in both the orbits are at ease. They are not confused about what they want from life. A person in orbit 1 does not know the existence of any such goal, i.e. he fails to realize that he ought to have a goal. And other one in the 4th orbit has the goal and knows that this is the ultimate goal of his existence.

So why is Orbit 3 different from the other three…??

Orbit 3 : I don’t know that I already know, what I want from my life

A person in this orbit, knows that he ought to have a goal / purpose in life. But he does not know what. Though in actual sense, he is enjoying what he is doing. In his sub conciscience, he already knows that, whatever he is doing, is ‘the thing’ that he really wants to do. But he fails to realize this.

He is happy with the work he is doing but his mind is not at rest. And this is, in fact a dangerous state to be in.

If you have read till here, I am need no prompting that you don’t belong to the Orbit 1.

I have realized that I am in Orbit 2. I am dead sure about that as I have been making revolutions in this orbit for quite some time now.

For those who feel that they may be in Orbit 3….please try deciding about your aim fast. Why should you be worried when you like what you do?

And for those in the Orbit 4…Hi there!! Please give us lessons on increasing our escape velocities (A term commonly used to signify the minimum speed required to move to a higher orbit :: but here we are moving to lower ones ) to come to your orbits. Its really difficult to move to the 4th Orbit. Please help!!!

Orbit, orbit everywhere….not an orbit to revolute…

So what’s your orbit.......?

…

..

.

I was having a discussion with one of my close friends on the ongoing recession (no, we are not economists), when this thought came to my mind. About the brands we use in our daily life. Just ask yourself this thing. When you and I were growing up (if we do belong to the same generation ), did you here so many brand names? No. Did we pay any attention to the brand of the stuff we brought? No (atleast for me). But now things have changed. We do pay attention to the ‘name’ of the thing more than the functionality of the same. Is it not a dependency on something? I guess it is. Is it not a kind of slavery? I don’t have an answer for this question now. Slavery is something more serious.

To tell the truth, I ‘am’ loyal to certain brands. But there are also items where I am not one bit concerned about the brand I buy.

Like for example, I will never buy my cellphone which is not a Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, HTC, O2 (OMG!! – I just love it), Blackberry. I will never buy an a phone which is an LG. And I don’t have any reason for that. I just some how hate it by default.

And there are stuffs for which I am not concerned about the brand. Like “Pani Puri”…I’ll better have it at a road side vendor than look for some Bikanerwala or Haldiram!! (I have some friends who actually look for a brand in Pani Puri too!!)

Now here is a list of the brands I am using now. In case of emergencies, I might use others, but ususally, it is from these only :

Cell Phone

 Jeans

Shoes

Laptop

Cell phone service provider

Search (Thanks Sergie & Brin)

MP3 Player

Gillette – For everything related to facial hair

Car – Mercedez Benz Amen

 and I can go on and on…there will be more and more and more brands.
So am I a branded slave?

I still don’t have an answer.

Earlier generations including our parents , their parents did not have so many brands. But still, they could get their jobs done. Can’t we do the same. Of course we can. It is just a matter of convinience. Brans have become the equivalent of convinience for ur. So has consumerism really changed our lives for the better?

I feel it is too early for me to answer such a question.

Don’t know what more can I say on this. But as far as slavery is concerned, I think that practically everyone is slave to their choices, some consciously and some out of need. But when I say slavery, I mean a moderate one.

Btw, I don’t own a Benz.

Update : I got an award for this post …

So…even slavery has its ‘tangy‘ fruits !!

Times change really fast. There was a time when then was then AND here I am in a time when now is now.

Here are a few of random “Then & Now” observations about me…

THEN – “What, its just 10 am, how can I wake up.”

NOW – “OMG, I am getting so late, its already 7:30 in the morning.”

THEN – “How can I eat the same thing for two days in a row, make something new”

NOW – “Just bring in whatever you have to eat, so what if I ate the same thing yesterday also”

THEN – “Hey man, why are you taking a bath today; nobody is coming to smell you!!”

NOW – “Ah its so hot after the office, lemme take a shower.”

THEN – “Man, when will we get out of our college life? It would be nice to earn some money”

NOW – “Those golden college days. I should take up some higher studies”

and I know, this will go on and on and on….

A Note : Thank you so much Neha for suggesting the title of the post. Couldn’t have thought of a better one

Hi men and women,

I am a doormat. Remember me? Lying at the very entrance of your houses or any other room.

So what do I want?

If I say that I will be talking ot you all about my plight, then atleast 90% of the readers will click at the “Close” button of this window.

And instead, it is the other way round. It is me, who should be hearing your plight. It is me who should be empathizing with you all!!

I know you must be thinking that how can I, a doormat, have a better life than you guys?

Let me explain you about this.

Answer this question of mine and then read further –

What is the reason for my existence?

I am here to remove the dirt and crap from you all’s feet. Isn’t it? I am the instrument for you all to get rid of all the unwanted stuff. And what happens when I have served my purpose? What happens when I am full of dirt, old, and almost useless? I am readily discarded. And soon a new one finds its place below your soles.

This is my lifecycle.

So how can I claim to have a better life than you all?

Not all…but definitely some of you, have much more pathetic life than me.

Of course!!

People come and use you like a doormat! They use you to get rid of everything unwanted and then move on to find a new doormat.

What happened? You seem to be astonished. Seems you have been used before.

I know one thing. That I was born to be a doormat. But were you?

Do you have any idea who is using you like a doormat?

Or have you become uncomfortable with this thought itself?

Only you have the answer.

Yours truly,

Doormat

So are you a one ?