Tidbits!

1. Tidbits maketh a man.

2. You only truly understand that which you tame. You only truly control that which you can destroy.

3. Education is some people's penance and some people's liberty. - Palak 6/7/09 11:35 pm

4. Life is not in substances, it's in the spaces in between.

5. "Go do something weird, but not too weird!" - Lanny Schmidt, in the Common Room

6. In life, beware of 2 type of people: "People who try to look good by making others look bad! and Second, people who try to scare you into a conclusion" - Eray, 19th Nov.

7.  In the end, we are just humans and humans will we be. We will cry at small losses and laugh at smaller gains. With time we will learn to push our sorrows to the bottom of our heart and put on those smiles back on our faces and gain the strength to "Walk the streets!" :)

8.  Our jobs are nothing but our faiths. We are not out there trying out whether our minds sell, or our hearts sell, or our schemes sell or our ideas sell. We are out there to find out if our faiths sell. In some ways we are all like the clergy of our own faiths. 

9. Control your emotions and think about the repurcations of your actions. Learn to say NO!!

10. Never take a decision based on extremes of emotions: too much love or too much hatred.

11. Nobody ever harmed you. To fully take control of your life, you have to realise that you and only you are responsible for your actions. Never blame anyone. Then you will be free.

12. "Is this nature?  Is that our perception of nature? Or is it only wht we can know about nature?"

       - BJ Lee, Jan 02'09

13. "If not now, then when?" - 26th June 2009

Esteem

I remember reading somewhere that the worst day of a man's life is when he tries to get money without earning it. I think there is day worse than that. It's when he tries to base his self-worth up on other people's opinions.

When the penny is up in the air

I hate to put other people's work on my blog. But this one needs to be there just for reference sake. It is one of my favorite poems. A poem that is often visited in times of need. It's called "A Psychological Tip" by Piet Hein.

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,

and you're hampered by not having any,

the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,

is simply by spinning a penny.

No -- not so that chance shall decide the affair

while you're passively standing there moping;

but the moment the penny is up in the air,

you suddenly know what you're hoping.

Though what I am wondering at this point is: which one is better: (a) knowing exactly what you want, but at the same time also knowing that you'll never get it, or (b) not knowing what you want, except that it is not whatever you have right now or are likely to get soon. Oh damn, the choices and the heart that just can't pick one!

My Sombre Self

Well, if I had to say what is the first thing that people will notice about me, I would say that I laugh a lot. And believe me, it's noticeable. I get it from my mom. Both of us have been thrown out of classes for laughing too loud and well, not being able to stop ourselves. But to my credit, I was in eight standard when that happened to me, she was in college when she was thrown out for laughing in a class!

Even my best friend claims that she learnt the trick to look good in a picture from me. It was to laugh and voila, the picture starts beaming too!

While you will find me laughing out loud in all my pictures, the only exceptions to this rule are the pictures I took for my driving license. Even though I was excited to clear the knowledge test and the skill test, I tried hard to control my laughter/ grinning and gave quite a sombre pose to the Minnesota DMVstaff.

Some people and specifically my driving instructor found it out that I didn't smile for my picture. The reason is this: the only time I would really need to have a license on me...truthfully...is when I go out to drink! (A friend remarked to this: "So you are getting a driving license to drink, would you apply for a drinking license to drive?") And in the bars, they are just checking for your age, they don't look at your face.

The only other time would be if I get pulled over say for driving too slow on a freeway (like at 40 instead of 55 mph). So, the cop comes by, pulls me over and wants to look at my picture. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to be grinning in the picture when you are all apologetic in reality. Wait, what did you say, or it could be for driving at 60? No chance on earth! The only way I would be going on a freeway at 60 instead of 40 is if I didn't have my glasses on and 40 for some reason looked like 60. In that case, not only would I be grinning in my picture, I would even have my glasses on! EMBARRASSING!

The point of this post: I got a license! Finally! And I voted the day after that - for some university election. This is the first time in my life that I have voted for a decision that could potentially affect my life. Oh, I feel like such a grown-up that I may curb down the grinning a bit.

dreams....

Commit yourself to a dream. Then figure out how to get there. Don't wait till you are ready. One too many dreams have been lost this way. 

The glass-wall approach

So, I learnt this neat trick in my Racquetball class last Thursday. This is how it happened. I wasn't feeling very comfortable with my backhand, so the instructor asked me to practice on my own for a while instead of playing games with others. He left the court and stood outside watching me practice against the wall for a while and then he left. I wasn't doing so great at the start but kept improving slowly. After a while I noticed him coming towards my court, so I assumed he would stand outside and observe me again. I felt a bit tensed and tried quite hard this time and I did great. I didn't look back at all and just kept hitting those shots one after the other assuming he was still watching. I paused after a while and turned back and smiled at how I had improved in such a short time, but he was gone! And all this while, I was putting my best in assuming he was still there. That's when I learnt the trick...if it really makes a difference to you, why not try living your life assuming that someone whose opinion you value is watching you all the while. What would you want him to see? Who would that be? Neat trick, huh? Remember, whatever works in Racquetball works in life as well. Keep playing!

Little taught, little learnt

This may very well be the last semester of formal education for me. While learning is an integral part of everyday life, this may be the last time I attend a class in the University. It will be Racquetball this time. Rather a nice finish to my geeky life so far. Hopefully, rather than an end to education, this will mark a start to a new life....a life that focuses on an overall balance of health, wealth and wisdom.

However excited I am to learn Racquetball, I am quite scared to go and play it in a classroom full of adults. I am really scared of making a fool of myself. This is when I got to thinking that unusual as it may seem, how come in the last 21 years of my formal education, no one has been able to teach me that it is OK to make a fool of oneself once in a while. I mean it's really OK....to fail, for instance and to not learn something as soon you get your hands on it. Another lesson, which should have followed this one, is the importance of doing something daily to attain perfection. Flew right by, all these years! Twenty-fucking-one of them! How? I mean seriously how?

Seems like the education of two amazing countries just failed. Big names of the places I have been just rubbing their noses in mud. I really wish there was a similar system of education. One which may fail to teach you all the history of the world, or the best of European literature or twenty different languages, but somehow drilled it into you a very very simple basic lesson for life.....

1. You will fail. In fact, you must! It's OK. It really is. Believe it or not!

2. Then, you pull your act together and get to it. Not once, not twice, not a thousand times, but every fucking day of our life. You just get to it with your whole heart and mind and soul, until one fine day you do win. And trust me, you will.

It's so simple! My new "life's" resolution is that...Try your hand at whatever your heart wants. You'll either get what you want or you'll learn a thing or two about life. Please don't quit. You do indeed lose all of the shots you don't take. Put your heart and soul into it. You can do it! Whatever it may be, you can do it!

You'll fail in life, many many times, but by working on it day-by-day you'll achieve what your heart truly desires.