I was sitting at a park recently and just whiling my time away. As I sat there looking into the oblivion I noticed a family with two children making a nice place for them to sit at. The children would not have been more than 5 years of age with the younger one just learning how to walk. For ease of reading lets name the elder one John and the younger one Jai. Now John had the excitement of a young puppy let loose and was running around like he was being chased or was chasing some unknown being that didn’t exist and his father kept shouting to be careful but invain. John kept falling and tumbling and trying to kick in the air and jump up and down like a rabbit but there was a some kind of joy in what he was doing that a few others were getting irritated with it but he just continued it. Now seeing all this happen Jai was getting tempted to imitate his brother and be like him. Unfortunately, for him he could barely walk and with a step or two would be kissing the grass with his fall but yet he was determined to be like his brother and would get up and try again. It was such a pleasure to watch these two kids playing by themselves and having the time of their lives with nothing but their feet and imagination to keep them company while they made their way through the park running dancing jumping.
The smile of a child is worth a million lifetimes. Notice when a parent is playing with their child and there is complete happiness in the eyes of the child. The child is not bothered of who is around him and how it is going to reflect on him as a person. All that matter is he/ she is with their parents and there is no one else to matter about. He is so absorbed with his parent that he will jump, somersault and make a complete fool of himself for no one to notice. The funny thing is that he is just being himself and there is no one who can change the way he is thinking for that moment. He is the king of all that he does and the ruler of the happiness that exists. His jokes are for him to laugh at and maybe his parents to smile with him and share that moment of happiness with him.
Try making a child smile and you find out that it is quite easy; all you have to do is gain their trust and make a smile at them to reciprocate it to you. There is nothing scientific or logical at it. Have you ever noticed that when there is a conversation going on and a child is noticing the adults speaking and if they are all in a continuous laughter the child also unknowingly begins to laugh without understanding what is the main reason for the group to laugh or what the joke was about. He just wants to join the laughter. His smile gets people smiling so much more than any standup comedian.
Even if you have not been blessed with a child, to be with a child and bring a heartfelt smile on his face is worth more than a trip to an exotic location or materialistic gains that you can afford. I yearn to be with and play with my nephews whenever I can irrespective of if they feel the same or not. I would love to be a part of their lives and the smiles that they have for all. The times when they come to me and ask for something that I can give them is not only a matter of pride for me or a matter of pride to fulfill their needs. It’s the matter of a smile!
The Rise and Fall
It is a learning for one who is on a high and then suddenly falls flat on his face when life hits him below the belt. There was time when I was on top of the world and had all the pleasures of life that I could get and today a year later, I am living a life of begging and borrowing. For a person who would never take money from anyone even in the worst circumstances is today living off his parents.
About 9 months ago, I had a decent job and the pay was good. I had all the pleasures of partying friends to enjoy with and the time of my life in partying anywhere I wanted. Today I have to think if I can have a vada pav or a pani puri as the financial situation has dipped to rock bottom levels. Then there is the peer pressure of doing good and being looked down on. My ego and pride have taken such a bad beating that there is no place for it to exist anymore.
In a way it was good as the true friendship and the actual friends came to light when mis-fortune struck me. There was a moment when I need friends the most and only a few turned up to share their shoulder for my heavy head and all the so called best friends who proclaimed their friendship when I was on a high in life suddenly started to disappear. It was a realization also on the career front where the bosses who pledged their support suddenly had their heads turned and phones on a busy mode as they were too busy with their work and didn’t have the time to speak. Unlike, the time when they were always calling on you to get the work done and there was no problems in their midst because you had taken that extra time off the weekend to come to the office and do the damage control that they had initiated while they enjoyed the weekend on a picnic with their family.
Suddenly, life had a new meaning as to why I was there in this world and why I was, the way I was all this time to be the person who I was and how I could manage to be a better person. Suddenly, the question of mortality arose and the faith that life had built around started to crumble. There was a question on the way that I was leading my life and what was happening? What is our purpose in life and what is it that we are here on this planet for? The beliefs and the blindness in trust were questioned and the thought process of a philosopher started to take birth.
I cannot imagine why the way things happened when it happened. Why was I in the worst of situations and not in the best of places unlike my colleagues and classmates? Nevertheless, the simple answer to all this is that everyone has a time to go through some pain before they have their fruits of success touched and enjoyed. Thinking back in life I cannot remember a time when I was in any real trouble and how I single handedly managed to get out of it. This was my test of patience and maturity. A realization that the decisions taken in the past and the risks tried for a time was not paying off and the ways of the past would need to change if I were to be a materialistic success in life. It was time to reassess myself and change the process that I assumed would have been the right path as it clearly has not worked out for me.
If anyone would ask me what was it that they did wrong and how they could correct it, with respect to their careers, I would give them a simple answer. Do everything that you would never have done in the past and that would be the correct way. It is time to try something new and it’s an opportunity that you have in front of you that you need to grab make the best use of else you will be in the same position that you are in now and there will be no change. Because before you leap you always bend downwards and then reach for the sky. This was definitely going to be the leap for those fallen as it is going to be for me!
About 9 months ago, I had a decent job and the pay was good. I had all the pleasures of partying friends to enjoy with and the time of my life in partying anywhere I wanted. Today I have to think if I can have a vada pav or a pani puri as the financial situation has dipped to rock bottom levels. Then there is the peer pressure of doing good and being looked down on. My ego and pride have taken such a bad beating that there is no place for it to exist anymore.
In a way it was good as the true friendship and the actual friends came to light when mis-fortune struck me. There was a moment when I need friends the most and only a few turned up to share their shoulder for my heavy head and all the so called best friends who proclaimed their friendship when I was on a high in life suddenly started to disappear. It was a realization also on the career front where the bosses who pledged their support suddenly had their heads turned and phones on a busy mode as they were too busy with their work and didn’t have the time to speak. Unlike, the time when they were always calling on you to get the work done and there was no problems in their midst because you had taken that extra time off the weekend to come to the office and do the damage control that they had initiated while they enjoyed the weekend on a picnic with their family.
Suddenly, life had a new meaning as to why I was there in this world and why I was, the way I was all this time to be the person who I was and how I could manage to be a better person. Suddenly, the question of mortality arose and the faith that life had built around started to crumble. There was a question on the way that I was leading my life and what was happening? What is our purpose in life and what is it that we are here on this planet for? The beliefs and the blindness in trust were questioned and the thought process of a philosopher started to take birth.
I cannot imagine why the way things happened when it happened. Why was I in the worst of situations and not in the best of places unlike my colleagues and classmates? Nevertheless, the simple answer to all this is that everyone has a time to go through some pain before they have their fruits of success touched and enjoyed. Thinking back in life I cannot remember a time when I was in any real trouble and how I single handedly managed to get out of it. This was my test of patience and maturity. A realization that the decisions taken in the past and the risks tried for a time was not paying off and the ways of the past would need to change if I were to be a materialistic success in life. It was time to reassess myself and change the process that I assumed would have been the right path as it clearly has not worked out for me.
If anyone would ask me what was it that they did wrong and how they could correct it, with respect to their careers, I would give them a simple answer. Do everything that you would never have done in the past and that would be the correct way. It is time to try something new and it’s an opportunity that you have in front of you that you need to grab make the best use of else you will be in the same position that you are in now and there will be no change. Because before you leap you always bend downwards and then reach for the sky. This was definitely going to be the leap for those fallen as it is going to be for me!
Faith
Faith is such an important part of our life. We are born with nothing but a notion of it and then through the teachings from our parents and elders we are made to believe in the first form of faith, namely religion.
Faith has become to be the main link to the happiness and sadness in a person's life. His/her faith in a job, a partner, a friend or a relative constitutes his trust and dependancy on the person. There is a lot that we get to learn from FAITH but what we forget is its authenticity and tend to behave in the way that the other would like us to behave. There would have been instances in each of our pasts where our hearts would have wanted something different but our FAITH in something or someone held us back from either getting it or doing it.
Lets ponder on what does faith actually mean? Is it a form of religion or is it the trust factor that one has for some one or something or is it the existence of an unknown force that will help us in the times of our needs? According to the websters dictionary faith means:
Faith
Noun
1. A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality".
2. Complete confidence in a person or plan etc; "he cherished the faith of a good woman"; "the doctor-patient relationship is based on trust".
3. Institution to express belief in a divine power; "he was raised in the Baptist religion"; "a member of his own faith contradicted him".
4. Loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person; "keep the faith"; "they broke faith with their investors".
So we know we have a good understanding of what faith means but then why is it that we doubt our faith at times and we are not sure. Let me site an example on this for better understanding. Recently, I was visiting some of college friends in Delhi and I was introduced to his son who was about a year old. Since I was spending a few days with them I befriended the little boy, he had the need to taste and have anything that another person was drinking and on a night when I was sharing the evening with a group of friends and when no one was looking I offered him a few sips off my cocktail which tasted sweet to him. I realised then that this child had no clue what was there in the glass with some colourful liquid in it but that he had some sub-conscious faith in me that I wouldn't be able to harm him in any manner by offering him a drink. Obviously, what followed was a shrieking mother and a very happy child who danced the night away.
The point being is that we have faith in people that can be broken at times but these are living beings who have a mind of their own. How can we actually have faith in the unknown the and created from that the existence of a GOD. The eternal creator of all the starts, moon, planets, water, air, etc etc. I am putting forth this question to all the believers and faithful what is this faith in the unknown? The belief and ego that each faith is better than the other or that there is only a single path in the name of religion that is the main cause of hate and enemity between communities and people across the globe. I am questioning all those people who are not stopping this from happen and not those psychopaths who are doing it in the name of religion.
I think the people who are not stopping this from happening are more responsible for the hate development and promotion that those who are blindly following a leader blinded my ego and greed of power. Faith in god and the creator has been abolished and now comes a form of new faith, faith of a human being and his/her interpretation of what is right and wrong. There is such a fog of thought over what is right and wrong and how we can never have a solid differentiator between it. Faith is no longer existent in this world and not in the people who preach it for sure. There is no single religion to be cornered out here but all of them. Faith has become so commercial that any religious celebration has a political or business backing to it for profits and benefits. Where was the time when this country was proud of all the faiths that existed and harmony was never a difficulty. Today India is the epicenter for most of the religious outbreaks thanks to our diverse heritage and democracy that we have.
When are we going to learn that unity in diversity is the only way forward and not the british Mantra of division in equality! Knowledge is not helping the benefits of the learned to be more calm and think towards peace. There should be an answer and I do not have it!
Faith has become to be the main link to the happiness and sadness in a person's life. His/her faith in a job, a partner, a friend or a relative constitutes his trust and dependancy on the person. There is a lot that we get to learn from FAITH but what we forget is its authenticity and tend to behave in the way that the other would like us to behave. There would have been instances in each of our pasts where our hearts would have wanted something different but our FAITH in something or someone held us back from either getting it or doing it.
Lets ponder on what does faith actually mean? Is it a form of religion or is it the trust factor that one has for some one or something or is it the existence of an unknown force that will help us in the times of our needs? According to the websters dictionary faith means:
Faith
Noun
1. A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality".
2. Complete confidence in a person or plan etc; "he cherished the faith of a good woman"; "the doctor-patient relationship is based on trust".
3. Institution to express belief in a divine power; "he was raised in the Baptist religion"; "a member of his own faith contradicted him".
4. Loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person; "keep the faith"; "they broke faith with their investors".
So we know we have a good understanding of what faith means but then why is it that we doubt our faith at times and we are not sure. Let me site an example on this for better understanding. Recently, I was visiting some of college friends in Delhi and I was introduced to his son who was about a year old. Since I was spending a few days with them I befriended the little boy, he had the need to taste and have anything that another person was drinking and on a night when I was sharing the evening with a group of friends and when no one was looking I offered him a few sips off my cocktail which tasted sweet to him. I realised then that this child had no clue what was there in the glass with some colourful liquid in it but that he had some sub-conscious faith in me that I wouldn't be able to harm him in any manner by offering him a drink. Obviously, what followed was a shrieking mother and a very happy child who danced the night away.
The point being is that we have faith in people that can be broken at times but these are living beings who have a mind of their own. How can we actually have faith in the unknown the and created from that the existence of a GOD. The eternal creator of all the starts, moon, planets, water, air, etc etc. I am putting forth this question to all the believers and faithful what is this faith in the unknown? The belief and ego that each faith is better than the other or that there is only a single path in the name of religion that is the main cause of hate and enemity between communities and people across the globe. I am questioning all those people who are not stopping this from happen and not those psychopaths who are doing it in the name of religion.
I think the people who are not stopping this from happening are more responsible for the hate development and promotion that those who are blindly following a leader blinded my ego and greed of power. Faith in god and the creator has been abolished and now comes a form of new faith, faith of a human being and his/her interpretation of what is right and wrong. There is such a fog of thought over what is right and wrong and how we can never have a solid differentiator between it. Faith is no longer existent in this world and not in the people who preach it for sure. There is no single religion to be cornered out here but all of them. Faith has become so commercial that any religious celebration has a political or business backing to it for profits and benefits. Where was the time when this country was proud of all the faiths that existed and harmony was never a difficulty. Today India is the epicenter for most of the religious outbreaks thanks to our diverse heritage and democracy that we have.
When are we going to learn that unity in diversity is the only way forward and not the british Mantra of division in equality! Knowledge is not helping the benefits of the learned to be more calm and think towards peace. There should be an answer and I do not have it!
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