A REAL WINNER

        Karthick was a simple 17-year old boy with no big dreams and aspirations. He was a typical Indian student. He loved to spend time with his friends. He was an ardent follower of cricket. He was an atheist. Neither did he love his studies nor did he hate it. He was not a slow learner( though most of them believed he was). He knew he had the ability to be a topper. But he chose not to be one. Because he believed toppers wouldnt have the most creative of minds. He surely was not using this as an excuse to be lazy.


     Just like any other family, his parents had a huge expectations on him. They wanted him to earn a 6-digit salary per month. But Karthick hated his parent's pampering, he hated the melodramas of his mother, he hated the materialistic-thinkings of his father, above all he hated their expectations on him. He believed ONE SHOULD EXPECT SOMETHING FROM ONESELF, NOT FROM OTHERS. Not even from the closest of relations. Inspite of these, he loved his parents. (That is India. Children in India dont have the courage to hate their parents)


     Though he got pretty decent marks in his board exam, he didnt want to do engineering. When his father asked " What else do you want to do?",  he had no answer( Just like many people, he only knew what he didnt want. He didnt know what he wanted). After 4 years, Karthick was an engineer. He was not proud about it because  1) Even the lab assistant who worked in his college was an engineer. 2) He didnt want to be an engineer.


    Even his parents, for whom he did his engineering, were not happy because he didnt have a job. They wanted him to get placed in a MNC- work for a year-go to America- marry a wealthy Indian girl- have kids-work hard to leave huge assets for kids. Karthick could never understand the logic behind their expectations. Whats wrong with India? Whats wrong with a poor girl( if she has good character)? whats wrong if he didnt leave any assets to his children( if he gives them their freedom and allows them to chose what they want in their life)?


    He knew it was not his parents fault. The fault was with the society where father's friend's sister-in-law's uncle's words about him hurt his parents. For his parents, what the society perceives to be a happy life is THE HAPPY LIFE. But Kathick had his own idea of happiness. Just like the adage " Eat to live. Dont live to eat" , he believed in " EARN TO BE HAPPY, DONT BE HAPPY TO EARN". He believed, people could experience real happiness only if they do, what they love to do.


  He knew, the skeptical society would ask " What if you dont find what you love to do?" . Atleast, he would be happy trying to find what he loves, rather than doing things that he doesnt love. If people say " marrying a girl only for her money is immoral" then how come " Doing a job, that you hate, only for money is not immoral". Atleast in the former, we are cheating another human. In the later, we are cheating ourselves.


         Karthick doesnt want to cheat himself. He wants enjoy the real happiness that life has to offer. He is in search of finding what he loves to do. He is hopeful that he would find it. But before that he knew he has to face lot of struggles, he has to be strong, he shouldnt succumb to social and economic pressures. These are the phases of an ideal life.


           Not all who succeed in their career are winners. Some are lucky that they start loving what they do. The rest are good at cheating themselves that they believe they love what they do; which actually they dont. The real winners are people like Karthick who wait and find what they love to do.



                                                                                                                                               by  prem

THE OTHER SIDE

 
     Here is my another post. But this post is going to be a bit different( atleast that is what I intend). The protagonist of this post is one of my very close friend. What makes him special and odd is that he is just not like us( by us- I mean everyone who lives life because we are born. Everyone who doesnt realize the enormity of life). My friend is weird . Not in his appearance or behaviour but in his thoughts. We are so intimate that I can understand his thoughts even without expressing in words.


           He doesnt like to watch television. He doesnt like movies.He hates chit-chatting. All he likes to do is- sit alone and think about something. He always feels that there are lot of things in world that needs to be understood more clearly. For him, life is a complicated puzzle that needs to be solved. He wants to estrange himself  from his peers because he knew human-relationship is not his forte. He even wouldnt approach any girl because -1) he believed the girl wouldnt fathom even a single element of his way of seeing life.
                   
                     2) he also felt LOVE IS HIGHLY OVERRATED IN OUR SOCIETY.


          He is not at all a materialistic person. He doesnt covet for gadgets, bikes, apparels or any other materials for that matter. He believed people would be contented and fulfilled only by leading an austere lifestyle rather than a luxurious one. He is not concerned much about his studies or his career.One of his favourite lines is "CAREER IS ONLY A 19TH CENTURY INVENTION. BEING SUCCESSFUL IN IT ALONE   SHOULDNT BE THE ULTIMATE AIM" .

         
              Above all, the most weird thing about him is that he always tries hard to enjoy pain. Because he felt THE MORE YOU EXPERIENCE PAIN, THE MORE YOU COULD APPRECIATE THE BEAUTY OF LIFE. On the whole, for him life is a damn serious thing.


                        Though I could understand him, I couldnt fully agree with him. For me, life is blissful only when it is taken lightly. Why should we think too much about everything in life??? Just enjoy life as it comes. I like being improper. There is always a twinge of happiness and excitement in making mistakes.

              What I am trying to say is , there is no correct or wrong way to live a life. JUST LIVE LIFE IN THE WAY WHICH MAKES YOU HAPPY.

              By the way, who is he(my so-called friend)???  HE IS NOTHING BUT THE OTHER SIDE OF ME. I didnt intend to plot any twist in the story. The reason is so simple. People who knew me wouldnt have believed that those exotic thoughts were actually mine.


                  There is always an  "OTHER SIDE"  to everyone of us. The side which we hide from our society. We hide it because we are afraid others might ridicule us, others might not understand us and ultimately they may not accept us. We always wanted to fit in our society. So we do everything, not because we wanted to do but because others expect  us to do.


             So why am I revealing THE OTHER SIDE of me all of a sudden??? Atleast now I am relieved that I expressed both my sides fully to others( atleast to the very few readers who read this). I know I have made this post a bit arduous and highly vague. I cant help it. If you want to talk about yourself, you need to bore others.



                                                                                                                                              by  prem

nothing-to-do

           There will be a phase in everyone's life when one has no responsibilities,no expectations on him, no goals, nothing. All we need to do in that phase is just eat-digest-sleep-eat-digest-sleep.......... I am exactly in that phase of my life.


                   If I explain my routine to any person, they would envy me for having such a blissful life.Even I did feel the same for few days but not anymore. I have heard many people saying that final semester of college life would be nothing but full of enjoyment. It is true to an extent. If you are an average student(like me), you would be happy with the company you got placed, unlike some geeks who applies for IIMs and US universities. And you would be more than happy to just clear all your papers( who gives a damn about the grades). The only petty problem would be your project work which can be solved by rs.4000.


                      Life seems beautiful. So what it is that concerns me??????


            After living this nothing-to-do phase of my life for a couple of weeks, I am starting to realize that ENJOYMENT WHEN FELT IN EXCESS, TURNS TO BOREDOM. How much ever movies I watch, what ever books I read, where ever I roam with friends-at the end of the day, there is no excitement. Only a kind of emptiness fills me.


           You would be happy if you know that you do not have any work tomorrow. But, if this becomes the routine, YOU WOULD BE FRUSTRATED. In this phase,there is nothing to think and ponder about.I dont even have anything to worry about to keep my mind engaged.There is no excitement, no liveliness. If you think I am exaggerating, all I could say is, you are wrong.

         So to change the nothing-to-do-phase into a lively-phase, all we need to do is, do things that excites us. Things that make us smile internally. Things that make us proud of ourselves.But the problem is we have never discovered such things in our life. Do we have any specific hobbies? what are our interests ? We dont have any clear answers to these questions. Then how could we discover the things that excites us????

          My answer is NEW EXPERIENCES.  THE CORE OF HUMAN SPIRIT IS FELT ONLY BY NEW EXPERIENCES. When we leave our "comfort zone" and go into an "unknown zone"- we might be happy, we might be scared, we might get hurt but we would feel alive.


          There is always a sense of apprehension in doing new things. This apprehension gives us the excitement. But to feel this excitement or to leave the "comfort zone", we need to shred off the laziness that has overtaken us. Ok, what kind of new experiences am I talking about???


        It could be anything simple like learning a new sport, jogging or exercising, trying to cook our own food, meditating, even proposing to the girl who is close to your heart etc.Most of us might be doing such things already, just to pass time. But try to see it as a new experience and excel in whatever you do.


       So what I am trying to say is -an idle man's brain is devil's workshop. Rather than being an idle man, try to be an ideal man. LIFE IS SO BEAUTIFUL TO WASTE EVEN A SINGLE DAY BY NOT FEELING ALIVE.


P.S: SOMEHOW I MANAGED TO PASS 2 HOURS OF POWER-CUT BY GIVING YOU SUCH LAME ADVICES. SORRY FOR BORING YOU IN YOUR ALREADY-BORED-PHASE OF YOUR LIFE.


                                                                                                                                            BY  PREM