SAY NO..

The word for today is “NO”. Surprised? Why do people act so strangely to the word ‘no’. The concept that every time we say ‘no’, it makes us sound spineless is wrong or perhaps overrated. Today the world teaches us to say ‘yes’ to everything that comes in front of us. From acting classes at school, to carrying out assignments at college, to overnights at work, there is always a moment where our conscience says “stop it” or “this is not (for) you” or “get some rest”, but our instinct says “go for it”. At that point of time what we need is the word “NO”. Believe me it is a life saver.

You must be thinking that it is easy for a person to get rid of his responsibilities just by blowing ‘no’ on someone’s/something’s face. It is not always the case and it is not that easy. Every ‘no’ has reasons, conflicts (with oneself) and is said after taking many things into consideration. Just like flirting with someone is an art (someone help me please), so is saying the word ‘no’.

The art of saying no cannot be taught. We say ‘no’ only if we disbelieve in whatever we are going to do. Let’s analyse a situation. You walk over to a government office to get a DL. The officer over there asks for a thousand bucks to carry out the process. Your inner self refuses you to hand over the money, but the impatient you wants you to drive your “Pulsar 220cc” right now. So what do you do? Say ‘no’. But how?  If you end up being rude there are chances you may never see your DL in the near future. There comes the art of saying ‘no’. I don’t know what the person should say (otherwise I would not have written this article) but the importance of ‘no’ is worth noticing.

So the next time you believe you are not the right person for the job, or you are not interested in doing something just give a ‘no’. Just a word of caution “be careful with your approach otherwise the consequences may be catastrophic”.         JJJ

Keep smiling................

PS: if your answer to the DL situation is yes, you are a disgrace to this nation.

the story about an epic

Being from an ethnic and cultural country like India, belief in terms like god or supernatural powers were instilled in me just like it is in a tiger to hunt. But in the early days of my childhood, there was a period when I started to doubt the credibility of my belief. The doubt was not because I heard some brainwashing speech by an atheist but just immaturity. Some day to day incidents didn’t go my way and I would simply put the blame on the supernatural powers (God). More over when I started to know more about the epics and the foundation of our religion (The Ramayana and The Mahabharata) let’s just say I did not have positive vibes about men and women who were showcased equivalent to superman , spider man and some other popular anime characters of our time.

Hence I took some courage and one fine summer afternoon talked to my mother about the topic and how I felt about it. Frankly speaking i did not expect a heart warming response. Indeed after I asked the questions (Does god really exist? If it is so why isn’t he fair to me?) it felt like someone had dropped a nuclear bomb in our house and I was scolded like anything. I was told to say sorry to god, (which made me feel very awkward, given the circumstances) head back straight to my room and never ask such kind of crappy question ever again. I felt quite bad that day.

Then one day while my mother and I were talking about Jawaharlal Nehru (might be one of my Hindi lessons) my mother told me something very strange and yet gave me a perfect answer to my question. She said that the fact that great people like Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi existed is known by us (a statement which cannot be disputed). But a thousand years later if the same story of sacrifice and courage is passed on by a parent to his child, there might be some cases where the parent may find himself lacking in proof to aid his story(although with the present state of access to abundant information I hope the situation does not arise).

Let’s face it, back then (the time of The Ramayana and The Mahabharata) people did not have proper mediums to transfer the information, except by oral communication. Hence it would be wrong to say some people existed, who believed in sacrifice, truth, justice, love, friendship and some other traits that were found missing during the era in which the human beings were beginning to develop a forum which was later known as society.

As time went by the actual story got a little bit diluted, (the original traits still forming the core of it) and when the story was to be recorded a little bit of spice was added to it to make it more appealing for the readers (a possible reason why these epics are still so popular among all the age groups). There may be a time (say 3000 AD) when the parents will talk about flying Mahatma Gandhi and a historic battle between Bhagat Singh and the Brits in which mysterious weapons like light showers and water bazookas were used.  

Unknowingly my mother gave me an answer I had been looking for long. The epics are not about the larger than life characters but the essential core values that these characters possess. The story gives a catchy look just to invite its readers.

The day I got the answer was not a path altering day of my life but it made me realize what the epics actually were- an epitome of the traits which make us who we are, human beings.

wishing everybody a happy festive season 

  

the "ball" is running

One of the major agendas of my life has been fitness. The fact that when I stepped into my undergrad college I weighed nearly a quintal (happily 98, a fact I would regret later) says a lot about how important was fitness an issue for me. I always knew that, the step towards fitness has to be voluntary since anything forced upon me does not stand with me for long. Unfortunately I had been waiting for the inspiration for quite some time.


But things started to change this magical Tuesday when my friends asked me out to partner them in lawn tennis. Although I didn’t become Roger Federer in a couple of days (frankly speaking I was not even near the pathetic form, Sania Mirza is in) I got a good habit of jogging. And then today I realized that, that was the moment. No inspiration, no motivation just simple stimulation did the job which I wanted to do for so long.

The past two years my weight has seen some big lows and some medium highs. I lost an astounding 25 kilos when I suffered from jaundice although I regained a lot of it back after I recovered. The resentment that I could not reach a hundred kilos (and hopefully will never even get near it in future) will always sting my heart.

So I decided to take a pledge that I will run daily till my family pack of flabs, at least gives an appearance of abs. I hope I continue with whatever I stated above.

CWG - my perspective.

Past few months a lot has been said and speculated about the CWG games. Daily news papers carry out news about scams &fraud, leading to a common notion that the success rate of the games is going to be quite low. One quite popular argument given is that India is not in the phase where it can effectively organize mega sporting events.

My views differ. In my view the games are a platform to exhibit what India is about to offer in the coming years. I agree that the extravaganza is proving a burden on the country’s finance but a few thousand crores spent today can invite much more later on. Regarding the preparedness, the country would have been in the same state, even if the games were scheduled, say a decade later. Better way to see is that the games are offering a reality check and an opportunity to correct our mistakes and not repeat them in the future.

The XIX commonwealth games is asking us to do just one thing, to believe in it and live one of the most spectacular events India has ever organized.

“Just believe in it” ............. the least we can do...........

JAI HIND.