Change

Hope this blog finds you in good health and spirits. I thank you all who read my last blog “Shift the Gear” and shared their comments. It is indeed encouraging to know if you liked something I enjoy writing. So dont hold on to your comments and share it with me as well.

A brief update on last week follows-

-          Completed reading “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. In case you have not read it, I seriously recommend you to read it because it is a magical story of a shepherd who gave up everything to pursue his dreams, and also teaches us why it is important not to give up when we are so close to success. The book talks recurrent dreams, omens and signs which life hints us at while we are chasing our “treasures”.  Every one of us is actually an alchemist who can turn convert their dreams into reality. I really liked the following quote from the book “I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival; because life is the moment we’re living now.”

-          Watched Steven Spielberg’s “Back to the Future” Trilogy. The first thought that crossed my mind was that given a choice of going back in time and changing the past, what would I want to change. Also, would life be the same incase we knew what future had in store for us? Food for thought…

-          At times, a natural calamity can change the lives of all those you are involved. One such sad incident happened in New Zealand last week where there was a major earthquake. Life is precious. It is sad to know that man is nothing against the fury of nature. May God give strength to those affected by disaster.

Change is the only constant thing. Look everywhere and you would see nothing remains the way it was earlier. Life is all about change. I have been here on this planet for more than 3 decades now and it surely has changed in between. Our lifestyle has taken the maximum toll.

-          Inland Letters / Post cards to emails / video chats

-          Landlines Telephones to I-Phones

-          Typewriters to Blackberry

-          Black & White Tv’s to Mobile Tv's

-          Test matches to T-20

This list would surely be endless. These are some of the things I can think of immediately. However, it is difficult to notice change if you are not looking for it.  I had shared the story of the frog in the boiling water in one of my earlier blogs 'Paradigm'. (You can click on the hyperlink to check that out)

Taking cue from my last blog on shifting gears, life would be monotonous if we kept doing the same thing over and over again. Also, it would be foolish to expect different results while doing the same thing. At times we need to look at the problem with a fresh perspective and that’s it. A lot of times, change is in mind. If we try and be thankful for whatever we have rather than focussing on what we don't have, we sure would find ourselves to be much happier!  However, in the same breath, I would want to clarify that we sure need to have some realistic targets which are stretched, so as to move ahead in life. It is very important for us to understand what we really need in life. Most of the times, we might fail to realise that it was right there all the time, when we were looking all over the place for it. Complicated, but true!

At times, we try hard to bring around change in our own mindset and beliefs. I was reading somewhere that motivation always comes from within. Someone can inspire us but the change would come only if we persisted. Patience surely is a virtue in this situation.

Sometimes, on the contrary we need to ensure our basic values of life should never be compromised. We need to be the protectors of our values and ensure they don’t change due to external environment. I shared some basic values in my blog “My Compass”

I leave you with this thought which I read while flipping through the pages of “You can Win” by Shiv Khera. The article was about how they caught monkeys in India. The monkey hunters use a box with a opening on the top which is big enough for the monkey to put his hand in. Inside the box, nuts are kept as bait. The moment the monkey grabs the nuts, the hand becomes a fist. The fist is bigger than the hole and the monkey has 2 choices –either to drop the nuts and be free or keep holding to the nuts forever and be caught. Amazing but true, the monkeys choose the latter. Shiv Khera has beautifully described us also as the monkeys who don’t let go off the nuts and in the process hold ourselves back in life…So, it is essential to let go of some things which look important but actually hold us back in life.

Do share your views as well.....

Shift the Gear!

It feels great to be back to writing my blog after a brief interval of more than a fortnight. With half the month already gone, love is in the air. I wish everyone and their loved ones a very “Happy Valentines Day”. It sure is a blessing to have someone to love and more so be loved by someone. Make the most of it and don’t delay your expression of love for someone and don’t make the mistake of taking someone’s love for granted.

A brief update on the last fortnight follows-

- It sure feels great, as a father, to see my daughter Kashikaa complete 5 years this month. She’s turning out to be a sharp and a very observant child. She’s got the knack of the laptop & ‘TATA SKY’ ages back. She sure knows a little more than her counterparts. A small birthday party was celebrated in the company of her close friends & their Papa’s & Mama’s.

- Also in the first week, I attended a full fledged Indian Marriage spread over 4 days out of town. There was dual joy, one that I was out of office and more importantly being able to spend time with the family. It was my wife’s cousin who was tying the knot. The events were all very well arranged and everything went off very smoothly.

- Office is going to be stretched this month considering the short month and the appraisal cycle getting closed. The most difficult job as a supervisor is to match everyone’s expectations and keeping it aligned to that of the organisation. On the office front, I completed 3 years of employment in Barclays. Every year the learning seems to be more than in the previous one.

- Last week an aged uncle in the neighbourhood left us for the heavenly abode in his late 90’s. I pray that his soul rests in peace. He was an active gentleman, always smiling and blessed me with lot of love every time we crossed paths. Life is precious and everyone is special. Lesson learnt…No person can replace the other. Another lesson…Life goes on.

- Completed reading the ‘Paths of Glory’ where the protagonist gave up the love of his life in an attempt to be the first man to conquer the heights of the great Mt. Everest. Started with ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho…almost half-way through the book and it sure promises to be another great read!

- Saw ‘127 Hours’ by Danny Boyle…hard hitting performance based on a true life incidence about a man’s will to survive after getting stuck in the middle of nowhere on a mountaineering outing in the Grand Canyon….background score by A R Rahman was simply superb…

So many things happening at the same time, brings me to the subject on this blog ‘Shift the Gear’

Living in a metropolis comes with a price for most of us. The price is of travelling from home to workplace and back. This tiresome exercise eats up almost 3 hours of my day without fail everyday which is sometimes more than the time I spend awake at home on a working day. A lot of times while travelling I have tried to draw a comparison between life and a car. This blog is just an attempt to pen it down.

I remember reading the quote "Why do we have a bigger windscreen than a rear view mirror? It is because we should focus on what lies ahead and not what we left behind us.

Another co-relation is that we cannot drive the car in one speed and that is why we have different gears. We shift gears to match up with the driving conditions. If we drive in the wrong gear, we end up wasting fuel and cannot maximise the efficiency of the car.

Similarly in life we play multiple roles simultaneously. The sign of a successful person is one who shifts these gears smoothly with the change of audience.

I remember reading a short story where the father / husband was having a tough time at work. Every night when he returned from office, he would end up fighting with his wife and never gave time to their child. The man stopped enjoying anything at home or office. This was like a vicious cycle and one day he took advice from his close friend. Next day onwards, he would pretend to hang his imaginary office coat just outside the house before he stepped inside the house. He would promise to wear it again when he started for his work the next morning. This way he would change into a totally different family person and his family would never be able to guess what has happening at his office. He was able to work better and became a performer at his workplace.

This is very true and inspiring and we should try to keep ‘office’ out of the house and ‘house’ out of the office. A bad day in office doesn’t justify our stressed out behaviour with our family members especially our kids. The vice-versa is often called as “professionalism”.

The change of gear is not limited between Office and Home. Even while handling colleagues / friends / family members / strangers we change our behaviour as required by the situation. The idea is to not get stuck on a particular thing / job and loose the focus on the BIG PICTURE. 

I leave you all with this thought – Life is not a destination but a journey. Don’t forget to enjoy the journey on the way!

Do share your views on this….