Playing on....

Weekend's here. So lazed the whole day around. Don't have anything in store for today... :) In the meantime, please check out my other blog...

http://gamesnlifestyle.wordpress.com/

'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'

Enjoy the weekend.
- Kaushik

Screw my internet provider...

(mobile post, thanks to gprs on my phone )
I was supposed to be on Facetime to be part of a birthday celebration.Guess what happened, the internet went dead. It's not the internet I need to be angry about, but the folks who provide access to the internet service.

I was able to login to chat, but my friends list never loaded up. It would be very easy to just blame the chat servers because they were not accessible. Complain about poor service, The service provider will also try to convince me that the fault was with google or apple that the chat service didn't work.

This is exactly the problem with technology. Imperfect by implementation, but not by concept. Many times, It's important to identify if the technology itself is flawed or the guys who deliver it mess it up.

Today it was my service provider who messed up. Tomorrow it might be the google servers.

But what's more important is to recognize and acknowledge the fact that the concept of chat is not flawed/imperfect by itself but the experience can vary based on the delivery mechanism.

(leave your comments and feedback)
Good night.
-kaushik

Did you drink MILK today???

I'm going back almost 15 years with this one :) I was at high school. It was the same old start to the day, discipline, prayer session etc. All of us in the class were standing up and praying with our hands folded. Not because we wanted God to answer our prayers, but because the beloved principal, Thakkali (The Tomato) was at our class. The mood was serious. Even God wouldn't wish to see 50 odd people standing so seriously. We not praying to Him, but standing out of fear of Thakkali and his nuisance ways :)

Suddenly something out of the ordinary happened. A totally unexpected event and perhaps the most hilarious one in our Class' history. A friend came in late to class. He perhaps didnt realize that the principal was there at class. Of all the questions, he popped up a seemingly mundane, innocuous question to the person standing next to him - "Did you drink Milk today". The rest was history :-D

Bad luck, the Thakkali spotted him. The Class was in splits. We were not able to believe how could someone as something as simple as this, and worst of all get caught. Both the  friends were pulled up, punished, embarrased in front of the class and made to stand outside in the Ground for almost 2 classes :) Our principal, claiming to be strict was a total Douche Bag.

Back to the present, when I was making my tea one morning I recollected the above episode. Seemingly, one of the most innocuous questions('Did you drink milk today?') , presented itself in the most different perspective possible.

Am I following the same set of tasks everyday? It's not about work. Its about the fixed routine I followed when everything was alright. The seemingly boring  and simple day to day tasks like having my daily cup of tea, reading the newspaper, a 'Hi' to the security guards every morning etc.

However less significent they may seem in the overall scheme of the day, these simple actions are signs that I am  alright, normal when I  start my day. When I compare the days where I missed my routine with the normal days, its seems pretty apparent that I am not at my best throughout the day.

Being aware of the routine, goes a long way in determining for onself if he/she is starting off the day in a normal way. Some days may be an exception, but often it was a good indicator of one's  mental makeup at the start of the day.

Looks like the genius classmate of mine who asked "Did you drink milk today" was not so naive after all. May be he was just checking if things were normal. Thanks to Thakkali, he spent a couple of hours kneeling down in the Hot Sun and Tarred basketball court.

So, "Did you drink Milk today?"

Good day,

- Kaushik

What you want and what you get

A few years ago, I bought a house. I was really excited and really hoped that the house would be perfect. What I got  was full of imperfection. the doors were not aligned properly, painting less than satisfactory etc. I was grossly disappointed.

Then one a day a friend of mine suggested me, that it's not only my house, but no new house is ever perfect.

Initially it appeared that my friend was trying to console me. But thinking again, the wisdom in his words was clear.

My expectation was plain unrealistic.

A house  is  a product that is a result of the work of many. Even if one person's work was less than perfect,  the result was imperfect, and didn't meet my expectation. Assuming that things will happen according to my expectation  was not only unrealistic, but almost stupid.

Nothing's perfect, especially if it involves another individual other than myself. It always boiled down to getting the expectations right, rather than blaming others for not meeting my expectations.

The best I can do is try to be perfect, reasonable and honest in what I do. Whether it's doing my work, or being a friend or expressing my feelings or opinions. It will always be my decision.

But expecting others to do the same is simply unrealistic because they will be simply out of my control.

Being true , honest, perfect is completely the other person's prerogative.

All I have to do is just hope, not expect.

-Kaushik

Mission Impossible

Life is not mission difficult, but 'Mission Impossible'. The word difficult must be a cakewalk :) And You are 'Ethan Hunt'. Because life is MI, every new episode starts with a seemingly unprobable mission. You have almost an unlimited supply of energy, ideas and tools around you needed for the mission. But what's missing is the objective and the ways to achieve it.

You also have your team with you, who dont give up on you and part of each mission, playing the support staff. Sometimes you  build the team from scratch, other times the old team signs themselves up to be part of the story. There may also be old faces in the team, who have been part of each mission. You also lose your near and dear team members  along the way.

Over the course of the mission, you may try something as crazy as jumping from the Burj Khalifa or even run through a sand storm chasing a target. The set pieces  may even  require you to play someone as simple as yourself, use all the charm and get something nice done.

The role, craziness repeats itself for every mission.  The mission may last for days, or weeks or even months. The journey may be easy or difficult. The experience may be enjoyable or not,  but what doesn't change is that every Mission Impossible ends with  "Mission Completed".

Are you ready for the next mission?

[This Message will not self destruct in 5 seconds, coz this ain't the mission objective. THIS IS THE SCRIPT OF MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: LIFE PROTOCOL ]

Good Day!!!

- Kaushik

Broken, Beat & Scarred

"You rise. You fall, You're down, then you rise again. 

What don't kill ya make ya more strong. " -  Broken, Beat and Scarred, Death Magnetic, Metallica

Hidden in the middle of these rebellious words and the almost magical music of Metallica, there lies some hard truth which is mostly lost deep in  the metal mania.

My day was filled with hurdles. I fell, hit the ground so hard that it was almost impossible to get up. I was  down and out. I had fallen, But that not  the end of the story. I ain't dead, am I??

The day's over. I'm not done yet. There's still a tomorrow, I still have to be up and running. I'll rise again.

But  will I be stronger?? I dont know that, perhaps only time can tell when I look back in hindsight.

Signing off for the day, drowning in Metallica's tunes.

Yours Truly,

Kaushik

(as usual, leave your comments & feedback)

Surviving on a bouncy pitch

(mobile post. please forgive the typo)

Most Indians understand cricket. It's therefore easy to explain something with an analogy to cricket. With the backdrop of Team India's disastrous show down under on bouncy tracks, drawing parallels to this post is easy :-)

Batting great Gavaskar once said  "When you play the bouncer, you need to watch the ball till the last moment. When you do that, the reflexes take over. You automatically duck out sway away from the ball. Once you taller the eye off the ball, you get hit or lose balance and survival is a nightmare."

The above thought is also an analogy of how to handle everyday problems. Life is a bouncy wicket. One faces problems daily. Seeing a problem like a bouncing delivery sometimes allows one to survive with ease.

Seeing the problem till the very end, one can judge the intensity and magnitude of the problem.Hooking and pulling the way out of trouble might not be the possible way out initially. But, by watching the problem long enough, you give the mind to assess the situation, prepare to the task. Ultimately by letting mind take stock,  take control, one can address the problem or let it go.

On the contrary, taking the eyes off the problem, can get one in an awkward position. One loses balance, chances of getting hit increases, survival becomes difficult. Even after surviving the bouncer, the Morale takes a hit.

Seeing the problem in the eye till the end and surviving it with ease is off utmost importance to build the Morale and gaining confidence. It's hard work at beginning, but the results are long standing.

Practice ducking and swaying against the Short ball. One can survive with peace. Once that's mastered, with more practice, one can even hook the problem away for a six.

Have a great day.

As always, please leave your comments and feedback.

- Kaushik

Are you ready 'Let Go' ???

I always used to wonder how saints, monks lead a simple life, undisturbed by what's going around them. The saints were also detached from most of the material world. Yet they spread love and care to all of the world around them. They never get angry, emotional or worried and yet we perceive them to be completely in control of the situation.

Not a long time ago, I met one such person. A saintly soul, who I believe had the knowledge and divine power to solve all of my life's problems. The problems people brought to him were mostly health related, sometimes personal problems. The therapies and solutions he suggested to these problems worked more often than not. It was almost like had a magic wand. 

Like me, there were lot more people who came to him. He always had a solution to all their worries. He was never short of time or patience.  Though most of them never followed the  suggestions, he never held it against them. When they came back and mentioned that they did not follow his suggestions, He was always patient, calm, continued to help them find solutions. Every time, they were  treated  with the same care and concern. 

Like all people, I went to him with my problems. The problems were sometime related to my career, interpersonal relations, health, family, friends etc. Miraculously, his solutions worked each time. This happened for several years. 

One day, he passed away. I was sad, helpless. There was no dearth of problems though. But there was no one to suggest. I had no option but to find out solutions myself. I dug in deep, used all my experience....thought, thought and thought... Solutions never occurred. 

I started wondering... "How was He able to find solutions for not only my problems, but for everyone ". It took days, weeks. I was not able to find an answer.

Most problems, arguments, conflicts in day to day life  used to arise due to the imaginary sense of control I had in mind. Whenever  I 'perceived' that something was not alright, like most people I worried about it, wanted to take control, be in charge and fix it. Seldom did I succeed. I ended up being unhappy.

I asked myself. 

"What was common  to solutions to most of my earlier problems?" 

I kept asking the same question for many days. 

One fine day things changed, I connected the dots. I was able to find one common aspect that  was almost the only logical  'lowest common denominator' of most of my solutions.

"Let Go"

Most of the time, the solution was to "Let Go" of the situation or the concern or the negative thought.

Finally i found the magic wand. The solution was simple, yet powerful. 

To Solve a problem, all that I needed was to answer a few questions to myself.

1) Am I angry or disappointed  or worried at someone/angry? Is that anger affecting me? Does it benefit me being angry? Being angry/worried allows me to be happy?

The answer is NO. Whatever I was feeling was not making me happy and peaceful. Once I 'Let Go' of the feelings which made me unhappy, the mind naturally returned to a state of happiness.

2) Feeling helpless about a situation? Is the situation out of control? Feeling unhappy about a situation?

More often than not, when I analyzed the situation, there was more than one factor in a given situation which was out of my control. It didn't make much sense to hang on and think that I could take charge and control the situation. All that had to be done was to 'ACKNOWLEDGE that the situation exists'.

'Let go' of the urge to control something which is not under your control. The mind had less work to do. Less unnecessary work in fact. Mind returns to a peaceful state. Infact nothing's changed around you. Its just that mind has 'let go'

3) Worried about someone around you(relative or friend or even a random person)?

Is Worrying going to fix things? It was again going back to the imaginary sense of control I was trying to gain by thinking that I could fix other's problems or carrying the burden of others. Yes I could be of help to others, but worrying didn't change anything. All i had to do was 'Let go' of the imaginary control and worry. Once I did that, there was less load on the mind. The mind was able to function with more freedom. See things in perspective. All I did was 'Let go'

This is my experience. 

Life's by no means perfect, but way more happy than before. I have tried to 'let go'

Are you ready to do the same???

- Kaushik