BYBS : Good Things

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"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." - Gautam Buddha

Life is not all good. Even though I would be one of the first to believe that it is, it is not. It has its good, and it has its bad. I often have discussions with people where they tell me that most of my ideas are mere whims and fancies of an impractical mind. They tell me that in life bad things happen to people who, sometimes, have done nothing to deserve it. I completely agree with them.

There is no doubt that life is not pure black and white. It comes in various shades of grey. But, the choice of what you see is yours alone.

Grey is a colour that is made when black and white colours are mixed together. So, though the colour in our lives might be grey, it is how we look at the mix that determines how our lives progress. It is said that there is great power in positive thinking. It is because positive thinking helps you separate the black and the white in the grey. By separating the black and the white, you can then focus only on the white, and push the black to the background.

Pushing black to the background is not like being the ostrich that buries its head in the sand, hoping to avoid danger by thus device. It is like looking at it, learning from it, but not dwelling on it for any longer than is necessary. On the other hand, focusing on the white is just the opposite. You look at it, learn from it, and then keep it in sight so that you are able to see all that is good in life.

By looking at what is good in life, you are able to believe that things will turn out good in the end. This belief helps you in giving your best to whatever it is that you are doing. When you put your best effort in anything, the chances of sucess in that thing improve dramatically. So, just by focusing on the white, you can greatly improve things in your life, and the grey in your life will start turning white.

Focusing on the black, will produce just the opposite results.

So, let us all try and believe that life is a beautiful thing, and live life in that spirit. And, if at all, we see any black anywhere, let us do our best to convert it to white!

With that thought I will sign off, with the hope that everyone has a great day and a great week ahead!

The Great Indian Elections

It is that time in India again.

The 14th Lok Sabha will have completed its course on 1st June 2009. In terms of the constitutional provisions, a new Lok Sabha will have to be constituted before 2nd June, 2009. So, India is getting ready for the general elections.

Since, it was only recently that USA held its elections, it will not surprise many if there are comparisons between the elections held in the strongest democracy in the world and the elections now being held in the largest (this time there are approximately 714 million people who are eligible to vote in the elections) democracy in the world.

One difference that instantly springs to mind when I think about the two elections is the lack of a clear Prime Ministerial candidate in the Indian elections. Agreed that the Congress and BJP – the two major national parties in India – have come forward with the names of their Prime Ministerial candidates, but I haven’t yet seen the two parties using these names as one of the major issues around which they are going to base their campaigning. This, I feel, is in sharp contrast to the US elections, where the main focus of the campaigns were names like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain.

Another major difference in the Indian elections is that the regional parties are going to be playing a major role in the eventual outcome. The leaders of the third front parties are silently hoping that somehow the elections result in an outcome, where there is no clear majority for any one party. This will mean that any party that will be able to put together a coalition with maximum numbers will rule the day. The Prime Minister, in such a case, could be just about anyone. There is a long list of names to choose from.

But, this is just the beginning. I hope as time passes and the elections draw near, a clearer picture begins to emerge. For in the present times of economic crisis, we do need a strong government, and a re-election is the last thing we need!

(I might be away from a computer during the weekend, so the BYB post may be a little late in coming. But, come it will.)

Examinations - Almost a BYB!

Exams are such a bore, but, then again, where would we be if there were no such things as exams.

My experience as a student as well as a working professional has taught me one thing - people need some kind of deadline or test to give their best, otherwise they tend to just take the easy way out. In most of my posts, I try to generalize things as much as possible. But, in this post, I am going to break my own rule, and talk strictly about myself.

As I have said in many posts, I like to read. Give me a good book to read, and the world could just cease to exist, and I might not notice. But when I have to study for an exam, I simply don't have the inclination to do so. I think I have a morbid fear of being tested. I think this fear results from the fact that exams are inevitably followed by results, and results bring in their wake comparisons. And, like John Madden, I think all comparisons are odious.

Also, the fear of failure is another something that brings on the examination fever for me. However hard I prepare (and I really don't prepare that hard), I can never be sure of getting the desired result in the exam. I think only a very few I-live-to-study type of people can claim, after an exam, of performing to their satisfaction. Most of us, mere mortals, come out feeling, "If only I had spend a little more time, I could have surely topped..."

Also, exam times bring about some funny changes in me. I have observed some of these changes in some of my friends too. So, I guess, once again, I can jump from the field of individuality to generality, with due respect to the few exceptions. Some of these changes are:

1. I enjoy watching TV more. Some of those soaps that have been going on endlessly take on an interesting, unmissable turn.
2. Playing any sport, even dumb and boring ones, seems more fun. After all the body needs exercise, and so does the mind.
3. The realisation, "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise," dawns upon me. Though, I conveniently forget about the early to rise part.
4. The organizer within me becomes hyperactive. I schedule my whole day, with fix hours of studying. But, more importantly, I schedule breaks for tea, coffee, meals, and - last but not the least - refreshing the brain.

With all these changes in me, it is anyone's guess how my exams go.

(Disclaimer :I had intended to write this post as a humorous one, but I later realised that some parts of the post had turned out to be offensive. I strongly believe that like there are no excuses for bad manners (except too much drinking :-) ), there are no excuses for offending people. So, I toned the post down, which I think has taken something away from the post. But, as they say, one can't have his cake and eat it too. Another reason I added this note was that I have exams from tomorrow, so maybe I won't be able to visit all your blogs, but if you leave a comment, I will try my best to reply to it on here, as well as on your blog! Thank you for reading this, and have a great week ahead.)

BYBS : Ides of March

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I have always loved to read. I guess one reason is because I have never been very good with people, and, therefore, making friends has never been one of my strong points. So, it is not surprising that I took to books. They accepted me for what I was, asked no questions, and showed me a world that I could never have imagined. But this post is not about books.

This post is about "the ides of March."

There are a lot of things that go into making a thing happen. On the face of it, it might be convenient to attribute a cause to an effect. But if we look deep enough, there are many causes for any one effect.

I think, therefore, that there were reasons, other than my loneliness, that helped cement my relationships with books and reading.

Let us see what these reasons were. I was about fourteen when I read Julius Caesar - as a part of the school curriculum. It goes without saying that though Shakespeare's plots are very entertaining and intriguing, his language is not something that can keep a fourteen year old spellbound. But, in this case, the good thing was that the book, prescribed by the school, had the text in contemporary English on the facing page. Before, I read Julius Caesar in the way Shakespeare intended, I had read it in a way that I could understand.

Then, not being a very interested student, it was my wont to read the book at any other page, except the one that was being taught in class. So, I found many interesting passages in the book, and I was impressed by the way fate played such a major part in Julius Caesar. What also impressed me was the way Shakespeare had intricately woven the plot in the book. It gave birth to an intense desire within me. A desire that I carry around even to this day. The desire to someday write something like that, or, if possible, even better.

A fourteen year old with a book like Julius Caesar can hardly be expected to understand all of it. Unless, of course, you are some kind of a wunderkind. That I was not, as time later proved.

So, having some really great teachers really helped. I think I was very fortunate that I came across some really great English teachers at school. They not only explained the text, but managed to generate enough interest that, soon, the students were asking for more. Even a student like me, who was more interested in the clouds in the sky than in the class, could not help but understand the book, and feel like reading some more.

Lastly, a good library, always at hand, has also been a crucial factor that has helped me keep alive the flame of reading. For, we all know, there are so many temptations out there, and a young person can always find some thing that he needs more than a book!

I guess if any of the above factors had been missing, I just might not have been as much into books as I am now.

But, how is this post about "ides of March," you might ask.

It is because the soothsayer warning Julius Caesar about the "ides of March" is one of the first things that comes to my mind when I think of Julius Caesar. And today, my dear reader, is the "ides of March". May you have a great day today!

Happy Holi!

Today is Holi - the festival of colours! It is celebrated almost all over India, and there are many stories that are associated with the origins of the festival. One of the more well-known stories can be found here.

On this day, people play with colors (if that was not obvious from the banner above). Everyone throws colours at others, or just rubs it on them. The end result makes for some interesting viewing.

As the joke goes, at the end of the day people have been known to bring back other's children because, under all that colour, they failed to recognise their own.

Jokes apart, like most other festivals, Holi, too, signifies the end of evil and beginning of good. The special significance of this festival is that on this day even enemies are supposed to forget their differences and play Holi with each other, and start a new relationship - preferably over a drink or two.

So, I will take this space to wish you all a Happy Holi! May all your enemies become your friends.

BYBS : The Choice

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Time flies!

I know I am not saying anything new with that line, but for one reason or another we keep forgetting the value of time, and I guess it wouldn't hurt to be reminded of it every now and then.

It was about nine months ago that I decided to take a break from work, and go back to school to get an Executive-MBA degree. At that time, one year seemed like a lot of time. But now, when I look back, I don't know where the nine months went.

After nine months of being in a management course, the one (I almost wrote only) thing that has become very clear to me is that before you can start thinking about managing anything, you have to successfully manage yourself. I guess you don't have to go to a management school to know that. Most of us know that already. But we keep looking for ways and means to somehow find a way to manage others, without, first, having to manage ourselves.

In this regard, I recently read two stories - H. G. Well's The Country of the Blind, and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. The two stories deal with the subject of the interaction between the individual and the society. They talk about how society can be a limiting factor in an individual's search for excellence. But, whether an individual chooses to swim with the current and accept the diktats of the society, or whether he chooses to create his own path, is the choice of the individual alone, and no one can take that away from him.

Most of us, when faced with a situation where we have to make a choice usually choose the path shown to us by the society. The simple reason for that is because it is very convenient. Going against the society would require a lot of effort, discipline and determination. Most of the time we are not very sure if we have it in us to achieve success on our own terms, so we take the easy way out, and follow the path that is well trodden, and, therefore, safe.

However, I feel that it is a great blessing that despite the pressures that the society exerts on us, the final choice of doing the right thing, or the easy thing is always on us. And though most of the time we do the easy thing, I am sure a day will come when we do the right thing.

Have a great week ahead!