The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho 25 Nov 2007

Asad Malaviya (The name 99% of you must not be knowing) is one of by best friends. I consider him to be a couple of tiers above others in terms of intellect…. He’s the one whom i bank upon for several discrepancies or issues…. His simple analysis and logical thinking makes things a lot less complicated and tackling feasible…. He once advised me to read a book named ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho – according to him the book contains answers for all the questions from life, work, relationship, etc…. At first i thought that is it possible to generalize all these problems and have an elixir that cures all the problems…. Didn’t sound too convincing but the confidence with which he urged me to have a look at that book told me that the book deserves atleast a brief go if not the whole reading…. I promised him that i’ll have a look at the book asap…. I found it at one of the common street-vendors for 40 bucks…. not that bad a deal…. I can anyday exchange the book for 20 bucks atleast….

The book starts with a shepherd boy who does his usual stuff i.e. grazing his sheep in the nomadic lands of Spain when suddenly his heart starts to ask questions regarding his destiny…. He comes to know that his ‘real’ treasure lies buried nearby the Pyramids of Egypt and then he starts on his quest…. Along the way he comes across many scenarios where he’s offered challenges…. He bravely faces each obstacle and learns the lessons which one needs to to survive in this practical world…. simultaneously he also follows his heart to find the meaning to his life…. He uses his brain and foresightedness to pull him out of tricky situations and in the end…. step by step he gains the wealth of knowledge to untangle his life…. He learns that he like other human beings like other animals and plants and like other inanimate objects have been created out of the single entity or thing and everything has to return back to that one thing…. life returns back to earth…. after millions of such life cycles the earth too will return back 2 the universe and universe too will go back to the point of creation…. cycle goes on…. one has in his heart the closest ‘thing’ that unites him with the ultimate soul…. The soul that represents the naked form of every object or entity…. Human beings have been lucky enough to have evolved a lot than other animals and plants and inanimate objects and have the power to think…. They have the ability to follow what they like as they r the most superior species and they have the freedom to follow their will…. It is debatable that the ability of humans to have loads of desires helps them or doesn’t but it does atleast provide them with an opportunity to help themselves and gain pleasure by following their desires…. The inner instincts asks person many questions and the answers provide him with loads of satisfaction…. It is similar to the plants obtaining nutrition, thus growing and an engine being injected fuel to push ahead…. It can be considered a necessary condition in some cases but definitely not the sufficient one…. The more one listens to his heart, the more the heart trusts the person and gives him signals or omens…. If one can decipher those he can help one’s self greatly…. If one doesn’t then the heart slowly gives in and stops sending signals….

Another important thing that the book said was that those who try to be alchemists never become one…. only those who follow the practices without expecting it to happen become…. As a saying in Hindi – “Karm kar, fal ki aasha mat kar”…. Only those have been successful who have pursued what they love wholeheartedly…. not those who pursue something because it is bound to bring success…. In life line boundaries need to be drawn for things one is supposed to do and for those territories which one doesn’t want to be in….

Ogling Eyes

Every individual is different…. We are born different…. Brought up differently in different locations, imbibed with different values and knowledge…. Some are born handsome like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Aish…. while some, how hard they try end up being just a bit above Gunda…. somewhere its good that  we all are different but in some places its painful to imagine…. Think of the dumb Hritik Roshan in Koi Mil gaya…. what the hell was his fault that the poor chap is dumb and his brain  naive…. somewhere one has to question that by what qualities does he decide whether the new born should be born to a king or a prince??? wats the role of the pawns like me and you who are wasting their time and energy sitting in front of the desktop doing some monotonic work???? Why is one a successful ShahRukhKhan and why one just no-one in this world…. Truly speaking in this world there is absolutely no difference between people who are born poor and the stray dogs and cats who are there…. History itself has proved that…. loads of people die in natural calamities (Gujarat Earthquakes, Bihar floods, Tsunamis) still noone cares…. not even the people who belong to the region- MLAs, Politicians, Business Tycoons…. absolutely no-one…. I think that during Tsunami the headlines of Aaj Tak channel ussed to be “Vivek Oberoi comes to Chennai and help people physically in getting their lives back on track” !!!!

Coming back…. The title….. Ogling Eyes…. My friend Suresh Prasad urf Bihari told that Akhil has one of the most ogling eyes and after that its my turn…. i too have one of the most ogling eyes…. he said that girls around must be definately feeling that my intensions are not right when i see them…. How can i help myself???? Eyes are something on which I do not have control…. I am rather happy and thankful to god that i have a good pair of eyes even though I have glasses and all…. but the ogling feeling that girls might be getting is something i can’t help…. I have missed the bus on 7 occasions now, the latest being a few days back and i guess this reason holds one of the keys for me not been able to pull off my relationships well…. All that girl feels in that moment is asking this ‘kutta kamina’ questions like ‘ghar main ma/bahen nahi kya?’…. If one looks at the other side of the coin, its not her fault too….

Before i started to write the blog i had loads of points that why ogling eyes are cool but somehow i just can’t recall any of them…. i guess the past has again captured my thinking brain and all for sometime now i m gonna think is why i just couldn’t do much in each of these cases….

Well one of the latest gossips in bollywood is the love triangle between Kareena, Saif, Shahid…. The celebrities have the freedom to do whatever they want to or to be with whom-so-ever they want themselves to be associated with…. Saif- who married Amrita Singh (Why the hell did she fell for him??? Nawabi wealth??? Is money more imp than ……???) who was at the peak of her carrier – proper bubbly and sweetheart character…. but nowadays share prices of Nawab himself have rose and so Amrita is a no no now…. forget the kids…. now he has new chicks like Roza and Kareena available…. who wants a dedicated Amrita??? Kareena…. when she was no one, she found a hubby in Shahid whom i respect as a self-made person…. and now that guy is a dumped person…. And these are the kind of people we consider role models

Physical beauty can only be superficial….

I love RBK line “I am what i am”…. holds loads of statements inside

The Art of Bargaining

Bargaining as such is considered something that most of us like to avoid…. i had seen many long disputes happening over prices of vegetable back home but here in bangalore the bargaining is a rare phenomenon…. people consider bargaining as a waste of time and usually don’t like to be involved in it unless the stakes are high…. I agree….

but practice makes a man perfect…. and this applies to bargaining too…. if one wants to reap the benefits of a big deal then he needs to master the art of making the smaller deals successful too….

for me bargaining is an opportunity to sharpen my negotiating skills and find ways of evading the arguments made by the opponent…. that was the main reason i loved to help out my friends when they went to market to buy something…. one can bargain at almost any place…. from small fruit shops to large genuine showrooms…. bargaining is legal and prevalent at all places…. the difficultly levels might vary…. i.e. bargaining for say 10% in a normal showroom might be simpler than bargaining for 5% in a peter england showroom….. but bargaining could be done in Peter England showroom too…. its not an exception

tricks of bargaining:

1) Show the valid Points why the price said by you is the appropriate price…. avoid comparing price with other stalls( or else expect reply that ‘wahi se le lo’) the more genuine and convincing you sound the more the guy will think about it…. its like putting him in your shoes and trying to convince him that if he himself was about to buy that stuff it would be the same….

2) Best way to find an appropriate price of the stuff you are about to buy is to find its price in the nearby shop/stall…. say u like a typical pair of local shoes…. Find the approximate price of the commodity from a nearby stall that gives the base for bargaining….

(Still Incomplete)

Pressure pressure all the way!!!!

 

4 April 07

Lets start off with a very weird topic….

when walking on the stage or doing something in public, one is expected to take inputs from the audience, analyze it and make sure that the people r in the session and not going astray…. sometimes the crowd itself makes u feel that you have taken a very important stage and a lot is at stake on what i speak…. but its this pressure that is a subclass of a general pressure under which people r believed to crack….

this general pressure holds much more importance in determining individual’s performance, health, behavior and much more…. the Husseys and Schumachers have been playing around this pressure and have made it their strength…. theoretically nothing much required to do…. stick to the basics, hear your inner voice, be cool calm composed, use your experience are some of the things one can do to control this pressure….

but my friend, most of us r wrong in thinking about this pressure as a source of weakening or something thats gonna bring downfall…. rather this pressure needs to be charmed and unleashed for the best use…. as i said its pretty easy said than done…. its a dragon and one needs that aragon to control it…. each one has that aragon inside if he has the pressure or else the pressure wont be there…. its as simple as there can be only that much poison as its antidote’s capacity….

i tend to crumble even when speaking to a group of 5 to 10 guys around and someone like Sagarika Ghose can pull off a great debate even on sex education in india in public…. as people say that there’s always scope for improvement in fielding in cricket, there’s whole lot to be done to tame this pressure dragon of mine…. every big journey starts with a single step….

The bigger Apple….

When a kid goes to market his eyes lit up…. he looks around and lots and lots of desires arise in his small but dynamic mind…. I personally recall a visit to the local market around Kalapinagar(where v used to stay till my 6th) where in one of the Custom’s showroom i liked a green/blue army style bag worth 200 bucks…. pa promised me that he’ll get me that one on next visit and all i could think of for those moments was that bag…. now when i recall those incidents i am not able to appreciate the enticing factor of the bag…. but when a kid when there is ignorance all around u…. money’s wat dad’s got all the time for me…. so all i saw at that time was toys, toys and toys…. but now things r different….. with the cloud of ignorance gone its a little difficult to take even a single step with so much consequences of every move…. the web’s getting more and more dense with each passing day….. realizing wat one wants in long term makes one motivated and going…. now its not just a next day but each day is important….

I did a ‘bakar’ with shrivastav and prasanth and both of them were in the same boat…. the boat without sail floating in sea…. now its got to be a big effort from us to get us anywhere close to land…. one way they were correct that v r ok established in the industry and having confidence of having the stuffs required in us to help us in tough times v should look ahead even though the road might seem foggy…. so even though v don’t have some definite goals in our mind v can still look forward….

What i feel is for everyone in this world there is a long term big vision for which he/she strives…. for me its bringing joy and happiness to my family….. being successful(subjective) and being with my parents when they want…. around these (what i call long term goal) are short term goals that are intermediate stations on the path to that ultimate goal…. these short term goals are three dimensional having professional expectations, personal life expectations and success/satisfaction as the three dimensions…. the ultimate goal of life has maximum value for all the three coordinates and each small achievement/failure takes us closer to/ away from that destination point…. sounds like 12th standard coordinate geometry where we find distance between two points (x1,y1,z1) & (x2,y2,z2) by the formula [(x1-x2)^2 + (y1 - y2)^2 + (z1-z2)^2]^0.5

Reminds me of the zee cinema advertisement. “Don’t be a loser be a chooser” . Working on the strengths is also a way out if the ultimate goal seems missing. As the strengths will help us out floating till we find that ultimate point. Could be a case where we are about to reach the end of one of the dimensions. Each small bit of pleasure, increment, social event changes coordinates.