F R I E N D S

     Friends; who are your secret chamber, friends; with whom you share more than you do with your family, friends; who gets see your true unfiltered side, friends; who are your advisor, friends; who are your fire brigade, friends; who teaches you more valuable lessons than your teachers do, friends who are by your side when it hasn’t been your day your week your month even your year.

     If you believe, you have friends, who fit the above flowery description of a friend, then, either you are a God’s chosen one, or, your ‘friendship’ has never been put to test; later being much more likely. As cynical it may sound but it is the truth.

     Most of us can’t have such friends mainly for two reasons: firstly, most of us don’t deserve them and secondly, most of us can’t afford them.

     It would be a highly impractical approach, especially, in your college life to aspire for such outrageous qualities in the people.

     Trade and proximity-based: like it or not, what we generally call friendship, is nothing, but a relationship, Induced by proximity for, trading.

     Today you are near them you call them friends, today they need you they call you a friend. And there is nothing wrong with it. I repeat it is perfectly okay. After all, to a large extent, every human relationship is based on trade and proximity.

     So, it will be immensely helpful, if you would take a more professional approach while dealing with the subject of friendship.

     Here, being ‘professional’ should not be mistaken for being selfish. Professional means: always keeping in the forefront, your main objective. And keep in check, if the people whom you call ‘your friends’, are hindrances or impetus for your main objective.

     But, the big question here remains: What should be your main objective during your college years?

. Your objective should be straight and simple i.e. try and create a positive learning environment with the right kind of people around.

     One could argue over the definition of “right kind of people”, but in your case, it should be fairly simple, for you, the right kind of people are those who work like a propeller to your growth rather than an anchor.

     You must, during your college days, keep in proximity those: who want the same thing from life and college, as you do.

     Identify the anchors in your life: There are going to be people around you, almost at every phase of your life, whose only job would be to pull you down, sometimes unknowingly, but most of the time knowingly and desperately.

     Before learning to deal with them, which can be a tricky task, you need to learn to identify them which is an easy task if only you paid little attention to details.

     Some Cues to identify the anchors (during college days):

• They would always be unwelcoming of new ideas.
• They have a problem with dreamers.
• They would always justify their ill doings.
• They only believe in borrowing but not in returning.
• People who say: bro, marks don’t matter; because they heard it somewhere.
• People who say: bro, these, extracurricular are a waste of time.
• People who say: you can’t do it.

If by any chance you have these characteristics then you are your anchor. You are yourself pulling yourself down. So get rid of them.

The story of slavery

Disclaimer: This chapter is not for the people who want to lead an average life.

Since you have made this far in to this book, I feel, now, I can trust you enough to share a secret with you. I hope you won’t reveal this to anyone.

So here is the secret, by the way you already know this secret but all this while, that secret has been disguised as common knowledge. You don’t yet know that it’s a secret because you think everybody already knows it or you think; hell! Who wouldn’t know this?!

But there is a catch. We humans have very terrible memory we are prone to forget important stuff. We need a constant reminder of basic stuff.

So let me tell you that secret or rather remind you of that secret.

                        You are going to die.

I know! I know! You are cursing me right now or even feeling like slapping me right now or may be even killing me right now for saying such a horrible thing.

However, this is the truth. You, I, and everyone, will die.

So you are wondering what is my point, right?

So my point is if we all know that we are here for very limited amount of time then why are we not, living our lives the way we want.

To get to know the answer to this question I will again have to share a secret. See! How generous I am.

Now this is the secret which very few knows and for most it takes a life time to realize this secret and most die without ever knowing this secret.

You are a slave.

Does it sound insulting? If so then you are definitely one. Did it hurt, if so, then, forgive me but again it’s the truth. If it helps to know, you are not alone. We 99% of the Homo sapiens are slaves and most us are not even worthy to be called Sapiens (wise).

If you want to be the part of the rare one percent then read the following story of slavery with an open mind.

The Story of Slavery

Make no- mistake, the world is still, in the eighteenth year of twenty first century, constituted with two kinds of people; the first kind: the master and the second kind: the slave.

 Poor, Middle class, higher middle class, wealthy and rich: Nonsense, all this jargon. It is there only to confuse you, keep you from seeing the simple fact that there are only- rulers and the ruled. You are either the king or subject. You are either the master or a slave.

The masters decide what you will learn, what you will do, what is wrong   and what is right. Masters decide what you will think what you will dream.

We are busy doing what others are doing, or doing what others thinks, we should do.

 It’s really a propaganda when people say humans are selfish. If you think we are selfless creatures I mean all our life we are busy serving others expectations. Family society college school boss.

We are serving the bigger ecology. We are merely the fuel or as they put it: Human resources, yes resource!

The slaves of the past were aware of their slavery, they could clearly see their chains. And they even knew who their masters were.

But the slaves of the present day, better known as, “human resource” are not even aware of their slavery and they don’t even know their masters are, that’s why some slaves mistake themselves for a master.

Problem is not that most of us are slaves; problem is that most of us have developed a liking for the chain. Most of us have become attached to the chains. Most of us have no idea that there is world beyond the extent of our chain.

Suffering is good as long as you don’t have any option but to suffer; this helps in the growth of the human. However, if suffering is self- inflicted then, it’s a medical case which needs immediate diagnosis.

For most people today, place of suffering has become a place of comfort or in a word masochist. Society celebrate and you celebrate your seufferiung. People have mistaken suffering for hustuling. You really need to differntiate between the two.

         The masters of the present day has built a beautiful and manually functioning recruiting agency which supply slaves for them in every department of their need in abundance.

You guessed it right, that agency is our education institutions.

Good for them (the masters), they don’t have to pay for their agents; their agents are happily doing their service for free. Their chief agents knowingly or unknowingly are our parents. And to guide and misguide the chief agents are our teachers or so called guru. To provide a breeding ground for the institution we have our very old enslaved society.

Our educational institution our government our parents our society has formed a formidable nexus to look after the smooth continuous supply of slaves.

Just so that you know I am not enticing you to become anti –establishment or challenge the status quo. And bring justice to the world, wipe out the slavery and become Messahi. That would be the most stupid and immature thing to do.

The world will always need slaves.

 For, this world is a funny place; here we need inequality to maintain balance.

All I am asking you to do is to become a master. Exploite rather than be exploited. Pure evil it sounds, doesn’t it? But remember; you either rule or ruled.

And anyway, if you have a soft heart and you believe that things need to change and you believe the word is being run by crooks; this should give you more so the reason to aspire for the hidden and safeguarded throne of a master.

Diary of introspection.

via Diary of introspection.

What after passing 10th class?

Source: What after passing 10th class?

“What can I do for a clean India.”

“One who is disciplined is clean”, because cleanliness is the byproduct of discipline, so to begin with, I must try to become a disciplined citizen or in other words a civilized citizen, then only I can obey my further duties to make India clean.

Very often we come to the conclusion that “India is not clean because India is poor” but on the contrary, the reality is that “India is poor because India is not clean”, it might sound little absurd and harsh but I have an explanation for this argument.

                            What does cleanliness represent? It represents Discipline. What are the basic fabrics of discipline? These are punctuality, sincerity, obedience. What do these traits in a human or a nation bring? It brings opulence, happiness, and prosperity, and there can be no denying the fact that we lack a great deal in these departments.

So our dream as a nation should be to build a disciplined India and everything else including cleanliness will fall in its place automatically.

                              Keeping the above points in mind, I on an individual level can display all the basic traits of a civilized person starting from as basic as not littering in public, dumping the garbage where it’s meant to be dumped.

 I can pay my token of long due respect and appreciation to sweepers, cleaners, rag pickers of our society who are the silent guardian of a clean India, and also try to create awareness via social media about the harsh conditions in which they do their job.

I can be a true citizen of a democratic country and keep the government and Municipal Corporation on their toes by forming or being part of a pressure group concerned with sanitation and cleanliness of our country.

I can even raise the bar of my contribution by adopting a minimalistic lifestyle that can decrease my carbon footprints and which in turn can make India an ounce cleaner.

These and other millions of things I can do, only if I am ready to address not just the four walls and the roof above it as my home but my society, my city, my country and yes the entire earth as my home.

 I wrote this for an essay competition organized by the government of India.                                                                                         

 

 

 

 

The difference

He went to places he never dreamt of going, he reached heights which he never knew exist, he had things which he never imagined he could have. It all came his way by making only one change in his life and It was the change that took quarter a century of his life to come by, it was a change that made him sweat blood, it was change the that made him cry in pain, it was the change that eventually became his high and it was the change that not only in the end but also in the beginning and middle, worth it. It was discipline that made all the difference.

My tutor, Cricket , and me.

Back in the day, when I was in 5th standard and I used to have a home tutor who was very strict and was the only villain in my life, to say the least. His timing was the most annoying thing about him, he used to come to my home at four o clock in the evening, when every friend of mine were busy playing cricket I used to attend my home tuition when they were counting balls and runs I was counting multiplication table when they were hitting fours and sixes I was being hit for silly mistakes and to make things worse whenever I used to plan my cricket on Sundays he used to arrive even on Sundays, now I think you can feel pity for me and understand the gravity of the situation.

Everything was fine despite all the unjust that was being laid on me I was doing okay, until one fine day my uncle gifted me a new MRF cricket Bat, now I just couldn’t resist the temptation to show off my new bat which looked ditto like Sachin’s bat to me. So next day I eloped with my bat underestimating the ramifications of my adventure. When I got back home after playing, my mom was curious and furious at the same time she asked me when did you become this brave don’t you know your tutor? he had left looking very annoyed she said and that was it, now my panic button got turned on and I was out my fantasy land then and there with my bat still resting over my shoulder.

Somehow I convinced my self that if I will complete all my home works assigned by him he would forgive me for my mischief, so I sat down that evening worked on my homework with full dedication and concentration and completed it and I even solved some maths exercise in advance to impress him.

Next day It was 3:45 pm in the clock and I was getting ready nervously for my teacher to arrive and went to my bookshelf to take out my homework notebook but wait… it was nowhere in the entire shelf to be found and now the panic monster started to grow bigger and bigger with every passing second, I am running all over my home asking everyone about the notebook covered with brown cover which has nameplate with Sachin’s photo on it but no one knew about it and then suddenly I heard a knock on the door.

I told my self that I would be honest and would take whatever comes my way, I entered my room, my tutor was sitting on the chair and I wished him good evening and sat on the bed with crossed legs, I was assuming first he will ask me about where I had been yesterday but to my surprise he straight away asked me to show my homework now I was literally crying and told him that sir, I did finish my homework but couldn’t find my notebook, now at that very moment his facial muscles and eyes got together and told me a story that is still fresh in my conscience they told me that they trust me, they told me that I might not be good at studies but I would not lie to him, he then ran his hands over my head and told me to once again go and search for it, so I wiped off my tears and went to another room where my bookshelf was and started to search for it again but I couldn’t find it then I don’t know why but I closed my eyes and said God please help me then something fell on my lap from the top of my bookshelf and yes it was my homework notebook.

I showed him my homework with tears in my eyes. Back then I didn’t realize what those tears were for but now I know it was because just in the span five minutes I had witnessed the magic of two of the most powerful things in the world, that is trust and faith.

Indian Girl conundrum.

He always had the dream of becoming the bread earner of his family, marry a beautiful Indian girl, who would take care of him and his family, his dream did come true and society looked at him as “success”. She dreamt of travelling the world, studying architecture, her dream never came true, she married him and society called her parents, a “success”

He became the man he always wanted to be and she became the women she never wanted to be.

Diary of introspection.

Like always I have given myself another opportunity to make some move in my life, I have again made some promises to myself, I have again shown trust onto myself. I hope this time I don’t disappoint myself because as it looks, this is the last opportunity I have got in order to create a dignified life.

So how do I make some move? Answer to that is fairly simple, get going, don’t look back, don’t look left, don’t look right, just look ahead and run, run for your life because this time if you don’t run you will be run over by this world. Before I make a move it is really important to dig into few fundamental questions such as, why I didn’t make any move till now? what has been holding me back for so long? why am I hopeful that things will be different this time around? okay then, let’s try to find the answer to these question on by one.

Q- Why I didn’t make any move till now?

Ans- The truth is that I tried to change things many times, many times I got off to a good start but sadly every time, I failed to capitalize on to that good start and as the result, I never made any significant change. Then the question that arises now is, what is the reason behind this habit of mine? When I dig deep I can find only one answer, that is, I am too easy on myself, so in order to achieve what I have set to achieve I have to become ruthless, I have to develop an appetite for pain or in one word I have to become a masochist.

Q- What has been holding me back for so long?

Ans- To be honest there is only one thing that is holding me back from reaching the glory and that thing is nothing but me, I, myself. It might sound a little harsh but sadly this is the truth, The truth is that I am scared of hard work and I always try to find the reasons to avoid the hard work, in short, I am a lazy man of the highest degree and if I have any desire to live a dignified life I must beat my  arch enemy, that is,laziness.

Q- Why am I hopeful this time?

 Ans- As my previous record suggests that I have broken my promise time and again so what makes me think that this time I will adhere to my promise, this is quite a natural question to ask, and to be really honest I don’t have any answer to this question, but all I can say is that I am hopeful, and as they say, hope is a good thing may be best of the things and good things never die so will not die my hope and the expectations that I have for myself.

Conclusion.

 To conclude I can say only one thing that, this will be a year when I am going to make more mistakes than I ever made because this time around I am going to try the most.

What after passing 10th class?

So you have passed your tenth board exams and now the time has finally come to make the decision which, I will not say is going to decide for the rest of your life but it will surely decide for upcoming five to six years of your life, it will decide whether you are going to enjoy your journey or just going to pray throughout your journey that somehow you don’t meet with any accident and reach your destination safely.

Yes you are right it’s time to decide your stream or should I say whether you want to become an engineer or a doctor or a chartered accountant, because at this point of time in any Indian students life they are aware of only these three options, they only know that to become an engineer one has to take up Science(PCB), to become a doctor one has to pursue Science(PCB), to become CA one has to take up Commerce and the ones who are not good at studies takes up Arts subjects.What they don’t know is, that, this system is nothing but a stone aged million dollar trap.

Before I go any further I would like share one personal story which I believe will be very helpful to you while making the decision on your stream selection.

I was at my class 12th chemistry coaching class and in the middle of the class came a student to inquire about the new batch for class 11th although our teacher got little upset on getting disturbed in the middle of the class but he kept his cool and welcomed the kid and asked him about his marks in 10th std. He showed him his mark sheet then after skimming over his mark sheet he asked him why are you getting into science despite scoring so well in social sciences and not so well in maths and science, he then replied that you don’t worry Sir I will work very hard and I can handle it, after listening to his answer my teacher assigned him a fresh batch and the boy left.

After the boy left the class he(teacher) asked us what do you think about his decision to take up Science, most of us were of the view that the boy seemed very motivated and he might be able to get through it with the hard work he is ready to put in.

To this our chemistry teacher said something that got stuck in my mind, although it might not sound something extraordinary or something that we don’t know but sometimes most obvious things needs to be said in order to wake you up from your deep slumber, he said: If this boy is really going to put in the amount hard work and dedication into his studies as he has promised then he should apply that energy into social science instead of science, that way he will be more successful and happy in his life he further said it’s not about  just spending your energy, it’s about channeling your efforts and labors in right direction, that is, where your strength lies.

 At that moment only thing running through my mind was, why I didn’t hear these words before when I took up science despite being good at humanities.But nevertheless, I altered my mistake and took up humanities for graduation.

The moral of the story is that don’t go for popular opinion blindly, measure your strengths and weaknesses before hurrying into your decision because if you fall for popular opinions you will suffer like hell for many upcoming years of your life, that I can tell you from my personal experience.

So now the question arises how do you decide which stream is best for you?  to get an answer to that read the classifications given below carefully.

Science(PCM)

who should go for it?

• If you have liked maths and science throughout your school days and have scored quite well.
• If you have always been fascinated by modern-day technology and it intrigues you.
• If you enjoyed studying your physics and chemistry books in ninth and tenth std. and topics like motion, gravitational force, chemical reactions, atoms and molecules etc left you with a feeling that it’s not enough I want to know more about them.

who should not go for it?

• If you have just nearly passed your maths exams all your school life Concepts of Physics 1and your basic concepts in maths are not clear, then trust me your life will be miserable for next two years at least if you end up with science(PCM)
• If your interest lies somewhere else but you are choosing science stream because your parents said engineers earn in millions and all your friends are also taking up science so you feel you will be left out.

commerce

who should go for it?

• If the corporate world seems grand and glamorous to you and you wish if someday you could be part of that lifestyle.
• If you have always been curious about share market and how Sensex and nifty works.
• If you always wanted to know why India is still not a developed nation and what is five-year plan and much more such league of topics

who should not go for it?

• If you are going into commerce thinking that I will become CA because you heard from your family and friends that CA makes a lot of money.
• If your motivation to take commerce comes from the fact that your friends told you that you have to study less in commerce in comparison to science.

Arts or humanities.

who should go for it?

• If you have always enjoyed knowing about History of India and world and there is huge appetite in you for more
• If you like and follow the “dance of democracy” in India and want to know more as to how this kind political system came into being in India and many other parts of the world.
• If international relations and international ties give you some kind thrill in your belly.

who should not go for it?

• If it’s just a part of your escape mechanism and you think that you don’t have to study at all and you will ace it with just one or two days of study.

conclusion

Select your stream because you like it and your strength lies there and not because your family and friends said so.

Your criteria for selecting your stream should only be your interest and any other factors such as how much money you will earn in future and what will society think of you if you don’t go for any particular popular opinion should not be your area of concern.

Always remember that if you feel that you are not enjoying Your choice of stream and feel stuck with it then you have at least six months of time to pull your self out of the prison, at this point most important thing is communication with your parents, do share your problems with them before it gets too late and you end up with depression.