Education- A dream Revolution !

What is the total population of the world? about 7 and a half billion? probably more than that. Can you guess the total number of people who have walked this planet since its inception ? not the monkeys and the apes but evolved beings, humans like you and me. Google says it is about 108 billion. That means 7 percent of all the people who were ever born are living at present. It is soon going to increase up to 10 % by 2020. We are the biggest generation living today. I can still bet you that no 2 people are the same. Not even the identical twins. Humans have this inherent property of DIVERSITY. Studies say we all are different from each other in a minimum of 50 parameters both mental and behavioral. The very nature of humans include diversity and the power of imagination. We all aim to find our own way in life, with education as our guide i doubt if we ever will. Sadly our education system is standardized, i don't say standardizing is wrong, few things like medical test and has to be standardized. But we are not mechanism, we are organism. Human imagination and potential cannot be standardized but be personalized. Like Einstein says " You cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree" 

Our education system, in fact any education system in the world follows the principle of linearity. If one goes through the process with the right spirit and get the right grades, then one is sorted for life. I remember Sir Ken Robinson saying we have built our education model on Fast Food. In the food industry there are fast food where everything is standardized and other food sold in good restaurants where everything is not standardized but are customized according to ones need and taste. We have sold ourselves in to the fast food model and that is suppressing our spirits and potential as the fast food depletes our physical bodies. 

 I hear a lot that the education system is getting reformed but i feel that is not enough. Reformation is mending the broken pieces. We need a REVOLUTION. Erasing the previous system and cultivating a new one. And it is possible. I came across various articles regarding climate control for resources and that is absolutely right. We do need climate control for resources but we also need climate control for human resources which also has the same origin and should be treated with the same urgency. Sir Ken also says the human resource are like natural resource. It is often buried deep under and not lying on the surface. One has to go looking for them with a lot of efforts. They do not appear and no method is common for everyone. Every resource needs a different extraction procedure. We have to create circumstances where they show up themselves. Our education system should be that system which basically creates that climate and the circumstance where an individual is exposed to his core competency and eventually finds his true potential and more over finds the true inner peace. This can only be done with a personalized model of learning. 

Abraham Lincoln on December 1862 at the National congress meet said "The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise WITH the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must dis-enthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country". I like the way he says we must rise WITH the occasion and not TO the occasion. I also like the last statement that we must dis-enthrall ourselves. We are enslaved or rather enthralled to the education system so much that we believe it to be true and carry on not knowing our true selves and educate ourselves to find true purpose and peace. The fundamental element in a revolution is this Dis-enthrallment among the people and hence we can save the country, perhaps the world.   

Obscurity outcasts the obvious !

With Wayne Dyer passing away, i have been glued back to all the books written by him and the videos and the talks that i had collected over a period of time. And i loved the way he said "obscurity outcasts the obvious". He said that over and over again for a reason. This is a line from Tao's philosophy and makes a lot of sense once you put some thought to it. The essence of the line basically directs us to the light which is invisible and cant be seen and does nothing and still leaves nothing undone. This light is the essence of each one of us and nothing else actually exists. Tao says, to which i agree completely is that you are water and water is you.   Think about the first nine months of your life after conception: You lived in, and were nourished by, amniotic fluid, which is truly unconditional love flowing into you . . . flowing as you. You are now 75 percent water (and your brain is 85 percent), and the rest is simply muscled water. Think about the mysterious magical nature of this liquid energy that we take for granted. Try to squeeze it, and it eludes us; relax our hands into it, and we experience it readily. If it stays stationary, it will become stagnant; if it is allowed to flow, it will stay pure. It does not seek the high spots to be above it all, but settles for the lowest places. That is what i essentially talking about! 

The inherent problem with mankind is that every soul of his body screams "notice me" and one leads his life craving for it. When attention feeds it one feels good and craves for more. Everybody, i mean everybody has this inner longing to be looked at. As Helen Keller also rightly says seeking attention is the only nature of man. It is so difficult to not seek attention or not wanting to get noticed. The very thought about it leaves us with a lot of emptiness and sense of void. It is very difficult but that is the nature of obscurity. The sea and the ocean always stays low so that it can take the flow of the rivers, streams and lakes. This again gets evaporated and comes back to them as rain. It maps out nothing and plays not favorites. It doesn’t intend to provide sustenance to the animals and plants. It has no plans to irrigate the fields; to slake our thirst; or to provide the opportunity to swim, sail, ski, and scuba dive. These are some of the benefits that come naturally from water simply doing what it does and being what it is. We actually tend to absorb the inherent wisdom of the universe which finally gives us a sense of peace and fulfillment. The whole process is to not do anything and "just be" and still you will see nothing is undone. 

 Live as water lives, since you are water. Become as contented as is the fluid that animates and supports you. Let your thoughts and behaviors move smoothly in alignment with the nature. It is natural for you to be gentle, and low and oblivious to allow others to be free, and to be as they need to be without interference from you. It is natural to trust in the eternal flow, be true to your inner inclinations, and stick to your word. It is natural to treat everyone as an equal. All of these lessons can be derived by observing how water, which sustains all life, behaves. It simply moves, and the benefits it provides occur from it being what it is, in harmony with the present moment and knowing the truth of precisely how to behave. Be true to only your intuition, they somehow already know what you want to get that sense of fulfillment. At the same time be humble, let the physical being be low while your inner self seek the universe.

say cheese !!

 I was in a train traveling to Bangalore; as usual I packed my bag an hour prior to my departure and forgot my headphone. Now I have 24 boring hours in the train and I see 2 irritatingly noisy kids shouting and running around, I so wished their parents slept peacefully that night. In the midst of my increasing blood pressure I saw my mother calmly reading a highly philosophical book (as she always does). The book was as heavy as the content am sure. My boredom reached top notch, and I asked mom for a book which I could read as well as understand. She put her hand inside her bag and pulled out 3 books so that probably I’ll leave her alone without any questions or choices. Now I had 3 books, I took one book in my hand and turned straight to the last page and the number was 345. I took the next book and the last page read 296. My face dropped; the third book was thin and the last page read 98. I decided to read that book, I was sure to complete it before I reached. WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? BY DR. SPENCER JOHNSON. The next 2 hours was the most fulfilling and entertaining. I have never been so engrossed and immersed into a book before. After I finished I laid for almost 3 hours self-introspecting what I just read. Indeed an epiphany.

The story revolves around 4 beings 2 of them are mice named “SNIFF” and “SCURRY” and 2 men named “HEM” and “HAW”. It is a metaphorical story where the cheese stands for joy, goals, dreams, happiness etc. and the maze is the environment, the world that one lives in. the cheese station is the point of contentment and sustainability that one does not want to let go and eventually builds a routine around it.

Once these 4 beings decide go on a search for cheese into this highly complex maze. They put their jogging shoes on, Hopping and skipping their way into the many confusing paths. The 2 mice planned to work as a team, so SNIFF would smell and anticipate the existence of the cheese and SCURRY would run into that door looking for it. HEM and HAW made a detailed plan using all their knowledge and technology at their disposal and tried to make a blueprint of the whole maze and planned how they are going to go about finding the cheese. By the time HEM and HAW make their plan SNIFF identifies a large cheese station on their way and SCURRY rushes there to find an abode of cheese. Much to their satisfaction they hang their jogging shoes and dive into the cheese. After a few days HEM and HAW also arrive at this cheese station and hang their shoes and enjoy the cheese to the fullest. They not only enjoy it amongst themselves but also with their near and dear ones. Soon HEM and HAW build their houses near the cheese station and they eventually built a routine around it. Slowly the happiness of seeing the cheese every morning turned into arrogance. SNIFF and SCURRY also came every morning to nibble some cheese but were aware of the change in the quantity of the cheese.

One day SNIFF and SCURRY came early to the cheese station just to find no cheese left. Noticing the cheese supply dwindling, they have mentally prepared beforehand for the arduous but inevitable task of finding more cheese. Hence they weren’t too surprised by the depletion. Happily put their jogging shoes on and set into the maze looking for more cheese. Later that day HEM and HAW arrived at the cheese station just to find the same thing- empty. Angered and annoyed, HEM demands, "Who moved my cheese?" The humans have counted on the cheese supply to be constant, and so are unprepared for this eventuality. After deciding that the cheese is indeed gone they get angry at the unfairness of the situation and both go home starved. Returning the next day, HEM and HAW find the same cheese-less place. Starting to realize the situation at hand, HAW thinks of a search for new cheese. But HEM is dead set in his victimized mind set and dismisses the proposal. HEM just cannot digest the fact that the cheese is over. HAW gave a thought of leaving the cheese station and going to the maze to find more cheese but got easily succumbed to HEM’s thoughts and fear. Everyday HEM and HAW would come to the cheese station and evaluate the situation and go back home discouraged and disheartened. Many a times HAW would imagine SNIFF and SCURRY to have found new cheese and enjoying.  The more HAW saw himself finding new cheese the more he wanted to leave cheese station. He was petrified just by imagining the uncertainty in the maze, but the other side of his head projected image of him eating fresh cheese. This dilemma was increasing day by day and the fear of uncertainty along with HEM always got the better of him and he decided to stay back. Whenever HAW asked HEM to leave he would say “it’s comfortable, we have come a long way, it is dangerous out there, we might get lost, may be this is our fate let’s face it, may be cheese will be restored soon, time will heal”. HAW finally decided to not give much heed to HEM’s words and he thus put his shoes and set out into the maze to find more cheese. He decided to mark every junction so that it would be easy for HEM to follow (if he decides to). The next morning he steps into the maze and takes a chalk and writes “if you do not change you become extinct”. A slight grin dawned into HAW’s face when he thought what HEM would be thinking ‘who moved my cheese?’ the grin vanished when he asked himself ‘ why didn’t I move with the cheese sooner?’.

After a while when the path seemed scarier and murkier, he wondered if he had made the right choice. He then wrote again “what would I do if I am not afraid?” he got the answer and moved freely into the maze again trying to find more cheese. Many times he would get lost into a corridor. He would meet with a lot of dead ends. His progress seemed like 2 steps forward and 1 step backward. Here and there he used to find some morsels of cheese which would keep him going. He got excited to see many new cheese stations, but would get disheartened to see them empty. He then wrote “smell the cheeses often so you know when it is getting old” he often felt like giving up. Loneliness struck him. He often thought how painless and peaceful HEM is. These thought would discourage him but he picked himself up every time and moved forward with courage and hope of finding abundant cheese. He ran down all dark and obscure corner and then smiled at himself and then he wrote “when you move beyond your fear, you are free” he then started regretting to not have started sooner. He took breaks in between and then ate the cheese he had gathered on the way. He again wrote “the quicker you let go of the old cheese, the sooner you will find new” and left some cheese behind for HEM.

 HAW suddenly realised he was happy being run by his fears. He was happy with uncertainty. He was loving that time running to find new cheese and stopped to write “old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese” HAW realised it’s all about what you believe. He was now a changed man and had let gone of the past and the cheese-less times and became more optimistic and enthusiastic. He then moved with greater strength and speed. Before he realised he landed into another cheese station and to his surprise this station was full of overwhelming cheese. He could not believe his eyes. Every step he took inside he saw different varieties of cheese. He quickly nibbled his way through the station. He doubted if this was real or his imagination until he saw SNIFF and SCURRY there. Seeing their bellies he knew they were here for quite some time. He removed his shoes and jumped into the pile of cheese and screamed “hooray for change” on top of his voice. He soon realised what he had learned in the past. He realised that he was afraid of change that did not allow him to move forward. He realised that he had started to change the moment he learnt to laugh at himself and not take himself very seriously. He knew he had learned something from his mice buddies. They kept life simple. They did not brood over the lost cheese. They did not evaluate. They did not question. They simply accepted and moved on. He realised that there is always new cheese out there whether you like it or not and it comes to you as reward when you overcome your own fear. Cautious from past experience, HAW now inspects Cheese Station daily and explores different parts of the maze regularly to prevent any complacency from setting in. As he was brooding over himself he wondered if HEM had read any of the lines he had written on the way. But he felt he had tried enough to convince him and realised it is he himself who can get past his comfort and fears and no one else can. HAW once again carved on one wall of the station“The fear you let build up in your mind is worse than the situation that actually exists”

HAW exclaims “the truth is, there is change, and it is inevitable. So move with the change, monitor the change, adapt to the change and finally enjoy the change”

This story has been adapted into many corporates and rightly it should be. It speaks volumes about one’s character and impacts deeply on the nature of his work. Many corporates use this as a tool to assign designations and departments. The SNIFFs are used as business analysts and marketing, the SCURRYs are used for sales and administration, HAWs are used as managers and executives for business developments and operations, and finally HEMs are usually counselled and guided to change and if they don’t are laid off.

This story has truly lifted my spirits and I hope it does it to you as well. I would like you to think about yourself and which character do you fit into? The SNIFF- who is constantly reading the situation and smells the change? The SCURRY-who is a sheer go getter and believes in doing more and thinking less? HEM- who is in self-denial of the change, passive and does not want to move out of his comfort zone? HAW- who was succumbed to his fears and starvation but soon realised the truth and overcame his fears and achieved new cheese?

Think about it…

I walk a lonely road

I remember the days when I was in school, when I was young, when I was happy. 24 hours went by in a jiffy. Before you knew it was already night and time to sleep. Things around us kept us on our toes so much so that we dint have the time and inclination to reflect within. And thank god we dint. The world that we were a part of was so small. My world was confined within my colony. School, home and play ground. That’s it. That was all I knew. Sadly then I grew up and my borders began to expand. My world grew bigger and bigger until I was done with my graduation. Ostensibly growth of borders with respect to happiness was a forward exponential graph. And therefore happiness also descends when borders starts shrinking. That was a revelation for which I was not prepared and had to face its consequences. As my world started narrowing, my inner antennas were alerted and gave me a heck of a time within. I slept every night with millions of questions unanswered and billions of random nasty thoughts that haunted. I was tired, I was exhausted and after a day’s work all I wanted was a good sleep and here I was barred from it. 

I decided to take a week off and go somewhere alone and sought things out with myself and then begin my process fervently and hope for peace. With immense resolve, I discovered that the root of all that I was feeling was the thread I tied to different people and circumstances knowingly and unknowingly. Either the thread was complexly entangled or tied to a wrong person all together. Both are equally hazardous to one’s life. And then in one of those nights in solitude I accidentally went through this poem by William Blake named poison tree and the doors of my deluded mind opened for good.

A poison tree is a very basic message for maintaining loving relationship through communication. The key is to communicate. The poem’s first lines goes “I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end …I was angry with my foe; I told it not, my wrath did grow”. Such a simple way to express a profound truth. When you feel something and you have the common sense and the courage to express that feeling to our loved ones, the rage and the fury disappear, almost as if by magic.

My inclination in the past has often been to stay silent when I feel angry. I admit to wanting to stew about it, play it over and over in my mind, where I have extended dialogues with the person I feel angry towards. As long as I take this position of freezing out my loved ones or friends, the wrath persists. Yet when it finally does come out and we are able to communicate about it, expressing our authentic feelings, regardless of how absurd they may sound to the other person, magically and almost instantaneously the fury subsides. “Was angry with my foe, told not and wrath did grow” this is precisely the lesson that I have had to learn, I admit to still working on it each and every day. 

In past relationships I created foes out of those I loved the most. The moment I made them foes, I kept my wrath inside, playing intellectual games with myself, and creating an unbelievably complex scenario that only I was privy to. Thus the inclination to keep my wrath within, unexpressed, allowed me to create the poison tree. I would rather water it with my tears and sun it with my deceitful smiles. And the result? It would continue to grow it and bear fruits. And the fruits are definitely poisonous. It does not only apply to personal relationships, but in dealing with everyone in your life. Anytime you feel that spark go off inside you, and your wrath begins to grow, you are headed to a potential morass. The way out of that potential morass is to stop and make that person a friend rather than a foe. I think honesty and no nonsense statement will put the wrath aside and inhibit the growth of a poison tree that will ultimately destroy you.

Similarly in close relationships, when you feel something like anger, practice mustering up the courage to say how you feel without being abusive or loud. I have found that when I give the silent treatment the anger doesn’t subside. In fact, it grows worse because both of us are growing our own poison tree inside because we have made foes of each other. When we sit down and express how am feeling and what exactly my disappointments are, it generally leads to an open discussion in which we both get to express ourselves and ends with a hug. I don’t believe in the world famous statement that everyone use to console themselves “time will heal”. By not communicating we only nurture the wrath rather than killing it. 

The initial steps would be difficult, could be weird as well, probably the other person won’t like it and perhaps the relation could go worse. Thinking rationally about a problem will make you silent and passive and indifferent, and with distorted peace. In a relationship it’s not about of who is right or wrong, rational or irrational, it’s about who’s life and peace.  Rationality at the cost of one’s peace makes absolutely no sense. Especially with such a complex and difficult domain of life called relationship where there is no thumb rule or fixed check points to cross. Each one has his own race to run. It is a paradox. I am sure it takes courage to take the first step, but the point is you have nothing to lose, the worst that can happen has already happened. What more are you afraid to lose?

It is inevitable in any partnership for two people to have conflict. I often express my feeling that in any relationship in which two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary. Your soul mate is often a person who is most unlike you, the one who can push the buttons that send you into frenzy. That person is your soul mate precisely because of this power. When you find yourself in a fury, the person you perceive as causing it is your greatest teacher at that moment. That person is teaching you something that you have not yet mastered yourself, that you still do not know how to choose peace as that button is being pushed. 

The way to that absolute peace is to tell your friend or your lover or your child or your parent or your mother in law exactly how you feel. Do this from a position of being detached and honest and watch how your wrath disappears. You will have removed entirely the possibility of nurturing and producing a poison tree. The more you can create an atmosphere of open honesty, particularly regarding areas of disagreement, the less likely disagreements will become disagreeable. It is in the time of being disagreeable that a seedling sprouts and eventually nourishes a poison tree.

Delusion !

We spend our whole lives worrying about the future, planning for the future, trying to predict the future. As figuring it out will somehow cushion the blow. But the future is always changing. The future is the home of our deepest fears, our wildest hopes. But one thing is certain; when it finally reveals itself, the future is never the way we ever imagined it. Sooner or later, if intelligent one realizes that all the wealth acquired, all the objects of pleasure procured, all the relationships maintained, name and fame gained, work done, achievements accomplished, none of them has any relevance to the inner actual peace and joy lived. The entire life then seems an empty struggle a futile exertion, a meaningless mission. No one really can describe or be sure as to what that inner peace is. It has to be experienced, it is something very personal, and something that is so short lived and still has the capacity to cure a disease. It had been a long time since I had tasted it; I almost forgot something like that ever existed. An outright attempt to search capture that peace began and this part of my life is called ‘taking blows’, the time when endurance gets tested, the same time when one knows his real self. This is that phase in life which is very common and I presume it’s extremely essential too. I was internally annihilated; every positive emotion that my skin had to display to the conventional world outside had a deep root of defiled chaos within. It was terrible. It was as if life told me “sorry boss! You do what you want; I have nothing good for you”. It was gloomy.

Amidst all succeeding people around in their own way it was even more difficult to carry myself through. I desperately wanted to shield my inner self, and at the same time on the other side I wanted to shout what I am actually feeling but somehow controlled every nerve. During this contemplative period I reckoned how different human beings are and how the hell did god or someone design it? No two thoughts between us ever match (unless you pretend to), still there exist harmony and understanding and compatibility amongst us. The very nature of humans to find a complete set structure in between extensive chaos is a miracle in its own sense. No explanation. It is.

I was terribly rejected by everyone. I was opposed for every thought raised. I was denied for every wish asked. I was ignored for every idea shared. In short I was eliminated. I obviously didn’t intend to give up and run away to eternity, which was not going to get me anywhere but into more misery. So I thought of giving it another shot, a shot that will be taken seriously, a shot that will be respected, a shot that may be in retrospect that would make some sense and might amount to something.

Life around is too complicated. Every single opinion in any context were turned and twisted to satisfy emotions and self esteem and respect and I don’t know what not is required for ones contentment. This complication has another consequence apart from an illusion called contentment which is called ‘chaos’ which in reality has a much higher probability of occurrence than the former. Why to resort for a long route when there is a small and simple one.  Missing somebody?? Call, Want to meet up?? Invite, Want to be understood? Explain, Have questions??Ask, don’t like something?? Say it, like something?   State it, Want something?  Ask for it, Have doubts? Clarify, Love someone??  Tell it. How difficult is it to put these into actual realistic practice. Why the unnecessary complications and chaos. Confrontation always helps.

The other gloomy thing that made me reflect very easily unto myself is the unwavering indifference that suddenly radiated from people because of certain inexplicable reasons. An invisible hand just slaps on your face and runs away without looking back. The latest trend for indifference that one shows is when he ‘gets into a new relationship in the context of love’. Oh my god! Now the numerous complications that comes with it is bizarre. I really feel there shouldn’t be any personal relationships formed between 2 people amongst a bunch of good friends who flock together. It defeats the very purpose. If it s a third person altogether, then bang on. It will add a new flavor, a new aroma among others too. If it is someone amongst them, it brings sense of emotional separation; suddenly things get personal and confidential. Trust domain suddenly forms a new range. Pretence, superficiality, conventional rules etc suddenly becomes so important. It is all the more disturbing when you see such a couple make love before you. Sigh!! Plight! They are friends’ right, every time you see them again a wrong and disturbing picture forms in your head. Some friends are addictive by nature. The thing about addiction is that it never ends well. Because eventually, whatever it is that was getting us high stops feeling good, and starts to hurt. Still they say you don’t kick the habit until you hit rock bottom. But how do you know when you’re there? Because no matter how badly it hurts us, letting go hurts even worse. How does one get through then? A terrible war had to be fought with the self. But some wars are never over, some end in an uneasy truce. Some wars result incomplete and total victory. Some war end with peace offering and some war end in hope, but all these wars are nothing compared to the most frightening war of all, the one you yet have to fight. The ties that bind us are sometimes impossible to explain, they connect us even after it seems better to break off. Some defy distance, time and logic because some ties are simply meant to be.

There comes a point where it all becomes too much. When we get tired to fight anymore. So we give up. That’s when the real work begins, to find hope, where there seems to be absolutely nothing at all. We constantly come up with new ways to fix ourselves so we change, we adapt, and we create new versions of ourselves. We just need to make sure that this one is better than the last.

Thus when the world rejects you, its life’s way of asking you to be alert and get up from your slumber and act. Nothing in this world remains the same and hence no happiness is permanent. “Once upon a time”, “happily ever after”, the stories we tell and wish for ourselves are that of a dream. They don’t come true. Reality is much stormier, much murkier, and much scarier. It’s so much more interesting than living happily ever after.

Shetty Kutty

Sometimes actions seem inept to convey some feelings. Sometimes, the genuineness of our lauds need the stability of words. A personality so amiable that all the unpleasant situations around you somehow turn themselves around to bring out the best in your life. So here I share this eulogy about one such person who means a lot to me and definitely many more. With my heart getting heavier and heavier every minute with emotions that is just waiting to jump out in joy and celebration. I now see you finish three decades on this earth and still feels like we just met yesterday playing badminton or hogging in some restaurant in the city or brain storming about how to mould a kid for his betterment.

"Bharuuuuuu " this sound rang my ears 5-10 times day in all the different tones and modulations one could do.  To give minute by minute update about the day, conference calls for hours in a day just because the office paid the bills. oh ! How can I forget those days and those boisterous moments. The laughter at 'Papa Jones ' that night still vividly reverberates  in my ears. From Bandra to CST to Thane to Goregaon, we have laughed away to glory no matter where we were. Those moments are thoroughly etched into my 'memories' system, and I am still hungry for more. I just can't help but smile, even now as I am writing about it.

Behind every successful man, is a trail made of determination, a path of overcoming failures, and immense courage and sincerity to win over all odds. A grand salute to you, a young achiever whose company can give me no pains or sorrows, whose presence and  wit is enough to bring to light and happiness and perhaps make Manmohan Singh open his mouth and laugh. Ahh... i cannot find a better day to showcase the various reasons why the world admires you. You truly deserve every bit of your 'relative' success and the continuous praises in order to constantly increase the number of feathers on your cap.

Known you for a considerable amount of time now and i feel truly blessed to have a company like yours, to know the depth sportsman spirit that you carry with the crazy things that you do for united and cff. The real you who knows the art of getting the best out of people, who then have made something fruitful with their lives is just remarkable. The constant comparison in all the possible arenas of life that one makes with you very often; makes me just wonder the amount of strength you gather to come parallel to the person whom you revere.

The perfect combination that makes me grow more in respect for you is your identical passion for work and teaching. A fun-loving teacher, who somehow manages to make a subject like science and  electronics so interactive, pleasing and gratifying that one  makes a career out of it. The efforts that you put in selflessly into teaching is the one thing that stands out. Applause !! And of-course the highlight of your life  are the crazy fans, the ridiculous comments and the bizarre that goes with it. How do you keep yourself grounded to an extent like this and maintain a constant smile, even after getting praised so much?. Only you are destined to handle this.

The sun is out and I look forward to a new year of rewarding your exceptional talent. And i can only make a wish that the success is not ephemeral and that u illuminate all the young minds who feel blessed to have their association with you. Your lively and merry nature well-balanced and organized with your personality as also with the things you do makes u a class apart!! You truly are a super enthusiastic human being who brings a whole range of diverse talents to the project you are connected with. May you get the ample strength to recharge your batteries, recruit some fresh blood and prepare yourself for another fantastic year of celebrating your achievements. I do cherish and will always be thankful to receive the importance from you that i do now. I always will treasure you advices, your ideas and your believes and strategies that make me live with so much ease today. And there was no better way to express my greatest gratitude and appreciation for the same..apart from this.

With an grieving heart I would like to apologize with all sincerity and with  at most veracity for all troubles and ruthless immaturity that I have shown you. My heart now aches when unprecedented love and care is rewarded with arrogance and egocentric desires. I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize for all the shortcomings on behalf of my dearest  counterparts. You and I know them very well. It will take time for them to make peace with it, am sure they will express it soon.

With tears in my eyes I would like to express my deepest, heartfelt gratitude to you for all that you have given. I still have not figured out how I am going to return it all to you, hope someday I will perhaps with interest.

Personally, this is To one of my favorite people in the world,
I wish you more gifts to open and more cakes to eat, More candles to blow, and of course, More birthdays to come. Happy birthday brother!! Cheers!!!

Baby, we're not done yet !

I was in the 4th grade when i realised i have developed a feeling of wanting to spend the rest of my life with. When i told this to my friend they said i had a 'CRUSH' on her and eventually they associated the poor girl for every little change in me. I some how dint like that word 'crush' and felt like crushing them when they uttered it. I then decided not to reveal such emotions and knew how it is to be crushed by a bunch of crushers who dint apparently have any crushes. We indians are brilliant in magnifying things. I then knew how a small feeling becomes a news to gossip in the environment for atleast a month. I also witnessed some of the magnificent stories told which otherwise could never be true.

It was around that period when i came to know a friends sister is going to marry and guess what it was a love marriage. The systematic protocols taken to convince each other's parents and the process of selecting various other marriage parameters like place, style, invitations and the most important honeymoon etc was done. It then took almost a year for them to actually tie the knot. And here i was just developed a mere crush. I was petrified. I looked around and i thought i was just not meant for all this. I wowed to never get married and had bet this with many people and sadly people remember it.

With time passing by i comprehended if there has to be something eternal it has to be love and if there is one common thing throughout your life that is the role of relationships. Imagine a world where only you are alive and nothing else. Sad isnt it ?. Life is all about relationships you accept or don't this is the truth. And the only beam that hold the pillars of two people in a relationship is love. Theeasiest way i knew to get the relationship right is to get the love right.

The current scenario is somehow is not pleasing to my eyes and surely morally not acceptable. Words like love and relationship has no value anymore, the feeling of love is no more felt, the trust in the relationship has been buried. We talk about brotherhood and integrity in almost all the social subjects and haven't applied an iota of it. What is the use of an education system which does not teach us love? We are taught to tackle exams, why aren't we taught to tackle the intense complexity in a relationships. People even afford to end their lives in the name of love and broken relationships, sickening isn't it ?. A broken relationship has become so common in fact has become a style statement, sounds cool right ? All cool people break up once and say " oh ya its just not working out ". The whole concept has become a norm, a regulation, a duty. Say relationship rules. If you abide by it you are in love. If you fail to abide by it then you are not in love. And hence the various other degrees of symptoms of love and the intensity is defined within this bandwidth. Sometimes when i sit back and think about this. I feel we are somehow slaved to one another. Slaved to the rules and norms that is supposed to be followed. We bring in enormous concentration on what is to be done rather than how it is to be done. Right from remembering dates, buying the right gifts at the right time from the right place to the right person, communicating at least for 20 hrs a day, behaving in the right manner so as the world comes to know that we are in love. Oh it has become ridiculous. Love and relationship has now become an outward emotion for the world to see. Sigh !!

With the last few weeks spent in listening to the various stories of my near and dear ones breaking relationships only made me reflect on the very essence of this emotion. With a aching heart i sat in contemplation every day and tried to infer, what it takes to own such an emotion? When can we do justice to it ? Is there any types of love ? What is all about?.

No activity in human life is taken up with so much sincerity and elaborate preparation as in man's search for joy of love, and yet no enterprise of man fails so constantly, with such regularity, as his quest for love. He helplessly waits and wants to receive love and so in process ends up in disappointment. With the world that i have seen i categorise love into 2 dominant parts i.e lower love and higher love.

The love that leaves us with agitation in our mind is lower love, and the love that leaves us with profound peace and joy is higher love. In this true love, every action and sacrifice you make towards the object of you love reduces your egocentric desires and calms the agitation in your mind. Thus higher love can alone help us come out of our sense of incompleteness and alienation. The lower love is merely an escape from a persons sense of loneliness. Without this protection a person feels lonely, isolated and helpless. Such people demand love and cannot give love. Such a person depends entirely on other objects : his home, work, money, relations etc. with these he creates a prison for himself and ever willingly suffers in it. The lower love is passive and the higher love in dynamic. The higher love is not waiting to be loved by others. He is not a beggar of love. His dynamic love floods forth from its heart and in its irresistible onward dash, it breaks all walls around others, storms into their hearts and therein seeks and discovers a blissful fusion of oneness. The lover ennobles the beloved and at the  same time retains his own individuality. In such a dynamic blessed love the two become one and still neither dominates the other, nor is anyone rendered a victim of the other. In dynamic love, it is a wilful " dashing on " to love, rather than an unconscious accidental " falling into" love. True loving is not a passive taking, but a dynamic giving.

This idea of giving is often dreaded and misunderstood as a giving up of something , a painful renunciation, a state of being deprived of everything pleasant. But actually it is giving up of all anxiety to enjoy the fruits of the actions. Love when is true and unconditional, is its own reward. Very few realise it, none dare to live it. Some of us love only if we are loved in return. That is, we give love in payment for the love received. This is a commercial attitude, an indian shopkeeper mentality.
Hence to give love is freedom , to demand it is slavery. Love lives the joy , lust only seeks it.

Scientists only know what love does and not what love is. Love can empty our asylums, perhaps all our prisons, may be all our hospitals too. Most people suffer due to lack of love. Love to humans is what the sun is to the flowers.

Now when i encounter anybody, i have only one thought in my mind
"With all the millions and billions of people who stepped into this world, fate brought you and me together, there's got to an explanation".

Do not fall in love, rise in love.