You Never Know

We all strive to be happy. At least most of us do. And in order to be happy, we do many things. Things as large as planning our career and family life to as small as cracking a joke to make someone smile. Happiness underlies every action of a common man. But maybe we take it a little too far. Maybe the very things that we do to make us and ours happy, back fire and make us the contrary – unhappy. 

I doubt if anyone would disagree with me when I say that our lives are not really happy. Isn’t this the total opposite of what we want to be and what we strive to be? If we are putting in so much effort towards being happy, then why is it that we eventually end up being not so happy, or in the worst case, sad? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that we overdo it. One thing we can agree upon for sure is that happiness cannot be obtained by a loner, unless of course he or she is a Yogi and finds bliss in Sadhana. We are happy when we do something for ourselves, and we are happier when we do something for others. The second kind of happiness is more fulfilling and hence more attempted than the first. Herein lies the problem. 

Most often one would tend to think that one knows the person one is trying to make happy. After all, one knows what needs to be done for that person to make that person happy. Isn’t that knowing enough? But you see, like the million variables that make accurate weather prediction almost impossible, there are perhaps a million more variables that make predicting human emotion almost impossible. So although you are doing something to make a person happy, maybe, just maybe that person will not enjoy that thing at that time in that place because his or her mind is preoccupied with something else that needs fulfillment. And everything goes for a toss when this happens – that person gets their fulfillment by doing what they think will make you happy at that exact time. That person has been trying to do what you have been trying to do all along. Both are trying to make each other happy. Both are trying to do something nice, both have the best intentions for the other person yet neither is able to do anything for the other to make him or her happy. So much thought, so much effort and so much love and affection later, the result is nil, rather you receive a totally different emotion - anger, irritation or frustration. And you oh so rightfully retaliate. You retaliate with a higher degree of the same emotion you just received. But you will not talk it out calmly to figure out that you both were great together and it was just a miscommunication. No sir. You will want a justification from the other person for letting you feel bad. Remember that the other person is also expecting the same from you, and this keeps going. This is a classic infinite loop unless one hits Ctrl+Z to terminate the program. You see, what is at work here is a little thing called ego.

So what is the conclusion of all this? Is the other person liable for a justification? Then so are you and we all will be justifying ourselves for eternity, God knows what new peril will evolve out of that. Or, you address this little person in you called ego, and tell it to shut the #%&# up. And go on with your endeavor to make that other person happy and achieve it. Seriously, just try it. You never know!

To be a Man

You feel quiet and you're so lonely
Oh so lucky you are, you have a companion to have a word with.
You feel hurt and you wish to cry
Oh so lucky you are, you have a shoulder to cry on.
You feel bad and you're sad
Oh u so lucky you are, you have friends to share.
You feel left out and you're stranded
Oh so lucky you are, to be asked "you want a ride?"
You have a problem and you start to wet your pants
Oh so lucky you are to be reminded you are a man
Because...
Those feel bad that have friends yet none to share
Those feel lonely who win the world but can't show off
Those feel hurt who are hurt and are still hurt
And oh!
Those feel lonely who are in a crowd and yet are so alone
But...
Those are men who endure
Those are men who keep pushing forward
And
Those are men that feel all sorrow and yet sprout out to ask "what's next?"

The world is full of non-sense

The world is full of non-sense. And most of the times you find yourself in the midst of the most nonsensical thing that can happen on a given day. And when you go through it again th same day, you feel the earlier one was still better, thus justifying to yourself that at any given time you are in a graver shit than before. Come to think of it, you just gained the physical and mental strength to take more shit. What happens the next day is anybody's guess. And this repeats. Day in and day out. All day. Everyday. And what happens to you? You just become more and more resilient. More strong. More immune. Now you can take more shit than you could have taken a day before. Gradually you settle down with the realisation that this is how stuff works and all you could do is tolerate it. Not to forget that in the process you would have given some nonsensical shit to someone else too. But that's only justified, isn't it? After all what could you do!

Any person even with a little class and character, after a certain point in time would want to fight back against this system. Show it the rightful place it belongs to, once and for all trying to get rid of it in expectation of a decent trouble free life. Now that's the tough part. Nonsensical situations attack you from all possible angles. Now how much and how long are you going to protect yourself? Forget defensive, even if you go on the offensive, how many people you think you can offend? And when you are looking for solace, the one person you look up to, on that day flipped themselves and ended up giving you a hard time. You don't want to fight with that person! After all, they are your "go to". You sit down with a heavy heart. Sad and full. Thinking to yourself - the world is full of non-sense.

I came, I saw, but felt too lazy to conquer

After so many bad, unproductive, boring, sickening (and a few more bad adjectives) days later, today I had a really nice day. Nothing big though. Just had a workshop to deliver on Data and Dimensional Modelling. But I had been preparing it for what seemed like ages to me. I had initially started it on last to last week's Friday. Then I thought I will finish it over the weekend. The coveted 'weekend' came and passed by without even informing me about its arrival. No probs! I thought. There's one more week to go right. So here I was, trying to prepare for this seemingly mammoth task. I always tried to start by opening up the Business Intelligence Development Studio along with the Word document to write down whatever I did so that I could pass it on to the participants. But I never actually could do more than 2 pages a day. So after one more (working)week, I had 10 pages of 'How To' stuff documented. The weekend was supposed to help me finish the job. Instead, it ruined it by letting me get drunk(Saturday night) and watch movies(Sunday - The Aviator, 300, Passion of the Christ, Teen Patti) all day. 

Then came the dreaded  D week(something similar to D Day :P). I didn't know what to do. But somehow I was still confident that I can crack it. After all I had not done anything for the past one week citing this ONE reason. Yeah, and I forgot to tell you why I was confident. Tuesday was a holiday as it was a Kannada festival called Ugadi. No goodies to guess what happened that day also. But somehow I managed to do 5 more pages. The workshop begins on Wednesday, and my session on Thursday. But it was funny how I still didn't feel tensed. The 10 minutes of 'away from the whole world' time in the loo was spent on pondering why wasn't I working? Am I not interested or what? Then enlightenment dawned on me. It struck me that all my life I had followed this one principle, which one of my colleague helped me realize a few days back - "when some thing can be done at the eleventh hour, why do it now?" So now that I had the answer to my problem, I felt a lot more free. Whole afternoon and evening on Wednesday was spent on doing what I do best - nothing. 

After I came back home, I saw it was The Eleventh Hour. I sat down at 10:30pm, worked till 2:30am, and came up with a 84 page document covering the most simplest to the most complex of concepts. Also things which even I didn't knew existed. Beat that! Finally I delivered the session today, and according to me it was a hit. People liked it and even came up to the dais(where I was packing my laptop) to appreciate and thank me. Only time will say if those appreciations really worked. Eagerly waiting for the feedback results tomorrow :)

I was ROFL while i was writing this

I find it really strange. Don't know if its funny or what, but it's really strange. Ever observed people who are so happy with using as least letters as possible when they type? There are a few that I know who do that. In fact I never knew what ROFL and LMAO meant until I met this guy. I taught him one also - ABCD(he will surely explain this in the comment). I mean I understand its a pain to write the entire word at times, but this is outrageous. And all these so called acronyms are so badly abused by almost everyone who chats. I mean, Rolling On the Floor Laughing is fine, but imagine Laughing My Ass Off. How can one do that??? Intriguing. I definitely want to see someone laughing his ass off.I wonder how it would look like! Like this maybe - 

And then there are those who like to use letters as if they are in abundance. I still haven't been able to understand why Pneumonia, Pseudo, pariS, hJose to mention a few are spelled the way they are. After all we are naive Indians. How would Jose feel if someone pronunces his name as jo-sey, or asks him, ka re jo-sey, tumko pa-neu-monia ho gaya hai kya?

Think... what a pity!