Simple yet profound

I asked him it's been so long, do you still love her? Do you still feel the same way?

He said, "I don't know if I still love her. It may not be the same. But I know one thing, I feel happy when I talk to her:"

It was the most simple answer and yet I got to know everything I wanted to. Love is too simple yet we make it so complicated. :)

Maslow, you made me think!

So, I was in Goa last week. Yes Goa, for a vacation. Yes, with friends. And now you can go green with envy :D. I just love Goa, I have spent 4 best years of my life there and I am still head over heels in love with it. Actually, probably its not Goa, its the sea, the beach, the sand, the waves, the sun, the stars, the wind and all of it together with friends which makes me go week in my knees. Recreate this setting anywhere and I will be as satisfied as a well-fed puppy. Oh, and this reminds me what I really intended to write about. Most All of my MBA friends would have read about the famous Maslow's theory of needs and all most wouldn't remember it, not all the stages at least. Frankly, even I didn't. But now I have read about it in-depth. And you'll ask me why especially since BS is the least read/remembered/bothered about course in the whole of MBA.I'll tell you why 

Lets rewind to last week.

Place: Vagator Beach (the secluded part)

Time: Twilight. Just post sunset

Date: Don't really care

Scene: The wind was blowing hard and ruthlessly. The tides in the sea were so haphazard it felt like it was playfully teasing me and following wherever I went. The sun had left the scene, leaving behind a sky so pink, you'd wonder if God was gay. The stars were already all over the sky. And, of course, how could I forget the cashew-like moon glowing proudly as if it had reclaimed its kingdom back from the sun. (Fyi: Cashew's a Goan specialty, if you didn't know already). The sand was blowing in all directions, a thin film was deposited on our bodies. I apologize for going too much into detail and hence taking time to come to the point, but trust me, its essential. Unless you can feel even a bit like how I felt that day, you will not be able to appreciate my new found respect in theories far left behind. I forgot to mention my second love - my music (First love being beaches if it isn't so clear yet) We were an assortment of five friends; and I say assortment because each one of us is so very different and were especially in a very different thought sphere. In the midst of all this, I felt like I am the most satisfied person on earth. No worry in the world. In fact, I remember my mind was clear, empty, devoid of any thought or feeling, when I was walking along the shoreline with my phone and just one line playing repeatedly on my mind - Look at the stars, look how they shine for you. (Yellow by Coldplay). This is surprising because it rarely happens with me. I am a thinker, I cannot stop thinking no matter how hard I try. I find it difficult to sleep immediately as I lie on my bed however tired I am, since my brain doesn't just let me! Anyway, so as learned men say, I was in a state of meditation. That's when I remembered the self-actualization stage - the fifth stage in the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. (Yes, I eventually started thinking) I couldn't feel hunger or cold (though I should have!) I did not feel scared of the waves. I did not bother how late it had  become. Moreover I did not care, what xyz thought about me or what my friends were upto. It was all pointless. I just wanted to be with me. Do nothing. This was self-actualization state for me. Or possibly a step ahead, if there's  even something above that! 

Maslow says, only when your needs in the earlier stages, namely, physiological,  safety, belonging, esteem are met, you can reach the last stage of self-actualization. It surely didn't go that way for me. It can be argued that none of these things, I was in dire need of. I had had a meal sometime in the morning, I was wearing clothes, not enough to guard me well but surely I wasn't shivering in cold. I did not care about people, because they were my friends and hence I could feel the way I felt. But, there have been numerous saints in our Indian history who have been able to rise over all this. So its not impossible. Maybe there's more to it than the theory so simply narrated to us.

Even though it seems like, I am confused, I am actually happy about the fact that yes, its possible to rise beyond certain things or people and feel absolutely light even when there are thousand problems around you. :)

PS: Do listen to Yellow - Coldplay. Its soothing.

Europe ne humse kya kya karwaya!

Apne hi ghar mein hotel ki tarah rehna sikhaya
Ek pair hostel mein toh dusra train mein rakhke chalna sikhaya
Rail gadiyon ko apna dusra ghar banwaya
Eurail ki kimat se sau dafa zyada vasool karwaya
Ek hi mahine mein usko do hisse mein batwaya
College ke zero attendance ka sau pratishat upyog karwaya

Europe ne humse kya kya karwaya!

Gujju hone ka pehli baar asli ehsaas karvaya
Grocery shopping ke liye Belgium se Germany jane pe majboor kiya
Coke ki kimat se PPP ka andaza lagwaya
Snickers aur Twix se pet bharwaya
Scandi mein lutero se bhi lutna sikhaya
Lidl aur Adle ki khoj mein raah-raah bhatkaya
Daru se bhi mehenga pani dilwaya

Europe ne humse kya kya karwaya!

Ek shaher se dusre shaher mein antar karna bhulaya
Town hall, castle, bridge aur cathedral mein kabhi na jane ka pran dilwaya
Chala chala ke juton ke taliye ghiswaye
Starbucks aur McD ke wifi ke liye naya pyar jagaya
Facebook se badhkar google maps ka istemaal karwaya

Europe ne humse kya kya karwaya!

Itni samanta mein bhi har ek shahar ki ek anokhi pehchaan karvayi
Apne itihaas, kalakaari, pakwaan aur bhasha se dil ko lubhaya
Inki takniki vikas aur jivanstar ne ascharyachakit kiya
Anjaan logon ki bewajah parwaah pe sharminda karwaya
Kuch naye dost aur unki dosti ka pyara anubhav karvaya

Europe ne humse bahut kuch karwaya!

Rail ke lambe safar mein hamein bhi kavi ban ne par majboor kiya

Europe ne humse kya kya karwaya!

Travelling, the real way!

An nice article by Paulo Coelho:

I realised very early on that, for me, travelling was the best way of learning. I still have a pilgrim soul, and I thought that I would use this blog to pass on some of the lessons I have learned, in the hope that they might prove useful to other pilgrims like me. 

1. Avoid museums. This might seem to be absurd advice, but let’s just think about it a little: if you are in a foreign city, isn’t it far more interesting to go in search of the present than of the past? It’s just that people feel obliged to go to museums because they learned as children that travelling was about seeking out that kind of culture. Obviously museums are important, but they require time and objectivity – you need to know what you want to see there, otherwise you will leave with a sense of having seen a few really fundamental things, except that you can’t remember what they were.

2. Hang out in bars. Bars are the places where life in the city reveals itself, not in museums. By bars I don’t mean nightclubs, but the places where ordinary people go, have a drink, ponder the weather, and are always ready for a chat. Buy a newspaper and enjoy the ebb and flow of people. If someone strikes up a conversation, however silly, join in: you cannot judge the beauty of a particular path just by looking at the gate.

3. Be open. The best tour guide is someone who lives in the place, knows everything about it, is proud of his or her city, but does not work for any agency. Go out into the street, choose the person you want to talk to, and ask them something (Where is the cathedral? Where is the post office?). If nothing comes of it, try someone else – I guarantee that at the end of the day you will have found yourself an excellent companion.

4. Try to travel alone or – if you are married – with your spouse. It will be harder work, no one will be there taking care of you, but only in this way can you truly leave your own country behind. Traveling with a group is a way of being in a foreign country while speaking your mother tongue, doing whatever the leader of the flock tells you to do, and taking more interest in group gossip than in the place you are visiting.

5. Don’t compare. Don’t compare anything – prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport, nothing! You are not traveling in order to prove that you have a better life than other people – your aim is to find out how other people live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the extraordinary.

6. Understand that everyone understands you. Even if you don’t speak the language, don’t be afraid: I’ve been in lots of places where I could not communicate with words at all, and I always found support, guidance, useful advice, and even girlfriends. Some people think that if they travel alone, they will set off down the street and be lost for ever. Just make sure you have the hotel card in your pocket and – if the worst comes to the worst – flag down a taxi and show the card to the driver.

7. Don’t buy too much. Spend your money on things you won’t need to carry: tickets to a good play, restaurants, trips. Nowadays, with the global economy and the Internet, you can buy anything you want without having to pay excess baggage.

8. Don’t try to see the world in a month. It is far better to stay in a city for four or five days than to visit five cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman: she takes time to be seduced and to reveal herself completely.

9. A journey is an adventure. Henry Miller used to say that it is far more important to discover a church that no one else has ever heard of than to go to Rome and feel obliged to visit the Sistine Chapel with two hundred thousand other tourists bellowing in your ear. By all means go to the Sistine Chapel, but wander the streets too, explore alleyways, experience the freedom of looking for something – quite what you don’t know – but which, if you find it, will – you can be sure – change your life.
 

The Journey So Far...

Life right now seems like a movie in the fast forward mode. It seems as if just a few days back, I came to Joka with bags packed with clothes and a heart packed with a mixture of pride, anxiety, hope and excitement, ready to embark upon an unknown journey. Its been a good 7 months since then marking the end of a quarter of my MBA.

When I came to IIM Calcutta, right after finishing my engineering, I had certain preset notions about life in a college-away-from-home. Though I had heard that life at an IIM is going to be different, I thought to myself - what difference does a few more assignments and a compulsory attendance system would make to hostel life (I was a fairly regular student in BITS despite its no-compulsory-attendance rule). Little did I know, my life would become a roller coaster ride in just few days of coming to Joka. I won't explicitly describe the first 10 days in Joka; lets just say I felt like Alice in Wonderland except the fact that I was expected to act like Superman in Metropolis.

The general belief is - as you grow up, you become more liberal, you have freedom to do things as you wish to. But here, it was different. I felt like I went one step behind instead of going forward. Though, this could be because BITS was far too liberal I guess. Here, you not only have to attend every class but also read prior to it. The assignments are usually in groups (which has its both upsides and downsides (read: free riders)). But academics was just the teaser, the full version was called Summers (the summer internship placement process). Apart from CV making, CV reviewing, PPT attending and preparation we had to do one big thing - choosing the sector of your interest for internship. Well, for most freshers like me - it is nothing but taking the best you can get based on your CV from the pre-defined universally accepted order of preference. Soon enough, you realize that whatever you did or will do in the future, is weighed it terms of CV points.

This is where I would have ended the post if I was writing a few months back. (Of course I did not have the time to post then). But I realized there is more than it meets the eye. The very attendance rule I cribbed about made me realize what I'd have missed if I had slept in my room the day Mr. Anoop Sinha gave insights on the current European economic crisis. If not for the numerous group assignments, I wouldn't have met some wonderful people with their even more wonderful ideas. As for the free riders - I am sure, I will have to deal with a lot many in the future and I'd rather be prepared for it. The placement process does sometimes makes you feel more like a commodity and less like a person - forced to accept what others choose for us. But why do we keep forgetting that it is just a 2 month internship - constituting just about 0.2% of your lifetime (side-effect of MBA: you start quantifying facts). And it is meant for experimenting! So why not experiment with the best you can get right now? It may happen that you end up hating your work. Then it just means, you have one less sector to choose from when you sit for your finals! It surely may not seem as simple as that right now but I choose to believe that couple of years down the line, I won't remember the stipend I was paid during the internship or the kind of work I was asked to do, but I'll remember the fun I had with my fellow interns.

To sum up, life in an MBA college may be hectic, may make you feel disillusioned at times, but it does help you realize your true potential (yes, the numbers of hours you can stay awake at one go adds to it). Learning comes through various sources - sometimes from people you least expect. And who says you don't make real friends at an MBA college? I am lucky to have found friends who never miss a chance to take my case or never fail to cheer me up when I feel the least like it :-)

Who Am I?

When someone asks, who are you, what do you say, your name, maybe your education or your profession. If asked to elaborate, you may say the state you belong to or the language you speak. We take hours to prepare the most obvious interview question "Tell me something about yourself". Well, that is because, we cannot really define who we are and our nationality/religion/profession etc. does not really tell who you are. The answer to this question takes a lifetime to answer. We are constantly changing and moreover we don't know ourselves completely. There are many things which remain the same throughout, and many others which change with time. The key thing is to be aware of yourself.

The following is the song which I truly love -'Bulla ki jaana mai kaun' by Rabbi Shergill. I am also inserting the lyrics and meaning of the song (source:http://rabbism.blogspot.com/2005/07/bulla-ki-jaana-rabbi-shergill-lyrics.html) Do listen :)

Na maen momin vich maseet aan Na maen vich kufar diyan reet aan Na maen paakaan vich paleet aan Na maen moosa na pharaun. Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun Na maen andar ved kitaab aan, Na vich bhangaan na sharaab aan Na vich rindaan masat kharaab aan Na vich jaagan na vich saun. Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun. Na vich shaadi na ghamnaaki Na maen vich paleeti paaki Na maen aabi na maen khaki Na maen aatish na maen paun Bulleh!, ki jaana maen kaun Na maen arabi na lahori Na maen hindi shehar nagauri Na hindu na turak peshawri Na maen rehnda vich nadaun Bulla, ki jaana maen kaun Na maen bheth mazhab da paaya Ne maen aadam havva jaaya Na maen apna naam dharaaya Na vich baitthan na vich bhaun Bulleh , ki jaana maen kaun Avval aakhir aap nu jaana Na koi dooja hor pehchaana Maethon hor na koi siyaana Bulla! ooh khadda hai kaun Bulla, ki jaana maen kaun

Not a believer inside the mosque, am I Nor a pagan disciple of false rites Not the pure amongst the impure Neither Moses, nor the Pharoh Bulleh! to me, I am not known Not in the holy Vedas, am I Nor in opium, neither in wine Not in the drunkard`s craze Niether awake, nor in a sleeping daze Bulleh! to me, I am not known In happiness nor in sorrow, am I Neither clean, nor a filthy mire Not from water, nor from earth Neither fire, nor from air, is my birth Bulleh! to me, I am not known Not an Arab, nor Lahori Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri Hindu, Turk (Muslim), nor Peshawari Nor do I live in Nadaun Bulleh! to me, I am not known Secrets of religion, I have not known From Adam and Eve, I am not born I am not the name I assume Not in stillness, nor on the move Bulleh! to me, I am not known I am the first, I am the last None other, have I ever known I am the wisest of them all Bulleh! do I stand alone? Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Not A Secret Anymore!

How many of you believe that man makes his own destiny? And how many believe, that your fate is pre-written?

I personally  and very strongly believe that you can achieve whatever you want to. The toughest of problems usually have the simplest of solutions. The challenge is to find it. Here I am going to introduce to a theory which will help you do just that. It is called the Law of Attraction (LOA)

So what is Law of Attraction? In simple words it means – like attracts like, whatever you think or believe strongly, is what is going to happen.  “When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true”, quoted by Paulo Coelho, in his book The Alchemist is exactly what LOA preaches.  LOA is just like any other law of universe- like the law of gravity. It is impartial and omnipresent. There is a whole bunch of science out there which proves my claims, but I want go into that. 

Now the important question is how to apply it? Simply, think and live what you really want to be. Picturise yourself as the CEO of a big firm, it is quite likely that you will eventually become the CEO. The important thing is to do it with passion and do it regularly. What people normally focus on is what they don’t want. I don’t want it to rain today, I don’t want to be stuck in the office. I don’t want to look fat. All these will actually aggravate the situation. The universe doesn’t care about what you want or don’t want it just gives back more of what you are thinking about. So, the right way to go about is to imagine a nice sunny day, a calm peaceful journey to office and to imagine yourself in your 26inch waist jeans which fitted you a couple of years back.

All this said, it doesn’t mean that if you sit all day and chant money, money, money and expect to become a millionaire. Obviously not! There are three important things to keep in mind. 1) You have to work towards your goal actively. 2) You have to actually believe that you will be a millionaire; you have to have faith in yourself. 3) You have to picturize the end result constantly.

This law may seem a bit hard to digest, because of its simplicity but trust me it works. Try applying it for small things and see the results. Most of you would have actually experienced LOA working for you. Have you given an exam with the least preparation but you feel that you will do well, and you actually do well? That’s LOA in practice. Do try it for small things and see how miracles happen :)