Salt in the Air, Sand in my Hair!

Sometimes we are so involved in ourselves that we forget the existence of universe around us. This kind of narcissism leads into self-destructing patterns. It’s like a loop the more you get involved in to yourself the more narcissist you become and it will lead to self-destruction. Many a times it happens, people are so involved in their problems desperately seeking their way out, asking help to others. Sometimes this help works sometimes it won’t. If you see this problem from third person point of view then you will realize the solution is hidden in yourself only. Just like waves of sea.

If you observe the sea waves, it looks quite disturbing and damaging, the more you resist these waves the more it will push you away sometimes even push you two steps backwards and if you face it too aggressively it will make more damages to you. But if you see the very own nature of these waves when it reaches the seashore; it brings all kind of impurities, some ocean stuff too, making the water turbid. But if you wait for a second or two the same stuff gets settle and the water becomes transparent. Now you can see the real depth of the water. The wave is same but the nature is totally different. The incoming wave was bit of aggressive or destructive in nature while the descending wave looks quite soothing to eyes.

Same is the condition with us when we are surrounded by the problems. As the wave of problem starts it looks disturbing, because nobody likes problems in this world. We want problem to exit from our happy life so we react to it very quickly. Problem is same as that of waves. If you try to react too soon it may damage you. But if you wait for time let the things get settle and then respond the chances are less, of you getting damaged as well as other person involved in the problem. Soon everything gets clear just like the waves on its way back to ocean. Then you realize situation wasn’t that much difficult as it seen initially.

After facing lot of such problems a person asked a monk, “why do bad things happen to good people?” the monk replied, “how do you expect me to reply your question, when question itself is wrong? The question should be ‘what happens to good people when bad things happen to them’ and reply would be, ‘They become better people’!”. It is our attitude towards problem decided whether it will break us or make us. It is our thinking that decides the pace of our progress, and our thinking can be directed right if only we know how to ask the right questions.      

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have all the answers to your problems, don’t worry nobody in this world has it too. Even the greatest archer of all time Arjuna also didn’t have all the answers but what he had was right question. Because that’s what really matters to set your thought process in line.

Social Media Boon or Bane?

It is a story of human behavior and how it changes according to time. While I was waiting for someone in restaurant one middle aged couple was sitting next to me, being there for more than 10 minutes eagerly waiting for someone, I was checking my cell phone for all the social apps which were present in my cell  and getting updated with all the social events happening in my friend circle at the same time I could hear the conversation between that couple who were talking about some incident which happened in their friend circle about this social app. They were talking something ill about this thing, their tone was very negative regarding all these fads. After hearing their words I started to think is getting social virtually, that much bad? Using social app is good or bad? If I think from their perspective it is always bad because they hardly know anything about such social things and whatever they have read or seen on television, thanks to our media! Was always bad. That’s why they are so correct about their opinion. But then is it the right opinion, social media is really bad?

If you ask my honest opinion, social media is neither good nor bad. It totally depends upon you, and how you are using it. It is just like fire. You can use it to lite a lamp to spread light or you can also use it to burn down a house, no doubt it also spread light but it is mixed with fury. So if a house is getting burnt because of fire, does that mean fire is bad? Or it’s the person who did this is bad. Same is the case with social media.  Social media was created to increase the connectivity between people with good intention in mind. It totally depends on the user who is using it. It defines your real nature, your attitude towards society. But unfortunately bad things spread faster and that’s exactly what has happened with all these social media. As far as news are concern there are good news also regarding these social medias, lot of good things are happening because of these social media. It depends upon you how you look at it, if you started to look for bad things, you will always get bad things noticed first. But if you started to look for good things you will get good things in bad situations also. It’s all about your attitude.

As I was thinking about this, the person whom I was waiting for came. I said thanks for coming late. Now it was up to her whether to take this positively or negatively.           

Mr. Ideal's Ticket fare!

Long time ago when cell phones were not invented, people were interacting face to face and not on facebook, texting means writing a letter, not whatsapp ping. Emotions were explained with words not with the emojis. It’s a story of that period.

It is a story of Mr. Ideal, who used to work in office. A white collar job. Everyday he used to take a bus to reach his office. This was the period when a monthly pass concept was yet to introduce. So he used to stand in a queue every day to get the ticket. This was making reach office late. On one such fine day he saw his friend Mr. Friendly, who was as per his name was friendly in nature. Mr. friendly was about to reach the ticket window, Mr. ideal reached to Mr. Friendly and asked to take one more ticket. Saying  he was running late for his meeting. Mr. Friendly said “don’t worry, you stand near the bus stop, I will bring you the ticket” Mr. Ideal was so relieved. This happened again on the next day, this time Mr friendly said, “You don’t worry, we both are commuting the same route, and I have a habit of coming early, I will bring you the ticket every day.” Mr. Ideal was happy. He started reaching office on time, his boss was also happy with him. This went for almost six months. One day suddenly Mr. Helpful called Mr. Ideal, that he left the job, and from tomorrow onwards he won’t be able to buy ticket for him.

The next day Mr. Ideal reached office late. This happened for one week as a result his boss got angry on him. On Monday morning while waiting in a queue he saw Mr. Helpful was about to reach the ticket window, he went to him and asked to buy a ticket for him, as he was getting late for office. Mr. helpful as per his nature helped him with his ticket. Second day happened the same, but this time Mr. helpful showed some concern while buying ticket for Mr. Ideal. Looking at his face Mr. Ideal got a clue about this, to ease the situation and to show the gratitude for the help, Mr Ideal gave him a small fruit. This happened for quite a long time, but on one fine evening, Mr. Ideal got a call from Mr. Helpful about his transfer, and also mention about the inconvenience he will be facing from tomorrow regarding the ticket. Mr ideal got worried with the ticket issue.

On the next morning it happened again Mr. Ideal reached half an hour late for office. Buying ticket has become a serious issue for him. Next morning, he directly went to the Ticket officer from the back door, mentioned his problem of getting late to the office. Gave him the fare, and a small fruit and in return the officer gave him the ticket with a smile on face. This happened for long time. Some other people in the queue got to know this, and they also started to go via back door. Within few weeks, the queue shifted its location from front window to back door, with every person having different kinds of fruit with multiple numbers.

 Mr. Ideal was retired. He got a call from his office regarding some pending paperwork of his pension. That day when he went to ticket counter for ticket, he got shocked, as very few people were in a queue, and there was a big queue at the back door, people with fruits, some with bigger fruits, some with small fruits with multiple numbers. He chose to stand in front window queue because today he has no hurry reaching the office.  When his turn came, he gave the money to officer and asked for ticker. The ticket officer, yelled at him, for not bringing any fruit. Mr. Ideal got shocked looking at this behavior, because once upon a time what was a considered as convenience to a problem was now became the addiction. Ticket counter was occupied with different kinds of fruits in multiple numbers.

It is happening around us also, Isn’t it?