Keep Calm & Travel on

"If you look like the photograph in your passport, you probably need the trip."

One of the best thing i got in heredity is the itch to travel and ever since i have visited couple of breathtaking beautiful places, i have put traveling on the top of my bucket list. But why should you travel? what's the point of it? Well traveling is not just a hobby but it has a lot more to it.

1) A great escape: Life is a bitch and it has got puppies too who ensures that we have to work, work and work to make a living. But what's the point of working if you can't live? So take a break and escape into the embrace of soothing mist and mystic landscapes.

2) A wider perspective: Exploring different places, different people, different culture exposes you to a world you have never heard of or seen. It defies your knowledge and perception about world and offers you a wider perspective, an open mind and greater knowledge.

3) Tell the tale: Every place in this world has a story behind it, has a significance, which makes it what it is. Explore the world and you will have a hundred stories to tell.

4) Discovering hobbies: Traveling is a thing which can offer you experience like no other thing in the world. It gives you stories to tell, experiences to learn, memories to cherish, moments to capture, people to know, celebrations to enjoy and much more. Traveling makes you enrich with many things and you might discover a hobby like photography, writing, adventure sports, hobbies related to food and fashion etc.

5) Challenger: Finding a food joint in your city is a piece of cake for you but try finding a food joint in New York. In your country you know which trains connect two cities, try finding a train to your destination in London. No matter how much smaller the world has been made by internet, it still is a huge place and it offers lots of challenge as a traveler. It makes you independent and confident and you will never be afraid of a challenge again.

6) Self discovery: Sometimes we are so much lost in the burden that life puts on us that we are disconnected from ourselves. At such time all we need is a little "Me time" and for that, traveling alone is one of the best option. These days the number of lone travelers are on the rise. When you travel alone, you are on to yourself and you will overcome every challenge by yourself and as a result you might end up reconnecting and rediscovering yourself.

7) Getting the edge: When you are a well-traveled person you will understand things better and you will find it easy to find a way out of your problems. Traveling makes you smarter. When you come across different people with different mentality, you tend to learn a great deal from them.

8) The box of sweets: Who doesn't love memories that can be cherished forever? Travel gives you exactly that. Every picture you take will have a story to tell when you see it. Even the pictures and videos freshens us up and take us away from bustling life atleast for some time.

                                       

9) Because YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE: If you have the urge, leave now and if you don't, then also leave, because life is short and world is huge and since we have to live on Earth, why not see every inch of it? We all have purposes in life, but none like traveling. Its a great catalyst to your success.

Travel infuses a new life into you. A getaway of even couple of days can rejuvenate you. Travel gives you a perfect reason to revisit past. It gives you memories that you can cherish for lifetime. A well-traveled person will see the world differently and he will be smarter than most of the college toppers. Travel is education, travel is your ticket to freedom, travel is teacher, travel is pacifier. Break the shackles, pack your bag and take a break from your monotonous life and spend some time discovering a place and you will return wiser and happier.

 

The fear and the expectations

Of all the people on the planet, the person who should matter the most is you yourself. There are always debates, discussions, opinions and arguments about how to live your life, how you should be and how you should live for the people. But i say chuck it! What's the point of living for others and suffocating your wishes when there's no guarantee that the people for whom you have changed aren't going to stay forever!

Everyone wants to be a part of social circle, everybody wants to be liked and loved, everybody wants to be recognized but at what cost? Our social needs have hijacked our minds and like fools we pretend what they expect from us. Its good to bend, but if you bend to much either you'll break or people will break you. We are facing so much peer pressure that we are ready to go to any lengths to be accepted.

A cactus grows in the desert, away, alone and hardly useful but it doesn't crave to be a lotus to be loved and accepted. If it was so, then the balance of the universe might shift. There is so much charade in our life today that natural things or people don't feel important to us. They say be good, be yourself and then they say don't show your anger, don't show your emotion, don't say things on face, if not hypocrisy than what is this? Everybody has three sides: The side they show to the world, the side they show to friends and family and the side they don't want anyone to see. Why do we have to change ourselves from person to person, situation to situation, time to time? The answer will be because then people will stay away from you. You won't be liked. People will not make you a part of their plans. OK!! It's fine! Just because you want people in your life, doesn't mean you keep on making compromises. NO! Let people go, it doesn't matter. If they can go so easily, they weren't meant to stay and those who stay, don't let them go.

People will see what you show them. They won't even try to get under the veil and try to know the person you actually are and meanwhile you will suppress who you are and who you want to be. You become different person in front of some people and when you are in your comfort zone you are free, you laugh heartily, you don't feel any need to be accepted, you can just be whoever you want, say whatever you want without giving a thought to what people will say or think. We are nothing but afraid of being judged. Screw it. You have a lifetime and you will meet many new people who will be part of your life and make it better. Don't ever crib over people. Don't make anyone else the centroid of your world. Give more importance to your family and siblings and you'll discover that they are not bad people after all.

Its good when people look upto you but don't pay heavy cost for it. Be an actor to survive, but be who you are to live. People can live in company of one person also, so don't live for others and their approval. Don't be afraid of being judged, you aren't going to be penalized for it. Axe the toxic and be organic. 

Judging the judgmental

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you"

We all are judgmental. You, me everyone. May be it is human nature. But everything given and taken, being judgmental is not so "cool" every time. We are self appointed critics and every time we pass judgments about others we consider ourselves above others. 

“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself” 

― Earl Nightingale

We all hastily judge people on basis of their words or actions, whether we know them or not. If some naive person orders for "Mojito" instead of  "Mohito (mə(ʊ)ˈhiːtəʊ)", we giggle at the person without acknowledging the fact that may be he is trying to fit in, may be he is trying to be one of you because he doesn't want to get judged. When you see a person calling a waiter in the most unsophisticated way in a posh restaurant, we feel disappointed. But we fail to see that he has spent his entire life to be able to eat in one of such restaurant. For him sophistication is not as important as satisfaction. We never try to know a person, we don't even evaluate our judgment and most of the times we stand incorrect about our judgment.

“When we make judgments we're inevitably acting on limited knowledge, isn't it best to ask if we seek to understand, or simply let them be?” 

― Jay Woodman

It's not that we should not judge at all. No, judging is important. You have to know and understand the people in your life, you have to judge their influence on your life and then ultimately make the decision whether to keep them in your life or not. But the problem is that we turn blind when we judge. Even if we are judging a person we know, we might get biased because the person committed an act you despise. If we be more understanding, compassionate and communicative, lots of problem in our life will end. 

"The basic problem with communication is the illusion that it happened."

This habit of being judgmental is a nasty one but it's useful if you just do it right. And like any art, the art of judging also needs time and effort to perfect it. When you see things from far, they are usually blurred. So rather than judging someone from across, go near them, build a bridge and then judge him. No one likes being judged nor the people who judge. To avoid this there are couple of steps we can take:

Accept: Accept the person as he/she is. If you're uncomfortable, its your problem.

Avoid: If you cannot stand the person, if you cannot restrain yourself from judging, avoid looking at such things.

Understand: Difficult, but worth a shot. The deeper you go, the more mysteries you uncover. 

Compassion: Not everyone is alike but due to the pressure from society, some people try to fit in. So if they commit mistake, help them rather than judging them.

"Some people will believe anything, if it is whispered to them."

Don't believe what you hear, don't believe everything you see. Invest time and then reap the fruits of your efforts. Judgment brings distance among people, while understanding them will help build a bridge between people. Being judgmental will make you see villain in everyone, or make you feel above others and neither of it is true. Judgment always creates misconceptions. Misconception about others as well as misconception about us. So, judge less, understand more.

The more judgmental a person is the sadder they are.” 

― David W. Earle

Being Single

"Su nava juni? Bhabhi kyare laave che?"

"Saale saari zindagi aise hi nikalega? Ab to bhabhi laa"

"Dude get a life! Get a girlfriend"

"Tamaro chokro to hendsam chhe, ene to koik hasej"

"Phone ma joine hase chhe etle nakki kaik lafdu chhe"

Each one of us must have heard one of these statements! If not, you are lucky!

Dude, if you don't have a girlfriend/boyfriend, then something has to be wrong with you! We have hyped the relationship "status" so much that it has become as important as having a PAN card! And sometimes due to such peer pressures people end up having relationships that they never wanted, or they regret later. The funny thing is that today most of the relationships are "complicated" because like X and Y in math, most of the things in a relationship are undefined and need to found out.



Being single or in a relationship is a personal choice most of the time and other times its circumstantial. But both the stages have their own pros and cons and just because one of them sucks, you shouldn't move to other. But since i am favoring the "single" status, let me list down some of the pros of it.

                                                 

1. You can look as you want: Keeping a beard, growing a pony tail, wearing shirt with short, wearing mismatch etc. etc.

2. You stay rich: From a meager pocket money you have to take her to eat, shop and drink. If you're single every penny is at your disposal.

3. Ride or die: You can really stay inspired by Dom or Brian and drive like "One last ride".

4. Whole theater is available: You don't have to miss movies just because you couldn't find corner seats.

5. You can be a part of wolf pack: Guys having insane friends would understand the perks of being part of a wolf pack.

6. Your life stays private: You don't have to keep passwords and share passwords with her. You can accept and send friend requests to anybody.

7. Living life on your terms; "Baby i don't like you talking to that friend of yours. Please stop talking to him." "Ok baby :D" No more.

8. No more post-paid: No more extra recharges for calling, internet or anything!! Calls will last 10 seconds flat!

9. You don't have to change your good habits: Eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want, live as you please no questions asked.

10. You're the boss: "Baby i am sorry. Its my mistake. I am sorry. please forgive me. I won't eat till you reply." chuck it. My life, my choice.

There are equal perks for the girls too but since i haven't been on the other side, i can't really comment about it. But yeah they would also enjoy dressing as they please, eat what they love without worrying about weight, say what they want etc.

So if you are single, don't worry ki log kya kagenge. After all I, me, myself comes first !!

Disconnect to Connect

Give Indians something new and they will use to it to the extent of abuse. Ain't it true? Be it anything we Indians use it like its not going to be there tomorrow. And this is also the case with Social networking platforms. 

We have gotten so much addicted to these social networking platforms that we have lost sense of the real world. This addiction is the root for two major problems: Insensitivity and disconnection

From dining table to movies, friends to family, we are there but we are never present because we are into our phones either updating status or uploading a pic or sending a snap.

Our lives have become so much influenced and dependent on these platforms that it has hampered us psychologically. We seek approvals for others, we feel lonely, we feel inferior, we feel paranoid, we feel constant urge to check our phones and we are never in the real world. We live in parallel worlds: Real world and Virtual world. Everything from relationships to breakups have moved online. We become friends online,we fall in love online, we breakup online.

Gone are the days when families ate together and shared their lives. Gone are the days when friends met to discuss their joys and sorrows. Gone are the days when there were true friends. Gone are the days when we were happy being ourselves. The purpose of these platforms was to bring people closer, expand the horizon of people's world, infuse confidence in people who are introvert and shy but it has done greater harms than goods. It has made people drift apart mentally and made people more prone to dangerous mental hazards. 

People have drifted so much apart that we don't even call now, we whatsapp. We don't meet for coffee and talk, we poke and chat.We don't invite people over calls, we send invites on whatsapp and Facebook. All major events of our lives are now a public event. We don't hear stories of our parents or grandparents because we are busy knowing story of 100 irrelevant people on facebook. We might have 1000 friends on FB but we cry alone. We might have 400 contacts on whatsapp but we are still alone somewhere. 

Its sad that we are missing on important things in our lives because we are busy updating it our a social networking platform. How insensitive we have become? People take selfies with dead bodies, people let a woman fall from train because they are busy shooting the video of her fall, people don't call an ambulance because they have to click the pictures of accident first, people have become so selfish and self-centered that they have become blind to others problems. Social networking platforms have compelled us all to put up a charade and that is giving rise to frustration and depression within us.

If properly use these platforms are boon but if they are abuse they can take you down. When was the last time you had a family dinner without mobile phones? when was the last time you sat with your grandparents and you didn't have phone in your hand? when was the last time you talked to your friend looking into his/her eyes? When was the last time you enjoyed something thoroughly without taking pictures of it? Its high time we open our eyes and come back to real world. If we become any more insensitive than i doubt we can still be called human beings because without feelings, we are no good than robots. I am not saying that stop using these platforms, but use it to an extent that you don't lose your personal life to it. Meet friends personally, talk to them, share food without having phone on your side, pursue your hobby, be crazy without having pictures of it, feel the moments rather than updating about them on your wall, live. 

Regret is an anchor you cannot get rid of easily and it will keep pulling you back. Life will pass by you and you would still be updating status or chatting. Don't make your life a public event otherwise people will judge you by your cover (Read status, Dp, posts, pictures, likes and comments) and not by your content (Your true self). People will be gone, while you'll still be busy chatting on your phone. Your best friend will be a stranger, while you' ll still be counting friends on Facebook. You'll have your kids disconnected with you, while you'll be busy updating status about their achievements.

Awake, before its too late. Disconnect to connect. Save your world, save yourself, before you drift beyond help.

Leave your phone and laptops aside for few days and you'll realize that your friends and family are not bad people after all. ;-)

Watch these links and understand yourself better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ae0tzVo8Fw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsFtVOABREo

Life has only one full stop!

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.” 

― Robert Frost

Yeah it goes on and that's where the real essence of life lies. So when you go on a journey and if your car gets punctured on the way, what do you do? You remain stranded there or you change the tyre and move on with the journey? Move on, definitely. But now than you will argue what if it gets punctured again? You only have one spare wheel! Yeah but if you wish there are ways and means to continue with the journey like you can take a lift, you can reach a gas station and get your tyre repaired etc. The main point here is the will to go on.

So why do we act like it is the end of the world when we cannot achieve something we dearly want, be it a person or a thing? At an age where you are barely getting on your feet, you cannot expect everything to be disposed off at your feet. But what happens in this phase, what you go through, prepare you for the battle you are going enter soon. This phase will define your attitude towards life. You can either nag or be sad and waste your time like your world has ended or you can accept the fact and move on towards another goal.

I am not saying that you should be insensitive towards life and dreams, but you cannot allow people or things to control your life. It is not the only thing in your life. How can you waste your life being sad over a person you have only known for a couple of years and you cannot be happy for people who have been with you throughout your journey? The best thing about human beings is that we move on. Time heals everything, though sometimes the scars stay, but which warrior doesn't have a scar! 

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West

We all say 'You only live once' but we gotta understand it too. Life is too short to regret or be sad over anything, so yeah be sad for sometime if your feelings get hurt but then get up and get going. Nobody and nothing is worth your life. There's always a plan there for you but if you don't continue with your journey then you cannot see the things that are waiting for you on the way. If something is meant to happen it will. For simplification, know your priorities. Either you can stop living because you didn't get what you wanted or you can rub off the thoughts and move on with life. Sometimes we hype things so much and give them so much unnecessary importance that we start ignoring everything else around us. If you feel attracted to a girl, you will turn blind to your friends. If you want to get something, you will turn blind to every alternative available. Stubbornness and rigidity is good, but after certain level it turns back on you and you are the sufferer. 

“Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody.” 

― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

If you just broke up with your girlfriend or boyfriend, you will fill up buckets with your tears, behave crazy, stop eating, ignore your friends and the worst of it, you get inspired from freaking movies and behave accordingly. Bullshit. The sooner you accept the truth, the better it is for you. May be your efforts fell short, may be it was not meant to work out, may be either of you were unsure of your feelings, there can be 100's of reason as to why it didn't work out, but one reason outweighs everything against it that "Its a bump, not a dead end. You have to keep moving." And yeah if you think your love is too deep and passionate, you can retire to himalayas and let your love get freezed.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” 

― Albert Einstein

Always remember, you won't end your journey with the same set of people with whom you had begun. People will change, people will leave but against it some people will stay the same, new people will enter your life and some people will never leave you. We already are short of time and we cannot spend our precious time on someone or something that isn't or doesn't wanna be a part of our life right? There is always a replacement to fill in the spaces in our life. Those who say it cannot, wait for a decade or so and you will know. 

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” 

― Virginia Woolf

So move on, live on because you only live once. 

There are pieces out there to fit the empty places in your puzzled life.

Wrong pieces will leave because they have to, but keep searching for the right ones.

It's your life, make it large.

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it's all that matters.” 
― Audrey Hepburn

Entrepreneurship lessons from Band Baaja Baarat

“Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, while others wonder

what has happened.”

Band Baaja Baarat is a real inspiration for people looking to take up entrepreneurship. Its a story about two ambitious people coming together and creating a successful venture. But the journey was not as smooth as it seems and that's what make it worth learning.

What entrepreneurship lessons can we grab from the movie?

1) Degree is irrelevant: No business has its foundation laid on the qualification degree of its founder, all that's needed to start and to be successful is passion. If you are passionate enough, nothing can get in your way.

If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” - Mark Zuckerberg, 

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." -Ayn Rand

2) Climb the ladder, don't jump: There is no shortcut to success and if by chance you get success by shortcut, it won't stay for long. So the best thing to do is go slow, step by step and climb the ladder. Whatever mistake you are bound to make, make it when you are small and growing, so that when you want to go big, you have already learnt your lessons.

"There is no secret ingredient." -Po, Kung-fu panda

3) First time comes only once: There's always a first time when you do a thing, but that first time comes only once. Don't hesitate to take risk because even in the worst case scenario, you'll end up learning something. When you meet your customer make sure you are confident and you have done your homework properly to make him believe in you.

“Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.”

Stan Smith

4) Get your customers on their knees: Monopoly is a myth and there are always hundreds of others that are doing the same thing that you're doing or planning to do, but what's important is that what is that one factor that differentiates you from others. In BBB, they take up one job at a time, no cheating, no price cuts, low budget high entertainment and infuse creativity and entertainment which makes them different from other wedding planners who charge exorbitant amount for average services.

“Always deliver more than expected.” —Larry Page, co-founder of Google.

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but

how to get old ones out.”

Dee Hock, Founder of Visa

“If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.”
Charles Kettering, Engineer

5) Competition matters, but not that much: When you start-up, you always have the choice of imitating the already established and successful big players, but that won't take you far. what is important is you do the right thing and eventually you will be rewarded for your uniqueness.

"The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average efforts."

“When you compete with a person, you only have to be as good or better than the

person to win. If you compete with yourself, there is no limitation to how good

you can be.”

Chu Chin-Ning

6) Suppliers are family: No doubt that customers are prime focus in any business but so are suppliers. Without suppliers you will be crippled. The movie beautifully shows how the protagonists include their suppliers (DJ/Caterer/Decorator) in their success and celebration and as against it the supplier works with 100% dedication and loyalty. Don't take suppliers lightly or intend to manipulate them, treat them as family and they will never leave you.

7) Ethics will take you a long way: Ethics is an important part of foundation of any business. There has to be some basic do's and don'ts in any business. In the movie when the actor tries to steal electricity during their first project, the actress reminds him that there business won't be built on cheating and fraud. If you start weak, you will grow weaker. 

"Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do."

8) KYC: Knowing your customer is by all means the most important part of any business. Until you understand the needs of your customers, how will you decide what to serve to your customers? Branding, marketing, promotion will not help you grow as much as knowing your customers will. History has proven that the most successful business have always been customer-focused.

To quote Gandhiji: "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him any favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so."

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

 – Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft.

“The customer is a rear-view mirror, not a guide to the future.”

George Colony, Forrester Research

9) Getting the right mix: Business is not a one man job. To be successful in any venture you need skilled people who are expert in their field. A right mix is the one where everyone brings something unique to the table. This helps avoiding overlapping of work as well as makes the accounting and responsibility clear. 

10) Keep a trick up your sleeve: In a business you will come across situations where things go haywire and all your plans fall flat on their faces, but that's the time to rise and not to panic. If everything goes smooth and as per plan, it means you are not going fast enough. In the movie when during the first sainik farm wedding, the motor doesn't work, they don't panic (Though it started in typical bollywood fashion). In another instance, when Shahrukh khan is unavailable to perform, instead of panicking, the protagonists decides to perform themselves, thereby winning the customer as well as saving the day for them. 

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most

intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin

      The myth: "I want to do job for learning and then i will start my own venture" Its like first i will pet a dog and then i will learn how to ride a horse. In my personal opinion, jobs cannot teach anything about entrepreneurship unless your boss wants to make you his son-in-law. A fresher starts with a desk job and by the time he "thinks" he has learned everything, he is already exhausted. If we have to get our ass kicked, why not do it for ourselves? Start small, take less risk initially and grow slowly. Even if you earn 100 Rupees everyday, you will end up earning a tad bit more than your placement package. 

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.”

Sven Goran Eriksson

“To any entrepreneur: if you want to do it, do it now. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it.” - Catherine Cook, co-founder of MyYearbook.

"Me" time !!

                                           
   We spend our whole life living and caring for someone else, but who will care about us? How can we embrace the idea of loving others when we aren't in love with ourselves? The most important and these days, most necessary thing in life is getting connected to oneself, falling in love with oneself, accepting your flaws and give a little time introspecting and retrospecting your life and decisions.

Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. - M. Scott Peck

     It is necessary to have a little bit of 'Me' time on a regular basis, it can be daily, it can be weekly, it can be monthly or it can be random. But why the 'Me' time? Me time is the time that you spend with yourself, talking to yourself, questioning yourself and doing things for yourself. Sometimes it is necessary to take a time off from the regular world and spend time thinking about your life; how you are living and how you want to live. Some decisions are best taken without influence of anybody other than you. 'Me' time will help you embrace the changes faster and make you more compassionate about yourself. 

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

    'Me' time doesn't mean going into seclusion and cutting off yourself completely with the world, but to be in the company of people with whom you can be really happy. Life is a very bumpy ride and it fills you up with all the demons like stress, frustration, grief, pain, anger etc. and sometimes people can't help you get rid of it, you yourself have to. Take some time off and go to a garden and wonder while sitting on the bench, could it have been better? Could it have ended in a better way? Do you need to bring any change? Most important things and decisions like acceptance and denial are resolved when you spend this 'me' time because there is no better person than yourself, to make you understand that it was not meant to happen. 

If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found.

   After working monotonously for a whole month, you surely have lots of questions and issues to be sorted and it is best to take a quick getaway and spend some quality 'me' time. 'Me' time doesn't involve gazing at the stars, it means to do things that you love. Go for hiking, take a weekend getaway, watch movies you always wanted to, shop like crazy, be with friends, spend time with family, switch off your phone, paint, write, meditate, exercise, cooking anything.

  You have limited time and by no means you can increase it, but you can prioritize the things in your life and its high time we all find time for ourselves to relax, refocus and rejuvenate. "I am busy" is the most bullshit line. Infusing liveliness in life is better than living like a robot doing monotonous work almost brainlessly.  

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the one's you did" -Mark Twain

The most important person in your life is you and before you get lost living for others, its better you find yourself. Sometimes you have to get lost to be found.

The crude Croods !!

                 
    The Croods is an exceptional 3D movie that will leave you introspecting and retrospecting your life, the challenges and will somewhere change your thought process too. Its a story about a family who is guarded by Grug through fear until the world starts ending and they had to rely on an innovative guy to survive. How do they do it? Do they survive? and What are we doing?

1) Don't be afraid of "New": Always staying in the cave doesn't ensure survival or growth. Similarly if an organization sticks to the way it has been functioning over years, it cannot compete or survive in the ever changing external environment. If an organization isn't a learning organization, it becomes stagnant. You have to take risks and try new things, without trying you shouldn't be skeptical about it.

2) Rules are meant to be broken: Worst ideas makes best memories. If you always stay by the rules, you can never discover what lies beyond it. To see the light, you have to get out of darkness. All great inventors and entrepreneurs are successful because they broke one or the other rules.


                           

3) Get out of your comfort zone: If you always play on grassy lands, you won't survive the drought. The only way you can hamper your growth is by putting restrictions and limitations on yourself. Nobody can stop you from trying and doing new things except for yourself. So get out of your comfort zone and explore your abilities.

                         

4) Keep innovating: If you keep on doing things as they are done, you can achieve the threshold but never the competitive edge. You become rustic. To survive and out do competition, it is important to keep innovating.

5) There are no dead ends: Whenever you are stuck up and you cannot find a way, don't consider it to be end of the journey. It simply means you need to change the way you think and you need to generate an unconventional "idea". Necessity is the mother of innovation and crisis is the father of idea generation.

6) Keep your mind open: Keep your mind open and let go of your ego, if you really want to learn. Open mind helps in listening to others, observing and grasping ideas and it provides a broader perspective to you. While if you believe "I am always right" you are doomed to fail. Success doesn't mean you were right, so you will right always. It doesn't matter at what level you are, you cannot grow further without open mind.

7) Living vs. Surviving: If you keep on doing the things that you have always done, then you are not living, you are just surviving. Living is getting out in the open and doing what you live. In the cave you don't live- you just don't die.

                  

How to train your dragon?: Learning unlimited

Its amazing how movies that are meant just to entertain the audience carry so much relevance, that audience feels instantly connected with the movie. There are so many takeaways from the movies and one such movie that crosses my mind is How to train your dragon? a tale of a brilliant but under looked kid and the most dangerous dragon, whom nobody wants to encounter. What should we learn from it?

1) Don't underestimate yourself: There are always more people to demotivate you than to motivate you, but all said and done, its upon you how to handle it and act on it. Hiccup was completely underestimated and labelled as weak but he never backed down from participating in the fights and contribute is bit. Though he didn't had the muscle like his father, stoic, he was an intelligent engineer which helped him fight.



2) Don't be afraid of taking chances: We all are pessimists when it comes to take decision that are not conventional or are out of the box and due to that we might lose on opportunity that lies before us. When Hiccup had the Night Fury captive, he could have easily killed him because that's what he had been taught and that's how the vikings did it, but he had a different vision and he was ready to take the chance to free him of the trap. In the end, it paid off !



3) Balancing theory and practical: After Hiccup befriended Toothless, he started spending time with him and started to learn things about him and applied the same in his training sessions. he never stopped learning and was always  eager to know and learn something new. His knowledge helped him get an competitive edge over his peers, And the most important thing is that he implemented what he learnt and that polished his skills and made him a better warrior.



4) Not all jobs are one man job: We all know the boundaries of our capabilities and skills and we act according to it. If we have been successful in accomplishing a task alone once, it doesn't mean you can do it for all the tasks. Sometimes you need a team and you have to believe in them. Had Hiccup and Toothless taken on the alpha dragon alone, they would have failed miserably.

5) Don't be skeptical about "New": The most dangerous words that can make any business fall are "That's how we have always done it". Every new idea or new thought is not a bad idea. Sometimes due to generation gap, there is a scuffle over thoughts and mentality but both generations should work with open mind. For Stoic, dragons were bad and had to be killed, but Hiccup discovered a new side of them and figured out that whatever they had been thinking and doing till now was wrong and he had to change it.



6) Never go in blind: If you are doing something new or taking up a task, it is best that you collect all the information about it first and then go for it. Unlike Stoic, who went in blind and put the lives of all Vikings in jeopardy, Hiccup asks his friend to break down all information about the giant dragon to him and then he and Toothless targets the weak spot and ends up on winning side. You never know what a dark dungeon might have in store for you, so its better to have complete knowledge about it and to go in with a torch light.

Avengers: Beyond entertainment

    

We all love super heroes and we love it even more when many super heroes come together for a common agenda and kick enemy's ass. So no doubt Avengers was a big hit bringing in Captain America, Iron man, Thor, Hulk, Hawk eye and black widow together. But beyond entertainment, there was a lot of learning that Avengers offered. Here is some of it:

1) Team management: The best team is where people from different backgrounds come together, work together and win together. Each one of them had their unique super power and expertise and that's what made them powerful. There will be issues, but its in the best interest of everyone to overcome them eventually. The movie perfectly followed the model of team building: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Its never easy to gel-up with someone unknown and be comfortable with him/her and there will be disruptions and disturbances but eventually, you will develop understanding and settle at a level which suits you both and then your performance will be outmatching.

2) Don't break down under pressure: There will come a time when everything will go wrong, you will find your world crashing down, but don't give up. Yes its easier said than done, but when in crisis, the brave rises. If the Avengers would have let the ark fall down after engine failure, or had they not reassembled after falling apart, we wouldn't have enjoyed the climax of the movie, nor the earth would have been saved. Things can go wrong horribly, and they will but succumbing to it is not the way out.



3) Lead from the front: Captain America might be boring without shield or not as flamboyant as Iron man, but he is the best leader which was evident in Captain America: The first avenger too. He is never shy of taking a stand for what he feels is correct, he identifies the strength of the team member and assign jobs accordingly (Hulk, Smash!), he leads by setting an example for others to follow and most importantly he listens to everyone. These are the qualities that sets him apart as a leader and these are the qualities that an efficient and flexible leader should adopt to lead a pack of heroes from different backgrounds.

4) Team's interest is above personal interest: So when a Tony stark hates working for somebody, Captain finds himself out of place, Natasha has his friend turn to a dancing monkey and the world is about to face alien invasion, it is important that you keep your personal issues aside and come together as team to get the work done. No matter how many issues did Tony stark and Captain America had between them, but when the ark was falling, they came together to save it and had each other's back covered.

If we start looking at movies beyond entertainment, we can have one or the other learning from it. Avengers taught us about team building, conflict management, leadership, team work and success. Each of the super hero had something or the other to teach us, its upon us what we see and what we learn.

What was your takeaway from the movie?

Feminism vs. Sexism

With Deepika Padukone's women empowerment video gone haywire, it is important for us to understand the difference between feminism and sexism. Sexism means prejudice, stereotyping or discrimination against a person on the basis of sex while feminism means giving equal right and opportunities to women. Sexism emphasis on difference while feminism emphasis on equality.

In India, a country with rich culture and heritage and 33 crore gods and goddess, female has always been down trodden gender. With time the things just went from bad to worse and the scenario which we are facing today makes us all sound like hypocrites. "I don't mind my girlfriend wearing shorts, but if my sister wears it, i will not let her get out of the house." 

Women are already at par with men in today's time, but its the mindset that differs. A male ego cannot live happily with a woman earning more than him. No matter how successfully a woman runs the business, she still is best at making rotis. And by no means i want to generalize all male, but the major chunk comprises of people with such thinking and bad spreads faster than good. Due to such widespread mentality, even free thinking and open minded people don't raise their voices.

There have been many campaigns, drives, talks and debates about empowering women, but here clearly, action will speak louder than words. If men really consider women at par, then they will actually become empowered. Its amazing, how confidently you stand, when someone shows faith in you. Men are wrong, some but not all, but degrading them wouldn't empower women. If you are out there undertaking activities as a feminist activist, you need to realize, that empowering is more effective than degrading. You can't achieve empowerment by pushing a gender down and establishing equality, but instead by uplifting the under powered and establishing equality in every aspect. 



Those women who say all men are same and consider them to be abusive, lusty and enforcers, are not feminist by any means. They are sexists. Feminism cannot be achieved by sexism. 

"It's not about which gender is better than the other. The feminist movement is in place to provide equal opportunities for people. It's about taking gender out of the equation, and putting a greater value on what each individual has to bring to the world. Whether it is a young girl denied the right to school or a male tired of hearing the stereotypical phrase "man up," injustice is being done and it is essential to stand up against it. Instead of opposing each other, more change would occur if we'd use our energies to change something about the injustice both sides feel. Let's stop quibbling about what gender is "better" than the other, and let's join hands to provide education, dignity and a better standard of living for all."
-HuffingPost

And it is not necessary that only women are feminist, Men too can be feminist. There are many men working to clear the dirt on their gender, which has been thrown by sexist females. The inequality has been created by us and it should be removed by us. Though this inequality is widespread, if men and women, drop sexism and adopt feminism, then this world will be a merrier place to live.

How much of yourself can you truly be?

         We all are living in self-doubt or fear which pulls us back from revealing our trueself and that has made this world a circus of masks. Is it the effect of time or the influence of people that has forced us to pull a veil on ourselves, is yet to be answered. We all are tremendously flawed and the realization of it makes us paranoid, whether we will fit in the social definition of "acceptable" or not!

    We all are far from being original because of the influence that people around us had on us. Our minds are not anymore ours. At every point of time, in every situation there ensues a huge fight between heart and mind, and sadly mind always wins. We always suppress what our heart wants to do because we are afraid how will it be percieved.
But the other side to it is that you cannot be completely open and transparent, because even nectar in excess becomes poison. Everyone knows how to speak, but blessed are those who knows when to shut up.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.” 
― Bernard M. Baruch

    We live in a very comparative and competitive world, where most of our actions and thoughts are now driven by other people. We do things that are beyond our reach, we say things that are beyond our knowledge, we accept or reject something because everyone else does! We are no more the masters of our decisions.

“be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.” 
― Henry David Thoreau

   We live in a time where you make yourself vulnerable if you open up too much before someone. No matter how much time you have been together, how much you have talked, it is very important to keep certain things to self. We all are Alice in wonderland and we don't know where a fox is waiting for us in disguise.

  You cannot always be straight forward and blunt, nor can you always suppress your opinions and thoughts, it is important to strike a balance between the both because you cannot pick your nose in public or be abusive in open, there is a certain threshold of "Don't" to be followed in life. In a world where you are judged continuously, how much of yourself can you truly be?

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Real learning from college

Now that college is over and we are about to face the cruel reality, it is important to check whether we are ready to face it or not? A higher GPA or academic excellence may guarantee good placements, but to sustain in an environment where the only rule is "eat or be eaten", it will be important to put the practical skills to use. The two years in college have imparted great deal of learning and here are few of them.

1) Importance of spontaneity: Many a times we are put into situations we haven't prepared for and we are caught off guard. In such situations it is necessary that we don't breakdown and answer whatever comes to our mind with full confidence. When you fake with full confidence, even the greatest of lies seems true and you can get the opposite person to believe you rather than screwing it up completely.

2) Dealing with the pack: For most of the people life is going to be a group project till the time they work.  The group will consist of all kind of people, at every level of hierarchy, ranging from a lone ranger to a social loafer and it will be important to get your work done, because that's what management is all about. It is important to see that you don't form dependency for any work on anyone and always be ready to do the work, even if you have to do it alone. Assuming that everybody will work at same level or everybody has same caliber will get you nowhere. Try and be the leader and lead the pack from the front. Walking together is important but that shouldn't make you shy of running alone. In the end winning matters, take no shit.

3) The power of balancing: Murphy's law says,"Anything that can possibly go wrong, will go wrong" and it will go wrong at a time when you least want it. Breakup before exams, rains on day of cultural festival, incidents before a much awaited college event etc. which will test your patience, emotions and composition. It is important to train the mind to balanced and to find a way to resolve the problem, instead of panicking. At your workplace also you will be face deadlines, nagging girlfriend, barking boss and jerk colleagues but it will be important to keep calm because nobody will care what you are going through, all that will be important will be getting work done.

4) The web: Nothing and no one is ever unimportant. You never know when a person you held grudges with might become instrumental in getting your work done in future. The worth of a person is measured by his network and it is important that you keep company of right persons. It doesn't mean you make friends for selfish purpose, but keeping them as acquaintance is also not a bad idea as such. A good morning message on WhatsApp, a "like" on Facebook, a nice comment on Instagram may come really handy when you need to call in a favor or explore an opportunity.

5) Introspection: Everything around us is a neatly knitted web of lies and it is important to keep a cautious eye. Our decisions generally are orchestrated by opinions of others, but it is really important to know what you want, what you can do and what is the best for you. Introspecting regularly will help you identify your strengths and weakness and can help you improve as a person and professional. Its my personal experience that introspection leads us to identification of problems and we can figure out a solution to get over them, as a result of which i was able to end my college on a much better note than expected.

6) Communication is lifeline: It is very important to understand and interpret what a person wants to say else it can have adverse consequences. Miscommunication is a great hindrance to relationship, careers and other important things, so it is best that you seek clarifications. If the meaning will be clear, then you will be able to attend your goals in a better way and can excel.


And in the end i would like to add one completely irrelevant but important line: "Rejection is not the end of the journey, its just a sign to change the road to reach the destination"

Feedback and comments will be appreciated.

That's all folks...

We often fail to realize that things can end because we take them for granted and assume they will always be there but when they are gone, we find a huge part of our life missing. Time and tide waits for none and when we have time, when we have the thing, we are always looking for something better, we fail to see the importance of the things and the realization that its not going to be their anymore, we want to go back into time crawling and make up for the time we lost.

"Appreciate what you have before it becomes what you had"

Today when my college life is ending i realize that too many things have ended. Its an end to classrooms, an end to books and bags, its an end to canteen, its an end to projects, its an end to exams, its an end to make ups, breakups and patch ups, its an end to "Gooood morninggg sir"...and as we enter the new phase of life, the transition is going to make it worse and make us miss those golden days where friends were life and life was simple. Going to college everyday and attending the lectures made it monotonous and at some point of time we all were bored but today we miss it the most.

We live in a world where we are busy being worried about all the wrong things, at all the wrong times. We all believe that we are entitled to everything that we have and never truly appreciate anything that we have until it’s gone. We take too much for granted- only when those things are gone do we realize how important they truly were to us.

-Preston Waters

The realization that your best friend is shifting to another location, your group is going to be busy in their respective jobs, you are not going to see your crush again and the little bit regret we might have of not being able to make the most of those days made us cry. We all went through ups and downs, we all made mistakes, we all were judgmental, we all held grudges but in the ended nothing mattered to anyone. Everyone was happy with the bouquet of memories they received to cherish for life time. We all got stories to share where on or the other person is a part of it, we all have something to remember about everyone. Tomorrow when we attend a college event and see the topper receiving an award we will remember the topper of our times, tomorrow when we see a gang of college friends enjoying tea and laughing heartily, we will remember how we used to do it, tomorrow when we see tensed faces studying in a cafe, we will miss our group studies, when we will see a group of collegians at a restaurant, we will miss the people with whom we had shared our tiffin box, it will all come back rushing...

“Don’t take things for granted because they might not be there tomorrow.”

Tomorrow when life becomes busy and we will be mounted with responsibilities, we will crave to go back to college once. Sometimes you hold back from expressing, sometimes you turn yourself into a rock and sometimes you have so much to say that you don't understand how to pour it out. When you realize that you have to leave this makeshift world and that the friendships that form it are going to be reduced to Facebook likes and Tweets – despite the promises of “staying in touch” on farewell day – it makes you a little despondent. 

But i am hopeful that this wouldn't be case here and we will actually stay connected because we all have given each other enough reasons to miss each other.

Thank you professors for being more our friends, philosopher, guides and parents and imparting us the valuable learning that will help us face the world. Thank you for sculpting us and shaping our lives.

Thank you friends for all the memories you have given to cherish for rest of my life and making our college and the journey, a part which i want to revisit over and over again.

"If you want a happy ending that depends, of course, on where you stop your story."