Life

Articles about my life, experiences, learnings and more

There are 150 posts filed in Life (this is page 29 of 30).

5 of my Favorite Movies with Lessons

Rocky Balboa

Rocky Balboa

1. Rocky Series

The perfect dose of motivation! After watching the Rocky series, you will be pumping with adrenaline and willing to do everything for which you once thought you were not good enough. Such is the impact of Rocky. The Rocky theme song is my alarm tone and it has helped me get up early in the morning since a long time now. And everytime you are down, just watch these movies and you will be back. And the way Sylvester Stallone came back to deliver a stunning sixth movie in the series, it looks like he lives the character he plays in Rocky. It makes you believe in yourselves. These are the movies you want to show to your kids, friends, your parents… those you love. Worthwhile for people of all ages.

2. Remember the Titans
Denzel Washington packs in a powerful performance in this story of integration of white and black players in TC Williams High School Football team amidst racism in the 70s. The fact that it is based on a true story gives more reasons why it must be on your must watch-list. Great, great film with great dialogues and performance from others too, apart from Denzel. It is a story about how we can overcome our differences and rise together for the larger cause. This is the movie you want to watch if you want to feel motivated and feel better about the world.

3. GroundHog Day
Sometimes it takes us a supernatural experience to realise how we should live our lives. This movie shows how Bill Murray is forced to take a relook at his attitude towards life after being caught in a time warp. This movie is not only funny but also ends with a moral. It shows us how we should be really living our lives. Infact, most of us just pass through live, with only a few of us “living” it. Giving your best to everybody and making the best out of every situation without getting caught up in trivial matters is the essence of this movie. Life is meant to be explored and not to be feared of. People are meant to be loved. We can see any situation as a disappointment or as an opportunity to give our best of the world. Everytime your mind is working overtime to find out the solutions to life, just watch this movie!

4. The Pursuit of Happyness
This is one movie which will help you keep your feet on the ground. The story of how a man passes through difficult circumstances, both financially and personally, to pursue a dream job just shows what we can achieve only if we have complete belief in ourselves. Will Smith packs in a powerfull performance, maybe his best! This movie shows that if you earn success overcoming a lot of hardships and challenges, its taste is all the more sweeter. And this movie shows that no-one can stop you from doing something if you “really” decide to do it. Through our will power, the biggest mountains can be moved. So the take away from this movie should be – Find your Dream, and go all out in pursuing it. There will be obstacles along the way, but enjoy them rather than regret them. And don’t let the talks of others worry you, because you know, when you succeed, it will be sweet 🙂

5. Gandhi
The story of a man who needs no introduction. But his story is not about the way he evicted the Britishers without force or violence. His story is the conquest of the human mind over the many insecurities we face in life. It is the story of self discipline and courage under pressure. It is the story of sticking to what you believe in, in the face of fear, intimidation and violence. It is about how a man developed a unquestionable character and integrity. Gandhi stood and fought for the truth and truth only, and never against British. All his actions, movements and satyagrahas were inspired by his unwavering belief in the principle of truth. Read his autobiography “My Experiments with Truth” to know more about the amazing man and his thoughts, that are still as much valid as a century ago.

A Tribute to Women

What it is like to be a woman,
A man is perhaps incapable to understand!
It would take us a lifetime to realise,
That when compared to her, nowhere we stand!!

She has the power,
To mesmerize the world with her smile!
As daughter, wife, mother, and friend,
She makes many lives worthwhile!!

In giving birth she faces pain,
Many times more than ever experienced by man!
Still she forgets it with a smile and gets ready,
For her life as a mother just began!!

Performing the role of a wife and a mother,
She is the pillar of strength in every family!
Competing and thriving in a male centric society,
She is nothing less than a one man army!!

If we recount the impact of women in our lives,
We will realise it is nothing less than massive!
I can go on and on but eventually,
Even I will fall short of an adjective!!

As with most men, too egoistic to give her credit,
Even I was unaware of her strength and capability!
Till an amazingly wonderful woman made me realise,
That to be respected is not only her right, but also our duty!!

My take on Bangalore

The Ulsoor Lake - One of the Numerous lakes in Bangalore

The Ulsoor Lake - One of the Numerous lakes in Bangalore

Eighteen months after moving here,
I feel much better off than before!
Looking in hindsight I feel,
I am glad I came to Bangalore!!

It is a brand the world has noticed,
And come to recognize India for!
The whole software / investment boom started here,
And I am glad I live in Bangalore!!

With our cheap manpower and outsourcing,
The city is not only a noun anymore!
Bangalored is now a verb used to indicate a layoff,
When jobs are moved offshore!!

Me having come from Delhi,
I can say one thing for sure!
When it comes to how to treat women and elders,
Those from up north can learn a lot from locals in Bangalore!!

Some people stretch it too far,
And call it India’s Singapore!
But let us not forget the mess,
With traffic, pollution, and garbage galore!!

Infrastructure, or lack of it, is a big problem,
Which you will realize as soon as you step outdoor!
With the speed of urbanization in the last two decades,
A lot of catching up needs to be done, wake up Govt of Bangalore!!

Bad Traffic is one of the issues,
Which critics of B’lore point out to level score!
But then it is a common problem in all Indian cities,
And it is unfair to single out just Bangalore!!

But the weather here is like a silver lining,
When wind blows and the clouds roar!
You should forget everything,
And just be glad you are in Bangalore!!

I do miss the winters of Delhi,
And the various hangout options are difficult to ignore!
But for me, given my state of affairs,
I will anyday choose Bangalore!!

P.S. – This poem reflects my personal opinion about Bangalore and hence no offenses to other cities and people living there.  I have just tried to put into words my current take on Bangalore 😉

5 examples to show how our environment influence our behaviour?

Our behaviour is the most important thing. The way we interact with others, react to situations and go through our daily chores eventually makes us the person we are. Be it our work life or personal life, our surroundings shape our thoughts and our actions originate from our thoughts. Our actions / behaviour actually shape the way people think about us, or whether we succeed or fail. For example, having lived in both Bangalore and Delhi, I can say the weather does have a big effect on me. It is much easy to get angry / shout at one and all in the sultry hot delhi weather. Even if you are not angry, it is very easy to lose your temper on the slightest provocation. But if you are greeted by a cool breeze whenever you get out (as in Bangalore), you tend to become happy even if you were in a bad mood earlier. The point is, our surroundings, whether natural or chosen, tend to have an effect on our personality and our day to day behaviour.

I am listing 5 examples how we can choose to surround ourselves with different things and how can it bring out our best or worst –

1. Want to be creative, surround yourself with art – If you are in a job where you are required to come up with creative ideas or just want to improve your creativity, surround yourself with art. Keep in touch with what is happening in the art world, and look out for creative advertisements, paintings, or any other form of art. Slowly, you will start appreciating work of other creative people and get your mind working. You will desire to do something on the same lines, and this will get you started. And continuously following up on different forms of art can give you ideas which you can apply in your area of interest.

2. If you live near or visit places where you will find fast food restaurants or advertisements about fast food, you will end up craving for that burger or french fries. Burger and French Fries do taste good (though not healthy) so our mouth will start lickering and our subconscious mind will want us to have it. And if you are hungry at that time, the craving might get to you and you might end up eating fast food instead of doing what you should be. I am thinking of going to a MacDonald today as I am writing this piece, and I need to move on to the next point before I head to grab my fries. (Unfortunately, a MacD joint is just across the street where I live)

3. Expose yourself to metrics about your work or business or performance and you’ll work to improve them. Metrics, and depicting them by graphs and other forms of pictorial representation give us a sense of how we are doing and how we should be doing. If we keep track of such metrics, we will work on improving them. It is the same reason schools and colleges have marks or grades so that people know what to measure and how to improve on those metrics. Collecting metrics is a qualitative way of improving stuff that is otherwise difficult to measure, and hence easy to ignore. If you want to improve something, find a way to measure it and surround yourself with info about it and you will see yourself working to improve it.

4. If you see a lot of negative emotions in your daily life, you will tend to react to situations with a negative bend of mind. If you see people getting angry at each other, you might end up justifying their actions and find reasons to get angry yourself. If you fear something, then thinking about it or being in a vicinity which reminds you of your fear, you will tend up acting more reluctantly on matters you would have been confident otherwise. So if you tend to be around people experiencing negative emotions like frustation, worry, anger, disappointment, be aware that they can spread to you very easily.

5. If you ineract with people making smart decisions, you will also take interest in it and learn from them. You will slowly and surely be able to understand how to handle different situations and how to go about in your decision making process. Your thought process will start reflecting the people who you spend time with. You will understand why they took a certain decision and will try to learn from it.
Eventually, it is a choice of how we choose our surroundings. If you want a change in yourself, then just spend time with people / situations where you see that change. This holds true for both negative and positive thoughts.

The Idea of a Safe India

How safe are we?

How safe are we?

In the 80’s, there was terror in Punjab. Then there have been continuous terror incidents in Kashmir from the late 80s and early 90s. But the 21st century brought with it a new kind of terror in India. Terrorists now managed serial blasts all across India, and also carried out personal fidayeen attacks in many cities of India. Apart from the terror attacks, there has been religious violence in Gujarat and continuous attacks on Churches across states. There has been violence in Mumbai over North Indians, in Rajasthan over Gujjars demanding a lower SC status, in Punjab over Dera Sacha Sauda, and then there is Naxalism in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, and many other states. So what happened to the idea of a Safe India?

Terrorism have took a new turn in the last decade. Terrorists now dared to attack the Red Fort in 2000, the Parliament in 2001 and the Akshardham Temple in Gujarat in 2002. There have been bus/car bombings in Mumbai in 2003, serial blasts in Delhi in 2005, serial attacks in Varanasi in 2006, bombings at Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad in 2007, serial attacks in Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad in 2008 plus the 26 Nov Mumbai terror attacks the same year. Terrorists have managed to attack us by sea and land alike. They have come from across the border and there have been home grown Indian Mujahideen as well. There have been bomb blasts at popular markets and fidayeen attacks at religious places.

Apart from terrorism, we have seen the Gujarat riots of 2002, attacks on Churches in Orissa and Karnataka in 2007 and 2008 and many other small incidents. There has been caste violence in Maharashtra over the issue of North Indians and in Rajasthan when Gujjars wanted a lower status to get more reservation. It sounds strange somebody resorting to violence to get a lower status, but it is true. There have been incidents in Punjab over the Dera Sacha Sauda and later over the killing of a Dera leader Ramanand in Vienna. Attacks against dalits have also continued to take place throughout India over the last decade.

Naxalism is active among 220 districts and 20 states of India. According to RAW, there are 20,000 armed Naxalites in India. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have regarded them as the biggest internal threat to India. According to reports, more than 6000 people have died due to Naxalism in the last two decades. There are regular attacks on police stations and slaughter of officials by Naxalites in these areas. Coming to the original question, is India safe as a state considering the violence in the last decade. Why can’t we feel safe even in our own country? There is fear of Pakistan based terror, home grown terror, religious violence, caste based violence and naxalism.

So what has gone wrong in the last decade as the idea of a safe India has gone for a toss. We have one of the largest armies in the world, yet we are the most unsafe country it seems. We are going places, our GDP growth rate is the fastest after China, yet we cannot guarantee the safety of our own citizens. Everything India has achieved over the last decade has been because of its private sector while the government has continued to be slow and disappoint ever since. We can only hope this situation will improve and our elected representatives take their tasks seriously before it is too late. I just want to be safe in my own country, Is this too much to ask?