The fear of unknown

The other day I was watching the movie Helicopter Ella. The movie triggered a chain of thoughts in my mind, so I'll begin with the incident itself which triggered this thought. The lead in this movie is Kajol who while observing the family tree of her husband accidentally highlights to him, that all the men in his family died in their 40's. The husband couldn't help resist the fact. He was in his late 30's and starts thinking that he has only a few years to live. So he decides to leave his wife and son to live the last few years of his life at his own will. Meanwhile, Kajol becomes an independent single mother whose whole life revolves around the 'son'. One day the son, who feels suffocated with his mom's excessive love and care, decides to confront her. He rushes back home and to his surprise finds his Dad back home after some 16 years. He very bluntly asks his dad to leave as he had learnt to survive without him. The son then consoles his mother stating that he finally understood that his mom was always afraid that he'll also die in his 40's, and admits having the similar fear of unknown. He also states that the best thing about his dad's visit was that he isn't afraid now because his father had crossed the doomed threshold already.

This was a movie and people can easily sideline it giving it a tag of fiction, but honestly speaking, I have lived this fear of unknown. I remember back in school I had this feeling that I was doomed and if I participated in any competition, even the winning team could lose. I considered myself bad luck, and year after year the results made me firmly believe in my perception. I never scored a first prize in my school life. I remember the incident which first sowed the seed of this belief. I had participated in the inter-house elocution for the first time. I gave a miserable performance due to stage fear, because of which my house stood third. The house mistress called me after the competition, she had this huge cane in her hand which scared me to death. She informed me that I was the lowest scorer in the entire competition and even though everyone else in my house performed well, they lost because of me. Though she had not hit me with the cane, her words had hit me hard. I chose never to step on the stage again and the thought that I can make a winning team lose stuck with me for my entire school life.

Now, did I ever step up the stage without any fear? Yes, I did. While I was in college, I was on a different mission altogether. The mission of exploring myself. I was one insane person who was seen auditioning for almost all sort of events during college fests. My agenda was to find out which activities I was good at and what new I can learn. Since my focus had shifted from winning or losing to discovering myself, I had eventually overcome the 'fear of unknown'. I came to be known as multi-talented and when I got my first ever first prize at college, that happiness is still beyond definition.

This was my story, you can share yours about how you overcame your fear of unknown. 

The Race

The other day, I asked a couple of my friends following question, "Suppose, you are running a race and are very close to the finish line, but then you realize that this isn't the race you wanted to be a part of. So, what do you do, do you finish the race or quit?". Both of them started their answer saying, "it totally depends on the kind of race", but one of them said she would complete the race and the other one said she would quit. Now, this doesn't mean the other one is a loser or the first one is a winner. Going back to their first statement, "it totally depends on the kind of race", makes them wise. When I asked this question to them, both of them imagined a race of their lives, wherein the first one found the end result of the race beneficial for her, hence she chose to complete. Whereas, the other found the end result of the race destructive for her, so she chose to quit. Hence both of them wisely chose their plan of action.

After talking to them, I sat down and analyzed the race which I was running, which had initially triggered this question. To decide whether I should finish the race or quit, I had to answer 4 basic questions about my race:

1. What kind of race it is?
2. Who are my competitors?
3. What is the end result, good, bad or unknown?
4. Is this race really important to me?

Once I had the answer to the above questions, I knew what I had to do. But, during this process, I learnt that in this competitive world, sometimes it is ok to slow down, maybe to think or just to regain the energy to run again. And it is not necessary to participate in each competition life throws at you, we need to choose our races wisely. 

What does it taste like?

I was just casually texting a friend and both of us just wanted to take a break and do absolutely nothing. That simple conversation triggered a question in my mind, that how does 'doing nothing' fix things? Does it actually work?

Then I went back to thinking about the instances where doing nothing fixed things for me, well fixed is the wrong term 'sort' should be the term. I realized that all this works on a demand vs supply mechanism. When things get monotonous for us, we tend to get away from the monotony, but don't really know whether we want to come back to it or not. Hence, we work towards deprivation or deviation. We try to deviate ourselves from that one thing which is causing monotony in our lives. We enjoy the change, sometimes love it. But after some time maybe we want to come back to our regular routine, or maybe not. If former is the case, then we are just bored and need a break, but if latter is the case then we may need to change the direction as whatever 'monotonous' stuff we were doing was maybe not we actually ever wanted to do and have still not developed a liking for same.

Basically, we mentally cut down the supply of regular stuff and create a demand for same. If the demand is not back, then we should understand that we had a surplus supply of something which we never needed at the first place and then decide how to deal with it.

Drawing a parallel to what I tried to explain above, I would just quote an incident. One of my friends was on a strict no-sugar diet. She had been able to gracefully pull it off for 3 months straight and was proud of it. But there are times when we lose control over our emotions or give up to our cravings. It was one of those days for her, she was upset at the lunch table because her presentation had not gone well. Just to change the topic I offered her the sweet of the day which used to be her favourite. I knew she would refuse as usual, but I never gave up on trying to break her no-sugar diet. To my surprise, she accepted it that day and placed whole of the sweet in her mouth at once. I thought maybe she is reacting in annoyance, but she had closed her eyes right after placing it in her mouth. We could observe her slowly chewing it and her frown turning into a smile. When she opened her eyes, I questioned her 'What does it taste like?', she could barely speak because her mouth was full, but the twinkle in her eyes had my answer.

Those were just my thoughts, let me know your thoughts about why and how do we break the monotony?

The phone call

Some incidents completely change our life, mostly for our good. Someday when we reflect back, we think 'what if it never happened? How would my life have been?'. One such life turning event for me was a phone call.

The story goes back to my post-college days, I wasn't campus placed and had returned home jobless. I had lost hopes in my skills and saw myself as a failure (Yes, I was that low in confidence). My life was not exactly going by my plan, my goal was to repay my education loan all by myself and get off the debt ASAP (Little did I know then, that it helps in tax saving :P). Well, I continued studying my subjects and signed up for some classes, but was not sure whether it was to crack any higher study exam or an interview. Hence, I lacked the required focus. 2 months later, I got a message from a friend about a walk-in interview in my town, which many of my batch-mates were attending. I decided to go for the interview against my parent's will. My dad did not want me to lose focus from my studies and wait for the result from the colleges in which I had applied (with my poor score). I did not have any expectation of being accepted anywhere, but my Dad thought I was much more capable than I see myself and should not appear for an interview for a company which he has never heard of (That is the beauty of parenting, you always find your child a star). But all I wanted to do at that time was to start earning.

I managed to crack that interview, but my father placed a condition that if I get selected in a college I'll have to study. I agreed because I knew what was going to happen. My father was certainly not happy seeing me working 10 hours a day, for 6 days in a week for mere 7000 bucks, but because programming made me happy, which was certainly evident in my changed behaviour, he kept mum. Now you may think, the jobless got the job, but where does the phone call come into the picture. (Picture abhi baki hai mere dost :D)

I started earning (and learning), but 7000 bucks were not enough for my goal. After getting my second salary I sat down to calculate, how long will it take for me to repay the loan with this salary (Pessimist plans). My calculations scared me. I was no more at peace, the happiness of the job was lost somewhere. I had to look for an alternate option but was completely clueless. After spending 2 more months thinking about this problem, I got a message from a friend. There was a mass recruitment drive for my batch pass-outs for an MNC in next 2 days (Sat) and my scores satisfied the eligibility criteria. The drive was 500 km away from my town. But, the problem for me was that my Saturdays were working and when I checked the train options, no ticket was available at such short notice. So I did not even tell anyone at home about the interview. (As usual, I was acting hopeless). Next morning the same friend called me to check whether I was going for the interview or not (Friends know you too well). I told that train tickets were not available, so I dropped the idea. She literally started shouting at me, that I am a fool who is skipping an interview because a ticket is not available. She asked me to check other options for transport and firmly told me to go for that interview. That scolding literally blew me away, I wasn't used to such scolding from anyone apart from my parents. I hung up saying that I'll see what can be done. But in my mind I was pretty sure I was not going, because if I have to reach for the interview on time, I have to be in that town by next day and it was already 10 PM in the night, I won't get any other mean and road transportation was very risky for me to travel alone, that to be to the city which was already in news for a major rape case. But, that phone call made me feel helpless and it soon turned into restlessness. Next morning, my dad asked what was bothering me, I told him the whole story and he ended up saying 'take a flight'. I stared at him for a few seconds out of shock. (Being in a middle-class family, you don't even think about flight and that to a flight being booked at such a short notice, it costs a fortune.) After some time I managed to say, you must be kidding. He looked into my eyes and said that if it is that important to me then I should go for the interview. (Not going for it is was clearly not making me happy.) But I turned down his offer and left for office. While driving to the office I was cursing myself that why did I waste so much time, and dragged the situation to such an extent. If at all I have to go for the interview now,  flight is the only option left. 

I called dad at around 2 PM, he asked me whether I was ok, I said yes and asked him to book my flight.

Well, I got through that interview and am doing well since then, yes the flight cost me my one month's salary at that time. How I managed to reach my interview centre and got through is another adventurous story altogether. But now when I reflect back, I think I wouldn't have made till here if my friend had not called (read scolded) me that day. And of course, my dad also has a key role to play. Through this, I want to thank you two for turning my life for greater good :). Thank you so much.  

On Cloud 9

As a kid, whenever I used to watch the cloudy sky, I wondered how would it feel to be on the clouds. They appeared so much fluffy and thanks to my imagination, I imagined myself bouncing up and down and sliding from one cloud to the other.

The fact that I can jump on the clouds remained with me even when I saw cloud layer below our flight. The only change was that as a grown-up I was now sure that getting near the clouds was achievable. But jumping out of the window to bounce on the cloud was not, until and unless I go for sky-diving :D.

Thankfully, I got a chance to get my facts corrected and I feel blessed to witness that eternal beauty which I cannot get out of my mind.

So this summer I traveled to Chopta, an offbeat destination in Uttrakhand, which has the highest abode of Lord Shiva in the form of Tungnath temple.

 As usual I was sleeping in the car because I wanted to preserve my energy for the place where we were actually headed for(I get tired easily, so have to work in energy saver mode :P). Journey had been long, slow songs were playing, everyone was quite, therefore a perfect setup to sleep. I don't remember for how long I had been sleeping, but woke up with the sudden hustle bustle in the cab. Everyone was in awe of something, but what?

I tried to look outside the window. It was a struggle going from half opened eyes to the moment where I don't want to blink them anymore. There was a layer of clouds running beside me. My heart throbbed with excitement, because this time I had the option to get down of the car and see how it looks like, how it feels. My cab driver was also amazed and we noticed he was looking off the road, which scared us as hell. So we all had to bring our focus back to the road, where we saw that we had a cloud in our way, which means we'll have to cross it. My excitement doubled, as what would it be like, passing through the cloud. (PS: I was sleeping while that happened on the flight). So we were getting closer to the cloud, it got a little foggy for a while and then clear again. Bam! Where is the cloud, did we just cross that? This was my reaction when I looked at the rear window, leaving the cloud behind. My childhood dream was just shattered, but a magic was created in the moment. I had just crossed the clouds in "waking" state. How many people actually get to witness that!

We got down after a while to get a better view. This is what we saw.

I remember describing the feeling to my Dad, though it looked like fog, but I felt as fresh as a leaf in the morning dew. The clouds did not just touch my skin, they touched my soul. I was surely on cloud 9.

Someone heard me

I am a morning person and love to watch sunrise. I was too excited to watch the sunrise at Kanyakumari , the southern tip of India, a place known for its sunrise and sunset over the ocean. Excitement was such, that I was not able to sleep at night. All night I kept on imagining how it would look like. What peace and satisfaction it would bring to me was already reflecting in the broad smile on my face. I just tried to contain my excitement because I wanted to save my best self to enjoy the view.

We were staying at Vivekanand Ashram and were told that the ashram has its own private area which is suitable for sunrise view. We had no idea how far the spot was from where we were staying, all we knew that we have to be at the spot by 5:45 AM. With the onset of dawn we were running on the streets looking for sign board for sunrise point. On the way we heard a peacock. My eyes immediately started scanning the surrounding to look for one. Somehow I feel lucky after seeing a peacock, but the twilight could only give me a view of a sign-board which read Peacock Sanctuary. Immediately my inner self was dancing that I'll get to see a peacock as well. My sleepy eyes were now wide open and a secret wish cropped up, to watch a peacock dance (which I had never seen before). I looked up at the sky to do a quick weather check, as I have heard that they dance when it is cloudy or rainy. The sky was clear and my concentration was back on sunrise point sign-board.

We finally reached there, but it appeared as a no man land, with a white wall blocking the sea-view. Weird thoughts started cropping up, that if the sunrise is so known why wasn't anyone there to watch it. It wasn't even that dark, so surely we weren't early. I quickly checked my left, which was east direction. I could see a big black tank with a golden outline. It was like "Chan se jo toote koi sapna" kind of moment.

Disappointment was evident on my face. We were at the wrong point and our sunrise view was blocked, that is why nobody else was there. I felt like crying because that was the only day we had in Kanyakumari and by the time we would head for the actual point we might already miss the sunrise. We decided to stay. I tried standing on varying heights just to get a glimpse. After some time, some people started showing up. A gate through the wall was opened  and we were allowed to go near the sea. As soon we passed through the gate we saw stony structures which made their way into the sea.

My hopes rose again, that if we made to the end point we might see something beautiful. We started running. My foot wears were sinking in the wet sand making it difficult to run.  I took them off, even though the shells hurt my foot, I ran as fast as I could, towards my destination.

We reached near the tip and my eyes glued to east direction. I sat down looking into the empty sky with fast paced waves splashing the rocks and occasionally able sprinkle on me. It was as if they were trying to grab my undivided attention from the sky.

When it started becoming bright, it became very evident that we missed the sunrise, even if we had been at the other point, the clouds would have hidden it. Even though everything around me was beautiful and peaceful, I was restless. I closed my eyes and asked the universe why did it happen. The answer was, " If you don't have unfinished business over here, you won't come back . Do come again, it is a beautiful place. For now enjoy this". In my imagination I could see a rainbow forming around the light which we were able to see in the east. I immediately had a smile on my face and thanked God for the real-like imagination. When I opened my eyes, my imagination was live. I couldn't believe it, I asked my friend to confirm whether she was able to see the rainbow as well or not. It felt like magic.

My restlessness had ended. I was in the moment, full of life.

We were asked to vacate the area in an hour as the only entry door was being closed. We headed back towards our room. The euphoria had made me forget about the peacock watch-list. But someone had decided to surprise me :D. I heard the peacock again and when I turned towards the sound I saw a peacock flaunting its spread.

I was amazed, I looked up with welled eyes and mouthed a silent thank you. My cheeks paining, unable to contain my over-excited smile. My friends  gave me a puzzled look and all I could say, someone heard .

The Drunk State

I always wondered, why do people get drunk. I had this delusion that maybe the drink tastes good that is why, but the delusion got cleared when I accidentally took a sip of it. My immediate reaction was, is this something people drink by choice? For me, it was like a bitter medicine which I would never want to taste again. So the question was still unanswered, why do people get drunk?

I remember having this conversation with one of my friends and she answered stating that it is the state of mind which you achieve after getting drunk, which is the culprit. When I asked more details of that 'state of mind', she said she can't explain that in words. Now this half-baked information triggered more questions and to get those answers I had only 2 choices:  either get drunk myself and experience that state of mind (why do others get to see that version of me), or observe drunk people and deduce that state of mind. The second option seemed more interesting to me and gave me more adrenaline rush. Over the years, I observed many people and read many articles like 'What alcohol does to your brain?' and all. You may think how much free time I have for this, but the fact is, I have this level of curiosity for almost every third thing.

A couple of days ago I got to observe a very interesting set of people, which kind of forced me to write this one down. My observation had two categories of people.

1. People whom I knew and was seeing them drunk for the first time
2. People who were drunk but not known to me

My observation of the drunk state was that it brings out your strongest of feelings for or against a person. So if a person expresses something in a drunk state, do not dismiss it, they 'might' be saying the truth. Why 'might', because some people act like they are drunk so that they can say whatever they want to say and get away with it. As much as it makes you appreciate and acknowledge people around you, it makes you equally touchy about certain aspects. The door to the room of touchy issues gets unlocked, and one just needs to open that door. Being drunk also makes you an extremist, whatever you want to change about the world around you, either everything is possible or nothing is possible, there is no in between. You just live the moment and react to things. Smallest of things can make you happy or sad.
From my observations, I conclude that it is fun to watch category 1 people, at times it opens a new pandora box of their personality and it is always better to stay away from category 2 people. As far as my choice of getting drunk is concerned, I feel that I am not yet prepared to reach that state of mind.

When you cannot say what you want to say

There have been time when I wish to convey a lot but fail to utter a word. Then  I keep on thinking about the matter rather I should say, over think about the pros and cons. But, when my urge to express myself overpowers me. I write it down, and if at all I am able to gather courage and enough reasons to not to hold on , I pass on my message to the concerned person as well. If any of my friend might be reading this, may remember all the written messages they have got from me. Few of them have still preserved my messages.
       Some of them have readily accepted my odd habit but, many still ask me why I always choose written communication over face to face communication. To which I'll place an answer here (again written ). Most of the times I refrain myself from saying things because I fear hurting people so I try to control the situation until I can. On the more while expressing myself verbally, that "drill down gaze" on me, makes me feel insecure, as if my words are not going to be believed and my eyes are being searched for the truth. I have tried face to face communication, but it seems it's not my cup of tea because most of the time I fail to make my point clear or I have to cut off in the middle to avoid exposure of my emotions.
       On the more I must say that I love the perks associated with written communication.
1. You are able to make your point clear without any interruption from other person. Your message is completely conveyed.
2.Your words are more accountable when you write them down as written words last more than spoken words.
3.While writing your are forced to listen to yourself. You are exposed to your own thoughts and emotions.You get to know what actually you want. This way you discover yourself. Most of the times I have discovered solutions to my problems just by writing it down, because while writing itself I find out what is worrying me.

4.Written communication makes you more expressive.

But with all this , one point which stands important is that "think before you write".
Main idea is to just express yourself, keeping things piled up in mind just slowly builds up a devil which torments you when you are lonely. Don't do that to yourself. Be kind to your oneself.

PS- Through this I would also like to apologize to all those whom I have ever hurt through my written communication.

Eyes- window to the soul

Eyes the most beautiful gift given to us by nature. Now, those who think a lot, a flash of thoughts may strike them, why eyes are the most beautiful  gift? Even I was also searching  for a justifiable answer . But then, I was reminded of 'Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder'.

But, here we are to talk about the " window to the soul ". When one has to read someone through and through, just willfully peak into their eyes and you'll know the person in one go. Here, I would like to stress on the word willfully, because until and unless you are not interested to read the other person, you'll just have a pair of eyes staring back at you.

Your eyes speak the unspoken words which never even came out of your mouth. Eyes speak a lot. Even the emoticons differ the expression through eyes ;).Ok, I'll bring forward an example which  might have come in front of most of you. One of those sad days when you don't want to talk to anyone and haven't told anyone what is wrong and your mom just by looking at you shoots up a question , "What's wrong with you?". To which if you answer "Nothing", the next thing what she does is, looks straight into your eyes to assure herself that whatever you are saying is right or not. You can not escape your mom's gaze. And if you try to steal your eyes she catches you then and there. Mom's willfully read their child's eyes because they want to solve their each and every problem. They know how to look through "that" window.

So, the point is that eyes can be very well read and rarely(considering the exceptions) can anybody come up and say that nobody can read or guess what is on my mind.

This reading of eye is a silent language which if learnt can build up a strong relation. I read somewhere that a true relation begins when the silence between the two is complete. And here is when this eye language comes into action. A simple look and you can feel the warmth and comfort. Well, I may not be any one new who brought down this point . There are numerous songs and poems which describe this beautifully.

I brought up this topic because I wanted to share few of my eye language experiences. I just caught one of my guy friend  gazing at one of my girl friend somewhat like this:

And he stole his gaze when I caught him red handed. I just thought, how much he has to express to her but never speaks because he is afraid to loose her. Therefore, I would suggest that just look once into the eyes of your loved ones and know how deeply you are loved, because eyes would definitely reveal the truth.

But do keep your gaze soft so that the other person does not feel awkward or feel like being interrogated.

With this I just hope that my silent message gets conveyed ;). 

I Hate you like I love You

Love and care is all that one needs to have a perfect life. Isn't it?

Do you have someone who used to care for you like nobody else in the world or maybe like your parents ? Who used to make you feel at home but suddenly things changed between you two. That person started backing off .  Though they still care for you, but most of your talks have started turning into taunts. Your conversations have started ending either abruptly or with an argument. Then long hours of silence, then again that person is back to you as if nothing has happened. And you completely have no idea why the other person is behaving like that, what is wrong. It irritates you when you ask what is wrong and get silence as the answer.

So here I am with answers to those questions, however I cannot assure how many of you will be able to relate to it. I would like to quote an example to aid my explanation: for those of you who have seen 'Jane Tu Ya Jane Na', might remember Amit, Aditi's brother, he hated Jai and never talked straight to either to Jai or Aditi. Once Aditi asked him why have you changed, why have you gone so far? To which he replied that it was not him who went far, it was just other people who surrounded Aditi. 

People do not actually understand, all those odd behavior, rash talks are just to gain that attention back which has been diverted to other people. They still love you the way they used to, but hate you for not understanding their feelings. All you need is to give that time which they deserve, but before starting up again do sit and talk and have a great long argument, and in that argument you would get to know how long your presence was longed for, what all were the places where you were missed. And then maybe you may realize that you were about to loose a pearl while collecting stones. So, go and mend up before time runs out.

The Other side

At certain situations in life, most of us think what the other person might think if we do so. But according to me the concern should be on 'why' rather than 'what'. I might be sounding bit confusing. Here, I am trying to make you walk in other person's shoes. Many a times I find  myself in a situation , about which I think later and discover that I overreacted, the other person was also correct on his or her part. Understanding other person's point of view is a bit difficult task. For that, one just has to assume for few moments that the other person is right. This doesn't mean that you are wrong. But, when you assume the other person is right, you analyze the situation in a whole new different perspective., which is the 'other side' I am taking about. Once you analyze the situation and place yourself at the other person's place, or I should say, walk in other person's shoes, and think what you would have done had you been there, you master your thoughts. And many a times you discover 'why' that other person did that to you, and ultimately you have a different idea of the whole situation after doing so.

Doing this actually requires a bit of efforts, but if implemented successfully it brings peace of mind. This activity helps you to get away from that inner battles which you have in your brain that 'why people do this to me?'. This would go incomplete without an example. Once my friend told me that her manager always keeps on shouting at people, he makes them work madly and never appreciates. She was really frustrated at him. Her frustration is right on her part, isn't it?  However, think from manager's point of view, an employee has to deal with 1 manager but a manager has to deal with many employees. He has to derive work from each one of them and make them work efficiently. Though this does not give any manager  rights to be rude to his employees , but had he been lenient would everyone listen to him?

Making people work for you is not that easy job, and work pressure can frustrate anyone even your manager.

 So, next when you hear a scolding, just try to understand the other side, and then you'll have a chilled out attitude towards that scolding, and you would be able to concentrate back to your work with much better spirits. Try this, because ultimately you have to complete that work and cribbing only reduces your efficiency.

      Another aspect I would like to give to the 'other side' is to see positive in every situation. I don't say that I see positive in every situation I get into. Even I do crib, but I recover soon, because I put my mind in the direction to find what is good in this situation, and many a times putting things together I solve the jigsaw puzzle. If you see something good in yourself, then do remember that it was 'some situations' put together , which made you what you are today. And they will keep making you worth :D.

Jadu ki Jhappi (A Magical Hug)

For those of you who have seen Munna_Bhai_M.B.B.S. might be knowing what does Jadu ki Jhappi mean. But have you ever tried using it? The miracle it does, the happiness it gives to the heart. Just try it once, give someone you love, an unexpected tight hug and when you are held back even tighter, you'll feel the magic.
   When you meet a friend after a long time and hug each other, the grip itself tells, how badly you were missed. When you meet your mother after a long time and embrace her, do notice her eyes, they would be numb and satisfied, to see you back. That is the magic of a hug aka Jadu ki jhappi.
   Again I would come back to my example, I am a shy kind of a person who doesn't showcase love openly. I even feel shy expressing it to my mother too. Though I go home almost once every month, still my mother embraces me so tight, as if I have returned after years. She is literally in tears, when I enter and when I leave. I can feel that tender love and that transfer of emotions through that Jappi.
  Well, this is obviously expected of moms, another example I  would quote is when on one occasion I hugged my room-mate unexpectedly, she smiled with a shock then gripped me hard. Seriously I loved that expression on her face. Maybe, she would be having the same kind of smile while reading it, as I have while typing it ;)...This is what a happy moment brings with it,  the joy of remembrance.
  I am working on it, like how to be more expressive and would suggest my folks to do the same. Express yourself, let your loved ones know, how much you love them. After all, a hug costs nothing and is filled with magic. For those who are far please make a call ;). So, explore your magic my magicians and stay tuned :D

Find yourself

In my last post, I talked about what I do to bring my smile back, but all cannot resolve their problem with my solution. This one is yet again a continuation to the previous post but I deliberately did not name it as ' Rekindle your childhood smile part 3', as this would have become monotonous and make you lose interest;). And the basic funda to bring your smile back is to ' break the monotony'. So, I thought I better begin this with the title ;)
   The only way to break the monotony in your life is to bring in something which you love to do. Be it anything singing,dancing,painting, playing guitar,yoga or blogging :D. Trust me when you make space for your hobby, you have something to look forward to, and your hobby never gets monotonous as it will always have a new thrill and excitement for you. I 'll give my example, ever since I started blogging I just wait to get back home and write my new post. I utilize my travel time to think about what I have to write next.
   Now, people may say that we don't have time for doing all this, then I would say that the time which we spend cribbing about 'what a monotonous life we are living', can be utilized to live our spirits (This isn't intended to offend anyone). The happiness that we find in making ourselves happy has no bounds. And sooner you'll also fall in love with your smile.
  So, let yourself loose, be easy to yourself and eventually find yourself. Spend some quality time making yourself happy. and then simply you would love your life.
Keep Smiling and follow this simple algorithm:

Rekindle your childhood smile (part 2)

In this post, I'll let you know what all things I do to help myself with a smile. But before that, I 'll share one incident. Once I was alone in my room (which I share with 2 other). I had had a 'very bad' (because I thought so) day and was just waiting for the room to be vacant. And when I grabbed that opportunity I started crying hard. After 5 mins of shedding of tears, I thought I have had enough of it and went to the washroom to wash my face, but before washing my face, I looked myself into the mirror. How horrible I was looking !!! (Though I mostly do).
      I usually do not share about my bad mood to anyone, unless I get caught. So, I am the only one responsible to mend my mood. For that, I watch animated movies or Khichdi episodes or Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai episodes, and even in my worst of moods, I bear a smile while watching those, just because I want to laugh. These light headed shows do not require that 'extra brain' to understand the comedy, and they rejuvenate me.
     Next, I switch to bathroom singing, I sing out loud as if no one is listening, though I am heard most of the times. This activity is just an alternative to the scream therapy which states that you feel stress-free if you scream out loudly. So, this singing alternative doesn't make people feel that you are mad, and you do improve your singing skills ;). I myself have improved because I sing to impress my self. This usually works ;).
    Next, I switch to some creative work, I use my destructive energy to do some constructive work. Now, people reading this might think all cannot be creative, even I had the same thought before I discovered this art. Once out of anger I crushed an aluminium foil, I did not pay any heed to it, until it started taking some shape. The first thing I shaped out was a heart(because that's the easiest) and then gifted it to a friend. The smile which my friend gave to me, on holding such an ordinary thing in her hand, was priceless. Trust me, that joy, to see someone smiling because of you, is out of the world.
Well, the point here is that, I was not born creative, my anger made me creative, and since then I have made many miniatures out of aluminium foil and gifted to people just to receive my priceless gift.
   These are a few of the things which I use to mend my spoiled mood. And I make it sure that whenever I smile, I do look myself into the mirror, because doing this doubles the stretch of that curve on my face, and I love that smile of mine. And that smile is where I find my rekindled childhood. So, Keep Smiling always :D

One of my rekindled smile.

Rekindle your childhood smile

Have you ever seen a kid smiling?? How pure and innocent that smile is !!! I suppose a child's smile is the most contagious thing in this world. As soon as we see one, we hold 'one of those kinds' on our lips. Like this one :

Cute isn't it? Here, the point to be noted is that I mentioned 'one of those kinds ' and not 'exactly similar'. Because there lies a huge difference between those two smiles. Children at tender age find almost everything interesting, all things are new to them and so they laugh out loud at whatever interests them. They do not have the burden of tomorrow on their smile and their smile is not fake. But when they start growing up, they start losing interest in their surroundings, things appear monotonous to them. Even though they know very little of this world, they assume a lot ahead which is going to happen to them later. This is what drains out the innocence of that childhood smile and burdens them with responsibilities.
  So, when did you last laugh like a child? Watch this video: Baby laughing at the sound of ripping paper. And if this video makes you laugh then you still have that spark in you. So, grab it in the next post, how I brought my childhood smile back. Stay tuned :)