Motivational Quotes :)

Only rarely is the cost of failure greater than the cost of not trying at all ! – Jeff Bezos

Pain is temporary, Quitting is permanent – Lance Armstrong

every time you’re making a choice, one choice is the safe/comfortable choice – and one choice is the risky/uncomfortable choice. the risky/uncomfortable choice is the one that will teach you the most and make you grow the most, so that’s the one you should choose. – Derek Sivers (http://sivers.org/scares-excites-do-it)

Ravana

From the other side of mirror, he coldly stares at us
His fault was that he feared failure more than us
Yes, he rues missing that bus
He dreamt, and dreamt wide
But now, he is lonely and cries inside
He runs from world,lest they know his failure
He is under pressure
And then he erupts
venom spurts
He was earlier rejected
Worse, now he’s hated
by everyone,
by himself looking from other side of mirror

***

An attempt to go inside the mind and character of the antagonist of any story – what lies inside that monster who’s hated by all !!!

Good Timing

My 3rd speech at Bangalore Toastmasters :-

What do you feel inside, when your train is announced to be late? …Or when your order in a restaurant, is not attended for half an hour? …

…Irritated… Incensed… Insulted….

There was a priest, Mr. John, who was being honored after 25 years of service. A local politician was to give a speech in his honor.

The politician was late and while they waited, the priest started narrating his experiences

“I got my first impression of this place by the first confession. The very first person who entered my confessional told me that he had stolen a television, bribed the police, had an affair with the wife of his boss and then embezzled money at the office. I was appalled.

But as the days went by, I realized, all other folks were loving and god-fearing”

Just then, the politician arrived, full of apologies, for being late.

The politician began “I’ll never forget the day when Mr. John first came to our church. In fact, I had the honor of being the first one to confess, before him”

….

Only if the politician had arrived on time!!!

Some believe – status of a person is directly proportional to the time by which he’s late.

Unpunctuality is a problem – make no mistakes about it.

Why is punctuality important?

1)      Being punctual adds shine to your character. You are perceived as reliable, honest, considerate and as a man who has foresight to adapt to any situation.

2)      Don’t fool yourself into thinking that nobody notices latecomers. People feel insulted.

“The while we keep a man waiting, he reflects on our shortcomings.”

3)      Somebody said “The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it”

When a man sees that always he’s the only one ontime, he starts coming late reluctantly.

There was a survey conducted in a school, to analyze reasons for students being late. The reasons cited were quite interesting like “overslept, “tore my trousers” and one imaginative student was late because “he stopped to look at a strange dog “.

So why are we late?

1)      Traffic?

How many of us have ever missed a job interview?

And somehow for Friday premiere, we manage to reach the PVR , early enough to buy popcorns.

We are very smart people – we assign priorities – to people…events .

Conference call with clients – let me first have a smoke first, replenish my creative juices – 10 minutes late chalta hai!

 

Toastmaster meeting – I know I’m the MC, let me just send this last email, yes, somebody will find assignees for me.

2)      For some-god-forsaken reasons being late is associated with our culture. I have never seen a wedding where groom’s side reaches the marriage hall on time. We amuse ourselves in equating IST to tardiness.

3)      And sometimes we are late deliberately, like in those status meetings, when we don’t have any status to give.

4)      Genuine reasons are there but an apology is a must.

The solution of this problem doesn’t involve rocket-science:-

1)      Be honest about our priorities and inform the concerned parties accordingly.

2)      Keep your watch accurate.

3)      Note down the time spent in traffic and plan accordingly the next time.

William Penn said it correctly:

“Time is what we want most, but…..what we use worst “

one for the f word

so there are people

people you know and

you smile at them and

you ignore when they make guffaws and

you hide your annoyance or

you try hard to avoid that bored look when talking to them or…

you can’t think much about them apart from above few lines.

 

Then there are people

people – you blast off when they make a mistake and

people whose mistakes, hurt you

people , with whom you you are ever-on-prowl for one guffaw of theirs , for that one chance to pull their leg

people with whom one can be one’s ownself

people with whom you share a thing or two

people with whom you share a drink or two

people whose happiness is worth sharing for you and bigger than any other thing in the world

Now again somebody said…let me Google it who actually said that…Elbert Hubbard :

A friend is one who knows all about you and still loves you

 

 

 

2010 for me

Inspired by similar posts by few folks, I also plan to jot down whatever I did, learnt, felt,saw during the year gone by:-

Spent Jan 1 night on Nandi hill

Got 4-wheeler DL but still not confident

Confusion – Thoughts of shifting from Engineering to consultancy, certification,  Thoughts of Job Switch, Thoughts of other radical shifts – CEED, NID, FTII – a llot of confusion

A gala holi with all college friends

Ran Maiden Sunfeast 10k

Scuba-diving at Netrani

Changes in work, greater responsibilites

Leh – got cancelled

Catching up with the year gone by – Apsarkonda Beach,Honnavar on 31st Dec 2010 – courtsey Ghrunchu

Toastmasters happened

5 Theatre shows – but unsatisfactory performances from me

Exposed to Lots of theatre in general – clowning, forum, volunteering

Trek 4300 arrived and is crying for attention

Revived the blog

Agumbe-Sringeri trip

Shivanasamudra trip

One or two expressions found their way out

Few rounds of disappointments and realizations

Taudi near Kochi courtsey Jithu

Jog-Honnavar-Karwar trip and Gokarna experience on Jan 1 2011

2011 – lots and lots to look forward to, lots of challenges, lots of hopes, lots of people, lots of work

Serendipity

Finding an orphan 100 Rupee note on a street….

Finding empty roads on a Monday morning (thanks to holiday in other offices)….

Cooking, by chance, an amazing Daal…

Small surprises make life so WORTH living !

Agumbe-Sringeri was such an experience.

Sept 3, Friday 11:24 am : Bohra made us an offer that I couldn’t refuse.  So couldn’t Joshi. Tickets were booked.

Agumbe

I had heard of it as the King Cobra capital of India. I read a little later …..it receives second-highest rainfall in India and Monsoon was in its full glory at that point of time. On the Rajhamsa to Agumbe, we were the only tourists. The practical me cursed myself. But the decision was made.

Morning mist and a blanket of greenery engulfed us in Agumbe.  We had plans of staying in a guest house. Then one boy passed by and talked about one old paying guest house down the road. Why we went down that road ?……no particular reason comes to my mind right now. A blue plastic sheet covered the 2 storey house. There was a small gate. Bohra shouted “Hello” like in those horror movies. A small girl came out and went in again to call her Grandma.

Kasturiakka

There are some people who you meet….

Who even when you are meeting for the first time, exude such warmth that you feel like

Dinner time with Kasturiakka and Shantiakka

knowing them from years….

Who aren’t prejudiced about you or in a hurry to judge you….

Who are plain happy to see you and accept you as you are…

Kasturiakka, the girl’s grandma and Shantiakka her elder sister – were two such persons. They…we….talked…shared a lot of stories.

The House

It was an old structure. Small gate outside, a big verandah inside, again a small door for entry into the dining hall, rooms above the dining hall. Few rooms, lying unattended for years, gave a creepy feeling. The bathroom had two big copper containers, fitted inside a cemented shelf . A small fire underneath the containers, heated the water. There was a well and an animal shelter alongside the bathroom.

We were just feeling that there is something different and unique about this house and then Kasturiakka told us this is the Malgudi Days House.

We had nice home-made food but our favourite was Kasay, a home-made drink made out of jaggery, milk and local herbs. We gulped and gulped and gulped it.

I was starting to have that feeling…the feeling of finding an unexpected treasure…the feeling that this is going to be some trip….the omens were there(yes, I finished The Alchemist yesterday).

Barkana Ho

Barkana waterfalls first – we decided.

The first hurdle

Auto dropped us on the road at the edge of forest . 3 kms straight walk to Barkana – the driver told us. Forest was showing it’s colors from the start. A 3-4 ft deep nallah and lush greenery welcomed us.

Spirits were buoyant…

Posing in the middle of nowhere

Jokes were being cracked…

 

 

Chips and Chocolates were being devoured…

War cries of Barkana Ho traveled through the forest….

And then it grew dark. The intriguing, lush green forest had morphed into a labyrinth. Almost 2 hours had passed away. In the middle of a rain forest, with heavens pouring like no tomorrow and wriggling leeches on our feet – WE WERE LOST!

Spirits were drooping. One trail, fortunately, led us out of the forest on to the same road.

The auto driver came again. We told him our sad story and he told us the route again.

In the middle of the road,

Crossroads

we had the brainstorming once again – the GO NO-GO DECISION.

Bohra wanted to go in. He never wanted to come out without seeing it, in the first place. So did Tripathiji.

Joshi and Indrajeet didn’t want to go in. Joshi had hurt/sprained his leg slightly. Indrajeet hated and cursed leeches like they were whores.

Laziness in taking a stand puts you in a hot seat sometimes. The decider vote was mine. Part me, wanted to sympathize with Joshi and Indrajeet. Another part didn’t want to leave any unfinished business.

Pain is temporay, quitting is permanent

- Lance Armstrong

LET’S GO IN – I said. This time we were more business like. Making mental and physical notes of trails and landmarks, we discovered routes, hidden by fallen trees, some of which we had earlier assumed as blocked.

The Pain

The rain was incessant..

The forest was becoming denser…

The place was the motherland of leeches…

Sweat, Blood and Rain – it was a heady cocktail.

If our hearts hadn’t given up, so hadn’t the demons in our minds. Doubts started clouding our spirits again. But the beauty of being in a group is that…..

If one feels it’s a wild goose chase, another will see the light at the end of tunnel….

If one feels frustrated by the unending trail, another could hear the sound of water falling on rocks….

Bohra - the leader

Bohraji was leading and it’s a tough job. Make no mistakes, leaders are not always popular – but a leader doesn’t have to please everyone. Writing now, I remember the same role played by Pundirda in Sawandurga trek, years back.

Very soon the trail was also lost. Bushes were overgrown. Sometimes we had to cut them , sometimes crouch under them. King Cobra was nowhere in sight though.

Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested

- The Alchemist

Finally, we reached the view point from where we could see Barkana.

The view was majestic.

The waterfall looked like milk flowing on the rocks.

The mist above the mountains made the whole setting surreal – almost something like the parts of New Zealand that we got to see in movies like Braveheart, The Last Samurai and LOTR.

Barkana

But to be honest, I felt cheated…a trifle disappointed. It was just a view-point. I wanted to bath under the waterfall. But then ,

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination

-Don Williams Jr.

Immediately after conquering Barkana, we went to Jogi Gundi Falls. We reached there after 5 minutes of walk into the forest. We were there in the water…almost – but I don’t have more than 20 words to describe it right now- hence upon the importance of journey over the destination.

Next morning we said goodbye to Kasturiakka and Shantiakka. We asked them how much we shall pay – they told us whatever we wish. This was an unique but uneasy situation for us. And this was another testimony to their simplicity and sweetness.

There were few other places we visited like one view point and Srimane water falls which were also decent places to visit.

Sringeri

The fear of leeches prevented us from conquering Narasimh parvat. We had heard of few temples in Sringeri. We decided to not stress ourselves and spend some time in those temples (and search for an answer or two, to our existential questions )

Sringeri Math

Temples are usually not a place for us, at least for me . So I was wondering what we will do there. But we were in for a nice surprise there also.

The temple that we visited was the first muth established by Adi Shankaracharya, a 8th century old structure, located on the river of Tunga. The architecture was marvellous.

 

 

We were thinking of where to have lunch but then surprise surprise -we found that that muth offers free lunches also.

Stranger

 

We spent time on the banks of river Tunga watching, observing

 

pigeons…

 

crows…

 

One Cutie tagging along her mother

fishes…

 

humans…

 

river…

 

Natural pose

rain….

 

faith…

 

LIFE…

 

as it was happening around us.

We sat inside a small temple.As heavens poured, we relaxed, we talked, talked about smartphones, job, religion, girls(never too far from male mind), the trip, Barkana, Kasturiakka, life – every topic under the clouds…well, there was no sun.

In a nutshell, during those two days, we had an encounter with life.

Living

चाह

लडखडाना इरादों का काफी हुआ अब
भंवरों में उलझना नहीं है अब
इस रात की सुबह की तलाश है
बुझे दीयों को तेल की प्यास है
उस शिखर पर ध्वजारोहण का लोभ है
उस शितिज को छूने की चाह है
बस होंसले की पतवार की दरकार है
ख्वाइशों का नशा करने की देर है