Success

Owing to a particular subject in my institute, I have been putting so much thought into this word since the past few days. It almost seemed to dominate my mind and made me introspect upon my inner self. How does one define success ? Have we really, truly ever felt successful ? When was the moment when only the words "Mission Successful" could perfectly describe what you were feeling ? But is that what success is ? Till each and every cell of your body does not scream for joy, is it not called being successful ?

I would say overcoming something that has been bothering you since long is success.
To be able to spend that one extra hour while preparing for an examination when the only sane thing to do is to go off to sleep is success.
To bring a smile on the face of a loved one when everything might seem at a loss to them is success.
To help someone without having any ulterior motives is success.
To be able to complete a deadline when you thought the Universe was completely conspiring against you is success.
That little dance that your heart does, when you completed something that you were so sure you wouldn't be able to ? That's just what I call success.

It is often heard that success brings happiness. I'll modify that line to say that "collective" success brings happiness. When you have someone who went through just the same and undergoes the same amount of happiness as you do, the feeling is a completely different one.
Success comes in little packages, but most of us often tend to ignore it. We get so involved in our own lives, running in the rat race and setting high reaching goals for ourselves, that we forget to celebrate the little successes that life has to offer.
Celebrating doesn't mean throwing a party and calling up each and every acquaintance of yours to share the news with them ! Some celebrations are just meant to be with you, when you sit and value yourself, the work you did, and feel satisfied with all that you were able to accomplish.

Let's just stop trying to make our lives miserable by not keeping too high goals and relishing the little moments on the way to it.
The big thing at the present moment, college has finally started and it brings along with it a number of small opportunities to make the best use of.
As of now ? Mission Successful ;)

Stating The Obvious

This thing, this statement has been there in my mind since quite a long time now. I have been pondering upon this word "obvious" and still haven't been able to figure out what exactly it stands for.
Whatever it is that I am about to say might seem extremely vague, unconnected and not make any sense AT ALL. But then again, maybe it is after writing all this that things might seem A BIT clear and hence my next post might be something more meaningful ;) (Yeah, that's the first time I have used an emoticon in the middle of a post ! )
What is obvious ? What is the most obvious thing surrounding us ? How do we define obvious ? And why do people get so critical when we state the obvious ? Should we keep reminding ourselves and the people around us of the obvious ? Yes. These are the questions running through my mind right now.

According to me, something that is obvious is something that has been taken for granted. Something that we know is of utmost important, but we've just maybe stopped appreciating its existence on a regular basis.
But is that the right thing to do ? You might be able to draw a parallel to what I am saying maybe in terms of the person you've been with since quite a long time, the home-cooked food that your mother prepares everyday, the ironed clothes kept in your room each morning or maybe something as trivial as waking up each morning to the shining sun.
But then again, its not like you don't appreciate them ! It's just that you have become used to them to such an extent that it is almost like breathing. It just comes naturally to have such things, such people around you. You don't even spend a minute imagining life without them, because it is just so OBVIOUS that things will be this way always !

No. That's not how things work. Yes, the main reason for writing this was so that I might be able to understand the dilemma I was going through and maybe prevent someone else from going through just the same. Yes, I came to a conclusion.

If not all the obvious things, atleast appreciate each and every living soul around you. That doesn't mean you send them flowers or buy expensive gifts to show your appreciation, it just means acknowledging them once in a while for being the wonderful people that they are. I haven't been doing enough of that lately and I just hope it isn't too late already.
Stating the obvious isn't a dumb thing to do. Sometimes it the only right thing left.
Yes, that's just what I concluded.

Beginnings

Beginnings are scary. They frighten you. Shake you out of your wits. Make you wonder whether what you are doing is right or not. Creates doubts in your mind. One even tries to avoid beginnings just so as to remain in the comfortable routine that they have so become accustomed to.

On the other hand, beginnings can be exciting ! They give you the opportunity to begin your life from a completely new perspective. Provides you with the chance to meet new people, to explore life more and to get to know your own self better. Beginnings are great.

How does one define a beginning ? For someone each day that dawns might bring a new beginning, each year that ends might signify a new beginning, corporate houses might agree to accept the completion of one financial year as a new beginning. For a student preparing for major exams, achieving a pre-defined target of completion of syllabus might be a new beginning.
Beginnings lead to ends and an end signifies a new beginning. I'll say a beginning is that moment in our life when we decide to change things, when we decide to change ourselves. Sometimes it's not always what we decide, sometimes it's the circumstances that mould themselves in such a way so as to lead us to a beginning and then it is upto us how we approach it.

Where is all this coming from ? A new beginning in my life, second year of college is just about to begin. As excited as I am for this new beginning, I am more so apprehensive and worried because the coming semester, the coming year would change a lot of things. On one hand the pressure of studies and the travelling time will increase due to the shift of our college campus but it will also bring along with it new people, new moments and new memories worth cherishing.
It is not the time to regret all those things that ought to have been done in the past academic year or to be proud of those that we were able to accomplish, but rather to brace ourselves for the coming year, cause due to the lack of time-turners, going back and changing our actions would be an impossible task. The least we can do is to learn from them and move ahead confidently.
We all make mistakes. Who doesn't ? But to let those mistakes set you back is probably the worst one to make.


"When things go wrong as they sometimes will,When the road you are trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit -
Rest if you must, but don't quit. "

- Unknown

The angels we call "Friends"

There have been so many things going on and running through my mind since the past week that whenever I sat down to write something, words just didn't seem to form the right sentences ! I have been trying to clear off all that clutter so as to come up with a theme for this post, but it just wasn't happening. That's when I realized I was looking at the wrong things. I was just focusing on what I shouldn't have been. Instead of finding solutions, I was just stuck staring at the problems. Aah no, nothing has happened. Just the normal day-to-day stuff which sometimes becomes too much to handle and tends to blow you off the handle.

All this sounds too melodramatic, doesn't it ?
It did to me as well, and that is when I started thinking the other way round. I realized it's kinda lucky of me to have things related to other people bothering me up because that means some people find me worthy enough to share with me what's bothering them, to have some expectations of me and perceive me to be close enough to tick me off when I am not able to fulfill them, to get mad at me when I do not contact them over a long period of time and most importantly to get onto my nerves when I've done something wrong according to them. Yeah, these are the little angels we call "Friends".
What an important role these guys play in my life, I cannot even begin to elaborate. It's almost like for each friend that one ever makes during the entire course of their life, there is a small part of them that one carries along with themselves always. It's there hidden somewhere, probably in the way you pronounce a word, hug people, laugh, smile, meet someone or maybe your most frequently used exclamation might just be inspired from them ! Regardless of where this person might be, how often you might talk, there is this habit of yours that will forever remind you of them.

That's why I don't get started off on the topic of these species called "Friends" cause I suddenly get overwhelmed with feelings and tend to start blabbering off anything and everything!
Anyway, the point that I was trying to make was that there are people in this world who will trouble you, drive you crazy, expect stuff from you, shout on you, maintain a low profile just to check if you still care enough for them, probably give you a fifty calls just cause you didn't return the first one and they concluded that something is wrong, drive you insane over a small thing,badger you throughout your life for something they think you ought to do. And you know what ? You ought to do just the same. Cause at the end of the day its the people who you can call up at four in the morning that matter.
Yeah, they might do all this and so much more. But the point that we all forget, or atleast I do, is that these are the people who have been there with us through the thick and thin. These are the people who see us grow up and accept us just the way we are. They bear with us at our worst and get crazy with us at our best.
These angels are there in our lives to help us through those times when we think we wouldn't be able to make it through. Confiding into a loved one, having a silent conversation once in awhile and sharing your heart's deepest and darkest secrets doesn't really burden the other person, but just makes them feel glad to be there for you in that single moment of confusion which you might have passed on your own as well but having a dear one to rely on doesn't really make things worse ever.
    
So here's a big thanks from me to all those people out there who made me the person I am, to those who never really gave up on me and especially to those who never really forgot their right on me when I might have forgotten mine on them. It's an eye-opener for me when I say this that despite all the arguments, misunderstandings, we ought to be more than glad to have such people, who want to be there with us in this journey of our lives.

I am angry.

Today I am compelling myself to think rationally about the things that happen around us, the people that we surround ourselves with, the situations that we find ourselves to be stuck in and most importantly of my own self.
I really don't know what is it that I plan to write today, cause I am angry. Yes, I am very angry today. At myself. At some situations. At some people. Oh yes, angry.

I am angry at the kind of lives that we are living today, which doesn't not even allow us to sit peacefully for five minutes.
I am angry at the amount of work that is expected to be done from us, which just keeps getting piled up day by day.
I am angry at all those people who fail to understand the fact that the kind of era that they live in, the kind of surroundings they find themselves to be in, we live in the same. If they don't have time, nor do we.
I am angry at all those people who just expect. Yeah, just expect and do nothing in return. Yeah, there exists people like that too.
I am angry at those who take up the responsibility of doing some work and then very conveniently forget about it.
I am angry at those who do not realize their importance in others' lives.
I am angry at the people who do not understand the impact that their actions would have on others.

I am not talking about large things, the Government, politics, running of the country etc. etc. Aah no, I am not mad at them. They have too much on their plate already to have another person being angry at the work they do.

It is such an amusing thing. I write about something that makes one happy and makes life worthwhile, and the next few days show me what happens in its absence. Yeah, those little things that I talked about ?
It's little things that are making me mad today. Things which probably in the bigger picture wouldn't even matter ! But then again, it's always been the little things that are worth noticing which make up who we are. I have never really been able to express myself when I am angry. I just end up laughing and that is precisely what I find myself doing right now. That's just what happens ! And then one forgets what was it that made them angry at the first place.

But no, not this time, because most importantly, I am angry at myself. Cause whatever it is that I have written above, I find it in myself too.


"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living, the world owes you nothing ! It was here first. " - Mark Twain

What If

Sometimes I wonder

What if my schooling would have been from someplace else ?
What if it wasn't for the change of branch in second grade that ensured the continued support of the friend that I made then when I probably didn't even understand the true meaning of that six letter word ?
What if in the eventful shuffling of sixth grade I had got separated from that friend who has made sure that all the memories of school that I have only make me smile ?
What if it wasn't for that same shuffling that brought me back with the girl who I remembered as my "first friend" in school ?
What if after the ninth grade shuffling I hadn't found myself amidst completely unknown people, some of who would end up being unimaginable special parts of my life but had found myself with a previously known group of friends ?
What if I hadn't taken up Computers in eleventh grade and met the friend whose mere presence, like I said previously, guarantees four amazing years in college ?

What if I hadn't chosen the college I am currently in ?
What if on the day of the orientation of my college I hadn't gone specifically into the second classroom and sat alongside the person who I can now proudly call my "first college friend" ?
What if I had never laughed along with that girl who was just so busy with her phone the entire time during that day ?
What if the girl who came on the first official day of college had not decided to come and sit next to us but rather beside someone else sitting right in front of the room ?

What if I just hadn't heard the girls behind me shouting my name and hadn't shifted just slightly while walking on the road and thereby prevented myself from getting knocked off by a high speeding bus ?
Yes, so many what ifs. Trust me, I can go on. If you think carefully about where you are and what you're doing right now, I'm sure even you can. You don't really need to know each and every detail of my life to relate to what I have just stated above. I am sure you can easily draw a parallel with your life of almost the same instances.
Its just so funny how some things work out ! Things that seem to be making completely no sense at the present moment might turn out to be the biggest boon of your life!

I have always had my doubts regarding "Fate" or "Destiny", I never really can understand that if it has already been written what is to happen, then whats the significance behind our normal day-to-day lives, the little decisions we make, the chances we take, the cross-roads that we often find ourselves to be at.
I never really understood all this, nor do I think I ever will.

But maybe, just maybe, its like the canvas has been sketched for you, it's upto you how you paint it.
Maybe its been decided you'll end up doing Engineering, it's just in your hands to decide the college you'll end up in.
Maybe it's been written the people you would meet, but upto you to decide how they would influence you in your life.
Maybe the bigger picture has already been created, its just upto you to fill in the details ;)

Little Things That Matter Much

I remember having two pages of our "School Diary" being dedicated to this heading. Yes, these two pages were utilized for reporting complaints like "napkin not brought", "nails not cut" etc. Little things, that hardly take up five minutes of our day but would still not be done, were brought to notice of our parents.
Just a few hours back I realized how much doing little things that might seem insignificant to us can make a huge difference in someone else's life.

A month back I had got the opportunity to work with the kids at Parichay, an NGO located in East Delhi district of New Delhi. It has been exactly one month since I left that community and despite promising the kids to be in touch with them, I have been able to visit them just once till now. One can argue that I have been constantly in touch with them via mobile phones, but the sense of happiness achieved upon going and meeting them personally can never be the same. It has been on my mind since the past week that I need to visit them again ! I wanted to ! But somehow things just didn't seem to be working out until the fruitful evening of today when we were finally able to chalk out a plan ! Yes, we are going to meet the kids tomorrow. When I called them to tell them of this news that they had been eagerly waiting for, it almost seemed like the excitement somehow got transferred via the phone ! They were so happy ! So delighted ! I could almost picture all of them beaming from ear to ear. And trust me, just hearing the kids getting this excited got me to cloud nine !
I never promised those kids any material gifts, it was just a simple gesture of going and meeting them and this got them to be so happy ! Its not even a gesture yet, its just a thought in process !
Yes, all of this got me thinking, there are so many little things in life that we can do for others which can brighten up their day, little things that we take for granted that are planted especially in our path of normal days to make them extra special.

An innocent smile, a small hug, an encouraging pat, a grateful note, a heart-felt letter, a five minute call to someone who feels forgotten, a mail written to someone far away, an out-of-the blue text, little things that may take up just ten minutes of our day may become the reason for someone's smile for an entire week.

Its a little basic fact of life that everyone here in this large Universe is beautiful and it just takes little ignorance for one to forget this and just a little effort by a little someone to remind them of the same :) .