The only permanent thing on this planet is change. Be it a blossoming flower bud or a cocoon turning into a beautiful butterfly, everything changes and everything grows.
Most of the times, we crib and cry about change. As human beings, we have a set routine and we hate when that schedule is disturbed. Even if we miss a single bus, we feel frustrated because our entire time table for the day is blown apart.
But ever tried looking at change through a different pair of eyes? Metamorphosis is the beautiful journey an individual undertakes to become a better person. Metamorphosis is that medicine which brings us closer to being our self. The person who we ultimately are supposed to be.
Had it not been for that change, the cocoon would have stayed a cocoon and never turned into a beautiful butterfly. Had it not been for that change, we would not have had flowers. We would just have stagnant flower buds. Had it not been for changes in our life, we would not have grown to be better people.
I do not fully understand why am I writing about change today. I guess I just needed a change from my old writing habits and hence this article on change! All we need to remember is to embrace change as and when it comes. That is all that is needed to add spice and variety to life...
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
America so far..
It has been 10 months that I set foot in the land of opportunities. And these 10 months have been like an eye opener in a way that doesn't make it so obvious. The cultural shock has been subtle but tremendous.
Americans are funny people, but they are very open-hearted and friendly. Well not everyone really, but most of them are. Here are some things I find intriguing about Americans:
- You know you see an American when the person is a die-hard Yankees or Mets fan and is an ardent consumer of KFC, McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts.
-You know you see an American when majority of the clothes in his/her closet fall under the XL or the XXL size.
-You know you see an American when he/she threatens to sue you because your hand brushed against his/her elbow.
-You know you see an American when all they talk, eat, see or feel is sex and booze.
-You know you see an American when the amount of clothes on their body is directly proportional to the temperature outside.
-And finally, you know you see an American when he/she scores a full 100 on 100 in a DUMB test!!
Americans are funny people, but they are very open-hearted and friendly. Well not everyone really, but most of them are. Here are some things I find intriguing about Americans:
- You know you see an American when the person is a die-hard Yankees or Mets fan and is an ardent consumer of KFC, McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts.
-You know you see an American when majority of the clothes in his/her closet fall under the XL or the XXL size.
-You know you see an American when he/she threatens to sue you because your hand brushed against his/her elbow.
-You know you see an American when all they talk, eat, see or feel is sex and booze.
-You know you see an American when the amount of clothes on their body is directly proportional to the temperature outside.
-And finally, you know you see an American when he/she scores a full 100 on 100 in a DUMB test!!
A True Indian..
By way of popular demand (read Gayathri Attiken's request), here is a list of traits that you should look out for in an Indian.
Now, I am a proud Indian citizen and I probably have most of these traits too. But these are the qualities that make an Indian a true Indian and hence I jot them down!
- You know you are an Indian when you eat something from a random road side stall at least twice a week.
- You know you are an Indian when you know almost all the traffic rules and regulations but don't follow them.
- You know you are an Indian when your favorite means of passing time would include gossip, discussing the sad state of the country and its politicians, Cricket and Bollywood!
- You know you are an Indian when the pictures of Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan would occupy the same place in your temple along side the idols of other Gods and Goddesses.
- You know you are an Indian when going to the gym and eating healthy food would be an issue as alien as the Extra Terrestrial.
-And last but not the least, you know you are an Indian when you have the ability to sell a Rs. 10 ticket to the Taj Mahal for Rs. 500 to a dumb American!!
Ha ha ha...
Now, I am a proud Indian citizen and I probably have most of these traits too. But these are the qualities that make an Indian a true Indian and hence I jot them down!
- You know you are an Indian when you eat something from a random road side stall at least twice a week.
- You know you are an Indian when you know almost all the traffic rules and regulations but don't follow them.
- You know you are an Indian when your favorite means of passing time would include gossip, discussing the sad state of the country and its politicians, Cricket and Bollywood!
- You know you are an Indian when the pictures of Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan would occupy the same place in your temple along side the idols of other Gods and Goddesses.
- You know you are an Indian when going to the gym and eating healthy food would be an issue as alien as the Extra Terrestrial.
-And last but not the least, you know you are an Indian when you have the ability to sell a Rs. 10 ticket to the Taj Mahal for Rs. 500 to a dumb American!!
Ha ha ha...
Thursday, April 2, 2009
My Music.. My world...
"Music is my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."
- Maya Angelou
What Miss Angelou writes here is so very true!! Especially for me. We all have our own problems, something we have to live with and tackle everyday. Our weaknesses, our troubles and our short-comings. We cannot do much about those, because most of the time they are born and brought up in our own head. And unless and until our head is not cured of that illness, those troubles don't go. But, probably, everyone turns to music to heal their soul.
Whether you listen to rock, pop, hip-hop, symphony, trance or jazz- it doesn't matter. All that matters is how music uplifts your tattered spirits and rejuvenates your faith in life.
Music is not just music for me. It is so much like a spiritual experience for me. When I listen to music, I go on another level altogether, and for a small period of time I forget all the pain and suffering that I inflict upon myself. Lyrics attract me, and so does a good piece of guitaring. And, hence I am absolutely in love with rock music.
Rock is not just about skimpily clad rock stars with tattoos on their arms and guitar on their backs screaming on the top of their voices. Rock is about amazing lyrics. Rock is about the magic that a person's fingers can do on the guitar fret. Rock is about teaching good and beautiful things in life.
No other genre has made me so happy and content about being myself.
Here is something that I wrote about music which sums up what I feel for my music. I wrote this piece for a team website project and it comes straight from my heart:
Millions of people pray using different ways and means. Some go to the church and some sit and meditate in silence. Some sing out loud and clear in different choirs and some just admire His work in silent contemplation. Music is one such form of prayer to the creator above. It is a path leading to the communion of our soul with Nature's soul.
- Maya Angelou
What Miss Angelou writes here is so very true!! Especially for me. We all have our own problems, something we have to live with and tackle everyday. Our weaknesses, our troubles and our short-comings. We cannot do much about those, because most of the time they are born and brought up in our own head. And unless and until our head is not cured of that illness, those troubles don't go. But, probably, everyone turns to music to heal their soul.
Whether you listen to rock, pop, hip-hop, symphony, trance or jazz- it doesn't matter. All that matters is how music uplifts your tattered spirits and rejuvenates your faith in life.
Music is not just music for me. It is so much like a spiritual experience for me. When I listen to music, I go on another level altogether, and for a small period of time I forget all the pain and suffering that I inflict upon myself. Lyrics attract me, and so does a good piece of guitaring. And, hence I am absolutely in love with rock music.
Rock is not just about skimpily clad rock stars with tattoos on their arms and guitar on their backs screaming on the top of their voices. Rock is about amazing lyrics. Rock is about the magic that a person's fingers can do on the guitar fret. Rock is about teaching good and beautiful things in life.
No other genre has made me so happy and content about being myself.
Here is something that I wrote about music which sums up what I feel for my music. I wrote this piece for a team website project and it comes straight from my heart:
Millions of people pray using different ways and means. Some go to the church and some sit and meditate in silence. Some sing out loud and clear in different choirs and some just admire His work in silent contemplation. Music is one such form of prayer to the creator above. It is a path leading to the communion of our soul with Nature's soul.
Music is pure,
Music is pristine.
Music is food for the soul,
Music is all this and so much more.
Simply put, music is life!
Music is pristine.
Music is food for the soul,
Music is all this and so much more.
Simply put, music is life!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
What is an MBA?
"What is an MBA?", asked the black lady sitting in front of a Burger king outlet..
Location: Some rest area en route to Virginia.
Situation:
We were traveling from New Jersey to Virginia to have a fun vacation. We stopped at this rest area to have some food and water. It was 5 a.m. in the morning. I went up to Andrea (the lady sitting in front of Burger King) and kicked off a conversation. She asked me, "What do you do Shailee?". I said, "I am a student. I study in FDU. Am pursuing MBA." And it was then that she asked me, "What is an MBA?"
For a minute I was shocked. MBA is such a common term! I mean who does not know about MBA's? I was taking the world for granted in that moment.
Every day in our MBA classes we talk about issues like globalization, the dying American economy, politics, Obama's measures to combat recession and blah blah.. never once did it cross my mind that someone on the planet might not even know what MBA is..
All the huge talks about everyone doing something to tackle recession would then sound so trivial when more than half of the population on the planet doesn't even know what is going wrong.
People in countries like Africa, Pakistan or Bangladesh wouldn't even care for something like this. Because everyday is a struggle for people in these countries. Everyday they, probably, wake up with fear in their mind whether they will get water or not, or whether they will get bread to eat or not.
It sounds ridiculous when people here are worried about not being able to pay mortgage or shop in extravagant shops when more than half of the people on the planet don't even know what mortgage is or what DKNY, Gucci or Chanel is..
We cry now, because we have to face problems now. We can now, perhaps, empathize with more than half the population on the planet. We now know what it is to be an African caught in a famine or a Bangladeshi staying in a refugee camp. We, hopefully, now know...
Location: Some rest area en route to Virginia.
Situation:
We were traveling from New Jersey to Virginia to have a fun vacation. We stopped at this rest area to have some food and water. It was 5 a.m. in the morning. I went up to Andrea (the lady sitting in front of Burger King) and kicked off a conversation. She asked me, "What do you do Shailee?". I said, "I am a student. I study in FDU. Am pursuing MBA." And it was then that she asked me, "What is an MBA?"
For a minute I was shocked. MBA is such a common term! I mean who does not know about MBA's? I was taking the world for granted in that moment.
Every day in our MBA classes we talk about issues like globalization, the dying American economy, politics, Obama's measures to combat recession and blah blah.. never once did it cross my mind that someone on the planet might not even know what MBA is..
All the huge talks about everyone doing something to tackle recession would then sound so trivial when more than half of the population on the planet doesn't even know what is going wrong.
People in countries like Africa, Pakistan or Bangladesh wouldn't even care for something like this. Because everyday is a struggle for people in these countries. Everyday they, probably, wake up with fear in their mind whether they will get water or not, or whether they will get bread to eat or not.
It sounds ridiculous when people here are worried about not being able to pay mortgage or shop in extravagant shops when more than half of the people on the planet don't even know what mortgage is or what DKNY, Gucci or Chanel is..
We cry now, because we have to face problems now. We can now, perhaps, empathize with more than half the population on the planet. We now know what it is to be an African caught in a famine or a Bangladeshi staying in a refugee camp. We, hopefully, now know...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Straight from Eleven Minutes...
One day a woman saw a bird and fell in love with him. She watched his flight, her mouth wide in amazement, her heart pounding, her eyes shining with excitement. She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two traveled across the sky in perfect harmony. She admired and venerated and celebrated that bird.
But then she thought:He might want to visit far off mountains! And she was afraid, afraid that she would never feel the same way about any other bird. And she felt envy, envy for the bird's ability to fly.
And she felt alone.
And she thought: "I'm going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never leave again."
The bird, who was also in love,returned the following day, fell into a trap and was put into a cage. She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object of her passion, and she showed him to her friends, who said: "Now you have everything you could possibly want." However a strange transformation began to take place:now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest. The bird, unable to fly and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away and his feathers started to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except by feeding him and cleaning out his cage.
One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking about him. But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly among the clouds.
If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in motion, not his physical body.
Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and Death came knocking at her door. "Why have you come?" she asked Death. "So that you can fly once more with him across the sky," Death replied. "If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and admired him even more; alas, you now need me in order to find him again."
- From Paulo Coelho's Eleven Minutes.
But then she thought:He might want to visit far off mountains! And she was afraid, afraid that she would never feel the same way about any other bird. And she felt envy, envy for the bird's ability to fly.
And she felt alone.
And she thought: "I'm going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never leave again."
The bird, who was also in love,returned the following day, fell into a trap and was put into a cage. She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object of her passion, and she showed him to her friends, who said: "Now you have everything you could possibly want." However a strange transformation began to take place:now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest. The bird, unable to fly and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away and his feathers started to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except by feeding him and cleaning out his cage.
One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking about him. But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly among the clouds.
If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in motion, not his physical body.
Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and Death came knocking at her door. "Why have you come?" she asked Death. "So that you can fly once more with him across the sky," Death replied. "If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and admired him even more; alas, you now need me in order to find him again."
- From Paulo Coelho's Eleven Minutes.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The Dancing Girl..
I was walking down from the gym and going back to my apartment. The weather was nice (for a change) and I was enjoying myself. Suddenly I saw a girl walking in my direction. Now from the place where I was, I could see her first and she couldn't see me. She was doing a little dancing jig while walking. She looked so happy and it seemed like she was really enjoying her little hop (read dance) on the road.
I felt good, that at least someone is so happy and has the courage to show it to the world. But as soon as she saw me coming, she stopped dancing and started walking normally. And our paths crossed.
Now this is just a small simple thing that happened on another regular sort of a day. But what touched a deep chord within me is why do we try and hide our true selves from everyone. There is nothing wrong in dancing on the middle of the road and feeling happy about it. Then why suddenly stop in between and change the track?
The biggest sin we can do, according to me is try and please everybody. We put on masks, don different roles and in the whole process just forget who we actually are. There is nothing wrong in being absolutely crazy if that is who you actually are..
I felt good, that at least someone is so happy and has the courage to show it to the world. But as soon as she saw me coming, she stopped dancing and started walking normally. And our paths crossed.
Now this is just a small simple thing that happened on another regular sort of a day. But what touched a deep chord within me is why do we try and hide our true selves from everyone. There is nothing wrong in dancing on the middle of the road and feeling happy about it. Then why suddenly stop in between and change the track?
The biggest sin we can do, according to me is try and please everybody. We put on masks, don different roles and in the whole process just forget who we actually are. There is nothing wrong in being absolutely crazy if that is who you actually are..
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