Photograph!

I have a habit of picking up new hobbies and discussing it with friends; while doing so this time, I had good listeners around me. So this time Ankit bought a Kodak camera for me as now I had decided to make a dark room for myself so that I can develop the pictures. I genuinely wanted to learn this new thing which is ages old and Ankit helped me a lot.

On a not so special evening, I started clicking pictures of Mitra and suddenly while clicking he said,'show me the picture once.' Both of us remained quiet for some time and then it came to me, how beautiful those days used to be when everything was not so instantaneous. We leave behind old things and habits so easily that we tend to forget the beauty of those things.

Pictures defined memories back then, pictures were not clicked for status updates or stories instead those were clicked to cherish those very moments. Photographs used to be the best form of surprise. Most importantly, cameras did not have an option to delete. Every picture of the camera roll was as important as the other one. You must have old albums at home, haven't you found a different level of joy when you go through those photographs.

We used to wait for the photographs for days and pen drives of Bluetooth could not transfer those pictures, it was not so easy and yet we desperately wanted to be a part of that transaction. We would protect the camera roll from light and what not. Limited pictures and many such limitations, still we enjoyed those days. With all those limitations and disadvantages compared to today's technology, don't you ever wish, just a wish, to go back in time.

New!

As long as you are not doing anything different you will not be able to find the meaning of new. You keep on doing the same errands everyday and finally after years you realize that you had never tried anything different and hence you have not learnt anything new. Is it really necessary to do that? Yes, it is! You are riding a bike and all you find is a straight highway with nothing but empty land around, it is obvious that the ride would turn out to be really boring after sometime, you need some curves, some hills, some valleys at least to make the ride interesting, isn't it?

Life is like a ride which does not become interesting without any difficulty in it. How long do you play a game with the same difficulty level in it? The only difference is that in life you do not get to set the difficulty levels. Whatever you get on the way you have to accept it or you have to find something new. New is you, every time you do something different you discover the new you and you would be amazed to know that you can do so many things, it would be unleashing your potential to do things.

Life is one and try to make the most of it before it gets too late to change ways!

Is life a race?

" Life is but a race and if do not run, you will be like broken eggs", remember the dialogue from the movie 3idiots? How not to be a part of this race? Well, do not participate, just go with the flow and enjoy the present which is the best present life has given. Otherwise, every time you go out of your homes, you become a part of a race chased by someone or chasing something or someone instead. You do not have the time to look behind, forward and ahead.

Have you ever noticed something? On a normal week day when you are at your office, you count hours and wish the day was over soon and on the same day if you were on a vacation, somewhere on a hilly region, you would wish,'how beautiful would it be if that moment or that day would never end.' Life can be so funny at time and the worst part is you do not have control over it.

The best solution is to get lost and the only thing in possession be hope and nothing else that would consume you. A road that would run endlessly, no expectations and who so ever passes by would greet you and you would pass a smile. How beautiful would that world be! 

Ghosts!

Are you afraid of ghosts? Are ghosts real and if not why do people still believe in them? The truth is that ghosts are real and are not dead. I, you, he, she or they, everyone is a ghost for someone or the other. The only difference between the living and dead ghosts is that you can see them anytime. They vanish only when you want them to or when they stop seeing you. As long as you are the present for someone or some place you are alive and as soon as you are gone, you become a ghost. Generally we call it out of sight out of mind. A ghost is merely a memory which you prefer to share with others by siting across a candle lit table by creating a ghastly environment.

Do we really care about each other or we just pretend to? Every now and then someone from our contact is becoming a ghost and we do not even have the time to realize it. Are we really that busy? The positive thing about us(ghosts) is that we can be brought back to life without even performing Planchet. All you need to do is give a call and talk for sometime to give life to a character which might play a role in your life.

So pick up your phone and start bringing the dead back! 

It is your call !

Has it ever happened recently that you put your palm on your face and you wished that you could keep your eyes closed like that forever? When you look around and you realize that you are enclosed in a cage! The only thing under your control is the keyboard right in front of you not even your sleep.

It becomes too late until you realize that you are neck deep in the sea of depression. Surrounded by the feeling of unfulfilled aspirations and the monotonous routine.

Is it as bad as described above or even close to it? Then it is the perfect time to make a call! All you need is a vacation, away from the crowd and the faces and the facts. You need a system restart and what better way to restart yourself than a vacation, after all you can not come back from the dead. You are no Jon Snow. 

A vacation will let you think quietly in peace. You are not a machine that you will work endlessly. If you remain silent forever, doing the same thing day in and day out, silence will grow one day like a cancer. Get a hold of yourself and ask yourself, what do you want?  

Choice!

Life is full of choices, right or wrong, left or right, up or down, profit or loss. A small conjunction determines the impact of our choices in our lives but it is not always we who have the privilege of choosing as sometimes we are ought to do things which our mind does not permit to. Choices lead to disasters and sometimes can change your fortune.  

You wake up and you breathe and even if you are not awake you breathe, it is something you can not choose and you are fine with it rather you are grateful as you are able to live. Is there anything else for which you feel the same. To be able to do things that you love will never make you feel as if you need a choice. Life is not so easy either, everything is a package and comes with a but and a condition. If you are ready to accept it then well and good.

I am not ready, are you? Confused state is the best state one can be in! You find out various ways out and finding ways out does not make you an escapist, does it? Even if so, you own a skill. There will always be want for more and more can only be achieved when you have choices, be wise to choose one.

Who wants to lead the same kinda life for a lifetime! Inspire yourself before getting expired and leave a mark behind so that others' can follow, if not follow they can at least choose!  

Society today!

We are living in a techno-society, which is run and driven by technology and the fuel is networking. People believe in social networking more than actual networking.We are more comfortable behind our screens, have you ever realized what will you talk about with a person with whom you have been chatting for a long time? The virtual conversations have become so very real that we can hardly differentiate, lol and rofl have now become a common tongue, instead of laughing out loud and expressing the real feeling people choose to express that by saying lol, isn't it weird and half dead.

We have taken our virtual lives so seriously that it has become more important than our real lives, a Facebook password is more important than your ATM pin, you will find people knowing your ATM pin but a Facebook password would be hard to crack. A friend would not call you or text you but casual tag on a social networking site would make you feel special and you would feel as if that friend has not yet forgotten you. 

I don't think that we can come out of this and this is a fact which no one can deny and while there are many things going on, one of the most important thing is that our society has now formed several groups which intentionally or unintentionally wants to become like the other one. Every society for centuries has been divided into certain groups and that group is decided by the age group you belong to. If you are not able to realize the difference then parents might be able to explain you that. We might grow technologically stable in the coming future but a physical touch is something that will always be required.

Today, if you randomly ask a boy of standard 7 about some of the terms in geography or any other subject, chances of failing to answer are more but the same boy would have all the same updates about the world and India because he is also using facebook and instagram and whatsapp. Today a school boy is sharing communal posts on social media because he has realized that he has got the freedom of expressing but does know about all his rights and freedom? Does he know anything about the law?

We need to raise our voices, instead of pen being mightier than a sword, now let a post be mightier than a pen and a sword both. Let us ignite our positive thoughts and use our conscience to do the right thing at the time when it is required!

Optimism isn't enough!

Optimistic approach towards anything makes the thing doable but it lengthens the time. You sit back and when when you fail to proceed anymore, your own completely optimistic approach ceases you to find various other ways to succeed. On the other hand if you add a pinch of pessimism to your positivity you will be able to find out other methods too.

Optimism is enhanced by a set of examples of successful people. If we are supposed to follow our ideals and wait for the time to come then we will never be able to become examples, we will have to follow their path for a lifetime without even trying to pave one. If following successful people would make you successful like them, then there would have been hundreds of Ambanis and Tatas and Gates but we know only one or two of each. What made the difference? We have to discover that and then pave our own path.

Prefer to be pessimistically optimistic and it will do the trick!

Take a vacation!

Tired of doing the same thing everyday, watching the same faces and listening to the same voices? It is time to change things. You must have had a playlist in your phone, which now must have been replaced by some application. Whatever it might be but you do not want to listen to the same songs everyday, you keep on changing the tracks or shuffle the songs. You might be thinking, how can changing the playlist be compared to the routine, anything can be compare. Anyways, that was not comparison, it was a sort of motivation.

Everyone deserves a vacation in order to stop the self from becoming mechanical. We do not want to be mechanical, instead we want to be practical. If one thinks practically, he/she will know the importance of a vacation. A vacation which will allow you to stop worrying about the same things for some days at least. You will get an opportunity to see a true reflection and will be able to discover your own self.

Do not work so hard that you get sick and tired of it. You will reach one stage when escaping will remain the only solution, in order to avoid that shame please take the pleasure of a break or a vacation. There is more than ctrl+c and ctrl+v in life so let us all try it. Let us all make some affordable mistakes for which we do not have to pay huge prices as mistakes do sometimes pave the path to some unexpected events.

Name !

"What is your name boy?" The old man asked, but the boy did not want to respond and that increased the level of curiosity in the aged man. The grey haired man somehow collected all his will to go near him and approach one more time, he did not ask the same question. This time he said," ok! if you are not willing to tell me your name, no issues, do you mind if I go with you?" Finally, the boy got irritated and said,"I have no name and I do not want any company." The old man smiled and said, " son I do understand that you are disturbed right now and you want to be alone but people after spending sometime with me do feel relieved." 

The angry young boy with a frown on his face," Can I just stay alone for sometime! As soon as the bus comes, I will board it and leave, now you can leave!" The old man chuckled and said that everyone in this viscinity knows that no buses pass through this lane and it has been more than a year now. Okay! I lose said the boy and my name is Alpha. So nice to finally meet you Alpha said the old man. Call it coincidence or anything, my name is Omega, the old man introduced himself.

Alpha : I do not believe in coincidence but yes you are quiet irritating. I needed sometime to ponder and now you have jumped up to this place.

Omega: I might help you in connecting the dots.

Alpha: How can you respond in such a manner as if you can read my mind? Are you some kind of a supernatural being?

Omega: No son, it is just the grey hair that is doing the talking. I have observed and seen things. Let me guess why you are here! Must be because of the hardships of life and now that you are so exhausted, you wanted a break.

Alpha: Yes.

Omega: You want to go away, so far, that no one can find you and you do not have to be the same roddent of this experiment of life.

Alpha: Exactly!

Alpha: But how can you say it so easily! Am I  so transparent that you can read my mind so easily?

Omega: You do not have to be transparent to be understood. This is the same story for everyone, everyone is going through something or the other. That does not mean that all of them will have to run somewhere. If that was so then that somewhere would become similar to this place. I was not clear, was I?

Alpha: No!

Omega: Take an example of a tourist destination. People, not just a few but many, visit hill stations for vacations. What if, instead of vacation they completely shift to the hill stations, wouldn't it degrade the beauty of the hills for themselves.

Alpha: Now I understand.

Omega: You can choose to take a break but do not ever make a mistake of giving up. Think that you are strong enough.

Son! Son! Called an old man. The young boy was completely taken by soliloquy and then suddenly he realised that someone is calling him. He was a changed man now, that small moment turned him from a boy. He was now gentle in his approach. "When does a bus pass by?" Asked the old man. "Buses don't go from this lane sir,I will take you to the correct bus stop," boy explained the old man.

The boy now realized that he was talking to his conscience and now that he has understood the meaning, he will no longer need to go to that lane again. 

Diversification!

Diversification is a term generally used by multinational companies, but it is applicable to us humans as well. A company diversifies when it wants or needs to expand its wings and fly higher, similarly we can diversify too in order to expand our knowledge. We tend to do the same things on a daily basis and that kills the opportunity to gain more. We should start emptying our buckets so that we can gain more in the long run.

We get 24 hours a day out of which a fixed amount of 8 to 10 hours is spent on the chores which we perform to earn our bread and butter or to make ourselves able to get that opportunity to work, in other words that time is spent either in office or in schools or colleges. This is an era of matured people where there is no minimum age to gain maturity, people from the age of 10 to 40 are doing the same things. Most of the time is consumed by the internet which has no restrictions as far as the age is concerned. So, 14 hours are left for each one of us out of which 6 hours is enough for sleep. If we pledge to make a change or diversify, we can do or make a great deal of change in the remaining 8 hours.

This era needs inspiration, which is easily available but in the form of virtual reality. People prefer to watch motivational videos and then think and that is where the clock stops ticking as no further step is taken. We end up thinking and then finally get demotivated and on the very next instance play another youtube video of motivation. Does that help? Whatever we are watching or reading, we should try to inculcate those and try to apply those. Today people tend to learn more from the internet, so why not turn it into a positive. 

People are busy criticizing, criticism is good but it should be done in such a way that it encourages the one who is being criticized, encourage in such a manner that the person gets that force to work in a better manner. We pledge, make resolutions and what not but at the end of the day we end up doing the same thing. We have to stop moving in circles, a straight line is fine, a sine curve iis even better but not a circle as you end up in the same place again.

Change is the only thing that is permanent but we should prefer not to give it a circular direction as we can steer the change, change does not steer us, it should not rather.