Island of Ants

The other day I opened the lid of the water jug to drink water. I was about to drink water but suddenly I spotted something in the transparency of the water. I saw some ants and thought that by mistake they had fallen in the jug and all are dead. But when I observed them closely I found that they are approximately 40-50 in number and all of them were alive. I wanted to drink water instantly so without taking much interest I slowly poured out water in the wash basin and the ants dispersed as they came out. I rinsed the jug two- three times, scrubbed it with brush, thinking that some eatable parts might be inside the jug. Then I went to water cooler and filled the jug with fresh and chilled water.

Night passed. The next day again I found ants. I was surprised this time and again did the same thing which I did the day before. This time I was keen to know why the ants were coming inside my jug. The third day same thing happened and I got fed up of this thing. Finally I took other jug from the mess and started drinking water from it.

The scientific reason that I can think is that there is still some deposit in the water jug or some essence that is attracting the ants. (Who has time to remove these microscopic things..)

The imaginative reason which first came to my mind was that this is an evolution and ants are forming colonies on water…!! What say? I have still kept water in that jug and those little creatures venture and stay (group swim ..hehe) in it..

I am blessed !!

Dont take the nice and best things in your life, for granted. They need your attention and care.

Dont test their limits. They may shatter and never be the same again.

Dont take their goodness for a ride. Life gives you one chance. And time and words once gone never come back.

Live your life at best but before that take atmost care of the those that make your life worth living.

Life is teaching me so much each day. I am really grateful to my fate and that supreme being for making me a skillful sailor in this rough sea of life.

When it hurts

When it hurts you feel like crying and shouting at the whole world. You forget your own self and you lose your mental stability and rational attitude. These moments are your acid tests. If you survive those then there is high probability that you would sustain the future shocks. You train your mind to deal with such situations. But then such shock absorptions are against the law of nature. If pressure gets built up in the pressure cooker then the whistle should blow up or else the cooker will blast. Same is with life. I need to learn to vent out my aggressions and grievances before there is a whistle blowing situation. This would be in the larger interest of majority surrounding me. Many times such pressure is in-built due to my own assumptions and self centeredness. I am learning to look at the situation as an outsider. What would I suggest to my friend when I see him/her in such situation? I am being a self heeler. And one remedy to change your mood or to be that outsider is to blogJ. It helped me now. I was having a pressure cooker situation in my mind. Well I didn’t have the whistle to release the pressure, but I turned off the gas burner (uncontrolled and baseless thoughts running in my mind). I am feeling cool and normal now. Thanks blogger.com for providing me this space.

When I actually want to post

These days life has really become very busy. And this busy is for good. This term we are having electives. We don’t have lectures throughout the week. Its different thing that most of the time, we have classes on weekend as well. But then these times I have chosen all the subjects except for the two core subjects, which are my conscious choices. Hence I am wholeheartedly involved in the subjects. Is it that way or the project work asks for lots of involvement? (As in summaries, presentations and lots of pre-read material) Above all this, many non-academic activities are happening in this semester. These all keeps me engaged throughout the day. Sleeping at 2 and getting up at 8 is a luxury.

Sometimes I have story, incidence etc. to post here, but due to the engagements mentioned above, I am unable to post anything in this space. We have a subject named 'Soft skills' this time. In that the instructor has asked us to make a 24 hour timetable for oneself and make best efforts to abide by it. So in today's timetable I deliberately allotted a slot to type this post.
Don’t know how life is going to be in future. At present you can say that I am in the bed of roses. Things are going to be much more difficult than what it is now and I have to deal with much more difficult people. (Now friends surround me)

We can predict the working of the machine. What we can not predict is the behavior of the human beings. No matter how ever familiar you are to some people, its just next to impossible to predict their behavior. Be it good or bad you get surprises at various points. I am not sure whether these surprises are because my ignorance and inexperience.

Life is the most able teacher for me and I am learning as things are coming along my way. I would try to post quite often now onwards!!

Aawjo (Bye in Gujarati)

Want to be a happy man?

I read a book "The conquest of happiness"... by Bertrand Russell

Its a book that one should read at different stages of ones life...I happened to read it at the age of 23. When I am 35 or 50 it will have a different meaning for me.

It is one of the best self-help books I have ever come across.

One thing I would like to mention is that ...great works are there in such life changing books..but all is in vain unless practiced in real life.

All in all a must read book!!

Chennai Stories - 1

I am really jobless today and hence thought of scribbling some things that amazed me in past few days.

Incidence - 1

One day my friend and I were at Koyembedu private bus stand (Chennai) and we wanted to go to Spencer's plaza (one of the oldest shopping mall of Chennai). We asked the auto rickshaw drivers for the amount they would charge to take us to that place. This is typical of Chennai. Here the auto rickshaws will have the fare meters. But the drivers will never charge fare according to the meter. Instead they will charge some arbitrary amount and extort money from the passengers like anything. If you are aware of the distance and the fares that are generally charged, u know how much is apt and up to what you can bargain. But if you are a novice then be prepared to get “looted” by them.

Taking this into consideration, the auto fellows were asking for somewhere in the range of 80 -100 bucks. This was just too much and therefore we decided to go by the local city bus. We needed the direction to reach to that place and so we asked a few people for the way to the bus stand. One old gentleman, instead of showing us the directions, came all the way with us to the bus stand. This was some 1 -1 ½ Kilometer from the place. My friend and I were just wondering why he came all the way there. What is the motivation for him to come all the way to that place without any selfish motive?

He was the hero of the day in my eyes. I was thinking about this and one day, I chanced upon to read somewhere that some people feel motivated by helping others. There are many live and bigger examples of such people the in past. But this was one live and recent case before my eyes. When such things happen, very naturally you pray to Almighty for the well being of that person.

Incidence-2
I wanted to get my leather handbag stitched. It was torn from sides. I thought of getting it done from a roadside cobbler. The other day I was carrying that bag and was returning from an ATM.

On the roadside, I saw an old lady cobbler having her afternoon “siesta”. She was dark in complexion. A little bit fat. She wore a saree. Though she was a cobbler her nose and ears were pierced with jewellery that looked of gold to me. She wore a thick golden necklace and many bangles. Now ladies with this much jewellery is a common sight in Chennai. She had a hand fan lying besides her. Expression on her face were that of an “angry old lady”. A mat containing her tools and many shoes were lying in front of her. It seemed that she is into this business from quite sometime. This was taking into consideration her age and the way tools were lying on the mat. All required tools were arranged so that they are handy and convenient to use.

I thought of waking her up. But then, thought of not spoiling her nap. But my presence around woke her. I don’t know Tamil so I showed her my bag and the torn part. She took the bag and started stitching the torn part. She really did a good job. I asked for the fees. She showed me with her 3 fingers “3”. I understood that she asked for three rupees. I thought that this wonderful job is at least worth Rs. 10 (Kunjoos me !! ). So, I handed over a 10 rupees note. She gave a perplexed look to me then I asked “what?” Then again with her fingers she showed me 3 and 10. I thought I understood this time what she was asking for. So I wrote on the ground with my fingers “30”. She nodded her head. I started laughing at my intended generosity and I was literary feeling like a fool. Then I explained her that the amount she got was okay. But then she was looking very furious, so I gave some other 6 bucks (this was all I had with me in my money purse, though I had Rs. 2000/- in my pant pocket which I recently withdrew from ATM). I escaped from her showing her my empty money purse indicating that this was all that I have. When I reached my room, I was contemplating over the entire episode. Whether I did a right thing or wrong ?
I thought, we spend 100 bucks and many times 200 hundred bucks for the movies at multiplexes, but when it comes to giving 30 rupees to cobbler you refuse to give. This is because YOU don’t think that it is worth it

One minute please !!

The other day, I attended the brainstorming session of MMA (Madras Management Association) to decide the theme for the 6th MMA All India Management Students' Convention. At the end of the session we were shown a small video...

It had three parts

One minute Goal setting
One minute Praise
One minute Reprimand


Here are the steps for all the three

One minute Goal setting

Agree on goals
Set a goal and performance
Write down goals
Read and reread the goals


One minute Praising

Be Upfront
Immediate
Approximately right
Specific
Share feelings
Moment of slience
Encourage more
Touch

One Minute Reprimand

Share before hand
Immediate
Specific
Share feeling
Pause for reflection
Reaffirm
Touch


All these points were explained with famous Hollywood movie "Rocky".

Of all the "One minuters"..I have started practicing..One minute goal setting..
For the other two I am waiting for the right time.