You are free.

We are lucky to have Freedom of thought. To live in a world of diverse opinions and debate. To be able to express oneself and one’s thoughts. To be given the opportunity to see them turn into actions. To be free to THINK!

It can only be true that the fact that we are free is so incomprehensible to some people that they cant understand the full meaning of how blessed we are. Why is it then that we want others to be like us? Why are we looking for ‘like minded people’? Why do we want to conform?

Its all in the mind – you can choose to be bound by circumstances or you can choose to create your own  realities. You just need to believe that this life was meant to be just like it is. It will then become perfect and all internal conflicts will disappear. Easier said that done right?

When you are 7, you know you will be an astronaut!

When I was a child: Dreams had no boundaries and anything was possible. I used to read books and imagine myself as an astronaut, or a famous writer, sometimes even Nancy Drew! I have given imaginary Oscars acceptance speeches, been on the Oprah Winfrey show, discovered new scientific truths, re-written history, won the Nobel Prize, etc. etc.!

Back to the Future: Today, I am in a constant struggle with my mediocrity! I realize that maybe I am NOT cut out to re-write the world’s history, maybe I’m already too late to be on Oprah, (and honestly I have grown out of the whole Nancy Drew thing :-)) but don’t get me wrong, I have not given up hope.

When I look around I see many e.g.s of excellence all around me in my friends and colleagues. From pro photographers, to budding entrepreneurs, to journalists, to artists, to people doing things for the larger good; the passion to go that extra mile is visible in their work and that’s what makes it truly remarkable in my eyes.

Therefore, I plan to keep struggling to be excellent in small and achievable ways, struggle to keep the passion alive, struggle to keep the belief intact and definitely struggle to persevere…

Start small, but keep walking; is my pop philosophy now-a-days. Let’s see where it takes me…

Stumbling upon an Independence struggle

Had some time to kill between half day of work and a Saturday night party at a friends place. Didn’t want to go home so I headed over to Nehru planetarium (one of the places in Mumbai where you can literally get star struck and not by the Bollywood kind!) They were showing, ‘Hide and seek in the sky’, but unfortunately the show was sold out, it being a Saturday, when some school or the other decides to herd their kids off to such ‘picnic cum educational’ tours. This left me with an option to head to a nearby mall to window shop or generally roam about. So I choose the later. I wandered off towards the exhibition area of Nehru centre. Dissapointment again, found out that the exhibition was about educational institutions. Having no inclination to venture there I had a plate of samosa at the ‘very ok’ canteen in Nehru centre and thought of what to do next. My eyes drifted to the upstairs’ balcony where I saw rows of shelf like cupboards with exhibits of all shapes and sizes. So I headed up. On reaching the landing I found myself face to face with the exhibit on the Indian Independence struggle and something drew me in.

I am not going to bore you with the details of what I saw in there, but it was like revisiting our history text books, with pictures and recreations of major events, famous leaders, fake jail cells recreated to resemble the size and facilities of the jail cells the freedom fighters spent a majority of their time in, etc. But what struck me was this quote by Gopal Krishna Gokhale put up in one of the exhibits, it goes something like this, “We, the present generation of India, can only hope to serve our country by our failures. The men and women who will be privileged to serve her by their successes will come later.” It was amazing to imagine the vision of these people. They could foresee a future worth working towards and dedicated their lives to it. It’s up to us the men and women of the ‘today’ to live up to their dreams.

Ni.