Daily Gratitude Affirmation for 'Jivatma'

The universe provides me everything I need. 

Its timing is just perfect. 

Food, clothing, shelter, knowledge, joy, entertainment, sensual pleasures 

and everything amongst them is provided by a diligent mechanism 

to nurture the 'Jivatma' and dispel the darkness of ignorance. 

Universe is listening to you. 

Be sincere and clear, 

universe will send everything your way. 

Caveat is you need to start treading the path, 

universe doesn't knock on doors, 

it meets you at the highway of life. 

Now, it's your choice to stay at home and be foolishly wishful 

or step out take a bus/auto/metro 

or drive your own car 

or else book an Uber! 

But you need to be on the way to meet your gifts coming along

Depression : Come out of it

To Anyone Thinking About Depression 

First of all, what most people need to learn about 'Depression' is that it is NOT extreme sadness or despair. Depression is a disease like Cancer, ....(put other diseases you know here)..., So, It needs to handled by only experts. Society often judge depression patients as 'weak'. I certainly know it is NOT TRUE. The chemicals/hormones/neurons are in a bad state and need an intervention. It can happen to almost anyone

Next on the list, is to not give two hoots to what society thinks about you & their idea of 'success for you'. You have an extremely short life and you don't have time to fit in as per their preferences. The good news & most important thing here would be to understand that 'mental health' is always in your hands. It requires work. Real work. Mind or Brain is a tool.

I would like to personally suggest that 'Meditation & Self-Awareness' helps. But the key is you need to do it when you are happy and at the highest state of mental health as that creates a refuge for your brain to go to when it is not feeling in the best shape. So, it becomes the chicken-egg problem.

Anyway it is always prudent to bring in any form of meditation in your daily life. There are some very good resources on podcasting sites and YouTube. There is a mediation method for everyone, no-one-size-fits-all.

Meditation must not be confused with any religious ritual, it is a mental exercise. That being said, it is unfortunate that the monopoly of meditation lies in the hands of Religious & Spiritual Leaders & NOT Medical Practitioners. In the world of second bests, you could give 'Zen Meditation' (Get it on Amazon) a try without dipping yourself too much in the mystical aspects. Also, if you want to take it to the next level, try 'Prāṇāyāma'.

And, reading books on 'Meditation & Self-Awareness' is highly recommended if you can give that much time. (Get it all on Amazon from here)  

My personal recommendations are:
1. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (Get it on Amazon from here)
2. When All Is Not Well by Om Swami (Get it on Amazon from here)

Woohoo! Announcement & Changes!

When I started blogging, way back in the previous decade, (2008 to be precise! Yeah, this blog is that old) I just wanted to write short stories in the blog form and maybe become another IITian author (sigh!). Then, life happened. 

I met a lot of people and jumped from one choice to the next choice, each taking me further away from my initial pursuit of writing. The silver lining was that I kept reading a lot of books. Back in 2014(well 6 years back), I read 50+ books/novels/novella. On the whole, I aged with my reading habit and my writing became restrictive and it was more directed to individuals than anonymous readers. 

In the mean time, I started putting weird stuff on my blog, one day I would do a movie review, next day an interview with a founder, then a poem then election result prediction. So, my blog started out like a Cafe and soon became Big Bazaar. 

This ain't cool!

So, here I am finally doing the sane thing or may be not. I have forked my blog. Yeah!

I'll keep this blog for short stories and essays on public issues; a sort of 'my writing space'!

Apart from this blog, I have started 3 more blogs. One catering to my reviews(books,movies,series,...), one for my number crunching stories and one for Career Progression

Find the links below respectively 

1. https://theadmiringcritic.blogspot.com/ (The Admiring Critic)

2. https://statisticaldharma.blogspot.com/ (The Statistical Dharma)

3. https://careersaar.blogspot.com/ (Career Saar)

Most of the content in the new blogs is old. (How oxymoronic!) I have just curated them from this blog and will add future content according to its type & relevance. Thanks for bearing with my inanities.  

In this fickle age of short attention spans, if you still like to read blogs, it'd be a good idea to bookmark these new ones mentioned above, depending upon your interests. Show some love. 

Why protest?

This generation has now transitioned from being 'armchair activists' to 'placard-bearing protestors'. This comes in the wake of the new 'woke-generation'[1][2]

So why do we protest? Rather why protestors protest?
Protestors can be generally categorised in 3 categories
A) They understand the real issue and feel protest is the only or one of the key ways to affect change

These are well meaning people whose only intention from the protests is brewing the steam of change. People of this category are well versed with the issue in concern and don't have vacuous reasons and stay away from propaganda. As you might have realised, this section of protestors form the minority of protestors.

B) They understand that their protest is the last thing the world needs, but they have insidious agenda and they are catalysts for the next category

 Their motivation can be anything. Money, 15 minutes of fame[3], political leanings, propaganda conduit, etc.
This group causes the most chaos. They have expertise in making the environment of society caustic and volatile. Who are these people? You guessed it right, 'The Usual Suspects'

C) The Gullible 'woke-generation' 

Image Source

These are 15-30 year old people who haven't seen much world, are not well read, have been unlucky to get unsuitable nurturing by their immediate surroundings, etc. These people don't have voices of their own. They just depend on the next 'cool' phenomenon to latch on to. It's fashionable to follow/pursue a particular ideology or a school of thought or your political inclination based not on your understanding but because it sounds 'the in thing', and not because it's your idea but based on what a few handful of 'narrative-savvy marketers masquerading as social activists'[read Category B] propagate as wisdom.


Now, when you mix the above categories, it makes a very potent concoction for protests from every nook & corner of the society. The need of the hour is better primary education. An education system which favours cultural sensitivity, originality, ethics and rewards creativity. We need societies which are not another ape-version of a different society. We need to live local and breathe global. The gradual hatred of the new generation towards its roots creates rifts in societies and makes room for vested interest groups to take powerful and unfavourable seats.

My question to these protestors would be
Q. What are the top 3 actionable economic decisions world leaders need to take?
Q. Are there such examples currently?
Q. What are the top 3 social decisions we need to take collectively?
Q. What kind of society would make them leave all protests all-together, basically what is their utopian or not-so utopian idea?

Book Suggestions Below:
.         
        
Notes:
1. Woke-Wikipedia
2. Woke-Urban Dictionary
3. 15 minutes of fame

Questions : Measured Approach

Is science just another point of view?

Most of what we say as natural laws or theories of science are based on empirical findings. So, the question implores you to clarify if empirical findings can be taken as absolute truth. You might as well say that science is just good statistical analysis at play. The answer as always is with you.

What is the one thing you would like to change in the world?

Your answer could be anything. Something as basic as end of global hunger or as dramatic as a world with no national boundaries. Take any 'bit of change' you want to see and ask yourself if the cause is your own or is it of a significant value to you.

Are you taking any steps to affect the change as answered above?

Well, we all want a million things in life but those wishes are just that, mere wishful thinking if we don't act or make a systematic plan to bring our dreams to fruition. You can take baby steps, it doesn't matter as long as you are moving at least a bit forward everyday.

[Image : https://medium.com/@chrisgardener/the-1-principle-998b33512100]

Are you measuring your progress?

As the famous saying goes, "what gets measured gets improved". If you are not measuring your steps then perhaps your outcome will also be random. So, ask yourself what tools or methodologies are you employing to track your progress in the mission of your life as answered above.

So, when can we see that change you are about to bring in this world?

Setting an end date to any activity gives it life. Think about humans or any living being, we die because we live. So, if you put an end date or expiry date you have given your vision a life, which will turn into a mission.


Thanks for reading the third and final part of my series on Questions.
Read Part 1 & Part 2 if you have missed them :

Questions : Ab Initio

Questions : The Gender