Let The Life Flow

Today I saw the film  '3 Idiots' again and enjoyd as thoroughly as I had during the first view. There are many angles to the movie and I have read those in the many critiques I have read. But for me it is about living life to the fullest - with #passion. Some time back my Coach asked me a powerful question - "If you had a day to live then how will you live that day?" A powerful reminder that the length of life is finite and life is to live. By this I am not saying that we have to be morbid, but just think are you enjoying your life? Does going to the office in the Monday morning fills you up with energy? Do you look forward to hit your office table and get going for the week? Are you spending time with the people you love? Do you remember which is the next festival in the calender and how you are going to celebrate this and with whom? Have you read those books which you wanted to read for quite some time? Have you seen that movie which you had planned but mi...

Remember the days some 10 years back, when a festival or a special day was around the corner! Especially if it is New Year, Christmas or Birth Day. Did you look forward to the postman or the courier delivery boy? I used to wait for them with excitement, with happy expectation of receiving a colourful greeting card! Lovely colours and becautiful messages! The more I used to get, the more was the happiness. And then they used get a proud display in the front room of the house for quite sometime. I also used to enjoy my leisure time in making cards with colours, cloths, bids, leafs, petals, threads and so on. Going to the shops to purchase a card used to be a relaxed enjoyment. With the passing years and arrival of emails and ecards, the mode sending a wish has changed. They are equally colourful and much faster in delivery. But I still cherish the paper greeting cards - coz I can hold and touch them, can delightfully display them if I like and can show to everybody. And I still en...

When I speak to people to go for Vipassana * , the most common reaction of friends is that, “9 days without speaking?! I will not be able to stay without speaking for 9 days!!” Why is it difficult to stay without speaking? This question led me to delve deeper into 'whys' of our need for speaking and 'whys' of our fear of being silent and 'whys' of our not giving premium to listening. Hope this awareness makes my friends look at their fear on the face. When we speak, are we alone? No, for a person to speak, there is need of at least one person who listens to the speaker. So when we speak, what need of ours is getting fulfilled? A person speaks when s/he has the need to be heard and understood. Have you seen or experienced in a workshop where a speaker is speaking and others are not listening? How does it feel if You are the speaker? You do not feel Good; Right? And that is why we set out a rule in the beginning that when a Speaker is speaking people shoul...

Why spend time on meditation? Thanks to Praveen. This is the question he had put to me last year after I came back from a 20 days course of   Vipassana . I had not answered because I myself had not reflected. However last week the question came back to me and I myself was ruminating over it. By law of nature I came across an old issue of ‘Aha Zindegi’ where I read the following story. A person say Dinu skilled in woodcutting went to a wood trader and asked for job. He got the job and was happy with his employer and his salary. So he made up his mind to do the work diligently and sincerely. The Employer gave him the axe and showed the place of work. On the first day of his work he did cut 18 logs. The employer praised him. Inspired by the appreciation Dinu worked very hard the next day, but he could cut 15 logs. Next day he worked even harder but could manage to cut only 10 logs. And this process continued on the fourth day when he could bring only 8 logs. He was c...

8th Jan 2010 Manish had asked me about the name of my house. I had no name for it. My house number is J3. After coming to the colony when I looked around I found many a house in my neighbourhood have names. I started thinking how significant the name of a house is. When I started thinking in this line I actually looked the house beyond the brick and cement building. I suddenly felt as if I am meeting the house for the first time. I started looking at the personality of the house. Looking around I realised that it is the only house in the neighbourhood with Pink exterior. In fact I am the only owner who has retained the original pink colour. After taking possession from the builder, rest house owners have gone for other colours. Looking around I felt good to see this Pink House of mine. Won’t it be good to call the house Pink House? In fact that is the visible distinctive character which will be noticed by a person who is approaching it for the first time. Don’t we notice people from ...