Life is a pre-paid mobile !

Life is a pre-paid mobile !

I experienced this fact many times in my life. I keep getting this analogy in my mind again and again. Many people might argue that I am a pessimist. But this fact cannot be ruled out just like that. Every one's life is a like a prepaid mobile with some fixed currency. It is a beautiful mobile with full of SMSs, calls.. incoming calls..outgoing calls only as long as this currency lasts. But interesting part of this fact is that, we will never know how much GOD has loaded in our mobile nor how much is available balance!

We only think that we have been loaded with infinite currency and we spend it senselessly. The very feeling of infinite currency does not allow us to think straight. We do many wrong things..we expect unrealistic things from others.. we yell at each other.. we get angry.. we stop talking to each other, we don’t care for relations.. we just take people for granted. We might even forget to think even other person has ONLY some fixed currency.

All in all, our view on life or perspective on life is not just real. We just take our life for granted. That diminishes our thinking in some or other way. What could have been a careful usage of currency, turns out to be a lavish spending.

Currency here refers to our life time and its beautiful moments and days. At times, apart from spending our own currency, we may end up spending currency of others too.

The no. of days in our life is finite and beautiful moments even more limited. I keep telling all the people I know about this. I still remember when I was working for Syntel, I used to tell all my team mates (Suyash, Muniesh, Priya, Swati, Avanish, Shriveni, Rajesh and many others..) that I am going to complete 10000 days in my life on so and so date! They used to laugh at me saying "stupid fellow, he even calculates how many days he has been alive"!.

Knowingly or unknowingly I used to do such calculations. But today when I look back, I feel this perspective is so true..! We only have so many days and moments in life. Life is so uncertain! A very well performing Senior Project Manager, happy family man may die suddenly die in an accident tomorrow. A top most executive or a top most company , a fitness freak might collapse at the entrance of his gym on a fine morning...an honest govt official might get kidnapped or even killed the next day. We just don’t know what is there in store.

My sincere request to my friends, colleagues, family and all those people whom I know is that, please do not waste your currency, do not spoil a beautiful today for unnecessary reasons. Every day , every is precious for everyone. Live every day and every moment to the fullest and make it more beautiful for you and for others. One fine day when I am in last days, I should be proud and satisfied that I have lived my life correctly to the best possible extent, spent my currency sensibly, I did not waste any of my currency or that of others.

To be little more realistic, even with the best possible equations today, with the best possible health and social conditions, I think I can live up to another 6000 to 7000 days at the most. That way if you see, I guess I have already completed more than 70% of journey. What remains is just only about 28 to 30 % journey. Yaane, only so much currency is available now in my mobile..! I want to ensure that I give my best and this remaining currency is spent sensibly, to give my best to life always, make it more meaningful for me and every co-passenger of my life.

This view of mine may seem to be very negative and pessimistic to others. But this is what keeps me going. I will never take life for granted. Life is very precious for me. I have only so many moments in life. This realization and enlightenment helps me always to give my best in anything I do .I feel satisfied with that. I have tried to apply this realistic view in my life wherever possible . It has worked also.

I don’t know whether I was able to successfully convey and pass on this perspective on life to all of you. But that’s what I believe in always. Coincidentally my mobile connection is also a prepaid connection ! J

Recently I watched one beautiful Hindi movie "Dasvidaaniya", I felt this movie is very close to my thoughts and has been able to convey the message correctly. This is not a lolly-polly , NRI hero and India Heroin kind of movie. It is a very simple, real yet beautiful little movie. The central character of the movie has been essayed extremely well by Vinay Pathak. In the first half at place, you might find it little boring, but it picks up pace in the second half.

It made me really sit back and think and introspect about my own life. It could be due to the fact that I watched it all alone. Watching this movie all alone has been one of the memorable experiences recently for me.

I am not a great book reader, but I believe some movies like this one convey the theme more effectively what many books could not convey in hundreds of pages. If you find time, please watch this movie. It is worth giving a try.

For more details on the movie, please check the following URLs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasvidaniya

http://dasvidaniya.in/

Thanks for your time and patience in reading this blog!

My Mobile Story..!

Today I actually lost my mobile when I was going to my office via BDA 6th phase road from Kanakapura road on my Active Honda in the morning..! I realized it only after going for about 2 Kms and reaching JSS college junction.

Then started the panic search operation…! I just did not know what to do.It fell somewhere on road. May be some vehicle would have gone on top of that.and crushed the mobile.
It was a 7K NOKIA mobile, I could not afford this loss at this time. I felt very bad.

I just went back on my way and muttered few words to a youth standing on road waiting for his bus.”Bla... blaa... I lost my mobile. Did you see any where?”.. Poor chap.. He did not know.. But he was a good guy.. He immediately called my number from his mobile and tried reaching the same.

Luckily the stranger at the other end, took the call and responded saying “He is near Gnanakshi School”! My new friend even accompanied me to search the phone as I did not have a spare mobile. We were going towards NICE highway.. did not know where is this school.

We asked few people and got to know that it is in opposite direction and then started driving towards school. My Honda was already in running in reserve!! When we went there, the stranger was not there, we called him again, he responded after few calls and said “ He is in Rajarajeshwari temple”! Wow..! That was again 3 more Kms! I got little suspicious thinking whether he is fooling me. But there was no other way, I had to believe him.

We again drove there and started waiting there at the main gate, the stranger was not at all responding to the calls..! All this while I was already treating the savior guy like a good old chaddi dost..! We convinced ourselves that he is taking darshanam of GODDESS and would not recieve the calls.

Our saviour guy told me “…….. maklu sir… sumne mosa maadtare.. mobile kodalla.. sumne odaadistare.. “ etc., (Idiots sir.. they simply keep giving different locations details and don’t return the mobile.. we will be cheated ..etc ) .But he was genuinely trying to help me trace the mobile.

I was standing in front of the main gate of Rajarajeshwari temple watching the GOD, praying hard to get back my mobile. We were frantically calling my mobile number assuming that if someone is going out of gate it will ring in their hands!! Nothing worked, the stranger was not at all taking the calls..!

Then I went to a nearby public booth and started calling. 3.. 4..5.. calls …No reply at all! I was slowly losing hope. In fact I was caluclating the depreciated value of my mobile after 2 years of usage. Then at last the stranger answered the 6th call and said “ He is coming out of temple and is wearing white shirt..!”

As said, he returned within next 5 minutes , a gentleman almost of my age, returned the mobile without any fuss and smiled at us. Luckily by grace of GOD… he was really a good person did not try to cheat me. I thanked him and Rajarajeshwari with FULL emotions on my face!! But forgot to ask his name as he moved on.

Then I took our savior guy out and had to drop him where I picked him. I asked him “Shall we have tea..? “. He denied. I took him to the place where I picked him.. He said he is in some trouble and in need of money to go to Mysore and asked for Rs.150/-. Without second question, I gave him the money and dropped him near BGS hospital so that he can go to Mysore.

Before leaving.. he asked me.. “Sir.. yaavudaadaroo ondu olle job idre kodsi.. I am tenth pass.. I will do any job..” I agreed and thanked him again and departed.

His name is Santosh… My savior in tracking the mobile for non-stop 90 minutes on my Activa Honda and driving around 8-9 Kms..! For those moments he looked like a whole world to me.

I was actually lucky for the first time in life. Both these guys were good. Otherwise anything could have happened..!

An unknown pillion rider can even stab you from back for the laptop I had or the stranger who got the mobile could have switched it off and removed the SIM or the mobile itself could have come under a vehicle and got crushed.

GOD is great.. for the first time in life, I got something back which I lost! More than , the savior and stranger actually reassured my hope on life and belief in people. Thanks to both of them!

That haunting old role....

This thought of haunting old role is haunting me for last few months .. But some how I was not able to blog it down onto net so far.Before being hunted down completely I would like to omit all my thoughts here.

I feel amazed about the wonderful capabilities of human being at the same I love to explore the endless boundaries of human psyche, its creative nature and limitations.

Life looks like a play for me.. It is a series of different roles and different responsibilities that we play in our lives. Long long back I was a kid .. Then a school going boy.. Then a high-schooler and college guy and a professional graduate. An unemployed youth...an engineer. And so on.

If you see the pattern, every one has changed their roles over the time. But funny part of this role change is we don’t get know or realize when do we change our roles. May be we know , but are not very conscious about it. We just get into our new role even before we could realize it..

Scene-1
A daughter is brought up in a family for 25 years, she knows she is going to a new family as some one's wife. But she does not realize after marriage that she is playing a new role of wife. Very often she keeps comparing both the families and their culture. Very often there will be arguments. At the same even husband forgets that he is now some one's husband and thinks he is still the little cutie pie of his mother!
Adding to that mummy also forgets thinks her son is now some one else's husband also and we need to share the space equally. Both mummy and wife or husband and wife forget this fact and keep arguing/fighting unnecessarily.

Scene-2
Many of us have seen our dads work for some govt dept or bank for years together.. They become depressed when they retire and they don’t know what to do after that. They try cultivating new hobbies.. Struggle a lot to spend time.. Keep running for arranging alliances between relatives.. They suddenly start keeping in touch with relatives by attending all the functions. This phase continues for a while before the dads realize that they have to live with this new role.

Scene-3
Let us turn to our offices now. I have made mistakes many times by forgetting my current role. I forget delegating certain responsibilities and start doing them on my own. That way I may not be doing justice to my role. It has dual negative impact in that I am doing some one else's work and also I am not clear about my role and responsibilities in current role. Some where deep in my heart that old role will be haunting me and I will be pulled into that. Many of us in corporate life suffer with such syndrome.

I am just quoting 2-3 examples here, but in life, we see almost each and every one struggling with haunting old role and conflict with new role almost every day every minute.

The primary reason for this conflict is we are not willing to accept the changes so easily. When our mind is empty we try and look and crave for that much needed change. But when we get used to that change , we don’t want to change. So strange!

Luckily in any organizations there will be many trainings , orientations programs and sessions to understand these changes and we some how if get along with the new changes a little later, if not immediately.. Life continues..

But irony of life is , no such training or sessions are given and you wont even a get a copy of org chart ppt presentation saying that your role has been changed. You just don’t know when and how that change occurs. Here there is no appraisal cycle. Increments. May be or may not be .. But there will be definitely role changes. Sudden role changes.. Good or bad.. High or low.. But there will be some!

Everything was going smooth in your family.. Suddenly dad passes away.. the family becomes more responsible and silent. You don’t know how to complete sisters marriage..You may be taking additional responsibilities.

Just one day of lose motion. Your husband is no more ! Your son is just two years old! Life gives a very cruel blow!

You are happily married and have a simple job in a govt organization. You both are expecting a child. But the kind GOD blesses you suddenly with triplets! You don’t know how to manage the new role with 'additional' responsibilities.

GOD many times even pulls out your sources of love, money and moral support in the form of losing one’s job, loved one’s and meeting with challenges. But it is all HIS way of cost cutting in life ! You still have to manage your role in that role in a most possible economic way.

It goes on and on...

Many of us, almost always get confused or shocked or lost or when such changes occur. We are still playing the old role and cannot accept the new role/change so easily for various reasons.

We just forget that a particular that incident happens to my friend can happen to me also.. A shock that occurred to my wife's friend can also occur in my life.

But if we think consciously and live the life for fullest and on just open terms, rather than complicating it with too many constraints and conditions, I believe we have the answers within ourselves. We should believe in the fact that' any thing can happen any time' and 'I should enjoy this very moment for myself and make it more meaningful and be ready for any role change any time'.

I guess only then there will be no surprises and that old role stops haunting us and life will be beautiful with conflicts.

Thanks for your time !