B +ve

In the past 20 and odd years of my life, one of the words in English that has become so dear to me is “optimism “. Synonymous to “positive thinking” this word has a charm on its own. It was during my college days that this word became very familiar to me , especially because we were geared up for campus recruitment and corporate interviews. We were expected to develop the so called “Right Attitude” in which optimism played a key role.

Irrespective of whether we understood the substance of such words truly or not, we knew by then, that such words had the magic powers of taking us closer to what we were longing to hear after a campus interview
“ Congrats!!..You’ve made it!!!”

Back then, I was not quite sure how I could fit “optimism” in all spheres of my life. I could only very clearly distinguish every happening in my life as either a “positive one” or a “negative one”. I was not sure how I could apply and associate the concept of optimism with an incident that could bring even a slightly negative impact on my day to day existence.

But as life stretches out and we come face to face with a wide spectrum of varying experiences (both good and bad ones) we learn to tweak our perspective a little so that it will keep us alive and kicking at all times. The vital difference being, we learn that instead of calling an experience “bad” , it only takes the slightest of efforts to call that same experience as one with “less of goodness” in it.

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose. -Kahlil Gibran

The rose being rose and the thorn being thorn , optimist gives emphasis to one aspect of it , while the pessimist views it from a different angle. At the end of the day, what is important for us is an attitude that will keep us moving forward at all times. It is here that optimism outweighs pessimism.

However ,these days we have given certain facets of pessimism a glossy finish by calling it “Contingency Management”. This of-course is a necessary devil.

As and when S listens to “Bhagavad Gītā” I get the privilege of over-hearing bits and pieces of it, while my primary job is to dance to the tunes of my the my little honey. Gītā says that there is nothing pleasant or unpleasant in absolute terms ,it is all in our mind and the way we look at things. Although at the outset this seems to be a very revolutionary thought to ingest, on a bit more of scrutiny there does seem to be some truth in this.

From the moment we embark upon our journey of life on this earth, we (our minds) are being constantly fed with ideas about what is good and what is bad. By the time we reach our adult-hood our minds are predisposed to gauge every happening in our life in a certain unique way:
Either as favourable or unfavourable to us.

While favourable incidents can cause mental comfort , unfavourable incidents cause turbulence in our system and disturb our mental equilibrium. That is when optimism comes in handy. When we compare the cause of our disturbance with a relatively much more stressful situation (hypothetical) , our mind automatically gets consoled that what we are currently facing may not be all that painful as it appears.

For instance, when S and I travel by car and get caught in the middle of a nerve-wracking traffic jam we always have two choices before us. We could either curse our stars for the unnecessary waste of fuel in our car or feel happy that at least this way we are forced to spend some time with each other.

But one thing that I find difficult to come to terms with , is that S always thinks both the two options stated above are worth “cursing his stars”!!!!

Me the Blogger!!!!!

It has been a few months since I started blogging and I now want to halt for a moment, take a deep breath and aggregate all my impressions and ideas about bloggers and blogging. I started blogging mainly because I did not know what else to do.

I was inspired by another blogger ,whom I accidentally bumped into, during one of the social gatherings. I did not have even the slightest inkling as to whether “blogging” was my cup of tea . Still I garnered all my courage to start one . Only because , if at all it becomes a “flop show” I can silently slip off into obscurity before anyone could take a notice. Of course I have stumbled upon a lot of web logs with no activity since stone age times.

After posting my first blog, I can still recollect the waves of excitement that pervaded all over me and thousands of butterflies that fluttered by , in my tummy. Somehow I had thought that the moment my post invades the world wide web, I would have thousands of avid readers flocking my blog spot and my comments section throwing a “comments overflow and out of space ” problem.

Little had I realised then, that web-logging world is a world on its own with innumerable versatile creators. I have been completely floored on reading some exceptionally good blogs which have touched unspoken realms of “out-of-the-box” thinking . I might not be able to emulate them all , but I do not intend to make a hasty retreat and hide myself.

I read this quote somewhere:

Well, there are more writers of blogs right now than there are readers, so that's clearly a vanity phenomenon - John Doerr

I do not agree with this at all . Every blogger has his/her own “free-will” to find an expression to his/her views and showcase it to the world. I think web -logging world is a network on its own which crosses all geographic boundaries and people from such varied backgrounds are able to exchange their opinions and ideas. This is so much of an open forum to express one’s thoughts either as short articles, prose, poetry ,pictures ,stories or even paintings.

In some cases I find web logs are more of an outlet of the author’s inner perceptions. In a few other cases they are not exactly a representation of the blogger’s true nature or thoughts , nevertheless in the end the blog turns out to be an interesting piece of read. In my observation the most popular ones are those that are soaked in comedy

Also how true these words are:
Whether your intended audience is large of small, public or private, you now have some extra motivation for writing as frequently and as well as you can. Knowing that someone is reading your side, you will unconsciously seek to express yourself a little more clearly and will likely be anxious to maintain a fairly steady publication schedule.
Rebecca Blood

I thank all those of you who have been giving me your encouragement and support to pursue this interest of mine .

I Promise!!!!

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.
- Oprah Winfrey

Just about a month to go before another new year unfolds and here I was trying to jot down my new year resolutions. I was so much in a contemplative mood trying to do a thorough introspection, that “S” looked up at me incredulously .Reason being it was very atypical of me to get engrossed in such reclusive activities. Not able to resist his urge to barge into my thought process he asked me “What are you up to now?”.

I have been having a nagging feeling of restlessness within me of late, that my day to day life is more and more self-centred. From the moment I wake up to the time I hit the bed, all my thoughts and actions are focused either around my immediate family or myself. It is the monotony of the same old routine that repeats itself day after day.

“S” couldn't help but say “Oh God are you saying we need to swap roles?”. .Please spare me for heaven’s sake”. I could clearly make out from his horror-stricken voice that he dreaded even the thought of having to play mom’s role for our 21 months old sweetheart. He always thinks Dads are the blessed souls.

However that was not even close to what I had in my mind. I was more concerned about what is it that I was contributing to the world to make it a wee bit better place to live in. Given the restrictions that I have to attend to my full time employer( my daughter) and cannot spend too much time outside of my house, I had to come up with some ideas that are viable . These were a few thoughts that gushed into my mind:

1) Try and be prompt in disposing off my unused and old clothes to charities on a more regular basis

2) Try and set up a bird house in summer in my patio

3) Try and save 20p per day every day and donate the accrued amount to an orphanage, at the end of the year. Please do not ask me how I arrived at the 20p figure. The intention was to keep it at a minimum so one does not feel the pinch of it.Also to make it a regular feature of everyday life, so that I can be grateful for whatever the great God has given to me and not whinge about a few trivial problems in life.

4) Try and be regular in calling up my relatives and friends and giving them a little praise for their adorable qualities.

5) Try and add a few plants to my front yard .

6) Try and use the recycling bin more often.

7) Pray for 5 minutes daily to the Almighty for the welfare of this world.

8) Try and feed the ducks in the lakes now and then with left over bread.

After noting down all these in a piece of paper, I showed my list to “S” who was in our kitchen gulping water. When he finished reading I could see tears in his eyes .

During a quieter moment later on the same day, I asked him with all earnestness which was the point in the list that moved him a lot and caused his tears.

He gave me a startled look and said “Err…when you came into the kitchen with your list on paper, I guess you failed to notice the chopping board with cut pieces of onions near me ….you know my eyes are too sensitive to these onions…”.

GOD SAVE US.