Category: Life

Credits: Google Images

Scorching Sun. Summer Time. Long days. And short nights. It’s now vacation time.

Anvay’s vacation has started and within two days he has already driven me crazy.

Hats off to all school teachers and to their level of patience and tolerance. Kudos to all of them. May God keep their spirits always high and may God give them enough strength . We moms, are nothing in their front.

Since it is vacation time, it is time to think and plan the ways to make our vacations engaging, meaningful, full of fun and energy boosting. So, here are some of the things that I quickly brainstormed for today’s post and rest I would want you all to add on, so that we all could make best use of our vacation time.

1. Vacation= family trip. Vacation time is more or less synonymous with going on trip with all the members of our family. So, this is the time of the year, plan a trip and go to a place where you could enjoy the pleasant weather and scenic beauty and refresh yourself for the rest of the year.
2. Vacation = Meeting cousins. This used to be my childhood vacation plan. I am sure it would have been your as well. Every vacation, we used to visit to Grandparents place and Nani maa’s house. And there, listening to ghostly stories and sleeping on terrace at night, used to be our most favourite time. I have beautiful memories of my childhood at my grandparents home and they are one of the best memories that I have. After all, as it is said, “you can always make money, but you cannot always make memories.” So, enjoy this memory making time and create and generate more memories with your cousins and relatives all this summer season.
3. Vacation=Meeting with friends. Well, there can be no better therapy of rejuvenating your body, mind and soul than meeting your school or college friends and remembering all the crazy and amazing memories with them. All stories of our past and all things that we did at college and school days, we could take this, down the memory lane walk, along with our school and college friends and I am sure we all would have amazing time unlimited with all of them. So, be on the memory roller coaster ride with them and enjoy it. Plan this out. This would be truly a great fun. In short, party with friends.
4. Vacation=Adventure. If you are an adventurer and has already your bucket list ready, then it is the time of the year when you should start challenging yourself and be ready to move out of your comfort zone. Sky diving, bungee jumping, scuba diving and many more which you know better than me, try out something truly daring. Go to camping out with your friends. Anything which you want to try new, try this year out!
5. Vacation= Rest & Recreation. Take proper rest. Sleep as much as you can. For recreation, do whatever you have planned so far. You could watch Movies or make your own family movies. And if you are like me, you too would have a long list of movies, which you would want to watch, watch them all at this time of the year. This could be the best time. Listen to your favourite music albums and yes, shall I tell you to pick up your favourite novel, book or wisdom literature book? Now, is the time to enjoy them thoroughly.
6. Vacation=Learning. If you want to learn a new skill or start a new habit. This is the time to start. You can join any hobby classes or any other online course to master a new skill within two months. Or if your have to appear in an exam at the end of the year, then use this time judiciously to prepare for that exam. Don’t waste your these days. These days could be truly productive and fruitful for you. Squeeze and extract best out of the 24 hours on a day.
7. Vacation=Renovation. If you are not going anywhere, then you must clean your room, redecorate it and check your junk Quotient. This is the time, when you can patiently redecorate your room and home the way you want. Remove the clutter and energy trappers from your room and feel great after redecorating your dream home and room. Why not to give it a new life and look through our creativity in summers?
8. Vacation=Volunteering. Yes, this is important. If you have time, then give your time to any volunteering work. You could help some NGO or engage in a cleanliness drive or get associated with any cause that you believe in. You would feel accomplished and great after volunteering even for a single week. Try this out. This is truly one of the best things that you could try this summer vacation. You could plan it with your family members and friends as well. Together with them, you would feel wonderful and amazing.
9. Vacation=Connect with self. Relax. Take rest. Sleep as much as you can. Have fun. Meet friends and relatives. Enjoy volunteering. But don’t forget to connect with your inner self. Meditate. Communicate with your own self. This is truly important. Do I need to re-emphasize it again?

And yes, you could try and do many other things in your this vacation and while you do all those things that you want to do, don’t forget to share it with others. I would ask for your progress . I would want to know what you did, which book(s) you read, which movies did you watch and what skills did you hone or sharpen this summer?

Amidst all these, don’t forget to keep yourself hydrated, drink lots of water, enjoy ice creams and multi coloured shakes because you would not want to have heat stroke in the middle of your summer vacations.

And yes, last thing, keep sharing your ideas and plans and what you all do and did. And if I get delayed in my response, then understand that I am away from home and will join you soon after my summer vacations.

Wishing you all a happy and amazing summer vacations !!

Credits : Google Images

I have suffered from this syndrome many a times. I am sure you too would have. Now what to do?

Simple.

Diagnose the problem. Confront the situation. And solve the issue.

But before anything else, let’s see what is this Ostrich Syndrome and what to do with it?

Sticking its head in sand, the ostrich imagines itself safe from its predators. By doing this, it remains in the comfortable position and imagines itself to be safe from the impending danger.

Although this term is a myth now, but we, as individuals suffer form this syndrome in many ways. Instead of facing the challenges, roadblocks and issues in our day to day life, we apply this passive approach called the Ostrich Syndrome. We hide. We escape and we procrastinate until the danger or the problem comes too close.

So, be it our personal life or professional life, relationships or health issues, financial decisions or spiritual crisis , we have one area or the other in our life where we do not take the right actions required at the right moment. We wait. And we imagine that the problem will be sorted out automatically. We delay finding the root cause of the issues. Result. We all suffer form this syndrome called the Ostrich Syndrome.

I have many personal anecdotes which will explain my this tendency, but for today, I have one such incident, it is of the time when I was in grade XI. The Year was 1999.

It was my biology exam. I had always loved this subject but due to my unexpected poor performance in class X, I developed Exam Phobia. Since I was extremely afraid of exams after the results of class X, I got so scared of this paper that I decided to be down with fever. I did the worst. I behaved as If I had some neurological disorder or some psychotic trauma.I did not eat, nor did I turn the pages of my copy or the biology text book.

The entire purpose of this episode was not to appear in the exam. All I wanted to do was to escape from it and did not sit in the exam. It was according to me a situation where I suffered from this Ostrich Syndrome.

Yesterday was also one such case, details of which will be shared in coming posts, but the point is, I could now identify this syndrome. In this syndrome, instead of taking hold of the situation, we react or over react, we avoid or escape but do not respond to the situation.

So, now I hope that you too would be able to identify the areas in your life which calls for your action and proactive confrontation with the dealing of Ostrich Syndrome.

Therefore based on my recent confrontation with the problem and suggestions from my friends, here are the 6 steps that we all can take to avoid this syndrome and take hold of the problems and situations in life.

1. Zoom in and look for this syndrome. Just like we zoom the camera and focus the object to take the image, in the same manner we must zoom on the broader areas of our life which need our immediate handling of the problem or the situation. We need to be our own inspector and detector.

We must focus on finding out the root cause of the issue or the problem. If we could reach out to that, the problem could be sorted out soon, without much delay.

If we find ourselves too emotional or inefficient to deal with the challenges or the issues, we must seek the help of our mentors, parents or friends. Their experience can be of great value to us in diagnosis of the problem. Ask. Ask and Ask for their help.

2. Ask the Right Questions. Asking questions is a great way to propel yourself straight into the core of your problem. You win half the battle if you know what are the right questions.So don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Ask questions such as: What is holding you back from taking the control of the situation? Whose help you can seek to solve the issue or the problem? What strategy you could use?

Ask questions related with why, what, when, where, who and how. Dig deep into them. You will surely get the pearls of your answers.

3. Focus on the Outcome. Imagine of the time when the situation will be solved and how happy you would feel. Focus on the outcome and the time when the situation will be under your control and how relax and fulfilling you would feel.

If that outcome is truly rewarding and fulfilling you could push yourself for the action rather than hiding your face and escaping from the situation. This focus will force you to take hold of the situation and take immediate action.

4. Make a commitment. If the issue is too important in your life and you have been avoiding it since very long then you must make a public commitment.

By making a public commitment and talking to people about it, you will be forced to work on doing the project or solving the issue or the challenge. If not, then your own integrity and public image can be at stake. At any cost, you cannot afford to spoil that.

5. Take Action.  Taking action is a must. Don’t think for too long. Consistent actions will give you confidence and faith to move on the right track. Don’t wait for the right time or the right moment.

Because as Napoleon Hill says that “The time will never be just right.” So, make your each moment right. And take action.

6. Check your  own progress and revise it if needed. After taking consistent action for some time, it is important for you to keep a check and momentum of your progress. For this, analyse your actions taken, ask for the feedback and if needed, revise the whole plan.

If you feel alone, join the group of like-minded people. You will be motivated and committed to take consistent actions with the group then. Accountability will be important here.

Take little steps each day and do not get exhausted. If something is not working, change the technique or the strategy and be flexible in your moves. Once the results start showing up, keep going.

You will be happy to walk on the path that will make a big difference to your own life and the life of others. You will feel amazing when you see yourself confronting the real life challenge and see them contributing to your life.

Credits: Google Images

Communication with others is easier but communication with self is the hardest. With others, it takes initiative, but with self it requires our inner strength and courage.

And today I am going to share with you one such communication.

Communication with self.

I am sharing with you how hard I struggled to write this post of today. It was unlike my earlier posts when I had felt Writing Muse being kind and happy with me and guiding me through the deluge of thoughts. It was unlike my earlier posts when I had always felt myself being the controller of my mind and thoughts . It was unlike my earlier posts when I had felt my creativity friend being sitting by my side and helping me to write playfully what all I had wanted to write.

But today was a different day. No matter how hard I tried to focus on the topic at hand, I was unable to pour my heart and soul into it. I felt my creativity being kidnapped and kept on hostage. I felt my ideas being arrested and jailed. What all I could do was watch my own tameless mind wandering from one point to another, and not allowing me to focus and concentrate on the single point on which I wanted to work and write so much.

I felt my WILL being chained and dragged in multiple directions. Sometimes, I even enjoyed its nomadic paths, while other times I felt frustrated and anguished. I failed miserably to work and produce the content for the post.

I saw myself stuck up in the bottle neck thoughts and the huge traffic snarl up. I got impatient. I felt frustrated and disappointed to look at the chaos and traffic of all thoughts around. And then, trying to force myself against all the wandering thoughts, I decided to concentrate on my writing of today. And then I felt:

Is this how people feel when they face the writer’s block? Is this what happens when people are not able to write despite their consistent efforts? Is this the reason why mastering of one’s mind is so important to get the desired results? Is this the reason why Lord Krishna says in Bhagvad Gita to discipline one’s mind with the practice of regular meditation?  And is this the reason why we all must engage in knowing thy inner self more than trying to know others ? I think  that answers are obvious.

I realized It takes time to clear the traffic and move ahead. I did the same. I waited for the other vehicle of thoughts to pass by and then moved forward with this post at hand.

I shifted my focus from my wandering mind to my purpose in this post. I analysed that I was not my mind at that time. I focused on the task at hand. I focused on you, waiting for my this post to come. I focused on my message. I focused on my discipline. I focused on the moment.

I then felt free. I allowed my mind to roam. Soon after it came to my rescue. I wrote word by word and moved bird by bird. For this I found to be the will of God.

I found my purpose. My purpose is to share with you one message through each post. My purpose today is to convey to you that spend time with your own self and engage in meaningful communication. And in the process know thy self and explore thy inner-self.

In this running of everyday affairs, we get so busy that we forget to communicate and spend some time with our inner selves.

And thus my messages to you in this post are simply these:

• This weekend, promise to spend some quality and quantity time with your own self and retreat with your inner self.
• Take out time to read your own thoughts, anxieties and fears. Spend some time to see your own flaws, vices and follies. Take out time to listen to your long latent projects, dreams and purposes and spend some time by writing your own story and plot of success forward.
• Observe how when we communicate with self, we understand ourselves better and this helps us to understand others better. This allows us to connect deeply with our own selves and all around us. Our communication with self improves relationship with others.
• When we interact, observe, analyse and reflect, these allow us to inspect the inner areas of our life which need work and renovation. Once we know the areas. We must start our inner work.
• This communication will help us to reveal that our inner self is the richest source of eternal peace and happiness.
• This communication will help us to see the inner richness and abundance in our life which we often chase in outer world.

Because as Adi Shankaracharya in his commentary on Bhagavad Gita says, “Self-knowledge alone is the means to the highest bliss.” And knowing this, shouldn’t we leave behind all the pity worries of the world and enjoy this rain of blissful knowledge everyday?  As Lao Tzu says “Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing the self is enlightenment. Mastering others requires force. Mastering the self requires strength.” And then shouldn’t we bask everyday in the glory of this wisdom and muster our own self mastery strength?

So now, let’s walk on this self journey together and remember to master our inner self first.

Suggested Readings:

Collection of Free EBooks by Swami Vivekananda 

Credits:Google Images

No matter how hard we try, life seems difficult at times, like the game of Clash of Clans. But before we win the game and make immortal our clan, it is important for us to earn the gold and elixir and save it for future life.

Now this treasure of elixir in life could be life transforming, if we know the art of asking the right questions like Einstein. Life in that case may seem easy,  finding answers to these life transforming queries.

In simple, “Ask and you shall receive.” Therefore, it is highly important that before our life comes to an end, we ask right questions and spend our life in pursuit of finding right answers.

Asking right and relevant questions is not only a powerful way of learning about our own selves but also is a great way to show us the path of our own strength and intelligence. This art of asking questions, is although not new. Indian Yogis and Acharayas, all Philosophers, researchers, scientists and scholars, leaders, writers, artists and teachers have been rigorously involved in asking profound questions since very long. And it is by asking such questions they have got the breakthrough discoveries in their lives.

And thus It is by asking the right questions, we too, can develop our own success system. Although, we all may have same questions, but our answers may differ. And you know why? Because of multiple reasons. Because our priorities, goals, talents, skills and dreams are different. So are our values and principles, making us unique and different and thus we must focus on asking the right questions from our own perspective and angle.

It is pertinent that we learn more by asking the questions and if we could ask the right questions at the onset, we could really head in the right direction sooner than later.

And therefore, here are 17 such questions which you must ask from yourself to transform your life:

1. What are your natural gifts and talents?
2. What are the things that matter most to you in your life? Why are those things so important to you?
3. What exactly are the things which you want to achieve in your life? And why? Are those things in alignment with your natural gifts and talents?
4. What are your core values and principles? What are your key strengths? What are the areas where you need to work on?
5. How do you set your goals in each broader area of your life (personal/professional/health/spiritual/financial/family) so that you feel happier and successful?
6. What are your exact goal(s) that you would want to achieve at the end of the each day/week/month of your life in each area of your life?
7. What are your bigger dreams and vision?
8. How accomplishment of those goals and dreams would make a difference in your life?How would you feel after accomplishing those goals?
9. Would your goals and dreams be the same, if you know that you have only a month to live?
10. Do you know the purpose of your life? Have your goals and dreams been aligned with that purpose?
11. What are the obstacles and challenges that are prohibiting you to achieve those goals?
12. Are those challenges and obstacles external or are they internal sources of interference in achievement of your goals?
13. How could you work on these challenges so that you achieve your goals faster in your life?
14. Would you feel wealthier, happier, successful, fulfilling and full of love after achieving your goals and dreams?
15. Are you working on your own dreams or are you chasing the borrowed dreams of some others in your life?
16. What are all those habits, skills, strategies that you need to work on so that you achieve your set goals?
17. Would your dream make a difference to your life? Would it make a difference to life of others as well? How?

Now don’t sit. Take your writing pad. Read each question slowly. Write your answer gradually. You may not come with the answer at one go. Let your mind wander and think.

Ask your deeper self and steadily the mystery will unveil. You would know, why you are the way you are. Love yourself when you know. Remember, your goals may change with the passage of time and according to phases of your life and you must know that it is perfectly fine.

Don’t try to answer all the questions at one go. Take time. Probe and interrogate yourself profoundly. Because some of your answers may be life transforming.

And now when someone meets you and asks you certain questions know that  “Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers,” as says Tony Robbins.

So, don’t wait for too long, ask what are your life transforming questions after all? And yes, don’t forget to share your questions here, so that together we could pass it on to others.

Suggested Reading:

For more questions read Book of Questions.

Today I am not going to write, suggest or share with you anything.

But today, I would just want to ask you certain questions related with listening.

What does listening mean to you?

Why is it important for us to listen to someone?

Can’t we be happy with our own voices and speaking skills always?

Do we really listen to everyone with whom we communicate?

Do we listen from our ears or do we have our eyes also as our listening organs?

Do we really need to hone our listening skills? If yes, then how?

And is listening really an important gift to be given to others in our life? And when someone gives us this gift, should we really treasure it always?

Credits:Google Images

All the above questions were prompted by this quote from the Spirit Science which was shared by one of my students.

And now, do you also believe in this quote?

Yes or no, whatever may be your case. Share with me your answers.

Credits: Google Images

Fortunately we all have been gifted with 24 hours in a day and unfortunately we all wish for the day to have 48 hours in it so that we feel more productive and fulfilled at the end of our long day.

Now imagine this wish to be granted to us.

Lo! Nothing will change.

We will still be overwhelmed with the deluge of tasks at our hands and will keep on pushing our tasks till the end moment, procrastination will be our favorite gesture, as always, and we will continue our indulgence in the habit of self sabotage.

You know why?

Because we all have already too much into our platters, we can’t say no to others and we don’t understand that being busy is not synonymous with being productive.

So, what should we do to be more productive?

Answer is simple.

WE MUST WORK ON OURSELVES. MONITOR OUR HABITS. AND KEEP A CHECK ON OUR OWN PROGRESS.

So, here are the ways or habits on which we could work together to improve our productivity and get more things done so that we can have enough time to spend with our family, to pursue our passions and to do the things, which we must do to make our lives richer, healthier, happier and full of abundance.

1. Following 3 P’s: Prioritization, Planning and Preparation. These 3 P’s are indeed great keys. If we prioritize our tasks, plan our day and do some preparation well in advance, we can really double our productivity.

Most of the productive people follow these 3 P’s and they prioritize, plan and prepare for their most important tasks on their calender in weeks, months and a year in advance. By following these, they put all the big blocks of the most important tasks beforehand so that they get committed to do the most important tasks at utmost priority and do not get exhausted before time. They make sure to have enough time for each work and leave scope for urgent tasks to fit in between.

2. Getting up Early. I know most of us are night owls these days and not the early larks like our parents used to be, but if we can just start up our day by getting up half an hour early form our regular time, we could really make our day more productive and manage our time efficiently in many ways. Once, we analyse the benefits of this habits, we can increase the time and can get up an hour early before our daily time.

Watching the early rising sun, listening to chirping of birds, enjoying piping hot tea with our family members and be one and present in such moments. Aren’t these one of the most blessed things on the earth? And then why should we miss such amazing moments?

So without delay, we must start from today following the great advice by Benjamin Franklin: Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Do we still need any other advice?

3. Charging our Batteries. Charging our physical and mental batteries are the most important rituals that we must do every morning. We can charge our batteries in any of the following ways in the morning:

• 15 minutes of brisk walk.
• 15 minutes workout in a gym.
• 15 minutes of running.
• 15 minutes of exercise.
• 15 minutes of Yoga or Pranayam.
• 15 minutes of Meditation.

Any of these physical exercises and breathing techniques will make us more energetic, alert and proactive for the rest of the day. We can always increase or decrease the time as per our schedule. Important is to follow any of these rituals. We must make sure to engage in any one of the following practices and must make it a regular part of our daily routine to be more efficient and productive in achieving our daily goals.

For charging our mental and spiritual batteries we must make sure to read some good literature either early in the morning or at any specific point of the day. We could also listen to audio books or podcasts while commuting to our office or work place everyday. Listening to these inspiring tasks will set the positive and enthusiastic momentum for us for the productive day to begin.

4. Fueling our body tanks. The fuel is important for our body with its quality and quantity both. Healthy and not heavy breakfast in the morning provides good energy to focus and complete the most important tasks at the beginning of the day. Balanced diet at lunch and evening snacks with family and light dinner at night will not only keep our body fit but will also allows us to feel more energetic and active throughout the day. Fortunately we all have access to this knowledge. But important is that we must implement all this knowledge in our daily diet planning and schedule.

I was very bad at meals management, now I am focusing on this habit of mine to get good benefits.

5. Eating the Biggest Frog in the Morning first. Beat procrastination everyday and do the most important task which you avoid doing most of the time. Remember the Pareto Principle of 80/20 rule.  According to this principle, doing 20% of the imporatnt task can enhance our results multiple times. We must force ourselves to do the 20% of the most important tasks, so that we achieve 80% of the results. Unfortunately most of us spend most of our time on completing the 80% of the tasks and procrastinating the most fruitful 20% of the tasks.

6. Beating the distraction dragon. No matter how hard we try each day to be focused, there comes up one thing or the other as an urgent task that we have to deal with. In such case we must have enough time to deal with the urgent work at the priority without losing focus of our important task at hand. Once we complete the urgent task, we should channelize our energy at important task again. There may be lot many distractions which come up, but we must know our day’s goal, so that we can resume our lost path soon.

7. Taking short breaks. We all have the working patters and as individuals me must know which are our most productive hours and when we need to take the shorter breaks. After working for an hour or two we can take a break and recharge ourselves and focus again on work at hand.

Having short breaks to regain our energy and getting associated with the like minded people allow us to stay focused on the tasks of great importance and high priorities.

Studies have shown if we take a siesta or a cat nap at some specific time of the day, it enhances our creativity and productivity. It makes us more energetic and we feel more focused at our work once again.

Besides following these habits there is something else also that needs to be done.

Since we all have become like smart phones these days. With lots of smart features installed into us as a result we all need more battery backup and need to charge ourselves often. So, what do we do?

WE NEED TO UNINSTALL THE UNWANTED FEATURES. KNOW OUR EACH DAY’S PURPOSE. MAKE SURE TO BE FULLY CHARGED UP TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE. IN SHORT-WE NEED TO BE MORE FOCUSED. BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IS THE KEY.

But how?

We often try to be superman or superwoman, and aim at completing many tasks at hand. Result. We are less productive and get more exhausted at the end of the day. So, what do we do?

WE NEED TO BECOME A PERSON OF GREAT ACTION. IN SHORT- AN ACTION MAN or AN ACTION WOMAN. WITH FOCUS ON SINGLE TASK AT HAND.

Wishing you all a great productive day!

Suggest what strategies and habits you follow to make your day a highly productive day?

Suggested Readings:

Getting Things Done by James Allen

Living the 80/20 Rule Way Richard Koch

Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy

Credits: Google Images

You could be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs without dropping out of your college life, if you know how to make best use of your college life and its resources. If not, you would end up being Hamlet, thinking -to be or not to be.

Therefore, based on valuable insights from Prof PV Dhamija, a well acclaimed academician and English Professor with more than 40 years of experience in the field of teaching, and my own experiences in the academic field, I have tried to explore 5 questions and answers that you must know about your academic life to make best use of it.

So here starts those Q& A’s :

1. How can we define academic life?

“Academic life, for students, is a time of commitment to learning about life and its social obligations through information (books, journals, classroom learning etc.) and its practical applications,” says Prof Dhamija.

And here are some of the tips that you could follow to make best use of your college days.

• From your Orientation day, decide be a proactive learner.  Make a commitment to yourself that you will spend most of your time at college in learning skills, gaining practical knowledge of different subjects, building relationships and gaining hands-on experiences. And having lots and loads of fun!
• Make your entire learning process a great fun and not a boring stuff. So be open to making mistakes and learn better and faster from them.
• Set your academic goals. Work on building right habits at the onset. Learn the art of Putting First Things First. Enjoy the worst that the college has to offer. This becomes part of your memory forever.
• Make sure to attend all your classes and bunk only a few. Since true learning takes place outside the class room so leave scope for that as well. Experiences waiting out side the class room have much to offer you.
• College life is nothing but beautiful collage of memories. So, make such collages often.

2. What are the main challenges that students face in their  academic life keeping the current context in mind? (Gen Y )

“Among many challenges that students face are access to right academic resources (competent teachers, suitable books, etc.) competition, peer pressure, procrastination and lethargy just to name a few,” says Prof PV Dhamija.

To face these challenges, you could strategically follow these tips:

• Accept that there will be challenges and roadblocks and know that these challenges will make you smarter and will allow you to grow faster.
• Don’t be under peer pressure. Work on your unique strengths and focus on honing your skills set.
• Engage in meaningful discussions rather than wasting your time in trivial talks. Your time is too precious. Know how to make best use of it.
• Make study groups. Do projects together. Write papers. Do your assignments sincerely and honestly. Participate enthusiastically in events of your great interest. Do all these things with your group and your college life will become great fun.
• Be competitive. But remember to compete against your own self and not with others because when you compete with yourself, you always win. And competing with others, you may either win or lose. So, why not to win always?
• Be in constant touch with your teachers, mentors and parents. They are your best resource persons and guides. Look for their support when needed. They will help you to be on your right academic track.

Credits: Google Images

3. How can students draw maximum knowledge form the classes when they have other available sources to get information from?

“The best way to co-ordinate the classroom learning with out-of-the classroom study is to develop a strategy of making the two seriously and judiciously interact with each other, ” advises Prof Dhamija.

• With the deluge of information available on internet today and smart phones devices, learning has become quite easier and challenging in both ways. So make judicious use of all your resources.
• Your teachers spend hours in preparing lectures and based on their experiences, they make the lectures more palatable and digestible as per the needs of their students, so sit in their classes and learn to absorb those valuable nuggets from them.
• Make a routine to visit your Library. Devote study hours there. Read course books, reference books and try your hands at reading journals and other sources of great value. Any yes, make sure to read good literature books , biographies and books on wisdom literature. I know the advice is too much!
• Combine your class room notes with the other references and internet material that will make your assignments and answers the best.

4. How should students focus and prepare for their end term exams?

“They need to be systematic and regular.” Prof Dhamija

• Set your own timetable and work daily. Be lazy with the bad habits and not with the good ones.
• Be strict with yourself rather than your teacher and life being strict with you.
• Beat procrastinate and learn the habit of eating the ugliest frog first everyday.
• There is no short cut to get good scores at the end term exam until students know the importance of regular, systematic and strategic learning. So know that. And follow that.
• If you study for knowledge, your knowledge will take care of your scores.

5. What are the most important lessons that the academic life has to teach to students?

“Among a slew of lessons that academic life teaches are hard work, commitment and perseverance, which form the bedrock upon which the future life is built.”

• Learn the lessons of hard work, commitment and perseverance.
• Invest in your relationship. Don’t make too many friends too fast. Be slow and take your time in understanding the person and relationship. Build relationships, not for the college days only but for the future life as well.
• With focus, work on honing your ‘Q’s like : Intelligent Quotient, Emotional Quotient, Smartness Quotient, Communication Quotient, Financial Quotient and Spiritual Quotient.  These Q’s will be of great help in your present life and will take your forward in  your future life as well.

Since it is YOUR college life, so you need to define it and colour it the way you want. Watch movies, go on trips, join NGO’s, do internships, participate in events, be in college sports team, volunteer for a cause in which you believe, do service, go out for parties, organize fund raising , do all crazy things and perform all daring stunts that you want. Do all what you want to do and leave the rest for others to perform. And do I still need to remind you, it is your college life and do what matters most to you and explore what you want?

Suggested Readings :

1. The Seven Habits of Highly effective Teens
2. The Secret to Teen Power
3. Never Eat Alone

Credits: Google Images

It is true that we all share the stories of our success with great courage but it requires greater strength to share the story of our failure, shame, regret and embarrassment with some minute details. So here is one for you, the latest one as of now, although I have many saved in my memory trunk and I will share with you in times to come, but this is for today to draw some lessons from.

And this is how the story begins…

My husband told me to be ready for the Eve’s Party (Ladies Party) and so was I; the day was 18^th April 2015. The dress code was white and so was I dressed up to the nines. The time of the party was 5:00 PM and I and my neighbor reached there at half past five, which was perfect according to the Indian standard time.

Before entering the gates of the venue, we could hear the commotion and feel the energy and vibrations all around. The mere thought of getting an opportunity to interact with so many new ladies was itself so exciting and full of life that I could not hold control of my wandering mind. After all, I have been a social bird all these years, and this was the best place and opportunity to make new friends with so many new people, and that too, at such a formal get together.

We moved faster and reached the venue and with the best of formal smile on our faces, we looked for some familiar smiles in the crowd. Soon I searched and recognized two acquaintances and reached there to exchange my greetings with them. They reciprocated my greetings with the same warm gesture.  The party was all set and I could see all the ladies carrying themselves with panache and oozing out confidence with their friendly talks. They were all engaged in interaction and were showing the best of mannerism mixed with casual formalism.

Suddenly my neighbor called me back and then we were asked by one of the organizing members, “You are from which Department?” before I could make sense and context out of her questions, I replied, “not from any department but we are from Faculty House”. The lady did not handed over the chits to us, which she was handing over to the other invitees and that was the moment which gave us an emotional jolt and some kind of minor fracture to our coherent self.

Within no seconds we analyzed the situation and scrutinized the list of invited guests for the party and before we could know how to handle the situation, we realized it was already out of our control. We observed that party was hosted for all the Female members of the faculty and not for the wives of the male faculty members, since they were already invited a day before to the Adam’s Party. And thus, we two were there as the uninvited guests, sitting there with our blank and pale faces, with help-us-out-of-this-situation voice, shouting inside us but visible on our silent faces.

We both were shocked. We both were embarrassed. We were freezed and could not decide what to do next. My husband with great confidence had told me to attend this party, and this was one of the first occasions since my arrival to this place, which he had highly recommended me to be a part of. This was indeed a great party but unfortunately he could not understand that it was not for his wife. I felt anger boiling inside me and wished I could turn into a stone or a plant or furniture or any other object standing nearby. Emotionless and lifeless at least, I will be for some time. I would not be asked to introduce myself and would not feel fish out of water for sometime there.

Sitting there I felt that all of a sudden I was underwater and was gasping for breath. My supersonic micro expressions were too loud and with the best of my knowledge on the subject of non verbal communication (oculesics, kinesics, optics and haptics) I felt I was unable to exploit my experience to hide my non verbal cues . Although, I also knew that my readers were not clairvoyant and I was the one , who was sharing with them, my fears and non-verbal thoughts. But I was too helpless to perform any fake facial acrobatics at that time. I was embarrassed and I did not know how to react for few minutes.

Okay without boring you up to the death and cutting my long story short, let me share with you that me and my neighbor somehow managed to be part of that party for almost half an hour and after enjoying the snacks we excused ourselves with grace by taking the exit from the main door.

So, after eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge from the Garden of Eden, I learnt few lessons from my moments of Embarrassment,  which I would like to share with you:

•  “Things turn out to be best for those who make the best of the way to turn things out for them,” says John Wooden.  We can keep this thought in our mind for facing such life’s situations. And inspired by the same thought, I thought, why not to use this incident to write this blog post and share its learning with all.
• Practice mind like water. Remember this advice from Bruce Lee. Such experiences in life call for our action and  allow us to practice mind like water. Let’s not over react. Just respond to the situation and accept that we are in a situation which demands us to behave in a certain way.
• Let us not take the things too personally. We at times are nothing but big bolls of ego mash-ups. This ego feels hurt, but we are not defined by this ‘I’ only, we are sometimes, something else also, mere consciousness. That moment cannot define us completely. It is just a context and a moment that we have to face for sometime.
• Let go. This is one of the best moments in life when we can hone and practice and experiment our let go skill. The more we hone this skill, the better we feel. After all, on this earth there are billions of people who have undergone or will undergo such situations and we are just one of them.
• Fly high and try to change perspective. Just imagine that we are in an aeroplane and from there we are trying to find our own home? Difficult task, isn’t this? Of course it is. These situations may also look too small if we try to look them from too far.  Try this out, it works.
• Or we can save such memories for our experience trove and learn from them later on, if they are worth it. The lessons on failure, shame, embarrassment and struggle are the most treasured lessons of our life and if could live and be in those moments than there is nothing greater than that. We all will have something interesting to share with our friends and kids after all.
• Don’t take that situation too seriously. It is better to laugh and share with others what we have gone through and when we share with others we just feel awesome and great.
• We can write such incidents in our diary and journal and read them after a year or six months and see how much we draw strength from them. And if nothing else, they will make us laugh at least.
• We can understand these situations as real life tests which examine our perception, learning, knowledge and personal power to handle such contexts. If we do not qualify the first then we should be prepared and ready for the next.
• And we should be happy that we are growing mature after facing each such situation because, “The rate at which a person matures is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate,” says Douglas Engelbart.

It is true that the magnetism of such embarrassing moments is so strong that it does not allow us to enjoy our present and nor does it allow us to move ahead in our future for a longer duration of time.

Since it has happened with me and I am sure would have happened with you also where you would have found yourself confined in the incarceration of embarrassing moments in your life. But now, we know that we can always do something about them. We can easily come out of such situations in life. Although we cannot avoid them, nor can we predict about them, but with such lessons, we can always try to handle them smartly now onwards . Can’t we?

So, now it’s time for us to prepare ourselves for such situations in life well in advance. And as great people with their effort make a dent of embarrassment as the jewel in the crown of their life, so we can can also convert these embarrassing moments into glorifying moments of our life. And be ready for our next call as JK Rowling says that “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” Don’t these moments define us how we live our lives after all?

Credits: Google Images

From the Stone Age, we have now come to Google age, information age or so called the digital age. With laptops, mobile phones, gadgets and all technological devices all around, we live with our digital natives, in this fastest changing world.

Instant access to everything is the key feature of this age. Whatever and whenever we want to search, Google has its answer ready for us within fraction of seconds. If we want to purchase any product, Amazon, Flipkart, and all kinds of online stores have our orders ready to be delivered at our door steps within no time. Click the cursor and we get all our answers. Everything has just become so easy for all of us.

In this age, we love speed. Fast results. And quick progress. And interestingly in words of RD Laing, “We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.”

Now living in this age, with such perception of the present, do we still have existence of words like persistence and patience in our dictionary as the success mantras for our survival, growth and progress?

The answer could be found in a famous story of the Chinese bamboo tree here.

When the bamboo is planted, unlike any other plant, it does not show any sign of its progress in the very first year.

What happens in the second year? Does the seed grow? Does it show any sign of its progress? The answer is still a big No. The second year goes like the first year. No sign of growth and development. The farmer waters and fertilizes the plant with his consistent efforts and wait with persistence.

The third year comes and goes like the early two years showing no sign, no growth and no progress.

The forth years comes and still the farmer does not lose his hope. The result is the same like the first year, the second year and the third year. No sign. No growth. No progress. But the farmer is not discouraged by the result. He waits in hope. The reality is something different for him.

Then comes the fifth year, the farmer waters the plant with the same hope, with patience and perseverance and then the miracle happens. The plant grows within six weeks and shoots up between the height of 80 to 100 feet.

Now, what does the story convey? Was the tree grown in a single day? What would have been the result had the farmer not watered the plant in the fifth year?

Well, the answers of all these, we should all know, shouldn’t we? For all these years, the plant was working on its rooting. It was making its foundation strong. When the right time came. It grew, it bloomed and it reached for the sky.

The same lesson applies to many of our life situations.  And here are few lessons to be learnt from this Chinese bamboo tree in the Google age for all of us.

• Despite living in this Google age, there are certain things which will take time. We cannot get them at the click of our mouse button. We need to be patient with them and practice perseverance.
• Parenting, friendship and conjugal relationship will take time to bloom and flourish. We need to water these relationship consistently with love, care, mutual trust, faith and understanding and should not wait for the results instantly.
• Certain habits, projects and dreams take time in their maturation and fulfillment. They may take one year, two years, three years, four years or may be five years like the Chinese bamboo tree. So, we need to be patient in such pursuits and must not give up just after watering at the beginning of the first season.

Blessed we are to be born in this Google age. But if we just learn to have patience and perseverance  in our lives, our lives would truly be wonderful and great!