Thought Shots

Once in a while, I come across articles in magazines that are a total revelation. But I will be cautious before I say that about the article I am going to talk about. And it is because the article talked about rules so simple that they are almost self-evident. And perhaps which is why it reminded me of what Sherlock Holmes said, "It is so overt, it is covert." And Gandhi who said, "It is the simple things that catch your breath." By the way, the article was titled Rules of the Career Game and was based on the debut book by Sumit D Chowdhury Rules of the Game . Something I have always believed in is valuing what we do. The article cited Naina Lal Kidwai, a hotshot Padma Shri awardee, who says that there are two groups of people: one who have an immense awareness of what they want to do with their lives, where they are headed and so forth. And a second and more inferior class of people who believe that adding consequence to what they do will be someone else'...

There is an interesting scene in the 2010 movie, 'The Karate Kid' where the young Dre asks Mr. Han if he could teach him how to control other people and Mr. Han replies saying, "There is only one person you need to control (yourself)." The first step towards changing the world is changing ourselves. Mother Teresa said, "If everyone cleaned their doorstep, the whole world would be clean." It is a cynical world at times and we often find ourselves mirroring its cynical actions. On July 10 this year, Obama had this to say about cynicism, "Cynicism didn't win a war or put a man on the moon." We find faults with others' conduct and way of being. The one person whose behaviour we overlook, however,  is our own. Let's start focusing on that because that is from where all the results in our life will flow. I love this phrase coined by Stephen. R. Covey, 'circle of influence'. Our behaviour is the one thing that is in our circle o...

Working without a thought for results. Seems tough, doesn't it? And yet it seems to me more and more everyday that this is perhaps the only way to be in action. Sure, we want justice done to the effort we put in. But is it really in our control? I don't quiet think so. As a matter of fact, the best things that have come to me in life have come unexpected, unasked for and undesired. They have simply come. And when I have found myself desperately wanting to get something, it has eluded me. Even though there was no let up in my endeavour towards reaching that goal. But this thinking questions the validity of keeping targets. No one can deny the significance of being clear about what one wants. But is it possible that we can have targets and yet not obsess about them? Is it possible that we don't torture ourselves worrying about how far we still are from our desired goals? What makes failure most frustrating is all the time we know we have spent stressing over how to avoid it...

We all like to believe that we can do anything. That anything is possible and so forth. But there are some things which we have to, no matter how much we may want otherwise, accept as unalterable truths. We try to live in denial, of course. But that hardly is the solution. We need to face the reality as it is if we are to live in peace. It is too short a life to be spent in regret over things that are unattainable. The serenity prayer is: “God give me strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” And it is not a defeatist philosophy. It is what I would call a philosophy that is rationally optimistic. Accept the things that you cannot change. It takes a lot of strength to do that. And not every one of us can gather that strength. One has to be brave enough to see things as they are and not paint one’s own rosy picture. A rosy picture that is nothing more than an illusion of the mind. Not that illu...

Sometimes we find it difficult to remain optimistic. We question our efforts because the grim reality stares us hard in the face. The kind of reality that is in complete contradiction to what we had envisioned. And for once, doubt creeps in with its dark shadow of despair. A little motivation goes a long way in such moments. I have heard some of Obama’s speeches and the one thing I have found consistent in all of them is hope. He gives you hope. No wonder then that he titled his autobiography, The Audacity of Hope . On the eve of the Boston marathon bombings, he said at a prayer meeting to the people of Boston, “... what the perpetrators of such senseless violence -- these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build, and think somehow that makes them important -- that’s what they don’t understand.  Our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences there may be -- that ...

Being the captain of the Indian Cricket Team is no picnic. As the captain of Team India, one carries on his shoulders the Himalayan weight of a billion people’s expectations. In the past, only very few Indian players could handle this job effectively. And leave alone improving the team’s performance, some of them saw even their own performance deteriorate. Instances include the likes of Gavaskar, Azharuddin, Tendulkar and Dravid. But change is constant and there are always exceptions. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one such exception. The man has broken the jinx which had infected the indian captaincy for ages. Not only has he led India to two Cricket World Cup victories and the Number One Test Ranking in International cricket but Dhoni himself is considered to be one of the world’s best batsmen. What are the lessons that we can learn from him? Firstly, Dhoni has the advantage of being acceptable and relatable to all class of players in the team. He doesn’t carry with him that air...

I love the song, "Ram Chahe Leela" from the film Ram-Leela. The song basically asks that if two people love each other, how is it anybody else's business. Good question! The sad part is that whenever a Ram loves Leela or a Leela loves Ram, the world around them does seem to think that they have at least some business in whatever is going on between them. Take for example any love story from history, ‘Romeo-Juliett’, ‘Heer-Ranjha’, ‘Laila-Majnu’. In all these cases, you would find the world acting against the lovers. Causing one roadblock after another. Almost as if they want them to part from each other. As if their happiness makes them drown in unhappiness. Now, I don’t know why that happens. Perhaps, it is because most people in the world haven’t been lucky enough to find their best half, and so they cannot stand the sight of someone having found theirs. Or perhaps, the world is too imperfect to let a perfect love story prevail. Perhaps, that’s why Devdas couldn’...