“When you go home today, ask your father and let me know tomorrow.”
This was the conversation I had with my Hindi teacher, Mr. Cyril Sunny when I was in seventh standard at St. Paul’s, Udaipur.
I asked my father the meaning of my name when he returned home in the evening after work. He told me the meaning in short and enquired why am I asking this question. I told him about what happened in the school that day. He smiled and then said ‘Wait, let me explain you in a better way then.’
He reached out to the bookshelf and pulled out a huge thick hard-cover book with brown coloured pages. He told me it was a ‘Sanskrit-to-English’ dictionary. And then, reading from it, he explained the meaning in detail. He told me the word is ‘Nirvana’ which in Noun means ‘enlightenment’. And in the adjective, it means ‘not glowing’. So, Anirvan means in noun ‘one who doesn’t need enlightenment, say someone like ‘Gautam Buddha’. And in the adjective, Anirvan would mean ‘Glowing’.
I went to school the next day and Sunny sir asked me the meaning again during the Hindi period. I explained to him what my father taught me. He smiled and wrote the word ‘Nirvana’ on the blackboard. He then addressed the whole class for the next fifteen minutes explaining the meaning on similar lines as what my father explained to me.
To this day, I remember this incident!
I was fortunate to have teachers like Sunny sir who had such passion for their subject and students alike.
On this teacher’s day, I bow to all my teachers and convey my gratitude for not only teaching us what was required as per the textbooks but for also teaching us about life and how to lead it meaningfully.
We get so busy in the rat race that it becomes a ‘habitual living’ rather than a ‘meaningful living’!
Pause and reflect!
You can definitely make your life more beautiful when you focus on the following:
Purpose: Having a sense of purpose in life can provide direction and motivation. It can be anything from pursuing a career that aligns with your passions, making a difference in your community, or raising a family.
Relationships: Building and nurturing relationships with others can bring joy, love, and support. It’s important to cultivate meaningful connections with family, friends, colleagues, and others in your community.
Personal Growth: Learning and growing as an individual can help you develop new skills, gain knowledge, and expand your perspectives. It can be achieved through reading, attending courses, trying new things, or traveling.
Health and Wellness: Taking care of your physical and mental health can improve your overall well-being, giving you the energy and vitality to pursue your goals and enjoy life.
Contribution: Contributing to the greater good and making a positive impact in the world can give you a sense of fulfillment and purpose. This can be achieved by volunteering, donating to charity, or supporting causes you care about.
Many people lead a miserable life of regret with frustrated ambitions bubbling in their heart because they tamely allowed their own opinion and thoughts to be overruled and set aside from their cherished dream or desired goals.
You will hear many people say with a sad tinge in their eyes…”If only I had stuck to my decision…if I had trusted my own decision and then followed it with persistence to finish, I might have amounted to something and would have been much happier…!”
This the saddest truth of their life…their stories of ‘might have been…’.
But why it happens?
Because such people lack the power to take firm and quick decisions and then to stick to them. They feared and then wavered. Their mind was always in a flux. And hence, they could not arrive…
To achieve your goal, you need to decide quickly and effectively. It is the hallmark of a master mind! Men of unwavering decisions and whole-hearted actions are the achievers.
Say a firm NO when required and a YES with all your vigor when you are sure about yourself. If you are always in a state of dilemma or have a wavering mind, you will arrive nowhere.
Who can be your best teacher? Pic credit : Pinterest
The following are the things that I realized very late in life and wish I could have known them earlier in my life: –
Never stop learning: – Once you have completed your formal education and got into your first job, most of us say goodbye to the education. This is not correct. The education should continue side by side till your last day of life! Keep updating yourself. Learn something new always.
Be more Granular: – Avoid superficiality. Get into more details. This implies to every aspect of your life especially to your work/expertise. Remember, the more knowledgeable you are the more valuable you become to others.
Keep the time frame of your life in mind: – We have limited time in our life but we all live as if we would be living till eternity! So, ensure you achieve your goals in proper time frame. If you are not happy in your life then find out the reasons and fix the problem then and there. Don’t just wait that a miracle would happen some fine day and then you will have happiness. Time is precious!
Nurture your relationships: – This is very important. Often when young we give a damn to this. But we need people all the time – both in our personal life and in our professional life.
Taking care of your Parents in real sense: – They have less time. Do whatever you ever wanted to do for them. Do it now. Don’t wait for a suitable time. They will seldom ask for what they want. You have to understand them and provide them.
Be mindful of what and how you speak: – Nothing to add here 🙂
The sun is about to go down
in a while. Mild golden rays of the drowning sun gets into my room filtered
through the long outstretched branches of the lone coconut tree outside my
window. In some moments, the year would come to an end. There is that
anticipated excitement of the New Year which is only a few hours away and at
the same time, a feeling of loss engulfs me too! Loss? Yes, loss of the golden
time that just zoomed past in the form of a whole year! But why say loss? Well,
loss as so many things still unaccomplished in my life! Every year is just
slipping by like the sand in my fist…yes, there were important tasks
accomplished and some big achievements too in this year but what about those
dreams that still remained dreams year after year!…
“How is your Portrait
learning class going on?” I asked my school time friend when we recently met.
“No, I never started!” He
replied with a sigh!
“Why? What happened? Last,
when we spoke and that was quite some time ago, you seem to be very keen on
learning the art of Portrait making?”
“Yes, it was my dream for
long…but you know, not able to find time for this. Also, the kids need more of
my time now when I am at home.”
I did not ponder him any further. I myself have been struggling to find time to learn the Guitar for long. The now not so newly bought Guitar is just hanging on the wall since it made that grand entry to our house. It must be feeling acrimonious in a similar fashion to what my colleague , Subramanian (actually, Subbu my dear friend!) feels towards me for still not having met his long pending request of releasing one of my team members to his team. Shame on me for letting both, the Guitar and Subbu, down!
Forget about the Guitar or
Subbu, but this is a hard fact and a harsh reality of our life. We somehow get
so much consumed in our routine job and the family responsibilities that it leaves
us with no time to pursue our interests which are so close to our heart. And it
is true for both genders. So, what do we do with our dreams that are still
unfulfilled? Should we let them die a quiet and peaceful death? Does everyone
do that? I don’t think so. There are many people, despite all their
professional and personal commitments, who find time to pursue their hobbies
and dreams. After all, you just have one life to do all these!
To be somewhat more granular, you will find that if you do an analysis of your daily time-spend including weekends, you will find there are multiple occasions when you just have nothing to do. And how do you spend this time? You become a consumer- a consumer of internet usage (going through useless updates and mindless surfing of net), endlessly gossiping over the phone or mindlessly watching TV which adds no value to your well-being. Also, I believe a little planning on time management would yield us ample spare time which we can utilize managing our interests and hobbies. It is our mindset which we have built over the years that makes us believe that there is a scarcity of time…all the time!
As we travel through our
journey of life, we often find ourselves caught up in the mad race of acquiring
more and more- more wealth, multiple houses, more cars, more ‘likes’ for our profile
pictures and so on…or simply put; becoming more acquisitive in nature. In this process,
we just lose track of our destination and start wandering around. Just pause
for some moments and think for a while- where did you want to go and where have
you reached now? Are you moving towards the destination that you had in mind when
you started or have you deviated? Have you achieved your dreams or are you
letting them die a slow death?
I would suggest some
simple but very powerful ways to ensure that you don’t lose track of your
cherished dreams and goals. And here they are:-
Write down your dreams or goals in block letters in your personal diary or journal (if you maintain one!). Or, simply write down your dreams or goals on a plain sheet of paper and stick in front of you on your study table or your work area. Read it daily and all the time! At least once in a day, read it aloud! This will help you to mentally register your goals and dreams which will automatically yield in producing some concrete actions to achieve the same. Believe me, it works!
Discuss your dreams and goals with at least one person in your life. It can be your family member, spouse, close friend, a colleague or your teacher or mentor. Ask for advice and means and ways to achieve your dream. There is nothing to feel shy or secret about it. The psychology behind it is that when you speak about something with another person close to you, it creates an obligation in your mind to ensure its completion. You feel obliged to do it as in your sub-conscious it creates an objective for you to achieve that task. Also, you become answerable to the other person when he or she inquires about your dreams or goals. You become accountable in the process!
Maintain your diary or journal and visit it periodically. Your dreams and goals should be listed there in order of your priority. Keep ticking the boxes as and when you achieve or complete your goals. Whenever you visit your journal, it will remind you that you have pending tasks to complete. This way you will not lose track of your dreams and goals.
Remember, life is short. Yes, one day you will wake up and find that you are no more capable enough of doing things as you were able to do so earlier. So, wake up now and accomplish! Fulfill the purpose of your life. Life without purpose is meaningless. Set your goals high so that the process of achieving them becomes a journey to remember in itself. And while you are on this adorable journey, don’t forget to enjoy and have fun! After all, one lives for what?
Well, the sun has downed
now and slowly the chilly wintry night is creeping in. Wow! In a few moments,
we will usher into the New Year! A new year that will give us innumerable
opportunities to grow and shine along with loads of fun-filled moments! So, enjoy
it!
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by
its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is
stupid.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your
balance you must keep moving.
There are two ways to live Life: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.
Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding
the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses
instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
The monotony and solitude of a quiet life
stimulates the creative mind.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
If you want to
live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to objects or people.
You never fail
until you stop trying.
Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.
There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people’s book and write your own.
