The Tale of an old Man

HE was studious and intelligent from his childhood. Despite being from a modest family, he studied well to get scholarship for his education and  then got a job at a well reputed organization. He was fortunate to have all that one could dream of like a beautiful wife, lavish house, loving kids, high paying job and prestige in society. By the time he retired, all his kids were well placed in society and he was destined to enjoy his retired life.
 
He was growing older gracefully. Even in his eighties, he had a commanding voice of his youth, a beaming confidence and had the same emotional toughness that had been his trademark. He was emotionally tough as he didn't even shed a tear on the demise of his lone son. 

After he turned ninety, he didn’t looked the same…may be his emotional toughness was tearing apart. Where was the man who would joke about death by telling his wife, “We are not Romeo and Juliet that we would die together?"

He never looked so lonely. Was he hiding his emotions all these years? We thought that he never missed his children and grandchildren. It is unfortunate to see a man with a prosperous family to feel dejected. 

While talking to him, I could see the happiness he got in sharing different chapters of his life. He too had few regrets like he wanted to open a school in his village. He cherished his old memories and his eyes would lit in joy as he used to narrate incidents from his life.

His life has been mysterious; many never got to know how lonely he felt. He put a brave face but from inside he carved to spend some time with his children and grandchildren. Everyone thought, he was too strong to miss someone. But, he really missed his children who were busy in their own life. Unfortunately, he never told and others never realized this. I salute unsung heroes like him who fought an emotional battle everyday.

EDIT- I have condensed the original story . Anyone keen to refer my original story can visit my blogpost The Old people and their mysterious life

Read More

How to make a situation awkward?

Hey this is my favourite!!

I was requesting my co-worker to provide me some critical inputs for my assignment which he failed to provide despite several reminders. So, I shoot an email to him which read as 

Rajat, I am fed up chasing you for this critical information. Hope you are not interested as it would take you hardly 15 minutes to provide me this critical input.

I marked the Project Director  in that email.
 
I got his very polished reply within 5 minutes, which read as,

Hello Rohan, I am sorry for the delay, please find attached my inputs.

Then, he came to my desk to tell that I shouldn't have involved the Project Director. He was visibly unhappy. I told him that it was a prank, I have not marked my email to the Project Director.

Thanks for your valuable inputs. And by the way, from next time, do give attention to details.

( He was feeling awkward and tried to hide it with his smile)

Prank

Changed the email id from say director@ company. com to direotor @ company . com
------------
If you have liked this visit my blog Life is Beautiful for many other stuffs

Read More

Have you wished your Mom, Happy Mother's Day?

Dad: What happened to him?

Mom: I don’t know. He is not talking to me since last night.

Dad: (to him) Tell me what has happened?

He: ( Keeps Mum)

Dad: (Opened the newspaper to read it ) Oh! Today is Mother’s day… have you wished your Mom

He: Didn’t uttered a single word

Dad: Ok…you have not. It’s Ok. Even I have not wished my Mom. ( when Ma was there we never knew of Mother’s day)

(As his grandma had already demised long ago, the pain in the voice of his Dad made him cry)

He: I am sorry Mom…Happy Mother’s day!!!

Mom: Thank you! I have made your favourite dish. Now, smile, I feel pathetic when you don't talk to me.

He: Just hugged his mom.


PS- Teenage is a difficult time for a child as well as  parents.

Read More

Do your Job Hunting in Style

https://www.quora.com/I-failed-an-interview-for-a-big-company-and-I-feel-broken-What-should-I-do-to-overcome

This is an awesome resource on Quora to learn how to apply to different companies. There is a software which works like an excel sheet and it keeps the track of the ongoing job opportunities available for job seekers.

Read More

What is the meaning of Life?

Nothing

Life has no meaning. It is meaningless. It is colourless. 

Life is like a plain paper. You have to decorate it, fill colours, make designs and make it look good. 

Life is like a Bride. It has to be decorated with experience, memories, smile, emotions, sadness, loneliness, togetherness, etc.

Life is like a blackboard. You can write anything and everything. You all have  the power to be the architect of our life. 

Life is like a Curry without Salt. It is our responsibility to add salt in the right quantity to make it tasty. 

Life is like a Phone. You all have the power to customize your life like you do customize your Phone with our favourite apps.  

Life is like a Movie. You all are lead actors in the movie called " My life". The God is the Director, Scriptwriter, Producer, Distributor, Cameraman and everything else. Make your movie super hit.

Life has no meaning and so it can take whatever meaning you want to give it. 

Read More

What if you come to know after 50 years that this life was a dream like we take a dream as a reality

Yes, it was a dream. It was not real. Some days are so good to be real. Some days are so bad to be real. It was a dream. It is a dream. You are too good to be real. You are too bad to be real. You are hopelessly optimistic at one moment and you are the biggest pessimist the next moment.

It cannot be real. It must be a dream. You don't carve for appreciation but some people make you feel appreciated. Then, when you get addicted to their appreciation, they get tired of it. It cannot be real. It must be a dream. It is a dream.

Some People make you smile when you don't feel like smiling. Some people make you feel special and then someday, they make you cry. No one is at fault. You are not bad. Neither are they. It hurts when people have to try hard to be nice to you. Don't you deserve to be naturally loved and appreciated.

When something good happens, too good, too fast, it cannot be real. You don't deserve to be treated well. You are a Failure. You are a loser. Oh! I'm sorry, these are just thoughts, they shall pass. You be a candle if not the sun, so that you can at least brighten a dark room, someday somewhere someone will find your goodness. 

This cannot be real. It must be a dream. Why did people come in life, make you feel good about yourself and then they start leaving slowly. It is the saddest feeling in the world. It is not real. It is just a thought. It is a dream. Some things are better left untold. Some questions are better left unanswered. Some answers are too harsh to deal with. Someday you will learn it...you will learn it!

Read More

Favourite Things about Night

Sleeping under the stars and asking a secret wish on seeing a shooting star

I still miss those days at a sleepy town where I lived as a kid. I remember the power cuts, the darkness and the fun. The summer nights were meant to be spent on the roof of the house. 

It was an awesome experience to sleep under the stars. We used to talk about constellations, milky way galaxy, aliens, UFOs and stuffs like that.   Then, it was a way of living. Now, it is a luxury. I have never been to the roof of the 20 story building where I am staying for last 4 years. I don't even know if we can go there or it is locked.

It has been long time since I have watched a shooting star. I have some wishes to ask those stars. Miss you :(

What a childhood I had...the golden 90s will always remind me of all the good things of my life.

Photo source- https://thestudenttribune.files.wordpress.com

Read More

Is Life Tough or Easy?

Life is like a house of 1000 mirrors. It shows our own reflection.

I once read the story of a house with 1000 mirrors. A dog went inside and barked on seeing 1000 dogs. The result was frightening as the dog almost sweat seeing 1000 dogs barking at him. He somehow came out and felt that it was a horrible place.

Whereas another dog went in that same house and smiled on seeing other 1000 dogs. So, he got 1000 smiles and felt that the place was just amazing.

Life is neither tough nor easy. It depends on your perception whether you find it tough or easy.  Today your mood is good and you find life as easy while yesterday you were upset and felt life was tough. 

When you believe life is tough, you are correct!

When you believe life is easy, you are correct!!

Read More

I am in BIT GOA. How should I react if I get taunts for not getting into IITs?

I can totally relate to what it must have felt to get taunts for not getting into IITs.

I know how it feels when dreams shatters without creating any noise. I have seen the same road...only thing is that I didn't had the marks to get through BIT SAT, I got into KIIT University.

From my experience, here is my response to your query

1. Move On- There are amazing things you can learn at BITSAT and can achieve anything you want to do in life. Don't feel bad for not getting into IITs even if someone remind you about it.
2. Accept that you failed at some thing you wanted to achieve and its perfectly Ok. Less that 1 out of 100 get through IITs and it doesn't mean that others are inferior.
3. Just to remind you of that even Venkatraman Ramakrishna failed to clear IIT JEE but later on in life went on to get Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Nobel laureate Ramakrishnan failed IIT, medical entrance tests
4.   You can read how I dealt with not getting into IITs Rohan Sinha's answer to How does it feel to not qualify in IIT JEE?
5. Don't react to those who remind you of your crush (read IIT), you feel upset because you have studied hard. But, when you will learn to laugh about it then those people will not bother you anymore.

Read More

6 Secrets to be Likable

1. Wish People on special occasions like their Birthday, Anniversary, etc. It makes people feel loved and appreciated. This simple but powerful habit will make people feel special. Appreciate their goodness for no reason. It feels great.
2. Do some random acts of Kindness- Once my Dad was bringing two bags full of groceries and vegetables from a nearby market at a 2 minute walk. One 18-20 year boy who stayed in the locality and knew us came to him and took one bag from him despite his refusal and came with the bag to our home. My Dad was strong enough to carry the bags on his own. But, this simple gesture touched him and he was impressed with the courtesy of that boy.
3. Be genuinely interested in helping others- Always be ready to genuinely helping others. Many people will not ask for help but if you can be helpful in some ways then offer your help without hurting the other person’s self respect. You have to do it in a way that it looks trivial and unimportant. Never try to make someone obliged to your favors. Help others with detachment but don’t forget the help you get from others.
4. Be honest and don't hide your imperfections. Try to improve them- Often in the morning, I mess up with the keys, mobiles, chargers, earphones, pen, etc. Some days ago, my flatmate told me that it would be great if I can keep all these things on my bag so that I don’t miss anything. From next day, I kept doing it and guess what? People do notice these things. He was glad and happy that I implemented what he told me. Ask him if I am likable. I hope the answer would be “yes”.  These small things go unnoticed but matters a lot.
5. Smile. Entertain. Encourage- Make someone smile, entertain people and encourage those who need it. Words are powerful, use them wisely. But, don’t do all these things just to impress someone. Be good and do good things without any expectation. Try doing it more often and your life will be more fulfilling and simplified.
6. Be more beautiful with each passing day- Beauty is about the heart, mind and soul. Pamper them, make them better and positive. Eliminate the negativity out of your life.  Be a source of inspiration and people will find you likable.

And most important things, give more than you have promised (so two bonus tips).

There will be always some people who will dislike you no matter what happens. So, don't get affected by them. You have to be good not to be likable however, You become likable when you are good.

When you start respecting other’s point of view, stop judging them and  start learning from them  then you become likable. 

“Win People not Arguments”

Photo source- http://keenetrial.com

Read More

Different people have different versions of the same story

One old friend called me few days ago to share his frustration that Bangalore is cold about festivals. People don't celebrate any festival with zeal and fervour. He is well educated so he gave examples that Navratri is famous in Gujarat, Chhath Puja in Bihar & Jharkhand, Ganesh Puja in Maharashtra, Pongal in Tamilnadu Nadu, Onam in Kerala, Durga Puja in West Bengal, Christmas in Goa, etc.

But, he felt that Karnataka has nothing special about festivals. I scolded him that it's not possible as I have a kannada friend who has shared pictures of how they celebrate Ganesh Puja. She made decorations on the floor that we call Rangoli. The decoration was done with Banana leaves which is also used by us. She told that most of the homes in Karnataka celebrate Ganesh Puja and was so excited about this festival.

My brother is also in Bangalore and is full of praise for the way the Bangaloreans celebrate the festivals. 

My roommate is from Mangalore and I know how much he celebrate festivals.

It is an irony that some people think that only their culture and traditions are good. All cultures have something good in them so we must take initiative to learn about the native people and their culture.

" Unity in Diversity is our biggest strength whereas Ignorance is our greatest weakness".

Read More

Latest Fad among Indian Girls

Taking selfies no matter where they are

(Photo Taken at 7:30 PM yesterday in our quest to meet Mumbai's most famous idol of Lord Ganesh at LalBaug cha Raja... This is less than 2-3 % of the total crowd at that time. But go for it guys if you are in Mumbai)

Yesterday, we were standing in the queue behind 3 enthusiastic girls (may be college girls) who kept taking selfies at regular interval . We have to be vigilant to ensure not to be in the background of their selfies. 

Though, I have no issues with selfies but the snail pace of the queue was getting slower as these girls would stop every now and then to click selfies. 

Ohh!

My friend murmured in my ears, "Look at her pics, they are way better than how she looks in real".

I irked him by telling, try your selfie also, your pic will look better than how you look. Also, you didn't had a good phone in college so don't be jealous of these girls. Then, I tried to have a self depreciating joke to cheer him. :)  

We both burst in laughter. Really, occasionally going in the crowd is fun if you appreciate that people have difference preference and tastes.

Read More

Two Line story

The world is cruel. 

When people can't find anything else, they play with emotions.

---

He was consoling his friend who is unable to move on after a personal setback. Time is the best healer, he will bounce back stronger.

Read More

Some things that people don't enjoy but pretend to enjoy

Laughing at pathetic jokes of one's boss :)

I went to a company and noticed that employees were laughing at a joke from the company's owner which made no sense to me. I tried hard to just give a forceful smile as I wanted to behave as a good guest.

When he left, I summoned one of his employees and asked, "How could you all laugh at such a pathetic senseless joke? I didn't find it funny at all."

He: We know that his jokes are not funny but we don't want to offend him.Why to upset your Boss when he doesn't want anything more that a fake smile?

Read More

Tips to become Professor at IITs

You need to have PhD in your area of expertise to be a professor at premier institutions like IITs, NITs, etc.

The road map will be like:

1. First clear GATE and take admission in the best possible college for pursuing M-Tech.
2. Give proper focus to application of knowledge  during your M-Tech.
3. Build Network: This is a dark horse. You will need recommendations at every step. Be so good that people are more than happy to recommend you for internships and jobs, it is no supplement for talent. But, backing of reputed Professors will give a cutting edge advantage in this competitive world.
4. Project works- Give emphasis to the project works. They will help you afterward.
5. Join a Private engineering college as Assistant Professor and do your PhD in parallel. In this way, you will have a decent job and pay and at the same time you can finish your PhD.
6. Be a master on your area of expertise. There is an acute shortage of Professors at prestigious colleges.
7. Get Recognition: Participate in competitions and win certificates, awards, get your project report published in a reputed journal, etc.

Make yourself so strong than IITs would fight with each other to have you as a Professor. You will have a chilled out life and I am writing all this with sufficient experience with people who have been there.

After working for 5 years in IITs and contributing in the research, you can apply to foreign universities and they will give shower you with more money than you would expect.  Mint money for 5-10 years and come back and live like a king in India.

Why to be a Professor (in case you are confused)?

The words of a famous professor of IIT Chennai- No other profession will give you two months of paid leave every years, apart from other perks, accommodation, perquisites, etc.

Read More

Best and Worst Feeling

The best feeling is when you love your own company and me time is "solitude" and the worst feeling is when you hate your own company and me time is "loneliness".

Read More

An Interesting conversation between a strange boy and girl

They met at an Art Gallery and started interacting with each other

He: You are really good at making sketches. I am pretty bad at it. 

She: (In a philosophical tone) Practice makes a Man perfect!

He: (With a sheepish smile) That's correct. But, what about women?

She: (Full of attitude) They are already perfect!

He: (Poker Face) ***Blank***

Difficult to beat girls in conversations :)

Read More

What are the small things that hurts you?

It sometimes annoys but always hurts when people don't understand you. It hurts when people take you for granted. It hurts when people don't bother before hurting you. It hurt when people don't care.

But you have to accept it. You have to face all this sometimes.

You can't do anything about others. So, it is better to start loving yourself and minimize the need of others to make you smile and happy. 

People are important and so are you. If you start enjoying your own company then you will be in better control of your happiness and your life.

* I have not learned this, if you can, good for you:)*

Read More

Most Useless Talent or Skill

I have got plenty of female attention in my life.

Almost Mom of all my friends, old ladies,neighbourhood aunties, grannies are full of praise for me. They treat me really well and make me feel special. They all are like my Mom and  they find me decent and good. 

I am still trying to figure out why girls my age don't feel so.

Haha... I guess there is a terribly useless talent behind this :)

Read More

What if there is nothing left that we can buy with money?

Humans are a race who have always run a race. They believe that " The show must go on".

When money was not invented then also some people were regarded as superior and some as commoners. The number of cattle one owned, the amount of gold, wood and food one had was the differentiator. 

When money will not buy anything then it will be of no value. We will find other benchmarks to demarcate how we are superior over others.

May be our existing possessions will decide who is affluent class of the society. Or, may be the number of admirers we have will be the most important parameter of deciding supremacy of one over another.

And, yes, don't donate money when it is going to be redundant. Many must have received quora credits just before they became obsolete and were good for nothing.

Read More

What is more important: Beauty or Brain?

BEAUTY

I always give preference to beauty of a person. I am very particular about this particular trait of a person.

All my friends are beautiful.

There is a slight difference in my understanding of beauty.

I don't consider a person beautiful by going through external appearance.

Beauty is in the mind and heart. Beautiful is the soul. All my close ones are beautiful and brainy. 

A person can't  be beautiful unless they have brain, heart and soul. :)

Read More

Best Gift that God has given to women

"Her Tears"

Strange!!

The ability to show her love through tears is the best gift women have got from God. 

Her tears are priceless. She will cry when she is in pain, she will cry when she gets immense joy. The tears of women are precious. 

One bad thing is that sometimes she shed it on people who don't deserve it.

It is acceptable that a woman can shed tears but a man has to swallow his tears. Probably that's why I feel that " tears" are the best gift that women got but men didn't.

Once my Mom was crying over an issue which looked trivial to me. I consoled and told her not to cry and she told that it makes her feel better after shedding some tears.

Me- *speechless*

PS- I don't consider tears as weakness but a freedom of speech.

Read More

Don't get overly attached to someone

Life is like a bus journey. You all are passengers. When you live your life, you get more comfortable with some passengers and hence get upset when they board out at their respective stop. Not everyone will be with you forever. 

People will come and go out of your life at every stop (like while moving to a new place, quitting a job, etc). They come for a purpose which is known to only GOD. They make you cry at times, they make you smile when you are sad, they make you believe that the world is beautiful and they are gonna stay with you forever and  then one day they go out of your life.

It hurts you for a while. But, life waits for none. You slowly understand that they were co-passengers and they left when they have served the purpose of their being.

We meet different people everyday, some come for a short time and some come and never go out of your life. 

So, I feel that being a bit more emotionally stronger will prevent one from getting overly attached to someone. 

Don't keep all your eggs in one basket. Enjoy your present and build your future brick by brick. :)

Read More

Aamchi Mumbai: The spirit of the people of Mumbai inspires me

I love the city of dreams, Mumbai. I love Mumbaikars, I love Local Trains, I love Vada Pavs, I love the traffic of Mumbai, I love the crowd of local train. I love the imperfections of the city.

May be I am so much in love with Mumbai because the city challenges my beliefs every now and then. 

I find inspiration in small things that often go unnoticed. 

Last October, It was during Durga Puja, when I jumped in one of the bogie of a local train and was surprised to see it decorated with colorful papers. The simplicity of the decoration made me nostalgic. I felt that I have come to my old classroom that we used to decorate on Teacher's Day. It had been 3 years in Mumbai and I had never seen something like that in Local Train. So, I asked my colleague about it.

He told that since we don't use Local train often so we don't know about it. But, he got to know that the train has been decorated by people who truly consider Mumbai Local as their lifeline. 

There are people who wake up and takes the first train in the morning and would commute for 5-6 hours in a day. They stay at places that are more than 100 Kms from their workplaces.

They spend substantial time in local trains and hence they decorate it during festivals like Durga Puja. It even had photo of Goddess Durga and some people had worshipped it as we can see that from the photo.

How can people be so cheerful even when they face so much hardship in life. People crave for adventure. For a Mumbaikar, getting on a local train and  getting down is no less adventurous. 

I told about this incident to my Dad's Friend who told that " Durga Puja is famous in West Bengal, Bihar, UP, etc"

It was a jaw dropping moment for my Dad and his friend as they were mesmerized by this as we have never done anything like this in their life. Neither we have even heard someone celebrating festivals like this in a train. 

The Uncle told me, " Thank you dear for sharing about it"

Those people are unknown who decorate the trains but they are the real heroes among us who keep doing their work without complaining about the hardship of their lives. Respect!  Aamchi Mumbai  ( My Mumbai)

Read More

Why people get happy on getting a job in TCS?

I don't know whether they are good for someone or not. But, getting my first job offer from TCS was an emotional moment. I was extremely happy to get selected in TCS.

It's not about money or anything else.  

A first job is a first job. 

I am the eldest child of my parents. It was the first time that their child was getting a job. A new experience for them.

I am a mechanical engineer, two days later,  I got into L&T construction, I was happy but little less than when I got my first job.  I am in L&T for last 4 years but the joy of getting my first job was an un-parallel and incredible feeling for me as well as my parents. 

Getting selected into TCS, knowing my result at midnight, calling my parents, the excitement of having a job offer in hand was never the same again...never the same again. :)

Read More

How you feel when you Quora Answer get unexpectedly viral?

The God of Upvotes got emotional seeing my answers dying a silent death. So, few days ago, he decided to give me a surprise.

I was seeing a question " What is Love?" many times in my feed and so decided to write on it even when my understanding of love is essentric. I wrote about a real life incident related to my Mom. My Mom was so happy when I got my first job offer that she couldn't sleep out of joy.

For me, it was just another honest answer like the one I write and get few upvotes. But, I was pleasantly shocked to see it getting traction.

I got thrilled and called my cousin to inform him that one of my answers of Quora is close to 1K upvotes. He told, " Oh! great, what was the question?". I told, " What is love?". On hearing that he started laughing like a fool. When I asked him, what was so funny about it? He told that you write in your area of expertise and no one give a damn to you and you wrote about something you have no experience and you are getting thousands of upvotes on it. Strange! We both had a good laugh over this :)

---

So, after getting more than 3K upvotes on Rohan Sinha's answer to What is love? till date, I can definitely say that it is not the best feeling on Quora. I get a high when I receive a really inspiring comment on one of my unpopular answers.

Read More

What makes a girl interesting?

1. Her smile (like a sunshine)
2. Her Intelligence (better than mine)
3. Her wit (would be an added advantage)
4. Her anger  (would make things look real)
5. Her care    (with her gestures would make things beautiful)
6. Her mood (that you can never predict)
7. Her giggle (would make you laugh)
8. Her blush (would fill color to your life)
9. Her love    (Ah! phenomenal)
10. Her heart (would be large enough for you to stay comfortably forever)
11. Her Tears (priceless, not to be wasted over trivial things & mean people, should be preserved for special moments)

Read More

Five Life Lessons in six words

1. Strength is Life, Weakness is death

These powerful words of Vivekananda speaks volumes and help me overcome my helplessness at times.

2. Man is creator of his destiny

It gives me power to believe that I have the power to write my future. So, it's not true that you are good for nothing.

3. Whatever happens (in) life, control the outcome

This powerful line from one of the inspiring movie" Never Back Down" inspire me to rise every time I fall. It helps me see that failures are not the dead end but just the potholes in the way to success.

4. When one opportunity goes another comes

There is something good in everything. Rather that fretting over the lost opportunity we must focus on tapping the next opportunity. I have my share of failures and mistakes and now I am able to appreciate all of them. They all had come to teach me something.

5. There is (a) day after every night

Never lose hope. Never envy anyone as our life follows the graph of Sine. Everyone has to go through all the good and bad things. So, stay humble when you get success and stay hopeful when you fail.

All these have tremendous effect and have been tested during hard times. :)

Read More