Tag Archives: Materialism

G for!

Posted on by
Reply

For those who are reading this: 

Most of us might have felt at some point of time in our lives that we could have been or could be doing much more. 

Might have felt that the true potential has not been realized. 

Might have had been haunted by thoughts and questions: what if I would have taken some other course? 

But 

A thing that we don’t realize is: 

After all, whatever we have achieved is nothing short of a feat. 

What we have in our possession is not that everyone has a privilege of claiming. 

Be it the:

Job,

Family,

Friends, 

Or

Other material possessions, 

Why then:

This feeling of disappointment,

This frustration, 

This temperament, 

This constant need to prove to the world, 

And

This inability of being able to appreciate and praise others for so called small things in life. 

Does it even register: 

Just few words of genuine praise can change or even save someone’s life, 

Just few words of courtesy can make someone’s day, 

Jadoo ki jhappi (an affectionate hug) of Munna Bhai does work, 

Considering we are maintaining social distancing in these times, 

And 

Considering people are getting depressed for so many reasons, 

What’s stopping us from offering something that doesn’t take a lot of effort and could indeed impact lives in the real sense! 

So, my dear friends, please don’t stop yourself from offering this genuine praise, 

to 

Whosoever comes in contact with you in these challenging times. 

Might even act as a life saving fresh breath of air to the affected and the depressed. 

Wondering what this G is for?

Grateful for:

To begin with alive in these times,

Getting those all important meals,

The health of our loved ones, family and friends,

There is still hope,

Enabling us to take a break from mindless and senseless lives,

and

Being able to connect and communicate, courtesy social medial platforms and calling apps,

If these are not enough for one to be grateful,

I wonder what will be!

Source for the Image: https://leadx.org/articles/we-know-we-ought-to-be-grateful-but/, https://steemit.com/writing/@doitvoluntarily/the-pursuit-of-wanting-more, https://www.amazon.in/initial-Alphabet-Monograme-Notebook-monogramend/dp/B083XVYVY3

Advertisement

Being Alex–Great?

Posted on by
Reply

Nearly everyone might have heard of Alexander-the Great.

Seem to be drawing great inspiration from the man, most of us have chosen a certain kind of a roller coaster life ride for ourselves and our loved ones.

I wonder what inspired us to do so?

Primarily social conditioning, which includes demands from society, parents etc. which in turn shapes our own thoughts about goals and purpose in life.

How about drawing ourselves out of this so called wonderful journey, taking a moment to ponder whether its worth it all?

Is becoming powerful (Alexander) in our respective spheres is what we need in life?

What has this tendency brought us all to?

Not to mention the fact that all of us as a society are struggling big time to deal with this tiny little Covid-19 virus!

There must be something that we are not doing that great!

If we don’t realize this now, then when?

For there is a price to pay,

Consequences to deal with,

For nothing comes free in life,

And nature has its own cruel way of taking things back to where it belongs.

Possibly, a wake up call it is, for all!

A realization,

To think and act responsibly,

To go beyond what seems to be the perceived truth,

To be what one is supposed to be as a human being,

To explore the very dimensions of life

and

More importantly, change our role models,

For emulating Alexander, is not working out to be great at all!

Source for the Image: https://www.zogam.com/articles/articles-i/general-articles/3437-alexander-the-great-tangthu.html, https://www.paho.org/en/news/10-11-2020-rapid-antigen-tests-arriving-countries-assist-covid-19-response-americas

From Use Me to Need Me?

Posted on by
Reply

My first memory of the phrase “Use Me!” is, when as a kid, I saw this cute little dustbin in the corridors of my school, asking me not to throw the wrapper of the chocolate that I had just eaten, on the ground, instead inside the one and only place it should be thrown into.

Indeed the idea of Utilitarianism caught my imagination, which in itself is a fantastic idea to have around oneself, the only catch being, if the very idea is being utilized in a smart way.

Unfortunately, as it has turned out, lot of things from:

Doing Networking to making friends, 

Exploiting resources to minting money, 

Consumerism to Materialism, 

Has led to a state of affairs, where the first thought that comes in all our minds is,

How can we make use of something?

Will I benefit from using it in this way, or I need to find an alternate which can make the utilization more efficient, in turn leading to more profits?

What is that key differentiator/ USP when I go about exploiting the resources?

What this has led to is a complete neglect of the destruction and harm that we are causing to not only this planet but also to the minds of individuals.

Especially the next generation kids, whom we are breeding into robots who would want to run after success the moment they gain some control over their mind and body, the very basis of which is to accumulate as many possessions as possible at any cost.

stock-vector-trash-bin-icon-great-for-any-use-vector-eps-246396961

And then we happily have those table-top conversations about how bad the world is becoming, how difficult it would be for our children to survive and debating about accumulating more and more for the security that we would want to pass on to our next generation.

As it turns out, neither of the table-top conversations nor the accumulation would slow down the tide of destruction,

The only thing which might work, since we still have sometime, is a realization that the very basis of success need not be money; after all:

A mother’s effort and time which she devotes towards bringing up her child, cannot be weighed in terms of money,

So, how about going from a use based thought process towards a need based thought process?

How about slowing down the pace of exploits, giving us time to look at it from a sustainable perspective?

How about giving up a share of profits for a better ecosystem?

How about incorporating other values and parameters as the basis of success with possessions making a very small percentage, as a consequence of what one does and not what one aims to do?

The ball is very much in our court, if we fail to hit the right shot now, doomsday ahead,

But I have full faith in the power of utilitarianism that homo sapiens have got so accustomed to using in their day-to-day life, which would slowly but surely enable all of us to think about the very fundamentals of existence.

Source for the Image: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/dustbin

जी लो, मरना तो है ही !

Posted on by
Reply

It’s not often that you tend to meet a baba of sorts, who discusses things, which might seem logical to your little self that you are and one such conversation is what I would want to share with you:

Baba—“you should do what you love doing”

Me—“but baba, it’s not so easy. What you love doing don’t bring you the same materialistic assets, the thing you end up doing is what makes you rich and successful.”

Baba—“what you are calling success, is it really success? the thing that you are calling rich, are you really rich?”

Me—“at least the world perceives so.”

Baba—-“why else do you think people are so dissatisfied with the kind of lives they are living.”

Me—“hmm!”

Baba—“why do you think people take small things so seriously and get upset because of the same, why people have lost the knack of laughing at themselves!”

Me—“may be because they are too engrossed in what they are doing!”

Baba—“why do you think there is so much gap in what people do and what people want to do?”

Me—“the pay offs?”

Baba—“may be, but more than that, it’s the ability to take risk and chasing one’s mission which is much bigger than the wealth that comes along with the same”

Me—“but many wouldn’t know what is their mission in life”

Baba–“might be, but one thing they would know for sure is what they like dong and what they don’t, after all jee lo marna to hai hi.”

1280px-venn0001-svg

And then baba left traversing the path that he was supposed to, leaving me wondering about what he had said in the end.

After all, if A was the set of things you were doing and B the set what you want to do, then A intersection B, one should try to make as big as possible, is what I could comprehend from what the baba said.

Might be wrong or right, if such a thing actually exist, but one thing we all can and, in my opinion should do, is to give it a thought and figure out what that A intersection B could mean for each one of us.

Source for the Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venn_diagram

Pretending to be Me!

Posted on by
Reply

“The prententious in me always seem to take over and I end up doing things which I would have otherwise not even dreamt of doing.”

This was an answer given by one of the most famous actors of his time on being asked how he is able to give incredible performances day-in-day-out.

To some extent, we all end up behaving a bit differently when significant others are around us. We try to put up our best display of courteousness and smartness in order to impress others with our persona and presence of mind.

For youngsters, especially guys, this is one of the ways in which they try to catch the much seeked attention from the pretty girls who happen to be present there at that very moment.

For girls, it is of course about seeking attention from the most handsome of guys and making sure that they beat their contemporaries on this front.

For aunties, it is a way of restoring their lost glory, when they used to be themselves very pretty. It is also a way of demonstrating to the entire World that they are still in the race.

For uncles, it is nothing but a way of ensuring their dominance over their colleagues and showing that they have what it takes to be right up there.

Somehow, with the increased socialization, we all tend to devote very little time to what we truly are and end up living a totally different kind of a life.

But there are times, when no one is there and we end up spending some time with our origins, the nature who has, since times immemorial, continued to remind us all of the absolute truth.

Deep down, we know what is the eventuality. Inspite of that, we try to mask the reality with the lifestyle that we so love to lead. Someone has wisely said: “jeena isi ka naam hai.”

Sometimes, I too think, that it is not worth thinking. It is not worth pondering over where we will be after we are no more here.

The countdown had already begun when we first made our presence felt in this World. And the nature of this clock is such that it never gives you a second chance.

That is the sole reason why I always beleive in living life to the fullest. After all it is worth pretending to be me rather than being me.

Source for Image: http://janestreetclayworks.com/2011/03/17/rollo-mays-the-nature-of-creativity-part-2/what-if-im-pretending/, http://nonnetta.deviantart.com/art/The-art-of-pretending-94138403