Subtle Aspirations

I’m a strong believer in the fact that a coalition of simple acts by just one person DOES lead to making this world a better place to live in.

So I decided that I’ll create a new category on my blog called “Change the World“. Hopefully write something from time to time, mainly from personal experiences and aspirations, that someone can probably take something from and add in their bit in their own way to making a difference in the world.

I’ve been pondering about expanding your horizons and living life in abundance lately. A few things that came to my mind which I’d like to share…

Have you wondered how “routine” life can become over time? I mean, time and again we find ourselves being stuck in a rut of what is required from us - making ends meet, catching up with same old friends, having a good time like we have always been, listen to the same genre of music, eating the same “favourite” food.

Don’t you think you’re being underexposed in life? Not trying anything new, not going anywhere, not seeking new connections?

Yes I know, you’re wondering where I’m going with this…

I’m trying to inspire you to think “broad”, explore life to it’s fullest, live in abundance, take risks and give thanks at the end for a wonderful journey each day.

Life is so full of new things - different cultures to learn from, so many different hobbies, meeting people with completely new personalities and so much more, all offering different perspectives on the way you think.

Ask yourself - have you been sailing? Have you been to a museum?

Have you:

• been fishing?
• learnt a new language?
• been skydiving?
• heard a symphony?
• been to a rock concert?
• tried playing a musical instrument?
• offered voluntary help for the community?
• explored a new culture?
• been to an art gallery?
• visited a new country?

The list is endless.

You may say “Well I’m not the kinda person who likes art”… How would you know unless you give it a shot?

Maybe you can’t afford to visit a new country, but you can definitely spend a few hours by the beach, or your local park and read a book isn’t it?

I still remember many years ago when I had just met my EX, she made a plan for a bunch of us to go to an amusement park. Now I used to despise amusement parks - but then again I brightly agreed to go - of course at that time I just wanted her to like me :) I would’ve gone to a mental research facility for psych tests if she would’ve asked me to back then LOL!

Anyways, I pompously remember now having so much fun that day - and that’s when I realised, I had simply pre-judged going to amusement parks until then.

Prejudice has nothing to do with just race or religion. You could pre-judge a culture, a hobby or an event! Have you thought about how many things have you simply, subconsciously pre-judged and ruled them out of your life without even giving it a second thought just because you’re not “used to it”?

I was always the kind of person who’d hang out with the same kinda friends, watch the same genre of tv-shows/movies and mostly have the same kinda food. For me it was like if someone has no clue about technology, xbox, my sense of humour, I didn’t have anything to do with them! Can you imagine how small my life had gotten? It was that “similarity” that I was after, that was actually limiting me. It wasn’t until recently I’ve actually started exploring more in life - thinking of broadening my life.

I remember a few months ago, I came back home from one of the worst days at work, and was pretty much in the mood to just curl up, feel miserable and sleep it off. Just then a friend of mine who lives up the coast called me. And I began my whining while explaining to her what happened all day so she could “empathise”. And she goes like, “alright - put on your running shoes right now and just walk out. Don’t question it or sit to think about it - just do it”. So I did, still grumbling though trying to reason out “how would this really help!”. A few minutes in just walking aimlessly, something beautiful started happening - I started to pay attention to nature, people around, still waters (there’s a wharf close to where I live) etc. I ended up spending over an hour just sitting by that wharf. I gave her a call to thank her and she told me she was doing the same thing - so we kept chatting on our walk back home, both being more appreciative and positive about the day :)

Imagine how much you’d grow as a person when you explore, see different cultures, develop new hobbies, meet people who look at things from a different perspective or learn about the history of a new place.

Even if we disagree with someone or something, we’d still learn something.

Getting out of your box every now and then will not only help you to grow, but also bring in enthusiasm in your life, stay excited and appreciate all that life has to offer.

So to sum it up, I challenge you to give some of the points below a shot in the coming week itself:

• Get out and meet people who are NOT like you. People who don’t share the same views as yours. Who don’t have the same sense of humour as yours. People who grew up in completely different environment than yours.
• Set out some time to visit a local art gallery or a museum in your city. Better yet, take a friend you recently got acquainted with to tag along.
• Welcome differences in attitudes and people - You don’t have to agree to the differences, simply acknowledge that you’re welcoming it to seek different perspectives.
• Remind yourself everyday that life is abundant and there’s always so much to see, learn, observe, accept and be thankful for.
• Every often think about one, complete selfless act, that you could do voluntarily that may make a difference to someone and in turn, make you feel better. It could be as simple as randomly greeting a stranger and wishing them “good day”.
• Try to explore or cultivate a new hobby - read up on the internet about it, or go to your local library and read a book about it.
• Call up a friend and see the sunset together.
• Write a hand-written letter to a loved one.
• Do something out of your normal routine of your day to day life.

You never know - you may be missing out on the best part of life just because you’ve pre-judged something and have made up your mind that you’re not gonna like to do something.

Life is way bigger than your mindset, bigger than your career, your ambition, your lifestyle. The more you’ll explore, the more appreciative you’ll become and make better decisions.

When I was in India a few months ago, a friend of mine transferred this mp3 file on my phone via her bluetooth. I thought I’ll hear it when I get home or something and conveniently forgot about it.

Recently I was backing up my files from the phone to the computer and noticed this file.

I was completely unaware of the contents until I played it for the first time.

This was by far the funniest and the cutest prank call I’ve ever heard - it’s about this little girl called Becky from Dublin, Ireland, who’s calling up a demolition company, trying to convince them to blow up her school.

You’ve gotta hear this - believe me you’re gonna have a good laugh and you’d want to keep listening to it over and over again :)

Click on the play button below and sit back for a good laugh :)

I was reading Sathya’s blog last night and saw his post on “Who were you in your past life”.

It’s a website wherein you put in your date of birth and it “determines” who you were in your past life.

So this afternoon, while having lunch at my desk, I thought I’d check it out to have a good laugh.

The result was strikingly similar to most of what I’ve been thinking of in this life!

Your past life diagnosis:
I don’t know how you feel about it, but you were male in your last earthly incarnation.

You were born somewhere in the territory of modern USA South-West around the year 1175. Your profession was that of a leader, major or captain.

Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
Timid, constrained, quiet person. You had creative talents, which waited until this life to be liberated. Sometimes your environment considered you strange.

The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
Your main task is to make the world more beautiful. Physical and spiritual deserts are just waiting for your touch. Keep smiling!

Do you remember now?

Give it a shot yourself - you never know what you’ll discover :)

http://www.thebigview.com/pastlife/index.html

Yup that’s right!

No more 2 different blogs!

After much contempation and indecisiveness, going back an forth with the idea of doing this, one fine evening, I had a chat with Rits and just took a stance!

The process was relatively easy, used the wordpress export functionality (available for WP installations above 2.3 I think) - exported both my blogs, create a new one (wanted a “clean” feel lol), and simply imported both the exported XML files :)

Once that was done, the hunt began in finding the right theme that struck a chord.

I pretty much decided on “the morning after” theme - installed it, spent a few hours customising it and then all of a sudden, just changed my mind to go with this one :)

Anyways, this one’s here to stay - I made a few minor css tweaks, and was thinking of eventually changing the colours and backgrounds etc. But for now, this will stay as I actually like this look and the colour scheme.

So there you go - this is pretty much all that I am (if you read all the way from 2004).

A few people also asked me about deleting some particular posts - as they are no longer relevant. But I decided that I’ll let them be for now - after all they were relevant at some point of time in my life and this pretty much has become a chronological journal for me.

Anyways, I’m off to bed now - had a real long day today and gonna have an even longer one tomorrow - I’m staying steady in faith… A dear friend of mine called up to wish me luck this evening for tomorrow - in her words I quote: “Fear not, whatever will be, will be.”

Been a while since I’ve been thinking of getting a new theme for my other blog “etched in life“.

So over the weekend, I managed to find a decent theme and basically played around with CSS so I can adhere to a different colour scheme.

Created a new header - as much as I love the old one, the lightning in the middle of the storm, I think the new one came out pretty decent too.

The CSS changes are still in the works, as I’m still contemplating changing the theme again - I want a relatively dark and pensive theme, but at the same time, it needs to be eloquent and classy.

I know I know - most of you’d be like “design one” - I don’t want to spend so much time and energy designing it when there’s a good chance that there’s probably one out there already which would just need some minor tweaks.

So if anyone spots anything decent - ping back or send me an email.

P.S. - New post at http://www.devesh.net/etched out too!

it was just another routine day for him. he was on the train, reading his book around the same familiar faces he sees everyday on the same ride.

the train pulls at his station. he gets off, and climbs up the stairs of the subway. swipes his ticket at the ticket barricades, and crosses the street.

the watch on his wrist reminds him of a meeting that he has to attend in an hour, and he frowns to himself, hardly having any sleep the night before. battling thoughts, he gets into the lift and reaches work.

the routine day begins and he catches up with the left-overs from yesterday. attends the meeting, comes out feeling as numb as ever knowing that nothing that was discussed in the meeting will materialise anyways.

decides to have an early lunch and he strolls down. as he walks out of the building, he changes his mind to have a short walk, to clear his head. the streets are buzzing with people, everyone with a different agenda in their minds at that moment - he wonders in amazement, fixing his gaze on random faces and drawing pictures in his head on their agendas.

an old woman, waiting for the bus, probably trying to get to her son’s house to meet her grandchildren whom she hasn’t seen for a few months now.

a child buying lollies at a convenience store, with the reward pennies he won from his grandfather for a chore done?

a young women, dressed in a business attire, trying to hide the pensive look on her face, probably rehearsing her upcoming job interview which will determine the direction of her determined ambition.

a young couple, meeting up for lunch, quite elated. both must’ve been working in different offices, around the corner - holding hands, probably on the verge of finalising their wedding venue?

he unconsciously reaches out for his phone and speed-dial’s #2, only to hear the same message he’s been hearing for a long time now, “the number you have dialed has been disconnected”.

the wind blows with a shrill chill, hitting his face like a thousand needles, snapping him back to stark reality in the present timeframe.

he smiles at his own ignorance, putting away his mobile in his suit pocket, lights up a smoke and heads back.

just another day to burn, just another week, like it’ll be another month and so, another year.

—–

Here’s the song that’s been on my mind for a few days. You can listen to my rendition of the song below - had recorded this back in 1995, playing the guitar and singing it in front of the computer mic… can’t believe it’s been 13 years since!

i should have seen it coming when roses died
should have seen the end of summer in your eyes
i should have listened when you said good night
you really meant good bye
baby, ain’t it funny, how you never ever learn to fall
you’re really on your knees, when you think you’re standing tall
but only fools are “know-it-alls” and i played that fool for you

i cried and i cried
there were nights that died for you baby
i tried and i tried to deny that your love drove me crazy, baby

if the love that i got for you is gone
if the river i cried ain’t that long
then i’m wrong, yeah i’m wrong, this ain’t a love song

baby, i thought you and me would stand the test of time
like we got away with the perfect crime but
we were just a legend in my mind
i guess that i was blind
remember those nights dancing at the masquerade
the clowns wore smiles that wouldn’t fade
you and i were the renegades, some things never change

it made me so mad ’cause i wanted it bad for us baby
now it’s so sad that whatever we had, ain’t worth saving
if the love that i got for you is gone
if the river i’ve cried ain’t that long
then i’m wrong, yes i’m wrong, this ain’t a love song

if the pain that i’m feeling so strong
is the reason that i’m holding on
then i’m wrong, yeah i’m wrong - this ain’t a love song