Closing Cycles by Paulo Coelho

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.
Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?
You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened.
You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.
But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister.

Everyone is finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.
Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.
That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home.
Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them.
Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose.
Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood.

Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.
Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the “ideal moment.”

Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.
Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need.
This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.
Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life.

Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are...

Love and Life Chapter 1...

Hi Friends…

Here is the story, I was talking about…

“How I met my Swing”

This started way back in 2005, when one of one of my most liked possessions was stolen which put me in a trauma, only way out was to quickly replace.

Scene 1:

This is where it starts; I went in to a shop with some money in pocket to look for what can catch my eye and after lot of catwalks, I saw a beautiful Bike dressed in RED, 18 Gears (Max available in Jaipur at that time) and all what I was looking for, so the perfect marriage was done, I got what I wanted and she got a Man who will take care of her.

Scene2:

This is how life takes turn; priorities change, job was expecting more of me and I had a mutual pact with it, this meant loosing lot of interests and focusing in a new direction of life. But unfortunately I started spending less time with this beautiful thing parked right there in my porch. She aged gracefully, taking all the rain, Jaipur’s fierce Sun, Cold and all the weather changes for almost 4 years, rusting slowly and turning all red and not just the dressJ.

Scene3:

This is the how Realization happens; we had dozens of parties in our porch, and my gal attended them all, standing quietly in a corner sometimes beneath a sheet or my car cover. People saw and pity her all the time, as they remember the glorious past and amazing time spent. Then one day, there was an opportunity to take her out for a long run with some good friends and she was just not up to it. It was not her it was me who had to solve this for both of us.

Scene 4:

Life takes another turn; the pact was made for one of the Saturdays. So after many Saturdays the final one had come…We were ready for our first trip together after a separation of almost 4 years, this was getting all exciting. It might not have been the best to ride together as it was on a Auto or tuk tuk, 

which could barely fit both of us together (I had put on a little weight since our last ride together ;)). So we arrived at the location, you can call it a place where many such hearts meet; it was a Bike shop ;). The guy directed me to the workshop and hence the overhauling of our relationship started. She was totally dismantled in a polite manner and then put back with quite a few new equipment's, with the most essential ones, breaks, gears and shockers working in perfect manner. Both of us accepted that you cannot heal all the scars life has given you but you can always give it a fresh start. We were all ready to call it our new start.

We came back hand in hand and with many dreams to fulfill in near future. Wish us luck and we will keep you updated about our life ahead…

P.S. Read between the lines...

Zubin & (…) (Still thinking of a Name ;)), Now I understand why is it difficult for parents to name their kid :)

Do what you want to do…

Two issues which people face with this idea.

Finding our interest & working on what we feel is good to do or inspires us.
What stops us from doing this? We ourselves…nothing surprising about this answer, but how?

What happens is that we think how this answer can be so easy and if it is then why we did not had this option earlier when we were getting stuck with what we were doing. We got stuck with what we were doing as it came about as an easy option to adapt. And whenever we take and easy path we kill out original self and dreams. This in-turn will suck away all the zeal we have for life.

So now the million dollars question, how to get back on track? I am keying down my current thought for the solution. It’s important for me too.

Make a list of things you think can bring you out of this state (If you think you are in a state :) ). Once you have list ready, contemplate the idea of what you have to loose to achieve this. Figure out some interesting award for your own self once you achieve this. And final rule which is most important, if you can’t find like minded people, learn to walk alone and grow alone.

Being like everyone around you is very easy; being what you want to be is the goal. Believe me it is the only lesson we are here for, doing what you want to do.

Water & Media

In a city like Jaipur people who are socially active have a great concern regarding water resources. This has brought along a revolution around conservation, government activity, media writing, and giving good coverage to the subject.

There are articles about saving this world by preserving water. With clear suggestions like water harvesting for storing rain water, growing more trees and avoiding cutting of trees as a result keeping the green belt intact. This all looks very good theoretically but is this hype real. Does it impact the regions where it should affect most, or it is just another suppression regime for mediocre people.

I think people who read all this have started feeling guilty while over using of water, does that help? Of course it does but to what extent, I say maximum 10% out of 100% which is possible.

Rest 90% of water is being exploited by big organizations like the ones which print this news (Media) the paper they use, uses huge amount of water and they never recycle it. Paper is made of recycled paper or direct wood from trees. It is amazing, a newspaper which writes to save trees and then prints on a paper which is made of trees, what a contradiction.

Chemical factories, cloth processing plants, paint processing plants, bottled water plants these are the big capital concerns made for exploiting middle class masses and drying up most of the water resources. But at the end of the day who is told to plant trees and save water, poor common man, Amazing.

Are we really thinking….?

Zubin Malik

Trek@EITS

Hi,

Sharing our experience from the first trek we had with EITS (Organization where i work) team.

Location: EITS Conference Room
Time: 11:15 AM
Date: 5 September (Friday)

It was a general meeting when we went out of items to discuss and took a tangent our new topic was picnic. Due to its mass scale it was switched to an idea of Trek, which actually is a better idea when we are in exploration age and phase. Every one is learning at a faster speed during this period and hence is ready to experiment.

So the decision was made very quickly, explorers gave their name and nodded with approval. Time was set for Sunday 4:45 AM (not at all a regular SundayJ), meeting place was near Old EITS Office, and event was called Beta-Trek so that a base can be created for rest of the team at EITS and to test my past experience (3 year old) of the same.

Location: My Room
Time: 4:50 AM
Date: 7 September (Sunday)

Music- “I get knock down, but I get up again”…, my phone ringing…

Pranav: Hi?
Z: Good Morning…
Pranav: when will you reach at my place?
Z: 5 mins…
Pranav: take 15 as I have just got up
Z: cool, see you in 15

Music- “I get knock down, but I get up again”…, my phone ringing again…

Satya: Where are you?
Z: Hello, Where are you? (It’s always better to ask a question when you really don’t have an answer)
Satya: I have reached the meting point, where are you? (He was actually at his home trying to push, as I do with project datesJ)
Z: I am on my way, just need to pick Pranav (yet to start from home)
Satya: see you…

Music- “I get knock down, but I get up again”…, my phone ringing again (Unstoppable) …
Could not pick (Vikrant Called)

I called back…
Z: Hello will be there in 10 minutes…
Vikrant: Ok

I rushed and set for Pranav’s house, he was standing outside; we zoomed to old EITS office to collect rest of the gang (Pranav, Vikrant, and Satya)
So we all set for one great outing on a fresh and calm Sunday morning, in our standard commutation medium, my old blue 800.

Calmness was crushed with some good music coming out from big old speaker set in cars boot, we rolled towards Jaipur-Agra highway, and none of the other member has visited this place (Galta Ji) obviously not the mountains too. First time is always exciting as it’s all new for you and have no picture painted in mind, except one in painted to convince them?
It was 15 odd minutes and we reached Galta Ji, I am still deciding in mind, what trek area to explore today with the gang, to set right spirits…

We parked the car, and started moving towards Galta Ji’s vally, mountains on both sides, a classic old time feeling which I always get when I reach here, feeling of being a part of these high mountains.
It was 5:45 now and we started walking towards our starting point, I vaguely remembered the place and exact points, and things have changed since the last time I visited this place. In order to catch the sun rise we started quickly, as soon we reached the starting point I was surprised to see such a greenery with only 2 days of rain it was all dense and I could not find the trail to follow.
With fear of snakes and wild out of their homes due to rain we started on the trail, the freshness of a clean environment and smell of fresh rain filling our lungs and charging us, we started the hike.
We skipped the idea of rock climbing due to dampness on rocks and Beta-Trek did not need that :).

Pranav leading the path with his no-fear attitude and experience of jungles and hills, the trek was exciting and we reached the broken wall “a sign of marvelous view” and starting of hilltop.
Everyone was mesmerized with breathtaking view from the top the wind and the vastness. I told all to start moving again as there is more to come…

It took us 10 more minutes and 21 thorns in my shoe to reach their, this is point on the mountain from here you can see whole City and city which is not yet exploited, it still have planes and is in form on nearby villages, soon to be destroyed with invasion of cropping builder population of Jaipur.
This point is at a vertical drop point of mountain therefore the view is awesome and hair-raising. Wind blowing straight in your face, it’s like a high you get from being on top of the world. Some moments of silence and I smell chips, now where did it came from?, our over prepared candidate (Vikrant) was carrying idli’s and Chips with ketchup bottle for early morning breakfast but with limited water. It was fun to have hilltop as breakfast table in the morning, with sunrise it was a nice feeling.

After fooling around and boasting about our visit also feeling what other people are missing and possibilities of getting more people here, we started our downward journey from hill, the mist has now settled on the rocks making them slippery but we managed to get back safely promising our self to come again very soon.

Enjoy the pictures…

(Team Members Pranav- QE, Vikrant-DEV, Satya-DEV)

A FORMULA FOR LIVING SUCCESS

A FORMULA FOR LIVING SUCCESS…FROM THE INSIDE OUT

If there were a formula for living success… from the inside out, it would look like this:

Being + Doing + Having = Success… from the INSIDE OUT

Many people have this backwards. Their formula for success is like this:

Having + Doing + Being = Success…from the OUTSIDE IN

One of my clients was faithfully following this OUTSIDE IN formula when he first came to me. His goal was to make lots of money by the time he was 40 so he could then quit his job, finally do the work he loved, and live the life he really wanted. He was working long hours to pursue this goal, had a BMW and latest toys, and yet rarely had time to spend with his wife, friends, and family. He couldn’t understand why his life lacked meaning.
Many people have their priorities upside down. They got bogged down in the HAVING stage. They can’t get past in to the BEING stage because they feel like they don’t have enough yet. They think that what defines their success is how much money they have, the people they know, and things they possess.

My client is now in the process of turning his priorities by following the INSIDE OUT formula to success. He’s finding that to have a fulfilling, joyful, and successful life, it’s essential to first:

1. BE

Be yourself. Know who you really are. Know what’s most important to you. Know what makes you unique. Know what you do the best. This introspection and clarity will take you to second stage.

2. DO

Do those things you do the best. Use your gifts and talents in a way that help other. Touch people in the meaningful ways. Leave a lasting legacy. This takes you to the third stage.

3. HAVE

Have a life, not just a lifestyle. A life oriented around what’s most important to you. A life spent with those who matter most to you. A life with financial rewards for doing what you love to do.

Which formula do you subscribe to? If it’s the OUTSIDE IN formula, then it’s time to turn that around. Re-designing, your life around the INSIDE OUT formula is an evolving process. Start by saying no to HAVING as your primary goal and commit to turning your priorities around. Decide today to say yes to BEING first, and the DOING and HAVING will naturally follow. Now you are on your way to living success… from the inside out.
----

This is out of my FAV collection of articles...
Zubin

A ride to Mountains...with car of the nation

A ride to Mountains…with car of the nation

It was a clear mountain call; I got up at 4 am and planned to leave early morning for the hills.
I was in Jalandhar, a town in Punjab. I was short of time as my planned vacation got shrink due to unforeseen circumstances. So I geared up with standard stuff required for traveling, my rucksack was loaded and mind all set. It was 6:30 am already and no sight of taxi (which I called for early that morning).
Things were getting out of sync, so I called for plan II. Took out the alternate vehicle of the house, a mighty Maruti 800, this was one of the house cars owned by my uncle as a second car. This was a 2005 model, underused and well kept, with lot of arguments of me not having enough experience of driving in hills, finally I got the keys.
I stuffed the car with everything required, my aunt, her friend and her daughter, oh! Also lot of home made snacks like special Punjabi Aalo ka paranthas and kulche.
Oil checked, coolant checked, lets role… we started at 7:45 for Himachal Pradesh, no plan in sight it was just a ride without a destination.
After a ride of almost 1 and a half hour on flats across Punjab, suddenly we were elevated 10 degrees towards north; we had reached the footsteps of Himalayas.
Sight was overwhelming and scary as the huge mountains stood in front, and me on a Maruti 800 (The most underpowered petrol car available in the country).
I shifted the gear to second and engine roared as I put full throttle on the accelerator.
With thoughts of not able to make it and engine getting over heated in mind, I still drove the car in first 2 gears to get us on the curvaceous hills.
There we are, after traveling almost 45 minutes we were on a small hit top to take a breather and refuel the car, great sight we could see snow on mountains very far. It was a breathtaking view.
Seeing a board in front, this road lead to Chintkurni Mata and Chamba devi temples, here we go, we got ourselves destinations. Chintkurni Mata was 80 KMS from there. So we planned to reach there ASAP, stomach filled with buttery paranthas and lassi we roared with a plan in sight.
It was a very good height and elevation, so the car had to be in lower gears to maintain the throttle required.
The car had no issues, Maruti has really done a great job on the car, the first Indian car having a life span of more then 25 years now, powered with a 798 CC giving out power of only 36 BHP and torque of only 59 Nm, we were still driving fast and churning kilometers, this was my first road test of the car in these conditions and I was impressed.
So we reached chintkurni mata in only 2 hours, not bad for 80 KMS on mountains, including two breaks for great views on the hills.
The temple was good and flooded with people, as it was the last navratra and people had come from many places to visit this very famous temple.
Some more photographs and we were ready to roll back to Jalandhar. We visited many temples on way back as my aunt is very religious and her logic says if we are passing from any temple on the way, we should visit it, without any arguments on this I stopped on every temple on the way, there were only threeJ.
We reached home well in time for dinner as coming down was a bit fast and car was still running good, salute to Maruti for making such an amazing car which took mountains with a roar…

Another new year thought…

Another new year thought…

One more year has gone with assumption of better years to come, we don’t count our lives with years we have been part of but how old are we! We celebrate our birthdays on various days of the year, but 1st January should be and to some extent is treated as world’s birthday, we all celebrate the eve in best possible manners wishing all around a very happy and prosperous New Year.
The idea is noble but requires a rethink….
The rethink should be on how the year was for the humanity the world around us, I sound like a reformer but it is true, are we creating a better world around us or helping in deterioration of the same?
There are many questions to be asked and answered, hoping for all to get many things done in positive direction in coming year.

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right…