Time to Discard those velvet gloves while handling your children !

I see my child as an extension of me

and in some way it makes me immortal

for through it and it’s children

a part of me and my name will live forever!

I’m a busy parent and time I have scant

so I overpamper and fulfil all their demands

in fact even before they ask for anything

I’m asking them, they shouldn’t miss a thing!

School realises books can’t develop life skills

so gives projects, charts and random work

we feel it’s lil difficult for her to do that

so it becomes a competition amongst parents to top that !

Does the child learn anything in that

for stretch was needed to reach new heights

but all this taught her was to manage parents

which they master by the time they grow up !

Kids now have tuition and classes for everything

then how will self learning take place

this too much hand holding is fatal

for self learning is most important quality for future!

We take kids to multi level play zone in malls

where everything is padded so no injury even if someone falls

makes the kids careless and reckless too

for she feels soft cushion will always be there

I saw this play zone recently which inspired this blog

where no cushions and thus it will hurt if you fall

edges of wood are rounded and soft floor done

rest use you skills and tread with caution!

We ensure our kids stay in the best in travel

and leave no stone unturned to make them happy

and sometimes after the trip they still seem bored

for they expect it’s world’s duty to continuously excite them !

Kids are getting addicted to tab or tv

and we helplessly watch for have no solution

if we ever remove these from their lives

are shocked to see how rebellious they’ve become inside !

Our kids lack the boredom we grew up with

they also haven’t heard as many mythological stories from grandparents

their cultural sensitivity and a strong value system is missing

and that’s one big root cause of many things !

We want to earn and make everything set for them

but under too much shade don’t grow strong trees

many a lives lost consuming, wandering and enjoying

for without struggle nothing worthwhile was ever achieved !

The world is changing more than we can cope

and in that world our kids would make their lives

let’s understand values , mindset and skills will be vital

so let’s remove our velvet gloves in handling them !

For the world of tomorrow shall stress their mind to limits

and they need the right mindset to change adapt and grow

the most important skill will be to upgrade ones skill by self learning

and the dependable pillar on which their personality would stand would be values !

Let’s first understand this ourselves first

for its not easy when we are forced to parent without the requisite skill sets

but as long we can constantly learn n upgrade

we have a chance to make it slightly more real and favourable for our kids !

love

me

2 keys to unlock Human Potential- Time & Energy

The story of human success can be attributed to 2 key factors which cannot be bought but have to be self generated : Time and Energy .

we have a fixed time on earth differing for each. however that time has been allotted to so many activities that sometimes time available to pursue our goal is not there or negligible. Sleep takes away nearly 1/3 and basic hygiene + eating + commute takes nearly another 1/6. Of the other half left work takes min 1/3 and entertainment + social media + socialising takes more than 1/12th. so what often is left for ‘ other pursuits ‘ is less than 2 hours. However with better planning and based upon our priorities time could be better managed freeing more time. attached is one model but that’s not a perfect model. Some people have been able to sleep for just 4-5 hours and finish work in 4-6 hours to free up more time for their goals. that’s the essence of time management, managing one of the key constraints.

While a lot of texts and books written on time management, this other resource has been kinda ignored by science as a key feature in human life. for science the unit measurement of energy is calories and too much calories is bad as leads to fat building. however the energy I speak of is the passion and power in a person to pursue any task. it determines his creativity , concentration, motivation , determination and passion towards his goal. Goal could be a simple goal like reading 2 books a month or gymming 3 days a week or teaching twice a month but the vigor and efficiency with which one approaches a task determines it’s success. energy gets consumed every minute even by thinking. Lot more by thinking about the past and worrying about the future. so best is to stay in the present and feel energetic like children do. as to how do we get energy, there are both external and internal sources. have you ever wondered why do most pains and aches happen at night ? or why do we feel irritable some days? unfortunately we have lost connection with our body and do not understand it’s rhythm anymore . we fail to see ailments that trouble us in a pattern every month as don’t know our cycles.

the external sources of energy that govern our life our sun and moon. sun brings vitality and should be tapped for energy. however at the right time though. in tropical and equatorial countries morning sun must be utilised to fill your body with energy. all minor ailments and aches would disappear for morning walkers. yoga has prescribed surya namaskar and various practices for it too. learn to build connection with sun and most energy problems will resolve. however in night we have to build connection with moon which emits lower and different energy on different nights. for example on amavasya there is no moon and thus no external energy source so you could be more susceptible to ailments. historically holidays were on amavasya so that one can rest on this day or generate energy internally. even now in Rajasthan 1 monthly holiday is on amavasya. full moon also is a great opportunity to fill your life with abundance. if you look at the lunar calender you will see that each full moon is celebrated with a festival and often a holiday is given so that people collectively could take benefit of it. however all this knowledge and culture is lost is few centuries of slavery. pranic healing and various practices have developed methods to harness that lunar energy. one must learn them .

as to internal sources of energy, for external body is physical exercises. you know more than me about it so will keep it just to this that an hour of physical exercise gives you energy to last for a day as each part of your body initially whispers, later tells and lastly screams that you take care of me for 1 hour and I shall take care of you for 23 ! the energy source for mind is meditation. unfortunately people don’t know much about how to do meditation and believe anyone can do it without pre practices and fail to do so only or even if forcibly sit for 10 minutes fail to get any benefits from it. how to do meditation is mentioned in bhagvat geeta too ! will keep that topic of another blog but will just leave you with basic jist that your mind needs to be cleansed and quitened Before you even sit for mediation as that’s an exercise to focus to create higher energy levels.

thus by alligning yourself to sun and moon and physical exercise and meditation one can harness the energy to operate at higher levels. and with proper time management one has the time to utilise this high energy one can do wonders. that is what all super successful people have done . and that’s what they do ! time for us to embrace it too

love

me

once upon a time humans conversed with each other !

One of the prime victims of multi social n regular media explosion on our lives has been the lost art of conversation.

Is it that our normal life’s problem and topics seem so mundane in front of national and human race survival issues of the soap, high level fast paced deceit n murder with impactful dialogues that we don’t find regular topics interesting enough ?

or is it that it’s difficult to talk about self and own problems so we’ve keep them under the pillow to be dealt alone while together we talk generic topics like food and holidays

or further more , we forgotten the art of conversation. neither are we 100% there when we speak nor 100% when we listen. not everything warrants a reply but we are too impatient to wait and blurt a solution even when just a patent hearing is needed. even while listening if we don’t nod our heads actively and break with yess and I understand the other person might not understand you’re truly listening but simply dreaming or they have lost you midway. most conversations get snapped within 5 minutes and thus now half hearted speaker addressing to half hearted listener who often interjects at wrong time. in fact in many cases it’s 10% interested speaker addressing to 10% interested listener leading to miscommunication as both are watching tv or texting as they talk. results are fights, loss of proximity and a surfaxe level non depth in relationship.

” Everyone complains others don’t understand me and yet no one makes an effort to understand the other” . relationships were living thing between 2 living being but are slowly losing their life.

life had long left this body

but I held on to this corpse

for fond memories dwelt in it

but I wasn’t ready to remorse

time to bury it deep or offer to fire

and rebuild and start a new ship

same people same journey but a better boat

which suits both the tiger and the goat!

let’s build boats , let’s build bridges which can carry our thoughts, emotions and words to each other. sometimes the sound of silence is lost in WhatsApp texting. let’s reconnect and build the bridges we’ve burnt assuming in age of planes who needs boats and bridges. to start with, let’s give 100% in talking and 100% in listening and notice the miracle it does to your relationships.

love

me

1% margin economy

happy holiday! but you’re in work already! or taken holiday on holy day and vacationing! super! wherever you are glad you stopped by to read musings this holi ! some insights might dwell in the endless blabbering this intellect does.

first and foremost I propose a new style of economy as I believe both capitalism and socialism have failed as both have their apparent shortcomings. what if govt legislatures made an economy where profit margin on everything for basic needs will be 1% or less. for conspicuous consumption it could be 2% but rest everything is just 1%. and strict laws to monitor the kind of expenses done as a large number of companies work on 1000% to 10,000% markup over their cost of production.

this 10000% economy profit then gets divided among the market of sellers , influencers, ads , travel companies who design package for influencers, lobbyist, government and various allied industries too. for example let’s take the pharma industry. the 10 to 100 times markup makers healthcare unaffordable for most middle class and gives birth to insurance industry. high margin encourages greed and this doctors sometimes do unnessary tests and sometimes unnecessary operations too.

most of the things we consume have been marked up few times making the cost of living so high that only a few have good standard of living. what if I made margins based upon fixed rule of 2% . my total margin depended upon my turnover, my turnarounds and uniqueness of my products. of course since everyone will be playing with same rules, most products including salaries would come done but purchasing power would increase. this is better than socialism proposed as hopefully will lead to 80% people living a decent standard of life and the gap between the super rich and average lesser. High margins fuel wasteful expenses , greed and make everything glittering attractive but always out of reach. people have to slog more, evade, borrow or steal to meet their desires which is always ahead of their income.

at the basic level, schools and parents must inculcate skills to control desires. a controlled mind is the biggest asset you can give your children. and then your child is free to interact and buy and transact in this world . but where mind runs ahead of yourself too, you run after it and it like a enchanted deer makes you fall in the trap laid for it.

economics should be for max good for max people but capitalism makes wealth distributions so skewed that I doubt if it’s the best solutions. controlleed capitalism with caps in margins will make this world a far more happier place.

I don’t know if experiments like these have been done or theories debated but surely anything which can make lives of bulk better should be deliberated.

that’s my bit on a utopian economy

love

me

badalta samay badalte hum !

na aap badle na hum badle shaayad yeh zamaana hi badal gaya

aapke bolne ka, mere samajhne ka aur humari bastcheet ka tarana hi badal gaya !

woh bhi ek zamaana tha jab unko chitthi likha karte thay

dil ka haal aur saari khabar shahi se kaagaz pe bharatey thay

us kaagaz pe unki likhavat ke saath unki khushboo bhi aati thi

chitthi ke milne se zyada mazaa uske intezaar ke besabri lati thi !

phir yeh phone aaya aur intezaar khatm ho gaya

raat bhar guftagu ka silsala shuru ho gaya

baaton se zyada unki awaaz sunkar dil ko sukoon aata tha

aur kabhi kabhi khamoshiyaan shabdo se zyada bayaan karti thi !!

ur phir jab dashak badla technology ne hunkaar mari

har haath mein ho mobile, farmaan ho gaye jaari

internet se chala email ka chalan aur badla sansaar

duniya ho gayi chota aur chota ho gaya intezaar !

phir aaya sms ka daur aur laghu hi sundar

apni baat poori keejiye 160 varno ke andar

message se messenger aaya aur messenger se whatsapp

whatsapp se Snapchat aaya aur snapchat se snap

ab baat karne ke liye shabd nahi chahiye they

sirf Gm lol ok se bhi complete sentences bante they

aur agar kuch kami ho to fwd aur emoticons haina

ab na mujhe khul ke hasna aata hai na hi khulke rona !!

ek hazaar khule windows hai yahan

lekin kisi se na hawa na roshni aati hai

aaj subah jab ek dost ka purana email padha

tab undino ke thode mein bahut kehne ki yaad satati hai !

birthday par facebook par wishes tou bahut aate hai

rest whatsapp mein hi cakes gifts bouquet bhijva dete hai

lekin kuch hi hai jo call karke wish karte hai aur thehke lagate hai

aur nayaab jo cake khaane ke liye kahi bhi pahuch jaate hai aur aakar gale lagate hai !

badlana samay ki aadat hai tou sab kuch badlega

ache ke liye kuch tum badlo ache ke liye kuch mein badlo

ek doosre ke dil aur shabdo ke taar jude rahe

tou ache ke liye humara samay badlega!

keep communicating!

Love

Me

the world is changing faster than we can cope. time to build adaptive strategies.

As i saw the Amazon guy at the door, i instinctively called out for my wife who is the only one who contributes to the hyper growing e commerce economy. But to my utter disbelief he asked for some Mr. Murari Sharma who I came to know is our domestic help who either don’t remember names of or call them with more generic names like chotu or ramu. Murari had ordered airpods! Cash on Delivery. Had he taken out his Bhim card I would have an heart attack! india is changing. This truly is coming of age of e commerce as when the lowest strata of society starts emvracing it, it truly has unlimited reach. this section of society finds it inconvenient to go to big stores, now gets that same variety at cheaper prices, it does open up a vast new market for ecommerce in India.

whenever I cross the wholesale market, I would be shocked to see the volume of goods each wholeseller was selling. mostly of the suburban and rural india dealers picking truckful of material upon each visit. and they would further distribute it to hundreds of small stores in towns n villages. but guess it’s a matter of time that all that this too would change. just a function of how much time logitics takes to reach there profitability.

most of the ecommerce happens on just 4-5 sites which reflect the power of scale has. nearly impossible to start any b2c platform as such high stakes table that your entire capital is what they bet every week. thus that space will be a mix between oligopoly and monopolistic competition in different markets in different times. and that’s when they will make money like the way uber rates have gone up atleast 50% over last 3 years and they charge 2x to 4x when you really need them . the sales, jobs, profits and power is shifting to the hands of few making thousands either complaining that demand has swindled or out of job. and this is just the beginning. traditional trading jobs will no longer exist in the next generation. time to redefine what you do and how you add value. and if you’re not prepared to change, prepare your child for a job as either your business won’t be there when he is ready or it won’t be exciting enough. if you still thinking why do you need to change when it worked well for your dad..well the answer is

swiggy is changing the way we eat, airbnb the way we holiday, online games the way we entertain, google is way we search, Twitter the way we express and Facebook the way we greet. we use mobile for all of it. plus WhatsApp + sms ( Some Medevial Still ) + talk + read + listen to music or podcasts + mail ,+ watch movies + byjus for children tuitions + etc etc etc . why will businesses be any different. change for the better if you want to exsist.

the irony is we use mobiles to do all of the above imcluding writing this blog. life is truly addicted to our phones. it’s like the sword of He Man which he used to raise and shout ‘ I have the power ‘ . I cannot be bored anywhere anymore including bumper to bumper traffic as long as I have fully charged phone . it’s important we understand it’s truly and addiction and keep a few safeguards in place.

1. keep phone atleast 8 ft away when you sleep.

2. avoid using phone when exercising, playing or eating. let each of them be pure for full impact.

3. once a day every week detox yourself with phone only for essential communication. rest give the old world a chance

4. don’t give kids smart phones untill they’ve become smart enough to curb their excesses themselves. you are only to be blamed if you store gunpowder and sodium at the same place.

5. use as many substitutes as possible to reduce your time spent with phone in hand. like use a calculator, watch , alarm clock , newspaper, kindle, television, restaurant to eat, cafe to talk, call to wish so that you’re less affected by over exposure to phones. the side effects will be so deep and profound that it will alter the way humans think.

keep your sanity alive. build your rules for your phone usage. have a healthy life . and btw, with the new advance airpods, murari will be into phones, even longer.

love

me

Breeding a generation of cultural zombies !

Technology combined with economic prosperity has enabled us to have more spare time than ever before. While for many media , entertainments & social media consumes most of it, some are able to use it to ask deeper questions to themselves and travel the path of introspection. who am I, what am I here for , how should I live and many such questions keep popping. They need concrete quick fixes and look for prescriptive answers. the serious are even willing to devote x hours a day/ week but they need a plan to follow, exercises to do, etc. some religions have a dos n don’t formula with chanting/ praying rituals and thus became popular. I asked few learned people that why couldn’t Hinduism too do that so that it’s easier to know that I’m a devoted hindu and do the regular rituals. but answers has been the the flexibility of each to choose his path has been the key and different people have different methods applicable. each has to choose method most suitable for him. but that is the biggest bane as throughout school life, we choose just once I.e. after class 10 , our stream of further education. thus we aren’t in a position to decide what’s the best method for us.

while some texts point out various steps one needs to do as one processes. for example starting with meditation can be the worst thing you could do as your mind isn’t yet still enough to do meditation and because of your inability to do it properly, your faith in this powerful technique will diminish. so it’s better to start with reading, discussing, thinking , implementing , singing bhajan, sitting and single mindedly doing puja, attending discourses etc. as we keep doing it our mind becomes clearer and calmer. the usual anxiety is replaced by a steadfastness. our actions also become more thoughtful. we are aware of the rise and play of thoughts. that’s when we should embrace meditation. we would find that this concentration of energy helps us transcend limitations of our mind and intellect. this flight into the sub consciousness is expanding your consciousness.

the bhagwata geeta, the most powerful book for hindus, is a layered text where different words and phrases have very different and deeper connotations. to understand that one has to study basics of vedas. many organisation provide preparatory courses for people who want to follow karma yoga path, the path of selfless action, like chinmaya mission, brahma kumari, etc. there are schools which focus on hatha yoga and Kriya yoga use body and energy chakras and are very popular in west too through art of living, parmahansa yogananda etc. this energy system is also harnessed by other systems like pranic healing, however this quest is lot more than technique mastery as it’s hoped that with better techniques you will be able to travel deeper and faster into your quest.

talking about energy, one interesting thing I’ve observed. your body is designed such that least energy is consumed if your are in the present. the moment you worry about tomorrow or lament about yesterday , body consumes far more energy. thus children don’t get tired after 6 hours of non stop running while we are fatigued after a desk job. similarly it’s far easier for a child to meditate than adults as complete takeover of mind has not yet taken place. so it’s best we start the steps with our children now when they are far more ready than they will ever be.

find relevant texts and videos and talk your child through it. this will be the biggest investment you can do for him. for I clearly foresee a future of cultural zombies who know nothing about their culture. neither their native language, nor food, nor clothing, nor sings, dance . they wouldn’t know history , nor religion . all they would know is I believe in doing good. but without any solid compass to direct them through. these stories develop value systems in our children which is the soil on which our culture would grow. it cannot be outsourced. your child has to have memory of you telling her those stories.

incase any of you need any specific stories to share, ping me. I’m always there

love

me

Is the purpose of fishing to catch fish ? time for some purpose realignment !

what’s the difference between playing and playing well ? ask a serious sportsperson and you’ll know how frustrating is not playing well. in golf when my shots aren’t going I forget the beautiful scenery, great weather, company of friends, prime health and luxury of dedicated time for what one enjoys doing. all I am bothered is why my shot went short or right. sometimes even when shots are going fine but slice of luck not in favour, I’m cursing that why aren’t scores lower. I’m a 18 handicapper and if by great practise I become 15 or 12 will I be happier? or at 8 or 5 will I be the happiest? I see low hamdicappers similarly or even more frustrated when they play 14 instead of their handicap 7.

To answer the question I posed is when you simply play , you enjoy the simple act of playing. it gives you immense pleasure that you’re playing. results are secondary. in fact there are so many other secondary factors that results can become irrelevant too. But playing well gives boost to your fragile ego which feels accomplished that in one more aspect you’re better than others. And not just for the outside world, ego feeds into our inner world view too. you feel more confident, happy and satisfied if you play well. simply playing, existing and enjoying isn’t good enough. then you’re branded not good enough for competitions. Is happiness limited? can only few be happy. can’t all be happy?

I used golf as the ultimate stress buster time as 2 hours of banter, laughter and walk with friends was a great way to start the day. we enjoyed the change of seasons, the taste of lemonade, the occasional wonder shot we hit, the rhythm of our strides, leisurely breakfasts and most importantly time with each other and moments with self. then rpgl tournament happened. it all became a race to win. everyone was running for the coveted position in the opening line up. they practised more as game had to improve. pairing were based upon who were most likely to win instead of who loved playing with whom. everyone was watching everyone’s score. weekly ranking cards were issued. winning pairs practised more and were given importance. the bottom 5 were looked upon as liability who had to be given a game as tournament rules said so. ego of the better players inflated even more ( untill match time ) as there would be eventually just 1 winner. winning teams bonded more , practised more like winning pairs did while losing teams lost most motivation to play, forget practise. love of the game was long lost as now what was at stake was pride.

similar phenomena happens to kids too when they excel in any sports or areas. there are so many competitions at different levels which they have win that the pure joy of doing a thing just fades away. remains is the fear of failure , living up for your image/ pride and continuously boosting your ego. for example my younger daughter loves playing badminton but in her class of 120 minutes they spend more than 75% time in fitness training which will enable her play better and just 30 minutes actually playing.

I’m not a natural sports person and had very real expectations from myself. it was more in terms of how regularly I will play instead of how I will play. but the inductive effect affects even some one non involved like me so I can sympathise what it would do to natural sports person who excel in most sports.

similar phenomena is happening at work too as instead of the love of creating, expressing and taking up challenges it has been become an endless exercise of chasing targets. makes work also mundane and lifeless. luckily work has always been giver of absolute joy and should look for attributes that did that as government won’t give me gold medal even if i reach aggressive targets. in fact thst puts double pressure on next year numbers which makes one slog even more. enjoying the gradual growth is more important than thrill of super growth followed by pangs of unable to cope with its outcome

let’s hope I and few more discover the joy of playing, doing , just being.

love

me

true spirit of xmas

some one had a xmas party last night and decorated a banyan tree ! I wore a grey and blue dress to a party where people said there should have been some red. these acts are so unlike the xmas spirit that’s in the air.

People have wine and cakes and have planned a nice xmas lunch today. park street has been decorated with lights and confetti to celebrate this amazing festival. kids still believe in Santa and reindeer stories. and the xmas carnivals are a must visit for parents with their kids.

another festival lost in tokenisms. long long ago after the darkest night on 22nd December where people had very little to look forward to in the dark days and white snow, Santa in red carrying goodies was a symbol of hope and cheer. the xmas spirit was about giving and spreading a cheer. it was to get one with nature . in Europe they had pine trees . in india banyan or mango is fine too. any bright colour should do though I don’t have a problem with red too. kids need the gift of time more than anything else. in a carnival or at any special place as essence is spend family time and create its bond.

let’s keep the spirit alive in any form that suits us and spread the cheer to one person atleast !

Love

Me

Model to know “How you spend your time vs How you would like to spend”

The beauty of this life is it’s unique. While each one of us have similar physical characteristics, our mental make up and our priorities are different. That’s why conventional physics or chemistry models won’t work in physiology. You can try out this 3 step model to know how the pattern of your life .

Our life passes by so fast that even before we realise we are middle aged and will be old in a few years. At old age one cannot turn back time but look back life with either a sense of fulfilment or with regret at ones follies. Each one has different priorities and it’s incorrect to put my set of priorities on my brother or friend and judge him. I can only self assess myself using this model. Based upon my priorities, I am to rate these 6 aspects of life from 1 which means most important to 6 which means least important. Take your time to do it as often we write what we believe we should be having rather than what we actually have.

1. Family ( parents, wife , children)

2. Friends , relatives and social contacts

3. Personal time( like tv, sports, classes, fitness, newspaper , reading, mobile phone)

4. Business or any vocation etc

5. Fine living : eating proper meals, daily chores properly, sleeping more than 7 hours a day, beauty parlour,

6. Non selfish activities/ social work/ charity/ spiritual activities

I hope you have done the 2 minute exercise and then proceeding to step 2 as else this will be another theory you’ve read and not implemented. Please do it. I did mine. They are as follows

1, 4, 2-3, 6, 5

Children and parents are most important followed by business which is also like my child. Just a too demanding one. After that I need my time with my friends along with my personal time. I’ve been wanting to walk the path of 6 but haven’t yet done it. Eating, sleeping and fine living aren’t so important

Okay..step 2 is about analysing your weekly time spent

Total hours in a week 7×24 = 168

Less: Sleep time 7×7= 49

Available time = 119

#4. Business 6×10 =60 ( 10am to 8pm )

#3 golf: 3.5 hours ×3 days = 10hours

#3 tv & movies : 1 hour/ day + 2 hr Sunday 8

# 3 reading + newspaper+ facebook + YouTube- 7-10 hours / week

#5 : daily chores take 2 hours/ day including breakfast / dinner / getting ready etc = 14 hours and I’m good with 7 hour sleep

#2 Friends 2 × 3 hours each = 6hours

Relatives/ social contact 1 × 2 hours = 2 hours

Let’s examine the total time available

119-60 Business= 59

#3 Personal time of golf 12 tv 10 reading 10 takes up good 32

Balance time 27

#5:Daily chores 14

#2 friends / relatives = 8 hours

# 6 teaching/ geeta : 3 hours

# balance time available 3 hours

So I end up having 2-6 hours dedicated time for my most important factor ‘ family ‘. I sit with them with my tv time + reading time to steal another non dedicated 3-4 hours.

Step 3

Make your own model based upon your priority on time to be spent for 6 boxes. The generic model for male working professional is as follows

1. Family – 3 to 18 hours

2. Friends : 2 – 15 hours

3 Personal- 7 – 42 hours

4. Business – 40- 60 hours

5. Daily chores- 10 – 30 hours

6. Social work – 2- 14 hours

Based upon your choices you can determine how many hours is ideal from the given range. Match that with your actual found in step 2 . Compare and see how it is going. If the variation is large time to realign.

But time needs to be allotted and activities need to be planned. Efficiency has to be improved and time wasting activities need to be reduced.

My findings point on investing more resources ( time) on my priority areas lagging to reach my desired goal ( priority) . More often than not we just flow in the current of life. Time to put our motors and sail and head to our destination

Hope this model helps you like it helped me in understand how weeks become months and months become years and years become life . And how it slips by. Zindagi rait se muthi se fisli jaa rahi hai..

Love

Me

Ravana dwells inside you , so does Ram !

Ram & Ravana, Kauravs & Pandavas, Durga & Mahisasur and many such mystical characters are great case studies to learn a lot. However we either listen to them for entertainment, or are so wowed by their achievements + a conditioning to surrender make us hero worship them or at times believing they too are relevant in modern times make yourself the protagonist and make our competitors the evil. Thus two brothers fighting both imagine the other to be the kaurav

However, Ram and ravana both reside inside you. So does heaven and hell. Ram has his army and so does ravana. Ravana himself is 10 headed and each head represents a vice like desire, anger , sensuous pleasure and uncontrolled mind, laziness, selfishness , pride , etc.

All religions have spoken about these same vices in their own ways. These stories also mention how to defeat the ravana and get back Inner Peace represented by Sita back into our lives. And defeating itself is not enough as sometimes by Herculean effort one might be able to defeat a strong enemy temporarily. But it’s important to build the rule of the virtuous into our lives as else the enemy can rise up again. And after that fortnight we really celebrate the festival of lights representing wisdom.

Let’s identify the satanic qualities that dwell within us. Let’s use the methods prescribe to defeat it and replace those qualities by their positive substitute . That’s one reason why many people don’t eat non veg and alcohol during navratra so that they would have the necessary valour to do so today. Pick up your weapon and slash it down the throat of your vice. Lets kill one head of ravana this dussera and replace it with rama. That would be true Vijay Dashmi. Else Diwali is mindless pollution by cracker, excessive intake of sugar in all posisble forms, homecoming excuse to reconnect with family and repeat the mistakes of yudhistra at the teen patti nights. If these are done after defeat of a head it would be true celebration. But if the core reason is missing it is just another mindless dance of the ravana within and we blindly following its instructions

Hope some of you are able to kill the head of ravana today and that will truly be worth celebrating the next fortnight. And after killing don’t forget to replace it with the positive virtue lest it again arises after a month or two.

Happy Dussera ..May Lord give you the wisdom and strength to do it !

Just do it !

Love

Me

Letter from a father to a daughter !

Inner Revolution – the next big bet

Mathematics play a significant part in validating concepts we would use or discard. Once equations to various physical laws were made, physics no longer remained a philosopher’s subject but a main steam science. Similarly once chemicals could be classified and reactions output and time period determined with accuracy, chemistry shifted to laboratory from the realm of occult science and magic. Once human body and it’s reactions to various chemicals was being able to be predicted with fair amount of consistency, doctors and white coats started from tantriks and Hakim. Thus Reaction Consistency which can be determined by Mathematical formulas are important pillars to be able to classify something as science. Many medicinal methods, astrology, philosophy,,vastu and psychology remain as inexact sciences as their mathematical formula has not yet been developed.

Determining formulas for them is far more complex than for simple matter as matter has grosser physical properties. When dealing with complex subject’s like emotions, which have subtle properties requires in depth understanding of each property and deriving the equation. Mathematics too has come up with different types of complex sequences like Fibonacci series which helped it to makes sense of many concepts only in last few decades. I’m certain a time shall come where many of the inexact unexplained sciences shall be broken and.explained.

Law , Accounts , Software &,otuer engineering, architecture and many such regular main stream jobs will be outdted. Simply like doormans jobs have become after arrival of sensor gates. It will no longer be a necessity but a luxury to have these roles. Then the necessity to find new challenge areas will push humanity to discover it’s next layers. And with powerful technology in hand, I’m sure no task humans set their minds upon will be impossible. And that’s when spirituality will have its time. College specialisation would be like Food management, environment, Entertainment,sports,,Wellness, Wealth, etc . And that will be the time when parametres of happiness & success will be established so that people won’t have to depend only upon money to determine both.

Spirituality as a science is full of paradox. At one end it explains that you’re nothing. Not even a speck of dust in both space and time. And at other hand goes on to say you’re everything. Both in terms of space and time, you’re complete. Not just physically where there a trillion atoms and molecules inside you which is in itself a complete mini universe but also millions of subtle factors in play make you a complete subset of the world. Just as one does not have to taste the whole sea water to know it’s taste as only a few drops are enough. Currently our limited conditioning makes us uncomfortable in dealing with these paradoxes as we expect everything in binary. What if the nexgen of computing is able to use decimal instead of binary. Then any of the 10 responses would be a valid answer. And that’s when we will be happy with structured unstructuredness within us.

Our Inner System consists of our mind, intellect, memory, ego and consxiousness. Each of them have a role and once we understand that we will be able to understand ourselves, our relationship and how to interact with external world far better. We would also be then able to modify and control some of our internal systems. We could go on to then understand the various mathematical equations mentioned in the texts for inner self and test their applicability in our lives. If we feel its working for us too as it has worked for.centuries for millions across the planet, we might embrace it deeply and live our life in accordance to the spiritual laws instead of our whims and fancies.

I have no doubt that as technology arises, so will new mental diseases which biology will have little solution to. Usage of anti depressants and drugs would increase manifold in people trying to find escape from this pain or feel happy legally or illegally. A time will come where most places will make drugs legal as most people will need it and not simply desire it. At that point, various schools of spirituality would also become commercial. People would pay to get this invaluable help. And there would be corporates doing healing workshops. And one day those startups will be having funding, getting IPO. And who would have imagined 2 decades ago that Google will be one of the most valuable and can’t live without companies today. The next revolution after theindustrail and then information revolutions will be the inner revolution.

Exciting times lie ahead. Wear your seatbelts and enjoy the ride

Love

Me

KYS : Know Your Self before you attempt to know the world

I’m sure all of you know what is the unit of weight, length, time, temperature very well. When it comes to abstract areas like unit of success, happiness, etc it gets a little difficult. And midway between these 2 areas come things like unit of life?

An award winning teacher went to a Buddhist school to understand their teaching philosophy and methods. He saw a 10 year old teacher taking the first class for 5 year old children. He was teaching them how to breathe. Isn’t that what all of us should know instead of only expert sportsmen, speakers and great performers as without controlling their breath, they can’t give peak performances. Since all of us do that from day 1 to day last, why not do it well. In yoga it’s taught too as pranayam but everything Indian is thrown out and we focus on teaching nursery rhymes, counting.

Apart from breathing, the next thing we do is eating. Why not teach the right way to eat. Should you have water before, during or after? What all to eat and when to eat? With practical tests untill healthy eating becomes a habit. And also if how to do basic cooking is taught to boys too, it would help them survive anywhere .

Third thing they should be taught about the different parts of their body. Their 5 sensory organs through which the world enters them and 5 action organs through which they enter the world. Their mind and intellect and who should control whom. Their ego and the consciousness behind it all. With better understanding of their inner self, they will be far more emotionally balanced and intellectually sharp.

Fourthly, they should be taught values which define greatness in humans. And ability to live these is a true measure of success. Honesty, punctuality, gratitude, commitment, selfless work, dedication to a higher ideal, etc are traits of a truly great person and they should imbibe in them in their basic DNA.

Fifthly, they should be taught the power to harness the infinite power through meditation. They should be taught about sleep cos that’s what we do 1/3 rd of our life. How, how much, things to do before and after waking, etc.

Sixthly, they should be taught about the environment and how we are part of it. Friendship should be built with nature. They should learn to respect trees, rivers , earth, etc. They should not pollute it and do their bit in conserving and transforming mindset

Lastly they should be taught what is the true purpose of life. It’s not to hoard wealth or satisfy egos. But it is to make a difference. It’s the duty of the haves of wealth, knowledge and opportunity to share it with the not so privileged. Each child is born with some talent through which he can make the world a better place. Can the schools help in identifying that talent?

I would have been fine even with little less algebra, calculus, world history, Shakespeare. I wish my school had imbibed these in me so that last 40 years would have been far far more productive. Will ensure I know them now. And will ensure as many kids can know that now

Appeal to all people who work on spreading education ( quantity and quality) to look into our great past and adopt some of our best practices in education as they are from our culture and best suited for our culture. Anything Indian need not be coloured as Hindu or Buddhist or Islamic. Let’s take the best from our past to create the best future we ever had.

Love

Me

Top 3 business opportunities of Tomorrow

Just started reading a wonderful book called History of Tomorrow. It explains wonderfully that humans have been finally able to control the 3 eternal problems it faced. FAMINES, EPIDEMIC AND WAR. Since last 2 millennia these have often wiped 10-90% of the population of an area. Now with advancement in technology, globalisation and unparalleled prosperity these remain as issues like many other issues facing the planet. So what would be the problems of the future. Maybe the next chapters of the book would talk about it but let me extrapolate my view on the issues that humans will face.

1. Absentmindness, Attention deficiency, boredom, need for constant sensory stimulation, depenace on alcohol and drugs to do that, addiction to technology, loss of social life specially depth, loneliness, depression, suicides . All of it might seem different but actually are all cause and effect of each other. Hopefully this fwd will make it clear how things could be tomororow

Guy says- I was so busy checking messages on my whatsapp…without realising, I went into the neighbour’s house and sat on their sofa.

The lady of the house was glued to the TV… watching serials…She gave me tea without looking at me.

When I started drinking Tea, I looked up and saw the lady’s husband entering the house….looking into his mobile.

He saw me and said, “sorry” and went out of the house !!!

😂😂😂😂😂

2. Mass scale unemployment/ disguised unemployment/ emergence of viable career options in new areas like social service, spirituality, food security & environment. Massive change in education including life time learning after colleges. Focus on agriculture, living in nature, tech detox, using hands to do things like pottery making classes will emerge.

Technology will eat manual jobs for breakfasts. It will replace most professionals. Ecommerce will replace traders. Not sure about farming but it might become a glamourous research based organic style with significant rise in price of food as crazy valuations will bring unthinkable wealth to many. Traditional doctors, lawyer , software engineer will no longer be required. New age jobs will emerge.

3. Earth will hit back making humans feels helpless. Frequent and sometimes unheard scale earthquakes, floods, storms, extreme climatic conditions, loss of vitality of soil and rivers, oxygen bars, warmer world, extinction of many species before humans too get extinct.

We are ruining this planet at a pace we can’t imagine. Forces of nature will hit back and we again shall feel helpless. Same way we felt against droughts, plagues and wars.

Times to come will surely be very different than anything yesterday or today. Every problem is a business opportunity. Bigger the problem, bigger the opportunity !

Think about it

Love

Me

FAQs we should be asking on SLEEP !

Gooood Morning…hope you had a sound sleep ! I gave some serious thought to Sleep. And put it all on paper yesterday night and let them ferment in my sleep. And I’m ready with my paper on Sleep. Using a Q&A style this time.

1. So what is sleep ?

It’s a verb. But it’s also a noun. It’s a state of existence. Infact 2 states. We have 3 states of existence namely wake up, dream and deep sleep state. In the wake up, body mind intellect all work, in dream body is at rest and in deep sleep all 3 are at rest. There is a fourth state too which is the awakened state which we have to realise. Once we awaken to that state wake state could seem like a dream. (more on this later)

2. Why we need it and How much?

Deep Sleep is the shortest way to pure happiness. It refreshes body and mind like nothing else can ever could. It represents the death of a day and birth of a new one. Just as a 16 hour old tired weary body sleeps and rejuvenated into a fresh energetic young self next morning, life does the same. Disturbed sleep with dreams doesn’t have that refreshing impact so we discuss them too later.

As to how much we need to sleep varies from 4 to 8 hours for adults depending upon their lifestyles and interests. Many people flourish with 4 hours of deep sleep too so people around them need not worry.

3. Why are there so many sleep disorders?

A child can sleep efforelessly but some adults can’t sleep even with sleeping pills. Besides there are various sleeping disorders which make people wake up at incessant intervals, sleep talk, sleep walk, hallucinate, sleep too much, etc. While there could be many reasons for these, main reasons are too much usage of technology , quality of lifestyle and thoughts entertained during the day and before we sleep and lack of rthym of body clock. Will explain each point separately as each is a vital ingredient improving your quality of sleep.

4. How do I measure my quality of sleep ?

Quality of sleep is measured by 3 factors namely % of time sleeping out of the time in bed, how quickly you sleep after you get into bed and how quickly you wake up. Anything above 85%, below 30 minutes and within a minute are considered good parameters for the 3 points mentioned

5. How does sleep affect my health?

My estimation is 25% of your health is determined by regulating your sleep cycle. If your body clock knows when to start and when to stop, it can plan all actions including sleep better. Experts say that if we can keep max 15-30 minutes variation in everyday wake up time and sleep time, many ailments will automatically disappear. Coffee stays in your system for 6 hours and soda too for little lesser. So avoid coffee after 5pm. Alcohol while make you feel sleepy, it disorients your body clock. We need to understand how our clock functions and once we do it and follow it, we achieve a rhythm.

6. What are dreams? Should I stay there only since I’m happy there ?

Dreams are the manifestation of your desires on your mental world. Deep unfulfilled desires, deeply involved emotions and continuously done actions leave deep traces. They find a medium in dream state to express them.

For any production ( ex: making a pot) there have to be 3 things in place. Mud the material cause, wheel the instrument cause and the potter the efficient cause. When all 3 are one and same it means it is imaginary. In the dream, our thoughts make the dream using our mind as the instrument and we are the efficient cause. Thus it’s imaginary or unreal. Once we wake up we realise the achievements of the dream world were unreal and feel disappointed.

Similarly once we move towards awakening, we realise that the current world we live in is also dream of the Lord as He is the 3 causes of it. So to avoid disappointment in current world, don’t dream but awaken !

7. Why are we analysing something so basic as sleep? I can sleep well and that should be enough!

Scientists studied natural phenomena and analysed the cause and effect and put them into mathematical equations to develop inventions which we now use for better life. Similarly once we understand what we do one third of our life we can improve its quality significantly, recover from disorders and regulate it to discover the rhythm of life to achieve good health.

Each night we should look forward to the journey into this special place inside us. We must dress up appropriately, create the right setting, have warm milk or herbal tea and dive gently into it. How deep we can swim will depend upon our ability and practice. Deeper we swim, more profound is the impact. As shown in Inception, if we can be at level 3 , 4 hours of L1 would be 400 hours !

Power naps can be used effectively to increase efficiency, specially I creative and analytical fields.

8. There are now bands available that can monitor your sleep quality so why to go with subjective method ?

Trust me, you don’t need another technology device to sleep better. Infact put away all devices like mobile, laptop, tv charger, wifi, fitbit, etc into the living room. And your quality will automatically improve a few notches.

9. What is the last thing you do before you go to bed? What is the first thing you do?

If your answer like mine was mobile phone, we must admit we are addicted. ( don’t rejoice if it’s TV as maybe you’re addicted to Netflix then) . As I resolved from today, for 30 minutes before sleeping and 30 minutes after waking up I won’t use my mobile. Not even see the messages. But I need it to see the time my ingenious mind argued. Guess time for the good ole alarm clock to be back. I guess after a point of suicidal growth in technology and lifestyle challenges, we will have to trace back our footsteps. Return of the alarm clock is my first step.

Today was my first day and I can’t tell you how difficult it was. But I survived . And this my resolve #2 .

10. So what should I do for those 30 minutes if I’m not with mobile as vaccumm doesn’t exists. Something needs to replace mobile. Before sleeping it could be reading, listening to soft music, meditating, talking, praying, etc. After waking up it could be all of the above + exercising, planning the day/ week, visioning, etc. In case you decide to think about the Lord the last 5 minutes and the first 5 minutes, its mentioned in the upanishads that you will get benefit of the sleeping time too included as your sadhana time. These are sure shot bonus points we should try and take benefit of !!

I hope you found at least 1-2 useful points you can implement. Do try it. And please share this article with your friends and relatives so that they too can make improvements in 1/3 of their lives !

Love

Me

Sleeping a third of ones life. How well do you know it ?

Can u write 500 words on sleeping? Or maybe 10 unique points about it. Ideally shud be able to considering you spend 1/3 of your life doing it ! I believe if we can understand something more we can possibly improve its quality and in turn it would mean improving the quality of 1/3rd of your life. That could be a subject like Physics or Philosophy but we shall devote one thought and discussion to it for sure !

Think about it at least. For tomorrow I’m gonna share my top 10 secrets on sleeping ! Watch out this space 😴😴😴