A monk or a monarch!!!

A monk or a monarch - who is happier??

This is the million dollar question that I went through during different phases of my life.

The middle class family status in India is probably the worst as they try to induce themselves into the life style of someone who they aren't. Being born and brought up in such a middle-class family, I always had a burning desire to breakthrough into the riches and affluence. I even had some crazy ideas of becoming the richest man in the world reflecting on the hindi proverb - Khayalon mein khami kyun- What's the need to show misery in dreams?

So, where is the end of this story? - A richer man wants to get more and more richer and a king might want to occupy more lands and expand his kingdom and fame. As an example, entire India was under Ashoka's rule except for a small kingdom named Kalinga. But, Ashoka did not want to spare even that. So, if we assume that the riches would make a person happy then the happiness is very intermittent and would always replace itself with a new desire.

On the other extremity, a saint who renounces all the worldly pleasures and is just happy to spend all his life for the search of god, the eternal bliss or the ultimate aura has nothing to accomplish, nothing to prove to the world. Is this guy really happy? We have seen the likes of Ashoka and Siddhartha (Buddha) who turned into saints from royal origins but I cannot recollect a saint turning into a kings. So, did these great people realize something to renounce everything they had? Did they actually evolve? or is it just that they could not accomplish to become a monarch? I guess we would never know.

I personally feel that the monk is more happier and his life is more fuller than that of a monarch. However, its one such question which might not have an answer.

Eat, Pray, and Love

A good read especially when I am on my own spiritual search. The author after being devastated by her divorce searches for her inner-self and her identity by trying to connect herself with a bit of fun and a bit of spirituality in Italy, India, and Indonesia. Time and change of place heals all wounds.

Some good quotes from this book were:

"The Yogic sages say that all the pain of a human life is caused by words, as is all the joy. We get seduced by our own mantras(I’m a failure . . . I’m lonely . . . I’m a failure . . . I’m lonely . . .) and we become monuments to them."

I went through this phase when I used to call myself lonely as well as failure, may be to motivate my ownself  towards success, but the idea definitely back fired causing me pain and sadness. However, I transformed just by adjusting my thinking to 'I'm lucky and I'm happy'. Just by doing this small adjustment, I am able to find happiness in loneliness and now regard loneliness as an opportunity to learn and do things without wasting the time away.

Obviously, there are infinite things to learn and do and I now see loneliness as an opportunity to learn and live all my childhood fantasies.

 

 

 ‎"It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection."

In life, we often compare ourselves with others and get ready to trade our life with others who are doing better than us. But, if we are seeking someone's life then we always look at the brighter side of their life and often ignore the flip side denoting the sacrifices the person has to make. Its needless to say that we loose our own identity in doing so and every person has his/her own identity in their own way. 

But without comparison one cannot assess if he is progressing or regressing in his career. Therefore, comparison is essential. So there needs to be a change in the elements that are being compared. So, rather than comparing  with others, comparing ourselves on a time line would help in assessing the path on which one is traveling. 

Comparing one with another is analogous to comparing horses with mules and it only makes the mule sad that it cannot be a horse or it makes the horse proud that its not a mule. A mule would apparently love to trade life with a horse but would just torture itself performing the role of a horse.

Also, comparing a stick with a bigger one would dishearten it whereas comparing a stick with a smaller one would induce pride. Both of them are equally preposterous.

Philosophical me (Quotes)

Success is a chain reaction but failure is often its ignitor. -Siva Karthik
Success is the strongest intoxication one can ever experience. -Siva Karthik
Every bad moment is followed by some good ones. -Siva Karthik
Beauty without brains is like air without oxygen. -Siva Karthik
Life is an optimization problem with complex constraints. - Siva Karthik
Old: Reap as you sow; New: Sow what you would like to reap. -Siva Karthik
Today's sacrifice will be repaid tomorrow but don't sacrifice all todays until there isn't any other tomorrow left.   -Siva Karthik
Life is a see-saw. Sometimes you might need to move downwards to move upwards.   -Siva Karthik
Life is so similar to the game of chess, there are multiple options but just one best move!!! -Siva Karthik 
What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility. -Leo Tolstoy

The Namesake

This Pulitzer prize winning book presents a nice cultural transition between India and USA. The book has a couple of touching moments but on the whole its very slow paced and very descriptive.

The book showed glimpses of my future and somehow reinforced the thought of getting back home.

Similarities b/w 3 idiots and FPS

Here are the similarities between 3 idiots and FPS:

1) Ryan - Rancho (The Macho)
2) Alok - Raju (The fearsome guy who alone reads in the group)
3) Hari - Farhan (Accepts Ryan on everything)
4) Virus - Cherian (The strict dean and father of Neha)
5) Neha - Piya
6) Venkat - Chatur
7) Ragging scene
8) Jumping from the building and breaking 15 bones
9) Neha's Brother committing suicide
10) Nehas's brother writes a letter secretly to Neha without knowing abt it to her father.
11) Neha giving the keys and they robbing the question paper and getting caught because of the phone call.
12) Maruthi Car as dowry for Alok's sister's engagement.
13) Mutter Paneer in Alok's house
14) Alok's father having paralysis.
15) Traveling triples on Ryan's moped (Changed to Piya's).
16) All the three are ranked last in the class (Ryan is made the topper in the movie)
17) What is a machine?
18) Drinking on the rooftop
19) Ryan ends up as research assistant so as Phunsuk Wangdu.
20) Alok moving with Venkat.
21) Ryan taking Alok's dad on his moped when his father gets an attack.

The movie revolved along the same plotline but was twisted at places to create the bollywood effect and to escape the ditto copy comment. However, it now looks like that the changes were made to take away the credit from Chetan Bhagat.