Hello Happiness!!!

Of late I do think a lot of times, whether I am really happy and believe me most of the times my answer is not affirmative.

So what is happiness? How to find a real state of happiness?

As they say (and I hardly paid attention), happiness is not something which we can outsource it through amassing wealth, but lies within us, within oneself, within our thinking our attitude towards life, its happening and within our state of mind.

Self contentment is key for happiness, this, I am learning from one of my closest friend, the more I interact with this friend of mine, the more I get convinced that my thinking that if I have a right house, the right car, the right job or for that matter right bank balance, would make me truly happy may not be true. Not that its total fallacy to strive for all these, but I am now realizing, a balance of satisfaction and contentment are key and rather more important to achieve the sense of happiness.

I have spend almost all my time for last few years, adjusting the external world, trying to make it conform to accomplish my dreams and wishes. All this time I have been trying to surround myself with things and people that I thought will make me, comfortable, secure or stimulated, yet when I question myself whether I am really happy, well for sure, moments and shades of hapiness were there, but as I stated in the beginning, I have not found pure and lasting happiness.

For the first time in my life and with the circumstances surround I have some how feel convinced in this friend of mine, that being happy necessarily doesn’t mean that everything should be full and perfect, but what it really means that we have to learn and decide to look beyond the emptiness and imperfections that generally surrounds our life (basic reasons of our sadness).

I have started to realize, we need to give space and freedom, to explore one-self, to find out who we really are and for whom we are. Happiness perhaps lies in exploring this unique self and then creating a sense of satisfaction, creating the moments of pause in the life.

No doubts and I realize, for me happiness would be going out there and realizing my dreams, sharing moments and time with my Parents, Wife, Kids, Friends and Society at large, I feel and gradually appreciate, they matter me more in my self actualization process, then the any thing else. My life as me, Manish, will be more peaceful and happy if I search my purpose and cause in and around them, then perhaps I will find the internal bliss.

One more recent change in my attitude, I realize that spending money on other people, no matter they are close to me or not, does makes a very positive impact on my mind and gives me a sense of happiness than spending money on myself. However small it may be but I feel a sense of attainment, a state of contentment.

Am I getting close to happiness?

Hello Happiness!!

Love is Life

Tonight, I felt to discuss some of my very personal views and learning on Love, the most beautiful emotional experience that God has bestowed upon we human beings.

Love, in my view is a very personal experience, a sense of ecstasy and nostalgia, a source of eternal bliss, perpetual euphoria, a powerful intangible force (can be negative or positive, I totally agree), that has always propelled me to continuously discover and re-discover my inner self. Love, gives the freedom to dream and has always given me the strength to rise and accomplish those dreams, its something which I believe is never enough and we continue to strive for more and more till the moment you depart this life.

The views here in are very personal views which I have been taught, which I have learned with my experiments and experiences, those which I have lived and gathered through my life. These views form the very philosophy of my life.

I strongly believe and agree that it hurts to love someone and not be loved in return, but in my view, what is more painful is to love someone and never able to muster the courage to let that person know how you feel about him or her.

I am dead sure, that, God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that wonderful gift of God

Love according to me, is even when you take away the feelings, the passion, and the romance in a relationship . . . . and yet, find out you still care for that person.

The toughest and saddest thing in ones life could be when you meet someone, who means a lot to you, only to find out midway that it was never meant to be and you just have to let go, and this as per me defines Sacrifice and Painful aspect in search of love.

In life sometimes it did happen, that I never realized and understood what I had got until one day I lost it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.

Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back. Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart but if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours and move forward in life.

I totally agree with this age long principle of Love, never just go for looks; just looks almost certainly do deceive. Don't mingle love with wealth; even that fades away. Instead, go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Look for someone, who makes you smile irrespective of whether he is physically present with you at that point of time or not.

I have lived through those moments in life, when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real! And I am certain you would also have dreamt of that special someone.

We restrict the scope of Love, when we limit it something which does happen amongst the opposite sex, or which ends into marriage or physical intimacy, love is much much more then these restricted versions, in fact I firmly believe Love is Life, and swathe across each aspect of our life which we live through.

Real love is to let those whom we love to be just themselves, and not try and twist them to fit in or change as per our own image and desire. Otherwise I feel, we love merely the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

What For? For Whom....

(This painting, oil on canvas, "Potrait" was done by me in 2003, during my stay in Jakarta, Indonesia. The painting beautifully depicts the spectrum of energy, and i thought this would be very apt for my poem below)

What For? For Whom...

I can see the twilight up in the sky.
Seems yet another day has begun.
And yet another night has gone,
With no sleep in my eye.

Everyday, I start with a new ray of hope.
Hope to see a new horizon, a canvas of my dreams;
I subsist everyday, while I see me in despair each moment.
But everyday is same and the nights too are indifferent.

My mind overworked, my body drained.
I recline and laze, wide awake,
But what for? I am uncertain.
For whom? I am unsure.

I realize, I need to break free from the life I endure.
I am aware, I am being pushed along with the tide.
But unable to break free from the ongoing drift.
Helpless, I am unable to change.

This is not me, I realize, this is not my soul.
I need to change, before time takes the toll.
I need to be freed from the shackles of ordinary,
And become that person I have always longed for.

Express myself in every way, touch life in a positive way.
Conquer my dreams and realize the possibility.
Leave my mark on humanity,
Before I fade away in the oceans of time.

Then perhaps, I may fall asleep.
And then yes, I can put my mind to rest.
With my soul intact and my body reclaimed,
I would be certain;
For what I lived and for whom I was needed.

Expectation and Hope

Hey guys, "Expectation and Hope", this is my only painting done till date during my stay in Africa. I love this painting of mine, which i did in 2007 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.

The painting depicts the hope and expectation of the good days to come, I did this to portray the the inner child in me, trying to weave a very subtle linkage between paucity and the anticipation of sufficiency, a pre requisite step to achieve abundance. And of course, looking towards the future.

Would love to have your comments.

Me, Mine, Myself

• I was born on 22nd April 1973
• Life has treated me well in last 36 years, with a staggering roller coaster ride, full of experience of love, hatred, dearth, richness, excitement and above all never ending suspense
• Basically a harmless person under normal Temperature and Pressure conditions
• I have a very low boiling point and equally easy melting point
• Emotionally weak and fragile, can roll out tears on any moment that touches heart
• A perfect actor but a poor script reader, I generally manage extempore
• God has been specially kind to me, categorized me as one of his favorite son
• I have a strong belief that we all have a purpose for our life on this earth, only thing is very few of us tend to recognize it
• Discipline and Systematic are two words not found in my dictionary, forget about perfection and precision (I don’t know these weird words)
• I am a firm believer in long term memory loss and my RAM is poor too (it helps in peace of mind)
• My logic for life is to extrapolate minute happiness and interpolate sadness
• I think the child in me has kept me alive till now and hopefully will carry me along in my rest of the life
• I am still searching my real purpose of me being in this world, and I know I am getting late
• I spend my day longing for the night, while the nights pass through in search of day break
• I strongly feel I can guide anybody on any matter, though, no matter I would have failed to address in my own case (that is experience I suppose)
• Making people happy and satisfied brings me utmost joy
• I would have gone mad, if there would have been no music, it turns me on at any point of time, specially soft love songs
• Movies, Cricket and Internet are my three basic necessities of life, without this today my life would run out of gas
• I love my kids Disha and Mayank more then my life and of course I do love my wife, my soul, Pramila (more then love, i respect her for making me what i am today and what i will be tomorrow)
• I never go to bed on time and I hardly remember when I got out of bed on time
• Off late I have started to inculcate the habit of Forgiving people, but as they say good habits develop hard, I am still struggling
• I am a firm believer in beg, borrow or steal, if it is a matter of life and death
• True Love is very scarce and precious of all that matters, beware of the lots of fake around
• I fully endorse this saying, “No one is in-charge of your happiness but you”
• I feel worshiping and respecting Parents is more important then worshiping God and praying, this can come second (if you have time left)
• For me any true relationship has to be based on commitment, that too unconditional commitment, relationship without any commitment is more decorative and mere selfishness in this materialistic world
• My basic principle in life is, you cant get more then what you are destined to get and that too at the right time mend for you, what is for you will come to you, running for it just ignorant human behavior
• Of all the things I have lost, I miss my heart, mind and my marriage ring
• I love clouds, but hate rains, I love lightning but cant bear the sound of thunder
• For me all most all colours have meaning, I just hate the absence of all the colours (black)
• Up till now I have failed to live life what I want to live
• I met so many people in my life, but yet to meet someone exactly like me, I live with a hope that sometimes, somewhere I will meet someone exactly like me
• Painting is my passion, which I have off late substituted with Money and Materialistic Pleasures, one day I will return back to my passion
• My childhood is only thing of my past, which I would like to re-live again, if given a chance, I feel lot more could have been enjoyed and experimented
• Initially I seldom felt any difference between Truth and Lie, till one day the lie came back and hit me big time
• I think laughter is the best medicine, if every thing else fails
• Reading Books has been one of my biggest desires, yet to be fulfilled
• For me important is to participate, more important is to succeed, if I feel I cannot succeed, I simply do not participate
• I feel, the time has now come for a change and this I have been feeling for last several years

Economic Prosperity Vs. Cultural Bankruptcy?

Culture, to my understanding, refers to the state of Intellect, Traditions, Customs, Heritage, Beliefs and Mannerism developed and inherited over the period of time.

India, our country, has (or sadly, had?) a very rich culture, which evolved through thousands of years, richness and diversity, thus makes it unique and unparallel across the modern day world.


Our proud culture exhibits itself in “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” or brother hood and “Ahimsa Parmo Dharam” or non-violence. For Generations, like us, have been brought up in this culture, imbibing these finer principles of life; Respect Elders, Love the Young ones, Brother-hood, Respect to Women, Care about the needy and a Sense of “Tyag” or Sacrifice. I believe, perhaps, these principals were and are key to the survival of our diverse culture and its continuous evolution.

You would be surprised, why suddenly I started writing about our cultural heritage and its basic principals. In fact, yesterday, I was going through one of my friend’s blog, where she had raised an issue of continuous degradation of human values in our society and our fast evaporating tradition of respecting women and the elderly, to my surprise, while a few, in their reaction, observed and agreed to her view of point, there were quite a few (no surprises, all men) who commented that in this era of competition and women’s equality don’t expect any empathy towards women or for that matter elderly. One gentleman went to the extreme and stated; Quote “These complaints just shows you are incompetent. U want feminism to rule the seats & chairs in parliament as well as in the local bus and don't give any sh... to guys. Thats not possible at all. I say I like competition. But among equal privileges. Otherwise we call it as barbarism.” Unquote

What surprises and pains me is the fast catching up the “MTV Culture” in our social fabric, yes, I am surprised because of the rapid pace at which this “MTV Culture” is catching up and I am pained because it is decaying our social heritage and principals even at a much faster pace.

Indian Tradition and what we have been taught, is to respect womanhood. Womanhood in our culture has always equaled to Motherhood. Even God (in Hinduism) is regarded as half man, half woman (Ardhanaarishwar). We learned that where women are honored, the Gods are pleased; where they are not honored, all work becomes fruitless. Women are human beings and have as much of a right to development as men have.

While in past two decades or so India has developed and is proudly marching towards being economically independent nation with playing a very important role in global economic forum and business environment, what we are fast loosing is our tradition of cultural heritage, our culture of respecting each other and specifically women and elders.

A culture destroys itself if it cannot provide the required impetus to growth. Greek culture vanished because people of Greece did not respect their own values. The same was the story of Rome. And I fear, our “Rich Traditions and Cultural Heritage” is also gradually sinking or rather is on the brink of extinction.

If we younger generation, loose our cultural values and ideals, we may just end up becoming either educated brutes or indifferent bunch of materialistic foreigners in our own country

I fear, rather off late, I have started believing firmly that we, the young generation are going through a Cultural Shock. The emergence of a confusing state of Global Culture due to technological advancement, exposure and sudden revelation of “Western Culture of Greed, Lust and Material Propensity”, which is sold in name of “Survival of the fittest” and “Embrace or Extinct” is leading us to Cultural Bankruptcy.

I agree, these exposures and revelations certainly have acted as a catalyst in bulldozing the cultural boundaries, opening doors of new opportunities, have changed perceptions and dreams of ordinary people of our country. Changes have taken place not only in quality of life (better living standards than in past) but also in the social architect of society (conventional to modern). But the alarming truth is also that these new found prosperity and better living conditions have equally rendered our cultural values and heritage vulnerable leading to Socio-Cultural Bankruptcy. And no better example of the impact of this new found culture can be sited then what has happened in US and Europe in last 12 months or so, the culture of Greed and Materialism has pushed them to the verge of economic bankruptcy, suddenly they look so feeble and simulated.

My objective of writing this post is to instigate a debate in the minds of the We the Young Generation of India, to think and analyze the practical implications of influences of the Culture of Greed, Lust and Materialism on our social architecture and whether we are prepared to absorb this Cultural Shock while we reap the benefits of Economic Boom. Are we prepared to create that ‘Perfect Balance” between Economic Prosperity Vs. Indian Cultural Bankruptcy?

Globalization has influenced our Socio Economic Pattern in both ways (positive as well negative) and has finally arrived. Isn’t it? What is your say?

The Purpose of Life

Recently, I came across a thought provoking article on internet, while defining the Human Strength, the article defines human beings as no less powerful then the God, the master creator and our potential no less staggering.

The most impressive part of the article was definition of the Human Power. The author said, we human beings are the “Co-Creators” of the Universe, along side God. God in fact has made us partners in Creation, such is our strength. God created universe, we created music, God Created Sand and Stones, we created Pyramids, He created Brain, we created minds, he created life, we created love, we created language that allows us to express our thoughts and emotions.

The point I want to drive through this is that we, as human beings are very POWERFUL, each individual life has and can be a POWERFUL PURPOSE, a supposedly meaningful contributory stint on this earth. A purpose to leave this earth better then what we came in. Despite the importance of PURPOSE, many of us still flounder and drift in unknown direction through out the key part of our lives. Majority of us lead a “Dishaheen” and aimless life, spending it as it comes.

Why’s that? While ignorance is the one of the factor, I feel the biggest reason is FEAR, the fear to fail, the apprehension to take any risk just because what our peers, close relatives, friends would think and say if we are unsuccessful. How the Society would treat us if we fail to achieve. We dread to set our targets because we may miss it and gradually this becomes our way of life, wandering aimlessly and living an average Vanila life. To avoid failure, we avoid having a purpose in life.

I feel, the time has come to shed this “ORSTRICH STRATEGY” : hiding from the adversity of life by burying our head in the ocean of sand.

If we don’t stand for something, we may fall for anything. What is the purpose of living if we don’t have something to live for?

A life of PURPOSE is not without effort. But I am sure, the time has come, to ask myself, "Which is the better rosebush, that with the fewest thorns or that with the finest roses?"

Blood, Sweat, Pain and Tears are the ingredients for achievement of the very PURPOSE of life. Let's not spend time; let's use it; use it to make a difference. You never know when the time comes and you may have to leave everything and go.. go for ever from where you can never return back

Suddenly I feel, the famous proverb makes lot of sense: "Make sure the thing you're doing and living for is worth dying for."

Time to set the very PURPOSE for Life? Time to set for to realize the Dreams? Hope you agree?

Lets get ready…

My Faith

Today I received a beautiful mail from my Guru in my B School, Prof. JC Gandhi. The mail was a conversation between an atheist Professor and his student who had deep Faith in God. I have tried to summarize the dialogue in form of article and have added my views on “My God and My Faith”. This series of dialogues were very thought provoking and I considered it worthwhile to put it for all of us. Hope to have your comments.

An atheist professor of philosophy spoke to his class on the problem Science has with God, The Almighty. To make his point, he asked one of his students that whether he believed in God, the student replied, Yes, absolutely. He then asked, is God good and powerful? With an affirmative answer from the student, the professor continued the discussion by saying that, his brother used to pray a lot to God, yet he died miserably of cancer, then why did not the God came to his rescue?

He then further asked his student, if god is good and powerful then why there is so much evil in this world? Who created evil, the sickness, the Hatred and ugliness?

He further asked the student, since he believed so much in God, did he ever see or heard or smelt God?

The student kept his silence, while the Professor with lot of confidence thus inferred, that, hence proved scientifically God doesn’t exist and there is nothing called God and that it is all myth and our misconception.

Now it was the turn of the Student, he said, but Sir, I have “Faith”, and that God not only does exist but he is always around us with its divine force. It is the strength of “Faith” in us that keeps him around us and keeps us guiding

He then countered the Professor, Sir, is there any such thing as “Cold”, the Prof., said, yes, but the student said No Sir, there is nothing as “Cold”. In fact it is only “Heat”. He continued, Sir, we can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it

The Student continued, and asked Professor about “Darkness”. Is there such a thing as darkness?

The Professor, reacted, What is night if there isn't darkness?

The Student, exclaimed, you're wrong again, Sir. Darkness is the absence of Light. In reality, darkness is nothing but absence of light.

Similarly we view death as the opposite of life, but the fact of the matter is Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it.

We have a perfect machine in form of our body, unlimited thoughts in the brains, dreams and ideas, beautiful eyes and lovely voice, but imagine a body without a “Soul”, it like all the limitless thoughts vanish, dreams evaporate, beautiful eyes closes and even the lovely voice is no more! A soul, whom no body can see, touch, smell can turn a live body into a dead wood, which we call “Nishkriya”

Whether it “Soul” or “Air” or “Gravitational Pull” or for that sake “Magnetism”, we cannot see them, we cannot smell them yet they are key ingredients of our mother earth, the very reason of our “life on our beautiful planet Earth and no other planet do have these combinations and key point is we cannot see them, yet they are very basic postulates of life support system on our Earth.

The link between me and my God is the “Faith”. My strong “Faith” that God is always with me, guiding me, communicating with me, showing me direction and giving me strength to cruise through this beautiful journey of life. And my personal belief, all that evil, war, fight, and hatred out there is “Man made” and is nothing but absence of Godliness, absence of Faith and Trust.

If you don’t agree, then watch a new born baby of any religion, any colour or any cast or creed, any where on this earth, she will pure and beautiful, just because, and only because she is very close to God and is far off from the materialistic ignorant world.

And one more important point, no matter, we human being, call this “Divine Faith” with different names, but it is alive and is within each one of us always. The question is, how much Faith we have in this “Divine Force”.

The more the Faith, the more closer we are to God and thus more stronger is our God.

My faith says he loves and cares us and is the most powerful force, no body is powerful then this “Divine Force”.

This is my “Faith”. What about you?