HOW NECESSARY IS CHANGE?

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive or the most intelligent, but the ones who are most adaptive to change”-Mostly attributed to Charles Darwin

When you are through changing, you are through.  ~Bruce Barton

Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
Tomorrow be today.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 "Accept what you can’t change and change what you can’t accept…" How true is it? Can one actually change the things he/she can’t accept? Probably no... One can change oneself but certainly not the situation…that is what I feel…many will disagree…I do understand…now this again is something that can’t be changed!!! However hard you try, not every person around you agrees. It’s not negative in any sense…it’s just a situation; one CAN’T change because everyone IS different. My Abhivyakti today is on the inevitable…’CHANGE’.

Ever wondered what changed inside you that makes you run away from rain that you loved to dance in? Why you don’t appreciate your mother’s smile anymore while it was enough to make you laugh aloud when you were a baby? Why you aren't happy at your father’s approval? Why the sight of a zoo doesn’t excite you now? Why a train is now just a means of transport? Why flowers are just meant to be given at official presentations? Why your girlfriend/boyfriend is no more attractive? Why your spouse is not able to decide that you love them or just live with them? Why you eat to survive? Why you have a watch but no time? Why you have money but no desires? Why your friends have forgotten you? Why you don’t see yourself in the mirror and smile anymore? Why is it that life started being monotonous? Why nothing changes?

Because YOU changed…………

I am also the common person who starts finding shade in sun, roof in rain, comfort in living, security in relations, respect in colleagues, love in friends, companion in a crowd, shoulder to rest on and somebody who listens. In the race to be unique, I forgot to be common.  I forgot that every single thing around me is happening FOR ME. Every flower I see on my way is meant to be there, just for me to enjoy it, every single person I meet on the way is there to cross my way, the Sun rises to see my well being, people were created to be my friends, my college was built so that I could come and study, the universe was created so that I could be born and be a part of the creation. It’s difficult to actually feel this, but when you do, you will understand that everything around you is a miracle. Every molecule of air, every drop of water, every smile, every tear, every person, every feeling and every object becomes magical. Every day becomes special. Today is special for me, because today someone made me understand that however I looked, behaved or dressed, I was special, very special. And so is everyone. One just needs feel what no one else can feel, feel oneself. And when I felt the miracle today, somehow I could control the speed of rain and the presence of Sun!!

Today I did all I never do. I woke up early, took a morning walk, walked over the grass, caressed the dew, saw the Sun playing peek-a-boo with the clouds, drenched myself in rain at least after a decade, felt every drop of it falling on my face, imbibing it inside me, touched streams of water running down the barks of trees, jumped in small puddles, broke some rules, laughed aloud, talked a lot, (yes! I didn’t speak today, I talked), sang   to myself, had a relaxing bath and am doing what I love the most, I am writing! Today has been a miracle, not because I did different things but because I am different today. I understand that “Today is a gift and hence it’s called ‘present’!!”

It’s true that when time changes, no one can remain same. Of course a CEO can’t actually jump into puddles and an employee can’t make faces at the boss…but, why not change the change? Why not try a different change?

CHANGE AGAIN………

The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists  ~Japanese Proverb

It took a long discussion with my friend to understand that change is necessary because I am a stern believer in ‘being myself’.  I can finally make out that being oneself is at a very personal level and change is at a social level. One remains the same since birth to death. Difficult to believe??

Ok, then how do you explain a grown up crying out of happiness at the birth of his/her child? the enthusiasm of a mountain climber at the sight of a cliff? the thrill in a 90 year old at a place of worship? the tears of an Olympic winner at the prize ceremony? Match these emotions and you will find that the people never changed. They can feel emotions as strongly as they could earlier at smaller but surely equally important things. Just the frequency has decreased, that too since they have wanted the same. I came across the quote “Crying doesn't indicate you are weak, it has always been a sign that you are alive”

In the attempt to flaunt ourselves, we cover every emotion under the camouflage of showoff, not only in monetary terms, but also in relations, friendship and work. while being oneself, if you find change in yourself, accept it. This change comes from the situations. It must have been required. You don’t need to explain it to anyone but yourself. Stop manipulating your feelings; they don’t come with a feedback!! Feelings must be what you feel, not what you want to feel. You don’t need to say someone that you still love him/her if you don’t feel the same anymore. You don’t need to feel ashamed to say your wife that she can’t scold your mother. You don’t need to feel awkward for opposing your friend. You don’t need to act with close ones. Give them the respect of honesty at least. It hurts to admit the truth but for a short term, it paves way for a happier long term. You don’t have to think before doing something that you know is rightHowever, this doesn't mean banging your boss’s head! Discretion lies in your hands always. :P…


You have to change according to the situation, not for the situation!

“Change before you have to”     -Jack Welch

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me.  The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them ~George Bernard Shaw

 Choice of adaptation and fighting in a change rests with us. Even if a change doesn't occur for good which it generally does, try to understand that this is the way life happens to everyone. What is not yours was never meant to be yours. What is yours will be passed on to someone else. If you have anything that you feel is going to last forever, you are being foolish. If you want someone to stay forever, you are asking for the impossible, because anything, however strong, will change ultimately.

The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. -Harold Wilson

"Your very life depends upon your willingness to change"

However, life is too short to be spent in worry of what’s coming next. We need to look through and find ways to look at the change in a different way. Give a chance to short term, change your looks, experiment with your hair, try a new nail paint, go to a gym, get a new phone, buy some trendy outfits, feel the breeze, be crazy, feel happy and young, have the talent to hold on but have the courage to let go, give a smile to your neighbor and the mirror… because there are few things you can change. Don’t resist those. J The power is to change is in your hands too. 

Change your life before life changes you! 

 Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.  -W. Somerset Maugham

Read more quotes @ http://www.quotegarden.com/change.html

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Got to thank all my readers...for the happiness they have endowed upon me....My blog page views just reached 500...Thank you all!!

20 years is a long time…..very long..

Situated at 22° 48' 0" N latitude and 86° 11' 0" E longitude, Jamshedpur is a city in India…but it’ not JUST another city…neither for me nor for the history of India. Who can forget the contribution of Jamshetji Tata in the Industrial revolution in India? The city is situated around the factories set up around 1900 on the banks of river Swarnrekha. It’s a beautiful city with greenery, organization and management peeping from every nook and corner.

As for me, the importance exceeds…it was where I was born and tonight, sitting in a guest house at Jamshedpur (J) near the most beautiful area called Jubilee park, I am not able to contain my excitement over the happenings today. My father was posted here around 20 years back, and that is when I was born…I, my parents and my elder brother lived here….yes two decades back…sounds like so much time…J however, it passed so quickly. Since we left the city on my father’s transfer when I was merely one year old, I have been to the city twice, every time packed with schedule. It’s yesterday morning that I came back to the place I was born….a place that connects to me mysteriously, that surely has a call for me…The reason of course is materialistic again…a training in Tata Steel, previously known as TISCO. However, my father and I finally took time out to roam in the daily market at Sakchi, eat dosa at an old restaurant and savor kulfi in the rain. I don’t remember the place a bit but it seems I have always been here, as if the place belongs to me.  Suddenly, I had a yearning to see the house where I was brought up, where I was showered with the love no one can ever again give, where I was sung lullabies and where I was new to the whole world….

We started off to what is called Adityapur. As my father depicted the new locality he saw, I could see in his eyes that it had changed…or may be fully transformed. The houses were no more identifiable and there were a lot of new shops, malls and apartments. We neither had the house number nor the name of the landlord, only memories. My father started remembering things the moment we reached the street. However, among hundreds of identical houses where does one search for a 20 year old house that was 1 storey at that time, painted in white, and that was near a shed? I was getting nostalgic with the memories I never had….The air getting into my lungs was showcasing my whole life to me. It all passed as a beautiful movie in front of my eyes. I almost narrated every incidence of my life, honestly,….to the CITY. I was really desperate to have a look on the house, the house without a name, but since always inscribed on my heart. After a search that lasted around an hour, someone finally got an idea of what we were speaking…it was the same cow shed…it stood there at the same place, and now memories could no longer play hide and seek…My father recognized the house at once!!! It was THE house. I literally ran to it…I was in the true sense not able to contain myself…didn’t even think that it was not ours now…A few seconds passed very silently…without me knowing for sure because till then, people had come out of the house and my father was already in a talk with them. I had visualized the scene since childhood so many times that it all was more of a déjà vu!  I ran inside the house and saw the whole of it in one go…Memories or rather visualizations started coming from nowhere when I saw the room I always slept, the cow shed I was taken to in mornings, the market where my parents shopped, the water supply pipe just outside the house, the police station where I was taken to in evenings for fresh air (:D), the door that I saw in an old snap, the field that was barren then, the courtyard where my father once encountered a big snake, the kitchen where my mother made those mouth watering dishes I didn’t eat, the corridor where I was left for playing, the place where I slept everyday munching biscuits, the gate that was intact after 20 years too, the street that saw me run for the first time, the trees that must have seen me growing up…the place that was the world for a one year old kid.

We were invited in for a cup of tea and as I sat in a chair, I could not explain the tears that started rolling out, even to me. The house was more so of a Pandora’s box for me, that held in store a willingness for me, that had so much to show me and it waited for so long, that had missed me, that had loved me, that had once protected me, that was standing there as t was amongst the tall houses that changed their looks over time, that was rejoicing my arrival…May be it sounds stupid, but the house made me cry, really, the adrenaline rush through me every other second was equally unaccountable….I was no more understanding all happenings around me, all that I could see that I had repaid a debt, that I held. It deserved a visit, for sure…It has made me happy beyond bounds…I don’t think words will ever be able to express what I am feeling now…. :)

I am sorry but no promises this time...

Hey people...I am really sorry for being absent since so long...I worked on three writings during this time....And then there were some unexpected scenarios in life....Could patch up and could write I know...but writing for me comes with feeling...and that was simply not coming. And suddenly, it came out of the blue...I wrote the full thing in mere 20 minutes...at Kolkata airport...Hope you all enjoy the read...Will try to be regular though :P 

HOW IT FEELS TO FLY???

Although an air travel is not a big deal today, but the first time surely counts. I loved flying back to my hometown this vacation. Read through the experience I had…J

HOW IT FEELS TO FLY???

I flew….I actually flew….Oh my God!! It was an experience worth it…..Even the fact that the medium was an airplane, can’t mar the feeling of being in the clouds….through them…. After devouring a flight today to my hometown, I feel man’s incessant desire to scale the heights of sky were surely never exaggerated. The attempts of Wright brothers was not for making yet another gadget or redefining luxury….It was as ambitious an attempt as Columbus’ …in search of something really new. I experienced the new today, after so many decades…but the charisma remains…still!

The airplanes actually disappoint you in beginning, not in terms of service but definitely in terms of huge expectations you have. But it’s short lived…really temporary, the surprises, the beauty out folds…and that too quite unimaginably. A bus leaves you to the big bird and you suddenly gaze at the windows that not only looked small from far, but even are small, just in size to accommodate your face and a little more. After ensuring a comfortable seating you are exactly in time to catch a glimpse of the smartly trained stewards and stewardesses. One can’t help from instantly wanting to live their life.

Then the plane starts moving first backwards and then forward but, to your dismay, it “runs” no faster than the bus that took you till here. It seems to move pointlessly on the runway for more than ten seconds. And exactly when you think the plane is going to bash into the airdrome boundary, you hear a sound of engines and thousands of motors and electronic circuits coming to life. A huge roar takes place of the smooth run and you have “the feeling”, the feeling that assures the heights you have never attained. The plane covers the rest of the runway in a speed that first reminds you of the time when you first rode a bicycle, then of the day your father took you for a smooth ride in evening to grocery, then of your elder brother trying to tease you over the speed he could attain on a new driver’s license, next of your boyfriend trying to show the enormous balance he could maintain on a fast running stylish bike. But finally it all passes and the flight reaches a velocity you were yet to know….and then it takes off!...The moment you had been waiting for…the big white bird streamlines to the sky. Not a moment of panic strikes you…All that strikes is the beauty….the beauty of a world you never appreciated from down there, the beauty that adds to the things when they become Lilliputian, the beauty when you see the sea, sky and land all at a time…the beauty when you can’t tell sky from the sea, the beauty when you see clouds in the sea, the beauty when clouds go past your window and you curse the atmospheric pressure gradient for not being able to touch them, the beauty when you realize that you mistook a large steamer in the sea to be a fish…and then the feeling dawns upon you….that you are indeed on the top of the world….you are IN the sky. Sun shining on the wings reflecting to your face adds sheen to your mood for sure. The beauty that a slight rain can add is still lovelier. Thin strands of rain water freshly seeping from the nearby clouds are truly a sight. The night sky is a paradise coming into scene. When you gaze down at the land….You see a panorama that resembles a Christmas tree! The small cities, the smaller houses, all drop down to a light source. The land looks far far beautiful than the sky. The propellers rotating just outside your window don’t encourage fearfulness but awfulness. It surely takes one an air travel to think of the wonderful way mankind has evolved!!!

Outside sometimes seems like a movie that could not accommodate good video effects because it’s all so perfect that it starts seeming artificial…How many perfect things have we seen anyway? So perfect a backdrop also leaves man bored in some time. And then he awaits the landing. The first sight of land peeping from the clouds is welcome. The small houses, the elongated roadways, the two dimensional view of the world keeps you captivated. Exactly then your captain informs the proximity of your destination. The plane takes a steep turn sideways and the first feeling of panic mixed with excitement brings you to senses. The plane keeps declining down and then lowers down to the airport in view. You can feel the wind gushing outside your window. And then the wheels touch the land with a slight jerk and you are back on the planet as you knew it from beginning. Fortunately, if it’s raining, you can experience a surge of water vapor from under the plane at this moment. The crew thanks you and bides a goodbye and you come back enriched from an experience of a lifetime.

THEN....

AND NOW...