Finally! Found you..

It was already 7 PM on that fateful Sunday evening when Shakti was almost done with her grocery shopping for the week. She was only left with buying prawns so she decided to keep everything in her car before she went to her favourite fish vendor. Shakti and her whole family enjoyed home cooked prawns with rice every Sunday dinner. 

The shop was very crowded as is expected on a Sunday evening. As she was making the payment, Shakti saw a familiar face in the crowd. She stopped to look closer when the shopkeeper asked her to hurry up as there was a long queue behind her. She searched for change in her purse and quickly cleared her bill. When she hurriedly looked around she found that the face had disappeared. She rummaged around in the crowd but to no avail. 

Destiny had brought her childhood friend in front of her after 20 long years. She had lost all her contact with her childhood friend Dhara but she had still not forgotten their innocent friendship. Shakti had many a times tried to look for her on social networking sites but all in vain. Today all of a sudden, she met her but alas she was lost in crowd once again.

Shakti had not learnt to give up so easily in life especially when it came to someone very close to her heart. So many years had passed and she had so many things to share with her friend. Her marriage, her kids, her social life, her professional life and her personal life.... just so many things... Flashback of all her old memories was in front of her .. as she noticed a droplet of tear falling from her face on her hand. It was time to sleep.

Next morning, her hectic life had begun once again. Sending kids to school, getting ready for her office..But in her spare time she kept thinking how she could meet her friend once again. Days passed and it was Sunday once again. Somewhere she knew what she had to do. She went for her weekly shopping a little early that day and stood near the door of the fish shop keeping an eye on the passer-bys. 

 

She clearly remembered how Dhara and Shakti enjoyed eating fish and invited each other on dinner when fish was served. She just hoped that she finds her friend again. She had waited for 20 long years but it was difficult to wait for these few moments. She did not know whether she will come but she prayed that she does. "Shraddha and Saburi" (Belief and Patience) she remembered the words of the saint and tried to calm herself down. 

She felt a strange sensation in her body and she closed her eyes to gain control. Her eyes opened when she heard her name in a soft, emotional voice. It was Dhara's...

Am I Successful?

Once when I was flying down to Delhi from Hyderabad, I met a gentleman in the plane. He seemed very friendly and we soon started talking. He started sharing why he thinks earning lots of money is very important and being rich is the panacea for everything. He told me that he works with many young minds like me and helps them in becoming successful. Becoming an investor and encouraging others to become one was his secret sauce. Although I could not debunk his idea of being successful I was uncomfortable in using it for being successful on my own.

Only the other day another gentlemen wrote to me explaining why I should not trade-off my time for money. That being successful meant creating systems and selecting the right people to run them. He was encouraging me to be an entrepreneur. This made me wonder once again if this is what success meant to me.

Yesterday, while I was waiting for my turn to see the doctor, I called up my old friend to check how is life treating him. He told me how busy his corporate life was keeping him and that he had reserved weekends and holidays for himself to enjoy the hefty package his organization was giving him. Though sometimes his weekend was also taken away by his demanding job. He had compartmentalized his life into work and leisure days and tried to manage his stress by pursuing leisure sporadically. I started pondering if we really worked hard in our childhood to get this as reward.

While I was lost in my thoughts, the receptionist softly reminded me that it was my turn to go. After the routine check up, I asked my doctor who was a private consultant if she was happy in her job. She told me she had got used to her hectic life. She missed enjoying small things in her life but her profession left her with very little time.

I came back and started finishing the story I had left midway. I felt so light and content penning down my thoughts. It is then that I realised that success is all about meeting your own expectations. It does not necessarily mean living upto the yardstick which society has laid down. It means pursuing a career of your interest, finding time for your hobbies and taking positively whatever comes in your stride. Life is not a bed of roses and there are always some tough experiences which will come your way. Those experiences help in building your character and success is all about learning from these experiences and moving ahead in life.

Why we don't forgive?

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/lewisbsme135524.html?src=t_forgiveness

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/lewisbsme135524.html?src=t_forgiveness

"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this we are less prone to hate our enemies." 

                                                                                               Martin Luther King, Jr

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/martinluth143179.html?src=t_forgiveness

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/martinluth143179.html?src=t_forgiveness

As kids we are taught to have dreams. We are constantly asked which career we want to pursue when we grow up. For many girls the choice is already made and they are groomed to be homemakers. Whatever the choice is we are all taught to chase our dreams. We grow up observing social structure and processes and aspire to attain some positions in our life.

We as humans develop an inherent need to control events and people around us to fulfill our dreams and attain positions in our life. When we see that someone or something is coming in way of our goals or someone is distorting our visualization of future, we get hurt by it. The situation gets worse when we amplify things in our mind and imagine future possibilities of the other person hurting us or tarnishing our image. It thus becomes really difficult to forgive others.

The more we hold grudges, the more it becomes part of our nature. In our minds forgiving others is somewhere related to being lenient and thus there is a fear that the other person could take us for granted. To forgive is to be ready to risk your dreams, your image...

As Mahatma Gandhi said..

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong"