A dream... and a promise

These days, I keep coming across lots of instances where people I have known for a while, are tasting phenomenal success in their chosen fields. Success in the form of fame and appreciation.

Case No. 1:

For instance, a few days back, my classmate from college, who works in the same organisation as I, got a "special mention" at the internal awards. Which translated to hm almost getting the award, but not the trophy! The same person also went on to win a few awards at a prestigious creativity fest in Goa! Wow... and we had studied together!

Case No. 2:

Another girl from the same class. She chose to be a model, and is now the face of a reputed international cosmetics brand. I see her in the papers, on the billboards, on commercials too. And read articles about how she is the next big thing to happen to the fashion world!

Wow, and we had studied together!

Case No. 3:

Another classmate. This time a good friend. (While in college, we were even in the same social group for a while!) He chose to become a copywriter, and went on to write amazing award -winning ads in his first year itself. And if this wasn't enough, I have his super boss (the national creative director of the agency) telling me "Oh, you know him! You don't know how far he's gone!" And I will admit, I felt a sense of pride at that moment for being friends with such a great being.

We had studied together too!

Case no. 4:

This time it's my best friend. As someone who's shared her most vulnerable side with me, she has come a long way indeed. For a person who always used to doubt her capabilities, she was the one who started the "graduation event" at college, who's part of an NGO, business head at a small entrepreneurial firm, and one of the very few people from the country to be selected for a unique journey throughout India, she surely has come a long way indeed.

My soul sister! Ok, and we didn't really study together though!

I could go on and on about Case No. 5, 6, 7... When I think about these people, I can't help but think about myself.

I had a dream too. I had dreamt that with all my talents (and with all modesty, I would like to admit that I do have quite a few!), I'd defintely be "somebody" when I grow up. I would be a star in my own right, and people would look upto me for all my achievements.

Cut to now. I have grown up. And my dream remains a dream. But I am far from the person I wanted to be. 

I suppose I put my dreams on the backseat, while tending to the more "important" matters of growing up. Like fitting-in, getting a  good degree, having a secure job and so on. I got so lost in all of this, that I didn't really pay head to what I really wanted to do. In fact, the closest I have got to living my dream is while dreaming. Yes. That's the shameful truth.

So now what? I have decided I am going to give myself a chance. A chance to really do what I like, and not what others think I should do. I am going to do all it takes to become the great person I dreamt of becoming.

I will do all it takes to have atleast 4 professionally recorded projects (commercials, songs, VOs et all) before the year ends. 

And this is my promise to me.

About wishlists & checklists...

I have never really believed in the concept of living your life by a time-table. I have always felt that it makes your life really monotonous, and doesn't allow you to enjoy the spontaneity that comes with having an unplanned life. It binds you to a particular set goals for the day / month / year or whatever it is that you plan your life around, and doesn't really encourage you to think beyond those...

I was so wrong! I fact, I have now come to believe that having a time table actually creates a far more enriching life. When you have a set of "to do" things on a list, you are that much more likely to accomplish all of them. For instance, consider that you have to complete "x" number of things today. Now if you are somebody who doesn't like making lists / time tables, and believes in taking every moment as and when it comes, you may go about the day with your "to do" list in mind, but you could get caught unawares by something that you hadn't anticipated earlier. And since you don't have a plan to stick by, you would go all out to tackle that something at the cost of your "things to do" list. All those things could wait till tomorrow as well, right? :-)

However, for a person who has a time table, it is easy to make time out for unexpected things, after finishing all the things on his things to do list! And also, when you write a time-table, you become aware that you can really be in control of your life... in the sense, do all those things that you really wanted to, but never got around to doing... (for lack of time, money etc)

So go ahead folks, and make a time table for today... and live by it! Trust me, the effort will well be worth it! Imagine packing all you possibly can into a beautiful day. and actually striking off things that you've managed to complete at the end of the day! Doesn't it make you smile already? If it doesn't then think about this. You will see a whole new world of possibilities  which you haven't given the remotest thought to. And life will just become a medium to make sure you can explore these possibilities to the fullest.

For starters, I'd like to share 2 things that I've got out of living by a time table (atleast making an effort to love by it!)

1) I have managed to take the first step towards a voice - based career!

2) I will also enrol for a music training course this year! :-) (I've been wanting to do this since over 10 years!)

These may be really small things, but I look at them as a first step towards fulfilling my latent dreams. Go on, you can try it too!

R

Smile baby!

The hottest topic these days is about the great economic slowdown that's spreading like a virus all over the world... The "developed" countries are having it quite bad as it is, but even we in India who thought that our country would be "buffered" from the recession, are being proved wrong, as we see lay-offs, a freeze on new recruitment across industries with bright young graduates passing out from premier institutes not finding a job, and a general atmosphere of panic and caution all around us. The mood's really sombre with the realization that this recession is a lot closer to us that we earlier believed, and we could very well be its next victims.

And what are we doing to cushion ourselves from this? We have already started behaving like victims, playing cautious by spending less, saving more and worrying more... In short, we are already "preparing" for doom to befall us. Now it's quite easy to get obsessed about things that aren't going right, and centre our lives around it.

But I'd like to ask you, can we do it the other way around? Instead of centering our lives around what's not working, why not focus on what's actually working (what's going right), and be happy about it?

And there are a lot of things we have here... For instance, the fact that I can eat 2 (sometimes more) square meals a day, go home to a caring mother and a playful grandmom, sleep on a warm bed, the fact that I have good mind and an able body to make my life what I want it to be, and even the fact that I have a comfortable pair of footwear! These are just a few things that I am really thankful about. And I am sure that you'd have a lot of things on similar lines as well. It does take effort to count your blessings, but trust me, the effort is well worth it. And if you find it difficult, think about all the things that make your life better... even if it is something as simple as a a paved road to walk on!

Now I am no expert economic observer or anything, but all I'd like to say is this. The economy has gone down, and it's not gonna help if our spirits go down with it. So cheer up folks, it really isn't that bad. So what if the money's low? We don't need to depend on any external facets or reasons to be really happy... 'cos happiness is simply a choice we make. So smile baby, aren't you happy to be alive? :-)

"But you're not that common!"

Just last week, as I was waiting for my train at the station, I bumped into an old acquaintance, my senior from college. I hadn't met her since a very long time, and the last time I had, it was another chance meeting at a restaurant, where my mom and I had gone for a small snack.

She was sitting alone at a table, dressed in a white churidar kurta, finishing a plate of rava dosa. She had called out to us and we joined her at the table. After exhanging pleasantries, she quicky engaged my mom in conversation. (It's normally the other way around, as my mom tends to get rather chatty with most of my friends!), and she went on about how she was training in classical dance at a nearby college, and how she used to commute a really long distance everyday. My visibly impressed mom started probing her a bit about other "common interest" areas, with the sole intention of "inspiring me"! What followed was a long boring conversation, or rather a monologue, the flow of which I can't even recollect. After we were done with the food and were on our own, and I was reproaching my mom for showing so much interest, my mom did admit that she was also thoroughly bored by the end of it.

Back to our meeting last week, she spotted me first. Dressed again in a white churidar kurta, she came up to me and started chatting. To be really honest, I wasn't even half as excited as her, and I didn't make any effort to hide it. She started on about how long it had been since we last met, and how she remembered me making enquiries about a course at our college before I enrolled for it! Gawd... this was gonna be another long and boring talk, another one of those in-escapable tirades where I would be subjected to incessant and meaningless chatter I had absolutely no interest in! And it was no surprise why she wasn't exactly the most popular girl in class!

The train arrived, and we boarded it together. I was gonna have to be with her for a while more, I thought as I braced myself for more. She asked me what I did, and I told her. I happened to be working with one of the biggest agencies in India, and I noticed a conscious pause when I mentioned the name. I half grinned a wicked "Oh, I've got such an exciting job, and u just go around looking for work" grin. She was now into theatre, and was going home after an audition. But wasn't she into dance, I asked. She then shared about how a freak accident while performing had left her bed-ridden for almost a year, which is when she decided to get into theatre. But dance will start again, she tells me with a knowing smile. I think I smirked then, but I did start listening then.

When it was time for her to get off, we decided to exchange numbers, and she apologised again for not being able to recollect my name (she had already done that on the platform when we met), and I told her it was ok, as I had a really common name. To which she immediately said, "But you are not that common!" I was stunned. Almost guilty. Here was a person I was relegating to being another faceless entity for life, who was acknowledging my individuality, and actually respecting the time that we had spent together, because she respected me!

Can I do the same? It's difficult na... but I will... 'cos that's who I am - a possibility of unconditional love, support and self-expression. :-)

My first post!

Hello guys!

Or maybe I should just say a hello to the writer in me! It's been really long that I've wanted to write... to record my life, and the little bits of wisdom (atleast I'd like to think so) that I've gathered along the way, and share it with the world!

So here's a good start. If you do happen to read this, and wish to follow this blog, all I can promise is to share atleast one incident that I am thankful about everytime I publish a post... so that I can constantly reminded about all the nice things that life has to offer! :-)