Softlinkers World

It is that time of the year again

noreply@blogger.com (Gopalakrishnan) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:23:00 +0000

It is that time of the year again when Lord Ganesh enters our lives bringing to fore the joie de vivre in us. In several places in India Ganesh chaturthi is a one day affair but in amchi Mumbai it could be anywhere between one to fifteen days. It is the season of gay abandon when people dance and jostle to welcome their favorite deity to their homes and mandals. The most eagerly awaited time for us Mumbaikars.

Ganesh chaturthi can be a logistics nightmare. The mere thought of transporting lord Ganesh idols across the streets of Mumbai can send a chill down the spine of any logistics planner. The entire operation of transporting the idols is more unplanned than planned but unbelievably much smoother than any planned operations. Like Mr. Amit Maheshwari, our CEO, often says, in India everything is ‘Jugaad’; things get done. The idols of lord Ganesh get transported with very few minor hiccups; not bad considering the sheer number of mandals and household that participates in this venture, not to mention the multitude of people.

Then comes the darshan time; long winding queues of spirited devotees throng the path along the barricades not minding the inconveniences of the makeshift pandals, resolute in their aim of having a glimpse of their lord. Some of the more popular mandals witness millions of devotees during the festival period, from early in the morning to late night. The devotees’ belief in their lord is total and absolute and nothing can deter them from visiting the deity at their favorite and chosen mandals. Much of the people management is done by volunteers appointed by the mandals and the general public, none of whom have any special qualification for it. The support from the government machinery to this whole spectacle can be at best described as rudimentary.

After the stipulated period of celebration it is time to bid adieu to the lord as he is reluctantly taken out in processions to be immersed in water. Again the logistics nightmare, the process of transporting the idols begins and once again the Mumbaikars sing and dance in gay abandon as they say farewell to their beloved lord. The atmosphere resonates with shouts of ‘Ganapati bappa morya, pudchya varshi laukar yaa’. The feeling of devotees as they return home after immersion is difficult to describe. It is as if they have parted with a beloved member of their family. With downcast eyes and heavy heart they trudge back to their respective homes with a lingering thought of the promised visit of their lord the same time next year…Pudcha varshi laukar yaa.

The art of writing

noreply@blogger.com (Gopalakrishnan) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:59:00 +0000

The title of this post would lead one to believe that it is about tips on improving writing skills or becoming a good writer; it’s neither. It is just that so often my colleagues ascribe me with good writing skills, which I not-so-modestly decline possessing, that I thought I should write about my take on what I perceive to be good writing. This post is for all those who look-up to me as a good writer.

To qualify as a good writer, I believe, first of all a person should have an excellent command over the language one writes in. Second, the writer should possess good knowledge of the subject. Third, the writing should be lucid and go straight to the heart of the matter without beating around the bush. Fourth, excessive use of jargons and showing off one’s vocabulary must be avoided at all costs. Well there are lots of other qualifications which I may have failed to mention here, but these are some of the required qualities I could remember. I do not want to go too much into the technicalities of writing, I mean I can’t.

As for writing in English or understanding of the queen’s language, Softlink has many worthy people who can be spoken of as having this trait. There is Abhai for one, and then there is Arun, Girish, Rajesh, all these people have very solid grounding in the language. Abhai’s skill is ofcourse well know but few are aware of the proficiency of the other three. It is sheer happenstance that I was entrusted the task of communicating for the company, being the only person who could be spared for it. This should not be mistaken for any talent on my part for any given day one can punch a bunch of holes in my writings. I am a rookie as far as writing is concerned and I have this habit of complicating the sentences and twisting them so as to make them uninteresting to read, incomprehensible at times. Incidentally this is the only language I can write in and I can’t even do it without the help of a dictionary.

But one thing I must agree; the power to communicate gives one a high as no other thing can. And there is no shame in committing mistakes if one learns from them. Human beings have strived to express their thoughts and feelings from time immemorial. So guys if you feel disinclined to share your thoughts and feelings, atleast the ones which can be aired openly, because of public censure or ridicule, I entreat you to shed aside your fears and inhibitions to come forth boldly to convey your thoughts. Why should we worry about people who ridicule us or do not try to understand us? It is their inability and they should be ashamed of it not us.

Bring About the Awakening

noreply@blogger.com (Gopalakrishnan) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:39:00 +0000

We all have weaknesses, all sorts of weaknesses, and we are nothing but slaves of these weaknesses. The question then is how do we fall prey to such weakness in the first place? How do we overcome these weaknesses and grow in strength?

It is the deceiving mind, which we are so much identified with, which is the root cause. These weaknesses manifest due to our identification with the mind. One may disagree with me on this, nevertheless it is true. It is foolish to think that we are in control of ourselves. If we reflect honestly on the nature of our mind we would know this to be true. One who is in control of himself would be totally devoid of avarice, envy, anger, prurience and caprice. The mind is a malady which affects us. The mind will do anything to ensure its survival, often diving into an abyss of dross and scum. Not knowing this, people vainly ascribe their weaknesses to all sorts of external sources, such as circumstances. The mind which can only dwell in the past and the future cannot exist in the present. It is this present that we must seek.

René Descartes says: "Cogito, ergo sum" (Usually translated in English as: "I think, therefore I am", but can be less ambiguously translated as "I am thinking, therefore I exist" or "I am thinking, on the account of being"). However there is an existence beyond this thinking existence which is our true nature. The thinking existence, which is absolutely false, takes you away from your true nature.

The mind is an imposter which gives us a false identity. The sooner one does away with this imposter the better, for it will bring forth one's true self. The best way to deal with the mind is to watch it without actually following the thoughts. If we follow this method scrupulously the mind will fall of its own. As Swami Vivekananda says: “Hold to the idea, ‘I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act,’ and each day the identification of yourself with thoughts and feelings will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself.” He further says “Freedom can never be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself. Go on saying, ‘I am free.’ Never mind if the next moment delusion comes and says, ‘I am bound.’ Dehypnotize the whole thing.”

One thing is sure, it is not an easy task. But if we persist with grit and fortitude we are bound to succeed. Let us bring about this Awakening in us.

An earnest request

noreply@blogger.com (Gopalakrishnan) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:11:00 +0000

So many thoughts ramble through my mind but when it comes to putting it down in words I fail miserably. Inspite of it I try my best to express myself. Blog is a wonderful avenue to express one’s thoughts, views and the incoherent ramblings of one’s mind. Does one have to write for an audience? How does it matter whether anyone reads this blog or not! I write because it helps me understand my own thoughts, as I read it again and again.

Some of my friends whom I tried to rope in for contributing to this blog hesitate to do so, perhaps because they feel their thoughts are too insignificant to be expressed or they fear ridicule or do not wish to reveal their innermost thoughts. Some of them might also consider it to be a waste of time, a foolish affair not worth their while. Whatever be the reason, I urge, nay plead them to set aside their reservations and come forward to share their thoughts. I am sure all the contributors will agree it is a wonderful and exhilarating experience.

Some of my younger friends have talked about their lack of proficiency in writing in their posts, but have had the gumption to go ahead and put across their thoughts. I sincerely appreciate and thank them from the deepest recess of my heart for acceding to my request. I expect more from them, maybe it will encourage others to come forward and contribute to this blog.

Living Life on the Edge!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Softlinkers World) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:48:00 +0000

Dear Pals,

At the outset, let me first express my gratitude to Gopal Sir for creating blog forum for softlinkers. It really helps us to share our thoughts & explore our ideas. Though writing a blog enables us to think out of the box, most of the times we don’t devote our quality time for some constructive work & keep on agitating ourselves with other things.

That reminds me about one incidence, a few weeks back, on my birthday; I was talking to my maternal grandfather, who is running 95. After our nice conversation I questioned myself that will I be as healthy & satisfied as grandpa at my older age. In last week there was an article in TOI about average lifespan of Indians. The life was totally different at our ancestor’s era, where they were lucky to breathe under fresh air, fully satisfied with their basic amenities with no further expectations in life. Where day by day our mundane has become chaotic, scrambling for toehold on trains, snaking one’s way through traffic snarls, increasing stress levels at work, and all apart from this our ambitions to strive success & excellence has hassled our span. But is it erratic to have expectations? Especially our young generation is striving to benchmark accomplishments in the prevailing competitive scenario.

During my management lessons, I had learned about Maslow’s hierarchical need theory which defines about Human needs. It is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the lowest level is associated with physiological needs, while the uppermost level is associated with self esteem & self-actualization needs, particularly those related to identity and purpose. Today our young generation is in striving to accomplish self esteem, which includes establishing individual identity by achieving desired standards & aiming for high in life. Due to augment in earning ability (especially thanks to IT Industry for their healthy packages, we have been inclined towards high criterions. For e.g. Today’s era have become technological savvy, indeed buying costly cell phone with latest trends, allure in purchasing branded items or spend money in costly restaurant etc. These all above mentioned things has changed our lifestyle also we chase to become more successful in life.

Despite of all availability of leisure I still find life more stressful & complex. But I have read somewhere that, unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. So don't worry about anything. Worrying never solved anything. All it does is distorting your mind.

On concluding this note, I would want all my friends to come forward to express your thoughts, put your thinking caps & share your views. Till then stay blessed, keep smiling & keep blogging!!!!!!!

Prachi Deshpande

Life in Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Softlinkers World) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:05:00 +0000

Hello everybody,

Today, here I am going to write something for the first time in life using such way, so obviously there must be some misteks, I apologize for that, just ignore it and read the feelings.

Still I am confused. What’s to write? And I don’t know what I am going to write, whether you’ll like it or not.

Everybody wrote their thoughts about life, about their own life or about others life, so it seems good theme to write about. So finally I decided to write about life.

What is life? There so many definitions about life, but I think “life is the moment which we are living at Present”. There are so many moments in our life like happy moments, sad moments, exciting moments and some serious moments. But most of the people lives most part of their life in serious moments, seriousness is in everything, whatever they do, and no time to share happy moment, actually no time to live, what I think why to be too serious; because too much seriousness is ugly face of life. And life is beautiful, happy and exciting…..

People are afraid about living freely or not being serious because other will think they are disrespectful about their life, but I think if you do not remain joyful or not celebrating life, you are disrespecting life. We have one life and it’s this one whether you believe in reincarnation or not. So live it to the fullest. Only we (Human being) have the special gift that we are able to choose happiness. Have you seen any animal, bird or other creature being serious, they are’nt be serious because they live in the Moment.

Now you all will ponder that the serious person is talking about not being serious, but I think I enjoyed and am enjoying my life in my own way, as Jitin sir written in his post about actual enjoyment and I really liked it, may be because I had same time…

Thanks for reading this post; Thanks again to all readers, I hope I had not wasted your precious moments. .

Sopan Magar

Masters of our destiny

noreply@blogger.com (Gopalakrishnan) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:22:00 +0000

How many people have a set goal in their life? I mean there are people who just go through life, mechanically like automatons, not knowing its purpose and without any set goals. And then there are people who have certain goal in their life; be it Wealth, Health, Fame, Temporal Knowledge or Wisdom (Knowledge of the Self). It is for each to decide what it is that they seek in life.

Mahatma Gandhi says - find the purpose, the means will follow. Each of us have immense potential in us what is required is the conviction, will power and persistence to bring it forth. If we sincerely believe in ourselves we can achieve anything in life. Instead we see that people either lack self belief, considering themselves worthless or alternatively have a bloated self worth, believing themselves to be superior to others. A good character is the foundation of a great life. Apart from self belief It is essential we cultivate noble qualities such as humility, truthfulness and temperance and avoid negative qualities such as greed, jealousy, anger, arrogance and prurience. Any success that results in arrogance and makes one look down on others is absolutely not worth achieving.

The only obstacle in achieving our goals is our mind. Negative thoughts cloud our mind making us lose our sense of discrimination leading to delusion. It is up to each to chart the course of their lives. We can either accept defeat and lament our fate, or tread fearlessly on our chosen path regardless of the outcome. We are blind to the opportunities that life offers because of our own delusions, and tend to shift blame on circumstances for not being able to make best of it. The choice is entirely ours. We are the masters of our destiny.

If we stop finding excuses for every missed opportunity and instead turn each setback or challenge in life into a stepping stone for achieving our goal, we’ll soon be galloping merrily on the highway to success.

Finally I would like to quote Swami Vivekananda: “Each Soul is Potentially Divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work or worship or psychic control or philosophy- by one or more all of these - and be free. This is whole of Religion.”

The Tiger within

noreply@blogger.com (Arun Ashan) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:34:00 +0000

Gopal’s latest post has acted as a stimulant for this piece. I can see him all over the post. I staunchly disagree with anyone who accuses Gopal, for one, among all the contributors of not expressing truly. The latest from his pen, I believe was only a glimpse of the man who has chartered his own course in life, no strings attached, beyond material gratification.

I revere Gopal’s views in reaching an egoless state and agree the path leading to it is thorny and uneven.

Ego, such a lot of negativity attached to this term. I for one believe it is the driving force of your existence. It should be always in you like a tamed tiger, ferocious yet inconspicuous. I always thought it has been misinterpreted literally as some inflated feeling of pride or a sense of hollow superiority. I have imbibed it in me as an inbuilt real time self check apparatus, which pushes me, prods me, reassures and reaffirms the potential I hold in engaging life.

It’s a measure of one’s self worth, the value you attribute to your beliefs. It’s a potent mixture of values, upbringing, culture and a no nonsense attitude. A good filling of this potion in any human being would have an aura and the world around him would take him and his work seriously. The demeanour of a confident and self assured person cautions his opponents and apportions him the respect he deserves. It’s your strongest offence and your mightiest defence.

One person who comes to mind who domesticated the tiger in him and channelled it positively is Mahatma Gandhi. I consider him the most egoist person the world has ever seen. The perspective he gave to this important personality trait is unparallel. He taught to the world that if you bend then they would break you. The frail body had the strongest shoulders on which rested a sterner head.

A person having his ego at the right place would ask questions, seek answers, and never submit to any dictation. Acceptance of any unjust convention laid down by authorities is nothing but mortgaging self respect. Attempts to drive in any ulterior motives should be thwarted tooth and nail. Believe me they are the most insecure, weak kneed, timid kind you would come across and if inobedience is blatantly expressed you would see them leaving, tails between their legs.

It helps you to introspect and revalue one’s self worth and pushes the ribbons further every time you breast it. It helps you not to succumb to mediocrity and prostrate to pseudo achievers with myopic vision. It stops you from adhering to feudal diktats..

Nurture that tiger in you.

The purpose of life

noreply@blogger.com (Gopalakrishnan) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:45:00 +0000

It has been some time since a posting has been made in this blog. Perhaps it is too much to expect people to take time off to write, take time off from this grinding treadmill of samsara (phenomenal world). Mary, my dear friend had this opinion about the postings made so far. She said they did not reflect the true character or persona of the writers or something to this effect. I grudgingly agree with her. At least it could be true of my writing.

I am more of a dreamer than a practical worldly-wise person. That may be the reason my writings reflect the kind of person I wish to be rather than what I truly am. Can’t help it guys that’s how I am.

My understanding of the phenomenal world comes from my own experiences and what little I have read. This whole world is like a dream and all that appears is the product of our own Mind or Manas. All relations such as Mother, Father, siblings, Guru, sishya, friends, relatives, acquaintances and everything we see, feel and experience are the product of our Manas and hence ephemeral. For when there is no Mind or Manas; nothing exists, not even the world. This is experienced by all in the state of deep sleep. This is verily the truth.

Then a question arises. If it be the truth, how do we explain this world? If it is a product of one’s mind then how is it that other people too experience the same world we experience? This experience of the world by all is attributed to the cosmic will. So strong is the cosmic will that we all are inextricably bound by it and believe it to be true. This is akin to our dream state where we are not aware of it being a dream; we never doubt its veracity. It is only after we wake up from the dream do we realize its transient nature. So too is this phenomenal world a dream of the supreme consciousness. When we wake up (know our true self) we realize its falsity.

Our entire life is practically wasted either in dwelling on the past or pondering the future; rarely do we live in the present. In the process we fail to contemplate on our true nature resulting in delusion and an unending cycle of births.

The main impediment to realizing our true nature is the ‘Ego’ which ascribes individuality to us. The goal of our life then is to reach the egoless state, which is the most difficult to achieve. The deep rooted vasanas (impressions of past lives) are very difficult to erase although not impossible. Many are the pitfalls in this path. But eventually the journey is to be made, for that is the purpose of life.

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Chandra) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:36:00 +0000

Yo Gops! This is awesome. An online virtual melting pot of ideas and visions, dreams and nightmares; just anything and everything under the sun and beyond.

I share my nickname with the father of our nation (at least in my office), although I fall woefully behind him while trying (hardly ever) to emulate his ideals. I love working and perfection is my motto. However, I do find not working on 2nd October a bit strange. We tend to idolize our leaders and love to put them on a pedestal and worship them instead of following them earnestly.

Had Gandhiji been alive today, I am sure, he would have suffered a shock to find the nation he dreamt of and strived hard to free from the clutches of British subjugation, in such a mess. We just look for excuses to stay away from work. A fitting tribute to that great man would be to work more (I don't mean working late). It can also take form of working differently, say for example, go and do some charity work. Sitting at home and watching the idiot box never did anybody good.

I may have hurt somebody somewhere, but that's the way I am. I like to be true to myself. Let's see if we can do something for the world around us, for the generation that will inherit from us. That I think would be a good tribute to our leaders.

Till then,

Keep Smiling (it boosts your face value)

Girish Chandra

Enjoying Life

noreply@blogger.com (Softlinkers World) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:52:00 +0000

First of all I would like to tell all of the readers that I am not a proficient writer. So please ignore the mistakes. This is the first time that I am using such a medium to express my thoughts. I do often think of a subject i. e. enjoying my precious life and vice versa wasting my life. We all might have at least heard of enjoying life. What is it? Can anyone ever say that he/she has enjoyed his whole life ? This thought just struck me when I had nothing to do and was watching a movie, thinking hard of writing a blog. What to write and how to start with and how to frame it. Thus in this process of thoughts i started thinking of my current stage of life where i am enjoying this part of my life.

Enjoying life - this was the topic that came into my mind. What is enjoying life in your point of view? Does having lot of money and spending it give enjoyment ? Every one of you ask yourself have you enjoyed your life or are you enjoying your life? I think for the majority the answer is no. This may be due to the human tendency of never being satisfied with what we have. I often do think that am i wasting my time and life but contrariwise at times think it is a part of enjoyment in life. I am still confused about this subject. But i think the best enjoyment is the time spent with your friends. Where there is just laughing, playing and no serious thoughts.

I believe this is the best part of my life, where I have a lot of friends at home and office. Staying in a bachelors room is altogether different experience. I never knew to cook, but still do it and some time even enjoy it. It is because of my good friends and room mates that i have learned so many things in life. Every moment with them is enjoyable. I want all of you to remember your friends and your most enjoyable moments. Just think of it and a smile will sneaks into your face. For me having lot of such moments will be the best way of enjoying life. What about you?

Jitin Vijayan

If you judge people, you have no time to love them: Mother Teresa

noreply@blogger.com (Gopalakrishnan) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:39:00 +0000

My dear friend Arun had this image of mother Teresa on his laptop which had the above quote from her. It struck a chord in my heart. How true, all the time we judge people on their actions, mannerism, dress, behavior ET AL. why do we never accept other people for what they are, with all their faults, their imperfections? Perhaps we are searching in them the attributes we lack in ourselves.

How joyful would it be to unconditionally love one and all, irrespective of whom or what they are! But we with our own selfishness, arrogance and deep rooted insecurities, are incapable of doing so, yours truly included. Our hearts are so dry that they are incapable of having love for anyone; excepting ourselves.

Humility and compassion are virtues people today would rather not have for it is considered as a sign of meekness. There is a mad race for acquiring wealth, status and fame at the cost of the above virtues. People will stop at nothing to achieve success in life, in the process dehumanizing themselves.

The day we learn to love all as ourselves will be the day we begin the journey towards realizing our true self. We may not succeed at the beginning but we may at least try. Finally I would like to end with another of mother Teresa’s quote ‘God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.’

The Dark Nimbus....

noreply@blogger.com (Arun Ashan) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:44:00 +0000

I, congratulate Gopal for finally making this blog happen. I knew he was deliberating on it for a while and am quite enthralled to see it on the web. This blog would seed and precipitate the nimbuses one holds deep within. Let there be a heavy downpour, bring along thunderstorms, torrents to quench the scorch.

Effuse until there is a nip in the air. Feel featherweight to ride on butterflies wings. Slay the demons that have enslaved you. Stop your servitude to false and shallow beliefs. Unravel your true identity.

Express those first instincts. Those are your own, pure and genuine. Speak your mind and you have kindled a thought. Little far you go and you see it’s engulfed into a movement. Time is witness to encaged thoughts becoming new world orders.

A multitude of medium is available today on fingertips for the repressed, angst ridden individual. I always thought unless you are vocal about your strongest feelings you won’t be taken seriously. Never let anyone overpower you by his unilateral assertion. Debate vociferously and if a counter opinion has to accepted, let be it in protest, non alliance be known. Mute acceptance is questioning your own existence and conforming to personal agenda of the proponent would be a compromise.

A strong personality may lack solid physical attributes but the clarity of thoughts compliments his character. The resonance of his spoken word reverberates and connects instantly. Convince me or be ready to be convinced. A healthy dialogue should not only be encouraged but any attempt to subvert it with aggressive lungpower and meaningless histrionics should be paid in the same coin. These offensively loud and conspicuous tactics has always bitten the dust.
Often, these self proclaimed super intellectuals take people for granted who are reticent and meek in airing their opinion. Avenues and forums such as these should be utilised to vent out and stick it out to them in no uncertain terms.

Waiting with bated breath.......

Arun Ashan

Understanding the Mahatma

noreply@blogger.com (Gopalakrishnan) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:51:00 +0000

The Mahatma is perhaps one of the few personalities whom the masses love and hate in the extreme, each according to his own temperament. He is also perhaps one the most misunderstood. I for one idolize him. He is a true Mahatma – I say ‘is’ because he is immortal.

It is easy to criticize him, difficult to follow. Why would anyone dislike the Mahatma? Some accuse him of being meek; others condemn his preaching of Ahimsa or non-violence as impractical. Many are the labels stuck on the Mahatma. But do the detractors of the Mahatma truly understand him? Only a mahatma can. He was not born a mahatma. It is the path he chose that made him one. This is amply evident in his autobiography ‘My experiments with truth’. What makes me sad is that people speak about him without actually trying to understand what he stood for, especially today’s generation. Unfortunately they believe aggression to be a virtue.

Ahimsa is not just refraining from physical violence, it means abstaining even from thoughts of violence. Bravery is not the mere display of physical strength. It is the strength of the soul, the strength of character that connotes true bravery. It is ignorance to believe that violence should be reciprocated with violence. It is easy commit acts of violence in the guise of bravery but it is very difficult to forgive someone who has wronged you. Fighting the enemies without is easy, killing a person even more so, all it needs is a moment of madness. Practicing restraint is very difficult. The true strength of character lies in conquering the enemy within. I have often heard people say that it is foolish to turn the other cheek when someone hits you. But then on the flip side when will it end? A blow for a blow, an eye for an eye it never stops. Someone hits you; you hit him back it goes on and on turning into a lifelong enmity, to the extent killing each other. Then the question arises should I silently suffer injustice at someone’s hand? There are several analogies in answer to this question. Do we bark back at a dog barking at us? Do we get angry at the utterings of a mentally retarded? Then what makes us angry at the tirades of fellow human beings. Is it not our own shortcomings that makes us react?

These are all the questions which need deep introspection for nobody can give you anything if you refuse to accept it. In reacting to the aggression of other people we are accepting their insinuations as true. Would we react otherwise? I very well understand that it is not easy to practice non-violence

I am not absolutely condemning the use of physical force. It is required in extreme situations, to maintain law and order and to protect the country from aggressors. However it is to be exercised with utmost caution and eschewed at all other times.

A few words to start with

noreply@blogger.com (Abhai Sharma) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:39:00 +0000

First of all, I would like to thank Gopal for having come with this great idea of creating SoftlinkersWorld. Its indeed exciting to know that there is a place where you can write, and there are certain people who are going to read it. I have often found myself being accused of making offensive statements, hence, writing, to me, seems a safer option. I can at least read it several times, and apply various ethical formulae to it, to ensure that it is not offensive, and if at all it is offensive then it is offensive to all and sundry and no one in particular.

Well, I really experience a sense of freedom because of the fact that unlike Shashi Tharoor, I do not owe an explanation to anyone for whatever I write. This freedom reminds of its counterpart, that exists by virtue of the law of duality, the fear, that surrounds us in our everyday life. On a close scrutiny, one would realise that, it is this fear, that has taken all our individuality away from us. We are forced to do things in a certain way, we are forced to follow a certain routine, we are forced to live our lives in way that resembles pressurized water flowing through a pipeline. Always under pressure, tensed, marching ahead towards a destination that has not been chosen by us but the destiny.
Further introspection leads us towards the fact that we ourselves have created this fear for us. And we are slave to it. Fear of losing peer recognition, fear of losing social recognition, fear of being odd man out, fear of losing job, fear of losing money and other countless phobias. We often try to fool ourselves by going on vacations, by being away from this routine life for a small period, to assert our freedom. But it hardly helps. We are back to our cocoon within a few days and become a part of the same cycle.
Now one will ask, what am I trying to say here ? Well, I am not suggesting anything. Just a food for thought. I myself am struggling with this fear, I too am a victim of myself. But I have begun my struggle against this fear. I salute all the comrades who are there with me in this struggle, whether I know them or not. I wish you all the best if you want to join.

I remain.

Abhai.

The genesis of this blog

noreply@blogger.com (Softlinkers World) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:00:00 +0000

It is human nature to judge people instead of accepting them as they are. We have a myopic vision and tend to have a view of people, which is often tainted with prejudice, mistrust and plain selfishness. On the other hand we also have this tendency to guard our real persona from others, hiding behind the garb of a falsely perceived identity, one that we want to project ourselves as, to gain acceptance in society. Not that the society cares, it is we who have this mental conception. Mostly we hold back our true nature, just to fit into other people’s perception (or rather what we ‘Think’ to be other peoples’ perception) of us. Broadly we can categorize people into types, some being arrogant, consider themselves superior to others, some wallow in their deep rooted inferiority complex; still others tread the middle path and along with the majority; lead a nondescript life. As a result we lose connection with our true self. We miss the opportunity to live a wholesome, complete life and end up being miserable.

I had a chance recently to go out for dinner with my colleagues which was sponsored by the company. It was a wonderful experience where I could get a glimpse of their true nature. It was amazing to see people, who were otherwise perceived as insipid personalities, display their natural wit. The informal occasion brought out the true nature of some of my colleagues though many still preferred to hide behind their false personas and put on a guarded show.

It was then that the Idea occurred to me to initiate a forum where my co-workers can openly air their opinions and general view on any subject under earth. I am not sure how successful this endeavor will be. Nevertheless I have taken the onus upon myself to set the precedence and hopefully it’ll convince all Softlinkers to participate and contribute their mite and bytes. Perhaps it’ll help us understand each other and also ourselves better.

There is a saying in Tamil which roughly translated means ‘Only if you speak out your illness can it be cured’. I sincerely entreat my fellow Softlinkers to come forward and speak about themselves, their passions, their beliefs, likes and dislikes or anything they wish to share with all.